Character of Obedienc (Sunday School Sunday)

21st February, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Acts 5:17-32
Main Idea: Obey Authorities
Objectives: To teach adults and children to obey authorities.

A. Introduction
- I believe all human beings love their children. Do you love your children? You do.
- You always desire to give them the best, right? What is your best gift to your children beside eternal life?
- You may give all kinds of valuable things to them but the most important thing you must give is Jesus. You must disciple your children to be Christ-like.
- How to do help your children to be Christ-like? Train him in his Christ-like characters; godly characters. Christ-like character building is much more important than anything on earth. You need money, education health and other very important things and values, but if you miss out characters, you cannot be a successful person. Do you want yourself and your children to be successful persons? Do not use the wrong yardstick to measure success. The fundamental factor to work on for success is character. Do not use money, high qualification, connection with the influential, etc, to measure success.
- The character I like to focus on this morning is obedience. I believe this is one of the areas where parents cry out for. I pray that my sermon this morning is not for your information only but it is very much for your application. And for it to happen, you need to spend time with them.
- The character of obedience is a mark of Jesus disciples like Peter and other apostles. In their early of ministry and mission, they were being persecuted by jail sentence and even death for preaching Christ and his teachings. Despite warning not to preach Christ, and I believe even threat of death, they did not give in. They declared in verse 29, “We must obey God rather than men!” Such was the character of obedience of the early disciples.

B. The Character of Obedience
- What is this character all about? Let us read out the definition: Quickly and cheerfully carrying out the wise direction of those who are responsible for me.
- The character of obedience can be represented by a kind of bird called wood ducks. Wood ducks are attentive to their parents’ voices, even before they hatch. Twenty-four hours after hatching, they must obey their mother in jumping from their high nest, or they will be left behind to die.

C. Applications.
- Obedience in the home includes: (let us read it out)
- 1. Establishing practical guidelines of good character for the family.
- 2. Parents teaching their children why an activity is right or wrong.
- 3. Children understanding the purpose of guidelines and the consequences for failing to obey them.
- 4. Sons and daughters having the boldness to reject wrong actions in order to obey parents, despite other pressures.
- 5. Parents being role models to their children by honoring their own parents.
- 6. I will: obey my authorities immediately; have a cheerful attitude; complete all that I am expected to do; go the “extra mile”; not obey the wrong command.

D. Rewards of Obedience
- 1. Protection. The road to success often includes painful lessons that obedience protects us from repeating.
- 2. Provision. Parents and other other authorities enjoy rewarding an obedient spirit in those under them by giving to needs and wants.
- 3. Direction. An obedient spirit in sons and daughters motivates their parents to give the wisest possible counsel for the decisions they face.
- Thomas Fuller says, “Obedience is much seen in little things than in great.”

E. Conclusion
- Obey God in the person of Jesus by obeying authorities.

Ash Wednesday - Repentance

17th Feb, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

2Samuel 12:1-23
Main Idea: To cause people to repent.
Objective: To result in the congregation realizing that they will suffer the consequence of sin like King David and need to repent.

A. Introduction
- Today, on 17th February, is Ash Wednesday for churches throughout the world. Most Methodist Churches do not conduct the service but this year we do it in order to uncover its meaning. By doing so, we will not lose our rich christian heritage on Ash Wednesday.
- What is it? The first day of Lent, the Wednesday of the seventh week before Easter. The day gets its name from the ceremonial imposition of ashes on the foreheads of worshippers in the liturgy of the day. This is a rite that goes back to the 10th century. The main idea behind it is to do with repentance in view of Christ has done on the Cross.
- In the Roman rite, and in the 1985 service produced by the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England, the imposition of ashes takes place in the Holy Communion after the reading of the gospel and preaching of sermon, although the Holy Communion may not be necessary.
- The ceremony consists of a blessing or prayer over the ashes, traditionally made by burning the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday, followed by imposition of ashes on the forehead accompanied by a verbal formula. The formula is either a reminder of human mortality or an exhortation to be committed to the gospel or both.
- This combination of word and the symbol of the ash is a powerful spiritual reminder to get us to begin the season of Lent. What is Lent? It is for christian practice. It is an annual season of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter, beginning with Ash Wednesday and lasting 40 weekdays to Easter. Roman Catholic Churches and Anglican Churches have been doing it all the time. For Methodist Churches, we are not consistent with it. For our GMC, in view of the Chinese New Year, we start our 40 days of fast and prayer on 22nd February until 2nd April, that includes Saturdays and Sundays.
- For us, the important thing is we catch the idea of repentance, and through fasting and praying for 40days, we focus on the need for repentance.
- To help us to reflect on the subject of repentance, I preach to you the repentance of King David.

B. The Repentance of King David.
- Here is a famous real life biblical story of a king committing the sin of adultery, breaking one of the ten commandments: Thou shall not commit adultery. I do not want to go into the details of how he did it. It was all written in Chapter 11. I just want to highlight a few points of on repentance. Notice the proses of King David’s repentance.
- Take note that he thought nobody knew his sin of adultery; he thought he could pretend to be righteous and escape from prophet Nathan’s eyes, the servant of God. Eventually, the prophet confronted him with the story of the rich man, the poor man and his ewe lamb and took him to task by proclaiming straight at his nose, “You are the man.”
- Then, prophet Nathan proclaim a series of judgement of God on him. The idea of suffering from the consequence of sin is very strong here. It is very true in the New Testament, where the Holy Spirit strike dead Ananias and Saphira for lying the Holy Spirit. Prophet Nathan now said David’s house would have to suffer from killings for he killed Uriah using the sword of Hitittes, in order to rob Uriah’s wife. There will be calamity on his family. His wives would be given to those who were close to him; God strike dead the child whom Uriah’s wife had borne to David.
- Will all these consequences as a result of the sin of adultery that King David suffered, God is still very gracious to him. In verse 13, prophet Nathan assured King David that God had forgiven his sin and he was not going to die. But take note, this is only after King David confessed and repent. He confessed in the beginning of verse 13, “I have sinned against the Lord.” He showed repentance through his fasting and prayer to God that God would spare his child.

C. Applications.
- With this, learnt drill our mind into a few ideas about repentance in this Ash Wednesday and this season of Lent.
- Firstly, notice that for repentance of a person to take place, he or she must realize that he has sin against God by breaking one of God’s law. So, you need to confess your sins.
- Secondly, there is no way you can hide from God’s wrath or punishment. No matter what you do to replace the damage, God will not buy it. His punishment will take its course naturally. God is our creator and He is all knowing, he knows when we sin against Him.
- Thirdly, we must realize that the serious consequences of sin, in the case of King David, his whole family was affected. Think of the sins of hatred, anger, bitterness, revenge, greed, pride, lust, self-centredness, drunkenness, etc that can affect your family if you commit those sins.
- Fourthly, repentance takes feelings of sorrow, remorseful (regret) and realizing you are wrong, you have broken God’s law, you have sinned against God. King David showed his sorrow through his fast and prayer.
- Fifthly, repentance requires action of reconciliation, compensation, etc. In repentance, you let go of your pride and everything, you just want to get right with God and people.

D. Conclusion
- Have we any sin to repent from in this season of Lent? May we take this year’s lent more seriously and allow God to show our unrepentant hearts in terms of wrong attitudes, thinkings, actions, beliefs etc, so that we can repent from them.

Crown of Righteousness

14th February, 2010 (CNY Service)

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

2Tim 4:1-8

Main Idea: The eternal reward of Crown of Righteousness
Objectives: a. To learn from Paul to persevere till the end of his life in his faith b. To learn from Paul to pursue crown of righteousness.

A. Introduction
- For Chinese New Year, for Chinese, we always desire blessings during festive season like this. Most of these blessings are concentrated on good health, career success, success in our children’s education, success in business, harmony at home and with colleagues, etc.
- And lots of people make a lot of sense out of the year of tiger. For those who are born in the year of tiger, the writings say what they must do to be blessed. For those who are not born in the year of tiger, the writings also say how they can be blessed if they live accordingly.
- For us, Christians and disciples of Jesus, as long as we love Jesus and people, the presence of God is with us, we are blessed.
- But for Christians, and disciples like you and me, we have one blessing to pursue on earth that will decide whether we get it or not when we see Jesus in heaven. This blessing is called the Crown of Righteousness in the New Testament. It is something that Apostle Paul pursued very much on earth.

B. See what Apostle Paul gets at the end of his ministry and life.
- When Apostle Paul wrote 2Timothy, he was imprisoned in Rome again under Emperor Nero in between AD 66 to AD 67. In 2Tim 1:16, he said he was in chain like a common criminal.
- One of the reasons he wrote the letter to Timothy was to show his concern about the welfare of the churches during the time of persecution under Nero. He admonishes Timothy to guard the gospel (1:13, 14), to persevere in it (3:14), to keep on preaching it (4:2) and, if necessary, to suffer for it (1:8; 2:3).
- Let us see what parting words he said to Timothy, his disciple at the end of his life. From verses 1 to 5, you can see how focused he was on Christ. In fact, from verse 1, you see that he charged Timothy that in view of Christ, who will judge the living and the dead, his appearing and his kingdom, Timothy must move on to preach the gospel against all odds, keep the truth and be an evangelist who discharges all the duties of his ministry.
- Paul knew he was going to die soon, so he wrote in verse 6, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.” Paul sees his approaching death as the pouring out of his life as an offering to Christ.
- As he looks over his 30 years of ministry as an apostle, he likened himself to be an athelete who had engaged successfully in a contest, who fought the good fight, finished the race and the most important of all, he kept the faith, in verse 7. There is something significant here. As an athelete, it takes a long process of tough training to prepare for the race. Paul was in the race, he prepared and trained well. He was in the tough race of preaching the gospel and making disciples. He persevered and never gave up on Christ’s calling for him despite persecutions. He persevered in not only believing the faith of salvation in Christ, but also defending it and preaching it and most important of all, making disciples with it. I find that the last part is the most challenging. That is one very important reason why he wrote so many letters, he wanted to make disciples among his converts.
- Whatever he said and did, became Timothy’s example and it becomes our example to follow even until today.
- With all his focus in Christ, with all his efforts put in for Christ, in making disciples, now, he awaits with certainty, for the crown of righteousness, which Christ, the righteous judge will give him.
- Now, I am very excited about what Paul said in verse 8, he was telling us that there is eternal reward of crown of righteousness which Jesus is going to give us if we can persevere in keeping our faith like Paul. After working so hard for Christ in keeping the faith, Paul said he was going to get the crown; and not only himself, but also for those who long for his appearing. It means those who are faithful to Christ and persevere to see Him.
- Paul uses the metaphor of a wreath (the crown) given to the winner in a race. The crown of righteousness could refer to: (1). A crown given as a reward for a righteous life; (2). A crown consisting of righteousness. (3). A crown given righteously by a righteous judge.
- Paul expects Jesus to give him crown of righteousness at the end of his life. Do you expect Jesus to do so? Those who do not do so, that means you are not even prepared to put in efforts like Paul in order to gain the crown of righteousness. Those who do so, you would like your life’s priorities to be changed and pursue things on earth of eternal significance. It matters to you whether you obey Jesus or not.

C. Applications.
- a. In view of the future rewards of the crown of righteousness, your attitudes towards ministry; towards Jesus, must be very different now. You have to recognize and realize that at the end of the day, when you face Jesus at His judgement throne, He will decide whether you get the crown of righteousness or not. You have to reexamine your life how much you obey Jesus in your life; how much your life has made a difference in others’ life for Jesus; how much you introduce Jesus to others.
- b. In view of the future crown of righteousness reward, you must now be an expert in investing your life on earth. Everybody has a life span on earth; your seasons on earth, etc. Your time is very limited on earth, in view of the future reward of crown of righteousness, you need to see how best to use your time. One thing you cannot afford to use your precious time to sin against God, Jesus. For example, do not use your time to hate someone; harbour grudges against someone; to sin against God by watching pornography; to get angry with your wife, your husband, your children, your colleagues, etc. If I were you, by all means love the people around you, no matter how tough it is, pray for the Holy Spirit to empower you to do it.

- Just Stay

A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside. "Your son is here," she said to the old man.She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes opened. Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man's limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.

The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed.All through the night the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man's hand and offering him words of love and strength. Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile.

He refused. Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients. Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night.

Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited.

Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her.

"Who was that man?" he asked.

The nurse was startled, "He was your father," she answered.

"No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before in my life." "Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"

"I knew right away there had been a mistake, But I also knew he needed his son, and his Son just wasn't here.

When I realized that he was too sick to tell

Whether or not I was his son,

Knowing how much he needed me, I stayed."

I came here tonight to Find a Mr. William Grey.

His Son was Killed in Iraq

Today, and I was sent to Inform him. What was this Gentleman's Name? The Nurse with Tears in Her Eyes Answered, Mr. William Grey.............

The next time someone needs you ... Just be there. Stay.
-
D. Conclusion: Are you heading for the crown of righteousness?

The Issue of Facebook

31st January, 2010
Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han

Colossians 1:24-29
Main Idea: To use facebook to to witness for Jesus.
Objectives: a. To challenge the congregation to be like apostle, a servant of God, to present the word of God in its fullness. b. To challenge the congregation to use facebook to witness for Jesus.

A. Introduction- How much effort have you put in to help to initiate people around you or people who are in your network into the kingdom of God? To come to know Jesus, be saved and become his disciples. We have learnt from the Purpose Driven Life and of course the bible, this is our mission on earth.
- The question now is how instrumental are we in making that happen. Have you been working hard to achieve the mission here on earth?
- You have so many people in your network, but have ever witnessed to them using John 3:16, your testimonies? Nowadays, you can reach out to people so easily in your network. Especially, with the latest technology of internet, website, email, friendster, facebook, etc, you can reach countless number of people. But, how much have you put in?
- Let us see how apostle Paul had worked so hard for Christ and His body, the church, in his days. Apostle had died so long ago, but his writings continues to impact the world to do missions and disciple. I am greatly impacted by him and I pray that all of us will do the same.

B. See how apostle Paul had worked so hard for Christ and His body, the church.
- Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians in order to correct the wrong teachings of heresy which was commonly taught at his time. The heresy was gnosticism at its early stage. Basically, gnosticism believes spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil.
- So, to accomplish the goal of correcting the early believers from believing in gnosticism, he exalts Christ throughout the letter. In doing so, he told us how much effort he put in for Christ. Now, let us take a close look at the those verses in the passage today. Of course there other passages in this letter and other letters written by him that showed how hard he worked for Jesus.
- In verse 24, he said that he rejoiced that he could suffer for the Colossians as he was jailed because of the gospel where he preached the good news of Christ’s salvation. As a result many come to be saved in Christ and formed Christ’s body, the church.
- In verse 25, we are told that he was willing to pay the price as he was called by God, commissioned by God to present God’s word in its fullness, in its completion to the Colossians. In verse 26, we see that he paid the price of suffering to reveal the mystery of God in salvation which was not just for few individuals who are privileged to know but it is for the saints whom God called. And to these saints, like you and me, he said in verse 27, we are entrusted tell the Gentiles the glorious riches of the mystery in Christ, the salvation in Christ. So he said, “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorius riches of mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Apostle Paul regarded himself and the Colossians as saints whom God had chosen to disclose the mystery of salvation in Christ. Therefore, he desired very much to make known the mystery of salvation to the Gentiles. Do you have that desire and excitement like apostle Paul? I pray that you do.
- Now, in order to make known Christ salvation for the Gentiles, Paul said in verse 28, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.” To achieve his purpose of making Christ’s salvation known, he said we have to use all wisdom. The wisdom is referring to ways and means, ideas or anything that can help people to come to know Christ and become a matured disciple. His challenge to the Colossians is to present everyone perfect, matured as a disciple in Christ. So, you need to ask yourself today, with all the resources you have, how can you proclaim, admonish and teach people with all wisdom to present them as matured in Christ. How do you do this inside and outside the church?
- With this, apostle Paul went on to say in verse 29, “To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” You see how he worked hard to achieve the end of bringing Christ salvation to the Gentiles. He said, he laboured, he struggled with the God given divine help, the energy coming from God to preach the gospel. In other words, he used all the God given resources to achieve God’s desire for him, that is the preaching of gospel that resulted in maturity in Christ.

C. Applications
- After knowing how hard apostle Paul had laboured to present everyone perfect, matured in Christ, how do you respond to him?
- Will you also come along and become God’s servants to present the word of God in Christ salvation in its fullness to the people around you and in your network? Will you pay the price like Paul to do it? Will you sacrifice like him?
- Secondly, will you use your God given wisdom to present everyone perfect, matured in Christ? One application today based on this passage of scripture is to really tap on the present modern technology like your blogs, email facilities, friendster, facebook, etc to witness for Jesus and present Christ so that through your testimonies, people in your network come to know Jesus and become his disciples.
- Especially, facebook is so widely used nowadays, I believe it is a God given wisdom for us to tap into so that we can use it for witness purpose. Lots of people have abused it and waste a lot of time in using it as entertainment. We must use it from a different angle and perspective, to make our life count for Jesus even in the facebook. How? By giving testimonies of how you come to know Jesus and how you live as a disciple of Jesus.

D. Conclusion.
- Facebook must be a means that we can capitlaize to introduce Christ to our network of friends. Will you take up the challenge?