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00:00 It's a it's a it's an honor to be here. Going to start off nice and
00:07 uncontroversial and know it's a nice Sunday morning.
00:13 What is a sin recognized as a major problem in this country? Yet most of us
00:19 would deny we contribute to it. We are a family church here. Can somebody yell out something to me?
00:26 Corruption. Corruption. What else? Okay, I agree. Corruption is the major one. What else?
00:33 Sorry. Sorry. Wow. Very good.
00:39 Very good. Now, this is a topic we rarely get to talk on the pull pit. You see in the church when we talk about
00:46 sin, we like to say unforgiveness, corruption, sexual immorality. We say
00:54 all these things. When we come to racism, it's almost like it's not a sin.
00:60 because we rarely talk about it. Now, let me up the fire a little bit. Turn up the heat because today we're talking
01:05 about food, you know. Are you a racist Christian?
01:12 Ah, is it suddenly suddenly a bit more difficult right now? I I propose to you
01:18 if we all honestly, we all fall into two categories. The first is no, of course
01:24 not. How dare you say that? I I may be many things are not racist. I got a lot of friends who are then you list down
01:29 your whole list of friends who are from various nationalities. The other one privately in your heart
01:35 you say yes I am. So what everybody else also like that. So this
01:42 morning we need to talk about it because this text really deals with it because at that time Gentiles and Jews do not
01:49 mix. The Jews saw the Gentiles as very corruptible, sexually immoral,
01:55 idolatrous, dirty people. And the Gentiles saw these people very self-righteous, sanctimonious, think
02:01 they're better than everybody else. So, we're going to look at this today and see how it applies to the church. Now,
02:06 there's another more important reason, and the reason is this.
02:12 Because the church is part of a larger society. And nowadays in this country,
02:19 not one week will pass by without one of these issues being raised. And as you
02:25 know in this country, race and faith are interlin. You bring a concert in by bu,
02:31 you take a picture of his shoulders and they have some inscriptions on it. People get upset. They say you're
02:37 insulting their faith. You write a book and there's certain characters, our
02:42 Indian friends get upset. You step on a cow's head, our Hindu friends got upset.
02:48 You put out angels in envelope, they say giving pakam, our Chinese friends get upset.
02:53 So nothing passes by. You notice this country, this country is different. We
02:59 live forever and ever in this racial tension. And I think this chapter is
03:05 very important. Now on a lighter note we will know in this chapter we deal very heavily with food. Actually this one
03:12 downloading you get hungry already. Now let me explain a little bit about food which forms the center core of the text
03:19 today. You see Malaysia is interesting in the sense that we do get food from various cultures. Isn't it? In fact I
03:26 would suggest we the only country that does that in the world. I stand by that. You go to England. Yes. Chicken tikka is
03:32 the national food of of of our Londoner friends. But you have to go to the restaurant. Everything you see there is
03:40 probably 450 except the sate. You can just walk out here and you can have
03:45 Indian food, Chinese food, any kind of food. And the other thing is is localized. What's the point? The point
03:52 is the food represents our multicultural facet. This morning, brother Wyouong
03:60 very wisely brought up our international worship team. Now, let me ask you a
04:06 question about the church. Is the church like this multicultural,
04:13 localized from various cultures? A lot of people outside do not think the church is like this. You know what they
04:19 think the church is? They think the church is like this. Western food, you know, western
04:26 religion. Now, this is an important topic because of that. We're going to take this over
04:32 two weeks. Today, we're going to look at barriers to the kingdom community. And we're going to deal with a very
04:38 difficult topic about racism and discrimination. And we're going to take a very hard look at ourselves, whether
04:46 we practice it. Next week we're going to do how we're going to bridge culture and
04:52 customs. Look at the picture there and look at the the man and the woman. What are they carrying?
04:58 What do you do at Chinese New Year? This is Tamcha. Okay, we know that we have the pot, we have the cups. But what's
05:04 interesting where is this setting is a church. Ah, this is a bit of
05:10 incentive so that next week you all come. Next week we're going to really turn out our heat and look at crosscultural ministries and we're going
05:17 to look at Acts 10 and a bit of Acts chapter 19. Let's go before the Lord in prayer.
05:24 Lord, sometimes you confront us with uh parts of ourselves that we find it hard to admit. You confront us with um
05:34 with issues that perhaps we we are too proud to say we are like that. So this
05:40 morning we ask with humility on this. Lord I myself am not an expert in this
05:46 nor am I a a role model but Lord you ask that you humble all of
05:51 us and that this morning whatever I say will be pleasing to you. We say this in
05:57 Jesus name. Amen. Now you did a movie on this chapter. I'd like to thank sister
06:02 Rachel for very good reading of it. Who would be the main actor? Would it be Peter? Would it be Cornelius? You did a
06:09 movie. Who will be the main actor? What do you think?
06:14 Sorry. Cornelius. Cornelius. Anybody want to say Peter? I suggest to you both are lead actors.
06:22 Both are lead actors and there's a reason for it. Now you you find that there's a description of both of them.
06:28 Peter is the number one man. He's the head honcho. This is the man who did Pentecost. So he's extremely
06:34 influential. And we found as Rachel read to us, he held on to the custom of not associating
06:42 with Gentiles. Cornelius is a respectable man. He leads
06:47 a Italian regimen. There were 100 soldiers there. But he was different.
06:52 You see, most Gentiles didn't get on with Jews. But he was respected by the
06:58 Jews. We are told that. And he did not worship idols. He worshiped God, the
07:05 Jewish God. We don't know really how far detailed he was, whether he was a convert. Quite likely not. But he wasn't
07:13 an idol worshipper. Now, you have to ask yourself why. Now, let me try to bring the story out. It's a very long story.
07:19 It's a very interesting story. Now, bear with me and you see whether you you get where I'm coming from. Yeah. The story
07:26 starts off with what Cornelius praying. Like what Pog said, we got to pray. He
07:31 is praying at 3 p.m. which is the Jewish time to pray. What does he get when he prays? He gets a vision.
07:38 Then we talk about Peter. What is Peter doing? He is what in verse 9 he is
07:43 praying also. And what does Peter get? He also gets a vision. It's a different
07:49 kind of vision. Now what does what is Cornelius told to do? Cornelus is told
07:55 to go and get Peter. What is Peter told
07:60 to do? We find it in verse 19 onwards. He's called to go with them. You see
08:08 where we're getting it? And then they meet and then they meet. What happens? Peter
08:14 preaches and at the end you find the Holy Spirit comes and seals the deal.
08:20 Now the story starts off also where is Peter staying? He's staying at a place
08:25 of a man called Simon the tener. You know what the tener is today? It's like the guy who sells meat at the market.
08:31 You know my that's what the story is trying to imply. Meaning the guy is unclean but
08:38 Peter has no problem. The story ends with Peter staying at whose place? Cornelius place.
08:45 Big house, respectable man. But look at chapter 11 verse three. You went into
08:52 the house of uncircumcised men and at with them unclean. You see where we're
08:58 getting at? You find that God orchestrated the meeting. He sent out
09:06 two visions. Both of them prayed. He brought both of them together. I want us
09:12 to get into this a bit because this is very interesting. The other thing you look about the text, you notice timing.
09:19 Look at this. Look at verse 19. When Peter was still
09:25 thinking about a vision, the spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you." Verse 17, "While Peter was
09:33 wondering about the vision, the man sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was." Verse 44, while Peter was
09:42 still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. You You hear where I'm getting
09:48 at? At the right time, God made things happen. Just as they
09:56 were ringing the doorbell, is this Simon's house? That time, no G GPS. You know, they asked, "Is it is this Simon's
10:01 house?" His vision finished. Just as Peter finished his message, no
10:08 need to do alter call one. The Holy Spirit came. Timing
10:13 meeting two people. Do you know what is the single most used
10:18 word among people nowadays or what was last year the most happening thing in
10:24 the business world or in the in the in in among young people? Pastor Dorai brought it up if you all remember I see
10:31 whether you remember your your messages or not. He talked one day about the passion you know that Christians should have passion. Then he said something
10:37 else something else that competed with us for passion. What was it? Facebook.
10:43 Now let me give you the bigger word. The bigger word is called social network. I play Angry Bird. I admit to you Angry
10:51 Bird now got 800,000 users. 800. They're trying to hit 1 billion. You know, last
10:57 year Facebook was the most widely used internet search thing. Before that, it
11:03 was Yahoo and Google. What is the point? The point is we all want to be
11:08 connected. We all want to get online and hopefully find somebody that responds to
11:14 us. We want to network. We want to network. And out of the network, we hope
11:21 something comes back. In business, we do that. I got a piece of land. Say, you
11:27 are a developer. Let's have lunch. Or I'm a middleman. I know you got a land.
11:32 I know you're a developer. Let's go to have dinner together. And we broker a deal. We call that networking.
11:39 And now all of us you ask people who do business that networking can change your life. Somebody calls you, you pick up
11:47 the phone. Hey Sana, you meet two people together. God, you get connected.
11:53 Something happens. Now here is the good news. The good news is God connects people.
12:02 And when God connects people, what happens? People connect people and then
12:07 they connect more people and then they connect more people. God sent a vision
12:12 to Cornelius and to Peter. What happened? Cornelus sent a few people to
12:18 meet Peter. Then Peter you notice in the in the text the people very capable. They say okay some of the brothers you
12:24 find that in verse 23 decided to follow him. Then Con decided you know what I'm going to bring my relatives along. Then
12:31 I'm going to bring my friends along. two people became 10. 10 probably became 20.
12:38 And when 20 and 30 met and the Holy Spirit fell on them, by chapter 11, it
12:43 probably became 100, then 200, then a thousand. And by then, the Gentile
12:49 church is going to eclipse the Jewish church. Are you familiar the word MLM?
12:56 What does it stand for? Some of you who do this, no, you're wrong.
13:02 It stands for multi-level ministry. Multi-level ministry. I'm going to share
13:09 this with you. This business plan you ought to have, all of you should do is God connects people. We are used by God
13:17 to bring people together to hear the gospel. You are here today because
13:23 someone brought you here. And when God brings you together, God
13:28 expects you to bring others like Cornelius to invite his his uncle, auntie, grandfather, grandmother, all
13:35 his friends. Like Peter, are the disciples, you come along and we spread the good news.
13:42 Now the question is, are you part of the network?
13:48 Now that's important because we all stakeholders of the church. Sister Pogate just told us one voice. You are
13:56 either part of God's network or you're not. I want to share a story about myself.
14:02 Three years ago, I went through a spiritual crisis. I think we all do. I
14:07 was speaking to brother Danny in Puchong. Nowadays, I visit little do visitation to cell groups. And he he
14:13 made a very good description about the Christian life. Christian life, brother Danny, whe it's like a what? Roller
14:19 coaster. So, I was in a roller coaster going down. I I went through a crisis. It wasn't with my faith with God. It was my
14:26 faith with other people. We all go through it. And it was quite bad. I was very bitter
14:34 at that time. While I was bitter, if we use the text, God sent brother Moi. He
14:40 does not going to tell him. He sent it. He sent it to me. And Moi said, "You
14:45 know, you're going through this. Why don't you visit this cell group in
14:52 Sububang? That cell group consisted a few people
14:57 including brother Steven Sia. He's not here now. He's inside the globe cafe
15:03 and they also had just lost their leader. But brother Moby brought me to connect
15:09 with them. From them we developed a friendship. I stayed, I healed, we
15:15 became friends. That group now is called USJ3. They have grown. They have
15:20 multiplied and they are all serving in this church. What's the point I'm trying to tell you?
15:26 I'm trying to say this. In your life, at certain times in your life, in my life,
15:34 when you go through certain things, God will send people.
15:40 The question is this. When he sends people, do you listen?
15:46 I could have told movie no thank you here in this case Peter could have said
15:51 you know what because you notice God doesn't reveal all the details to him you know but he gets it God just says do
15:59 not call anything impure that God has made plain nothing else but then Peter makes
16:06 decisions now I want to ask you this morning you either hear totally by random anybody
16:14 you meet out there after this on Monday to Friday is either random or occasionally God puts people in front of
16:21 you. But when God puts people in front of you, what do you do?
16:27 I remember many years ago when I was a younger man, I I I could sense it. People come out and talk to me and then when they talk to me, I say, "You this
16:33 fellow getting too religious. Thank you. Thank you. I'm not free." I walk away.
16:38 And I suggest to you, if you think about it, that happens in your life. That happens in my life. And this morning God
16:45 is asking you when he speaks through people do you listen? The second thing
16:51 is this after he speaks to us we have a job to do and it's not a lot of work.
16:56 You see we all stakeholders in this church. I'll give you another example. I was having lunch I think few months in
17:03 in December with some old friends and this friend of mine were talking about raising tilapia fish. I I I'm an
17:08 architect. Don't tell me about tilapia fish. I eat it you know. Tell me how the fish very dirty. can change. Then he
17:14 went to talk about trees and mangoes and about you know very I am sorry I mean I I smile at him like know but he was a
17:21 very godly man and he was a very rich multi-million businessman drive the big Lexus car then he made a remark say you
17:28 know what I wish I could bless somebody with this business model it didn't occur to me you know what happened few weeks
17:35 later brother Yongun spoke here and he showed us L MK and showed us trees and
17:40 fishes I don't know fishes but not trees It occurred to me. So I gave him a call.
17:46 I say, "Hey, I know this guy know very rich man, very loaded. No, he can make tilapia fish very clean." So Yu say,
17:52 "Hey, you arrange lunch." So I arranged lunch and they started to sit together to talk about tilapia. Very boring for
17:57 me. All it did was one phone call. I normally make myself a hero. No big
18:04 deal. One phone go. Hey, are you free? We have lunch in I
18:09 introduce you to this fellow. Then when we sat down, we started talk. Then he begins to say, "Hey, I know you know
18:14 this person. You know this d in banting. Oh, you know this fellow in Ka, you know this guy going. Okay, I bring 10 guys up
18:20 there. We see whether we can put some money and and then invest in Lang MK." All he did was one phone call.
18:28 Now that's what I'm trying to say. Brothers and sisters, Sister Pug has said something very prophetic this
18:34 morning. We are one church, one voice. What are we doing for the church?
18:40 Sometimes all it takes is what? One phone call. Sometimes all it takes is
18:45 you go to Globe Cafe. Don't go and talk to your gang. Talk to somebody else. You'll be surprised. Then God is going
18:51 to do MLM, multi-level ministry. We learn in this text today, God just
18:58 brought two people together. Two became 10. 10 became 30. It became 100. And the
19:05 Christian church grew. And this morning, we want to challenge you to that. Now
19:10 let me just go on and we go to the core of the text and we just going to do this
19:16 over two weeks. Yeah. Now we have a vision here of and we we've told it in verse 12. He said it contains all kinds
19:23 of for-footed animals, reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Now we know of course Peter's not Chinese because
19:30 Chinese he will wallow all of it. But Peter being a righteous Jew, surely
19:37 not Lord. I have never eaten anything impure or unclean. No. Now, in a sense,
19:44 he's right. He's quoting from Leviticus. I won't go into it, but let me ask you a question. Is he entirely correct? And if
19:53 you know your Bible, you know he's not because in Mark, we are told a story where Jesus is eating and some Pharisees
20:01 are looking at him say, "Look at this fellow." You know, he doesn't clean the cup. And Jesus saying it says this in
20:07 Mark 17 15-16. Jesus called a crowd to him and said
20:12 listen to me everyone and understand this nothing outside a man can make him
20:17 unclean by going into him. Rather is what comes out of a man that makes him
20:23 unclean. And then verses 18 to 19 he repeats it. Are you so dull? Don't you
20:29 see that nothing enters a man from the outside can make him unclean? For it doesn't go into his heart, but into his
20:35 stomach and then out of his body. And here the key verse. In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean. Now, do
20:43 you think Peter wouldn't know this? Peter is part of the inner circle. He
20:48 knows this is what he call selective hearing. Why is that so? Why?
20:55 Let me give you a food example. Say today we we'll talk a lot about food today. This is spring chicken now. Oh,
21:00 very nice. with some salt. Beautiful. Look at he look very hungry. Very nice.
21:06 Look at Look at that spring chicken. No fat at all. Spring chicken. Very tender. And this is how they fried, you know.
21:13 Put some soyako. Cut it. But you see what I lied to you. It isn't spring
21:18 chicken. It's rats. And now looking at it, you turn. Huh?
21:26 You see Chinese also got a limit. You know, would you eat this at all? I know some of you people go to Raan, go to
21:32 Pchu to eat exotic food. I know who you are.
21:37 Dav all you ex I know who you are. I'm in a construction life. You know this. But
21:42 even the Chinese Starbucks has a little bit
21:47 now. Why? What's the point? I show this to my daughter after daddy put it off the computer. Switch it off. Cannot
21:54 hunt. Why? It looks unclean. It looks dirty.
22:03 What is the point? You see, God knew Peter's heart. When
22:08 Peter made a remark, I have never eaten anything impure. Look at the reply. Do
22:14 not call anything impure that God has made clean.
22:21 God knew Peter wasn't thinking about food. You know what? He was thinking about
22:27 people. Now, here's a question we're going to ask ourselves. Very difficult. Do you
22:34 feel the same way about people like that?
22:41 Now, that's difficult to answer, isn't it? That's difficult. I'm going to go through it roughly.
22:47 You see, in Luke 5, the Pharisees saw Jesus eating and he said, "Why do you
22:54 eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" You see unclean goes beyond
22:59 race types of people. Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to
23:07 call the righteous but sinners to repentance." And here's the question we ask. Who are your circle of friends? You
23:14 tell me you're not racist, very good. But who are your circle of friends? Do you have any people who are say not very
23:21 rich? Do you count among your friends those who are disabled?
23:27 How about those who have got bad backgrounds? How about those who got bad reputations?
23:32 When Jesus came on earth, who did he eat and drank and sat with? The tax
23:39 collector, the prostitute, the centurion,
23:46 all those that we would not put on our wedding list.
23:53 And that's an indictment on us. So this morning we ask are you and I racist? If
23:59 it is not is beyond racism is about discrimination.
24:04 And you see look at Peter he justifies it. No we find it 28. You're well aware
24:10 it is against our law for Jew to associate with a gentile. Justifying it just like with the food.
24:17 But God has shown me I should not call any man impure and unclean. Again, like
24:22 the thing about the food is half correct. Remember when Peter says, "Truly not, I have not eaten anything
24:28 impure, unclean." He's half right. Leviticus 11 says it. But we know God has done away with the ceremonial laws.
24:36 You are now made clean by the blood of the lamb, not by all these observations of rituals. Now, here's the same thing.
24:43 He's using a culture to say, you know what? in our in our setting in in my
24:49 kind of people we don't mix with you all but here again is a halftruth and we ask
24:56 again WWJD what is WWJD young people know what is
25:03 it exactly and in Luke 8 we learned this in
25:08 5 verse 5-7 when Jesus entered Captain a what a centurion
25:14 what is Cornelius is a centurion meaning gentile came to him asking for help.
25:20 Lord, he said my servant lies at home. Not even his son. No servant. You know
25:26 you show what a good heart he has paralyzed in a terrible suffering. What did Jesus said? I will go and heal him.
25:34 Heal where? His home. And you know the rest of the story. The the the centurion says, "Look, I'm not
25:40 fit to have you in my home. Just say the word. I'm a man of of of authority and
25:45 he'll be healed." And what did Jesus say about this gentile in whole of Judea? He
25:50 has not seen faith like this man. Half truth. Let's let let us absorb a little bit.
25:58 Peter justified his actual prejudice with selective Bible verses and his own cultural laws. Do we also justify own
26:05 racist and discriminatory attitude and actions? If suddenly
26:13 your your your daughter starts to date somebody from another race,
26:18 are really going to go into all the things you don't like to hear. Are you going to say I don't like him
26:24 because let's just say he's Indian or he's Chinese. You're not going to say that, right? You're going to say I think
26:32 his background like that. I think his character not very good. You know, I think you're
26:38 young. You should you should go out there and mix with more people. Correct or not? But the fact is the fact is
26:47 you don't like his smell. Hate to say it, right? Chinese people
26:55 are inherently racist or know they call ourselves middle kingdom. Everybody else
27:00 barbarians. Malays are very polite. Orangut. What do
27:07 Chinese say? Why? That's not so bad. What do we describe
27:14 our Malay friends? Malai. Ah, okay. Correct or not? I'm not even
27:20 going to say it. It's so inherent. Everywhere the Chinese go, what they do? They put out Chinatown.
27:26 We are such an inherent race. You must understand one thing. The Jews became racist because their culture made them
27:33 racist. We hear it in the words of Peter. He said it here say you are well. It is against our law for a Jew to
27:40 associate with a Gentile. Where the Bible does it say this? You won't even find it in the Old Testament.
27:47 But our culture makes us racist. And because we're too sanctimonial,
27:53 we're too righteous. I'm a Christian. I'm not racist. Then I open the Bible
27:58 and justify my behavior. And then we use nice language to couch it. In the 1950s
28:06 we had what we call as segregation. This is Martin Luther King.
28:11 And you see to dilute it we see things which we are happens in history again
28:16 and again. What do they call it? Call it race mixing. Sounds better. It's like ethnic cleansing. Sounds better. No, but
28:24 actually what is segregation where if you're colored you sit at the back of the bus. If you're colored you
28:30 get a smaller pool. The whites get a nice pool. If you're colored, you get a small little playground that's dirty.
28:36 The whites will get a nice playground in Birmingham. So what what do what do people do? They see race mixing is
28:43 communism. They play up fear. And we see that in society nowadays, isn't it? They hang that over us. No, they tell us you
28:50 do it, there's going to be a racial riot. You're against our nationality. You're
28:55 against our thing. That's why you people don't go to MCA stadium and doing you're not patriotic. They hang it over us.
29:03 And this morning I think God is teaching us a few hard truths. That's why we got to do two weeks in this. But you see you
29:10 look at the picture race mixing is communism. The reality is this. This is the real truth. You see in in the 17th
29:17 18th century you could do this. You do it now they hang you. But at that time people much more open about it. Now they
29:24 much more hypocritical about it. You look at the way that drawing is done. You know what the drawing is saying?
29:30 That drawing is saying is dirty for a black man to touch a
29:36 white woman. Am I not right? Is the way it is drawn. A picture tells a thousand
29:42 words. And at that time it was acceptable. Nowadays people still feel the same way
29:49 but they couch it in many languages. They couch it so we don't see it. Let's
29:54 go to the theology. There is two key points. theologically
29:60 God is trying to say. Number one, the kingdom of God is not exclusive for the Jews. Number two, being spiritually
30:07 clean is not about what food you eat that goes in and out your stomach. It is
30:12 not about how you sacrifice your animals. Is about realizing the cross
30:18 cleanses us of our sins. Now, this is a very important point and I hope we can sing this in today. It says two things
30:25 now. He says action. That means in the church we open our
30:30 doors to many people. But more importantly action comes from what? It comes from attitude.
30:36 Once you have an attitude that you're spiritually clean because you're a Jew, you are already on the wrong path. The
30:42 moment you say I'm spiritually clean by the cross, you take pride away. Now that
30:48 has tremendous implications for us. This is what he says. We are to
30:53 open our doors to everybody. And on this point, can I say something about ABC?
30:58 FBC is much better than a lot of other churches in this church. I am proud to be part of
31:05 this church. I'm telling you this, we can obviously we can always do better. But FBC members, one voice, you should
31:13 be proud. In this church, we have a large group. We have Mama and we have
31:20 our good friend, our architect friend, Michael here. Where's our Augustine? St. and Augustine, our trumpeter, right back
31:25 there. Hi, brother Augustine. We have our Filipino friends. Where's Annabelle, our OMG engineer? We have a and Paula.
31:32 Where's Vicki and the rest of them? Where's all Frederick? Where's your friends? Where are they? There. There we
31:37 have all them sitting down there. Okay. We have a large contingent of Filipinos. We have African brothers. We have a
31:43 large group of Indians. We should be proud of that and we can do better. But
31:49 here's the thing we got to ask ourselves. We are more inclined to associate with people based on external
31:55 rather than internal attributes. This is the point God is trying to make. Do not call anything do not call do not call
32:04 anything impure. God has made clean. But we tend to look at people externally
32:10 whether it's race whether it's his background whether he's got money or
32:15 not. And we like to associate with those people. If a tansfree sits in the church here tomorrow, I bet you by next week
32:22 word will go around. Hey, tonsree so and so has come to FBC.
32:28 But I put five people that Sam brings for morning glory sits here.
32:34 You see how many people have you seen at the area? Now I tell you this, why do I tell you this? I've seen it with my own
32:41 eyes in another church. I have seen it where a very famous ti walked in with a
32:46 wife and he went around like wildfire afterwards you see a lot of people sitting behind him one
32:51 but you put a group of poor people there the chairs around there quite empty and here the tragedy here's the tragedy
32:58 we can't admit it we are too self-righteous to admit we have racist
33:04 or discriminatory tendencies like Peter we will justify with
33:10 scripture That is the tragedy.
33:15 And here we get go to the facts of it. The key verse you want to learn today. God does not show favoritism but accepts
33:23 men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. And let us expand
33:28 beyond race. James tells us this as brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. Don't show
33:35 favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and the poor man in shabby
33:42 clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and says, "Here's a good
33:48 seat for you." But say to the poor man, "You stand there or sit on the floor by
33:53 my feet." Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? This morning we ask
34:00 ourselves a simple question. We're going to do this over two weeks. The question is who do you and I mix
34:08 with in church? Who do you and I want to actually go out and reach out to?
34:15 Some of us are racist. Some of us are not so racist. But all
34:20 our friends are samaki highend. All those, you know, the tler crowd. You
34:26 know, you're not going to mix with a wan mean seller down there in Sububang. you know, go and reach out to the guy who
34:32 sells roti China down there. And if you're honest with yourself, we
34:38 all struggle with this. I'm going to prove that to you in this week and next week. We all struggle with this. Okay?
34:46 And I'm going to close in a short while because this is a difficult chapter. I want to tell you how this goes.
34:54 You will imagine after God has done this, people will be happy.
35:00 You would imagine after all this has happened and the Holy Spirit came,
35:06 people will be excited. But what are we told in verse chapter 11? He says what? They are unhappy. Why?
35:16 Not because he said the wrong thing. Not because the something they didn't understand. They were unhappy that Peter
35:24 had with them. Now I'm going to just expand this a
35:30 little bit because we're going to go through this in detail. And chapter 11, Peter has to very gently explain to
35:36 them. You know what? They are your brothers. Okay, you just just flip with me. And at the end of chapter 11, verse
35:43 18, just turn to it. Yeah. All these people who say, you know what, I I can't accept this. When they heard this, they
35:49 had no further obstruction. And praise God. So then God has granted even the Gentiles repentance onto life. Wow.
35:57 Very good, isn't it? You think problem solve, everybody happy? Turn with me
36:02 down to chapter 15 and look at verse one.
36:10 Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers, unless you're circumcised according to the
36:16 custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved. What were we saying? First, God had to
36:22 change Peter's mind. After that, instead of the the Jewish
36:28 believers being happy, they are upset. So, chapter 11, Peter got to explain to them, you know what? You guys don't be
36:34 so racist. They are your brothers. You thought story ended. No. Chapter 15, it
36:40 repeats again. You know what? Chapter 15, they're saying they're saying, okay, Ken, we accept you into our into our
36:47 club, you know, but you must be like us. You must be circumcised.
36:52 We're going to deal with this next week. And now look at that. You have the whole
36:58 council, the whole leadership trying to explain to them, you know, this is wrong. Look at verse 19. It is my
37:03 judgment. Therefore, we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. And the whole church has
37:10 to be changed. Now you thought after that all over they all now learn the
37:17 whole church has told them everybody change. even more objections. And you know where
37:24 the objections come from now? We find this in the book of Galatia. We find
37:30 this in chapter 1 verse 11. And if you were around when Uncoming was here, he brought this up. And this time, who is
37:37 the one who played double standards? Anyone of you can tell me. Is Peter.
37:43 Here's the tragedy of the story. Turn with me to Galatia chapter 2 verse 11.
37:50 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to a faith because it was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from
37:57 James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw
38:03 back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those
38:08 who belong to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy so that by their hypocrisy
38:15 even Barnabas were led astray. Now, if can you imagine Cornelius
38:23 hearing this? Here's the man that Cornelius fell on the feet. Here's the
38:29 man Peter who preached the good news in his house, stayed with him. The Holy
38:34 Spirit came. Here's the man, the next chapter in chapter 11 of Acts tells the Jewish believers, you know, you guys are
38:40 racist. They are your brothers. What is he doing here? He eats with them, but when the Jews
38:47 come, he backs off. And if you are Cornelius, imagine how you felt.
38:54 I want to end here with a point. Peter, if Peter, the apostle who was
39:01 with Jesus, the apostle whom God says the gate of hell would not prevail again, the
39:09 apostle who preached at Pentecost, the apostle who could raise from the dead,
39:14 has racist tendencies, what are the chances you and I have it?
39:22 100%. We just can't admit it. If it's not racism, is discriminating.
39:30 And the fact that I brought you through this whole series is to show you how difficult it is for us to extract
39:37 ourselves from being racist or discriminating. We look at Acts chapter 10,
39:43 God had to deal with it. Acts chapter 11, God had to deal with it. Acts chapter 15, God had to deal with it. And
39:51 then after that, not enough. The whole epistle of Galatia is about this.
39:57 It's a difficult topic. Next week, we're going to ask ourselves,
40:03 how do we do it? Because c reaching out to cultures is not so simple. Putting
40:10 out your hand to a guy who has HIV AIDS is easy to say up here. In your heart, you don't want to do it. And some of us
40:17 in this country, let's let's just say a passing remark. When you feel you're discriminated
40:23 against, when you see another person, I'm going to say this very very
40:28 carefully. Another person whose aggregate in his studies is lower than
40:33 yours, but he gets into university and you don't because of the color of his skin. When you go to the bank and you
40:40 apply for a loan, you can't get the Smi loan, but another guy gets it. you harbor bitterness and it perpetuates and
40:49 perpetuates the racism. So this morning we're just going to ask
40:54 one question. What did God do with Peter? Before Peter could preach to the
41:02 Gentiles, God had to change Peter's attitude. And even after God did it,
41:10 Peter reverted to his old habit. So this morning we're going to ask ourel we're
41:16 going to go into prayer afterwards that we search our hearts. We're going to search our hearts and ask ourselves do
41:22 we are we discriminating against other people when we when we when we leave
41:27 this hall and we go to Globe Cafe. Are there certain people you don't want to sit with? When you go out and work
41:33 tomorrow and you sit with your friends over lunchtime are you going to make the
41:38 usual racist remarks? blah blah blah blah blah blah English translator you know this government and
41:45 then the rest is all all the kind of remarks are you going to buy Gardinia bread
41:51 ah say yo the fact that you know it those of you don't know it talk to me
41:58 later but you see isn't it you see I tell you why we are we are a church which God is
42:04 blessing because we are a real church and in this church we deal with every issue we don't hide it. We don't pretend
42:11 to be self-righteous. We deal with it. I don't stand here to tell you, hey, I'm
42:17 I'm holy Joe. But what I've been encouraged, if Paul, if Peter can fall, so can we. I want to end now with a
42:26 saying from Martin Luther
42:31 King. Not Martin Luther. Martin Luther in 1950s fought very heavily for the
42:36 civil rights movement and he was thrown in jail. in jail. He wrote a series of letters which was known very famously as
42:43 the Birmingham letters and he wrote a piece which I think is very prophetic. I want I want you to hear this. In a time
42:51 where racism was very strife in America, in a time now in this country as we hate
42:57 for elections, where where people put this sword overhead that there may be blood on the streets if you vote for
43:03 certain parties, when people stir up things, when it's very easy to walk out this hall and get angry,
43:09 what is the role of the church? Hear this from Martin Luther King and what he wrote in prison. And as John Piper says,
43:17 they are prophetic today as it were then. There was a time, this is what Martin
43:23 Luther King wrote. There was a time when the church was very powerful.
43:30 In a time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to
43:35 suffer for what they believed. In those days, the church was not merely a
43:41 thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion. It was a
43:46 thermal state that transformed the moss of society.
43:52 But the judgment of God is upon the church today as never before.
43:58 If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church,
44:04 it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be
44:11 dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 20th century.
44:19 I want to end with those words. The C in FBC is not club, it's church.
44:27 And may we be the church as Paul said in Ephesians chapter 2
44:34 where the cross divides and brings together brings down the hostility among
44:40 races. Let me end with another quote. This is from a South American pastor
44:49 in the gospel coalition. He said this last year which I thought was very interesting. He's part of the gospel
44:55 coalition. He said, "In 208, many hope the election of an AfricanAmerican president will finally bridge the racial
45:02 divide in the United States." This is only a quote from two years ago.
45:07 Today, we're left wondering why racial tensions have not abated. That's so true in this country. The only solution
45:14 powerful enough to bring about reconciliation is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel that announces that
45:20 through his blood, Jesus has demolished the dividing wall that separates humanity and brings all ethnicities
45:26 together into one body. And what is the body? The church. This morning, God has
45:33 a message for all of us. If we all but network, if each one of you went out
45:38 there and was kinder to a person who was poorer, of a culture you didn't like, of
45:45 a race you had issues with. If you shook hands with a HIV guy, if you went out
45:50 there to a person who society didn't like and you showed love, each one of us
45:55 did that, we will be transforming society. People
46:01 out there will say it's a racist country. But but when they step into this hall, they say, you know what is
46:06 different here. This is a church does not have hostility.
46:12 This is a church worthy of heaven. Let us go before the Lord in prayer.
46:19 Lord, we come before you now. We in this very difficult question we ask of ourselves.
46:26 Are we racist? And if we we we really really ask our hearts,
46:31 we all are. It's just to the degree. Sometimes our anger is because we feel we've been marginalized by certain
46:37 policies. Sometimes it's just a superiority complex. We look at another person, we
46:43 just say, you know what, we don't like his smell. But deep down inside, Lord, teach us to
46:50 remember that we are called by grace. that you have called us Jew, Gentile,
46:57 slave, free man, male, female, Chinese, Indian, African, Filipino,
47:02 whoever is in this hall by grace. Oh Lord, we are called into one family, one voice. And when we
47:10 get to heaven, we will die together. And Lord, we better start practicing that now.
47:16 Lord, transform this church that the cross by the blood of the cross, the cross has divided the hostility between
47:22 Jews and Gentiles. And so we should be the same. We pray that when people come
47:27 to this church, they will see that fellowship. They will see that this is a church that does not discriminate. And
47:32 by that they say this is different from the world. And if all of us did that and
47:38 all of us on Monday went out to work and did that, we will network and network
47:43 and we will grow and grow and the gospel message will be spread.
47:49 You started with two people, oh Lord, Cornelius and Peter, and it turned out to be thousands. Surely with us, oh
47:56 Lord, surely with this church, we can do that and more. So we go in faith, oh
48:02 Lord, to say, let us be one voice. Let us heal this land, oh Lord, to bring
48:08 about unity. And we say this in Jesus name. Amen. Like to invite the worship team to come up. We're going to sing the
48:15 song that
