Joseph Prince - Know That Jesus' Heart Is To Serve You
This is an excerpt from: Unveiling Jesus' Heart To Serve You
So the Lord wants to love on you. He wants to wash your feet. In heaven today, He's still a servant. See, once He became a Man He took on the form of a servant, but in heaven, yes, He's glorified, all authority is given unto Him in heaven and on earth, but He remains a divine servant. He's still a servant. He still wants to minister to you. One of the most beautiful laws in the Old Testament is this, that comes right after the Ten Commandments was given in Exodus 19 and 20. Exodus 20 is when the Ten Commandments comes in. You see Ten Commandments for the very first time on Mount Sinai being given to Moses, to the people, and that's when you see the Ten Commandments for the very first time. You know what's the next chapter? Twenty-one. You got that one? This one is 20, right? The next one is 21, okay? So you know what's in 21? Very beautiful law.
The very first verse says, "Now these are the judgments you will teach Israel. When you have a servant, a slave, a servant, all right, that you have purchased", in those days, they lived in that culture, but God is using something that they can learn about His love. And it says that the servant, okay, can only serve for seven years and then he's free to go. But the servant has been so blessed by this master, he's a good master, that the servant does not want to go free. And the master has given him his wife, his children, all right? The only thing, if he goes free, he has to leave them behind. Whatever the master gives, he must leave behind. He must start afresh as a free man without any bestowal from the master. But he says, "If I love", then he says, "I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children. I would not want to go out free," the master will take him and nail his ear to the doorpost, which means from then on he is gonna wear something here in the ear, amen.
Nothing wrong. I mean, you are wearing earring and all that, guys, you know? It doesn't mean you are a slave, all right, but in those days, from then on the guy walks around and he's wearing something in the ear, that means, all right, it's a mark. This person chose to remain because he says, "I love my master. I love..." Now, is it that God is talking about slaves there? No. Talking about master and slave? No, He's talking about His Son and Him. Jesus came down as a Man and Jesus saw the church that He would die for, the ones to be saved, and you know what Jesus said? "I love My Master, I love You, Father, and I love My disciples, and I love My people, and I will not go out free". In other words, in the Garden of Gethsemane, there was a choice made. Wanna come back? "Not My will, Your will be done". And He remained. He knew that a few hours' time, He'd be hanging on the cross. He chose. He chose because He chose, and that's, hanging on the cross is pierced.
Same thing the ear was pierced for the servant. And then it says these words in Exodus 21, "He remains a servant forever," amen? In our case, Jesus remains a servant forever. To serve who? Serve the angels? No, the servant, angels don't need that service. They are there to serve you. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? So He wants to serve you. But every day, you are serving yourself, you are serving people, you are serving everything, you are serving your boss, you're serving the needs of your company, you are serving this, you are still serving, except to receive the greatest service of all, the service of love, the ministry of love; to come to the Lord and say, "Lord, I'm tired, Lord, but I come before You right now". And sometimes you don't even have to open a Bible.
Okay, sometimes, just say, "Lord, I've come before You like Mary 'cause I know this is the one thing needful. Everything I did today is not so needful. This is one thing needful. If I do this, Lord, I just wanna receive Your love. I wanna receive Your strength. I've been getting very tired lately, Lord. I receive Your... I need a fresh infusion of Your health, Your youthfulness, Lord, Your power, Lord, Your energy, Your divine energy, Lord. I need a fresh renewal". Then if He leads you to take the Bible, many times it's with the Word of God. And you say, "Lord Jesus, my feet is so dirty. I feel so defiled. I've been hearing conversation that's not good. My mind has been focused on very fleshly things. My mind has been dirty, dusty".
Remember this, men's body was made from the dust of the ground. His spirit is amazing, from the breath of God, but his feet is dirty, right, always. Why? It's a symbol of what? Your walk on this earth. You're always defiled. Which part of you gets the dirtiest? Your feet. That's where your body comes from, the dust of the earth. And then when Adam fell, God said this to the snake. God says, "Cursed be you of all the animals. Upon your belly you shall go". That tells us that a snake was once upon a time upright. It had feet, okay? That's why they say that they have found sometimes, you know, like, dormant little feet in the snake and all that that shows evolution. No, it's not evolution. The Bible says the snake was standing. It's a sign that the snake was standing. The monkeys are still around. King Kong is still around, okay?
Thirty-five million years. How do you know? Maybe it's 34. Maybe it's 36. We speak like an authority when we know all these things without accuracy. Okay, that's another field altogether. It's not, all right, important for this topic I'm sharing. Because I'm just telling you right now, church, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and man's body was made from the dust of the ground. And when Adam fell, God cursed the snake first and God said this, "Upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat". "Dust you shall eat all the days of your life". What is Satan's food? What is the devil's food? Dust. Dust. Man's body is what? Made from dust, okay? So when Jesus washed the disciples' feet, we're talking about the whole thing is figurative, symbolic, a type. Am I right? So what did He wash their feet of? Dust.
Now, isn't it interesting? I studied this and this is fresh, you know? The Lord just had me study this. And when Jesus wiped the feet of the disciples, it says, "He poured water into a basin, began to wash the disciples' feet, and wipe them with the towel with which He was girded". He not only washed the disciples' feet. You know, if it's wet and you feel like you washed your feet in a bowl of warm water. Have you done it before, before you sleep? All right, my mother say, my grandmother, her mother, and great-grandmother always say you wash your feet before you sleep, you won't have nee gao. Okay, the Peranakan people say "nightmare". This is a saying of the Baba people, Peranakan. You wash your feet before you sleep, you won't have nightmares, amen? Don't have to say amen. That's not important, okay?
"You are testing me, Pastor Prince". All right, but you feel so refreshed. But if it's wet, it doesn't feel good, right? You wash, you feel refreshing, but you want someone to take the towel and then dry your feet. Oh, that's the best part, right? You feel so loved, the person is drying in between your toes, drying up. After that, you feel so clean. Even though you didn't bathe completely, but you feel so clean. Now, from now on, please bathe completely. You know, I'll say, "From now on, I'll just wash my feet. Pastor Prince says, I learn. Wash my feet," amen? No, you'll find bathe here as well. And after that, you know, you feel so good, refreshed. So there is a towel. And it's very interesting that the towel that He used in the Greek is "lention," the word "lention" in Greek. And "lention" is always referring to a linen cloth.
Now, why do I say that? Because linen on the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, says it's the righteousness of the saints, the believers. So in other words, whatever, we know that the water is the Word of God. Am I right? So when He washes your feet with the water, so every time we come before Jesus, right, He gives you a Word, amen? He speaks to you or through the Word of Scripture you are reading. Don't forget, you come not to give out. You don't come for your quiet time to do quiet time, to finish the chapter that you are reading in your Bible through the year, to do your duty, to make sure you catch up. You'll get nothing. But you come to Him, knowing that He's gonna pour out to you. And there's not much competition, I'll tell you. I go to Jesus, and what He's supposed to give you, right, I get... Does that make you angry or not?
What you are supposed to get, right, right, you would have gotten it if you would spend time with Him. He gave it to me because He says that, "There's no one waiting before Me and I'm so full. I'm love personified. I wanna give. I wanna pour. I have so many good things, perfect things that will truly satisfy, but they don't want. They have no time to receive. They are so busy providing for themselves. Will you take it"? And I say, "Lord, Lord... Bring it on," amen? So I purposely say that to provoke you. He has plenty left over, of course. But don't think that God can give to you on the go. It's very hard to give on the go. And I'm telling you, all right, one of the biggest problems is amusement, amusing ourself with social media, and our phones, and whatnot. You know, the word "amuse," the word "a," "A" put in front always negates whatever follows. So separate the "A" from the "muse". You know what's "muse"? Meditate. You think long enough.
Today's world, especially our young people today in this generation, born into this age and all that, you know, are finding more and more things to amuse, to occupy your mind. We have no time to be musing. The Bible says, the psalmist says, "While I was musing, the fire burned. Then speak I with my tongue". That's the key to a powerful ministry, meditate. "While I was musing, the fire burned in the Emmaus Road. Then I spoke with my tongue". This is the key to a successful ministry of preaching the Word, amen? "While I was musing, the fire burned". If you got no fire burn, you just impart knowledge, it's not gonna be the same. Are you listening, people?
So take away the "A" and you have the word "muse," meditate. Put the "A" there, that means what? No meditate. That's the word "amuse," "amusement," come from there, amuse, no thinking, just do. It's like do you know that they say, and it's a fact, you can check it out, that dementia and Alzheimer's is at an all-time high.
More and more people are having this problem. I suspect, okay, I suspect, this is my own personal conviction, that it's got a lot to do with what happened recently. What came into the world that caused... we don't understand why with our modern, you know, medicine, and breakthroughs, and all that, we're not able to arrest it. In fact, it's on the rise. Why is that so? I submit to you, I believe personally, my own personal opinion, my spirit, which is faster than my head, tells me it's the preoccupation with TV, preoccupation with devices, preoccupation with all these things. Your mind is no more thinking. If I call you, I don't have to memorize your number.
You know, one time I was telling my wife, "Your number is like this, right?" and I tried to quote it, and she said, "Ah, you don't know my number"? Thank God I could correctly, her phone number, because very easily I just put under... okay, I won't tell you under what, all right, amen? Something romantic, lah. I just have to touch it. That's it. And she told me, "You know, I memorized", she memorized some of the people that we know, and she'll rattle them off. She make it a practice, she says. That's one of the reasons why we... okay, that's a little benefit for you to think about, all right? We let other people live their life and we are down there, stoned, one hour, two hours, three hours, all right? Next episode. Four hours, five hours, you know? Then we sleep, still going on in our mind. Then we wake up, next one, next episode.
You know, we're not thinking. Reading is good. Reading your Bible, reading books, reading, reading is good. It stimulates your mind. You don't want your mind to become rusty, all right? Watching TV is not stimulating your mind, okay? And all the TikTok, you know, social media, Instagram, all that, they have people, all right, who are there finding new ways to capture, especially young people, their attention. They cannot allow them to muse, to think seriously. You think what we let you think. So don't be bound, okay? You can see all these, like a creature holding your head. You know what I'm saying?