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okay so I didn't get to finish the
the second part of this teaching I did on 'What does it mean to be
a servant leader?' and I just want to close it out with the second half
I'll tell a quick story and
the story is actually about my sister when we're
in Israel and we're over there just
spending our Passover
over there and if if you know Israel
Passover is one of the most packed times during the entire
there the entire if you're gonna be in Israel anytime the year
just be prepared if you go there at Passover because
it's crazy and we're there in Jerusalem
and we're walking down what's called the Via Dolorosa
and the Via Dolorosa is kinda like the the way of suffering
or the path of suffering
and it's basically the path that Jesus took
to get to the cross so the path that he went and on that pathway
we're walking down and it's packed it was crazy I mean I got shoved
pushed
I was inches from the person in front of me
it was just crazy with so many people you have nuns
shoving people as they're going through it was ridiculous
but on the way, my sister and I were walking in
and I guess in this area it's mostly
muslim area and or Arabic area not necessarily muslim but there's a lot of
people that
have different nationalities and are not necessarily Christian
and so I guess one of the guys
that live in that area and their balcony is looking over the
the pathway so there they're standing on the balcony watching people walk through
and I guess one of the guys thought it would be funny to
spit into the crowd I don't know why but he just thought it would be
hilarious at the time so he hocked a loogie right into the
crowd
and unfortunately, it hit
actually my sister right on the head
she is just walking and all of a sudden it just landed right there
and she's like what is that? It's just like
what the?! All you see is this slime just coming
from her hair and and she was so angry
oh my gosh my sister was ridiculously angry at the time
she really wanted to kill that guy actually I saw it in her eyes I saw
this like look a fury in her eyes
and she was about to walk up that stairway and throw the guy off the balcony
and I just like stopped her Amanda
Jesus got spit on on this very road and my sister is like
[gasp] You're right! Oh my gosh!
she was just estatic
Amanda you just experienced and shared the suffering of Jesus on this very road
that's a blessing actually
and she's like you're right oh my gosh
and it's funny that you see it as a blessing but in the moment you're like oh my gosh
this is totally not a blessing but the thing is though
what my sister experienced was somewhat
where someone spitting on her face or spitting on her hair
and Jesus. he experienced the very same thing
and yet he loved people he had this love for people
that had no bounds
there was no there was no 'Oh well I only love you if you do this.'
There was no
strings attached whatsoever to the love that Jesus had
no matter what you did to him even while we were sinners Christ loved us
event when we spit on his face and and smacked him and punched him
and whipped him and beat him and nailed him to the cross he still loved us
he said forgive them, father for they know not what
they do
so that's the kind of love that Christ has that's the kind of love
that we're supposed to have that's the love that what it means to
truly love others
is what you see with Christ that very day and so my sister
experienced that and got a lesson
at how to love that way because the minute something
or someone does something wrong to you immediately you want to do something about it
I can't believe what they just did those people are ridiculous
but if you think about it like this
Jesus experienced far worse than you could ever experience and yet he still
forgave them and yet he still loved them so that's the kind of love that we have to have
we shouldn't pretend to love other people or I'm not gonna love you
because I'm not having a good day
it shouldn't be about that should be about no matter what I'm gonna love you
no matter what
I'm going to give you I'm going to show you that love and the reason why we love
people so much the reason why we are
called to love people so much is because
we don't deserve that love we don't deserve the love of God and yet God loves us
so because we don't deserve it and because
we are wretched sinners in the eyes of God and yet he still called us righteous
by His Son
and still sent His Son to die for us
that is why we love and we love because we are loved by the creator
by our Father God I just want to finish off
with a verse or a couple of verses actually 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
and this is a well known verse you guys probably heard of it before
but I wanted to go over the beginning of it because we all know
the end of it but we never really read the beginning of it
it is known as the love chapter the first few verses are really good
here's what it says: If I could speak
all the languages of the earth and of angels but didn't love others
I would only be as noisy as a gong or clanging cymbal
if I had the gift of prophecy
and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge
and if I had such faith that I can move mountains
but didn't love others
then I would be nothing If I gave
everything I have to the poor and even sacrifice my body I could boast about it
but if I didn't love others I would have gained nothing
so without love everything we do without love is worthless if we
give a million dollars away
to a hundred different people and do all kinds of things
acts of kindness and generosity and do all these things but yet
if we did it out of our own selfish ambition instead of love
now would mean nothing to him he would say hey
it's good that you did that but what you did has no value
because what you did was out of your own selfish ambition and so we have to do
something
we have to do it out of genuine love for others to love people genuinely
don't give people 'half-love' for your own benefit but love people
without any restrictions without anything holding you back