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00:00:01 today's scripture reading is taken from 1 Corinthians chap 6: 1-1 if any of you has a dispute with another do you dare to take it before the hand Godly for judgment instead of before the Lord's people or do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world and if you have to judge the world are you not competent to judge trial Cas cases do you not know that we will judge Angels how much more the things of this life therefore if you have disputes about such matters do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of
00:00:48 life is gone in the church I say this to shame you is it possible that there's nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers but instead one brother takes another to court and this in front of unbelievers the very fact that you have lost SS among you means you have been completely defeated already why not rather be wrong why not rather be cheated instead you yourself cheat and do wrong and you do this to your brothers and and sisters or do you not know that wrong doors will not iner the
00:01:36 kingdom of God do not be deceive neither the sexually immoral no idolators no adors no men who have sex with men no Thief no the greedy no drunkards no Slanders no swinders will in the kingdom of God and that is what some of you were but you were washed you were Sanctified you were justify in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our god this is word of God Amen and once again it's my joy and privilege uh to be standing here sharing with you from the word of God uh thank you Denisha for reading the text for
00:02:33 today and Denisha is now undergoing a thre Monon internship program here in FBC we have been cruising through the book of one Corinthians and today we are at chapter uh six the first 11 verses with the title the church and lawsuits a possible um subtitle might be how how do we get along as it is Apparent from the text the members of the Corinthian Church were suing each other in secular courts of Law and Paul had to write these verses to tackle this uh festering cancer uh plaguing the church now from the onset uh you may say
00:03:25 that here in FBC we don't see uh members taking legal actions against other members or against the church I know of only one single case many years ago where a disgruntled member sued FBC Dr Peter and the Elder Arnold uh touched on this last Sunday well if lawsuits are such a rarity in FBC how is today's tax uh relevant to us what is there to learn from what was happening inia church back then but it's not happening here today the Wonder of God's word is that this text is still very relevant there's much truth to be
00:04:11 gleaned from these 11 verses to teach us how to relate to each other in order to fortify the body of Christ that is FBC let's begin with a word of prayer Father in heaven we acknowledge our weaknesses and sins before you may your word and your spirit continue to convict us and to persuade us as we dwell on these verses that your Apostle has written for our sanctification and we ask this in the name of your son amen a quick look at the pit lineup next Sunday brother John Lee will uh preach a fascinating sermon from 1 Corinthians
00:04:57 7 followed by Dr Peter who will take us through the rest of uh chapter six and for the last sermon of this month we have U brother Vincent low who was has been given a free topic and I think he has chosen a passage from one Thessalonians 5 okay we de out of the way let me start with something light from uh our recent trip to Australia exactly one month ago 5th of April I remember lean and I were were walking from our hotel in Sydney to a well-known fish market and we are crazy about fresh oyers and we decided to drop
00:05:40 by this place to to try the uh Australian varieties I'm talking about rock oysters not the oysters of Malaysia it was a it was a cool Friday morning with a light drizzle we huddled together under an umbrella as we walked and talked and here let me share a secret it's better to use one umbrella rather than two this has a deeper meaning we shall see upon arrival of sure enough uh there were plenty of oysters and other seafood and before long we were enjoying a dozen of these delicious uh shellfish with a
00:06:26 tinch of lemon at 30 o a dozen okay not one but 8 ring per oyster we want to savor them real slow cannot afford to swallow them too fast this is uh CT exhibit a since we talking about lawsuits the oysters in question now at this point some of you may be wondering what have oyers got to do with 1 Corinthians 6 the thing is as we experience sometimes experience in life including Church Life a matter like choosing oysters can be contentious it wasn't contentious for us that day but it could have been
00:07:21 contentious what I mean is there were so many types of oysters to choose from different sizes different grades Prices range from 25 to 100 oz dollar a dozen you could buy them lose if uh a dozen was too many and W shop to to buy from a big Market you know you see when options are a plenty things can get complicated between two persons if it's a group of people the more people they are things can get very complicated because it's only natural that we have different opinions and ideas we we are we see different paths
00:08:04 to the same goal we may even defer on what the goals should be and hence on far more serious matters than mere oysters Whenever there is more than one way of doing something disagreements do happen and if you are not careful the disagreement can lead to a quarrel which can blow up to become a conflict which can end up in an ugly legal action this can happen in a marriage in the workplace in church of course which was and this was what what was happening in the Corinthian Church I shall come back to the oysters
00:08:48 later in the sermon if you're curious to know how lean and I decided which type and how many oysters to buy now let us dive into the text to see what the word of God teaches the 11 verses themselves can be divided into two parts Part One verses 1 to7 where Paul denounces the lawsuits while insisting on other ways of conflict resolution and then part two veres 8 to 11 where Paul moves beyond the lawsuits in order to bring out an important point on conflict prevention we should spend more time on
00:09:23 part one then part two and after we have navigated the text we shall conclude with a with a with a crucial point of application that's part of our continuous sanctification by the word of God you will realize that 1 Corinthians 61-1 is actually very very relevant from an overview of the of part one we see words like judged or judgment jumping at us also word also the word court or ruling members of the church are suing each other in secular courts of Law and hence the the title the church and lawsuits and these lawsuits are the
00:10:04 result of con of disputes between the church members which Paul mentions here several times now what kind of disputes one may ask Paul doesn't um doesn't give us any detail but he does describe them as trivial cases or things of this life most likely these disputes involve money or Properties or other similar civil cases it's it's highly unlikely that they they involve spiritual matters because it makes no sense to bring such matters to a secular court of law that this dispute disputes involve money or
00:10:48 property is is indicated uh in verse 10 where Paul uh hints that they are thieves and swindlers within their ranks some church members are defrauding other members in these disputes one me one party has been wrong he feels that Injustice has been done to him and he decides to file a lawsuit to seek relief from a court of law outside now clearly this is far more complex than the disagreements and differences I described just now and here in FBC we may dis we may disagree with the leadership for example on how
00:11:30 funds are allocated we may disagree on how a Ministry is being run but such differences are minor compared to what is happening in the Corinthian Church they have members being cheated by other members nonetheless the lessons from the more serious cases in the Corinthian Church they can be applied to us when we deal with relatively minor disagreements the aim to borrow from chapter 1 verse two is to build a church that is Sanctified in Christ Jesus so that we can truly be called God's holy people now in order to better grasp what
00:12:10 is going on in the text let's consider a imaginary uh situation suppose I want to spend 50,000 ring gate to upgrade uh my property and suppose I I go to Wong my fellow church member who is a contractor I know he's not a smalltime contractor the job is too small for him sorry all the preachers targeting you but just go along with me and so Wong and I signed a contract for this renovation job and when the job is done I go to Wong you know it's hard for me to say this but your your work is a bit below
00:12:58 power it is not what I want the finishing is not satisfactory but I tell you what since we have been church members for so long I'll pay you 40,000 and let's put all this behind us but why insists that his work is fine in accordance to the the terms of the contract and he's now upset that I've cheated him of 10,000 ring and he decides to sue me to recover the loss he this is purely hypothetical okay but this is what Paul has to deal with as he in his admonition on paper as he puts in writing his rebuke of the
00:13:43 Corinthian Christians now before we take a closer look at the substance of Paul's rebuke ID like to digress a bit to explain two rather strange verses in the text firstly Paul writes in writes twice in verse two that God's people will be judging the world that you and I will be serving as as judges in some fashion in the future what does this mean in Revelation 2:26 Jesus Promised the church in Tira to the one who is Victorious and does my will to the end I will give authority over the Nations what does it
00:14:18 mean authority over the Nations what nations you may ask you see this refers to the millennial Kingdom of Christ when Jesus shall rule in fact King Jesus shall rule the world and we the Saints will be tused with ruling with him ruling over cities and and territories and even Nations you'll find more detail in the in Revelation uh 20 in verse 4 uh describing this Millennial Kingdom of Christ John wrote I saw Thrones on which were seated those who have been given authority to judge they reign with
00:14:57 Christ A Thousand Years this is what Paul means in verse two in our text that in the future God's people you and I will judge the World As for the second strange verse in verse three Paul tells us that not only we will be judging the world but also Angels what judging Angels now this is harder to explain because not much is written about this in scripture except in and 2 Peter 24 and also Jude 1 16 in Jude 1:6 it says the Angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandon their proper dwelling now this refers to
00:15:41 Fallen Angels who are Satan's minions these he has kept in he has kept in darkness Bound for for judgment on the great day Paul seems to suggest that we will have some kind of a role in the Judgment of these Fallen Angels I'll leave it at that because there's nothing further to add from scripture now back to part one of our text as pointed earlier we have church members cheating other church members and the AG grieved parties are taking their offenders to court remember the 50,000 ring renovation
00:16:19 job what we find here in the first seven verses is that Paul is detailing three possible causes of action that Wong can pursue in respect of the Injustice that have done to him one adjudication via litigation meaning suing me in in an external court of law and getting a judge to adjudicate or to make a ruling two arbitration by leaders meaning asking church leaders to arbitrate or mediate in an attempt to settle the dispute internally and three acceptance of loss from the last verse in part one meaning to suffer
00:17:05 loss and to refrain from pursuing the matter further now it's Crystal Clear that Paul is not at all in favor of the first option in fact he is evidently annoyed that such actions have been taken he means us no words in denouncing these lawsuit in verse one in verse one if any one of you has a dispute with another do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment if you check other translations of this particular verse it actually sounds much stronger than this NIV Paul is really saying don't you dare to go to
00:17:53 court how dare you go to court now this is not to suggest that the secular courts of law are incompetent to deliver Fair judgment this is not to say that there are no qualified and capable judges out there as a matter of fact we find in Acts 25 Paul presenting his legal arguments and defending himself in a Roman Court after he was arrested Paul is not dismissing the value of the circular of the secular uh uh uh judicial system what he's saying is that it is ill advised for a Believer to go to court
00:18:34 against another believer now this begs the larger question why is Paul so against Christians settling their disputes before secular judges in secular courts he finds such actions shameful and it's hard to miss more of his strong language in in verse five I say this to shame you well there of course several valid arguments in support of Paul's position in this matter the first is embodied in this Norwegian proverb it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest or a dirty bird that soils its own nest which is another way of saying
00:19:25 don't wash your dirty Linen in public which is what happens when Christians are at each other's throat fighting in open court in full display before non-christians Paul rebukes them in in verse six but instead one brother takes another to court and this in front of unbelievers and imagine Paul thinking what the unbelievers are thinking Christians are supposed to love their enemy all the more one of their own but here they are full of hate and Malice Christians are supposed to be very forgiving but here they are unwilling to
00:20:08 forget and let go Christians are supposed to be righteous people but here they are cheating one another simply put it's bad testimony it drives people away from the gospel it shows that we are no different from those outside the gospel and that's why Paul has harsh words for deep Corinthian Christians shame on you as he SCS them in verse 5 next the second the second argument of Paul against their lawsuits and this is a bit harder to grasp in verse one itself he describes the secular judges as ungodly I highlighted the word ungodly
00:20:50 and once again it's not to say that they're all bad and corrupt once again it's not to suggest that we should have nothing to do with the with the legal system out there in fact in Romans 13 Paul instructed Believers to submit to the governing authorities because it's God who has established them so why then does Paul characterize the secular judges as ungodly if they are indeed part of the landscape that God has ordained you see Paul is using the word ungodly in a spiritual sense not in a moral sense certainly there there are
00:21:31 many good and competent judges out there but they are non-christians they are different from us they are outside the faith but is that important yes if you understand the dichotomy between us and them you know in in order to prepare my kids for life overseas I've always told them since they were young that we are Christians we are different now I don't mean this in an elitist sort of way it's just that we brief different values we subscribe to different principles we have different priorities in
00:22:12 life and twice Jesus described us as not of this world in John 15 and 17 although we are in this world in the world but not of this world because we are children of the Living God we align our lives with his will we are guided and molded by his word and his Spirit the world doesn't buy any of this and this is what I mean by the by the dichotomy between us and them and further when settling disputes within the church we can readily tap into wisdom from above James 1: 15 tells us that God generously imparts his
00:22:52 wisdom to us whenever we ask of him but the secular judges out there they have no such resource in fact Paul wrote several times in in the earlier chapters of one Corinthians about this huge gap between God's wisdom and the wisdom of this World chapter two that which we speak is wisdom not the wisdom of this world nor of the rulers of this world further in chapter three for the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight I can quote you another one in in from chapter one if you see where Paul is going then you
00:23:28 better appreciate then you can better appreciate verse four in our text if you have disputes about such matters do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorn in the church now this may sound a bit strange it may sound that that as though we despise the way of life of those judges but if you check other translations Paul is saying that these people these judges have no standing in the church which simply means they are non-believers and so Paul cannot understand why why a Believer would go
00:24:00 to an unbeliever to settle a dispute and this is Paul's second argument against the lawsuits in other words those justified in God's eyes they should not seek Justice from those not justified if you if you follow what I mean and so if Ming is not supposed to sue me for the 10,000 ring gate what is he to do and we come to the second way to respond when we have been wrong by another church member that is arbitration by leaders that is to say seeking the help of a leader in church to arbitrate or mediate and this is the approach that
00:24:43 Paul insists on his instruction is that we are to sett settle the matter internally within the body of Christ we are to bring it before the Lord's people in at the end of verse one first in verse two he asks a rhetorical question are you not competent to judge trivial cases surely God's people are competent enough to undertake such a task and this is where he talks about the judging the angels and the world in versus 2 and three which I which I explained earlier hey if you are if we are going to to be ruling over cities
00:25:21 and Nations you mean you cannot give a fair ruling in such small disputes involving money the day one day we will be judging more uh uh serious matters don't tell me you cannot settle these trivial cases now in this light why the Corinthian Christians are getting those in the world to settle their disputes while washing their dirty line in public when the matter should have been dealt with internally why do they do that I don't know well perhaps there is no one in the church not even one with the spiritual
00:26:01 credentials to handle the matter but that's hard to believe which brings us to which brings us to uh Paul's second rhetorical question in verse 5 is it possible is it possible there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between Believers not even you tell me not even one single person wise enough the probability of not finding even 1% is almost zero if not zero now although I titled this point as arbitration by leaders stly speaking it doesn't have to be a leader it could be anyone with a level of spiritual
00:26:41 maturity uh someone who is impartial with a good reputation but most likely a leader will be approached an elder or a pastor or a or the life group leader or a Ministry head perhaps even two or three of them but what if Wong approaches every one of these leaders but all of them decline maybe they don't like his face or maybe they all busy people what should he do oh who still God forbid I have all of them in my pocket Wong doesn't feel that he will get a fair hearing or verdict like that how now one possible cause of action OD
00:27:28 not from the text is to seek help from another church perhaps Wong knows Believers in another church who are more inclined to help this is to avoid going to a secular court of law but but what if Wong has exhausted all avenues for Christian arbitration what if no Believers not even one in this church or another church who is willing to get involved what should he do or wor still I refuse to be part of any uh effort to mediate or to arbitrate I wouldn't join any of this uh pro proceedings I insist on paying W
00:28:13 40,000 ring not a sand more and since he has now hit the wall isn't it okay for the poor fellow he's not so poor isn't it okay for a poor fellow for this poor fellow to go to us external court of law to seek redress no other way unfortunately no according to Paul we come to the last point in part one the third way to respond when we have been wrong and that is acceptance of loss this is the hardest verse in the text verse 7B why not rather be wrong why not rather be cheated Paul is saying that Wong should
00:29:03 bear the outstanding amount and move on what this is so counterintuitive what do you mean he should just accept the law what about the Injustice what about fairness in fact if the table was if the tables were turned I would sue to get back the the 10,000 ring that is rightfully Min don't show me this vers please but the verse is Crystal Clear you cannot explain it differently except the loss I know this is hard teaching this is based on the words of Jesus uh in his Sermon on the Mount if anyone wants to
00:29:44 sue you and take your shirt hand over your coat as well now this is even worse not just not only accepting the loss but more loss this is very hard teaching and you can see the the disbelief in the face of those listening to this but Paul also presents his argument and the reasoning in verse seven the very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already in other words the very Act of going to court means that you have lost this is strange if you win you lose and this sounds so
00:30:25 oxymoronic so against the grain of logic imagine even if you win you lose isn't this bizarre not so if you understand the upside down nature of God's economy everything is the balet for example in Matthew 20 the last shall be first and the first shall be last so don't to rush because you're first you'll be last or in Matthew 16 whoever would find whoever who whoever whoever would save his own his life will lose it you save you try to save it you lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find
00:31:09 it okay please tell me what I lose if I were to proceed with the lawsuit now for one thing as we have just discussed you are doing a great disservice to the gospel it's bad testimony so even if you win but in the larger scheme of things of God's uh will you lose big now the converse is also true even if you lose by accepting the loss you actually win and how so the reason is well presented in one Peter two it is commendable if someone Bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God if you suffer
00:31:53 for doing good and you endure it this is commendable before God to this you were called because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps when they H when they H their insults at him he did not retaliate when he suffered he made no threats instead he entrusted himself to to him God the father in this case who judges justly long verse what's the message of the cross if it is not one of losing but yet winning actually there is not one but three reasons why the acceptance of laws
00:32:39 is better than the lawsuits one because we are to follow the example of Jesus to Walk in his steps two because it pleases God immensely it says twice here it is commendable you get good marks and three this is more most important because we can trust God it says Jesus entrusted himself to his father who judges justly the ultimate judge is God we can trust that God will vindicate us someday somehow and this last Point comes across stronger in Romans 12 it is mine to avenge I will repay says the Lord do not be overcome evil
00:33:29 but overcome evil with good God himself is saying that he will compensate us eventually sometimes we we recite Psalm 121:2 which the chairman quoted just now my help comes from the Lord the maker of heaven and Earth or do we say my help comes from Young Arif the judge at subang Jaya M Magistrate Court still I grant you that accepting the loss when you have been wrong is something very very hard to do 10,000 ring is a lot of money what if it's not 10,000 ring what if it's 1 million ring what if accepting such a big loss leaves
00:34:15 you a destitute or let me pin you an equally difficult scenario suppose the church wrongly accuses a staff of wrongdoing and then fires him unjustly are you telling me that that she shouldn't go to the labor Court to seek remedy are you telling me that he should just accept the wrongful dismissal and live with a Tanish reputation there are no easy answers but to help you think this through that is accepting the L for the greater good let me share with you a true story it was told to me by Morin
00:34:52 gay who many of you know well I understand that some of you had dinner with her just the other day Morin and her late husband mik you remember mik they used to worship with us and I have a permission to to share this story mik and his brother in Germany inherited a beautiful house in Northern Italy from its balcony one could enjoy a stunning view of the elps understand that the Desmond Yong stayed here before it was built by their great-grandfather in the late 1800s Morin and mik then spent about
00:35:36 €150,000 e to upgrade the property and this is 15 times the the 50,000 ring uh in my earlier fictitious Story the couple then moved to Malaysia where we met them and fellowship with them and over the course of time the brother in Germany assumed full ownership ship of the property denying mik his rightful share and this left Morin and mik very very bitter and relationship between the two brothers were was obviously broken the property now is worth about 1 million EUR about 5 million ring imagine
00:36:20 half of that 2.5 million ring long story short in time mik came to the decision that his brother was far more important than the property okay you arrived at that decision but not Morin to her the property was more important than her brother-in-law she struggled with this for months and some of you in the same life group as Morin you all Witness many a few years ago how hard it was for her how much she struggled and finally in late October 2016 she was convicted to do what was commandable in God's sight and they
00:37:11 agreed to sign a paper giving up all rights to the property not easy to do and in early 2017 the two couples met in Germany and the two brothers were reunited and here you see them together over a meal on the right is the late mikal whom we all miss so much and bear in mind that the brother and his wife on the on the left were unbelievers and the story doesn't end here sadly mik passed away in 2020 and the brother passed away in 2021 today Morin gets along so well with her sister-in-law and she's able to speak
00:38:02 the gospel into her heart what's the moral of this true story although you lose but in God's sight you win and coming to part two of our text we move to part two four verses which we can cover quickly Paul now moves from the specific issue of lawsuits to to take a critical look at how at who we are as believers or rather who we ought to be as Believers and here he kind of addresses the whole congregation in verse eight he started by by by chastising those going to court instead you yourself cheat and do wrong
00:38:41 and you do this to your brothers and sisters now Paul may seem uh harsh to those victims of cheating but those who have been wrong they also do wrong to others in other words yes the other party may be guilty of cheating you but you Al not so innocent but why Target those who have been wrong of course it's not to exonerate those who have done wrong rather is Paul's way of reminding us that we Believers we are all sinners saved only by the grace of God we are all sinners saved by the grace of God the problem starts when Sinners
00:39:25 think that they are not sinners I titled part one of the text as conflict uh resolution and part two is conflict prevention now in part one we saw uh we examine biblical methods of conflict resolution but how is part two uh about conflict prevention now I believe that the first step to conflict prevention is to recognize that we are all sinners 1 john8 says if we have if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves that's the starting point point last Sunday Dr Peter declared that he has his sins today I stand here and declare to
00:40:07 you that I too have my my sins and this go this goes without saying because we are not perfect if you want to know my sins if you talk nicely to lean maybe she will tell you although I hope she won she's not here because she's at the Canon service in this church we may have our disagreements differences or even disputes but I believe that these can be mitigated or even prevented if we humbly acknowledge this verse we will become less critical of other people's faults and sins and shortcomings we will stop being holier
00:40:51 than th but more importantly when we recognize our sins the more we are aware that we too have done wrong to others and to God causing us to be more repentant prompting us to go before God in confession and if we confess our sins God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from 1 John 1:9 this is the path of sanctification and it begins with acknowledging our sins if we want to stay away from sin and if enough Believers in FBC adopt this posture then we will gradually get to the point of being a church
00:41:36 Sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be to be his holy people from 1 Corinthians 1:2 which I cited earlier and this is what Paul wants the Corinthian Church to become this is what God wants us to become which is why in verses 9 and 10 Paul strangely launches into this long catalog of sins sexual immorality including adultery and homosexuality te and greed and swindling slander etc etc and he warns that that those who engage in this sins will not inherit the kingdom of God which actually is it is his way of pleading
00:42:19 with them please please stop all this because you're you're supposed to have put all this behind you this is what you were this not what you are now now you have been washed and and and Sanctified and and and Justified from verse 11 my point in this part two is this when the church is sufficiently Sanctified conflicts can be prevented and then there is no need for all the uh uh all those conflict resolutions now coming back to the oysters at the beginning there's a reason why I I mention the oysters not to promote
00:42:58 Australian oysters because they are a great metaphor as we conclude our study of the text you see these oysters come come with a shell that is hard and rough and ugly representing our sinful nature what we want to do is to remove the shells and throw them away what we want to do is to get inside to the soft and nice and and tasty stuff stff which represents our Sanctified qualities what we want to do is to bring out what's inside not exhibit what's outside and hence whenever we have disagreements or differences or disputes
00:43:42 with other church members perhaps we can remember this oyster metaphor okay we are done navigating the verses in 1 Corinthians 61-11 and to conclude the sermon let me leave you with something uh to take away I picked up this uh application Point indirectly from the text Paul doesn't dwell on this to any degree of depth but I didn't notice from verse 6 the word brother also from verse 8 the term brothers and sisters and and and this is I think this is how he sees the the members of the church as brothers
00:44:18 and sisters and I wish to expand on this to offer you something to chew on now the Corinthians church as we have seen had their disputes and lawsuits members of FBC may have their disagreements and differences but the best antidote against all this is to remember that we are family we Are Spiritual siblings with God as our heavenly father the key word here is relationship between brothers and sisters sure we are not related by by Blood but we are bonded in jesus' name and by the spirit from the last line in
00:45:03 our text we are like under the same spiritual umbrella one family under Christ and when we realize that two amazing things happen one we find ourselves more willing to compromise to give way to Live and Let Live we become more accommodating more agreeable more flexible now to illustrate this let me return to the oyster Story one last time it's the last time I talk about it no more because I promise to tell you how lean and I decided on on what type and how many oysters this happened okay one month
00:45:51 ago the principle is very simple and here it is H between the husband and the wife the wife is always the smarter one without a Shadow of Doubt and all you husband sitting here remember this and so based on this principle I told my wife darling you go and choose and decide whatever oysters you want whatever you buy I eat this one you can check with her what's the lesson here she is my wife wife who have a relationship if mere oysters can cause a quarrel what kind of relationship is that correct
00:46:38 not now to illustrate this further in his previous sermon brother John Lee let you in a bit on the on how the Coe or the Council of Elders make decisions now i i s talk about the Coe but today I'll let I'll tell you more the four all of us meet every two to three months not as often as we wish and usually over dinner at a Japanese restaurant it's so good to meet over a meal why because your mouth is busy chewing and you cannot talk so much and one more thing someone will volunteer to sett the the bill at the
00:47:28 end and you better not say anything nasty L you offend the one paying for your meal but jok's aside do we agree on everything of course not do we have differences of opinion naturally yes we discuss and deliberate we debate and sometimes we argue but in the end we come together as one because because Dr Peter Arnold and ulam they are like my brothers they are family to me we enjoy close relationships we are bonded in the name of Jesus and by the spirit of God and so the point is thinking our of
00:48:16 ourselves as family is very helpful to prevent conflicts and next the last point when we start to think of ourselves as family under God a second wonderful thing happens we become more forgiving more gracious the Morin story of the house in the Italian elps was one of accepting loss for a greater good but it was at the same time a journey of forgiveness she forgave her brother-in-law who was a non-believer and how much more we need to forgive each other within the body of Christ when we realize that we are
00:48:57 family it becomes easier to forgive harder to forgive a stranger and let me relate to you one last incident in Sydney to illustrate this not the oysters the day after the oysters we were at this place called The Rocks it was a weekend market near the harbor bridge and suddenly I felt very hungry and soon I was scanning the manure at this restaurant and my my eyes caught this cauliflower stick cauliflower stick M Australian beef with cauliflowers sounds delicious now we were sitting outside so I had to go inside uh to order and to
00:49:48 pay my wife is far smarter than me of course she alerted me ask and make sure it is meat and when the order came our Jaws dropped it was just cauliflowers this is called exhibit B after I have almost finished it when it arrived lean's face changed you mean you didn't ask if it's me hello 25 oz 80 ring for a plate of cauliflowers you like cauliflowers I go back and cook for you plenty of cauliflowers in Malaysia okay La this stupid husband forgot to ask hey how was that to know that cauliflower stick is not
00:50:50 stick how was I to know their command of English is so bad after lambasting me for a few minutes only a few minutes my wife decided to forgive me and in fact put on a smile and from that moment on until today you know she has never once mentioned the cauliflower Fiasco this is relationship it's supposed to work this way when you find it hard to forgive someone think of these cauliflowers or better still you can recall Morin stories better FBC is the body of Christ a Community of Faith a gathering of
00:51:35 Believers of course but more than anything else from today we also want to see this church as family you you are my family I am your family he is your family you are his family shall we pray Father in heaven we ask that you bind us together as a family bring us together unite us as brother and sisters also sanctify us and lead us to become your holy people so that we will not engaged in Patty squabbles or serious disputes for this honors you immensely our almighty God and we pray this in Jesus name
00:52:29 amen church can we stand and let us sing this respond song Together bind us [Music] together bind us together Lord B us together with cords that cannot be brok okay B us together Lord B us together the Lord bind us together with [Music] love there is only one [Music] God there is only one [Music] king there there is only one body that is why we can sing bind us together Lord bind us together with CA that cannot be broke bind us together Lord bind us together withness together with love made for the glory of
00:54:12 God purchased by his precious [Music] son born with the right to be clean for Jesus the victory has [Music] won B us together Lord B us together with CTS that cannot be broken bind us together Lord bind us together Lord bind us together with love good morning testing all right good morning church um later we will unseal the communion elements together at an appointed time so if you have your communion elements in your bag please prepare it take it out but don't unseal it um as we will do it later uh if you
00:55:18 have yet to receive the element please raise your hands and the Asher will approach you with it [Music] communion is for anyone who has placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for his salvation uh and if you have not proclaimed your faith to Christ uh please refrain from participating in the communion and so as we take the uh as we will soon partake the communion together we'll take the following moments to prepare ourselves it will be a time we look inwardly examining ourselves before
00:55:57 the Lord 1 Corinthians 11:28 tells us that we ought to examine ourselves before partaking of De bread and drinking from the cup and so from today's sermon arises additional points to examine do we Harbor a growing bitterness towards a brother or sister in Christ when we are in dispute with another member it's our first step to initiate hurt or to initiate understanding and Reconciliation our we avoiding making peace with a member of the body and so I will lead us through an opening prayer followed by that we
00:56:34 will take a moment of silence to confess our failures and sins before god father as we come before you we ask for you to examine our hearts and show us what's not pleasing to you or honoring to your name reveal to us any unconfessed sins we hide Rebellion we initiate and unforgiveness we Harbor so that we may take the following moments to repent to you [Music] [Music] [Music] God in our repenting we don't take this moment likely uh we recognize how important it is to come before you in examination and repentance before
00:57:41 partaking of the communion and so Spirit we thank you for revealing to us what we need to repent of in Jesus name we pray amen now together let's unseal the bread and the cup [Music] [Music] come [Music] 1 Corinthians 11: 23- 24 the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me together as a church as a family we want to remember the pain and suffering Christ endured on the cross to purchase
00:58:47 his people's sin and so we remember by what we are united by and that is the gospel so where we eat of the bread and later with the wine we're acknowledging and remembering what Jesus did on the cross let's partake of the bread together in remembrance of him in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me as we partake of the cup we remember what Jesus blood paid which is the price of our sins including the sins of our
00:59:28 Brothers and Sisters in Christ whom we wrong and will Wrong by and so for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes let's partake of the wine together in remembrance of [Music] him our close this in prayer God thank you for joining us together to partake of the communion together as a church we thank you for Christ's death and resurrection that brought salvation to us we want to pray for our brothers and sisters who refrain from eating the communion because they har bitterness
01:00:06 and dispute with a fellow member we want to remember them and we want to pray for them God we seek to pray for opportunities of reconciliation help all of us to be mediators and reconcilers simply because we want to be like Jesus who was our mediator and reconciler while we were Sinners we want to fulfill your command to love one another like how Christ loved us and so we ask for your spirit to continuously transform and shape us to be your people who will live out the gospel in our relationships
01:00:39 with others in Jesus name amen and so we're going to try something new today as we partook of the communion as a family and we heard of Elder Yan's message let's turn to our neighbors and we greet them with rejoice in the Lord and then we'll continue singing binders together let's do that [Music] bind us together Lord bind us together with calls that cannot be [Music] broken bind us together Lord bind us together Lord bind us together with love we sing We Are the family of God we are the family of
01:01:35 [Music] God we are the promised Divine we are God's chosen [Music] desire we are the Glorious new one bind us together Lord bind us together with CA that cannot be [Music] broken blindness together Lord bind us together Lord bind us together with [Music] love bind us together with please please remain standing for the benediction people of God receive now blessings from the Lord may God fill your heart with his love in overflowing measures so that you will re radiate his love to those around you may God strengthen the brotherly
01:02:55 bonds within this congregation so that you can experience a true sense of family in this church and may God continue to sanctify you to renew you to mold you so that we all can become his holy people go now in the love and joy and peace of God Amen God bless you in the coming week and do stay back for fellowship at the Garden Cafe we'll see you next Sunday thank you
