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00:00 blessing.
00:10 Okay. The scripture reading this morning is taken from the second book of Samuel,
00:16 2 Samuel, chapter 9, reading from verse 1 to13.
00:23 David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show
00:29 kindness for Jonathan's sake?" Now there was a servant of Saul's household named
00:35 Zeba. They called him to appear before David. And the king said to him, "Are
00:40 you Zeba?" "Your servant," he replied. The king asked, "Is there no one still
00:46 left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?
00:52 Zeba answered the king, "There is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in both feet." "Where is he?" the king
00:59 asked. Zeba answered, "He is at the house of Mail, son of Am in Loa." So,
01:06 King David had him brought from Loaba, from the house of Mail, son of Am.
01:14 When Murphy Bosef, son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed
01:20 down to pay him honor. David said, "Murphy Bosef, your servant," he
01:26 replied. "Don't be afraid," David said to him, "for I will surely show you
01:31 kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the
01:36 land that belonged to your grandfather Saul and you will always eat at my
01:42 table. Murphy Bashef bowed down and said, "What is your servant that you
01:48 should notice a dead dog like me?" Then the king summoned Zeba, Saul's servant,
01:54 and said to him, "I have given your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. You and
02:02 your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops
02:07 so that your master's grandson may be provided for. And Mafibth grandson of
02:14 your master will always eat at my table. Now Zeba had 15 sons and 20 servants.
02:20 Then Zeba said to the king, "Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do."
02:27 So Murphy Boscheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. Murphy
02:33 Boscheth had a young son named Maha. And all members of Zeba's households were
02:38 servants of Murphy Boscheth. And Murphy Boscheth lived in Jerusalem because he
02:44 always ate at the king's table and he was crippled in both feet. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. Dr.
02:50 Peter. Thank you.
02:56 Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, we ask that you speak to us this morning on
03:02 this huge topic of covenantal love. And um we
03:08 want to know at the end of the sermon, what is the height, the breadth, the depth of this love? Because this love
03:14 transforms us. This love is the only hope for this world. We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen.
03:21 We carry on our series um on covenantal love and looking the life of David. Um
03:29 if you look at the Old Testament, uh the Old Testament is not just about examples of heroes for you to follow. It is
03:36 actually about what God has done for us. And in this particular case, what has God done for David who is a foreshadow
03:43 of the greater David who is going to come? And there are five points I'd like to make from this passage that about
03:50 covenantal love. It is a love that's based on a promise. It's unconditional.
03:56 Keeps us completely safe. It's always costly and it always transforms. When we
04:02 talk about love, there are all sorts of ideas about love. I've been reading there are like 15 kinds of different
04:07 love. you know, puppy love, self love, maternal love, paternal love. Some
04:13 people say love is I'm addicted to you. Love is the master key of your life. Joan Crawford said love is a fire, but
04:21 whether it is going to warm your heart or burn down your house, you can never tell. In fact, there's a famous uh
04:28 Spanish uh poet um who says, "When love is not madness, it is not love." Pedro
04:35 Calderon Dab Bankanka and uh so CS Lewis says love is uh not a is not
04:42 affectionate feeling is a steady wish for a love person's ultimate good as far
04:47 as that could be attained but I guess you guys don't read CS Lewis right if I talking to youth nowadays they all read
04:53 uh Nicholas Sparks so I will bring a quote from Nicholas Sparks king of
04:58 chickflicks and he says the best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more then plants a fire in
05:05 our hearts and brings peace to our minds and that's what you've given me and that's what I hope to give you. Wow, isn't that romantic?
05:12 That's why he makes hit movies, isn't it? Um, let's look at the the the topic today. Uh, 2 Samuel 9. This is David at
05:21 the height of his at his glory as a king. And he says, "Is there anyone left
05:26 in the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" And the topic of today is covenantal love which
05:32 is taken from the word has said which is basically a f it's a word so pregnant
05:39 with meaning that I can't describe it in basically one sentence. So in this particular uh context is described
05:47 as kindness but is actually more than kindness. It is actually a covenantal love which is has said based on a
05:53 promise. The king said, "Is there not someone in the house of Saul that I may show kindness of God to him?" All right.
06:01 So, he's choosing someone and the one chosen is basically from the house of Saul. Why does he do that? Well, because
06:08 there's a promise. This is uh 2 Samuel uh uh 9:es 6 and 7. Do not fear. I will
06:15 show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. there is a promise and he's showing love and kindness to me of
06:24 uh to to uh someone from David's uh Saul's household because of Jonathan.
06:29 What has happened in 1 John 1 Samuel 18 is there is a covenant a promise between
06:35 Jonathan and uh David the bestest best friends. Uh let me read to you as soon
06:42 as he had finished speaking to Saul the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. Jonathan loved him as his own
06:48 soul and Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. And Jonathan made a covenant with
06:53 David because he loved him as his own soul. Jonathan stripped himself of the
06:58 robe that was on him. This is the royal robe which he takes off and he gives it
07:04 to David and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt. Now if
07:11 you have the crown prince of e Israel take off his robe, his armor, his sword,
07:19 his bow and his belt, it means he has handed the kingdom to David. This is how great their love was.
07:26 If you look at what Jonathan says, this is a time when uh life is difficult for both of them because of the father's
07:33 animosity towards David. He says, "If I'm still alive, show me the steadfast love the Lord that I may not die. Do not
07:40 cut off your steadfast love from his house forever because he believes one day David will be king. When David is
07:47 king, you don't really deal with your competitors that well. So that time, do
07:52 not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever. When the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from
07:58 the face of the earth, Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "May the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies." Jonathan realizes
08:05 there's great enmity between Saul and David. Saul's after to kill David. And
08:10 one day if David becomes king, there will be the other way around and David will kill all of Saul's people. And that time you are to show steadfast love from
08:18 my house forever. And so therefore here you have hessed which is your love,
08:25 kindness, loyalty and is always based on a promise. A promise that binds uh someone
08:32 to another person. Covenantal love is also unconditional.
08:39 Unconditional love. There was a servant in the house of Saul. His name was Zeba. And they called him to David. And the
08:45 king said to him, "Are you Zeba?" And he said, "Yes, I am. I'm your servant." And his king said, "Is there not someone in
08:51 the house of Saul that may show the kindness of God to him?" Calls a servant, says, "Is there anybody from
08:56 the house of Saul that may show kindness to him?" Notice what he doesn't ask. He doesn't ask if uh is somebody deserving,
09:04 somebody qualified, somebody sharp. You know when the king calls to give datas
09:16 on whether you're a famous doctor or a businessman or you're Tony Fernandez, you know, here
09:23 you have somebody who who has nothing. The only thing is based on is not on merit. based on the fact that it's from
09:29 the house of Saul, isn't it? And um so if you look what Zea replies to the
09:35 king, there is a son of Jonathan and the first thing he said, "Oh, there's a son." Yeah, but he's crippled. See, he
09:41 mentioned he's crippled his leg all butcher already. And and this is sad, you know, because when Mephistoshed was
09:47 only five years old, he heard the news that that Saul and Jonathan were being
09:53 killed and the nurse took me so 5 years old and ran ran so far he dropped down
09:58 and it probably hurt his back was paralyzed. So therefore for life he's crippled in his feet. This is not a
10:04 person who can get a D ship, isn't it? He's crippled his feet. He's useless. In fact uh uh when when Mephiset comes to
10:11 the palace, you know how he described himself? He paid homage and said, "What is your servant that you should show
10:17 regard for a dead dog such as I?" You know, dogs are not your elation dog. Wow. Pedigree $5,000 one. These are all
10:24 mongrels in those days. They're all mongrels. Okay. And and they really look down upon. Not only is he a dog, he's a
10:30 dead dog. Why? Why would you want to show love to a dead dog? And not only that, a dead dog. He he describes the
10:37 king said to him, "Where is he?" Zea said to the king, he is in the house of Macher in the son of Amil at Lo Daar.
10:45 You know what Lo Ba means? A barren place. So here you actually have a
10:50 crippled dead dog at a dead place. Now how you show love to crippled dead dog at a dead place. This is this is uh
10:58 amazing. You know uh we all want to be chosen and the fact that we want to chosen because we want to be chosen
11:04 based on something of our own merit. Here we have in the world today two kinds of love. Cons covenantal love
11:10 which is hessed and the one that we're more used to is consumer love. You know
11:16 consumer love is what we are used to. Imagine uh you know Richard used to love
11:21 iPhones in those days. I see him you know playing with his iPhone all the time. And one day he shocked me you know
11:28 he went and bought a Samsung you know for God's sake and he's playing with this Samsung. I don't know whether it's
11:34 cheap or what. uh but he still likes his thumb. So I don't know whether next month he'll be showing
11:40 he'll be going off to his android or or whatever you know. So you see we all live in a world where there's consumer
11:46 relationship. If it doesn't work out for you there's no loyalty. Chinese call moing gong bye-bye I'm going to buy
11:52 another car you know this is how we we live. This is the world that we live in. So therefore we the the trouble is uh um
12:00 it uh is different from covenantal love but it's what affects us even in boy
12:06 girl relationships we try to to to to you know for the young people here then I got to put my sermon towards young
12:11 people as well uh when you try to impress a girl it's all based on that isn't it it's not covenantal love it's
12:18 based on consumer love you have to you know boys if you have to impress a girl
12:23 you respect her you honor her you love her You protect her. You care for her.
12:28 You obey for her. Sacrifice for her. Girls, very simple. How are you going to impress the boy? Just smile one time.
12:37 And then you learn uh to to say and whisper sweet nothings to her when she
12:43 becomes your girlfriend, right? You say like, "You're my asthma. You take my breath away."
12:49 Or or or like, "You're my dandruff. I can't get you out of my head.
12:56 Or like you're like my car, you drive me crazy. Or lastly, if you're old, you're like my
13:03 dentures. I can't smile without you. You know, wife just asked the husband
13:08 one day, you know, how would you describe me? You know, and husband said, "You are A B CDE E F G H I J K. Wow,
13:16 what does that mean?" And husband said, "Adorable, beautiful, cute, delightful, elegant, fashionable, gorgeous, and
13:22 hot." and a wife, you know, it's a bit silly. Oh, thank you very much. What
13:27 about you know women are insatiable? I JK JK me I'm just kidding.
13:35 She had to ask. So So we're all trained from young,
13:41 isn't it? To to to to have something so that people can admire, isn't it? That's not covenantal love. That that's
13:48 consumer love. If you look in China, they even haveademies where they train girls to catch billionaires, not
13:54 millionaires, you know. One of these is the deu academy of femininity, right?
13:59 You go and join each course. They teach you how to walk like uh uh and and talk
14:05 properly. And you know what's the most popular trait for a husband? They teach guess
14:12 property. That's the most popular trait. In fact, they have reality shows. One of the most
14:18 famous reality show is this one which I cannot pronounce and what they do is you have a whole
14:23 bunch of ladies and then you've got a whole bunch of men is the usual one and then the ladies will have a light in
14:30 front of them and the men will stand there and tell about himself oh I'm a doctor I'm a professor and all that and
14:35 the guys who are unimpressed switch off the light so gradually all the lights go off until one or two fellows will like
14:41 you you know and then we have this most famous con uh uh contestant pretty girl from Beijing called Man, no. And one of
14:49 the contestants trying to impress her, you know, I love you and I'm going to take you on a bike on a ride on my
14:55 motorbike. You know what she said? She said, "I'd rather cry in a BMW than laugh on the bike."
15:08 So, if you're in China, be careful. will allow them coming here.
15:16 So this is not covenantal love. It's a consumer love. And in fact you have it
15:22 becomes so bad that there the rate of couples cohabiting before uh they get married is about 900% rise in 50 years.
15:29 You know they want to try the test meal before they start. But this increases the divorce rate. Church also you know
15:36 happens to be about you. We're reconfiguring our churches nowadays to be about you, the consumer. We got two
15:42 kinds of churches. You've got the consumer church. The church is a dispenser of religious goods and services. People come to the church to
15:49 be fed to have their needs met to quality program like VBS and Watto and
15:55 have professionals teach their children about God. Instead actually different from a missional church. You see, I go
16:01 to church means I go to a consumer church. Missional church is a body of people sent on the mission. Gather
16:06 together the community for worship, community encouragement, teaching from the word in addition that they're
16:13 self-feeding themselves through the week through a week. They're growing all the time. They're a body all the time. This
16:18 kind of church would get GST next year. This one is GST exempt.
16:24 So what are we? Are we a GST church or nonGST church? I don't know. Uh, Paige
16:30 Weey was a 146 kilogram woman and uh, she was so heavy that her boyfriend
16:36 said, "Look, you know, your tummy is getting in the way of our love." She was so upset, she was so distraught, she she
16:44 actually went on a crash diet until she got down to 63 kilograms. See that? You
16:50 know what she did after that? She kicked out the boyfriend, right? Because people don't want to have
16:57 consumer love. People don't want to have the burden of having to release how many hundred pounds, you know, just that
17:04 person loves you. There's something inside the human mind and the heart that
17:09 does not react well to consumer love. Um this is meet
17:15 and you look he has no contribution, no conditions, no leverage, no brings
17:21 lameness. He's a dead dog, nothing. He's got no leverage. He comes to with no conditions to the king's palace like
17:30 children. Jesus said if you want to come in the kingdom of God you must come like a child totally helpless with nothing.
17:37 This is Naman picture supposedly of Naman. This is a Syrian general who was
17:43 very uh uh powerful and he was struck with leprosy and what he had what he
17:48 wanted to get a cure. He heard of a famous uh uh um uh man, a prophet in in in Egypt. Sorry, sorry, in Israel. So he
17:56 went down and saw the king of Israel who referred him to Elisha. And so he came down with thousands of troops with his
18:04 sword, with his spear, with 10,000 talents of money because he thought that
18:10 he could buy his salvation from this disease. So sent us to Elisha. When
18:15 Elisha, what did Elisha say? I'm too busy to see you. comes to the whole army you know outside I'm too busy to see you
18:22 uh you go and dip yourself in the clank valley river seven times and he said what and he was so upset he wouldn't do
18:30 that but one of his servants finally convinced what harm is there to lose and he actually had to go and dip himself in
18:36 a Jordan river and he was cured and the problem is that we are like that we we we cannot accept unconditional love we
18:42 can only come if we have something to bring to the table something uh Someone
18:48 once told me, I asked one of the people in Alpha, why don't you become a Christian? Why don't you get baptized?
18:55 You know what he told me? Well, when I become a Christian, I want to be a proper one. I don't want to be a
19:01 hypocrite. So, when I become a Christian, I want a proper one. Means I must be good. I must
19:06 be this. I must be that. See, that's the problem. The only qualification to come to the kingdom of God, you must be a
19:13 dead dog from a dead place. nothing to contribute to Jesus Christ except the
19:19 fact that you are in need. So hessed is a term that refers to love, kindness,
19:26 loyalty, mercy and grace rooted on a promise. It is a beautiful word and
19:33 that's why Jesus dined with sinners. That's why he died. Now why would you come and dine? You know, dining with
19:39 sinners is not easy. You go down there. I've dined with sinners before. You know, I was working in the worst place
19:44 in the world is Sydney. uh in in a steel factory and every second word is the f
19:50 word you know every second this is born with the f word in his mouth you know and I was wondering what's happening
19:55 here and you think uh if you're sitting with sinners and tax collectors there
20:00 will be no bad words most of you saying I cannot hear I cannot hear I'm going home no but Jesus sat with them they
20:08 probably laugh at him isn't it the fellows laugh at me at at the at the steel factory they call me Billy Graham
20:16 Hey, hopeless fellow. He doesn't laugh at us. He doesn't joke with us, you know. But when Jesus died with sinners,
20:22 he loved them. And so he loved them. He you have to put up with some of these things that happening. So what are the
20:27 implications of unconditional love? Unconditional love gives us relief. Like Paige Hayes, you don't have to lose
20:34 100 pounds. God will still love you. And so therefore, you take the weight of worry, you take the weight of guilt, you
20:42 take the weight of fear away completely. We get assurance because love is unconditional. He chose us before the
20:48 foundation of the world. You know how crazy that is? God made the world for you.
20:55 He works the globe so much so that the axis of rotation is just right. One degree to the left, you fry. One degree
21:01 to the right, you freeze. And God has prepared that for us. God
21:08 has everlasting love. It doesn't stop. God's not going to love you less
21:14 tomorrow or more tomorrow. It's the same. You know, you you can't make him love
21:21 you less. And then the fact is how did it affects us? It affects us because if
21:26 God loves me and I love me and you don't like me, what's your problem?
21:32 That's right. You What's your problem? Because God loves me. That's all that matters. And God doesn't have a a bad
21:40 hair day. You know, your father will have a bad hair day. Came up there, get upset, slap the son. Why? Because I I I
21:46 upset, you know, so I slept you first. Some fathers are like that, isn't it? I we worry, you know, you wake up whether
21:52 good mood, bad mood, and then God is constant in his love for us. Why?
21:57 Because his love of us is not based on ourselves, but based on who he is and
22:02 what he has done for us. And that is the beauty of covenantal love. We have the
22:09 assurance not because someone gave us a dattorship but God's honor is even higher. Thirdly, God's covenantal love
22:17 always keeps us safe. Here is King David. He sent and brought from the house of Macher son of Amile and Loabar.
22:25 Meoshed came the son of Jonathan son of Saul came to David fell on his face and
22:31 pay homage and David said Meibboet. And he said, "Behold, I'm your servant." David said, "Do not fear. I will show
22:38 you kindness. For the sake of your father, I will restore to you all the lands of Saul. Your father you shall eat
22:44 at my table always." This is wonderful, isn't a dead dog. You bring him not only to the castle here. You're going to eat
22:50 with my h table and all your lands I will restore. uh you and your sons and
22:56 servants is to speak to Zeba shall till the land for him and bring in the produce that your master's grandson may
23:03 have bread to eat. But me fibbochet your master's grandson shall always eat my my
23:08 table. Now Zeba 15 sons and 20 servants and Zeba said to king according to all that my lord the king commands his
23:16 servant so will your servant do and all who live in Zeba's house became methiposed's servants. This is the
23:22 blessing. This is keeps him completely safe. You can't be safer than the palace. So God's love keeps you
23:29 completely safe. It's like asking you to stay in the White House and you fly on Air Force One whenever you want to go to
23:34 school. Uh Dallas Willard says with this magnificent God positioned amongst us,
23:41 Jesus brings us the assurance that our universe is a perfectly safe place to
23:46 be. It's perfectly safe. You say, "What? You not hear the Ebola virus scare? You
23:52 not fear about the GST scare. You not hear so many things and you not hear that like you know in the last two years
23:58 300,000 Malaysians have already left. I mean is it a perfectly safe place? Well,
24:04 if you look into Mark chapter 5, it's a story of uh Jesus crossing the Sea of
24:10 Galilee and and and here he is in this and and and he's asleep and when he's
24:17 asleep, there's a huge storm that comes up and this is a perfect picture of uh
24:23 uh love keeping you completely safe. Jesus is asleep. I don't know whether you can sleep when there's a storm. Most
24:29 of us can't. bum bum. We were jumping up and down and worried and all that. You think the house is going to drown, but
24:35 there's a storm. And the thing that you don't realize that Jesus is asleep. There's complete calm and peace in the
24:43 middle of all hell breaking loose. Why? Because covenantal love keeps you
24:49 completely safe. He knows that nothing will happen to him. Um, same as Paul and
24:55 Silas. They're imprisoned can now wall up by the Philippine jailers. You know what they're doing? Singing a bad song
25:04 until there's earthquake. All right. Someone said everything will work out in
25:10 the end. If it's not working out, then it's not the end. All right. It'll all work out, but it didn't work out. It's
25:17 not the end yet. you know uh akan datang you know let's look let's examine this safety of the covenantal love you look
25:24 at the covenant with Jacob and God appears to Jacob he has a a a uh pro he
25:29 has a vision and God tells him behold and Jacob has just cheated his brother
25:35 okay I'm with you keep you wherever you go will bring you back to this land I
25:42 will not leave you until I've done for you what I've promised fantastic this is not the king walking next to you this is
25:48 God saying, "I'm going to be with you. If God's going to be with you, nothing bad will happen to you, right? Absolutely nothing." Right? Well, let's
25:54 look at his life. He went on and married the love of his life, right? But before
26:01 he married her, he must marry the ugliest woman in town. All right? And before that, he enjoyed a
26:07 close relationship with God. But he had 20 years of forced labor. He was cheated by his uncle, Laban.
26:14 He entered a close relationship with God. But he had hip injury. He was a for life. His daughter diner was
26:21 raped. The family were dysfunctional. They killed a whole town of men.
26:26 Is this safety? My goodness, if this is safety, better run away. Um, you look at Luke chapter
26:34 21. Jesus says, "Before all this, they will lay their hands on you, persecute you,
26:40 deliver you up to synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before the kings and governors in my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear
26:46 witness. Settle it therefore in your mind not to medi meditate beforehand how to answer. I will give you a mouth and
26:52 wisdom which is none of your adversaries adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up
26:58 even by your parents and brothers and relatives and friends. And some of you they will put to death. You'll be hated
27:05 by all for my name's sake. But not a hair on your head will perish. By your
27:11 endurance, you will gain your lives. Do you see something wrong here? He says,
27:17 "You will die, but your hair will be okay." Now, right? And Jesus says, "Uh, are not two p sparrows sold for a penny?
27:24 None of them will fall to the ground. Even the hair on your head are all numbered." Fantastic. God loves hair.
27:32 God spends time counting your hair. So if a person like me uh plenty of hair,
27:39 God loves hairy men. If people like me very little, God loves me less probably.
27:46 You see, the whole idea is that the issue of hair is not that God counts
27:51 your hair literally, but the fact that God protects you. There is a protection that is eternally secure. You're kept
27:58 eternally secure. But that doesn't mean you don't have a storm. You will have a protection during the storm. And some of
28:03 you will die. You can die, you get promoted to heaven straight away. You don't die, you're still back here. Um,
28:09 the Admiral James Stockdale is one of the American prisoners of war in Hanoi that lasted the longest. He lasted 8
28:16 years and four of those years, imagine complete solitary confinement in
28:22 complete darkness. Most of us will go mad. And they asked
28:27 him, "How did you survive?" And everybody else around him, most of them died. I survived because I had a
28:34 enduring conviction that in the end I will be saved. Now who died? All the
28:41 rest who are thinking by Christmas I shall be released or Chinese New Year I be released. I'll be released next year.
28:47 The most those who continue to have that kind of optimism ultimately died of a broken heart. But because he believed in
28:54 the end he actually survived. the practical incultations of of of being
28:60 eternally secure because God loves you. Is that because your anxiety levels will decrease you you focus away from
29:07 yourself because rob worry will rob us of joy and energy and compassion. You continue to hoard money. You don't have
29:12 hoard money because God looks after you. You're unhurried. You're not defeated by guilt. This is the implications. Um but
29:21 God keeps us completely safe not to be like a fetus. You know, the one who's completely safe is a baby. Temperature
29:28 just right, not much noise, soundproof, tummy, you know, except mom, mother
29:33 sometimes singing hymns to you. Uh this is a completely safe place. But the problem is if you continue to stay in
29:40 the womb, that's no good to anybody. One day the baby come out, come out, the first thing the bad doctor slaps you in
29:45 the backside. You cry and you face the world in pain, isn't it? But eternal
29:51 love of God keeps us secure so that you're safe enough to suffer. There's a
29:58 picture of a Masai man called uh and there was a in a ble Graham association
30:04 meeting once a Masai gentleman called Joseph who was converted by someone
30:09 outside his tribe and he went back to his tribe and the first thing he went back to his tribe because he loved his
30:15 people was to share the gospel. He didn't even get halfway. The men captured him, dragged him out, and the
30:21 women took barb wire, whole bunch of it, and smashed him until he almost died.
30:28 And they dragged him and left him outside to die. He woke up and he dragged himself to a watering hole where
30:35 he lay for several days and he recovered. And and you thought he ran away to
30:40 Malaysia, right? No. He he he recovered and he went back when his wounds were
30:46 still fresh to the same village and he said, "Maybe I told them the gospel wrongly. Maybe I wasn't bold enough.
30:53 Maybe maybe." And he went back and he started again. And then he finished presenting the gospel. They grabbed him
30:59 again and the women took the barb wire and smashed him again and all the old wounds opened up. The fact he survived
31:05 the first time is a miracle. Second time they laid him down, you know what? He didn't die.
31:12 Instead of going to Malaysia, you know what he did? He got up and went back to the same village.
31:17 Now, this is crazy. I don't recommend it for you, but he got back same village
31:23 and then they grabbed him again and they started trashing him. And when they were trashing him, the women broke down and
31:28 cried. They said, "This man must have something." And the whole village was
31:34 turned to Christ. Now, he's able to do that. You know why? Because covenantal love keeps you safe enough to suffer.
31:42 Covenantal love is not for you to find a parking spot at car 4 and come to Christian seminar to see how
31:48 I'm going to be blessed, my business going to get better. That is a distortion of the love of God. If you
31:54 are into that, you cannot find that in this church. That is not what covenantal love is about. Covenantal love is about
32:00 the love of Jesus Christ who so strong will keep you safe. Your hair won't be gone, but you might die and you will
32:06 suffer, but you will be safe. Paul says, "Now I rejoice in my
32:12 suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I'm filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of his
32:18 body, that is the church." What what Paul is saying is a very profound statement. There is a certain amount of
32:26 suffering that needs to happen in this world before the world ends. and that
32:31 requisite number of Christians go to heaven. When Christ died, he suffered
32:36 enough for the atonement of all our sins, but not enough. The rest of the I
32:42 say quot of suffering is to be handled by the church by you and I. And Paul is
32:48 saying I when I suffer I'm filling up the quota. There will be a quot that
32:53 needs to be fixed up. and he keeps us safe so that we are bold enough to go out and face that quot and take up that
33:03 affliction for the body of Christ. Covenantal love is also very costly. It
33:09 is always costly. Here is David and he his enemy is Saul and he's bringing what
33:17 Mephish said who is basically the son of his enemy into his palace. This is
33:24 crazy. If you look Caligula when he died, he was killed by his Priatoran guard and the guard went and killed his
33:31 son, his daughter, his his wife. Everybody dies in in ancient times, you always kill off the next dynasty, isn't
33:39 it? You never keep them alive. It is dangerous to keep them alive. If you look here, um in Malaysia, we don't kill
33:46 them off. If you leave them behind, you got problems. He's got he withdraws support and then he says uh Najip Tus
33:53 and Amno Ponder succession combo uh uh Mukris is Mahata's son. All right. So
33:60 leaving them behind is a problem. They every day they come in newspaper you worry about whether the guy is going to
34:05 come back again. But you know what covenantal love is? Covenantal love is when Najib invites Mahati to stay in his
34:11 house every day. Nag nag nag nag. You should have done this and should done that. That that's covenantal love.
34:18 bringing your enemies into your house or maybe if it's Najib bringing Anwa into his house.
34:24 Wow. That's covenantal love, isn't it? It is always costly. That is covenantal
34:31 love. Covenantal love pays the price. So Jesus Christ like King David bringing me
34:38 fifth into the house, Jesus Christ paid the price of our sin. It is always
34:43 costly. You can't go out uh and expect to show love to people without any cost. It'll cost you
34:49 suffering. It'll cost you um a price. Lastly, covenantal love transforms. Um
34:57 May, this is the last verse of the whole chapter. And I want you to look very carefully what it says. Me fiboshat
35:06 lived in Jerusalem for he always ate at the king's table. And now he was lame in
35:13 both feet. Why does he say that? Me boetted lived in Jerusalem. He ate
35:20 always at the king's table and he was lame in both feet. You look at this picture. There's something wrong in this
35:25 picture. When you go to a royal palace to have makan, you will see people decked in the finest regalia. They're
35:32 the best people in town, the a team, and suddenly you see somebody who doesn't belong there. a guy with lame feet
35:40 who doesn't belong there. A dead dog from a dead place. And so therefore, the fact that we are at the king's table
35:46 gives us huge confidence, but the fact that we're lame in both feasts keeps us humble. There are three
35:54 things we learn. the transformation. You know, Alex Haley, famous author, wrote
35:59 book Roots, which was turned into a TV miniseries that traced the roots of African-American people uh uh way back
36:07 to Africa. And you know, he is a very famous picture behind him. Uh and you
36:12 see that, right? When you look at the picture, you're wondering what's the deal here?
36:20 How did the turtle get on top of the fence? Right? Impossible. Someone must have put
36:27 him there. And so therefore, when you have got mechett in the temple in the in
36:32 the in the king's table, you think about what the turtle on top of the fence because how can a lame guy who's a dead
36:38 dog who belongs to the opposition camp sit at the main table? You you wonder
36:43 and you wonder that. So therefore, he is only there by God's grace. So every time
36:49 you walk around and you look at us, we are all at the king's table. We are all
36:54 lame in our feet. And it reminds us that we didn't get there because of our efforts. We didn't
37:01 get there because we were good. We got there because we're dead dog at a dead place. Because God chose us by grace.
37:10 Number one. So we're totally humble, but yet we're totally confident. You know why? We at the king's table. We're not
37:17 at Lucky Garden Paramount Restaurant. We're at the king's table. blame lame
37:23 fellow can be kingstable you know fantastic imag you you go to to MS you fly on MH uh 377
37:31 and suddenly the air hostess say to you you know I give you first class hey first class I'm wearing slipper you
37:38 know and they pick you to first class and they make a big fast out of you isn't that fantastic the the the amount
37:44 the magnitude of grace is so great so you're you're there in first class everybody else d you know smoking cigal
37:52 gold here, gold there. You have a slipper sitting down there. And that tells you how great, how lucky, how
37:58 wonderful covenantal love is. And then when you're sitting there, we are only
38:03 staying there by his power. When you're sitting there, every time you look at your legs, it's still lame. God didn't
38:10 heal you yet. It's still lame. Even when they get around to the toilet, they're going to carry you. They get go and have
38:16 supper, they're going to carry you. When go upstairs to the bedroom, they're going to carry you. And you're always dependent, isn't it? If you realize that
38:22 you're lame and most Christians don't realize they want to the palace then they think they can run around. Once you
38:28 go to the palace you still realize you are lame and when you're lame you're always dependent on the power of the king.
38:34 You see you start off with Jesus Christ then you ask end off with your own works whether good words or bad words whatever
38:41 it is is always yourself. Covenantal love transforms us by grace
38:46 so that we're always dependent on his power. never a day without trusting in the Lord. And finally, the
38:53 transformation which will happen fifth of is that you also love other people
38:58 who are lame. Imagine you go up to the palace and you're lame and everybody else is coming
39:04 you're no good. You're not good enough. Uh you're not as lame as I am. You can't because the fact that you're
39:10 lame transforms you so that everybody else is lame. You look at them and you look at them with a look of love. You
39:17 know why? Because you're also lame. The problem when you come to church, you think other people lame, but you're not
39:23 lame. Oh, look at him. He didn't dress properly. The skirt too short. You know,
39:28 you murmur against each other as if you are not lame. Everybody else is lame. And you take their sin and their sin is
39:35 more important than your sin. Brothers and sisters, covenantal love transforms
39:40 us because we are all lame. That's why the author ends off. He's at the king's
39:45 table and he is lame and continues to be
39:50 lame when that is grace. So the next time we
39:56 open our mouth to say something against somebody else, you are also lame.
40:04 Couple of days ago, there's a couple called Chester and Ruth Smith.
40:09 60 years ago they had a daughter called Kathleen and she was born lame. Her muscles are
40:15 all wired the wrong way and they went to Shriner's Hospital in the US. They did a
40:22 very complicated operation that actually allowed this lame woman to walk.
40:27 Kathleen lived for 25 years of her life and he died. Now these two are in
40:33 nursing home so they can't be very rich but they donated $1 million probably all
40:39 the money they had. Why? Because someone showed them love and this love
40:45 transforms them. So they help other lame people. See this is hesset. It is
40:51 kindness. It is love. It is mercy. It is loyalty. It is grace. Is written in the promise. And this is the cross. The
40:58 cross is hesset given to us. You know, Pericles once said, "What you
41:03 leave behind is not what is engraved on the stone monument, but what is woven into life of others."
41:10 We need to practice covenantal love because it's based on the promise of Jesus to us. It's unconditional. Keeps
41:17 us safe. It's always costly. It always transforms. I want to go back to what we
41:24 should do every day. We're going to meet people. We're going to have a party. We should actually have a party. And you
41:30 know a party, Jesus had a party. Jesus said to the man who had invited him, "Will you give a banquet or a dinner? Do
41:37 not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and
41:44 you'll be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be
41:50 blessed because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." Well, how do
41:58 you apply this? have a party. That's why end of the year Christmas we have a party. We invite the crippled, the lame,
42:04 the poor, the blind, we invite everybody else. But this context goes beyond that. Jesus Jesus is not saying that only just
42:11 have party. When you go to the club, when you go for a holiday, when you come
42:17 to visit people in the house, whatever you do, remember covenantal love because you
42:23 were shown love because you are lame. And so therefore, shouldn't you show the same love to other people when they're
42:29 lame? It's not just a party. It's the way you live your life. Your life should wreak of covenantal love when people
42:35 look at you and say, "What the f is doing like that? There must be something wrong with him
42:40 or something right with him." You know, Paige Hayes weighs is a woman who weighs
42:49 146 kilograms and she spends all her life trying to get down to 63 kg.
42:57 Why? Because she desperately wants to be loved. Every day you will be meeting
43:04 Paige Hayes all over the world. People desperate to lose weight. people
43:09 desperate to gain money, to gain respect, to gain love. So someone to love them for what they actually are,
43:16 not what they're going to be. And that's the kind of love that we need
43:22 to show if the word of God is to transform us. The way we deal with the
43:27 people in our lives have to change. We can't make friends because of networking. I make friend of him because he helped me one day. You need to look
43:35 like Jesus. You help someone because they cannot help you back at all. That is the kind of love that transforms us.
43:41 We if we love and care for only our relatives and our friends, then we're no different. Jesus says to anybody else.
43:48 If we have a supernatural covenantal love, we need to meet all the page haze.
43:53 When you see them at work, you see them at play, you see them at school, they're all trying every day. They get up to
43:59 lose weight, to put on a better shirt, to buy a better house because they think by getting a better house they get
44:05 better self-esteem that people care for them more. But deep down they just want
44:10 to be loved and so therefore we try. You speak English, you speak with American
44:16 accent. Why? Chang more styo. People love me more. We all got our hang-ups,
44:22 isn't that? You dress, you must dress well, you know. Imagine you're in youth, you know, and and the people come up to you and look for the label at the back.
44:28 A pasa malam. It must be at least Jojo Armani, isn't it? And so we're all suffering day in
44:37 day and hour. We people have pages trying so hard to be like the world to
44:42 be really loved for what they are that only person who can love them for what they really are lame people are lame
44:49 people like us because we have been transformed by the love of Jesus Christ. So don't don't let this sermon fly past
44:55 your heart. It must drill down to the place where it really works and transform the way you love other people.
45:02 Look out. Uh we actually have 10 Indian kids now across the road. You know, if
45:09 you don't go out and see them at street field, I bring up back here so that all of you could perhaps these are the
45:15 mechettes. They're the dead dogs with the crippled feet. Be crippled their life. I remember
45:21 one of them has been bummed in and out of five homes. Another one just tells us
45:27 that they treat so bad that if they make some noise, they'll give them rice with a huge amount of chili patty just so so
45:35 that they don't ask for too much food. This is the kind of kids we're dealing with and they are just next door. And we
45:42 are a church of 800 people attending. Where's the covenantal love? drop by, say hello,
45:49 take them out for McDonald's or something. Is that so much to ask? Because we too are lame. I I see so much
45:58 pain in the world. My son was telling me yesterday about this young fellow who
46:04 was uh actually rejected by his father and mother.
46:09 Goes to homeschool and his home school's going to close down. taken in by his
46:15 grandfather doesn't have anywhere to go. I mean, how could you have a s son, a a
46:21 boy rejected by father, but so many people like Paige Hayes, so many methy
46:26 bushettes, we as a church need to get up and reach out. There's another bunch of
46:33 people in in our c our church. This is about 20 of them that day. They're
46:39 Nepalese workers. Everywhere you go in this country, you will salute you, you know, at car 4, at the hospital. A
46:46 quiet, beautiful people who never take anything for granted.
46:52 They don't raise their voice at you, but they're treated badly. They work seven days a week in and out,
46:59 paid a,000 or less or even 800 ringgit.
47:04 All of them have left family at home in Nepal. Children who haven't seen their father for years. They're here. They're
47:12 lonely. You know the number of people who who are Christians in Nepal, less than 1%.
47:18 But yet when they come here, they're open to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you know there are 6 million migrants in
47:25 this country? The population just reached 30 million. 2.3
47:31 official workers. The other of the six million are unofficial.
47:38 God is changing the face of this country. The lame, the disenfranchised,
47:43 the outcast. You know what God is doing? God is filling this whole country. Pandatang
47:50 because God has a sense of humor. We're all pandatangs in the end. In
47:55 fact, maybe Pandatang will be prime minister one day, huh? You don't know. Or maybe Nepalese guy or Bangladeshi guy. You know why not?
48:02 But God has a huge sense of humor and is the church of Jesus Christ got to
48:08 recognize that God loves the pandatang. The pandatang is first in his mind. If
48:16 you're a foreigner and you're left out, you're African or you're whatever race you are. God loves you. And we as God's
48:24 people, we love you, too. Let's pray.
48:33 Father Lord, we just are awed because if there's anything one is any
48:41 feature of you that is so wonderful and so
48:46 glorious. It's your love. Lord, you just don't
48:51 have love. You are love. And we just want to come and worship you today because
48:59 you love us. We're all meibos. We're all
49:04 dead dogs who are lame in the feet. We don't deserve anything. And you love us
49:10 simply because you are a wonderful, gracious, glorious,
49:16 magnificent God. And our hearts bow in worship that you keep us safe. that you
49:22 paid the price, that you transform us. Father Lord, we
49:27 do not want to leave this hall in such a way that insults this love that when we
49:32 go home, we go back to the consumer love that we have, to the secondass love that
49:38 we have. We want to be transformed and love people who are unlovable, reach people who are unreachable, touch people
49:44 who are untouchable. We want to be sons and daughters of Jesus Christ. Father, we know that all
49:51 other religions, human beings are described as slaves of God. But we're not slaves. We're are adopted sons of
49:59 God. And we will sit at the banquet table one day and we will be lame,
50:05 but we will be at the banquet table. And we will glorify you. Father, I ask for
50:11 the Holy Spirit right now to fill our hearts, to bring us close, transform us,
50:16 energize us, that our love will be pure. It will not be selfish. It'll be godly.
50:24 It'll be hesset love. It'll be loyal. It'll be merciful. It'll be sacrificial.
50:30 It'll be unselfish. We ask this for Jesus sake. Amen.
50:37 Here we all rise.
