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00:00 When when you see this word uh please God what immediately comes to your mind
00:08 if you're like me you will be please God help me with then you fill in the blank
00:17 please God I have this problem please God uh
00:24 my health is not right please God this person and I have a broken relationship
00:29 ship please God. But what if I just put another word in
00:36 front of it and I say to please God and that whole thing just shifts, isn't it?
00:42 You find the New Testament never starts off prayers with please God. We are the ones who sort of uh change it to be
00:50 that. And I want to suggest to you if there is ever such a thing as a Christian calling is simply to please
00:58 God. That is our highest calling in life. What does that mean? How do we do that?
01:05 We're going to study that today. But let us do a little bit of audit. Uh one of
01:11 the hardest things we do is contemplation
01:17 because you live in a generation of Google and Wikipedia and everything is an instant download high speed. But if I
01:24 ask you to pause now and just ask how is your life pleasing God? Would you be
01:30 able to do that? You find it more difficult but it's very very meaningful.
01:35 So we're going to take a few seconds to just pause, reflect,
01:41 and accept silence. And through that silence, I just want
01:46 you to ask yourself uh in your life now, how is it pleasing
01:52 God? And after a short moment
01:58 I will just open in prayer. So let us just close our eyes and quieten our souls.
02:26 Lord, contemplation is probably the hardest thing to do in this hurried world where we want instant
02:34 gratification. Uh we come to church to be entertained, to be bombarded, to be overloaded, but
02:42 to just strip everything down and in that silence to just hear your voice.
02:48 That oh Lord is a gift from you. So this morning Lord, we just start off
02:53 the message with a simple prayer. Please God,
02:59 teach us how to please you. And we say this in Jesus'
03:04 name. Amen. Last time I spoke, my wife complained that my wife, you know, the
03:09 for the Americans among us don't understand Cantonese. My wife say,
03:15 meaning you're very long-winded. So I think my wife and Peter have gone into conspiracy. I only have two verses. How
03:22 long can it take? Right? So if I go very long, you know where I have a disease that they call it poopy disease getting
03:28 long with that. And today we only look at two verses and we centering only on this particular part of the verse. How
03:36 you ought to walk and to please God and what does that mean? And we're going to
03:42 break it down on living a life pleasing to God. And the next few weeks, I know brother Jeff will take us through next
03:48 week on leadership. Then Peter and some of the other speakers will go into the specifics of a life pleasing to God.
03:56 Today we going to look at it generally. And why don't we start up with a definition? How do you see a life
04:04 pleasing to God? Some people will say, "Hey, look at all these highprofile people, preachers, elders, deacons, they
04:12 do so much in church. They must be the one with a life pleasing to God. In that
04:17 kind of definition, public service being very busy is seen as being pleasing to
04:24 God. Is that the definition? Another very common definition is seen on moral
04:29 grounds. Know this guy is very moralistic. No, he doesn't do this, doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, doesn't
04:35 listen to this kind of music. He must be very pleasing to God. And let us see
04:40 where the text leads us. He says, "For you know what instructions we gave you."
04:46 And the Greek word here has a military definition here. It is basically it's a
04:52 commandment. It's a commandment. And he repeats it up
04:57 there. So we what we have here is an instruction to leave a certain way. So
05:03 you can always say is about obedience. But you look carefully at the book of
05:09 Thessalonians. The Thessalonians are not in a bad shape. They're not like the Corinthian
05:14 church. In fact, see what he says here. He says here how you ought to walk and
05:20 to please God just as you are doing that you do so more and more. They are already doing well. So here is probably
05:28 a definition for it. Pleasing God is simply joyful obedience.
05:35 Some people in church have the joy. Wow. Hallelujah Lord. praise you. Wow, the
05:41 church MS you. They don't have the obedience. Go to the church, it's all about God's love, God's grace. You leave the
05:48 service, you feel very wow, maong, very shocked, you know, very high. No
05:53 obedience. The rest of life completely you leaving it on your own. The other
05:58 people have a lot of obedience, but it's a superficial obedience is morality and there's no joy. You
06:06 don't see love. You don't see kindness. you don't see grace. It comes out of
06:11 guilt, but joyful obedience, that's our goal. And this morning, we're going to
06:16 pick up a little bit of what that really means. So, I'm going to just have two points. We're going to break it down. One is we're going to look at obstacles
06:24 in pleasing God, and we're going to look at planting the seed in pleasing God before we go into the specifics. And uh
06:32 you know, you ever had a case where you you you you felt you're not making progress in your Christian life?
06:40 You sort of been to church for a long time. Privately, you ask yourself, do I really believe all of this? Nah, I think
06:47 so. I can't I can't say I can't believe in church, but back home in the quietness, you're not so sure. Or you
06:53 come to church, you hit a road because people in ABC are not very nice to you. They're not very loving. They're not
06:58 very kind. and you just feel stuck or
07:04 you are struggling. You're trying to change, but you have some habits you just can't break and
07:11 you're wrought with guilt and shame and you're not so sure God's going to accept
07:16 you. And we're going to look a little bit about all these kinds of obstacles. Now,
07:23 if you let's use a simple mathematical breakdown. If you're not pleasing God,
07:28 then the simple question is who are you pleasing? Let's start off with a simple
07:33 logical question on that. Either please God or please fill in the blanks. And
07:39 for that, we need to go back to chapter 2. And if you have your Bibles, go to chapter 2 and we'll look at verse four.
07:47 He says this on the contrary chapter 2 verse4 we speak as men approved by God
07:53 to be entrusted with the gospel and there we have this gospel centerness of
07:58 the text but here look at what he says after that we are not trying to please men but God who tests our hearts the ESV
08:08 puts it this way for our pee does not spring from error impurity or any attempt to deceive but just as we've
08:16 been approved by God to be entrusted the gospel. So we speak not to please men but to please God. So what Paul is
08:23 saying if you're not pleasing God quite likely
08:29 you're pleasing others. Now you may sit there and say no no no no I'm not that type. I I listen to other people but in
08:36 the end I make up my own mind. I'm not the type of person who's that insecure that I just go with the waves. I know
08:43 who I am. I don't please other people. I please myself. We'll look in that also
08:49 in a while. But let me suggest to you, I want to propose we are much more
08:55 pleasers of others than we care to admit. Let me pick up the first one. The
09:00 first one is because of the need for acceptance. Because human beings are social animals.
09:08 We live in groups. We live in communities. And we need that community
09:13 to affirm us. So, if you're in church and you speak to church people, you want
09:19 church people to love you. When you're at work, you want your work people to
09:25 affirm you. At home, you want your family to affirm you. Now, here's the
09:30 problem. The three may all have separate values and they may clash. Let me give
09:37 you a very clear example of that is found in the book of Galatians and the case with Peter. And this is what Paul
09:44 writes about Peter. For before certain men came from James, he Peter used to eat with the Gentiles. When they
09:51 arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who
09:59 belong to the circumcision group or in more simple English he drew away because
10:05 he wanted to please this group. They should very legalistic who believe in
10:11 circumcision and the laws of Moses. Let's put it in simple English. He was eating bakut
10:19 very happy eating bakut at clang. Then suddenly this group came whom he
10:24 knew very well who had very deep respect for him who believed eating bakut was a sin. And when this group came he decided
10:32 not to eat bakut. not only made him a hypocrite but basically
10:39 he was he needed to please the other group. Now where is this founded upon?
10:44 Because if you know the story of Peter, Peter understands that Gentiles are not
10:50 required to be circumcised. You see this in the book of Acts in the conversion of
10:55 Cornelius. God reveals to Peter in the dream that all these are clean. So he
11:00 knows his scripture and if Peter can stumble so can we. So what we have is a
11:06 mind that says one thing but a heart that says something else. Haven't you got that? You know that you should
11:13 behave a certain way but you're when you're in a social setting with other people. You feel pressured to conform.
11:19 And when you feel pressured to conform, you behave in another way. And the context of that comes in the first
11:25 chapter. He says, "Am I trying to win the approval of human beings or of God?
11:30 Or am I trying to please people?" You are still trying to please people or not
11:36 be a servant of Christ. If you're as old as me, during my time before social media, we used to have
11:42 late night radio. I always wanted to be a DJ.
11:48 Good evening. And this is Radio FBC with Brother Arnold on the air coming to you
11:54 live from Subang. And who's there on the air? Oh, Justinta. How are you? Justinta, what can I do for you? Oh,
12:02 definitely. I'll play you this song. And here we have Eva Green with Autumn Leaves. No, Eva Presley with Autumn
12:09 Leaves. Eva Green is an actress. And then you play it. Then the phone rings again. And then you
12:16 pick up this is auto limb from first baptist churches. Who am I talking to?
12:23 Don't disturb me. Working wife
12:28 working can what? What daughter giving problem must be your side of the family
12:37 working. Hey the song end.
12:43 And that was Eva Presley with Autumn Leaves coming to you live from of
12:48 Baptist Church. You you see you see you see the story
12:55 shows you that you show your true colors in a certain way and you show another
13:01 color to another. That means you project an image to the public but privately you
13:06 project another image. And we do this all the time. We all want to be accepted
13:14 by our social grouping. I want you to lock this in because it says a lot about church and how we treat one another as a
13:20 family. Let me take it from acceptance, right? It takes you to another one which is about recognition.
13:28 And the clearest example is the Pharisees. And Peter Jesus says this when you pray
13:34 you know must not be like the hypocrites. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues at the street corners
13:40 that they may be seen by others. Uh lately, ever since becoming
13:47 whether a mistake or not, being an elder of the church, I've been quite busy. So the temptation is to show everyone
13:53 I'm very busy. Wow. You're very hardworking in church. Yeah. Very tired. Last night doing counseling until
13:59 midnight. Today also work. Never mind. What you want? I'll I'll do for you. Wow. Very good. Are you very
14:06 hardworking? Never mind. Never mind. I still can do it. I counsel you to 8:00 p.m. After that, I still got Bible
14:11 study. Laya, Laya, lay le. Why? Because you want to show everyone you're very
14:17 godly, ma. You're very holy. Just like the Pharisee. Now, now the simpler
14:22 example is phone calls. Haven't you seen this? People when suddenly they pick up the phone. Hi, Tansree. Actually, they
14:28 try to tell everybody I know Tansree. Hello. I know Trian, you know. Try where go New York can stay
14:36 where Trump tower can we booked the whole floor. Of course I'm not referring
14:42 to any recent events whatsoever but but the the the the need for
14:47 recognition I mean ask yourself a question fellow millennials we got a lot of millionaires in our midst. Do you
14:53 honestly admit that you work the same when your boss is around? And when your boss is not around, come on. Your boss
14:60 around everybody who boss around another window come up this that coffee break.
15:06 I mean look, we are all inclined this way. Now what I'm trying to show you are simple everyday examples. They're not
15:13 rocket science. They're little little things we do that betray our real nature. But here is where the rubber
15:20 hits the road. Acceptance leads to recognition. But here's the real real
15:26 reason why we do this. Because we need to feel loved.
15:32 That's really the rubber hits the road. It boils down that we all are hardwired
15:38 for meaningful relationships and we want the other side to love us.
15:44 That other side can be husband, wife, father, mother, friend, friends,
15:50 whatever it is because that what gives life meaning.
15:56 And some of the most tragic things we hear in church because for us we do some, you know, we
16:02 speak to the ground is when we see people in abusive relationships
16:08 and you have one party hoping the other side changes. he hasn't changed, you know, but you're too afraid to offend
16:16 him or her and you hope that if you don't say this, you keep quiet, the
16:22 relationship will go on. Or in simple English, you have just made that person
16:28 your God and you tell me, "Brother Anna, I can't
16:33 live without that person." because that person's approval, that person's emotional attachment for you is
16:41 so strong, you take that person away, you lose meaning. And here I want to tell you this
16:49 that Jesus say this in very strong terms. And so when we look at the word joyful obedience, there are two
16:55 components to it. First is a commandment. But I want to tell you in love, it is a gift.
17:03 It is a gift to free you from unhappiness, bitterness, and the
17:09 subjugation of your sense of selfworth. And Jesus strongly says this out. He
17:14 says, "Anyone whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
17:21 Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." It's very strong.
17:27 But then he adds something to this. This is about obedience. But look at what he
17:33 says there. He he said, "Whoever does not take his cross, follow me, is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life
17:40 will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
17:46 I I give you a simple example. I I today I'm going to give you very simple everyday examples to relate to. Like
17:53 every any couple I will argue my wife over anything. Scratch the car, I did that or whatever.
18:00 And and sometimes little arguments blow to big arguments. You all understand that, right? And if I had an argument
18:06 with my wife the night before, the next day I'm depressed. The whole day I'm thinking about it. And
18:12 what I do is that I want that problem to go away. Sometime God doesn't allow it to go away. And all I want is that
18:19 problem to go away and my life goes back to normal. But what this verse teaches me is God is
18:25 saying whether that argument goes away is not your call.
18:31 What you do with during this time of difficult relationship with your wife,
18:37 you please me. And when I think that way on those few days, I function better at
18:43 work. Make no mistake, I have a very strong relationship my wife. But like any normal couple, you know, we have the
18:49 occasional arguments. Nothing life and death. Sometimes some small little things some
18:54 people take a long time to cool off. For me men very simple scratch the car so what two hours no big deal for a woman
19:01 you scratch the car three days. Okay, I decided to go stays here guys
19:08 a joke. But what I'm trying to say is that when you make pleasing God your top priority, you will find obedience
19:14 becomes joyful is a gift. And suddenly the world doesn't grapple you so much because you
19:21 have just done what Jesus says. He just says this, "Whoever loses his life for
19:26 my sake will find it." I want you to keep that in your mind. Here's the second one about pleasing others. And
19:33 when you have an unhealthy way of comparing your life to others, now
19:38 there's a very healthy way of comparing. Here's a healthy way of comparing and it's found in the first chapter. And you
19:45 become imitators of us and of the Lord.
19:51 Meaning anybody you compare yourself with, when you look at your life and you compare yourself and that comparison
19:57 leads you to a closer relationship with God, that comparison is given by the
20:04 Holy Spirit. Here's simple example. When you look at someone like Perry and very
20:10 obvious had a long talk with her and you can tell she's a sensitive person. You can tell she makes a good wife. She'll
20:17 make a good mother. And it's not that she didn't want that, but she didn't have an opportunity of it
20:23 and she gave her life up to follow the Lord. Now, those are people you follow.
20:29 Those are people whose lives you compare with and you say, "Look at them." Because they point you to Christ. Here's
20:35 another person, another way. When things go bad, you always say, "Look at me. My life's terrible.
20:42 Everything's very bad." What we don't do is to look at another person where who's
20:47 also struggling but that person has the ability to move on because that person
20:53 depends on God. What we want to do is compare ourselves either in one way
20:60 we're very self-righteous like the Pharisee or we like to compare with others with better lives.
21:07 And Asians have one worst thing, you know, besides comparing the material
21:12 wealth, we like to compare our children. Yeah. What what your son studying? Hh?
21:19 Oh, my son my son doctor studying in England, UCL or whatever. Oh, my
21:25 daughter my daughter Australia, Melbourne University. Oh, what what your son doing? Oh, my
21:30 santa college. You see how we do that?
21:36 And then we tell ourel if only I was more beautiful my life would be better.
21:41 If only I had more money my life would be better. Now I I don't want to play down that some of us here are going
21:47 through very big difficulties. Do not get me wrong and I don't pretend
21:53 to understand that. But generally we have this habit of doing unhealthy
21:58 comparisons. Those healthy comparisons we don't do.
22:04 We don't say, "Lord, I thankful I'm not like a refugee from Afghanistan. I'm thankful I'm northern Rohhinga." We
22:11 compare ourselves with our peers. Now, here's something we can do as a First Baptist Church.
22:16 If you take a profile here, most people here are upper income and
22:22 can send their kids overseas. So, if I'm a poor person coming here and
22:27 I barely can get my kid through school and I have no money to send him or her for tertiary education, how are you guys
22:35 making that person feel at home? Simple question, right? Either that he's
22:41 going to sit here and basically feel very ostracized because when they go for
22:47 Globe Cafe, your son know anywhere? Oh, too bad. your son no good.
22:54 I mean seriously look past that. No. So it's all about unhealthy comparisons and
22:60 in the end it really boils down to one thing is about preoccupation with our own life. is like the pianist who plays
23:07 and he plays a brilliant piece and the whole house gives him a standing ovation and wow you did well and then he looks
23:16 unhappy and they ask him why because my teacher
23:21 who sat there wasn't happy in the end it doesn't matter everyone
23:27 gives you accolades whether your life is going well whether that you have good health your kids are in the best
23:33 universities you just have got a great life
23:39 in the end. Is God pleased with your life? And it boils down to a simple
23:44 thing. The simple truth is that whether you are pleasing others or you're pleasing yourself because you're blessed
23:50 with good looks, money, a good family, they both have self-centeredness.
23:56 Now, I just want to stop here a little bit and say that the Bible isn't saying you shouldn't please yourself or you
24:03 shouldn't please others. You see, for example, we all please ourselves. When you you want to eat a
24:11 chocolate cake later, are you going to pray over the chocolate ch? Lord, ask me, am I pleasing you? Am
24:17 I pleasing you? Should I eat the chocolate plate? In the name of Jesus, tell me. Hallelujah. You're not going to do it. You're just going to eat it,
24:22 right? So let's not be not not be so ridiculous about it. You please yourself
24:29 and obviously you please others. I have to please my wife. I have to please my mom, my dad. You have to please your
24:36 boss. What scripture is saying is that everything goes through the lenses of
24:41 pleasing God. Why? Again we go back to that comparison
24:47 thing from acceptance to recognition to love. For the gospel
24:53 tells us Christ accepted us as who we are. He recognized us and gave us the
25:01 right to call him aba father and he demonstrated his love that he died for
25:06 us in the cross. And so great is that love. What scripture commands is
25:13 everything we do we go through this. Now I want to suggest this is much harder to
25:19 practice. We see this again and again when we talk to people in church. They always comparing themselves. You know,
25:25 I'm not as good as his ex-boyfriend. I'm not as good as his ex-girlfriend. I'm not good as so and so. I can't send
25:32 my kids to study. Why is my health always so bad? We we compare all the
25:38 time and we make our life miserable. So, I want to break you down to recognize
25:43 that if you are not pleasing God, you're pleasing yourself or pleasing others. And this is really the foundation that
25:51 you just got to recognize. Now let's look at how then we can get past this.
25:57 And today I just want to talk about planting seeds. Meaning we want to get the base right. We want to be like the
26:04 wise men who built on rock and not on sand. And the first thing I'm going to
26:10 suggest, you have to be authentic. The Greek word for walk is literally that.
26:16 is found in Colossians 1 is found in Psalms one is about daily life and he
26:23 says this in chapter one he says we never came with words of flattery as you
26:29 know nor with a pretext now if I ask you
26:35 to do an audit of your life you see Christians like to say yeah I'm a sinner oh very good okay list list your sins
26:42 here's a simple thing to do you go back and you Ask you you you write down what
26:47 you think are your sins. And if you have someone very close to you you trust, ask him to write down your sins and you
26:53 match the two together. What are the chances the two list will match? I'll tell you very very unlikely.
27:01 Because what we like to do is play down our wrongdoing.
27:06 No, no, no. I don't have a temper. I don't have temper. I I just like to speak a bit loud. No, no, no, no. I don't I don't talk
27:12 very fast. They just don't listen. They're just very slow in listening. I'm not very reactive. I'm not reactive.
27:18 They they they provoke me. You know, it is very hard to take an honest look
27:25 at our own shortcomings. Doing a audit of your spiritual being is
27:32 basically leads you to auditing your emotional well-being. They are both connected. And understand this, human
27:39 behavior is on the unconscious level. Let me do one thing that uh I discovered
27:46 by myself. Um I can talk.
27:52 I don't mean that in an arrogant manner. I mean in an honest manner. People who can talk and who have a certain level of
27:59 intellect and I'm not saying I'm very intelligent. But do you know the combination is very deadly
28:05 because you're able to twist things you know. And I've discovered I can make
28:10 black gray and I can make white gray. Hey, Arnold, I heard you did that. No, I
28:16 didn't do that. What I actually said to him was he misunderstood me and then I wag you after four billion. You look at
28:22 me. Okay, I think you're right. I just I just wrangled my way out of it.
28:28 The only way I discovered that was a brother whom I love in KK sat me down
28:33 and not so many words across the table said, "You know what? I think you can have a habit of being very sneaky. Wow.
28:41 Hard here, right? You don't like to hear that. The first
28:47 reaction, no, I'm not sneaky. Is it's very painful to hear your shortcomings.
28:53 But let me tell you, it's very liberating. It's liberating when God's grace covers
28:60 you. That's why it's called joyful obedience. And if you can't audit yourself, you
29:07 have no starting base. If you have no starting base, you're going to repeat and repeat your same issues.
29:15 Simple example, some people in church service, referring to no one here, really going to be very
29:20 sensitive. They go overboard in helping. I've seen some people who really go,
29:25 "Wow, they really really serving." And you try to tell the person, "Do you do
29:31 you really need to serve so much? Yes, I'm doing it for the Lord. Actually, you're not doing it for the Lord. You're doing it for yourself because you're
29:38 empty. And you're trying to fill that with that service so that number one, people
29:43 recognize you. We're going back into recognition and they praise you. And number two, you then say, "Look, God, I
29:49 done this good stuff. It's not pleasing God. It's pleasing yourself." And you're
29:54 trying to fill this vacuum with another vacuum. And unless we fill it with God,
29:59 you will continue hopping on and on and on. So the first thing I challenge all
30:04 of you, start by reflecting on your wrongdoings. If you can't do that, you will actually
30:12 subjecting yourself to a lot of life of pain. I work with a lot of people nowadays and sometimes after a while
30:18 again without trying to be arrogant, I I believe I have a little bit of discernment. Sometime you meet this person, you know he's got an issue. You
30:24 can't tell the guy. You try to tell you, he runs around it. And here's the key thing. When he doesn't want to talk to you about it, then you know you have
30:31 issues. And I say this in love. Now, here's the opposite. Is God saying we should be perfect? No,
30:38 I'm sneaky. So, people look at me, a Christian, elder, snaky.
30:45 But that that's not the point. The point is not about me being snaky. The point is what am I doing about it? Here's here's another thing about family
30:50 examples. And I had a talk with Dr. Herbert Tan. He's the he's the he's from
30:55 my dad's church and he runs all the family line ministries in the Methodist church and he told me Christians are
31:02 under this pressure to be perfect families. He says we don't need perfect families. So I was quite stunned. I said
31:08 why you saying I should argue in front of my daughter? He said yes. Why do I want to argue my daughter? He says
31:14 because if you argue in front of your daughter your daughter sees what happens
31:20 is not the argument. is what you do after the argument. And if your daughter, he told me, sees
31:26 that you both can move on and have grace and have forgiveness, you have just
31:31 moved from trying to be a perfect family to being what? A redeemed family. And by
31:38 that we show the cross. Because if your kid can see mom and dad
31:44 forgiving, they understand forgiveness of Christ. You see where we're going from this?
31:50 So here it is boras in FBC. Put us together. We are going to step
31:56 all over each other. Some people here don't like me. I get it.
32:01 I may not like some of you. You should get that too. But despite that, we need
32:07 to have that grace because people see my kind of personality is going to rub off
32:12 bad on some of you guy. This guy talks too much. This guy got no no filter on his mouth. You know, keep away for
32:18 honor, man. I rather go to some of the other elders. I get it. But if both of us have grace, people see they then see
32:27 love and they see redemption. So authenticity and it's always in the
32:33 little things. Let's now go to the main point. Here's the main point. What John Piper says, you make pleasing God your
32:42 pleasure. And that's his foundation for his, you know, his Magnus Opus desiring God. You see the the text finds his
32:50 grounding in chapter three. I'm going to steal a bit of Jeff stags. I think that Jeff, you got a bit of this stack,
32:55 right? Let me steal a little bit, brother. And look at what he says. May the Lord make you increase and abound in
33:02 your love for one another and for all as we do for you. Now, we get that, right?
33:07 We're supposed to love one another. But look at what that does. So that, get it?
33:13 So that he may establish your hearts. Here's the first word. Hearts. Get that? Underline it. Not your head. Your
33:20 hearts. Blameless in holiness.
33:25 What is blameless in holiness? That's called pleasing dog God. How do you please your God? Fix your hearts.
33:33 Establish your hearts. How do you fix your hearts? Move back. Love one another. How do you love one another?
33:39 You love God. You see where we're going with this? If you can't love God, you
33:45 won't love others. If you won't love others, you are not fixing your hearts. And if you don't fix your heart, anything you do in church is not coming
33:52 from the Holy Spirit. Is coming from self-righteousness, is coming from duty, is coming from guilt, is coming from a
33:60 need to show everyone you're very smart or you're very good or you're very whatever, whatever, whatever.
34:07 And this is where you start off with. I give you a simple example. Uh I'm now
34:13 51. 15 years ago I was best man at Jay's wedding. He's not here. The first
34:19 service he was here and uh the wife very cruy sent a photograph of me 15 years
34:24 ago to my wife. Very cruel thing. I'm like what scriptures say outwardly we
34:29 are what? Outwardly we are wasting away. So my daughter saw a photograph of me 15
34:35 years ago in a suit and with more hair, less wrinkles.
34:40 Dad, what happened to you?
34:46 What happened to your hair, your face? And here's where it hurt so much. Not
34:53 really. Why did mom marry you? What? Got it right now. Why?
35:01 This was completely verified. Completely verified. And my wife told my daughter,
35:06 "I married your father because of his heart." Ah,
35:12 sorry. No, no, no. Let me let me get it right because the text is telling you, you got
35:18 to get your heart right. If your heart is not right before God, it won't be
35:24 right before others. And if it's not right before others, there is no way you and I are going to please God. Even if
35:32 you're a preacher, elder, deacon, ministry leader, and you have done so many things for the church, you are not
35:38 pleasing God. This is really the take-home lessons you and I got to take back and ponder upon
35:45 today. So all of us got to go back today and check our heart. And you start that
35:51 by doing an audit and see how far your heart is. This is like that song we sing. You see, it says this, you know,
35:57 when the music fades, all they strip away because it's silent. And I simply come when when there's no
36:04 more noise. There's no more den. I simply come. I'll bring you more than a song. Meaning sacrifice for a song in
36:12 itself is not what you have required. I don't need your song. I don't need your preaching, Arnold. I don't need the fact
36:18 that you're doing a lot of things at night. I don't need you to tell me that you're involved in X number ministries. I need none of that. Don't come to me an
36:26 Lim with your entire so-called CV or working in FBC. They are meaningless
36:31 sacrifice, the Lord says. And then the Lord says, you search much deeper within through the way things appear. You may
36:40 appear very righteous in the eyes of many people, but you're looking into my heart.
36:46 So let me give you one simple example. You see, some of us lead very defeated
36:51 lives. We say, you know what, I want to be Christian. I'm trying to, but I struggle with sin. I have this hidden area. No one knows. And if people know
36:58 who I am, I really feel very guilty. I'm such a hypocrite. I'm not going to even
37:03 go there. But this so common or I have this hurt. I can't get out. I
37:08 lead a defeated life. Now, this is why joyful obedience because by the cross
37:16 there is no defeat because Jesus has defeated sin. Amen.
37:21 You don't have a defeated life. What you have is a disobedient life.
37:27 Once you understand that, you understand that I'm not defeated. I'm disobedient.
37:34 Then God's grace fills you. His love fills you. And you say, you know what? I
37:39 know I'm disobedient. Lord, be with me. I'm going to slowly start that journey to move from disobedience to obedience.
37:47 And how do I do that? I do that not by an external show, not because I'm guilty. I do it by fixing my heart. I
37:54 fix my heart and I say, "Lord, teach me to love you and to demonstrate that love
38:00 to love others." And you find when you do that, sin doesn't grapple you so
38:07 much. The troubles of the world doesn't grapple you so much. You become more
38:13 authentic and life becomes more worth living and you will have life to the
38:20 fullest. And let me just end with this. Pleasing God is a relationship process. He uses
38:28 this word just as you are doing that you also do it more and more. And he repeats
38:34 that again and again. He repeats that in the second part of chapter 4. He says this in verse 10. Yet we urge you
38:41 brothers do so more and more. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 he says your faith is growing more and more. What
38:48 does the word more and more tells you? It means you are growing
38:53 or in Colossians he say this in to walk in the manner worthy Lord pleasing to him bearing fruit and increasing.
39:01 Now what God has done is God has swed seeds among all of you.
39:07 And a relationship simply means and I want to talk specifically about those of you struggling with sin
39:14 and there are days where you're victorious. There are days where you're not. I give you example. I pledged long
39:22 time ago to watch my mouth. Not watch it, but watch what I say. Those of you
39:28 who know me, this is going to be a lifetime struggle because I'm bottom mouth. I'll be struggling with this to the day
39:34 I die. But because I'm a child of God, I don't give up.
39:40 So, you could be struggling with bitterness. You could be struggling with some sexual habits. You could be
39:45 struggling with emptiness, loneliness,
39:51 but it's a relationship that grows more and more and there will be good days
39:58 and there will be very bad days. But if you cling to God and say, "God,
40:04 fix my heart on a bad day. Let me love you." And I will tell you, joyful
40:13 obedience is not only a commandment, is a blessing from God. For whoever loses
40:20 his life, you'll find it. I'm going to close with just two points. One,
40:26 pleasing God is a family affair. You know, I Googled FBC and wow, we're
40:33 really on the internet. You know, we're really on the internet. Last few years I looked at all the things we have done.
40:41 I know it says something about the church. One there's this word called intergenerational.
40:48 What's the difference between intergenerational and multigenerational? Multigenerational means in this group
40:53 there many pockets. Intergenerational means we support each other throughout
40:58 the generations. older people to younger, younger to older,
41:04 different races, different people because we are family and family
41:10 supports one another. You will find uh Paul says this, I came to you chapter one like a father, I came to you like a
41:17 mother and I want to challenge you if you are to please God, we do it
41:23 together. And as we move this new vision in our church, we are asking everyone to
41:29 connect, to talk, to discuss, move beyond your silo, move beyond your
41:35 little groups, your gang, your friends, and reach out to people whom are outside that. And here's one challenge I give to
41:41 everyone. Everyone here, I will tell you, God's mandate to you is to look out
41:47 for someone else. That's simple baseline. That's how you love others. and look out for someone
41:53 preferably outside your comfort group. Why do we say that? Why do we say uh
41:58 first baptist church we find in chapter 2 the church in Thessalonia was so uh
42:04 good so such a moral example the other churches were following them.
42:10 So let me end with this simple thing. If outside people think of first baptist
42:16 church what do they say? FBC FBC. Oh, that church a lot old people.
42:22 Oh, that church lot Chinese one. Oh, FBC. Where are they? Never heard of
42:29 them. You see where we're going? But one day, I always thought, you know,
42:35 if in the book of Revelations, God can pull off seven churches and judge the church together. I always wondered one
42:43 day when we meet the Lord, we will come together as a church. Hey, Peter, you're
42:49 here. Hey, Ja, you're there. Don't be surprised. And God, before he judges
42:55 each member and pulls out a separate sheep from goats, God may judge the
43:01 whole church. And may he not say we were lukewarm. And may God say to each and every single one
43:09 of you, well done, good and faithful servant. May we lead a
43:16 life pleasing to God. And let me just close. You can only do it through Jesus
43:22 Christ. Let us move together as one body. May people look at us as a family that is
43:29 real. Yes, we are hypocrites. Yes, we are not consistent. But may we show what
43:37 a redeemed people is. Once and all we are work in progress.
43:43 And God is slowly changing our hearts. Let us get up the song. And this is a
43:49 song that uh the lyrics uh we spoke of just now. And as God just moves in our
43:56 midst, I just want you to just have a simple question. Just look at your heart. And we are ears in your heart
44:04 that God wants to change. Lord, as we just uh quieten our hearts and let the spirit
44:11 just move in our midst, teach us, oh Lord, to
44:17 audit our heart with all our wants, our insecurities, our pain, our bitterness,
44:23 our our disobedience, our fear, our bad habits, the hidden things no one
44:30 knows. And we lay it at the cross.
44:36 And Lord, oh Lord, we ask that you fill us with your love. And with that love, oh Lord, it flows to forgiveness and
44:43 grace. And we love others. And we learn to fix our hearts.
44:49 And when we fix our hearts that we may fall, we may make mistakes, but we will
44:55 go on. We then learn to live a life of joyful
45:01 obedience. And Lord, you may take us our whole life, but we ask today we begin the
45:09 begin that work in us.
