Do you want to know a secret about unlocking blessings in your life?
Before I started this message I gave away a big pack of candy to one of our students. Then when that student shared the candy, we gave even more candy for them to share. If we look at 1 Peter 4:10-11 we read,
10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
We’ve talked before in Deeper about gifts. I love to talk about this type of thing with students because this is one of the most exciting times in your life when it comes to discovering who you are. You have the opportunity now, more so than previous generations to discover who you are and the talents that God has placed in your life. You can take tons of different elective courses at your school, then even more if you decide to go to college.
In fact, let me challenge you to think differently about school. I know for many of us school is a lot like prison. However I want you to change the way you look at school and the way you look at your life. Because the truth is, if you think school is a prison, you’re one day going leave that school by either dropping out or graduating into other prisons. You might not realize it at first but if you view responsibilities as prisons, then this life is full of different kinds of prisons. I want you to view school and life as an opportunity. An opportunity to grow and develop talents. To learn and be the best you can possibly be, not to impress someone, but to worship God who created you.
I hate math, I’ll never love math, but I can get through it and give it my best so I can get to something better. Trust me, high school Holden would not have preached this message. I subscribed more to Pink Floyd’s “We Dont Need No Education”… but as I started to unpack who I was as a person, life started to change. I started pursuing different passions, found a calling and I believe discovered why I was put on this earth.
To learn and to teach God’s word
The first part of todays message is a gentle reminder, to discover those gifts within yourself, develop those gifts, and, what we’re talking about tonight, use those gifts.
Before we really open up this conversation I want us to look at John 13:1-17 and at first glance you might be wondering why we read about this act of servanthood by Jesus. It says,
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. 2 It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.
6 When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”
8 “No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!”
Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.”
9 Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”
10 Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? 13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16 I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. 17 Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.
Jesus was the Son of God. He could’ve been or done anything He wanted to do. I believe that if we were given the same power that Jesus had, many of us would take over the world. Not in a good way either… I mean that our pride would make us seek the approval of other people. Why? Because we already do that anyway. Jesus teaches us a lesson here by doing something that shocked his disciples. Verse 8 Peter said, “You will never wash my feet” because Peter had so much respect for Jesus that he would never allow him to do such a lowly act of service for him. Yet Jesus insists, why? Read the end again,
13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16 I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. 17 Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.
If you want to experience God’s blessing, we will start serving others. Never forget this lesson. Some of you guys are going to KILL IT in this life! You’re going to find major success in business or whatever profession that you find yourself in, you’re going to have people who are working under you in various capacities. In fact, you don’t realize it, but you already do. When you go to a restaurant, that server is working for you in that moment. How do you treat them? Less than human like that cool celebrity on TikTok or like the human being that God loves?
Jesus, The Son of God, came to this earth and washed feet. Far below who He was, but He served his friends with joy. We need to do that as well. If we want to live like Jesus, live a life pleasing to God, we need to find ways to serve others.
TAKE INITIATIVE
Don’t sit around and wait for the church to plan some outreach, just do it! Jump in and find ways to serve. Ask God to help you, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to opportunities to serve God by serving others. JUST DO IT!
Look at Luke 6:38,
38 Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”
I like to think of getting a gas station slurpy when I read this verse. You don't just fill up slurpy, you fill it up, then you tap it on the counter to “press down” and “shake” the slurpy to make room for more, then you add more until its overflowing from the top. I’m not sure the gospel writer had ever had a slurpy but man did he call this one!
In closing,
It’s okay to not know who you are yet, find ways to get plugged in and you’ll discover the gifts that God has blessed you with. Then use those gifts to serve God, by serving others.