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00:01 Good morning. All right, we um are back in the book of Genesis this morning. Um I would like to
00:09 um dismiss the youth. Uh you guys can uh go down. Uh I think Pastor Mark is
00:14 preaching downstairs. See you.
00:20 All right. Um yes, we we are back in the uh book of Genesis and we have been
00:25 going through this book quite some time already. About two weeks ago, we talked about Lord of the Storm. We then went on
00:33 last week to talk about Lord of the Earth. Today, we're going to be talking about Lord of the City. That's the topic
00:40 of today. And and as we go through Genesis, we we found out that Genesis talks about the origin of a lot of
00:46 things. Uh it talked about the origin of mankind, the origin of creation. That's where we started with in chapter 1 and
00:52 two. We went then to um the origin of sin in chapter 3. We then came to the
00:58 origin of acceptability, right? We talked about the offering that Cain versus Abel brought. The origin of
01:04 acceptability. We then talked about the origin of judgment. Uh when we talk
01:10 about Noah in the story and we also saw the origin of salvation, how in that same story, God brought about away on on
01:18 salvation. And today um the tower of babel is a famous story but we we're
01:23 going to talk about the origin of mission. We can really see how the origin of mission uh started there. So
01:30 we're going to have two themes today. We're going to talk about mission and we're going to talk about the origin of the city. There's lots to learn from
01:36 this passage about the city. So what we're going to attempt to do today is is a couple of things. Um as you can see we
01:42 put verses 1031 in there as well is just to clarify some chronological issues.
01:47 when you guys are reading the chapters, we're going to talk about that. Then we're going to go into see the the need
01:53 for the city and God's plan for the city. We're then going to look at the
01:58 problem of the city and then the redemption and the solution for the city and the mission into the city. So this
02:05 is uh our plan for today and let's let's get in. Let me start with a word of prayer and then let's dig right in. Um
02:11 Father Lord, we just thank you for this morning. And we thank you for an amazing worship. Father, we
02:18 just pray to that we continue to worship by hearing your word. And father, we pray that your spirit will come and
02:25 convict hearts and rise up this church for mission and for this city. I pray
02:31 all this in Jesus name. Amen. Okay. The chronological issues. Now you read in
02:38 Genesis um chapter 11, you read this. Now the whole earth had one language and
02:43 the same words. But in Genesis chapter 10:31 we just
02:49 read these are the sons of Shem by their clans, their languages, their lands and their nations. It seems contradictory,
02:56 doesn't it? I mean in chapter 10 there were many languages and many clans and many nations and suddenly in chapter 11
03:03 there's only one language. Well, the reason is because Moses, we presume
03:09 Moses wrote Genesis, did not necessarily write it chronologically. He did not intend uh in intend chapter 11 to be
03:16 chronologically after chapter 10. Um what he did, he listed a a a table of
03:23 nations, a a genealogy. He he showed when things happened in chapter 10 and
03:29 then he showed how things happened in chapter 11. If you have a chronological
03:34 Bible and you read through it, ultimately you will see chapter 11 before chapter 10. Now, I'm not going to
03:39 go into great details of this. If you want to have more details of this, Dr. Peter will be talking about it in the GMA classes. So, come for the GMA
03:46 classes. Uh he will give you more details. But I'm just going to make one quick point about it is we can see this
03:51 this chronological thing in chapter 10 itself. It says here in verses 9 uh 10
03:57 9-12, he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. We're talking about Noah's descendants. We're talking about Nimrod.
04:03 Um, therefore, it is said like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. The
04:08 beginnings of his kingdom was Babel. So, you can see Babel is mentioned there
04:13 chronologically on when it happened. So, chapter 10 itself talks about Babel already. Chapter 11 is going to tell you
04:20 how things happen. Okay, that clarifies our chronology. So, if you're reading the Bible getting confused, there's
04:26 there's no problem there. Um let's talk about the next point the need for the
04:31 city or the other point God's plan for the city. Um the text says come let us
04:39 build ourselves a city. It shows that they they needed a city. Now of course
04:46 as we as we read Genesis and if we would only read Genesis we would think that
04:51 cities are evil because that's what we've been reading right? We've been reading in Genesis 4
04:58 um 16-17 the the story about Abel and Cain. We see that Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in
05:05 the land of not east of Eden. Now I'll talk about east shortly. Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch
05:12 when he built a city. So Cain was the guy who built the first city. murderer
05:18 Cain. No, the person who who killed his brother, the person whose whose offering
05:24 was not good enough for God. He's the first guy to build a city. The city must
05:29 truly be evil. Now, the second time we see uh the city in the Bible is is the story today,
05:35 which is the Tower of Babel. And again, we see the people migrated from the east
05:41 and then they came and built a city. And we know that what they were doing is building a a a temple, a pagan temple
05:46 for themselves to make their own name. And God had to come and and thwart their plans. So again, it seems evil.
05:55 And then the next time you will see a city is in Genesis 13. You'll see, so Lot chose himself um and this is uh uh
06:02 Abraham and his nephew separating ways. And so Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley. And Lot journeyed east
06:10 and then he settled among the cities and that was close to Sodom and Gomorrah and it says here in the text they are wicked
06:17 wicked sinners against the Lord. So again cities and evil and wickedness.
06:22 Now first of all let let me talk about going east. It seems like in Genesis every time you see something or people
06:28 going east it has to do with rebellion against God. uh in in in the first passage uh in Adam and Eve's passage, we
06:35 already see that going east meant to go away from the Garden of Eden. So, it's the further we go away from paradise,
06:40 the more east we go. It has nothing to do with people in the east being evil. Okay? Uh uh we are all fine here. Yeah,
06:48 we we're not evil people. Uh and it's just a way the the the the Genesis
06:53 describes um how we are going against God and rebelling against God. So you always can see east of Eden or going
07:01 east or or settling next to the east being being there. So it seems really
07:06 that the cities are evil. However, we cannot just read Genesis. We
07:13 must read the Bible in totality and see how how God views the city in
07:20 totality. Now there's an article in your bulletin today which will really talk about that
07:25 point. But let me just uh uh touch on it slightly and we can see oh before we go
07:31 that innovation is evil too because every time you you you see the cities
07:37 being built what you see is innovation happening as well right? So with with Cain you see he was the forge of all
07:43 instruments. His descendants were the forge of all instruments of bronze and iron. So as they came to the city they
07:48 were doing innovative things which might be evil then as well. And of course in Genesis 11 you see they made bricks and
07:56 they burned them thoroughly and they made brick for stone and bitammen they invented bitammen for mortar. So again
08:01 cities and evils and city and evil must be connected and innovation must be evil then too. And there are many people who
08:09 think that the cities and innovation are evil. If you're here today and and you think
08:15 so too, you may gladly join them. Um these are the Amish people and and they
08:20 honestly believe that that innovation is evil. That's why they stay away from it.
08:28 But as we read the Bible totality, we we can see that innovation is not evil. No, actually God designed and has a plan for
08:36 the city. And how do we know that? Because we read revelation. See, we have a we have the opportunity as Christians to read the future.
08:42 We can go into Revelation and we can see what God's plan for end of history is.
08:47 And that plan is a city. You see this? Then I saw a new heaven.
08:53 We're reading of Revelations 21:2. This is John having a vision. And a new heaven and earth. For the first heaven
08:60 and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy
09:05 city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride
09:12 adorn adorned for her husband. So God's plan for humanity at the end of history
09:20 is going to be a city. We're going to have an urban future.
09:28 A lot of people think that God's going to bring back a garden. know God is going to bring back a fully developed
09:34 city. So we can say that when God gave the command to Adam and Eve to develop Eden
09:42 to subdue the land, it was a mandate to build a city.
09:49 Why can we say that? Because when we look at Revelation, what's in the middle of the city? In the middle of the city
09:56 is the tree of life. The tree of life was in the middle of
10:03 the garden of Eden. So the new city is garden of Eden fully
10:12 developed how God intended it to be.
10:20 So just because Adam failed in glorifying God in the right way to build
10:26 that city doesn't mean that the city is evil.
10:33 Just because mankind failed with Adam doesn't mean that mankind is evil. No.
10:41 God has a plan for the city. The city is good. The city is God's design. The city
10:47 is God's intended future for mankind. So since the city is not evil, let's let's
10:53 look at the good things about the city. And we can see some things from this text today. Cities are the refuge for
10:60 the weak. Why? Because walls plus numbers equal security,
11:05 right? I mean people anthropologically speaking, we can see when people gathered people gathered together in
11:11 cities because they wanted to be strong. It it it protects the weak. And even
11:16 today we see refugees coming where? Into the cities. They don't go into the kongs.
11:23 Right? Cities are always the place. If if you are especially the beginning of humanity, if they were out by themselves
11:30 somewhere, animals could come, bandits could come. So cities are places where you find
11:38 security in numbers. And they had walls back then and it still applies today. And as you can see as cities were being
11:44 developed innovation happened. So cities are place for are places for human
11:50 development. The greatest minds come usually into the cities still today. The greatest
11:57 innovations happen in the city and innovation is not evil. Innovation is good.
12:03 Innovations can be used for evil surely but it doesn't make the innovation evil in itself.
12:09 Where are the universities? They're in the cities.
12:15 Cities are a place for human development from the time of the beginning of Genesis until now.
12:22 And cities are a place of spiritual longing. Now, why can he say that? Now, in in this text, we can see that people
12:29 came together in a city and what's the first thing they wanted to build?
12:35 The tower. A zigurat. Not a cigarette. a cigarette,
12:40 right? They they wanted to build a a pagan temple that its gates are into
12:46 heaven. That's that's what the text says. Why? Surely they got it wrong. Surely they got worship wrong. But it was an
12:53 act of worship. They were longing for something spiritual. They wanted to worship. They wanted to reach the
12:58 heavens. Now, you might say, Masimo, yes, we can relate to the the city being a place for
13:05 the week and refugees coming in. So there's a place for that and we can relate for it being a place for human
13:10 development. But we don't build high towers of worship anymore. That's so Genesis.
13:20 Well, I think we do.
13:25 These are temples of worship. They they clearly show what we worship. They are
13:31 the biggest buildings. Well, actually, do you know that Malaysia
13:37 has three of the top 10 largest shopping malls in the world?
13:44 The whole world, the top 10 shopping malls, these are the three. There's number four, number eight, number 10.
13:50 And if you look at the top 16, we have four. And I think the city is planning 40 more
13:57 malls next year. 40 more. These are the temples of our worship. We
14:05 we worship money. Back then it was called the god mammon.
14:12 Same god, different branding. And this is what we worship. And and
14:17 that's how we begin to look at what the problem of the city truly is. That's where we're going to get into what is the problem of the city. Well, the
14:23 problem of the city is defined by this. It says, "Let us make a name for ourselves."
14:30 That's what the text says. And the full text says this. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a
14:36 city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the
14:44 face of the whole earth." Now, I put a picture there of of all the
14:51 greatest and tallest buildings around the world.
14:56 These are some of them are finished, some of them are still in construction.
15:02 Every one of these buildings was built for one reason, to make a name for
15:07 somebody. Either was built to make a name for a company
15:13 or for a person. And whoever countries is country is in
15:18 is a name for that country. Whichever city it is building is a name for the
15:24 city. And whoever gets to build it, whichever contractor gets to build this project,
15:30 it's a name for the contractor, is it not? Everybody wants to take part in building this tower because it makes a
15:36 name for themselves. And once it's built, whoever gets an office in there
15:42 is making a name for themselves. And then whoever can affiliate themsel with those offices in there is making a
15:50 name for themselves. Those buildings were all built to make a name for
15:56 somebody. So let's look at Malaysia. Who has made a name for themselves?
16:03 Now I'm not talking about their spiritual condition. I'm I'm not I'm I do not know them. I cannot tell you. I'm
16:09 I'm not I'm just saying that we all go into the cities and we all go to to
16:15 build a name for ourselves. And these are the people who have succeeded. They have truly made a name for
16:21 themselves. Sadly, um, Robert Quark, his latest
16:26 venture made a name for me. Um, he invented a bread,
16:35 Masimo bread. Yeah. But I have that's his latest venture.
16:42 But um um they all have and and what they do they they do different things, right? They they they do
16:48 telecommunication, they do agriculture, they do banking. They're in the big money big buck business, right? It's a
16:54 and the casino as well. And if you look around, these are the building people who probably own the biggest buildings
16:60 around town. They have succeeded. Many of us would
17:07 like to be on that list. Many of us would like to have our name there or work for them or work with them
17:13 or do business with them, affiliate ourselves with them. I remember when I was um uh in the
17:20 corporate world um a couple years back um I was doing security systems. I was
17:26 installing uh high-end security systems and um I was trying to make a name for myself. I was out there in the market. I
17:33 was trying to get the biggest contracts in town and I remember this time when when I just secured I was about 27 years
17:38 old. I was really working hard and I finally secured this contract for Bandarai Development Group to build
17:44 Troka Wurong and Bangsa Shopping Center. So we we got the contract to uh build
17:50 the holes and design the whole security systems there. And of course my boss secured the contract. Middle management
17:56 does the work. Uh the boss gets the name. Um but ultimately what happened my boss was really happy with me and and he
18:02 took me out to Skyar. This is a view from Skyar in the Escott Hotel.
18:08 And he said and he nudged me and he said, "Masimo, look our city." I was like, "What do you
18:14 mean?" He said, "We secure all the big buildings."
18:21 I was like, "Wow." We do.
18:28 I mean, I I I felt I felt great. No, I I looked at Public Bank. I remember we did the visitor management systems there and
18:35 the Turnstyle systems. I looked at Pronas we secure a lot of offices there and star systems as well. I looked at
18:41 Manara Maxis and we did the whole CCTV and electronic card access system there. Then you can't see in this view. We did
18:46 KL tower and we did the security system there and if you look up high we did Ging as well. And I was like wow.
18:53 See the marketing strategy of my CEO was this. Find the biggest buildings and get their
19:00 contracts and that's how you make a name for yourself.
19:05 And it worked. And he made me feel invincible at that
19:10 moment. He he got me onto that taste of of wanting to build a bigger name for
19:16 myself. It felt good. I felt I felt like a god. I started living like one surely.
19:24 I I dropped whatever moral values I had just to to get more contracts doing
19:29 immoral client entertainments. I I I I did whatever it takes. And and
19:36 that's what happens, right? When when when people come into the city to make a name for themselves, they're willing to do whatever it takes. And they're
19:42 willing to to build this dog eat dog world, right? You can't trust anybody because you have
19:49 no idea of what they're willing to do to build a name for themselves. Now, you're saying, "I'm not trying to build a name for myself." Well, you're working for
19:55 somebody who's trying to build a name for himself. So either you're working for somebody who's trying to build a name for himself
20:01 or you're building a name for yourself. Both are problematic. Both are going to make you slave away
20:08 for somebody's name. And that's the problem that we come into
20:15 the city trying to make a name for ourselves.
20:20 And it's difficult as Christians, is it not? as Christians right now to be in this city trying to make a name and then
20:27 uphold our Christian values. It's tough.
20:32 It's tough to to to do business well and be ethical and Christian about it
20:38 because there are other people who will just stab you in the back. There are people who who are not going
20:45 to have the same ethics as you. Your bosses are not going to have the same ethics as you. So, it's tough. It's it's
20:52 being a Christian and making a name for yourself in a city is is kind of counterculture
20:58 because ultimately most people still worship money and these are the two
21:04 problems of the city. So then let's look at the solution for
21:11 the city. It says and the Lord came down.
21:18 That's the solution for the city. I put a little picture of a tiny little
21:23 tower there because it says, "The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of man had built.
21:32 Did God was God not able to see it from heaven? Why did God have to came come down?"
21:39 Well, it's it's irony. Moses is using irony. He's saying they are trying to
21:44 build this huge tower, but God can't even see it. He has to come down. It's
21:51 such a puny little effort, guys. I can't even see it in the heaven. You are trying to reach the heavens,
21:58 man. Bad effort. I can't even I have to Let me get a magnifying glass. That's that that
22:05 that's what Moses is trying to say. See, whatever we do, whatever works we do to
22:11 reach to heaven is never going to be good enough. Whatever we try in our own accord to
22:16 reach the heavens is never going to be good. Even our good works are not good
22:21 enough. God calls them filthy rags. See, for us to reach the heavens, God
22:27 has to come down. And he did in this story in a form of
22:33 gracious punishment, right? I mean, he came down and he he broke down their plans and he broke down their
22:40 project. their project to build a tower and their project to build a name for themselves.
22:47 And it happens to us a lot of times too. And I don't know, some of you guys might have been working on projects or might
22:54 have been working on building a name for yourself. And it took God to really come and and
22:59 crumble you down before you realized that you were on the wrong project.
23:06 It happened to me in my life. God came and took everything away.
23:12 But it was only when I had nothing but Jesus that I realized that Jesus was all I
23:19 needed. And it happens to many of us in that
23:25 way. But thankfully that was not the only time that God came down.
23:32 God came down again. God came down in the form of his son.
23:40 Jesus came down again in gracious punishment. But this time he took the punishment upon himself.
23:49 You see, he came down and he lived a sinless life and he died on the cross
23:55 so that we can be set free from the need to make a name for ourselves.
24:01 And where did he die? Where was he crucified? He was crucified outside the city. See in Hebrews we read this. And
24:09 so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his
24:14 own blood. He was cast out of the city. He was the
24:20 scapegoat was sent out. He lost the city.
24:27 He lost the city. Died outside the city. Why?
24:33 so that he could win us for the city to come.
24:39 He wanted to win us for the city to come. In Hebrews we read, "For here we do not have an enduring city,
24:47 but we are looking for the city that is to come." And once we get into that
24:54 city, once we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior and we are transposed into
24:59 that city, what happens in that city? In Revelations, we see no longer will there be any occur, but the throne of God and
25:07 the lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads.
25:14 We will get a name. We will receive a name.
25:22 God Jesus died on the cross to give us a name.
25:28 We don't have to go out and try to make a name for ourselves. We have a name.
25:34 When we come to Jesus, he gives us a name and he gives us a new identity.
25:41 An identity which we don't have to work for anymore. An identity which we can
25:46 work from. See with that new name we can go into
25:51 the city not having to fear that somebody will have to do we have to do
25:56 something for somebody to please them to make a name. We can be so sure of the name that we
26:02 have and there's nobody who can take that name away from us.
26:08 There's nobody who's as we building that name is going to come and fire us.
26:14 It's trying to take that name away from us. It's a complete secure name. Just now we
26:22 sang what? No powers of hell, no schemes of man can pluck us from his hand.
26:30 Nothing can take that name. It's a security that we have. And we can take
26:36 that name and we can go into the city not having to please man anymore.
26:45 And we can now build that name, glorify that name. Why do we want to associate
26:52 ourselves with those people if we can associate ourselves with the most high?
26:58 He is the top CEO and we carry his name.
27:06 But that's not the only time that God came down. God came down again after
27:13 this. You see the story of Pentecost is the New Testament mirror
27:21 solution to the Old Testament Old Testament Babylon story.
27:27 See what happened in Pentecost is this. Let us read. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one
27:34 place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house
27:41 where they were sitting. And divided tongues as a fire appeared to them, and
27:47 rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak in other tongues, as the
27:54 Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And
28:01 the sound of the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own
28:08 language. See what what happened on Babel was there was one language, one nation they
28:15 were speaking and nobody could understand. What we see in Pentecost is many
28:20 nations, many tribes, many languages they were speaking and everybody could understand.
28:27 God came down in grace again and he gave them gifts to reach the end of the
28:34 earth. So who was there?
28:41 These were the people were there. Romans were there. Asians, uh, Capidos, what? Capidosians,
28:48 Judeans, Arabians, Egyptians, the whole nations came where? Into the city. They
28:56 came into the city and they were all hearing God's word. Why? Because a bunch of people decided to glorify and make a
29:04 name of Jesus. And God gave them the gift to do so.
29:12 So who has God brought to us? Which are the nations that live in the
29:19 greater Koala Lumpur? These are the nations.
29:25 Let me show you. Um let me explain this table to you. Um on this section that says people, group and nation. These are
29:32 people groups. People groups which are unique cultural linguistic madeup
29:37 people. They can come from from any country. There could be more than one people group in any country. The next
29:45 line is the nation of which they're from, which country they're from. Then
29:50 the next line is the population in Koala Lumpur, in the greater Koala Lumpur from
29:56 Aang to Clang. And then the next column is the
30:01 percentage of how many of them globally are Christians. Let me just before we I
30:08 I'll get back to the table because I know you guys want to read the table. Um
30:13 an unreached people group by definition is a group of people where globally less
30:20 than 2% of them believe in Jesus. That's an unreached. It's a puny goal
30:26 just 2%. But if we have less than 2% of those people groups knowing Jesus, we
30:32 call them unreached. Look at how many unreached people groups
30:38 are in Koala Lumpur. Achanese,
30:45 Nepali, the Rohingya. Any Punjabis here today?
30:53 Any Sikhs? Any Punjabis here? They're Malaysians.
30:59 Praise the Lord. Amen. We We should come behind you. You should pray for your family.
31:07 You are still 0% in Malaysia. There are many.
31:13 Let us pray for you.
31:18 These are the people that God has brought to us.
31:24 So you ask how how can we reach them? What what can we do? What must we do?
31:30 Well, Paul had a fantastic plan. This was Paul's plan
31:37 to go from city to city and build churches.
31:46 Paul didn't go into the Kongs. Which are the places that Paul went to?
31:51 Paul went into the greatest and biggest cities that were around. He went into
31:57 Corinth. He went into Athens. He went to Philippi,
32:04 Damascus, Tarsus.
32:09 He went to Rome. His goal was always Rome.
32:15 He knew that if he could win Rome for Jesus, he's going to reach the ends of
32:20 the earth. Our plan should not change.
32:27 We should still go into the biggest cities and build church after church after church.
32:36 That's what we need to do to reach these people. We had to build a churches,
32:41 Myanmar churches, Nepali churches,
32:48 hipster churches, gaming churches, travel churches, whatever church you can think through
32:54 for as long as it's biblical. I mean, let's let's constrain ourselves to a biblical church.
33:02 Let's build churches. Let's let's look at Sububang Jaya.
33:09 Do you know that we live in the biggest city in Malaysia? Sububang Jaya is officially the largest
33:16 city in Malaysia. We are bigger than Koala Lumpur.
33:21 I'm not joking. It's true. Look at the stats.
33:28 All right. You find different censuses from 2010 which tell you we only 710 people uh 10,000 people but the greater
33:35 subjaya is 1.5 million people. KL is only 1.48.
33:43 Okay. We are bigger. We we are the biggest city,
33:50 right? And and and we claim to be the Bible belt. We are the Bible belt, right? We have about 150 churches. We
33:56 are the Bible belt of Malaysia. You think we're doing a fantastic job, but let's let's look at the job that we're
34:01 doing, right? Let's look at the Now, I believe everybody needs Jesus,
34:08 but I'm going to give you a presentation on how we can reach the lowhanging fruit. Okay? And I'm going to say
34:14 because of government regulations, we're not allowed to reach to everybody at the moment. I'm saying everybody needs
34:20 Jesus. But let's look at the 57.7% Indian and Chinese.
34:26 If you look at those then this is the numbers 865,500.
34:34 All right. So I said we we we're focusing on things we can do legally and and nobody's going to stop us from doing
34:40 it right now. Nobody. And from those 865,500,
34:49 this is roughly a a statistic I put up now, we say about 6% are Christian.
34:54 That's what um Malaysia statistics say. 6% are Christian. So we have 51,930
35:01 Christians here already. Does it match up? 150 churches. About 300 odd 50 odd
35:07 people per church. Okay, look around. Seems about right. about 350 odd people,
35:13 maybe 400. And I'm going to say this that 60% of
35:19 the people that you're going to talk to are not going to be interested in the gospel.
35:24 We're going to talk to everybody, right? But 60% are not going to be interested.
35:30 40% might be. And even though we talked to them about the gospel and even though they're
35:36 willing to maybe hear about the gospel, 50% of them have church allergy,
35:43 right? They they they they don't want to come to church
35:48 because of maybe wrong misconceptions about the church. Maybe they have bad
35:54 experiences at the church. Maybe they don't like institutions. Maybe their family or their cultural
35:59 background does not allow them right now to enter into a church. Maybe they're afraid of what's going to
36:05 happen in the church. So, as I said, we're going to focus on the lowhanging fruit. So, we're going to
36:12 focus on the 175,000 who might possibly consider church.
36:18 We have 175,000 people that we are legally allowed to reach who are maybe
36:24 open for the gospel and might potentially check out a church.
36:31 That's the target size. That's the target population. The big blue square is the target population. The little red
36:38 dot is us. Yeah. 350 people. That that that's us.
36:45 You know how many churches we have to build to reach that target population?
36:53 500. 500 churches.
36:59 We are the Bible belt what 140. We we don't even have enough churches to
37:04 to reach the lowhanging fruit.
37:09 We're not talking about hard soil right now. We're talking about easy soil.
37:15 The harvest is plenty. The workers are few. And the goal is not
37:21 to build one giant church, right? That's not that's not the goal.
37:27 History showed that people tried to build a giant one church. It took many many strong men to stand
37:34 and do no other to get rid of that. It was called the
37:40 reformation. Right?
37:45 We need many small autonomous churches glorifying God's name
37:54 because the giant city where all these people are going to meet, God is building that one.
38:00 Jesus the second Adam is building that one and we just have to populate it.
38:07 Our call is to populate it. But sadly,
38:15 most of us don't think that building churches is the way to change this city
38:21 or change this country. You know how I know that? Facebook.
38:31 Facebook is that magic ball you look into and you can see all the things what people think.
38:38 You know what Facebook teaches me about what people think will change this city
38:45 and will change this country? Politics.
38:52 People believe politics will change the city. People believe politics will
38:59 change the country. Politics
39:06 maybe can make a difference in the city
39:11 but the church can make this city different.
39:17 Politics can make a difference in this country but it's the church which will make this
39:23 country different. We need to build the church
39:32 cuz all that politics will end up doing is build another building
39:44 that that's the plan. You see,
39:51 to build the church, we need to build, if you want to build 500 churches, we
39:59 have to build 5,000 leaders at least, right?
40:04 We have to build about 2,500 preachers.
40:10 That's what we need to build. I'm going to ask the worship team to
40:15 come up as I as I sum up what we what we looked at today.
40:22 God the father made the city. He designed the city. The city has good things. It provides refuge for the weak.
40:30 It gives us innovation. And it's a place of spiritual longing.
40:36 And how do I know? Most people come to faith today in cities.
40:41 And even if you look at a Christian village, those people are Christians because of their fathers or their
40:47 neighbors or their culture. When you challenge people's faith is when they really become believers. And
40:54 the number one place where you get challenged is in the city. The number one place where people come
40:59 to faith today through faith through saving faith is in the city.
41:05 God has a plan for the city. But there is a problem. The problem is that everybody comes to make a name for
41:10 themselves. But God the son came down and he gave us a name so that we can survive in the
41:17 city and build that name. We can glorify that name. We can associate ourselves
41:22 now with the name that is above all names, the most high. And that's enough.
41:28 That is more than enough. That gives us security and it gives us
41:33 identity. And then God the spirit came and gave us
41:39 the power, the gifts to make the city
41:45 different. We have to build people.
41:53 You see, I was in an office meeting just last week and I was so encouraged.
41:59 I was so encouraged by our office meeting. Elder Richard was leading this meeting
42:04 and he said this, "Let us not build a building,
42:10 but let us build people." It's not about building a building, it's about building people.
42:21 And you ask me how how can we start how do we start today to go out and and
42:27 build people? Let's let's start with one thing today.
42:33 Let's go forth and babble about Jesus.
42:41 Let's talk to somebody about Jesus. Let's bring people into that city to
42:46 come. Cuz that's how you start to build churches
42:52 by building people for Jesus. Will you rise and and and let us pray.
42:60 Let us pray for this church and let us pray for Sububang Jaya.
43:06 [Music] Father Lord, we just
43:13 we come before you first in repentance before we we we come into this city to to make a name for ourselves.
43:22 Father, I pray that you break that spirit of making a name for ourselves.
43:28 [Music] Father, that you break whatever projects we're doing
43:34 so that we can start building a name for you. Father, we thank you for your son who came down and died on the cross so
43:42 that we may have a name, an eternal name, a name above all names.
43:52 And father, we thank you for your spirit that comes in our lives and enables us
43:58 and empowers us and gives us gifts to reach the ends of the earth.
44:03 [Music] On Pentecost, we we saw a glimpse of what you will do at the end to come.
44:09 Father, use us. Use us to reach this city. Use us to reach this nation.
44:15 Father, I want to pray for Sububang Jaya. Father, we pray for leaders to come up.
44:21 We pray for preachers to come up. We pray for this city to be saved for
44:29 Jesus.
44:35 Father, we are so far away from where we need to be.
44:40 [Music] Greater things are still to come.
44:47 Greater things are still to be done in this city.
44:53 For Jesus I pray. Amen.
