12+1 Core Values: Generosity Branded | Eld Wong Kien Yiak

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

We hope this message will light up your day. So

this morning, I want to speak about generosity branded. Alright,

I know what is going on in your mind. Elder's

going to talk about money. No, I'm not. You know,

money is actually the least of the things being generous. Really. Really.

Can you just see this? I'm not talking about money. Really,

the thing is that, you know, I have slides, but

I just wanted to start off with something. What really

causes not to be generous? I'll start off with a question.

What really causes not to be generous? Selfishness is one,

but really, I don't think all of us here come

in this world or transact with this world or live

in this world wanting to be selfish. None of us

born out say, I want to be the most selfish

person in the world. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. I don't

think we come to this world or whether we live

in this world being that. I think in the course

of time, in the course of time, we may, I

would like to say, tempted or become like that because

of the different experience we have. because of the different

experiences we have. For example, we could have been, the

word is, betrayed, taken advantage. Betrayed, taken advantage. Hence, therefore,

we shrink back. We pull back. We held on. We

said more no than a yes. We said more no

than a yes. We can come to this place, neither we,

the word is that we, I said it earlier that

we did not come to this world to be like that.

It's always a yes first, but then no comes in

later because of the different experience. And sometimes we judge.

You deserve my time. You don't deserve my time. You

deserve my generosity. You don't deserve my generosity because of

the way we view things, of the way we view,

can you just see, people. We can become hard in

our hearts because maybe one time you... and you were giving,

and you know, not just money, but you know, you

were smiling. Right? Only to meet with people that never

return back the smile. Have you been to companies before,

you're the only one saying good morning, good morning, then

nobody say good morning, right? Then after a while, your

good morning becomes quieter and quieter and quieter, becomes the

eyebrow good morning. We can be shaped by environment because

we used to smile, greet people. If you are serving

as a host, you understand sometimes whereby you greet people

who come to church. Everybody show up to church very differently.

Some people are very cheerful. Good morning, they reply good

morning back to you. Some people you say good morning,

they just walk past you. Right? And sometimes because they

walk past us, we take in their messaging and say

that maybe after a while, what's the point of serving

or saying good morning when you don't get back the

same response? And we can come to a place of

the word is that harden our hearts. So this morning,

I pray that we would sort of unharden our hearts.

We will sort of, the word is become softer. For

God to use us. Before I start my message, I

want to share about the recent trip. I had the

privilege of leading to Ex-Sepung. I think Jasmine was one

of the persons from Kota Komoding on the trip. So

we left on a Friday afternoon. Friday afternoon to Jakarta.

You know, Flying into Jakarta was never easy because, you know,

we are like, I think I'm spoiled. I'm spoiled with,

you know, sometimes get the privilege of taking MAS. So

when I go in Air Asia, seats are very tight.

Very tight, very cramped. And, you know, I'm there two

and a half hours on the plane. The word is that,

you know, that I'm like, why did I say yes?

Have you ever said yes before and retract back later? Like,

the word is post-regret. Why did I say yes to

serve this weekend? Why did I say yes to open

up my home for, my house for homes? Why did

I say yes to cook? Why did I say yes?

The one is that we say yes, we say regret later.

Why did I say yes to serve in Timi conference?

It's a long day. You know, I was there like, okay.

Then the worst things that you know, every flight, the

last thing as a passenger you want to hear, flight delay.

Flight delay. Right? And you are there like, why yes?

By the time you reach Indonesia, by the time you

reach Indonesia, I reached Indonesia in the evening, Pastor Sidney came,

pack us up, you know, there's four of us plus

luggages and stuff like that. We packed about six of

us with luggages in a very small, like an Innova car, right?

Pastor Cindy had to squeeze at the last row by

herself with her legs all the way up to her

chest and stuff. I'm there pushing my seat all the way.

My knees was having fellowship with the dashboard, car dashboard.

and stuff like that. Every time the driver breaks, my

knee will just, will knock on the door of the dashboard, say,

open up your heart for Jesus. Yeah, so it's from

the airport to the place, it's about an hour's drive minimum.

I'm like, why did I say yes? But then we

reached there, it was evening, and you know, more tired

than hungry, but you know, so you eat. So sometimes,

you know, food, the word food softens your heart. I

pay all the price for to have really good Indonesian food.

Sambal is out of the world, right? You see sambal,

you forget your surname already and that's what happened to me.

I decided to, you know, to be like DBKL for

the evening. Decided to, hey, you're not eating your sambal,

pass to me. You're not eating your sambal, pass to me.

Not eating, pass to me. Only realised later at night,

I had really, the word is, symphony of orchestra in

my stomach. Right? We were there, my wife wasn't feeling

well and she was like purging because she was purging before.

She left Kuala Lumpur, she was purging all the way there.

Every time she took food, she went to the toilet.

And I'm asking myself like, why did we say yes, sir?

Have you ever come to a place whereby you're making

a sacrifice? Making a sacrifice and by the time you

get there, like, okay, this is a different land. Okay,

it's only three days we can do this. Right? It's

only three days we can do this. That night we

didn't sleep well because, you know, She went to the

toilet more frequently. I also went to the toilet because

of all the extra sambal I took. I regretted it. But,

you know, I said, Lord, I say yes to the sambal.

I'm paying the price right now. But when we got

to the campsite, when we got to the campsite, it's

about two hours drive. So in Jakarta, there's no such

thing as half an hour's drive. It's always one hour,

one hour and a half, two hours, one hour, half hours, okay?

It's the seaside resort because this year they said, we

want to go to the beach. Every year camp is

always the mountains, stuff like we are bored with the mountains,

we want to go to the seaside. So imagine PD

multiplied by 10 times. It's a long stretch. We just thought, wow,

Indonesia's island, right? So we're thinking about, you know, the

clear waters and stuff there, but only to be welcomed

by haze. You thought here was bad, but over there,

it was really worse. Really bad. You know, you could really,

you see, sometimes it can become so bad, you could

really smell the burning stuff like in front of you.

So the whole hair smells, the children, and some of

them had a bit asthmatic and just stuff like that.

So when we were there, the team, really the word

is the first night I was given the privilege to preach.

So I just thought I'll preach my heart out, you know,

give altar call. But only to be welcomed, friends, only

to be welcomed by a function two doors away, having

their gala Thanksgiving dinner, who had loud music with thumping

bass sound. As I'm preaching, there was a bass, there's a...

Boombox that's, you know, that's so loud that, you know,

some of the participants from the camp has to put

a finger to the ear just to cut off the volume.

I said, this is amazing because when I preach, you're listening,

the words go in, cannot go out the other ear. Right?

And only to be welcomed, and you exit the foyer,

people were smoking cigarettes and cigars outside. We are like,

why did the camp committee say yes to the beach resort? Sometimes, friends,

we can come to a place whereby we harden our

hearts because of our experience. I asked Pastor Khajin, why

did you choose this place? So I had the privilege

of going to an ex-Sepong camp last year. Last year

was fantastic. We went to a nice villa, very good price,

nice villa. The food was good, it's sufficient. One of

the toilets at the conference centre was made of marble.

Then you understand how opulent it is, right? This one

is totally a bit more rundown. I said, Pastor Khaji,

why did you choose this place? That's because we wanted

everybody to come for camp. Come on. Everybody come for camp.

In the camp, we had about 10 to 12 Iranian

refugees from Iran. They fled Iran because of religious belief.

They came for camp. We wanted them to come for camp.

We didn't want the camp to be overly expensive. We

want the camp whereby they could enjoy. Friends, I thought

that our church was loud. 130 service was loud. But

when the Iranians came and the way they celebrate, friends,

it's the next level of joy. Next level. You know

when you come to camp games, come on, how many

of you are excited for camp games? So what? Right? Like, exactly, right?

I'm same category as you. Come to Camp Gibbs, like,

can I be excluded because I'm old? Can I be

excluded from the Camp Gibbs because, like, these are for

the young people? I'm like, I reach the age whereby

I say I can be excluded. Right? Count me out, right?

But the Iranians say, no, elder, you have to be in.

They started dancing. on the spot without any music. They

started singing. You know, you see in videos before, YouTube

videos before, right? They dance around like a campfire. They

were just doing that, doing worship. I'm like, this is

next level and you are, come on, a refugee in

another country. There was a boy I met who is

in Indonesia for 10 years already. waiting to go to

resettle in another country. He came to Indonesia at eight

years old. Now he's 18 years old. 18 years old.

And I asked Pastor Khaji, you know, they were sharing that,

you know, we were concerned about his future because he

couldn't get the job because of the status and stuff

like that. So the church is always trying to engage

this community. I said, what do you do? We engage

them by providing them with money, asking them to cook

so that at least at least you could find an income.

I want to let you know, before I start speaking

the message, I want to show you, so Pastor Kajin,

he is like a group FC for a big company

in Indonesia, really busy. But yet in the midst of

his busyness and, you know, arranging different things, right, he

has a heart, a genuine heart for a certain community.

So when this Iranian brother reached out to him, would

you come and do Alpha with us? Pastor Khajin said, yes,

without knowing how to speak any Persian. Yes, first, I'll

think about the solution later. Started sharing. And you know,

every time they preach over there, they don't use Keynote,

they use Microsoft, PowerPoint, because... it's automatically translated to Persian.

You see Yahweh words there. They will try to read it.

They try to understand it because they couldn't understand. They

understand very simple English. At the camp, we witnessed three

precious individuals give their lives to God by going through

the water baptism. For the very first time, they say

that we could worship God We could be baptized without

some of that flat in the country. I said, why

do you have to leave? Because of our parents. So

this boy, my parents got caught in by the government,

by the police for an interview. And you know what

it means. My mom knew about it. Immediately sent me

off to grandma. Grandma heard about the situation, sent me

off to relative who right now tried to resettle in

another country. Some of them were city planners. working for

councils and stuff like that. Immediately, overnight, left everything behind,

left the country to another place. Ask Pastor Khaji, why

do you do what you do? He said that, you know,

it's a joy for me to reach out. So he

does this. He reached out to them, engaged them. Doesn't

know a single person, but you know, Pastor Khaji is

a big gila one. Really, like you get to know him,

he preaches in Kota, he's a big gila. So he

engages the community. Then, There is sort of a group

leader among them who actually met some Afghans in Jakarta.

He was walking after doing his laundry, heard someone speaking Persian.

He went up to this group. Where are you from?

We are from Afghan. He started to engage them. So

I asked Pastor Kenji, how do you reach out to

this community? We organise football. So right now, X-Sepul has

organised a food store of football for this Afghan group,

especially for the ladies. So I said, Pastor Kenji, you're

a football manager now, isn't it? A manager of an

Afghan football women's team. I said, how do you reach

out to them? He said, Culturally, you see, you have

to understand them. When they play football, no male is

allowed on the field. You cannot be seen playing with them.

You have to exit. We just book the court for

them and we fetch them there. And we send them back.

I said, how do you do it? Either by go-jet

or grab. Or the other thing is, we use our

own vehicle. But when we use our own vehicle, we

have to be very careful. Because if their family member

sees us sending them back, they will get into trouble

and we will get into trouble. I say, what do

you do when you drop them off in front of

their place? The windows are all up. You know, Indonesia

cars are all tinted really nicely. You can't see inside one.

Tinted all black one. So our windows are all up.

We drop them off, they just quickly go off. Sometimes

they have to do that because they couldn't get the

vehicle to send them back. In the midst of his busyness,

he said yes to engage them. He said, so after that,

how do you preach the gospel? How do you reach

out to them? How do you present the gospel to them?

We try to do our part when there's opportunity, especially

like Christmas, or they cook for us to thank us.

They invite us to their homes. I want to let

you know, friends, generosity is not because we see people

deserve it or don't deserve it, friends. Because God's heart

It's a generous heart. Sometimes we look at generosity, we

think that, oh, elders talking about, no, friends, money is

not the first thing our heart is. Come on. Even

before I go through my side, money is not the

first thing our heart is. Pastor Khaji, he doesn't need

to concern himself with the Afghan refugee or the Iranian refugee.

He just take care of Sir Poon Khen already. Sometimes

you just take care of your own church plant and say, God,

that's enough. But he went beyond his church plant, beyond

the four walls of the church and began to engage

the community. I said, Pastor Kanji, you don't have to because,

you know, your position, your job, you're so busy. The

wife said, yeah, my husband is so busy. I signed

a basketball with some group of people, badminton. I said, yeah,

Pastor Kanji is 51 years old. I'm 51 years old.

We are same age, same from the similar school background.

I said, I know how it feels. She said, Kinyak,

I'm not old. Although my IC shows I'm 51, but

I'm actually 21 inside. I look at it, yeah, after

you play basketball, what do you do? Yeah, I suffer

after that. Before I go to my message, I want

to share this with you only because when I talk

to the Iranian refugee people, they say, when are you

going back? I say, I'm leaving on Monday right after camp.

They say, so fast. I say, yes. The next time

when you come to Serpong, could you stay a bit longer?

I say, why? We want to invite you to our home.

we want to invite you to our home. I say, why?

We want to cook for you. We want you to

experience what real Iranian food is and not what you

described to me in Malaysia, what they offer. We want

to show you what hospitality is in Iran. See, when

Iran is, the word is, freer, and we can go

back to our own country, we want you to visit

our beautiful land. All of them, friends, has a smile

on their face. All of them did not say that,

you know, we are poor thing. They didn't come with

a mindset of like self-entitlement. They came with a big smile,

a big heart. Such an encouragement. Friends, generosity branded, friends.

It is not about a brand like, oh, our Acts

is just generous. It's the Spirit. It's who God is.

Acts chapter 2 verse 44, 45 says that, Now all

Acts 2:44

who believed were together, had all things in common. Come on,

all those who believed together had all things in common.

sold their possession goods and divided them among all as

anyone who had need. Friends, as believers, friends, I know

that this scripture goes like, yeah, but I can't sell

all my possessions. No. I'm not asking us to sell everything.

I'm asking us to reconsider and rethink that how have

we been living our life. So when I talk about generosity,

I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about the way

we transact, the way we relate. When you came to

church this morning, were you generous with your good morning?

Were you generous with your smile? The only reason I

say that is because it takes muscle to smile. It does.

And the way to use your muscle is to flex it.

How you carry things, it is hard. Sometimes smiling could

be harder for some people. Yes, I know it because

I'm of the category, I don't like to smile. Why

waste energy on smiling? Right? But my wife says, smile,

talk to people. My wife loves talking to strangers. She

texted me one day, they were on the team to

Kota Kinabalu last week. She texted me, hey, I sat

next to someone, she started talking to me and I

only to find out and to realise that I'm not Japanese.

Her whole conversation, she was just talking to me in

Japanese and I only could reply in one or two lines.

Then halfway she found out that I'm not Japanese and

she was so disappointed. I told my wife, didn't your

parents tell you not to talk to strangers? Okay word.

When I flew away from Sepong, we were queuing up

to board the plane. A lady came up to her,

started talking to her and she talked back. And I'm like, dear,

conserve your energy. Don't be so generous with your conversation.

Don't be so generous with your smile. You may not

know what these people want. They could be evil. And

that's how we become hardened. Friends, the Bible here says

all who believe were together, had all things in common.

When they saw a need, friends, they decided to They

decided to sell because, not because Pastor Daniel told them

to sell, because God spoke to their hearts. And sometimes, friends,

when we come to church, I use church as an

example because you come to church every week. Don't be

the individual that likes to consume espresso food without thanking

the espresso team. Don't be the one that say, I want...

You know, have you seen people going on the buffet line,

taking everything? Taking everything on their plate. Like, this is mine,

this is mine, this is mine, this is mine, this

is mine. To rejoice in a big plate of gatherings

of food, but couldn't finish. I was on the... I was...

On the trip one time, we were queuing up. This

was early days of AirAsia. We were just queuing up.

Back then, they didn't have the booking of seats, the

earlier days. Just queuing up whoever first come, first serve.

I remember one time just queuing up. I'm like maybe

15 in the line, before the door, 15 in the line.

I heard a mom telling her kids, When the door

opens afterwards, you rush in, okay? You push your way through,

all right? You push your way through. Don't worry, your children,

they'll give you the way to you. You push your

way through, you become number one. Don't worry. I know

you're at the back, but just keep pushing your way

through your luggage and we'll catch up with you because

we are your guardian. We are your parent. Friends, you

can only sell all your possessions when we have a

different mindset. See, generosity is powerful because God Himself is generous.

Come on. You think about it for a moment. Generosity

is powerful because God Himself is generous. Think for a moment.

When was the last time you felt God's generosity in

your life? Say, Elder, I have not had that experience before.

I have never experienced God's generosity before. I want you

to think again because many times we view generosity as

one way. Meaning, if I get possession, for example, therefore

I experience God's generosity. If I get promotion, then God

is generous. If I didn't get the promotion, then God

is not generous. If I get the bonus, God is generous.

If I didn't get the bonus, God is not generous.

So we view generosity as the things we can just

But have you ever wondered, friends, that God has been

so generous in your life that you're still breathing here?

Because we only view generosity as getting the possession that

we want. But when it comes in another form, when

it comes in another form, then we feel like, oh,

I look like I got all suddenly remembered that he

has a child somewhere. I remember one time someone gave

me a jacket. Elder, I want to bless you with

a jacket. I want to bless you with a jacket.

So I took the jacket. I opened it up. I

just smiled. Part of me was a little overly excited.

Different designs. This is more like 80s style, double-breasted jacket.

These days, you know, we don't really wear that. This

is like, you know, like one of those old school

back in the day. The jacket that I wore for

my school graduation last time, my college one, you know.

I'm like, oh, this make me look older than I am.

First thing I receive it, I'm like, what can I

give it to? Now, friends, I'm sharing this heart to

heart with you because in your mind, come on, We

want to receive the item we want. But when someone

has led someone else to bless you with something, right?

This one looks like a leftover. I want us to

rethink when we say God is generous because sometimes we

only operate, operate, come on, only operate in the way

we think God should be generous. Have you ever received

a present from someone which you want to give it away? Immediately, friends,

you are thinking that, who can I give it out to?

In the Christian world, who can I bless? Christmas is

coming up. And some of you are going to receive

presents which you think that, who else can I bless?

But friends, we are recipients of God's generosity. Some people say,

it is the thoughts that count at the end of

the day. Really? You think about it and how we

give to God. God is the thoughts that count. And

that's why sometimes we have to teach about giving because

when we do a thing, clothing donation drive. Some Christians

do not know how to give. They give t-shirt whereby

you can do off-shoulder kind of t-shirt got holes. We

have to teach because sometimes they don't understand. And the

word that we like to use still can use cover

up all the whiter parts. The neckline is not whiter.

It is not a private part up here. so we

still can cover the things that need to be covered.

As I share this with you, friends, I pray that

you open your heart because we cannot want more of

God and not be generous. Think about it. We think that, God,

I want more of you. I want more of you,

more of your spirit. But yes, when we say God

is generous, this is nature. It's like pick and choose

kind of thing. Like, I like this God nature. God

is powerful. Oh, I like power, so we want that. Right?

God is for wisdom. I want wisdom. I praise Allah. Hallelujah. God, generosity.

Maybe this is for some other people. I still want

it a lot, but not my first priority. It's hard

to say that we want more of God, yet not

be transformed to be more like Him. It's hard. God,

I want more of you. Then be generous. No, God.

I can't. If only you understand your church people. If

only you understand your church people because some of them,

they don't deserve this. I heard one time, I'm going

to share this with you honestly and truthfully, I pray

that you'll be okay with it. I heard one time,

a Christian just said, my job is to make sure

I keep my pastor humble. My job is to make

sure I keep my leaders humble. Do you know that's

such a hard understanding? God will deal with His people.

I look at this individual, I look at him, I say, wow,

that's a very dangerous thing to do. Because we are

playing God after a while. After a while, we are

playing God. After a while, we are not careful. We

are coming to a place and a position whereby it

is not right. You deserve my generosity. You don't deserve.

So when God says generosity is His nature, He looks

at His people, you deserve my love. Come on, that's

why John 3, 16 says, For God so loved the world,

He gave His only Son. Whoever believes in Him shall

not perish. But if ever last day, if you think

about this scripture, friends, you think about this scripture, He

looks at individual, He doesn't look at deserving, not deserving.

He doesn't look at skin color. He doesn't look at

education background. He doesn't even look at, you're a thief, murderer.

You're a good boy. So I only look to the

good boy because you're a murderer, you're a thief, you're

a liar, you don't deserve my love. I shared this

to you before, I'm sharing you again. Pastor Dave and Kat,

one time they cleaned up an apartment that's so filthy

by the student. Cleaned up the apartment that's so dirty.

Pastor Kat is an accomplished lawyer. Pastor Dave is a graduate.

They went in there with love for the people they're

reaching out to. Say, let's help you to clean up

your apartment. They cleaned up the apartment, only to have

this individual turning around and just not even a thank you.

not even a simple meal. He said, turn around and

shut her door towards them. Sometimes, friends, we felt like

taking for a ride. But the Bible says, for God

so loved the world, friends, God looks at individual and people,

didn't go look like, because you love me, I love

you back. Because you love me, I love you back.

I remember earlier days of church when we were reaching

out to Lim Kok Wing students, fetching them from Saibor

Jaya to Subang Jaya. We have different individuals. We went

in there. They said, why are you late? You brave

through the jam, you know. First thing they come out,

why are you late? Why you can't add corn or coal?

Come on. All drivers, come on, what do you feel

like doing? All drivers, you've recognised this before when you've driven,

you've got your car passenger, they make comment, oh, your

car very small. Come on, all drivers, you experience before the,

you wish you got like James Bond, the eject button

on the, right? You feel like ejecting them from your

car seat because, you know why? Because we think they

don't deserve because So ungrateful. Could you imagine Jesus at

the cross with the two convicts, left and right. One

guy said, God, remember me when I enter paradise. He said,

today you will be with me. God loves people. But

you look at John 3, 16, you friends, you cannot

give without loving. You can't. It's easy to say God

gave His one and only. Friends, you know, how hard

is this for us to give your one and only?

Can I ask XTV to skip two more slides in front?

Thank you very much. Thank you. God gave His one

and only. I want to emphasize this is because, friends, again,

hear me, I'm not going after your bank account. Just relax.

But you know what's our one and only? Our life.

Our life. We have no second life. As in, like

a game. You end this one, game over, restart the game. Right?

So one and only, friends. So therefore, would you reconsider

how We relate to one another. Your one and only

life that you have right now, think about it. Would

you reconsider? Because God gave His one and only. Would

you give your one and only life? I'm not asking

you to empty your bank account. I have to say

this again. I'm asking maybe some of us here, God

has been prompting you to cook a dish for someone else.

to bless someone else. A simple thing that you could do,

but your one and only life. I remember talking, I

remember one time a dad came up to me, just say, Elder,

after I drop off my kids and my wife to church,

I'm free. If you need me to fetch anyone, any

of the students, I drive an MPV. If you need

me to fetch any of the students, I'm willing to

avail my car to fetch them from their campus to

the church. and drop them back because my wife and

kids got commitment. And this is what I could do.

What I could do. He doesn't need to, he's a businessman,

you know, he's accomplished, you know, he's well-to-do. He doesn't

need to concern himself with the campus student. After all,

it's easy. I'll sponsor them, grab money. Easy, I don't

have to. I just, you know, for a guy to

offer up his car, for students to come in, sometimes

leave wrappers in the car. Use tissue paper. If you're

one of those that always hop on to people's car,

like to eat in people's car, never ask permission first.

Please learn to ask permission. Can I eat in your car? Albert,

you got kids, Albert. Your kids won't be asking, Papa,

can I eat? They will just eat, right? Your answer

is no, Pastor Daniel. No eating in the car. What

about if Rochelle eats in the car? No. But what

about if she eats? Eject button. I want to let

you know, I know of a friend. I know of

a friend. I know of a friend who literally ejected

his sister out from his car. In the middle of nowhere,

you get off from my car right now, right? Dropper

somewhere else, you take a taxi, okay? He drove off.

I'm serious. You go like, oh dude, it's just a car. Yes,

to some of us, it's just a car. But to

some of us, it's a sacred place. Holy place for

some guys, okay? Because every food smell gets into the

air conduct. And it smells of... Don't worry, we'll pray

for your church pastor after this, okay? If they don't

come out, you force them to come out, okay? You

just continue to go into Pastor Daniel's car, just start

eating only, okay? Then after that, after eating, just eat only,

don't worry, just use my name only. Elders can eat

in your car, alright? Can I just say this as

I move on? What an oni, your life. Sometimes we become,

have you ever said thank you to the ex-kid's teacher

who's serving faithfully week after week? Thank you so much

for serving. You don't know how much it takes. I

thought Jasmine being, let's see, she is 22 this year.

I remember because I was just... calculating how I remember

people's age because like I'm 51, then my, just my, anyway.

At Expo, I asked her, how was it? I was like,

I'm so tired after the first day. After the second day,

we are so tired. She and another lady who's my age,

we are so tired. They only had about, maybe about

like 12 children to 15, if I'm not wrong. Tired.

Full day of ex-kids. Tired. I'm sharing this to you

because sometimes we can take for granted because we are

one and only, friends. Friends, you can give without love,

but you cannot love without giving. Come on. You can

give without love. Yes, I can just give money. I

can give money. But there's no love. There is no heart.

But you cannot love, friends, because God is love. He gave.

Because God is love He gave. If you love the church,

you will give. If you love the church, you will serve.

But many times I will struggle is that, oh, I

find it hard because this individual never say hello. This

individual is so grumpy. That's why sometimes I tell people that,

you know, guys, you know, can you just smile a

bit because I see happier faces on the dead fish

in the market. There's always a smile on their face one, sideways, right? Right?

My wife kept telling me, I said, why do strangers

talk to you one? Because I smile. I said, why

do strangers talk to you? Because I smile. One time,

I think if I'm not wrong, she got into the

grab together with the team. And all of a sudden,

she started engaging conversation with the driver. Right? Engaging conversation.

I said, hey, the driver asked, where are you guys going?

We're going to, I think if I'm not wrong, Likas

Baptist Church in KK. Going to the church there and

suddenly having conversation to him. Then she asked, do you

go to church? She said, I used to. She said,

he used to. But because of busyness, driving a cab,

I stopped going to church already. And the team kept silent.

The whole friends This is a team of three people

or four people in the car. Everyone of them kept silent.

My wife said, oh, why did you stop going? God

loves you. If I was in the car, I would

put my head down and say, dear, don't evangelise, please.

I want my time. I want my peace before I

see people. I said, get back to church. God loves you.

He doesn't want you to be alone. Friends, it takes

energy to be generous. Can I just say it? Friends,

so generosity is not just about giving money because love

takes energy. Come on. So you can give without love.

We just give without. You can just serve without love.

Go through the songs only. Sing only. After we do

it in karaoke also, we do it everywhere else. But friends,

when you love, friends, you sing with passion. So when

I saw the Iranian, the way they celebrate, friends, during

games time, they were so noisy. I'm 51-year-old, friends. I'm

telling that. I would say, oh, you're so noisy. You're okay.

You just keep quiet, Lord. Right? I was standing past

the city. I've never met a bunch of people more

excited for church games. You know, church games can be

very kiddish. Some of you are like, you understand what

I mean? My friends, they were so excited. So they

had this game. building the straw, the bridge together with

the straw. You've played before, right? You build the bridge

together with the straw and just stuff like that. So

I was partnered with the Iranian team. They don't speak English.

So we tried to explain to them, okay, work as

a team, work as one. They said, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So they took a bunch of straw, they built the

bridge by themselves. They took the straw, they built the

bridge by themselves. And they were so happy, you know, celebrating, yay!

Like dancing around on their bridge. And we are like, brother,

we work together, we cannot have one team, cannot have

two bridges. But yet, I want to let you know,

it is frustrating, yes, because of language barrier. I want

to let you know, the leaders over there, right? I mean, Coco, Zerbin,

you know, Jason, they all, they love the people so much,

they just accepted them for who they are. If it

was us, sometimes, if it was me, sometimes I go like,

what's the point? What's the point? Language barrier. Let them

play on their own. Let them just have their own fun.

Who came up with, Church K must have games one. But, friends,

you cannot love without giving. I see Coco... Looking at them,

just say, come guys, one team, one team, merge our

beach together, make it as one. I got to go on.

It does not only bring healing and help, generosity does

not only bring healing and help to the one who

is receiving, but it also does something to the giver. Friends,

it also does something to the giver. It also does

something to you when you are generous. When you smile more, friends,

your facial muscles exercise. You are happier. Pastor Kenneth one

time told the ex-kids committee earlier days, if you want

a disciplined teacher, ask Elder Kenya to be. Because as

long as he doesn't smile, he'll frighten every kid away.

And every kid will fall into line. My wife said that, dear,

I got to change this image of you like, I

cannot have my husband, the word is, becoming a monster

in the eyes of the children. Let me teach you. First,

you kneel down. I said, why kneel down? Go down

to that level. I said, they cannot come up to

my level, one man. One man must always go down

to the level. I said, do you know how hard,

I'm tall, I can go all the way down. I said,

I'm old, do you know how hard it is to

get up or not? The next is, dear, you learn

how to smile to children. Yeah, I'm smiling but, I'm smiling,

my eyes is smiling. Yeah, just move your muscle a bit.

It does something to a giver when you begin to

learn how to relate with generosity. It does something to

give up because the moment you begin to exercise generosity,

I tell you what, it's no longer sacred anymore. It's

no longer like, this is my precious. My smile is

only for people who deserve it. Seriously, my smile is

only for people who deserve it. Then my wife said,

next time you die, that time you cough, make sure

you're smiling, okay? Okay? Okay, me and my wife talk

that way. But friends, after a while, sometimes, you know,

the word is this, can I just say this, that

sometimes God has given us blessings with things, things, blessings

with things, and the word is sacred, it's precious, I understand,

because you work so hard, right, it's precious, you work

so hard, you own it. Open up your place. God,

you don't understand the amount of hair dropped on the

floor My house is clean because there's only one person

dropping hair. My house is clean, friends. I want to

let you know, right? I keep telling my wife, dear,

it's all yours. Okay, it's all yours. I am clean. Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord. It's all yours. But when people come, friends,

first of all, hair drop is one thing. But friends,

guys don't know how to aim when they use the toilet. Yes. Seriously,

sometimes they don't flush properly. They don't flush. And if

you are the type that values, the word is, your

toilet is sacred, your toilet is, excuse the word, holy

in the sense of like clean, you'll be the first

person that allows people into your home. Sacred. What it does, generosity,

it does something to the giver. You open up the

first one. Okay, God, I know you blessed me with

this place. So therefore, I'll try. I'll try. I'll take

it with one person in two years. I'll open up

my place for someone to stay, which I did, friends.

I grew up without inviting anyone to my house. That's

how I grew up. So in my whole life, friends,

I never bothered inviting anyone to my house one. Because

that's my mindset. No need lah. Meet outside lah. Easier mah.

First of all, you don't have to clean your house. Right?

You meet outside, it's dirty outside, everything is outside. So

when I finished my house renovation, God spoke to me.

I have given you provision. I have blessed you. So

last time, I used to tell people that I love

you to stay up. But this is my sales pitch.

I love you to stay in my house but can

you live in my house without any doors or not?

The guest room got no doors, the toilet got no doors, right?

Because only me and my wife, right, we don't need

doors one, right? So then people say, oh, I cannot,

I meant to have doors. Oh, I'm so sorry, I'd

love to have you. Like pretend generosity, I'd love to

have you but... since you cannot live without dolls, you

know what to do, right? Then God provided dolls. Seriously,

God provided dolls. I remember the very first time I

had someone in the house. It felt so strange. It

felt so weird. Some of you have never, you understand this,

you have never done it before, opening up your house

for homes. When church people come to your house, friends,

they don't look, they just don't come and sit straight

at the sofa, they start looking at your things. Oh,

this is how you looked like when you were young. Oh,

they open up your fridge without permission. They open up

your cupboard. Oh, tupperware collection. And you are there like

scratching your countertop already, your fingernails like... Come on. I

know that because I'm like that. I'm like that. So

when the person left, the first thing I did was

I do deep cleansing of my home. I vacuum mop,

vacuum mop, vacuum mop the floor until the paint come

off like that. Seriously, I vacuum mopped my floor about

seven times. The toilet scrub and scrub and scrub and

scrub and scrub. Don't want to have a single smell.

It does something to the giver because the next year,

Pastor Kenneth asked, would you open up your home again?

Then when Pastor asked, hard to say no, friends. He

asked Pastor. Open up and they said Pastor Lazarus stay. Now,

Pastor Lazarus is a different person. He likes to use cologne. Cologne.

So the whole room felt, when I woke up from

my room, he's like here, he's like, no, I'm just kidding.

But I smelled like, then the whole, I look at

my wife, it's okay, it's just a room. Then Pastor

John said, he said, Elder, I love your place. I said, Brother,

you have to check out tomorrow. It does something to

the giver, friends, because after a while, it becomes easier.

It becomes easier. If you have never said good morning before,

try it. It becomes easier throughout the time. Did you know, friends,

did you know if you say yes, let's say, for example,

putting up the chairs, for example, it becomes easier through time.

But many times, friends, we say it is hard. That's

why giving generosity does something to the giver. Friends, generosity

is the acid test to show whether we have a

mindset of lack or trust in God or mindset of abundance,

trusting in God's abundance. Come on. Generosity is really because

one of the key reasons why we don't want to

be generous is because we always think that we cannot,

don't have. That's why we struggle. Not good enough. Not

good enough. Not good enough. I can't afford to invite

people to my home because my cooking is not good enough. Friends,

have you ever invited friends to your place and they

judge you on your cooking? After, let's say, for example,

I go to Albert's home there, I take out my phone,

I go Google review. Albert's home. Hospitality, 5 over 5. Food,

1 over 5. Because Albert don't eat one. He just

only serves me dumbbells only. Have you ever invited someone

to your home and they rate you 3 over 5

for cooking? No. But because we operate this mindset that

not good enough. Come on. Not good enough. I'm not

like the other individual or the other partner. When the

person serves five dishes, I only got Maggie Mee, different flavour.

And because of that, we stop being generous. Come on.

Because of that, we stop being generous. Ex-church friends, when

we were... In 2010, I think, or 2010, we wanted

to buy a building. So we were having a building collection,

building fund collection. I remember this because Pastor Sam Sarindran

from EPCC spoke in our church. And he was also

going through his building fund. Then Pastor Carol spoke to

me and said, Can you just look through our collection?

Whether can we give an offering to their building fund?

Not much. We gave about $ 10, 000 to their building fund.

Not much. Gave about $ 10, 000. Because their budget was about $ 1. 2, $ 1. 3 million.

When Pastor Sam received the money, friends, when Pastor Sam

received the money, he cried. He was so moved. Pastor,

he told Pastor Kenneth this, Pastor, your church is raising

your own funds for your own building, but yet, yet,

you decided to sow. You decided to sow into our building.

And pastors just say that, no, this is God. Either

we operate the mindset of like, I don't have enough,

therefore I cannot give, I cannot do this. I don't

have strength. Or I operate the mindset of abundance. God

is my provider. He is my strength. See, this mindset

will either stop us from experiencing more of God or

less of Him. As I close, I think I got

to close soon, right? Is that correct? Thank you so much.

Because I thought I was supposed to end by 10.45.

If you all give Pastor Dan 45, you're too much.

Don't give me. Okay, fine. I understand, Pastor Daniel. Okay, anyway.

As I close, I want to end with this story.

There's a lady in Ex-Manry called Ada. Ada. She is

in her late 50s. She had cancer. Had cancer. And

even in the midst of the cancer, she started losing

hair because of the treatment. So she put on a wig.

But in the midst of the whole cancer situation, friends,

she has never one time said no because she hits

up the host. She has never one time said no, cannot.

I'll try, she says. So one time she turned up

serving with her crutches. I said, you don't have to

serve up because you have crutches. No, I just want

to serve. If I'm tired, I'll sit down. If I'm tired,

I'll sit down. But if I can't, I'll stand. Here

she is, this individual. I said, why do you do this?

Because God is my healer. This sickness shall not dictate,

this sickness shall not dictate how my service to God is.

And she is there in the midst of her situation,

come on, that's going on internally in her body. That

sickness did not, the words corrupt her mindset. You don't

have strength anymore, so don't. You were hurt before, then stop.

You felt taken advantage, then shrink back. She did not

allow that kind of mindset. The word is to rob

her from the privilege of serving God. She said, I'll

just do what I can. When she can't know what

she does, she called the older sisters together. Let's do

Bible study. Let's do Bible study. Let's pray. Get on Zoom. See,

this is all I could do, she says. This is

all I could do. First, as I close, I'm not

sure what are we, the word is, can I use

the word suffering from? Challenged with? Have we allowed our

past disappointment to hijack God's ability for us to experience

His abundance? See, although you don't understand, I was taken

advantage before I serve and serve, I got burnt out. Friends,

I do not want you to be burnt out. I

do not want you to come to a place of

the word is like that you're serving gradually. No. I

want us to come back to this place of God

which will fill my heart again because if I want

more of God, if I want more of God, I

cannot say I do not want His generosity or I

cannot say that I don't want to be a generous

person because God is generous. I want to come to

this place whereby I can freely access my official master

and say good morning and smile. I don't want to

come to this place whereby I'm looking at people like

not worthy of my smile, not worthy of my attention,

not worthy here. I execute a lot of good musicians already.

No need to serve already. I don't want to come

to this place whereby you go and say that, oh,

can I just say this? Someone else will give. I

don't have to. Someone else will serve. I do not

have to. Friends, the Bible says, as I close, give

everybody a talent. Five, two and one. I want to

let you know, everyone at least have one talent. One talent.

God did not look at any individual. God did not

look at any individual and say this. You're not worthy

of the talent. God did not look at you and

just say that, oh, I know you're going to mess

up so therefore I don't give. Sometimes we are like that.

Because I knew you're going to mess up, I won't

As I close, friends, as I close, generosity is really

an assistance to show our mindset. Really. Yesterday, when we

had the team meeting conference, some of you were there serving.

Some of you were there serving, asking yourself, why did

I serve? I know. It's a long day. I was there.

But I always say, would you come and be part

of the team? I say, yes. Then after that, the

team needs to make coffee. I was making coffee. As

I close, I want to close with this story. I

was making coffee. I was looking at my cashier. I

was looking at my cashier. And they were taking orders.

It's like an individual just cut the queue. He's on

the certain spectrum. He cut the queue and just, hey,

I want my coffee. Then I see my cashier like,

I'm looking at him. He's smiling. He says, yeah, hold

on for a moment. I'll get to you. Let me

finish first. Go up to him. I'm looking at all that.

When you deal with individuals of different than us, come on,

requires a lot of love, a lot of energy. We

don't have to sometimes. Can I just say this? It's

not like the word is that, you have to, the

word is be concerned yourself with this. We can close

an eye. Saturday afternoon is so precious for a lot

of young working adults because you only get one Saturday

a week. That one Saturday, there's no homes. There is

no activity in church. It's like, wow, those Shangri-La moment. Precious.

Why do you say yes to Pastor Alvin? Why do

you say yes serving? And there you are, Talking to

people who are so different than you. As I close,

I salute everyone who came to serve yesterday because it

wasn't easy, because it's not your normal group of people

you meet every week. But yet at the same time,

I want to encourage you, there's always opportunity to be generous,

to say, God, here I am. Can you still serve

in a community that don't look like you and be generous?

Can you still serve when the community doesn't look like you, friends,

like you? Because sometimes it's hard. I was talking to

one leader who left KL because he had been posted

in Lawa Sarawak. I said, Elder, you know, in Acts,

I love church, I love God. But when I got there,

I felt, God, why do you abandon me? I used

to love going to church. These days, sometimes I find

myself looking. Church starts at 8 o'clock, 8.15, I'm looking

at my watch. I want to leave. First year, I

cried every time I left church because I felt like, God,

I cannot receive anything. I cried when I got back

home because, God, why did you put me to this place? God,

why did you allow me to serve the school in Nilai?

Why lawas? Why sorrow? Why hear, Lord? One year she

was just crying and just wanted to give up, wanting

to like... Only to realise God began to minister to

her when she stopped crying and God spoke to her.

I want to speak to you right now. Don't come

to church on Sunday for a brand. Come for God.

Don't come to church because you have a musician in

front here that you're so used to the song. Come

to learn how to worship me with or without the song.

Don't come to church because you've got a good preacher

or bad preacher. Come to church because he opens the word.

Don't come to church because you think that you can

just serve, but come to church, be someone to encourage

someone else. As I close, friends, generosity is always an

ecstasy because it reveals your mindset, it reveals where you are,

it reveals your heart. When God reveals that, it's for

a reason and for a purpose. It's for us to

take action, not for us to pin up. See, I

got such a poor mindset of God. I'm so proud

of it. It's for us to respond. As I invite

the musician up on stage, friends, I pray, friends, that

you allow God to speak. Again, I want to say

this to you. I'm not talking about money. I'm just

talking about how we live our life. You can be

a young working adult just only taking care of yourself.

Or a young working adult that's just normally giving offering.

But God sometimes speaks to us, we should do more.

Would you cook for someone? You know, at the end

of the day, can I just close this? At the

end of the day, all of us, God will call

us home. At the end of the day, God's going

to call everyone home. The acid test is always, sometimes

I find one, my acid test is, what will people

say about us when we're no longer around? What will

people say about us? This individual was so kind, always

come and fetch me. My wife always remember this uncle

and auntie who always fetched her to church every Sunday

without fail when she first accepted Jesus. Parasite sent her.

This uncle and auntie was staying near to her, fetched

her to church every Sunday without fail. Don't really know

who she is, but decided to say yes. At the

end of the day, friends, what will people say about you? Wow,

this brother is always so generous with his smile. Sometimes

I see him always smiling at me, even though sometimes

he doesn't know my name. This individual always asks me,

how am I doing? I'm not sure how we want

the word to end our chapter of our life. I

don't want us, the word is, imagine people saying that.

This person, I tell you what, that day, we went out,

calculated until to the last cent. Five cents is the

one to count. Ha ha ha ha. I'm not sure

whether we want to get to this place whereby we

remember more for that or more for something else. This

person randomly just give me a cupcake to say I

appreciate you serving. Because at the end of the day, friends,

generosity can be seen. Can be seen. Can be seen.

Some of you are so quick to help. Very generous.

We are quick to help. Say, anything I can help

or not. There's a flood in the church. Elder, can

I help? Like Bob now, Elder, I can help to change.

Some of you are so quick. As I close, friends,

I want to encourage you. Don't live with a mindset

of lack. Because there is no breakthrough. No testimony. No

one gains. You don't have to serve God one, friends,

but we choose to serve God because of who He is.

As I close, will you stand right now? Friends, it's

not even about the amount or it's really about our

hearts at the end of the day. It is really

about our hearts at the end of the day, friends.

Don't get bitter because you felt taken advantage. Don't harden

your hearts because you felt that no one appreciates you.

No one sees your giving. Don't shrink back because someone

said something that you didn't like. That's not who you are, friends.

As you worship God, would you surrender your past hurts?

Would you surrender your past experience? Would you surrender, friends,

even our mindset of lack? Because God doesn't want us

to live in this mindset of lack. Would you look

to God right now, friends, and say, God, would you

help me? Because if I want more of God, if

I want more of God, then I got to be

generous because God is a generous God. He'll give more

of Himself to you. He's a God of love, God

of wisdom, and also a generous God. We hope you've

been blessed by this message. For more information on our church,

please visit xchurch.org.