12th September 2021 - Sunday Service Live-Stream

this morning sing of how great your faithfulness and distance sing from rising sun from rising sun to kingdom come your faithful love is unveiling those shadows turn and tempest still you oh god are unchanging through every eye i will recall all my hope is jesus your faithfulness great is your faithfulness amen great is your faithfulness i lift my [Music] i won't forget how great your faithfulness [Music] [Music] my faith is sure of nothing more i will is jesus [Music] [Music] hungry [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] of joy and weeping in everything our god is faithful his arms are open i will come running [Applause] in everything is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] i will come running now and always [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign i won't forget your faithfulness i won't i won't your faithfulness i won't forget your [Music] there'll be a faithfulness there'll be a season of joy and weeping in everything our god is faithful his arms are open i will come running now and always our god is faithful [Music] [Music] [Music] cause we know that you're in control over [Music] i know you're drawing near as i was sure [Music] hell within your love the winds and waves will come but i will stay here i lift my hands i lift my hands to heaven hear my heart surrender i tell my soul again you are and though the seas are raging you will speak and take them and you are fined by rest you are in control amen true values i would trust [Music] speak life to me again but i need you right is [Music] you are in control our trust [Music] there is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] in my [Music] [Music] you will speak and [Music] yes you are in control oh jesus [Music] come let's praise him bear us lord jesus [Music] the [Music] glory joy [Music] we worship you [Music] [Applause] and all the tweets [Music] jesus shines brighter jesus shines purer than all the angels [Music] jesus [Music] beautiful savior all the nations [Music] forever [Music] [Music] feel my heart make it clean open up my eyes to the things i see show me how to love like you have loved me [Music] everything i am for your kingdom's cause as i walk from nothing to [Music] heal my eternity we see [Music] have loved me yes [Music] as i walk from [Music] oh [Music] yes [Music] [Music] jose [Music] [Music] is [Music] hallelujah oh wonderful jesus lord we worship you lord for you alone not worthy we give you all the praise for you are the hosanna in the highest and we just want to glorify you and magnify you lord for you are worthy you are worthy and this morning lord we just want to continue to praise your name we're going to praise you i'm going to acknowledge that you are king of kings and lord of lords and that you're the king over our nation and you're the lord over our nation and lord we continue to give you praise lord we want to thank you lord that this that for us in the clan valley let the pandemic the situation of the pandemic is improving and as we move into the phase two in this clang valley lord we pray for your protection lord lord as people begin to move about and to do their things that needs to be done lord we ask for your protection lord we pray lord that you give people the discipline to not to take unnecessary risk the discipline to do only what is needful and the discipline to always follow the sops that is required and not above all else that they whatever their people do lord we pray lord that you will continue to protect islam you're going to protect the people that is moving about from the virus so that the nation so that the the situation will continue to improve and that they'll then our lives will get back to normal that we as a church can begin to come back to worship together again that we as a people as a community can start coming together as a community again lord lord we pray lord that you will hasten the recovery of the nation so that we your church may come together once again and so that the people's life who are suffering will be relieved and those who are uh who were unable to work who are able to put food on the table we pray a lot that will be the opening of thick of this economy and the opening of this the relaxation of the mco lord we pray lord that you will be able to help them to get their lives back to what it was once again and so lord we just want to commit our nation i want to commit all the recovery efforts and that is happening lord we just give you all the praise and just commit our nation to your hands in this precious name we pray amen amen good morning and welcome to church once again i'd like to invite you those of you in the home you can pass the envelope around to collect their offerings our ties and our offerings and when it's convenient to you or when you are able to you can bank it into the church bank account once again welcome to all of you to our 9 a.m online service and we are glad to see so many of you online uh to still keep the discipline to wake up at 9am and to worship together as a community although we are physically separated but we are still worshiping together as i am here live with you and your homes we are all worshiping together very quickly just a few reminders a few weeks ago i introduced the bible study classes that is starting in september the second round in september and these are the clusters that will be starting soon and other than this there will be also the other classes that will be held on sunday only thing is that my class is starting today so that is uh close but for all the other clusters you can still uh register if you have not and you are still interested to join so for those of you who want to register and you need more information please go to our website kl wesley.org equip kl wesley.org equip last week we celebrated our anniversary and i introduced to you our anniversary website that is anniversary.klwesley.org and in that website there's all the testimonies of all our people members who have contributed so for those of you who have yet to contribute and you want to you can still do so what you need to do is just write your testimony within 100 words put a photo of yourself send it to testimonies at klwesley.org if you need more information you can find it in the anniversary website with that shall we all sing the doxology together [Music] praise god [Music] praise him all creatures [Music] [Music] [Music] ghost [Music] let us pray holy god reveal the secrets of your kingdom even as we listen to your word today in jesus name we pray amen a reading from philippians chapter 4 verses 10 to 23 rejoiced in the lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me you are indeed concerned for me but you had no opportunity not that i'm speaking of being in need but i've learned in whatever situation i am to be content i know how to be brought low and i know how to abound in any and every circumstance i have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger abundance and need i can do all things through him who strengthens me yet it was kind of you to share my trouble and you philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel when i left macedonia no church entered into partnership with me giving and receiving except you only even in thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again not that i seek the gift but i seek the fruit that increases to your credit i have received full payment and more i am well supplied having received from the paphroditus the gifts you send a fragrant offering a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to god and my god will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in christ jesus to our god and father be glory forever and ever amen greet every saint in christ jesus the brothers who are with me greet you all the saints greet you especially those of caesar's household the grace of the lord jesus christ be with your spirit this is the word of the lord thanks be to god dear friends very good morning to all of you how are you doing today let's come to the lord in prayer as we commit this time before him let's pray lord we want to thank you again lord that you called us together here and even as we come to listen to your word we just want to ask lord that you be with us this morning and may your word impact our lives not only intellectually lord but in our hearts and by what we do we give you thanks in jesus name amen but dear friends uh today the message is entitled contentment and partnership in ministry and today we come to the very end of the book of philippians uh we are looking at that final portion remember philippians is an epistle of joy and despite the fact that paul was under house arrest he was chained to the roman god despite all these circumstances we find that paul exudes with joy and so in your sermon outline you will find the first point here why was paul full of joy and the reason is because paul has put christ above all in all things christ above all but for those of you who have been to methodist youth fellowship you would know that that is the logo christ above all christ was indeed everything to paul christ gave him meaning and fulfillment in his life remember in acts chapter 9 paul was persecuting the christians he was on the road to damascus and there he met the living messiah the one named jesus and jesus talked to him face to face now it's interesting that from that time onwards right until the time of writing this letter to the philippians and that's about 25 to 30 years that paul experienced the rich joy of knowing christ deeper and obeying christ's calling upon his life to be an apostle to the gentiles no wonder the book of philippians is a crystal-centric book meaning that christ is central in this book of philippians paul describes in this book and this is a little bit of a recap of what we have heard over the last few months paul describes christ what he has done in the past is death and his resurrection and that's evident in chapter two paul also describes what christ is doing in our lives now in the present and how christ is there to help us in our journey of faith but paul also describes what christ is going to do for us in the future and he tells us that our citizenship is not on earth but we are citizens of heaven and one day the king of heaven will come back and he will come for us and he will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body and that is the hope that we have in jesus christ now it's well and good for paul to say all these kind of things but how about you and me have we applied this in our life is christ really above all in all things now just imagine i mentioned that from the time of conversion to till now it would probably have been about 25 or 30 years in paul's life and for some of us um we too have been christians maybe 25 30 40 years even and the question on the polls is after all these games is christ really the one that fills our life with joy that we exude the joy of jesus christ and it is infectious that other people also get excited when they see the love that we have for jesus but not in sunday school i learned this chorus and it will never leave my mind very simple chorus let the beauty of jesus be seen in me all his wonderful passion and purity all those spirit divine all my nature refined till the beauty of jesus be seen in me and a simple sunday school song but it means so much it tells us that the holy spirit is there to refine our lives so that we will be indeed more christ-like in the sermon outline the next point today we see how paul's contentment that is being secured in christ ties in with his partnership in ministry with the philippians now i wonder what picture conjures up in your mind when you hear the word contentment i remember many years ago reading this newspaper article and he talks about a manager uh in a in a firm and this is a western nation and and this was his idea of contentment on the cold winter's night he's at home uh he's on a furry rug and there's a beautiful fireplace that is glowing and giving warmth to him he has a hot beverage by his side together with some cookies but best of all he is reading a favorite book and he has his pet labrador next to him lying beside him and he is stroking his pet dog and that is his definition of contentment but it definitely is not paul's definition because paul was chained to the roman god and he was under house arrest now today we talk about the term lockdown and and i'm sure that you know we are frustrated although recently the prime minister allowed inter-district travel paul's lockdown was different he was chained to the roman guard and he was under house arrest the context of this letter we see that god's worker recognizes god's hand in allowing god's people to meet his needs let me repeat god's worker recognizes god's hand in allowing god's people to meet his needs now the context of philippians chapter 4 is that paul is god's worker he was called by jesus to be the apostle to the gentiles he was church planter evangelist missionary pastor disciple maker god's people were the philippians in this context i remember dr david paulson in his series unlocking the bible he was sharing with the audience and he asked the question who among you are full-time ministry in the full-time ministry and there's silence in the audience and then he lifted his voice a little bit louder and said who among you are in full-time ministry now the answer that he wanted is everyone in the audience because we are all saints and in a general and broader sense we are all called by god and we are all workers in god's vineyard i remember as a young boy to go to the methodist church and in those days the pastor was in charge of the whole worship service he was a liturgist he was a worship leader scripture reader and the only other person on the stage was the organist and i guess if the pastor could play the organ he would have also been organised and the liturgists all in one go but last week remember we talked about using our talents and thanks be to god that in today's world we have many people serving in the area of the sunday worship service dear friends in a narrower meaning of the usage of the word full-time worker are those called by god to devote their lives to god's work with no other workplace income and let me emphasize with no other workplace income remember in the old testament days god had set aside one tribe the levites and in deuteronomy chapter 18 he said that the levites will not receive land inheritance and god says is because god is their inheritance and we know how god provided for their needs in the old testament days in today's world the equivalents would be like pastors missionary church planters itinerant evangelists etc now i'm narrowing the uh scope now to full-time workers god's workers uh who actually um have devoted their life to god's work and they don't have any side income but let me uh further split this into two categories one category is those of god's workers who receive a regular income guaranteed and the other category is that those who do not receive a regular income now all track pastors methodist pastors local church workers we are those who receive a regular income meaning that the church takes care of our needs but for paul he was in the other category he did not have a regular income he relied on other people in fact in acts chapter 18 verses one to three we find that paul at corinth he was actually making tense and that's a whole issue that i'll probably speak on another occasion let me give you an example of a church worker that uh that needs to collect funds and in many mission agencies today we find that if you want to be a missionary you enroll in the agency but you have to raise your own mission financial support and so we find that after doing theological studies potential missionaries they go from church to church they write emails and they will actually ask for funds and missions agencies they actually put a certain ceiling that that you need to to get a certain amount of money before you can go into the overseas mission field for example 80 and then when they are in the mission field if their financial support drops to a certain level say 65 they actually have to come back to their home country and they have to raise more funds and that said because god's work is being interrupted all on the issue of money or raising funds now during pre-pandemic days and this would not refer to kl wesley would refer to my previous congregations whenever i invited a guest speaker they would ask me you know what can i do what can't i do during uh the time in the church and i know every uh church uh they have a culture and and i'm not saying all the churches that i served in uh is a sensitive issue when it comes to the church board so i i would advise them like this i said come preach god's word do a good powerpoint presentation maybe a slideshow photos of the mission field and also if you have a video clip from the missions agencies do show it but after service a table will be assigned to you in the foyer and then that's where you sit at the table with all your fundraising brochures and people will come up to you and then you can explain to them how they can financially contribute so they will take the brochures home and they will practically consider and do the necessary in terms of financial contribution but i also noticed that when i was standing there talking to church members there's some people that were so moved by the spirit of god so they just came and they wanted to give a once-off cash donation but they couldn't find an envelope so you know what they did they went and used the church pledge envelope and put the money in and gave it to the missionary now these are scenes that warm my heart as a pastor people who are touched by the holy spirit and responding in terms of supporting missionaries let me give you another example i studied in the bible college of victoria in melbourne and i had two good friends husband and wife the australians they came interstate they were from rural new south wales and they shared with me when they applied to bible college uh they didn't really have the finances but they applied in faith and they still didn't know where the money is going to come from and then before they actually moved down to melbourne the community of farmers that they were living with called them and brought them to a huge trailer of wheat and they told them that we as the farmers of this community recognize god's calling upon you and this is our contribution towards you and my australian friends told me that when they they sold the wheat it could finance them for two years at bible college everything covered and that's when god touches the hearts of people but the next item in the outline there is a fine balance between god's worker showing self-sufficiency meaning that i don't need your help and graciously allowing people to help god's work worker so on the one hand we want to show self-sufficiency on the other hand we graciously accept contributions and support and this will be more for that category who live by faith now remember uh one of the leaders of my church he was having a conversation with me and he told me that if ever he becomes a pastor he will never get a salary from the church he will use whatever he has earned over all these years and that's good but sometimes my dear friends it will take 55 or 60 years before there is sufficient funds and by that time when a person wants to study in a theological school and serve the lord there may not be too many years left in that ministry so on the one hand god's worker does not openly or subtly solicit financial help and this is important let me just repeat that on the one hand god's worker does not openly or subtly solicit financial help lest two things could happen number one he is seen as taking advantage of people that is one scenario and the second scenario is that he may be beholden or obligated to the donor who may in fact want to manipulate him or control god's worker the first point he may be seen taking advantage of people and i'm very glad that as a young pastor my first district superintendent he actually shared with me plenty of examples of of pastors and workers who take advantage of god's people now i can't mention some of this because the details may be too private but in those days it was like theory today after all these years of ministry i can see it with my own eyes what it means for a pastor or a worker to take advantage of people because of our status you know the title reverend or pastor is actually very powerful and so god's worker must be very careful in this area [Music] the adage that we can follow for those who are god's workers use things don't use people love people and don't love things and indeed this is so true in the area of ministry now i shared with you one of my colleagues um and he was a new pastor it was his first church that he was pastoring and and a certain church member came up to you and said pastor is there anything that you need you know the parsonage etc and he told him that yeah i'm i need a washing machine and that member actually bought a new washing machine for him but after several months that pastor realized there were strings attached that that person wanted to control his life so what he did was he took that washing machine and returned it back to the donor and i think that was really very good of him to do that now some examples in scripture paul's final words to the elders at ephesus recorded in acts chapter 20 at militis and you know this is after three years of ministry in acts chapter 20 verses 33 and 34 paul says in part of his longest speech i coveted no one silver or gold or apparel you yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and those who were with me and you know after three years of ministry at ephesus the people could see the integrity of paul now a lesson for god's workers and pastors is this that when we go to a place we need to be ourselves that is important but if our personalities need that honing we we need to come before god and ask god god you mold me and shape me to be more like jesus secondly we always need to be humble and that is so very important number three we need to love people and you know after paul said that beautiful speech the bible records that they they all knelt they they hugged paul they cried and it's not because his words were so powerful it was because he said that he will no longer see them now my dear friends this particular speech is a wonderful speech that all of us can read meditate and take stock but you know the more important thing for them was that relationship and same with god's workers building that relationship is still very important we may preach the best sermons but it doesn't mean very much if we do not invest in relationships so on the one hand the church worker does not want to solicit help especially those of us who have a regular income but on the other hand we find that god provides good and trustworthy people to partner god's workers to carry out god's mission and this is called the grace of giving and receiving in philippians chapter 4 verse 15. now paul is another epistle in 1 corinthians chapter 9 he has very good teaching about god's workers deserving wages and he gives two pictures from the old testament one is do not muzzle the ox when it trades the grain and secondly those who serve in god's temple that is the levites the priests they are to be provided for in terms of lodging in terms of food in terms of their needs being met now the one about ox and trading the grain it is not a lesson on agriculture what what the bible is saying is that even as the ox trades the grain the ox is allowed to eat that of the grain meaning that the worker deserves the wages now in luke chapter 8 verses 1 to 3 i wonder whether you know this passage it's just a few verses that gives a bit of the glimpse of the women who followed jesus and supported him in ministry and the bible tells us two particular women their names are joanna and susannah and it says that they are provided for the needs of jesus and the twelve apostles and and jesus graciously allowed them to meet the needs now i've been in church long enough and i'm not talking as a pastor i'm talking from the time i was a kid to know that there are people including my parents who are supporting god's workers without any strings attached and let me just give you a couple of examples you know in those days when i was a kid my parents were very excited when they had the opportunity of hosting a missionary and sometimes it was just a meal for example lunch and i know my mother used to go in the kitchen and cook her best lunch for the missionaries and you know as a little boy i was very happy when missionaries come you know because mom is going to cook her best food and i'm also going to eat it and i know for my dad you know after um the lunch is over and the missionary is going off but my dad will take out an envelope and give it and and i know that there was money in that envelope although he never mentioned the amount and we never asked him my friend some some of these things you you don't have to know all the details you can just see the attitude and and you know that there are people supportive of missionaries and those who are god's workers the highest and purest form of giving is anonymous giving and during my duration as a pastor there are times where people come with a large uh envelope with a lot of money inside and if pastor can you do me a favor i want to give it to so and so who's god's worker but i want it as an anonymous gift so i'm just asking you to do me a favor and you know when i give it usually they ask who is the person and i said no this is an anonymous gift and and the donors actually tell me i do not want the person receiving this gift to feel obligated towards me in any way paul understood the grace of giving and receiving in chapter 4 verse 10 paul says i rejoice in the lord greatly that now at length you revived your concern for me and that word revived by uh uh gandhi robert gundry new testament scholar he says a more accurate word would be blossom you know for a long time the christians at corinth could not give any gift to paul but now when they they sent epaphroditus to visit him in rome they were able to give and be i believe is a substantial financial gift in verse 14 yet it was kind of you to share in my trouble even as a very young church the philippians recognized missionary giving and it's mentioned in verses 15 and 16 when i left macedonia no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only even in thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again you know that term giving and receiving is a bookkeeping term that is familiar uh in the world that paul lived in and paul uses that term giving and receiving these were new christians new church and yet when paul moved from macedonia where philippi is to the next place thessalonica they gave financially towards him next point god's worker understands that true contentment means being secure in christ regardless of circumstances god's worker understands that true contentment means being secure in christ regardless of circumstances there will be times of need in god's ministry where finances dry up but you know paul had already made a commitment to jesus christ and i believe it was right in acts chapter 9 verses 23 to 25 and we find that paul was so gung-ho for the lord you know he was preaching and then the jews wanted to kill him so in damascus the jews are waiting outside the city gate for an opportunity to kill him but we find that paul's friends actually lowered him at night through the city walls in a basket down to safety and and i know without a shadow of a doubt that paul knew that jesus had protected him through the acts of his friends no wonder paul declares in philippians 4 13 i can do all things through christ who strengthens me what a beautiful verse and the context of this verse is about financial areas that the lord will provide in philippians 4 12 paul says i have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger abundance and in need and i would add in chains of free i remember a good friend of my parents a young man you know full on fire for the lord he went to study in bible college and and when he came back he shared with my parents you know there were times i did not have enough money and so i had to eat bread and jam for breakfast lunch and dinner just imagine bread and jam he said he couldn't even afford to buy butter and you know my mother was very upset said why didn't you write to us we could have pulled some money here and sent for yourself and he told my parents i know that god is always there with me paul had already relied on christ totally and now bountifully thanks the philippians for their partnership in ministry let me just close with some practical application for today we too can enter into holistic partnership through prayer human resources financial giving and receiving reciprocal blessings firstly prayer prayer is most important because it recognizes that god is there to answer our prayers and the good thing about prayers is that you didn't have to be rich to to pray the poor people the rich people every type of people can pray and we can engage in prayer at any time number two human resources we find that the church in philippi sent epaphroditus and how does paul describe him in philippians 2 25 my brother my fellow worker my fellow soldier your messenger your minister to me just imagine paul such a tough christian and yet when epaphroditus came to him he he could experience a love and joy that was shared from the church at philippi thirdly financially in uh chapter 4 verse 18 paul says that the gift given by the philippians he uses terms like a fragrant offering a sacrifice acceptable to god and then he breaks fault into doxology firstly he says my god will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in christ jesus to god to our god and father be glory forever and ever what is contentment to you have you put christ above all in all things in your life is this the motto of your family mahatma gandhi once said these words we live simply so that others may simply live and when i was growing up in in my church as a small boy the church practiced this periodically probably once in three months or so it was an evening service and after the evening service was over the whole congregation was invited to the fellowship hall and there a simple porridge was prepared no meat inside no flavorings etc very bland plain price porridge and and we all were supposed to partake of this meal and then there was a container so whatever we saved on our dinner that night we will put inside and even more if the lord touched us and this was one excellent way to teach the children that we can actually live on porridge yes in church it may be once in three months but we could practice this more frequently and we can tell the children that that with this money that we will support those who are in need let us pray lord we come before you today lord we want to thank you for the apostle paul even as he ends this beautiful letter of the philippians lord that he is so so full of joy and he's thankful to you lord for providing the philippians to give financially for his cause lord may we follow the example of paul to be thankful lord to express our thanks to others to be grateful to you lord for providing all these resources to us be with us lord this day in jesus name amen [Music] [Music] glorious hope we [Music] we [Music] dreams [Music] [Music] let us [Music] more than [Music] [Music] fulfill [Music] laser according [Music] let us all know [Music] amen hallelujah yes lord help us lord to do your will and be a blessing and a partner to those who do your will and brothers and sisters in christ as you have heard the word of the lord may you now practice that in your life and may the love of god the father the peace of our lord jesus christ and the commune the holy spirit be with you now and always amen amen god bless all of you and hope to see you all again next week goodbye [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: WMCKL Wesley Methodist Church Kuala Lumpur

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Length: 61min 50sec (3710 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021