Washing Feet

Welcome to Brevis Talk. The talks you are about to hear will be honest, revealing, and unfiltered. Join us as your host. Pastor Wayne Whiteside lifts the lid of silence and has conversations about mental illness and health in the church. The goal here is simple. It is to help someone along this journey of life who is struggling. It is to tell the truth to the unsuspecting, and it is to lighten the load of a fellow traveler. This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as medical advice or to replace consultation with your physician or mental health professional.

If you are experiencing a medical crisis, call 9 1 1 or go to the nearest Emergency Room. Now, here's your host, pastor Wayne.

Speaker 1 (42s): Welcome to another Brevis talk. Today we wanna talk about ministering to others. Our outreach, specifically as we speak about those who have mental illness, those in the church, and of course those who are not in the church. I wanna take an illustration from God's word. John chapter 13 about foot washing. We find in this account that Jesus washes the feet of his disciples.

And one of the things as far as literally washing someone's feet, that is the most unglamorous of deeds and it's not something that human nature would like to do. Physically speaking, you would have to kneel to be able to wash someone else's feet. In our world, quite often success is deemed to be standing equal or above others.

Many would call success in this life or the good life as being an overseer or someone who's over others, but it's not so in the kingdom of God. Matthew chapter 20 says, the first will be last, and the last will be first. You cannot wash someone's feet standing over them. You must kneel. You must get low, if you will, and all ministry is like that. You cannot help someone simply by lording over them.

And so the way of the kingdom as opposed to the world, the way up in the kingdom is down the way down in the kingdom is up. Let me say something about the types of feet that you will encounter and be called upon to wash, but First of all, no feet are too dirty. They're there are feet that have been dirty for a long time and perhaps there's a buildup of cake, dirt, mud, and other things attached to themselves and has dried on.

These feet might not be cleaned up at one event or one sitting, but we don't give up. We continue. These feet might get washed only to get dirty. Again, going back to the previous lifestyle, prodigal feet, those who once stood at one time in the house of worship, but perhaps have lost their way, we don't judge tell other owners of those feet.

What they got is what is coming to them and their self-inflicted wounds are deserved. No commentary is needed. They know wash their feet, bruised and damaged feet of no cause of their own. This world has stomped upon and crushed the feet of many. They need to be allowed to get off of their feet to rest and be received a safe haven where they know they can go and not get stomped upon.

And then perhaps you may even counter people who have no feet. They have been so damaged in this world that they can no longer stand and some don't even have a hope within themselves of ever standing alone. Nevertheless, we in the church must wash feet ministry and outreach is quite often dirty.

It is disheartening, it is discouraging, and yet it is necessary and it is a command from our Lord. We are to wash others' feet. The way of Jesus is the way of service and outreach.

Speaker 0 (5m 52s): And. that concludes our broadcast today. Please don't forget to subscribe to the podcast through Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Plus, check us out at our Facebook page or brevistalk.com and take a look at our blog and remember, be kind. Always be kind.