Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome to the Life Refresh podcast. My name is Ryan Robinson, and if you are looking for a podcast that is designed to uplift, encourage and revive your heart, mind, and spirit. You're in the right place. Welcome to the journey of Becoming the version of You God designed from the foundations of the earth. Now, let's begin.
Speaker 0 00:00:28 Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to Life Refresh podcast. This is Ryan Robinson. Uh, again, so excited to share this information, uh, with you. Again, I really love this topic that we're on, this teaching around empathy and how to, um, dismantle ego as we are looking to connect authentically with those, uh, that we love, those that we care about, um, and those that we want to see thrive. And I, I'd hope that you would want to see people around you thriving and hoping that, that you, you, you would see the fruit of this teaching, uh, in your own lives and, uh, get an idea of, of what everything's going on. So, I want to just do a quick synopsis of what we talked about yesterday, or excuse me, last podcast, <laugh>. Um, we talked about one of the keys to the death of ego being humility.
Speaker 0 00:01:27 Uh, we talked about where in the Bible we talked about humility. Uh, Proverbs, the key to Proverbs being app applied in your own life is to be able to be humble, to know that you need help, that you need wisdom, that you need to continue to learn lifelong learners or those who are humble, who realize and know that they are, uh, that they still need information. They still don't know everything, and they're gonna be continuing to do this for the rest of their lives. And, uh, it's so important for us to understand that. Uh, we also talked about, uh, John the Baptist, uh, John the Baptist being the individual who proclaims and announces the kingdom of God that is at hand, uh, which is Jesus coming. And the Pharisees and Levis were given the opportunity, given John the opportunity to get an idea. It's like, wow, who are you?
Speaker 0 00:02:28 And, and they put him in a category of some amazing individuals, the highlights, if you will, of the culture, uh, of the, of the Jewish culture being Christ the Messiah. They asked him, said, are you him? He says, Nope, I'm not that guy. He said, are you Elijah? Who's a great prophet in the Bible? And they said, mm-hmm. Nope, I'm not that guy either. Um, and then they said, well, are you a prophet? He says, I'm neither. He says, this is what I am. I'm a voice in the wilderness speaking out. And the thing is, that's so powerful about that is that, John, in order for you to be humble, you have to understand who you are in the first place, even when you are presented to being categories that seem to be greater than what you're doing. There was no one else that could, would keep John accountable.
Speaker 0 00:03:35 He could have said whatever to these guys. He said, yeah, I could have been, I could have been this. He had the opportunity. But he, but he was humble enough. He was humble enough, ladies and gentlemen, to not speak on what he's on, essentially, what he could have been doing. Not speak on saying that he is this guy that he's not. And humility requires you to understand that this is who you are. Christianity. And, and, and the, the, the, the lifestyle or the spiritual basis of, of the Christian faith is around the fact that you cannot save yourself. That salvation is a gift from God. Not of works unless anyone should boast. You can't work for that. You just freely accept it. And you know what, I'm gonna touch on this a little bit before we get into the next one, but Jesus's life as a whole is an example of humility.
Speaker 0 00:04:34 Okay? Like the whole thing. So let, let me, let me, I'm gonna bring in this scripture and then we'll move on to the next point for the day. But the scripture I wanna talk about is from Philippians two, starting at verse five to 11. Let this mind be in you all, which was also in Christ Jesus here, who being in the form of God did not consider equally, equally with God, something to be grasped. But he emptied himself upon himself in the form of a servant, and was made in the lightness of men and being found in the form of a man. He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God highly exalted him and gave him the name, which is above every name, that the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow of those in heaven, on earth and under the earth.
Speaker 0 00:05:26 And every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Okay? So this is like the, to me, the, the, the best <laugh> John chapter one actually brings this to. But Philippians, uh, chapter two verses five through 11 actually ties this up really well as well, too, is that Jesus is the perfect example of humility. That even when he could, he didn't, he could have saved himself from the cross. He could have healed himself. He could have done some amazing things, but he did it unto obedience, even though he had the power to, he didn't. To me, that is humility. When you have the power to do something but choose not to do it, there is so much power and so much grace and mercy around the fact that you are, that humility can bring you that even though you know, you could, you choose not.
Speaker 0 00:06:26 God sees that and honors individuals who are humble and, and uplifts those because they have done the best that they've could and have left the outcome, not in their own hands, but they left it in God's hands to deal with, with which means there's a level of trust there. So I wanna bring that up. But this whole path that Jesus walked in his life, or his, his short life really on earth, is not just an example of humility, but it is in part two of what we're gonna talk about today is an example of service to one another. Uh, service to one another is, um, is another humbling thing. But humbling humility without an action is just a feeling. Okay? Humility without an action is just a feeling. It doesn't, you can feel humble, but the only way you can express humility is by doing something with that, uh, issue or, or with those feelings, right?
Speaker 0 00:07:32 That come along with it. Let me articulate this in a a bit better. You can tell me that you love me, but if you don't have any evidence that shows that you love me, you're just giving me lip service. You can't say that you're humble and not express humility in some way, shape, or form. So humility or service, excuse me, is the key to service, okay? Think of a wait, waitress or waiter at a restaurant that you've been into, and think of the best service and customer service that you have received when you were in the presence of this restaurant. Okay? Just think about close your eyes for a minute. You may have some idea of what that might have looked like for you. Um, they made you feel amazing to be that attentive, to be that conversational, to converse. Chad, provide insight, ideas, and conversation, man, like you feel like a million bucks when you've been served.
Speaker 0 00:08:45 Well, it is incredible to know that you have been served to the highest level. And in fact, um, I hope your tip of that, uh, waiter or waitress reflects the level of service that you have received from those people. Um, and I think that's one of the other pieces that we have to remember is that service has a way of dislodging the hardest of hearts amongst people. There are very hard people to serve. It's very difficult sometimes because they're, they're not pleased themselves. So they will do their best that they can to serve them. They may be tough, but man, it's not that they don't try to serve. It's just that maybe the recipient doesn't know how to receive service. But, uh, I'll tell you one thing. So that's the best service that you have received. Think about the worst service that you've received that doesn't take long.
Speaker 0 00:09:45 Either unattentive, no personality drops things on the table, doesn't have any details, doesn't have any understanding, doesn't care really just there for a check there for the job, right? It makes it really difficult. There is a, a scripture again, I'm gonna bring in Galatians chapter five. This says, you brothers who have been called to liberty only do not use your liberty to give an opportunity to the flesh, but by love, serve one another for the entire law is fulfilled in one word. Even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So that means you have to love yourself in order to serve someone else. Would you give the kind of service that you receive to someone else? Or are you not humble enough to think that you are not able to stoop that low to serve someone? Well, just something to ponder as we're talking about Jesus, Jesus is the number one example of how to serve, uh, individuals well.
Speaker 0 00:10:49 And um, we just about a couple, maybe a several weeks ago, went through the passion of Christ that leads to the resurrection Sunday. And, um, there's a, a, a powerful scripture, uh, on the day that Jesus has the last supper. And it is such an exemplary and powerful story of what it is like to serve. Okay? Now, Jesus is known as a rabbi. He's a teacher. So one of the biggest things is that he's leading all these people and they never expected Jesus to do something like this. So, um, I'm gonna read, uh, a few verses here cause it'll give some better context to what is happening, um, and, and, and help you kind of give some context as to service. Okay? Now, allow me to give some historical contexts before I read this. The, the, the order of washing one's feet at before they come to the house is very important because no one has had Jim shoes in Jesus' time.
Speaker 0 00:11:58 Y'all <laugh>. Um, there were no things that covered the feet. Totally. So what people walked around in were sandals, okay? So you literally walked around the city and there's no concrete or black top or anything like that, and it was all dirt. If it rained, you had mud. So your feet was dirty, dirt and nasty. Okay? And the role of serving one's feet, first of all, entering to a person's feet, a house with dirty feet was that you were tracking in their mess into the house, okay? Um, switch is a no-no. Cuz you could have been walking on anything <laugh>, which is a no-no. So you end up tracking someone's mess in their own house, uh, or tracking your mess in someone's house. There's a sermon there. But the servant or the, the person in the house, their responsibility was to have a vat of water by the door and they would wash the feet of the people that came into the home.
Speaker 0 00:13:02 It's a very, very low kind of roll because you're literally dealing with the mess that they've walked in all day. There's no porta-potties, there's no, you just don't know what someone's stepping in, right? So this is the context, historical context by which we understand that Jesus is washing the feet of his disciples, okay? It says here, now, before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the end. Now supper concluded the devil had put into the heart of Judas Ascar, Simon's son, to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand and that he came from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel and wrapped himself. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was wrapped.
Speaker 0 00:14:03 Then he came to Simon Peter and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? Jesus answered him, you do not understand what I'm doing now, but later you will understand. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Then Simon Peter said, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands in my head. Then Jesus said to him, he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you. For he knew who would betray him. Therefore, he said, not all of you are clean. So then he washed their feet and put on his garments and sat down again and said to them, do you know what I have done for you? Here we go. Listen to this.
Speaker 0 00:14:52 You call me teacher and Lord, you speak accurately for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, also you ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you. If you do them, I want to bring home y'all. That humility has a way of letting people know that you are not above or beyond the medial things to do. Yes, the first step to ego is humility. But your humility will bring you to your knees to serve somebody. That's the only way people will know. And again, people have all kinds of motives, right?
Speaker 0 00:15:52 But if you truly, this example here, the Son of God said, I'm gonna get down here. You call me Lord and teacher, this is what you call me, and you're right. But see, this is the thing. Knowing who he is, he still chose and still chooses to serve care for love on those who served him. That is what leadership looks like. If there's no way, no if ands or buts, if you saw, in order for anyone to have any kind of level of authority, they have to have humility first. Or you'll have a tyrant <laugh>, you will have a dictator on your hands. And you know what? There are very, there are, there are those who have been in that role. You know, a, a person that comes to mind in a worldly view. Uh, Disney recently, maybe about a year or so ago, brought back their original c e o and it's because they found out they didn't get the right person.
Speaker 0 00:16:51 Um, plus they were losing money, but <laugh>, they didn't have the right individual who was willing to get in and serve one another. And, um, I think that is one of the keys. If you don't have anyone, it's funny. The person who is the president of the United States has a constituency that is worldwide and they are essentially the chief servant. The higher you go in leadership and authority, the more people you have to serve, the more decisions you have that have ripple effects that impact the lives, the careers, the emotional and mental capacity of people, you are responsible. And the thing is, you can't do this by yourself. That's why Solomon asked for wisdom, which you need to be humble first, but then you also need to be humble enough to be able to serve. Because the thing is, you can't prove to anyone, I wouldn't say prove to anyone. You can't show your heart if you don't have any evidence. We typically judge ourselves based on our intent, while those around us judge us by our actions. You can't say you didn't mean to slap somebody and then end up slapping them.
Speaker 2 00:18:12 <laugh>.
Speaker 0 00:18:14 I'm gonna say that again. You can't say, I didn't mean to slap you and then slap someone. Cuz the only thing that a person feels is what actually happened. Not necessarily your intentions. Okay? How do you convey intentions? They're intangible. The only way that they can be connected is through the actions that happen between individuals. So Jesus, before he makes the ultimate sacrifice, washes the feet of his disciples to give them a visual and understanding that you have to get low in order to truly serve someone, even though you don't have to. It's because you should. And you can come from one level and come down to another and serve and meet the people where they're at. Okay? Such an important topic of service and having joy and finding joy in bringing that level of service to someone. I don't know what the Bible says that they cry.
Speaker 0 00:19:21 I don't know, but I'm sure it's an emotional moment when someone that you look up to comes down to where you are and actually goes below you and says, I'm gonna clean the dirtiest part of you and still serve you well. So you can't be humble if you don't serve. You can't be humble if you don't serve. No role should be below you or beyond you. If it needs to be done, find a way to get it done. And if you think that you're above it, there's a heart issue. Maybe there's some ego check, you got it. And that's okay. But keep it locked. Part three, come in the next podcast. Have a great one.
