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00:00 uh took us through uh last week. Let me just start off with some history
00:06 lessons. Most of you don't like history, but it's good to know some of your early history. This is Emperor Flavius
00:12 Claudius Julianas or more known as Emperor Julian. Uh he's an emperor
00:18 during the Constantine period. Those of you who know your history, Constantine apparently became Christian and this is
00:25 a time where Christianity in Rome is flourishing. But uh Julian when he took the throne
00:33 hated Christians and he's known actually as Julian the apostate because he's the
00:38 last known emperor to prosecute and persecute Christians. And during his reign he brought back the Roman
00:45 traditional religion, the pagan temples. Uh he didn't want the Christianity to be
00:52 the official religion and so on and so forth. So he's known as the last Roman emperor to persecute Christians. you go
00:59 and Wikipedia up that's actually what he's most famous for but despite his persecution of Christians this is what
01:05 is written from him and you can get this from Wikipedia you know he says why do women observe that it is their Christian
01:11 benevalence to strangers and pretended holiness of their lives they have done most to increase
01:17 Christianity for it is disgraceful that when no Jew ever has to beg and the
01:23 empire's Galilean support not only their own poor but ours as how all men see
01:30 that our people lack aid from us. It's a powerful indictment. Is an indictment of
01:36 an emperor who hated Christians so much yet admitted for all he hated of the
01:42 Christians. They showed charity. They showed love not only to their own kind
01:50 but to people outside of their faith. And we're continuing the issue of uh
01:55 last week about doing good. And nowadays today we have so many Christian
02:01 organizations that do good via many vehicles. The boys brigade does it
02:07 through the discipline body of you know regimen. Operation mobilization OM does
02:14 it through their ship. They had dual laws logos later was hope biggest floating library in the world. uh
02:20 shelter home does it by running orphanages for kids and Malaysian care does a variety of uh such mission work
02:29 doing good. I had the privilege of seven years being on the board. Uh my ministry
02:34 was uh prison work. My wife is actually a ex full-time worker for Malaysian
02:41 care. Her ministry is early intervention with children with special needs. So I I'm not coming here as an expert, but I
02:48 want to share with you a bit of my own experience in this area. But here's the
02:53 thing I want to ask you. U do every Christian organization that
02:58 does good, do they end up really doing good? Let me
03:04 give you this organization is called the YMCA. Do you know what the YMCA original
03:10 mandate was? When you think YMCA, you think what you think of that song by village people or the minion version,
03:17 you think sport centers, you know, but do you know, let me read you their original mission statement. And in the
03:23 original logo, you find John 17:21 is right in the middle. And this is what it
03:29 says, you know, again, Wikipedia. So very clear one. It was the mission goal
03:34 is a refugee of Bible study and prayer for young men seeking escape from the
03:41 hazards of life on the streets. A refugee of Bible study. The YMCA started
03:49 as a Bible study group. That's why the Bible is the middle. This is the YMCA
03:55 today. completely 180 degrees change.
04:02 I guess when you own hotels around the world, I went to look at the asset page. You know, they have assets in the
04:09 billions. This is Wanchai YMCA. I stayed in here
04:15 is the most valuable property in the part of Hong Kong. So the question is you can start off as
04:22 a Bible study group do so well and the end you run hotels and the challenge and
04:28 question you ask how different are you from a non-Christian organization that
04:34 does social work uh in the 17th century the Puritans
04:39 started education they landed in New England and being very thankful God brought them there they started a
04:45 college and the mandate of this college is In their mission statement in 1663,
04:51 let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well
04:57 the end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is
05:02 eternal life and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of
05:09 all sound knowledge and learning. They started a small college. They went to education and they reminded themselves
05:15 at the basis of every education is to know God through Christ Jesus. And for
05:22 that in their logo the word at eslesis cristo be onto Christ. You know what's
05:30 the name of this college? He went on to became very successful is called
05:36 Harvard. Guess what's missing in the current Harvard logo and the original
05:44 Christ. Same in the YMC original logo Bible the
05:51 current one. Why? And so where is Harvard once you take
05:57 Christ? This is last year's Harvard's nude run.
06:02 I got out from the papers. Uh here is the trumpet paper from Harvard. Harvard
06:08 taught us how to drink. America's best and brightest university have difficulty
06:14 exercising self-control. Harvard student Isabel Caplan says learning to differentiate health types
06:20 of alcohol is one thing every Harvard student needs to do. Okay. There's even
06:26 a Harvard amnesty policy for getting drunk. Here is a university that started off
06:33 telling people what is the basis of education to know Jesus Christ. This is
06:39 it. Now I wonder what the founder
06:44 of Harvard University would have taught. You know what the students think of him?
06:50 Not very much, isn't it? You know in in a movie uh Guardians of
06:56 the Galaxy, the last line is really interesting. He says, "What shall we do? Something good, something bad, a bit of
07:03 both. You can start off well, mean well, start a Christian
07:09 organization on education or to take kids off the street and you become a
07:15 victim of your own success and down the road you resemble nothing of the good
07:21 you want to start off with. Doing good is complicated. You give money to a beggar. How do you
07:28 know that money is not going to an organization that enslaves kids? So, it's a challenging conversation,
07:35 challenging discussion. I want to spend a bit of time on it today. And here's the million-dollar question I ask you.
07:41 What has doing good got to do with the gospel? That is the
07:47 core question we're going to ask. So, let us come before God in prayer. Lord, we ask for humility.
07:53 We ask for prayer and for wisdom in this uh topic that you will enlighten us and
08:01 uh to what you want to say and grant me u your words oh lord we say this in Jesus name amen now I'm going to start
08:09 off with a really corny question I'm going to start off by asking you what is the gospel is this on on we're going to
08:17 do this interview style you see we every time has sermon we say gospel gospel so
08:22 if I Ask, "Do you really know what the gospel means?" Uh, Malaya, this one.
08:29 This one? No. Ah, this one. One, two. One, two. Ah, this is great. Okay, I'm The way we're
08:36 going to do this, we're going to interview people off the streets. You just tell me what is the gospel? Very
08:42 straightforward. Mo, what's the gospel? Good news.
08:48 How about a bit more elaboration? Um Christ come to Dave come came to die for
08:53 us. Okay you you think that's right. True. I think it's a fair comment. Cannot ask him. This one elder this one can ask
08:59 him. Let's ask what do you think is the what is the gospel? Good news.
09:04 All or this all very replicative. We Okay. How about a bit more uh you know elong give us a bit of expression on a
09:11 bit more you know the way to point us back to what we're supposed to meet for. Okay. How about Hey Nat, where's the
09:18 gospel? Last one. Last one. Don't worry. This is not a show show. Don't I'm not I'm not the DV letter man. But let's
09:24 just try this. What's the good news? Um the good news is um God's word for us to prepare our lives for his coming.
09:30 Okay. Okay. Very okay. That's great. All right. So you see when you look at the gospel people say is it good news? And
09:37 what you see is that most people are really talking about it about ourselves, how our lives should be transformed in
09:44 light of the cross and uh how that actually changes us. Let
09:50 me give you a interpretation of the gospel given from Colossians. And this is what God says, God's word from Paul.
09:57 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to
10:03 reconcile to himself all things. All things you know whether things on
10:10 earth or things in heaven by making peace through his blood shed on the cross is an interesting view of the
10:18 gospel. in this explanation the gospel the gospel is beyond Jesus dying for you on
10:26 the cross and you leading a holy life that's part of the gospel what does gospel according to Paul here it is
10:33 actually bringing entire creation into a new kingdom and the earlier part of
10:39 talks a lot about this the gospel moving forward now I want you to take this at the back of your head because this has
10:45 everything to do with doing good let's go into the text. The text is obviously
10:51 about doing good and good things. And the Greek here, I'll just give you a bit. It all refers to deeds. It refers
10:59 to going out and doing good things. Whether it's education, giving to
11:05 charity, providing support, helping people who are homeless,
11:11 all the good things which everyone, whether you're Christian or non-Christian, believes in. So let's
11:18 kick in quickly on the text. The first point is quite straightforward from verse six.
11:24 Give materially to those who have spiritually given to us. This is something we always forget. He says
11:31 anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his
11:37 instructor. You see when we talk about charity, we often think about giving to poor people uh to relief. And it's quite
11:44 interesting. He starts off give back to those who spiritually give you. Now
11:50 there's two ways of applying this. The first is pastors. Pastors don't make a lot of money. So it's our job to support
11:57 pastors to make sure missionaries and pastors are financially taken care of.
12:02 But if you look at the text, Paul himself was never full-time. So I want to give a simple example. Who
12:09 do you think is the most hardworking person in FBC? Come on. Sorry,
12:16 Karen. Correct. With all due respect, nobody. He didn't pay me to do this. I'm
12:23 not his PR. Okay. But no one works harder than Peter. Is it a fact? He's no
12:30 one. You You You can fault Peter for many things. There was a private talk. Okay, we won't go there. We all have our
12:36 faults. We all called by grace. You cannot fault Peter for giving his blood to the church and life. He's really
12:42 given his time. Now, let me give you an example. Peter's also one of the best urologists in town. I don't know. I
12:49 don't I haven't had the pleasure of going to him. I pray I don't need to
12:56 one day. But let me ask you a question. What if one day his business doesn't do
13:01 very well? You think he will have the time to spend so much at FBC?
13:07 He can't because he will have to take his time to go and do his work.
13:15 So it's important point to pick up. It means when your bodily functions fail,
13:21 you start to leak and you need to see a urologist and there two doctors are
13:26 equally good. One is Peter and one is another guy who's not a Christian. Who should you go to? You should go to
13:32 Peter. is a fact because the more of you who go
13:39 see Peter, he don't need to worry about his work. Correct? And then the more he
13:44 can spend time in church and also his family life. I mean, you want to say that? Let me qualify. But you must
13:49 understand sometimes we take people who serve in church for granted.
13:55 If a guy works as a contractor and is given up his time to serve in
14:01 church, he will not be able to serve in church if he's also got to go lobby for work. You help get him work, he will
14:09 continue in his ministry. You see the way he's going to this is the first thing Paul picks up, you know, and is
14:14 the thing we often forget. We often dichotoize our work life with charity.
14:20 Charity, go help the poor fellow. And Paul interestingly starts off by saying
14:25 no, you ground it by helping those who spiritually help you. Then they can be
14:30 focused in ministry. It's an important point. Let me get you to the second point. Doing good is grounded in the
14:39 rule of spiritual sewing and reaping. And this is the core of the text. I want
14:44 to spend a bit of time with this. But let me give you two wrong reasons for doing good. Non-Christians will tell you
14:51 this. one if I do good you will balance the skills of the bad things I've done
14:56 that's nonsense that goes against what Galatians is teaching there salvation by works which is tied very closely if I do
15:04 good I will earn merit with God and again a lot of religions teach that what do you think the most common lie given
15:12 out there is this it doesn't matter what religion you're in so long you do good
15:17 that's rubbish you know and if you're not a Christian today gently I'll tell you that's the biggest lie you can
15:23 listen to and is the most popular. Why? Because when you say that who sets the
15:29 standards for doing good yourself, you set your own bar.
15:35 So that's why it's such a bad heresy to teach that. But let's bring it within the Christian context. Now when you look
15:42 at the verse, the verse is quite strange. You know, you have verse six, we start doing good. all of a sudden he
15:49 is like he swings completely out of context and he takes verses 7 8 to talk
15:56 about the spirit. I mean this looks like something that should be chapter 5 life in the spirit. But then again when you
16:02 look at chapter 6 verse one to verse 5 he does the same thing. He talks about
16:08 doing good to others. In the middle he swings to this verse and says each one should test his own actions. And again
16:15 he spends a lot of time in that. Now if you look at the structure of it is the same. Now if you take verse one all the
16:23 way down to vers 12 versus 10 you will find there's a
16:29 continuity in this section. Do you know what is the context of doing good here?
16:35 You look all the verses they are all about relationships. Let me let me break it down for you.
16:41 Okay. I give you the thing. The first verse is about Christian brotherhood
16:47 sins. The second verse is about each other's burdens. The third one is about
16:53 yourself. The fourth is about Bible teachers. And the fifth verse 10 is
16:58 about those in needs. And he breaks it down in two, Christians and everyone. So the whole thing is about relationships.
17:05 Now this is critical. Why is he telling you this? Because when
17:11 I give money to a beggar, I can do it completely detached to my
17:17 life. I can have gotten home and bashed my wife.
17:22 I could have cheated someone. I could have been a terrible person.
17:28 Then I go on the streets, I see a beggar, I give him my loose change. It has no bearing to my life.
17:35 And what Paul is saying, your deeds of good deeds, your good deeds are totally
17:42 connected to everything else. And this is where we call this the principle of
17:48 sewing and reaping. Do you not believe the people in this country who are the
17:55 most corrupted, the most evil are the ones who give the most to charity?
18:02 Correct? You know what's an average Chinese businessman go? I will tell you cruy. Sleep around, drink,
18:10 uh, give corruption, do everything he wants, make his pile of money. Then in his sunset years, what does he want? He
18:17 wants respect. He set up the Anolim Foundation. Then he go and do charity in his spare
18:24 time. Of course, he go and do whatever else he was doing. You notice that it has zero connection to his moral
18:30 behavior. Now Paul is pulling that out because that's what the world teaches. Now how do you do it in the principle of
18:37 sewing reaping it this way doing good to those in need is most effective one when
18:43 you care for also to those who sin. It's connected. You cannot not give money and
18:49 not talk about sin because sin brings destitution. People who drink, people who who go into
18:57 poverty do that because of sin. Number two, this is all for all those heroes.
19:02 You know, it's not done independently. You're mutually lifting each other's burdens.
19:09 You can't do it solo. Number three, and this is probably the most important, is
19:15 being mindful of what you think of yourself and when you're doing good deeds. I mean, let's be honest, if you
19:22 do charity, what do you feel about yourself after that? You feel good, right? Shock. You feel you've done good.
19:28 And Paul takes this to ground the entire chapter. You know, he says it most
19:33 importantly, each one should test his own actions. Verse four, and more so
19:39 when you're doing charity, then he can take pride in himself without comparing himself to someone else. It's important
19:46 verse. And then lastly, he says you need to ground it in spiritual teachings.
19:52 Let me try to break this down for you. You see your relationship with God
19:59 in the end will influence your relationship with others. That's why Paul in the Galatians starts off by
20:06 talking about justification in faith and finally he says love your neighbor as yourself in chapter 5. You got to get
20:12 your relationship with God right first. After that it will affect the way you think of yourself and your neighbor and
20:20 it will affect the way you do charity. How do we do this? Let me give you some
20:25 simple uh uh application. One, do good God's way, not your way. Very simple
20:32 thing. Years ago, I took an Indian guy from India out for lunch. Uh you know,
20:37 and I thought I was trying to do good. Indians from India eat food a certain
20:43 way. Me in my goodness took him to a Japanese restaurant to eat sushi.
20:49 Stupid thing to do. completely stupid. Eat. Very good. I was
20:55 torturing the guy, you know. Try to imagine next time you take an African brother or someone and you sit
21:01 him next to a China restaurant. Eat this. You might. Very nice. Very nice. Eat this pow. Very good. Very good. Eat
21:07 this is very good. Why you not eating? No. Eat a try. The fellow sit down there. Py. You better eat. You think
21:14 you're doing him good. You're not doing him good. You're doing good your way.
21:20 you're doing it your way. It's a simple thing like that and it goes on and you know why people you know why Chinese do
21:26 that because they are actually looking down the other culture. They tell you look at my culture my culture is better.
21:32 You best eat. You know it's subconscious. You don't realize it. Doing good without God in the center is
21:39 still centered on self. No matter how noble the the the the intention, you can
21:47 be sincere in it, but you take God out of it. You are doing God by you being
21:54 God. I got it wrong. You're doing good with you being God.
22:00 You see, it's a very subtle shift. You know, it's a very subtle shift and that leads to all sorts of issue. You see,
22:07 always reflect on your motive for doing good. They not may not be as righteous
22:13 as you like to believe. Why in America presidential candidates
22:20 like to kiss babies? Do they like babies? No. It's called PR.
22:27 Why do we like to do charity? If we are honest, the most simple fundamental
22:32 reason we like the praises. All of us like people to come out and says thank you. You feel better about
22:39 yourself. Am I not right? You see, if you pull yourself back, there are host of reasons why we do charity wrongly.
22:47 Here's another one. It's an outlet. It's an outlet because you're lonely. I used
22:53 to do some work for Shelter Malaysia. And Shelter Malaysia screens who they would allow in to teach the kids. And
23:00 the moment you think you're a lonely type who's trying to actually impose your loneliness on kids, they won't let
23:06 you in. So, some of us do that. Some of us is insecurity. Some of us is our
23:12 arrogance and some simply we are just happy doing it. I know a person who
23:18 cannot get on with other people. No. So he spends a lot of time with children.
23:23 For the last 20 years his ministry has been with kids. I ask him why don't you do adults? No. If I do adults I'll
23:28 fight. So you see what's happening. The ministry of his children is actually
23:33 done for selfish reasons you know. So you search ourselves whether you're giving a dollar to a beggar out there or
23:40 you're involved in a charity group or mission groups and why Paul takes so much pain from verses 4 to 5 to say this
23:48 each one should test his own actions is because the heart is deceitful.
23:55 We can sometimes tell ourselves we're doing good. But really the motives are
24:01 mixed up and because of that you always be careful of the idol of good deeds.
24:09 You take pride in it. You think you're something. Actually you're not doing it
24:14 for God. And doing God good is most effective when you're walking the
24:19 spirit. And I'll give you some application on this as we go on. Because of that, then only Paul says,
24:26 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Doing
24:34 good will cost you. Wrong motivations and doing good. One, expecting
24:39 thankfulness from those whom you have helped. B, expecting God to bless you in
24:45 this lifetime for all your good deeds. If you really expect A and B to happen, you will become weary. Actually to do
24:52 good, I would tell you go in and expect people to insult you, cheat you, not be appreciative, stab you in the back,
24:59 expect you not to get on with your colleagues, you will survive because it will remind you we are called by grace.
25:07 Either that we'll be doing it for selfish reasons. So let me give you the three points here. It's very simple and then I'll
25:13 give you to the core of the text. Give material to those with spiritually given to us. Doing good to others is grounded
25:20 on the principles of sowing and reaping and doing good will cost you. Now let me
25:26 ask you now the key question. What is the relationship between doing good and
25:32 evangelism? Is it more important to preach the gospel or to do good works? Can you use
25:38 good works as a bridge for evangelism? You have limited time and resources. Which should you prioritize? Evangelism
25:45 or good works. You see a common one we used to say is okay you use use good works as a bridge. Let me tell you my
25:51 own experience simulation care. You go to a village you know and you say you
25:56 want to help the guy come tell you
26:02 okay you do next week
26:10 what they're trying to do is fish you know what you can give them and what another religious body can give them.
26:21 I say, "Okay,
26:27 you notice what they're doing? They're playing with you." You see, you you got to be very careful on this, you know, because we create rice Christians. They
26:35 don't see God. They see Santa Claus. You got to be very very careful on this. So,
26:40 this one is a dicey dicey topic. So, let me give you a few propositions and people have debated over this for
26:46 centuries. Okay? And let me give you Peter Wagner. He's very well-known apologist in this before he started to
26:52 talk about apostles. But uh in one of his very famous books, these are the two common positions in evangelical
26:58 churches. He says this, evangelism is the primary function of the church. The
27:03 ministry of deed is necessary but secondary. The last one is this social
27:09 concern position E is not the job of the church at all in the world. We carry on
27:15 only in the ministry of the word. In this position, the most important thing is to preach. The rest let everyone else
27:21 do not so important. You know when I when I married my wife, you know this one, she don't know what I'm saying. She
27:28 was full-time worker. So I met a pastor friend of mine who was from Australia. I said, "My wife also full-time. I must be
27:35 proud of your wife. She's full-time like you. You a pastor, but she's full-time also. She's doing work among the needy."
27:42 He looked me square in the eye, you know. Not kidding. He said, "Your wife is not full-time. She's a social
27:49 worker." Wow. I tell you, I must admit, part of me just wanted to go and punch him in the face. Pastor or no? You see, there's
27:57 this thing of saying if you're a preacher, a pastor, the work, you're there. No, you're doing social work. Why? You're helping drugs. You're doing
28:03 all the you're down here. We are more important. You're not so important. You're down there.
28:10 I mean what has happened here is that once you do that you create a closet Christianity a Christianity that
28:17 concentrates on the middle class. If five people drown outside in clang river
28:22 it will be all over the press. If 500 refugees drown outside the Arabian Sea
28:28 none of us will bother because we have a closet mindset. We are saying our people
28:34 here matter. people from Syria crossing the border who die we don't care you see
28:40 evangelical Christianity has created that let me give you the liberal position the liberal position is the
28:47 opposite is basically saying the ministry of mercy and social justice is
28:52 the only legitimate function position A or B social concern is the most
28:57 important function evangelism is part of the mission so what people do is they t say okay we do position C social
29:04 function and evangelism de and word are equal. This why you call a political answer
29:10 both the same. But how do you work it out? Let me go back again to YMCA. You see, here's what
29:17 YMCA's problem was. It started off with this. They'll do work like Bible study
29:24 and they'll do sports. They are both equally important. Guess what is easier to do? Boxing or
29:31 Bible study? Guess who will draw more crowds? Boxing or Bible study? Of course, boxing. Who
29:39 wants to go to Bible study when you can do sports? So once you split it, one
29:45 will compete with the other. Evangelism will compete with good deeds. Now let me
29:51 tell you how it slides. You know this is the original logo. The logo was modified
29:57 to say John 17:21. Then they started to put in the word spirit, mind and body.
30:03 Along the way, spirit, mind and body became holistic. Then the Bible got
30:09 removed. But spirit, mind, and body remained. After a while, spirit, mind,
30:15 and body also got removed. It just became YMCA. And from that, it became
30:20 this. You see the way it moves. And people have tracked this. You know, you
30:26 see it's a salami effect. You slowly slice and slice along the way, someone
30:31 in the ball will just say, "You know what? Let's not be so pushy on this Bible study. They're not coming for the classes." And before you know it, you
30:39 become totally secular. I pulled this off from their web page. You know, this is fresh off two days ago. You just read
30:45 it completely. Not one word of faith is completely secular.
30:52 The website tells you we are Christian organization. The entire content is secular.
30:57 So it starts very slowly and subtly moves. So how do we find a balance
31:03 between evangelism or the gospel if and the good news and good deeds? And I want
31:10 to go back to this text. This is the key text. This text tells us God has a plan
31:17 beyond saving you from your sin. That's part of it. Now let's track this from Jesus. Let
31:24 me give you three cases. Once the case of the expert in the law tried to trap Jesus and what we
31:29 understand this is the story of the good Samaritan but what we forget was his original question. You know his original
31:34 question was what must I do to inherit eternal life? He's asking the gospel
31:40 what can I do to be saved? Jesus doesn't tell him to repent. Jesus tells you what show mercy. I give you another example.
31:48 The case of rich young man. Same question. What good things must I do to get eternal life? It's about salvation.
31:55 What does Jesus tell him? Give to the poor. In Zakius what does Zakius do? He
32:01 says I'm going to help the poor. What did Jesus tells him? Salvation has come.
32:07 I can give you a lot more examples, but what you will notice is the kingdom of
32:13 God with Jesus preaches and the gospel are the same thing. They do not
32:18 separate. And Tim Keller puts it this way. Doing good is the gospel. To say
32:24 that social concern could be done independently of evangelism is to cut
32:30 mercy loose from kingdom and devil. And and Keller tells you the gospel is
32:36 beyond the cross saving you alone for your sins. You are safe to do what? To
32:43 do kingdom works. It must then I will it must then wither. Now here the two
32:49 extremes to say that evangelism can be done without any social concern is to
32:54 forget that our goal is not individual decisions but the bringing of all life
33:00 and creation under the lordship of Christ the kingdom of God. And you will
33:06 see a logo of the boy's brigade there. Why? Last yesterday Richard preached on this
33:13 really interesting sermon and Richard preached on the anchor and here's an organization one thing I
33:20 think the logo never changed that's a good sign can ask the officers I don't really maybe maybe one of the officers
33:26 can tell me but look at the center of the logo boys brigade he has the cross
33:32 he has the anchor you know what they're telling you no matter what we do in a uniform body we are anchored in the word
33:38 of God and you go the boys brigade. They march, they do exercises exactly like
33:45 the Boy Scouts, but there's a big difference. They do that and they do
33:50 Bible study and the two go hand in hand. And yesterday, Richard was a chaplain and what he did was very interesting.
33:57 Every time someone came up to get a medal or or one of those things, he asked, "Are you following Christ?"
34:03 No. Are you doing this for God? So this is where the moment we split good deeds
34:10 from the gospel, it will be a competition. The moment you see it as part of one, it will always be your
34:17 goal. Now I want to show you how this is being applied. Okay? And he gives us a
34:22 template. The template is found in the last verse. And there are three lines here. One, we have opportunity. Two, do
34:29 good to all. And three, prioritize the family believers. And let me just break
34:34 it down. one as we have opportunity. How do we explain this? John Wesley does
34:41 it the best. Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways
34:46 you can in all the places you can in all the times you can to all the people you
34:52 can as long as ever you can. I think it's important especially if you're very
34:57 busy. I'm in a very busy season of my life. I want to explain why this is so important to me because this has really
35:03 helped me. John Wesley, by the way, one of the most famous evangelist, you know, when he died, you know what he left
35:09 behind? He left behind his coat and a few silver spoons. He gave he gave everything away. But this is interesting
35:16 for I want you to pick this up. Okay, we'll come back to this later. But what Resley is telling you from what Paul is,
35:23 no matter how busy you are, you can always fit doing good in
35:29 especially all you corporate people. I'm talking about myself because it's all about planning. You see, what do I like
35:36 to tell people? No time. I'm too busy. It's not that you're too
35:41 busy. Your heart is not right. Your heart is not willing. I want to show you
35:46 how even if you only got 5, 10 minutes, 50 minutes, you always have time. Like Wesley said, do all the good you can,
35:53 all the ways you can all the time you can. You can always find a time if the heart must start out of right. Secondly,
36:00 he says to all people. Now this is interesting and I want to revisit the
36:06 parable of the good Samaritan. Everyone knows it but sometime we forget a bit of little details. You see the good
36:11 Samaritan story is like this. The teacher asks Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" You know what Jesus does?
36:18 Jesus turns the table and says, "Who has been a neighbor to you?" And who has
36:23 been a neighbor to him, a Jew, a Samaritan? That's very insulting. You
36:28 know, let me explain it to you in normal everyday English.
36:34 You see, a Samaritan is like a half Jew. That means the Jews think they're better than the Samaritans. They hate the
36:40 Gentiles the worst, the Samaritans less. But like they look down Samaritans. So let
36:46 me give you a normal rendition contemporary rendition of the good Samaritan. Once upon a time uh some
36:53 person from FBC was walking to church. Then this motorcycle fellow come and wall up him and threw him into the long
36:59 gang. A preacher with long hair walked by and saw him and say bless you my son.
37:05 I got to preach today in church so I got no time. Then he walked off. No names mentioned.
37:11 Another person in church who was very active saw him say wow wow this one look a lot of work I cannot I will pray for
37:18 you walked away and then a African student
37:25 from Lafit came by and this African student
37:32 saw this Chinese man in the drain and this African student picked up the
37:39 Chinese man and took him to Sububang Medical Center and this African student
37:44 who could barely pay his bills took some money out and said, "Can you take care of him?" That is the way the story is
37:52 supposed to push to them. Tell a Jew the Samaritan helps you, you will set his
37:58 hair on fire. But that's the way the story is meant to gut you in. You see,
38:03 you see our neighbor means everyone. So if brother Yedian says put out your
38:10 hand and hold the guy next to you, you don't care whether the guy next to you
38:16 is African, Indian, disabled, a prostitute, you hold his hand. That is
38:23 Ephesians chapter 3. The idea is that whether you're Jew or
38:30 Gentile, male or female, African or Chinese, you
38:36 are God's people. all men all of us and it's difficult for
38:42 us to do that now this what happens when you don't have this kind of thing so let me tell you a simple example
38:49 this guy puts out his hand the African students puts out a hand because the brother Gian says hold my hand this
38:55 Chinese fellow actually don't want to hold a hand on let's be honest he don't want to hold after yeah hold
39:03 this African w you hold me like I got disease you Correct. The the Chinese fellow holding
39:10 you like that. Now what will happen after that? The Africa say you Chinese very racist.
39:15 You're so hypocritical. The Chinese fellow say ah things quickly let me go.
39:21 But you see the lesson for us is number one for you as a Chinese as a majority rac
39:28 you're socially discriminated and then you don't want to hold hands of African. Come on a hypocrisy.
39:33 Okay you can't do that. But for the Africans or anyone you need to show grace because I tell I I tell you Chinese all races middle kingdom
39:39 mentality got to show grace and this how we move together all nations all people
39:45 and lastly he tells you to those who belong to the family believers why why the family believers simple reason
39:52 because if you don't do it who's going to do it I had a friend who was a contractor
40:00 he were doing all the clubs you know in town KTV
40:05 these clubs are the the the rooms are got no mirror one you know when he becomes a Christian he has a struggle
40:13 whether he should stop doing this business if he takes away this business
40:18 he cannot make money who's going to give him business only the Christians will
40:24 you follow where I'm going with this you don't support your Christian brother and sisters the world will not support
40:30 whether is a burning church in Iraq or Pakistanis who are persecuted or
40:36 brethren in our midst who make us stand for the gospel and suffer financially.
40:42 This is your mandate and our mandate because we are called to the family of
40:48 God. So now let me give you a practical application and I'm going to close. Okay. Application one. First thing you
40:56 do doing good with acts of mercy you identify people goods people people
41:02 groups now if you look at the poor or those who are disfranchised the Bible has a whole range of it if you break it
41:09 down it's a lot you know it's a lot this is after Keller's book Keller wrote a
41:14 fantastic book on this you find that which you feel you are best suited to do
41:23 after that what you do you plan a Project number one, match your proposed
41:28 people group, your time, your talent, finances and other resources.
41:34 Evaluate. You could do it. There are many ways to do it. Either yourself or with your family or with friends or your
41:41 church or parurch group like me and my wife, we do a bit of hospitality. That's something we do on a site. So, you could
41:46 do it many ways and participate with the principles of sewing and reaping. Third,
41:54 you must do long-term. You know a very old saying, it says when you give a person a fish, you feed the
42:00 person for a day, you teach a person to fish, you feed that person for a lifetime. That is a Chinese saying. Let
42:07 me tell you, it's rubbish. I tell you, it's rubbish. And this is why Ron Cider says, he says, you live in a real world
42:14 where the fish pawns are old and controlled by small groups of powerful
42:19 wealthy persons. If one to fish for a lifetime, one must have a share in the
42:25 fish pond. It goes beyond teaching the guy to fish. There's value in it. You must go beyond that. So, you must have a
42:31 long-term goal. And he gives you three ways of doing it. Relief,
42:37 taking care of immediate needs. Food, shelter. They call this giving a fish stage. Development. That means what you
42:43 do is sustainable, is trainable, is transferable. Teach a guy a fish stage. And lastly is
42:50 structural. You must be in a position to effect change in political, legal and
42:55 economic policies. This is a stake in the fish pond stage and is quite widely
43:00 adapted by many mission agencies. The Malaysian care adopt this. Keller also has the same thing in city church. I
43:07 going to tell you how this is worked out and how each one of us, every one of you here can play a role in this. Okay.
43:16 Now before I do that, I just give you some examples because I want to answer one of uh uh Eden's question. Last week
43:22 Eden asked, if a beggar come, should you give money? I must admit, I will debate with him. I
43:28 won't give. I will be honest with you. I'm not going to fault a guy for giving.
43:33 Why? Because the issue is not whether you give or don't give or whether the debate is you give you encourage uh uh
43:40 uh people to to set up industry to know like in India they cut off hands and legs and all of that. The issue is what
43:47 do you do after you give that is the issue. So I I I was in Cambodia recently
43:52 you know let me tell a bit of my own struggles. I travel a lot nowadays. Not that I want to. I I I just happened the
43:57 season. I travel every two weeks. I'm in KK. We just secured a small job in Cambodia, which is worse. Now I got to
44:03 travel to Cambodia a few times or so. And one day we saw a beggar. I saw a bagger in in we were in the car and I
44:09 wanted to give some Cambodian real. And they lectured me against it. And they said don't give. I said why poor. Then
44:16 turn the corner. You know who were the people sending the kids out to what it was? The mothers. You know, I saw three
44:21 mothers there. They sending the kids out to back. And then the client tells me because the client is a shopping mall. I
44:26 say we can't even get cleaners for our mall and these guys want to back. So I ask a question, how much does a cleaner
44:33 make? You see understand it's a vicious circle. You know why they rather back? Because they make more money than the
44:39 cleaner. My driver in pen makes so little. You
44:45 know they cannot survive. And when I was in Malaysian care, people who are
44:50 destitute feel hopeless. So you take a beggar, you make him to be a cleaner, he has no dignity.
44:57 The cleaner can't support his family, so he's going to go back and beg. It's a vicious circle. So the issue isn't about
45:03 whether you want to give $2 or $10 to the beggar. The issue is what happens after that. And we are called to
45:10 long-term goals. Why? Because we are called to share the good news. It's a
45:17 plan. It begins with good deeds or it's part of good deeds. It leads to the gospel. So let me tell you my own story.
45:25 I travel every two weeks. One point cannot hunt. I was teaching beta. What they cannot take it because I flew back
45:31 on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning and Wednesday night I let beta I felt sick. So nowadays I'll be honest I don't
45:37 serve much. I I I teach a bit. My wife serves much more. She's really the better Christian. I only come and talk.
45:43 Talkers are no point. So I prayed. I said Lord I travel so much. God open the
45:48 door. So this is my site taken from my ka block. There's a kongi there. One day
45:55 of all people Roomba calls me. She met me only once in this church once only
46:00 you know and she happened to be in KK. She saw my name on the project signboard. She say an we have a city
46:08 ministry doing kindergartens exactly the same like the rural and we reach out to Sulu
46:13 kids. Suluk kids are illegal immigrants who are all in the kungi. Can you help?
46:19 So I went into the Kungi. It's true. Law illegals there, very terrible conditions
46:25 and the kids not get out. They have no education. So we prayed with the project managers.
46:31 We spoke to the client and we built our own city kindergarten.
46:37 This is our city kindergarten. It's sustainable. Architects like to be sustainable.
46:43 We we took things around. It's cross ventilated. Sorry architects. All these strange ideas. Okay. Uh, we put a fish
46:49 pond in front and last week we opened it. I don't want to claim credit for this. I
46:55 did very little. We worked the developer was really pushing it. I I I I confess to financing this. Okay? And we want to
47:02 do this because we have a plan. We want to replicate this in every kungi where we can in KK. Now, what I'm trying to
47:09 tell you is that you don't need to be an architect. You know you can be in HR,
47:14 you can be a palm oil guy, you can be accountant, you can be a teacher, you can be a cook, but you have skills. At
47:22 every point your life, God will lead you to a certain place where you can do something. All I did was Roomba called
47:27 me. I just called the developer. I said, "Can we go to the Kungi?" We went to the Kungi and I said, "Look, why don't we
47:33 use this area?" And then he started from there. A friend of mine is in Gamuda. I will
47:39 tell you his HR. He was moved by the plight of people with special needs. Gamuda now is the only organization, one
47:47 developer who has a structure to take in people with special needs. I know that because I was at a board meeting
47:52 Malaysian Care one month ago and they commended Gammuda for that. The chicken rice shop is run by Gig. She's a
47:58 Christian from West Methodist. They hire people with special needs. you every one of you in where you are you have you're
48:05 empowered to do something do not say you can't do this was a small task in my
48:12 spare time I help Malaysian care because I'm so busy so what we do we build something in ka and what we do here we
48:19 are doing this to actually help the natives cut off the middleman they are going to grow vanilla which is a better
48:25 crop so they can sell and who do I get involved to do this these drawings were done by Michael Kina from Ghana get this
48:31 African student helping me doing things in Ka. God has his own plans.
48:37 And you know what happened when we doing this? When we want to land our site that was next to the national uh uh uh uh uh
48:44 what do you call it? The national service camp and they came and complained and they went to tell Majis
48:50 and Majis told me you build anything on there which is Christian I'm going to tear it down. So let me tell you about
48:56 these plans. These plans are completely illegal. No building plan approval. So
49:03 why does that tell you? That's why I tell you when you talk about work, it goes from relief to development to
49:08 structure. So what do we do? Yongun goes to E is jal and lobies and tells is jal
49:14 you tell these maj people you don't come and catch us. So Majistan put Malaysia
49:20 style. So we build we don't care the don't want to be into religious h. So
49:25 you see doing good is in stages. is beyond taking $2 to give a beggar in
49:34 China or Philippines or Cambodia is thinking whether you can pull him out of
49:39 that into a better livelihood and along the way share the gospel. One of that
49:46 building there is a chapel cannot tell you all my players say is do tree it's a
49:51 chapel. So let me end with this and I want to just challenge you uh with the words of
49:58 Francis Chan. Okay. Francis Chan made tons of money. His book uh you know
50:05 crazy love so so much he has given away apparently more than 2 million to charities.
50:12 Uh last year he is 20th wedding anniversary. Uh the San Francisco Globe
50:19 picked this up. Francis Chan, a wife celebrates the anniversary by helping in East Africa. And he says this, instead
50:26 of going to the tropics to bass in the sun, the couple flew to East Africa to serve in the ministry and help those in
50:32 the need. And it it doesn't matter whether it's a Chinese guy helping an African ministry or African helping
50:39 someone in Malaysia. Okay? But he left me with these words which I want to challenge you as closing and it it is
50:45 one of the greatest uh slogans I heard. He says this, "Christians are like
50:50 manure." I love this. Spread them out. They help everything
50:55 grow better. Keep them in one big pile. They stink horribly.
51:02 Isn't that fantastic? So, we sitting out here. Don't stink. Go
51:08 out. Go out. God has called you where you are in your job, at home, in your
51:16 church. And my challenge to you today is you pray and don't say no time, got
51:23 time. Just plan God will open your door.
51:28 Don't think, go and do good. Shall we pray? And can I ask the worship team up?
51:35 Lord, uh we'd like to thank you for this morning. We ask that you just impress upon our hearts that what doing good is
51:42 that doing good is really about sowing and reaping. That we cannot separate a
51:48 person's spiritual needs from his physical needs. That we are both people
51:53 of bodily needs and spiritual needs. We are body and soul. The ministries of
51:59 deed and ministries of word are the same thing. They are the gospel. For the aim
52:06 of the gospel is to bring all things into the kingdom of God. And when we do
52:11 that, Lord, we show people around us the power of your love.
52:18 The power of your love that transforms lives to lift people out of the gutter
52:24 into a relationship with you and to better their lives. For one day when we get to heaven, there will be no more
52:30 tears, no more suffering, no more poverty. we will be enjoying you forever
52:36 for the old things have passed away. We say this in Jesus name. Amen. I want us to sing this song. It's really old. It's
52:43 20 years old. I think it's called the power of love. The guy who wrote this uh
52:48 uh Jeff Block got divorced after the song went into depression.
52:54 Uh but the song itself uh is really powerful. Peter had just
53:00 asked me to remind you next week I'm not speaking. Uh Anthony Casey speaking. Okay. Can we have the words of this song
53:07 up and and I pray that that God this morning impress upon you that it is our
53:12 duty to do something good in our lives. Shall we stand and and and let our heart
53:17 be changed and may God's love just move us to do good.
