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00:00 things and just just ask him to continue to ask us for his blessings and to
00:06 continue to anoint us with his holy spirit. Let's just take this moment right now to sing this song uh 10,000
00:13 reasons. [Music]
00:28 Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul,
00:35 oh my soul. Worship his holy
00:41 name. Sing like never. Sing like never
00:46 before. Oh my soul,
00:52 I worship your holy name.
00:57 [Music] The sun comes up. It's a new day. Dawn,
01:08 it's time. It's time to sing your song
01:14 again. Whatever
01:19 and whatever lies before me. Let me be singing.
01:25 Let me hear singing and evening.
01:34 Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
01:40 Oh my soul, worship his holy
01:46 name. Sing like never. Sing like never
01:51 before. Oh my soul
01:56 for I worship your holy name
02:02 [Music] and worship in love and your soul to
02:12 hang. Your name is plain and your heart is
02:18 kind. For all your goodness I will keep on
02:26 singing. 10,000 reasons for my heart to
02:38 bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
02:44 Oh my soul, worship his holy
02:50 name. Sing like never. Sing like never
02:56 before. Oh my soul, I worship your holy name.
03:05 [Music] And on that day, And on that day, when
03:14 my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come.
03:25 Still my soul will sing your praise.
03:30 ending 10,000
03:36 forever more. Forever more.
03:44 Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh my soul,
03:52 worship his holy name.
03:58 like never before. Oh my soul,
04:05 I worship your holy name. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my
04:13 soul. Oh my soul,
04:18 worship his holy name. Sing like never. Sing like never
04:26 before. Oh my soul, I worship your holy
04:34 name. Worship your holy
04:41 name. Oh yes, I worship your holy
04:47 name. [Music]
04:59 [Music]
05:09 Get your hands together. [Music]
05:20 Here you go. Give thanks to the Lord our guard and king. His love is love angels
05:27 forever. For he too he is above all things. His
05:33 love is love angels forever. Sing praise. Sing praise.
05:41 Sing praise your mighty hands and operation.
05:49 His love endures forever. For the life that's been reborn
05:58 and yours forever. Sing praise. Sing praise.
06:04 Sing praise. Sing praise.
06:12 Sing praise. Forever. God is faithful
06:20 forever. God is strong forever. God is with us forever.
06:30 Forever forever. God is faithful
06:35 forever. God is strong forever. God is with us forever
06:45 and ever. Forever
06:53 from the rising from the rising to the setting sun. We love angels forever.
07:02 By the grace of God we will carry on. Love angels forever. Sing praise. Sing
07:10 praise. Sing praise. Sing praise praise.
07:22 Sing praise. Forever. God is faithful.
07:29 Forever. God is strong. Forever. God is with us. Forever
07:39 and ever. Forever. Forever. God is faithful.
07:44 Forever God is. Forever God is with us. Forever.
07:54 Forever. Forever. [Music]
08:02 His love. His love endures forever.
08:08 His love endures forever. You serve angels forever.
08:15 His love angels forever. Angels forever.
08:23 His love angels forever. Be praised. Being praised.
08:29 [Music]
08:38 We praise forever. God is faithful.
08:46 Forever God is strong. Forever God is with us. Forever
08:55 and ever. Forever. Forever. God is with us. Forever. God is strong
09:05 forever. God is with us forever
09:10 and ever. Forever. [Music]
09:27 Today's responsive reading is taken from the book of Psalms chapter 16
09:33 9-11. Church, please read it with me together. Therefore, my heart is glad and my
09:40 tongue rejoices. My body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me
09:47 to the realm of the dead. Nor will you let your faithful ones see decay.
09:52 You make known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your
09:58 presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Amen.
10:06 Our God is a beautiful savior. Our God is a God of all majesty.
10:13 And we know that today he is the risen king. Let's just take this moment to take this opportunity to praise and to
10:19 worship. We may to know that Jesus is a beautiful savior.
10:37 Jesus, Jesus,
10:43 beautiful savior, God of all majesty,
10:52 risen and king. Lamb of God, Lamb of God,
11:02 holy and rightuous, blessed redeemer,
11:11 bright morning star, all the heavens,
11:17 all the heavens shout your praise.
11:26 All creation bow to worship
11:33 you. How wonder, how wonderful,
11:40 how beautiful name above every
11:47 name. Exalted high,
11:54 how wonderful, how beautiful.
12:03 Jesus your name [Music] above everything.
12:12 Jesus, [Music]
12:20 Jesus, Jesus.
12:25 Beautiful Savior, God of all majesty,
12:35 reason. [Music]
12:44 Holy and rightuous as a redeemer
12:53 my morning star. Holy heavens, all the heavens
13:00 shout your praise. Oh, all creation
13:09 comes to us.
13:15 How wonderful. How good
13:24 of a living [Music]
13:41 Jesus are We above everything.
13:49 Jesus. [Music]
13:58 I will sing. I will sing for heaven.
14:08 Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love
14:16 you. I will sing forever.
14:26 Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love
14:34 you. I wonder [Music]
14:44 about [Music] my
14:51 high [Applause] [Music]
15:01 Jesus your [Music] above everything.
15:10 Jesus. [Music]
15:18 Jesus. Jesus.
15:24 Beautiful savior.
15:29 Jesus beautiful savior.
15:39 Jesus beautiful savior.
15:46 Last time Jesus
15:52 beautiful savior.
15:58 Do offering. [Music] [Applause]
16:05 [Music]
16:26 Standing in awe of your grace. Setting my feet in your ways.
16:36 entering into your presence to behold you face to face.
16:44 [Music] God of all heaven and earth,
16:51 holding me in your embrace, unfailing love that surrounds me.
16:60 Oh God, I stand. [Music]
17:06 My Jesus, my Lord, you're the love of my life.
17:13 Wherever you go, I'll be by your side.
17:19 No longer I Christ living in me,
17:25 serving you for all eternity.
17:31 My eyes set on you in this race that I run.
17:37 No longer my way. Let your will be done.
17:44 Make me a son. My heart's ever true.
17:50 King to the cross. I'll follow you. I
17:56 follow you.
18:01 Standing in all, standing in all of your grace,
18:10 setting my feet in your face
18:16 and to bring into your presence,
18:21 to behold you face to
18:28 God of all heaven and earth,
18:34 holding me in your embrace.
18:40 Unfailing love that surrounds me.
18:46 Oh God, I serve
18:51 Jesus my Lord. You're the love of my life.
18:57 Wherever you go, I'll be by your side.
19:03 No longer why Christ living in me,
19:10 serving you for all eternity.
19:15 My eyes on you in this place that I rise.
19:21 How long could I wait? Let your will be done.
19:28 Make me a sering [Music]
19:34 to the cross of my Jesus my Lord.
19:39 My Jesus my Lord. You're the love of my life.
19:46 Wherever you go, mine will be by your side.
19:52 No longer I Christ living in me,
19:58 serving you for all eternity.
20:04 My eyes set on you in this race that I ride.
20:11 Walk through my way. Let your will be done.
20:17 Make me a ser. My heart.
20:23 Take me to the cross. I'll follow you. I
20:29 follow you. [Music]
20:35 Bless you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Can Can I invite the ashes to the
20:43 collect the tithes and offerings?
20:53 Let us take some moment to spend time praying for the tithes and offerings that's going to be taken in the book of Malaki chapter 3 10. It
21:01 says, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove me now herewith,
21:07 says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour
21:13 you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Let's
21:19 take this moment to spend time in prayer for the titan offerings. Our gracious God and loving father, we want to thank you for each and every cheerful giver.
21:26 Lord, that the tithes and offerings taken will be used for the extension of your kingdom and for the gospel of Jesus
21:32 Christ to be spread among your people. Lord, we want to commit each and every one of ourselves into your hands. Lord,
21:37 as we give that you pray, we pray that you'll allow every cheerful giver to give right through their hearts. You
21:45 commit each and everyone into your hands. In Jesus name we ask and we pray. Amen.
22:10 The blue backs is for going to be for missions and the red back is for general offering.
22:17 [Music]
24:54 Let's try to sing the doxology.
24:60 Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
25:07 Praise him all creatures here below.
25:13 Praise him above the heavenly host.
25:20 Praise father, son, and holy ghost.
25:28 Amen. You may be seated.
25:35 Morning
25:48 church. Okay, good to see all of us back in the house of the Lord. We're going to take some time to welcome newcomers in our
25:55 midst today. Do we have any newcomers in our midst? Can we have a show of hands?
26:03 Anyone new? Oh, right there. Good.
26:09 Good. Anyone else come and join us at the uh uh Globe Cafe after the um
26:16 service? Couple of announcements. Uh oh, before that we ought to welcome each
26:22 other. Come, let's stand up and uh just spend three minutes saying hello.
26:54 Okay. Uh VBS volunteer training. We had one yesterday. Great turnout. Uh we expect
27:02 one more on Saturday 2 to 5. We'll learn about the uh truths about the
27:07 resurrections and how to defend that. Uh so remember that alpha course uh will be
27:13 starting its second lesson uh this coming Wednesday. We had more than like 45 people at uh Alpha which is
27:20 fantastic. Praise the Lord. So uh uh continue to pray with us for the people who attend Alpha that the Lord will
27:27 really strengthen their faith and for those who don't know him yet and who seek him the Lord will speak to them. So
27:33 uh and those of you it's not too late if you want to join Alpha. It starts at 7:15 p.m. every Wednesday. We also had
27:40 the gamma class. We did Mark chapter 1 up to uh verse 15. We'll be continuing
27:45 16 to 45 in the coming Wednesday. It's not too late for some of you who want to join. Please join. We had a great crowd.
27:51 I think almost 50 people came and then we've divided up into the various groups for discussion after the lesson. So
27:58 please come and join us at 7:15 uh dinner and then we'll break off into the
28:03 classes at the uh youth hall. This is a snapshot of the First Baptist
28:10 Church Education Center. We want to praise God. We started this uh
28:15 homeschooling with Christian values. We started off um on in January this year.
28:21 We leel in as the principal. That's her talking to one of the kids. It's held upstairs. Uh and in the space of eight
28:29 months, we've I think come up to about 17 kids. And uh next year we're projecting two classrooms already. So
28:35 the Lord's been blessing. They recently had a convention in Sabah uh where they participated in
28:42 sports and various activities. Um and we
28:48 did pretty well. You know, some folk got seven medals and six medals and five medals and four medals. So, uh like you
28:55 to remember them in prayer uh as this group continues to grow and we all
28:60 they're looking for people to uh for teachers or volunteers to teach them the kids uh video or multimedia web design.
29:07 So if any of you have those requisite skills, you could volunteer and basically invest in these young folk who
29:14 come and uh join us. All right. Um corners today for some of you who are
29:19 culinary uh uh enthusiasts, please come. Uh it's at 2:00 you learn to cook tang
29:25 po and Amar's pork chops. Okay. So that's always well attended. We got a
29:30 lot of non-Christians. So, so it's good to have you guys there to make friends and and and make the connection with
29:36 them. Boys Brigade Sunday next week. There'll be a special offering for them to fund their activities. Now, but some
29:44 of you have been complaining incessantly because there's no website to download the sermons and all that. So, we have an
29:52 emergency website up, www. nivm mass. Okay, remember the word. You want to
29:57 copy down your in your webs in your uh in your headphones. This is nivmas.com
30:06 forwardf. So if you click on the sermon part, the the rest of the website doesn't work.
30:14 Okay? It only works for the sermon. All right? It's just an emergency website.
30:19 And then you go down there uh and then you click on to download or to listen. So just remember www.
30:27 nivmass.com.fbc. Okay. Now, this morning
30:35 we are going to have a special speaker. Um, Matthew Mo, can you stand up?
30:43 [Applause] Thanks.
30:50 um he's doing his masters of uh theology uh Christian studies with us as a as a
30:58 intern pastor and I reckon in about two years he'll be a fullyfledged pastor ministering to us and we in this church
31:05 need to invest in young people because they're going to be leading this church into the future. So whenever they preach
31:11 prepared they feel like the earth is going to open up and swallow them and they die. That's how I feel every Sunday
31:16 anyway. So, and he and he happened to get sick, right? You know, with sinusitis and all that this this
31:22 weekend. So, I'm sure he's fear and trembling. So, when he's preaching to you afterwards, uh, smile.
31:29 He makes a joke. Laugh. Not funny. So, never mind.
31:35 All right. It really helps the young folk as they And don't complain to me. Think please. Everybody has to start off
31:42 with the License, right? Okay. And then we invest in our young people. He's going to be uh preaching to you at least
31:48 once a quarter. Uh and if he does well, we'll increase that. So, we'll just pray for him as he steps onto the podium
31:53 afterwards. Okay. Over to pastor. Uh who's doing the prayer? Uh pastor Moy. Okay.
32:08 Diana, can you roll it out, please?
32:20 Diana.
33:06 It marks a significant moment for someone's
33:11 um birthday. [Applause]
33:23 So, can we have you up here, please?
33:46 Okay. [Music] Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to
33:56 you. Happy birthday to Dr. Peter.
34:01 Happy birthday to you.
34:08 May the good Lord bless you and God bless and keep you.
34:32 Thank you.
34:49 I asked Dr. Peter to come up. We'll pray for Dr. Peter in his ministry. you know
34:55 the is the way that he has led the church we want to praise God let let's
34:60 pray for him let us stand together and uh just raise your lead out your hand
35:05 unto him we want to praise God almighty God we want to thank you as a
35:13 church as the body of believers and Dr. Peter's extended family. We celebrate
35:21 his birthday today which even it falls on Tuesday. We want to thank you. We can
35:28 acknowledge this Lord. We want to thank you for your blessings and your goodness
35:33 upon him. Father as he continue to seek you for wisdom in directing of the
35:39 church. We ask Lord that you will speak to him in a very special way. And we
35:45 pray for good health for him, for his family, that your love will continue to
35:50 abound in him and directing the family Lord that they will be a channel of
35:57 blessings to all those that they come in contact. So we want to thank you for
36:03 your goodness and your blessing to us for putting him in our midst. So we
36:09 commit him the days ahead and ask this in the precious name of our Lord Jesus
36:14 Christ. Amen.
36:34 And as a family again I ask you to stand with me. uh because I I find is uh very
36:40 appropriate we stand before God as we want to commit the prayer points before
36:45 him and to acknowledge of his presence and all before us. So as I read a
36:52 portion of scripture taken from Micah 7 18-20
36:58 or he says who is a God like you
37:04 removing iniquity and passing over rebellion for the remnants of his
37:09 inheritance. He does not hold on to his anger forever
37:16 because he delights in faithful love. He will again have compassion on us. He
37:23 will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the
37:29 depths of the sea. You will show loyalty to Jacob and faithful love to Abraham as
37:36 you have sworn to our fathers from days long ago.
37:44 Let us pray. Our God and heavenly father,
37:52 in you, oh Lord, there is no falsehood. In you truly, Father, there's
38:01 goodness and faithfulness. You are always there from the beginning
38:07 and until today that you are so genuine in your love for us.
38:15 Lord, in the words of prophet Micah, the heart of your care for us is the
38:21 miracle of grace, your mercy and compassion towards us, a
38:28 sinful people. And we thank you for your divine forgiveness to us.
38:35 And Lord, together as a family, we know that means as a forgiving, forgiven people,
38:44 there is hope in believing in you.
38:49 And may we not take this lightly and continue to persevere in your word and
38:56 teaching to us while it is found in the days of
39:02 uncertainty. Lord, you desire us to act justly, to
39:08 love faithfulness, and walk humbly. And in the days ahead, we pray, oh Lord,
39:15 that you will shape and mold us to become a people who love Lord Jesus
39:22 and portray him in our walk.
39:28 Father, even as we look at our nation,
39:33 sometimes we ask this question. Can this nation be saved from its moral decline?
39:43 Lord, we see there's a great tendency of callousness, of seeing the total well-being of all
39:49 citizen. But father as a church we want to pray
39:54 for everyone for those in authority for wisdom in all aspects of administration
40:02 of this nation so that our lives we may lead a life of tranquil and quiet life
40:09 in all godliness and dignity.
40:15 May we look up to you for this nation and we want to also Lord to commit
40:21 before you the areas of the world that's inflicted with diseases
40:26 as well as those going through persecution in the world of that are suffering from
40:33 cruelty and persecution sickness. Lord may you envelop the loved one
40:41 with your love and compassion towards them. And we continue to pray for our church,
40:47 Lord, for this ministry, for the ministry of Alpha, the education center,
40:56 GMA, and for all those involved and those who are doing the work and reaching out to the others. We pray Lord
41:02 for your wisdom and most of all, Lord, being able to extend the hand of
41:08 Christian love to everyone. We thank you again for the
41:14 good attendance for the vacation bible school training on subject of apologetics.
41:22 Lord we pray that the training itself will give us greater confidence
41:28 in sharing our lord Jesus Christ to see to the children and to see each child as
41:35 you do. We commit the committee and everyone involved Lord for good health
41:41 and greater cohesiveness in the ministry that they serve.
41:47 Lord we know there are few people who are going through medical challenges.
41:53 Challenges sometimes we don't even understand. So we want to pray oh Lord for your
41:59 healing hand and comfort to be upon them and they would always remember your word
42:06 and that your presence is always with them. We commit Nathaniel
42:13 Karn Keno Jonathan Lee Yapsichin
42:18 Tinachi Tan Juno Mrs. Navaratnam and Auntie Young. And Lord, finally we want
42:26 to commit brother Masimo as he bring forth your word. Father we pray that you
42:32 will speak through him. Grant him your confidence. Grant him oh Lord most of
42:39 all to know that the Holy Spirit is there
42:45 with him. So we want to thank you and we want to commit the rest of the service
42:50 before you pray and ask in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated. I invite brother
42:57 Ron to read a portion of scripture before brother Masimo share God's word with us.
43:14 I'm reading from Matthew chapter 7 13-28.
43:19 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter
43:27 through it. A small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and
43:32 only a few find it. Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's
43:37 clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you'll
43:42 recognize them. Do people pick grapes from torn bushes or fix from tissels?
43:49 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A
43:55 good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every
44:00 tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
44:06 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me,
44:12 "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the
44:17 will of my father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord,
44:23 did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will
44:31 tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.
44:36 Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built
44:44 his house on the rock. The rain came down, the steams, the streams rose, and
44:49 the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it
44:55 had his foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is
45:03 like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams
45:09 rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. When Jesus had finished
45:16 saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority and not as
45:24 their teachers of the law. This is the Lord's word.
45:40 Good morning. Just give me a moment. Let me get the table up here. That's
45:54 all right. I need lots of water. Uh I'm not trying to put on a a nice sexy voice for everybody. Um
46:01 um this morning Dr. Peter said all put on fake smiles and fake laughs and here I come and I say you can't fake it to
46:07 make it. Um today we find ourselves again in the sermon on the mount. Uh we
46:13 started off um a while back and we went to the beginning of the sermon on the mount. We went through the biatitudes
46:19 and uh today I'll be talking about the last section of the sermon on the mount where Jesus finishes his his um his
46:26 sermon. But before we get there, let me um start with a word of prayer. Um dear
46:31 Lord, just um ask you be with us this morning, Lord, that you are giving the grace to speak your word faithfully. And
46:38 Lord, give everybody else the grace to receive your word and you convict all of our hearts. I pray all this in Jesus
46:45 name. Amen. So we live in a fake world.
46:54 Fake news is available every day. People fake their looks and wear fake clothes,
46:60 buy fake watches, fake imitation electronics to create fake self-worth.
47:07 We put on fake smiles, fake confidence to acquire fake friendships and build a fake image.
47:14 We build fake identities online and offline to distract ourselves from the realities we live in.
47:21 Authenticity is a rare thing. People in magazines don't really look like they do in real
47:27 life. And food never looks like it does on a menu. You see this is McDonald's.
47:35 Uh the advertisement is of Big Mac looks very different from what we usually get. And the uh that's even angled at the
47:42 most attractive point. Uh sadly um nowadays we we more
47:48 surprised when the food actually looks like on the menu. Wow. Just like the menu. And in China they have now fake
47:56 eggs. Um but that's not the only thing they have fake in China. Now when they build
48:01 buildings they put fake windows and they just draw them on, you know.
48:08 Uh this is an on the left is an iPhone 4 and on the right is a cell phone.
48:14 Uh looks exactly the same and if you start it up the the apps which are built in are exactly the same. The only
48:19 difference is you can't go to the app store. Uh that doesn't work but it has a cool feature. You can actually take it
48:25 apart and and and put another battery in it. How about this? uh during the World Cup
48:32 in North Korea. Um supposedly this is what the news they received that North Korea won 70-0 against Japan and 40
48:39 against America. So um and that's supposedly what was broadcasted in in
48:45 North Korea. So either they were faking it to the nation or this piece of news is fake. Uh regardless, it still makes
48:52 my point that we get a lot of fake news. How about fake profiles? There's there's
48:57 tons of fake uh Facebook profiles. But if you really think about it, every one of us has a little bit of fake
49:03 information on their profile. We always sound a little bit better on our Facebook profile than we actually are.
49:09 How about having fake heroes? This is Lance Armstrong. You know, he he
49:14 had uh seven medals uh for winning the tour to France and other cycling championships.
49:22 And he was ripped of all his medals because um we found out that he was faking it by by by doping. Uh he was on
49:29 drugs when he was winning all his medals and he's got ripped of all his titles.
49:36 Genuine fake watches. Yeah. I mean they're genuinely fake. I
49:43 don't know if the guy is really honest about his illegal business or uh I wonder what fake fake watches look
49:50 like. They're the lower quality. I'm not quite sure. But it's interesting.
49:55 Um but the funny thing is the the business world always tells us to fake it uh till we make it to pretend that we
50:02 are what we are not and that will make you more likely to succeed. They talk
50:08 about body language and mental attitude. They proclaim that the outside will eventually change the inside and the
50:14 circumstance that we are in. When authenticity is such a critical thing, many encourage us to be fake.
50:21 They suggest that the road to success making it comes from deceit instead of
50:26 hard work. We have been bombarded with so much fakess in our lives that faking has become positive.
50:34 Fake it till you make it. Put on that fake smile and your day will be better. The question is when it comes to our
50:40 salvation, a choice to repent of our ways and submit our lives to the lordship of Christ.
50:47 came here to fake it till we make it. I I put that cable up here because to
50:53 remind me of to tell you guys a story, but recently I I uh my my cable broke,
50:58 my my charging cable broke uh and I needed to get a new cable and I went to Empire. So I went to Son Parade. I
51:05 wanted to go to the cube which is an original shop which sells original cables but it was closed or sorry it didn't have the cable. So, because
51:12 Empire is just too far of a walk, uh I I went I went downstairs to the uh um
51:18 section, you know, behind the McDonald's next to the ATM machines, if you know, S parade, there's this area of phone shops. So, I went to the guy and I was
51:24 like, "Hey, I need a an iPhone 5 cable." So, he asked me, "You want fake or original?"
51:30 And I must honestly say, I was like, "How much is the fake?"
51:35 And he told me, "Uh, 30 ringgit." Uh, and I said, "How much is the original?" He said, "79 ringit." I was like, you
51:41 know, I'll take the fake. But the problem is I recently bought a fake and when I put it into my iPhone 5, um this
51:46 message popped up. This is not an original Apple product. And and and and it didn't charge. So I
51:53 told him, "Will your fake do the same?" And he says, "Oh, no guarantees, brother. You better get the original."
51:59 And no headache. I was like, "Okay, okay. I mean, I convinced. Okay. So I'll take the original." So I took the original. I paid $79. It's the same
52:06 price that you pay in machines in the original Apple store for it. So I was like, "Okay, prices are right." Right. So I I bought it and I went back to my
52:12 office and I I I plugged it in and after about five minutes,
52:17 this is not an original iPhone cable. So I I was really upset. So I drove back to Su Parade, you know, got really
52:23 upset. I have to pay parking again, payroll again, you know. Now it's more expensive than the real real original, you know, because it's it's it's a
52:30 genuine fake. I don't know. But um I I I went there. I told him, "Hey, brother, you know, this is this is not real. You
52:35 sold me a a false product. You told me it's original. Original factory ma, you
52:41 know. I was like, "No, that's that that's that's not what you said. You said it's original." Yeah. You're very
52:46 unlucky, like brother. One out of 10,000 only will happen. So I said, "Can I have my money back,
52:52 please?" He said, "No, no, no. I can give you a new cable." For sure work. I was like, "Okay, fine." Then I I took a new cable and went back to my office,
52:58 plugged in again. There's not an original iPhone 5 cable. So again, I I I got really upset now and
53:05 and I and I rushed back to the shop and I was like, "Hey dude, this is not working." But but somehow I I I I I
53:12 changed my approach. I told, you know, I I work very close by in the church. You work at church? I like yes, I work at
53:17 church. And he's like, "Very close." I said, "Very close, I can come here a lot, you know, and uh
53:24 and and and and he's like, "Oh." I was like, "I think I think Jesus has a plan.
53:29 I think Jesus wants me to speak to you a lot.
53:34 And and I said, "So, how about this? Every time I come back for a fake cable, you must take 15 minutes to listen to me
53:41 talk about Jesus." And a bit stunned. He's like, "Okay."
53:46 And and and one of my interns was with me and and and and and I walked back. I was very proud, you know, you know, I I
53:52 know God has his ways, you know, and you know, I did something for God and telling my office colleagues about it
53:57 and and the sad thing is that but because I was really nervous that it won't work again, I went to the original
54:03 Apple shop and I bought myself a real cable because I get nervous when I'm offline. Yeah, I get I get really
54:08 nervous and um that's not good. But um anyway, so I I I
54:13 never went back. I I never spoke to the guy and and over the last couple of days
54:19 when I was preparing this message, I was thinking about it. You know, who's the real fake in the situation, you know,
54:25 the the the guy who gave me the cable or the cable or or me because I never went
54:30 back to speak to him about Jesus. And that's when when it gets difficult because you see, we have um a lot of
54:37 fakeness sometimes in our Christianity. And and this is uh Michael Gumuchi.
54:42 Um he's a uh a singer from um Planet Shakers and was part of Hill Song. Um he
54:49 wrote a very powerful song called um Healer where he says I believe you're my
54:54 healer. I believe you're all I need. You see what happened to him and after an accident he came out and he declared
55:00 that he had was dying of cancer and many times on stage you could see him uh with oxygen masks and uh a lot of times he
55:08 was bald uh because of supposed chemotherapy and he wrote this song and he said you know I believe you're more
55:15 than enough for me. It was very powerful and a lot of people went out to buy his album.
55:20 But a couple years later, um, his father had a press conference who was a pastor and said, "It's fake.
55:26 He never had cancer." See, he came on he came on stage with breathing mask and and and bald heads
55:33 and it was all fake. You know, he said that he was he was actually really sick because he's he's
55:39 he's uh sick of uh because he's addicted to pornography. So his cancer was a hideup for that. But
55:46 um it's ridiculous. But um it's not just it's easy for me to talk to people I don't really listen to. But how about
55:52 talking about people who I do listen to a lot. Uh this is uh Pastor Mark Driscoll. Uh I read three of his books.
56:00 I'm was a real big fan or am a big fan of him. But recently he was asked to step down of his church. He what he did
56:06 he he started a big church in America called Mars Hill. Uh about 16 congregations, thousands of people. and
56:13 he was recently asked to step down because of investigation because he has been very abusive u towards his fellow
56:20 pastors or staff. One of the stories he did, he he created a fake identity. I
56:25 went online to his church blog and went to all the sites where people were
56:31 talking like didn't agree with his opinion and he went on with a fake identity and cussing with four-letter
56:36 words and all those people who had a different opinion than him.
56:44 Fake Christianity. And and this is where the passage begins today. And and I want to look right in
56:49 the in the center section of the passage today. We're talking about uh verse 22. It says, "On that day, many will say to
56:56 me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your
57:01 name?" Now, these are professing Christians. And why do I say that is because you see
57:07 they say in your name, in your name, in your name. So that the people who take
57:13 on the name of Jesus, they profess Christ. They're probably
57:18 baptized. They have good doctrine.
57:24 Why I say that? Because they say Lord to Jesus. You see the word Lord has a
57:29 connotation of deity. Back then in the early church, Christians did not want to say Lord Caesar. They only want to say
57:35 Lord Jesus because it had a conotation of deity to it. So they have good doctrine.
57:40 They understand that Jesus is Lord, that he's he's God.
57:46 They are passionate. They don't just say Lord. They say Lord, Lord. In Hebrew,
57:51 that's a way of of of of conveying passion and conviction.
57:57 And they're in ministry. They prophesy. They cast out demons. They do many mighty works. They're
58:04 probably in Sunday school, in boys brigades. They're in counseling. They're in youth. They're at the street
58:11 feed. No, they're teachers. They're preachers.
58:16 People are being um delivered from their ministries.
58:25 But it's amazing what Jesus says to those people, those people who profess Christ, have good doctrine, are
58:32 passionate in our ministry. He says to them, "And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you
58:40 workers of lawlessness." He doesn't say, "I once knew you during
58:47 the time that you were passionate or during the time you're professing Christ or during the time that you were doing ministry work." He says, "I never knew
58:53 you. We never you never had a saving relationship with me."
59:03 And that kind of hit me hard when I when I read that and I said, "How then can I tell? I mean, how can I tell what what
59:09 is a real Christian? I mean, how do we know?" Well, Jesus says, "We look like this
59:15 right now. We look all good on the outside, but inside we are evil. We are
59:20 evildoers." So a real Christian and we we we go to
59:26 the passage above it and it says this. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are
59:33 revenous wolves. You'll recognize them by their fruits. All grapes are gathered from thorn bushes or fixed from thles.
59:39 So every healthy tree bears good fruit. But the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A
59:44 healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit. Nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
59:49 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them by their
59:55 fruit. So, there's a lot of fruit there. So, it seems somehow it has to do with
60:01 fruit because he says it twice. You will recognize them by their fruit. You will recognize them by their fruit.
60:09 So, what is fruit? You see, I I started looking through through the whole Bible looking for
60:15 fruit. I was kind of like a fruit ninja, you know, dissect dissecting the whole Bible, looking around what what what fruit could could mean. And um I look at
60:23 the Old Testament and it says fruit of loin. So I'm thinking, oh, so maybe how many offspring we have? And of course,
60:29 we spiritualize it. So how many how many spiritual offspring do we have? How many people do we help to come to faith? How
60:36 many spiritual babies do we have? Or maybe it's the fruit of our labor.
60:43 So it's um the blessings we receive for being a Christians. You know what God blesses us with the fruit is what we
60:48 receive or maybe it's ministry itself. You know the fruit is it's us doing ministry but
60:55 Jesus kind of debunked that just now. So I continued looking and and I finally
61:00 came to this passage and it was in Matthew 3 and it says this. Even now and this is the time where John the pro uh
61:06 John the Baptist was was going out and prophesying about the kingdom to come and and Jesus to come and he said this
61:12 even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and
61:18 thrown into fire. See it's exactly the same thing that Jesus said in the sermon on the mount in in this passage we're
61:23 talking about today. See, every tree does does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Exactly
61:29 the same words. So, I continue reading the passage and I saw just above Matthew 3:10 is Matthew
61:36 3:8. And John the Baptist says this, "Bear fruits in keeping with
61:42 repentance." So, that's a clue.
61:47 See, repentance is the prerequisite for fruit.
61:52 Repentance is the essence on which fruit is developed.
61:59 Without repentance, there is no fruit.
62:07 You see, I continued looking through the the whole Bible and and and I think which other passage could talk about
62:13 something like this which which talks about, you know, repentance and fruit. And I I came to this passage in in the
62:19 New Testament in in Galatians and it kind of seemed exactly the same because it talks about having one way of living
62:24 which is now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, etc. And then it
62:31 turns around. So it turns away from that life. He repents and and says, "But the fruit is now love, joy, peace, patience,
62:40 kindness, and goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness, self-control."
62:47 See, this is the fruit that Jesus is talking about.
62:52 So, it's not what you do that is fruit. It's what you become.
62:59 It's not what we do, it's what we are, which is the fruit. See, it's it's having this inner transformation and
63:06 fleshing it out through our character. It's not being conformed to religiosity,
63:13 to practices of the church, but it's being conformed by the gospel of sorry, transformed by the gospel of
63:20 Jesus Christ. And it begins with repentance.
63:27 See, the other day I was at the Alpha and and and and Gaba dinner um and um a
63:33 brother who just recently came to faith uh uh um came to me and says, "Masimar, I've been uh recently at the street
63:40 ministry and I've realized one thing, you know, since I've been teaching the uh Tamil kids there, I've become more
63:46 patient." You see, that's the fruit. the fact that he became more patient,
63:53 not the fact that he was at the street ministry. So if we are doing ministry and we're
63:59 going out and working in the church and we don't feel a change in our lives,
64:05 we have to look back at this verse and see are we one of those Lord Lord people, our ministries must be marked by fruit.
64:16 That kind of brings us to the next section and I'm kind of working myself backwards. Uh we started from verse 22
64:22 went to 19 and now we're at 13. It says this, "Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that
64:29 leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many for
64:34 the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it
64:40 are few." This is um my hometown or my father's
64:45 hometown in Italy. Uh it's uh venicador. It's in the Italian Doommites.
64:52 Uh so that's where we are from. And I always love going there. I really love going there because I remember the
64:59 incident I had when I was a young child going there was I was really sick and we went there and and you must understand
65:05 my my whole family there are ice cream makers. Um Yeah.
65:11 I know that's really great enough, isn't it? Yeah. So uh uh everybody makes ice cream there. And um uh so I I I I
65:17 arrived in a town and I was sick. I had tonsillitis and they gave me ice cream. They gave me
65:23 freshmade lemon sorbet. I mean for me that was heavenly, isn't it? I mean you are sick, you go to this
65:30 town and and you get ice cream for every occasion, you know. So every time my parents wanted to go there again, I was
65:35 like yes, let's go. Um and besides that, we had a lot of fun barbecuing there and it was always great
65:41 memories. Um, but getting there wasn't that easy. You see, there's only like a single way
65:48 that that leads up. You see that white circle there with the the arrow? That's where we live or where the home is. And
65:55 uh that's one very narrow difficult way to get up there. And to show you how how
66:02 difficult it is, this is this is the passage that you have to drive up. So you can see here, especially here, this
66:07 corner here. I show you here as well. This corner here. I mean it's difficult to drive and I I remember being being a
66:15 child and and and at that point of time I was the smallest sized person in my family. Uh
66:21 there was such a time and um um so I we we were seven people in the car. It was like a combi car and um seven people
66:29 going down from Germany to Italy. So it's a good nine hours 10 hours drive. Seven people in the car and a dog uh and
66:36 a German Shepherd because I'm the smallest. I was stuffed in the back with the dog. Uh so it I was crushed in
66:43 there. I was really cramped. It was really tight, you know, and and we were traveling and and and it was really difficult the whole journey. Um and my
66:51 sister was even worse for her because I mean she gets car sick. So she was suffering the whole journey there, you
66:57 know, but we were all willing to go through this journey because we knew the destination that we're going to go to.
67:03 And even though when we when we looked down on the right of our windows, we saw like the drop, you know, we didn't fear
67:08 because of my father was driving the car and he told us he'll get us there and we trusted him.
67:16 See, this is the reason why we love to go there. This is the broad view that you see once
67:23 you pass that narrow way. You see, you go there, you can just
67:29 stretch your arms and you can breathe life.
67:37 We go through a narrow journey and through a narrow gate not because of the comforts of the way but we go through it
67:44 because of the destination.
67:49 The problem is every time you hear the word narrow we have a negative connotation to it because we think of
67:54 narrow-minded. And when people when we talk to people about Jesus, they always call us narrow.
67:60 U because we tell them, you know, Jesus is the only way. And they say, "Oh, that's very narrow."
68:05 But this word narrow has nothing to do with narrow-minded. It has to do with something completely different. You see, it says, "Enter by the narrow gate."
68:12 Now, the older translation, if you look at the KGV, use the word straight.
68:17 And straight is a much better word. It comes from the word straight jacket. Same kind of straight. So it's confined,
68:25 constricted, crushed. Actually, if you look at the word
68:31 straight and and I I went to a thesaurus and I went there, it has amazing words. It says this dilemma,
68:37 extremity, hardship, plight, embarrassment,
68:44 squeeze, and that's the narrow way. If you look
68:50 at the antonym of that so that what would be the broadway isn't it amazing
68:55 what it says it says this advantage benefit blessing
69:01 comfort ease good fortune miracles
69:07 you see the reason why the gate is narrow
69:13 it has a couple of of of ways and I think a good way to explain is it's like a turn style you guys know this this
69:19 kind of turn styles Or if you do high security, this is a full body kind of turn style.
69:25 And every time you go through a turn style, you know, you you can't go through with many people. You got to go through it alone. And that's why the
69:32 gate is narrow. See, we go through it alone. There is no community saving.
69:38 We're not Christians because our parents are Christians or we're not Christians because our family are Christian or ethnic group is predominantly Christian.
69:46 We are Christian because we made a single decision to come to Jesus Christ and we made it alone.
69:55 And it's never because we can't go through it with baggage. We kind of got to leave our baggage behind.
70:02 You see, have you ever tried to go through a turn with lots of bags? It doesn't work. You got to let them go.
70:09 And what's the baggage? It's usually everything we have built. our false identities, our pride, everything we
70:15 have built to glorify ourselves, everything we do to be good people. And we have to come to understanding that
70:22 that's not what gets us into heaven. You see in the biatitudes when when we
70:28 started to ser it says you must be poor in spirit, you must be crushed.
70:36 You must understand that we have we are spiritually bankrupt.
70:43 So we must bend ourselves to fit through the cross
70:52 and that's why only few will find it. It's difficult to give up our lives.
70:60 It's difficult to crush everything that we have built our lives on.
71:08 Real, authentic and radical repentance is rare.
71:15 See, Jesus gives us two options. To choose the broadway or the narrow way.
71:23 And we choose the narrower road not for its comfort or for its convenience. We choose it for its destination.
71:31 Those who choose to walk the narrow road are not narrow people. They are broad in their sympathies and
71:38 they are broad in their purpose. They don't put their lives into their own houses, lands or bank accounts.
71:45 They live with a sense of the eternal. They take the perishable and turn into
71:51 treasures that outlast them. They are not narrow in their goals. They are
71:56 broad in their hopes. No, the folks who choose the narrow gate and travel the
72:01 narrow road are not narrow people. To walk with Jesus gives them sympathies
72:07 as broad as all mankind, purpose as great as heaven itself, and
72:12 hope that is eternal.
72:24 Jesus at the last section of his sermon talks
72:30 about two houses. two houses built
72:35 on two different kind of foundations. He says this, "Everyone then who hears
72:41 the words of mine and does them will be like the wise men who built his house on the rock."
72:48 And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house. But they did not fall because
72:54 they had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine
73:00 and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods
73:07 came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. You see this is the image
73:14 and I I Googled houses built on sand and every single picture I saw was a
73:21 house broken down and there are tons of them. You would imagine people would have learned by now, right? I mean, but
73:29 there really people who still build houses on sand all the time
73:35 and it keeps on breaking. It keeps on crushing. So the question is, what is that rock?
73:41 And what is that sand? Well, the rock is Jesus Christ.
73:47 The rock is the word of God. And the sand, well, it's everything
73:53 else. and anything else. It's any religion
74:01 maybe Christian or not that says that we are working ourselves into salvation.
74:13 And Jesus says we are fools if we build our house
74:21 on sand. See, we must build our lives on the rock
74:26 of Jesus Christ.
74:34 And maybe I'll I'll invite the worship team up again. And I'll just close by by
74:40 saying a few words. And see, Jesus says this, and we're going back to the
74:46 beginning of the section we started with. He says this on that day and every
74:52 time the Bible says that day is talking about judgment day. Says on that day many will say to me
74:58 that means they will talk to Jesus. So everybody on that day will come to
75:04 Jesus. Now we've got two options to meet him today
75:10 or meet him tomorrow. So tomorrow where he's going to be our judge or today
75:15 where he's our savior. to meet him tomorrow where he's pouring down his wrath
75:22 or today where he's pouring down his grace.
75:27 See, we must choose grace.
75:35 We cannot fake it. To make it, our lives must bear fruit.
75:43 We must walk through a narrow gate and take the hardship of life of the cross with us.
75:49 And we must choose grace and we cannot fake it to make it. But
75:55 brothers and sisters, we must make it.
76:00 Let's pray. So Lord, we just um are tired of living
76:09 in a fake world and building fake identities.
76:15 Lord, we we just pray that you you come to us in
76:21 in ways that you crush our hearts, Lord, so that we fit through that cross, through a narrow gate and and walk that
76:27 life, Lord. Lord, we are we just pray that you come
76:34 and show us your ways. Father, you said blessed are the poor in
76:40 spirit. Blessed are the meek and blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who
76:47 hunger and thirst for righteousness. Father, we are we are hungering and we
76:53 are thirsting for righteousness. for righteousness in our lives today and the
76:58 righteousness that you will bring on that day. Father, we we pray that you work in us
77:05 and that you bring us to our knees so that we we may have life in you.
77:12 I pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.
77:21 [Music] Um thank you M for the message that was
77:28 given today morning. Um as a closing song we will sing let's all arise in
77:33 sing song eagle's wings. [Music]
77:49 Let us pray. But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus and Savior Jesus
77:57 Christ. To him be glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Please be
78:04 seated. A time of silent meditation. The service is over. And those who have need
78:10 of prayer, please come forward. Thank you.
