Why So Stupid?

Mark 8:1-21
I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat:
And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven.
When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

Reason why we are so stupid-
A. We fail to know God and His Word
There is more to God beyond what we know. We examine the miracles that God performed, we go beyond the normal understanding. It is not just being fed with bread, but that God is the provider of all things including the enternal life. More importantly, we fret when we lost our provision in daily life; we lost faith the He will ultimately provide. We worry about daily provisions, when these should be the least of our worries. We need to have faith and trust the Lord to provide while to focus our attention on the heavenly things of enter all life.

God has compassion; He provided for all and fed the multitude when there was no food. God will have compassion towards us;  we just need to have faith and patience that he will provide. We worry, we are stupid. We live like spiritual orphans as though we have no father, we are stupid. We are stupid because we chose to be; forgetting that God is companionate and powerful. Put God first and have faith.

B. We fail to see things through the word of God
Many things happen in the world, and we use our own understanding to interpret the world. God's theology is given to us for the reason, that we can understand the things of the world through the lens of God. People follow great leaders of the world and their thinking; but they forgot that they already have the greatest teaching in the Bible. Only when we know theology then can we see the world in the light of God's word, and everything will make sense  in spiritual sense.

We also make decisions according to our own wisdom and understanding; we never bring God into our decision making. What is His will for us? What is the Bible say about what we are going to do? Would the decision we made be a good testimony to us as Christian? Did we consider all these questions before we make decisions? How stupid can we be?

If only we rely on God, life would be earlier for us. We are limited in our understanding, God alone should should be our only yardstick for all.

Building a Spiritual House

Church anniversary sermon 2 Oct 2016

1 Peter 2:5 "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

A Christian is never alone. Once you accepted Christ, you belong to a family. God says so long as there is 2-3 people gathered in His name, He will be with us. 

God is unique to each of us, He meant to each of us differently, but He will never leave us. He will always have the spiritual house for us. 

In return we now live for Christ because we have a direction, we have a goal and and end point to go to. 

1 Peter 2:1 "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." 

Now that we have a new life, we need to set aside all guile, hypocrisies, malice and evils, but to live a life for Christ, and produce only good things from our lives. We will also have a great appetite for God's word as milk for babies, so that we can grow in God. We will feel the graciousness of God through better understanding of His Word. 

We have tasted the love and goodness of God. We are Christ like, spiritually alive, and not dead. We shall be faithful to follow Him and He will bless us accordingly.

No Light in You?

Mark 4:21 - Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed?

A saved soul has the light of God. This light will help us repel the darkness of sin. The light will shine through our lives. This we have to work out our salvation - display it, demonstrate it and show it. When that happens we will have the power to overcome sin. The light of God is not to be hid from our lives.

Faith without works is dead - it would be hard not to commit to good work where there is faith. The addiction to God and good work is a natural result of the salvation of God. The trial of our faith, example that of Abraham (Hebrew 11:17), is a testimony of true salvation. We will not do anything to grief the Holy Spirit. 

We will also be given the ability to discern the true and separate from the false. We heard the teaching of God and we build our lives up based on our faith. We have the spirit. We hear; we understand; we apply in our in lives. 

The question then is - if someone could not overcome sin and does not seem to display or demonstrate good works in his/her life, it therefore means that he/she is not saved? Is there no spirit in such a person? Is this person therefore not saved at all? "Truth will out"! It will be seen, ultimately, whether someone is saved or not. The truth will be seen one day! 

Sunday Service - Who Can Forgive Sin?

Mark 2:1-12 - Jesus heal the sick of the palsy

Mark 2-10-12 "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion."

One major characteristic of Jesus' saving of the sick of the palsy is that the forgiveness is absolute and permanent. There is no relapse, no partial healing. It is always complete. Can any healing in this world today be compared to what Jesus did? Only Jesus can do it because he is God. 

Mark 2:5. "When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."

The second point to note in this incident is the faith of the friends who carried the sick and lower him down from the roof. Such faith that they had to believe that what they were doing was worth it. It was the great zeal of getting near to Jesus that was recognized and bore fruit. Were they lazy? Were they complacent? No, and we should not be either. Where has our zeal for God gone? Learn and rekindle that passion for God. 

The perseverance of the sick man to get to Jesus no matter what is also a lesson for us. How much sin had he committed in his life? Who can forgive him? Jesus called him "son", and saved him. He was physically sick but spiritually well. 

No man is too far away from God so long as he recognizes his own sin and seek repentance. Do we seek God for cleansing of sins? What other ways we attempted to be rid of sin? There is no other way except the forgiveness of God. 

Mark 2: 8-9 "And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? 9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?"

There was a third group of people - the scribes. They were the ones who knew God's words and knew what God can do. However their minds were closed to Jesus, and could not see God even when the miracles were done, Jesus knew it and that's why he needed to demonstrate the power of God.  However they continued not to believe even with the miracle, and continued to find fault with him. (Mark 3:6) In comparison, they were physically well but spiritually dead. 

God is all knowing, He knows, He heals, so long as we seek Him. 

Sunday Service - What makes a Nation Great?

Proverb 14:34 - Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

Psalms 33:12 - 18: 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord;

and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. 

The Lord looketh from heaven;

he beholdeth all the sons of men. 

From the place of his habitation he looketh

upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 

He fashioneth their hearts alike;

he considereth all their works. 

There is no king saved by the multitude of an host:

a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. 

An horse is a vain thing for safety:

neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. 

Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him,

upon them that hope in his mercy

When Israel feared God there were much blessings for its people. The experience, the history of this nation is a good example of all nation. The recognition that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, is the recognition that this is the recipe for good nation building. 

God gave the following laws to the nation of Israel:

Exodus 21:12 - 20

He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. 

And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. 

And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. 

And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. 

And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed: If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

The laws are just and it protects the sacred lives so that no one can take them away carelessly. Just punishment also allowed people to see the consequences for their action, so as to I still fear for God and aversion to sin. 

Sunday morning sermon on the occasion of the 50th National Day of the nation of Singapore. May the Lord bless the country with peace and harmony, always. 

Rights to Do Right

1 Cor 9:1-18

This passage is connected to Chapter 8, - can we eat food offered to idols? The answer is yes - the idols are not God. They are made of wood, clay and meal. The food offered remains as food, which can still nourish us.  However, not all has this understanding, and if eating food offered to the idols can cause the younger Christians to stumble, then we can give up that right to eat the food, for the sake of our fellow Christians. 

We have rights but we should use it for the benefit of others and for the glory of Christ. Apostle Paul was explaining his rights to question the church of the Corinthians for he founded the church.  

"Mine answer to them that do examine me is this, Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?" 1 Cor 9:3-6. Apostle Paul stated his rights like any other - to eat, drink; to marry; to work. However he chose not to, because he wanted to dedicate his life for Christ and the gospel. This is an example that we need not always exert our rights all the time. 

"If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ." 1 Cor 9:11:12. Apostle Paul stated that he have the right to ask for payment for his ministry. Deuteronomy 18:1-5 also stated how the Levits should be paid by the people. However Apostle Paul was saying that he did not want any payment because he wanted the Gospel to be made freely to all, without obligations for payment. 

"yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" 1 Cor 9:18. Apostle Paul will give up all rights to preach the gospel. That's his focus and purpose. We will do well to learn from him. 

Church Camp Message 8 - Doctrine of the End

The signs of end-times, the beginning of sorrows. Matthew 24:4-19. 

Thank God that He promised to come again. If all prophecies were fulfilled in Christ's first coming, then we can be assured that those of the second coming will also be fulfilled. 

- War and rumours of war: the world is gearing up for war, with terrorism more organized and wide spread. (Verse 6)

- Famine, pestilences and earthquakes: these are more frequent and more intense, signifying that Earth and human kind is not well, repent while we can. (Verse 7)

- False prophets proclaiming they are saviour of human kind. They come to confused, deceive and destroy. (Verse 11)

- The gospel reaching all the corners of the world. With technology, this is already possible and happened many times. Once all the elect has been saved, the end time will come.

Jesus, when He next come, He will descend on Mount of Olives, the same manner that He has left in the first coming. God will fulfil His promise to Israel. Jesus will sit on the throne of David when He comes again - a fulfilment towards the throne of David. For all these to happen, Israel must be back as a country, and that has already happened. The time is ripe for His return, it can be anytime now.

What happens during the end times? 

Wrath - Matt 24:21 - this happens during the Great Tribution. The antichrist will come and set himself as king. This will last for 7 years, known as Jacob's trouble, where Israel will be persecuted greatly from the second half of the period (42 months, Rev 7). The antichrist will break the peace with Israel And persecuted them.  Prior to that, there will be 2 witnesses sent to the people, calling them to repent. They will be carrying out their ministry for 1260 days. 

What happen to the church? We will be caught up in the air with the Lord - I Thess 4:16-17. God will save us from the wrath that is to come during the tribulation.

Reign - Rev 20:4. Christ will reign on earth for for 1,000 years. Rev 5:9-10. This is the Millenium - Isaiah. There will be a judgement of the great white throne of the unbelievers, and will then be castes into the lake of fire. 2 Peter 3:7 - destroying the current earth and heaven. 

Eternity - New heaven and new earth -  Rev 21 - the former things will all pass away and God will create a new heaven and earth, where there will not be any tears and sorrow.

Our affliction now in our lives are but light and brief, compared to the happiness in eternity. It is temporary; we need to set our eyes towards the future and live according to God's doctrine to our final blessings.