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00:00:02 good morning brothers and sisters that was a fun presentation it makes me want to join BB too uh maybe not um today's scripture reading is taken from the book of Isaiah uh chapter 42 veres 1-9 Isaiah 42 here is my servant whom I uphold My Chosen One in whom I Delight I will put my spirit on him am and he will bring Justice to the Nations he will not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets a bruised Reed he will not break and a smoldering wake he will not snuff out in faithfulness he will bring
00:00:46 forth Justice he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes Justice on Earth in his teaching the islands will put the hope this is what the what God the Lord says the creator of Heavens who stretches them out who spread out the Earth with all that Springs from it who gives birth to its people and Life to those who walk on it I the Lord have called you in righteousness I will take hold of your hand I will keep you and make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles to open
00:01:26 eyes that are blind to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness I am the Lord that is my name I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to Idols see the former things have taken place and new things I declare before they spring into being I announce them to you this is the word of the Lord thank you thank you Clementine well good morning good to see everybody in the hall now all right so um next week uh brother John Lee will be preaching to us on a
00:02:13 nursing mother after that Elder Arnold limb on speaking the truth in love and after that brother John Lee again the mocking and the splitting from Isaiah 50 now uh let's start with a word of prayer father Lord we ask that you speak to us today from this passage this is almost 3,000 years ago we ask oh Lord that you open up spiritual truths that will actually alter the way we live and think and interact we ask for Jesus sake amen so this is a very famous passage taken from Isaiah so we're going to be doing a
00:02:55 series of sermons Before Christmas on the issue of of the suffering servant Isaiah is very unique one of the foremost prophets of the Old Testament live from 740 uh who ministered from 740 to 700 BC and what is important for us today is that he paints two contrasting pictures of the Messiah on one hand if you go to ISA isah 9 he announces to us that there will be a child that will be born to us a son is given the government shall be on the shoulder his name Shall be Called wonderful counselor Mighty God
00:03:42 Everlasting father Prince of Peace triumphant Messiah who will come and wrap things up and that is something that the Jews easily latched on to and put their F faith on and then today he talks about Isaiah 42 behold my servant whom I uphold My Chosen One in whom my soul Delights talks about a servant there he talks about a king and Isaiah 53 describes this servant he had no form or Majesty that we should look at him no beauty that we should desire him basically he's ugly he was despised and rejected by man a man of sorrow inquit
00:04:23 with grief two contrasting pictures and today we find out it's the same person but at that time when he he pronounced this prophecy it was two entirely different people right and then Isaiah 53 the Jews never believed that this suffering servant would be their Messiah but in Isaiah 53 Isaiah says and they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death although he had done no violence there was no deceit in his mouth woo if you're a Jew how can a messiah die it's impossible so they they discounted
00:05:04 these passages in Isaiah's prophecy which is why when Jesus actually came they just wrote him off in fact they wrote him off so bad that they crucified him so here we actually have four songs and some people argue the fifth song is Isaiah 61 uh but talking about this servant how this servant is the one basically Jesus and I want to put you in context why did he preach at this time the the reason why you preach at this particular time Isaiah was in the southern Kingdom uh was that Israel was worshiping idols and these are some of
00:05:43 the idols you look at the lakish reliefs there a lot of them were Egyptian Horus uh sech hat T So this a picture actually is taken from 8th Century BC the Jews were also Idol worshippers right and here you have a courtroom uh sort of scene in Isaiah 41 where God addresses the people to indict them of their Idols so so set forth your case says the Lord bring your proofs says the king of Jacob let them bring them and tell us what to to happen so God is like the judge the plaintiff the lawyer and he's addressing
00:06:23 to Idols tell us the former things what they are that we may consider them that we may know their outcomes or de cl to us the things that come tell us what is to come Hereafter that we may know that you are God's do good or do harm that we may be dis dismay and terrified he's challenging the idols to tell me about the future can you predict the future have I predicted the past it's a courtroom challenge to Idols because the people of Israel were worshiping idols and if you look in this amazing you don't get the sense of it
00:06:57 because you're living here now but if you're looking back WS into Isaiah's prophecy he lived to a time where he actually prophesied that about two events that would shake the life of Israel separated by 150 years he prophesied about the conquest of Assyria of the northern kingdom 721 BC he also prophesied about the Babylonian conquest and exiled in 597 both before it ever ever happened and that's proof of God's prophet prophecy there now he sees in 419 says behold there are a delusion talking about Idols their works are nothing
00:07:38 their metal images are empty wind and he starts off in 42 it said behold my servant whom I uphold my chosen in whom my soul Delights I put my spirit on him so taking on one hand idols and on the other hand my servant which will you follow that is the point point so who is this servant so my sermon today will actually focus on only three very simple points one the identity two the mission and three the manner in which this servant which Isaiah preaches about will actually come into our lives now the
00:08:19 servant theme is very common if you look in the Old Testament Adam was a servant of God Moses is a servant Prophet Joshua was a servant conqueror David is a servant King Israel is often described as a servant even Cyrus was the Conqueror was described as a servant of God then you got Isaiah servant and in the end Jesus is the ultimate servant so there's a servant them that runs throughout the whole Bible and if you look here in Isaiah 45 thus says the Lord to his anointed Messiah okay all right to Cyrus whose
00:08:53 right hand I grass to subdue the nation so here he also is a servant the servant here is Cyrus a Persian king and if you look here there's two passages side by side one about Cyrus and one about the suffering servant the suffering servant is behold my servant who I have Hold My Chosen One my s in whom my soul Delights I put my spirit on him and on the hand you got Cyrus Isaiah 45 for the sake of my servant Jacob which is Israel Israel My Chosen I called you by your name I name you though you do not know me I am
00:09:28 the Lord there's no other besides me there is no God I equip you though you do not know me that the people may know from the rising of the Sun and from the West that there is none beside me I am the Lord and there's no other you see there two different kind of servants right there's one servant where God like holds up his nose yes I chose you to do a particular purpose but you do not know me on the other hand you've got the other servant who is my chosen one right now here you have what is you are my
00:09:59 servant Israel in whom I will be glorified I've said I've I've labored in vain I've spent my strength to for nothing and vanity surely my right is with the L my right is with the Lord and my recompense is with my God and from now onwards the Lord says he will form me from the womb to be his servant and to bring Jacob back to him that Israel may be gathered now this is a passage from Isaiah 49 because you you got this confusion is when God talks about servant is he talking about Israel or or is he talking
00:10:30 about Jesus we don't know right so have you are my servant Israel right whom I will be glorified okay then he says and from now onward the Lord will form me from the womb to be his servant which means he's actually talking about a person not a nation to bring Jacob back to him that Israel might be gathered to him so the the job of this particular servant is to bring Israel back all right Matthew chap 12 Jesus aware of this withdrew from there and many followed him and he healed them all and he ordered them not
00:11:07 to make him known and this was to fulfill what was spoken by the Isaiah prophet Isaiah behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved from whom my soul is well pleased I will put my spirit in him he will Proclaim Justice to the Gentile where is this taken from Isaiah 42 so who is this servant this servant is Jesus Matthew 3 when Jesus was baptized a voice from Heaven said this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased so the servant is God's son so we know the identity the next thing is look at
00:11:46 his mission what is he supposed to do behold my servant whom I uphold my chosen in whom my soul Delights I put my spirit in him he will bring forth Justice to the nation he will not cry out aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street of bruise Reed he will not break a faintly burning week he will not quench he will Faithfully bring forth Justice he will not grow faint or be discouraged until he has established Justice on the earth and the coastlands wait for his law he will establish
00:12:15 justice he was established Justice in the earth not only in Israel but all over the world so his mission is actually to establish justice and we look into the world today we see Injustice everywhere and and the thing is that Injustice is more than political dysfunction the reason why we have Injustice is because we have a denial of God right and if you look here why is Isaiah talking about a servant bringing Justice you see Justice is actually administered by Kings sagon of Syria all right he established Justice you look at
00:12:58 this very famous hamurabi steel okay you can see this in the museum at Lou in Paris it's very instrumental why because it's so so a picture of hamurabi who is the king and then there's a chap on the side of him is called the Sun God shamash we know he's a God because he's got the two you know those uh uh rays of light okay coming from him he's a son God and he's handing to him the ring which is basically power and on the breast of the steel they call it uh they've got 300 laws so here you have the gods handing the ring of power and
00:13:37 the 300 laws to hamurabi who basically will rule the land with righteousness so who establishes Justice only rulers right and here you have the servant establishing Justice it's a bit of a contradiction and if you look at this gentleman here we know that human leaders EV eventually all mess up supposed to administer Justice in our country and yet he's actually convicted for corruption and uh increased our debt huge if you look at the way he's spent the money uh and then he gets a pardon half price uh in fact the country
00:14:20 has now paid 48 billion ring up to this stage another 5 billion ring we need to pay by by 2039 and you ask the question human leaders can't bring us Justice they always mess up in fact Tesh amlan actually wrote in Malaysia Kini if the release of najib is necessary sacrifice to pave the way for Meaningful reforms then for a better Baya then it may be worth considering that means if you really want Justice you must pay a price in fact you must compromise and that's the nature of justice that we actually have in the
00:14:59 world today there is no complete Justice all right um so where are we going to look justice has two facets and and as a Christian we need to understand that it's not only retributive but also restorative and what happens is that for Christians whenever we talk about Justice we talk about judgment the end is near we talk about Sylvester Stallone uh uh you know the last part of the movie the bad guy always can you shoot him down that's just this in fact you if you Michael Angelo when he painted God
00:15:33 on the 16 Chapel you look at his face not very happy right because you're all Sinners and the picture of God is Justice he's going to come and judge you one day but restorative justice is very difficult if you look back at the uh um slave situation in America they've actually calculated uh for all the torture and deprivation that the American slaves underwent the country owes them 17.7 trillion which means Brian sitting here has a share of 17.7 billion US dollars to pay all the descendants of the slaves at a time and you reckon
00:16:22 Brian could afford it probably not right it's very hard if you really want restorative justice to bring people back to where they were before Singapore Airlines we found out that uh the pilot actually decided to take a shortcut and drive through the storm near Myanmar and they plummeted thousands of feet with 40 people were injured um and one of them was this Australian lady who is now paralyzed from the neck down and Singapore Airlines now offers them $75,000 you reckon $775,000 will help you recover it's inadequate it never will be
00:17:07 Mother Teresa said if we have no peace you know what it's because we have forgotten that we belong to each other to be righteous is to be true to the demands of a relationship we belong to each other we have a relationship with each other but that relationship with God with another person to be unrighteous say through criminal activities to violate the meaning of relationship it's not just enough about the punishment it's about reconciliation it's about relationship and only Jesus can do that why I am the Lord I've
00:17:38 called you in righteousness that means the servant is going to come not like political leaders you know where the justice is inadequate or unjust or with hypoc hypocrisy I will call you in righteousness I will take you to a hand and keep you I'll give you a covenant for the people Alik for the nation right so restoration reintegration and Redemption will be part of the ministry of this servant now I will take you by the hand and keep you that means God's strength will be with this servant I will give you as a
00:18:16 covenant for the people wow that means this servant when come he will be the Covenant for the people what does this mean well the word covenant basically is a promise it means this servant will will be the means in which the people will come into a covenantal relationship with God and realize all its fulfillment which means even if you're not a Jew Jesus comes to be your Covenant with God so that you would inherit all the promises all the Fulfillment which God has actually promised to Israel there's uh 1962 picture of Da and
00:18:51 Carol Richardson and they were missionaries to a tribe called the Savi people in proper n guini and these people were basically Head Hunters you can see the heads all being hung up there so they were quite treacherous people in fact the more treacherous you are the more they're respected which means you invite you to their house they'll give you the best K me that they can find fatted you up and then when you're sleeping they'll slit your throat that's what they the more throats you slit the the more esteemed they were
00:19:30 in their society and they spent time there trying to reach out with the gospel and they were always afraid whether at night when they feed them very much whether they'll come and slit their throats but the sa people grew to love them because they brought medicine and and helped them a lot but the gospel was actually impervious to them they could not understand the gospel until one day when Dawn and Carol Richardson decided to leave they said you know you guys hopeless I'm not going to stay here
00:20:00 anymore because you still kill each other right and there were three tribes fighting all the time and they really loved the riches said no please don't leave we will do a deal and what they did was one of the Chiefs had a son and they gave their sacrifice their son you know what I mean by sacrifice their they didn't kill the son they took that son and put him in the opposing Village and as long as that child lives and grows up in my enemy's Village we will not fight it was like a hostage and then Dawn and Carol
00:20:36 Richerson caught that idea and they said to the people of the sa tribe that is called they had the name for that child the child is called a peace child as long as that child is alive we promise to be at peace with you as long as that child grows up with you we will not attack you and they told told the sawi tribes that God gave you a Peace Child his name is Jesus and he's the promise because of him there will be peace because of him there will be reconciliation because of him there will be Redemption and
00:21:15 suddenly these primitive minds they understood the gospel for the first time in their lives and this is exactly what Isaiah is saying God says I will give you my as a covenant when you receive him you receive God's blessing and God's covenant and God's promise and if you look into the text of the Bible all the way down the most powerful instrument human beings can actually wield in their hands it's not the atomic bomb it's actually a promise from God do you know that everyone is free but God is not
00:21:56 free you know that we a single promise God has decided to marry himself to you that he will stand by you he will save you he will be your God he'll be committed to you based on what a promise and if you look at the history of Israel through all the generations EES Offspring there's a promise abrahamic Lon there's a promise the prophetic promise of Moses uh the davidic promise the New Covenant promise every single aspect of the Old Testament point points to the fact that the king of the universe has tied himself to us
00:22:34 and Jesus is that fulfillment of covant why because you put Jesus the true Israel next to the false Israel if you can see the false Israel is disobedient in the desert for 40 years Jesus went to the desert and was obedient for 40 days the false Israel rebelled repeatedly but Jesus had perfect obedience and perfected by suffering and the disobedient son Israel owes the depth of sin but Jesus is the perfect high priest because he paid the penalty for sin and in Luke 22 he says likewise the cup after had been after they had eaten
00:23:10 saying this cup that is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood that is God's promise now I will give you as covant of people a light to the Nations to open the eyes that are blind to bring out the prisoners from The Dungeons and from the prison those who sit in dark Ness so therefore Jesus not only Covenant but Jesus will bring light that means understanding to the people and the people don't understand if you look at Jesus interaction with the forest Pharisees this is why I speak to them
00:23:41 Parables because seeing they do not see hearing they did not hear nor do they understand why because they are all worshiping their own Idols you say we we and look in Isaiah 42 it says hear you deaf and look you blind that you may see who is blind by my the servant here is Israel right or deaf as my messenger whom I send who is blind but my dedicated one or blind as the servant of the Lord he sees many things but does not observe them his ears are open but he does not hear sounds like the three
00:24:16 boys Brigade people right from the age of 7 to 13 they're blind they hear they see but they do not see and one day at 15 years old Ting suddenly oh Mommy was right after all right it it takes that and John chapter 3 says and this a judgment the light is coming to the world the people love Darkness rather than light because their works are evil even if I show you the light you also don't want the light we love Darkness that's our default mode you know and idolatry you the the easiest definition D idolatry is something that can be
00:24:53 defined as loving Desiring trusting anything apart from God to fulfill fill your needs which is if you look back in your life today what gives you identity what gives you hope what gives you meaning what gives you happiness what moves your needle through the day when you wake up today or tomorrow more importantly what gets you excited that my friends will probably be your idol it could be family it could be your career but is there anything else which you serve it will be your idol and it's so deeply ingrained it is that we can't
00:25:37 actually see it it could be good things now for example if if you I Idol is very powerful if you idealize money then when you look here you can either see a creditor aapor or your customer if you look there you could be rich people middle class people or poor because that's how you see the world right you see I mean so therefore you can have friends remember a lot of friends come you hey you know I I know Naj actually not a good example I know Ana and then suddenly this fellow who was poor suddenly knows
00:26:13 anoa W then you you see him at the different light don't we do that we we drop names right in front we look at the crowd what do you see in the crowd you either see market place where you can make money from there or you see competitors why because the way you look at the world is based on your Idols why do people do networking because they love you H they give you their business card gold color one because they love you because you can be helpful to them do you ever go to a refugee camp and do
00:26:42 networking uh give them he here here Bangladesh or whatever this is my card okay come anytime you want to come see me come and see you diet you want free treatment see why do we Network because we see other people in terms of what we can make use of them we got complaints about Gamma we used to have meals people come if you have that kind of mindset you says hey is this $10 worth it same like Christmas meal all right who is paying yeah for me free or he gets uh uh get paid for or sponsored who is not paying that's more important or
00:27:19 what's a return on investment why is the church spending so much money giving free food to people and they get complaints all the time why because the way you think is control by your Idols everything is crunched down to numbers it's transactional like this chap he if you worship power this is a competitor that's a collaborator and that is a detractor that that's the whole world that the Whole World Views like that is it you got no choice don't laugh we do the same thing right you know if if basically if we idolize a
00:27:52 political party then we must demonize other political parties that's why amno can never get on with dap right because for years and years years they basically demonized the other party because of their own idolatry but Idols are also weak here is the greatest Olympian who ever lived and his good friend said to him Michael you have all the money that anybody your age would ever want or need and you have profound influence in the world you have free time you're the most miserable person I know how can the most
00:28:25 accomplished Olympian in the history of mankind be the most miserable person he knows because you know why Idols which he wears around his neck are not only powerful but they're also very weak they really can't help you look at Madonna famous singer my drive in this life in life is far is from his horrible fear of being mediocre that's always pushing me pushing me and because even though I've become somebody I still have to prove that somebody my strugle has never ended it probably never will you
00:29:02 know it's very common you know how many of you when you go to work wherever you are always feel like you're a fraud that actually you're you're faking it till you're making it because deep down we all have an insecurity that we're actually not as good as a doctor I I I feel the same thing right I'm not as good as what I'm supposed to be and and I'm always having the insecurity each every case I do there's an insecurity there because we have Idols or you like the Chinese uh youth unemployment 24% so
00:29:36 they say they quit naked quitting means I can't be bothered with these Idols I just quit I just do mu Thai and I don't have to have a job anymore so the suffering servant will come and his mission is to remove the blinds and free us from our Idols now how he does it is very very important he will not cry aloud lift up his voice or make it heard in the street see the way this Messiah comes is very quiet you won't hear it on CNN you won't see banners there's no political campaign like what we're seeing today a bruised Reed and a
00:30:17 smoldering re you know what a bruise Reed is it's it's a it's a it's a plant which a stock broken have you ever seen a Bruce read that's broken and can go back again no it's finished it's absolutely finished a smoldering Weck that means the candle is going to go out 100% it'll go out and it tells you that this person who comes will come quietly gently you won't see it coming and it'll be Redemptive even though you're broken even though you're smoldering he will reignite the passion and the strength in
00:30:55 your life you know people who see Injustice will always grow bitter and Loud because you so much pain in the world and in Jesus time no different you've got Simon Boba Simon boria these are all Messiahs and they came they're not like the suffering servant they didn't come quietly they didn't come redemptively they came in an army and they fought against the Romans and to a man all of them were killed in fact there was one guy called Moses of creit he came and he told them I'm the Messiah follow me they
00:31:27 call him Moses Moses you know why anybody know why people get Called Moses they go into the sea so it took everybody went into the sea walk right there waiting for the sea to part all drown and there another guy is shabat Levy who was so doing magical miraculous works in the time of the Ottoman Empire in the end the Muslims caught him he say either you convert to Muslim you know or you die and he became a Muslim so much for the Messiah these are human Messiah that use political means Bishop if you
00:32:02 go to Copenhagen in Denmark today you will see outside the Time Square a picture of a Christian leader Epsilon Bishop Epsilon military leader political leader and also Christian Bishop that is not the character of The Suffering servant you look at America today you've got the rise of what we call Christian nationalism where political power and religious fervor join together and uh they actually passed a law in the Oklahoma State uh uh government and it basically calls all the schools it mandates them to teach
00:32:49 Bible imagine that you got the political power but you make people read the Bible that is not how you establish justice that is not how you bring Christ in by forcing people I'm sure you've met many people who were brought up in such countries and they absolutely Rebel because it's being forced on them this is a Texas State representative James talo very funny you know what he did because the Christians there love Trump he says compares the two one is poor one is Rich you know which one of is right one is Meek one is
00:33:27 a bully one is lost because more crucified and the other is obsessed with winning and if if Jesus was here today he would say he be single single childless hippie that is the picture of our savior it is in fact Trump once said I am the chosen one when he's talking about fighting with China and in this book he writes I play to people's fantasies people may not always think big of themselves but they can get very excited by those who do that is why a little hyperbole never hurts people want to believe that something is the biggest
00:34:05 the greatest and the most spectacular you know why Trump works because Trump feeds into our Idols you see we all have an idol of power we all want to be bigger than what we are we are all faking it till we make it right and Trump plays into our power Idols that's why he's popular on the other hand because the Lord knows we are sick with sin servanthood speaks to our hearts when you see a servant he speaks to our hearts when he came there's no violent dispute he always told the message to keep quiet don't tell people
00:34:44 that I'm the Messiah right and he's completely dependent on God I am the Lord I've called you in righteousness I can take you by the hand and keep you if Jesus was exerting his own power he'll be out there promoting himself faking it till he makes it but he's able to keep quiet and gentle you know why because he trusts in God he says he will not grow faint he will not be discouraged until he establish justice on earth and the coastlands wait for his law he's not going to go around and say everybody
00:35:16 hates me my my approval rating is down because I've told them the truth he doesn't do that he doesn't get discourage thus says the Lord The God Who created the heavens and stretched them out who spread out the Earth and what comes from it who gives breath to the people on it and the spirit of to those who walk in it which means his servant's power is derived from the creative power of God right 428 and9 I am the Lord that is my name my glory I give to no other nor my praise to calve Idols behold the former things have come
00:35:47 to pass and new things I now declared before they spring forth I tell you all of them and he ends his passion telling you I control history what's happened the past I very predicted predicted what's happening in future I will also know and this is the power behind the servant now that is a lesson from Isaiah how do you actually apply it today is this a historical lesson well look at this scene the first thing we need to learn is that serving is a Divine characteristic John Chapter 13 behold my servant who I hold the chosen whom I my
00:36:28 Delights if then I your lord and teacher have washed your feet you ought to wash one another's feet which means if God the king of the universe kneels down there's nothing that you can say you don't want to do he kneels down and cleans your feet so actually serving is a you see our our depiction in our minds and and the Jewish mind is that the the king the Messiah is always up there triumphant his job is to be served he never serves Jesus breaks that mold in fact Peter couldn't accept it Peter say oh
00:37:12 you will you wash my feet please don't why why does Peter say that because his perception of someone who is High and Mighty Is Never to serve we never equate godliness with serving you know people who serve us are always be below us serving is a Divine characteristic it's not a trend it's a reality who whoever would be great among you must be your servant whoever would be first among you must be slave of all for even the son of God man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom
00:37:46 for men there a reversal of values you know for us very difficult you know Christians do we have servant y leadership you know we like to tie the two together so that it doesn't look too bad even in marriages the ones that women don't like is that at the church submits to the Christ so also the wives must submit in everything to their husbands a lot of egalitarians don't like that because serving means subservience means less value and the fact that Jesus serves breaks that mold I remember years ago
00:38:22 when I served in EO first posting about 30 years ago I I worked for a the state surgeon Mr Levens and one day he invited me to his house and Mr Levens is from Sri Lanka and so we have dinner and you know where his wife was his wife was a physiotherapist in the hospital and she stands behind him you know and as we are eating me a little small small fat kind of medical officer eating with the boss and she's standing behind dishing out the curry and doing I said oh my God datin is standing behind you know what I mean it's a it's a
00:39:00 different culture in Sri Lanka then I I actually understood it in the end when I actually worked in KL for a uh surgeon who is a woman I won't tell the name but she's a very strong woman she will be able to beat any man in hand wrestling very Fierce woman she steps into the W everybody shakes including me my my registra used to take stress Tablets before assisting her in oper theater right and and then whenever you do anything wrong she'll take the for steps and bang your hand you know so that you learn to anticipate
00:39:34 like a woman anticipate all her moves no need to tell you she wants to go there you quickly retract there you want to go there you quickly so you learn to be thinking on the spot you learn to read her mind right that's what most ladies want you to do all right so when you serve this great surgeon that was how I was trained and learned to be more I wish I was trained better my wife was say but do you know that she's Indian and she married a Chinese business man and she told me after I related the
00:40:08 story about my ex- boss she says you know when my husband eats with guest I stand behind and I serve and it blew my mind the great surgeon like this stands behind the husband and I'm not asking you to do that right why be crucified right after this but I'm just saying that she didn't think it made her smaller and that's the maturity of this woman you see I me it didn't make her smaller because this is my husband and I will serve him in this way it's a Sri Lankan way Chinese way the other way around
00:40:49 okay but in our idolatry we we dehumanize people in our idolatry we look at we see blue collar White Collar you go in church there some people worth me talking to and some people are not worth me talking to if you are a maid you're there to serve me have you ever gone and asked the maid all the Napo worker how was his day or are they basically tools to us you see the way we are brought up there are certain people who are diminished that's why we can't be servant my I my my grandmother had 13 children right you said oh that's a
00:41:35 whole bunch of children not enough she imported one more adopted from a relative and remember her name was AO and and and when we were brought up because she was adopted to be a slave she actually served everybody and everybody scolded her because she's a slave even though she's my auntie you know and I grew up with that mindset and that's a mindset we all have isn't it we network with people who are higher or equal but the rest who are down we don't care what day they had and that's why and the reason why is
00:42:15 because we have this idea of status and serving and serving is only for people who have no status and no value you see the light which God brings into our lives open up our eyes who are blind we bring out the prisoners from you see blindness is equal to captivity and slavery if we with the Jesus Christ and the gospel we are freed from the penalty of the law we are freed to obey God's law we ref we are free to reflect our destiny the image of God Galatians says you were called to Freedom Brothers do not use
00:42:53 your freedom as an opportunity of flesh but through love serve one another for the whole law is fulfilled in one word you shall love your neighbor as yourself see you only can truly love everyone if if Jesus Takes your sin away and frees you from the slavery you will now free to genuine love to serve one on the other hand if you are still with Idols you will bite and devour each other all right so basically by this we know love that he laid down his life for us and and we are to lay down our lives for each other if
00:43:30 you're a volunteer or a servant well if you're a volunteer you will say you need me a servant will come in church and says what do you need a volunteer will be Time s say oh I no time tomorrow I got something else going on I can't help you in church a servant says well what do you need and I will serve based on that need a volunteer will keep score a servant will make sacrifices and you look at your colleagues successful people right when Jesus looked at the crowd you know what he saw they were harassed helpless sheep
00:44:09 without a Shepherd that motivated him the trouble is when you look at other people they're all Idol worshippers like you they look very successful right they don't need any help but Jesus looks at everybody else he seized them for what they really are they were harassed helpless sheep without a shepherd you I me that's why we serve them look at the story of the Good Samaritan the people who walk past with the priests this guy I'm sure he has got an appointment business meeting a man was injured lying on the side of road he
00:44:46 took time off he carried him put him in the in paid for three months of rental to help him do you think that was convenient it was totally inconvenient a true servant serves based on needs not based on their time so a Bru Reed a smoldering what does it mean if you have the spirit of Jesus Christ in you nobody is beyond salvation nobody is beyond your help is Redemptive some years ago 2018 uh 12 Thai boys were stuck in a cave for two weeks and people were wondering how to go and save them and then Elon Musk came up with the idea you
00:45:34 know what I'm going to do I'm going to help out I'm going to build a submarine build a submarine and you got all his Parts there and he actually flew the submarine to Thailand itself and he accompanied the submarine to the Thai uh uh Cave got his hands dirty to want to go and help but in the process one of the British divers uh unword said to him you know this a submarine 5'6 you know and you know when you go in the cave it goes this way cannot bend your submarine cannot bend and and this uh mus was so upset he
00:46:15 called him a pedophile in public you know and even the head of the Thai rescue committee said uh excuse me this not suitable and said you don't know you don't even know what you're talking about you see there's a difference between a servant and a volunteer a volunteer will give you something expect you to be very very grateful right oh Elon Master the most richest man in the world a servant will give you whatever you need basically to do the job that is the important thing now the next thing is
00:46:51 servant Hood treats others based on what he's worth all right imagine John Chapter 13 disciples are all there he washes everybody's feet including whom Judas if I were Jesus I say ah your makan first hey Judas you better go first after you go then I'll wash I wouldn't tell you I'm washing feet right I'll wait for him to go then I'll wash his feet later on everybody else because he knows What Judas is going to do but servant Hood treats others based on what Christ or God is worth not what the person is worth he
00:47:37 may be the most terrible person in the world but you don't treat him based on what he's worth you treat him based on what Christ is worth and the Matthew says the king will answer them truly I say to you as you did it to the least of these of my servants you did it to me brothers and sisters we are are all blind we wear a mask over our eyes when we see other people we see their accomplishments you see whether they've done good to us we've seen whether the they're the evil people or they've insulted me in the past 20 30 years ago
00:48:14 I remember he did that and then we cannot serve them you see we serve people not based on what they deserve or what Christ deserves you see whenever the popee you know the whole idea of John Chapter 13 is not that every day or once a month we have a special ceremony we get aralin to come and kiss your feet and and wash it right and then you purposely go and you know step in dog that day so that that he will be really humble right right my turn anyway I'm trying to equate him to the pope you know but you know you notice that
00:49:04 whenever the pope does it right the feet very clean one you know right like that ISO can in real life when you come to church and serve each other all our feet stink it's horrible which means what which me what he saying is that we need to treat each other and put up with all the dirt I know I do good things to him he's going to bite me back he's going to betray me he's going to lie about me all the secrets which I share he's going to tell the world you see and then ah poor me poor me I like crucified no the point is is
00:49:45 that when you wash each other's feet you have to put up with the smell the stink do you know that only the Gentile slaves are asked to clean the feet you know Jew don't clean each other's feet it is the lowest job and yet we have people in church saying I'm so fed up serving in church he never even appreciated me end of the year I didn't get a present you may not say it but I know you feel it so in the church we actually organize appreciation dinner why because we know you can't put up with the dirty feet right in a real
00:50:22 church right we don't have to give you appreciation dinner you think the disciple give the appreciation dinner to Jesus Christ huh none Jesus John maybe half them maybe he deserved to be crucified you know but but we are so thin skinned in this church that we will not put up and sometimes I have to tiptoe around you guys because I have a big fat mouth like Peter and I say the wrong thing I don't want to serve in church and it's so difficult isn't it we can't even help each other grow by pointing out certain mistakes right
00:51:00 because it's all self-esteem that we actually worshiping these Idols when you really serve when you are a servant it's not about you right your service it's about the people whom you serve and they are going to bite you they are going to terrify you they're not going to appreciate you that is a true servant because you know why you're serving you're serving because of him servanthood looks past that servanthood is a calling you know why you do that Paul says I'm a servant the word servant here is actually Bor servant in Greek
00:51:38 all right a Bor servant is someone who basically has if you're bankrupt okay if you are bankrupt uh you will have to go to jail in those days there no bankruptcy law jail for seven years okay now and you become a slave right keep you actually have slaves in Jewish society that after they serve as slaves somebody comes in and pays money for them and then they get out of jail and they serve the family after serving the family you know what if you look at Exodus if the slave plainly says I love my master my wife my children I will not
00:52:20 go out free the master shall bring him to God he shall bring to him on the door of the doorpost and the master shall bore his ear with an all which is a sharp needle and he shall be slave forever now what what what because he loves this master who actually saved him from dea's prison served him for seven years at the end of it he got such a great deal so grateful they say I will be your slave forever and the master will take this thing and nail through his ear you that mean all of you who wear earrings you know all right so it's
00:52:55 a sign that your bonded forever and why do they do that because I love the the the the motive is what gratitude and when you are a servant a born servant of Jesus Christ you are grateful and you will Ser slave don't have to tell you that I can do this but this I cannot do and I I meet Christian workers who will tell me you know this I will do but that no time a bonder servant says whatever needs to be done I will do it is a calling you see if you see serving each other as a calling is a different thing
00:53:37 for we are his workmanship Paul says created in Christ Jesus what is the purpose for good works which God pre prepared beforehand that we should walk in them which means all of us are a masterpiece God created us this time this place he paints us and creates us so that we can impact other people we're not talking about leaving a legacy of the Twin Towers we're talking about Legacy etched in the lives of people remember this uh a couple of people will gather around the grave the grave of this man is called osar
00:54:17 schidler and during World War II he he was not a nice man he was a womanizer he was a drunkard for all his faults he one good thing about him he actually saved the 1,200 Jews by hiring them in his Factory and did therefore he took them from out switch which would otherwise have killed them he saved them and by if you look at all his descendants there was one particular descendant uh who had five children Lisa gamman they had 36 grandchildren and from then they have 150 great grandchildren by 2012 there
00:54:54 were 8,500 descendants you know good works which God has prepared beforehand the Twin Towers would have long fallen down already you talk 50 years from now 100 years from now but the number of people whom you actually had touched which is that Masterpiece that God puts in your life to build would have grown and you don't see this till much much much later on that's why God is telling you your calling is to serve when you serve people is out of what love it's love and that love will transform lives if you
00:55:31 come to people and punch them and subjugate them and force them they will not love you back their gospel will not touch their hearts the gospel only goes through love and you will leave that trail if you're a volunteer whatever you do will be based on what I can afford or give maybe I give you to get some attention or it's convenient if I'm a servant I give based on what he gave it's I'm sin is unrecognized and we suffer that's what service is lastly servanthood is a commitment in the time of Assyria came and took over the northern
00:56:09 kingdom and what they did was deported some of the Israelites from the northern tribes over to other nations and brought other nations into Assyria and God was upset and what happens was he sent Lions and the lies was like an infestation and he used to eat people up many of them and they were very upset and then the king of Assyria said okay I I'm losing too many people to this Lions so what you'll do is that you call one of the priests the Jewish priests whom he had exported elsewhere bringing back to teach the
00:56:46 people about the laws of Israel religious laws so that they will comply and actually when the priest came back he taught people about the Israelite religion they followed uh these were foreigners they followed and all that and their own people also followed and then the Lions went away and there's a verse there that says so they feared the Lord but also served their own Gods after the manner of the nations from among whom they've been carried away see what's happening here they're connected to the god of Israel but
00:57:20 they're not committed and for many of us in church it's like that I'm connected to the church yesterday I came for unforgettable but I'm not committed you see that is one of the biggest problems that's not real servanthood is a commitment we want like the people in Assyria we want God to deal with our pain of Life the uncertainty we want relief from poverty failing Health past Health broken marriages disease healing I'm sure you have healing service someone talk to me about healing service plenty of people be lining up coming
00:57:59 forward right especially if we get healed we want that but that's being connected all right and then you I tell you if you pray you believe you know I'll give you some reward people come to God for something and like these people in Samaria they're connected but they're not committed you see how can I do this how can I be a real servant well Paul says you can't do it with all those features of servanthood everybody here is condemned we can't do it we can't do it out of because it's too inconvenient for us it's too
00:58:36 difficult for us the needs of the world are too great but Christ said Jesus Paul said is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me me brother and sisters as we end understand this I'm not putting you a forward a challenge of servanthood which you can never measure up to none of us can but there is one who did the suffering servant a true servant whom God gave us as a covenant he fulfills
00:59:17 the law of Love on our behalf all we have to do is to confess our sins and trust and love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ Christ and he will grow our faith so that we in the end will be true servants Isaiah says I am the Lord I have called you can we have the worship team up here please I am the Lord I have called you just as he has called The Suffering servant God has called you every single one of you you were made you were designed it is your destiny it is your purpose to serve not to be served and so therefore he says I will
01:00:06 take you well you say I can't do it I I I I you know I don't have that much money I don't have that much time and it doesn't matter Isaiah says I will take you by the hand right that's a very intimate thing he will take you by the hand where you are you you could be down you could be out you could be like a bruised Reed you could be a smoldering Wick you can barely hang on but he says I will take you by the hand it's very intimate you know when God telling you I will take you by the hand and I will keep you that's his
01:00:48 promise to us today so all he would want us today is to let go of our idols see the world through the eyes of the servant in every situation that we are how can I be like my savior how can my savior serve through my life I know it's imperfect it's not sometimes I might feel like I'm faking it but I'm going to commit to to the Lord Lord you're going to serve them through me that is our prayer today let's pray father Lord we we come before you and we confess every single one of us we are unfruitful and Unfaithful
01:01:38 servants every bit of our service is often tinged with self-interest build up our self-esteem we serve when it's convenient we serve when it doesn't cost us we serve when we get attention and we give up when people don't appreciate us and they don't give us the love that we expect in response to our service but they don't look at us with eyes of admiration father Lord we confess We crave those things when we serve but right now father we want to come before you humbly it is not we who live but Christ
01:02:26 who lives in us and we're going to ask this day that you live through us help us realize our calling as your Bor servants help us realize our calling as your workmanship created to serve that you will fulfill your desires and your plans in our lives we commit us into your hands for Jesus sake amen
