The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:00:01 good morning church today's passage is taken from Hebrews 12: 1-2 reading from the NIV 2011 therefore since we are Sur surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us fixing our eyes on Jesus the Pioneer and the perfector of faith for the joy set before him he endureed this cross scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God this is the word of the
00:00:39 Lord good morning FBC please allow me to uh introduce our speaker this uh this morning uh Pastor palen R Masami um if you were here in uh on January 1st he was our uh keynote speaker for our first uh Mission conference just early this year so we are pleased to have him come back and share word with us so Pastor palen uh served as a missionary back in Nepal for several years uh but he's also a pastor in uh in pining Baptist Church in pining uh he serve in the uh Malaysian as the year Mission coordinator and my understanding is that
00:01:20 next year he will step up as the uh the chairman of uh the Malaysian Baptist uh convention uh so we are pleased to have him this morning to share his word with us so please please give a warm welcome to uh Pastor palen thank you good morning you know it's a joy each time when you have the privilege to worship every Sunday with different congregations and so the last one year uh I have been given the privilege to be able to worship with Baptist Churches uh from kudat sabba right out to K uh so I've had a great privilege of uh
00:02:07 worshiping in Chinese churches Tamil churches Bahasa churches and English speaking churches amen I know that uh many of you don't have that privilege because you need to be faithful in your local body don't hear what I just said and say okay let's visit okay uh you need to be faithful Where You Are now uh the reason why I said that is uh first of all I want to bring greetings from the Malaysian Baptist convention to the First Baptist subang uh secondly from my home Church Reser Garden Baptist Church uh Pang and if you in Pang do
00:02:45 visit us I no longer Pastor the church I'm a mentor Pastor now we have a team of young four young pastors that we have raised that are uh pastoring the congregation uh right now and so it frees me to do what I'm doing right now uh that is to help uh in the Baptist Family okay and um the reason why I said that I was able to visit all these Baptist Churches is this one of the things uh that is so important uh in our journey in our walk in life is our sight the moment our sight is distracted our journey will be
00:03:34 distracted I say this again the moment our sight is distracted our journey will be distracted I've been in the ministry for 34 years now okay some of you are thinking wow 34 he looks so young yes thank you I can read your mind uh 34 years in the ministry uh but in 2019 towards the end of 2019 something happened now my life is very interesting every decade something happens when I was 20 I was challenged to go into full-time Ministry I was doing really well in the uh my job in circular uh and going
00:04:27 full-time in a Baptist Church means living by faith okay that means I had no salary for 5 years uh and so that's a challenge how many of you know that's a challenge I I know you don't know so it's a it's not a right question to ask you but it's a challenge uh then when I was 30 when I was very successful in my youth ministry I was a youth pastor uh we had 11 young people by the time I was it grew to about 300 strong and so I had an invitation to work with a big Ministry in Florida us and so I thought wow God is promoting me
00:05:13 uh but then I was challenged to go to Nepal leave everything again live by faith again after 10 years I was 30 and then when I was 40 when I was very successful in the work in Nepal God called me back to Malaysia to be the senior pastor of the church that I belong to but when I were turned 50 uh I already had PhD in being backstabbed accused falsely I mean and the words of people uh people that you love people that you respect people that you thought were your family was kind of painful hello do you understand what I'm
00:06:12 saying maybe you guys have never been hurt before you lived in a bubble and so you don't understand what I'm saying how many of you who have not lived in a bubble understand what I'm saying put up your hands okay the rest of you are still in the bubble if you have white hair or no hair you should have a PhD in being hurt okay white hair or no hair there's an elder right in Fr with white hair you know so he probably has a lot of experience of being hurt uh by words uh by many things so when I was 50
00:07:00 I said to the lord it's 30 years now I've been serving you Lord can I take a break can I stop all this can I just live my life you see I like to write bikes big bikes not the cup chai uh and so I thought I'll buy myself a big bike and go on a journey around the world with no other human beings around me because I was a a bit tired with human beings now I know why Single Ladies like to have dogs oh sorry I'm not supposed to walk sorry guys subang has restrictions of walking uh and so I like to write I like to move
00:07:55 you kind of see right yeah so and that's what I thought I will do I basically wanted to give up on Ministry and just leave everything and uh I don't know how many of you have gone through in life where you just felt that I'm going to stop and do something else and I realized there was something wrong with me not with the world not with people you see a lot of times when we go through that we always think everybody else is wrong we heartly evaluate ourselves and that's when I realize there was something majorly
00:08:42 wrong with my sight let's pray heavenly father I thank you this morning that you want to speak to us Lord I pray that you open our ears not to hear a man speak but you speak in Jesus name I pray amen the scripture we read says very very clearly in Hebrews 11 verse 1 and 2 in verse 2 it says looking unto Jesus in NIV version uh the one that our sister read says very clearly fixing our eyes on Jesus you know dear friends when we fix our eyes on Jesus life is never always going to be Rosy but it's going to be
00:09:32 exciting I say this again it's not going to be Rosy but it's going to be exciting can you put up the song uh that we sang magnifying Christ I don't know whether it's the chorus I don't know whether you really focus on what you sing uh but what you sang uh when you sang that song uh magnify Christ okay is this the chorus can you move on please uh the part that says whatever you know I'm going to face I'm going to go through it is it a verse or chorus I can't remember worship team help me yeah okay
00:10:19 I won't bow to Idols now uh Idols are not just figurines in fact Jesus said the greatest challenge for for all of us is either serving God or Mamon money okay it can become an idol money itself is not evil but the love for money is the root of all evil and Malaysia is perfect example of that okay and if we puts me in the fire did you guys even know what you just Sayang I Will [Music] Rejoice you know I had a lady call me up my church member and she cry and cry and say why did God do this to me and I was thinking maybe her
00:11:17 husband left her or what you know and I'm like you know calm down what's what's the problem tell me she said Jimmy died and then I was trying to figure out whether the husband's name was Jimmy no Jimmy was not the husband it was the dog she was so upset with God because her dog died and the dog was 12 years old 12 means time seven that's a old dog when you get old you die you understand not that's the law of life and she was upset and then here we are singing If you put me in the fire I will yes praise the Lord Brother I love
00:12:11 your voice let's go on I won't be formed by [Music] feelings but I hold fast to the truth let's go on and says if the cross brings transformation friends you sang this then I will be crucified with Christ I don't know whether you remember what you say but God holds us account to every word that we say I'm sorry worship him after this I'm not sure whether they're going to sing this song or not see I Don't Preach to be like my men I leave to please one I choose to follow Paul's example he say follow me as I follow Christ he say
00:13:22 Whom Shall I please God or man I Don't Preach to be invited every last month of the year in First Baptist subang seriously every time the word of God Is Spoken I believe transformation must take place so with that said what does fixing our eyes on Jesus do to us in our journey in our life in our walk in Christ it has to be prac practical right what does it mean now the scripture starts by the word by this word therefore now is there English teacher here if it if it starts with therefore it means something must have been said
00:14:20 earlier that is important that now the author is emphasizing therefore you need to do something so what was said before this before Hebrews chapter 12 I'm going to tell you something very very uh amazing truth before chapter 11 there was chapter sorry chapter 12 that was chapter 11 and in chapter 11 it is called the Hall of Fame of the faithful ones it starts with Adam it goes down the list it comes right up to Jesus and his disciples and then goes in a journey of describing faithful people who died for
00:15:11 their faith the nameless ones I call them the nameless one the scripture says some of them were swn into two swn s you know they chop you as fast if they saw you means when he hit bone means why you all look at me very strange ask a surgeon they will tell you many of them suffered for Christ and they died these are nameless ones and then in verse 39 and 40 the author of Hebrew says this this you see this plural all those that were mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 were all commanded for their faith yet none of them
00:16:10 received what had been promised that means Abraham didn't receive his promise yet that means Moses didn't receive his promise yet none of the disciples received their promise yet since God had planned something better say it together for say it loud I like his voice better for us turn to your neighbor and say us so that only listen only the emphasis together with again say us us would they be made perfect therefore the earth now must run this race well shaking off everything that and SN and Tangles oh sorry
00:17:23 entangles us from running well are you hearing me now are you hear hearing the author of Hebrew what is he trying to say this is a race that is not run individually it's not 100 Metter it's not a marathon but it's a theme event only the relay the first runner runs finishes doesn't receive his price am I right right second runner runs finishes well doesn't receive until the final Runner friends the final Runner also need to run well and finish well turn to your neighbor and say Finish Well only then will they be complete now you
00:18:25 understand why he says we we need to fix our eyes on Jesus now fixing on our eyes on Jesus does three things three things that is crucial for us to run well crucial for us to Finish Well crucial for the team are you hearing me you see I've been to a lot of Baptist Churches this three things is very crucial now listen we should not take on positions if it is not called by God the only reason I'm taking up this role as the chairman of the Baptist convention is when I know very clearly the the Lord wants to do something in
00:19:21 the Baptist churches in Malaysia God wants to do something in all the churches in Malaysia but for us as a the Baptist family we need to be ready and know exactly what God wants to do what are the three things that is very important for us that we can learn when I was 50 years old when I knew something was wrong with my sight God showed me these three things number one focus when we fix our eyes on Jesus it directs our Focus you know there are three types of people people who are very focused how many of you are very focused
00:20:09 please put up your hands oh all very very humble people who are easily distracted not very focused put up your hands okay well more honest people and then the third type people who are focused on the wrong things I won't even ask to put up your hands even churches can be focus on the wrong things friends even leaders can be focused on the wrong things you see when you get hurt the focus no longer is on Christ is on you is on me why did I feel the way I felt because I was having a pity party poor
00:21:08 me 30 years of my life I give to the church but they hurt me people I love hurt me me my I just now we sing feelings right we feel for ourselves I'm not saying you cannot have feelings I'm saying when our focus is out our feelings also goes out when our focus is out our feelings also go Out friends it's so important what is the author of Hebrew is saying in this race that we are running if we really don't know what is the race about if we really don't know that we are not just running alone we we
00:22:17 don't understand that others are depending on how we run then our Focus can be out don't you NE ask how is your focus now you begin to understand what I'm saying do you understand what I'm saying Church yes do I because I don't want to confuse you when we have Focus then we need to ask this question am I focused on the wrong things or the things that Christ wants me to Focus we got to ask Focus On Christ directs our path directs our journey I realize something Malaysian people are very angry people at least
00:23:23 now nowadays you're more Angry have you seen people driving on the road they're angry even Christian people just two days ago as I was driving in kale I know the guy is Christian because he put a fish on his SC I mean who puts a fish on in your the symbol of a fish and then there was a sign saying be patient with me God is at work but his behavior on the road I I know he's not from subang Baptist Church I'm very sure because it was other side of the the valley uh hopefully it's not from First Baptist his behavior on road was not
00:24:14 Christlike he was very upset he was very angry and then I realized I was like that too I tell you why I was like that every morning when I wake up one of the first things I do is read news wave and when you read news wave you know news about Malaysia and all the statements that are made how many of you know you are going to get angry are you here David say early in the morning will I Seek You we seek the news doesn't help in our journey throughout that day our Focus will be out because we started our
00:25:08 day not fixing our eyes on Jesus but some politician I get I guess you get what I'm trying to say church we really need to come back and fix our eyes on Jesus so that our Focus will be right you know people come and tell me before they get married I ask them why do you want to get married they say we want our marriage to glorify Christ wow wow I like that seven years down the road they come back to see me again Pastor we want to separate this is true story yeah I say why oh I can't stand him and I can't stand
00:26:05 her we don't agree in a lot of things so but you see Indians can remember well and I remember the 7 years ago you said it we want to get married for the what I was waiting for it brother he is my favorite guy in this church I don't even know who is it but for the glory of Christ you see focus is out after 7 years it's me I'm not happy I don't like her 7 years ago she had curves now she's around about Focus why do you want to work in this place I want to shine for Jesus in this company two weeks later next company
00:27:30 what happened what happened to your focus don't you realize sometimes our actions makes us look so foolish we blame other people we blame politician but our own actions show us that we are so out of focus and so church it's time to return to focus and Jesus says seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness everything else will be added unto you focus the kingdom of God Amen second thing that I learned from the same passage is this fixing our eyes on Jesus deepens our faith first Focus
00:28:32 second Faith how many of you know that the word of God says if we lack Faith ask how many of you know Faith needs to grow is a living thing it has to grow why do I say living because James say show me Faith with no actions and I'll show you Faith with action no action means faith that is De with action means it is faith that is a life I like what you guys are doing that's action Christmas is not just about us Christmas is the first missions effort of God himself sending the First Missionary his
00:29:34 son to a world that was lost and so Christmas has to be about his love being pronounced so Bravo for doing what you're doing all the more the rest of us should find opport opportunity to Proclaim but that's faith in action but you know what when our eyes is off Jesus we our faith begins to dwindle why does it dwindle it can I mean we can easily sense it from our words for instance a yeah this country got no hope so what are you praying remember your corporate prayer the young man was praying for the nation
00:30:36 he was praying for leaders hey I listen no I seriously listen because leaders need to learn how to listen not only talk talk talk talk talk talk and never listen we need to listen to some of our young people God is speaking through them and so I listen to Young people not just people with white hair or no hair but also young people actually they call themselves young people but they're not very young let me tell you why I'm struggling When I visit because everywhere I visit some of the words that I'm
00:31:33 listening does not show Faith doesn't show faith in fact we don't even believe in our prayer i i in Acts chapter 12 Peter was in prison I can't remember who's the other person they were in prison the church gathered together and they were praying and as they prayed earthquake happened in the prison chains were broken Peter and the other person got out of the uh prison and they walked back to the place where the church was meeting and praying they knocked on the door oh they were fervently praying inside there was
00:32:18 a servant girl I can remember her name Roda Roda came out Roda opened the door she saw Peter she closed the door she run back to the leaders and she told the leaders who were praying fly praying for the release of Peter said Peter is standing outside she said a few times Roa you are out of your mind actually Bible very polite if modern version means Roa you're crazy that's what it means how can they be out there in prison but they're praying for his release do you understand the irony and then finally they came out
00:33:07 they open the door the poor guys beaten up hanging on a chain in in the prison and now back you know maybe Bruce standing out in the I don't know maybe it's cold month or what you know in the Cal left there why because the church didn't even believe in their own prayer are you here with me do you understand what I'm saying there was a true case in us a case where a bartender H sorry bar owner filed a case against the church reason is this the church was praying for the bar to be removed from that
00:33:51 Village so one day there was a thunderstorm and the bar got fire struck by lightning and burned down so the owner knew that the church was praying so he filed a case it is because of the church but in the court the church leadership with one heart you know denied the accusation and say no we did nothing and then the final judgment the judge said this and who was a Christian from a different village he say it seems like the owner of the bar believes in prayer more than the church this is true H this is
00:34:46 true friends why am I sharing this our words reflects whether we have faith or not our actions reflects whether we have Faith or not I leave it there because you are very intelligent people and so you would know why I say what I say when you are when we are complaining about life I oh my life so difficult remember I was going through W God I honestly this is what I said okay this is what I said I said Lord you don't understand what it means to be betrayed by the one that you really love and then
00:35:33 dang now you know why I got no head one tight slap what do you mean I don't know my disciple hey well Tred theology forgot that the Lord was betrayed he knows exactly the feeling of being hurt by someone that travels with you sleeps in the same place eat what you eat for three and a half years continuously and he betray you with a kiss I realize how far my focus my faith has gone when my eyes were not fixed on him fixed on me do you understand what I'm saying sometimes in leadership I want to say
00:36:39 this our focus of ministry is wrong so that people may remember us instead of remembering Christ when I was a young youth pastor the team that God gave me for my youth ministry was this listen carefully famous in heaven and feared in hell I say this again famous in heaven feared in hell to raise a generation of young people that will live on Earth in a manner that you will they will become famous in heaven and feared in hell not the other way around feared in heaven and famous in hell so so dear
00:37:29 friends it is so important that we always check that I always check myself that that I don't want to preach so that I will be remembered I don't want to be a leader that oh he was a great leader if there's anything that people should I desire people to remember me by is a man who lived to put a smile on God's face so my wife if I die and if you want to have a tombstone and you want to remember me by this then you write there a man who lived to put a smile on God's face on his father's face whose face are you putting a
00:38:22 smile you see the way we live on earth is good if you're are famous in heaven the way we live on earth is great if you put fear in hell but a lot of times we focus on being famous on Earth and feared on Earth forget the two other places where eternity is fixed are you hear church do you understand what I've just said I close with this the last thing that we learn by fixing our eyes on Jesus is this it develops our fortitude fortitude is a very important ingredient in finishing the race well what is
00:39:14 fortitude according to Webster D dictionary fortitude means strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage I read this I I I read it again fortitude means according to Webster dictionary strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage in other words the author of Hebrew says perseverance you may ask Pastor why you never use perseverance it's because I want everything in eff Focus faith and fortitude three
00:40:16 things Focus Faith fortitude all of us who are seated here doesn't matter what is your age in order to finish the race with well we need fortitude perseverance one of my one of my favorite uh TV shows that I like to watch is the endurance race and the team that that I really like is the team from New Zealand why I like them because they always win and they're not Young they're in their 40s it's a very well seasoned team and they you know the race the endurance race is not for the F fainthearted it's a race without sleep
00:41:14 it's a rise in all kinds of terrains it's a race that you need to be you know so flexible and ready to do whatever you need to do in order for the team to win you leave one person out if one person there are four in the team if one person gives up the whole team is disqualified same thing in the relay one person drops a bon or passes outside of the passing zone the team is qualifi uh disqualified so Church before we take the Lord's Supper we need to understand the importance of fixing our eyes on Jesus
00:42:15 daily not only the time when you say the sinners prayer it is a daily thing for some of us is every other hour because if our eyes goes off of Christ for a moment you will make wrong decisions in your business in your company in your leadership in your education in your studies in your relationship in every area of your life you can make wrong decisions because your eyes is not on Christ it was an old song that we used to sing I I didn't tell the worship team this song because I thought because I know
00:43:04 the worship team in First Baptist they're very young people uh and probably not even born when the song was written but maybe they know I shouldn't say that you know the song Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus look fully in this wonderful face and the things of this world will grow strangely Dim when your eyes is Upon Jesus church what is your eyes looking at this morning as the worship team make their way up I I want you to ask this question Lord where am I looking is my eye con constantly on you I want to say
00:44:07 this I get easily distracted and so daily I have to ask myself every day Lord Holy Spirit help me so that my eyes will constantly be on Christ if not I'm going to lead people in the wrong direction not only lead myself you see in leadership is even more important because people are following you and these are people that Jesus died for can you imagine the weight just stand with me you know if I give a altar call 100% should be here including myself so I'm going to pray for every one of us how's
00:45:01 that if you seriously felt that the holy spirit is speaking to you in any one of these areas maybe you think your focus is constantly going out because your eyes are not on Christ maybe you feel your faith is not growing because your eyes is not on Christ you know when you're complaining about life just focus on Christ see what he has gone through the Lord's Supper that we're about to take reminds us what he has gone through and finally maybe there's someone that is the cause of giving up you could be giving up in a business
00:45:50 that God called you to do but it's been tough it could be something in a relationship that you tried and tried and tried is nothing is working and you said I had it could be even some of you saying Lord I want to stop serving I was there at the age of 50 I said Lord I give up I can't do this anymore maybe I should think about my own life and my family life and my my my my retirement maybe that's what I should think about Lord and that's when God spoke to me so clearly son your eyes are not on me this morning I beg you
00:46:53 church that you will search yourself you ask yourself this question Lord is my eyes on you so often our eyes get defocused and if you're that person just lift your hands up wherever you are just lift your hands up wherever you are and say Lord redirect my eyes Holy Spirit bring my eyes back on you wherever you are don't look at what other people are thinking about you it's what's important is what he thinks about you just wherever you are hands lifted up as we worship him with this song hallelujah thank you
00:47:46 Jesus father I pray for each and every one of us that our hands are lifted up looking to you Lord because how easily we get distractive how easily our eyes are moved from you to the things that trouble us to the storms to the difficulties but today Lord I pray Jesus help to bring our sight our eyes back to you Lord May our Focus be clear and right Lord May our faith continue to grow but most of all strengthen our fortitude to not give up Lord you know what we're going through right now personally Lord
00:48:37 you know each and every one of us what we're going through but today Lord as we partake the Lord's Supper there will be a breakthrough chains will be broken strongholds will be Broken Walls will come tumbling down because 2,000 years ago you were the victor you have won the victory we thank you Jesus in Jesus name we pray amen amen God bless [Music] you please be seated uh we're going to have our communion the Lord supper but if you do not have the element please raise your hand and the aser will pass
00:49:26 it to you but please do not open it uh we'll do it together all right let's continue to fix our eyes on Jesus and I think Holy Communion is a time where we uh turn our Focus to Christ and what he has done for us uh like Pastor palan mentioned in his sermon before Hebrews chapter 12 there's Hebrew chapter 11 I want to continue on that thought before Hebrew chapter 11 there is Hebrew chapter 10 so let me read from Hebrews chapter 10 as we are uh continue to fix our eyes on Jesus Hebrews 10 verse1 the
00:50:05 old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow a deam preview of the good things to come not the good things themselves the sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again year after year but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who Came To Worship if they could have provided uh perfect cleansing the sacrifices would have stopped for worshippers would have been purified once for all time and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared but instead those sacrifices were actually reminded
00:50:48 them of their sins year after year for it is impos possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take take away sin verse 11 under the old Covenant the priest stands and Minister before the altar there after day offering the same sacrifices again and again which can never take away sins but our high priest offer himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins good for all time then he sat down in the place of honor at God's hand there he waits until his enemy means are humble and made a foot stool under his feet for by that one
00:51:32 offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy so this is what Jesus has done for us some 2,000 years ago he came to be the perfect sacrifice for our sin a sin that we committed that we deserve to be punished but he took our punishment and he's able to give us life eternal so as we focus our eyes on Jesus let's spend a some time to meditate to think about what Christ did for us and let us continue to uh fix our eyes on him let's spend a few minute in silent prayer shall we father God indeed we are so thankful
00:52:39 for for you for sending your son Jesus Christ to come to the the Earth to pay the price for our sin and father we Rejoice this morning because of the free gift that we have and father help us Lord to to be faithful Pastor palen said to fix our eyes not to take our eternal life of free gift for granted but to serve you to be witness for you to bring glory to you in whatever we do father we thank you for this time in Jesus name amen so in FBC we practice uh open communion so if you have come to faith in Christ and if you have put your
00:53:21 trust in Jesus uh we welcome you to join us uh for the L supper so if you have the element you can uh just open it the Apostle Paul writing to the church in car said this wrote this for I received from the Lord which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given things he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me together in the same man same way he took the cup and after also after supper saying this
00:54:40 cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes again let's partake this together let's pray father we thank you Lord for the New Covenant that you established through your blood and um we thank you Lord for sacrifices that you made for us and father we just pray as we walk out that Lord we continue to fix our eyes on you as we walk into this world that Lord
00:55:23 you guide every step of our path Jesus name amen so I'd like to invite Pastor palen to close and uh do the benedictions amen would you stand with me as I pronounce the benediction over you Jude 1 verse 24-25 says to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy through the only God our savior be glory Majesty power and authority through Jesus Christ Our Lord before all ages now and forever more amen God bless you Church
00:56:34 for [Music]
