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00:00:00 today's scripture reading is taken from Isaiah 9 1-7 nevertheless there will be no more Gloom for those who were in distress in the past he humbled the land of zebulun and the land of naftali but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Nations by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan the people walk in in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of deep Darkness a light has dawned you have enlarged the nation and increased their Joy they Rejoice before you as people Rejoice at the Harvest as
00:00:49 Warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder for as in the Day of midian's Defeat you have shattered the Yoke that burdens them the bar across their shoulders the rod of their oppressor every Warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning will be fuel for the fire for to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor Mighty God Everlasting father Prince of Peace of the greatness of his government and
00:01:33 peace there will be no end he will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom establishing and upholding it with Justice and righteousness from that time on and forever the Zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this this is the word of God hi ABC welcome to uh this week's Sunday service where is on Advent series my name is John and I'll be going through with you on this topic called why Christmas matters now so on this event series that we have I I I asked myself what is event actually I actually
00:02:12 didn't really know so what I did was I went online and actually searched to know a little bit more about it and Advent actually means the arrival of a notable person or thing okay so what are we waiting for and uh this is what we're going to be talking about for today but there are a lot of traditions that I think is quite interesting and I want to implement into my family as well so for example there's this Advent Reef that you see over here the Advent reef is made of Evergreens which signifies of uh
00:02:39 continuous life in the midst of winter and death there are five candles each of them having their own meanings so uh they signify hope faith joy peace and the middle of it is actually Jesus Christ right the light of the world so uh interesting things and why I want to do is because my kids love candle so I think they'll enjoy it so so every Sunday is supposed to light one of them every single Sunday before Christmas and on the last day on uh the last uh I think on Christmas you would light on the fifth one so interesting stuff for
00:03:10 us to know now when we talk about Advent IT is talking about waiting for somebody or something important happen and Isaiah gave this prophecy that was being given by Sarah just now and so thanks so much for that Sarah and this prophec prophecy was given in this timeline so after the nation of Israel was being set up King Saul was the first king and after 300 years of it this is where Isaiah's prophecy came and so why was there a prophecy and what were they waiting for that's a question we want to
00:03:45 actually go through today and so what they were waiting for was actually they waiting for deliverance waiting for somebody to save them why do need somebody to save them because the nation of Israel was actually in trouble how were they in trouble the people were actually suffering right because out of all the kings that they had most of them were actually bad kings so if you see over here red color means they are bad kings yellow yellow color means they are so so and green means they are good Kings so I did a quick check there's
00:04:14 about 10% of good Kings 90% of them are actually a really terrible ones right and so they were not living in a good condition and on top of that what happened was there was Assyria as well so Assyria was a neighboring country that was looking to uh come attack them and they were all they very worried about it what would happen if Assa came and why was Assa so scary is because when it comes to as they were uh famous for being cruel they torture all the people and if you don't surrender many bad things will happen to you for
00:04:47 example they skin you alive okay if not they may impale you as well in fact there was one article right on line they said that they asked the the notable man over there to wear the head of the King as a necklace so all these things happen and in the midst of all this Isaiah is telling uh the people of Israel that hope is coming Deliverance is coming right God is not going to let them be uh alone and God will save them so this is where we have this Bible verse right uh on verse 2 and verse four here it says
00:05:21 that the people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of deep Darkness a light has Dawn for as in the Day of midian's Defeat shattered the Yoke that burdens them the bar across their shoulders the rod of their oppressor so when you see this right what is happening is really they are waiting for deliverance right because for the past few years things have been very challenging and even after that actually they go into Exile so it was after about 700 years only then the Messiah will come now so
00:05:58 because of that there's Advent for for them but how but for us actually so for us why do we still need to remember Advent what is advent for get to us now what you see here is number one for us event is to remember the first coming of Christ and also at the same time to anticipate the second coming of Christ that is event for us and every year we go through this to remember and also to know that we are not just here know chilling and reting on Earth there's still stuff to do as well now so first
00:06:30 point that we have for today is why do we need a savior we don't have any experience or we don't have bad kings right we don't have all these challenges why do we need a savior now so in fact I would say that a allot of times we can say you know things are going to be all right you know it's true that currently there are a lot of challenges in the world when it comes to you know the co all of us know there challenges is life really okay and that's is what we want to really explore and process for today so I have a series
00:06:57 of photos and things I found online just want to share with you to let you see how the world really is okay first one L bonhof said that the celebration of advent is Possible only to those who are troubled in Soul who know themselves to be poor and imperfect and who look forward to something greater to come which means that you cannot be celebrating event if you don't think that something is wrong okay you can only be celebrating event if you know that you need Deliverance you need a savior you need someone to come to you
00:07:28 so let's look at what's happening to our world now right first one over here do you see anything wrong with this picture what's wrong with this picture well it looks okay there two kids are being very hardworking studying over there but friends what you see here is actually not a room this is a house in Hong Kong so what you see here is it is their study table it is their bait and it's also their wardrobe can you see that they're hanging their clothes here right and it's actually very hard there's no airor and so how does their
00:08:02 house look like so let's compare your house with their house this is their kitchen and bathroom they're next to each other and if you want to see how the parents actually cook you can see the meat here and they're preparing the food this is how they sleep okay so imagine sleeping next to the bathroom and this is not a nice condition obviously and this friends is failure of capitalism for those people who are a bit more wealthy they get a house like this those who are really very poor right they stay in this places called
00:08:39 coffin cages that looks like this so This Old Uncle here there have much money and they stay over there right and friends you need to understand this is actually happened in Hong Kong one of the very rich countries but the social disparity the income incity is so big over there now when I talk about income equality you can see that this is not happening only in Hong Kong it's happening in us and everywhere and the stats is showing you that is contining to rise and the difference is increasing so this is from us and in us what is
00:09:08 saying is the top 1% income share has doubled while poverty has held steady so the number of people being poor has almost been the same since 1969 until 2017 so that's how much that's 40 years within 40 years the number of people being poor has been the same right in terms of percentage but the Rich has actually gotten more and more of the share of wealth in the nation right and this is only until 2017 if you Tak in MCO you taking your whole 2020 inside this will be even higher right so no matter what happens you see
00:09:44 the rich getting richer the poor uh being in their current state so what can we do is life really okay now if we continue checking in there's even more stuff for you to see so for example I'm question many of you go to Lazada go to shoy and buy stuff right and you're wondering oh you know I'm helping the economy but as you helping economy there's also people who working to death so let me share with you this uh image I found online so Mr Kim actually is from Korea and he worked to death after working for 21 hours he
00:10:18 called his friend and said can I stop the next shift I'm really very tired I'm going to rest the answer was no continue he continued working and four days later he died and he's not the only one there's more than there's about 14 15 of them going through this and why business too good and business is too good your people still need to work and this is a result of it as well that is on the financial side but how about on others you know so if this is the case let's do more charity Let's help more people now friends Malaysia is
00:10:49 also famous this is something that happened in Malaysia this guy's name is Richard huckle it's a guy that when I read what he says I'm just uh I feel very unease right why so let me read what read you some of the things he said impoverished kids are definitely much easier to seduce than middle class Western kids I hit the jackpot a three-year-old girl was as loyal to me as my dog and nobody seem to care so who this guy this guy is actually a pedophile he came to Malaysia and under disguise of being a Christian he goes
00:11:25 around Charities homes and all that to help people and what he's doing is is really nasty stuff to kids and this is what is happening but friends what you're seeing is the issue that is happening is not just one person is also there's lack of support for all these charity organizations and also lack of accountability you know why because when there's not enough support for these organizations if anyone is willing to help they say come please help I am willing for help but we don't really check whether when a person comes
00:11:54 to organizations to help how are they are really good or not right so if I continue going through this you see also that there are a lot of other issues for example I have over here Donald Trump we're living in a post truth area now what does it mean for for this it means that it's very hard to tell what is real and what's fake anymore this is actually not Donald Trump it's a deep fake video okay it's an image where was created by somebody in Belgium if not meican and they actually created a video whereby
00:12:26 Donald Trump is saying something bad to for some of the campaign that they're trying to do over there but in reality he didn't say it so it comes to this if you hit this guy you see a video like this you believe that he's res saying it and so even a character assassinate somebody is very easy even a cause any issues any abos in society it becomes very easy because it's already becoming very hard to tell what is true what's not true imagine if suddenly show you a video of your husband doing something with
00:12:55 another uh woman what would you think and friends this is to come how do we tell what's true what's not true anymore what do we believe and I would say in the west this is happening it's coming to Malaysia and Asia as well and what we are talking about is polarization what's polarization it means that two groups of people are basically direct opposites they do not make friends they do not even want to talk talk to each other and what I'm showing you here is the black Liv matters movement so uh one of the
00:13:30 there was somebody being killed and because of that there was a whole Riot happening and in the riots a lot of stores and shops across the home America was being destroyed there's vandalism and people go to loot okay to Rob to take things and run so now I want you to take note of what's being said by this article here it says big retailers say they don't mind the Looting okay they don't mind the Looting you know why if you dare come out to say that looting is wrong destroying property is wrong you will be in deep
00:14:02 trouble okay so what they have come up to now is this either you're with us or you're against us if you say looting is wrong means that you don't care about black people that is happening yeah polarization and all this is happening also because of the people that we choose the leaders we choose currently there's no civil discourse what it means is if you wear a face mask in US it means number one you are Democrats right because Corona virus is fake that's what they're saying and if you go online and check out what Donald Trump
00:14:35 is talking about you understand that he's been always denying all these things but friends why has it come the point whereby we can no longer talk to each other why has it come to the point whereby if I actually don't agree with you then I'm wrong why can't we try to understand each other's point of view and friends this looks like something small but when the whole society is not able to communicate to really come to agreement to really discuss things you cannot progress a lot of things cannot
00:14:58 be done now why is all this happening to the world it is happening to the world the same reason why Israel is actually going through challenges at the time of asiah and what happened to them was that Israel rejected God as king from the beginning of time even before that they've been rejecting God as king and this is the result of it so you see over here on 1 Samuel 8: 7 to8 what you see is the Lord told Samuel listen to all that the people are saying to you is not you they rejected but they have rejected
00:15:31 me as the king as they have done from the day I brought them out of Egypt until this day forsaking me and serving other gods so they are doing to you so what happened was Israel was actually looking for a king because they had no king and he said I want to be like other countries we need a king to be with us what they really effective saying is we don't want God as king we want to rule our own lives God is not good enough let's do it ourselves let's do our way so friends what we're talking about is
00:16:00 actually the heart of the human problem is a problem of the human heart the problem is not with which minister is not with which President is not with which society which which uh Financial system we are having all these things even if you remove capitalism and and you actually put something else things will still go wrong why because the problem is people people will always want to take advantage of each other and they always are selfish and that is why when we ask ourselves why do we need a savior the answer is because we cannot
00:16:34 save ourselves we actually in deep trouble now who is this savior who is this savior that we're talking about now in Isaiah 9 verse 6 we have been given four names of the Savior let's go through them for to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor Mighty God Everlasting father Prince of Peace so these are four names given to this upcoming Messiah wonderful counselor Mighty God Everlasting father Prince of Peace simple names but what does it
00:17:12 really mean so let's go through them one by one and let's see what they are first one wonderful counselor when we talk about counseling we think about somebody sitting on a therapy chair you know and then I'm telling you how do you feel do you want uh this or they try to guide you on life but when we talk about counselor a wonderful counselor what we saying is that in comes to life if you want wisdom don't go to people go to God go to the person that actually can see the past the present and the future and
00:17:50 God is the one that we should go to for counsel so in fact counseling is so important that we rise and fall on Counsel you look at that the first uh story in Adam and Eve why did Eve fall what was the reason for Eve actually are being tempted it was because of the snake the snake was the one actually telling if the things that it's not supposed to do right the the snake asked did God really say You must not eat from any tree in the garden okay e replied and they talk at the end day after the counsel of the snake e decided
00:18:28 yeah this is good to be e done and she ate it okay counsel is very important and let me share you a story that I have so years ago I was uh in it business and I spot a very good opportunity to be doing so what happened was I spoke to my friend about it I told counsel my friend told me oh you want to do this thing I know of these um people used to talk to them and they actually uh owners of Lista companies talk to them they can help you okay they can help you to get this uh business idea up so I did is I
00:19:02 went to talk to them and there was a match they had certain infrastructure I needed and I have certain resources that I could actually I Lear as well so we work together we signed a whole agreement and shers agreement and we got everything done right but what happened was after one year working on it the product actually really came to Market and it was something was really good but what happened was after the product went live I got news that they took the entire product and they tried to generate revenue from a different
00:19:30 company so they copied it out put it somewhere else and try to generate revenue on their own without me now friends actually through my entire experience with them I started to see problems coming I actually knew that there was something that being done that was not right but what I thought in my my head was well yeah I'm a Christian but they're not so you know they do something which is a bit gray okay I don't really know it's okay just as long as they can help me I don't really care so that was what I was doing right I
00:19:56 took counsel from my friend and after that s it looks like such a good opportunity let's do it and this is why I did it but friends at the end of day I Vis my whole one year right and it was a very painful Journey for me now definitely God uh let me learn a lot of stuff through it as well and I grew through the experience and we know that you know all things were together for the good of you know those who love him we know all this but it doesn't put out the F fact that actually if I actually took counsel from God from the start
00:20:26 things will be different don't you agree let me show you if I actually read the Bible at that time and remember Psalm 1:1 blessed is the one who does not walk in stad with the wicked or stand in the way that Sinners take or sin in the company of mockers but whose Delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night actually if I read this and I know that these guys I'm dealing with are not really good people to deal with I should have stopped dealing with them from the start no matter how nice
00:20:56 it sounded so friends that was my experience friends I'm want to share with you when it comes to counsel you really need to get God's counsel don't listen to people who knows the future things may look very good especially in comes of business or even your career friends okay for those of you young adults or you know you're in your old levels or your SPM you're looking to graduate you're wondering what to do friends don't seek counsel from your peers ask God take the time to really ask God what should I do because this
00:21:26 God loves us and he will help us I hope this story can help you to understand counsel is very important and get your counsel from God now the second thing that we're talking about today is mighty God when I say the word mighty God it doesn't sound anything powerful to you but if I say the word three many of you say who yeah you know this guy is powerful or I say things like for example artificial intelligence genetic engineering machine learning for us we it comes to a it comes to a mind that there's something
00:21:56 very powerful there but it comes to God for us somehow it's actually become very mild and we don't really understand what it means so if you really want to understand what does mighty God mean you need understand for the Israelites what do they see God as who is God actually and what you see is this is the art of the Covenant and there's a story in Samuel where the art of the Covenant was being brought to war okay against the wishes of um uh you know in the wrong way was being brought to war and so the
00:22:25 Israelites were being pished and they lost the war and this art of Covenant were being taken away to the Philistines land and this story what you see is no matter where the ark went they actually inspired awe and fear in everybody out there because no matter where the ark went people started dying there were tumors there were rats everywhere so from City to City once they heard that the Ark of God is coming they were already very afraid at the end day what they didn't need to do they needed to give a piece offering and send the ark
00:22:58 back to Israel and friends this is God if you talk about God you can remember in um the days of Moses what happened the pting the Red Sea and all this and friends so when we talk about God we understand God is really really Mighty and so if you have any problems any challenges in life and you need someone to help you perhaps ask God God is here to assist us and he wants us he wants a good for us as well so don't forget at the end of day if you have any issues always come back to God God will be
00:23:28 there for will be there for us the next name he'll be called Everlasting father now so this is a photo of a baby and I'm a father myself now I have two kids so I find that having a father is actually very nice you know why when you father you actually have somebody to take care of you care for you you don't even need to worry about anything my kids don't need to worry I already plan out for them you know what's going to happen next uh uh so there's a lot of things that we do we provide we want to take
00:23:57 care of our children and the same goes for my father I have a father and my father takes care of me as well so he helps me a lot with things and he's always nice to me uh it be surprising to let you know that I've not heard my father getting angry for at least the past 15 years and it's always there for me and forever I need okay we groceries helping with the kids helping out with the house even helping out with work he helps me all these things so having a father is actually something very special but when it comes to fathers
00:24:29 human fathers will always fall short I will fall short sometimes my kids tell me Daddy can you read me a story my say okay okay I'm coming I'm coming so there a few times when I said I'm coming in the end when I reached their room they actually fell asleep really why I was too tired I wanted to watch my TV so my wife is called me because of that also but you see fathers will fall short and in our lives perhaps we may have actually experienced times where our fathers have fallen short and this is
00:24:58 actually some statistics given by the US why when your father is absent these are things that can happen 63% of you suicides happen in homes with absent fathers 90 90% of homelessness and runaway children are from such families right when the father is not there all these things are happening dropouts behavior disorders or even rapist with anger problems fathers are important and God wants to be our father but more than that he's our Everlasting Father which means means that you don't need to worry
00:25:30 about your father not being there he will always be there for us right and what's more he knows everything he know what's going to happen and he's there to defend us to protect us and to help us so we can be very thankful that you know God wants to be a father and for us to actually experience the love that he has for us final one Prince of Peace this name is again a very normal name you hear and when I was young I saw this photo a few times really you know you always see Jesus writing a donkey and so peace yeah
00:25:58 peace what does it mean to us what does peace mean to us peace is actually the word shalom in the Bible what is shalom shalom is more than just peace peace means basically in our terms only just no fighting P but it means much more than that shalom means also not only the absence of actually fighting but also both parties mutually agree to say that we are on good terms because you can use law to say that from now on you cannot fight I can say that okay because I'm America I'm the biggest country in the world I'm the most
00:26:32 powerful country in the world you cannot fight with me so all these things can happen but that is not real peace real peace is when both parties actually agree to say that they want to have a good relationship Shalom also means bringing restitution if something has been done wrong restitution will be done we do something to make amends Shalom also means completeness which means that you feel that everything in life is actually perfect okay it's a whole and satisfaction and this spiritual social
00:27:01 and physical flourishing flourishing only comes from God that is Shalom friends and God wants to give us this Shalom that we are talking about here the best picture for you to see what Shalom is what Prince of Peace is is this photo this is Shalom where we are being brought back to the days of Adam and Eve where we in harmony with each other no more fighting you know the lion and the lamb the animals can all be together there's no issues there's no more Wars and everybody lives peacefully that is
00:27:36 peace now who is this savior that was our question asking earlier and this savior that we have is Jesus Christ we talk about Jesus what does Jesus re burn from us what does our savior burn from us there the next question we have when Jesus came to the world he died for sins and he actually uh got resurrected and he's waiting for us again and will come again but what does our savior want from us so over here what I want to share with you is Jesus has given us peace with God and in Romans 5: 1-2 it says that therefore
00:28:15 since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand God wants us to First L make peace with God because if you really want to have peace amongst people you need to firstly have peace with God first because God made us he knows how we are supposed to work how we supposed to live how we supposed to relate with each other therefore the wisdom of the world really is in God and
00:28:45 Jesus wants to give us this peace now I have this photo I want to share with you if you want to understand what Jesus really wants from us I want to share with you that many of times we always think that oh be become becoming a Christian is like getting a bus ticket and just waiting for time to go to heaven after you've done the in prayers yeah done ready okay now I can just relax play my PS do whatever I want go and makan don't go around do my stuff just waiting I'm just waiting to die you know that's all I'm
00:29:17 doing right but friends when we talk about this Shalom that God wants to give us is way more than that okay and so I have this story over here I going show share with you this is a story of a goldfish this is not a Blackfish this is a goldfish now this is something is very famous on Tik Tok and there's this lady he brought home a 10-year-old sick and dying fish over here so this fish was sick and dying in the pet saw and nobody wanted it this girl brought it back and this fish cannot swim so it's a fish but
00:29:50 it cannot swim right it always laid on the substrate and it always problems because the lesions and the fins were not working properly this girl loved the fish cared for the fish and gave the fish a name the fish is called Monro okay after the Pinocchio wheel she set up a shallow Hospital tank with aquarium sword to help the fish to get better so you see there's some something wrong with the fish and slowly after a week the fish began to eat the girl actually thought the fish would die but she continued caring and helping
00:30:23 this fish and so after a while the fish started to eat and started to swim and and the amazing thing happened after that the fish changed its color from black and became to become golden and it got really big as well and so now it's actually a goldfish from a black fish has become a goldfish so friends for our for those of you instead of thinking about a long theological discussions this shows really what God wants to do with us God wants to really take us from whatever dirt whatever situation we have and
00:30:59 really help us to get out of the mess we have because we're in deep mess but sometimes we don't even know we in it and God has the biggest plan the best plan for us right and so he wants to help us with all these things that I've shared just now now so this is comparison for you to see from a black fish that's very thin and uh not looking good until this one right and how does this relate to us now coming back back to this chart that I have here we know that AAS pry came here and after that they went to Exile and
00:31:34 Christ did come right so Advent is for us to remember Christ came and Christ is going to come again and we're here in the present we've been waiting for 2,000 years and we are patiently waiting we don't know when Christ is coming but I want to share with you something else that I want to put on this slide and that is number one Christ didn't just leave us here so the Holy Spirit has been given to us and so we actually walking day daily with God and making sure that we can actually know what God wants us to do
00:32:07 and he is here to guide us daily number two instead of patiently waiting we're supposed to be actively waiting it means that instead of sitting on the sofa every day thinking what to eat next what to cook next where to go next which holiday destination next after covid what's the first thing I do which vaccine I take we should be actively thinking you know what are we supposed to do next is there somebody can help is there somebody can serve is somebody that's in need so why because this Shalom from The
00:32:38 Prince of Peace does not start after the second coming of Christ it can start today and starts through us because for some reason God has decided to use us to be his agents of Shalom and friends therefore I strong strongly encourage you to use your time and all you can to serve together with God and and it's a very exciting and adventurous Journey that you can have now how can we do it in our lives so let I'm just taking some stuff from Facebook to show you what I see uh perhaps a few things we can do
00:33:09 number one in your work instead of just doing the normal 9 to five okay time to go off and you just go off perhaps go the extra mile go the extra mile so that your employer or your CLE can see that you're different if somebody's in need of help somebody doesn't know how to do something don't just say that oh too bad for you you're going to get a that rating go and try to help them serve each other you know at the end of day if we can continue to serve each other people will see so I have a few examples
00:33:37 of it to show to you so this is Hannah Y and she has on Mother's Day she has this mommy sck five while I read to your kids so she did some story reading for kids in this year's Mother's Day during MCO and friends she didn't need to do that in fact you know many people after they become politicians right you don't see them after the election they only come out before election right but for Hanah y she does a lot of stuff you will always see her doing something because friends she's a self professing Christian and she is
00:34:08 trying to serve wherever that she is at and friends we can also do that so some of us maybe we not politics we're not in politics we can do other things in our own career in the work that we have yeah now another one this is my friend sasai kimis she came back from uh overseas she actually studied in won but she decided to come back to Malaysia because she wanted to start this company called earthfair as well to really build the nation and she said that we always complains Malaysians are famous for
00:34:37 complaining saying that the St thing is bad politics are bad nation is bad everything is bad if we always if everybody leaves country there cannot be enough nucleus in the country there cannot be enough agents of change for things to happen and therefore she says that she wants to come back and drive change in the country so these are things we can do or perhaps we can even just do what God ask us to do besides serving in our original occupations our family and maybe to our neighbors I want to encourage all of you
00:35:07 to do something extra and what is that this is what I would like to encourage all of you to be actually getting involved in besides serving in all this we can also serve in FPC and FPC needs help okay the church is actually comprising of every single one of us and it's not something that is being left to the pastors or the elders or only a few of us everybody is supposed to be serving together and it's a great joy and privilege to be serving the King of Kings and the Lord of lords so I want to share with you uh something I really
00:35:36 appreciate from the FBC KY Sunday school this is uh what my son has been doing for the past uh six seven months since MC until now so U we have teacher Jen teacher emiline teacher fion and teacher Cindy week in and week out helping to make sure that there is Sunday school for my son and all the other kids now how do have Sunday school when they actually you know not able to come to school come to church what they've been doing is they've been having Zoom sessions with my kid and my son is only 6 years old so there's a lot of
00:36:11 challenges but they continue to persevere and put in effort so besides the normal Sunday school they even ask them to do crafts uh you know send them homework something to do some nice crafts because kids love it to make sure that the kids are connected to God and Sunday school environment can continue to be there and the CH the children will be able to know who Jesus is as well so aside from that we can serve in so many different ways so in front of me I have Luke I have malcol over here serving as
00:36:39 well right so we can be serving and it's this I'm actually here on a Saturday and they actually spending a Saturday doing this so I encourage all of you to find a way to serve if God has given you some Talent if God has given you time on this Earth the fact that you listen to me means that you're here right serve come and serve together do something because I want to read to you the final verse from Isaiah 9 of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end he will reign on David's throne and
00:37:11 over his kingdom establishing and up upholding it with Justice and righteousness from that time on and forever the Zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this God's kingdom has is really here has rest started and I invite all of you to come and make this FBC a really good church so we can serve another and when people from the outside look at us they will know that in the same way let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in Heaven church can I invite us all to
00:37:44 stand as we respond to his word with song let's sing how great how great the gasm that lay between us how high a mountain I couldn't climb in desperation I turned to Heaven spoke your name into theight then true the darkness your loving kindness T through the shadows of my soul the work is finished the end is [Music] written Jesus Christ my living home could imagine so great a mercy what heart could F such boundless Grace the god of Ages step down from glory to wear my S and bear my [Music] shame the cross has
00:39:26 spoken I am forgiv the King of Kings calls me his own beautiful savior I'm yours forever Jesus Christ my living home hallelu praise the one who set me free Hallelujah death has lost it grave on me you have broken Every Chain there salvation in your name Jesus Christ my [Music] live hallelujah praise the one who set me free Hallelujah has lost its gra on me and you have broken Every Chain there salvation in your name Jesus Christ my Living Hope the came the morning that's you the promise your very
00:40:56 body begin to breath out of the silence the roaring lion declare the grave has no claim on me then came the morning that's heal the promise your very body begin to breathe and now of the silence the RO lion declare the grave has no claim on me and Jesus yours is the W [Music] victory yeah hallelu praise the one who set me free Hallelujah death has lost it g on me you have broken Every Chain there salvation in your name Jesus Christ hope hallelujah praise the one who set me free Hallelujah death has lost its grave on me you have
00:42:31 broken Every Chain there salvation in your name Jesus Christ my [Music] Liv Jesus Christ my living oh God you are my living home [Music] the people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of deep Darkness a light has Dawn this light is Jesus Christ now receive the benediction let's go forth in peace in love and charity with our neighbors may we be joined together in a common goal of service to our God our neighbors and our country now we come to the time of Holy Communion before we partake of the
00:43:36 elements uh just some quick personal sharing I I grew up in a Methodist Church where Holy Communion will also conducted every first week of the month but in a very methodical and lurgical manner obviously the United Methodist Himel has no less than four word and table order of services documented in perfect Old English including hymns complete with musical scores and and prayers orderly and structured as it may seem over the months and years it can quickly become quite ritualistic and repetitive such that we may sometimes
00:44:13 miss it significance both at the personal and communal level as I reflected on what Holy Communion really means to me there are two from the word holy and communion firstly the the pursuit of Holiness to reflect upon Christ's Holiness and his sacrificial death on the cross confessing our sins and committing to walk the path of righteousness as it is written be holy for I am Holy so when I when I come to the table I first examine myself as what the psalmist has written in Psalms 139 search me oh God and know my heart try
00:44:53 me and know my thoughts and see if there are there may be Grievous ways in me and Lead Me in the way Everlasting I Proclaim that my sins were part of the cause of Jesus's suffering and death I think honestly about any unconfessed sins any broken relationship that I need to mend or make right and I confess them in the presence of Christ who is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness secondly the word communion the communal part of the Lord's Supper has roots from the Greek
00:45:26 word coinonia which carries the notion of Fellowship of sharing of participation and contribution just as the early church devoted themselves to the apostles teaching the fellowship the breaking of bread and prayer in Acts 2:42 it is a reminder that as a body of Christ we share in his sufferings especially in these trying times even as we rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed way gudam in his Systematic Theology quoted beautiful hymn that speaks so clearly of the spiritual reality that we need to remember in the
00:46:03 Lord's Supper it conveys an attitude of reverence in the Lord's presence joy in Salvation and genuine repentance allow me to read this to us it's not a very well uh I mean not not a frequently sung hymn but it's it's a beautiful one nonetheless here oh my Lord I see thee face to face here would I touch and handle things unseen here grasp with firmer hand the Eternal Grace and all my weariness upon thee lean here would I feed upon the bread of God here drink with thee the Royal Wine of Heaven here would I lay aside each Earthly load
00:46:43 here taste aresh the calm of sin forgiven this is the hour of banquet and of song this is the Heavenly table spread for me here let me feast and feasting still prolong the brief bright hour of fellowship with thee I have no help but thine nor do I need another arm save thine to lean upon it is enough my Lord enough indeed my strength is in thy might thy might alone mine is the sin but thine the righteousness mine is the guilt but thine the cleansing blood here is my rope my refuge and my peace thy blood
00:47:25 thy righteousness oh Lord my God let us pray almighty God our heavenly father we acknowledge your presence here with us thank you for giving your son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our Redemption a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world we confess our many for sins and humbly ask that by the merits and death of Christ and through faith in his blood we may obtain forgiveness and all other benefits of his passion we offer and present ourselves our souls and our
00:48:03 bodies to be a reasonable holy and Living Sacrifice unto you we give you all honor praise and glory through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen so Brothers and Sisters in Christ in the spirit of Advent and the forthcoming Christmas season let us partake this Holy Communion the Lord's Supper as a redeemed and United Body of Christ first the bread the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed and took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of
00:48:47 me let's take the bread together in the same way also he took the cup after supper and when he had given thanks he gave he gave it to them saying drink of it all of you this is my blood of the Covenant which is poured out for many for the Forgiveness of sins do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me let's take the wine together and now May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and Minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his son Jesus Christ Our Lord and the blessing of God
00:49:49 Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be among you and remain with you always amen have a spirit filled week ahead and see you again next Sunday
