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00:00:01 can I ask the worship team to take some of this i going to I'm very afraid I'm going to crack this it's very expensive things thanks aming uh before we start the sermon if you read the papers last week uh in a small section there was a continuation of a court case of missing pastor Raymond Cole um those of you who are not aware FBC is fully supportive of CO uh this is a case that we hold dear to our heart and if you read it carefully and I I posted something I passed something Susanna passed around
00:00:46 they they they interviewed a key witness and the case didn't go very well and as you know as we head up to Easter we need to remember those who stood in the front line and suffer suffered for the gospel today we are uh honored to have with us Esther and Dudwe i'm going to invite them up on stage esther is Co is Susanna Co's daughter and I'm going to ask them to share a little bit about um the Kamha um thank you Elder Arnold for um giving us the opportunity to share about the case uh um I'm Esther Co uh Pastor Ryman's
00:01:37 daughter and um it's been 8 years since uh Pastor Rimman was abducted uh and it's been six years since the SUAM uh report has concluded that Raymond and Amry Chamat were victims of enforced disappearances so um so I'm just going to give you an update so uh in 2019 um after the Suakam inquiry the a special task force was formed and to investigate the cases and uh a a classified report was produced uh so we we were not able to view the report uh but um in 2023 we proceeded with a civil suit against the government
00:02:29 and um during the proceeding this classifi this classified report was released to the family uh with conditions that uh we uh we are not able to we can't um we won't share it to the public um so so far in the court case uh we have completed um uh testimonies of witnesses from our side such as my mom my brother uh Roshan who is the uh key eyewitness um and as well as Amri Chair Mat's eyewitnesses um currently there we are the proceeding is ongoing and um the defendants uh like uh police are being
00:03:20 questioned and brought to the stand so uh last Monday on the 7th of April a prime suspect um was questioned his name is D Audin Jadid and he is the former assistant director of special branch social extremism E2 and he is um he claims that his department monitors Shia and Christianization and they do that um based on his by giving uh by like giving trauma about um information that they have gathered about um this group and um he gave uh a very inflammatory speech which he gave uh three months before Amry was abducted
00:04:27 and that in that speech he mentioned that Shia is the enemies and they need to debas uh means uh to elim be eliminated and he also mentioned that we should they also need to uh something needs to be done about Christianization so um the lawyers had questioned him on this his speech and he he made a lot of contradicting remarks such as um he didn't mean to that they are enemies uh he he meant something else and um so uh but it it's very clearly stated how how uh the words that he used um so so that's what happened uh
00:05:29 the those two days and um I also wanted to mention that the special task report uh sorry the special task force report uh has agreed with a lot of the findings of the suakam which is is uh in favor and um it is in which includes that Aludin is the is a prime suspect uh in both Amry and Ramos cases so um I would just like to uh give you a three points which I found was very contradicting about our Ludin's testimony so he claims firstly that the suakum notes of proceedings is incomplete and yet his senior federal
00:06:18 council did not bring this up in their defense during their submission and this is a very big claim against Suakam saying that they were they had missed out some details in their inquiry secondly he disagrees that the findings of the special task force and the suak report uh about no hayati's testimony that our ludin um about our ludin who had allegedly uh led the team to abduct Raymond and Amry is more credible than Shamzani meaning that um Suakam had found that uh based on evidence that Shamzani was less credible because at
00:07:05 first he confessed that Aloin um led the operation uh but later on he denied it and this is Aloin's opinion that he disagrees with it even though there is very clear evidence about uh Shams Zinist uh credibility so uh thirdly uh when when Aldin was asked about how E2 division um traces suspects such as Syu Bahari which is the owner of the Toyota a golden Toyota vio or in general how they trace people he says that he doesn't know how to trace them and because this is he says that it is out of his job
00:07:53 scope so um but as a you know u typ um as in our case uh Raymond's case the police had used uh government agencies such as LHDN JPJ to track the cars and uh you know soo and EPF to try to trace cyhu bahari but um as a high ranking officer who has 40 years of experience as police officer he doesn't know um so include con conclusion I think is very concerning that uh this high ranking off uh officer of his uh position is um going against evidence that has been clearly uh you know um concluded by by Shuakam
00:08:52 and the the task force so I yeah I I think we all should be concerned about this this uh this matter so um yeah so our next court case will be on 28 to 29 April and yeah please pray for the for strength for the lawyers and wisdom for the judge as he concludes both of the cases uh so yeah once again we want to thank you for your support and prayers and we hope that uh first of all the government will take accountability for the wrong wrongdoings of what they did and what happened and we also hope
00:09:37 that those who were involved will be punished and finally that um through the proceedings that um the what happened to Amir and Ribbon will be brought to light thank you i'd like to invite the elders up and in this moment of soberness as we prepare today's Palm Sunday uh remember if one bleeds their entire body bleeds so this is a matter that is very important to anyone who calls themselves Christian truth matters justice matters people cannot disappear off the streets you can have a very safe faith and just
00:10:22 go home but ABC has taken a stand we will be with the family and all of this uh puts us at risk but this is the call of carrying the cross so um shall we just I'm going to ask the elders to lay hands and I'm just going to just do a short prayer if you can you can raise your hands and let us intercede for the family lord we thank you for the bravery of Susanna Cole and the family and we thank you for Dudwe and Esther who have come here today to share and we are saddened to hear of these things that in our country these
00:10:58 things happen that they are enforced disappearances we're saddened to hear how the truth can be manipulated we are saddened you know that this happens in our backyard teach us as a church never to forget teach us as a church not to run and go into a comfortable Christianity and we ask for the cop case coming up on 28 and 29 you be with the family we ask that whatever prevails you are in control uh we ask for peace to be able to zena and then all the family members we ask also that you just give uh uh uh
00:11:37 let the judge have a clear head and not be swayed by any uh unseen forces that may want to just tamper with the evidence we also pray for the churches around Malaysia that we will never forget we will continue to uphold and we will be with the family for the rest of our lives and we say this in Jesus name amen thank you and uh after the service please spend some time to just talk to them okay um next week's sermon uh Alex will be preaching on Good Friday and then on 20th April Peter will be speaking on Easter and then Williamo
00:12:18 will be on 27th April and if my Ah there we are did I I think ah there we are you know Christians like to use cliche words i guess that's my viewer for example we like to say we are a gospel centered church what exactly do you mean i mean define the gospel oh look at that church they are gospel plus what do you mean they're gospel plus you know after a while if you you you sit around people in your tribe people use cliche words use that to to to belong you know oh I'm gospel centered what exactly do you even
00:13:00 mean by that here's another one i'm in Christ what do you mean when you say I'm in Christ so I'm I'm continuing on a bit about what Brandon spoke last week brandon spoke last week about hypocrisy and he talk about gospel- centered identity and today I want to really bring this up and uh you know someone told me I know some of your sermons are very very painful you know I I'm going to tell you this one's painful i just let you know up front it was painful for me uh and this verse is very famous it's
00:13:30 is a core verse uh and it's so famous it's one of those verses if you can you should memorize it i'll just give it out to you at the center of Galatians that is this text I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me the life I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and died for me and today we are just going to preach on one verse and I pray that this verse becomes a life verse to you and me let us come before the Lord lord we ask for humility
00:14:14 for my lips power of the Holy Spirits at the end of this sermon we understand who we are and what it means to be in Christ we say this in Jesus name amen so here's the verse i just read it out to you let me just go straight into it if you take the verse and you color it you find there are two parts one part is about dying and another part is about living so you have I have been crucified with Christ i died i no longer live so there's one part about you that died then there's another part of you
00:14:57 that lives christ lives in me the life I now live in the body first Christ lives in me i live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me now let us take another text that sort of expands this and it's found in Romans 6 to8 and it says it we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with that and we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin now if we died with Christ we believe we will
00:15:33 also live with him and and and that's really just not what we read in Galatians 2:20 but here Paul puts a tag you know he tags that which is being crucified as the old self and you'll find in other texts like Colossians 3 that side which died and actually is dying is called the old self that side which is going to live is called the new self so here's the first thing there is two part five so verse 16 I say walk by the spirit you will not gratify the desires of the flesh very famous verse for the flesh desires what is contrary
00:16:17 to the spirit old self is the flesh new self spirit the spirit what is contrary to the flesh they are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want and there's a big expansion of this in Romans 7 then there's this strange verse which we'll come to later you are led by the spirit you're not under the law so what do we have here there are two sides to a Christian the old self and the new self and what Galatians tells us they at war so here's the first point all of life is a war between two selves that's
00:17:03 foundational to identity you can ask yourself what makes me a person is am I a person am I identified by my career am I identified by my relationships you know you go to deepsek they tell you a lot of these things how my past family determines my identity how identity is fluid about authenticity versus you know agency you know but at fundamentally the Bible puts it this way and and you really got to pick this up these are these are foundational to Pauline theology he he picks this up everywhere ephesians
00:17:39 Colossians Romans 2 chapters 6-7 Galatians all of life is a war between two selves and one spiritual maturity is recognizing this constant struggle between your old self and your new self and here's what is normative behavior a Christian is always in a state of war that's the first thing you got to really recognize that's Galatians 5 that's Romans 7 but here's the thing many people do not see the need to wage in a war they don't I don't want to be at war and so there's two sides to every human being one is the conscience side
00:18:25 or you can call it the good and evil the ying and the yang and the other one is the covering side why do we call it coveting covering is the ten commandment covering means you desire nothing wrong with desiring but coveting is when you desire above God all right so let me pick this up and the best book that picks this up this book called Dr jackal and Mr hyde okay now let me pick this up a bit now this story is actually not just found in Dr jackal and Mr hyde it's found in many many parts of culture
00:19:07 star Wars picks it up you have the dark side of the force and the light side you know we have Captain America recently Brave New World the Hulk has two sides and if you know your literature one of the most famous books by Oscar Wild is called The Picture of Dorin Gray this one really picks up social media and there are two sides to him the narcissistic side and the inner side and you find this also in psychology uh Jung called this the it and the super ego and and intermediate is the ego i mean
00:19:43 basically there is the inner self and the outside self a yung J you call it a shadow everyone has a shadow selves all your fragments and then you have your persona what uh Brandon called the mask and most obviously social media picks it up that's in essence what a text is saying is this there's a very simple fundamental truth to all of us i want you to hear this all of us have a side we want to show the whole world there is also a side you want to hide do you know why he's called Mr hide because he hides and number two
00:20:27 when I'm going to read the book to you parts of it and in early chapters is this we are told about a doctor called Dr jackal respectable member of community he could have been elder of FBC who go everywhere people say elder Dr had but you see he got this dark side no people cannot see one this the hypocrisy Brandon talk about he kept it from people so the book opens hence it came about I concealed my pleasures they were immoral pleasure don't tell you what it is and that when I reach years of reflection and began to look around me
00:21:09 and take stock my progress and position the world I stood already committed to a profound found duplicity of life that means there are two sides to him one side loves the respect of community the other side you know he's got this struggle of doing things but he don't want anyone i clapped up ka one day I walk out from Thailand hey isn't that so and so oh where did he just come from ma so he had an idea he will develop a concoction and split himself to two people one side will be the elder ABC go everywhere got
00:21:53 respect the other side can go and sin cow chanting in today's language is like he found an avatar and downloaded his consciousness into it and that consciousness could do whatever he want every dirty fantasy everything that you're not supposed to mention in church that men here think of all the other things that's hide and he would be at peace that's how the story starts and so he say this when he first made the concoction and he turned to be Mr hyde I knew myself at the first breath of this new life to be
00:22:33 more wicked tenfold more wicked soul as a slave to my original evil and the thought in that moment braced and delighted me like wine his dopamine level shot through the roof now when you read the word soul as a slave to my original evil where do you think that comes from isn't that familiar to you that's Romans 7 you know you see Robert Lewis Stevenson was brought up pbbyisterian to be more accurate Calvinistic Presbyteristian no offense to all Calvinists here he obviously didn't like his upbringing and the book was written
00:23:17 during Victorian England where outside to appear righteous was important but the society was extremely hypocritical and this book which started off just as a what they call it a penny horror book became probably his it became a so when you we use it nowadays in language he has a jackal and height personality it's probably his most famous thoughtprovoking book now what happens is this let me read the story so he he becomes he's got a naughty side all of us got now no need to hide the naughty side go and do so what happens one day
00:23:55 you read a book this naughty side of his is prone to violence no he hit somebody and they had to pay compensation so when they look at the check they look at the handwriting it they find out it's actually Dr jackal's handwriting so they approach him to say this fellow called hide very dangerous no you better not associate with him they don't know it's the same guy and he says something which you and I all should remember he say this Haida don't worry I can get rid of him anytime I want aya don't worry all these naughty
00:24:27 things I do I can control it that's the first mistake so in Star Wars which really picks up this in the story of Anakin Skywalker who later on become Darth Vader if you follow the first three trilogy is the same thing you can almost say this Anakin went to church we call it being a Jedi he had a mentor he went to disciplehip program the mentor disappointed him hypocrite his mother died the church never supported him in the end he decided to dabble in the dark side and he put one foot in the light and one foot in the
00:25:15 darkness you see this in episode two and he said just as Dr jackal said "I can control it." And so a very small little green fellow called Yoda tells him "You cannot serve both the dark side of the force and the light side." And what happens to the story of Mr hyde he discovers two things about Mr hyde one he's much more evil than he thought and number two he's much more powerful than he thought the story begins with Dr jackekal thinking he can control Mr hyde and the first shift in the novel is Mr
00:26:02 hyde cannot be controlled and Mr hyde as the story progresses will control Dr jackekal and so Romans 6 say the old self was crucified why because the body root by sin might be done away with we should be no longer slaves to sin so here's the hard lesson to all of us all of us to some extent have these two cells we come to church we put on our Dr jackal persona because want to be respected ma the Mr high persona we hide it and we think we can get away with it and what the Bible says you make that
00:26:47 common that height is going to be your master and as the story progresses it's very subtle you know you know the the his Bible study leader disappoints him samuel Jackson the church the Jedi disappoint him someone else approves him when he's down he fights with Kenobi he's all shattered picks him up he swears allegiance to a fallen angel and years later the angel reveals his true face you see when you turn is never so black and white it always comes in this way you know the church all the people like that one
00:27:28 Christianity is all about rules all the hypocrites you will slowly pull you down when you pick this up I said this is not a easy sermon now let me give you another part of it and this part we don't we we we we we don't preach about this enough you see the context of verse 20 verse 19 we know verse 20 crucified with Christ is this sinful naughty bad dirty all those things you're not supposed to talk about in church is about sin colossians 3 has a long explanation of it galatians 5 picks it up but what's
00:28:04 interesting in verse 19 as a precursor to crucifying your old self your sinful self he says I died to the law now there are two ways of exaging this one is they are saying the same thing it cannot be and this is very important it cannot be because we know from Romans 6 we know from Galatians 5 that is being crucified is the sinful self so now you ask yourself what is it which side has to die to the law and in this context of dying to the law the earlier verses is what those people who look at externals that means as a
00:28:49 precursor before you can crucify your sinful nature you know what the text is telling you you need to crucify something else now we don't preach this enough in church now let me look at Galatians 6 right he says it those who want to impress people look at that externally by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised the only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ not even those who are circumcised keep the law now that's interesting that's a contradiction because not even those who
00:29:20 are circumcised they are lawkeepers he is saying a lawkeeper and especially one who comes to church got baptized you know attend Bible study serve in church take off all the right boxes he doesn't keep the law I want you to hear thish he's talking about external markers now hey this anoly mouth oh you very mature Christian why elder ma h come to church all the time lead family life muh baptize very righteous that's what the text is saying you know not even those who are circumcised keep the law and here's the
00:30:01 key one yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast remember verse 12 opens about impressing people now let me pick up the story of Dr jackekal at one point Mr height kills a person he kills a person you know so Dr jackekal says "All right that's it too much i'm going to stop it it like a man who started off with a porn addiction then he went to go and visit massage parlor then at one point the wife find out everything okay that's it stop i'm going to go back to church and be a good
00:30:39 boy so for 3 months he's a really good boy you know he donate to charity he did it's true he did all the good things and he was very proud of it and look at what he says in the book i resolve in my future conduct to redeem the past what's he doing he's saying I killed somebody he knows and I s say we honestly a resolve of fruitful or some good you know what the Bible is saying about this is saying this i'm going to earn my salvation i killed someone i did all these bad things i'm going to go to church more often i think
00:31:18 that will help i'm going to give more money to the church building fund i know I cheated the government of 5 million i think I think I give 500,000 to Wyong maybe help him a bit that's what he's saying and look at it you know yourself how earnestly in the last year I labored to relieve suffering i joined the connect corner and you know I was involved in in Johnson's work with the Mayan Marie you know that much was done for others i was so involved in ABC you know I went to help the poor and the days passed
00:31:54 quietly almost happily for myself nor can I truly say I worried of this beneficial innocent life I think instead I daily enjoyed it more completely but here it comes I was still cursed with the duality my purpose there's this this little part that say hey you remember what you used to do h you not shock and at the first age of My penitence wore off the lower side of me so long indulged so recently chained down begin to growl for license i I sat down with a loyal friend a big firm he told me he said "You know I know the most deeply
00:32:32 corrupted people in Malaysia are the most religious after the sin they go to temple and give a coconut they go to the mosque and pray they come to church." You know why not feel guilty ma but after a while the guilt will run off you know then they go back and do it again after that maybe two coconuts for the temple you see this what he's saying you look at that the age of a penitence war you pick this up h now this is the turning part of the book which is fascinating it was a fine clear January day wet under foot where
00:33:10 the frost had melted cloudless overhead the regions park was full of winter shopping and sweet with spring orders the way he writes it is ah I've arrived i sat in the sun on the bench then there's a little animal within me licking the chops of memory the spiritual side a little drows promising subsequent penitence yeah I better I better get involved in life group i I better I better sign up for for for family life afterwards after service but not yet moved to begin and then after all I reflected I was like my neighbors
00:33:47 and I smiled comparing myself other men comparing my active goodwill with the lazy cruelty of declare look at me I'm limb and elder look at you what have you done you want to see my CV you know 10 times longer than yours you know and at the very moment of that vain glorious thought I have been baptized every Sunday I serve ammen elder my do this do that do that saturday after at night still serving you know I go and visit people you know a quam came over me a horrid nozzle and a most deadly shudderings these passed
00:34:28 away and let me faint and then as in turn the faintness subsided I began to be aware of a change in the temple my thoughts a greater boldness a contempt of danger a solution of the bonds of obligation I looked down my clothes hung formless less me on my shrunken limbs the hand that lay on my knee was cord and hairy i was once Edward Hyde you know what the story is telling you three months he stopped being a bad boy guess what happened did it kill Mr height it made Mr height stronger that is the
00:35:17 point of Galatians 19 before 20 and it's so important paul gives an entire chapter in Romans 7 to pick this up look at what it says what then shall we say is the law sinful certainly not i would not have known what sin was it had it not been for the law but I would not have known what covering really was if the law had not said "You shall not coveret." But sin seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment produced in me in every kind of covering if you read just now the text I wrote for Louisis Stevenson you find it
00:35:56 repeated everything tries to be good he has this memory of his Mr height no it's always at the back hey you forgot you forgot you don't forget how good it tasted in psychology we call this dopamine detox that means I abstain you know the moment I taste it again wow you going to go back 10 times worse that is what scripture is saying you know Austinine or Hippo famous Christian leader he once went he broke into an orchard and he stole fruits you know he didn't steal it because he was hungry he stole the fruit after that he
00:36:39 threw it to the pigs meaning he he had no intention to to steal the fruits you know why he stole it because the church leader told him "You better not steal it." The more I tell you not to do it what do you want to do let me give you a simple example my wife coming second service so I can stay here my wife every day without with clockwork you know at 11:00 limb do you still need the lights in the kitchen because I have to go and play around the kitchen other limb do you need Oh my god so can you imagine a certain day I'm in
00:37:24 the kitchen or I'm not in the kitchen I'm walking around other do you still need lights yes do I need it no then why do I say yes because you asked me you get it the more you tell me the more I'm going to say no so if you build a church and you tell people you better do this you better do you better not do this you're going to go to hell guess what it does to the church behind closed doors you will make your Mr hyde more powerful and the classic case is this you come and tell me you got to kiss my
00:37:59 peep what I'm going to What do you think I'm going to do to you i'm going to teach you a lesson you see the Bible is very true the Bible says a lot about human nature and what the Bible is saying is this you want someone to change you cannot threaten him with hell and that's what a lot of churches are doing you better do this or you're going to burn in hell oh yo I better be Christian man hey your God very mean burn everybody in hell but that comes later after you become a Christian so when you
00:38:36 pick this up you see he says this verse 21 I do not set aside the grace of God in righteousness to be gained through the law christ died for nothing now what he's saying is this with the Judaizers they will take you off on circumcision it does two things one it blinds them to their sin because I'm externally right ma hey look at anal elder I must be holy ma why be called elder but what I do behind closed doors you have no idea number two because I put my value in my external persona the Bible is saying is going to strengthen
00:39:16 the Mr hide so you ask yourself a question who is the real villain mr hyde or Dr jackekal it's very obvious right you become a hide from your unrighteousness but here's the killer this is your sinful self here's the second one you also become a hide from your righteousness you crucify two things your sinful nature you crucify your self-reliance the old self is both Dr jackekal and Mr height so here's the second point the key to crucifying the sinful self is to firstly kill your self-dependent righteous
00:40:09 self let me develop this so here we look at another one we're going to look at all these split personalities today so we're going to look at the Hulk this one explain unless you been living in a cave you haven't seen Avengers so in this one is a classic story about a person battling with anger it's used as a as a vill for that and of course in the recent one is very well portrayed he struggles he struggles and then he turns and the question asked if you have a raging monster in you what is the key to change
00:40:43 that's what Galatians is asking if you how many of you understand this if you're honest you became a Christian you say "I'm going to be a holy person i'm going to give up all these bad things." And then you you really do you mean it you know after 6 months cannot if you don't understand that you're not normal i'm telling you that's what the text is saying so what do you do do you you know go for meditation now you see here's my problem a bit when I hear testimonies i want to develop this a bit sometime you have
00:41:19 people come there and there says you know what I used to be such a terrible person i used to have all these sins now by the grace of God I've turned hallelujah i go out there and buy my book you know what I mean let's go on a road show you know I used to have so much bad habits i used to do this but but by the power of the Holy Spirit I broken it and I'm now new man amen amen uh now go and buy my book now I have a question what if 6 months later or two years later you go back to a habit what does that make
00:41:55 you you see you're being defined by your success you know and you need to pick this up bit so here's the thing romans 7 says this i find this law at work although I want to do good evil is right there with me that's Jacqueline Hyde in my inner being I delight in God's war i see in a law at work in me waging war that's what we said in the first point against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me what a wretched man I am that's again point one you recognize the level of
00:42:34 sin who will rescue me from this body they subject to death not doing yoga not entering a program with eight points he it does good but he has a very sinister side you see what Paul is saying is that he can't rescue himself thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord you see the the persona of the Hulk when he's calm is called Bruce Banner if Bruce Banner was a Christian was in Christ and God looked down who did he see i will tell you this he didn't see the Hulk you know who God
00:43:23 saw he saw Christ that's the point you don't understand this you do not understand Christianity you have religion you don't have a relationship you have a series of dos and don'ts you got to take off and you're no different from any other religion out there if you do that you come to church we accept you but you have a monster inside here is the beauty of Christianity on that cross Christ became Mr hide for you and me so we do not need to hide our hideous self that is the power of the cross he put his righteousness in me and
00:44:24 I'm justified by faith but not only that he gave me the power of the Holy Spirit and now Christ doesn't just walk with me he walks in me let's pick this up a bit so here's the first two points here's the third one to be in Christ is to move from a war you are fighting with your own willpower to a war you fight which Christ has already won for you on the cross that's a big shift and that's key to understanding what it means to be in Christ let's look at the verse again the second part the life I now live in the
00:45:14 body I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me meaning I follow the law so to say that as a response to God's love you owe me they are both the same the problem we have with all these testimonies where people stand up and they talk about how they've done right by the power of God is a very simple question what happens if you go back into it does it make you a failure no and here's what Christ is saying if you fall again you are in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit
00:45:58 is in you so get up again let me wrap up with what I think is the key where is this going to and here's the fourth duality in this very famous novel there's this very handsome man called Dorian Gray he's not only handsome he leads a completely immoral life because he's handsome he can get all the girls he wants and what happens he has a painting you know and to cut a long story short a deal is struck the painting will age he will not wow he can go on being as beautiful and handsome and being an
00:46:45 influencer you hear the language the painting will age so in the public persona he's he got 2 million hits but in private what is he and one day he he opens the cloth that covers the painting it's a famous book it's Oscar wall's most famous book and everyone says he picked it up from Jacqueline he hid and one day he says I want to see what the painting and guess what happens when he opened the painting this is what he saw He is in bondage and you know what the painting is saying the painting is a mirror the
00:47:32 painting is saying you show the whole world this beautiful sight but guess who you really are that's you and this is so common isn't it and why this sermon we all struggle because today right now right here God is asking a very important question to all of us including myself it's a simple question no spelling errors there you really got to ask yourself that you really got to I give you a simple answer how that comes out let's just say theory your this your daughter brings the boyfriend back and the parents
00:48:26 interview what would the parents ask the boy huh what university are you from i'm from M oh my daughter from Endingburg you know then the daughter will whisper "Dad dad it's harder to get into M." Oh what do you do oh I'm a manager in the IT company my daughter lawyer you know dad dad his salary higher than mine oh where do you stay that what loaded question you know what when they ask you where do you stay you know what they're really asking you what are the assets you have ah how much is the worth of your
00:49:15 condo you go tell her I stay with Parisa she say "Oh I got a penthouse in Monara." Ah the boy lives you know what the father will say oh he's a very good boy hey hello he could be a wife bitter man you see what we're doing is imaging the Doran gay picture is talking about identity is all about projection by the way I heard a story someone told me they ask all the questions and they ask one ask question if you're on KK they ask you one other question you know what the question is are you haka it's true if you're saw what they
00:49:57 ask you are you faile but don't laugh with some Chinese they ask your boyfriend Indian correct or not you see we judge people by externals we are much more like Dorin Gay so what the Bible is telling you is that identity is often image projection and image hiding that's the key thing you got to get about yourself old self new self now in Colossians 3 he says this about the old self you going to read the whole list is all the all the nasty things you and I have that we pick up but what's interesting when it comes to
00:50:39 the new self he doesn't give you a long list you know he just says the new self is what is being renewed in the image of the creator that's that's Genesis language you see identity in the Bible is about being made in the image of God and the image of God is perfected by being in Christ meaning I am in Christ i put on all of Christ before that I was in sin i was in self i now put on Christ and that I will battle the rest of my life so let me end with this P point which I think is critical to be in Christ is to be his
00:51:27 image bearer in how you see yourself and others you see if I see God as a nasty God that will burn you in hell for for stepping out in line and a lot of churches teach you then have you been baptized a you do you know this you're going to go to hell you know you will have an image of a nasty God you know what that does if you have that you would develop insecurities because you will always have to measure up to a certain checklist and because you have that checklist it will affect how you see other
00:52:01 people that's why religious people can be the worst hypocrites on the face of the earth and the worst kind of human beings but if you have an image of God as Christ who died for you even though you don't deserve it and he put his righteousness in you and gave his holy spirit in you you do not see yourself that way you define yourself as Christ and then that affects how you see other people and a key movie that picks it up on Netflix is a movie called Adolescence in the movie a 13-year-old boy is
00:52:41 accused of murder and the movie is basically saying what made him a murderer and four things come out one he has a low image of himself he's like a social media person he hates who he is he's not big size he's not popular he has no talent i'm on a one to 10 a zero i don't measure up one number two he gets involved in a community that teaches toxic humanity uh masculinity women he has a bad image of women that's two they're both imaging the first is the image of himself the second is the image of women as sex objects because
00:53:25 he's in this Reddit group you find it as the episodes goes on and you know what's the third one i want you to hear this is the image he has of his father that's how you create a killer now you sit there and say "Hey this is a movie this is not true." Well this just came out last week 16 year old boy using AI to make porn images of you know what 14y old girls and you don't say image projection image hiding isn't part of this it's the Bible is very clear identity is about image if you do not image God you image other things and
00:54:18 that will destroy you here's one you can pick this off the net i'm tired always being the one who keeps in contact you you could you could what you're doing is you have expectations you could say you know what my husband my husband treats me like second to his golf no offense to golf players you know what why is it I'm always doing it and you never reciprocate you you hear this very often right because you have an image of the other person and that person must fit that image if it doesn't fit that image
00:54:53 you get disappointed correct that's why marriages get into fights you married him because your image of him because he put himself on coffee and baker he was so nice after you get married his real monster come out his Mr height comes out so what you do you try to image him back to a Dr jackekal he's not going to work so what does being in Christ helps one I'm in Christ my value in in the image of God is not dependent on how many people keep in contact with me in marriage it means yes I I I we have
00:55:31 to work out our marriage issues but even if you don't change I will love you because God looked at me and took me with grace and I will look at you I will take you in grace it's a radical change this is how you keep your marriage let me give you another one work I understand this some here are very successful Some here are not what would image of God do my identity is in Christ and not how the world defines success and failure in the marketplace if I get a salary increase it doesn't make me better than the guy
00:56:12 who doesn't because Christ loves both if I didn't get a promotion it didn't mean I'm lesser of a human being than the guy who did i put to death any bad work habits i have the power of the risen savior to excel for Christ as his image bearer in the marketplace if I fail I will try again as his grace is sufficient for me i shared before I am going through difficult times in business now a little bit better but what keeps me going is this if my business tomorrow succeeds I made a vow i'm not going to
00:56:52 stand up here and share about it because you will get a bad impression of success and if I fail I'm going to stand up and tell you I'm going to try harder because I'm not a failure you get that and that's God's message for all of you you're married you got kids you got a nice house does it make you more of a success than a woman who could divorce have no children not in the eyes of God because the image of God is to be in Christ and God loves both if you have that perfect life you better be humble if you
00:57:35 struggle remember you are complete in Christ this is the beauty of Christianity so let me end with this difficult one just two and then we're going to end how about this one how does being in Christ helps i'll say this there are few parts one am I trying to bring up my children to be in Christ or image of ideal children and and that's why Chinese people have this problem you interview the boyfriend you say "Does he have a nice job oh god he's supposed to ask about a car." So because your image of success is there the guy
00:58:10 could be a real pain you know so that's your image but but when you when you look at your children what's happened to that you're projecting things on your children you know you're projecting your trauma on your children you're you're projecting your past bad experiences with your parents onto them and and and they they choke but more difficultly when your children look at you what do they see you see I I I I say this in love as an as an as an elder i I spend time with people and and I'm not saying anyone
00:58:45 personal but sometime you hear this you know elder elder go and fix my wife this do go and fix my daughter go and fix my husband the moment you tell a person maybe there's something about you you need to change they don't come back they don't come back you're being biased against me what the devil is saying is that the whole world had to change to accommodate you and what he does he puts you in a victim mindset that's image again but the moment you say I'm complete in Christ it gives you clarity i don't want to be seen as a
00:59:28 failure the father it is why I rather not tell anyone I'm church and pretend on Sunday everything is okay and if you struggle talk to someone in family life let me end with one more and we close this difficult sermon those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you be circumcised and here's one verse we often forget what it means to be in Christ is to be crucified with Christ the only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ and so here's the last one huh you image
01:00:06 Christ together so we started off with Esther sharing us about her father and you ask yourself when wants to bury the case and threaten the church but if they see a resilient church a church that says we will never forget they may lose that court case but they will continue and we will back that family guess what people see when they look at the church they will see Christ i'm going to invite the worship team up and I know it's a painful sermon maybe better not let me preach ma I'm that in that phase of their life
01:00:58 nowadays but let's quieten our hearts and pray and I'm going to pass the time over to Brandon lord these are difficult topics we will talk about but as we prepare our hearts we ask ourselves a simple question we often want to please others because we worried what they say we are can we have some keys right and so we hide certain parts and we project certain parts why because what people say we are matters but today we just want to say one thing Lord we want to pledge it doesn't matter what others say
01:01:42 it matters what you say we are and who we are we are in Christ you have given us the Holy Spirit to help us through our struggles when we fall we look down you say "I see Christ." We get up and you give us community to show us our faults and so we put Jesus at the center of everything i'm going to pass the time now to Brandon to lead us in the in the worship intercession lord Jesus as we close this long session and we ask that in our midst those who struggle will feel your comfort that they are complete
01:02:32 in Christ you gave us the spirit and as we approach Easter we approach with courage that we crucify the old self and we live in a new self we crucify the old self that is dependent on our own willpower we crucify our sinful nature and maybe next week next month we fall again and the devil will whisper "You're such a hypocrite." Then we will tell the devil "I am in Christ." And I will pick up and as we end we remember one thing we image God together so as we close this prayer I ask that you you have the courage to talk to
01:03:16 somebody share with somebody maybe over a meal come up in front we do not do this alone in the same way Susanna and Esther the family they do not journey alone and we will carry the cross together for justice for them for all your personal struggles if you just come to church every Sunday and go back you don't have a relationship you have religion you are Dr jackal and if you sit there and you say you got a Mr height guess what we all have it and the good news when Christ looks in me he became height for you and
01:04:06 me because he loved us now receive the benediction now onto him who can do exceeding more than we know imagine to him be glory in the church and in all ages and God's people say amen and God bless you all please stay back if you want any prayers or just a thought
