We are journeying with Jesus to the cross in a six-part series that is going to wrap up on Easter Sunday. We started two weeks ago with an idea that is inspired from Luke chapter 9 verse 51 that said that Jesus set his space for Jerusalem. And I told you that that is a fulfillment from the book of Isaiah chapter 50 where Isaiah said that he would set his space like a flint. That's what Jesus did.
He said a space like a flint for the cross. And we picked up that journey outside of Jericho. As Jesus and his men were making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. And as they were leaving Jericho, they came across a man named Blind Bartimaeus.
When Blind Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was near you began to cry out, Jesus, our son of David, have mercy upon me. And what we saw was that Jesus is the mercy giver. Bottom line of the message was that mercy comes running to the one who cries for mercy and relies on grace. This was what Bartimaeus had to do.
He came to Christ in faith, relying upon grace for Jesus to do in his life, what he could not do for himself. That's what we have to do. We received mercy and salvation when we come to Christ in faith, trusting in his grace, relying on his grace to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Last week we picked up Jesus perhaps the same day, maybe the next day, right in that time frame.
He's going to ride into Jerusalem. He's riding on a borrowed donkey. He's presenting himself as the king. We said this, the majestic king.
He comes in a humble way. Matter of fact, he comes in a way that he presents himself that maybe the world will look at him and even consider the way that he was being presented is even being weak. But what we come to understand was that God reveals his greatest majesty through what the world considers weakness. When you look at Psalm 8 where David says, oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all of the earth.
And the bottom line was that the majestic king humbly serves our greatest need. His entrance was on Sunday. Now I personally believe this and I feel like I can prove it in the scriptures. I've taught this on a Wednesday night.
I think that Jesus died on a Thursday night on Friday. Now whether he was on a Thursday or Friday, maybe not that big of a deal. Regardless, he comes to town on a Sunday. If he died on Thursday, if he died on Friday, he's got a very short amount of time to live.
And so he's going to have to pass over meal. We're going to see the upper room discourse. He's going to try to teach and encourage his disciples again. He has a short amount of time.
John's gospel devotes about 25% to the upper room discourse. So John 13 through 17. Again, Jesus, he wants to teach his men. Their time is running short.
So he gives an example that is going to teach them a tremendous lesson. I thought about this from Palm Sunday to the crucifixion. We're journeying with Jesus to the cross. You know, what would be the one thing that I could zero in on that could instruct us also in a very practical way.
And I'm thinking about John chapter 13 where it actually ties back to our previous two messages. In sermon number one, Jesus asked this question to Bartimaeus. What will you have me to do for you? And I told you that when Jesus asked us that question, what will you have me do for you?
Whatever comes out of our mouth is an indication of the posture of our heart. It's an indication of our faith. Hey, what is it we're asking Jesus to do for us? Or what would we respond to him with if he were to ask us, what would you have me do for you?
And we were drawing a juxtaposition between what Bartimaeus said and what James and John came to Jesus to do just right before that, where they said to Jesus, we want you to do something for us. He says, hey, boys, tell me, what would you have me to do? And I said, well, me and my brother John, we like to sit on your left hand and on your right hand in the kingdom to come. And Jesus said, you really don't know what it is that you were asking for.
But I'll tell you this, boys, if you want to be great in the kingdom, you've got to serve. And so this is what Jesus did. He served blind Bartimaeus. He met a need that Bartimaeus could never meet on his own, as Jesus came to serve.
Then he goes to Jerusalem. He presents us as the majestic humble king. And that majestic king was crucified on a cross. I shared with you a similar weakness, right?
To the Roman world, the cross was weakness. But in the eyes of God, it was the display of his glory and majesty. Why? Because by way of the cross, Jesus serves our greatest need.
He did for us what we could never do for ourselves. In essence, he did for us what he did for blind Bartimaeus. So we sing the song. I once was blind, but now I see.
By way of the cross, he gives us spiritual sight. By way of the cross, he gives us spiritual life. By way of the cross, he saves our soul. He's the mercy giver.
He's the majestic king who did for us what we could never do for ourselves. So here's Jesus. Through the cross, which was supposedly weak, meeting our greatest need and bringing God glory. Now in John chapter 13, before the cross, but after Jericho.
He's made his way to Jerusalem. He's come through Palm Sunday. He's now in the upper room. And the majestic king is seated at the table.
But then suddenly he does something shocking. He stands up. He takes the towel and he kneels down. And the majestic king becomes the great servant.
I want to preach to you this morning a message entitled the great servant. If you would say, well, honor the reading of God's word. We're in John chapter 13. We're going to read verses 1 through 5.
Then we'll skip down to verse number 12. We'll pick up there. John chapter 13, beginning in verse number 1. It's now before the feast of Passover.
When Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own, which were in the world. He loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand, and that he was come from God and went to God.
He rises from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel, and girded himself. And after that, he poured water into a basin. He began to wash the disciples' feet and wipe them with a towel, where he was girded. Then he got to Peter and Peter was like, what are you going to wash my feet?
And he said, I am. He said, no, no. You're not going to wash my feet. He said, I don't wash your feet.
You have no part with me. He said, well, then wash my hands. He said, no, no. He that is clean has been washed in every part.
But he only needs his feet to be rants, verse 12. So after he'd washed their feet, he'd taken his garments, and was set down again. And he said unto them, no, ye, what I have done to you. You call me master in Lord, and you say, well, where I am.
If I then your Lord and master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do, as I have done to you. Barely, barely, I say unto you, the service not greater than his Lord. Neither is he that sent greater than he that sent him.
If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. As we come to you today, I pray God, but you speak into our hearts, Lord, in form our consciences today, or call us to yourself and call us to serve. What I pray this may we see, serve as the way you do. May we see sacrifices being worth it.
And God, may we understand that we come to the table of grace for salvation, where we don't stay there. As surely as you invite us to the table of grace for salvation, you also invite us to serve you by serving others. God, I pray to you today, or take this message, where may you use it, may you take the words that are shared today, may you call souls to your separate salvation word, but may you also call souls to serve you today. I pray this in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. I want you to think about something that we can probably all relate to. You go to your favorite restaurant.
Now listen, if your favorite restaurant is fast food, this thing will work, OK? So hopefully that's not like, hey, that's what I have in mind. What's my favorite restaurant? But you go to a nice restaurant.
When you go there, you're waited on, right? You go there, you sit at a table, and someone comes along. We call it, we used to call them a waiter, or a waitress today, we call them the server. The server comes along, and maybe fills up a glass of water before you take your drink order, comes back, brings the drinks to you, then says, what would you like to eat, take your food order?
They're constantly coming by, checking on you, looking after you, then they bring the food out, and then they come back by, they refill your glass, and say, can I do anything for you? Do you stand in need of anything? Anything I can help you with? And then when it's all said and done, you have this experience where someone is what?
They're serving you. The entire experience is built around you being served. Matter of fact, I'll say this. If you go to a restaurant where the food is, it's OK, but the service is outstanding.
You're like, I'm going back. You go to a restaurant where the food was really good. But the service, it wasn't so hot. I don't know that I'll go back right.
We had this mentality where we go, and what? It's about us. It's about us being served. We like that.
We like sitting at a table and being served well. Matter of fact, when you're served well, you're like more inclined to give a good tip. And when you're not served so well, whether you tip well or not, you think they don't deserve it. I wasn't served well.
But in our text, Jesus flips the whole idea of the table upside down. His men come to the table expecting to eat. So they're there for it. They're there to eat the last supper.
They don't know it's the last one. It's the Passover meal. They come to eat the Passover meal. But before it's finished, Jesus stands up from the table, takes the towel, kneels down, and the one who deserved to be served becomes the one who does the serving.
And then look at what he says to his disciples. When he finishes, he says, boys, I gave you an example. That what I have done, you should do also. Because the Christian life is not just about sitting at the table.
It's also about picking up the towel and serving others. Two things this morning, number one, Jesus pushed away from the table. Note here in our text that Jesus knows the Father's timing. He knows it short.
Jesus knows what no one else in the room knows. In 12 hours, he will die on a cross. This may be about seven, eight, nine o'clock in the evening. By nine a.m., he will be crucified.
So he knows that the Father's timing and the cross is happening within hours. Time is running short. He wants to teach them. So he teaches them a lesson in a very practical manner.
He pushes away from the table and he serves them. Three things. Why did he serve? Number one, because he loved.
First one says, Jesus loved his disciples to the very end. Love always moves us to serve. Love doesn't stay seated. It gets up.
Love moves toward the need. That's what Jesus did. He moved toward the need. The disciples came expecting dinner.
Instead they received a lesson they would never forget. That love that stays theoretical never changes anything but a love that kneels down does. Hey, we want to see things change? Gotta get up.
Gotta serve. Jesus' service was motivated by his love. When Jesus said Matthew 21, the Son of Man has come not to be served but to serve and offer his life and ransom for many. Why did he do that?
Because of love. It's undeserved. It's not ending. It's unconditional.
It's unselfish. But that love is what compelled him to serve. Not only did he serve out of love but he served because of humility. And to really understand the humility of Christ, I mean, just let it sink in for a moment.
The one that's pushing away from the table. The one who's girding himself with the towel. The one who's kneeling down. The one who's washing feet is God.
Roved in flesh. This is the Son of God. The one who's washing the feet of fishermen and tax collectors and even the one who's betraying him is the one who created the oceans of the world. This is God.
Roved in flesh. Jesus needs and washing the feet of his disciples. Why would Jesus disrobe? Why would he don't?
Why would he don the guard of a servant and wash feet? Because Jesus is a servant. Before Jesus ever stepped out of the portals of glory. He was already a servant.
Paul says in Philippians 2, 5, 3, 8, he's a Christ being in the form of God. He didn't cling to his status. He laid aside his robes of majesty and he roped himself in flesh. But the Bible says that even though he was in the form of God, he didn't think that being God or his equality with God was something to be tightly held on to.
Therefore he took upon himself the form of a servant. We made in the likeness of a man who became obedient unto death even the death of the cross. I want you to realize that Jesus never stopped being God. He's the Son of God.
He's the second person of the Godhead. He laid aside his privilege. He laid aside his status. Why?
Because he was thinking of others. You see, Jesus is the ultimate example of humility. And sometimes we think humility is weakness. It's not.
Humility is our strength under control. Here's the Son of God harnessing all of his strength under control and using it to serve the needs of his disciples. You see, humility doesn't just show up in our words. It shows up in our actions.
Love doesn't just show up in our words. It shows up in our actions. So Jesus here, he didn't announce to his man like, man, get your shoes off, push away from the devil. I want to wash your feet.
He doesn't make an announcement. He just simply pushes away, curds himself with the towel and goes to washing the feet of his disciples. Now why did he do it? Well Paul says in Saint Gritian's chapter 2, he says that he took upon himself the form of a servant.
That word form means the outward expression of the inward nature. Jesus wasn't masquerading. Jesus didn't put on a disguise. The form, the outward expression of the inward nature.
Jesus is a servant. Think about that. That's who our God is. He is a servant who came to serve our greatest need.
Now here's Jesus at the table pushing away. I want you to see this. I want to serve your need. Paul said in Philippians 2 verse 4, he said, look not every man to his own things, but every man also to the things of others.
You know what Paul is saying? If you want to serve like Jesus, you've got to look to the needs of other people. Here's Jesus in the upper room. He's not looking to himself, but he's looking to others around the table and he serves their need.
Why did he serve? Number one, because he loved. He served because there was a need. See if you want to serve like Jesus, then you have to humble yourself and help others.
Just like love is not only what we think, it's what we do. Humility is not what we think. Humility is what we do. It shows up in our actions.
Here's Jesus who gives an example of helping others by engaging in practical deeds to serve a practical need. In this day, in which Jesus lives, everybody in foot washing was just something that happened all the time. It happened every day. You might have to wash your own feet, but if you went to another person's house who had a servant in the house, the servant would come and wash your feet.
Everyone's walking on dirt roads, dirt paths. There's no sidewalks. This is even like the old west where they had boardwalks to stay out of the mud. Everybody's walking in sandals, their feet are dusty, dirty.
And so this is just commonplace. Now for us though, it seems weird. He does. And then you know what Christians do?
They make it weirder. Maybe we have a foot washing service tonight. You know what they're going to do? They're going to take off their shoe, they're going to take off their sock, and that foot might be a little smelly, but it will not be dirty.
It's not going to be dust donuts. I mean, crime on it, right? It's going to be mud on it. Like what are we doing in a foot washing service?
Kind of putting on a show, quite honestly, in the wrong direction. The point that Jesus was making was not, hey, you need to have this kind of service in 2026 where you take shoes and socks off and clean feet and wash one another's feet. What? No, see, it doesn't make any sense to us because that's what people do today.
They turn it into some type of service, some religious service instead of serving, which was the point. Let me give you an illustration that might make a little more sense in our culture. Again, it's a cultural thing, right? Foot washing was a cultural thing.
But if you go to Turkana today. You'll go, and if you're a guest there, you're going to be highly esteemed. You're going to be the guest of honor. Wherever you go, you're going to be the guest of honor.
And you, along with Brother Eddie and whoever else is there, maybe all those preacher guys are going to circle up and they're going to bring you the meal first. And you know what happens before the meal comes out? Someone's going to bring a basin of water and a pitcher of water and they're going to go around to every person and you're going to put your hands out and they're going to pour the water and you're going to wash your hands. It makes sense, though, doesn't it?
It kind of fits with our culture today. It's just that you'll go to a restroom or you'll go to a sink and you'll wash hands. But in the desert, there is no restroom. In the desert, there is no sink.
In the desert, there is no place to go and wash your hands. So someone in a very practical way will bring along a pitcher of water and wash your hands. And then there's no silverware. So you're going to pick up that chipotle, dip it into the sakuma or the potatoes and the goat and you're going to get it down in that rice and you're going to eat and you're going to be like, this is what I do.
I'm looking for that wet wipe. I've got my backpack. You know what happens though? When everyone's finished?
Here comes that same person with that little basin of water and that pitcher and they're going to come around every one and allow you to wash your hands. What are we talking about? It's just practical. There is no sink out in the desert.
So someone is going to come and serve you in a very real, genuine, practical, even pedestrian or meanial way. But it's needful because nobody wants to walk around with goat grease on their hands all day. I want to get this off. I want my hands to be cleaned up.
So Jesus is doing. It's not making this into some third ordinance or some crazy service where people take their shoes and socks off in America and wash your feet. That's not what it's about. It's about do what I've done.
He served in a very genuine, real and practical way. He served because there was a need. He made a real need in a practical way. See, sometimes we think that serving God means you got to do something dramatic.
Like, I'm going to serve God. I mean, I got to be a missionary. I got to go to a foreign mission field. I got to take some mission trip and go to some far off place.
Or I've got to preach God's word. I got to stand on a platform. I got to do something quote unquote big, dramatic. You don't.
You do not. Sometimes the greatest act of service we can do is the most practical helping someone in encouraging someone who's hurting, providing a meal, meeting a financial need, offering your time, serving someone who, quite honestly, cannot repay you. And Jesus shows us that love and humility express themselves in practical action by serving a need. And watch what Jesus does now.
He now invites his men to follow his lead. After he washes their feet, he sits down and he asks them a question. He says, me, do you understand what I've done for you? Now, this is an important question because the part that we kind of skipped over and I paraphrased a moment ago about Peter was that Peter was totally confused.
What in the world is going on here? Jesus, you're going to watch my feet? No way. If I don't wash your feet, you have no part of me.
Oh, within my hands, my head, wash everything. He's confused. Perhaps the disciples are too. So he asks, do you understand what I have done unto you?
Are you getting it? Do you get the message? Do you understand that I'm trying to teach you something? So then he says, if I and your Lord and Master is what you say, by the way, you're right, but if I, your Lord and Master, bend down, stoop down, take a towel, wash your feet, serve you in a a practical pedestrian way, then you ought to wash one another's feet too.
In other words, he says, do you know what I'm doing? Does anyone raise your hand? Raise your hand if you understand what I'm doing. No one, let me tell you what I'm doing.
I've given you an example to follow. In fact, he says in verse 15, where I've given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. And this is what's interesting is that Jesus doesn't say, you should do to me what I've done for you. He doesn't say, you should reciprocate.
I served you. You serve me. That's nobody says. You should do what I have done for you to others.
You should replicate what I have done. Not reciprocate. Not reciprocate. Don't serve me.
Serve others. You know what happens when we serve other people? Jesus gets revealed. Paul describes the church as the body of Christ.
That means that Jesus works in this world through his hands, his feet, his voice, his compassion. All are expressed through his people. And it's possible that you and I may be the only glimpse of Jesus in someone's season a week. Your kindness, your service, your generosity, your encouragement is Jesus showing up in someone else's life.
You see, when you show up to serve, Jesus shows up too. And people all over the world are asking where is Jesus. And the answer is in me and you. That's where he is.
So when we show up to serve, Jesus shows up. And when Jesus shows up, we get to experience him in action. We get to see him move. And others get to see God's heart and his love and his work.
And others get to see Jesus, the Son of God, demonstrated through your and my service. So look what Jesus does. He pushed away from the table. He served their need.
Then he invites them. You push away from the table. You serve someone else's need. Because when we serve, Jesus is revealed.
Secondly, when we serve, life is better. Our sacrifice, our service leads to satisfaction. Look at verse 17. He says, if you know these things, the thing that I just taught you, if you know it, and if you do it, then you are happy.
Verse 17, if you know these things happy, are you if you do them? Jesus says, blessing follows obedience. Blessing follows obedience. The world says protect your life.
Jesus says, give it away. The world says, pursue comfort. Jesus says, no, pursue service. And Jesus tells us something surprising.
He says, serving actually leads to greater joy. That's what he says. And this is followed up in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 20 verse 35, where Jesus is quoted, it is more blessed to what?
To give and to receive. Now every time we come across that, you know what we think of? We think of money. It's more blessed to give money than it is to receive money.
But that's not exactly what he said. He just said it's more blessed to give than to receive. So it's more blessed to give your time, effort and energy than it's to receive someone else's time, effort and energy. Yes, it can be true.
It's more blessed to give your finances than it's to receive others. But it's also more blessed to give your service than it is to receive it. You see, a life spent serving is never wasted. Serving requires sacrifice.
And can I say this, the number one reason that people say no to serving, they call something. That's true whether it's in the church, whether it's volunteering, or whether it's outside the walls of the church, whether it's in someone's life. The thing is if you're going to serve, it's going to cost you time. If you're going to serve, it's going to cost you perhaps finances.
If you're going to serve, it's going to cost you some time. There's a sacrifice that is involved in it. The biggest barrier to serving is that it costs us something. But I want you to hear what Jesus says.
Happy are you. Blessed are you if you follow my example. That is that when you serve, you live a better life. Not when you serve, you're better.
I'm not saying that. If you serve the Lord, you're a better person. I'm not saying that. But if you serve other people, you will find that your life experience is better.
You live a better life when you sacrifice in order to serve. That's what Jesus is teaching. A sacrifice life is a satisfied life. Somehow the balance sheet of life with the scales of gain and loss are experienced increases.
When we sacrifice, that when we pour out, we actually get filled up. I'm not saying that the better life though is more money or more comfort or more ease. I'm telling you that the better life falls in the realm of all the intangibles and the life experience itself. Sacrifice leads to satisfaction and fulfillment.
Jesus said this, if a man will lose his life for my sake, he'll find it. But if he saves his life, he will surely lose it. When we read that, when we hear that, we're like, what? If a man loses his life for my sake, he'll find it.
If a man saves his life, he'll lose it. Seems hard, but it's not. If a man will lose, if he'll sacrifice, if a man's willing to sacrifice his life for me, he'll find out what the true meaning of life is. He'll live a life that's fulfilled.
He'll live a life that is blessed. But if a man saves his life, if he refuses to sacrifice, if he makes life all about himself, he'll surely lose out on what the true meaning of life is. Two weeks ago, when I was wrapping up the message, I said these words, we were talking about blind and mortal mace, and I was talking about this, that when Jesus asked you, what can I do for you? What comes out of our mouth?
Here's what I said. When Jesus asked, what do you want me to do for you? What is your answer? Do you want honor, ease, blessing, or do you want to see?
Because when you truly see him, the son of David, the Messiah, the Savior, you will out of gratitude want to follow him all the way to the cross, which is what part of me is did. After he got to sight, he followed Jesus from that day forward, all the way to the cross. Do you realize what the cross is? It's the place to sacrifice.
When we say, I want to see Jesus for who he is, out of a heart of gratitude. When he works in our life, we say, Lord, I want to follow you all the way to the cross. What's the cross? Are we willing in our life to sacrifice in order to serve others?
And I said this about Old Blind Bartimaeus, that when Jesus called him, he took that cloak. Remember, he removed the cloak. He said, man, I don't want anything holding me back. And I quoted from Hebrews 12, 1 and 2.
Let us therefore lay aside every weight that does so easily beset us and let us run with patience, the race that is set before us, looking unto him, right, the author and the finisher of our faith before the duty that was set before him endured the cross. It was not a specific, no, it wasn't duty. Looking unto him, the author and finisher of our faith who for the guilty feelings that he was feeling endured the cross, despised in the shame. No, it wasn't guilty, it wasn't duty.
It was because I have to do it. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised in the shame and set down to the right hand of the Father. Did you hear what he said? Jesus wasn't moved by guilt to go to the cross.
He wasn't moved by duty to go to the cross. He wasn't moved by the fact that I have to do it. All of those things may have been true. Talking about, you know, I have to do it because he's the one and only.
Did he have a duty? Did he have a duty? Did he have a duty? Did he have a duty?
That may be true to his heavenly Father. But those were the things that moved him. What moved him? Joy.
For the joy that was set before him. He went to the cross and he served our greatest need. I want you to see this, that Jesus experienced, more happiness, more joy, more satisfaction, and giving himself away than in holding on to his life. One of the main motivating factors for serving God by serving others is that when we sacrificed to serve, we experienced a better life lived.
We do. When we serve, we find joy. When we serve, we find a community, a relationally that we can work and serve with. When we serve, we find significance purposely because we're doing something that advances the kingdom.
When we serve, we find intimacy with God spiritually because when we serve, we find out that he's there with us serving in the trenches. I read a story recently about a pastor of a mega church who was put in one of those big conferences. People show up to hear someone speak and before the session was to start, the guest speaker invited to the pastor of the church went to the church. Again, a mega church man, a lot of people own staff, a big janitorial staff.
He goes to the restroom and there's a man who's down on the floor who's washing around the sink area, cleaning stuff up. He doesn't recognize. He's backing down his knees and says, I want to thank you for your service. Thank you for serving at church.
We couldn't do what we do without you. We had a lot of stuff going on this week. Then he goes into the conference and when he stands up to introduce the speaker, when the speaker comes, he sees and comes and he didn't see his face in the restroom, but he recognized it by the clothes that he's wearing. It was the guest speaker who was down on his knees wiping up water that was down on the floor and he preached and then afterwards he and the pastor were together and he asked him, like, man, why?
Why did you do that? Are we got janitorial staff and we got others who do that? Why did you do that? He said, if I'm not willing to serve when no one is watching, I shouldn't be preaching when everyone is.
That's the heart of Jesus. You see, when Jesus came to this world, he didn't pick up a microphone. He picked up a towel. He served our greatest need.
And over these past three weeks of journeying with Jesus to the cross, we could really summarize his invitation based on what we've seen with blind Bartimaeus, with coming to town on a little donkey and now with this lesson in the upper room. His invitation to us is a twofold movement. Movement number one, come to the table. They come to the table of grace.
Come, receive grace. Remember, he's the mercy giver. Come, receive mercy from me. Come receive eternal life.
But once we've received eternal life, once we've been given mercy, once we've received its grace, you know what Jesus says? Now go serve. It's a twofold invitation. It's an invitation to salvation.
It's an invitation to service. Push away from the table. Pick up a towel. Serve somewhere.
Serve in your church. Serve in your community. Serve someone who cannot repay you because the Christian life begins the table of grace but has lived out with the towel in our hands. The majestic King came into this world, a servant.
He said, I didn't come to be served. I came to serve. Offer my life a ransom for me. He's inviting people.
Come, receive grace. Come, receive mercy. But once you have, then go. Go and serve.
Here's the bottom line of the message. When we come to the table, we come to the table to receive grace but we push away from the table to give grace. Some of you here today may very well be saying, I need to come to the table of grace. Maybe you're not even able to say that yet but it is your need.
You need to come to the table of grace. You need to come to the table for the very first time. You need forgiveness. You need salvation.
And I'm telling you something that Jesus is the great servant. He came not to be served but to serve. He came to give his life a ransom for me. He came to give his life a ransom for you.
He came to meet your greatest need. And today you can receive eternal life. But you've got to answer the invitation. So often we talk about this when we share a Christ.
We say this. You can invite Jesus into your heart but honestly that's nowhere in the Bible. What we do find in the Bible is that Jesus invites us to him. He's inviting us to come to him.
He invites us to the table of grace. He invites us to receive mercy. And I'm telling you that you can have it today. But others of you here in this room today, right?
You've already come to the table. You've already received that grace. But maybe you've been seated for too long. And today Jesus is inviting you to push away from the table to pick up a towel to serve.
Jesus is the great servant. And He's given us an example to follow. Because the Christian life is not only about finding a seat at the table of grace, it's about pushing away, picking up a towel, and serving the needs of others. So today, if you've never been saved, you've never invited Christ into your life.
And I know that we talked that way. But you've never responded to the invitation of Jesus to come to him, then would you come to him today? Would you come to the table of grace? Would you come to this place where mercy and salvation and life and forgiveness of sin and a personal relationship with God is all offered?
Would you come to the place of provision? But if you've done that, here's the invitation. First one's an invitation to eternal life. Second one is the invitation to a better life.
It's a better life lived. It's a better life experienced. When we're willing to sacrifice, serve the needs of others. Twofold invitation.
If you've never accepted the first, come receive eternal life. They're the only one who can give it. Jesus is finished to work with the cross. If you've done it, second invitation, come experience a better life.
As you pick up the towel, you serve the needs of others. This one we're going to have a invitation today. If God's calling you to life, then you come. If you come to the table of grace, come to the table of mercy, come to the one who saves.
Let's stand as we sing. Perhaps today though, God's calling you to push away from the table, to serve the needs of someone else, wherever you feel the Holy Spirit, poking into your heart and saying, that's the spot. Letting deal with that today. This altar is open to you as we sing you come.