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00:00:02 [Music] hey [Music] for 48 hours [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
00:17:18 [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning church welcome back welcome back all of you who are here physically physically today represents the last week of advent before christmas itself and in our tradition of lighting the candles this fourth candle represents peace it's an angel candle represented by luke chapter 2 verse 14 when the angels came when jesus was born and they actually sang the first choir glory to god in the highest and among men peace with whom he is well pleased i guess the word peace doesn't do the
00:19:07 concept justice as well why because it should come from the old testament concept of shalom which is not just cessation of hostilities it's a restoration of wholeness between relationships between god and and men with each other which is why when jesus mission was complete on the resurrection morning in john chapter 20 the first thing he said to the disciples was peace be with you he is the child of peace he is the prince of peace and in the same chapter just before he sent him off he said peace be with you
00:19:46 as the father sent me i send you so we are children of this peace that came in christmas and with this we will light the last candle to celebrate shalom [Music] if you understand you can stand up [Music] christ whose glory fills the skies [Music] so [Music] unhappy my heart [Music] is [Music] through [Music] here [Music] my heart good morning church how are you guys doing this morning this morning are you guys doing good you guys doing good yes you can give the person next to you a facebook say good to see you in
00:23:35 church if you don't have anyone next to you so sorry maybe behind or in front of you in front of you and a very good welcome good morning and welcome as well to all regulars coming back to church those who are on zoom as well as any newcomers today thank you so much for coming and joining us today we hope you have a great time worshiping and praising god with us god invites us into his presence to worship him so let's everyone put your hands together [Music] go tell it on the [Music] the king of our salvation
00:24:29 [Music] everywhere [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Applause] [Music] savior of the world [Music] jesus christ [Music] this baby boy [Music] [Applause] the glory of our gods [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] scripture reading taken from psalms 98 verses 1 to 9. let's read it together go sing to the lord a new song for he has done marvelous things his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him the lord has made known his salvation he has revealed
00:27:40 his righteousness to the sight of the nations he has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of history all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our god make a joyful noise to the lord all the earth break forth into joyous song and sing [Music] let the sea roar and all that fills the world and those who dwell let the rivers clap their hands let the hills sing for joy together before the lord for he comes to judge the earth he would judge the world with righteousness
00:28:32 and the people's effects continue to worship him sing our next song lord would you just make us [Music] across [Music] washing my feet covering me with your [Music] take everything yes all of you is all i need take everything [Music] [Applause] [Music] you are my life and my treasure the one that i can't live without me is is is is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] taken is [Music] take everything yes all of you is all i [Music] yes all of you
00:33:56 is [Music] less of us [Music] the next song jesus messiah [Music] he [Music] his righteousness [Music] amazing jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] the rescue [Music] jesus [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] the rest of us [Music] jesus [Music] you [Music] [Laughter] [Music] the light of the world is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] bless everyday [Music] rescue foreign [Music] jesus [Music] thank you lord all our hope is in you all the glory to you lord open our eyes so god we may behold wondrous things
00:39:47 open our hearts we may hear what you will speak [Music] open our hearts on our hearts that we may grasp the treasures treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in christ open our mouths that we may proclaim the mystery of the spirit and speak of it thank you lord for this time of worship pray lord even listen to your word you speak to us you open our eyes our ears and our hearts to receive from you in the name of jesus amen today's scripture reading is taken from michael 5 verses 1 to 4. martial your troops now city of troops
00:41:00 for a siege is laid against us they will strike israel's ruler on the cheek with a rod but you bethlehem ephrata though you are small among the clans of judah out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over israel whose origins are from of all from ancient times therefore therefore israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son and the rest of his brothers return to join the israelites he will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the lord in a majesty of the name of the lord his
00:41:39 god and they will live securely for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth this is the word of the lord of the lord we are we are very blessed to have a guest speaker with us so it takes me great pleasure to introduce you dr karl essary who has been actually running a very uh important course for our church called biblical interpretation if you've got time please go to the website to catch it we would hope that all bible study leaders and people who served in the church we have done this course at least once before
00:42:17 they actually embark in the service so without further ado let's give them a warm welcome [Applause] thank you church good morning good morning good morning i bring you greetings in the name of our lord jesus christ and bring you greetings from the church where my family serves in satia baptist community we have gone back online this morning this morning if you would have asked me two weeks ago two weeks ago would we be meeting online again at satia baptist community i would have said possibly possibly but i would have
00:43:02 thought because of the pandemic i would not thought that it would be because floods had blocked people from getting into or out of the church the church so continue to pray for those who are suffering floods in clang and satya alam and sha'alam as well now this morning we are going to look at micah chapter 5. so i hope you have a bible go ahead and open it up i want to ask you a question as we get started this morning this morning this morning do you know the great christmas carol a little town of bethlehem
00:43:42 you've certainly heard it it was written by philip brooks in 1868 and is one of the world's most recognized christmas carols today today it depicts bethlehem as a quiet and peaceful birthplace of jesus christ oh little town of bethlehem how still we see the lie now i'm not so certain that the city or the town of bethlehem would have been so quiet and peaceful at the time of jesus's birth after all caesar augustus had decreed a census throughout the entire land and people were coming everyone whose ancestry was from the
00:44:25 city of bethlehem had returned to bethlehem the city was bustling there was no room in the end in the end so i'm not i'm not sure how quiet and peaceful it would have been but this morning i want us to focus on the city where it happened where it happened bethlehem bethlehem we know why this city is important today you and i would have no earthly idea where this city was or what was so special about this city if not for one important fact in fact it's where jesus was born but did you know that hundreds of years before jesus was
00:45:09 born it was prophesied like so many other things of jesus's life it was prophesied that he would be born in bethlehem and so i want us to look at this important passage in micah chapter 5 this morning this passage that looks forward to god's promised shepherd king this shepherd king who would bring peace to israel glorify god and be proclaimed to the ends of the earth now the prophet micah lived at about the same time as isaiah and amos and he was he was focused in his prophecies the lord the lord gave him
00:46:01 messages and he preached in his prophecies specifically to jerusalem and the kings of jerusalem you see in the late 8th century bc the time of the prophet micah judah faced all sorts of threats but the main threat was from the assyrian empire the assyrian empire was known for their violence and cruel tactics i thought about sharing some of their tactics this morning and i thought no they might be a little too gruesome for a church service if you think about in your mind probably the most extreme and violent depictions
00:46:49 that you've ever seen in a movie or read in a book more than likely the assyrians use those tactics i'll just say that throughout the entire ancient middle east the assyrians were seen as fearsome violent and gruesome and that was the threat for judah would assyria come through and conquer our land our people our city jerusalem yes hundreds of years before jesus came in the midst of these threats the prophet micah prophesied about the coming of a shepherd and his prophecies came true and i believe that we as a church can still
00:47:44 find hope in these prophecies today now today's passage begins with a series of short one verse prophecies through micah that begin when micah prophesies that jerusalem will be laid siege that jerusalem will be laid siege and its king humiliated let me read again to us micah 5 verse 1. you can read along in your bibles marshall your troops now city of troops for a siege is laid against us they will strike israel's ruler on the cheek with a rod now this prophecy has been established by the preceding verses and we don't
00:48:34 have time to go through micah 4 this morning but let me briefly remind you that in micah 4 the prophet said that eventually israel would be taken israel and judah would be taken into exile in babylon chapter 4 verse 10. it's said that they would eventually be redeemed by the lord also verse 10. nations who did not know the lord would gather around jerusalem against jerusalem in verses 11 and 12 but israel would eventually find victory and crush those nations verse 13. now we know that the exile to babylon didn't happen for
00:49:25 another hundred over years after the time of micah so those are events that are long distant in the future we know that this picture of the nations conspiring together against the messiah it's still long future from micah that this picture of israel being victorious over all the nations is still long future but notice how chapter 5 verse 1 begins i'm reading out of the new international version it says marshall your troops now if you're reading out of the english standard version or the christian
00:50:10 standard bible the first word is now in other words he's been looking at the long distant future but now he's looking on the immediate horizon of history what will soon take place and what will take place jerusalem will be laid siege and her king humiliated now sieges were common in the ancient near east what would happen is all of the armies of a nation would march against your people and against your city and all of the people who worked in the fields around the city would flee or maybe seek shelter in the city
00:50:59 the city's gates would close the armies would surround the city they would cut off the water supply no food no goods would come in or go out and you would wait until eventually with the threat of starvation or illness the city would give in and would surrender to the opposing army it was a fearful scene would this happen to jerusalem well micah has said soon now on the immediate horizon this is going to happen to jerusalem and jerusalem's king this image he'll be struck on the cheek with a rod it's an image of humiliation
00:51:56 will israel and its great king truly be humbled well just a few decades after the time of the prophet micah this happened in 701 bc sennacherib the emperor of assyria brought his armies through wiped through much of judah destroyed many of the cities and came and surrounded jerusalem he laid siege to jerusalem now you can read about that story elsewhere in the bible or in assyrian history but assyria it was it was this miraculous story the lord actually delivered hezekiah and jerusalem from the assyrians
00:52:52 the assyrian records say that hezekiah was trapped like a bird in a cage but then for some reason which the bible tells us the lord sent out his angels and destroyed many of the assyrian troops but in the assyrian records it doesn't tell us why it just says that they retreated all the way back to assyria what we see here is that judah was humiliated it's most of its cities were destroyed its king was humiliated he was surrounded the city was laid siege but they survived just like micah 5 verse 1 said
00:53:37 would happen you see the bible's prophecies are true church the old testament is full of countless accurate prophecies some prophecies where the prophet made the prophecy and within a few years or months or days it came to fulfillment other prophecies where the prophet made a prophecy and then shortly after he died or a few decades or even centuries after he died it came to fulfillment today there are still many prophecies in the bible that are awaiting fulfillment but you and i can be confident
00:54:23 so many of god's prophecies came to pass just like they said so you and i can be confident today that the prophecies we read about in the bible will come true god is always faithful to his word and do you know what that means that means that the rest of the passage that we are going to read about this morning will come true whenever the people heard the prophet micah even though verses 2 3 and 4 did not happen immediately after like verse 1 did they would they could know these things will come true
00:55:08 just like that first prophecy came true so let's look at the second prophetic statement in verse 2. it tells us that a long promised ruler will come micah promises that a future ruler of israel will arise out of bethlehem let me read that verse but you bethlehem ephrathah though you are small among the clans of judah out of you will come for me one who will be a ruler over israel whose origins are from old from ancient times in response to judah's humiliation in verse 1 the prophet micah looks far forward into
00:55:56 their future whereas in verse 1 he was focused on the capital city of jerusalem he now looks to the small village of bethlehem in verse 2. the massive city will be laid siege it's king humiliated but a small village will bring hope for all of israel notice how the prophet emphasizes how small bethlehem ephrathah is among the clans of judah but but the prophet knew and his hearers knew that bethlehem ephrathah is both the town and the lineage of king david israel's greatest king ephrathah was a clan among the tribe of judah it
00:56:56 was specifically a clan of people who lived in bethlehem you know the story from the book of ruth of ruth and boaz well boaz's family is from the clan of ephrathah when boaz takes ruth to be his wife the elders of the city say may you have standing in ephrathah and be famous in bethlehem and of course we know that ruth and boaz were the great grandparents of king david first samuel 7 verse 10 confirms that israel's greatest king was an ephrathite whenever it says now david was son of an aphrathi named jesse
00:57:48 who was from bethlehem in judah but whatever the prophet is making his prophecy david has been dead for 100 over years but the prophet says that once again this little village and this little clan will pred will produce a ruler over israel but notice at the end of this verse whose origins are from old from ancient times this prophesied ruler over israel who comes from bethlehem has interesting origins i've just read to you out of the new international version but if i were translating it directly from the from
00:58:36 the hebrew i would translate it as his coming out is from before the days of old on the one hand a prophecy like this is saying that yes even though he's he will be born at a specific time his birth is going to come about as a result of a prophecy that was made earlier so the origin of his birth is from a prophecy that was made earlier so for instance in first samuel 7 the lord said to king david quote the lord himself will establish a house for for you when your days are over and you rest with your ancestors i will raise up
00:59:22 your offspring to succeed you your own flesh and blood and i will establish his kingdom i will establish the throne of his kingdom forever i will be his father and he will be my son now obviously this prophecy didn't find fulfillment in solomon or in rehoboam or in the kings of israel it looked long forward so on the one hand to talk about this ruler who will be born from bethlehem ephrathah his origins are in that prophetic statement but we're also reading this passage as christians you and i know
01:00:07 who this passage is about it's about our lord jesus christ our lord jesus who was both fully god and fully man there was never a time when the son of god was not god has eternally existed in three persons father son and spirit and at one point in human history the son of god took on human flesh in the person of jesus christ but his origins are from before the days of old if you want to speak in hebrew about eternity in the past that's the way to say it this ruler's origins will be from eternity
01:01:06 in the past so in the midst of these threats from assyria where should judah look for hope think about verse one think about verse two where should they look for hope church isn't it true that god often demonstrates his power through using the weak and the small to shame the powerful and the large jacob receives isaac's blessing instead of esau the mighty hunter joseph and judah received the blessings of their father jacob instead of reuben the firstborn son israel's first king saul comes from the tiny tribe of beth of
01:01:55 benjamin king david israel's greatest king becomes king over his seven elder brothers deuteronomy 7 verse 7 says that this principle even applies to israel it reads the lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples for you were the fewest of all peoples in deuteronomy 9 verse 5 moses says to israel quote it is not because of your righteousness or integrity that you were going in to take possession of the land but because the lord loved them
01:02:42 and chose them god used israel he chose a weak powerless and often rebellious people to reveal himself to show that he can even use the weak to shame the mighty powers of egypt and assyria and babylon judah should remember this principle and not find hope in their current king or their current military or their current plans but instead look forward to that one who will come from bethlehem ephrathah i mean verse 1 has informed us the city will be laid siege its ruler humiliated if judah puts their hope there
01:03:37 they'll be put to shame instead they should turn wholeheartedly to the lord trust in the lord trust in the lord to fulfill his promises that out of this little clan in this little village hope will once again come church where do you find hope i praise god that we are able to meet here together in person once again but over the last 18 20 months we have faced so many trials we've dealt with fears fears of the virus fears for family members fears of economic loss fears of job loss i mean do you remember for months and
01:04:30 months all throughout 2020 and early parts of this year we would watch every day at about 4 or 5 p.m as the dg would present and he would give us the latest numbers right and in all the whatsapp groups that i was in if the numbers were lower people would have hope if the numbers were going up people were fearful for many our mental health was tied to whether or not the numbers went up for the day we found some hope with the news of vaccines they brought hope that the pandemic would end soon enough and we would
01:05:14 return to normal but here we are and things are certainly not back to normal if they ever will be again we now live with fears of variance we're concerned about boosters i praise god for vaccines i praise god for boosters i think that god has you know he has given uh people you know wonderful creative ideas he's blessed blessed us with doctors and nurses and scientists to provide hope in these ways but at the same time if we find all of our hope in purely material things and in our physical existence we will
01:06:00 often be disappointed government didn't keep the numbers down we sigh the vaccines still have breakthrough cases and may not stop variants we moan and on and on and on i praise god for medical breakthroughs i praise god for good government policies to mitigate the virus but at the same time i know that earthly hopes are not sufficient to fill my deepest needs what the pandemic has revealed for me as well as for so many others is that i have a deeper need for security i have a deeper need for satisfaction
01:06:51 first peter 1 verses 18 to 20 say this quote for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors but with the precious blood of christ christ a lamb without blemish or defect he was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake through him you believe in god who raised him from the dead and glorified him and so your faith and hope are in god
01:07:35 only if we fully and completely trust in god and his promises will we find the peace and the security that we seek you see the lord is the perfect object for our hope it's not silver and gold or earthly things that will fail us but his plan is from before time began his plan is secured by the perfect precious blood of christ when all other hopes fail we can find hope and peace and security in our lord jesus christ if we continue looking at micah 5 we see in the next prophetic line that a birth will bring hope
01:08:30 a birth will bring hope micah prophesies that israel will be abandoned but a birth will unite israel again let me remind us of verse 3 therefore israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son and the rest of his brothers returned to join the israelites the author the prophet micah shifts back to judah's current situation but doesn't lose sight of that long prophetic hope you see from the time of moses god had warned israel that if they did not obey him if they did not keep his covenant
01:09:15 then they would reap the curses of the covenant and the worst curse of all within the covenant was that they would be exiled from the promised land that israel would be abandoned and that's what the prophet says will happen now just after the time of the prophet micah this came to reality for the 10 northern tribes of israel in 722 bc as they were taken into exile in assyria judah lasted a little longer until 587 bc when nebuchadnezzar the king of babylon destroyed the city of jerusalem and took many people into exile
01:10:07 but why well in the time of the prophet micah israel and judah were nations who were full of idolatry isaiah amos and micah are calling the nations to repent to turn to the lord to turn away from their idols and set their hearts on the lord and so in our passage micah assures them exile will come israel will be abandoned but there is hope when she who is in labor gives birth everything centers on the profit statement when she who is in labor bears a son on the one hand this looks back to micah 4 verses 9 and 10
01:11:03 which describe israel as a woman in painful labor but on the other hand it looks forward to the end of these labor pains and that the pains will end whenever a son is born israel's hope then is not only in returning from exile yes israel will be abandoned but their hope is not once they move back their hope is in when the sun will be born the messiah who will lead israel in righteousness and deliver her from her sins you see church having a future hope like this can give us assurance in our current situations
01:11:57 this is a consistent theme throughout the bible god gave promises to abraham such as the promised land that wouldn't be fulfilled for hundreds of years but they provided hope for abraham and his descendants in their days god made promises to david such as a descendant who would reign as king forever and that wouldn't happen until our lord jesus was born a thousand years after king david but it gave hope to king david and to his descendants and to the faithful israelites after him while in exile
01:12:42 god gave visions to the prophet daniel about events that wouldn't happen until the end of time and these have provided hope for god's people ever since and they provide hope for us today this is how god works he doesn't leave us without a word of hope and so he gives us his promises he gives us this future hope to give us assurance today church which promises of god are you hoping in right now do you hope in god's promise of victory over your sin do you hope in god's promise of jesus's second coming do you hope in
01:13:33 god's promise of future judgment against evil do you hope in the promises that every word of scripture is true there are countless promises in the bible that give us this hope that provides assurance today and so israel would find unity and hope in the birth of a son in the last line of our prophecy this morning we see who this promised child will grow to become he will be a shepherd for his people let me read to us again verse 4 he will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the lord in the majesty
01:14:22 of the name of the lord his god and they will live securely for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth micah prophesies that this son will grow strong in the lord shepherd his people and establish peace bringing about international fame notice that this future this future ruler will shepherd his people in the ancient middle east among the nations around israel it was common for them to refer to their kings as a shepherd a shepherd is someone who guides the nation but not only someone who guides them but
01:15:12 someone who protects them who cares for them and provides for them of course we know that king david grew up as a shepherd boy and eventually rose to shepherd the entire nation of israel and in the same way this future child to be born will grow in the strength of the lord and shepherd his people now what's interesting is that israel and judah already have kings whenever micah is making these prophecies there is a king in jerusalem but most of the kings of israel and judah were wicked many were idolaters
01:16:05 most disobeyed god's covenant repeatedly but notice what it says about this future shepherd king he will rule in the majesty of the name of the lord his god and he will bring peace under this future king people will live securely why will they live securely because the nations the ends of the earth will know about their king they're not going to attack this people they're not going to attack israel because they're under this righteous king the king will bring peace as his greatness is proclaimed to the
01:16:55 ends of the earth you know i think about israel and israel's kings who were often so corrupt even when israel had some of its worst leaders such as a king ahab or jeroboam god's people would not lose hope even in the midst of corrupt governments and rulers god's people would not lose hope because god had promised that he would send his messiah his chosen king it may not be this king but our king is coming israel had wicked kings yet god remained true to his promise and the israelites could hope
01:17:46 god will send his shepherd and a verse like micah 5 4 would give them hope the day is coming when we will have true peace whenever our shepherd king will be known to all the nations church i want to ask you a question this morning who is your shepherd you know many of us don't like the idea of a shepherd we like to say that we are a self-made man or a self-made woman we are independent and strong we don't like being told what to do or how to live we think that our plans for our lives are best we know that there is a god
01:18:38 we know that he has revealed himself but day after day we still choose our ways or do we you see whether we realize it or not all of us are being shepherded by something or someone there is something that is drawing us forward and directing our paths none of us are truly independent you see some people are shepherded by hopes in their children they think that they are making their own choices but they are shepherded by dreams of their children getting high marks getting into the best schools and then providing for them when their
01:19:29 children are older the controlling narrative in their life what is guiding them what is shepherding them is their hopes in their children some of us are shepherded by the hope of that next promotion at work we think we are independent we think we're making the next horizon a reality through our hard work dedication and focus but in reality we are being shepherded by worldly expectations of success by my aiming to please my supervisor by trying to know the right people to get into the right networks
01:20:19 by my willingness to sacrifice my family and my friends for that next goal some people are shepherded by hope in the best next relationship they think that if they just choose the right person if they just swipe long enough until they find the right match then everything will be fixed they'll finally find peace and joy but they're shepherded by worldly expectations of appearance sex and personality you see all of us are being shepherded by someone or something the question is not whether or not you have a shepherd
01:21:12 but who is your shepherd and is that shepherd leading you down the path of life and peace and security or is that shepherd leading you down a path of shame dissatisfaction and ultimately death the bible teaches us that there are countless false shepherds who lead down the path to death but there is a good shepherd who leads us to abundant life church you know that hundreds of years before jesus came in this passage micah prophesied that jesus would come his prophecies came true and you and i today can find hope in
01:22:04 jesus christ the true shepherd the good shepherd who brings us abundant life you see our passage this morning promised that a future ruler of israel would be born in bethlehem have an ancient origin shepherd in the name of the lord unite israel and be famous to the ends of the earth there is only one person in all of history who fulfills these prophecies our lord jesus christ our lord jesus christ to two thousand over years ago took on human flesh and was born in a poor lowly cave or in or stable
01:22:53 in bethlehem shameful origins an unwed mother despised by society praised by the lowliest of society the shepherds yet he went on to live a perfect life he never sinned he never made the mistakes that you and i make each and every day he never said my way is the only way but he submitted himself fully to his father and to his father's will he fully obeyed in every way and what did we do to him we saw his perfection we saw his holiness and we put him on the cross and we said our way is better we will be our own shepherds
01:23:56 and jesus died on the cross but he died willingly in fact the bible says that jesus went to the cross for the joy set before him he endured the cross despising the shame and on that cross even though he didn't deserve to die he took the sins of all his people your sins my sins sins that you and i can't even imagine all on himself and he died he died the death that we deserve and he died in our place but jesus defeated both sin and death jesus rose from the dead and because of this we can have hope we
01:24:54 can have joy we can have peace jesus died and he took our sin with him jesus rose and now he can give us abundant eternal life i don't know who your shepherd is this morning whether it's that hope of children that hope of relationship that hope in your career but i can assure you that none of those shepherds can give you eternal life none of those shepherds can remove the sin and the shame that have brought you down none of those shepherds can bring you into a global family of brothers and sisters united
01:25:39 together who love each other who care for each other but our lord jesus can and he did so church i encourage you this morning if you have not yet given your life to jesus christ if you are just watching this youtube stream this morning and you hear this message then i encourage you let today be the day of your salvation if you are here this morning church and you realize that something is wrong in your heart that there is still a sin that you need to bring to the lord know that he died for that sin
01:26:16 he offers you forgiveness and healing and so turn to him today in a second the worship team is going to come up and we're going to sing emmanuel god with us once again that's what this advent season is about it's about looking forward to that day when god came in the person of jesus christ and looking forward to that day when jesus will return again and bring us home to live with him forever let me pray for us and then we'll sing that song let's pray father god i'm so thankful that your word is true i'm thankful that promises
01:27:01 you made some 800 years before you came that those promises came true and that those promises can still give us hope today father i just pray if there's anyone who is watching this stream or is on this zoom call or is here this morning who doesn't yet have a relationship with you that they will turn from their sins they will turn from whatever shepherds they have been following and that they will follow the true and good shepherd our lord jesus christ father for the many of us here this morning who are christians some of us
01:27:43 who have been christians for decades i pray that this advent season we will have renewed hope knowing that our hope is not in earthly things but our hope is in you and knowing that you alone as our hope can bring us true joy satisfaction and security it is in the name of our precious messiah our lord jesus christ that we pray amen amen thank you dr church can we stand as we sing the song in manual gallery [Music] chill it on [Music] the king of all salvation [Music] everywhere [Music] jesus [Music]
01:29:41 jesus [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] the glory of god [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] uh just as just as god has given us his precious son as part of our worship we come today is part of our worship to give back to him a little of what he has so showered us with so today we will do our giving online remember it's do it now bt76 you get onto your electronic devices and decide in your heart beforehand that you will give this and give this willingly give this cheerfully because that is the spirit in which we
01:32:47 give tithing his worship adoration just like the three wise man who came before our baby jesus that christmas morning they brought gold frankincense and laid in the feet of the king of kings this morning we have got this great privilege where we too will bring what we have and laid before the king of kings the one who brings hope let's pray father lord we thank you that we of all the people on earth we the people who have received your shalom we the people whom your good pleasure rests we the people you've given us faith to
01:33:36 believe in our lord jesus christ have this great privilege like the three men the three wise men led by the christmas star we are led to the foot of the cross and at the foot of the cross we can do no less than to offer you our lives as a token of our offering we give you this so that you will use it to extend your kingdom to the glory of your name so this this peace this shalom this hope will not stay in israel but it will be to the ends of the earth as it might come father we thank you that through this
01:34:22 giving you're given this great opportunity to be in partnership with you in your kingdom as you build your church as you build your body we thank you for jesus saying let's come together in the corporate prayers we bring the matters opportune to our lord we thank you so much for the blessed morning that we can come together to worship this lord in person we thank for each person that has come here today we're going to pray for all our brethren who are unable to come because of the floods we pray a lord for
01:35:04 the residents of klang and so many parts of selangor have been inundated with the flood waters that will provide relief prevent them from falling sick to illness provide them the emergency services part of our nation as we grapple with this epidemic we are apprehensive of what's going to happen in the future as we look forward and we look we are thankful that we can meet but when we see the virus take hold in europe and the us and uk we're wondering whether this will hit us again many of us are suffering for the lord
01:35:43 for all of us in this nation we have only got one hope it's more than the government it's more than medicine it has to be you and we pray that despite this difficult time that we are facing that we learn to worship you we love to fear you we learn to put our faith in you and you alone we pray that this dynamic doesn't come by chance that we learn lessons that we put our hope and our faith completely in what you can provide for us and for christmas next week we thank you that we have an opportunity
01:36:22 to to really celebrate this hope and we pray for all the groups that are having their individual gatherings and parties that they will include many non-christians and people who do not know you who do not have hope and who are just basically placing their hope on vaccines and medicines in the government and we know that that will be frustrated each time we pray that each group as they hold their meetings the celebrations that they will really share the hope and love of jesus christ because that's
01:36:54 the only thing that we this nation can hang on to we pray for our nation's leaders they continue to guide them as they they lead us we pray a lot that you will grant that they lead us honestly with integrity we pray a lot for uh other nations who are in trouble we pray for our brethren in afghanistan or being persecuted we pray for our brothers in myanmar and the church there under authoritarian rule we ask our lord that i will provide them relief for the lord for us in this church we praise you for what you have done
01:37:35 with us we asked a lot to bring forward specific activities we bring forward alpha which is coming up on january 6. they'll continue to keep that in the top of our minds and we'll be able to invite non-christian friends to come and be able to share with them the love and hope of jesus christ and this morning for the brothers and sisters who are ill with us this morning we continue to remember them we ask a lot you fill their hearts with hope grant them courage and comfort as they grapple with the individual diseases
01:38:10 some of them struck with the nausea and daria and also unpleasant side effects of the chemotherapy we pray our lord that they continue to hold on to you we pray for our sister judy lim for professor tan or tan leisu wong kim liam iris um and joseph him these are our brethren and you've asked us to weep with those who weep and so therefore as we spend time thinking about them we remember to pray for them they are part of us we ask you for their healing in jesus name right so welcome all of you back to the service
01:38:58 the slide doesn't work all right so uh any one here for the first time or the rarely new to the church can you put your hands up i can hardly see you right good welcome and those of you online if you're here i can't hand you a welcome brochure but you go to our website um and uh please continue to join us we're live streaming we're on zoom we're here every sunday come bring the shine of blood as you can see today um please and for newcomers here with our mids there's a newcomers welcome table join us for a bit of a meal a bit
01:39:38 of coffee as we fellowship it's advantage of having coming to church in person you can actually meet each other and chit-chat and renew fellowship now the coming week all right hope for the world this is um christmas service we this year are having two christmas services because christmas uh is on saturday and then sunday we have our usual worship meeting so therefore we have two christmas services they're exactly the same and the reason why we have two christmas services is we want everybody to turn up in person
01:40:15 all right so therefore you either sign up for saturday or on sunday or if you really can't because you're ill and you're you know you're flooded in you can't come then you join us uh on zoom or on online as usual so please remember to uh check in with us just to remind you we will be having lord supper all right our brother uh elder arnold will be with us taking us through the whole service and we will you will lead us in the lord's supper both saturday and sunday just prepare your elements and also to remind you that this
01:40:48 christmas that all the life groups should be having their usual christmas dinners we usually have a big christmas dinner on christmas day i remember a time when we got 600 people out there but we can't do that because of the pandemic but instead we're going to decentralize that each life group each grammar group each group will have their own celebration but more importantly invite non-christian friends to share the joy with you and if you are watching us live on stream and you want to join us for christmas celebrations on
01:41:18 christmas night and you don't have anywhere to go call the church office and we will be more than happy to introduce you to a life group or a small group so that you could join join us in the celebration of christmas and this be christmas we are also going to take a collection to raise funds for the education of burmese refugees as well as the rohingya for their education among our mid so please remember that the christmas offering next week all right so please register uh the registration opens from
01:41:54 every sunday uh 23 59 to friday so up to last minute scan the codes to reserve a seat okay so here's these are the individual steps you're supposed to scan then put in your name and your mobile phone number and give evidence the fact that you are completely vaccinated which is current definition is two doses it might change the tree uh but at present moment with two doses and then we'll give you a green pass and then you can come to church okay just to remind a couple of things come for those of you remember we just
01:42:28 want to thank god for the wonderful vbs that we've had for the last one week it's a great time many kids actually have turned up 130 over uh kids and teachers so they could have a celebration virtual sunday school christmas party today at two o'clock all right please come and join us even if you haven't been in vbs you want to join us come and zoom in and join us today all right uh gamma we're gonna take a great uh a break from this discipleship group and we'll start off with the first wednesday of january
01:43:05 watch night service now we're gonna have a watch night service and this one is flood proof okay no matter what happens it can snow it can flood an earthquake we're gonna be online but you know it's only 10 30 to 12. it's not a lot of time it's like one and a half hours right so please we would like watch night service to be about you we haven't seen many of you for the last two years because of the pandemic this service is your service so i'd like you to contact the church office and let them know if you are prepared to
01:43:41 share what has the lord been doing with you in the last two years i am sure i am totally convicted that he has been guiding you he's been protecting you he's really ministering to you during this time he has certainly for me so isn't it a good time where on watch night service you don't see the usual suspects like arnold and me and edm preaching to you're gonna see yourselves come up on zoom and tell us what the lord has done in your life so that the rest of us can be blessed it will be a great time
01:44:14 watchers to join us 10 30 to 12 midnight where we'll do the countdown all right monthly prayer meeting uh has been on the 15th of january this is the code for you to zoom in and join us as well so now let's take a break for the announcements that mix i find it very interesting with a fantastic brother david who is often joking and laughing and sharing with all the exciting activities and then we have worship songs games then i enjoy the video and the audio very much what i learned from there is
01:45:03 the way alpha reaching out to other people that one really stimulate me we should do the same thing how to reach out to other people then after that when i come to class i got three lovely and caring sister to guide us to learn to have fellowship and to encouragement and talk and share with one another and then from the question and answer i benefited a lot from the three brothers and the elder they really gave me a clearer picture and understanding of my doubt alpha is not just for people seeking to become
01:45:45 christian it is for everybody it is a place where there is so much more that we can learn very safe place to ask questions and to hear answers from fellow participants alpha 21 is going to start on the 6th of january and for 12 weeks which will end in april so remember the date 6th of january 2022 alpha 21 star [Music] fbc today contains engaging contents that encourages and edifies download the latest issue at fbc.com if you missed any of the previous newsletters or want to re read them you can go to the fbc.com.ny
01:46:36 page and look for archives under resources or you can scan this qr code to go to the archives page in this season of advent let this be a season of giving if you have any unused devices at home that would be a blessing to those in need please donate in addition to doing this you can reach out to other companies that may have unused devices such as laptops or desktops that they can donate let's expand our sources to help those in need let's not forget the gift of food if you would like to feed your neighbors
01:47:25 here is your chance to provide mana to the people in need on behalf of god we have the mana project box where you can drop off food and essential items in the latest episode of er can a not podcast is out can you have a work-life ministry or not listen to the panels to see if they can handle work-life ministry balance or not there is a zoom prayer meeting every saturday to thursday at 9 pm the zoom prayer meet now requires a password pray fbc needs you are you wondering how you can serve god in church find your opportunity here
01:48:22 you can scan the qr code to find out more information about serving in sunday school alpha zoom and fvc community connection i want to thank you again for letting me come this morning and we are going to conclude the service now with a prayer so let me pray for us father god i just pray that today your church will be edified by your word and by the singing together that we will go out in joy that will be filled with your spirit so that we can speak boldly to our neighbors and co-workers and family
01:49:03 members and friends the gospel this week may we be confident in the blood of jesus for all of our safety and security and joy and everything this week now may the lord grant you peace as you go out this week may the lord bless you and keep you may he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious as you go out may he give you peace in jesus name we pray amen all right hi everybody you like the physical knowledge ended uh we will allow you to exit in orderly manner starting from the front row or to the
01:49:49 back and please sanitize the seats before you leave thank you and god bless starting from the first row yeah [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] again [Music] what do you think [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] all right [Music] [Music] uh [Music] so [Music] yeah [Music] yes [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] uh [Music] wow our church will be edified by your word and by the singing together that we will go out and enjoy [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music]
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02:26:19 [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning church
02:48:43 welcome back welcome back all of you who are here physically basically today represents the last week of advent before christmas itself and in our tradition of lighting the candles this fourth candle represents peace it's an angel candle represented by luke chapter 2 verse 14 when the angels came and jesus was born and they actually sang the first choir glory to god in the highest and among men peace with whom he is well pleased i guess the word peace doesn't do the concept justice as well why because it should come from the old
02:49:26 testament concept of shalom which is not just cessation of hostilities it's a restoration of wholeness between relationships between god and men and men with each other which is why when jesus mission was complete on the resurrection morning in john chapter 20 the first thing he said to the disciples was peace be with you he is the child of peace he's the prince of peace and in the same chapter just before he sent him off he said peace be with you as the father sent me i send you so we are children of this peace that came
02:50:07 in christmas and with this we would like the last candle to celebrate shalom [Music] if you understand christ whose glory fills the skies [Music] behind [Music] of your [Music] [Music] here oh [Music] my [Music] [Music] is the [Music] my [Music] is [Music] so here i waited [Music] my [Music] good morning church how are you guys doing this morning this morning are you guys doing good are you going to be good yes we can give the person next to you a facebook say good to see you in church if you don't have anyone next to you so
02:53:52 sorry maybe behind or in front of you in front of you and a very good welcome good morning and welcome as well to all regulars coming back to church those who are on zoom as well as any newcomers today thank you so much for coming and joining us today we hope that you have a great time worshiping and praising god with us god invites us into his presence to worship him so let's everyone put your hands together [Music] go to [Music] the king of our salvation [Music] everywhere [Music] us jesus [Music]
02:55:39 go tell you [Music] angels fill the [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] nation [Music] jesus [Music] scripture together today scripture reading is taken from psalms 98 verses 1 let's read it together o sing to the lord a new song for he has done marvelous things his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him the lord has made known his salvation he has revealed his righteousness to the sight of the nations he has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of history all the ends of the earth have seen the
02:58:08 salvation of our god make a joyful noise to the lord all the earth break forth into joyous songs [Music] [Music] let the sea roar and all that fills the world and those who dwell in it let the rivers clap their hands let the hills sing for joy together before the lord for he comes to judge the earth he will judge the world with righteousness and the people's effects continue to worship him and sing our next song lord would you just make us [Music] across you willingly died [Music] helping me [Music]
02:59:54 yes [Music] you are my life and my treasure the one that i can't live without your feet my desires and dreams [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] take care is [Music] is [Music] [Music] me [Music] is [Applause] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] less of me take care is [Music] [Music] yes all i need [Music] take everything yes all of you is [Music] take everything less of us [Music] the next song jesus messiah [Music] he became [Music] is [Music]
03:05:28 that's so amazing jesus messiah [Music] [Music] the rescue [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] the rest of us [Music] jesus [Music] you [Music] the light of the world is [Music] jesus [Music] bless everyone [Music] rescue [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] you're the lord of all yourself thank you lord all our hope is in you all the glory to you lord open our eyes oh god we may behold wondrous things open our hearts [Music] you may hear me hear what you will speak
03:10:24 open our hearts on our hearts that we may grasp the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in christ open our mouths that we may proclaim the mystery of this book and speak of it boldly thank you lord for this time of worship we pray lord even listen to your word you speak to us you open our eyes our ears and our hearts to receive from you in the name of jesus amen today's scripture reading is taken from michael 5 verses 1 to 4. martial your troops now city of troops for a siege is laid against us
03:11:18 they will strike israel's ruler on the cheek with a rod but you bethlehem ephrata though you are small among the clans of judah out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over israel whose origins are from of all from ancient times therefore therefore israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son and the rest of his brothers return to join the israelites he will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the lord in a majesty of the name of the lord his
03:11:54 god and they will live securely for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth this is the word of the lord of the lord we are we are very blessed to have a guest speaker with us so it takes me great pleasure to introduce you dr kyle essary who has been actually running a very uh important course for our church called biblical interpretation if you've got time please go to the website to catch it we would hope that all bible study leaders and people who serve in the church will have
03:12:31 done this course at least once before they actually embark in the service so without further ado let's give them a warm welcome [Applause] thank you church good morning good morning good morning i bring you greetings in the name of our lord jesus christ and bring you greetings from the church where my family serves in satia alone baptist community we have gone back online this morning this morning if you would have asked me two weeks ago would we be meeting online again at satia baptist community i would have
03:13:15 said possibly possibly but i would have thought because of the pandemic i would not thought that it would be because floods had blocked people from getting into or out of the church the church so continue to pray for those who are suffering floods in clang and satya alam and sha'alam as well now this morning we are going to look at micah chapter 5. so i hope you have a bible go ahead and open it up i want to ask you a question as we get started this morning this morning do you know the great christmas carol a
03:13:54 little town of bethlehem bethlehem you've certainly heard it it was written by philip brooks in 1868 and is one of the world's most recognized christmas carols today today it depicts bethlehem as a quiet and peaceful birthplace of jesus christ oh little town of bethlehem how still we see the lie lie now i'm not so certain that the city or the town of bethlehem would have been so quiet and peaceful at the time of jesus's birth after all caesar augustus had decreed a census throughout the entire land and people were coming
03:14:38 uh everyone whose ancestry was from the city of bethlehem had returned to bethlehem the city was bustling there was no room in the end in the end so i'm not i'm not sure how quiet and peaceful it would have been but this morning i want us to focus on the city where it happened where it happened bethlehem bethlehem we know why this city is important today you and i would have no earthly idea where this city was or what was so special about this city if not for one important fact it's where jesus was born
03:15:20 but did you know you know that hundreds of years before jesus was born it was prophesied like so many other things of jesus's life it was prophesied that he would be born in bethlehem and so i want us to look at this important passage in micah chapter 5 this morning this passage that looks forward to god's promised shepherd king this shepherd king who would bring peace to israel glorify god and be proclaimed to the ends of the earth now the prophet micah lived at about the same time as isaiah and amos
03:16:11 and he was he was focused in his prophecies the lord the lord gave him messages and he preached in his prophecies specifically to jerusalem and the kings of jerusalem you see in the late 8th century bc the time of the prophet micah judah faced all sorts of threats but the main threat was from the assyrian empire the assyrian empire was known for their violence and cruel tactics i thought about sharing some of their tactics this morning and i thought no they might be a little too gruesome for a church service
03:16:59 if you think about in your mind probably the most extreme and violent depictions that you've ever seen in a movie or read in a book more than likely the assyrians use those tactics i'll just say that throughout the entire ancient middle east the assyrians were seen as fearsome violent and gruesome and that was the threat for judah would assyria come through and conquer our land our people our city jerusalem yes hundreds of years before jesus came in the midst of these threats the prophet micah prophesied about the coming of a
03:17:53 shepherd and his prophecies came true and i believe that we as a church can still find hope in these prophecies today now today's passage begins with a series of short one verse prophecies through micah that begin when micah prophesies that jerusalem will be laid siege that jerusalem will be laid siege and its king humiliated let me read again to us micah 5 verse 1. you can read along in your bibles marshal your troops now city of troops for a siege is laid against us they will strike israel's ruler on the
03:18:42 cheek with a rod now this prophecy has been established by the preceding verses and we don't have time to go through micah 4 this morning but let me briefly remind you that in micah 4 the prophet said that eventually israel would be taken israel and judah would be taken into exile in babylon chapter 4 verse 10. it's said that they would eventually be redeemed by the lord also verse 10. nations who did not know the lord would gather around jerusalem against jerusalem in verses 11 and 12 but israel
03:19:27 would eventually find victory and crush those nations verse 13. now we know that the exile to babylon didn't happen for another hundred over years after the time of micah so those are events that are long distant in the future we know that this picture of the nations conspiring together against the messiah is still long future from micah that this picture of israel being victorious over all the nations is still long future but notice how chapter 5 verse 1 begins i'm reading out of the new international
03:20:18 version it says marshall your troops now if you're reading out of the english standard version or the christian standard bible the first word is now in other words he's been looking at the long distant future but now he's looking on the immediate horizon of history what will soon take place and what will take place jerusalem will be laid siege and her king humiliated now sieges were common in the ancient near east what would happen is all of the armies of a nation would march against your people and against
03:21:04 your city and all of the people who worked in the fields around the city would flee or maybe seek shelter in the city the city's gates would close the armies would surround the city they would cut off the water supply no food no goods would come in or go out and you would wait until eventually with the threat of starvation or illness the city would give in and would surrender to the opposing army it was a fearful scene would this happen to jerusalem well micah has said soon now on the immediate horizon
03:21:57 this is going to happen to jerusalem and jerusalem's king this image he'll be struck on the cheek with a rod it's an image of humiliation will israel and its great king truly be humbled well just a few decades after the time of the prophet micah this happened in 701 bc sennacherib the emperor of assyria brought his armies through wiped through much of judah destroyed many of the cities and came and surrounded jerusalem he laid siege to jerusalem now you can read about that story elsewhere in the bible or in assyrian
03:22:54 history but assyria it was it was this miraculous story the lord actually delivered hezekiah and jerusalem from the assyrians the assyrian records say that hezekiah was trapped like a bird in a cage but then for some reason which the bible tells us the lord sent out his angels and destroyed many of the assyrian troops but in the assyrian records it doesn't tell us why it just says that they retreated all the way back to assyria what we see here is that judah was humiliated it's most of its cities were destroyed its king
03:23:39 was humiliated he was surrounded the city was laid siege but they survived just like micah 5 verse 1 said would happen you see the bible's prophecies are true church the old testament is full of countless accurate prophecies some prophecies where the prophet made the prophecy and within a few years or months or days it came to fulfillment other prophecies where the prophet made a prophecy and then shortly after he died or a few decades or even centuries after he died it came to fulfillment today
03:24:29 there are still many prophecies in the bible that are awaiting fulfillment but you and i can be confident so many of god's prophecies came to pass just like they said so you and i can be confident today that the prophecies we read about in the bible will come true god is always faithful to his word and do you know what that means that means that the rest of the passage that we are going to read about this morning will come true whenever the people heard the prophet micah even though verses 2 3 and 4 did not happen immediately after
03:25:17 like verse 1 did they would they could know these things will come true just like that first prophecy came true so let's look at the second prophetic statement in verse 2. it tells us that a long promised ruler will come micah promises that a future ruler of israel will arise out of bethlehem let me read that verse but you bethlehem ephrathah though you are small among the clans of judah out of you will come for me one who will be a ruler over israel whose origins are from old from ancient times
03:26:03 in response to judah's humiliation in verse 1 the prophet micah looks far forward into their future whereas in verse 1 he was focused on the capital city of jerusalem he now looks to the small village of bethlehem in verse 2. the massive city will be laid siege it's king humiliated but a small village will bring hope for all of israel notice how the prophet emphasizes how small bethlehem ephrathah is among the clans of judah but but the prophet knew and his hearers knew that bethlehem ephrathah
03:26:57 is both the hometown and the lineage of king david israel's greatest king ephrathah was a clan among the tribe of judah it was specifically a clan of people who lived in bethlehem you know the story from the book of ruth of ruth and boaz well boaz's family is from the clan of ephrathah when boaz takes ruth to be his wife the elders of the city say may you have standing in ephrathah and be famous in bethlehem and of course we know that ruth and boaz were the great grandparents of king david first samuel 7 10 confirms that israel's
03:27:54 greatest king was an ephrathite whenever it says now david was son of an aphrathi named jesse who is from bethlehem in judah but whatever the prophet is making his prophecy david has been dead for 100 over years but the prophet says that once again this little village and this little clan will pred will produce a ruler over israel but notice at the end of this verse whose origins are from old from ancient times this prophesied ruler over israel who comes from bethlehem has interesting origins i've just read to you out of the new
03:28:47 international version but if i were translating it directly from the from the hebrew i would translate it as his coming out is from before the days of old on the one hand a prophecy like this is saying that yes even though he's he will be born at a specific time his birth is going to come about as a result of a prophecy that was made earlier so the origin of his birth is from a prophecy that was made earlier so for instance in first samuel 7 the lord said to king david quote the lord himself will establish a house for
03:29:32 for you when your days are over and you rest with your ancestors i will raise up your offspring to succeed you your own flesh and blood and i will establish his kingdom i will establish the throne of his kingdom forever i will be his father and he will be my son now obviously this prophecy didn't find fulfillment in solomon or in rehoboam or in the kings of israel it looked long forward so on the one hand to talk about this ruler who will be born from bethlehem ephrathah his origins are in that prophetic
03:30:14 statement but we're also reading this passage as christians you and i know who this passage is about it's about our lord jesus christ our lord jesus who was both fully god and fully man there was never a time when the son of god was not god has eternally existed in three persons father son and spirit and at one point in human history the son of god took on human flesh in the person of jesus christ but his origins are from before the days of old if you want to speak in hebrew about eternity in the past
03:31:13 that's the way to say it this ruler's origins will be from eternity in the past so in the midst of these threats from assyria where should judah look for hope think about verse one think about verse two where should they look for hope church isn't it true that god often demonstrates his power through using the weak and the small to shame the powerful and the large jacob receives isaac's blessing instead of esau the mighty hunter joseph and judah received the blessings of their father jacob instead of reuben
03:32:03 the firstborn son israel's first king saul comes from the tiny tribe of beth of benjamin king david israel's greatest king becomes king over his seven elder brothers deuteronomy 7 verse 7 says that this principle even applies to israel it reads the lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other people's for you were the fewest of all peoples in deuteronomy 9 verse 5 moses says to israel quote it is not because of your righteousness or integrity that you were
03:32:52 going in to take possession of the land but because the lord loved them and chose them god used israel he chose a weak powerless and often rebellious people to reveal himself to show that he can even use the weak to shame the mighty powers of egypt and assyria and babylon judah should remember this principle and not find hope in their current king or their current military or their current plans but instead look forward to that one who will come from bethlehem ephrathah i mean verse 1 has informed us
03:33:42 the city will be laid siege it's ruler humiliated if judah puts their hope there they'll be put to shame instead they should turn wholeheartedly to the lord trust in the lord trust in the lord to fulfill his promises that out of this little clan in this little village hope will once again come church where do you find hope i praise god that we are able to meet here together in person once again but over the last 18 20 months we have faced so many trials we've dealt with fears fears of the virus
03:34:37 fears for family members fears of economic loss fears of job loss i mean do you remember for months and months all throughout 2020 and early parts of this year we would watch every day at about 4 or 5 p.m as the dg would present and he would give us the latest numbers right and in all the whatsapp groups that i was in if the numbers were lower people would have hope if the numbers were going up people were fearful for many our mental health was tied to whether or not the numbers went up for the day
03:35:20 we found some hope with the news of vaccines they brought hope that the pandemic would end soon enough and we would return to normal but here we are and things are certainly not back to normal if they ever will be again we now live with fears of variance we're concerned about boosters i praise god for vaccines i praise god for boosters i think that god has you know he has given uh people you know wonderful creative ideas he's blessed blessed us with doctors and nurses and scientists to provide hope in these ways
03:36:05 but at the same time if we find all of our hope in purely material things and in our physical existence we will often be disappointed the government didn't keep the numbers down we sigh the vaccines still have breakthrough cases and may not stop variants we moan and on and on and on i praise god for medical breakthroughs i praise god for good government policies to mitigate the virus but at the same time i know that earthly hopes are not sufficient to fill my deepest needs what the pandemic has revealed for me as
03:36:53 well as for so many others is that i have a deeper need for security i have a deeper need for satisfaction first peter 1 verses 18 to 20 say this quote for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors but with the precious blood of christ christ a lamb without blemish or defect he was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake through him you believe in god who
03:37:42 raised him from the dead and glorified him and so your faith and hope are in god only if we fully and completely trust in god and his promises will we find the peace and the security that we seek you see the lord is the perfect object for our hope it's not silver and gold or earthly things that will fail us but his plan is from before time began his plan is secured by the perfect precious blood of christ when all other hopes fail we can find hope and peace and security in our lord jesus christ if we continue looking at micah 5 we see
03:38:40 in the next prophetic line that a birth will bring hope a birth will bring hope micah prophesies that israel will be abandoned but a birth will unite israel again let me remind us of verse 3 therefore israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son and the rest of his brothers return to join the israelites the author the prophet micah shifts back to judah's current situation but doesn't lose sight of that long prophetic hope you see from the time of moses god had warned israel
03:39:27 that if they did not obey him if they did not keep his covenant then they would reap the curses of the covenant and the worst curse of all within the covenant was that they would be exiled from the promised land that israel would be abandoned and that's what the prophet says will happen now just after the time of the prophet micah this came to reality for the 10 northern tribes of israel in 722 bc as they were taken into exile in assyria judah lasted a little longer until 587 bc when nebuchadnezzar the
03:40:14 king of babylon destroyed the city of jerusalem and took many people into exile but why well in the time of the prophet micah israel and judah were nations who were full of idolatry isaiah amos and micah are calling the nations to repent to turn to the lord to turn away from their idols and set their hearts on the lord and so in our passage micah assures them exile will come israel will be abandoned but there is hope when she who is in labor gives birth everything centers on the prophet's statement
03:41:08 when she who is in labor bears a son on the one hand this looks back to micah 4 verses 9 and 10 which describe israel as a woman in painful labor but on the other hand it looks forward to the end of these labor pains and that the pains will end whenever a son is born israel's hope then is not only in returning from exile yes israel will be abandoned but their hope is not once they move back their hope is in when the sun will be born the messiah who will lead israel in righteousness and deliver her from her sins
03:42:04 you see church having a future hope like this can give us assurance in our current situations this is a consistent theme throughout the bible god gave promises to abraham such as the promised land that wouldn't be fulfilled for hundreds of years but they provided hope for abraham and his descendants in their days god made promises to david such as a descendant who would reign as king forever and that wouldn't happen until our lord jesus was born a thousand years after king david but it gave hope
03:42:48 to king david and to his descendants and to the faithful israelites after him while in exile god gave visions to the prophet daniel about events that wouldn't happen until the end of time and these have provided hope for god's people ever since and they provide hope for us today this is how god works he doesn't leave us without a word of hope and so he gives us his promises he gives us this future hope to give us assurance today church which promises of god are you hoping in right now do you hope in god's promise of victory
03:43:41 over your sin do you hope in god's promise of jesus's second coming do you hope in god's promise of future judgment against evil do you hope in the promises that every word of scripture is true there are countless promises in the bible that give us this hope that provides assurance today and so israel would find unity and hope in the birth of a son in the last line of our prophecy this morning we see who this promised child will grow to become he will be a shepherd for his people let me read to us again verse 4
03:44:31 he will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the lord in the majesty of the name of the lord his god and they will live securely for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth micah prophesies that this son will grow strong in the lord shepherd his people and establish peace bringing about international fame notice that this future this future ruler will shepherd his people in the ancient middle east among the nations around israel it was common for them to refer to their kings as a
03:45:20 shepherd a shepherd is someone who guides the nation but not only someone who guides them but someone who protects them who cares for them and provides for them of course we know that king david grew up as a shepherd boy and eventually rose to shepherd the entire nation of israel and in the same way this future child to be born will grow in the strength of the lord and shepherd his people now what's interesting is that israel and judah already have kings whenever micah is making these prophecies there is a king in jerusalem
03:46:14 but most of the kings of israel and judah were wicked many were idolaters most disobeyed god's covenant repeatedly but notice what it says about this future shepherd king he will rule in the majesty of the name of the lord his god and he will bring peace under this future king people will live securely why will they live securely because the nations the ends of the earth will know about their king they're not going to attack this people they're not going to attack israel because they're under this righteous
03:47:02 king the king will bring peace as his greatness is proclaimed to the ends of the earth you know i think about israel and israel's kings who were often so corrupt even when israel had some of its worst leaders such as a king ahab or jeroboam god's people would not lose hope even in the midst of corrupt governments and rulers god's people would not lose hope because god had promised that he would send his messiah his chosen king it may not be this king but our king is coming israel had wicked kings
03:47:57 yet god remained true to his promise and the israelites could hope god will send his shepherd and a verse like micah 5 4 would give them hope the day is coming when we will have true peace whenever our shepherd king will be known to all the nations church i want to ask you a question this morning who is your shepherd you know many of us don't like the idea of a shepherd we like to say that we are a self-made man or a self-made woman we are independent and strong we don't like being told what to do or how to
03:48:46 live we think that our plans for our lives are best we know that there is a god we know that he has revealed himself but day after day we still choose our ways or do we you see whether we realize it or not all of us are being shepherded by something or someone there is something that is drawing us forward and directing our paths none of us are truly independent you see some people are shepherded by hopes in their children they think that they are making their own choices but they are shepherded by
03:49:37 dreams of their children getting high marks getting into the best schools and then providing for them when their children are older the controlling narrative in their life what is guiding them what is shepherding them is their hopes in their children some of us are shepherded by the hope of that next promotion at work we think we are independent we think we're making the next horizon a reality through our hard work dedication and focus but in reality we are being shepherded by worldly expectations of success
03:50:27 by my aiming to please my supervisor by trying to know the right people to get into the right networks by my willingness to sacrifice my family and my friends for that next goal some people are shepherded by hope in the best next relationship they think that if they just choose the right person if they just swipe long enough until they find the right match then everything will be fixed they'll finally find peace and joy but they're shepherded by worldly expectations of appearance sex and personality
03:51:18 you see all of us are being shepherded by someone or something the question is not whether or not you have a shepherd but who is your shepherd and is that shepherd leading you down the path of life and peace and security or is that shepherd leading you down a path of shame dissatisfaction and ultimately death the bible teaches us that there are countless false shepherds who lead down the path to death but there is a good shepherd who leads us to abundant life church you know that hundreds of years before
03:52:07 jesus came in this passage micah prophesied that jesus would come his prophecies came true and you and i today can find hope in jesus christ the true shepherd the good shepherd who brings us abundant life you see our passage this morning promised that a future ruler of israel would be born in bethlehem have an ancient origin shepherd in the name of the lord unite israel and be famous to the ends of the earth there is only one person in all of history who fulfills these prophecies our lord jesus
03:52:53 christ our lord jesus christ to 2000 over years ago took on human flesh and was born in a poor lowly cave or in or stable in bethlehem shameful origins an unwed mother despised by society praised by the lowliest of society the shepherds yet he went on to live a perfect life he never sinned he never made the mistakes that you and i make each and every day he never said my way is the only way but he submitted himself fully to his father and to his father's will he fully obeyed in every way and what did we do to him
03:53:57 we saw his perfection we saw his holiness and we put him on the cross and we said our way is better we will be our own shepherds and jesus died on the cross but he died willingly in fact the bible says that jesus went to the cross for the joy set before him he endured the cross despising the shame and on that cross even though he didn't deserve to die he took the sins of all his people your sins my sins sins that you and i can't even imagine all on himself and he died he died the death that we deserve and he died in our
03:54:56 place but jesus defeated both sin and death jesus rose from the dead and because of this we can have hope we can have joy we can have peace jesus died and he took our sin with him jesus rose and now he can give us abundant eternal life i don't know who your shepherd is this morning whether it's that hope of children that hope of relationship that hope in your career but i can assure you that none of those shepherds can give you eternal life none of those shepherds can remove the sin and the shame
03:55:46 that have brought you down none of those shepherds can bring you into a global family of brothers and sisters united together who love each other who care for each other but our lord jesus can and he did so church i encourage you this morning if you have not yet given your life to jesus christ if you are just watching this youtube stream this morning and you hear this message then i encourage you let today be the day of your salvation if you are here this morning church and you realize that something is wrong in
03:56:25 your heart that there is still a sin that you need to bring to the lord know that he died for that sin he offers you forgiveness and healing and so turn to him today in a second the worship team is going to come up and we're going to sing emmanuel god with us once again that's what this advent season is about it's about looking forward to that day when god came in the person of jesus christ and looking forward to that day when jesus will return again and bring us home to live with him forever let me pray for
03:57:08 us and then we'll sing that song let's pray father god i'm so thankful that your word is true i'm thankful that promises you made some 800 years before you came that those promises came true and that those promises can still give us hope today father i just pray if there's anyone who is watching this stream or is on this zoom call or is here this morning who doesn't yet have a relationship with you that they will turn from their sins they will turn from whatever shepherds they have been following
03:57:49 and that they will follow the true and good shepherd our lord jesus christ father for the many of us here this morning who are christians some of us who have been christians for decades i pray that this advent season we will have renewed hope knowing that our hope is not in earthly things but our hope is in you and knowing that you alone as our hope can bring us true joy satisfaction and security it is in the name of our precious messiah our lord jesus christ that we pray amen amen thank you dr kyle church can we
03:58:29 stand as we sing the song and we'll go [Music] oh [Music] the king of all salvation [Music] everywhere [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] foundation [Music] the glory of god [Music] is [Music] is response [Music] uh [Music] just as just as god has given us his precious son as part of our worship we come today as part of our worship to give back to him a little of what he has so showered us with so today we will do our giving online remember it's do it now
04:02:43 bt76 you get onto your electronic devices and decide in your heart beforehand that you will give this and give this willingly give this cheerfully because that is the spirit in which we give tithing his worship adoration just like the three wise man who came before our baby jesus that christmas morning they brought gold frankincense laid in the feet of the king of kings this morning we have got this great privilege where we too will bring what we have and laid before the king of kings the one who brings
04:03:29 hope let's pray father lord we thank you that we of all the people we the people who have received your shalom we the people whom your good pleasure rests we the people you've given us faith to believe in our lord jesus christ have this great privilege like the three men the three wise men led by the christmas star we are led to the foot of the cross and at the foot of the cross we can do no less than to offer you our lives as a token of our offering we give you this so that you will use it to extend
04:04:23 your kingdom to the glory of your name so this this peace this shalom this hope will not stay in israel but it will be to the ends of the earth as it might come father lord we thank you that through this giving you're given this great opportunity to be in partnership with you in your kingdom as you build your church as you build your body we thank you for jesus saying let's come together in corporate prayers we bring the matters opportune to our lord we thank you so much for the blessed morning that we can come together to
04:05:07 worship this lord in personally we thank for each person who has come here today i'm going to pray for all our brethren who are unable to come because of the floods we pray a lord for the residents of klang and so many parts of selangor have been inundated with the flood waters that will provide relief prevent them from falling sick to illness provide them the emergency services part of our nation as we grapple with this epidemic we are apprehensive for what's going to happen in the future as we look forward
04:05:44 and we look we are thankful that we can meet but when we see the virus take hold in europe and the us and uk we're wondering whether this will hit us again many of us are suffering father lord for all of us in this nation we have only got one hope it's more than the government it's more than medicine it has to be you and we pray that despite this difficult time that we are facing that we learn to worship you we love to fear you we learn to put our faith in you and you alone we pray that this dynamic doesn't
04:06:23 come by chance that we learn lessons that we put our hope and our faith completely in what you can provide for us and for christmas next week we thank you that we have an opportunity to to really celebrate this hope and we pray for all the groups that are having their individual gatherings and parties that they will include many non-christians the people who do not know you who do not have hope and who have just basically placing their hope on vaccines and medicines and the government and we know that that will be
04:06:59 frustrated each time we pray that each group as they hold their meetings that the celebrations that they will really share the hope and love of jesus christ because that's the only thing that we this nation can hang on to we pray for our nation's leaders they continue to guide them as they they lead us we pray a lot that you will grant that they lead us honestly with integrity we pray a lot for other nations who are in trouble we pray for our brethren in afghanistan or being persecuted we pray for our
04:07:37 brothers in myanmar and the church there under authoritarian rule we ask our lord that i will provide them relief for the lord for us in this church we praise you for what you have done with us we ask a lot to bring forward specific activities we bring forward alpha which is coming up on january 6th they'll continue to keep that in the top of our minds and we'll be able to invite non-christian friends to come and be able to share with them the love and hope of jesus christ and this morning for the
04:08:12 brothers and sisters who are ill with us this morning we continue to remember them we ask a lot you fill their hearts with hope grant them courage and comfort as they grapple with the individual diseases some of them struck with the nausea and daria and also unpleasant side effects of the chemotherapy we pray a lot that they continue to hold on to you we pray for our sister judy lim for professor tan or tan leisu wong kim liang iris earl and joseph him these are our brethren and you've asked us to weep with those
04:08:51 who weep and so therefore as we spend time thinking about them we remember to pray for them they are part of us we ask you for their healing in jesus name right so welcome all of you back to the service the slide doesn't work all right so uh any one here for the first time or the rarely new to the church can you put your hands up i can hardly see you right good welcome and those of you online if you're here i can't hand you a welcome brochure but you go to our website um and uh please continue to join us we're
04:09:39 live streaming we're on zoom we're here every sunday come bring the shine of flood as you can see today um please and for newcomers here with our mids there's a newcomers welcome table join us for a bit of a meal a bit of coffee uh as we fellowship it's advantage of having coming to church in person you can actually meet each other and chitchat and renew fellowship now the coming week all right hope for the world this is um christmas service we this year are having two christmas services because christmas
04:10:16 uh is on saturday and then sunday we have our usual worship meeting so therefore we have two christmas services they're exactly the same and the reason why we have two christmas services is we want everybody to turn up in person all right so therefore you either sign up for saturday or on sunday or if you really can't because you're ill and or you're you know you're flooded in you can't come then you join us uh on zoom or on online as usual so please remember to check in with us just to remind you we
04:10:50 will be having lord supper all right our brother elder arnold will be with us taking us through the whole service and we will you will lead us in the lord's supper both saturday and sunday just prepare your elements and also to remind you that this christmas that all the life groups should be having their usual christmas dinners we usually have a big christmas dinner on christmas day i remember a time when we got 600 people out there but we can't do that because of the pandemic but instead we're gonna
04:11:19 decentralized and each life group each gamma group each group will have their own celebrations but more importantly invite non-christian friends to share the joy with you and if you are watching us live on stream and you want to join us for christmas celebrations on christmas night and you don't have anywhere to go call the church office and we will be more than happy to introduce you to a life group or a small group so that you can joy join us in the celebration of christmas and this be christmas we are also going
04:11:51 to take a collection to raise funds for the education of burmese refugees as well as the rohingya for their education among our mid so please remember that the christmas offering next week all right so please register uh the registration opens from every sunday uh 23 59 to friday so up to last minute scan the codes to reserve a seat okay so here's these are the individual steps you're supposed to scan then put in your name and your mobile phone number and give evidence the fact that you are completely vaccinated which
04:12:29 is current definition is two doses it might change the tree uh but at present moment there's two doses and then we'll give you a green pass and then you can come to church okay just to remind a couple of things come for those of you remember we just want to thank god for the wonderful vbs that we've had for the last one week it's a great time many kids actually have turned up 130 over uh kids and teachers so they could have a celebration virtual sunday school christmas party today at two o'clock all right please come and
04:13:05 join us even if you haven't been in vbs you want to join us come and zoom in and join us today all right our gamma we're going to take a great a break from this discipleship room and we'll start off with the first wednesday of january watch night service now we're going to have a watch night service and this one is flood proof okay no matter what happens it can snow it can flood an earthquake we're gonna be online but you know it's only 10 30 to 12. it's not a lot of time it's like one and a half hours right so
04:13:39 please we would like watch night service to be about you we haven't seen many of you for the last two years because of the pandemic this service is your service so i'd like you to contact the church office and let them know if you're prepared to share what has the lord been doing with you in the last two years i am sure i am totally convicted that he has been guiding you he's protecting you he's really ministering to you during this time he has certainly for me so isn't it a good time where on watch
04:14:15 night service you don't see the usual suspects like arnold and me and eden preaching to you you're going to see yourselves come up on zoom and tell us what the lord has done in your life so that the rest of us can be blessed it'll be a great time watch us uh to join us 10 30 to 12 midnight where we'll do the countdown all right monthly prayer meeting uh has been on the 15th of january this is the code for you to zoom in and join us as well so now let's take a break for the announcements five weeks
04:15:00 i find it very interesting with a fantastic brother david who is often joking and laughing and sharing with all the exciting activities and then we have worship songs games then i enjoy the video and the audio very much what i learned from there is the way alpha reaching out to other people that one really stimulate me we should do the same thing how to reach out to other people then after that when i come to class i got three lovely and caring sister to guide us to learn to have fellowship and to encouragement and talk and share
04:15:44 with one another and then from the question and answer i benefited a lot from the three brothers and the elder they really gave me a clearer picture and understanding of my doubt alpha is not just for people seeking to become christian it is for everybody it is a place where there is so much more that we can learn very safe place to ask questions and to hear answers from fellow participants alpha 21 is going to start on the 6th of january and for 12 weeks which will end in april so remember the date 6th of
04:16:21 january 2022 alpha 21 star [Music] fbc today contains engaging contents that encourages and edifies download the latest issue at fbc.com if you missed any of the previous newsletters or want to re-read them you can go to the fbc.com.ny page and look for archives under resources or you can scan this qr code to go to the archives page in this season of advent let this be a season of giving if you have any unused devices at home that would be a blessing to those in need please donate in addition to doing this you can reach
04:17:18 out to other companies that may have unused devices such as laptops or desktops that they can donate let's expand our sources to help those in need let's not forget the gift of food if you would like to feed your neighbors here is your chance to provide mana to the people in need on behalf of god we have the mana project box where you can drop off food and essential items in the latest episode of er can a not podcast is out can you have a work-life ministry or not listen to the panels to see if they can
04:18:12 handle work-life ministry balance or not there is a zoom prayer meeting every saturday to thursday at 9 00 pm the zoom prayer meet now requires a password pray fbc needs you are you wondering how you can serve god in church find your opportunity here you can scan the qr code to find out more information about serving in sunday school alpha zoom and fvc community connection i want to thank you again for letting me come this morning and we are going to conclude the service now with a prayer so let me pray for us father god i just
04:19:02 pray that today your church will be edified by your word and by the singing together that we will go out in joy that will be filled with your spirit so that we can speak boldly to our neighbors and co-workers and family members and friends the gospel this week may we be confident in the blood of jesus for all of our safety and security and joy and everything this week now may the lord grant you peace as you go out this week may the lord bless you and keep you may he make his face to shine upon you
04:19:43 and be gracious as you go out may he give you peace in jesus name we pray amen [Music] you
