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00:00 Today we are going to be doing the f second half of chapter 1 and
00:06 whole of chapter 2 and in particular following our theme for the year is
00:12 building gospel centered communities and last week we pastor David Adams talked
00:20 about how we are in chaos the the church of the Corinthians and how they're
00:25 brought into community. Today we're going to talk about how the gospel mindset forms the basis of community.
00:33 And I think there's no uh more important message than this for the kind of society that we live in today. So let's
00:40 start off with a word of prayer. Lord, we ask this morning that you speak to us
00:45 through your word clearly that we may understand and begin to grow as a church
00:53 in community. If we ask for Jesus' sake, amen. If you look out into our own community
01:01 today, there are huge problems. What started out as a miracle on May 9th last
01:09 year looks like a wagon with his wheels about to come apart. And the wheels
01:15 about to come apart because people simply don't get on. They don't get along. Dr. M saying is a no confidence
01:21 vote. let pass prove its support for me. Here is Dr. M thinking about a
01:26 conspiracy within his own parties uh as coalition and maybe they'll be
01:32 challenged and in that case he reaches out to of all people the $90 million man
01:37 to support him which is the most unlikely support and then on the other hand is Anoa is saying it's hard motion
01:43 let him move it first whether to support no confidence motion against Dr. matter. In fact, it's become so depressing that
01:51 we even have the people south of our borders. Here's a former uh uh Singapore
01:58 ambassador who actually says Singapore's ex influential ex diplomat makes shocking comment. Pakatan is falling
02:05 apart. Failure to achieve community uh even though we had a great election. Uh
02:13 the problem with anything human is we can't get along. Same thing with
02:19 churches. Churches are no better because there are about 38,000 denominations and rising. Everybody's got different idea.
02:26 They separate based on you know whether you believe in evolution or not, whether you support homosexuals or you don't or
02:32 whether spiritual gifts or you don't with politics or or whether women passes. We will fight over everything.
02:38 And that's divisions between. And what about division inside the church itself? We we gossip. We we have people who are
02:45 selfserving. We we fear confrontation. We let other people form blocks. The hyperritical spirit that people who go
02:52 around criticizing everybody else and form different blocks. There's a lack of church discipline. So we have problems
02:58 there. And these are the same problems which Paul encountered in the church. And he actually said that the Christ
03:04 didn't send me to baptize but to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom lest the cross of Christ
03:10 be emptied of his power. What does Paul mean? Does he mean that you are all not the you all not united in community? So
03:18 why don't we just go back to the basics focus on the cross focus on missions and that's how you got unity. Is that right?
03:25 So is is the cross a distraction so that you can actually get community? I think
03:31 he means deeper than that. What stands in the way of community? In this
03:36 particular two chapters, Paul is putting forward the thesis that it is human
03:42 wisdom that stands in the way of community.
03:47 Why? If you look in chapter one, he says, "For it's been reported to me by Khloe's people that they're quarreling
03:53 among you." What I mean is that each of you says, "I follow Paul. I follow Apollos. I follow Kephus. I follow
03:60 Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Christ? They are
04:05 polarizing around the various leaders. Because what happens is that their
04:11 various leaders and their allegiance to the particular leader is tied to self-esteem and pride. My leader is
04:17 better than your leader. My cell group is better than your cell group. My church is better than your church. And
04:23 because of those differences which is actually based on achievement, human
04:28 wisdom, it stands in the way of community. And in any church, in any community, that's the main problem. And
04:36 so what does Paul do when he goes back to the gospel? Going back to the gospel is not
04:42 a cry to go back to the basics so you're distracted. You go back to missions, you don't have to fight each other. No, the
04:48 gospel actually forges community. And today we need to look at the word of God. How Paul encourages us to have a
04:55 gospel mindset because the gospel mindset undercuts our reliance on human wisdom.
05:01 It places Christ in the center of our needs and it refocuses our mindset from
05:07 self to service. There's a progression of thought. So I'm going to draw this out from the passage there. The first
05:13 thing is that the gospel undercuts our reliance on human wisdom. That's the problem that's stumbling all of society.
05:21 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to those to us who are being saved, it is the power
05:28 of God. So there's a complete difference to a Christian at that time. If you talk
05:33 about a cross, you get excited. It saved your life. You talk about the cross to your non-Christian friend, they think
05:39 what? You're stupid or what? There's a complete different of value system. It's like this picture of the durian in
05:48 Indonesia. this duran, you'd have to pay 4,000 ringgit.
05:53 And if you ask a person like David Adams to pay 4,000 ringgit for this thing,
05:59 which smells like the toilet, he won't even pay four ringit, right? I don't know whether David likes durian. Do you
06:05 like endurance? No. No. Okay. David would not pay four ringit for Musang King and he's certainly not going to pay
06:12 4,000. But the Indonesian Chinese will pay 4,000 ringgit for J Queen. You know
06:19 why is there such a difference? There must be something that about this that's so divisive. All right. So uh Paul says
06:27 consider your calling brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly. Not many were powerful. Not many were
06:32 noble birth. God chose what is foolish to world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Not many people in church have
06:39 got daties or PhDs. That's what he's saying. Uh is
06:44 that does he mean that Christians are stupid? Christian Richard Dawkins an atheist
06:51 certainly thinks Christians are stupid. He says if you don't understand how something works, never mind. Just give
06:57 up and say God did it. You don't have to know how nerve impulses works. Good. You don't understand how memories are laid
07:03 down in the brain. Excellent. Is photosynthesis a baffling complex process? Wonderful. Please don't go and
07:08 work on the problems. Give up and appeal to God. So God is a God of the gaps. Whatever you don't understand, hey, God
07:14 only knows. It's like Sammy Veu, act of God. Blame God for everything else. Uh
07:20 and so in that way he says Christians are stupid. And in fact, there was a uh a big study that combined all the other
07:26 studies together published in 2013. He had looked at a relationship between
07:32 intelligence and religiosity. All right? And the finding of this particular study
07:37 was that intelligent people tend to be less religious. In fact, some of the reasons given perhaps the uh intelligent
07:45 people are less likely to conform or there's an analytical approach which undermines religious beliefs. So
07:52 therefore, Christians aren't very analytical or you know intelligent people are self-sufficient so they don't
07:58 need God. Some of the reasons perhaps is true. Uh this is a professor of
08:04 evolutionary psychology called Satoshi Kanazawa London School of Economics who
08:10 actually puts out a theory that religion is an evolved domain. It's an instinct
08:16 and if you're clever enough you can overcome the instincts like all the baser instincts your life when you get
08:22 upset with your wife you got instinct to turn around and strangle her right so if you're clever enough you won't do it because you go to jail right so your
08:28 intelligence is used to suppress that um is a a a review of scientists versus
08:36 general public 64% of scientists do not believe in God general public only 6%
08:43 there's no doubt God exists 60% in the general public but scientists only 9%
08:49 attending church 46% of the general public and attending church 18% of
08:57 scientists it looks like intelligence if scientists are intelligent I don't know uh and and religion don't mix and here
09:05 is a review a survey of university kids in the US and you find over the years
09:11 1970 to n 2010 10. The kids are getting smarter. Because they're getting
09:16 smarter, they got no religious preference. Is going higher and higher and higher. Uh religious attendance of
09:22 services from 85% in 1970 goes right down to about 60 something% in 2010. Are
09:28 our kids getting smarter? That's why they don't subscribe to any religion. But we know
09:35 that intelligence or wisdom has got different domains. If you go just go by
09:40 IQ, it doesn't capture it all. Some people when I was in university, they taught me intelligence is what I I
09:48 intelligence is what intelligence test measures. That's about it. We know that intelligence has got multiple domains
09:54 and in EQ uh it measures motivation, empathy, self-awareness, social skills
09:60 and they actually predict more for success, isn't it? So there are different domains and when when Paul
10:05 talks about wisdom, intelligence, sarcas, it's actually with sarcasm for
10:11 he say consider your colleague brothers not many of you are wise by worldly standards
10:17 because the foolishness of God is wiser than men. The weakness of God is stronger than men. He's trying to cast
10:23 you know are you really wise? He's using wisdom in a sarcastic manner because if
10:29 you look in chapter 2 verses 6 and 7, yet among the mature we do impart wisdom. He's saying you're stupid on one
10:35 hand and the other part you say you're clever. It's a different kind of cleverness. It's a different domain.
10:42 Okay. We impart a secret hidden wisdom of God which God has decreed before our
10:47 ages which actually looks stupid in the eyes of normal human beings. It's a
10:53 derived wisdom not an innate wisdom. Our wisdom is derived. It's given to us. Well, what the world talks about is
10:60 basically innate wisdom. Uh it's like when you were young and your your your
11:06 child is very naughty and says, "Papa, I would like to take this screwdriver and
11:12 stick it into the wall plug." And you tell him 15 times, he won't listen. Right? Puts it. And then what do
11:19 you say to him? Very clever. Do some more. Right? Is he really clever? No, he's not
11:26 clever. You're just It's sarcastic way of saying something. And that's exactly what Paul is trying to do. He's trying
11:33 to put down human wisdom as if they're very clever, but they're not. Now, the basic issue, the difference is the basic
11:39 premise is completely different. Human wisdom is based on ability to make good
11:44 judgment based on what you have learned from your experiences and knowledge and understanding that gives you this
11:50 ability. Biblical wisdom is the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge
11:56 of the Holy One is inside. Because if you live in a world created by God, if you don't even acknowledge that he lives
12:02 and this is a world where he dictates the rules, then you must not be very clever, isn't it? The starting point has
12:09 to be right. Um you look at God's wisdom and man's wisdom. In God's wisdom, he tells Adam and Eve, look in the middle
12:16 of garden Eden, you can eat everything, but the durian you cannot eat. You eat the durian, surely you will die.
12:24 And the woman looks at the durian and says, "Ah, durian looks good." Contrary
12:29 to what David Adam says, all right, "It smells good. It must be good for food.
12:35 After all, it looks a delight to the eyes." And she makes up her own mind. It's going to make me a PhD.
12:42 And this is God. This is them. And she's actually deciding to believe herself
12:48 rather than God. That's human wisdom. Human wisdom is a suppression of truth.
12:55 For the wrath of God is revealed for heaven. All ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their
13:01 righteousness are unrighteousness suppress the truth. So what can be known about God is plain to them because God
13:07 has shown it to them. It's a deliberate suppression of the truth. Here is one of
13:12 the smartest men who ever lived, Stephen Hawkins. Even though he discovered that there's a big bang, there's a beginning
13:18 to everything, he refused to accept that there is a God. And he actually came up with this statement in his last
13:24 published book in 2010. He says because there is a law such as gravity. The universe can and will create itself from
13:30 nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing. Why the universe exists, why we
13:36 exist. It's not necessary to invoke God into light, the blue touch paper, and set the universe going. It says the
13:43 universe creates itself. Why? Because we have got the law of gravity. But if you look at this sentence, uh it's a little
13:51 bit strange because there's a law of gravity. The universe can create itself from nothing. Which means what is a law?
13:57 A law is a description of a process. For example, if I told u you know Mr. Go
14:06 here, I've got to put $1,000 in the bank. Then tomorrow I give you another
14:11 $1,000. 1 + 1 equals to two. If I put 1,000, I put 1,000, it wouldn't be
14:16 3,000, right? It wouldn't be less than 1,000, right? Now, what if I didn't put any money in
14:22 your bank? Would you get anything? Nothing. So, how can the universe create
14:28 itself? It is only a law that describes a process. And if X creates Y, it
14:33 presupposes X exists in order to create Y, isn't it? So, this is actually a
14:39 little bit silly. They have to suppress this idea that there's a God. In fact,
14:44 there's a group in the United States read by a guy called Robert Funk in 1985 who went and basically relook at all the
14:52 gospels that talked about Jesus. And they wanted to take out all the stuff that's that really is not authentic. And
14:58 he decided, the group had decided, the scholars that whatever is authentic must be the non-miracles, all the miracles
15:04 that took it out. And you found out with the Bible and the New Testament that only like the Lord's prayer, the only part is authentic is our father. The
15:11 rest is not authentic. Because the basic premise is Jesus is not God. It's the
15:17 atheists who do not think, who are actually ignorant. Let me tell you why. The atheists believe there's no God.
15:24 There's only evolution. If there's no God and there's only evolution, then there's no eternity. We're not going to
15:30 make a difference. There's no lasting meaning. Everything is temporary. Right? If I tell you that's your sum total of
15:36 your life, would you be happy? Most of us be very sad. The only way you can be happy is you ignore this fact and then
15:43 you'll be logically inconsistent, but you'll be happy. Look at some of the comments from ages.
15:50 I think that when I die, I'll cease to exist. In some ways, I'm happy about that. Life is hard work. Life is good.
15:58 worthy work that I'm proud of and makes me feel good for the most part. But even
16:04 though I'll probably be sad to die and I hate to think I was going to die anytime soon, I'm still glad in principle
16:10 someday life will cease and my burdens will dissolve with my joys and I don't want to live forever. Hey, hello. Is he
16:15 happy or is he sad? It's a bit odd. How do I feel about it? This must be Singaporean. How do I feel
16:22 about it? May I've accepted my mortality and that of everyone else I know. A long
16:27 time ago, I dealt with it and now I rarely give it much thought unless circumstances call it to my attention. I have better things to do by life than
16:34 obsessing over a time when it's going to be over. The only way an atheist is
16:39 going to be able to live and be happy is to suppress this idea that there is a
16:45 God even though it's logically inconsistent. Human wisdom is temporary. Paul says
16:52 among the mature we impart wisdom. It's not saying that Christians are stupid but we impart a wisdom which is not the
16:58 wisdom of this age of this ru rulers of this age which are doomed to pass away. It is the wisdom of this world is
17:04 temporary. You know knowledge grows at the rate of 2,000 pages per minute. by
17:10 the time I started speaking 20 minutes ago to now 20 multiply by 2,000 that
17:16 kind of information that's come online and if you they've actually estimated if you actually were reading 24 hours a day
17:23 which we cannot do to gain all this knowledge and you read from the year year 20 when you were 20 years old to 70
17:29 years old you would be 1.5 million years behind time in terms of knowledge it's
17:35 just so much of it but much of it is temporary look at my field prostate prostate cancer. This is a Harvard uh
17:42 medical school publication and they looked at a 51% lowering of prostate cancer rates in people who took vitamin
17:50 E also selenium. So everybody takes vitamin E and within five years another
17:56 article comes out say dietary supplementation vitamin E significantly increased the risk of prostate cancer
18:02 among healthy men by 17%. My goodness, very clever. The wisdom is
18:08 so clever that within five or six years the total opposite occurs. Who do you
18:14 believe? Now Paul says the word of Christ is folly to those who are
18:19 perishing but to us who are being saved is the power of God. For it's written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise.
18:25 Discernment of the discerning I will thwart. How did God do this? Well, he says, where's the wise one? Where's the
18:33 scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For in such since in the
18:39 wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God to the folly what we preach to save those who believe. He's saying that it's not
18:47 true the PhDs, it's not through the debaters. It's not to the dat and tans actually come to salvation. It's
18:53 actually those are the people the intellectuals who think what we do is actually stupid. For the Jews demand
18:59 signs, the Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ, Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, a folly to
19:06 Gentiles. But to those who are called both Jews and Gentiles, Christ the power of God, wisdom of God, and the foolishness of God is wiser than the
19:13 men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. He's saying to them,
19:18 most human beings have a hangup. For example, the Jews, the Jews have a hang. They think they can't believe in God
19:25 because a God on the cross is actually a stumbling block. The word used is
19:31 scandalous. That which causes offense or revulsion or results in opposition or disapproval or hostility, fault or
19:37 stain. The the Greeks on the other hand believe Jesus Christ in the cause in on
19:42 the cross is actually very stupid. That's why they can't believe him. If you look at the Jews, they think it's a
19:49 scandal because they believe in a triumphant Messiah who will return one day into Jerusalem and he's going to go
19:55 through the golden gate which has been closed for 12 centuries. And this is the golden grace. He'll break right through
20:01 here and he's going to rule the world forever. How can you have a god hanging on a tree? Because the rabbis say this
20:08 so-called Christ is without honor and glory. And so that he's even fallen into the utterable curse that is in the law
20:15 of God for he was cursed. The Jews can't accept I I I I would like to accept Jesus. I like the songs. I like the
20:20 hymns. I just there's one thing I can't get that he hangs on the cross. You know why? Because the Bible says if you hang
20:27 on the cross, the hanged man is cursed by God. But that's precisely why you was hung on the cross to take your curse and
20:34 they can't get over that. And and for the for the for for for people this
20:40 example is so scandalous that even in Mapletop UK there was a lady called Patricia Giri 1998 everybody her
20:47 daughter died of Batton's disease. They put it and he buried her in a local cemetery with a cross and people were so
20:54 incense and scandalized. You cannot have a cross. It's too religious. You can have Mickey Mouse but you cannot have
20:59 the cross. It upsets people as it were. Now for the Greeks, they've got 50
21:05 different philosophies going for them. They think it's superior thinking. The for Greeks the gods are distant and
21:12 powerful by logic because they control the sun. They control the waves. They control the powers of the world. There's
21:19 a sun god, there's a moon god. Uh so therefore, how can a god be weak? Even
21:25 their heroes who died like Achilles killed so many people before the arrow
21:31 hit his uh uh Achilles heel before he died. And this is Celsus, one of their philosophers. He says, "God is good and
21:38 beautiful and happy. And if that which is most beautiful and best, if that he descends to man, it involves a change
21:45 for him. a change from good to bad, from beautiful to ugly, from happiness to unhappiness, from what is best to what
21:51 is worse. And God would never accept such a change. God would never do such
21:57 thing because you see for Jews, for for for Gentiles, it cannot happen because God is such a wonderful powerful God.
22:03 How can he come right down? And in fact, when they encountered Christians, this is a drawing in the catacombs in Rome.
22:10 They discovered some years ago about wor Christian worship. You can see what the Christians are worshiping. What do you think that is?
22:18 Huh? Don't be shy, William. Or
22:24 donkey. Because the Gentiles, the Greeks, they look down on Christians. They're stupid.
22:29 You're worshiping a donkey, as it were. All right. Um, what about our modern society? I came across this article on
22:36 CNN. Get all my material from CNN. How Stanley lives in you. Stanley, he died
22:43 recently and he's he's affected the way we think. Um Stanley did more than create characters. He created hope and
22:50 hope cannot be contained. Uh and you can find Marvel action comic fe. What do
22:57 they teach us? They teach us Black Panther. What's this guy name? The claw.
23:03 Wolfman. Wolfman. And then anyway, racial discrimination. They're all different colors, right? that you
23:10 shouldn't discriminate because the X-Men are all different from people. The whole idea is why should the the mutants be
23:16 discriminated? Because he's teaching us about racial discrimination. If you look at uh Iron Man, he's talking about
23:22 capitalism and weapons making. We look at Captain America, he, you know, he wrestles with ideas of patriotism, what
23:28 to do when your country is on the wrong side. These are struggles. So the the the the cartoon characters, the the
23:34 comic characters, the superheroes tell us what to believe. Uh
23:40 Spider-Man. The biggest thing about Spider-Man is with great power comes
23:45 responsibility, right? So Stan Lee has heroes and they
23:50 help inspire us, tell us to be, you know, willing to be our higher selves.
23:56 These characters have life and so Stanley will live on because his writings affect how we think. And you
24:03 will look at all the cartoon characters, all the heroes of our day. Arrow,
24:08 Batman, Iron Man. What do they have in common? They're all billionaires and
24:14 they're all superheroes, right? And they sell comics. They sell movies. You think
24:20 Johnny English does well. Johnny English is And when no one else
24:26 is available, when no one else is available, we watch Johnny English. Otherwise, it's a bloody
24:32 joke, isn't it? You see that? And if that's the case, it means that Stan Lee has affected the way
24:39 we think because only power and wealth works and we will look down on Johnny English and anybody else who looks at
24:45 Johnny English. And when we be adopt that kind of mindset, we become totally vulnerable like the American public. All
24:52 Trump has to do is says we're going to win so much you're going to be so sick and tired of winning. And all he has to
24:59 do is say that and the public will buy it. Lock, stock and barrel. And you look
25:05 at the politics in our country. All you have to do is sing the right song that people want to hear and people will buy
25:10 it. Lock, stock and barrel. So human wisdom makes us very vulnerable. For the
25:17 Jews, Jesus Christ is a stumbling block. For the Greeks is folly. For us Chinese,
25:23 God must not only be powerful, he must be prosperous. Right? We prefer to worship the cat with
25:30 the hand that goes up and down here. If you look at all the Chinese gods that we have, we got Kwan Kong. Kwan Kong is
25:37 the guy with the beard and the big knife, isn't it? It's power. Have you
25:43 got any Chinese god that looks like Johnny English? Maybe the kitchen god,
25:48 but we don't have it. Is the philosophy that occupies our mind that our minds
25:53 and our attitudes are based on it. All right? And and so we struggle we struggle with the need for God. We need
26:01 somehow we need a god. We need heroes in our life. We need hope. And yet on the other hand
26:07 we can't let go control. We have to have control. That is our human dilemma. And
26:13 so therefore the only way to resolve this conflict is what? Look for the real god. No look for idols. We create god.
26:21 In fact one of the popes once said god made us in his image and we have
26:26 returned the favor. We make him in our image. And here's a another study in the
26:32 US that was um uh uh with BES University in Melbourne and they looked at the
26:38 attitudes of people when they questioned them about the attitudes certain policies for example affirmative policy
26:44 should the minority get better places in university all right they asked them what was your opinion self opinion what
26:51 do you think God thinks about it what do you think the average American think about it what do you think Bill Gates
26:57 think about it and what do you think George Bush Bush thinks about it and you can find that their opinion and God's
27:05 opinion or their opinion of what God thinks is very very similar. Very scary,
27:10 isn't it? And they actually did an MRI study look at blood flow in the brain.
27:16 And when they asked them, what do you think about this policy? What do you think about it? This part of the brain
27:22 lights up. What about the average American? What do they think about this policy? this part lights up. Different
27:30 part, you know. Then they asked him a question. What do you think God thinks about it? And this part lights up. What
27:36 does the average American think about it? And this part lights up. Which means you and God have the same opinion.
27:42 And so therefore, we make God in our own image. We have to be in control. Isn't
27:49 it typical example? If you go to uh uh have you ever been to crossing,
27:55 pedestrian crossing, you press press, nothing happens, right? Or or you go to get a lift and your your
28:01 your enemy is coming in and you quickly press the close button and you hope it'll close so quickly so
28:09 that it'll crush his face and it doesn't close. You know why? A publication in CNN came
28:16 out just two months ago. The buttons are fake. Out of 1,000
28:22 pedestrian crossing buttons in New York City itself, 100 of them work. The rest are placeos.
28:28 They're there for you to press, press, press. They think that this is the car is going to stop for you. No, the car is not going to stop for you because all
28:34 the traffic lights are computer controlled. You pedestrians are the lowest rung on the line. All right? And
28:41 so therefore, we keep why do we keep perceivable? But because we need to feel in control, isn't it? Because it's human
28:48 wisdom. Only we are smart enough. And so unless God takes that away, we will
28:55 never accept Christ. We will never depend on God because we're too smart. Human wisdom stands in the way of God's
29:02 wisdom. You got to take one out. You see, you got to take one operating system out before you put another operating system in, right? You can't
29:09 have a Mac and a Windows together in the same place. The the computer will explode. So what God is trying to do is
29:14 take out the Windows which hangs all the time and put in the Mac. So you got to put a God operating system. Now Isaiah,
29:21 which he quotes, "Therefore, behold, I will do again, I will again do wonderful things with these people with wonder
29:27 upon wonder, and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their men shall be
29:34 hidden." All right? So if you look down here, for God chose what is foolish in the world
29:41 to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what to low and despise in the
29:47 world, even things that are not to bring to nothing, things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence
29:53 of God. As long as we have something to boast about, we will never have community. The gospel is the one that
29:59 destroys your flesh. Because as long as we are in the flesh, we're always thinking we're smarter than the other
30:04 guy. And as long we think we're smarter than the other guy, will always fight. So the gospel removes that difference.
30:12 Imagine someone comes up to you in church and tells David Lim that uh you
30:20 know this is my Ferrari. You know how much you think it cost? 2 million. Okay.
30:28 All right. What did David feel about it?
30:33 So yeah, at least David is honest enough to say so. But I think Luke is more honest. David is cleverer. So therefore
30:40 he suppresses the baser instincts. Luke said hey you must be able to afford the
30:47 maintenance you know. Now why does Luke say that when I show him this that he he
30:52 has to come out and say hey but you're very hard to maintain. You know why? Because he's jealous that he can't afford the maintenance.
30:60 All right? Whenever somebody brings something up like this we feel that he's better than us. So therefore when he
31:06 boasts we also must boast. Right? So therefore, whatever he boasts about, it makes us feel small. And I always
31:12 thought this particular passage, God doesn't want us to boast because God's jealous of us. Because it says here,
31:19 "And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification,
31:25 redemption. So that it is written, no one, let no one boast but boast in the Lord." So we're saying that God doesn't
31:32 want you to boast in the human wisdom, but you want to boast in his wisdom. God is so jealous or he feels threatened by
31:38 us that he's so boastful, he's so egocentric, he must have all the glory,
31:44 right? Well, look at this picture here that the one who boasts boasts in the
31:50 Lord so that no human being might boast in the present. These are opposing concepts. It's like looking at this
31:57 girl. If this girl comes up to you and says, "I am Supergirl." Are you going to be threatened?
32:03 No. you feel sad. I had a patient of mine, let me illustrate this, who's from Bangladesh and he saw me a couple of
32:09 weeks ago and and we did a CT scan and it shows a huge stone in the ura. It's
32:16 so huge that I couldn't put a scope in and smash it up. It'll take too long. I have to actually operate on him and take
32:21 it out. And I told him that and he said, "Don't worry, doc. In Bangladesh, we got
32:26 this special medicine. I'm going to take a tablet and it's going to pop out by Monday."
32:32 Now, how did you think I felt? I felt, "Oh my god, I'm going to be out of business tomorrow. All of my patient
32:39 will take this Bangladeshi medicine and I'm going to be financially ruined. I'm going to take a job as a pastor
32:45 somewhere." Monday comes along
32:50 and he never turns up. He never turns up. I had another patient
32:56 of mine who uh had prostate cancer and he went all the way to Taiwan and they
33:02 told him that you know this is quite serious you need to have hormonal therapy. So they started injecting him
33:07 his his levels of PSA which is a marker for cancer dropped. It was good and then he thought no no I I I think Taiwan
33:15 doctors are stupid. I'm going to take traditional medicine this special one. So he took a special traditional
33:20 medicine and the PSA went up again. Then he came back said, "Taiwan doctor is not very clever." See, Malaysian doctor can
33:27 happen to see me probably accidentally. And I said to him, "The Taiwan doctors are correct. You take this medicine, you
33:33 take the injection." No, no, no, dog. I'm going to take this uh this traditional medicine. Went back and took the traditional medicine. And again, the
33:39 PSA went high up there. He's like came back to me swollen on death door.
33:45 You know, what did I say? You know, hen
33:50 I was I threatened by him. No, I feel sad for him. Only when you have to cut
33:57 away the dependence on traditional medicine was he willing to turn to
34:02 western medicine. Unless that is destroyed, he will not. So human wisdom unless you
34:08 destroy human wisdom, you will never lean on God's wisdom. And all our lives,
34:14 what God is doing is coming in our lives and removing our reliance on human wisdom because human wisdom doesn't
34:20 work. He wants us to come to stage of life that whatever we're proud of, whatever we boast on, whatever we're
34:26 going to boast about to each other is boasting in the Lord. And how does that
34:31 create community? If William stands up tomorrow and boasts not of his Ferrari car, tells
34:38 David, I am with Jesus Christ. I've got eternal life. David will stand up and say, "Hey,
34:45 I also got God." Right? And Mr. Go will stand up. I have so God. In fact, I'm going to heaven
34:51 soon. Not quite so soon.
34:57 What is there to fight about? We're all in the same field because our our self-esteem, our hope, our joy is on the
35:06 one same person. And that's how the gospel creates community. The gospel places Christ in
35:14 the center of our needs. This is what he writes. And because you are in Christ
35:19 who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that it is written that
35:26 the one who boasts boasts in the Lord. That is the only way we create community. This is Maslo's hierarchy of
35:33 human needs. And every human being made in the image of God, there are
35:39 priorities. You to make sure you are able to makan and eat and sleep. Then
35:45 you look after safety. After that, you look for love and belonging. After that, self-esteem. And after that, meaning in
35:52 life. Now if you stay stuck here, if you're a kind of person come to church only because it's safe and because you
35:57 want to mak then you become no more than the monkey because you're working at that kind of level of which God never
36:04 designed you to be at the other higher level we generate this for ourselves self actualization esteem and and
36:10 belonging and love we the trouble is that we generate this himself and what Paul is saying that we need to have
36:16 Christ fulfill your needs for the meaning of life self-esteem and love and belonging That's what Paul is saying for
36:24 you. Christ must be in the center of all your needs. This Harold Abraham's uh
36:31 famous uh in Chariots of Fire story about the Olympics 1924 I think uh and
36:36 he says in one hour's time I will be out there again. I will raise my eyes and
36:42 look down that corridor feet wide with only 10 lonely seconds to justify my existence. But will I? He's talking
36:48 about he's going to run down that corridor in 10 lonely seconds and if he makes it, he becomes a world champion.
36:54 If he doesn't make it, all that would have been wasted. Righteousness can be
36:60 construed as a validating performance that validates and gives meaning to your
37:06 life. Uh this is Sydney Pollock who is a famous film director and even though
37:12 when he was suffering with terminal disease in 19 2004 he keep on making movies because he says every time I
37:18 finish a movie I feel I've earned my stay for another year or so. Or what
37:23 about Prince Charles recently with driving problems? Oh not Prince Charles the other guy sorry his father. Prince
37:29 Charles was always the king that almost was and every time he thinks about it he says all the time I feel I must justify
37:36 my existence because you cannot have a king and an almost king and never became king right. So for him becoming king was
37:44 the most important thing. Look at our minister Marzuki I think and and and for
37:50 him the the the the validating performance thing was Cambridge University. He wrote it and he didn't
37:56 think people would check right. He actually didn't graduate from Cambridge. She graduate graduated from CN Cambridge
38:03 International University in Boston which is not it's a pale shadow of the real Cambridge you know because his
38:09 self-esteem is based on that he's going to be better than BM minister because he came from Cambridge isn't that right in
38:16 fact the his colleague is even better Matsu Matabu says I never had a degree my school expelled me now that's more of
38:22 a Christian attitude I never had a degree and I'm still
38:28 minister you know ha Haha. So you Cambridge graduates are be a bit
38:33 more humble. So Matt Sabo is a minister in our Malaysian government without a
38:39 degree and he said maybe because I'm good at cooking so people think I got something from the college. Uh when I
38:46 was in Australia last week I came across an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about a young uh doctor Yumiko Kadota
38:53 who was a migrant to Sydney. She worked at Bankstown Hospital training and she wanted to get on the training scheme to
38:60 be a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and life is brutal that they put her on call 24 days in a row over 100 hours of
39:09 overtime because she always wanted to be a surgeon and she needed to impress
39:14 people so much so that she'd be picked for the training program and that was her be it and end all in life. And after
39:22 all that, she finally woke up one day and she thought, "You're killing
39:27 yourself for a job that would replace you within a week if you drop dead." And she quit trying to be a surgeon. And
39:35 she became a normal doctor. Now, somehow you're validating performance, if it's
39:41 not based on something that lasts forever. And the fact is, you're killing yourself for a job that will replace you
39:47 within a week, why bother, you know? And we're all doing that, isn't it? This is an article in Malaysia Kiny by Martin
39:55 Vendergen that talks about the travails of our country u titled racist
40:00 religionist regionalist. Lend your ears. He says this country is totally divided.
40:08 Okay. We all live in little bubbles. If you're How many of you speak English at home? Put your hands up.
40:15 Ah, right up. Yeah. Uh, do you know how many of you here have only
40:20 English-speaking friends? Put your hands up. You find that you guys only represent
40:28 3% of your population. You speak English at home. You're brought up in English.
40:34 You live in Damsara Heights or Tamantun or some Swanky suburbs or Sri Satir and
40:39 and you actually live in a bubble. It's called an echo chamber and people and you you don't even know what's
40:45 happening. you're only 3% of population and and and the rest of the country is completely diverse from you. He says
40:50 this problem in this country is that we are divided and he actually quotes Howardly DAP member of parliament for
40:56 passive pingi. He says in Malaysia identity politics has been employed to to wedge between groups for far too
41:02 long. There's an urgent need to transcend that onto an alternative. The only viable alternative is politics as
41:07 values-based ideology. And I guess we all because we're minority ma so therefore we would like that right? But
41:14 if you look at any kind of mindset, whether it's racist mindset or based on
41:20 degrees or based on wealth, society is based on differences. If you change from
41:26 a racebased society to a degree based society, all the PhDs on top, all the
41:33 technical guys at the bottom, there still be differences because we're always trying to create differences between each and that will always divide
41:41 our country. And the gospel mindset replaces all the differences because you
41:46 say because you are in Christ who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness from God, sanctification, redemption. If
41:52 you all boast and boast of the Lord, that actually replaces all the differences. And he looks at Paul. Look
41:59 at Paul's example. Paul said, "When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come proclaiming to you the testimony of God
42:05 with lofty speech or wisdom. I decided to know nothing amongst you except Jesus
42:10 Christ and him crucified. when I was with you in weakness and in trembling much fear but my my my speech and my
42:17 message was not in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of spirit and of power so that your faith but not
42:22 rest in wisdom of men but in power of God and let me illustrate this in a very
42:28 apt illustration which the Lord has actually brought into my own personal life last 20 1979 Randic racecourse
42:37 Sydney I was studying there as an undergraduate and all that's about how many years ago? Oh, that's about 30
42:43 something years. 39 years ago. Uh huge stadium. It's a race course for three
42:50 weeks. It was packed. And I went one cold, wintry, rainy uh evening to hear
42:57 Billy Graham. Billy Graham was superb. He preached a very simple manual, powerful. And then he called for the uh
43:04 uh uh invitation. There the singers there were Evie Tonquist. I don't know whether you remember. How many people
43:09 remember Evie? Put your hands up. Ah, only David is and Suzanne, my generation, lovely singer. And George
43:16 Beverly Sheay, right? I really love his voice, the baritone voice. And he sang and then he Billy Graham gave the the
43:22 the challenge. And you know, 800 people came up to the stands in the drizzling rain and the bitter cold and they braved
43:29 that. They came down and I I I saw them come to know the Lord and and and during that time of the invitation, Billy would
43:35 be impassionately reaching out to the people say, "Look, you come down now. God has decided today is the day you may
43:42 not have this other child. He's doing this all the time and people are like wavering and then they come down then they come down. The guy's really
43:48 eloquent and last week 40 years later on
43:53 Billy Graham Crusade by Franklin Graham the son in Melbourne. I attended this in
44:00 a high sense arena in Melbourne. Huge place. The scene was different. It
44:07 wasn't Billy. It was his son. It wasn't Evie or Bev, George Beverly. It was
44:15 Planet Shakers. And my ears are still shaking. And this guy called Crowder or David
44:22 Crowder. Apparently a Grammy nominated uh singer who is very famous. I have no
44:27 idea who Crowder is. My son has to educate me. Say Crowder. Wow. You know, I only know Bill Crowder, the preacher.
44:34 Um and he sang and and a good thing he had some songs which were slow so I
44:39 could understand completely different cultural setup isn't it but the gospel
44:45 was the same then in came Franklin Graham now they say the apple doesn't
44:51 fall far from the tree this one falls very far away because this guy can
44:56 hardly preach I mean he's ah here I think an Lim is a lot better
45:02 and he was preaching on manas say uh one of the the the sons of David, you know,
45:08 and how he had gone astray with 50 brutal years of oppression of his people and finally in the dungeons of Babylon,
45:14 he came to know God again and repented and and with that 20inut sermon which is
45:20 halting and not very impressive. He gave an invitation and his father would be saying, "You come down now. Today is the
45:27 last day which you can accept God." Franklin G say you better come down and make sure there's a lot of room in the
45:33 aisle. Make sure you don't stumble over each other. He's just doing that. And you look at the crowd
45:40 in front. So many people, at least a thousand people coming down, take 20
45:46 minutes to stream all the way down. Which underscores my point, isn't it?
45:52 It's not the person. It's Paul didn't come with eloquence of
45:57 speech. Neither did Franklin Graham. But 40 years apart, I can see the power of the Holy Spirit.
46:04 with a simple message. The gospel message has never changed. The music may change, the people may change, but the
46:12 gospel is that power. Gra, Frankly, Graham is a controversial figure. In fact, half the churches in Melbourne
46:18 boycott him because he's a good friend of Donald Trump.
46:24 Imagine a guy who is a good friend of Donald Trump, supports Donald Trump, you know, and I got some flack from my
46:31 friends who were XFBC people here condemn me for going to Franklin Graham Donald uh thing because you know the guy
46:37 is a supporter of Donald Trump and I say all glory to God because despite the fact that he's a supporter of Donald
46:43 Trump which means he's not very clever, God still used him. It's the power of
46:49 the Holy Spirit, the power of the gospel. The nature of gospel wisdom comes
46:55 through the spirit. You see, the spirit searches all things in the depths of God. For a person knows uh for who knows
47:01 a person's thought except the spirit of that person which is in him. So no one comprehends the thought of God except the spirit of God. Now we have received
47:07 not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God that we might understand things freely given to us by God. And we impart this in words not
47:13 taught by human spirit by uh wisdom but taught by the spirit interpreting spiritual truth to those who are spiritual. This the nature of the gospel
47:20 wisdom is that it comes from God. Um we actually have a pair of glasses. We use
47:27 biblical ideology. All right? And we filter popular culture and ideology and opinion through this.
47:34 Another way we could do is we wear the popular culture ideology opinion glasses and then we filter biblical ideology to
47:41 that. And when we decide to live according to God's wisdom, we do this at
47:46 the top. We decide to live according to man's wisdom, we do according to that. And so therefore, if you look at uh a
47:53 recent marriage between Jonas uh Nick Jonas and uh Priyaka Chopra, Nick Jonas
48:00 comes from a Christian family. It's a conservative Christian family and they had a Christian wedding. Next day they
48:06 went to India and had a Hindu wedding. How do you figure that in the age of pluralism? This is politically correct.
48:13 You have a Hindu wedding and a Christian wedding. And you know I this is looking at the world through the
48:19 eyeglasses of popular culture. Spurgeon says if you profess to be a Christian yet find full satisfaction in worldly
48:26 pleasures and pursuits your profession is false. Which means what he's saying is Christ got to be center of what you
48:31 find beautiful where you find contentment where you find peace. If that is the center of your life then you
48:39 are a Christian. The the gospel focuses our mindset from self to service. The
48:45 natural person doesn't accept the things of the spirit of God. They're folly to him. He's not able to understand him because they are spiritually discerned.
48:51 The spiritual person judges all things by himself to be judged by no one. But who understands the mind of the Lord so
48:59 as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. And this there's some controversy over this particular verse.
49:05 Some people think that Paul is talking about carnal Christian and a non and and
49:12 basically a non-Christ and a spiritual Christian. So let's look at the two possible interpretations. Uh the natural
49:19 person doesn't accept the things of the spirit of God. They are folly to him. He
49:24 is not able to understand him because they're spiritually discerned. Some people say that this the natural person
49:29 is a carnal Christian. All right. But that's not very likely because the word of God says the word of the cross is
49:35 folly to those who are perishing. Folly to those who non-Christian. So therefore
49:40 it must mean the natural person which is non-Christian. Then here the spiritual
49:46 person judges all things but himself is judged by no one for who has understood the mind of the Lord as to instruct him.
49:52 But we have the mind of Christ. And some people think oh is the Christians who are matured elders deacons they have the
49:59 mind of Christ. the rest of you the mind of Stanley different uh that's not necessarily true
50:05 because if you look at the passages we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God
50:11 that we may understand things giving freely to us by God we impart this in words not taught by human spirit wisdom
50:17 but taught by the spirit interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual so here the issue is not the
50:23 issue between a more godly Christian or a less godly Christian but whether you actually have the spirit it's actually
50:28 spiritual truth on non-spiritual truth. So therefore the issue here is that the spiritual person is a Christian. The
50:35 Christian is the one who is has God's attitude. Now what is God's attitude?
50:40 The mind of Christ. The only other place you see the mind of Christ is Philippians. And Paul writes have this
50:46 mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ which is the mind of Christ who though he was in the form of God did not
50:52 count equality with God a thing to be grasped. emptied himself taking form of a servant being born in the likeness of
50:58 man and being found in human form he humbled himself by coming obedient to the point of death even on the cross
51:05 having the mind of Christ means dying to self and serving others
51:11 and if you think I can't do it alone I can't sacrifice I can't forgive I can't serve and I certainly don't want to
51:18 tithe money is too hard to get in I can't do it why because I don't have
51:23 much money I need all the affir ation and praise and glory. I don't want to look after other people. I look after myself. Serving diminishes me. That's
51:31 true. Serving will diminish you because you got less time for yourself, isn't it? You want more me time, isn't it?
51:39 Giving, tithing will diminish your bank account. That's 100% true. Don't do it. The only way you can do it is if you
51:47 have the presence of Christ. Suppose I Mr. go comes to ask David Lim,
51:53 "Can I borrow 10 bucks from David Lim?" And David Lim checks with his wife,
51:58 Felicia. And Felicia, the accountant, tells him, "Hey, David, you only got 10 bucks in the in the bank account. You
52:04 think David will lend him 10 bucks?" Yes. No. The wife will kill him. If you 10
52:13 bucks, borrow 10 bucks. Of course, you won't lend him anything, right? But if you got a billion dollars in your bank and I ask you for 10 bucks, you give me
52:21 no. Oh my goodness, this one better go back to Sunday school.
52:28 The point is if this is a reality, if because of him you are in Christ who
52:34 became wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption so that you're boasting in the Lord, you are a
52:40 million dollars rich. If that is true, then you're able to serve, you're able
52:46 to give, you're able to sacrifice because you're drawing upon the riches of which God has given you. If you are
52:53 poor and you're not able to serve, you're not able to give is because you
52:59 don't have anything. You're like David, only $10 in his account. And that's a serious problem. You see
53:07 the enabling is that if we have the wisdom of God, we have the righteousness of God, we have the sanctification of God, we got the redemption of God, then
53:13 we can love other people despite differences. Isn't it? When you when when somebody comes to you
53:19 with a Ferrari car, you're not intimidated. You know why? Because you got more than a Ferrari car in the
53:24 kingdom of heaven, you're not going to feel slighted. You you think different from me. You look different from me. You
53:30 talk different from me. You act different from me. So what? because my
53:35 glory, my pride is in the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption of God. And so whatever you
53:42 have doesn't really affect me because that's where my treasure is. I can treat
53:47 you well and love you despite our differences. We can forgive rather than avoid.
53:52 You know, some of us look at each other and say, "Oh, that's the one that insulted me." I always I can't remember
53:58 his name, Richard. Is a guy who insulted me. Oh, that's the woman who criticized me. That's the man who who who said bad
54:05 things behind me. He gossip. And then in church, you say, "I'm so old. I have no time for people like I only go for the
54:12 people who like me." The cell group, they stroke you. They say good things, but I'll spend time with the rest of
54:17 them. I'll avoid. Why? Because your bank account is empty.
54:22 If you have the wisdom of God, the righteousness of God, the sanctification of God, and you actually appropriated that into the way you feel and think and
54:28 move, then you could be generous to people, you could forgive. Do you know that forgiveness is a supernatural
54:35 ability? Normal people cannot forgive. It's only supernatural power given to
54:41 you by the presence of Christ. So if you can't forgive, that's why Jesus says, you know, if you don't forgive others, I
54:47 won't forgive you. is a fact because if you show no forgiveness, it means that you haven't actually received the
54:52 forgiveness. You haven't have been touched by the grace of God. If we have God's righteousness and
54:57 wisdom and satisfaction, we we have true humility because you know why? We don't have to compete. It doesn't matter
55:04 whether David likes 15 Ferraris. I've got Christ better than any Ferrari. We
55:10 don't have to uh treat others based on what they were but we tr treat each
55:16 other on the basis of what we will become. Each of us is a son of God
55:22 adopted son of God and this is what we will. So every time we look at each other we are hoping for the best. You
55:28 know you look at our children a lot of times we parents are totally you know blinded by our children. Edward correct
55:34 right? You look at your son he can do no wrong. My wife looks at my two boys and they can do no wrong. You know why?
55:41 Because she always have hopes and dreams for them. Imagine you come to a church and you somebody you meet in a fellowship and
55:48 they look at you with the same eyes as my wife look at my two boys. They can do no wrong. You know how that inspires
55:54 you? You're able to repent. You're able to move. You're able to grow because you're in a situation of love and
56:02 comfort and fellowship. And that's only able if we have the wisdom, the righteousness, the sanctification of
56:07 redemption. If we focus on that in our lives and if we have the m gospel mindset, we're going to focus on
56:14 spirituality rather than gifts. The gifts instead of being based on human wisdom and become a point of difference
56:19 and the point of contention becomes something that will you see the the what funny thing about spiritual gifts,
56:26 they're not for you and me. You know, they're they're given to me so that I give to you. The gift of preaching is no
56:31 good. So I might as well stand at home and preach the mirror the whole day. I'd be very rich, right? No. The pre the
56:37 gift of preaching is given to me. So I give it to you. Christian gifts are different from normal gift. I give you a
56:42 b box of chocolate. You don't have to share, right? You eat it all by yourself. But Christian gift is given to
56:47 you and you won't be able to exercise it unless you use it for other people. It's completely different. So we focus on spirituality rather than gifts. We focus
56:55 on principle rather than results. We focus on truth rather than royalty. We focus on kingdom rather than comfort.
57:00 The gospel mindset changes everything and that's how it creates
57:07 community. So let me end this very long sermon.
57:13 We need to stop our reliance on human wisdom because that prevents true community and the world sees Christians
57:21 being able to do that. Then they say this is a supernatural body. We need to place Christ at the center of all our
57:28 needs. And the more he fills us, the more we feel that we got a million dollars in the bank, the more generous
57:33 we'll be, the more loving we'll be, the more open we'll be, the more confident we'll be, the more likely we are to
57:40 repent because we have the assurance of his love. We need to have the mind of Christ and we are able to love and
57:46 serve. You know why? Because we're rich. Whatever serving we give does not diminish us increase. In fact, it
57:52 increases us. We reach our maximum potential when we are like Christ.
57:58 Christ's ultimate service was on the cross. And if you're not serving, if
58:03 you're not putting yourself out there, if you're not sacrificing, you're not going to experience the maximum
58:09 potential for which God has created you. All your gifts, all your wealth, all
58:15 your power, all your ability is given to you for one purpose. And the
58:21 one purpose is to honor God. And if you don't have that mind of
58:26 Christ and you're always serving yourself, then you haven't experienced what the gospel can really do for you.
58:34 So this is a challenge. Let us go to the Lord in prayer and commit ourselves that we adopt a gospel mindset and let FBC be
58:42 a true community. Let's pray.
