Summary & Key points
Good morning, everyone. Thinking about this cool holiday’s long weekend, man. All right, so we’ll just have to remember to connect with everybody who is not here today. Well, welcome Raymond and Tara back with your children. Wow, good. You know, this morning I want to talk about living purposefully in a noisy world. Living purposefully in a noisy world. So, I want to frame a few things. Actually, I’m going to make a reference to a particular book that was written in the year 415. But we live in a world that is overflowing with a lot of cultural noises, isn’t it? We have a lot of cultural noise. We have a lot of what you call ideological noises—different ideas, different philosophies—and then we have a lot of spiritual noise. I find the church is a very noisy place. We have a place, you know, I mean, I just spoke to a group of about 100 pastors, and I said we try to manufacture God’s presence, dim the lights, you know, smoke machines. We do all kinds of different things as though we can manufacture God’s presence. We have worship that is loud, and, you know, it’s a lot of noise. We have Sunday school that is doing that, but it’s a lot of noise. It’s a lot of noise. Then we have social media—a lot of noise there. A lot of noise in our own lives—a lot of noise. And we have this daunting task of navigating our personal lives, our homes, whatever it may be, against all these distractions. You know, if you pause, if you think, there are a lot of distractions in life, wouldn’t you agree? A lot of things we’re distracted by. And in navigating all these noises, we need to understand a few things that we need to do. What is it? We need to be true to God’s word, the gospel, and sometimes that is the most detached thing from our lives. How do we maintain integrity in every part of our lives, every part of our lives? How do we promote this often-word that we don’t like to hear: holiness? We mistake it for something else. So, the challenge is not new. We’ve had this challenge for decades, for generations, for hundreds of years. We’ve always had these challenges, and the church through all the generations has the same old problem. Every believer has the same problems. How do we navigate this? And we need this place of being quiet in our hearts and able to undertake the task of discerning God’s voice in the midst of all the rest that’s happening. We need God’s wisdom, we need courage, and above all, we need conviction because our
world, with its noise, is always challenging our convictions. If you pause and look at it—from school, college, university, social media, your work, your business—your convictions are being challenged all the time, being redefined. So, we listen to so many voices, so many noises, and sometimes we are drowned by our own noise, our own voice, and the problem is we miss the voice that matters most: God’s voice.
So, I want us to refer to 1 John 4:1. It says, “My friends, do not believe everyone who says they speak God’s message.” Everybody wants to represent God. There are many false prophets, so don’t get hung up on that word “prophets,” you know, one who proclaims the word, who proclaims God’s truth. There are many false prophets who are traveling around everywhere. Is that the end of the verse? Okay. They say that they have a message from God’s spirit, but the message comes from a false spirit. So, check each message carefully to see if it’s really from God.
In the year 410, Rome was sacked. Rome never thought that they would ever be defeated. And St. Augustine, if you have heard of Augustine, he was one of those that we consider a real
theologian, a real thinker, and he wrote this book. You may have come across it. It’s called “The City of God.” It’s a pretty thick book. It took him 15 years to write that book, “The City of God.” Now, Rome was defeated in the year 410, and he makes this distinction between the city of God and the city of men. When the vandals or the Visigoths came and they ransacked Rome and defeated it—remember, Rome was called “The Eternal City.” They said Rome would never be defeated. The empire would never be defeated. It would be the most outstanding empire. But they were defeated, and what happened was they blamed the Christians. They said because the Romans had not been true to their faith, they had lost faith. They had turned away, and this Christian God that promises to take care of you has failed, and Rome is defeated. So, there was this tension going on, and Augustine, in the midst of all that, in the year 413, begins to write this book called “The City of God.” Like I said, it took him 15 years to write, and he begins to frame and discern and speak of all the complexities, the anxieties that they were facing, and he brought about the understanding of that eternal city, the real eternal city, God’s new city, New Jerusalem, what God was going to do in that city of God and how we prepare ourselves and get ready for it.
So, I want to bring the contrast of these two together and draw some thoughts on how we can discern God’s kingdom and truth in the midst of all the noise that we have, all that’s going on in our lives, so that we hear God’s voice. Number one is this: The city of men was founded on three key areas. One is this: founded on self-love and human pride. We look at two scriptures here to deal with self-love and human pride. Genesis 11:4, we’ve all heard of the Tower of Babel. It says here, “Then they said to each other, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves.’ Often, when we build, what we do is always for ourselves, isn’t it? It’s something that draws attention to ourselves or it becomes something that I want to take care of for myself. So that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 1 John 2:16 says this: “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” If we look at these three areas and understand what we build, it’s founded on self-love, human pride, lust of the flesh—things that we want, desires that we have—eyes, when we look at things, I want it. It started in the garden. Eve looks at it, she wants it, and the pride of life. None of us are exempt from this, actually. None of us are.
So, the city of man is characterized by self-love and human pride. Look at politics, look at rich people, look all around—there is a hint of all this taking place. So, this is the narrative of the Tower of Babel. What are we doing? We want to be independent of God. We have arrogant, egotistic ambitions. It leads to disunity; it leads to confusion. And even in the church, there is so much of a fracture. So, in our contemporary society, what’s happened? We are individuals pursuing things that we want. We pursue materialism and personal glory. I asked a very well-to-do person, I said, “Hey, a lot of you corporate guys, you know, you’re really building your brand, you’re building everything, but when will enough be enough? When will enough be enough? Okay, we have our company, okay, we have it in this country, we have it in East Malaysia, West Malaysia, okay, then let’s go to Singapore, then let’s go to Thailand. Okay, after that, we want to go to Southeast Asia. After that, we want to go global. We want to be a global brand.” So, I asked the question, “When will enough be enough? When will the millions be
enough? When will the billions be enough?” And I said, “If you keep making, and if you make two billion, three billion, would you honestly, sincerely say you could give half away and say, ‘I’m going to participate in building the kingdom’? Because when will enough be enough?”
And even for our own selves, when will enough be enough? You know, I don’t know whether my little girl will appreciate me saying this. Dina, if you go to her room, she shares the room with somebody else. She’s collecting all kinds of things from the house, from outside, wherever she goes, and it’s like, I said, “Are you the bag lady?” You know, everything you collect, collect, collect, collect. We want, we want, we want more. You know, one pair of shoes, five pairs of shoes, 20 pairs of shoes, 30 pairs of shoes, you know. And like I often say, Eve is the only woman who said, “I’ve got nothing to wear,” and was honest about it, you know. And the thing is this: When will enough be enough? When will enough be enough? Because we live in a temporal world. So, this whole thing, it’s driven, and our social media amplifies this. The platform becomes what? Arenas. We have self-promotion and comparison. You look at it, you compare with others, you want to be that way. That’s the danger of social media, and our young people fall into the trap of comparison. We fall into the trap of comparison. The churches and our own social platforms, we are making it really good where we are competing and saying, “Look, come here. We are better, we are better.” So, what are we doing? This whole self-promotion, this place, what’s happening with us? Very noisy, very distracting. When will enough be enough?
This morning at prayer, I talked about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God says, “You can eat from any tree. There’s a tree of life, and I filled this garden with every imaginable fruit and food. There’s only one tree that you don’t touch. It’s called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Two things we can learn when we look at this whole area of self-love and human pride. Number one, God is dealing with our thing called moral autonomy. I will call it moral autonomy. What is that? Can I discern good and evil independently or from God? That means I discern right and wrong. Is it by my own opinions or is it from the wisdom of God? And we read, isn’t it, Proverbs: “Lean not upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” The thing is, I lean independently in my own wisdom. I want to respond to God in my own wisdom. I want to serve God in my own wisdom. I want to give to God in my own wisdom. I want to engage society in my own wisdom. I go to work defined by my own principle. I go to college, university, I engage in interactions, it’s defined by my own wisdom. But that is the challenge we have, because our own wisdom and the wisdom of the world are hanging fruits right before our eyes. They’re hanging fruits right before our eyes. So, will I lean on the wisdom of God? Will I lean on the guidance of God? Or will I say, “In my opinion, in my thought?”
The second thing, of course, is the test of obedience, isn’t it? Can I respond when God says, “I know what is good for you. Now, will you dare trust me?” It’s an issue of trust. I’ll say, “I trust you, God, but two hours on a Sunday, if I show up, it’s challenging.” So, we are called to be a counterculture, counterculture in our approach, in all that we do. So that means we, instead of self-exaltation, we practice humility. Now, all of us can grow in the department, isn’t it? Because we’re quite far from it, yeah. So, we seek to honor God and serve others rather than it being all about me, recognizing that true greatness comes from self-sacrifice, love, and following the example of Christ.
Now, Philippians 2:3-4 says this: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking at your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.” Now, this again is very challenging, isn’t it? Why am I building with the perspective of the city of man or the city of God, the perspective of eternity and where God is coming from or what’s around me? Because there’s a lot of noise. There’s a lot of noise over there.
The second thing that happens is this: We are driven by earthly desires and temporal success. Okay, Matthew 6:19-21 says this: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.” Now, that doesn’t mean you live in poverty. Most people, when we read this, we say, “God is not realistic.” No, God, if God is not realistic, why would he say, “I give you power to acquire wealth”? The whole thing is, God says, “Have the right perspective.” Are you with me, church? Have the right perspective. Riches must have the right perspective in God’s eyes. You know, how many of you have heard of Hobby Lobby? No? Okay, none. Okay, this is a business in the U.S. They build out Christian universities. They build the Bible, the Museum of the Bible. They’ve probably spent billions of USD in building the kingdom. They are doing Bible translations. You know, Faith Comes By Hearing? Have you heard that? Faith Comes By… These guys are plowing the money in. You know, your YouVersion Bible, all this, they are the ones who fund it. They are
worth 15 billion USD personal wealth. At the end of next month, the person who drives all this is going to be speaking in our church. Just working at some of the things this last week and seeing how that comes. It will be a treat for all of us to hear that. They’re talking about how you take money and not let money control you, but you control the money, and the money builds the kingdom. Now, we’re too quiet here. The issue is this: We are all challenged. If we don’t start with the simple things, money will always have a control on us. So, he says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures.” When will enough be enough on earth, where moth and vermin destroy? He says, “Look, there is no guarantee that nothing will disappear, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” How do we do that? Transfer? Electronic transfer? No. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your…” That’s the key there. That’s the key of this verse. “…your heart will be also.” So, the issue is not this treasure. He says, “Hey, when your heart is right towards things, you will do things correctly.”
So, the city of men, what it prioritizes are earthly desires and temporal pleasure. What is God saying here? He says, “Look, pursue wealth, sure, but not the way others do. Hey, you don’t have to pursue talent and status and pleasure. Don’t worry about these things, isn’t it? God says, ‘I know how to take care of you.'” But the issue is this: Can I be the counterculture? Can I be the counterculture that says, “I am going to see the eternal instead of the temporal”? Advertisements. Every advertisement tells you, “You must buy that cream if you really want to look better. You want smoother skin? Come on. If you want to grow your hair…” How many of you are… No, I didn’t bother trying anymore. You know, if you want to grow your hair, if you want to get your hair black again, don’t dye it, eat this. You know, if you want to lose the belly fat, I’ve tried it. I mean, now, you know, come on. If you want to look fairer, if you want to look slimmer, you know, if you want your waistline not to go beyond 26, we are bombarded. We are bombarded from hair to dressing to creams to skin, whatever it may be. Fair and lovely, but the rest of the body, UPA, brown and beautiful. So, come on, we get stuck with this. So, advertisements and media bombard us with messages all the time. Whether it is our singers, whatever it is, we look at it. Everybody wants to be Taylor Swift. What do you call them? Swifties? Yeah. This… I call them dummies, you know. Yeah, sure. But you see how we are
drawn in by this powerful advertisement, and yet the most powerful and says things, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will remain.” It means my principle, my truth.
So, the perspective. We live in a temporal world, but our perspectives are so trapped there that we cannot see the eternal. Hence, I’m worried, I’m anxious. I struggle with the temporal. So, advertisements, media bombard us with messages telling us, “If you want to be happy,” they equate happiness with what? With material possession. When you have the money, you’ll be happy. Two, you will have achievements, but it leads to this never-ending cycle of consumerism and dissatisfaction. So, what happens when the church on Sundays says, “This is how you can be happy. This is how you can have plenty”? Dangerous. Why? We’re buying into what is temporal. So, in contrast, the city of God does what? It says, “Look, it’s eternal treasure, not temporal treasure. Eternal.” We are called to live with an eternal perspective, invest with what lasts, lay up your treasure. What are the only things we take up there? Our hope and people. We take them up to heaven. We can build, we can build, we can build. What happens after that? Challenging. Challenging, but it’s real because all of you, to a measure, struggle with that. All of you are challenged with that. Moms, dads, you are challenged with that. Working person, business person, you are challenged with that because every day, it is the place of achievement rather than contentment. Contentment is equated to, “When I get eight months bonus, then I’m happy. Then after that, what?” So, it’s a challenge. So, do I build on faith, hope, and love? Can I practice contentment and stewardship? I use my resources to advance the kingdom of God instead of accumulating here on earth.
1 Timothy 6:6 says this: “But godliness with contentment,” because I can look really cool. I’m a believer. Wow. You know, but he says, “Look, godliness has a virtue. Godliness with contentment is great gain. It’s great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation, temptation and a trap, and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” It’s a challenge. It’s a challenge for the love of money. Is money evil? Is money evil? No. If it’s evil, let me help you. I will take the evil from you. Money is not evil. Money is neutral. Money is neutral. Twenty is twenty in the hands of a kid, in the hands of an adult, in the hands of a thief, in the hands of a good person, in good stewardship. Twenty is twenty. It’s got the value there. But what I do with the twenty is something different. So, nothing wrong with money, but the love of money—you said, “I don’t love money.” Pause. Ask yourself the hard question: Am I happy when I have money? Am I miserable when I don’t have money? How much hold… If I don’t have… See, it’s easiest. Am I generous? Do I give willingly? Do I say, “I don’t have to tithe because ABC said I don’t”? Hey, pause. Something is wrong already. The issue is not 10%. The issue is the tree of life versus the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with what? With many griefs. With many griefs.
Three, it’s marked by moral and spiritual corruption. Let me look at two scriptures here. Romans 1:21-25: “For although they knew God,” I can know God. I’m a believer. I can show you my baptism certificate. I can give you the time that I got saved. “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him…” Remember I said I started out with noise, opinions. If I don’t come back to what God’s truth says, because that is the tree of life. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil tells me to live by my opinions and the opinions of others. My opinion is not the opinion of my wife. My opinion is the opinion of the word of God. But Trina’s opinion shouldn’t be the opinion of her husband. It should be the opinion of God. Your opinion shouldn’t be the opinion of your boss, of your supervisor. It should be the opinion of God’s word. That’s where the rubber hits the road. Now, this is the dangerous one. Your opinion is not the opinion of your parents. It is the opinion of God. The city of God versus the city of men. The tree of life versus the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. How I respond to God is not Elijah’s opinion. God have mercy. It better not be my opinion. “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him nor gave thanks to him.” My hard question: Do I honor God daily in my life? Do I glorify him? “But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles.” Just stop here. You will say, “Hey, but this is about birds and animals and reptiles.” Whatever I worship becomes my idol. Whatever I give my attention to and forms my opinion becomes my idol. So, I exchange God’s image for the image of all these other things around me.
As a church, you know, if everybody shows up, we all know that we don’t have space, right? It’s difficult. The Eon starts struggling. If everybody shows up on a Sunday, we are packed out here, all right? If we have all the BS, all the children, it’s a very full house. But is the full house our contentment, or is the gospel our contentment? Is the contentment in my heart, “God, I need to reach, I need to be the salt and light, I want to engage people, Lord, I want to honor you in my classroom,” whichever classroom—preschool, primary, secondary school, college, university—in my office, in my business, in my interactions with people? Why? Because I want to honor you. I want to glorify you in my business transactions, my money transactions. If somebody gives you extra change at the restaurant, do you say, “Praise God, that FL made a mistake, gave me $20 back. Praise the Lord!” No. Go back and say, “You gave me extra,” even though it’s 50 cents. Even though it’s 50 cents. “50 cents only.” That’s where it starts. That’s where it begins. I can make an idol of some… So, the thing is, what? So, when we go to 2,000, is that contentment? Is that bragging place wrong? We should say, “Another one coming to the kingdom. Praise God. Another life changed. Another body healed. Another person finding freedom through their habits, finding freedom in God. Amazing time, God. We’re worshiping you. We’re raising funds. God, we’re doing all that is necessary because we want to proclaim Jesus.” I think that’s different. Not how great our website looks like, you know. Not how hot the worship is. No, church, don’t miss it. Don’t miss that because we get caught in the glamour of that light of the city of men. Dim the lights down, do this. Why? Imagine if we do that and we have hundreds of young people come, but when the lights go off and the power failure is on that day, so where are the lights? Where’s the smoke? But if it’s Jesus, then Jesus is still there. Can I hear an amen?
You know, so, hey, then at home, young people, then the confidence is this: Young people, it’s not you beginning your heart to wander, seeing somebody else in college, in university, driving a car. “My father, pain, can I even get me a car?” You know, is that the content? I mean, there’s so many things we can talk about, isn’t it? Christmas comes. Christmas is coming soon. Some are counting. You know, this one guy says, “You are the devil.” He said, “Why?” He said, “Every time you go and post ‘200 days left,’ he said, ‘All my wife has to do is say, “Hey, 200 days, what are you?”‘ He says, ‘You devil, man, you cause trouble for me in my home.'” I said, “Hey, relax.” You know, hey, Christmas is coming. What are we looking at? I want a challenge. Christmas is coming. What are we going to do for others? And nobody said amen. Are you with me? Our perspective. We are lost in the city of men. We are lost in the city of men. We are lost in the temporal. We can’t see the eternal. We fail to see the eternal. And the sad thing is the church is trapped in it because we’re better, building more lights, more this, more flashy. Why? I think if we come with a hunger for God and we are desperate, passionate for the presence of God in worship, people feel the tangible presence of God. Hearts are reaching out. Hearts are broken before God. Wow. That cannot be bought. That cannot be manufactured. That cannot be manufactured. So, like I said, if everybody turns out, it’s packed out. Yeah. But is that what we want? There must be more of God’s presence, more of what he wants. Then there is a sense of contentment and excitement and encouragement. Amen?
And see, come on, let’s get the right perspective. I don’t want to exchange that image for something else. Verse 25, is that done already? “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised. Amen. Amen.” That’s the difference. So, the city of man is what? Riddled with moral and spiritual corruption. We read Romans earlier. So, the result, what? What is the result? It rejects the results of sinful behavior and sees people damaged when we say we want to see communities restored.
Galatians 5:19-21: “The acts of the flesh are obvious. Can you go back, verse 21, please? And verse 19, yeah. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Next. No, just go down to the next Galatians one. We’ve
read this already, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. Against such, there is no law. So, we provide a stark contrast to the corruption around us, to the philosophies around us, and draw others to what? The transforming power of God. But it must work in me first.
So, what does the city of God look like? Number one, it’s founded on the love of God. Let’s look at two scriptures here. Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God.” Why could Jesus say that? Because for God so loved the world that he gave. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And now he says, “Hey, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, because you have received, now you are the dispenser of it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself.” The city of God is founded on the love of God, and that’s the basis of our relationship with God and with others. Because if it’s not based that way, I always have a conflict
with others, constantly, consistently. Why? Because it’s my opinion that is higher than God’s truth. We, as believers, are asked to do what? We are called to demonstrate God’s unconditional love in the world. How is it driven? Love. It’s self-interest, self-gratification, division, loving people, forgiving, serving those in need. Wow, that’s challenging, isn’t it?
So, living this out involves what? Actively engaging others, community, society, showing compassion, showing kindness in practical ways. You know, this… One of our very wealthy corporate groups, their foundation came down here, and they were doing something, and they asked me to say something here and why the work is done. I said, “Simple. Let me ask you a question.” I said, “Is it easy if I walk and I see a beggar on the street and I drop a ringgit? I feel good, right? I’m not saying relax. But if I get close enough, maybe I can smell the piss.” Nothing, nothing, relax. “I can smell that this guy hasn’t showered.” No, you have showered. “This guy hasn’t showered for God knows how long.” You see, this is 20, okay? This is the dollar. Got a lot of $1. Which is easier to do? Or, “Hey, have you eaten?” Which is easier to do? No trick question. Which is easier to do, church? The dollar. That’s not God’s way. It’s easy to throw the dollar. Prioritize eternal values. Jesus engaged the lame, engaged the widow, engaged the blind, engaged the disenfranchised of society—young, old. Come on. We don’t live by the values of our world. We live by the values of God’s eternal perspective. That changes things. That changes things. Then the noise is less. The noise is less because his voice becomes louder. Easy to give. Just drop, walk off. We prioritize eternal values over temporal success. You know, it changes you. Pray for riches, true. But when you get rich, where’s your heart? It’s measured by your actions. You cannot say, “God knows my heart.” Careful when you say that because our hearts are wicked. The Bible says that. The Bible says that.
So, what do I do? The next scripture, please. 1 John 4:7: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” That means it’s that certain kind of love, not my opinion. “Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.” So, how do we engage others? Then we—Micah 6:8, isn’t it? “Oh man, what does the Lord require of you? To love justice, you know, do mercy, and walk humbly before
your God.” Because this is where you and I become people who heal our broken world. You go to college, there are broken lives. They may look like a million dollars on the outside, branded stuff. They are lonely on the inside. They live on the perspective of what is temporal. We may drive the best cars, but there’s emptiness on the inside.
I don’t know, I think I’ve told you the story before of a very big brand. The co-partner met one of my lecturers, and they actually met on the plane, and they started a conversation, and this guy decided to come and see him in the college. So, they’re having coffee, and they’re talking, and his eyes tear up a bit. He says, “You know, probably the loose change in my pocket is more money than you make in a month.” And he wasn’t being nasty. He said, “If you know the
company, you will say, ‘Oh dear, yes, the loose change in his pocket is probably more than what we earn in a year.'” He says, “But I don’t have the home that you have.” He said, “Not your physical home.” He said, “My helpers live in better homes.” He said, “I see how happy you are, how you interact with your family.” He said, “The joy, your staff, how they connect with you, how you connect with people.” He said, “I don’t have that in my marriage. My marriage is based on the material.” And he said, “I would exchange my money any time for what you have.” This is not a fictional story. This happened, and I happen to know both of them. What are we pursuing? It’s a broken world. God is not going to come down and say, “Heal them.” God says, “You are the wounded healer.” So, if I live self-absorbed, how am I going to bring this?
Number two is we focus on the eternal values and fulfillment in God. That’s the city of God. Two scriptures here: Colossians 3:1-2. “Since then you have been raised with Christ.” We believers, right? “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” 2 Corinthians 4:18: “So we fix our eyes, fix—it’s a very strong word—not on what is seen.” This is all seen, right? Eve got trapped with what she saw, not what God said, “but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” The eternal perspective shapes our decisions, our priorities, and our actions. It shapes it. Our culture is obsessed with immediate gratification, short-term. We are
supposed to model what? Patience, perseverance, long-range thinking. What do we do? We should be committed to spiritual growth. We must be—nobody can do their devotions for you. Devotions is not one church. We can talk about it till the cows go home or come home, whatever you want to call it. Our walk with God is our walk with God, and we need to build it. It’s not based on our opinions; it’s based on God’s truth. A commitment to spiritual growth, memory versus things are all put there. Why? So that we grow. Handles are given. Discipleship, mission, how do we engage it? How do we grow with it? How do we handle all this? How are we growing with it? We invest in relationships. We develop and build community, acts of service, lasting impact. When we do, we witness on God’s truth. Salt and light. Our lives must point. We talk about signs and wonders. You are a sign and wonder. We are signs and wonders. We point through our lives, others to God. We point them to God. Sometimes we can point them away.
The third is this: The city of God embodies righteousness, peace, and justice. It’s one scripture. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking. You know, look at mostly social media, especially during the MCO, whatever. Most of our posting is food, isn’t it? Food, holidays, all the different things, bragging rights, you know. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. That captures quite a bit. So, the city of God embodies what? Righteousness, peace, justice. We reflect what? God’s character, God’s kingdom. We promote justice. Don’t be the one who breaks justice, who abuses people. Promote peace. Pursue righteousness in all aspects of life, fair treatment. I want to finish this quickly. So, how do we live? I’m going to skip some thoughts here. So, how should we live? Schaeffer, of course, in his amazing book, “How Then Should We Live?” And Chuck Colson picks it up later. But I want to just give you a few thoughts here, and then we pray together. How should we live in understanding all this? Number one is this: We live out God’s values in our daily lives. How do we do that? Well, number one, cultivate and demonstrate the love of God. If I don’t engage God, I never engage His love. If I don’t engage His love, I can never demonstrate His love. I demonstrate what is common to men. My personal devotion is important. I really want to encourage you with the end of the half part of the year. I encourage you, come on, carve that time out daily with God. Don’t compromise on that. Acts of kindness. Let me give you two scriptures here. 1 John 3:18: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” Now that word itself—don’t go back, please—actions and in truth. Whose truth? My truth? No, God’s truth. That changes everything.
Next one, James 2:14-17: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm and well-fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. I’m a believer. There must be actions that follow.”
The second thing is this: Focus on eternal values and fulfillment in God. Just rapid-fire three things here. Number one, eternal perspective. Don’t get stuck with the temporal. Colossians 3:1-2: “Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Prioritize spiritual growth. 2 Peter 3:18: “But grow, not try, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.” Purposeful living. Make decisions based on eternal values, not temporal emotions, not temporal gains. Make decisions based on eternal values. Seek to honor God in your career. Seek to honor God
at home. Seek to honor God in your goals and all that you do. Honor Him. Glorify Him in all that you do. That’s the game changer. Sometimes I even say Christians, we have no problems with expletives. My goodness, why do you need to swear? Why do you need to use the language that everyone… My goodness. Why? Why are we so toxic in conversations? 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do…” So, Paul knew, because we always talk about eating and drinking, right? He must have thought of the Malaysians down the road. He said, “Yeah, Malaysians, you know.” So, let me put this there. “So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, whatever you do—work, study, home, recreation—do it all for the glory of God.” So, if I’m going to honor and glorify God, my perspective changes in how I do things, isn’t it? It changes.
Third, embody righteousness, peace, and justice. Pursue holiness. Pursue personal holiness. Strive for a life of integrity and moral purity. Avoid compromising your behavior. Avoid that. We are all challenged. Keep… I think we do very poorly with accountability. Seek accountability. 1 Peter 1:15-16: “But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” See, everything brings us to the perspective of looking at eternity. It doesn’t happen automatically. It’s daily. “For it is written, ‘Be holy, because I am holy.'” Be a peacemaker. Stand up for justice. Practical steps for daily living. Simple. Build strong relationships. Engage thoughtfully with culture, not letting culture swallow you. Engage thoughtfully with culture. Serve others selflessly. Live generously. Share the gospel boldly.
Will you stand? I’ll just read you something here in one last slide. As we navigate the noise in our society, as we navigate the noise in our life in today’s world, this navigation requires us to come back to God’s truth. His word is a light to our path. So, if I think this is a boring book, let this navigate us because it quiets down the other voices and one voice is amplified. One voice is amplified. So, as we navigate through this, we need a deep reflection into God’s word. We need insight from God’s word. We need the wisdom of God’s word so we can lead with integrity. Church, integrity. We are bankrupt in society with integrity. We’re bankrupt. The church must stand up. Believers, wherever you are at, wherever you are at, stand in integrity. Have clarity in your mind. Ground yourself in God’s unchanging truth, His word. Build your spiritual life and disciplines. And remember, engage thoughtfully with culture. Let us be salt and light, preserving truth and illuminating the way for others in a noisy and disoriented world.