The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:00:01 Peter we see him as a preacher he's got another Ministry with his partner in crime Andrew you know you know why already teacher because we are continue to church camp these guys are Foodies you know I tell you go Church camp I was looking for my fellow Elder where Peter or Peter went up for chak with Andrew 1 hour 15 minutes to eat chak he wack two plates the single po come after any more CH no because Peter wall up the whole thing I think Andrew we really need to discipline this guy Le our Elder stay
00:00:32 they and night go for harm you know afternoon evening time one group went for Duan Yan you were there I saw you and W buet I don't know how the stach think it think buet think CH think D think H you know sa you guys very guilty saw what you posted Lord repenting this to do today all right the sermons are up there next week uh the Christian and love Dr Peter overcoming the world on 25th June by Yan and and Peter again never understanding the nature of Temptation and today what we will do is that we're going to continue the sermon
00:01:08 series we did on the church camp we did three on Ephesians and we're going to continue uh let me just start off with villain I mean all you Marvel I know there's some Star Wars people here I don't know how many Marvel people here right but you know a good Marvel movie needs a good villain and villain oh must have a l one you know Thanos you know you can buy that Gauntlet from Lazada if you want by the way the Red Skull and for the more serious one the right hand side that's the Kingpin from darkevil
00:01:39 okay and hear a few more just to get You Going H from Ro look at hand like and then of course namore from Black Panther and of course the below one of course is uh I forgot his name but he's from G of Galaxy I'm a bit of a geek but you notice one thing about super villain they almost must have the look no like oh you know uh you know looking at you must have that CH weapon now got that got that you must look must St you know Superion like that not Superion you know so when you see a Villain Like This H H any Von
00:02:21 villian anyone movie fans know who this is wow go B wow this is real hardcore man this is super vilant where is the look where is the weapon where is the superpower the guy is on the handphone most of the time in the movie there a reason why he's on handphone but I will tell you among all the vilain he's probably the most deadly you know because he's got something all these guys do not have he has the ability to deceive and one of his most famous quotations in the movie is this an Empire is toppled by its enemies can
00:03:05 rise again but one which crumples from within that's dead forever and Zemo plots to break the Avengers from within and this is a very famous movie in 20116 I think it's one of the best better ones the series is called Civil War now before you guys say this is all fiction let me bring it back to home a bit now all right this is David PL all the millionair know them I mean millionairs in our church have a reading list you know John Piper Francis Chan Bible project David plat you know all those what we call gospel centered
00:03:44 movement people okay no no no disrespect all right the Gen Z people also this David plat right youngest Pastor in the age of 20 to hit a mega church former head of the Southern Baptist convention and he he took over a church called McLean Bible Church in Washington and when he took over the attendance Dro and what happened in 2021 five members of the church sued him and look at what they write in the post you know let go second post plat has been referred to as wolf in SHO clothing in safe mlin Bible Church post
00:04:28 plat was caught aive fire and accus of gas lighting in recent post we said Mega Church Pastor David plat Wars of disinformation however is found to be the one lying with a drastic decline in weekly attendance at McLean Bible Church is it ever considered mega church anymore and etc etc they lost a case last year and they launched a new one against him at the end of last year and that's gone to court and I I I've been reading this and what was very fascinating the past the the lawyer who supports this this Fringe group uh is a
00:05:03 very devout Christian you know the lawyer's name is Rick Boer and he wrote a book called God Caesars and idols and you read it he talks about how reclaiming America from his idolatry and it's very funny because David pl's recent book is the same thing now you're just a every Church goer you look at this guess how you feel you get very discouraged so I'm not trying to start doom and boom but the idea of strife and quarrels in the church which leads to splits is a major issue and I really want to deal with this today in a humble
00:05:40 manner so today we're looking about avoiding Civil War in the church it is part four of a series let's come before the Lord in prayer Lord I ask for hum humility utter humility be with me as I I fearfully share this and we ask that y we hear your your word and not just be hearers but doers of it in Jesus name we say this amen so on the opposite side let me share with you some of my favorite photos of the church camp a bit of unity this was not U uh what what this this was initiated just spontaneously at the third sermon we
00:06:23 went into some prayer and some of them just got there and then they just held hands and at end of the sermon because we did Ephesians 3 where it's about prayer I kneel before the father a lot of members came in front and nail and there was a sense of Brokenness and a sense of unity what am I trying to tell you I think FBC is in a good place but you must never take these things for granted so we're going to go through chapter 4 of Ephesians now this is a difficult text especially verses 7 onwards verses 1-6 quite straightforward
00:06:56 vers 7 he quotes Psalm 68 so we going to break this down a bit and and see what God has to teach us today I'm going to go first to the first few verses we'll just take the first six verses as a prisoner for the Lord then now that's interesting opening that's found in chapter two because at the end at chapter 2 he at the end of it he says he has suffered for the Ephesian search do not be do not be ashamed of suffering it is For Your Glory all right he's in a prisoner the Ephesian church is mourning
00:07:28 for him he says no then he says I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received now you can either take that verse as a general calling or a specific calling meaning we all supposed to live a life worthy as a Christian but is he talking about it generally like Holiness you know uh giving charity to the poor or is there a specific purpose here and I think there is a specific purpose and it's found especially in verse three so let's go again be completely humble and gentle be patient bearing one another in
00:08:03 love and here's what I will tell you I believe is that life worthy of the calling to make every effort here again make every effort the Greek here is to stress to do it a lot to keep the unity of the spirit not the unity of the form just because two people follow the same football club you are united whether you're R devil or whatever is not it's an inner Unity of the spirit through the bond of peace and this is to Ephesian church is a local calling right there is one body one Spirit just a call
00:08:37 to one hope where you were called one Lord One Faith one baptism one God father of all who is over all and through all and in all so here's one way to sandwich the text as a prisoner of the Lord is important to him right live a life worthy of the calling what is that calling peace Unity in FBC how do you do it three points be completely humble and gentle be patient and bearing with each other in love now that seems quite straightforward right you you're going to say okay I mean I'm quite a humble guy I don't I don't I'm not very
00:09:16 ex one you know I'm very patient and I so you think you're very well but but the text isn't meant to be read that way that's a flow it's meant to be taken as a staging you know from one to two to three and actually the first three chapters support this so let me give you the first point Christian Unity is not the absence of conflict it is the ability to be United despite conflict that's why you bear with each other in love one of the sad stories I had was you know in family life we do some counseling and and I I
00:09:53 was with this guy okay I'm changing the facts a little bit and he told me he he was brought out a family where they fought you know he saw his parents fighting all the time and he vowed when he got married he was not going to fight and so when he got married he didn't fight he bottled it inside and so he went through marriage without a fight and one day the wife left him because they don't talk it is never about the absence of conflict you are the four Elders we fight a lot run probably due to me confess okay he you that here already
00:10:30 shaking his head okay I got lot forgiving to do but we make up after that now the way to look at it is this way and Piper puts it the best John Piper's got a great sermon on this Christian humility is to think lowly of yourself and highly of Christ and chapter two all right so that none might boast you have been saved by grace so that none might boast boasting means I deserve salvation no you didn't do it he reminds again the Gentiles in Chapter 2 remember you who are far abroad near don't take it for granted H that's why
00:11:10 he's trying to tell the Gentiles the moment you are humble you think lonely of yourself and highly of Christ you then develop patience humility the pre prequisite a genuine patience because God was patient with us he did not want anyone of us to perish and when you do that you can bear with each other in love because you see our sins first before you see the sins in others in the church camp I told people you know uh there's a difference between fellowship and friendship friendship is your you know you go eat
00:11:47 chak together but you will not eat chak with somebody you bet and let's be honest in this church there's some people cannot T I cannot tah he talks too much he always interrupt me tell me how he interrupt me can of bet I don't know how this guy became I may not get on you because I find you AB B CDE e we all have that that chemistry that don't get on but Fellowship the idea of partaking together being coass together inheritance comes up five times in book of of Ephesians you know the ID sharing
00:12:27 together is not optional so I suggested maybe together someone tell me how can together canot the guy ask me together so I said maybe Mar together in a group law maybe he sit the father's side but it's mandatory you need to try but but one way or trying is how you look at him when you look at the guy say I really cannot tah this fellow scripture saying we look at yourself first and the moment you see yourself as a sinner that God accepted when you look at the person you just see another fellow sinner that God
00:13:02 also accepted and both are sharers in the same inheritance let's start on this and build on this all right the second one as the verse goes we read from verses four the word one is mentioned seven times this is great poetic writing basically seven is basically fullness and we know this because the Ida of fullness appears again and again Ephesians Ephesians 2 tells you the Gentiles are ass together meaning you're one with people whom you don't like people of different communities different people of different races
00:13:41 Oneness with many people now I enjoyed the church camp but there was one small little issue I was sitting on on on on on on I think was lunch with sunny and Sally the all my old friends from usj Tre I got PR status usj three life group by the way and then I asked what do you think the C sorry s i Ria here today he a very good camp but a lot old people we should rename the camp ter scam now that's not being insulting okay I'm I'm trying to say look around you look around you if a young adult visits FBC you know
00:14:21 what they'll say or not wow so many Uncle Auntie how to find boyfriend correct or not you're not careful we will rename this church for First Baptist Church to graer K we have a crisis I'm 56 so I put myself in the in the whole equation all the elders also all also losing hair or white hair already you your time will come now you see here's one thing we need to pick up about older people older people and Ephesians 2 picks got a sense of entitlement one you know I remember once I was lining up for
00:15:04 food I got be very careful how I say this and there was this auntie in front of me very careful and then vendor was saying auntie I stay behind hello there 10 people behind you you know I I'm entitled to respect now you don't say so much imagine how the young person feel now what Paul is saying to the Gentile Church you're the biggie in the church is your job to make the minority feel welcome so all you uncles aunties here you see the young people here please make them feel love love because we got a crisis in the next
00:15:47 10 Years everybody here be white hair Oneness is with everybody young adults imagine families with young children you know how many struggles they have have your children already you already in the olden golden a they fla the roster they got two kids running around everywhere throwing up no other people to Kaki with you know I go to another church with young adults or younger families now I tell you why this is deadly I was brought up in my uni days with a church that was homogeneous you know it doesn't matter
00:16:21 whether old people or young people and in my uni days everybody was my skin All Foreign overseas students and my age and we were brought up to know the Bible when I came back I learned to be very divisive to other people because I thought I was better than them you're not gospel centered you don't know the Bible a healthy church I think Wong always picks it up has to be intergenerational multi-racial or strata this is not optional and make every effort the question question to all of you how high is this a priority because
00:17:03 to do that is dangerous because you be forced to mix with people you cannot tahan but Oneness join as bearing with each others in love this is the call of the gospel for God did not save all of us to be just uniform you know but to have a diversity because when you get to heaven the Nations will be there now let me not take you to the core of the text and this is where I really want to spend some time with verse S but to each one of us the word Grace appears again as was in in Chapter 2 has been
00:17:40 given as Christ a forunate this is why it says and this part is quite strange when extended on high he took many captives and gave gifts to his people there's a quote from Psalm 68 and you sort of read it like what's that God to do with unity and he adds a bracket you know what does he ascended mean except that he also descended to the lower Earthly regions now that has caused a lot of controversy he who descended is the very one who extended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe now that's a clue because
00:18:13 filling the whole universe is found in chapter one how the gospel fills the whole universe you know through what through the church and in that prayer chapter 3 he says he prays that you come to the knowledge of God the unsurpassing knowledge of knowing the love of God and we come to the fullness of him so that's a clue they he add something even more strange from Unity he suddenly talks about who the leaders are in the church so Christ gave himself Apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers these
00:18:44 are leadership you know to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up and then he comes back to it until we all reach unity in two areas in the faith one in the faith and in the knowledge of the son of God so there's some wisdom required here in the knowledge and the knowledge is the Son of God specifically as suggest is the gospel and become mature and then he comes back again to the idol of fullness remember in verse 10 what he says he who distended extended to fill the whole
00:19:17 universe and that was to Christ now he takes it to the church the church has to attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ he's matching the two verses now let me put the two two verses side by side you notice there's a difference you know I'll give you a first of the context of 68 right just for you to understand the psalm 68 is the body of writings what we call the warrior king all right there two parts you need to understand here the warrior king and in this case it is the Ark of the
00:19:52 Covenant making his way back up to the temple so God is Victory torious going up and he has brought with him the captives this is what called the SPs of war and perhaps these are the Philistines and captiv we sang a song just some of the enemies in shackles and as it does he he took gifts Psalm 68 he received gifts from people even from the rebellious that's the first context all right so when you read it you you start understand the history the second is the location of this Psalm this Psalm Compares two mountains you know Mount
00:20:30 Zion and another place called Mount Bashan now Ephesus is a church in Syria Bashan today is called the Golan Heights or what we call the disputed territories and during those days Bashan had another area called Mount Heron where ceria Philippi or the Temple of Zeus was there and John Lee preached on this one and on that Temple they believe there was a river which the god pan went through and from there they went to the underworld meaning out of that area the gates of hell open up and so when Christ
00:21:09 says I will build this church where the Gates of Hell will not Prevail there's a location here so when you read it at that time two things come to your mind one the idea of Victory as victory God took gifts from the captives two there is a spiritual Dimension here about demon forces but what Paul does he takes Psalm 68 and he flips it you know he doesn't say he receives gifts instead he says he gave gifts now what does this mean it means this in verse time when it says that Christ descended it doesn't mean he went
00:21:48 to Hades some people say that what it means is this is a message about the gospel as Christ descended and died in the grave that's what it means when he descended he rose again to fill the heavens that's Ephesians 1 and is seated at the right hand side of God and as he did that as all of us came to the saving knowledge of the Grace by grace of Christ through the gospel what he did was he gave gifts because he took captive death he took captive demonic forces and Ephesians talks a lot about demonic forces the
00:22:27 last chapter is about the armor of God as you are being saved you have been saved demonic forces are attacking the church trying to split the church he gives gifts that is the point by Grace he gives gifts this is very important and he gives two types of gifts number one he gives gifts in terms of leadership now this part you need to really listen H he says Christ himself gave the apostles the Prophet evangelist pastors and teachers pastors and teachers is one word meaning leadership has to pastor and teach leadership has
00:23:04 to be Evangelistic leadership has to be prophetic and Leadership has to go to the word is what the apostles did to equip his people for works of service now so far so good you say yeah yeah yeah yeah I agree but I I think you four Elders not really doing a good job after service I talk to you but this second part is critical in how you understand Church so that the body of Christ may be built up yeah yeah yeah not very built up I'll talk to you later an until we all reach unity in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God we
00:23:41 talked about that so here's a question to you all right I put it up whose responsibility is it to build up the church the responsibility isn't the Council of Elders it isn't the church board it it isn't your assembly of leaders you know it is you you know leadership's job is to equip by pastoring by teaching he but you guys doing a lousy job yeah is there an exclusion Clause there on condition they're doing a good job if they're doing a lousy job we can sit here and just be pure warmers it doesn't say that
00:24:21 H so even if the four Elders are doing a really bad job about it guess what responsibility is it to build up the church yours so I'm going to ask a dangerous question now this question very sensitive on you know okay I I take you to it I've been ATC 10 years you know in all this time no one came up to ask me how I am you know this is going to sound insulting but please bear with me yeah be in love if someone come tell me that you know I'm very tempted to say yeah can I pray for your repentance huh I'm telling you you're
00:25:11 not doing a job guess whose job is it to build up the church you see if something like this happen the responsibility is two sides one maybe the elders have been doing a really bad job I mean I mean just hypothetically I pray not but if you've been FBC 10 years why didn't you do something about it you see where the tax is going with it and and and what we don't want is FBC to be first and best in complaining because every time you complain you complain about yourself you know in the camp we did a mimer uh uh
00:25:55 poll I I didn't want to put it up because of time I I it was very telling for me and it was very loving I asked do you think FBC is a loving Church to all sorts of people and 49% of the people say yes that means 51 people say no I mean simple majority you lost hung parliament are you lost already that means majority say no at the end of the sermon I repeated the same poll but I changed the word is not do you think do you think you are part of the reason why we are not a church that you know same thing but
00:26:29 around and 40 plus people say yeah I I I actually only talk to people that are kak you know now that was very humbling because people are saying I'm part of the problem and this morning I think God is challenging you to that building up the church is the responsibility of all believers the role of the church is to equip Believers for this yes maybe the elders need to improve their work and we need to be humble enough to take criticism we going back to the first few verses we need you need to have patience
00:27:07 with us as we try to change and me and you need to bear with one another in love then you say I'm not leader Ma I not like you you can go there and talk like anything yeah you're right but remember this the text says God gave gifts two types of gift the first is leadership the second okay is this and it's found in verse 16 from him the whole body joined and held together but every supporting ligament grows and builds itself in work as each part does its work everyone has a gift sitting in a Pew on a Sunday
00:27:47 morning week after week is not a gift doing small things like saying hello to somebody being a parking attendant looking up for someone praying for people that's a gift and he doubles down on this in Ephesians 2 repeating the same thing it is by Grace you have been saved not by work so that no one can be boast that's the idea of humility gain Ephesians 4:1 and you are God's handywork creating Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do I want to challenge you this morning how are you being part of
00:28:26 this and this is a hard question right you know you know in in church camp I talked a lot about being uh reaching out to The Outsiders so some people can't tell me he an don't talk with Outsider Insider in FBC also don't feel welcome then I'll say well you know what all of us got our work cut out for us and maybe we better start to pray a lot more about this okay this one I really want to spend sometime okay he now flips it on the negative then we no longer be infants toss back and forth by the wave
00:28:59 the imagery here is that as a baby as an infant toss back and forth that means uh you you cannot fight back you know you you're helpless moving around blown here and there and here he say but every wind of teaching that mean the wind blows you you you blown and then by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming now what exactly does it mean he picks it up in Ephesians 5: 6 let no one deceive you with empty words so we not talk theological differences between Armenians and calvinist and and
00:29:32 Evangelistic and charismatics and all these people who like to talk theology that's not the kind of teaching he's talking about he's talking about teaching that lead people to be immoral impure or greedy because these people do not inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God and again the word inheritance that's found twice in chapter one once in Chapter 2 another time in chapter 3 is a major theme in the book of Ephesians let me see whether you can see where we're going with this all right in Chapter 2 he says this when he talks
00:30:04 about all these immoral impure greedy people he say you used to live when you followed the ways of this world that's that's really this impure immoral thing but they are in partnership with what the ruler of the kingdom of the air so there's a contrast between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the air so let me see where you can go with this because the idea of spirit Warfare the kingdom of the air is in tre text and is Ephesians 6 centerpiece that means what Paul is really looking at is this you know he's
00:30:42 saying church disunity is spiritual warfare I'm going to give you an example of this and see whether you know where I'm coming with this in act 20 with the Ephesian church he says this and this this is to the modern church after I leave remember this to the church in Ephesians in Acts Savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock that's the way of the world that's deception even among your own number pastors Elders leaders men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw
00:31:24 away disciples after them you know in the movie uh civil war helmet zmo is always on the phone you know and when you watch the movie you hear the phone the the the the phone has a woman's voice in it it plays itself again and again in the movie you wonder why finally at the tail end of movie you realize he's not listening to the phone he listening to a recording of his dead wife he plays it again and again because he blames The Avengers when they entered into the country in a heroic attempt they flattened the city his whole family
00:31:56 died his children and his wife and he holds all superheroes responsible for that and he will break them from within that what makes him such a dangerous villain and he stirs descent between Iron Man and Captain America and he breaks the theme here's one lesson already because that's already Genesis 4 anger emotions people don't think straight when I showed you this photo just now right if you're a guy who has David plat on your podcast you read radical and I just told you you know you know this guy is being sued I bet you
00:32:38 the first thing you say ah these people troublemakers are David PL he would not have done it I read his book He's a godly man this this is not true that's an emotional statement you know now I have deep respect for David PL for what he read but how can you make a statement like that without knowing the fact you know why we're going with this it's an emotional statement all right so this book by this Christina Cleveland and she's been interviewed by Gospel Coalition this Unity Christ and understand we talking about spiritual
00:33:11 forces he says uncovering the hidden forces that keep us apart and here's one thing about this unity all you uh millionair especially because million read a look how many of you read books by women authors Christian books by women authors let me double down how many of you read Christian books by women authors and nonwhite authors why is the Reformed Church mainly white authors writing that's something for you to think not being racial here but there's a point about unity and uniformity now she states a
00:33:43 few reasons you know one we classify people we disagree with by putting them into boxes ah this group Troublemaker if I come up to you and tell you and something and I just say like for example I say and and uh let's just use example I say uh andreula today I'm going to pick on andreula Andrew let Peter astray by giving him CH just just for argument sake okay but you are part of Andrew's food group you also go eat with him immediately you say trauma maker because you put in a category it can be anything though H
00:34:20 this guy talks too much and this guy is too emotional you immediately put them in a box we take that and we push it to the ological level he's a Catholic that's why they think like that they're charismatic charismatic don't think all very emotional one put them in the box you talk to Charisma this one Evangelical chur they are dead in their worship all intellectual cannot speak a heart put them in the box the first thing we do we put people in the Box the second thing we do we want to believe we
00:34:48 belong to the right group This Is My Tribe FBC I must be in the right tribe so anything taught here must be right they call this the ingroup bias in Psychology and because you're in the ingroup anybody who disrupts the status quo is a troublemaker this is how church fights begin and I will tell you some of you know I have firsthand experience of this and it is very frightening all right and here's the key word which I think Ephesians picks it up in the last verse we have no deep desire to really engage with
00:35:30 believers who disagree strongly with us so let me tell you a story and I want to really couch this in Love From the Heart all right let's first see what is the antidote the antidote is verse 15 instead speaking the truth in love meaning the antidote to 14 to spiritual forces The Way of the World the cunning craftiness that splits the church is to speak the truth in love and we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him second point is the head that is Christ the head of the church
00:36:04 isn't this charismatic personality up here or Pastor that grips the church it is Christ is the head of the church so I'm going to give you history of FBC all right and uh you can see this on the website so bear with me H all right so let me read it for you what's posted on the website FBC was established in June 19 1957 as the first English speaking Baptist Church in ping Jaa he grew up worship service and Sunday School classes started by Miss jeny green hero and Clark at Baptist clinic building J
00:36:39 dispensary P old toown this is exactly in the website the late 1980s was a difficult time significant member of the members left FBC with charismatic issues FBC requested for assistance for FMB uh missionary Pastor David Watson was signed to FBC in March 199 past tanin from jown Baptist join FBC Pastor tan proposed a mega church concept which embrace the congregation FBC here's one thing I want you to listen H was to be one big church with two centers of worship FBC pantai FC subang Center all you new people listen to this and then
00:37:20 this is our golden era a new era evangelism began old Clan Road team ministered to squatters mother's club was formed Filipino Ministry was started Riot was started as a youth initiative New Hope began if you list out all those things are young families Filipinos people struggling with addiction young y uh uh people who are or asle that is the United Church mission trips everything is here now what's interesting is after this feeling nothing else what happened after 19 98 now this is where I want to speak in
00:38:01 love very gently you see I told you it's in the website it's just not in our website is in another Church website is in the website of panai Baptist Church because older members know FBC subang as we stand now grew out of a civil war with his pantai counterpart now I want to track carefully here because I don't want to uh I don't want to discourage people so I've been struggling how to say this I just want to say one word you know if you because we're talking about speaking the truth in love right we struggle in a few areas one we
00:38:45 speak the truth but he not in love that came up very heavily during this time the words they were used was unbelievable I think us older members all saw it you know we were accusing people of all sorts of things you know I'm not going to go into the Gory details the two the second one is we speak the truth in love we we say we love but we don't speak the truth because Don't Rock the Boat now I don't get involved but here is the one that really struck me this fight was years ago if you meet an older member of subang now
00:39:26 and ask them about what happened at a fight and you meet an older member of pantai church and ask them about a fight do you think the two accounts were correlate and match they will not match at all I wager the pantai side will lay the blame on subang and the sumang side will lay the blame on pantai and that's the tragedy of it so I want to end with something for us to consider and this was written in Christianity Today where Timothy darl which the editor of the CEO talk about how the Evangelical Church in America is
00:40:03 so split nowadays you can't even sit down and talk about Trump you can't even sit and talk about vaccines and and that goes to multiple splits like what's happening in David plat church and he said the church today is like this you know it's like what I show you David plat all of us are inclined a certain way due to experiences desires and prior beliefs so when we look at what we saw with David plat we get worked up cannot be right so let's just say there's a division over a pastor over what a pastor did immediately you
00:40:37 say no I know the pastor I I I I had fellowship with him he's not get kind of character immediately the mind says this are a bunch of of of troublemakers who's going after a pastor who doing something I'm being generic here but the heart already is leaning certain way now out of that Timothy say something interesting he says that the Mind locates information to fit it or no I go look around I I find there see these people wrote this kind of things this fellow wrote this thing and and and badmouth the pastor hey I heard now so
00:41:13 and so sit this and sit that you know and then you gather your kakang around and when you match the two together you create an echo chamber and within your Echo chamber you you are right the other side is wrong and I will tell you in love I've seen this happen again and again again and this has been something that has been dominating my my my thinking for years I'm going to be honest with you before the split happened between pantai and and subang I had great respect for many people I was involved I
00:41:49 was in pantai by the way when the split happened I remember I sat now in one room to lament with some people and some sister told me that he says you know what when Christians fight that they're worse than non-christians you know why because we lack humility we put on self-righteousness we have no patience we don't bear with another love and we don't know how to forgive now I want to commend pantai because what pantai did was pantai decided to do a history up to 98 and then the leadership decided you know
00:42:22 what after that is a dark history let's not write it and I I really respect them for that on my own I reached out few times in fact few months ago I reached out to a leadership there I said why don't we try to makan talk about it and he reach out back to me and says no I think let it go it is my prayer one day there will be full reconciliation but right now we learn to maybe have Grace and move on so how can we move how can we counter this Timothy says you need to move to a Common Center you know what's that
00:42:58 Common Center it is the gospel the moment your Common Center is what did that Pastor do what the moment at Common Center is should we speak in Tong or should we baptize this way should we should we renovate and spend 2.5 million on the renovation the moment you sent that you will split the church but the moment you put it to the gospel you find you have more commonalities and then he suggest a few things which both books I I which I the other one that I said recommended also say the same thing first you focus the
00:43:34 centrality of church life on the gospel not other matters other things you and I will disagree to the day we die we disagree one because human nature is sinful number two you all have to pray for me Yen ulam and Peter that we are always humble and gentle because if the leadership is not this the leadership does not send an example I think this is critical and all books say that and we must really be patient and we must bear each other in love and I think that's said the four of us bear with one another I think the
00:44:08 three of them bear with me more because I'm the firecracker but but you need to start with leadership the problem with Evangelical leadership they are all celebrity status the moment I mention your celebrity it can may be anybody yeah you get worked out because you're aligning to a person remember the textt say the head of the church is Christ you know but the Protestant church has replaced that with this Persona basis you know like me standing up here look at you hey anim who you this is my fan base you
00:44:41 know how deadly that is so the leadership must always be humble because humble people are teachable three all of you have to use a gift because if you're Building a Church you got no time to squabble over who painted a w day whether we should move the crash upstairs whether we should speak in tongues we all too busy too tired already so eat together play together work together study together pray together and above all above all of this what does the last text says which is my prayer for all of us you need to create
00:45:21 safe spaces where the truth can be spoken in love that's very hard because you will look at a person and say if I tell him he'll just bite my head off so don't talk law I see you in church I look up you look down we avoid one another law and you begin to have F lines for disunity speaking the truth in love is such an important Point chapter five doubles down on it I will be doing this in the next sermon I do he tells you to speak that which is only need for building up the body he talks about speaking the truth he talks about
00:46:03 letting go of bitterness and one final thing above all and I I I this is something that maybe kept me going all these years and this is chapter 5 forgive as the Lord forgave in my narrative and it's a fallen narrative what happened in the split I'm right now you're wrong Ma I rewire myself 10 times I'm still right you're wrong if I meet someone in pantai he rewi his narrative 10 times he's right honor Li you're wrong and so I met one brother which had a real Clash with sometime ago and I had to tell myself you and I are coass
00:46:48 together I will see you in heaven and Al I want to take a chair now and throw at you I'm being very h I say Lord forgive because you forgave me so I want us to pause on that on any feeling you might have with one another that just cannot and learn to speak the truth in love we are one body it rest upon all of us to build this church let's not have a uniform church but we have diversity and we start that by all of us with the leadership leading the way to be humble and teachable to be patient and to bear with one another in
00:47:45 love I'm going to ask the worship team to come up and I just want us to just come before the Lord in this and Lord we ask we are just Sinners and we realize it just needs a crack to split the church if and Satan has a purpose he will split the church not from the outside he will implode the church from inside and he will start it by Mings you know this what the elders did to me and this is what this pastor did now this and then we bottle it in our hearts Lord we ask we have the courage to create safe spaces can we
00:48:23 have some keys going safe spaces where we can speak the truth in love and that's so hard because to be vulnerable we we we go into such a space we say you know Anna I I think what you did is wrong you're afraid Anna will just weaponize Theology and whack me so for all of you who know your Bibles all you who are leaders when someone approaches you fearfully because timid always remember as a leader you set the example by being low by being humble low in status because Christ is the highest you be gentle and
00:49:02 meek and although someone comes after you and levies an accusation which is so untrue you do not react you learn to be patient and God knows I have a problem with that because I'm reactive and when you two talk and we talk and we talk in the end nobody agrees we say we bear with each other in love you spoke your truth I spoke my truth maybe the only truth we need to know is Jesus Jesus died for our [Music] sins and then we say we will not have the root of bitterness eat into us that's Ephesians
00:49:42 5 and we will forgive as God forgave and God's people say amen and we're going to sing a song that we will prophetically bring up to the Lord what we mean in this [Music] [Music] Church please rise as you [Music] respond Lord forgive us for our pride when our faith becomes a show just in righteous Deeds to hide all the stains below we have judged your sons and daughters for the sin that is our own may we now forgive each other and lay down our Stones forgive forgive through the blood of Christ we are
00:51:06 forgi now forgive us for our love of the things we wish to w we forsake the feast above for all the crowns below though you made us Sons and Daughters we do not the world s may we find our greatest treasure is in you alone forgi [Music] for through the blood of Christ we are forgive forgi [Music] for through the blood of Christ we are forgi [Music] [Music] Lord forgive us for our shame when we can release the past but we're quick to take the blame but forget we're free at last we avoid your sons and daughters for the
00:52:46 fear we don't belong give us eyes to see each other through your only son [Music] forgiven [Music] forgi [Music] forgi through the blood of Christ we are forgiv forgi forgi through the blood of Christ we are forgiv the blood of Christ we are [Music] for through the blood of Christ we are forgi Ephesians chapter 2:14 for he himself is our peace who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in his flesh the law with commands and regulations his
00:54:01 purpose was to create in himself one new Humanity of the two thus making peace and in one body to reconcile both of them to God Through The Cross by which he put to death their are hostility and while Paul is talking about Jews and Gentiles right now that word applies to me and you to any hostility you and I hold against a particular group of people or a person and you feel wrong and I ask today the word of the Lord prophetically going out is that but we do this in the spirit of Love Are you able to do that church so let me end
00:54:39 with the benediction for you and to tell you the power of God resides in you you not only have the cross you have the crown because when he descended down died for your sin he ascended on high and he gave gifts to you and he bound every captive he bound the captive of death he found the captive of demonic forces that whisper to you to say I only need tell anybody they won't listen to me anyway and then the root of bitterness will bear fruit in your heart and so here's the word of God to all of us and we'll take this as a benediction
00:55:11 Ephesians 3:2 now to him who able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine measur you more than we ask imagine and ask you not to ask of that to see Lord let peace rain in my life let forgiveness rain in my life let reconciliation reain in my life let me hear truths which sometimes I don't like to hear and hear the word of the Lord to all of you you may not be right the last conflict you had the last running you had with somebody maybe it's your wife your husband a church person I'm tell you
00:55:58 this is the word of the Lord to you you may not be right sitek down that person and dialogue now to him to able to do in meury more than all we ask imagine according to his power that is at work with us and that power is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead as he ascended on high he gave gift to us to him be glory in the church in FBC and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever and God's people say amen go EMP power the church service is over please sit back and speak the truth in love to us if you
00:56:41 want to God bless all of you God bless you all
