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00:00:01 today's scripture reading is taken from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5: 1-1 1 Thessalonians 5: 1 to 11 I shall be reading from the NIV 2011 version verse one now brothers and sisters about times and dates we do not need to write to you for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night what people are saying peace and safety destruction will come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not Escape but you brothers and sisters are not in darkness so that this day should
00:00:41 surprise you like a thief you all children of the light and Children of the day we do not belong to the night or to the darkness so then let us not be like others who are asleep but let us be awake and sober for those who sleep sleep at night and those who get drunk get drunk at night night but since we belong to the day let us be sober putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of Salvation as a helmet for God did not appoint us to suffer wroth but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ he died
00:01:18 for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we may sleep together with him therefore encourage one another and build each other up just as in fact you are doing the this is the word of God thank you very much sue for bringing us God's word this morning blessed morning church it's a privilege to be in his house this morning worshiping and exploring his word together and I'm hearing some Echo uh yeah maybe we can tune the game down uh and also I want to say thank you very much for all the saints who have been keeping me in
00:01:55 prayer today um you have no idea this morning when I came here I had butterflies the size of cats in my belly so now it's a bit more manageable I think let's hope it gets better as we progress now imagine this you have a job you absolutely love the job you have a beautiful spouse and your kids are healthy yet you are miserable how is that possible Jeff Allen is a Christian standard comic I listen to occasionally his most famous show is happy wife happy life men take note he shared this about his
00:02:44 life the the the misery before he was a born again Christian and he was ugly he talked about his Battle of alcoholism drug abuse rage issues Financial irresponsibility marital problems that almost collapsed on them until he met a man who introduce him to Jesus Christ that not only saved his marriage but you also saved his life in case you're wondering what this story has to do with the topic the day of the Lord It's about seeing what God is doing in this world that has been so broken by sin it's about seeing why
00:03:31 we should pay attention so we'll briefly take a look at these three points together the what when and who and we will spend most of our time talking about the wine let's pray father Lord we thank you for Gathering your people to you this morning you are God we are not you are holy and we are far from it forgive our transgressions and remove all hindrances to hear you this morning we ask for your words to f us touch us with your spirit convict us so that we would respond in obedience to be a people who would honor
00:04:08 and glorify you we ask in Jesus name amen as I Was preparing this I asked my wife what she knew about this topic credit to her she said uh not really until she saw the verses with my name next to it and she did a bit of digging to find out uh last week I met a couple of people and said o judgment yeah that's that part is right then someone said Mark of the Beast are like okay we're not going there right um we're looking at this topic from the text this morning so we're not doing the whole eschatology which is the technical
00:04:50 name for the study of end times the words that stands out when we are defining the what you see it talking about destruction destruction that comes suddenly There's No Escape and we will deal with who that's the identity of the people that is being referred to and he also talking about suffering God's rra all cherry stuff this morning isn't it where is all this coming from it just didn't pop out of nowhere in fact if you dig into both Old Testament and New Testament you will see plenty of references and warnings you can just
00:05:33 take note of this we're not going to dig into them but these were all way before first Thessalonians was written and if you look at the language used you will see will come will not Escape these are words that convey intent that will occur in the future example I will eat eat lunch later okay it's not a backward reference it's something that's going to take place sometime into the future where do we find that reference for this future event Revelations 20 that's a chapter that deals with the Thousand-Year reign of Jesus uh or some
00:06:21 will call it the Millennium the Judgment of Satan and the Judgment of the day but for this morning we're just going to look at this verse this is Judgment for those who have rejected Jesus that's why their names are not in the book of life and if they have passed away this is very very bad I wish I don't have to say it like that but I cannot sugarcoat that unfortunately many are turned off to Christianity by this 19 92 I was in the UK finishing my final year I was in the Town Square One Sunday uh Saturday
00:07:07 afternoon and I saw this kid at the corner at one corner of the square yelling on top of his lung repent all you Sinners if you don't you're going to hell wow he did it with such conviction I think David lost on this one no disrespect to David I think he's a brilliant Storyteller standing next to him were a couple of older men who I guess was from the church that's doing this form of Street evangelism I was a young Christian then I think barely 2 years old I felt very disturbed with what I saw that probably contributes to this
00:07:58 kind of visualization especially for us here in Asia when you have this kind of image in our minds and if you're anything like me I would have the Rotan for breakfast lunch and dinner uh that's why in mandine they would say or Canon they would say eat the Rotan right okay I exaggerate on the three meals three CS of Rotan over the day but I do have my fres Shir of it look how I turn out if you can have this kind of trauma you naturally will see it as punishment not wrong but this causes us to have
00:08:43 trouble with this phrase fear of the Lord this is found in Proverbs and many other places where in the Bible this word fear is used we will come back to this later to learn why this is incomplete and to hopefully correct it now while some were put off by the thought of judgment there's also quite a lot of people who have this Fascination about when it will happen they obsessed I think you have seen enough stories of that Christians have unfortunately gained a reputation for being lousy end time
00:09:26 oracles not only with timing but also the signs or reading the tea leaves as we call it over the course of history there's been many prophecies which have all turned out to be false most are kind of harmless uh the kind that people would just ah you dumb Christians whatever you know but there has also been people who have lost lives because they followed the long wrong uh teachings the wrong Prophets or even the wrong Messiahs the Bible has also warned about that Paul told the Thessalonians no need
00:10:10 to write about the times and dates why you look at the word for you know very well this phrase has a couple of interesting points the Believers in thessalonica were actually very young Christians kind of like me when I was in the UK because the first time they heard the gospel was in Acts 17 and to the time of this letter they were just barely 2 years old and yet Paul said to them for you know very well FBC how old already do we know very well I hope we do and for Paul to say for you know very well he has to have a reference
00:11:00 statement to stand on and we find that in this verse what do we see here no one knows no one on Earth not even the angels not even Jesus himself this is quite interesting isn't it so it's quite baffling to understand why have we have this obsession with script when scripture is so clear but this is also so tough for us as Believers because we don't function well when there's no deadline do you agree with that we really really don't work well with no deadline the procrastinators in us were attested that 2,000 years have
00:11:56 passed nothing has happened zil but the thing is you don't know we don't know how much time is left at least if you can see a hourglass like that you can see you can tell how much but there's none no reference that's why we have a problem second Peter 39 the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness instead he is patient with you not Wan thing anyone to perish but everyone to repentance I was born in 1971 I was saved in 1991 if he had come before 1991 I wouldn't be standing
00:12:51 here I suspect the same is true for many of us whether we realize it or not that's why between Verses 4 and 8 we see Pauling Paul Paul calling the Thessalonians reminding them should not be surprised don't be asleep don't be drunk we do not belong all this points to being prepared as our Malay friends will say s pong the second part about this is motivation so we are to be prepared prepared for what we saw earlier is about judgment punishment other that's are not very motivating isn't it parents who Rotan their kids know
00:13:50 this to be true I should know because I also do that to my kids not now of course they are grown already but you know that there's only a limited amount of time where the Rotan is effective agree and used too often even if just a threat the child gets numb by it especially as he or she usually he gets bigger some might push back and say come you think I'm afraid of you C or not anyone got that before so the Rotan is not the motivator what then is the motivator Romans 86-1 17 we saw that we saw this we are described as children of the
00:14:47 light and day and we know Jesus is the light which means we share the characteristics of Jesus Romans it's uh 178 even better as God's children we get what inheritance we are heirs is brother Korean here hey you adopted Paul right not the not the Apostle of course you know uh little Paul is he going to get your inheritance yes H sure no no no things about it right yeah so adopted we are adopted by Jesus Christ we are adopted by God we shared in The Inheritance no wait better still Jesus Christ has to
00:15:34 share his inh inheritance with us think about that how cool is that it's not we just getting it Jesus had to share that with us you know so this inheritance is our reward on what basis on the basis of how well we have lived Our Lives after we have Act accepted Jesus as our Lord and savior brother John Lee covered this wonderfully in his message about a month ago on spir on 1 Corinthians 3 on spiritual maturity this is the Judgment for believers that's why the Bible depicts the imagery of completing a race
00:16:23 runwell young people's language GG good game right it is a bit tricky to to to to use G because it can have two meanings uh if you play binton with Brother John go and you have a good and tight game whoever wins you say GG it means well played sign of respect but if you're getting trashed by Brother John go you say GG you're going to die die game over right or not so summary the day of the Lord is Judgment for those who rejected the Lord being thrown into the Lake of Fire the second death AKA hell
00:17:13 reward for what we have done with the time we have here after we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and our savior until we return to him or until he comes for us his second return and we don't know when he will return we just have to be prepared and this brings me to the last point we are making great time today why should I care what I meant by that is most of us know all these as facts most of us know this for example let's read together Colossians 31- 4 together since then we have been raised with Christ set your hearts on
00:18:10 things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God set your minds on things above not on Earthly things for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God when Christ who is in your life appears you will also appear with him in glory now repeat the highlighted verse the two and three to your neighbor go ahead my point exactly do you notice that do you notice that it's something like a market we should be the he Earth because of this because of verse four the day of the Lord shouldn't we be jumping for joy
00:19:11 and telling each other with conviction set your minds on things above not on Earthly things you got set your [Music] mind you died okay why weird right we know all this but we are strangely subdued it's kind of like this 1999 movie excellent movie uh the six sense Haley joah Osman I see de people the way you we say to each other just now it's like I see de people you know we should be zombies yes we are zombies but we should be Christian zombies not the worldly zombie that go like that one Christian zombies act very
00:20:18 differently Christian zombies live differently our mind should be up there thinking about it all the time pay attention to our thoughts observe what we are thinking constantly most of the time is still on Earthly things isn't it if we are honest to ourself why why indeed this is a brilliant awardwinning movie that was released last year just curious how many have actually watch watched it yeah I think it's only a handful okay the story is about two brothers born both born in Malaysia but for whatever
00:21:10 reasons they do not have their IC or my card so they're undocumented people brothers and sisters in the Haven Ministry you know very well what I'm talking about they're always living under the threat of being caught by the authorities they don't have any rights ATI the younger brother on the left at least have a biret which is useful but he's always getting into trouble make trying to make easy money as a human trafficking agent or Toy Boy abang the elder brother on the right is an honest fellow trying to make
00:21:56 a living as a laborer in the wet Market and usually rescuing ATI when he gets into trouble one day AI accidentally badly injured a social worker who was trying to get help the brothers get their M cut he fled because he thought he had killed her in his flat when abang found out about it they both fled the city abang returned to the crime scene without his his brother to clean up the mess while he was in the apartment trying to think of what to do the social worker whom he thought was dead began to
00:22:39 stir turns out she was unconscious just at that moment a neighbor knocked on Aang's door and in his Panic he smarted her trying to prevent her from making a sound and in doing so accidentally killed her manslaughter not pre not premeditated murder he turned himself to the authorities to face the consequences and we move to this I would say is one of the most brilliant scene I've ever seen in movies brother was abang was incarcerated waiting the death sentence and he was visiting by a Buddhist monk who tried to
00:23:31 befriend him kind of like the prison ministry some Churches have over small talk he asked abang if he wanted to see his family now abang was de and mute remember so he replied in Sign Language his family is no longer here then the mon said everyone will eventually die that's the circle of life we have life when we have life live properly the final kicker it's that simple the Monk Is Telling the brother this properly it's that simple now you and I know living properly trying to live properly is anything but
00:24:25 simple right this is one of the best scene I've ever seen in movies for a long long time abang gave a long reply in Sign Language a long story short he said he wants to change his life but is impossible impossible this is the Baba chakra of Tibetan Buddhism so the karmic will of Life type of beliefs has says that whatever a person do in this life impacts the next life now on the surface Christianity also have something like that whatever we do here impacts our eternity except the kic beliefs goes over multiple cycles and is
00:25:24 reliant on human beings Christian it has only one and is not reliant on us thank God for that can we say Amen the alternative for those who don't subscribe to this going around in circles of karmic beliefs is to go Hakuna Matata like these two guys don't care what others think leave life however we want # YOLO all the way you only live once for those who don't know what YOLO is bottom line every single person who has ever live and still alive knows life is hard regardless whether it's karmic belief or Hakuna
00:26:14 Matata and all are trying to face life with man-made beliefs food for thought if we believe sin has corrupted man the world and all of creation does it make sense for us to go to manmade beliefs for solution so this is where we want to come and correct this wrong or incomplete understanding punishment is definitely involved don't get me wrong there Rotan involved but it's so much more than that the Hebrew word used for fear is your which not only has fear but there's an element of awe in it he said I came across this um
00:27:13 wonderful explanation by Rabbi shaiel who wrote The Heart of Torah he said when we think of fear we focus on ourselves and think of how God's strength and might affects us but when we think of all we focus on God and his strength only it's not about us we don't think about how it affects me now that sounds a bit weird because it's supposed to impact her but I I'll explain why think of it this way fear and a goes together if we have the awe of God the fear is automatically taken care of mathematicians here you will understand
00:28:04 this a van diagram okay if you have all fear is a subset of all you automatically have it but if you stop only and you see only fear and you don't see all and that's where our problem is we stop at only fear we don't see all and that affects our understanding of fear of the Lord how do we see all of God Genesis 1 creation these two words God said that's the most amazing display of Might and creativity we will ever witness yeah we were not there but we have hindsight think about it the god that created everything including the
00:29:19 universe is that not awesome how about this Psalm 139 for I fearfully and wonderfully made yeah you know how insane this is your eyes saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me I haven't even been born yet I haven't even been conceived yet you already wrote all about me that's why in Ephesians 2:10 says for we are his wow for we are his creation better word than that handy work we are his Masterpiece some translations use that created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God had planned in advance
00:30:21 for us to do it's exactly that how about this this Isaiah 536 we all like sheep have gone astray each one of us has turned our own way the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all that's why we sing Behold the Lamb the L the story of of redemption written on his hands the gospel is unlike any other because in this we have a God who went through much suffering and giving him up his rights and Life to save us this so out of the world do we realize that but this is exactly what we need to f face the Brokenness of this
00:31:31 world set your minds on things above because we can't find anything here not here other than Brokenness this is a brilliant book by Dr Martin Dean he is the founder of RBC Ministries now known as our daily bre Ministries there's a passage that says and I'm paraphrasing here when we look back at our lives it's filled with broken things that causes much tears from childhood to teenage to adult to golden years if we live that long different stage different things same Brokenness no one can escape you know what's more interesting
00:32:21 he said this we cast broken things aside as useless but God cast The Unbroken things aside as useless remember uh Elder Arnold's message on that broken vas the kinsi right anyone can guess what this is what I heard Carriage was it yeah maryy Carriage yes she's right horse carriage a very luxurious horse carriage Danish Theologian sain kga okay I don't even know if I'm pronouncing that right told a parable of two men on a journey by horse carriage one a rich man the other a poor driver inside the carriage was nice warm
00:33:24 and lighted with curtains drawn outside was cold dark exposed to the environment the rich man sitting inside the comfortable Carriage started to dwell on the poor driver out in the cold poor guy sitting outside he T to himself and his thought exed elsewhere outside the carriage was indeed cold especially when traveling at speed there wasn't much to see because it's all dark at ground level but above it's a very different story the driver saw spars billions of them he even saw the Milky Way what a
00:34:16 sight it was to behold poor guy sitting inside he thought to himself as he continued to drive the carriage the rich man had warmth comfort light and thought his he was in a good place the driver had no warmth no comfort with the cold wind blasting his body but he saw lights from heaven and he thought he was in a good place same world two different experiences if you have to choose which one would you rather be outside or inside both I heard both how is that even possible I have no idea the one sitting outside even though
00:35:09 he didn't have the best of the environment saw something that enable him to endure the environment that he is in and also know this not every night is like this many nights is cloudy you can't see anything there are times with long wet spells rainy season occasionally you get to see this but that was enough that was enough to say wow I'm in awe of the creator of the universe even his mind would be on the Su when I consider your Heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have set in place what is
00:36:00 mankind that you are mindful of them human beings that you care for them and he ends it with Lord our Lord How Majestic is your name the Danish Theologian went on to say life can only be understood backwards but it must be Liv forwards we look at scripture and see our own lives and see the wonders of his work no matter how small then we can respond Count Your Blessing name them one by one count your blessing see what God has done Count Your Blessing name them one by one and it will surprise you What the
00:37:03 Lord Has Done when we look back count our blessings see what God has done living forward is not too difficult even though life is challenging this is when this verse comes to life the picture behind is actually the special teenss and they had they were up and outing with some of us here in this church and the Highlight was a stop at a shopping um visit to the catlon in usj1 this to me was great encouragement you see when we understand what God has done our faith moves us and we can respond in love we see beautiful pictures like
00:38:15 this we see that we can Bridge gaps and see that we can work with people who are different to us I don't think I need to explain this that much but the hope of Salvation on the other hand is something else that we need to constantly keep in mind that's why we call it helmet think of this whenever we rub each other the wrong way we will rub each other the wrong way by our words but what we do even small things instead of responding to in this kind of instead of responding in kind to the offense we can respond in
00:39:17 kindness you know one Pitfall of being too comfortable is the tendency to nit pick you agree very easy to mind fault complain that's why the scripture says wow I can see the speck in that brother's eye or sister's eye lock in own eye cannot see this helmet protects our minds by focusing our thoughts on the hope that we have that's why we can sing and the things of Earth will grow strangely D in the light of his glory and Grace to close this is a reminder from the the light I'm using is the parable of the 10
00:40:14 virgins the 10 of them five were known as wise the other five foolish the difference between them came down to only one item only one everything else was the same what's that what all yeah right five foolish virgins were not fully prepared and there was a lot of drama you can read in verse 8 and to 12 of Matthew 25 all for nothing when we engage in drama we're not capable of encouraging one another no way we think we can multitask n but when we are prepared we will automatically be encouraging one another
00:41:06 to keep our eyes on the Finishing Line the price feeling the blanks with whatever imagery that works for you encourage each other to look to the day where we will rejoice together with our bridegroom our Lord Jesus Christ let's pray Lord father we thank you for the opportunity to hear your word not men's may we seek to go out of our comfort zone so that we see what you are doing and be in awe of you may we be wise and be prepared making sure we have oil in our lamps so we can Shine for you may you convict us of your word so it
00:41:57 will will not return to you empty we ask for Jesus sake amen thank you brother Vincent how about hand for brother Vincent for his Med seron in church [Applause] amen I know he's a bit nervous and uh didn't didn't need to finish 5 minutes earlier but uh church can we all rise we'll sing the uh song of response knowing you Jesus and then we'll also sing Behold the Lamb again as we uh end the service later this morning all I want have de build my life upon all this world R and was to own all I once thought gain
00:42:57 I have counted loss spent and worthless now compare to this KN Jesus knowing you there is no greater thing you're my all you're the best you're my joy my righteousness and I love you Lord now my heart desire is to know you more to be found in you and know as yours to possess by faith what I could not ear a Sur passing gift of rightousness KN you Jesus KN you there is no greater thing you're my you're the best you're my joy my rightousness and I love you oh to know the power of your is life and to know you in your
00:44:46 sufferings to become like you in your death my Lord so with you too live and never die KN you Jesus knowing you there is no greater you're my all you're the best you're my joy my righteousness and I love you you Lord and I love you Lord love you Lord [Music] see him there The Great I Am a crown of thorns upon his head The Father's Heart displayed for us oh God we thank you for the cross lifted up on calvary's hill we C your name and even still you bore our shame and P the cost oh God we thank you for the
00:47:12 cross Behold the Lamb Behold the Lamb the story of Redemption on his hands Jesus you will reain forever more the victory is yours we sing your praise andless Hallelujah to your Holy Name Jesus you will R forever more the victory is yours [Music] over his sacrifice for every sin Our Savior died the Lord of can be contained Our God has risen from the gra Oh Our God has risen from the grave Behold the Lamb the story of redemption written on his hand Jesus you will re forever more the victory is yours
00:48:52 weing reing your praise and Hallelujah to your Holy Name Jesus you will re forever more the victory is [Music] your when the age of death is done we'll see your face bright as the sun we bow before the King of Kings Our God forever we will sing be hold the L the story of redemption written all his hand Jesus you will reain forever more the victory is yours behold behold the lamb the story of redemption written on his hand Jesus you will reain forever more the victory is yours we sing your praise and
00:50:28 Hallelujah to your Holy Name Jesus you will re forever more the victory is yours you re forever more the victory is yours King Jesus reigns forever more the victory is your [Music] [Music] benediction is taken from Romans 8:17 B to 18 reading from New Living Translation but if we are to share in his glory we must also share his suffering yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later seek out brothers and sisters that you trust pray together and encourage one
00:51:50 another after a moment meditation you can we dismiss have a blessed week ahead
