Heart under siege.. Guard your heart! | Pr Dr Daniel Kong

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your tea.

Now before I start uh speaking, Okay, I just wanted

to get you to think for a moment, something valuable

that you own. Okay, you can close the eyes you

wanted to do that, that's fine. What what would it be?

Would it be a memory? Maybe an heir loom? Okay,

something precious, maybe a dream. Now imagine this if somebody

is out to take that from you, or you're stopped

by a thief. All right, what would the first thing

you would do, open ended question? Something precious?

Right, call police?

Okay, police, Yeah, you would probably protect it, find a

way to secure it, lock it away, and then should

nobody gets to you. But what if I ask you

another question? What is more important than all those things?

Those things are important, but it's actually something more precious?

Okay?

Now, this thing that's precious is not your car, it's

not your bank account, it's not your cash that's under

your pillow.

You still do that.

It's not any of those items that you normally see,

not your wallet as well, but it's actually right here

the center your heart. Your heart can be stolen. You know,

and it's not just by a girl or a guy. Okay,

it can be stolen. I'm not talking about stealing the organ, oka,

if you're not talking about harvesting hearts and all that.

But it's something that you can really easily lose if

you're not careful with it.

Okay.

And why am I saying this is because I wanted

to say that if you're not careful, just like all

those other things that we just mentioned, it can.

Be taken away.

We don't you even realizing it, okay, And that's why

we need to stand God. Now, for those of you

who has been with us for a while, I started

off this series on the Armor of God, and this

is going to be part three of that series. I'm

going to be covering one portion of it. Now, let's

read from scripture. Efficients if you can put it up,

Oh thank you. Now, finally, be strong in the Lord,

in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of

God full, not one piece, not two pieces, but the

entire collection, all right, Why so that you can stand

against the devil's schemes, standing against it, and so you

know that there is definitely some evil powers involved, something

that you can only achieve standing firm and standing still,

if you put on the full armor of God. Our

struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,

against authorities, and against the power that is dark okay,

the dark world, and against spiritual forces of evil.

Even in the heavenly realms. Okay.

So this is the first part of the scripture, but

the next part talks about therefore again repeated her.

Therefore put on the full armor of.

God again, not just one piece, but the entire collection,

the whole armor in some translations, again, so that when

the day of evil comes, you'll be able to stand

your ground. So purpose is to stand your ground, to

remain firm. And after you've done everything, you checked all

the boxes, you can stand firm, stand firm. Then with

the belt of truth buckle. We talked about the truth

the last time around. Okay, today we're going to be

focused on the next portion. With the breastplate of righteous

in place at work. So far, I'm not gonna read

the rest, okay, but the focus today is on the

breastplate of righteousness.

Not just the breastplate, but the breastpirit of righteousness. Okay.

So if a new here, welcome again. This is on

the whole series of gearing up for war, for spiritual warfare,

to be more specific. And we've talked about this, right,

just a quick recap. We talk about spiritual warfare that's

always ongoing.

You know.

The enemy is always at work, even though you are resting.

Some things at work, all right, and he's waging war

bringing darkness into light, okay, And this is what we

need to do. And Paul is trying to help us understand.

And this letter is Paul writing when he was in prison, right,

he was writing to his friends at emphasis, and he

was thinking about how do we encourage people to stand

their God, to be ready to give them a different perspective.

And definitely from prison he can also see visibly in

the Roman gods how they dress. Okay, so I think

that's why maybe he used this. So he's talking about

bucking up, and we talked about bucking up last time around.

Now we're talking about the next stage.

Okay.

Now, how many of you have been involved in some

form of like military kind of uniform or you know,

maybe in primary or sorry, in secondary school you have

you're involved in some uniform body right, anybody?

Nsare? No? Wow? Ns?

Wow? My time, got no ns, okay, but I heard ns.

It's just having fun in your maca mccannakay. Anyway, it's

very different. It's very different. But the closest thing that

some of us may have is just being involved in

some uniform body scouts. I was part of the Boys Brigade,

although part of marching band, rather than going to war. Okay,

but yeah, that's probably the closest thing that I can say.

I've been in part of the military, but I when

I was in h studying abroad, I actually went, uh

and played paintball. Anybody played paintball before? Right, That's probably

the closest thing to warfare for me in the flesh.

Not not talking about gaming counterstrike those those don't count again,

this talk about real life. You know, getting hurt and

you know those pain ball right, those pellets. Does it

hurt when it hits you? It really hurts, right, So

that's probably the closest thing you you we came to, uh,

you know, all this inflicting pain, and if you think

about it, it's very oddly a line as well, the

pain ball, right, if it hits you, right, it won't

kill you, just like spiritual warfare as well, it won't

kill you, but it can do some harm. So there's

some parallels here as well. Okay, but if you know

all that, you also some gear that sometimes you wear

to protect delicate parts. Okay, right, delicate parts, you know

what I'm talking about, right, And even sometimes you I

had a chest plate of sorts, okay, more like a vesler.

And how do you know that you you got terminated

and you see a lot of painball getting shot, right,

it's all the paints better here, and you know that

you're out.

Okay.

So this is probably the closest thing that I have,

uh to warfare. All right, But even though paintball is

a game and we play that game, we know that

spiritual warfare is not. It's not really a game.

Okay.

People can get hurt, and the enemy is out to

get your heart, right, it's out to get your hat.

And imagine if the vest wasn't there, it'd be more

out chiela, I would say, okay, getting hit right, And yeah,

why am I saying this is because sometimes if we

do not address the problem, we think that we can

go on with life without any protection in place. Okay, Uh,

you would be bound to get hurt and in fact

there will be more damages. Is prolonged. Now, why do

you think that I'm talking about this before I go

and geek out about all the details and the research

that I've done. How do you get hurt in your heart?

We can talk about different things broken hearts, right, anybody

been broken before. I've been have broken before as well,

not just talking about the begr kind of broken heart.

You know, sometimes even people disappoint you and you're broken, right.

Anybody has anxious hearts. Anxiety. I couldn't sleep, say, by

the way, I said two hours, and I don't know's anxious?

I mebe My son was unwell, by the way, So

there's anxious heart. Sometimes you walk around with burden hearts,

all right, or depress hearts, betrayal, betrayed hearts all right?

And then sometimes the thing that we hear right, shattered hearts, right,

I think that's broken apart. And as much as you

want to avoid this whole talking topic about heart, right,

I think every one of us have come across some

form of like brokenness or some impact that has affected the.

Function of the heart.

I'm not talking about organ but if you want to

call it that, what does it sound like it's actually

a heart attack, all right, a heart attack, not really

literally like the heart the organ attack.

But your heart is under attack.

More specifically, okay, and if you do not protect it

and you allow things to come in, then of course

it'll be damaged.

So the question here is really, how have we? How

have since?

How let me reface that when it's the last time

we actually ask yourself or did a heart check to

find out whether your heart is okay, whether the uncomfortable

parts that you're feeling, whether it's related to something coming

from within or something from external. I have not gone

for a medical checkup for three years, even though company

pays for it. I don't know why because I'm a

bit worried about what I find out, Okay, and it's

December early and I s they haven't gone for my checkup.

I am horrible, I know.

But you know, for those of you done medical checkup,

you know something like this, and what are those things

for there to find out what you cannot see from

the outside, And sometimes if you do not evaluate, you

may not actually know what is happening, all right. So

that's why I say it's important to do a hard

check from time to and if you're being very honest,

you might find that sometimes your heart may be under

tech even though you do not realize it.

You don't receive yourself life. You know it's real, it's

a real thing. Right.

But in the context of this, we're not just talking

about the organ, okay, because Biblically, when we talk about

the heart, the Greek word that talks about the heart

is actually called card deer, okay, And that's why the card,

the arrests and all that is the root word. But

when they talk about this, it's more talking about the mind,

the character, the inner self, the will and intention. So

when the Bible speaks about the heart is more referring

to the inner person rather than the organ that keeps

everything functioning.

Don't get me wrong, that's important.

But it's also the reason why they use the work

hard is because it's the core of your being.

Right.

Your thoughts, your emotions, your will, your intentions are all

driven here. They say here, but actually it's more here first, Okay.

That's why if you do not you're not careful.

And if you're really honest, if you ask yourself this question,

sometimes when you have negative feelings, does it come from here?

Or does it come from here? What do you think?

Most likely it is here, but it's not address And

the question I have up there is do these negative

feelings that you are experiencing original from you or is

it some other things? Let's talk about the face. You know,

when you have something wrong with your heart refisal heart,

do you think it's from within or it's probably something

external that creates that problem? And then of course eventually

it becomes a problem. Usually it's external right likewise as well,

most of the time we think that it's coming from within,

these negative feelings and all that. But actually, as I

mentioned earlier, there's a person, or there's an individual, or

there's an entity that keeps on working where hard to

wage war. Again, it's not just your mind, but also

your heart all the time subtly. So if you put

that on the context, could it be that sometimes all

these heart problems and again mind character in a self

will and all this intentions actually coming from an attack

from the enemy subtly, But it may not be internal.

But we always say, oh, you know.

I'm anxious because it's my own problem. I'm actually you know,

I'm actually really with depression, and so I cannot slip. Actually,

maybe it's from external and then it spirals into something

that manifests and becomes worse from within.

Okay, this is what I'm trying to say here. So

is it from you? Maybe?

But it could also be the evil one working extra hard. Okay.

The word that they use is to come and steal,

kill and destroy, right, is prowling looking for opportunity to pounce,

all right, So that's why it's very important. The only

way that you can prevent it from happening is to

actually put something in place, just like how in the

physical put a barrier to protect you from getting hit.

Same thing as well, and that's why the soldiers they

gear up. So the topic for today's message is heard

under siege. Why because most of the time you just say, God,

your heart, we don't know why we got We must

understand you always being attacked. There's always uh and an

attack that's coming to you, even though you don't realize it.

That's why I put the term under siege.

Right.

And if you do not recognize that, you don't put

your thing and just go out in hero, you've be

in trouble. Okay, So you can write down heart, undersiege,

God your heart everything so far right. So, as I

mentioned to you Paul the Apostle, he was writing from prison. Okay,

he's discovered that the enemy will always As we talked

before in the first segment we talked that, we mentioned

that the enemy will always come subtly, right, it's always

very subtle. He will distract you, he will tempt you

and then make you not believe in what you can do,

and even sometimes attack your identity.

And that's how we get to the heart.

So the heart issue, right is always identity where you

stand what you stand for. And the enemy right, as

we shed before, Revelation twelve talks about him being the

accuser of the brethren. That means he's the father of

all lies. Okase, he's always good at confusing. Right, God

convicts you what my conviction convicsion is, Oh maybe I

did something wrong. That's conviction, right. But the enemy will

come and condemn you to say that actually you are

very wrong to do what you do, and then you

condemn you and you you cannot get out of it.

And that's the It's very different when you realize the

problem and you find a way positive way of fixing it.

But if you know the problem. But the problem keeps

bearing you, makes it worse for you. Then that's where

the problem escalates to another level. And that's why I

say it becomes it drains you, it wears you out right,

And that's why last time we also talked about the

belt of truth, right, and there's no coincidence, but the

belt truth is there first because the truth, belt of truth,

just like even the physical right, it holds everything together,

all right. I've got a photograph over there. You can see.

Unlike how we like to.

Put our things, sorry, our dressing over the belt, sometimes

the belt actually goes over.

The breastplate.

Okay, why is that so? It's so that it keeps

everything in place, right, if you think about it.

I mentioned to you.

Before the breastplate is on the front, right, the top

part is very secure, but the bottom will flap around

if there's nothing to hold together. Just like that as well,

we said earlier before that the truth is within the belt,

so everything hinges on the truth. And then of course

the protection out there, the protection of the of the

armor is there to keep things in check as well,

and the guards whatever's in the heart. And last time

I mentioned to you as well that sometimes truth in

the human sense can be relative, just like how I

purposely to chow the penang people to say that, you know,

how can noodle care? How can it is better than

you know whatever? But that's relative truth. That's why we

actually need the proper truth, God's truth, because that is

the one that you know, the tie breaker, a right

to actually say that this is the exact truth. And

that's why when Jesus says it's the truth, he is

the truth. His word is the truth. And we need

that because otherwise everything is just all relative, all right,

And that's why we need the truth from the belt.

And now we are rapped with that belt is wrapping

around the breastplate of righteousness.

And now why breastplate of righteousness? Why righteousness?

So we're going to tackle this concept again. It's to

primary protect vital organs, but righteousness. Okay, Now, worst four

thing talks about the breastplate of righteousness. Now, before I

go any deeper, the heart, of course is an organ

in the physical sense, right, it's the very thing that

keeps people alive. Now, why do I say this is

because if your brain can continue to work but the

heart stops pumping, you can be thinking in your mind,

but there's not enough blood supply up there, and then

your mind cannot function. That's why the heart is important.

Even if your body can still your muscles can still

move and react and do things, the heart needs to

provide the necessary for you to keep working. And before

we go in deeper in all this, right, what do

you think is number one killer in Malaysia in terms

of diseases?

Okay?

I found an article yesterday, interestingly yesterday at about I

think it says there at about nine twenty two am yesterday,

they have a report that says this is a Department

of Statistics, Okay, in twenty and four it accounts that

the largest killer is actually heart disease in Malaysia, killing

more than cancer, killing more than COVID and all those

other things you know, pneumonia and all that kind of stuff.

And these are medically certified deaths.

Okay. So we know that heart.

Issue is a big issue at least in the physical

medical sense, right, And that's why we need to do

things to protect our heart even the medical sense, right,

and likewise spiritually is no different. You need to do

something about it. Proverbs for twenty three. This comes from

the wise man Solomon. Right, he says, above all else

God your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Words of wisdom, right, very practical, So it applies. I

believe both physically and spiritually. If your heart is not good,

experience attack. And if you do not, how do you

protect it? Of course with the prespurate righteousness?

Right.

Why do we do this is because John tent Ten

reminds us again the thief is here to come to steal,

kill and destroy. But I've come to give you life

and life abundant or life to the full in some translations.

So just very clear.

The enemies ought to get you, right, So do not

be deceived to say that there's no thread. So if anything,

at the end of the day, I hope and I

plead to you that you will protect your heart. If

you can't do yourself, get someone to protect your heart

for you, all right, Get someone trusted, trust the companion,

maybe a fellow you know, a fellow soldier, because we're

all a war, a leader, a discipler to come protect

your heart. Now, let's go back this efficient six fourteen.

All right, Paul talks about the presprate righteousness. What is righteousness?

Why righteousness? Why not something or why not breastplate of

toughness or breastplate of immortality or something like that. Why righteousness?

Why do you think it's why? Why do you think

the word righteous is being used? And this righteousness right

is actually a very a word. There's always miss uh, misunderstood,

even in the Chue circle. What does it mean? In

simple English? Bibically, righteousness is not religion. It's not about

even activity, all right. Righteous is about just right standing

with God. That's it simple. That means how well you

stand before God. That is righteousness, at least bibically all right.

So again it's not activity. It is right standing, and

it's not what you do. It's not what you can

do or what you have done. It's really about a

gift from Him and what he has done. So as

we move towards Christmas, I don't want to talk about gifts, right,

this is one of the biggest gifts for you as well.

It's a gift from God because He's already done it all.

There's nothing you can really do. Don't kid yourself, all right,

because He's done it for you and for me.

Right, He's done it all.

But the problem is sometimes you do not recognize this,

and sometimes we may have seen may have fallen, and

then we tend to cover up things.

And it's not just a problem with you and me.

Even as early as the first creation and when they

made a mistake, what did they do? They literally cover up,

all right with the pictures always draw like this, very

funny leaves and all that. Right, Why because when we

fall short, we often cover up. They hit they use

thick leaves to cover up. And sometimes we believe this

as well. When we do wrong things, we cover up

with good, better things to hide the things that are

not so good. And we believe by doing more of

that it helps boost the righteousness.

Do you think so?

Right, that's what we normally do, right, But that is

not called righteousness really. That is in the human sense,

you know, those that you have gone through my time,

we call it pendicant moral right. The higher morality, the

more points you win, or the more points you get,

and therefore you are okay. And that's how people or

in listen, in earthly sense, we call righteousness. But that's

not how it works, because God has already done it,

all right, It's not that kind of morality. Morality doesn't

get you to heaven, like it or not? Right, if

you have been told that that helps you get to heaven,

I'm sorry to say no. And we don't want a

church to be like this, to keep on chasing those

morality to cover up. No, we want you to be

passionately chasing Jesus all the time, because He's already done

it all anyway, there's nothing can outdo or do to

help you get there. But again, just to remind aerybody,

the confusion is from the enemy. He twists the thing

a little bit. What I mean by that? He condemns you, right,

he will tell you, oh, he's feels small. Whatever doing

is wrong, very bad. He makes you feel weak. He

makes you feel.

Dirty for doing what you've done. All right. He makes

you feel like a loser. Don't you feel that right?

Makes you feel inferior? And what do we do? We

cover up? All right? We cover up? And how do

we cover up? We cover it good works?

I might say, Oh, I since I seen more maybe

this offering, I give a bit moller right, I cover up? Right,

I might do a bit more good work, or find

somebody to hang out with who is good.

Then more brownie points.

Know all this doesn't work because you see right this

verse fourteen, right, if you look at the I like

this New Living Bible translation, it doesn't the breastplate of righteousness,

but it uses the term the breastplate of God's approval instead.

So righteousness is really about, as we said earlier, God's approval.

How does he see you? How does he view you?

Because if you understand how he views you the right standing,

it doesn't matter anyway, you're already right by his eyes.

Right.

And I do be very careful here because sometimes when

we talk about this, you may think that because of that,

then you can get the free pass to do whatever

you want. No, no, we're not talking about that as well. Okay,

it doesn't mean that. But I want you to have

liberty to not be condemned, to not be like by

the enemy, because that's what he does. He condemns you,

He belittles you, and that's what you don't. Got to

be very careful of as well. Okay, So remember it's

not what others have said about you, or what others

did to you, the mistakes. If you made fine their mistakes,

move on. God wants you to move on. It's already done, right,

And if you have the breastplit of righteousness there, it

cannot penetrate your heart. But the problem is when we

don't put the breastplit of righteousness on. Is when you

feel all these doubts and you think that, ah, maybe

it is true.

The enemy whispers things must be true, must be true, right.

And then you seek his approval, Enemy's approval rather than

God's approval. And that is where the problem starts. So

righteousness is really about Jesus giving you this opportunity to

protect your heart. Don't sing right. Like I said, you

cannot just do good things. I cannot drop one hundred

bucks to a homeless guy and say, okay, how to

ring it to you? Fine, I'm clean, I'm cleansed, or

you feel that you know yourr missions coming up, okay,

I give more.

Doesn't work that way.

It's not the currency, right, It doesn't get you more

bonus points to go into heaven.

Right, or even if you want to do.

Avoid bad things. I don't use social media so much.

I don't know the top negative about people and all that.

It also doesn't help you, whether you do good or

you do less bad. It doesn't help you all right.

But that's what most of the other religions talk about

the fundamental part of other religions. Okay, again I'm not

cherry picking or condemning other religions, but that's generally what

people believe. Right acts of earning righteousness can be done.

You do more good, you earn more brownie points, and

then you get to heaven or a good place or

you know, nirvana or whatever it is. Okay, there's all

these different aspects of getting there, but this is not

what Christianity is about. So how you feel in marketing

that it's actually harder to some extent, well, harder easy,

I don't know. It depends on how you look at it.

But our faith belist system is really about the righteousness

is not your righteousness to begin with anyway, It is

Jesus rightous righteousness. And that's why how you do how

to do this is really this next point over here,

put on the breastplate of his righteousness. It miss God's righteousness,

not your righteousness. Why is this important is because John

nineteen reminds us it's already done, it's finish, done, paid

in full.

Don't do anything now.

Why is this important because it liberates you if you

do not understand this. You put on the breastplate of

your own righteousness. So it doesn't work that way, okay,

And that's why it's different for us when we follow Jesus.

It's quite liberating.

You don't do anything because Jesus done it all, and

you think about it, Jesus is not looking for a

future better you, right because he already engaged you, even

though in your current situation it is not a hirlred percent.

Let mess it. He sees the negative in you, but

he wants to engage you. He choose to engage you

right from the start, and that's the beauty of our Lord.

Right.

He knew exactly what he got into when he did

a contract or covenant with you. He bought you with

his blood right from the start. But I also have

to remind everybody here we don't have to stay the

way we are. That means if we are starting at ground,

let's say negative one, he found you a negative one.

We don't just stay there forever. There's opportunities for us

to grow and become better.

Right, But you do good things to become better and

then therefore you accept it. Okay, That's what I'm trying

to say here. The breastplit of righteousness, of his righteousness

tells you and reminds us again he has done it all.

You don't to worry about anything, but we can be better.

Right, So, like I mentioned earlier, I do want to

cheapen graze my chipen grace. Grace is already a gift

for us. It doesn't mean that. Let me rephrase that.

It's not a free pass to do something bad.

All the time we.

Are encouraged to good, but it is not work based

kind of religion. It's what I'm trying to stay here. Right,

because of grace, we can do more great things. I mean,

of course, if you want to look at a few scales, okay,

good is obviously positive. Neutral is status quo. Negative is

the bad. Right, So let me be clear. It doesn't

mean that because of all this grace you go down.

You can continue to negative stay neutral is the bad minimum.

But of course we hope that the fruit from all this,

when you experience or encounter Jesus righteousness, you would want

or you would naturally produce fruits that are good. It's

what I'm trying to stay here, okay, And this is

what we want to do. Why because this is what

it calls sanctification or in other laymen's languages, that we

become more like Jesus every day.

And that's what sanctification is.

And that's the gift of this righteousness, of this breastplate

that we have here. Because you die to your old self,

you become more like Him. And in other words, I'm

reminder us that if we don't do a B and C.

No no jumping through hoops, but you, as you love God,

as you experience joy, as you forgive, et cetera, you'll

be transformed. Right, And that's the important thing. Again, nobody's perfect, right,

I'm not perfect. When people come in this morning it's

on net and the team worshiping, they are not perfect either, right,

neither the exit interesting or the perfected handling to the kids.

They're you know they are there, they're teaching them Bibles.

But no, nobody's perfect as well. In fact, we are

all redeemed right in the church. We cannot operate with

our own righteousness. We operate with the saving grace of

the Lord Jesus and also his righteousness.

And that's why it's important. Now.

Last week we mentioned that we were in Iskanda right

before before.

Worship.

We were sharing, we were praying together and Joe Edward,

you know our worship corgnitor here he was just sharing

a little bit about some of his struggles okay, that

he was going through even before missions began.

So we had a short devotion.

But one thing that he mentioned at the end of

his sharing, he said that we need to understand that

we are here.

He is unwell.

By the way he was, I think he was having

some sort troade and all that as well, so physically

it was not well. Spiritually he was also battling some stuff,

but he was saying that we can't let this get

to us because we are responsible.

We are redeemed, okay.

And then we need to rage or which war against

the enemy, because otherwise we are just always in the

defense more kind of thing. So that was how we

started worship, that we started off missions even from a

place that yes there is lack, but because we are redeemed,

we can do greater things. And this is what gearing

up is all about. Putting on their breastplace is all

about because we can have.

It but not put it on.

So we need to always actively do this because otherwise.

You will not be successful.

Or you'll not be victorious. Okay, you need to gear up.

What I mean by gearing up, gearing up for God's approval.

It doesn't matter we are weak, but because He's please,

we understand that we shift from what's God's approval. We

shift from performance that is based on what we see

rather than what Christ seasons. Like I said before, He's

already done it all anyway. So it liberates is because

then it's performance based on what Christ did it a cross,

rather than what we have done or where we have

sin and.

What we are lacking off, et cetera, et cetera.

And that's the importance of putting on the breastplit of

r It's not just a passive thing.

It allows you.

To do so much more right because why, it's about

God's approval. Okay, now listen to me. It doesn't mean

that all those h you should feel bad about doing

good deeds. I'm not saying that good deeds should still continue.

Don't feel bad about doing good if that makes any sense. Right,

do good, But the doing good is not the key

or not the key to the destination that you want

to do. It's a fruit a product because as I mentioned, earlier.

We don't earn God's live like that. Right, we want

to obedient, but we don't have to do it. He's

already done it all. And believe me, even I myself,

I've tried and tested this, this, this, this this thing. Right,

I I shed many times.

I'm an engineer.

I'm a science kind of person, so I tend to

system systemize things, even when it comes to chasing righteousness

from God.

Okay, now what I mean by what I mean by that?

Right, I I sometimes try to work out a pattern

what I can do, or maybe it's about giving X

amount it say, sometimes miss tiding, you know X amount

my conviction. If I do that, I am part of

the system, and therefore I gain that righteousness.

Right.

I am started very young, even when I was younger

as a kid pocket money or so I tie, you know,

not earn money. You know, I started off like that.

But it doesn't mean that that is the way or uh.

Sometimes I know we all like like to have, uh

you know, excise regimes. You know, we want to get

a six pack or whatever it is, chicken brestler or

what else, cut corps la you know those eat certain things.

You know, sometimes you tey the systemmatically do things, because

we know that if you follow a system, a routine,

you get there. And we can sometimes fall in that

trap when we talk about chasing righteousness as well, we

try to find a pattern to get that breastplit of

the six pack of righteousness. Okay, And we don't want

to do that, Okay. We don't want to systemize even

God's faith because it's not something that you can actually

gain by doing good. That's what I'm trying to say here,

because I serve God because I love God, not because

I want to gain the system and then get more

brownie points, okay, because otherwise you find that trap, and

this is where you would then become legalistic. And the

problem when it becomes legalistic, you faind the trap of

actually going towards self righteousness. Okay, and you be aiming

for that, and that's where you have to be very careful,

right because I can tell you I don't all the

right things.

In fact, I think.

I'm almost like a pharisee following certain rules and regulation.

Because it's weird. Even when I go on vacation.

Sometimes I go find a church to attend, nobody's looking

at me. But I still go not because I want

to check a box, but because I actually enjoy church,

because I grew a lot in church, and I believe

that wherever I go, I will want to honor God

and go to church as well. But if you go

to church because you want to be legalistic, can also but.

It shouldn't be. It's not the way to heaven. Right.

So that's why I'm trying to say here, we can

follow in the chap of just doing things because we

want to gain something in God's economy, all right, or

we do less wrong stuff.

We do more missions, we do.

You know, we help in English classes and all that

give more to the needing. No, no, forgive those people

that betray you. Those are good things to do, but

it shouldn't be so that you can gain more points.

Right.

It's my prienders say here because I could be sitting

here and you're thinking that, oh, this guy is a

good Christian. Right, do all the right things?

Good? Follow a Christ?

We heard that before, right right past the cannef is

good follow a Christ. But if you look at how

Paul says, I love this about Philippines, can we turn

the Philippines here? I'm going to read quite a long

scripture here. From verse one further, the title is no

confidence in the flesh. Okay, further, my brother, my brothers

and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble

for me to write the things to you. Again, it

is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs,

those evil doers, those mutilators of the flesh. Very strong words.

Beware of dogs, so savage his language, beware of those dogs.

Right. If it is that's how he talks, I know

he's very fresh.

Right, For it is we who are circum is we

who are the circumcision, who serve God by his spirit,

who boast in Jesus Christ, who put no confidence in

the flesh. Though I myself have reasons for such confidence,

if someone else thinks they have reason to put confidence

in the flesh, I have more circumcise. On the eighth day,

on the of the people of Israel, of the tribe

of Benjamin, and YadA Yadadada, he even said that in

regard law of Pharisee, that me is saying that he's

perfect at.

Least in the laws.

He knows everything, He memorized everything. He comes to church

all the time, so with regards to righteousness, he's faultless.

Imagine that.

And he said everything else is you know, it's like

you've gotta beware that there's also false doctrine. So for

this guy, he is the king of doing everything right.

And yet if you look at the next slide, he

talks about Jesus righteous rather than his own righteousness.

So let me just rewind by it a little bit.

He gives you an entire resume to show you that

whatever is in the law, I followed through to the letter.

And yet that is not sufficient.

Okay, because verse seven says, but whatever gains to me

I know, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of

the surpassing word of knowing. Jesus, Sorry Christ, Jesus my Lord,

for those sakes, I have lost all things. I'm gonna

stop here for a while. I imagine this, this guy,

mister Righteous. At least his resume tells you his list

of accomplishment. He's done everything. But in the end he says,

what is more, I considered everything a lost. They miss

everything is useless or valueless. Okay, because the surpassing word

of knowing Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus my Lord, who's sick?

I have lost all things on other words everything. And

if you look at that right, the next passage right

uses this word. What does they use the word here?

I consider them all garbage that I may gain. Christ

this guy are very strong words that I used. I

imagine that some of you may have heard my story

that I was a rascal growing up, right. I still

reflect back, but I think I haven't really talked about

the time that maybe I was a bit more broken

and I was a rascal because I was probably broken.

I have issues with self identity. I was very.

Hurt when I was a teen, and that's why when

I went into even campus days and all that, I

was angry. We've got I also a bit lonely, I

would say. But in those moments, right, I always knew

that God was there continuously, even though I was not

accept it or believe it. So, like I said, I

used to have low confidence on myself. I always have

low SERVI esteem. I even have anti crisis. I always

wondered what is my purpose in life? I dare say

that I've even had funny thoughts of my life during

my campus days. And because of God's faithfulness, I ended,

and in fact I shed before. I've experienced revival during

my campus days. But it came from a place of brokenness.

It came from a place of shatteredness. And I believe

that if God hadn't picked me up, he hadn't carried

me through the desperate cries, the the times where I,

even though I have been this, you know, have been

distant from me. I prayed and I worshiped Him. And

if also there wasn't a community around me to support

me during that time, I would have may even have

not been redeemed to some extent, Okay, And how many

of us are like this, crying in our own.

Rooms. It's a real thing, you know, and.

Feeling loss, wanting to give up in life, wondering how

messy life is and how am I going to get

out of it?

Is a real thing. But God, being.

God, he has never left for sakeness. And it just

reminds me that because of Him today where He has

not left me, I'm here today to share of the

good news that I have survived and endured that time.

So when I come to you, I wanted to share

that this righteousness that he brought to my attention is

the one that got me out of it.

Because though I have a place.

Of a heart of condemning myself all the time, God

didn't want to let go. And this verse here reminds

me I considered them garbage that I may gain Christ.

So whatever achievements, what accomplishments, whatever negative, whatever good, etc.

They're all garbage.

If the only thing that I need to do is

to gain Christ, there's more important than anything.

I can let go of everything.

And understand, Paul right writes this from a position that's

in prison. It's not like he's in some beach celebrating

or in some holiday of vacation. You know, he's absolutely

right that nothing good or bad is important. Everything is

deemed garbage. Now, of course, the word garbage here comes

from this Greek word scoop. Okay, I want to put

the thing up first. But if you look carefully at

the translation, right, it's not just garbage like how we

think about it and all like like like like like

waste or anything. You know, the Greek actually points to

done poop.

Right.

Words that are used are like things that you throw

to the dogs. And that's why this whole dogs think

come and you may think there's a very strong language.

Very strong language is filthy, it's worthless, not just garbage.

You know, pooh. In the modern English, maybe we.

Used the word that if the s it's like pooh,

bull poop, you know that kind of thing, right, and

this the language was used amazing, right, imagine this. Everything

is considered like that, But it doesn't matter because the

ultimate goal is for us to gain Christ. Now, what

am I saying here is that Paul is reminding us

of the more important things. And I'll circle back to

what I started at the beginning. It's all about God's approval.

Everything that you accomplish Man sees fantastic.

So what.

It doesn't mean anything. It may all be scubalone. Garbage

is a gentler way of saying it. By this feces

right now, I'm winding down here. I'm gonna enderly because

a there's a thing going on later on. But what

I'm trying to say is that our righteousness will fail us.

And that's why the scripture tells us that it's not

based on our righteousness, because our righteousness will pale in

comparison with Jesus righteousness. And you may think that this

concept is it's easy to understand, Hey, jes this time

Mosso they didn't quite understand it at all. They'll keep

asking how can we earn this during Jesus time? So

if you're confused, then we also confuse today. And sometimes

that's why we do things to try to earn our

right standing with God? But do we have to earn

our right standing with God? Is the question here? And

the answer is I don't know. Maybe as I wrap up.

Soon.

This reminds me of the Prodicle Sun story. And you

will know this story very well. Okay, it's from Luke fifteen.

I don't have the verses up here, but I'll just

turn to it. But I think most of us will

know the story. This is when religious religious what.

Do they call it?

People back then were asking God, hey, what do we do?

What can we do right? How can we uh, you know,

attain his approval? God's approval? And then what did you

just say? Let me tell you a story?

Is Jesus right? Always like to tell story? Right? And

what started?

He tell Jesus looking at the crowd, right, and he

says that there is a man who had two sons.

One son asked for his inheritance and then decided to

go then go to Bangkok party. Actually the word that

the user is h while what's the word they used

to see her while living?

N IV? What's while living?

Maybe sex strucks an alcohol kind of thing like you know,

maybe partyingkay if all the inheritance to the money, and

then he went to do while living, he blows all

the money and then he later he became broke.

Right, Hey, you know the story.

He was even chilling out with the pigs, right, and

then he realized, hey, my my father's servants are better fed,

so I might as well go back, right, And he

did that. And here's the beauty of the story. What

happens when he went back, Not just that the father ran,

you know, I always tell you the story of the

father or a little of his skirt and run towards him,

middleistant men running towards him from five he saw him,

He ran towards him. And what did the father do

after that? He puts the best rope on him. And

there's some similarities here, right. The rope, the best rope

is a picture of the rope of righteousness that's being

put on. So your heavenly father, my heavenly Father clothes

with this rope or righteousness, even though we do not

deserve it. And what this symbolizes, actually it's a restoration process.

We inherited it, but we didn't realize we squandered it,

and then we feel that we have to do more

things to get back. No, he gives it freely, and

that is the ultimate picture of complete approval, complete love

and mercy, as well as protection and cover under God.

And that's why it's important to understand that, yes, the

breastplate of election is sometimes given to us, but do

we want to put it on? Or we say no,

I don't need it. Extreme can come up right now.

So again, the rope signifies your status. If you didn't

catch anything, it's your identity.

It's secure.

Don't let the enemy tell you lies and confuse you,

because that's his job.

Right. And if you're here today you have been while

living for a while, you've gone astray. It's okay.

The Father is ready to run towards you, not a

way towards you, and he's got that rope of righteousness

ready to clothe you.

But will you allow this to happen?

Remember, it's done it all anyway there's nothing you can

do to earn more Browning points. So as I end today,

I want to start where I begin.

What is precious?

It's your heart is precious to not just yourself, to

God as well. But if you allow it to be taken,

that's the problem here.

So we need to always actively.

Yes you may be broken, yes you may be heard,

Yes you can betrayed, it may be depressed, et cetera,

et cetera, but we have to actively guard it and

say no enemy be gone. My identity is secure in you.

You may be tired, Father, you have promised me that

your yo will always be easier and light.

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

information on our church, please visit as church dot org.

We are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing

that this week is going to be a good week.

I hide for you, God bless