The Resilience of God's Disciples | Dr. Goh Chee Leong

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I don't know about you, all right, Me in my

mid fifties. Okay, the last time I climbed on Kidnap

Baloo when I was eighteen years old, after we finished

school and as a group we celebrated our a levels

group by all going up Canalo eighteen nineteen years older.

And in those days, you're so young, no need to

train uzover all? Right, you know when you young people, right,

I mean.

Just samong that you just go.

Mid fifties, this really, I think was h was quite

overwhelming for an old man like me, all right to

think about preparing to go.

So let's start with this scenario.

If you had to train and we had about six

months to prepare to climb Kina Balu. Okay, what do

you think go into the preparation and training?

So?

What what do we need to do to successfully climb? Okay,

this is not rhetorical question. I'm actually asking you, Okay,

don't be shy.

What are you doing?

Right? I'm sure some of you have prepared right to

climb or to go hiking or whatever it is.

So what do you do climb stairs, right, and climbing.

Stairs builds what what is the purpose of climbing stairs

and going jogging and all of that is to build

what okay, build muscles, right, muscle strength particularly lick all right?

And then what else? What else?

Does it build?

Stamina? So cardiola, they say.

Right, the fitness people say, you need to build your cardio.

So you've got strength training, You've got cardio training.

Get that heart rate stable here and over.

Time you train right, first month, second month, all right,

But basically the focus of your preparation is you're building

yourselves to become stronger, right, so that you can climb

the mountain. The mountain cannot become easier for you, isn't it.

That's the reality of life, all right. So the mountain

can be lower, the mountain can be less deep, all right,

and kinabalu.

It's a two day climb for those of you we've

gone up.

First day is about maybe seven eight hours, all right,

off climbing, You've got about.

Four or five stations.

Second day, you know, they wake you up from laban

rata at about midnight one am, and then you start

at about two am. You go up so that you

can catch the sunrise, right, so it's about maybe five hours, right,

four or five hours. Second day a bit, you know,

more difficult because there's some ropes, you know, you've got

cliff faces, it's very cold, right, then you see the

sunset at Low's peak, and then you come down right

all the way down. So second day is actually for

old people like ourseuse the knees alright, coming down very very,

very tiring. But I start with that analogy, my friends,

because when we talk about resilience, if you can go

one slide back s all right. The what I want

to share about today is God's message for us about

how we build resilience as disciples of Christ, as disciples

of God. And this is important because we all know

here that life is not always easy, right, you know,

and you come here this morning, I come here this morning,

my friends, we all are going through some form of

pressure or challenge. So, whether it's in your work life,

whether it's many of you are students, you know, whether

it is family life, whether it's finances, whether it's personal health.

You know, many times in life we are under siegelm right,

you know, we are under attack, were under a lot

of pressure and stress and in that moment where do

we find our strength and our courage to continue? And

so that's that's the message on resilience, if we can

go to two slides, you know forward all right. I

mean one of the most perhaps quoted Bible versus Isaiah forty,

very inspirational, many of us have post us in our room, right,

but reminds us of that answer that the strength comes

from God. Right, because even young people shall faint and

be weary. Right, So it's not about physical strength. Even

the strongest among us, at some point we run out

of we run out of steam, you know, we burn out.

You know, we run out of our own resources. And

so Isaiah forty reminds us from the very beginning that

the strength comes from God. Right. It is God who

builds the house we are told, you know it is

true his strength, his grace, his love, his inspiration and

compassion that I climb the mountainland. Right. That that's the

analogy that whatever I'm going through now. And it's such

a powerful testimony from is it Elvira?

Is it wonderful? Wonderful testimony?

All right? Okay, you know that that talks about Look

it's not a straight road, all right, the testimony is

powerful because of the challenges she had to go through

to overcome. I mean, all of us have our mountains

to climb, all right, but it is true God's strength

and grace that you know. The poetry here is we

will rise on wings like eagles. Okay, we will run

and not be weary. Okay.

So this morning I want to hone in on what

does this mean?

All right? How exactly do we rest on God's strength?

Where does the resilience come from? And so the word

resilience from a psychological point of view, talks about that,

the resilience meaning resistance and the strength and power to

be able to go through these difficult times that will come.

You know, maybe not every day, not every month, but

certainly they will come. Right.

Life is not easy.

So when we go through the storms of life, where

do we get this strength? Right? And for this next light,

you know, the verse that I want us to focus

on for our reading and our learning this morning is

one of my favorite verses.

So this was written by.

Paul And when I reflected on today's sermon, all right,

I realized that at many different points of my life,

this verse has revisited me all right through the Holy

Spirit through God's leading. There are so many times where

I needed this verse. I needed this passage from the

time I was a school student in university and it's

usually during these challenging times different seasons of my life.

This verse had different meanings to me.

So I'm you know, I'm I'm I'm on it and

blessed to be able to come and share this this

passage with you. Okay, So second Corinthian six, for those

of you who have got your Bibles all right or

your online Bibles, We're gonna go through this. So there

are three parts of this. Let's go through this together.

I start reading from verse three. So Apostle Paul is writing,

we put no stumbling block in anyone's path so that

our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God,

we comment ourselves in every way. So this part basically

sets up what he's trying to write about for the

next passage next section, which is he's saying, look, hey,

we lead by examplar right. You know, we're not the

kind of people that just talk and do this and that. Right,

as apostles of Christ, we are setting the example for

the rest of you, and we put no stumbling blocks,

meaning in our own example, even though we are sinners, say,

by grace we are not perfect. Paul is not saying

he's perfect, but we're saying, hey, look through our example.

The way we live our lives right, the way we

do ministry, the way we work, the way we relate

to other people, we are living examples of the kind

of life that God has called us to a right.

So that's basically the first two versus. He's setting the scene.

They say, why am I writing this? Is Hey, we

are showing you right, this is the example of the

life that we are living. Okay.

Then he goes on and then we get into the

crux of it.

So verse four in great endurance in troubles, hardships and distresses,

in beatings, imprisonments and riots, in hard work, sleepless nights,

and angay, this is not starting off very positive. And

by the way, my friends, okay, if you're noticing this passenger,

you know he's not going yes, all right, it's.

A great life, easy life.

Quickly become a Christian, right straight road, all of your

problems will go out of the window. Noah, all right.

The tone that he starts off when He's describing, right,

the life of an apostle, the life of an ambassador

of Christ, Asian youth ambassadors. What does it mean to

be an ambassador of Christ? What does it mean to

follow Christ? What does it mean to be a Christian?

Paula straight talkner, very honest, very transparent. He's saying, this

is the life we've been living all right, in beatings, imprisonments, rights,

hard work, sleepless nights and hunger.

Can we go to the next light?

So? I think lesson one of three lessons that I

want to share with you when we talk about resilience,

The beginning of resilience is mentally, my friends, are we

prepared for the fact that this is kina Balu?

This is not Gassinger.

Boogie Gassing, by the way, is usually where we train

for Quinnabalua. Okay, Gussing is a two hour high. Kinabalu

is a two day hike, right, So are we prepared?

You know? And in a sense, that's what Paul is

challenging us to do. I mean, do you know what

we are getting ourselves into when we say you know

what I and you know?

Blessings to the worship team this morning.

You know when we sing, I put my life on

the altar, right, And what Paul is saying is, do

we know what this means? You know, to put my

life on the order means I surrender to the will

of God and where God may lead me. It's not

the easy path, right, we always talk about it's not

the straight road, right, It's not the easy way. It

is the narrow road. Is the road less travel right,

the harder road. Okay, So it starts off with this,

are we prepared to endure? Let's move on to the

next light, you know. And and what does it mean therefore,

to take up our cross and follow Christ? So Jesus

was very very I think, specific and careful with his

words right when he talked about you want to follow me?

Great, you know you're all sighted up. Great, let's go.

But the analogy he uses is you pick up your

cross and you follow me. And the cross, as all

of us know, are this basic theology as Christians? Right,

the cross symbolizes what suffering, sacrifice, not the easy life, right,

you know, the more difficult, challenging pathway, because that's the

pathway for righteousness. So I think lesson number one if

I'm climbing up Kinabalu. I better figure out what does

it take to climb kina baloo. If I'm going into

a climb lighter, I'm thinking, ahya, there's nothing one light.

It's like climbing up three flights of says, no need

to train, no big deal, is going to be a breeze, easy, easy.

Now that's when the problem is okay. So I need

to go into with the respect of you know, God,

this is not easy.

I know, and that's why we pray to you.

That's why you need to accompanies through this journey. That's

why I need the peace that passes all understanding. That's

why I need your grace and your Holy Spirit and

your strength every day because if it.

Was an easy path, none of this is necessary, right,

you know.

And that's why we talk about all of these inspirational

versus like Isaiah forty, because at the heart of it,

it's a recognition that it is a storm, my friends,

and so I want to encourage those of you here

who are finding yourself in the storm right now. And

I think your brothers and sisters here like myself, who

are going through the storm right now, whether it's at

work or their personal life or whatever part of life, right,

and you feel on the siege, and we want to

encourage you. Firstly, you're not alone, all right, All of

us go through these storms. It is not a reflection

in any way of your lack of faith or your

lack of obedience. If anything, it is the sign of

obedience that you're being led true storms once in a while.

So you're not alone, you know. Of course, you've got

your church community. They love you. You know, when I

walk into a room like that, you feel the love.

When we are praying for one another, you feel the love.

All right, they shall know you are Christians by your love.

That was that the verse says. So you're not alone.

You're you're with your community or friends here who love you.

But more importantly, God loves you. Right, you take that whole,

you know phrase from Romans. You know, nothing can separate

you from the love of God. So that's the first

encouragement that, Hey, it's not going to be easier, right

Kinabalu or Rinjani or Everest, whatever mountain it is you're

climbing right now. It's not easy, but you're not alone,

and it is God's strength that will help you climb

the mountain. But mentally, you need to realize it is

not going to be easy. God climbing with you doesn't

mean he takes the mountain away. You're still gonna feel

the pain in your thighs and ankles and knees, and

you know every step of the way, breathing oxygen at

four thousand meters, you know, and the air is thin,

and it's gonna be difficult, very difficult. But you're not alone. Okay,

let's move on now, all right, So you need the

hiking mapla right, and I think this is where we

help each other. So Kidna Balou, I mean, okay, I

feel as though I'm a tour guy for kiinner Baloo

right now. You know, definitely next year past us. We

should thank everybody, all right, you know. But the idea is,

I mean, you need the miclub the map, right, so

when we prepare for kinner Baloo. And ironically that's last

year a right, So we went to kidnap Alloo in

August last year.

The fact that I'm still here means we.

Survive obviously, all right, you know there's a happy ending

that story.

But okay, so this is the snapper this year.

My son say, hey, Okay, done, Ku, let's do the

next thing. So I can tell you, all right, I

don't know whether I say I'm proud to announce or

I you know, I'm scared to announce. This Saturday, we're

climbing Rin Johnny in Lombo and they say Rin Johanni

is thirty percent hal there. And I know because three

years ago I climb Rinjhanni with my friends and I

thought that would be the last time I needed to

go up that mountain.

And so this Saturday, I have.

To go one more round, you know, but I need

to prepare, right, So so your months say, hey, you're

looking at the terrain.

Rin Johnny is more challenging.

Because the second day the path is loose, loose rocks.

So the Rin Johnny trailer in Indusia, which those of

you don't know, is next to BALI all right, this

this this island is three steps forward, two steps back,

they always joke, because you're sliding down. So that second

day you're going up, the last one kilometer is just

and so we have to read la right. The first

lesson in resilience is we need to capture and grubs

the size of the task. A hit of this that

we don't underestimate it. We realize it is challenging. It's

not about you know, I in psychology I often tell

my students it's not about the positive thinking means you

you it's nothing like it's not a problem that that's not.

Really healthy in life.

By the way, So whether you're approaching marriage classes, which

I think is a great idea, you know, pre marriage couples, right,

I mean, the worst thing to tell pre marriage couples say, oh,

it's nothing one life.

Fine, just go and get married.

First, then we'll see what happens, all right, Coragna, I

mean you have to tell them me, by the way,

you sure not? That's the marriage pre marriage rise right, Hey,

it's challenging. You love each other, it's great. Right now,

have you had your first argument yet? Have you had

your first fight? How do you go through it?

So?

The I mean, the secret of a strong marriage is

knowing what you're getting yourself into. Right, So, almost any challenge,

whether it's starting a job, a career, starting university. You know,

when I speak to all of my new university students

when they come to help university first day, I'm the

first tartner and you talk about Hey, look, do you

know what you're climbing? What do you do? You know?

But it's knowing and understanding the size of the challenge,

and in spite of that challenge, then with the grace

and the faith in God, saying let's do it. In

spite of I still feel a bit fraid. That's normal.

I feel a bit concerned, can I climb the mountain

or not? That's normal. Having a little bit of doubt,

that's normal. But in spite of all of these emotions,

then saying, you know what, by the grace of godner,

let's do this. Amen, all right, all right, okay, second

part verse four, it continues, so I just give a

reminder of what Paul is talking about. As servants of God,

we commend ourselves in every way. Verse six it continues, impurity, understanding, patience,

and kindness. And again Paul is listing the examples of

what it means to be a disciple of Christ in

the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, in truthful speech, and

in the power of God, with weapons of righteousness in

the right hand and the left, true glory and disorder,

bad report and good report, genuine yet regarded as important

as now. Second lesson let's go to the next life.

The heart of resilience is virtue. Virtue means righteousness. So

if you go back, sorry, go back, Man's lighter to

the verse. The response, right, so Paul says, Hey, life

not easier is a disciple. That's the first lesson. You're

gonna go into the storms, You're gonna be climbing mountains.

What is the response to climbing the mountain. What is

the response to facing the storms is righteousness. The weapons

we talk about is righteousness. Righteousness meaning being right with God,

acting in a way that is a line with God's

kingdom and teachings. All right, And so I think second

lesson we take away from this is, you know what

was powerful about Alvira's testimony earlier. The most powerful part

of the testimony, I hope all of you got it

and grabspitness was not so much the result, but how

she actually accomplished the result. Correct.

It was the fact that.

Because she stayed true to her conviction and her faith

in God, her relationship with God, honoring God in her

way of setting aside Sundays. Now that that is what

Paul here means by climbing the mountain is not as

important as how you climb, and that's really the test, right,

So so let let's go on to the next next yep,

So maybe the question I ask all of us here

to go back and reflect on this, what is the

mountain you're climbing? And this is where I want to

challenge all of this. I believe God's spirit is challenging us.

You see, the way we as human beings often define

the mountain is on our terms, lt very whowly terms. Right,

so we are thinking, okay, we go to the next light.

We are thinking, hey, you know, it's the exam I'm

trying to pass. Is the boss I'm trying to please.

It's some kpi that my company has set me that

I can't you know, meet right now, and that's why

I'm stressed. It's some word promotion and I'm working to its.

Or those of you running your own businesses, it's the

business I'm trying to keep alive, all right, So whatever

it is, all right. Our challenge, whether it is school

or university, or work or family finances, natural nothing. I'm

not condemning anybody here, but the natural thing is to say, well,

that's the mountain, right, That is the challenge and so

my challenge is how do I then pass they exam?

How do I secure my promotion? How do I build

up my company so it's successful? How do I build

a successful career myself? How do I do this and that?

Right?

So all of us have lists of things to do,

isn't it if I ask you this next week? What

are you doing a lot of stuffler? Right, lots of mountains.

We think they're conquering, and that's where the stress and

the pressure is. I'm not sure whether I can do

it or not.

Can I meet the KPI? Can I actually do this?

Can I actually survive, you know, in a disruptive age,

in an AIH in a post COVID age?

Can my company survive?

Now? I'm not pleaser, don't get me wrong. In no

way am I cheapening the stress and the pressure we

feel from these very real challenges. You know, these are

real challenges. I' mean all of us, including myself. We

feel men the strain, the stress because these are real problems,

real challenges, real pressures we face. But now let's reflect

on what the Bible teacher says from God's perspective when

he looks at me, Go Chileng what is he more

concerned about? All right? Is he concerned that, yeah, okay,

I actually meet my company targets, or that my career

actually goes well. You know, my company does well. I

mean it's that his primary concern. No, because when you

look at the Bible, the overwhelming thing is okay. So

now I ask I do a bit of quiz from

what have we learned in Sunday school and church and

all these years? All right, we've been Christian? If you

are to summon up a right, the moment we become Christian? Right,

we are in God's family, God's grace. We enjoy the

relationship with him. What is the Christian journey as a disciplela? Right?

What does he want from us? Aside from love and

enjoying his presence and celebrating that relationship and salvation we

have with him. But in terms of growth, he's obviously

not looking at my wallet. God is not evaluating success

on worldly terms, right, There's not so much how rich

I am. It's not how big my company is. It's

not all of this stuff, right, I mean that one's

the world. That's how the world defines success and significance.

How does God in a sense then look at me.

What does he want from me? My heart?

Good? Okay, this real question and answer.

I'm asking faith, faithfulness, becoming more and more like Christ.

And all of this answers are correct.

But the umbrella statement that summarizes it is we say

we are becoming more and more like Christ. And this

is time and time again in the Bible. Right, So

whether they use that analogy of refiness fire slowly like goal,

we're being purified. You know, it's not an overnight process.

It doesn't mean I become a Christian I'm perfect, right,

In fact, none of us are perfect. We're all sinner

saved by grace. But that journey of growth, right is slowly.

And this is the beautiful thing about being a Christian. Slowly,

because of His grace and the power of the Holy

spirits prompting and all of that, I'm becoming more and

more like Christ. And that's the faith and the love

and the you know, all of these righteousness that Paul

is talking about, right, and so you see, let's go

to the next liner. What is it? The difference? My friends,

our mountain is whatever our external challenge we think it is,

God is asking us. But Chileng, you define the mountain

as it is actually you, who you are becoming. That's

the mountain that in the end of life. You know,

you think God cares about my CV or resume. You know,

it's the person I'm becoming, Right, So I think that

second lesson for us to think about. You know, the

Bible says, right, the way God sees things is not

the way we see things. But isn't it His ways

are not our ways? So we are spending ninety percent

of our life worried about stuff, which nothing wrong with that,

And he's saying, but look, okay, it's okay. Of course

you should be committed to your job. Of course you

should be committed as a student. Of course you should

be committed as you know all of these things that

you need to sustain life. But that's not the focus.

As a Christian, it is who are you becoming? It

is how I? How am I as a worker, as

a team member, as a boss in my office? What

kind of boss am I? Is more important than the

results I'm generating? Correct?

What kind of student am I?

You know? I again, I'm I'm thanking a Vira for

you know, queuing on the verse that talks.

About we do it for the glory of God.

My favorite verse that sat on my university table for

many many years was and I'm not going to pretend

to remember which I think it was, collusioned something something

that says, whatever you do, do it with all your heart,

as though you're working for God, not men. Right, Remember,

I mean, I, okay, maybe somebody later can tell me

where that worse comes from. But now that's the spirit

of itler right, So I'm not saying this is not

an excuse. Okay, no need the work. Chileong says, hey,

it doesn't matter to God. But I mean, I'm not

saying that, all right, But I'm saying the motive different.

The motive is not reaching Kina Balu's peak itself. The

motive is the journey up Kina Balu changes me and

how I climb. You see, it's more important than getting

to the top. Right, who you are is more important

than your destination. Now that's that's the truth we're taking

back to it. And so whether you know you had

got ten a's or nine a's or five days, it

was the journey of I was faithful and true, and

that was the most important thing.

And I can look.

Back with pride at the fact that I was a

faithful student and whatever I did, I did with all

my heart. And at the end of all of it,

if it was still three a's or five AA's or

no a's as a student, that is honoring God. You

know what, I've run the good race. I've fought the

good fight. And you know, for those of you working

in Courage, not everybody is going to be end up

being an Elon Musk or Steve Jobs or whatever it is.

But that's how the world measures success.

Who cares, you know. I mean many of us maybe

stuck mid career, you know, I mean we are in

middle management, or we're doing the same job over the

last fourty years. I mean, that's not how God sees

success and failure. It is how I did it right,

you know, how I worked every day, not the size

of your bank account. Okay, So it's redefining what success is.

And in our case, what Paul is reminding us off

is the core of resilience is remembering that true the storm,

the most important thing is we remain righteous.

And where the love is.

You know, I a few weeks ago, I was I

was speaking in dumc was.

Hosting Christian leaders.

Okay, they call it the Hagai Group, right, you know,

the group of Christian leaders from different professions were there,

and you know, they were having a two day retreat

and they asked me to come and share about education

because the whole purpose of this was what is God's

role in Malaysia? And I'm so glad you're play praying

for Malaysia every week. Right. So I was talking about, Okay,

from education perspective, whether it is you know, school, secondary school, private, public,

tertiary education, where are the opportunities to spread God's word? Okay? So,

because I've been in education for thirty years, so my

job was to go and give them the perspective. And

I somewhere somewhere in the middle there I think God

just partner's switch. And you know, I started saying, you

know what, Yeah, of course, we always say we need

more Christian teachers in public schools. We need more people

to get the calling right, we need more Christian principles. Yes,

we need more Christians in universities.

We need all of this.

I agree, I agree, But at some point the revelation

to me was, but you know what, my friends, I

think there are many Christians already in all of these places.

There are many Christian students in any kind of school

you want, private or public, Chinese school, international schools, school,

la Kabanza.

They are there.

There are a lot of Christian students there, and a

lot of Christian teachers.

Of course, you always want more, but they are they

are enough, and they are enough.

The Christian students in universities, I mean, you pick any university,

private or public, they are hundreds of Christian students there

and Christian lecturers there all right. And so while we

want more, I was saying, look, let's talk quality, not Quantityla,

And at that point my challenge was, yes, they're there,

so like pieces of the chessboard, God has placed them

all there. They are in a strategic position to have

an influence. But the question is are they having an influence?

You know, are they having an impact? And whether or

not they're having an impact in my book, depends on

are they demonstrating the love of Christ? You know, it's

not about wearing Christian stickers and seeing Christian songs and

having a Bible verse on my office one. You know

that one anybody can do. Let's be honest, correct, anybody

can pain myself as a Christian.

The Tessa for me is am I showing love?

Every day? Do I see my fellow colleagues and classmates

with the eyes of Christ? So when when Paula talks

about love right that the model of a disciple is love,

where's the love right? And this is something I think

all of us, including myself, really need to look, take

a heart long look at ourselves in the mirror and

ask ourselves when people see me? So whether it could

be for those students here, my classmates, my teachers and

all of that.

Am I being a blessing to them?

And not really every week and not just saying it, Look,

I'm praying for you, I bless you. You know? Am I

really identifying needs, being sensitive to other people needs and

as a Christian then demonstrating in very real, concrete ways.

How am I mean? Are we helping classmates that are

struggling in their studies? You know people who are you know,

maybe their English is not so good, or their BM

or their math is not so good. I mean, are

we taking time to say, okay, look, how are we?

How am I helping them? My teachers who are stressed

out of their mind? As a student in that class

or in you know, that lecture. How am I reaching

out to them the maintenance staff that are working in

your campuses, So students aren't talking here but your workplaces,

you know. So when we talk about they will know

your Christians because of your love. That was That was

the message got plays in our heart now during that

meeting to say, it's not that we don't have enough Christians,

is the fact that I think too few of us

are really living up the ideal of the ambassadors of

Christ and what that means, what it means to be ambassadors.

I don't need to quote the Bible versa. You see

it in my actions. You see it in the love

and the compassion I have for you because I love

you like Christ loves you.

All Right, so we come back to this.

Let's go back and think what is the mountain we're climbing,

my friends? What is the target? Is it aligned to

what how God sees the world? Or are we so

worried about what other people say in the world that

we are sort of changing and moving the goalpost? Right,

So let's move on next. I so so in my youth,

you know, we are studying in New Zealand. And that's

another story of God's faithfulness because the only reason why

I was able to go to New Zealand to study

psychology was my father, who was a Christian minister for

many many years, and he was a Christian teacher and

and you know, worked with university students a bit like

Kenneth and Sandra. I grew up in church camps and

university camps and youth camps. That's why I have a

great affinity for Aya and your ministry because from the

moment I was born, there was never a moment I

was out of university and school. Actually, to be honest,

you know, I never left university. I used to joke

I grew up in university. I was born into university

because my father was doing university ministry. And then I

actually went to university and I stayed there forever. Right,

I've never left university but in New Zealand once a year.

And I was small town where there's no entertainment at all, right,

New Zealand. At five pm O the shops closed, duaneed

and even worse, one hundred thousand people.

There's nothing there all right.

And I was there because my father's former students who

were became Christian leaders, became Christian doctors actually came up

to this and say, look, we were sponsor your son's education.

You just let us know out of the goodness of

their heart. And so I mean, I'm really gracious to

God's grace through my father's faithfulness to him.

If not, I wouldn't be there.

So one of the things we look forward to once

a year, because he's a really quiet placer, all right.

Ideal for studying no distractions at all was once a year.

There's something called the twenty four hour books sale. This

was before Big Bad Wolf here, So first time we

had heard of this. What is this twenty four hour books? Say? Wow?

Right, you know, and they have it in this theater.

And what was interesting about that place is the books

are not new books, all right. So, because it's an

aging population and it's like a one hundred and fifty

old town, all of these old libraries and a lot

of people they pass away or the you know, so

all of these old books that are fifty seventy eighty

old books are so so it's wow, and it's fifty

cents one ring it a book, And so for a

book lover, like myself heaven. Right, Okay, so you go

there and you bring boxes literally and you're, you know,

grabbing these old books from all collections, right, and a

lot of their my theological collections. So I forgot what year,

but I I got this book. Okay, it was called

Dying We Live. And I think you got Amazon. I mean,

if you can get it, because obviously it's not in

print anymore, you should get it. And I described this

book this group changed my life. It is a collection

of letters written in World War two Germany. So these

are Germans who are what we call conscientious objectives, meaning

they were fighting the Nazi regime from within Germany. So

they were the ones who say, I will not surfing

the army. I refused to join hitler youth. In fact,

many of them were actually actively plotting how do we

get rid of Hitler? Because this is obviously, you know,

this is the Antichrist. You know what Hitler represents, the hatred,

the racism, the anti you know, everything, you know.

And all of them died in that book.

And these were their last letters to my dear wife,

who were you know, carrying my unborn child. And you know,

when this child grows up, you know, I need you,

I need you to tell this child that his father

or her father died trying to fight this evil in

the world, you know. And their different ranks, and some

of them were offices, some of them were people in

the army, some of them were teachers. And you go

letter after letter, I mean, can you imagine, and and

after like two three days reading this, I mean, you

can't help but be changed because of the courage and faithfulness,

all right, But also it changed my perspective of once again,

how we define success. All right. None of them survive,

you know, my friends, so none of them the testimonials

us and in the end, we killed Hitler and you

know we you know, live a long, healthy life. Most

of them in their teens or early twenties were cut

down because they were martyred like many of the disciples.

By the way, when you read the Book of.

Acts, right, you know, many of them, like the Stevens

of the world, were actually stone. And so many people

may look at that and go, wow, it's a failure. Lie,

you know, where was God?

What happened? Why didn't God remove them?

Right? You say, Isaiah forty you know, rise on wings

like yours?

Where where is the success.

But again it's perspective low right, you know, it's not

God's failure, you know, because again as Christians, we don't

define success on the world steps. That's what this book

really brought home to my heart. We don't define so

to do all their failures lie? You know, the short

life gone, what a waste. They should have just compromised

and got a long eya, who cares? All right, you know,

serve a few years. What's the big deal? You know?

But the fact that the courage second Corinthians sixth, this

is I believe when I read this anyway, the title

of the book was taken from second to Corinthian six dying.

We live on our Christian perspective. We don't see life

in the world the same way other people see them.

Let's go to the next light. So this brings us

to the last part. And this is one, in my view,

one of the most powerful poietic profound verses in the

Bible known yet regarded as unknown. So, Paula, those of

you do English lit. My father was an English lid teacher, right,

will say that this is you know, he's creating a

literary structure where it's paradox is this but this right

what they call you know, where there is an auxy

moron or a dichotomy, a paradox. All right, we are

known by God and our community, but regarded as unknown.

I mean, we are not the influences with fifty million

views and nobody knows this. All right, dying yet we

live on. That's the title of the book, right, It's

the paradox. We die, but actually we never die. We

are not afraid of death, to live as Christ. To

die is gain beaten yet not killed, sorrowful yet always rejoicing.

And it is sorrowful. I mean, it's not look early

you read acts, you read in fact, most of the Bible,

not just New Testament, Old Testament. You read Elijah Elisha.

It's not as though their life is one big party,

all right. You know there are moments where they're singing

in the prison like Peter, but I mean, look, their

life is not just singing. You know. They are tears.

There were tears when Steven, their colleague, was stoned to death.

They are tears when their family, like during the Roman times,

are brought out into the colosseum. And you know, Fetter

the lions, you know. I mean, so it's not it's happy,

go lucky. You know, Christian life is you know who cares?

You know, everything is going to be all right kind

of thing. All right, I mean that there's real experience

and emotion in what they're talking about. So we are

sorrowful because there's so many sacrifices and we see what's happening,

the toll it's taking on our church to be faithful.

But at the same time, I mean, we are always rejoicing, right,

we are rejoicing in the love that we experience with Christ.

We are rejoicing in the salvation we have. We are

rejoicing in the hope that you know, we will have

this eternal life, and there will be a day that

will come, my friends, where there's no more pain and

suffering and separation from our loved ones. Right. So the

paradoxa both both are true at the same time, the

sorrow and the joy poor yet making many rich. Right,

having nothing, Oh this is beautiful, right, having nothing, I

may take nothing away from this world, yet possessing everything

everything one of my favorite movies and next Light. So

the lessentry, sorry, go back one's life. So the third

lesson is in order to be resilient and find the

strength that Isaiah talks about. Paul talks about, we need

to change our perspective of what is really valuable in

our life.

So I okay, next, like thanks.

You know, one of my favorite movies growing up was

charotsa Fhire Gay. I don't know how many of you

have you even heard of this movie? La put up

here be honest? Okay, so betrays h and some of

us nineteen eighty two. I think the movie was most

of you were not even born in nineteen eighty two.

And I liked it because I was a runner, Gay,

I know how to believe looking at me now, right

thirty forty years later, But I used to be I

used to be one hundred meter runner.

My father was so used to be a runner, So

I was.

Used to be that those kind of crazy people that

stay after school and go and practice and run in

the rain and all that. And Charosa Fire is a

running moviere it talks about next light, you know. The

Olympics in twenty twenty four in Paris attracts two British

the Leites, Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddle. True story who

won't go Medals? So right, spoiler alert. I tell you first,

all right, they Warner, all right, and the journey and

their personal struggles at all of that, and he won

Best Picture, by the way, in the Academy Cherists of Fire.

Many of you may know the Soundtrackler all right, Okay,

they played it in the London olymp because anyway, this

one you go and google YouTube later. Okay, have a

movie screening here if you want. But I love the movie.

I used to watch it many men every day in

those days, VHS tape, videotape because don't have astro, don't

have YouTube. Used to watch it and watch it and

you know, and one of the characters in that film

is Eric Littler. So he won the fond of me

this so I tell you this story. Yeah. So Eric

Little was born to Scottish missionaries, he says, Scott Scott

all right, born to Scottish machineries, Church of Scotland.

Quite conservative one, you know, very quite strict.

And he grew up, you know, in mission homes and

you know, very gifted young man, physically gifted, intellectually gifted.

At the time he was a student in Edinburgh University.

I think doing science. If I'm not mistaken science and education, right,

but he had also become because of his physical gifts,

a rugby star, and rugby was like football now very

popular in Scotland. So he was a rugby winger, very

fast runner, a radio superstar. He will walk down the

street and people ask for his photographs, and then somebody

spotted him and say, hey, I think you should run.

I mean, you're fast enough, you've got the technique. Why

don't you be training for the Olympics. And he did

for three years he trained it. He was a young man,

twenty two years old, and he actually competed in Paris

nineteen twenty four. All right, but the fame was three

months before the Olympics because he had been training for

one hundred meters raising fastest man alive. Three months before

the Olympics they released the schedule and the schedule said

the semi finals or heats are going to be on

a Sunday, and Eric Liddle's church sketch offs, you cannot

do sports on this Sunday. So suddenly he's corner, all right,

and he made in fact the book he you know,

his his autobiography, and now says he didn't take him

even ten seconds he say I'm not going to run,

and there's a lot of pressure, the pressure from the public.

Reporters were coming to the house and saying what is

going on? So it's almost equivalent. And at that time

Scotland had never won a gold medal in the Olympic history.

So that's a little bit like okay wrote to go Malaysia. Okay,

we spent three years preparing you, and then three months

before the okay, where is where is the next Olympics? That?

Can somebody tell me? Last week? Last year was Paris

twenty twenty four. Next year is twenty twenty eight? Is

where see? I was all lost? Nobody knows if we're

all out of toucher, what's going on? All right? So

twenty twenty eight Olympics wherever that is. It's almost as

though three months beforehand out thataminton player or double spell

or whatever it is, that thirty five million Malaysians, all

of our hope on suddenly come out in the pres

and say, you know what, the matches on a Sunday.

As a Christian, I'm not playing now. How much pressure

can you imagine? Hey, we spend money on you, we

put you in the road to goal program. We did this,

we did that, we did everything. All right, are you crazy?

And a lot of pressure was put on Eric Liddle

and he said no, I'm in Hey, God gave me

the gift to run.

I run for God.

God says don't run on a Sunday, So I'm not

running all right.

So a lot of pressure.

And he stood firm and in the end they say, okay,

as a compromise, cannot run one hundred meters, we give

you the four hundred meters. Okay. So he was competing

in a race that he had very little preparation for

and most people say, he can't do it. A sprinter

four hundred meters, it's a mid you know, not the

same muscles and all that he's not gonna be. And

the race itself, which by the way, you can actually

watch on YouTube. They actually had footage of the rail race.

He starts off in the outer lane, Lane ANA, which

basically means no HOMEEWN line right right. Those of you

who are track runners, you know, I mean that's the

inner lanes is where middle lanes is where you want

to be so you can see you can see your

competitive So lane eight he goes shoots out one hundred

meters pace, right, and you're all thinking crazy, No way,

after about two three hundred meters, he's gonna tire, right,

he just goes to the point where you watch the

video or the favorite who is an American at the

strait actually falls down trying to all catch him. It

was the longest distance of winning in four hundred meter history,

and he broke the world recorder. By the grace of God,

he won the Olympic god medal. All right, you know,

so go go ahead and watch Eric little store. But okay,

actually this is only the beginning of the story. The

question is what did he do after? So next liner,

you can actually go to see a memorial of Eric Liddle.

Got a statue? All right, I hope this doesn't review

too much. I want to you guess what country do

you think this memorial plug for Eric Liddle is in?

Is in China because he was actually born in Tiensient, China.

His Scottish parents were missionary parents.

After the Olympics, he was fected, meaning celebrated. He's like, hey, Malaysias,

first go medalor can you imagine everything is being thrown in?

What do you want to do? Fame? Fortune for twenty

two year old. Can you imagine, here's the center of

the whole universe. And he says, I'm gonna give all

of this up.

I'm gonna go to China.

God is calling me to China to teach physics science

in a school in Tienchin, which you can visit today.

He started an athletic program. He was still very fit.

There's a sports stadium in China that is named after him,

all right, because he actually started the program, got authorities.

Da Da Da Da Da met a missionary daughter there,

Florence from Canada. They got married, they had two daughters,

and then World War Two started. He sent the wife

and two young girls away to Canada to be safe,

and they were. She was also pregnant with the third

child because the Japanese invasion had started. He sent them

off and he says, don't worry, I'll see you. But

I can't leave right because my students and my team

need me through this hardship. And that was the last

time they saw him, because he died in a Japanese

internship internment camp in Tienshin in nineteen forty five. Stayed

back in spite of numerous opportunities to go home. Eric

Liddle died at forty three years old. And when you

when you actually see read his read his biography, there's

a video if you type Eric Liddle on YouTube, there's

a one and a half hour video of people telling

testimonials and people who are prisoners in that camp say

he was the life of the camera. He was the

one keeping up spirits, always playing chess with the older people,

playing games. There was a whole group of people from

Chifu School who were missionary kids that were put there,

and he took all of them under his wing because

he was a teacher, had activities, games to keep people's

spirits up for those two years he was in that camp.

And when he died, you know they say, I mean

grown men who had never cried in their life, you know,

broke down in tears because he he was the ambassador

of Christ. And he was the one who started praying

me things every day. He was the one who challenged

them that says the first item is we pray for

the Japanese because Jesus said, you pray for your enemies.

You love your enemies. Eric Liddle in many ways to

me and body's Second Corinthians, Chapter six Paul Liddle, and

I'm sure many of you know other brothers and sisters

who have walked the footsteps of Christ. Now that's the

inspiration to this next light. You know, some of you

may have heard of this group. These were a group

of American college students, the most famous of the five

probably you have heard of Jim Elliott, that were given

the burden to go and reach out to unreached tribes.

And one of those tribes was in Ecuador in South America,

and they all went there and all of them were

that were killed because of the tribe, you know, were

violent and they killed all of them. The next slight,

many of you know this quote. This was Jim Elliott.

This is the change in perspective we need, my friends,

We want resilience. We need to understand what is really

important in our lives, and we need to be willing

to let go put on the altar the things that

are not core and really valuable in the eyes of

God and ourselves. We need to lay that down and

say we give this up. That's what it means to

lay our life at the altar. It's a change from perspective.

Gives what he cannot keep. Why because whatever I accumulate

in this will, I mean I could be Elon muss

I could have two hundred billion dollars. What does that mean?

It means nothing. It has no real value. You know,

many of us we want to leave legacies of buildings

and statues and all of that, which Eric Little probably

didn't want the statue there. He would be the last

person to say, don't put a statue of me. You know,

I want to honor God, not myself. But you know,

many of us are just stressed out about the wrong

things in life. My friends, we need to have the

perspective of Paul and Eric and Jim. What was really

powerful was Jim at that time had already married the wife,

Elizabeth Elliotta was there. She survived the attack. What was

really inspirational. You know what happened.

She continued to be a missionary.

She went back to the tribe, the same tribe that

killed the husband, and because of her efforts, the tribe

was actually reached. That's quite amazing, right next next, All right,

so we end with this. I hope that from the

stories we have heard, we understand what Paul was talking

about when he says this dying we live on beaten,

not killed. And I know, my friends, some of us

here really feel like we're being beaten right now in life.

Right we feel so overwhelmed and stressed out and under pressure,

you know, I mean, we feel so beaten down. Hopefully

this verse is an encouragement to us that, with the

power of Christ, I want to invite that the worship

team up Ma to come and lead us in two

songs as we respond to God's message today, sorrowful yet

always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich, having nothing yet

possessing everything. Let's for a moment quieter now our hearts

and our minds, close our eyes in prayer as we

ask God's spirit to come and crystallize the message that

he has for each one of us. Heavenly Father, we

thank you for your love and your grace to us.

We thank you for calling us to this eternal life,

life in all its fullness. We know that the life

you offer is richer, more valuable, more full of joy

and fulfillment than anything else the world can offers. But

we also know that it is not an easy life,

and we need to lay down at your feet burdens

that we still have in our heart. Please, true your

Holy Spirit, clarify in our minds. What mountains you really

want us to climb? What do you really want us

to do in our lives? Where do you want is

to serve? O Lord? Which communities do you want us?

The love? We come before you're old? We offer our

lives to you. Speak to us, give us the courage

to follow the path that you are calling us to go.

I want us to sing together. This is an older

song and a hymn, but I think it helps us

verbalize the faith that we have.

Salvation belongs to our God.

It's such a powerful phrase, you know, it's a powerful

truth what we are saying. We're talking about resilience and

strength right to face the storms in life. When we

say salvation belongs to our God, we are saying, that's

where the strength and the resilience is. My salvation, my

strength and power to get through whatever I'm facing right

now in my life. That belongs to my God. That's

not from our own strength. Salvation belongs to our God.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as Church Org. We

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This week is going to be a good week, a

hit for you. God bless