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00:00 you you know there won't be any stealing
00:05 there won't be any clean hands because
00:06 they be no hands at all they all be
00:08 chopped off so the point is this you
00:12 cannot frighten people badger people
00:16 indoctrinate people to have inside out
00:20 transformation after a while it will
00:22 break
00:23 it doesn't happen so this morning is an
00:26 important message for you and I how do
00:29 we make real longlasting transformation.
00:33 How do you and I change to be the person
00:36 God wants us to be? Here's how is not to
00:38 be done, not from the outside. Now, you
00:42 can say the church doesn't do this to
00:43 you. No, the church does something else.
00:45 The church can pressure you subtly.
00:48 Here's a woman, Suzanne Hins, who makes
00:50 a point. She's been pressured so often
00:52 to get married. She got so fed up that
00:54 she decided to get herself an instant
00:57 family. So, she's got herself a manquin
00:59 husband and a mannequin uh daughter
01:04 is of course an artistic statement to
01:06 say, "Look, you want a family, I'll get
01:07 you a family." But what is she trying to
01:10 say? She's trying to say society puts
01:13 pressure and the church is like any
01:16 social organization will put pressure on
01:18 you. Like here's how it works. you know,
01:22 uh, you come to church, you come to
01:23 second service. After a while, you feel
01:26 guilty. You better do something because
01:28 you've been around so long. So, you try
01:31 to do a bit of pieces here and there.
01:33 But your heart is not there. And if your
01:36 heart is not there, there is no real
01:38 change. And that's why in many churches
01:42 over everywhere, this is a big disease.
01:48 Now here I'm not trying to pass judgment
01:50 on any of you who are doing it at the
01:52 back and clicking when the message is
01:53 boring.
01:54 You don't want to say that and I want to
01:57 say this in love
01:60 because when the message is boring the
02:01 guy sits behind there and starts to play
02:02 tetris Minecraft feed his animal you
02:06 know. But let let today we talk about
02:09 honesty.
02:11 My my question to you is this. If you're
02:13 all honest, me and you came to church
02:16 for selfish reasons. Some of us came
02:19 because we were lonely. Some of us came
02:21 because we wanted to meet other people.
02:24 Some of us came and it actualizes us.
02:28 But it is one thing to come with mixed
02:33 reasons.
02:34 But God wants me and you to be totally
02:38 loyal to him.
02:40 And if we continue this way, you will
02:43 never have a pure heart because as James
02:46 says, we become double-minded.
02:49 Real transformation begins
02:52 from inside out, not outside in. A
02:56 lawyer tested Jesus by saying which is
02:58 the greatest commandment in the law. He
03:00 was expecting Jesus to say, you know
03:02 what, here's here here are 10
03:03 commandments. Which one? Do not steal,
03:05 do not kill, name me one laws. Why? He's
03:08 trying to say if I keep that that should
03:10 be okay. But Jesus replies love the Lord
03:13 your God with all your heart then your
03:16 soul then your mind.
03:19 What is he saying? If you don't love God
03:22 rulekeeping has no value. You're doing
03:26 it because you're guilty or you're doing
03:28 it because you come to church. You
03:29 better put on a religious front either
03:31 that people will talk bad about you. But
03:35 rulekeeping only works if the heart is
03:38 convicted about it. And we're going to
03:40 talk about how that happens. And then
03:43 the second is this. Love your neighbor
03:45 as yourself. Any action of mercy, any
03:48 action of piety, any prayer, anything
03:52 you do, if it doesn't come from loving
03:54 God, again, the external behavior and
03:57 the internal intent doesn't match. And
04:01 God wants this morning to just remind us
04:04 he wants to fix our hearts. And if our
04:08 heart is fixed, he starts from there.
04:10 And this fixing of the heart is going to
04:13 take the rest of my life and your life.
04:16 How does that happen? First, you got to
04:20 realize the potency of the heart. The
04:23 heart, not your emotions, is deadly. He
04:28 say this, "For out of heart come evil
04:29 thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual
04:32 morality, theft, false testimony,
04:34 slander." The heart controls the mind.
04:40 But here's the thing, and I'm going to
04:42 be a little bit uncomfortable here. No
04:44 one knows it, isn't it? Only you have
04:46 it.
04:48 You and I could have some struggles.
04:52 They could be sexual, it could be
04:54 emotional,
04:55 it could be ethical,
04:58 but so long I keep it to myself and come
05:01 to Sunday, it's going to be fine. And
05:05 God going to tell you it's not.
05:08 Don't get too depressed. Huh? There's
05:10 some good news at the end. But we got to
05:12 go through this. You got to go through
05:13 this. You got to get depressed before
05:15 you get got to you got to unpeel it off.
05:18 All right. He says you have heard it was
05:20 said do not commit adultery but I tell
05:22 you that anyone who looks at a woman
05:24 lustfully has already committed adultery
05:26 with her in his heart.
05:29 Few days ago I was I I I travel
05:31 outstation very often because of a job I
05:33 have. Let me be honest with you. You put
05:36 a guy alone in a hotel early morning or
05:39 late at night his mind wonders.
05:43 You will click on a computer you can
05:46 surf anywhere you want. I don't have to
05:49 get into the details, but you and I know
05:51 what we're saying,
05:54 but here's what he's saying. We we play
05:56 down sin
05:59 and then we say, you know what, we're
06:00 not bad people. We don't do this and
06:02 that. We just do a little bit of it. But
06:05 that's where it begins. And when it
06:07 begins, it has consequences you and I
06:11 cannot begin to fathom.
06:15 Few years ago, nobody knows where
06:17 Ukraine is
06:20 in Malaysia.
06:22 Most people don't. Most people don't
06:24 care about Ukrainian politics or whether
06:28 Ukraine should join the EU or whether
06:31 there will street demonstrations there.
06:34 Now, everyone knows.
06:37 Now, here's the thing.
06:39 We are mourning as a country over MH17
06:44 over the deaths of children and women.
06:48 You know how it started? It started
06:50 because a politician Yanakovic took
06:54 money from the Russians.
06:57 That act of corruption led him to
06:60 jettison the EU plan and to side with
07:03 the Russians which led to strat street
07:05 demonstrations which led to him being
07:07 overthrowed which led to the annexing of
07:10 Cremia which led to Russia bringing
07:11 weapons to leading to somebody shooting
07:15 down a plane.
07:17 Where am I going with this?
07:20 You and I say our sin is very small.
07:24 Be not deceived. That little sin you and
07:28 I have, it has tremendous implications.
07:32 He started off by taking money like most
07:35 politicians.
07:37 As a result of that, children die.
07:40 You and I fiddle with sexual sin. No big
07:44 deal. Because of that, you and I create
07:48 an industry where women are enslaved.
07:50 I'm using you and I. We want to be
07:52 gracious here. You and I slander people,
07:55 no big deal. You lead to a person's
07:57 reputation being damaged. You and I
07:60 hate, it leads to war, it leads to
08:03 racism. Never underestimate
08:06 sin. It springs from the heart.
08:10 Here's somebody you won't take home to
08:11 meet your mom.
08:13 Here's a German rapper, deso dog.
08:17 Everything
08:19 Christian right likes to go and preach
08:21 against. He does drugs. He likes big
08:23 cars. Foulmouth's been to prison. Here's
08:27 a good news for you. Desert dog doesn't
08:28 look like this anymore. He's given up
08:30 the drugs, given up the women, given up
08:33 the fast cars, given up prison. He's
08:36 turned 180 degrees away from this kind
08:40 of life. His heart has been set free.
08:43 He's gone to Syria to join ISIS.
08:47 Now, what am I trying to say here? I'm
08:49 saying this. The heart can easily swing,
08:52 you know,
08:54 and very often we can replace one form
08:57 of sin with another form of sin
09:01 and that will then blind your mind.
09:05 Your conscience doesn't make you
09:07 innocent. One day God will expose all
09:10 our motives. So I want to challenge you
09:12 this morning on this.
09:14 Our actions don't necessarily come from
09:17 right motives.
09:19 God wants to fix us inside out.
09:23 Now, that would take the rest of our
09:24 life. But where does it begin? It begins
09:27 with me and you acknowledging our sins.
09:31 And that's why I want to challenge you
09:32 first this morning to do that. Would you
09:34 be prepared to just sit there to say,
09:36 you know what, I have this issue. No one
09:39 else knows about it, but I have it.
09:41 Because if you don't do that enough, you
09:44 become numb to it and you say it doesn't
09:46 matter, but it matters. Whole host of
09:49 issues and all of us, you throw a stone
09:51 here, we all struggle with this. We may
09:52 not be as bad as this, but we all it
09:54 starts from there. And the cure is this
09:58 is to see God. To be pure in heart is to
10:02 see God. To see God makes you pure in
10:05 heart. Now, let me explain this to you.
10:06 When you say see God, here what Pharaoh
10:09 says, "Get on my side. Make sure you do
10:11 not appear before me again. The day you
10:13 see my face, you will die. Does it mean
10:15 you go up to a person say I see you? No.
10:17 For example, you say, I want to see Dr.
10:19 Peter. What does it mean? It means you
10:22 want to make an appointment with him
10:24 because maybe your bladder has problems.
10:26 Okay? Meaning you want to see someone is
10:30 to be into his presence.
10:33 Now, this is critical. You know,
10:36 when you get into God's presence, that's
10:40 when our hearts begin to change. You
10:44 see, my heart craves for many things. I
10:47 just don't need to tell anyone. And it's
10:49 very tempting for me to come to church
10:51 and put on another facade altogether.
10:54 Especially where I am now, preacher, got
10:57 friends in church. I can put on a good
10:60 doo. You and I don't know who I really
11:02 am.
11:04 But my heart has cravings. And if you're
11:06 honest, our cravings are self-centered
11:08 and sinful. Some of us have dark,
11:11 decadent cravings. No one knows. Others
11:13 are not so much. But they're still
11:15 self-centered.
11:18 Now, what God wants to do is to replace
11:20 those cravings. And and and it it's not
11:22 easy to do it. And the way to replace
11:25 those cravings begins by being emitted
11:28 in God's presence.
11:30 And when you get into God's presence and
11:33 he's not literally seeing him, two
11:36 things will happen. One, Job tells us,
11:38 "My eyes, my ears have heard of you, but
11:41 now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I
11:44 despise myself and repent in dust and
11:47 ashes."
11:48 Now, what does this mean? He says, "When
11:50 he gets into God's presence, he repents
11:53 of his sin." So, let me be brutal to
11:55 you. Like any guy, most guys here
11:57 struggle with sexual sins. The simplest
11:60 thing to do is just be double-minded
12:02 about it. But what God wants to do with
12:05 us, and this is an archilis hill with
12:07 most men, you know, whatever your
12:09 inclination is, is to say, you know
12:11 what, you got to learn to hate it. The
12:13 sinful nature wants to love it. So
12:15 there's a fight.
12:17 And this is what the heart does. The
12:20 more you go into God's presence, you
12:21 begin to realize these things have
12:24 serious consequences.
12:27 Now, it may not totally help you get rid
12:29 of it, but it sure will help you fight
12:32 it because you learn to do something the
12:35 Bible talks about again and again to
12:37 hate sin. And hating sin is going
12:41 against everything we are because we all
12:45 love sin. It could be money, it could be
12:48 gossiping, it could be giving in to
12:50 hate, it could be corruption, it could
12:53 be anything. But the first thing
12:55 happens, you know you're in God's
12:58 presence when you learn to hate sin. And
13:00 that brothers and sisters will be a
13:03 lifetime journey. So I want to speak
13:06 graciously on here. I don't want to be
13:07 self-righteous about it. But here's the
13:09 second one which is more important.
13:11 David struggles with his sins so much.
13:13 He feels so rotten himself. He say they
13:15 hear my voice when I call, oh Lord. Be
13:18 merciful to me and answer me. My heart
13:21 says of you. Seek his face. your face,
13:23 Lord, I will seek.
13:25 And here's the good news.
13:28 I'm not saved because I sin less. I'm
13:33 saved because God loves me. And he loves
13:37 you. How did he show his love? By dying
13:41 on the cross. By sending his son to die.
13:46 And this is something I want you and I
13:48 to soak in.
13:50 And every day I wake up, I am
13:52 victorious. I have his mercy over me. I
13:55 have his grace over me. He loves me. And
13:59 tomorrow you and I can slip back into
14:01 sin.
14:03 But if I hate sin, God's grace covers
14:05 me.
14:07 And next day maybe I'm victorious. One
14:10 day your happy gets worse. One day your
14:12 happy gets better. But this is what the
14:14 two things that pull you through. First,
14:16 God's love. Amber loves you with his
14:19 mercy.
14:20 And as that happens, you learn to fight
14:22 sin more and more. And this is how the
14:24 better work. They are cyclical. The more
14:28 you begin to appreciate God's mercy in
14:30 your life, the more you can show mercy.
14:34 The more you receive God's love, how
14:37 Jesus died for you on the cross, even
14:39 though you and I are rotten sinners, how
14:41 much you have mercy and grace. And and I
14:44 wish right now you could just pause and
14:47 just really feel how much God loves you.
14:50 And that teaches you to fight sin, to
14:53 hate sin. And the more you do that, you
14:56 become purer. The more purer you become,
14:59 the closer you see God. And if you do
15:01 not do that, you won't see God. You see
15:04 your own desires. You see yourself. You
15:07 see what you want to see. You come to
15:09 church, you get bored. You come to
15:12 church, you get uncomfortable anytime a
15:14 message becomes too hard-hitting.
15:17 You avoid talking about certain things.
15:19 Why? Because we must not be
15:22 double-minded.
15:24 And we are not double-minded. We seek
15:26 God day by day. It will be a joy to come
15:29 before God. You see, in the end, we are
15:34 what we are because of what we see.
15:38 Essentially what you want to see of God
15:40 is determined by what you want. You know
15:42 some people say I can't feel God. You
15:43 know why they can't feel God? Because
15:45 they made up their mind who who God is
15:47 to them. But come to God with sincerity.
15:51 Come to God with utter on your knees and
15:54 he will fill you with his mercy. I look
15:57 at this picture. I don't see art. I just
15:59 see Campbell soup. You're an artist. You
16:01 see it. You see you see art. I still
16:04 don't see art now. But what I'm trying
16:06 to with God is similar. Two people can
16:09 come before an art work and and see
16:12 different things.
16:14 Same with me and you. And how can we see
16:16 God if we are just honest? If we are
16:20 undivided, if we embrace his love, his
16:23 mercy, his grace, then every day I say,
16:26 "Lord, even though I'm a sinner, I have
16:28 your grace. I will walk." And I want to
16:31 challenge you. Some of you here are
16:32 struggling with sin. You will struggle
16:34 to the day you die.
16:36 We are not here to judge you. God's
16:38 grace be with you. Some of you feel
16:40 you're very righteous. God wants to
16:42 unpill your hearts. There are sins you
16:44 may not know. This is the tension we
16:46 live in. And that is the way Christian
16:49 living is. So let me close with three
16:51 points. Number one, real transformation
16:54 requires an undivided
16:56 heart towards God. Why? Because we tend
16:59 to be double-minded. You know the name
17:01 Arnold used to be a whim's name.
17:04 When I was at school, they used to go
17:05 through the names
17:11 biscuit. Then then Terminator came out
17:16 suddenly became a bodybuilder's name. We
17:18 have one bodybuilder here. That's Kevin.
17:20 Kevin sitt in the corner there. He's a
17:21 bodybuilder. You should also show you
17:22 his abs. You know, he's he's he he's a
17:26 real bodybuilder. I'm not anyway. But I
17:28 try. I'm bit vain. So I try to work out.
17:31 Okay. My daughter has a name for me. Not
17:32 for him. He's got abs. My daughter calls
17:34 me flabby daddy. I try to hide it. So
17:37 every time on the treadmill, I keep
17:38 thinking my daughter saying flabby
17:40 daddy. Then I go harder. Go harder.
17:41 Flabby daddy. I go harder. Why? You got
17:43 to be focused. You got to be focused to
17:46 have abs like Kevin. You got to be
17:47 focused. It's the same with God. So I
17:50 want to challenge you this morning in
17:51 love. You have to be focused on God. And
17:55 that is the will. So this morning I want
17:58 to challenge you. All of us have got
17:60 divided loyalties to God. tomorrow we go
18:03 to work my loyalty is to make money or
18:06 my loyalty is to my sinful habits and so
18:09 long no one knows it doesn't matter God
18:11 says it matters it starts by you
18:13 ascending to the hill of the Lord coming
18:15 into his presence and saying God only
18:18 you then you say God I don't know how to
18:20 love you I love my sin I love all this
18:23 stuff I've been doing all my life I
18:24 enjoy it I don't I don't love you God he
18:26 says well God I'm willing to let you
18:29 transform my heart and how does that
18:32 happen. It starts inside out. It starts
18:35 with you meditating on this on the
18:37 gospel on a God that so loved you. He
18:40 gave you his grace, his mercy,
18:43 his love. So tomorrow you trip and fall,
18:46 you will still love God. And as you
18:48 happen, as you go there, he will start
18:50 to teach you to hate sin. As he starts
18:52 to hate your sin, he gives you new
18:54 desires. As you have new desires, your
18:57 mind will be renewed. Now, this process
18:59 will take the rest of your life.
19:02 some more than others.
19:04 And that's why the beauty of the
19:06 Christian faith is the grace of God. And
19:08 that's why you and I can walk away today
19:10 victorious.
19:13 I don't want you to walk away feeling
19:14 depressed. You know, wow, that really
19:15 made me depressed.
19:17 We all sinners here.
19:20 You and I got things I don't tell
19:22 anyone. You don't tell anyone. The
19:24 danger is to compress that and to lead a
19:27 double life. That is not what God wants.
19:29 come clean before God and by that we
19:32 will have clean hands. Let me close with
19:35 one thing. It looks my entire worship
19:38 team has disappeared.
19:40 You're not backing yet. Never mind.
19:43 I want to spend some time to challenge
19:45 you on this. Real transformation
19:47 requires
19:49 recognizes a deceitful heart. Why am I
19:51 telling you this? Because I think most
19:53 churches struggle with this. If you only
19:55 come on Sundays, you don't know one
19:57 another. You make church a ritual, it
20:01 has actually very little real impact on
20:05 your life. So I want to throw a few
20:06 questions to you. Worship team, let's
20:09 get up, shall we? Since we are here.
20:10 Yeah, we're starting. Okay. Number one,
20:14 what do you think about most of the
20:15 time?
20:17 Where your treasure is there? Your heart
20:19 is also if you're like me, I'm thinking
20:23 about my own things. and you stick me in
20:25 a hotel room alone with no one around,
20:27 my mind runs riot.
20:30 Recognize that and say, "God, I need to
20:34 be focused on you." That's difficult.
20:36 But it starts with that. What do you and
20:38 I think about most of the time? Number
20:41 two, are there areas in your life no one
20:43 knows and you prefer it that way? Now, I
20:46 want to be really non-judgmental here.
20:48 I'm not asking you to tell everybody
20:49 your problems.
20:51 You know, trust is a matter of gain.
20:54 But what I would like to ask you is that
20:56 do you prefer it that way? If it is, you
21:01 got to bring that before God. Are there
21:02 issues you avoid talking about? Do you
21:06 have difficulties admitting to mistakes?
21:09 Are you comfortable leading a spiritual
21:11 double life? Do you avoid
21:13 accountability?
21:15 Now, before I depress all of you again,
21:18 this is a starting point. I just want to
21:20 come clean this morning because you and
21:22 I, we all sinners. But it it really
21:24 begins with this. You see, you're not
21:26 careful. The church just becomes actors.
21:28 We all just actors coming on Sunday and
21:30 say, "Hi, brother. Hallelujah. How are
21:31 you?" That's not what God wants. He
21:33 wants a pure heart.
21:35 How do we arrive at that? At the foot of
21:38 the cross by a God who so loved you, so
21:42 loved me that even though I sin
21:44 tomorrow, his grace will cover me. And
21:47 so long we continue in honesty, in
21:50 sincerity,
21:52 his grace will envelope us. So this
21:55 morning, I just hope this challenges
21:57 you. And I pray that we start off by
22:00 being an honest church. You want to
22:03 finish with two songs. The first is
22:06 this. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.
22:10 Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see
22:13 you. I want to challenge you. Do you
22:16 want to see God? Shall we rise as we
22:19 sing this meditatively?
22:28 Open the eyes of my heart.
22:33 I want to see you.
22:39 I want to see you.
22:42 Lord, we continue with this time of
22:44 worship.
22:46 Lord, if I ask if anyone is struggling
22:49 with sin, should they raise their hands?
22:51 If we honest with oursel, all hands to
22:53 go up. So, we're not going to do that.
22:56 God, you know our hearts. You know our
22:59 struggles.
23:01 This morning we ask we come honestly
23:03 before you. All our thoughts, all our
23:07 desires, the things we hide from one
23:09 another.
23:11 The pretensions we go through to come
23:13 before church,
23:15 we laid it at your feet.
23:18 Lord, teach us to have pure motives,
23:23 to have an undivided loyalty to you.
23:27 We can do that because of your love and
23:29 compassion for us. And we thank you,
23:31 Lord, that tomorrow if I sin, you will
23:33 pick me up. If I sin next week, you will
23:36 pick me up. And as I continue on this
23:39 journey, as you continue, as your people
23:41 continue day by day, teach us, Lord, to
23:44 hate sin as we reverently come before
23:47 you. And as we continue to do this,
23:50 Lord, we will see you clearly. We will
23:53 feel your love. We will know you are our
23:56 God
23:57 and this journey will take the rest of
23:60 our life.
24:02 But we are blessed oh Lord that we do
24:04 not need to walk away feeling depressed
24:07 but feeling blessed.
24:10 Create in us oh Lord a clean heart.
24:13 Today Lord we ask you renew a right
24:15 spirit in all your people here today.
24:19 Return to us, oh Lord, the joy of our
24:22 salvation. That we will walk away from
24:24 this service feeling, joyous and not
24:27 depressed. For, oh Lord, our eyes, we
24:32 pray, will have seen you at the end of
24:35 this service.
24:37 We say this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let us
24:39 sing the other song, create in me a
24:42 clean heart. And we'll close with this.
24:47 Create in me a clean
24:52 heart, oh God,
24:57 and renew a right spirit within me.
25:05 Created me a clean
25:09 heart, oh God,
25:14 and renew a right spirit within me.
25:22 Cast me not away from thy presence,
25:28 oh Lord,
25:30 and take not thy holy spirit from me.
25:37 Restore
25:40 unto me
25:43 the joy of thy salvation
25:48 and renew a right spirit within me.
25:54 Create in me a clean heart. Create in me
25:58 a clean
26:01 heart, oh God,
26:05 and renew arise spirits within me.
26:13 Create me a deep
26:17 heart, oh God,
26:22 and renew a right spirit within me.
26:30 Casting not away from thy presence,
26:36 oh Lord,
26:38 and take not thy holy spirit from me.
26:46 is all onto me.
26:50 Enjoy your salvation
26:55 and renew a righty spirit within me.
27:04 All the way from thy presence,
27:09 oh Lord,
27:11 take up thy holy spirit for me.
27:19 Restore
27:21 onto me
27:23 the joy of my salvation
27:28 and renew a right spirit within me.
27:37 And renew a right spirit within me.
27:45 and renew a right spirit
27:49 within
27:51 me.
27:53 Lord, we just close today is a heavy
27:56 topic. Oh Lord, we just ask Lord we just
27:58 come seekingly and sincerely before you
28:01 Lord that being a Christian is about
28:04 joyful living and it starts with an
28:07 honesty.
28:09 So Lord, we just ask Lord as we walk
28:11 away today that
28:14 Lord just renew us, oh Lord, and restore
28:16 the joy of our salvation. Teach us to
28:18 look ourselves honestly, our struggles,
28:21 our sins. Let us not be actors in
28:24 church.
28:26 I Lord am a sinner and I I struggle with
28:28 sin as so much anyone else here.
28:31 Start that work of renewal today, oh
28:33 Lord. And your grace, your mercy, oh
28:37 Lord, your compassion that you so love
28:41 the world that you sent your only son to
28:44 die for us. May that just comfort us as
28:47 we approach you
28:49 before your throne
28:51 for blessed are the pure in heart for
28:54 they shall see God. And we say this in
28:57 Jesus name. Amen. I'd like to ask Pastor
28:60 Rama for the benediction.
