The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:00 I wish you a very happy and new year. On my way home from work
00:11 on the radio,
00:24 there was this guest and the name was
00:33 She says that this year is the year of the
00:57 certain people who will not be as
01:03 she says don't worry there's nothing you altering your destiny so she says
01:16 don't worry all you need to do is just Make sure you have a golden tortoise and
01:23 place it near your workplace and I suspect whatever else you have
01:32 and and I expected this to happen. She says obviously you can come and buy these golden
01:40 and I suspect she will tell other people as well
01:50 but that's going to happen therefore if you want to
01:56 do something I am
02:03 I want to tell you what I don't know what changing
02:11 what I do know is I do know that in today's message there are some lessons
02:17 learning
02:25 joyful our Lord Jesus Christ when he was here on He says he came
02:33 and a question which I always ask what do we
02:39 mean by does it mean that you must have material wealth but does it mean that you must
02:46 have great health and does it mean that you must have a successful career that
02:52 everything is going wonderful for you therefore
02:58 I don't think All this material wealth break
03:12 abundant life.
03:24 She says that when she go and sit this lady
03:36 A lot of people wish she has broken something
03:53 kind Instead of going there,
04:03 she herself.
04:26 Father,
04:41 God
04:50 We pray that
04:58 one.
05:10 I propose my friends that cover this passage.
05:16 11
05:23 going to do it in four parts. And the first one is uh
05:36 first part
05:44 has already read them. So I don't think we want to go through that. What is important is we know that everybody
05:51 shared everything. We also know from that nobody considered any of their
05:57 property as their own and from time to time they come to sell their land houses whatever
06:05 so that shaling
06:21 does it that this is what you intended for us to follow that all of us should
06:27 place all our properties sell them whenever necessary and when this happens
06:32 I think I'm going to give you the good news the
06:39 good news is because
06:44 impent churches
06:51 never experience
07:03 that he wants us to follow. However, because of the fact that he mentions
07:10 this communal style of twice over four chapters means it is something important
07:17 that we should consider and that's what While it is not
07:22 something
07:34 at the heart of the practice of sharing the Bible says
07:44 at the heart of all this he says there's this deep lingering enduring sense
07:55 You know that when the leaders of the church are
08:03 then it helps the rest of the congregation. So the first lesson
08:13 or at least appeared so that you know everybody else will find that there's no
08:24 You will learn that in the
08:31 disciples when Jesus Christ is still around.
08:38 They were wanting to know uh they were calling among themselves who
08:45 will be greater who will be greater than the other and
08:50 who shall take first place. And so Jesus always
08:60 find
09:05 it means therefore
09:10 the starter stood up with the other.
09:18 So there was this sense and you can find this all over
09:26 Whenever somebody spoke the rest when the leaders of church
09:41 commitment, you cannot really be committed to
09:48 something. You cannot really be wanting to share everything together unless there is something.
09:56 And in the first church, in the first committed
10:03 what were they committed to? First of all, they were committed to learning. They were committed to growing. They
10:10 wanted to know more because they were they felt guilty because they rejected Jesus Christ the Lord and Messiah that
10:16 God sent and they had to crucify and so they were all together
10:22 learning Christ
10:28 can please God
10:36 all the We read that they devoted themselves to
10:42 the teaching and fellowship of bread and prayer. Everyone was all
10:49 wonders and miraculous signs done by apostles. All the believers were together and everything.
10:57 Yes. Those days together they were so fired up. Why? Because Jesus Christ was
11:03 still in the sense that the history
11:11 Not long after a
11:16 very fresh and now the apostles are declaring Jesus
11:22 Christ has been resurrected. Then you may say that going around
11:29 people can be glued together and today no such miracles are happening or at least they're not happening in our
11:35 midst. We are gathered together whether it is
11:41 in church or in groups
11:53 as you see people
11:59 come and talk to you about how he gave his testimony here two Sundays
12:05 ago how he was u at first divine by the drugs because of his own family
12:10 history. But there you go. You see people will change lives and then you too will be encouraged. So in place of
12:17 signs and miracles, there are still wonders that God is doing through his people to be an encouragement for all of
12:23 us. So that's the first thing and what is the lesson for us? We should therefore find every opportunity to meet
12:30 together. Hebrews 10:24-25 what does it say? It says simply this do not give up meeting as some people are want to do.
12:38 But when you come together, there's a chance to be encouraged. If you stay away, then you will find that the
12:45 fellowship is gone. And trust me, slowly but surely, your spiritual life will
12:53 start eBing away. Then again you know the reason why we have the globe cafe is
12:60 that so that people all the congregation here after the service you can actually
13:05 go there and have fellowship with other people. You know, if you come to church, uh, sorry, I take back the word if you,
13:12 if we come to church for the sake of coming to church and then waiting for
13:17 the doors to open because the final hymn is being sung and then you rush home, then I think that defeats the purpose of
13:24 having the communal life. But so we we urge you therefore brothers and sisters make use of the Globe Cafe as a place
13:31 where you can reach out where you can get to know other people a little bit
13:36 better and where there is an opportunity for you to care for one another. You see
13:42 that's a globe cafe. The other one where you can actually grow is when you belong to a life group. You see in a life group
13:49 is a smaller place. You have 10, 15, 20 people at most. But it's a place where
13:55 people can be more intimate, can be more
14:00 relaxed, can be more casual. And you know the Bible does say this. It says
14:06 that you know we are supposed to be reaching out and helping one another. But the question is this, how can we
14:13 reach out and help others when we do not know they are in need? And if we stick
14:19 to ourselves, we'll find that you will never know. You see today's world we find it such a challenge to to live the
14:26 communal lifestyle like those in the first century Jewish church. Why? Because today we value our own privacy.
14:33 We we have our plenty of things to do ourselves. We have got no time for other people. Don't you think so? And so
14:39 therefore uh we are being can I use the word selfish? I think we all are. We just want to live our own lives. And in
14:46 fact we also allow other people to live their own lives. So I don't touch you, you don't touch me. you know, you do
14:52 your thing, I do my thing. And when we shall meet, we say hallelujah. That's all. And and that's pretty sad, don't
14:57 you think? So, so that's a that's a life groups and we truly urge my dear brothers and sisters. For those of you who have never had the joy of belonging
15:05 to a live group, do come and experience one. The central one is opening this
15:10 Thursday. So, please come. I'm sure Leling and Richard will be more than happy to see you. And the globe cafe can
15:15 take quite a lot of people want to know. Then there are prayer meetings. Prayer meetings happens on Wednesday nights in
15:21 this church and I confess that I seldom come to prayer meetings but it is at the
15:27 prayer meetings at least those times when I come there prayer meetings where you learn about others you learn about
15:35 what's happening to their lives and then you can learn to pray for them you know many of us many of us always think this
15:42 we think that this one happens to others it doesn't happen to us it's the same
15:48 here. For those of us sitting here, for those of you sitting here who have never
15:53 ever experienced your handbag or something being snatched by someone, you
15:58 will never imagine that it can happen to you. But when that happened to my wife and me in December, we realized that
16:06 sooner or later it may be our turn. And then you will realize how precious how
16:15 how wonderful it is to have other brothers and sisters who are there when you really need them most.
16:22 Then they've also committed to another uh to the mission. You know during the first century there in Acts 4, you read
16:28 that with great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God's
16:35 grace was so powerfully at work in them all. Now know this. The apostles were
16:42 there. They were boldly proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. They were
16:48 boldly proclaiming that Christ has risen and sins can be forgiven and they can
16:53 enjoy eternal life. Remember at one time they were they was they were so afraid of telling the whole world that who
16:60 Jesus Christ was. In fact, they themselves were so afraid that Peter had to deny Jesus Christ. But now they were
17:06 preaching. They were testifying with great power. And you know something he says that because they were committed to
17:14 this mission, committed to telling the world then first to the Jews and then later to the Gentiles that the good news
17:21 is that Jesus Christ has come and because he has come we will have eternal
17:27 life and have life to the full on earth itself. And and because they were going out to tell people about the gospel,
17:34 God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all. There is always this caveat.
17:40 Remember our God, like most of us would like to believe, our God is not a Santa
17:46 Claus. Yes, many a times he answers our prayers. But God is not a Santa Claus to
17:53 be asked of things as and when we want. God wants us to worship him. God wants
17:60 us to go and spread the good news because that is why our purpose on earth
18:06 is. Now FBC has a mission statement. I wonder
18:11 how many of us know that this is found in the website. Well, if you don't know, I trust you will go back and click on
18:18 www.fbc.com.mmy. You will find this mission statement. And now she's mission statements is
18:24 this. to establish an enduring and effective witness of our Lord Jesus
18:30 Christ making disciples in the subjaya community and beyond.
18:36 That is our mission. But how many of us are really engaged in this mission? I
18:44 believe my brothers and sisters, you will agree with me. If everyone in this church without fail, without exception,
18:53 if every one of us are committed, if every one of us is committed to
19:01 being an effective witness for our Lord Jesus Christ, we will be united.
19:09 Know why? Because then our focus will not be on worldly things, but our focus
19:14 will be on heavenly things. And I believe therefore when our focus is
19:20 right that when we are placing God first in our lives then the giving will become more natural will become more joyful
19:28 because then money doesn't really matter so much to you on this earth. Isn't that true? So that's the mission that we have
19:33 and you know that's the reason why this church uh we have Christmas banquetss
19:39 where we open our church to the people who are less
19:44 well who are a little bit more marginalized than us so that can they can also come and share the joy with us.
19:50 And you know if in the live groups if in the live groups we can have oos events
19:56 reaching out to the people around our community that will be so wonderful and in the furtherance of our lord's kingdom
20:03 you know in the KK live group this coming February 4 they are doing what they what the lord will be pleased
20:09 they're actually organizing an event for the children uh some orphans I believe and they want to take them to this lake
20:15 place somewhere in Kotakamuning and and I know that uh the members of the KK K group. Some of them are offering
20:21 transportation. Some of them are making curry chicken. Uh some of them are fry me mouth watering. Yes, if your mouth is
20:28 already watering, come join them this February 4. Not only you'll be blessing your own stomach, but you also be a
20:33 blessing to the people that they're going to uh encounter with. So do come and and in your own life group. I trust
20:41 that you will also be conscious from this moment onwards to actually believe in the mission to actually embrace the
20:47 mission to go out and talk about Jesus Christ to the people who are not there. Let us come to the second part a good
20:54 example of sharing and this is to be found in Joseph a Levite who who has
21:01 been given the name of Barnabas which actually means son of encouragement.
21:06 And so it says here first of all uh you may like to know that that art not art
21:12 the joy of giving is something which must come naturally.
21:18 I wonder how many of us have truly experienced of the disappointment of not
21:25 being able to give. Why? Maybe because we were late coming in and the and the offering back has passed us by. I don't
21:32 know how many of us have actually experienced that. But you know some people give
21:37 because they have to give. Some people give because they want to ease their
21:43 conscience. I know of a brother who says David ah you don't come and chase me to go to church. Every month you come I
21:50 give you the money you go and give to the church. It's a kind of tradeoff. I
21:55 give money to God. So I do my own life. And for whatever reason you see
22:02 sometimes people some give a lot some people give very little but it doesn't matter how much you give. It is the
22:09 spirit of giving that is most important. Uh you will remember that Jesus Christ was praising the the the the woman the
22:16 widow who just gave two little copper coins and is so much better so much more uh pleased so much more pleasing to God
22:23 than those Pharisees who come and throw in chunks and chunks of money into the offering box. Right? But most
22:28 importantly is this. When we are giving for the right reason, it is in harmony
22:35 with the rest of our nature. In the case of Barnabas, it is his giving, his
22:40 selling of the land and giving everything to the needy is in harmony with his unselfish style of enabling
22:47 others. You will recall later on in Acts that John uh sorry that uh Paul and and
22:54 and Barnabas they went out on their missions trips and they took along this guy called John Mark and then uh John
23:01 Mark was disappoint has disappointed them at some at some stage where he deserted them and Paul got very angry
23:08 and refused to have anything more to do with John Mark but Barnabas was the one
23:13 who decided to give uh Mark a second chance. And you know what happened then?
23:18 Mark became so effective a disciple for the Lord. In fact, Paul later on in his
23:25 epistles was asking for Mark to come because he had been so helpful to him.
23:30 So this is in harmony with him. So does our giving actually harmonize with the
23:36 character that we are? It is pointless to give tons and tons of money away and yet there is no evidence of
23:43 transformation in our own lives. we rather than you don't give because
23:48 God has said so you know you can give and give but to whatever no point you know don't give for the sake of giving
23:55 and then you must also know this Joseph being a Levite you remember in the old
24:01 testament that the Levites are not allowed to own land now of course there is a possibility that by the time it
24:07 came to this time where you know during the first century Christian this uh law probably was no longer effective we
24:15 don't But whatever it is, some people said that uh because he could not own land, the only piece of land that he had
24:21 which he sold was actually his burial ground. Whatever it is, the point was
24:27 that Joseph felt it good to sell the property and give it to the poor. Give
24:34 it to the people who were needy. Now you realize that um in the first century Jerusalem there were a lot of those Jews
24:41 who came back from the from from the other places where they were staying the diapora the daspora right and so many of
24:48 them were actually many of them came back to be buried in mount Zion and because they were living away from
24:54 Jerusalem away from Israel you find that they were landless and so when they come back when they came back and if the
25:01 husband died the widows were left vulnerable And so there were plenty of people
25:07 coming back and they had to be taken care of. So the needs were tremendous in
25:13 the first century Jerusalem. But I like to suggest to you that the needs today are still tremendous. If you were to go
25:19 out and read about all the people who are still staying within Sububanjaya but who are living on the fringes of life,
25:27 then you know that there's so much to be done my dear brothers and sisters. And that's the reason why God has put you
25:32 and I to be here. And then the spirit of giving and not the amount that matters. So that's a
25:39 good example of a good example of sharing. Then
25:45 Luke doesn't mean his words. He also wants to tell us the bad side of
25:51 sharing. The bad side of the church in Jerusalem at that point in time.
25:57 Now many people are trying to circumvent
26:03 that of God's judgment on uh Ananas and Safhira because they say God is such a
26:09 gracious God. How can he slay these two fellas without even giving them a chance? You will realize in the text as
26:16 my brother Steven read just now that Paul by right some would argue would
26:21 have told Shafi what happened to Ananas so that she would have a chance to repent and perhaps tell the truth but
26:27 you realize from the text that Peter didn't do such a thing Paul just went ahead and asked her is this the full
26:34 amount of the money that you pay right so some people are trying to circumvent that and say that God is not that cruel
26:40 so there must be other reasons that what happened some of them refuse to believe that they struck down immediately. But
26:46 seriously, these are deception, deceptive act. But let's learn from them. Yeah. You see, the first thing
26:53 that we learn is that Luke writes the word this Greek word, I don't know how
26:58 to pronounce it, so I shall not try. But it says kept and this Greek word
27:04 literally means to piler. I think wrong spelling. I piler uh embezzle. And this
27:11 word is used in the New Testament only twice. The other time is used in Titus
27:16 talking about slaves teaching slaves not to steal. Now why did Luke use such a strong word
27:26 of stealing? Remember in the first place that piece of property belonged to
27:32 Ananas and Sapphira. And you also know from the words of
27:37 Peter in verse four chapter 5 you will know that Peter actually said that from
27:43 his words he said that they were free to do whatever they wanted with the money
27:48 which in the first place belong to them. You see it was not mandatory that you
27:54 must sell it for x amount of dollars and you must give the whole amount to the church. There's no such mandatory thing.
28:01 So they were at liberty to do it. So why did Luke use such a strong word when in
28:06 actual fact it is not such a great sin if you sold something for a 100 ringit and give God 50 you keep you keep back
28:13 50 is it a crime no it's not you earn 5,000 ringit a month you give God for
28:20 his tithings less than 10%. Is that wrong? Nobody is saying that's wrong. It is up to you to do what you wanted to
28:27 do. So why did he use such a strong word? We'll find out in a short while. And you also know that you know in the
28:33 Old Testament there is this word also appears and this is in the story of Achan in Joshua 7:1 which I've got it
28:40 here for you. See what happened was that uh they went out and and they all this
28:45 devoted things which God says they must I destroy but Achan son of this ki
28:51 fellow kept back some and so the Lord's anger burned and if you read further down in the chapter you realize that
28:56 God's anger burned so much so that he let the Israel Israelites fall to this
29:03 group of people they were going to attack and they were slaughtering the Israelites left right and center and so
29:09 the word here is similar That's Greek word. So why such a strong word? Let's
29:14 find out. See, there are five important truths in Peter's words to Ananas.
29:22 Number one, Satan has so few and control anas heart
29:28 that he sinned. Brothers and sisters, the Bible does say he who is in us is
29:37 much much more stronger than he who is outside. I also want to say this, but when we
29:45 allow the Holy Spirit to diminish his authority over us, as we stray
29:53 further and further away from God, Satan takes over.
30:01 And you know my brothers and sisters in your life in my life there are many
30:06 instances where we do something only to regret our action.
30:13 And so the only way not to be not to succumb to the evil one's ploy is to
30:22 walk closely with God. Obviously Ananas and Safhira were not doing the same thing. Now we are not going to debate
30:28 whether they were real Christians or not. doesn't matter but the point is what happened then the second lesson Satan's activity
30:36 does not remove responsibility from an Annihas you see Ananas cannot say not my
30:45 fault it is the devil who made me do something and it's curiously enough
30:52 interestingly enough there are some people using this as a defense you know they are on trial for murder and they
30:58 say a voice spoke to me that I must go kill somebody. But the responsibility
31:03 still lies on his shoulder. Yes, the devil can put thoughts in our hearts, in
31:10 our minds, but whether we want to carry through or not is entirely dependent
31:17 upon ourselves. Lesson number three. The most serious things Ananas was was uh
31:24 the most serious thing that Ananas did was to lie to the Holy Spirit. And
31:30 that's what Peter told him. You see, Ananas probably didn't know didn't
31:37 believe that the the rest of the people would know that he kept back part of the proceeds. It is obvious that he came to
31:44 the apostles and say that I've sold my land. I want to give all of it to the church. It is possible he thought like
31:51 that. He never thought that they would be found out. But Peter somehow by divine appointment found that out. And
31:58 there you go. He told him you're not lying to men but to God. Lesson number
32:04 four. When we lie to the church, we lie to the Holy Spirit. Let me give you a
32:11 quick example. You know our church is again embarking
32:18 on a building project and I remember those days whenever we
32:24 had a building project we would ask for pledges but here we don't anymore right
32:30 but those days in pantai those times we actually ask for pledges now here's an interesting question and I remember
32:38 there was a time when this building was being constructed and over the the the pantai building was being constructed.
32:44 They actually said that uh they came up with this wonderful calculation that if you give uh
32:51 one month of your salary or of your income to God, the church will be built.
32:58 And so they had this pledge going out. So everybody got to fill in the pledge. I just have to wonder
33:05 that how many of us actually had to fill in the pledge because you are somebody in church. People know ma they can read
33:12 from your your pledge how much you you give my right. I wonder how many of us actually said that I will pledge so much
33:19 and yes indeed they actually paid so much but at the expense of the regular tithing.
33:26 All of us won't know. All we will know is that so and so paid so much. Praise the Lord.
33:32 Well, we are grateful that God is not is so gracious that nothing happened if we
33:39 had sinned by declaring something which you know we sort of left hand right hand kind of jazz and nobody knows and
33:44 everything that we were doing went fantastically well and God didn't pass judgment on us immediately but there you
33:50 go there are times we lie to the church but let us it will do us well to remember that we don't we are not lying
33:56 to the church we are lying to the Holy Spirit and then since giving Everything
34:02 was not mandatory. Why did Sapphira and Ananas did what they did? I suspect they
34:10 probably crave the recognition by the church. They wanted to be seen as people
34:17 who were so selfless. They wanted to be to be adored by the rest of the crowd.
34:23 Now remember the story of Joseph the Levite came first before this. And Joseph, as you know, was named by the
34:30 people there as the son of encouragement, the encourager. You see, they obviously would also like the same
34:36 kind of adulation, perhaps the same kind of recognition that Barnabas actually got without realizing that Barnabas
34:44 earned his name because he was a teacher, he was a preacher and he had
34:49 this selfless style of enabling others. And that was probably the reason why
34:55 they wanted. And this is something which the devil always used very effectively
34:60 in all our lives. The desire to be lifted high. The desire to be accepted
35:07 by the rest of our peers. And my dear friends, brothers, sisters,
35:13 if indeed some of us aspire to leadership in church simply because of
35:18 the recognition, simply because to boost our self-esteem, it is perhaps a good
35:25 morning for us to reconsider what we are doing. Let us go on. Why did God slays Ananas
35:31 and Safhira? God is supposed to be a loving God, very gracious God in his nature. So why did he do that
35:38 immediately? Well, Leviticus 19:12, he says, God says this,
35:46 "Speak to the entire assembly from Israel and say to them, be holy because
35:53 I, the Lord your God, am holy." This is something we need to follow.
36:01 This is the pattern that God wants us to be because God is holy and he has called
36:07 us. Therefore, we too should be holy. But what does it mean to be holy? Holy
36:13 simply translated means to be separated. That means to be separated from the
36:20 things of this world, not to be influenced by the world as other people
36:26 not in the kingdom would be influenced. And that will make us holy. We are separated. We are living a different
36:33 kind of life. We have different principles. We have different standards. Yeah. So we must therefore value
36:42 holiness above all. But how do we become holy? Seriously, in 1 Timothy 3, you
36:48 realize the church has been told by Paul that when you pick elders or deacons or
36:55 church leaders, you find that all the qualities that Paul mentioned, there is
37:01 only one that is functional, the ability to teach. All the rest were based on
37:07 their character above reproach, gent gentle, self-control and in Timothy one
37:15 the same list comes out that you want to be a leader let us not pick on people
37:21 let us pick on people who has shown such qualities. But you know brothers and sisters in our church today and just
37:27 like in many churches the value that we place on is no longer on just holiness.
37:35 Many of us will look to people who have wealth. Many of us look to people who
37:42 perhaps have had a successful career in the secular world. Therefore he's a leader. Why? Because he has been
37:48 managing this, managing that and so on and so forth. And so therefore you can do that. But the point is that today's
37:54 world we look for talents. We look for people who are more flamboyant than
37:59 others, who are more outstanding than others. And in doing so, in doing so, we
38:04 allow unholiness to come in. There was a brother whom some of us know who came to
38:11 our church a long time ago and he was first class in his Bible knowledge. He
38:17 was so helpful. Wherever you needed things in the church done, he was there.
38:22 He wanted to give to his home group members a holiday in PD and wherever and
38:28 he was the epidome of a fantastic brother and brother in Christ. But
38:33 ultimately his motives became clear. But so therefore in church if we allow
38:39 people like that to overwhelm us by the talents and we do not look for their
38:44 characters then we are asking for trouble. uh the story of Joseph in Genesis 39 and
38:52 this is what holiness is all about. Joseph was sold to the slave traders and
39:00 so he ended up in Portiha's house and Portiha's wife took a fancy to him.
39:07 Obviously Joseph must be quite good-looking, maybe a bread pit in the making or something. And you know here
39:13 was Joseph. He had plenty to be angry about. Don't you think so? Why did God allow him to be separated from his
39:20 family? Because he was he would never know at that time when he was so why did
39:26 his brothers hated him so much and why did God allow such evil to happen to him? He could have been so angry and
39:33 therefore said well why not here was his ticket out of misery. You know, if your
39:41 boss's wife decided to take a fancy to you, the world is at your feet because
39:46 number one, the wife won't tell, is it? And so the whole world will be happy. He would be happy. Not only he would have
39:52 fun, he would have great riches and whatever else. But what did what did what did Joseph said? Joseph said in re
39:60 uh in in declining in trying to reject in rejecting the advantage of this woman, he said a very simple statement.
40:07 He said, "How can I sin against God?" And that's a profound statement,
40:13 brothers and sisters. When we do something, whether we are trying to
40:18 manipulate our income taxes, whether we are trying to do something that will
40:25 result in our own enrichment. Remember this, we are not sinning
40:30 against men. We are sinning against God.
40:37 And you know, holiness requires character transformation. And the only
40:42 way that we can transform ourselves is through the working of God's word. In
40:48 Psalm 1, there's this verse one and two that say, "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or
40:55 stand in the way of sinners." And the Bible tells us also that when you are in a situation where you are, that's
41:01 temptation. We are supposed to flee from temptation. We're not supposed to put our head in and say God, you know,
41:08 prevent me from sinning and and because the responsibility is in us for us to flee rather than to ask God to protect
41:14 us. So we should not be walking in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of
41:21 mockers. And how true it is for all of us. Many of us
41:26 tend to be mockers especially when people are down and out. Isn't that true?
41:32 But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day
41:39 and night. For those of us who go through Bible study lessons, you will
41:44 realize one of the ways to study the God's word, the first step is to read the passage and not read it once. You're
41:52 supposed to read the passage over and over and over and over again and then think on the passage. What is the author
41:60 trying to tell us? Why was he writing all that? And you know when you start to
42:06 meditate on God's word, God's words comes alive. And then in Romans 12, very famous
42:13 passage, he says that we are we are supposed to in view of God's mercy to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.
42:20 The fact remains that when we receive Jesus Christ, we actually have made that sacrifice. When you were baptized, you
42:28 go underneath the water. What does that signify? It signifies that you are dying to your old self. And when you r when
42:34 you are raised from the water, you are raised to a new life. We have actually
42:39 made that commitment. But many of us are not honoring that commitment. But how do
42:44 we become holy? How do we become transformed? And so verse two says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of
42:51 this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
42:56 renewing of our mind through God's word. And so therefore, one of the reasons the
43:02 life group exists is to have a platform where we can continue to learn about
43:08 God's word. We praise the Lord that there are many good Bible teachers in our midst. People like brother Arnold,
43:14 people like Peter and now we have Dr. Dan coming into our midst and we have of course Liidian and so many other leaders
43:22 who are still there not necessarily as well versed in the Bible as the people I mentioned but the important thing is
43:29 this as long as we come together to study and let the Holy Spirit lead we
43:36 will be transformed and then I'd like to conclude with this
43:42 last chapter this last part and that is great fear seed is the whole church and
43:49 all who heard about these events. You see, this was the starting of God's
43:58 church in the world.
44:03 Before the before all this, before Pentecost, there were battles, there
44:10 were attacks from outside the community. Even after the Pentecost event, when the
44:17 Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, the Pharisees were still there attacking
44:22 them. And so when you read the first part, the first few chapters of Acts, you'll find that everything was
44:28 wonderful. You read that the people who believe uh their numbers were being
44:34 added daily so that it become bigger and bigger. People were devoting their time to fellowship. People were devoting
44:41 their time to the apostles teaching. People were caring for one another. But
44:46 the attacks continue. But these were from outside the community. And we
44:52 praise God that the apostles stood firm. And you read how Peter and the rest of
44:60 the people were flocked and and all kinds of things happened to them, but they stood firm. In fact, they counted
45:06 it uh they counted it a joy. They counted it an honor to be persecuted for
45:12 the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. But here as happened in the case of
45:19 Ananas and Shafira, there is now evidence of attacks from
45:28 within the church. You know if attacks come from outside,
45:34 it can still be withtood when we are all together. But when attacks come from within the
45:41 church, then we begin to break.
45:46 One of the many reasons, one of the many reasons that many churches go through a time of
45:53 conflict is probably in the area of money management. Isn't that true? So
45:59 many people wanted to have this mega project, that project and so on and so forth. And also because there is no
46:07 evidence of churches cultivating a healthy degree of godly fear.
46:15 You know brothers and sisters many a time I think many of us are very happy
46:20 to sweep a lot of matters under the carpet. Why? Because we believe in
46:26 giving face to people. How many of us
46:31 have actually been approached by a leader of this church and asked why do
46:37 we come late to church or we just let it be? You know many of us treat that as if
46:44 God is a toothless tiger or toothless lion if you like that God is a very tame
46:51 person. But do not forget that God is gracious. He allows all things to happen
46:57 but sooner or later he will judge. But we ourselves are to be judged first.
47:05 If we are not there, if we do not cultivate a healthy degree of godly fear, if we do not have the courage to
47:14 go to a brother or sister who is not living the life that he should or she
47:19 should. If you don't have the courage to go and tell that someone in love and in
47:24 season, of course, there are many ways of skinning a cat, right? But you still have to skin the cat. What does what
47:30 does the Bible says? In James says, if you know the good you ought to do and don't do it, then you sin.
47:39 You know, but because many of us are Asians, we try to cover up a lot of
47:44 things and all we do is just say to God, it's your problem, not ours.
47:50 But God places us here. You and I have a duty to help each other become
47:58 uh to have the degree of godly fear. We must have a willingness to confront
48:03 evil, confront compromises, lies and hypocrisy.
48:10 I confess I stand in front of you guilty of this. There are many times I
48:16 don't have the courage to tell people whom I know I must tell. But I ask therefore that you keep me in
48:24 your prayers as well as keep all the leaders of this church in your prayers. That God will give us the courage
48:32 to reach out in love, not to condemn but to build, to have the right words to
48:40 share and to be willing to stop all kinds of
48:46 things that are unholy to us. You know, one of the more practical ways of doing this is when you are in the
48:53 live group and it is our hope, our prayer that live groups this year will
48:58 start to have this start to cultivate this atmosphere of sharing where the
49:05 life group leader can actually come and talk about his challenges or her challenges and so that he can share with
49:11 one another and so that we can all pray for one another and then have this buddy system. Have a prayer partner. Well, of
49:17 course, pick someone. Ask God to lead you to someone whom uh you can trust with and give you wisdom on what to
49:23 share and what not to share as yet so that you will not be in a situation where you will be embarrassed. But still
49:29 you need someone to be to to be accountable to. Um
49:38 I believe that if we start this journey then our goal of attaining holiness will
49:45 come true. Yeah. And then remember this, God is slow to anger, but he will be
49:52 angry. Numbers 14:18 tells us that. Let us
49:57 pray. Our father in heaven, we thank you for
50:03 your word. We thank you, Lord, for your grace and your mercy.
50:10 We thank you, Lord, that you are a God who abounds in love and mercy.
50:15 And for sinners like us who continue to sin, Lord, continue to grief the Holy Spirit, yet judgment has not been passed
50:23 upon us. But Father God, we pray for each one of us here today.
50:30 That your spirit will cut to our hearts the words that
50:36 you have put down in the Bible as guidance for us. Help each one of us
50:42 Lord to take you seriously that we cannot take you for granted that
50:48 we know you are a jealous God that you know that we know that you are a God who
50:55 will not tolerate us having other idols in our life.
51:01 So father I pray therefore for power from the Holy Spirit.
51:07 Give us this desire Lord to live for you and help us to reach out to others who may be in need
51:14 and Lord give us this humility to seek out others when we ourselves are
51:21 in need. We ask this all Lord at Jesus sake. Amen.
