28th Nov 2010 Sermon

Principles for breakthrough: Sacrifice and Discipline
Exodus 36:5-6
Rev Daniel Wee

*Breakthrough comes with a cost.
-luke 14: 26-28 not everyone can build a tower, to build a tower u need to pay a cost.
-haggai 2:3 the previous ones is better. Why? That is because the first temple was truly great. As stated in exodus 36:5-6, at that time, everyone was bringing too much, offering too much and Moses had to restrain people from bringing in more. He had to put an order to stop people from giving.

CAN YOU BELIEVE that happening now?

The importance of sacrfice n why christians need to sacrific?

1) matthew 6: 20-21 . “Where treasure is, where your heart is.” God knows our heart from our giving.

2) Our faith is proven from sacrific-gensis 22:12- abraham was about to sacrficed his son. Angels appeared and said, “now god knows”. God is omipotent, he should know everything. But it’s only at the pt of sacrific, their faith is only make real. We need test, to see if it’s real. Is your Faith real?

3) sacrific reflects our will. 2 samuel 24:24. David wanted to pay Araunah as that’s the right thing to do.

4) sacrific changes our perspective. It causes u to sit down n think if that’s what u want. When u start doing something, reality suddenly sinks in. Especially when sacrific is looming. Paul was prepared and ready. Are you?

5) god gives sacrificially. Romans 8: 31-32 . God gives and He does it sacrificially. He did not spare his son for our sins. Christians should be god like.

6) some breakthrough in life only comes from sacrific. Hebrew 9: 21-22 . “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

everything is not free, other than god’s love.

What are the things in your heart?
Where is ur treasure?
What are the things we need to sacrfic for breakthrough?
What are the perspective u ought to take?
To be true disciple, u got to count the cost, prepare to sacrfic.

- money (tangible), time (intangible), inner attitude (more than intangible- give up rights to be angry, give up the rights to feel the way we feel, the eay we react.)

Father In Heaven, we know you are all understanding and loving. You gave up your one and only son for our sins. We don’t deserve it. Really. What can we do to pay back your great love? You have everything as you created everything. you never ask for anything. BUt Lord, we want to give you something. And the reason why we want to give you something, it’s not to get MORE from you. (Though without fail, you will give us something more, something more valuable, something eternal…)
Thank you Lord for the unexpected gift.. Father, may we just be more like you, like you give sacrificially, may we, your children be able to be like you, give sarcrificially too. Amen.

21st Nov 2010 Sermon

21/11/10
Principles for breakthrough: Taking a step of faith
John 5:3
Rev daniel wee

There’s this unusual pool that heals others. “do u want to get well?” a duh question, yet jesus asked. Why did He asks such a question?
- jesus wants to know how much the invalid wants.

Do u want breakthrough?
1) doubt is not an enemy of faith. It’s fear. People was scared of getting hurt. They want to protect themselves from disappointment, that’s why they dun want and give excuses. Jus like the invalid. Blame the world, full of excuses.
- matthew 14. Jesus walks on water. And he wants peter to walk over to, because Jesus knows Peter is scared.
Jesus said, “don’t be afraid.”

2) bad habit is enemy of faith
- A rich man is told to bathe himself 7 times to be healed of leprosy. He has habit and expectation to prevent breakthrough. This prevents faith from taking a good root.

*important to know that understanding is the reward of faith. Many people seek understanding first. That’s a wrong order. - like peter, took the first step of walking on water- u will gain understanding immediately.

3) faith is not about talking, studying and thinking. It’s about doing.
- James 1:22 doer

Dear Father in heaven, we pray for the church, Lord. May you give us the power to act upon the faith and be able to do what we empowered to do. Lord, we may have fail you many times. BUt you are the same good Lord. Thank you Lord for the unfailing love and trust… Amen..

Departure

people come and go.

There are a couple of sad departures recently. First as shocking as it may sound, one of the sister in cell group has left our church to attend other church. To many, it’s not a surprise. To me, it comes as a shock. ignorance and insensitivity of me. Perhap i was all too self-centered, lamenting in my own busy schedule, nonchalent to the surrounding.. time for change. It’s a wake up call. It’s upsetting to learn of her departure. really. she probably is the only follower of this blog.

And yesterday, P. Daniel announced that the Goodman family will be going back to New Zealand. They have been here for 3 years. Time flies i guess. i still remember the time we walked/ran/drove to their GIGIANTIC house. the interesting burger buffet. the time when all the kids dun mind getting all dirty. Those are the days i guess.

And when the service ended, P. Daniel declared that he will be leaving in early Jan too. that was a very emotional news. though i heard from him a week ago, but hearing him announcing it made it all so difficult to contain. He was such an amazing preacher and leader. The whole church will miss him badly.

People come and go.

Lord, thank you so much for all these people in our lives. They added colour in our lives. Without these people, our lives will be mundane and boring. Friends, thank you for the fun we had, thank you for the time spent together, thank you for all the lessons i learnt from you. Thank you thank you thank you. May Lord continues to be with you wherever you maybe. And let you continue to shine in the other part of the world and touch lives like you did in our lives. Amen.

New Direction for Resolute.

Thank god for the fruitful discussion today!

Thank god for giving us the wisdom and guiding us through the planning for 2011. Praise the Lord.

Father in Heaven, may you bless us and let us support one another, like brothers and sisters. The cell is not losing. The cell just lost focus. Thank god for letting us realise that early.

May the YA cell be able to grow spiritually and bond closer with one another. May the Lord shows us our gifts and mould us as we serve in cell. May we glorify your name as we serve one another. Let others see your love. Let others know of You, and let us spread Your great love. Let us represent you, God. Let us consistently remind ourselves that, “hey, Lord is our center”. May we not astray from you again, Lord.

Thank you once again for the unfailing love. YOu never ever leave us, never ever give up on us. Thank you Lord. God never fails. Amen.

Prayer for Resolute

“If the depths of relationships and our commitment to one another are so important to God, then small groups must also be important as it is only in small groups that close relationships can develop. During the first two centuries of the Christian era church buildings did not exist, so it was necessary that people met in their homes. It is significant that the earliest church building discovered by archeologists is one recently discovered in the ancient Roman port of Aila, now within the modern city of Aqaba. It’s proposed dating is around AD 300, built during a period of relative toleration before the Great Persecution of 303-311. Eusebius, the “Father of Church History” (c. 260-340) tells us that many large churches were built in his day, but none have yet been discovered and it would only have been likely during the last half of the third century.”
- Adopted from The Importance of Small Group- http://www.christianity.co.nz/church6.htm

SOme takeaway from discussion on Monday on small group. yup, we don’t attend cell group just to experience God as said in “Whenever two or three of you come together in my name, I am there with you” (Matthew 18:20). But also for-
1) for emotional support (forging friendship/ relationship). One should not take this for granted. No doubt we are selective on who we can share certain problems, we should be honest with our feelings. We should share. Sharing and talking helps. We should not assume that others will not understand when we didn’t even give them a chance. We need to build our relationship based on MUTUAL TRUST. Trusting that others are always there for you. Trusting that others care for you. That trust makes us a family.

2) for gospel teachings. As things happen, sunday service may not be able to answer to every doubt we have in our struggles. Reading bible is different from sharing.

3) Discover our gifts. To serve each other.

4) most importantly, for God. people may fail, sharing may not give solutions in all our struggles. What’s important is, what is our motivation to go church, to form church, to be part of the church. “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts” Without anyone, we becomes handicap. experience fatigue.

Father, all of us love the small group so. But we are experiencing fatigue. It is scary that something we take for granted for so long seems to be breaking down. Lord, may you unite us as one body once again. Father in Heaven, speak to each of us, so we may know and follow ur will. May we not use our human understanding, but Lord, give us the wisdom to make the decision which is right in your eyes. Lord, I too, pray to you that may you strengthen each and eveyone in Resolute. May you give us the courage to stand up and do something. Do something for the cell group.

Amen.

Be Blessed.

I just finished The Secret Believers by Brother Andrew and Al Janssen.

There are true stories of the men and women- born Muslims and still living in strict Islamic States- who have chosen to convert to Christianity. While most Islamic countries around the world claim to tolerate freedom for believers of all religions to practice their faith, the reality for isolated Christian groups and individials is very different. thousands of ‘Muslims Background Believers’ suffer daily persecution.

Why? In these counrties, Christians girls facing gang rape; richer christians face robbery; male christians face murder; christian community being harassed and are outcasted. Christians in these communities are often the least educated bunch. Yes, not forgetting forced to denounce their faith. can you imagine? how can these people still praise the Lord? How can they still declare “Jesus is my savior”? How can they still worship joyfully?

The cherish the bible like their heir treasures- which they have to hide them well. The long to go to each service or gathering with fellow Christians, even though they have to do it in dark. Yes, they literally offer their lives to follow God.

That remind me- What’s wrong with me? how we, who are free from prosecution, free from all (if not most of the) social problems, privileged in practising our faith, yet, we simply take God for granted. We only pray to him when bad thing happened, We don’t even remember to thank Him when good things happen. in other days, we simply put Him on the shelves. and when we need help, we take Him out again and pray to Him. What kind of Love is this? Do we truly Love God? Why are we not cherishing the moments with Lord? Why is TV often giving higher priority? Why are we choose to sms others when we are talking to God? Why are we stop thanking God for the food He put on the table? Why are we not thanking Him for the fantastic place He placed us in now? Why are we still complaining? WHat more do we want? how much more is enough? Shouldn’t God be more than enough?

Really, why are we taking God for granted?? =(

I feel so blessed. Really. I feel overly blessed. I hope you too. =)

Prayer Request (2010-04-18)

Sorry folks, i have not been a good girl and attending cell group regularly. so didn’t get to collect prayer request. feel free to drop me a mail or an sms. =)

anyway, many things happened in our lives. good and bad. and we usually highlight the bad becoz they are BAD.

So friends, shall we pray that we not just see the bad things that are happening around us, but see the good too? let’s not allow the darkness to blind us, but let the light lead us. no matter how small the light maybe…