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00:05 Good morning. It's uh I I don't know if any of you recognize
00:11 me. I I grew up in Subang Jaya. So um um if you recognize me, just pretend you don't know me, okay? Um um but probably
00:19 you don't recognize me because I had hair once and now I don't. But it's all right. Um I'm here to preach God's word
00:25 and it's my privilege to be here cuz uh I never imagined I would preach in a Baptist church. I have I'm from the
00:31 Assemblies of God and uh I grew up as a Assemblies of God boy all my life. Uh
00:37 until so much so that in the denomination itself among the pastors I'm known as uh uh uh pure blood
00:44 Assemblies of God. So my blood type is known as AG positive. Okay. Right. So,
00:50 if you ever want to know my blood type, yeah, uh you need to be now. But it's okay. Um but I'm really glad to be here
00:57 because I was given this sermon about a month ago and I've been reading it over
01:02 and over and over again the passage and I've um since Bible school, I left I didn't
01:09 really study first Corinthians maybe for five, six years over and over again until I came back to it and I was like,
01:15 "Wow, what a beautiful passage. What a beautiful story. Uh what a beautiful
01:21 thing and but not easy to preach about. Next week is even harder for me to preach in the youth because I have to talk about uh sexual immorality and all
01:29 that stuff. And uh I'm excited. But can we start with
01:35 prayer? Yeah. Can we start with that? Father, we pray that you would open our
01:40 ears, our hearts, our eyes to see you today. Father, we that we may be able to
01:46 taste of your goodness and respond to you in a way that pleases you. Father, let your word speak to us and make our
01:53 life respon a response that pleases you, an incense that rises to you and and and
01:59 that that really makes your heart ha glad. We pray that today by your holy
02:05 spirit you reveal the word to us. Not so much from my mouth but from your spirit. speak to our hearts so that we will be
02:13 able to see you. We great grace us with your presence. We pray in Jesus name we pray. Amen. So I was given the topic the
02:21 gospel and authentic leadership and uh uh I have this big question. What my
02:28 generation if you if you don't realize or not we cry for authenticity. Uh we're sick and tired of fake leaders.
02:36 We are sick and tired of people who are hypocrites really. Uh
02:42 we've been we've served under uh bosses that
02:47 just basically are so motivated by wrong things and and people
02:54 that have two faces, people that wear masks. I think you've experienced that in your working life, isn't it? you've gone everywhere and and when we find a
03:03 good leader, we tend to want to grab them and hold on to them. They they say people leave jobs not because of what
03:10 the pay, the salary or the environment, but usually they leave jobs because they
03:16 don't have a good boss, right? How many of you actually stay because your bosses are good? Nobody. Well, all of you got
03:23 bad bosses. That's why you need a sermon today. Okay? You got to be good bosses as well or all of you are bosses here.
03:30 Wow, that's amazing. Okay, but anyway, so what's happening in this church and
03:37 what's happening at this time is that um um you've heard over the past few weeks
03:42 about what the Corinthian church is like and what their problems is like. Um so I
03:48 think if you've read first Corinthians, you would what what do you think is the primary problem with the Corinthian
03:54 church? If there's one word that was repeated a lot uh even in the passage that was written just now about who they
04:01 are, what was the word that's used a lot? Can anyone I heard it I think
04:09 what was it? Okay. Oh, I need to use the controller here. There we go.
04:18 What was the primary problem? There was one problem that permeates throughout first Corinthians. this word was
04:24 repeated a lot. Uh one of the methods of Bible study,
04:30 the best way is just to find repeated words. That's the easiest and the most basic we teach in Bible school. Uh where
04:36 I lecture, the first thing we have to look is for these words. And the word boast comes out a lot. If you notice in
04:44 this first five chapters, um the word is boast. And so when I I heard uh a couple
04:52 of weeks ago when we talked about uh it said I follow Apollos, I follow Paul, I follow Christ for some they say. It was
04:60 not so much to just say oh I follow someone but it was a boast. It was a
05:05 problem uh with the Corinthian church. They were boasting about everything and next week they were even boasting about
05:13 having incest. They've come to the point that they bow so much that in a church it is okay and
05:21 even uh something we can wear proudly. You know if I have incest with my family
05:28 member I can boast about it. Wow. What has become of the church? a church
05:35 that old it's probably somewhere 70 years a or 100 years after Jesus
05:43 has passed away. So just after Jesus passed away, 70 years in our history of
05:49 being a church, we have come to a point where we boast not just about, oh, I'm a
05:56 good Christian. Oh, I tithe and I do this kind of things. We come to a point that we even boast that we have
06:03 insensious relationships. What has happened? What has happened to the church? What
06:09 has caused this? Why do we boast about such things? And my my my
06:18 analogy or my thinking is that we have we have this American idol church
06:24 syndrome. Okay, we have this American idol church syndrome. Why? I I was searching the the
06:30 the the the when I searched for worship on Google to look for images, the first
06:35 image of worship is this. Okay? And I searched the first image for concert and
06:42 then it's this. Now how many of you can tell the difference between this and this
06:48 right Christian worship and what and if you look at all the images in Christian worship they look like this actually
06:53 under worship right it has become a performancism
06:60 driven culture right we we oops we look
07:05 for superstar omega star pastors or leaders um in fact of course all the
07:10 scandals that are going around like we've learned last week about Bill Hibls and all those kind of things. It's all because they are mega stars. I mean
07:18 really really big mega stars. Wherever they go, they have a following. I mean
07:24 the big deal now today is that uh if you're great leader, you have many likes on Instagram or Facebook and uh if you
07:31 look at how many likes I have, you probably think I'm the worst leader on the planet earth. But that's how it
07:36 goes. If you have more likes, you are more authentic. you are more real as a
07:42 leader. Your word carries weight, right? We we we put all the quotes of
07:48 people up there and when we preach every week is because those people have more weight than us, unfortunately or
07:53 fortunately. And then we not and then the next problem is that that idolizing leaders
08:00 today is not a sin anymore. I can be a fan of a certain pastor. I can be fan of
08:06 certain preaching. I can be a fan of a certain uh expository style. I can be a
08:13 fan of leaders for how good-looking they are and that's not a sin anymore, right?
08:20 And that was the same thing, don't you think, with the the Corinthian church, they were having this fan club, the Polo
08:26 fan club, the Paul fan club. And then some people that feel no no cannot not
08:32 so Christian like that. I am a Christ fan. you know when Christ becomes an idol is
08:40 that possible and that is what is happening and so
08:45 they were boasting about who we follow we today we boast about who we follow in fact um I've been corrected so many
08:52 times as a preacher about you know when they uh people come up to me and then they tell me about uh preachers oh this
08:59 preacher preached this you know how come you preach like that then I'm like but this is from the word you know And what
09:06 they preaching is not from the word. But they said like that it must be truth.
09:11 What has happened? What do we follow? Uh we judge who can be in who is meh. In
09:18 our generation we just call me just normal and I'm probably uh today you will you will end up either thinking I'm
09:24 just me or I'm or who is out just not in the game or not quite there yet. And we
09:33 have a vote on whose preaching is good or whose preaching is not.
09:40 It didn't matter at that time in the early church who was preaching. Then we evolved to a culture
09:47 that now it matters who is preaching. we come I I don't know I know this
09:54 church is not like that but where I come from there's a culture that goes about where if there are certain preachers coming there are more in the
09:60 congregation that attend right and then if there are certain
10:05 worship leaders singing I will come earlier if it's certain worship leaders
10:11 I make sure I come at about 9:15 to make sure I don't hear anything
10:16 right we think we have a say about what kind of leadership matters or what we
10:24 want. But Paul was going to tell us something totally different altogether.
10:30 Paul was going to correct the Corinthian church on this boasting and he would go on a spree from this chapter to the next
10:37 chapter to the next chapter to the next chapter telling the Corinthian church, I have had enough of your boasting. And in
10:43 fact, I just marvel at how gentle he is in singing it. Because if my church does
10:49 that, I would go crazy. And now a lot of you are thinking, "Ah,
10:54 our church is not like that. Nah, I'm not like that." Okay? So, we're going to
10:60 do a test. All right? And then I'm going to ask you honestly, okay, to raise your hands. Now
11:09 this is a phenomenon that I have preached in many churches that Malaysians are very shy to live raise their hands. I don't know why. Okay. But
11:16 if you have to make a choice. All right. Uh you uh you are forced to make a moral
11:23 decision. For example, you got to make it. Okay. So, we're going to try that. Okay. All right. So, I'm going to put
11:29 these pictures up. All right. And you got to choose one of them to be the
11:35 pastor of this church. You You got no choice. It has to be one
11:41 of them. And some you know, some you don't. But you have to make a choice. Who would
11:48 you select as the pastor of your church? Wow. Okay. There are honest people
11:54 straight away already. Francis Chan. All right. Why not that cool and hit pastor there?
12:01 You don't know who who he is?
12:06 Television church. No, no, no. He's from Hill Songs, New York. Yeah. And uh Okay. So, why not why
12:16 I don't hear anyone uh calling out that cool Asian guy on top there?
12:21 Who is he?
12:27 I think I look quite like that. So, we're going to try this. Huh? If you
12:35 have to make an honest choice, right? Uh, who would choose that Asian guy?
12:40 Wow. Okay. Why?
12:47 Trying to win favor with me. Okay. Thank you very much for the assurance of
12:54 how I look. But now, let's try the next one. How about the African-American lady? Who would choose that?
13:02 Okay. One, two, three. Okay, that's very few. Let's go to my H songong cool hip
13:09 guy. That one. The bottom one. The most handsome one.
13:16 Nobody. All right. How about that lady in black
13:22 and white? Anyone know who she is?
13:28 All right. Okay. Let's try continue. How about the the handsome, good-looking guy
13:34 at the top there named Joel Austin. Oh, I sense some disdain here.
13:42 And then I guess the rest of you, Francis Chan, so I better see many hands now. Francis Shan.
13:47 And then the rest, you don't want any pastor here. I get it. I get it. I get it. But that's the
13:56 problem. You see, in the Malaysian church, I don't know why we don't raise. When students we ask them to raise their hands so they won't but okay
14:04 you know I in all honesty uh if your answer is that you also don't want no
14:10 one you have made it made a choice you've made a choice
14:16 see the thing is Paul was saying here in in a in a chapter before that in
14:23 verse 21 it says so then no more boasting about h human leaders all things are yours whether Paul, Apollos
14:29 or Cphus or the world or life or death or the present and future all yours and you are Christ and Christ is of God.
14:40 Authentic leadership first and foremost is the calling of the father. We do not choose our pastors in some ways. I know
14:49 I'm I'm coming to a Baptist church, right? When you vote for pastors, right? I come from a context we don't vote for pastors. And but the thing is Paul was
14:57 saying that God selects leaders. We need to stop putting leaders on
15:04 pedestals. Um and I don't want to say this as in
15:10 any way to offend the culture that we have. I know in the end we still need to make sure we have the right leader in
15:16 front of us, a right leader. But I think one of the clear thing is this that the
15:22 servant of Christ first and foremost has to be chosen by God not us.
15:29 And I think it is a really different culture. It's total polar opposites with
15:34 today's culture because we are democratic society and all those kind of things. We choose our leaders.
15:42 We've been taught that we are choosing leaders but actually let's say we vote for
15:49 Pakatan Harapan. What do we vote them to be? Did we vote them to be leaders?
15:55 No, we voted them to be civil servants. We voted them to be servants and not
16:01 leaders. But today there is an acceptance. There is an acceptance that
16:07 whoever is called is called to be a leader.
16:12 really. Then he starts in verse one, then this
16:18 is how you ought to regard us. You ought to regard us as
16:25 servants. All my life when I was young, I got my calling at 12 years old and uh I I
16:32 struggled with it. But I was always being assured by people, oh that is a high calling. God is calling you to
16:39 greater things. God has good plans for you. Plan to prosper you and not give you a future. Can you use scripture some
16:44 more? And God God will raise you up to change Malaysia and all the kind of
16:49 things and all those kind of things. I don't remember a single person that says
16:54 God has called you to serve.
16:60 I don't remember that honestly. And I wonder why. Why is it that pastoral leadership or
17:08 eldership in the church or some kind of leadership that you're called to being a boss where you are is no longer a
17:15 calling to serve but a calling to lead?
17:22 When has that paradigm shift happened? So much so that we didn't even realize that the Bible's way of leading is not
17:32 through leadership or so-called leadership, authentic leadership is
17:38 servantthood. And I think you all know that at some point. But Paul was saying, look,
17:46 although you know that you don't live that way. You boast about who you follow. And I was thinking to myself,
17:53 nah, I'm not like that. I'm I don't boast. I don't follow people. I'm not a fan of Francis Chan anyway. Not like
17:59 some of the people here. Then God put it in my heart. Uh when I
18:08 was I grew up in Sububaya and uh I assume most of you stay in Sububanjaya. And I grew up in Sububaya and I was 17
18:15 years old and my dad said, "Okay, I want you to go to this church and I want you to serve there." And I said okay uh
18:22 obediently wherever he go and I didn't really know the reason why my dad asked me to go to that church. Anyway the
18:28 church is in downtown Pudu and uh and when I went and served the church there
18:33 I realized there was a different air about the people there. And uh uh when I
18:40 was in Sububang Jaya when everyone tells me um you're kind of arrogant or you're kind of boastful you're kind of stuck up
18:47 I would not think so. And then when I went to this culture in downtown where and then I saw what really down to earth
18:55 means I realized subjay folks are very boastful
19:02 and that was hard for me to swallow. um we have this and in fact they don't
19:08 say it out loud but after I got to know them better they do have a perception of subjaya people
19:13 right you know it exists right that subjaya people have a certain air about
19:20 them that tells the world that they're more superior
19:26 and I wonder why and then God called me to Singapore
19:33 I said you must be joking God. I said, "Send me to India. Send me to Africa. Send me to everywhere else. Surely God,
19:40 those places need you more than Singapore." Two things that was happening there.
19:46 One, I was boasting by saying that that the people of Singapore does not deserve to be served.
19:55 Second, I was also put off by their boasting as well.
20:02 So, who's right, who's wrong? Both are wrong because the Bible says here that we are
20:09 to serve and we just now heard right Mark is talking about what
20:16 he came not to be served but to serve and this is very
20:23 important. Authentic leadership the is about servantthood. And guess what the
20:30 mark of leadership and we look at leaders today we want them all I know it's like just now like pastor uh Dr.
20:38 David was Dr. Peter sorry was uh uh sharing oh I have two masters I'm doing
20:44 my PhD and then that's therefore that's a mark of my leadership actually
20:50 it's not I I learned this hard lesson because when my uh when I was young when I was
20:57 called into full-time ministry I would always think and I was always feel inferior because of what I cannot do or
21:04 what I can do I see certain preachers like that hilong pastor or even I want to be as rich as some of those pastors
21:11 or whatever it is. And I was wondering what would in the end mark myself as a
21:16 leader and uh and my and so when I went to Singapore, I was supposed to continue
21:22 my uh theological education there. I was supposed to transfer credits. I was supposed to choose between three colleges there. One was TTC, the other
21:30 one was SBC and the third one was AGBC. All right. Have you heard of any of these colleges?
21:37 You probably heard of TTC. Anyway, TTC is the most pre prestigious one out of
21:42 them. And uh it's like uh it's like going to Asia's Harvard for theology or
21:49 or if the the equivalent of maybe America's fuller of theology for us here. And anyway, and then my wife
21:58 graduated from there. Um not me. And uh I was trying to choose between this and
22:04 most people were pushing me say pick TTC you will learn a good proper theological
22:10 education and uh then of course there's SBC and then AGBC was the worst of the
22:16 lot. uh most people say don't go there it's so rundown they don't have enough funds they don't have a good library
22:21 they don't have this and don't have that and I I was struggling with my choices and I came to my father and I asked him
22:28 oh what should I choose and uh uh which
22:33 school did I choose my father is in my regard um today until today I still
22:40 regard him as one of the foremost Pentecostal scholars we have in Asia um and uh so So I respect his scholastic
22:48 opinion on this and I was thinking that he would tell me now since you've done a bit of theological background for nine
22:54 years now why don't you go to TTC and and and learn more and learn better uh
22:60 and then you get a degree that's recognized when you go overseas to study it's going to be better
23:06 uh what do you think my father's answer was AGBC and I was like why what why AGBC I
23:17 And cut the story short, he said this. I have seen the lives of this ministers
23:23 minister faithfully all this time. And that's who I want you
23:30 to learn from, not what I want you to learn. That's what Paul was saying.
23:39 The mark of a leader is not how good he is, how qualified is, how he preach. It
23:47 says here what right? It says here very clearly. Right now it is required that
23:53 those have been given a trust to be proven what? What's the proof that you
23:58 are a servant? Faithfulness.
24:03 Nothing else. Faithfulness. And I need to correct this faithfulness idea also a
24:09 little bit. See the idea of faithfulness is when we read Ephesians for example
24:15 for it is by grace you have been saved through faith right and this is not your
24:21 not from yourselves. It is a gift of God not by works so that no one can boast. See, see the remedy that Paul is talking
24:27 about the boast culture that if you actually realize that you have been saved by faith, true faith, right? Uh
24:35 you would realize that you can't boast. But then they did not understand the gospel anymore. They didn't understand
24:40 what it is to be saved by grace. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ to do good works which God prepared in
24:46 advance for us to do. So let's go to Galatians. know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by
24:54 faith in Jesus Christ. So that we too have put our faith in Jesus Christ that
24:59 we may be justified by faith in Jesus Christ and not by works of the law because by the works of the law no one
25:06 will be justified. Now most people read this and they don't read that letter A there in blue.
25:14 See the interpreters have been struggling with whether it actually means faith in Jesus Christ or if we
25:23 read at the bottom there says what but instead what but through the faithfulness of or justified on the
25:30 basis of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The difference between a mark of a
25:36 servant is not about how much faith they have or how much faith they demonstrate, but how much God's faithfulness is
25:43 demonstrated in their lives. So the net the entity Bible I think puts
25:50 a more accurate version of this that says yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by
25:56 the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. None of us by our own works can stand before
26:02 the father and say we've been faithful to our calling. I know we all want to
26:07 hear the words thou good and faithful servant. That's my dream. Not your dream.
26:13 My dream. But in the end when he sees us, he does
26:18 not see our own faithfulness, but he sees Christ's faithfulness all the way.
26:27 So then I asked the question, what if it's Christ's faithfulness that is the mark of our servant leadership, then
26:33 what then qualifies us? The only thing that qualifies us is God.
26:45 And I look at the American Idol syndrome. We look, we all know, we can
26:50 once we see the show, we're like, "Oh, this person can't sing. Oh, this person is not going to make it. this person is not worth my fandom.
27:00 But what if God calls someone or calls us to a gives us a leader that we don't
27:07 want? And we will read later on God called who to come into the situation? Timothy.
27:14 And Paul had to say, "Hey, you better welcome him because I'll tell you why."
27:20 But the problem is that we think what qualifies a leader today is how much
27:25 credentials they have, how much works they produce.
27:31 My father now that I reflect back, he wasn't talking about just how faithful they were, but he saw the faithfulness
27:39 of Christ in their lives and their ministry all these years and said, "Go there, learn from them, learn what it is
27:48 to be a servant." And then I realized why he sent me to that church as well because he told me, "Stop boasting,
27:55 serve the people."
28:01 So that's what authentic leadership should look like. But how come we ended like this?
28:11 Oops, I pressed the wrong button. I think we we we must realize that no
28:18 leader is given trust on the basis of his faithfulness. It is given on the basis of the faithfulness of Christ. The
28:24 Corinthian church by their boasting moved away from the true essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Who is our
28:30 faithfulness? Our respond in faith and obedience also matters. But Paul says this matters
28:35 because we have been given a trust. It's a response. We're all learning to respond. How many
28:41 of you can say that you respond well all the time? I know I didn't respond
28:48 well this morning when I woke up. I was like, God, I don't want to wake up. How many of you felt that way?
28:55 I w your this church is re have is having revival. They are all great people.
29:02 It's just me. I I looks like I got to work a lot about it. But that being said, the gospel actually talks about
29:11 this. I care very little if I'm judged by you or by any human court. Indeed, I
29:16 do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear. But that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.
29:22 Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time. Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is
29:28 hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time, each of us will receive the praise from God.
29:35 And I tell you it has been a struggle. Um when I was got asked to preach here,
29:41 you can ask my wife. I've been complaining about how ner a nervous wreck I've been. Um um I just came out
29:47 of a a rough situation in my ministry and I was thinking I I I have this
29:53 selfidentity crisis and I was thinking what if they don't like me?
29:58 What if they don't like my bald head? What if they're too distracted by it?
30:04 What if my voice sounds too Chinese? What if all they see is that Chinese
30:11 nerd? I I can't help it. But somehow along the
30:19 way, I have also given into thinking that the praise of man is what matters.
30:27 But then I said, God, I'm here to preach your word. I'm here by appointed by your
30:34 holy spirit not just because Dr. Peter invo invited me. So give me the words to
30:40 speak. Give me the eyes to see what you're trying to say to this church and what they need to respond to. And this
30:46 is what I realize is an important thing about authentic leadership. What matters
30:52 is not the praise. What matters is the praise of God, not the praise of men. Authentic leaders work not to get your
30:60 approval. They will do whatever it takes to get
31:06 the praise of God or to praise God in their lives. Now that can come in many
31:13 shapes, many sizes like you saw just now. But ultimately,
31:19 do their lives sing the praise of God? Do your lives as leaders.
31:27 Sing the praise of God. You are leaders everywhere you go.
31:32 You are called to serve Malaysia.
31:38 When you go out and serve Malaysians, do they praise you?
31:44 One thing I realize, Malaysians are not praised for their driving.
31:52 And I guess what? The church people are equally bad drivers,
31:58 right? When I get behind the car, it's like
32:03 I've no longer I'm no longer filled with the Holy Spirit.
32:09 There's some kind of spirit that is so strong that the moment someone cuts in front of
32:15 me without signaling, I'm like I shouldn't say the word.
32:25 What happened to the praise of God in that moment? Why aren't isn't the church known for
32:31 the best drivers in Sububana? Human.
32:37 human. Why aren't we thinking of serving
32:43 others by driving well? Driving courteous courteously, not
32:49 double parking. Oh, that irks me like mad. And I I don't understand Malaysians. They're parking lots, right?
32:56 Free, no cars. They'll still park,
33:02 double park. And I'm like, I want to park there. and you take three lots because it's just there and worse if
33:09 they're waiting in the car sometimes they oh sorry then they move some of them are not in the car
33:15 why can't you just park the car in you know it it baffles me but do we realize
33:21 we're serving others even as we drive our cars
33:26 we are leading others to Christ when we drive our cars I remember when I was 17
33:33 years old I went to college I got my license, very excited. And then someone gave me a sticker because I got my my
33:38 old new car, right? Um and said, "Oh, why don't you put a sticker that says Jesus is my rock?"
33:48 And I was like, "I think I better not stick it." How many of you dare stick a a Jesus
33:54 sticker? Cuz we know that when we drive,
34:01 we're not leading people to Christ.
34:08 But what happens to the praise of God in every facets of our life? It matters.
34:14 All of us are called to be leaders. Realize or not. We are called to be priests. We are priesthood. You will
34:19 learn that in Peter. We're royal priesthood, a chosen generation
34:26 called according to his purposes to do good.
34:33 But when we drive, all of us are guilty of this same thing the Corinthian church has went through.
34:40 We forget that we have to serve. Right. Next, I think authentic
34:48 leadership is also centered on Christ. I I think um that is part of leadership
34:56 that that that really resonates with me. And Paul was saying this, if we boast,
35:03 we go beyond Christ.
35:10 If we boast, he says that do not watch yourself that you not do not go beyond
35:15 what is written. And he was telling about how Apollos
35:23 himself already had agreement on how to tell them and teach them not to be puffed up, not to be a follower of Paul
35:31 or who or Dr. Peter or whoever it is.
35:36 But what makes you different is that you do not boast.
35:44 So I was thinking, wow, we are the Subang Jaya Church and I'm talking about boasting and I talk about the fact that we are quite arrogant and I thought Lord
35:52 help me be able to say this as graciously as possible. But if we
35:58 continued with this puff up attitude, we are no longer bearers of the gospel
36:04 of Jesus Christ. If people in downtown KL still see us as
36:11 carrying a air about us, the way we dress, the cars we drive,
36:17 then there's something wrong with the Christ representing, isn't it? No. Yes. I think so.
36:26 And I don't want to go beyond the gospel. And it's it's scary to think that just by just saying I'm a fan of
36:34 Francis Chan, I can go beyond the gospel because
36:40 something else takes precedence over servantthood.
36:46 Do you admire Francis Chance because he's the best servant example? How many really adi admire him for that?
36:54 Admire him because he articulates well, he exposites well. Right. He's charismatic. He's
37:01 good-looking. That's why I try to follow.
37:09 How many of you really honestly tell me that you chose to hear the gospel from him because of
37:17 the way he serves? I don't. I didn't. What do we choose
37:24 leaders for? And why do we boast and tell people, "Oh, I read Francis Chan. Well, I hear what he says." Why do we
37:30 boast about those things?
37:37 I also don't know why. Maybe we have this American Idol syndrome that I'm
37:42 proposing next. Uh oh. Okay. Sorry. We are all
37:49 recipients of the same grace to Christ. Now, he talks earlier as Dr. Peter was
37:54 pointing out that we're all equal. We are all recipients of the same grace. But the point he was making about we are
38:01 all recipients of the same grace is not to say is to tell you don't judge and all those kind of things. But the real
38:07 point is this. We are all equal before God but leaders are called to serve.
38:14 And if you're recipients of the same gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that
38:20 Jesus showed that we must follow it is what that we must serve the world.
38:29 He came to serve the world. He didn't come to save those people that are nice
38:34 or those people that in church. He saved those that were probably the most unlikable in society. the lepers, the
38:43 prostitutes, right? We are called to that same grace. The
38:49 same grace has been given us. The same grace should be given to us. But how many times have we walked the streets
38:56 and bypass people? I I I'm I'm going to use driving as an example. Me and my
39:01 brother ride motorcycles and we love motorcycles because my dad loves motorcycles and we ride together and uh
39:08 as a motorcyclist we face a lot of hardships and uh one of them is that drivers
39:15 really don't care about you. Um and in most cases when we meet accidents you
39:20 will see a lot of motorcyclist gathering around helping each other. You don't see that for cars,
39:26 right? So one day uh my brother came back from church and he was just so mad. He was so
39:33 mad and he was fuming mad and he said I don't get it you know my my my church
39:38 member came back and supposed to be testimony time and I was giving a testimony and said oh um I really thank
39:44 God uh uh that when my car had a tire puncture uh uh this man came up and
39:50 helped me he was a Indian guy. I dare not open my window. You know,
40:02 my brother was very mad. Um, my dad passed away because he was knocked down
40:08 from a motorcycle. It was a hit and run. And he he was like, "Do you know the
40:14 only people that bother to stop when I have a car problem or motorcycle problem are Indians and Malays, but not the
40:20 Chinese?
40:30 They bother serving us, but we don't bother serving them. How many of you
40:36 stop to help someone change their tire before? So, me and my brother have this habit of doing that. When we see a car
40:42 breakdown, we'll stop. We'll help. Uh the the the about about 8 months back
40:50 the latest one was my brother was coming back and we were like oh no he's very late we supposed to have family dinner
40:55 he's not back yet and we were wondering why uh uh but we couldn't call get him so he stopped by the roadside and
41:01 somebody in a car a lorry part flew off and flew and then it hit him in the car
41:07 and uh his family panicked and he stopped the bike and he was doing CPR and helping this person at the road and
41:14 the person died in his arms. And he came back so traumatized
41:20 and he said, "I can't get the breath of the person. I keep smelling it. I keep
41:25 smelling the blood. I keep smelling all these things." And then he didn't want to have dinner obviously. And he said,
41:31 "But nobody came to help. It was just him."
41:39 What have we become that we realize and that we think that the grace of Jesus Christ that has been given to us, we
41:46 don't show that same grace to people. What is it that we are so fearful about
41:52 showing grace, carrying our crosses, get robbed, get robbed.
41:60 How often do you really get robbed for helping people? You just never tried.
42:06 I I I admit that sometimes I am fearful. I admit that sometimes it's difficult
42:13 and sometimes it takes away your time. It takes away
42:19 things that you treasure. But that's the thing. God gave it all
42:26 and he willingly gave it all so that we could inherit it all. And now that we inherit this gospel, we think this
42:32 gospel is for ourselves. And then we look for leaders that teach
42:37 us these things. That's that's a problem with the prosperity gospel, isn't it?
42:44 I know you're not like that. None of you want to be rich. You're going to give everything to God.
42:52 You know, that's the funny thing when I teach in Bible school, right? The early church gave everything. Literally everything. Now, if I do this in this
42:59 church and say you must give everything to God, you call me a cult, right? Why?
43:07 I think we have come to a point that we do not want what the gospel really
43:14 speaks about. The grace of the gospel is not talking about just equality. It is that we are all lower. We have to lower
43:21 ourselves the way Jesus did to serve the world. And it's hard. I must say it's not easy.
43:30 What my brother went through, I wish I will never have to go through. But will we go through that? I remember
43:37 in Sububanga it happened, right? What happened? There was this lady that got slashed at the petrol petrol kiosk,
43:43 right? And and then she she managed to walk herself to the SS15 police station.
43:50 SS. Yeah, SS14's police station with bleeding like that. And the police say,
43:55 "I'm not going to bring you hospital because you're going to dirty the car." You didn't read the news?
44:07 Oh, y the police. No good. No, no. How about you?
44:13 Would you would you carry that bloody person into your car knowing your
44:22 your beautiful Mercedes-Benz will be filled with it?
44:28 or would you find some way to get another way?
44:34 I I I think we're called to do just that.
44:40 But we vote in leaderships that don't really serve the people and I will talk about that in our context of Malaysia.
44:46 But I think what concerns me is is that if there's anything that we should be
44:52 putting on display of our leaders, it would be their suffering. That's what Paul was saying just now,
44:59 isn't it?
45:04 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession like those condemned to die
45:11 in an arena. We have been made a spectacle to the
45:16 whole universe to the angels as well as human being. Watch this. When you become a leader, you are spectacle not just to
45:23 people and men and things around. You're spectacle to the whole universe.
45:30 We are fools for Christ, but you are wise. And he was being sarcastic there.
45:35 You boasting. By your boasting, you think you're wiser than us. We are weak, but you are strong. You are
45:42 honored. We are dishonored. To this very hour, we go hungry and thirsty. We are in racks. We are
45:48 brutally treated. We are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. And when we are cursed, what did he say?
45:56 We are blessed. Huh? Come now then. I curse all of you today. Come. Who wants?
46:02 Let's have an alt call. I curse all of you. Hey, I'm blessing you there.
46:10 But Paul took the curses that people throw at him. Call it a blessing.
46:19 We are persecuted. We endure it. When we are slandered, we answer
46:25 kindly. One of the biggest lessons I learned about this and I'm going to use driving because it's very applicable
46:31 again is that when you're there was this uh elder in our church and uh he came to
46:37 give a testimony and I didn't expect this testimony to come out. So he came and then uh he was talking about how he
46:43 was driving and this car came from a taxi came and bang rammed him from the back and he anyone knows what happens
46:50 who's wrong when when when when someone rams you from the back who
46:56 the one that follows you the back so if I was in that position I came out straight how much you going to pay me
47:02 right that's what I want to find out you know what he did
47:08 he felt led by the Holy Spir to do this. He came out, he asked the taxi driver, "How many how long will it take for you
47:14 to fix this car?" And uh how much will it cost you? So the of course said the
47:20 cost of repairing estimate, right? The taxi driver gave him. And he said, "No, I'm also asking about your wages. How
47:27 many days can you not be a taxi driver and how much would you earn less?" And and so the taxi guy driver gave a
47:35 figure and guess what? He took that money out of his own pocket. He said, "I'm paying for your wages. I'm paying
47:42 for your repair. I don't want you to lose out because you got a family who
47:48 needs you. Go home and be blessed."
47:55 Crazy.
48:04 He was not boasting, you know. I saw that humility that he he he
48:10 struggled but he knew that God wanted him to do that. That's servantthood.
48:16 That's leadership. From that day on he was I was like this
48:23 is a leader worth following because if I could do like he did
48:31 God will be praised. What happened?
48:37 I know that I didn't. So after that testimony, one day I I I I worked in Singapore and I stayed in Joho. We're
48:44 coming across the causeway and there were two lanes only, right, for the cars to go and then the third lane was for
48:49 the lries and the motorcycles. So I was in the second lane, the middle lane and somehow it involved in the traffic. If
48:56 you've gone any of you experienced the causeway jam during Chinese New Year and all those kind of things trying to go
49:02 over, it becomes five lanes. And so I was on the second lane and the fifth lane there was this car coming
49:08 coming over and trying to squeeze into the second lane cuz and he begged me
49:14 from the back uh towards my left hand side from the back and I was like
49:21 and I was like thinking of all the repairs and thinking of how I'm a poor pastor and I can't afford this.
49:27 Uh and uh but I said never mind God not going to make it an issue. We're all
49:33 stressed here. Let's I just continue driving. And guess what? He came and rammed me five times from the back.
49:46 You call that suffering? Yes, I call that suffering. Oh, it was tough. I was fuming. I don't
49:55 know how to describe the anger. I came out of the car. I was ready to
50:03 give him everything. My kung fu, my
50:11 I don't know. I was really really I really I have this baseball bat kind of
50:17 steering wheel lock, right, that I was ready to just mash his windscreen. And
50:22 uh but I came out there, thank God, he put a few pastors in my car at the same time. So I I I I I told God, "You have
50:30 to take over." And I went to his middle. I said, "Please don't do it one more time. I can't control it anymore." I
50:37 didn't say it so nice. I said, "You better stop." Okay.
50:43 It must have been the most foolish thing I've done in my life. Because
50:48 by right, I have every right to express my anger, to teach him his lesson, and
50:55 on top of it, he's Singaporean. Let's have a war.
51:02 My wife is Singaporean. I love Singaporean times.
51:10 But if there's anything we should put on display, it's the fact that Christ gave us the ability to suffer and turn the
51:18 other cheek. Why is it that now I hear every pastor
51:25 or every leader that is put on display, it is not displayed for these things? Why?
51:33 What has become of the church that we boast of who our pastor is because of how handsome he is, how rich he's
51:40 become, how how he can buy vocationally, handle everything.
51:47 What happened to those that serve faithfully in small contexts, in small churches, in places that you will not
51:54 go? Are they not leaders? Are they not authentic leaders?
52:04 Are they even better leaders than we are? Perhaps they are. And we have much to learn. But if there's anything, if
52:11 you want to be a leader, you have to not only lower yourself, you have to choose to be put on display for your suffering,
52:20 not for what you have, not what you can do. Wow, that's a hard lesson to learn from
52:27 here. So he was trying to say this the total opposite while you are boasting
52:33 Corinthians there. If there's anything you should boast about,
52:40 it's not about and they were becoming like us about prosperity, about all the things that the fine things of life.
52:47 They experienced it. They liked it. But here it is Paul saying, "No, we are the
52:53 scum of the earth." What a word. We are the scum of the earth. Huh?
53:03 Wow. uh nobody want to be in church anymore. But all of us are called you want to be
53:09 leaders, you got to be the scum of the earth. Suddenly next week, don't resign yet, okay? Please talk to your leaders
53:14 carefully and and make the decision. But really, if you are anything, you're
53:19 supposed to be the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world. Authentic leadership is scary.
53:28 Gospel leadership is scary. leaders are to be fools for Christ.
53:36 Foolish things. And I don't understand. I I I served in a church in Singapore, the
53:41 church is fairly large. It's about 4,500 people. Um um um and I noticed that when
53:49 I serve in a church that big, uh the way other pastors treat me, it's different.
53:55 I there's a certain honor that comes with it compared to my compatriots that
54:01 serve in a very small context. Uh I'm invited more to preach than they
54:08 are. And I was wondering how come even
54:13 pastors can fall into the same trap.
54:18 It's because we forgot that the gospel Jesus came as a servant himself. He
54:24 didn't come as a leader. So often we want to share in the glory
54:30 of Christ our worship leader. So often we do not want to share in the suffering he leads us into.
54:38 If I if you come and join if I be able to share with you on worship the only person that qualifies as a worship
54:44 leader in the Bible there's no term worship leader in the Bible is Jesus Christ. And everyone wants the glory,
54:50 the splendor of this beautiful stage, singing, people recognizing that you have a beautiful voice. But no one wants
54:58 to suffer. How many of you if I were to open a
55:03 booth today outside and says, "Come. This is the suffering booth. Sign up."
55:10 You would come. We won't. I don't know why we won't. I
55:18 won't. I'd struggle with it. That's because we don't have the full
55:23 measure of authentic leadership. Authentic leadership is empowered by the Holy Spirit. We can't do it by our own strength. We need the Holy Spirit to
55:30 help us. Steven went through the worst suffering of his life and still stood
55:35 there and looked like an angel. Why? Because he was full of the Holy Spirit.
55:42 And so we learn that through the gift of the spirit, the church leads others to
55:47 the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not you that will save others. It's not alpha course that will save other people. It is the holy spirit.
55:56 If we stop taking the glory from the holy spirit and stop taking the work of the holy spirit but avail ourselves to
56:03 serve his work, then the gospel of Jesus Christ will move forward.
56:11 The gifts are not there for boasting. Israel was called to lead the world to the knowledge of God's story, the gospel
56:18 by serving the world as the firstborn. They were not asked to be the people.
56:24 The pride that they ah we are God's people. The rest is not. They were called to serve the world.
56:34 Yet they chose their own leaders which became their idols.
56:41 God say you don't need a king. They want a king. Right?
56:46 And it goes on to today the church also today. We are called not we are just
56:54 like Israel. We are called to be the firstborn the Adam the the new Adam
57:00 to be able to serve the world. And yet we are choosing leaders of our own.
57:11 The church is called to lead the world to the knowledge of God's story by serving the world. What if we truly have
57:18 a church that is empowered to lead our nation by serving this nation the way Jesus served the world?
57:26 What if Malaysia will stop voting for leaders who
57:34 supposed to serve us in the first place, but they are leaders and start being servants themselves.
57:42 Personally, this is my pet peeve and I I'm I'm really a bit sad about it is that many are living and migrating and
57:48 they they feel like, oh, Malaysia is not worth anymore. Uh the government is what they blame in all kinds of things.
57:56 There's no future in this country. But we're not called
58:01 to have a good future in this country.
58:07 Are you? Did the Bible tell us we are called to have a good future in this country? No. We we're called to serve
58:15 this country. And then to mark it all out to show that
58:23 they have this problem is that they have this problem of honoring young leaders.
58:28 God sends us leaders through his spirit to reminds us of the way of life of Jesus Christ. And Paul was saying you
58:34 see him, you will see me. You see Timothy, you will see me. But you better
58:39 better honor him. And you would read that actually they did not honor him. And Timothy, you read the letters of to
58:44 Timothy, Timothy was struggling. People were saying all kinds of things m
58:50 judging his leadership and he was struggling and Paul was just
58:56 encouraging him mark yourself as a servant. Mark yourself as a servant.
59:01 Don't give up being a servant. Serve these people although they don't want to be served
59:07 because that's what Jesus would do. Think about that in perspective of
59:12 Malaysia. They say what? You're outsiders. Leave this country. We don't need you.
59:20 Still, we're called to serve. We are
59:27 I'm not going to talk about young leaders much, although I wish I could, but I just want to end with this. God's calling a new generation of leaders who
59:34 will choose to serve instead of lead. Are you one of them? Young people, if I'm speaking you to you
59:41 today, God has called you to Malaysia.
59:46 You're born here not by chance. I know God can call you to other places, too. And I believe that. But most of you like
59:52 me are called to this country. When I I was called to I know I'm called
59:57 to this country. And when God sent me to Singapore, I said, "God, you must be joking." And I'm back. I thank God for that. You
60:04 don't know. Every year I would have this retreat and pray and say God is it time to come back to Malaysia or not. And uh
60:11 for seven years I served there and finally God said it's time to come home.
60:18 But most people do not want to serve. Next thing elders are you serving them? Are
60:25 you honoring them? Are you giving a chance? I I I I must say when my father was my age he was already uh when he was
60:32 younger than me he was already a senior pastor. He was 25 when he became a senior pastor. For us to become senior
60:38 pastors at our age is very difficult. Anyway, I'm not saying in this church there's no senior pastor. I know that.
60:43 But I'm just saying in the context in my context, it's very hard because we always look as young leaders that have
60:50 not eat enough salt.
60:55 But the power of the gospel is not about the ability to lead, but the ability to
61:01 serve. For the kingdom of God is not about a matter of talk but the power of the Holy Spirit to do what is right. And
61:06 that was Paul trying to say you want to do do what is right. You want to do this
61:13 you can do this because you're empowered by the Holy Spirit.
61:18 Here's a trustworthy saying. Whoever aspires to be a overseer aspires a noble
61:23 task. Ever wondered why he said that? Because it takes guts to serve.
61:33 It takes tenacity to serve. And if there's anything we should seek,
61:39 if you want power as a leader, there is power as a leader. Let me tell you, there is power as a leader. Everybody
61:46 knows that. But if there is any power we will just seek for and Paul was saying
61:52 we should seek for in leadership is the power to serve others like Jesus did.
61:58 Wow. You know the NIV uses the word leader
62:04 201s only and the word servant 794 times. Any surprise that we see our
62:11 church what needs today our leader what we need in our church today is not leaders but more servants. Yet there are
62:17 more leadership conferences today than servant conferences. Anyone been to a servant conference
62:23 before? Why? Why are there no servant
62:29 conferences? It's not glamorous enough.
62:36 It doesn't sell. But we're not here to sell anything but
62:41 the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it says serve others. So my question is what if
62:47 there were less leaders in the world but more people who live up to their name as Christian, those of Christ, slaves of
62:53 Christ. I think it will change. I'm going to share with you. I know I'm I'm
62:58 I've gone very long. I'm just going to share with you my my testimony in ending. This is my father. I look like
63:04 him, right?
63:10 That's my son uh Levi and he's two years old now. Um this was the last day. This
63:16 is the last picture we had with him. Um he went for birthday uh that day and uh
63:23 uh he he is a man that believe and he he
63:28 wanted to serve his country. So during the ISA those days he also marched the streets. He he he he every birthday he
63:35 was there and this birthday we went for the past one but this one we we all had ministry and then he said never mind go
63:41 and ministry go for your ministry things I will go and so none of us went with him this time night we were waiting
63:50 um we didn't we saw uh we have this iPhone
63:55 thing right find my iPhone and we found that he's still at PJ near the Bible school where he teaches but he's not
64:02 home and we wondering wondering finally at about 10 p.m. We got a call from the hospital say he he he met a hit and run.
64:08 Would you come? So we came to the hospital. Uh to cut the story short, he passed away. Um um
64:16 um sorry, give me some time to process this.
64:21 And I was angry. I was bitter. This is a man who wants to serve his country, who
64:27 loved this country, who served with all his heart. He would give anything for the people of this country.
64:35 Why did God want to take him? And I was so angry with God.
64:41 I said, "God, I can't even measure up to this man. Why did you take someone who loves the country this much?"
64:48 And I was reminded this recently. If my father knew he was going to die on
64:56 that day and he would still have walked the streets
65:02 for this country. He would still serve and he would
65:08 believe he serve country. He got to see my son for one and a half months. That's it.
65:14 And I wish my son had a grandfather to look up to.
65:20 But now since a model of a servant has been given to me, I want to model that
65:27 for my son. If there's any legacy we should leave behind, it's not one of being a great
65:34 leader. You know, we want our names in the books. But if our names are forgotten, let our
65:40 children remember us as servants of Jesus Christ. Can we end by singing this
65:46 song together with me? It's a song that's written by a pastor friend I know and I think the lyrics are very apt.
65:52 I think we need to respond to this gospel by saying Lord I want to be a servant as well like you did. Um I will
66:00 sing this song introduce it to you but I hope that you would respond to God with me and just say Lord I want to be your
66:07 servant approved in every way.
