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00:00:00 today's scripture reading is taken from the book of Matthews CH 21: 18-32 early in the morning as Jesus was on his way back to the city he was hungry seeing a fig tree by the road he went out to it but found nothing on it except leaves then he said to it may you never bear fruit again immediately the tree withered when his disciples saw this they were amazed how did the Fig Tree wither so quickly they asked Jesus replied truly I tell you if you have faith and do not doubt not only can you do what was done to the viig tree but
00:00:39 also you can say to the mountain go throw yourself into the sea and it will be done if you believe you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer Jesus entered the temple courts and while he was teaching the chief priests and the Elders of the people came to him by what Authority are you doing these things they asked and who gave you this authority Jesus replied I will also ask you one question if you answer me I will tell you by what Authority I am doing these things John's baptism where did it come from was it
00:01:17 from heaven or of human origin they discussed it among themselves and said if we say from Heaven he will ask then why didn't you believe him but if we say of human origin we are afraid of the people for they all hold that John was a prophet so they answered Jesus we don't know then he said neither will I tell you by what Authority I am doing these things what do you think there was a man who had two sons he went to the first and said Son go and work today in a Vineyard I will not he answered but
00:01:59 later he changed his mind and went then the father went out to the other son and said the same thing he answered I will sir but he did not go which of the two did what his father wanted the first they answered Jesus said to them truly I tell you the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you for John came to you and show you the way of righteousness and you did not believe him but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did and even after you saw this you did not
00:02:32 repent and believe him this is the word of God good morning FBC thank you for welc coming back all right uh let's do a quick prayer before I start father we thank you for today Lord for bringing us here to hear your word Lord Lord pray that you help us to have our entive ears to hear your word and not just to hear and listen but to really to to walk in your ways and to to follow you and Obey you as well thank you for all this in Jesus name pray amen it's such a joy to be back here um my kids are actually still um one of them
00:03:18 is actually just four years old and therefore I've been at home attending YouTube uh uh live St or for all this well June will be coming back already but I just want to share you guys it's such a great joy to hear you sing uh to hear your voice to hear you sing in unison Worship in this go to this God that we have it's a privilege and is a it's something that's very very special so really thank God for that as well right now friends today as we come to time sermon we talking about Jesus and the accountability of Israel right so uh
00:03:50 thank you for Amanda for reading the scripture just now and so uh what we want to do is to look at what is this thing about accountability of Israel and if you read it the passage is bit funny so let me just uh unpack it for you first thing is when you talk about Jesus if I mention the word Jesus what comes into your mind perhaps you think that you know Jesus oh such an amazing person amazing God you know he's good he does everything that is good he's always here to bless us so maybe when you think
00:04:21 about Jesus Jesus is the one that gives me the job promotion one to get a career to get somewhere to go for this is what Jesus will do Jesus will bless me or person will say that Jesus give me good health for those of you who are not feeling well you believe that Jesus will heal you or some of us say that we want relationships we want friends we want you know signant other all that and we want Jesus to bless us with all this or maybe for some of you you said that yeah Jesus will bless you for some other
00:04:48 stuff for studies for those of you still studying and that is our view of Jesus A lot of times right but this passage start we look at the cursing of Victory is something that is an anomaly is something that is out of the extra ordinary this is actually the [Music] only example of uh passage whereby Jesus actually did something that was not uh lifegiving uh supposedly so if you see when we talk about Jesus really this passage sums it up Jesus is coming to reverse the curse of the Fall so over at
00:05:20 John 11 it says I am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and Believes In Me shall never die do you believe this when we talk about Jesus we believe that he's here to save us to help us to bless us then my question is why why did Jesus curse the Fig Tree because he's very hungry is it so hungry men very scar even Jesus when is hungry you do something like that so is that a lesson for today Jesus is very hungry and therefore he curse the viig tree
00:05:51 therefore make sure that you have food for FC all the time after sermons is that how it's supposed to be right so we see over here in the story it says that early in the morning Jesus actually uh was coming back from the city he was hungry and he saw a fig tree he wanted to eat something he look at the Fig Tree he found nothing and so he said may you never bear fruit again immedately the tree Beed that is the context we have and so let me explain to you what is the Fig Tree and how it is over here I don't
00:06:19 think the Fig Tre is here I'm not really a PL person but this is how a fig tree looks like right this is how a fig tree looks like very big tree over there and so from Far Jesus saw this one fig tree Tre and he walked closer to it so when you see trees like this what he was expecting is he was expecting there were fruits if you read the passage in Mark is even more uh um uh confusing why because in the passage of Mark it says it's not even the season for fix it's not even a season for fix and yet he is
00:06:46 asking for fruits what is it what's what's the reason the answer is first thing before before I go even deeper to it the first thing is the Fi Tree represents Israel if you read the Bible from Old Testament always when you talk about fig tree talk about fix it's always talking about Israel it's always talking about God's people how they behave what they expect to do and that so first thing to understand is the Fig Tree is actually a a lesson that Jesus is trying to enact for us where by the fake tree is Israel what is Israel doing
00:07:13 over here the tree actually shows there lot of there's a lot of leaves there's a lot of growth there's a lot of growth there's a lot of things happening with it it looks good it looks strong it looks healthy but what happened is there's no fruit there's no fruit on the tree now and when say there's no it's not in the season of fig tree actually what happen is if you I did some research for for this fig tree and apparently fig trees normally have two seasons and also for the previous year's winter season when all the leaves are
00:07:43 gone when the new shoots come out there will always be tiny little fix that will come up together which means that if you have leaves you expected to always have fix and these leaves are actually from the mature branches which also means that the leaders of Israel God is expecting that there's something coming out from them there should be fruit you know God you have the Bible God walk with you through Exodus to coming out from Egypt and all these things happen and God is expecting that there's fruit
00:08:11 okay there's fruit there supposed to be something com coming out from them and yet there's no fruit so therefore the the first lesson that we have for today is Jesus a follow of Jesus will bear fruit Jesus expects us to bear fruit that's first thing to know we expected to bear fruit if we know God we should actually have fruit in our lives now uh uh the Adams actually shared a lot during the uh Easter period About The Temper ready how the temple was not effective was not fulfilling His function and was being misused and the
00:08:43 Gentiles were being trampled upon all this so I'm going to cover more with you but in short Israel as a whole has not been bearing fruit if you look at the Covenant that God has with them the abrahamic Covenant the Mosaic Covenant over here what God promised to uh Israel was also now if you obey me and fully keep my command my Covenant then out of all Nations you will be my treasure possession although the whole earth is mine you be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation there was a function a
00:09:15 role for Israel they're supposed to do something right they're supposed to actually be God's light be God's people to actually show God and to actually spread the gospel and let people know about him they let people turn from the Wicked Ways and come to God that was their role yeah so what were the leaders doing then if you look at Israel at the time what were the leaders doing at the time all of us know that you they were under the Roman occupation which means that Romans were in control of Israel so
00:09:44 what were the leaders doing so the whole Israel can be separated into four main groups the first one is the sedes right the sedes the second one is the Pharisees third one is the Asin and the last one is the zealots if you talk at the entire you talk about the entire Israel these are the leaders right so we're talking about people who actually know God they are following God these people they are not someone who doesn't know God they actually the leaders who know God who know the the Torah they know the Bible and they
00:10:15 follow God we don't we're not talking about the sinful part of the people the common people these are leaders what were they doing when Jesus was in on on Earth what was happening so let's look look at them one by one and try to get some lessons from them the first one the sedes who are the sedes let's learn together the SES number one is the first thing you know is they're conser conservative wealthy and political align these are people that were chosen by the Romans to actually be the leaders of
00:10:44 Israel they control the Temple and so these people are wealthy they were Rich so if I were to compare with our current modern day times that people with political power um they are in some political party and they actually enjoy a lot of things because they are incl to the Romans so they make sure that Israel actually TOS a line all right and make sure that everybody follows uh what the Romans say so what they have is they actually have political power they disregard the prophets they only believe
00:11:12 in the Torah the first five books of the Bible and what they like is they like stability they like stability and they benefit from Temple because for all the temple taxes 10% they actually get that they benefit from all this and they do not believe in Resurrection and they believe that God rewards and punishes in this life so they don't believe that uh if you do something bad when you die God is going to punish you because it's nor afterlife for them this is life already so they believe that if you're good God
00:11:39 will bless you now now when you on Earth God will bless you already so these are the SES they are particular align and they are having a very wonderful time were they bearing fruit were they trying to actually of obey God and trying to be God's uh light of the world no they're not what they are concerned about more are the Privileges they have okay they more concerned about the Privileges and instead of the people's welfare they're not concerned about that so to compare with our modern days perhaps do we have
00:12:11 modern sedes now are there modern sedes answer is perhaps we don't see them like that but some of us even in our in our own lives we see things like this we have actually been living like this for example if you're modern sty maybe this is how you talk this is how the world Works people tell you you know there's something bad there or your company your boss tells you you must do this and therefore can get a promotion after that right you you compromise a bit help me passes envelope to the client you go for
00:12:40 CTV with them after that then can close the deal the way you respond is this is how the world works I'm a Christian I know but you know this is how the work we need to compromise we need to actually be able to live together in this world that's I need to do it right or maybe the next one Don't Rock the Boat okay nominal Christianity is best actually I just need to follow and comply with the rules I come to church I do all my stuff but just be okay don't ask for anything new I just want it to be the same all the time right come to
00:13:08 church on Sundays do pay my ties you know uh that's about I pray and that's it that's how we live our lives or maybe the other thing that we say is I choose the church that gives me the most benefits I choose the church that gives me the most benefits so modern Services when they look for churches they look for those that can give them benefit right what can I get when I come to FBC see why should I go to the other Church where there's a lot of rich people I go there I can actually get some connection
00:13:36 you know I come to when I was young we so that we go to church why you know some people move from Chinese Church to English church because why they say I can go and learn English there you know right people do that and but when you grow older you don't do that maybe say I go to church connection you know over there that developer I know one okay better go there you know so why don't I do two things together I worship God and I make friends together and win-win you know I want a comfortable life that's
00:13:59 what a sedy do or they all ask this question how do I serve God if I'm not successful I've heard of a Christian friend who actually ask this question he said hey God you don't want my tax man you want me to pay you tax right you must bless me right if you don't bless me how can I how can I actually not how can I pay my ties so the context was his business was not doing well and his response is God you must bless me otherwise how do I actually pay my ties and per for all of us this is what we do a transaction that
00:14:30 we see over here that's a modern sty for you now next one God prospers those who serve him this the belief they have so that is a sety they are comfortable they more con their own privilege instead of what's happening to other people the concern never about others but about themselves so first thing is no don't do this right don't think that this is how it's supposed to be so this is not suppos to be the way we live next one Pharisees who are the Pharisees actually the pH Pharisees are more upright
00:15:00 they're better than the sades you know why were the S why were the Pharisees actually created the name Pharisees actually mean the separated ones they are the ones who separated separated from what it means that they are actually the this group of people came out as a response to infiltration of multiculturalism which means that when the Greeks came when the Romans came they wanted to set themselves apart from the Sadducees they said sedes no good you know you see them they're like that they are together with the Romans
00:15:26 they're not good you know we are different we are speci we still follow God's word so they came out and for them it's something that they want to say that we follow God's word better than the SES they are common people they are not necessar rich people right they're common people and they control the synagogue the sades control the temple these people they control the synagogue but for them the biggest problem they have is they have the oral law and the written law so for all of us we have the Bible and we read the Bible
00:15:55 and we follow the Bible right if the Bible says this means it's correct yes or no said This is Gospel right you say this if the Bible says this you do but for them no they have the oral law they have the oral tradition which means that they believe that when Moses gave the written law Moses also gave the oral law on how to actually enact out the written law so the verbal things that that that was being passed out is actually even more important than written law and therefore a lot of times they don't
00:16:21 follow the word exactly the oral law is actually taking precedence at many many times but they are very religious people they're really religious they have seven hours of prayer right anyone pray seven hours no I don't pray seven hours right and they do their ties as well they do their tithes and they are the ones who are waiting for the Messiah they are waiting for the Messiah you know but what's the issue they have right is there fruit answer is no there's no fruit as well God is expecting fruit from the leaders but
00:16:54 there's no fruit why because for them they are very busy following the law following the law in the sense that letting people see that I follow they want people to say that I'm good right I'm good I actually I'm a holy person but their heart deep down inside they are actually their heart is far away from God now in Matthew 23 they go much deeper in it so I'm not going to cover too much with it but a few things for you to understand why what's the problem with Pharisee I was trying I keep on trying to understand what why is Jesus
00:17:22 so angry at Pharisee and this is a good example to to share with you in Mark 3: 1 to 4 over here what happened was Jesus was Jesus went to the synagogue and he saw a man with a Sher hand right a man with a Sher hand the hand was actually uh sh and so the Pharisees when they saw it they wanted to find a way to catch Jesus and see whether he would actually heal during his Sabbath can you try to be in their shoes for them right when they see Jesus they don't care if they can do Miracles or not what they care
00:17:51 about is do you obey the law or not when you see someone with shiver hand God says you cannot work so do you keep the Sabbath or not that is a priority not about whether there whether there is a messiah whether someone is here to actually heal people they don't care about that and yet they waiting for messiah so for them can you see that there's a big gap over here how can you actually be waiting for the Messiah you see somebody that can actually do all these things right if you know the prophecies and yet you hold on to this
00:18:25 thing to say that you did not obey you didn't follow Sabbath and so therefore Jesus asked which is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil to save life or or to kill because the Crux of it is not just what the word says but what the word says but it's actually about the spirit behind it okay Sabbath is about needing to rest but we also need to love people and we try to help them whenever we can as well so they prioritize tradition over love they care more about whether people follow the tradition instead of they love people
00:19:01 the the Crux of the pH is God they believe that the god of Israel they believe that God is a god that is demanding constantly watching for errors the the view of God is basically somebody that wants to actually wants to make sure that you obey the law or not and if you actually want favor with God very simple obey the law if you obey the law God will actually favor you that is the main thing they have but there's one a saying I found online and I just paraphrase it for you over here why the Pharisees couldn't understand couldn't
00:19:35 really see the gospel because for them they believe something that is wrong actually a Christian a follower of Jesus or follow follow of God isn't someone who does not do anything wrong being a Christian doesn't mean that you do not do anything wrong being Christian actually means that a Christian is someone who always tries to do the right thing we are not coming into faith into knowing that oh to go to Heaven There are 10 things you cannot do in life you don't do it h you don't do it then you
00:20:03 can go to heaven that's not the main goal of chrisan it's actually about learning to do the right thing turning changing our ways that is what we are supposed to be doing but Pharisees don't get it how about modern day Pharisees modern day Pharisees are for example like this I say my siners prayer I attend FBC very good church you know attend FBC I pay my tithes and I read the Bible therefore I'm a Christian and I deserve Heaven if I do what I need I deserve Heaven that's what a Pharisee would think about you would think about
00:20:39 whether actually when aside from going to church when I exit the church when I go to work do I actually follow God's word or not do I actually try to love my neighbor or not I know my neighbor for example is uh maybe alone and maybe they need some help do I try to talk to them when I go home and I drive my car into the house do I actually look at my neighbor say hello or I just don't care L it's not I'm just here I just want to follow the law and that's it okay modern day Pharisees next one I'm a respectable
00:21:07 leader in church I serve you know right I preach you know therefore I'm better than all the Sinners who don't know God God loves me perhaps modern FY be thinking about that right I pay tax you know you don't know how much I pay you know but if you know then you know God really loves me perap that's what we think about yeah oh next one I see many Christians who always sin FBC should expel them actually I don't know why they're here you all the Sinners and arold keeps on bringing more and more Sinners into the church I don't know why
00:21:39 he wants over here don't he know doesn't he know that we are actually different we are better than all the other churches around subang know we are different one right so for this a lot of times they just feel that they didn't obey the law they don't care about others again there's no fruit there's no fruit there's no life change for them is just me it's just all about me yeah so don't do this next zealots so uh there's this U TV series called The Chosen have you heard watch it before yeah quite nice H
00:22:10 right so this is actually a scene from there so in Jos I learned about this people called the zealots as well right the zealots who are these zealots the zealots are these people who have a nationalistic agenda so if you read your history in Malaysia B these are people who try to overthrow the government for them religion and nationalist agenda is together for them God blessing us means that we must be in power we want power we want to take over the country so for them they care about over throwing the
00:22:39 Romans with whatever means necessary and in the story I think what happened is these people they call a zikar they actually learn to use a dagger okay they have a dagger and they use it to asinate people some people said these are terrorists in a way can say so because they do not obey the government and they're trying to overthrow the government so this is what they do they agree to use violence they can kill Romans they can even kill Jews people who do not follow the agenda can be killed they agree to it and they expect
00:23:07 the Messiah to come but the Messiah in the view is somebody that's a military leader somebody can help them to take back power from the Romans so what they've done the problem they have is they've hijacked faith God is just a means to an end God means giving me back my country right they love God you know they love God but for them basically it's all about can I get back my country can I get back Israel I don't want Romans around and maybe for us sometimes we are like that also so modern day Sal
00:23:36 let's take a together God needs my help to take over the world some of us may be thinking like this um we can't just sit still you know all these Christians are every come to church all what you know every they just pray only I take action you know know I go for birthday rally you know ah I I do something I I make sure that whatever I do outside I actually make sure that I try to bring God wherever I go I want to dominate all the Spheres in the world I want to dominate the world okay for God my
00:24:07 non-Christian colleagues are sinners many of them are sinners and they are not worthy of the Gospel so I don't have dealings with them because like the Romans you know they are they are third class fourth class citizen I don't want to deal with them one yeah so I'm Different I just want to bring the Christian Community Kingdom on to Earth Christians should win in all aspects of Life against non-Christian that's called Victorious living perhap some of us have this belief that being a Christian means that we will live
00:24:35 victoriously yes or no okay we're supposed to live victoriously right so for zealots they have this belief as well if Romans are in occupation something is wrong we need to come and take over this is what the modern day Ze may think about again this is not what the Bible is about Jesus did not come for all this I'll summarize for you to see later right and the final one is as this group is actually one of the best groups of all the leaders in Israel what do they do they actually a monastic uh Community they leave a part they stay in
00:25:08 the desert many of them stay in the desert and they focus on ritual Purity right they focus on rual Purity and they believe that the Sadducees and all these people the entire Temple is all corrupted the Romans are there and they try to live a life that's actually not connected to the society they want to be be outside they want stay in their own little bubble and just said you know the world is going to end really I'm going to stay here and be pure I'm good and right that's what they do uh they are a
00:25:35 lot they're very virtuous they have a lot of good values they share the common property right they believe the priest of Temple corrupted they do ritual baths uh the immersion and all that they for ritual Purity they do all this many of them are celebrate right they celebrate and they waiting for messiah so is there anything wrong with this view do you think anything is there anything of these leaders here they good people you know they obey the law they actually don't want to associate with the Romans they want to
00:26:03 be good what's wrong with them so if you look at the mosic Covenant again what is God asking Israel to do to be a blessing to Nations to be a kingdom of priest right a holy nation the problem with asins is they disengage from the world they're disengaged they do not want to influence they do not want to participate they do not love their neighbor they only want to be in their small the bubble and stay there because say that Romans too much I I don't do all this I I'm a part I'm different I'm special one so modern day
00:26:36 as I think many of us may be in this category as well I need to keep my children away from all the Sinners out there don't let them mix outside get them stay in Sunday school only okay as I run Sunday school tution and come home don't mix outside okay and our entire Christians our entire work Circle our colleagues only Christian you do business only do with Christian cuz Christians all owners you know Christians owners you work with them the non-Christian bad one we don't work with them perhaps some of us actually think
00:27:06 that right and we have this belief every day you read the news and the news is confirming this the world is going to end food prices are increasing yes know right oil prices increase not just crude oil the cooking oil also increase Price Right my wife wanted to buy cooking oil she said that the price increase about 30% everything's increased I went to buy fruits recently everything's increased so you know what the word going to end ready don't worry so much about let the world burn we stay in our little place
00:27:32 and wait for God to come back that's what the these people believe that we want to be here don't worry others just take care of ourselves only because they're all bad I'm good here following Jesus means going to church not sinning and that's all so again remember the saying I just mentioned to you a good Christian is not a person that does not do anything wrong right a good Christian is somebody that actually tries to do the right thing always it's not about just me it's about the the word is about
00:27:59 what I'm supposed to what God asked me to do so this is not right and so the second point we have today is we cannot bear fruit without first repenting the problem in all these four groups of leaders that we have is there's no repentance per se right they believe that they just follow their way right they are going the right path and that's it so I want to show you this passage over here Matthew 21 vers 25- 26 Jesus actually asked the Pharisees this question John's baptism where they come from was it from heaven or of human
00:28:33 origin reason was because the phes asked by what by whose authority are you here actually preaching right they trying to trap Jesus and Jesus actually asked back this question where did John's baptism come from was it from heaven or was it of human origin if Jesus were to ask you this question how will you answer the answer was basically they actually process it you know they say that if you say from heaven then they ask why believe him if you said that from human origin we worried the crowd will
00:29:02 actually be angry at us so for them they're not interested in the truth actually they're not interested in truth they're interested in power they interested in being on top they're not seeking the truth they're not therefore when the Messiah comes they cannot see it because for them I'm all okay what is John's baptism about is about repentance they do not see that they need they don't need they need to repent and therefore for them it's just some strange kind out there on the desert there's a lot of going there but I don't
00:29:29 know why I just want to make sure that I still have my power people still go to synagogue and people listen to me so but the repentance to understand repentance is at the heart of the Gospel repentance actually is at the heart of the Gospel if you look at every single time when someone new is being actually introduced in the gospel for example the first one John the Baptist what is his role is stated very clearly over there John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a Baptist ISM of repentance
00:30:00 for the Forgiveness of sins it's about repentance when Jesus took over when John the Baptist was actually uh in prison when Jesus took over the first passage they stated was from the time on Jesus began to preach repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near and when the disciples were being sent out by Jesus again it was it was said that they went out and preach that people should repent repentance is at the heart of the Gospel if you feel that there's not to depend on there's something wrong with
00:30:30 us over here and over here in verse 32 it says that for John came to to you to show you the way of righteousness and you did not believe him but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did and even after you saw this you did not repent and believe him the problem with Israel is they did not repent you need to have context of way to understand what is the context why were the Romans here why was Israel given to all the nations why were there Roman occupation the Greeks the Assyrians why did all these people come and occupy if the
00:31:04 Bible is always God allowing it God allowed suffering God allowed other nations to conquer them why because they were not falling anymore so pain and suffering from outside can be actually something that God uses to change people but what would the leaders focus on they focus on removing the pain there's no repentance they didn't look into how can I change did I do something wrong that's not what they focus on they just want to see can I remove the Romans so that is the second point the third one the cross
00:31:39 helps us to repent and bear fruit repenting is not something easy to say that we are wrong how can we see that we are wrong is something actually quite difficult to do right what is your bench to say that I'm wrong the answer is if you do not have God in your life it's very hard for you to know that you're wrong but when you see Jesus Jesus when we see the cross it helps us to know that we need to repent so the crown is men's way all these people they trying to find ways to solve the Roman occupation right some of them just wait
00:32:11 for the Messiah to come some of them take violence and take justice in their own hands some of them try to compromise some of them say that we just set apart we are the ones waiting for the afterlife but that is man's way but the cross is God's way of times when you look at it I was talking to peling just now and was saying that people nowadays we want to listen to a lot of leaders you go online many leaders will tell you different ways of prosperity different ways of good life they tell you buy
00:32:46 crypto they tell you buy certain stocks okay uh buy Sur dynamic they tell you all these different things how to be healthy the newest one I've learned is do cold shower you learn about keto diet learn about intermittent fasting there's all these different voices in the world telling you how to have a good life yeah there all these leaders out here telling you what you should do but nobody wants to listen to the voice of God nobody wants to listen to The only voice that matters and therefore Jesus Christ had
00:33:23 to come and die to show you the way and the way of the crown of getting power doesn't work because why a lot of times we say that the problem is outside the problem is not outside the problem is always inside the problem is inside us so when we see Christ when we see the cross it helps us to know two things one is we can aspire to say that we want to actually live for God and we don't want the always way we want to say goodbye to the old ways that is actually what we can do the crown will never give you
00:34:00 what you need only the cross can help you what fruit is Jesus looking for Jesus is looking for fruit which is repentance asking us to have both two two things actually one is emotional sorrow to say sorry for what we've done to feel remorse to feel regret but having emotion is not good enough many times as Christians we may feel sorry as who wants to believe in Jesus who feels sorry for what they do many of us raise our hands and say that yes I I believe I accept Christ I want to say sorry to God
00:34:32 but the second part is as important as the first one you will change your ways okay it's coupled with action to change repentance is not an emotion repentance is not an action repentance is both together you feel that you have done something wrong and you want to change and you will change that is repentance that is what God is asking us to do so if you want to solve the worst problem answer is solve our own problem the world is in is currenty because of us it's all because of us yeah so even you
00:35:05 know whether you repentant whether you repentant or not a quick test for you first question are you Christian are you Christian yes many of us say so you ask me my answer is yes or so Tim Keller give a very good example you know whether repented he said if you ask anyone are you a Christian he say of course I'm a Christian I come Toc all all the time of course I'm Christian but his answer was this a true Christian would actually say I find very surprising myself you know I find very surprising that God actually died for
00:35:37 me I don't know how I can deserve this but yeah it's true you know it's true I'm a Christian God actually accepts me that is a true repentant heart to see the cross to know that we are not worthy for it and yet you also see that and yet God wants to do it for us and yet God died for us that is a true Christian yeah next one how have I changed ever since I accepted Christ ask this question after being a Christian have you changed or not from the day you accept Christ and now have you changed but repentance is
00:36:11 not a one-time thing said last time I smoke now I don't smoke already very good that's not just what repentance is perhaps a better question is how have I changed to be more like Jesus last week how have I changed to be more like Jesus last week because repentance is a continuous process it's something you keep on needing to do every single day because we are not perfect and this is the part that we do this sanctification until the day that we meet the Lord Jesus Christ we need to do this repentance is an evergoing process and
00:36:44 so I want to give you a few examples of people who actually live a good life who actually produce fruit that God is looking for this is Timothy and KY Keller Tim Keller um I think he's uh recently in 2001 just announced I think his cancer is under control now so but if you look at these people they are actually amazing people they live a Godly life they obey God they preach for decades in and out of Seasons whether they're happy or not they preach the gospel and they engage society and all issues they don't stay
00:37:23 in their own little bubble and just try to take care of the congregation they make sure that you and you actually listen listen to his sermons I follow a lot on Spotify you see that he touches every single facet he not trying to just get people in he is and trying to be the S and light of the world they try to obey God in everything they do they planted Redeemer Presbyterian Church at the time when New York was actually at its worst there a lot of violence there were a lot of crimes uh they was
00:37:48 actually having this uh big cocaine addiction over there so New York wasn't a safe place and yet they decided to go over there and plant church over there right obeying God in whatever they can so this is example producing fruit in keeping with repentance when God ask us to go we go we live a holy life not just about spreading gospel it's about us changing the inside and maybe another one for you to see is this company called banard Crane and regain this is a US company and these guys are something
00:38:20 I cannot do so please don't ask me to do it for now at least right what they did was alen and Eric and their families they give 100% of their entire company to the Lord so you know we do Tiding every month 10% 10% they give the entire company to God so they Sil work in a company but they are staff so there are ways to do it you actually build a trust right you open a trust and the whole company is actually uh the shares is being transferred to the trust so they are they maintain as staff only right so they do that and
00:38:55 what they do is 50% of the company earnings are donated direct to charity the other 50% is used to grow the business and so uh I've checked all online so these are all Legend in fact there's a news uh website that should even uhu shared about it and so although they still run everything they they Faithfully do their work they are good stewards they do their work properly right to grow the business and do what they can but they actually don't get any extra benefit they not like big bosses over there which they can but they
00:39:24 decide to just be a steward because everything belongs to God now this is what he said when he was young and just got to know Christ he learned two things the first one is he said that I learned that everything I have and everything that I am comes from God and belongs to God and so I'm only a steward of it my job the most important part my job is to figure out what God wants me to do with the things he's given me none of it belongs to me the second one he realiz that I there is a very big fear of wealth for himself
00:40:02 he said that being successful is very tempting being successful is dangerous also so he wants to do a stewardship but he actually ties it away for those of you who have actually you know um you work for a while you it's true when your money things change when you have certain amount of money in the bank account you live differently com back to last time uh the way you live the way you do decision are totally different when I start out working I go and eat lunch I don't order drinks know why no money so people when the lady come and
00:40:38 see me she actually saying water right but as you grow older you earn big more money your bank has B money now you will spend more but the thing is is when you have money you have money actually is like power when you power the stewardship the decision responsibilities come even more important how will you act are you stewarding your whatever God is giving you correctly or are you like the S taking it for own Comfort or are you like Asin just staying my own little bubble over here but for them the
00:41:12 company has grown a lot it's grown from 10 employees to 1,000 employees okay uh the sales from 2 million to 400 million in Revenue 400 million not rupia you know dollars you know convert over his 1.6 billion a year you know you know how much money is and they can give the entire company to the Lord so I can do this but I just want to share with you how does following God look like but friends this is a tall order you know for many of us God isn't asking to do this do this now okay or maybe you don't
00:41:51 even need to do this in your entire life but many of us we do this in our small base we try to produce fruit we try to obey God if you repent automatically you will have fruit you don't force it because if you are actually the F tree right if you're alive if you have proper F tree you actually when you Liv you always have fruits you always have fruits that go together and friends we look at it over here that is what we need to do to really say that instead of looking to change the world and solve all the problem and come
00:42:27 coming to our own Utopia we are supposed to look in our own hearts and say what does God want me to do what does God H me to do you see Matthew the the Great Commission we asked to disciple others we asked to live a Godly life we asked to be the light of the world and one day God will come God will come right and so for all of us who are far from God maybe we are like the tax collectors we are like the prostitutes we are maybe even we are those who actually are leaders and we are like zealous like
00:43:06 Simon over here right but all these people you are not far from God the question is this when God offers you the invitation to accept him to return to repent do you say yes or not will you say yes I will obey I will change my ways or we say that oh uh yes I'll do it but actually we don't take action God wants us to not just have a emotional change which a lot of times we can easily have but God wants us to really change our lives get at the same time so the crown is man's way as we finish a sermon and as you go out for
00:43:45 your makan there'll be voices in the whole world coming to you we live in an echo chamber you open your Facebook you immediately you start seeing really they start to tell you a lot of things what is the next thing they should do how you should keep yourself healthy how to take care of your children how to prepare your children for the future there are million of voices telling you this is the way this is the way but all these ways you see are all the same it's always about the crown it's always about
00:44:14 how to make myself better but the only way that we can do is really God's way the cross is the only way and if the crown actually worked the cross would not have actually been here yeah so I like to invite the worship team for some response thank you brother John for the message um we're going to sing this uh response song uh is a song that I'm sure all of you are familiar with it's called The Heart Of Worship um I I think it's rather appropriate that brother John uh chose this song I think he gave a very
00:45:14 good reminder that sometimes we are so we sometimes we behave and we think like the four leaders out there um we are so occupied with the worldly things and we are so occupi with being the perfect Christian but really when we think about what is worship the Heart of Worship Is it's just Christ it's just Christ our savior Christ Our Lord Christ Our Redeemer and to live a repentant life for him amen so can I invite you to stand as we sing the song together [Music] when the music fa all is stripped
00:46:12 away and I simply [Music] come longing just to bring something that's a that will bless your [Music] heart I'll bring you more than a song for a song in itself is not what you have required you search much deeper with it through the way things appear you're looking into my heart [Music] I'm coming back to the Heart of Worship and it's all about you it's all about you Jesus I'm so Lord for the thing I've made it and it's all about you it's all about you Jesus [Music] king of endless words no one could
00:47:41 express how much [Music] you [Music] don't all I have is yours every single [Music] breath I'll bring you more than a song for a song in itself is not what you have [Applause] required you search much deeper with to the way things up here you're looking into my heart I'm coming back to the Heart of Worship and it's all about you it's all about you Jesus I'm sorry Lord for the I've made it when it's all about you it's all about you Jesus I'm coming back to the Heart of Worship and it's all about
00:49:05 you and it's all about you Jesus I'm sorry long for I made it when it's all about you it's all about we just have thees I'm coming back to the heart wor and it's all about you it's all about you Jesus I'm sorry love for the I made when it's all about you it's all about you Jesus you Lord please be seated
