Sunday Message - Build the
13/04/08
<Genesis 12:1-3;
Exodus 3:1-12;
Joshua 1:1-9; Acts 1:1-11, 2:37-47>
RECONSTRUCT “THE TRUE SYSTEM
OF BELIEF”
·
Blessed
are those who can always see the Lord’s love
·
There
are a lot of successful people in this world. However, they are not blessed in
God’s view
·
<John
4> If you love me, you will follow my commands and I will reveal my
love to you
·
However,
how many people in this era are willing to follow God’s commands?
·
We
must do a self-reflection. If our worships, serving and offerings have never
been accepted by God; how tragic is that?
·
The
greatest tragedy is when a person gives up everything, serves God with all his
might and strength but has never received the acceptance from God. This is
what’s happening now. We need to self-reflect
·
Why
did God tell everyone, through Prophet Isaiah, not to bring anymore offerings
to Him? Because He was tired. Not only so, God had detested them and found them
bothersome
·
Those
false prophets did all kinds of things. However, they killed the real prophets
when the latter go to them. This is detestable to God
·
In
the end, the northern
·
The
result of doing so after several hundreds years is the emergence of Pharisees,
teachers of the Laws, Sadducees etc
·
The
usual phase used by the Chinese when they greet one another is usually, “Have
you eaten?” For the Jews, their greeting is, “Did you receive any convictions
from God for me today?”
·
People
turn God’s teaching into religious teaching easily
·
Many
believers may say that if they were born back then, they will never do what the
Jews did. If they were born in the era of Jesus Christ, they will never
disbelieve, like the Pharisees
·
However,
in God’s perspective, they never have God in their hearts. God is not in their
spousal relationship nor their work
·
What
is false belief? It is, men will do anything but fail to see how God is leading
them daily. Men do not know God’s desire or God’s direction from them
·
<2 Timothy
3> Paul asked Timothy to be alert. People always learn but never
understand and this is what God hates
·
In
the end, those people are without love, disobedient to their parents, and
ungrateful. They love all the things of this world. This is how believers
behave today
·
A
lot of people know the Bible since young, just like Timothy. However, we need
to understand the true meaning of the Bible, which can be summarized as:
1) The Bible
gives the wisdom of salvation (new identity, new life, new belonging, and new
ways);
2) The Bible makes one righteous.
Sanctified because of loving God. Thus, receive freedom, joy and healings
3) Allows one to serve God, save and
edify people
·
It
is alright for us to be weak or complain sometimes. God will still be pleased
with us as long as we continue to walk with Him
Read
<Genesis
12:1-3>
·
In
this passage, the word “you” appears the most number of times
·
When
God called Abraham, He had never asked Abraham to worship Him daily before He
would bless Abraham. When God called Abraham the first time, He already told
Abraham that he would be the source of all blessings. Indeed, Abraham was
blessed and became God’s child
·
God
will curse those who curse you and bless those who bless you. Thus, we need not
worry that someone in the company will harm us
·
God’s
concern is us. Our children, family, company or school will be blessed because
of us
·
Abraham
believed and God credited Abraham’s faith as righteous
·
What
is true belief? We aren’t blessed only after we have done good deeds
·
Because
by faith, we will leave our father, our people. Leave all the things that we
had learnt since young. We have no part with those things. We must leave
everything to follow God’s direction and guidance
·
Because
by faith, we will remove all our roots and follow God wholeheartedly. Our faith
is not about correction
·
Our
belief is all about denying ourselves completely. We deny because of faith
Read
<Exodus
3:1-10>
·
v5 Why was that place holy ground?
Because, that was the place that Moses went very often. The place where we are
is holy.
·
What
does it mean by God’s calling? What is belief? It is not a change of religion
·
As
a person was called, his life was chosen to receive blessings
·
Our
life of belief [信仰生活] is active and alive. It is not dead.
Thus, the Israelites were never stationary
·
Our
life of belief is not merely a change in the character or name whom we worship
·
There
are many different types of church models throughout church history. Some do
not allow members to do anything; some always need to have some feelings while
praying. They want to feel God with their emotions
·
When
God calls us, He wanted us to come out and go to the destination that He has
determined for us. We are dead without that destination
·
When
God chose and called Abraham, He wanted Abraham to be the source of all
blessings so that all nations could be blessed because of him
Read
<Joshua
1:1-8>
·
God
didn’t just say that to Joshua. He said that to all the Israelites and us
·
v2 We need to go. We need to move
·
v4 What God wants to give us is unlimited and without
boundary
·
Our
life of belief is always in battle. Joshua and the Israelites always went into
battles as they made their way to the
·
Our
life of belief is dead, if all we do is to go to work, attend church, involve
in some ministries and the cycle repeats
·
Our
spousal relationship, our work etc must be done together with God
·
v6 We need to be strong and
courageous because there will surely be attacks. We need to move and fight the
battle continuously
·
Without
tribulations, we will be dead in the wilderness
·
v7 Laws are important, but it’s not those laws
that talk about what we should do or shouldn’t do
·
What
are we emphasizing? There is a picture, a blueprint in the Old Testament. There
is an absolute purpose in us since birth
·
Our
lives are different. Abraham is different
·
The
Israelites had to cross the
·
Who
are we? What does God wants us to do? What is the blueprint from God?
·
In
the New Testament era, Jesus Christ became flesh from the Word. He died and
resurrected. He ascended into heaven and reigned on the heavenly throne. After
which, the Holy Spirit came and dwelled upon all the disciples. The disciples
move after God has first moved
·
Thereafter,
Peter stood up to preach the message, as if he was drunk, and three thousand
people believed. All those who listened were moved. The same message continues
to move lives from
·
God
detests people who brings offerings to the
·
After
God has given the blueprint to men, He makes them join, be held together and
pray for an era, in their fellowships of 70 or 80 years. This is how God’s work
continues to move on
1. The Model of True System of Belief
·
A
true belief cannot stop at having knowledge and feeling towards God
·
We
must really understand how Christ lives in our lives and in our spousal
relationship
·
Behind
us, are another group of people waiting for us
1) Directions that will distinguish “true
beliefs”
(1) Does one follow
the Lord currently?
(2) Does one love
conversing with the Lord?
(3) Does one love the
Lord and love men more and more?
·
As
we come before God, He is most pleased with us when we know His desire and how
He moves
·
The
Pharisees have excellent conducts. They would do everything. When they saw
Christ was eating with the disciples, they only observed that they didn’t wash
their hands before they eat. They are afraid of the sins and dirtiness of
people. All these are religious living
·
This
is similar to Believers who confess their sins day and night. But what sort of
sins are they confessing everyday? Are the dirty things on the surface or are
they internal? Most of the time, the dirty things come from the inner being
·
God
has given the Saints, the purpose and direction for the heavenly kingdom.
However, this purpose isn’t in the Saints’ spousal relationships or when they
teach their children. If that’s the case, where should their confession or
repentance start from or be carried out?
·
Do
we understand what nobility is? Though we claim that we are noble, our hearts
may think otherwise
·
When
God created us, our lives and purpose are already noble
·
Before
we restore the purpose for our creation, we couldn’t see how noble we are
regardless of what good deeds we do. The Lord will see us as not sanctified.
Not lying does not make us sanctified
·
We
must really know what God’s desires are. The congregation must move as one.
Even when we are weak, we must move together. We must still go to church when
we had fallen
2) Two most classical models shown in the Bible
(1) O.T.: Exodus from
Egypt → Cross Red Sea → Build Tent of Meeting →
Cross wilderness → Conquer Canaan Land as inheritance
(2) N.T.: The covenant after Christ’s
death and Resurrection, and before He ascended to
Heaven <Acts 1:1-11> → the unison prayer of 120 disciples <1:13-14> →
Peter received Holy Spirit and strength <Acts 2:1-4> → Testified
for Christ <2:5-36> → acquired 3000 disciples <2:37-41> →
the disciples gathered daily to learn, pray and testify Christ <2:42-47> →
till the end of the world <Acts 3:1-28:31>
·
Someone
said that churches are like just like washing machines. One just needs to go to
church for cleansing after sinning and continues to go out and sin again
·
It
is not wrong to say that churches are like washing machines. However, what are
we cleaning in the first place? We aren’t cleaning because we have done
something wrong. We should get cleansed because we have not understood God’s
purpose
·
We
must get cleansed correctly. Wash away the place which has the real dirt
·
What
did God want the Israelites to restore when they were weak? God gave them a
picture, by asking them to remember how their forefathers had came out from
Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, built the Tent of Meeting, survived in the
wilderness by holding on to God’s provision and wisdom, till they got to the Canaan
Land (Heaven). This is the model, the blueprint for our belief
·
We
go to work on our own if we didn’t go with this purpose. People
who do not have this purpose, do not have God’s desire regardless of how much
good works they’d done. Such believers will be bullied when they want to be
good people
·
Who
can bully us, or make us insufficient if we live with the purpose of the Lord?
·
After
we’d gotten this purpose, we will still able to see God’s help though there are
times that we are weak or didn’t do well in our work
3) From generations to generations, the goal of
every belief-revival movement is to restore the true system of beliefs that are
represented by the two models
·
When
Pastor and his wife started dating, they had a plan and dream for themselves,
e.g. savings, getting married, having children etc
·
And
one day, Jesus Christ came into the picture. Pastor was “crazy” for the Lord.
During then, he tried his best to have his wife understand Jesus is the Christ.
When pastor’s wife’s eyes were opened finally, their topics of discussion
changed to be on the church, brothers and sisters etc
·
After
they had children, they walked about children-related stuff with a thanksgiving
heart. They knew that their children came from God and God’s grace is upon
them. Their spousal relationship has really changed
·
Their
will moves together with that of God’s. Our work, our process of teaching the
children must move likewise also. Otherwise, a person’s belief is either asleep
or dead
·
A
lot of church’s elders and deacons would only share the testimonies of their
salvation (i.e. when they start hearing and believing in God) whenever someone
asked them to share something
·
Does
that mean they did not see God’s guidance in their daily lives after receiving
their salvation, such that they have nothing to share or testify? Didn’t God
give them any new grace? Do people only have the testimony of their salvation
to share?
2. The most critical
elements <Num 9:15-23; Acts 2:37-47>
·
What
are the most critical elements for a right belief? <Acts 2:37-47> has the
clearest record for a right belief
·
When
Peter shared to the 3,000 people, there are 4 things in his message: Repent, be
baptized, receive the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, God’s covenant
1) Must repent = Exodus from
·
A
lot of people have a misunderstanding on repentance. Some people feel that they
are very terrible in the past. Thus, they will need to do a lot of good deeds
now that they have believed in the Lord.
This type of people will go into legalism easily
·
Another
type of people will always be asking, why his/her family has so many problems?
The reason that they came out with is this: because they didn’t love God. This
is the reason that brings them to church. This is another false belief
·
The
repentance that Peter mentioned is the same as what God told Moses, “you must come out from
·
What
we want to say is this; our lives are different from the people of this world.
In fact, the goals, methods, dreams, desires of a lot of believers are the same
as people of this world. This is the first thing that we must repent
·
The
things we acquire when we follow the Lord surpass all these. God wants us to
repent from our personal motives
·
A
lot of people say that our message doesn’t talk about behavior or action. This
statement is incorrect. Our message talks the most about holiness. What is true
holiness? People who walk with God are holy (sanctified). Will we be harming
others, if we are living in God’s presence and walking with Him?
·
We
can never overcome our own selfish desire if we want to change for others or
just to make our conscience feel good. We may be able to change our exterior
behavior, but our personal desire comes from within us (i.e. a monk’s life)
·
Behaviors
/ actions that come from forcing a person not to do, not to see or not to hear
is not sanctification
·
Sanctification
means, Israelites turn from the world to God’s kingdom; turn from Pharaoh to
God; turn from the darkness of this world to the light
·
Generally,
believers in the churches are very foolish. We have probably heard the message
on repentance a few hundreds or thousands of times
·
Our
life’s goal and method do not follow God. We don’t pray or attend church’s
fellowship. When we teach our children, we teach them all kinds of things, but
not the purpose of God’s kingdom. However, we often repent for the wrongs we
did yesterday. Is this true repentance?
·
Was
the Lord emphasizing on the exterior or internal dirtiness when He spoke to the
Pharisees? They always talk about behaviors/ actions, but the Lord’s way has
never entered their hearts
2) Be baptized (in Jesus’ name) = Cross the
·
The
person who always talked about repentance and baptism was John the Baptist.
However, the baptism he spoke of was the water baptism. Peter talked about
baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ. It means to baptize with the purpose and
perspective (life, values, priority, world views, financial, career) of Jesus
Christ
·
We
may forget everything after getting baptized after about a week. The important
thing is to use the Lord’s perspective to build everything and format our whole
life now
·
Baptism
is turning to God. It means formatting our life from now onwards
·
We
may have listened to a lot of messages, but we will still grumble or get
worried as soon as we come across some problems. We will start our calculations
when we are slightly in need financially. This is due to our incorrect
perspective
·
Some
people had never formatted their lives before. They must watch the TV programs
every night before they go to bed. In
fact, we must rest when we are tired
·
We
have yet to format our lives. Thus, our ideology has never been changed
·
In
fact, pastors don’t have to teach everything. They don’t have to teach a couple
how they must live their daily spousal relationship. There seems to be some
pettiness among couples. Who are we most petty towards? It is usually towards
those whom we love most
·
We
cannot win the hearts of others when we are petty
3) Receive the Holy Spirit = the pillars of
cloud and fire comes upon the tabernacle after it was built (restore Immanuel)
·
The
life of Jesus Christ has already come upon us. How can we rely on the Holy
Spirit? Do not extinguish the conviction of the Holy Spirit
·
What
does it mean by dwelling of the Holy Spirit? It doesn’t mean something has
entered us out of a sudden. We must understand and know the guidance of the
Holy Spirit
·
After
a person has got the ideology and perspective of Jesus Christ, he will have a
“know how” from the Holy Spirit when he rely on the Holy Spirit
·
The
Holy Spirit makes us know how we should react. Our partners will be comforted,
receive joy and see God’s love when we react in accordance to the Holy Spirit
·
Our
perspective on all things will be different after we have formatted. Our
reactions will be different too
·
E.g.
What should we teach and what we shouldn’t teach our
children? We must also rely on the Holy Spirit when we teach our children. Do
not nag at them all the times, otherwise, they will find us such a bothersome
person. We will know when to teach them
·
The
Pastor’s daughter cries the most among her peers. She is a little stubborn. The
pastor gives her a lot of freedom as he teaches her. The pastor loves her
because God has loved her. Pastor will give her authority to scold her younger
brother
·
Of
course, pastor will also beat her when she goes overboard
·
Parents
might not be able to teach their children everything perfectly. Parents should
also not worry that their children couldn’t learn enough or they are not good
in their learning. It is sufficient for the parents to rely on the Holy Spirit
to teach, love and disciple their children because the Holy Spirit will work
·
If
our child has a compassionate and loving heart; isn’t that what we want our
child to learn? Some parents want to teach their children everything but have
never let them watched any drama series or have never brought them to fast food
restaurant before. When the children start going to school and make friends,
they will feel that they are aliens among their friends. They will be very
unhappy when that happens
·
When
we teach by relying and being submissive to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit
will give them the best result
4) The disciples gathered, learned, prayed,
testified for the Lord daily = live a tabernacle, congregation, serving
centered life; in order to save every tribes/ family units/ people’s
inheritance (Canaan Land)/ cross the wilderness, wars, conquer
·
The
disciples gathered daily after restoring God’s covenant. The end result of Holy
Spirit’s work is to make the people gather. As they gathered and testified,
more answers will come. With that, the Gospel will be preached till the ends of
the world
·
How
can we not come to church or stop attending church’s meeting if we really wish
to see changes in our family members?
·
Do
we love our parents, and our siblings? If we do, the more we should gather. As
we gather, we will receive indirect experiences to bless the people around us
·
Do
we want to change people? We cannot do that with our own ferventness or
eagerness
·
People
will come to us naturally and get changed when we have answers in our lives
·
We
need not afraid that people will not come to us if we always have joy,
assurance and answers
·
People
will stay far away from us if we are always worried and nervous
3. Evidences will
surely come
1) God will surely prepare “painful trials” to
fortify the system of belief <1Peter 4:12; 1Cor 4:10-15>
(1) Those who dwell