[0:00] Okay, let's pray together. The reason we do this is because we don't just come to hear a message about God, we come to encounter God on Sundays. And so will you join me as we pray together?
[0:14] Heavenly Father, gracious Lord, loving Savior, we come before you this morning, as we said earlier, to worship and adore you, God, because it is right and fitting to adore you and worship you.
[0:28] But God, not because you need it, but because we need it, God. Our hearts, Lord, are so often dragged away by other false gods, by the promises of hope. And yet, God, you, Christ, have the words of life. You, Christ, life is found in you.
[0:43] And God, we've come to fix our eyes on you this morning, God. We've come to rightly orientate our hearts to you this morning. We've come again, God, to be reminded of the hope of Jesus and for our hearts to be stirred in adoration and affection for you, God.
[1:05] Christ, there really is no one and none like you in all the world. There's no one as faithful as you. There's no one as forgiving as you. There's no one as gracious as you. God, we all come here with all sorts of baggage, all sorts of hang-ups, God.
[1:19] And yet, God, you are so incredibly good and faithful, God. And we really do worship you and adore you for that. We honor you for that this morning, God. Father, receive our worship this morning, we pray.
[1:35] We pray that, God, it will not only be good for us, it will be pleasing in your sight, Lord. Father, we pray that as a church, God, that the wonderful good news of Jesus really will get deeper into our hearts and will start to shape our hearts.
[1:49] Father, I confess how much I need that, Lord. Christ, I need you to shape my heart. And I pray for us as a church, God, that you, by your Spirit, will be at work in us, God.
[2:01] Father, let the good news of Christ drop from our heads to our hearts, God. Let it shape us, God. I pray that as a church, we really will, this will be the culture of our church, God.
[2:13] Christ, come and help us, we pray, Lord. Come and help us, we pray, Father. Father, this morning, as Ryuta opens up your word, we pray that you will speak to us.
[2:27] God, as we so often say, we don't just need to be encouraged or inspired. We want to meet with you in your word, Lord. We want your word to come alive and to penetrate our hearts. God, we pray that as your word is opened up, that, God, we will encounter you in your word.
[2:40] And so we pray for Ryuta, God, as he preaches. We pray, Lord, that you'll be guiding his words and what to say. Spirit of God, be anointing that time, Father, and speak to us, we pray. May we discover more of you in your word this morning, God.
[2:54] God, this morning we want to pray for Jeremy and Angie and Bernard that are in Chiang Mai. And God, we pray for us as a church that you will lead us in where you want us to go with regards to fostering and adoption, God.
[3:10] I pray for families in this church that you're calling to adopt children without families. God, I pray that we as a church will respond to the need and foster those that need families for a short period.
[3:26] God, we pray that as a church this won't just be a strategy or an idea, but it really will be spirit-led. We'll be following your leading of us this morning. And so, Christ, we pray for that time.
[3:37] Come and speak to us, Lord. Speak to them that are away and lead and guide us, God, as a church about where you're wanting us to go in this regard. Father, this morning we want to pray also, God, for those that are sick in Watermark.
[3:53] Pray for those that are struggling with sickness. Pray for Hannah Farrell, God, who really has struggled for months, God, with sickness. We bring her before you this morning, even as she's away.
[4:06] Lord, we pray for a breakthrough in her life. We pray for healing, God. We pray for those in our congregation that we don't know are sick, but, God, whose health is not good. And we ask you, God, to come and strengthen them and encourage them.
[4:18] We pray restore their bodies, but we also pray that you'll minister to them in the midst of this time, Father. We bring our congregation before you this morning. And, Lord, finally we want to, again, just pray for our resound brothers and sisters across Asia.
[4:31] We want to pray for those in India, New Delhi and Bangalore, those in Japan and Australia and Singapore and Hong Kong, God. We pray, Christ, that you will do a profound work in our churches, that the gospel really will sound forth.
[4:47] God, we pray all these things in your wonderful and your powerful name. Amen. Amen. Rhoda is going to come and read God's word to us this morning. Is this on?
[4:59] Yeah. The scripture reading from today is from Luke 19, 11 to 27. Please follow along in your bulletin or on the screen.
[5:12] As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
[5:23] He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minutes and said to them, Engage in business until I come.
[5:39] But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us. When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, and that he might know what they had gained by doing business.
[5:59] The first came before him, saying, Lord, your minute has made ten minutes more. And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in the very little.
[6:11] You shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, your minute has made five minutes. And he said to him, And you are to be over five cities.
[6:23] Then another came, saying, Lord, Here is your minute, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man.
[6:35] You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, I will condemn you with your own words. You were a good servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.
[6:52] Why then did you not put my money, sorry, in the bank? And at my coming, I might have collected it with interest.
[7:03] And he said to those who stood by, Take the minute from him and give it to the one who has the ten minutes. And they said to him, Lord, he has ten minutes. I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given.
[7:17] But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.
[7:30] This is the word of God. Amen. Amen. Good morning, everyone.
[7:42] Good morning. It's good to see you. Actually, I was here in 2013 when Tim Keller came to Hong Kong. I did a conference.
[7:54] That was actually a life-changing moment in my life. That's the first time that I heard Tim Keller. Changed my life. Almost like a born again. Of course, I was a Christian at the time.
[8:05] But I rediscovered the gospel. Then, following year, I actually visited this church in 2014 with a city-to-city crew of guys with church planters.
[8:19] So, I'm sure I met you already, some of you. And I think, yeah, you remember me. And maybe if you don't, then that's fine. My name is Ryuta.
[8:29] Ryuta. It's the name from Street Fighter. The Hadoken thing. The Ryuu. It's the same pronunciation. So, it's not Ryuta. It's Ryuta. Okay? So, anyway.
[8:41] No, it's okay, Kevin. You're forgiven. No, it's okay. Seriously, it's okay. You can call me Ru or Ryuu. Yeah, so I just really want to thank you, first of all, for your prayers and support and also partnership through Resound.
[8:57] Thank you, Kevin and Claire, for hosting us. And really, I feel the brotherhood together, the relationship, like a family of churches together.
[9:09] So, on behalf of the Resound guys, I feel love, and I'm sure all of us feel love here, and strengthened, encouraged, and empowered through this meeting.
[9:22] So, I heard that you are going through the book of Revelation. And the original plan was that I was supposed to preach from the book of Revelation.
[9:33] But I'm glad that he told me that I don't have to because I know it's a challenging book. So, I picked this passage because it kind of relates to the end times.
[9:47] You know, maybe you noticed. So, I thought it will be easier. But, as I re-looked at the scripture, no, it's not easy. It's not easy. I mean, scripture, any part, it's actually not easy.
[10:00] It has to challenge us because it's the Word of God. Because we are sinful, we need to be reshaped by the gospel and the Word of God. So, I hope I can share with you, unpacking this parable, what it really means.
[10:14] So, I have three headings today. But before we go to these headings, the points, we have to look at a few historical background or context first, I would say.
[10:31] Because when Jesus shares these parables, which was a lot in the Gospel of Luke, he shares a lot of parables. Luke is quite kind, using intentionally these words to hint what really it means.
[10:46] For example, it starts in verse 11 that as they were talking about these things, as they're hearing these things, right? So, what was the context before? It was actually Jesus was talking to Zacchaeus and his friend.
[11:00] And Jesus was saying, hey, today salvation has come to this house. I came to seek the lost and save the lost. And in that context, some people are grumbling because Zacchaeus was a sinner, was a tax collector, wasn't popular.
[11:18] And having in his mind, Jesus went on to share. And then even Luke gives another reason. He says, because they were approaching Jerusalem.
[11:31] Okay, this is very important information because why? The parable starts. This noble man goes to her country to receive kingship, right?
[11:45] And Jesus is kind of similar situation, going to Jerusalem. And everybody was thinking that he's going to be enthroned as the king of Israel, right? So, exactly kind of similar situation.
[11:58] But another reason, two because there, right? And second reason, because they thought that this kingdom of God will arrive, will come immediately.
[12:10] And that was wrong thinking. Disciples were thinking, hey, now, this is the time. I'm sure. They were seeing the situation with Zacchaeus and salvation has come to this house.
[12:24] And they're thinking, Amos, I'm sure. Or something, some Old Testament prophet. This is the day of the Lord. Jesus is going to destroy the Romans, kill everyone, and conquer, and we will be the great ones because they were discussing, right?
[12:41] Who will be the greatest? So, Jesus wanted to correct their wrong view, wrong assumption. Wrong view about their lives, future, and the kingdom of God.
[12:57] So, three things I want to talk about today. First thing is expectation. Expectation from God. Second, assumption that we make. And third, solution to our wrong thinking or assumption or attitude towards life.
[13:15] All right. So, you can see, now, Jesus, we know that Jesus wants to correct disciples' thinking and people's thinking that kingdom will come.
[13:26] So, that means that Jesus wants to tell them that, well, it's actually not the case. Kingdom is here, but it actually still takes time to be fulfilled, right?
[13:37] So, it's already there's a sense of already. Yes, already salvation is here. Already there's hope. Already there's a future promised through Jesus, but not yet completed.
[13:52] We still suffer. We still have to be patient. We still have to be faithful. And that's what we are experiencing, right? In Hong Kong. We're still going through suffering.
[14:04] The city is still not as we hoped it to be. That kind of thing hit us in Japan, too, in 2011 when we experienced the earthquake.
[14:14] We were literally shaken. But actually, I can tell you, last 80 years, a lot of people started to think about their lives.
[14:25] especially in North, where the earthquake was affected, people started to open up their hearts and think about their life, death, and many people started to become Christians.
[14:36] More church planting last five years started happening around Tokyo and all the cities. And it is true, as you heard this morning, that God shakes us, our hearts, through using these tragedies or hard times.
[14:54] And, Jesus wants to remind us how we have to live in this between the alreadyness and not yetness. Okay? So, first thing, Jesus starts with talking about this noble man, went into a far country and received for himself a kingdom and then returned.
[15:14] And I already have a question, why does he have to go to a far country to do this? And this is quite important information because historically, in a time around 4 BC before Christ, the Herod the Great went to Rome and received, actually, the kingship and returned.
[15:35] And people hated Herod. And, 40 BC, a little bit later on, his son, Archelaus, also went to Rome, but this time he protested about his, another brother was about to kind of to be chosen and what happened was he got banished.
[15:55] He didn't become king. People hated it. So, you can see already as he starts the parable, many people are already engaged. What? He's using this kind of intense situation that who's going to be king and we don't want this evil king to rule us.
[16:13] And Jesus is relating to the kingdom of God. Then, he talks about this noble man calls these three servants and gave them out of blue no reason that he should do this.
[16:28] Probably. It's a gracious thing, generous thing. This noble man gives gifts, 10 minutes, which is about maybe three months wages, which is not a lot, but it's enough money to invest, right, to business.
[16:44] So, when we hear like this, we feel, okay, this parable is all about our performance. It's all about God asking us to be faithful in our money and reproduce, start creating Christian business and then, you know, look God, I did something for you so that God will give us favor.
[17:07] But it's actually not. I was quite surprised. That's what I used to think because there's the details that, in verse 14, but citizens hate it.
[17:20] His citizens hate it and they didn't want him to be king. what's going on here? I think we have to look at these details.
[17:31] Imagine, this king is going away, he's about to be chosen as a king, return, and people hate him. Isn't this similar to the political election thing?
[17:48] And here, this is interesting, verse 13, he uses this word, I mean, they invest into the business until I return. But that word, until, can be actually translated in three ways.
[18:00] In which I return or because I return. A few scholars actually suggest that actually in Greek because is appropriate here.
[18:12] If it is because, it changes the entire meaning of this. Right? So, if it's like until I return, it's like, okay, I want money, and I want to have a return, and, you know, I want to have more money, that's what the nobleman might be asking.
[18:29] But it is because I return. What do you think he will ask of you? What kind of business? Is it for yourself or is it for the king?
[18:43] What do you think? Okay, let's look further here. Verse 15, says this, when he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered the servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know what they had gained by doing business.
[19:03] Again, this seems like he's asking for money, right? But actually, original Greek translation says to be, so they're called to him so that they might know what business had done, what business has trans, is that it you say?
[19:24] Yeah, transpired, yeah. So actually, it's not about money, but it's more about what kind of business you invested into.
[19:37] Okay? Okay? And this is important because if you follow the scripture, the nobleman is asking about faithfulness.
[19:48] It's not fruitfulness. It's not about successfulness. It's about faithfulness, isn't it? What was the reward for them?
[20:01] Was that more privilege? Hey, you earn so much, now you can go and spend money on your cloth and you can live happy ever after? No. More responsibility, right?
[20:12] So faithfulness and reward is more responsibility and authority over the cities. So, what is master asking his servants to do?
[20:25] I can put it this way. I'm sure he's asking to campaign for his political election. Right? he's asking to promote him while he's gone.
[20:42] And quite difficult because many people against him, many people hate him, but in that tension, in that heat, in that difficulty, he wants his servants to be faithful promoting his name.
[20:59] So, when we look at our lives, do we do this? If God gave you a lot of money, how would you spend it? Probably I'm thinking I will start my own clothes shop.
[21:13] Reuters second hand store. Right? That's a natural thing. And I still, of course, because I'm a Christian, still thinking back in my head, but this is for God.
[21:26] That's how I excuse myself. Right? Or maybe you start, maybe a famous scholar, famous person, you can say, hey, kevinisgreat.com.
[21:38] Something like that. I don't know. I'm not saying that you will do that. Okay? Or even church. It's almost like you can name your church Luther is at the center church or something like that instead of gospel center church.
[21:57] And this was actually a challenge for me when I started church. Because I was afraid of what people would think. I had actually many so-called enemies or people who didn't like me because I left quite a sad way, my former church.
[22:14] So I was worried what if I plant this church, what do other people think of me? What if I fail? Maybe they will laugh at me. Huh? See? He wasn't great.
[22:26] He wasn't capable of doing this. I was worried about this. But through actually this scripture challenged me, is it really about you? Is that your name that you want to promote through this church planting?
[22:42] Or is it God's name that you want to promote in your life? So I think this is the first challenge. What are you promoting in your life?
[22:53] I'm not just talking about again starting a business but in your workplace. do you talk about God? Do you talk more about your success?
[23:05] How you want to be famous? How you want to be popular? What are you promoting not just in the workplace but maybe at your home to your children?
[23:18] Daily life. What else we can learn here? It's actually the master is asking about love towards the master.
[23:33] Because this attention again people don't like him, hate him, and you have to be the servant that you actually love him and want him to become king. Right?
[23:45] So that has to show through whatever you do it should display our love. And also it's a faith because for these servants you actually don't know if the king will be enthroned and can't come back.
[23:59] What if he didn't? Like actually the son of the Herod, the Achilles, he got banished. And that was a happy thing for the people because people didn't like him.
[24:12] But what if these servants invest everything, risk their life for this noble man, and if this noble man didn't come back?
[24:22] So it's actually faith thing, not just faithfulness, but faith is required. God is asking to believe in him that he will return, he will come back as a king.
[24:35] So it's also hope. The master is asking us to have hope. And these first two servants had these qualities.
[24:48] That's why they are faithful. that's why it wasn't about how much minerals they produced because first one produced more than second one.
[24:59] It didn't matter for the king. And as we look at like this, we know right away, okay, we are not that faithful.
[25:11] Right? I can see myself, I'm not that faithful. I actually fail. I was about to fail when I started church. So, let's look at the second point from verse 20 to 27.
[25:26] I'm going to look at this third servants. We need to understand what's going on with this third servants because it reflects our heart. So, assumption, that's my second point.
[25:39] the first thing that is quite shocking to see that he's servant and he has exactly the same privilege as other servants.
[25:52] He had the same amount of money given, 10 minutes. It's a little bit different parable from the Matthew one, okay? This is actually different detail. So, he had the same privilege, he was in the same position, he was the same opportunity, he actually had the same access to the nobleman.
[26:10] But how come that he couldn't be faithful like two other servants? So, verse 20 says, then another came saying, Lord, here's your mina which I kept laid away in handkerchief, for I was afraid of you.
[26:27] So, now you can see already, he's afraid of the nobleman. Okay? Because you are a severe man, you take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not so.
[26:39] And I again wonder, where has he got this idea about the nobleman? Because other two servants seemed that they didn't have this problem. But particularly this man had the problem.
[26:54] And it almost sounds like it's an excuse, isn't it? Hey, because you are like this, I could not perform. Because you are like this, or circumstances like this, I could not do my best.
[27:09] Have you ever done that kind of thing? I do this all the time with my wife. It's your fault. Right? I often do it with my church people.
[27:21] I attempted to do that. Okay. It's interesting. But then, more interestingly, verse 22. It says this, the master hears this, and of course, the assumption that this third servant has, or image that he has towards his master, is not true.
[27:45] Right? It's actually, basically, he's telling, the third servant is telling the master or king, you are a thief. You are a bad guy. That's why.
[27:56] It's a very rude thing to say. But master, I can see a little bit of graciousness. He says, well, okay, all right, let's accept.
[28:08] Let's suppose that you are right. Let's suppose that you are right, but I can still prove you are wrong. So he goes on to say, what does he say?
[28:18] Okay, you knew, you knew that I'm a mean man, the kind of person who steals from other people. Okay, but he goes on to say, but then why didn't you put the money in the bank?
[28:35] This is quite interesting because it was not allowed for Israelites to put money, not in the bank, but to have the interest from fellow Israelites.
[28:49] How do you know that? You know because this language echoes Exodus 22, 25, or Leviticus 25, 36, 37, even Deuteronomy 23, it's mentioned about do not take the interest from the fellow brother in the Israelites.
[29:07] So basically this noble man was saying, hey, it was maybe, actually it was better to put or render money to non-Jews and get interest than doing nothing.
[29:22] So he's saying this, if you knew that I'm a severe man, if this is your image, you could have not done this, but you didn't. So there's an inconsistency in your words and action.
[29:38] Even you are right, I can prove that you are not faithful. And this is quite amazing, this is quite painful because we all have wrong image of God, wrong image of a master.
[29:54] Right? So how come that we have these wrong images or wrong idea about God? Some of us we think God is very harsh and not loving.
[30:06] And some of us think God is just loving. He accepts anything and doesn't punish anyone. But Bible says no. God is a judge. He punishes evil.
[30:18] He's just God. But at the same time, He's a gracious God, merciful God, loving God. This too somehow has to fit in. Right?
[30:29] But then how come? And it's actually if you dig deeper, I can see almost this master saying, it's not because you had a wrong image of me that you are faithful.
[30:46] faithful. It's actually rather opposite. Because you are unfaithful already, in your heart, you start to see me. Wrong way. This is interesting scripture here.
[31:02] Psalm, sorry, I'm trying to, Psalm 18, 25 to 26, says this, with the merciful you show, I'm talking about God, you show yourself merciful. With the blameless man, you show yourself blameless.
[31:16] With the purified, you show yourself pure. And with the croaked, you make yourself seem torturous. You say torturous? Yeah, or croaked.
[31:28] So it is interesting, for those people who already have a right image of God, already hearts are right towards God, God is always pure, right, righteous, but when our hearts are croaked, bent, de-shaped, we already see everything, not just I think God, but everything else is de-shaped.
[31:52] And this actually reminds me of this concept in Genesis, isn't it? Adam and Eve, why did they sin? Because they believed the lie, the twisted word of Satan.
[32:06] and Satan twisted basically the image of God, God cannot be trusted. God cannot be trusted and he's hiding something from you, he doesn't want to give you the best.
[32:22] That's why, don't worry, you can eat and it's okay. It all started from there. And you know this word that the master used, you know, you knew that I'm a severe man.
[32:36] the word is quite interesting, this is my personal opinion, it means to experience, to know or to perceive, and the word origin is idol, it's the original word that diverts into idols.
[32:54] It's the idols that we are creating by having a wrong image of our master. that's the original issue or deep problem of this third servant.
[33:08] It's nothing to do with the performance, it's nothing to do with how he sees God, I mean, it's to do with how he sees God, but originally with a deep hard issue that we have.
[33:24] and I had to correct myself with my life too, because I brought up in a non-Christian family, my family was single parented, I had always wrong image of my father, that my father left when I was young, and so that carried constantly that image, okay, father who just are not responsible leaves the family, so when I got to know, I mean, started believing God as a father in heaven, I just could not see God as my father in heaven.
[33:59] I somehow had back on my head, I cannot trust him. So what I decided to do is instead of trust him, I started to trust someone who can be the father figure in my life.
[34:15] And I started to try to please these people rather than pleasing God himself, and be faithful to God himself. I always had a fear, and that basically shaped my life in the wrong way.
[34:32] But through the gospel, I had to learn who truly who the father is. So now you can see, master says, faithful in little things.
[34:46] What does that really mean? It's faithful with a heart condition every day. Heart condition, how we see God, how we apply everything and relate to our heart, perception, worldview.
[35:03] view. Why did Jesus say, hey, you need to correct your view about the kingdom of God coming right away? Why? Because if you think kingdom of God coming right away, you think this way, oh, God has to bless me right now.
[35:17] Right? God has to give me solution right now. God has to heal me right now. Or God has to change the situation of Hong Kong right now. But sometimes it's not the case.
[35:28] It takes time. So again, our wrong perception of God and the world and kingdom affects how we live our lives. We become impatient.
[35:42] We start excusing our lives when it's our whole fault. It's a deep issue of our heart. So, where is the hope?
[35:55] Where is the hope? Because the end of this parable seems very scary. Isn't it? I mean, when I first read this, I said, well, third servant, it's not that bad.
[36:07] He didn't kill anyone. Right? Did he steal? He just was a little bit unfaithful. Right? He was a little bit fearful. He didn't do any major mistake.
[36:20] Now he needs to be killed. A little bit harsh here. Isn't it? And this is shocking for the people, the audience because they knew this was the reality of the Roman system.
[36:33] This is how the heralds, the great treated people in reality. So now, is that the kingdom of God, same as the herald, the king, the great?
[36:45] No. I'm glad that Jesus does not add the sentence saying, okay, bring them here, slaughter them, so king killed them.
[36:56] He didn't add that sentence. He left it open. So there's actually no conclusion to this parable at this point.
[37:09] And Luke does very similar things with all other parables. Many of the parables, the famous ones, of course, the prodigal son. Right? There's no happy ending.
[37:20] You don't know what happened. But actually, it's not just Luke. It's in the Bible. For example, Abraham, God tells him to kill his son, sacrifice, but God says, you don't have to.
[37:34] Right? For Abraham, he was hopeless, but I'm glad that God comes and works and provides different ending and solution to our lives.
[37:45] Yes, we are destined originally to be killed, punished, casted out, sent into hell. We are sinners.
[37:58] So, what's the solution? We know from this progression of this story. Luke, actually, Luke started all this theme from chapter 9. As Jesus was approaching, he said, he started talking about I'm going to Jerusalem.
[38:13] But he started mentioning three times the very important information that he said, I will go there to be killed, die for people, rise again three days later.
[38:25] Three times he mentioned even in chapter 18, one chapter before, he mentions it again, third time. But every time he mentions, disciples do not get this, didn't get this.
[38:37] Disciples didn't understand what he was saying. And maybe I can mention this, maybe put ourselves in the shoes of disciples.
[38:49] Okay, disciples at this moment, I'm sure they're thinking, we are the faithful ones. We follow Jesus, so yeah, come on, kill these Romans, Jesus. Because Jesus finished this parable and he was about to go to Jerusalem, right?
[39:04] He was heading off. It's almost like a movie scene and the last final, the battles begins, the return of the king. And disciples thinking, yeah, come on Jesus.
[39:16] But all others are thinking, am I faithful? Am I going to be killed when Jesus becomes king? Well, what happened to disciples?
[39:27] Disciples actually betrayed Jesus, right? You can imagine the fear that they had. Thinking about this parable, well, we failed.
[39:39] We weren't faithful. Not even that. They thought he was going to be king, but he got killed by the people who hated him. confusion, mixed feeling, hopelessness, because they didn't understand what Jesus was going to do.
[40:01] And we know the solution. What did he do? He died for us, right? Why did he die? So that we, the third servants, we, who didn't support him to be king, we can be treated as faithful ones.
[40:23] He actually is the king, well, he was already king in heaven. He created all the earth, we were his people, supposed to be, he was king, but he became servant.
[40:35] And Luke is very clear with his theme, the suffering servant, the servant that Isaiah talks about. He was king, but he became a servant, the only faithful servant who served, having exact image of God, with the right attitude, and performed perfectly, reproduced everything right.
[41:00] He is this, the true servant, in this story. But good news is that because he died for us, he took our place, now we can be treated as a true servant.
[41:17] But not only that, we know that he went back to heaven, right, he's now enthroned in heaven, but he will come back with army.
[41:30] A scary thing is that that end time will reflect probably this problem more. So, in this between, the already and not yet, how does that apply?
[41:45] How does this truth that Jesus is dying for in our place, for our sins, apply really to our hearts? Then how can we be faithful? How can we have a right image of God, right attitude towards the Master?
[42:01] How? Well, first of all, Jesus gave us the exact image of the Father. God, there's no longer we have an excuse that you are like this, or you're a severe man.
[42:15] No, God is not just a severe man. He's a loving God. He died for you, right? He gives up the most precious to you.
[42:26] So, how can we have this image? Now, God, you're a severe man. No, we should be saying, God, I trust you. God, I know what you say is true.
[42:37] regardless of all the things happening in my life and crazy things going on in my life or in Hong Kong, I know that you will come back and set everything right.
[42:52] This truth can actually give you love towards him, right? Because now you have a right image. It makes us, actually, it's very interesting because these two servants came and said, hey, I produce two, ten more minas.
[43:06] What did he say? They said, your minas produced ten more. Your minas produced five more. It's not me. It's your gift.
[43:18] It's your generosity. It's your gift that gave me, actually, through me, produced more. So this, actually, I'm sure they understood that there's no pressure that we have to perform.
[43:31] But it's actually the performance comes naturally, right? Because he enables me, he helps me, he gives me strength.
[43:42] Therefore, I'm not worried about results. I'm not worried about whether I get accepted or not because we already accepted. He already sees us faithful. Now, I can produce without fear, without worry, and come to God, and then God, look, your son, the greatest gift that you gave me, produced all these things in my life.
[44:09] That's the attitude that we can have from the gospel, from what Jesus has done, the greatest gift that God gave you and gave me. So, I want to finish with this scripture.
[44:25] It says this, Philippians 2, 6 to 11, who being in the very nature of God, did not consider equally with God, something to be used to his own advantage.
[44:37] Rather, he made himself nothing, but taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross.
[44:55] Therefore, he exalted him to the highest place, gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every time I acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father.
[45:18] I'm so encouraged to share this gospel with you, even though we're in a different country, I feel the same actually. You know, you live in a big city, and I've been challenged in this way, but we are united.
[45:32] in this gospel. So, we're praying for you, Hong Kong, so that you will be faithful servant in time like this. Let's be a shining light and salt to the world together.
[45:48] Let's stand up and pray. Father, we thank you for this parable.
[46:06] Sometimes we get scared when we see the standard that you show us, the expectation that you have. right away feel, oh, we have to try hard.
[46:20] We have to live this way. But actually, we thank you for your cross, because first it shows us that we can do it. We can't.
[46:31] We failed. God, and it's a grace to realize our own weakness, sinfulness. It's not a threat. It's actually grace and love that you show us, because through that, now we can't rely on you.
[46:48] Through that, we can actually revive our hearts and see who you are truly, not the severe, mean, cruel God, bad, loving God who gave up everything for us, who did everything right for us, who lived for me, for us, Lord.
[47:05] So help us once again to come back to you. Lord, help us to really set aside all the excuses that we every day make. Help us not that we are blaming the people around us for our situation, Lord.
[47:23] Help us to stop that and say, Lord, help me. I want to be faithful through you. So, Lord, help us, Lord, in this time, in this generation, Lord, so that we can be faithful, we can be the light, promoting, campaigning your name in this Hong Kong and the cities all over the world, so that when you return, people will praise you, glorify you, and shout, our King, we glorify you, Lord.
[47:58] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you, everyone. two off