Am I A Pharisee? ("The Great I AM" Series) | 19.07.2020 | Central Christian Church

[Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning brother sisters and friends welcome to the sunday service of the central christian church it is great to see all of you today as the pandemic hit us we saw certain words like coronavirus locked down being searched more often out of these words the word cancel is one of them i guess people were just going online cancelling their travel plans and social events i'm just grateful that despite the new norms that we have to adapt to we don't have to cancel our devotion to god and are still able to meet each other online following the online discipleship workshop about three weeks ago i hope that we have all have a chance to put what we have learned into practice and helping each other in our small groups we have also embarked on a journey to learn more about jesus the great i am through our quiet time series and the sermon series today we will be hearing from pahi the sermon is titled am i a pharisee and he will be drawing insights from the gospel of john chapter 5 to eight i'm going to lead us all in a prayer right now if you can i'd like us to get down on our knees our reverence for god let's pray dear god in heaven thank you for being a god that is all loving and inclusive as we read through the book of john we are amazed at the grace that jesus has shown to the people around him we are grateful that we can still be united in the church and in our small group we are thankful that we can have your word to nourish our souls and allow us to find comfort in you i pray that our hearts be still and help us to listen to what you want us to hear help us to be able to put what we have learned into practice and impact others around us i thank you for everything i pray in some sort's precious name amen amen let us give our hearts to sing as we welcome our song leaders to lead us in worship [Music] [Music] i will never ever stand to the kingdoms of this world i'll never give my heart away your shout my praise my religion hey [Music] [Music] and all my hope and faith [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] of this world i'll never give my heart away only a god like you can [Music] only a god like you can be worthy of my praise then all my hope and faith [Music] [Music] like you [Applause] oh you hey glory be to god [Music] [Music] for me [Music] amazing how can it be that you my god would die for me love how can it be that you my god will die for me [Music] your grace [Music] how can it be [Music] amazing that you my god would die for me [Music] amazing [Music] [Music] no [Music] how can it be that [Music] that you my god would die [Music] that you [Music] amazing love [Music] amazing before our song leaders lead us to the next song remember me a letter read from luke chapter 22 verse 14 to 19. when hour came jesus and his apostle reclined at the table and he said to them i have eagerly desired to eat this passover with you before i suffer for i tell you i will not eat it again until he finds fulfillment in the kingdom of god after taking a cup he gave thanks and said take this and divide among you for i tell you i will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of god and he took bread gave thanks and broke it gave it to them and saying this is my body given for you to this in remembrance of me bro sisters we live in a time between jesus last supper and his second coming let us take heed of jesus reminder that no matter what happened in this world or in our life we need to always strive to remember him and what he had done on the cross in our place let us meditate on these verses as we sing to god [Music] remember [Music] remember [Music] [Music] remember [Music] [Music] oh help me not forget the grace when jesus died to my place remember [Music] when [Music] [Music] remember jesus [Music] when jesus died and took my days [Music] until we're standing face to face [Music] [Music] after the victory from the rain [Music] go make disciples of every nation [Music] remember [Music] oh help me not forget the grace [Music] until we're standing face to [Music] face when jesus died and took my [Music] [Music] remember me thank you worship leaders for our testimony sharing today i'll be interviewing diana a teen from our youth ministry who got baptized on 24th of april let us be inspired by what she have to share with us um hi diana it's so good to see you thank you for taking time from your schedule you know to be with us today can you tell us a brief background of yourself hi everyone my name is daina and i come from the team's ministry uh i joined the singapore's teens ministry around three years ago when i moved to singapore um from july from the japan church yeah okay um now diana i'm sure it's not easy for you you know coming uh as a foreigner you know to singapore to study um growing up in the church what were some of your attitudes towards bible study maybe before you started studying the bible and then after you started studying the bible um for me i've always been around the church community ever since i was little my parents uh lead uh lead their own groups and so i see them i have bible studies even when i was um three to four years old so it wasn't a really new concept to me and i always found bible study really exciting when i asked it though i thought that you know after bible study like the person somehow becomes like a brand new good person out of it and i always found it um really intriguing and i really wanted to do bible study because of that but uh as i grew up and as i moved here like there were a lot of challenges and so it kind of um affected how i saw bible studies i saw them more as as something that i have to do to please my parents it's not that they forced me to but i think just going in growing up in church i think there's that certain expectation that other people have and you have for yourself to follow in the footsteps of your parents and so even as a young teen i studied the bible and i didn't really understand the essence of it i guess i i let my mentors help me but then there was always that wall that i always kept my deepest seams very very guarded but then i think ever since i moved to the teams i was really forced to open up because i'm gonna and i'm in a very new um environment and that um my parents are not here to help me my parents are not here to guide me but rather i'm i feel on my own and it really depends on you know my walk with god so after um after a few studies i guess i i just realized that the reason why i'm actually continuing these studies is not because it's not only because of my parents now because if it's only because of my parents i would have stopped my name because scene is a very personal i feel like um study so i think at that point of my study i opened up my heart to let god really work in my life and also through the words in the bible and uh yeah and i'm here today so right uh thank you for sharing with us uh i think it's so um good that you actually were able to see beyond uh studying the bible's obligation or pleasing your parents uh could you share with us a little bit like what helped you change this mindset i know you talked a little bit about it just now but maybe you would like to elaborate more uh for me i think it was just a something like a it was a bit of a subconscious kind of change um because i always saw bible studies as you know like an obligation more like a chore or like like a really like an expectation that i have to meet but once the bible study got a bit a bit more personal i think i was allowing myself to uh break down that wall that always got my deepest sins or like my true self from other people and i think um i shifted my mindset to seeing bible studies as you know learning something more about the bible even though you know ever since i was young in kids kingdom i always have bible study i mean bible stories and like you know all those sort of parables and all that but then uh yeah i think when i really um let myself go in that sense in just breaking down that wall between my true self and um and showing that and being vulnerable to my mentors it really helped me to internalize and apply god's word into my life and it really did change me a lot and i'm forever grateful for it wow diana i'm so glad to hear that being vulnerable actually help you change your mindset now i know much of your bible study were done online and nearing the end of it you were thinking about baptism and with the travel restriction has it ever occurred to you to kind of move your baptism to a later date i think for me definitely my parents not being here was definitely a factor of me considering my baptism as you know my parents introduced me to christ and i was brought up in church so i definitely wanted my parents and my family to see my baptism in my son but yeah it was overall really really hard decision for me as there was a lot of factors and also my parents being a huge factor and like my family but what really i prayed about it i really prayed about it to god and i prayed that uh hopefully he can you know he can give me an answer or sign that i should you know make this decision or make the other decision uh i'm very glad that my mentor um allowed me to make the decision whether i wanted to um get baptized then or late at a later date but i think what really the sign from god for me was when uh primarily he announced the the extension of a circuit breaker i think that really um solidified my decision okay i need to get baptized now because i don't know if it further extends to like july or august then there's no point for me waiting and i feel like my salvation should be um urgent so i think then and there i just decided okay i'm gonna get baptized um as soon as possible and that my salvation is uh very urgent and that my faith is telling me so so i think in the other at the end of the day i was still quite sad that my you know my family can't join me in my in my baptism in person but thank god there's technology and zoom so i think that part was solved and yeah i think my baptism was um was very unique it wasn't you know the classic in church kind of baptism so i think that's something that i will cherish a lot and made me even make my faith even stronger i think because you know it's a different type of baptism and that it's something very memorable yeah i'm sure it was a hard decision for you to make but i could really see your urgency in seeking after god so i'm really really proud of you diana well thank you again for taking the time to do this interview so see you again [Music] bye what a testament sharing from diana i'm sure she would love to see her parents being physically present for baptism i am so glad that they were able to witness it online her urgency to seek god is evident and it's refreshing to see a young person make jesus the lord of her life now is the time for the first sermon and after which we'll be taking communion together pahi will be preaching a sermon titled am i a pharisee a pharisee during jesus time is someone who observed strict jewish traditions sometimes at the expense of placing importance on those traditions more than the word of god today we'll be learning more about interaction jesus had with them and also to reflect on our own hearts prayer sisters i present to you good morning brothers sisters and friends and thank you for joining us here at the central christian church for our sunday morning service today we'll be doing part three of our sermon series on the book of john which is titled the great i am today we'll cover chapters 5 to 8 of the book of john now what new habits have you developed during the recent circuit breaker my family has always tried to limit our tv consumption during meals we always make sure the tv is off and would spend the time talking about how our day was however during circuit breaker when the kids were having their home-based learning in the month of may we started to watch tv over lunch to take a break from our work and for the kids to take a break from their studies one tv series that we became hooked on was the show masterchef you know there was masterchef australia masterchef canada masterchef kids our family was glued to this particular series because our very own singaporean sashi won a competition a year ago majula singapura now my children after watching the show instead of being inspired to cook different dishes became food critics instead so during meals one of them would say the flavor the balance isn't quite right or the flavor is good but the presentation can be improved and this is me when they said that my kids one interesting thing was that the australian version is a lot more family style the contestants are close they genuinely cry when someone's eliminated however in the north american versions of masterchef there's lots of conflict these chefs they go after each other they scheme how to get the other contestants out can you imagine turning a cooking show into a conflict but here's the thing conflict often makes for good drama right conflict makes for a good story in chapters 5 to 8 of john we start to read of the conflict between jesus and a group of people known as the pharisees so for those of us who are familiar with the bible we look at the pharisees as the bad guys and because of that it's easy for us to think of the pharisees as those people people whom we can't relate to however i believe that as disciples who seek to live out the truth we have to ask ourselves the difficult questions we have to examine and question our own faith so the title for today's lesson is am i a pharisee jesus is the great i am in following him we must ask the question am i a pharisee now i'm sure almost all of us will immediately reject the question and say of course i'm not a pharisee i'm a follower of jesus how can i be a pharisee now before we jump to the conclusion it's important to learn a bit more about this group of people because we may find ourselves falling into the same trap that they fall into some information and background about who the pharisees are and how they were started the word pharisee comes from the hebrew word parosh which means one who is set apart this group started around 150 bc and they were established to protect the people against the idolatry of the greek conquerors and then later on the idolatry of the roman conquerors who followed and don't get me wrong this was a good thing because throughout the old testament you read about how god's people fell into worshiping false gods time after time again and so the pharisees are like enough is enough we're not going to fall into this sin again the pharisees you can compare them with another group that's found in the bible the sadducees the pharisees were more popular compared to the sadducees because the sadducees were looked upon as being the elitist upper class while the pharisees represented the common man for the pharisees no one was above the law of moses it didn't matter whether you were a priest or royalty or whether you were an illegitimately born child what mattered was whether you obeyed the law of moses i look at the background of the pharisees i don't know about you but i'm impressed these guys had strong convictions they stood up for their beliefs they were committed to the scripture they tried to set themselves apart from sin you would think that these people would be the group that jesus would work with to help spread the gospel but in the end they were the group that ended up opposing the gospel the pharisees they were set up with great intentions but they found themselves posing god and not even being aware of it why did this happen and how can we avoid repeating the same mistake am i a pharisee will be to you and i if we end up being like the pharisees having good intentions but unaware that we are going against jesus point number one misplaced priorities in john chapter 5 jesus heals a man who had been an invalid for 38 years in healing him jesus told the man to pick up his mat and walk something that upset the pharisees you see for the pharisees this was considered working on the sabbath the pharisees devised an elaborate set of guidelines to cover all the loopholes in moses's law the israelites you see they are very similar to us singaporeans during circuit breaker we singaporeans we find different ways to circumvent the rules right exercising without a mask dropping by a friend's place to deliver something or bumping into each other at n2c fair price so the pharisees they faced all sorts of this kind of nonsense from their people and so they listed all the things that defined working on a sabbath so even carrying a mat from one place to another was defined as working on a sabbath jesus's reply to the pharisees was strong let's look over here it says in john chapter 5 verse 41 i do not accept glory from human beings but i know you i know that you do not have the love of god in your hearts the pharisees they had misplaced priorities they had no love of god in their hearts this was shown by the fact that they didn't rejoice over the healing of the invalid if we love god wouldn't we love his children also and rejoice when good things happen to god's children how can we say that we love god when we don't love the people whom god loves second they tried to turn god's commands into a way of controlling others they accused jesus of trying to play god but by them controlling others they were guilty of the very thing they accused jesus of jesus was very straightforward about him being equal to god but the jewish leaders were trying to do it themselves do you find yourselves being judgmental of others while we must make judgments about what's right and wrong it's a slippery slope to get to the point where we're trying to take god's place in judging others and third if they love god they would have recognized his son jesus christ as colossians states the sun is the exact image of the invisible god but the pharisees clearly didn't see god even when he was standing in front of them the fact that they wanted to kill his son meant that they had no relationship with god they had no love of god in their hearts what should christians be known for today for legalism and rules or for loving the invalids around us what's sad is how christians are being portrayed in the media today in america evangelical christians are more known for their politics than their love for other people in other parts of the world christians are known for spreading the second wave of coronavirus in south korea or germany when churches started meeting again bam new coronavirus clusters i know many of us we can't wait to have in-person services here in the straits hall it would make my life so much easier too but should that really be our priority shouldn't our priority be loving the invalids around us if we follow jesus and not the pharisees what we should do what we should be known for is being on the front lines to help the sick and the vulnerable groups if we get infected because of covid let it be because we volunteer our time and even give up our professions to be on the front line and care for the sick and this is what the early christians were known for we develop misplaced priorities when we don't read and interpret our scriptures through the lens of jesus christ which is what jesus challenged the pharisees on let's read over here in john chapter 5. it says in verse 37 you have never heard his voice nor seen his form nor does his word dwell in you for you do not believe the one he sent you study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life these are the very scriptures that testify about me yet you refuse to come to me to have life jesus says that it's possible to read the bible and yet miss the points the point being that scripture must point us towards jesus christ you see the jewish leaders they believed in the bible today christian churches they say they believe in the bible but what causes the disconnect with the jewish leaders their confidence came in the letter of the law not in the spirit of the law if we study out the scriptures and we enforce them without looking at scripture through the lens of christ we will fall we will not have the word of god dwelling in us so our study of scripture must always be balanced with christ's character when you read the bible ask yourself what does this scripture mean in light of jesus's crucifixion in light of his resurrection we must move beyond the whats and the hows of our faith and towards the why of scripture when we don't pay attention to the why we end up like the jewish leaders point number two a righteousness outside of christ from chapter five of john we fast forward to chapter eight and focus on another confrontation jesus and the pharisees let's look over here in john 8. in verse 3 the teachers of the law and the pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery they made her stand before the group and said to jesus teacher this woman was caught in the act of adultery in the law of moses command and law moses commanded us to stone such women now what do you say they were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing him but jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger when they kept on questioning him he straightened up and said to them let anyone of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her again he stooped down and wrote on the ground at this those who heard began to go away one at a time the older ones first until only jesus was left with the woman still standing there jesus straightened up and asked her woman where are they has no one condemned you no one sir she said then neither do i condemn you jesus declared go now and leave your life of sin jesus again as in his interaction with a samaritan woman he displayed both grace and truth grace by not condemning her and truth by commanding the woman to leave her life of sin the pharisees on the other hand displayed no grace and they did not lead lives of truth they showed no grace towards the women or to jesus they led lies that appeared to be righteous on the outside but none of them was without sin for the pharisees righteousness meant that they have less sin than other people or that their sins are not as bad as the sins that other people commit but this is false righteousness a righteousness that is outside of christ true righteousness means being without sin true righteousness is only possible through faith in christ who cleanses us of our sin are there times when we've been like the pharisees now we don't literally throw stones at people but there have been times when we set ourselves up to be the judge the jury and executioner you see we see their sins as being worse than our sin and the way we react we react to their sin it's like there's a dark cloud that covers our eyes and prevents us from seeing our own sin that prevents us from seeing grace or truth what are some ways that we throw stones husbands do you react to your wife's disrespect of you and yet choose to ignore your own lack of responsibility your own lack of integrity for the younger generation we can react to those who are not inclusive who are set in their ways and we roll our eyes at them and we call them boomers right but is there sin any worse than the sins that you struggle with we throw stones when we ignore others when we don't forgive them and we don't even seek to understand where they're coming from right now my wife angelia will share i'm grateful to hear pahi's lesson on focusing on the whys and consider the ways that we may have thrown stones at people i am grateful to have known god and become a disciple in my youth this will also mean i have made many mistakes as a disciple a leader and over the past decade mistakes as a wife and a mom when i was a year old as a disciple i started learning to lead to me i was so hardcore on loving people in the sense that my unrelenting high standard was at work it was through god's lands or rather it was not through god's lands but through my own lands god has taught me through many many mistakes that i have done on what it looks like to live a life of truth and grace simply as a disciple let alone as a leader he taught me through the laws in my spiritual life that i am totally followable and the true why of the need for his grace and also the need to show the same grace to others in my personal life to the people i lead as well as to the people who have led me god has been so gracious to teach me patiently as there are uncountable times throughout the past 29 years that he has put different situations or people in my life to prove me one particular one is a prayer series taught to the singers ministry by our brother taski about three years ago one of the essence that he taught in preparing our hearts for prayer is to reposition ourselves before god to remember and feel who we are before him i am followable and so were everyone in this society or generation where much is talked about in terms of self-care and mental well-being the practice of mindfulness has been a popular therapy in the counseling world to put things into perspective about repositioning before god even before we pray it's a form of practice of spiritual mindfulness it's the time that we retrain our mind being mindful of where we stand before him daily is a good practice of learning forgiveness grace and truth this has further helped me to understand why i am praying to jesus and why speaking the truth and grace comes in place learning to show grace to myself and to others like the way jesus would want us to actually it gives me greater confidence in speaking the truth motivated by grace and love so who are we throwing stones at today is it a fellow family member a colleague a disciple or a leader or if you are struggling to understand the why of christianity perhaps it is a good start to prepare our hearts before god in prayer in terms of practicing repositioning of our hearts and you will see how god can work through the holy spirit in us to change and grow in this more and more thank you thank you angie for sharing the good news is that even if you are like a pharisee pharisees can change the apostle paul was a pharisee and fell into all the traps that we talked about today misplaced priorities a self-righteousness that's outside of christ but yet he changed by focusing on jesus to see how disciples of jesus we can live out this intersection of grace and truth we read the new testament letters let's look at philippians if someone else thinks that they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh i have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of israel of the tribe of benjamin a hebrew of hebrews in regard to the law of pharisee as for zeal persecuting the church as for righteousness based on the law faultless but whatever were gains to me i now consider loss for the sake of christ what is more i consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing christ jesus my lord for whose sake i have lost all things i consider them garbage that i may gain christ repenting from being a pharisee is not about being less judgmental or focusing less on scripture it's about having more christ in your life for paul his focus is about knowing jesus gaining jesus in every situation ask yourself how can i reflect jesus how can i know jesus more whenever you react to someone or something ask yourself how can jesus be gained through this situation when you read your bible ask yourself does this help me to know christ's hearts how can this help me to be more like christ you know some of us think that to protect our heart don't go into leadership don't take a vocal stand don't fight for righteousness but we don't see this with paul paul didn't swing to one extreme to the other and say oh you can do whatever you want now he was still as outspoken as a christian as he was when he was a pharisee the difference was that he made it his goal to know christ during the time of jesus people tried to find a relationship with god in different ways the romans and greeks tried to find a relationship with their false gods through materialism through immorality just as many people try to do today the sadducees try to find a relationship with god through the temple worship thus as many believers try to do today by going to church now the pharisees they tried to find a relationship with god through obeying the law just as some of us have done by taking scriptures out of context let us not be in conflict with god's ways jesus shows us the correct way by being a disciple and seeking a relationship with god through the son jesus christ i hope that this message helped your faith today goodbye and god bless thank you for your awesome lesson i have learned that obeying god and his words are important even though we can be doing righteously on the outside it is more important to reflect and examine our hearts as we take our communion now let us take a lesson to heart and be reminded of what drea has done for us on the cross let's take a moment to prepare our bread and wine let's pray dear god your mercy and love for us can be seen so clearly through jesus life the way jesus interacted with people and the way so many are drawn to him in this world where everyone had their own perception of what reality is we are grateful that we can look to jesus as the light of our lives help us to be like jesus who was nourished by your through doing your will herbals will always reflect on our lives and how we can imitate jesus father please bless this bread and this wine which represents the body and the blood that jesus shared on the cross and help us to follow him every single day drawing closer to him i thank you and pray in someone's precious name amen so [Music] before we have our collection for the pro today we will be sharing on behalf of hope worldwide singapore and the effort they have put in to organize community outreach during this time of pandemic during phase one of post circuit breaker when we resume activities in a controlled manner hopewell white singapore received approval from the national council of social service to conduct a doorstep delivery of essential items to 100 families in pongo north on 13 june 2020 32 volunteers from parents young professionals and campus ministries distributed care packets consisting of food shopping vouchers and face masks sponsored by avs technologies private limited to these residents at the two rental blocks behind the church building in the midst of the pandemic we are glad to provide moments of hope for frail sinners living on their own and families with young children during phase two of post-circuit breakers and with prior approval from the national council of social service we are delighted to have made a difference in the life of 84 years old mr hong by making his current place clean and clutter free and a much better living environment last saturday 17 volunteers from the young professional ministry toy and sweat in cleaning and decluttering the house transforming the place into a livable residence mr hong is currently admitted in hospital due to a fall but when he is discharged we hope that the clean and decluttered house will help to improve not only his mobility but also his health safety and well-being at home these are just two of the many efforts hopeful white singapore made to help the needy around us during the song that follows you'll see a graphic showing the breakdown of how our contributions is being distributed thank you for your kind generosity [Music] beginning of time [Music] with no point of reference spoke to the dark flashed out [Music] this has to make to worship so all the light i can see your heart and everything that you mean every burning star will sing a [Music] [Music] [Music] and the oceans for your greatness so alive [Music] for everything exists to let you hide so we'll light the wind is [Music] times god i'm salvation [Music] creating the light of the world abandoned in darkness to die [Music] and as you speak a hundred billion failures disappear when you've lost your life so i could find me if [Music] i can see your heart in everything you've done [Music] every part [Music] i can see your heart in billion different ways [Music] every precious one a child you died to see if you gave your life [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] behind thank you so much for joining us today i hope you have enjoyed the service and drawn closer to jesus time for some announcements at the end of the month we will be having our church-wide fasting and prayer day on the 30th of july it's a time whereby we refrain from food and even social media so that we can focus on god as a church we'll be fasting from 8 pm on wednesday 29th july to 8 pm on thursday 30th of july you can break fast together with your group on thursday evening details on how we can pray what we can pray for as a church will be given out in the following week our i choose us workshop is coming soon next weekend on the 24th to 26th of july conducted by dr john lewis and his wife karen they will be teaching us on how we can build love connection in our marriage by breaking harmful cycles they will be co-teaching with different married couples so that we can also learn from their experience topics that will be covered during the workshop are choose love and respect on friday 24th july which will help us understand what all good marriages need on saturday 25th july we will be exploring on how growing in our own self-awareness can help to improve our marriage and lastly choose connection on sunday 26 july will equip us with tools that can help us build an even stronger connection with our spouse using movie clips cartoons research and biblical insights this is a webinar not to be missed let's be inviting our friends and relatives registration link can be found in the invite that was distributed earlier you may also register now by taking a snapshot of the qr code found on the screen do take note of the timing for each session and there is only for residents of singapore we really hope to see all of you there next weekend as we take our marriage higher thank you so much for joining us goodbye and god bless you

Channel: Central Christian Church SG

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Length: 74min 59sec (4499 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 18 2020