Elder Saw Lip Hean
12-08-2018
Hebrews 10:19-23 New King James Version (NKJV)
Hold Fast Your Confession
19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness[f] to enter the Holiest by
the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the
house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with
pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,
for He who promised is faithful.
Today, you and I have this ability to go into the presence of God by a new and living way, which is through Christ Jesus, that is, His body. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:24-25 New King James Version (NKJV)
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and
good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the
manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the
Day approaching.
The writer of the book of Hebrews was actually addressing a group of Christians who got lost in their theology--those with Jewish background were thinking of going back into Judaism-- and they were having problems with those who were not Jews.
The writer was telling them that the plan of God is Jesus and that through Jesus, they now have access to God. They did not have to depend on the blood of bulls and animals to sacrifice anymore.
Therefore if we can come into the presence of God, what then should we do?
Firstly, we need to draw near to God in faith, hold fast to God's promises and grow in love and good deeds.
When you come before God, just like on Sundays, how many of you feel a little bit uneasy? Why? Because of sins in your heart.
But what does this passage tell us? The passage says that we come with our hearts sprinkled by the blood of Christ. This means that the blood of Christ is applied unto us. And once the sprinkled blood of Christ is applied unto us, we are clean in the sight of God. Therefore, we are able to come into the presence of God.
Secondly, why hold on to the hope? Because there are many who are on the verge of giving up. You have not heard from God for a very long time. You have not experienced the reality of God for a very long time. You have started to doubt your faith. You wonder whether the experiences that you had in the past were just psychological, emotional events. And the more you think instead of the spiritual senses developing, you begin to think like the world and you begin to doubt. That is when you start looking at Christians. And when you look at Christians very often, you find yourself getting discouraged and asking why so and so act and behave like that. These things have a way of eroding your faith.
That is why the writer says you need to hold fast to the hope that you have. There is a place for holding fast.
Thirdly, it says you must stir one another up through love.
Faith, hope and love. These things we need to develop in our lives as Christians. If you know now that you are a child of God and you have access to the throne of God, these three things we must learn, exercise and excel in.
In excelling in these three things, what is the one thing that helps us the most? The presence of the church. That's what the church is for. We gather together like this in a very natural way that God had designed us to be. We naturally gravitate around each other to build each other up, to pray and seek the face of God, and to do the things that come to us naturally.
Why? This is because the church has five functions. When you look at each function of the church you will notice why people naturally gravitate to church, once you believe.
While it is natural for us to want to gravitate to church, very often it is also in some of us to want to avoid coming to church. Why? Because we are more indulgent in ourselves or we begin to feel anti-social in many of our ways.
While the natural spiritual self wants to gravitate around the people of God, the carnal individual self wants to shy away.
The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that, "I know it is natural when we are feeling down, discouraged and backsliding." The thing to do is to go to church but you have a tendency to want to stay away. By staying away you think it will give you time to think but actually, it is actually doing the opposite. It is making you worse because it is not what you were designed to do.
So, there are five functions in the church. Why are they so necessary? Why do we do church?
1) Worship
God created human beings for worship. He designed us to be worshipers. Once He restores us to our original estate, it is natural that we come together to worship God.
Yes, you can worship God at home but there is something about coming together as a corporate body to worship.
When you think about worship and about God, Revelation 7 comes to mind. You picture the elders and the angels, the cherubim and the seraphim. Most of all, you picture the thousands upon thousands gathered before God, posturing themselves down in worship.
Why do you have that kind of picture? Because you were designed like that.
Every vision depicts a group of people worshipping God in heaven.
1 Peter 2:9 New King James Version (NKJV)
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who
called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
You are a chosen people. God originally intended this for us. He created us to be worshipers. And that is why it is natural that we gravitate towards worship.
Remember the first time that you accepted Christ as your saviour? What was the first thing you wanted to do? You wanted to prostrate yourself down for God and say, "Thank You that I have been restored to You."
This is something natural. But the world and life's hardships have got it out of us.
Not only are we designed to declare the words of God, we are also designed to be indwelled by God as a corporate body.
Ephesians 2:19-22 New King James Version (NKJV)
Christ Our Cornerstone
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having
been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself
being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted
together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being
built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
We are like little bricks that are being put together and interlocked together, to be made into a temple in which God dwells. Every one of us is like little bricks that are interlocked and entwined to become a spiritual temple for God to dwell in. When we worship God together as a people for His praise, we are functioning as a temple of God in which God is pleased to dwell in.
The church is to facilitate worship. The church is the spiritual body in which all of us are members thereof. We are like little bricks to form up the temple for God to dwell in. God is pleased to reside in the praises of His people. When we praise and worship and enjoy worshipping God, God enjoys us worshipping Him.
Every Sunday, after worshipping in church, you should ask, "Did God enjoy us today?"
He loves it when His people enjoy Him and He enjoys His people that way.
What is our response? Our response is to meet like this every Sunday. Sunday is the first day of the week and we meet together to worship first and to enjoy to be restored to our first estate.
We must come with ready hearts. We must come with a prepared mind, not out drinking with your friends until 3a.m. Talking about preparing our hearts, let us come early to church. Come in and sit in front, not at the back.
Let us to ready to give God our complete worship. And when we do that, our complete attitude changes.
Worship is essence, not form. We are an intergenerational church. Our worship will get a bit more vibrant because we realise our younger people seems to be falling away from God. We want to make the environment suitable for them to come to worship. That is why certain parts of our meetings are designed for the young at heart, i.e. 60 years and below. We must learn to adapt to the way this worship is going to be done. We change or we die. This is what we mean. What is important is a form that caters to those in need and that which is acceptable to all. God created music for us to enjoy worshipping Him. Let's enjoy Him.
This is your house. The church exists to worship. But each of us must take turn. You want to worship? You can worship God by expressing your worship in doing something to help others to worship. You can always serve. We will work to serve in the church. It is no big deal. It's time for us to take it up. When you are standing there and shaking hands, you are not representing yourself; you are representing the body of Christ. So who is behind you? Your Father in heaven. You are the ambassador of Christ. You are the son of the Living God. You are there to welcome members of the body of Christ into a holy worship.
2) Prayer
It is God's intention that we pray.
But you go, "I get this feeling that sometimes it makes no difference. Maybe it is God's plan for it to work out this way. So where does my prayer fit?"
Ephesians 3:10 New King James Version (NKJV)
10 to the intent that now the [a]manifold wisdom of God might be
made known by the church to the [b]principalities and powers in the heavenly
places,
God intends to fulfil His purpose for us through the church. He created the world in six days. On the seventh day, He rested. He rested because He had intended the rest of His plans will be worked out through the body of Christ, that is, the church.
When we gather as a church and when we pray, we activate and tap into the power of God to fulfil the destiny that He has for this earth. Now you see the importance of your prayer. When we gather as a group of people to pray, we activate the power of God; we activate the purpose of God and it comes into being. We have the free will. If we don't want to activate the power and will of God, God's will be done but not through us. When we tap into the resources of God, God will use us to activate His will and to do His will and to bring to pass all that He wants. We can be part of it or we can be none of it. It is our choice.
In the Old Testament, when the tribe of Asher decided not to activate the will of God, do you hear of Asher today? You hear of the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin but no Asher.
When we come together as a church to pray, we activate the will and power of God and God uses us to bring to pass that which He wants to do. That is the importance of prayer. We love to pray in tongues but when we gather to pray as a church, we need to pray with understanding. Otherwise how do we say amen when everybody only prays in tongues? We might as well stay at home and pray. Especially those who are leading prayer, you need to pray with understanding first; you need to communicate; you need to develop your thinking and then you go into tongues because you run out of words to say.
And after you pray, you do.
3) Teaching
Many of us when we come into the kingdom of God, we don't understand a lot of things. And that's where the church plays its role in disseminating teaching.
In the church, certain members are given certain gifts. Some may have the gift of teaching, some may have the gift of an evangelist, some may have the gift of being an apostle. As stated very clearly in Ephesians 4:11-13, all these are to equip His people for service. I teach because God gives me the ability to see certain things. If you are a teacher or a preacher or a prophet, God will give you an understanding of His ways. It is your job to communicate the Word.
The church exists to teach the Word of God.
If you don't strike oil after two minutes, stop boring.
Think what to say and choose your words wisely. The Lord has given you an idea of what to say but it is up to you--how you prepare, how you deliver--so that you do not bore the people to death and kill the message. The message is killed by you when you deliver it. It is not that you do not have the gift of teaching. It's just that you do not stop to think and prepare how to communicate the Word of God to your people.
4) Evangelism
It is a pity and a real shame that many of you were not with us at the Philip Mantofa revival conference. That was at great conference.
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Essentially he is challenging the
church. This church has existed for 39 years. And we are only a small church.
After 39 years, we are still such a small church. We are only catering and
teaching and discipling hardly two to three thousands in the English
service.
Pr Michael Koh tells us that we are like the Jews at Kadesh Barnea, the launching place before the Jews went in to attack Canaan when they came out of Egypt. The first time when they came, they refused to go into Canaan because they were so scared and there were so many excuses. As a result, God let them walk in the wilderness for 40 years. Only their children after that managed to go into the land of Canaan.
God is saying to us that today we are at a pivotal stage--we are at our Kadesh Barnea. What are we going to do? Are we going to heed the call of God? The church exists for this. This is one of the main functions of the church--to evangelise. But we have forgotten our evangelistic fervour. We have become too comfortable. I accept that there are certain logical restrictions. "All my friends are already in the church. And on Tuesday I have this meeting. On Wednesday, I have prayer meeting. On Thursday, I have song practice. On Friday I have home fellowship. On Saturday, I help out in the Saturday service. On Sunday, I come to church. Where do I have time to find friends?"
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It is time for us to revamp our entire way of doing church. If we continue to do church this way, we will die. The church will die a natural death because we have become a self-serving, inward looking group of believers who enjoy playing church and have become irrelevant to the world. Do you want to be that? Of course not!
So what do we do? We need to think outside the box. That is why Paul says, "I have become all things to all people so that by allll possible means I might save some." It is time for us to think outside the box--how we can do church in such a way that we bring others in. You and I will have to think about it. You and I will have work at this.
You come to listen to the message. By lunch, you have forgotten the message already. Google jommatthew2819. Go to the blog. When you read the sermon notes, you will remember the message and you will apply the message and share out the effects of the message in your life groups and home fellowships. As time goes by, we will collect all these testimonies, edit them and then put them up for you to see how God is working in your midst. I am so proud of these people who are serving and working behind the scenes with urban food sharing, hospital visitations, giving tuitions and hear the kind of stories they tell you. It boggles the mind, how God is working and yet we sit here, oblivious of what is going on around us. We think evangelism is telling the four spiritual laws.
We give tuition to children to bring the gospel to them. We share food with those who are in need and minister to the drug addicts so that we can share the gospel message with them.
It is a matter of discovering where God has put you.
5) Fellowship and service
Fellowship is for loving one another, doing good works and Christian service.
Jesus said in John 13:34: "Love one another as I have loved you."
The world recognises us because we have love for one another. That is what we as a church do. We love one another. But how do we love one another when you keep so far away and don't see each other?
Love must be seen in action. That is what the life groups are for. Stay back and chit chat. How to love if I don't even know you?
Your home fellowship, your life group, your cell group is a mini church--a microcosm of a larger local church. And this local church is a part of the bigger body of Christ.
These are the things that we are striving to do. This is what church is all about. This is for you to love one another.
As part of our church, we also want to do body ministry. As part of our role in church, we want to pray for those who are in need. This is a time for us to exercise love. This is a time for us to minister and exercise our works of service. This is what church is all about.
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