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00:00:01 today's passage is taken from James chapter 2 verse 1-12 my brothers as Believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ don't show favoritism suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and F clothes and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in if you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say here's a good seat for you but say to the poor man you stand there or sit on the floor by my feet have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts listen my dear brothers has not
00:00:46 God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the Kingdom he promised those who love him but you have insulted the poor is it not the rich who are exploiting you are they not the ones are dragging you into court are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong if you really keep the Royal law found in scripture love your neighbor as yourself you are doing right but if you show favoritism you sin and are convicted by the law as
00:01:19 law breakers for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it for He Who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder if you do not commit adultery but do commit Mur you have become a law breaker speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives Freedom this is the word of the Lord thank you may God add a blessing to his word right this morning uh well uh the sermon is so long I have to break into two parts so following Arnold's uh example
00:02:12 we will preach again on the same topic next week so uh um get ready for that and uh William from the Brethren Church will be preaching to us starting our series on one John The Joy the knowledge of God and after that uh our own associate Elder John Lee will be dealing with the Enemy within uh John 1: 5-10 today's topic is basically uh knowing the heart of God why he chooses the poor is is God uh partial to the poor and then if you drive here with your Lexus God looks at you say you know what what's the whole deal
00:02:52 because it seems to be favoring the poor here so what is the whole issue here uh we are starting off our gamma series on on uh James so please join us the the the the whole thrust of the discipleship program is a faith that really works knowing god in adversity understanding Temptation the Christian in the world true spirituality slandering and judging wow that that's a very important topic close to all our hearts uh planning and worry materialism patience praying for the sck spiritual St restoration so if
00:03:26 you're interested in any of these topics please join our gamma groups the VAR started on Wednesday March 2nd onwards contact the church office for more details right so let's start with a word of prayer father Lord we ask this morning that you open up our hearts to understand your heart why your heart beats for the poor in our midst why your heart beats for the refugee why your heart beats for so many people whom we don't usually consider in our lives we ask for Jesus sake amen we look at the passage today I'm
00:04:04 going to just deal with seven verses today and then next I'll deal with all the other verses so if you look at the passage there the main point is the biblical principle which he sets forth the principle is partiality then he gives you an example and then he gives you the reasoning why the principle should be upheld and the reasoning will go on to next week as well all the way to chapter 2 verse vers 16 and 177 all right so four points I would like to make this morning one true faith has no place for partiality two the basis of
00:04:41 partiality is Judgment three we're neither qualified nor entitled to judge number four we need to see ourselves in the Light of Christ so Faith true faith has no place for partiality see here he's addressing a situation in the church is specific and a people misinterpret James because they don't understand that this is an occasional letter he's writing a letter to them because theyve experiencing certain problems in the church and so they here is a command show no partiality all right the word is a very
00:05:16 funny word it's not found in secular Greek or even the Greek Old Testament it's a direct translation from the Hebrew term favoritism so if your Bible verse just now who read the translation favoritism is actually spot on all right so favoritism actually in the Old Testament has the background has either positive or negative negative means you you discriminate against someone positive means you give somebody reward and others you don't there are two facets of that now the background is the Book of Judges for example the the
00:05:50 Leviticus about Old Testament judges you shall not do no Injustice in court you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the Great but in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor so a judge doesn't look at whether you're poor and give you a hand and you're rich and then press you down he is impartial that is the background of judges and that's the character of God for the Lord your God is God of gods the Lord of lords the Great and Mighty awesome God who is not partial and takes no bribe he executes
00:06:24 Justice for the fatherless and the Widow he loves the saer and gives food and clothing so our Behavior should be based on God's character as judge judges exercise Social Justice and Paul when he looks at other people he's not intimidated by other Apostles you see he wasn't part of the 12 and yet God spoke to him brought him to Christ separately and when he joined them he might have felt intimidated these were W 12 Apostles and I'm Number 13 so he said my God and then from those who seem to be in
00:07:00 ah you see come and see all this one are all like Elder I'm like nobody no he didn't say that they make no difference to me God shows no partiality those I say who seem influential added nothing to me on the contrary when saw I was entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised just as Peter had been entrusted the gospel to the circumcised so therefore that's how he views people on the flat plane so today is the sin of the ashes how many have you been ashes yeah okay let's hope we are not guilty
00:07:34 of theel what what does Dasha do Dasha sees someone coming to church and they drive a Lexus and then they flash like that you know you know and then automatically you bring him here sit next to Arnold limb and within spitting distance right that's not a good place to sit in fact the best seats at the back that's why you see me sitting there near the Manan place so it's preferential treatment isn't it and and and the the thing that's here is that they put the rich person in a good place uh and the poor person sit at my
00:08:13 feet which is basically derogatory looking down on him putting him in a place that has got no honor is this about equality you know are the Communists correct we should actually treat everybody equally right is that right well what about here the French Revolution the cultural revolution of China there was a great upwell among the average ordinary people that why should these people be treated better than us the nobility the Kings we will all be on the flat plane so they go and chop everybody's head off uh in both
00:08:46 those revolutions but if you look in Proverbs my son fear the lord and the King do not join with those who do otherwise 1 Peter chapter 2 live as people who are free not as using a freedom as a cover for evil but living as Servants of God honor everyone love the Brotherhood fear God honor the emperor so rulers have a special place are they not human beings but they are treated a little bit differently so an goes up there goes to the king he doesn't go in gen right he doesn't simply say things he has to bow do
00:09:19 things and every all the dignitaries are there so this is an acknowledgment of inherent dignity what about older people do not rebuke an older people older man but encourage him as you would a father younger men's brothers older men as older women as mothers younger women as sisters or impurities so there is decorum within the culture we have culturally appropriate expressions of respect to different people in Paul's time the women would have come to church and they would to wear a veil or head
00:09:53 covering and in some Societies in the world there is that but that is a culturally appropriate expression of dignity for them in no way does Paul say they're inferior therefore they to wear the veil because he says in 1 Corinthians chap 11 nevertheless in the law the woman is not independent of man nor man of woman for just as a woman was made from man a man is now born of woman and all things are from God he's very very clear whenever he forms a distinction he always counters it by saying there's equality because God
00:10:27 created he man in his own image the image of God he created him male and female he created them so the basis of our treating people is basically true faith has no place for partiality and the basis of partiality is Judgment if we look this part is the example that he gives us now you verse four have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts so when the Asher asked the poor person to sit in a horrible place he is actually become a judge and only one person who should be
00:11:08 a judge and that's God so you're actually usurping his Ro not only usurping his role you are actually judging through externalities just because she wear a golden ring and a big 24 karat diamond come here how do you know the didn't steal the money from from your EPF if I knew that the diamond ring was uh you know stolen from EPF money right I'm not going to get you sit here you sit in the back you don't know so what you're doing is that we're judging people from what we can see isn't it and that's a whole problem
00:11:41 discrimination partiality discrimination is unfair prejudicial treatment of people and groups based on race gender sexual orientation and this sermon goes beyond poverty it goes to racism it goes to to classism all sorts of things that we discriminate against if you go to Western Country you will see the most important people are what on the top tall white good-look men average white men number two Asians number three oh my son is in Australia big problem say why father all the white men top us China
00:12:22 men below the China woman actually the Asian women seem to get jobs easier in Australia than the Asian men right so but you choose to go there what that's your problem if you go to Hong Kong ha this is a study Hong Kong Chinese number one white man number two right so so we all have these prejudices because it's all built in this is one of the biggest racist around he left the Pang party and found uh he founded and picks GTA a new political platform and then they say call me racist but the Malay same song you know he's been
00:13:01 singing for 30 years are now left behind giving way to the foreigners I wonder who he means foreigners must be the zo people right so I mean in 97 so so Society is made out of this pecking order we all going to put on a mask to look bigger than what we actually are because we actually tend to judge each other I was watching this very funny show how Married at First Sight I think it's a good show to watch watch especially those who want to get married I mean they sleep together that part you ignore okay but all young
00:13:36 couples should watch this because within the space of X number of weeks they explode they fight over the smallest stupidest things and I can actually see it played out in my own marriage oh we fought over toilet seat we fought over this you look back so stupid you you right all this white hair you know right or don't tell you you never fight never okay sorry only be fight and they were matched together uh at the wedding and they had never seen each other and immediately Carolina looks at Dion and
00:14:13 and he says oh yo you B short 5' s and you know what he said he said I'm very tall when I'm standing on my wallet he's a de yeah he's a developer in Queensland so he's standing on his very tall but it doesn't work out because all she can see is she's she's 5' 7 he's not 6t so the psychological bias in all of us is it we we out of fear out of ignorance out of bias over generalization and if you look at it if you look at someone this is how it works when you look at someone wearing that the first thing you actually have is
00:14:54 stereotype we we think about that person ah that one H and then we feel and then we act so we think all right that this one is probably Troublemaker come from this s of country they got suicide bombers blah blah blah then you when you think like that right then your feeling is affected your feeling was oh I don't like in my same office then after that then you got Behavior Uh lunch time you eat yourself I eat myself I never invite that person back home so thinking feeling and discrimination and this
00:15:35 happens to every single one of you you don't tell me that you don't have discrimination even your Chinese towards the malays towards Indians and Indians toward you you all have stereotypical thinking stereotypical thinking and then you got Prejudice and then you behave you look at a poor man sitting down there and just thinking smelly useless lazy why do you think he's there got no house he didn't pay money for EPF right he must have gambled the money away so that's what we think and so therefore we get angry we feel oh angry
00:16:19 upset you know God gave him all the chance put him in Garden Eden some he winds up at the side of the road and then you discriminate because you want to avoid him put him at the back of the church what if you see a refugee what are the thinking what is your thinking well the poor illegal never apply for Visa mh2 whatever you know because you got no money to apply for MH Malaysia my second home right Uninvited he threatens my job because they come and take my job so soon all the Myanmar fellow will be chak
00:16:57 too not only me cha they also chel and if you actually go to the corner shop you see many of them CH already competition they are ATT trct and when you have that then the feeling angry revou you know I so long I in this country you know I'm like second class third class there some more they come I'm in fourth class now and then you got discrimination you will avoid them you put them at the back of the church that's what happens and then for some of you who are on the receiving end maybe you're Refugee Maybe maybe you're
00:17:30 not quite so rich you go for interview and you know the employer will be prejudiced against you right so he when he interviews you he raises his voice he asks you difficult questions right and then you are lack of confidence and when you lack of confidence and he grills you very hard then you answer poorly and when you answer poorly that it confirms the Prejudice of the boss I see these people always are that one actually this is stereotypes and self-fulfilling prophecy we actually you know go down the spiral pathway or
00:18:07 organized by Society so that's the problem when we become judges when we should not become judges so the basic partiality is judgment and the third point is very very important we are neither qualified nor entitled to judge people that's a very important thing I put a picture of a child is a judge that's what you look like you're never going to go to court and have a child as a judge I think you dial at least you have gone to law school right and and and grow some white hair uh but here have you not then made
00:18:46 distinction among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts the whole Trust of this passage is among yourself that means five of you is I imagine I'm I'm in working in my place in the hospital we all stand around operating theater the nurses the N this then we take a vote who's going to cut then the vote fell on the nurse oh my turn to cut this is how ridiculous it is cast so James is being sarcastic so we're unqualified also because of ulterior motive and we lack spiritual Insight so the poor person whenever we see someone
00:19:27 we judge with reference ourselves what's in it for me the rich person is better than me so if I associate with him better status man I look very good the rich person maybe after after the after I Usher I put him to a nice place he come out give me tip you know oh maybe got tip no law in this church against tip tipping the ashes uh the poor people come to you you run the other way you know I ask for loan oh contribute to his school prob list it so therefore you you you tend to run away from poor people
00:20:04 and for rich people the English term is become obsequious obsequious is ah you see Wong drive his big Lamborghini car they say hey can I park car for you huh can I do that so that maybe he give you tip so for whenever a rich person does something right everybody has follow that's why you see a lot of problems in our churches in these country is that rich people populate the church board and when you populate the church board the poor people no chance to get the church board or become Elders or whatever then people always say yes to
00:20:38 them simply because of their riches not because of their spirituality because we're all judges and that's wrong let me look at the basis of this Matthew 5:46 to 48 is very difficult uh most difficult command in the entire scripture you're supposed to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you how do you do that it's virtual impossibility how do you do that but you will look at Jesus reasoning then you understand and how you understand is you look at this verse it says love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
00:21:18 you it comes in a context and the context is very clear so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven huh if you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you you become sons of your father you understand in the Bible the word Sons is used in a different way in which we use Sons Sons today is based on DNA biological in those days Sons the understanding of sons go beyond DNA if you look at nemiah sons of singers you translate in NIV musicians so you come and speak to Michelle afterward oh you
00:22:04 are a daughter of musicians daughter of singers mean she's a musician uh sons of malice Wicked people oh uh job sons of a flame Sparks right uh sons of might a mighty man and in NIV is a fighter uh sons of thunder I would have translated bad tempered people but but you you get the idea that the son is an exact replica of the father and that's not appreciated today because we all have different uh professions from our fathers so basically what it says that if you may be sons of your father you you love enemies and pray for those
00:22:49 who persecute you so that you become a perfect reflection of your father so if your father is impartial and shows no favoritism so you also must act like your father and the example he gives you he makes the son rise up on the evil on the and on The Good The Rain he sends rain on the just and on the unjust so when you're walking in baling Street don't tell me the rain only fall on certain people rain doesn't fall on you he falls on both because the father is perfectly impartial and because you call yourself
00:23:23 a Christian then you must re act the way he acts and so therefore if you look at God's love theologically there are four aspects of God's love you've got God's providential love for the world salivic love for people who do not know him yet special love for his church conditional church for his church in terms of discipline and if you look here it is God's love for all people which you must reflect if you are a Christian is actually the basis of the Jiva convention do you know J convention a picture of a Canadian Army hospital and
00:24:03 they are treating during this World War I they treating Nazis that German prisoners it it says uh you shall in all circumstances be treated humanely without any adverse distinction founded on race color religion Faith sex birth wealth or any other similar criteria this is the Geneva Convention uh so the question is when you see someone asking for help I think if you're asking who deserves help is asking the wrong question that is the problem imagine you have a family and the mother goes out play maong every
00:24:41 day and then go and shoot up heroin and it's when you come and visit the the the house and she you know gives you a four-letter word and kicks you out and the children are all starving now you you tell me which one you want to give money to we probably give it to the children because they look very cute right yeah just like The Zo school they look very cute but you ask give money to the father mother who are pissing the money away and being irresponsible it's very difficult isn't it very very difficult to do and
00:25:19 and this whole problem infest us we got this myth of the deserving poor if you look like this children I give you you will look like the horrible mother I'm not going to going to give you but is that the correct attitude you see like the rain falling on the just and the unjust you know it's about the rain it's not on about the people whom the rain falls on top of you may be just you be unjust you may be a bad person you may be a good person but it's not about the person it's about the reain God sends
00:25:54 the rain on the just and unjust it is a nature of Grace no one one is worthy which brings me to that very famous passage which was preached before last year the sheep and the goats remember for I was hungry you gave me food I was thirsty you gave me a drink I was a stranger you welcomed me I was naked you clothed me I was sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came with me look at this particular verse what he's saying is that when you look at someone to give Aid to comfort to to visit the
00:26:27 criteria is what hungry thirsty stranger naked sick in prison the criteria is not hey how you got to prison or those who cheat people didn't pay tax I visit you those who murder people I won't visit you there's no criteria there the criteria is not the criteria we put is it legal are they deserving is this work giving money to the poor is a bottomless pit you know keep on giving giving giving attitude how people are not responsible I give you money the and spend on drugs and then come and rob me you my house I put
00:27:04 double security guard just because I give you money you see that unfortunately isn't how Jesus describes it Jesus describes it as look at this verse the way I've crafted it and you will see a pattern is there I was hungry you gave me food I was thirsty you gave me drink I you I you I you what has God done God has put an interposition between the person receives the gift between you and him by putting himself there that's the difference and so therefore the key word is and the righteous will answer him say
00:27:40 Lord when did we see you it's got to be so natural that you are actually unaware that you're actually helping people that is your nature and so therefore you are actually responding to him proverb says whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord and He will repay him so if you lend the money to him and you gave the money to him and our friend went and go buy 15 Tons of heroin you cannot say my money wasted I should have given to somebody else I should have invested in The Zo school which I think you should right
00:28:15 but that's not the point the God puts himself in the middle of between the giver and the recipient and says you're responding to him the money that you give out you don't lose you actually gain it LS a lot he will you think girl I know you all don't like to lend money to people you know why they never pay back then you look at a person's credit rating whether it's Triple A Double A or Jung Bor right you know what is the Lord rated at Beyond AAA isn't it you think he won't pay you back prover say he will
00:28:51 pay you back you know depends on what kind of currency okay he supplies seed to the sewer and bread for the food will supply and multiply your seed for growing sewing and increase the Harvest of your righteousness so therefore you are going to grow and not only he going to grow he's going to give you the stuff to make you grow and grow in righteousness so the right question is what when you actually confront the poor how can I best extend God's love to this person today what action will be the most loving and
00:29:25 transformational in this person's life and it's going to vary from person to person situation to situation it's not going to mean that you walk down the streets of LA and everybody else is homeless and you give all your money to them and all that it will depend on each situation how can I best extend God's love to this person today and in First Baptist Church I'm very very glad that some of you uh have actually spent time every single week producing good meals not ji meals good meals which I would
00:29:58 gladly eat and I'm now salivating over and and and they do this all the time and the question is asked to us oh you know the the the be no end of poor when do we stop you never stop when there's no more poor law that's when you stop you see advice to the people who are rich if you drive a car you rich really they to do good to be rich in Good Works be generous and ready to share sharing storing up a treasure for themselves as good foundation for the future so they will be take hold of that which is truly life
00:30:35 understand the real value in life Godly generosity that's what we need to do how much should I give well if the Readiness in Corinthians chapter 8:12 if the riness is there it is acceptable according to what a person has not according to what he does not have God doesn't expect you to sell your house and give everything away so you live at the side of side of road and join them at the homeless that's not he said he just said according to what a person has okay and then chapter8 of Corinthians 2 I do not mean
00:31:11 that others should be burden eased and you be burdened but it's a matter of fairness you hear the got of fairness partiality right the principle of partiality is now being expressed by Paul that the matter of fairness that your abundance at the time should Supply their need their abundance is Supply your need that there may be fairness as written whoever gathered much had nothing left over whoever gathered little Had No Lack and that is taken from Exodus is taken from the time when they were in Sinai desert where they got
00:31:40 a Mana fall down you go and collect more Mana cannot all the Flies will get it next day it doesn't last so everybody has enough to eat and drink it doesn't mean they to stay in the same kind of house you stay in a bungalow you stays in the flat it doesn't matter the bottom lines got enough to eat and we have have a shelter so what is our Temptation our temptation is to be the judge if you love those who love you what reward do you have don't even Tax Collectors do the same if you only greet your brothers
00:32:14 what more are you doing than the others don't even the Gentiles do the same you must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect if you only invite the people to dinner who are your friend friends you only shake the hands of people your friends what's difference between FBC and amno we got elections they don't so that that's probably the only difference so transactional love is selfish love we people who affirm your status people add to your prestige people Advance your position people who make
00:32:51 you feel good and look up to you that's the problem with transactional love so what's happening here is that they lack Insight so therefore James tells them listen that's an imperative listen all right judges ashers are not judges the poor in the background of the Old Testament either the materially poor or spiritually poor they in both Hebrew and Greek the concept is the same often the people who are materially poor Also spiritually poor they recognize their need Luke chapter 6 the beatitude by Luke says
00:33:30 blessed of those are you who are poor materially poor and Matthew says those who are poor in spirit okay now if you look at the whole book of James the entire book about James is about people who are deceived and he's saying all of you can you are all deceived right he's saying don't be deceived my brethren every good gift comes from heaven so therefore deceive about God's character don't be doers of the word and not hears the word only deceiving yourself is deceive self and only hearing and not acting if anyone
00:34:03 thinks it's religious and do not Bridle tongue he deceives his heart see deceived so the whole focus is deceived we are deceived our deception is self-deception but means the person who is Rich I'm good that's why I'm rich I'm talented I have power I can make things happen I'm in control the poor person is lazy useless has got no talent and this all comes from the myth of the self-made man you are what you are because you study hard in school right they all play football in the field I study very hard
00:34:35 I got 108 they got zero that's the common thinking in our brain so therefore whatever I get I deserve isn't it I live in a mansion you live in the whole I deserve it because I work hard you play football mother called you to to study you don't study that's what our parents used to teach us but in real life poverty is a primary fact of human existence do you know when you're born we all born Beggars the first thing you do when they slap you they say ah I want milk you're begging all the time every time Bug Your Mother
00:35:09 Day and Night a you know because you you need to be fed birth is a gift you have to be nurtured your parents you be taught your language who teaches you the language your mother and father who teaches you morals your mother and your father so we are actually all poor rich people only rich people they forgot they thought they were self-made men and they're blind look warns and take care be on your guard against all cover justness for lives one's life does not consist in abundance of his possession there was a article written
00:35:45 the Forbes five most common regrets of billionaires nowaday billionaire doesn't cut it it's got to be billionaires the first regret not jumping on greater opportunities probably make more money not living in the present not starting soon enough not being Bolder not changing fast enough mistakes and failes are necessary can you see that complete blindness complete inability to be to have Insight in where they actually are that's why Jesus said the rich be coming to Heaven very hard isn't it worse than
00:36:25 a camel going to the eye of a needle and there's a reason why God chooses the poor is God unfair God says my beloved Brothers has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and hes of the Kingdom which you have promis those who loved him that's the reason you know why there's only one currency that the Lord God recognizes it's faith without faith it is impossible to please him when you walk through the door God's not going to look at what you wear or the gold ring he's going to look at whether you believe and
00:37:02 whether you trust him so misplace honor is that the ushers have given honor to the wrong person in fact Jonathan Edwards is very insightful Words which I really found transformational for myself he actually says deliberately choose the poor don't wait for the poor to come to us it actually insults them if you were in that position how would you like to be treated you see trouble is we are rich we always want the poor you want money you want help you must come to me before me of being obsequious what he's actually saying
00:37:42 because you are sons of God you should actually deliberately go to the poor not wait for the poor to come to you you got it all wrong you got to wait for the zo people to come and tell you how terrible the the situ tion only $200 a a year for one child and then maybe you open your Pur screen for a little while next day you go off and drive off in your Lexus you should make it a mission you should make it your calling to reach out to the poor and don't let them suffer the dignity come crawling to
00:38:17 you and that is a huge Revelation to us because God is a god of partiality not God of partiality he's a God who is fair and he loves them look at this look this picture if you want to treat everybody equally the short guy oh gone what happened my one gone okay the short guy is you give him same amount money as the rich man all that he's always going to be a disadvantage right so what you actually have to do is push him up so he can see the football field that's what we want we want Equity that the poor be given an opportunity in
00:38:55 life and it's such a pathetic thing that we have refugees in our midst while human beings made in the image of God that they have to come and beg you for the 200 bucks so that they could actually learn something and we walk away oh nice Pastor Kai bye-bye we can't be people like that because if we are people like that then we better not come to church this that's why James is hard-hitting it hits us where it counts if you really believe that you are a son of God then you start acting as one God deliberately chooses the
00:39:41 poor you have Dishonored the poor because you never chose the poor if because the poor are the ones who are short you come and you lift them up God lifts them up if you don't lift them up then you have Dishonored the poor so and God says in Corinthians God chose what is weak in the world to shame the poor because often the poor understand the need for God the rich do not it highlights God's his power and condemns men's Pride have you Dishonored the poor are not the rich the ones who oppress you
00:40:18 the ones who drag you to court are they not the ones who blaspheme The Honorable Name by which you were called you see the trouble is you judge and you treat the the rich better and the poor bad and you thought it benefit you actually no that you tell me the poor fell can come and sue you nobody can only the rich can sue you there's a story told of a local church where uh um a lady in BSF was asked to cater a meal for this family Rich family and then and then as she was catering the meal at home and cooking and then the FL
00:40:57 the the wife keep on coming into the kitchen saying this one no good that one no good by the time finish the the meal is 3 hours later on and the food is cold and the family were very upset with this lady from BSF who's the caterer you know what they did they went outside probably to Grand Imperial order the ribs racked up a $166,000 bill and gave the bill to the caterer yeah it's a true story told to me by one of people suffering so don't cater to rich people they're going to sue you this is Ion musk richest man in the
00:41:37 world they love him so much he bought Twitter first thing he did was sack 80% of the people 80% people just like numbers just sacked the whole lot of them he even fired the head of sales after ref she refused to sack more employees and then after that oops I made a mistake important to admit when I'm wrong and fire was truly one of my biggest mistakes the problem isn't his mistake the problem is he treated people like objects like numbers on a spreadsheet that's what rich people do when when rich person look at you and
00:42:17 smile at you I think you better be very careful because he will think kaching kaching kaching H maybe I can get something out of this man because that's the way he thinks that's the way most businessmen think if you are honest it's a bottom line you doesn't help my bottom line bye-bye L you either take from me or I have to give to you you see and we are now praising and honoring the wrong people if rich people smile you better run please run and to save your life the last point before I end is we need to see ourselves in the
00:42:56 Light of Christ Christ and and and that's a crucial first verse it says my brothers show no partiality as you hold faith in our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord why does he say Lord Of Glory if you're a Christian you're holding faith in Jesus he could have said you shouldn't show any partiality because you are holding faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Lord to right they say Lord Of Glory you know and and the point here is that our behavior is is a result of our being so if we are showing no partiality it's
00:43:33 because we have faith in our lord Jesus the GL of Glory Glory in the Old Testament is cavod which is basically weight worth value and it results in praise you can see that phenomenon shown in the the in the cloud the daytime and the fire at night and and and at the lowest point of Moses life where the people of God were nearly wiped out because of the golden calf issue and God said I had enough of these people I'm going to wipe them all out I'm only choosing you you're my new Abraham no he said no no no no no he was
00:44:12 willing to offer his life out at the worst part of his life Moses said Show Me Your Glory because only the glory of God will sustain him because he's hungering for Glory we all hunger for Glory if you look at uh Becker who wrote this uh uh uh seminal pit prize winning novel book uh 1960s the denial of death he says man is literally split into two he has an awareness of his own Splendid uniqueness and that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet
00:44:46 in order to blindly and dumbly rot and disappear forever it's terrifying Dilemma to be in and to have to live with you see our human dilemma is drill it right down to everybody on the face of the earth is that we are Majestic we do wonderful things and yet in the end you die and you become food for worms that's a problem and every single person in this room and in this world have to deal with this how do we deal with it well he says the real world is simply too terrible to admit it tells man that is small
00:45:19 trembling animal who will some way someday die and Decay culture changes all of this makes men seem important vital to the universe Immortal in some ways Ernest Becker has got it correct we face this dilemma how do we act in this dilemma well we we compensate by culture changing our culture so that we get some of the glory that will last forever so therefore we spread our wings we win all the Olympic gold bals that we want but that hunger never ends even after how the Olympics in fact we don't have Glory
00:46:00 we borrow other people's Glory that's why you go around take wifey you know does anybody take selfie with you or wifey with you right if you take with you means they want your glory now you say don't take with me right because they want some of your glory and even celebrities need Glory from each other because we're not seeking Glory from God we're seeking Glory from each other isn't it and and that's a whole basis of marketing if you look at this uh dress yellow dress by what's her name Kate I think yeah right
00:46:32 okay 95% you know rise in dress sales after the Royal T in Australia 2014 and this other hand I don't know black and white kind dress right also within 8 minutes why because people want to borrow her glory I where yellow dress I'm princess crate is that stupid is it you you all laugh isn't it but tell me why you wear these sort of pants you tell me who's got a torn jeans put your hands up ah you see when I was growing up if I had a torn jeans I dare not go to school people look at me Peter you poor man no
00:47:18 money to S your pants out and now people like you are all buying clothes with are torn till this day I will never understand it the next day I'm going to sell you a load of instead lxa today go Haka lxa I'm going to sell you a bowl of and because Justin beer ate the you will eat it too it's because our hunger for Glory we don't have the glory so we always seeking out from whether the cars we drive the women we date the houses we live in whether we want to explore in space or whether 97 years old you still want
00:47:55 to fight your election I don't understand but Ernest Becker tells us why animals don't have it they only desire to makan and eat the next day T human beings have this dilemma and Moses request was fully granted in Jesus Christ when he came to our lives brothers and sisters there's only one source of Glory you don't get it in the torn pants you don't get it in the yellow dress you don't get it in the Lexus you get it in our Lord Jesus Christ and you already have it if you already have it please act and live as
00:48:46 if you have it and the most important event was that the richest person on the face of this universe gave up all his riches and he came down and that's the reason why if you reach into your pockets right now we celebrate the Lord's Supper can I have the musicians up here this bread and this wine represent the richest gift that we will ever receive in our entire lives this bread and this wine will change the way you look at other people will change the way you look at yourself and I'm serious when I was growing
00:50:02 up as a child I was most proud we live in a good neighborhood in The Bungalow my father was the assistant director of the meteorological Department of Malaysia one of a few graduates at the time in the 60s were had toys for Christmas we drive a Volvo in those days one 122 Volvo very big deal in those days and then at the age of 40 my father died of a heart attack and we were plunged into poverty but brother no skills in our whole Bungalow we live in one room we renter all the rooms and my mother used to cry every night and sew
00:50:48 clothes so I know what it like to be poor because children are un are merciless to you and I was a child at time8 about 8 n 10 years old and we live in thehood where they got ambassadors sons and all that and they would I I felt in fact 10t tall I felt like a micro and that feeling has been with me ever since and I actually studied hard went to medical school and and did all that because I still feel small inside so I can hold my head high when I walk next to people like that again and do you know that kind of feeling never
00:51:31 goes away you can be rich and still feel poor until I met Jesus Christ and he makes you 10t tall that's the only Glory that will last beyond the day when your skills are gone and your mind is gone and your family is gone and your riches are gone brothers and sisters this is the greatest gift that anyone can give you they give you their lives so let's take the bread [Music] out before we take it let's take a moment and I want you to reflect how do you look at yourself today where is your glory and then I want you to look at
00:52:43 this spread and then when you take it you take it in faith let's just take a minute to think as the worship Him plays the music let's take what he has given us this is my body given up for you let's take it [Music] together let's prepare the wine when we take his body when we take his [Music] blood we can now stand tall side by side with Kings and Priests and princes anywhere in the world White yellow black it doesn't matter because the color of Our Lives is red it's the blood of Christ that's the
00:54:10 color of my skin that's the color of my eyes that's the color of my life if it's true for you let's take it together now [Music] we have this closing song and then I'll pray church let us uh stand as we respond with this closing [Music] song let the we say I am strong let the poor say I am rich let the blind say I Can See Is What the Lord Has Done in me sing again let him we say I am strong let the we say I am strong let the poor say I am rich let the blind say I Can See Is What the Lord Has Done in
00:55:45 [Music] me hosana hosana to the lamb that was [Music] slana Jesus died and rose [Music] again into the river I away there my sins are washed away from the heavens mercy stre of the Savior love for me and I will rise I will rise from what is deep into the saing arms of God I will sing Salvation Song Jesus Christ has Set Me Free hosana hosana to the lamb that was slain hosana hosan Jesus died and go again hosana hosana to the lamb that was slain [Music] Ohana Jesus died and rose [Music] again sing Let the way
00:57:57 say I am strong let the say I am let the blind say I Can See Is What the Lord Has Done In [Music] Me benediction life [Music] please [Music] Michelle next [Music] one next slide please next slide okay we're going to end with the benediction I'm going to invite Pastor Kai to give the benediction for us Pastor Kai can you come up here I'm going to pray and then you will give the benediction father Lord we just thank you that in you we stand tall in you you are the Lord Of Glory and we pray that we go out in the world this day we will
00:59:19 live as people who believe and trust that you are our Glory we ask for Jesus sake and Pastor Kai will give the [Music] benediction now may the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our lord Jesus the great Shepherd of the Sheep by the blood of the Eternal Covenant equip you with everything good that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight brought Jesus Christ uh through Jesus Jus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever amen and uh Pastor Kai will be staying
01:00:04 back any one of you who need prayers please stay back the elders be in front together with Pastor Kai let us pray over you God bless all of you and have a great week ahead [Music]
