Growth Resulting | Elder Rosalind

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

A growth resulting. All right, growth resulting. All right, now,

before we go into that, let me just ask a

quick question. Now is end of August, right? End of August.

And maybe you want to ask yourself, how have I

been growing in the last eight months? How have you

been growing? Yeah, sideways, I heard. Sideways, you're growing sideways. Earlier,

I just came from our 8am service, you know, I

was asking them, you know, it's sort of synonym between

if you're growing and also if you're healthy. True or not?

If you are healthy, you will be growing. And if

you're growing, it means you're healthy, yes? Yes. So we

use this interchangeably to kind of look at ourselves. Have

we been growing? Are we healthy or not? Alright? So

you want to look at yourselves and just kind of

reflect back. Yeah, have I been growing? And in three

aspects of our life, right? First one is our body.

Have we been growing well? Yes or no? Healthy? Oh,

very good. Earlier on in AAM, they say, oh no,

high cholesterol. And then after that, high sugar. Right? And

then after that, high stress. Okay, so not very healthy, right?

So there's our body. And then how are we healthy

in our soul? Do you know what is your soul

made up of? What is our soul? Oh, don't know ah?

Let me tell you. So our soul basically is what

we think, right? Our thoughts, what we feel, our feelings

and also our will, how we make decisions. That makes

up the soul of us, alright? So there is the

body part and then there's a three-part soul. One more,

what is the third part of us? Spirit, thank you

for that. Alright, spirit. Is our spirit alive? Is our

spirit well and growing? If I ask you that question,

can you answer? Don't know. Don't know what it looks like.

But never mind. We want to learn what that looks

like for us, okay? Now, do you know that after

everything that we do in our core values, the 11

core values, at the end of the day... there needs

to be some results, right? How many of you like results? Right?

Of course you like good results, right? Students, you study

so hard for your IGCSE. You want good results, right?

Of course, you want all A-stars, right? Our campus students,

you know, you put in your hard work for your assignments,

your FYPs. You want good results. Because everything that we

work towards, the results tell us whether we have been

doing something right, whether we are on the right path.

True or not? And do you know that as a

believer of God, and as a Christian, as a church,

there are also things that will result, right? And we

want to check to see whether are we getting the

right results? Are we getting the wrong results? Is that okay? Yeah?

So you can have any results, but at the end

of the day, is the result worthy and honouring to God?

Amen?

Yeah, you can spend a lot of time, you can

spend a lot of money on something, but is it

bringing about the real growth that God wants for us?

Amen?

Okay. Okay. Healthy things grow. Agree or not? Healthy things grow.

When you talk to children, you know, if you ask

Kuan Chin, how are your kids? They're like, healthy, growing.

And you know that's a good sign, right? Okay, another thought.

How many of you are very good with plants or gardening?

I know one person, two. Okay, we are, oh, three. Okay,

so I mean good company because majority of you are

not good, right? Okay. Only three out of this is

like 100 plus, you know. The percentage is a bit dismal.

Less than 10% are good with planting. How many of

you know that God is a good, great gardener? Great gardener.

I want to tell you that my mommy-law is an

excellent gardener. So, let me show you. What's going to

come out from the back? Ta-da! Mother-in-law. I brought my

mother-in-law here. Is this a good plant? Healthy? Growing? Right.

And so, XTV, are you going to help me with

the slide? So, there's a tale of two plants. Alright. So,

this plant looks like the one on the right-hand side, right?

Your left, your left. Correct? Right. How many of you

feel that you're on the right side when you're planting plants? Huh?

Do you know that I couldn't bring something that was dying?

You know why? I looked around my mother-in-law's garden, right?

There was no dying plants. She tends to it so well.

I'm like, I have to use this illustration, right? But

if I take care of it, then you can have

a lot of that. Those plants on the right side.

I'm going to leave this here and to give us

more oxygen. Are you okay? Right? Do you know plants

give us oxygen? Okay, so that you don't fall asleep, right?

It was so funny. Someone told me before that if you,

you know, if you're not doing anything useful with your life, right,

you're wasting oxygen lah. So please don't waste oxygen this morning, okay? Yeah,

thank you for that. Okay, so we're thinking about health

represented by growth and you can see this, right? Now,

you see the thing for us as humans, right? Externally,

we can tell whether our body is healthy or not healthy, correct? Correct.

You can see. How do you see it? When you

step on the scale and you're like, too high. It's

growing sideways, right? If you have those indicators of your

body fat percentage, then you know. Externally, you can tell.

But many times, we don't even know whether our soul

or our spirit is healthy. Because it's not visible, right? Right?

You can't really visibly see. Like white hair, you can see.

You know, wrinkles, you can see. But if your spirit

is wrinkled or has pimples, you can tell. You can't

really tell, right? And so I think right now, it's

a good time for a self-reflection. Not mid-year, but an

August checkpoint for us to just say, how healthy am I?

Because at the end of it, if I am healthy,

there's got to be growth in my walk with the Lord.

If there is no growth, then something is stunted somewhere.

Growth resulting. So let's understand a little bit about what

growth resulting looks like in the book of Acts. Are

you okay? Okay, let's go to Acts chapter 2. The

Acts 2 · chapter mention

slides will show you. Now, okay, so big or not?

So we want to see what helps us with understanding

what promotes growth. What promotes growth, okay? So the question is,

what are the conditions that will promote the health of

this plant? And I'm going to use this plant as

an illustration to our own spiritual life. What are the

conditions for us to grow healthy like this? Okay, so

for a plant, what do you need to grow healthy? Okay. Water, oxygen. Oxygen, yes. Sunlight.

Carbon dioxide. Thank you, Axel. What else? Macronutrients. Sun. Yeah,

how about some TLC? No, no? Do you know actually

what's the secret to my plants? My mum-in-law's plants is

that she will talk to them, you know? I'm like,

I got no time to talk to the plants. That's

why they die lah. Anyways, anyways. So, okay, let's see

how do we cultivate the environment for our souls to

prosper and to grow. Amen? Let's read from Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2:41

verse 41 onwards. Okay, I have this on the screen. So, okay,

we read ah. Then those who gladly received His word

were baptised. Okay, let's read this together so that you

also confess the Word of God together. Is that okay? Alright, 3, 2, 1.

Then those who gladly received His Word were baptized, and

that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. And

they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in

the breaking of bread and in prayers. Then fear came

upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done

through the apostles. Let's continue. Now all who believed were

together and had all things in common and sold their

possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone

had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the

temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate

their food with gladness and simplicity. of heart, praising God

and having favour with all the people. And the Lord

added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Now you know that in the first point of your note,

it says here that growth is biblical. Does it look

like this idea of growth is God's idea? How do

you know? What is the word that shows you that

there was an increase? Sorry? 3,000 were added. Hey, Subang 10am,

are you ready for 3,000 to be added to us

or not? Oh yes, then all of you have to

sign up to be Homes Leader. True or not? Because,

no really, honestly, if 3,000 were here, added new souls

who know nothing at all about the Word of God,

but just hungry for God, then all of you just

have to be ready and rise up. Correct, because you've

been in church for more than two weeks, right? You've

been in church for more than two years, right? And

that means God is preparing and God wants to add

to the church, right? And so, you know, this idea

of growing and being added to, this idea of increase

is God's idea. God adds to the church. Do you

know that X church, we started with how many people? Three.

How many are we now?

3,000.

Yeah, if we count including our international church plants, we're

about there or more, right? And so, something must have

happened from three to increase to where we are right now.

Even here, one church plant, we are the largest one

in Klang Valley, about 140, right? And across Klang Valley itself,

we are about 1,200, 1,300 people, right? So God truly

has added to X, right? So this is God's idea. Now,

it's very interesting. What were the ingredients for the growth? Okay,

so I want you to study now. Okay, let's do

a bit of a word study. Acts chapter 2 verses

Acts 2:41–47

41 to 47. Now you tell me what were the

ingredients for growth. You know what the ingredients for growth

for the plant. Now what about the church growth? Just

read from Acts 2, 41 to 47. What were some

things that you are catching that is resulting, God added

to them? Sorry, miracles? Did I hear that? Okay. The

apostles teaching, so the believer, okay, so you, you, okay.

Excuse me, help me with the slide, the earlier slide, right?

Earlier slide, the first one. Now, okay, you see, now

in verse 41, what was happening to the people? What

did you catch from there? Okay. They received the word gladly.

How many of you are receiving the word gladly now? Oh, yes.

Thank you for that. All right. So they received the

word gladly. What else? They were baptized. And then the

Lord added, right? And then go on to the next slide,

the next slide. And you see, in between those verses,

the Lord added again, right, daily those who are being saved. Now,

can you give me what were some of the other

ingredients in between receiving the Word and being baptised? What

else happened in between? Prayer, good. What else? Praising God,

what else? Breaking bread together. Fellowship, awesome. Gardenia, I heard.

Breaking that bread, gardenia. Only gardenia can. Okay. What else?

What else? What else? Come on. We're trying to learn

what is the environment that causes God to add to them.

They help one another. Good. What else? What else? Sorry?

They had community, right? They were together. Anything else? Sorry?

Bible study, right? They followed steadfastly the doctrine of God, yes?

What else? Faithfulness. Whoa, very good lah, y'all. All the

answers are there, right? Now, then the question is, okay,

so the question for us is, are we doing all

of that? Okay, if you go to the next slide

that I have for you, which is some of the

points that I plucked out myself from the reading of

the Word. We got the first two. Y'all got the

continued steadfastly in doctrine, the breaking of bread and prayers.

Y'all mentioned that. Being together, had all things in common.

Soul possessions, continuing daily in one accord. So we have

this continuing weekly in one accord. In the temple of God.

Is this a temple of God? Yes, it is. How

about breaking bread from house to house? What does that

look like in Acts Church? Our homes. Are we part

of our homes? Right? What else is there?

Yeah?

Can you see that this is actually revival? Is this revival?

It is, right? Our theme for this year is revival, right?

And you can see that these people, they were just

not here to complain. They were not here to bicker

about theology. They just followed faithfully. And I thank you, brother,

for saying faithfulness. They were just faithful people. And because

of that, God added to them. Why? It's like, it's

so simple. Actually, not so simple. Because receiving the word gladly,

I don't know how many of us always have the attitude, oh,

I'm so hungry for the word of God. Or some

of you are yawning away. What time? Time to sleep.

How many are really hungry for the word of God?

Do you believe that God is going to speak to

you this morning? Do you believe He can? He wants to, right?

But most of the time, we are not ready to receive.

And that's why even though God is speaking, we're like, oh,

but I cannot hear God. I don't feel God. Where

is He? Yeah? God is here. It's just that we

are not ready to receive. Yeah? His antenna, His Wi-Fi

is very strong, you know? But sometimes it's our connection,

our receiving end is not strong, right? And so this

is a great checklist when I ask you that question, right?

Do you think that you are growing? Do you think

that you are healthy? When you look at all of this,

when you look at all of this, am I doing

this or not? Right, if you feel that, oh, okay,

that one, the baptism, I'm not baptised yet, right? Can

I tell you it is the Word of God? Some

of you say, I got to pray first. Let me

pray whether I should be baptized or not. No, can

I tell you it's the Word of God. Next is

a step of obedience. Now, will this step of obedience

cost you? Yes. For some of you more than others, right?

And therefore you're like, when you pray, you're not praying,

should I get baptized or not? The prayer should be, God,

give me the courage to tell my parents. Give me

the courage to go through even persecution because I want

to follow you. Right, it's the right thing to do.

It's not like, oh, okay lah, maybe, maybe, maybe not. No, no, no, no.

It's clearly if you are a follower of Christ. And

that's why when we bring you all through baptism, right,

we ask you, do you believe what you're doing? Do

you believe in Jesus Christ? If you don't believe in

Jesus Christ, it's okay. Then let us bring you through

the knowledge of the Word of God and who Jesus is.

It's got to be real to you. Right, I mean,

I'm hearing some things about some, you know, Christians who

are in church, who are serving, but they don't have

a personal relationship with God. And that's very concerning for

me because it's very performative, right? It's very like, I

do this, I do that. But then when a push

comes to a shove, you go like, oh, is my

faith real? Is God real? Right? There's a lot of

doctrines out there that's going to shake you and it's

already shaking you. Right? And so my prayer for all

of us is that no matter what, I follow Jesus.

And find a house to be rooted in that says,

I will grow. You see, this plant, if I shift

it from pot to pot to pot every day, what

will happen to it? It will die. You also know

it will die. Okay? Because it's meant to be rooted

so that the roots can grow strong. And so, don't

be so quick. This environment, this soil, not so good.

A bit acidic. Someone said something to me. Acid. I

don't like. Move. Move. then you will never grow strong roots. Right?

So just remember, God wants us to be rooted in

a local church, in a house, that we can grow strong.

And someone asked me, Wah, you know, Elder Rose, you've

been in Acts Church how long already? I say, Oh,

ever since I came to KL lah. Which is a

long time ago. Okay, how long have I been in Acts?

21 years. I don't look like it, right? I look

like 21 myself, right? No, no, I was not born

in the next church. But, so the question came to me,

you know. It's like, oh, you never thought about leaving,

is it? I said, do I leave my family? No, no, seriously.

The thought came to me, it's like, huh, this is

my family. You know, I came to this church. The

only reason I moved the other churches the last time

was because I had to move geographically. Right? I had

to change location. And that was the only reason I moved.

And when I came to X, I'm like, this is family.

This is home. Eh, you know your family also got karaan, right?

Your family also got perangai lah. That uncle, that auntie,

that grandfather, that sister, that parent. But it's family. Right?

And so, I've been here that long and I'm like, huh?

Leave church? Never crossed my mind, you know? Serious. Yes.

And because this is family, we go through thick and

thin together. And I have grown, church. I have grown.

Because I planted myself here, and I say, wow, no

matter what, challenges come, difficult people come. Hey, hello, do

you know working with a bunch of Christians, not easy, ah?

You all laugh, right? Those in leaders, hey, hey, hey.

You all know, you all know. But do you know

that that's what causes you to grow? Right, when you

stick at it, and you're like, God, help me. Help

me when it's hard. That's what causes growth. Friction, challenge.

And you know, we live in such a generation where

we're like, oh, if something pricks you, like, oh, I

cannot take it. Young people, can I speak to you?

Stick with it. This whole idea of stickability, right? It's resilient,

you know. It tests you on what you really believe

in your core. Right? And you're like, it's okay. God

brought me here until God brings me out to a

different location. Who knows? This is home. This is family.

I'm planted here. Amen. So we see all these things

that's causing the root word to grow and we want

to know that it's God who adds. Amen? It's God

who adds. Now, there was this revelation that I received,

you know, and I'm like, whoa, this is so powerful.

I want to share this with you. Is that okay? Okay,

so let's go back to this word add. Okay, can

I tell you this thing? Who loves mats here? Who

loves mats? Aiyo, the rest of you don't like mats, right?

Can I tell you that God loves mats? Right? He loves, especially,

He loves addition. Can you show your neighbor addition, addition?

Do you know the addition is this sign of a plus? Hey,

our God is a plus God, you know? Don't you

think that the cross represents the plus? It is, right?

Because our God is such a positive God. He just adds.

He doesn't subtract. What He subtracts from you is your

sin and your shame and your pain. Amen. But God

wants to add all the good stuff to us, you know. So, wow,

I love it that God loves mats, okay? Maybe your

mats not so good lah. But 2 plus 2 equals 4,

y'all can or not? Can, right? 12 plus 1 equals 2. Oh, okay, okay.

We're on good track, right? Mats can lah, mats can. Now,

what is this word? Are you ready to learn a

bit of Greek word? Greek word, can or not? We

go a bit deeper, a bit deeper today, can ah? Okay,

so this is the word add, okay? So I'm going

to go down and show you this illustration. Now, we

heard it says that God added to the church, right? Now,

I'm going to ask Adam Mabel to be the anchor.

Just anchor here. She's like, never mind. Anchor here. So

this is the first disciples. First disciples, okay? Now the

word at is this word prostatumi, right? XTB, can? Prostitami, okay?

Can you say that? Prostitami? Prostitami, okay. Now what it means, right,

is prost means towards something and then the word titami

means I place alongside this person or this thing. So

for example, if God ats, to the church represented there.

So Elvira, so God is adding, right? What does God do?

He puts this person, place her next to the church.

That's adding, right? One plus one equals? Oh, very good.

Your math is very good. Okay, now it says that

God kept on adding. Now, it's very important for you

to understand that this verb is a continuous tense. Means,

did it happen one time? No. It means it happened

again and again and again and again and again and again. Daily,

God added, right? So I'm going to add some more. Okay, Aaron, come. Aaron.

So God added Aaron. He put Aaron towards the church, right?

God added. Come on, why so far? Add to the church,

you know. Not by yourself there. Okay. Okay, thank you.

I need one more person. Ah, Gerald, come. Okay, God

added Gerald also to the church. Eh, come. This side,

this side, this side, this side, this side. Eh, you

are so shy lah. Never mind, you're on TV. It's okay. YouTube, hello. Come, come, come, come. Come,

send one line, send one line. Everyone can see your

beautiful and handsome faces. Okay? Right, so God added to

the church. And how many was added? 3,000. Right, so

do you know that God added individually one by one

to the church, right? Okay. That's the early church. You

know something more interesting that as I was studying it,

Acts chapter 2, when the first disciples were called, the

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Lord added to the church, right? Who was doing it?

Who was doing the addition? God. Okay, that one very important, right?

Did the church do anything or not? What did they

do though? They did everything that we listed just now,

correct or not? Right? God brought a group first, right?

And then they broke bread, they received doctrine, they ate food,

they ate roti canai, drink milo, take ice, all that

they did. And God brought, added, right? Now, that's Acts

Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. Let's go to Acts chapter 6, right? Let's

Acts 6 · chapter mention

go to Acts chapter 6 verse 7. Now, okay, let's

Acts 6:7

read this together. Three, two, one. Now, in those days,

when the number of the disciples were multiplying, there arose

a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists. Verse seven,

then the word of God spread, and the number of

the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many

of the priests were obedient to the faith. Wow, God

loves maths, man. More than addition, now there is... Multiplication.

How many of you like multiplication? Yeah. All our BA students.

Because the rest of you forget already, right? Your times table.

What's 11 times 11? Very good, very good. Okay, you're

still sharp, still sharp. Don't when you're calculating. The other day,

I don't know where we were. Someone was calculating and

they need to take out their phone calculator and calculate

when we were sharing a meal. But anyways, let's not

lose our brains to the phone. Now, What is the

difference between addition and multiplication? Sorry? Multiplication, you have more, right?

But you know, I can also say I add 3,000

and then I multiply by a small factor, I still

get the same results, right? Now, this is something that

kind of blew my mind because the basic logic of

maths is you are there, then God adds, right? God adds,

God adds, then got 3,000. Now, if you look at

the verse study, you look at Acts 6, verse 1

Acts 6:1

and 7, who was the one multiplying? The disciples were

the ones multiplying. So, God in His great wisdom decides that, okay,

initially I will add, add, add, Then later on, I'm

going to bring you to the next level. I'm going

to ask you to multiply, you to multiply, you to multiply,

you to multiply. Do you see this? God can add

4 or He can add 16. But what's more powerful? by,

is it God adding 16 or you bring four, you

bring four, you bring four, you bring four? Which one

is more powerful? The second one, right? Factoring because God

can just add four but if each person is activated

by And that's the power of the factor in multiplication, right?

Because then each one of the number now has a

job to do. I don't just sit down and wait

for God. Now God is saying He wants to partner

with the disciples to multiply. This is God's idea. You know,

He says, I can add to you, but I want

you to partner with me in this business. Are you

ready to partner with God or not? How many disciples

do we have here? Disciples multiply. You see what I mean?

Right?

Isn't it powerful that each one of them now, they're like, okay,

I can be partnering with God. Yes, God's the one

who brings the increase, but I can now partner and

disciple others to bring them to the knowledge of Christ. Amen? Amen.

Can you give them a round of applause? Thank you,

thank you. You may take your seats. These are our

disciples multiplying. When you look at the verse again, it's multiplication.

Let's look at the slide. What does it mean? It

means to make full, to fill up, right? To increase

in a quantity. And God just wants us, this thought, right?

You mean if I'm a partner of X church, I

just sit down? No. We call you a partner because

you have a part to do. Amen. You have a

part to play. God wants to activate and I declare this,

God wants to activate every single one of us. We

belong to this house. God is saying, oh, you're not

here for the free ride, man. No. God is saying,

I want to activate you because I want to grow you.

Because you remember, if I am not doing anything, basically

I'm dying, right? If I'm not growing, I'm dying. It's

either or. And God is saying, I don't want anyone

to die in atrophy. Your faith. If you've been living

your faith life like this for the last 15 years, right?

God is saying, get ready. I want to elevate you.

I want to bring growth to your life. I want

others to experience the result of my work in your life.

You see that? Do you see how important it is

that God wants to bring us to a place of growth?

Because he's that good a God. You know, he's a

good father. He wants his children, his sons and daughters

to grow. You know, you don't want to have baby James, right, forever,

two years old, right? You want, Pastor Kat? I know,

very cute lah. Oh, Pastor Dave is like, maybe. Because

they are at the cutest stage, right? But can you imagine,

ten years down the road, still two years old? Something

is not right, right? Same thing with your spiritual life.

If you're saying, You know, I'm like that forever. Eh,

same thing for church, can I say that? If we

have been stagnant for a long time, then today is

a wake-up call. Yeah, I know. You know, sometimes we think, oh,

but this whole chasing after numbers thing is such a

worldly thing. Eh, hello. Very worldly. God added, you know, 3,000.

And then Acts chapter 4, He added some more. Then

Acts 4 · chapter mention

the man became 5,000. So it is a God thing,

you know. It is a God thing. Now, very interestingly,

the final Greek word for you today. So firstly, we have,

what's our first word? And that is pros. Prostatomy, right?

And then multiplication is? Don't know. XTV help them? What

is it? Platano. Platano. Okay. Now, there's one more word

that is very interesting. Now, this is also from Acts

Acts 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. Okay, same words. I'm not going very far.

Acts 6, verse 7. Now, let's go to another word.

Acts 6:7

This is from the ESV version because the NKJV says,

and the Word of God spread. But the ESV says,

and the Word of God continued to increase. Okay? Now,

we know just now, we've learned that God added to

the church. And who multiplied it? The disciples multiplied. Now,

what is the thing that increased? The Word of God.

The Word of God. The Word of God. This word

increased is this word, oxano. Can you say that, oxano? Oxano, okay? Now,

what is this? It's the biological word for growth, right?

It's use of plants growing. Like, you know, in Matthew,

was it Matthew 6? It says, the lilies of the

field grew, right? This word grew is the lilies of

the field, oxano. It also used the term for children

growing up because in Luke, when it described Jesus as

growing up, it says, and the child grew, and the

child oxano. It's also used in the word, and the

body grew in Ephesians. You know the Ephesians chapter? Where

the body comes together, right? Every part does its share

to the growth. Oxano. And interestingly, today in English, if

you ask any plant biologist or whatever, this word oxym,

coming from this word oxana, is the plant hormone that

causes growth. Oxym. Growth. Growth is God's idea, right? And

very interestingly, do you know that Dr. Luke, right? Do

you know Dr. Luke? Don't know? Who's Dr. Luke? The

one who wrote the book of Acts? Yes? He, do

you know in those days, he also had the Bible, right?

And his Bible is the Old Testament, right? And when

they translated the Old Testament into Greek for their reading purposes,

because they can't read Hebrew, right? It's translated into Greek.

Do you know what is the words that they use

in Genesis 128? What's Genesis 128? God commanded Adam and

Eve to be fruitful and multiply. What is the Greek

word equivalent for that? Next one. Let's go to the

next slide. Continue, continue. Next slide. Next slide. This one.

Be fruitful and multiply uses the same word, oxano and platuno.

So can you see this whole idea of be fruitful

and multiply came from Genesis itself? God is so consistent, right? Right?

From the beginning, that was God's idea. To be fruitful

and to increase because the result of it goes back

to God. God is causing that growth and He wants

us to grow. Right? It's so important for us to

catch that this growth is really God's idea, man. Yeah?

And so we don't want to put it aside and say, no,

let's just remain comfortable, right? All of you are comfortable now, right?

seated in your heavenly seats. You know, the moment like

there is 200 more people, then like, alamak, how ah?

Isn't that a good problem? I think that's a good problem.

And we want that. Because you know, there are so

many thousands and millions out there, each day, dying without Christ.

And I think we cannot be so apathetic to just

sit down and do church week after week, week after week,

week after week. I think we really need to sort

of stir ourselves a little bit more. Do you know,

because what are we really doing? How are we really

impacting those around us? Because if we are so caught up, right,

in just the internal church, then we end up complaining.

Then we end up bickering. We end up like, you know,

not happy with this one, not happy with that, not

happy with God. Because our focus is on ourselves. And

do you know that church, it's not about us. Right?

You know John the Baptist says, he must increase and

I must, I must decrease. I must decrease. So, are

you catching something? Yeah? That growth is God's idea and

he wants us to grow and he loves Matt so

much that he doesn't just want to add, that he

wants to activate all disciples to multiply. Amen? Now, Let's

go on to the next thought. What else is there? Now,

you know that growth is God's work. Can I be

very clear with that? Right, you cannot, I told the

8am this morning, you cannot just sit down there and go,

I want to grow two inches taller. Can ah? God,

I just want to grow. Does that happen? No, right? Growth?

does not happen no matter what you do. How do

we know this? It's because of what Paul says in

1 Corinthians. Paul says, I planted. Who's the one who watered?

Apollos watered. And who's the one who brought the increase?

It's God. Right, so, ex-church, you know, our history, starting

from three, all the way to where we are, who

gave the increase? It was God. It was not some

marketing strategy that we have, church. It's not some brand

campaign that we did, Some great things, you know. Oh,

we had some corporate strategy. This is our PR. This

is our comms. This is our social media. And let's

bring the people to church. No. Every addition that is

here right now, every multiplication that happened, God brought you here.

This is no accident, friends. God added, right? God added.

God added. God brought that increase. So we cannot sort

of like bangga and say, ooh, look at us, you know,

we're so great. Nothing like that. Everything that we have

comes from the Lord. Everything. All the people, the good

people that, can I say from the bottom of my heart,

we have good people. Amen? We have good people, we

have faithful people. Yes, they are rough around the ages. Yes,

they will say the wrong things. They will rub you

in the wrong way. But they are just being perfected

in the image of God. Amen? And so as they

are being perfected, do you know that we are also

being perfected? I am far from perfect. Can I tell

you that? Far from it. Far from it. And one

of the most important thing I recognise, right, that remember

it was God adding to the church. God multiplied the disciples.

But what was it that increased? What was it that increased?

The word of God. I'm going to ask you, has

the word of God increased in your life? I'm going

to spend some time in this. Has the word of

God increased in your life? From beginning of the year

January until now. I pray that we will never stop

preaching on stage about how you need to get into

God's word for yourself. Because it's not enough. A 45-minute message.

Enough ah. It's like saying this plant, I think you

need like 3mm of water and then 2 minutes of sunlight. Okay?

Then you think this plant will grow ah? No right?

What are we feeding ourselves? Honestly, what are we feeding ourselves?

Social media? All the thoughts, what's trending? Hashtag Viral, right?

You know everything about the world that's trending, except the

Word of God. It cannot remain that way, right? For

us to really want to grow. So the question is,

not so much are we having more people, but the

question is, are you growing as a disciple? And are

you growing in the Word of God? You know, last

week we had our exchange conference. Awesome, right? and I

had the privilege of doing one of the workshops. It's

called the Daily Disciplines of a Disciple. And I recognized that,

do you know, we can have our discipline, right? We

can have our praise and worship, meditating, you know, listening

to the songs. But I realized what's lacking in many

of us is a depth of the Word of God.

We know some parts of it, but we don't know

a lot of it. So can I encourage you, friends,

that if you are serious about your own growth, if

you're serious about... I think we've got most of the

other things almost there. But following steadfastly to the doctrine, right?

If I ask you, what's the doctrine? Most of you

are like, I don't know what I believe, right? There

is more to the doctrine of God that I pray

that we will desire for. Desire and hunger. Are you

hungry for the Word of God? Did you come to

church this morning and say, God, I need your Word.

But don't stop at Sunday. Monday morning, tomorrow. Tomorrow holiday, right?

Thank you, Sukma team. Because Tuesday is also all for y'all.

Most of you are on Tuesday, right? So what are

you going to do on Monday and Tuesday? Nothing. Nothing. Hiking! Okay, wow,

very good. 8am, say they want to sleep. It's okay lah,

they wake up so early today, right? So tomorrow they

want to sleep in. It's okay. Then I say, after

you sleep already, then you pray for Malaysia, can or not?

Tomorrow is our Independence Day, right? We are celebrating our

69th anniversary. Anniversary. Merdeka! Our Independence Day. Many of us

don't care. No, I'm saying... What is the significance of

Merdeka to you? Nothing. Extra holiday. Right, but I think,

you know, as people of Malaysia, can I speak to

you from the bottom of my heart? Let us love

our country. Let us speak and pray for our country.

Later on, you will hear that there will be, you know,

we are participating in the NECF 40 days of prayer

and fasting. You know, they do 40 days, right? So,

but we say, can we do 10 days on our

extra church? Can we, you know, really get onto it

the last 10 days and just say, God, this nation

needs you. If the church is not praying for Malaysia,

who is? No, no, honestly, who is? You think what

the next church are? No, no, no. Us. If you

have a Malaysian identity card, then your responsibility and the

duty that God has given you as a Malaysian is

to intercede for your land, intercede for your leaders. You know,

you can always read the news and say a lot

of things. Oh, that party not good, that party not good,

that PM not good, that PM not good. Eh, hello.

Then you also very good meh? Then you try becoming

PM ah? Right or not? Why don't we activate faith, friends?

Can we activate faith or not? Let's activate faith. Yeah?

And the Word of God is so important. Now, just

some last thoughts is, do you know that as we

are thinking about growing, so don't worry so much, don't

worry so much about the numbers. Can I tell you that?

Don't worry so much about the numbers because God is

not concerned. He says, the numbers, I'm the better mathematician

than you, okay? Can or not? Those of you who

likes maths, don't worry, God's got the maths at the

back of His head. At the back of his hand,

he's got it like that. But what we need to

concern about, if we are stuck, if we are stagnated,

don't be comfortable and say, okay lah, then maybe next

year only I do something about it. We wait for January.

Then after that, come to August again, then we like,

maybe I wait until next year. No, no, no. Can

I tell you tomorrow you can start? Eh, tomorrow right?

Great day to start. Great day to start putting in

the Word of God. Right? I determine myself to say

that every morning when I wake up, the first thing

that I want to enter into my thought is the

Word of God. So I don't look at my phone

at all. That's why some of my leaders are like, eh,

how come you never answer your phone in the morning?

I don't. Because I want to set it apart so

that I can just make time for the Word of God,

for the Spirit of God to speak to me. Before

the world wants to speak to you, do you know

that the world wants to tell you a million things?

But whatever God wants to speak to you, do you

pay attention? Do you know whatever problems that you're facing, right?

The answer is here. The answer key is here. You know,

like you're going through this test of life, right? And students,

you will notice if let's say you're going for your

major exam, right? And your teacher say, oh, I got

the answer key here. Who wants? How many of you want?

All of you show one, right? Some of you black market,

go and get it some more. But God is saying, hello,

the answer key to your life is here. How come

you're not reaching for it? Why are we not reaching

for the Word of God? Why is the Word of

God not the first thing that we run to whenever

we have challenges or troubles? It should be this and

this and this. And then when you get this right, friends,

I can tell you, you will grow. Amen? I am

a product of just God's faithfulness and the family, the community.

And I've been so blessed to be under the leadership

of Pastor Kenneth and Pastor Sandra. And I've grown so much.

If you look at me 21 years ago to now,

I'm like, whoa, such a different person. Right? My thoughts

have been changed. You know, my lingo has changed. My

heart has changed. And so we want to say you

can grow. Amen. This is your house. We are providing

the environment, the soil. Just be planted. Choose to be

planted and grow. Amen. Now. what happens when the growth stops?

Don't give up. Some of you, I'm speaking to you,

some of you may feel that, oh, you know, I'm

sort of like in a dry season. Have you heard

of that? People saying, I'm in a dry spell. You know,

I'm in the wilderness, I'm in the desert. Right? It's okay.

You know what? What does it say? Can you just

continue planting and watering? Continue planting, watering. The growth that

you desire is God's work. But we also have our

part to play. We got to continue planting. We got

to continue watering. So what is God calling you to plant?

What is God calling you to water? Water. There's a lot,

you know, there's a lot of lives that we need

to water with the Word of God. There's a lot

of planting of the seed of the Word of God

into the lives of our family members, our colleagues, our teachers,

our friends. There needs to be that. But before you

can do that planting, you must have it first, right?

So the reason why we are not planting is we

have no seed in us. Hello? If you got no seed,

how can you plant? So the first thing we need

to do is to plant this in us. Yeah? Plant

the Word of God into our hearts, into our minds,

so that we are able to plant it into others.

We are able to water others. That's the only way.

That's the only way. Right? That as we have been

planted and we have been watered by others, our leaders

around us, then now our responsibility is to plant and

water others. Amen. Is that okay? So if everything fails,

can you just go back to the basics? Yeah? If

you feel like, ayo, my life, I don't know where

is it. Wah, that's why we are going through painstakingly

every one of the core values. Are you spirit-filled? Are

you Christ-centered? Are you kingdom-minded? Are you prayer-powered? Right, what

else is there? Are you praise-generating? Are you unity-guarded? Right,

are you, what else is there? Community evaluated. Can you

see that all these are the basics? And when you

lost your way, don't worry. Come back to the way. Amen.

Who's the way? Jesus is the way. He's the way,

the truth and the life. And no one comes to

eternal life except through Him. Just think about it. God

wants us to have fruitfulness in our lives. But He

doesn't want us to be blessed and to be fruitful

for ourselves only. He says, be fruitful and multiply. Fill

the earth. Friends, that's our vision, right? Habakkuk is fill

the earth with the glory, with the knowledge of the

glory of God. So we are not done yet. Are

you done? You're done with the message. I know, I know.

It's okay. It's time. It's time. Alright, it's time, but

can I invite you to stand? And ask yourself, what

is God speaking to me? What has the Lord spoken

to you? Is there any results from my life right

now that is evident that God is working in my life?

Do you know that God's work can be seen? Yeah?

God's work, even though you might not, you see, yeah?

Whatever the auxin hormone is working in there, you cannot

see the hormones. You cannot see how it's absorbing the nutrients.

You cannot see the root condition. But you can see

the fruit. You can see the leaves. How healthy it is.

Do you want healthy lives? Do you want healthy spiritual lives? Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit axechurch.org. We are also

active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week

is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.