2023-09-03_Sunday 2nd Service. Empowered Relationships With Rev. Simon Mwangi

Hallelujah Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Isaiah 41, 10 says fear not, for I am with you.

Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I'll strengthen you, I'll uphold you with my victorious right hand.

Determination 33, verse 27, says underneath are the everlasting arms.

Let's give Jesus a mighty hand.

Glory to God, amen, amen.

And we could appreciate the team on voices, the team on instruments, the team on videography here.

I appreciate their service this morning.

I also want you to appreciate the many people following online all over the world.

Let's give a hand to the Lord and appreciate them.

As you know, we also have a congregation of our flow spaces in the pavilion we have.

We are having people there in the pavilion, some downstairs in the parents room.

Let's appreciate them and give a hand to Jesus.

Thank you, god is good and all the time you're looking good, better than and tomorrow, and then and then and then and finally, let me wear mine Hallelujah.

Our scripture today comes from John, chapter 13, the Gospel of John.

John 13 · chapter mention

I'm reading from the NIV version of the Bible, john, chapter 13.

John 13 · chapter mention

We shall read the first at the still verses.

It was just before the Passover festival.

Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.

Having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end.

That means he loved them to death.

The evening meal was in progress and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon, is carried out, to betray Jesus.

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God.

In verse 4, the Bible says so.

He got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel our towel around his waist.

After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him Lord, are you going to wash my feet?

Jesus replied you do not realize now what I'm doing, but later you will understand.

No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet.

Jesus answered unless I wash you, you have no part with me.

Then, lord Simon Peter replied not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well.

Jesus answered those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet.

Their whole body is clean.

And you are clean, though not everyone of you, for he knew who was going to betray him and that, and that was why he said not everyone was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.

Do you understand what I have done for you?

He asked you call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am.

Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Let's pray, father, in Jesus name.

We thank you for the word that I've just read and, lord, we ask that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you reveal it to us.

Lord, speak to us.

Our hearts are open to you.

Once again, thank you for all who are here in person and those who are following the service online around the world those in Europe, in the Americas, in Asia, in Australia, across Africa, in the islands of the world.

Lord, we thank you for everyone and we pray that, as we listen to your word, that you bless all of us In Jesus name.

We pray, amen.

We may have our seats.

I would like to appreciate my brother, harness Wasseman, from the Wycliffe Wild Alliance.

We had a meeting together during the week in that convention people's people conversation convention and we're going to have another meeting later in Johannesburg, south Africa, next year.

We are praying about that meeting and so, harness, wasseman, maybe you just stand.

We appreciate you and the team from Wycliffe Bible Alliance I see Pauline is there.

Hallelujah, we thank God for you.

Pauline is an Africa area director and Wasseman is the associate executive director for the whole world, and so we really appreciate that you can be with us.

Thank you, I also realize we might have one or two pastors.

Wilson, if you would stand, yeah, yeah, just stand.

Bela, pasta, bella, any other pastor who is here with us today, maybe in the pavilion as well.

I know there was a pastor, mary, who say pray for my daughter, jennifer, who is not feeling well, and she's right there.

Yes, we are praying for Jennifer.

Let's appreciate these pastors who have joined us today, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Pasta Wilson is all the way from Cameroon and we really Morris yeah, I keep mixing Morris and Wilson Morris, all the way from Cameroon.

We thank God you're here.

The subject of today's empowered relationships, you know also, this is the theme of this month.

Every month we have a theme, so the month of September, the theme is empowered relationships, and these relationships enable ministry.

They create a very enabling environment for ministry.

Empowered relationships, and this is from John, chapter 13, verse 1 to 15.

John 13:1–15

I draw inspiration from this text and there are three areas I would like us to visit just to help us delve deeper into the text.

Empowered by love, empowered for service, empowered to empower.

First of all, empowered by love.

I will read again the first three verses from John, chapter 13.

John 13 · chapter mention

It was just before the Passover festival.

Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.

Having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simeon Escario, to betray Jesus.

Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God Empowered by love.

Love is the greatest motivating force in the world.

Motivations are is a very, very motivating force, and Jesus exercises covenant love, selfless love and conditional love.

In the passage that I just read there, he's exercising selfless love, covenant love and unconditional love, selfless love.

Because he was just about to die and he was going through a very, very difficult moment, and yet Jesus does not draw attention to what he is going through.

Jesus is a giver to the end, selfless love.

This probably starts the evening.

They are having an evening meal and then the next day would be a long day for Jesus.

He would be crucified the next day, which is a Friday, and then buried and then rice on Sunday, and so this meal is a very difficult time for Jesus.

But then he goes past his own self situation and self condition and he reaches out to his disciples.

There is a calling for us to rise above selfish, selfish or self considerations, for us to be able to serve beyond where we are serving right now.

And so Jesus is motivated by selfless love.

It's a difficult time for him, but he is loving.

But secondly, covenant love.

I want to remind us today that God has covenanted to love regardless.

It is covenant love.

From his end of the bargain, god will love and love and love.

The challenge sometimes comes from our end of the bargain and sometimes we don't accept the love of God as we really should.

But I want us to be reminded today that God, out of covenant, out of his own decision and choice, he has chosen to love us and it doesn't matter the situation, god will continue to love.

In fact, god is love.

But number three, unconditional love.

We sang a little earlier that we don't deserve his love, but God loves us anyway, the people that he is loving here.

One of them would betray him, the other one would deny him three times and then the rest would desert him to the extent that when he's facing the trial, the people are saying release Barabbas, crucify him.

That crowd had people.

Some of them had benefited from Jesus and his miracles and some of them were very close to him, but all of them were singing the chorus crucify Jesus.

You know, release Barabbas.

And that is the kind of love Jesus is exercising in this passage.

And let me tell you, love is a very powerful force.

It's able to rise above the here and now.

You know the issues that come up in marriages, in relationships.

You have differed in the morning over just the way the tea was cooked.

Maybe it got a little more tea leaves than it should, and there are big differences.

A whole problem arises from there.

The kind of love Jesus is exercising here is selfless love, covenant love, unconditional love, and my prayer is that we would exercise this kind of love.

Romans 5a says the following God shows his love for us in that, while we were yet seen as Christ died for us, god did not wait for me to get better.

God took initiative, and so the calling that is here, the calling of love, is for us to make the first move.

God does not wait for you to make the first move.

He waits, he doesn't, he takes the first move.

And this kind of love is very, very powerful In our own neighborhoods, where we live, in our working places, in our own families.

You are siblings in that family who will make the first move.

Sometimes we have a stalemate where things are not moving because of, you know, a problem that has persisted for some time, but that problem is an opportunity and it is waiting for someone to make the first move.

Will you make the first move?

So we find Jesus here, out of just a situation, making the first move and rising above his own self issues or the problem of the cross that was ahead of him.

In 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, paul writes about love, and why he is inspired to write this passage is because there is a love deficit.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

You have a church that is short on love.

It's big on everything else.

It's big on drama, you know.

It is big on the externals, but it is short on love.

And it's very interesting how he describes in verse 1, if I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can further more mysteries in all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship, that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Then he says love is passion.

These are attributes of this kind of love I'm talking about.

Love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love delights does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres.

Love never fails.

But where there are prophecies, there will cease.

Where there are tongues, there will be stilled.

Where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Jesus is motivated by love, my love, and he is expressing this kind of love.

It doesn't wait for somebody else to make the move.

This love takes the initiative.

The church at Corinth was shot on love, although it was charismatic because that church had about 18 different gifts, spiritual gifts.

It was a very gifted church, very charismatic, dancing and praising and doing everything.

People are inside the sanctuary.

They'll be very excited, but as soon as they go through that door, they gossip.

They're undermining Everything that is against love would begin to happen.

And so Jesus is demonstrating an amazing love, and their attributes is demonstrating here are amazing.

It's impossible to love except by the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5, verse 22 says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy.

Galatians 5:22

Let's go, it's all there on the screen.

Let's read it together Peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness.

And again, as such, there is no law.

The Holy Spirit, he, is the one who gives us the power to love, and so, where you find you have a love deficit or a shortage of love, what you need to do is simply pray and ask Holy Spirit, give me love, give me patience, give me kindness.

When I'm conducting weddings, I do encourage what I call love retreats.

And I say, when you go for a love retreat, leave the hustle and bustle of the city, go someplace, maybe in Naivasha or some other place.

The two of you, as a couple, list all these attributes that are given here and then score yourself.

You score the love appraisal or the dipstick of love, and then score yourself on each one of them.

You know, love is patient, love is kind, love is not irritable, love does not keep a record of wrongs, love does not rejoice in evil, love believes all things, hopes all things and do us all things.

And as a couple, score yourself out of 10 for every one of those attributes.

The total should come to about 150.

Now, if you score 60, that is below half on the dipstick of love.

If you score 75, you're just on the margin.

If you are around 80 and you're somehow trying.

But if you are on the other side and you are scoring very low and I know, especially for us men, patience would be a problem for ladies record of wrongs, because ladies can remember things of very long ago and that's why you're scoring two out of 10 or one out of 10.

Then what you do at the love retreat as a gentleman and you have been shot on patience, love deficit, you kneel down, humble yourself, ask your wife to lay a hand on you and ask your wife to pray the Holy Spirit into your life, because those attributes are not found in the supermarket.

You don't go with a basket walking there and you go shopping and putting in your basket.

There is where they are found and the Holy Spirit, he is the key.

And then, as a wife, if you have kept reminding your husband, even he can't sleep because the whole night you are nudging him, like Pastor Ambrose sometimes says, mother nudging him and mother nudges to say nice things, hallelujah.

But I'm talking about some of our situations and scenarios and you understand, men, you know I'm a man, I understand.

I mean in the middle of the night and you're being reminded something you did six years ago.

Six years ago.

If that's the situation of the love retreat, my sister just kneel down, let your husband lay his hand on you and pray the Holy Spirit inside that scenario.

And so we have God who has become flesh.

He has dwelt among us and God become flesh, dwelt among us.

He's now in a dining, around a dining table.

It is meal time.

He is investing in the relationships that are there, dynamics of relationships within that group.

This is typical of a father who calls his own family around a table, or a mother who calls you know family around a table, and all of a sudden, instead of thinking that you should be the one receiving all the service, you are the one actually serving.

And so Jesus is there.

He's got his team together.

Something is about to happen that is very big, but he's still there, loving them, and the Bible says he loves them to death.

He loves them to death, and so my prayer today is this that on the standard of love that Jesus has released in this passage, we may actually measure ourselves.

Have we covenanted to love?

Have you made a decision?

I will love anyway.

Have you chosen to connect with selfless love?

Say it doesn't matter my situation, I will love.

Have you determined to engage unconditional love?

That means I won't wait until the other person changes.

I'm the one who is going to take the initiative and I will actually love them.

In our own families we have people of all kinds, but God is calling us to love them.

God is calling us to love.

The city Doesn't matter, the tribe, the race, the background.

He's calling us to love the nations.

I love praying for the nations.

If you come to my office you will see that globe.

I normally hold it, I bring it close to my heart and I pray God give me the nations, based on Psalms, chapter 2, verse 8.

Psalms 2:8

That's an exercise I do all the time and sometimes some of us will jump some nations and you say I can pray for this one and this one and this one, but this country, these people from this country, has caused a lot of problems.

I will not pray for them.

God wants us to pray for every man, every woman on planet Earth Hallelujah, every man and every woman on planet Earth.

And so love is the greatest motivation and Jesus is doing what he's doing because of love.

If our relationships are going to be enhanced you know they're going to be powerful we need to love one another, but secondly, empowered for service, empowered by love, empowered for service.

The mission of love, the mission of love is service, and love must rise beyond a nice feeling, you know, like, like a motivation or just a nice feeling.

Love is a verb, love is an action, love is not passive, love is not indifferent.

And so love must step beyond that nice feeling, and love must start doing what you call the works of love.

Let me just read from verse four so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist.

After that he poured water in a basin and began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around him.

It goes on to say in verse six he came to Simon Peter who said to him Lord, are you going to wash my feet?

Jesus replied you do not realize now what I'm doing, but later you will understand.

No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet, jesus answered.

Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.

Then, lord, simon Peter replied not just my feet, but my hands, and my head as well.

Jesus answered those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet.

Their whole body is clean and you are clean, though not every one of you.

Then, in verse 11, for he knew who was going to betray him and that was why he said not everyone was clean, empowered for service.

You know, the service gap is very big, because the normal inclination is that I want to be served and I see, even in the organization arrangement of churches, you will have the bishop's chair and there is a cathedral which is the chair the bishop sits on and the bishop will sit waiting to be served.

That is the modus operandi.

That is how life seems to be organized, and life seems to be organized around me and the rest of the world is serving me, it's operating at my behest In the early service, of course, when I say that, I remember their chairs put here that are different for some of us, and that word spoke to me as I was preaching in the first service.

He said you are saying that, look at your chair, and we tend to be organized like that.

But Jesus removes the robe.

He removes every trappings of power and position and name, every entitlement and every right.

And Jesus becomes a slave duolos in Greek and puts a towel around himself and then he has to wash the feet of these disciples.

Remember they had walked the whole day.

The place was so dusty.

They used to walk with sandals in that region and those are not nice feet to wash.

But Jesus becomes that servant who must provide the service that the people around the table actually need.

Jesus was a revolutionary and he turns the tables around and that is why in the book of Mark Mark, chapter 10, from verse 41, he says the following Mark, chapter 10,.

Mark 10 · chapter mention Mark 10 · chapter mention

When the 10 heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.

Go back, just go back.

When the 10 heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.

Jesus called them together and said you know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles Lord is over them and they are high officials exercise authority over them, not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to become a great among you must become your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be slave of all.

For why don't we read this one together, verse 45.

For even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Not only did he love them to death, he served them to death.

These are the last moments of his life and this was the mission of Christ serving to the last moment, serving to the last breath, and I hope and pray that is your commitment to serve to the last breath and to the last moment.

So God has given us gifts, and there are spiritual gifts.

Fast Corinthians, chapter 12, we won't read it now, but you can read it later, the whole chapter about the giftings, how talented and gifted the body of Christ is, and the purpose of this gift is also stated there.

They are for the good of all, they are for service.

We serve and we serve one another.

Later on, paul talks about the body of Christ from verse 12 and he says we are like a body.

Everybody here is important, everybody here has a role, everyone.

And he talks about the hand, the leg, the ear, the eye, the different parts of the body, and he says every part of this body has its own role and function and every part is very, very, very important.

So the hand cannot say I'm not part of the body, or the leg, I'm not part of the body.

All the body functions together and everything has its own place and its own role.

So therefore, when I say empowered for service, I know that God has released a grislet, what you call a service grislet, or a service anointing upon everybody.

There was nobody who was made by God not to have a place in history or to have a niche in history.

Everybody is important and that's how love grants people dignity.

Love, through the channel of service now dignifies people and God is very interested in everyone and he wants us to really serve.

So to enhance our relationships.

Nobody can say I have nothing to offer.

You know you have something in that home, you know that workplace, in that neighborhood, within your village, within your city like Nairobi, hallelujah, each one of us has a niche and we have a gift that God has given us.

We can give to the city.

Even now, with the climate change conference coming this coming week, there is a way you can participate.

You may not be in the front line, you can pray and the other things you can actually do.

There is something God has given each one of us so that we can partake.

So Jesus said I was hungry, you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink.

I was naked and you clothed me to Matthew 25 and I was in prison.

You visited me.

I was in hospital and you came over to visit me.

And then he said whatever you have done for anyone of these little ones, you have actually done it for me.

Opportunities of service are everywhere, pastor Edith, when you are praying, you prayed about school face and we know there are so many kids who really don't have school face and some of them need very little to be able to do a term in high school.

All those are of the kids who are going into university and some of them may get stuck for a year or two because they didn't have that school face.

God has endowed someone, somewhere, with resources to be able to find a child like that and help them through.

Some of the kids have helped, and helping and serving sometimes can be very challenging.

The first service I talked about a young man called Juma, who I saw and I really was touched to help him brought him into my house and he had an issue because he didn't know how to use the flash toilet and oftentimes he would actually do whatever on top, not inside.

You understand what I mean, hallelujah I'm trying to avoid crude language here and he would do it several times and I would clean it and then he does it again.

But the Lord just kept working and transforming this young man.

Today, as we are talking, juma I took him through school, high school and so on has done his masters.

He is married to a very beautiful lady, hallelujah, and they have children and every time I meet them I feel very good.

You have a chance to change the world.

World changes.

You and I are world changers and we can change the world one person at a time.

We can make that difference.

The love of Christ compels us to serve.

This past week I've been doing crusades that road to Gongtown.

M Bull Bull around there pitched a platform and loudspeakers and had young people and guitars and things like that and in the evening if you are from that direction and you are passing there, you had music or had some preaching.

It was me Actually, I was doing it right there by the roadside and you have all these people with the small kiosks around here.

The love of Christ is more than a feeling, because I may feel this neighborhood needs to change.

That's a nice feeling, but I need to do something about it.

So I went into that direction.

I've been spending evenings there and preaching from that pulpit by the roadside, making altar calls, and people are turning to the Lord.

Hallelujah, let's give a hand to the Lord.

God is faithful.

God is faithful, and so Jesus does not sit back and that is why God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Jesus came to wash our feet.

We need to wash the feet of others.

And you know, he became a human being.

We call it the incarnation, john, chapter one in verse 14.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.

We have beheld his glory glorious of the only Son of God and eventually he became the Lamb of God and he became the sacrifice for our sins.

And, based on the service Jesus offered, we can find salvation, we can find healing, we can find deliverance, we can find restoration and reconciliation because of what Jesus did.

My prayer is this wherever you are within the family unit, you will rise beyond a nice feeling of love to the next level, which is called the service element of love, and begin to do something in that neighborhood, begin to do something within that family.

Reach out to your brother, reach out to your sister, reach out to your child.

Be the first one to take that particular initiative.

That is what ministry is all about.

When you have love, then you begin to minister, and people are very important.

People are key.

So Jesus washes their feet.

But finally, empower to empower.

This is what I call influence.

If you're going to leave a legacy or what you call, you know, legacy, it has to happen within relationships.

They are relationships that we function in and people watch our lives.

In verse 12 out of verse 17,.

What does he say?

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.

Do you understand what I have done for you?

He asked him.

You call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am.

Now that your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Very truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

Now that you know these things, you'll be blessed if you do them.

Jesus is about to die, he's about to go, and this is a legacy moment.

He's simply done an object lesson and now he's passed on the ball to them and he's saying you do what I have done In John 13, verse 34 and verse 35,.

John 13:34

He said a new commandment I give to you that you love one another.

By this, all men will know that you have loved one another.

I mean by this, all men will know that you're my disciples if you have loved for one another.

John 13, verse 34 and 35.

John 13:34

God is calling us to do something that will be eternal and something that is going to have an eternal effect.

Succession includes imparting another life, one generation ministering to another generation and that generation picking it up and then running with it.

Second, timothy 2,2 says.

Paul is speaking to Timothy and he says and the things you have learned from me before many witnesses and trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

These are very important kingdom principle the things we learn, we pass on.

I am discipling a number of young people.

One of them is Mohanad and you know him.

He has a Muslim background and he's been telling me I wish I had known God much earlier and he's grown up in the Muslim faith.

But then he gave his life to Jesus Christ and I've been working with him and I've been with him even today.

He came to my office and it's amazing how Mohanad is growing and I have determined I'll walk with him, I'll stand with him.

He must be like 28 years around there.

Yeah, I'll stand with him until Christ is fully formed in him through a discipleship process, and right now we are doing, growing in Christ.

Let me tell you something about Mohanad.

I haven't met in a long time someone who consumes scripture like Mohanad.

One of the days I'll bring him here.

It's amazing.

Memorizing scripture he's even picking whole passages and he's saying I wish I knew this.

Now we did 2 Corinthians 5.17, I did with him.

That says if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

The old is gone.

The old and new has come.

You know what he wrote it in the English language.

He wrote in the Arabic backwards, like this, and that piece is in my office.

I look at it all the time.

And he said is this what has happened to me?

I told him yes, he said the old is gone, all of it.

I told him you are free, you are delivered, the past is gone, your narrative is changed and it's changed forever.

He's a new creation, you are a brand new creation and when you receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, you become a brand new creation.

The old is gone.

Behold, the new actually comes.

And you know, as I invest my life in Mohanad, I know that he will do the same.

In fact, there's even another gentleman.

He came.

You brought them to my office as they were coming, ian, the two of them Very fine young men, and I'm also discipling Ian and you know they are really really doing well and I thank God for what is legacy, what is succession, what is the best thing you can ever do?

It is to invest your life in another life.

And so Jesus spends time with a small group, does an object lesson and then he says do this thing to somebody else.

I have washed your feet, washed somebody else's feet.

I have changed your life.

May God, my God, use you are to change somebody else's life.

Let me tell you, nairobi can be changed so easily.

And I've said this year before, if all of us in the month of September allow ourselves to make relationships, friendships, relationships, this kind of empowered relationships driven by love and by service and by influence.

At the month of September and each one of us decides to take only two people, normally when this place is full, we have about 3,500 people inside the sanctuary and then we have 1,200 out there.

If in the pavilion I'm also talking to you if each one of us in the month of September to call it two people, let's even work with 3,500, how many people shall we be handling through the month of September.

How many?

3,500 times, which is 7,000 people, 7,000 people apart from us, another 7,000 people within one month.

That is possible.

And so Jesus said what I have done for you.

You are a small group, I've discipled you, I've brought you this far.

Now you guys go and do what I've done for you, for other people, and I thank God, they obeyed.

How do I know?

Because we are here, the church is here 2,000 years later and we have billions of people who are actually Christians today, because those people, in their season and time, actually obeyed the relationships that God has put in your area.

I have neighbors where I live and I feel an obligation and a calling to know my neighbors where I live, to find out when there's a funeral or a child born or something happening in that homestead, to walk across to that place and grow my relationships.

And the starting points are all over, they are all around.

It is possible to have a ministry.

You can develop your own personal ministry, not the ministry of the church, baklan's Baptist, or even of the pastor, but your own personal ministry wherever you are, and it's normally very, very simple.

Just open your eyes.

The opportunities are there.

Jesus looked, he saw their feet.

The feet was dirty.

They're.

The feet were dirty.

That became his opportunity and then he started washing their feet and then from there he gave them a lesson.

And let me tell you that evening meal was a powerful moment.

First day night.

And Jesus teaches what John 13, john 14, john 15, john 16, and the prayer in John 17.

All of them are done within a space.

You know of that evening because he was discipling them and this were his last moments.

And then after that, of course, he is betrayed and after that he goes to the cross and he dies, he's buried and on Sunday he actually rises again.

Some people say time is short.

It's not short If Jesus could do in one evening.

If you read, actually, those are very powerful passages and, alex, you know them.

John 14, where he said I go to prepare a place.

John 15, you remember one verse I'm the vine, you are the branches.

He who abides in me and I in him, he does not bear as much food, for apart from me, you can do nothing.

John 16, he talks about the Holy Spirit, the Paracletus, the Paracaleo, the one who has been called.

Alongside John 17, he does this famous prayer.

Let me tell you our dining tables, our meals in the evening can become places of growing relationships.

But beyond that, to serve one another and beyond that, to teach each other eternal lessons, and especially for us in Africa, because we are community in our own organization.

It is so easy to keep calling for a meal and I pray you organize a meal and you invite me, because I love eating.

Hallelujah, and I know somebody else is like me, I'll tell you.

I told the First Service, with my children, we have this habit Sunday afternoon of having a meal together and catching up, and one of the places we love going, because we love Chinese food, is for you in Valais arcade, and I told the First Service this one of these days I was with all my clan there, though I live in I think they were around 11, around the table, and, yeah, around 11, and we actually ate food.

Some couple who are sitting somewhere not far from us, the gentleman later came and he told me Parsi, I don't come to your church, I follow you online and, together with my wife, we have determined we are going to pay the whole bill.

We are taking care of your bill.

And so what am I saying?

Invite someone for lunch by faith, hallelujah, the Lord will sort out the bill somehow, somehow.

So don't give an excuse that I don't have the money.

Just invite people for that meal, galitos or somewhere, and then keep waiting, because the Lord will soon come through.

There is no excuse, no excuse.

And so I'm about to pray.

What I'm raising here is an altar of love, a love that develops relational networks.

And a love that grows from a center that is small and increases the networks around it.

A love that is based on love, and a love that is able to empower and trust and equip Parents.

When we raise our children, let's also trust them, equip them and release them, because when their time comes, they need to go.

And that kind of love.

As I raise this altar, I'm trusting God that somebody is here saying I want to recalibrate my relationships, I want to use the Jesus standard, and I want to use the Jesus standard in John chapter 13, that in this month of September, my relational standard is going to be the John chapter 13.

John 13 · chapter mention John 13 · chapter mention

And whatever it's going to take, I'm going to reach out to that Judas who has been trying to betray me.

In fact, I'll wash his feet.

I will also reach that Peter who is about to deny me when I need to be identified and say I don't know him.

I'm going to reach out to that one and Lord, this month of September, the people who have deserted me and walked away from me.

I am going to take initiative and I'm going to reach out to them.

That is the Jesus standard and I say it is covenant love, it is selfless love, it's unconditional love and I believe as we go out like this, the Lord will use us as well changes.

I invite us now to stand so that we pray together.

There is a song that touched me, this song that says the overwhelming love that comes finding me.

Yes, we will just sing like two or three lines and then I'll lead us in prayer.

The overwhelming, never ending red, less the love of God.

Oh, it chases me down, but still I'm found Leaves the night to night.

I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it.

Still, you give yourself away.

Oh, the overwhelming, never ending red, less the love of God.

Oh, the overwhelming, never ending red, less the love of God.

Oh, it chases me down, but still I'm found Leaves the night to night.

I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it.

Still, you give yourself away.

Oh, the overwhelming, never ending red, less the love of God.

Sing there is no shadow.

No shadow you will light up.

Mount your one climber coming after me.

There is no one.

You won't kick down.

There is no one you won't kick down now, you won't tear it out.

Coming after me, oh, there is no shadow.

Mount your one liar mountain you won't climb up.

Coming after me, there is no one you won't kick down now, you won't tear it out.

Coming after me.

Oh, the overwhelming, never ending red, less the love of God.

Oh, it chases me down, but still I'm found Leaves the night to night.

I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it.

Still, you give yourself away.

Oh, the overwhelming, never ending red, less the love of God.

Father, we thank you for that overwhelming, reckless love that you expressed on your disciples in John, chapter 13, just before you die.

John 13 · chapter mention

Lord, we thank you that this now serves as a standard of love that we must exercise in our marriages, in our homes, in our families, in our workplaces, within the streets, in the businesses, within the institutions, in our city, in our country and in our continent.

My God, I have raised an altar of the standard of love, the kind of love that empowers relationships, that causes relationships to serve one another and causes relationships to leave a legacy.

My God, I thank you so much for that which you did in John 13,.

And now we have an opportunity to connect and engage, because you told your disciples do what I have done for you.

And today, lord, in the 21st century, this congregation, we have a chance to respond.

You know yourself, god has blessed you, god has given you skills, god has given you talents.

God wants you to use that as vehicles of love, to be able to serve the world around you.

And as you serve the world around you, beginning with family and then even going into your neighborhood and the rest of the world, god will open doors for you to reach nations.

In His name.

My God, I thank you for these gifts and talents that are represented in this church by those who are here in the pavilion and those who are following online and at this altar, of this kind of love, boundless love, overhorming love.

My God, we come as we are and with our gifts and talents, and we give them over to you and my Father by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We pray that you may make use of them in leading us to develop networks and relationships that will be kingdom networks and kingdom relationships that will cause transformation and change of lives.

As we do so today, we repent that our love has been a love deficit kind of thing, more like the Corinthian love.

But today, lord, we are ready to embrace the love of the Holy Spirit and we ask that you forgive us where we have failed to reach out to somebody who needed our hand or our help and bring us to the place where we can covenant to love, be selfless in love, but also love in an unconditional manner.

You know yourself and you know the opportunities God has given you to love in the last months of the year 2023.

As we go into the month of September, you can commit yourself, through this prayer, to actually maximize on those opportunities.

I have known cases where somebody was not able to reach another one in good time and that person died.

And then this individual lived with guilt because they felt they missed the opportunity.

While we have life and we are breathing, let us love one another, let us relate with one another, let us change our world through the instrumentation of love.

And so you are here and you are saying Pastor, I feel like my love has been short compared to the standard of John, chapter 13.

John 13 · chapter mention

And I would like God to empower me afresh.

I need to show this love to my wife.

I need to show this kind of love to my children.

I need to show this kind of love to my husband.

I need to show this kind of love to my neighbor.

I have never knocked the door of my neighbor Yet.

We are on the same flat, we are in the same gated community, we are in the same neighborhood, and I have never done it.

My pastor, pray with me Because, beginning now, I want to begin to do something about it.

The world is near us, the opportunities are there and God wants us to make a difference.

It doesn't take big things to make this difference.

So you're saying I have all these things, I have extra clothes, I have extra shoes, I have all these extra things.

My pastor, I want to reach out to somebody who needs these things and you are here in the pavilion, you are online, you are following this service.

Just as an act of faith, you can just put up your hand and put it down.

Just put it up and put it down.

Thank you, my father, for those hands that have come up and down.

Thank you for the standard of love that we are engaging in and because of this, I know there will be love expressed and, lord, there will be healing.

That will happen, father, that families will be strengthened just because of this act, and we pray that this month of September now becomes the month of love, the month of relationships, father, that broken relationships will be mended and that we shall reach out to somebody that we have not reached out to before.

So thank you, my God, for that response, but you might also be here and we have just sung the song about God's amazing love and you have heard me share that God so loves you that he gave his son for your life.

You are not born again.

You can pray the prayer right where you are in your heart and you say Lord Jesus, come into my heart, wash away my sins, make me a new creation and from today I want to work under new management and God is able to break you from your past and give you a brand new life.

That's what God is offering you right now.

And if you have prayed that prayer, after the service you can see me or see one of the decons and leaders here, or pastors, and tell us that you have prayed that prayer.

My Father, once again, thank you for this service.

Thank you, lord, for taking care of us through the week, and now we have another week ahead of us.

I invite us now to lift our hands to God because he wants to bless us.

My Father, I decree and declare blessings on Monday, blessings on Tuesday, blessings on Wednesday, blessings on Thursday, blessings on Friday, blessings on Saturday, blessings on this coming Sunday, and I declare that, god, you're opening doors in this week.

I declare that we shall come back with testimonies.

I declare that your people are covered by the blood of Jesus and that this week you are taken care of.

No weapon fashioned against you shall prosper.

The enemy will come in one direction Are you hearing me?

But will be scattered in seven directions.

That's what God is saying.

Thank you, my God.

I also declare that God has opened the heavens to show me 28, verse 12.

He's pouring the rains of his bounty, he's blessing the work of your hands, and God is saying you will lend to many nations and you will borrow from now.

He's also saying you shall be head and not tail, you shall be top and not bottom.

Whatever that was in your way.

That mountain is leveled.

That mountain is leveled.

That mountain is leveled.

That hindrance is leveled right now, in the name of Jesus Christ.

And God has made away where there was no way.

And therefore, father, blessed every family.

Provide for every family, lord, make a way for every family.

Let this week be a great week.

And I've prayed this prayer in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and we all say let's give a big handcloth to Jesus.

Glory to God, glory to God.

And I am with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit Be with us now and forevermore.

Amen.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever and ever.

Amen.

Have a great week.