April 5, 2025 • 14 mins
This episode delves into the significance of servanthood, emphasizing how true service reflects the heart of God. Through personal stories and biblical teachings, we explore how humility counters pride, leading to greater fulfillment and connection with others.
- Exploring the biblical basis of service through Jesus' example
- The struggle of overcoming pride to embrace a servant's heart
- Personal anecdotes about transformations through service
- Practical advice on finding opportunities to serve
- Weekly Challenge: God's Love Served
- Preview of next episode focusing on forgiveness and humility
More than a Podcast. Its a Godcast.
Living The lowLIFE is the only way to The Most High. Get low before you are brought low. There is a difference. Honor Jesus and follow His example.
Show your support.
You are invited to Subscribe and support humility. Just follow the link below.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2431790/subscribe
Like and Follow us on IG and YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@thelowlifeshow
https://instagram.com/livingthelowlifeshowig
If you have a story to share that speaks to God's grace and mercy in your life, are battling with pride or you just need someone to talk to, reach out.
Hit my DMs: @livingthelowlifeshowIG
Shoot me an E-mail: livingthelowlifeshow@gmail.com
Send me a Text: 916-857-5770
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Low Life Show, a space where we have
conversations about thestruggles of life, where we
declare war on pride and walkhumbly into renewed living with
a surrendered heart.
Where we take our past failuresand turn them into a roadmap
for you to live in peace andliving the low life.
Whether you're working throughpersonal struggles or simply
(00:32):
seeking a fresh perspective,this podcast will inspire and
equip you to live low and letGod lift you up.
I'm your host, dl, the Low Life, a reformed professional
dirtbag who's here to tell youthat I now live a life of peace,
transformed through humility.
Join me, let's get low.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Welcome back to the Low Life Show.
I'm your host, dl, the Low Life, and today we're diving into a
tough but beautiful part ofliving low Servanthood Kind of
like Jeffrey from Fresh Prince,but not exactly Now.
I know.
Serving others doesn't alwayscome naturally.
Pride tells us to put ourselvesfirst, to make sure that we're
good before we worry aboutanyone or anything else.
(01:51):
But living low does theopposite.
A low life says others comefirst.
Jesus said whoever wants tobecome great among you must take
up the position of a servant.
So let's talk about what itmeans to live low by lifting
others up, and how servingactually brings you closer to
God.
Let's get into it.
(02:21):
We begin in John 13 for ourfirst example, our main example,
the prime example of serviceand the model that we follow.
After you call me teacher andLord, and rightly so, for that
is what I am.
Now that I, your Lord andteacher, have washed your feet,
you should also wash oneanother's feet.
I have set you an example thatyou should do as I have done for
(02:43):
you feet.
I have set you an example thatyou should do as I have done for
you.
Very truly, I tell you noservant is greater than his
master, nor is a messengergreater than the one who sent
him.
Now that you know these things,you will be blessed if you do
(03:08):
them.
We start with the servant leaderhimself, jesus.
In John 13,.
Jesus washing his disciples'feet is one of the most humbling
moments in the Bible.
I mean, he's the son of God,the king of kings, and he gets
down on his knees to wash dirtand grime off his friend's feet.
I mean, the feet are one of theplaces on the body that excrete
(03:30):
sweat and toxins.
They're one of the sweatiestbody parts, with a quarter
million glands.
They'd be stankin' sometimes,and here was Jesus washing them.
When he's done, he says I haveset you an example that you
should do as I have done for you.
This is what living low lookslike serving others even when
it's uncomfortable.
In doing this one act, jesuscovered all the bases.
(03:52):
He left no room for confusion.
He led by example.
So what does the heart of aservant look like?
Well, the first and foremostthing is it's not about status.
If Jesus can wash feet, youcould serve your family, your
co-workers, your neighbor, thecommunity, regardless of titles,
finances or any other means ofdivision.
(04:14):
Jesus made it a point to showthat nobody is too good to serve
.
If you think it's titles game,go ahead and break out your best
title and stack it next to theonly begotten son of God, or
king of kings, or the way, thetruth and the life.
How about savior?
Unless it's greater than thename above all names, you don't
have a case.
(04:35):
Even if it were to be equal,that would mean you have a heart
to serve and you are moreconcerned with the needs of
others than your own.
None of us is more valuablethan the other when it comes to
the kingdom.
In God's eyes, we're equals.
The heart of a servant alsoreflects God's heart.
God's love is selfless and whenwe serve others we reflect that
love.
True service is the heart of God.
(04:55):
We don't need to look anyfurther than Jesus.
Everything he did on this earthprior to his ascension was in
service, kingdom service.
It was God's will.
It wasn't Jesus' own, not hispreference, none of that.
It was obedience to the will ofGod, and that will had him
serving and teaching and doingthings that probably you and I
would not be doing, at least notin those ways, at least not
(05:17):
with that wholehearted, recklessabandon type of a deal where he
didn't care about anything butthat, and the that in this
situation was us.
We got to remember that, when itcomes to a serving heart,
there's only one thing that'sgoing to try to get in the way,
and that's pride.
Pride is going to tell you I'mtoo good for that, while
(05:39):
humility says I'd be no good ifI don't do that.
Pride says what about me?
When humility says what aboutthem?
Pride says they're not worth it.
Humility says I don't even knowif I'm worthy to serve them,
but I will.
Pride worries about gettingdesigner clothes dirty when
humility will give a Gucci shirtoff his back.
Pride is the only thing thatstops service.
(06:00):
Pride will find excuses,justifications, any reason to
make you feel better aboutignoring or neglecting the needs
.
Remember Jesus said whoevertakes up the low position of a
child, the least in the world,that is, who would be the
greatest in the kingdom.
(06:46):
Now, I don't know about you, butI used to think very
differently about serving.
I always enjoyed helping myselfand my family or someone,
anyone who I could benefit fromby helping them, but organized
serving like a job, for free andon my own time.
Yeah, I'm good.
No, thank you.
Serving sounded like somethingbeneath me, shoot.
(07:07):
If I could help it, I wouldn'teven serve my own food at the
time.
It really makes no sense at all, though, because you know I
grew up poor and needing helpwhen I was young.
I expected the help, but itnever came.
And still here I was with thatsame expectation and no desire
to do it myself, no ambition tobe the change I wanted to see in
the world.
See, our family was poor butnot homeless, broke but not
(07:30):
broken.
I didn't get new clothes everyyear, but I had access to keep
up hygiene and hand-me-downs.
They were fine.
The people that required thatkind of service either scared me
, disgusted me, were justbeneath me, or they just flat
out didn't matter to me.
Things changed when I got older,though.
As an adult, I didn't judge orcondemn.
In the same way, I mostly justdidn't care.
I'd give loose change or what Icould afford to to panhandlers
(07:53):
outside the 7-Eleven, but thatwas about the extent of it.
It wasn't until I had to do mycommunity service as a condition
of one of my criminal cases.
That's when things began tochange.
I mean, I had to go where myfreedom was at risk.
At first I was bummed, hated,life Sucks.
Then, when I got there,somebody told me that the guy
who signed off might mark my oneday there as the three that I
(08:15):
owed.
That gave me hope, until Iactually met the guy.
Before I got a word out, hesaid Before you even ask, I
expect you to do every minutethe judge ordered you to serve.
I was pissed.
This was a time in my life whereI was angry, violent, reckless.
I nearly walked off right thenand there, but I didn't.
I may have risked freedom, butI wasn't going to do something
(08:35):
that guaranteed I would lose it.
I mean, even on a crime spree,they had to catch me first, so I
always had a 50-50 shot.
This time, though, it was donot pass, go, go straight to
jail.
So I stayed and went to myassigned area, head down, bummed
out, just wanting to go, untilI got to my spot and heard a
familiar voice.
It was one of my homeboys,someone I had done reckless
(08:57):
things with, done time with,someone I could have fun in this
place with.
I thought to myself cool, I getto work with one of my people.
I was excited and ready tocause hell.
I turned around only to findout that he was one of the
people I was there to serve.
This was a gut check here.
I was disgusted with this ideain my head of who and what these
people were, and the whole timeone of them was my people.
(09:19):
This began a change in myperspective.
I would find out that he hadbeen homeless the whole time.
I knew him, in fact.
He used to enjoy getting lockedup because he had stable home
there.
He had meals, showers all thethings that he needed.
This stopped me from judging insuch a condescending way.
Now, I was not so much betterthan them just a little bit.
(09:39):
It wasn't until I became one ofthem truly, when I was homeless,
broke, broken, hungry, dirty,strung out every bit.
The person I used to step overon the sidewalk I had to hustle
to get money to survive Neededfood for sustenance, but when
I'd get the money, I couldn'tafford the food.
I could get drugs all day.
For the low, though, and thebest part the drugs kept me
(10:01):
moving.
They stifled my appetite, and Istayed warm on cold nights.
That was when I was convictedabout service.
I was now the exact person Ijudged harshly, and nobody
wanted to acknowledge myexistence.
What I found out, though, wasthat the people I now found
myself around were some of thekindest, most caring people I
had ever met in my life, andthey lived in tunnels Full of
(10:22):
hope, despite what I used tothink, and perhaps what some of
you might think of them today.
They are not and were nothopeless.
They were just beat down by theworld and even still, even
after the beating the world gave, they showed love and moved
with like an air of grace tothem.
They, like myself, had theirpick of dumpsters, tunnels,
(10:44):
abandoned places or just flatout in the dirt in the open as a
place of residence.
I realized during that time inmy life that we are all people,
no matter class or status, nomatter height or weight, color
or anything else.
I adopted a phrase that daythat I still agree with, but now
I'm praying for it to change.
It goes like this people suck.
Here's the beauty of thatexperience and what I've learned
(11:19):
from then until now.
Serving doesn't have to becomplicated.
Start small, help a neighbor,volunteer or just listen to
someone who needs encouragement.
The key is that they comebefore you, you actually care
about their needs.
Don't pressure yourself,thinking it has to look like
your outreach leader.
Trust me, if I tried to keep upwith my outreach pastor, I
would never serve.
(11:39):
The guy is just anointed forthat.
And now we pause for the cause,for your weekly challenge Find
one way to serve someone thisweek.
It doesn't have to be huge,just something that shows God's
love.
Then ask God to help you to behumble while you serve, that you
wouldn't expect anything inreturn.
Remember kindness, compassion,those things they don't expect.
(12:02):
Reciprocation Niceties do.
People are only nice when theywant or need something or expect
something.
This is a selfless service.
We can get into the differencein the words in a later episode,
because the world just doesn'tuse words right, which is
dangerous, because that may verywell be the difference between
heaven and hell for some of us.
One word wrongly used ordefined can lead to a lifetime
(12:25):
of thinking we're doing theright thing, only to find out
we're not.
Anyhow, do something this week,something kind, something that
reflects God's love, a love thatthe world desperately needs to
see, and that is your challenge.
Serving is one of the best waysto live low and keep pride in
check as well, unless you do itfor ego.
Always check yourself in doinganything.
(12:45):
Be sure always that God is inview and he doesn't look like
you.
Next episode, we're going to betalking about forgiveness, how
humility helps us let go of thethings that hold us back.
Pride breeds unforgiving hearts, and we are not going to let
unforgiveness be the reason.
Pride wins.
Let's pray, father.
We thank you for sending yourSon to save us.
(13:07):
Jesus, we thank you for themodel that you provided by
living a life of service, bygetting low and washing feet.
Your compassion is our rulebook.
We ask that you would teach usto look at others in the same
light, the light of your love,that we would extend the same
grace, not qualifying them first, and that we would honor you in
every step of service, blessthe listener and help them grow
(13:30):
one step closer to you this week.
That you would be glorified inall things In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you for tuning in.
I'm humbled and honored by yoursupport.
Until the next time, stay low,stay blessed and stay ready for
the next episode of the Low LifeShow.
Peace, outro Music.
Welcome to the Low Life Show, a space where we have
conversations about thestruggles of life, where we
declare war on pride and walkhumbly into renewed living with
a surrendered heart.
Where we take our past failuresand turn them into a roadmap
for you to live in peace andliving the low life.
Whether you're working throughpersonal struggles or simply
(00:32):
seeking a fresh perspective,this podcast will inspire and
equip you to live low and letGod lift you up.
I'm your host, dl, the Low Life, a reformed professional
dirtbag who's here to tell youthat I now live a life of peace,
transformed through humility.
Join me, let's get low.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Welcome back to the Low Life Show.
I'm your host, dl, the Low Life, and today we're diving into a
tough but beautiful part ofliving low Servanthood Kind of
like Jeffrey from Fresh Prince,but not exactly Now.
I know.
Serving others doesn't alwayscome naturally.
Pride tells us to put ourselvesfirst, to make sure that we're
good before we worry aboutanyone or anything else.
(01:51):
But living low does theopposite.
A low life says others comefirst.
Jesus said whoever wants tobecome great among you must take
up the position of a servant.
So let's talk about what itmeans to live low by lifting
others up, and how servingactually brings you closer to
God.
Let's get into it.
(02:21):
We begin in John 13 for ourfirst example, our main example,
the prime example of serviceand the model that we follow.
After you call me teacher andLord, and rightly so, for that
is what I am.
Now that I, your Lord andteacher, have washed your feet,
you should also wash oneanother's feet.
I have set you an example thatyou should do as I have done for
(02:43):
you feet.
I have set you an example thatyou should do as I have done for
you.
Very truly, I tell you noservant is greater than his
master, nor is a messengergreater than the one who sent
him.
Now that you know these things,you will be blessed if you do
(03:08):
them.
We start with the servant leaderhimself, jesus.
In John 13,.
Jesus washing his disciples'feet is one of the most humbling
moments in the Bible.
I mean, he's the son of God,the king of kings, and he gets
down on his knees to wash dirtand grime off his friend's feet.
I mean, the feet are one of theplaces on the body that excrete
(03:30):
sweat and toxins.
They're one of the sweatiestbody parts, with a quarter
million glands.
They'd be stankin' sometimes,and here was Jesus washing them.
When he's done, he says I haveset you an example that you
should do as I have done for you.
This is what living low lookslike serving others even when
it's uncomfortable.
In doing this one act, jesuscovered all the bases.
(03:52):
He left no room for confusion.
He led by example.
So what does the heart of aservant look like?
Well, the first and foremostthing is it's not about status.
If Jesus can wash feet, youcould serve your family, your
co-workers, your neighbor, thecommunity, regardless of titles,
finances or any other means ofdivision.
(04:14):
Jesus made it a point to showthat nobody is too good to serve
.
If you think it's titles game,go ahead and break out your best
title and stack it next to theonly begotten son of God, or
king of kings, or the way, thetruth and the life.
How about savior?
Unless it's greater than thename above all names, you don't
have a case.
(04:35):
Even if it were to be equal,that would mean you have a heart
to serve and you are moreconcerned with the needs of
others than your own.
None of us is more valuablethan the other when it comes to
the kingdom.
In God's eyes, we're equals.
The heart of a servant alsoreflects God's heart.
God's love is selfless and whenwe serve others we reflect that
love.
True service is the heart of God.
(04:55):
We don't need to look anyfurther than Jesus.
Everything he did on this earthprior to his ascension was in
service, kingdom service.
It was God's will.
It wasn't Jesus' own, not hispreference, none of that.
It was obedience to the will ofGod, and that will had him
serving and teaching and doingthings that probably you and I
would not be doing, at least notin those ways, at least not
(05:17):
with that wholehearted, recklessabandon type of a deal where he
didn't care about anything butthat, and the that in this
situation was us.
We got to remember that, when itcomes to a serving heart,
there's only one thing that'sgoing to try to get in the way,
and that's pride.
Pride is going to tell you I'mtoo good for that, while
(05:39):
humility says I'd be no good ifI don't do that.
Pride says what about me?
When humility says what aboutthem?
Pride says they're not worth it.
Humility says I don't even knowif I'm worthy to serve them,
but I will.
Pride worries about gettingdesigner clothes dirty when
humility will give a Gucci shirtoff his back.
Pride is the only thing thatstops service.
(06:00):
Pride will find excuses,justifications, any reason to
make you feel better aboutignoring or neglecting the needs
.
Remember Jesus said whoevertakes up the low position of a
child, the least in the world,that is, who would be the
greatest in the kingdom.
(06:46):
Now, I don't know about you, butI used to think very
differently about serving.
I always enjoyed helping myselfand my family or someone,
anyone who I could benefit fromby helping them, but organized
serving like a job, for free andon my own time.
Yeah, I'm good.
No, thank you.
Serving sounded like somethingbeneath me, shoot.
(07:07):
If I could help it, I wouldn'teven serve my own food at the
time.
It really makes no sense at all, though, because you know I
grew up poor and needing helpwhen I was young.
I expected the help, but itnever came.
And still here I was with thatsame expectation and no desire
to do it myself, no ambition tobe the change I wanted to see in
the world.
See, our family was poor butnot homeless, broke but not
(07:30):
broken.
I didn't get new clothes everyyear, but I had access to keep
up hygiene and hand-me-downs.
They were fine.
The people that required thatkind of service either scared me
, disgusted me, were justbeneath me, or they just flat
out didn't matter to me.
Things changed when I got older,though.
As an adult, I didn't judge orcondemn.
In the same way, I mostly justdidn't care.
I'd give loose change or what Icould afford to to panhandlers
(07:53):
outside the 7-Eleven, but thatwas about the extent of it.
It wasn't until I had to do mycommunity service as a condition
of one of my criminal cases.
That's when things began tochange.
I mean, I had to go where myfreedom was at risk.
At first I was bummed, hated,life Sucks.
Then, when I got there,somebody told me that the guy
who signed off might mark my oneday there as the three that I
(08:15):
owed.
That gave me hope, until Iactually met the guy.
Before I got a word out, hesaid Before you even ask, I
expect you to do every minutethe judge ordered you to serve.
I was pissed.
This was a time in my life whereI was angry, violent, reckless.
I nearly walked off right thenand there, but I didn't.
I may have risked freedom, butI wasn't going to do something
(08:35):
that guaranteed I would lose it.
I mean, even on a crime spree,they had to catch me first, so I
always had a 50-50 shot.
This time, though, it was donot pass, go, go straight to
jail.
So I stayed and went to myassigned area, head down, bummed
out, just wanting to go, untilI got to my spot and heard a
familiar voice.
It was one of my homeboys,someone I had done reckless
(08:57):
things with, done time with,someone I could have fun in this
place with.
I thought to myself cool, I getto work with one of my people.
I was excited and ready tocause hell.
I turned around only to findout that he was one of the
people I was there to serve.
This was a gut check here.
I was disgusted with this ideain my head of who and what these
people were, and the whole timeone of them was my people.
(09:19):
This began a change in myperspective.
I would find out that he hadbeen homeless the whole time.
I knew him, in fact.
He used to enjoy getting lockedup because he had stable home
there.
He had meals, showers all thethings that he needed.
This stopped me from judging insuch a condescending way.
Now, I was not so much betterthan them just a little bit.
(09:39):
It wasn't until I became one ofthem truly, when I was homeless,
broke, broken, hungry, dirty,strung out every bit.
The person I used to step overon the sidewalk I had to hustle
to get money to survive Neededfood for sustenance, but when
I'd get the money, I couldn'tafford the food.
I could get drugs all day.
For the low, though, and thebest part the drugs kept me
(10:01):
moving.
They stifled my appetite, and Istayed warm on cold nights.
That was when I was convictedabout service.
I was now the exact person Ijudged harshly, and nobody
wanted to acknowledge myexistence.
What I found out, though, wasthat the people I now found
myself around were some of thekindest, most caring people I
had ever met in my life, andthey lived in tunnels Full of
(10:22):
hope, despite what I used tothink, and perhaps what some of
you might think of them today.
They are not and were nothopeless.
They were just beat down by theworld and even still, even
after the beating the world gave, they showed love and moved
with like an air of grace tothem.
They, like myself, had theirpick of dumpsters, tunnels,
(10:44):
abandoned places or just flatout in the dirt in the open as a
place of residence.
I realized during that time inmy life that we are all people,
no matter class or status, nomatter height or weight, color
or anything else.
I adopted a phrase that daythat I still agree with, but now
I'm praying for it to change.
It goes like this people suck.
Here's the beauty of thatexperience and what I've learned
(11:19):
from then until now.
Serving doesn't have to becomplicated.
Start small, help a neighbor,volunteer or just listen to
someone who needs encouragement.
The key is that they comebefore you, you actually care
about their needs.
Don't pressure yourself,thinking it has to look like
your outreach leader.
Trust me, if I tried to keep upwith my outreach pastor, I
would never serve.
(11:39):
The guy is just anointed forthat.
And now we pause for the cause,for your weekly challenge Find
one way to serve someone thisweek.
It doesn't have to be huge,just something that shows God's
love.
Then ask God to help you to behumble while you serve, that you
wouldn't expect anything inreturn.
Remember kindness, compassion,those things they don't expect.
(12:02):
Reciprocation Niceties do.
People are only nice when theywant or need something or expect
something.
This is a selfless service.
We can get into the differencein the words in a later episode,
because the world just doesn'tuse words right, which is
dangerous, because that may verywell be the difference between
heaven and hell for some of us.
One word wrongly used ordefined can lead to a lifetime
(12:25):
of thinking we're doing theright thing, only to find out
we're not.
Anyhow, do something this week,something kind, something that
reflects God's love, a love thatthe world desperately needs to
see, and that is your challenge.
Serving is one of the best waysto live low and keep pride in
check as well, unless you do itfor ego.
Always check yourself in doinganything.
(12:45):
Be sure always that God is inview and he doesn't look like
you.
Next episode, we're going to betalking about forgiveness, how
humility helps us let go of thethings that hold us back.
Pride breeds unforgiving hearts, and we are not going to let
unforgiveness be the reason.
Pride wins.
Let's pray, father.
We thank you for sending yourSon to save us.
(13:07):
Jesus, we thank you for themodel that you provided by
living a life of service, bygetting low and washing feet.
Your compassion is our rulebook.
We ask that you would teach usto look at others in the same
light, the light of your love,that we would extend the same
grace, not qualifying them first, and that we would honor you in
every step of service, blessthe listener and help them grow
(13:30):
one step closer to you this week.
That you would be glorified inall things In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you for tuning in.
I'm humbled and honored by yoursupport.
Until the next time, stay low,stay blessed and stay ready for
the next episode of the Low LifeShow.
Peace, outro Music.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.