Church Camp Theme Message 7: The Holy Spirit in Counselling and Restraining

15 June 2017, Thursday, 11:00 am

Eastin Hotel, Makkasan, Bangkok

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John 16:7-12) 

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter and the only Comforter we need in life. No humanistic counselling method can set things right, except the Holy Spirit that teaches us all truth and cleanse our lives through understanding of God's Word. He is the Spirit of truth, when we pray He will cause you to remember the words of God and make you understand what is it that you need to do.   

How should we live our lives? Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. (Eph 6:10-18)

• Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 
• Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 
• Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 
• Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 
• And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
• Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Love the Lord with all thy heart, mind and soul, and let your heart be filled with peace and joy. Your soul will be healed and you will know how to live your life right. The cleansing work of the Holy Spirit will lead you on the right path. Your mind will be filled with positive thoughts and you will be cheerful and people can see that, and feel the joy in you. 

The only counselling advice we will ever need?

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

In times of need, pray and submit your request to the Lord and wait for the Lord to speak to you through the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your hearts. There is always an answer to our problem, we just need to be sensitive towards the Spirit and learn to experience him - how He can use the Word to make you live a successful life in the Lord.

Church Camp Theme Message 6 - The Holy Spirit in Sanctification and Service

14 June 2017, Thursday, 9:30 am

Eastin Hotel, Makkasan, Bangkok

Romans 8:1-13

The process of Sanctification is facilitated by the Holy Spirit.

Rom 15:16 That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

The means of being sanctified is the Word of the Lord. John 17:17 says "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

What happens when we walk in the Spirit?

A. We produce the fruit of the Spirit - Gal 5: 22-25 states love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. 

Question: have I seen the fruits of the Spirit in ourselves? We should see a slow but gradual transformation in you to produce these fruits of Spirit.

B. Eager to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ

In Acts, the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost and they started to speak in tongues, different but known languages of others. They were eager to share the Gospel to all people and spread the Word widely. When you are filled with the Spirit, you will want to share it with others. You will also be eager for Spiritual things and wants to serve.

Question: have you lost the fire to evangelise for the Lord?

C. You will love God's people and desires fellowship

You will look forward to have fellowship with like-minded people and children of God. You will want to contribute to the church in terms of service and tithes, to support the work of God. You will be moved to see the need of the church and act to close the gap by contributing your resources and do your part. Have you been dedicating your offers to the Lord, as thanksgiving for His blessings for you? 

Question: do you love the people of the Lord enough to do your part?  

D. You will love to worship the Lord.

You will desire the Lord's worship in church and use the worship to draw strength from the Lord to go through your life. We may be lost in the world during the week; we attend the Sunday service to adjust our bearings in life.

Question: do I have such desire for the Lord's day worship? 

What must we do to be sanctified? 

1. You must repent of your sins - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:19-20)
2. You need to read and study the bible - As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby (1 Peter 2:2)
3. You need to pray, privately and corporately - if you have the desire to exhort fellow Christians, you will want to pray for them and desire to know their needs. Hebrews 10:25
4. You need to exhort fellow church members - Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25)
5. You need to be baptised and partake of the Lord's Supper. These 2 are the sacraments of Christ. We put God first by practicing these sacrament.
6. You need to give tithes and offerings - Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work (2 Corinthians 9:7-8). In return God will give you back in your life abundant grace - not monetary but need spiritual needs. 
7. We must serve the Lord with our spiritual gifts - And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-12). The Holy Spirit provides you with the gifts you need to serve the Lord and the church. You get active in the church and be involved, and you will know what you have as gifts to contribute to the church.

Church Camp Theme Message 5 - The Holy Spirit in Prayer and Decision-Making

14 June 2017, Wednesday, 11:00 am
Eastin Hotel Makkasan, Bangkok

Luke 11:13

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Our God the Father is a very responsible father. When God gives us a commandment, He does not just leave us to it, He gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us his commandment. He gives to us His very presence and power through the Holy Spirit. 

John 16:13

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

We can succeed with God; He is our protector, provider, preserver and also our prayer partner. The Holy Spirit is our comforter; He guides us through difficult times, convict us of our sinful ways and comfort us when the journey gets hard. He also intercede for us in prayers when we struggled with our prayers. When we need to make the right decision, but don't know how to pray, He prays for us on our behalf. 

Romans 8:26-27

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

The Christian journey is a journey of experience, through the continuous sanctification of our lives towards Holiness and learning God's truth through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. We look forward to this journey and delight ourselves with the will of the Lord. When we move a step closer in the right direction, God will make the journey smooth and clear all our challenges along the way. The Lord will send reinforcements, encouragement and motivation for us to move along the right way. 

Church Camp Theme Message 4 - The Holy Spirit in Biblical Interpretation and Discernment

14 June 2017, Wednesday, 9:30 am
Eastin Hotel Makkasan, Bangkok

2 Tim 15- "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 

Studying is hard work, especially God's Word. We need to understand what God meant in the Bible, as there is only one meaning and understanding, for yea is a yea and nay is a nay. To do this, we need the Holy Spirit's guidance to study His Word.

If the Bible has only one meaning, why do we have so many interpretations? Note that this is nothing to do with God, but everything to do with us. The study of God's Word is a journey; it is a sanctification process as we grow in the understanding of God's truth. The emphasis on God's truth should be every Christian's top priority. 

The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. It is with such attitude that we follow the Holy Spirit to study and to know the truth, built upon the doctrine of God. Through study of God's words our lives will be gradually transformed and to be more conformed to God's thinking. Truth also unite fellow Christians to have a consistent belief, and the ability to discern truth from falsehood. They stand united towards outside influences and prevent division within a church.

There are many knowledge to be gained from the bible through many doctrines. We learn them by faith, for faith is the start of our understanding. The Holy Spirit gives us the faith to believe in Christ, and will continue to give us the faith to believe in the many truths of the bible. Where understanding is hard, we rely on faith that God is always right and all truth will be revealed to us in God's own timing.  

Church Camp Theme Message 3 - The Holy Spirit in Biblical Inspiration and Preservation

13 June 2017, Tuesday, 11:00 am
Eastin Hotel Makkasan, Bangkok

No bible no salvation, for there is no faith without God's Word. The Holy Spirit works in conjunction with God's Word to give us understanding of God. The Spirit is a Spirit of truth and understanding. However we cannot have the Spirit without the Word and either can we understand the Word without the Spirit.

We have 2 perfect gifts from God the Father. His perfect Scripture and a teacher in the Holy Spirit. We are guided by the Spirit on all things in our lives; He is within us and searches deep within us to chastise us of our sins with the perfect Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."

The Holy Spirit also inspire and preserve every single word in the Bible, so that it is also perfect for us. All the books of the bible are inter- connected and related to one another. Thus it is plenary inspiration - all books and words are inspired by God to be written by man. All words are inspired to be written as part of Scriptures, and by faith we believe all words of the scriptures as perfect God's Word. 2 Peter 1:20-21 says "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 

Church Camp Theme Message 2 - The Holy Spirit in Evangelism and Salvation

13 June 2017, Tuesday, 9:30 am
Eastin Hotel Makkasan, Bangkok

Acts 1:8

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

This commandment continues until today - that we are all witnesses for God, and we continue to share with others of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

What is the purpose of evangelism? It is not our work to convict and convert someone to Christ, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is regardless of what we do. Our job is to share the Gospel as plainly as it is to others. What we should not do during evangelism:

• Prove the bible or Christianity: for we are putting God under the test/logic of man. Using science is prove God has never been proven to convict and convert on its own. Let God be true and every man a liar. Using signs and miracles is also another popular ways of evangelism, but God never promised miracles as part of salvation, even if these miracles are all real. It is not the point of salvation. The fundamental purpose of the Holy Spirit in evangelism is to manifest God and the Gospel in man's hearts, not to perform miracles to prove the Gospel. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It is not to be seen, but heard and felt.
• Try to answer all the questions: even if we can answer all of them correctly, there will still be more questions.

We need to evangelize with the correct method, else there will not be any result, and we get depressed, thinking it is our fault.

How to go about evangelizing correctly?

1. Pray - pray for the person that God will move the heart. We go with the presence of God and He will be with us. The Holy Spirit must be in our midst to convict and converts the hearts for us to see results.
2. Know the Gospel - 1 Corinthians 15:3-4   "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
3. Share the message in pure and simple way. Jesus died for our sins, shed his blood to redeem us of our sins, buried and raise from the dead on the 3rd day to bear witness and rose to heaven. Leave the rest of the work to the Holy Spirit. 
4. Other messages - man needs to recognize how sinful we are and how hopeless it is for us to try to get ourselves out of our sins.

We need to go into evangelism with the right understanding of where we are as man. Romans 3:10-18 says we have broken every single law of God, we fall short of the glory of God in all ways. There is none righteous, no, not one. Thus we cannot exalt man and belittle God by trying to prove God exists. Man already knows it, it is a deep recess of our soul as our conscious self. 

1 Corinthians 1:17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. All glory to God in all things we do.

Church Camp Theme Message 1 - The Third Person of the Holy Trinity

12 June 2017, Monday 7:30 pm

Eastin Hotel Makkasan, Bangkok 

Tonight this message kick start the first message of church camp 2017. 

"We are here to study God". This is Pastor's first sentence, after reading the passage of John 3:1-8. Knowing God is the highest of all knowledge, it is the apex of all sciences. Knowing God helps us to know who we are. It is the knowledge that will last forever, while all other knowledge all become obsolete once this world passed away. 

There is only one God, and the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity. God is so huge, so big, so infinite; can puny man ever hope to comprehend all of God? Deuteronomy 29:29 say that we don't have all the answers pertaining to God. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; thus we remain silent where God did not reveal. All that we can do is to trust and obey, for God knows the best. It is an experience that we ourselves will know once we submit to Him, and enjoy the peace that comes with it. "Be still and know that I am God." We experience such things through the work of the Holy Spirit, and only if we have the Holy Spirit with us can we understand God's word and feel the peace within. "Verily verily I say unto you, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

The concept of the Holy Spirit is difficult to understand without "supernatural" understanding from the supernatural book of books. The Lord our God is one God, yet there are 3 distinct persons - the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost; and three are one. (1 John 5:7) Yet these three are distinct - when Jesus was being baptised by John in Matthew 3:14-17, Jesus the Word was baptised, and the heaven opened and the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, descent upon him, and he heard God the Father said: "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 

Of the three Persons, we needed the Holy Spirit to guide us into all understanding. In return we should know more about this Person. John 14:16 says the Holy Spirit is another Comforter, someone that is of the same kind as Jesus. Romans 8:27 says that the Spirit has a mind, he thinks and makes decision. 1 Corinthians 2:10  says that the Spirit searches all things and knows the things of God. 1 Corinthians 12:11 says that the Spirit decides what gifts we have. In Acts 4:3, the Holy Spirit was lied to. The Holy Spirit can be resisted, grieved, insulted, blasphemed; it is in every way a Person. 

To be born again is to invite the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, and transform us. To do this we need to ask, ask the Lord to come into our lives, so that we can receive the Spirit within us. To be born again is to be born of the Spirit, a spiritual birth. We allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, in His own unpredictable, mysterious ways. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." John 3:8. Those who experienced such workings of he Holy Spirit in their lives, they are truly blessed. 

The Curse of Wealth

Is wealth a curse or a blessing? Should we follow the Prospersity Gospel - "Believe in God and you will have wealth!"? Should the church be blessed by the number of  'influential' people they have in church? Apostle Peter and John did not have any silver and gold, were they then considered as failures? Jesus on earth has no wealth, was he then also a failure?

It is not wrong to have wealth on earth, it is good that God blessed us with riches for he trusted us in managing the possession well. If we see riches in a wrong way, then it will become a curse to us and prevented us from entering into the kingdom of God, for the love of money is the root of all evil. (1 Tim 6:10).

The rich man in Mark 10:17-31 called Jesus "Good Master" and did not see Him as his saviour but a person being successful and therefore had obtained eternal life. This rich man was very eager and earnest, although all in the wrong place. Jesus told him how to have eternal life - keep thy commandment, to which the rich man was confident that he has done that since young. He thought he was pretty good! However, there is only one who is truly good; the rich man was blind to Jesus' goodness. He was sincere, but was sincerely wrong about what is truly good in the spiritual sense, not worldly sense.

Jesus pointed out the only thing that the rich man lacked - sell away all the possessions and follow Him. "Take up the cross and follow me." Jesus was telling him to worship Him but not his wealth. Jesus is saying that He is all that the man needed in life, not the worldly riches. Thus the rich man had broken the commandment of having no other gods except Jesus. The rich man did not see this; he went away. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Mark 10:25. If it is impossible for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle, then who can be saved? This is a rhetorical question - the answer is "no one!" However, for with God all things are possible; and only with God, not God and man, not God and riches, only God alone can save.

The way ahead is to live for the Lord, using the wealth and riches blessed to us; and with the heart in the Lord, He will see it fit to give us the riches we need in life, for us and for His work.