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00:00 ing. Um, this is something that's been very dear to my heart. I'd like to
00:06 invite brother Harold Lin. Harold, where's Harrow? Harold, can you just come up here? He doesn't like to talk, but come up. Don't be so shy, Harold.
00:13 Harold, nobody knows Harold. So, you know, brother, we there's something I u
00:18 I like to suggest that is quite important to us. You see, we can do
00:24 Bible study, we can do prayer, we can do many things. I would like to propose to you the one thing we need in any church
00:30 is this word which we a lot of us are very afraid of is this word called accountability.
00:36 Um and that I think is why what's lacking and why many churches you have
00:42 people who hold very high positions in churches and they fall because no one's accountable. And I I'm very thankful
00:48 brother Harold has uh approached me. This is something I've been praying for a long time to actually start this. Now
00:53 what this is is basically a group for men. Actually the women started to read it already under Phelis you know but the
00:59 men no one stepped up to it. So now brother Harrow has agreed to lead this. Now what we're going to do we're going
01:05 to be doing this book called Men in the Mirror. U we want to encourage men to to
01:11 come forward and join us. Now what Harold wants to do is we'll do a kickoff meeting. Yeah. Uh anyone interested call
01:19 Harold or see either one of us. Now, this is not a Bible study group so much. It's an accountability group. So, if
01:25 you're struggling with a sin, uh you have issues, men uphold men. And you all
01:32 know men got issues that women don't have. Women have issues men don't have. And I'll tell you, I want to encourage
01:38 particularly if you're a church leader, come for this. You're a pastor, you're an elder, you're a deacon, you're a
01:44 preacher, you need this because that's honoring God. We don't need so much or
01:50 we do need activities. We do need prayer. We need Bible study. We need fellowship. But above everything else,
01:55 we need to be accountable. Now, let me tell you, part of me doesn't want to join him, but I know that is dishonoring
02:03 to the Lord. I want to encourage all of you to join Harold in this. Ken. All right. Thank you, Harold.
02:10 Okay. Let's open in a in a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you and uh to walk with you is something very
02:16 frightening. we rather walk ourselves but Lord uh you have called us on a journey and today as we look at Abraham
02:22 as he journeys on in his faith uh may we be humbled and encouraged and learn and
02:28 Lord we ask for your spirit to just anoint this place oh Lord that your spirit your real presence come here and
02:34 break us humble us and speak to us in a very real way as we look at this subject
02:39 today which is so real especially to men this morning we say this in Jesus name
02:45 amen And what is your
02:50 ambition in life?
02:55 Now ambition is a strange word, you know. Uh I I asked a friend of mine who wasn't a
03:01 Christian. He told me Christianity is a is a western religion. I say why? Because all the people who go to church
03:09 are all westernized. They all English speaking bananas. I mean there's some truth in that. I
03:15 mean when were the last time you see a hawker coming to church. So the default position is that
03:20 professionals become Christians. If you do a cut about the average income
03:25 around here, you'll be surprised the amount you you know is a very substantial. You look at you go and do a
03:31 survey of the kids in this year what schools they're going to you are looking at church attendance as upper income.
03:40 Now that means a significant proportion of people who come to our church or to many churches, English speaking churches
03:46 are professionals who spend time on their profession and their ambition.
03:53 That's point one. Point two, now here's the other issue. I was brought up in a church in Australia. They told me
03:59 ambition is bad. What's important? You should serve God. Made me feel bad if I try to advance my career. You should be
04:05 advancing the kingdom of God. So where's the dichotomy? Should you be spending more time at work or spending more time
04:10 at church? You know, that's the same question. And how about all you business people who
04:15 try to strategize work? You know, recession coming around the corner. You know, those of you who want to do blue
04:21 ocean strategy, you know, red or blue ocean, who move my cheese, you know,
04:26 positioning your business, your unique selling point, all of that. Where is God
04:31 in all of that? in your branding, marketing, risk management, uh all your
04:37 management tools and skills and your boardroom meetings you're doing next week. Where is God in all of that? So
04:44 this morning we look at ambition and we look at two people and both of them are
04:50 very ambitious and we study what is the right way to be ambitious and what is
04:57 the wrong way to be ambitious and it's is a great text. Great text. Okay. So if we just open our Bibles to to Genesis
05:03 chapter 13, I'll give you the background to the story. Okay. Now imagine in
05:09 modern English like that there were two shareholders in a company and their business was actually agriculture.
05:16 Okay. The chief chief shareholder was Abraham. Why do we know he was chief shareholder? Because it says at verse
05:23 one, Abraham had become very wealthy in livestock in silver and gold. Let me put
05:29 in simple English. He had a lot of assets. He had a very vast portfolio and he was
05:37 liquid. Put in linguish they all can understand. The minor shareholder was a relative like lot of these China man
05:43 companies. So his nephew or the other shareholder and again like many Chinese
05:48 company they started to fight quite familiar or in this case we don't know their people started to fight. Okay. And
05:56 of course what you have now here is you have a crisis. Okay? Because in their expansion plans their asset management
06:05 was not sustainable. I'm going to use a lot of lingo today. And since they could not sustain their
06:11 assets basically Abraham being executive
06:16 director stepped in this crisis management and he proposed a solution
06:23 and the solution is very odd. Because in any management tool they'll
06:29 tell you this is a stupid solution because he tells his hey let's not have any quarreling and the weird one let's
06:37 part company okay you go left I'll go right I'll go right I'll go left try to
06:43 do that in your boardroom next week I think you get fired okay so we'll take the story to there and this is where
06:50 we're going to take off okay Lord looked up and saw the whole plane of the Jordan
06:57 well watered like the garden of the Lord land of Egypt towards Zaha. So Lord chose from himself the whole plane of
07:04 the Jordan and set up to the east. Okay my uncle such a sucker asked me to choose I choose the best. You stupid to
07:10 do that I choose. Okay he choose prime real estate
07:16 freehole land no encumbrances he su the whole thing. Okay. So the
07:23 question we're going to ask ourselves this morning is what did Lot see? And we're going to say ask ourselves what
07:30 did Abraham see? You see the way the chapter is broken up is anchored by two
07:36 people seeing two things. This is what Lot saw verse 10. But if you go down to
07:42 verse 14, okay, you see Lord saying to Abraham and Lord says, "Lift up your
07:49 eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west." And Abraham
07:55 looked. So the text is framed that way. What did Abraham see? What did Lot see?
08:01 And we'll compare the two. And the question we throw ourselves today, what do you and I see in our career
08:08 advancements? Okay. Number one, very straightforward. What did he see? He saw an opportunity to be very prosperous
08:16 materially or in technical lingo. He sought to enhance his portfolio.
08:23 That's what it was. At that time, they had no money, but he was on a bull run.
08:28 He going to get a lot of boos, a lot of cows, a lot of cattle. But what he
08:34 didn't see was it's very simple. The way the text sets it up is there's no free
08:39 lunch. We know that there's no free lunch because the way the text says it
08:45 is that when when when Moses wrote this, he says this. He says in verse 13, the
08:51 men of Sodom were wicked and was sitting greatly against the Lord. That means there is a warning there already. Now,
08:58 what's the first simple lesson we learned here? First simple lesson is business failures
09:03 do not just begin with corporate mismanagement issues for all of you who
09:09 are doing business. Okay, recently I I I I I enhance my portfolio. Not here to
09:14 brag. Okay, but enhanced because God leading me certain way. I'm an architect. Uh last month I was appointed
09:20 director, non-executive director of a company. uh I do a lot of uh the HR, I
09:26 do the SOPs, I do the need statements, I do a lot of projections on the cash flow. So recently I've been learning a
09:32 bit of this now and what happens in a company when you've got cash flow issues, you mitigate it by doing
09:38 projections. That means you assume the risk is within that area. That means look we got a bank loan, okay, we have
09:44 financing but we cannot sustain. So you got to raise more capital. That means
09:50 you you you mitigate your failure within that portfolio or within that thing.
09:55 Now, scripture looks at it differently. You know, scripture tells you your financial problems don't begin with
10:02 financial mismanagement. It begins from another source. Now, let's pick up what it says. You see, in verse 12, it says
10:08 this. No. Abraham lived in the land of Canaan. Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitch his pen near Sodom.
10:18 Near? You know, but look what it happens when he goes to chapter 14 when
10:23 everything breaks loose. And this is what happened when people come in and and fight. You know, there's a war
10:29 breaks out. You know, the share market just completely collapses. Okay? And they say they carried off Abraham's
10:35 nephew, Lord, and his possessions. He's getting wiped out now. Since he was living, look at it near Sodom. No. What
10:44 is it in? He moved And he not only move, he moved his
10:51 possessions. Meaning in simple business term, he moves his capital of operations
10:57 into a city which was sinning greatly against the Lord.
11:04 He started outside. This the man that follow Abraham probably say, you know, I must honor the
11:10 Lord. I'm going to be outside. But what happens after a while? One inch closer. One inch closer. Then you're inside.
11:17 Then you bring your possessions. Then you bring your family. And why does he go into a city that is sinning against
11:23 the Lord? Very simple, right? He likes that life.
11:28 Now you you think about it. You think about it. What is the Bible telling you?
11:34 Lord's eventual disaster complete. No, he gets wiped out. You know, financially, personally, starts with a
11:42 relational failure. And first thing I want to address all of us
11:48 here who are upper middle income, let's not call it too many words. Here's the
11:54 danger, isn't it? You you it starts very small. It starts with a little compromise. You give one bribe. The guy
12:00 will hook you in. When you get a when you give a bribe, there's always a second bribe because you owe the guy.
12:08 You you go on drinking with the guy. Okay, ma. You get pissed one night because the guy
12:13 opens Johnny Walker, next week you bring in some harder liquor, then the girls will come and
12:20 then you move a little bit out. It can be anything. You play your accounts, account coming end of year. A
12:26 lot of people closing accounts now. There's a very big difference between tax planning and tax evasion. But the
12:32 line is very blurred, right? You cheat once because you fudged something. You know, you declared it overseas. You went
12:37 to Canaan Islands, Singapore. Singapore got very great tax breaks by the way. You guys know that, right? You play with
12:44 the numbers, you play with the days, you flip it around. He got away with it. Becomes habit. Fudge once, fudge twice,
12:51 fudge three times because GST a lot of money m and it becomes habit. And what scripture
12:58 tells us, it always starts with a relational breakdown. And it begins when
13:04 you break with God. So this morning I want to lovingly tell you I'm not here to judge anyone but
13:11 this is the first thing it begins. It begins with a relational breakdown with God. Second one he saw his relationship
13:19 with Abraham as a means to an end. Now how do you see that? Now you must understand this. This is what you call a
13:26 patriarchal society. Who's the chief shareholder? Abraham. He's the guy who's loaded, you
13:32 know. He's the taiko, you know. And you are the what? You're the young
13:38 punk, you know. When the taiko, the patriarch tells you,
13:44 "Okay, young man, you decide. You go left, I go right."
13:50 What is the common reply you should expect? We get this in the New Testament. When Jesus tells a centurion,
13:56 I will go to your home. And the soon children says, "I am not worthy to have
14:03 you come to my home. Just say the word." That is respect. It is when God tells Solomon, "What do you want?" And Solomon
14:10 says, "No, I will just honor you." And God honors him back. The correct response we all know, especially if
14:16 you're Asian, is you tell your uncle, "No, uncle, you decide." Correct or not?
14:23 It's a patriarchal society. Scholars all picked it up. But you know he's telling his uncle, you're a sucker.
14:29 No, you ask me to choose. Okay, I choose. I wall up the land. So he has gone into the red race.
14:38 People become a means to an end. Ask yourself how you climbed up. And we all
14:45 work. We all have people we don't like. People who backstabbed us, people who do
14:50 this to us and that to us. And there are two things I want to pick up. One is the ruthlessness of the working world. And I
14:58 want to tell you what scripture teaches us from Abraham's response. And there's another respond. You know, the fact that
15:05 people out there use people, manipulate people to get where they want. You know,
15:11 in the art of war, they always tell you the best way of winning a war is not to fight it.
15:16 You know, I read Dale Carnegie's book know how to win friends and influence people. It's a great book. It's a
15:22 sincere book. But the title is fantastic, isn't it? Look at the way the title goes. How to win friends and
15:30 influence people. The only book you need to lead you to success.
15:38 So if I'm a guy is completely insincere, very good salesman, can talk a lot. Hey,
15:43 look at me. You read a book like that. Because it teaches you to manipulate
15:49 people to get what you want. And this is Lot. No respect for
15:54 patriarchal order. No respect for the uncle who took him out to go to Canaan.
16:00 And you understand here, you can tell although Abraham became very rich. Obviously, Lord made money. He made
16:06 money on his own. Come on. He made money by what? By sucking up to his uncle. Let's call it for what it is. He wrote
16:13 on the uncle's coattails and made money. You see, when people become a means to
16:19 an end, it will end. God will become an
16:25 end to our means. You know what I mean or not? Actually, I got it wrong. It's means to an end. You
16:32 see, it flows. If you use people to get what you want, you will eventually use God. And here's the biggest danger. You
16:39 know, you don't realize it. Now I made a I made a covenant this year not to
16:44 insult people other pastors but sometimes some people say things you
16:49 just in the public arena you have to correct. You look at what he says pastor Kongi if we worship a poor savior we
16:56 will always be poor. If we worship a savior who known to be rich and prosperous we will be changed to reflect
17:03 in nature. Can I tell you this is heresy? Let's call it for what it is. This is utter heresy. This is not what
17:10 the Bible teaches us. You know, Jesus was not a rich man. He died almost naked
17:18 and mocked. You cannot twist scripture to say that, you know. And the issue is not a
17:25 dichotomy between rich and poor. This is what prosperity gospel people teach you.
17:30 The dichotomy is simply between obedient and disobedient. Riches is up to the
17:36 Lord. We don't divide it that way. Don't feel guilty if you made a lot of money.
17:42 Feel guilty if you made it immorally. I think you should. But you did it
17:48 because you work hard, you use your brains, you were creative, be proud of it. But you see the danger is very subly
17:57 if you use people to get what you want, you will use God to get what you want. There are two applications here. Number
18:03 one, don't come to church to connect with others.
18:09 Don't do that. You abuse the sanctuary. Never do that. We are not here to
18:15 network, to pass out business cards to get business. If it comes, it comes. Number two, don't come to church to seek
18:23 blessings. Seek the giver of the blessings. Seek God. And a lot of people
18:28 come and they want to basically manipulate God by saying, "Lord, you know, if I serve here, I do this, I do
18:34 that, God, you're going to bless my business." That is not biblical. That's using God. Or we think if you come here
18:40 and I donate to the church and I I I minister this, I do that. God, you owe me. You know, God, you're going to make
18:45 my business do very well. And then when your business falls apart, you blame God. God is not held to ransom.
18:52 So God is not a means to an end. But here's the last point I want to pick
18:58 up which is very critical. You see, is the way the text is written. You see, the author doesn't tell you. Lot looked
19:04 up and saw fantastic green field. He saw a land that was valued by the
19:09 valuers as $1,000 per square foot. That's aang value.
19:15 It says instead, it's very descriptive. Look what he says. He says first he says the place of the Jordan was well
19:21 watered. That's your per square foot value. That's your freehole land. But he goes descriptive. No, he says, and this
19:27 is very specific, like the garden of the Lord. That's Eden.
19:34 Then he breaks it one level below, like the land of Egypt. What's Egypt? The
19:40 superpower of the day. You know what he's trying to tell you?
19:45 You see, when Lot saw, he saw not just the land. You know, I want to tell you
19:51 something about ambitions. Ambitions uh go beyond the tangible.
19:57 If a guy tells you like me, uh, let's just say I want to be a world famous architect, win awards, actually I'm
20:02 telling you something more than that. If I tell you, you know, I want my my company to be public listed, okay,
20:09 become blue chip. Actually, you're saying something more than that. You know, you say, you know what, I I just
20:16 want to make enough money, put my kids through school, have a good life, be healthy. That's I think applies to
20:22 almost everyone. You're saying something more than that. What are we saying? You see, when you see the garden of the
20:29 Lord, what else are you saying? He is seeing paradise. But he's seeing paradise
20:35 without God. You know, let me put it for you in simpler terms. He saw himself as
20:42 master of his destiny. He saw heaven without God. He saw a garden without
20:51 God. But he was God. Let me give you simple. You know the the movie Rocky
20:59 Boxing the guy very own. Now let me ask you a question now.
21:06 Why does he box? Why? The simple answer will be to be a
21:13 champion. Correct. Is the same you and I will give that answer. If I ask you why
21:18 do you want to advance your career? you give the the textbook answer so I can provide for my kids and uh I so that I
21:25 can you know uh do well I want to excel so I can bring my business to the next level
21:31 but let me tell you that's not the real answer this is the real answer that's what
21:36 Rocky is all about pride reputation and here's the key word
21:44 not being another bum in the neighborhood you notice beyond that
21:49 ambition there are underlying tones you know and what is it
21:54 to prove yourself I had a friend who made a lot of money in construction business he was a churchgoing man the
22:02 first thing he did when he made a lot of money was he bought himself a big car and his house was very small I said why
22:08 you can't even fit the car into the house man house was a terrace out here he parked his Mercedes S-Class outside
22:15 you know I said come on brother lang simple Cantonese English meaning is
22:23 more important that people see him as successful than that. I said, "Goodness, upgrade
22:29 your house. Your kids are living like in a in a slum, you know." But this is the thing, the first thing Chinese people
22:35 do, right? When they become very successful, you what do you do? Upgrade the kitchen? No. What do you do? They buy a big car because they want to show
22:42 to everyone. What is that? That means the success has something more than that. The success is tied to a security
22:50 issue. I need people to commend me and says you
22:57 have made it. You see where we go from there? It's not the money you know. It's
23:03 the fact that I get respect. I get accepted.
23:09 And this is where the Lord really saw. He saw the garden of the Lord without
23:16 the Lord. Let me take a step back and let's not put a name to it. And what do you see?
23:22 He saw an opportunity to be prosperous materially. He saw his relationship with others as
23:30 the means to an end and by extension God. He saw himself a master of his own
23:35 destiny. If I ask myself what I see and if I'm
23:41 honest, I'll tell you this. I see myself.
23:47 And I challenge you, if you're honest with yourself, you will see yourself out there.
23:54 You will see yourself up there. And this morning, the first thing the Lord is asking you, come clean.
24:02 Come clean and ask yourself, is that me up there?
24:07 What did Abraham see? Now, we're going to do a little bit of Bible reading here and break it down. Okay. Now, if you if
24:14 you look at Genesis and you look at the first chapter, the chapters beforehand, what happens at chapter 11:8, you see
24:21 this is the beginning of his journey. Let me just read it for you. In 11:8, he says this, okay, after God calls him
24:27 out, it says there he went on towards the hill east of battle and pitch his tent. We battle him on the we battle on
24:35 the west and I on the east. There he built an altar in the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Then Abraham set
24:42 out and continued towards the neg. Now what happened there? Actually he's he's making a memory. All right, he's pledging. It's almost like a covenant.
24:48 Okay, he pitches there. Okay, he builds an altar. Now look at what happens at
24:54 13:3 to 4. The same thing is repeated from the neg. He went from place to
24:60 place until he came back to Beth. Meaning he backtracked, you know, to the place between Beth and I where his tent
25:06 had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. And look what he does there. Abraham called on the name of the
25:12 Lord. You notice that it's the same thing. Now, sandwiched between 11:8 and
25:17 13:34, you have the whole chapter, the whole account. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm
25:22 getting my my my my my numbers wrong. It's not 118, it's 128. Is verses 12 10
25:28 to 20. Now, why? Now, question ask yourself, why is this recorded? And what
25:33 happened within 10 to 20, which is Egypt? What happened there? It's important to
25:40 pick up these details, okay? He built an altar. He call on the name of the Lord. He went to Egypt. And you read 10 to 20.
25:46 You know what he does? He screws up. He screws up really bad. But what's the
25:51 effect of him screwing up? Let me tell you what he screws up. Okay, let me let me just read a bit of this. Okay, it's interesting text. He says this, you
25:58 know, he tells his wife, lie to Pharaoh. Okay, lie to Pharaoh. He says that down
26:03 in verse 10, uh, I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife.
26:08 Then they will kill me. Let you live. Say you are my sister and I will be treated well for your sake and my life
26:14 will be spared because of you. Yes, he was treated well. I will tell you. And look what happens. Because he lied. Look
26:21 what happened. Verse 16. He treated Abraham with our Pharaoh for our sake. And Abraham acquired sheep, cattle,
26:27 male, female, donkeys, men's servants, maid servants, camels. What happened? He became very loaded.
26:34 He became very rich. And so when you read 13:2, Abraham became very wealthy
26:39 in livestock and silver and gold. Where did he make his money from? Egypt.
26:45 How did he make his money? By lying. Ah, now it sounds familiar, right? He
26:52 lied. Or in simple English, he did it through corruptible practices.
26:59 Lingo we all understand. So why did he do this? I tell you what he's doing. He's
27:06 repenting. He's backtracking and he's repenting.
27:12 And this morning, I challenge all of us here, including myself. The starting
27:17 point in any ambition to be honored by God is on our knees.
27:25 To reflect on everything we did in our vocation which dishonored God. And I
27:31 want to ask you to reflect now on that. At the end of this service, we will do an outer call
27:39 and it starts on our knees. And he called out to the Lord because he knew
27:46 he did wrong in Egypt. And that is the basis why chapter 13 goes right. Why he
27:52 does right with Lot because he realizes he screwed up. And here the grace of
27:58 God. Even though he screwed up, he made tons of money, you know. So, you could be
28:03 sitting here making a lot of money because you did it through ways dishonoring to God. And here's God's grace to you. God is going to let you
28:10 keep that money, I think. I hope. But God wants you to repent. The first
28:16 thing he saw the need for repentance. Secondly, he saw his identity not
28:23 defined by his vocation. You see this is critical because what
28:28 Lot saw, Lot saw himself like Rocky Babawa, he's not a bum because he can
28:35 box. Let me ask you a question. All those mothers out here, you know, your
28:41 daughter comes back with with a boyfriend and then you introduce the boyfriend to the mother. The mother will
28:46 first ask, "How are you? What do you do? Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Where's you know what's the next question? What
28:52 does he do?" Oh, he lawyer. Oh, very good
28:59 doctor. Sorry.
29:05 What I'm trying to say is we identify with our careers. Our careers make us.
29:13 Why do you think older people, a lot of them when they retire, they feel they don't know what to do. But the the
29:19 problem is the career has become us. I am not an architect.
29:27 I am a child of God in a covenant relationship with him.
29:35 That's what Abraham is saying. My identity is that. That's why he goes
29:41 back to battle. He goes back to where he built an altar because he remembers that
29:48 he made a covenant with God. Now this is paramount important
29:55 especially when a recession is coming and you have to retrench
30:01 or be retrenched or you're not going to get your bonus end of this year or Chinese New Year or
30:07 the good years fall flat and next year you sit down and you open the books and
30:15 they are in the red and the devil will whisper to you and say you're You're a loser.
30:24 And when that happens, you tell yourself, I'm a child of God in a
30:29 covenant relationship with God. There are dry seasons in the deserts.
30:34 There are times of prosperity, but nothing takes away my covenant with
30:40 God. This is central to the text. My identity is not in my vocation. But it's
30:46 not just vocation, you know, not just vocation. I give you another more deadly one. To me, this is the deadliest
30:53 identity in the church. The most prevailent and the most subtle heresy
30:59 and can I humbly tell you it is the one affecting 99% of churches is this.
31:06 They call this the American dream. It can be the Malaysian dream, the Singapore dream. It is picket fences,
31:14 two kids, good health, steady income and coming back to church on a Sunday. You
31:19 can see the church at the back. It is where you have packaged your life so nicely. The road in front is so clear.
31:27 Everything is so good. Life's great. That is our ambition. And you ask
31:34 yourself, does that please God? Because when these things are taken away from
31:40 you because of health, because of war, because of uncertainty,
31:47 is your covenant relationship still there? I tell you what I think all of us have done. Most of us, we have put God
31:54 in a place in our life. We say it's central, but it's not. He
32:01 comes out on Sunday. Mondays to Fridays, he's there by in the corner when we pray at night.
32:07 and we have balanced our life and we are happy. But when the storms come, when
32:13 recessions come and if ISIS decides France is not the next target, it's not Mali is going to be somewhere nearer,
32:21 your life will shatter. Your life will shatter unless you realize your covenant is with God.
32:30 Next one, he saw the importance of persevering his relationship with Lot. Now we discussed that a little bit. I
32:36 want to take another way where we talk about ambition. Okay, we we we've been looking at ambition in terms of what I
32:42 want to do or what you want to do. But there's another way of doing ambition. It's called projected ambition. This is
32:49 something about more to Asians. Okay. What is an Asian without a sin?
32:55 Okay. All good things start with a a doctor, a
32:60 lawyer. Notice architect is not in the list. Okay.
33:05 At first you don't succeed, don't come home. Now the internet is full of this.
33:10 You see, let me tell you a particular problem with Asians. You know,
33:16 Asians have this problem and I hope I don't offend anyone. We move our ambition via our children.
33:26 That's painful. Right? Now, don't get me wrong. I believe very much children should work hard, should
33:33 study and not bum around. But let's admit it, Asians, particularly Chinese,
33:42 we push this bar to an extreme. Why do you think when you look at
33:47 records of suicides due to exams, you just Google them, they're all Asian
33:54 kids, you know, Taylor's College last week,
33:60 last month, Sunway College, the 18 year old. I read Singapore in America. I
34:07 Googled almost without fail Asians.
34:12 I I give you a test, a very simple test. Say say your son become doctor. Okay. Sorry
34:20 bit thirsty. Say your son become doctor. Become specialist. Wow. Do very well med school. No. Wow. So you go around tell
34:26 everybody. No my son doctor. No my my son specialist. Not very proud. Okay.
34:32 Then one day your son come back. Okay. He just finished only just finish specialist. Dad
34:39 I want to become pastor. Now what would you say dad I want to be
34:46 pastor FBC I tell you if you if you're like me be
34:51 very honest there are two answers first politically incorrect to say cannot right so what's the what's what's the
34:58 what's the default answer it's a classic you will all say it I guarantee it go work first
35:05 go work first after two years they decide dur this two years to pray.
35:12 Don't be a pastor. Pastor very poor.
35:17 I mean guys, let's be honest with ourselves. You see, you see there's a contradiction, right? If you say the
35:24 Lord is the settler of your life, your sons want to serve the Lord, you should say hallelujah.
35:30 But our hearts betray us. Our hearts betray us. So the challenge
35:37 this morning is this. No. You see the question isn't whether you want to be a doctor or a surgeon or what you do in
35:42 your life. It's whether God is in the center of it. God is center.
35:49 And this is very critical. All right, let's move on. And here's the last one. He saw the
35:55 assurance of God in his journey of faith. Now, how do you see this? And we're going to go to that text. And you
36:01 see a pattern in the way Abraham journey go. The Lord said to Abraham, after the Lord had parted, "Lift your eyes where
36:08 you are, and look northwest, south, east, and west. All the land you see, I'll give to you, and your offspring
36:15 forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth. Anyone who count the dust of the earth, then your
36:20 offspring be counted." Now, here's a question I want to ask you. You know, you do you think that he actually
36:27 understood God? Do you think, you see, if if I'm a first
36:33 century guy, I look at it, I say, "Wow, God's going to make me king." You know, he's going to make me king. He's going
36:39 to make me so rich that my descendants are going to be like the dust of the earth. Wow. I'm going to rule the world.
36:45 So, let me read you Hebrews 11. Okay? Hebrews 11 tells you this. All right? It says, Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 11,
36:53 and I'll read you from verse 8, by faith. All right? When God, the verse is
36:58 wrong, not 11 to 12, it's actually verse 8. by faith. Hebrews 11:8. Abraham when
37:03 caught to a place he will later receive as an inheritance obeyed and went. Now
37:09 this is referring to this text the earliest chapter of text. Even though he did not know where he was going. Verse
37:15 9. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a
37:21 foreign country. He lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob who were hes with
37:26 him of the same promise. You know what the Hebrews writer is telling us? He never saw this in his life.
37:34 God brings him up and says, "You know what? You see all this land, it's going to be yours. You see the dust, your descendants going to be like a huge
37:41 army. If I him going say, all right, CEO man, MD, nothing." You know
37:48 why? And here's his attitude which we must learn. Verse 10, he was looking forward
37:55 to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. Finally,
38:00 the word architect occurs in the Bible. Occas we get a little bit for those of
38:06 you who knew now. You know what we do as a living. This is great. He was looking forward to
38:12 the city with foundations. He had eyes of faith. And here's what God is telling you. I want to challenge all of you here
38:19 who are in very difficult business situations. I'm an architect. W architect. We swim.
38:25 We swim in corruption. We swim in it. I have projects stuck
38:32 four years and council. I won't give a scent. Lost money. I will not budge. I'm not
38:40 here to brag. I will not budge. And I'm going to challenge all of you to do that.
38:46 Why? Because you and I should look forward to the city with foundation
38:52 whose architect and builder is God. Do not be pressured. God will honor you.
38:57 You say how? Wait. Because what a lot of people like to do is that if I honor you
39:02 God, I I do this good deed. They expect tfold later God will bless them. That's heresy. God will bless you as he decides
39:09 in his sovereign will. But that honesty, the integrity, God will honor.
39:16 Let me give you example. Uh this is a talk I can I can pass it to you through WhatsApp. This is great. This guy called
39:21 Eric Eric Lee. Eric Lee is a top China venture capitalist and TED talks. You
39:26 guys could really listen to this. He talked about how China succeeded. China succeeds doing a using what we call a a
39:33 a system which promotes ambition. Let me tell you how in the Chinese talk system
39:39 the communist party the standing committee of the poly bureau has nine members. Below that the committee has 30
39:45 members. Below that the central community has 3,000 members. The system
39:51 goes down and down. And what happens? He tells you this. How China learns scalability.
39:57 Scalability begins by they take from the village and they give you a contract say
40:02 10,000 ramen p it goes to 100,000 ramen p 1 million ramen p 10 million ramen p
40:08 100 million ramen p. By the time you reach the poly bureau, you can do scalability and critical math. And
40:15 that's why he told everybody why China is going to wall up the world. That's not today's sermon. All right?
40:22 But what I'm trying to tell you in that same talk, he tells you where it comes from. It comes from the mandarin
40:27 education system. Is a confusious system. Meaning what you do, you have a lot of people fighting for very few
40:34 pose. Then fighting for very few post. By the time you get to the top, your
40:39 world, your ambition, you have got it made. Everyone has one ambition to get to the top. But very, very few make it.
40:46 This is the system of the emperor of the middle kingdom. How did the system fail? Corruption.
40:54 I will now show you a better system. It is not a system of the emperor of the
40:59 middle kingdom. It is a system of the emperor of the heavenly kingdom. And
41:06 it's the other way around. Abraham's seed is Jesus. And through
41:12 Jesus, we Gentiles are the dust of the earth.
41:19 That is us up there. We don't need to fight. God will honor
41:24 everyone who honors him. The challenge this morning to all of you, go forth, make disciples.
41:33 Preach the good news. In anything you do, whatever you do in your life, do it
41:39 to honor God. I want to read to you from Colossians. Okay? Uh Colossians has a a
41:46 great text about work. Colossians chapter 3 23- 24.
41:54 And he says this, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for
41:59 the Lord, not for men, since you know you will receive an inheritance from the
42:06 Lord as a reward." This is what he's telling us.
42:11 God's not asking us to give up your job and be full-time ministers unless you've been called to it. But whatever you're
42:17 doing, do it for the Lord and seek the heavenly places. seek what Abraham did
42:24 when he was looking forward to God's calling again. Let me close with some ambition
42:31 checklist for you and me. Number one, do you see yourself as a success or
42:37 failure? Important question. And if you see yourself as a success,
42:44 on what basis? You see, the world sees this as a success.
42:50 The world sees this as a failure. But let me tell you something about ambition. Ambition is driven by two
42:56 things, you know. One is is is is basically framed by society. A society
43:03 does not respect a Nepali god. A society respects a guy who made 500 million when
43:10 he was 21 years old. That's what society does. and you walk into the room, people pat you on the
43:17 back and you say you have self-actualized. The second is in your own eyes. So long you make it, you don't
43:23 give a peep what anyone else thinks. But in the end, success is God's eyes. And
43:29 the beggar went to heaven. The rich man did not. This is what Jesus taught us in
43:35 the gospels. And many Nepali guards will go to dine with the Lord, but many in
43:41 Silicon Valley will not. The Lord does not look at success those
43:47 ways. And I challenge all of you if you are not doing well in your work or you're doing well in your work, whether
43:53 your turnovers 5 million a year or just 500 a year to the Lord. Honor him.
44:01 You are a covenant child. That is your identity. I'm a success if I obey the
44:08 Lord. Point two, how aware are you of your sinful ambitions? You know what I don't
44:15 like about some rich people? And I hope I'm not judgmental. A lot of rich people tell you this. There are two things they tell you. One, I don't have time to
44:21 serve in church. I like anyone who say that come and talk to me privately because I will tell you I'm probably one
44:28 of the most busiest people. I travel all the time. I'm I'm off to KK again next week. Every two weeks I travel few days.
44:34 It's getting worse. So don't tell me you don't have time. We all don't have time.
44:39 make it. That's nonsense. You have time. You just don't want to use it. So, I
44:45 want to say in love. Don't say no time. Here's the other thing I don't like about rich people because they don't have time. You know what they do? Write
44:51 a big check and give it to Richard or Peter and then they tell them this is my ministry. My ministry is to make a
44:57 lot of money to give it to church. That's bull crap. Okay.
45:03 Strong words, but that's really what it is. That's nonsense. That is hijacking
45:08 your own ambition and saying that's what God call you. God doesn't call anyone to make tons of money to put give millions
45:13 of dollars to the church. There's no such thing. God wants your life. Make time for God. But what's more subtle is
45:20 how it come into the church. You know where people who embezzle money on
45:26 behalf of the church. I thank God we do not have that here. But here's that thing I tell myself. You can be
45:32 ambitious in church. I can be a preacher. I can be doing this because I like the adoration. I need to correct
45:38 myself and tell myself every day standing up here is with trembling knees and with an honor.
45:44 Ambition is very subtle. Third one, how conscious are you of your
45:50 treatment of others? And I will tell you in the in the story of of of Abraham, there are three things
45:56 he tells you. First, you find the way he deals with Pharaoh. That one is a lesson about integrity. Second one we saw just
46:04 now is how he dealt with Lot and Lot is a lesson about love. How he loved uh a
46:10 lot and how he went all the way to let Lot learned something. But you find there's a lot of discernment in there.
46:16 All right? Because let me tell you, Abraham cannot go out of Canaan. I think he knew that Lord was going to go there.
46:22 But here's the other thing I want to tell you. All right? At the end of chapter 14, the king of Sodom, he fights
46:28 the war to rescue Lord. Okay? And basically not only rescues Lord, he rescues the king of Sodom. Now this is a
46:35 bad king. And he the king of Sodom tries to bribe Abraham. Now you find in chapter 14:21. He said, "The king of
46:42 Sodom said to Abraham, give me the people, keep the goods for yourself." Wow. Meaning all the plunder including
46:49 mine and all the other kings you take, but let Lot stay back because Lot is an
46:55 asset. With Lot, he can make a lot of money. And look what Abraham said. Abraham said to the king of Sodom, "I
47:00 have raised my hand to the Lord God most high, creator of heaven and earth and
47:05 taken over. I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or a thong of a sandal, so that you will
47:12 never be able to say I made Abraham rich."
47:19 That's interesting, right? Let me tell you about dealing with people in your company. There are people whom you need
47:25 to show a lot of love to. They will be the guys at the receptionist, the Nepali guard at the at the at the at there
47:31 downstairs, the cleaner. Tomorrow you go to work, you do that. That is your testimony. Then the people in your
47:37 office want to stab you at the back. There are two things you do. Number one, like what you treat Lord, show love. But
47:45 there's another thing, discernment and firmness. Because Christians oscillate between two. Some Christians very lic
47:53 them. Another Christians that have have what we call jackal and hide in church very nice at work. Wow. Really worse
47:59 than non-Christian. And here relationship you find the chapter covers all one integrity number
48:06 two love and and look at people as human beings not commodities. Thirdly firmness. He basically know he's telling
48:13 Sodom he telling the Sodom can you go fly kite because he knows he makes a deal with Sodom he's not going to get
48:19 out of it. I've seen this in my line. People owe you because you they did you
48:25 favors and when they come calling brother and sister those of you in business you know
48:31 right when they come calling they come calling big man and you'll be trapped for the rest of your lives. Am I not
48:37 right? So move out of that and you got to ask yourself in in ambitions for God people
48:44 matter because we stumble people. Our job is to bring everyone to the kingdom of God. And how conscious are we is
48:52 critical. And here's the last I'm going to end. How much risk are you prepared
48:57 to take for God? Let me ask you as closing,
49:04 was Jesus a successful man? He never wrote a book. All rich people
49:10 like to write books. Did what was his uh net worth when he
49:16 died? How many people was at his side when he
49:22 died? I tell you in terms of the world, Jesus
49:27 was a complete and utter failure.
49:33 But this is what Paul says in Philippians. Do nothing out of selfish ambition of being conceited. Your
49:39 attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. who being in the very nature God did not consider equality
49:47 with God something to be grasped meant himself nothing taking the very nature
49:52 of servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient
49:60 to death even death on the cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest
50:05 place and gave him the name that is above every name. In the name of Jesus,
50:10 every knee should bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the
50:17 glory of God the Father. You know, lately I've been asking myself, me, you know, because later on
50:24 you guys going to uh doing voting in new leaders and then apparently I'm on the list. I think it's Eden and some of us.
50:32 I you know, you know, you know, I could have done this sermon in two minutes. You know, you know what? You know what the two-minute sermon? The two-minute
50:37 sermon for me is this. What is my ambition? You know what the Lord told me? And I will tell you vividly what I
50:43 felt the Lord told me. Arnold, are you prepared to die for me?
50:50 And I told the Lord, no, I'm scared.
50:56 The next question, would you make it your ambition to die
51:02 for me? Wow. Go ask ye that Lord.
51:07 You see the struggle. I will tell you when you look at the scripture, scripture is very clear. Scripture is
51:13 very clear. The man who seeks his life will lose it. A man who lose his life will seek will
51:20 find it. So let me close with this and I let worship team to come up. Okay. How
51:25 to start? You start small. I'm not asking you
51:30 tomorrow to be a mother. Tomorrow you go to work. Be nice to the receptionist and the
51:36 cleaner. You go to the boardroom, your meeting, people stab you, say a prayer. Lord, forgive this person. I can't. I
51:44 bet on him. Your upper management recession coming. You know the first guy
51:50 should take a pay cut. You, me, start small.
51:56 Lord will do it. Second, dream big.
52:02 What's the biggest dream you can have? Something you and I don't like. Die for
52:07 Jesus. And I'll tell you, in this time of the world, we're so unsafe. Every
52:13 week a bomb goes off. We need more Christians who will say that willingly.
52:18 I want to challenge some of you today. Are you prepared to do that? Dream big. Die for Jesus. Suffer for Jesus.
52:25 Don't come to church and do 5% and give God leftovers. you insult the Lord.
52:32 And lastly, dig deep. By the way, this is Dan Zookerberg's moto. He started
52:39 small, he dreamt big. He brought in venture capitalist. And it's one of
52:44 those few times where the secular teaching is the same spiritually. You don't dig deep financially. You dig deep
52:51 in the word of the Lord and the Holy Spirit. You see all of us whether we admit it or
52:58 not we want this attached to the end of our names. Ed MD CEO principal
53:06 let me let me put another word in front of that. What if I said servant MD
53:11 servant ed servant CEO servant principal servant t servant boss you like that?
53:20 But this is Jesus 17.
