Speaker 1: God is good and all the time and, by the way, you're looking good.
Speaker 1: Better than yes, and tomorrow, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then.
Speaker 1: Like mine, hallelujah, let's give a big hand clap to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Amen, his worthy of our praise.
Speaker 1: And the Lord has brought us into another month.
Speaker 1: This is the ninth month of the year and the atmosphere is pregnant and something is about to deliver this month.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, and so let us unite our faith, bring our faith together and believe God for something special, something good is gonna do this month.
Speaker 1: Believe it for yourself, believe it for your family.
Speaker 1: That faith is critical this month.
Speaker 1: God is coming through.
Speaker 1: Is somebody connecting with what I'm saying?
Speaker 1: God is coming through.
Speaker 1: Our reading is from John, chapter 13.
Speaker 1: John, chapter 13.
Speaker 1: I am reading from verse 1 to verse 15, the NIV version of the Bible, john chapter 13.
Speaker 1: This is what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: It was just before Passover festival.
Speaker 1: Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.
Speaker 1: Having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end.
Speaker 1: The evening meal was in progress and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon his carryout to betray Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God.
Speaker 1: So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist.
Speaker 1: That after that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around him.
Speaker 1: He came to Simon Peter, who said to him Lord, are you going to wash my feet?
Speaker 1: Jesus replied you do not realize now what I'm doing, but later you will understand.
Speaker 1: Nor said Peter you shall never wash my feet.
Speaker 1: Jesus answered unless I wash you, you have, you have no part.
Speaker 1: Unless I wash you, you have no part in me.
Speaker 1: Then in verse 9 he says then the Lord.
Speaker 1: Simon replied not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well.
Speaker 1: Jesus answered those who have had a birth need only to wash their feet.
Speaker 1: Their whole body is clean.
Speaker 1: And you are clean, though not every one of you, for he knew who was going to betray him and that, and that was why he said not everyone was clean.
Speaker 1: When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.
Speaker 1: Do you understand what I've done for you?
Speaker 1: He asked them.
Speaker 1: You call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am.
Speaker 1: Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.
Speaker 1: I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you, and this is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, father in heaven.
Speaker 1: We thank you again for bringing us together.
Speaker 1: Thank you for taking care of us since last Sunday when we met, and, lord, thank you for all you've done this past week.
Speaker 1: We thank you for the testimonies, but also thank you for the strength you have brought to those who are bereaved and those who've gone through a difficult time.
Speaker 1: And, Lord, as we go through the word today, we ask that you may speak to us In Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: We pray Amen.
Speaker 1: We may have our seats Just before I share the word.
Speaker 1: We have this book here available for the service the speaker who spoke to us last Sunday.
Speaker 1: The books are available at the table and also in the bookshop.
Speaker 1: Just to appreciate once again, dekon Hyohu, the birthdays for Dr Kaopa.
Speaker 1: He's going to be 68 years this coming Wednesday and we bless the Lord for that Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: We also have another of our members who has served very faithfully for very many years here in the church and her name is Josephine Kasungi.
Speaker 1: She's going to be 61 years, I think today.
Speaker 1: Pasarigan is it today, her birthday today.
Speaker 1: And of course, chebet, chebet Ahmed is up here.
Speaker 1: Stand up again.
Speaker 1: She's the one coming down there.
Speaker 1: Chebet, let's appreciate her.
Speaker 1: Today is her birthday.
Speaker 1: God is indeed very good and very, very faithful, and life is a gift from God.
Speaker 1: Empowered relationships and the outline I have is empowered by love, empowered for service, empowered to empower Empowered relationships.
Speaker 1: This month is a month of empowered relationships and enabling ministry and this theme is a great, great theme.
Speaker 1: So, as you open the gates of this month, I'm sharing from John, chapter 13, verse 1 to verse 15, empowered relationships.
Speaker 1: The text I just read.
Speaker 1: We find Jesus investing in the relationship that he has with his disciples and he invests in three ways by showing love, by serving them and also by empowering them.
Speaker 1: And you will see that in the text and my prayer is that if you're a father, a mother, a child in a family, if you're in a work relationship situation in the marketplace, that you will determine to make relationships a priority, like Jesus does, and not just make them a priority but invest in the relationships that we have.
Speaker 1: I know all of us are connected to someone, either by biology, or either by location and neighborhood, either by work, either by school.
Speaker 1: We are connected to one person or another, and so, even as we look at how Jesus invests in this relationship that is investing in with the disciples, let this become a mirror for us in how we shall invest in our relationships.
Speaker 1: Relationships are very, very important, and so in this passage, we see how important relationships are to God to allow Jesus Christ, and how, especially to the church, relationships should be important, and we sang a song oh the overwhelming, reckless love of God.
Speaker 1: I celebrate God's love today, hallelujah, the overwhelming, reckless love of God, and worshiped him at the end.
Speaker 1: I'll try and finish earlier so that we can sing that song.
Speaker 1: That song, we finish with that song oh the overwhelming and reckless love.
Speaker 1: It comes searching, it comes looking for me.
Speaker 1: I stand here before because the love of God did find me one day in the journey of my life when I was about 17 years old.
Speaker 1: Empowered relationships, first of all, empowered by love, and this is the motivation, the motivation empowered by love.
Speaker 1: This one is unconditional love.
Speaker 1: In verse 1 to 3, listen to what it says.
Speaker 1: It was just before the Passover festival.
Speaker 1: Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.
Speaker 1: Having loved notice that, having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end.
Speaker 1: The evening meal was in progress and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon, his career, to betray Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God Empowered by love.
Speaker 1: And this becomes the motivation for relationships love as a motivation for relationships.
Speaker 1: I want you to understand and be reminded today that God loves us unconditionally.
Speaker 1: In Romans 5, 8, the Bible says God shows his love for me.
Speaker 1: He shows his love for me that, while I was yet a sinner, christ died for me.
Speaker 1: God took the initiative not because I was good.
Speaker 1: No, he took the initiative because he is love.
Speaker 1: And the relationship we enjoy today with God is because God took the first step.
Speaker 1: And God took the initiative.
Speaker 1: And the relationships you are going to enjoy in life, you're going to have them because you take the first initiative, and I want to encourage us to be first initiative.
Speaker 1: Take us as far as love and loving is concerned.
Speaker 1: Don't wait until your neighbor makes the first move.
Speaker 1: Find a way, maybe when they are believed, when they are having a baby coming home from the maternity, maybe when there is a situation.
Speaker 1: Find their creative ways of taking initiatives, but make a move.
Speaker 1: That's what Jesus is doing in this passage.
Speaker 1: And so love, the unconditional love, motivates us and prompts us to be the first to get there, to become the first responder, to be the first person who occupies that space, whether it's a village, whether it's another country, to make a difference in that particular place.
Speaker 1: And so you find Jesus left the portals of glory and he became a human being.
Speaker 1: And then he dwelt among us, like the Bible says, full of grace and truth, and we have beheld his glory glorious of the only Son of God.
Speaker 1: And then, later on, he went to the cross, he died, he was buried and on the third day he rose.
Speaker 1: Today we enjoy this relationship with God because Jesus took the initiative, and this was an initiative of love, prompted by just love.
Speaker 1: And my prayer is that this month we shall reflect on our relationships and that we shall grow our networks.
Speaker 1: Somebody said your net worth is equal to your networks and when we gather like this on a Sunday, you have an opportunity of getting to know 10 new people like 10 new people.
Speaker 1: It's possible you have that capacity 10 new people on a Sunday like today.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine, if you do that, how many new people you're going to get to know, and not just know them by name?
Speaker 1: You can organize to visit their home.
Speaker 1: I hope they are open to a home visit.
Speaker 1: I remember for a long time I didn't want anyone to visit my home when we were in Ojijo and I was a young guy who used to sit at the back of the church and I slowly started moving to the front and sooner than later I was in the front there.
Speaker 1: But no one ever got to know where I live because I was shy and anybody who tried to get to know where I was I would kind of sky them and stay very far from them.
Speaker 1: Of course, my problem then is that I was staying in Korogosho in the slums, and you can imagine somebody saying can I come over to your place?
Speaker 1: I want to know where you live and that's where you live in the slums of Nairobi.
Speaker 1: It's not easy to invite somebody in a space such as that one, but let us be the ones to take that first initiative.
Speaker 1: And in this text we see Jesus taking a love initiative.
Speaker 1: This initiative that he's taking is he's doing it unconditionally.
Speaker 1: You will notice, of course, when he's washing the disciples feet, he's washing the feet of Judas, peter, who will deny him.
Speaker 1: In fact, in the same chapter, towards the end, you find, you know, vastati says.
Speaker 1: Then Jesus answered will you really lay down your life for me?
Speaker 1: Really, I tell you, before the cross, you will disown me three times.
Speaker 1: Peter disowned him, the rest of the disciples deserted him.
Speaker 1: But despite the fact that Jesus knows this, he shows love to these disciples, unconditional love, and I want us to know that what God is calling us to exercise is unconditional love.
Speaker 1: There is a church that had a problem with love and they had a love deficit 1 Corinthians 13, verse 1 to 8,.
Speaker 1: A particular church where the relationships were not very good.
Speaker 1: They had everything else except love.
Speaker 1: Listen to what Paul tells them as he reminds them about love From verse 1,.
Speaker 1: 1 Corinthians 13, from verse 1,.
Speaker 1: If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love.
Speaker 1: I'm only resounding gong or a clanging symbol.
Speaker 1: If I have the gift of prophecy and can further more mysteries in all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I'm nothing.
Speaker 1: If I give all I possess to the poor and I give over my body to hardship, that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Speaker 1: Now listen to this.
Speaker 1: Love is patient.
Speaker 1: These are attributes of love, unconditional love.
Speaker 1: Love is patient.
Speaker 1: Love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered.
Speaker 1: It keeps no record of wrongs.
Speaker 1: Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
Speaker 1: It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Speaker 1: Love never fails.
Speaker 1: But where there are prophecies, they will cease.
Speaker 1: Where there are tongues, they will be sealed.
Speaker 1: Where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
Speaker 1: And so Paul is writing to a church that has many gifts.
Speaker 1: Actually, they had about 18 different gifts.
Speaker 1: This was a very charismatic church, very gifted, and when they met on a Sunday like today, they would sing the choruses and I mean it was very vibrant, very charismatic, but they were shot on love.
Speaker 1: And so Paul writes to them and he says you are endured with so many gifts, but there is one, there is a deficit and you are suffering a love deficit.
Speaker 1: In other words, in terms of the dipstick like you do with a car to check whether it has oil, and in terms of the love he was saying you are running very, very low on love.
Speaker 1: And he says you could have all these other gifts, but if you do not have love, you're just like a clanging symbol.
Speaker 1: It is like having a home where people don't take this love initiative and people don't love each other.
Speaker 1: They may have very nice buildings, many cars, a nice parking lot, but that home is a dead place and nobody wants to get into that place.
Speaker 1: You have a church without love.
Speaker 1: That church is a dead place.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to go there empowered by love.
Speaker 1: This is unconditional love, and so Jesus is demonstrating that his love is so powerful.
Speaker 1: It is able to minister, even to people who will betray him, people who are going to deny him, people who are going to reject him and leave him alone as he goes to the cross.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is showing that no one is beyond the reach of love.
Speaker 1: No one, no one.
Speaker 1: No one.
Speaker 1: If you are here, you're a criminal, a drug addict.
Speaker 1: You come from a difficult background.
Speaker 1: This pastor says I love you and God says I love you, and I love you the way you are.
Speaker 1: And I want to remind you that God takes the first step in your direction.
Speaker 1: I want you to know that God loves you and he has already taken a first step in your direction.
Speaker 1: What is needed is for you to respond and say God, I will receive your love.
Speaker 1: World changes, love, world changes.
Speaker 1: John chapter 13, verse 34 and verse 35,.
Speaker 1: Jesus said a new commandment I give to you that you do what you love one another.
Speaker 1: By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
Speaker 1: And so a world changer is somebody who truly loves, and that kind of love is unconditional love.
Speaker 1: However, this love is impossible without the Holy Spirit In your own strength, you can't love unconditionally.
Speaker 1: Love is a fruit of the Spirit.
Speaker 1: John Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22,.
Speaker 1: The fruit of the Spirit is love.
Speaker 1: In fact, they get away to.
Speaker 1: The fruit is love.
Speaker 1: Is love joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and the Bible says again as such things there is no law.
Speaker 1: When I preach in weddings, I tell them this marriage and its longevity is as good as your submission to the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: Allow the Holy Spirit to come upon you.
Speaker 1: And when I conduct weddings, I say I am raising an altar of anointing by the Holy Spirit, because without the power of the Holy Spirit you cannot go the long hole.
Speaker 1: Those things that the attributes of love you have just seen from the text I just read, are not found in our supermarkets.
Speaker 1: You go to the finest shops, you won't find them there.
Speaker 1: It's when you look up and you look up to God and you say Holy Spirit, fill me, give me unconditional love that I may be able to change my world through the power of love.
Speaker 1: You know the power of love.
Speaker 1: Reaching that very difficult person requires unconditional love.
Speaker 1: Jesus is reaching very difficult people, but he does it anyway.
Speaker 1: But secondly, empowered for service, empowered relationships, empowered for service.
Speaker 1: Love must go beyond a motivation, it must go beyond a nice feeling.
Speaker 1: Love must begin to do something.
Speaker 1: Love is a verb.
Speaker 1: Those of you who have heard me preach from Fasco, indians 13 and I've done it several times I say love is a greatest gift, but I also say love is a verb, love is an action.
Speaker 1: Love is something you do.
Speaker 1: Love is not passive.
Speaker 1: Love cannot remain indifferent.
Speaker 1: No wonder the Apostle Paul said the love of Christ compels me.
Speaker 1: I have this week I have been preaching in a crusade For those who live in Gontown, a place called Emble Ball.
Speaker 1: In the evening probably you're driving past there and you heard loud speakers and music in a preacher preaching there.
Speaker 1: That was me.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah by the roadside and I thank God for God's love.
Speaker 1: I get so moved and the Apostle Paul said the love of Christ compels me.
Speaker 1: The love of Christ made me go there.
Speaker 1: The love of Christ made me look for young people who can play instruments and sing songs, look for people who can be ashes and work on security.
Speaker 1: The love of Christ compelled me to be in that place called Emble Ball you know the gateway to Gontown and preach the gospel.
Speaker 1: I have seen the love of Christ compelling people to go to slums and begin to enter small rooms and sit with people in those small rooms and share the love of Christ.
Speaker 1: This love is very, very compelling and it causes us to do something.
Speaker 1: John 3.16 says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that who so ever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Speaker 1: I am praying that these relationships will be driven by this powerful, compelling love that leads us to service, to the extent that even those people who are not lovable, you will go out there and begin to do something for them.
Speaker 1: Hospital visitation, for example you go into hospitals and you find people in all kinds of situations and conditions and you stay there.
Speaker 1: I don't like going to surgical words, but the other day I decided to go to Kenyatta Hospital and I went to the surgical section.
Speaker 1: It's usually the most difficult thing for me to do, but I went there and I took time, you know, visiting the various patients who had just come from theater, and you can actually see the pain on their faces.
Speaker 1: The love of God compels us and causes us to begin to do something, and this is what you call the mission.
Speaker 1: The mission.
Speaker 1: Love is the mission of love, and where there is love, then there will be service.
Speaker 1: The person sitting next to you and I'm not saying you do it now one way you can serve them is getting to know their name.
Speaker 1: You're not just beginning somewhere and then you say please, can I get to know your name?
Speaker 1: That's one way you can do it.
Speaker 1: You can do it after this service.
Speaker 1: The other way is to go a little further, like I said, and get to know how they spend their week.
Speaker 1: You know the other way you can go further and arrange to have a meeting.
Speaker 1: And the other way you can go further and do something for them Service During the week.
Speaker 1: A family called me very early and they were very down and they told me Pasi, you have to come to the funeral home.
Speaker 1: I also don't like going to mortuaries.
Speaker 1: I don't have that grace and many of you know that and I got there very early in the morning and you know when you're in mortuary and you have to minister and serve a family in that very difficult moment and sometimes get into those spaces where you are to deal with the dead bodies, it's very, very difficult.
Speaker 1: But you know the love of God gets me there.
Speaker 1: It's so powerful, it's so compelling, it's so moving and you find yourself in a space and you are doing something, serving a family, serving a village.
Speaker 1: We have many children here without school fees and they haven't gone to school up to now and the love of Christ compiling somebody.
Speaker 1: Find out something about that young person and you could change their life forever just by standing with them, paying school fees only once to take them through one term, or maybe two times, it makes all the difference.
Speaker 1: The other day, the PO of Mbakasi Babu, or you know his wife, they came to see me and told me Pasi, I've seen your passion for young people.
Speaker 1: I want to give you 50 scholarships.
Speaker 1: Brother, jj and I got the scholarships, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: And we've been sitting with JJ, pastor Edith, pastor Maxi, the youth pastor, and the house group pastor trying to identify the cases that would benefit from these scholarships high school and university.
Speaker 1: The love of God leads us to do something.
Speaker 1: The Father's love led him to send his son.
Speaker 1: He gave his best and he gave his all.
Speaker 1: This is the mission of love.
Speaker 1: From verse 4 to 11, it says the following so he got up that means he did something from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist.
Speaker 1: After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around him.
Speaker 1: He came to Simon Peter who said to him Lord, are you going to wash my feet?
Speaker 1: Jesus replied you do not realize now what I'm doing, but later you will understand.
Speaker 1: No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet.
Speaker 1: Jesus answered unless I wash you, you have no part with me.
Speaker 1: Then, lord Simon Peter replied not just my feet, but my hands, and my head as well.
Speaker 1: Jesus answered those who have had a birth need only to wash their feet.
Speaker 1: Their whole body is clean.
Speaker 1: And you are clean, though not everyone of you, for he who knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean.
Speaker 1: Jesus does something and he serves.
Speaker 1: He serves, doesn't discriminate.
Speaker 1: We are called to reach the whole world and when you're praying and if you're going to serve the nations through prayer, if you come to my office, you'll find there's a globe.
Speaker 1: I've always had it there and I always hold it like this, with both hands close to my heart, and I pray.
Speaker 1: I pray for the nations and sometimes, when we are praying for the nations, there are some countries we don't like and you want to jump that?
Speaker 1: Jesus is saying pray for every nation.
Speaker 1: Ask of me the nations and I'll give them to you as an inheritance.
Speaker 1: Don't jump any more.
Speaker 1: Don't jump any nation, and some people feel like if I pray for this one, that's where God will take me, and I don't like this country.
Speaker 1: I'm saying God is taking you to places where he wants you to express love, and conditional love, and therefore he might take you to some very unlikely places that you probably have not loved before.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine Jesus getting to Judas and he has his towel?
Speaker 1: He's removed the cloak, he has a towel and he's doing the work of a slave.
Speaker 1: Actually, what he's doing, in Greek, is duolo.
Speaker 1: He forfeits his rights as the king of kings, the Lord of lords, somebody who ought to have been sitting on a big chair like a bishop, a chair called a cathedra.
Speaker 1: And you know, sometimes we like sitting, like us.
Speaker 1: You see the way we sit on these chairs, brother Irago, and they look different from there.
Speaker 1: Is that okay?
Speaker 1: Is that right Now?
Speaker 1: Sometimes, you know, sometimes you preach, then the message comes back to you.
Speaker 1: But you know the cathedras, the bishop to be served.
Speaker 1: But look at Jesus.
Speaker 1: He removes his cloak, all the regalia of position and power, he sets him aside and then he takes on the towel of a slave and takes the water and he goes and begins to wash the disciples feet.
Speaker 1: He gets to Judas.
Speaker 1: Now that must have been pretty difficult, but Jesus does it.
Speaker 1: Then he gets to Peter, who will deny him three times and he still does it.
Speaker 1: And he goes to the next disciple and the next disciple who are going to desert him.
Speaker 1: In fact, eventually they will be saying all of them release Barabbas, crucify this one.
Speaker 1: Where were all the people Jesus healed?
Speaker 1: Where were the disciples?
Speaker 1: They were all in that chorus saying crucify Jesus, release Barabbas.
Speaker 1: And you know this.
Speaker 1: We are empowered to rise above the petty issues that sometimes we succumb to and we fail to serve.
Speaker 1: Love is very powerful and love leads us to a place where we serve all.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter their race, their color, their background, their history.
Speaker 1: You open a door to somebody to come.
Speaker 1: I remember getting a young man called Juma and I got him into my house and he didn't even know how to use a toilet and occasionally, oftentimes, I would find in the toilet.
Speaker 1: Instead of doing whatever inside there, he would do up here and I would be the one to go there and wash and took time.
Speaker 1: For some reason, juma could not do toilet properly and I had to keep washing this thing.
Speaker 1: And then I took him to school and today, as we are talking, he has his master's degree and Juma is married.
Speaker 1: The wife is a pastor, hallelujah, and he's a great disciple maker.
Speaker 1: He reaches out to people, he goes to extremities to get the person who is the last one there on the mile and begin to wash their feet.
Speaker 1: Let me say whoever washes the feet of others, their feet shall be washed, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus is deploying his resources to be able to wash the feet of these disciples, and he's doing so with all the grace.
Speaker 1: So love is more than a feeling.
Speaker 1: It's more than just a nice feeling.
Speaker 1: It is something that we got to do.
Speaker 1: And you know, the calling to serve is a very big calling.
Speaker 1: If you look at the great commission, it encompasses the whole world.
Speaker 1: A church like this one, parklands Baptist Church, we are of the DNA of the five talents.
Speaker 1: You remember, somebody was given five talents, another one too, another one won.
Speaker 1: Parklands Baptist Church is of the DNA of the five talents, and so much will be expected of us.
Speaker 1: Jesus said I was hungry, you gave me something to eat.
Speaker 1: I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink.
Speaker 1: I was naked and you clothed me.
Speaker 1: I was in prison and you visited me.
Speaker 1: I was in a hospital and you came over to visit.
Speaker 1: That's found in Matthew, chapter 25.
Speaker 1: And then they asked when did we do all this?
Speaker 1: That means they did it with humility and they did not want their position to be recognized.
Speaker 1: They were like this our Lord Jesus Christ, who is a humble servant, washing the disciples feet.
Speaker 1: But let me say this for everything we do, the Lord sees it.
Speaker 1: I shared the other Sunday 1 Corinthians, 15, 58, bested, fast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing your labor in the Lord is never in vain.
Speaker 1: If it's a pair of shoes this week, do that connect, make a relationship in that particular way.
Speaker 1: Take to somebody a pair of shoes.
Speaker 1: If it's a suit, get somebody a suit.
Speaker 1: The ground is there and the harvest is plenty and God is just waiting for laborers.
Speaker 1: But finally, empowered to empower, empowered to empower, empowered relationships, produce other empowered relationships, and this is what you call influence, influence.
Speaker 1: Verse 12 to verse 13,.
Speaker 1: Verse 17,.
Speaker 1: When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.
Speaker 1: Do you understand what I have done for you?
Speaker 1: He asked them.
Speaker 1: You call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am.
Speaker 1: Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.
Speaker 1: I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
Speaker 1: Very truly, I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
Speaker 1: Now that you know these things, you'll be blessed if you do them.
Speaker 1: The apostle Paul invested his life in Timothy and in second Timothy 2, he said, and the things you have learned from me before many witnesses you know in the presence of witness, many witnesses and trust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.
Speaker 1: And you know what we do for others and we show them by example lasts forever.
Speaker 1: I still can remember the impacts that have come my way by people who reached out to me by love.
Speaker 1: You know that story through love, that story of how difficult I was and then I locked myself in a room and then the guy who was trying to help me through life comes through a keyhole and is looking.
Speaker 1: I thought he had gone and then I also am there looking and the two eyes meet through the keyhole.
Speaker 1: This guy worked so hard, but I was trying to run away, but somehow he did it.
Speaker 1: For that reason, I am doing it today.
Speaker 1: I will not give up on someone Hallelujah, because somebody never gave up on me.
Speaker 1: And so when influence is when you invest in a person's life to the extent they're able to invest in another.
Speaker 1: You know we have the Elijah Elisha example.
Speaker 1: Elijah spent time with Elisha.
Speaker 1: Eventually, elijah takes off, elijah takes up the mantle and he continues with that ministry.
Speaker 1: Jesus knows that these guys are the ones who are going to live with the ministry and therefore he must give them an object lesson, a lesson they will never, ever forget.
Speaker 1: All of you have grown up in homes.
Speaker 1: You know how those relationships have been within your home settings.
Speaker 1: You can remember the things that were done for you, that were life changing, that have shaped who you actually are today, but you can also remember the things that have really, you know, incapacitated you and cost you a lot of pain over time.
Speaker 1: So Jesus does an object lesson and he teaches, he does wash their disciples feet and he says even you, I want you to do the same for other people.
Speaker 1: God is talking to somebody here and he's saying you have reached where you have reached in life because somebody laid down their life for you.
Speaker 1: That's why you're here, that's why you have the job you have.
Speaker 1: That's why you have succeeded and reached the levels that you have actually reached.
Speaker 1: Today we can take time to thank God for those mentors and coaches and people who came alongside us, destiny builders and destiny makers, but we can also commit ourselves to doing something for somebody else and causing them to reach where we are and even go past where we are.
Speaker 1: Jesus is giving us an example and God holds back nothing.
Speaker 1: We need to hold back nothing.
Speaker 1: You know families that impact others are amazing Abraham and Sarah in Genesis, chapter 5, 12, verse 1 to 5,.
Speaker 1: You know the story of God's visitation, of the call, the Lord blessing them, and then the Lord saying I have blessed you that you may become a blessing to the nations.
Speaker 1: Today I am trusting God that we shall refresh our relationships within the perspective of this text unconditional love in discriminated service, service that does not discriminate, but also empowering for legacy and also empowering for eternity.
Speaker 1: Jesus wants us to bear fruit that lasts, and I know no better way than building relationships.
Speaker 1: Reach out to someone, build them up through service, commission them through the illustrated lesson of your life and trust them to be able to continue the work that you have started inside them.
Speaker 1: You know, jesus started the church and the church is here today.
Speaker 1: He died for the church.
Speaker 1: He left the work of the church in the hands of a small group, but that has grown to be what it is today.
Speaker 1: I want to say that this month, we are thinking about ministry.
Speaker 1: Ministry is about people.
Speaker 1: Ministry is about relationships and connections.
Speaker 1: Ministry is about serving someone.
Speaker 1: It's about making a difference in somebody's life.
Speaker 1: Is it possible for you to invite somebody for lunch?
Speaker 1: You realize that Jesus was having dinner in some place here, and this may have been a Thursday evening and by morning Peter would have denied him, he would have been betrayed and then the next day, friday, he faces the cross and then he dies and he buried.
Speaker 1: It is more or less like the last supper that is happening in this place and in this particular place a relational dinner table.
Speaker 1: He gives several chapters 13, 14, 15, 16 and then in 2017, he prays in that relational context in one night 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17,.
Speaker 1: You know, around that dinner table and let me tell you when you invite somebody for lunch or dinner.
Speaker 1: Those are very nice places to grow relationships.
Speaker 1: I like doing it, especially with my children.
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoons.
Speaker 1: We must find a place we like for you.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you check me for you, chinese place Sunday afternoon, big table, 11 people most of the time, and that is my family and grandchildren and we invest in the relationship and we talk with one another and occasionally we invite other young people to come and join us.
Speaker 1: The other day I had invited the young people to join us there, the same place, and so it was a big.
Speaker 1: They made a big, big circle and you know somebody who was sitting on the other side with the wife afterwards came over to me and he said you may not know me very well, but I follow you online.
Speaker 1: I see you have a big table here.
Speaker 1: I am taking charge of the bill.
Speaker 1: It was amazing, I'm taking charge of the bill.
Speaker 1: So him and his wife, they took charge of the bill.
Speaker 1: So don't be afraid of treating somebody for a lunch or a dinner, because heaven will provide and you can even do it by faith.
Speaker 1: Do it by faith.
Speaker 1: Grow your networks, reach out.
Speaker 1: Ministry is growing networks.
Speaker 1: Networks is about people.
Speaker 1: People are beautiful, people are wonderful.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter their status, it doesn't matter their background.
Speaker 1: Reach out, greet them, get to know them by name.
Speaker 1: If it is possible, hug them, invite them to some space where you can just be together and do something for that individual.
Speaker 1: The best investment you can ever make is to invest in another person's life, and that is what Jesus did, and that's why I want us to sing the reckless love story, because he's doing it in this passage.
Speaker 1: He did all he could for me and we need to do it for somebody else.
Speaker 1: As we sing this song, let's reflect on the message and then, after that, I'll be leading us in a short prayer.
Speaker 1: Let's have the song as this team leads us.
Speaker 1: Let's all stand up as we sing this song together.
Speaker 1: Let's celebrate this, guys.
Speaker 1: Let's just give our hands to the Lord.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Hmm, oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God.
Speaker 2: Oh, it chases me down fights.
Speaker 2: Still I'm found leaves the nine to nine.
Speaker 2: I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it.
Speaker 2: Still you give yourself away.
Speaker 2: Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God.
Speaker 2: Sing, oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God.
Speaker 2: Oh, it chases me down fights.
Speaker 2: Still I'm found leaves the nine to nine.
Speaker 2: I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it.
Speaker 2: Still you give yourself away.
Speaker 2: Oh the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God.
Speaker 2: See, there is no shadow, no shadow.
Speaker 2: You won't light up mountain.
Speaker 2: You won't timer.
Speaker 2: Coming up to me, there's no wall.
Speaker 2: You won't get down, you won't tear down.
Speaker 2: Coming up to me.
Speaker 2: See, there is no shadow, no shadow.
Speaker 2: You won't light up mountain.
Speaker 2: You won't timer.
Speaker 2: Coming up to me, there's no wall, you won't get down, you won't tear down.
Speaker 2: Coming up to me.
Speaker 2: Sing, oh, never-ending reckless love of God.
Speaker 1: Oh, the overwhelming never-ending reckless love of God Sing.
Speaker 1: Oh the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God.
Speaker 1: Oh, the overwhelming let's give a hand to the Lord.
Speaker 1: Reckless love of God, and that is what the cross has to offer us, that's what this altar has to offer this morning that overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God that goes searching and goes looking, breaking through the walls and the shadows and going up the mountains and down the valleys until that love founds you.
Speaker 1: If you're in a place where you have never experienced love, I want you to know that God loves you.
Speaker 1: I repeat that verse John 3, 16,.
Speaker 1: For God saw love the world, that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Speaker 1: Let's close our eyes, father.
Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus, I thank you for the altar of love and my God.
Speaker 1: This month, as we consider empowered relationship, help us to see our role in making those relationships happen and work out.
Speaker 1: Jesus, you made that possible in John 13.
Speaker 1: And today, as we leave the service, you're calling us to go and make it possible in our neighborhoods and even to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your love that, while I was yet a sinner, christ died.
Speaker 1: You died for me.
Speaker 1: You are here and you've never given your life to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: I want you to know that Jesus loves you.
Speaker 1: You're following the service online.
Speaker 1: I want you to know that Jesus loves you and today is a good day for you to give your life over to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And wherever you may be, online or here in your heart, you can pray this prayer and you say Lord Jesus, I realize that you love me with an unconditional love.
Speaker 1: I thank you for taking the first step.
Speaker 1: You took the initiative of love and now I respond and I receive your initiative of love, your gesture of love.
Speaker 1: Now I come to you forgive me of my sins, wash me with your precious blood, make me a new creation, come into my heart and from today, you are my leader, you are my king and you are my God.
Speaker 1: If you have prayed that prayer, I want you to know that today the first, the second, the third day of September you have received Jesus as Lord and Savior, and this day is marked as your spiritual birthday.
Speaker 1: After the service, you can see me or even see one of the decons of pastors and tell us of that decision.
Speaker 1: My father, I pray now for love in our families, like the Corinthian church.
Speaker 1: I know there are many places that are suffering a love deficit.
Speaker 1: Father, I pray that a visitation and impartation of the Holy Spirit would come upon us afresh, because in our own strength we cannot love, and we are praying for a revival of love in our families, in our marriages, in our workplaces, those relationships there, in our institutions, in our country, among the nations.
Speaker 1: Lord, we are praying for a revival of love, an impartation of love that once again considers and regards people as important.
Speaker 1: Not money, not buildings, not work, but people.
Speaker 1: Once again, a revival of love that gets us to a place where we reach out to somebody, know them by name and begin to serve them and make a difference in their lives.
Speaker 1: Lord, we are praying for a revival of love.
Speaker 1: And even as we pray for this revival of love where we have fallen short, like the Corinthian church, we pray that you forgive us and, father, that you lead us to the place where we can give of ourselves, like Jesus you did.
Speaker 1: You gave yourself recklessly, you gave yourself totally, in an overwhelming way, completely, and you held back nothing.
Speaker 1: You indeed even died on the cross.
Speaker 1: May that become our love standard.
Speaker 1: And so, lord, as I commissioned this congregation.
Speaker 1: Today I am releasing us to go and love, to grow networks, to serve and to make a difference.
Speaker 1: My God, I thank you as you go into this week.
Speaker 1: I pray that you endure us with every blessing that will cause us to make this difference.
Speaker 1: And I declare us blessed.
Speaker 1: I declare us blessed on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on Thursday, on Friday, on Saturday, on this coming Sunday.
Speaker 1: I declare us blessed with every blessing in the spiritual realms.
Speaker 1: And now may God go before you, may he come behind you, may he lay His hand of blessing upon you.
Speaker 1: May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forever.
Speaker 1: More amen.
Speaker 1: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord Forever and ever and ever.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: God bless, you have a great week.