Accountable Parents Raise Accountable Kids

2nd May, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Ephesians 5: 31

Main Idea: To be accountable to our children

Objective: To teach the congregation to use their life example to impart in their children’s life the character of accountability.

A. Introduction.

- Today I do not preach as if I am there and I already master the subject. I am very much working towards it.

- Do you find any trouble in getting your children to tidy up their rooms; throw the garbage; clean dishes and plates after eating; getting them to do their homework; training them to put back the items used, etc?

- This is actually to do with responsibility, also called accountability.

- However, it is a great character for the practice of our life. It is not popular among our children. It is easier to do your own things and not have to answer to anyone. But that is not how life works.

- Without accountability, society would be chaotic. Without accountability, homes can degenerate into chaos. Many have this problem because a family member refuses to act responsibility toward the rest of the family.

- My sermon title this morning (evening) is accountable parents raise accountable kids. Can you be accountable to your children in order to use yourself as an example to train them to be accountable, as a character?

- The bible teaches us on the value and character of accountability.

B. Accountability involves submission and obedience.

- I agree with Josh McDowell and Dick Day in their book, “How to be a hero to your kids” that says, “Accountability is closely associated with 2 biblical concepts of submission and obedience. “ If I am willing to be accountable, that means I am humble enough to submit to others and obey, please or serve them. This is our reverence for Christ.

- Apostle Paul listed ways to live a lifestyle of being filled with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 5:21, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” It is so spiritual, God fearing to be submissive to others. It is very spiritual to be accountable to others. It is a godly character.

- Becoming accountable and responsible is a crucial part of growing up and becoming a mature, balanced human being.

- To be accountable means submitting to others and ministering to their needs rather than always being worried about your own need.

- It takes a secure person who knows he is accepted, a person who feels significant because he has been show genuine appreciation. If we accept and appreciate our kids they can learn to be accountable.

- So, can you be accountable to your kids? The best way to teach accountability to your children is through your example. It is not them in charge and you have to be under them. It is about being humble and submissive enough to give your children permission to call you to account when you act in an unloving, irresponsible manner.

- Yes, they may not be always fair in what they think is “unloving,” and they may often see things from their child’s point of view, but making yourself accountable to your children provides an invaluable bridge of communication between the 2 of you. As your child or whoever you look after, watches you be accountable, he will learn to be accountable. You and I need to do effective role modeling before our children or those who are under us.

- My wife reminds me of my promise to my children and holds me accountable. My children observes it and learn. She reminds me not to promise something to my children and later I cannot fulfill it. Unless I am very sure it is going to happen, otherwise, do not say anything to promise.

C. Kids aren’t afraid to hold you accountable.

- My kids hold me accountable for what I do and say. I told them to practice orderliness in making beds and tidy up their room. There was one time I did not do my job, and I ask them to do it. They reply that I had not done either. They hold me accountable. I have to do it. I still struggle on this and sometimes I forget to do it.

- Every Monday, as long as I am around, my kids hold me accountable to bring one person out for special appointment. Praise the Lord most of the times I make it and I teach them accountability. Dad is responsible for what he says.

D. Good intentions don’t automatically become reality.

- However, how do I deal with the question of how can be a father, a husband, who is supposed to the head of the family, the leader in the family, and at the same time, be subjected myself to my wife and children.

- I believe I am a servant-leader who is strong, matured and humble enough to say to my wife and children, “I want you to hold me accountable.”

E. Accountability and role-modeling go together.

- Brothers and sisters, as you are accountable to your children or children who are under you, then, you are providing a very good example to your children or children who are under you. You may be a grandmother, an auntie, an uncle, a teacher, etc. You are in a position to influence the children who are under you for Christ as you give good modeling to them through your accountability.

F. Being accountable makes discipline easier.

- Being accountable to your kids or those kids who are under you, may put you in some tight spots, but it also lays groundwork for following through with discipline when it really counts.

- Because through your accountability, they really know that you are close with them and love them, you earn their respect; they will take your discipline positively.

- As I am accountable to my children, and when I ask them to say sorry to one another in the family, they do it. By the way, I also say sorry to my children to my wife and children. Nowadays, we practice like this: one has to say, “I am sorry and the other has to say, I forgive you.” This is to make sure each one of us mean it from our heart. We learn from Rev Thomas Lau.

G. Being accountable takes humility and patience.

- As you humble yourself in accountability, you need to be patient also with one another. And your family will grow in relationships and your family will be happy.

- Do you owe an apology to your family? Have you failed in anyway in your accountability to each of them? Have you been humble and patient with your children and wife and husband or those kids under you?

H. Conclusion.

- I pray that you will realize the big deal about accountability.

- If you are practicing it is your reverence for Jesus. It is living according to the word of God.

- It is a great character.

Train a child in the way he should go

25th April, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Proverbs 22:6

Main idea: Train a child to fear God

Objectives: a. To challenge the congregation to give priority to train a child to fear God. b. To challenge the congregation to train a child in his or her characters.

A. Introduction

- How challenging is it to nurture (or disciple) your children? Some of you may face babies or young children who used to get sick and you became very anxious; children who have behavioral problems like computer games addiction; watching pornography; stealing; lying; cheating; not respecting people; wasting money; disability to appreciate what has been done for their good; fighting with others in school or even in Sunday school; do not realize the importance of education and character development though you try to discipline and train them, etc. Your children may have kept disobeying you? As you look back, do you ask what has gone wrong?

- Let me preach to you this morning (evening) that it is because of the major reason that we have given wrong things to a child. We have given so many things like computer games, education. Clothing, food and nutrition, best comfort, best school and the best facility, etc, but we have either fail to train our children in the way they should go or we neglect to train them in the way they should go.

- Brothers and sisters, we can be successful in our careers, we may live in comfortable homes and driving nice cars, but if our children (the next generation) are not trained in the way they should go, we will have no peace, harmony at home; we may not enjoy our old age.

- Please do not misunderstand me. It is not a burden to be parents and therefore, you do not want become parents. It is a privilege given by God to be parents. Family with children is God’s idea and it is instituted by God.

- Proverbs 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

B. How to train a child in the way he should go?

- What is the meaning of training here? Training means you need to be dedicated and committed to repeat over and over again what is right, it may repeating an action, an attitude, a idea, a pattern of thinking or behavior, etc. Now, remember, these repetitions are for the purpose of doing the right things or the truths. For Christians, we say, to do what God desires us to do in the Bible. And this is everything to do with the next phrase, in the way.

- What is the way? The right way, the way of wisdom (Proverbs 4:11 ‘I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.’), not children’s way.

- When you train your children in right way, then, proverbs, you equip your children throughout his life or her life that he or she will always stick to doing the right things. Of course, until old age, he will not depart from it.

C. Applications

- For us Christians, we have the bible in our hands; it is a privilege for us to own it. It is the authority and basis of how we train a child he should go. The bible says we must train our children to fear God/ honor God/ obey God. How? I find that there is a lot homework to do. This is the homework and the constant challenge.

- Proverbs 3:5,6 ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your won own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.’ Can you train your children to do it? To fear God like that?

- The second point of application is the right way is the way of characters. As you train your children to form the concept of fear of God in his life, you must show him how this God whom he fears is expressed in his life. How God in the person of Jesus is shown in his life? How his life reflect Jesus? It has to be the godly characters. And these characters building like responsibility, love, honesty, compassion, boldness, patience, obedience, humility, etc, really take time and it is a long process. We need the filling of the holy spirit to do it. You need to do a lot of modeling.

- You need to spend time with them in order to bring across the fear of God and do character building.

- Listen to this powerful illustration of an axe cutter to show you how we must prepare our children to face the sinful world and stand up for Jesus and become His strong disciples. It shows the importance of training our children to be God fearing and in character building. This wood cutter can use an axe to produce the maximum numbers of trees he cut everyday. From the start, it is 100 trees everyday. After a while, the production decreases to 20, 30 and 10. He is fired from his job. He wanted to kill himself and but he met a sage, a holy man, a wise man. This wise man just laughed and laughed at him, telling him not to be so stupid to get suicide, but he just need to find out the reason for the decrease in production. The answer is because he has not sharpened the axe, the tool.

- As your children are facing the world, have you given them a sharp axe in the form a godly character, God fearing and with all godly characters? Do not think that education along will make the axe sharp enough.

D. Conclusion

- Are you convinced to train your children to fear God and build up in his godly characters.

How to live as husbands and wives (Family value, series 1)

18th April, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

1Peter 3:1-7

Main Idea: Fear God in your marriage

Objectives: a. To challenge husbands and wives to fear God in their marriage. b. To teach husbands and wives how to treat one another.

A. Introduction

- For those of you who are married, have you faced any challenges in your marriage? Any disagreements? Any tensions? Any Frustrations? Any hurts?

- You may be seeking answers to your challenges and you may find that you face deadlock. You do not seem to find a way out and some of you may think of ending your marriage.

- If your marriage is very good and happy, then, I must congratulate you and you may like to share with others in small groups and in other occasions. You must especially witness about your marriage in front of other people.

- Today, we are embarking on a passage out of only a few marriage passages in the bible. I pray that it will inspire you to be better wives and husbands.

- Let us see what 1Peter 3:1-7 tells us how to live together as husbands and wives.

B. Wives, be submissive to your husbands (verse 1)

- This passage on marriage is very much in the context of Chapter 2. What has been said by Apostle Peter there affects the present passage. Especially in 2:13, 14, Peter urged the readers, for the sake of God, to submit themselves to every authority instituted among men, namely the king, supreme authority, governors, etc.

- That is why in verse 1 here chapter 3, Peter says, “Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands…” You see the submission done in the context of submitting to authorities instituted in those days.

- Now, please do not misunderstand the passage as encouraging you to get married with non-Christians. The context at that was such that there were Christian wives who were converted to Christianity and then, they had to face their unbelieving husband.

- Their submission to their husbands was made very challenging because the common practice in that society was for wives to follow the husband’s religion. Now, Peter really addressed this issue.

- He teaches them to submit to their husbands who do not believe in the instruction of God’s word. How the wives were to do it? It was an uphill task. The answer is not to verbally preach to them and won them over to Christianity. It was done through the behavior of the wives, as taught in verse 1b, “…they may be won over without words by he behavior of their wives,…”

- The submission of the wives through behavior would help their husbands to see their purity and reverence to their God (verse 2). They should not emphasize outward appearance like braided hair and wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes (verse 3). Instead, they should emphasize the inner self beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God’s sight (verse 4).

- Why? It is because the holy women the past like Sarah who put their hope in God submitted to their husband and do what is right and do not give way to fear (verses 5, 6). Now, from these 2 verses, you see that the Christian wives are not to submit to their husbands that they need to embrace the husbands’ religion. Otherwise, apostle Peter cannot use the example of Sarah, who fear God. What they need to do now is to respect the husbands for their belief and the same time, they need to prove to their all the godly characters like purity, reverence, not emphasizing outward wear, be gentle and quiet in spirit, and they would do fine.

- I can see that what apostle demands of Christian wives at the time and also very today is this: in wives, there must be a strong sense of fear of God. Otherwise, you cannot understand why he asks wives to be submissive to husbands (for it is commanded by God to submit to authorities), to be pure and reverent, and to be gentle and quiet in spirit. All these characters point wives Godward, fear God/ respect God/ honor God. Is this also relevant for today?

C. Husbands, be considerate as you live with your wives (verse 7).

- Then, the instruction for the husband is very brief. I can understand why it is such a short paragraph. For if a husband is already a Christian, then, it is not so much of an issue because the norm of the society is for the wives to follow the husband’s religion.

- However, if the wives are not Christians yet, the husbands cannot force her to accept his religion also, as he instruction says that husbands need to treat their wives with respect as the weaker partners. They are supposed to be co-heirs of God’s salvation in the eternal life. As husband respect their wives as a weaker partner, then, the husbands will not be hindered in prayers. In his worship and belief of God, service for Jesus.

- Again, like the Christian wives, Christian husbands who treat their wives with respect, Peter similarly brought out the point that they must fear God in their marriage. They respect their wives because God desires theme to do so.

- I strongly believe that as husbands and wives fear God, no matter how we are challenged in our marriage, there is going to be a way out.

D. Applications

- How wives submit to their husbands? How do you fear God in your marriage? I strongly feel that all our problems of submission have to do with our sin of self-centeredness. It can be the problem of husband and wife. If you are willing to go to God with self-centeredness with lots of prayer and seeking God for a way out, as you fear God by obeying His commands in the bible, you will let go and you will submit to your husbands.

- How husbands are considerate towards their wives and respect them as weaker partner? How do you fear God in your marriage? Why husbands do not respect their wives, not love them? Again, it can be deal to self-centeredness of both sides. Can you deal with that sin by producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit? When you do so, of course you will love and respect your wives.

E. Conclusion.

- You see why I keep emphasizing fearing God in your marriage. You need to keep telling yourself, in God’s word, He expect you to do this and that.

Are You Alive To God In Christ?

4^th April, 2010

Romans 6:1-14

Main Idea: Be A Living Disciple of Jesus

Objectives a. To teach that disciples of Jesus cannot go on sinning against God. b. To teach the congregation on to be alive to God in Christ.

A. Introduction

- Have you ever kept on sinning against God in the person of Jesus? You know it is wrong, you just keep doing it.

- You can be doing it just because you always have Jesus to forgive your sins. After all, Jesus is very forgiving. You reason with yourself, you are not a perfect person, you sin first, and then, Jesus will definitely forgive you as He promises in the bible. And so, some Christians have the mindset that on Monday to Saturday, they take their liberty to sin against Jesus and they believe that however much the sin is, on Sunday, once they ask for forgiveness of their sins, all their sins are cleansed.

- This is exactly the practical issue of holiness that apostle Paul is dealing with in today’s passage.

- That is why he ask the question in verse 1, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

B. Shall we go on sinning?

- Apostle Paul immediately gives the answer in verse 2, “By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” He is really telling Christians can no longer live in sin. How can you as a Christian sin against Jesus habitually from Monday to Saturday?

- He justifies his answer with the following verses in the passage. It is eye opening and there is great learning and reminder for all of us today in this Easter. Through verses 3 to 4 he teaches that the readers then and of course all of us today since we are baptized into Christ’s death, we are now buried with Him. And now, we are raised from the dead through the glory of the Father and now we can live a new life.

- A Christian, after being converted, after going through baptism, he now must live a new life, a different life from before his conversion. He is no more the same person as before, who had no power over sin, who sinned against God all the time. Now, let us from verses 5 to 10, how Paul explains about the new life, new creation in us as a Christian.

- As Paul explains in detail about the implications of baptism, he says in verse 5 that when we are baptized in Christ, in His death, we are also united with Him in His resurrection. This resurrected life, new life, is a life where our old self, the life before conversion, which was crucified with Christ. Now, this new life, new body is no more a slave to sin. If you, after conversion, you still habitually sin against Jesus from Monday till Saturday, and you expect Jesus to forgive on Sunday, then, I like to question your conversion. Was it a genuine conversion? Because a new life in Christ is no longer a slave to sin. Because in verse 7, it says, anyone who has died in Christ and buried with Christ has been freed from sin.

- So, Paul now emphasizes that this new life has Christ who rose from the dead is now living in a Christian. And this Christ who died once for our sin will not die again, He died to sin once for all. Paul is really teaching that since this resurrected Christ is now living in us, He gets us to live unto God.

- The powerful Christ who overcomes death and sin, the resurrection power of God is now in us, can we now choose to continue to live in sin. Paul’s answer is strictly no.

- That is why in verse 11, he says, “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Once you have the resurrected Christ in you, you have the resurrection power (the power which raised Jesus from the dead), you will choose to live a new life, you will be alive to God in Christ. You will have all the power to overcome your sinfulness.

- Then, Paul goes on to show his readers and all of us today how we can be alive to God in Christ today in verses 12 to 14. Now, before I go into the details of how to be alive to God in Christ, you must remember that I keep telling you that Paul says the resurrected Christ is living you and so I keep telling you that the resurrection power that caused Jesus to rise from dead is also in you. With this resurrected Christ living in you, any temptations that come along, do you believe you overcome them or not?

- No wonder, Paul can remind you and me in verse 12, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desire.” If his readers had no means to overcome temptations and sins, Paul could not teach that.

- Not to mention verse 13, “Do not offer the parts of body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life…” But now, in later part of verse 13 he is able to say, “…and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” How can this be done, because of the resurrected Christ, who is living, who has the resurrection power.

- Of course now, sin cannot be our master as Paul says in verse 14. As we are under the forgiving grace of Christ, not law, where we have to hard to obey the law.

- I can read and understand from verses 12 to 14 that we ourselves to exercise our will power, as Paul reminds us, “… do not let sin reign in your mortal body… Do not offer the parts of your body to sin… offer yourselves to God…offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” All these words and phrases show that we need to use our willpower to choose to be righteous, only the resurrection power becomes effective in us.

- This is how you can be live in God in Christ.

- With explanation of the text today, may I preach in the same of Jesus Christ to you that if you choose to continue to sin against Jesus from Monday till Saturday, then, on Sunday, you expect Jesus to forgive you sins again and again, then, you are proclaiming to the whole world, to the people around you, your loved ones, relatives, your colleagues, your neighbors, etc, your Christ is dead. Your Christ is not relevant to your life at all; your Christ cannot save you from your sin; your Christ is not a living God; your Christ is your slave who is made to forgive your sin at your command; and the most scary implication is this: YOU ARE YOUR OWN GOD AT THE CENTRE OF YOUR LIFE, YOU ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN JESUS IN YOUR LIFE!

- If we sin against God habitually all the time, we end up we are all the time we are the ones who crucify all the time and we do not want Him to resurrect!

C. Applications

- Let us do some very serious applications now with the above teaching of Paul on how to be alive to God in Christ.

- (1). To be alive to God in Christ, you need to exercise your will power to do God’s word and at the same time you need to be empowered by the Spirit of Christ (the resurrected Christ); (Romans 8:5-11). God does not force you to do the righteous. If so, He should have made you to be a robot. He gives you the freewill to choose the right thing. When you choose the wrong path, way, ideas, sins, etc, you suffer the consequences. That is universal truth. But when you need to choose the right paths, choose to do His will and you encounter difficulties, you have the resurrection power of Christ, you have the Christ living in you to help you. Let us read Romans 8:5-11. You see the spirit of Christ help you to overcome sin?

- (2). To be alive to God in Christ, you need to be like a living fish in the sea; not a dead fish, a salted fish. We are all living in a fallen world, a sinful world. But we can be a most powerful disciple of Jesus with the Christ who lives in us and we can choose a life that is not sinful like the rest of the sinful world. We can be like a living fish living in a salty sea, without being salty. Only with the help of the living Christ, resurrected Christ living us in helping us to overcome sin and temptation. Unlike a dead fish, a dead Christian, who has no Christ in him, of course, now, salt, the sin of the world can now enter his body and become salted, sinful. Brothers and sisters, without the empowerment and presence of the resurrected Christ in you, you become a dead salted sinful Christian/ fish.

D. Conclusion

- You need to constantly prove to the world, the people around you wherever you go that you are alive to God in Christ. Can you now see why Jesus matters so much to you?

Intimacy With God

21st March, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Exodus 33:9-11; 40:35; 2Chronicles 16:9; Jeremiah 9:23-24; John 17:21-22
Main Idea: Need to have an intimate relationship with God
Objectives: a. To teach that you need to give priority to intimacy with God; b. To teach the effects of intimacy with God.

A. Introduction
- God looks for men and women who live and minister out of an intimate relationship with God. Do you believe so?
- Our faith with this creator of the universe, God almighty is such that He actually desires us to have intimacy with Him.
- Look at these verses in the Old Testament and New Testament.

Biblical Foundation of Intimacy With God.
- Exodus 33:9-11 “As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud could come come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses... The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speak with a friend.” You see how God initiates to speak to Moses as a friend. Is it eye opening for you to know God can be your friend? Have you been so close with God, in the person of Jesus?
- Exodus 40:35 “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” You see God’s presence can be with the tabernacle of Israelites in the Old Testament. God could be close with His people.
- 2Chronicles 16:9 “Thus saith the Lord run to fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on the behalf of him whose heart is perfect toward Him.”
- Jeremiah 9:23-24 “Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me.”
- John 17:21-22 “ Father, just as You are in me and I am in You. May they also be in us...”

B. The Problem: Wrong Priority
- Our serious problem is that we do not give God, the intimacy with God a priority. Sometimes, we feel so lonely, so empty, so shallow, we feel we are enslaved to a schedule that controls us.
- Or, we may not be aware of such thing as intimacy with God.
- Some us may see the need for an intimate personal relationship with God but we do not know how to do it.
- Lots of Christians may know a great deal about God and godliness without really knowing him.
- Richard Foster, “Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a great number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”
- The solution is for us to go deeper in our relationship to God.
- See what the book of Daniel says, 2:2 “He reveals the deep and secret things: He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.”
- 1Corinthians 2:10 “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him,’ but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.”

C. Where Do We Start?
- Psalm 42:1,2 “As the deer pants for stream of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
- You need to fall in love with Jesus all over again. John 21:5 “Peter, do you love me?”

D. Effects of going deeper in our knowledge and experience of God.
- Firstly, you are empowered by God and you have great energy for God. You see this in Daniel 11:32 - “With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will resist him.”
- Secondly, you will have great thoughts of God. Daniel 9:4 “I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands,...”
- Thirdly, you show great boldness for God. Acts 5:29 “Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather men!”
- Fourthly, you have great commitment in God. Philippians 4:11-13 “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

E. Conclusion.
- Our God is the God who is in the form of a person. As a person, He can relate to you personally in an intimate relationship. Would you respond to relate intimately with Him.
- You miss this, you miss Christianity.

Integrity – A Life That Is Whole

14th March, 2010

Written By Rev Law

Posted By Teresa Han

Main Idea: Practise integrity as a way of life.
Objectives: a. To promote strong sense of integrity among disciples of Jesus. b. To teach the 3 aspects (inner self; commitment to promise; actions consistent with your promise) of integrity in our life.

A. Introduction
- One of the greatest challenges of a Christian/ a disciple of Jesus is to maintain integrity.
- Integrity according to our bible is being the same in heart, mind and actions. Are your actions consistent with your words?
- When in your life do you have the most difficulty maintaining integrity? Even in the secular world of business, the issue of character, where integrity is part of it, integrity is a major issue. When there is no integrity, people do not trust you. For disciples of Jesus, christians, integrity is very much of holiness and purity of life. When we christians fail to maintain integrity, our position in the company, our family and ministry, and even the church suffer the consequences. We have failed to witness for Jesus, our Master.
- In the scripture below, the psalmist shows us that integrity has inward and outward aspects

B. The biblical foundation (Psalm 24:3-5)
- Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior. (Psalm 24:3-5)
- The Psalmist asked who could stand in God’s place? His answer is: he who has clean hands and a pure heart, the first part of his answer. The clean hands and a pure heart are related, what comes from the heart, the hands will do. Integrity begins from within our heart and is based on holiness and sincerity (a pure heart).This is the inward aspect of integrity. If your heart is pure in terms of thoughts, attitudes, motives, purposes, and fill yourself with godliness, you will use your hands to do the right things, it result in holiness in life.
- Now, the pure heart here refers to sincerity. The word “sincere’ comes from the Greek for “without wax”. In the ancient world, dishonest potters would disguise cracks in low quality clay pots by covering them with wax. The pots looked perfect, but when exposed to heat, the wax would melt, exposing the cracks (and the potter’s dishonesty) and rendering the pot useless.
- If your heart is pure, you are sincere, you do not need anything in life to cover yourself so that you look good. If you do so, all your pretension, will be exposed like the wax on the cracks when exposed heat will melt. Disciples of Jesus with integrity will not do that.
- Now, the outward aspect of integrity. It is the second half of Psalmist answer to the question of who could stand in God’s place. He has to be “... who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.” This is referring to the part of integrity which include our behaviour which is to be blameless. You do not swear by what is false, your souls and body do not turn to the idols to worship them. They are outward things. This has to do with your mouths which swear. What you say, people hear. People will take your word. So, to be holy in your speech, make sure you remain pure in heart and say and do the right things, then, you are a person of integrity. Now, you see the importance of being the same in your heart, mind and actions?
- Let us apply the biblical foundation of integrity.

C. Applications.
- Jesus desires you to strive to be whole or complete in Him. Integrity means that your beliefs, attitudes, words, and actions are consistent with God’s nature.
- So, your what I am is very important. Are your beliefs, attitudes, words and actions in line with Jesus’ nature?
- Jesus models integrity by living a whole and integrated life in which His inner life (intimate relationship with the Father) and the outer life (the life the world saw) were consistent. Let us see Mark 12:14 “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You are not swayed by men because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.”
- Your unforgiveness, greed, broken promises, hatred, hypocrisy are against Jesus’ nature of forgiving, sacrifice, fulfilling promise, love, sincerity, etc.
- The next time you literally want to break your promise, for example, remember, your integrity is stake, God’s name is at stake, your witness is at stake.
- Next, in integrity, what you stand is of utmost importance. It is a commitment to your promise. Integrity means you are faithful to the words that you speak and the promises you made. Matthew 5:37 “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ your ‘No’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
- Integrity in its simplest term is keeping promises. The person of integrity is one who says something, can be trusted. When he or she gives her word, you can count on it.
- Next, integrity is what you do: Your actions are consistent with your promises. Your beliefs must be reflected in your words and also your actions. It is critical that our actions are consistent with God’s command for integrity.
- Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
- You see now how your actions must be integrated with your words and hearts. Our life must be an integrated life as opposed to a segregated life.

D. Conclusion
- You see how Daniel and his friends who were men of integrity, even in the midst of persecution of fire, from the beginning till the end, they fear God, they did not bow down to the idols. God rewarded them with protection as practise integrity.
- So, as you are living in a fallen world, when you are challenged in your integrity in your daily life, at home, at work place, market place, in the society, you stand firm on integrity, you will leave a strong and lasting impact in others’ life.But this will only happen if you seal your hearts with a commitment to integrity and you do not allow circumstances to determine our actions.

Is Jesus Calling You As His Disciples?

7th March, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

John 1:35-50
Main Idea: Jesus Is Calling Every Christian To Be His Disciples
Objectives: a. To examine how Jesus calls His disciples; b. To challenge the congregation to respond to Jesus calling to be His disciples.

A. Introduction
- Why do I entitle my sermon today as, “Is Jesus Calling You As His Disciples?”
- There are too many so called christians or believers around and we are not making a difference for Jesus. We are very much remaining at the level of doctrinal beliefs of our faith. We know what to believe but we do not do the right thing with what we believe.
- For example, we know scolding bad words or dirty words, cursing words are against the teaching of Jesus which says that what enters the mouth does not dirty us but it is what come out of our mouth that dirty us; Mat 15:11 “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him unclean, but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him unclean.”
- We know it is immoral to do adultery but we do it anyway. We know lying is wrong, we lied. Mat 5:37 “Simply let your “Yes” be “Yes” and your “No” be “No”; beyond this comes from the devil.
- We know that hatred is sinful, we hate anyway. Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are 6 things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among others.”
- We know that our anger until sunset is wrong, we do it anyway. Ephesians 4:26, 27 “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”
- Do not get drunk with wine, but we ignore the teaching and get drunk. Ephesians 5:18 “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit.”
- Do you see my point? We do believe in what is right, but we do not practise it. We live like any other non-christians who do not know the word.
- I strongly believe that the problem has to do with whether we are disciples of Jesus or not every now and then; whether we obey the person Jesus or not everyday. That is why my sermon today: “Is Jesus Calling You As His Disciples?”
- As long as you call yourself, a believer, a convert, you will just believe in the doctrines, and you never practise the doctrines. Some of us may be converted into a ritual called baptism or confirmation; you may just join a religion called christianity; you may the person Jesus just as any other idol, etc.
- We never regard Jesus as God whom we have to be responsible to; who will judge us; whom we have to obey, to follow. Are you following Jesus everyday, every moment? If you are, you are a disciple of Jesus. You will fear Him more than anything else. You will not be a Sunday Christian only.
- Is Jesus calling you to be His disciples? In Jesus’ days, he called people to follow him. He called disciples.

B. Unique ways used by Jesus to all His disciples.
- Jesus’ calling of each disciple is very unique, let us examine from the passage today.
- See see each one of them is convinced to follow Jesus.
- The 2 disciples of John upon hearing John saying,”Look, the Lamb of God!” Then verse 37 says, “When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.” One of them could be Andrew. And then, Andrew who told his brother, Simon, they had found the Messiah (verse 41), Andrew brought Simon, his brother to see Jesus. Take note of how Jesus called Simon in verse 42, “...You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas (translated, Peter)” Jesus has that kind of attraction and divine power to convince just by naming and Simon, then, he felt called to follow to Jesus.
- Then Jesus went on to call Philip in verse 43, where it says after Jesus found Philip, He just issued the calling to him, “Follow me.”
- Then Philip introduced Jesus to Nathanael by telling him that the group of them had found Jesus of Nazareth, the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and also the prophets wrote about in verse 45. But Nathaniel was sarcastic towards the person of Jesus and he asked, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (verse 46)
- Philip did not give up but he continued to invite Nathaniel to come and see Jesus in verse 46. When Jesus Nathaniel approaching Him, Jesus used His prophetic gift to tell him of his faith toward Israel and how honest he was as he had nothing false. And Jesus was able to tell him what happened before Philip called on him. Upon encountering Jesus in such a powerful manner, Nathaniel felt convinced to follow Jesus and he declared in verse 49, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” And then, Jesus went on to promise him that he would see heaven open and angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man in verse 51.
- As I reflect on the methods used to called each of His disciples, I see that the method varies from individual to individual. However, I do see that the underlining factor, the common factor, that caused these people, even a fisherman like Peter, not an educated man, would like to respond to Jesus calling to be His disciples.
- I believe the common factor that caused people to respond to his call is in essence, in nature: His divinity; His sacredness; He has the power from God which the respondents were convinced. You see the first 2 disciples were amazed by the power of Lamb of God; Philip must have seen or heard of Jesus divinity or divine power in somewhere, before he responded to Jesus calling, “Follow me.” Nathaniel was amazed with Jesus prophetic power and even affirm Jesus as the Son of God and the King of Israel and responded to Jesus calling.
- May be another common factor and it could be a more important factor than the first one that caused people to follow Jesus was that Jesus was believed and perceived to be the Old Testament divine person, saviour, whom Israel had been waiting. You get the clue in verse 45, where the group of disciples said they found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and the one whom the prophet wrote about.

C. Applications.
- Now, I strongly believe that Jesus whom God has sent to us is still very much calling us, each one of us to be His disciples. This calling is not very different from calling to be a clergy like an ordained pastor; serving God as a full time missionary, etc.
- Basically, people who are called by Jesus has this essential encounter with the divinity of God. Therefore, your knowledge of Jesus as God; your recognition of Him as your personal God; how you are in touch with Him in a powerful manner is very crucial in determining whether you follow Him as His disciples or not.
- My personal encounter with Jesus in His calling for me to be a pastor happened in my devotional prayer time. I just felt led to give up all my personal ambitions of becoming rich physically, owning a big house and big car, and aspiration to become a politician which eventually lead to becoming a deputy chief minister of Sarawak. Basically, I encounter God by presenting my life as a living sacrifice to God as taught by Romans 12:1,2. I just felt so convinced by His word. I felt at that time, if I did not make that decision I would regret for life. It was during my university second year I made that decision.
- What about you? Could God be using your life crisis to call you to respond to his calling to be his disciples? Your prayer and bible reading time? Your fasting time? A convention like Wesley Heritage on 20th to 22nd August, at Sibu, this year? While you are serving in any capacity in this church? Some of us have sensed the call and you have responded to it.
- But many still have not got it as I see you are only Sunday Christian.

D. Conclusion.
- You only have one life. Use your limited time on earth to be Jesus’ disciples.