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good morning church today's scripture reading is taken from the book of Galatians 1 6- 24 reading from the NIV 2011 i am astonished that you are so quickly discerning the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one who preached to you let them be under God's curse as we have
already said so now I say again if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted let them be under God's curse am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God or am I trying to please people if I were still trying to please people I would not be a servant of Christ i want you to know brothers and sisters that the gospel I preach is not of human origin i did not receive it from any man nor was I taught it rather I received it from by revelation from Jesus Christ
for you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it i was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my father but when God who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles my immediate response was not to consult any human being i did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostle
before I was but I went into Arabia later I returned to Damascus then after 3 years I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cphus and stayed with him 15 days i saw none of the other apostle only James the Lord's brother i assure you before God that what I'm writing you is no lie then I went to Syria and Silicia i was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ they only heard the report the man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy and
they praise God because of me this is the word of the Lord there's two mics okay get it thanks hi good morning FBC good morning uh let's uh bow our heads uh in prayer dear Lord we thank you for today Lord lord we thank you that Lord um we can be here together to hear your word and Lord it's a holiday time it's holiday season but we thank you for those people have chosen to be here today Lord to hear this word pray that you speak to us help us to be hearers of your word and also doers of your word as
well we praise you for all this pray be with us in Jesus name pray okay all right great thanks okay let me just see whether the clicker works first yeah okay now today um what we'll be talking about is actually the glory of the gospel the letter that you read just now is a letter that is written by a killer is a letter written by a murderer this killer and murderer is none other than Saul saul is a person that we're talking about here now Saul actually is a very zealous Jew he love to be a Jew he
follow the traditions of his uh parents he was proud of who he is he said he's from tribe of Benjamin and he has all the credentials in short he's a person with prestigious wasn't doing very well and at the same time in the community he was living in suddenly something happened there was this funny guy that came out called Jesus and everybody is starting to following him is causing commotion and causing problem and therefore they need to use the ISA act to actually go and capture him do something with him and so after that
Jesus died and so for Saul even after Jesus died I thought story be over already but it didn't end after Jesus died his followers started to say that Jesus rose again and people started to say that oh we need to follow him and they need to live according to him and the t temple is no longer the most important thing the way of life is totally change and transform because of Jesus and for him the status quo is what he wants and so Saul started to wanted to do something about it in Saul's eyes Jesus is actually a person that he
cannot agree with there's no way he can agree with Jesus why the first one he's a Jew but violates the Torah and tradition on Sabbath he heals people he does things that don't follow the law and he says that he can forgive sins as a Jew everybody knows that only God can forgive sins and he says he can forgive sins he disrupts the temple uh not allowing people to actually do what's necessary number after that he taught others to have faith in him instead of following the Torah if all these things
were actually okay to be taught true to consider and said is it true or not maybe you can think about it that final thing actually really uh sealed it up when Jesus died on the cross it proved to him that this is a liar this is a person that we cannot follow why because in Deuteronomy it says if someone is guilty of a capital offense and is put to death and the body is exposed on the pole you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight be sure to bury it the same day because anyone who is hung
on a pole is under God's curse so Jesus is under God's curse he's a person that you know nobody believes in even the leaders don't believe in as well and now his followers are causing trouble and so Saul starts to persecute everyone and so from the first martyr in the Bible history over here Saul was actually there that is his most favorite thing to do until on the road of Damascus when he actually was trying to get letters to tell people to have the authority to actually imprison and res and arrest all
the believers of Jesus something happened on the road of Damascus he actually heard a voice saying "Saul Saul why do you persecute me?" And he asked "Who is it who are you Lord and and Jesus answered I am Jesus whom you are persecuting now get up and go to the city and you'll be told what you must do and from this point onwards his life totally changed he had no intention to change what he's doing but something happened when he saw Jesus when he saw the light his entire life changed and so this is where we reach today's first
part of the verse where he says I want you to know this is what Paul says saul's name changed from Saul to Paul as well and now he actually writes a letter to Galatians and say that I want you to know brothers and sisters that the gospel I preach is not of human origin i did not receive it from any man not Peter not James nor was I taught it rather I receive it by revelation from Jesus Christ paul says that the reason why I'm preaching the what I'm preaching is not something that I created it's not
something that after I met God I actually started to come up with some new things to teach you no what I'm teaching is actually not of human origin it's from God itself and so the Galatians were confused and saying that these Judaisers came to Galatia and say that don't follow Paul who is Paul he's actually nobody don't follow him and what his teaching may not be correct but what is Paul is trying to defend himself and say that no this is actually not from me this is all not from me in fact if you say that the apostles in
Jerusalem taught me about it Dr peter has shared this I think two weeks ago he actually hardly was in Jerusalem and from the day that actually started preaching the message has always been the same he was hardly in Jerusalem so if you wonder about the authenticity of the gospel our first point to the day if any of you wonder what the gospel is is something that God created and through Jesus Christ we got to know what the real gospel is now a lot of times if you meet non-Christians or for yourself you
wonder have you ever wondered you know this gospel that we are reading um is it true I've met uh friends who said that you know people just modify for their own sake for their own beliefs to use it for political power have you wondered before whether maybe somebody you know uh church elders are going modify all your Bible verses say that you must obey have you wonder such things whether the Bible is true or not there are many many things that you can use to find out uh this is a very quick summary of it
the Bible is actually written by more than 40 authors it's written over a span of 1,500 years and the message is always consistent if you look at this picture you see on the screen here this is actually how the Bible cross references from the start to the finish it means that on the left is actually Genesis on the right is Revelation if you read the Bible it always cross references and it doesn't have any conflict with one another there are hundreds of uh prophecies fulfilled but the most important thing why we know the Bible is
true is because of the resurrection of Jesus is because of the eyewitness testimony is because of people like Paul where once he meets Jesus the life totally transforms from a person that wants to kill people his hobby is to kill people but because he met Jesus yes and this is the transformational power of the gospel and if you see it if you use the Bible if you read the Bible you actually get wisdom you know how to live your life what's the right way to take care of family how to raise your children how to work how to run a
business from it you can learn a lot and help you in life as well so this is the authenticity of the gospel so our first point today is really that the authenticity of of the gospel but what is the gospel we went through this three weeks ago and this is what the gospel is for God so loved the world that he gave his only son whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life so I highlighted these five things for you guys last round number one it is grace you don't deserve it i don't
deserve it nobody deserves it number two is not cheap is not free we say salvation is free but it came with a cost is very expensive it was paid by Jesus jesus paid with his wife number three why did it happen it happened not because God just wanted to you know be uh be just is just being just but it is because of love you are made new and safe for relationship with God and his family and take not on what I shared the last round you're not safe to have a one- on-one relationship with God you're safe to have a relationship
with God and his family number four it is through faith the way you actually become a Christian the way you follow God is actually number one you just need to repent repent and accept it by faith number five it is victory it's all done really you no longer need to chase for different things jesus rose again living sin and death and so your identity everything that you have is assured already and God loves you and so this is what the gospel is about now that's the first point that we have today the authenticity of the
gospel the second point today we want to talk about is actually the adventure of the gospel when you become a Christian you're invited into adventure do you think so how many you think that you are in adventure now no life is boring no how how many you think that oh every day I'm so happy I woke up for you know it's an adventure with Jesus no it's not normal right you don't do that right but the gospel invites you to adventure in fact God calls each and every one of us to follow him and it is an adventure now
if you read verse 13 onward verse 24 it is actually a portrayal of Paul his life from meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus and what happened to him so if you read on the yellow is what Paul did it says over here for you have heard of my previous way of life i'm a Jew and I'm a reputable guy you know how intensely I persecuted the church i tried to destroy it his job was to destroy it he wasn't annihilated i was advancing in Judaism better than all my peers i'm number one you know I'm actually I'm really zealous for the
traditions of my fathers i was minding my own business as you see in yellow is actually all poor he was minding his own business but but something happened god decided to intervene god calls Paul just like God calls all of us today god calls Paul and set God who set him apart from his mother's womb called me by his grace and was pleased to reveal his son in me why so that I might preach him among the Gentiles and because of what God did his entire life turned upside down so a lot of times I just want to highlight one
item for you when you become a Christian you think that this is what happens to you you think so you read about self-help books you read about how a person transforms you see that this person was a caterpillar and after he read this book or after he met this mentor or this coach he became butterfly you think so so you were actually a caterpillar before you know God and after you got to come to FBC you became a butterfly beautiful you think this is correct the answer is no you know that is not the picture that the Bible gives
us we are not caterpillars becoming a butterfly a better example to give you is if you read Ephesians 2 you see what is being said over here as for you all of us here you were dead in your transgressions and sins number one you are dead you can't do anything really and you're dead okay you're not alive you're not a caterpillar you're dead at most you're dead caterpillar okay number two you are in your transgressions and sins which means that what you do is you're not a net positive in the world you know you're
net negative in the world which means that whatever you're doing you're causing trouble for the world so caterpillars got beneficial you know you know there's reason why with caterpillars you know to control the species the population all that god made caterpillar and God said it was good but when you read over here you dead in your transgressions and sins you are net negative what we do over here is not good for the world the way we use plastics the way we live our lives the way we pollute everything is not good we
gratify our cravings of our flesh we eat all we like we actually do a lot of different things we follow our own desires and thoughts we were by nature deserving of wrath which means that this caterpill dead caterpillar is supposed to be thrown away but because of his great love for us God who is rich in his mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions so you were dead and God made you alive and it's by grace you've been saved and so you see this adventure you're in a lot
of times you think we cap caterpillar that became a butterfly but the truth is maybe a closer depiction is we're like a dead rat you're not even alive you're dead and you're a rat that you know causing bacteria and it's just dirty and just it's not good to have this dead rat over there and this is what happened to you but when you were minding your own business being a date rat God decided to look at you and say that "Hey look at this date rat here." Um you know I love this date rat and you know what I do i
actually God came in intervene in your life resuscitate you and change you into an astronaut that maybe is a better depiction and I would say is actually not close to what really happens when sanctification fully happens you'll be way more than this but this shows you really what happens god is is actually inviting you to an adventure a lot of times when we become Christian we think that we the way we we say that you know I actually went to a a sermon or I went to church and I found that what he's
saying was very reasonable because it was very reasonable i decided to follow God i decided to become a Christian it's like I decided you know but you read the Bible verse I show you no Paul was minding his own business and suddenly God came in and did something and for all of us our experience may not be so dramatic that suddenly you see a light but when God comes in your life something happened you will always change your life will always change when you get to know Jesus this is what happened to Paul he was zealous for the
law climbing the ranks of Judaism he was doing all these things his life was predictable respectable and also comfortable similar to gospel 2.0 that I share with you all he had achievements he had a community where people respected him and his life was comfortable but you see the thing about him is when you look at him he was actually a terrible person i don't think he was very happy as well but once he got to know Christ this is what happened to him his life changed he was zealous for grace he know that he was chosen by
God's grace instead of making his own plans he started to wait on God his life became unpredictable he doesn't know what's going to happen next he doesn't plan god actually tells him what to do from time to time from being a respected person he became a rejected person and from being a comfortable having a comfortable life you know staying in your bungalow house you know having a nice car he went to decide to choose suffering now how did this happen and why did it happen because in his heart something
happened if you read the text it says that he was thoughtless in Philippians he said he's faultless righteousness-wise he was faultless in the eyes of his peers but once he actually got to know who God is and what Jesus Christ has done on the cross he realized that his identity is changed he realized what is reality the reality is he's now a sinner saved by grace and that itself causes his entire life to change his desires what he wants to do instead of choosing comfort he says that because God is coming the kingdom of
heaven is at hand and so it needs to be preached to the Gentiles as well and he says that this is what he he wants to do and goes to preach to the Gentiles that's what he saw his role to be so before if you see this God does this all the time there's always a before and after and all of us know the story of Joseph right such a nice boy and if you read the Bible all of us think that Joseph good guy right yes anyone thinks Joseph is a bad person the the ch the brothers are the bad ones right the brothers actually uh
threw him uh sold him to into slavery the brother's a bad one joseph is a good boy you think so yes read carefully answer is no you see what happened in 37 over here when he had a dream Joseph actually told his brothers "Listen," he said "I had another dream and this time the sun and moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me." Now when you read it you think that he's just curious oh yeah i don't know what happened yeah just like that you think he doesn't know what what it means he had another dream
before that and he knew what it meant really and this time he actually said it to actually spike his brothers to make his brothers actually angry he purpose say the better way of reading is "Hey listen i had another dream you know this time the sun and the moon and 11 stars of you bowing down to me or no that was Joseph he was a spoiled brat it was terrible he was a terrible person because why because his dad was not a good person didn't attend alpha and so actually this what happened to him his
dad spoiled him sire him too much give him a special code that nobody had pilas right and therefore cause all this problem happen and so a spoil and terrible but what happened but God decide again it's but but God decide to intervene through the trials and tribulations that Joseph was going through God was molding Joseph how does God mold Joseph let him attend some classes you know massage him talk to him nicely no God introduced circumstances in the Bible in his life for you to see but you read the entire Genesis you do
not hear what God did you just see circumstances circumstances circumstances happening but God is actively working and what God was really doing is to change Joseph into a man that saves people and this is the end of his life this is what he said to his brothers you intended to harm me i was terrible also but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being the saving of many lives and so when you look at the gospel I think today what we really realize is that the gospel is not something we
choose the gospel is something that happens to us the gospel is something happens to us and when the gospel happens to you when God calls you he doesn't call you to remain the same he transforms you all the time your life will never be the same after that a lot of times when we read again uh a lot of us you know maybe you're a bit more intelligent you're more learned you think that again you know it's enlightenment becoming a Christian is a enlightenment you know I get to know how it is like metrics the
blue peel red pill you take the red you take the correct pill you actually know oh the world is totally different you see differently but becoming a Christian when you follow Jesus a better way of seeing it actually is it's not that it's not that you're enlightened it's that you felt God's love that when you became Christian is because God touched you and you got to know that the maker of heaven and earth decided to die for you and so this is what Tim Keller says we got to know that you are more sinful than you
could dare imagine and you're more loved and accepted than you could ever dare hope this is what anchors every single believer from the minute that you become a Christian this is what really drives us and helps us to change and transform i shared to you about Anne David previously if you look at his life the same thing happens he was going to jail three times but God interveneed god met him in jail during the third time he was 50 plus and when he was 52 years old in jail God met him and changed his entire
life so he actually changed his wife accepted him and from there they started Agabe call center which I shared with you two weeks ago uh which has uh employed more than 600 employees i'm not sure whether I share the details to you but why I think this is so amazing is when you become a Christian you don't just say that oh you know now I become Christian I earn a lot of money I earn a lot of money I give you to church no so does it mean that God cannot use your business does it mean that God doesn't
care about what you do in your marketplace no god can redeem everything you have every single engagement relationship you have can be redeemed by god and so in anu's case when agapier was created together D Kim Tan what happened is it became a place where redemption and relationships can be restored when you hire a prisoner in a call center to make calls a few things happen number one the prisoner gets paid but when the prisoner gets paid he got nowhere to spend and this prisoner normally for example if this is his
father what happen is outside the wife would be struggling so now when you actually pay the father the father can now send money home so the first time in the in their life they said hey this person outside prison and don't send money home now they send money home even though they're in prison because of that relationships get restored and after relationship gets restored there's also one more thing which is the reoffending rate in Singapore reduces normally prisoners when they come out it's very
hard to get a job so within 5 years they go back to jail again but because of agapee prisoners get a job after they leave the prison and so the reoffending rate reduces as well so God actually invites all of us in adventure to change what we do it may be big it may be small in your eyes but in God's eyes they all important i want to share a few other stories with you to let you know uh recently I uh went to uh Indonesia uh Jakata with my wife it was supposed to be a couple trip we my wife decided to
say that every year we must have a couple trip so I must say yes so so we I thought you know let's go okay let's go together uh but we actually decided to join uh accomplish uh it is actually organization whereby it's a marketplace uh ministry where a lot of Christians from different churches come together and they want to learn how to follow God and how to bring God to work every day so I went to Jakata with all of them and we also got to know over there how God changes lives this is actually Parkeru
and Ibuswan on on the on your left that's a Noel the CEO of accomplish so we went to visit Dapo Solo it's actually a uh FnB restaurant in Indonesia i think they have close to 55 outlets currently and we learn about how they live their lives but as a Christian what happens is you don't run your business like normal what this person does is they are able to empower the staff guide their staff through proper Christian values as well to guide them so that the staff change the staff remains as Muslim as you see over here
however this person was actually at first a cleaner i think a dishwasher or cleaner but from a dishwasher and cleaner it becames a outlet manager running many many outlets so the transformation that you do is amazing when you have God together with you when you say that you don't want to live a life of just following norm again and however if you look at it the journey of following Jesus is never easy it's never easy you look at Paul over here this is what he went through he suffered for Christ he was imprisoned
and flocked he was exposed to death he was lashed many times beaten with rods thrown by stones a few times people thought he was dead but because there's no CPR they actually he managed to escape he was actually in open sea he's danger from his own people from Jews from Gentiles he's danger he has danger everywhere and he doesn't have enough sleep as well and this is the life of Paul so you know understand this journey that God invites you on is not a journey where you're on you know first class
flight then business class yeah the d the economy no sometimes really bad things happen to you so when you follow God it's not always a bed of roses it is adventure but it's not always a bit of roses and for all of us here does this happen to you as well whereby you people tell you no very good uh become a become Christian now once you become Christian now your life become good and when you hear a testimony tell you one last time I was not Christian my my life very difficult I cannot get a job once I become
Christian my life change become better but that's not true that's not the full gospel you understand the true gospel promise you an adventure but adventure is not always a bit of roses but there's a reason at the end we talk about it but all of us here we go through many different things maybe you have family issues maybe you have health issues like you Uh Joshua over there is very sad to hear that as well a young boy already having uh problems in his uh body he may have career issues maybe you get
retrenched with AI i can assure you many things are going to happen the world is going to change whether you like it or not many things are going to change the most recent one is this studio Gibli i think all of you saw it before already this cartoonist that's so famous with all his cartoons suddenly now he's devastated why because now everybody can create the same cartoon as him because of AI then how so we if you're not going through pain yet I wish you don't go through pain as well but on short in
short life is never a pain B of roses we expect that when you become a Christian your life keeps on soaring up it becomes more and more comfortable more and more achievements we think so but that's not how it really happens and if you are living alone and if you are not in a community this happens to you as well so you read Chinese that is you in the middle and when you have problem and when you're poor you run to your family your friends your colleagues nobody want to go near to you because you got
problem you're from far and sometimes maybe in church you tell them they got problem they tell you what they can I help you much they say okay I pray for you I pray for you that's the best answer they give you yeah I pray for you and so it's not easy right and you say that you know I follow Jesus why all this happened to me why all this happened to me but I want to share with you that in this adventure of faith they're going through right it's not meant to be like that yes there will be pain there will be challenges but if you
read carefully in the Bible this journey of faith they're going through is not an individual solo journey of faith is a shared journey of faith you can see it from in the Bible from the start all the way it always happens Genesis 1:27 when God created heaven and earth it says over here God created mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them male and female he created them which means that when we actually follow God when we actually when God created mankind he didn't create you to be
individual you know can see in the image of God it's actually reflected in both male and female so we are meant to be actually in community you're not you're you're not complete without everybody together you need to be in the church you need to be in the community of Christ in Romans 12 the same thing it say you see over here it says that in Christ though many form one body each member belongs to all the others it changes the entire viewpoint whereby other people belong to you and you belong to other people you're meant
to have a journey of faith toward people not alone and if you look at all this why Paul could actually endure it if you read it carefully you realize that Paul was not alone you know you read it he's the only one talking but do you know how many people were together with him his journey after he became a Christian was not alone he had Barnabas with him he had Ananas who actually came to pray for him and all these people different places different people will be him so God did not meant for you to have this
journey and this adventure alone you look at it this after Hassan Taylor went to Cambridge these seven people decided to go to China to serve together and because they were not alone because they serve together and they don't do things alone you see that even city can write this very inspiring quote here don't want to live within the sound of of church or chapel bell I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell but friends I tell you that if you want to become a Christian if you really love
God and I think along among us here there are many of you who love God you know you are serious you're serious in your walk you you're serious to want to know how to serve God better I want to submit to you one of the biggest lies the devil gives to us is that you're supposed to do this alone because you're not supposed to do this alone you're supposed to live together with people because the work of serving God in whatever capacity whatever you're doing is too hard to do alone is too big is too immense is too difficult to do alone
it's too difficult and so God made us for each other to serve and to walk together william Wilberforce this is a name that we all know but do you know that William Vforce had this clappam sack it's a place in England whereby these people actually were working together with him for the abolition of slavery nobody works alone and so I don't work alone as well I've been attending uh mentoring groups we will for more than seven eight years we have our CIA group over here to serve together to to actually journey together
in life as So this is what we do because I can promise you I can assure you if not for my wife my family and all these people I cannot stand here there's no way preaching is too hard seriously too hard but it's because of people around that support therefore things can happen for example when I got problem and give a Dr a call yesterday at 6:00 something or 7 something at night he just answer and question is busy but there's always support there's always support question to you is do you have support you became a Christian and you
follow Christ and you love God but have you bought into the devil's lies whereby you are all alone nobody is here to help you do you have support and the answer is you are meant to have support there are people out there to be with you and for you to support each other so currently in ABC we're trying to because of this need that we see the elders say that there's a need you see in church right you have your life groups to support you in your family in your personal walk for you to know the Bible more for you to know God more but
if you see your life 24 hours a day half of your awaking hours are actually at the workplace you're working you're trying to do you're trying to find out how to do payroll how to set the e invoice is coming you know there's so much different thing then if you talk of hi there's EIS there's EPF there's so there's so many different things and the government gives you more and more tax all the time and there's all these different challenges happening and your staff want to quit want to go to Singapore to work i can continue on and
on with you but you get the idea and for those of you who are working you wonder about promotion you know I want promotion but I don't get promotion my boss promised me 20% but at the end of the year he said that yes you hit the target but you know Donald Trump become a president so we promotion increment only 3% only so what do you do we have support do somebody to actually help you to go through all this and so because of this ABC decided to say that we want to try to start a workplace ministry whereby
not just your non-working hours but your working hours can be ministered to by people together and so as we are looking to do this we decided to say that let's not reinvent the wheel let's try and say there's upcoming conference by accomplish uh that's happening in May and we like to invite everybody if you're working it doesn't matter where you're running a business if you're executive you are manager you are just starting work it doesn't matter whoever you are we want to invite you to say that let's consider going for this
conference together okay if I can invite Misha to help me just uh play the Yep [Music] [Applause] [Music] ladies and gentlemen we [Music] ever Okay so the session is happening in May uh third and fourth there's a booth later outside if you're interested do come and take a look but remember this question I ask you do you have support are you trying to walk this journey of faith alone so I try to encourage you to come and take a look at it at the same time in accomplish over here the speakers are having a bunch of people
there are people from Indonesia they are locals as well these are all leaders in their different industries and they all have the same goal they want to serve God and so they share with you their story of how they serve where they can so you can get inspiration to know how to actually do all these items as well so in this uh so they have many different events one of these is actually the Jakata trip that event so this event that we're talking about the conference is going to be in K not Jakata no need fly one okay just go to
Pong only that's there but you are connected to community when we went to Indonesia we went to went to meet the Indonesian Christians over there it was amazing when we get to go and worship in Indonesia where you see non-Chinese worshiing together it was such an inspiration to know that you know at the end of the day every tribe and tongue we worship together and but why I really encourage all of you to go is because you don't know what you know you don't sorry you don't know what you don't know not
sipping enough okay you don't know what you don't know but when you go over there and learn and listen to other people you're exposing your mind to different things so we listen to uh Yonatan over here sharing about Trinity Optima production what they do is that in the music industry and so in the music industry you make songs but the songs that you listen online a lot of times may not have good values right so how do you do it as a Christian so I sharing about it we actually went to double solo to
see how they run the business as I share with you earlier and I shared this with you already but a lot of these different events and the idea is when you plug in community you get to see a lot of different things and even the Indonesians over there were more than happy to come and spend the time to serve us and it doesn't make sense when they don't get anything out of it but they're just here to serve they're just here to journey with you to help you to go through this and so at this point here I like to invite uh my wife Sonia
to come on stage uh actually the reason why I got to know accomplish is because of her she's been attendees for a few years really so I wanted to uh ask her to come on stage so that um we can have uh have a conversation and have a chat so you understand what accomplish is about can you test and see this work try and see okay hi everyone okay try and see hi everyone okay sorry because the mic was actually off so I wasn't really sure uh yeah okay so can you tell us a bit about yourself okay um hi everyone i'm Sonia wife of
John um mother of um two children um I co-own two businesses together with John uh we run um good institute which is a real estate training company um helping people to get their real estate license and we also um have an IT company which is called caction um this company actually provides operations management systems to manage um operations in a business uh so that they can be more efficient um besides that I'm an accomplished member for um about two over years okay so maybe son you're so busy i know how busy you
are it's very very busy yeah so your kids to take care you know you got the house to deal with you got work to deal with you go for life group some more why you still want to and you want to take care of me some more you know I'm not easy to deal with very hard to manage so why you still want to go for accomplish um why um because accomplish actually it's um a workplace um community um where I can um get to know other people in the workplace um it's also a place that um I feel very supported i'm able
to share um deeply about my challenges in the workplace also my successes uh and then there are people who are supporting me and um um yeah there are things that sometimes I I can't even talk to John but then I can I can share with um my group members uh besides that um the learning um events are so helpful to me because I get to see marketplace leaders um both locally and even internationally who share about like how they um um implement or or um God's values in their company in a very real way yeah so it's not just like a pastor
telling you um about spirituality but we actually get to see uh faith in action um yeah okay so but if I say I'm doing well in my work you know um I'm okay or then why do you need to attend accomplish then what would be good for me to actually attend accomplish if I'm doing okay already [Laughter] if you're doing okay already [Music] um well you you have you you have a community there to to support you um and um that is really um in invaluable yeah okay you know you are actually running business for for a while is it
easy to be a Christian and you know be an employer when your staff don't deal with you they got problem they don't perform then how you do them when Jesus loves you I fire you like that or what you do yeah so um in in in our company um I I guess it's normal in every single company um that there are challenges yeah so there are also people who sometimes like they say that um they don't enjoy the work that they do um yeah so we have people who come in as salespeople and then suddenly they realize that they don't like to do sales
so what do we do um we we try to see what are their strengths and then we place them in different departments uh according to their strength and then we find that they really uh thrive there yeah we we also have um people who come with um financial problems or um even their life issues um we talk to them we support them um and in the end they are so um they are so thankful their their lives are changed and um we are so happy to see um see how um their lives have um um been changed and they have been with
us for many many years i believe that um on the plus side for us also uh happy employees um become more productive employees yeah so then um at the end is a win-win for everyone yeah okay do you think that you know being a Christian being one single person can really make a difference um definitely um if every one of us um take that um that step to like u make a difference wherever we are um sooner or later like you know the whole community um can can be changed like um myself and John um in our small little business um
we can make a difference in the lives of um the our team members our customers um and um also um the community um yeah so for example in our training business um like we try to share about um the good ethics good values um how do you do real estate in a more ethical way um so in in that way we hope that um we'll be able to um transform the real estate industry to be more um ethical yeah so for um for the IT um there we uh try to um you know always talk about um values and um you know improving um business is not about
um profitability only um but um also in how you impact the lives of others yeah okay thank you so much thank you John right yeah i just give you a h Okay okay yeah uh it's a Yeah yeah thanks it's a joy for me to have uh Sonia with me because we hardly serve together actually we're serving together you don't see only the reason why I can be here is because of her every single time so yeah it's just a joy to have her here and so men you know you you don't know you think that you know everything but a
lot of times I listen to your wife or so so the reason why I got to know comic is because of her so there's this uh upcoming conference uh because of time reasons I won't go through all details can come over and understand it more um for it so perhaps a few highlights of things for you to know it's happening on third and fourth March if you've never attended any Christian marketplace events before I strongly encourage you come come for this the original price is 1,400 ringgit okay you get all these
speakers you have meals for for the two days as well but at a very special price because you're from FBC Accomplish loves you you know because of that is discounted to 833 per person so come and register later just outside and you have more you want more information can ask later as well the final point that we have today is the glory of the gospel when I actually got this point got this uh passage from brother Peter right i actually found it a bit hard to go through why because it says the glory of the gospel it's like
everybody wants glory you go also want glory god so self-centered want people to praise him what is this glory of the gospel but if you really understand why should we glorify God if you see over here in verse 24 it says and they praise God because of me and they praise God because of me now when you actually serve God people see your life change they actually give glory to God instead of you but why should we glorify God why should we do so the reason is because God is the only unselfish being in the
world and when you praise him and you glorify him it actually serves everyone it's actually meant for it to happen let me explain to to you this way i think it's a term important for us to know glory for us means pride means arrogance means attention but glory in the eyes of God the reason why you glorify God is like why all the planets want to re evolve around the sun what happens if the sun say don't be so I'm not so self-centered when you go away earth go far far away what happens to all of us
we die right so because you are meant to evolve around the sun planets are meant to evolve around to to revolve around to actually get the heat and everything you need as well so the same goes for us we need God when we glorify God when we acknowledge him when we obey him life becomes better life gets to go back to how is meant to be how it was designed to be by God and God's glor is for our good as I share with you just now I won't go go through too much already when you serve God in all your capacity
and when you obey God and you bring God to your work or to your family things change people can see you're different and to me that's the main goal why I do business as well so people can see why you're different and one day I hope people ask why are you different when and then you can tell people oh I do things this way because I know Jesus and that is when you have open door to share more about Christ otherwise there's no reason why you do business you earn more money yes it's helpful but the main
thing is can we use what we have wherever we are to glorify I I want to share with you that committee is such an amazing thing that and if you go on any events how often do you see two guys actually like this this is actually parted and Peru one speaks English very well one still prefers to speak in Indonesian but they actually help each other in their journey in everything they do and that is a brotherhood that you don't see many different places the reason I actually thought accomplish is just for you know just go there go for a
camp and come back that's it but when I saw these pictures when I saw them having this there something is happening the spirit of God is moving and therefore it's trying to get you to go Together we learn about how to do business better but at the same time when God's spirit is there you see something different this guy is showing number four you know why he said "Last time I had five shopping malls after that four of them closed down." Okay and after that nothing that's his that his story you never see
anyone you go to any business circle people will toot their horns and say how amazing they are how accomplished they are nobody will come and tell you that last time I have five more now I have four no more know that's the end of the story so he shares with you say that now he feels better he's trying to serve God where he is and things happen it's difficult but he continue serving and that is authenticity that's really I share with you that you don't want to go for outside events where every the body
just tell all the good things happens to them but the deep difficult things cannot share but we want to have a workplace ministry whereby can all serve together even in your life groups you can really share in your life what's happening and you can journey together because when people can really see you who you are you can serve together much better and why do we do all this the reason why we do all of this is because God is worthy of all glory you see we do this because not because we want to become
famous but because what Jesus did for us first because he died on the cross for us because of the grace he given to us we don't deserve any of this but because of what he did we can be sons and daughters of God it is costly jesus paid the ultimate price with his life and so with all these different things I can if I can invite worship team up on stage with all this costly with this cost he paid with the love that he has actually lavished on us as well we can say that we can go through suffering as well life
that we envision is not necessarily a bit of roses we know but we can power through we can continue serving God where we are why because of what God has done for us and whenever you find that you can't do it you look at the cross and whatever because what he has done for us because of his sacrifice for us we can say that we can and when we fail we know that ultimately he is always victorious that God has already conquered all and one day it will always be good at the end of the day and because of all this that we have we have
the faith and the courage to say that we'll love others even though we don't get anything in return so friends if I can end today we talk about God's glory god wants to invite you to an adventure and and as you follow his adventure and you put him first and you glorify him in your everyday life your life will change god didn't meant you to be the same as where you are now whether you're retired whether you are working whether you're studying your life is meant to be different change is supposed to happen so I
strongly encourage you to think about this and say that God I've known you for a while and now we're in Q4 starting already sorry in Q2 starting already the reason why I'm actually having so many errors today is I'm not sleeping enough um but I want to share with you that God is good god is good no matter what difficulty we go through and being bio vocational is not easy but we still do it why because of what God has done for us because God loves us and so because of that we can do it and we don't do it alone we do our
brothers and sisters with this I pass the time over to our worship team want to come to you and say Lord we thank you for today's word that we know Lord that the gospel is authentic gospel is transformational that Lord when we get to know you Lord you do not want us to remain the same and Lord is not that we chose you but you chose us Lord that Lord when while we still sinners Lord you died for us and you chose us and you number the hairs that we have even when we were in our mother's womb Lord you
have a plan for all our lives Lord and Lord in this plan that you have it was never meant that we were to leave our lives alone Lord Lord you've you have the body of Christ for us you have brothers and sisters to serve together to journey together in life we want to thank you for all that you've done for us and Lord we want to say that we want to just give all glory back to you because you're worthy of it Lord because as we follow you as we obey you Lord you deserve all the glory but as we do it Lord you are
the most unself that you are the only unselfish being in the world that Lord when we love you we actually benefit and when we put you at center we are the ones who actually thrive we are the ones who flourish this is not the main intention why you do it but Lord you you are love Lord you are love and because you are love everything that you have planned for us is always for our good even when we don't see it even in the pains and suffering and trials that we have Lord we know for a fact that the reason why
we actually can live we can serve you and why you let us go through sufferings is not because you want us to go through pain but because you want to mold us Lord you want to mold us into more and more like you Lord to be like you on the day that we see you lord we pray that you continue to use Holy Spirit to guide us to transform us and through the brothers and sisters and people that we go through Lord that Lord help us to change Lord to be obedient to change our lives for your glory we thank you for
this Lord in Jesus name we pray amen now receive the benediction i've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me the life I now live in the body i live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me go forth living by faith in the power of Christ who dwells in you amen so this is over i'm wishing you a good Sunday
