Sermon

Mission Impossible | Jason Martin

Acts Klang

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  1. You're listening to a message to go from axt church.

  2. We hope this message will light up your tea.

  3. Let me just give a bit of contact.

  4. So, even as I was preparing for the word this morning,

  5. how many of y'all have been through a long week

  6. the last week? You feel the last week has been

  7. very long? You feel it has been challenging. Wow, majority

  8. of y'all had very very good weeks. You don't think

  9. it's very very challenging. Probably might need y'all to pray

  10. for me later as well. Okay, but a lot of

  11. us we have come through different long weeks. You might

  12. have a challenging time at work, or you might have

  13. a challenging time at home, or maybe in terms of

  14. health or finances or anything. Right, and that is life, right.

  15. How many of you all your life has been very

  16. easy from the day you were born? Okay, If your

  17. life has been very easy since the day you were born,

  18. it's amazing because Jesus also didn't have an easy life,

  19. you know, in terms of right. So for myself, as

  20. all I've been going through, I guess it was. It's

  21. a week of ups and downs. It's been a lot

  22. of different challenges and I was just going through this

  23. phase right where I just feel like you know, mah,

  24. have you felt meh before? Like you just feel like

  25. nothing seems to be working, or you just have that

  26. sense of frustration. You have that sense of frustration. You're

  27. like you wake up in the morning and then you're

  28. like that you feel there's something not really right, but

  29. you cannot place a finger on it. Or you think that, hey,

  30. why are things not happening according to what I.

  31. Want them to? Or you just feel very tired.

  32. You might feel THETGIC, you might feel that a or

  33. maybe you open social media and you look at it,

  34. right and you think that, hey, everybody's life seems to

  35. be going very well, but how come I just feel

  36. so frustrated?

  37. I felt so.

  38. Down or depressed and you can't put a finger on it,

  39. you know, And sometimes right, a lot of us we

  40. go through those phases. Have you gone through that phase before? Right,

  41. You've gone through that phase and you just feel that,

  42. oh man, I just feel so frustrated. I'm not sure

  43. what I need to do or what's happening to me.

  44. And you don't like that feeling, right, You don't like

  45. that feeling. You just feel sometimes like stuck in terms

  46. of it. So this was where I was, or I

  47. hopefully I am coming out of all right, because I'll

  48. be very honest with you this week, I felt very med,

  49. I felt very I don't know, I was very frustrated.

  50. And then I was I was. I was telling Jess

  51. as well, you know, I just feel down. Then she's like,

  52. what are you feeling down? I say, I don't know,

  53. but I just feel down. I just feel down. I'm

  54. not sure why. And because you feel down, right, it

  55. affects everything. It affects how you interact with people, it

  56. affects how you do your work. It affects every single thing.

  57. And the last thing I wanted it to do was

  58. to affect how I preach this morning, because I knew

  59. I was going to preach this morning, and I was like, man,

  60. I am not in a state of mind. I know,

  61. I feel very frustrated, I feel very down. I'm not

  62. sure what's happening.

  63. But God, you have.

  64. You have asked me to preach this Sunday and I

  65. need to get out of this. So you know what

  66. I did. I use this as my sermon content because

  67. this is challenges that we are facing and the Bible

  68. is real, The Bible is alive, and God wants We

  69. are living in a real world which we are facing

  70. rel challenges.

  71. But we serve a real.

  72. God who is able to to lead us to a

  73. place where he wants us to go. So sometimes this frustration, right,

  74. it might happen because of so many things. It might

  75. have been happening, like because of things at work. Okay,

  76. you might have clash with your boss or your colleagues

  77. or whatever it is. Or you maybe you're not feeling well,

  78. so I know, like last week I wasn't feeling well,

  79. and this week also just Jess and Jeromoso are not

  80. here because they are they're down. So it's been Sometimes

  81. it's health as well, and you feel very lethargic. But

  82. what I realize is that God does not want us

  83. to feel this way. God does not want us to

  84. feel this way. We are supposed to live as more

  85. than overcome us. We cannot live under this situation. We

  86. must live above and beyond what the world dictates us

  87. to live. Okay, and for some of us, it might

  88. be real challenges that we are facing. Okay, it might

  89. seem like an impossible situation, and that brings me to

  90. the title of today's sermon.

  91. Okay, the title for today's sermon.

  92. First light, Mission impossible, Mission impossible. How many of y'all

  93. you feel that you are facing a mission impossible? Right

  94. of Some of us might have faced different mission impossible,

  95. and and right now you might be going into another

  96. mission impossible. Okay, So mission impossible? You know it comes

  97. from the movie, right comes from the movie. You'all watch

  98. the movie before you love Tom Cruise and stuff that.

  99. There's a fun fact right right now, it's mission impossible. Aid,

  100. So I think it's mission possible. If it's mission impossible,

  101. eid right now?

  102. Okay?

  103. And we have all we are always constantly facing impossible situations,

  104. impossible situations, whether it work, whether in your finances. You

  105. know that recently the budget twenty twenty five was announced.

  106. How many are we all are very happy about the budget?

  107. You know, some people may be down because of the budget,

  108. because it's impacting your taxes, it's impacting your lifestyle choices

  109. and stuff like that. It seems impossible. And what happens

  110. when we face an impossible situation? You know what happens?

  111. A lot of times we get frustrated. You get frustrated,

  112. you get scared. You get anxious. Remember Pastor Julian was

  113. preaching about anxiety last week. You know when you get anxious,

  114. you are everything seems scary and you are always walking

  115. on eggshells because you're like, oh no, why am I

  116. supposed to do? I'm confused, I'm scared. I don't know

  117. what to do. So today's sermon, right, even as I

  118. was sharing how does it tie in? Because when I

  119. was feeling man, you know, I was feeling like frustrated

  120. and stuff like that with different things, I was actually

  121. facing an impossible situation and I wanted to share today

  122. from the scripture, how this guy he was facing an

  123. impossible situation. If you think you were facing an impossible situation,

  124. this guy who I'm going to share about, he was

  125. facing an impossible situation. It was a life and death situation,

  126. life or death situation. In fact, right, it was nearly impossible,

  127. not nearly it was impossible. If you were facing that situation,

  128. I think we were curled up into a ball and

  129. just hide in terms of it. Okay, So since his

  130. family Sunday, I wanted to show a video as well,

  131. so kids, you can fix your eyes on the screen

  132. even as they played the video Slapstick Theater.

  133. Daniel and Nebuka Nezar's Dream. This is Daniel, Oh. He

  134. was a Jewish man who was taken to Babylon when

  135. he was very young. Daniel served in the king's service

  136. as a wise man.

  137. Yeah.

  138. The King of Babylon was a man named Nebuka Nezar,

  139. and one night he had such a disturbing dream that

  140. he couldn't sleep ash He called in some of the

  141. wise men of his kingdom and demanded that they tell

  142. him what he had dreamed. The wise man said, tell

  143. us the dream, and we will tell you what it means.

  144. But the king told them that they must tell him

  145. what the dream was and what it meant. If they did,

  146. they would be rewarded, but if they didn't, they would

  147. be severely punished. The wise men asked again for the

  148. king to tell them what the dream was, and they

  149. would tell him what it meant now, But the king

  150. wanted them to tell him what the dream was. The

  151. wise men said that the king's request was impossible, and

  152. that no one except the gods can tell someone a dream.

  153. The king was furious when he heard this, and ordered

  154. that all the wise men of Babylon be killed Ah.

  155. Because of the king's decree, men were sent to find

  156. and kill Daniel and his friends. When the men arrived,

  157. Daniel asked why the king had ordered such a thing.

  158. The men told Daniel what happened with the king's dream,

  159. and Daniel went at once to the king to ask

  160. for time to tell the king what is dream meant. Finely,

  161. then Daniel told his friends Shadrak, Mishak, and Abindiga to

  162. pray to God to show them the secret of the

  163. king's dream. That night, God showed Daniel the secret of

  164. the dream in a vision. Daniel praised God for this,

  165. and then was taken to the king. Go on, Daniel said,

  166. there are no wise men, enchanters, magicians or fortune tellers

  167. who can reveal the king's secret. But there is a

  168. God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has shown

  169. King Nebuconezzar what will happen in the future. Now I

  170. will tell you your dream and the visions you saw

  171. as you lay on your bed. And so Daniel told

  172. the king what his dream was and what it meant.

  173. The king bowed before Daniel and praised him. The king

  174. said to Daniel, truly, your God is the greatest of

  175. God's a revealer of mysteries. For you have been able

  176. to reveal this secret. Then the king promoted Daniel to

  177. be the chief of all the wise men, and also

  178. promoted as friends Shadrack Mi Shaq and the Bendigo in

  179. the King's court.

  180. All right, so, how many of you all think that's

  181. an impossible situation? Have you had impossible demands from your boss,

  182. or demands from your lecturer, or impossible timelines? So this

  183. is quite impossible. Right Where the king had a dream,

  184. he didn't know what it meant, and he asked the

  185. wise man to interpret his dream. But before you can

  186. interpret the dream, you must tell me what the dream is.

  187. How many of you all think that that is possible?

  188. It's impossible, right in terms of that, right, if you

  189. can tell people your own dream clearly, sometimes when you

  190. wake up, right, your dream is also very vague. But

  191. now you have to tell somebody else what their dream

  192. is and then what it meant. If you don't, I mean,

  193. this was the this was the kid friendly version. But

  194. according to scripture, right, they will be torn from limb

  195. to limb if they cannot answer the question. Okay, so

  196. do you think the people were frustrated. The wise men

  197. were frustrated when they were faced with this impossible task.

  198. They were because it is impossible and if I can't

  199. do it, I will be killed. So they were really

  200. frustrated as well. And what did they need to do? Okay,

  201. so you can see right that the main character that

  202. I will be touching on is Daniel. So when we

  203. are faced with impossible situations, we feel that it's impossible.

  204. We are not sure why God has even placed us

  205. in this position.

  206. Think of it.

  207. Daniel, before this, he was already chosen, as he was

  208. favored because he shared rag Mission and amberdigo. They fasted

  209. and they only ate vegetables because they wanted to honor God.

  210. So you're already living a life which is honoring God.

  211. And then after that, right, God blesses you. After God

  212. blesses you, then you're faced with us second challenge. The

  213. second challenge is because you are part of the wise man.

  214. If you cannot tell the king your dream, you will

  215. be killed. How do you think Daniel and Sad, drag

  216. Mischek and Ebernigo would have felt, Yeah, they would have definitely.

  217. I think feeling mad is understated. You will be scared.

  218. You will be You'll be so annoyed or frustrated with God.

  219. They're like, God, you delivered me, and then now you

  220. bring me into this place which is tougher. It is tougher,

  221. and it is impossible. I can't do anything. Okay, So

  222. let's see how Daniel tackled the impossible situation. So all

  223. my points are in ce.

  224. Okay.

  225. So first up, when you are put into a situation

  226. where you are, you feeled, you are cornered. Okay, you

  227. feel that, Wow, I can't do anything on my own.

  228. It's impossible. How am I going to get out of

  229. this situation? When you're pushed into a corner. If you know,

  230. if a wild animal is pushed into a corner, how

  231. will they react?

  232. You will try and attack. You know, it's a fight

  233. or flight.

  234. And that's what happens to us when we are pushed

  235. into a situation right in a corner, right, we immediately

  236. become defensive and then most of the time what we

  237. do is we attack God. We say God, why did

  238. you put this put me in this situation? What's happening?

  239. I thought you are a good God. I thought you

  240. are with me. I'm living my life to honor you,

  241. how come I am put into this situation?

  242. You know? And that's how we sometimes feel.

  243. We feel cornered and then say that, Hey, if God

  244. is a good God, how can he allow this to

  245. happen to me? You know, I'm being very real for

  246. all of y'all. Maybe y'all don't think like that. Y'all

  247. are very very good Christians and stuff like that. But

  248. when we face challenges, when we are cornered, how do

  249. we react? How do we respond? Okay, let's see the verse.

  250. Next.

  251. Yes, So one night, this is from Daniel chapter two.

  252. One night, during the second year of his reign, namber

  253. Canezza had such disturbing dreams that he couldn't sleep. He

  254. called in his magicians, enchanters, sorceress and astrologers, and he

  255. demanded that they tell him what he had dreamed. And

  256. they stood before the king and he said, I have

  257. had a dream that deeply troubles me, and I must

  258. know what it means. So most of the time, when

  259. you are put into a situation, right, it is because

  260. somebody else is also put into a situation. So Nebukanaza

  261. was troubled. Because he was troubled, he created trouble for others,

  262. do you see that? And for us when we are

  263. cornered do we lash out at other people?

  264. Do we take it out on other people?

  265. Because that's what all of us do.

  266. You know?

  267. Like what I mentioned when I was feeling this way

  268. right and then it affected my mood.

  269. When my moods are down right, it will a fact

  270. the way that.

  271. I talk to my kids, or talk to my wife,

  272. or talk or be at work.

  273. So when we are cornered, right.

  274. First of all, we have to recognize that, Okay, this

  275. is a situation that I'm in.

  276. How am I going to respond? Okay?

  277. Next verse, so he says the king told her the astrologists.

  278. I am serious about this. If you don't tell me

  279. what my dream was and what it means, you will

  280. be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be

  281. turned into heaps of rubble. But if you tell me

  282. what I dreamed and what the dream mean, I will

  283. give you many wonderful gifts and honor. Just tell me

  284. the dreams and what it means. So when you're pushed

  285. into a corner, there are two outcomes. One outcome is

  286. gloom and doom, and one outcome is that you will

  287. be blessed beyond what you can ask or imagine. What

  288. outcome do we focus on? You see the King Nebuka, right,

  289. he gave them two outcomes. One outcome is that you

  290. are going to be blessed, You're going to be rich,

  291. you know. The second outcome is if you don't do it,

  292. then you will be killed. And when we are pushed

  293. into a corner, right, like what pass Julian mentioned last week, right,

  294. a lot of times right, we go straight away to

  295. worst case scenario. What is the worst case scenario that

  296. will happen? And then we get stuck. We get stuck there.

  297. He's like, oh man, this is going to happen. I'm

  298. going to lose my job. I'm going to lose I

  299. won't be able to pay for my house, I will

  300. lose my family, you know. And we start spiraling. And

  301. we start spiraling. What happens to our emotions. We become depressed.

  302. We become depressed, we become down, and we needed a

  303. spiral out of control. And this is because we are

  304. facing an impossible situation. But how did Daniel respond? Okay,

  305. how did Daniel respond? Next line, Daniel sought clarity. So

  306. when we are pushed into a corner. How do we respond?

  307. Do we straight away say woe is me? Gloom and

  308. doom die should die? What did Daniel do? Let me

  309. read the verse. Okay, next line, when Arioch, the commander

  310. of the King's guard, came to kill them, Daniel handed

  311. handled the situation with wisdom and discernment. You see, right,

  312. was Daniel pushed into a corner? Yes, but then it

  313. is very clear, he says here Daniel handled the situation

  314. with wisdom and discernment. When we are pushed into a corner?

  315. Do we react or do we respond? Because Daniel responded,

  316. and he responded with wisdom and discernment, he asked Arioch,

  317. why has the king issued such a harsh decree? So

  318. Arioch told him what had happened, and Daniel went at

  319. once to see the king and requested more time to

  320. tell the king what the dream meant. Okay, put yourself

  321. in Daniel's situation. After church, you go home. Suddenly there's

  322. a knock on the door. The army is outside your

  323. door and says that the Prime Minister says to come

  324. and arrest you and throw you in jail. Okay, how

  325. would you respond? I mean, most of us will panic

  326. we will panic. We will be like, oh no, what's happening.

  327. You're like, you're trying and run away. We will try

  328. and fight back. You all want to fight, well, we

  329. got out of fighters here. So but you can see

  330. Daniel responded with wisdom. So if the army comes to

  331. your door. In Daniel's scenario, what did he do? He asked, Okay,

  332. you have come here to arrest me and execute me.

  333. Can you tell me why?

  334. Okay?

  335. And when they told him why, and he explained and

  336. he understand the whole reason. What did he do next?

  337. He actually went to the king to ask for more time.

  338. That doesn't sound that somebody who is under the circumstances.

  339. Daniel was still very much in control of his circumstances.

  340. You know, it takes so much guards. Somebody has issued

  341. a decree to kill you, and Daniel can go up

  342. to that king and say that I need more time.

  343. Give me time and I will tell you your dream. So,

  344. although he was pushed into a corner, he didn't allow

  345. the corner to dictate how he reacted. Okay, So he's

  346. sick for clarity. And you know, just now, when I

  347. say it, right, when we are in the situation where

  348. we are just feeling meh, we are feeling frustrated. An

  349. I was asking myself why am I feeling this way?

  350. And a lot of times when we are feeling this way,

  351. we have no idea why. We basically jumble everything we

  352. are going through. We jumble it together and we cause

  353. that to confuse us and then after that we get stuck.

  354. But you see what did Daniel do? He says, why

  355. am I? Why am I being? Why did the king

  356. ask to execute me? I need to find out the reason.

  357. I need to find out exactly what I need to

  358. do and why am I feeling this way? What do

  359. I need to do? Next?

  360. So, when we are finishing a difficult situation, what we

  361. regularly do is we will panic. And when we panic,

  362. we can't do what God wants us to do.

  363. Right.

  364. Instead, we start attacking everything. We attack God and we

  365. attack men. Okay, So Daniels sought for clarity. And after

  366. he sought for clarity, what was the third thing that

  367. he did?

  368. Pray? Correct?

  369. Next slide? He confided in God. He confided in God.

  370. When we are faced with the impossible situation, do we panic?

  371. Do we seek for clarity? And then do we bring

  372. it to God and say, God, what do you want

  373. me to do? Why am I in this situation? What

  374. do you want me to do? Do we believe that

  375. God is in control? Because if we don't believe that

  376. God is in control, that is when we panic because

  377. we can't solve the problem on our own. And then

  378. we say that, oh no, woe is me? So what

  379. did Daniel do?

  380. Okay?

  381. Next next slide Daniel Chapter two. Then then Daniel went

  382. home and told his friends Hennah and Ia, Michelle and Zeaah.

  383. What had happened.

  384. He urged them to ask God of Heaven to show

  385. them his mercy by telling them the secret so that

  386. they would not be executed along with other wise men

  387. of baby long. So when they prayed, right, they were

  388. actually praying for an answer. They were praying that God,

  389. you reveal yourself, You reveal what we need to do

  390. during this situation, and.

  391. Then you will then we are wi will not be executed.

  392. Okay, So I know it's it seems a heavy topic,

  393. but this is what happens when we all of us

  394. will go through difficult situations. When we go through difficult situations,

  395. do we ask God, God reveal yourself to us? Do

  396. we ask God, God, have mercy on us. God, have

  397. mercy on us, because that's what Daniel and his friends said.

  398. Say, God, have mercy on us.

  399. You are sovereign, You are right, Almighty God, you can

  400. provide the answers. So again they still regarded God higher

  401. than Nebunessa. Daniel and the friends still regarded God higher

  402. than neb. When we are put into situations like this,

  403. do we regard our bosses or do we regard the

  404. people who are inflict put us into a corner higher

  405. than God? Do we say, oh, our faith is in

  406. this person's hands.

  407. Or do we know that?

  408. Say God, you are still in control? And what God do?

  409. God revealed his plans and purposes to Daniel in a

  410. vision right fast forward there and then what did Daniel

  411. do after God revealed? Okay, so next light he celebrated

  412. God again. Is he out of the corner yet? No,

  413. he's not out of the corner yet. He's still in

  414. the corner. He's still going to be the execution order

  415. is still there.

  416. But what did he do?

  417. He celebrated God? So Daniel too, next light. So that night,

  418. after Daniel and the friends confided in God, the secret

  419. was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised

  420. the God of heaven, and he said, so this prayer

  421. that Daniel prayer, I feel this is a prayer that

  422. really show shows us. How does Daniel view God. Praise

  423. the name of God forever and ever. For he has

  424. all wisdom and power. He controls the causes of world events.

  425. He removes kings and sets up other kings. He gives

  426. wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars. Next,

  427. he reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies

  428. in darkness, hidden in darkness, though he is surrounded by light.

  429. I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors, for

  430. you have given me wisdom and strength. You have told

  431. me what we ask of you, and revealed to us

  432. what the King demanded. All right, so you can see.

  433. Right Daniel viewed God, and he celebrated who God is.

  434. God is the God who reveals deep and mysterious things.

  435. He has given us wisdom and strength and anything that

  436. we ask of you.

  437. He has revealed to us the verses before that right.

  438. One slightly before, So he says, for he has all

  439. wisdom and power, He controls the cause of world events.

  440. So right now we are going through a time where

  441. there is so much anxiousness and anxiety. There's so many

  442. world events that are happening. But for Daniel, it didn't matter.

  443. Daniel didn't care what was being reported on CNN or

  444. Fox News or the news. What was important to him

  445. was that he says, praise the name of God, forever

  446. and ever, for he has all wisdom and power. He

  447. controls the cause of world events. He removes kings and

  448. sets up are the king. He gives wisdom to the

  449. wise and knowledge to the scholars. So when we are

  450. pushed into a corner, do we glorify the corner or

  451. do we glorify God? Do we get stuck in the situation,

  452. or do we recognize that God, God, you are God

  453. and we are not? And do we celebrate that God?

  454. You are going to do a new work. So that's

  455. what Daniel did, and next slight things. So the King

  456. said to Daniel. After Daniel went and told the King, right,

  457. the dream, is this true? Can you tell me what

  458. my dream was and what it means? Daniel replied, there

  459. is no wise man, enchanters, magicians, or fortune tenders who

  460. can reveal the King's secret. But there is a God

  461. in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has shown Nebukanessa

  462. what will happen in the future. Now, I will tell

  463. you your dream and the visions you saw as you

  464. lay on your bed. So Daniel, although he had the answer,

  465. he didn't take the glory for himself. He still says,

  466. I don't have the power to do so. But the

  467. God who I serve will have the answer. And that

  468. is how Daniel celebrated God. So who was the one

  469. that put Daniel into the corner neb But Daniel was

  470. not scared of Nebuka because right most of the time,

  471. if God reveals the vision to us, do we take glory?

  472. Do we take credit for what God has done? And

  473. Daniel didn't do that. Instead, Daniel pointed Nebukanessa to God.

  474. And at the end this is the last point. Next

  475. the last see is champion from being cornered to being

  476. a champion. How many of us one to be one

  477. to go from being cornered to being a champion. Let's

  478. read from Daniel chapter two. The King said to Daniel, truly,

  479. your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings,

  480. a revealer of mysteries. For you have been able to

  481. reveal this secret. Then the King appointed to Daniel a

  482. high position and gave him many valuable gifts. He made

  483. Daniel ruler over the whole province of Babylon, as well

  484. as the chief of all his wise men. At Daniel's requests,

  485. the King appointed shadder sech A benny Goo to be

  486. in charge of all the affairs of the province of Babylon,

  487. while Daniel remained in the King's court. How the tables

  488. have turned from a mission impossible where you will be

  489. torn from limb to limb if you cannot tell the

  490. king what his dream was to now being in charge

  491. of nearly everything in Babylon. And we serve the same

  492. God that Daniel served. So even as we are facing

  493. difficult situations, if we are cornered, let's remember, first of all,

  494. seek clarity. When you are cornered all the seas, I

  495. will give it to you again. When you are pushed

  496. into a corner, seek clarity, God, what is it that

  497. you want me to do here in this corner?

  498. Seek for clarity.

  499. After you seek for clarity, then you ask God, God,

  500. what do I need to do? And then when God

  501. reveals you celebrate God. You say, God, you are in control.

  502. No weapon formed against me will prosper. You are in

  503. You control the events of the world, and I will

  504. put my faith and trust in You. Celebrate God instead

  505. of being cornered and scared of the circumstances you are

  506. going through. And when you do that, God knows that

  507. you are ready, and then He will champion you. Think

  508. about it, right, every time Daniel faced a challenge, he

  509. was promoted because he passed every test that God sends

  510. his way, because Daniel put his faith in God. So

  511. even as it's for us as well, Church this morning,

  512. if you're going through a difficult situation, let's remember to

  513. put God first. When we are put into a corner,

  514. don't allow the corner to define us. Don't live under

  515. the circumstances, live over the circumstances. We are more than

  516. overcomers through Christ, who gives me strength. And when we

  517. confide in God and then we celebrate who God is,

  518. he will champion us. So even as I draw towards

  519. the close, Oh there share probably share a an experience

  520. that I had as well. So this was this happened

  521. quite a few years back.

  522. I think.

  523. It happened about eleven years ago. I remember that there

  524. was the time when Jerome was going to be born. Okay,

  525. So at this time, at that time, I was working

  526. in this company. This company it was. It was a

  527. China company. So it was really hectic. It was really hectic.

  528. Okay.

  529. So how hectic was it is when I was hired

  530. to do into this company.

  531. They didn't give me any training. They hired a few

  532. of us.

  533. They put us there and say that, hey, we want

  534. you to deploy this new system.

  535. And we we have very tight timelines. Okay.

  536. So the first meeting I went there with them. We

  537. went to see our client in so when we said

  538. when they introduced us to the client, they say that, hey,

  539. these are our experts who will be launching this project

  540. for your And now we looked me and my colleagues,

  541. we looked at each other and like what we're basically

  542. like thrown into the thron under the bus. We're basically

  543. through And they just hired and say you're going sort

  544. it out, uh and get it delivered.

  545. So we were working like crazy. We were working like crazy.

  546. We worked Chinese year, We worked Christmas, New Year's Day, uh.

  547. And I was not taking any leave at all because

  548. at that time, we knew that Jess was going to maternity,

  549. So I say, I'll save my leave for that.

  550. Okay.

  551. So finally it came time where Jess was delivered, so

  552. I said, I told my boss, can I take leave

  553. five days on Nina? You know, five days into Then

  554. my boss said, can you work from the hospital?

  555. I'm like, are you crazy or what?

  556. I said that I think my wife will kill me

  557. la if I couldn't work from the hospital. You know.

  558. But at that time, right I knew that, hey, this

  559. is not the right culture fit for me, you know,

  560. so I was I was looking for another job. So

  561. I it was a one year contract, so I didn't

  562. want to extend the contract. So when I told him,

  563. and then praise God, he opened another door for me.

  564. But before I moved on this boss of mind, he

  565. was threatening. So first of all, he was saying that, hey,

  566. are you sure you don't want to stay?

  567. You know, if you stay, we will increase.

  568. Your salary and stuff that to the point where they

  569. wanted to double my salary one hundred percent increased. I'm like, ah,

  570. that means I'm underpaidar is it? If you can one

  571. hundred percent increased underpeit right, So now I said, no,

  572. this is just it's not about the money. It's about

  573. I just feel I need to do what's right for

  574. my family. Okay, then he changed from good guy to

  575. bad guy and he's like, are you sure or not?

  576. You know, I can just give a caller and then

  577. you will lose I can call all the different people

  578. in the industry and then you can be blacklisted.

  579. So I was like, oh, okay, what do I do?

  580. So I said, uh, well, you have to do what

  581. you have to do, and I have to do what

  582. I have to do, you know, And I just committed

  583. it to God. I committed it to God and then

  584. thank God, he didn't carry out on his trat. So

  585. I got the new job. So praise good. I got

  586. the new job. I went into the new job. After

  587. I went into the new job, I was like, yes, finally, okay,

  588. things will stabilized and all it. I went into the

  589. new job less than three months. I was nearly retrenched.

  590. And this is why was after Jerome was born, you know,

  591. so can you think of it?

  592. Was I cornered. I was cornered. I was corner. I

  593. was going to lose the job. Everything.

  594. It just seems like a series of events where it

  595. seems impossible. But I said, God, if you open this door,

  596. you won't close it. You know, I believe it's you,

  597. and I can't control the circumstances of situations, but I

  598. prayed that you are in control and lo and behol right.

  599. My boss in the new company, she was very good.

  600. She actually found another position for me, parked me somewhere,

  601. and then managed to get me secured in the company.

  602. Because when you have a retrenchment, right it's last infos up.

  603. And then when I look back, eleven years have passed

  604. right to where I am right now in my career.

  605. It can only happen.

  606. Because God was in control, because right now I came

  607. from an engineer to right now now I'm doing marketing

  608. in an insurance company. People asking me, Hey, how did

  609. you change it? Or how did things change? How did

  610. God open the doors? And stuff like that, said, it

  611. is only God. It is only God. But we have

  612. to constantly put our faith in God. And right now

  613. in the current situation that I'm in, uh in the

  614. current company, there's so many changes happening, and I'm put

  615. into a place again where there is so much ambiguity.

  616. And that's why I felt very man because there is

  617. nothing in my control. I can't do anything. But God

  618. reminded me, Hey, you don't have to do anything. All

  619. you have to do is put your faith in God.

  620. Put your faith in me. I have done it before,

  621. I will do it again. Why do you want to trust?

  622. Put your faith in your own capabilities. So, even as

  623. I draw it as the close, I get.

  624. Extreme up this morning.

  625. If you are being put into an impossible situation and

  626. you feel down or you feel that there is no hope,

  627. know that God is in control. But what we need

  628. to do is we need to seek clarity God, what

  629. is it that you wanted me to do. Let's confide

  630. in him. Let's celebrate what he has done in our

  631. lives before and what he's going to do again. And

  632. then God will champion you even as you exalt him.

  633. Amen.

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

  635. information on our church, please visit aschurch dot org. We

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

  637. this week is going to be a good week, a

  638. hit for you. God bless