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

27th September, 2009

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Precious Space

12th Sept, 2009
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus Centred Faith and Actions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Impact of Disciples’ Prayer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Sunday School Sunday

Written by Pastor Law, posted by Peter Yong
15th February 2009

Proverbs 22:6 Training that teaches the total child
Main Idea: To teach the congregation to see that their main mission towards their children is to train their children in the way they should go.
Objectives: a. To explain the meaning of Proverbs 22:6. b. To challenge the congregation to teach their children to differentiate the right from wrong.

A. Introduction
- I am sure that those of you who have children you sometimes experience frustration, pains, and hurts in bringing them up.
- You may constantly struggle a lot and realize you need a lot of wisdom to nurture your children; to disciple them.
- Sometimes you may even run out of ideas how to help your children to overcome his or her attitude, habitual and behavioral problems. You may have even prayed to God for divine intervention and you still may not get an answer.
- As your shepherd I sincerely desire to preach to you this morning that the answer is all in bible. You need to search the bible for answers.
- What I am preaching to you this morning is really a verse out of hundreds of verses on children nurture or children discipleship. It is an often quoted verse on children discipleship.
- How do you help your children grow to overcome his or her habitual, attitude or behavioral problems? How do you nurture them to be honest, responsible, polite, hard-working, humble, God fearing, etc?
- One general verse which can address your needs is this powerful verse: Proverbs 22:6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”
- Let us use our heart, mind and soul and everything in us to examine this verse.
- I pray that after you realized the rich meaning of God’s word in Hebrew, you will be doers of God’s word.

B. Train.
- The Hebrew word for this has to do with inside of the mouth – the gums, palate, or the roof of the mouth, and it refers to the use of a bit or bridle that is placed in the mouth of an untamed horse. This is used to make a wild horse into submission.
- James 3:3 gives further explanation of the use of the bit. It says, “When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.”
- It is necessary to train or bring a child into submission, so that he will obey us and therefore turn about his whole direction.
- This getting them to turn from their own evil, selfish ways to obey Jesus Christ.



C. A Child.
- The same Hebrew word, ben, for child used here is found in several others places in the bibles. The examples are:
- 1Samuel 4:21, “She named the boy Ichabod….” Child here refers to a young infant who has just been born.
- Genesis 21:14, “Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy…” In this case, the word Hebrew word child here refers to Ishmel, who was 15 years old.
- Genesis 37:29, 30, “When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, ‘The boy isn’t there!” The Hebrew word for the child here refers to Joseph at the age of 7 years old.
- Genesis 34:5, “When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock…” The Hebrew word for child here refers to Jacob’s daughter who was of marriageable age.
- The time span here for “a child” can be from infancy until the age when he leaves home to marry.

D. In the way he should go.
- This phrase more literally means “in keeping with child’s way” or “in accordance to the way he was designed by God.”
- Parents must discover child’s way and adjust their training to it.
- The child’s way may refer to his temperament that was ordained by God, his creator. Therefore, within the framework of the principles of God, train the child according to his temperament or in keeping with his characteristics.
- Take for instance, we cannot train a sanguine (optimistic and happy, extrovert) the same as we will train a phlegmatic (unexcitable, cool and steady, introvert) or a choleric (hot, quick, active, practical strong-willed, very independent, extrovert) the same way as a melancholic (analytical, perfectionist, gifted and introvert).
- He must be trained in the way that God designed for him.

E. And when he is old.
- The word “old” here does not mean 60 or 70 years old! It refers to a male child when he begins to grow hair on his face or when he begins to enter the age of maturity.

F. He will not depart form it.
- What a fantastic promise! God has promised that a child will not depart from his parent’s training if they have done what God asked them to do.

G. Did God go back on His promise?
- Immediately some of you may cry out that you have given good training to your children and yet they go their rebellious way. Therefore, you conclude that God did not keep His promise.
- I would like to share with you some biblical principles about children nurture.
- Some parents absolutely believe they have given their children proper training when they do not have a right to claim to this.
- It takes more than living a good example and taking them to church every Sunday.
- It takes more than loving and providing for them.
- Let me quote an example from Beverly LaHaye book, “How To Develop Your Child’s Temperament.”
- There was a family of 4. The father and mother loved each other very much. They were patient, soft spoken, and kind to one another. Rarely the whole family missed church on Sunday. But one important and tragic mistake was made.
- These fine parents never insisted that their 2 children obey them, and the day came when the children followed their own desires instead of obeying their parents. Both of these children married unbelievers and they were divorced.
- They were not walking with God and the parents wonder why.
- Children have to be taught to obey their parents so they will obey God.
- God’s requests of parents are: a. Bring your child under subjection. B. Teach him obedience. C. Turn him from evil toward Jesus Christ d. Train him according to the way God designed him. E. Train him from infancy to the time he leaves home to marry.
- God’ promise then is this: If we have fulfilled God’s requests, our child will not depart from our training when reaches maturity.
- One of God’s requests is training them to obey parents and God. We fail to do that, then we cannot expect Him to keep His promise.
- Some parents have failed to bring their children into subjection while others have failed because they stopped the training too early in life or stated too late.
- What do parents do when they realize they are already negligent and time is passing by so quickly? You may think that your children have already grown so big that it seems hopeless that any change is possible.
- There is hope because nothing is impossible with God.
- Consider the following steps, regardless of what stage your children are in, and trust God to bring about a change in their lives: (Ideas by Beverly LaHaye)

1. Recognize and admit the areas of your failure. Ask God to show you where you are weak and be willing to name the problems, like, pride, inconsistency, wrong priorities, irritability (tending to get angry at small things which are being said or done), permissiveness (allowing too much freedom especially on sexual matters), etc.
2. Confess them before God and ask For His forgiveness.
3. Prayerfully and lovingly confess it to the family members you have offended and pray they will be forgiving.
4. Ask God to help you change your habits and develop a new plan to correct the old.
5. Have faith that the Holy Spirit will change your life and trust God to correct the wrong you have done to your children.
6. Begin living from this new point in life and not under the guilt of the past.

- Keep in mind that your Heavenly father is even more desirous than you are in making you a successful parent, but you have to follow His principles.
- Parents, if you have followed the above 6 steps, then, you can lift your head high and enjoy life and your children. Don’t be impatient to wait upon the Lord to bring about a change! Love your children just as they are and wait patiently for God to work in their lives.

H. God does not expect perfect parents.
- But He does lay down few basic requirements for training children. We can fall short in many areas, but God does expect us to train them in obedience and bring them to subjection under parents.
- Teaching obedience is more than giving instructions. It is instructing and then insisting on the child’s compliance. Too often we tell the child what we want him to do, but we neglect to insist that he does it.
- Beverley LaHaye quoted an example of a fantastic missionary, after 20 years of service, he was not given the privilege to take over the leadership of His mission organization because of his refusal to carry out orders the way he had been instructed. The heads of his organization loved and admired him and they were fully aware of his great contribution to mission organization, after so many years of service as an assistant, they could not trust him to be the overall in-charge because he consistently refused to carefully follow instructions. He did not fight or argue but he always did things his own ways. Somewhere as a child, absolute obedience was not insisted upon. Consequently, he missed a great opportunity in life to head a great mission organization and he had to go through this traumatic experience.
- Effective training of our children can be summarized as the formula according to Beverly LaHaye: Instruction + Love + Insistence = Effective Training.
- The most important challenge of being a parent is not to be perfect, but to teach the child to one day take full responsibility for his own life.

I. Teaching your child right from wrong.
- As you train your child to take responsibility for his own life, you need to teach him or her to differentiate right from wrong.
- When do children know right from wrong? Lying, stealing, cheating, breaking promises are all acts that even good children commit.
- Dr Lawrence Kohlberg, professor of Education and Social Psychology at Harvard University, says children up to the age of 10 rarely are capable of what most adults regard as “pure” moral judgments.
- Until the age of 10, a child’s understandings of morality come, not from any abstract ideas of right and wrong, but from his feelings about what will happen to him. He obeys rules to avoid being punished, or he is nice to other people so that the others will be nice to him.
- We adults believe that children understand right and wrong the same way we do.
- It is a wrong understanding. What matters most to the young children is what actually happens, not the motivation behind the wrong act.
- Very often we reacted emotionally to what the bad things our children have done, not because of the behavior itself but because of the motives behind them.
- When a child takes a toy from the shop without payment, we parents or adults understood it as stealing. We feel guilty about the bad behavior of our children.
- But today as we understand our children better, we are more at peace with ourselves. We learn that before the age of 10 they are not capable of moral judgment.
- But then, we must make effort to train and help them in their moral development.
- It is very important to help them to understand that God does not approve of lying, cheating, hitting one another and stealing.
- So, do not get panic when your children steal, lie, cheat, etc. Instead, use the experience to train him to tell him it is wrong to steal, lie, cheat, etc. He must correct himself from his wrong actions.
- He must correct it with God by confessing his sins, and then he must make say sorry or apologize to the person whom he has sinned against. This will produce a signal in him that he had better not do it again. He must understand that a wrong deed is displeasing to God, mommy and daddy, and finally, to the victim of the circumstance.
- The best time to teach and discuss morality is when a child has done something praise worthy or when he is indecisive about a problem. It is beneficial to the child to have to come to a decision by himself on certain issues.
- Take for instance, Mary has promised Sally to go over to stay a night at her house. So, Sally is very excited and looks forward to her companionship and she makes plan to for her. Then, Mary received a better invitation that is even better where there is party. Now, she is forced to make a decision. Her parents give her the right to decide but encouraged her to think about the moral issues behind her dilemma. She needs to be told how she will disappoint her good friend and even hurt her. She needs to be asked what if somebody does it to her what she would feel. With all the guidance, hopefully, she will not break her promise to Sally.

J. The importance of parental authority.
- As a child learns to differentiate the right from wrong from parents, she also learns to submit to the loving leadership of his parents. Then, one day, he will also know how to submit to the other forms of authority which he will face in future.
- Children who do not respect leadership will become rebellious and confused.
- However, a child who submits to the loving authority of his parents will learn to submit to the loving leadership of his heavenly father.
- Regardless of whether we like it or not, a little child relates his parents to God. He sees God just as he sees his earthly father.
- Parents’ lives must reflect both authority and unlimited love so that they might best represent the divine nature of God.
- Children learn the tender mercy of God through their parents’ love for them.
- But our God is also a God of divine authority. To represent God with love and not with authority is as serious a misrepresentation as picturing God as absolute authority without love.
- Therefore, a child who does not respect the authority of his parents and a child who has been allowed to disobey his or her parents can hardly submit to the authority of God.
- A child must submit to his or her parents’ authority, then to the leadership of his or her pastors, church leaders, BB and GB officers, i-youth advisors, Sunday School, teachers in schools, police, employers, and finally responding to the majestic authority of the Lord.

K. Children learn by watching.
- As parents train their children to submit to their authority, take note also that, if you desire them to obey you, or God or other authorities, how you live your life is far more important than what you say or try to teach.
- Children learn best by watching what their parents do.
- Dr Howard Hendricks who authored the book, “Teaching to Change Lives”, has produced a bright disciple in the person of Dr. Bruce Wilkinson who authored the book, “The 7 Laws of Learner”, both experts in Christian education have greatly impacted my by their books; Dr Howard Hendricks, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, said that in family living you cannot impart what you do not know. You cannot teach your child what you have not experienced.
- Before a parent can develop a child’s desire for spiritual things, he needs first to have a spiritual experience with Christ himself and then a plan for continual growth in the Lord.
- The greatest weakness in Christian homes is parents who try to teach their children principles contrary to what they themselves are living.
- Then, how you can help yourself to become the kind of parent your needs? (Ideas by Beverly LaHaye)

1. Recognize that Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin.
- Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
- Ephesians 1:7, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace…”
2. Repent of your self-will.
- Luke 13:3, “…But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
3. Receive Christ as Lord and Savior by turning your life over to Christ and making Him Lord of your life. When you invite Him in, He will cleanse you from your past sins and give you wisdom and guidance, including how to disciple and train your children in the way he should go.
- John 1:12, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
4. Remember to let Jesus Christ direct the daily decisions of your life.
- Proverbs 3:6, “in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
- Ephesians 5:18 “Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”


L. Conclusion:
- As you are filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit, you will disciple your children: you will train your children to be Christ-like. This is what matters the most

Be Doers of God's Word

Written by Pastor Law, posted by Peter Yong
1st February 2009

James 1:19-27

Main idea: To challenge the congregation to obey God’s word.

Objectives :(1) To explain that obeying God’s word is practicing scriptural holiness. (2) To mobilize the congregation to do a social concerns project.

A. Introduction

- Margaret Thatcher, one of the former prime ministers of Britain, says, “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he had only had good intentions.”

- Three frogs sat on a log and one decided to jump off. How many frogs were left on the log? Three, just because we decide to do something doesn’t mean we will actually do it.

- One guy said to his friend, “When a person walks, I know if he has been a soldier?” The friend asked, “How do you know?” The guy said, “From the way he moves his step, I will know.”

- The greatest misunderstanding towards the doctrine of “Justification by faith is we believe that accepting Jesus we will be saved. Then, in our daily living we do not need to pay the price for the sake of Christ. This type of gospel is called the cheap gospel.

- If a guy really falls in love with a girl, when the girl meets with a problem, this guy will express his love for her through actions. Similarly, if a person really believes in God, he will express his faith in this God through his actions.

- If we are Christians or not, it can be seen from our action.

- The passage today has very strong message of do not mere listeners of God’s word but be doers of God’s word.

- James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the world, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

- This was truly the spirit of the early Christianity, be doers of God’s word.

- In the midst of persecution, they still need to be doers of God’s word. It was where they could stand up for Jesus and proved they were genuine Christians.

B. Descriptions of Doers of God’s Word.

- Let us see how the author of the book James describes doers of God’s word.

- Basically, the descriptions are found in verse 25. Doers of God’s word is described as:

1. Verse 25, “But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.”

- This was such an encouragement to the Jewish Christians as they were rewarded for their obedience to God’s word. They really needed that kind of encouragement as they were persecuted for their belief in Christ. Now they knew their obedience to Christ will not be in vain. They were hopeful of a future reward for being doers of God’s word.

- On the other hand, a persons who does not do God’s word is described in

1. Verse 23 and 24, “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like”

- It was a gentle way to rebuke the disobedient Jewish Christians in the midst of persecutions.

- Forgetting about yourself was really a bad thing. That meant you did not know your identity and you were not conscious of your own self. Nobody liked to be in this kind of situation.

C. How should the doers of God’s word behave themselves?

- This is where author gets very practical. This is where he is very down to earth in his instruction on details about the Jewish Christian daily living.

- I consider these instructions as scriptural holiness. It is instructions revealed by God to a writer and how to live a holy, righteous life.

- They are so useful that you start to ask how God is so concerned about details like that in our life.

- This is how God desires Jewish Christians and even all of us as disciples of Christ today behave.

- (1). The first instruction is most down to earth. It deals with our temperament and emotion. It could the problem of lots of people, including Jewish Christians and Christians and Christians today. It is recorded in verse 19,”…Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry… Praise the Lord that quick to listen; slow to speak; slow to become angry, is practicing scriptural holiness. Being able to control your anger is holy. In terms of discipleship, if you can control your anger you are considered as becoming more matured. God in the person of Jesus desires you to be slow to speak and slow to anger. Can you do that?

- James even justify man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. That is it. Ability to control your anger is an expression of your holiness. It is something that God desires. If controlling your anger is God’s desire, then, being angry is your desire.

- And most probably the anger has caused the Jewish Christians lots of moral filth and make them to become so evil, therefore James writes in verse 21, “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent …”

- When you are angry and you do not control your anger you tend produce moral filth like cursing, scolding, speaking words meant to destroy your husband, wife, children and parents. When you are angry you tend not to think of consequences of your attentions. In most cases you will take actions that please the devil. You will entertain the ideas of the devil. The devil tells you to entertain your pride and you will do it. The devil asks you not to be patient and do not reason things out, you will do it.

- If you can control your anger, you are removing the moral filth and the evil desires in you.

- James has an ever ready solution on helping the Jewish Christians to practice scriptural holiness. He teaches us how to control our anger. The answer lies in the later half of verse 21, “…accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” It is basically the word of God that helps you to control your anger.

- Personally, the word of God in the Ephesians always helps me to control my anger. 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.”

- And also, I am reminded by the word of God in Galatians 5:22, 23 on the fruit of Spirit like patience and self-control. When I am angry, I choose to be filled by the Holy Spirit and I bear the fruit of patience and self control. I practice scriptural holiness.

- (2). The second very practical instruction that James give for the Jewish Christians in the midst of persecution and helping them to pay attention to their daily living behavior is concerning the use of their tongue. This is where he says in verse 26, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.”

- The ability to control your tongue is practicing scriptural holiness. You can imagine this is linked to the instruction above on how to control your anger. When you are angry, you tend to say negative things and so James now say, you need to control your tongue. Being able to control your tongue is holy, righteous. It is religious! So, how well have you controlled your tongues

- In mandarin we say, “Disaster comes from the mouth.” It may sound an exaggeration but there is definitely some truths in it. Especially words that hurt the feelings of people; words that look down on people; words that are tearing down the self esteem of people; words that embarrass people, etc.

- Take heed of James’ teaching that the expressions of your tongue represent your religion or your faith. Failure to control your tongue is deceiving yourself and not telling yourself the truth and your religion is worthless, useless.

- (3) The third practical instruction that we all can do is this: in verse 27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. God desires us to practice scriptural holiness by taking care of the widows and orphans and to keep yourself from being polluted by the world.

- In the past you may have the impression that praying a lot is holy; preaching the gospel is holy; coming to Sunday morning worship is holy; but today, you really learn that holiness has its social dimensions. Taking care of orphan and widows are considered as social holiness in John Wesley’s term. It is also called works of mercy.

- This year, in view of the theme of GMC, “Spreading scriptural holiness, transforming our nation,” we do not only emphasize preaching the gospel to the lost but also emphasize social concerns ministry. Right from the beginning of the year, the social concerns committee has identified a poor family in BM ministry, Tudan Preaching Centre with the help of Pastor Chan Jing Mei.

- Rose is a single mother, an Iban lady in her 30s with 2 children, all of whom were baptized by me in the year 2006. One is 21 years old, a down syndrome child; the other one is 12 year old. You may get to know the family later in the power points. She is working part time earning RM450 per month as a cleaner at International Hotel restaurant. She receives a social welfare help of RM75/ month from the government. She has to spend RM100 on one son for schooling; RM70 for electricity and water bill; she needs to spend RM100 for transportation to work everyday. The rest is for her food. She cannot afford to build a higher house to avoid flood. Our church now needs to come in to help to repair or rebuild their house that is prone to flooding. You will see her plight later on in the power points.

- Rose and the 2 children may not be considered as widow or orphans but they definitely demand our attentions for they deserve our love and care as they are poor. You are called to give towards building her house; you may put on the envelop the label for “Rose House Building.” Besides, when we get ready the material, we need to go there to dirty our hands and do gotong royong to build the house. Does it scare you? But this is practicing scriptural holiness.

D. Conclusion

- In conclusion let me quote again verse 22, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

- Let us apply the word of God today by giving to help the single mother and the 2 children to rebuild their house.

- There was one lady who carelessly drop her Hundred thousand check into the septic tank. This beautiful lady with a beautiful dress, pinching her nose to fight against the bad smell, she was not daring to even try to bend down into the septic tank to pick the check. As she jump up and down and shouted for help, she attracted the attention of passers by. Many came to surround her and gave all kinds of wonderful opinions to get the check. Someone suggest getting 2 sticks to pick up the check. Another said a big scoop can be used to pick up the check. Another said using a hook to do it.

- Just when everybody is busy suggesting the best method and do nothing, an old lady bend down and used her hand to pick up the check. The reporter rushed towards her and asked, “You are not bothered by the bad smell?” The old lady shook her head and said not at all.

- We do not need too complicated plan because it will cause us not daring enough to take step forward.

- We do not need a wonderful plan because it does not help us to achieve anything.

- We do not need a beautiful slogan as it will make us forget what we really to do.

- There is no point in coming up with the best method, most wonderful method, the most complicated method without action; it is much better to use the most stupid method that can do the job.

- No plan is the best if you do not take action to carry out the plan.

- No word of God will be the best if it is not carried out. The word of God will become the best if you do it

- Do not merely listen to what the word of God says, do what it says.

The Spirit - The Breath of God

Written by Pastor Law, posted by Peter Yong
26th January 2009

John 20:19-23;

Acts 2:1-4

Main Idea: Appropriate the Holy Spirit in you to do ministry.

Objective: To challenge the congregation to allow the Holy Spirit to empower them to serve God.

1. Introduction.

- Why the spiritual power experienced by the first century Christians is not something we can also experience today in our church?

- The simple explanation is we cannot have the fruits without the roots.

- What are the roots we are talking about here? It is the infilling of the Holy Spirit; the Pentecost. The empowerment of the early disciples by the holy spirit had bear much fruits for the early church.

- Two of the great revivalists of a past generation were Jonathan Edwards and Charles G. Finney. Jonathan Edwards viewed revival as a sovereign act of God which could in no way be influenced by man’s preparation. Charles Finney disagreed with Jonathan Edwards and he believed that God was always ready to bless His people with revivals and we men and women could have revivals whenever we are ready to pay the price in heart preparation.

- The day of Pentecost showed that both were right and both were wrong.

- In Acts 2:1, it says, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” The Holy Spirit came down only “when the day of Pentecost came…”

- No amount of self-emptying or heart preparation on disciples’ part would cause the Holy Spirit to come down on any other day.

- But this sovereign act of God coincided with deep humbling on the part of the disciples. The spirit would not have come upon men and women in whose hearts are not prepared for the Holy Spirit to fill.

- The 10 days of waiting and prayer had produced the result of what is stated in Luke 24:49, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

- At the Pentecost God’s sovereign purpose and man’s essential preparation came to maturity, and immediately there followed the divine intervention of God. There were 3 supernatural phenomena.

2. Explanation of the text.

- The early church (first century) Christians and disciples of Jesus experienced the supernatural Holy Spirit visitation in Acts 2:2, “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind come from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.”

- This was their first recoded encounter with the supernatural Holy Spirit. It was an experience of 120 disciples of Jesus; it signified the mysterious renewing and purifying of the Spirit in the church.

- And the second supernatural phenomenon is recorded in Acts 2:3, “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” This was an individual experience, symbolizing the Spirit’s melting, warming, purging ministry.

- The third supernatural phenomenon is recorded in Acts 2: 4,6, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them… When they heard this sound a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.”

- This was the outcome of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early disciples, they all became witnesses to the fact that many languages became one.

- This historical descending of the divine Holy Spirit had great implications for the first century disciples and for all of us today.

- When they received the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, they were no more behaving as described in John 20:19 , where after the death of Jesus, the disciples locked themselves behind the closed doors because they were fearful of the Jews.

- After they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, they became very bold. Acts 2:46, 47 say, “Everyday they continued to meet in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

- The who gathered in Jerusalem at that time knew something very strange happened the disciples of Jesus and they could not explain it.

- In their effort to explained, they mocked and said, “They have had too much wine.”

- Peter stepped forward and spoke to the Jews in their face and said the Christians were not intoxicated but they were filled with another spirit. So, in Acts 2:17 and 18, he quoted the Old Testament prophesies from the book of Joel 2:28-32 and interpreted it, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”

3. Impacts of Being Filled by the Holy Spirit.

- The extent of how much the Holy Spirit had transformed the lives of the waiting and praying disciples was shocking.

- After they experienced the effects of being filled by the Holy Spirit, the risen Christ became real to them. They preached as if Christ was with them. They received entirely new insights concerning the Old Testament scriptures.

- Even Peter was able to link the prophesies of prophet Joel with the present situation and said, “…this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.” (verse 16)

- And the Apostle Peter’s sermon which was authoritative and sharp produced deep conviction in his audience.

- In Acts 2:37, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the cut and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘What shall we do?’”

- Peter’s sermon left a deep impression on their minds of the hearers, and they were baptized. In Acts 2:41, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3000 were added to their number that day.”

- One of the most significant changes in the attitude of these former unbelievers of Jesus was that their willingness to preach the gospel and so many thousands into the early Christianity movement. Such was the powerful impact of the Holy Spirit in the life of the early disciples of Jesus.

- How can that transforming power of Holy Spirit take place in our lives?

- Now, we must allow the first message of our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ with regards to the Holy Spirit impact our lives.

- The message is taken from John 20:19-22, “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After that he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

4. Symbolic Act of Christ’s Breathing

- Let us understand the symbolic act of Christ’s breathing. It was breathing into the disciples.

- The word “Spirit” is derived from the Latin spiritus, it means breath.

- The Greek word for the Spirit, pneuma, also means wind or breath.

- The Hebrew word for Spirit, ruach, has the same meaning.

- It was the Breath of God which produced order out of chaos in the beginning (Genesis 1:2). Man became a living soul by God breathing into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7)

- With this in mind, let us see the meaning of the symbolic act of Christ’s breathing into the disciples. This was where Jesus revealed to them the source of their power.

- First, Jesus blessed them with peace twice (John 20:19,21)

- Next, Jesus gave them the great commission, 20:21, “… as the father sent me, I am sending you.”

- Then, Jesus imparted to them the Spirit in verse 22, “And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.”

- You see, without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the disciples would be powerless to do Christ’s commission.

- This was really a foretelling of the coming Pentecost. It teaches us a valuable lesson.

- As if Jesus is saying to his disciples and all of us today, “ All you have to do is to breathe in, to take the Holy Spirit I impart to you now. He is the power to enable you to fulfill my commission.”

- The disciples breathed in what Christ breathed out.

- On the day of Pentecost, God breathed out, Acts 2:2, “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heavens and filled the whole house where they were sitting.”

- The early disciples breathed in, and verse 4 says, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…”

- When disciples like you and me breathe in or receive the Holy Spirit, just as when we place iron in the fire, the fire enters the iron and the iron will acquire the properties of the fire.

- Dr J. Wilbur Chapman, a noted American evangelist who with Charles Alexander exercised a mighty evangelistic ministry around the world, was at one time deeply concerned at the lack of fruitfulness in his ministry.

- “What is the matter with me?’ He asked Dr. F. B. Meyer. “So many times I fail, so many times I am powerless. What is the reason?” Dr F. B. Meyer answered, “Have you ever tried breathing out 3 times without breathing in once? Dr Chapman realized the need to be filled by the Holy Spirit to do ministry.

5. You have the Holy Spirit and You need to be filled by the Holy Spirit.

- Paul says in Romans 8:9, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ.”

- 1Corinthians 3:16, Paul says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you.”

- You need to realize that being filled with the Spirit is something that involves conscious decision. You need to go for it and desire it.

- You may possess the Holy Spirit but you may not be filled with the Holy Spirit.

- There is no point in having a check of RM1000 in my pocket if I do not know it is there; or if I do not its value, I will not use it.

- I have received the check in the sense that I possess a piece of paper. But actually, I have not received it until I present it at the bank an receive its value in cash.

- If this is true, it is our part to breathe out, to exhale from our lives all that is impure and unworthy, and then, to breathe in, to consciously allow the Holy Spirit to fill us