May 15, 2025 • 33 mins
The church's last forty years have been marked by recurring earthquakes of scandal and moral failure. What began with sex scandals in the Catholic Church and televangelist implosions in the 1980s has continued through today with similar issues on smaller scales. But what if these painful revelations aren't simply tragedies to be mourned but necessary purification to be embraced?
Drawing from personal experience as a young pastor devastated by these scandals, I explore how God has been systematically purging impurities that prevent His authentic power from flowing through His people. The persistent issues of financial impropriety, moral compromise, and power abuse (what some call "the gold, the girls, and the glory") reveal deeper heart conditions that religiosity alone cannot address. True transformation requires more than polished behavior or doctrinal precision—it demands purity of heart manifested in how we treat one another.
Jesus's act of washing His disciples' feet in John 13 provides the perfect framework for understanding God's current work in the church. Even knowing Judas would betray Him that night, Jesus included him in this symbolic purification. When Peter protested, Jesus made a profound statement: "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me," followed by a mysterious observation that not everyone present was truly clean. This wasn't about external religious purity but heart transformation that changes how we think about and speak to each other. The disciples had witnessed three years of Jesus's teaching and miracles yet still competed with one another instead of serving in love. God is removing these same impurities today so His church can experience the unity Jesus prayed for in John 17—not uniformity of style but unity of heart comparable to the perfect harmony within the Trinity. This purification isn't punishment but preparation for greater glory and authentic kingdom power. Ready for clean hearts and servant hands? God is calling us upward so His glory can come down.
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
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Shalom to you and your home.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It was probably 40 years ago, somewhere in the
mid-1980s, that something tookplace that really really rocked
a lot of people's lives, minebeing one of them, and it
(00:24):
involved this uncovering ofstuff that was going on behind
the scenes in the church man,and it was happening across the
nations.
(00:44):
It was happening across thenations but, living in America,
it really struck home when theissue of scandalism, the sex
scandal, really started comingto the forefront in the Catholic
Church, specifically in thearea of pedophile activity.
(01:07):
And then the Jim Baker andwhole Heritage USA thing
unraveled, and then JimmySwaggart, and then the list
(01:29):
continued to go on.
In fact, I was a youngassociate pastor at the time and
I was so depressed by that thatI would take my family and we
would go to a lake this was inMinnesota, the land of 10,000
lakes, and we would go to a lakethis is in Minnesota, the land
of 10,000 lakes and we would goto a lake and I would just sit
(01:51):
on the edge of the lake and takesome of the sand and just let
it sift through my hands,because that just seemed, you
know, real to me.
I could put my hands on it, andalso it was just me kind of
just letting this whole thingflow through my mind.
(02:15):
I didn't know what to think andI was also.
I was that low man, I was justlike I didn't want to see
anybody because I wasembarrassed to be known as a
preacher, a teacher of thegospel, a pastor.
I don't want anything to dowith it or let people know,
(02:37):
because it just was like reallylike volunteering to be ugly and
so.
But that was 40 years ago and Ikind of thought and probably
hoped that that was going to bethe end of it and we as a
(02:59):
collective group of people whofollow Jesus in America and in
other nations, that we would beable to kind of regroup and move
forward and begin to experiencesome of the power of God, not
just the recitation of his word,which is good, but just that
(03:25):
alone can lead to religiosity,meaning just doing the things
that are done.
But we do them by either rotebehavior, meaning we just kind
of memorize the thing, we gothrough the motions, or we just
(03:47):
do it to try to get something tohappen.
And that seemed to be a lot ofwhat was going on A lot of good
teaching and preaching of theword, but not much power,
teaching of the word, but notmuch power.
And so I was kind of hopingthere'd be a balance, because
(04:07):
when there's a balance, that'sthe gospel, the good news.
When there is the word and theworks of the kingdom of God in
operation, right, that's thestuff and that's what I signed
up for, not to just try to be agood person who's polished up
(04:32):
and kind of that wholepuritanical thing or religious.
I wasn't interested in that.
I wanted to experience thereality of life in the kingdom,
to do what Jesus did, to walklike him, to follow him and to
really be like him and have abunch of us doing that at the
(04:55):
same time and loving each other,and so I was hoping that that
was going to take place.
But that was like theearthquake, so to speak.
And then afterwards there werethese aftershocks and things
(05:16):
were continually being uncovered, and it reached a point in the
late 90s that I became sodisillusioned by this that I
became what's known as one ofthe dones.
I was done with it and Ichecked out.
(05:37):
I said, if this is all there isto it, I don't want any part of
it.
And so I went back to doingwhat I was doing before, but
that wasn't the answer.
However, it was what I knewwhat to do so I did it, and it
(05:58):
ultimately brought me to a placewhere, literally, I was at the
end of myself, but that'sanother story for another time.
These aftershocks continued toreverberate all throughout the
nations at various points intime, and I remember a statement
(06:21):
that was made from thescriptures that said that
judgment would begin, but itwould begin in the house of God,
and I adhered to that, but onceagain, I thought that that had
taken place.
I just didn't realize howthorough and how serious God was
(06:44):
about this and why, until justrecently, in the year 2025,
right 40 years removed from thatSome of the same type of things
are still taking place, on asmaller scale, but nonetheless
(07:08):
similar things, those three mainthings that trip people up
Financial issues, issues ofimmorality and issues of control
power.
Someone said that the gold, thegirls and the glory right.
(07:29):
Well, it was still happening,and happening in my own backyard
, not in my life, but in afellowship that I was a part of,
and it wasn't a big one, it wasa small one.
I'm like, are you kidding me?
Except just recently, it becameclear to me that that is
(07:54):
actually a good thing, asuncomfortable and awkward as
it's been and as disappointingas it's been to see people that
I have respected succumb tobehavior that really doesn't
(08:15):
belong at all in the constructof any organization, let alone
one that names the name of Jesus, a body of believers.
But nonetheless there's beenand also at some level within my
(08:36):
own life as well things comingto the surface that have been
problematic when it comes toattitudes about one another, and
things that have beenproblematic when it comes to
attitudes about one another, andthings that have come out of my
mouth about others, things thatthey're rather harmless,
(08:56):
because I'm not really out doingharm to anybody except our
words and our thoughts arepowerful and they create things
that, though we might not beable to see them on the surface,
(09:17):
they have a creative abilitynonetheless, and they're
negative and they don't belongin the kingdom of God, and God
has been systematically purgingthem away and has been
withholding his power, becausehis power is meant to validate
(09:40):
the gospel, and part of thegospel is the lifestyle, not
just the words, of what peoplesay.
It's what people do.
What we do, our actions and ourattitudes all involve us being
people who have experienced thereality of God's saving power,
(10:04):
his life, newness of life,citizenship in his kingdom, but
also, but also being under thelordship and there's a word
right there, a big word thelordship of Jesus.
We, in many of the societiesthat listen to this particular
(10:26):
podcast, are somewhatindependent in our thinking that
we have individualism as a highvalue, individual rights, the
rights of the individual, andindividualism Rugged
(10:47):
individualism, pull yourself upby your own bootstraps type
thing versus us having acollective mindset, more of a
community mindset, where wethink of the community, not just
ourselves, and the kingdom ofGod is made up of a community,
not just ourselves.
And the kingdom of God is madeup of a community.
We are a kingdom that is acommunity.
(11:13):
We have a king, and in many ofour societies we've not been, in
our upbringing, exposed to whatit is to be ruled by a king.
We have people that we vote inand we vote out of office, and
(11:36):
they change and we changedifferent types of
administrations.
So we have more of that mindsetthat there's not really a king,
though there is a government,but that's different, because a
(11:56):
king is sovereign and what theking thinks and what the king
does makes up the culture of thekingdom, the dominion, the
domain of the king.
What he likes, what he doesn'tlike, what he says, what he
doesn't say, all comes from theculture, all comes from the king
(12:22):
, not from the people alone.
And so this aspect of thelordship of Jesus is really the
kingship or the headship ofJesus One head, one church, one
head, one body, not many heads,not a bunch of individuals going
(12:45):
around doing their own thing,as good as they might be, but
for us to be collective in ourefforts.
And that, that, right there,there in, is the rub making
(13:07):
people into one.
And in that, making a peopleinto one.
Not uniformity, not being alldressing the same and talking
the same, but unity from theheart, from the heart, because
(13:31):
God's word is in our hearts.
It's not a law that we abide by, it is in us that we live by
and we follow the example of theking.
One king, and he is pure, he isloving, he is holy, meaning, he
(13:59):
isn't one who says one thingand does another.
He is righteous, he's complete,he's whole, he's true, he does
not lie, he is pure.
(14:19):
And in order to be under hislordship, we too must become
pure.
Now hear me out.
Not puritanical, not legalistic, not religious, but pure in
heart.
Which leads me to a passage ofScripture in the New Testament,
(14:45):
in the Gospel of John, chapter13,.
That's very familiar, but it'sstill.
Even though it's very familiar,it has some element of mystery
to it and I'm hoping to unpackit a bit with the remaining time
that we have in this podcastepisode.
And the passage that I'mlooking at is in John, chapter
(15:07):
13, verses 1 through 17.
And it concerns Jesus washinghis disciples' feet, the feet of
his disciples.
It's the night in which he isgoing to be betrayed by Judas,
(15:28):
who was one of his 12 apostlesor disciples, and he was going
to betray Jesus and hand himover to the Romans, which,
ultimately, they would crucifyhim on the cross.
Which, ultimately, they wouldcrucify him on the cross, even
(15:48):
though it was really motivatedby the jealousy and hatred of
the Jewish religious people ofthe day.
But this was the setting inwhich Jesus washed his disciples
feet, the night in which he wasgoing to be betrayed, and he
knew it.
He could have done anythingelse, so to speak, but he was.
(16:16):
Even though he was going to bebetrayed, he still had in him to
demonstrate love and to teach,even to the very last moment,
before his crucifixion or histrial, mock trial leading to his
(16:40):
crucifixion, mock trial leadingto his crucifixion.
And he, he, god in the flesh,emmanuel, god, amongst us, jesus
, yeshua, yeshua, come here.
Jesus, the Messiah, god the Son, second person of the Godhead
(17:33):
in the Messiah, god the Son,second person of the Godhead in
the flesh, is taking the role ofa servant, washing the feet of
his disciples who had been insandals, walking around all day
with dirty feet, accumulatingthe dust and the dirt and the
grime and whatever else wentalong with walking with sandals
in a Middle Eastern culture andclimate.
You get the picture Dirty feet.
And so John writes that it wasjust before the Passover feast
(18:00):
what they were going tocelebrate.
Jesus, I love this.
Jesus knew that the time hadcome for him to leave this world
and go to the Father.
Having loved his own who werein the world, he now showed them
(18:20):
the full extent of his love.
The evening meal was beingserved and the devil had already
prompted Judas, iscariot, sonof Simon, to betray Jesus.
Jesus knew that the Father hadput all things under his power
(18:40):
and that he had come from Godand was returning to God.
So he got up from the meal,took off his outer clothing and
wrapped a towel around his waist, and after that he poured water
into a basin and began to washhis disciples' feet, drying them
(19:02):
with the towel that was wrappedaround him.
Now, sidebar note that was thejob of a servant.
A very low-ranking servant wasgiven the job of washing feet.
It was customary to do thatbecause of the fact that, again,
people walked around and theirfeet got dirty wearing sandals
(19:24):
on a hot day and smelly, dirtyfeet.
He came to Simon Peter who saidto him Lord, are you going to
wash my feet?
Jesus replied you do not nowrealize what I'm doing, but
(19:44):
later you will understand.
And sometimes that's the way itis.
Things don't always becomeclear to us right away.
Sometimes it takes some time,and then we get the revelation
of what's going on.
We mature.
(20:08):
No, said Peter, he just saidLord.
For then he said no.
That's kind of a yeah, that's a.
That's a little twist there.
That's, if he said Lord, heshould say yes, but he said no,
right?
No, said Peter, you shall neverwash my feet.
(20:29):
Jesus answered unless I washyou, you have no part with me.
Then, lord, simon Peter repliednot just my feet, but my hands
and my head as well.
Jesus answered a person who hashad a bath needs only to wash
(20:50):
his feet.
His whole body is clean.
And you are clean, though notevery one of you that language
right there, that is rathermysterious.
You are clean, though not everyone of you, for he knew he was
(21:10):
going to, for he knew who wasgoing to betray him, and that
was why he said not everyone wasclean.
When he had finished washingtheir feet, he put on his
clothes and returned to hisplace.
(21:31):
Do you understand what I havedone for you?
He asked him.
You call me teacher and Lord,and rightly so, for that is what
I am.
Now that I, your Lord andteacher, have washed your feet,
you should also wash another'sfeet, one another's feet.
(21:51):
You should also wash oneanother's feet.
I have set you an example thatyou should do as I have done for
you.
I tell you the truth no servantis greater than his master, nor
is a messenger greater than theone who sent him.
Now that you know these things,you'll be blessed if you do
(22:13):
them.
So what's going on?
Here's what's going on.
Disciples had been with Jesusfor probably three plus years
(22:37):
and during that time he wasteaching them and his word and
the works that they saw.
But his word was pruning them,it was puruning them, it was
purifying them, it wastransforming them and they were
(23:03):
becoming different by his word.
And his word was washing them,pruning them, purifying them.
Except they were still incompetition with one another.
They still talked about eachother behind one another's backs
and to each other's faces, in aderogatory way who's the
greatest?
Who's got this, who's got that?
(23:24):
What about this?
What about that?
They didn't have a servant'sheart.
They didn't have a heart oftrue unity.
And Jesus said you're clean,except you need to learn how to
serve one another.
But also, this is showing youthat I know what's going on and
(23:48):
I'm washing away the impurity inyour midst, meaning not
everyone here has had theirhearts transformed.
Judas didn't.
He was highly religious, but hehad not been transformed.
Big difference, big difference.
(24:09):
He didn't have relationshipwith Jesus.
He had another agenda going on,and oftentimes we have other
agendas going on in our lives.
We don't have relationship withJesus.
We have religion but notrelationship, or we have issues
(24:30):
about one another that aren'twith a servant's heart of love
toward one another.
And that is what God is after,like Jesus, to serve one another
and to function in power, butto be pure in our motives and
(24:58):
pure with our thoughts and getthis come on man, get this,
please get this and pure withour tongues.
And there is a fire that'spurifying the church, and there
is a fire that's purifying thechurch across the nations, and
(25:19):
that fire is the move of God'sSpirit.
It's been happening and it'sgetting deeper and it's going to
continue to grow until we arepurified under the lordship of
Jesus.
Not just doing things becausethey feel good, but doing things
(25:41):
because we are under thelordship, under the command of
Jesus, and we know how to serveone another.
Serve one another and when wedo, power will ensue, because
(26:03):
power is no problem for God,just like getting a crowd is no
problem for God.
He can fill the net with fishthat's been empty all night long
.
He can produce a crowd byvirtue of a declaration of his
word and a demonstration of hiskingdom.
A crowd will develop.
(26:25):
So crowds are not the problem.
Power is not the problem.
The issue is us being united andbeing of one heart and one mind
, where we learn how to serveone another but are pure,
purified in our hearts.
And some of these tests andtrials that we've been going
(26:46):
through are designed by God justthat way, as a test, and when
we pass them, we get to moveforward.
If we don't, we get to try thetest again.
We get to take the test againand it's an open book test, but
we get to take the test again.
And if we don't pass it in thegroup that we're in, god's going
(27:10):
to move us to another groupwhere we take the test again,
because he's forming groups intoa place of purity and some
groups aren't even ordained byGod and he's dissolving them or
(27:31):
he's taking away the lampstand.
There is a move of God's spiritthat is designed to bring about
what Jesus then prayed for inJohn chapter 17, and that we
would be one, as he and theFather are one.
(27:52):
That's perfect unity.
That's God unity.
That's the unity of the Godhead, father, son and Holy Spirit.
That's united.
That's the level of unity thathe wants us to have and he's not
going to settle for anythingless.
And he is Lord, so he is Lord ofhis church, meaning the church
(28:13):
belongs to him.
It doesn't belong to us.
It belongs to him.
We are his body.
The church is his body, so hecan do with his body sovereignly
as he wants to, and he loveshis body.
He loves us, but he loves usenough to remove from us the
things that are damaging us,enough to remove from us the
(28:35):
things that are damaging, andsome of those things need to be
removed when there's a bit ofpressure that's placed upon us
by the heat of God's presence,because his fire is a component
of his glory.
In some respects it's aprecursor to more of his glory
being manifest, because God isgoing to manifest his glory to
us and through us, upon us andwithin us.
(28:58):
He's calling us to come on upso his glory can come on down.
He's purifying us so that wecan be able to rise above our
situations and see them from adifferent perspective and
address them with power.
Make declarations Instead ofdesperations.
(29:18):
Clean God wants us clean, notpuritanical, not clothesline
religion.
How low is the hem of yourskirt?
(29:42):
Do you wear makeup or don't youwear makeup?
Do you go to a movie or don'tyou go to a movie?
Come on, man.
Purity of heart and one ofservanthood toward one another
and love.
What we think about and what wesay about each other is like
(30:06):
Christ.
Hallelujah, let's pray Father.
Thank you, lord, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you,
thank you for who you are, forwhat you're doing, how you're
doing it, why you're doing itwhere you're doing it.
(30:28):
Just thank you.
Continue, please continue.
I know you will, but I'm saying, lord, continue, because I want
to see your power.
I don't want to see a smokemachine, I don't want to see
some sort of magic show.
I want to see your power, yourpower.
(30:50):
I want to see your power, yourpower, you, your glory, your
kingdom.
God, I love you, jesus, I loveyou.
I honor you, declare you as myLord, declare you as our Lord
(31:13):
and Holy Spirit, give you freereign to move through us, upon
us, teach us, lead us, guide us,make us into the very likeness
of Jesus, and we pray thesethings in his name here, right
now, and say so be it.
Amen, amen, amen, amen.
All right, folks, I love you.
If you have any thoughts,questions concerns man, please
(31:36):
feel free.
Just drop us a line atliferondthefire at gmailcom.
Type in liferondthefire alllowercase one word, run-on
sentence statementliferondthefire at gmailcom.
Or type in liferondthefire andlook us up on the web.
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you.
Adios amigos.
It was probably 40 years ago, somewhere in the
mid-1980s, that something tookplace that really really rocked
a lot of people's lives, minebeing one of them, and it
(00:24):
involved this uncovering ofstuff that was going on behind
the scenes in the church man,and it was happening across the
nations.
(00:44):
It was happening across thenations but, living in America,
it really struck home when theissue of scandalism, the sex
scandal, really started comingto the forefront in the Catholic
Church, specifically in thearea of pedophile activity.
(01:07):
And then the Jim Baker andwhole Heritage USA thing
unraveled, and then JimmySwaggart, and then the list
(01:29):
continued to go on.
In fact, I was a youngassociate pastor at the time and
I was so depressed by that thatI would take my family and we
would go to a lake this was inMinnesota, the land of 10,000
lakes, and we would go to a lakethis is in Minnesota, the land
of 10,000 lakes and we would goto a lake and I would just sit
(01:51):
on the edge of the lake and takesome of the sand and just let
it sift through my hands,because that just seemed, you
know, real to me.
I could put my hands on it, andalso it was just me kind of
just letting this whole thingflow through my mind.
(02:15):
I didn't know what to think andI was also.
I was that low man, I was justlike I didn't want to see
anybody because I wasembarrassed to be known as a
preacher, a teacher of thegospel, a pastor.
I don't want anything to dowith it or let people know,
(02:37):
because it just was like reallylike volunteering to be ugly and
so.
But that was 40 years ago and Ikind of thought and probably
hoped that that was going to bethe end of it and we as a
(02:59):
collective group of people whofollow Jesus in America and in
other nations, that we would beable to kind of regroup and move
forward and begin to experiencesome of the power of God, not
just the recitation of his word,which is good, but just that
(03:25):
alone can lead to religiosity,meaning just doing the things
that are done.
But we do them by either rotebehavior, meaning we just kind
of memorize the thing, we gothrough the motions, or we just
(03:47):
do it to try to get something tohappen.
And that seemed to be a lot ofwhat was going on A lot of good
teaching and preaching of theword, but not much power,
teaching of the word, but notmuch power.
And so I was kind of hopingthere'd be a balance, because
(04:07):
when there's a balance, that'sthe gospel, the good news.
When there is the word and theworks of the kingdom of God in
operation, right, that's thestuff and that's what I signed
up for, not to just try to be agood person who's polished up
(04:32):
and kind of that wholepuritanical thing or religious.
I wasn't interested in that.
I wanted to experience thereality of life in the kingdom,
to do what Jesus did, to walklike him, to follow him and to
really be like him and have abunch of us doing that at the
(04:55):
same time and loving each other,and so I was hoping that that
was going to take place.
But that was like theearthquake, so to speak.
And then afterwards there werethese aftershocks and things
(05:16):
were continually being uncovered, and it reached a point in the
late 90s that I became sodisillusioned by this that I
became what's known as one ofthe dones.
I was done with it and Ichecked out.
(05:37):
I said, if this is all there isto it, I don't want any part of
it.
And so I went back to doingwhat I was doing before, but
that wasn't the answer.
However, it was what I knewwhat to do so I did it, and it
(05:58):
ultimately brought me to a placewhere, literally, I was at the
end of myself, but that'sanother story for another time.
These aftershocks continued toreverberate all throughout the
nations at various points intime, and I remember a statement
(06:21):
that was made from thescriptures that said that
judgment would begin, but itwould begin in the house of God,
and I adhered to that, but onceagain, I thought that that had
taken place.
I just didn't realize howthorough and how serious God was
(06:44):
about this and why, until justrecently, in the year 2025,
right 40 years removed from thatSome of the same type of things
are still taking place, on asmaller scale, but nonetheless
(07:08):
similar things, those three mainthings that trip people up
Financial issues, issues ofimmorality and issues of control
power.
Someone said that the gold, thegirls and the glory right.
(07:29):
Well, it was still happening,and happening in my own backyard
, not in my life, but in afellowship that I was a part of,
and it wasn't a big one, it wasa small one.
I'm like, are you kidding me?
Except just recently, it becameclear to me that that is
(07:54):
actually a good thing, asuncomfortable and awkward as
it's been and as disappointingas it's been to see people that
I have respected succumb tobehavior that really doesn't
(08:15):
belong at all in the constructof any organization, let alone
one that names the name of Jesus, a body of believers.
But nonetheless there's beenand also at some level within my
(08:36):
own life as well things comingto the surface that have been
problematic when it comes toattitudes about one another, and
things that have beenproblematic when it comes to
attitudes about one another, andthings that have come out of my
mouth about others, things thatthey're rather harmless,
(08:56):
because I'm not really out doingharm to anybody except our
words and our thoughts arepowerful and they create things
that, though we might not beable to see them on the surface,
(09:17):
they have a creative abilitynonetheless, and they're
negative and they don't belongin the kingdom of God, and God
has been systematically purgingthem away and has been
withholding his power, becausehis power is meant to validate
(09:40):
the gospel, and part of thegospel is the lifestyle, not
just the words, of what peoplesay.
It's what people do.
What we do, our actions and ourattitudes all involve us being
people who have experienced thereality of God's saving power,
(10:04):
his life, newness of life,citizenship in his kingdom, but
also, but also being under thelordship and there's a word
right there, a big word thelordship of Jesus.
We, in many of the societiesthat listen to this particular
(10:26):
podcast, are somewhatindependent in our thinking that
we have individualism as a highvalue, individual rights, the
rights of the individual, andindividualism Rugged
(10:47):
individualism, pull yourself upby your own bootstraps type
thing versus us having acollective mindset, more of a
community mindset, where wethink of the community, not just
ourselves, and the kingdom ofGod is made up of a community,
not just ourselves.
And the kingdom of God is madeup of a community.
We are a kingdom that is acommunity.
(11:13):
We have a king, and in many ofour societies we've not been, in
our upbringing, exposed to whatit is to be ruled by a king.
We have people that we vote inand we vote out of office, and
(11:36):
they change and we changedifferent types of
administrations.
So we have more of that mindsetthat there's not really a king,
though there is a government,but that's different, because a
(11:56):
king is sovereign and what theking thinks and what the king
does makes up the culture of thekingdom, the dominion, the
domain of the king.
What he likes, what he doesn'tlike, what he says, what he
doesn't say, all comes from theculture, all comes from the king
(12:22):
, not from the people alone.
And so this aspect of thelordship of Jesus is really the
kingship or the headship ofJesus One head, one church, one
head, one body, not many heads,not a bunch of individuals going
(12:45):
around doing their own thing,as good as they might be, but
for us to be collective in ourefforts.
And that, that, right there,there in, is the rub making
(13:07):
people into one.
And in that, making a peopleinto one.
Not uniformity, not being alldressing the same and talking
the same, but unity from theheart, from the heart, because
(13:31):
God's word is in our hearts.
It's not a law that we abide by, it is in us that we live by
and we follow the example of theking.
One king, and he is pure, he isloving, he is holy, meaning, he
(13:59):
isn't one who says one thingand does another.
He is righteous, he's complete,he's whole, he's true, he does
not lie, he is pure.
(14:19):
And in order to be under hislordship, we too must become
pure.
Now hear me out.
Not puritanical, not legalistic, not religious, but pure in
heart.
Which leads me to a passage ofScripture in the New Testament,
(14:45):
in the Gospel of John, chapter13,.
That's very familiar, but it'sstill.
Even though it's very familiar,it has some element of mystery
to it and I'm hoping to unpackit a bit with the remaining time
that we have in this podcastepisode.
And the passage that I'mlooking at is in John, chapter
(15:07):
13, verses 1 through 17.
And it concerns Jesus washinghis disciples' feet, the feet of
his disciples.
It's the night in which he isgoing to be betrayed by Judas,
(15:28):
who was one of his 12 apostlesor disciples, and he was going
to betray Jesus and hand himover to the Romans, which,
ultimately, they would crucifyhim on the cross.
Which, ultimately, they wouldcrucify him on the cross, even
(15:48):
though it was really motivatedby the jealousy and hatred of
the Jewish religious people ofthe day.
But this was the setting inwhich Jesus washed his disciples
feet, the night in which he wasgoing to be betrayed, and he
knew it.
He could have done anythingelse, so to speak, but he was.
(16:16):
Even though he was going to bebetrayed, he still had in him to
demonstrate love and to teach,even to the very last moment,
before his crucifixion or histrial, mock trial leading to his
(16:40):
crucifixion, mock trial leadingto his crucifixion.
And he, he, god in the flesh,emmanuel, god, amongst us, jesus
, yeshua, yeshua, come here.
Jesus, the Messiah, god the Son, second person of the Godhead
(17:33):
in the Messiah, god the Son,second person of the Godhead in
the flesh, is taking the role ofa servant, washing the feet of
his disciples who had been insandals, walking around all day
with dirty feet, accumulatingthe dust and the dirt and the
grime and whatever else wentalong with walking with sandals
in a Middle Eastern culture andclimate.
You get the picture Dirty feet.
And so John writes that it wasjust before the Passover feast
(18:00):
what they were going tocelebrate.
Jesus, I love this.
Jesus knew that the time hadcome for him to leave this world
and go to the Father.
Having loved his own who werein the world, he now showed them
(18:20):
the full extent of his love.
The evening meal was beingserved and the devil had already
prompted Judas, iscariot, sonof Simon, to betray Jesus.
Jesus knew that the Father hadput all things under his power
(18:40):
and that he had come from Godand was returning to God.
So he got up from the meal,took off his outer clothing and
wrapped a towel around his waist, and after that he poured water
into a basin and began to washhis disciples' feet, drying them
(19:02):
with the towel that was wrappedaround him.
Now, sidebar note that was thejob of a servant.
A very low-ranking servant wasgiven the job of washing feet.
It was customary to do thatbecause of the fact that, again,
people walked around and theirfeet got dirty wearing sandals
(19:24):
on a hot day and smelly, dirtyfeet.
He came to Simon Peter who saidto him Lord, are you going to
wash my feet?
Jesus replied you do not nowrealize what I'm doing, but
(19:44):
later you will understand.
And sometimes that's the way itis.
Things don't always becomeclear to us right away.
Sometimes it takes some time,and then we get the revelation
of what's going on.
We mature.
(20:08):
No, said Peter, he just saidLord.
For then he said no.
That's kind of a yeah, that's a.
That's a little twist there.
That's, if he said Lord, heshould say yes, but he said no,
right?
No, said Peter, you shall neverwash my feet.
(20:29):
Jesus answered unless I washyou, you have no part with me.
Then, lord, simon Peter repliednot just my feet, but my hands
and my head as well.
Jesus answered a person who hashad a bath needs only to wash
(20:50):
his feet.
His whole body is clean.
And you are clean, though notevery one of you that language
right there, that is rathermysterious.
You are clean, though not everyone of you, for he knew he was
(21:10):
going to, for he knew who wasgoing to betray him, and that
was why he said not everyone wasclean.
When he had finished washingtheir feet, he put on his
clothes and returned to hisplace.
(21:31):
Do you understand what I havedone for you?
He asked him.
You call me teacher and Lord,and rightly so, for that is what
I am.
Now that I, your Lord andteacher, have washed your feet,
you should also wash another'sfeet, one another's feet.
(21:51):
You should also wash oneanother's feet.
I have set you an example thatyou should do as I have done for
you.
I tell you the truth no servantis greater than his master, nor
is a messenger greater than theone who sent him.
Now that you know these things,you'll be blessed if you do
(22:13):
them.
So what's going on?
Here's what's going on.
Disciples had been with Jesusfor probably three plus years
(22:37):
and during that time he wasteaching them and his word and
the works that they saw.
But his word was pruning them,it was puruning them, it was
purifying them, it wastransforming them and they were
(23:03):
becoming different by his word.
And his word was washing them,pruning them, purifying them.
Except they were still incompetition with one another.
They still talked about eachother behind one another's backs
and to each other's faces, in aderogatory way who's the
greatest?
Who's got this, who's got that?
(23:24):
What about this?
What about that?
They didn't have a servant'sheart.
They didn't have a heart oftrue unity.
And Jesus said you're clean,except you need to learn how to
serve one another.
But also, this is showing youthat I know what's going on and
(23:48):
I'm washing away the impurity inyour midst, meaning not
everyone here has had theirhearts transformed.
Judas didn't.
He was highly religious, but hehad not been transformed.
Big difference, big difference.
(24:09):
He didn't have relationshipwith Jesus.
He had another agenda going on,and oftentimes we have other
agendas going on in our lives.
We don't have relationship withJesus.
We have religion but notrelationship, or we have issues
(24:30):
about one another that aren'twith a servant's heart of love
toward one another.
And that is what God is after,like Jesus, to serve one another
and to function in power, butto be pure in our motives and
(24:58):
pure with our thoughts and getthis come on man, get this,
please get this and pure withour tongues.
And there is a fire that'spurifying the church, and there
is a fire that's purifying thechurch across the nations, and
(25:19):
that fire is the move of God'sSpirit.
It's been happening and it'sgetting deeper and it's going to
continue to grow until we arepurified under the lordship of
Jesus.
Not just doing things becausethey feel good, but doing things
(25:41):
because we are under thelordship, under the command of
Jesus, and we know how to serveone another.
Serve one another and when wedo, power will ensue, because
(26:03):
power is no problem for God,just like getting a crowd is no
problem for God.
He can fill the net with fishthat's been empty all night long
.
He can produce a crowd byvirtue of a declaration of his
word and a demonstration of hiskingdom.
A crowd will develop.
(26:25):
So crowds are not the problem.
Power is not the problem.
The issue is us being united andbeing of one heart and one mind
, where we learn how to serveone another but are pure,
purified in our hearts.
And some of these tests andtrials that we've been going
(26:46):
through are designed by God justthat way, as a test, and when
we pass them, we get to moveforward.
If we don't, we get to try thetest again.
We get to take the test againand it's an open book test, but
we get to take the test again.
And if we don't pass it in thegroup that we're in, god's going
(27:10):
to move us to another groupwhere we take the test again,
because he's forming groups intoa place of purity and some
groups aren't even ordained byGod and he's dissolving them or
(27:31):
he's taking away the lampstand.
There is a move of God's spiritthat is designed to bring about
what Jesus then prayed for inJohn chapter 17, and that we
would be one, as he and theFather are one.
(27:52):
That's perfect unity.
That's God unity.
That's the unity of the Godhead, father, son and Holy Spirit.
That's united.
That's the level of unity thathe wants us to have and he's not
going to settle for anythingless.
And he is Lord, so he is Lord ofhis church, meaning the church
(28:13):
belongs to him.
It doesn't belong to us.
It belongs to him.
We are his body.
The church is his body, so hecan do with his body sovereignly
as he wants to, and he loveshis body.
He loves us, but he loves usenough to remove from us the
things that are damaging us,enough to remove from us the
(28:35):
things that are damaging, andsome of those things need to be
removed when there's a bit ofpressure that's placed upon us
by the heat of God's presence,because his fire is a component
of his glory.
In some respects it's aprecursor to more of his glory
being manifest, because God isgoing to manifest his glory to
us and through us, upon us andwithin us.
(28:58):
He's calling us to come on upso his glory can come on down.
He's purifying us so that wecan be able to rise above our
situations and see them from adifferent perspective and
address them with power.
Make declarations Instead ofdesperations.
(29:18):
Clean God wants us clean, notpuritanical, not clothesline
religion.
How low is the hem of yourskirt?
(29:42):
Do you wear makeup or don't youwear makeup?
Do you go to a movie or don'tyou go to a movie?
Come on, man.
Purity of heart and one ofservanthood toward one another
and love.
What we think about and what wesay about each other is like
(30:06):
Christ.
Hallelujah, let's pray Father.
Thank you, lord, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you,
thank you for who you are, forwhat you're doing, how you're
doing it, why you're doing itwhere you're doing it.
(30:28):
Just thank you.
Continue, please continue.
I know you will, but I'm saying, lord, continue, because I want
to see your power.
I don't want to see a smokemachine, I don't want to see
some sort of magic show.
I want to see your power, yourpower.
(30:50):
I want to see your power, yourpower, you, your glory, your
kingdom.
God, I love you, jesus, I loveyou.
I honor you, declare you as myLord, declare you as our Lord
(31:13):
and Holy Spirit, give you freereign to move through us, upon
us, teach us, lead us, guide us,make us into the very likeness
of Jesus, and we pray thesethings in his name here, right
now, and say so be it.
Amen, amen, amen, amen.
All right, folks, I love you.
If you have any thoughts,questions concerns man, please
(31:36):
feel free.
Just drop us a line atliferondthefire at gmailcom.
Type in liferondthefire alllowercase one word, run-on
sentence statementliferondthefire at gmailcom.
Or type in liferondthefire andlook us up on the web.
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you.
Adios amigos.
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