Author: Saju Joseph

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Philippians Sermon

The Substance of Joy filled Prayer – Philippians 1:9-11

A few weeks back, we began a series titled “Joy-filled life” as we’ve been reading through the letter to the Philippians. Paul, who is the writer of this letter, emphasizes the importance of prayer right at the start itself. It’s a fantastic thing to study about and navigate through as a church.

A couple of weeks back, we tried to answer the “HOW” question of prayer as we went through the five ingredients of joy-filled prayer. Last week we learnt about the “WHY” of Joy filled prayer – what motivates to pray with joy and today we’ll try to understand the “WHAT” of Joy filled prayer – what’s the content of joy-filled prayer – what’s the substance of Joy filled prayer. Turn with me to Philippians 1:9-11: 

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

If you were to pray about only one thing – just one thing for a person who is dear to you – it can be a family member or a friend or a co-worker, what would you end up praying for? I want us to think about what our honest answers would be.

  • Probably better job opportunities to be provided for that person.
  • Probably some healing if that person has an illness.
  • Probably that the person gets more engaged in church ministry.
  • Probably marriage if that person is looking out to get married.

The options are many and let me say there’s nothing wrong in praying and asking for God’s wisdom and help in any of these. But if you were only given a single point to pray for – what would be of highest priority? Think about it.

Here’s what the biblical text says is the main thing: “LOVE” – Love for God!

Out of all the things that Paul could pray for the Philippian church, he prayed intensely and earnestly that they would love God. The word prayer out here means supplication (Yachana) – which means begging and sincerely asking someone to do something for them. That’s the intensity with which Paul is making this prayer. And what does he pray for?

1. Abounding Love

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment (v9)

So it’s not just love mentioned here – but abounding love – increasing love for God.

Why is that important?

Because love is what compels (Majboor) us to joyfully obey God, love drives us to radical obedience. Jesus says “If you love me, you will obey my commands” (John 14:15) God receives no glory and no honour if we obey him reluctantly and ritualistically.

Truly delighting and loving our Creator & Redeemer is what honours Him! And that’s why he prays that their love abounds more and more.

But one question here: how does our love for God abound more and more? How does it increase?  The answer is in the same verse… by knowledge and discernment

a) Knowledge: Knowledge is knowing God through His Word. Knowing God is much different from just knowing about God. For example, I can say I know a lot about the Prime Minister, but that isn’t same as knowing him personally. I can read a lot of information about the PM online but still not know him. Similarly, “knowledge” in the Bible always implies knowledge that comes through personal fellowship.

In another prayer that Paul makes to the Ephesians, he puts it in this way:

17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Eph 1:17 – NIV)

Now we may think what the connection between knowing God and loving God is? Because the more we “know God” through His Word, the more we’ll grow in our love and appreciation for Him!

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation is God’s love story for a people that were broken and lost.

When we see biblical narrative: We see God who is Holy, full of wisdom, Powerful – created the entire universe with His command – He spoke and came to be.

Out of the overflow of His joy and purpose, He created man and woman in His image. His intention for them was that they would love, obey and trust Him because He created them.

But quickly into that storyline, we see the first man and woman decide to rebel against God. They wanted to be their own God. They wanted to decide what was right and wrong for themselves.

Guess what that sounds like all of us in our thoughts and actions. And they went ahead and rebelled against God and threw themselves & all of humanity into brokenness and corruption.

From that moment on, humans were born in sin and fully saturated with sin. The immense brokenness that we experience in our hearts, actions and the world around us is a consequence of a separated life from God.

And we all stand guilty to face God’s wrath and judgment. This could’ve been the end of the story but “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” – (Eph 2:4,5)

When we were dead in our sins and unable to respond to God. Unable to reach out to God. He reached out to us. He came after us. And He stood in our place to face the penalty and the punishment that was directed toward us.

He died for us. Buried in a tomb and three days later rose again victoriously so that if we turned away from our sins and trust in the loving sacrifice and life of our Master and Redeemer, we would be saved! We would be made free! We would be declared not guilty! Most importantly, we would know God!

We would know the One who created us. We would see the One for whom we needed to live. We have a living hope that we look forward to! And when we read and think and pray and talk and believe these truths from Scripture, it fills our heart with love for God!

While on the one hand, knowledge is Knowing God through Scripture,  

b) Discernment: Discernment is knowing God’s will for us through Scripture – What does God call me to do? What does God expect from me?  

And this also enables us to love God more. Now we might wonder how does that happen?

Many times when we think about commandments, we think about it as a task-list to be accomplished or rules that curb our freedom but what if we looked at God’s commandments as the safe paths that our Father has laid out for us to protect and provide for us?

What if we saw it as loving instructions from our Creator who knows what’s best for His creation? What if we saw it as commands that will help us understand the character of our Father better? So discernment is knowing God’s will for us! Both Knowledge and Discernment help us to abound in love for God.

But not only is the prayer for abounding love, but it also mentions:

2. Sincere love

“so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,”

When I love God by knowing who He is and Knowing His will for me, it should now lead me to approve and examine all the decisions and choices in my life.

The word approve means “scrutiny and examination”. We live in a time when reflective thinking isn’t encouraged. We keep ourselves occupied in so many things, including our phones, that it doesn’t give us any time to evaluate our choices and decisions in our lives.

Every single day we are making hundreds and millions of choices that all have implications with our hearts and responses to God’s will. To

give a few examples:

  • How should I respond to my parents?
  • What should I say in this situation or that?
  • How should I respond to my boss?
  • How must I deal with my sinful temptations?
  • Whom should I marry?
  • Which job should I take?
  • What should I watch on TV or the internet?

And these choices are not to be thought as of having any lesser spiritual value.

Let me take the job question, for example. Now when we usually think about another job – we often only think about if it’s paying more and if it’s more convenient.

But as a believer, we need to be asking some more questions to understand our heart motivation:

  • Will this job hurt or help my witness for Christ?
  • Am I finding my identity rooted in this job?
  • Am I seeking the approval of man by taking/not taking this job?

So, a lot of our decisions and choices daily have moral implications. God’s desire for us that we would examine these decisions and choices and lovingly obey Him.

But why is it that we find ourselves in many occasions and situations choosing ourselves and our sins instead of God? It’s because we love our sin more.

But, instead, in all our choices, the real question we need to ask ourselves honestly is “Do I love God more” or “Do I love this sin more?” That’s the real question we need to ask.

And as big and weighty is this question, we are hit with a more substantial question “how can someone like me in my frailty and weakness in sin be PURE and BLAMELESS on the day of Christ?”

I think the answer is found in the next verse which is why it’s not just abounding love and sincere love but it also the Exalting love.

3. Exalting love

“filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

It’s God who takes it upon Himself to assure and establish us.

V11 says on the day of Christ believers who have fully trusted in Him will be filled with the fruit of righteousness! Now, this is not self-righteousness – it’s not talking about our good works or self-efforts or accomplishments in our flesh – those all are “filthy rags”. It’s talking about the righteousness of Christ that we receive by faith.

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:21)

There was a great exchange that happened on that cross because of which sinners like you and me have hope by trusting in God.

We receive the righteousness of Christ! His robe…completely by His grace!

Not just Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice but we have His own Spirit that’s being placed within us that “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4)

And also with that, we have the promise of God’s faithfulness in holding us till the end: My Father, who has given them to me,[a] is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:29)

And what does all of this do in our hearts? When we see our Lord laying down His life for us to give us His righteousness, when we see the Spirit working in us, when we see our Father holding onto us – this love produces great hope which makes us want to repent and rely on Him. How can we run away from our God?

Therefore, like Paul, let us also pray over us and over others that, more than all the needs and necessities, that we grow in his love. His abounding love, His Sincere Love, His Exalting Love.

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Philippians Sermon

Why do we fail to Pray for each other? – Philippians 1:7-8

We are doing a new series called the Joy-Filled Life, expository preaching through the book of Philippians. We are looking through the opening statements of Paul’s letter to the Church in Philippi in chapter 1.

Last Sunday, we saw HOW Paul prays for the Church of Philippi.
Today we will discover WHY Paul prays for the Church in Philippi, and
the Sunday after this we will see WHAT Paul prays for the Church in Philippi.

Before we look at the ‘why’ let’s once again refresh our memory and remind ourselves ‘how’ Paul prayed for the Church.

  1. He prayed with Thanksgiving
  2. He prayed Frequently
  3. He prayed with the Gospel at the centre
  4. He prayed by drawing encouragement from past testimonies
  5. He prayed with an Expectant Heart

Even though we all said amen to the excellent sermon that Jinson preached last Sunday, confessed our prayerless heart from one another, committed to being more prayerful. My guess is most of us have failed to do so in this past one week.

And that is why today, we will learn the possible reasons why we might have failed to uphold each other in prayer as preached last week.

To discover the answer, we will now read the next two verses of Paul’s introductory statements to the Church of Philippi. It’s Philippians 1:7-8

Philippians 1:7-8
It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

After explaining HOW Paul prayed for the Church, he is now saying ‘It is right for me to feel this way about you all. In other words ‘The reason WHY I prayed for you the way I prayed for you’ is because….

• I hold you in my heart
• Because you are partakers with me of grace
• I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus

Let me share with you three things I understand from Paul’s statements that motivated him to continue praying for them.

1. He held the Church close to his heart.

‘I hold you in my heart.’

If we are continually failing to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Church, then a relevant question to ask ourselves would be is it because we fail to hold each other close to our heart as Paul did.

And if that’s true then why and what stops us from doing so?

The first reason I could think of is that we fail to see the Church as God sees it.

The Church in the past and even today is portrayed in the wrong light in most of the world, and I don’t know what version of the Church you are exposed to and what version of the Church was picturized for you.

  • For some church is portrayed as a building where we go and say our prayers, make confessions to the statue of Mother Mary and baby Jesus.
  • For some church is described as a place where you go to get your needs met. Either healing or some support and help
  • For some church is portrayed as a place to find new friends, hang out with cool people and have fun
  • For some church is described as a place where only the so-called holy people go – A place where you will be judged for your wrongdoings, for your looks, for your behaviour etc.
  • For some church is where gossip happens
  • For some church is portrayed as an organization or a setup to control and manipulate people to give their money & make the leaders rich.
  • For some church is described as a place to quiet your soul, meditate and discover yourself.

The truth is, none of these is a correct representation of what the Church is described in the bible. And the reason we may be failing to hold the Church close to our heart maybe because in some manner we have a wrong understanding of the Church, we are failing to see the Church as God sees it.

You and I are the Church – The redeemed and saved children of God. It’s not a building, not a place, not an organization, not a Trust, not an NGO, not a Christian program on GOD tv & not a Youtube channel on the internet where you listen to Christian music and bible talks.

The Church is not a lifeless thing to which we can’t relate to.

The brother and sister in the Lord who is right now accessible to you in person, who you can meet, talk and have fellowship is the Church, sitting right next to you is the Church. Even the ones who may not be part of The Gathering church but some other church, a dear friend who is on the Lord.

In Ephesians 3:9-11 Paul writes it is through you and me (the Church) that God will make known the manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places which is according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul was able to hold the Church close to his heart because he understood the high value of this relationship with each person because of Christ, and the eternal purpose for which God was gathering people in this manner. He saw the Church as God saw it and not how the world (the Pharisees & Sadducees) portrayed it.

How we chose to see the Church depends on us. The world and people around us may have given us a faulty representation of the Church, but we must turn to the scriptures and see the Church as God sees us, only then we will be able to see how precious and marvellous is this body of Christ. Motivating us to hold it close to our heart and pray unceasingly to see it grow and flourish.

2. He Identified himself as part of the family.

The second reason why Paul would pray for the Church the way he prayed is that he identified himself with the Church when he said: “you are partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel.”

He identifies that it is the same grace of God that saved him, also saved his brothers and sisters in the Church of Philippi. He recognizes that once we were all sinners and enemies of God, instruments of wrath. But God, in His mercy, sent his only begotten son Jesus to die for us so that we can be set free from sin and death as we confess our sins and believe in Jesus. He identifies, it was the same body of Christ that was broken for him was broken for them; the same blood that was shed for him was shed for them.

He relates to his salvation as the union with his real family.

Even Jesus, when he was asked to meet his natural mother and brother who was waiting on him, said: “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

I am not saying that we have to ignore and discontinue our relationship with our natural family, but I’m saying we have to identify ourselves with our real family, which is the Church.

Brothers & sisters, it is essential that we see each other that way, to depend on in times of trouble, to lean on in times of turmoil, to confess our innermost feelings of shame when convicted of sins, to find encouragement when we are discouraged or disappointed.

And just as any other family, we may not be perfect. Each one will have their unique personalities, have their background they are dealing with, struggles that are unique, etc. But we are still a family.

When we see each other as our real family, know each other well and the struggles we go through we will feel the burden to uphold each other in prayer all the time, just as Paul.

3. He Longed to be with his family in Christ.

The third reason why Paul felt the way he felt for the Church is because he had a longing to be with them and to spend time with his real family in Christ. He says “how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus”

He didn’t just hold the Church close to heart and identified himself as part of the family, but he longed to be them.

Brothers & sisters, have you ever thought, what is it that stops us from longing to be with each other. Is it anger, unforgiveness, envy, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, doubt, distrust, or something else

These feelings are not from God. As a good Father, God desires his family to be united and close-knitted. The world outside is dark; there is danger lurking at every corner, the devil and his agents are all around the place waiting to pounce on God’s children.

To make sure we are safe and healthy, God wants us to stay united, desiring and longing to be with each other all the time. In the book of Acts, it is said that believers would meet each other every day, devoted to prayer, devoted to the apostles teaching and devoted to breaking of bread. And the Lord added to their number.

Sunday mornings, Gospel communities during the week, get-togethers, casual hangouts, movie nights with each other, going on a trek, are all opportunities for us to hang out with one another as often as we can. Let’s develop a natural longing to be with each other all the time as Paul did, and as we know each other better, know each other’s struggles in life, know each other’s desires and dreams, our hearts will be naturally drawn to uphold each other in prayer. Because that’s what we do, depend on God for all the needs and answers in life.

Conclusion

If you are struggling to pray for your brothers & sisters in church as Paul did, ask yourself these vital questions, and you will find your answers.

Q: What stops you from holding the Church close to your heart?
Q: Do you fail to identify yourself with your real family? Why?
Q: Is there a longing in your heart to stick close to your church family? If ‘no’ why?

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Philippians Sermon

Introduction to a Joy-filled Life – Philippians 1:1-2

We are starting with a new series called ‘A Joy-filled Life’. We will be preaching through the Epistle of Philippians and discover what does joy-filled Christian life look like.

No one in the world doesn’t want to be happy, from children to adults, from the rich to the poor, men or women; everyone wants to be happy in life. Moreover, when each one of us thinks about happiness, we often have this list of things or events in mind that we wish would happen, which according to us will give us the ultimate joy we’re seeking.

Here I have made a list of things that people like us generally seek in life, and let’s be honest and check on the items that are on our mind which according to us will make us happy.

The reason we are calling this expository preaching series ‘A Joy-filled Life’ is for two reasons. Firstly, because time and again in this Epistle, we see Paul exhorting the church in Philippi to rejoice in the Lord.

A well-known passage from Philippians is Philippians 4:4 where Paul exhorts the church saying “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

Secondly, because in this Epistle we will find all the right reasons & encouragement needed to be truly happy in life. However, surprisingly, none of the items we’ve listed down is mentioned anywhere in this letter.

The reason they are not mentioned in the letter is because the joy these materials things will give us is all a momentary joy.

For example, think of buying a new toy for a child. When they don’t have, they yearn for it; when they receive it, they are super happy & excited. And then, depending on the durability and attractiveness of the toy, you know how long it will last.

Another example is when people are young, we think a partner in life will make us happy; when we have a partner we think marriage will make us happy; when we are married and broke we think a job will make us happy; when we have a job we think a house will make us happy; when we have a house we think children will make us happy; when we have children we think travelling will make us happy…. And it goes on.

What we will explore in this Epistle is not a momentary joy but a permanent one that satisfies our soul, but only if we understand and grab hold of it fast.

If you look at the context of this letter, the place from where Paul & Timothy is writing & the circumstances that the church is going through, none of it will look appealing, but even then, as we read the letter we can sense the joy of the Lord overflowing from their hearts.

According to Paul, even the possibility of him getting killed will eventually bring him everlasting joy.

Phil 1:21 he writes – For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

This morning we will look at the first two verses of Philippians 1, and even though there is a lot to be said from these two passages I just want to focus on our two, Paul & Timothy. I want to look deeper into their lives and discover the source and the reason for their joy as they are writing this letter.

Verse 1 & 2 …

“Paul and Timothy, servant of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseer and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul and Timothy come from two different backgrounds.

Paul comes from a very staunch Jewish family, a son of a Pharisee, a Roman citizen by birth. His original name was Saul of Tarsus. He was such a devout Jew that he used to persecute and kill the followers of Jesus. During those days he was a terror and people was afraid of him and many left Jerusalem to practice their faith in Christ. After reading the description above, we know that Paul was a very fierce, fearless and strong-headed man.

Then one day as he was travelling on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus on a mission to arrest the followers of Jesus and bring them back, Jesus appeared to him in a great light and revealed himself.

He was around 30 years old when he met Jesus. Also, after meeting Jesus his life changed, and he became a follower of Jesus, and since then he began to preach and tell people about Christ whom he met, the one who saved him and gave him eternal life.

He devoted himself in studying the scriptures, reaching out to the gentiles, planting churches and exhorting believers all across Asia Minor. His life and ministry were so impactful that out of the 66 books in the bible, 13 are his letter to various churches.

While writing the Epistle of Philippians, Paul was somewhere around 50 years old, having more than 20+ years in the ministry.

Timothy, on the other hand, was born of a Jewish mother who was a professing Christian called Eunice and his father was a Greek. His grandmother was also a believer called Lois. Which means Timothy was raised a Christian family, grew up reading and studying the scriptures like my boys, maybe homeschooled too. We also get to learn about Timothy that he was a very reserved and timid guy.

Timothy met Paul during Paul’s second missionary journey and become Paul’s companion and co-worker in the Gospel. Timothy was around 20 years younger to Paul, at the time of writing this letter may have been about 25-30 year old.

The past 20 years, Paul discipled Timothy in the Lord, modelled a godly life for him to follow & pursue, walked with him in all his struggles, encouraging him in the Lord and helping him grow in his faith.

Now, after 20 years, for Paul to open the letter to the Philippians saying “Paul and Timothy, servant of Christ Jesus” speaks a lot about their friendship and partnership in what they are doing.

I can imagine both of them sitting together side by side in the prison as they are beginning to write this letter to the Church in Philippians.

The reason I wanted to share their journey with you is to highlight the fact that they were so different from each other, different backgrounds, different upbringing (in our language we can say one came from a believer family and one from an unbeliever family), different personalities, different age groups; and yet they had the same goal and pursuit in life.

And as we’ve looked at the lives of these two men, I want to highlight two things about them that stand out for me and the ones that convicted me as I was preparing this sermon, which I believe to be the source and motivation of their joy-filled lives.

a. Devotion to Christ.
b. Desire for the Kingdom.

From the time they both heard the Gospel and received Jesus as their saviour and Lord, they were fully devoted to Christ. Paul left his full-time job as a persecutor. I believe it was a well-paying job he had to leave, sacrifice his career, leave his family for the sake of the Gospel (they might have rebuked, even threatened to kill), he left the company of his ungodly friends and started travelling to places wherever the Holy Spirit led him.

Timothy, as well, was so zealous for the Lord, that he left the comfort of his home, sacrificed the delicious food his mom prepare for him, left the loving warmth of his Father and Grandmother who must have loved him so dearly. It wasn’t an easy decision; there was no guarantee that he will come home alive. But yet his love for the Lord compelled him to leave all his comforts and join Paul in his missionary journey, preaching the good news of Jesus wherever the Lord led him.

And also, as their lives were transformed by the love of Christ, they were carried away and caught up with a great desire to seek his Kingdom and participate in his kingdom work with full zeal and vigour, to the extent where they had absolutely no desire for the pleasure of this life, even marriage.

Brothers & Sisters, I know you are seeking for joy in your life. No one can guarantee whether what you are seeking or desiring right now in life will even happen, and also if it happens, there is no guarantee that it will give you the ultimate joy and happiness you soul is seeking for.

But I know of someone who will surely fill your heart with true joy and happiness, one that will last for eternity. His name is Jesus.

He’s already performed the greatest miracle of all, by setting us free from the captivity of sin and restoring back our relationship with our creator God. It the same Jesus that met Paul on the road to Damascus, the same Jesus who changed the lives of Lois, Eunice and Timothy.

If you die today without achieving any of the goals in the list I showed you, but you’ve received Christ in your heart, I’m confident that you have lost nothing. In Jesus, you have gained everything.

Like Paul & Timothy Now, let us fill our hearts with this truth every single day of our lives. Reminding ourself, day in and day out, of this precious gift we’ve received in Christ. Living a life fully devoted to Jesus and seeking and desiring His Kingdom above every other pursuit in life.

Let’s find our joy in Christ and his finished work for us on the cross of Calvary.

Let’s make a choice today, as we go out of this room. And let’s be happy.

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Matthew Sermon

Gospel Stewardship – Matthew 25:14-30

Our passage for today is Matthew 25:14-30 and the topic we will be looking at is Gospel Stewardship.

Everything we have and everything we see around belongs to God – Our time, treasures, talents, things & places. In 1 Cor 4:7, Paul writes “Whatever we have, we have received from God” – Beginning with our lives and everything in it.

We are merely Stewards of what actually belongs to God.

Biblical stewardship isn’t just about being good managers of our schedules, our skills, and our stuff, but it calls us to use all these things in the way the Lord wants, for His glory.

Here in this chapter, Jesus is telling a series of parables to his followers explaining about the kingdom the God. In the parable right before our passage, he tells the story of the five foolish virgins who were unprepared in receive the bridegroom and missed the chance to go with him.

In verse 13, Jesus says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Jesus is not merely saying stories to entertain the disciples. He is sharing some life-impacting truths through these parables. He is talking about the Kingdom of God, he is revealing the heart of the Father and his expectation from his children.

In the parable, Jesus is telling us that God is like this man who called his servants and entrusted them with his property. He then gave talents to each one of them according to their abilities, watch them steward those talents and rewarded them accordingly.

Here are a couple of things we learn from this parable.

God has gracefully given to us.

To Jesus’s original hearers, a talent meant a very large unit of monetary value. People whose net worth equalled a talent were very well off. Scholars say that one talent in today’s world would be worth crores of rupees.

In reality, no servant’s stewardship was insignificant. Each received something of great value.

But this parable is not really about stewarding money. It is about stewarding our time, talents, treasures, abilities – everything we have and possess, God entrusts to us.

No one in this room can say God did not give them anything.

If you say so then, consider these words of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:7

“What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

The master wasn’t obligated to give the servants anything. Each servant received his talents by the grace of the master.

Remember, God had graciously given to each one of us sitting here according to our capabilities. To some, artistic abilities, writing abilities, cooking skills, serving skills, talking skills, musical abilities, counselling abilities, dancing abilities, parenting abilities, etc.

And as we faithfully steward whatever is given to us, more will be provided, as it was given to the servants who brought back double portion.

He expects us to put in hard work.

When the third servant brought back the one talent as it was and gave it back to the Master, the Master answered and said ‘You wicked & slothful servant’.

God hates a lazy person, it makes him angry to see a man lazy. There is no reward for the one who is lazy. Proverbs 12:24 – The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labour.

The other two servants took the talents, worked hard and brought back double the portion, and the master applauded them and gave them more.

God expects us to put in hard work to grow our artistic abilities, counselling abilities, cooking abilities, talking skills etc.

He expects us to seek and apply wisdom.

When the lazy servant came with nothing, the master says “couldn’t you at least be wise to invest the money with the bankers, and at least brought back the interest”

Proverbs 9:6 says “Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

The two faithful servants applied wisdom to double their money and brought back returns to their master, and he was pleased.

God expects us to seek and apply wisdom as we steward the talents he’s given to us.

Proverbs 4:5-6
“Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.”

The wisdom that comes from heaven – a pure; peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. – James 3:17

He will hold us accountable.

Finally, God has not given us the talents for our own self-gratification. But someday he will hold us accountable for how we’ve stewarded the time, talents & treasures he has given us.

“everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48). जिसे बहुत दिया गया है, उस से बहुत मांगा जाएगा, और जिसे बहुत सौंपा गया है, उस से बहुत मांगेंगें॥

This parable is meant to strike the appropriate fear of God in us and force us to ask what we are doing with the gracious gifts that has been given to us.

We cannot run away from God.

Brothers & sisters, in reality, we are the lazy and foolish servant in the parable. Even though we know that God is just and holy, who can reap without sowing and gather without scattering the seed. We, in our flesh, chose to rebel against him, we chose to remain slothful, and we chose to remain foolish. We are the sinful ones.

If anyone here says, no I’m not like that foolish servant, I work hard, I apply wisdom to everything I do. I would ask you, as you do these things, are you always doing it for the right reasons – seeking God’s glory above everything.

1 John 1:8 says “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Brothers & sister, we cannot be a biblical steward if we haven’t really understood the Gospel — the story of what God has accomplished through the life and death of Jesus Christ.

Yes, we are supposed to work hard
Yes, we are supposed to apply wisdom in everything we do
Yes, we are supposed to be accountable to God

But not without the inspiration of the Gospel, of what Christ has accomplished for us.

When we received the saving grace of Jesus, the Gospel changes not only a person’s destination in eternity but also his heart and mind here and now. The Gospel transforms more than a person’s relationship with God; it also transforms a person’s relationship to everything else.

That’s why, when someone says he’s become a believer, the most reliable evidence that a person has been converted is that he begins looking for ways to use his time, talent, and treasure in service to the Gospel.

Only Gospel-inspired stewardship is the true stewardship.

By the Gospel & for the Gospel

When a person eagerly begins to use his resources to serve and spread the Gospel, it testifies to the value he places upon the Gospel and to the fact that he treasures the God of the Gospel above all.

Let me give you a couple of examples, and then I’ll finish.

For example, the way I treasure and steward my marriage will tell you how much my life is impacted by the Gospel, how much I’ve understood the Love and affection of Christ for His bride.

If I’m stewarding my marriage in an unhealthy manner, where I’m failing to exercise love and forgiveness towards my wife than it is evident that I’ve really not understood the Gospel, especially the love and forgiveness of Christ.

Similarly, Art & Music are good endeavours, but unless it is inspired by the Gospel, with a deeper understanding of God love and his power displayed through his son Jesus, and with the motive to glorify the giver of gifts, it can turn into a breeding ground for pride, depression & brokenness.

This morning as you leave this room, I don’t want us to go thinking, I’m now going to work hard, apply wisdom and do something for Jesus. No, I want you to leave the room saying I’m going to fall deeper in love with Jesus, draw inspiration from Jesus, from his expressions of love, forgiveness and grace.

May it be that our hard work and application of wisdom be the outcome of the impact of the Gospel, only then we will be able to fully and faithfully steward our time, talents and treasures given to us in a manner that it glorifies God, just like the two faithful servants in the parable.

Lets Pray!

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Articles

Our Posture in Evangelism

There is no doubt that as a follower of Jesus, we all are called to participate in His Kingdom work. To reach out to the lost with the good news of the Kingdom and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit is the ultimate goal of all our lives.

This call is not just for the pastors, leaders and full-time workers; the call is for every single believer.

We have to remind ourselves daily that this world belongs to God and every organism around us is created by him to bring glory to his name. We are not at the centre of the universe, and everything doesn’t revolve around us. The world belongs to God, and He does what pleases Him.

Even as we look back at world history, we see generations after generations, men and women tried exalting and placing themselves above God, but none were successful. All their lives were numbered by God who created them, and ultimately, God used even their foolish endeavours to Glorify His name on the earth.

A great career, higher education, marriage, parenting, accumulating money, buying properties, travelling the world, etc. are not the real goals. Instead, they are the means & pleasures given to us so that we can pursue the real goal which is to be the light and salt of this earth and to preach the good news of Christ to the lost and called ones in this world.

Now, regarding Evangelism & the preaching of the gospel, I’ve learned that there isn’t one way to do it. It depends on the culture, the context, our personal calling, our giftings, and many other factors that are unknown to us.

And therefore, I wouldn’t propagate one particular approach or method of preaching the good news.

Even trying to mimic Evangelism as done in the Acts of Apostles may not work in our culture and context because people in that culture had a framework and a reference point to which the Apostles would direct their hearts as they presented the gospel, and it made sense to them.

Our culture – the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of our particular people or society are so very different in so many ways, we have to consider all these factors even as we sense the direction in which the Holy Spirit is leading us in life.

I believe wherever we are in life, the people group, the workplace, the society, etc, God placed us on purpose. And I don’t think he expects us to drop all our current connections and influences in which we have been sent for his glory. Of course, there are exceptions.

Instead, he is expecting that wherever we are, we become the light and salt and take a posture of humility, dependence & courage, as His ambassadors.

As Christians, when we think about our current culture, there are two directions in which we can go. One is towards legalism and the other towards Licentiousness.

A person with a bent towards legalism will look at the culture and point out all the wrong things, condemning them in their hearts, thereby adopting a withdrawal mentality and fail to reach out to them.

On the other hand, a person with a bent towards Licentiousness will look at the culture and accept everything as it is and eventually live an immoral and disobedient life, taking the grace of God for granted.

The gospel should guard our hearts against both these approaches and drive our thoughts, actions, beliefs, pursuits to give us the right posture for Evangelism.

Here are 3 ways in which the gospel helps us engage with our culture.

1. Gospel helps us appreciate the culture

As we grow and mature in the gospel, it should give our heart the humility to appreciate the contribution of everyone out there, whether they are Christians or Non-Christians, rich or poor, high standard or low standard, the neighbour next door or the cab & rickshaw drivers on the street.

God ultimately uses everyone in the world to accomplish a higher purpose that may often go unseen like the milkman that delivers milk at your doorstep, your unbelieving relative, your manager who gets on your nerves, your colleague who works in your team, the vegetable vendor in the market, the traffic police etc.

They all exist, and God in his sovereignty showers his common grace on all and uses them to glorify his name ultimately.

It is because of our fallen state that the culture and people love and live in darkness more than light, and God is not unaware of it. He fully knows and understands.

When Jesus came to this earth more than two thousand years ago and started interacting with people, I don’t think he had any kind of culture shock when he saw the winebibbers, prostitutes, gamblers, etc.

The way he interacted with the culture and people group should teach us what real cultural engagement looks like. He sat among the drunkards and the prostitutes and pointing them to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Likewise, we also see Paul interacting with the Gentiles.

The gospel should open our eyes to see human depravity and lostness, cultivating a heart of compassion and love towards them.

2. Gospel helps us provoke the culture

As we become part of the culture, the gospel helps us to see the heart idols that are at play in people’s heart, leading them to death and destruction; broken marriages, sickness, depression, loneliness, sinful tendencies, hatred, etc.

And as these idols show up, we address them and provoke their thoughts to think and point their hearts to the one and only permanent solution, the cross of Calvary where our Saviour Jesus died to redeem and break the chains of Sin forever, hence giving us a life of abundant blessing, joy and peace.

3. The Gospel helps us shape the culture

Of course, as we put ourselves out there, we also have to guard our hearts. If our hearts aren’t guarded with prayer and intimacy with Christ, it is easy to fall on the other side.

Here are a couple of questions we have to ask ourselves as we indulge in the culture continually.

i. What are things in the culture we should accept without being disobedient to God?
ii. What are things in the culture we should reject, the ones that are a direct violation of God’s word?
iii. What are things in the culture we can revive, without letting it influence our hearts?

Jesus’s interactions with an ungodly culture didn’t rob him of his Holiness. Paul’s interaction with gentiles never distracted him of his purpose and lose his identity in Christ.

And even as we put ourselves out there in the culture, we need to stay guarded all the time by making ‘Intimacy with Jesus’ the goal of our lives. Before we are called to do things for Jesus, we are called to be with Jesus.

Finally, as children of the light, let us be the light. Let’s keep moving by breaking all cultural barriers and making a difference in the lives of people around us, one at a time.

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Matthew Sermon

Finding True Satisfaction – Matthew 13:44-46

Today’s sermon is part of a series called ‘Gospel Renewal’. Through these sermon series, we are discovering how to consistently live all of life under the influence of the gospel.

So far, we’ve covered topics on Prayer, Humility, Repentance & Dependence. Today we will look into the topic of ‘Gospel Satisfaction’ – In this broken world, how can we live a truly satisfied Life. And our passage for today is Matt 13:44-46.

To begin with, let’s ask ourselves “How many of us don’t want to live a satisfied life?” – None, right. Which means every one of us wants to live a satisfied life.

Last week as I was thinking about our topic today on ‘Satisfaction’, I asked a couple of people at my home and office from different age groups “What is it that you expect to happen in your life that you think will give you ultimate satisfaction?”

Here are some of the answers I received:

I will be fully satisfied in life…

• When all my debt is clear
• When I get my dream job
• When the conflicts in my home will be fully resolved
• When I get a dog (answer by a 10-year-old)
• When I am healed of my sickness
• When I have a good enough bank balance

Here are a couple of things I learnt when I heard these answers

  • We all tend to look for satisfaction in the fleeting pleasures and things of this world.
  • At different junctures in life, these desires keep changing. It never ends.
  • If we genuinely evaluate, there is nothing of this world that can give permanent satisfaction in life, even on our death bed, we will be discontent with something we never got to enjoy.
  • The sad reality – Unknowingly, we are spending all our lives wasting our energy chasing after things that were never meant to give us true satisfaction.

If these things are not meant to give us true satisfaction, what is it that gives us true satisfaction? To discover that, let’s look at our passage today and find the answer – Matt 13:44-46

“The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

First of all, we have to note that the passage is a parable and not a direct command. And therefore, we have to understand the principle behind the parable and not to take it literally.

Jesus is telling us the parable about a man who finds such satisfaction in what he found, that he went and sold everything he had to own it.

True satisfaction in life comes when we find and chase after the one thing that’s of great value.

What is that one thing that the man in this parable finds of great value? – The Kingdom of God.

In Matthew 6:33, Jesus said “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you”

Jesus is saying, instead of running after all these things in life that you think will give you real satisfaction. I’m saying first seek the Kingdom, and all other things shall be added unto you.

To chase after the Kingdom of God should be of primary importance, then chasing after the things of the world. 1 John 2:17 says “the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” Isn’t it true?

The picture painted in the parable is of a man who is running after the right thing and is fully satisfied.

Now, what is the Kingdom of God?

The Kingdom of God is God’s redemptive work through his son Jesus Christ in the world, resulting in people being in right relationship with himself. The Kingdom of God is the big picture of what God is doing in this world.

Which means to seek and chase after the Kingdom of God, is to walk in right relationship with God and to participate in God’s glorious work in this world.

If you are someone who’s hearing such a message for the first time, having a troubled life, without peace, without joy… You need to know that unless we walk into a right relationship with our creator God, we will never find true satisfaction. What you need right now is not a temporary solution to your temporary problem but a permanent solution that will set you free forever.

The answer to all our temporary problems is one permanent solution – Restored relationship with our creator God.

Bible says, Our sins have separated us from God, the reason the world is dark, broken, lost is because we are separated from God who created us for this glory. Instead of worshipping and adoring him, we end up worshipping the created things of this world. Idols, money, fame, pleasures.

And none of them is capable of giving us the true satisfaction our soul is seeking.

Money is not the solution to our problem. If it was money, then all the rich people in this world should have been the happiest people in the world, and that is absolutely not true.

Yes, money can give temporary relief, but it will never satisfy our souls, that craves for love and acceptance.

No matter how hard we try to mend the broken relationship with our creator God on our own, we will never be able to accomplish it on our own. Unless we are purified of our sins, we will never be able to relate with God, unless we’ve paid the penalty of our sins that satisfies God’s Holy wrath and anger on us we will never be able to mend the broken relationship.

And our human efforts can never satisfy God’s Holy anger.

The beautiful thing is, more than our cravings for a relationship with God, God craves, even more, to be with us.

The Bible says that God himself sent His son Jesus for us, to live the perfect life we were supposed to live, offered himself as a perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sins, pay for our mistakes, die on the cross and satisfy God’s wrath on our behalf, to kill the power of sin in our lives. And rose again from the dead, seated in heaven, praying for us.

And so as we repent of our sins and receive Jesus as our Lord, believe in his name, he gives the right to become children of God.

True satisfaction comes when we realize how precious is this gift from God, and therefore, willing to give away anything that holds us back from receiving this gift.

“the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Brother & sisters, it is not easy to go against the world when they say money is the answer to all problems, it not easy to go against the world when they say following family traditions and values is important, and that we have to follow them without questioning blindly.

It is not easy to drop all our idols, let go of all our dreams, count the things of the world rubbish and follow the footsteps of Jesus. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” – In other words, we cannot fully receive the Kingdom of God unless we are willing to pay the price.

The man in the parable, when he finds the Kingdom, he hides it back realizing how precious it is, goes back and sells everything he has, pays the price, and buys the land – and is fully satisfied in doing so.

To those who’ve received the Kingdom of God in their hearts. Here are two things I want to say, to help us treasure what we’ve received and to continue finding your satisfaction in it.

1. We have to order our lives around the Kingdom of God

Even after receiving the Kingdom of God in our hearts, as we continue to live in this world, among all the dark forces, the result-oriented bosses at work, the nagging family members at home, still seeking specific answers to our prayer. It is so easy for us to slip away and go back to find our satisfaction in the world.

To order our lives around the Kingdom of God is to make ‘Intimacy with Jesus’ the ultimate goal of our lives. Which means we should always be willing to let go of anyone or anything so that you grow in intimacy with Jesus.

  • Whether its an ungodly relationship that takes all our energy away and weakens us from enjoying intimacy with Jesus.
  • Whether it’s our job that doesn’t allow us time to enjoy intimacy with Jesus.
  • Whether a business that takes most of our focus away from enjoying intimacy with Jesus.
  • Whether the wealth that is stopping us from enjoying intimacy with Jesus.

Like the rich young ruler who wanted to know how to inherit eternal life. When Jesus knowing his heart idols, asked him to go and sell all that he has, give to the poor and follow him. Was unwilling to do so and went back sorrowful.

Jesus said, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

The key to continuing living a satisfied life for all those who believe, is to order our life around the Kingdom of God, to find our satisfaction in our relationship with Christ.

2. Dedicate all of life for the expansion of the Kingdom of God

As we enjoy our relationship with Christ, fully satisfied in Him. He then calls us to participate with Him in his Kingdom work.

It’s a privilege for us to be called to participate in His work. By serving God and his people, we’re not doing a favour on God. But, in fact, God is doing a favour on us.

By allowing us to participate in his Kingdom work, he is giving us more opportunities to be satisfied in life.

Personally, as a family, to be serving God and to serve you with our time, energy and efforts, even thought it gets tiring, and exhaustive. By the end of the day when we sit down and reflect on all that God is doing in and through our lives, there is such joy and satisfaction in our hearts. I sometimes cry.

Yes, we have to look after our families, work hard to survive, but unless our primary pursuit in life is to participate in the expansion of the Kingdom of God, we are still lacking sometimes precious in life.

As I conclude, let us all first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness that comes through repentance and belief in Jesus, and He will surely satisfy our soul with all good things in life, that is meant to bring true joy and happiness.

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1 John Sermon

Gospel Repentance – 1 John 1:5-10

Today’s sermon is part of a series called ‘Gospel Renewal’. Last two Sundays we covered topics on Prayer & Humility. And today we’re going to talk about Repentance.

Through these sermon series, I believe we are discovering how to consistently live all of life under the influence of the gospel. And as we do that one of our greatest needs in gospel-centered living is to understand repentance accurately and biblically.

Firstly, I want to begin by defining the word Repentance, because it seems many of us have a different understanding of the word.

The word Repentance in Greek is the word ‘metanoia’, and ‘metanoia’ essentially means ‘change in mind’.

The full biblical definition of repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action.

It’s like leaving your home to go to the market, instead on the way, you change your mind and decide to walk towards the mall.

It is impossible to truly change your mind without that causing a change in action.

That is why John the Baptist called people to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8).

A person who has truly repented of his sin and exercised faith in Christ will give evidence of a changed life .

The passage I want us all to look at today is 1 John 1:5-10

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

First of all, remember, John is writing this letter to the believers in Ephesus. What John is saying is that when you talk about having fellowship with God & practicing the truth, you need a ‘change of mind’. You need to Repent.

Here’s what he is saying…

If we say we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

As we hear these words of John, and think about the application in our lives, let me give you a mental image of where our Christian is with regards to this particular situation that John is talking about.

When we were born in this world, we were born sinful and wicked. And no matter how cute and pretty the new born babies look, the truth is, their heart is disconnected from God.

The reason we are born sinful is because as humans, when we were first created by God in His image to worship Him – We were given the freedom to choose the right thing, we misused our freedom and willfully chose what was against God.

Our disobedience not only disconnected us from having a healthy relationship with God, but it also invited his wrath and anger. And since we were all born out of the first humans Adam and Eve, we all inherit their sinful nature, and a broken relationship with our creator God & are worthy of his wrath and anger.

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death – which is what we deserved

John 3:16 – But God so loved the us that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 3:24 – all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:24 – but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus came to earth and lived the perfect life in our place, took the penalty of our sins and paid the price on the cross, and in return gave his righteousness to us.

He took our dirty unrighteous garments and gave us his righteous garments.

Now when God looks at us, he is looking through the filter of His son, claims us back from the world, embraces us and calls us his own.

Brother & sisters, when we are confronted with this truth, there is a transformation that happens in our heart. For the first time we truly repent of our sins, believe in the gospel & eventually make a public declaration of our faith through Baptism.

Do not be mistaken – When this happens, God forgives all our past, present & future sins. We stand justified before him forever.

He says nothing can separate us from his love – neither physical death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, [39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39

But, a lot of people think that we only repent of our sins & believe in the gospel once for all and there is no need to repent & believe again and again.

People who think that way forget that even thought our soul is set free from eternal condemnation, we still continue to live in our flesh and in this corrupt world. Our bodies are trapped here until we die or until Jesus returns.

We also forget that as we continue to grow in our faith, there are two things happens in our heart & mind. We grow in the awareness of God’s holiness and we grow in the awareness of our sinfulness.

And if we don’t walk in daily repentance, we can go into two different directions. Let me explain.

When we focus only on the Holiness of God, we easily get into a performance mode. And when we only grow in realization of our sinfulness, we get into a pretending mode. And both these places are harmful for us.

They stop us from experiencing a spirit filled Christian life.

In our passage today, John is talking to believers who are bent towards the pretending mode. People who are pretending to have fellowship with God and walking in the light but are in darkness and unwilling to admit that they are drowning in sin.

Listen carefully as I read the passage again.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

And here’s the solutions John offers

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

To bridge the gap between God’s holiness and Our sinfulness, the only way we can do it is when we live a lifestyle of repentance by confessing our sins to God & believing in the Gospel.

Here’s what happens when we do that daily. We grow in appreciation of what Christ has done for us on the cross. Our heart grows bigger and bigger each day.

God performs chemotherapy on us, killing the bad cells of our sinful nature and producing new ones. Changing our stony heart into a heart of flesh.

Biblical repentance frees us from our own devices and makes a way for the power of the gospel to bear fruit in our lives.

We never stop needing to repent and believe.

And as we do that, there are two reasons they happen. The first is, we express the genuineness of their faith. The second reason is, we maintain a close relationship with the Father in heaven.

Amen

Finally, as I close, let me highlight three things about repentance one gain.

  1. As Christians, we don’t repent daily because we fall off and become unbeliever again as we sin. The first time when we truly repented of our sins, he fully accepted and has given the entry pass to his Kingdom.
  2. As Christians, we repent so that we daily grow in appreciation of what Christ has done for us on the cross.
  3. We repent and confess our sins because we have the confidence that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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1 John Sermon

Gospel-centred Prayer – 1 John 5:14-15

After doing a year of expository preaching on the Gospel of Mark, we will now be focusing on a series of topical preaching called ‘Gospel Renewal’. What I mean by the word Gospel is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the redemption of mankind.

We’re using the word Renewal because even though we hear and use the word Gospel often times in our verbiage we still fail to understand the depth of it and for the most part we don’t know how to apply the Gospel in our daily life and live for the Gospel.

Therefore, the aim of this series is to learn how the Gospel changes and impacts everything we do, that anything and everything we do is only a response to God’s love and grace that He has shown us in Christ. The ultimate goal is to glorify God.

Today’s topic is going to be on the subject of GOSPEL PRAYER. The passage I chose to study and preach is 1 John 5:14-15.

To give you a bit of a context, John is writing this letter to the believers in the Church of Ephesus.

After giving a long list of instruction to the church on the doctrine of Christ, Obedient living & Devotion, John is almost concluding his talk, and in chapter 5:14-15 he says

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Last Sunday Jeff reminded us that our primary call is to be with Jesus. That, before we are called to do anything for Jesus, we are called to be with Him and abide in Him.

And it is through prayer and devotion that we get  to be with Christ and to enjoy Intimacy with Him.

Brothers & sisters, Prayer is the most important spiritual discipline for every Christian.

But, have you wondered why our Prayer life becomes the most neglected spiritual discipline of all? That’s because, our prayer life is the prime target of the enemy and he will do anything to distract us from approaching God in prayer.

Last week while Jeff and I were in Taiwan going through the City to city Church planter intensive training, one of the topic that really blessed me was the topic on prayer by a pastor called Jon Hori.

One of his statement that stood out for me was when he said “I’m not worried when I hear that the church isn’t growing even though the people are genuinely praying, I’m worried when I hear that the church is rapidly growing but people aren’t praying”

This is what it implies – Any growth in our lives, whether in church, at work, in college, in finances that isn’t grounded in prayer is a dangerous endeavour.

It’s a dangerous endeavour because it will damage our faith and (leads us into misery / leave us feeling hopeless and miserable). Without prayer, we will drift away from God’s plan and purpose and end up in a place where we were never intended to be.

It will damage our faith because when we apply worldly wisdom to achieve things on our own strength, we will end up disregarding God and take pride in our own achievements and abilities instead of giving glory to God. We will stop believing in the Gospel and lose faith in Christ.

If you are convinced that prayer is most important to us, let us now look at how we need to prayer. As we look into today’s passage, I want to talk about the essentials (Saar) of prayer and the methods of praying.

In the passage as John is encouraging the people to pray he is saying two things that I believe is most essential when we think about prayer.

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

1. Our prayer needs to be rooted in Christ, with confidence in Him and His finished work on the cross.

What I mean by that is when we go to God in prayer we don’t go with a self-righteous and prideful heart like the Pharisee in Luke 18 who goes to the temple and prays ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

Have you noticed, often times we fail to go to God in prayer because we think we’ve failed to live a perfect and obedient life, one that is pleasing to God, and that God is not interested in me or in my prayer unless I do it right.

Brothers & sisters, God knows our heart, he knows our struggles, he knows our failures, he knows our short comings, he knows the repetitive sinful tendencies we struggle with. And yet he does not expect us to fix all that and then approach Him in prayer.

Rather, he desires that we go to Him as we are, sinful & broken like the Tax collector who stood at a distance, with His eyes on the ground, beating his breast and praying, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

What Jesus accomplished for us on the cross is far greater than what we can ever imagine.

In 1 John chapter 1, John writes

8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we go to God in prayer with the attitude of ‘I am right & have no sin, therefore God hears me’ then we deceive ourselves. No matter how hard we try, we can never match up to the standard of God’s holiness.

Rather when we go to God in prayer and confess our sins, then he is faithful to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Let’s not forget brothers and sisters that once we were alienated from God, we were his enemies because of our evil behaviour. But Christ came to this world, lived among us, lived the righteous life we were supposed to live, and through his death on the cross he absorbed the wrath of God that was upon us and presented us holy in God’s sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

This is our identity in Christ, and this is the confidence in which we approach God in prayer.

2. The second thing we learn about prayer from this passage is that we ask according to his will and not ours.

Often times, this aspect of prayer messes up with our pride, our self-gratifying nature & our dreams & desires, Isn’t it?

The reason it messes up is because often times we think we know what is better for us. But in doing so we fail to realise the ultimate goal of God in this universe He created us for himself and for His pleasure. We forget that ultimately He is in control  of everything and calls the shots on us.

No matter how many dreams and desires you have for yourself. If they are not as per God’s will for your life and it they don’t serve his ultimate goal, then what you are chasing after will never satisfy you.

And therefore, to be in the perfect will of God should be the ultimate goal of our life. Nothing else in life can satisfy our inmost cravings and longings – not wealth, pleasure, comfort or people.

Even Jesus, while teaching about prayer in Matthew 6 teaches us to primarily pray for God’s kingdom and Gods will to be done in our lives.

What John is saying is that whatever you ask, if it is the will of God for your life, He will provide.

So, how do we pray in a way that we seek His will.

James 4:13-15:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Seeking for God’s will as we pray is the right thing to do.

I hope I’ve initiated a spark in to your heart to revive your prayer life. Please don’t let it go off, rather flame it to fire and live for God.

The other thing I wanted to share is our prayer postures. Often times we think of only one or two ways in which to approach God in prayer. But let me conclude by suggesting a couple of more prayer postures or methods that has personally benefited me.

Prayer Postures:

  • Quite time behind the doors
  • Prayer Journalizing Eg. King David
  • Prayer Cards
  • Walk & Talk
  • Family devotions
  • Community prayer

“Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.” – Max Lucado

Categories
Mark Sermon

Here’s what the Resurrection of Christ mean to us – Mark 16:1-8

Our passage today is Mark 16:1-8.

If you’re like me, you probably had a rough last couple of days. It could be because of frustration and stress at work, or because of a rough patch in a relationship, a sickness in the family, failure in your studies, a sadness due to unanswered prayers, or you’ve been cheated by someone, or you are struggling with sin that you’re not able to get rid of.

And you are here this morning, all dressed up for the Resurrection Sunday, with smiles on your faces, joy in your demeanour and a twinkle in your eye. But inside, you are broken, joyless, you’re in despair, in pain, feel hopeless, feel lonely, feel hurt & angry.

If you are in this state of mind this morning, then I want to talk about what does the Resurrection of Jesus mean to us in our present situation and how should we respond so we can enjoy the full benefits of what Christ has achieved for us on the Cross of Calvary.

We are in Mark 16 where Jesus is dead and buried, and there is a sadness in the air. If you’ve ever experienced a sudden death of a loved one in your family, you know what that feeling is.

Everything around us moves in slow motion, we go through a period of disbelief, we question the meaning of life, everything we do seems meaningless and less important, we lose all our energy crying, and there is no more joy left in us. We wish this world would end soon.

I assume that is the exact feeling all the disciples and followers of Jesus were going through at this moment.

And then Mark tells us that after the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, along with other women brings spices to anoint the body of Jesus.

As they are walking towards the tomb, they are worried about how to roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb, but when the women reach the tomb, they see the stone has already been rolled back.

And entering the tomb they find a man sitting on the right side, the other gospel writers mention it was an angel who met them at the tomb. The angel gives them the news that the Jesus they buried is not here; He has Risen.

The angel tells them to go and say the news to the disciples, but instead, Mark says they were afraid and did not speak a word.

When we read the account of the Resurrection of Jesus, even within the four Gospels, we see a lot is happening there, and the account of each of the Gospel writers seems to contradict each other. The sceptics often use these contradictions to the point that Jesus’s Resurrection, it never happened.

But as I read, studied & investigated these accounts I did find the answer to the contradictions and was able to rest my heart.

But my goal today is not to clear the doubt surrounding the contradictions but to highlight and speak about the main event that happened, which is “Jesus had Risen from the Dead.”

Jesus’s resurrection was an unlikely event that happened, most people in that time never experienced or heard news like that. None of them even expected such a thing to happen.

It is crucial for us to know that what was happening there was a fulfilment of a prophecy that was made many years ago which appeared in the book of Isaiah written in the 8th century BCE.

Isiah writes, God himself, left his heavenly throne, lived among us, bore our griefs, carried our sorrows, pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, offered himself to die on our behalf as a sacrifice for our sins, to reconcile us back to Him.

When God made the world, a beautiful and perfect one beyond our imagination, the 9 to 10 thousand species of birds, 1.2 million species of animals, 34,000 recognised species of fish, the trees, the mountains.

The bible says he also made man in His own image, with around 78 organs in one single body, the most dominant, complex and powerful species that live on earth.

He created us like Him to commune with Him on his level, we were just like Him and enjoyed the most beautiful relationship that ever existed. But the whole idea was to live on Gods terms, under His rule and dominion, but what did we do?

We rejected His rule by disobeying His commands and devaluing His authority.

And according to God’s law, the penalty of disobedience is death. Just like it is when we break the rules that govern a country.

The only entity that could pardon our sins and save us from death was God himself. And that is why Jesus, the beloved Son of God, who was God himself came down to earth, lived a perfect life in the sight of God on our behalf and took the penalty of our Sins and died on our behalf.

But sadly, for most of the people in this world, the story of Jesus ends right there. And why not, isn’t that the image of Christ we often portray to the world. The image of Jesus hung on the cross, helpless, dead, displayed in churches, carried by Christians…. But isn’t that just a half-told story.

What the world often fails to recognise and believe is the fact that Jesus didn’t just die but also he also defeated Sin and satan, and on the third day he rose again.

Without the Resurrection of Jesus, our story is incomplete.

In this context, here’s why Jesus’s resurrection is essential and what should mean to us.

1. The Resurrection affirms our death to Sin

When we were not in Christ we were slaves to Sin, Sin ruled in our mortal bodies. Knowingly, unknowingly we lived a life of disobedience to God. But the day we heard about our saviour Jesus, and our hearts responded with repentance and faith, we also proclaimed to the world through the waters of baptism.

Romans 6:4 says “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Romans 6:8 – “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”

Romans 6:10-11 “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

To those who’ve been struggling with sin in the last few days, filled with guilt and shame, unable to walk in the light, holding yourself back from fellowshipping with other believers, holding yourself back from confessing your sin to God, to one another asking for forgiveness.

My encouragement to you is to remember that you are no more slave to the sin you are struggling with, in Christ you are a new creation. Do not let the devil trick you from believing that God will not accept you.

Take courage like the prodigal son and return to the Father who loves you and will embrace you if you genuinely repent and is willing to put your faith in his son Jesus.

2. The Resurrection gives hope for the future

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Brothers & sisters, you may be going through a tough circumstance, one that you think is beyond your capacity to handle. But remember, we are not a people without hope. Through the Resurrection power of Jesus, we have been born to a living hope.

We can call unto him for help, and he will answer us from His Holy Hill. His promised that he will never leave us and never forsake us. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us. His rod and his staff, they comfort us.

Do not put your hope in man.

And even if we die on this earth, our life story will not end. We will spend eternity in heaven with Christ, in his glory.

Therefore, my encouragement to you is to always lift up your eyes unto the Lord, from whom our help comes. Set our minds on the heavenly things and not on the earthly pain.

And remind yourself of the glorious future we have in the heavenly Kingdom of God. We don’t need a passport or a visa to enter his Kingdom, the blood of Christ on us is the proof that we belong. No guard or security can stop us.

Because of the Resurrection of Christ, we are people of hope.

3. The Resurrection strength our witness in Christ

1 Cor 15:17 – 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.

The fact that Jesus indeed rose from death is the evidence of our faith. The Gospel is incomplete without Resurrection. The world needs to know that Jesus isn’t always hanging on the cross, but that he has risen from the dead and is seated on the right hand of the God the Father, interceding from you and me.

The story of Resurrection ought to be told to every man and women because if they don’t hear the complete full story, they will never respond, they will leave the earth and end up in hell without knowing that there was a way for them to save themselves from hell.

Along with redemption from sin, and eternal hope, we are also called to be ambassadors of this good news. The day we received Christ in our hearts and was adopted into the family of God, we also took up the responsibility to join the Fathers business which is to preach the good news to the ends of the earth.

Let us not be like the women who were afraid and didn’t go out to tell the news to others.

The Bible says as children of God we are co-heirs with Christ, and there is a reward waiting for us in heaven.

Remember, as we share this good news with others, don’t forget to tell the Resurrection story, because without the Resurrection of Jesus our faith is futile, our story is incomplete.

Let’s pray!

Categories
Mark Sermon

Lets Call Him King – Mark 15:1-20

Good Morning Church, Our passage for today is Mark 15:1-20

After Jesus was arrested and accused with many false allegations by the Pharisees & Scribes, he was brought to the Pilate who was the Governor at that time. The first question Pilate asks Jesus is “Are you the King of the Jews?”. To which Jesus answers “You have said so”.

Since the Pharisees didn’t have any reasonable charge against Jesus they falsely accuse Him by informing the Pilate that He calls Himself the “King of the Jews” which in those days was a crime. It was a crime because the region was ruled by Emperor Tiberius and anyone calling himself as a King was a threat to the Roman Empire and deserved severe punishment.

Mark tells us that the chief priests accused Jesus of many other things, and when Pilate again asked Him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” Jesus made no further answer which Mark says amazed the Pilate.

And the reason I believe Pilate was amazed was that He knew the allegations were false and that Jesus could have easily defended his case and proved himself innocent, but that is not what Jesus did.

Instead, Jesus gave himself up for the sinful and rebellious people of this world. He absorbed the injustice happening to Him which neither Pilate nor others could understand or comprehend.

Being on the other side of redemptive history we now know that Jesus was giving himself up for a greater purpose of redeeming mankind from the clutches of sin and death to a restored relationship with creator God, the Father in heaven who sent him to earth for this very purpose.

Philippians 2:6-8

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

1 John 2:2    

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Because of our sin & rebellion, our hearts have turned against the God who created us for His glory. We’ve become sinful, unworthy & unholy people who love sinning and rebelling against the authority of God.

Because of which God’s Holy wrath is upon us and the punishment for sin is death & destruction.

But because God so immensely loved us, he sent His son Jesus who takes our sins upon himself and absorbs the wrath of God that was upon us.

Jesus stays silent in the presence of Pilate and refuses to defend the false allegations upon him because He was willingly taking the punishment upon himself, the sins of the whole world, all the people, even till this day.

The wrath of God that was upon us He took it upon himself.

As He is doing so, he is also making his identity known to the people. When Pilate asks whether or not he is the King of the Jews, Jesus openly makes a bold affirmation that He is the King. To the High priests, he also affirmed that He is the Son of Man who will sit at the right hand of the Most High and will come back on the clouds.

What amazes me are the people group that was present at the greatest moment in history and yet failed to recognise & accept Jesus as their King.

The first group of people are the Pharisees and the Scribes who were theological scholars who went to Christian seminaries and studied the scriptures in and out. Read all the prophecies that were spoken about Jesus by Prophet Isaiah, King David and many others.

But unfortunately, they were so full of pride and narcissism that they couldn’t imagine letting go of their self-made fame and the authority they had over the people. They loved their position and wealth so much that they couldn’t stand Jesus who was challenging their authority, and even said and did things that were shaking their mini-kingdom. Accepting Jesus as the King meant losing their business and giving up on all their ungodly wealth, pleasures & pursuits.

The second group of people were the disciples and the followers of Jesus, even the Roman soldiers, who saw Jesus perform great miracles, heal the sick, heard Him speak about the Kingdom of God. Some of them even convinced that He was the Son of God who came to make all things new by offering himself as a sacrifice for their sins.

But unfortunately, these guys were so full of fear, lacked courage and was unprepared & unwilling to pay the cost of being His disciples, because of which they kept their mouth shut, and some even went hiding like the Apostle Peter.

The third group of people were the crowds and the onlookers, these were people who were so self-absorbed with their own lives, all they wanted was to be entertained. They probably knew nothing about Jesus or even what was happening, they might have considered the man Jesus as one of the criminals who has been punished for treason.

And we look at these people groups, it is easy for us to sit here and judge their actions and condemn them for their behaviour towards Jesus but we can totally forget that we too can possess the same qualities like them and behave in the same manner as they did.

Just as Jesus affirmed to Pilate that He is the King, not only of the Jews but the King of all generations, of all cultures, of all people groups, of all tribes, of all nations. Even till this day, he continues to show and affirm it to the world that He is the true King.

He is doing it through the faithful witness of His redeemed people, he is doing it by appearing in dreams and visions, he is doing it by showing His glory through the creation and in many other ways.

But still many of us fail to see and accept Him as the King of our lives and even fail to submit ourselves under His Authority.

Let me share with you three reasons from the passage why we fail to see and accept Him as our King. I will also share with you some practical applications on how we can overcome our failures.

1.The first reason we fail to see Him as our King is because of our spiritual blindness.

I’ll put the onlookers and the spectators in this category of the people group. For our context, we’re talking about the unbelievers of this world. They are people in our families, in our workplace, in our neighborhood, who’ve heard the story of Jesus, even seen the movie Passion of Christ, but are so self-absorbed with their lives that they just can’t get their head around it and are unable to put their faith in Jesus.

They are spiritually blind, and the reason these people are spiritually blind and unable to see Christ as the true King is explained by Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4. He writes “In their case the god of this world (Devil) has blinded their minds, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Maybe there are some of us sitting here this morning, you’ve come to church because someone invited you here, you’ve even heard the story of Jesus multiple times, but for some reason, you are unable to get your head around it and unable to believe this truth and follow Jesus.

There is a possibility that the enemy of Christ, the god of this world, the devil has blinded our mind from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.

If you are that person and you desire to know this Jesus the way others in this room sees him, you want to know Him as the true King of this world and of your life. I suggest that you talk to Jesus as if you are talking to a real person and ask Him to open your eyes and reveal himself to you.

And if you do that with an honest and a seeking heart, I can confidently say that he will take away that veil of blindness from your eyes and will surely reveal himself to you as He has revealed himself to us.

One of our family friend who was a young Muslim girl by the name of Saira Banu, now known as Sarah. When she was in college, someone shared the story of Jesus with her and one day as she was doing her regular Namaz (Muslim Prayer) she spoke to Jesus and told him if you are the true God then reveal yourself to me, and I will follow you all the days of my life. The same night Jesus appeared to her in a dream and spoke. And since then she’s been a believer and a follower of Jesus.

The story of Saira Banu is one of the many stories in which Jesus has revealed himself as King.

There are also many here who’ve been sharing the Gospel and telling the story of Jesus to your family member, a co-worker, a neighbor, a stranger on the street. But no matter how diligently you try, they fail to understand and fail to respond in faith, as if there is a veil that’s blocking their minds from seeing and accepting Christ as the King.

My encouragement to you is that you share the Gospel please also pray for that person, even more diligently. It is not enough for us to just share the story of Jesus and hope that he or she will respond in faith. The problem is their spiritual blindness. It is not our eloquent words and persuasive gospel-sharing methods that will open their minds. Only God can open their minds and help them see Jesus as the true King.

Pray before the Gospel, pray after sharing the Gospel. We are a believer because someone prayed for us. The person I could is my Mom who diligently prayed for me and asked God to open my eyes to the truth and to use me as His servant.

2.The second reason why people fail to see Jesus as the true King and follow Him is because of lack of courage and unpreparedness & unwillingness to pay the cost of becoming His follower.

I’ll put the disciples & the followers of Jesus in this category of people who knew Jesus was the true King but failed to acknowledge or stand with him when he was being crucified.

There are many us even today when we heard the Gospel, our eyes opened, and our hearts responded in faith. We dropped our idols, our past ways, and decided to follow Jesus.

But as soon as we started experiencing the reality of living for Jesus, paying the cost and carrying our cross daily, face threat & persecution from family and friends because of our faith any even other kinds of sufferings we undergo. We either end up abandoning him, or we’ve stopped acknowledge Jesus as our King of lives and follow him wholeheartedly.

Coming to a safe environment like church or GC and declaring ourselves as Christian is easy but when we’re out in the world we feel scared, we lack courage, we feel unprepared & unwilling to pay the cost of being His disciple.

In Luke 14:26-27 Jesus said

26 You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come with me unless you love me more than you love your own life.

27 You cannot be my disciple unless you carry your own cross and come with me.

You may ask How do we buckle up such courage?

The answer to that question is to be men who are filled and led by the Holy Spirit. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told His disciples that the Holy Spirit will come upon them, whom the Father will send in his name, to teach us all things and bring to our remembrance all that I have said to you.

The same Spirit, when it is upon us also gives us the courage to follow Jesus and obey His commands no matter what circumstances we’re facing.

Remember, when the disciples were the upper room and praying, the Holy Spirit came upon them and, the same Peter who denied Jesus, stood with the other eleven, lifted up his voice, addressed the crowd, preached the Gospel with boldness and three thousand souls were added to the Kingdom of God. Theologians say that Peter was crucified for his faith in Christ.

Do you lack the courage to stand up for Jesus and declare Him as the King of your life? Are you not prepared to pay the cost of being of Jesus?

My encouragement to you is ask the Lord to fill you with His Holy Spirit and He will give you the strength and courage needed to face challenging situations.

3.And finally, the third reason why we fail to accept Him as our King is because we tend to love darkness more than light.

I’ll put the Pharisees and the Scribes in this category of people who were okay to release and tolerate a criminal & a murderer like Barabas instead of Jesus. Just because Barabas wasn’t going to disrupt their fame, wealth & ungodly pursuits but Jesus would.

We’ve heard the Gospel, accepted the fact that Jesus is the true King, pretend to be a Christian, even go to Church but have not yet given full reign of our lives to King Jesus.

I’m sorry to say, but a Half-hearted surrendering is no surrendering at all.

And the reason some of us haven’t given full reign of our lives to King Jesus is because we love the darkness more than light, we love the pleasure of sin than the joy of being with Jesus, we love slothfulness & comforts more than diligence to Christ, we love money, wealth & possessions more than God.

In Matthew 6:24 Jesus said “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus said

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Brothers & sisters, it may seem like there is joy is pursuing the world and its pleasures, but remember the end is not going to be pleasurable as you think. Without complete surrender to Jesus and his Kingship over our lives we are never going to make it to heaven and sadly end up in the wrong place.

Fully surrendering to Jesus & accepting His as our King doesn’t mean that we will become perfect human beings. For as long as we are in this flesh, we will be imperfect.

But a man and a woman who is truly for Jesus will live a life of continual repentance and belief in the Gospel. And they will produce Fruit as they keep up with Repentance.

Jesus said a good tree will be known by its fruit and so is a truly surrendered Christian.

If you are in that place this morning, I want to urge you to repent of your sins, give up on your pride, let loose of your grip on money and possessions and see and accept Jesus as your true King and the greatest treasure of your Life.

1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”