A Focus On The Heart | 30.05.2021 | Central Christian Church

[Music] oh [Music] uh [Music] foreign [Music] uh [Music] foreign uh [Music] um [Music] [Music] you [Music] two weeks into the survey into the heightened alert okay of the of the phase two you know and i'm sure a lot of us have been uh going through um just the stress of home-based learning for the children working from home uh cannot eat in and lesser amount of communication uh so it's been tough it's been a long week probably for you but we survived there man so um before we start i like us to all be able to come together and put our distractions away okay if you already have your devices with you i want to encourage you to put it away and uh for how long more we are going to endure okay our current situation i do not know but today our song the worship songs that we are going to do first of all being beat out my vision and the second is lamb of god we want to bring our fellowship we want to bring our devotion back to god so let us go to god in a word of prayer before we do our worship amen let's pray a father in heaven we just want to thank you for giving us an opportunity to worship you this morning we want to thank you father for looking over us and being with us through whatever that has happened right now to the pandemic to the heightened alert and we are grateful that lord many of us we are still safe today father as we come before you in worship we want to ask of you father to be with us give us the undivided attention father and may our worship father be pleasing to you we love you we pray all this in jesus name amen let us welcome the worship leaders right now be thou my vision o lord of my heart lord [Music] my [Music] i ever [Music] [Music] right [Music] empty praise [Music] oh [Music] i may i reach heaven's joy o bride and son [Music] [Music] still be my vision [Music] [Music] his precious blood [Music] oh [Music] his precious blood lord jesus christ the lamb of god your gift of love they crucified they [Music] and sacrifice the lamb [Music] oh watch [Music] christ the lamb of god i was so lost i should have died [Music] to be led [Applause] [Music] oh his precious blood my jesus [Music] christ [Music] his precious blood [Music] my jesus [Music] amen before we sing the next song i like to read us a scripture in acts chapter 4 verses 23 to 31 on their release peter and john went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them when they heard this they raised their voices together in prayer to god sovereign lord they said you made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them you spoke by the holy spirit through the mouth of your servant our father david why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain the kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the lord and against his anointed one indeed herod and pontius pilate met together with the gentiles and the people of israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant jesus whom you anointed they did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen now lord consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant jesus after they pray the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the holy spirit and spoke the word of god boldly you know brothers and sisters the disciples were facing great challenge when they were preaching the word and yet when they came with all their negativities all they know is to rely on the strength of god they prayed about their current situation instead of being defeated and be negative and what inspires me the most is this after they prayed god responded you know sometimes god knows what we are going through and it seems challenging but when we pray god will always respond so let's have that in our hearts and devote ourselves as we sing the next song prayer for bonus amen [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] will go [Music] [Music] lord amen brothers and sisters right now before our brother joko comes up and lead us in communion let's all go to god in a word of prayer let's bow our heads and pray our god in heaven father truly you are the god who made the heavens the earth the sea and everything in it father we are grateful to be able to see the sun every single day that has been rising and setting for thousands upon thousands of years to show us father god your faithful and loving kindness oh god you do not change you do not ever move and waver in your love for each and every single one of us and as we know that we can come to you and you hear us we are immensely grateful lord for all that you have done in our lives father as a church we want to come before you lord and tell you how much we are grateful through the last decades father that you have helped us grow from a small church of 15 to be able to be where we are today and yet lord it is not the achievements or what we have done that we are proud of but your work in changing lives of people your work in changing father lord people for who who as they follow you god have seen your faithfulness and years of loving kindness father that we are so thankful and in our hearts father we can't thank you more today lord we know that we are the whole world is going through challenges we thank you father for the way that you have you have you're still looking at every single situation father out there may it be um conflicts armed conflicts around the world may be the current pandemic may be the economic issues father that different countries face father lord god we know that you are in control and we want to come before you and ask of you father to be with all these people countries and places be with us lord as we grapple um with our own with our own situation here in singapore we pray that lord you'll be with the covet 19 situation father lord that you will help us to continue to grow get better as we do our part father lord that we have done it before and we want to continue to do it again but more than just that we also pray that father you be with our relationships we pray that god will be with our families with one another with with our marriages father without without children that god um we will we will keep the relationships bonded strong making effort further not just to uh not just to balance or not just to work hard in our current situation and predicament and whatever is in front of our eyes but to know that lord it is important for us to be close to you and to one another as well be with us in ways that god you will only be able to show us be with us in ways that god we will know at the end we are grateful that we trusted you today father we pray that your word will be spoken through uh arthur and matthew powerfully move our hearts father as we devote everything to you we love you we pray others in jesus name amen thank you david brothers and sisters this morning i will lead the communion for all of us and the community message will be taken from matthew 6 verse 9 to 12. it reads this 10 is how you should pray our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come and your will be done give us today our daily bread and forgive forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors so let's focus on the first 12 when he says god forgive us our depths brother sisters i'm not sure if you understand what is the meaning of being in debt i'm not sure if you have ever experienced being in debt yourself i was when i was very young about nine years old i bet with my friends on cards and end up i'm losing uh four or five stacks of cards which is which was quite expensive so i told him okay you stay here i'm going back home i will bring my card and pay you back but the truth was i i i had no card at all i was zero card so i went back home don't know what to do i was at loss and i went back home and i hide i hid in in the house and i prayed that miracle will happen that this boy will forget about what i owe him and that he will not come after me but the miracle did not happen the next day the boy came spoke to my mom and my mom had to pay him cash which was very embarrassing and very painful experience because we were not very well to do and my mom had to spend cash on my foolishness yeah that was the first experience but last year during the pandemic business unit that i lead was not doing well so by middle of the year i can only already see that things will get worse i was was in the rate and it gave me a lot of stress and uh given the financial situation you can do whatever you want but the situation won't improve so what did i do i just pray and hope for miracle of course but again the miracle didn't happen and as we enter into this eight months the things get worse and i was i was very stressed of the situation up to a point when one day i met one of the senior directors and he asked me how is my how was my situation and he agreed that he will make some sacrifice on his part and give me a way out so this this is a second experience about being in-depth it's very very painful very stressful but i'm i'm very grateful that god allows me to experience this to teach me that in life we need a lot of grace a lot of time i like to think that i'm i can manage life well i'm good enough i can i can survive i can overcome anything but the truth is that's not true right and especially when it comes to our sins right since it's uh even worse than that even there's worse than debt something that i cannot pay with the cash if i have i can i can separate with good behavior or even good deeds but only to the blood of jesus that pour out on the cross through his sacrifice and through his death that god actually [Music] paid all my debt now i'm very grateful and we're thankful for that let's pray for the lord thank you that you are willing to settle our debt settle all the bad things that we have done through the death of your son jesus christ lord we know that that cannot just be put aside it will always be there unless someone sacrifice and settle the the devin full thanks again lord thank you for your love for each one of us system i pray amen now let's meditate as uh entrepreneurs of peace will be played thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] amen thank you so much joko for leading us in communion and sharing with us vulnerably okay whatever that's happened to you last year surely it's not a easy time to go through but also for you to understand i mean how jesus forgiveness god's forgiveness you know through whatever that's happened in your situation okay um well right now we have a time where we're going to hear not from not only from one but two brothers who are going to preach the word to us you know we are very privileged to have two young men today um arthur who is part of the church digi uh digital ministry okay he works in a church in the digital ministry and we have matthew yo who is an events planner both of them awesome spiritual brothers from the yo pro's ministry they are going to lead us in the sermon not leaders in us so they're going to preach an awesome sermon to us amen so before that it's always a privilege to hear from god's word and we have one more song glory glory before we welcome these brothers amen [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Laughter] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] glory [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] we are [Music] as he dies [Music] me [Music] the [Music] [Music] is [Music] morning church my name is matthew and it's my privilege to be able to preach to all of y'all today you know it's my first time preaching on a sunday so there's definitely some nervousness even without a crowd since all of you are watching from home but nonetheless i'm grateful for this wonderful opportunity and before we go to a lesson let's go to god in a word of prayer let's pray dear god thank you for being an amazing amazing god as i prepared this lesson along with arthur it helped both of us to see even more how amazing you are and how blessed we are to have this relationship with you thank you for seeing us as your beloved father i pray that you're able to speak through me and utter today and that everyone here will walk away not only having learned something but more importantly to have this desire to deepen their work with you and we love you in jesus name pray amen amen brothers and sisters so the title of today's lesson is a focus on the heart a focus on the heart according to a cambridge dictionary the heart can be defined as the following is the organ in your stress that pumps blood around your body is used to refer to a person's character is the place within a person from which feelings or emotions are concealed come out and lastly is the central or most important part wow the heart is complex to say the least it not only plays a physical role but also an emotional and spiritual role as well in the niv version of the bible the word heart is mentioned 708 times 708 times on the other hand the word grace is mentioned 131 times while the word faith is mentioned 270 times interesting isn't it if i was a guessing man i would have thought that the words grace and faith would have been mentioned more brothers and sisters it is clear that god places much emphasis on the heart 1st samuel chapter 16 verse 7 it reads but the lord said to samuel do not consider his appearance or his height for i have rejected him the lord does not look at the things people look at people look at the our appearance but the lord looks at the heart so in this passage the word heart is translated as lab which means inner men brothers and sisters god is more concerned on how we are doing on the inside as compared to what is for trade on the outside we can be serving we can be leading for everybody to see by a home how do we treat our family at work or at school how do we behave when we interact with our colleagues or classmates a very wise man once said this to the yo-pro leaders he said we can be on the right path but if we do not have the right heart it is all for nothing we can be on the right path but if we do not have the right heart is all for nothing wow that is just such a sobering thought isn't it it's no wonder in proverbs 4 23 it reads above or else guard your heart for everything you do flows from it when i think about the word god the first thing that comes to mind is national service or ns in short everyone who has served ns would know that you have to cut your rifle with your life because the rifle is termed as your spouse if not your superior might take this opportunity to steal your rifle while you are unaware and you have to be punished accordingly if he or she succeeds in doing so similarly satan is like that superior who is prowling around like a roaring lion waiting to pounce on your unsuspecting heart ns the punishment might just be having to stay back in camp for the weekend but when it comes to our spiritual lives the consequences are so much worse a hardened heart sin in our lives drifting away from god and the least goes on brothers and sisters because of these experiences god was hurt time and time again we as sinners should have experienced the full extent of his wrath but yet he loved us so much that he still won this relationship with us and so what did he do he decided to let his one and only son to die on the cross for us this is a preview of god's heart a heart so amazing a heart so loving well we shall respond and kind but due to our sinful nature we have continued to hurt god instead well i'm not sure about you guys but for me personally to put it bluntly is exist sometimes that i do not want this relationship with god sounds crazy isn't it why wouldn't i want this amazing amazing relationship with god at all times like sean wooten said last week during his sermon a relationship with god is the best thing that could ever happen to a person the best thing however just as how god is at work satan is as well due to satan's lies i struggle to see my relationship with god as the best thing as the priority and just like me you guys might be struggling in the same aspect as well so to help all of us here today me and arthur would like to share our convictions on two points point one heart for god heart for god i'm not sure whether it's a condition but i also will be reading matthew six as well uh just like anger joko read during his writing during the convenience so let's turn to matthew 6. we'll be reading from verses 19 through 21 matthew 6 verse 19 to 21. it reads don't store traders for yourselves here on earth mobs and rust will destroy treasures here on earth and thieves can break into your house and steal the treasures sorry still the things you have verse 20 so stall your treasure in heaven the trailers in heaven cannot be destroyed by moss or auras and thieves cannot break in and steal that treasure your heart will be where your treasure is if you were to read matthew 5 we will know that jesus was preaching to a crowd on the mountain telling them what it means to be blessed to be assault of the earth along with many other things and moving on into matthew 6 jesus talks about prayer fasting and giving to the poor then he started to talk about trails trailers on earth and in heaven while preparing for this lesson when i think about treasures on earth it was definitely easy for me to list them down there have been many in my life some of which i will share later but treasures in heaven hmm that was definitely much harder i questions like what does it mean to store treasures in heaven what does these treasures look like and as i dig deeper into the passage my conviction is this brothers and sisters god is the ultimate treasure god is the ultimate treasure and to store traders in heaven is to do whatever it takes to strengthen our world with him to seek after him this is why i believe that jesus preached white preached before he said those words in verses 19 to 21 he was providing us with what we need to protect and maintain this ultimate treasure just to clarify i'm not saying that we should have to earn our salvation if we had to jesus were probably mentioned for us to follow the example of the pharisees instead of matthew 9 verse 13 stating i desire mercy not sacrifice it would have been the other way around however that is not to say that remain passive as disciples or to enter into sin wherever you want to because grace for all of us is not to be taken for granted brothers and sisters we still have to do whatever it takes to please him and to glorify him and this is where our hearts come into the picture in verse 21 of the amplified version it states for where your treasure is that your heart your wishes your desires death on which your life centers will be also brothers and sisters where are our hearts today are they still for god or has it turned to be for self i know that for me many times they have become the letter rather than having a heart for god i have a heart for myself i can be like your two sons mentioned in luke 15. i do not have the time to read this parable today but i highly encourage you guys to do so in your own time and to summarize this parable for the younger son he probably thought that getting his inheritance was enough he chased after worldly pledges thinking that it would bring him that eternal satisfaction but all this did not last and in the end he decided to go back to his father for the older son he felt so unjust here he was working so hard and yet he was not rewarded sufficiently for what he has done in his own nights he did not get what he thought he deserved and then broke him i can relate to both sons and allow me to illustrate that through my own personal sharing in primary school premier one to be exact i was bullied and there after i just thought to myself and i told myself this i would never be bullied again well as you can tell by my size it's not physical intimidation per se but rather it was seeking approval from men this over even after i became a disciple i still continue to seek that approval and in doing so i compromised god's standards so that i could fit into men's standards god was not my treasure approval was another earthly schedule that i pursued was romantic relationships with sisters in church i have had feelings romantic feelings for a few of them at different points of time and when things didn't work out i blame god maybe it's because i'm not as handsome as these three wonderful bras that you'll see on the slides but in all seriousness when things did not go my way my thinking went downhill i thought that god probably did not love me as much compared to others which was why i was not in a romantic relationship that could not be further from the truth but i was blinded god was not my treasure romance was lastly i'm sure all of us here have heard of companies such as apple or senshong you know for me being out in the working world having my own salary it definitely felt good but sometimes it felt a little too good and i wanted more seeing all these potential gains from buying different stocks really consumed me checking the stock market more than i read my bible readily giving to the stock market thousands of dollars but yet struggling to give contribution complaining wherever the stock market is down but not really checking to see if my relationship record is down god was not my treasure money was satan has certainly used my pursuit of earthly treasures and more to his benefit at the worst of times i can ask myself why should my heart be with god why should i be doing all that i do for his glory just like the older son i can have the mindset that i should be rewarded for what i have done for god being a faithful disciple all these years serving in church leaving my own small group these are all spiritual achievements that should be rewarded isn't it thankfully through the different people in my life god thoroughly exposed my heart my heart for self rather than a heart for him as the saying goes love the sinner hate destin even though i hurt god so much through my sin he loves me so much that he does not give out me he still continues to pursue me i have to admit i still struggle with murray with this pursuit of earthly treasure but i am thankful to be on this path of repentance where i strive to have a heart for god instead of a heart for self where i turn to god instead of turning to sin it is not easy to say the least but if god is willing to go through so much difficulty because of his heart for me shouldn't i reciprocate in kai brothers and sisters i'm sure all of us have had our own unique segment of struggles times where our hearts drift and we just want to give up we lose faith we lose sight of god and placed i mean we could question why we are doing what we do for god instead of pursuing earthly treasures but the amazing thing is that despite our rebellion god still loves us god is absolutely faithful from the time of adam if up till now the question is brothers and sisters like the younger son are we willing to go back to our heavenly father are we willing to go back to our heavenly father to end off i would like to lay down this challenge for all of us take the time this week to list down the earthly treasures that you are currently pursuing or attempted to pursue pray about them share about them with someone you trust or your small group during this time of uncertainty due to the virus pandemic it can be so easy to develop a heart for self but brothers and sisters i just want to remind and encourage all of us here today with this god is good not once not twice but at all times so keep on fighting keep on persevering pray more worry less this journey of constantly having a heart for god will not be easy that i can guarantee you but i also can guarantee you that it will all be worth it in the end it absolutely will be brothers and sisters it has been an absolute privilege to be able to preach to all of you all today thank you all for listening and now i'll pass on the time to alter so thank you matthew for sharing with us your life and convictions on having a heart for god now my name is arthur and this morning i am privileged to be a messenger preaching god's word to all of you listening as matthew has introduced earlier our title for this morning is a focus on the heart as matthew talked about how we must play our part and strive to be realigned to god's heart i will be sharing on the other side of the coin the second puzzle piece to a two piece puzzle which is to understand god's heart for all of us it's matthew's first point is heart for god my second point is heart of god to better have a heart for god it's essential to understand the heart god has for us now my hope is that by understanding god's heart for us that we will be moved to view our relationship with god as a treasure and blossom into a heart for him today i'll be sharing on two aspects of god's heart number one his patient acceptance for who we are and number two his faithful belief in who we can be through him we will be reading in the life of gideon a man who only had three chapters in the bible yet through his life we are able to catch a glimpse of god's heart for us his story is one of my personal favorites now at this point in georgia 6 the israelites were oppressed by the media knights their enemy they had been invaded ravaged and occupied the israelites were so impoverished that they were crying out to god for help however god had given israel into the hands of the enemies because of their continual disobedience towards him despite all the good that god has done for israel now despite god's disappointment he heard the israelites cries of agony and took initiative to hatch a plan to rescue and reconcile himself to them now we start reading in verses 11 to 12 of judges 6 and it says the angel of the lord came and sat down under the oak in ophra to belong to joash the oblige right where his son gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press to keep it from the midianites now when the angel of the lord appeared to gideon he said the lord is with you mighty warrior notice how gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press if you understand the act of thrashing weed and the location of wine press you realize those two don't normally come together in fact they almost make no sense whatsoever being mentioned in the same line but why it makes no sense because thrashing weed is an action that must be done where wind is present practically an open area where the wind can blow easier wheat was meant to be tossed into the air out in the open so that this way the wind could separate the wheat from the chef as it's being tossed now however notice this gideon was in a wine press and a wine press was traditionally found underground just like the one you see in this picture so he was trying to thrash the wheat in probably the most ineffective place now as an israelite you are living in constant fear from being exposed to the enemy so gideon was also doing this out of fear of the midianites seeing him now one can infer then that threshing weed in an underground wine press became a logical thing to do for gideon when fear and timidity gripped his heart only a man filled with fear would carry out such an impractical task such as this yet notice how the angel of god caught gideon the first time they met in verse 12 the angel addressed him the lord is with you mighty warrior now you must be thinking mighty warrior what mighty warrior in fact who was the mighty warrior now in times of fear we tend to do things that make no sense weird things in a time of pandemic we singaporeans go crazy with you know supermarket hoarding or panic buying we may be generally quite educated as a nation but it doesn't mean we are very logical when fear strikes so before we are too skeptical of gideon and what he was doing remember that we can succumb to fear as well so why did god choose to address gideon as a mighty warrior when he was clearly in fear and being a coward now my personal conviction is this that god chose to reveal his heart to gideon through that encounter god showed firstly the heart of patient acceptance for gideon by letting him know that he was not abandoned he was not unloved that god was there with him and then showing secondly a heart of faithful belief in who gideon can be when god called him a mighty warrior in that greeting alone god showed gideon acceptance for who he was a flock being yes but also instilling a belief in him by calling him mighty warrior someone he was yet to be however how did gideon respond we continue in verse 13 where it says pardon me my lord gideon replied but if the lord is with us why has all this happened to us where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said did not the lord bring us up out of egypt but now the lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of midian the lord turned to him and said go in the strength you have and save israel out of median's hand am i not sending you pardon me my lawn he then replied but how can i save israel my clan is the weakest in vanessa and i am the least in my family the lord answered i will be with you and you will strike down all the media nights leaving none alive gideon replied if now i have found favor in your eyes give me a sign that it is really you talking to me please please do not go away until i come back and bring my offering and set it before you and the lord said i will wait until you return don't our responses sound similar to gideon's at times especially in the middle of the pandemic getting worse with no end in sight we may find ourselves responding like gideon questioning god is it is it really you are you really there listening and if you are why are all these things happening we start to question god's heart for all of us just as gideon did in verse 17. yet despite our fears and insecurities god still accepts each one of us and calls us mighty warriors today just as he did with gideon now you would think gideon was ready to go out there face the world after such an uplifting call from god yet when the first challenge for gideon came in judges chapter 6 verse 25 to 27 where he was told to tear down his father's altar to baal and cut down the ashrae poll we see that it just wasn't quite the case in verse 27 it says because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople he did it at night rather than in the daytime when he eventually got caught he even needed his father to bail him out while he was in hiding despite gideon not following god's instructions to a t god protected gideon and despite all these direct encounters with god's assurance and protection gideon's fears and doubts still kicked in he doubted god's plan of using him to save israel and in judges chapter 6 verse 36 to 40 we read that gideon wanted proof from god not just once but twice and both times god provided the proof patiently now this guy why does he keep asking for proof but then i think about all the times i keep asking for assurance from god when i feel inadequate to face something i pray in desperation i ask for signs advice from disciples i try to read verses that apply to my situation because god understands our frailty he deals with my weaknesses just like he did with gideon's with a whole bunch of patients now god could have just challenged gideon's obedience and given him this rebuke you need to trust me more gideon so just go go but god wasn't quick to reprimand gideon for his lack of faith instead god patiently accepted gideon for where he was because he knows he is human weak and full of sin just like you and i yet god is intimately acquainted with your personal flaws and weaknesses and he chose to meet you there god has shown himself as the comforter of the fearful the uplifter of the weak and the encourager of the failed sinner god is patient with gideon because god knows what he is god is patient with you and i because he knows what we are that is god's heart for us now when we battle through doubts and fears it may feel like we are alone in the tunnel that if we can just reach the light at the end only then will we see god there but many times only after exiting the tunnel do we realize that god has been walking alongside us the whole time because the fact is god isn't capable of abandoning us it is against his own heart brothers and sisters do you believe that god has a heart of patient acceptance for where you are at that god isn't someone who looks at you who may be struggling in your faith and simply tells you to get up and get going god isn't like that so i urge all of you who looks at god as a disciplined master who can't wait to punish us that you change your view of him and strive to understand his heart of patient acceptance for you reflect on how god has shown patient acceptance in your life allow it to move you and compel you towards god's love we move on now to the second aspect of god's heart we can see from the story of gideon god's faithful belief in who we can be now as we go back to the term mighty warrior from what we read earlier who do we naturally think of now for me one of them is captain america a man who willingly threw himself over a grenade to protect fellow soldiers and a man who led the battle against the invasion of thanos in the marvel movies i think of iman a man who stood up and fought against his enemies when he knew his people were oppressed or simply david in the bible he was just a boy when he decided to go up against goliath one of the biggest enemy warriors now i think of people and characters who charge hate first into a battle irregardless of themselves but given gideon's story so far there still isn't much to justify why god called him a mighty warrior so let's continue in the story in the next chapter of judges chapter seven verse three to four where the war with the media knights were about to begin god wanted gideon to announce to the army anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave mount gillette so 22 000 men left while 10 000 remain but the lord said to gideon there are still too many men take them down to the water and i will send them out for you there if i say this one shall go with you he shall go but if i say this one shall not go with you he shall not go at this point if you are gideon what would you be feeling i know i'd be feeling terrified what do you mean there's still too many men our full original fighting force of 32 000 is still vastly outnumbered by the enemy's hundred thousand men and yet god you you you have cut down the force to a measly ten thousand and still you say it's not enough yet indeed god continued to steal gideon's army and eventually only 300 soldiers were left now one would fear it is probably probability in war adopting god's master plan we probably start to question god we are going up against a hundred thousand midianites what are 300 men supposed to do when gideon is left with 300 men he's scared you and i would be though he doesn't voice his fear god knows his heart and reassures him by offering if you are afraid to attack go down to the camp with your servant pura and listen to what they are saying afterward you will be encouraged to attack the camp now one would think that if god directly told you what to do that you trust him without proof but not gideon and let's be honest probably not us either of course gideon goes immediately to the camp and then he must hear for himself why victory is assured then and only then gideon finally believes and he moves forward now gideon had a flawless victory over his enemies the media knights were pushed back and israel was liberated faced with an impossible circumstance gideon became a mighty warrior not by the normal definition of winning the war with weapons and tactics but because gideon relied on a god who was patient and believed in who he could be throughout this encounter gideon doubts he was afraid he felt inadequate and he felt weak he only acts when he has proved that he will succeed he wants to trust god but he keeps doubting himself yet from the beginning god saw him as a mighty warrior which seems to contradict all of gideon's fears and doubts because god sees what we are in him not in ourselves church do you have faith that god believes in who you can be or are you doing things out of fear thrashing weed in the wine press that deep down we're just dragging our feet and we don't actually believe that god is there gideon had experience with both both fear and faith but ultimately the belief from god gave him enough faith to pull through the impossible victory so if you are struggling with fears let me tell you it is absolutely normal that you are not alone now today you may be going through a similar 300 versus 100 000 scenario one in which you feel absolutely helpless with a seemingly impossible circumstance it could be dealing with different pains in life maybe a loss of job the loss of a loved one insurmountable financial issues difficult family issues office politics or endless assignments and projects that seem like there is no end in sight you are not alone i personally am going through some sort of an identity crisis and truthfully i'm still trying to figure out who i am inside as someone who works for the church full time i ask myself why am i doing this i question myself many times for god is it for people or is it for myself i can become fearful and struggle many times on the inside giving in to my insecurities and doing things that make people happy rather than what god or myself is happy with after all as someone who grew up in church i know i know how to be all smiles and laughters i know what are the right things to say and the right way to act on the outside but one of my biggest struggles is truly knowing who i am in god who am i before god am i truly a beloved son of his am i truly a mighty warrior as he has called now as i study our gideon and god's heart for him that translates to you and me i'm convicted that god truly has a heart of patience and belief in all of us that it wasn't god who didn't accept me or believe in me but rather it was me who didn't be who didn't accept or believe in myself i felt like i was going through that tunnel i described earlier thinking at first god is going to be at the end when i'm done being in the darkness but now i have realized and i'm learning that god is there in the tunnel with me all along he has never left and god will walk with me and he will stick with me all the way so if you're not feeling like a beloved mighty warrior today it is fine as i mentioned i struggle too but god is patient with you and i so pray pray for god to reveal his heart for you pray for faith ask god to help you see how you can be a mighty warrior in him just as gideon was pray for reliance on god to fight the big battles in our lives the big battles that sometimes seem impossible pray for all these because god has a heart for you and i to be mighty warriors one day he will walk with you through that tunnel for the younger disciples do you feel like a mighty warrior when god calls you do you have faith in the way he sees you or do you retreat into your fears and insecurities for the older disciples with age naturally comes more mistakes more sins in life do you feel like the prodigal son forgiven and wanting to return home after seeing god's heart for you or do you choose to wallow in pride and self-pity in conclusion we talked about two things this morning a heart for god in the heart of god we hope by understanding the heart of god that it will help you develop a heart for god but if we continue to wallow in a pig sty or thresh weed in a wine press just as the prodigal son and gideon did we will never experience the heart of god you will have fears insecurities and weaknesses and you will fall short in this journey but i hope seeing god's heart of patient acceptance and faithful belief for you gives you joy and i hope you allow that joy to blossom into a heart that puts him first god has given his heart for us metaphorically and literally so let's do the same for him thank you church for listening amen thank you so much matthew and arthur for preaching an amazing lesson to all of us uh i really appreciate what they have shared today guarding my heart you know first of all it tells me that it is so far from my heart or rather my mind sometimes that there's a devil prowling out there wants to capture my heart wants to take me away versus a god who every day has been thinking about me and sacrificing jesus on a cross shows his heart so much for me when i think about what matthew has preached you know to have a heart for god indeed where is my treasure you know it is so true that i can be so easily taken away by the distractions and the discouragements in life you know i can relate to the part especially where the romance didn't go my way bro i hurt you okay but at the end of the day i must also say god knows the best and uh i'm still married amen one of the things that i know that i i felt challenged as i listened to the message was this recently in the air force they had a command chief change and the new guy who came in was just a couple of years more senior than me and immediately my heart felt like wow you know where would i have been probably definitely not there but you know it just kind of gets me thinking what would life have been for me if i was still there in the air force but as i struggle i'm reminded of god's faithfulness he knows he sees me and after i pray after i reflect i can always say i'm at a better place i love the fact that arthur reminded us about the heart of god and yes in the ministry through my life as a christian i always look for assurance i'm also the gansu guy if i could please god i would probably do it every single day and the situation sometimes makes me even lose hope lose my fighting spirit i mean i can't imagine if you know from thousands of fighting men you cut to 300 and yet that attitude of gideon you know as i even as i read as i can relate to it i feel like god should be fed up with gideon actually i am fed up with gideon but again it's not about me it is about god indeed i have to repent not to do things differently but to change my view my perspective that hey i'm not the one that is holding on the fault i'm not the one that is doing the work but god is the one that's patiently no matter how many days how many times i'm unwilling to step back not step back step forward to make some change to make some improvement god is still there patiently waiting for me so i'm grateful and thank you brothers for reminding me of that certainly it's enriched my spiritual life today right now brothers and sisters i like to lead us in a prayer for the sick so please join me in prayer our father in heaven god we know that you are good you have always been and not only that father we know that your heart is amazing your heart you always have a heart for us lord and we want to put before you right now father the requests that we have as a church before you lord we pray for our sister sam coloris we pray that her blood count will continue to go up and she will recover from the lymphoma cancer we want to pray right now father god for our sister swede who has lost her father this week we pray that father you'll be with her continually also to grant her family comfort in you we also want to pray for the family of stephen and agnes whom our sister auntie sue ing has gone to be with you and called home into your phone father while we are grateful lord that you have embraced her we pray that you will also comfort stephen and agnes and their family father through through their time of loss we want to pray for veda god for her second surgery on the first of june to be successful for the surgeons to be able to remove all the cancer cysts so that she can be fully healed from her ovarian cancer we want to pray for auntie mew who for her to be able to continue to have recovery back home and to be able to focus on you god and draw strength and find a simple joy in you we pray father for uncle peter that's my dad i pray that lord you will be with him help him to recover his appetite to be neutral to receive nutrition so that he can participate in rehab and be able to come back home we prayed lord that you'll be with our sister agnes we pray that law the real radiotherapy will really be effective in removing all her cancer cells that it will not develop further we also want to pray for lily's father who is diagnosed with a pre-leukemia recently and has gone through chemo we thank you that his platelet count is stabilizing and we pray for him to respond well to the treatment thank you lord for the way that you have helped sharon continue to recover and we pray that she will keep on respond to the treatment well and recover from her kidney inflammation we pray for our sister echo that the liver cancer treatment will be effective and for her to be completely healed thank you lord for listening to our prayers for richard theo who has his tyrant operation and we pray right now that it went smoothly and we pray right now that god that he will recover his voice we ask of you father also to be with our brother yong chen's family in malaysia his dad mom sister brother-in-law and niece have gotten covered and amongst them father lord we know that his dad's condition is is more serious and he's not hospitalized and on oxygen we pray that they will all recover soon we want to put all these into your hands father lord and we know you are the master healer thank you for listening to us father we pray all this in jesus name amen all right brothers and sisters right now we will take up a collection for the poor and on the back or rather where your tv screen is shows where the money will go to thank you so much for your generous giving and the next slide will show the qr code where you can make your giving through pay now let's take a moment to do that thank you very much [Music] i receive you and i love you cause you gave you life for me when i thought i could never be a part of you you helped me through all my hardness of heart now i thank you lord for a brand new start [Music] i believe in you and i live for you [Music] amen really appreciate your giving right now i'd like to make some announcements before we close next week brothers and sisters um looking forward we will be able to announce to you um something from hope okay with regards to a newsletter and also next week we want to show you um that the people who got uh who got baptized again from the first half of the year we want to show you a video right of those people who made that decision to be the uh to be with god um to be back with god amen so so i'm looking forward to that uh meanwhile we start we have an announcement okay on 27th of june uh which is a sunday the last sunday of june at 1 30 pm we will have our church agm okay so the verification email was already sent out on 9th of may look out for central christian church annual general meeting 2021 email click open to verify and it may already have gone to your junk box or spam mail okay so if you did not receive please uh email to agm2021 at sieges.org because we would like for every one of you uh to receive the link okay to join us on the agm itself all right can i have the next announcement okay that's the last announcement is if you'd like to join any small group for discussion okay please scan the qr code and key in your details so we have a lot to be able to discuss share about and i want to encourage all of us to have fellowship okay virtually although right now we are we are we are constrained okay but i know when we share with all our with our hearts sincerely we can still be able to have a great time of fellowship over digital media okay zoom or whatever so thank you very much thank you for being with us here today looking forward to see you all next week have a good sunday take care god bless you

Channel: Central Christian Church SG

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Length: 88min 10sec (5290 seconds)

Published: Sat May 29 2021