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00:00 ask uh that you you speak to us today. This is a message that has father Lord
00:07 affects all of us in some way or another. We when we look under the covers there's a darker semia aspect to
00:15 our own lives. So we ask oh Lord that Holy Spirit work in our hearts today to
00:21 uncover these little seeds that the devil lays into our souls in order to destroy our lives. So we pray oh Lord
00:27 that we learn from Gideon's failure. We ask for your sake. Amen. We're going to go to the book of Judges.
00:34 And the book of Judges is a book which is violent. It shows you the underside,
00:42 the seeming underbelly of Christianity. The Bible is a book that is no holes
00:47 bad. The good, bad, the ugly is all seen out there. And you're going to see a great deal of ugliness today. Okay. Last
00:55 week, Yidian had the good part. 300 men beat 120,000. You know what do you find
01:02 that today the same person is going to fail.
01:08 And it's frightening because there is a bit of Gideon in all of us. There's the good side where we are there with the
01:15 Lord and we're victorious and we're going by faith. And then the other side where there's our real self, the darker
01:21 side that comes out. If it can happen to Gideon, it happens to all of us.
01:28 Noah, the only man who believed God, right? Saved from the flood with his whole
01:35 family, ends his life drunk, naked in his tent. Moses sinned, couldn't go into the
01:42 promised land. Moses was called what? The friend of God. David was called the
01:48 man after God's own heart. Chased other people's wives and killed the husband,
01:53 Gideon. So there's a dark side to all of us. It's like a jackal and hide. And I
01:60 don't want us today to say, you know, that's not me. Because if you look very carefully at all the seeds of
02:05 destruction, they're all there. And and you can find it in all of us. Uh we're going to look at this road map to
02:11 spiritual decline. And hopefully we can if we can understand and we can um see
02:17 some of these signs in our own lives, then maybe perhaps we will learn and we will not have to go to that kind of
02:23 depth. Uh first of all we we understand that self-absorption one of the first signs of
02:28 self-absorption which is subtle. You don't see it. You don't feel it until it's there. Next is pride triggered in
02:36 this case by success. So success is not necessarily all is you know laid out to be. It's got dangers. Thirdly idolatry
02:43 disguised as devotion. And lastly a challenge to finish well. All right.
02:50 Self-absorption which is subtle. If you look here at the map, we've got uh the
02:56 battle which is at uh this area Tabore. Then after the big battle, the
03:02 Medidionites run away and we're confronted with the big tribe of Ephraim. And this is where it starts off
03:09 and the men of Ephraim came to Jud Gideon right after the battle. Big battle's finished and
03:16 they're upset. You know why? Because you didn't come and ask us to join us. You didn't come and join us. Passes join us
03:22 and now the enem is on the run. We want in. Why do you want in? You know why?
03:27 Because they also want money. See, we always want to join the winning side. Isn't it? Didn't kadin write in Malaysia
03:35 Kiny yesterday 50 amno MPs are going to join Harapan? See once you're harapan
03:41 means everybody want to join you, right? Because you must be on the winning side. So here Ephrame
03:47 comes and accuses uh Gideon. you know, you didn't call us for when you want to fight. And probably Gideon didn't dare
03:54 call them because they were a big tribe, rich tribe, powerful tribe. They probably won't want to join him anyway. And and God doesn't want so many. He
03:60 only wants 300, right? So they accuse him. And this is what Gideon said. What
04:06 have I done in comparison to you? Is not the gleanings of the grapes of Apraza?
04:14 Abaza is Gideon's tribe. Gleanings is when you actually have a
04:20 vineyard. You harvest the vineyard to make your shardon. All right? But the edges of your field, you leave that for
04:27 what? Poor people. And what he is saying that, hey, hello. The gleanings, the
04:33 side bits, the tidbits, the the the the scraps off the table of yours is
04:38 bettered by whole harvest. So humble, isn't it? Right. And he comes and says um God has given into your hand the
04:46 princes of Midian Orb and Ze. See these two princes you already captured. I got captured nothing. And he says to what
04:52 have I been able to do in comparison with you? And the anger against him subsided after he said this. Isn't this
04:59 humble? Such a humble nice man, isn't it? When he confronts this big tribe.
05:05 Now see what happens next. Then um how he treats Sukoth and Pineal. These are
05:12 two small towns. So Gideon came across Jordan and crossed over it with 300 men
05:17 who were with him. Exhausted, they're pursuing. He said to the men of Sukoth, "Please give us loaves of bread to the people who follow me. They're exhausted.
05:23 I'm pursuing after Zeba and Zimona, the kings of Midian and officials of Sukov said, are the hands of Zeba and Zuna
05:31 already in your hands that we may give bread to your army." So Gideon said, "Well, then the Lord has given Zeba and
05:37 Zamuna into my hands. I will when the Lord has given Zeba and Son in my hands, I will flail your flesh with thorns of
05:44 wilderness and briars. And from there he went to pineal and spoke to them in the same way. And the men of Pineal answered him as the men of Sikkot had answered
05:50 and he said to the man of Panel, "When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower." See the way he treats the
05:57 people of Ephraim, it's okay. I'm such a small man, small tribe. But then he
06:02 treats the men of Pineal and Sukos. I'll whack you because you didn't help me.
06:08 Two kinds, two responses. So to people who are more superior to you, I'm putu
06:14 to people who are below you. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah.
06:20 All of us do that. I used to do that with my colleague. My professor comes. Oh, boss. If my nurses mess up
06:26 operative, that's me. Because men pleasing. You know why?
06:31 Because I want glory from men. That's what we're like. That's that's a sign of
06:36 self-absorption because he treats people according to who they are so that he will get the
06:42 best glory. Uh and Jesus calls this when I come in my name of my father and you
06:48 don't receive me another one comes in his name you will receive me. How can I believe? How can you believe when you
06:53 receive glory for one another and do not seek glory that comes from the only God? The whole problem is self-absorption. We
06:59 only want glory. We're absorbed with the glory for ourselves and we're not interested in getting from God. We're
07:05 interested getting from each other. So, we want to look good in front of each
07:10 other's faces. Right? So, u Judges, that's a clue from the past. You look in
07:17 chapter 7 when they were fighting when the men were charging down the 300 men, you know, the sound and all that. He
07:22 said, "And they cried out a sword for God and a fought for Gideon." Wow. two,
07:29 you know, a sort for God and a sort for Gideon. These subtle clues betray the
07:35 fact that Gideon was in it for himself as well. But is that the only thing?
07:40 Look at the favorite pastime of everybody 15 years ago. If you told me Chu that
07:47 you took a 15 photos of yourself and then you posted to all your friends, what would your friends think of you?
07:54 They will say something wrong with this woman, isn't it? Yes. Right. But nowadays, we do this all the time. We're
08:00 taking pictures of ourselves everywhere when we eat. Is it sit toilet? Do whatever you want. You're putting it there. So to the whole world to see how
08:07 ridiculous this is because we're so self-absorbed. In fact, CNN just reported 250 people have died taking
08:13 selfies. We're being chased by an elephant or a goat or a tiger. You take a selfie just before you die. At least
08:19 you'll be immortalized as it were. The most popular online platforms for teenagers, number one is YouTube.
08:27 Because if you have a following in YouTube, you'll be rich. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, this is what we're
08:34 all into. Why? 37 13 to 70 year old social media users.
08:41 The percentage who use social media uh feels how they feel make makes sense how they feel, right? This is wrong. Makes
08:48 how they how they feel using social media. Sorry. So 30%
08:54 popular, confident, better or worse than themselves, less
08:59 anxious. So therefore, the use of social media to gain glory, the more likes you
09:05 have, right? Tell me that you don't feel good. How many of you still don't feel good and somebody likes what you said?
09:10 Put your hands up. Yeah, we all want likes, isn't it? Oh, whenever I put something up, I make sure my son likes
09:17 it. and my son doesn't like it, you know, and he why why one son likes
09:23 it and the other son doesn't like it. So the son will feel obligated to like it, right? Whatever crap you put up
09:30 there, he's got to like it, right? Or your friends, how come my best friend didn't like it? How can you not like it?
09:36 And every day, why are you looking at your Facebook or your Instagram, all that? Because you got a following, isn't
09:42 it? You're famous, isn't it? It feeds into this self-absorption. It's not
09:47 healthy. It's a first sign of spiritual decline. You know, recently there was a movie that came out called A Star Is
09:54 Born starring who is this woman? Gaga. Okay. Lady Gaga. All right. And
10:00 and she's been in various interviews in four different interviews and she's saying this cheesy line. She says there
10:07 can be 100 people in the room and 99 of them don't believe in you, but all it takes is one. And that was him. So you
10:15 may tell your boyfriend that all it takes is that one. You want the glory. It doesn't matter about everybody
10:21 else. If my boyfriend likes me, a star is born. I said, "Well, now what are the
10:26 symptoms of self-absorption? You view circumstances from your personal point of view. So when the when
10:33 the fin when the budget comes out tomorrow, you see a how first thing you see how does it affect me?" Right? You
10:40 take a cam photo, first thing your eyes look at. Boom. Where am I? Oh, my hand so good. I should have b it the other
10:45 way around. Do you notice we we tend to view all our circumstances and interpret
10:50 it as, you know, oh, the first house caught fire or the earthquake that oh,
10:56 thank goodness I wasn't there. That's all you can think about. Uh or for example, offended or hurt by others.
11:03 Someone comes out and says, "Oh, Bible study leaders must not be fat." That you look at yourself, I'm not fat. It
11:09 applies to you. Or for example, you mistrust or dislike people. Or you upset
11:14 at negative comments. People pass a little comment, they didn't quite like your sermon, and you get so upset. Oh, you didn't like my sermon. I'm not going
11:20 to preach anymore. Or you got conversations and you have you talked to people and all the topic seems to be
11:26 around them. It's self-absorption, the sign of decline. And you can see this in
11:34 in in in a classical uh uh situation in the parables where where where Peter is
11:39 climbing out of the boat and he's walking on water. Have you you know and and and and right there Matthew says and
11:45 Peter got out of the boat and walked on water and came to Jesus and then when he saw the wind he was afraid began to sink
11:50 and he cried out Lord Lord save me. See when his eyes was on Jesus he was okay. The moment he took his eyes off Jesus he
11:58 looked at the wind and looked at himself. Finished. That's spiritual decline.
12:03 Spiritual decline begins when we take our eyes off him and we start to take it
12:09 and on ourselves. You see, before he has to keep his eyes on God, you know why?
12:14 He's got 120,000 enemies and he's got 300 men. You better look to God.
12:20 When the odds are down to 15,000, he looks to himself. And that's what happens uh to us. Now
12:27 the next thing that happens on the road map to spiritual decline is pride triggered by success. Success is not
12:34 necessarily a good thing. If you look here, Gideon defeats the two Midionite kings. Zebar and Zuna were in Kakor with
12:42 their army about 15,000 men. All of them were left of the army and the people of the east and had fallen 120,000 men who
12:49 drew the sword. And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jabeka and attacked the army.
12:56 for the army felt secure and Zeba and Zamuna fled. He pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zeba,
13:02 Zamuna and he threw all the army into a panic. He was successful. And here we
13:07 are. He chases them down here. He meets Ephrame down here.
13:12 He has a runin with people of Sukov Panel and this is Carore, right? He's
13:18 chasing them all the way up there. He has a great victory there. And then what happens? And you read Gideon and the son
13:24 Joash returned from the battle by ascent of Hares. He captured a young man of Sukoth and questioned him and he wrote
13:29 down for him the officials and elders of Suko 77 men. And he came to the men of Sukos and he said, "Behold, Zeba and
13:37 Zamuna about whom you taunted me." See, he's a tribe that this is a small town
13:42 that didn't help him. When his men needed food, he didn't give him any food because you see, how do I know you're on
13:48 the winning side? You don't even have anybody captured. And now he captures these two kings. He parades it in front.
13:53 Nah, I told you so. Right? And then the hands of Zeba and
13:59 Zamina already in your hands that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted. And he took the elders in the
14:04 city and he thorns of the wilderness and briars and he taught the men of Sukot a lesson. This is not vacation Bible
14:11 school, you know. He takes this and he slashes them. Some would have died. And
14:17 the next town pineal broke down the tower and killed the men of the city. This is genocide.
14:24 Our leader, our spiritual leader, our judge commits genocide. No different
14:31 from Redco Navic. Why did he commit genocide? Genocide against the Bosnian
14:37 Muslims. Well, abuse of Serbs by Ottoman Empire occupied them for centuries. Why
14:43 did he kill all the men opinional? Because they look down on him. people looked down on him don't help you
14:49 you kill all of them absolutely frightening and uh his revenge and they said to Zeba
14:57 Zuna who are the two kings where are the men whom you killed at Tabor they answered oh as you are so they were that
15:04 means they look like you know no wonder everyone there resemble the son of a king and he says they were my brothers
15:12 and the sons of my mother as the Lord lives is if you had saved them alive, I
15:18 would not kill you. So the reason why he's chasing this remnant of the army all the way down south was not because
15:23 God told him to do so, you know, it's because revenge
15:29 best serve cold, isn't it? He wants to kill them. Personal revenge. And then not only
15:36 that, he passes the hatred down to his son. That's what people do when they got a grudge. They passed down to the son
15:41 and the son passes to the son and the whole cycle of violence continues. He said to his son, "Jeter, rise and kill
15:47 this man." But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid because he was still a young man. And
15:53 Zeba and Zamar said, "Rise yourself and fall upon us. As as a man is, so is his strength." And Gideon arose and killed
15:59 Zeba and Zamina. And he took the crescent armaments ornaments that were on the necks of the camels. They took
16:04 the ornaments and the camels. These are not just ordinary ornaments. They are symbols of royalty. And here you
16:11 contrast the two Gideons. They're like two different people jack on one hand in chapter 6 he said to please Lord how can
16:17 I save Israel behold my clan is the weakest in mana say and I'm the least in my father's house and on this side he
16:24 says he killed Zeba and Zuna and it took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels it's like jackal
16:31 and high two different one is a the least of a smallest tribe insecure
16:37 sniveling nobody and the other guy is full of hatred hatred and revenge.
16:44 You know this uh Ian Robertson wrote about the science of success looking at the pharmacology. When you actually win,
16:52 things happen. Your testosterone goes up and that triggers a brain hormone called
16:57 dopamine. Makes you feel great. And people who win constantly win again
17:02 because of this. If you lose, another hormone comes out called cortisol and makes you want to lose again the next
17:08 time. So the whole thing is to to win all the time. And it actually affects your brain. And the psychological
17:14 profile of pride is uh is either authentic or hubristic. Authentic pride
17:20 is makes you confident, productive, agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable. Hubristic pride, which is what I
17:28 think Gideon has, egotisticism, arrogance, disagreeable, aggressive, low self-esteem, and shame. A typical
17:36 example of this are two US presidents. One is authentic pride and the other one
17:41 is totally hubristic pride. You know this is all over the place. He never apologizes for anything. All right. Um
17:47 and and it all plays a role in in is selfworth is actually the underlying
17:52 problem. All right. So if you look at this those with hubristic pride are more at risk for hypomomania which is
17:58 overconfidence and impaired judgment. When you've got hubristic pride you will
18:04 overestimate yourself. you will not see things clearly. That's what it says.
18:09 This is a UK foreign secretary, Lord David Owward. He describes hubristic syndrome as reckless disinhibition, risk
18:17 blindness, difficulty in seeing things from other people's perspective. Fitz Gideon, right? And he thinks it fits
18:24 Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and George Washington. Sorry, wrong Washington.
18:29 George Bush. All right. And it also fits uh you know the people in UK are very clever. All right. When when Donald
18:35 Trump went and visited, they put this big baby blimp up there because they know that his pride is driven by low
18:44 self-esteem and shame. We feel so badly about ourselves. We compensate by feeling superior. You call other people
18:51 names because you want to hide your own inferiority. You look for other people's flaws. People like this can never
18:58 apologize. Look at Mahate in an interview with hard talk this month
19:03 October 2nd BBC they asked him this question. Anoa said you apologize for
19:10 putting me in jail. Dr. M said I never did that. I never did anything like that. The only person in the whole
19:16 country Malaysia for the last 61 years jail for homosexuality. Oh I never did that. Not my fault. See you they
19:22 hubristic pride you cannot climb down. And Anoa plays along with that. I never asked Dr. M's apology. Uh, happy we're
19:29 working together. He's trying to brush that aside. What about this? Uh, our friend was our ex- prime minister was
19:36 was was put in was charged with six charges of criminal breach of trust because he misappropriated $6 billion.
19:43 And he said his lawyer says to save the country. We all should get on our knees today. And thank God that he saved the
19:50 country. the good decision was made for the for the decision made for the p good of the public to prevent the trigger of a default that will be detrimental to
19:57 the Malaysian economy. So we had to thank him for putting out the fire which he started in the first place, right?
20:04 And he's so proud of the economy. In fact, he went to Aljarizer two days ago. Had to have a big interview and they
20:11 were asking him about all the nasty topics that he didn't want to talk about. He was going to go and he
20:18 says, "Can we go to the economy? We have spent so much time, too much time talking otherwise I'm going to walk out.
20:23 No more, no more, please, please. No more. That's it. I'm done." He said and he stood up. If you want to talk about the economy, I will sit down.
20:30 He wants to talk about the economy. You haven't seen the budget next week. We
20:36 are in a deep hole because of the economy. And he wants to talk about the economy. It's called hubristic pride.
20:42 You lose all sense of proportion. You lose all sense of judgment. That's what
20:47 it does to you. Um I was this uh reading into the life of Henry Ford. One of the
20:53 a genius Henry Ford was. And um I actually started off as a very nice man. He actually uh started marketing the
21:01 most successful car in the world, the Model T Ford. And everybody else made
21:06 cars for rich people. This guy made cars. His genius was he made cars for the poor people because they're more
21:11 poor people than rich people, right? His last car sold for $285.
21:17 And he made 15 million of them. Uh so much of them. And uh this is the Model T
21:22 Ford. Okay. And as he and as he grew older, as he got more successful,
21:29 hubristic pride took over. He became a anti-semite. In fact, he wrote in his
21:35 newspaper, The International Jew, the world's problem. When they had World War I, people were killing each other all
21:41 over the place. You know what he did? He charted a steamliner called Oscar 2. And
21:46 he got inside there with 170 intellectuals to drive this all the way to Europe to talk to the waring parties
21:53 to settle the war. I alone can end the war. Sound familiar?
21:59 In fact, the the New York Tribune headline was great war ends Christmas
22:04 day. Fought to stop it. Yeah. Of course, this is a a parody, isn't it? This is what happened to the
22:11 man. A man was so full of pride that he had a beautiful son. His son's name was Edel Ford. He made Edsel Ford the
22:18 president of his company in name only but he ran the company from the from behind and Edel Ford was a brilliant
22:26 sensitive engineer and he created many new ideas. He wanted to put hydraulic
22:33 brakes inside because they didn't have hydraulic brakes. All sorts of bells and whistles. And I remember watching the
22:38 Discovery documentary on it and Ford would come inside, see the new innovations, he would take up a stick
22:44 and smash it. You know why? You can't make perfection better. I've created the
22:52 Model T Ford and there's no other more perfect car in the world. Now, if you have an idea like that, you lose
22:58 business. So therefore, Chevrolet, GM, all the rest beat him in the end because
23:05 impaired judgment. Pride does that to you. Biblical pride is different.
23:11 Romans, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
23:17 think, but to think of himself with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
23:24 He's not saying that humility is, oh, everybody is better than me. You come to
23:29 my clinic, you know, my nurse will operate on you and I'll stand and watch. No, you actually have gifts and you need
23:36 to judge your gifts with sober judgment and use them for the glory of God. But each one is given according to the
23:42 measure of faith that God has assigned. Galatians, if anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives
23:47 himself. But let each test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.
23:54 For each one will have to bear his own load. So we're not see we don't glorify God by minimizing the good gifts he has
23:60 given us. We need to think of ourselves honestly in the light of God's word and take a healthy pride in what is God is
24:05 doing through us in our lives. That's what we need to do. Uh our true focus
24:11 should be God. Thus says the Lord. Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his
24:16 might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me,
24:23 that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, and in these
24:28 things I delight, declares the Lord. So, if you remember after that big victory,
24:33 what did Deborah and Barack do? Sang a song, glorify God. The victory was
24:39 there. What did Gideon do after his victory? Genocide. Big difference, huh? One guy
24:46 does genocide, the other guy sings a song. Singing song is good. You know why singing song is good? Because it brings out it glorifies God. It brings out
24:52 memories because otherwise hubristic pride will destroy your life. That's why
24:57 you look in in in Deuteronomy, take care less you forget the Lord your God by not
25:03 keeping his commands and his rules and his statutes which I command you today. Lest you have eaten are full and have
25:08 built good houses and live in them. When your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied, all that
25:14 you have is multiplied. That's when it's dangerous. Then your heart will be lifted up, you forget the Lord your God
25:23 who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Gideon is within us. We could all wind
25:30 up like Najib is that giving you half the chance with a checkbook. I probably take more than 2.6 billion if you give
25:36 me half the chance. All right? because your heart will be filled up and you
25:41 forget. It's because we forget. That's why we come back to church on Sunday. We sing. We remember. We sing the psalms.
25:48 We sing to each other. We encourage each other because we always tend to forget. Humility is honestly assessing ourselves
25:54 in the light of God's holiness and our sinfulness. If you think you're a big deal, even if you're Henry T4, you stand
26:01 next to God and see it makes you very, very small. Uh humility is not thinking
26:06 less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. You know there's two girls who were best of friends and they
26:13 were both fighting on the US team to go to Sydney for the Olympics in the year 2000. The names were Esther Kim and Ko.
26:22 They both studied under a sensei who is Esther Kim's father. Uh and um actually
26:27 Esther Po was the better martial artist. They had a qualifying rounds and Esther
26:34 Kpo beat Esther Kim. Obviously, she's better and everybody thought she's a gold medalist hopeful for the whole
26:40 world for for the United States. Um they went on to the to the other batches. Ko
26:48 unfortunately dislocated her knee just before the final qualifying match.
26:53 Esther Kim won every match and so therefore there's the last match where she would fight Ko and Esther Kim
27:00 together but one of them had a dislocated knee and Esther Kim was the one who's going to win because you you
27:07 can't fight with one knee right take how do you fight with one knee right so you know what she did Esther Kim gave up her
27:14 spot she forfeited her match so that her friend Ko which is supposed to be the
27:20 better martial exponent exponent to go to Sydney She gave her a very difficult decision.
27:25 She gave it up and she said it felt like the only right thing to do. Kim said it
27:32 did hurt, but winning a gold medal isn't everything. There are other ways to be a champion. If I don't have a gold medal
27:38 around my neck, it's in my heart. That's what true humility is. Wearing the medal
27:45 in heart. And I, you know, the world recognized that. You look at the history books, they gave her an award. It's
27:51 called the citizens through sports award that they paid for her trip to go down to Sydney to watch her friend fight at
27:57 the Olympics. That's what it's about other people
28:03 humility. In fact, if you if you look at this is a marketing professor from the University of Texas, Mcum's school
28:09 business school, he writes um Raj Raguna Nadan. He writes a book called if you're so smart, why aren't you so happy?
28:16 This means that regardless of how wealthy, famous, powerful, or attractive you are compared to others, the more you
28:23 strive for security, the less happy you will be. The less attention you pay to how much better or worse you are than
28:28 others, the happier you're likely to be. We strive so much for the brass ring. In
28:34 the end, you get there, you actually feel that there is no happiness. In
28:40 fact, there was a a famous uh circus performer. Her name is Jennifer K. And she writes this testimony uh about
28:47 reaching to the top. She actually her circus went all the way to Europe and did very well. And she's she writes once
28:53 that moment of confidence passed. I realized that it was at that moment that I succeeded. And yet I still felt that I
29:00 wasn't good enough. I thought that when I'm at top of my career, I will feel loved. I'll be in front of an audiences
29:07 and that will fill me. I'll feel good enough. I can take it in. I can receive
29:12 once I'm successful, I can feel good about myself. But that didn't happen. And in fact, that is a lesson that even
29:19 though I've learned it very acutely at that point in my life, I continue to have to relearn. I forget and remember
29:26 and forget and remember that success isn't what brings me happiness. That that feeling of selfworth has to come
29:32 from a place inside. There is a place inside that will give
29:38 you selfworth, right? And that place inside comes from the fact that there is
29:44 a person who fills you with that selfworth on the cross 2,000 years ago
29:49 when God himself went on the cross for you, for you, for
29:55 me. And he does that for me. I don't have to strive for anything else. That's
30:02 what it's all about. Not pride and hubris. The next thing to beware about
30:09 is not only self-absorption, okay? But idolatry disguised as
30:16 devotion. This is very very insidious. This affects all of us. Here you have
30:21 then the men of Israel went to Gideon and said, "Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also for you have
30:27 saved us from the land from the hand of Midian." So the people recognized this victory not as a spiritual effort. They
30:34 recognized this as a political effort that is Gideon. Come and be our ruler.
30:41 Like Mahatia, I hope you live to 105. Stay on with us. You recognize the victory is his. We tend to idolize
30:48 people, isn't it? We don't see the the many other people or the forces behind it. Compare this to Gideon chapter 7:2.
30:57 And the Lord said to Vidian, "The people with you are too many for me to give the Midionites into their hands, lest Israel
31:03 boast over me, saying, "My own hand has saved me. Before God did that miracle,
31:09 God already knew their hearts." That if I had many soldiers, I let you have many soldiers, then you will boast that you
31:15 beat them rather than I did. But then when Midian, when the men of Israel came to Gideon, they see this. They only see
31:23 the political aspect. And then Judges 8, the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us, you and your family, your
31:29 grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian." Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you. My son
31:34 will not rule over you. The Lord will rule over you." This is such a beautiful, beautiful word, isn't it?
31:41 Somebody come and say, you know, "Oh, you guys uh uh Christine, you did such a nice uh coffee, you know, you got flour
31:48 and you know, no, no, I didn't do praise the Lord." Praise the Lord.
31:54 Right. But you turn around and see Harapan. Actually, it's not Gideon Sangi
32:02 Tansri Gideon. He doesn't want to be king, but he wants
32:08 to set up a fund. Gideon said to them, "Let me make a request for you. Every
32:14 one of you give me the earrings from his spoil." The earrings because they were Israelite, caption Israelites. And they
32:20 answered him, "We willingly give them." And they spread a cloak. Every man threw in it earrings for his spoil. And the
32:26 weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold
32:31 beside the crescent ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by kings a median. And besides the collars,
32:36 they're around the necks of their camels. The Gideon fund like the Tabong
32:41 Malaysia fund. This is Tabong Gideon fund. See, it's a praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. But in the end, you
32:46 collect the money. The Lord can have the fame, but I can have the money, right? All right. So and Gideon made an ephod
32:54 from it and put it in the city of and all of Israel hoarded after it and
32:59 became a snare to Gideon and his family. So Gideon was subdued and the people of Israel and they raised their heads no
33:04 more and the land had rest for 40 years in the days of Gideon. The word take a look this is the ephford. Ephford is a
33:11 priestly garment that the uh the priest would wear. It's very valuable. is all,
33:16 you know, gold threads and all these jewels in front. It's a little bit more valuable than the average Burkin bag.
33:24 Okay? And and and the good thing about the the the the EOD is that you've got
33:29 this device inside called the umin and tumin. It's like those of you who go to the Buddhist temple, right? And then you
33:34 say, should I marry this boy or that boy to comes out, oh, that the skinny one.
33:40 All right? So, it tells you about gods, you know? So therefore maybe he had a
33:45 you know good intention uh but it turned out to be such something that the whole
33:51 of Israel hoarded after it and became a snare for Gideon. The word hoard is
33:56 terrible. It's prostituted. Okay. All right. So um and and why do
34:03 they hoard after it? Gideon had 70 sons. One of the sons, they had a big fight
34:10 after he died. And one of the sons escaped and went up to Sheckchum to try to gather up support together his army.
34:17 And what he told that army there betrayed what his father taught him. It's already picked up in a line in the
34:22 next chapter. And I tell you, I think that's why Israel hoarded after and it
34:28 became a snare. Here you read it was told to Jotham. He went and stood on top of Mount Jerism and cried aloud and said
34:35 to the men, "Listen to me, you leaders of Sheckchum, that God may listen to
34:40 you." Can you get that? Listen to me so that God will listen to you. Sounds like
34:47 a certain green party in this country, right? You take the mantle of God. You
34:53 listen to me, then God will listen to you. So here, what we actually have is you have the whole of Israel.
34:60 When you go to a prostitute, you think she gives you sex because she loves you. No, because you paid for it. It's
35:06 transactional. So, we're talking about kind of religion which is devotion, but
35:12 you must pay for the devotion. One, you know, you pay for devotion. Uh, in fact, it is so transactional that they're so
35:19 used to it that when Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and hoarded after Baal. What's the
35:25 difference between being prostitute and you after Yahweh and Baal? Doesn't matter. Either one will do as long as I
35:32 give you something and you give me something back. It's transactional faith which is problem. This Prince Philip but
35:39 he always gets in trouble saying the wrong things. He said, "I don't think a wife is more moral than a prostitute. They're both doing the same thing.
35:46 That's why he has his foot in his wife gets very upset when he says things like that." A transactional view of faith is
35:53 found among churches. You find that that 28% of this is a a study done among with
35:60 by lifeway produces materials for the Baptist to receive material blessings
36:05 from God I have to do something for God. Can you imagine 26 one-third of the church believes that to get materials
36:12 blessing from God I have to do something isn't it? Isn't this prostitution? I give you something, you give me
36:17 something back. Or what about this teaches? My church teaches that I give more money to my church and charities,
36:23 God will bless me in return. 38%. And then 69% says, God wants me to prosper
36:29 financially. Whoa. Whoa. Isn't this a transactional faith?
36:35 God wants me to prosper financially. Do you know the people who go to church very often once a week believe this more
36:42 than the people go once a month? Why? Because the people go to every week deserve it. Ma,
36:48 you grace God with your company. So therefore, you deserve to get more money. Right? It's a transactional view
36:54 of Christianity. Other examples of transactional views that you know if I pray the sinner's prayer, I'm home free
36:59 for eternity. I read the Bible and have quiet time. I expect God will bless me.
37:05 If I have something wrong today, my operation went wrong. Oh, I didn't do quiet time. I should have done quiet time. That's
37:11 why my case went wrong. Isn't it? I attend church regularly then I feel okay
37:17 with God because why I attended perfect. If you wonder if God is punishing you if
37:23 something went wrong. So if you have these kind of feelings it means you actually have a transactional view of
37:28 God. You are just prostituting yourself. If if God doesn't do something for you
37:34 then bye- bye God. That's why when Gideon died they worshiped Bal. And did
37:42 they care about Vid Gideon's family? Couldn't care less because why? You no longer empowered, right? So I lock you
37:48 up under the MACC, right? Because you're no longer in power, ma. I don't owe you
37:54 anything. You see this kind of transactional idea is prevalent whole
37:59 country, whole societies. I give you something. If you're not useful to me anymore, I'm going to flush you down the
38:05 toilet. And Gideon's family got what they deserved. New Springs Church, South Carolina. I'm
38:12 thinking about adopting this principle which they do in their church. What do you think? They actually write in their
38:17 website, we want to commit to you that if you tithe for 3 months, 10%, huh? God
38:22 doesn't hold true for his promises of blessing, we will refund 100% of your tithe. No questions asked.
38:29 How's that a challenge to the people here? You tithe 10% of income before tax. Okay? And if you don't get your
38:37 blessing back from God, 100% guarantee back. Guess how many% actually got their
38:43 money back. Anybody want to guess? Put your hands up. Try guess. Huh? Zero. Whoa. Woman of faith.
38:51 Woman of faith. Anybody else? How many% went in and got their refund?
38:58 Huh? Kaisang. Half. You no faith on this one.
39:05 If I tell you you come up here and get your refund and a senior pastor hand you a check and then take picture, how many
39:12 will come forward? Yeah, 1%. Historically, it's always all the
39:18 churches who practice this in the United States only 1%. Because nobody want to come up here and receive check back
39:24 because they shame you. It's a transactional faith and there's no faith at all. And here is Gideon in his brain.
39:34 Thank you. Praise God. In his heart, he's king all but king in name. Here is
39:41 Deuteronomy. He shall not acquire many wives lest his heart turn away. He
39:46 acquire excessive gold and silver. And you look down here in act Judges chapter 8 29-35.
39:53 uh he had many wives 70 children
39:58 and concubines some more don't tell you how many concubine who were in sheckchum and bore him a son
40:04 and he called his name able your the name is very very important
40:10 what does your name mean you know what his name means abi means my father malle means king my father king but I don't
40:16 want to be king oh clever man isn't it in front of people I don't want to be king I don't king praise the lord praise
40:21 the lord and then at the back in your I want to be king. My father is king. You see, see, we we have this
40:28 schizophrenic idea in life, isn't it? In public, we're very, very holy. We're
40:33 devoted to God, but actually underneath were idoltors to our own purposes. And
40:38 don't laugh at Gideon because this is all of us. This is all of us. And here
40:44 you actually see he when he he he took the crescent. Crescent ornaments are
40:50 symbols of royalty. on one hand tells people he don't want to be king. On the other hand, he's in
40:55 king in all but name. Um and this became a snare to Gideon and his family. It
41:02 actually cost him his faith. John MacArthur writes, "Idolatry is
41:08 having any false god, any object, any idea, philosophy, habit, occupation,
41:14 sport, whatever that is one's primary concern and loyalty to any degree that decreases one's trust and loyalty to the
41:21 Lord." That's what idolatry is. And here you actually have a situation where Gideon's
41:29 idolatry masquerades as devotion. He didn't make a bal statue. He made an
41:37 ephod. Very holy, isn't it? He didn't buy a Lamborghini. He bought some church
41:42 building. It's very holy, but it actually became a snare for him. John
41:48 Piper writes this beautiful uh passage on what true devotion is.
41:54 The inner essence of worship is to know God truly and then to respond with the
41:60 heart to that knowledge by valuing God, treasuring God, prizing God, enjoying
42:07 God, being satisfied with God above all earthly things. And then that restful,
42:14 deep, joyful satisfaction in God overflows in demonstrable acts of praise
42:20 from your lips and this demonstrable acts of love in serving others for the
42:26 sake of Christ. That my dear friends
42:31 is true faith. That is not a transactional faith. That is our calling
42:38 for the rest of our lives. I want to challenge us as we end the
42:43 sermon with the last point. Finishing well is important. Moses started off
42:49 well, finished badly. Gideon started off well,
42:55 ended poorly. Look at what happened when he died.
43:00 Israel hoarded after Ba because theirs was a transactional faith. If you have a
43:06 transactional faith, when you die, your children also have a transactional faith. How do you know? Oh, we only pray when you're sick. You only pray when
43:12 you're going airplane. You only pray when you want something. That's a transactional faith. That's not a faith
43:18 that finds a satisfaction in God. That's not a faith that finds a fulfillment in God. That's a faith which is
43:23 transactional and and sometimes all we do is pray before you fly on an airplane.
43:28 It's a transactional faith. And so you wonder why when you die your legacy doesn't go down to your family because
43:34 they exchange Yahweh for Bal. That's what's happening.
43:39 And they gave 70 pieces of silver. This is the son Amelc house of Bal Barak
43:46 which Aimilec hired worthless and reckless people. Okay. Who wear red
43:52 t-shirts followed him. And he went on to his father's house at Oprah and killed
43:58 his brothers. The sun are durable. 70 men on one stone. This one fellow when
44:05 the father dies takes all 70 and chops their head off on the stone. One stone
44:13 sounds like some Chinese uh three kingdom kind of movie, right? It's
44:18 terrible when you become royal royalty. It's only one king, you know, all the rest must die. Sounds very much like a
44:23 royalty. Um and then Jotum, listen to me leaders of Sheckchum, that God may
44:29 listen to you. And Aimilec comes to a bad end. He he fights and then a certain woman threw a
44:36 millstone onto his head, crushed his skull. They call quickly to the young man, his armor bearer and said to him,
44:41 "Draw your sword and kill me lest they say of me, a woman kill me." The worst thing in the world would be killed by a woman. You can be cheated by a woman,
44:47 but you cannot be killed by a woman. And this young man thrust him through and he died. This is a sorted, horrible,
44:52 horrible story, isn't it? But it's real. It sounds like some real three kingdom kind of history novel. Um, another
45:01 people begin well, they often end badly. Here's King Hezekiah, the king on his knees. This guy is always on his knees.
45:08 They had about 195,000 Assyrian troops surround Jerusalem. They're going to take it over and and he had no hardly
45:15 any troops to fight them off. And he tried to negotiate. They refused. And he got on his knees and he prayed. And the
45:21 next day, all of them were struck blind or something. The angel of came and he
45:26 defeated 195,000 truth without one loss of life. And then one day uh he had an illness. I
45:34 think it was an abscess. Okay. Uh somewhere in his body and Isaiah came to him say look you're going to die.
45:42 Prepare yourself. And he fell on his knees again. King Hezekiah is always on his knees praying and said Lord please
45:49 give me chance a little bit more time. And God gave him that time.
45:55 Did he use it well? Well, everybody heard how this miraculous healing he was healed by God. Isaiah told put this post
46:04 some sort of uh pack to suck out the pus. So he used medical knowledge. All right. So uh and he was cured and people
46:11 heard about it all the way in Babylon. So they wanted to see. So the guy with Babylon came uh at that time Maradc
46:18 Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent envoys with letters and present and a present to Hezekiah for he heard
46:25 Hezekiah had been sick. He comes to you. Of course, you tell them, "Oh, I prayed to the Lord. The Lord bless him. You know, the Lord cured me." No. No. You
46:32 know what he did? He welcomed them, showed them all his treasure house, silver, gold, spices, precious oil,
46:39 armory, all there was in his house. There's nothing in his house. And all is real. The Hezekiah did not show. Open
46:44 fixed deposit la jewelry. Show everybody everything. Oh, very clever, isn't it? Very clever. What
46:51 do you think will happen? They'll come and take you. And they did.
46:58 And Isaiah actually prophesied this will happen to your children and some of your
47:05 own sons who will come from you whom will you will father shall be taken away and there shall be uns. That mean they
47:11 cut off your balls. That's right. More than your balls. All
47:16 right. In the palace of the the king of Babylon. And Hezekiah said to Isaiah,
47:22 "The word of the Lord that you have said is good." For he thought, "Why not? If there will be peace and security in my
47:29 days." Let me translate. They cut off my son's balls, but as long as my balls are okay, it's okay.
47:35 That's exactly what he said. As long as there's peace and security
47:40 during my time, it's okay. My children legacy.
47:47 What a man. If you have a father like that, I think I'll disown him, isn't it? But he was a good man. He was a man
47:53 always on his knees. Isn't this frightening? John Maxwell is a famous leadership
48:01 guru. Goes all the world and tells people how to be leaders. And he tells me he shared how his his his story began
48:10 one day when one of his assistants brought him a book. And the book was entitled in front the greatest story
48:16 ever told. Wow. Fantastic. That you open up a blank one. And then and then the
48:23 assistant told him that John your life is before you. Fill these pages with acts of good a kind acts, good thoughts
48:30 and matters your heart. Write a great story with your life. See, so all of us
48:35 will have a book the greatest story ever told. And what we do matters. What we do will fill this inside. people will know
48:42 about it, they can read your book. But actually, maybe or maybe not. I don't know. Um during World War I, there was a
48:50 great war. A lot of countries participated it. And at the end of World War I, they actually honored all those
48:57 who participated in the Great War. 1918, they had a huge painting. It's called the Pantheon of War hung up there in so
49:06 huge they fill a whole football field. And you also have to build a
49:11 special building to house it. And it was 5,000 figures painted. Different heroes,
49:19 presidents, all the faces were there by 150 artists. And right at the corner of
49:25 this bu thing, there was a picture of one lone China man. You know why?
49:33 Because China sent 90,000 Chinese to help in World War I. But the whites
49:40 thought they are no good. You can only dig toilets and trenches. So dig toilets
49:46 and trenches. They did. Thousands. I think 20,000 died. Digging trenches.
49:52 Maybe you accidentally got shot when you're digging trenches. Trenches. You know, people shoot you, right? 20,000
49:57 died. There are 40,000 World War I memorials, right? 40,000. Not even one recognized
50:04 the Chinese. And the lone China man in this picture was rubbed out. You see the later picture in Kansas today, there's
50:10 no China man anymore. They rubbed him out. If you're a Chinese, you don't get recognized. Isn't this sad?
50:18 You lose 20,000 men. 90,000 will help you and nobody bothers because you're a China man.
50:24 You know Isaiah says, "Everyone who's called by my name
50:29 whom I created for my glory, I formed and I made."
50:37 Doesn't matter whether they remember you, whether they put you on the pantheon of war or they remembered to
50:43 paint you in or paint you out. Our story lies within his story. We find our
50:49 significance in his story. And the greatest story ever told was a story of Jesus Christ, God who dies on the cross
50:56 for us that we become the story that he died for me.
51:02 And when they actually evaluate your life, you answer to him because I created you for my glory whom I formed
51:09 and I made. And we can't judge from the outside.
51:14 William H. Leslie 1912 went to the Democratic Republic of Congo
51:20 and he started a mission. There's a picture of this mission called a Vanga mission to the Yansi people across the Quu River. And what he would do is take
51:27 this this uh boat that goes across the river and he would minister to the children across there and he would tell
51:33 Bible stories. He would also share the gospel. Uh he did this relentlessly for
51:40 17 years of his life. Not many converts at all. And the end of his lifetime
51:46 there, his mission there, he didn't get along with the elders of the tribe, they fought. Well, they had a superficial
51:54 forgiveness and apology, but he left. He went back to the United States heartbroken, a failed missionary. He
52:03 died nine years later on. Nobody remembers him. In 2010, a team
52:11 led by Eric Ramsey with Tom Cox World Ministries went to the same place across
52:16 the Quu River looking at Jansy people and what he found was a vibrant network
52:22 of gospel preaching churches who have actually created their own hymbook sung
52:29 in their own language gospel based on the book word of Christ.
52:35 And you actually see a stone cathedral which is this one which would house a thousand people. He got so full that
52:42 they go to many many churches over area of 38 miles.
52:48 Vibrant faith but the man died like the China man not recognized
52:56 until 83 years later on. Some of what you will do nobody will ever see.
53:03 Your life would have been deemed been there, done that. Nobody remembers you. But the greatest story ever told
53:11 will be in the eyes of your God. He made you. He formed you for his glory. When
53:19 we leave this room, we must put in front of our face the determination to live
53:25 well and finish well. If you're young, you got your whole life ahead of you to
53:32 glorify the Lord. Do not let the seeds of self preoccupation, pride, idolatry come in and destroy that
53:41 you have kept aside for him. Be faithful so that
53:46 one day God will usher you into his kingdom and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." If you're old,
53:53 your time is nearly up. But at the last minute, you can trip. You know, Gideon
53:60 tripped. Moses tripped. David tripped. If they can trip,
54:06 so can we. But we leave this hall today. You know why? Because not I live, but
54:13 Christ lives in me. So we commit our souls, our lives into his hands. Let's
54:21 pray. Father Lord, we know not what tomorrow holds.
