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.