Body Parts Mix

Now as I say, this is the mix. If you're new to this, it's little chunks, that we look at, And, what we've what we've been doing, in, in recent mixes, is a series on on body parts. And the reason being is that Paul writes in, in Romans chapter 12. Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters in view of god's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices. So because of the wonderful mercy of god in the lord Jesus Christ, it should affect us.

And not just sort of mentally or religiously or even emotionally, but actually our bodies with to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to god. This is your true and proper worship. If we wanna worship god, It's not just singing songs, although it is that, but it's presenting our bodies. And it's in 1 sense, it's a very physical thing, isn't it? Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

Then you'll be able to test and approve what god's will is, his good, pleasing perfect will. You understand god. You understand what pleases him. You'll understand who he is and what his will is by presenting our bodies as sacrifices. So we've been looking at these a pretty horrible pit.

I've got the wrong thing pretty horrible pictures. But we've looked at the ear. We've looked at the eye and the mouth, the tongue, the heart, and the hands. We've looked at all those body parts and we're sort of running out of bits, you know. So today we're gonna look at the spleen.

Now I I really I I kept saying to Tom, you're gonna do the nose, mate. You gotta do the nose, but we're not gonna do the feet. We're gonna have a look at the feet. This is our last 1 in the body parts. And, wonderful feet.

The feet the feet are amazing and the foot is an amazing thing. There's a lot of, lot of stuff packed in this relatively, small package of the feet, and they're very important because, you know, that They have to keep you standing up. They're an amazing thing, the foot. There's lots of facts about the foot. It's been said that the foot is an anatomical wonder and it is.

It is that. Just walking on the foot, on the feet, hundreds of pounds of pressure every every day. It's been calculated that we we walk, 65000 miles. I don't know how anyone calculates that. But the average person walks 65000 miles in their lifetime.

The foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, a hundred tendons muscles and ligaments. You sweat quite a lot from from your foot. Because you have 200 and fifth 250000 sweat glands in a pair of feet. That is is amazing. And they can excrete half a pint a day.

Gosh. No wonder the stink. You know, it's just it's amazing. But there we are, the foot. It's an amazing thing.

But there are lots of problems with feet. You can have hammer head toes and blisters and bunions and corns and calluses and heel spurs and mallet toes and in growing toenails and fungus toenails and athlete's foot, and it goes on and on and on. So the question I think we're I'm asking today is, how are your feet? And do you need a pedicure? Do you need a pedicure?

And I want us to look at the Bible and compare our feet with bible feet. To see whether we really do need a pedicure. Beautiful feat. Paul, quotes, Isaiah in Romans chapter 10 when he's writing a book to the Roman Christians or the church at Rome. And he quotes that beautiful sentence where it says how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? So the question, I guess, I want to ask is, do you have beautiful feet? And if not, you know, they need some pedicure, they need some work on it. Do you have beautiful feet? In the book of colossians in in the Bible, we're told that all things were created by the lord Jesus Christ.

He created all things, and not only did he create all things, all things were created for him. He's the creator of all things, and everything is created for him And then we're told he holds all things together. He holds all things together. Everything is for him. He created all things.

And that means the foot as well. He created the foot. He holds this foot together, and they're created for him. The purpose of your feet are for Christ. That's why they were created.

And Christ, this is the wonderful thing, the creator took on human flesh. This great creator not only created feet for him, he he became created. He had feet It's an extraordinary thing. And so he gives us the example in how to use our feet, which were created for him. So at the beginning of Mark's gospel where it's talking about Jesus bringing good news, it says it talks about Jesus had done some healing, and then he says, let us go somewhere else, to nearby villages.

So that I can preach there also. That is why I've come. So he traveled throughout galilee preaching in their synagogues, and driving out demons. And the way he traveled was by walking by using his feet. So here is Jesus going out with this good news, these beautiful feet carrying this wonderful message that god is here And you can encounter god in your life, and he travels around walking around throughout galilee preaching, telling people this good news.

And then, of course, if you carry on through the gospel of Mark, you'll see that, those feet had to bear the burden of extra weight, not just his body, but the weight of a cross on his feet. And then, of course, if you carry on, you'll you'll know that he was crucified. In other words, there was nail driven through these beautiful feet. On the cross. And we're told why that happened.

Isaiah says, surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by god stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced. Those feet were pierced. Why? Why were those feet?

Why is it good news? And why were they pierced? Those feet were pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him and his wound, and by his wounds, we are healed.

That's why their beautiful feet. That's why he went to the cross. We all like sheep have gone astray, each have turned to our own way, and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's why they're beautiful feet because they bore not only a wooden beam not only a nail through it, but they bore our sin. They bore our judgment.

And so it's a beautiful thing that when you read the gospels, you see that people come to Jesus. It says in Matthew, great crowds came to him bringing their lame and the blind and the crippled, the mutant, many others, and laid them at his feet, and he healed them. It's a beautiful picture in his life of what he was doing on the cross, eternally healing, curing, taking our sin, taking our punishment. They truly are beautiful feet. So we should love feet, and we should, when we see feet, be reminded of the lord Jesus Christ, how wonderful he was that he walked around with good news, that he bore the burden of our sin, that a nail went through his feet because he loved us so much.

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? So Jesus shows us how to use feet, not only is he the creator of feet, not only a feat for his purposes, but he shows us how to use feet, and he showed us in his life. And therefore, we should follow in his footsteps if we're followers of Jesus. In the book of Ephesians, another letter that Paul writes to Christian's meeting in Ephasis, He says that you should have beautiful feet. And he talks about putting on this armor daily, the armor of god, picture language for things that we should be living in as we go into the world.

And 1 of the parts of the armor is that your feet should be fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. We are to tread out. We're to put those beautiful feet on. We're to take this message of of peace to the world. That's part of daily armor.

We're looking out where we can march out this good news where we can travel from town to town to person to person. We're looking out to use these feet, not just to go where we want but to go where god wants to take the message of Jesus. So they are beautiful feet, they are beautiful feet. Truly beautiful. Paul, when he quotes that verse, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

Does it in the context of how will people hear without a preacher? How will they preach without being called and sent by god? Beautiful feat. Thank god for feet. Thank god for the lord Jesus Christ's feet.

Now let's put the boots on, the gospel boots, and let's trample out that message of good news. Okay. So we've seen, how wonderful the foot is that Christ has created the foot and it's to bring good news. But there's bad faith. At the end of, George Orwell's book 19 84 that there's this really, really disturbing sentence.

It's quite awful. It's a book really that we should all read because there are lots of events going on that are very similar to his predictions. And it's it's an awful, sort of image of the future. Because he says if you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever. It's really, really a horrible picture of, of humanity, really.

The way we treat people, how violently we will stamp out our orders and our desires and how we're prepared to go up the rung or stamp on people to get higher positions. And that's his vision of of the future, and it it's as I say, it's it's very, very grim. Now the Bible's picture of the future is is not grim like that, but it is honest about what goes on in this world. And it's very honest about how utterly destructive our feet can be. And how actually we can be just stamping out our orders on other people marching them out.

In fact, the Bible says this about the feet. Their feet are swift to shed blood and misery mark their ways. And the way of peace they do not know, there is no fear of god before their eyes. Because there's no fear of god before their eyes, they become god And because they become god, then their feet shed blood and ruin and misery mark their ways. And that is true.

Just look at human history. It's true. I mean, Abrian Sophie gave out those little books, didn't they? That everybody's saying, why did they give me that 1? And we all got sort of worked up about it at the end.

They went Why did they give me that book? What are they saying? Well, I got Karl Marx and Engles communist manifesto, and I read it. And in it, there is a lot of what sounds if you read on the surface. Good news.

You know, really, basically, the manifesto is I want what you have. Why should you, the bourgeoisie, have that when I'm the working man, and so you give me what you have. And that's basically it. And then you read that little book, and it's not a it's not a big book, and you read the thoughts in it, and, they're quite they're quite clear. But what is it produced?

The millions and millions and millions millions we're talking of people that were stamped on and killed by the effects of that book. The murders and the mass murders of communist leaders. It's horrific It's absolutely horrific. Little book, bringing good news to the proletariat bringing good news to the workers. We we will we will be able to have what they have and what is it produced.

Just look at the history. Look at the history of people, bloodshed, misery. But that's easy. That's easy to point It's easy to show what that sort of stuff happens, but what about you? What you go through your life.

Where your little feet have pattered. When we look back in eternity, when we look back at where your feet have been, will will ruin and misery mark your way. Have you brought good news and love and kindness and sacrificial living? Have they been Christlike feet? Or have you been stamping out your orders?

And and like the little toddlers? That stamp I want my way and no, I'm not doing it and, of is basically that's that's the root of your life when we look back. So there's there's this awful picture of these bloody feet that bring ruin and misery mark their way. Think about your life. When you were a toddler, did you bring out good news and love and kindness?

Did you toddle them out? Think about when you were at school. Were you toddling? Were you, you know, speaking good news and love and peace and kindness and the gospel of peace. Think about when you started going to work.

Is is is the way of work, you know, a way of peace, or is is it marked with misery as you stamped on people and gossiped about people and put people down for mean little advantages for yourself? Think about relationships. Have they stamped out? Are you stamping out misery Would it be that when we look back at your relationships, people will say, gosh, they promised a lot, but now there is misery marks the way the There's no way of peace because there was no fear of god before their eyes. At the end of our lives, we're given account for our feet.

They were made by Christ. They were made for him of misery, marked our ways and ruin and bloodshed. Isaiah says, He sort of expands on this. He says their feet rush into sin. They are swift to shed innocent blood.

All of the people that have been ruined by my feet and where I want. They pursue evil schemes acts of violent their way. So there's bad feet. So we've gotta have careful feet we need to think very carefully about our feet. Proverbs says, do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil doers.

Don't do that. Don't do that. If you do that, then when we look back at your life, when Christ surveys the history of your feet, then it will be bloodshed and ruin and misery. So do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers. Make sure you don't do that.

So who are you listening to? Back to the ears? Where's your heart beating? Psalm says this, Psalm 1. Bless is the 1 who does not walk.

In step with the wicked. Don't do that or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers. Just relax. Put up your feet. Put them on the sofa, chill out, press that button so the feet come up, and just watch the mockers and relax in the company of the mockers, but those who delight in the law of the lord and those who meditate on his lord day and night, they're the ones who are blessed.

They're the ones that will be complete They're the ones that when you look back over the life Jesus will say, I created your feet for this purpose, and you followed that way. Be careful who you listen to. Be careful who you're entertained by. Be careful where you relax and sit down and put your feet up. Be very careful.

Have very careful feet. Do you see how precious your feet are? Important we hardly ever think about them other than that they ache or they're smelly, but be careful where you put your feet Proverbs chapter 6 verse 18, a heart that devises wicked schemes feet that are quick to rush into evil. See the heart and the feet always go together, don't they? Proverbs chapter 1, the the writer is saying my son do not walk in the ways with them, those people that are wicked, keep your feet from their path for their feet run to evil, and they make hate to shed blood.

In other words, they ruin everything. And in the end, they kill. So be careful who you're listening to. Be careful of the streets you're going down. He's actually saying be careful of going down where the prostitute lives.

You're gonna walk past and you think you can walk past, you really think you can walk past her but she's out like a flash and she's tempting you in, and your feet go in. Be very careful with your feet. Psalm, a hundred and 19 says, your word is a lamp for my feet, a light to my path. That's why we need the word of god. We keep saying this.

This is why we need to be informed by the word of god. Let it be a lamp let it be clear, let it show you the pit holes, let it show you where to avoid. Look at proverbs, 4, give careful thought to the paths of your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left. Keep your foot from evil.

Be careful think when you wake up in the morning, pray for your feet. Look at them. Remind yourselves they were created by Christ They were created for Christ. Remind yourself of what Christ did, beautiful feet, blooded, saw, ruin for other people. People coming and bringing people to his feet because they were working feet.

Remind yourself of feet and be careful where you go with your feet. So it brings me to the next thing. Come to the feet of Jesus. There's this lovely story in mar in Luke's gospel. We we looked at it in our series in Luke.

A beautiful story of this woman who was obviously, you know, a fairly sinful woman but comes into the house of a pharisee called Simon, and she, sees how Jesus has been treated by this pharisee, this religious man. Jesus Jesus has been rejected and mocked. And, it's an amazing scene where where the pharisee really is is publicly mocking Jesus by not washing his feet or welcoming him. This was a public snubbing going on. And this woman knows what Jesus has done for her, and she loves him and comes out of hiding and to be mocked herself and she w weeps over his feet and puts perfume on his feet and washes feet, with her tears and her perfume and then dries them with her hair.

And all of this would have been mocked and looked down upon, but she so loved him. And Jesus uses that as an illustration. If you love me, if you under stand what I've done. If you understand that these are good news feet that were crucified for you, then you love them. And when you know that you've been forgiven and that when you know that your bad feet that have taken you into places you shouldn't have been, and that of, gone to places and done things and spread misery like her feet had, then when you see his feet, you come to him and you weep and you see what he can do for you.

And so those tears on her on the feet of Jesus were an expression of wow. My feet are bad, but I come to Jesus, and his feet are good. That story number 1. There's another story. We're gonna look at tonight, so I'm not gonna deal with it.

But come tonight and listen to it because it's in Luke's gospel again. There's another Mary that comes to Jesus or Jesus comes into their home. And it's Mary and Martha. And, there's all kinds of fuss going on in the home, but, ma'am, Martha, or or rather Mary, is at the feet of Jesus and Martha is distracted by sort of getting food ready and and, and all of that sort of stuff. And, and, and, and, and, Jesus says, look, Mary is doing a better thing because she's sitting at my feet.

We're here about that tonight. So come tonight. He's she's sitting at my feet, sit at my feet. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. She's sitting and listening.

Come to Christ's feet. Would you? Know these feet. You've bad feet. Then come to Christ's feet and be cleansed and made right.

We're looking at the feet and our last section feat that leap for joy. This is a great story. If you know it, it's in, acts after Jesus had died on a cross, risen again, sended to heaven sent his church out to preach the gospel. What were they to do? Well, they're to have feet that bring good news and cause people to leap, for joy.

So here's this paralyzed man and, Peter and John come along and, he's asking for, for money. That's all he wants is money. He's got very limited. He just wants money so he can get through life. And there's this fantastic sentence, and there's a good song that goes with it as well, but we're not gonna sing it.

Silver or gold, have I none is how the song goes. Silver or gold, I do not have, but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazas, walk. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong, and he jumped to his feet and began to walk, and then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising god. Isn't isn't that wonderful? You know that old song, perhaps.

He'll be leaping and jumping and praising God. It's good, isn't it? But it's terrific and that's what god does. That's what good feet do. That's what bringing the gospel into people's lives does.

It's not just silver and gold. It's not just a bit of money. It's not just a bit of help in this world. It's life changing and there's this leaping and jumping and there's this praising god. And so that's the joy that we can bring.

That's what Christ is about. He's not some mean, dictator that stomps out his orders in order to bring a joyless life to people as he saps people. He's 1 who brings life and joy and forgiveness and a fresh start. And it's interesting this man would never have been allowed in the temple with crippled feet like that, but now he's healed. He can go into the temple.

The temple stands for the presence of god. So now he's in the presence of god with great joy. Feet that leap for joy, I hope you use your feet for praise and that they leap for joy. We should have leaping and jumping feet Yeah. Now most of us are British and we sort of stand like this, but, you know, there is this joy in us.

Now having said that, here's my next thing. We've gotta have feet that stand firm. Because that's where you stand firm on the joy of Christ. We've just had in our prayers, Ephesians 6. And Paul says, be strong in the lord in his mighty power.

Put on the full armor of god so that you'll take your stand, and then he goes on and says, as, Suzanne read, stand. Keep standing. Keep standing. Stand firm. So put the gospel feet on be joyful with your feet, but stand, where Christ is.

So you'll be able to stand against the devil's schemes. And where do you stand? The place that you leap and jump. Christ. You keep standing there.

So, Jude says in, the little book in, oh, I haven't I haven't got it. Oh, yes. I have here. To him, right at the end of his little tiny letter, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling It's him who keeps you from stumbling. As you stand in him, he keeps you from stumbling.

As you rejoice in him, he keeps you from stumbling. As your joy is taken up, not with silver and gold, but in Christ and what he's done for you, he keeps you from stumbling. And to present you, before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy. It's a terrific thing that we keep standing looking to Christ's feet and what Christ has done for us. So we gotta keep doing this.

Now, how do we do this? 1 way, and this is my last point, is to be belt feet washing. Yeah? You need to follow Christ. Christ made your feet, and he made your feet for a purpose.

And partly your feet are to be presented to other people in this room to be washed. Yeah? So get your feet out. With those 250000 glands and half a point of sweat. Yeah.

Let someone wash them. Let someone wash them. You wash feet and let someone wash your feet. You serve like our savior served. This is our savior.

This is our savior using his hands. This is the savior that made the feet This is the savior that made the feet for him who holds the feet together. He's washing. He serves. Now you do likewise.

That's what he's saying. So you allow people to serve you and you serve others. And it's the beautiful thing that is taught in John chapter 13 about washing feet. Is that what your feet are about? So do you need a pedicure?

You need to get your feet out. Some of us are wearing sandals, so they're almost out. Look at your feet. Looking at them. Yep.

Well, they should be horrible and ugly and bloody and smelly. Yeah? So, yeah, I said, you're not gonna hide them now. Yep. Get your feet out.

Put the gospel boots on. Tell the gospel with them. Use them. For the glory of the lord Jesus Christ. Will we pray for our feet?

Will we pray that, it's not on there? Don't know where that is. My last slide, will you pray for your feet? Will you pray for your eyes, for your ears, for your mouth, for your hands, for your heart? Would you present your body as a living sacrifice to Christ?

Will you do that today? Let's bow our heads, pray. Father, you know everybody's feet in this room. You know, everything about them, you know, whether they ache, you know, whether they've brought sadness and destruction, misery, bloodshed. You know where we've been stamping our demands, you know where we've walked out of the way to greet someone, to bring a kindness to someone.

To bring good news of Christ to someone. You know the history of our feet. You hold them together. You've designed these very feet that we have to be used for your glory, for your purposes you're holding them together right now, but we may use them. We pray please that you would help each 1 of us to wash each other's feet serve each other.

We would walk across a room with a bowl of water and a cloth And we would serve our brothers and sisters' feet that they may then go into the world and serve others. Father we have feet, we can see them. We see what you did with your feet, and we long to be Christlike. Forgive us, for stamping out our orders, for marching around, as if we are the king of the world for demanding people do things our way for bringing misery and bloodshed. We pray that you'd wipe that path away as we come to the feet that shed blood for us to cleanse us.

We pray that we would know this good news. We pray that we'd know joy, the joy of being liberated from bad feet, the joy of leaping and jumping, and knowing what it is to be healed before you, to be made right, to be forgiven, to be cleansed, to have our past wiped away. Help us to know that joy we pray so that we would serve you as we serve others and serve this world in Jesus' name, our