Citizens of Heaven Rules | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from X Church. We hope this message

will light up your day. I'm going to read a portion of scripture basically,

I'm just entitled the message citizens of Heaven Rules. Okay. I'm going

to be sharing a lot on this word colony. Do they colony? Okay?

So you never heard of this word before, which I'm sure all of

you all have colony colonization. You're going to hear a lot of it.

Of course, when I was looking for the slights, I had the key

in colony colonization, and the only thing that came out was the Spanish inquisition

stuff. Let's read reading. I'm going to be reading from Philippines Chapter one,

like I said, short verses twenty seven to thirty twenty seven to twenty

shot for me, usually I preached from a whole passage and the title of

it from my Bible, which is the n LT Jes says, live as

citizens of Heaven. Okay. Verse twenty seven he says, a birth all,

And let's read slowly and carefully, A birth all. You must live

as citizens of Heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news

about Christ. Then whether I come and see you again or only hear about

you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one

purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the good news. Verse

twenty eight. Don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will

be assigned to them, that they are going to be destroyed, but that

you are going to be safe, even by God himself verse twenty nine.

For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but

also the privilege of suffering for him. Verse thirty. We are in this

struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know

that I am still in the midst of us or of it. Sorry,

May God bless the reading of his word. Okay, we're gonna go.

We're gonna go line my line, and we will go deep. Okay,

We're gonna go a little bit deep. I hope that you're not here to

listen to a comfortable message, because I don't really teach comfortable messages. He's

going to prick our conscience a bit, but I pray that we will take

it in the right way. Okay, so let me give you all some

contexts with some context to unlock some possible meanings of Paul's letter to the church

in Philippi. Okay, the first context that you all need to do when

you're reading the letter to the Philippi Church, which is called Philippians, is

that think, note that this is a letter from an apostle to a church.

Okay, so who's Paul. We all know he's an apostle, so

he's writing it as from an apostle to a church. That's one of the

keys to unlock the meanings as you as you read to the Empire letter.

The second thing is this it is a letter from a very very Jewish jew

to gentile believers, because Philippio, if I'm not a mistaken, it's a

colony out in Greece, so they are all gentile believers. So that's another

key that will help you unlock certain meanings from this letter. But there is

a third key, and perhaps the most important one to understand our portion of

scripture today is you've got to realize that this is a letter that is written

from a Roman citizen to a Roman colony. Okay, have that in my

Roman citizen. Paul is a Roman citizen. He's writing to a Roman colony,

and I will explain why I say this. Did you know that the

Roman Empire and the Christian Church actually grew simultaneously. That's why when you read

your scriptures in the Gospel of Good News and all go to about Caesar,

and that was the Roman Empire, okay. And so it was because if

you look at how it all intertwines, the Roman colonies had been established everywhere

during the time in which Jesus walked this earth. There was a Roman way

of life. There were Roman roads that lead to far away places, and

that's how they continue to go out send their troops. They had one of

the most established transportation systems. It's quite amazing. And because of that,

Paul was able to travel as a Roman citizen from one place to another place

to establish colonies for christ It's amazing how they actually go hand in hand.

And of course somehow throughout the ages, you'll realize the empire building and missionary

work has almost always gone hand in hand. I mean, you think about

it, think about the missions work here in Malaysia. If you look around

or that we've got a lot of heritage of churches, schools, hospitals.

A lot of it was because of colonial powers that were here before. That

actually shaped our nation into where we are today, whether it's the Portuguese or

the Dutch. And of course finally the English were the last to leave Malaysia.

They brought with them not only the desire to colonize the nation, but

they also brought with them missionaries. And that's why today you have got I

mean, you have got the Catholic Church, You've got the Dutch Reformed Church.

I mean you go to Malacca, you see the Stadthouse building, that's

a Dutch Reformed Church. Then you have the Anglican Church here in Malaysia,

the Methodist Church, all brought in by English missionaries. And do you also

know one of the reasons that missionary initiatives from Europe and England especially have declined

is also because European and the British empires have declined over the years. And

that's why this whole concept of having something to give to other countries, the

concept of going elsewhere to establish a way of life in a way, has

sort of died down. When you look at Europe and when you look at

England, and you will realize them for us, majority of it today for

our generation is we actually we actually see most missionaries come from North America,

at least my generation North American missionaries. Because the Americans were sending out to

establish their way of life, whether it was true, their culture, their

pop culture. You'll realize we've it when also Christian missionaries who followed suit.

I really believe right now that's also in the decline because I'm seeing more and

more missionaries from Asia now actually going back. It's almost like a reverse missions

But I'm not going to talk about that. But the reality is whenever there

is a sending out to colonize, it will also you also see that sending

out of missionaries heading out. And that is what Paul was doing because when

he wrote as a Roman citizen to a Roman colony in Philippi, he was

using language, he was using philosophy, and he was using ideas which actually

belonged to a colonizing empire. We got to we've got to be aware of

that. Even though colonizing today, when you use that word is frowned upon.

People don't like it. No, the attempt to take one's way of

life and then planted elsewhere is regarded as out of the In fact, I've

watched so many stand up comedies are like to wag colonization. I'm sure you

all have all come across, whether it's Travan noah uh that was the Canadian

player's name, the joker. Okay, they all, they all criticize colonial

powers, and I think they have they have reasons for it as well.

But we as Christians need to understand what colonization really is, and in fact,

we must us be committed to colonizing for Jesus Christ, we must be

committed to building and empire a kingdom of Heaven here on earth for God.

That is our mandate and that is our responsibility to actually establish colonies of Christ

with a lifestyle that belongs to Heaven wherever we can, and we should make

no apologies for it. That really is our calling, even though we can

laugh about colonizing and things like that. So Paul essentially planted a colony of

Heaven in Philippi because that was a strategic place for a colony, and that

is why the Romans when there. Paul planted a colony for Christ within the

Roman colony in Greece itself, and his fears for the colony are exactly the

same as the fears for any colony. And that's why I'm going to go

deep into understanding colonization and colonies. Okay, wherever there is a colony planted,

now you've got to imagine me. Wherever you plant a colony, there

are two things that can happen that can destroy a colony. Okay, those

two dangers are actually seen in this versus when we study deeper. The first

thing is this, there can be an internal danger that the colony can start

cracking from the inside. Okay. The other thing is this, there is

an external danger that it can be attacked from the outside. Okay, makes

sense. Stay with me. Let us imagine a Roman colony. See it

was a group of people, a community that lived entirely as if there were

a city of Rome itself. Basically the way they dress, their food,

they are spot, their leisure activities, their law costs, their justice.

Every single part of their life was identical with the life of those who actually

lived in Rome itself. So any Roman colony becomes a Meani Rome. Imagine

with me. First thing. The second thing is the thing that kept either

colony was that there will always be soldiers noted for their courage, their bravery,

their ability to stand against any overwhelming odds without fear. So what makes

a Roman colony is these two things. It's correcter and its defense. That's

what makes a Roman colony. Its citizens living the way Roman citizens did,

and its soldiers fighting courageously to preserve that little colony. That is what makes

a colony a colony. Remember, correct and defense. Correcter talks about how

they live their life, and of course defense talk about how they fight to

defend the colony itself. And the result was that these Roman colonies established all

over Europe and North Africa were able to hold the Empire. Now, let's

talk about the correct and the defense, because when you talk about the correct

and defense, you will see two dangers that are related to correct and defense.

The first danger is this, it's when the Roman citizens when native.

Okay, I don't know whether you have ever heard this term before they went

native. Trying to imagine that if you're an officer of the British Empire and

say you are away in the jungles of Africa, and you know you'll sit

down in the middle of the jungle and you'll have afternoon tea and brown braid

and butter and scorns because you deliberately want to preserve the British way of life

in the middle of the jungle. Okay, that's what they will normally do.

Actually, that's what they still do. They came to Malaysia, a

lot of British colonies actually went into the plantation. That's what they used to

build a lot of old British like bungalows in the plantations. And then until

today, a lot of the Hinese cooks still prepare very British. I means

my grandfather was actually a Hinese cook serving the British army, and that's why

he makes the most rock in British staffler. British food. Basically there's always

lay and parents, there's always HP sauce. Can get any more British than

that. Okay. Anyway, if the British colonists when native is simply just

means that he stopped being British in his way of life. It toss the

Union Jack flag by bye, and then says I want to marry a local

woman and I want to take all their customs. And then what will happen

subsequently is he will lose his British character. So in a Roman in the

Roman colony, this same thing could happen. No. Roman citizens who become

more attracted to the culture of the country in which they are living in,

they start to dress a little bit differently, they start to be interested in

different kinds of spot Before you know it, they will lose their identity.

And that's the first danger that can actually happen. The other danger is that

the moral amongst the soldiers starts to diminish your defense. So and when he

did, instead the Romans soldiers with their shields and spears lining up shoulder to

showder. If you watch an old Flim and you watch Roman soldiers, they're

always shoulder to shoulder, and that's where you get that term. They start

to close ranks, they are always tight. No, they put their spears.

It's a real barrier against the enemy. But if they come under attack

and they start to panic and they start to run, then the colony will

be at risk of being overrun. Okay, So these are the two dangers

in every Christian colony as well. One related to the character of the colony

and the other one related to the defense of the colony. And I'm going

to go even deeper as we move along. K and Paul's concern. You

realize that it is not about himself. Paul isn't concerned about himself when he

wrote this letter, but he was actually very concernt about the Church, which

is the Kingdom of Heaven established here on earth, God's colony, ruling and

reigning here on earth. And this were his two concerns. Okay, these

were Paul's two main concerns. Firstly, that they were not compromised on the

insight regarding the way they were living. And that was Paul's focus, that

was the context in which he was writing this letter. I don't want you

to compromise your Christian life. The second thing is this that when they face

the enemy together, they will not be intimidated or frightened, that they will

not panic, but they will continue to hold firm. Only then will they

not lose any ground, because if the character of the colony has eroded from

within, it would be much more difficult for the moral of the troops to

actually defend it from the outside. And you realize that these two are actually

things that go hand in hand. Is two sides of the same coin,

your character and your defense. And so here is where Paul tells us the

way to prevent this from happening. And that's why when you go back to

the scripture that I read, you realize that he says, only let your

way of life be worthy of the Gospel. What does that mean? That

is the first thing that he says, not only let the way of life,

let your way of life be worthy of the Gospel when you face enemies,

not basically his saying, don't be frightened, don't panic, don't start

to stamp it, don't run, stand firm together in one spirit, shoulder

to soldier, close ranks like Roman soldiers defending the colony. And that's why

even in First Bitter three fifteen, which is the worse that a lot of

apologies use to justify why they continue to defend their faith, because actually scripture

reminds us that we must always be ready to defend our hope in the lot,

and so we must always be ready in defense. But this is the

this is our situation in churches today, whether we realize it or not.

We are colonies of Heaven, citizens of Heaven under heaven rules here on earth.

Okay, so let's go. Let's go. If first there was the

danger of compromise from within and Paul is teaching the people that they must keep

up the standards whether he is present or not. You actually realize he actually

says that, don't lean on me. He's saying because it doesn't matter.

I may not always be present. And if you lean on any human being,

then you then your experience is borrowed. It's not really your own experience.

There's only one person to lean on. And who are we supposed to

lean on? Jesus? So I know, I know God often ministers to

us true other people, and that's there's nothing wrong in that. But if

any colony of heaven is leaning on a single person, then their experience is

borrowed and they will collapse if that person fails, or if that person collapse.

That's why I never tell anyone or you lean on the pastor or you

no, no, no, you lean on Jesus. Yes together, God

has put us to try to get us all going and moving to the right

direction. But don't lean on anyone other than Christ himself. And that is

what Paul is saying. Whether the Apostle comes to see them or whether he

is absent, they are to lean on Christ. And when Paul says he

wants his readers to be living a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ.

He means there is to be no compromise from within, that there is consistency

between what they talk and then how they live. It has to go hand

in hand. You can't be saying one thing and then living another thing.

And so it's very important in the colony of Heaven that you are living as

heaven is, living as if you were already there, even though you might

be a long way. Of Roman colonies live in a particular way, even

if they never visited Rome in their lifetime. You know that. And this

is one of the most amazing things that Jesus actually said about himself. In

John chapter three, verse thirteen, he says this, no man has ascended

into heaven, but he who came down from heaven, even the son of

Man who is in heaven. I know you're already as many times, but

what does he what is he talking about? Let's ready again. No man

has ascended into heaven, but he who came down from heaven, even the

son of man who is in heaven. Did you ever notice that last phrase?

Even the son of man who is in heaven. In other words,

for thirty three years Jesus lived in heaven on earth. He was actually a

little colony of heaven himself. And if you want to know what life in

heaven really is, Jesus essentially saying, look at me, I am what

life on heaven looks like, because when I was living here on earth,

I was living as though Heaven was here on That is what it means.

And he's an amazing thought because a colony of heaven should so live that people

can say, if you want to know what heaven is like, go and

live with those people. That's what the church is supposed to be. If

people want to know what the experience of living in heaven is, they should

come to a church, and it should be reflective of what living in heaven

really should be. And as we think of that again, go back to

that phrase where Paul is saving living a live worthy of the gospel. And

this is where we must look at three very important dimensions of the gospel.

I know sometimes when we talk about the gospel, gospel gospel is the good

news, basically good news of Jesus Christ. What are the three important dimensions?

Let me just list it out. It may I that may be more.

I'm not sure but I'm just being at least three first, okay,

firstly, is this it is the Gospel of liberty. It is good news

about free That is what the good news really is about. It is saying

you are now free, you are now redeemed, You no longer need to

live in slavery. Then how do you live a live worthy of the Gospel?

From this aspect, we have to ask ourselves. Basically, you live

a live worthy of the Gospel by not falling into any kind of slavery.

If there is a colony of heaven that has fallen into bondage of any kind,

it is no longer demonstrating the life of what heaven really looks like.

Basically, the Gospel of liberty demands that every colony of the Gospel is living

as free people. Are we living as free people? We must ask ourselves

that because this simply just means this. We need to avoid two forms of

slavery, and two forms of slavery we always see in scripture. One is

called legalism. Have you ever heard of that before? Legalism? And basically

it brings you into the bondage of rules and regulations. And the other form

is this bondage called license basically, I can do whatever I want. Legalism

is like, no, you must only do these licenses. I can do

whatever I want. And license brings us into a slavery of self and sin.

Again, imagine me. Legalism brings you into the bondage of rules and

regulations. License brings you into the bondage of yourself and sin. The truth

is, we have been set free from both. Christ redeem us from the

law, and He also redeem us from sin, did he not? He

did on the cross of Calvary. And therefore a colony of heaven is a

place where we are living in the liberty of the spirit under neither of those

bondages. And Christ has set us free from those bondage. And as the

Truth sets you free, then he's saying you live free, indeed. And

this is one example of how a church can fall out of a live worthy

of the Gospel, because it can either fall into legalism or it can fall

into license, both of which is very common, because Paul talks about it

a lot. When you read the letters to the Church in Galatia, That's

what he was talking about. And I tell you what the irony of it

is, these two things. They are so opposite, but they are so

close together as well, because if you fall into one, it's not long

before the other one appears, and he's a very normal thing. You have

a church that is legalistic, rules, rules, rules, you do this,

do this. Before you know it, you swing to the other end

of the spectrum one and let's just do whatever we want. Or if you

have let's just do whatever we want. Before you know it, you're swing

to there. I think we need to introduce rules and regulations again, or

to govern our actions. So either way, it's neither of It is liberty

because you are not living free. And if we are preaching a gospel of

freedom, then we are saying that the church is free from legalism. The

church is free from sin and free from the license to do whatever we want.

Basically, now we have the freedom to choose to do what is right.

You know, before Jesus died for us, none of us have the

freedom to choose to do what is right because our outcome is already fixed.

The penalty of sin is death. But when Jesus came, he basically broke

that down and said that no longer is the penalty of sin death. But

now you have the choice to make to choose life. And if you make

the choice of life, you are not saying you are not only saying that

no longer the penalty of sin has any stronghold in my life, You're also

saying the power of sin also has got no stronghold in my life because I'm

making the choice to do what is right now, because I have the freedom

to choose to do what is right. That is the difference that the Gospel

affords us as believers, and we must have that in mind, because that

is what a colony of heaven really looks like. The first one Gospel of

liberty. The next aspect of the colony of heaven is this. The Gospel

is the Gospel of life. So a life worthy of the Gospel is basically

full of life. If you go to a church and it feels dead and

boring and the minister gets up and say, here in church, we offer

abundant life in the name of Christ, then of course the wonder people would

be like, that's abundant life. I think we'll be better off be dead,

right, isn't that what we will? No, But that's the reality

of it. If we are going to live a life worthy of the Gospel,

then it will be a life that is really full, basically both abundant

and eternal. A lot of times we only think about life as eternal.

But when you when you read scripture and you read the gospels, you realize

that Jesus doesn't just talk about eternal life. He talks about having a full

life right now where you are, not just one in which after you die.

You know, we always look at salvation as our insurance for death,

it's not so much basically, it's our hope to live right now where we

are. Amen, So it's important, you know. I recently traveled to

to somewhere in Para, three hours drive to go and visit orang Asli work,

and three hours there and then another three hours into the interiors. And

at this town where we were where we met this pastor, it was the

only Bahassa speaking church in that town, and so therefore that church was of

course doing a lot of work into the orang Asli settlements deep inside the jungle.

And this pastor what he does is he brings his congregation out most on

a weekly basis, into the different compounds in sight. And when I was

there, he's like, you know, I'm trying to build so and so

this person so that I can go even deeper. You know you want to

go, Deepertre. I'm like, after three hours of really really rough the

rain, I can't feel my bag no more. And he's like, let's

go another two hours. No, I don't even know where he's telling me.

I don't even know whether the four weary drive can take it. I'm

like, okay, so it's all right. I would like to survive this

strip first. But in him I actually saw such a desire to just want

to do God's work. There was no fear, no in him. And

that that's really what a gospel of life really means. It means a colony

of people who are excited and a life and not fearful even at the possibility

of death. In fact, they rejoice when living their lives to the fullest

for the Lord. I actually saw that in him, because he kept telling

me there are so many more and rich people deeper in. All we need

to do is get to them and tell them about Jesus. And this guy

brings not just his congregation, he brings his wife and his four kids.

Long to do this kind of work in the raft terrain it's amazing, but

I saw something. I saw something alive within him, and that's the Gospel

of life. The third dimension of the gospel is this is the Gospel of

love. How then can you have a colony of heaven in which people are

not forgiving one another, they're critical of one another, they're always back biting

one another, they're constantly gossiping. If there is no love, then this

is not a colony of the gospel. So you need those three dimensions Gospel

of liberty, Gospel of life, Gospel of love. And ultimately people must

see the church as a colony of the Gospel and say that's the life we

want to live. Just as wanted to be Roman citizens back then. You

know, actually people wanted to be Roman citizens back then because they saw something

very, very appealing. Can the church be equally as appealing today? Is

the question that we have to ask ourselves. And from this three dimensions of

the Gospel, Paul actually goes on to reminders, So he actually talks about

three reminders. He highlights this tree reminders. I want you to live a

life worthy of the gospel. First reminder is this, basically, there is

a note of obligation obligation. If you're going to have the privileges of the

Gospel, then the responsibilities come with it. The privilege is that you have

been forgiven and promise a place in heaven. The responsibility is that you live

as citizens of heaven. There is an obligation to actually live a life worthy

of the Gospel. Does that make sense? The second reminder is this thought

of demonstration. How is the world going to believe if they only hear but

they do not see the world believes what it sees rather than what it hears.

That's the reality of it. The world is watching this community called Christians,

called the Church. Are Christians living out the good News? If we

are and the world sees it as such, then the Church's appeal becomes irresistible,

and inevitably it will lead to disturbed reminder. Basically, not only is

there an obligation to live a life worthy of the Gospel, not only will

it be in a demonstration, but it will ultimately be an attraction. And

this is what this is what Paul is concerned with. He's saying, just

as people's main ambition in the Roman Empire was to become a Roman citizen and

to get into one of those colonies. So the world should see the church

and say, this is the life I want. This is our mandate as

the Church, as the colony of Heaven. You know, when a Christian

concerned with the teachings of Christ practices what they preach, the world will be

attracted to this colony. Paul hopes for the Church that the world will actually

say, can we get citizenship? Can we get into this kingdom? Could

we be a part of what this whole heaven rules really means. This is

a way of life worthy of the Gospel, and we must realize that this

way of life is not an individual thing. A Roman colony was made up

of a community of people relating to one another. Essentially, a colony is

a community, is not about individuals. A colony is relationships. Paul is

saying he wants believers together to be a colony. You cannot be a colony

Jess by attending Sunday services anymore than the Romans could be a colony Jess by

gathering in a stadium to watch their spot. Sometimes we think it that way,

let's go and watch spot. You know, football fans, they don't

know one another. They go every Sunday they don't know one another. They

may know all the chance, they may be able to sing the song.

They may be a wile to boo their team and support their team, but

they don't know one another. It's more than that. It's more than just

an activity together. They were a colony in the language they spoke to each

other, They were a colony in the justice they meeted out to one another.

They were colony and everything. Basically, they shared everything together. And

when people saw the colony, they did not see individuals. They see a

community. That is how we are supposed to live a church community. And

this is why Paul actually eitherates to the church in Philippi that I want to

hear that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving together side by side

with one mind. Is actually what I just read just now. This is

part of the portion of the scripture. The saddest thing you can ever hear

about the church is that they are divided. A colony actually depends on his

unity. As soon as the colony has divided is always wide open to the

enemy's attack. The soldiers who defend it will lose their moral what's the point

of defending a squabbling group like this? They will lose their morals. So

Paul's concerned that they leave a life worthy of the Gospel moves naturally into a

concern that they actually remain united, that they stand firm together, and that

their unity has a common ambition doing the same thing together. That's why Jesus

actually saying in Matthew chapter twelve, verse twenty five, he says, every

house and every city that is divided against itself will fall. That is scripture.

And there is no quicker way for a church to lose its character as

a colony of heaven than to become divided. Whatever causes that division or whatever

the ground is no wonder that Jesus, on the night he was betrayed,

looking at those few men he was going to leave behind, he actually prayed,

no, Lord, let they be one, just as we are one,

that man one in hard mind and will. If they had been divided,

the Church would never have got off the ground. I assure you,

the early Church got off the ground because they were united. As Jesus was

concerned that this little colony of heaven he had established should remain united, so

was Paul. Jesus had his twelve disciples, he was concerned about the Twelve

Disciples. Paul, now it's the same. He's concerned about the different colonies

that he has established. He knows that the believers are to stand firm,

and that is what Paul is concerned about. Unity at the local church level

is very, very very important. Nothing damages a church's witness as quickly as

division. And here is where we will see that Paul is not interested in

unity without a purpose. It is a unity that is directed to something,

and you must stand together for something. You can't stand together for anything,

or it doesn't make sense right. It is a unity to a particular objective.

You see, churches can be united over different things. You can have

a church united over putting up a new building. Is nice. It's nice

to see them coming together putting up a new building, working together, but

that is not the objective that really holds a colony of Heaven together. You

can be united in social activities. You can be playing spots together, you

can be doing interest groups together. You know, you could be united in

political concern. You can be a whole church no routing for one particular party.

But again that is not the particular objective. There is only one reason

big enough for a real unity of a church which is a true colony of

heaven. And that is when you are striving and contending together for the faith

of the Gospel. And that should be our prime concern, the faith of

the Gospel. That is why we are united shoulder to show the closing ranks

and the purpose of this unity, this unity is so that we can do

two things. One is we need to preserve the Gospel, and then the

other thing is we need to propagate the gospel. One is defensive, one

is a little bit more offensive a certain extent. A church that is united

for this dual purpose is a church that has found the secret of unity.

What is needed is a unity that says, we must preserve the Gospel.

We must not allow it to be corrupted. We must hold on to the

truth that makes us a colony of heaven and the gospel that gives us our

character. Again, preservation of the Gospel is so important, but we must

not only preserve it from getting corrupted, we must actually propagate it. Propagating

means we got to send it out, we've got to share it. Some

churches are only concerned we're preserving the gospel. If you're only concerned we're preserving

the gospel, it will end up being dead. You keep preserving something that's

nothing will come about to it. That is the reality of it. You

preserve, preserve, it becomes preservative, nothing more, nothing less. So

don't just preserve it, propagate it. Then you will see something powerful happening.

And also, don't propagate it without preserving it. That can be dangerous

because if you don't preserve and defend the Gospel, you don't know what you

are propagating ultimately, and that's how you get a lot of couse, that's

how you get a lot of weird teachings because you are propagating something that has

not been preserved from corruption. Very important for us to do those two things.

Preserved the Gospel, propagated, and basically you are striving together for the

faith of the Gospel. It just means standing firm for the truth. Amen.

And then Paul goes on to say, no, I want you not

to panic, don't be shy, don't stamp it. There will be times

where we may find ourselves in situations where fear could take over. He starts

talking about fear now, and the church is changing. I believe the church

is changing excitedly from being a very defensive community to being one that I think

is pressing on with a little more urgency today, I believe, and there

are many signs of this. I believe God's people in this land are changing

from just keeping the church going to challenging the world. We are going to

be speaking out, stepping out, colonizing with the Gospel of Christ. You

know, that's one of the reasons why we continue to plan churches in different

places, in different localities, because it is needed. The church is alive.

It's the Gospel that gives us the liberty to do that. The Gospel

tells us that we are alive, and that we are to go and spread

God's love as far a wide as possible. Don't just keep it going from

within. This on his own is not enough on his own. Came from

somewhere else, actually, and I believe that you will continue to do that.

You will continue to see different opportunities. Some of you may go back

to where you came from originally. Some you may go to different places.

God may call you the different places. I pray you carry with you that

see to want to propagate, and we want to take Malaysia for King Jesus,

don't we That is our mandate, that is our ambition, not just

Malaysia. I can see different nations represented here. I'm sure you want to

take your nation for King Jesus. But it involves changing lifestyles. It is

going to involve setting up communities of a new lifestyle all over different places where

there are no colonies, seeing more people become citizens of Heaven, true discipleship.

This is what the church is about. And the next reality is this

is no we cannot colonize any land for Christ without opposition. I keep you

know Verse twenty it says, don't be afraid of your enemies, always be

courageous. This proves two things. That the enemy is going to lose and

that you are going to win. That's all it tells me. And let

us look at why I say this. First of all, you need to

know yourself that you belong to God and you are going to have the victory.

Your enemies also need to know that you are going to win, so

that they are moral made crumble. If you, yourself am not sure,

then something is fundamentally not right. Now, you know there are two things

that happened when Christians are unafraid. Time and time again, when you reach

Church history, you find that those who are persecuted, who persecuted the Church,

became afraid for themselves because the Christians were not afraid. When you read

of what the early Christians went through, No again, it's amazing. They

were thrown to the lions, they were sending to the arenas to be massacred,

and year that they're singing hymns no while walking to their death. They

were unafraid. This lack of fear, this astonishing God given courage, especially

in the first three hundred years of Church history, when persecution was at its

worst, actually convinced the enemy that they had lost the battle against God right

from the very beginning, because they knew that they could not preveal God prevealed.

And that's why we have Christianity where we are today because of those early

Christian believers who were not afraid. That's how it grew from one man in

the middle of nowhere in the Middle East to where it is today. And

this was also true of Roman colonies. When the enemies, however much they

outnumbered, the Roman soldiers, saw the Roman defenders standing firm without fear,

then they knew in their hearts they really lost, and that's how the Roman

colonies continued to advance as well. It was also true of Paul himself.

As a young man. He stood and held the jackets of those who were

stoning Stephen. And that's the reality of it. And Stephen died saying this,

no, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing,

the exact same prayer that Jesus prayed. But there was no fear on Stephen's

face. And as the stones bruised team and cut him, ultimately he broke

and he died saying this in the Lord Jesus received my spirit, there was

no fear whatsoever. Paul, or back then he was actually known as Saul,

actually saw and witness all this because he was the enemy of God,

and he knew he was already defeated, because he eventually surrendered his life on

his journey to Damascus, just one or two chapters after what we read what

we read on the account of Stephen. So not only do the enemies realize

they have already been defeated, Christians in return, will then have the confidence

to carry on in faith and hope. Only if you have been in a

situation where you should be terrified and found out that you are not. Will

you have the assurance that of what we are talking about now, and that's

the reality of it. Do you know? I grew up someone as someone

who is very, very afraid to take to do anything. I'm just someone

who I'm reserved in that sense. I was really afraid of heights when I

was a kid. I don't do it. I don't climb anywhere. I

don't go anywhere near balcloneys. I don't do all these things. Yet at

the same time, I realized throughout my growing up the lot put me in

different situations. No, he made me join an adventure club. I actually

joined an adventure club as a as a young person. Uh. In secondary

school, lower secondary school. And there was one time I remember we were

supposed to repel down a waterfall and I was so scared, but but I

had I had to do it, la, you know, no choice.

No, that's that's the only way down. I'm not gonna hike days just

to come down. So that was the only way down. And I did

it. And when I did it, I realized, Hey, I'm not

too scared after all. Uh. And then I know the next thing,

I knew it. I signed up to climb mounting Babalu when I was sixteen.

I remember, I signed up to climb mounting Balu someone who is afraid

of heights. I don't know why I did it. I was overweighted,

I was afraid of heights, and here somehow the Lord brought me up,

brought me down, only for me to realize I'm not dead scared after all.

Sometimes you need to be in this situation that you should be terrified and

find out that you are actually not terrified, to know that God is with

you. We are not brave people naturally, like I say, I'm a

coward and hunt. I run from situations by nature, and perhaps you are

not very different from me. I'm not sure, but we shall find that

God gives a strength and assurance. That is the whole difference. Did you

know it is God Almighty who not only enabled you to believe in Christ,

but who gave you the privilege of suffering for him, of getting into the

battle. And that is how we should look at it fearlessly. That's what

this portion of scripture is actually talking about. In all the story of Christians

suffering down their ages, the one thing you never hear that Christians saying is

why should God let this happen to me? You read you won't read the

Fox's Book of Martyrs. You don't hear them complaining God, tim kai kanapakagiku

panala man's the beginning, why do you let me go through something like?

There's no It's quite extraordinary that you don't actually find records of Christians being persecuted

and saying things like rather, when suffering came to them in the cause of

Christ, the response most times is that they rejoice that they were worthy to

suffer for the name of Christ. That is an astonishing thing. When you're

suffering is due to the fact that you are fighting for Jesus, you will

hardly ask the question why they God allow such things to happen to me.

When you are in the better because you are a Christian, because you are

colonizing for Christ, you will know that God has granted you to suffer for

him. You will know that that is your privilege, and you will know

that You'll know it because this is the privilege He gave to all his citizens.

But yet sometimes our mindsets have changed today because we are always thinking of

comfort. We're always thinking that will come be saved and everything is going to

be smooth sailing thereafter. I don't tell someone at the start of his salvation

journey that everything is going to be smooth thereafter. We're going to tell the

person, Look, we're going to rejoice with the privilege of suffering for Jesus,

because that is our absolute privilege. And Paul is telling his readers that

they will be in the same battle as they had seen and hurt Jesus was

in you read Jesus's life, The gospel is about Jesus ultimately, and I

don't think anywhere in the Gospels it says that Jesus led a comfortable life with

all things in hand. God, married, had a nice family, had

a big house, a bungalow with a yard and two dogs outside. I

don't see that Jesus suffered. And Paul is telling his readers, you have

the privilege of suffering as Jesus suffered. That's why Jesus actually said this in

Matthew chapter five, verses eleven to twelve, and this is part of the

bats He says, God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and

lie about you. And say all sorts of evil things against you because you

are my followers, be happy about it, be very glad for a great

reward awaits you in heaven. And remember that ancient prophets were persecuted in the

same way. So Paul is encouraging believers. He doesn't say, now you

are Christians, you can have a nice, comfortable time. He didn't say

anything like that. He says, to you, God has granted to believe

and to suffer. Why is this privilege so important to us? Because the

enemy is the same and Satan. There's not one Malaysia or any part of

this world colonized for Christ. Satan. There's not one the Gospel preserved,

neither to see one the Gospel propagated Satan. There's not one these colonies to

be established. For he knows that when people see a colony of heaven,

deep down they have already lost. Satan have already lost deep down they know

that this is the way and this is the righteous life. So Satan is

going to go on trying to stop this no matter what. And Paul is

telling believers not to be afraid nor to panic. God has granted you this,

and it is a privilege, a joy and honor, that he should

choose you to suffer for him. I'm almost done. The bank can come

on. Let's let's summarize her in conclusion. And I must say, this

may not be the teaching of a comfortable life like I told you all just

now, and we all should be anticipating something like this. When we declare

Heaven rules, no, sometimes we say Heaven rules, Haven rule. What

does Heaven rules really? What does it entail? Paul is encouraging, let's

summarize it. The believers to ensure their lives are lived within the standards of

the Gospel, and that they must be a community that is living up to

what they preach. Step when we're going to respond in the third song,

he wants them to be united in the spirit and not be divided in their

flesh. He wants them to carry on preserving and propagating the Gospel and not

only be interested in themselves and other things not related to the Gospel. He

does not want them to be afraid of conflict. He wants them to remain

encourage when suffering inevitably comes. Paul is actually concerned that they should rightly relate

to the next world and to this one. I don't know whether I ever

preach on the Kingdom of God here. I think I did, remember I

used to say this, The Kingdom of God is here and now, and

it's also there. And then what does it mean? Because when we pray

the Lord's Prayer, it says, your Kingdom come, your will be done.

And the question that Christians always asks, is God's Kingdom really here now

or not yet? And to come? I want you to know it's already

here and now because when Jesus came here already established again heaven on earth.

So we say that it has been inaugurated. That means it has begun,

though it may not have been fully completed yet. That means it has not

been fully consummated, is the English word. But we look forward to the

one day when we know that the Kingdom will come. One day. In

scripture we are promised that there will be a new heaven and a new earth.

I'm not going to go into that teaching. You'll be look at me.

Don't teach revelations now. But that is the truth. The Kingdom of

God is here and now, and it's also there, and then that means

we can live heaven on earth right now instead of just waiting for it to

ultimately be lived for. But our eyes will always be in the future because

we know that that is ultimately the full and completed Kingdom of God. So

keep one eye on the future, keep the other eye present, so that

you know that you can have what is promised there here right now, because

Christ has already gone to the cross, He has already done everything. And

the Gospel is a gospel of life. The Gospel is the gospel of freedom.

The Gospel is the gospel of love and all those things you can live

right now, not just eternal life, like I say, abundant life,

which is to be lived right now here in the presence. So we relate

to the next world by being a little colony now that is already living that

way. And we relate to this world by being ready to fight and to

defend this colony of heaven here on earth. All of us, as believe

us, we've got to fight and be ready to defend. Many of us

do not care about either of these things, yet they are so related.

The kingdom of heaven Heaven rules. And the beautiful thing is that the more

we relate to the next world, the more you'll notice things happening right where

you are, and the more you want to be in the front line of

defending the kingdom of Jesus Christ, because the Church is His kingdom. The

Church is His glory at the end of the day. So may God help

us to relate and remember this. No, the Lord sees us as an

army, army standing in defense of the Gospel, and let us all always

respond to the world of God and ask him to equip us. That's why

when you read on in Paul's letters further on in Efficience, it talks about

putting on the full armor of God to defend the Gospel. But you will

realize not only are there defensive things in the armor of God, there are

also weapons to go out sort of the spirit. There are also things to

carry us out again, to preserve and to propagate. We hope you've been

blessed by this message. For more information on our church, please visit x

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that this week is going to be a good week ahead for you. God bless