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Today, we are faced with rising costs of living, increased pressure in the workplace, an aging population, and concern over adequate savings. How then do we receive the words of Jesus to not be anxious, but rather to seek his kingdom first? Join me, Pastor Richard, as we look at the words of Jesus found in the Gospel according to Luke. All right, it's a long passage we have this morning, right? We are in the Gospel according to Luke, and this is part of our Lenten journey for this Lenten period. And as I look through this section of Scripture, I did find at first it was a bit difficult to find what is the common thread here. What is the common thread? But I believe that the common thread we find is security in Christ. Security in Christ. Now, Luke, he paints a very vibrant picture of the setting right in verse one that we had read just now. And he describes the scene as so many thousands of the people were gathered that they were trampling one another. So we have to, uh it's raining now, it's very cool and cold for Singapore, I suppose. So we have to engage our imaginations to uh to be able to visualize the setting. It's hot, right? This part of the world, it is hot. There wasn't a few people, there was thousands gathered together. People's feet were being stepped on. It was probably smelly and noisy. There was such a great crowd of people together, and it was within this setting that Jesus began to speak to his disciples. And so they must have been pressed up to him. There wasn't some uh some polite distancing or anything. Everyone was crushed together in the crowd of people, and and so that's where we're at. And I want to begin from verse 4 this morning. And if you're following along in your Bible, uh Luke chapter 12, starting with verse 4. I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he is killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. And I'm gonna jump ahead to verse eight now. And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And then verses eleven and twelve. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Uh so for the sake of time, uh we've skipped a few verses here and there, but there's uh there's a number of issues we could look at. But here I see Jesus is speaking about three things fear of those who kill, uh, acknowledging him, and defending themselves verbally. Uh, these are the different things in the verses. And the central issue here, I would say, is one we're probably not very familiar with here in Singapore. Jesus is talking about the persecution that they're going to face coming up. He's talking about the persecution that they will face. And if you if you think about it, I mean, Jesus knew that his, if his disciples were going to remain faithful to him, they were going to face real hardship, real hardship. And we know that the Jewish people at the time, they were very hostile towards Christ and therefore his followers, because Jesus was claiming divinity, equality with God, because he was God, but they didn't see that. And I want to especially draw your attention to verse 11. And I'll just read out the first three words here. And when they, and when they bring you before the synagogues. And he's talking about, he knew that his disciples were going to be uh brought up because of being faithful to him, they're gonna face consequences. It wasn't and if they, it was and when they, and when they bring you before the synagogue, because to remain faithful to Christ is going to be at odds with the world, quite honestly. And if we if we think back to uh these original disciples of Jesus, they didn't live to a nice old age and retirement, living in a bungalow somewhere. Almost all of them, they were martyred for their faith. And so the faith really did cost something. And so I would say that this this first section here, it's really speaking, looking ahead to the issue of persecution. And we need to be careful that we do not give greater regard to people than to God. Remember in verse 4, it talks about uh don't fear those who kill the body. Fear God, fear the one who has power over your very soul. Now, we have here in Singapore, we have a good government. Um, I'm sure people have different opinions about different things, but overall, I hope we would agree there is a very good government here in Singapore. And it's tempting to believe that this is never going to change. We've had a good government for so long that things will just continue as they have been. But this is not certain. It may happen that one day our government is not so friendly towards Christians and Christianity. And in that day, will we fear man or will we fear God? When there begins to be consequences to following Christ, what will our reaction be? What will our actions be? Um, in Acts chapter 5, we don't have time to turn there, but in Acts chapter 5, Peter and the apostles, they were thrown into jail. And to make the long story short, they're thrown into jail because they had been out. Uh there were signs, there were miracles, they were preaching the name of Jesus, they were thrown in jail. In the middle of the night, God opened the doors for them. They went out by morning. They were back out there preaching again, out in public. And so when the council they wanted to call them in to see the case, the jail keeper said, They're not here. And they went out and they searched and they found them right back out there preaching, and they pulled them forward again and into the council. And again, to shorten things a lot, you can look at it later in Acts chapter 5. Peter and the apostles, they were strictly charged not to teach in this name, meaning the name of Jesus. But Peter responded, we must obey God rather than men. By reading this, I'm not encouraging civil disobedience, okay? Let's just be very, very, very, very, very, very clear. I'm not encouraging civil disobedience. I'm not encouraging that. That is not what we're saying here this morning. We, as Christians of all people, should be good citizens, benefiting the nation. Uh and in the life of the early church, they weren't engaged in lots of civil disobedience, right? That's not what we read. If you read through the scriptures, you won't find it. It's not there. They were not engaged in civil disobedience. But there was one area that they felt they could not compromise, and that was in matters of faith. And to that they had to say that there is a higher authority. We must obey God rather than men in this, in matters of faith. And so right now things are quite okay for us, I would say. But I just want to say, if one day things change, if one day, like some of the other nations, we see that there is not so much openness, there is not a friendly attitude towards Christianity in that day, what will our response be? What will our response be? Will we stop our worship services? Of course, we'd never do that, right? Except we did do that during COVID lockdown, actually. Um, I'm not criticizing the government here. They want to, uh they're concerned with people's health and a great outbreak, and they didn't want hospitals to be overloaded as things were transmitting so quickly. But I I just want to challenge us, church, when if this day comes where we cannot please both the government and God, are we ready to face some consequences for our faith in these matters of faith, to be very clear. So, in this first few uh verses here in chapter 12, really it's talking quite a bit about uh the coming persecution that the believers would face. And I myself, I think many of you know, I have been in missions for quite a long time. And in one country where I serve for a number of years, this is already a reality. And where more than four local believers come together to meet, whether it's for Bible study or fellowship or worship or whatever it may be, if the government finds out, they get called in to the police station and they can be interrogated for hours. And uh they're the equivalent of their IC, I know friends who had this happen. Their IC was taken, and they're told you cannot have this back until you sign a confession of your crimes because you have had illegal religious gatherings. There's already consequences for their faith there. Uh, there's no longer I can please both the government and God. I must choose. And so there's a very real cost for them. Lord willing, we won't find that day anytime soon here. But if it comes, friends, we must follow the words of Christ. Do not fear. And uh everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man, will also acknowledge before the angels of God. But the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. All right, these are strong words that he spoke to his disciples, and they are strong words for us today. But I believe that we, when if it comes to that, when it comes to the matters of faith, we must put God first. We must begin like our brothers and sisters in many other nations, we must be ready to accept consequences when that time comes. Amen. And then we we move along to uh something else, and it says uh starting in verse 13, Jesus, he was interrupted by someone. He is there speaking with his disciples in the crowd, the thousands of people and the noise and everything happening and the heat, and he is interrupted by someone in the crowd, hoping that Jesus would use his influence to help him get a larger share of his family inheritance. And so Jesus used this interruption sort of as a springboard to speak about the issue of wealth. And he addressed two types of people. Uh, first, he addressed those uh with wealth who would be considered wealthy, and then he addressed those without wealth uh who might be considered to be in poverty. So I I just want to read out these verses from the message uh translation, if we can call it a translation, because I believe it makes things uh very plain for us, which is quite helpful. And so uh this is coming from verse 16, uh, but from the message. Speaking to the people, he went on, take care, protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot. Then he told them this story. The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself, What can I do? My barn isn't big enough for this harvest. Then he said, Here's what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll gather in all my grain and goods, and I'll say to myself, Self, you've done well. You've got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life. Just then God showed up and said, Fool, tonight you die, and your barn full of goods, who gets it? That's what happens when you fill your barn with self and not with God. And so the warning uh to those of us who might fall in the first category of having more resources, more wealth, is a simple one. Don't fix your contentment on your wealth. Don't fix your contentment on your savings. Wealth, it may come, it may go. Don't fix your contentment on your wealth. Because on that day that it disappears, what will happen to your sense of security? Where is your security to be found? Right? This is our common thread. When persecution comes, our security must be found in Christ, the one who holds power over body and soul. When there's issues that come in the area of wealth, our security must be in Christ. Our contentment must not be placed in wealth, but in Christ. And then it continues on in verse 22, and now we're looking at those uh who lack wealth. And he's speaking to his disciples, and his disciples, they pretty much had nothing. They had left their homes to follow Christ because they felt there was something better here for them. So from verse 22 and 23, and he said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious. There's that word again, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. And verses twenty-nine to thirty-one, and do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried, for all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your father knows that you need them. Instead seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. And so the word for us today, maybe some uh who have the chess card or have even gone through uh the uh the challenge it is to go and apply through com care for help. Uh Jesus has a warning for us, just as there is a warning for those who have lots of wealth. And that warning is don't don't think that your contentment will come from wealth. Don't place your security in these things. Trust me, trust God to provide for your needs. And so we we need to be on guard against anxiety in the area of finance. Now, for those of you who don't know, um I I grew up uh on the poorer side. And growing up, uh, this was you remember the time before cell phones, right? Back when not even the push-button phones, we had dials sometimes, all this, and we had answering machines. So if you missed the call, you were out because you didn't take a phone with you, uh, you'd be able to get that message. Growing up, my father, this was for decades, my father would never, ever, ever, ever, ever answer the phone. He would never answer the phone without letting it go to the answering machine and see who it was calling because he was afraid of debt collectors calling up and saying, we're gonna repossess your car, we're gonna take away your home. Okay, we grew up uh not not so well off. And so he would never ever, as I say, for so many years, he would never, ever, ever answer the phone. We had our power turned off on us several times, we fell too far behind. We had the phone line also turn off sometimes. And for me, um by age 16, what is that, sec four? Is that right? Age 16, I started working full-time. And the next year I started working two full-time jobs uh because finances were tight. And so I would work in the morning from about 9 a.m. till 4 or 5 p.m., go back for a short rest. Uh, then by 11 o'clock, I had to be at my next job. I'd work 11 o'clock through the night, finish at 7.30 in the morning, and do that day after day after day after day. Uh Sundays was off, so I would finish Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. I would drive directly to church. I'd park in the church parking lot. I had a little fold-out alarm clock, and I would set that on the dashboard, and then I'd set it and I'd go to sleep. And it would go off. I forget if the service was at about 9.30 or so. It would go off and I'd wake up, and the entire parking lot was now full of cars, and there were people walking past me to go into church because I knew if I went home, there was no way I was going to be able to wake up and make it to church again. So there were there were some difficult years early on, many difficult years. So for me, when I read these words, it's something I cannot do on my own. I cannot find the faith to believe that God will supply when I know have to work so hard to make ends meet. And when I read these words, that I need to trust him and put my security in him, and that if he takes care of the birds, if he takes care of these, if he takes care of those, won't he take care of me? It requires crying out to God, even for the faith to trust him. But that I believe is what Christ would say to us from his word today, from his words. Trust in me, trust in Christ, put our contentment in him. And if you have trouble trusting in him, ask of the Father to give you the faith, the ability to trust in him. Amen. Uh we have this verse in verse 24. It says, Consider the ravens, they neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than birds? These ravens, they don't have a CPF account, they have nothing, and yet God provides for them day by day, and he cares for us so much more. And now uh we come to the last few verses. And this is he's the common thread has been security in Christ, and we've had these different things, and he comes to verse 31. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. It continues on Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure. In the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Fear not little flock. This is a this is a beautiful term of endearment. Little flock, my little sheep. Ones that I love. Fear not. Fear not. And so we are told to stop worrying about getting and start being concerned with giving. And especially in the body of Christ, that we are to look out for one another, that we are not separate, that we are not just meant to be on Sundays where we say hi and we say bye, and not to be concerned with each other's lives. Being concerned with each other's lives gets messy. And yet, this is what we need to be. We are meant to be a family. And especially in our connect groups and our cell groups, I hope that we will go deeper in those times, that we'll be willing to open up a bit more, that we can encourage one another and stand with one another. And this word seek it means we're meant to pursue, to search out, to seek after, to strive for, to inquire after. We're supposed to seek out his kingdom. It's meant to be a very proactive thing to seek out the kingdom. And so today, um, I hope that we will fix our eyes on God. That we won't be so consumed with worry over finances and over other concerns that we cease to put our eyes on him. We must fix our eyes on the Lord. We have to, even in the difficult times, we have to keep our eyes fixed on him or we will lose our way. And it's on this theme of seeking his kingdom, and I'm going to wrap up soon here. Uh, how many of you have heard about the Asbury revival? Has anybody heard about that? Okay, yeah, I see some of us have. And it was in the news for for a number of weeks. Asbury was uh this uh seminary, this theological uh place for studies in a small town in the U.S. And they saw revival. I don't know what comes to your mind when you hear the word revival. I think we have different things in mind. It can be a very loaded term. For me, back in the 90s, uh, if you heard about the Toronto Airport Blessing, uh, that was my first experience with this thing that people called revival. And we had someone come down from uh the church there to where I was at that time. We had every night we had meetings, every night. You come back from work, you have a quick bite to eat, and you go to the church, and our meetings would go on and on, and worship could be for hours. There was often, honestly, not much of a teaching. The Bible barely got open there, and there was, I guess, what we would have to call ministry time. And um, at that time, people would uh be this term slain in the spirit, they would fall down from the presence of God, people were laughing, people were crying, there was uh other things going on. Honestly, it was quite messy. And so for many, many, many years, this term revival had mixed connotations for me because I was there for that time, and some of it was God at work, and lives were changed and remain changed till today, decades later. And some of it was not of God, quite honestly. And so this term revival was something mixed, and so as I went to see what is this thing in the news, Asbury revival, um, it it was so beautiful to me. It was an encouragement to me, because what it was is worshiping the Lord. And it one person testified, they went in and they thought they had been in the meeting for 20 minutes, and they looked at their watch, and it had been three hours worshiping the Lord. And so, 24 hours a day for a couple weeks, they kept this chapel service going, and they worshiped the Lord, and they had messages, and they had testimonies, and there was maybe a few healings and this and that, but it was just God's presence was so tangible. And church, it is my prayer that we will see revival here in YCCA. Not copying Asbury, not copying something else, but that we will experience a much greater uh sense of the presence of the Lord in this place, and our faith will rise up. And that on Sundays we will be coming running to the altar crying because we know that God's presence is here, and we know that He can minister to us, and that those who are in trouble, those who have a neighbor who's going through something different, will bring them in because they we know that they will be meeting with the Lord and minister to in this place, that we'll begin to come in on Sunday mornings hungry and ready for God to speak to us. And every revival has started through one simple thing, and that is prayer. That's how all that happened. This Asbury revival included, it all happened with people coming together and praying. Lord, we want more of you. Lord, would you make us more hungry and thirsty? I've been a believer myself for over 30 years. It won't be that much longer, it would be at 40 years perhaps. And so I also need my hunger and my thirst renewed. And church, I cannot imagine what it would be if we become, you know, we have a monthly prayer meeting. I I cannot imagine if all of us show up for that monthly prayer meeting, not just show up because we feel that we should show up, not just show up because uh we feel somehow obligated, but we show up because we want a greater hunger and thirst for the Lord in our own lives. Because, church, when we come together with that greater hunger and thirst, do you think he's gonna meet with us? He's gonna meet with us. And whether these all these uh different things going on or not, he's gonna meet with us and it's going to transform our lives. And so I just want to finish off with this. As we see these words to seek his kingdom today, may we see that as getting a greater hunger and thirst for the Lord because I think there is room to grow for us in this, don't you? We pray that you've been ministered to by the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about this Christian church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.