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00:01 Okay, here are three individuals which you all know. Let me just uh bring it up. Okay. Uh
00:07 the middle guy you may not know, the left guy and the right guy you all know. Okay. But they all have something in
00:13 common besides being extremely rich. Okay. The middle guy is Elon Hus if you
00:18 all know Musk. Okay. He's the founder of Tesla, SpaceX. Uh his fascination is
00:25 robotics, artificial intelligence, space travel, and electric cars.
00:30 To him that's his meaning in life. Just read him any of his writings. He's
00:38 completely writing about the future of landing people in Mars. To him the future is fish fusion energy space. He's
00:47 done this ever since he's entered university at the age of 17 years. His meaning is that he's also made 14
00:53 billion along the way. Steve Jobs and Apple are synonymous.
01:00 We're not going to go there because it's such an overwritten story. Have you ever seen a Mac user opening his Mac and
01:07 putting a sticker over the Apple sign? Mac users are proud that they are Mac
01:13 users. People who run Lenovos or all of that
01:18 don't have that same badge. And of course Alibaba is Jagmma and you know
01:24 his favorite statement right life is like a box of chocolates. His favorite movie is forest gum and you watch his
01:30 videos ever since he moved from Beijing to Hongjo in 2022. It's the same thing.
01:36 Now what are we saying here? We are saying here the brand proposition of
01:41 their companies is the same as the person. They are the brand. The brand is them.
01:48 And with these three gentlemen, they have found meaning in life. That's their meaning. Now, not everyone is as rich as
01:56 that. Not everyone's a billionaire. Not everyone has such clarity. Let me show you another three people who also have
02:03 meaning in life. I'm going to give you a local context. There's Irene, the late Irene Fernandez, who fought a 13-year
02:11 legal battle the government. Her calling was to help migrant workers like Shanti.
02:17 And she discovered 51 Bangladeshi workers who died in detention on a treatable disease. Took the government.
02:24 The government went after her for malice, jailed her for it. And Muhammad Aandandy of all people freed her. But
02:31 she had a clear calling. Her calling was to help migrant workers. The middle
02:36 person is Ivy Josiah. Ivy Josiah is a lawyer, but her calling wasn't law. Her
02:42 calling was women's rights. So for Ivy, if you meet her, she is very clear. Her
02:49 life calling before God is to empower women, not to make tons of money as a
02:55 lawyer. And of course, we have Zuna. He could have been a cartoonist. He could
03:01 have been l. But he took a much more dangerous path to use his gift of art as
03:08 to talk about injustices in this world. What are the same things to all these three people? Number one, they all poor.
03:14 as opposed to the earlier ones. They're very they use their gifts in what they
03:19 believe is their purpose in life. They too have found meaning.
03:25 Now, where we going all of this very simple, right? Here's one thing I'm going to ask at the beginning of the
03:31 message and at the end of the message, I'm going to ask this again to you. What
03:36 is your purpose in life? Now the rest of us normal guys, we are
03:42 not like we're not social activities. We don't have billions of dollars in the banks. So to most people in church, this
03:49 is meaning in life. You have a family, you have kids, you
03:55 can lead a simple life, comfortable life, follow some hobbies. That's
04:01 purpose. Correct? I mean I mean let's be honest about this. I want you to pause. If I if I catch you out there and ask
04:07 you what's your purpose in life? 90 pe 90% of people are like that upper middle
04:13 class churchgoing guys with kids. But most people don't have that. Ask a
04:20 rubbish collector out there. What's his purpose in life? You're going to ask him to follow his passion. His he has
04:26 passion is a privilege for the rich. His purpose is just to make do. Some other
04:32 people have a lot of money. Some other people their passion is much more. This is a guy called Brandon Wade.
04:39 Uh he runs a dating site. He's although he's actually he's actually Singaporean Chinese by the way. He just called
04:46 himself Brandon Wade. By the way,
04:53 by the way, I want to dispel a rumor.
04:58 I have been told this gentleman looks very familiar
05:04 to a certain preacher in First Baptist Church. I have absolutely no idea what you're
05:11 talking about and assure you very clear very carefully that I do not I'm not a
05:16 sugar daddy but I've been getting this so much and people have been sending me hey you
05:22 you're in America now but he's 47y old MIT graduate and he
05:28 wrote an article CNN in 2014 to and said love is an invention of poor people and
05:35 he runs a dating website where he makes millions of and he met his wife after he interviewed
05:40 her in 2012. That's his purpose in life. So what is this long winded introduction
05:48 about? Because this morning if you ask people out there what is the meaning of
05:53 life? It's very simple. Whatever you want it to be. Why has it got to do with Ecclesiastes?
05:60 Everything. Now hear this. Because life is meaningless
06:05 unless this is what the world teaches you. You give it meaning.
06:12 But we are Christians. We are not supposed to say that. So the Christian rhetorical reply is life has no meaning
06:20 unless God gives it meaning. Now that is cliche. The real test of that is in this.
06:29 This is how you really know whether your meaning life is God-given
06:36 or selfdriven. Fear God. Let me just get the NIV out
06:41 because he say this at the end of the book. Now all has been heard. Here is
06:49 the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is
06:56 the duty of all mankind. And the NIV really is not accurate in this. The ESV
07:01 is better. The actual Hebrew rendering is not duty, it's essence. This is the
07:10 whole of man. What are you in one line? What is your
07:17 purpose in life? In one line, what is your meaning in one line? Fear God, keep
07:25 his commandments. That opens a whole can of worms. I mean,
07:30 doesn't the New Testament says, "No, love." You know, didn't John say in
07:36 chapter 4, perfect love casts out all fear? Because fear has got to do with punishment.
07:42 I mean, what are you telling me? You know, that Christians are supposed to be scared of God and better keep a
07:47 checklist all of commandments. So we're going to go through this today and I think it's it's a great text and I want us to see and here again here the
07:53 question what is your meaning in life and I pray at the end of the sermon you will get that through. So let's let's
07:60 look at the text brother has um gone through that with us. Now look at the
08:05 beginning of it. He says not only was the teacher wise. So suddenly the text
08:12 goes to the second person is no longer this is what I saw and I
08:19 saw something grievious under the sun. This two was meaningless. It shifts to
08:26 the second voice. Not only was the teacher wise and then the rest of the text we have read it. Why? Because this
08:33 is an editorial. You see nowadays an editorial is written at the beginning of a book. A forward is
08:40 at the beginning. In the olden days they put it at the end which probably makes some sense. They wrap up the whole book
08:47 in a summary. Now I'm going to break down the text a bit to you. The last bit
08:52 is very simple. Fear God. How? Keep his commandments. Fear God. Why? Two
09:00 reasons. One, this is the essence of all mankind. Two, God will bring every deed,
09:07 every hidden thing under good, whether good or evil. So two reasons are given
09:13 that we just said it. One is the duty of all mankind. Number two, God's going to reveal every deed. And then how do you
09:20 fear God? You fear God by keeping his commandments. The context of that, however, is the first few verses of
09:27 wisdom. So keep that in mind as we break it down a little bit. But let's start off with a definition of fear. And very
09:35 famous atheist says this. The fear of hell is the basis of the Christian
09:42 faith. I told this story before in case you may not have heard it when I was a
09:47 kid. I went to a youth camp. I didn't go there for any other reasons. Then I was
09:53 bored, lonely, looking for friends. And there was this girl who brought her non-Christian boyfriend along. During
10:00 those days, church camps for youth were seven days. Seven days you put a bunch
10:05 of kids together psychology. They all born. There was a hellfire preacher from
10:11 Ireland there fire and brimstone. And at the end of seven days, this dun
10:17 Christian boy stood up and processed. He was a Christian. Hallelujah.
10:22 And he shared his testimony and he said, we asked, "How why did you decided to
10:27 accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?" And we were sitting around this campfire
10:33 place. And he said, "I saw the way you were roasting marshmallows."
10:41 And he said, "Imagine me being roasted for all eternity.
10:46 I decided to be a Christian." And I sat there 15 years of age. I said,
10:53 "That was the stupidest reason I ever heard at 15 years."
10:59 I said, "If that's why you become a Christian, that's completely idiotic."
11:05 But that's what the world thinks of the church. Christians don't think.
11:10 Pat Turner, founder of CNN. Christians need a crutch. They're scared. They're
11:16 whims. They're cowards. They don't know what's out there. They don't know where they're going to go when they die. And
11:22 they see all these pictures of fire and hell and brimstone. Oh, better be Christian, man. What kind of God do you
11:28 guys believe in? So, let's unpack this a little bit. And I think there's a place to discuss about
11:35 hell and judgment, but not today. Now, if you look again at the verse and you look at Ecclesiastes as a whole, there
11:43 is no mention of hell. There is no mention of this fear. There's no mention
11:48 of this wrath. There is a lot about practical wisdom. So, here's the first
11:55 thing you got to tie together. The idea of fear of God and practical wisdom. So
12:01 he's talking about life. So let's look at a few other verses to sort of just
12:06 unpack us. And the first one is found in Psalms. And Psalms says this, "If you, oh Lord, kept a record of sins, who
12:14 could stand, but with you there is forgiveness." Wow, isn't that great? But hang on. He then says, "With you there
12:21 is forgiveness, therefore you are feared." So he's tying forgiveness,
12:26 which is the character of God, with fear. So that's the first thing you look at. Here's the next thing and we've done
12:33 this through a few weeks ago. Ecclesiastes 7:16. Do not be overrighteous.
12:39 Neither be over wise. Why destroy yourself? Do not be over wicked. Do not be a fool. Why die before your time? It
12:46 is good to grasp the one, not let go of the other. The man who fears God will
12:52 avoid all extremes. Again, is this he's saying don't don't be too righteous.
12:57 You're not going to you're not going to live longer. Don't don't try too hard. You're not going to add another day to
13:02 your life and don't don't sin intentionally. He's asking you to lead a balanced Christian life. That's got
13:08 nothing to do with the fear of hell. It's got to do with God. It's got to do with grace. It's got to do that you
13:15 can't earn your salvation. It's got to do the fact that fear God, but you can
13:20 still die tomorrow. So, it gives you a little bit of the
13:25 sense of fear. So let me tell you what the fear of God is in scripture. Fear of
13:30 God is in reverence all is the shakina glory of God. It's when Abraham decides
13:39 to surrender his son his only son to God
13:44 and the angel says now I know you fear God because he knows as the Hebrew
13:51 writer says that he believed God could raise Isaac back again. So it's not
13:56 about external fears because if it is we all be cowards and there's no place for
14:03 a disciple of Jesus to be a coward. I'm going to unpack that a bit is a respond
14:08 to his majesty. Holiness is where you pause and and some people call this is a
14:15 wow moment is is when you're silent and say God this is what you are.
14:22 And it brings us to a deeper realization of his love and grace. And there is none
14:27 better expression of this than the gospel that God in his infinite
14:33 greatness, the power of the universe would come as a baby in a manger. That's
14:42 a wow moment. So keep that hanging on and we're going to break it down. So three points today. The first is very
14:48 common. The fear of God and the foundational wisdom. We're going to look at the fear of God and the love of God.
14:55 Isn't the New Testament contradicting this? Isn't the New Testament about love? Shouldn't shouldn't shouldn't the
15:02 meaning of my life be driven by the love of God? Why the fear of God? And we're
15:08 going to answer this at the end for each one of us personally. The fear of God and our meaning in life. Now, I just put
15:16 this up. You can read this. Proverbs is a very famous verse. But what are we looking at here?
15:23 We're simply not looking at intellectual wisdom. A lot of you guys are very intelligent.
15:30 We're not looking at how good you are at social media. We're not looking at how
15:36 street smart you are. We're not looking at whether you can exit the Bible, memorize every text, give us five
15:43 theological reasons on why this is that and give us very profound statements on
15:48 theology. We also have those in our church. This is a very smart church.
15:55 He's talking about practical everyday wisdom.
16:00 Uh this is where it becomes difficult. So here's a simple question. How does
16:07 this book apply to you at home when you raise your
16:13 kids? How does this book apply to you in your relationship with your mom and dad,
16:20 your wife? How does this book apply to you at work?
16:26 So, let's unpack what the teacher says. He uses two imagery. He says, "The words
16:32 of the wise are like goats. Their collective sayings like firmly embedded
16:39 nails." Now, this is an agriculture metaphor. A goat was a prod. You wanted
16:46 an ox to move, you take a goat and you poke the ox. the ox will move.
16:53 So God wants to poke you. That's the first one. It's followed by
16:58 the second one. That means God doesn't poke you because he wants you to feel pain for the sake of pain. He does it
17:06 because again the next imagery is to take a nail and firmly tie down a tent
17:14 so that the 10 is secure. So here's where we're getting with
17:20 wisdom from the Bible. Number one, if you read the Bible and it doesn't hurt
17:26 and it doesn't make you feel uncomfortable and it doesn't make you feel uneasy, you are not reading the
17:32 Bible. You're only reading parts of it. Number two, if that uncomfortable
17:37 reading doesn't make you change and that change doesn't lead you to a place which
17:43 is better in your life, more secure, more able to withstand the storms of
17:50 life, you're not reading the Bible. Let me just give you an illustration and it's
17:56 taken from Augustine. Augustine was a bishop of Africa and he made a really
18:01 fascinating remark in the first century. to the nine father. He says people hate
18:07 the truth for the sake of whatever it is that they love more than the truth. And
18:13 you hear the clicker clincher. They love truth when it shines warmly on them and
18:21 hate it when it rebukes them. Meaning we like the part of the Bible that says God
18:29 loves me. God is patient. Love is kind. But the
18:35 part that tells me walk in the spirit, what the part that tells me to give up
18:41 some bad habits, the part that tells me, you know, I need to forgive. I want to
18:47 blanco out. There's not wisdom for me. I I I give you two examples. One is my
18:54 side as a architect. I I'll ask if there are construction
19:00 people here, I I would like to get them into a room and ask a question
19:06 that do you think if someone you met in your line was a Christian, a Christian
19:13 developer, a Christian contractor in your life, do you think
19:19 he would be better as a client, better as a contractor, better in his service,
19:26 better in his behavior? behavior. I tell you, I have Christian clients who
19:31 will specifically tell me if the contractor is Christian, they won't hire the guy
19:37 because I'll tell you the opposite. It can be worse.
19:43 My wife knows if I list down my five worst clients, the top three are Christians. You know,
19:49 you see, Christians have a problem. A non-Christian just tells you I gave
19:55 money. So a Christian cannot accept that.
20:00 A non-Christian say yeah I didn't pay. So a Christian can't accept that he has
20:07 the sin of duplicity in him. You know I have one client who owes me a lot of
20:14 money but he will come and tell me his purpose is life and he gives me this very
20:20 profound meaning of this purpose in life. He runs Bible studies. He's he's
20:25 he's met I'm not going to mention names but he's completely blind to the way he
20:31 treats people. I know another Christian client who sue anyone anybody. He sues because he can't do it.
20:40 So coming to church sometimes not only doesn't change your behavior. My
20:46 proposition to you is that if you don't take the whole council of God, it makes you worse. Oh,
20:53 that's very painful to hear. So have I got data to support this? Let's take another example. Now I want to give you
21:00 an example on family because as we move forward, we want to talk about family. Australia. I want to thank Phyis for
21:06 this and some of us men have been having a long debate on this. Last month, Australian news carried a report and
21:13 this is what the report says. He says in the title submit to your husbands, women
21:18 told to endure domestic violence and name of God. Research shows that the men
21:24 most likely to abuse their wives are evangelical
21:29 Christians. Well, the good news is this. who attentious sporadically.
21:35 So if you come very often, you shouldn't be this group. But here's the second point which is
21:40 very disturbing. Church leaders in Australia say they evolve abuse of any
21:45 kind, but advocates say the church is not just failing to sufficiently address
21:51 domestic violence. Here's where it's disturbing. Is both enabling and concealing it. And he went
21:59 to produce a lot of data to push this. and it went around like wildfire. It was really interesting. And then someone
22:06 from the gospel coalition wrote back a very long article saying, you know,
22:11 husbands who do this don't know what the scriptures saying and peppered with a lot of verses. It was very theologically
22:17 correct. And I love a response of one of the guys say, "Hey, excuse me, Mr. Pastor.
22:23 Anybody who hits his wife is not going to listen to your theology.
22:28 Anybody who decided to hit his wife has already decided that you can put 10
22:34 verses in front of him of grace on forgiveness and loving your wife, he's still going to hit his wife
22:40 and he's still going to come to church. You see where we're going with this? You
22:46 see, unless biblical wisdom goes every day in your
22:52 life, unless it's like a go, you know, and it pokes you.
22:57 It's not biblical wisdom. Why do men hit their wives and and and
23:04 before you think it's so foreign? I had a friend of mine who was a contractor and I saw the way he treated his wife
23:11 and he was a church leader and he looked me point blank. He says she must submit to me. Actually, he was just an MCP.
23:19 Very Chinese MCB. He read his culture into the Bible. No.
23:24 Now, what's the common thing across the board? Whether he's a businessman who loves to sue
23:29 churchgoing guys, businessmen who hold payment back and don't care or man who
23:36 hits his wife or mistreats his wife or or people who don't don't know how to
23:42 bring up their children. Well, do you know what's a common thing? There is no
23:48 fear of God.
23:53 That is the clicker. And if you go one step further, it means we all lead
23:59 double lives. And that's why at the end of it he says for God will bring every
24:06 deed including every hidden thing whether good or evil
24:13 and that's why the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Now at this point
24:19 some of you say wow making me feel very terrible want to go back out already. Doesn't the Bible says there's no
24:25 condemnation for those in Christ? Didn't John says, you know, fear has got
24:32 to do with punishment? Perfect love casts out all this condemnation. Didn't John teach this in
24:38 chapter 1, chapter 2, and four of first epistle? Let us wrap our head around this a little bit. Okay. Now, let me
24:46 just close with this. And this is all to all the younger people here. He says this, "Be warned, my son of anything
24:52 addition to deep or making many books. There is no end which must study where is the body. You younger millionaires
24:59 all you guys now you got instant knowledge on everything one during my time I want to know something I must go
25:06 library you know and go and take a encyclopedia and read you're all now wikipedia two seconds already get
25:12 everything out so the world has changed so there's something for all you millennials and gen Y people for a baby
25:18 boomer we are living in an age of information
25:24 overload and what ecclesiastics is telling you again and again and again
25:32 knowing everything isn't going to solve your problems. In fact, you are in an age of too many
25:40 choices. And I suggest to you wisdom says having too many choices is actually
25:49 something that is going to stumble you in life. And so he picks up something else. And for all of us where we are
25:56 bombarded with so many things, you enter the world and you want to find meaning and people tell you you should do this
26:03 and you listen to them because social pressure tells you you want to do that or your parents tell you you should be
26:10 like this. Why can't you be like older brother? Sorry for those of you understand or you
26:17 you you have friends to say follow your passion. I'm going to be myself. So you can imagine this poor guy, he wants to
26:24 fund himself. He wants to be this, but his parents want him to be something else and society wants him to be
26:30 something else. He gets very torn and he procrastinates. So what's the meaning of life? He says,
26:37 "I don't know. I'm confused." And so the author gives you a clue to anchor this.
26:44 And it's found in this word given by one shepherd. is only found in this occasion
26:50 in Ecclesiastes. Shepherd,
26:56 the Lord is my shepherd. My sheep hear my voice.
27:06 So, here's something even I've learned to take because I I overthink matters.
27:11 Anchor your life on the gospel and all the noise will shut off.
27:19 screen everything through the gospel. Either that when you wake up in this
27:25 generation, this world will tear you to the left and to the right and every
27:32 direction. And you wouldn't know what you want in life. And you're going to sit there one day and say, "I hate my
27:38 job. I wish I could have been dead, but I don't have the money to that. I come
27:44 to church. I don't really feel alive. My kids hate me. I can't get on my wife.
27:52 I have no meaning. I'm lost. So, here's the other thing as we end
27:58 this first point. Anchor yourself in the shepherd. And when the shepherd speaks,
28:06 listen to the shepherd. And when the shepherd speaks, he is going to prod you with his goat because he wants to anchor
28:14 you down. Then when we come before God, all fear
28:19 will go away. So let me take you to this seemingly contradiction and we're just
28:24 going to go a bit in a theology on this. The fear of God and the love of God. Now again when you look at the
28:30 interpretation of the text, fear God and keep his commandments or the Hebrew
28:37 rendering is simply this. How do you fear God? Keep his commandments.
28:43 Now, the most obvious book that basically almost runs against this is first John because first John the
28:50 epistle has completely nothing to do with fear. It's got to do with love, love, love. Just read it. It's the go
28:56 the epistle of love. But there's one word which is repeated very often in the epistle of John which ties to this. You
29:03 know what's that word is called command. So here's the two things that tie together. Command.
29:10 Let me break this down because it's a bit simpler than we imagine. Fear God,
29:16 keep his commandments. So here's a question to you. What's the greatest commandment?
29:25 What's the greatest commandment? Love God with all your heart and all your
29:30 mind and all your soul. And love your neighbor as yourself. Now you see where we're getting where
29:36 we're connecting it. So you fear God by keeping his commandments. And all the
29:42 commandments are the practical wisdom we spoke about. But what's the greatest commandment?
29:47 Love God. So fearing God and loving God and keeping his commandments are all part of
29:55 the same basic glue. They all tied together.
30:02 So let me go back to the John text. Now if you read the John text you must understand the context of it and I want
30:09 to read this to you because the context is quite interesting. The context actually goes from chapter 2. We don't
30:16 have time for it but this is the verse that appears to contradict ecclesiastes.
30:22 But if you go back to verse 16 you know what's the line it says? It says God is
30:27 love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. In this way, love is made
30:34 complete among us. So we will have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world we are like him.
30:42 Then he says there is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear because
30:48 fear has to do with punishment. And this is where it means
30:53 if you are walking with God, you have nothing to fear. There is no
30:60 fear in there is no condemnation because God is love. You see what is the best
31:06 impetus to follow God's commandments? This fearful rage of hell
31:13 or driven by the love of God? What would you like your kid to do? Follow you
31:19 because you're afraid you're going to whack him? Or would you rather your kid follow you
31:25 because he respects you? He knows that whatever you do,
31:31 you mean it. Well, I listen to my wife on, you know, I try.
31:39 Should I listen to my wife because if I don't, she won't cook me dinner?
31:44 Well, she cooks me dinner anyway. Or should I listen to my wife because I love her?
31:50 You You see where we're going with this? So here is a simple paradox and is one
31:57 of the deepest mysteries of scripture. A healthy fear of God dries out all
32:03 other fears. And that's very powerful. Why? Because the fear of God is rooted in the love of
32:11 God. And the mystery of this is that they are both the same thing. And I want
32:17 to thank brother Harold Lean for this because scripture is about paradoxes. I I spoke
32:24 about this my last message. I want to drive this home. You see, exaltation
32:30 to be popular, to be seen is in what? Humility.
32:36 Strength is in weakness. We receive when you give. You're free. When you're a
32:44 slave of God, you gain by losing, you live by dying, you find by losing
32:53 yourself. You see where we go with this? This is one of the most wonderful things about godly wisdom is all in paradoxes.
33:01 And you do not see it any more magnificent than the gospel.
33:08 the power of God displayed on the crucified savior.
33:17 And in this context, the fear of God
33:23 is the love of God. My PowerPoint went a bit out again, but let me just put it a simple thing.
33:30 Godly fear is godly love. That's the paradoxical
33:36 mystery of it. You see, God's love brings us to a reverence all. And that reverence all is
33:43 so powerful. Number one, we do not want to offend him. And number two, we
33:50 fearfully endure discipline because we want to walk like him. Let me just try
33:56 to break you down in simple example about purpose. This is a footballer very
34:02 famous in the '9s, a midfielder known as Gaza. Anyone of you know this guy? Okay. Some of you know. Okay. So, he was very
34:10 well known and very popular. Played for England. Uh he had purpose. His purpose
34:17 was football. He became a very well-known coach. This is Paul Gazonei few months ago.
34:29 You see, ever since he had to give up his football, he lost his purpose.
34:35 And you see for us is this when your purpose is not an anchor that can take you through storms when your when your
34:41 meaning is you see is so when the world teaches you this life is meaningless unless you find it meaning it's a
34:47 complete stupid thing to say can you imagine say that well my meaning is to find a young chick to be my wife or my
34:55 meaning in life is to be able to put a man on Mars you see it's not that it
35:01 shifts it to you you're on the driver's seat And wisdom tells you it makes much more
35:08 sense to shift it to God in the driver's seat. You see, for him, his purpose was
35:14 in football. You took that away. He had to fill it with something else. And he filled it with the bottle.
35:22 And he's a recurring alcoholic. So, it's one of the tragedies of life.
35:28 And when he was a footballer, none of the alcoholic issues came out. You can read his history. The moment he was
35:36 dropped, he had nothing to turn to. He became purposeless. And here's the thing with us. You know, here here the default
35:42 position. I want to suggest it to you. All of you have a purpose. Is just unconscious.
35:48 To say that I don't know what I want in life. My life is just I'm just going to go through life is your purpose.
35:55 To say I'm not sure what God wants me to do. I don't even care. Is a purpose.
36:02 conflictedly on the other side to say I'm very clear what God wants me to do. I'm going to be chairman of FBC. By the
36:08 way, it will never happen. But and I'm going to be the greatest preacher in FBC. I have to ask myself the fear of
36:15 God. Is that what God wants me to be? That's the opposite extreme. I met Why do you think the Christian church is so
36:21 split? Everybody wants to set up his own church, his own NGO, his own thing, and they say, "God asked me to do it." God
36:27 is not a God of division. Something's not quite right. I'll give you another simpler example
36:33 which I think was very profound and this is a very famous book. Vtor Frankle wrote this book very profound I've read
36:39 it online man's search for meaning influenced a lot of thinkers like Steven Kovi a lot of future thinkers came from
36:46 him uh he started this very famous psychiatrist and he was a survivor of the holocaust and he tells this story
36:53 that one day he was walking the snow being pushed around by the Nazi soldiers and they were all very depressed and one
36:60 of his friends walking around says you know what if only our wife saw us now
37:05 and he started started thinking the three of them started to think about their wives and as they thought about their wives
37:13 that helped them on that journey and here's what he wrote you know he said you know
37:20 occasionally occasionally I looked at the sky where the stars were fading but my mind clung
37:26 to my wife's image imagining it with an uncanny acutement I heard her answering
37:32 me with a smile her frank an encouraging look. I I think it's quite profound.
37:39 Meaning as he as he was walking through the snow, he he he it was a very difficult journey. He needed to cling on
37:45 to something. He needed to focus on something to make that unbearable journey better.
37:52 And he focused on his wife because he deeply loved his wife. And the three of them did the same thing. That's quite
37:59 interesting is community. And they helped them go on and he clicked on something became the basis of his life
38:05 book. He said this then I grasps the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and
38:13 belief have to impart the salvation of man is true love and in love.
38:23 And for us who know Christ who so loved us
38:28 died on the cross if that anchors you through your life that is your meaning
38:34 in life. So let me end on how we make this a practical reality. And I'm going
38:40 to challenge all of you to go back maybe take a piece of paper take out a pen and
38:46 I challenge you to journal. What do you think is God's purpose for you in your
38:52 work, in your family, and in church? Have you ever tried doing that? And you
38:58 say, "Ano, I don't know how to do it." Well, here is the basis of doing it. I'm going to run a test for you. All right.
39:05 A Rick Warren wrote book which became very famous, the purpose-driven life. Sold 30 million copies. He said this,
39:11 "Without God, life has no purpose. Without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no
39:17 significance or hope. Now, that's a Christian rhetoric. The non-Christians simply tells you, well, life has no
39:23 meaning unless you create the meaning. A lot of non-Christians out there will look at ecclesiastes. It doesn't apply
39:30 to me. I found meaning. Just just go and read out there. Go listen to TED talks.
39:35 So many people will find it. I found it in a cause. I found it in making money.
39:40 I found it in my middle class life. I'm happy. I don't need your God.
39:46 This is where it is. So, let's run a little test because here's my proposition to you. My proposition is
39:52 that you can come to church and you can wrap everything you say in Christian
39:58 lingo, but the reality is your meaning in life isn't anchored in God. Is still
40:05 anchored on you. Now, how do we test this? Okay, I give
40:10 you a simple test. Okay, this is a test they do in business circles. I want you to
40:17 look around the hall and see and identify every object that is
40:26 brown. Brown. Very simple test, huh? Okay. You're going to systematically
40:32 look around the whole hall and identify in your mind anything and everything
40:40 that is brown. You get it? And you're going to make a mental imagery of it.
40:46 Simple test. This is this is a this is a business uh uh thing they teach. Okay.
40:52 That all of you are going to look straight at me. Not going to look to the left, not to the right. You already memorize everything. Huh? You can
40:59 itemize everything. Huh? Canh already good to go. Huh? So tell me now and
41:07 mentally recite to me every item in this hall with the color orange.
41:19 You didn't get it right. You see where we're going with this? I tell you where the orange is. The orange is in the
41:24 flowers. yellow. Yellow, orange, yellow. Let's not get
41:30 too picky. Meaning, if you had looked at the brown
41:37 but didn't miss the yellow, you have picked the yellow. If you had
41:44 looked at the back and saw the brown padding and saw Frank's shirt was yellow
41:50 stroke orange, you have picked his yellow. Now, what am I trying to tell you? You see the mind is like a camera.
41:58 You know what you focus on
42:04 is your meaning in life. It doesn't have to be conscious
42:10 is unconscious most of the time. 80% of our behavior is unconscious.
42:15 In simple English you know where your purpose is is what you think.
42:24 So if every day I'm thinking, you know, I'm going to be a great
42:31 architect, I'm going to do this, I'm going to be a great preacher, I'm going to do this, I can couch it all in
42:38 Christian lingo. The center of my universe is myself because it's me in
42:44 the driver's seat. I'm just ambitious. I will tell you I'm ambitious for the Lord, but that's BS. I'm ambitious for
42:49 self. Here's another one. If every time your mind is
42:56 my life is terrible know why everything happened to me my
43:02 marriage broke down got no money my friends deserted me
43:09 that's your meaning in life you know whatever consumes you becomes you
43:17 and so ecclesis at the end of so many chapters when he has tried out pleasure
43:23 like the guy that looks like me. He tried out great projects like Elon Husk.
43:30 He tried to look at knowledge and he went through everything and he discovered like Ivy Josiah that life is
43:37 unfair. He finally came to only one conclusion.
43:43 Fear God, keep his commandments. You want to have purpose in life, you anchor this.
43:49 So I'm going to end with one last test and this will reveal us.
43:54 I'm going to ask you a series of questions and only you can answer this and we will close
44:01 and I want you to answer this honestly from the bottom of heart sitted there and and if you can answer this at the
44:08 end of it you would know here the first question. What makes you really happy?
44:16 The politically correct answer to say is that God makes me happy. But you put me
44:21 a $5 million check in front of me, you see how happy I'm going to be.
44:28 That's the real truth. Huh? What makes me excited?
44:33 Again, the politically correct answer would say salvation of souls. Hallelujah. Tomorrow I win an award or you get a
44:40 promotion. Then we see what because how you respond will tell you
44:46 what makes you feel really grateful and we honest with ourselves. We are grateful for human relations you know
44:54 not for the cross on emotional reality. You much more grateful for the people who loved you
45:02 cared for you. But the gospel becomes an intellectual
45:07 detachment. What makes you really want to love someone?
45:13 I'll tell you. People who are nice to me. You're not nice to me. Why should I
45:18 love you? Oh, what is it? Bible says, "Love your enemies." Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get that. Where's my blanco?
45:26 And lastly, what will make me feel really love? You see, in the end, where does Jesus
45:32 fit into all of this? And echazatis just ends with this simple truth that just
45:39 kicks in. The paradoxical fear and love of God brings meaning to life. We got to
45:45 upgrade our PowerPoint better. But you know what? This is just so profoundly
45:51 simple and so profoundly true. And if I audit my life, I would tell you many
45:58 things are one thing. And I have to sit quietly and say, "God,
46:04 I wish I loved you more. I don't." And then God says, "Well, then you learn to fear me."
46:10 And so I sit and I meditate on the reverence of God.
46:16 So in simple application for me, as I come to my own conclusion of the meaning
46:22 of life, I throw that back to you and may that help you guide you in your
46:28 goals every day. Let's end in prayer. Lord, we
46:36 just have one lesson from you today, oh Lord.
46:43 To fear you is to love you. And that should undergirth everything we
46:50 do. That is our purpose in life. Without that life is meaningless.
46:58 It may feel meaningful, but it's not.
47:04 So Lord, right now we pray for some in our midst who are struggling. They they they feel lost because they hate their
47:12 jobs and uh they have bad relationships at home. We ask that you anchor them in
47:19 this and that they find their purpose. For some of us Lord, we lead double lives.
47:26 There is no fear. We sin deliberately. And the Apostle John says this, if we
47:32 sin, we make you out to be a liar. But if we confess our sins,
47:39 your love is made perfect in us. So we ask for the fear that brings us
47:44 wisdom. For some of us who seem to have lot of clarity in our direction in life, God
47:51 has called us to be fill in the blanks. This is my calling. whether clergy or
47:56 lady, even for me right now in my season of life as I take on new responsibilities
48:02 in church. May that reverence all teach me to pause
48:08 and search again. So Lord, for all of us here, we ask we
48:13 connect and we we move forward as a church and we as a body
48:20 find our purpose in building up First
48:25 Baptist Church. For all of you here are part of that body. And I challenge you this morning, you
48:32 ask yourself, what is your purpose here in First Baptist Church? God put you
48:38 here not as a spectator, not as someone to tear us down,
48:44 but as someone to constructively love us, build us up and to build a body.
48:52 And Lord, teach us not to neglect our family members, our children, our wives.
48:58 Men are driven by work and we find very little time to find meaning in the more
49:05 precious things in life that is of relationships. So forgive us in this oh Lord and above
49:13 all Lord anchor us on the cross where the reverence of your power that
49:20 fear of God was manifested in the love shown. May that paradoxical
49:27 mystery drive us. And we say this in Jesus name.
