Be The Neighbour | Pr Julian

You're listening to a message to go from at church. We hope this message

will light up your day. Let's get into God's work this morning. So

the last time I was, I had the privilege to share the Word last

month, and if you remember so, I was sharing from the Verse that

speaks about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength,

and how it's so important, especially now in the season where you know,

it's our foundation of why we are Christians, and especially I mean I

started off last time, we'd saying it's end times and there's wars and rumors

of wars, and it's happening. It may be very far from us,

you know, in the Middle East, in Israel, but we are part

of this family, and we are part of this this olive tree. We've

been engrafted into this olive tree. And there will be a time where our

faith will be tested as well. Right, there will be a day,

I believe, when all of us will have to come to a point where

we say, Lord, my love for you is stronger than the struggles I'm

going through, the sickness that's in my body, or it could be a

place where we're put on a spot or tortured or you know, to declare

that Christ is not our lord. And when that day comes, our love

for God needs to be so strong that we deny everything else. Right,

so we sang that song earlier as well. You know, Pastor Joe vij

wrote that song and and and just a quick recap. So let's just help

you refresh your memories. We will be looking into Mark chapter twelve, right,

so you can just look at a scripture very quickly. And you must

love the Lord your God with all your heart or your soul, or your

mind or the strength, as we have sung earlier. And the second is

equally important. Love your neighbors, yourself. No other commandment is greater than

these. This is the most important thing you should pay attention to. And

I had treaties to help live out Mark chapter twelve, and there was desired

God's love and his presence. So you know what, if God says taste

and see that the Lord is good and if that's missing from our lives,

I think I said it last month as well. If I feel this is

my personal conviction, like if you haven't like cried in God's presence for a

long time or just felt an overwhelming sense of God's preat presence for long periods

of time, like months or weeks. Then it's time to put a pause

on our lives and go and taste and see that the Lord is good.

Desire him once again, desire for his presence again, run into his word

of God, worship him in your own time. Right. Second, D

deny all other gods or idols in our lives. Deny everything else that may

exalt itself above God. And I'm a tree discipline to keep driving near to

God daily right treats Trea D love. Uh. Yeah, So today I

want to carry on with that most important commandment, and I'm going to going

to go into that second part of the scripture, which is love your neighbor

as yourself. Love your neighbors to yourself. So you have neighbors around you

today, hope everyone is set. Besides how when else? Right? So

tell that person be the neighbor, be the neighbor. Okay, so what

who and who is the neighbor? Be the neighbor. So this this scripture

is in three parts in the Bible. So earlier we read from March of

the twelve. Today we're going to go into Luke chapter ten. I have

my Bible somewhere, but it's okay, yeah, no matter. I've already

printed it out or have it on the slide, so it's easy for us

to refer. So if we have your Bibles with you, electronic or otherwise,

Let's go to the Book of Luke, chapter ten, and I want

to read the whole lot of verses first, and then we will break it

down and see where it takes us. Okay, love your neighbor. Here

we go. One day, an expert in religious law stood up to test

Jesus by asking him this question, teach her what should I do to inherit

eternal life. So I've helped us by marking the words of Jesus in Rade,

so there we can see the focal point. Jesus replied, what does

the Law of Moses say? How do you read it? So this set

of scriptures in Luke is different from mark because instead of Jesus saying or telling

the answer, he asks the person challenging him to give the answer. And

this is what this expert in religious law said. The man answered, you

must love the Lord your God with all your heart or your soul, all

your strength, all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself right.

Jesus told him, do this and you will live same. Answer most important

commandment, loved the Lord you got with all your hearts, all mind,

strength, and loved your neighbors herself right. The man wanted to justify his

actions, so he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Who is

my neighbor? Jesus replied with a story which is very familiar to all of

us. A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he

was attacked by bandits who uses the word bandits bandits. They stripped him off

his clothes, beat him up, and left him half day beside the road.

By chance a priest came along. He's any pastors here knows, oh

man, Woe to you, priest, woe to you pastor. By chance

the priest came along, But when he's saw the man lying there, he

crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. Hmmm,

why a temple assistant, if you press the d there, he says,

Levite, which is like a worshiper. Right, so my son's name is

Levi. A temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, So

we don't know whether he's unconscious or bob. We know he's half dad becauseious

what the scripture says. Right, the Jewish guy that got beaten up by

bandits was lying there. He may have been asking for help as well.

Right, looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the

other side. Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the

man, he felt compassion for him. So so a Samaritan, I mean,

I think most of us. Notice that's Jews use which are God's chosen

people, the nation and the group of people where the promises of God came

from and then passed onto the rest of the world. Right, very important

group of people. We prayed for them this morning as well. And then

there are the Samaritans, which is basically done line lying in Malaysia, dll

like the rest of us, not part of that special group of people.

Right. Then a despised Amaritans came along and when he saw the man,

he felt compassion for him. Okay, Going over to him, the Samaritan

soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandage them. Then he put

a man on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he took

care of him. The next day, he handed the innkeeper to silver coins,

telling him take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than

this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here. So just an amazing

uh generosity, amazing love for this person that's not even in his clan,

not part of his group. Then Jesus asks that religious person that expert in

religious law again this question. Now, which of this tree would you say

was enaghbled to the man who was attacked by bandits, Jesus asked. The

man replied, the one who showed him mercy. Then Jesus said, yes,

Now go and do the same. So tell your neighbor. Now go

and do the same. Okay, I'm done, No, no, we

can we can go now. Now go and do the same. That's all

that Jesus told. Go and be that generous person. Go and love your

neighbor. Be that person to the whoever it is that's beside you. You

know. So let's just break this down today, and and I believe that

we need to do both. Love the Lord your God with all your heart,

soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself to be

complete like one cannot they both come together, right every time? You see

in scripture when when the people of God turn away from him, then they

will start fighting with each other as well, right, like they both come

together. They cannot love God and not love people. So this part of

the Bible and this verse is so very important to us today and one to

remind us once again how important it is and maybe how we can do better

and live it out in our own lives as well. Okay, So let's

just I want to just bring a quick talk to you first, and is

this is this question or statement of being prescriptive and versus passion. Okay,

so let me just break it down with you. So prescriptive like sometimes you

know it as like prescription, right, So if we go to a doctor,

you tell a doctor or symptoms, they give you a prescription of drugs

or medicine. You go to the pharmacy, buy it, and then you

get well. So prescriptive to me is like checkboxes. So I'm a fan

of because you're telling you what to do. Right, I caught the boxes.

I met my KPIs give me my bonus at the end of the year,

right, And uh, we see this pattern can go to the next

light with what the expert in religious law was doing or asking. He asked,

you know, the men wanted to justify his actions, like Jesus,

tell me that I'm doing right and all is well and I will have eternal

life. Justify what I've done. And then he asked, who is my

neighbor? And we see this a lot in scripture as well. Remember the

rich young ruler. You know, Jesus, tell me how do I inherit

in a life? And then Jesus went on to say, you know,

love your neighbor, or you know, honor your parents, do not steal,

do not covered, do not murder. And the rich young ruler said,

all this I've done from my youth when I was young. Like,

I've done it, man, So what else do you want me to do?

And then Jesus said, sell all your riches, give it to the

poor, take up your cross and follow me. Right, So you can

look at it with the rich young ruler like, oh no, he has

to go and sell all his riches, and he wants Jesus want him to

be poor. But the focus to me is on the last part. Take

up your cross and follow me irrelational. He wants he wants this rich young

ruler to have no distractions in the relationship with Jesus and himself and follow him

right, So the focus is not on the wealth. The focus is on

the relationship. Okay, So we can see in the same scripture how Jesus

replied, now reach of this tree, would you say was the neighbor to

the man who was attacked by bandits? Jesus asked, and the man replied,

the one who show him mercy? Now go and do the same.

So like he instead of focusing on what should be done, who is my

neighbor, how do I meet this criteria? Jesus wants to bring to him

mercy wants to bring to him. You be that person that reaches out.

You be that person that has relationship and wants to bless the next person.

So the focus is not just prescriptive, but you know, it's passion showing

mercy. And that's the mindset which I want us to have today as we

start off reading this scripture, that Jesus wants to change our mindsets. So

from being very Malaysian and nation tell me what to do, I want to

get it right. From religion to relationship, from prescription, prescription to passion,

from transactional relationships to transformational. So that's the mindset you want to just

have this morning. Okay, So let's go as usual, ex Church.

Three points for us to remember like threads and today. The first the first

point is number one is community. Community. So I know when you read

the scripture, we always think about, oh, man, God wants me

to just meet the need of someone else, or bless my neighbor, or

make sure when I walk past someone that's asking for money, I don't walk

the other way. I believe it goes deeper. I believe it really goes

much deeper. And I want to just bring this point out first. Number

one community. So why is it important to love your neighbor? Why is

it important? Right? Okay, let's jump to the scripture again. Ten

of thirty Jesus replied with the story Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to

Jericho and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him off his clothes,

beat him up, and left him half day beside the road. So why

is it important to be a neighbor? Why is it important to love your

neighbor? Because if if you are left half date beside the road and there's

no one else there to help you. Then you're a date. Then it's

like bye bye gone no more. So, why is it important to love

your neighbor? Because all of us need someone to carry our burdens together,

all of us need the other person to survive. God did not create us

to be like solos in this world. He created a church or community so

that we can be there for each other there. So I know you guys

understand this because you're in church today. And even if by traveling you found

a you found time to be here today because you put importance on community and

people. You go to homes, you you you hang out with people,

you go to bloom because it's important for us to be part of a bigger

body. Okay, And and I want to say all of us play a

part in that. And if you feel like you're alone, which I hope

no one feels alone in this room today, I mean you can be in

a room full of people and you feel alone, right reach out to someone

or or if you're on the other end, be there person that reaches out

to someone you see who's like half day on the roadside. Okay, so

community is very important. We need community people, neighbors, partners, friends,

family around us to carry each other's burdens. So let me talk a

little bit about community. First. Community is important, is very important.

Community runs deeper than clicks. So just like how we read about the jew

that was injured and then all his khaki right, the pastor or the priests

and the levite which were from the same clan didn't even help him. So

community runs deeper than clicks. Okay, community runs deeper than common interests.

So you have people like stams collecting stams, people who likes God, you

go sure, okay, anyone just to collect stams? Ah, Cindy.

You have people who yeah, wants that. Oh you know what stamps are?

Stamps out email? Yeah? Oh you like? You have people who

like to cook or you know, likes to play football. We can have

different interests but still be part of a common community of love. Right.

Community runs deeper than race or religion or age. Community is birth from care.

So how do we build community? We need to care? Okay,

I want to show a quick picture next, like this was it's a bit

like a bit blur, but I did my best to just get it from

Instagram. This was ex Clang's first prayer service that happened last Tuesday in Klang.

So so background usually we will join kotakamuning in but Legacy in eco sanctuary

mode, which is like really far away. And but I don't think about

this, doess? I mean? Okay, anyways, go to prayer service.

It's awesome. Yeah, And to me, this paints a picture of

what community looks like. So let's I mean, everyone here in the room

is in a picture, so I can point out a few things, right,

I mean I love this picture with like Auntie Allen and like Elie.

You know, I don't really posing or they're really like they're really reading the

Bible. They prayed the longest, right, Yeah, so the age gap

between them are I don't know, Okay, I want to talk about age,

but but community, how can we support each other even though we may

be so different in our lifestyles and walks? This is it. We have

Antie Margaret praying with I don't know, I can really see Joelle and Ewan

awesome so good uh yeah at the end he's as well. We've got yeah

Levoun with her car RoboCop. RoboCop. I think they prayed for healing,

so she should be walking today, you know, no take out the cars

and show showing too the dustbin. Yeah, and we have Jane who's also

a child part of this community. Uh we got We've got Joseph up there,

which is a teen not yet right, his teenager praying. I don't

know what they're talking about. Like someone's interest is probably like roadblocks and the

other guy is building houses. Kevin. So, but this is what community

looks like to me. And thank you explaining for like exemplifying that it's a

prayer service. We came to get her to pray, to support each other.

But that is what community is. And I want to say that this

church ex Church ex Clang is a place where all of us can be found

to have our neighbors support us. And I hope none of us will like

see see agi on the roadside maybe like what maybe a cars got broken out

or like tie your puncture. It's like, oh my gosh, that's energy.

Oh good, I don't want to break a sweat. Colvinson, Colvincent,

your wife, your wife broken down and on the road. But I'm

pretty sure that won't happen, right, because we are a family. Let

me give you some scripture Scott ecclesiasts. Two are better than one because they

have a good reward for their for the toil. Two are better than one

because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall,

one will lift up his fellow. Wow. Love that. But wo to

him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.

That's scary again. If you lie down together, they keep one gotta

be married to do that. But or in the same family fatheren son or

child. Okay, how can one keep one one alone? But actually these

are not relevant to Malayia love because you don't it to keep warm. So

it's only for seasonal countries that you read this part. But the essence is

we need each other, right, I think in Malaysia should be if two

if two are warmed together, bring a fan and yeah, fand the other

person. And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two

will withstand him. If the enemy comes again us and sing us us out.

It's like how a lion prays after it's pray, and they always try

to single out this person away from the group. But we stay together,

we stay together. Two will we stand him. A threefold cord is not

quickly broken. Amen. Next scripture, Galatians bear one another's burdens and so

fulfill the law of Christ. I love this, bear one another's birds,

care for each other, and we fulfiel God's law. It's not the other

way around, right. We care first, we love first, we show

mercy first, we show compassion, we be that that neighbor, and then

we fulfill the law. Okay, another last thought about community which I had

this thought this week. Why why do people burn out? Like in a

company or organization, or can I say like a church as well? Why

do people burn out? Why do people leave? Why do people give up?

I really feel it's mostly about community. And I heard this podcast by

Pastorlwin mcmahnus. So he's the pastor pastor of Mosaic Church in in in l

A in the US. So let's see what he says. I think it

really sort of summarizes my thoughts. Hard work can be exhilarating if you feel

you have friends, Okay. Easy work can feel overwhelming if you are alone.

So it's not really about the work. So the work that we have

as a church is to reach out to people two to be harvesters to the

harvest. It's gonna be hard work. It's gonna be it's gonna be difficult

to have service here Sunday after Sunday of the Sunday of the Sunday serving serving.

It's gonna be difficult to to minister to communities or reach out to different

ones that are in need. It's hard work, but hard work can be

exhilarating if you have, if you feel your friends, but if if you

feel alone, even easy work can be very difficult. But not has nothing

to do with how hard your job is, but how alone you feel.

So there's a lot of work to do as a church. But I'm glad

that I'm in it with all of you. Okay, So you guys convinced

that community is important? Okay, number two Okay, it's good number two

service And this is to help us understand how to love your neighbor. So

just now with the why why do I need to love my neighbor? Like

maybe I just like to be alone. I'm introvert, right, I just

want to be at home. I don't need nobody, just me, myself

and I the Trinity. Ah, but we know that we need community.

Second, how to do it service? So let's go back to you looked

up to ten with thirty four the Smaritan suited his wounds. So this was

the good Sraitan again with olive oil and wine and bandage them. Then he

put the man on his own donkey took him to an inn where he took

care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins,

telling him take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this,

I'll pay you the next time I'm here. So all of us probably

understand is how do we love our neighbor? It's not just saying I love

you. So tell a neighbor I love you. The other neighbors say,

show me, how do you love your neighbor? We serve them. We

serve them just like how the good Samaritan loved this person that he has not

yet. He served him, and he served him like extravagantly. He served

him. He went the extra mol Okay, let's go down. Okay,

yeah, next light. God has given each of you a gift from his

great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. The

reason why we have God's grace on our lives. The reason why we can

do what we do ultimately is to serve each other. Is not for our

own benefit. It's not for us just to make wealth or be famous or

have power, but it's for us to serve one another. Galations for you

have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters, But don't

use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature in state. Use your freedom to

serve one another in love. So the other part about serving is sacrifice.

Serving always requires a sacrifice. Sacrifice is required when living and serving your neighbor.

So I want to just say that because and I want to say that

like with the thought of if you know you have to sacrifice, don't run

away from serving, right, because Laura's looking at me like that. And

I'm not talking about just serving in church. I'm talking about serving each other.

Serving in church is part of it. Okay, It's funny because we

had you said this argument like husband and wife conversation. Yeah, discussion,

husband and discussion on In other words, yeah, serving always requires sacrifice,

like I won't talk about checke context, like if, for example, if

you are required to bring someone to prayer survice, or you need to fetch

a team to a church event, or like teens whatever event the teens have

to Joel's house to have some teens party. It requires sacrifice to go out

of your way, It requires patrol to be burned, it requires you to

pay extra toll. And the thing is, sometimes we think about that sacrifice

or sacrificial part and then we say God is not worth it, or maybe

don't tell God that lack. You tell yourself it's not worth it to serve

this person because I have to pay a price for it. But that is

not what God wants us to do. I mean, I'll show you some

scripture latter. And I know sacrifice is in every part of everything that we

do, because even the things that I don't see, like like, for

example, this morning, I was I was the other half of the spouse

that was staying at home to get the baby ready for church. No no,

no, no, no no no, I no. So what I'm

saying is all our roles, whether whether mom's or dads. Uh, you're

you're part part of I'm not even looking for any thanks, Like okay,

let's go to another example. Yeah, moving on. I I know I

know that everything that we do, whether seen or not seen requires sacrifice.

And and I want to say to you today if you are serving someone in

any capacity, not even in church, and you feel like you're at a

place where God, why am I doing this week after because no one has

said thank you to me yet, no one has even seen the fruits of

my labor. But I'm serving you and it's been weeks or months or years,

And I want to say to you, God sees, God knows,

and he showed the example of us. And your reward is in heaven.

Greater is your reward in heaven. Greater is your reward in heaven. Amen.

Sorry, let's look to Jesus. Let's look Okay, next, Okay,

this is my commandment? Is this descript Yeah, this is my commandment.

Love each other in the same way I love to you. So again,

he he did it all for earth. First, Love each other in

the same way I have loved you. I mean, if you just followed

this part, it's so amazing. Like you think about what Jesus has done

for us when we were still sin us and even our righteousness is like dirty

racks to him, and he loved us when we were in that position.

Love each other in the same way love each other in the same way.

There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friend.

So you know, only Jesus can say that, right, because he actually

paid the ultimate price in loving all of us. So that's a very high

bar to me. No one here can say that I've outdone Jesus in loving

my name. He's the example. Jesus is the greatest example of loving people

Romans five eight. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this while

we were still seen us. Christ died for us. Amen. Thank you

God for that. Yeah, but I cannot say this as well. We

When everyone takes, nobody gets. When everyone gives, everyone gets. And

I think that's very true. When you're part of a church that only wants

to like take t t take, take, give me, give me,

give me. What's in it for me? What am I receiving out of

this? Then everyone is at a negative. But if everyone is there to

give to each other, everyone receives. Amen. Okay, let's just look

at one last thing about service and sacrifice. And I want to look at

the word by chance. So if you look at Luke chapter ten or thirty

one, by chance, a priest came along, so I think, yeah,

I think it's probably me. By chance. I saw someone who was

in need, and this word by chance really jumped out to me when I

was reading this scripture. I don't know why, but it just sort of

had an emphasis and God was just maybe speaking to me only bubs. I'll

just share all of you that sometimes a need will arise by chance, meaning

to say, it's not going to be part of your schedule. It may

not be part of your plan, but your neighbor or the person besides you

has a need. What do you do? Then? What do you do?

Then? That's the question we've got to ask ourselves. For all you

know, this priest was rushing to the temple to do something very important,

burn sacrifices. Maybe he was rushing to like pray for someone or bless another

person. But in this scripture and this parable, his calling for that moment

was to meet the needs of this Jewish person that was left in But I

don't know why scripture is just this word by chance, because it may not

be part of his schedule, may not be part of his plan. But

sometimes we find ourselves in this moment where we need to decide God it may

not be part of the plan, may not be part of the schedule,

but I see this need and I want to be the neighbor to this person.

Right about a month ago, I was in I was in the office

and it was about almost six o'clock, so it's the end of the day,

and I wanted to go back, actually wanted to go and pick Laura

and then go back home because we couples sometimes because you know, yeah,

yeah, because global warming is real, so we need to need a couplet

a couple. Uh and uh yeah, so so we we uh we don't

meet an office every day, but that day I was in office, so

happened and one of my team members came back to the office at around sick

something. Uh. And then uh, you know, you know, when

you're rushing off and then with the rush hour traffic, you just want to

like get it done, close the laptop and rush out the door, right.

So I was about to do that, but this guy suddenly came in

at six. I'm like, you come back now, like, you know,

go back home straight. I did not seem bad, but he came

in the door like really down and I could see his like continents was set

and then he started to tell me like how basically he just came from ANOTO

meeting and really got sounded by a client. So you know, sounded means

got schoolded, schoolded and and kind of wag and can of hunt dumb in

Malaysian terms. So so I was like, I want to go back now,

I need to pick my wife. Yeah, you know how it gets

sounded Russia our traffic in my mind and and uh but I don't know.

I mean, if if you gotta show care and care, it's not just

words, right, it's like action. So so I stayed back, and

then I really felt like I need to bring him out to like talk to

him and just encourage him a little bit loud, because he's he's like a

tree through the three years sort of graduate, very young. Uh, and

I see that he's like really sort of shaken already. So so I thought,

Laura, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna be late a little bit.

And then I brought him out and and encouraged him in a not I mean,

not the most like biblical way, but but encouraged him and and loved

him and told him that it's it's gonna be okay, because I felt like,

man, this guy's gonna leave the company. He's like, if this

is it, I'm gonna leave. But but to me, to me,

it was a by chance moment because I could have just said bye bye,

six o'clock. See you call it the day, but that that moment needed

me to just be a neighbor to him, and that's all I did,

right, So just an example of how he could like, oh, okay,

last last point number three, number tree there. But it's responsibility and

what I want to say is actually actually excellence. So what does loving your

neighbor look like? You know when when someone does a really good job,

you say, wow, excellent job, and you know that the guy is

very responsible for the task at hand. That's why he does a very good

job. Right, So excellence is a result of responsibility. Again, the

same scripture in Luke, chapter ten, verse thirty four, we see that

this this good samaritan, or this samaritan went over and above to do what

was required. He could have just done the easiest thing, maybe just bring

it to the hospital if there was hospitals that day, or and then went

on his way. But he went over and above. He really gave like

first class service to a person that who was in need. Like if you

were a person that was beaten up left on the road, you want to

meet this person, you don't want to meet anyone else. Right, And

that spirit of excellence is how we should serve each other. Go above and

beyond, Go above and beyond. Let's go to the next part. We

are responsible for our neighbors. I mean this question came mind my brother's keeper.

Yes, we are Romans thirteen verse eight. Oh nothing, oh,

no one anything except to love one another. For he who loves another has

fulfilled the law. So we are actually responsible. Tell our neighbor, you

owe me, you owe me. That's what the Bible say is you owe

me. We are responsible, and that that depth that we have to pay,

we gotta do it like in a very excellent way. Amen. The

sense of responsibility that we are our brother's keepers should propel us to love to

loving each other with such excellence in our service, care, encouragement, and

support. Amen. And again I really see this next way. I want

to just encourage us that that you guys really serve each other so well and

keep it up. You're living out scripture. You're doing it well. And

encourage the next person to do the same. Amen. So just to just

to wrap it up, we've got three letters, C, S and R.

So just following what Jason did last week, I gotta I gotta bring

you. I know this. This means usually corporate social responsibility, which are

a very like like cliche or like a man. You know, companies do

CSR to tick a box or something. But today I want to say that

it's our Christians social responsibility to fulfilled scripture, to live out God's word you

our lives. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more information

on our church, please visit aschurch dot org. We are also active on

Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week is going to be a good

week, a hit for you. God bless