September 30, 2018 - Carter Conlon - Jesus, Wash My Feet

I want to speak to you this morning a message called Jesus wash my feet from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 19 if you go there in your Bibles please Matthew chapter 19 father I thank you God Almighty with all my heart for the anointing of your Holy Spirit I thank you Lord that you are teaching us you are preparing us in the same way that Joshua had to roll away the reproach of Egypt before the next generation could go in and inherit the promised land you are rolling away from our hearts and our minds the reproaches of this world the things that render us weak and caused us not to understand where the power of your kingdom is truly found Lord Jesus Christ our hope for the future is a spiritual awakening in the nation and so Lord we asked you God to take away from us what needs to be taken away and planted in our hearts what needs to be put there deliver us God from thinking of this world that weakens us Lord even things that we've embraced we may even have heard them in the house of God but they're not true so lord help us God to believe and understand that your word is the final authority on all things give us the grace to love your word give me the grace to speak it today give our hearts the grace to hear it Lord we don't stand before you and strength we stand before you in weakness we stand before you as Isaiah once did acknowledging that we are undone without your mercy we can't go forward without your presence nothing will happen Lord unless you choose to walk with us and use us for your glory so we implore you to come Lord Jesus Christ and bring your own name back to glory again in our generation we yield our bodies to you Lord we don't know what else to do we give you our hearts God Almighty even that is frail and flawed but still you took a boy's lunch and you fed thousands with it so you can take us Lord and you can use each of us for your glory we simply come to you with an honest heart Lord acknowledged that you don't take us because we have it all together you take us because we are weak and we know we are you take us not in our success but in our failure and you become the success of our heart oh Jesus Christ we long for your name to be honored as David once came into the camp of Israel and heard this threatening coming from the other side of the valley and he was more concerned about the honor of your name than anything else Oh God would you plant that so deep within us Lord that it's about your honor Lord that we stand we live we move we have our being I have no desire to preach a sermon I want to hear from you Lord I want to hear your word I want to hear deep in my heart not just accumulate more knowledge without power what's the point of it Lord and what my life to change I don't want to be just standing here preaching I want to live these words that you've given my heart and so father I thank you Lord for what you will do today I praise you and give you all the glory in Jesus name Jesus washed my feet Matthew chapter 19 beginning at verse 28 so jesus said to them assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration when the Son of man sits on the throne of his glory you who have followed me will also sit on 12 Thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name's sake so I'll receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life but many who are first will be last and the last first a perplexing verse verse 30 talking about the coming kingdom of God a kingdom where it seems at least at face value to refer to the reversal of an order of things that are generally sought for and accepted in this world in other words it when we get there a lot of things were just going to be turned upside down people that we didn't esteem we will find out that God did people that we esteemed will find out that God didn't everything will be brought into its rightful order every heart will be rewarded according to the diligence of its service to God it will be an amazing day I've shared with you before but it's a thought it's a chuckle in my heart to be honest with you and a bit of a fear of God as well that one day when we get to heaven and we're all sitting in the Heaven's waiting room like we are today and there's no time anymore so a million years can seem like a thirty seconds there's no time time doesn't matter anymore we're there for eternity you don't get hungry you don't get tired you don't you can't sigh you can't cry and we're waiting now for the reward to be given the rewards to be given to the righteous Jesus did say some will rule 10 cities there'll be all kinds of things that are given to a do for eternity and suddenly the list will be brought out I'm telling you let me give you a secret sit in the back seat it would be less embarrassing there don't sit in the front because it could be real obvious when your name hasn't been called for 10,000 years and suddenly names are being called Mary Johnson and all the Angels start to wave their wings and heavenly beings are clapping and everyone's looking around Mary Johnson where did I ever hear about her well you didn't you see she was the little lady in the midst of a country church way maybe out in Kentucky somewhere that every Sunday brought a glass of water and set it on the pulpit every week make sure the flowers were just set right in the sanctuary maybe was at the door greeting people and handing out bulletins for the weekend and we didn't esteem her maybe as having achieved a pinnacle of success but you see God's ways are not our ways and God's thoughts are not our thoughts and names will be called names and you don't know I don't know names in this church will be called that many have never heard of it's it's good yes it man thank you lord thank you lord what a day that's going to be and many who are first are going to be last and many hard last are going to be first I'll tell you if you want to fill a ship with me you're gonna have to go to the back door because that's where I'm gonna be I'll be holding the door for many of the ushers in this church they'll be holding the door for those that have cleaned the church I'll be holding the door for those who volunteer to clean the bathrooms downstairs I'll be holding the door for people who are in children's starts right now babysitting your children so you can hear the Word of God I'll be holding the door for those that are in the nursery serving in the nursery and it's a rightful thing many who are first now are going to be last then and many who are last are going to be first and it's right in the sight of God now this statement that Jesus makes about many who are being first becoming last and who are last becoming first is made immediately following an interaction with a a very religious young man earlier in the chapter we know him as the rich young ruler that's what he's called that's what he was he was rich he was young and he was a ruler he came sliding I can just see him sliding across the stage almost in a dramatic fashion on his knees good master what must I do to inherit eternal life you can see that right you can see that you know expecting a commendation instead of a condemnation and Jesus says well you know you know what the the the commandments don't murder don't commit adultery don't steal don't bear false witness and he says all these things I've done from my youth what do I lack yet you see his his religion had helped him to attain what those of this world always strive for he's a very religious young man but his religion brought him to a place where he had this world's wealth this world status and this world's power when religion loses touch with God that's what it always offers you wealth status and power in 4 Samuel chapter 7 verse 25 king saul was leading the nation of israel there in a battle and suddenly they face something that was too strong for them as we are facing today we're facing a Goliath folks in our generation just as they were in their debt this threatening voice you will serve us you will serve us we are stronger than you you will not defeat us every morning this voice is rising up and the whole army are trembling before this threatening voice that has been raised up boasting of its size boasting of its strengths boasting of its power and David just a boy comes walking into the camp and he starts to ask he says why is nobody fighting this why is everybody cowering his brothers are there and his brothers are pricked in their conscience by his inquiries because they don't not one of them has the courage to go down and fight this giant and he says well what will be what will be done and they said to the man who fights this giant so the men of Israel said have you seen this man who has come up in force Emma 17:25 shirley's come up to defy Israel and it shall be that the man who kills him the King will enrich him with great riches give him his daughter that's wealth and status and give his father's house exemption from the taxes in Israel and when religion departs from the presence of God and the power of God all it can offer his wealth status and power if you are listening to any voice that's offering you that in God's name you are listening to a voice that has lost touch with the genuine power of God years ago when I was pastoring in Canada I got a phone call one morning from a new Christian and he was all excited is that pastor I was in prayer this morning and the Lord told me that I'm destined for greatness I said well praise God I'm glad to hear that because they're janitor resigned yesterday and until we can hire somebody new I need somebody to watch the floor of the church after service every Sunday I remember his words I remember his exact words he said at that moment he said well that's not exactly what I had in mind no it probably isn't but I believe it's exactly what God had in mind because God's view of greatness and our review of greatness are not exactly the same in the Gospel of Luke chapter 22 verses 24 to 26 it says now about the disciples now there was also a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest now actually when you look up dispute it means a heated argument these are the disciples of Jesus Christ walking down the road saying I'm gonna be greater than you know I'm going to be greater than you well where do you see the miracles that I'm gonna do man it's gonna leave you in the dust witnessing the crowds that have come to gonna come to hear me preach and they're in a heated dispute about which of them should be the greatest and Jesus said to them the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and those who exercised authority over them are called benefactors but not so among you on the contrary he who was greatest among you let him be as the younger and he who governs as he who serves in other words Jesus was teaching that in his kingdom which will outlast all the kingdoms of this world eternal power everlasting wealth and true status are all found at the bottom of what this world offers not the top in other words in God's kingdom the way up is down truly amazing you want to be great find the lowest place find the lowest seat find the lowest task do it before God with all your heart and you will be the greatest in the kingdom of God I want you to go with me to John chapter 13 please if you will John chapter 13 a phenomenal interaction where Jesus is is teaching his disciples a way of thinking that is going to give them the ability to literally bring the gospel into all the known world do you understand that he's showing them where power is found it's not found in wealth of this world it's not found in the status of this world it's not found in the power of this world he's showing them something that is foolishness to those who have a carnal mind and a carnal heart he's showing them something that those outside the kingdom of God they cannot see they don't consider it to be powerful and in our case if we're going to see a spiritual awakening in our generation the reproach of this kind of thinking has got to be rolled away from us once again John chapter 13 beginning at verse 3 Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God so he's in total authority and he knows it he has all resources and he knows it he is all status for all of eternity and he knows that now nobody on this earth at this time knows it but he knows it he rose from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself after that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded then he came to Simon Peter and Peter said to him Lord are you washing my feet jesus answered and said to him what I'm doing you do not understand now but you will know after this in other words I'm showing you a new path for your feet it's a place that I'm leading you to but you don't understand it yet because you're still arguing with your brothers about who is going to be the greatest but I am teaching you something I'm showing you the pathway to power I am showing you the pathway to true greatness in the kingdom of God you don't understand it now but there's coming a time Peter where you will understand it Peter said them you will never wash my feet jesus answered them if I do not wash you you have no part with me in other words if you don't embrace this moment you will never know the fullness of what I have for you you can claim to walk with me but you won't be walking with me you can lay claim to power but you won't have power because power Peter is not found where you think it is it's found in what I am right now demonstrating to you as the son of God as the one who has all authority as the one who has universal and forever status as the one who controls all wealth not only in the world but in that world which is to come I'm now showing you the fullness of what I have for you then Simon Peter said to him Lord not my feet only but also my hands in my head jesus said them he was bathed needs only to wash his feet but is completely clean and you are clean but not all of you now in verse 10 this is a strange it's a strange verse in a sense if you just look at it the way it's written it mean it looks like to be saved you only have to have your feet cleaned but that's really not what it's about you see from the from the moment mankind sinned in the Garden of Eden what was the sin the sin the devil planted in the human race in your heart and in mind and every human being born is that in yourself you can be as God is you can have wealth you can have power you can have status you can be as God you can determine your own course your own destiny you can you can travel the whole circumference of this globe and that's exactly what humankind has done for thousands of years searching for wealth searching for power searching for status isn't that what it's all about isn't it what New York City is about like how many people come here to serve how many people land on the shores of New York say I'm just here to serve whoever can I serve somebody how many people walk around the street here on Manhattan can I hope you're gonna surf can I carry those bags nobody everyone is here to be served everyone is here to get their slice of the socio-economic pie everyone's here to push somebody else out of the way so they can climb a little higher on the ladder so jesus said he was bathed needs only to wash his feet in other words I'm going to show you another path for your feet I'm gonna take you on a clean path the pathway of this world is dirty the pathway of this world leads nowhere it just goes in this endless circle where people are never satisfied had an opportunity wants to speak to a hundred of baby top executives here in America and in Canada gathered together in one room and I spoke to them of the fear in the human heart and most of these people were at the second third or first rung on the ladder of corporate success and I said there's a deep abiding fear in your heart that if you get to the next rung or the next rung after this and it's no better than it is now then life is no longer worth living and I remember a person in the front row on the front table just began weeping openly the thought of suicide because nothing of this world satisfies you push your way to the top if you want you get a public office if you want you you get preeminence in the church if that's what you strive for Jesus said he was bathed needs only to wash his feet but is completely clean and you are clean but not all of you it's truly amazing when you think about it God where am i walking this is what I started to as I was reading and studying this Lord am I a servant you know it's easy to declare yourself one if especially if you know the truth of it but declaring it and living it are two different things and it requires an examination of the Holy Spirit of the heart otherwise we'll all declare ourselves righteous if it's only you and I examining our own hearts so when he had washed their feet in verse twelve and taken his garments and sat down again he said to them do you know what I've done to you do you know what I have done you called me teacher and Lord and you say well for so I am if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet you also ought to wash one another's feet in other words no more striving to be on the top every one of you if you want to know the power of God it's found with the basin and the towel it's found in saying how can I help you how can I serve you what can I do for you for I've given you an example that you should do as I've done to you most assuredly I say to you a servant is not greater than his master nor is he was sent was sent greater than he was sent him if you know these things blessed are you if you do them verse 18 he says I do not speak concerning all of you for I know whom I have chosen but that the scripture may be fulfilled he who eats his bread with me has lifted up his heel against me in other words Jesus washed the feet of Judas but Judas wanted nothing with the lesson that was being taught him he wanted power he wanted money we know that because he was a thief he wanted status and when he couldn't get it through the Christ that was before him he chose to betray him and get it the way he thought it could be gotten and how many people today will lift up their heel in other words they will they will yield in a sense in the moment and I'm sure he let Jesus wash his feet but in reality he was lifting his heel against him and saying you can do this if you want but I'm not I'm not going this way I'm not going to be a servant to anybody I'm going to be a lord I'm going to be an authority people are going to know my name when I walk down the street they're gonna watch me walk by I'm going to be famous and I'm going to have power and I'm going to have status and I'm going to have authority you say this is the way to win the war this is the way to to overthrow in a sense this dominant force which was Rome at that time that's come into our nation and in his heart Judas must have said you are mad there's no way we're going to win this with a basin in the towel and you're telling us that if that you want us to come out of this relationship with you and you want us simply to be servants that's not how wars are won somebody's got to rise up and be preeminent and I have no doubt in Judas's heart he felt I'm the one I'm going to show you how this is done I'm gonna rise up I'm gonna be the voice etc etc Chet say you wash feet if you want to Jesus but not me I'm not going in this pathway I have another view of greatness than what you're setting before me and again back in Matthew chapter 20 verse 25 to 28 Jesus called them to himself and said you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and those are our great exercise authority over them yet it shall not be so among you but whoever desires to become great among you let him be your servant and whoever desires to be first among you let him be your slave just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many you know the way of the Cross is indeed foolishness to those who are perishing the way of the Cross is indeed foolishness to a irreligious aids that has taught the people that the way to change the culture is through wealth and status and power but Jesus taught that the way to greatness the way to win the victory is by being the least of these in the home for example a lot of marriages are in trouble because husbands you don't love your wives as Christ loves the church you don't give yourself for her as Christ was given for you and that's why your marriage is in trouble you want to be Lord you're very quick to pull out the scriptures wives submit to your husband but very slow to pull out the scripture that says and gave himself for her and that's why your house is in trouble that's why you have no authority of no power in your home because you want the king's chair and not the servants chair and you've raised your heel in effect against the Word of God and said no I will do it my way I know how this needs to be done I know what this marriage needs no you don't that work so many people who even profess Christ are jostling and pushing and slandering and murmuring and whispering and trying to work their way through the system to get to the top instead of just looking at somebody who's struggling beside them and saying can I help you can I help you looking for everybody to to help us on our journey to the top as it is as we think it is but forgetting that the journey to the top is in looking to somebody who's struggling beside you maybe new on the job is afraid they're not going to be able to finish what they've been given to do and that they they have a family to feed they have a future before them and you and I as believers in Christ have an opportunity to take a basin in the towel and say can I help you it might take an extra hour in our day it might take a little time in the community we can join the people with the placards and we can start shouting and we can get our bullhorn and we can condemn everybody for not thinking or believing like we do but how many servants are left in the community how many people to truly know where the power of God is found in the church there's just no shortage of people trying to push to preeminence that's there's no doubt about that and when they get it they just just hang on to it like it's a bar of gold hands but how many are willing to be servants and this is where the rubber meets the road in my own life because I really don't know if I'm a servant I'm big honest with you I really don't know only God kidding I try but I don't know how much of me as well as a lord and how much is a servant God knows and so I'm asking him to examine my heart I'm asking him as as the disciples as Peter did Lord washed my feet if if there's if there's some filthy thinking of this world that's gotten itself into my spirit wash my feet change my course make it make it desirable in my heart to be a servant I don't even know I don't know because God weighs it God I can declare myself a servant it can be a total farce God knows if it's true I want to be I feel like I'm in the seat beside Peter I feel like I'm saying as long washed my head in my hands my feet because I really don't know I don't get the full lesson yet and and I recognize it I can't walk in this unless you do it through me I can't because in in my humaneness and in yours it's not in us to be servants none of us want to be a servant our sin nature we all want to be God only Christ in me Christ in me the hope of glory can can make me and you a servant to one another only Christ can get me out of my own world and start realizing there's other people around only Christ in me can see the need in your life and maybe stop for a moment and have a word for you or let you tell your story to me that you you feel you need to it only Christ can can help this poor heart to see what needs to be seen you see one day I stand at the throne of God one day my name is going to be called I would rather not be the third one left in the room Jesus wash my feet it's the pathway to power if you were commissioning an army as Jesus was that's going to change the course of the whole known world and you're looking and saying I'm going to show you now how to do this I'm gonna show you how we're gonna win the world I'm gonna show you how millions of people even billions on continents all throughout this globe are going to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and he comes out with a basin of the towel and it looks like a ridiculous plan but it is the plan that's where the power of God is found it's where the resources is where the wealth is it's there's something in this that we need to rediscover again in our generation especially a generation that just lusts for power wealth and status and preeminence and we've even incorporated it into much of the theology of our present church world and made it sound like it's a good thing all it does is weaken us and leave the nation in the condition that's in today Jesus wash my feet you notice people here today that you got to start thinking about your marriage and say Jesus washed my feet your community Jesus washed my feet instead of pointing the finger out the window at those kids on the corner maybe I could serve them and do something for them maybe I could make them lunch maybe then just do some little thing that shows them who God is in the church instead of grumbling and complaining because somebody's in my seat [Applause] how about when you see somebody standing so here have my seat and it doesn't look like power but it is power it's it's that's the person who's the greatest the greatest in the kingdom of God the greatest I'm not the greatest because I sit in that seat over there you're right thank you [Applause] [Music] one time I asked the Lord when I was young and how I was pastoring and ministering and I was in prayer and it was one of those like Oh God you and me we've done so much together and I said Lord why did you choose me to Pastor this church I said back in Canada okay you know it's those days when you're young and you're stuck on stupid and the answer I got I thought it was because there's something like in my heart you know maybe that God saw and I was waiting for the answer and he said to me because I already had a door greeter I want you to think about that [Applause] so father I ask you Lord to wash my feet I ask you Lord for all of us are gathered here together today we can learn these things but your word says in the last days people will be ever learning but not coming to the knowledge of the truth I don't want to be among that crowd I want it to be real I want it to be true I want it to be life and so wash my feet and lord I pray God that you told us that if we would do this as you've taught us that we would be blessed and happy so would you wash our feet as a church would you make us servants to the world the church world would you help us Lord God in our homes our communities in our workplace everywhere and in the church to be servants and to show us what that really looks like not just a theory but a practice and so lord I I submit my feet to you and I ask you to wash my feet teach me guide me help me help me Lord as you send me out and I have a privilege of speaking in many places Lord I pray that I never go as a lord but always as a servant and only you know when that when that's a reality I don't you know god help us in this church everyone their homes our marriages with our children everywhere we travel if the pathways of this world are leading us then wash our feet of them and bring us on the pathway of heaven and teach us where true power is found deliver us Lord from these voices that bring us into weakness the voice of King Saul who was so distant from God he was about to consult a witch offering offering to anybody who would fight the very things that he thought were of value god help us each of us support in Jesus name we're gonna worship for a few moments and I'm going to give you an opportunity if you want to respond and come to the front of this auditorium simply said Jesus wash my feet North Jersey in the Annex you can step between the screens but those who are just you've heard it and as I've said to you today you're not quite sure if you are a servant or you're not but you'd like to be and you recognize it's true so all the Peter did is he yielded himself and he became a servant to the body of Christ and he was willing to die for what he had known of Christ he changed from a man who was guiding and guarding himself to a man who was living for the benefit of others that's where the power of God is found so we're gonna stand at a moment and if if that's the cry of your heart Jesus washed my feet wash my feet Lord even if you don't fully know what it means but God died I bear witness that this is true we've just been in your word and this is where power is found this is the kind of a church that God can use to transform a nation it looks foolish to us but it's where the power of God really is so role the reproach of Egypt off of us and help me Lord help me God like Peter he didn't understand anything of it but he knew it was true and he knew somehow it was leading to something that Christ was trying to teach him so today we simply yield did every facet of our lives and make us servants in Jesus name I'd like you to pray for us as leaders in this church that that we might be servants to you you know it's not that we know exactly how to do that but God will show us God will help us and that in turn we might become servants to one another in the Church of Jesus Christ and I believe that it will bring in the knowing like we've never seen in our lifetime if God can find a house full of servants there's an anointing available in this generation there's a joy there's a power that only comes from God a power that makes no sense to those whose spirit is the same of as this world but those whose spirit is the same with Christ there's a power that this country needs to see again the city needs to see it our homes our families our communities they need to see it elder Richie would you count Lord put you on my heart man would you just lead us in a prayer of dedication then we might be servants [Music] thank you Lord Jesus were grateful then only you could take us Lord God from the way we were in our reprobate mind and bring us to a place Lord God where we could humbly bow before you and pray God that your grace O Jesus would be upon us powerfully in this leadership of God [Music] Jesus it's always been about grace Lord don't either let us say it to grace Lord we never want to change the gospel of grace because it becomes something different other than you've all deemed it to be keep us humble before you Lord God I thank you God that only Jesus could break the power of pride father in this generation we want to be an example for you Lord there's nothing more in our heart that we could cry out for that is that we have the aroma of God Lord it would be a sweet aroma to those around us to the body of Christ to those around the world Lord God to the online community to the people in this community thank you Jesus for what you're going to do thank you for faith God faith faith in what Christ could do in each and every one of us no isn't nobody's exempt oh God but be with this leadership Lord we need you so desperately Lord God in a very dark and dying hour in America Lord God raise this up as an example Lord God worldwide we bless you Lord and we thank you God we're so grateful for what you're doing what you've done Lord God and what you're going to do as we cling to your name to your greatness Lord God because it's in you Lord that you make us great and we honor your name today Jesus and we thank you and we bless you Lord God amen [Applause] Lord Jesus I thank you for all of us that have come to this altar believing you Lord that this week you will wash our feet that we may become a servant thank you you will not fail to do that Lord we acknowledge how many times you have in utter humility our God washed our feet and we are overwhelmed so we know it's possible O God to have a heart change we know it's possible if we will let you wash our feet this week we can be what you're asking us to be this week so thank you you will not forsake us or leave us in this to ourselves to try but you will walk with us you will wash our feet and put our feet on a different path and we'll be able to give you glory we'll be able to be a light this week thank you we don't lean on our own understanding of what it means to be a servant in our lives you will be faithful to us to teach us and to show us and to train us what that means for each of us and Lord a thank you for the glory you're going to get I thank you lord you're as we ask you to wash our feet this week a beautiful thing will happen in US and through us to God be the glory in Jesus name we pray amen [Applause]

Channel: Times Square Church

Views: 13,539

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Keywords: Carter Conlon, Sermon, Times Square Church

Id: hyB9TgoZ8Ms

Length: 41min 26sec (2486 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 02 2018