21 April 2013 - Matt & Laurie Crouch (Trinity Broadcasting Network)

Church service started exceptionally late today. Waited exactly one hour before service actually started. There was no announcements and no one really knew what was happening until we saw from afar a group of people. It was Pastor Prince and his pastors coming in with what I thought was a guest speaker. Was starting to get restless with all the waiting until it was finally announced that the "guest speaker" was none other than Matt Crouch and his wife from Trinity Broadcasting Network. And so, it was indeed a very distinguished guest we have here.

Well, I have to say it is a privilege to see Matt and his wife live at the Star. They cracked up the audience and finally brought Pastor Prince onstage for what seemed like a live interview.

Took some awesome pics for your viewing pleasure.

Welcoming Matt and Laurie on stage for the first time in Singapore.

Pastor Prince coming up right away.

Here we go, all 3 on stage.

Special song item just before the service starts - I See Grace

Beating to the beat with the big drums.

Everyone comes on stage for an explosive praise and worship session.

Praise and Worship: Sean leads the church with some great songs today.

Lord Of All My Days: (Video not available)

http://mp3skull.com/mp3/lord_of_all_my_days_new_creation_church.html

Topic: You Are Accepted in Christ Through His Obedience

It is the power (dunamis) of God unto salvation. The gospel is the power of God. Today we are not hearing the gospel of what Paul preached. This gospel gives you the wholeness, health and preservation. In this gospel, righteousness is revealed. Today we are hearing many different gospels. Whenever we preach righteousness by faith, many Christians agree but usually associate it with works.

In John 20, fear is sin. When the disciples cried out due to fear of the howling winds when out in the sea, Jesus appeared in their presence to give them peace.
All of Jesus' disciples have real problems. Matthew is a tax collector and back in those days, they were labelled as outcasts. Yet Jesus said, "Follow Me" to Matthew. Jesus has come to be with you forever. If you have challenges in your life, He will be with you and He never forsakes you.

Romans 16:25-26
Verse 25 & 26: God commanded for the revelation of the mystery kept secret to be manifested today. The result is for obedience to the faith. Under law, obedience is the root for all blessings. Under grace, God blesses you first and obedience becomes the fruits. It is never giving people the license to sin.

You are not righteous by your own obedience. You are righteous through His obedience. The righteous shall live by faith and right believing. When you believe the true gospel, you will have the right results.

Romans 5:19
Verse 19: It is through Adam's disobedience that many were made sinners. But it is through one Man's obedience many will be made righteous. Pastor jokes that in heaven, Adam's mansion is in a far away place and well protected since he was the one who introduced sin. Well, that's just a joke and there is no hatred in heaven.

When the Samaritan woman offer Jesus a drink, Jesus told the woman, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water". Jesus then slowly revealed the woman's sins tenderly. He exposed her sins so that she would then know how much she is loved. When a person keeps a part of himself (secret/dark side) from someone, he will not feel loved.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5
Verse 5: The obedience of Christ. The devil wants you to take your mind off from the obedience of God to point you to your own obedience.

When you partake His body, you need to discern His body and not partake it unworthily. This context is referring to your action. The bible did not mean that unworthy people cannot partake of His body. The context in this verse is referring to the action.

Do not receive negative thoughts or take responsibility for it. It can come from your thoughts or from your flesh. The flesh is crucified but the lifestyle of it still remains. If you accept such thoughts, everything will go down in a spiral. The highest form of resistance is to ignore the devil.

Pastor shared how he tried very much to confess every of his sins in his younger days. Until one day, God revealed to him that it is through His grace and obedience and not depending on his own efforts.

The bible says we are of sweet fragrance to Him.

When Pastor was delivered the wrong belief, he curiously asked God if there were anyone in church history who went through the same. He then came across a book by John Bunyan which talks about his struggles throughout his walk with God in his autobiography. He also talked about all his comfort taken away from him. At that time, Pastor appreciated the fact that he was not alone in this spiritual warfare.

1 John 4:17
Verse 17: ".. because As He is, so are we in this world." Remind yourself that as He is crowned with goodness and seated beside God, so are we in this world. As He is healthy, so are we in this world. The more we behold His name, the more we see His goodness.

The way to have more grace in this life is to know more of God, revealed in 2 Peter 1:2. It is through seeing Jesus more and also every pastor has the responsibility to reveal the beauty of Jesus to the people. The more they behold the glory, the holy spirit transforms them more and more.

When you take your eyes away from Christ, everything became natural. When Peter looked away from Jesus, he started to sink into the water. When he locked his eyes on Him, he was able to walk on water. The holy spirit does the work when you keep your eyes on Jesus.

As the high priest goes, so does the nation goes. The high priest is appointed by God for the people. He goes into the hollies of hollies and if he comes out alive, the people can look forward to a great year. It is not how good the nation is, it is based on how good the priest is.

Pastor welcomes the high priest - Deacon Matthews on stage.

The names of Israel are engraved on the precious stones and carried on the breast of the high priest. This is a representation of His love. He has you in His heart.
Shoulder represents strength. When Jesus found the lost sheep, He puts it on His shoulders. Notice you don't have to carry yourself, you just have to rest on His shoulders. The sheep did not have to do anything. The sheep repented by allowing itself to be carried.
The moment you are born in this world, your name is already on His heart. But if the people of the world rejects Christ at the end of their life, their names are then removed. God does not remove the names of His children.
But why precious stones? God wants you to know that you are unique in your own beauty and He sees us in our beauty. The Lord loves us all individually. You are not just a face in the crowd.
When you come to God, you are presented to God (who is light) and the precious stones reflect the beauty of you. Don't be afraid of the light. It just shows how perfect His blood that cleansed you.

Exodus 28:36-38
Verse 38: Aaron is a high priest. The words on the forehead are Jesus' thoughts. God accepts you not based on your thoughts. God accepts you based on Jesus' thoughts. God is not rejecting you because of your thoughts. As He is, so are we in this world.

Some of you are worried about tomorrow. Stress came in when sin first came in. Sweat is a picture of stress and self efforts.
Luke 22:44
Verse 44: Sweat became great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Because of the redeeming blood of Jesus, He has redeemed us from sweat and stress. As the blood fell to the ground, everywhere you go, you will experience the favour of God.

In closing,

Back to Exodus 28:38, the high priest bears the iniquity of the holy things. Even holy things has iniquity but the high priest take cares of them. As long as the high priest has good thoughts, you are accepted in Him.
Accepted - ratzon which means favour.
His favour is like dew on the grass. The word "favour" in this verse is also ratzon.

When we think of God's love, we are overwhelmed. Wherever we turn Jesus, we see only beauty and His excellencies. When He is kind, He is not soft. There's a hero above all pop singers. Jesus tops it all.

My Doors of Favor Where No One Shuts

It was a long and busy week last week that I had to work over the weekends for a project. Due to that, I missed church and tuition for my boy. Most of all, I guess my avid readers must be disappointed.

However, it seems like I have something to share about myself whenever I miss out on one contribution on my blog :)

Pastor shared about God opening doors for us where no one else shuts in our New Year message of 2013. Since then, I trusted God to open the doors of favor for me and there were manifestations here and there but none beats the one I am going to share next.

Two weeks ago, I went for a client meeting at Sentosa. Well, if you haven't been there some time, you might like to check it out and be surprised at the extent of development today. The meeting took probably an hour and I went to the roadside to hail a cab. If you know, it isn't easy taking a cab at that time and that place where I was is off the tourist spot and very out of the way. Without thinking much, I stood there for a few minutes.

Then came a BMW 5 series which pulled over in front of me. I looked up to see a middle aged man waving for me to hop on. I was surprised and my first instinct was to wave a "no no" in return. It was just automatic and I suppose this is the Singaporean spirit and something we would all do naturally here. He winded down the windows, told me that he would drop me outside and pointed out that it is impossible to get a cab at this spot. Guess what, I hopped on.

Throughout the journey we chatted and introduced ourselves. His name is Leslie and has a family business owning a chain of laundry shops in Singapore. They are expanding and are presently looking to list their company on the stock exchange. After understanding what he does for a living, I then asked if he was at Sentosa for business which he replied saying he stays there. At that moment, I was probably just pure innocent and I asked, "How many days?" I know this question must have tickled and got you laughing because he laughed too.

"I stay there (Sentosa Cove)", he explained. I finally understood what that meant now and I was so embarrassed.

In the end, he gave me a lift to my office in Raffles Place before heading to his destination at Marina Bay Sands.

After alighting, I felt so blessed and couldn't believe this would have happened to me. Like what I told Leslie, this doesn't happen in Singapore. There's no such thing as hitch-a-ride here as far as I know. But he told me, "See, but it has happened to you". I was so thrilled and shared with everyone who were in the office about this experience. All of them were so amazed, just like me.

What was also interesting was that when I was sharing this to my team during lunch the next day at Goldenshoe Food Centre, there was a bird sh!t that landed 2 centimeters in front of me. My shocked colleague who witnessed that repeated many times that I was really really lucky.

For this, I learnt from Pastor Prince's teachings that this is not luck. The world uses the word "lucky" for blessings. Whereas for us believers, we know this is definitely God's favor and protection in our lives.

As long as you are a child of God, you are already more than a conqueror in whatever you do! Expect more good things to come your way. If you would like, you may even share your very own testimony in my blog under the comments section and I welcome all of them.

Be very blessed this coming week!

7 April 2013 - Pastor Ray McCauley

Praise and Worship: Today's worship was longer than the usual Sundays and towards the end Pastor Prince came up to lead the church in worship. It was really good as it has been a while since we had Pastor leading praise and worship. Some great songs include Lord of All by Hillsong and Amazing Grace by Chris Tomlin. For the last song, we sang You are My Hiding Place which I believe it is a few of Pastor's favourite. Uploading this great song for all to enjoy.

Pastor Prince leads the partaking of the holy communion today.

In the old covenant, the blood was put on the doorpost and everyone inside the house fed on the lamb. The next day none are sick and feeble. I say unto you, when you partake of the Lord's supper, you will be healthy and strong tomorrow. If the shadow can heal the people in the bible, we today have the substance of His body. The answer is found in His broken body.

In John 6, Jesus says the life He will give to this world is His body. The more you partake, the younger you will be, the stronger you become. Get ready for a new deliverance. When you look at the bread, Jesus calls it His healing. God uses a piece of bread to put that tumour to nought.
The blood of Jesus is the new covenant. In this new covenant, Jesus says "I will I will I will" to you. You never have to work. He is your rest.

Topic: The I-Can-Do Spirit

Today, we have a very special guest with us and he is none other than Pastor Ray McCauley, the Senior Pastor of Rhema Bible Church. Pastor shared about his ministry in South Africa and that it has impacted lives all around the world. It was revealed that Pastor Ray McCauley came in 3rd place for Mr Universe Bodybuilding Championship in 1974. Guess who came in 1st? Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Pastor Ray McCauley received a very warm welcome and he goes on to share about how the grace message has really impacted the world. He shared about having the opportunity to listen to Pastor Prince when he was there to preach last year and he heard truths that he has never heard before in his entire 35 years of tenure. He pointed out that he is not saying all these about Pastor Prince because he wants to pump him up and make him famous. In fact, he had the privilege to preach and pray to 7 ministers in Africa and knew many famous people. Therefore there is no need for him to promote Pastor Prince. After hearing the grace message, he finally understood grace and tells the church that he will be sharing something which happened to him in 2010 later on.

The grace of God is not contained in the bible. The grace of God is the gospel.

Pastor wants to minister to you today the "I can do" spirit.
People are blessed to be part of this nation. In this church, there is a spirit of humanity and the I-can-do spirit. This is a miracle in itself.

2 Corinthians 4:8-13
Verse 8-10: The verses of the spirit of faith.
Verse 13: Faith and grace goes hand in hand. We need a spirit of grace and not a formula in our lives. Some people make faith as a formula. It is the spirit of "I can do all things in Christ".
Declare "I am a priest, I am a King, I am seated in heavenly places". When you get born again, you are already seated at heavenly places. You don't have to work to sit there like how some christians think.

Hebrews 12:2
Jesus is the developer and finisher of our faith. Keep looking to Jesus. As long as you keep doing so, the inside of you will manifest. It is His shield of faith. We need to realise that it is His faith and we establish in His grace. We need to apply the grace of God in every area of our life. Always run to God but not away from God because He is the god of invitation.

Romans 5:17-18
The reason why Pastor is sharing these scriptures with you is because of the testimonies he shared during midweek service. He thanked God for the gift of life and how God spared him from danger.

Pastor shared about an experience of a pain in his chest one day. He brushed it aside thinking it was the usual ailment but it did not occur to him this was serious. His doctor examined him and advised him to go see a specialist. In fact, he asked if he could go next week as it was a very busy week for him.

The doctor at the hospital put him through some tests and when the results came out, the doctor was astounded how he could still be alive at this stage. According to the results, his heart had burst in 12 different places. Surgery had to be done almost immediately.

At the operating bed, Pastor Ray held the doctor's hand who wasn't a believer (with doctor's initial resistance thinking he wanted to lead him to the sinner's prayer) and prayed "Father, I pray that you work through him throughout this operation. The doctor opened him up and when he saw what he saw, he said there was literally no hope and he proceeded to close the wound.

Just as he was doing so, he heard a voice clearly saying "Carry on". In fact, this operation was recorded in the medical field as 3 people suffered the same condition and none survived. Praise be to God as Pastor is the only one who recovered fully. When the operation began, doctors froze his brain and worked on it. Halfway through, he died and went in the presence of the Lord. He shared that the light, glory and beauty is an experience that you can only experience in that experience. At that moment, he thought to himself if he was worthy and whether he had did enough.

Jesus said to him, "It is not about you. It's about Me. You are worthy and you are accepted in Me. All you have to do is to believe in Me. That is all you have to do". Jesus continued to say "My grace is everywhere. It is not by works, not by your flesh and it is only through the grace of God".

When you see His grace, you begin to rest and see His perfect work. We can never finish a finished work. It is already done. Pastor pointed out the verse in Romans 8 saying, therefore there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
You can walk in the love of God but it is an extension of the love of God. Because of the extension, you can pray for those who don't like you.
You are not here today to defeat the devil. You are here to enforce his defeat. All we do is to enforce it through the blood, the name and the person of Jesus.

After the operation, the doctors gave him just 1% survival. He recuperated in coma for a month. He was discharged and asked God if he would ever preached again. Soon it was time for him to preach for the first time and when he stood at the pulpit, the Holy Spirit came upon him and in an instant, all bible verses returned. He could literally snap his fingers and tell you the exact chapter for a particular verse. He then realised he was flowing in the spirit.

Trust is resting in Him that He will never forsake, turn away and always reaching out for you.

Hebrews 4:16
Verse 16: Come boldly to the throne of grace. You can walk in all humanity and still have that godly attitude.

David looked at Goliath and did not see him big. Whatever Goliath you face today, through Jesus Christ you too can have the victory. Whatever pain you have, He can give you the victory. Add on to your half filled cup and don't let that great attitude be suppressed.

Say I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Keep that spirit strong because a lot of people do not want you to go where God wants you to go. Don't let anyone rob or suppress you.
This ministry will keep growing not because God wants to make Pastor Prince famous. He wants everyone to walk in His grace. Visualise yourself seated in heavenly places.

God is the miracle working God. God can split the red sea for you in your life.
"But Pastor you don't know what I am going through".
"Praise God" Pastor says. It just means you are going "through it".

Romans 5:20
Verse 20: The law entered so that grace superabounded. One translations say whenever you fall short of it, His grace superabounds.
Even in your life you fail, grace will pick you up and make you more Christ-like. It is never a reason for you to be bad.

In closing,

Pastor says a prayer for everyone:
Father, to all those in all services, thank you that there's no distance. I pray Lord that they won't leave with an attitude of failure. Thank you that you pick them up today if they are down. We come today, God we come today. Thank you for provision. Thank you for victory. Thank you that we are going to the other side. Thank you that there's no condemnation and defeat to neutralise us. I pray that the spirit of Christ will rise and they will be strong. From the top of their heads, to the soles of their feet, may you touch those who are weak, in Jesus name, Amen.

31 March 2013 - Resurrection Sunday

Praise and Worship: Today's praise and worship style was different from the usual Sundays. It was explosive accompanied with great videos during intervals. All the songs we sang were simply awesome.

1. Shout Unto God

2. Hallelujah, Jesus is Alive

3. Because He Lives
 

Topic: The Reason for the Resurrection of Jesus

Today is Resurrection Sunday, a day greater than Christmas. Today is the day Jesus has risen and today also marks the greatest victory of the Lord.

The bible tells us that because He has risen, He will come back one day to bring us back home. Our bodies will be transformed with a body so real and touchable. In this new body, you can travel in the speed of light and you will never feel tired. Feeling tired is a thing of the past.

Scientists today tell us that the universe is still expanding at the speed of light. God created an expensive universe for us as a playground. You will be more alive than you think you are in your new body.
God counts death as an enemy. When God made man, God never meant for man to suffer but because we are living in a fallen world, sin abounds. Earth is tilted because of His mercy. If it wasn't tilted, the waters of north and south poles will melt and cause another great flood.
God planted that tree in the Garden as a demonstration of free choice for man. God wanted man to exercise free choice. If God just puts before man all good and non bad, then where is the free choice. The choice of man is death. God never once meant for man to die. It's never God's will.

Why did God raise Jesus from the dead?
God raised Jesus for our justification.

Ephesians 2:4-7
Verse 4: The bibles says God is rich in mercy. One can never find that God is rich in anger in the bible. God is love. Years ago, God had Pastor to study the time God brought the children of Israel out from Israel to Sinai and see if there were any who died during that time. Pastor searched but could not find reference of any who died. However, it was not the case in post-Sinai times. During that time, man rejected God and boasted that they can keep the law. God had no chance but to assess man based on their own efforts. The moment man murmured during post-Sinai times, they died. The law was given by Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Truth did not come with law, it came with grace. Man tried for 1,500 years of keeping the law in vain. After which then came Jesus sacrifice.

A recap of the sermon last week which is good repeating today:
There were 3 parables of Jesus raising the dead.
1. Jairus daughter
2. Widow's son
3. Lazarus who had been dead for 4 days.
To God, all are dead. There's no difference in who is more dead. Jesus came to make people alive. Let's not judge others when we were all once dead.

In Nehemiah 8:10, do you know what "the joy of the Lord" is referring to?
The joy of the Lord is you. You are His treasure. He gave up His son to buy you, in getting you.
Pastor shows a price of black paper representing us and the bible representing Christ. He slots the piece of black paper in the bible and tells us that this is how God sees us. God sees us righteous because seeing us is like seeing Christ. We are seated with Christ just like in verse 6 of Ephesians.
Verse 7: "that" is hina - in order that. You do something in order that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

Our English is quite limited. In greek we have many definitions of love such as eros, agape (highest form of love), etc.
For instance, for the word "powerful", in greek we have dunamis, energeia, ischus (inherent power), kratos.

Ephesians 1:16-23
Verse 19:
¹⁹ And what is the exceeding greatness of his power (dunamis) to us-ward who believe, according to the working (energeia) of his mighty (ischus) power (kratos).

The reason why we don't receive the resurrection power is because we do too much. Even for managers, there's something called over-managing. For parents, there's over-parenting. The law says "you must not you must not", it's all about you doing. God says "I will I will I will" in the new covenant.
The greatest power is released when you do nothing.

"But Pastor! When you do nothing, nothing will happen!!"
This is true if Jesus is not in the scene. If Jesus is in your life, when you do nothing, He does everything. He will turn bitter waters into sweet, bless you a pillar of cloud by day and night and part the Red Sea for you.

Pastor talks about the Mount of Beatitudes regarding the perfect acoustics "system". He shares that a person on the other side will be able to hear the person talking on the opposite side.

Matthew 6:
²⁸ And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:  
²⁹ And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  
³⁰ Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?  
³¹ Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  
³² (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.  
³³ But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

In verses 28 to 30, Jesus addresses the women telling them they are better clothe than the lilies. Jesus assures us that He will clothe us. In essence, Jesus is not just referring to physical clothes here. He's talking about health and wholeness.

In verses 31 to 33, Jesus addresses the men telling them not to worry about eating and drinking. Jesus points to the birds in the air telling us they neither sow not reap yet the Father feeds them. Therefore, Jesus tells us to seek first His kingdom and He shall provide for you even if you do nothing. All these things that the world desires will be added to you. Pastor likes this word "added".

The more we worry, the more our supply stops. Don't see that the lesser we pray, the more we lose out. Many Christians think that we need to "persuade" God through our numerous prayers.
In actual fact, His supply is always flowing. Whenever you pray, what you are really doing is just diving into that "river" which is God's abundance.

Romans 4:22-25
Verse 22: Abraham believed God.
Verse 25: Jesus was raised because of our justification. This word "because of" in greek usually is "hati". But for this case is "dia" which means, by means of, by reason of or on account of.

God can give you the best part in your marriage. Just like how He turned water into wine. When you feel that things are turning bland, trust that He will compress time and give you both the best wine.

God is outside time and when He says He forgives all your sins, every sin is forgiven. He took all your sins the moment you were born until the day you see Jesus again, and nailed it on the cross. Don't think for one moment that one sin has been left out. His death has conquered every sin of you and I.
The more you rest, the more God works. Don't have to feel stress about facing your boss tomorrow. It's God's stress, not yours. Just leave it to Him.

All of us are 100% sinners. "But Pastor, I was not that bad when I was saved". If you see yourself as 70% good and 30% bad, most likely you will love Jesus with that 30%.

Jesus took every beating on the cross for 3 hours until He declared, "It is finished" all for your sins.

1 Corinthians 15:17
Verse 17: Jesus has risen for us to be cleared of all our sins.

John 20:19-20
Verse 19: The first words to the disciples were "Peace be with you".
Verse 20: After that Jesus showed the receipts - nail pierce hands and side. The side of Jesus was pierced to redeem us from a broken heart. Medical doctors will tell you that when a patients suffers from a cardiac arrest (the heart ruptures), water and blood will be collected at the membrane, located just below the heart. So when the Roman soldiers pierced His side, water and blood flowed out which is an indication of Jesus suffering of a broken heart for us.

In closing,

Look at Romans 5:1-6, after Romans 4:25,
Verse 1: Therefore (it means referring to the previous verse), we now have peace with God.

Jesus resurrected and so your righteousness will never disappear. Your position before God will never change. He paid such a big price for you and I.

24 March 2013

Praise and Worship: Sean leads the praise and worship today with another 2 great songs.

 

Topic: Saved Once and For All

Pastor points out the beautiful song by Hillsong titled "Scandal of Grace", written by Joe Housten.
Jesus never lowered His standards but yet He was perceived as scandalous back then.

Luke 7:31-32
Verse 32: This context was talking about John the Baptist. John the Baptist was sent to pave the way of the Lord. John's ministry was aggressive and full of law, referred by the mourning part here.
Verse 34: Jesus' critics called Him friends of sinners. Nowadays this phrase is seldom used but in fact it's a wonderful phrase. Pastor reveals that once an Israeli becomes a tax collector, they become outcasts immediately. They were never allowed to enter the synagogue. To their families, they are better considered dead.
Verse 37-47: There were many times Pastor shared on this story but there is a beautiful truth in here. It clearly shows to those who think they are forgiven little, loves little.

Let's look in greater detail starting from verse 36 for the story of "Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman".
How you look at Jesus determines how much you receive from Him.
We are transformed according to the glory of God. When people see Him, they are transformed.
Whenever Jesus is invited, He always goes. However it depends how you invite Him. If you invite Him as a teacher, then He is a teacher. But if you invite Him as a saviour, that's where He is at home.
Whenever you have a heart for Jesus, you will see Him. Whenever you have the desire to see Jesus, stress becomes lesser.

Matthew 9:9-12
Verse 10: Notice Matthew invites tax collectors and prostitutes to a feast. So what do you think of a minister who invites people like these. Jesus feels most welcome when He is with them - sinners.
Once you see Jesus as a saviour, grace teaches you. Grace is a best teacher there is.

Back to Luke 7:33-50,
Verse 38: "wiped" and "kissed" are both imperfect tense. They are continuous. At this time, Jesus was looking at the Pharisee while the Pharisee was looking at the woman.
Verse 38: The Pharisee saw Jesus as a prophet. So does he have a heart of holiness? God is righteous making us righteous. Every forgiveness is paid for. On the cross, all the claims against sinful men have been paid on the cross. People think that grace is when we sweep everything under the carpet. The fact is God already saw your sins before you committed them and they were all put upon Jesus. Jesus never sin, it all came from us.
Verse 40: Notice the word "Teacher". Jesus' style is, since you see Me as a teacher, I shall teach you through a parable.
Verse 41: One denarii is one day's wage (in Matthew 20:2)
Verse 42: The word "freely forgave" is "charisomai" in greek.
Verse 44: Jesus turned as He was not looking at the woman all this while. Jesus then asked if he saw this woman. "Discern" here is "to discern mentally".
Verse 45-46: Jesus compares the work of the woman with the Pharisee.
Verse 49: The Pharisees then began to mutter to themselves saying who is Jesus to forgive.
Verse 50: Jesus assured the woman and told her to go in peace as her faith has saved her.

In closing,

Pastor jokes about teaching English now:
In greek, perfect tense is something done once and for all and never has to be repeated.
Imperfect tense is something done again and again.

In verse 47,
⁴⁷ Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
 
The word "forgiven" is perfect tense. You must understand that God created time. That is why He was never "I was". God doesn't live in the future either. That is why He doesn't say "One day I will heal you". When God says all, you think of all as the day you were saved until you die. But to God, his all includes your tomorrow's sins even before you commit a sin.
Due to this fact, people come hard on us and criticise saying that we are giving people the license to sin. This is not true because of this story. Jesus points out the works of the woman for the Pharisees to see. But to the woman, He addresses her faith. The works of Jesus is natural. It produces not for others to see but it's the fruits of His grace.
The word "loved" is past tense. It's a demonstration of her being forgiven much.
Many people see their forgiveness as a present tense. So whenever they commit a sin and depending on their denomination, they may either confess their sins as it happens or periodically. Whenever they hit another sin, they do the same. They do not see the perfect work of Jesus on the cross.

In verse 50,
⁵⁰ And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

The word "saved" is perfect tense. You are in fact saved once and for all. What a way to find eternal security from the beauty of greek. Not only you are saved, you are saved eternally.
The word "In" is "into", to enter into peace.
For the woman, each time she does the act, she loses a little of her soul. The act of her giving Jesus the alabaster box is an appreciation of Jesus restoring her lost soul.

10 March 2013

Praise and Worship: Sean leads the praise and worship today with these 2 great songs.

Video sermon is aired today as Pastor Prince is still away in Israel with his leaders. Pastor will return next week.

Topic: Grace-Based Leadership (Preached on 12 July 2012)

There are some leadership that God deals with and causes them to come to naught while there are some leadership that flourishes.

In the book of Judges 9, the bible tells us that before Gibeon died, he had 70 sons and many legal wives. Abimelech was the son of Gibeon. The bible shows us that Abimelech actually forced his way to be the head leader of the 70 sons.
If a leader promotes himself just like we see in this story, something is wrong. A real leader is humble and not self promoting.
In order to achieve his goal for himself, Abimelech hired gangsters to kill each and every one of the sons but Jotham was unharmed.

Judges 9:7-21
True leaders are secure in what God has made them to be. If you are a teacher, you don't have to make yourself to be a preacher. Notice this olive tree in the chapter is secure in what God has made it to be. The fig tree is mentioned next in the verses. The fig tree realised his ministry is sweetness. Then, look at the vine tree. They are all secure in who they are and they make the best leaders.
The bible teaches leadership. You can find the word "ruleth" in the bible.

If there is no leadership at home, bad decisions will be made and the devil likes that. Don't have to be a forceful dictator at home but look to be a loving decision maker. Just like Pastor Keith whom Pastor points out. Any leadership that threatens does not come from God.

If you carry on reading the story of Abimelech, you will see that his ministry is full of pride and threat. Pastor shares how Abimelech died in this story. There was a certain woman who dropped an upper millstone on his head and that crushed his skull. If you read on during his dying moment, he told his armorbearer to draw his sword to kill him lest everyone knows he was killed by a woman. That was the amount of pride he had.

A leader will lift people up to God, not like the world where it is a top down hierarchy.
Today, the church print lots of books not because Pastor Prince wants to be a famous author, but to serve people, spread the good news of the finished work. It is not about Pastor but because only God can do it.

So what makes our leadership effective? Look to 1 Corinthians 3:10-17. Whatever foundation we lay, it is faith. Everything is based on Jesus Christ and His finished work. You cannot build on your own foundation. God tells us to be careful on what we build and we can only build on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

Why do young people enjoy shouting and screaming for their idols? Young people always want to see Jesus in human flesh. Know that you are the Jesus with skin on to your children. It is better for your children to scream or shout when they see church leaders rather than we see them shouting for people in the world. Don't get too concern cause we all know they are actually shouting for Jesus; they want to see Jesus in flesh.

Back to 1 Corinthians, from verse 12 onwards, it describes the type of foundation breeding the sort of returns. It mentions that though the foundation is burned and he suffers a loss, yet he is still saved.
"The Day" in verse 13 is referring to the day of fire/testing. It is not 24 hours but just a season. The seasons of good days are longer than the season of testing. The day of fire will reveal what sort of foundation it is built on. If your foundation is built on wood, hay or straw, they will be burnt.

In bible representation:
- Wood represents mankind.
If you depend on your flesh, it will burn up. In reality, we need less human smarts and depend more on God's grace. Some people think they are too smart.
- Grass represents people.
- Flower represents the glory.

Isaiah 40:7-8
⁷ The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
    Surely the people are grass.
⁸ The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of our God endures forever.”

Moses built his health on the correct foundation. If you built all your works through your own efforts, the day of fire will destroy it.

- Silver represents redemption.
- Gold represents righteousness.
- Precious stones represents the breastplate on Jesus' heart.
God is saying if you build your ministry on grace, you will receive your reward. The day of fire will reveal your foundation built on grace.

Back to 1 Corinthians 3:17, it says:
¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

Many believers are frightened and interpret this verse for sexual scenes. Many times, we have read this verse out of context. The context in this verse is referring to the ministry. It is talking about building your ministry on gold, silver and precious stones and not on moral values. The word "defile" is the same greek word as "destroy". The word "defile" is defined as "corrupt" by Matthew Henry translation.
God is actually saying to us that whoever comes and teaches you to depend on your wooden head, heart or hands, or preaching the false doctrine, He will burn it up.

The greatest thing you can do for your pastor is to pray for him. Pastor shares about how he was under attack a few times in 2012 specifically on his throat. Once he had to undergo a day surgery to remove something that was stucked in his throat. All these are indications that he is doing something correct for the Lord.

Back to 1 Corinthians 3:17, many believers associate these verses in 1 Corinthians 6:15-20.

¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
¹⁶ Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”
¹⁷ But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.  
¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;  
²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Verse 18: Flee sexual immorality. Never trust your flesh and assume you can handle it.
Verse 19: Our body is a temple of God. Paul always uses the phrase "Do you not know".
Verse 20: You are bought at a price.

There are believers who interpret that God destroys your body due to sexual immorality but we know that both context are different. Pastor is not saying that there are no consequences to sexual immorality. There are consequences and your body may bear the brunt. But we cannot interpret the verse out of context.

We are not called to produce to fruits but to hear the fruits.

In closing,
Back to Isaiah 40:7-8, it talks about men trusting in their own efforts will fade away. The word of our God stands forever. Don't listen to preachings saying because the word of God stands forever, Jesus will remember your sins forever. That is never the case because all our sins have already been judged on the cross.
In fact these verses are repeated in the New Testament in 1 Peter 1:23-25. It is the gospel of grace that was preached to you.

²⁴  For, “All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
²⁵  but the word of the Lord endures forever.”. And this is the word that was preached to you.

3 March 2013 - Pastor Lim Lian Neo

Two songs sang during praise and worship today.

1. You Never Let Go by Matt Redman

 

 

2. I Surrender by New Creation Church

Lyrics:
You love me as I am
Chose me even when You knew
I was tainted by sin
Compassion so divine
Flowed from deep within Your heart
Mercy opened my eyes

To a love so strong, so deep, so wide
It embraced my soul but demanded Your life

I surrender, surrender my heart
to the greatness of Your love
I surrender, surrender my heart
To the fullness of Your grace

Now holy hands I raise
My sins have been erased
I stand justified by Your grace
Accepted as Your own
An heir to heaven’s throne
In awe, I am yielded and still

For a love so strong, so deep, so wide
saw through my disgrace and has set me on high

I surrender, surrender my heart
to the greatness of Your love
I surrender, surrender my heart
To the fullness of Your grace

======================================================

Topic: To Be Set Apart From The World

Pastor Henry led the holy communion today. He highlighted that today is 3rd March. Jesus died young at the age of 33 so that you can live long to 120. If that is not enough, add grace grace "55" and it amounts to 175. That is how long Abraham lived till. And if that is not enough, add another grace"5" and it amounts to 180. That was how long Isaac lived on earth and his secret to long life is through laughing his problems away.

Today Pastor Prince is away for a trip to Israel with his pastors to embark on places where David walked before.

John 17:14-17
Verse 16: Talks about not being worldly.
Verse 17: Shows us the key for our children to be champions. We sanctify them with God's truth.

How does God shows His holiness to us?
Exodus 15:11
Verse 11: "Fearful in praises" does not mean to be fearful of God. We are fearful and tremble to see God's wonders.

Whatever and where ever you are, you are special and uncommon. We are not worldly and set apart from the world.

Pastor Lian shares a testimony of how a little boy who was labelled "slow" by his teachers. His parents enrolled him for taekwondo hoping that it would instil in him a spirit of discipline. He excelled in the sport and was recommended to participate in the national competition. As a mother, she hoped for her son to come out first as she witnessed that the rest of the opponents weren't as good. Though she was a little disappointed that her son came out third in the competition, his son told his mum "It's ok, thank God for the bronze medal".
Pastor Lian points out that this is our children, set apart from the world, uncommon and we are the envy of others because of Jesus.

Acts 20:32
Verse 32: The word of God that gives us His inheritance is through God's grace.

Psalm 5:12
Verse 12: We are uncommon because we are set apart by the grace of God.

In closing,
2 Kings 4:25-27
We all know this story in the bible very well but may miss out what the Lord is telling us. In essence, the Lord is saying to us that if our soul is in distress today, we can speak to ourselves and say what we want to see, not say what we see. If you are in any problematic situation, you can still say "It is well".