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00:04 heavenly peace. So today we're going to look at Isaiah chapter 2, starting of
00:11 the Christmas um season. Advent is the advent, the coming of heavenly peace. We're going to
00:17 talk about heavenly peace today. In fact, that song is a very special song.
00:23 In 2011, it was granted by UNESCO as a
00:28 cultural heritage. 1914,
00:34 Christmas Eve, Britain and Germany were at war.
00:40 In the middle of that conflict within the deep in the trenches of Europe, one
00:46 man Walter Kushkov tenor of the Berlin Opera sang
00:53 about heavenly peace in Silent Night. And when he sang this in German and then
00:59 in English, the British side, his enemies also reciprocated by singing the
01:04 same song. And both sides got up out of their trenches, dropped their guns, and
01:11 shook hands and rediscovered their humanity.
01:17 That both sides on either side of the barrel of a gun, they're the same human
01:23 beings. And that's the experience that we each yearn to have. At the end, it
01:29 would take another world war. At the end of that world war, they formed the
01:36 United Nations, this quest of heavenly peace. And
01:41 outside the United Nations headquarters, you will see this image of a man. He's
01:47 taking a hammer and he's trying to beat his sword into a plowshare.
01:54 And at the bottom of this monument is emblemant these words. And they shall
02:01 beat their pl swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation.
02:08 Neither shall they learn war anymore. That is taken from Isaiah today's
02:13 passage. And today I'm going to take you down this passage because it's such an
02:19 important passage because it undergurs all of our understanding of what life is really about.
02:26 So let's pray. Father Lord, we we yearn
02:32 we desire each of us in our heart of hearts whether it's strife within the family or between nations
02:38 heavenly peace. What is heavenly peace? It's shalom. We pray Lord you guide us.
02:44 Show us what it means to have this vision of heavenly peace. Show us how idolatry disrupts this shalom. Show us
02:52 the consequences of idolatry. And show us how to restore shalom in our lives by
02:57 stopping to stopping our regard of men and coming to live in the light of you.
03:02 We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. Shalom is God's vision for us. This is
03:10 the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Here we
03:16 have the um people of Judah and Jerusalem in a tight spot when Isaiah
03:22 wrote this. They had already taken the northern kingdom and they were banging on the doors of Judah and Jerusalem.
03:31 It's only by the skin of their teeth they were saved because the Lord sent a disease upon Sakaribb the uh Assyrian
03:38 commander and hundreds of thousands died and he ran away. They were saved but 100
03:44 years later on AD5 uh BC 596 or 97 they
03:49 were eventually taken into exile. And so this is a message of son of Amos Isaiah
03:55 to Judah and Jerusalem. And uh it came shall come to pass in the
04:01 latter days the mountain the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest mountain. So the latter days
04:06 refer to the end times where God will
04:11 come and reign in his rightful place as king and uh he will reign in the
04:18 mountains of the Lord and that mountains are always important in biblical
04:23 literature because mountains are the sites of transcendent spiritual experience. to experience God in the
04:29 mountain. Many many religions have their temples in the mountain. Uh you know the garden of Eden was in a mountain. Uh
04:35 Abraham sacrificed at Mount Mariah. Moses had a burning bush in the mountain. Elijah had his clash with the
04:43 priests at Mount uh that Carmel and and Mount Horeb. The law was given at Si.
04:50 Jesus was transfigured in the mountain. He was tempted in the mountain. gave the
04:56 great commission in the mountain in Galilee and ascended from Mount Olives. And it shall come upon in the last days
05:03 and the mountain Lord shall be established the highest of the mountains. If you look at Mount Olives,
05:09 it's not the highest. It looks like that. All right. It's not exactly the highest. I think you can climb up there. But it's
05:16 a spiritual term that it is the highest um mountain and shall be lifted up above
05:23 the hills and the nations shall flow to it. Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord. From out of Zion shall flow the Lord. So you can see that the
05:29 mountain of Lord, the house of the Lord and Zion are all equivalent concepts. So
05:35 Isaiah is actually challenging the people of God to come and experience
05:41 him. That is what he's ch trying to challenge them to do. And when he comes
05:47 uh all the nations shall flow to it, right? It's like a picture of you know
05:53 when you have got the explosion of the volcano. Where does the lava flow? Bottom up or top up? Top down? Top down.
06:01 Right. And he's painting you a very funny image where the mountain is exploding but the nations are flowing
06:07 upwards. So it's a supernatural spiritual metaphorical language that you
06:12 have the highest mountain which because God is there and number two one day all the nations will come whatever color of
06:19 skin they will come and why would they come they come because you know the house of the Lord of Jacob that he may
06:24 teach us his way of the most important thing about this spiritual experience is that God will teach us his way out of
06:32 God's presence will be the law the word of God and people will learn to walk in his path and as a result are walking in
06:39 his path. This will come. He shall judge between the nations, shall decide
06:44 disputes from many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. No nation
06:51 shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore.
06:56 See, we actually have this desire at our hearts. You ask anybody what they want, they always pray for world peace, right?
07:02 Yeah. It's it is just a naive illusion or aspiration from the human heart or is
07:09 it a reality? Is it some uh thing which a United Nations put up and ever since they put it up how many wars is this
07:15 happening all over the world? It doesn't really work. You see the concept of peace, heavenly peace, shalom is more
07:22 than the absence of war. If you look at shalom in Hebrew history, it means when
07:28 you have got heavenly peace or shalom, it's you got no cracks or defects.
07:33 You've got a for example in Deuteronomy, you've got an altar to the Lord and when you bring the stones to this altar, when
07:40 you put it there, the stones have no crack. Example, the wall which Nehemiah
07:45 built has no gaps. It is whole. Job describes, you shall know that your tent
07:52 is at peace or shalom. You shall inspect your fold and find m nothing missing which means you go to the whole flock of
07:58 sheep and you find there's not 99 sheep now there's 100 and then you've got
08:04 shalom it's wholeness completeness of fullness it's not just a negative
08:09 concept absence of war shalom has got is not a uni-dimensional United Nations
08:16 definition as long I'm not fighting to you we have got with you we are shalom shalom is a very deep concept that has
08:22 got physical relation ational and moral dimensions. The three of the physical is
08:28 physical well-being, safe and healthy. David as a young man
08:34 went to visit his brothers who were fighting Goliath's army. First thing he
08:39 asked them, how's your shalom? That means are you still alive? Are you healthy? Are you fighting fit? The other
08:45 aspect of shalom is prosperity. Yes. Yes. Yes. Like the prosperity gospel,
08:51 God is not against your prosperity. In fact, if you look here, Jeremiah 33:6, behold, I will bring to it health and
08:59 healing. I will heal them and reveal to them an abundance of prosperity and security. The idea of shalom includes
09:06 prosperity. God doesn't want you to be miserable and poor, but it's how you gain that wealth. It
09:14 includes success. Includes the concept of victory. So when you actually wish
09:19 someone shalom, it's like Chinese New Year coming up. What do you do when you wish someone
09:26 wishing them? Prosperity, but it's one dimension.
09:32 You see the Chinese only have got one dimension, prosperity, and that's about it. Shalom goes is no less than
09:40 prosperity, but a whole lot more. And we need to understand what it means. It is also re there's a relational dimension
09:47 justice. You must have prosperity. Yes. But in the context of justice and here
09:53 how people relate to each other is important. Here we have one kings. And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom as he
09:59 promised him. And there was peace between Ham and Solomon. And the two of them made a treaty. A treaty is an
10:05 agreement between two parties where the conditions of that agreement are
10:10 equitable between the two of them. Same thing with God. Uh Isaiah 54, or the mountains may depart and the hills may
10:17 be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you and my covenant of peace shall not be removed. So here's a
10:24 agreement between God and his people. What is equitable? He will be their God and they will be his people. And
10:31 relational dimension, therefore, shalom is uh close friends. Jeremiah 20, I hear
10:38 many whispering terroris denounce him. Let us denounce him. uh says all my
10:43 shalom friends. So not only rightly related but they're close friends that mean shalom this gives you an in
10:51 intimacy kind of dimension. Now Exodus if a stolen beast is found alive in his
10:56 possession whether it's a ox or a donkey or a sheep he shall pay double. If a man causes a field and vineyard to be grazed
11:02 over and or lets his beast loose and feeds it on another man's field he shall make restitution from the best of his
11:08 own field and in his vineyard. which means shalom. You see, if your cow
11:14 escape and go to your neighbor's yard and mark all his daffodils,
11:20 you have to go to flower shop and buy all the daffodils and give back to him. Then shalom is restored. You cannot have
11:28 shalom in the presence of injustice. Here's the Sony president CEO Kenichiro
11:34 Yoshida and bitter rival Microsoft Satya Nadella and the news headline says this
11:43 year rivals Sony and Microsoft are teaming up that's bad news for Google
11:48 now it's not just peace you know when Sony and Microsoft team up they are
11:54 going to combine and become even better than they are alone which means they're
11:59 going to be best buddies all right So this idea of shalom is right relationship is being a blessing to each
12:05 other. We're not just to be at peace with each other. We're designed to be a blessing to each other. All right? So
12:12 there's no shalom without righteousness. You cannot have shalom without righteousness. Okay? That's why Isaiah
12:19 says, you know, he shall judge between nations and decide disputes among people. They will beat their swords into
12:25 plowshares. They won't have peace unless they have justice. The only one to decide justice is whom? Only God's law,
12:32 not your law. You know what? We and you, we're all biased. And if you look here,
12:38 Isaiah 32, justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness abide in a fruitful field. And the effect of
12:44 righteousness will be shalom. And the result of righteousness, quietness, and
12:50 trust forever. So there can be no shalom without righteousness except you got
12:56 false shalom. Paul's shalom is in Jeremiah 6. It describes false prophets
13:02 from the least to the greatest of them. Everyone who is greedy for unjust gain
13:07 and from prophet to priest. Everyone who deals falsely. They heal the wound of my people likely saying peace, peace,
13:14 shalom, shalom. When there is no shalom, there is an artificial shalom. How? Give
13:21 the example. Two children, J and Mayay, right? So the Maymay takes all the toys
13:29 from Chache. So she's crying. And what does the mother do? Don't cry, baby
13:35 sister. Give her everything. Most of you do that. I have already committed that sin too, right? But you
13:41 think elder sister is happy? No. Because there's no injustice. How you can't take all my toys away just because you're
13:47 Mayay. You see, you cannot have shalom without. Imagine somebody comes as a
13:55 bully and grabs you and beats you up and say, "Okay, okay, I surrender. Let's have peace and you smile and he smiles
14:02 and it's a picture of perfect peace, but he's a bully, you know." And you can
14:08 know would you be happy? That's what happens in Hong Kong.
14:14 Young people are unhappy. Why are they unhappy? And older people then hey don't go and cause trouble on the street. You
14:20 say all my business go down already. You go to Hong Kong uh airport all the shops close. You know did you know that father
14:26 mother everybody lost business. You the older people only think of money but younger people thinking of freedom
14:34 democracy something they want in their lives. The older people their lives are almost gone. They don't care. As long
14:40 meals a day I'm okay. I don't care who is. But the younger people want something more. And you can look at the
14:46 aspirations. The leaders of the umbrella movement are all Christian. You know that
14:51 every four of them, Joshua Wong is a Christian. They don't act on behalf of the church. But they get these ideas of
14:58 shalom, of freedom, of liberation, from oppression, from the word of God.
15:04 Reverend Yun Tinyao, former president of the Hong Kong Methodist Church and chairman of the
15:09 Hong Kong Christian Council says, "Society has changed. People are getting richer, but they don't just don't want services. They want to build a fair and
15:16 righteous society. And this is particularly what the young generation want. He understands they're not out
15:22 there fighting and throwing petrol bombs for nothing. There is something that's missing. You just can't tell the young
15:27 people, yeah, you go home, don't cause trouble. They want something more. Reverend Lo
15:33 Hing Choi, president of the Hong Kong Baptist Convention, says, "Many people said, why don't you why don't you
15:39 condemn the young people also?" My answer is let's set up an independent commission to find out the causes of the
15:44 action. He says we have to understand the reasons. Just saying that they're wrong will not solve the problem. It
15:50 doesn't mean we are encouraging them to use violence in the church is in a terrible bind in Hong Kong. Whether you
15:56 support the young people or you don't, either way, people will leave the church. But the church has to be
16:01 involved because this is involves shalom. There's another dimension besides the physical and the relational
16:08 dimension. In the third dimension of shalom is moral. Uh when we actually uh bring shalom, it's bringing working to
16:14 remove deceit and hypocrisy and promote honesty and integrity. So when you bring
16:21 shalom, you bring a straightforwardness and honesty into the situation. So we
16:26 have shalom described in Isaiah chapter 2 encapsulates the whole idea of
16:33 physical well-being whole relationally whole and morally right and it runs
16:40 perfectly well like the Shinkansen in Japan. I don't know how many of you been on this is fantastic. If you get on it,
16:47 it's so fast and you always get to your destination on time because they did a
16:53 study and found that the average time delay per year is less than one minute.
16:60 And how do they do that? How could how could they run a system so well it's run
17:05 perfectly and the only time they lose is 60 sec less than 60 seconds in one year it's
17:11 because they've got elaborate rescheduling timets driver training program root
17:19 control system hardware maintenance there are laws that describe every single step of the way and if you break
17:25 those laws there's no the the the will be late but the Japanese people stick to these laws And shalom is like that.
17:32 Shalom is like a whole bunch of thread. All in turmoil, different colors. But
17:39 when you actually weave them together, rightly related, rightly connected, each
17:46 color in its particular place, each thread undergoing a particular root. If
17:53 you look behind, there is the picture of shalom. And if you look at the whole of
17:58 creation, someone describes it as God created all things to be in beautiful harmonious interdependent knitted web
18:04 relationship to one another. Just as rightly related physical elements form a cosmos or tapestry, so rightly related
18:11 human beings form a community. This interwovenness is what the Bible calls shalom, a harmonious peace. And you you
18:18 can see this interrelatedness in this world, isn't that? Look at the animal world. You eat all the sharks. Huh?
18:25 Chinese whack all the shark, eat shark fin, no predator, right? And then you got total imbalance. The whole of the
18:32 world is created in such a way that every species is interdependent. And why we're experiencing so much trouble in
18:38 our world today is because we are disrupting that web which God creates.
18:43 Idolatry disrupts shalom. The reason why the whole universe is in
18:50 turmoil is because of idolatry. Here we look at the people who are full of things empty of God, pagan religions.
18:57 For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and fortune tellers
19:03 like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. The people have abandoned their god and
19:09 they've joined and worship other gods. Materialism, the land is filled with
19:15 gold and silver. There's no end to the treasure that they live. The time of Uzziah was a time of great wealth and
19:22 prosperity, full of things, but empty of God. Great military might. Their land is full of
19:29 horses. There's no end to their char. The chariots like tanks. There's no end to their tanks. And lastly, their land
19:37 is filled with idols. They bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made. That is what
19:46 happened to the people of Judah and it deviates from God's purpose for us
19:51 because God created man in his image image he created him male and female that is a purpose where God created us
19:57 to be interdependent to be related in a matrix of shalom
20:03 and uh when we sin and the law command man you may eat of every tree of the
20:09 garden of Eden but out of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for the day you eat of it you shall surely
20:14 What's wrong with eating the fruit? The eating of the fruit is basically asking for moral autonomy. I will decide what
20:21 is right and wrong. I'm not going to be told what is right and wrong. And this is a form of idolatry because the only
20:28 person who could absolutely know what the consequences of your decision must
20:33 be God. Yesterday they started to demolish
20:40 one of the many nuclear reactors in Germany in Berlin. And why do they do
20:45 that? Because years ago in Fukushima earthquake and they contaminated much of
20:51 the ocean and total disaster. Germany has about seven to 10 more reactors.
20:56 They're going to decommission everyone and by 2022. You know what the problem
21:02 is? It takes 1 million years
21:08 for the radioactivity to die down. In fact, it's so hot it cannot be transported for several decades. In
21:14 fact, they can only put on special silos to seal them up 150 years from today.
21:22 And do you know all over the world there are 400 nuclear reactors? When we first started it, do we know all the
21:28 consequences? You cannot have moral autonomy unless you've got supernatural wisdom. And
21:35 that's a problem of sin. When Eve saw the fruit of the knowledge of good and
21:40 evil, she saw the tree was good, delight to the eyes, desired to make one wise,
21:47 and she took it all. Any consultation? Did she check with Google?
21:54 She took moral autonomy upon herself unknown to her all the consequences that
22:00 would cascade down to us today. That's what sin is. And idolatry is making
22:07 something your absolute priority. And to deny that impulse is unthinkable.
22:12 Somebody offered you a job double the pay. Don't need to think what job it is I take.
22:17 That's called idol. You don't need to think about it. Atheist Christopher Hitchens he says two things in life you
22:25 never pass up to have sex or to be on television. Either way you say I don't need an answer I will take it. That's
22:31 having an idol. How many of you participated in Alibaba single day uh sales? Anybody put your hands up? They
22:37 not put up. I got a lot of friends telling me you're stupid la you should have gone good deals you know. Did you
22:44 know that if you go to Alibaba once one day sale, you actually they make more
22:49 money in one day than the three-day sale. There's a three-day sale in America called the Black Friday, which
22:56 is I did this last weekend, Thanksgiving weekend. One day sale uh in Alibaba
23:03 outstrips American Black Friday weekend. All right. And recently there's a CNN uh
23:10 study uh looking at the University of Bangor okay and they actually look in this phenomenon when you have got sales
23:17 they got they put people into a laboratory and they flash all the brands
23:23 up Microsoft Sony Mac and then you know people's hand automatically click on you
23:28 it's as if it's like spirit enter you yeah click and then
23:33 only that when they did this experiment they put their their head in the MRI eye machine to look at blood flow. And you
23:40 find that the more complex the deal is, the brain activity goes up or down?
23:47 Down. That means the more complex the deal is, get one, get five free, and then you redeem this, redeem that. The
23:53 more complex it is, the less you think. So therefore, one day sale makes more money than three days. Three day you can
23:59 think, one day you cannot think, right? All you have to do, they've
24:04 really discovered the power of branding. You just see the brand you like. You don't think you just click. And that's
24:11 why Alibaba does better than Black Friday. All right. Idolatry is
24:16 instinctual. It's illogical. It bypasses the brain. If there's something that you
24:22 automatically do, it means you're addicted to it. The land is filled with
24:27 idols. They bow down to the works of their hands and do what their own fingers have made. So we are actually created an image of God to aspire to be
24:36 bigger than ourselves, greater than everything around us. But instead our heads are within the four
24:43 corners of our handphone. And that is the limit of our experience. Young
24:48 people, you might as well be a paraplegic. Paraplegic at home like Superman. Watch
24:54 the TV, click, click, click, finish. But young people should be out using their hands and legs acting like paraplegics.
25:01 You see, we are limiting ourselves to the things that we create our hands. In fact, materialism is actually result of
25:08 the poverty of our spirit. Here's a psychologist and she writes, in other words, we are too much pressure or
25:14 denied choices when we feel we cannot do anything right. When we're lonely or lack meaningful relationship with
25:20 another, we turn to goals that aren't very good for us as a kind of defensive strategy. If I can't get love I need in
25:26 my life, then I'll become rich and famous and people will love me for that. Actually materialism is a cry for help.
25:33 So our fragile sense of need sense of self needs support and we get this by
25:40 possessing things because to a large degree we are what we have. So if you're depressed what do you do? Go shopping
25:48 right ladies? Men like go buy new Mercedes. Jackmar China's richest man was happier
25:56 earning $12 a month more than he's a billionaire. He writes, "Anyone with $1 million is lucky, but when you reach 10
26:04 million, you got trouble." Oo, that's what Jack says. Um, in fact,
26:09 this is uh Raphael Bladz actually approached an investment bank to get names of 21 very rich people and he did
26:16 research on them and he writes, "The difference between financially successful people, millionaires, and financially super successful people,
26:23 billionaires, boils down to the fact that the latter get pleasure from making money but don't enjoy spending it.
26:28 Can you imagine you are stuck the only pleasure you get is to make the money
26:34 but you don't spend it and you die you cannot take it with you that's the worst
26:40 condemnation you can actually have and that's the result of what they cannot help it it's idolatry professor uh
26:47 Harvard Business School Mike Norton interviewed very rich clients of investment bank and they found two
26:53 things one rich people don't get much pleasure or gain in
27:01 happiness in getting a little bit richer. The happiness comes when the money they have is from the money they
27:07 don't have. They need two to three times what their net worth is. So you're a billionaire, you need to get three
27:12 billion before you're happy. Wow. Very sus. Very sus. Here's the Eastern paradox.
27:20 When the GDP of a nation goes up as you can see in United States discovered by this chap called Eastland GDP goes up
27:27 happiness goes down. You think only Masala try the Japanese
27:33 25 years GP goes up life satisfaction stays the same. There's no correlation
27:40 at all. Well-known fact in fact how to get happiness by giving money away.
27:48 There's a Gallup poll of 136 countries and the green is when you give money
27:54 away is correlated with happiness. That means when in countries where they get
27:59 more happiness by giving money away, it is green. Do you notice green all over the world except Rwanda or somewhere
28:06 else where people are very unhappy about giving the money away? So there's something in the human heart that when
28:12 you give something away actually buys happiness. You see, idols make us less
28:19 human. They have hands. They don't have but do not feel. They have feet but do not
28:26 walk. They do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them. So do all who trust in them. So
28:34 when we are made to worship God, we become like God. We explode beyond our
28:40 human existence and our knowledge and we go in an upward trajectory to what he is
28:45 like. When we confine ourselves to what we create, we become like what we
28:51 create. We have hands but do not feel. We become less human. Here's Captain Planet. Saw him on CNN just the other
28:59 day. Ted Turner, huge billionaire. He's so rich that he buys his ranch which is
29:07 half a million acres of land. You probably could fly an airplane to visit your neighbor.
29:14 All this wealth isolates him. It brings you further and further away. You buy a
29:20 bigger bungalow, you go and sit in first class. How many people sit in first class airplane? Five people. You come
29:26 and join me economy class. Everybody together. We are happy having shalom together.
29:32 You sit the first class 35 of a union what unless you're a pilot sit alone.
29:38 It's true in that wealth brings you away from the things that matter. Uh what
29:45 else is wealth? There's a whole bunch of experiments done by the University of Berkeley and California. They found in
29:52 the research that wealthy people when you look at people's face are less able to read emotions. When you're sad they
29:58 cannot tell. You know they think you're happy. In fact, they sent some researchers to a traffic light and then
30:05 look at four corner intersection and they noticed the people who drive expensive car Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz
30:13 four times more likely to cut the queue than people who write drive proton saga
30:19 at the same time they go where then they actually went to pedestrian crossing. When you're at a pedestrian crossing,
30:25 when some pedestrian come, you should look at the pedestrian crossing, look at the face and then you stop by and then
30:30 let the pedestrian go. Isn't that not like Malaysia? You're going to run them over. In America, you're supposed to
30:35 look at their face and stop. They found the people in expensive cars were 46.2%
30:42 more likely to go past the pedestrian crossing into hell with the people crossing. People in cheaper cars tend to
30:49 stop and wait. They found uh uh the people who are make expensive cars more
30:55 likely to double park because they think they own the whole road. Have you seen some parts of Damasaru Dama? Yeah. All
31:02 the people who double park are Mercedes-Benz one. In fact uh uh in New York State uh
31:09 psychiatric institution did a study on 43,000 Americans and found that the rich
31:15 people are more likely to shoplift. In fact, they had another experiment where the people were asked to come in to do
31:21 some various uh work or experiments within the laboratory. As they left the laboratory, there was a candy jar car
31:28 full of candy and the candy jar says only for children. The rich people were more likely to wall up the candy.
31:36 What's wrong with rich people? They look at the MRI scans of of of to look at
31:41 empathy area of empathy. And I found when exposed to picture of sick children only the rich people nothing shines.
31:48 Poor people they look at poor sick children that the empathy area lights up. But rich people it doesn't like
31:54 which means what happens? Wealth makes you what? Less than human.
32:00 It takes your humanity away. In fact uh Steven Cot uh from the University of
32:07 Toronto looks at this phenomena called wealth differentials. And it's very interesting. Do you know if you see
32:14 somebody with a smaller wealth differential compared to a larger wealth differential? Let's say for example you
32:20 live USJ4 like me and I see some neighbor USJ4 having problem. I'm more likely to help him. If I see a neighbor
32:27 from Sento very poor and not likely to help him because of the wealth differential. Wealth differential makes
32:33 you more likely to help someone who is more like you. And the reason why it is so is because rich people become rich
32:40 because by saying not by saying yes by saying no because a lot of people come to rich people ask them for money one
32:46 right so they learn to say no they learn to insulate themselves from the feeling in their heart of sympathy. So we
32:53 actually being rich insulates us and it's a very very difficult thing. This
32:58 is the 20th century psychologist Abraham Maslo proposed that healthy human beings
33:03 have a certain number of needs and and these needs are arranged in a hierarchy
33:08 and basically you've got self-esteem love belonging safety physiological
33:14 these needs are called deficiency needs I mean you must have them even animals
33:19 have them when you adequate to makan adequate to love adequate safety you
33:25 don't feel anything right I mean you don't come to church and say, "Oh my good, thank God this there's no there's
33:30 no robber outside the church." How many of you walked inside and say, "Wow, fantastic people here." No, because it's
33:37 a deficiency need. When you have these needs met, you don't feel it. What you need to feel is the growth needs. Ah,
33:44 when all these things are chuka, then only you look and and basically decide,
33:49 oh, why I buy here? Is there such a thing as God? See unless this is taken care of, you
33:57 will never think why am I here? What is the purpose of life? How to reach the highest potential as a human being
34:04 right? Green keeps us down here. We never reach self-actualization. We never
34:12 ask why we are here. That's a problem. Idolatry. Idolatry keeps us down here.
34:17 That mean makes us less than human. We're not like humans. We're like animals. In fact, not only it makes us less
34:24 human, the way we treat other people are also less than human. We look at everybody else in a utilitarian manner.
34:31 Everybody's either white or black. You're either helpful or useful to me or
34:37 you're my competitor. So I look at you, you're either for me or against me. And the whole world is
34:43 like that. So our humans, our neighbors become less human. When we look at our
34:49 neighbors, we don't see them as a human being that God loves and that you should love and you should honor, respect and
34:56 bless. We see them as forest our gang or not our gang. So that makes us
35:02 commodities, isn't it? That's what idolatry does. Remember the story of
35:08 Midas in the the Greeks tell an old uh story of a myth of a king called Midas.
35:15 He was approached by a god called Dion Nus, god of wine. And he asked him,
35:22 "Hey, what would you like for your birthday present?" And King Maid said, "I He's already king, you know, someone
35:27 I want to have a midas touch. Whatever I touch turns to gold." Okay. I give you the gift since your birthday. I give you
35:33 a gift. So he went outside very he touched the tree, it became gold. He
35:39 touched his house, it became gold. After a while, touching everything, very happy, very rich. is like billionaire
35:44 many many times over he got hungry he touched the fried chicken
35:50 became gold he touched his cup of water became gold and the last thing was his
35:56 daughter come and hug him she became gold that's a beautiful picture of idolatry
36:05 that everything you touch is gold but you lose your soul you're hungry inside.
36:14 In fact, all of us are involved in idolatry. We are what we do. Uh this is
36:21 a professor of business studies from Harvard and she talks about people who retire. They usually say, "I'm a retired
36:28 librarian. I'm a retired educator. I'm a retired research chemist." They will
36:35 still have the profession tacked on to who they are. And I look at my own self and one of the reasons I don't retire
36:40 because I don't want to say I'm a retired doctor because medicine is so much part of my
36:46 life that you take it away. I am not a person. I remember this thing that happened to
36:53 me when I was in and my wife will always remind me of this. The women never
36:59 forget. And we when we were young, we used to go to went to New Zealand one day for a holiday
37:06 and uh we had a great time driving around and then one day I stayed in a
37:11 farm. Funny New Zealand farm they make your children work day and night and some more you to pay them money. So all
37:16 the children and dig hay and all that and the end to pay them money. Very very quiet. It was so quiet. I was driven out
37:22 of my mind and I cut short my holiday to fly back home earlier to work
37:28 and I realized I was an idol worshipper. I worship my work and work defines me
37:37 and tells me who I am. And so she says, Prophet Amabel says we need to think about who we will be, who we want to be
37:44 when our formal career ends. Life is more than your work. This is Khloe Kim,
37:51 Olympic medal winner at the Winter Olympics. She's a real phenomenal world
37:56 champion. And she goes to Princeton University and she says, "I have so much I want to do in my life. I want to be a
38:02 lawyer. I want to be a scientist and a doctor. These crazy things I want to try." So young people have all this in front of them, right? But she's very
38:09 smart, too. And she says these words, "I love to live a just a normal life there.
38:15 Maybe people don't recognize me. How don't recognize you. Everybody knows you're the world Olympic champion and
38:21 get to know me not because of what I do but just because of me. So deep within
38:27 even Olympic champions is a realization there's a real me that is valuable
38:32 beyond what I can do or look like or attain.
38:38 You look at Prince Charles advised by his father the Duke of Edinburgh. Who we are is not what we
38:44 wear or what glitters is a spirit that defines us. Idolatry makes us less
38:51 human. The consequences of that judgment. So man is humbled and each one
38:57 of us is brought low. Do not forgive them. So whatever do you however money
39:02 you gain and wealth that you're addicted to, you will be brought low. There are personal consequences. King Uzziah
39:10 became so rich, became so arrogant that he went into the temple just because he was a rich man and powerful king. He
39:17 offered sacrifice instead of the you cannot only a priest offer sacrifice and immediately he was struck with leprosy
39:24 till the day he died he was a leper. Psychological studies shows the adverse
39:30 effects of materialism. They did a study on 18 year olds. They took a they took a
39:36 materialism questionnaire at 18 and rechecked it when they're 30 years old.
39:41 And they found that the 30 years old the 18 year olds were retested 12 years later. Materialistic people are more
39:48 susceptible to mental disorders. That means the more you have the more crazy you are. And you look at the financial
39:54 crisis in the Iceland when final during the financial crisis Iceland where this
39:60 idilic population experienced bankruptcy. Two types of people emerged.
40:05 One they lost their money and you know what they became so materialistic they could earn harder to get it back.
40:13 Another one lost all their money say ah money is useless. I might as well focus on family. And you found that the
40:20 well-being was better for those who focus on their families than those who
40:25 continued to want to have more money. Uh can I have the next slide because this one doesn't work as usual. Every sermon
40:31 on my thing doesn't work. Can I have the next slide? Right. Did a
40:37 study on on children uh in church uh two groups. One of them were taught to be
40:45 less materialistic. Then they measured another group just left alone. Materialism was associated with low
40:52 self-esteem. The more your children have, the low less self-esteem they have. You know why? Because their
40:58 self-esteem is dependent on what they have, not dependent on what they are.
41:03 That's a problem. Another study journal of consumer research linked loneliness to
41:10 materialism. I mean the more lonely you are, the more you want material things. The more material things you are isolates you socially and so therefore
41:18 you become more lonely. It's a vicious cycle. One of the the the the the
41:24 longest studies in the history of mankind are the Grant and Gulik study.
41:29 They looked at men, poor men and also rich men and followed them for 80 years
41:35 and they found out the ones who reached 80, what is the most important thing that you can learn from this study
41:41 showed that uh embracing community shalom allows us to live longer and
41:48 happier. Those who are lonely would die earlier. Lonely people are more prone to heart disease, stroke, depression,
41:53 dementia. Community is more important than smoking, obesity, diet or exercise.
42:00 That's how we created. We can be rich, famous, but many of them wind up killing
42:08 themselves. This is a young Korean uh star years ago who wrote, "I felt everything is empty. I'm again walking
42:14 down a path to reach a destination I don't know."
42:19 Well, there will be judgment and there's a specific day of judgment for the people of Judah. Enter the rock, hide in
42:26 the dust before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty. The haughty looks of the man will be brought low. The lofty pride of men shall be
42:31 humbled. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that's proud and lofty
42:36 against that is lifted up shall be brought low. So that mean the Lord has a day
42:42 when all the billionaires will be brought down. That's a fact. There is a day in fact
42:50 all that is man will be brought down. Look at this verse 13 to1 17 against the cedars against the oaks of Bashan
42:57 against the lofty mountains against up the hills against the high tower against the fortified wall against the ships of
43:03 Tashes against all the beautiful craft. There is going to come a day for every single one of us where there's judgment
43:08 and every single thing that you've built up will be brought low. As sure as the sun shines tomorrow, there will be that
43:16 day. And your idols will not save you, and the hoortiness of man shall be
43:22 humbled. The lofty pride of men shall be brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted on that day. The idols will pass
43:28 away. The people enter the caves and the rocks and the the the rocks and and the holes of the ground. and before the
43:34 terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty when he rises to terrify the earth. On that day mankind will cast
43:40 away the idols of silver and idols of gold which they made for themselves to worship to the moles and the bats and to
43:45 enter the caverns of rocks and the claps of the uh uh cliffs from before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of
43:52 his majesty when he rises to terrify the earth.
43:57 It will come a day. I remember years ago in this country
44:02 we have the banana notes. Have you remember the banana notes? The Japanese issued banana notes was very precious.
44:09 Towards the end of the the war you could have whole barrel full of banana notes. Nobody will take it.
44:15 It's brought down. Every generation has a judgment day and there will be one
44:20 judgment day in the end. As Christians, what is our challenge? Our challenge is
44:26 to restore shalom and we do two things. We stop and we come. Verse two uh verse
44:34 5. Oh house of Jacob, let's walk in the light of the Lord. Verse 22, stop
44:40 regarding man in whose nostrils is breath. For what account is he? So we
44:45 have to repent. What is repentance? Turning from the ways of man and idolatry and turning to what? to walking
44:53 in the light of the Lord. Story was told of a man who was a remiser
44:59 who was granted by angel one wish. You know what the remiser will wish for? I
45:05 want to have a copy of the Financial Times one year ahead. Guess for what? So
45:10 he can buy all the stocks one year from now, right? He so he got the the the Financial Times. He read it, looked at
45:18 the stock market and suddenly he turned the page and found the obituary.
45:24 You think he went out and buy shares anymore after that? No point
45:29 because his life is taken away. And that's what judgment is. Stop regarding the man who in his nostrils are just a
45:37 breath. Imagine you're at the financial times but the obituary writes the day you every single one of you will have an
45:43 obituary, you know. Every single one of you years from now there will be your name there. You can
45:50 have the financial times but it won't do you any good.
45:57 Many of us take this attitude towards God like this cartoon Nelson Mandela goes to heaven and God takes a selfie
46:03 with him. We look at God like a tourist you know take selfie with God five
46:09 minutes each morning as long I done my job I'm off. The challenge to us is not
46:15 looking at God as a tourist but looking at God as a worshshiper. The only person
46:22 who can bring shalom. This is Martin Luther King. He lived in a place in
46:27 America and a time where the blacks were oppressed. And he had this dream.
46:34 I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves, the sons of former slave owners
46:41 will be able to sit down together in the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that my four little children will one
46:46 day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I
46:52 have a dream today. And he ends this speech with these words. I have a dream
46:57 that one day every valley will be exalted, every hill and mountain will be made low, and the rough places will be
47:02 made plain, the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
47:07 see it together. This is taken from Isaiah 40. He recognizes the great injustice all over the land of America.
47:14 But in the end, he actually refers back to scripture because of a Baptist pastor and he know that justice can only come
47:21 with the word of God. And so therefore in Isaiah challenges us for to us his a child is born. To us a son is given the
47:28 government shall be on his shoulder. His name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting
47:35 father, prince of shalom. We can't. However Martin Luther will dream, he
47:43 cannot bring shalom. You can wish for world peace, but you
47:48 will never have world peace because you need a prince of peace.
47:55 Isaiah uh 303, he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our
48:01 iniquities. On him was the chastisement that brought us shalom. And by his
48:06 wounds, a price has to paid for shalom. Mimi takes Jazz toys. You just can't
48:14 tell her to shut up and love the There are pricees to be paid. Jesus Christ
48:19 came to pay that price. The writer of Hebrews tells us, you
48:26 know, this mountain of Zion is already here. You look in Hebrews,
48:32 but you have come. You're not going to come. You know, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God,
48:40 the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the innumerable angels in festival gatherings, to the assembly of the
48:46 firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, to God the judge of all, and to spirits
48:51 of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, to sprinkle blood that speaks better
48:57 words than the blood of Abel. The New Testament comes and tells us that we
49:04 have already come to Zion. We have already come heavenly Jerusalem. All the
49:10 saints, all the righteous spirits and angels are gathered with us today.
49:17 You imagine that spiritually we're already there. That's why Paul says we are given every spiritual blessing under
49:23 heaven, right? Why? because he himself is our peace who
49:31 has made us both one and broken down the in his flesh the dividing wall of
49:37 hostility. See Jesus Christ is that perfect human being. We cannot bring shalom alone. When we take him as our
49:45 Lord and Savior, he becomes our peace. We join the community of shalom. We join
49:52 the community of the righteous spirits. And then there's a grand plan. The grand
49:58 plan is one day when we get our redemption and we are we are glorified with him. There's a plan which is set
50:04 forth in Christ as a plan of fullness of time to unite all things in him. All things in heaven and all things on earth
50:10 in a wonderful web like tapestry of the world. We will all be united one day.
50:17 And the basis of a shalom is that Jesus Christ paid the price. Someone's got to
50:23 pay the price. We cannot have an artificial peace where you just somebody bangs you up and a bully comes and hits
50:28 you and peace is just don't hit me anymore. We exist in peace. No, there
50:33 must be justice and Jesus Christ pays for our shalom. It takes an active
50:39 process in church. In church Hebrews it says because of this strive for peace or
50:45 shalom with everyone for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one
50:51 fails to obtain the grace of God. that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. So by it many become
50:57 defiled. So it is incumbent on us. We are now the assembly of the righteous
51:02 because of the firstborn of Jesus Christ. It is incumbent on us to strive
51:07 pursue with great intensity as if we're fighting a battle to bring shalom within
51:12 the body of Christ. In fact, CS Lewis writes in his letter to Malcolm, "Last week, while at prayer,
51:19 I suddenly discovered or I felt as if I did that I had really forgiven someone I've been trying to forgive for the last
51:25 30 years." Shalom comes with forgiveness simply because Christ has forgiven you.
51:31 And even that is hard to find. If shalom is like a fabric,
51:38 then this is a picture of our world. We live in a world where the fabric has
51:44 broken down and we are proud of it. We're proud of it. You walk around with a holes on your pants with 30 years ago
51:50 your parents would be so ashamed and slap your face and ask you to go home and say, "I got no money. I will buy you proper pants." But now we days we walk
51:58 around with the holes in our pants and we're happy and we're proud of it. The bigger holes the better. The triumph of
52:04 marketing. But that's what society is like, isn't it? We live in a world where the fabric
52:11 is to hopelessly broken down, but we're closing our eyes to it. We live in a land where the government has told us we
52:18 will have equality. We will have righteousness and yet there's racism.
52:26 A chap who is a semi-terrorist who is welcomed here and the ashes of a
52:32 man who has long died is not welcome here.
52:38 In fact, Mahat Muhammad writes, "It's not like we can do anything. Only his crem have returned. We have allowed Sam
52:44 Sha Fake to return and no one complained. Perhaps because she's Malay. Rashid Maiden came back to Malaysia." He
52:50 admits that. Mariam Mkta writes a tale of two communists, Chimping and City Aisha. One is in England, welcome to
52:57 come back even though she is a communist and the other one has died and his ashes are not
53:03 allowed to come back. We live in a society in this country where the fabric
53:08 has broken down and we have a choice. We are the assembly of shalom. If we keep
53:14 our money and time and power to ourselves instead of sending out into our neighbors lives wherever the fabric
53:20 has broken down. We are not interwoven socially,
53:26 relational, financially and emotionally. We have to reweave ourselves. Reveing
53:31 shalom means sacrificially treading, lacing, pressing your time, goods,
53:37 power, resources into lives and needs of other people. Wherever you see the
53:42 fabric of shalop has broken down in this life, in this community, wherever we are, we as Christians have to weave it
53:51 in. But you say it's not fair. They treat me so unfair. Ashes also cannot come back. But if you look in the life
53:59 of people who were worse treated by us, he's the people of Israel, Judah, taken
54:05 as exiles, tormented, humiliated in Babylon. You
54:12 know what the prophet Jeremiah told them? He told them this, "Build houses,
54:19 live in them, plant gardens, and eat their produce. Take wives, have sons and
54:24 daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters.
54:30 Multiply there and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into the exile and pray to
54:37 the Lord for its behalf. For in shalom you will find your shalom. The word
54:43 welfare is actually Hebrew shalom. And here we have people who hated their
54:49 tormentors. And Jeremiah tells them, "You seek the shalom of the city I sent
54:55 you in exile. You pray to the Lord on its behalf. For it in its shalom, you
55:00 will find your shalom." And that is a message for every Malaysian that sits here today. However
55:08 unfairly treated you are or however unfairly you believe your your future
55:14 will be in this country, we are to seek shalom because in the shalom of Kalumpo
55:20 how we will find your shalom. The call to shalom is a call to
55:26 suffering. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
55:31 who bring glad tidings of good things. This land needs this gospel. This land
55:40 needs us to weave ourselves to interconnect.
55:46 But instead, some of us continue to like the fabric stay away. We see where the
55:52 fabric is broken down. We don't want to get involved. We don't want to reach out our hands because you know why? We get
55:58 hurt. But you cannot get hurt. You know why? Because we have been given every spiritual blessing under heaven. We are
56:04 now in the assembly of the righteous. We have now come to Mount Zion. That's a spiritual truth. We of all people have
56:12 our debts paid by our Lord Jesus Christ. So what stops us from sacrificing and
56:18 reweaving ourselves into the lives and the and reconstituting the fabric that's broken down in every part of our
56:24 society. That is our challenge. That is our duty. That is our honor. That is his glory.
56:32 Let's pray. Father Lord,
56:37 this is Christmas, the advent of heavenly peace, the vision
56:45 of heavenly place, which we now experience in part and look forward to
56:52 experience in full. And we pray each of us will be so filled
56:58 with your shalom because of what you've done on the cross and our and that we
57:04 will go out and we will seek places in this land in communities in families in
57:11 workplaces where shalom is broken down where people don't get on and people try to sabotage each other where there's no
57:16 honesty there's no integrity there's just evil we pray that we will
57:22 insert ourselves allow ourselves to to be vulnerable and weave ourselves into
57:28 the lives of those who are so broken because our debts have been paid. Our
57:34 shalom has been restored. Our future with you is assured. We ask you to bind
57:40 us as a church together. And in this church, we will experience true shalom. So the world will look at us and see our
57:45 Lord Jesus Christ. The world will see real peace. We ask for Jesus say. Amen.
57:54 We're coming to the time of uh Lord's supper. Oh, I I got one. Yeah. Thanks.
57:59 We're going to do communion and it's very very apt because
58:06 we're able to have shalom simply because of a single event. The
58:14 event where our Lord Jesus Christ poured out his blood for us. Our shalom is not
58:22 just that Harry ferryy wish for world peace. Our shalom is based on a concrete
58:30 event where something was done
58:36 to pay the price. And as we come together, we come together with the
58:42 elements, the bread. and the bread
58:48 represents his sacrifice. I'm going to give us a few minutes to just
58:55 contemplate what it meant for our Lord Jesus Christ
59:00 to give his life for us. And after that, I will ask us to take the bread and the
59:06 wine together. Let's just contemplate what he did for us.
59:37 in every war. Peace is not cheap.
59:44 It's achieved with blood, with suffering, with sacrifice.
59:53 And as we take this bread and as we take
59:58 this wine, we acknowledge the sacrifice to bring us
60:04 peace. But more than that, when we take this bread and we take this wine, we
60:09 acknowledge that we become part of the sacrifice. That we too become a people of shalom. But we too
60:16 become a people who are willing to sacrifice our lives and give our time, our finances, our efforts and weave
60:23 ourselves into the fabric of our society which is broken down. Let us not take this bread and take this
60:30 wine hypocritically and still keep our resources to ourselves and be unwilling to weave our
60:37 lives into the lives of others. This is the bread.
