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00:00 and um 2019.
00:07 This is a sign of getting old and you know we want to start the year
00:13 right. Um I'm a big believer of habits and
00:19 small habits lead to large habits. For example, here's one. If you start the
00:26 morning right, the rest of the day will follow. Science tells you that the first
00:32 hour of the day you get good habits in the rest of the day moves better.
00:39 Same goes with the year. And we want to start off right, okay? With a fresh start. So let me just start first by
00:47 telling you where we are by looking back. You cannot move forward by not
00:52 looking back. And two years ago, brother Wyouong, is he here somewhere? Where's Waong? Ah, that guy in the black t-shirt
00:59 there, he spent a lot of work with two child and they they mapped out a master plan for the church. It was a massive
01:07 mega task and we have been chugging along because we're not very used to this. I want to go back to that and in
01:13 and the big master plan which involve also restructuring the church in its
01:19 management to be to cater for the size. I give you example this morning you look
01:24 at us when we had the kids here. we we can't the the place is packed. So the church has been growing. We needed a
01:30 management structure that's biblical and met our needs. And the tagline were three words, gospel, community, and
01:36 mission. And what we did last year was try to get people into live groups because in a big church like ours, you
01:43 got to know one another. Now last year at the end of the year, the leaders met up. Uh and nowadays we're trying to get
01:51 more leaders to be together in in our decision making so that the church moves as one and is led by hearing the voices
01:60 of the people and the leaders job is to hear you. You tell the leaders, the
02:05 leaders tell the elders and we had an assembly of leaders um big end of year
02:11 discussion and we proposed a vision for 2019.
02:17 Now moving forward for FBC every year from now on we will have a vision but
02:25 the vision will tag to this this is the church mandate and this
02:32 year's vision statement is building gospel centered communities Peter
02:37 brought it up on the last service of the year is in your bulletin and today I'm
02:43 going to start off with the first message and we got to do by building the
02:49 foundation. Like anything, we're going to start off with the foundation. So, I'm going to
02:54 start off with the foundation this week. Next week, we invited Daniel Ho over and
03:01 Daniel Ho will give us the keynote address based on probably the most famous text on building gospel centered
03:08 communities. So, come next week and bring your friends. And part of what we're going to do is also as we move
03:15 into the new year, ABC is going to reach out. We're going to do partnerships in many other churches to come in and align
03:21 themselves with us. So we're going to start that off and this is our text for
03:28 today. Now what we're going to do as one of my own new year resolution this year,
03:34 I'm going to preach only on one or two verses every time I speak. So why? Because it's simpler and you can take it
03:39 home. So just one or two verses we're going to break it down. You can memorize it. Christmas I spoke the verse is still
03:46 very dear to me. The word became flesh dwelt among us. Such a fantastic verse.
03:53 So we stay in the gospel of John. So what we're going to do this morning, we're going to read this verse out loud.
03:58 Shall we do that? So that the verse becomes alive in us. So as we leave
04:04 today, this verse speaks to you in your life. So let's go on a count of three.
04:10 One, two, three. Let's go out loud. A new command I give you. Love one
04:15 another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone
04:22 will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Let us pray.
04:45 Yes.
05:00 Yes.
05:13 seek up and all God's people say amen.
05:18 Okay. So very simple. You just read the verse. We're just going to concentrate on this. The verse has three sentences.
05:25 We're just going to break down each sentence. That's it. The context is very
05:30 simple. There are three lines to the context. The first thing we found I was we were read was Jesus says in verse 31
05:38 he's going to be glorified. Now what does he mean by that? He gives it a clue in the next verse. He says my children I
05:45 will be with you a little longer. Meaning he's going to go away. So obviously the verse is talking about the
05:50 cross and the cross glorifies God. The cross glorifies Jesus. So
05:57 here's my other resolution for the new year. I bring you some sad sad news. You know, uh, brother Yedian doesn't want to
06:04 speak very often this year. So, I'm going to be putting a petition against this. This is a new thing. File a
06:09 petition. He only want to speak in May. How can So, because of that, we are
06:14 going to train all of you to be new speakers and new Bible study leaders. So, one of my new resolution is to tell
06:21 you the Bible is not very hard to read. You just got to read it in context, right? So, that's the way you understand
06:28 it. Three sentences. Jesus says he's going to be glorified. What does it mean? The next sentence says he's not
06:33 going to be around. He missed the cross. And then he gives this verse. So what is this verse about? Is the verse for the
06:41 church because now he shifts. He's no longer going to be with them. This is how you
06:49 behave. So three points. We are hardwired for community. The attitude of
06:54 community and the power of community. Let's just look at the first line.
06:60 And the first thing he tells the church, the newborn church, which next week in
07:05 Acts we'll find out, love one another, you pause in there. He didn't say, you
07:13 know, be holy. That's important. But he didn't say you got to die for the cross. That's
07:21 important. He didn't say serve a lot. Read your Bible. He said love one
07:28 another. Why? Because if a church doesn't do that,
07:34 it's not a church. If you come to a church because the sermons are great and they they exedute
07:42 the Bible very biblically, they don't love one another, it's not a church. It's not a good church. If you come to a
07:49 church and the worship is fantastic and you go, "Wow, feel so lifted up." But they don't love one another, it's not a
07:56 church. go to a church and there's power and signs and miracles and healing,
08:04 but they don't love one another. It's not a church. That's what Jesus is
08:09 saying. That's how important this is. That's your building block.
08:17 Now, what's the difference with everything I just told you with loving one another? Because everything I just
08:23 mentioned which are important in the church good Bible study this you know a good worship service they all involve
08:31 others but once I say love one another and you're a regular person in ABC you are
08:38 all part of the solution or you're part of the problem so the moment people say
08:44 the church is bad you can't blame anyone else and consequently people say the church is good based on that you can
08:51 take credit now Why is this so important? Now,
08:56 one way of of getting a Bible study is to to read the Bible is find other
09:02 places in the Gospel of John where we have a similar reading of this. And if you had Google, you just type in the
09:09 word uh love others the way God loves Jesus loves me, you you'll get a hit.
09:14 And you go down to chapter 15. I'll read it to you. And you find in chapter 15 11
09:21 12. Uh my command is this. Love each other is I have loved you. That's pretty
09:27 close, right? Almost exactly the same thing. So we know the two are linked. But look at what 15 says in chapter 15
09:35 verse 11. He says verse 12. He says, "My command is this. Love each other as I love you." He finds his grounding in
09:42 verse 9. And verse 9 says this, as the father has loved me, so have I loved
09:48 you. So why does Jesus say this? Because the father loves him. And you find
09:54 something similar going on the first verse. Uh we'll go to glorify later what it means. If you read that verse, you
10:00 see Jesus and God very intertwined. And we read just now that Jesus and the
10:07 father in a loving relationship. And if you remember Christmas, what do we remember Christmas service? The first
10:14 verse in the gospel of John is in the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God.
10:22 And we now see a picture. One of the most difficult things for non-Christians
10:27 to accept in Christianity is the idol of the trinity. Doesn't make sense. But God is a paradox. We learned that in
10:33 Christmas. God is one. God is three. Now why that makes sense? Because God is
10:40 father, God is son, God is holy spirit and they love each other deeply. What is
10:48 Jesus telling us or what is John telling us in the gospel? The nature of God is
10:54 community. So you are made in the image of God. You
11:00 have God's DNA. If God is community, what does that make
11:07 you? It makes you community. You can go back to Genesis. God says, "Let us make mankind in our image." You are hardwired
11:16 for community. You're not meant to be a solo player. So if you come to ABC and I
11:23 say this in love, year in year out and sit at a bag and you're very happy that way. Thank you
11:29 very much. I don't want people catch out me. You are not acting in your natural
11:34 self, not in your divine God-given self. You
11:39 are hardwired for community in church. Is like sitting on a chair. It has four
11:46 legs, but one leg has been removed. You can still sit on a chair. It's just
11:51 difficult. Now, why is this so important?
11:58 You know, um, simple examples, you go to a mama store with a bunch of friends,
12:04 right? Is the food great? The food's terrible. You can go to a highass Japanese
12:11 restaurant, the food is great, right? But if you're eating alone, it's
12:17 terrible. So, what makes the eating experience so great?
12:24 It's the company. You are hardwired to be with people and
12:31 the church has to reflect that and people not just people who talk nonsense
12:37 and football over mama store. People who love one another.
12:43 Now why do people not do that? It goes back to the fall because God
12:51 said let us make man in our image and then he made Adam. He made Eve. That's community. And they were both naked and
12:58 they felt no shame before God. So that's the ideal relationship. Community with
13:03 one another with God with no shame. Then sin entered. And the first thing that
13:09 happens is what? And this is why relationships break down. Huh? And this is why marriages
13:15 have problem. People hide things. You hide things from your husband, from
13:22 your wife. You come to church, you put on a front because if people knew who
13:28 you are, you afraid you'll be rejected. We hide.
13:34 That's the first thing the four tells us. That's why a lot of people like to come to church. They come to church to
13:41 hide. I've been doing it for 20 years. I know don't come and catch on me. I like to
13:46 come. I listen quite nice. I sit at the back there. After that, I chabot. Don't
13:52 expect me to change. I want to humbly tell you that's because of sin and you're not conscious of it.
14:01 You see, it takes a risk to open up. And here's the other side. Because you open up, people talk, go around, people judge
14:08 you. So people hide. Here's the other thing that sin does. So we are not caught in attention. On one hand, we
14:16 want to have relationships, but relationships are difficult. 50% of marriages are in divorce.
14:23 30% of people want to get married can't get married. And those who remain in marriages, 30% are not happy. So those
14:29 who are in happy marriages are in a minority. Let's not even talk about parenting.
14:35 Relationships we want, but once we get into it, we mess it up. First, we hide.
14:41 Here's the second reason, and it's found in the man. Man always very, very stupid
14:46 one. And the first thing is always blame the man because men are completely not intelligent. Let me tell you the fact
14:55 blame the wife. And so the first thing happens why is it
15:01 cannot be relationship not my fault ma correct it's you can
15:08 fill in the blank. It's ABC's fault the leadership fault. I came to church, they took chola, I helped them, they say
15:15 this, not my fault. Uh there was a
15:21 church, I'm going to couch this in gentle words, that were fighting among themselves. And this is a real story. So
15:28 be very careful my words. Somebody went to the church and made a prophecy. And he said the reason why the church is
15:36 in such disarray is because of the temple next door. I didn't mention name please don't let
15:42 your imagination go riot but few people from the church has spoken to me in love
15:48 I this year restored myself the lord of them the argument was because of the
15:53 temple the church is in disarray that's the same thing you know not our fault it's the temple's fault
16:02 it's not the temple it's you but easier to blame the temple easier to blame your
16:07 wife your kids your boss never my fault.
16:13 So relationships are difficult. No, I want to spend a few minutes on this because this is so important because the
16:19 first building block is community and a community love because let me tell you what the future is. At one point Jesus
16:26 tells his disciples, you know, you guys are very good at looking at things to the world and sensing the weather for for your agriculture, but you can't see
16:33 spiritual things. There is something going on out there in this age which you
16:39 need to know. Let me explain a bit. And I this is a bit for the tech guys. My wife told me keep this short. Uh I'm not
16:46 a supporter of Huawei although got Huawei phone. But I listened to the chairman's talk
16:52 you know and he said something really quite frightening. He said in the future
16:57 online will be the new default mode. And he talking about Huawei Mate. Now
17:02 what he's saying is this. The moment 5G comes online and all you non techy guys
17:08 give tahan a bit you move from pipe which is bottlenecks to a platform
17:14 because 5G is instantaneous. You know you can understand why Americans are so frightened at the at the at the at the
17:20 Chinese. The Chinese in 40 years took poverty to where they are now. Guess
17:26 what they will do in the next 40 years with that kind of firepower and finances
17:32 behind them. The moment they have 5G and they have perfected cloud and your
17:38 smartphones has what they call an AI smart chat, that phone you have will be the smartest
17:46 device on the planet. It will know you.
17:52 He will profile you and he will do whatever you want because the future is
17:59 not pluck and play. The future is pluck and think
18:05 that's what it is and that's coming from him. You know the chairman of Huawei is saying the future pluck and thing. Is
18:11 this all great news? It isn't. Relationships are hard. So the world is
18:18 offering you an alternative. Your wife next at you, right? Never mind. Go to social media. Your husband
18:26 is so like that. Social media. You don't have friends. Social media.
18:33 Just plug and think. And the computer
18:39 will give you a partner, a friend that doesn't talk back, doesn't argue with you, accepts you for
18:46 all you are. You can hide everything you want. You can blame everyone in the
18:52 world and it will love you. Look at the implication. It's happening
18:58 now already in China. They have this thing called vloggers. The picture on the right, a guy got
19:04 jailed because he stole millions of dollars to pay a vlogger. You know what vloggers do and it's not illegal.
19:09 There's nothing dirty about it. The vlogger will sing for you. Hi. Hi.
19:17 Ah. You whatever you want. They'll be your best friend. They'll talk to you. You
19:23 just need to pay. And now the Koreans have entered the Chinese market. There's an ad from China for Korean vloggers
19:30 coming in. They tell you how to build the base to monetize. I thought looking at a Bitcoin ad, you know, they found
19:36 out no. They asking for people to come in to be vloggers. That's a huge market
19:43 for people who cannot connect in real world and go online. Let me tell you how
19:48 frightening this is. Okay. And I'll take you. The Corers have gotten on the game. Now, it's not just vloggers. They have
19:54 what they call mukbang. Let me give this to you. It is an eating sensation. They
20:01 pay for you to eat in front of the monitor.
20:06 The guy, the girl downstairs is called the diva mukmong. You know how much he makes one month? US $9,000. She just
20:12 eats in front of the screen. Now, why am I telling you this? Because
20:17 there is a trend. Can you imagine when 5G comes online and there is cloud?
20:25 You'll be sitting in front of the screen 24 hours. Now, here's one thing very frightening because I saw I saw this
20:31 video on YouTube, right? Bear with me on this. And the mukbang diva, she did so well. She invited all her fans for a
20:37 dinner. You can see the video. I can you know, so there's a dinner, right? All her fans see her live. Live, right?
20:45 You know what happened here? You have the mukmunk diva live eating because you
20:51 are such good friends. You pay me so much money. You know what they had to do? They had to put on their device.
20:58 The real persons in front of you. They were eating and they had to look at the live streaming of her and they were
21:04 doing this. That's what is it telling you? The device is more important than the real person.
21:10 Make no mistake of what the future holds. And here's the ultimate reality which I'm seeing. You know what's worse
21:17 than this? Few weeks ago, a Japanese man decided to marry his hologram.
21:23 That's the best wife, folks. Not say to any married men here, but won't talk back to you. Would do everything you
21:30 want. And by the time they have perfected hologram technology with AI,
21:38 this is going to be a reality. And this is the future for your
21:44 children's children. Unless the church wakes up and what is the church respond?
21:50 The church respond is community. Love one another.
21:56 How do we do that? We're going to take the next line. The next line is the attitude. Jesus gives us an attitude.
22:03 Let me give you a wrong attitude. Because here's what people say. I love my kids. Don't want to talk to me. Just
22:09 put on the headphones and zone out. She rather listen to SoundCloud. I love my husband
22:16 but you know I'm not getting it reciprocated. I try to love friends but
22:23 they don't accept me. Now since is family day there's a thing
22:29 called helicopter parenting and helicopter parenting is where you so
22:36 love the kid you hover over the kid. Hence the term helicopter parenting is
22:42 grounded in very deep love for the kid. I'm going to read you something from a
22:47 teenage blog. I started to listen to how teenagers think because you must hear
22:52 from the other side. This is from a very famous uh Tumblr account from kids.
22:57 Okay. And this teenage wrote around age 13 I expressed to my mother that I
23:04 thought I might be having clinical depression. She snapped at me and told me not to joke about things like this. I
23:11 stopped telling my mother that I were depressed. Around age 15, I caught my mother
23:16 reading my diary. She confessed that anytime she saw me read my diary, she would sneak into my room and read it
23:23 because I only wrote when I was upset. I stopped keeping a diary.
23:29 Around age 18, I had an emotional breakdown while on vacation because I didn't want to go to college. I ended up
23:35 seeing a therapist for surprise surprise depression. Around age 21, I spoke on
23:41 this panel with mother in the audience and afterwards I mentioned a direct incident to her with respect to this
23:46 particular Q&A. Her eyes welled up and said, you know, because I worried you were depressed and going to hurt
23:53 yourself, right? Does the mother not love the child? Yes. But she's loving the child her way.
24:02 Here's one other example in marriage. Men say they love their women, their wives, but you don't love your wife in
24:09 her language. She wants you to respect her
24:14 and you maybe you're not doing that. Sometime wives don't know how to love their husbands the way the husband feels
24:21 it. Sometime a guy needs space because men don't talk a lot. Men not wire that
24:26 way. So our problem isn't loving because of sin. We're loving people our way. So
24:34 Jesus sets the record right. It's not loving others their way. He puts it very
24:39 simple. You love people the way he loved us. That's it. Not rocket science. And
24:46 that's why it's a new commandment because the Old Testament, the Decalogue has a lot of verses about loving others.
24:54 As I have loved you, so you must love another. As I have loved you. again
25:02 Bible study since you didn't want to preach here again we're going to raise more preachers today
25:08 how do we figure out as I have loved you and here the scholars would jump oh the cross Jesus died for my sins so you love
25:16 people at the cross hello be real how many of you are going to die for people tomorrow
25:23 have a reality check we all on a journey of faith so again what you do is that
25:28 you find somewhere in the chapter that talks about Jesus Jesus loving his disciples. That's the key. See, very
25:34 simple. All of you can be idians tomorrow and preach. So if you check the chapter, you find that at the beginning.
25:42 And at the beginning of chapter, he says, "Having loved his own who were in the world, that's the disciple, he loved
25:49 them to the end." That's the key. So you now know chapter 13 verse1 is tied to
25:56 verse 13 and everything in between it tells you how to love others. See Bible
26:02 study very easy. So how do you do it? And he gives you an image because we are
26:09 so thick skin. We don't know how to do it. We don't like theology. He gives you an image.
26:16 That's how you love one another. That's your attitude.
26:23 And the youth are so smart. They did it at the camp. See, the youth are even smarter than us. So now we adults have
26:29 to learn from the youth. Now what is this telling us? Because if you read the text, the king of kings, the word become
26:38 flesh. God puts on the robes of a servant and
26:45 washes the feet of his disciples. Now how is this radical? Because Peter says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, you can't do
26:53 this. You're you're God. You're washing my feet." It gets worked
26:58 up. So, we know, for example, it's not natural for us. We know this up here, but it's not
27:04 natural to us. So, let me give you three simple ways, and it's been very helpful for me. How do we love each other in
27:11 church? You put so many people here. Sure, fight one. Some people very quiet,
27:18 some people loud. Let me put it simple. You're supposed to love Anolim.
27:25 You're not supposed to like Anolim, you know. Consequently, with all due respect, I'm
27:30 not supposed to like some of you. I'm supposed to love you because some of you look Anolim is very irritating. This guy
27:37 talk too much. I look at you and say I don't like you because I find you very self-righteous. That that's one of
27:42 everyone knows me knows one of my big puff. So, we all have issues. I'm not supposed to like you. You're not
27:48 supposed to like me. We're not supposed to sit there and watch movies together. But how do I love you in a meaningful
27:55 manner? Three ways. The first is found in the way these two are tied. Now look
28:02 at the two versesh. As I loved you, so you must love one another. Look at the
28:07 verse before that. I washed your feet, so you wash one another feet. I have set your example. You should do as I have
28:13 done for you. is a parallel verse. So what is the example? The example of the washing feet is an example of a servant
28:20 attitude. Uh simple example you tell me about
28:26 right. The Chinese can build
28:32 a highrise in 19 days. That's a video online. 52 stories, three blocks, 19
28:37 days. Nobody builds high-rise towers like the Chinese. They have the
28:42 technology. They have the critical mass. They have all the equipment. Simple
28:48 question. Do you think Donald Trump is going to invite Chinese contractors over
28:55 to America to give a seminar on how to build tower blocks in the shortest time
29:01 possible? Yes or no? Why? Chinese very smart. Ma,
29:09 now here's why. They will tell you in the media is because of security.
29:15 Come on. It's not a Huawei phone. It's not going to encrypt your thing.
29:20 It's very simple. The Cantonese have a simple word moa. No face.
29:27 I'm not going to let the Chinese teach me how to build a tower block. So, here's the fundamental issue against a
29:35 servant attitude. Pride. And please, I'm not running out Americans. We Chinese are very proud
29:41 people. We think we're superior to Malays. Correct. We We all of us have issues. So you put
29:50 400 people in one church. Sure. Find one. Yeah. You this church. The problem with
29:58 ABC is ABCDE. Another guy got another list.
30:03 So if we are to survive, we move with servant attitude. Here's
30:10 one another simple example. Do you know this morning we are so packed with the
30:16 kids the hall cannot fill you. It means when we have any services with children and
30:23 youth, we are overfilled capacity. Wow. Thai
30:30 arrogance with anything God is telling us. Nine
30:35 years of peace in ABC of continual growth. If we are arrogant about where we are,
30:43 God will break us down. So we step into the new year with
30:48 gratitude, with humility and not looking at us and say, "Look, we have built such
30:54 a great church." That's not what God wants. So we start off with a servant
31:00 attitude. Now, how does this work out in real time? Here's another way he looks
31:06 at it. Entitlement. You know who I am or not.
31:13 I'm not Anelima. You all better get the title right. So
31:19 hear carefully. Yeah. I'm Elder Analim.
31:25 Thank no more. Now I expect everyone out there when you see me elder.
31:33 Wait, I'm entitled to it. You see where we're going with this?
31:40 If the king of kings, the god of the
31:45 universe becomes a slave to wash people's feet,
31:52 the word elder has no value except it's a privilege to serve.
31:60 And if I don't get that, I'm not fit to be here. And I mean that with every inch
32:05 of my being. You see in church here I'm not just that I I I I I speak you know so sometimes I
32:12 walk around like I own the church I walk around like that go behind standare behind there with a at a star
32:19 area there's somebody out there also standing there won't mention his name also okay tai w can you imagine if I go
32:25 to DMC I walk around like that I go to south center I sit out there people say hey who are you see you see it's very
32:32 subconscious to us entitlement so if I analy can get rid of my entitle entitlement as an elder, get rid of my
32:39 entitlement as a father, my entitlement as a husband, my entitlement as this, and I don't say I deserve this. We will
32:47 get on with one another. The problem with all of us is that we say I deserve
32:54 respect. I deserve appreciation. I deserve you to listen to me. I deserve
33:03 You deserve wrath. I deserve wrath. It's only by the grace
33:09 of God that we are here. So if we all remove entitlements and we come in as
33:15 servants to serve because a servant has no entitlements, we will build a church
33:20 with the right attitude of love. Here's another simpler way of doing it. You see during those days, they don't have
33:28 Betman road. You know, you don't have Nike shoes. There are no foot paths.
33:33 So when you walk out there is full of mud. So when you enter a house and the
33:38 servant cleans your feet and by the way there are no socks. The feet is full of sweat mud.
33:49 It's like asking you to clean to to clean the toilet every day.
33:56 It's not something you like to do. So here is king of kings going to a
34:02 stinky smelly feet full of mud and washing it. He doesn't do it once he does it to 12 disciples.
34:10 And it means we must have an out of comfort zone attitude. So in relationships
34:16 when you come to church what's the difference between a church and a click?
34:21 A click gets people who are similar interest. I love whiskey. Single malt 21
34:28 years. We want to form the whiskey fellowship.
34:33 Entry one bottle of Glen Lever minimum 14 years. Please come and meet me after
34:38 this. You see the thing? So we have whiskey gangs, we have the youth gang, we have
34:47 all the old people gang. See that? But out of comfort zone means
34:53 you see these people and they're not invisible. Those of you who follow Pastor Rama's daily uh devotions, he did
35:01 a whole series on this and every day he picked up one invisible group. You want
35:08 to get it? He'll forward a whole lot to you. And if you in in FBC don't make an any
35:16 effort to talk to any one of this, you're in a gang. You're in a click.
35:24 And I speak particularly to the largest group, the Chinese
35:31 50 and above. How do you make the millennials feel welcome? How do you
35:36 make the youth feel welcome? How do you make the singles? How do you make all of this? And I want to challenge you this
35:42 year. Start off find one person and make that person your friend. Love him like a
35:50 servant. And here's the last one. Washing your feet is practical because
35:56 you say I don't know how to do it. Is sometimes very simple little things you know because you wash your feet you can
36:02 go in because when you go into a house you're going for dinner. You know the Indians have this thing
36:07 called jugard. you know uh it's so famous it became actually there's a management book on it I will tell you
36:13 something about Indians Indians are very innovative I think there's a better umbrella it's sturdier
36:20 the Indians in their DNA can think of anything and turn it around so when
36:25 people can't tell me you know I I don't know how to love people are different BS
36:31 be creative be jugard simple things see
36:37 a guy sitting alone Get him a cup of coffee. Doesn't take too much. Wash the dishes.
36:44 Give a phone call. Be creative. So let us now go to the third one.
36:51 Because you know you can say do all of this very tiring. So let me tell you
36:57 another way of reading the text. You see you can read a text two ways. One Jesus
37:02 is giving you a pattern. That means you love others as I have loved you. That's
37:09 a model. But here's another way of reading it. Because Jesus has loved me,
37:16 I can now love others. You see the difference? It's no longer pattern. You know, it's power.
37:23 Where do we get that again? Bible study because somebody don't want to preach.
37:29 I love him very much by the way. You see when we go back to that verse in John 15. It says by command he did love
37:36 each other as I loved you. Where do we get the context? The context is verse 9. Notice one word that comes out again and
37:43 again and again. See Bible study very simple. So what do you do? You take that
37:48 word and you ask yourself where else in the chapter does this word remain repeat
37:54 itself. See very simple. And the ESV has a better word. It's better than the NIV.
37:59 ESV says abide and you just need to go back to the beginning of the chapter and
38:06 you see the word abide again and again and see what it says. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much
38:14 fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. That's power.
38:20 That's your Ron 95. Without that, you cannot love others
38:28 like a servant. You'll be going on your own strength. Without this, you cannot
38:33 love others outside your comfort zone. After a while, get very tired. Without this, you cannot always wash dishes, go
38:41 and give coffee. After a while, you say, "I cannot turn. I burn out." Why?
38:46 Because you are loving others by your own strength. You have to love others by
38:52 the power of God. And again, because we're so stupid, chapter 13, he gave us
38:57 an illustration of the washing feet. Jesus gives us another illustration, the
39:03 vine and the branch. Because we don't get it. And he mentions
39:08 unless the branch is so entrapped around the vine, you do this in church, after a
39:14 while, you'll get tired. You need power. And we find that again
39:20 in the verse. Look at that. He says in John 13, glorified. Now, in this verse,
39:26 glorification is the cross. And so, here's where we get it wrong. And I tell you why we get
39:33 it wrong. Because the question is, what is the
39:38 gospel? We learn about the community. Now, we must ask, what is the gospel? You ask
39:45 most people, the gospel is this. Jesus died for my sins. Hallelujah.
39:53 I will tell you that's half the picture. Why? Because at the end of it at chapter
39:59 17, he uses the same word, but the glory is more than that. Father, I want those you have given me, that's his disciples,
40:05 to be with me I am and to see my glory. The glory you have given me because you
40:11 love me before the creation of the world. And John is taking us back to verse one
40:19 to what is the gospel? Paul tells us in Ephesians, Peter start
40:24 out Ephesians and this is the gospel. The gospel is more than just Jesus dying
40:31 for our sins. The G gospel is this. And Paul says this to me less than the least
40:37 of all saints. What is that? That's the servant who washes the feet of others. Was this grace? That's the
40:44 non-entitlement given to now to the Gentiles. That's the outsider.
40:50 The uncarchable riches of Christ as the gospel.
40:57 The gospel isn't just Jesus dying for your sins. The gospel is you being the
41:03 branch and Jesus is the vine. Unless every day you breathe in Jesus, you
41:10 meditate on Jesus, you you live on him, you you you so want to soak him in, he
41:17 permeates every part of your being, you and I will never be able to love one
41:23 another. And that's why the last verse now makes sense. By this everyone will know you
41:33 are my disciples if you love one another. So last application
41:42 in a big service like this if you don't have God's love that power
41:50 in you if you don't treat each other like servants I mean you don't have that
41:56 servant attitude to one another you don't look out to people who are outside your comfort zone you don't do practical
42:02 things this is not church it's a concert All people come as consumers.
42:12 That's the big church. That's Acts chapter 2. 3,000 people are
42:18 added. And then we go to the next chapter. After that, from a big mega church, what
42:24 do they do? The disciples met daily in each other's house. That's a small
42:29 group. You see, the church is just following scripture in small groups.
42:35 If you don't serve one another, you don't talk to people who have got
42:41 marital problems, suffer from loneliness, you don't do practical things like bringing supper,
42:49 it becomes a click. So this is the building block of the
42:55 church. You're wired for community and you love each other this way. So here's one
43:02 question to all you regular people. If newcomers come to FBC,
43:10 and here's a question to me and you, will they be able to say yes,
43:17 this is a church that loves one another? That's a challenge, isn't it? Let me end
43:24 with an example. There's a movie called The Finest Hours. Didn't do very well.
43:31 in a movie at the end of it um the ship is a is a is a story about a
43:37 ship trying to make its way back and the lighthouse is broken
43:46 and there's this scene where they says you know what they're going to die they're not going to be saved they are
43:51 lost the lighthouse is broken and what the community does is the
43:57 entire community take all their cars and they line up on the on the seashore,
44:05 every car of the community and all of them put on their headlights
44:12 and there's this scene of the boat in the distance and they see a seashore full of lights
44:19 and they make their way to the light and they are safe.
44:24 When Jesus says you are the light of the world,
44:29 he means that in community. Not one of you shining, another one of
44:37 you shining, but the church as a whole shines. And when you shine,
44:44 you will lead people to God's salvation. May that be our desire for 2019. Let us
44:52 close in prayer as we ask the worship team to come
