John the Baptist – Know Who You Are

27th Dec, 2009

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

John 1:19-28
Main idea: Know your own identity and live your life full potential.
Objectives: a. To help the congregation to realize our identity in Christ. b. To teach that we must live according to our identity in Christ.

A. Introduction.
- In life, you have to know who are you everyday. You have to be conscious of your identity everyday. If you don’t you cannot live properly as a person.
- You do what you are doing because of your identity. You are a mother, so you always wake early in the morning when the school reopens to prepare the breakfast for your children and husband. You are a father and husband, so you give part of your salary to your wife and children to feed them. You are a student, so you make sure you go to school and follow all the rules in school to make sure you study well. You are a Christian, so you come to church on Sunday. You are a manager, so you mobilize your staff to execute the trading policies and principles of your company.
- You behave according to your own identity. Know who you are is so crucial in everything. Know who you are, your own identity, you will do your roles in all circumstances. You live as the society and the church expects you.
- In our passage of concentration this morning/ evening, we see that John the Baptist knows who he is and he performs all his roles as desired by God.

B. How John the Baptist knows who he is?
- We see from the passage there is a need to for the Jews of Jerusalem to know who the John Baptist is (verse 19). Brothers and sisters, it is very normal for people to know who the other people are. So, you need to find out and you need to find a way to know so and so.
- In the case of John the Baptist, he might have behaved like a messiah, a saviour, the Jews who believe in the concept definitely want to confirm whether he is the one or not. It is through such effort of the Jews (Levites, priests) who are the authoritative figures in Judaism, that John revealed his own identity. Only when he himself knows his own identity, only then he can reveal.
- From the passage, in verses 20 and 21, you can see he knew who he was, so he could confess he was not the Christ and Elijah. He honestly told the Levites and the priests he was neither Christ nor Elijah. He was not the messiah and also not the Elijah of the Old Testament whom the Jews believed.
- John the Baptist knew his own true identity, he never tried to be someone else. A point of application for you here, you should never try to be someone else by behaving like that person. And so, the young people here, do not try to be Michael Jackson, an entertainer.
- When John the Baptist was challenged to give an answer about who he was, to help the Jewish questioners, he based the authority of his answer on the Old Testament, and quoted Isaiah the prophet in verse 23, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, Make straight the way for the Lord.” In another words, he knew his own identity with certainty. He even claimed that he was the one whom prophet Isaiah of the OT meant. He believed in himself he was raised and sent by God as prophesied by prophet to make the path of Christ straight. He knew what role God had given him. Can you imagine, when he was asked who he was, he claimed that he was the one as prophesied by Isaiah? What made him so sure? If you read Luke chapter you will find the answer. Zechariah, John’s father, after he was delivered, he was filled by the Holy Spirit to prophesy that John were to play that role for Jesus. I believe both the mother Elizabeth and father, Zechariah, raised up John according to the prophesy, and so John the baptist knew for sure his identity.
- But the Pharisees were not satisfied with his answer, they continued to hard press for more explanations. In verse 24, they asked why he baptized people if he were not the Christ, Elijah or the Prophet. He further insisted he was not anyone of them but emphasized he baptized with water and, he was just coming before Jesus to prepare people for His coming and he was not even qualified to untie the thongs of Christ’s sandals. He further defined his role.

C. Applications.
- I pray that the certainty of John the baptist’s own identity will inspire you to know especially your identity in Christ. You have lots of identity in this world but what is your one precious identity in Christ? Children of God/ disciple of Jesus/ saved with eternal life, etc. Let us apply this identity in Christ into your life now.
- Firstly, when you know you are a disciple of Jesus and see yourself as a disciple of Jesus, you will do what Jesus require you to do, right?
- Secondly, how you perceive yourself will decide whether you live the full potential in your life.
- Thirdly, don’t be somebody whom you are not created to be. Be the person whom God desires you to be.
- Fourthly, know who you are and you know your roles in life.

D, Conclusion.
- Do not a person whom the devil desires.

The Greatest Is Love

25th Dec, 2009 Christmas sermon

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Matthew 1:18-25; 1 Corinthians 13:4-13

Main Idea: To challenge the congregation to pursue love in the person of Jesus
Objectives: a. To drive to the point that what matters most in life is love in the person of Jesus. b. To teach the congregation how to love one another.

A. Introduction.
- What is the greatest in this world? It must be the most valuable thing. It must be something that everybody needs. It must be something that cannot be replaced. It must be something money cannot buy. It must be something that is lasting and you will carry it with you into eternity.
- What is the thing that qualifies for the greatest thing? Money? Status? Material Wealth? Fame? Knowledge? Scientific Discoveries?Etc.
- Non of the above qualifies for the greatest because each of them cannot satisfies mankind’s deepest need for meaningful moral relationship. Without meaningful moral relationship, life is meaningless. Look at all the relationships around us. Husband and wife; parents and children; classmates and classmates; teachers/ lecturers and students; colleagues and colleagues; boss and subordinates; government officers and the rakyat; pastors and church members; etc.
- All these relationships need to be nurtured with the special ingredient called love. Without love, you can hardly define any meaningful moral relationship.
- Without love human relationships will be so cold, impersonal, isolated, and it does not give much meaning and purpose at all.
- The bible has a great passage to inspire, challenge, teach, train and mould us on love.

B. Apostle Paul’s definition of Love
- Apostle Paul had addressed the issue of gift of tongue by saying in 1Corinthians 13:1-3, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have no love, I am only a resounding gong... If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that moves mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, ...but have no love, I gain nothing.
- And apostle Paul went on to give the greatest definition of love which nobody beside Jesus can match. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
- Then, apostle Paul concluded with verse 13 that says, “And now these 3 remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
- And so, today, in this Christmas, I boldly say to you in this world, the greatest is love. In view of the deepest need of any human relationship for love, so the greatest is love. So, what matters the most in life for any human beings on earth is love. Not money; personal desires; material wealth; fame; knowledge, etc.
- And to my amazement, I discover that all these definitions of love, attitudes of love, actions of love, activities of love, forms of love, languages of love, and all the things in this world on love is still meaningless if it is not done in the context of human beings.
- Only human beings can produce love; only human beings with soul and spirit created by God can show love. Material things, money, plants, animals, air, water, property, science and knowledge, cars, house, and all the resources in this world, you name it, they do not show love.
- They have no life, no breathe, no personality, no soul, no spirit, of course, they cannot do it. Only human beings can do it.
- So, all the talks about love can only become realistic when it is practised by mankind. But as I reflect further and deeper in this Christmas, I see that all our human love for one another is so fallible. We can fail to love someone (our husbands, wives, children, colleagues, neighbours, relatives, very naughty children, the orphans, the poor, the rich people who are so empty in their hearts, the professionals who find life so meaningless and feel so lonely, the underprivileged, the widows, widowers, prisoners, prostitutes, gangsters, drunkards, the sick and dying, people whose characters are questionable, the hungry, etc). We cannot love so much; love everybody. We have all the prejudices.
- This leads me to desire for a perfect person who can love and who can be the best model of love. And he must love everybody. I find that only God can do it. I find this God in the person of Jesus, the owner of Christmas. The person who matters the most during Christmas. You see why the birth of Jesus is so crucial for mankind.

C. The birth of Jesus.
- Let me share with you an encounter which God has blessed me. I will remember this event for a long long time as long as I keep close to Jesus. It was probably one of the most powerful spiritual experience which God allowed it to happen in my life.
- It was this year that I was on the same plane from the way back to Miri from Kulala Lumpur, with the Air Asia boss, Fernandez. The air steward announced for anyone who would like to greet him, he was welcome. I grasped the opportunity and I thought I must ask something that is most important, most crucial in his life.
- I also got ready my own answer. Somebody that is very dear to my heart. I went forward to the front, I asked just one simple question that required an answer of one word. The golden question was, “Give me one word to explain your success in life.” To which he quickly answered, “Change.”
- Then, I give him my one word also, “love.” Then, I discover he is also a christian.
- Then, I went back to my seat and I sat down, as I was seated, an inner voice coming to me saying, “Why didn’t you say Jesus?” As I try to reason with the voice, which I believe is God speaking to me. I realize, just a word like love, it does not mean much because it is still very impersonal. Jesus, the person Jesus would make it very personal.
- Why God has to be a person? Only a person can forgive a person. Only God can forgive our sins. You see how our sins destroy all our relationships, our morality. Greed, adultery, lust, hatred, jealousy, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, idolatry, pornography, corruption, injustice, etc.
- You need the best government, the best policies, the money, etc can solve these sinfulness of mankind. Only God can solve our problem of sin.
- Angel told Joseph in his dream that Mary was to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and the baby shall be given the name called Jesus because he will save people from their sin and his name shall be called Immanuel which means God with us.
- You see how personal is this God, in the person of Jesus to us.
- For God so loved the world is now expressed in the person of Jesus.

D. Applications.
- You see why you are called by Jesus to love all the people around you and especially all who are nearest and closest to you. Those who are closest to you you need to love the most because you may tend to take them for granted.
- Those who are far from you, it requires your love also because Jesus desires you to do so.

E. Conclusion
- What do you lose when you love as Jesus loves? You have everything to gain. You gain Jesus and eternal life.

Prayer of Faith

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
13th Dec, 2009

James 5:13-20
Main Idea: To Inspire the congregation to exercise faith to pray for the sick.
Objectives: a. To teach that prayer of a righteous person heals. b. To teach that our sins can lead to sickness. c. To teach that we need to exercise our faith to heal the sick.

A. Introduction.
- Human sickness calls for a need to be addressed. Because people are sick, our belief and faith need to address it.
- You get sick or ill, do you? No matter, how healthy you are, how holy you are, you fall sick or ill once a while. Some fall sick more often than others. And so, it calls for us to do ministry.
- Praise the Lord, today’s passage is a great passage to address it.
- I pray that the sermon today will inspire you to do the social concerns of praying for the sick. I pray that you will exercise your faith to pray for the sick.
- You will find that the passage greatly challenges you to do it by faith.
- And so, the question of how much faith you put into prayer when you pray for the sick?

B. What consists of prayer of faith for healing?
- The above in the introduction can only be answered if we know what consists of prayer of faith of healing.
- The prayer of faith of healinng is characterized by the following descriptions:
- Firstly, you need to pray when you are in trouble and you need to praise God in songs when you are happy as taught in verse 13. That is your faith must get you to totally depend on God no matter in good time or bad time.
- Secondly, when you are sick you need to have the faith to call for the elders of the church to pray for you; and to use the anointing oil to pray for the sick (verse 14). It is not the oil that heals but it is the exercise of faith that calls upon divine power to heal. So, this is the sacred power of prayer. Notice it does not say only those who are gifted in healing of sickness can do the job. It spefically mentionss the office of elders. In our context today, it is the pastors, lay leaders and LCEC members.
- Thirdly, you need to exercise your faith to pray for the sick, then, the sick will be healed and also you need the faith to expect the sins of those who are sick to be forgiven (verse 15). James here links the possibility of sins that cause sickness. This is something we must take seriously and not lightly. And he went on to emphasize the need for confession of sins to one another in public in the event you call for healing of the sick (verse 16). So no confession, no forgiveness of sins, and no healing of sickness.To encourage us to exercise our faith to pray for the sick, he now even helped to see who can pray for the sick beside those who are elders. On the one hand, the elders could be the righteous man whose prayers are powerful. On the other other hand, the righteous persons can be those in the community of faith who confess his sins and follow the standard of holiness of the church community. So, he says in the end of verse 16, the prayer of a righteous man is pwerful and effective.
- And then, even in the closing remark (verses 19, 20), he still emphasizes the need to reach out to those who have wandered away from the truth and sin against, we need to direct them. Otherwise, they still face the consequence of eternal death. In chapter 1, verse 15, James says, “Then, after desires has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown, gives birth to death.
- To drive home his point to get us to pray for the sick, James is trying to say Elijah is not like an angelic being, he is no God, he is just like anyone of the christians or disciples of Jesus at his time, God uses his prayers. So James is saying God can use our prayers to ask God for healing of sicknesses (verses 17, 18).

C. Applications
- This is really a very practical passage for us today. I pray that you take up the challenge to pray for the sick. This passage calls for the following 3 applications in your life:
- Firstly, there is a place for prayer of faith for the sick. I can see the challenge here is not very much on whether we believe prayer of faith can heal or not. The faith involves here is the person who prays, the elder, the pastor or whoever qualifies as the rigteous person has the courage to ask, “What sins have you committed?” And the challenge of those sick people who are being prayed for is to cofess his or her sins publicly.
- Secondly, can you qualify yourself as a righteous person to pray for the sick? I believe we can ask God for forgiveness of our sins and repented. Our challenge is whether we have the compassion and time available to pray for the sick.
- Thirdly, any one of you who are willing to leave your worldly concerns temporaray and join me to pray for the sick when there is a need?

D. Conclusion.
- If our prayers of faith for the sick and confession of sins do not work, at the end of the day, we must still respect God’s sovereignty to heal or not to heal anyone.
- Where medicine is concerned, it is a way that God bless mankind to use it for healing. If you go for medication, it does not mean that you do not believe God can heal. However, every time, you get sick, do you confess your sins to a righteous person and ask him or her to pray for healing before you go to see a doctor?
- Our responsibility is to put our faith to test and exercise our faith to pray for the sick. Will you?

Patience in Suffering

6th Dec, 2009
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han

James 5:7-12
Main Idea: To teach the congregation that there is value in suffering.
Objectives: a. To teach that suffering can train you to be patient.

b. To teach that the right perspective towards suffering will determine whether we gain anything from it.
c. To help the congregation to identify areas in their life that require the training of patience.

A. Introduction
- Have you been suffering lately? Suffering of whatever degrees, be it physical illnesses, psychological hurts, mental stress or even break down, or anything that makes you feel suffering.
- What do you gain out of it?
- There is value in suffering for us christians according to the teachings of the bible.
- C. H. Spurgeon says, “Faith that does not tear at all is not living faith.”
- Baker says, “Temptations in life do not mean to destroy us. They are meant to build us. Difficulties may cause a person to lose his job but they are meant to build up his characters. The setbacks that an external person faced may become the greatest blessings of the internal person. If God allows a challenge to come to us, you need to know that the real danger and difficulties are because of our escape and rebellion; and we lose a chance to be trained by them.”
- The passage today has very clear teaching about patience in suffering. One value of suffering is that at the end of it, as you learn, you will become more patient, which all humans on earth need.

B. The Context of Suffering.
- For James, the context of suffering that he talked about was the christians and disciples in his days were persecuted by the Jews because of their belief.
- In the midst of the persecutions, James used the coming back of Christ to comfort them; to encourage them to persevere in their faith and not to give up in view of the fast coming back of Christ.
- What is the big deal about Jesus’s coming back? It is because Jesus will honour and reward them for their suffering. Whatever loses, Jesus will make up. Failure to keep the faith will result in losing all the rewards.

C. How to be patient in suffering?
- That is why James says in verse 7, Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming...
- And to be patient. James has the answers.
- Firstly, learn patience from the farmer who waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and also waits patiently for the autumn and spring rains to come, says James.
- Notice the patient waiting here does not refer to the long time waiting. It refers to the long process of endurance to face the persecutions of the enemies of faith; and not give up on their faith. That is why verse 8 says, ... be patient and stand firm...
- Also patience in the sense that the disciples of Jesus must not judge the wicked people (the rich landlord people) who exploited and oppressed the poor; and they just need to wait for God avenge them.
- Secondly, to help us to be patient in suffering, James advises his readers not to grumble against each other, verse 9. Why? Because grumbling against one another in church can cause disunity in a church community. The grumbling will produce judgement. That is grumbling will produce guilt that God will deal severely and therefore, it must be avoided.
- Thirdly, to help us to be patient in suffering, James advises his readers to set an example of suffering verse 10. He simply challenged them to follow the prophets of the Old Testament, who, for the purpose of serving God, who spoke in the name of the Lord, they suffer. They endured suffering, and so do the readers of the letter of James. James even backed up his illustrations with the Old Testament Job (verse 11), who lost almost everything because of the attack of Satan on him. He did not give up his faith and persevere. He was blessed with double blessing and so the readers will experience the same if we are patient and not give up our faith.
- James is really using his writings to tell his readers and all of us today, God does not love to see people suffering; but rather he is full of compassion and mercy, in verse 11.
- Fourthly, to help us to be patient, James says we must not swear, let our yes be yes and no be no, in verse 12. This is being truthful to God, yourself and people around you. It is the best policy we all must have in nurturing patience. Being truthful in our speech is also part of patience for James.

D. Applications for today.
- Let us get practical with this passage. In our present situation, you may not be challenged to give up your faith because of persecutions of your faith or even oppressions as experienced by the readers of the letter of James.
- But we definitely face suffering of different degrees because of different reasons I mentioned earlier. I believe we face the same temptation like the early disciples to give up our faith because Jesus is not real; He does not answer our prayers when we need Him so much.
- With this, I have 2 points of application for you:
- Firstly, in suffering of whatever kind, you need to identify areas in your life where you need patience. In whatever suffering you face, sit down and really ask Jesus what is the purpose of it. There must be a purpose as Jesus loves you so much and died a sacrificial death on the cross. Knowing the purpose, then, you will improve the areas of your life which still does not glorify God yet. May be it is in the area of unforgiveness, relationship, something you cannot let go, etc. Remember, God always uses suffering to develop you to become a strong disciple to help you to go very far for Him. If only you are humble to take it.
- Secondly, in suffering, you need to have a right view of it, then, you can be patient. How you perceive it is so crucial. It will determine whether you gain something from suffering or not. How do you see a personal accident? You blame yourself, the other driver, etc? All these are negative attitudes, you will gain nothing out of it, you never learn and do not become more matured.
- If your attitude is positive, you ask: Have I been careless? Is it sign send by God to wake me up in certain areas of my life so that I do not sin against him anymore? God want me to preach the gospel to the other driver? Is it a sign that my car is not safe to drive anymore, it needs some repair?

E. Conclusion.
- In Christ, when you face suffering, you will do reflections based on God’s word and you will arrive at Godly conclusions and you will always be a winner at the end of the day.

Sermon God has sovereignty over our life

Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han

1st November, 2009
James 4:13-17

Main Idea: Order your life to do God’s will.
Objectives:

a. To teach that God has sovereignty over our life.

b. To teach that we need to order our life to do God’s will.

A. Introduction.
- Who is in control of your life? Most people, may be even most Christians will say of course we control our own life. We make our own decision to get married; to further studies; to accept Jesus as our Saviour; to do business with so and so; to enter into a boy-girl relationship, etc.
- We are in every sense in control of our life. This is absolutely true and we have no doubt about it because God has given us a life and we need to be responsible for it and we need to decide how to use it.
- However, at the end of the day, especially, things which are beyond us, we have no control. Take for instance, we do not know when we are going to leave this world. We do not know whether our children will grow up to be God fearing and become a faithful disciple or not. For those of you who are not married, you do not know who is the best husband or best wife for your life. When you go to a place by plane or by car, you may take for granted that you will arrive but in actual, anything can happen in the air and on the road.
- But for us Christians, we believe that although we cannot be in control of our life beyond us, God has control over our life. This is because God has sovereignty over our life. He has the final say about things which are beyond our control. Do you believe this?
- The word of God today has very strong words about God’s sovereignty over your life.

B. God’s sovereignty over your life.
- Let us take a close look at today’s passage to see how God has the control, the sovereignty over our life. I pray that upon your discovery, you will recognize it and you will trust God more and you will grow in your faith. You will love Jesus more.
- The preceding passages in this chapter dealt with the major theme of work, the rich and their sins, which result from the love of the world. The passage today is not directly linked to verses 1 to 12 but it has a flow of thought that moves to this passage. This passage deals with 2 distinct classes of people: merchants and landlords. They have been mentioned in 1:9-11, 27; 2:5-7.
- Now, let us examine what James has to say about them in detail.
- James’ complaint about them is that they are secular. In verse 13, James criticized them that they thought they could plan for their business, destinations of cities and their chief value of life was financial profit. They were simply worldly Christians, who are no different from the rest of the business people and landlords.
- With that complaint, now, James came out with strong words to question them and told them life was not in their control. That is why James says in verse 14, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow...” And then, he went on to remind them that life was very temporary. It is just like “mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (verse 14b)
- In fact, Jesus our Lord says almost the same thing about how temporary is life in Luke 12:16-20. It talks about a parable where Jesus says a rich man could store up lots of grain for many years and enjoy life; but God says it is stupid because what if God takes away your life tonight. And Jesus says that we may be rich on earth by storing up but we not rich toward God.
- In view of the temporariness of life, we need to look to God who has the sovereignty over life and allow Him be the ultimate concerns of our life on earth.
- This is where James without hesitation, he says we must order our life in terms of God’s will in verse 15. Whatever these rich people would do, they had to make sure whether it was God’s will or not. Because at the end of the day, we are not in control of life but God is.
- Next, you see how he condemned the rich for not doing God’s will. Because these people planned and acted as if God did not exist and as if they were in control of their own life, James said they were boasting about how they made money and they were very evil in verse 16. This was despite the fact they could be holy in church and at home. God was not in their commercial lives.
- Very naturally, James emphasized to these business men and of course all of us today, business interests led them to forget God in their life. No wonder he levelled those who know the good and not doing it, it was a sin in verse 17. Hopefully, this would deter them from boasting about how good they were at making money. Instead, they must do good to bless others.

C. Applications.
- In view of the God’s word today, can we apply the teaching into our lives and allow God’s word to transform our lives.
- The first point of application is this: As James has taught, you need to use your life in terms of God’s will; you need to do God’s will. It is life time challenge. You as a business man, a teacher, an accountant, general manager, a doctor, a dentist, a clerk, sales agent, lawyer, a student, a lecturer, a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, at the end of the day, what is your ultimate concern? Is it just profit making, money making, and the salary? If this is so, then, you will do anything to get money, wealth, benefits, etc, you will have no God, no Jesus in your dealing. You will do things which are not ethical, you will lie; you will go for dishonest gain; you will use crooked means, you will hurt people; you do not fear God, etc. You will not ask what is God’s will in this matter. You will not consult God on what is the right thing to do. You do not think of the punishment of God for the sins you committed.
- The second point of application is this: In view of God’s sovereignty over your life, do not labor for what is temporary and evil; labor for whatever that pleases Jesus and last eternally. We are in the midst of the evangelism movement, have you labored to reach out to the lost and the backslide. Do you invite people to come to church.

D. Conclusion.
- As Jesus has sovereignty over your life, you need to define your life in terms of what Jesus desires you to do for the rest of your life.

Parable of Lost Sheep

11th October, 2009
Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han

Matthew 18:11-14
Main Idea: Find the lost sheep.
Ojectives: a. To result in the congregation preaching the gospel to the lost sheep. b. To identify the lost sheep and bring them back to the fold of GMC.

A. Introduction
- Are there lost sheep that belong to GMC or any other churches? Lost sheep refer to those who are baptized and not attending any church or small group anymore. They are out there in the world and being secularized. You may say there are thousands of them out there, right?
- However, in GMC or in any church, there may be so called christians who are phsically in the church but they are lost. Could you be one of them? You may ask me what do you mean.
- This is what I mean. If you do not know why you are coming to church or the purpose of coming to church, you are lost. If you do not why you are on earth, you are lost. If you are not sure if you die tonight whether you go to heaven or not, you are lost. If you continue to sin against God and anybody, you are lost. If you think that by doing all the good works or all the ministry, you are lost. If you believe that without repentance from your sins you are saved for eternity you are lost. If you believe that all believers of religions will eventually cause people to end up in heaven with Jesus, you are lost.
- Why lost? Because the path you take will not lead you to salvation in Christ, eternal life with Christ in heaven. No wonder John Wesley very much emphasize Philippians 2:12, 13 “...continue to work out the salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
- The parable of lost sheep has very strong motive to teach us to find the lost sheep of the church.

B. The insignificant one sheep/ person.
- Jesus desires to use this parable of lost sheep to emphasize that God pays attention to the insignificant lost sheep in His church. He desires to see the insignificant lost sheep returning to the church.
- He addresses these lost sheep as little ones, in verse 10, He says, “See that you do not look down on one of these littles ones...”
- Those lost sheep out there are the insignificant people because they do not catch our attention but today Jesus exhorts us to pay attention to them today.
- They are on the fence, half in and half out, they are half-hearted in their devotion to Jesus and to the church. Their insignificance is in part becasue of their own spiritual indifference.
- The temptation for those who are spirituallly serious is to look down on these half-hearted christians.
- Jesus really uses this parable to teach us not to look down on these insignificant lost sheep. Jesus now upgrades them.
- He even uses an unusual reason to justify why we must not look down on them, in verse 10, the second part, He says, “...For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” Wah, they had angels constantly looking at the face of God; who are so close to God. So, we are making the wrong enemies when we look down on the insignificant lost sheep.
- To emphasize Jesus’ point and to further elaborate His point, He uses this powerful, simple parable to drive home the point.
- The emphasis is upon “the one,” highligting the importance of that single person, that single soul.
- He likens the owner to be a man who owns the hundred sheep. May be that owner is the shepherd of the hundred sheep. I believe that Jesus Himself or His heavenly Father is that shepherd, the Great Shepherd who will actually leve the ninety-nine to find the insignificant lost sheep. What is challenging is Jesus desires us to be that shepherd.
- The parable does not underplay the importance of the ninety-nine sheep. It is just that the one lost sheep requires the shepherd and care must be shown before the worst can happen.
- Why the one lost sheep is so emphasized? Jesus even go to the extend of saying in verse 13, “And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.” So, you see the one lost sheep wandered off, he has a need that deserves the shepherd’s attention.
- Nromally, the one lost sheep is statistically insignificant. Human pscyhology says, “Let is go, we still have ninety-nine.” Our heavenly Father’s thinking is, “I really care for that one person, one soul.”
- Jesus is trying to convert us to the “mentality of the single person.” To pay attention to the statistically insignificant one. The unimportant one.
- And this person is the weak christian among us; not the lost non-christians.
- This challenges all disciples of Jesus, the church of God, to do an active visitation program. It means we need to re evangelize those who are baptized and lost.
- For Jesus says and really reminds us, “In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”

C. Actions you can take to visit the lost.
- In view of the significance of the lost sheep in our heavenly Father’s sight, you and I cannot take lightly the reminder of our Lord Jesus.
- What actions can you take to evangelize to the lost sheep? I want to encourage you to take the following actions:
- (1). Come to Jesus in prayer and seek God who are the lost sheep of GMC or any church. Then, pray for the Holy Spirit to touch him or her or the group to come back to church.
- (2). I strongly believe that there are a lot of lost sheep in primary and secondary schools; and colleges here in Miri. You can identify them and reach out to them by inviting them to go to your small group first and the church.
- (3). More concrete action is you give them a call and pay a visit to find out more about their struggles or problems. And continue to do follow up. You may also refer them to me or church leaders, especially the Membership and Evangelism committee.
- (4). If there is someone among us who is lost, then, you should spend time to talk to him or her and counsel them. You may like to refer him or her to me or to any pastor.

4. Conclusion.
- Christians who are lost out there are plenty; countless of them. Just GMC alone, you have a record of about 600 persons in the book of life but those attending the service and Sunday School is only 350. Where are the 250? Many of them are lost. They are in Miri but not committed to Jesus.
- They need Jesus. Will you bring Jesus to them again? Will you evangelize them again?

Do you see the crowds?

4th October, 2009
Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Matthew 9:35-37
Main Idea: Be compassionate like Jesus who can see the needs of the crowds.
Objectives: a. To preach the reason for evangelism is that the needs of our society (crowds) for Jesus. b. To help the congregation to see the needs of our society (crowds) for Jesus.

A. Introduction
- Do you see that people out there need God? They need Jesus. When you see people who are sick; depressed; having extra-marital affairs; threatened by divorce; beggars; rich but proud; full of hatred, ineffectiveness, and bitterness; lazy and not working; worshipping idols; corrupted; the uneducated Penans; lots of indigenous people in Sarawak who are perishing and lost; lots of Chinese out there who do not know where they are heading in life, etc, do you see that they need Jesus to come into their lives and save them?
- For God so loved the world that He gave us His begotten son, Jesus. This son Jesus see the needs of the crowds for God. He sees that the crowds need salvation.
- Do you see as Jesus sees?

B. What does Jesus see?
- I am very encouraged, inspired and challenged by what Jesus had done when He was on earth. Verse 35 says, “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.”
- Are we disciples of Jesus? If we are, then, we must be like Jesus. Paul exhorted the Philippians in 2:5, where it says, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” In verse 7, Paul went on to say in verse 7, that Jesus made him self nothing, taking the very nature of a servant...
- We should like Jesus in every way. If we cannot be like Him 100%, we should have 10%, 5%, or even 1%. If you are not like Him at all, you must at least begin somewhere. Do what Jesus does.
- I am very inspired by the bible says today, that Jesus went through all the towns and villages. What were the purposes? It says, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
- No wander Jesus sees so much. He went to every town and village. Some more, He was in touch with people by preaching and healing. No wonder He sees a lot of things in people.
- What is the big deal about seeing the crowd? What is the big deal about seeing a lot of things in people.
- Brothers and sisters, the answer to these questions is the main point/ the emphasis I desire to put across to you today.
- The answer is found in verse 36, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
- Why we need to do evangelism? Why we need to bring the good news of salvation in Christ to the crowds/ the society? In the name of Jesus Christ, I preach to you that because people out there are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus’ heart feels for these people. Jesus had compassion for these people who are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
- Evangelism and mission are motivated by the simple fact that Jesus has compassion for the lost people.
- As you learn to be like Jesus, as your attitude should be like Jesus, are you like Jesus, you have compassion for the lost people?
- As Jesus says, “The lost are like sheep without a shepherd.”, in the name of Jesus Christ, I preach to you that the first of mission is for disciples of Jesus to go out and compassionately help people out by presenting them with their Shepherd, that is Jesus.
- When Jesus looks out over the world it is the helplessness of people, their depression and suppression, that affects him most deeply.
- They appear to him like sheep who have lost their shepherd.

C. Why we cannot see the crowds like Jesus?
- By what are the people harassed and helpless (oppressed)? By the deceitfulness of worldly life. This is one very important reason why we cannot see the crowds like Jesus?
- What is this worldly life? Materialism, secularism, greed, hatred, pornography, injustice, etc. All that causes us to obey God is worldly life.
- You see how we are deceived? Earn our millions and push the question of salvation to when I get old; some say I have no time for God; I have no need for God; God is not my priority, etc. Unbelievers are deceived in so many ways.
- Ironically, sometimes, we christians, disciples of Jesus are also deceived by the worldly life. We spend so much time pursuing our careers that we become not sensitive to the needs of the lost around us. We lost our focus on Jesus and not preach Him. As a result, we do not develop compassion for the lost.

D. How do you help yourself to see the crowds?
- In my case, my compassion for the lost grows stronger and stronger every year as I am in touch with the harassed and helpless people here locally, in my office, at coffee shop or among the Belaga Penans. I believe my compassion for the lost (both christians and non-christians) will only develop and become stronger if I take the steps to help them in any way I can. I pray that you follow my example.
- I pray that God will send to your life, your house, your small group, and your office the lost, the people who need Jesus, the good shepherd.
- How do you help yourself to see the crowds? You must get personal with people; you must enter the crowds; you must get to know the problems of people; you must humble yourself, and not be proud and relate to people; you must dirty your hand and sit down with people and use John 3:16 to preach to people.
- You must be deliberate in praying for the lost. You must mention their names in your prayers. If you do not even pray for them, how can you give God a chance to speak to you to preach to someone? If you do not even pray for someone who is lost, how can God empower you to preach the gospel?
- If you do not pray for people, you will not feel with them like Jesus feels with them and of course you do see their needs for Jesus.
- For Jesus He is very much with them, pray for them, and He sees their needs, He feels for them and so He has compassion for them. Can we do the same?

E. Conclusion.
- Jesus today ask you: “Can you draw all resources like all the teachings on evangelism, the tools of evangelism, the courage from the holy spirit to overcome fear, the word of God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and humble yourself to discern the needs of others to do evangelism?”

Are you the ‘Moses’ or the ‘Prophets’?

27th September, 2009

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Luke 16:19-31
Main Idea: Be the Moses or the Prophets.
Objectives: a. To explain one reason why we must do evangelism. b. To challenge the congregation to do evangelism.

A. Introduction
- Every human being on earth must answer the great question: Where do I go after I die? It is a question nobody can avoid. If you do not believe there is hell and heaven, you still have to answer.
- Unless you believe there is no life after death. There is no such thing as soul and spirit. But science has proved that we have souls.
- So, where does a soul go after a person dies? This is the question on eternity?
- The whole bible gives the answer that God has created us and we must find our way back to God through Jesus.
- Eternity is at stake? Where do we spend our eternity is at stake. Either we spend our eternity with Christ or we do not.
- This calls for evangelism.

B. Eternity is at stake – the why of evangelism.
- We need to do evangelism because where the souls of our loved ones, relatives and all those around and beyond us are stake. Because if their and our souls are not with Christ in eternity in heaven, then, their souls are in hell, where there is eternal suffering in hell (neraka in Bahasa Malaysia). The authority is coming from the bible.
- The parable of Jesus today uses the term ‘hell’ in verse 23, the term does not carry the same meaning of hell as neraka in BM, or the usual meaning of hell. In its orignal Greek word, it is ‘hades,’ according to Jesus, it is a place of torment, suffering. For those who come here, their destiny have been decided and they cannot change it. They are not free to move out of it. If it can be done, Jesus would have asked the rich man to go back to earth and told his 5 brothers.
- Hell in the sense of the book of Revelation, it is a place of ultimate destiny, where one go there after the judgment by Jesus. This is eternal punishment in hell.
- Let us see how this place called hades looks like. In this place, the rich man can see Abraham and Lazarus, the poor man far away. In verse 24, we see this rich man felt very hot because he was in agony in the fire. He did not die there, he felt very thirsty.
- How come the rich man ends up there? What did he do on earth that deserved all these? He was spending his live on earth in luxury as verse 19 says. He did not share with the poor. He just allowed the poor Lazarus to eat what fell from his table. There was no initiative on his part to help him. There is no mention of their religious states. But after both died, verse 22 says, the angels came to carry the poor Lazarus to Abraham’s side. The same thing does not happen to the rich man. Obviously, Lazarus was faithful to God and not the rich man. He had all the time on earth to pursue God, but he did not. He chose a luxurious life and not used his possession to pursue God. And so, this is his destiny, Jesus says.
- You see a lot of people out there are like the rich man, they do not realize they are heading in the direction of hades. By the time they realize, they are already in hades.
- That is why we have to do evangelism. We need to preach the gospel of salvation. That is why we have to tell people why Jesus died.

C. Jesus depends on the ‘Moses’ and the ‘Prophets’ to preach the gospel to the lost.
- In the case of the rich man, when he realized, he requested Abraham to send Lazarus to his 5 brothers on earth to tell them the consequences of unrepentance. To warn them of the existence of hades, a place of suffering.
- This is when Jesus emphasized that there is no need of it because there are Moses and the prophets whom they can listen to. Moses refers to the writings of Moses and the prophets refer to the scripture, so the whole thing points to the whole Scripture.
- The rich man even argued that if someone who died and visited them, his brothers will repent. Jesus argued that if people did not listen the Scripture on earth, they would not listen to somebody who rose from the dead like Lazarus.
- You see how Jesus depend on the writings of Moses and the Scripture to spread the gospel of salvation. Are you the agents of Moses and the prophets? Are you the carriers of Moses and the prophets.

D. Jesus depends on you to preach the gospel.
- Brothers and sisters, Jesus is such a powerful God to us. He is living and touching our lives everyday. He loves you and desires your obedient all the time. He depends on you and not those who do not know Him to preach the gospel.
- I strongly believe that He is calling every Christian, every child of God and every disciple of Him to preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations everyday.
- Now, some may have heard of the calling and not respond; some never heard the calling because we are too worldly and too sinful; some heard it and obey.
- Which category you belong? We are now into the second week of evangelism movement. By all means, apply what you learn and reach out to people and help them to know Jesus.
- Why you do it? Because where one is spending his or her soul is at stake.

E. Conclusion
- If the eternity of souls is stake, then, do you see the urgency of doing evangelism while you are on earth? Jesus has done the most difficult thing on earth, that is to die a tormenting death on the cross for your sins and my sins. Will you now respond and obey Him and present the most precious gift of eternal life with Jesus to those who are around you?
- What is so difficult about telling others what Jesus has done for you?

The Precious Space

12th Sept, 2009
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Ephesians 5:22-33
Objective: To result in every married person to give space to his or her spouse.

A. Introduction
- We do not like narrow space, it limits our movement! Commercial sector has to spend much money to buy space or rent the space to do business.
- We enjoy more freedom in a bigger space. We can do more in a bigger space.
- What about the psychological space, the space in your heart? You do not like somebody especially your husband or wife, or your boy friend or girl friend constantly nagging you; correcting you for making small mistakes; forgetful or a certain habit which he or she does not like; for repeating to you things you already know, etc. You find that you have been pushed to a corner, psychologically, you have no space to breathe. You are frustrated.
- In order for married couples to give space to one another in marriage, you need to hold the word of God dear to your heart: verse 22. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Verse 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her...

B. Submission and Love.
- God has enlightened me in these 2 verses.
- For a wife to submit to her husband in all things just as the church submits to a wife is giving her husband all the space needed to express his headship authority over her; out of reverence for Christ (verse 21).
- Without this space, the husband cannot exercise that headship at all.
- Take for instance, when a husband wants all family members to come together for a prayer before going to sleep, the wife simply refuse to cooperate for no reason; she does not submit to her husband, she does not give space to the husband to exercise his headship authority.
- If she does, then, the husband can exercise his headship authority successfully and it can enhance a good spiritual habit.
- However, this submission is not a passport for her husband to RULE her; control her; to make her as a servant.
- Paul is writing this marriage instruction in the context where Jews use to treat their wives as things (barang-barang) and divorce was a easy matter.
- That is why following that instruction for the wife, he does not hesitate to instruct the husbands to love their wives just as Christ love the Church.
- For a husband to love his wife, it means to give her all the space she needs.
- This space must be given to your husband only by those of you who are wives. This space must be given to your wives only by those of you who are husbands. Do not allow other man or woman to do it.

C. Giving the partner the precious space.
- Remember tow of you are bound in marriage; agreed in a covenant to live together for life before God in Church.
- That entails you are in contact with one another everyday, deal with one another for the next 40 to 50 years; unless you die earlier.
- It is this contact/ dealing, you need to give each other plenty of space.
- Why? Because of a lot of differences in terms of background, education, habits, value system, different ideas and convictions which are far apart.
- Take for instance, my habit of drinking soup with noise. My wife used to complain about it because she said it was impolite.
- Differences which are not properly handled can give rise to conflicts which may lead to quarrels.
- So now you see why we husbands and wives need space, the precious space? This is exactly because, we human beings, every husband or every wife is not perfect, we tend to make mistakes. We tend to forget, we may be poor in communication, overlooking things, etc.
- We need to give space, the psychological space to one another to make mistakes to allow the persons to be different, etc.

D. Forms of space.
- Differences, mistakes, and even sin, we need to give space, the precious space. When there are mistakes, we need to say from our heart and mouth, it is okay, it is alright, I do not mind.
- How to give the precious space to your spouse?
- (1). Firstly, when your spouse makes mistakes, committed a sin against you, you need to be forgiving. It can be done through hurtful words, irresponsibility, negligence, etc. Robert Muller, former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, wrote this poem for International Forgiveness week:
- Decide To Forgive
- Decide to forgive.
- For resentment is negative.
- Resentment diminishes and devours the self.
- Be the first to forgive.
- To smile and to take the first step.
- And you will see happiness bloom.
- On the face of your human brother or sister.
- Be always the first.
- Do not wait for others to forgive.
- For by forgiving.
- You become the master of fate.
- The fashioner of life.
- The doers of miracles.
- To forgive your husband or your wife whatever mistakes, sins committed, is to say, “it does not matter.” By doing so, you give the precious space.
- When your partner felt forgiven, he or she received the space; space to even repent; you may as well become the agent of God’s grace/ God’s forgiveness for him or her.
- When you forgive, you give space to the other persons to breathe. If you keep reminding him or her the sin, then, you give him or her no space to breathe. Instead, he or she will have lots of guilt, frustration, burden, anger, etc to carry.
- (ii). Secondly, to give space to your partner you need to be understanding. Take for instance, as a wife, you need to understand that your husband faces lot of pressure at work, so you do not give him more pressure by asking to do more or complain about children.
- Let me share my own experience. I expect my wife to be understanding. I need to go out at night to do my ministry and some time I may come home late. I hope she will be understanding and not complain and support me.
- At the same time I know that she may worry if I come home late. So to be understanding towards her, I learn to tell her in advance my every day schedule and always let her know when I come back. If I am late, I will call back.
- Understanding given by wife is a space for me to move about. It is precious for me, a blessing for me, without this space, I do not have the peace of mind to do my ministry.
- (iii). Thirdly, to give space to your partner you need to trust your partner. You need to trust him/her that he/she is matured enough not to go after other man/ woman.
- You need to trust your wife to nurture your children; you need to trust your wife to be a good steward of your money.
- I trust my wife to spend my money wisely. She does not need to tell me how much money she spends a month. I trust her very much. My understanding with her is at the end of the day, we will either be rich or poor together.
- My wife has all the space she needs in order to do her shopping, marketing, etc.
- (iv). Fourthly, to give space to your partner you need to be patient with your partner. It means giving more time.
- When I had my first child, Grace, on Sunday morning, I got dressed up and sat in the car waiting for my wife to go for service earlier. For the first few weeks, I had problem waiting for her. I normally horned to hurry her. Of course she was not happy and got angry with me. However, I observed that I needed to learn and waited. I became more patient.
- When you are patient with your partner, you give space to him or her.
- (v). Fifthly, to give space to your partner you need to accept him/her as who he or she is.
- Accept the person as your wife, as your husband. You do not accept the bad behaviour or the sin. Take for instance, in an examination, you write an essay, you make a mistake, you do not erase the whole essay or throw away the whole essay. Similarly, when your husband or your wife makes a mistake, you do not condemn him or her. You accept him or her as who he is or she is.
- Do not try to change him or her by your own might or power.
- Accept him or her, let the Holy Spirit change him or her.
- My wife has accepted me very well. Take for instance, she accepted my old-fashion.
- How much space you give your life-partner, it will decide whether you will graduate from the school of marriage or not.

E. Conclusion.
- Marriage is not designed to place restrictions on you; marriage is for the purpose of completing you, thus enabling each member of the “team” to be more than you could be as individuals. Marriage is designed to enable you to grow to your maximum because of support, love and encouragement of your mate.

Jesus Centred Faith and Actions

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
6th Sept, 2009
Posted By Teresa Han

Acts 4:1-22
Main Idea: Faith must be centred in Jesus
Objectives: a. To drive home the point that our Christian faith is Christ-centred; b. To preach for the need Christ-centred faith to produce Jesus-centred actions.

A. Introduction- The degree of faith that one places in a given object is directly proportional to one’s knowledge of the object. For example, consider a man terrified of flying. When he first arrives at an airport he buys insurance at those coin-operated insurance-policy machines. He has his seat belt buckled 20 minutes before the take off and is sure to listen carefully to the routine “emergency instructions.” He has no faith in the ability of the plane to get him to his destination. But, as they journey progresses, this passenger begins to change. He first unbuckles his seat belt, then has some lunch, pretty soon is talking to the person next to him and joking. Why the change? What happened? Is there more faith at 36,000 feet? Of course not. The more he learned about the object of faith, the plane, the more faith the exercised in that object. So, it is with disciples of Jesus. The more we learn of our Lord Jesus, the more faith we can place in Him.
- Faith is only as good as its object. A small boy in England was asked by a scientic team to be lowered down the side of a cliff to recover some important specimens. Though the scientists offered to pay him greatly, the boy said no. They tried to persuade him further and he consented finally, but only on one condition – that his father would be the one to hold the ropes by which he would be lowered.
- Can you trust the object of your faith? Jesus Christ, the centre of your faith. Is Jesus the centre of your faith? Or, it is other things like knowledge, material wealth, fame, wisdom, miracle, experience, etc? It is very easy to test what or who is at the centre of your faith? When you are in trouble, who or what you turn to first?
- Why is Jesus-centred faith so important? What is so big deal about it? Let us turn to the faith of the early apostles and disciples and see for ourselves what it means to have a Jesus-centred faith and why it is so important.

B. Jesus must be at the centre of your faith
- I am amazed by this big paragraph. Only for this reason. As I meditated on this passage I discover that apostles Peter and John and the early disciples were so particcular about the person and divinity of Jesus. They really got personal withe the person Jesus. They regarded Him as God. Their belief, trust and faith were Jesus-centred. How could this be?
- Firstly, in verse 2, we are told that Jesus was at the centre of the apostles’ teaching in front of the people. We are told that the priests and captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees were greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. Their faith was such that it was based on the resurrection of Jesus. Becasue of the resurrection of Jesus who was dead, they preached Him. They were arrested and jailed because of their Jesus-centred teaching. In verse 4, we are told that the number of men (not including women) who believed grew to 5000. You see, the Jesus-centred teaching even resulted in conversions.
- Secondly, in verses 7 to 10, we are told that when aposltes were questioned by the rulers, elders, teachers of the law and the priests on the name or the power that healed the crippled beggar, apostle Peter was filled by the Holy Spirit answered with certainty in verse 10, “...It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.” This is an excellent example of how Jesus-centred was the apostles’ faith. They commanded the healing in Jesus’ name, and of course it was Jesus of Nazareth even they could not see him who had resurrected. And the man who was miracurously healed was over 40 years old.
- Thirdly, the apostles took the golden opportunity to preach to the enemies whom some of them did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus and Jesus as the Messiah, the apostles claimed that Jesus was the name given by God to save mankind. In verse 12, we see apostle Peter said with the strongest conviction, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” The name here is referring to Jesus and you cannot help but see that the apostles’ faith was very Jesus-centred. They believed that only Jesus and so, no other name can save and so they preached the Jesus-centred salvation.
- The opposition group against the apostles was astonished by the apostles who used to spend time together with Jesus and they recognized that these men were with Jesus before and they even warned the apostles not to teach at all in the name of Jesus. You see the Jesus-centred faith of the apostles, even the enemies recognized somehow their had something to do with Jesus.
- The opposition groud did not know what to do with the apostles. All over the place of Jerusalem people knew it was Jesus who healed the crippled beggar through the apostles, nobody could deny it. If they decide to punish the apostles, the crowd would get very angry with the opposition group for punishing the apostles who had been compassionate.
- The apostles were warned not to teach in Jesus’ name anymore by the opposition group. However, Peter and John were die hard followers, disciples of Jesus, they responded with the greatest conviction to mission for Jesus Christ, they cried out, “...Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.” You see how Jesus-centred their faith was. At the end of the day, Jesus was all that mattered to them. Is this your attitude towards Jesus?
- Brothers and sisters, is your faith money centred; wealth centred; studies centred; girl friend centred; boy friend centred; children centred; greed centred; career centred; computer centred; material centred; pronography centred, etc?

C. Actions of Jesus centred faith.- I pray that your faith is most Jesus centred, you have no doubt that it must be done.
- What happened to apostles whose faith was Jesus centred? Let me preach to you with great excitement and enthusiasm. I observe in the passage today that the apostles backed their Jesus centred faith with actions. Their belief, trust and convictions for Jesus as the Saviour of mankind turned into great actions. They behaved as if they were totally at the disposal of Jesus. They went all the way to obey Jesus. They took actions to exercise their Jesus centred faith to heal and to preach the salvation offered by Jesus. Will you do the same as the early disciples?
- You see whatever faith you have in Christ, Jesus, it must be expressed through your actions. Your belief in Jesus must cause you to obey Jesus in action, in doing what He commanded in scripture.
- Otherwise, in the name of Jesus I tell you and I that we are not faithful to Jesus. Jesus is not requiring all of us to do prison ministry. His challenge to you is when He calls you, will you respond? Right there and then, you decide to be faithful to Him or not.

D. Two actions you need to take as a result of Jesus centred faith.- Firstly, you need to preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations. When God calls you to preach Jesus to your family members, your colleagues, indigenouse people in Miri, Kapit, Balingian, Selangau, Bintulu, Belaga and the people in Cambodia, will you take leave to go? When God calls to pray for the sick; to visit the prisoners; to help the poor; to give towards the disaster victims of Taiwan; to help someone who is depressed; to forgive someone who offended you, will you respond because of your Jesus centred? I pray you do.
- By the way, we have 5 persons who have made up their minds to be missionaries among the Ulu Belaga Penans. The latest addition is a graduate from Sarikei.
- When I received the instruction to preach in revival at the first Bahasa Malaysia convention at Kuching Trinity Methodist Church among the indigenous people of all races, I obeyed Jesus and preached. I wanted to testify that I was filled by the Holy Spirit to preach with the strongest conviction. The result was amazing. People wept, repented and turned to God.
- In our church now, we are trusting God for an evangelism movement. I have trained 16 of you yesterday how to use your testimony and John 3:16 to preach the gospel, will you train others to do it and you yourself do it. Do not be reluctant to do it. Do not feel shy to do it. You have all the Holy Spirit to fill you. Jesus is never reluctant to save you; He is never shy to bless you with all He has.
- Secondly, you need to take your job as God’s calling. If you are a housewife; a student, do you believe that God calls you to be one? If you are an enginneer; lawyer; teacher; manager; computer expert; businessman; clerk; accountant; contractor; information person; human resource person; technician, etc, do you take your job as God’s calling. If you do, you will have strong sense of mission at your workplace, you will pray for the salvation of your colleagues, you will impact their lives with biblical love, care, concerns and values. You will be concerned about their salvation. People will see Jesus in you.

E. Conclusion.
What really matters at the end of day, in all our lives, Jesus matters in all aspects of our lives. You miss Jesus, you miss in your lives. I pray that you will realize this truth asap.

The Impact of Disciples’ Prayer

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
23rd, August, 2009
Posted By Teresa Han

Acts 4: 23-31
Main Idea: To show the congregation the power of prayer
Objectives: a: To challenge the congregation to pray like the early disciples. b. To challenge the congregation to spend time in prayers, especially coming to Thursday night and Saturday morning prayer meetings.

Introduction
- I am as excited in preaching to you on prayer as preaching to you in mission and outreach. The reason is very simple, without prayer nothing in the spiritual realm will change. When God’s people pray God choose to work with them and see that God’s will is done. When God’s people prayed, mission is done. A great example is in the response of disciples of Jesus in SCAC to the Ulu Belega mission. There area monthly mission teams which are committed to go there and make a difference for Jesus among the Penans. There are 2 plus 2 missionaries who are lining up for the mission work there.
- Here locally, we have been praying for the Pujut Primary School school students to respond to come to our BB, GB and children Sunday School, I witness with my own eyes, a few children are now coming to our BB and Sunday School.
- Myself as the pastor of this church I have no doubt at all that there is great impact in the prayers we do. My strong conviction about prayer is any prayer that is done according to the word of God in the bible and according to the will of God, God will answer. Why I purposely mention the will of God? This is because a lot of things, details about life are not taught in the bible, so, you need to know God’s will for you. Things like is this the person whom God provides me as a life partner; the college I should go after Form 5 or Form 6? What course to do? to do this business or that business or not? Which job to take up? what job to apply? Etc.
- I am not just doing my job here as a pastor telling you to pray. I am not at all discouraged when you do not come for prayer meetings. I do not take it personally. I am doing much more than I am a pastor. I am preaching to you today if you do not believe in the power and impact of prayer, you lose so much, you miss the divine power; you miss God’s power at work in you.
- The early disciples’ believed in the power and impact of prayer. I know there is a world of difference between the context of the passage today and our context today. Their context was one of persecution of christians and they could be killed any time. Our context has no persecution. We have all the freedom to preach Jesus. And we are all living in very comfort zone. We experience no disaster; no political destability; we may have H1N1 disease but our lives are not threatened yet, etc. So we may not exercise prayer as much. We do not need God as much.
- But it is under this kind of circumstance; this context, we are greatly challenged to believe in the impact and power of prayer.
- I find it very hard to preach a sermon like this when we are living in a very good condition. Because at the end of the day, you may not feel the need for it. However, this is where I am greatly challenged to trust God that despite this circumstance, you will see the impact of prayer; the power of prayer.
- Let us learn from the powerful prayer of the early disicples.
A Powerful prayer of the early disciples (Verse 31)
- At the end of the prayer of the early disciples, the word of God today says in verse 31, “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God bodly.
- What was the impact of the early disciples’ prayer? At least 3 things we can see. Firstly, the place where they worshipped God, where they prayed, was shaken. Do you expect this to happen in GMC? Secondly, they were filled by the Holy Spirit. Do you expect this to happen to you as you pray? If you do not, then, I question whether you really pray or not. Thirdly, they spoke the word of God bodly. Do you expect it to happen to you after you pray? If you do not, then, I believe you do not put much faith into your prayers. A lot of christians who made investment in business, they strongly believe they are going to make money/ profit. When you pray to preach the gospel, to give testimony, do you believe that God can give you the boldness like the way He gave to the early disciples? Do you believe like christian businessman who will make money for his investment?
- The belief to speak bodly for God is not just a matter of psychology because God comes in to take away the fear of all kinds; it is divine encounter with God.
- Do you believe in the powerful impact of prayers like the early disciples?
- Let us now examine the powerful and impactful prayer of the early disciples. You pray the same nature of prayer after this.

What actually characterised a powerful prayer?
- What characterised this church? You may like to say majority of us are professionals; we emphasize mission; we emphasize on teaching the word of God; we give much, etc. What characterised a powerful prayer?

- Firslty, a powerful prayer is a prayer done by the whole congregation who is united in prayer (verse 24a). For apostles Peter and John, after the release from jail; after being given warning (4:17) not to preach Jesus; after being given further threats (4:21), they went back to see their fellow disciples to report what had happened to them. After hearing all the news, they prayed in loud voice with all unity. In verse 24, it says, “...they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them...”
- Can you see the power of praying together as a whole congregation in unity for the same thing? It is just like a laser beam that gather and focus all the heat at one point to cut pieces of iron or steel. When every member of a congregation, as many as possible, in fact, the more the better, you gather enough strength, heat to form into one powerful force of request that point to God. God cannot help but pick up that strongest request to do His will. I pray that you see my point of a powerful prayer.

- Secondly, a powerful prayer is a prayer that honours God (verse 24b). Spiritually, the word honour has everything to do with worship. When you honour God, you worship Him. When you honour someone, he or she must have good qualities or character worth your adoration. Similarly, when you honour God, the person of God, the divine being, definitely must have good qualities or characters that deserve your adoration, your worship, your love. In verse 24b, in the early disciples’ prayer, they address God as the the creator, it says, “you made the heaven and the earth, and everything in them.”
- Remember, the early disciples said the loud prayer in unity under the condition of possible persecution. As they face possibe persecution, imagine with them how they can still appreciate God; worship God; honour God. In the midst of persecution, they could still go beyond themselves and praise God as creator, this is powerful prayer. They did not pray to be spared from persecution. They went beyond themselves to honour God. This prayer is powerful because it achieves the purpose of strong belief and conviction of God in the person of Christ, as creator.
- Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you are really in Christ, when you are teased for faith in Christ; in big troubles; business failures; relationship problems; children disobeyed you; you are depressed and hurt; you are very sick to the point of dying, etc, will you still honour Jesus as the creator of all things? If so, then, your prayer that honours Jesus is very powerful. It shows your strong faith in Christ the circumstance.

- Thirdly, a powerful prayer is a prayer that builds on real experience of the past servants of God (verses 25 and 26). The early disciples quoted the prophesy of David which was empowered by the Holy Spirit and recorded in verses 25 and 26. It was a prophesy about how nations, kings and rulers went against God in the Old Testament days. This part of the prayer is powerful because it helps us to see that the prophesy came true in those and it also came true in the early disciples’ days. It is a recognition of how history repeats itself. A prayer that shows that you see the same old problems is powerful because of its prophetic element. The fact that you are able to see the same problem repeated in the future is very powerful. Then, you can do something about it.
- Fourthly, a powerful prayer is a prayer that speaks the truth (verse 27). When you come before God in the person of Jesus, you have to face Him with all honesty, openness and transparency, you cannot escape from His examination of your deepest motives, hearts and minds. He knows all your lies, excuses, hyprocrisy, ulterior motives, etc. You cannot hide anything from Him. However, if you are able to tell God the truth in your prayer like the early disciples, it is very powerful. The early disciples sincerely told God the truth that Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with Gentiles and the people of Israel to conspire against Jesus, the servant of God on earth.
- Despite your sinfulness; your ugliness, you are able to face God with all the truthful prayers, you have an intimate relationship with God. Under whatever circumstances, nobody can rob you of it. When you own an intimate relationship with God; the presence of God is with you. Then, who can harm you; who can afford to go against you. No enemy is strong enough to pull you down when God is on your side. So, come and always pray truthful to God and keep a intimate relationship with Him.
- Fifthly, a powerful prayer is a prayer that is done according to God’s will (verse 28). It was God’s will that Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried for the purpose of serving as a sacrificial lamb to redeem mankind. The early disciples prayed according to the will of God when they prayed in verse 28, “They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” When you pray according to God’s will recorded in the Bible, it will definitely be done. How can God not grant the request of His own will? So, take for instance, if you pray for someone to repent from sin, God will make sure it happens. Let me qualify myself; it will happen in God’s timing. If the person whom you pray for is not repenting, God has a purpose somewhere and you may seek God about it. Personally, when it is praying according to God’s will, I am most excited and dare to pray freely. This is because God must answer a prayer that is according to His will. So, now you know a prayer that is according to God’s will is powerful.

- Sixthly, a powerful prayer is a prayer that depends on God (verse 29). Do you see your prayer this way? When you pray with all sincerity, honesty and with all your heart, mind and soul, you are actually depending on God in whatever you are doing. Praying is depending on God to do it for you. The early disciples prayed to depend on God when they told God the threats of the opposition camp and asked God to empower them to speak God’s word boldly. When you depend on God, He helps you. That is the power of a prayer depending on God. When you depend on money, skill, knowledge, etc, they can help you as far as one of them can. If a problem require more than money to solve, then, money cannot solve. If your problem is pride, you think any amount of money, skill, knowledge can help you to overcome pride? In fact, the more money, skill, knowledge you may become more proud. You need God to come in to humble you, only then you can overcome your own pride. You need to tell God in the person of Jesus that you have pride and ask Him for forgiveness, then, you will solve the problem of pride.


- Seventhly, a powerful prayer is a prayer that trusts God for miracles (verse 30a). You see, in life, there are lots of impossible things which are impossible to achieve. But God in the person of Jesus can do the impossible if He wants His will be done. When you trust God for a miracle, then, there is a possibility that it can happen? Is there a place for miracles in your life? I always pray for miracles for church members who are in crisis in terms of marriage, disobedient children, having bad habits, health problem. Do you pray for miracles? A powerful prayer is a prayer that trusts God for miracle because it may happen. The early disciples prayed in verse 30a, “Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders...” Then, if you do not pray for a miracle, then there is no possibility of it.

- Eightly, a powerful prayer is a prayer done in Jesus’ name (verse 30b). Brothers and sisters, a prayer done with all your sincerity, honesty, and with your whole being in the name of Jesus, the most holy name, the most powerful name, anything can happen. I have preached to you before, when you pray in the name of Jesus Christ, you are appealing to the highest authority on heaven and on earth for an answer. When you say in the name of Jesus; you think of Jesus; you connected yourself with Jesus through your prayers, worship, reading your bible, meditation, etc, you caught the attention of Jesus, and He must attend to you. In the name of Jesus, I ask you which earthly father or mother will not pay attention to his or her child when he or she calls? Do you now see why the early disciples end their prayers with the phrase, in verse 30b, “... through the name of your holy servant Jesus”? Only prayer made in the name of Jesus deserves His attention, that makes it powerful.

Conclusion.
- Only a prayer honoured by Jesus is most powerful. So, now, you know how to pray powerful prayer?

Decide to help the poor

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

16th August, 2009
Posted By Teresa Han

Acts 4:31-36
Main Idea: Help the poor.
Objective: To challenge the congregation to make a wilful decision to help the poor.

A. Introduction
- Listen to this interesting story entitled “The Guest.”
- A pious father always closed grace for the evening meal with these words: “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and bless what thou hast provided.” “Papa,” said the little son, “every evening you ask Jesus to come and be our guest, but He never comes.” “My son,” replied the father, “we can only wait. But we know that he will not despise our invitation.” “Well, then” asked the little fellow, “if we expect him at the table.” And so to save further embarrassing questions, the father permitted the boy to set a place at the table. Just then a knock came at the door. When they opened it a poor helpless waif stood shivering in the cold. The son thought for a moment and finally said, “I guess Jesus could not come today, and so he sent this poor boy in his place.” With little further conversation the little beggar boy was brought in and set at the empty place at the dinner table.
- The little beggar boy is the poor sent by God to the family.
- The scripture has very strong teaching about helping the poor. Matthew 25:35, 40. “For I was hungry and gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” Then in verse 40, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

B. Explanation of the text.
- The scripture lesson today is the direct application of the teaching of Jesus on helping the poor by the disciples.
- Let us see how they went about helping the poor. How they get to do it?
- Before the disciples (Peter, John and the early believers) were so willing to help the poor, in verse 31 we are told that they prayed and were filled by the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God. Let us now see the results of prayers and being filled by the Holy Spirit.
- In verse 32, we are informed that believers were one in heart and mind. This is a strong characteristic of the infant church; this is a strong expression of unity; how united they were? The later half of verse 32 says, “No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.”
- In verse 33, we are told that the apostles had great power to testify the resurrection of Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
- In verse 34, we are informed that there was no needy persons. Why? From time to time, the disciples who sold lands or houses and brought money from the sales to help the poor, by passing all the money to the apostles.
- Verse 35 says that they gave the money to the apostles and they distribute the money to anyone as he had need.
- Take note this is all as a result of prayers and filling by the Holy Spirit. I believe that as a result of prayers, desire for possession become minimum. The early disciples also tend to renounce their property and practise self-sacrifice and mutual benevolence.
- According to verse 35, you can see the rule to help the poor is based on need, the money was distributed he had need.
- In verses 36 and 37, I can see that Luke felt it was worthy to highlight a personal example to show how people at that time from far away land like Cyprus also gave to the poor. This guy called Joseph, a Levite in the Jewish tradition must have been touched by God in a great manner, he sold a piece of land and brought his money to the apostles. Probably he was one of those Jews who was dispersed after the Babylonian conquest.
- The whole passage this morning is not so explicit about the motive of helping the poor but if you were to study carefully verse 35, it says, “... it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”
- Why it said that? Firstly, if there was no poor people who had need, there would not be a need to sell the land and houses. Secondly, people who contributed must have been filled by the Holy Spirit, touched by God, and sold something they could afford to sell.
- Your heart for the poor; your desire to reach out to the poor must be coming from God or it is a result of reading God’s word to help the poor. It is God’s will to help the poor. So, you do not come before God to ask if it is God’s will to help the poor.
- You must pray to God, “Send me poor people for me to help.”
- Your response will depend on how willing are you to help. You need to see as God sees the need of the poor.

C. Application.
- Are you willing to help the poor? Those of you who choose to be complacent, living in comfort, don’t want to dirty your hands. God says, “Stay where you are...I don’t force you to help the poor.” Unless God wants to use you like the way He used Paul otherwise He will not appear to you like He appeared to Paul to get you to help the poor.
- To those of you who are willing to help the poor; you are willing to pay the price to obey Christ; you are more than willing to do it; you take it as a privilege to do it; you expect God to bring the poor to your doorstep; expect God to give you the information about where are the poor people.
- Let me share with you a great area of need among the poor Penan children at Ulu Belaga. They all cannot afford to go to school, they need people who can do short term mission in the area of education; and of course long term mission in the area of education. Are you willing to dirty your hands to go there and teach for one or two days to get them excited about education and eventually sponsor them to go to school? We need sponsorship for the 4 missionaries who are going in at the end of the year and at the beginning of next year. If you do not go, will your money go. One brother from Mei Ann Methodist Church has sponsored one year of a missionary’s salary. RM1,500 per month.
- There are lots of people in Tudan and Permyjaya who are poor. Some of them are our church members. If you desire to help the poor in anyway you can, you can call up Pastor Chan. She always has somebody in mind whom you can help. I will always encourage you to give in kind and do not give money.
- Thank you for some of us who have faithfully giving to help to buy rice for a few families in Tudan.
- Let me push you to a corner to ask you for a decision to help the poor if you have not been doing it.
- Now, unless you decide to help the poor, otherwise, I cannot publize for GMC to help the poor. Only when majority of us decide to do it, then, God will send the poor coming knocking at our door.
- How to help the poor? These are some areas you can help. Provide a space for someone who is in trouble to stay for a few days. Provide something for poor children to eat. To give some money to poor students to help them to pay annual school expenses. To help the poor to find a simple job or a better job (Do you have job for a welder?) Help widow who have many children to support. Help those who are involved in accidents and lost their ability to work. Help the poor to apply for monthly social welfare grant. Bring them to see doctor and pay the bills.
- Researcher M. Douglas Meeks describe Wesley’s ministry with the poor in the following manner. It was intensely practical. It includes: “feeding, clothing, housing the poor; preparing the unemployed for work and finding them employment; visiting the poor, sick and prisoners; devising new forms of health care education and delivery for the poor; distributing books to the needy; and raising structural questions about an economy that produced poverty. Wesley’s turn to the poor, however, was not simply service of the poor, but more importantly life with the poor. He actually shared the life of poor in significant ways, even to the point of contracting diseases from their beds... To be in Christ meant to take the form of Christ’s own life for and with the poor. To be a disciple of Christ meant to be obedient to Christ’s command to feed His sheep and to serve the least of His sisters and brothers.”
- Wesley was convinced that there is no substitute for personal contact with the poor. Wesley says, “One great reason why the rich in general have so little sympathy for the poor is because they so seldom visit them. Hence it is that, according to the common observation, one part of the world does not know what the other suffers. Many of them do not know, because they do not care to know. They keep out of the way of knowing it , and then plead their voluntary ignorance as an excuse for their hardness of heart.”
- Brothers and sisters, Wesley brought to the poor not only a sense of their own worth but a sense of their power over their own destiny.

D. Conclusion
- Are you inspired to help the poor? Have you decided to help the poor?