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Happy Australia Day. Happy Australia Day. It's good to be able to say that it's Australia Day on a Sunday. And you know quite often when I talk about Australia in terms of, well just amongst brethren, you know, quite often people have a very negative connotation towards Australia. And you know I would be the first to admit that Australia is not a righteous country. There is a lot of wickedness on this land and the big one for me is abortion. You know some 250 babies being aborted every single day in Australia and all paid by the taxpayer. And you know I'm also the first to proclaim that Australia is not a God fearing nation. You know and there's not many people that think about God or eternity and as we go door to door soul winning we come across many houses that just do not care about eternity, do not care about God. And unfortunately that's the state of our nation today. For some of us that have gone to the Philippines last year and Fiji last year, you know what a God fearing nation looks like. And people have a real respect for the Bible and a real seeking for the Lord and his salvation. We don't have those things in Australia. But even though that's the case I still look at Australia very fondly because I believe Australia is a very blessed country. The title for the sermon today is The Blessings of Australia. The Blessings of Australia. Now we had the reading there in Deuteronomy 28. Now obviously Deuteronomy 28 is about the Old Testament nation of Israel. One thing that you need to just have fixed in your head is that in the Old Testament God had a covenant. An agreement, a promise with a physical nation. And then the people of that nation agreed to the covenant and God would take the blood of animals and sprinkle the people with blood signifying, it's kind of like a signature, signifying that they had come into this agreement together as a nation and before God. Now Australia does not have a covenant with God. You need to understand that okay. We are not as a physical nation a covenanted nation of God. Nevertheless we learn in the Old Testament what a God fearing, or what a nation under God should look like and we can compare Australia to that nation. Now we read Deuteronomy 28. I didn't read the whole chapter. It's a very long chapter. That's because verses 15 to 68 is all about the curses that would come upon the nation of Israel. But the first 14 verses are the blessings that would come from God upon this nation should they follow and heed the commandments of God. And so if we can identify Deuteronomy 28, the first 14 verses as what a blessed country looks like. I then want to compare Australia and I want you to really at the end of this service really appreciate the country you live in. Because it's a very good country and you know I'm not necessarily saying praise the politicians. I'm not necessarily saying praise the land, but I'm saying praise the Lord for allowing this nation to be a blessed nation. So as I said the title for the sermon today is the blessings of Australia. Let's start there in verse number one. Deuteronomy 28 verse number one. And it shall come to pass if thou shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day. The Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. This is all about the blessings that God will give the nation of Israel. Now God says if they were to keep their commandments and like I said all blessings here that the nation of Israel will be set on high above all the nations on the earth. Now I had a quick Google search how many nations are there in the world currently. It's said to be 195 nations. Now there's some 200 and some 220 something I think countries. And that's because countries are sometimes they may fall under the category as a territory of another nation. But let's just go with that number. Let's say 195 or let's keep it simple 200. Let's say there's 200 and we live in one nation of about 200 nations. And you see the first blessing that we see is that Israel will be set high above all the nations of the earth. Now how do we rank that? How do we determine how is a nation high above other nations? You could say well maybe population wise. I mean if population then we would say China and India are the top nations of the earth. But that's is that really like you see people desiring to migrate to India for example you know from their war torn countries. No normally people want to you know migrate to the Western world right to the developed world is where people will usually want to migrate to. Well there is one way that is it's kind of recorded or you know agreed upon what makes a nation of a high quality standard. And that is the human development index or the HDI the human development index. This is a nationally globally recognized statistic and these things measure life expectancy. It measures education and it measures income. OK those are the three primary things and then there's obviously subcategories under those things life expectancy education and income. So this has to do with quality of life. The standard of living the quality of living where people are generally happiest in the countries they live in. Well in the HDI index in the human development index Australia currently ranks as number five. Switzerland number one number two is Norway Iceland number three Hong Kong number four Australia number five. The USA falls at number 21 on the list. OK now look 21 amongst say 200 nations is still pretty up there. But how much higher is number five in the world when it comes to quality of life. You know and so this is one of the blessings of God a nation that we set high above all the nations of the earth. Australia is a place where people generally want to come and live. They want to come and make a life here there are many opportunities. And this is a blessing of God. Now even though Australia is number five I had to look because you know the first five the first ten even nations. They're so close in the stats that there have been times that Australia has been like number two in the world. You know the number two in the HDI index and so you know it's amazing that we live in a country like this. So you know we can first say well you know we live in a blessed country because it is definitely one of the high above all the nations of the earth. Now let's continue then verse number two. Now again I acknowledge that our nation doesn't really hearken to the voice. I mean you guys are right now praise God you're in church. You're hearkening you're listening to the voice of the Lord coming from his word. But generally speaking our nation as a whole does not. We understand that and again I don't want you to you know look at complete parallels with Israel. We're looking at what a nation looks like when it is blessed. And again Israel had that special covenant with God where they had to obey the commandments. They were to fulfill the law whereas Australia does not hold to that covenant in the same manner. But look what it says in verse number three. You know we would kind of look at this and say well in Australia we have people that live in the cities. And we'll say that people live in the country or people live in rural areas. You know the Sunshine Coast is kind of both. You know generally speak when it comes to the coastal sites people say well that's kind of like that's kind of city you know living. But you know out in the sticks like millennia or something that's kind of like rural living. I mean like but generally speaking we look at the Sunshine Coast as a regional town rather than a major city of Australia. But you know God says that there's going to be blessings in the cities there's going to be blessings out in the field. Of course the field is where the agriculture is the farming you know all of that. And like I said when you look at the HDI the Human Development Index of course that's mainly speaking of the cities of Australia. Because 89% of Australians 89% of Australians live in the big cities. 89% of Australians live like in Sydney it's over 5 million. Melbourne's over 5 million people and the Sunny Coast it's something like less than 400,000 okay. So you know of course when you say live in the cities there's great opportunities and 11% of people live in rural areas. But when I went to have a look at some stats regarding Australia in the rural as far as the rural side of Australia. How does Australia measure rurally if that's a word amongst all the other nations of the world it comes 11th in the world. And the things that get measured in rural areas are the infrastructure okay. The development of these areas. Access to services like hospitals and you know police and fireplaces and also other things that we measure there are healthcare services right. Like I said hospitals and doctors and surgeons and all these things required to improve our life in many ways. And Australia comes 11th in the world. I mean we understand the cities are going to be full of infrastructure but so is our rural areas. Quite up there in the world and so again you know this is another way to measure the blessings that we have in this land. Let's continue there in verse number 4. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body. The fruit of your body is babies right. And as I already mentioned at the very beginning boy Australians are doing a lot of work trying to murder these children. But one of the blessings that God will give a nation is the fruitfulness of the womb. It says here and the fruit of thy ground. So that's your farming and the fruit of thy cattle. The increase of thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep. So God says look you know there will be fruitfulness in the womb but fruitfulness in your farming, fruitfulness in your crops, in your agriculture. Well the average global, the global average of you know birth rates per family in the world is 2.3. 2.3 kids for every family. In Australia it is currently 1.6 the birth rate in Australia. 1.6 kids. I mean look I'm doing my best brethren. I'm doing the best I can to lift that standard. I need everybody to help me out here okay. But I'm trying to get this nation blessed with fertility brethren. But I think we've hit our limit. I don't know but I need others to get pretty busy. But you know it's unfortunate that our nation seeks to see babies in the womb as a burden or some type of curse. But you know the fruit of the womb is truly a blessing of the Lord. But not only do we look at the birth rate but like I said agriculture and farming. Now when it comes to the production of our fields and our lands. Look we understand that a huge part of Australia is just a desert, arid, like nobody really wants to live out there. You know but generally speaking where people are living and farming. You know our biggest productions are wheat, beef, lamb. I mean Australian beef is world renowned. Lamb, wool, of course with lambs you're going to have wool. Fruits and veggies, sugar cane, wine. So our vineyards are again world renowned. Now did you guys know this but when it comes to wheat. We're the top five in the world as a world exporter. Number five in the world. People want our wheat. Right I mean we need wheat, we need bread, we need flour right to eat well and to you know. These are things that add to quality of life here in Australia. You know I want you to also notice there again look at verse number four. The fruit of thy ground, the fruit of thy cattle. Your cattle increase of thy kind. That's again talking about your cattle and the fox of thy sheep. God specifically names two types of animals. Your cattle, your cows, you know and your sheep. Well when it comes to beef we're the top three. We're a top three exporter in the world when it comes to beef. Alright now people generally when they come from the US and they try McDonald's in Australia. Which is a hundred percent Australian beef apparently. They say like this is the better quality McDonald's in general. People like our beef. Top three exporter brethren. And you know what our population is only twenty, what is it twenty seven, twenty eight million. We're not a very populous country and yet people want our beef. Okay we're being very blessed by the increase of the cattle. And you know when it comes to lamb. Does anyone know where we rank as far as an exporter of lamb to the rest of this world? Does anybody want to guess? Number five, a bit higher than that. Number one. Number one in the world. That's why you eat lamb on Australia Day. They didn't want to bring lamb I'm not sure. Have you brought lamb sister? Praise God. We've got a blessing right today this morning if you're able to hang around for lunch after service. We are the number one exporter of lamb and of course wool. Because once you slay the sheep of course might as well take advantage of the wool. That it produces the largest exporter in the world. And God says he's going to increase your kind and the flocks of thy sheep. And there's no other nation that has been more increased with sheep than Australia. I mean is that a blessing of the Lord or what? You know and so look again I understand that our nation has a lot of problems. And I don't know how long God's mercy is going to continue here in Australia. And we know he's a long suffering God and you know before God caused Judah to be taken into captivity by the Babylonians. He gave them 490 years to get things right. So we know he's a very long suffering God and we might get frustrated by the sins of Australia. But hopefully we're in the earlier part of the 490 years than the latter part. You know people turn away from the Lord. Look at verse number five. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy stall. So this is kind of excess right? Like you know when you when you farm and you you know you kind of eat what you need for the day. But you have leftovers you put them into storage. It continues in verse number six. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. So just verse number five again. Blessed is a basket and thy stall is that we have sufficient food for Australians. And again we're a major export of food to other nations. We have much in store. I mean these things are blessings of the Lord. Verse number six again. Blessed shall be thee when thou comest in and blessed shall thou be when thou goest out. So as we leave our homes and come back. You know as we go to church and come back home from church. We go to work and come back as we go and leave the country. Maybe to go on a holiday and return. God says there'll be blessings on the land. And of course this has much to do with safety. Safety. We're not afraid necessarily of leaving our doors are we? You know we open the front door. We go and we check our mail. We're not wondering are we going to be assassinated or are we going to be robbed or is something going to happen? Generally speaking Australians we feel very safe in the place that we live. And when it comes to world standards there's another way to measure peace and safety. And that's by the global peace index. The global peace index. And the things that these things measure are safety, terrorist threats. I mean we don't really as Australians think that we're about to suffer a threat, a terrorist threat or anything like that. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen or it can't happen. It's very low on the scale when it comes to Australia. Just conflicts in general. Economic stability. You know it's not like our economy is just about to collapse at any moment. And that we're just constantly facing depression and starvation and things like this. Human rights. Just that human beings are respected. I find in Australia, I've travelled in different places. You know from South America primarily to North America. I find Australians in general to be very respectful no matter what your social class is. You know you can be a very wealthy man and usually when wealthy people like to speak highly of themselves. Aussies like to take them down a notch. Humble them a little bit right. But other nations they look at oh man this guy's got money and prestige and you know they kind of look up to the wealthy man. Not so much Australians. In Australia you can not necessarily even have to be educated or you can land a lower level job and still be paid well. And you're still respected for the work that you do. You know we have these great sort of standards of how we view our common man in Australia. And when it comes to the global peace index we are the thirteenth safest country in the world. The thirteenth safest country in the world. Again you know there are problems. You know as Australians it's very hard to defend yourself. Self defence is very hard to you know. But in many ways we don't really have to in many ways. Simply because of the safety that we have in this nation. Look at verse number seven. The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee one way and flee before thee seven ways. Now let me ask you how many enemies does Australia have? New Zealand? I don't know. Not really. Honestly like how often has Australia been attacked? Invaded. How many times in Australia has people gone to war against Australia? Well there's only been one major time and that was World War II and even then it was very subdued. World War II in 1942 you might be familiar with the Darwin bombing. When the Japanese came and they bombed Darwin there were over 200 people killed in Darwin in 1942. Also you might not be familiar but in 1942 Sydney Harbour was attacked by a Japanese submarine. The submarine launched a torpedo to take down a US warship. It missed and I think hit the harbour of Sydney. It didn't cause too much damage though. But then what happens? Three years later Japan is defeated anyway by Allied forces and Australia's part of that group. And I mean that's really as far as our enemies go that's as far as it went. And you know today if you were to ask people do you think of Japan as an enemy of Australia? Like what are you talking about? We love the Japanese. We're driving their cars, the Toyotas and the Suzuki's and the Hondas. We got no problems and we think that Japanese technology is quite advanced and we think well of Japan today don't we? We don't even think of them as an enemy. And so boy to be blessed and not have any enemies and the only one time that we did 80 years ago they were taken out three years later and there was very little damage caused to Australia anyway. Do you think of these as blessings from God though? I just want you to think about that. We live in this country. We live in Australia. God's allowed us to live in Australia. And I just say man I live in the best place of Australia, the Sunshine Coast. I mean to me it's the best country and to me the Sunshine Coast is the best place in the country to live. I mean this is like the closest I can get to heaven while I'm on the earth. That's how I feel. I could be wrong about that. Maybe Wagga Wagga is the best place. I have no idea right? But you know to me this Sunshine Coast is the best place to be. I feel I don't know about you bro. I feel very blessed to be here. Very very blessed. Look at verse number 8. Now again when I think of storehouses I kind of mention that you know it's kind of the excess that we have. And we send our excess, our exports at least overseas. But also when I think about this I also think about how Australia has a welfare system. Now in many ways I'm not in favour of the governments being you know the welfare of the land. When it comes to the Bible it ought to be your freewill decision to help in charities and help people. And you know as churches we're commanded to help the poor and the needy and you know the widows that are in our church and things like that. But the government decides to take a larger portion of your tax instead and rotate that in the welfare system. But it's out there you know. And when it comes to the poverty rates, poverty rates in the world, Australia ranks as number 10 in the lowest poverty rate in the world. Number 10 in the lowest poverty rate. Most people live above the poverty line. Whatever the poverty line is. I don't know what the poverty line is. You know at one stage in my life when I was married with kids apparently I was living under the poverty line. But even then I was doing super well. And we had food all the time. We had a rip over our heads. So I don't really know what this poverty line really looks like in the real world. But anyway we're kind of one of the lowest. We're tenth in the world over the lowest poverty rate. We have you know in excess that you know the government is able to help out people in need. Now again you know all these things can be taken and abused. And many people do abuse and live off the welfare system. But I think it is fitting and proper when people fall in very hard times. You know where life can get really difficult at times to be able to get help to get assistance. Of course we should be seeking to help those in need. But obviously I'm against just living off the welfare system like full time. And that's it. I'm not going to work. I'm not going to be productive in society. And I'm just going to live off the welfare. And some people do very well living off the welfare system. But I think it's an abuse of the system. Nevertheless it's kept our poverty rates extremely low. Look at verse number 9. Of course this has to do with the covenant nation of Israel. But I think about this and we are not known as the holy people. As Australian people don't think that's the holy people of God right. We don't think about it like that. But we understand in the New Testament the holy nation is a spiritual nation made up of people that are in Christ Jesus. Those that have been saved by the Gospel. And you know what? What's wonderful about Australia is Australia has been reached with the Gospel. I mean you are testament of that this morning. That the Gospel has reached your ears in this land. You've trusted Christ as your Saviour in this land. And in this land there are a holy people of God that dwell here. So it's a real blessing because as you probably know the Gospel is outlawed. Is illegal in many nations of this world. You know even to the point of being put to death potentially for converting from say Islam to Christianity. You know whereas in Australia we have the freedom of the Gospel reaching the ears of people. And so we need to be able to take advantage of this blessing that God has given us. Verse number 11. So we kind of looked at that already. And verse number 12 says. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure. What's his good treasure? The heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season and to bless all the work of thine hand. And thou shall lend unto many nations and thou shalt not borrow. Alright so we see a couple of blessings here. Number one the first thing mentioned is rain, rain. Now unfortunately for Australia we actually have a high risk of drought. Now we're not facing drought right now but there is a high, we are high in the ranking of the risk of drought. But we need to put it into perspective though. That's because most of our country is desert alright. And we know that when it comes to Australians we live in the coastal areas primarily. Okay most Australians live in the coastal areas. So if you're just talking about rain on land yes we don't fare very well. You know when it comes to rain in the areas that we actually live in we actually fare very well. Okay so just to give you some stats. When it comes to clean running water or portable water. Water that we can drink, water that we can shower in, water that we can use for all. I mean people have beautiful lawns here in Australia. You know I've gone door to door solar in the United States and the lawns don't look as nice and not as green. And when you come across a lawn that's very very green you know that person's really taking care of the lawn. And you don't want to walk on it because you know how much work they put on it. So you walk on the road to avoid damaging their lawn. But in Australia the grass grows out of control. Everyone's got lawn, everyone's got grass. You know one of the things about Chile it's a very arid country where my parents were born. And again when I go and visit Chile it's brown. It's dust, it's brown and there are hardly any birds because they've all been hunted. But you come to Australia and all of a sudden it's like oh this is green. Like this place is flourishing. When you go from Sydney you'll be in a concrete jungle and then you come to the sunny coast. Oh man it's even more green. You know it's just we have great irrigation in Australia. I mean it ranks highly. Like I said 99% of Australians have access. Oh did I say that? I don't know. But 99% of Australians have access to portable water. And we rank in the top 10 in the world in agricultural irrigation. So where our farmland is, where our animals, our farm animals, all of that. Okay they have sufficient water to grow their crops. And God says these are the blessings of him. These are the blessings of the Lord. What about debts? We'll be there at the end of verse number 12. And thou shall lend unto many nations. So the nation of Israel especially in the time of Solomon, a very rich nation. They can help other nations and lend them money. And there will be no need to borrow. Well unfortunately you probably know that Australia has a great national debt. Okay we are about 900 billion dollars in debt. So that is not a blessing by the way. We should not have to be in debt. But again per capita it's not so bad. Now again when it comes to ranking amongst, most nations in the world are in debt. I don't even know how. How can every nation be in debt pretty much? Like who do we owe money to? And then we go down the conspiracy road afterwards. But you know when it comes to all the nations of the world we rank somewhere in the middle. Somewhere in the middle. We're not the worst when it comes to being indebted. But we're definitely not the best. We're somewhere ranked in the middle. But here's what's interesting about Australia. Australia is not just a borrower but it's also a creditor to other nations. Australia does lend money and sometimes just give money to other nations. And currently even though we're 900 billion dollars in debt Australia is owed 3.1 trillion dollars. So if you could get that fixed up we would be in surplus. We wouldn't be in debt. And this is what kind of bogs my mind. Why do we have to be in debt if we have 3.1 trillion in owing from other nations? So other nations that we do lend and help out of course you're probably aware of this being the Pacific Islands. Up in New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, these kinds of places. Australia lends a lot to these places in their development. Also South East Asia. So like Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines. And also South Asia. India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka. India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka. These are nations that Australia has lent to. And we see that lending to nations is a blessing of the Lord. Because we have what we need, thank God. And we have more so we can be a blessing to other people, other nations. Now again brethren when it comes to all these things I understand that we live in a simple world. And we understand that God's blessings can be taken for granted or can be abused and corrupted by sinners. And you know I'm not saying that everything is perfect. I definitely don't believe the welfare system is perfect. There are many things that are not perfect. I believe we're overtaxed as well as citizens of Australia. Nevertheless it's Australia Day. I want to focus on the blessings. And I hope you can say to yourself you know what I truly do live in a blessed country. And again thanks to God though. You know we want to be able to give God the glory and the praise for allowing us to live in this land. And we should not be taking it for granted. Because should the Lord take away his blessings one day, we're going to really regret that we did not take advantage of spreading the kingdom of God to this world. Let's continue in verse number 13. That's kind of like amongst nations. And like when I showed you all these stats, Australia is definitely not a tale. Australia is up there. Top five, top ten, top one, number one sometimes. Australia is amongst the heads of the nations of this world. It says here in verse number 13. God is saying look I'm going to bless the nation of Israel, Old Testament nation, as long as you keep my commandments, do my words, and don't worship false gods. Now again Australians as a whole are not doing this. There are many false religions in Australia of course that do not proclaim Christ. But I'm thankful for freedom of religion. We're gathered here at church today preaching the Bible and glorifying Christ. And we're not afraid that some terrorist organization is going to walk in here and put a gun to our heads or anything like that. Yesterday we went door to door soul winning. And though sometimes people might be a bit rude at the door, we're not really afraid of our lives. We're not necessarily being attacked or stoned to death or anything like that. You know generally speaking we have freedom of religion. And so obviously we can't ask the unbelieving Australians to keep the commandments of God, but we as his holy people that make up his New Testament holy nation. You know we see the importance of keeping his commands and following after his words and setting God first in our lives, worshipping him. You know we want the blessings of the Lord to continue falling upon Australia, falling upon us as God's people so we can continue serving him here in this nation. So we can serve God without fear. We haven't got any concerns which is a real blessing. Now come with me to Leviticus 19. We're going to turn to a few other passages. Leviticus 19 I just want to add some additional things about Australia that I want you to appreciate. And look every single thing that we're looking at here again can be and has been corrupted by man. Nevertheless it is the instructions that God gives for a functional working nation. So Leviticus 19 verse number 15, just for example, Leviticus 19 verse number 15. The Bible says here, See God wants nations to pass judgment. We ought to have laws, we ought to have judges. We ought to have courts where people can be brought forth for criminal charges or lay out their reasons why they're innocent. These things are good and proper in a nation. And in Australia we have the 1903 judiciary act that makes provision for the exercise of judicial power in the commonwealth. So if we're mistreated, if we're offended, you know we have the ability though, very expensive though that's another problem isn't it? But we have the ability to go to court and make things right. We have laws for criminals to be taken and arrested. We have these things and again I'm not saying it's perfect. And I know that many of the laws and the judicial system in Australia does not necessarily line up with God's laws in the Bible. But it's thank worthy that we at least have a system that keeps some element of law and order in our nation. This is a blessing of the Lord that our nation at least attempts to do this. You know whether poor or whether rich we're able to go to court and plead our case. Come read to Exodus chapter 20, Exodus 20. Exodus 20, we're going to look at one of the Ten Commandments here. Exodus 20 and verse number 15. Exodus 20 and verse number 15. If you don't really memorize many Bible verses, this is a Bible verse you can memorize. It's very easy. Thou shalt not steal. So if we could potentially steal something, what is that speaking about those that you're stealing from? That those people that you're stealing from have personal property. You know one of the advantages of being in Australia is we have protection of personal property. You can own things. Alright, whether it's your car, whether it's your tools, whether it's tangible or intangible, whether it's a house, we can own things in Australia. They belong and you know again you might make the argument but we don't really own it. I get it, I get it. Down that conspiracy road we understand that we really own nothing. But then again we go a little bit further and God owns everything anyway. So I don't want to go as far as saying God owns it all, alright. But at the end of the day we have personal property and you know the government just can't come into your house and just take whatever it wants. Well sometimes it happens, Pastor Kevin. Okay, yeah. Again there's corruption in the world, right. I'm not denying there are sinners and people use these systems and corrupt it. But at least we have protection. We have the Property Law Act that gives the rights to individuals relating to personal property tangible or intangible. Now praise God we don't live in a communist country where the government says alright you built that business, you grew those crops but we're taking it off you anyway because it's ours. You know it belongs to the emperor or whatever it is, it belongs to the dictator. No actually thank God that in Australia we can actually own our own property. And this is another blessing, this is what God expects us to live with in a nation. Leviticus 23 please, Leviticus 23, Leviticus 23. Just some additional things and this one we kind of touched upon a little bit already but just to bring it home a little further. Leviticus 23 and verse number 22, Leviticus 23 22, Leviticus 23 22 reads, And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest. Neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest, thou shalt leave them unto the poor and to the stranger I am the Lord your God. God does care for the poor. Alright now God commands that we should labour six days, shout out labour and rest on one day. And you know I don't, my heart doesn't really go out for people that don't work really but in Australia, I mean unemployment is very low. It's like sometimes three or four percent. Most people that are seeking to work can find work. But again God does care for the poor and as I mentioned earlier, you know we do have a welfare system, the Social Security Act of 1991, which establishes welfare to support the poor, the unemployed and people in vulnerable populations. Again these things get corrupted, Pastor Kevin I know, I absolutely understand that. But thankfully you know like I said our poverty rates are very low. You know it's not just that poverty you know hurts the poor but it also hurts the middle class because you know when you have homeless people you know and that adds to theft, it adds to crime, pollution. You know we don't necessarily have to walk the streets and see homeless people as much as other nations and the dirtiness that creates in cities and places like that. So looking out for the poor actually does have a blessing not just upon them but also the rest of society. So this is another great thing that God does intentionally, does care for is the poor. But in God's laws it was your land, you leave the gleanings to the poor. You know it's a personal decision that we were to make as people rather than the government stealing from you and giving to someone else. You know the government is like Robin Hood you know. Apparently I don't know that's how they see themselves, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Anyway what about Leviticus 19, look at Leviticus 19 verse number 33, Leviticus 19 and verse number 33. And this is one of my favourite things because my parents they migrated from Chile. And my mum and dad they left their family, they left their, you know back in those days there was no such thing as the internet and WhatsApp. So they had to communicate with the family by letter and by tape recordings and send it, remember the old tapes, cassette tapes, things like that. But they migrated to Australia, they left all their comforts and they had to learn a new language and learn a new culture. And it was difficult for them, very difficult to leave large families that you love and care about to come to Australia and say why. They came to give their kids opportunities. They said you know what it's going to be better in Australia for Jericho, my older brother, for Kevin, Aviad my brother as well. You know they said we're going to come to Australia and give them better opportunities. And you know here in Leviticus 19 verse number 33, Leviticus 19 and 33 it says, Sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. See God wanted strangers or foreigners to be able to travel and visit the nation of Israel. Sojourn in the land, not to vex him. Like let him have freedom, let him enjoy you know the land that they're visiting. Look at verse number 34. But the stranger that dwelleth with you, the stranger means foreigner okay, that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you and thou shall love him as thyself. For ye were strangers in the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. So this has to do with strangers or foreigners wanting to migrate to the land. And the Bible says we're to treat them as one born among you, as one born in the land and to love him as yourself. So there was no different class or system or you know if someone migrates, if someone legally migrates to Australia they should be treated as someone born in the land. They're an Australian citizen. And that's the nation that we live in. You know we do have these privileges for foreigners. You know Australia is a tourist you know country. People love to travel here. When it comes to tourism we're allowing the foreigners to sojourn and pass through. We have an ETA, people can get three months to visit Australia depending on your passport. But generally speaking you know people want to get a travel visa. They can travel I think 12 months if that's correct. Or a working visa. People can come say I want to work for a period of time in Australia and visit places they can get themselves working visas. Australia does allow the strangers to come and sojourn in our land. And when it comes to migration we allow people to migrate. We have the 1958 Migration Act that allows people from other lands to come that were not born here to come and make themselves Australians. Like skilled migrants, there are certain times that there are skill shortages in Australia. And so they seek migrants with specific skills to become Australians. Family migration, you know maybe marriage or children that you might have in a foreign land. They're able to come and migrate to get these visas. And refugees, Australia allows refugees to come in disastrous lands, worn torn places to come and apply and become an Australian citizen. So you know my parents they came here and truly they like I've had the blessing of my dad working for Qantas. So we were able to travel very very often different places and everywhere I went it doesn't matter where I went. It just I realised man there is no better place in Australia. There's no more blessed country than Australia. I truly mean that. And I'm really thankful for my parents to migrate from from Chile. And look Chile is not like this disastrous country. It's one of the best countries in South America. Like when it comes to the economy and opportunities. But it still doesn't even compare to Australia and what we have here. And so it always bothers me when I hear people complaining about Australia. I mean look there are many things to complain about but it's one of the best countries in the world guys. And it's because of the blessings of the Lord. That's why it's because of God's blessings. Let's go to another passage. Exodus chapter 8 please. Exodus chapter 8. Exodus chapter 8. Exodus chapter 8. And again I've touched upon this already but just to further expand this a little further. Exodus chapter 8. Exodus chapter 8 and verse number 1. This is when the nation or the children of Israel were still under Egypt. And they were slaves to Egypt. They were mistreated in Egypt. And God wanted the Israelites to come out of that land right. And He took Moses to take them out of there. Look at Exodus 8 verse number 1. Brethren do we have the liberty of serving Christ in Australia? We've got it better than the children of Israel. Alright we've got it better. We already have the ability to go. You guys came. You left your homes. You came here to New Life Baptist Church to serve the Lord. And this is something that God blesses a nation with the ability to serve. And again that freedom of religion. Now freedom of religion creates other issues of course because as a nation that is not a covenanted nation of God. Well freedom of religion applies to all religions unfortunately. But that's part of the deal I guess of being a nation that allows freedom. And again praise God that we have the freedom to worship Christ and to serve Him. But there are places in the world where like I said Christianity is illegal. North Korea very clearly. Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan. These places essentially Christianity is barred. And even though some of these places may allow Christians to live in the land those Christians are persecuted. And if people turn from Islam to Christianity they're very easily put to death. Some of these governments are run by Islamic laws. And so when they convert they are to be put to death. And this happens in the world even today in 2025. So when we look at Australia versus other countries again the freedom of religion that offers us to serve God. To go and serve Him without any persecution is truly a blessing. One more passage please. Last one. 1 Timothy. Come with me to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy. The title for the sermon today was The Blessings of Australia. The Blessings of Australia. I fully acknowledge that Australia is not a righteous nation. And I fully acknowledge that Australia is not a God fearing nation. But I tell you this morning that truly Australia is a blessed nation. By God's standards Australia is a blessed nation. 1 Timothy chapter 2 please. 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 1. Let's not forget this on Australian day. And I think on Wednesday when we have our prayer meeting after the service we should remember this as well. In 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse number 1. We are commanded to, I exhort therefore, it says here, I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. And look at this. For kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Look at this. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. Now brethren my hearts desire is that all Australians would be saved. You know we have the opportunity, thank God for those of you that went soul winning yesterday to go and knock doors and give the gospel. That we would see we had three salvations yesterday, praise God. Three Australians called upon the name of the Lord yesterday. You know and became a people of God. We are thankful for that. But how do we make sure that we can continue in that manner? You know this is something good and acceptable is that we are able to lead about and live a quiet and peaceable life. Like I said Australia is up there. Was it number eleven in safety? I can't remember what it was. We're definitely up there. We have the freedom of religion. We have these blessings given to us. But we shouldn't take it for granted. You know what are we commanded to do? To pray for kings, to pray for those in authority. We ought to be praying for our Prime Minister. We ought to be praying for our politicians, our judges, praying for our rule makers. Praying for what? That they would just leave us alone. That they would give us a quiet and peaceable life. That they would not take our personal property away. That they would have a fear of God. I don't expect our politicians to all be independent Baptists. King James only, independent, him singing Baptists. But if we can pray that God would instill in them a God fearing heart. That's a long way to go. We don't want them to be like Pharaoh with a hardened heart. We want them to have a heart that is soft to things of God. To fear God sincerely and deeply. That they would pass laws that are compatible with the Bible. That they would just follow up the commandments that God has laid out for us in the Scriptures. And so as I said to you this morning Brethren, this is a blessed country. And I'm not here praising the land. I'm not here praising our politicians. It's all about praising the Lord Jesus Christ. Praising our God and Maker and Creator for giving us a blessed country to live in. Alright, let's pray.