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00:00 Praise God, he's planted a church in Malaysia. Praise God, he's planted a church in Nepo, in KL, in Singapore, in
00:07 Hong Kong. Praise God. Beginning with the first century, he's planted a church in Corinth, in Colosse, all around Asia
00:14 Minor. Problem side by side with praise, there's a problem. There's a prayer. How do you
00:20 get Corinth out of the church? Okay. And so
00:26 the issue before you in the outline in your booklets, you should look at it. The issue we're dealing with is meals,
00:33 meetings, and meals, meetings, and meaning.
00:38 So I could remember as a young boy uh watching and marveling at my
00:43 grandmother who together my parents came from China, right? And my grandmother every morning
00:51 would eat the same thing, the same meal, the same food. In fact, if you gave her
00:58 the choice, she would eat the same thing for lunch and for dinner. And her p and
01:04 breakfast every morning was plain porridge with soya sauce.
01:09 That was it. At best, a small fish, at times some kamchai, some pickled
01:15 vegetables. That's about it. That was the food of her impoverished generation
01:22 in Swatau in China as they lived through a famine and escape for their survival.
01:30 Today I'm told if you went to the first tier cities of China, Beijing, Shanghai,
01:36 even to the second tier cities of Chongqin and all that among the super powerful and the super rich and this is
01:44 not just average but the super powerful and the super rich among the political
01:49 powers that be and the businessmen. They gather each week in the most expensive restaurants of China, right? They try to
01:57 outdo each other in terms of their lavishness, in terms of their richness
02:03 by ordering the most unusual and expensive dishes. And then all they do is have a taste and ask the waiter to
02:10 take it away and trash it. And I guess within 70
02:15 years, you see the same race of people have meals and meetings and their
02:22 meanings. They are all separate. If you want to know what class of society people belong to, you just have to look
02:30 at what they eat. In that sense, food is a great social indicator.
02:36 In the very same way, food is also a great social separator.
02:43 Right? And so this is the food. Its social pegging and
02:51 its negative influence is the issue Paul the apostle addresses here. And is truly
02:59 another expression of a leftover Corinthian worldly carnal fleshly value.
03:06 And how do you know it is dangerous? How do you know it is serious? In the
03:11 following directives, chapter 11:1 17, in the following directives, I have no
03:17 praise for you. I say again, be very careful who you want as your leader. Be very careful who you want as a pastor.
03:23 You wouldn't want Paul as a pastor. Because in the opening chapters from 1 to four, he's already said, you are
03:29 immature. Then in chapter then in chapter 11, he now says, I have no praise for you. Why?
03:38 Because in your meetings, which you call the Lord's supper, which means the gathering of your church, the fellowship
03:44 in your small homes, um you do more harm than good. How many of you think that
03:51 your Christian gathering, beginning with a Christian family that gathers, does more harm than good?
03:58 Sometimes when we gather as God's people, when we are not purified and
04:03 detoxed of Corinthian values of worldly values, we do more harm to each other
04:09 than good. When we are still children of the world instead of children of God and have not
04:15 experienced God- centered, God repentant and gospel- centered relationships in
04:21 Christ and through Christ. And so what is it that Paul told him in giving you
04:27 the following instructions? I do not praise you. You could almost hear Paul change his tone of voice. Now this is
04:34 strange because in chapter 11:2, come with me in chapter 11:2.
04:39 Chapter 11:2. Look at the Bibles. Are you there? Okay, you must look at
04:46 it. Chapter 11:2. Everybody's looking at this, staring this down.
04:51 Chapter 11:2. Are you there? I praise you for remembering me in everything and
04:58 for holding to the teaching just as I pass them on to you. So this chapter
05:03 begins with praise. I praise you for remembering me in everything and holding
05:09 on to the teaching I Paul pass on to you. But by verse 17 as he addresses the
05:15 Lord's supper or their fellowship in this particular area, I have no praise
05:20 for you. which tells you at the heart of Christian leadership whether it's pastoring or or in some other different
05:27 form you always need to balance the praise and always the rebuke
05:34 cannot always just praise in raising spiritual children is the same as biological children sometimes you praise
05:41 sometimes you rebuke and Paul has been rebuking them and this is it
05:47 and so what's wrong with their gatherings He hears in verse 18 in the first place
05:54 I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you and
05:59 to some extent I believe you. Where was the first time you encountered this problem? In one Corinthians
06:07 in chapter one, when he hears he hears reports given to
06:13 him that some follow Paul, some follow Cphus, some follow Apollos. The exact
06:19 Greek word is used here. When you gather, you gather as the the the Greek
06:24 word is you gather as the schematized people of God. You gather as the divided
06:30 people of God. You gather as a schematized divided people of God while
06:35 celebrating the Lord's supper which should symbolize the opposite.
06:42 That is why in this area of your food and your fellowship I Paul have no
06:48 praise for you because the way you conduct your fellowship has little or nothing to do
06:55 with what I handed to you. And then verse 19 he goes on no doubt there have
07:01 to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. I want to just give you a caution from this
07:07 point onwards next few minutes it gets a little bit technical a bit theological but you stay with it to understand to
07:15 reconstruct the the language and to reconstruct the history as to what was the problem that was bringing dishonor
07:23 to God among the Corinthian Christians. So are you ready to work a bit hard?
07:29 Okay. All right. So it is necessary to have divisions among you to show which
07:36 of you have God's approval. So is Paul embarking on what we call a
07:42 pastoral sigh? And what on earth is a pastoral sigh or a pastoral concession? You know, as
07:49 Christians, we are supposed to be the loving and united people of God. That is
07:56 the ideal in in in Malaysian English, in English, that is the ideal law.
08:02 But in reality, in real church, right, in First Baptist, Adam Road, Methodist
08:07 church, charismatic church, the there's a gap between glorious church and painful reality.
08:14 So could Paul be saying this that in its ideal state the bride and the body of
08:21 Jesus should be this glorious in his truth glorious in his love glorious in
08:28 his peace glorious in his unity glorious but in reality when you meet every week
08:34 it is in glorious it could be a pastoral sign or notice that it is necessary at
08:41 least in the NIV the new international version. It is necessary to have divisions to show God's approval. Right?
08:50 It is rather confusing. It's the second reason because he has just spent four chapters
08:58 attacking their divisiveness over their leaders Paul, Apollos and Cphus. So he
09:06 can't be attacking and correcting their divisiveness in chapter 1 to 4. and then
09:13 conceding that you can have divisions as a church uh because it's necessary to
09:20 show God's approval. Right? So when you
09:25 look at this at this point the NIV is unhelpful
09:31 because the Greek language actually doesn't have God's approval. So that's
09:37 when you read a version at this point is not merely translating doing the work of translating but is interpreting it a
09:45 little bit more. So if we don't add God to smoon the
09:50 problem, Paul could be using bitter irony.
09:56 And what is bitter irony? Next slide.
10:01 It is necessary to have division. So God is not there in the Greek language. is necessary to have divisions among you so
10:08 that your approic.
10:16 So if it is pure translation and not interpreting of the original language, I
10:22 think we get closer to the truth. And closer to the truth is that you have
10:28 divisions. We have divisions on the earthly church in Corin, in Ephesus, in Singapore, in KL, in Hong Kong, in
10:35 Shanghai. Not as divine necessity, but human necessity to show who your very
10:43 important persons are. In other words, the church of Jesus
10:49 Christ still has a social pegging and social hierarchy.
10:55 And every time in church you have social pegging and social hierarchy. You show that you are not the people of
11:02 God because the kingdom of God doesn't have social pegging and social
11:08 hierarchy. You got it? That's the slightly difficult part. Okay. Now can
11:14 relax right? Are you still following me? So pastor Chris this afternoon was so lighthearted now so serious. What
11:20 happened? Because this one, Ganascolding, so I have to reflect. Ganascolding,
11:26 it's about church splits. Okay. And then he goes on, what's the problem here? The
11:33 problem here goes on, as you eat, verse 21, each of you goes ahead without
11:40 waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. One remains
11:47 hungry, another gets drunk. So, okay. Now, is the Corinthian Lord's supper
11:54 more like u uh more like what? A buffet,
12:00 right? Um what is it? Is it a potluck dinner or school canteen lunchbox?
12:06 Right? Maybe this not so much Asian Malaysian. Let me try and explain it. A potluck dinner. What is that? You bring
12:14 your own and everybody shares what you bring. Right? As we try to reconstruct
12:21 the Corinthian problem, you bring your own, you eat your own. That's like a
12:27 school canteen. Whatever your mom packed for you, you brought that. You eat what
12:32 your mom packed for you. I think we are closer to the historical situation if we
12:38 don't think that the Corinthian fellowship and the Lord's supper was a potluck dinner. Everybody brings and
12:46 then everybody shares. You bring your own, you eat your own,
12:52 right? The whole phrase trans. So to really unpack the situation,
12:58 if the problem is first come first eat,
13:04 if the problem in the Corinthian church is you arrive first for the Christian meeting, you eat first. If that's the
13:09 problem, what's the solution? Are you listening?
13:16 If that's the problem, you arrive first, you eat first. What's the solution? If you were the leader or the pastor of
13:21 this church, you just ask people to wait, right? But as we reconstruct it,
13:27 it's not as simple. Who in the first century world in Corinth could host Christian fellowship
13:36 and Christian uh and church? Who were the most likely early ones and the late
13:41 ones? The late ones were most likely the poor ones. And a first century church,
13:47 right? You're dailyrated workers. You're not your own bosses. You can't get off early from the field. And you add to
13:54 that context, right? And so the rich could host. And the rich were the ones
13:60 who had houses with two courts, right? Two dining areas as it were. So there I
14:07 was studying Bible college in in in in Sydney. And some of the college housing in Sydney that we were in uh were very
14:15 small houses built when the first settlers settled from England in Sydney.
14:21 You enter in one of those houses, it's barely I do not know what they now call studio apartment.
14:28 And a studio apartment is barely 400 square ft 600 ft, right? You barely have
14:34 a lounge. Then you got the kitchen. Then there's a small stairway upstairs. And upstairs is just one room. And at that
14:42 time in the 1800s, this was the living quarters of the workers who built the
14:48 docks of Sydney. Now you take the picture back to the first century.
14:54 the poor fellows, the poor Christians would not have the the the luxury and
15:01 the hardware and the home to host Christian meetings. So in all likelihood
15:07 when we reconstructed it was the rich who had houses who could host and if you
15:14 host them you no need to arrive early you live there and who among the Christians will arrive later the poor
15:21 Christians who are farmers or daily rated workers who work on the fields and arrive later then the next thing that
15:28 needs unpacking to understand this the whole phrase goes ahead without waiting
15:36 Right? That phrase, you arrive with your food, you go ahead without waiting. The
15:42 actual Greek word there is only one word from the Greek word lambano. And the Greek word lambo just says takes.
15:50 So the word lambano can have two meanings at this point. You arrive with
15:55 your food and you take be. So it's a timing word. You take before the others
16:03 arrive. So that has a temporal sense lambano. The other second possible
16:10 meaning to translate this and to interpret this is that the adverb here is not a temporal thing. It's the manner
16:17 of taking. You take your food forcibly. You take your food willfully. You take
16:24 your food selfishly. Let me try and explain this. If you ever give a gift or a sweet or
16:30 chocolate or a present to a kid, right, you always have to tell your child right
16:35 as to receive a present from uncle, auntie, grandpa, grandma, they just want to take your gift and take your gift
16:42 rather forcibly. And then for the child or the grandchild, you have to say don't just take the gift, thank uncle first,
16:49 thank grandpa first. That is the Greek word for that will be take. You take your gift forcibly. You take your gift
16:57 selfishly, right? So when you put language together
17:03 and history together, the real problem is more complex. The real problem could
17:09 be this. The rich were eating apart from the poor and eating better than the poor
17:16 Christians. And if the rich were eating same household, two dining rooms, two dining
17:22 areas, the rich Christians eat in one dining area. The poorer Christians, the lowerass Christians eat in a dining
17:29 area, another dining area. You eat apart from the poor Christians and you eat
17:34 better than the poor Christians, you are eating unjustly and eating unequally.
17:41 Can you get it? And I think this is closer to the reconstruction of the problem of the
17:48 abuse of the Lord's supper. And there's a difference. If that is the case, then three things happen. You miss
17:55 three things. Next slide. It misrepresents the God whom we worship,
17:60 the Lord whom we worship. It misrepresents God's church that has been purchased by the blood of Jesus. And
18:07 then it mistreats or shames the poor believer or brother or sister in Christ.
18:14 When you conduct when we conduct our relationships this way, we miss God. We
18:20 miss church. We mis treat a brother or sister in Christ and they walk away
18:27 shamefully. There is a difference between being
18:32 hungry and angry and hungry and humiliated. Okay. So, every Saturday and
18:38 Sunday, I do not know, I guess the same KL, Singapore, Hong Kong, same Saturday,
18:44 S Sunday, you go out for a meal, etc. And when you go to a meal, restaurant is crowded, you wait, right? Uh, you can't
18:50 wait any longer. Usually, who loses the temper first? Husband or wife? Don't say, right? Usually the man, huh? Then
18:58 say, why wait so long? Then after I get a table, well, it takes half an hour for
19:04 the silly waiter or waitress to come, another half an hour for the food to come. So you can storm out the
19:09 restaurant. You are hungry and you are angry.
19:14 But there's difference between hungry and humiliated. My father came with a shirt on his back.
19:20 He was 9 years old. Stored away on a on on a boat, arrived in in Singapore. Somehow he found his way to the small
19:26 town Tempen and from nothing he became the richest man in town and then
19:31 overnight during the Korean war because he was into all sorts of businesses ultimately became a building contractor
19:36 he owned a cinema he owned harm the town uh with the Korean war property price uh the material prices went up his business
19:42 collapsed and he now had to feed 11 children I wasn't born yet my my
19:48 siblings tell me this story and there was not a how poor were we there was not a grain of rice left in the
19:54 You ever tried to feed 11 children besides yourself, your wife, your mother? He had two mothers to look after, one real mother, one foster
20:01 mother, stepmother. And uh have you ever tried to feed a family of 15 with not a single grain of rice? Cuz his fortunes
20:08 turn and collapse through the Korean War. That's why you must pray about this mad man in Korea. He fires the missile
20:14 too close to China, uh too close to Japan. We got World War II, right? And your fate and my fate will go down the
20:20 gurgler. And so my dad sent my eldest brother
20:27 down the road, barely a 100 meters down, to uh his brother's provision shop to
20:33 ask for some help to tie this through. It was a provision shop, a grocery shop.
20:39 And so my eldest brother went and asked for some rice and some help. And my
20:45 uncle said to my brother, "Show me the money.
20:53 My eldest brother never forgot that he was a young teenager at that time trying
20:59 to look after all his other 11 siblings. I guess you could say my eldest brother walked away hungry and humiliated
21:08 and there's nothing you can do about it. When you are rich, you can be hungry,
21:14 angry, move to the next restaurant. When you are poor, you can only be hungry, humiliated, and go home and sleep.
21:24 This was what's happening to the Corinthian church.
21:30 So there I was on a mission trip to India. I've been to India. I went to Kolkata. I went to Hyderabad. Went to uh
21:37 Nagaland. And there uh I met a girl, very bright Indian girl. She belonged to
21:42 the lowest class. You know they have the Brahmin cars and then to the lowest costs. But she was so bright she made it
21:48 to university to do medicine. So I asked her how is university? She
21:54 says I love university. I love them the studies. Uh pastor Chris um studies are studies are great. University is great.
22:01 Uh friends not so many because lower cost. Uh and uh we untouchables uh
22:07 cannot mix with others. So every day I sit at the canteen or sit in open spaces
22:13 in between lectures and I eat alone apart and different to all my friends
22:18 because I belong to a lower class. What's her problem?
22:24 You think her problem will be solved by arriving earlier at the university canteen?
22:30 Her problem is not arriving late. Her problem is the discrimination of a
22:36 car system. No matter how early she arrives, nobody
22:42 thinks she's good enough to eat with them.
22:47 The Corinthian problem was not simplistically eating before,
22:53 but eating apart from the poor and eating better food than the poor. In
22:59 that sense, they were eating unjustly, unequally, un intentionally, and visibly.
23:05 And so every time you met as God's people in Corinth, the poor among them will walk in and
23:13 walk out of church hungry and humiliated, shamed,
23:19 condemned in their poverty by what? Condemned in their poverty as fellow
23:24 Christians by the pride of class, by the insensitivity of culture.
23:31 by the pride of class and the insensitivity of culture. I told you the
23:36 Roman Empire was perhaps 20% 25% a quarter to a third made up of slaves.
23:43 Our modern equivalent we should never think of domestic helpers as slaves but
23:48 it is a parallel. It's not identical. Right? And so with having domestic
23:55 helpers, what do you get used to in the Roman Greeko world? And that's what we
24:01 call it the Roman Greek world of the first century. It was very common for
24:07 very common to slaves uh to have slaves and for slaves to wait upon you.
24:13 And it's very common in that Roman Greeko culture as it is in Malaysian culture as it is in Singaporean culture
24:21 where we have made very normal to have a fellow human being eat separate from you
24:27 and eat lesser quality food than you and you never think twice about it
24:36 because you grew up with this culture that is normal and is normalized to
24:43 treat a fellow human being made in the image of God, right? That they will eat
24:49 separate from you and eat lesser than you simply because they are your mates.
24:56 So, did you watch the movie I'm not stupid? One of the iconic movies of Jack New um
25:02 in in in Singapore and after watching your videos today, I think some of you will give a run for the money, right?
25:09 the next wave of millennial directors will come from FBC.
25:14 Oh, okay. Okay. So, in that in one of the scenes in the movie, right, um this
25:22 fellas kidnappers, they kidnap uh two rich boys or one rich boy, right? And as
25:27 they kidnap, they have to keep the boys alive, right? To get the ransom money from their parents. And of course uh
25:33 these boys they have to they have to feed them as they wait for the ransom money from their parents. But these boys
25:40 you know are brought in such a rich home they don't even know how to butter their bread.
25:46 So Jack Neil says what kidnap you have to kidnap your mate also.
25:55 Some of us, our children are so spoiled, right? Filipino Chinese, Indonesian
26:01 Chinese, Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Indians. You're so rich. You got mates. Some of our children don't know where
26:07 the kitchen is. Kitchen. Kitchen. Okay. What do I do in the kitchen? Huh?
26:12 Because today Fatima is not working. Huh? Today,
26:18 that's the world they grew up in. You are desensitized by cult. You are firstly shaped by culture. As we heard
26:25 in the first talk, that already is dangerous enough. But shaped by culture is not half as dangerous as desensitized
26:33 to God and desensitized to God's people. That you'll never think twice that
26:39 getting some somebody a fellow human being made in God's image to eat separate from you and to eat lesser than
26:45 you is actually ungodly. And the only difference is that you so
26:51 happen to be favored and blessed by God to have an education. That person sitting with you is not any
26:57 less a human being. You realize that you just so happen to have opportunity
27:03 to study and opportunity to make more money than him or her. I remember I started preaching and pastoring in 1991
27:11 and I started reading about China and the rise of China 1991 199 27 years ago, right? And I preached a sermon 9192 in
27:18 which at the rate things are changing with dings and China. Could it be could
27:23 it be thinkable that one day we'll we have to send our children to work in China.
27:29 That was 1991. This 2017 a few folk came up to me and said what
27:34 you said just now is rather insulting. No.
27:40 Today is not insulting. Your children have to work in China.
27:46 This is Admiral Chingho part two.
27:51 The way the nation and the government is going, it's not just Malaysia. The the Chinese are buying up the whole world,
27:58 right? So, how do you get distracted by that? Sorry.
28:04 So, whatever you want to call this supper, you don't call this the Lord Jesus's
28:11 supper. It has nothing to do with the Lord Jesus. It has everything to do with you
28:20 and your unconverted, your unrepentant Corinthian values
28:25 that treats a fellow human being with discrimination and disdain and it
28:31 doesn't even strike your God-given conscience. Doesn't even strike your God-given
28:36 conscience that that behavior is actually ungodly.
28:42 So, how does Paul correct the Lord's supper? He corrects the Lord's supper with the
28:49 last supper. Verse 21, 23, sorry. For what I received from the
28:57 Lord, I also pass on to you. The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, he
29:03 took bread. So, this is the last supper. He broke it. He gave thanks. That's how
29:08 they celebrated the Jewish Passover. and said,
29:14 "This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the
29:20 same way, he took the cup and said, "This cup is the new covenant." So, you picture Jesus's disciples, right?
29:28 They have been celebrating the Jewish Passover for centuries. The Jewish
29:33 Passover is the supreme and premier festival celebrating their redemption from
29:41 hundreds of years of slavery under Moses uh under Pharaoh in Egypt. Correct?
29:47 The Passover meal, right? But no one has ever celebrated it the
29:54 way the Lord Jesus did 2,000 years ago where you get up, you break the bread,
30:01 and they will say, "This is the bread of the Lord." Jesus stands up. He says, "This is my body broken for you."
30:11 The average Jew sitting there would have fallen off his chair. What's he saying?
30:18 He's saying he's the new Passover lamb. Uh yes,
30:26 it's no longer the blood of an animal that will save you. It's the blood of the son of God and the son of man that will save you.
30:33 When we celebrate the Lord's supper, which was firstly inaugurated with the
30:38 last supper, Jesus's retake and reversion and reinvesting of meaning of
30:45 the Passover meal, he personalized it to himself.
30:51 to his sacrificial humble death under God and his will for you and me. You got
30:59 it? So the Greek word there, the operative Greek word is right between two takings.
31:09 The way Jesus he took bread. So is the way Jesus took bread and the way the
31:15 Corinthians took bread. The Corinthians took the supper,
31:20 the bread and the cup for self. They ate first separate to the poor Christians.
31:26 They took it for self. They took it to elevate self. They took it to distance themselves from the poorer Christians.
31:32 They took it to shame others to take it to find security in their Corinthian
31:37 status. They were richer. Jesus when he took the bread which was a
31:43 signal of him taking his life on the cross not too long from the last
31:48 Passover. He took it for others. He took it to
31:55 serve others not to elevate self. He took it to identify himself with his
31:60 people. He took it for the shame and he took it to give true security and
32:05 salvation in him. The contrast here is between two manners
32:12 or two types of taking. You take selfishly or you take selflessly.
32:18 Jesus took his life selflessly. Whatever you call this supper you're
32:24 celebrating in Corinth, whatever you're calling this Lord's supper you're celebrating in FBC and ARPC, don't you
32:32 dare link it to the name of Jesus. Because the way you take it selfishly,
32:39 right, without thinking of a fellow human being has nothing to do with your
32:44 saving Lord. So if that is a valid interpretation of
32:51 this, right? For whenever verse 26, you eat of this bread and drink of this cup,
32:56 you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So what is the greatest leveler of
33:04 humanity? The greatest leveler of humanity is not
33:09 simply death and taxes. It is. But the greatest leveler of humanity is Jesus's
33:18 death. In Jesus, in the person and work of Jesus, you and I stand there and we are
33:25 equal in sin before a holy savior. Amen. Nobody stands before the Lord and says,
33:33 uh, I graduated first class honors and I barely made it uh to O levels or SPM.
33:40 Nobody stands before the Lord and say, I've got 20 million ringit and I've got
33:45 uh $200 uh 200 ringit in my bank every month. You do not plead your status.
33:54 You plead your equality in sin and then you are equal in your savior. You're
34:01 equal in your salvation. Your equal in salvation blessings beginning with the Holy Spirit is given equally to Jews and
34:08 Gentiles. Amen. Given equally to men and women. Amen. Given equally to old and
34:15 young. Amen. In Christ there is no Jew or Greek. In
34:21 Christ there is no male or female. In Christ there is no old or young. In Christ we are just equal in sin, equal
34:28 in our savior, equal in salvation, equal in salvation blessings. Amen. In that
34:34 sense, Jesus is the greatest equalizer and leveler. The cross of Jesus Christ is
34:42 the greatest leveler of human differences. So whatever you do not know if you come
34:49 into Christ if Christ look here if Christ is the head of the church and he
34:55 is. So every time you enter the church and by church church never means church
34:60 building. Church never means church denomination. Church never means institution. Church never means
35:07 association. Church just means the precious people of God. Amen. Write it
35:12 down somewhere. If Christ is really the head of his church, right? Then whenever you enter
35:22 into Christ's fellowship, the church, Jesus stands at the door as the bouncer.
35:31 And Jesus stands at the door as the celestial bouncer, right? And tells you
35:36 to leave every form of pride and prejudice at the door.
35:42 The church of Jesus Christ should be blind to race, class, and every human
35:47 barrier of sin. Agree? We are all one in Christ Jesus. You want
35:52 to turn to your neighbor and say, "We are all one in Christ Jesus, except I'm more superior than you.
35:60 We agree to this intellectually. We do not practice this practically."
36:05 And that's why glorious church, glorious calling in glorious reality
36:13 is in glorious. Christ has broken down every barrier of race, of class, of
36:19 gender, of race, of age, of anything. But we Christians and churches keep
36:26 erecting invisible barriers in our hearts and sometimes real barriers in
36:32 our fellowship. I just came back from a huge conference in America and I look
36:37 around. This is American church. This is American church. American church. Hey, most of the fellows get it here are
36:44 Caucasian Americans. I I saw very few afroamericans.
36:50 150 years after the civil war, right? 60 70 years after Martin Luther King, the
36:56 church in America is still very white or very black and seldom chocolate.
37:05 Christ has broken down every barrier, but we keep erecting barriers.
37:11 That is not a church that pleases God. You get the drift. It's a very important
37:17 thing. So if Jesus next slide, if Jesus is the cross is the great leveler of
37:24 human differences, when you step into Christian fellowship, there are no differences among us. Amen.
37:32 very important we get this right and in that sense the next slide I hope we get it is Christ is the great celestial
37:37 bouncer the great divine bouncer of all human pride
37:43 whenever you come into Christian gatherings Bible study services etc a church camp like this you ask everybody
37:49 to leave their pride and their prejudice out there everything that gave you a false sense
37:54 of identity everything that gave you a false sense of security from your race from your class from your culture from
38:01 your achievement when you are wise your own eyes strong in your own power wise your own eyes strong in your own strength very corinthian leave all your
38:10 carnal Corinthian values at the door you got it if this is it my friends then
38:17 it's very serious verse 27 therefore whoever eats the bread or
38:25 drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood
38:30 of the Lord Look here, it's about Jesus' head and his body. Jesus the head and us
38:35 the body. When you eat when you drink eat of this
38:40 bread and drink of this cup in an unworthy manner in the total context, what is the unworthy manner?
38:49 The unworthy manner is not any form of sin. We usually think sexual sin. Paul
38:55 is not talking about sexual sin here. He talked about sexual sin in chapter five and six.
39:01 The sin, the eating of the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner
39:07 is eating of it with pride and prejudice in your heart.
39:14 Never enter into any Christian fellowship with unconfessed and unrepentant human pride and prejudice.
39:24 That is the point. So every time you gather you have to search yourself and think let me ask you
39:30 between husband and wife who is smarter. Don't answer or else tonight you'll be
39:36 sleeping somewhere in Kinta Valley or Kinta River right making videos for the next church camp two years from now.
39:43 Okay. So I always ask couples who smarter don't answer. But between you
39:49 you somehow think you're smarter. That is already offensive to the cross.
39:55 That's offensive to Jesus who died on the cross because you are functioning on
40:02 superiority and inferiority of intelligence. Between Mona and me, who do you think is
40:08 smarter? Answer carefully. Answer wrongly and this sermon could go
40:13 on forever. We stop now.
40:20 We say benediction. Amen. You do not know. But Mona is infinitely
40:26 smarter. We went to kindergarten, primary one, all the way through what my primary and
40:32 all the way through. She was always first. I was always second or third. And that's the only reason. The only reason
40:37 was I let her win.
40:44 I knew she was studying hard for me. I just appeared in an exam.
40:51 She's infinitely smarter than me. But we don't think of each other that
40:57 way in a Christian marriage. She's strong in some things. She's weaker in others. I'm strong in some things. I'm
41:04 weaker in others. There is no pride or prejudice. There is no superiority or inferiority. Amen.
41:12 You want to repent in your own marriage right now. You have been sitting here. You've been married for 20 years, 25
41:18 years. You always think your wife very low IQ. Tonight you repent
41:25 because your partaking of the Lord and of Christian fellowship in an unworthy manner.
41:32 You have conducted your your relationship based on your superiority.
41:38 Your selfassess and your self-concluded superiority. If Jesus walks in now and as he does a
41:46 audit of you, he says, "Yeah, it's true. You're smarter than your wife." That's okay. But I don't think Jesus, our Lord,
41:53 is going to walk in now and say, "Yeah, I always knew you were smarter.
41:58 You're equal in sin. You're equal in your savior. You're equal in salvation. You're equal in salvation blessings."
42:05 Who are smarter, Jews or Gentiles? Answer carefully
42:12 because Jews are quite smart. You know, they predominate in the Ivy League universities of the world.
42:20 They made the bomb both atomic and nuclear
42:25 without openheimer. They wouldn't be the bomb. People know that. So, who is
42:31 smarter? When you come together as Jews and Gentiles, there's no Jew, there's no Greek, there's no slave, there's no
42:37 free, there is no male, there's no female. Every time you walk into Christian fellowship and think yourself
42:44 smarter because you're Chinese Christians, you have offended the fellowship. You think yourself smarter
42:49 because you're Indians, you offended the Christian fellowship. Got it?
42:55 Christ has broken down every barrier. We keep erecting new barriers. Notice
42:60 therefore whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup in an unworthy manner the unworthy manner is you ever approach it
43:06 and bring division from your pride you bring division and
43:11 we don't think twice about disunityity you don't think twice about church splits because normal
43:19 who can really be united there's no such thing but Jesus laid down his life
43:27 so that you be truly the one people of God lie. So when you meet him and say what you
43:33 did on the cross didn't achieve unity, you also canal
43:39 and that is the light version of this. If you get used to disunityity amongst
43:46 you from your false sense of superiority, some of you are weak,
43:53 some of you are sick and some have fallen asleep.
43:59 If you that doesn't mean what you're facing now. Huh?
44:10 If you bring division into any Christian fellowship,
44:16 the temporary judgment upon you, the temporary discipline upon you, verse 32,
44:22 when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined by him. And some have
44:27 been judged and disciplined with sickness and with death.
44:32 So never get used to disunityity and say yeah doesn't matter what we got.
44:38 Nobody died. What really? Nobody died really. Some of you fell sick. Some of you came
44:45 down with terminal illness. You never you never drew the audit trail that you that could be related to your pride and
44:50 prejudice to your superiority that brought disunityity in the body of Christ.
44:58 Never cross your mind, right? That your sickness had something to do with your sin of disunityity.
45:06 And God does this temporarily. Verse 32, so that we will not be condemned with
45:11 the world. We Christians, the church, condemned together with the world, unweparated,
45:19 the world will be condemned. We will be safe. But if you live with unconfessed and
45:25 unconverted Corinthian values of pride and prejudice, you actually show you are
45:31 of the world. And why do you think they killed Jesus?
45:37 Because he didn't look the part. He's just a poor man from an unknown
45:45 village, Bethlehem and Galilee. But we are sophisticated Kale knights.
45:51 We are sophisticated Jerusaleamites and we know the Bible more than him. He
45:58 calls himself God. We kill him. He's a threat to our class and our status.
46:05 If you continue to hold on to class and status, you are like the world.
46:12 Because our human wisdom and class and status is what killed off Jesus.
46:19 So don't treat this lightly. My friends, I have preached this. I've tried to live this all my life.
46:27 Everywhere I go, I preach the truth as best as I understand it. And everywhere
46:32 I go, I tell you, brothers and sisters in Christ, live in love and unity. Amen.
46:39 Because Jesus laid down his life to make you the one body of Christ. I'm called
46:45 the love and unity man. Ah, Pastor Chris, a few things about him. Always Jesus one. Always Jesus. just mention
46:50 Jesus, you'll be okay. Then second thing, uh love, love, love. So one fellow said your gospel always love one,
46:57 right? Is there anything else besides love? I said, I don't know. I better check with Jesus first.
47:03 Cuz according to Jesus, by this shall all men know you are my disciples. The this is is not by your knowledge should
47:11 all men know you're my disciples. By your evangelism shall all men know you're my disciples. By your mission
47:18 shall all men may know you're my disciples. By your prayer and your ferventness in prayer will all men know
47:23 you're my disciples. By your love, your servanthearted love as you wash see
47:30 me wash your feet. That is John 3 uh John 13. By this servant-hearted love
47:35 that you don't understand that I the master do for you is actually a small window to what I will do for you on the
47:42 cross. So at the heart of the saving gospel is really peace with God
47:51 because without God you are always at war with your maker. And if you dare to wage war with your maker waging war with
47:58 your husband, your wife, your brothers and sisters is a nothing that you and I are a war making machine
48:05 without God. It's not whether you fight next is how badly you fight. True or
48:10 not, from morning to night, you are a war making machine.
48:16 And if not for God bringing peace to your heart through the ultimate peacemaker, Jesus, you'll always be
48:23 making war from morning to night. And so if that is true here friends then
48:30 application application Christ and his church
48:36 never get used to superficial or nominal unity right so I don't know what the
48:42 situation is in faith baptist right but in churches around the world we say we
48:47 are one in Christ but immediately after the service um we all break out into
48:52 fellowship food and fellowship but we usually sit in our ghetto groups
48:58 All those who play tennis together, all those who do karaoke together, all the youth hang out together, all the singles
49:04 hang out together and say they one people of God actually hanging around your own ghetto
49:09 groups. You don't need Jesus to die for you. They want you just join a golf club,
49:16 don't need atonement because you find security in familiarity.
49:21 The church of Jesus Christ is very threatening. There's Jew, there's Gentile, there's uh there's Greek,
49:28 there's there's Jew, there's barbarian, there's citian, there's male, there's female. It's it's multithnic, it's
49:34 multi-racial, it is across classes. Amen. Yeah. So, I was preaching in
49:39 Australia once and uh evening service at uh and uh the host uh then after that
49:46 couple hosted me for for dinner, right, as the speaker. Mona wasn't there for this one. And we went walk into a
49:52 restaurant. It was pretty crowded and they said, "Okay, we'll go and get the food." We order the food and then it's not a sit down thing. It's like
49:58 McDonald's. You order then you'll bring the food. Uh you take your own food. So he said, "Chris, you go find a table." I
50:03 look around a very crowded restaurant and I saw some bikes. You know bikes,
50:08 huh? The ones who write the loud Harley-Davidson bikes full of tattoos everywhere. I look at one corner and
50:14 there's a whole bunch of them. So I said to myself, China man, Australia, Australian bikes, don't go there. asking
50:22 for trouble because they're usually racist, right? But so crowded. So I had to find my way and you know though I
50:29 want to avoid them, I had to pass them. As I passed them, one guy stood up huge
50:35 and he said, "Pastor Chris,
50:42 Pastor Chris." I said, "Yes." Yeah. I was just at the church service. It was
50:48 a wonderful sermon. Thank you.
50:54 I was thinking myself, are they bikes in heaven?
51:00 That's my pride and prejudice. I see big Aussie. I see tattoo. I see
51:07 surely headed towards not kingdom of God. Headed somewhere with Harley-Davidson, but I don't think is
51:14 heaven. How did I reach that conclusion? Because I stereotype people.
51:22 You stereotype people. We caricature people. You got it? So
51:28 let's try it. The New Testament church was Jews and Gentiles brought together. They have hated each other for
51:35 centuries. For centuries. Deep hostility, deep
51:40 animosity. All one in Christ Jesus. Uh they know that in their brains, right?
51:46 So if you were relating to each other, eating each other's food, etc. Uh you got to understand Jews don't eat, Jews
51:53 don't eat, Jews don't eat. Don't eat what? Don't eat pork. How many of you
51:59 like pork? Most of you are, right? Yeah. Can you repent? Sorry.
52:07 So in the first century church, Gentiles and Jews can serve pork or not. You have
52:14 the freedom in Christ. You're free to do anything. But you're not free to stumble your Jewish brother or sister who just
52:21 became a Christian. But they only are there only 20 Jews. No, but there are 200 Chinese. No. So
52:29 every week whose food should we serve? Surely pork. Come on. Get them to grow up. I know
52:37 they are they are weak in the conscience. We are strong. You're strong in the stomach.
52:43 You get this thing. You're getting this vibes, right? And so if you were a Jew,
52:51 you might stereotype and caricature all Gentiles are like that. All Gentiles are
52:58 crude, right? All Gentiles are univilized. They eat all sorts of
53:03 four-legged animals and pay very high price for what God tells us not to eat.
53:08 All the shellfish and crap, right? Sorry, you you know that never mind.
53:15 Never mind. That's another series, right? Food, pure foods. Then you think
53:20 all Jews are like that. Let's make uh do this. All Chinese are what? Stereotype
53:27 caricature. All Chinese are crooked.
53:32 All Chinese are money-minded. Can never trust Chinese with money. True or not?
53:39 All Indians like to talk a lot. That's why you got disproportionate amount of
53:44 them as lawyers. All Malays are lazy. Uh those are
53:51 caricatures. You don't ever say it. You wait for me to say it. You pay me to say it. Then if
53:58 you record this, I get into trouble. Then you don't ever visit me in in prison.
54:04 You don't say it, but your heart thinks it. And once you think into your heart, all Chinese like that, all Indians like
54:10 that, all Jews like that, all Gentiles like that, you are relating to each other by your default. Your default way
54:16 to relate to each other across the races is by your stereotype.
54:21 Your default for relating to each other is Christ and the cross. The cornerstone
54:28 of your life. So when you meet somebody of a different race, don't walk away from them. walk
54:35 towards them. Have I told you about my family? You know how many children? I'm
54:40 youngest of 12, right? Elder sister married Japanese. Second sister married
54:46 Indian. Fifth sister married New Zealander. One of my nieces married Filipino. One of my other nieces married
54:53 American. What do you call my family? Messed up. I call my family United Nations.
55:01 and my elder sister married a Japanese when barely 20 years after World War II
55:08 when we have barely forgotten the atrocities of the war.
55:14 So there is no racist bone in my body. That's why I can crack the jokes I
55:20 crack. And that was even before I became a Christian. And now after become a
55:25 Christian, there is no racist boat in me. Full stop. for because as a young boy there's a 25
55:32 year gap between me and my elder sister. I ate before you knew what sashimi was.
55:38 I already ate it. Hello.
55:43 And I grew up eating sashimi and Indian food because my second brother-in-law was Sri Lankan.
55:54 What's the point I was making? I don't know. You think FBC can be a beautiful
56:00 collection, a beautiful buffet, a beautiful smogg board of different races.
56:07 Amen. And that's a small picture of heaven
56:12 where John sees a vision in Revelation 7:9. I saw a multitude,
56:20 different tribes, different clans, different languages, all gathered to worship the Lord Jesus.
56:26 By the grace of God, I speak at different conferences around the world. Some of them are international
56:32 and is a beautiful picture to meet African Christians
56:37 like Caucasian Christian, Asian Christians, Arab Christians, etc. Isn't
56:44 that beautiful? So, no race barriers in FBC. Amen.
56:50 That's wonderful. And if the Filipino min ministry grows, if the Myanm's ministry grows, if your Tamil ministry
56:57 grows faster than the English speaking, rejoice. Don't feel threatened by them. They want
57:05 to take over your building. Give love. Who told you so? Pastor Christian.
57:10 No. Who told you so? Jesus. You go to the You go to England and
57:16 Europe, there are many empty mosques are many empty churches. turn into pubs and
57:23 some into moss. They spent millions of dollars in the 1800s and 1900s building this church
57:30 buildings hardware. They didn't focus on software. They didn't focus on making
57:36 disciples and training leaders to pass on the gospel from one generation. They just got caught up with the glory of
57:42 growing church and growing buildings. That's where we are now in Singapore and Malaysia. And I say to you, don't build
57:49 too build too big a building. I spend more money on people than I spend more money on buildings. Buildings
57:56 do not carry the gospel. People carry the gospel. $1 million invested in five fellows
58:05 training in Bible college will convert and disciple and mature the church more than a glorious building.
58:12 Agree. You'll never invite me back again. I know that.
58:18 Okay. So, no race barriers then. No class barriers. Is that right? Class
58:25 culture barriers. So, uh your children, how many your children
58:30 are graduates? Don't be so don't be so humble.
58:36 I think most your children are graduates, right? Can your graduate children marry non-graduates? Are you
58:42 kidding? Did he just say that? Did he just
58:47 suggest another radical thing? Right. Can my graduate son marry a non-graduate
58:54 woman? You're talking nonsense. So you find me a Bible verse, Bible
58:59 verse that a graduate cannot marry a non-graduate. Some parents come to me, um, my children
59:06 dating, pastor Chris, you know, we live in landed property, they live in HDB.
59:16 My son is a scholar. She barely made it through poly.
59:22 Can you tell them to break up? I sit down there. Hallelujah.
59:30 I don't say it, but I'm saying I'm in trouble. Up to this point. The parents love me.
59:36 From this point onwards, they're going to hate me. And I say to them, um, yeah,
59:42 they're different, but I don't see any biblical basis for asking them to break up.
59:49 Sometimes the parents say, "You watch out, we'll come and get you."
59:56 And they say that with seriousness. You watch out. We'll get you
60:02 one day. We'll get you serious.
60:08 We'll report you to the authorities. We'll send your tapes. We'll splice your
60:13 tapes. I got a call once holding a leaders meeting and a lady said, "You know, years ago, you preached a message.
60:19 I didn't like it. I sent your tapes to the internal security department to get
60:25 you into trouble. Years later, I realized what I did was wrong.
60:31 I just wanted to tell you that because it's been bugging me.
60:37 So I said, "Thank you. Thank you." I went back to the meeting. The leader said, "Uh, yeah. What was the phone call
60:43 about?" I said, "Nothing." Normal persecution.
60:52 The most dangerous thing you could do is to confront people with cultural values and change them.
60:60 I'm a Christian, but please don't jolly well tell my son or daughter to marry somebody from a different race, a
61:05 different class. We still got race barriers. We still got class barriers. It's called age barriers. I spoke about
61:12 this, right? So immediately after service and FBC, right? Who hangs out with who. I told you this, the young
61:19 folk, you ever talk to the old folks? When you have the conversation, it's a spare parts conversation. You ever try
61:25 to talk to young folks? So once I stood there, I noticed uh this Indian girl, not many Indians in my church. So I
61:32 always look out for those who are in a minority. So I went up to her. I know her. I know her family. And I asked her,
61:38 "So uh how are your parents?" "Good. How was your fellowship?" They just said, "Do you fellowship?" "Okay." "Uh, how is
61:45 school?" "All right." Oh, one word answers. You know, you know
61:50 who I am or not? Of course, I didn't say that. Do you know who I am? You know how many people in church want to talk to me? I'm the senior pastor. because I
61:56 didn't say all those things. Didn't say any of None of those things crossed my mind. None of those things.
62:05 So there I am every week trying to make conversations with young people. How are you? Okay. How's school? Okay. Uh all
62:13 right. One word. One word. One word. One word. One word. Hello. I'm dying here.
62:22 You think it's easy to break generational barriers? So I say right, bow low enough to pick
62:30 up a baby in church. Help the couples with young children because you know they've been minding
62:37 this kid the whole week and then they come to church. The first is crying the whole service. They want to get something. They got half a sermon, half
62:44 a sermon, three quarter sermon. They don't know what they listen to was true or not. Then you carry the baby. Have you carried babies lately?
62:50 No. They drool all over and off. Then as I have to carry as a pastor, right, to look nice like a politician.
62:57 Ah, drooling all over. No problem. I love sliber. Oh yes. You know this shirt
63:05 is a never mind. So you think it's easy to break
63:11 barriers? You talk to old folks, they're only concerned about changing spare parts. You talk to young folks is one
63:17 word answers, right? You pick up babies is drooling all over. You think it's
63:22 easy to break down barriers? We must. It's not how easy, how hard it is. So,
63:28 bow low enough to pick up a child, help with the merits, right? Stay long enough
63:34 to listen to an old person speak about their body and pray with them
63:40 and be patient enough to understand that beyond the onewood answers of Gen X, Gen
63:45 Y, millennials, whatever you want to call them, don't treat them by car and stereotype. There is a young person in
63:52 there who's waiting to be loved, waiting to be understood.
63:57 You just have to be more authentic. Can you follow?
64:02 So I just, you know, I don't ever want to walk around church anywhere in the
64:08 world, beginning my church, seeing ghetto groups. You don't need Christ and the cross to gather as ghetto groups.
64:15 You need Christ in the cross to break the barriers of race, of class, and of
64:21 age. Amen. So, can older women marry younger Christian men?
64:32 Okay, let's pause because I know you're tired already. I hit your mind with so many things you can't answer already.
64:39 Can older Christian women marry younger Christian men? Of course, as long as
64:45 it's not my son. I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy for
64:52 you, Uncle Peter. I'm so happy for you, Jim. I'm so happy
64:58 for you, Uncle Raymond. Uncle Richard, God bless you.
65:05 The most opposed marriages in in my pastoral experience are mixed marriages.
65:11 Number one. Number two, our differentiation in education.
65:16 Thirdly is age. Pastor Chris, can you please break up this relationship?
65:23 She is 5 to 10 years older than my son. It's not that I want to be
65:28 discriminating, but the chances of her having a baby and if they have the baby will be perhaps handicapped.
65:40 So I'm sitting down there. But what do I say now? What's another one?
65:46 I say the same thing. We're all one in Christ Jesus. I don't see age as a reason to break up your children.
65:54 I know there's greater risk, right? And so they oppose. They oppose. So they can't convince me. They go to next
66:00 pastor. But they don't know the next pastor also went to the same Bible college.
66:06 So all of us agreed already. So they go down nine pastors. We got nine pastors, right? Everybody give the same thing but
66:13 they oppose. They oppose it. It's almost 90 to 100%
66:18 90% not 100%. Where the opposition is against race based on race based on age
66:25 and all the worries about age. Thankfully in our midst the 10 or 20
66:31 older women who have married younger men right before long they got pregnant and
66:36 had children. And then when the children come, all the opposition for what? Why fight so much?
66:45 Right? Soon God bless you a baby. When you carry the grandchild, no more fighting. I always knew she could bear
66:51 babies. I always knew. But for three years, you fought with me.
66:58 Told everybody bad things about Pastor Chris. All sorts of rubbish about us.
67:04 Fight all the way and tell the son, "You marry her. I'm not appearing at the wedding. You ever seen men cry? I've
67:11 seen many men cry now. Right? One fellow conducted his wedding. He saw his bride
67:17 walking down. He cried from beginning to end. What do you call that? A strong
67:23 sensitive man. A modernday man. A Korean star man.
67:30 Descendants of the sun man. Maybe he was crying said, "Oh, mistake,
67:37 mistake, mistake, mistake. Big mistake. I don't think so."
67:45 So, I can still remember this wedding of this man. He was a scholar. The girl was about 10 8 to 10 years older than him.
67:52 The father told him when he fell in love with her, "You go ahead with this. You marry her. I'm not turning up. In fact,
67:58 you're not getting inheritance." So, we just stood there and cried. at his wedding. He cried. I cried. I had to
68:06 stand and support him. I couldn't bail out. I'm his leader.
68:11 Less than two years later, he's got a baby. Father turns up all the time now.
68:18 Pastor Chris, how are you? I'm fine. Are you fine?
68:30 Then music barriers. Right? We now got music wars in church. I told
68:37 you what I went to a Baptist church to preach. I was their church consultant, right? And this old person came up to me
68:44 and say, "True Baptist sing the hymns of the 1800s."
68:50 Oh no. I was preaching another conference, huh?
68:55 and uh some Graham Kendrick music was you know Graham Kendrick makess and
69:01 majesty manhood and deity quite nice right he he
69:07 composes chorus hymns half chorus half hymns so it was a break and this old lady walk
69:15 up to the when they were the sound people sound uh technicians etc and say
69:21 stop the music it's of the devil I was standing nearby. I said, "Did I
69:27 hear correctly?" Music divides us.
69:32 So what is true Christian music? Are they our hymns or they choruses or they
69:38 hill song? Don't fight over music. There's no such thing as Christian
69:43 music. There's only Christian lyrics. There is no musicality that is unique to
69:50 Christians. Is that true? So there we were for sbatical in Harvard University
69:56 and my wife always liked afroamericans and uh wanted to worship in a black church. Then we realized that uh there
70:03 was an afroamerican gospel concert at one of the prestigious uh music halls.
70:09 And so we bought a ticket and went and so you know African gospel music
70:16 when they start singing there is no bone in their body which is not moving.
70:24 Everything is moving. My wife was a former charismatic.
70:31 So she starts moving. In front of me are two white men. Oh,
70:36 couple, husband and wife. They ain't moving. I'm a Presbyterian.
70:44 You ever seen Korean Presbyterians worship in suits more straight jacket?
70:53 A mighty fortress is our God. So who will be acceptable to God in the
71:00 end? The African, right? The non-moving South Korean
71:06 Presbyterian. All don't fight over this and don't create
71:13 different services based on music and the twain shall never meet. So from the
71:20 time I started our church, I say we will sing a combination of hymns and choruses. Amen. Nobody choose the
71:27 different services based on type of music, type of worship and who is preaching.
71:33 We don't tell them who is preaching. They just guess every week who who sometimes here, sometimes there,
71:39 sometimes here, sometimes there. I don't know who. So this couple you know uh
71:44 somebody recommended come to your church. So we thought we were preaching at Adam Road but you preaching at your other church Bishan. Then we went there
71:51 you preaching at Adam Road. Follow follow. We're also confused. Don't tell them who's preaching. Just
71:57 tell them God is speaking. That's good, right? So, I don't think there's need for Q&A
72:04 anymore cuz all your queue I have ate.
72:10 You want to ask about music wars, age wars, class wars, race wars, any and all
72:17 forms of humility. Christ and his church.
72:22 And all of this is about humility. It takes a bit of humility to like your music. Is that right?
72:30 So I have to confess I like Terresa Tang. You know Terresa T?
72:36 I know you don't know her personally, right? But me and Teresa, we are one.
72:44 Okay. Of course you don't believe that, right?
72:49 And so I listen. I don't understand Mandarin. I just like the musicality of a songs, right? Especially the moon
72:56 becomes the sun. The sun becomes the moon. Yeah.
73:02 Whatever. The moon reflects my heart. Yeah. Yeah. And I So when we driving
73:07 from Singapore to Malaysia, when the children are younger, I would I'm I'm the father. I'm the driver. I choose the
73:13 CDs. I choose the music. Right. No, we're quite fair. So part of the journey my
73:20 music part of the journey their music. So when I'm driving I say Teresa thing after a while my daughter especially say
73:27 dad enough I'm dying enough I'm dying of Teresa. I'm dying of
73:35 Elvis. I'm dying of Beges. Then she puts on her music coplay.
73:41 Right. Some Coldplay quite good. Some other things. Some other groups I don't know. And it goes
73:48 Jing jing jing. I'm driving jing jing jing jing jing jing jing. After a while
73:54 I say uh hanme I I can't take it. Can I go back to the
73:60 because this drive is very long anymore I'll get hypertension
74:05 now. What does it take to light music? Humility. And one day I went to pick up somebody
74:11 from Changi airport. I dropped somebody at Changi airport, one of our foreign speakers. And on the
74:17 way back, I played the CD. Happened to be my daughter's CD. And I found myself
74:24 singing to it. Hey, I like this. I'm quite cool, you know. I may not look cool, but I'm cool.
74:34 It's getting used to it. Why fight about it? So, my kids now love the 60s. They
74:42 can sing karaoke 60s and 70s. I now love their music. You give me Adele, I can sing Adele
74:50 with angst. Don't you dare leave me, I'll kill you.
74:56 Most of our songs sound like that one, right? You leave me, I kill you. Leave me, I kill you. Leave me, I kill you.
75:02 All right. And you make millions of dollars from that. I can also write that song.
75:08 And now there's that young fellow. What's the young fellow? Huh?
75:13 Sharon. Ant Sharon. You heard of Ed Sharon? You old folks haven't heard of Ed Sharon?
75:19 I know Ed Sharon. I know he had nine of the top of the 10
75:24 UK hits. No UK, no singer in the world has ever dominated nine out of 10 songs.
75:31 You totally out of touch. I tell you, you want to do gospel ministry, you got
75:36 to read, you got to listen, you got to break barriers. How did I come to know
75:43 Adele? I was listening to my radio is always on on BBC, right? Don't read New
75:48 Street Times, don't you? Did I say that? So BBC and BBC announced that Adele has
75:55 just won the most awards, the Grammy Awards. Then I said, "Who on the earth is Adele?"
76:00 I drove straight to the CD shop and bought her CD cuz the next week I was going to speak to youth. If I don't
76:07 listen to their music, they ain't listening to me. So when I get up and mention Adele and
76:13 sing a few notes of Adele. Oh, your Pastor Chris, you're just with it. You
76:19 don't look it, but you're with it. You got this, my friends.
76:27 Whatever you call this fellowship, if you don't break barriers, you bring in pride and prejudice, please don't
76:33 mention the name of Jesus. Has nothing to do with Jesus. But if this fellowship is filled with
76:39 humility rather than pride, barrier breaking humility rather than
76:44 pride. If this fellowship has Jesus standing out there as the celestial bouncer asking to leave behind
76:52 everything that you think wise and powerful that belongs to your own self- achievement. If this fellowship has
76:59 that, it is beautiful. It brings glory to God. Amen. Amen. With that, I think I
77:06 close in prayer. You take a break and we do Q&A. You still want to do the Q&A? Seriously,
77:13 I think you said this. No, too much. Anyway, let's stand and pray.
77:23 We thank you and praise you, heavenly father, for your word. We thank you and praise you that we can have true love
77:29 and joy as your people. We understand aresh who you are, Lord Jesus. that it
77:35 came in all your humility, your utter complete humility before the Father
77:40 because of your love for us. And help us as we proclaim you and
77:47 celebrate fellowship around you, redeem, transform fellowship around you that it
77:54 will have less and less indeed nothing of the pride and prejudice of our fallen
77:59 world. that there will be no race barriers, no class barriers, no culture
78:04 barriers, no age barriers, no music barriers, no barriers of any kind
78:10 because you have come to break down those barriers. Forgive us when we relate to each other and our
78:16 relationships are built on the default of caricature,
78:21 the default of stereotype that all men are like that, all women are like that, all Chinese are like that, all Indians
78:28 are like that. Please forgive us oh Lord. Forgive us when we erect age barriers
78:34 and think that our children cannot marry across the ages, our children cannot marry across the classes, our children
78:40 cannot marry and fellowship across the races. Please forgive us of that and do
78:46 in us a new work of God- centered relationships of God redeemed
78:52 relationships that as we depart from this camp and return and live this out every week in
78:59 FBC we will draw more men and women to Christ and you will be glorified and
79:06 exalted forever and ever. Do this in our hearts. Do this in our relationships. Do
79:13 this in our marriages. Do this in our families. Do this in our church. In Jesus mighty name we pray and we wait.
79:20 Amen.
