Sermon

Transformed by His presence Acts 9 1-19 Ps Theo Nayagam

Omega Church NZ

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  1. You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to

  2. encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to

  3. the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses

  4. you and trust God will reveal Himself to you in a new way

  5. today. And.

  6. If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough, Want to find

  7. out more about Omega? Get to our website or Facebook

  8. page through the links below. It is very interesting when you

  9. make meet connections and speak with them and you know what they

  10. go through. And it's such a joy.

  11. And I, I want to thank him, Praise the Lord that He's given

  12. us this grace to come to you and to speak with you this morning.

  13. And may the Lord be his. May through His grace, speak

  14. through me so that the word will become alive to all of you this

  15. morning. My, my message for you is that

  16. very simple message. And I want to go to the basics

  17. because it's important that we truly be connected to God, that

  18. we do all things through him who is in US.

  19. And that understanding needs to come.

  20. And if that understanding does not come, it's very hard for us

  21. to live because it is him in US who helps us to live a holy,

  22. separated life. And that understanding must

  23. really come so that we can live through him.

  24. It is important that that's why I chose this to say transformed

  25. by his presence. You know, Paul was such a

  26. religious person that he wanted to do everything right, but he

  27. was not connected to God. He was not connected to Jesus.

  28. The moment that he came and had an encounter with Jesus and that

  29. at the encounter that everything around him changed.

  30. And that's what I want to speak, that encounter truly, that

  31. encounter that you need to have with Jesus in Romans chapter 10

    Romans 10 chapter mention

  32. and verse 10 says, for with the heart you believe.

  33. And when we believe with the heart, what happens is that into

  34. our hearts comes what the righteousness of God, which

  35. comes when we believe and we live by that righteousness which

  36. is in our hearts. And that's the most important

  37. thing. And then what we are able to do

  38. is that we are able to confess with our mouth, because what is

  39. in our heart is His righteousness.

  40. And therefore we are able to, you know, confess with our

  41. mouth. And we are not fearful when we

  42. are anywhere. We are not fearful because in US

  43. this is in Him. So when we are in a public

  44. place, we are able to confess that He is our Lord and God and

  45. not hide behind a skirt, because truly He is God in US.

  46. Galatians chapter 1 and verses 15 to 17 says, But when God, who

    Galatians 1 chapter mention

  47. set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by His grace,

  48. was pleased to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach Him

  49. among the Gentiles. Now look at this.

  50. This is important. In this verse he says my

  51. immediate response. Whose immediate response?

  52. The response of whom? Paul.

  53. My immediate response was not to consult human beings.

  54. He was not interested to consult any disciple or Peter or anyone.

  55. But what did he do? I did not go to Jerusalem.

  56. He did not go but to see those who were apostles before I was,

  57. but I went to Saudi Arabia or I went to Arabia.

  58. Later I returned to Damascus. Why did he go?

  59. He wanted to spend time with the Lord to learn the word.

  60. It is important that when Yes, I know Jesus, but the to know

  61. Jesus is to know his word. And if we do not know the word,

  62. then we don't know Jesus. And then that's the change which

  63. has to happen and that's the righteousness which settles in

  64. our heart. So Paul believed.

  65. So for for Paul to believe he has to apply that in his life.

  66. To apply that you need to have the substance in you.

  67. If if you and I don't have the substance in US, how can we

  68. apply? It's important, therefore we

  69. have the substance in US. So there are two parts to the

  70. transformation that I'm talking about today and that the

  71. transformation is 1 is the part that we truly believe and say

  72. yes, God, I believe you, therefore I have the

  73. righteousness. It's like, you know, he paid the

  74. price, he took the debt and he gets given you credit.

  75. There is cash in your account and that's what he has given us.

  76. And the second is that, you know, he has given that faith so

  77. that we need to apply that. To apply, we need the substance

  78. as a faith that I'm talking about.

  79. I'll give you like 2 examples I want to give here.

  80. There was a time that, you know, the first grandbaby or we

  81. purchased a cot and I thought, OK, I can do this without a

  82. problem. And so I started meddling around

  83. with it and tried to fix it. I never could fix it.

  84. You see, it took covers because why I didn't look at the menu.

  85. I thought I can do it. It's the same.

  86. You see, you need to know the scripture to apply it.

  87. But when I called a person from church, the first thing that he

  88. took he did was he looked at the menu all and he said, OK, yeah,

  89. this is how it's this needs to be done.

  90. And he fixed it in a moment. So it think that's one thing and

  91. another thing is this. I'll give you another example.

  92. You know, we, we met some friends and they love the Lord

  93. and so they love the Lord. They believed in the Lord very

  94. much. Beautiful people and they wanted

  95. to buy a house and they went and saw the house.

  96. The house was beautiful and they claimed the house.

  97. They claimed the house and they said yes, this house belongs to

  98. us. And they prayed and they prayed

  99. and, and they said yes, by faith we believe.

  100. And and then they went on a holiday and probably after the

  101. holiday was the auction and they were now prepared to go for the

  102. auction. But the day before the auction,

  103. they wanted to go see the house and there was a soul board on

  104. the House. What I'm getting to you is that

  105. you can believe and believe and believe, but there is some

  106. substance to it that you need to apply.

  107. You can believe on something, but not having the substance is

  108. not going to give you the house. I will talk a little bit more

  109. when I just will come to applying the faith and how we

  110. need to move by it. That we it is important that we

  111. need to have the substance. Just blindly applying faith on

  112. something is not going to happen unless you have the substance to

  113. it. For transformation, we need

  114. faith. We cannot see faith because it

  115. is spirit. It is a spirit.

  116. To live in the divine nature, we need faith.

  117. So the currency of the divine nature is faith, but faith

  118. cannot be just applied unless you have the substance.

  119. So to live in the natural we have, you know, we have we we

  120. see and we hear and we have the five senses.

  121. But to live in the spiritual is our substance is faith is that's

  122. what our currency is faith and that is credited to us and we

  123. live by that. So the first thing that I can

  124. learn today and can teach you as well is this, when I am

  125. transformed by his presence, when I am transformed by his

  126. presence, I apply faith by speaking.

  127. I apply the faith by speaking. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 34

    Matthew 12 chapter mention

  128. says for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

  129. So what's the abundant in our heart?

  130. The abundance in our heart is the righteousness in US and that

  131. righteousness keeps growing as we ponder and read and read the

  132. Word. As we continue to read the word,

  133. what happens is that the Word gets filled in our hearts to

  134. overflow into the soul and the soul.

  135. Therefore what happens is the soul is like a lever which

  136. guides the word coming out. Its important therefore for us

  137. the word. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 13 says we having

    2 Corinthians 4 chapter mention

  138. the same spirit of faith according as it is written, I

  139. believed and therefore have I spoken.

  140. We also believe and therefore we speak the Word.

  141. We believe the Word and we speak the word.

  142. So it's important that the application of our faith comes

  143. by declaring our faith. The Word says I believed and

  144. therefore I spoke. When we believe, we also speak

  145. with our mouth. So faith, therefore I think it

  146. needs to be vocalized, isn't it? It's important.

  147. So to vocalize it, you need to know what it is all about.

  148. So therefore it is important for us to know the word to vocalize

  149. the faith. So Peter and John, they said

  150. silver and gold have I none. But he said in the name of

  151. Jesus, rise up and walk. I'll touch a little bit on that

  152. as we go on. They vocalized it, but there was

  153. something which happens before. When I am transformed by His

  154. presence, I am moved and apply my faith, I am moved.

  155. So when I am transformed by His presence, when I'm transformed,

  156. I am moved as something which happens in me and I am able to

  157. do. Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse 7

    Hebrews 11 chapter mention

  158. says by faith. Noah being warned by God of the

  159. things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared enough to

  160. saving of his house by that which he condemned the world and

  161. became heir of righteousness which is by faith.

  162. So he was moved. There was a movement in his

  163. heart because he believed. I'll give you by an example,

  164. which happened in my life maybe about a couple of weeks ago.

  165. No, weren't you? A couple of weeks ago I heard

  166. about what was happening in Israel and I just watched the

  167. Christian news. I don't watch any other news.

  168. So watch the Christian news. And as I watch the Christian

  169. news and there was something which moved in my heart and I

  170. switched it off and then started praying.

  171. I, I started weeping and crying because it was a move by God.

  172. There was some movement in my heart.

  173. She couldn't believe what was happening because there was some

  174. move, because I believed in God and God moved.

  175. So here Nova moved, Nahimaya moved.

  176. Why Nahimaya heard and who caused the movement?

  177. God caused the movement for Nahimaya to pray and because he

  178. prayed what God moved in the heart of the king to give him

  179. everything to go and build the wall.

  180. So there is a movement as we believe because God knows here,

  181. here, here is my son whom I can believe and trust.

  182. So there is a movement and and through that movement that you

  183. can do things what God has asked for.

  184. And when this happens, when I move by faith, we also need to

  185. prepare. So when we are moved, we need to

  186. prepare, we need to do something.

  187. And that's why I'm coming back to what I spoke about earlier

  188. about this friend whom we knew was going to purchase a house.

  189. So few. So you're moved by faith, but

  190. unless you have a deposit, unless you go and I'm I'm sure

  191. Seema knows what to do for an auction, you got to go register.

  192. You got to register and do all kinds of things I believe.

  193. And if they are not done, no one will know that you want to

  194. purchase a house. You need to be prepared with the

  195. deposit which you need to put in on the day of auction and you

  196. need to inform the agent that you are interested in that

  197. house. Just looking at that house and

  198. believing is not going to give you the house.

  199. See in all good faith that is called blind faith because you

  200. need to believe. So the substance will allow you

  201. to prepare to act on faith. Do you get that?

  202. What I am saying, it is important for you and I to know

  203. that when I'm transformed by His presence, faith helps me to

  204. endure. When I'm transformed by His

  205. presence, faith helps me to endure.

  206. Hebrews Chapter 11 verses 27 to 28 goes by faith.

    Hebrews 11:27–28

  207. He left Egypt not fear. In the King's anger he

  208. persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

  209. By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood so

  210. that the destroyer of the first born would not trust the first

  211. born of Israel. Beautiful, isn't it?

  212. This is awesome. Two things happens here.

  213. By faith, he left Egypt. He was brought up in a palace,

  214. and what made him run away from the palace?

  215. What made him do the things that he did to kill a Egyptian?

  216. What made him do all that? Because of the upbringing, it is

  217. important church as to how we bring up our children, how we

  218. teach them the statutes of the Lord.

  219. We were, we were on the flight and there was a lady next to us

  220. and, and Manju was chatting away and eventually our business is

  221. to talk about the Lord. And then Manju brought the topic

  222. of the Lord and, and we were talking and eventually we said,

  223. we are so and so and, and all that and, and then asked her,

  224. are you a Christian? And oh, you know, it came to in

  225. the conversation, it was obvious that we were trying to speak to

  226. her about the Lord. And so she said, you know, my

  227. grandparents, my grandparents went to church and my parents

  228. did not probably. And she does not know the Lord.

  229. You know, it is important that we teach our children.

  230. New Zealand in 19 sixties 80% or 85% of Kiwis knew the Lord Jesus

  231. Christ. Now we have maybe 10 percent,

  232. 15% who know Jesus unless we teach our children, unless we

  233. speak to them and speak about the Lord.

  234. You know, we are not doing what God has called us to do.

  235. So here Moses therefore knew that his purpose, that there was

  236. a purpose behind, he believed. And Moses did go run away from

  237. Egypt because he believed. And Moses, because he believed

  238. he applied the blood on the doppos.

  239. Just imagine believing and trusting the Lord to say yes,

  240. not seen but believed in the Lord to say if I apply the

  241. blood, then you know the Angel of death will pass through.

  242. Two things that we can learn here is this 1.

  243. He knew the Lord. He had a close communication

  244. with the Lord too. Because he knew the Lord, he was

  245. able to hear exactly what the Lord was saying to him.

  246. And that is what is to us for us to hear.

  247. The Lord is the Word, and because we know the word that we

  248. can apply the word, therefore that He applied the blood to

  249. say, yes, the first born of Israel will be saved.

  250. It was not a blind faith. It was knowing the Lord and

  251. applying it because He knew the word.

  252. Pages are not moving because of the cold.

  253. I think when I'm transformed by His presence, fate helps me to

  254. adhere. Faith helps me to adhere.

  255. Hebrews Chapter 11 verses 8 and 9 goes like this.

    Hebrews 11:8

  256. By faith Abraham and called to go to a place he would later

  257. receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went even though he

  258. did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the

  259. promised land like a stranger in a foreign country.

  260. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were hears with

  261. him of the same promise. You know, obedience is something

  262. which is very important for our walk with the Father.

  263. When the Lord calls us to do something.

  264. We need therefore to obey and to walk in the way that God has

  265. called us. If we do not obey by faith, we

  266. cannot move forward. Everything mentioned above will

  267. happen if you truly obey and walk as God has called us to do.

  268. Manju and I, when we were called to come to New Zealand 25 years

  269. ago, there was a prophecy by a man and he said God is going to

  270. take you into a country with four stars on the flag.

  271. The man did not know about New Zealand, He never knew, but he

  272. said it's volcanic and he said it there are two islands and so

  273. on and so forth. 1997, we had our permanent residency,

  274. residency, but we procrastinated.

  275. Procrastinated until such time we came here in 1999 and you

  276. know, and then and then we wanted to postpone our coming

  277. and I went to the immigration and and and the immigration and

  278. she said, I still remember this. He said many are wanting to come

  279. into New Zealand. Why are you just going up and

  280. down and if you don't come by this time, we will cancel your

  281. visa and you will not able to come to New Zealand.

  282. And then we quickly packed our bags within two months, sold

  283. everything and we were here in 2001.

  284. Now what I'm saying is this, I was disobedient to what God had

  285. called me until such time. God just forced us out to say

  286. yes, I want you there. We should have moved in 1997,

  287. but it took us such a long time to move because we were

  288. disobedient. God wants us to obey.

  289. God wants us to obey His Word. If you know His Word, you will

  290. obey His Word. How does then transformation

  291. happen? At the beginning of the message

  292. I said we need to have faith and also know the Word.

  293. This would be the confirmation, I said, But there's much more,

  294. something a little more than that, that we need to know.

  295. If you look at 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 to 10, it gives us an

    2 Peter 1:3–10

  296. insight to the foundation. What we need to have the

  297. foundation of faith. The Word says is divine power

  298. has given us everything we need to a godly life through the

  299. knowledge of Him. So the divine power of God comes

  300. upon us. If we truly know Him, that's

  301. when the power can come upon us. There are two things which

  302. happens in our lives. One, when we know Him, that we

  303. have the authority of Him because we are His sons and

  304. daughters. We have the authority, and with

  305. that authority that we can do all things.

  306. And if we continue to know the word, then with that authority

  307. we have that power as well. And that's when faith can move

  308. through the substance which is in US.

  309. And the word goes on to say, who called us by his own glory and

  310. goodness. Through this he has given us his

  311. very great precious promises. So because of we come in to know

  312. Him, what has He given us? He has given us great promises,

  313. and the promises are the Word. The promises are in us.

  314. Through the Word. He has given us His divine

  315. precious promises, so that through them, through the

  316. promises, that's when we can live in the divine nature.

  317. Do we get that? So living in this world is

  318. different to living in the divine nature.

  319. It is different. We do not seek for things of

  320. this world, but we seek for things of Him of the divine

  321. nature, which gives us satisfaction, joy and peace.

  322. The world just gives us pleasure, which will just last

  323. for a moment. How many times see you can buy a

  324. purchase a beautiful car and you we would have spent 50,070

  325. thousand 100,000 and the car looks so good and and you drive

  326. it and OK the first day is nice. And when you park it, you go and

  327. take it, park it in a corner where no one will, you know,

  328. bend the door, you know, so the car won't get stretched And, and

  329. you do all that you see, you do that.

  330. And and then weeks pass by and months pass by and, or when it

  331. rains, you park the car inside the house.

  332. The car shouldn't get wet and you know, but after some time

  333. there is no joy. You know, it's another car.

  334. It's another car in the carpets get dirty and then you know that

  335. that pleasure goes out. But transformation, living in

  336. the divine nature, you know there is continuous joy in your

  337. heart. It can never wither and that's

  338. the difference. So if you want to spend

  339. everything and that pleasure only for a moment, yes, you can

  340. do that. But if you invest in the

  341. promises of God, spending time with the world, then there's

  342. continuous joy. Isn't it two things?

  343. You can spend time with the world, and that joy won't last

  344. all the time, but spending time with the world will give you

  345. more joy. Isn't it beautiful?

  346. So having escaped the corruption of the world caused by evil

  347. desires, so the word gives us the strength to escape the evil

  348. desires. I'm coming to the bottom line.

  349. I'm just going to land. The plane is almost there just

  350. to you can see the runway now we're just about to land.

  351. So for this very reason, make every effort to add to your

  352. faith. This is where I'm coming to.

  353. So to add to this substance of foundation, OK, that's what I'm

  354. calling. That's not blind faith, OK, To

  355. faith you need to add these promises which God has given

  356. you. What are these promises?

  357. That is your goodness and, and to goodness, knowledge and to

  358. knowledge, self-control and self-control, perseverance and

  359. perseverance and godliness and brotherly kindness and love and

  360. all this purity, all in increasing measure, so that you

  361. will not be ineffective or unproductive in the knowledge of

  362. God. So that when a person who is

  363. driving a 30 kilometer speed in a 60 kilometer, 60 kilometer, I

  364. see some smiles, yes, we go and somebody you want to get to the

  365. airport on time, you're running late.

  366. And there is the 60 kilometre speed limit and there is a

  367. person driving at 30 kilometres. Oh God, where is my self-control

  368. and patience? It has gone through the window.

  369. It happens to me as well. These promises have to be

  370. planted with faith. You add knowledge and

  371. self-control and patience and godliness and brotherly kindness

  372. and love. And that's why the Lord said, if

  373. a person beats you on one shake, give the other as well.

  374. Don't sit on offenses and talk about the offenses that this man

  375. said this and that man said this, and he is this and that

  376. and so on and so forth. No Live by the promises of God.

  377. So foundation alone is not enough.

  378. Transformation happens when we use the right material to build

  379. a house. The foundation is of faith in

  380. Jesus, which we will draw as close to God.

  381. So transformation happens just like Jesus said, he said there

  382. are two people who built the house in Matthew 7 and verses 24

  383. and 27. He said, therefore everyone who

  384. hears his words of mine hears his words, words what hears the

  385. words, his word of mine and puts them into practice is like a

  386. wise man who built his house on the rock.

  387. So you hear the word, you listen to the word and apply the word

  388. into your lives. You apply the promises.

  389. And that's why when you apply, you apply the faith through

  390. apply it in your lives. Then the rain will come, the

  391. streams will rise, and the winds will blow, and we will beat

  392. against the house, and it will never fall because it is founded

  393. on Jesus. But everyone who hears these

  394. words, you can hear these words and go out and say, oh, it's

  395. another Sunday, let's go. Have do what we desire to do in

  396. pleasure. But everyone who hears his words

  397. of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish

  398. man who built his house on sand. The rain came down and the

  399. streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house and

  400. hit a big crash. So what we are trying to do this

  401. morning is this. So what does it mean to build a

  402. house on the sand? Building a house on the sand

  403. would be a form of godliness, I would think.

  404. You know, you're fooling everyone to say I'm a godly

  405. person. I know the word, I know the

  406. promises. And you know, but Huma, you're

  407. fooling. You're fooling yourself.

  408. A form of godliness, the so OK just a minute of prayer because

  409. I know I need to pray. So let let me just pray you know

  410. for a minute. The Bible is another reader.

  411. Bible is another reader just another reader.

  412. Bible is just another book. If the author does not reveal

  413. the word to you, it's just another, another comic or

  414. whatever, but the word, the author should speak to you.

  415. When you read the word, then that's when the transformation

  416. happens. When you open the book you

  417. desire because the author, there is somebody speaking to you from

  418. the word, That's the author. In no other book you'll get that

  419. other just because another reader it's important church.

  420. So for a man or a woman who builds the house is like a man

  421. who does not fear God. We move with the crowd but are

  422. seen in church. We like to be seen with the in

  423. crowd who does does everything wrong.

  424. But yes, I like to be seen on in church on Sunday as well.

  425. A life of compromise, holding on to grudges and and no

  426. forgiveness. Love a love, a life of pity.

  427. Party about yourself. OK thinking about yourself.

  428. Yes. Did this happened to me and that

  429. happened to me and everyone pointing everything towards you

  430. and enjoys gossip. This I would say is building the

  431. house on the sand. The house on the rock is of

  432. faith with God's love and promises being built on having

  433. patience and kindness and gentleness and self-control,

  434. purity all in increasing measure.

  435. Church, I brought you a message from my heart.

  436. It speaks to me first when I bring this message, it speaks to

  437. me that I need to be transformed.

  438. I truly need to be transformed. That I need to live a life, a

  439. holy life separated for Him with the promises that He has given

  440. me and given you. Today would be a day for you to

  441. say, Lord, help me to know the promises that you have given me,

  442. that you have given me that faith.

  443. And Lord, to the faith I want to add goodness and knowledge and

  444. self-control and patience and godliness and brotherly kindness

  445. and love and purity and holiness.

  446. Lord, I want to add this, oh God, so that this will be in

  447. increasing measure in me. God, that's what I desire to do.

  448. Would you do that in my life, God?

  449. And that would be be your answer.

  450. Would that be your answer today, this morning?

  451. If that is so, would you stand up?

  452. Would you stand up? Would you stand up this morning

  453. and say, Lord, I want to live by the promises that you have given

  454. me, God, Lord, I find it very hard to live sometimes, oh God.

  455. But today I say, Lord, I want to walk in these promises so that

  456. these promises will be embedded in me, God, and will flow out,

  457. Godfather, embedded in me. That's what I desire, Lord.

  458. Would you say that today, this morning and say, Lord, fill me,

  459. Fill me to overflow. I desire you.

  460. I desire you that my house will be built on the rock and the

  461. rock the foundation of Jesus. Oh God, that I will be an

  462. influence when people see me that they will see see me and

  463. they can see the fruit in me and that they will be decide to have

  464. the fruit that you have when they see you.

  465. Would you be that when you walk out of this place, when you go

  466. anywhere, would they see the fruit in you?

  467. And would they come to you and say, you know, I see something

  468. different in you? Why?

  469. Because you know there is that beauty in you, that joy in you

  470. that you want to pass on to others.

  471. Let me pray for you, Lord. We thank you, God.

  472. We want to praise you. We want to worship you.

  473. We want to honor you. We want to exalt you.

  474. We want to glorify you because you are God, because you're

  475. mighty, because you're victorious.

  476. God, everyone of them, Father, oh God, including me, we are all

  477. standing, Godfather, today, oh God, because we want to make a

  478. declaration to you, Father, a declaration to you that we want

  479. to stand on your promises. We want to stand on your faith

  480. of God, to build a house on the rock.

  481. Oh God, I want to build my house on the rock, Godfather, on your

  482. word, on your promises, so that, Lord, out of my heart will flow

  483. your word into the soul, God, Jesus, so that my heart will

  484. pump out, Oh God, your word. Wherever we go, Father, we pray,

  485. Lord, as a church we declare today.

  486. We declare decree today, God in your name, Jesus, that that we

  487. will walk in your promises, that our house will be built on the

  488. rock, that you will be glorified God and all said Amen.

  489. Thanks for joining us at Omega. If you need prayer for healing

  490. or breakthrough, or simply to find out more, please head to

  491. our website or Facebook page in the links below.