7 Essential Question: Week 5 - What Brings Fulfillment?
We’ve been looking at important questions for the past number of weeks. We’ve considered the truth that God meets us in the midst of our brokenness and sin, long before we start to get ourselves together, and he calls us to Himself in Jesus, accepts us as we are, and calls to live our lives very differently in Him. That was the experience of the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8
We’ve also learned that loving God with absolutely everything in us, and loving our neighbours as we love ourselves, is the key to understanding what matters most in life.
We’ve asked: Who is Jesus? We’ve learned that in order to experience life as we’re intended, we really need to accept Him on His terms, for who He says He is: The Son of God, the Messiah, the One who has come to us as God in the flesh.
If we want to experience eternal life, we must do so on His terms. Jesus puts this rather bluntly, actually:
“Do you believe that I am the one I claim to be? If you don’t, you will certainly die in your sins.” John 8:24 (NIRV) There is a way to God, and it is through Jesus alone.
And last week we explore the question: “Where is God?” We learned that all we need to know of God is discovered by looking at the life of Jesus and coming into a relationship with Jesus through faith in His atoning sacrifice.
That’s the first and most vital, most tested and true aspect of living life to the full.
Today we’ll continue this series by thinking about what Jesus taught us about living beyond the basics of living. What are some of the basics that we need to live? We need certain things in order to survive, don’t we? Housing, food, clothing, our health.
Those are basics that we all need, and without them we cannot live, [especially in the Canadian climate]. But those things keep us alive. None of them necessarily bring us joy or purpose.
When we don’t have them, the absence of them is overwhelming and stifling. When we do have them, we’re ok...ok but the meaning and substance of life is not in those things.
The Message paraphrase of Jesus words puts it this way: “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of”.
Deeply tied to discovering fulfillment through coming to Jesus Christ and living in Him in faith is the subject of our Scripture reading from John chapter today.
Can we please all stand, if able, to read: 1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; John 13:1-5, 12-17
We’re reading about Jesus last hours and minutes on this planet before His crucifixion, before His murder at the hands of sinful men that He knew was coming. Boy, did He know it was coming.
If you think about this - what would you want your last words to be, if you knew that you were very near the end...they’d be different for all of us, but they would likely be what you considered to be the most important message, even legacy that you would want to leave behind.
Continuing with our passage:
“4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Please be seated.
So this was a key part of Jesus’ legacy...He wanted to have disciples who would be servants. And it’s not something that Jesus told us to do while He was being waited upon, while He was exercising His right as King of kings and Lord of lords to to served by others. He could have done that, for sure. But the commandment isn’t enough, even when we acknowledge that King Jesus has the right to command and we the duty to obey.
We needed an example. So instead of asking Peter, for example, to stoop down and wash the feet of a fellow disciple, Jesus prepares Himself to serve. He does what is needed with His garments, and then He washes the feet of His disciples, His friends.
This is a stunning act. Servants were ranked in the average wealthy household. Those who were higher up as servants had certain duties that related to their dignity in the house. They did certain things, and other things were beneath their dignity, left for the lowlier of the servants.
To wash the muck and goop, and dried dust off of another’s feet is the duty of the lowest servant.
More than simply serving the disciples, Jesus takes upon Himself the duty of the lowliest of servants. This is a remarkable picture. The Creator of the universe bows to wash the feet of those He came to save.
The Keys to Fulfillment
So Jesus wants disciples that will be servants, that will be humble, that will live with the objective of loving others and loving God and serving both. Jesus gives us important keys to living a fulfilled life, living an abundant life.
The first key to living a fulfilled life is to not focus on living a fulfilled life. That means not to focus on finding ways to be happy, to be fulfilled.
When I think about and plan and stratigize to get the things I want, I’m spending an awful lot of time thinking about myself, thinking about what I think I need in order to be fulfilled, content.
I want to suggest that we fundamentally misunderstand what we need to be happy, in North America, perhaps, more so than elsewhere.
We’re actually impaired when it comes to this, because everything in our culture says that if we acquire more stuff, if we get that latest gadget, if we fight to get that job that will give us lots and lots of money - the lie goes - then we will be happy.
We are influenced, if we’re honest, by our culture. If we don’t behave the way I just described, it’s because we intentional go against the grain, against the current of culture.
Jesus, when talking about the important necessities of life, puts it all into perspective. He says: “33 Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33.
When we seek God’s Kingdom, what God wants, how God wants us to use our time and energy, when we align ourselves with God’s Kingdom values, many of which are outlined in the Beatitudes (show Beatitudes); when we seek His righteousness - His justice, His holiness in our lives - when we focus on taking care of that, everything else that we need - Jesus takes care of it. That’s God’s upside-down Kingdom.
The second key to living a fulfilled life is to develop the attitude of a servant. A servant is not lowly, mealy-mouthed, un-self-actualized or whatever other negative twist can be put on servanthood.
A servant is a person with a clear purpose for living, whose personal agenda is to lift up another, to love and care for the needs of another.
Jesus, in the passage we just read, once-and-for-all elevated servanthood to a profound and purposeful level.
When you serve, you follow the example of the Creator of the world.
When you consider another person’s well-being ahead of your own, you follow the example of the Savior of the world.
When you put your immediate desire for self-aggrandizement, for lifting up one’s own reputation, second to supporting and serving another, you follow the example of the Redeemer of all mankind.
Just a word on people who elevate themselves or who behave in a manner that scares or intimidates others.
I was talking with my sister Leslie Anne recently about a good friend that my parents had when we were younger who was a great friend to our folks, but who I always found intimidating, who I was never really comfortable around because she always gave off an aura or impression of judgement or being unhappy with what was going on around her.
My sister reminded me of something that she had said years earlier, which was: “You know that it’s only those who are insecure and full of doubts about themselves who project what you might call an ‘oppressive personality’.
It’s only those who are unsettled in themselves who make others uncomfortable about themselves”.
Suffice it to say that my sister is right. When we’re at peace with ourselves, we have nothing to prove.
If we’re at peace with ourselves, truly at peace, it’s because we’ve done the hard work of looking deep into our own lives and character, we’ve discovered the grace of God at work over time in our lives, and we live humbly and lovingly toward others as a result.
So...the attitude of a servant. Let’s look again at the example of Jesus through the eyes of the Apostle Paul: 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Philippians 2
Now, to be a servant means that we need to cultivate the attitude of a servant. That’s not something we do while sitting on our thumbs and contemplating our navels.
We learn to develop a servant’s heart by serving. It’s that simple. There are applications in all of life, and there are applications in the church. To keep it brief, let’s talk about the church.
What is a healthy path or trajectory for a person who goes to church? At first when we come to church, we come for ourselves. We come to learn, we come for healing, we come because we have a sense of needing to be connected to the people of God.
That’s normal and that’s healthy. Something happens when we’ve experienced some healing and when we mature in our faith though. Our reason for church, our reason for continuing to come to church, changes.
We come as much to give as to receive, we come as much to contribute as to take. We think less about “Am I being fed?” and more about “Am I feeding others?”
We think about offering our gifts to God and to the people of God. We start to notice stuff. We start to think...hey..this is a gym. And it’s set up as a sanctuary. That must take some effort, every Sunday. How can I help?
Or if we’re involved at The Feast every Tuesday night, we start thinking: Hey, I could help out, I could do the things that I see others doing and lessen the load, be part of the team that makes it happen.
We have people now who have been coming to the Bible Study for months on Tuesdays who are being asked to lead a study here and there.
As they gain experience, as they’re trusted with a little and they do their best, they end up as part of the leadership team for our Bible Studies. Similar things happen in all the small groups that meet Tuesday nights.
In other words, we start to serve. We start to care that others are served well. Our focus is not all inward, it is, an increasing amount of it, outward and concerned for others.
And then we find ourselves less concerned about ourselves and feeling quite full...full of relationships, full of feeling like our lives are impacting others, be it ever so humbly, full of a sense of peace that comes from being outside our own heads and inside the needs and well-being of others.
That’s a healthy path, I think, that leads to a lot of joy. Those who take that path end up being known better and they end up as being known as people who serve others, who are attentive to the needs and concerns of others.
And that’s where we get our leaders from. Our Elders and Deacons are chosen from among those who we observe over time serving others, people who have servants’ hearts.
When I talk about people who are here, they always get embarrased.
Let me talk about someone who’s no longer here. Carny. We just said goodbye last Sunday to Carny and her husband. Carny is special to a lot of people here because she learned to live outside of her head.
She’s deeply others-focussed. She is deeply tuned in to God, and she’s tuned in to the needs of others. That’s why she started up our Youth Group.
That’s why she served as an Elder. That’s why she was here nearly every Sunday of the year from 1:30 PM on, leading worship, singing, being with youth, engaging in whatever service she could. She’d often help clean up after the service.
Carny is one of the happiest people I know, and it wasn’t meeting Josev, her future husband, that made her happy. It was and is serving. You can bet that she’s already deeply involved at her new church, connecting with people, putting away chairs, noticing that one person who’s struggling.
Servants are, in God’s Kingdom, celebrated. And they are celebrated here because this is part of God’s Kingdom.
So they keys to living a fulfilled life, a happy life, a joyful and purposeful life are a) not trying to be fulfilled, but rather seeking to be used by God to fulfill the needs of others and, b) growing in our capacity and ability to function as servants by DOING the work of servanthood.
Before these two things though, coming into relationship with God through Jesus Christ, believing in His sacrifice for your sins on the cross of shame, turning from a life of sin and turning to God, and receiving Jesus as your Lord and Saviour - that’s the first and most vital, most tested and true aspect of living life to the full.
A pastor wrote:
The Cross is the place where grace and sin collide with a crash, but the wreckage is suffered on the heart of God. The sinner walks away free - free from sin’s penalty, free to walk with God, free to live in His Heaven for all eternity.1
Jesus came as a servant to lay down his life for us. On the cross of Calvary that servanthood was manifested where he opened his arms to sinners and we obtained eternal life.
A closing story says it well:
A story from Scotland tells of a mother’s dramatic rescue of her child. Workmen were blasting rock in a quarry.
One day after they had attached the fuse and retired to a safe place and gave the alarm they saw a three year old child wandering across the open space where danger threatened. Every passing second meant death was closing in on the child.
The workmen called to the child and waved their arms, but he only looked on their strange antics with amusement. No man dared run forward knowing the explosion was only seconds away.
The child most certainly would have been killed, had not his mother appeared at this moment of crisis.
Taking in the situation at a glance she did what her mother’s heart dictated. She did not run toward her son or yell to frighten him. Instead, she knelt down, opened wide her arms and smiled for him to come.
Instantly the child ran towards her. Shortly later the area shook with the force of the explosion, yet the child was safe in his mother’s arms.2
What a picture of the grace of God and of the cross. With outstretched arms on the cross Jesus gives his gracious invitation to the world. He gives His gracious invitation to you. Will you come to Jesus? Will you place your life in His care?
Will you trust Him to guide you as you trust Him to forgive you your sins?
May we each lay our lives down in service to the King of kings and Lord of lords, and may we seek His Kingdom first and above all, learning together as we serve alongside each other, how to live like our Servant King. Amen? Amen.
1Submitted by: Pastor David Zimmerman
Bible Baptist Church
Sapulpa, OK
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