Hello, Good morning!
Hi!
Wow I'm so glad to be with you today.
We're continuing in our series called Catalyst.
You know God is calling us to be Catalysts. This is a chemical term eh, sa laboratory.
A Catalyst is someone that initiates a chemical change diba?
And we so are in a sense Catalysts to changing the world! How cool is that ha?
Wow Praise God! Come on, let's all stand as we begin.
We'll be praying. C'mon, let us all to stand
and I want you to greet each other.
Magkamayan naman kayo.
Give a high five to at least 10 people around you
C'mon don't be shy!
Flash a smile and say "Hi Hello! Good Morning!"
Yan! Good! Woooh! Praise God!
It's a good day, it's a good day to worship God, and to listen to God's Word.
C'mon let's praise God, let's come to the Lord in prayer as we begin to listen to His Word.
Let's all raise our hands, both hands to the Lord as a sign of worship, as a sign of surrender as well.
And as sign of dependence on God. Thank You Lord.
Father we, we come to You, we love You, we hunger for You, we thirst for You.
Teach us, guide us, change our hearts and our lives.
Let Your Word be clear. Lord, to instruct us.
Lord God, let Your Word be like a lamp to guide our lives in a dark path.
Let our lives shine like a light in a dark world.
Catalysts for change, for world change.
Thank You Father. In Jesus' Name, Amen!
C'mon let's give the Lord a clap offering!
Wooh! Thank You Lord! Thank You Lord Jesus! Amen and Amen!
Alright, let's take our seats.
Praise God, Praise God.
Let me begin by, maybe you've heard of this story.
"There was a teacher, who has a class.
High school students who are very noisy. They don't want to listen to the teacher's lecture.
Ang gugulo! Ang iingay!
Very rude and very disrespectful.
Finally, the teacher said something that made them behave. You know what did the teacher say?
Sabi ng teacher: 'Class! Everyone!
If you don't listen, and if you don't behave in this lecture,
I will tell you the spoilers of Infinity War!'
And then everybody behaved. Everybody was listening.
Everybody was taking notes."
Hello?
I hope you don't make me do that today!
Hehe Joke lang! I will not give you spoilers.
And I'm sure most of you have watched Infinity War na.
Alright, so today we'll be talking about a very very important series. A part of the series,
Paguusapan nating ngaung umaga "Pano bang gagawin
ng isang Kristiano ng isang mananampalataya sa Ginoong Hesus?"
A believer in the Lord Jesus.
How do we respond to all these problems and all these difficulties
and all these times of confusion in our politics?
Diba sabi nga meron tayong, you know will people respond:
"Ay, Politics is dirty." That's not true.
Politics has been God's instrument in establishing order, and policies and laws in the land.
Kung walang Politics, we will all be in chaos. We will be living in the jungle.
The truth is, Politics is not dirty. People are dirty. People who run Politics is dirty.
And so there are good people clean people, and there are dirty bad people.
And so when we vote, when we elect, and when we choose leaders who are dirty,
Politics becomes contaminated by these corrupt people.
But, here's the catch.
When we install and choose wise, excellent , clean, righteous leaders,
then Politics becomes clean.
So it's not the Politics that is dirty.
Politics is neutral. It's the people who run our government.
All right, so let's begin.
For the past few months,
the Philippines has been going through confusing times.
Ang gulo gulo ng nangyayari sa ating bansa.
The government's policies for example about the ongoing war on drugs
There's this debate going on. "Is this right? or is this wrong?"
While some applaud the massive surrender of people who are in involved in the drug trade,
Others have condemned the massive killings of people allegedly involved in illegal drugs
without the appropriate legal process.
Parang "Huh? Walang legal process? Walang due process?
Tinutukhang lang, patay na?! Eh wala man lang right for an attorney and all of that?"
And so this is very very sensitive issue politically and even among us Christians.
So while some claim that criminality is on the decline,
"Wooh! Praise God bumababa ang crime!"
But others are disturbed by the increase of dead bodies killed like dogs in the streets.
Parang "This is not the Philippines we want!
We don't want you know, people deprived of their rights for trial and the right to defend themselves."
And so ito, this is what we are going through.
Question is, "How should we Christians
respond in light of this controversy? Political, Governmental controversies."
On top of this difficulty, hindi pa eh, it doesn't end there.
We have many many problems.
Our country's continuing problems with systemic corruption among political leaders,
Can you imagine, 50% of our people
are receiving salaries below P10,000.00 a month?
How can you survive diba?
Some of you, yun lang allowance mo for a week diba?
Some people,
I'm exaggerating of course!
Some of you that's your allowance for a month, maybe I don't know for three months.
But some people, they don't have enough.
Some people just eats one meal a day.
Ikaw nga you eat six times a day diba!
Breakfast, dinner,
Breakfast, lunch, dinner,
snack, snack, snack! Tatlo grabe!
Diba may midnight snack ka pa!
But some people, in our nation, they go through tough times.
The grinding poverty and unemployment among our people is very very problematic.
Many troubles seem to slow down our country's progress.
By the way, why are we poor? Why is the Philippines poor?
It's not because of natural resources.
We are one of the top nations that has very very rich natural resources.
We have oil, we have minerals, we have gold,
We are the top supplier of gold in the world!
Alam niyo ba yun?
It's like "Sa Pilipinas daw, maghukay ka kahit saan may tutubo!"
In some countries like for example, Dubai or Japan,
they have no land. They Cannot grow crops.
Here, there's crops all over the place.
We're not poor because of lack of natural resources.
We're not poor because of lack of education.
We're the most literate country,
one of the most literate countries in Asia and the world.
And education in the Philippines is required.
You know the government will send you to jail if you don't send your children to school?
In some countries, people's children cannot go to school. So education is not our problem.
Filipinos are one of the most educated citizens in the world.
Age. We're a very young country.
Sabi nila, "The older the country, the better."
Not that necessarily. Some countries in the world today are thousands years old.
Egypt, Syria,
They're more than 5,000 year old empires. But today they're third world poor countries
While young, very very young countries are very very, are first world.
Canada, Australia, they're very young countries, they're about 150-200 years old
But they are, Singapore is a very young country, they're first world.
So it's not the age of the country. It's not even laziness.
The Filipinos are one of the most industrious, hard working people in the world.
Why are we poor?
We have good natural resources. We are educated.
We are a young democracy.
We're not supposed to be poor.
One theory is, it's because
we don't love our country enough.
Another theory is
Because we have not stopped corruption in our country.
Uso dito yung "palakasan",
"Pare, bahala ka ng ilakad ito. Bigyan nalang kita."
You know we wants shortcuts all over, and that's why we are going down the drain
if we don't stop corruption right away.
I think the better question is:
What should the people of God do if you believe in Jesus?
What should we do?
Should Christians fight against the government?
Or should Christians support the government?
That's our topic today.
Sabihin mo nga sa katabi mo:
"Ready ka na ba?
Makinig ka kundi mag I-infinity War spoilers si Ptr. Mike!"
That's a better question.
"What should we, how do we respond to all these problems, Government and Politics?"
Yan, ganda ng series natin ano?
"Lord, what do you want us to do? Your people, how do we respond to all of these?"
I'll be honest with you, this is a very sensitive and confusing topic as well.
There's no clear cut silver bullet answer to the question of Politics and Government.
Very divisive.
And so we need really the wisdom of God and the humility of the Spirit.
In a sense, we need to be like the people of the Old Testament.
There's a tribe. There are twelve tribes of Israel right?
One tribe, the tribe of Issachar,
they were described like this,
ang galing, we need to be like them
These are people who read the times, they read the newspaper,
they read the culture, they read the trends and they understand.
Sabi nila "Lord, this is what Israel must do. This is how your people might respond."
So we need to be like this tribe, the tribe of Issachar.
They know what's going on. Hindi sila puro Facebook lang.
They read the news, they listen to CNN,
they understand Philippine government.
Sabi nga ano, "A good good good Christian
Who loves Jesus, is someone who holds the Bible in his right hand,
and the newspaper or the tablet with Inquirer or Star News on his left hand!"
The news and the scriptures makes us better
Filipino Christians.
And so we need to be aware, we need to be connected and engaged
"Ano na ba ang nangyayari sa aking bansa Panginoon?
Papano ko ba ipapalanganin ang Pilipinas?"
That's the call of Jesus.
We need to become 'Salt and Light' to the Philippines,
as the Church, as Christians.
So let me begin. Theologically, there are at least, at least, there are many ways
But there are these two ways Christians have approached
the problems in society in general and politics in particular.
I call this the
"Two Approaches to Politics and to Governance."
So let's begin.
Joshua leads the people of God to conquer the land.
Kaya conquest 'no?
Ang instruction ng Panginoon:
"Sakupin ninyo lahat ng mga bayan na nakapaligid sa lupang pangako.
In the promise land.
This is a
courageous
and a very very passionate
call / command from God ano?
This is to conquer, overcome anything that is against God.
Anti-God. Anti- the will of God.
So Joshua 6 for example says:
They obeyed the command of God.
This is necessary for that time.
That time is a time of purging the land of all evil,
of all anything idolatrous,
of all witchcraft and anything demonic that God hates,
and that is opposed to God.
In a sense, "Sunugin niyo, sirain niyo,
wasakin niyo, baklasin niyo lahat ng karumihan,
lahat ng kademonyohan sa lupang ito."
Tinde ano?
That's was a command of God.
Lahat ng corruption, lahat ng masama, lahat ng salbahe, dapat itigil at wakasan ang kanilang existence.
In a sense,
the instruction goes deeper.
You cannot mingle with the people,
you cannot do business with the people in the land,
the survivors you cannot you know, marry them,
you cannot relate with them,
you cannot be friends with the world
- this dirty and evil land!
so
That was the instruction of God.
Do not cling to the custom, do not follow, do not listen to their music,
Don't go to their schools. Don't read their books.
It's so
not of God.
Don't go to their websites.
So it's like:
The Joshua Conquest is a stand for what is right
Against what is wrong?
The story of Daniel.
This is the time when the people of Israel were captured and so they were captured by Babylon and
All the people most of the leaders and intellectuals and all the young men and women were
Transported to Babylon as exiles.
They were like prisoners of the Empire.
In the sense they were instructed to stay in Babylon.
don't escape, don't start a war,
don't fight them, but instead pray for them.
Ganda ano?
Instead, build their governments
instead, be the best citizens in Babylon
Learn their language,
learn their culture,
go to their schools and
be the Summa Cum Laudes in the Babylonian Universities.
Be a light, be a blessing.
Support their government.
Make their government
-good governments.
Ibang klase ano?
This is a total contrast to the Joshua Conquest.
This is the Daniel Exile
in a sense for example
This is the instruction of God
If Babylon prospers, you prosper.
Galing ano?
shall respond to the government above them,
to the political environment they are in
So Daniel and the exiles studied under the best Babylonian Universities,
adopted their customs, learned their language,
helped improve Babylon, supported Babylonian Kings,
and served in their government.
Sila yung best Governors, best Prime Ministers, like Joseph and Esther.
They were like the best government officials,
the best Babylonian students,
even if they're Jews - People of God.
Let me ask you a question
"Can you imagine if Daniel and the other Jewish exiles led a protest
against the corruption and the idolatry and even in Babylon?"
By the way, Babylon is the most, one of the most evil Empires that ever existed on earth.
So many idols, so many witchcraft, demonic nation.
You know the instruction of God
was to prosper and pray and bless Babylon.
Imagine if Daniel and the other Jews
staged a violent revolution against the Babylonian government
for its abusive tyrannical immoral and ungodly ways?
That would be disobeying the Will of God.
Daniel will break the heart of God if he does that.
On the other hand, Joshua and the Israelites
fight their way against the pagan idolatrous nations in Canaan.
It was a Holy War against those who reject the ways of God.
So the instruction was to separate themselves from anyone or anything that is against God.
Even their properties and their pets, don't touch them.
Tinde 'no?
Can imagine if Joshua and the Israelites
started to send their children to Canaanite Universities,
And adopted the customs or the music or blended with the culture of Canaan?
What if Joshua supported Canaanite Kings and served in their government?
That would be disobeying the Will of God.
Joshua will break the heart of God.
So let's go back to 21st Century Philippines
and Christians in the Philippines.
So in our social context today, the Philippines,
what is the Church to do amidst all our
troubles in Government and Politics?
What should the people of God ought to do?
Should Christians fight the government, like Joshua?
Should Christians support the government,
be part of the government like Daniel?
Tanungin mo nga yung katabi mo,
"What do you think?"
Let me propose
That we should be asking the right questions
A better question is:
Are you ready for this?
"What would Jesus do?"
Boom
In fact, a better question is:
"What DID Jesus do?"
hmm
So you see, Jesus Himself lived under the time of the tyrannical rule of the Roman Government.
It's a very very tyrannical,
oppressive rule under the Romans.
Jesus was under that kind of government.
The nation of Israel suffered under the rule of Roman Governors.
So, it is interesting to note
that among Jesus' 12 disciples,
He included a government official who is loyal to Rome
Matthew
the BIR collector.
Tinde!
He follows Jesus, loves Jesus, but he's loyal to the government.
And another disciple of Jesus,
part of the 12,
is a revolutionary activist
- who wants to destroy and fight Rome
Simon the Zealot.
Aktibista!
Galit sa government.
Jesus seems to have included both
to show us that the values and the principles,
and the purposes of His Kingdom
is beyond and above the Political Kingdoms of this world.
Tinde ano?
In other words
Jesus seems to be saying to us
- our loyalty is to God,
and not to Political Groups
or Government.
Galing ano?
That's so beautiful, It's like
it brings us
boom!
Para kang natauhan,
para kang sinampal ng 2x2 plank!
Oo nga!
Some of us love our government
Pro-Duterte. Diba?
Some of us hate our government
You want Duterte to die of poison today.
Diba? Parang,
"Sana atakihin sa puso!"
But Jesus seems to be saying,
"You are all my followers
and that's
that's a higher kingdom than the kingdoms of this planet.
In other words, Jesus seems to be telling us,
"The revolution of the heart, the revolution of the transformation of life and it's the salvation of the soul,
It's it's the overhauling of the character.
That brings about the Kingdom of God in this planet."
The Kingdoms, they all come and go.
Presidents, they will come and go.
Kings and Queens
and Parliament and Congress and Senate, they will come and go.
But our role, our purpose and our mission,
is to advance a higher Kingdom,
a deeper revolution as it were.
It's the revolution of the heart.
Matthew and Simon may have different political preferences.
Nako po, siguro away ng away yung dalawang ito.
But at the end of the day,
they were both followers of Jesus.
Kaya nga sa Facebook eh,
sinasagot ko yung mga barkada ko,
"Pare,
alam ko galit ka kay President Duterte,
pero
relax ka lang."
Sa kabila naman,
"Pare, alam ko you will die for the President,
pero relax ka lang."
Diba?
At the end of the day, we need to be,
We may disagree with other believers about our opinion about the government
yet at the end of the day, we are all followers of Jesus.
Some of you, you may have know me.
I was a Political Activist when I was in college.
I did my Bachelors at the University Belt.
So alam niyo yung U-Belt.
Breathing ground yan for Political Activists.
So I was in Far Eastern University,
another bastion of
Anti-Government movements.
At the same time, to make matters worse,
I took Political Science. AB Political Science.
So it's like you know, grabe!
So my life is set. My destiny is set.
I will be in the barricades
and the boycotts and the protest rallies all my college life.
That's me.
So I join groups after groups who espoused
Socialism and
Moderate Social Democracy
And we were linking with Ateneo and UP and the other universities
who are mobilising
to fight tuition fee increase,
to fight land grabbing
and to push for land reforms
and to kick out the military,
US military bases in the Philippines and all of that.
I was involved in writing and advocating
Political Campaigns and all that.
So that was my college life.
Praise God for that.
Kasi it's a very very enriching experience as well.
But I have a friend, while going through college,
he went to UP.
But while in college, he was
working with Malacañang.
He was part of the National Youth Commission.
But we're good friends.
In fact we are
part of the same Bible study group.
We're both followers of Jesus.
But politically we want to kill each other.
You know, it's like,
"Bakit ka nandyan?!"
Diba?
And of course as you know Christians will narrowly, sometimes
We are so blind we will defend our political convictions using the Bible.
Diba parang kahit na out of context,
"Sabi sa Bible, si Duterte dapat ang manalo!"
"Sabi sa Bible dapat natin patalsikin ang lahat ng mga Presidente!"
So it's like we spiritualise our Political Positions.
Which is you know? It really sucks.
When we drag God into the conversation and a debate just to win,
It's not it's not very very wise
And so this person and I, he works with the National Youth Commission of Malacañang,
and I wanted to burn Malacañang.
But we join the same Discipleship Group.
And looking back on hindsight,
I realized I had many you know very idealistic very passionate and very stupid as well.
I realized you know,
governments come and go, nations rise and fall.
But there's a better, there's a higher Kingdom, there's a higher purpose for us as believers.
There's a deeper revolution that we are, that we ought to support.
That's beyond the President, beyond Kings, and beyond Parliaments and beyond Congress,
and beyond you know our Political opinions and debates.
So when my friends ask me, "Mike
What do you think about our current government?
The abuse of power, the corruption and bad leadership qualities and all these you know
saying !@#$% on screen and very, so on.
What do you think?"
Tapos tinatanong ako ng mga kaibigan ko
"Mike, what do you think? What do you think?"
Seryoso sabi ko
"Hmm, let me pause and reflect."
Sabi ko:
"You know, all our leaders throughout Philippines history
from Aguinaldo through Duterte
have all been problematic and idiosyncratic.
They're all crazy naman eh
in their leadership styles diba?"
You know, even the first President killed you know, the founder of the Revolution
You know what I say? Sabi ko these are my two cents in the debate,
"We're a very young democracy.
And our transition from the land warlords feudalistic systems to a democratic system has not been very easy.
But we have much to learn
As a nation."
So yes, despite our many problems I still thank God for the Philippines.
Because you know when you look at other nations, I thank God we are not a 'North Korea',
Where people are not allowed to speak against government.
We can speak against government and not go to jail
Sometimes we can but you know at least
We can go out in the streets and still say no.
You know resist bad policies
We are not a 'Rwanda' where people are murdered through mass genocide
Simply because you belong to another tribe.
We are not a 'Pakistan' where women are not allowed to go to school or drive the cars.
Simply because there are women.
We are not
those nations anymore.
Praise God. We are not yet the nation we want,
But Praise God. We are no longer the nation. We used to be
Amen?
And so it gives us a glimpse of hope,
"Lord, may pag asa ang bansa namin, marami kaming problema,
marami bugok sa aming bansa, sa aming mga pinuno,
pero Lord, meron din mga matitino."
You know, we have the Cabinet,
70% of the Cabinet of the President today are good people.
Syempre may mga bulok-bulok parin pero you know,
We have to see the brighter side of things.
That's not me you know?
I'm a pessimist.
Si Ethel ang mas medyo optimistic.
She sees the brighter side of things,
"People are all good and kind."
Ako, "People are all evil and corrupt eh."
But you know when it comes to our nation we have to have both.
When a government for example: allows its' people
to protest and express their anger in the streets without fear,
and when the government allows the protesters to come to his house
and have a dialogue, that's good.
But when the government for example endorses or applauds law enforcers
who uses violence and deprived alleged criminals of their due process
That is bad.
So we need wisdom to support the good and resist the bad.
Should Christians fight against the government or should Christians support the government?
I say let the debate go on.
But we should remain united as believers we must agree to disagree
Allow the university of opinion in the Body of Christ
but there should only be one purpose.
Our purpose is to advance the Kingdom of Christ, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, not our little kingdoms.
But we can you know disagree about our political preferences or our
Political opinion, it's okay to disagree
I propose
However
"Ah ito na, ano ba talaga ang gusto ni Ptr. Mike?"
I Propose however that we live in the times of Daniel
We live in the times of Babylon.
People of God in exile. We are no longer the majority voice.
We are not in a time of conquest.
We are a time where we live in the darkness of times
I propose that we shine our brightest lights like Daniel's and Joseph's and Esther's
Jeremiah 29 as we read earlier
Boom!
I think that's wise
I think that's an "Issachar" mindset.
For example 1 Timothy says:
Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:
We don't have to agree with them.
We don't have to agree with each other each other politically.
But you have to pray.
Hindi ka nagpra-pray, you have no right
to bad mouth any Political Leader.
Pagpray mo muna,
"Lord paki batukan Mo nga."
Yun, ganun prayer mo.
Hindi hindi, joke lang.
"Lord!" Diba?
When you surround them with righteous council, godly advice.
Tinde naman nito!
Why would Peter say this?
You know who the Emperor he's talking about? It's the Roman Emperor.
One who kills,
feeds Christians to the lions,
very corrupt, very greedy Emperor.
Very vain
shallow Emperor.
"Honor the Emperor" Peter says.
You have to trust in the slow but perfect Ways of God.
God has established our government,
this is the government that God allowed to rule for a time,
this is just six years or so in you know it's like it's like we are all our governments are all tentative.
And God allows that for a reason.
It's like He's bringing the best in us
because of the government He allows us to submit to, and honor and support.
That's something to think about. It's like,
"Pare, mindblown yun ah. Parang God allows this government for a good reason?
For a better purpose? For a great plan?"
You know when they were writing the Book of Romans,
they were under the most cruel government ever. It's the Roman Empire.
How could Paul say this
"You honor the authorities that God established,
Whether it's your Principle
Whether it's your Dean
whether it's your Mom and Dad
whether it's your Mayor
whether it's the president of the Philippines who however
ugly and evil and
distorted their ways are
even if its the Roman Emperor who is the worst Emperor ever.
Tinde naman nito.
Can you touch your seatmate,
"Ok ka pa? Ok ka pa?"
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