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00:02 Good morning. Late morning to everyone. Since everyone is there, I better move this a bit more. That side.
00:11 Sorry, I'm not Michael. Michael is a bodybuilder. I'm a bit more. Okay, great. Thank you. I'm going
00:19 to do a message which I actually shared with the international students yesterday about Christians and culture.
00:26 So, those of you who here yesterday, try not to fall asleep. We'll expand a bit more. Hopefully, Sister Paula, brothers
00:33 from Cameroon, we learn a bit more about the country they are studying in. But this is an important topic for the rest
00:40 of us who are Malaysians because it affects us
00:46 and we've been doing this fair bit on Friday. I I had the privilege of being in in Belinda cell group and we shared a
00:51 bit. So this is a bit of what has been shared and we want to expand this a bit. You see culture,
00:59 race and religion are interconnected. For example, you you give an anga, you
01:06 check the history of the anga is actually a pagan belief because is about
01:11 witching prosperity. In the early days, the anga actually had pictures of
01:17 deities on it. So I know some Christians who not believe in giving out angals.
01:24 How about our Indian friends? The Indian classical dance is heavily involved in
01:32 religion. The Indians even have a god for it. He's got god Shiva. Shiva is the
01:38 patron god of dance. So here's the thing about Asian culture. Asian culture is
01:43 very entrenched in religion. Now if we separate ourselves from it
01:49 would then people say that hey you know you're forgetting your roots. So we want to look at it this morning and see how
01:55 it affects us. Let me just go through a bit of this history. Okay. And this one, brother Ellen shared with us on Friday.
02:02 I shared a bit yesterday, international students. I want to expand it a bit. This is Hudson Taylor, very famous uh uh
02:10 missionary who went to China and spoke the language. By the way, you international students, you'll be here
02:16 after many years, you'll be speaking like Malaysians. I met Brother Joy from Botswana and Brother Souk.
02:22 He spoke to me. I've been here in four years.
02:27 My goodness, frightening. So Paula, you be careful. Four years time, if you're still here, you'll be speaking like one
02:33 of us. So here, Hudson Taylor is a man very revered because he totally immersed himself in Chinese culture. Now I want
02:42 to ask a question especially to our Chinese friends here, okay? Not those from Tanamera, not Belinda cell. That
02:49 one cannot answer all you at the back. But here's the thing. You look at the robes of this two Jesuit priests.
02:56 This is from the 16th century in the Ming dynasty and this is in theQing dynasty in the 17th century. You look at
03:03 the robes and look at what Hudson is wearing. Do you see a difference?
03:09 Cannot answer the back. What do you think? You anybody look at that again.
03:17 You look at the the things here. These are royal robes you know these are robes
03:22 of people who serve in the imperial court
03:28 and in the 17th century especially under Emperor Kangi the Jesuit priest had
03:35 access right into the courts and the emperor used the priests as his royal
03:42 advisers because they were very schooled in things like astrology and they brought many wonders and and Kangi is
03:49 very well known as a man who reformed China. A Manchu emperor who brought together the Han people in unity.
03:56 So entrenched were they in Chinese culture. The respect is so deep. They took one of
04:03 the most revered books of the Chinese, the analex of Confucious. These are
04:08 Jesuit priests, you know, and translated that to Latin. This was a time
04:15 when the white man came to China and the white man was harmonious with Chinese
04:21 culture. Nowadays you say you're a Christian they say
04:29 you become a white man. You see you go to church you become a white man.
04:37 Now along the time something happened. Some other monks, the Franciscan monks
04:44 and the Dominican monks came and they taught the Jesuit priests were bending backwards too much to the Chinese
04:51 especially one area. What is the most important thing to the Chinese in terms of culture? One of the most important
04:58 thing is honoring your father and mother also education. Chinese this education
05:04 or that. And why? because it's about failure piety and with Chinese culture
05:10 it transcends a bit to what ancestral worship so the Dominican monks not happy what
05:16 they do they complain to the pope and see it only Jesuit priests are are encouraging pagan practice now you read
05:23 your history the priests the Jesse priest went to talk to the emperor and
05:28 beg the emperor to write a letter to the Vatican and here the emperor of the great middle kingdom actually wrote a
05:35 letter to Pope Clement and said you know what this is our culture is not idol worship and you know what the pope
05:41 replied cannot cannot cannot no no no no
05:47 idol worship you you don't allow person to come near a plate like that cannot so
05:52 you do that to the emperor guess how the emperor feels in Cantonese we call it home
05:59 really don't give face so the emperor issued a decree no more missionary
06:04 priest allowed And after that from the 17th century onwards when his grandson took to the
06:11 throne the grandson was very anti-Christian ban all missionaries from 300,000
06:18 missionaries missionaries who translated the sayings of confucious missionaries
06:23 that were so close to the king the right hand side of the king 20 years later
06:30 they were not allowed in the forbidden city. And by the time we go to the 18th
06:36 century, the 19th century, Christianity was considered a white man's religion.
06:43 Here in India, this is a man called Sadu Singh. Sund
06:48 Singh, sorry. Sund Singh came from a very wealthy Punjab family. And what are
06:54 all Punjabis? They are in they believe in Sikism. According to his autobiography, one day
07:00 he received a vision from Jesus because he sat down and prayed and he said Jesus
07:06 came to him a vision. I'm going to show you a comic. And this is he went to his father. He
07:12 said he has seen Jesus. And what happened? The father cast him out. He
07:20 cut his hair. He cast him out for betraying his race. And later on the
07:25 story goes the family poisoned him and some poor Christians rescued him
07:33 and history records Sunda Singh then entered s seminary an Anglican seminary
07:39 and learned about the Bible very deeply. I read some of his writing. He's a very very intelligent writer.
07:47 And one day he decided he was going to walk out in the footsteps like Gautama
07:53 Buddha to just wander the streets and he was going to call himself a sadu.
07:59 And the white man was very horrified. He said, "Why are you doing that? Why are you dressed like a sadu?" He said,
08:07 "Because that's what Jesus was. Jesus was like a sadu." A sadu is an Indian
08:12 holy man. A sadu has no possessions. A sadu walks the streets and teaches about
08:20 enlightenment. But he will walk the streets and eat with everybody and tell
08:26 them about Christ. And Sund Singh remained true to this
08:31 calling. One day he walked into Nepal and he disappeared.
08:38 Now the problem is this. Why did a white man react the same way the way the pope reacted? Because a sadu is an Indian
08:46 holy man. Sunda Singh said this, there are many people in India around the world who
08:53 like to hear about the master. These people need witnesses to the truth but not western culture. Indians desperately
09:00 need the water of life but they do not want it in European vessels.
09:06 Whether you're from Cameroon or Sagal or Ghana or Botswana or Malaysia or India or Kazakhstan or Pakistan, by the way,
09:14 those are the people who come to our church. We are truly international. Wherever you go, you call yourself
09:22 Christian, there are people who say white man's religion,
09:27 white man's belief, you betray your race, your people.
09:33 But if we embrace our culture, our culture is totally interwoven with
09:39 pagans, where do we separate? This morning, for the next half an hour, we will deal with
09:45 this and ask that the Lord give us wisdom. Let's come before God in prayer. Lord,
09:50 we ask for this difficult topic and we ask that your word guide us and your word guide us alone.
09:58 that we too even as evangelical Christians have culture.
10:03 Let us remove the shackles of culture for Christ is above culture.
10:08 God is God of the nations. Oh Lord, you are Elohim as much you are Yahweh. Teach
10:14 us that this Lord and may your word enlighten us. We say this in Jesus name. Amen. Let's go back to Acts chapter 10.
10:22 This is the same chapter we looked at last week. We are just going to reook at the same chapter again. If you forgot
10:28 last week we looked at how Cornelius met Peter and how what we discovered was in
10:35 the end Peter's a racist and
10:40 this morning we will take a sing for former prime minister in a in a
10:46 interview on February 22nd this country everybody is racist now everyone talks about own interest
10:53 doesn't care about other people's interests so let's not hide and say we're not racist is and last week we
10:58 only had one message. We all racist. Easy to say that. Now this week we talk
11:03 about how do we go past that racism. Okay. And we learned last week just a quick recap of what we what we studied
11:09 last week. God accepts men from every nation. Remember this word every nation.
11:15 The nations have come to FBC. Every nation who fear him and do what is
11:21 right. And then God showed Peter two things. A the church is not a club.
11:27 everybody. Number two, being a Christian is not about following rules and regulations. They are part of being a
11:34 Christian, but it is about the cross. The cross makes us clean. You got to
11:39 really pick up this thing. We're going to expand that today. And we have what we call the Cornelius model. And it's a
11:45 sequence. We find in chapter 10. A lot of it is how God tries to reprogram
11:51 Peter. So you can't reach out to your non-Christian neighbors, your
11:56 non-Christian wife, your non-Christian family members. You can't reach out to other cultures unless you yourself are
12:03 reprogrammed. So God changes his attitude first. Then God chooses someone
12:09 which is easier for him to connect with. A man called Cornelius. Although he was a gentile, he was very sympathetic to
12:15 Jews. Same thing as for us. When we reach out to other people, we try to find common ground. Then God wanted him
12:23 to go. He didn't want Cornelius to come to him. And then the one that got Peter
12:28 to trouble was he at with Peter and Cornelius and Peter at and Peter stayed
12:34 at Cornelius's house. And we learn in chapter 11 the Jews got very upset.
12:40 Now what is one of the reasons why people are racist? Okay, you will find a lot of
12:46 studies say is because people have a superiority complex. Now, it's very easy
12:51 to point to say, you know what? You don't accept me because you think you're better than me. But here's the point.
12:59 When we turn it around, we do the same. We just don't admit it. When you don't
13:04 want certain people to come to church, you know what you're saying? You're saying, "I am good enough for the
13:09 church, but you are not." Then God will ask you on what basis you are cleaner than the other guy. Ask yourself a
13:16 little bit of this. Okay? You say you're equal. Your head says it. The heart
13:22 doesn't say it. Now, let let's go a little bit on culture and and and and and pick this up a little bit. Uh
13:30 there are some Christians out there in some churches who don't celebrate Christmas, don't celebrate Easter. They
13:36 have their rights. No. Some churches they believe in the bill. Some churches believe in speaking in tongues. A lot of
13:42 things we can disagree over. So, I had I had an engineer who who was like that. I didn't realize that. So I had a meeting.
13:49 I said, "Hey, brother, blessed Christmas. What are you doing for Christmas?" The way he replied me like
13:55 that. I don't celebrate Christmas. Very gentle. Huh? Then he added, "We
14:03 just follow the word of God." Wow. What are you trying to say to me?
14:09 You are saying I don't follow the word of God. Very gentle. Very gentle. Right. But the
14:16 tone he's very self-righteous you know the intuition is there you know now for
14:23 those of us who come for families where idol worship is part and parcel I come from an idol worship family very strong
14:30 at many years is the same thing in
14:41 English translation no need to say the look on the face is is enough
14:47 people ask you hey you want to pay respects I I don't go not I not for me
14:53 is Christian cannot go the tone of your voice
14:58 can say later big small who do you think you are who the peep do you think you
15:04 are and then go down further yeah you European devil so
15:12 don't go people call you European devil you before people say you worship your idol. So what to do? Uh so we'll study
15:18 that a bit today. Yeah. Okay. So first thing we need to realize is
15:24 this. The problem with the early church was the Jewish Christians wanted to make the
15:30 gentile Christians like them. Is a cultural imposition. And in Acts chapter
15:35 15 we find out they're trying to force the Gentiles to be circumcised.
15:41 Meaning you want to be Christian. You must be like me. You must join the club.
15:48 Okay. Here's a beautiful church. Look at that Renaissance architecture. Symmetry.
15:55 Look at the podestess. The epidome of European architecture.
16:01 Totally out of place in Beijing. Absolutely doesn't respect the like the
16:07 colors don't even match. I'm an architect so it really irritates me. You know, it has it looked like you took the
16:13 building, just stuck it there. Now, here's the thing about us. The church is
16:19 very much viewed as a place for westernized Asians.
16:26 Our songs are English. Our books are English. Every speaker,
16:32 every quote from an American or British, there are more Christians in Africa than
16:37 they are in Europe. Why aren't we getting quotes from African Christians? Why do we need a missionary from England
16:42 to come and tell us what to do? And these are serious questions. So we have to ask ourself a little bit of that. And
16:49 in some parts of the world, there's a brother here in the first service who's from Pakistan. He's from Pashawa.
16:56 And you read the papers two weeks ago, an American soldier shot a lot of Afghanistan civilians. What do they do?
17:04 They burn the cross. Why? Americans equal Christians.
17:09 But Christianity came from Palestine. It is not a white man's religion. Why are
17:15 we stuck with that? And we need to move out of that dependency and that kind of
17:21 image. We must understand our God Elohim. The Hebrew word means God of all
17:28 nations. We must understand Galatians tells us there's neither Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, female. We are one in
17:35 Christ and we need to move to that kind of culture. So let's talk about how we
17:40 then go out and we learned just now how God pornas with Peter and then made an
17:48 effort to reach the community. You you you I saw at least in the bus
17:54 stop, you know. I mean, you can see you go to a bus stop. You see a friend of ours in Canada, we call pa totally
18:01 wrapped up. And then you have another girl sitting next to her with a with a skirt as short
18:08 as a belt. What do they have in common? One will
18:13 say the other girl is a war. Another one, look at you, you're a ninja. There nothing in common. There's a lot
18:19 of disrespect. Now what is the basis for respecting one another? What was the basis between the
18:26 uncrist non-Christian Cornelius and the Christian Peter? Look at verse two of
18:32 chapter 10 about Cornelius. This is what scripture describes Cornelius as a non-Christian. Now remember the emphasis
18:38 non-Christian. He and his family were devout and god-fearing.
18:45 He gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. But you must understand he wasn't a Christian. You
18:50 know the fear of God. The fear of God. He was
18:57 devout and God-fearing. That was not enough. God wanted to make
19:03 him Christian. And he had certain behavior which God needed to change. Look at verse 25. When Peter came to
19:11 Cornelius, as Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet
19:16 in reverence. But Peter made him get up. Stand up. He said, I'm only a man myself.
19:23 What was Cornelius doing? Is something we are very familiar with with ancestral
19:28 worship. He is honoring Cornelius the way a lot of us honor the dead. This is almost
19:37 like ancestral worship. And Peter senses the idolatry. So Peter says, "Stand up.
19:43 I am only a man. I am not an idol. I'm not a demigod. I'm only a man.
19:52 You see, Asian culture like Roa, we mix everything together. Have you seen this
19:58 movie called The Mummy? Quite a long time ago. The younger people may not have seen it. There's one scene where
20:04 the mommy faces this guy and he got chain of amulets and the monster go and
20:12 he takes off the aba. Oh, doesn't work. Wow. Okay.
20:19 Hail Mary full of grace. Hail Mary doesn't work.
20:25 Then he takes out the Jewish Jewish. Oh, then the fellow pulls back.
20:31 Chinese are like that. Chinese don't fear God. They fear what happens to them. The more God's better
20:40 all one get right on the Chinese to you. our Hindu friends say po
20:47 that's why Christians can go to church on Sunday and weekday go and believe in fun
20:53 but don't tell church people but better just to be saved nothing wrong no choose
20:59 the right day you see we say we fear God but we don't we fear what happens to us we come to
21:05 church because we want to have a visa to go to heaven want to make sure when we get up when we
21:10 die we're not really sure whether God's up there but I'll come to church when I die. At least I know I'm quite sure I'll
21:16 get somewhere. So, we don't fear God. We fear what happens to us. You think about it. There's a big difference. What is
21:23 the real definition of fearing God is like how you fear your father and
21:28 mother? You have reverence for your mom and dad. You don't want to do something
21:34 that hurts your parents. That is the meaning of the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. But a lot of us, we
21:41 don't fear God. We fear what happens to us. That's superstition. And Asian society is deeply into that
21:48 and that leads to idolatry. And here the the anger tax we got to get in. The first thing Peter did to Cornelius to
21:55 make sure you don't go into idolatry. Now here the question we asked today.
22:02 How do we build relationships in cultures very entrenched with pagan practices?
22:08 I'll give you a few examples across the board. Yeah. Okay, we'll take a point in the text
22:15 that gives us an anchor. Acts 15. This issue of circumcision becomes so bad
22:21 because the Jewish Christians are forcing it on Gentiles. And Paul says this, it is my judgment. We should not
22:26 make it difficult for the Gentiles turning to God. So we ask, are we making it difficult for those of different
22:32 racial social backgrounds to become Christians? How do we do that? Here is a few
22:38 difficult issues. If you are Chinese and you come from a idol worship background
22:45 like me, you have to go to Chingming. I've been to Ching Ming for many years. Chinese New Year when a younger boy, we
22:51 held the jawstics for years. I did that. I used to go to temple pap. We used to
22:57 do all the meditations. If I become a Christian, I tell my mom that I don't want to go. Wow.
23:05 You go. Wow. I woripper. So because to Chinese this is both
23:12 worshiing but it's also respecting. So it's a struggle. It's a real struggle.
23:18 And I tell you I fully understand this. I want to dis go into this a little bit.
23:23 Somebody gave you a Buddha head. We discussed this at great length in in two cell groups. But a Buddha head actually
23:30 is a sculpture. Can I put the Buddha head in the corner of my garden? Maybe put a lot of flowers
23:36 so nobody sees it. You know, so when does it stop being a
23:42 sculpture and becoming an idol? Indian classical dance is fully involved
23:49 in their religion. So are we saying that all classical Indian dancers cannot become Christian?
23:56 I'm losing hair. There's an ayuidic cleaning out there. Netas herbal shop.
24:05 But herbal is I vidic. Are you vician terms vic
24:11 is an Indian belief you cannot be believing in this is totally pagan by the way I spent four
24:18 years in India I've been speaking like an Indian four years in hyderabad
24:24 so cannot even lose hair also cannot go there cannot buy the soul cannot do
24:30 chong cannot meditate jalot everything cannot
24:37 All our Asian culture is entrenched in this. So how become banana
24:43 coin? So we stuck. We are really stuck. Don't do either way you're jammed. So
24:50 are there biblical principles to guide us through here? The first principle we see in this story of how a Jew reached
24:57 out to a gentile. Gentiles who are very strongly idol worshippers. Gentiles who
25:02 took food and the food was very connected to idol worship. And in chapter 15, Paul says, "You want to eat
25:09 can but don't stumble your Jewish brothers. Don't eat in a way where the
25:15 Jewish Christian thinks you are actually doing idol worship." Now there's a principle we draw upon here. Now I want
25:22 to ask a question to all the Chinese. Is there a difference between fer piety
25:29 and respecting your family? Okay, anyone knows what the fifth
25:35 commandment is? Honor your father and mother so that you
25:41 may live well in the land God has given you. The Chinese word for this, the Cantonese
25:48 word for him means you believe in respecting your
25:53 family to the end. You know that mean that is the ultimate that means in all
25:59 things is to honor and respect your family.
26:05 Now here's one thing we must read the 10 commandments in. What is the first commandment?
26:11 You shall have no other gods. No other gods. besides me. Now the way
26:17 the ten commandments are done is they're not 10 separate commandments. The first commandment informs the nine others. You
26:24 break the first commandment. You break the rest of commandments. That's why the first commandment is given. I am the
26:31 Lord God who brought you out of slavery of Egypt into the into this land. Then the first thing God said, you shall have
26:37 no other gods before me. Why does he say that? Then after that he had the rest.
26:43 The first is the base is the pillar. Everything is informed from that. Now how how do we read commandment five and
26:50 the first? Honor your father and mother but honor your father and mother in a
26:57 way that we shall have no other gods before God.
27:02 That is the way the commandment is entrenched. Filipote removes that.
27:10 That's why Philippi it goes from honoring your mom and dad and I've been told is a adulteration of a confucious
27:17 teaching because Confucious never taught that and it goes to rearrating the dead.
27:23 So here's a question I ask you. Can you go for Ching Ming? If say your your
27:29 relative your mother or your not so sorry your one your uncles passed away and it's a be Buddhist funeral or Tawis
27:36 in Malaysia they roa everything. You go down there and they ask everyone to come in front p everybody pie. Everybody take
27:42 jostick. You say no no no unclean step at the back.
27:47 You go there you pie. Ah idle worshipper. So here is what the text informs ush. Point number one. Nowhere
27:54 does the Bible say you cannot do cannot do ching or anything. In fact you see
27:60 Paul in a he engages the idol worshippers. Going for chaming is biblical. Why? It shows respect. Holding
28:07 a jaw stick is unbiblical. You draw the line on that. I went for chingming for
28:13 years. I had a friend who went for Chingming and because he wouldn't hold the jaw stick his family were very
28:20 upset. After few years of all the three siblings, he was the only one who went
28:27 every year and clean the grave. The other two who were not Christian make a lot of noise. Oh, you so and so and so
28:34 never went to the grave. So after a while people pick it up. They see that you know what this is the person who has
28:40 the heart. You know that's respect. You see it takes time. It's long. And if
28:46 you're stuck in that it takes time after the first service. I didn't realize what a big issue it was for so many of our
28:51 members in our church. A lot of us have these issues. You you go someone passes
28:57 away you you go to the funeral. you say when they pie you don't want to do that it's insulting but the Bible never says
29:04 you can't go stand at the back okay and maybe just bow like that that's not going disrespect I give you example you
29:11 you have a wedding you invite your Muslim friends here would you like it your Muslim friends say oh church haram
29:17 I go wait outside for you and eat the food insulting right you want your Muslim friends to come to the church and
29:23 what do we do in the church service we pray now have you seen what Muslim friends do when we stand up pray they
29:29 don't pray they keep their eyes open but the fact that they're in the hall means they show
29:35 respect and the shame of it for us Christians sometime we don't even have the dignity to do that so this morning I
29:43 ask you if you have non-Christian spouses family relatives build a bridge
29:49 but stop at idol worship it may be a bit difficult we can discuss that privately yeah here's a example where I think a
29:57 line is crossed Here's a Catholic church. Now, I I mean no disrespect to any of our Catholic friends. And you
30:04 know, our Catholic friends, they they like to use candles. They started off with using the chamcha,
30:10 you know, teacups to do their Lord's supper. I think that's okay. I think we
30:16 can do lot supper in Chinese cups. I think we don't care about that. But here after that, they went to candles. And
30:22 you notice what they did? They replaced the Catholic candle with the Chinese candle. You know, you saw that. And what
30:28 do you see that here? You see that thing? That's jawsticks. You know,
30:33 now when a Catholic priest takes a jawstick and bow like that, guess what sign you're telling people? Especially
30:39 in ancient society where all the gods all mixed together. You're saying it's okay.
30:45 To me, this crosses the line. Again, no disrespect to our friends out there, but this practice we should not do.
30:52 Speaking of jostics, now we go another. Now let's take it back to us. I want to ask you a
30:59 question. Who in the Bible celebrated his birthday?
31:05 This our first service didn't get it. So second service I'm going to increase the stakes. I'm going to give $10. 10 bucks.
31:12 Seriously? Yeah. Pull it out for you now. Nice new note. I put my money in my
31:18 mouth with anyone here can tell me who in the Bible celebrated without cannot
31:24 open the Bible. Ah, I see you cannot lie. You Dory cannot. We must caveat
31:29 some of those who who run Bible study classes cannot caveat some people. Who
31:35 in the Bible celebrated his birthday? Did Jesus celebrate birthday? No. Did Abraham
31:41 celebrate birthday? No. Did Moses celebrate birthday? Did Joshua celebrate birthday? Did any of the prophets
31:48 celebrate their birthday? Did Peter, Paul, James, John c? None.
31:54 You know who celebrated his birthday? King Herod. Hey, guess who what he asked for his
32:00 birthday? Chop off whose head? Yes. The only account of a birthday was a
32:08 pagan who wanted to chop off the head apostle. And you read the Old Testament, the only other account of birthday is
32:15 King Pharaoh, the pharaoh. What is the similarity? Both pagans.
32:20 Do you know what's the origin of candles? The candles come from a Greek culture. Do you know what it means to
32:26 blow out a candle? What of evil spirit? Do you know why in birthday they have
32:32 all this make a lot of noise? Same in Chinese funeral.
32:38 What of evil spirit? Ah. So how many of you here celebrate birthdays? You pagan, you unclean
32:47 Christian. You see here here here is the here is the hypocrisy of it. You get the
32:54 westerner, no disrespect to westerners, writing us long blogs. Oh, you shouldn't do this practice because it's pagan.
33:00 Hello. The birthday celebration is pagan. Now
33:06 Jeremiah chapter 10 2 to 4. You want you can turn to you don't need to. Jeremiah
33:12 prophesizes against the practice of having a tree and putting gold and
33:18 silver of it as pagan. Now I wonder what tree do we have at a certain time
33:24 of year. We put up things that look like gold and silver. Oh
33:31 Christmas tree is pagan. You know you check internet nowadays you can get you can Wikipedia anything 3 minutes you
33:38 get this hit already. Are you so sure Jesus was born on December 24th? Did the
33:43 Bible tell you that is the winter solstice? It is entirely
33:50 pagan. Pope, one of the popes took the date because convenient to the European end
33:56 of the year. Here's a few things. The birthday of Jesus was never celebrated by any of the
34:04 apostles after Jesus passed on. If it was the acts of the apostle recorded it,
34:09 Paul was spoken. So very obviously the early church never celebrated Christmas
34:15 but we do it on top of that you use the tree but Jeremiah says it's pagan. So
34:21 who truly speaking who are the some of these Europeans telling us our culture is pagan. Let me tell you something
34:27 about Christian culture is entirely pagan. Your roots are pagan.
34:34 And to to add further to it, history shows us during the period time, Oliver Cromwell called Christmas a hidden
34:41 celebration. Tertulan, a very early church father said celebrate birthday is pagan. But why is it you and I have no
34:48 problem celebrating your birthdays? Because do you think there's idol worship? Of course not. Why is it when
34:55 you celebrate uh Christmas and you put a Christmas tree, you don't have a problem? Is it idol worship? Of course
35:00 not. So why is it going to Chingming and cleaning grape is pagan? It's your mind.
35:07 It's our mind and it's our culture. Because the church has its own culture.
35:14 Why do we celebrate Christmas? Because we can bring people over and share with them the good news. Why do we celebrate
35:20 birthdays? Because people can come over. We get to know people better. So you should reach out to cultures.
35:27 Here the point. Just because a culture is linked to Lord Shiva, Gautama Buddha and Confucious doesn't mean you
35:33 shouldn't do it. The line the Bible draws is idolatry. The moment the act is
35:40 seen as paying homage to an idol, then you have to make a hard decision to sacrifice. Now here we go to the other
35:47 extreme. Our American friends can commercialize everything. This is yoga
35:53 for Jesus. Wow. I pray this doesn't come to NBC.
35:58 No, this one this in this website they argue that you can take yoga and make it
36:04 biblical. Okay. And they quote, "Be still. I know I'm God. Yahweh yoga."
36:13 Now, Americans can do anything. They they do jogging for Jesus, swim for him,
36:20 anything they do. What's the problem with something like that? Let me just close in a short one with this. The
36:27 problem with this, this will lead to idolatry. That's my personal view because yoga is about breathing. Now do
36:36 yoga if you think it helps your breathing. But stop there. But the moment you say breathing carefully helps
36:41 me to pray, I think we have a problem because where does the Bible tell you you need to assume the lotus position to
36:46 pray better. God, this is again about cleanliness. God does not concern about externals.
36:52 If you pray standing every day, you get closer. or stand. If you squat, squat. If you kneel,
36:59 kneel. The Bible doesn't tell you a posture. When the disciples ask Jesus says, "Lord, teach us how to pray." What did he say? He gave them the Lord's
37:05 prayer. He didn't say you should kneel down right now and bow down. So any teaching that tells you if I assume the
37:12 lotus position, by the way, Jesus never assumed the lotus position. And if you breathe better and you close your eyes,
37:18 you come closer to God. I tell you that's idolatry. So these are some of the little things
37:23 that we want to pick up. I want to end by going back to Emperor Kangi and
37:29 bringing some of us back to our Chinese roots. Emperor Kangi is one of the greatest emperors of theQing dynasty.
37:37 And this is a poem he wrote. I'll read it to you. A mission was fulfilled. The blood becomes stream. A grace a 100fold
37:45 float from the west. Captured and escorted by guards. He walked the midnight road. This is a translation. A
37:53 disciple turned away three times before roosters crowed. Countless lashes broke
37:58 his skin. Six feet above he hung with two thieves. Tragic and savage, it moved
38:03 the whole world and started officials of every rank. Seven last words, it is
38:08 finished. A multitude of souls sweep aloud. This is one of the greatest emperors
38:16 in China's history. Who is he referring to? Jesus.
38:22 But here's the history. You read a history. Emperor Kangi never admitted he was a Christian.
38:29 Those of you can read Chinese. These are the original words. Now what are we saying? This is my
38:36 theory. Totally my theory. Me and brother Alan O have discussed this.
38:43 For a Manchu emperor to admit publicly you're Christian, you create war.
38:48 Because the Manchu had enough difficulties letting the Han people accept them.
38:54 I personally believe he was a secret believer. You read some of his poems.
38:60 Another of his poems he quotes Ecclesiastes. The poem I read just now. You can tell he knows the gospels. He
39:06 can talk about the seven last words of Jesus. He has read the Bible and he knows it.
39:13 We want to end something because we live in extreme times. We've been talking about every culture
39:19 except one culture from last week to this week. We started off today by
39:24 talking about honoring and respecting those who are not Christians. We talk about the fear of God. Now we
39:32 want to end with the thing that wraps the whole thing about love. Because we live in a time with a lot of extremism.
39:38 a lot extremism that is fighting against the church. I want to end with a quote from Martin Luther King.
39:47 Was not Jesus an extremist for love? Love your enemies, bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you, and
39:54 pray for them which despise you and persecute you. Was not Amos an extremist for justice? Let justice roll down like
40:01 waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream. Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel? I
40:08 bear my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Was not Martin Luther an extremist. Here I stand. I cannot do
40:14 otherwise. So help me God. And John Bunan, I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my
40:21 conscience. So the question is not whether we will be extremists but what kind of extremist we will be. Will we be
40:28 extremist for hate or for love? We end with this. What differentiates us as Christians from everybody else?
40:36 We respect our non-Christian friends and neighbors. We fear God, but we show
40:42 extreme love. From last week to this week, we have spoken about every race except one race.
40:51 And because we live in difficult times, certain things I cannot say.
40:56 But where is your heart for this race? It is a race that appreciates respect.
41:05 You speak to them properly and with a lot of manner, they respond. It is a race that believes they fear
41:13 God. But they have a faith that does not have
41:18 love for the neighbor. Now there some of us, a lot of us are
41:25 not willing to lay down our lives and die. I I will tell you my spiritual journey. I like to say I am. I'm not so
41:31 sure. But we can do certain things. We live in the age of networking.
41:37 People can just put on the internet and learn about the Christian faith. But what makes them convicted when they see
41:43 our behavior? In our country where there's so much racial tension, the way we behave to people of some races,
41:52 God would know. And if Emperor Kangi can be a secret
41:58 believer, do you not believe there are many other secret believers
42:04 out there and we all have a role to play in that
42:11 is a difficult call for us. But we learn in Acts chapter 10, he says what God
42:17 will call people from all nations. I now realize how true it is verse 34 that God
42:25 does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation every nation who fear
42:32 him and do his right what is right. May we build bridges with our whole
42:37 community. Let us close in prayer. Lord, this is a difficult message
42:43 and u we live in extreme times and in this country the last few years it's
42:49 been lot of racial tensions. So it's very easy for us to give into fear but
42:55 remind us to fear you oh Lord for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdoms as some of us oh Lord may not be
43:02 ready to put our lives to the flames but we can go in wisdom we can show respect
43:08 we can show love and the more sacrificial love we show the more we carry the cross. teach us oh Lord for
43:15 some of us here who have got family members who are idol worshippers and
43:22 they struggle they struggle for acceptance and in the first service Lord
43:27 there was so there were many so we know even here there are those who who are hurting they feel my wife's
43:35 family doesn't accept me my husband's family doesn't accept me my mother my uncle I'm Christian but they don't like
43:42 it teach them to feel the comfort that you are for them, you are with them and
43:47 give them the Holy Spirit like the Holy Spirit was given to Cornelius that they may build bridges
43:54 that they can build bridges. They can go and hold out the hand of
44:01 friendship but they will draw the line of idol worship and over time we know for a fact
44:08 scripture tells us the family members will respect them and see that difference.
44:14 Give them that, oh Lord. For we know even in our midst right now here, there are few of us who struggle with that
44:22 with family members who are very hostile to the Christian faith. And above all,
44:27 Lord, we ask as we think of some communities in our country where are totally shut off from the gospel,
44:35 we show extreme love that we believe in faith.
44:40 A very powerful emperor centuries ago submitted to the king of
44:47 the universe that a great powerful emperor submitted to the emperor of the universe.
44:55 You can do the same today that you God can bring your gospel to all nations
45:00 despite obstacles. And we believe in our country there are people who are secret
45:06 believers and they will look at us and they'll see how we behave at them and they may they
45:13 find our testimony encouraging. Difficult words this morning oh Lord but
45:19 may we as a church rise to this. We say this in Jesus name. Amen.
45:26 I have to invite the worship team. I'm going to do a a song.
