In Chinese, 它们 (them) refers to inanimate objects. This can be referred to food or minerals. They can’t speak in reality. But in fables and children stories, they can speak. The speaker read some of the words these personified objected spoke online and found the sayings worthy of learning for Christians.

In the previous sermon, the words spoken by the ramen, the dumpling and the walnut was discussed.

1. Bread
   “When I was small, I was truthful. When I grew bigger, I became empty.”
   Indeed life is also like this. When we were young, we didn’t have much to worry about. We could just eat, drink and play. We had people who loved us. We have our mobile phones. Our lives were fulfilled when we were younger. But when we became older, we put effort into our studies, we struggle in our jobs, and toil and labour for our families. Often it feels like we’re so busy in our lives, we don’t have time for ourselves. We also feel empty. We ask ourselves: who am I busy for? What is life about and what is life for?

When we lack anything, we then put in effort to seek those things. Yet today we don’t seem to lack anything. In fact, it’s the contrary. E have too much.

What is life for? Why do we have so much and yet have emptiness in our hearts?

A fox discovered that there were many cute chickens beyond the fence. He really wanted to go beyond the fence to get in. But he couldn’t because he was too far. Still he was greedy for the chickens. So he decided to starve himself for three days so he could get through the gap of the fence. How happy he was when he managed to get in! He really indulged himself in the chickens. But as much as he would have enjoyed himself, he got sick of the chickens. He then tried to get out but he couldn’t! What did he have to do then? He had to starve himself for 3 days again. The fox had a realisation: he entered the fence with an empty stomach and left with an empty stomach. “Even though I got a taste of the chickens,
Isn’t life often like this too? We came into the world empty handed. When we die, we will likewise leave empty handed. In our toil and labour, in our fight in life, we may achieve much. But in the end, there’s nothing we can bring away.

古人说: 金也空, 银也空, 死后何曾在手中?
田也空, 楼也空, 换了多少主人翁?
名也空, 权也空, 转眼荒郊土一封.
A saying: 金有空 银有空 死后在手中也是空
Our field is empty. Our building is empty. The owners of these properties have been changed many times.

We may own a home but after a while it doesn’t belong to us anymore.
Your name is empty. Your power is empty. In the twinkling of an eye, all you can see is that lump of soil. The tomb.

Can we come to this realisation like the fox? Even if we get to eat the chickens behind the fence, we’d still be empty.

What do we spend our lives pursuing then? Skills and knowledge? Money and love? A luxurious house or car?

What did the psalmist say?
Psa 49:16-20
Do not be afraid when you see someone becoming rich. If you see Pr Chin AQ driving a sports car to church or buying a house in orchard road, don’t worry. When he dies, he can’t bring any of these things with him. His wealth and blessing is temporary when he passes away. If he doesn’t know how to be vigilant during this time, he will be no different from the beast that dies. He won’t even be comparable to the fox, because the fox came to a realisation. If we don’t realise by the point of death, isn’t that a pity?

v15 read
Whether you like it or not, whether you’re willing or not, you will die. But do you know you have to face the righteous judgement of God at the end? Do you also know God has prepared a plan of salvation that we can be saved from hell? Will we be one received or rejected by God? That depends on whether you believe in the salvation of God today. We must have a realisation: the purpose of our lives isn’t to hold on to the things that we love. There’s nothing we can bring along with us. Realise: the most important thing in life is to hold on to God, to receive salvation unto eternal life. So we will be received and not rejected. On that day many people will knock on the door “Lord open up! We repent! We want to go home!” Jesus will say He doesn’t know them. Is it because He’s merciless or because we have hardened our hearts and are insincere? God has given us many opportunities. He has also sent many of His servants. Have we heard? If we have, do we put it in our hearts? If we have, do we carry it out? Not all who say to Jesus Lord Lord can enter heaven but those who do His will.

We must fear God and keep His commandments. Only then I’ll lives will not be empty. More importantly, we won’t be rejected by Him.

1. Xiao long bao
   “Only if you learn how to forebear can you receive something even better.”

If you have too little ingredients in the XLB, it won’t be delicious and people won’t want to eat. But if there’s more meat inside, more people want to eat it.

Life is like this. We must be like XLB to be able to contain more and forever more. Then we will be able to receive more joy. If we’re able to forebear one another as friends, we’ll be able to grow even closer in our journey.

If between a husband and wife they can forebear one another, we can see how close they are in their relationship. But if they aren’t, we’ll see them quarrelling a lot.

If a family can forebear one another, harmony at home. If cannot, it’ll be like strangers, drift apart.

The church is a large family. The more people there are, the more people problems there’ll be. “Why is the church the household of God and yet there’re so many problems like my family at home?” You yourself say your family has problems. How many people? 5-7? And there are problems. There are so many more people in church, of course there’ll be more problems! Relatively, there’re less problems in church. Regardless given the church is a big family, there’ll inevitably be some problems. There’ll also be conflicts. There’ll also be many unhappy instances. For example, we often have announcements about parking. If we need to rush off, we’ll get really angry and scold people.

“Why’re you scolding people?”
“No I say nice what. I asked can you PLEASE move the car? But they never listen so I raised my voice and expletives came out” Not just in church. People outside also like this

Some areas we need to forebear one another. If we don’t learn to endure we won’t be able to forebear. Because a heart of forebearance is not natural. It’s something we need to learn. We must first have a heart that’s willing to forebear. Barnabas had such a heart. Let us see how he learnt to forebear.

Acts 9:26-28
Can you imagine how Saul was feeling here? He would later be called Paul. He was personally specially ordained by Jesus to be an apostle. Jesus also sent a person specially to baptise him. So many special. Such a special person. But when he came to church no one bothered about him.

He testified how the Lord Jesus chose him. He wasn’t an ordinary believer. He was going to be an apostle. And a different one from the other apostles. He would be an apostle to the Gentiles. His scope was larger. His responsibility a lot heavier. But after hearing this testimony, he was still unwelcome. He thought the disciples would be happy to be acquainted with him but many doubted him and were suspicious of his intentions.

If you were Paul, you’re baptised but people look at you suspiciously and don’t even dare to get near to you, you’d think all these people are so hypocritical. “I thought after getting baptised we’re one family. I thought you taught that we are to love one another. Yet you treat me like this.” Many people can’t take this and leave.

We become stumbling blocks to others. Why did you doubt him? Why didn’t you try to seek clarifications? On one hand you doubt him, on the other hand you don’t clarify. “Eh be careful of CAQ.” “What did he do?” “I don’t know. Anyways just be careful.”

You think you’re being helpful but actually you stumble people.

Only Barnabas took him in. At the point in time everyone was suspicious of him, Barnabas did. When no one forbore him, Barnabas did.

Saul had been a persecutor of Christians. Maybe he didn’t persecute me but he persecuted my uncle aunty friend. Jesus accepted him so I should accept him. But even though I accept him as a brother I can’t accept him as a friend. It’s sad when you say someone is just your friend and not your brother. But even sadder when you say someone is your brother but not your friend.

They deliberated treated him coldly and distanced themselves. Christians cannot take revenge but I just don’t want to talk to him. There may not be a big war but there was a cold war.

Sometimes the speaker rather there’s a big war. At least after that things are settled. But a Cold War lasts dk how long. So many things you can’t let go in your heart. You suffer and others suffer. We must learn how to suffer and forebear. Like Barnabas.

He may have had relatives and friends who were persecuted by Paul too. But he has repented. So accept him.

It’s impossible to forget. We remember it. The problem is not whether we can forget, it’s whether we can let go. If we can, that’s forgiveness. A kind of forbearance.

Acts 15:37-40
Mark was a youth Paul and Barnabas esteemed. For reasons unknown, Mark departed from the ministry. When Paul and Barnabas were going for the next mission trip, Paul was unwilling to bring Mark along. Because he was disappointed with him, he thought Mark would negatively affect their work. Paul was unwilling for Mark to be his coworker. There’s some coworkers we like to work with, some we don’t. We like because they can help. We don’t God they’re a burden.

Sometimes at work cannot decide who is on our team.
But Paul could decide. He objected to bringing Mark along. But Barnabas insisted. The problem became between Paul and Barnabas. We can see Barnabas really had a heart of forbearance. It’s not that Paul didn’t have such a heart too. Paul reckoned the mission was very important because it was like going to a war. In Paul’s opinion, Mark was not ready to be soldier in the frontline. He should be in an area for training instead. So Paul took Silas instead. While Barnabas brought mark to visit the other churches to do pastoral work so he was able to grow in maturity. So don’t misunderstand that Paul and Barnabas went completely separate ways. Indeed Barnabas was one very suitable to do the work of training and nurturing. Need a heart of forbearance like Barnabas. Because of his forbearance, the church had a Paul added. And a Mark added.

We need to learn to forbear. Who has never made a mistake in his life? On this earth, there’s no garden with no weeds. In beautiful gardens there’s still weeds. We just need to remove them. No one in this world is perfect. We just need to seek to mature ourselves and for perfection. As we seek maturity and perfection, it’s a process. We must have be willing to forebear. It’s easy to give up and difficult to nurture. We need a heart of forbearance. Sometimes we’re so fed up “ah idw to care anymore!” We think it’s a relief then. But after we cool down our conscience will not be okay.

Have forbearance. Forgive others. Help people grow. If we don’t forgive others, our Heavenly Father won’t forgive us. How can we not learn forgive and forbear?

Important: we can forbear the sinner but not the sin. He must repent. Forbearance is not ignoring the sin. It’s helping the person repent. People misunderstanding forbearance is about not pointing out mistakes. That’s not forbearance, that’s 害死 harming the person.

1. Youtiao
   “If I had not gone through the test of the hot oil, I’d never be cooked/mature.”
   Similarly if we don’t go through the trial of fire, how can we be mature? Rain, rainbow. Difficulties, mature.

We may have to go through the storm not just plain sailing. If we give up when faced with storms, we’d never reach our destination.

1 Pet 4:12-13
When people undergo the trial of fire, what’s our first reaction?
“What sin did he commit? Why is he going through this adversity? Is God punishing him?”

Truly sin may be a reason for suffering. But it’s not the only reason. When one goes through a fiery trial, it’s also for the person to grow in maturity. John said I baptise you water but Jesus fire

Peter said don’t think it strange when we meet with fiery trials. This is the baptism of fire Jesus baptised us. Gold must go through fire to be refined. We only want pure gold then it’s valuable. Same for faith. Only faith refined through fire and tests is true faith. Only true faith will receive praise from God and blessings.

We rejoice to the extent we partake in Christ’s blessings. When it’s revealed we’ll be glad and rejoice.

As we go through our trials, let’s not look at it as a suffering. Let’s see rather the glory that beyond the refining of fire.

浴火重生
Reborn from the fire Cheng Yu
Story behind it:
If a Phoenix can grow to 500 years old, it can be burnt in fire. After being consumed in fire, it’ll rise again. If it grows to 500 years it’s old and weak, but after being burnt and rising from the ashes, it’ll regain its beauty and strength again

So this Cheng Yu is to describe people who have gone through trials like fire and then elevated to a whole new plane.

1 Pet 4:12 uses fiery trial. The main point of the fiery trial is not in the fire. In the Cheng Yu, the crux is not the fire. The crux is whether you’re a Phoenix or a kampong chicken. When a Phoenix is in the fire, it’ll rise from the ashes. But 山鸡 in the fire become 烧鸡.

Phoenix: they rediscover themselves and find a new avenue. Like the prodigal. After the test of fire, they become a new person.

May God help us that when we go through the trial of fire, to be like a Phoenix not a kampung chicken.

Let’s think about the words the bread, XLB and youtiao said the next time we eat them.