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00:00:01 Good morning church. Today's scripture reading is taken from Luke 10:25-37. Reading from the NIV 2011. On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself." You have answered correctly, Jesus replied, "Do this and you will
00:00:37 live." But he wanted to justify himself. So he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" In reply, Jesus said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, bit him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road. And when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came
00:01:13 where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put a man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took out two dinari and gave them to the inkeeper. Look after him, he said. And when I returned, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
00:01:50 Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." This is the word of the Lord. Thank you, Florence. It gives me great pleasure to uh introduce to you our speaker today, uh Yen Bunton and his wife, Sher, who arrived in Malaysia, uh yesterday. Oh, somebody's phone. Can you turn that off? [Laughter] check. All right. Um, and Yen has been uh uh in the ministry for the past four years as a church planter, uh, as a missionary, as a pastor, uh, and also as a seminary lecturer. But this is not the first time that Yen and Sher have been
00:02:36 to Malaysia. In fact, uh for over a decade, over two spells, as I have learned, um they lived in Malaysia. Uh Yen spent a couple of years as a boy in Guuching and in their first spell in Malaysia, they were living in uh Pinang and then uh Malaca, right? In fact, this is also not the first time that uh you know, FBC has had yen. Um some of us may know that 15 years ago he was our very first church camp speaker. Okay. And uh next weekend he will reprise that role. Okay. Over in Ma. Uh and we are very
00:03:17 glad to have him uh and Sherry with us. Um now as soon as I heard that he was coming back to this part of the woods right because now he lives in Canada where he was originally from. I took the opportunity to, you know, get him to detour his trip to Malaysia so that he can minister to us at the church camp and uh you know me Singaporean very so I try to make the most of his time here and that's why we have organized a seminar this afternoon okay uh that's open to all whereby Yen is going to teach us uh and talk to us about um uh
00:03:58 you know seeking God's favor All right. So the Lord has uh told us all Christians to serve him. Okay. But what does that mean in terms of our posture and our attitude? What does God expect us from us? All right. As we serve him. Uh it will not only be a message but it will be very interactive right with case studies. So I want to encourage all of you who have not signed up yet. Uh you can still do so right by scanning the code there. We need to know the number of people coming so that we can cater
00:04:31 for space and refreshment. All right. So without much ado, let me welcome Yen, brother Yen, uh to come and bring the word of God to us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, brother. Oh, I have a clicker which I will forget about, but what a privilege to be back in Malaysia. I I think it's only fair that I acknowledge uh that I self-identify as an old Chinese uncle. So I I sometimes am a bit confused. Uh culture is a big deal to me even though it gets in the way. So if you have your Bibles, I hope you will
00:05:12 keep them open. I don't feel like you should trust me. I I I know we all share a belief system. I I think we overestimate the impact our beliefs make. Core values are much more deeply rooted in us. And core values we pick up from a childhood, from our parents, from the friends we live around, right? And and let let me just give you an example. I believe because my wife tells me that I eat ve if I eat vegetables and exercise every day, I will live a long and healthy life. The problem is I have a core
00:05:50 value. more fat, more flavor. So, so when I think of salad, I think that is so exhausting. And so I always gravitate from salad to chaquio. It's kind of salad. Got bean sprouts, right? So, um, she's tired all the time trying to manage this old uncle. If you have your, uh, Bibles, I I want us to look together at this a challenging story. It's it's not a challenging story if you grow up in a Canadian Sunday school. It's a sweet story. Uh but um it it is challenging to me now. I I call this story the enemy next
00:06:33 door. I don't know how Malaysia is anymore. Actually, I I've spent about 18 years in Malaysia. Our three boys, all adults, cont consider Mala their hometown. Uh, in in fact, when we first went back to Canada, I was flying back to teach at the Canadian Baptist Seminary, which is in Calgary, Alberta, which is Canada's version of Texas. We we landed at the airport and he was holding on to my hand with both of his little hands. He was nine and he had been going to Chinese school since he was the age of three.
00:07:07 So, English, not his number one language. And it was irritating to me. Honestly, I'm not that patient a father because I was having to pick up the baggage and he was holding on to my hand. Finally, I said, "Brennan." He said, "Daddy, so many foreigners here. Challenging, right? To raise your children in one place and then move somewhere else and try to call that home. To dare to call that home is challenging. I don't know how things are now in Malaysia, but in the West, it is uh the church is enduring a
00:07:50 season of increasingly intense cultural warfare. And and you can tell I I hear a growing number of preachers beginning their sermons with uh all the dangers that threaten the church today that there that we hear all the time as the pastor begins the sermon, you know, there's a lot of danger to our children in public school because they're learning truth that doesn't come from God's word. And we hear about the dangers of, you know, gender dysphoria and the scandal of personal pronouns and all of
00:08:29 these risks that our family has. And and that's a problem for me. It's a problem for several reasons. First of all, biblically, when we rage at the lost, it's just like shouting at the dead. I don't know if you've ever been to a wake. I'm assuming you have if you're lived long enough. Here's what I've never seen at Awake. I've never seen anybody bending over the casket saying, "I don't like your attitude be because it's a dead body." They're incapable of changing their situation. And the Bible says those who
00:09:10 are stumbling toward the grave, those who are in the process of perishing, like English is insufficient, right? That's why we have this idea that you're either lost or saved. Those who are in the process of perishing, they are helpless to change their condition. You can shout at a blind person. That's not going to make them see. And and I know if you send, you know, some of your sharp young men to seminary, they will learn to sharpen their skills in communication. And and this is just my my experience, right? I
00:09:45 don't care how great your charisma is. I don't care if you're a great speech delivery guy, but you do not have the power to raise the dead. That is God himself. And so, as we come to God's word, the second issue I have is that when we begin preaching, typically we begin with a source of authority that both the speaker and the listeners can agree on. That's why in Baptist life, we always start by saying, "Turn in your Bibles to the book of Luke." We assume everybody in the room agrees that God's word is an authority.
00:10:22 But when Paul was in Athens, he did not like Peter in Jerusalem say, "Turn in your Bibles to the book of Joel." He said, "I can see that you all are very religious." He started with something that can be affirmed as by the audience. And this is what I'm noticing in the western western church. We start with fear and anxiety as an authority that everyone can agree on. We're all anxious. We all have fear. That is not the authority that God's people should be opening his word with. The authority means that every
00:10:59 preacher or politician who leverages fear and anxiety will win over the hearts of men and women. Like for the nation south of the border, it's immigration. I I will just say I have a a bit of traumatic memory here because I was so desperate while living in Malaysia to trade in my Canadian passport for a Malaysian passport. Multiple times I applied, multiple times I paid 3,000 ring and they got get a very nice letter. Thank you so much for applying. You've been rejected. Please apply again. until I went in person with all
00:11:39 my paperwork and got an honest immigration officer who looked down and said, "Oh, sir, sir, sir, this all wrong." I said, "Wrong. Did I fill out the wrong paper?" He said, "No, you have the wrong religion." I still try, though. God's word is our authority. So, I hope you'll keep it open. Don't trust me. Let's pray together. Father God, uh we recognize that we have spent the week filling our hearts with clutter, with ideas and philosophies that we did not get from you and your word. So I pray today that you would
00:12:19 bring us to your word and recalibrate our hearts to your gospel. Let us come with confidence, not knowing it's our righteousness, but knowing that you are a good and merciful God. So God, speak to us today. Make our hearts by your spirit fruitful for the seed of your word that you may be glorified by not just the hearing of your word but by the doing of it also. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. So let me just spend a little bit of time talking about the context. Yes. Subtitle of this point is a lawyer looking for a
00:12:57 loophole. And by the way, I'm I'm using the ESV translation. The translation that was read is a perfectly good translation. You follow along in whatever Bible you have in your phone or on your lap. Uh Luke 10 verse 25 says, "Behold, in my translation, a lawyer," this is the word literally because in Jewish culture in the first century, there was only one law and that was religious law. The lawyers were not trained in secular law of Rome or of Greek. They were trained in the religious law of the
00:13:32 Torah. This was a religious expert. He was a seminary lecturer. He was someone like the guy standing here shouting at you. He felt like he had the answers. And so when he came to Jesus asking a question, he already knew the answer. You probably have some church members like that who who ask questions at business meeting that are really statements. They know the answer. They're trying to get you to say it. And this was this man, an academic expert in the Mosaic law, not really seeking for himself a
00:14:04 path to eternal life. He was simply testing Jesus. He was wanting to test his theological competence and put his ignorance on display in front of the crowd that had gathered. This was before Tik Tok. Who had entertainment besides this? This was a great show. People gathered in closely. People were drawing in their attention to this conversation that was forming right there. It was clear to this religious teacher. Jesus had no formal academic training. He had no letters after his name, but he did call
00:14:40 him rabbi. I think sarcastically. So, um, Rabbi teacher, I've heard you talking to these other little people, telling them how they can be saved, but what about a guy like me? And this is him teaching Jesus competence. It was an excellent opportunity to expose an untrained traveling preacher, unsheltered, homeless preacher. to put him exposed in front of this crowd. This man trying to earn a living off of his very own thus sayaeth the Lord. There were hundreds perhaps thousands of these traveling rabbis in
00:15:27 Jesus' day. That the only thing that made him different is he didn't quote another rabbi when he spoke. He just said this is the word of the Lord. No one had ever heard a rabbi not quote another rabbi to lend more authority to the other rabbi's statement except Jesus. He spoke the word and every word he spoke was scripture. No one had ever seen authority like this. So what ensued would have certainly been great entertainment. An untrained, unsheltered traveling preacher. And likely it was a bit of a surprise when this homeless
00:16:07 messiah answered the lawyer's question litigated it with a question and the question was what is written in the law it's an excellent question just happened to be his field of expertise you know how do you read it literally what's your take on it Jesus was ask acting curious Right? He was acting curious and and this man was excited because he knew the answer. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. Now, at this point, are you a bit
00:16:47 surprised that Jesus didn't say, "Oh, but um you need to tell them, you got to say the sinner's prayer," which doesn't exist in the Bible, right? It's just the way that Western pastors get their statistics. Got to check this off. Have you said the prayer yet? Then there's one more. Let's move on. We're counting. That that matters. That's an idol in our temple. Just saying. Our God of statistics. The lawyer responded with this. And he was wellversed in the shima. You remember the shima? Deuteronomy 6. I can't remember if I
00:17:26 have a slide for this. He knew even more than the sheima. The the shea said, "Here, O Israel," that word Hebrew word hear literally means listen or shima means listen here. And and remember Hebrew is an Asian language kind of like Chinese. It's not a western language where we hear, but it's optional whether or not we listen. It's like I know that ting means listen. Hua means word. It doesn't mean listen word. It means obey. And in Hebrew, Shima didn't mean listen. It didn't just mean hear. It means obey. And you'll see every time
00:18:15 God handed his people over to another God or another people, it's because I am the the Lord and you have not heard me. Meaning, you have disobeyed me. the the lawyer was well-versed and he also knew that in Hebrew culture it would be impossible to hear this and not do it. And so verse five, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. This was the great commandment. And to not do that was the great transgression. That that's why I'm embarrassed that you're hearing from a
00:18:58 westerner because we hear the word of the Lord. I'm now pastoring in Canada. The word is preached. And my my perspective, my conviction is if there is a way in God's word, why should we not follow it? I feel like in Malaa I would say that and everyone would say of course we should follow. In Canada they say we should pray about this and and then after we pray about it for several weeks then we will form a committee to make recommendation and then we will vote on it. Oh this is a Baptist church, right?
00:19:44 Sorry to touch on this, but you know what democracy is? It's me reminding myself that I'm in charge. So, I'm just suggesting that if you gather the church to vote, to affirm something the elders are recommending, you better encourage people. You're not here so that we can know your opinion. You are here to steward the voice of God. But in the western church, hard to hear because my opinions are so loud. This was the great commandment. And and I have to ask the question, am I truly loving the Lord my
00:20:26 God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my all my might? Because the question I would have afterwards is, what do I have left after that? And some of you know why I was teaching at Southwestern Seminary in Texas. And I don't know what to do with that culture because we would have people come to our Bible study and they would just outright say, "The only reason I'm here today is because my son's baseball game got moved to the afternoon." Love the Lord your God with all your heart. I thought we just tithe
00:21:04 on it like 10%. That this is the great commandment and to not do it is the great transgression. But remember the people of Israel received this law, this great commandment while they were in migration, while they were in the process of leaving where they were and going somewhere else. And so they were bumping up against neighbors all the time. And so there became this associate commandment that he quotes in verse 27. It's actually from Leviticus 19 verse 18 which says thou you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge on any of
00:21:46 your neighbors. But you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. I am the Lord. That means you are not like just I am the Lord and you are not. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. And then uh this command uh circle sank into the hearts of the people and they could do it sometimes. It it was a challenge. But Jesus at this point is not Ian. He kind of gives his lawyer a win. Fascinating. He said, "You have answered correctly." I can see him going, "Yes, right." But this is the hard part. Do this and you shall
00:22:49 live. Just let me break that down for a minute. He didn't say, "Write a song about it. Sing it and you shall live." He didn't say, "Believe this and you shall live." You know, we particularly Baptists make a big deal about what we believe. Do you have a confession of faith? I think you do. And and do you have conversations about who who we can do partnership with? They need to be theologically what aligned. because what you believe matters. Just it just really matters. You know, in 44 years of u full-time
00:23:27 ministry, I've never known one single pastor or missionary who has failed because of bad theology. They've failed because of ungodly character, because they heard the word, but when no one was watching, not doing it. just not do this and you shall live. Ah oh, there's a countdown clock. That's good. You You can tell when the pastor's ADHD when he needs a countdown clock. The The second thing I want to do, which is kind of challenging, right? I I'd like you to in to to look for yourself in the text. This is the hardest thing.
00:24:16 It's it's hard because when I look at the text, I want to see the text agreeing with me. And and so I sometimes say this from a platform. I'm going to say it again. Makes Sherry nervous. I don't always like to read God's word because you know how how many times God's word agrees with me? Never. I'm like, how come I always have to change? It's because I'm a man of flesh just like every one of you. Every time I come to God's word, I've got to painfully peel off the culture of Ian and put on the culture of Jesus.
00:24:52 Every single time, Lord, you know, I'm prone to wander. I am. Every day I have to turn back into him. So, this seminary professor, is that me? I don't I don't know. But I do know this. his responses. But desiring to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "Well, you know, who is my neighbor really? Like who who who who do I who am I obligated to treat as I treat myself?" Like, who is that really? I I've noticed uh since we've been away um Malaysian homes houses have has have actually got quite bigger and everybody has a wall
00:25:44 now. Don't judge my southern neighbor. They're building a wall. I see walls everywhere here now. The houses are getting bigger. Is it is it because Malaysian families are getting bigger? No. But we're getting more stuff. So, we need bigger houses and walls and lots to protect us her stuff. Sorry I brought it up. But but but but I'm also like this man. I often like some of you read the Bible. I I do word search to defend my position just just to make sure that the Bible agrees with me because I know this
00:26:27 church member is going to question me on this and I got to do this word search. In the in the 80s I was a youth pastor in California. I had no qualifications except a pastor said, "Oh, you have earrings and crazy hair then youth pastor." and and it was the 80s, so I was still expected to wear a suit jacket. So, I was on the way to church early Sunday morning, and I I noticed this uh car broke down on the side of the road, man trying to change his spirit. And I thought, you know, I I need to I need to
00:27:01 stop. But seeking to justify myself, I noticed he was Filipino. I said to myself, Filipinos can fix cars. It's a total stereotype. I was seek I will just get in the way. Seeking to justify myself, I landed on he's a Filipino and he could probably fix my car. So I just left him on the side of the road seeking to justify myself. I came up with this crazy rationale. This seminary professor was not a seeker of the truth. He knew and taught the truth. Have you ever studied the word of God just to justify
00:27:39 yourself? Have you ever just like me used the context, the situation to justify yourself? That's what this man was doing. Have you found yourself already? I know I did. But it gets worse for me. I don't know about for you. Verses 30 through35. Is Jesus preaching a sermon? Now, I was in the room one time when my former president, Paige Patterson of Southwestern, said, "Guys, we need to preach expository sermons verse by verse just like Jesus did." Well, first of all, Jesus had an advantage. Everything he said was
00:28:19 scripture. I'm not that guy. But secondly, Jesus primary preaching was not verse by verse. That's Paul's teaching. But we call what we call preaching today. Some guy on a platform shouting at us is actually teaching, not preaching. In the first century, all preaching was evangelism. When it says that the word of God spread, the word of God was not the Bible. That didn't exist. The word of God was the gospel. The mystery of God was the gospel. That's why the Apostle Paul said, "I have determined to
00:28:58 know nothing among you Corinthian Christians except Jesus Christ and him crucified." Because he knew they needed the gospel. Jesus replied, his sermon begins with something they can affirm. A man was going down to Jericho. Now, by the way, this Jericho is not the city that was destroyed by the power of God and his servant Joshua. This was an oasis on the east side of the Jordan River where traders would come to water their animals, to rest and relax, and also where rich people would go for retreat. And in
00:29:38 those days, just to remind you, there was no Apple Pay. So everybody traveled with coin that made noise as they bounced on their camel or walked along the road. So when they're hearing this, nothing like Canadians. They they don't think anything. But I guarantee you as soon as Jesus said there was a man who went down to Jericho, people would say, "Oh yeah, that place not good. That one very dangerous that road." I mean I I imagine I don't know. I imagine here in KL we say so a man went down to Jalan to Chait I don't
00:30:17 know I don't know but we had friends who came from Canada and they said well we found a a lovely hostile on on Jan Kit I'm like that's red red light disting doesn't begin with conflict. But but I was trained in American seminary start evangelism by saying you Catholics believe this but we Baptists. You know what that does when you do religion comparison. People have an obligation not to just defend their religion but the heritage and their ancestors. This is not what Jesus did. He didn't start by attacking this
00:31:05 man or the law. Of course, he started with something the whole audience. This man and everyone there could affirm. This man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. That's not a great road. And remember, effective preaching begins with authority. So, um, and he fell among robbers. Everyone in the in the crowd is going, I told you that one is no good. What? very dangerous. You go down there sure find trouble. See at this point people in the crowd are saying amen. You know what amen means truth. That's what it means when we say
00:31:48 in Jesus name. Amen. We're saying in Jesus name this is true. And and this is the goal of evangelistic preaching. Get the congregation with you. Amen. Amen. because sooner or later it's going to get to the gospel and it won't be amen. It'll be something else. Oh, finally some good news because I remember primary Sunday school in Vancouver, Rose Tottenham said got to this point. Remember, did you use those uh Southern Baptist uh pictures to tell the Bible story where Jesus was a hippie from the 70s? That one. So I remember
00:32:27 Rose Tottenham showing a picture and there was this man bloody on the road and and good news here comes a priest. Nobody in the audience would think that is good news. This would be the third. Amen. Wow. is so such bad luck out of this guy because the first guy that comes down is a priest useless one because they know that priest it's not just me like when I was on that road and saw that Filipino guy trying to change a tire I would like if if I stop I'll have to wash my hands afterwards I might be late for the
00:33:06 service if this priest stops he can't go to the temple for a month. He has to purify himself. Get blood in your hands. That's why they're they don't talk to women. You never know. Paneala, you don't want to get that cuz then I can't go to do my business. Of course, he had to go on the other side of the road, make sure he's safe. The godly people would not stop. The holy people would not stop. And and as if it that's not bad enough, the next verse. Likewise, a Levite teacher of the law comes along
00:33:45 and saw him. But even seeing him stirs up no mercy because he was under obligation for the law. Do you do you understand that's a purpose of the Old Testament? Not to help us choose religion, but to help us realize religion is honorous. It's a weight that we cannot bear. That does not make us religious, just makes us guilty. It just exposes guilt. The law is there to point us to the grace of Jesus. This Levite, of course, Mrs. Rose Tottenham was like, "I'm surely he will stop. He's a good man, teacher of the
00:34:25 Bible." He could not stop. But for Jesus listeners, they were would would be saying, "Oh, this this is so sad. This is this man's no good very bad day. The authority of cultural fluency is important in the preaching of the gospel. Start in places that people can agree. Say amen. Amen. Amen. And then this is the worst. a Samaritan like I'll be honest you know Samaritans were half breached because Malaka is my hometown piranakan's quite proud of it but Jews know you understand gentile goim literally means insect you don't marry a
00:35:21 bug Samaritans were intermarried they couldn't worship in the temple because they were dirty they had their own temple And and the irony is I don't know what your Bible says. This story has a subtitle. It says the parable of a good Samaritan. Jew Jews would be confounded by that. What do you mean good Samaritan? That's an oxymoron. Like jumbo shrimp. They don't belong together in the same sentence. That the only good Samaritan is a what? Dead Samaritan. And yet this enemy living next door saw the
00:36:05 man. And when he saw him, he had compassion. Are you finding yourself? I'm finding myself. And it was gh ouch. At this point, the congregation that is listening to Jesus are, "Amen. Amen. Amen." And then what had compassion? That makes that makes no sense to me. Like how is it that this man, this piranakan half breed that we hate, this enemy next door, how is it that he would look at one of us, our people? Well, everyone else did the right thing and avoided the mess on the roadside. He looked at him, had
00:37:02 compassion, and this is the result. And he went to him, bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal. He brought him to an inn to take care of him. On the next day, he took out two dinari, gave them to the inkeeper, saying, "Take care of him. Whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. This is the devastating discovery for me. Wh which one of these? He asked the lawyer, the religious expert, which one of these do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who
00:37:56 fell among robbers? a Greek is a soft response kind of like well I suppose begrudgingly acknowledge the one who showed him mercy and and suddenly I realize I'm not actually that Levite. I'm not actually that lawyer. I'm not actually that priest. I'm that broken man on the road, helpless to help himself, unable to get up, unable to heal, on the roadside of life, broken and helpless. When Jesus found me, looked at me, and had compassion. That is us, church. Have we forgotten the grace and mercy by
00:39:03 which we found Christ? Are we now functioning by the basis of our own merit? Then we have fallen away from him. We have lost our way. This is what Romans Oh. Oh, I need to say this verse. Sorry. It's good to have PowerPoint again. This shocking not believe Baptists not believe. James says the demons believe and shudder. At least they have that response. We're not transformed by having access to the right information. That's not why we're transformed. We're transformed because we take his word and we do it. This is
00:39:53 what Jesus said in John 14 when he was talking about himself getting ready to leave and relax. I won't leave you as orphans. But I will send a helper. I will send a helper. And the one who hears my words and obeys them, my father will love him. And we, just in case you're wondering if the Holy Spirit is a different person, and we will come and live with him. The spirit of God is the spirit of father. The spirit of God is the spirit of his son living within us if we do his word. That's why when Jesus came to the
00:40:32 temple, he had to cleanse it before he entered in. And when he came to me broken on the side of the road, he had to cleanse my brokenness because he was getting ready to make this broken down house the temple, the holy residence of the most high, king of all creation. That's him. And this is why this word from Romans chapter 5. For while we were still weak. Not not while we were looking for him. This is not seeker sensitive church. But while we were still weak, unable to justify ourselves at the right
00:41:14 time, at that very moment of our greatest need, Christ died for the ungodly. That's me. I'm not talking about your neighbors. That's me broken on the side of the road. One will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one might dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. You know what grieves me? 18 years living in Malaysia, I've never heard anybody say, "Hey, that guy calls himself a good Muslim. Look at the way he
00:41:58 lives." Also never heard anybody say, "Oh, you see that man calls himself a Buddhist, but how terrible how he lives?" What? but Christians because people know the standard of Jesus and you can believe all you want. But if you don't do the word, his spirit does not come to Ian so I can be an improved Ian. His spirit comes so I could be more like Christ and less like Ian. Less broken, less sarcastic, less insecure, and more full of the joy of our father. Romans 5:10 says this, "For what? While we were his
00:42:54 enemies, we were reconciled." You see how that's passive tense, not okay, I got reconciled to God. I took a self-help group and suddenly I was more attractive to him. No, in my brokenness, he looked at me and had compassion. And then I was reconciled by the blood of Christ. That's why he couldn't die in his sleep. Like every other religious founder, he was beaten and punished. took the entire wrath of God, drank it down and said, "It is finished." And we were reconciled by that kind of compassion. This means that
00:43:40 Jesus, Emmanuel, the one who moved into our neighborhood, he is the enemy next door. My sins have made him so. But he looked upon me unable to help myself and he had compassion. And that's the great plot twist of this sermon. Jesus was preaching a sermon about himself, not about that religious lawyer. It was not any of the religious leaders. It is not me who is compelled by the religion to avoid the unclean. Not about them. He's like, "This is me. Come to see humanity washed up on the shore of life, broken down on the side
00:44:27 of the road, and I see you and feel compassion. He was not that helpless man set upon by thieves. His message to his people today is the same message to that educated theologian. FBC, do this and you will live. Do it. If if I was able to do a a shirt for this church, it would be FBC. Do the word. Do it. I want you to look at one last uh scripture. I think reflection is good. And worship team, if you'd like to come and prepare to lead us in our final song. Isn't it interesting that Jesus said to his disciples, "A new
00:45:23 commandment I give to you." You know, the old commandment, love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and might. Love your neighbor as yourself. Oh, this is a shift. Like, because I've I've had a lot of church members in Asia say, you know, I I love um my neighbor as myself. That's why if they come and ask me to forgive them, then I will. That's not Christlike forgiveness. That's pagan forgiveness. Christlike forgiveness is painful. Paying the price of all the harm without permission. Father, forgive
00:46:01 them. They don't know what they're doing. Don't hold this against them. Not not love your neighbor as yourself, but love your neighbor the way Jesus loved you. love them in a way that costs you something. This is why Christian marriages break down because they forget that love ought to cost you something. It's not transactional. It's painful. It costs. We cannot be effective, faithful gospel stewards if we have forgotten that we were the ones on that road. And every church that grieavves about the condition of the world and ang
00:46:55 is angry at all these policies being taught at universities, that is a church that is forgotten. We were on the road. The enemy next door drew near, saw us, and felt mercy. I'm going to ask you to bow with me for just a moment. And as your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, I'm going to ask you, is there any neighbor you find particularly distasteful? Is there anyone in your life that you feel like I could like them, but that would take a lot of work? If there is, then you're just like me. You love according to your
00:47:51 culture. You like when it's convenient. I I wonder if you can possibly imagine that this God who was the enemy next your door has greater plans for you FBC than you have for him. And I wonder if aside from vision, not strategies, but simply every day read his word and then determine to do it. How would that change us? How would that change the reputation of the church in Malaysia? I wonder if just where you are, you would have the courage to pray a simple [Music] prayer. Lord, speak and by your spirit's
00:49:11 power, I will do it. Whatever you've heard the Lord say to you in his word today, would you say yes Lord because you are the Lord and I am not speak and I will do it. Father God, I pray that you would cause your church to arise and to go. Not for us to be a sitting church. Not learning from one another how to sit well, stand well, sing well, but learning from one another. Modeling what it looks like to do your word. Not just when we are together, but when you scatter us throughout this city. Help us by your spirit's
00:50:12 power to do your word for your glory and for our good. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's pray together. Father God, as you send these your people off, I pray that they would go with your peace upon their heads, with joy in their hearts, and with good news on their tongues. I pray that you would fill them with a sense of your abiding pleasure and that we would be a people who would specifically and intentionally day by day seek your favor. And now to him who is able to keep you from falling to the one who is able to
00:51:01 present you before his presence without fault and with great joy. To the only begotten of the father be power and authority, honor and glory from this day forever more. Amen. God bless you. You can be seated. [Music]
