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Right, let's go to the sermon. I'm going to recap a bit of what William said last week. What is that something that is so important to me and you that we need and must have at all cost and perhaps to some of you is this. Unless you've been living in a cave. This little fellow is called Laboo. He retails at $50 at PopMart, but he can fetch up to a million dollars. It made the owner of PopMart now one of the 10 richest men in China. They are rolling out a jewelry hire jewelry collection based on this little fellow.
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Where's Joyce H? favorite band is the 17. All right. And 17 K-pop band is now also endorsing a whole series on labubu. Uh here, by the way, if you're a labubu collector, uh disclaimer, this is just for illustration. So, what do we do? This fellow has just conquered the world. There is hope. His brother has come onto the scene. He's called Lafufu. We will talk about Lafufu later. And there are two brothers here today, Labou and Lafufu. And we ask who is the real deal and who is fake. In today's sermon, we will talk about
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how Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. And we will see how the gospel of labubu gives us a spiritual truth. Peter okay or not Peter I think. Let us pray. Lord we come before you on this very serious topic but full of richness and very much the climax of what Paul has brought us through chapter 4. Make me your servant and your word and your word alone that goes out and you will not come back empty. We say this in Jesus name. Amen. Now we're going to start the reading from verse 19. And I want you to see
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whether you pick up what we call a motif. Motive meaning something that he's repeatedly using to tie the entire text together. And I'll highlight it to you. My dear children, for whom I'm again in the pains of childbirth. That's a strange phrase. Today's father's day, but what is Paul trying to be? Pains of child birth until Christ is formed with you. He's talking about a mother giving birth. I want you to hear this. How I wish I could be with you now and change my tone because I'm perplexed about you. He has a lot of concern for
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the Galatians. Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware what the law says? For it's written that Abraham had had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. Was is he on again? Motherhood. Two mothers, two sons. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh. But a son by the free woman was born as a result of divine promise and this is of course Hagar and Sarah. These things are being taken figuratively. The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Si
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and bears children who are to be slaves. Here again there is. Now Haga stands for Mount Si in Arabia and correspond to the present city of Jerusalem because she is in slavery with her children. There again, mother and child. But the Jerusalem that is above is free. She is our mother. There again mother. Now that's a complex text. We'll get to it later. Verse 27. For it's written, be glad barren woman. Still about motherhood. What was Sarah? Sarah was barren. You who never bore a child. Shout for joy and cry aloud. You who
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were never in labor. Because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband. Now you brothers sisters like Isaac are children of promise. They're again children. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the spirit. It is the same now. But what does scripture say? Get rid of the slave woman and the son. For the slaves woman will never share in inheritance with a free woman's son. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we're not children of the slave woman, but of
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the free woman. This is quite a complex text. So, I need you to bear with me a little bit, but I want you to notice the key theme running through. It is about what? Child birth. Mothers giving birth. That is the motive. And there are two mothers being contrasted. One who is barren yet having children. that seen in the story of Sarah and again in the in the text on Isaiah we go to it another one who gives birth easily that's Haggar and yet that children is a slave I want you to pick this up and we use that to
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sort of go through the text now this text has been quite controversial because of this particular word in verse 24 and we're going to take a few minutes to just bring us through this these things are being taken figuratively. The Greek word here is allegraimo where we get the word allegory meaning is symbolic. What are the symbols here? I'll just quickly go through it and we'll get back to it. The women represent two covenants quickly. One is the old covenant. We know that because he says one covenant is from Mount Si.
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That is Moses giving out the ten commandments. And this corresponds to Heagga. Now the other thing is this. The mother not only represents the covenant, he represents a city. Heggar stands for Mount Si in Arabia. Now we all know Mount Si isn't in Arabia. What is he talking about? Because Hega's son is Ishmael. Ishmael is the father of who? The Arabs. It's about Arabs. He's talking about Arabian descendancy. And here is quite fascinating and correspond to the present city of Jerusalem. Can you imagine saying Jerusalem is tied to
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Arabia? I mean that's just quite ironic. And what you must understand in Old Testament literature, Jerusalem is often referred to as a mother. You see that in Lamentations 1 and Isaiah 54. We'll come to it. Because she is slavery with her children. So that's Hagga. Hagga represents the old covenant. Hagga represents present day Jerusalem. Complicated? Yeah, we'll get to it. But the Jerusalem that is above is free. That's Sarah, heavenly Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem. And she is our mother. Right? So let's go to that. Now, let me
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just explain this a little bit. A friend of mine is the chairman of Adam Road Presbyisterian Church. They were down here for a camp. I caught up with him and he's also the building chairman. By the way, Wyouong, what's your budget for your building fund? Couple hundred,000, right? 700,000. Okay. Like he's a bit little bit more than yours. 40 million, 13 million for the land, 27 for building Peter. So he sent me down. This is in Tonga, their third congre uh congregation. They're big. I think about 4,05
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and he said Anna Anna Anna look at the symbols the cross what do you see on top mo I see some shape law I see some form law looks nice law no look carefully yeah I'm looking JC it's a crown his hand almost vibrating I don't see a crown you know it's a crown vibrto the cross in the crown. Don't you get it? No. But if it works for you, it works for you. I found out actually the architect wanted to put a bell there. It was supposed to be a big bell and Christian was very happy put a bell. Then they
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found out it cost 40,000 sing dollars to put a bell. So the community tagged it. Now what I'm trying to say is that look this is symbolism. If it you think it's a crown, it's a crown. I don't think it's a crown. It's up to me. The architect want put a bell there. This is what we call openended interpretation. You know, like a movie. I write you something. I draw you something. I build you something. You, it can be whatever you want. Now, here's the danger. When you get to the Bible, then you say,
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"Well, you know the Bible, right? I think I'm going to take it symbolically. You want to take it literally, good for you. Just like this. I want to take it symbolically. I'll give you a clear example. Right? This is Jordan Peterson and I I love reading him. And he did a series on the word became flesh. John 3. And he said, "The word is your words and you must make your words a reality. manifest the life you want. Actually, that's very helpful from a self-help perspective. But I can tell you that's not what the
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Apostle John meant. You cannot say that because it's not what John meant. The word became flesh is God becoming man and dwelling among us. It is not about manifesting the life you want. So here's the problem with symbolic representation. It can be symbolic, it can be literal, it can be both. In this case, you have both. I'll give you the most classic ones and we'll go back to the text. This is the most classic pictures you get of Eve and the snake. If you just Google up Eve and the snake, you get a 101
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pictures on this. But if you go and look at Genesis 4, when God curses the snake, what happens to the snake? It goes to the ground and it the curse is that it lands on the ground. Meaning what? When the snake is talking to Eve, if you take a literal interpretation, it should look like this. It should is only after Genesis 4 is cursed and then he bites the sand. And hang on before that the snake can talk. You see it looks like something out of a bad science fiction movie, you know. And so people fight, you know. Some
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people say, "Well, Revelation say the ancient serpent is a snake. This is symbolic." And then the literalist get worked up. If you say the snake is symbolic, what else is symbolic? Is Jesus symbolic? Maybe Jesus died, didn't die at the cross. People really fight. Then other people say, "No, no, no. It's literal. The snake got possessed. The devil possessed the snake. The snake could talk. It's not any write essays about it. And they show you research how a long time ago the snake actually had legs. They fight. The point is Genesis
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1:4 isn't a lesson in biology. Let me give you another example. When Galileo found out the world was round, he went to the church. The church imprisoned him because the church said in Isaiah 12, the earth is flat, four quarters of the earth. So you must always go to the intention. Isaiah is talking about raising up people. And by the way, the Hebrew understanding of the cosmos is actually around this adome and sh is below. It isn't even a rectangular. So what am I trying to tell you? Always look at the
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intention of the author. Is Paul trying to get you into the theology of allegorical interpretation? He's not. The beginning of the text is verse 19, not 21. And this is what he's trying to talk at. He's talking about child birth. I want you to pick that up. And he's talking about how the Galatians have strayed away because of the Judaizers and he's using this example of child birth to bring them back into some understanding. This isn't a lesson about biology. Isn't a lesson about allegorical interpretation, right? So,
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let me go straight to it. He opens up and you can almost smell his sarcasm. Tell me, you who want to be under the law, you can almost sense his tone. Are you not aware of what the law says? And let me put it up to you. Here are two positions. The Judaizer's position is this. Believe in Jesus. Follow God's commandments. As a result, you are safe. Paul's position is this. Believe in Jesus, you are saved. As a result, you follow God's commandments. It's very subtle. But that difference is very critical. I
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want you to just go through with me a little bit and we'll come to some really practical implications. So, what they're trying to say is this. You're not quite there yet. You can imagine the Judaizers going there and says, "Oh, we we are children of Abraham." That appears very heavily in the Galatians text. You what? You believe in Jesus. You say you're a child of Abraham. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. We We are children. We are children of Isaac. You You're a Gentile. You got to be circumcised. You got a
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long way to go unless you do this. And this is what they're saying. Be circumcised. Follow the Mosaic law. You're not safe. And we have the same thing today. We don't need to say those words. We can say this. Unless you speak in tongues, you're not really a powerful Christian. Unless you you you you have been anointed by the Holy Spirit. You are you're powerless Christian. Unless you are baptized, you can't really have fellowship. Unless you you keep the Sabbath a certain way, you're disobeying God. Unless you
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abstain from pork, you're guilty of the fires of hell. Here's the most subtle one. Unless you are gospel centered, must be gospel centered. You're not really one of us. Nowadays, every sermon at the end of it, they have to cram the cross into it. You know, don't like you must rubber stand the cross into it. Then the sermon is the tangong halal, you know. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's like there's there's a certain procedure you must follow. So, it's a not quite there yet. I want you to pick this up
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because it flows very nicely into the text. So, this is what it says. It is written Abra had two sons. We just read it, right? Heaggar and Sarah. Now, let me just go. We just read this. I'll just ping it up again. I want to pick this up a little bit because this part is a bit complicated. One, he's saying Heagga represents Mount Si. Now, what is he saying? The Judaizers are saying unless you follow the ten commandments to the tea, which is impossible to do, it's impossible in chapter 4, you're not safe. So Haggar is
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representing that. He's calling it slavery. I want you to pick this up a bit. Right? And Haggar herself was a slave. Now the second part in verse 25 is interesting. Now Heaggar says on Mount Sai in Arabia, he's talking about offspring. He's talking about offsprings and correspond to the present city of Jerusalem. Now if you meet a Malaysian, right? You go overseas, you say where you from? I'm from KL. You already say Malaysia. Meaning the city represents people. Jerusalem represents who? The Jews.
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So Hagar is representing what he calls physical Jerusalem and those who practice the law to get salvation. That's what he's saying. Because she in slavery with her children. Now if Haggar stands for present city of Jerusalem, Sarah is standing for spiritual Jerusalem and Sarah is barren. She can't have children. Remember the earlier argument of Galatians is that if you receive by faith by faith the gospel you are spiritual children of Abraham. Paul brings that up in chapter 4. And so Sarah is the mother
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of who? All of us. That's the point, right? Now, stay with me a bit, right? There are two sons representing two covenants. Both represent two ways to live. One way leads to slavery and the other one leads to freedom. I'll put this up for you just to read, right? Because in case you don't have a history of the Old Testament, then I'll give you some very simple application. Haggar was a slave. Ishmael was born to slavery. Ishmael's birth was a natural one. By nature, we are born to slavery to sin. Sarah were wife. Isaac was
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therefore born as a child of God's promise. Isaac's birth was supernatural. In fact, he says born of the Holy Spirit. Remember earlier on in verse 19, you have Paul saying, "I'm in pains on you again." He's talking about the original time when he preached to them and they were born again and now he's worried about them. And therefore, we set free from slavery when we embrace God's promises. God's promises starts from chapter 4 onwards. Now, I want you to pick up the last two points. It is easy for Hagar to bear Ishmael. She's
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fertile. It is biological impossible for Sarah to be Isaac and she had to wait a long time. Everyone is either an Ishmamail or an Isaac. So let us go back to this. What is that something that is so important to me that I need and must have at all cost? And I know it's not lab boo. I want you to pick this up. Huh? Now this is where I need you to absorb it a bit. Sarah was stigmatized because she's barren in her society. You can't have children. You are not complete. She's marked. I am not a full woman unless I have
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children in particularly a son. To avoid shame, she made Abraham conceive a child with a slave. Hear God early on told Sarah, you wait. You wait and you will have descendants like the stars through you. She waited and she waited and one day she just told Abraham, "Look, I'm I'm I'm barren, but I want a kid." But God promised you, that's what Abraham would have told her, "But I'm barren. Why don't you sleep with my slave?" That was the fastest and most practical way to remove a shame as a barren woman. So when Ishmael was born,
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she's got a kid. Now she's got no more shame. Ishmael is my son. I can hold my head up high. I go out there. I had a son through my slave. I took him as my own. I'm now one of you. I want you to hear the language. But God is a God of promise. And so Isaac is born. So, guess what happens when you had a son that wasn't really biologically yours and then you give birth to a son that's yours? What do you think you're going to do to the first son? She neglects him. She doesn't love him. And so, he mocks Isaac.
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I mean, I'm putting in the traits. Genesis doesn't really tell you this, but it's not wrong to think that. And we know Hagar also gets it to her head. So Sarah asked Abraham to get rid of both Hagar and Ishmael. Suddenly the son she wanted is what? A liability. And in a supreme act of cruelness, she tells Abraham just drop them the desert to die. And we know Abraham wrestled because that's my son. But God says look bring them there and I'll take care of it. Now you read this and you say, you know why it has nothing to do with me. I
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want you to hear this. I feel stigmatized because I'm not well off. It could be anything. My business is doing badly. I don't have a girlfriend. I don't I can't hold my head up high. To avoid shame, I engage in corrupted business. This is Malaysia, my ble land, ma normal in our culture. This is the fastest and most practical way to remove my shame. Now I counting everybody. I got money, ma. And now I got new car, I got new girlfriend, new home. Now I can home my head up high. But because you do
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this, you learn to lie. If you learn to lie to be rich, you will learn to lie to your wife and she will start to check your handphone. What happens then? You have become a slave. That's the parallel. So let me give it to you very simply how Paul lining up. Unless you do this, you're not safe. And in Paul's thinking, it was what? Being circumcised, following the Mosaic law. Nowadays, unless you taking whatever box you go to, many churches, you have a checklist you got to do to be accepted. And here's
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what it is. Unless you have fill in the blank, you won't be respected by others. Or to put it simply, unless I have children, unless I'm married, unless I'm successful at work, unless my children are all in universities and doing well, I'm not complete. You see how real this is, you know. So, what does it say? What the scriptures say? Get rid of the slave woman. So this morning we ask, "What slavery in your heart do you need to get rid of?" To answer that, we go back to this. Some people say, "I can get what I want." And you
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say, "Wow, you're the luckiest person in the world." Let's just go through with that. And we go back to our good friends, Labu and Lafufu. Let's just say you can get whatever you want. You're not going to buy Lafu. Lafu is a knockoff. You must buy the real deal. You got money to spend, ma. You can buy the whole set. You can go to Lazada and spend $4,000 on a premium labu. Then you go and look at Lisa Blackping. Whatever she has, you Google every day. Everything she has, you buy. You can get whatever you want. And then you quue for
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days until the police come and throw you into lockup because you couldn't get a limited limited set. And every day you're checking on resale value. you know you are going you can get whatever you want and Paul would say you are to be the most pied person you're a slave you see what you don't understand about pop's business model right is consumer behavior engine is gambling you know it designed to tie you in by the dopamine effect because you buy via blind boxes you buy you don't know what you're
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And it hooks you. You see, I can get whatever I want. I can get whatever guy I want. I just need to bat my eye. I just put on some my The guy will come running. I can get whatever I want because I'm rich. People respect me. I'm powerful. Paul will say, "You're a slave." But if you buy Lafufuh only $31, very cheap. Don't need to worry about checking Lisa from Blackping because she won't have a Lafu. Don't need to worry about resale value because there's none. No need to worry about cues at Pop because there's none.
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The police are not going to arrest you. His head is probably going to come off after a while anyway. You are the most freest person in the world. This is freedom. Laboo is slavery. So who is Ishmael and who is Isaac? Lab boou is Ishmael. Laf fufu is Isaac. I don't know when I'm going to get to trouble with this. Well, you think this through a little bit? You You might look at Sarah. She's barren. You know, she's old. She has no children. In her mind, I'm a nobody. Hagga is young, fertile, but God's eyes are on Sarah
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and God's eyes are on you. And this morning if you feel ashamed just say these words lau manifest the life you want. Really what if getting what you want makes you anxious and worried most of the time you are a slave. Recognize the slavery in your heart that you need to get rid of. Be aware that whatever you're pursuing for happiness might actually enslave you. And there are two questions you ask. What occupies your thinking most of the time and what do you feel losing? And if you fear losing it, you're going to
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spend the rest of your life trying to make sure you keep it. Can you imagine having a a collection of labubu every day we worried you probably put it inside a box, put in safe deposit. Every few days you check whether they're there, see whether dirt is there, clean the guy. You're a slave, man. I'm telling you. So I want you think about this. Now let's go to the second part. This part is fantastic. He says Jerusalem. Now this text about the barren woman is actually referring to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is described as a
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barren woman. The context is this. The Israelites have been taken away into captivity. And so Isaiah describes Jerusalem as a barren woman and says at one time you will come back like a multitude. More are the children of the desolate woman. You have much more. And what was Isaiah prophesizing? He's prophesizing in Galatians 3. Those who have faith are children of Abraham. All nations will come back. That's what Isaiah is prophesizing. And Paul picks this up when he says, "My dear children." So, let me put this to you.
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Paul was barren, but his overflowing spiritual children. He was single, but he considered the Galatians his children. He had more spiritual children than a typical married person. And so here's the second point. I want to spend a bit of time on this. To not realize the blessings that a Christian community brings is to experience spiritual barrenness. And I want to ask you a question. Are you the type that comes to ABC and then just leaves because you don't want to know anybody? Number two, you are in ABC. You cannot tan some
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people here. These ABC people all one kind one. This elder also one kind one. So I put a wall. I want you to pick this uph and I want to just go through this a bit and give me some time. I don't have many friends at BC. I can't seem to find the right connections and let's take this in a non-judgmental manner. Now how do people form friendships? One, they find things in common. So Liverpool fans will not sit together with great devils. Sacrilegious. They are the enemy. You must be Kakinanga. So Liverpool will talk together and
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berate the other side and then after that you form deeper connections. Correct? You can be Liverpool kakila copy kakila. There's a lot of copy kaki in our church. You know all these copy cornos. You can be golf kakila computer game kakila but you got kakanga. Correct. From your kakang you form bonds one. That means you have something in common. That's one. Secondly, you are accepted. This gang accepts you. You know those American movies where the the girl comes in with a tray after into the hall and
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then can I sit here? Can I sit there? And then nobody wants her to sit and she go sit with the losers corner. You know American movies have that right. But when you find a rag gang ah I'm one of them and you cannot sit with the elders table. No elders table only four people. Me, Peter, Yula, Midian. Huh? You want to sit to our table by invitation only. You're not takang. I had a I had a friend who told me who was a client. He said very proudly I belong to the young president's club. Oo young president's
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club. Can I join for your turnover must be 10 million. Oh okay. Thank you very much. You see we all elitist and we want to find acceptance in click. So there are two here. I want you to pick this up. One, you find commonality. Two, you find your tribe. Now, this is what Paul is picking up. I want you to go through. One, you find yourself in them because you're Liverpool. He's Liverpool. We are one of the same. Two, you find yourself through them. Suddenly the whole group, you didn't know they Liverpool pants.
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You were red devil. But if majority Liverpool, suddenly you shift sides. Suddenly you change your hairstyle. Suddenly you listen to something of music. suddenly listen to K-pop because everybody that listens to K-pop because you want to be accepted. You find yourself in others and you find yourself through others. Now what is Paul saying and the difference between Christian friendship and secular friendship? Because he's very close to the Galatians until Christ is formed in you. I want you to pick this up.
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Paul will put it this way. You are trying to form yourself in others or you're trying to form yourself through others. Is about identity. But Christian friendship isn't like that. No. Christian friendship is about two people trying to form Christ in each other. That's one on one to one. I see you. You see me. Well, I cannot tahan really bet the way he talk always interrupting talk very fast very condescending this is an w I think I better don't want to be his friend but Paul would say you have to try to form
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Christ in me I look at you and say w you very exc you got a lot of money but I have to form Christ in you let's have a drink that's what Paul is Number two, in clicks and tribes, you're trying to form Christ together through unconditional acceptance. And that's why he says that neither Jew nor Gentile nor slave. And why is so upset with the Judaizers? So you say this, you know, I find it very hard to make friends in Abc. I have nothing in common. Last time I talked to them, the guy stabbed me in
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the back. I try to help in this ministry. They all all like a gang one. I think I just come to church and then I chote. And then we will say, why would Jesus consider you his friend? What do you have in common with Jesus? And then you say, well, are you sure Jesus considered me his friend? Then you better read John chapter 15. You know what? Let's go a bit deeper. I decided not to be friends with him because actually I was close with him but he hurt me. He stabbed me in the back and I want to come clean here. Probably some people
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would think I stabbed them in the back and maybe I think you stabbed me in the back. You see where we're going with this? The easiest thing to do in the church is what? Avoid that person and go to your gang. But let me just see what Christ would do. John 15, you are my friends if you do what I command. That's Paul. Because you're trying to form Christ in one another. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. I called you friends for everything I learned from my
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father and made known to you. This is about forming Christ in one another. Our job is to make you more Christlike and your job is to make me more Christlike. and get this. Even though you can't stand me, only in Christianity you're supposed to be friends. You betan. You did not choose me. I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit. This is my command. Love each other. There are people I do not like and I'm quite sure some of you don't like me. There's only two options. We
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are here by randomness. Or maybe God wants two people who don't like one another to be friends. Why? So they can form Christ in one another because he chose us to be here. So ask yourself one simple question. Why are you here in FBC? I can tell you is not just to sit here and go back. You know, you are to sit here to build connections and then you say I can't stand people here. And then God will tell you all the more reason you should stay back. And why? Because of Galatians 2:11-13. You see we often think Galatians as
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about theology. It isn't. It's about fellowship. Verse 12. Before certainment came from James, this about Peter. He used to eat with the Gentiles. When they arrived, he begin to draw back and separate himself for the Gentiles. It's about fellowship. So we ask oursel a simple question today. After today's service, please go to Globe Cafe, Garden Cafe, call coffee, and ask yourself, who do you not want to eat with? You know, Christianity is in the little things. It isn't in the profound big things that you went to do a mission
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trip in wherever. I gave a lot of money. I died for the cross. Hallelujah. But you don't want to eat with Anolim. Please, I will eat with you. Maybe uncomfortable because we all children of God. Neither Jew, neither Gentile. Go on. Let me now end with the last point. And I want to take the second part, pains of childbirth. And here's the last thing to wrap up. Christian friendship is painful work. Uh long time ago, we had a fight with another church. Some of you know. So that day I was having dinner my wife
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and they they they tag you guilty by association. So I'm tagged as guilty because I didn't take a view of the other side. So I was at this restaurant. There's a beer there. Beer is very good. You can see people they can't see you. So I told my wife Yan, "Hey, it's so and so from there." No. Yeah. He doesn't like you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's sitting next to us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, how long boy is he still there? Yeah, better. Okay, quickly eat and go. So, Bak already he was next to the catcher counter. I sat like that. Stand like
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that so he doesn't see me. Scared, scared. Fighting work. Thank you. Go off. And then Yahan says something very fascinating. You know, he said, "You know what? He probably saw you also but pretended not to see you. Christian friendship is painful because it involves receiving and giving rebuke. Paul tells chapas in front of all you were a Jew. He hunam him. Hey you ham me in public I tell you you think I talk to you going to I write you a poison pen letter. Yet Peter commenced Paul in his letters. He hammered Peter in front of
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everybody mean you know wall up me in front of everybody. Number two, he loves the Galatians man. He I love you with a pain of childhood. I love you. How do you show my love? I this is how I show I love you. I call you foolish. I call you stupid. That's what is right there. Now, I think we have lost the ability to give and receive rebuke. And I'm going to tell you why that's so important to tie back to the first point of slavery. Let me give you a simple example. The Galatian Christian tells Peter,
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"Hey, we were stumbled when you decided not to eat with us when this new group of Jewish teachers came to town." How many of you have heard the reply? Is this uh I'm sorry you felt offended. No. What's the problem with an apology like that? It pushes the fault to how you feel. You know, it makes no mention on the issue. This is a cheap apology. I put it to you. You can't do that as a beginning. You cannot do that as a continual habit. There's no accountability. Christian friendship is painful work.
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Sometimes I'm very thankful for people who have rebuked me. There's one brother here, I won't mention name very nicely, you are a bit of a lalang, you know. Wow. Very painful. Wanted to whack the guy. He sitted here. I really appreciate him, but he knows I think he's smiling. I have to say, "How am I a lang?" Because you threw this guy under the bus. Oh, really? I didn't even realize that. Then I realized I threw a lot of people under the bus. You see, unless people rebuke you, you don't know your blind spots.
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But why did I take that rebuke? Because that brother I know loves me deeply. You see, you cannot rebuke people if they don't know you love them with the pain of child birth. The worst way to do rebuke is this. You call a guy, hey, I need to talk to you. Or the tone also, the guy get scared. Sit down in church. I think we need to have a talk. You know what you did that day was wrong. Do you think the other side is going to say, "Hallelujah, brother. Let me give you a hug. I love you." If he's the passive type, say, "Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
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Okay." After that, I see you, he's going to look at acorns. They call it checking econ. If like me, I look at you really oa, [Applause] you can only rebuke someone if you make the painful effort of loving that person. Everything else that comes from there, empathy, all those things they teach you in techniques in communication has no value unless you know that person loves you and is willing to suffer for you. And I want you to pick that up. And why is that important? Because if you don't have rebuke,
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you won't know where you are a slave. You are your worst enemy. If I tell you, hey, you're collecting too much labu, you're spending too much money. Your mom tells you you won't listen. Your husband tells you you won't listen. But if someone loves you very much and says, "You know what? I've known you for years. This is getting too far. You might listen. There are things in our lives our wives cannot tell us and we cannot tell. There are things in life you cannot tell your children because the bond is too close. You need a third
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party to do that. You need to receive pain. Jesus is our friend. What did it cost him? his life for our friendship with him. He died on the cross. I want you to think of people in the church that you may have difficulty loving. Maybe it's me. I know I have difficulty loving some people. I am not the easiest person to get on with. I am confrontational and condescending. God help me. I don't know how I made it here so far. But you need to love me and form Christ in me. And I need the courage to see you and
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form Christ in you. And for people like me who very easily like to judge people, I need to shut up, love you, spend more time, take a deep breath, and then tell you, brother, maybe what you do is not very right. Let me just end with this. What is that something so important I need and must have? Christ crucified for he lives in me. the Holy Spirit empowering me and to break me out of Calvary, out of slavery. Let me end with one illustration. This is Chunang. She is from Cambodia. One day I came into the Chairos service
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and she was there and I asked how did she come? She looked us up online and she landed in Kyros. Her mother tongue is Cambodian. She speaks a bit of Malay. Her Malay is not very good. And so we notice in Cairo, she cannot quite understand the sermons. And so the group went forward. They got her uh Kamay Bible. I contacted Victor in Cambodia. He got stuff sent over from Cambodia here. You know, he got it all the way sent over and I gave it to her. I remember the day I gave it to her. She was so happy and and I asked her last
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week few weeks what he doing she said I've been reading this stuff along the way Jerry God bless his soul I think he's in the US now and Kun started to reach out to her husband her husband speaks only Cantonese he's a grab driver and Karen contacted Dr. appears from Epo and he came all the way down because she speaks Kamay. What are they doing with her? They are trying to form Christ in her. What commonality do they all have with her? Do they watch the same football matches, play the same games?
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They can't even speak the same language. The only thing that bonds them is Christ crucified. And one person really encouraged me above all is the time Karen spent with her. So last Sunday I was there and we were having makan and she let her phone out, you know. I saw on the screenshot this picture. She had bonded so much with Karen. She put Karen in a screen saver and now she wants to get baptized. This is freedom. This is community. This is painful work. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we just thank you for this
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text and we have some humility to ask ourselves what are we in slavery of? Can I have some keys? Huh? And very often we cannot know what we are in slavery with. We need people to tell us. But the only people that can tell us are people whom we know love us with the pain of childbirth. And so then we recognize our spiritual baroness. Oh Lord, that very often we push people away. We only want to be friends with people that we can form ourselves in. or we want to be friends with people that we can form ourselves through them.
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But we learn this morning we are to form Christ in one another and that is very hard work. And so we look to a good good father on this father's day who sent us his son who died for us so that we can be reconciled to him to be children who are free from slavery to be part of a community that loves one another deeply even though we don't know one another. And so I want you to just spend a bit of time to just think of where you are in FBC. And maybe you don't feel you belong here. And I don't want this to come
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across like a condescending lecture. I want you to ask what is God telling you? And maybe you say, you know what, I want to put a wall because I'm not comfortable. And I just want to ask that Lord speak to you. Bring someone that will love you deeply. Talk to us and you will be so full of love for more other children of the desolate mother than of of the woman than of she who is married. Lord, you have given us two gifts. The gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of community. Today we focus on the gift of community.
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It is such a blessing. Teach us to take that leap of faith and embrace it for you are a good good father and give gifts. And we say this in Jesus name. Amen. Lord on this father's day we thank you for you have given us spiritual fathers to protect us. You've given us spiritual mothers to rebuke us and to love us with the pain of child birth. You've given us children that we can love and care. and you're given us a community to rebuke us in love and to be rebuked in love and with that we are overflowing
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Jesus to receive this gift which the world does not have but it is the blessing to the church now unto him who's given us far more than what we imagine a spiritual family onto him be all glory and power and honor from now until the new Jerusalem comes to this earth. And God's people say, "Amen." God bless you all. And do stay back. We want to talk to us.
