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00:01 I am very honored to be with you today and thank you so much for the gracious
00:06 invitation, pastor and pastoral staff. We're very humbled by this opportunity
00:12 to come together and share with you and have these moments together around God's
00:17 word and to share our fellowship and worship together. I was so touched by the worship time and the prayer time
00:23 this morning. Thank you. we um uh we I I discovered since I've been in
00:31 uh Malaysia that uh the first question everyone asks
00:37 uh is where are you uh from and uh they recognize that I'm from somewhere else
00:44 and so I say from the United States of America from the state of California.
00:51 The second question I get everywhere I go in every taxi cab is the elephant in
00:57 the room.
01:02 What about your election?
01:09 Uh what I would simply like to say is uh having been out of the United States for
01:14 the last 60 years and or 60 months I'm sorry and not 60 60 days let's get it
01:21 accurate. Um I uh I am um I've had uh opportunity to look
01:30 from a distance and of course the floods of emails and Facebook and all of that.
01:37 I would simply say this to you. Pray for the United States of America.
01:44 We need God's intervention. We need God's help. We're a very divided
01:49 nation at this point in this moment. And um I I think I can say as I've prayed
01:56 many times and pray again and we'll pray when I get home in just a few days. God,
02:01 awaken America with another visitation from you and bring revival to this land.
02:10 Bring the hearts, turn the hearts. Uh so I would simply ask that as I've been
02:16 praying for your nation. I had the privilege of staying with one of your parliamentarians for a few days in their
02:22 home. And uh I ask how I can pray for your country. And so, uh, I'm continuing
02:29 to, uh, pray for you and I really do ask for your prayers. Now, I I I should do
02:35 something, Russell, as I look down, I see you here. I would not be in Malaysia
02:40 today if it were not for my friend Russell Weisner. And, uh, Russell's been
02:46 a missionary for some eight years here. And, uh, his primary ministry falls in
02:51 the field of education. and uh he very graciously well I'm going to let him tell the story because it's so unique
02:58 how we met. Russell, would you come up just for a bit and just tell a bit of the story?
03:04 Okay. Well, it's a it's an honor to be here. Um we spent a wonderful season
03:10 here involved with starting up FBC Learning Center and uh know many of you
03:16 folks and and have had said hi before the the service. But how we met, you
03:22 know, it it was said about this pastor's prayer
03:27 meeting or summit that had about 80 pastors. I I was home for a time on
03:33 Furlow in Northern California. And one of those pastors that attend attended
03:38 the summit said, "You you should come and and pray with us." A bunch of us
03:43 pastors get together and it's three days, two nights, and we go to this camp. And so I said, "Yeah, I'll do
03:52 that." And so I went and I've heard of this guy, Gaylord Ends, because my
03:57 hometown is Chico, California, and he was a pastor there for well over 30 years, but I'd never met him before. And
04:06 he was the the organizer of this this pastor's prayer summit. So I get to my
04:11 room where I'm staying, and who is my roommate? Gaylord Ends. So we stayed up very late uh the nights
04:19 that we were there talking about two things. One his book which you can get
04:24 out there and his discovery of the commandment of Jesus to love one another
04:30 and we will know they'll know you're you're my disciples if you love one another. The other we talked about
04:37 Malaysia and I invited him why don't you come to Malaysia? I think believers and
04:44 and churches in Malaysia could could benefit from this message. And so he has
04:51 and he's he's spoken at our learning center over in Cheras. So it's a fourth learning center that
04:58 we've set up and so we just uh I think you'll be blessed this morning and
05:04 you'll really appreciate what he has to say. Thanks, Gaylord. Thank you.
05:11 It has been very sweet to get to know um Russell better uh here than we even got
05:17 to know in the United States. And even though we we have literally grown up in the same areas, uh this is an amazing
05:26 opportunity. If I were to entitle this message this morning, I would entitle it new
05:33 covenant, new commandment. New covenant, new commandment. And as we saw from the
05:40 scripture uh reading this morning, I would just like to look at one highlight
05:45 from that scripture reading. And I'm pointing out verse uh 333 of John 13
05:52 and a couple of places following and I specifically am reading rereading this
05:58 passage because it will focus us for today. John 13:33,
06:04 "My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You'll look for me. Just
06:11 as I told the Jews, so I tell you now, where I'm going, you cannot come."
06:17 Next words, a new command I give you. Love one
06:23 another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know
06:31 that you are my disciples if you love one another.
06:39 Next words. Simon Peter. Lord, where are you going?
06:48 Now, I think it's interesting to just notice kind of the train of things. This
06:53 particular season had been a time when Jesus earthly ministry was now coming to
06:59 an end. Three and a half years of time with his disciples. He had fed the multitudes. He had taught them
07:04 everything the father had shown him to uh to teach. And he had healed the sick.
07:11 And he was now in the final moments before the crucifixion. It was Passover
07:19 season. They would share now the last supper together. Jesus would do
07:26 something extraordinary. He would wash their feet as an act of
07:32 servant leadership and then he would invite us to make it the model of
07:37 leadership for all of those who would claim to be his followers and leaders in
07:43 his church. So we see this very specific moment. Jesus has introduced also a new
07:52 covenant there in that evening and then he is followed by a new commandment.
07:59 I want to give though just a bit of well actually two prophetic arrows that will
08:06 help to direct us and focus our attention right into the significance of
08:12 these moments. One of those prophetic arrows would come at Mount Si.
08:19 Moses had been hearing from God. And as he recounts the story in the book of
08:24 Deuteronomy in chapter 18, we see that God has spoken to him very clearly about
08:32 something in the future. You see, the children of Israel did not want to hear
08:37 the voice of God. It was so dramatic. They said, "Please, Moses, would you listen to what God says and then come
08:44 and tell us? We do not want to be terrified by this voice anymore."
08:51 Moses relayed that message to God. And God spoke to Moses and he said, "What they say is good. I will raise up for
08:58 them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his
09:05 mouth and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen
09:11 to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to
09:18 account. So Moses now gives these words to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 18:E1
09:26 15. Here's what he says. The Lord your God will raise up for you
09:33 a prophet like me from among your brethren. You must listen to him.
09:43 Again, you must listen to him.
09:51 I want to add to that prophetic picture because now we would move to the time
09:57 that Jesus was with his disciples. One day as recorded in Matthew chapter
10:02 17, Jesus takes three of them, Peter, James, and John to a mountain. And he is
10:10 brilliantly transformed before them. They have never seen him. Literally, it
10:16 says his faith. His face shone like the sun. This is an incredible moment. His
10:22 clothes. Well, but what topped it off was as they were there, Moses and Elijah
10:29 appeared in that scene talking with Jesus.
10:34 Peter Peter seldom seldom
10:39 at a loss for words. How how many of you understand what I'm saying when I say Peter was seldom at a loss for words
10:46 like some of us? It was like seldom at a loss for words. Peter has the first one
10:52 to speak up as was typical. Lord, it's good for us to be here. If you wish, I'm
10:59 going to put up three shelters here. I'll put up one for you,
11:04 and I'm going to put up then one for Moses, and I'll put up another one for Elijah.
11:11 But while he's speaking, he is interrupted with a voice that comes from
11:16 heaven and it says, "This is my son whom
11:22 I love. With him I am well pleased.
11:28 Listen to him. Listen to him." There again are the
11:35 strategic prophetic words. this arrow that is directing us to make sure we
11:41 listen carefully to what Jesus says for us.
11:48 I want to draw one more prophetic arrow out of the Old Testament.
11:54 This is during the season some 600 years before Christ was born.
11:60 This prophetic er arrow comes from Jeremiah 31:31.
12:06 It's the Lord speaking. He says this, "The time is coming, declares the Lord,
12:14 when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
12:21 house of Judah." This is an astonishing prophetic arrow.
12:28 It points to something so dramatic that has impacted the life of everyone in
12:34 this room and those outside. It was an amazing promise that God was
12:41 giving a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
12:46 He then follows by saying, "It will not be like the covenant I made when their
12:52 with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt." It will not be like
13:00 that. It's going to be different. The first thing God wanted them to know is be prepared for change. Be prepared for
13:08 something that goes beyond what you've known and what you learned from Mount Si
13:14 because something greater is coming. It's going to be transformational.
13:21 Now, let's go back to this Passover season that we are focused on in John chapter 13.
13:28 It is that last supper. He's washed their feet. He is giving his final going
13:34 forward message to his disciples. He has taken the bread and he's broken
13:42 it. But this time he said words that had never been said before. He said, "This
13:47 is my body which is broken for you. Do
13:52 this in remembrance of me." And he shared the bread with them. In the same
13:58 way it says after supper in Luke chap 22 20 he took the cup saying this cup is
14:07 the new covenant in my blood.
14:14 It's poured out for you. Oh, what we realize here is 600 years of
14:22 scriptural silence has been broken. We've not heard the words new covenant since the prophet Jeremiah was used by
14:30 God to speak those words. But now we hear our Lord Jesus Christ saying, "This
14:36 cup is the new covenant in my blood."
14:44 We see and I think this is why that I am so passionate about this message.
14:52 I like Peter missed something because you notice the context. Jesus
14:59 says in John chapter 13, um, I'm going to be leaving you. I will only be here a
15:05 short time and then I'm going and where I'm going, you cannot come. You're not
15:12 coming with me now. And um his next words are I have a new
15:19 commandment for you. A new commandment. He has just introduced the new covenant
15:26 in his blood. And now he says I have a new commandment. Do do you understand? Is it clear that
15:34 covenant comes with commandment? Much like on Si, Moses, if he had come down
15:40 from the mountain after all that he had been through, all the children of Israel had been through and he had come down
15:46 and said there God has just made a covenant with his people.
15:52 What is it? What are the words of the covenant? Oh, he gave me He wrote them
15:57 on stone, but I dropped them on the way down. They were quite heavy.
16:04 How many of you understand it would not be the same if he had not brought the
16:09 ten commandments down? So the covenant on Sinai came with commandments.
16:15 Even so the new covenant now that Jesus is giving and instituting in his blood
16:21 and through his broken body, it comes with commandment too. And that commandment is love one
16:28 another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
16:38 By this by this mark of authenticity, all people will know that you are my
16:46 disciples if you love one another.
16:52 Oh, what an incredible promise and what an incredible mandate. A new covenant
16:57 with a new commandment. Peter's words, "Where are you going,
17:05 Lord?" Do you see the disconnect? It's like uh
17:13 I I don't know in maybe does this communicate in your culture?
17:18 Um whoop does that work?
17:24 It went right over Peter's head because he was stuck on Jesus is leaving
17:33 and I don't get to go with him. Lord, I can understand why these other
17:40 people wouldn't go. I mean, you know, you can't trust them. You never know if
17:45 they're going to stay with you or not. me, I would die for you. And and I'm not going with you. Peter is
17:54 totally absorbed with this question of wait a minute, you're leaving and I
17:59 don't get to come and he misses whoop misses the commandment. It goes right
18:06 over his head. I want to tell you a bit of a personal
18:12 story and really it's why I'm traveling and why I go to various countries in the
18:18 world to share this message. This was not just Peter. It was me.
18:26 It went right over my head. You see, love was very important to me
18:31 as a pastor. The longest message series I ever did was on love out of the New
18:37 Testament. But I missed Jesus commandment.
18:44 I didn't see it clearly. I saw the significance of love and how practical
18:49 it was that we love one another. But I missed the commandment.
18:55 14 years ago after 30ome years in full-time ministry, I had a burnout
18:60 breakdown and um my elders lifted all the
19:05 responsibilities on me. I was under a doctor's care and um I my elders
19:11 required that I see a professional counselor. It was very significant, very helpful for me. Uh I had worked my wife
19:18 would say I had burned the candle at both ends and um I had worked very hard.
19:24 I was passionate. I loved my people. But um I I had this breakdown. my elders
19:31 lifted all the responsibilities off and um I uh went to sleep. I was so tired. I
19:40 had no idea you could be so tired, but uh I would sleep most of the day and
19:46 most of the night for uh almost oh I remember three months I um or three
19:53 weeks. I remember my wife coming in one day after she had made me a little uh lunch, some soup, and a half a sandwich.
20:00 And I had gotten up to eat it. I'd been laying on the couch in our family room. And um then after I'd eaten the lunch, I
20:09 went back to lay down again on the couch and I was just getting comfortable and I looked up and my wife was standing over
20:15 me and she said to me, "Honey, you are scaring me.
20:22 You slept all last night. Then you slept all morning on the couch.
20:30 Now you're laying back down to sleep all on the afternoon. Aren't you afraid that
20:37 uh you won't be able to sleep tonight? And I remember looking up at her and
20:42 saying, "Honey, I can hardly wait for tonight and I can go to bed."
20:47 I was so tired, so exhausted. After a month, then I started to get
20:54 worried and we sought more help and professional advice. And they said, "No,
20:60 we think your body will tell you when it's ready, when it's had enough rest."
21:05 And sure enough, after about two months, uh, slowly I began to regain natural
21:10 energy. During this time I could not
21:15 read books. I couldn't watch television programs. Uh I could not focus and I
21:22 would lose focus. So um it was uh I I
21:28 didn't even uh I didn't even read my Bible for three months. I it was three
21:34 months into my recovery that I started to read one verse a day from the book of
21:39 Colossians. I remembered it took so long to move through the book, but I began
21:44 one verse a day. And um so I continued to progress uh making my recovery.
21:53 It was May 1st of 2002. It was a Wednesday. I remember the day. I woke up that morning and I remember saying to
21:60 myself, I'm ready to study the Bible.
22:05 And I went to sit down at my kitchen table after we'd had a little breakfast. And I put a little uh laptop computer
22:11 that I had not touched for six months since I was preparing the last sermon that I never got to preach. And I uh I
22:18 put it on my table and I sat there and I thought for a moment I thought, "Yes, I
22:24 am ready to study the Bible." I was so excited. I love studying the scriptures.
22:30 It was so lifegiving to me and I'm ready to study. But the Bible is a big book.
22:36 Most Bibles have a thousand pages in them. Where do you start? In Genesis or
22:41 Isaiah or Romans, the Revelation? Where should I start?
22:47 And as I sat at the table uh thinking about this, the great
22:52 commission came to my mind from Matthew chapter 28. We're all familiar with it.
22:57 Jesus saying, "All authority after his resurrection, all authority in heaven and earth's been given to me. Therefore,
23:03 go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them to the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
23:10 Spirit, and I'm with you always, even to the very end of the age. I happened to look
23:18 at the split screen on my little laptop computer that I hadn't touched for many
23:23 months, and apparently I had Robert Young's literal translation on the other
23:29 half of the screen. And as I looked at how he words it uh in those first
23:34 moments as I'm sitting at the table, he parenthesizes a part of it. He says, "Having gone, then make disciples of the
23:42 nations parenthesis baptizing them to the name of the father, son, and holy spirit, and teaching them to observe all
23:50 whatever I did com command you." End of parenthesis. And lo, I'm with you always
23:56 to the very end of the age. And I looked at it and I was stunned as I looked at
24:02 the parentheses that Robert Young had put in. I thought, "Oh, he thinks it
24:08 could read like this. Having gone, then make disciples of all the nations, and
24:14 I'm with you always to the very end of the age." That made sense. Oh, but parenthetically
24:23 if you want a definition of disciplem, I will embed a simple one.
24:30 Bring people to faith through the gospel and baptize them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, father, son, and holy
24:36 spirit. And then teach them, let send them on the journey of faith. And then
24:42 teach them to ab observe or to obey all that I commanded you. and a parenthesis
24:50 an embedded two-part definition. Oh, I looked at it and I thought, "Oh, I think
24:56 I understand the first part. I've baptized hundreds and hundreds of people." It's such a wonderful and
25:03 exciting time in their journey. But I thought, wait a minute, what all
25:09 did Jesus command us? And in that moment, I thought, that's my
25:16 first study. That's why I'm sitting at the table this morning. I am going to go
25:21 through all the words that Jesus gave us. I'm going to uh find out all of his
25:27 commandments, 10, 20, 40, maybe more. I'm going to systematize them. And when
25:32 I get better, I'm going to teach all those I baptize to obey everything Jesus
25:39 commanded. I punched in the word entel and entole
25:45 in the Greek language in my computer. And you know how nowadays you can do that? You push the button and it shows
25:50 you everywhere that word was used. What happened in the next few moments
25:57 has changed my life because what popped up on my screen
26:03 first was John 13:34.
26:08 A new command I give you. Love one another. As I have loved you,
26:16 so you must love one another. And I looked at it and I went, "Oh, if I was
26:22 looking for Jesus' commandment, I have sure found one of them right off." And I
26:28 was very excited. And then I continued to look and what
26:34 popped up next was John 15:12. This is my commandment.
26:41 Love one another as I have loved you. And I said, "Oh, there's another one.
26:47 Oh, the same one only this time he owns it as my commandment.
26:53 And then I looked down the list again and it came to John 15:17. This is my command.
27:00 Love each other. And I went, whoa, now I have it three times. His first
27:07 commandment.
27:14 My first thought that morning as a pastor, having studied, having read,
27:20 having been diligent to study the word, I thought every I how did I miss this? Woo! How
27:29 did this happen to me? Everybody, all my pastor friends know this. Everyone except me.
27:38 And it was so obvious to them, they didn't take time to tell me. They
27:43 didn't. It would be kind of like me coming uh to our brother pastor here and saying, "Excuse me, pastor. Have you
27:51 taken a breath of air in the last two minutes?" Oh, you have? Oh, okay. Okay.
27:57 Just sorry. Sorry for checking, but I just needed to check. It was so obvious to everyone that they
28:05 hadn't come up to me and said, "Okay, Lord. Incidentally, you do know that Jesus commandment is that we love one
28:12 another as he has loved us. So, I'm thinking I have a lot of
28:18 catching up to do. That day, I got up from my table. I went
28:26 into the room and I got Burkott's dictionary of early church beliefs.
28:32 It's um it what happens is uh he took all the the words the 10,000 uh pages of
28:40 of writing we have from the early church fathers from about the year 125 to 325.
28:47 There were 50 of them in round terms. He he he went through all the 10,000 pages
28:53 that they had written and he cataloged everything they said into one of 700
29:02 topics. So you could open his dictionary up and find on any subject you wanted. You
29:10 could find who said of the early church fathers who talked about it. I had
29:15 gotten this during my recovery. I had never used the book, but I went in and got it out of a stack of books in my
29:22 unused office. I pulled it out. I spread it on the table and I began quickly to look for Jesus commandment.
29:30 I looked through Jesus commandment. Uh there wasn't anything under there, but I
29:36 thought um commandment command of Christ command. There was all kinds of
29:41 commands, but no command of Christ or no command of Jesus. So I continued to look
29:51 um and find I thought maybe just looking under love and I looked under love and
29:57 under all of the references to love in those early church fathers he lists no place that refers to Jesus commandment.
30:07 I'm I'm saying no. How can this be? I continued to look. I then I said oh
30:13 maybe charity charity. I looked at charity, nothing.
30:20 I was astonished to realize that I was not the only one that missed this
30:26 commandment. While the early Christians loved one another deeply
30:33 and were so thankful for that and they were an incredible example, somehow the command that we just read this morning
30:40 slipped out of the teaching of the early Christians. It was never
30:46 recorded in our historic creeds, our early creeds, our historic
30:51 confessions of faith. It was not fully recovered in the reformation of the 1500s.
30:58 Today as I stand here I must say sadly that in the western world that I come
31:04 from 90% of the churches make no state no
31:10 reference to Jesus commandment in their statements of faith and practice.
31:15 No reference. It's very hard in our country to find a children's Bible story
31:21 book that includes the new covenant and the new commandment.
31:27 It is astonishing to realize how marginalized this became in Christian
31:34 faith. my passion when I begin to see this. Um,
31:40 I I got up from the table that day at the end of the day realizing number one,
31:45 I was not the only one that missed this commandment. I knew that.
31:50 Number two, I knew my life would never be the same. This has transformed my
31:59 life. Even though I had been in ministry for decades, it has transformed the way
32:05 I practice my Christian faith because now I see the new covenant and a new
32:11 commandment that Jesus owned as my commandment. He taught us many things,
32:17 all of which are important. All of it important. But we cannot neglect the
32:23 commandment which should be kept always on the table for us as believers.
32:30 Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this
32:37 all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.
32:45 I did five years of research before writing Love Revolution, rediscovering the lost command of Jesus.
32:54 I went to seminaries. I talked to professors. I talked to pastors.
32:59 I did research in libraries wherever I traveled. Uh seminary libraries.
33:06 It was a long search. And I I I'm here today to say to you, church,
33:14 let's become part of a growing multitude of believers around the world who are
33:20 embracing Jesus commandment, who know that it is central. It is so
33:26 close that new covenant and new commandment should be inseparably linked
33:32 together for every believer. I think it's why when we celebrate uh the the
33:39 supper, when we take the bread and the cup, we should always be remembering the words of Paul, look at yourself. Just
33:47 examine yourself for a moment. In what sense? It should be in the light as we
33:53 celebrate the broken body and the shed blood. It should be in light of the commandment that came with the new
33:60 covenant. It should be in light of loving one another. And we should be able to examine our hearts and say,
34:05 "Lord, how am I loving my brothers and sisters? How am I doing? Is there any
34:13 anyone that I've slighted and injured through my behavior? Lord, I make this
34:19 right. I make it right. I don't want anything to separate me from fellowship
34:25 with one another, my brothers and sisters, and f and separate any fellowship with you. I want to stay in
34:32 the light. I want to live in the light that I may have fellowship with one another. I want this for us as
34:40 believers. It's so central that we keep the commandment that Jesus gave us.
34:52 It's interesting that while John, the the writer of the fourth gospel, John
35:00 was long lived and he outlived most of the others. It's so interesting that
35:06 John um is the one who after this moment with Jesus when he said, "This is my
35:13 commandment." John refers to himself four times at the end of John as the disciple that Jesus loved.
35:21 He changed him when he heard those words. But I think for Peter, Peter was
35:29 focused on other things. Peter had other things that had to be dealt with in his mind, things that were maybe more
35:36 important for him. But I want you to notice something.
35:41 For Peter, he did not miss the message of Jesus
35:47 commandment. It was uh maybe 30 years into his ministry when his his uh
35:53 letters were written. First Peter and second Peter. But I'd like you to look at his words with me for a moment in 1
36:01 Peter chapter uh 1 verse 22 and 23.
36:07 Very significant words. 1 Peter 1 verse 22 and 23 Peter writes these words.
36:15 Now that you've purified yourself by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers,
36:24 love one another deeply from the heart.
36:29 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable
36:36 through the living and enduring word of God. Oh, what an amazing grip he got on this
36:45 message. He saw that through the new birth, we are called to love one another
36:53 deeply from the heart. Any one of those words would be descriptive. But when you
36:59 combine them together, sincere love deeply from the heart,
37:07 that's how we are to love one another. Oh, Peter may have missed it in the
37:12 moment, but he got it as he walked out this life of disciplehip and begin to
37:20 mentor others. In 1 Peter chapter 3:8,
37:26 finally, all of you, he writes, live in harmony with one another. Be
37:32 sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.
37:39 First Peter 3:8, these words help us to see the passion that he has for the
37:46 command that Jesus gave us.
37:56 1 Peter 4:8 is very significant
38:02 because Peter says there, "Above all, above all,
38:08 love each other deeply." Above all, love each other deeply
38:16 because love covers over a multitude of sins. In my book, Love Revolution, I have a
38:23 chapter entitled Love Covers, Love Confronts. It's about Peter and Jesus.
38:30 And it was very it it changed my perspective on how we speak the truth in
38:37 love because I saw how Jesus did it with Peter after his unbelievable
38:43 betrayal of Jesus, his denial uh of Jesus. I saw how Jesus confronted
38:51 Peter and it changed something in me. And I think that was what Peter must
38:56 have been thinking as the Holy Spirit inspired him to write, "Above all, love
39:01 each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins."
39:10 I want to close today um with just a bit of a personal story.
39:19 As I said, when I got up from the table 14 years ago,
39:25 on that day, I knew my life would never be the same. It changed me. It began the
39:32 process of changing me. Let's put it that way. There was a second thing that I knew I had to do. I had to find an
39:40 answer to the question, what ever happened to Jesus commandment? How did it get so marginalized in Christianity?
39:51 As I was writing Love Revolution and accessing any resource I could get to
39:57 help me, I had a dear friend of mine who knew my journey and knew what I was writing walk
40:04 up to me one day,
40:09 excuse me. And he said, um, he said, "Here, uh,
40:16 read this." and he handed me an 8 and 1 half by 11 sheet of paper with a lot of
40:22 writing on it, handed it to me. I um I took it, we were in the middle of some
40:27 things and I took it from him and folded it in half uh folded it closed and
40:32 started to put it away and he said, "No, no, no, no. Read it." Now,
40:39 now this friend, you would have to know him, but he is the kind of person who does this sort of thing. you know, and
40:44 he says, "Read it." Now, you pull it back out and open it up and start to
40:49 read. So, I opened it back up again and I looked at it. On the top it said, "The
40:57 49 commands of Christ."
41:02 And then there were many scripture references. And I started at his insistence. I
41:08 started looking down at them. 5 8 11
41:15 15 22 30 35 and by this time I'm saying no no
41:24 no no no no no my heart is beginning to break
41:33 because a very influential teacher in our country that has actually influenced my life
41:40 much higher uh than I would be. Uh he had produced
41:46 this list. And my heart begins to break as I get down
41:52 to 40 43. And I'm saying, "No, no, no." Because out of the 49 commands listed on
41:60 there, the command that Jesus gave and owned as my commandment was not on the
42:07 list. How does that happen?
42:14 How can that be? How can someone search through? They had what he had done is
42:20 found all the aist imperatives in the Greek language and had taken all of
42:25 those statements and had listed them. But in that had missed the one the new
42:32 commandment that came with the new covenant. The one command Jesus said is my
42:37 commandment was missing from the list.
42:44 I've traveled internationally and since then and I was in the
42:50 Philippines and I remember meeting with pastors in an assembly place and as I
42:56 walked in the wall into the church um I saw posted on the wall the 49 commands
43:03 of Christ. My heart breaks, but I understand
43:10 because Peter and me and a few other people have
43:17 missed it. I was in Uganda
43:25 and staying in a hospitality home there.
43:30 And posted on the wall were the 49 commands of Christ,
43:37 but absent the one we've just talked about today.
43:43 My passion in coming to you today is that you would be part of the vanguard
43:52 that listens to Jesus, that hears the message, listen to him,
44:00 and we hear it well enough and close enough that we don't miss the one
44:06 commandment Jesus owned as my commandment. the one that everyone should be able to
44:13 look at you and your fellowship and your lifestyle among others and say they are
44:20 followers of Jesus. They are disciples and learners of him.
44:44 But how do I do this? How do I love others?
44:51 How how can I do this? This seems so hard.
44:58 My dear friends, it is the incredible grace of God that empowers us to love
45:07 this way. It is him who p empowers us to love. It
45:14 is his gift. His love becomes the new standard. In the old covenant, it was my
45:22 ability to love God with everything in me. and my ability to love my neighbor as I love myself. But in the new
45:29 covenant, it is me receiving God's love and being empowered to love others as I
45:36 have been loved. The focus shifts in the new covenant from my finite ability to love God and
45:44 others to God's infinite ability to love me and through me to love others.
45:50 1 John 4:10 says, "This is love, not
45:56 that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as the atoning
46:02 sacrifice for our sins."
46:08 Brothers and sisters, the word goes on in verse 11, "If he so loved us, we
46:15 ought to love one another." Now, I think we love God all the more as
46:22 we know his love. I think that only gets bigger. But what the focus in the new
46:28 covenant is God's power by the Holy Spirit to enable us to love. First John,
46:36 well, we think we looked at first John, but let let me think of Romans 5:5.
46:41 God has poured his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given to
46:49 us. Oh, can you say amen? It's a it's a powerful thing that God
46:58 should release the love of heaven in us and empower us to keep the commandment
47:05 by grace, not by striving, not by having to scrape the bottom of an empty sistern
47:13 to try and get a little drop of love. No, it should be us receiving the
47:20 gracious spirit of God who fills us with the love of heaven and empowers us to
47:27 love each other and to love even to our those who've made themselves our enemies
47:34 to even love them. Oh, this is supernatural. This must take the grace
47:40 of God for us to love in the way Jesus Jesus taught us.
47:54 My dear father um passed away two and a half years ago. He was 104 and a half
48:02 years old. He lived a very long and full life. He was present to the end,
48:09 mobile, present. Um he was a a follower of Jesus from his teenage years
48:17 and um um
48:23 but did not understand
48:28 what it meant to receive God's love easily. Love was a word we didn't use in our
48:35 home. I had never heard my we just didn't use
48:41 love in our home. It wasn't that they didn't love us as our children but we
48:47 didn't use the word and um uh that made it difficult for me and it was became
48:55 hard for me to learn to receive the father's love. It took a great breaking in my life to begin to receive love from
49:02 heaven. I'd put up walls around my heart
49:07 when my father was approaching 100 years of age. He um his is our mom was in the
49:15 hospital and uh and it was uh a time
49:21 that he was alone and because of his advanced age, we said, "Uh, dad, we don't want you to be by yourself at
49:28 night. We want to be here with you." He said, "Okay, okay." So he um he finally
49:35 agreed after first protesting and uh I spent nights with him. My
49:41 sisters would come and spend nights and I had a sleeping bag rolled out in his spare room and mother it she would be
49:49 gone for 3 months including rehabilitation. We had no idea it would be so long.
49:55 But I remember coming home after one very long day and I had checked in with him and now it was 9:00 and I at night I
50:02 came home very tired at the end of the day and uh I was just going to ask I had
50:08 checked with my dad numerous times during the day to see that he was okay. But now I came in I sat down next to his
50:15 chair and I said, "Dad, how did the day go? Did you do you get everything you need? You take all your vitamins, you
50:22 got the food you need, all that. Everything. He said, "Everything's good.
50:29 I got everything I need." I was just getting ready to say, "Dad,
50:35 I'm so tired. I'm going to go lay down and go to sleep. I have to get some rest." But before I could say it, my
50:42 father looked over at me and said, "I'm seeing God as a father,
50:50 and because he loves us, he takes care of us."
50:58 All the tired left me. I looked at my dad. I said, "Dad, I had never heard my father say anything
51:05 like that. He did not have a good relationship with his father. It was a hard relationship.
51:12 He didn't feel loved. But now at almost a hundred years of
51:17 age, I'm seeing God as a father. And because he loves us, he takes care of
51:24 us. I looked at him and said, "Dad, where
51:29 did that come from?" He said, "I don't know." And he motioned here. I think
51:35 I've known that. But something happened.
51:42 Something happened. That's what makes this possible to love
51:47 others as we have been loved. Today I want to close in prayer
51:54 and I want to ask you to purpose with me
51:59 to receive this incredible love that has been poured out by the Holy Spirit into
52:05 our hearts that you can be filled filled filled to overflowing with the love of
52:12 God. And it can become like a river that flows out of you to others,
52:18 communicating what heaven feels about humanity and how God wants to reach them with his
52:25 salvation. Today, let's bow our heads in a moment
52:30 of prayer. And I'm going to ask you to agree with me as I pray this prayer.
52:36 Would you agree in your heart and make it your prayer? put in your name in that
52:43 place. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your amazing love for
52:50 us. Not only did you create us, but you
52:55 have then reached out to us through your word and by your prophets and through
53:01 your son Jesus Christ and by your Holy Spirit.
53:07 Thank you, Father, for sending your son, Jesus, to demonstrate that love. And
53:12 thank you, Lord, for showing us so clearly through his life, his death, his
53:19 burial, and his resurrection on the third day, the power of your love, and
53:25 the power of your eternal life. Thank you for sending the Holy Spirit
53:32 to fill us so that we can be being filled with the Holy Spirit.
53:39 We can have a life empowered by heaven's love with plenty to give away to others.
53:48 I pray Lord that you will use every individual, each person in this place to
53:54 be a revolutionary lover because of the command that you've given us and the
54:01 command that is your commandment and we pray Lord that you will transform
54:08 Koala Lumpur, Malaysia, the surrounding nations,
54:14 this world certainly Lord the country I come from too. Lord, please transform by
54:22 the power of the witness of those who love one another as you have loved us in
54:30 Jesus name. And everyone said together, amen. Amen.
