2 February 2014 - Pastor Mark

Praise and Worship: Adeline first led the worship today with a Hokkien song. Can't locate it online. Nice. Recently, I noticed something different with worship. Maybe it started while I was in Mongolia last few weeks. Well, I thought there was really impact and it reminded me on the similarity with Hillsong worship services. During the midst of the third song, Pastor Dan came onstage to pronounce God's blessings on us. This was what Pastor Lawrence did last week too. After that, we continued with songs and honestly I thought  it was good. Enjoyed it entirely.
Sharing with everyone some of the great songs we sang.

1) Magnificent

2) I Could Sing of Your Love Forever

Before service starts, the Visual Arts Ministry aired a video titled "家". In this awesome video, it showed a mother named Martha who worked tirelessly for the family. Martha cooks and prepares the reunion dinner for the family. Not only that, she cleans, take cares of the children and grandpa. It depicts a wonderful mother who works non-stop but at times chides her husband and children over failure in doing well over some tasks.

When relatives gathered together over dinner, one asked her husband what is he busy with at work recently. Martha answers almost immediately on her husband's behalf explaining he is in his own business but in actual fact is jobless.
Further on in the clip, it showed a broken family portrait and sent a message to everyone saying that things broken can be mended. It is not about portraying the to-look-good on ourselves to others. It highlighted the importance staying together as a family.

Interestingly, I've found some related videos on YouTube. Enjoy! I believe the video should be up in the next couple of days.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX6obloRP4E
Behind-the-scenes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgWsfuCjhXY

Pastor Mark comes onstage and received a very warm welcome by everyone. He was beaming with happiness and the crowd had some good laughs when he started speaking.

We are not perfect but we have God who is perfect. Today Pastor Mark has a special message to bless all of us.

On the topic of the video titled "家": A family is always about love, acceptance and security. But sometimes in life, under the fallen nature, we want to look good and impress others. We are not meant to live on our own. Because of sin, it reaches to the depth of our conscious. It gives us a sense of under qualification and a sense of shame. When we have these senses, we feel that we need to impress others. Due to the pressure, we forget the definition of all festive seasons. It is not how other people look at you but how God looks at you.

The most important part is that we do not have to sweep everything under the carpet. As you get married, we all have a similar thought of having a good family. As children come about, things may change. We face pressure at work and in families. But because of the responsibility, we have so much pressure. In fact, all of children want to study well and want to make our parents proud. We parents can never question the kid why they cannot be like us 10 years ago. There was no Internet in the past, no Instagram or Facebook. Times have changed.

When you are so under stress, we say very hurting words. We are here not to blame each other. Every biological family we come from, we cannot change these things. But we have God who can change things.

Pastor Mark shared that in the past, when his wife comes to him with all sorts of problems, he gets angry when he cannot come up with a solution. He throws his temper and gives up on those problems before him. He shared that that behaviour is what he saw from his parents when growing up and he just behaved in the same manner. We tend to follow our earthly fathers. They are not perfect. But today, we can behave like our heavenly Father, who is compassionate and full of love.

Pastor then goes on to illustrate the durian. When we finish consuming durian, we end up with the fragrance of durian. But if we were wash our hands using the husk, notice all smell is gone.

Today what is the solution to all our problems? Another family is the solution. Be in the house of God, surrounded with many families of Christ.

Jesus says when you look at Me, you will know my Father.
Jesus came to give us a connection to God. Jesus always give us the consciousness of God. We forgive as God has forgive us. We learn everything from Him.

As we receive His love, we begin to forgive others.

Without Jesus in our lives, we are in an entire mess. Jesus says to those who are weary and heavy laden, "Come onto Me." There is a place of rest because Jesus came to give us rest.

Pastor illustrates another example:
Every Singaporeans need to take a lift. All lifts come with a counter weight feature to lift the lift up. Using the same logic, Jesus came down (the weights) so that we can go up to heavenly places. He came down to give us peace. Jesus can meet your needs.

Being able to love your family is a gift from God. We all need hugs and to hug.
A family is a place of love and acceptance. Parents, please hug your sons and daughters. Especially when they are growing up, they need more hugs. Some say, if you don't hug, others will hug on your behalf. Kids are constantly looking for love and acceptance. The more we hug them, the more others have no chance to hug.

In fact, when wives come to you with tons of problems, they are not really asking you for solutions. They just want a hug from you.

God looks out for your mistakes to love you.
A future with no Jesus is no future. So what you have all the certificates in the world.
Grace is when you don't deserve it.

Pastor shared about her daughter's growing up years. During Secondary 3, her daughter asked if a Nintendo DS can be her reward when she passed her mother tongue. Being a father, he agreed to it because it is easy to give. Unfortunately, she failed and was afraid to face her parents. One day, Pastor brought her daughter to buy a Nintendo DS which caught her daughter by surprise. She said why buy her the gift when she failed. This was when Pastor told her that he still loves her even though she fail. This example was an unforgettable experience for her daughter and it is also through this experience she believed her father really love her.

In life, it is not just about education. It is the grace of God.

You may be sitting there saying "Aiya Pastor, my daughter grow up already. Now got other problems, it's too late already."

We always say "If early know, I won't do this, won't do that." We don't have to "early know". Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega and is all knowing. There's no need for us to "early know".

Jesus knows all your fears and He still loves you. Despite all your shortcoming, He still blesses you this coming year.

God finds every way to bless us. For every new failings, He gives you more abounding grace. God used all the He has to bless us through His son.

In the first message of the year, Pastor Prince shared about the oil. Jacob failed God and He appeared to him at Bethel. God is for you and forgives you.

Genesis 28:17

Verse 17: Jacob saw the gates of heavens.

We can tell everything to our kids but if they don't believe them, it is pointless. We need our kids to believe is us. Similarly, we should put all our trust in Him.

John 1:51
Verse 51: Jesus is the Son of man. Jesus come down to bless everyone of us. The church is the gate of heavens.

Acts 3 talks about a lame man. When Peter appeared at the beautiful (美) gate, he asked the man to arise in the name of Jesus. The man rose up. Just like this man, we are lame, poor and we can't walk properly. We are all dysfunctional. But we have Jesus today.

The word "smelly" (臭) in Chinese, is made up of the words "自" + "大" and '.

We need to hear more about Jesus. We are always thinking of how to be blessed.
Even Abraham thought so. God told Abraham that He is his protector. Then Abraham asked how does he know he will inherit His blessings? God asked him to take a turtle dove and cut them apart. God is telling him that His blood has been paid for you.

Romans 3:25-26
Because you believe in His finished work, he has no choice but to bless you.

The people in Israel knows how the year will be. When the people hear the bells on the high priest's legs, they know it is a good year. Though the year haven't passed yet, they know it is a great year.

The anointing and the blood of Jesus Christ is the guarantee of all good things this year.

Isaiah 60:1-2
The glory of the Lord is upon us. The Lord will rise and shine upon us. His glory will be seen upon us. Today the news tell us all sorts of bad news. But this verse is for us in these times.

In closing,

福星高照 - Pastor says God is shining on you right now.