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00:00:00 good morning church uh thanks to Andrea for sharing her testimony so today's scripture reading will be taken from the book of James in chapter 5 from verse 1 to 6 I'll be using the NIV version now listen you rich people weep and will because of the misery that is coming upon you your wealth has rotted and Ms have eaten your clothes your gold and silver are corroded their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire you have hoed wealth in the last days look the wages you failed
00:00:38 to pay the workmen who mold your fields are crying out against you the cries of the Harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty you have lived on Earth in luxury and self-indulgence you have fattened yourself in the days of Slaughter you have condemned and murdered innocent men who are not opposing you this is the word of the Lord e and Pastor REM be sharing on attend Topic in 19 November now today we're talking about very interesting topic something that all of you think about every single day what is it money money
00:02:09 who doesn't like money everybody likes money right right so all of you likes money so today we want to talk about money lot of times when you meet your brothers and sisters you meet people you don't want talk about money shy don't want talk about talk about other things family all that's okay but as how much you earn can can me someone ask how much you earn you don't talk to people about like this right but today I want to do something very special right we over here we actually brothers and sisters in
00:02:36 chis know right um and so I've been FBC since 2016 until now as well and I can tell you my life changed a lot since 2018 when I started to connect with the church so I wish for all of you to do the same so how we going to do it we're going to do is I'm going to actually ask you to talk to each other during sermon itself okay all right now so very simple one right so why I want you to do is I just want you to talk to the person sitting next to you two or three people together right so quickly just uh can
00:03:05 you look uh to your left or right just say hello say can I just point so make sure that you find a person that you want talk to right two or three people together right and for those of you who are in church for a long time make sure that nobody's left left behind right if you see anyone that alone then what you do is you make sure they just join them so two or three four doesn't matter as everyone talks together and I want to talk about something very simple first one listen look at me first one I want
00:03:30 you to tell them your name simple right second one I want you to tell them do you think you are rich or not okay and third one I so F say no right the third one can money buy happiness or not okay so I'm going to give you two minutes can you please talk to your friends husband and wife don't talk together talk to next person please okay they know you know each other's name already can two minutes quickly okay ushers can you me just go around if you see anyone that's alone talk to as well right make sure everyone is
00:04:02 connected okay I think I see a person here alone emine can you turn the back I think that's yeah yeah okay I just make sure you have somebody that you can talk to as well okay that's 2 minutes okay yeah okay make sure everybody's uh connected H sorry hi sister I'm John nice meting you yeah yeah someone talk to you yeah yeah all [Music] right okay our friends at the outside also go ahead H okay very simple question only okay okay all right uh so hopefully you got to know some new friends today right
00:05:28 and come back come back okay come back come back let's continue okay later I give you one more chance don't worry okay those of you like to talk don't worry later I you get one more chance all right so hopefully you get to know each other and after uh the service can continue to connect as well now so so how many of you think you are rich not many h w okay don't know I rich all right the rest not that much okay can money buy happiness so I'm going to address these two questions for you over here first one this is the statistics
00:05:59 for from Malaysia and this is how we split the uh income of the nation into three different groups top 20 M40 and b40 So based on your income you can see over here where you are right so according to Malia standards if you earn if your household not you your household meaning your husband and wife together earn let's say 15,000 or so you're consider in top 20 if you're actually earning about 7,700 or so you're actually in the middle class and if you're earning both of you husband and wife is earning 3,400
00:06:32 meaning 1% earn 1,700 ring you're at the b40 group right so this is the uh stats given by the Malaysian government however if you see the global stats this is how it looks right if you see in the global wealth Premier you see that the world disparity of income is actually very very big now so if you look at the dark blue section 627 million actually earning 100,000 to $1 million which means if you own a house in Malaysia you have a car you actually there already which means you're actually at the top 12% to top 13% of
00:07:08 the entire world which means actually Malaysians in general globally are considered rich and FBC members are actually very rich okay fair all right now so today you get happier when you go home people ask Rich or not I'm very rich I'm not rich I'm very rich all right next one now in fact why we always want money we talk about money why because money can really buy happiness this is a newest study done by canman and Killingsworth and last time people said money cannot buy happiness but the truth is it can
00:07:43 buy your happiness right what they did is they actually said that if they did a research they found that they they ask everybody have something to click on their device given to them and at random times in the day asking them to click are you happy or not if you're happy you click yes so it gives to some rich people some poor people and according to across the whole society and ask them to try to click and what they realize is the Richer you get the more times you click maybe you're very free right so
00:08:08 you keep on clicking is out you're very happy right but the fact they're saying is money actually can can give you happiness do you agree or not temporary now let me show you this one uh money can give you what you can get friends if you if you're lonely but you got a billion dollars can tell you you never be lonely everybody wants to be your friends after that you can get status the park guard will salute you okay you say in your Gator GED area everybody want to call you d right you can buy anything you want you can take
00:08:38 care of your family can do all these things right and finally you feel security when you sleep you can sleep with money also correct so money is really very powerful and something all vers one and in fact if you have enough money you can even talk to Prime Ministers and presidents you can move people true or not so what is money money is actually power money isn't just something you keep in your wallet money is power if you give a billion dollars FBC I think a lot of things will change Al not Hallelujah right so therefore money is
00:09:14 really power and in fact uh some of you have you heard of this before they say money can't buy happiness but rather trry in and BMW than on the bicycle right so I don't know how true it is um but basically this is what people say I mean look look at it quite true money there's a lot of things you can do right right money cannot do a lot of things but at the same time if money can go to the doctor no money had to go to doctor there's all issues right and at this point look at all this thing this is where James 5 comes in now
00:09:45 listen what it says over here I'll try to read a little bit more with gusto for you now listen you rich people okay all of you rich people right all right listen weep and wh okay ask you to cry because the misery that's coming to to you okay there's judgment coming to not just you to me as well right right I'm also quite Rich right right your wealth has rotted and mobs have eaten your clothes your gold and silver are corroded their corion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire you have hoarded wealth in the last days
00:10:20 we the last days you you hoarded wealth look the wages you fail to pay the workers who mow your felds are crying out against you the cries of the Harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty you have lived on Earth in luxury I do know I live in luxury but apparently right and Self Indulgence you have fattened yourselves in the day of Slaughter you have condemned and murdered the innocent one who was not opposing you well suddenly this sermon become very sus right all right but this is what scripture says and we want to go
00:10:54 through together and listen in right now so let's look at it together with our objective mind and understand that You Are Not Alone we all in this together as a told you Malaysians are considered rich right so what does Jameson tell us what you see here is although we say money is so good and we like it but God is giving you so much warnings asking you to whip and whale and saying that what you do here how you save your money this money will testify against you when you see God next time it's saying that
00:11:21 we are fattening ourselves in the day of SL if you are not taking care of money correctly so there are enough Bible passages everywhere warning us about money it says here in James 1 the rich should take pride in their humiliation and this is what Jesus says woe to you who are rich okay in Chinese it means y means okay rich people you got trouble already okay you cannot serve both God and money it says over here and over here this is another Parable by Jesus he says this very night your life will be
00:11:50 demanded from you for the person who actually stored up wealth in his b house and doesn't want to give it out and who actually not rich to God now so what I'm trying to share with you is now is money good or bad it isi okay hard to say right a lot of us we say money is not bad is money Evil all of you know answer no money is not evil the love of money is e is a root of all evil yes or no but we don't think enough of it actually the answer is money is not evil but money is actually very dangerous money is power it's neutral
00:12:27 it's like dynamite it's not evil is just Dynamite but it's very powerful and therefore it's very dangerous okay so the first point I hope you can bring home today don't just say oh yeah just money every time you come across money anytime someone comes to you with a business deal a business opportunity or ask you to do a career change a job it's involving money and it's actually something you need to contemplate in deeper detail so first point for you is money is a dangerous resource it's not bad but it's a
00:12:55 dangerous thing just like gas tank at home you be careful with it right okay first point the second to today we want to talk about is God expects us to manage our resources the right way okay God expects us to manage our resources the right way James F3 he says you have harded wealth in the last days look the wages you fail and so what what I did is highlight the three things it actually is talking about first thing he's talking about people holding money the second thing he's talking about people
00:13:23 failing to pay their workers and number three is talking about people living on Earth in luxury and self-indulgence three different things right so when you see this so if you see you hear James actually admonishing and saying that we shouldn't do certain things but how should you leave then do you see it say say what you should do it doesn't say you know it doesn't explicit tell you what you're supposed to do what's hoing how much money can you keep in a bank before it's hoing 1,000 r 1 million 10 million what's the answer
00:13:59 what is Lu luy if I buy a LV is it luxury or not so faster some say yes right if I buy a uh Honda luxury or not no Honda because everybody got so is okay all right so what what is it but the point is this if you really care I want to bring you back to I need to do a bit of background with you so you understand how to actually interpret and understand it a bit better the question is who did James write this letter to and if you see James verse one uh one verse it says James the Son of God and of the Lord
00:14:32 Jesus Christ to wrote this letter to the 12 tribes scattered among the Nations this letter is written to Christians who know God and who actually were previously Jews actually worship in the synagogue so they know God they read the Torah they know who God is you understand context and so what happened is it's implicit that these people when they read it and they say that they shouldn't H wealth they know what they should do they know what's the opposite of not hoing wealth and it's not just just not earning money it's not just not
00:15:01 spending money it's more than that and to to actually explain that I need to just explain to introduce introduces himself in jeremi Jeremiah 9:24 that the one who boasts boast about this that they have the understanding to know me that I am the Lord who exercises kindness Justice and righteousness on Earth for in these I Delight when you read this in the for me as a Christian for 30 30 plus years now I read it at okay so God is kind God is just and righteous but I I don't really fully appreciate what it is until quite
00:15:38 recently what does Justice and righteousness really mean Justice is this word mishpat okay in Hebrew and righteousness is this word called Saka in Hebrew and some of you may have heard of this word before your Muslim friends say all the time Saka Saka what does it really mean okay I'm going to explain this to you so you can understand James 5 better this is our modern idea of justice justice means that if somebody do something wrong you bring in a judge the judge will give Justice which means everybody is treated fairly treated
00:16:09 equally and righteousness in our own eyes a lot of times we think that this is a boy a man that looks righteous nerdy doesn't throw rubbish everywhere goes to work that's righteousness okay A lot of times we say a person is moral this is what we see is it true but the word justice and righteousness that is stated in God's word is different it's way more than this what is mishpat what is justice justice is actually giving people what they are do whether it's good whether it's actually something to
00:16:42 punish them or something to reward them as well for example if a person does something wrong you need to give them Justice you may need to actually do something give them a punishment for example for some some wrongdoing but if a person needs help okay for example they've unjustly been treated you need to help them as well so that is actually mishpat which means that it's not just what the court says but is it goes Way Beyond the the courtrooms as well right I explain together with Saka for you
00:17:10 understand what sadaka sadaka basically means having right relationship with each other okay treating others with dignity as the image of God which means that Justice is not something moral that you can hold on to yourself Justice and righteousness is actually a relationship term it's a term that is relational it's how how you treat others that is Justice and righteousness it's not something you practice at home it's something you practice in the society in community so let me show you how it looks in the
00:17:41 Bible for example this is job when he was complaining to God this is what he says I put on righteousness as my clothing Justice was my rope and my turban I was eyes to the Blind and feet to the lame or father to the needy I took up to the case of the strangers I broke the fangs of the w and snatched the victims from their teeth so if you see when he says righteousness Saka and Justice mishpat this is how he explains elaborates it how does he resemble how does he leave it out he was eyes to the blind when a person cannot see he was
00:18:15 the eyes to the person he was fit to Lan when the person cannot walk he was there to help them for I was father to needy I took the case of the strangers even the foreigners the migrants illegal people I was there for them I broke the fangs Wicked and is not just natur isn't neutral he's Brave to actually stand against the wicked and snatch the victims from their teeth and this is a picture of justice and righteousness that a lot of times we may not fully see so perhaps if you see Justice next time
00:18:43 this is Justice this is not charity it changes your entire world view when you see this way a lot of times I wonder why people want to go and do charity every do charity but in God's term this is not charity this is not optional it's not something that you do because oh uh I'm just uh too free so I do charity because you see people as the image of God you want each other to be in equal terms because God loves them you give them what they need when they don't have food you give them food this is mish part this is
00:19:16 Justice okay what is righteousness righteousness means that you are able to connect with everybody you see each other eye to eye you don't have different levels of society what Rich say here the poor say in Curr soci you have to have it but in the eyes of for example the church you won't have somebody is treated differently everybody is treated well that is righteousness that is Saka okay with this background now we can look at the text so sorry before that so if you look at the Old Testament it's filled with Justice righteousness
00:19:48 everywhere and when I read it you can see the word of God is really so amazing when you read it for example in dety is asking to be fair to your customers that's Justice paying people prompt giving profits to the poor the poor and forign they don't have land they do not raise they do not grow crops and yet what is asking the land owners do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleen or your harest leave something for the poor to take that is Justice land even if you don't get repaid in fact on the seven year so in
00:20:21 in Israel last time what happen is every seven year you need to cancel the death so after seven years even though I owe you a million bucks I'm going to cancel it that was last time right so it was a de year of canceling that and this is what God says do not show ill will towards the needy amount of fell Israelites and give them nothing you know that the seven years is coming so I don't want to borrow away money because you you I need to cancel the debt God says don't do that if they need it you
00:20:45 need to lend to them and not even expecting to be repaid and over here final one when you actually have a vineard people can come into a Vine and eat that is Justice and righteousness it totally blows our current societies M right can you imagine people come to your house hey I Take 5 ring from you like what's wrong with you you're stealing right but over here is saying that when you grow something when you build something when you have a business you're supposed to provide for the needy inside it's supposed to factor inside
00:21:13 already so how is Justice and righteousness applied in our text when you see over here I'm going to explain the three different things one by one for you first one dishonest gains James 54 it says look the wages you failed to pay the workers who mold your fields are cry out against you so when you read it maybe you be thinking so we need to pay our workers on time but is that all there is no it's actually talking about dishonest gains it's talking about how you earn your money how you acquire money are you
00:21:45 acquiring correctly somebody saying that I'm not doing business so it doesn't matter to me no not true let me explain to you one Are you delivering good quality services or products to society are you being a good employeer or not if you know whether you are having dishonor gain ask yourself this Are you delivering a good job to your customer or your boss next one are you working too much or too little perhaps are you actually hurting yourself when you do that are you earning too much now this is actually something that nobody talks
00:22:19 about in society we asked to maximize our profits so the most the more you can earn the more you should earn but in the Bible actually the answer is not like that as well so what we're supposed to do is like what Jeff basos is saying here there two kinds of companies in this world the first type are those that will work to try to charge more and the second type are those that will try to charge less so how to charge less you become more and more efficient you're able to scale your company so that instead of you needing to charge
00:22:55 one ring for a service now you can charge for 50 cents right so you come technology come with different things to make your products and services more and more affordable for people so this is what in a way what the Bible saying at the same time you're supposed to pay your vendors and your employees more and more so next time ask your boss to come here you know right then your boss will listen after that they will actually change right because when Jeff B says this he took the first part right why he
00:23:22 wants to do this because he wants to increase his Revenue because you can lower down cost increase of productivity you can earn more but the second part didn't do he makes it harder and harder to work for Amazon so this is a post from an employee he said today Amazon gave me a verbal warning why because I went to the bathroom while not on Breck canot go to toilet you think it's okay they have a new that they don't allow bathroom breaks if you don't get permission now so I may be fired or I may have to quit
00:23:52 so is this honest gain in the eyes of the law can you can write laws you can do many things but is this really honest games or not and God says no maybe a few questions to ask yourself will you be your own customer there a very good test if you want to know whether you're actually doing a good job whether you're having honest Gams or not ask yourself will you be your own customer will you want to hire yourself or not or the fifth one would Jesus want to be your customer okay ask yourself every day
00:24:24 would Jesus hire me actually second point indou you have lived on Earth in luxury and self-indulgence now this one is very hard to say how do you know whether you're living on Earth in luxury and self-indulgence when you read the text alone you can't really tell but when you look at what is Justice and righteousness what is Saka then you said oh I'm supposed to treat other people equally fairly and if you see someone needs help I need to help them then it helps you to understand how much in how
00:24:54 much luxury you can have that gives you an idea of how it is so how much is this back worth her my wife doesn't get to buy this so I don't know yeah so I think it's over a lot of money right and so we we don't have we may not have this problem but we may have other problems like this in Malaysia we waste the most food is this considered Indulgence I think answer is yes how we take care of the food how they take care everything we have do we really appreciate the things we have and so a few questions for you to take home and
00:25:31 think about as well are you conscious that you're taking care of God's money when you talk about indulging and another question is do you realize that you are actually possessing and taking care of the money you're stewarding the money but the money doesn't belong to you it belongs to God and so when I put everything in context say oh that's why I cannot indulge it they can indulge I cannot have dishonest gains why would I take acquired dishonest gains if the money belongs to God it doesn't make
00:25:57 sense anymore next one are you spending less than you can afford and this is what Tim K said which is very good he's saying this if you earn 10,000 ring if you don't no whether indulging yourself ask yourself this question are you spending less than you can afford one time you're supposed to spend less than you afford meaning that if you can buy a Ferrari you shouldn't buy a Ferrari you should buy maybe a Mercedes or a Honda if you can buy a Honda you should buy a proton instead okay you should spend less than
00:26:29 you can afford why because the money you earn how a portion need to give to who to the poor to people to serve can you see or not right next one are you consistently allocating money to the L fortunate this question for you to ask yourself and so that is on indulging and for you to think about at home as well okay now this go YouTube I can online and find these questions ask yourself again and final one over here hoing your gold and silver are are corroded their corrosion will testify against you and
00:27:01 eat your flesh like fire you have hoed wealth in the last days if you see over here hoing is something that a lot of times we think that only maybe they Rich do but answer is no the poor do it as well in fact sometimes I I think that maybe the poor do even more than the rich every single 10 cents 5 cents also want to count you know do you think that's correct every day look at bank account how much money I have now that's hoing so question is how do you think about whether you're holding or not
00:27:30 right so people ask can I save money for my children or not yeah I got 20 million in the bank but I'm saving for my children then maybe I'm saving for my grandchildren also what so how do you define whether you're holding or not the first question for ask you is are you saving for a rainy day or I saving for a rainy Century okay I saving for one day or saving for one year or 10 years or 100 years can you really actually so for those of you because we have a lot of rich people here retired the money that
00:27:58 you have actually can you really finish it or not if you cannot finish it is it really the best decision to keep in the bank it's for you to design I'm not telling you anything right it's for you to think but is it really wise to leave so much money to your children sorry as kids sorry for those of you who have a richan right but it's a good question to ask is it really wise why I'm saying is also because you have met a lot of rich people and sometimes without going through adversities you don't grow as a
00:28:26 person you don't grow as character it doesn't really help them to give them so much money perhaps you should take the money and go for Holiday perhaps you should take give to FBC or perhaps you should take the money and take care of yourself I know people who have a lot of money but don't want to spend the money don't want to eat healthier cannot buy fruits cannot buy things why because very expensive now you know increase 20 cents already all right so the parking everything was on the account count so we need to think
00:28:53 really are we hoing or not and final final one if Jesus would come back to today would Jesus be happy to see your bank account seriously if you have led 20 million and Jesus comes back today would Jesus be happy to say good job you saved 20 million now we don't use it anymore right it's f for you to ask yourself over here and final one is there a better use for your money than soring the bank so these are things for you to ask yourself and so what I'm going to ask you to do now is can you please talk to your friends I'm just
00:29:25 going to give you two more minutes so we have many things right right so so you don't need to go through in details right but I just want you this four things that you see here right just talk to your friend and talk to each other what what any of this spoke to you spoke to you not you you only got two minutes only okay two minutes quickly just check okay talk to your friends a bit after service can talk bit more can I get two more minutes okay talk to your friends a bit two minutes go go go go
00:29:54 okay okay our friends online next time you come to church you come to church next time can talk to people okay so any of these questions spoke to you just chat with them what do you learn now [Music] [Music] come H okay so I hope you have a bit of chat I know that there not enough time sorry because time is running as so but uh after this can connect talking at the globe Cafe can exchange phone numbers and then check each other's bank account you want to next time all right so uh never mind we come back come back we
00:31:23 come back to continue so we we never done this before but um I do training a lot last time and I find that people always benefit when they connect cuz the life is way better than your friends right right so I hope hope that gives you a bit of idea right no more talking you get after service then you talk more okay right next one so the second Point as I sh was God expects us to manage our resources the right way the third point we have is that our actions will always create an impact our actions will always
00:31:52 create an impact if you see the text over here verse four look the wages you fail to pay the workers who mow your fields are crying against you many times when you are working when you are doing business or maybe even you're at home or maybe you're trying to pay for a service you do not try to kill people right I don't think anyone tries to murder but you see verse six it says you have condemned and murdered the innocent one who was not OPP opposing you whether you know it or not what you do have an
00:32:22 impact if you withhold wages from people and they don't have money to eat what happens to them they die right so what we do always will leave an impact so every single action how you do your work it does make an impact so we cannot talk about money just like so we're not talking about money we're talking about our attitude to the resources in the world our attitude to actually our work our attitude to the time God has given to us that is the main thing we're talking about today and our decisions
00:32:53 our actions all have impact so for example over here this is a news in March one a uh a mother is suing the airline suing American Airlines why because they say that they have committed negligence and caused the son's death so the son actually had a cardiac arrest in the plane and so there was a doctor on board the doctor said quickly get me the AED okay so it's actually something that actually resuscitate the person they brought it here and the answer is I have it but we look at it answer is the
00:33:23 device was not charged no battery so cannot actually revive the person so you think charging battery I nobody use and don't care but you have committed murder you have committed murder when you don't charge batteries so friends when you see like our actions are one day when you see God you realize that it's like a butterfly effect when something small you do something small you don't know where it's going to go and today the friend I just met you don't know where it's going to go maybe because of this the friend
00:33:55 stays here in church longer and he brings some else and his life changes we don't know but every single action you do matters to God because you're made in image of God and this is given you power the animals don't have this what the dog does doesn't really matter but humans are different humans matter because we all made in image of God so in the story of the five Los and two fish it's not story an actual incident when Jesus gave the five Los and two fish fish if you read the text there was a boy who had Five Loaves and two fish
00:34:33 my pastor many many years ago Shar with me do you know that actually it's very common for them when they go for any hiking or any any they go out they always bring food one which means that actually within the committee at the time when go when Jesus was asking who has food so they can distribute the food actually there will definitely be more people who have food but only this one boy only this one boy gave up his 5 and 2 the adults me say I'm hungry and keep only this boy gave it and because of
00:35:02 this one boy's action 5,000 were fed so you may say that I don't have a billion but it's okay you have your time you have something God has given you you have the resources God has given you and that is what God calls you to account for only not what you don't have just what you have that's it right so for those of you who are um wondering where I went two two weeks ago I just want to say thanks to FBC as well for being so gracious uh especially to Dr Peter for being so gracious and covering for uh for me for for this sermon um
00:35:38 that happened so I was supposed to preach two weeks ago um but I didn't the reason was because this um YB Yin invited me to go for a opening ceremony for this Kido foot bank that she's starting in pong so in context what happens is she's actually in charge of the pong consitency and in the pong constituency there are a lot of children who are malnourished malnourish is a word that none of you would hear about because your children are very well taken care of malnourish means that they don't have
00:36:11 enough food to eat and someone has stunted what does stunted mean stunted means they cannot grow taller they become shorter than the age why because the parents don't have enough money to buy food for them to eat so what we did is she came to me and asked hey uh we want to distribute a to them is that we can use the system that my company has actually do it and after discussing we came an answer and they actually need to address this one more question the problem with eight is this a lot of times when politicians distribute eight
00:36:41 they just distribute off then after that whether it's going given to the right person nobody knows and a lot of times you know where does the eight go when you give milk powder to the children you know where does the milk powder go they sell it away because of that any we we poor people don't need to drink this we we can actually you know uh just drink this so super cut this what they drink they give suut to the children drink and they grow but how can you have nutrients for them so for y as you look at she said that she want to
00:37:14 distribute in a way that the aid really gies are given to the responsible parents and so that the children can really get it and so using a system we have we devised a way to do it whereby the aid will definitely be given to the right person and there's no way you can cheat okay I can't go through details over here but in short why we want to do this is on the long run if you can distribute it effectively then everybody benefits right so uh this is team that we have over here my brother was there
00:37:41 together with me and also my wife so we came on Sunday to do this uh for for the committee over there and so yeah these are some photos over here and so perhaps I don't have a lot of money but I have the talents that God has given me I have uh a few team members I have people who can work together and so we do what we can because answer is our actions always lead to consequences but what does it re what what results come out of it is something that depends on what we do yeah and so but why are we to live with
00:38:22 righteousness why are we to live with righteousness why should we live in a way that practice Saka because in Deuteronomy 610 it says when the Lord your God brings you in the land he saw to your fathers to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give you a land with large flourishing cities you did not build houses with all kinds of feelings you did not provide well you did not dig and vineard and Olive groes you did not plant then may eat and are satisfi be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt we are
00:38:52 people who have experienced Grace we are people who have received Redemption from Christ what can compare to Salvation what can compare to knowing Jesus nothing and so we the richest people on Earth with this can we still be tight fisted to count our 10 cents 20 cents every single time we buy things when we pass by a person or maybe when we having our lunch and someone comes and ask for money do we start thinking should I give to you you or maybe you actually from The Syndicate what if it's not from The
00:39:31 Syndicate does it really pain you to give few ring to him so it's something for us to think there's no right there's no hard and fast fruit for everyone but it's something for us to think and go back and discuss because one day God will call us to be accountable for this but what we know is this Justice and righteousness became human in Luke 4:18 this is what Jesus read the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to Proclaim good news to the poor he sent me to Proclaim freedom for the prisoners and
00:40:08 recovery of sight for the blind to set the oppressed free to to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor when the gospel is preached it doesn't just go and talk about salvation it does all this together there's also freedom for prisoners people who are actually still struggling for things recovery asight from blind we try to help people who are sick we try to do what we can okay people are oppressed in slavery we try to help them so this is what we supposed to do and this is how the world is supposed to be and so why
00:40:47 we can do this is not because of stoicism it's not because we are strong but because in 2 Corinthians 8:9 it says for you know the grace of Allah Jesus Christ that though he was was rich though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich we can do all this because Christ has done for us not because we see the eye God spare change in my bank accounts or no because God has given you everything and when you become Christian it means that because God can take this pain God can sacrifice
00:41:24 for others you can sacrifice others Justice and righteousness is not just giving spare change the truth is I'm telling myself you're supposed to give until it hurts as well if it doesn't hurt it is not Justice and righteousness because it means that I actually kep spare so if everyone can do this what happens is the word of God will actually be able to practice well in Deuteronomy 14:4 it say says there need be no poor people among you so how can there be no poor people among you and we see acts 4 it
00:42:05 happens actually in the Community of Christ it says verse 34 here there there were no needy persons among them God's word would preach and people really follow and Obey and live together as God's people until there were no needy people when the book of Acts was written I'm very sure to tell you the reason why this sentence was written because Deuteronomy actually says this is how supposed so showing you the picture of the commit of Christ how powerful it is how glorious it can be when everyone really listens and
00:42:38 Obey so today we learn three things first one money is a dangerous resource it's not evil but it's dangerous it's like dynamite you handle it with care whenever you talk about money you talk about you look at stomach whatever you do understand it is a danger resources that can be detrimental to you so be very careful handle it number two God expects us to manage resources the right way and number three our actions will always create an impact what the impact does it depends on you and before if
00:43:10 some of you didn't get it as well your inaction creates an impact as well not just your action your inaction your decision to stay home to not do anything to watch more Netflix instead of coming to serve or instead of going to talk to your neighbor it always creates impact and for us we are called to say that because Christ has loved us we can choose to say that we want to love others the same way that Christ has loved us so that's all I have can I ask uh the worship team brothers and sisters as we
00:43:44 think about all these things that God has done for us I pray that you look at what God has given to you we've been given different things some of you have been given many children some of you have given talents some of you given a lot of time some of you given a lot of treasures and so if you see what is Justice what is mishpat what is righteousness or sadaka or a better English term is social justice then we can think how should respond to this God who loves Justice and righteousness thank you John church can
00:44:28 uh can we rise and uh let's just Ponder I think it was a really interesting message uh it's also very practical as well right uh a lot of things for us to think about and as we Ponder upon uh the questions that you know uh he gave us let us also as we sing this song Let Us reflect how we can uh give to God um our life and surrendering our ways of leaving to him and allow him to um lead us in our life Lord I offer my life to you everything i' been through use it for your glory Lord I offer my days to you
00:45:25 lifting my praise to you as a pleasing [Music] sacrifice Lord I offer you my [Music] life all that I am all that [Music] I I laay them down before you oh Lord all my regrets all my Acclaim the joy and the pain I'm making them yours Lord I offer my life to you everything I been true use it For Your Glory Lord I offer my days to you lifting my praise to you as a pleasing sacrifice Lord I offer you my [Music] life things in the past things yet unseen wishes and dreams that are yet to come true all of my
00:47:09 hopes all of my plans my heart and my hands are lift up to you Lord I offer my life to you everything I've been through use it for your glory Lord I offer my days to you lifting my praise to you as a pleasing sacrifice Lord I offer you my love [Music] and what can we give that you have not GI and what do we have that is not already yours oh we possess our this life we were living that's what we live to you lord lord I offer my life to you everything I've been true use it for your glory Lord I offer my days to you
00:48:43 lifting my praise to you as a pleasing sacrifice Lord I offer you my [Music] life Lord I offer [Music] you as a in um pianist continues to to play can I ask all of us to Bow our heads I just want to pray for all us [Music] together today we talk about something that something that's very very dear to our hearts from Monday to Friday we work and many of us from Monday to Sunday we think about money as well we think about how to make ants meet how to get our kids to be go to school to pay for food
00:49:45 on the table and we know this is not easy and life just gets harder and harder but I I want to just give us a time to commit our finances to the Lord so some of us at the same time are at the far end of spectrum we have really so much that when we die we have money to give to our children we don't worry and we do that because we love them so we want to give to them we fully understand I understand that at the same time perhaps God is asking you to to really think true what should we do with our lives not
00:50:29 just our our money but our time the days that God has given us the talent I know a lot of people of you of you are very talented does God want you to use your talent the current way or are you using it so when of us really think about [Music] this just for a moment [Music] father God we we want to give thanks to you for the time you have altered to us the Lord you still allow us to be here and give thanks to the talents that you given to us Lord that we able to earn an income to take care of families we give thanks to you for the
00:51:30 treasures that you've given to us and we want to be mindful of using it well but Lord we also want to pray for all those Among Us who may be struggling to look for jobs to perhaps to make the business work or perhaps those of us who are not even working and just wondering what to do Lord I know and Lord we know you love us and you have a word for us the Lord you see us even when nobody sees us even when when invisible to people around us but Lord you see us every tear that we cry every scream that we make in our hearts Lord you hear
00:52:24 it and Lord you have gone through suffering You Came To Die For Us you ate with Sinners you live among us you dwell with us and Lord with this we know that Lord you will be with us and Lord I pray that you help us to to commit Our Lives to you and say Lord we will become different people who understand Justice and righteousness who care for the orphans for the poor for the widows for the D children for the migrants for people who are neglected at work for people who are not Lov help us to be a to care for all
00:53:06 these people are we thank you for this in Jesus name we pray amen amen now receive the benediction for Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died and he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again open our eyes Lord to see your beauty and Glory open our hearts Lord to act in accordance with your will open our hands Lord to generously share what we have been given now may the Lord
00:53:44 bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace service is over after a moment silence prayer uh you may be dismissed for those of you who have made some new friends do continue chatting and enjoy yourself outside for those of you who need prayer to come to the front thank you
