Further, Part 8

FURTHER
Life of Love
February 25, 2024 | By Joseph McCormick

No matter where you are in your faith journey: a weathered saint, a skeptical guest, or someone in-between. God wants you to know the ultimate goal of spiritual formation is Christ-likeness. There’s nothing else. And Christlikeness is the life of love.

SETLIST

High Praise
Maverick City Music

Everything and Nothing Less
Chris McClarney

My King Forever
Bethel Music

MESSAGE NOTES

“I don’t know how I feel about religion and churches and spending money on things like big fancy buildings. I really don’t even know if I believe in God… but I want to believe in something the way those people believed all those years ago. There’s a part of me that wants to give my life to something completely, even if it’s not about me.”

Hebrews 12:2
“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith…

John 13:1-11
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.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 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.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

The Critical Journey
“At Stage 6, we choose to do anything God asks, whether it’s the most menial or the most prestigious things… We are full of surprises because we are so free, so full of God, and so whole. We can say or do preposterous things because we are not afraid of death. We are selfless. What matters most is who God is and who God makes us.”

John 13:12-17
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. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.“