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00:00:00 the scripture reading today is taken from Matthew 22: 1-14 and Revelation 19: 6 to8 Matthew 22 verse 1-14 Jesus spoke to them again in Parables saying the Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who prepared A Wedding Banquet for his son he sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come but they refused to come then he sent some more servants and said tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner my oxen and fatten cattle have been butchered and everything is ready
00:00:42 come to The Wedding Banquet but they paid no attention and went off one to his field another to his business the rest seized his servants mistreated them and killed them the King was enraged he sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their City then he said to his servants My Wedding Banquet is ready but those I invited did not deserve to come so go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you can find so the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they
00:01:19 could find the bad as well as the good and the wedding hall was filled with guests but when the king came in to see the guests he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes he asked how did you get in here without wedding clothes friend the man was speechless then the king told the attendants tie him hand and foot and throw him outside into the darkness where there would be weeping and nashing of teeth for many are invited but few are chosen the next passage is Revelation 19: 6 to8 then I heard what sounded like a
00:02:00 great multitude like the Roar of Rushing Waters and like loud peels of Thunder shouting Hallelujah for our Lord God Almighty Reigns let us rejoice and be glad and give him the glory for the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready fine linen bright and clean was given her to wear this is the word of the Lord and may we all respond together thanks be to God a blessed Christmas to all of you this morning this might be a uh unusual Christmas most unusual in living memory because For the First time we're
00:02:46 celebrating Christmas separated by a big screen all of you are at home behind your huddled behind your computers and tablets and we're here preaching in front of an empty Hall somehow it's not the same we don't get to greet each other smile at each other laugh together and it sometimes feels like Christmas without the O somewhat muted strange Christmas but I guess if you look back in history there was a time about 100 years ago when they had Christmas under very difficult circumstances and much
00:03:21 more difficult than what we have today it was a Christmas of 1914 the Waring parties in World War I could not come to an agreement about how they should have or whether they should actually have a ceasefire but on Christmas Eve separated by a few hundred yards there were basically trenches with soldiers on each side bristling with guns and bayonets people intent on killing each other somebody started singing A Christmas Carol his friends joined in and before you know it soldiers from the opposite
00:04:00 side also joined in and by the next morning some soldiers popped their heads above the trenches they didn't get shot the other side popped their heads above the trenches they didn't get shot either and somehow they reached across and they met each other and they actually had a Christmas celebration replete with football it still started like us a muted Christmas they didn't have the turkey the Christmas trees and all the trappings that we're so used to in Christmas but what they had was for a moment in time love overcame hate
00:04:47 reconciliation overcame alienation for just that little bit of time but you know Christmas is not about a single moment in time Christmas is God's invit ation for a permanent reconciliation and celebration and today to illustrate this I want to share with you from two passages Matthew chapter 22 and Revelations uh chapter 19 firstly God invites us to share in his joy and Christmas is about God's invitation for us to come to share in his Joy Matthew 22:2 the kingdom of God may be compared to a King who gave a
00:05:33 wedding Feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding Feast but they would not come here we have a wedding why did Jesus use a parable about a wedding to describe this great invitation well you know weddings are about a celebration of relationships love relationships the most intense joyous relationships that we ever will experience is basically a love relationships we we the young people read about it in their Mills and Boons novels we watch romcoms on TV or
00:06:09 Netflix we always gossip about who's going out with who at church who's going out with who at work and it is the kind of stuff that Legends are made of for example Helen of Troy supposed to be the most beautiful woman of her time supposed to have a face that launched a thousand ships she was uh inducted by Prince and taken to the city of Troy and a husband pursued them with a more than a thousand ships and had a huge War many thousands of men died because of a love relationship between husband and wife
00:06:45 Jesus uses the Wedding Banquet imagery the joyful experience the celebration to tell us that relationships are the most important features of our lives and I tell you in this pandemic it is very obvious you could have a lot of money a lot of wealth a lot of property but if you're stuck in MCO you're sitting down and you can't do anything except face your wife or your children it's relationships that are most important the London School of Economics actually look into what is the biggest cause of
00:07:20 human misery and they actually interviewed 200,000 people in the United Kingdom as well as internationally and you know what was the biggest cause of human misery not lack of money not lack of jobs it was actually depression and failed relationships having a loving relationship was the biggest had the biggest impact on actual happiness in fact you could actually be given double your salary and basically um that would not have made up for having a partner having a partner has three times the impact on our happiness compared to that
00:07:54 of doubling of our salary if you look at this pandemic that's gone on you will notice even locally it's been reported that suicide cases have been on the rise in this pandemic and psychologists have always known that all of us as human beings have a deep and innate need to be around other people to share experiences and indeed share our lives we are communal creatures however the irony is that you know there's a you one British prominent British legal firm actually recorded at 122% increase in inquiries about divorce
00:08:35 during this time of pandemic and if you look at the local publication uh from Malaysian Journal of Psychiatry women's Aid organization and Italian cast actually reported an increment of 44% and 57% respectively in context for mental problems especially domestic abuse during this time of pandemic so in conclusion you can't we can't live without each other neither can we live with each other we're hopelessly alienated we can only take each other in small doses which is the irony isn't it the Harvard study on adult development
00:09:13 is probably the longest study on human adult development looking at relationships over longterm uh and they actually have concluded that those who kept warm relationships got to live longer and actually happier and in fact the loneliness kills it is as powerful as smoking or alcoholism now what while human relationships are designed to keep us living longer and healthier and having more meaningful lives on a deeper level Human Relationships actually point us to a more permanent spiritual reality that
00:09:52 is it's a relationship with God that will produce in us a joy that will actually last until eternal and hence the imagery of the banquet of the lamb and um Revelations chapter 19 we come across a final vision of what happens in heaven you know what happens in heaven a big banquet a Big Wedding Banquet 196 Hallelujah for the Lord Our God the Almighty Reigns let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready so our our final consumation our final time in
00:10:32 heaven is going to be spent partying as it were it's the joy exuberance and anticipation of this joy that comes out of a Wedding Banquet that is used as an imagery of what we will actually experience when we're with Jesus Christ at the End of Time Zephaniah 3:1 17 describes God's feelings for us not unlike that of a husband for a new wife the Lord your God is in your midst a mighty one who will save he will rejoice over you with gladness he will quiet you with his love he will exalt over you with loud singing It's like God is doing
00:11:11 a huge loud karaoke song over the people whom he love all of us so God invites us today at Christmas to join him in joy to repair that relationship the second point that we want to look at is from this Parable is that many are called the kingdom of God may be compared to a King who gave a wedding Feast to his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding Feast but they would not come here you actually have a king inviting people to wedding and they would would not come it's it's actually a
00:11:51 Preposterous uh story you know why imagine a few years ago Harry married Megan Markle Were you invited in fact if you actually got an invitation most of us would go because it's such an honor when you're invited by the king or the queen you actually turn up but in this case they wouldn't and the odd thing about this Parable is that he sent other servants saying though tell those who are involved invited see I have prepared my dinner my oxen my fat calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready come
00:12:22 to the wedding have you ever had a huge wedding dinner when you're invited by the king and you don't turn up and he says another invitation this is actually an impossibility I don't think any King in the world's ever done that but this is a parable and Jesus is actually putting forward a point that God loves us so much that he's inviting us over and over again he will spare no expense to bring people back into a relationship with him the response is apathy and treachery verse 5 they paid no attention
00:12:55 and went off one to his farm another to his business well the rest SE pleased his servants treated them shamefully and killed them the King was angry and he s his troops and destroyed those murderers and burnt their City This Is How They responded when God reached out in love and he widened his invitation he said to his servants the wedding Feast is ready but those involved well were not worthy so therefore go to the main roads roads and invite to the wedding Feast as many as you can find and and the servants went out into the
00:13:32 roads and gathered all whom they found both bad and good so the wedding hall was filled with guests and so basically God is telling us you don't have to be good enough he actually widens the invitation to everybody now Philip yansy I he is a great author who I love his book called what's so amazing about Grace when you get a chance you need to uh actually read his book it really tells us about Grace and he had a friend called Tom which he hadn't quite seen for last 15 years who used to be in church and after a while he left the
00:14:07 church and lived a part happy going happy go lucky party life didn't think about God at all had a live-in girlfriend and one day the Livin girlfriend had a crisis and she said look um I'm thinking about going to church and see what that's all about and what his friend Tom did was to to take out his guitar and he remembered about three hym which he used to play and used to play those songs of the guitar and his girlfriend say hey I like the music and together they took out the phone book and out randomly they chose a a
00:14:40 church to go to so that morning they Tom and his girlfriend went to the church and you know what they sang the exact three songs which Tom had remembered and he played for his girlfriend the music whom she loved what were the odds of that and here you have a gentleman who had forsaken God didn't deserve it went off on his way lived the sinful life but somehow God arranged to invite him back and Tom came back to the Lord that day then in 1959 Billy Graham crusade Melbourne Cricket grounds Billy Graham was
00:15:21 preaching there the lake Billy Graham around the whole stadium 100,000 Australians Billy when he was preaching didn't realize that there were 10 gang members scattered around the entire Stadium each of them had a zip gun which is basically a homemade pipe gun with real bullets inside and at the signal they would rush forward and they will shoot biligram and assassinate him they were led by a gentleman called George Palmer now George Palmer had a grudge against God George Palmer when he was a decade ago at the age of s
00:16:06 and a half lost his father her father has planted 100 cherry trees and he couldn't take distress had a heart attack and he died and George loved his father and he he ran out and he started to curse God God why did you take my father away I hate you God and you know what hate doesn't stay still hate grows and grows and exploded into violence he became a violent member of a gang and used to beat each other up in fact he once captured a rival gang member uh leader and he actually put his hand on the road and he drove his car up
00:16:44 and down until the hand was so broken you couldn't fix it anymore this was a violent kind of gang member George was and that day with 10 of his associates gang members they had zip guns all ready to go and as George looked behind at the huge crowd he actually wondered what are all these people here listening to this God whom he hated and suddenly he heard a voice when he turned back to the front and the voice said what are you doing here George and he looked back and he didn't recognize anybody who was
00:17:17 speaking to him and and suddenly he realized in his heart that it was God speaking to him and he says I know this is God but I hate you you took my father away and I will always hate you and I'm going to kill the person who is bringing your message and still Small Voice came to his heart and he said I love you and I never took your father away because I hated you I love you too much and you know just at that moment the gospel message from Billy streamed into George Palmer's heart he was supposed to give a signal and all 10 of
00:17:57 them will come up and they will take take the zip guns they will shoot Billy and kill him instead he took his zip gun underneath his jumper and put it on the ground and he ran forward to accept Jesus Christ's invitation to eternal life and you know what happened nine out of 10 of them that night gave their lives to Jesus Christ good bad ugly God calls everyone God wants everybody and he will work in your way to bring you you don't have to be good enough he calls the Bad and the good and you know George Palmer actually
00:18:43 went back to his old church where he grew up as a young boy and there he met an elderly man and the elderly man said to him you know George I've been praying for you for years and it was through the prayer of that elderly man in his church salvation Army church that actually brought that invitation to George and George responded brothers and sisters many are called and we as Christians today we ought to get on our telephones get on our Zoom meetings get on our context because God calls us God calls people in this world like George
00:19:21 Palmer and Tom he calls them through people he calls them through us and we need to be the ones that give the that invitation finally few are chosen but when the king came in to look at the guests he saw there was a man who had no wedding garment and he said to him friend how did you get in here without wedding garment and he was speechless and the King said to the tenants bind him hand and foot cast him into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth for many are called but few are
00:20:01 chosen you know this is a picture of allegedly Malaysia's youngest dat there's some controversy over the social media whether his name is Alvin Gore or Alvin Lim supposed to be either 19 years of age or 24 and you're wondering how can a 19yearold guy become a DAT what did he do to become a DAT but he was given this uniform and if you don't wear this uniform you even enter the palace to be made a d and he was and suddenly uh the netizens people in the social media noticed he was wearing this watch see
00:20:38 the watch there it was a Richard Mill watch and this watch is worth 1.3 million ring very expensive imagine if this youngest dat went into to receive daip and all he wore was his watch and not the Garment which the king gave you think he'd get in and that's exactly the situation in this this banquet people came the king gave the garments in order to attend the wedding you have to wear the Garment which he's given you can't bring your own watch even though your watch is worth $1.3 million or your
00:21:10 tuxedo you have to bring the Garment which he has given you and what is God trying to tell us God is trying to tell us through this Parable that you actually come to him he invites you but you come into His Joy either on his terms or our terms on our terms we bring our own garment on his terms we use his garments and he's trying to tell us you can't come on your own terms it's like for example you had a big fight with your wife you probably insulted her or did something or you didn't take out the
00:21:46 garbage cans that night and she got upset with you what do you do husbands when your wife is upset with you go out and buy a huge diamond ring you think that will work you think your wife will accept the bribe no you can't you have to come to her on her terms because you hurt her and not the other way and come to her on your own terms and when we actually Rebel and move on our own way away from God that's called sin that's called Rebellion that's called living our lives under our own terms and if we and if God invites
00:22:22 us back we have to come on his terms and not ours we can't come and say you know our sincerity I I'm honest I I got good works I'm a good family man I've sacrificed I give tithing to the church coming on our own terms doesn't cut it not only because our righteousness are like filthy rags before God but but it's saying that I reject God's terms you see in Revelation 7:14 describes the garments which God gives us to join the heavenly banquet the Saints have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb
00:23:01 what's the blood of the Lamb the blood of Jesus Christ God has given his son starting at Christmas Day and then 33 years later ought to Die the cross to pay the price for our sin and for us to come on terms other than that of gods is to say God I reject your terms I'm good enough you're not good enough and then the king said to the attendants bind him hand and foot cast him into the outer Darkness in the place there will be weeping and nashing of this is the rejection of Jesus Christ that comes with consequences because we
00:23:38 cannot come to The Wedding Banquet other than to use what God has given us there will be judgment the final verse of this Parable many are called but few are chosen few are chosen simply because you choose not to come to God on his terms and this Christmas morning God's message is to all of us who've joined us in First Baptist Church and around the world wherever you are Christmas Means God is saying to us you are called you are invited he wants you to join him in his joy to share with him one day in the heavenly banquet but you
00:24:20 have to come on his terms you have to come because the Son of God bled and died for you all you have to do he says yes I do I I Repent of my sin I Repent of coming to you on my own terms it just doesn't work out I will come on your terms may the Lord bless all of you and bring you to him by the blood of the Lamb [Music] oh come all you want fful come we get unstable come no you are not [Music] alone oh come baren and wa ones weary of praying come see what your God has done Christ is [Music] born Christ is
00:25:49 born Christ is born for you [Music] Oh Come beer and broken come with fears unspoken come taste of his perfect [Music] love Oh Come guilty and hiding on there is no name to run see what your God has done Christ is born Christ is Bor Christ is born for you Christ is born Christ is Christ is for [Music] you he's the L who was g SL for our pardon his promise is fre for those who believe it's the lamb who has G slain for a pardon his promise is peace for those who believe so come though you have nothing come he is the only offering
00:28:00 come see what your God has done [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Moon [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] ch [Music] for to [Music] Christ is born Christ is born Christ is born for you Christ is born Christ is born Christ is born for oh you [Music] [Music] what a reminder I hope that somehow the message and song serve as a reminder on how God has lovingly invited us into a relationship with him as for me I'm reminded of how he continually calls and convicts me of my
00:32:16 own sin and how much he loves me some of you who are here with us today may have felt a little tugging in your heart being moved in your spirit I will not be surprised it is God knocking on the door of your heart asking you to let him in let me encourage those who have yet to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior to consider his invitation to come into your lives because he loves you so much that he died on the cross to save you from your [Music] sins once you're ready we will say this
00:32:55 prayer together as a response all those worshiping together with us we encourage you to also say this prayer as a declaration and commitment that you will stand with those who will be responding to what is the most important decisions in their lives even as each of us respond to his calling would you please join me in saying this simple prayer [Music] together father thank you for loving me [Music] thank you for giving Jesus Christ as the expression of your love for [Music] me Jesus is your invitation of true
00:33:44 love and I want to respond to [Music] you thank you for helping me see that I need the Hope only you can and give your work through Jesus Christ has taken my sins [Music] away I confess I need you and want to receive your invitation for a relationship with [Music] you let your Holy Spirit lead and guide me and fill me with your faith hope joy and love this [Music] season in Jesus name I pray amen congratulations to you for taking that step of Faith the Bible expresses that the whole Heaven rejoices at One
00:34:54 Soul being saved and so we celebrate with you with joy if you responded in the prayer or if you want to find out more about Jesus all need us to pray with you we have a team of ushers ready to attend to your requests if you just drop your details with us in the link shown in the in the chat and description below so FBC we believe that God's word doesn't just speak to us personally but it is a corporate call from God for us to respond we have been preparing ourselves for these responses through Advent and I hope you enjoyed seeing the
00:35:35 music video that was a sum of our responses of love to the world pray that the music video will speak especially to the children in sabba and will touch others who will receive this message but in preparing for this service we thought another appropriate corporate response together was to set aside the offering we have prepared to be used to spread spread the message of love to many others in need so everything has collected today will be given to the needs we have identified which will be shared with you in a
00:36:07 moment so just to be clear we're not collecting ties at all for the sponsorship of children and teachers today as all collections will go to only these specific purposes and they are number one to print and distribute free of charge children Bibles in BM to Sarawak through wawasan Pabo in Malaysia number two to partially fund laptops for children in the slums of SIU to be able to do online school through om in Philippines then and thirdly to provide relief supplies in response to the recent typhoons in the Philippines
00:36:44 through kapatid so even before we give let us thank God for what he so richly gave us gracious God our heavenly father we acknowledge that every good and perfect gift comes from above coming down from you our father of the Heavenly likes who is unchanging especially for this Christmas we thank you for giving us your son Jesus Christ who demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners you died for us so that in Christ we have the gift of an abundant and eternal life in response resp to
00:37:28 your goodness we offer firstly ourselves as a Living Sacrifice holy and pleasing unto you we cheerfully and joyfully offer our gifts and tithes to you praying that as these gets channeled to the printing of BM Bibles funding of laptops to children in the slums of SIU and to provide relief supplies to those affected by the typhoon in Philippines many would be blessed and be ministered to and in turn praise you who is our creator and The Giver of Life bless the work of our hands as we give toward the
00:38:02 furtherance of your kingdom in Jesus name we pray amen you will be able to give by do it noun to bt76 as the business registration number you need to put chr20 chr20 in your reference so that these would be set aside specifically for this special giving so let us now give generous knowing that God will use this powerfully for his kingdom before we corporately respond in prayer prayer we would like to thank you for the generous giving toward the children and teachers in Sabah we have achieved our targets and that means we
00:39:06 are able to bless over 1,400 children and 148 teachers in the kindergartens there with Bible and gifts that goes a long way in showing God's love for them let us now come before the Lord as we pray for ourselves our church our nation and the world almighty God creator of Heaven and Earth and all mankind as people all over the world celebrate Christmas today amidst the festivity but also the fears sufferings and hopelessness caused by the covid-19 pandemic it's easy to lose sight of the real meaning of Christmas that you came
00:39:51 and gave your life so that we may be freed from the bondage of sin and have the hope of eternal life we acknowledge your sovereignty over all the nations of the world even as the pandemic battle continues affecting thousands of lives daily have mercy upon us Lord as we continue to pray for deliverance from this plague and may our heal and may your healing Grace be upon many who are infected Empower strengthen and protect all health and social workers who are in the front line saving lives oh Lord
00:40:29 bless the work of their hands we also pray for the Philippines that has been hit by recent typhoons which has brought massive damage to the land affecting the livelihood of many families who depend on Farming and fishing as their source of income we pray that recovery and relief efforts and funding including the ones that FBC is contributing to will come quickly to meet immediate needs of food fuel clean water medications hygiene products and shelter we pray as the Apostle Paul taught us to pray for Kings leaders and
00:41:10 all those in Authority globally and also in our country Malaysia that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and Holiness for this your word says is good and pleases you who desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth we pray that all churches would continue to unite towards that end proclaiming the gospel of Hope and salvation even as every fellow believer live a life of Love Not only in words or speech but but with actions and in truth we commit FBC your church and your
00:41:50 people into your Mighty hands we pray for all church and Ministry leaders and workers who give tirelessly weak in Weak out oh Lord you said in your word that their labor in you is not in vain because your grace is sufficient for them your strength and power is made perfect in every weakness we pray that every word that goes out from your mouth through the leaders preachers and teachers will not return empty but will accomplish what you desire and achieve your purposes and will and we pray for each one of us as
00:42:26 we remember the birth of of our Lord Jesus we pray that you will descend to us casting out our sin enter into our lives and be born in us again and abide with us oh Lord our Emmanuel God With Us who taught us to pray together and we shall all recite the Lord's Prayer together Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us and lead us
00:43:06 not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen finally the benediction now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and Good Hope through Grace Comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word blessed Christmas to all of [Music] you in a Manger no cred for a the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head the stars in the sky look down where he lay the little
00:44:14 Lord Jesus asleep on the H the cattle allowing the baby of W let Lord Jesus no crying he makes I love thee Lord Jesus look down from the sky and stay by my crad till morning is night it's Christmas the angels are sing and I know the reason Sai is [Music] born yes it's Christmas the Bells Are Ringing feel Shou Joy to the World be near me Lord Jesus I ask to stay close by me forever and love me I pray bless all the de children in th tender care and fit us for heaven to live with the there [Music]
00:45:57 angs are singing and I know the reason the savior is this is Christmas the are rain you are sh Joy to the [Music] World Tell It on the Mountain over the hills and everywhere Go Tell It on the Mountain that Jesus Christ is [Music] born it's [Music] Christmas the angels are and I know the reason theor is yes it's Christmas the BS are raining sh Joy to the World Joy to the World Joy to the World Merry Christmas Christmas Merry Christmas Merry Christmas stay home and stay safe Chistmas have fun [Music]
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