The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:00 Before
00:02 we start, we'd like to Whoops. come to
00:05 the Lord in prayer.
00:08 Uh Lord, uh you're almighty,
00:13 omnipotent,
00:15 full of love, merciful, and grace. Lord,
00:18 uh we thank you for allowing everybody
00:21 to come to church today and all your
00:23 blessing for the last week. Lord, uh be
00:26 with us today. guide us, open our hearts
00:28 and ears so that we can learn from you
00:32 and
00:34 hope that you will be with me as I speak
00:36 your word. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
00:40 Okay.
00:42 Uh going to start uh this is what I'm
00:44 going to teach you about today. Okay.
00:46 Not what you expected. Life is just not
00:49 about security or money. Uh you should
00:53 not worry so much.
00:55 And then we'll talk about a little bit
00:56 about the from the scripture. How should
00:58 we focus on his kingdom?
01:03 Okay.
01:07 Now from the
01:09 wealth part, life is not about wealth.
01:10 We will be looking into what's the
01:12 danger. Okay.
01:15 And purpose of life and material as a
01:18 source of false sense of security and
01:21 and long-term spiritual value.
01:27 Okay, there is danger.
01:31 How do we know this? Let's go back to
01:32 the scripture itself. Okay, from Luke
01:36 itself, you can see that uh the first
01:38 thing that Jesus say
01:43 was be on guard. Watch out. Okay, this
01:45 is directly a warning from Jesus.
01:53 Life does not consist of abundance or
01:55 possession. Okay. He has said these two
01:56 things very clearly. You can see that.
01:58 Yeah. From the that's where we get it.
02:00 So material
02:03 fosters greed. So
02:06 how many of you agree here that money is
02:08 useful?
02:11 Yeah. Money is useful, right?
02:15 Amen to your sister.
02:20 Is it okay to have more money?
02:24 Oh, bit shy.
02:27 I don't think there's anything wrong
02:29 with having money. You can see clearly
02:30 from the text that Jesus was not talking
02:32 about money. Okay. In fact, I I wish you
02:35 all have more money. The church wish you
02:37 to.
02:39 So, more money is not a problem. Yeah.
02:41 Not a problem.
02:46 Okay.
02:51 But why did Jesus say be on guard? Okay.
02:55 So he's equating that life cons if if
02:57 life consists of abundance of
02:59 possession, it actually means greed,
03:01 right? So that's the warning, clear and
03:04 simple. So I know there's a lot of older
03:08 folks like me here. So you probably have
03:10 seen this movie a long time ago, the
03:12 first series of Wall Street. Okay. Uh
03:15 Michael Douglas was uh Gordon Gekcko.
03:18 He's a character and he has a very good
03:20 thing to say about greed. Yeah, greed
03:22 from the lack of a better word is good.
03:24 Greed is right. Greed works. Actually,
03:26 grit is good for economy. It thrive. It
03:28 gives you the passion to drive your
03:30 economy and your business. Okay. While
03:33 grid may be good for economy, it may not
03:36 be good for individuals. As uh uh
03:40 psychologist says, yeah,
03:42 deception is a common outcome of greed.
03:45 It is envy and spike. Greed is also
03:49 associated with negative emotional
03:51 states such as stress, exhaustion,
03:54 anxiety, depression, and despair. And it
03:57 gives to me maladaptive behaviors such
04:00 as gambling, scavenging, holding,
04:02 trickery, and theft. Okay. So, it
04:04 doesn't sound so good right now, right?
04:07 Okay.
04:11 Now, this is a Chinese billionaire in
04:13 Asia in Hong Kong. Mr. Mr. You here
04:17 actually
04:19 gave all his inheritance away. Okay. His
04:22 two sons are not going to get anything
04:23 from him. Yeah. His words were, "If my
04:26 sons are better than me, they should do
04:29 very well." Okay. If they are worse than
04:32 me, they they'll be better without this.
04:35 Okay? So either way he wins.
04:38 So you understands that there is
04:40 something dangerous about having so much
04:43 wealth. So he gave it all away to save
04:44 his sons.
04:47 If you look at Timothy uh 1 Timothy 6,
04:50 those who want to get rich fall into
04:52 temptation and trapped into many foolish
04:55 and harmful desires that plunge people
04:56 into ruin and destruction. For the love
04:59 of money is the root of all evil. Okay.
05:02 So,
05:04 so again the danger is stated very
05:08 clearly in the text.
05:13 The next one is purpose of life is not
05:14 about accumulating things. Right?
05:18 Again from the parable uh from the
05:20 parable of the ritual life does not
05:22 consist in abundance of procession. It's
05:24 also stated very clearly there. Yeah.
05:26 And then Jesus went into the text as you
05:29 have read by Paul. He tells us about the
05:31 story of the parable of the rich fool.
05:34 Right?
05:39 Before I go into the story, I going back
05:41 to Genesis a little bit because to know
05:44 the problem, you have to go back to
05:46 start with Adam. Uh God made Garden of
05:49 Eden for Adam and Eve. He gave them
05:51 everything. Whatever they need has been
05:54 given. And on verse 15 it says that the
05:57 Lord God took the man and put him in the
05:59 garden of Eden to work it and take care
06:02 of it. So you see that's how we that the
06:05 purpose was already given to us a long
06:06 time back in Genesis. Yeah. We are there
06:08 to work take care of the garden not work
06:12 for money. Yeah. But somehow we we
06:14 distort things as we uh as time goes
06:16 along. Men have changed it.
06:22 Okay. And then we'll go a little bit
06:24 about material life give a false sense
06:26 of security.
06:32 Okay. From the text it says that you
06:34 have plenty of grain laid up for years.
06:37 Take life easy. Eat, drink and be merry
06:39 you fool. Okay. So there's again in the
06:42 text
06:43 in the parable of the rich fool Jesus
06:45 have clearly stated that life is not
06:48 about eating
06:49 make Mary drinking. Okay. In fact, it's
06:52 the opposite. Yeah.
06:55 Uh to give you a example today, a lot of
06:59 you may have know this uh movies that
07:00 this director have made. Uh he's the
07:03 director Tom Shayak. He does uh Ace
07:07 Ventura, the naughty professor and Bruce
07:10 Al all. Okay. Now, uh he has a jetet
07:16 lifestyle. He owns big mansion. Yeah. He
07:20 has uh managers to take care of his
07:23 house, his guest house, his swimming
07:26 pool, his tennis courts. In fact, he
07:27 says that he has managers to take care
07:29 of his managers. Yeah, that's the kind
07:31 of lifestyle that he was having.
07:35 And he traveled in this kind of a car.
07:37 Yeah, that's a nice car, right?
07:41 But he gave it all away literally. He
07:45 downsized his lifestyle. Yeah. to a
07:48 mobile home big enough to do his
07:50 business and his uh his work with his
07:53 family.
07:54 He changed his car. Oh my god. To a
07:57 bicycle. Yeah.
07:60 Now he's still rich. He's full of money
08:02 still. He's not poor. Yeah. But he
08:03 changed his life. He's downsized. Okay.
08:10 He actually says that while uh he he he
08:13 he gave away all that he didn't need and
08:16 only have what he need, he actually felt
08:18 a lot happier, truly happy and
08:22 wealthier. Okay,
08:25 I think we can learn from him a little
08:27 bit there.
08:31 Okay. And then we'll go into later on
08:34 about uh the spiritual part.
08:37 Why there's no long-term spiritual value
08:39 in collecting wealth.
08:45 Okay.
08:47 Done that. Sorry. Okay. In Romans also
08:49 we go back a little bit. If you start to
08:52 look into Romans, it says that in verse
08:54 21, for although they knew God, they
08:56 neither glorify him as God nor gave
08:58 thanks to him. But their thinking became
09:00 futile and their foolish hearts were
09:02 darkened. Although they claimed to be
09:04 wise, they became fools and exchanged
09:06 the glory of immortal God for the images
09:08 made to look like a model human being
09:11 and birds and animals and reptiles. So
09:13 what happens when you fix you have a
09:15 desire for the wealth? Your wealth start
09:17 to turn into an idol. Okay. And that's
09:19 the danger that uh I think God is Jesus
09:22 is warning us about. Don't make idols.
09:25 Okay.
09:28 Tell you a little story about this ant.
09:29 I read it in
09:32 in the internet and it was such a simple
09:34 story. Tells of a little ant. A guy was
09:36 looking at the ant and he showed this
09:38 know that this ant was taking a huge
09:40 feather. He was taking along and along
09:43 the journey he has so many obstacles
09:45 that he has to overcome. He has to go
09:47 through crestes. Uh he has to walk over
09:50 a lot of obstacles. But because the ant
09:52 is so small, yet he's very clever. He's
09:56 like an engineer. He'll build bridges
09:57 with a feather and crawl over the
09:58 feather and all that. He went through
10:01 all the obstacles until he's reach his
10:03 little tiny end hole. Guess what?
10:09 He can't get it in, right? Yeah. So he
10:11 had to leave it behind.
10:14 So the story is like a lot of us here we
10:16 have our burden that we carry along in
10:18 life. We have all the family problems
10:21 the children education the holiday
10:23 packages you want to go all kind of but
10:27 if we don't like the end if we don't
10:29 take care of the journey that's coming
10:30 up at the end of the journey
10:34 everything we have will become a burden
10:36 because we can't take it in. Yeah. We
10:38 can't take it in. Yeah.
10:43 And then there's a story I like a lot
10:45 about this little uh this reverend was
10:47 talking to a greyhound. I know we don't
10:49 have greyhound races so much. It's more
10:51 than America. Yeah. In fact, the
10:53 Americans were so crazy about greyhound
10:54 they they named their buzzers
10:55 greyhounds.
10:57 Yeah. I know it's crazy. Yeah.
11:00 So this reverend was pretending to be
11:03 talking to the the greyhound. So he
11:05 asked the greyhound, "Are you still
11:08 running?" The greyhound said, "No, no,
11:10 no more." "Why have you stopped
11:12 running?" "Uh,
11:14 you you you can't run anymore." "No, no,
11:16 no. In fact, I'm still good at running."
11:19 "Then why did you stop?" "I don't I
11:21 didn't stop. I I I was having fun
11:24 running, but uh then why did you stop?"
11:26 He says that uh because after all the
11:29 running and puffing, I realized that I
11:32 was chasing after something that's not
11:33 real.
11:36 The rabbit was a mechanical rabbit in
11:38 the greyhound race. Yeah. So sometimes
11:41 life is like that. We we run after what
11:44 we want in life and then realize at the
11:46 end that's actually not worth it. Yeah.
11:47 So he the ground said that's why he
11:49 quit. Yeah. That's the reason why he
11:51 quit.
11:54 In Timothy 6 again uh 1 Timothy 6
11:57 chapter 6 uh verse 6 God but godliness
12:01 with contentment is a great gain for we
12:03 bought nothing in the world and we can
12:04 take nothing out of it but if we have
12:07 food and clothing you will be content
12:09 with that I think the main key word is
12:11 content if you're content with life just
12:13 like Tom Shayak was the director of
12:16 ventura he was content so when you're
12:19 content something change in you yeah you
12:21 become wealthy in a sense so like Tom
12:24 Shell, we can downsize. Yeah, he
12:26 downsized because he was contended.
12:29 Yeah. The wealth didn't mean In fact, he
12:31 calls all the things he have, the jets,
12:33 the the the swimming pools, the houses
12:36 he have, they call he calls them stuff.
12:39 Okay. Stuff
12:42 that you can watch him on video,
12:44 YouTube, you Google him. Yeah.
12:49 And uh what of value to to me then or to
12:52 you guys? Yeah. What's the value in the
12:55 parable? The hidden treasure and the
12:57 pearl. If the man who knows that
13:00 treasure is buried in the field, he sold
13:02 everything to buy the field because the
13:04 field was more valuable than him. And
13:07 the person who was selling pearls wanted
13:09 the best pearl. So he sold everything
13:11 just to get that pearl that he wanted.
13:13 So those things have value to it.
13:16 So what is value?
13:19 like to share a story about a a little
13:22 golden box.
13:24 Before Christmas,
13:27 a three-year-old girl was actually
13:29 wrapping a parcel using up the the mom
13:32 and dad's uh golden rappers. And uh she
13:37 obviously because she's three years old,
13:39 she wasted a lot of the golden rappers.
13:41 So the father was very angry with her,
13:43 scolded her for wasting all the golden
13:45 rappers
13:46 and uh sent her to bed. Next morning,
13:50 the little girl gave the parcel to the
13:52 dad.
13:54 So the dad was now a little bit
13:56 embarrassed. Yeah. Because the present
13:58 was for him. So he said, "Sorry for
14:01 being nasty yesterday." And he opened
14:03 the present and there was nothing in it.
14:06 Oops. Double jeopardy. So he got angry
14:08 again. He quoted,
14:12 "Girl, don't you know that you're
14:13 supposed to put something in the
14:15 present?" And the little girl said,
14:18 "Yes, there is daddy. I blew kisses
14:20 inside.
14:22 She blew kisses inside for him."
14:25 The the the dad again was crushed and he
14:28 hugged her. Okay. Few weeks later, the
14:31 girl got into an accident. She died. And
14:35 uh the dad always keep that box next to
14:39 him in the bed because every time he he
14:42 look into the box, he open it, he can
14:44 see the kisses and remember the girl. I
14:47 tell you this story because this really
14:49 got to me when I read it. It's getting
14:51 to me now as well. Yeah, you can tell
14:52 I'm a very emotional Michael.
14:56 Okay, so the little girl is uh she gave
15:00 some actually she gave nothing, right?
15:02 there's nothing but it was full of
15:05 wealth and value to the father. So you
15:08 can see wealth and value can comes in
15:10 different forms.
15:13 Okay. Now we go to the next part about
15:17 what we learning. Worry. Yeah. Don't
15:19 worry. That's what Jesus say
15:22 in in Luke.
15:29 Do not worry. from 22 to 28
15:34 but we're going to follow on the red
15:35 text only you can read through the rest
15:38 tell you do not worry about life for
15:41 life is more than food and the body more
15:43 than clothes right so yeah I know you
15:46 guys are hungry right
15:49 yeah these are all the good food in
15:51 around Sububang it's not leave to eat
15:54 and life is not all about fashion yeah
15:56 that's what the text is saying those are
15:60 Not worry has no function. It doesn't
16:02 change anything. You're not in control.
16:08 Hang on a bit.
16:12 Okay. You know, I'm going to tell you a
16:13 joke right now again, right?
16:16 Yeah. Yeah. Dr. Peter is not here so I
16:17 can tell a doctor joke.
16:21 The the story is about uh a patient was
16:24 running out from the operating room. He
16:26 was dashing out and he cross came across
16:29 the reception and the receptionist
16:30 stopped him. Why are you running?
16:33 The nurse told me that this is a simple
16:36 operation. The nurse was saying that
16:38 this is a simple operation and uh it
16:41 happened to many people. Nothing to
16:42 worry about. Okay. Then then the
16:45 reception said, "Why are you worrying
16:46 that? She's just trying to comfort you."
16:49 But the nurse is talking to the doctor.
16:54 So
16:56 yeah, it takes a while to sink in. Yeah.
16:57 So take your time. Take your time. Yeah,
16:60 it took me a while to come up with this
17:01 idea. But I thought that picture will
17:03 help you get the idea. Yeah. So worry
17:06 can be
17:08 a can be fun sometimes. But
17:12 but if you look at worry, what what does
17:13 worry causes? Anxiety. Right. If you
17:16 read earlier from scripture, uh one in
17:19 five people in America, again I use
17:21 America because I Google it. Yeah.
17:24 So Americans here, sorry. Yeah.
17:28 You have panic disorder. They actually
17:30 have a word for it. This is the first
17:31 time I heard of get. Yeah. If anybody
17:33 heard of get, I have not heard of GA.
17:35 This is the first time. Yeah.
17:36 Generalized anxiety disorder. Okay. That
17:39 means you get worry over nothing. What?
17:41 No. Okay. You get nothing. Frequent
17:43 constant worry with little or no cause.
17:46 And how do you solve gap? You take the
17:49 pill. Yeah. These are actual medication
17:52 that you can take to stop your anxiety.
17:54 Yeah, this is today's solution.
18:01 But uh let's look a little bit about
18:03 what John Wesley says about worry. I
18:06 thought it was interesting. U John
18:08 Wesley is one of the founders of the
18:10 Methodist church.
18:12 He was talking to somebody who was a
18:14 very troubled person in church one day
18:16 and uh so he told the guy he was looking
18:20 around he saw a cow you know looking
18:23 over a fence. So he was telling the guy
18:26 the trouble person why that cow is that
18:30 cow looking over the fence. Yeah.
18:36 And he say I do not know. Okay fair
18:38 enough.
18:40 The cow is looking over the wall because
18:42 she cannot see through it. Yeah,
18:46 that's what you must do with your
18:47 troubles. Look over it and avoid it.
18:52 Faith enables to look past our
18:53 circumstances and focus on Christ. Yeah,
18:56 there's a simple advice from John
18:59 Wesley.
19:02 Okay. Next is you look at the reading
19:05 again. You said about the ravens and
19:07 about the meadows that God made. Nobody,
19:10 no gardener is tending to the meadows.
19:12 Nobody's tending to the birds. Right? So
19:15 if God can take care of the raven and
19:18 make such meadows beautiful in nature,
19:22 I'm sure he will take care of us as
19:24 well. Okay. Charlie Chaplain have a nice
19:27 saying here. If we cannot laugh at a
19:30 joke again and again, why then can we
19:33 cry over our worries over and over
19:35 again? Yeah. So always remember that.
19:38 So what do we do then? If it's we ask us
19:42 not to worry and security is not our
19:45 main focus of life. The solution will be
19:49 according to the text focus on his
19:51 kingdom. Four you see money has the
19:54 potential to show what you value most.
19:56 Okay. If you really search your heart
19:58 you will find that if you if you value
20:02 the most in life that can potentially
20:04 become your idol.
20:10 Okay, from the text again you see for
20:12 your father has been pleased to give you
20:14 the kingdom
20:17 for where your heart is is where your
20:19 where your treasure is that's where your
20:21 heart is also. Okay. So prioritization
20:25 prioritization of the kingdom will allow
20:28 everything else to fall in place because
20:30 he has promised you according to the
20:32 text again and your heart reveals your
20:34 treasure. But is it really that simple?
20:38 Yeah.
20:40 St. Augustine of Hippo uh early
20:42 Christian theologian he says that the
20:45 quest for happiness consists in
20:46 attaching ourselves to in love to
20:49 projects objects of desire that we think
20:52 will make us happy. But for this to
20:53 occur a knowledge of metaphysical order
20:55 and value objects of love is necessary
20:58 such a love might be probably ordered.
21:01 Now you guys are probably a bit confused
21:03 like me just right now. There's a whole
21:05 a lot of words here. Yeah. But it's all
21:07 about prioritization. Yeah. That's what
21:10 he's saying. Prioritization.
21:13 So let me explain bit what Augustine is
21:15 trying to say here because I didn't
21:17 realize this until I did this study that
21:20 I I actually get it. You know before I
21:22 think you have seen this message before
21:24 by Dr. Peter but I didn't get it myself.
21:27 So we have friends, we have food, we
21:29 have all this love in our life. Yeah.
21:32 But according to Augustine, we have to
21:36 put it into an order. Okay? It has to
21:38 have an order. Okay? And how the order
21:43 is prioritized,
21:45 it will determine what you become. Yeah.
21:48 Example here is that if you prioritize
21:51 food, uh drinking, laying around, having
21:54 a good time, this is what you end up,
21:57 right?
21:59 Homeless.
22:03 fat person. Yeah.
22:07 And if you prioritize like this uh your
22:10 wealth, your job, your house, okay, you
22:15 end up probably
22:17 a rich divorced man. Yeah. Very
22:20 illegible. Yeah.
22:22 So again, all problems of life suffering
22:27 because of disorder love. So it's a very
22:29 simple way of putting it. That's what
22:30 Augustine is trying to tell us.
22:33 So all we should do is reorder our
22:35 lives. Uh only love for the immutable
22:38 can bring tranquility. If your greatest
22:41 love is based on something that cannot
22:42 change or be taken away, then you will
22:45 have perfect peace and tranquility and
22:47 satisfaction. So the only thing that
22:49 cannot change of course will be the
22:52 kingdom. Yeah. Seeking God, putting God
22:54 first. If you put God first as in uh
22:58 Deuteronomy 5 from 8 to9, you must not
23:01 take make of yourself an idol of any
23:04 kind or an image of anything you in the
23:06 heavens or the earth or in the sea.
23:08 Okay.
23:11 And it's very easy to forget God. Yeah.
23:13 Just like we we focus on what we value
23:15 most whether it's wealth or your family
23:18 or your job and we forget about God very
23:21 easily. In fact, uh it almost take no
23:24 effort to forget about God. Yeah. I was
23:27 telling my cell group a while back uh in
23:30 the life group that while you're doing
23:31 your family planning, you know,
23:33 holidays, uh planning for your child,
23:35 your children as they growing up, going
23:37 to school, university, are you planning
23:39 all those things? Me and my wife, I
23:41 realized personally that I forgot to ask
23:44 God about the plan. Yeah. It was my
23:46 plan. Yeah. Me, my wife, the children,
23:49 it's our plan. But we didn't even bruh
23:52 bring God into it. So you see it's that
23:54 easy to forget about God just like that.
23:56 And a lot of you may say what's the big
23:58 deal? Well imagine uh your SP your your
24:02 daughter or your son Yeah. did not
24:05 include you in
24:09 say his wedding plans did not invite you
24:13 forgot about you. How would you feel?
24:16 Angry.
24:16 Angry. Yeah. Exactly. That's how God
24:18 feel. Yeah. so easy to forget and we
24:20 think it's no big deal but it is if we
24:22 put in the right context.
24:24 Okay. So again uh are you on time? Yeah.
24:28 Okay. I'm doing fine on time.
24:32 So these are the three things that we
24:33 have learned today. Hopefully that uh
24:36 you have grabbed it clearly. Life is not
24:39 about security
24:42 and wealth money. Yeah. And you should
24:44 not worry too much because you're not uh
24:47 really in control. There's no need to
24:49 focus on worry. In fact, you should
24:51 always focus on his kingdom and the lord
24:53 because that's where you will find your
24:58 wealth in life. Okay? So, if you start
25:01 to uh
25:04 lose a little bit of uh your thinking a
25:06 little bit, remember the characters that
25:08 uh the stories that you have heard about
25:10 the ant. Yeah. about the greyhound,
25:13 about the little kisses that imaginary
25:16 kisses. Those are things that you should
25:18 think about. Hopefully, you help you
25:19 ground you in your daily life as you
25:21 approach and uh your your life with uh
25:25 Christ here. Okay,
25:28 I would like to end this uh by calling
25:31 uh Arnold to the stage.
