Our Solution Pictured: The Law

It's only a lot.

I've eaten more than my fair share of turnip cake and chestnut cake and everything else,

enough to cause a heart attack.

So I hope you guys have also had a great New Year.

And I like New Year because if you've broken your New Year's resolutions from the first New Year,

you've now got another chance.

So it's good.

But we've been going through a series in God's story, Our Story.

And we're coming to the point where we're going to look at the law.

Now, when I was younger, my parents used to give me, well, they thought Sunday was a special day.

And they wanted to be different from other days.

And so what they did, they made a rule that on Sundays, you are not allowed to watch television.

And so the problem with this rule was that all the best televised football games were on Sunday.

And this caused some kind of crisis in conscience for me because sometimes in the evenings,

my parents would go out and I would be left at home and there would be an amazing game on TV.

And at that point, obedience didn't seem particularly attractive.

So what I would do was I would draw the curtains and I would turn on the TV, turn the sound down.

And every few minutes, whenever I heard a car coming past, I'd kind of quickly look out of the curtains just to see that my parents weren't there.

This went on for year after year.

And I'm hoping my parents don't listen to this because I haven't even confessed to this day.

So please, if you ever meet them, don't tell them about this.

But I thought that obedience for me was a meaningless way to spoil my fun.

Because football seemed far more attractive than obeying my parents.

And I think that many of us can see obedience a bit like I did with my parents.

You know, it's a way to spoil my fun.

After all, even if I disobey, God will forgive me.

So it's okay, isn't it, to just disobey a little bit.

You know, it's not that bad.

Otherwise, we might sometimes think about obedience or religion in an opposite way.

If I do keep the rules, if I do obey my parents, then they'll be pleased with me.

And maybe they won't come and punish me.

I'll avoid the consequences.

And God becomes a bit like a parent who's always looking over your shoulder, ready to sneak up on you,

just when you're not expecting, catching you in the act.

And then they're going to come down hard on you.

Those are two ways, I think, we often think about obedience.

But we're going to look at how the Bible deals with it.

And we're going to see the Bible deals with obedience in a very different way from both of those two ways.

So let's kind of recap some of the story we've been looking at so far.

And on your bulletin, you'll also see there's some little icons at the bottom.

Those are just reminders for you of where we've gone to in the story.

So the recap is, if you look at the first icon, you see that God is the king over all of creation.

And he makes this incredibly beautiful world and a garden which he places humans in where they're to satisfy every longing, every desire.

And the thing that they need to do is just trust God, obey his word, and everything goes well with them.

And God gives them a command to go out and to fill the world and multiply.

Then what happens is people decide, actually, we don't really want to obey you, God.

Actually, it looks more attractive to kind of make ourselves the one who decide what we're going to do.

So we're going to disobey.

We're going to decide that we're going to run our world the way we want to run it.

We're going to center life around ourselves.

And the problem is, things begin to break apart.

The relationship with God breaks apart.

The relationship with each other breaks apart.

People, shame comes in.

Fear comes in.

Hatred comes in.

Murder comes in.

Arrogance, where people start trying to make themselves great, comes in.

And it's devastating.

They're no longer concerned about looking outward.

They're only concerned about making themselves secure and looking inward on themselves.

And just as you get to the point of the Tower of Babel, where people are trying to make themselves great,

everything seems to be right at rock bottom.

Then God comes along, and he makes a promise to a man called Abraham, and he says,

I will make you great.

I'm going to promise you three things.

Three amazing things.

I'm going to give you a land.

I'm going to give you a people.

I'm going to give you a blessing, which is going to go out to the whole of the world.

Because I'm going to recreate what your original purpose as human beings was.

And you're going to be my people.

And we saw last week how God had begun this process of multiplying these people in Egypt.

They were in slavery.

And God brought them out and saved them through sacrifice, through the blood of a lamb on the doorposts.

And he brought them out, and he took them through to a mountain.

And that's where we come today, to a mountain to give his law to people.

And we're going to think about this idea of law in just three stages, really.

A distinctive relationship.

A distinctive people.

A distinctive savior.

Okay?

Distinctive relationship.

Distinctive people.

Distinctive savior.

So let's think about distinctive relationship.

When God brings his people out of Egypt, he brings them to this mountain.

And what he's doing, he's bringing them into a kind of marriage ceremony.

It's what's called a covenant.

It's a formal relationship between two parties, two people of commitment and responsibility.

This whole thing that we're reading is like a big marriage that God is doing.

And if you notice what God says, first of all.

He says, and you can look in chapter, verse 4.

You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians.

How I bore you on eagles' wings.

And I brought you to myself.

Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession.

You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Now, did you notice what God said?

What's the first thing he says?

Does he say, okay, now you've got to obey me?

Okay?

Is that the first thing he says?

He says, if you've met my standard, if you've lived well enough, then maybe we can kind of work out some kind of relationship here.

He doesn't say that.

The first thing he says is, you've seen how I rescued you.

You've seen how I've saved you.

You've seen how I swooped down like an eagle, and I came and I rescued you.

You were slaves.

You were suffering.

I heard your cry.

I snatched you out.

I brought you to safety.

It's a bit like if you've seen The Hobbit.

There's a point in The Hobbit where hobbits are basically cornered into an area.

They're chased by orcs, these monsters who are running after them, and they're right on the edge of a cliff.

There's no way out.

They're backed in.

They're helpless.

They're powerless.

They're just about to be struck down dead when suddenly these eagles swoop in, snatch them out of danger, catch them up, and carry them off to safety.

That's what God is saying he's doing here.

He has swooped down, taken them away from danger.

He has come, and he says, I am a mother eagle who sees my sons, who sees my children.

I've swept down.

I've carried you to myself.

Notice where he was carrying them?

He wasn't just carrying them to drop them off somewhere to kind of make it by themselves.

He's carrying them to himself, to relationship with him.

You see, he takes the initiative.

God takes it.

You know, do you see?

It says he carried them.

They didn't walk out.

They didn't say, okay, God, we'll walk out.

We'll meet you on the other side.

They didn't do anything.

They didn't run.

God carried them.

They contributed nothing to their salvation.

And from that point, then God says, now obey me.

Now obey me.

In response to what I have done for you, now obey me.

Because the law was never meant to be given so that you could actually get right with God.

It was never meant to save you when God gave his law.

That's not its purpose, because it can't.

The purpose is God saves you by his grace, so you respond in obedience to his law.

Think about it.

What's the beginning of the Ten Commandments?

What's the beginning of the Ten Commandments?

Anyone?

No one wants to get it wrong.

Anyone?

Anyone?

No.

Alfie says, no other gods.

No.

None of you wanted to look stupid, did you?

No.

The beginning of the Ten Commandments is, he says, I am the Lord your God, who redeemed and

rescued you out of Egypt, out of slavery.

That's the beginning of the Ten Commandments.

Look what I've done for you.

Now here's what you're to do.

We get that so wrong.

We think God says, here's the commandments, now obey me.

He doesn't.

He says, I save you first.

The commandments and the law is so that you can be free.

It's not, I've taken you out of slavery, I don't want you to be left in slavery.

I want you to be free in relationship with me.

So obedience to God is always a response.

And you know with a response, in relationship, good relationships need to be reciprocated.

You know, when I started dating Fiona, first of all, you know, you're trying to get to know

what each other likes, yeah?

And so the first birthday present that I bought Fiona, I think, was a book.

A good theological book.

Because I like getting books.

Now she was thrilled by this.

She wasn't.

And then later on I decided, maybe I'll try flowers because that seems like a good idea.

And I got her some flowers.

And actually the response still wasn't overwhelming.

And for the next two years, I think, probably pretty much every present that I got, I think

I ended up using more than she did.

Which is actually a great thing to do if you're guys and you're single and you don't want to

feel guilty about getting things for yourself.

It's great.

Don't take that.

But when I finally found a gift that actually she liked and that pleased her, the fact of

seeing joy in her face gives me joy and pleasure.

That's why God calls us to obey him.

That's why God gives us his law.

Because the law is there to show you God's heart, God's desires, what he likes, so that

you get his heart.

So that actually as you obey, his joy becomes your joy.

Delighting him is what gives you delight.

That's actually the heart of good relationships.

That's the heart of love.

When actually your happiness is intertwined with the other person's happiness.

That's why the law is given.

That's why David can say, how I love your law.

And we think, man, has he read it?

But no, David knew that this law was revealing what his delighted, beloved God liked.

And that's where his joy was.

And as we obey, we deepen our relationship with God.

So let me ask you a question.

What is it that God is asking you to obey him in at the moment?

Is God come out to you, okay, you've got to forgive that person who's hurt you.

Is it you've got to start blessing your boss or your colleagues rather than cursing them?

Is it you've got to start reading God's word?

I don't know what it is for you.

But think about it.

How do you think about that command?

Does it feel like somehow I felt like with my parents' rules?

That it's just some rule to kind of make me spoil my fun?

Or, you know, God, don't you know what that person has done to me?

Don't you know what they like?

Don't you know?

It's just unfair.

I'm not going to forgive them.

I'm not going to bless that person.

Because disobedience seems more attractive than obedience.

But maybe God is wanting us to say,

God, I know it's really hard to forgive this person or to bless this person.

But because you love forgiveness, I will forgive.

Because you love my boss, I will bless him rather than cursing him.

God, help me.

I can't do it.

But actually, I want to do what pleases you.

Because obedience is about love and growing in my relationship with you.

Sometimes it feels like duty.

But, you know, sometimes you actually do,

dutifully do things for people you love.

I go shopping with my wife.

It's not my joy.

But actually, my wife is my joy, so I will go shopping with her.

That's why Jesus says,

If you love me, you'll obey my commands.

Obedience is God's command to grow,

and his invitation to grow in relationship with him.

So that's the distinctive relationship that God is calling them into.

But this distinctive relationship is then meant to shape and create a distinctive people.

Amidst all the other nations, they were to be distinctive.

Look in verse 5, it says,

As a result of this, they will become God's treasured possession amongst all people.

This is just a beautiful, beautiful image.

God, even though the whole world belongs to him,

he wants to take this people as his beloved,

as his treasured, precious love.

God, even though the whole world belongs to him,

it was looking a complete wreck.

My dad was about to throw it out.

My mom came there to him,

and I tell you, he was not going to throw away that cart.

Because that cart was precious to her.

My dad had to take it all the way to the new flat, new house they were moving into,

even though it was driving him crazy.

Because that cart was so precious,

she would not let it be thrown away.

That's what God is saying here.

My people, I want to make you so precious.

Out of everything that I own,

and I own everything,

you will be for me that precious one that I'll never throw away.

That means you're secure in my affection and my love for you.

Isn't that amazing?

That actually to be a distinctive people is to be a secure people in his love.

But there's another image.

Not just treasured possession.

You'll also be distinctive because of who you represent.

You'll be for me a kingdom of priests.

And the image here is of a whole nation where everybody is a priest.

And the priests were the people who could walk right into God's presence,

who had access which was forbidden to everybody else.

They could come right in.

And it wasn't just that they had this intimate relationship

where they could know God in a way that no others could.

But it was also that they were to go out

and to teach everybody else what God was like.

And so,

if everybody was to be a priest,

if this community was to be priestly,

it meant that they were to show through their life

the way what God was like to everybody else.

You know, like moths to a light,

like cockroaches to my flat,

like Hong Kongers to an investment opportunity.

Their life was meant to attract people from outside

to come to know the God who was their God.

That's why God says,

don't have any other images.

He says, you know, that's there, second commandment.

Don't have any other images, any other idols.

Why?

Well, in Deuteronomy 4,

Moses says this to the people.

He says,

God has taken you out and brought you out of the iron furnace,

out of Egypt,

to be a people of his own inheritance.

Do you know what the iron furnace was?

The iron furnace is where you make idols.

Where you make images of the gods.

God is saying,

I don't want any other idols.

I don't want any other images

because I already have an image.

My people are my image.

When people are to see what is your God like,

they don't want to look at a little statue.

They're to look at your lives

as a community and say,

that is what our God is like.

You see,

that's precisely what Genesis 1,

where God says he made man in his image,

what's to be all about.

He's recreating it.

And you see,

when the church,

when we just simply copy

what everybody else is doing around us,

whether it's in our leadership styles,

our marketing strategies,

and in our sense of big is beautiful,

whatever it is,

if we're just doing it

because everyone else is doing it,

then we may well have gone a long way wrong

for what God has called us to be as his church.

Because everyone else may do things that way,

but everyone else isn't a community

which is to image the living God

like we are.

God's law is to make us his treasured possession

secure in him.

It's to make us this people

who image him to the world.

And how are we to do that?

We're to be,

here's the next image,

a holy nation.

How do we image him?

We are this nation.

Now what's a nation?

It's a society of people

who are gathered and organized

under a ruler,

under in those times,

under a king.

And holy means reserved for a special purpose.

If I took a diet Coke and said,

this Coke is holy to Tobin,

that would mean it was reserved for his use,

for his enjoyment,

for his pleasure only.

When God says,

you are a holy nation,

it means you are reserved for God and his pleasure.

That means they would be a people

who were distinctive amongst all the other nations,

had their gods.

And you reflect your gods.

But this nation was to reflect Yahweh,

the God of Israel.

They would be different from everyone else.

Now it's,

it's no accident that God brings them to a mountain.

Mountains are a big theme in the Bible.

It's no accident.

Because all the nations around,

and archaeologists have discovered this,

that most of the major cities,

the first cities in the world,

were built in this area in the Middle East.

And you know what cities would be built around?

They would center them on a mountain or a hill,

where they would put a temple,

or they put an altar at the top.

And if they didn't have a natural hill or a mountain,

then what they would do is they'd man-make one.

That's probably what the Tower of Babel was.

It's what we sometimes call a ziggurat,

something where,

if you've seen pictures of them,

they're stepped towers.

And the idea was that you wanted this at the center,

because at the top was a bit like a kind of,

a free trade zone between you and God.

You know,

a bit like the EU,

but it might work.

Do you know?

And,

and you would just have to,

you would just have to walk up this,

and,

and you know,

it's hot,

so you'd be sweating up the steps,

carrying your offering.

Okay.

Here's Patrick the pagan.

He's there.

He's walking up,

carrying his fruit,

carrying his,

his lamb,

carrying his,

even his children,

as an offering to their gods.

And it,

what,

what Patrick would be doing at this point,

maybe with his family,

would be,

he would be saying,

look how hard I've worked for you.

Look at the sweat that's on me now.

It's all for you.

Look at the gifts that I've given you.

Look at all the effort I've given.

Look at my devotion.

Now you need to bless me.

And so you'd have this whole community,

which was trying to offer these things,

showing,

working hard to get their God to bless them.

It's a bit like if you go down to Wong Tai Sin Temple.

Have you seen them at Chinese New Year?

You go down there.

What do you do?

You give your offerings.

You give your gifts,

because what do you want?

I've done my bit.

Now,

God,

can you give me a bit of blessing back?

And the reason you would do that

was because your God

was either a temperamental,

angry tyrant

who you had to make sure

you kept him appeased,

because otherwise,

you know,

he might come and send some evil spirits

on your turnic cape or something,

or he'd come

and he'd do something to your family.

So you had to keep him happy.

So he's either a tyrant

or he's a genie.

You know,

he's the kind of,

you rub him,

you manipulate him the right way.

You know,

you go and you kind of flatter him a bit.

You know,

you go to the God of the sun

and you say,

wow,

you're looking hot today.

And,

and,

you know,

and you do these things

because,

because if you just manipulate enough,

they'll say,

oh,

wow,

what a good person.

I'll bless you.

See,

that's what it's all about.

You've got to prove

how good you are.

You've got to prove

yourself,

how hard you've worked

to get them to bless you.

I think that's the way

we work in Hong Kong,

actually.

Think about

work,

career.

A career can be an idol.

And what do you do

to get and move on

in your career?

Well,

you come with your,

your time,

your effort,

those long overtime hours

which you didn't have to work

but you were just trying

to please your boss.

Those social,

those meetings outside,

those networking things

which you never wanted

to go to,

but you'll come and offer them.

You'll laugh at your boss's jokes

even though they're terrible

just because if you offer them,

you hope that you'll get

a promotion back.

If I give you enough,

then you'll give me something back.

Or maybe,

you've got an idol of comfort.

And you know,

the idol of comfort

we want to just manipulate

because you want to be around people

who just make you happy.

You want about people like you,

people you feel comfortable with.

And so,

you'll give your offering

of your time,

of your relationship

just as long

as they give you something back,

as they kind of stroke your ego,

as they meet your social needs.

But if you happen to be with somebody,

maybe in your community group,

who just talks too much,

who's just not like you,

who is just a little bit annoying sometimes,

then we'll be right out of there.

We'll be maybe gossiping about,

we'll smile to them in their face,

but then we'll gossip about them afterwards.

Because,

well,

you're not working my manipulation game.

And

that's not the way

my

religion works.

much of Hong Kong society,

much of life

is based around those principles.

You scratch my back,

I'll scratch yours.

But God

comes to a mountain

to his people.

He says,

I'm making you a nation,

but you know what?

I'm neither a tyrant

that you have to appease,

nor am I

a genie

that you have to manipulate.

I'm the one

who swooped down

on eagle's wings

to draw you to myself.

You don't have to say,

man,

I've had a hard week,

maybe I've done something wrong,

maybe God's angry at me.

You don't have to live with that

because you

have

a God of grace

who's taken the initiative

to come

to be

our God,

our love.

His grace

is about,

is the center

of our community life.

That's distinctive.

Now,

to be a distinctive nation,

he then gives his law.

And in his law,

he gives

commandments.

But the commandments,

you can categorize

in two things.

The law

is to help you

to have boundaries

to be a holy nation.

But there's two things

that these laws

are really all about.

They're all about

love God,

love other people.

That's what this community,

that's what God's people

should be characterized with.

That's what,

I mean,

Jesus says that.

You can summarize

all the commandments

in two things.

Love the Lord your God

with all your heart,

soul,

mind,

and strength,

and love your neighbor

as yourself.

Jesus does a pretty good summary

because actually,

if you take the Ten Commandments,

the first three,

four are actually

all about love for God.

The next six

are all about love for neighbor.

But the order

of the commandments is,

and that's why

we just had the first one

up there.

You see the first one?

The first one,

Alfie,

is

no other gods.

Correct.

Give him a round of applause.

There you go.

There you go.

We don't just humiliate

Alfie during this time.

It's great.

All the other commandments

flow from this one

because if you get

this one wrong,

everything else

falls apart

because God's saying,

don't put anyone else

before me

because if you love me first,

you'll love other people.

If you put anything else

before me,

you'll actually end up

not loving other people.

Even if you put

your family

before me,

you'll end up

not loving your family

as I want you to

and you should

because

you've not put me first.

rest.

Here's an example.

The Sabbath.

Fourth commandment.

One day in the week

for you to rest.

Why?

Well,

there's a number of reasons

but

one of the reasons is

here's a society

which is an agricultural society

and your whole life

is based on your crops growing.

So if you

for one day

stop

and don't work,

do you know what can happen

to your crops?

There are things like birds.

There are things like insects.

There are things like animals

which can come in

and could devastate

your crops in one day

if you're not

constantly

keeping an eye out

for them.

You know,

it's a life or death situation

but God comes

and he says,

no,

I want you to rest

on one day.

I want you to trust me.

To trust that I

will provide

for you.

Because I will.

You don't have to be

a workaholic

because you think

you've got to

provide everything

for yourself.

Trust me.

That's love for God.

But the repercussions

of that love for God

are actually communal.

They're society.

Because,

do you know what

it says in that commandment?

You know,

it says

everybody should rest.

It says

your son,

your daughter,

it says

your servant,

your foreign workers,

everybody should rest.

Because why?

Because the community

I'm making

is one where

you don't exploit anybody.

Because you

don't work them

to the bone

so they have nothing less.

You see,

when you love God,

you actually start loving

and respecting people.

Because that's the society

where you're not driven

by your work.

And you're not driven

to exploit people.

Think about it.

How many of us,

do you,

if you have a helper,

do you make them work

on their day off?

If you work long,

busy hours,

and then you come home

at night,

or you come home,

and even though you're at home

with your family

or with your community group,

you're still thinking

all about work all the time.

You're consumed with it.

Do you know what will happen?

You'll stop loving other people

the way you should.

Because work has maybe

become your idol.

Because maybe you haven't

trusted God

with saying,

God,

here's what I can do.

I give the rest to you.

Because when you put God first,

not your career,

not just getting things done,

you see what?

You start loving other people.

That's the community

that we have to have.

And this community,

you see,

these laws are not just

about individuals.

They're about making us

as a people.

And you can't be

the people of loving people

if you're not

in deep relationships

with others.

Because that's the kind

of God he is.

He wants relationship with us

so we have relationship

with each other.

All of the 613 laws

that there are

are all about

in the areas of sex,

in the areas of money,

in the areas of property,

in the areas of relationships,

in the areas of all these things.

How do I love God

and how do I love other people?

That's what it's all about.

Because you ought to be

a holy nation.

You ought to be different

from the way

everybody else does things

because you've got

a different God.

So let's think about it.

In Watermark,

if we ought to be

a people who are characterized

by loving relationships,

love for God,

love for others,

how do we be distinctive?

An idol of comfort

will tell us

just be with the people

who are like you.

Just be in the community

with the people

who you like to be with.

But being distinctive

may be being with people

who are not like you.

What about if marrieds

spent time,

invited singles

to come for lunch with them?

Why don't you go

and try to look out

for people who are single

if you're married

and vice versa?

That's distinctive.

What about if

helpers and employers

were able to talk together

without any sense

of inferiority

or superiority

but just because

we're brothers and sisters?

That's distinctive.

What about if you're

an introvert

and extroverts

and they drive you nuts

but actually you're willing

to look out for them,

these weird people

who are totally different

because

we're a holy nation

and we have a God

who is like that.

We have a God

who is like that.

It's one of the reasons

why we have community groups

to help you connect

with people

so you can learn

how to love people

because that's what

church is about.

It's not about coming

just on a Sunday

and sitting here

and feeling like

you'd like to sleep

for 30 minutes

while I'm talking

and then going.

It's not that.

It's about loving relationships.

So let me ask you a question.

Who in this church

would say

that they know

that they are loved by you?

Who in this church

would know

that they are loved by you?

Or if you're from

another church,

who in that church

would know

that they are loved by you?

Who in this church community

is God calling you

to love?

To take the initiative

in the relationships

because that's what God does.

For us.

God calls you to obedience

by loving people.

It's because he's calling you

deeper into relationship

with him.

You won't grow

in your relationship

with God

if you don't get into

deep relationships

with people.

That's the way it works.

So we've looked

at a distinctive relationship.

Distinctive people

which is shaped

by that relationship.

But if you just got

to the point of saying,

okay, now I've just got

to love a little bit more.

I've just got to do

a little bit more loving.

Well, hold on a minute

because there's something else

which shapes this community.

It's a distinctive saviour.

Because if you think

that you can actually love

the way that God

calls you to love,

well, the law was written

to show you

that you can't.

Because Moses writes down

the laws for all the people.

This is in chapter 24.

And the final part,

this is the marriage ceremony.

The final part of this

kind of marriage ceremony

covenant

is the taking of the vows.

It's the formal signing

of the register.

Now, they didn't sign a register.

What they did,

they had a sacrifice.

They would cut

an animal in two.

But before the cutting

of the animal,

what happens is

Moses says,

will you take God

to be your husband,

to love him,

to honor him,

to obey him?

And what do the people say?

They say,

we will.

We'll do everything

that God has said.

We'll obey.

That's pretty stupid.

Because

I think

if you read

the rest of the story,

you'll realize

why that's pretty stupid.

They had too high

an estimation of themselves.

They thought

they could obey

perfectly what God

had told them to.

But you know what?

When it came

to cutting the animal,

and they took the blood,

and you see what they did?

They threw the blood.

Moses threw the blood

over them.

And so when they would

go home,

they would still have

the blood on them.

And what that blood

was to say was,

may this be,

if I disobey

this covenant,

this relationship,

if I disobey,

may this be my blood.

May I die

rather than

disobey.

Do you know what

happens next in the story?

It's quite depressing.

You know,

just a few days later,

they've made this

amazing marriage

covenant,

beautiful ceremony,

okay,

and then

a few days later,

Moses is up the mountain.

They go off,

and they build

a golden calf.

You know,

straight after the marriage,

and they worship

this idol.

Straight after the marriage

ceremony,

they're right in bed

with another lover.

They've committed adultery

within a few days.

And do you know what?

What's the sentence

if you break the covenant?

It's death.

God institutes sacrifices

temporally to kind of

keep them

from knowing

the full force

of his anger

so that he can

live with them.

But you know,

1,500 years

later,

God comes down

to another mountain.

He comes down

to a hill

outside of Jerusalem.

And he comes

and he swoops down,

but this time

he's not carrying

his people

on eagles' wings.

He's carrying them

on the palms

of his hands,

engraved

with six-inch nails

driven in

because he became

the sacrifice,

the punishment

that the people

for their adultery

deserved.

He was the one

who came

and who took

that death sentence.

And do you know

what he did?

He said,

at the communion meal,

and notice

after they do

the covenant,

they have a meal.

Meals are symbols

of fellowship,

of relationship,

of acceptance.

And do you know

what communion

Jesus says

at the last supper?

He says,

this is my blood

of the new covenant

shed for you

for forgiveness

of sins.

Because we could

never keep

the covenant

by ourselves.

What God has

called us to be,

we cannot be

by ourselves.

We need

a savior.

Sometimes I think

I forget that.

We think,

okay,

I can obey

God fully.

No.

Do you know

why you can't?

It's because

you need to know

that God

is your only hope.

You need to know

that his grace

is the only thing

which is going

to sustain you.

It's the only thing

which is going

to sustain

this community.

It's the only thing

which is going

to really make

us distinctive

in society,

in Hong Kong,

because loving

people is hard work.

People are annoying.

Do you know

that?

If you really

love someone,

people are just

like frustrating.

They don't answer

your emails.

They don't reply

when you want

them to.

They say the most

inappropriate things.

Loving people

is hard.

And you know

what will happen

is you'll get

to the point

where you don't

want to love people

so you want

to withdraw.

But you know,

when you begin

to see actually

the lack of love

in your heart,

you have to run

somewhere.

You're either

going to be

trying to run

up the mountain

like Patrick the

pagan,

trying to say,

okay, God,

I've got to do

a bit more

to please you.

Or you're going

to say,

God, I need,

I'm so grateful

that on the cross

you swooped down

and you took

the initiative

and you have

died for me.

grace is to

characterize all

our relationships

so that when you

know it for yourself,

you extend it

to that annoying

person over there.

You extend it

to that person

in your community

group who you

want to avoid.

You extend it

to the introvert

that you think

you just don't

want to hang around

or the extrovert

who just talks

so much.

Because grace,

Hong Kong doesn't

need a perfect

people.

We're not going

to be distinctive

by being perfect.

We're going

to be distinctive

by being gracious.

and knowing

that we are secure

because we're

his treasured

possession.

Knowing that we

are his image

to the world.

Knowing that we

are his distinct

people.

That's God's plan

for this city.

That's God's

mission strategy.

We are.

Not just you

as an individual.

We as a people.

So are you

willing to engage

in relationships?

Are you,

who are you

going to take

the initiative

to love

in this community?

Because God

has taken

the initiative

to bring you

into relationship

with him.

Let's pray.

let's just think

for a moment.

How do I view

the people

in this church?

Who is it

that God

has called me

to love

in this church?

Even as you

go out

straight after

this,

are there people

that you can

just say hi

to?

Who has God

called me

to love?

Maybe you

need to repent

and ask God

to forgive you.

Maybe you've

been thinking

that you've

got to prove

yourself to God.

That you've

not been good

enough for him.

That he's waiting

there to punish

you if you

if you just

slip up.

Father,

thank you

that this

church

and the churches

all around

the world

are your

delight.

I don't know

why you delight

in us

because we're

messed up.

But you

have initiated

this relationship

with us.

You made

the first

move.

I pray

that as a

people we

begin to

understand

that we

cannot save

ourselves.

We cannot

even obey

you ourselves.

We're like

the Israelites.

We're quickly

in bed with

somebody else

when we should

be having

you as our

only lover.

But help us

to see,

Lord,

what you've

called us

to be.

In this

city,

in Hong

Kong,

to the

people around

us.

Help us

to love

as you

love.

Show us

how we

can grow

deeper in

our relationship

with you,

to live

to delight

your heart,

to live

to please

you.

Not because

we have to

earn anything,

but because

it's our

response to

your amazing,

amazing grace.

Thank you,

Father.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.