Sermon!
21 September 2008
♥ 13:11
for the benefit of those who weren't at service yesterday!MORE THAN WORKWhatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.
It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
(Colossians 3:23-24)
Here, work can refer to work for adults in the working world. It can refer to study for children and teenagers who are schooling. It can refer to National Service for NSmen.
Before sin came in, God wanted work to be joyous and this is seen in Genesis 2:15
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
After sin came in, work became "painful toil", work became a curse as seen rom Genesis 3:17-19. Adam is destined to toil, to have "sweat in his brow".
So, are we destined to treat work as drudgery? The Bible tells us that this is not true.
After Jesus came, he not only forgave us of sin, he also changed how we treat work.
Key Point 1: I must do my BEST in my study life (from verse 23)
Sometimes, there are students who pretend to study when in school, not putting in real effort, just letting the days pass by. But when it comes to their care group matters, they are very enthusiastic, and they put in their all in worship, in games, in ministering to others, and all other church-related activities. In Pastor's own words in the 1st sermon "上课一条虫caregroup 一条龙" And the situation is paralleled in some of the adult churchgoers as well. This is not good. To place a distinction between secular and spiritual activities and then neglect the secular, the Pastor offered an example. Someone who always gets into trouble in class, never hands in homework, aggravates the teacher with unironed untucked school uniform, and sleeps in class. During recess, he told you he's a pious Christian and asks if you will like to go visit his caregroup. Most people will have a bad impression of the person, and naturally the activity he is proposing. This is a big warning against people who place a distinction between secular and spiritual activities, and then neglecting the former.
The solution is to love God very much both in church and in school as well. Doing your best in school to honour God is good and spiritual. It is worth noting that the emphasis here is not to strive to be a president scholar or anything that may be supremely unrealistic, the emphasis rather lies in doing our best and putting our heart in our studies. In the first session's sermon, the Pastor offered a few personal pointers for those who are trying to ace their exams. (That means that most of us HCCG peeps will miss this part! Read carefully!)
1st tip: Don't try too hard to solve a question yourself.
He tries doing a question for 5 minutes, and if he still don't know he will ask someone. It is better than to do a question for 4 hours. Although you will feel a certain level of gratification, but time is precious! Be humble and seek advice (and inspiration) when you need to, this way, you can excel fast.
2nd tip: Choose the right people to study with.
It's bad to end up studying 30 minutes and then talking for 4 hours. (But he wryly notes that that always happens for him..and a lot of other people.. us??!) So choose the right company, preferably those who are good in a few subjects that you take as well. He notes that he has a friend great in engineering 2 seats away, a math pro 2 seats behind, and then the electronics guru just beside him.
(Dunno how much these tips will help, but hope it does.)
Some of us may not be convinced that there is a reason to do our best in school, noting that this kind of work is only temporary, and mundane, and only have little or no impact in the God's Kingdom.
Look at it again. When we do our best, we are able to be witnesses for Christ, and to be witnesses to him in secular things as well.
(Here is a good time to ponder upon the difference between secular and spiritual activities. Do you know that In its orignal Latin meaning, secular simply meant mundane?)
Refer to Acts 1:8. God did not tell us to "do witnessing". Instead, we are called "to be God's witnesses" when the Holy Spirit comes upon us. Generally, to do witnessing is to tell others how your life has gotten better, using your mouth as the primary way to communicate. But to be a witness is to be a testimony in both speech and action.
And is there some specific instructions from the Bible? From Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus told the apostles to "go and make disciples". Go was translated from ancient Greek, and in its original meaning did not refer to traveling. Many of our Y-HOPE pples may be considering OCIP projects etc. Rather, the go refer to "going about your life". So we are encouraged to actually impact lives by living our daily life. The bible puts it this way: "your daily life may win the respect of outsiders" 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
It is tough, but do not worry, because when the going is tough, the possibilities is great as well. The light is brightest when the surroundings is darkest.
Sometimes, you also cannot know who may be impacted by this, but there may be many others who do depend on your example. And even more so do when you do your best. So, strive to be "the light of the world". Matthew 5:14-16
Key Point 2: I must do my best because God is my biggest BOSS (from verse 24)
First, He is in charge. Second, He is the ultimate paymaster.
Sometimes, when we're on Earth, we think that we have a lot of privilege or a lot of material wealth. But earthly riches may be very little. Heavenly riches, meanwhile...(Our pastor espouses on heavenly riches by saying that it is to play the harp everyday. No la. And er, it is just a joke that there is BBQ in hell. Anyway back to topic..) ...heavenly riches, meanwhile, is to reign with God in heaven for all eternity.
Things on earth are temporal, existing for a fleeting moment. Yet it is on earth where we are given a test to see whether we can be trusted with true riches. The Bible has told us that if we are unable to be trusted with little, we cannot be trusted with very much either.But when we can be trusted with little, we can also be trusted with much. (Luke 16:10-12) And one of the tests that we encounter are the promos and prelims and A levels.
For us students who are reading this, let us end the sermon with a confession onto God for our attitude towards studies. Sometimes, our attitude towards it may be, to put it bluntly, appalling. And I do hope that the blog post has been helpful for all those who may be facing your exams soon.
Feel free to comment in the CBOX/tagboard.
Labels: teachings
sermon!
14 September 2008
♥ 11:16
for the benefit of those who werent at service yesterday!
Handling Tests in Life
- [Job 5:7] Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upwards.
- As sparks will ALWAYS fly upwards, this verse tells us that there will ALWAYS be problems
in our lives. a sad but unavoidable truth isnt it?):
- But instead of avoiding them, we need to have a right understanding of why problems exist!
- Yes, we go through tests such as exams since we're students right now. but the truth is, no
matter at which life station & at what age, we'll always be students of life!
[James 1:2-6]
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
1. Refocus on the goal (v2-4)
- v2 says "consider it pure joy.. whenever you face trials of many kinds"
- is the Bible being sadistic right here? like asking us to rejoice when im sick, to celebrate when
we have lots of hw! NOT THIS WAY!
- we need to understand that the goal of the test is not just to pass the test but to build our
character
- If you get all all As yet its because you cheated, even if you have passed in the eyes of MOE or
the world, you've failed big time in God's eyes
- why did God put so many problems in our lives? so that we wont become like spoilt brats!
- without tests, there will be no promotion cos we wouldnt have any idea if we've passed the
module
- for instance, how can we tell if we've grown in patience? we gotta face impatient situations then
from there can we see our response & tell our growth
- think about how athletes can train, put in so much energy, restrict their diet & all.. i dont think
they enjoy all these activities by itself. it's prob very dreadful & painful. but why do they still
do it? because they have an end goal in mind!
- the hard work thus becomes purposeful!
- [1 Cor 9:26] Therefore i do not run like a man running aimlessly; i do not fight like a man
beating the air.
- thats what we're doing if we dont have an end goal in mind. we're probably just wasting our
energy, investing in nothing at all
- rmb why we're studying! dont just study for the sake of studying! or to follow the crowd to get
perfect score or what. but its truly for God! not grades, but my life, for Jesus, for all to
see!
- also rmb why we're going through problems! its so that we can grow in our character, to be
more & more like Jesus, & thus ready to meet Him at the end of our lives!
2. Request for God's wisdom (v5-6)
- v5 says that "if anyone of you lacks wisdom".. he should PANIC? he should burn his textbooks
& drink them down? NO! the Bible says that "if anyone of you lacks wisdom, he should ASK
GOD!"
- sometimes we may feel unworthy to ask God for wisdom because we know that it's our fault..
it's our fault that we din work hard enough..
- but know the GOD you're serving! our God is a God of second chances, a God who is generous
& non-judgemental!
- why do people get stressed?
- because we feel that we lose control!
- even if we've studied everything, theres still many things you dont know about!
- we gotta let God do the rest!
- [Proverbs 4:7] Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get
understanding.
- we cant just study hard, we gotta study smart!
- when we serve God during exams period.. forsaking studying time to go for service, CGs & all..
in the eyes of the world, we lose out! we lost out big time!
- but as children of God, we gotta be secure & know that our God can help us!:D:D:D
- [Colossians 2:2-3] 2My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so
that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the
mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge.
- Christ is the SOURCE of knowledge & wisdom!
- need wisdom? dont just go to your textbooks, your tutors.. first GO to the wisest person & that
is God!
- know that He is always always in control.(:
- [Philippians 4:13] i can do everything through him who gives me strength.
- [Colossians 1:29] To this end i labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully
works in me.
- with Christ, we can STRUGGLE POWERFULLY!
jiayous everyone with prelims & promos!:D face them with God!
Labels: teachings
01 September 2008
♥ 22:06
hey people we had our Chao Mug In library Mugger's Meeting [CMI MM] this morning!ahahaha. i set the time at 8am. then i was racing against the clock to reach school on time and i was super scared that i would be late and you guys would scold me! i reached at 8.15am and sawNO ONEhahahahaha!!!wow God arranges everything perfectly. i really hoped that i would be the first to reach so that can set good example of punctuality and i was! (kinda)so then, order of arrivals:xiaoyang
linghuan
calean
liping+yiming
ying han
zhi qin
-clap clap clap claps-ahh i feel damn bad! i wanted to self isolate because i am very distracting + i get distracted super easily. but then.. fellowship prevailed xPi really enjoyed lunch though! breath of fresh air and great talkwith the topics going from gangsters to birds to snakes to bees to... UHM...well bottom line it was entertaining!hey i DID manage to get some work done okay. 3-4 chapters of physics + a bit of chem!we camwhored lousily in the library too!
taken using linghuan's imba zhai webcam everyone looks clear and happy! =Phaha metamorphosis tmr! i hope to see many of you there k? kennyi love this family of God!
