12+1 Core Values: Growth Resulting | Eld Wong Kien Yiak

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

We hope this message will light up your day.

Today we're going to talk about growth.

Amen. I don't think anyone here will sort of reject growth.

The word is that you won't say that I don't

want to grow except for our waistline and our age.

When we look at the IC and stuff like that.

But I don't think any one of us here reject growth.

If you are challenged with, like me, in terms of

the head or hair department, definitely it's something that you

really pray and say, you speak growth every other time

you look in the mirror.

But, you know, the Lord has a lot to say

about growth.

So Acts chapter 2, verse 46 to 47, all right?

Acts 2:46–47

So they continued daily in one accord in the temple,

breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food

with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having

favor with all people. And the Lord added to the

church daily those who are being saved. As we read

this scripture, we like the last portion, don't we? The

Lord adds.

Supernatural growth....

And stuff, something which we all desire to see, and

the word is not just for the church, but also.

For our lives as well.

But as you look at Scripture, and you're just wondering, like, Lord,

you know, how, when, and I just wish that, you know,

you could just let us know a bit earlier, so

that it would not come as my surprise, or at

least the word is confirmed things that we are doing correct.

Growth doesn't just happen.

Is it true? How many of you believe that growth

doesn't just happen? It's not that you wish for growth,

it will happen. Neither if you have, you know, nasi

lemak today and you just say, oh no, I'll put

on like one size bigger for my pets.

It doesn't just happen, all right? I just want you

to know that.

Neither that your cholesterol level will move up a bit

worse just because you have fried chicken in the afternoon.

I've been sending pictures to my wife. She's with the

team in Kota Kinabalu. and sent her a picture of

my lunch yesterday. It was fried chicken. This morning was

fried chicken. Just tell her that, you know, it's my

fried chicken off day because the principle of my life

is not around. Praise the Lord. I said, there's nothing

much you can do over there. So for those who

are married and your spouse have to travel, this is

the best way for you to sort of excite your marriage.

It's by sending stuff that, you know, you're not supposed

to eat that. Well, you can't, you know, well, let's

talk about it when you get back, alright? But in

the meantime, in the meantime, right? So it doesn't just happen,

the word is by chance. Can I just say this? Alright? Now,

I also want to say that, you know, just because

we leave things alone, alright, leave things alone, it doesn't

mean that nothing grows. Just because We leave things alone.

For example, I don't want to grow. I don't want

to grow in this area. I do not want to

touch this area. Just because make a decision not to

do anything about it, it doesn't mean that nothing will happen, right?

If you have a bed frame right now, have you

ever looked below your bed frame? Below your bed, below

your bed frame, below your bed. It's quite amazing how

the dust accumulates out from nowhere, not just dust or

fine dust. It comes out like a furball, if I

can say correctly. One of those things just rolls up

into one of those stuff.

The question is, where did it all come from?

I talk to my wife a lot of times and

say to her, dear, definitely it's not from my head.

Definitely it is not, I don't have any hair dropping down,

praise the Lord, hallelujah.

So it has to be from somewhere.

So just because we leave things alone doesn't mean that

nothing else.

Will take over.

I think a lot of times, a lot of believers,

a lot of times we have actually left a lot

of things alone hoping and maybe wishing that nothing will

take place, if you have a piece of garden or

a pot that you just left empty, weeds will grow

on it. If you just leave your walk, your metal walk,

rust will grow on it if you're not going to

use it for a very long time. So things does

grow even though you choose not to do anything about it.

The question about growth is that what are you growing

right now? Come on.

What are you growing right now? Whether or not.

You like it or not, you will reap what you grow.

Can you just see this? You will reap what you

will grow. If you don't, I don't know why I'm

touching a lot of cleanliness of the house. Maybe one

of you will need to look into your house stuff

and just vacuum the floor.

So, I love to vacuum my house.

I do. I love to make sure that the floor

is clean. I have a particular way to do it,

which my wife sometimes look at it and just say that, dear,

since you're doing it so well, you do it. That's her.

Since you're doing it so well, you do it. So

I would sort of vacuum first. then go over with

a wet cloth, then go back with a vacuum again,

then go back with a static cloth again, and finally with.

A vacuum again.

So about seven times, you know how car polish, you

go seven layers, it's about close to seven layers I

do for my home. Yeah, so the thing I'm sharing

with you is just this, is that I find that

just because we have things in our life just because

you attend the church, just because we have a Bible,

it doesn't mean that we open the Bible to read.

It doesn't mean that we'll pray.

I mean, we're growing up, so things, I mean, we

didn't have a lot of things our way when we're

growing up. We have a room we can pray to,

pray in. We didn't have a proper space. You know,

we didn't have a proper Bible. Sometimes we wish if

we got the concordance, the dictionary, the Bible maps, more sermons.

The word is, more of this stuff that we would

sort of Be hungrier for God. However, the Lord has

blessed us and blessed you. Now you have more Bibles

sometimes than the Christian bookshop.

Right?

You have access to Christian literatures and stuff better than

back in those days whereby I was cleaning my dad's

house a couple of days ago and I discovered Christian

cassette tapes. Christian cassette tapes, which I bought last time

to listen to messages and stuff like that.

But now, we even give to you for free.

Alright? Not just us, but every other church gives to

us for free, but we don't, the word is, listen

or don't tap into it. I'm not asking us to,

but I'm just highlighting to us that just because we

have it, doesn't mean that we want to grow it.

Just because you have the Bible doesn't mean you're open

to read. Just because you have a room that you

could pray in doesn't mean you pray. And many times

in our life, just because the Lord can add doesn't

mean that we don't have to do anything. Sometimes we

surrender to the fact that God will grow. If the

Lord wants to grow, He'll grow. Can I just say this?

Growth is a result of being healthy. Growth is a

result of being healthy. Anything that's healthy will grow. Anything

that's healthy will grow. Right?

It's very obvious.

The Bible says, with gladness and simplicity of heart, that

you know if your heart is not in the right place,

it's very hard to grow. So two weeks ago, I

was privileged to be sent to Ex-Sepung.

For their church camp.

Very good camp.

Very, very, very good camp. You know, the church is

doing really well.

They moved up from Karawachi to one town earlier, one

town before Karawachi. It's called Serpong. And the church began

to grow. And in there, they had, the word is,

a mixture of people. So there's a guy called Andy. Andy.

He's from the island Maluku.

Now, at nine years old, he has to be sent

off to America.

At nine years old, he has to be sent off

to America.

Reason? Because his parents were political figures in Indonesia. At

nine years old, his mom and dad put him aside

and said, I'm going to send you off to America.

You stay with your relative. I'm not sure whether it's

relative or not. I'm going to ship you off there.

while we were anchored back in Maluku. So, if you

do not know the story about that, is that I

think President Suharto came with his bunch of army people

and literally executed, put in prison political figures from Maluku Island.

His parents were tortured, imprisoned, and ultimately killed. He was

at the camp. So, two years in a row, I

saw him there. He was at the camp. And he

just said this to the elder. I think that was

two weeks ago, that Monday was Indonesia Independence Day. He said, elder,

I cannot, cannot, cannot pick up the Indonesian flag and

wave it.

Because every time I look at the flag, I see

more than just a flag.

I see my... the history of my family. I see

the bloodshed. I see what my people have to sacrifice

and stuff like that. I see lies and stuff like that.

And he knows, you know, he is about 40s. And

the Lord healed him of cancer. Sage tree cancer. And

I look at him, brother, you know, the Lord has

healed you of sage tree cancer. He said, if you

don't choose to forgive, it's very hard to move forward.

He has been gifted with anointing for music. He's a

very good percussionist. You know, he would tell me of

the people he met in the States, you know, and

stuff like that.

But this one area, his heart said, I can't. I

find it very hard.

What will my parents say if I forgive the government?

And he struggles continually. So on Sunday, Elder Shelley preached.

He came up for altar call. He was just in tears,

just crying. He said, I find it hard to let go.

And sometimes with our life, it's the same. Because on

the outside, you could be in a good environment, good church,

good company, good home. Everything is going your way. It

doesn't mean you are growing. Because if your heart is

not in the right place, If your heart is not

in the right place, if your heart is, there's no

gladness or simplicity in your heart, friends, it's very hard

to move forward.

Anything that grows, friends, would have challenges. Will have challenges.

Small apartment got small apartment challenges. Big apartment got big

apartment challenges. Bigger house got bigger house challenges and stuff

like that. So every stage got a challenge. The question

here is this, if your heart is not in the

right place, it's very hard to deal with those challenges

that comes your way. It's true. A merry heart does

good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

A merry heart, friends, so anything that's healthy grows. But

if your heart is constantly, the word is toxic. I'm

not sure whether this is the right word or not,

but you know what I mean. If your heart is

constantly very critical, very, you're questioning about everything, all right,

then it's going to be very hard for people to

even enjoy your company, to have fellowship with you, to

want to be your colleague, want to go out lunch

with you.

But the Bible encourages us to be merry.

Really to learn to come to a place whereby you

surrender some of those challenges you went through with the Lord.

About 10 years ago or 12 years ago, I was

in one church plant. A visitor came to our church,

sat down the service, enjoyed the whole service, and came

up after the message and introduced herself to me. I'm

a visitor today. I'm from another church. I said, oh,

welcome to our church. I want to let you know

what the other church has done. This is almost like

second or third part of the conversation, right? Second phrase

or third, you know what I mean, right? I'm like, wow,

I just met you, just got to know your name,

but you immediately want to tell about your experience with

your previous church and how bad or evil or injustice

you've seen. Right? And I had one phone call one day.

I called a person. Pastor asked me to call a person.

And this person just said, Elder, could you do me

a favour? I said, what favour do you want? Very

dangerous when random people ask you to do a favour.

I said, what favour do you want? Could you call

my church elder? Could you call my church elder and

let my church elder know that he has done wrong?

Then he introduced, and I can tell you the full story, right?

He introduced to me the investment program and it did

not work out.

I lost money in it.

Right? And I want my money back. I want to

tell her that when you wanted to invest, you didn't

consult anybody. When you lost money, that's where you begin

to talk to every other church elder. Can you call

my church elder? And then, could you see what I'm

trying to say here? If your heart is not in

the right place, it's very hard to grow. If your

heart is not healthy, same like of your physical heart

as well. If your physical heart is not healthy, Can

I just say this, that it doesn't mean that you

go marathon, your heart is healthy. Doesn't mean that you

exercise all the time, your heart is healthy. I met

a particular person, this is what I let you know, right,

that she works in the cardio-related industry. All her friends

who are cardiologists came up to her and just say,

you know, why people who are ultra-marathon runners, when they

stop running, they die early, is because their heart is

all enlarged. Extra tissues, extra muscles and stuff like that. See,

you're not supposed to stress. your heart to this place.

On the outside, you look healthy. And I look at her,

I say, praise the Lord. That's why I believe in

fried chicken.

Amen.

Thank you, Jesus. That's why I believe in eating healthy.

A balance of celery.

And fried chicken and fried pork skin. It's okay, friends.

Like I go to the next scripture, alright? Keep your

heart with all diligence. Come on, the Bible here says,

Proverbs chapter 4. Keep your heart with all diligence. For

Proverbs 4 · chapter mention

all of it springs the issue of life. We are

talking about being healthy here. We look at this scripture,

if you know this scripture, right? The challenge here is

in keeping. It's in guarding. It's in watching out. I

was preaching one day. I can't tell you. I was

preaching one time in one church plant. I was preaching

about this scripture. Husband and wife. The wife said, Elder,

preach it. My husband needs to hear it. The husband's like,

maybe like, you know, from the end of the hall. Right?

Preach it. After that, I was just talking about health,

the heart and the stuff like that. And the husband

came up to me, you know, Elder, look at my size.

He's like Daniel Kong size, right? Right?

And the wife is definitely a plus size, right?

Right? I keep telling my wife this, you know.

Look at your input. That's why your output is like that.

Direct, you know, direct. Okay? Really though, look at her.

Look at her size and stuff like that. She's like

that because she keeps eating so much. I keep telling her,

eat less. No, she cannot, right? That was about seven

months ago. Two months ago, I remember the same church

band talking about something similar. The wife came up to me, Elder,

I got good news to tell you. I said, what

good news? My husband's medical report just came out. He's

not in very good condition. But you see, his heart,

high cholesterol, high cholesterol, high cholesterol. Then after she said

this to me, all these months, I take it all in,

all these months, I just endure, endure what my husband

said about me eating, eating, eating up. That's why I'm

like this size. Look at him. Size kecik also high cholesterol.

Like that, you know, I'm like, okay. It really, really sad.

After that, she has to add this line. She blames

it on my cooking. Then she replied back to him. Dear,

we've only been married for less than 12 to 13 years.

Your high cholesterol is because of your mother's cooking. As

she was just sharing that, I was just laughing my

head off and the husband and wife were just laughing

at each other. But the question here is this, friends.

High cholesterol just doesn't develop overnight. It doesn't just develop

just because out of nothing. It's because we haven't been

diligent enough in keeping to our proper diets. Right?

Bad habits just don't get formed overnight.

One day you woke up, or I'm not good in

the mornings, and forever you cannot wake up in the mornings, right?

Forever you always snooze like 20 times before you wake up.

I really don't understand the snooze button, seriously. I really

don't understand snooze button. This morning, I slept only at

3 a.m. in the morning. And I woke up at 7.30

without alarm clock.

And I look at myself and say, God, why?

Maybe at 10, I heard the Lord say, that's why

I let you speak at 1.30 because I know that

you couldn't sleep, right? Otherwise, I could go to.

X-Clang, okay, at 10.30.

I said that to this, I know of someone who

really that constantly fall asleep. Constantly fall asleep on Sundays

and even work. I asked a question that, brother, all

of us here have the same number of hours.

Same.

24, I got 24.

Right? So, how have you been using your hours? We

talk about this scripture, keep your heart with all diligence, friends.

Sometimes there is no consistency. Sometimes the word is, I

was eating healthy. And this is very common. Every time

I talk to someone, someone show me, yeah, they went

through a medical report, They showed it to me, elder.

I don't understand why. I've been eating healthy. I said, brother,

one month of eating healthy will not do a big difference. Please.

That's number one. My second thing is, what is your

definition of eating healthy? My eating healthy is celery in

the morning. Blend celery with plain water. That's the best

way to consume your fibre. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

We should serve that for espresso, right? I can guarantee you, 1.30

will be so fit. You'll be so alive during Sunday afternoon.

You just can't help but to smile. Praise the Lord, right?

You can fit back into those campus college day clothes.

I was looking at some of the old photographs. Pastor

Irwin used to be very thin. Now, I do not

know what happened, right? And stuff like that, you know.

Ellie Chua, you lose to be... I know Ellie since

she was a college student. And I was looking at

her like, what happened? I said, can't that happen? When

I leave, happen? Can I just say this? The Bible

here says, keep your heart with all diligence. It's work.

Growth is work. Come on. Growth is work. Oh, I

want to grow. Requires work. I want to grow. Requires work.

But many times, you don't like to work. We do

not like to work. I was asking the management, must

you give Tuesday a holiday? It's one of those random holidays.

Do you know how much productivity we lost in a day?

Do you know how much money we would lose in

a day if we just closed shop? Can we just

work this coming Tuesday, please? Let's not take off. We

have off last Tuesday, this Tuesday. Why? That's me.

My wife says, just keep quiet.

Cannot.

For always brings the issue of life. It just shows.

This, friends. If you do not keep your heart healthy,

whatever that goes into your heart will dictate, come on,

how you will live, will dictate how you respond, will

dictate your actions.

Growth is a result of daily practices.

It is. Daily practices. So they continue daily in one accord.

Come on.

My wife is, she is very committed to get her liver,

fatty liver down.

Very, very committed.

Very committed. Very committed. So committed until I looked at

her and said, I'm tired already. Right? When she was

on a particular diet program, no means no to her.

All this time when she thought she was eating healthy,

and my wife does eat healthy, all this time eating

healthy and stuff like that, only to find out she

over-eat on the healthiness, become unhealthy. You can over-eat on

the healthiness, become unhealthy. Right? She used, I mean, I

make breakfast for her, then I normally give her one

full avocado. She said, no, my full avocado is just

a bit too healthy. So, take half and stuff like that. So,

in the whole program, every day, she's supposed to do

a 30-minute exercise. 30 minutes every day exercise. I look

at her, I just say, hey, must you do 30

minutes every day? I'm like the devil like that. Did

God say it? Then you eat off this tree, you

surely die. Right? So I asked her, must you do

this exercise daily or 30 minutes? She said, yes. I said, really?

It doesn't make much of a difference. Your body needs rest.

She said, alternate can. Alternate. I'm like the serpent like that,

you know. I said, alternate can. No, she said, cannot.

Alright?

So, sometimes after prayer service, get back home by 10.30am,

she would change and start lifting weights at home. Lifting

weights at home. I'm lifting my whole this body to

the bed. While she is like working out every day

for the past two to two months plus to three months.

She saw a significant change in the result but then

she said that I want to even beat the.

Result right now. I don't know about us, friends. Sometimes

there is no daily practices.

In our life. We have a wish program. I wish

this would change. So we have daily wishes. Come on.

We have daily wishes, hoping things would change. We have

daily wishes. Oh, if only this would change. If only

that would change. Daily wishes. But God is asking us

daily practices. So what you do daily will reveal where

you are. It does. What you do daily will reveal

where you are. It doesn't mean that the church is big,

it's healthy. It doesn't mean Sunday's attendance is a reflection

of the service spirituality. It doesn't.

It really doesn't. It doesn't mean you attend all the programs,

you are spiritually healthy.

It doesn't. Because if there is no daily spiritual disciplines,

no daily spiritual disciplines, it's very hard for us to grow.

Very hard. Sometimes you just wish only, we just pray,

open the words, come up to the front, someone pray

for you, something happens, bam, then you'll be spiritual. It

doesn't happen that way. Because the Bible still needs to

be opened. to read. But many times you just, oh,

I just wish that, I just wish things would be different.

I just wish it would be different. Can I just

say this? That laundry basket right now in your house

will get piled up if you don't wash it. Even

after you wash it, the sofa that turned into a

walking wardrobe, Right? Will be a walking wardrobe until you

have a daily practice to fold your clothes, put it

back into the cupboard. I tell you how it will change.

It will change when we change the value. Why must

we fold our clothes? After we're going to wear again.

It's a double work. Huh? I know how, because I

tried all this on my own. Hey, why do you

need to fold clothes? Just take it out from the walk.

Just take it out from the sofa. Since I'm going

to wear it, we just buy X number of clothes, right?

You have to just go back to the same.

Pile, right?

This is me, I'm cycling my wife. Just go back

to the same pile, right? And that's it. Cannot. A

sofa is meant for people to sit. So the question is,

what is your daily practices? Do you know that Jesus

had the habit of withdrawing from the busyness of life

to pray and fast?

Come on.

Jesus has a habit of withdrawing from the business of life.

He does.

He does have this habit. He withdrew, friends, when he

fed the 5,000. You know, there's something about feeding a crowd.

Miracles happen and you are the star, right? The word

is wanting your autograph, take photo with you, right? And

there's one part of you that says that if you

stay here any longer, if you stay here any longer

craving for people's attention for you, you might shiver inside

and die. There's a dryness after a while.

I shared this one day with one young worker.

I said, look, if you're constantly in the same clique,

having conversation until midnight or somewhere early in the morning,

It doesn't do anybody anything at all because your conversation

after a while will just go in a roundabout fashion.

Yes, once in a while you can catch up.

But if you catch up 1am yesterday and today you're

going to catch up another 1am and tomorrow another 2am session,

I can guarantee you'll run.

Out of topics to talk about.

You would.

Instead of talking about.

Things that really matter, you should talk about other people

that doesn't concern you. Been there before? No. Conversation just

go one circle, same thing again and again. So Jesus, friends,

in the midst of that miracle, withdrew himself, said, thank

you very much, I can go right now. I have

to go right now because I need time out. I

need time out to pray. I need time out to

seek the Lord. It's funny, sometimes I find that believers,

sometimes the word is that the only time they withdraw

away from the business is to group with another bunch

of Christian people to pray and seek the Lord. Can

I just say this, Lord? Your daily practices, it has

to be individual. Your individual quiet time, reading the Bible

to pray, to seek God. Your individual time with the

Lord is so key and important. So while at Serpong,

and got to know a bunch of really precious, fun,

I thought 130 was loud until I met this bunch

of refugee. No, no, but Joe, this is next level.

This is next level. This is next level in terms

of loudness. Seriously.

Right?

He, so there was a, A bunch of, there's a

few families from Iran. Few families from Iran. Some of

them left the country. There's a boy I got to know.

He's 18 years old right now. 18 years old. Left

the country at 8 years old. Parents shipped him off

to grandma. Parents accepted Christ. They knew already, once they

accepted Christ, the government will come after them. Will ask

you to come in for a conversation or coffee.

Once you go in, you may not come out.

Right?

So at eight years old, got shipped off to grandma.

And grandma somehow rather make connection, ship him off to Indonesia. Right?

So you must imagine for a person with the world

view at eight, all the way to 18, 10 years, right?

That's his world view with the UNHCR card and just

couldn't do anything. He's like waiting just to be relocated

to somewhere. Right? So I met a bunch of them,

really fun, really, and do games time, games time. I

was just telling my wife, like, this is so noisy.

There was a guy called Hamid, if I'm not wrong,

I think his name is Hamid, isn't it? There's a

guy called Hamid. He used to be a property sales

agent in Iran. So when he smiles, he really smiles,

he can really, the word is advertised for any toothpaste. Toothpaste.

Pearly white teeth. Pearly white teeth.

A big smile and he will just talk as you

are talking. So we had this straw game. You know

the straw game is supposed to build a bridge, right?

It's supposed to show teamwork, right? While we were, the

Malaysian and Indonesian were trying to do our thing, right?

They took a bunch of straws and tried to do their.

Thing. We were trying to tell them, look, build together.

He didn't understand the whole instruction at all. Was in

the world of his own. As I look at them,

they have never lost that sense of joy. Because after

the night session, they went, if we were staying in

the hotel, they went over to the live band people. Hey,

time for you to take a break. We woke up

the live band people and said, time for you to

take a break. Can we take over the instruments right now?

They took over the instruments, they took over the PA system.

They started doing their own thing. They don't care what

other people are thinking. I'm only sharing this with you

because sometimes the business of life would change your practices.

Sometimes the business of life would change you. And these

are a bunch of people, their situation is not fantastic.

Met some of the moms over there. I say, remember

when you go back home, please pray for Iran. Please

pray for us. whenever we get back to Iran, you

come and visit us. If not, the next time you

come to Serpung, please visit us. We want to cook

for you. We want to cook for you. All those

stuff you've been telling me you have in Malaysia, there's nothing.

Let me cook you a proper Iranian meal. I'm not

sure what your daily practices are because whatever your daily

practices is, right, we'll review.

Can I just share with you about Pastor Khajin?

He is a group CFO for a big, Well, Indonesia

is being run by six families. The economy, six families.

He works for one of the families, right? He's a

group CFO. In the midst of his business, everything, my friend.

In business and everything. He tells me that he's also

reaching out to a group of Afghans. Afghanistans.

Through partnering with someone from Iran.

Because this guy, another guy called Hamid, the majority of

them called Hamid, this guy called Hamid, he was walking

one day in Jakarta, heard someone speaking Persian. Walk up

to them and ask them, where are you from? And

decided that, how am I going to reach them? He

shares with Pastor Khajin that this group of people, they

love football. Could we do something for them? So Pastor

Kaijin right now has an Afghan woman football team that

he is putting together. The word is, the word is

renting football fields for them to play in. So for

the Afghan ladies, Pastor Kaijin was sharing with me that

once the ladies play, no male are supposed to be

with them. Right? We are just supposed to wait outside,

enjoy the football and stuff. Now I said, so what

do you do after that? So we have to send

them back. And when we send them back, either by

Grab or GoJet over there, or we will drive. But

when we drive, drop them off to the location, he said,

we cannot get out from the car. The moment their family,

their brothers or their dads sees us, they're going to

get in trouble. I'm sharing this to you also to

pray for them. I'm sharing this to you also because

when you have your habits, Your daily habit of the

word is praying, seeking, asking God. And God put you

in a place whereby you can make an influence. Your

life changed. See, we want growth. And growth doesn't happen

in the way we want it to be. And I was,

and he said, he called me, he said, I'll stay

in the car. Windows all wind up. In Indonesia, their

windows are all fully tinted, all black. You can't stare in.

The ladies just disembark from the car and stuff like that.

I said, how do you... The word is, reach out

the gospel to them. We would, as Ex-Apong, we would

actually engage them to cook for us. We will give

them money, cook for us, for our events, for our homes.

Then after, when there's opportunity, sometimes they do, we share

the Bible with them. So at Exapong, friends, they don't

use Keynote, they use PowerPoint, they use Copilot. And I'm

preaching on Sunday, you see Arabic words coming up on

the screen. Because the word is that they want to

reach out to some of these people.

I'm not sure about some of us here, friends. What's

your habit, friends? What's your habit?

Because in the midst of the busyness, friends, Pastor Khajan

is really busy and sometimes he doesn't have time. But

the wife would just tell, Pastor Sadie would come and

tell me, my husband is so busy. For one, bought

him to what he likes, he reached out to so

many other people. I'm not sure whether or not that

we would actually withdraw from our busyness to ask God

for strength. Withdraw from our, the word is challenge, whatever

challenges it would be, to ask God for grace and mercy.

Some of us here will go through different challenges, friends.

It doesn't all get packaged in the same way. So

when we begin to align ourselves with other values, we

will see growth. The first 11 values, when we begin

to align our lives with it, we will see growth.

The Holy Spirit is given to us, friends. If we

know how to work with the Holy Spirit, we will

see growth. When we put Christ in the centre, we

will see growth. Growth is not just isolated. I just

want growth. I do not want other part of my

life to be touched. I want my heart. I also

want to enjoy a bit of this. So don't touch

this area, Lord. I also want to make my own decision.

Don't touch this area. I just like growth itself. I

just want growth. I don't want you to touch all

the other parts of my life. I just want growth.

Especially my bank account, Lord. Make the decimal jump to

the right. Thank you, Jesus. Right? But this area of

my heart, Lord, please don't touch it because I still

want my lifestyle. I still want this part whereby I

really enjoy it. Lord, don't touch this part, Lord. Because

I know what you're going to do. You're going to

send me out to start another church panel. Right? I

just want growth, Lord. Because with growth comes fame. Nobody

has attended any seminar, how to not grow. Right? Every seminar,

how to grow this, how to grow that, how to grow,

everything is about growth, right? And these are here.

How anti-growth. That's why nobody attends, right? But growth, right?

And when we project marketing, it's always a picture of

full attendance. I mean, we all like that image. So

this morning, Pastor was at a church called Likas Baptist

Church in Kota Kinabalu. We know the pastor there about

15 years ago.

Pastor Daud Tham.

Right?

His son is Kenneth Tham.

And when we were there 15 years ago, great man,

really the word is very generous and stuff like that.

I'm not sure whether you saw Pastor's social media feed

or not, but the church is not very big. In fact,

I think it could be smaller than this church. That's

a Sunday morning church. I'm not sure when you go

into an environment like this, you go like, I'm so excited,

I want to preach. Or you go like, I can't

wait for this service to be over because 1.30 service

is more happening. So because when you align yourself with

certain values, friends, when you align yourself with certain values, right,

it will either cause you to grow or cause you

to shrink back. The question again is that what values

are you aligning to? Everything and anything that is healthy

will grow. A healthy marriage is not depending on having

the most expensive car or house.

A healthy marriage is not.

Dependent of having the most expensive car or house. One

month ago, me and Elder Terrence met with somebody. Sitting down.

I haven't met him for three years already.

Sat him down. I sat down with him over a conversation.

And well-to-do man, well-to-do man. And we were just talking.

I said, how are you?

He said, I'm not doing very well. I just recovered

from stroke. I said, oh, wow, stroke.

That's tough.

Those of you who are family members who have stroke,

you understand.

It's tough.

I said, so I guess you scaled down on your travelling.

He's a businessman.

Yeah, I scaled down.

Then he added one line which caught me and Elder

Terence off guard. Really like, cannot relate at all. Yeah,

I only used my plane once last year. I only

used my plane once last year. I look at Elder Terence.

I think we only used taxi Once last year. I

don't know how to relate. I said, I used my

plane once last year. I said, wow, that must be tough, right?

Because you have to pay so much to maintain the

plane and stuff like that. See, maintenance is not the issue. Okay.

Praise the Lord. Like different levels altogether. But he just

had to add this line. His line was just this.

I don't know why I worked so hard for. I wanted,

I was really, I was so tempted to be so

cheeky that day. Then share lah.

Let's share lah.

Right? As he was just sharing about his journey and

just stuff like that, friends. So I, he was just

telling and saying it not in a way of bragging,

just what was happening to his life. He asked me

a question. Do you want to buy a bank or not?

I look at him. I say, is this Monopoly? Monopoly?

I looked at him and I just said that, really,

you think about it, right? A healthy marriage, alright? Anything

that's healthy, it's not dependent on how.

Much you have.

The most expensive, the best of the best, the best

of the best. Because surely, and you know, as I

was walking him to his car, he has to put

his hand on my shoulder. I said, I'm so sorry

I have to put my hand on your shoulder because

I cannot walk properly.

I might lose my balance.

I said, no problem. I said, as you put also,

put some money into my wallet also. Just kidding.

Just joking.

No, I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I said,

no problem. I'll just walk to his car and just

stuff like that. But isn't it true, friends? It doesn't

mean the most expensive will guarantee you hell. It doesn't

mean that you will have this, that the church will grow.

It doesn't mean you have that, that your spirituality will grow.

Growth is a choice. I begin to find that as

you grow older, it's hard to grow. As you begin

to age, it's hard to sit down.

And read a book.

It's hard to take in information that is valuable to

you that is not from Facebook or Instagram. It's hard

to just see, just Paper reaches words without any picture.

It's hard. As you grow older, you realise, where are

the pictures? But I realise more and more, friends, that

if we are not careful, friends, that we want growth

in a certain fashion and a certain manner.

That's why growth is not dependent on the surrounding.

It is not. It's not dependent, meaning to say that

it's not dependent on those things by only having those

things that you'll grow. I remember one time, one leader

came up to me and said, Elder, could we upgrade

the sound system? I said, why?

Because more people will come to church if you have

a better sound system.

I said, to a certain extent, I know where you're

coming from, how you're phrasing it, but yet I can't

agree because in Iran, they don't have a church. but

they are growing leaps and bounds. They don't have a

sound system. They don't.

Don't have a privilege of meeting like this. In China,

they don't. Yet, it's growing.

God has His ways, friends, to remind us again, it's

not by might, not by power, but by Spirit. If

you only are dependent on the external things only, friends,

it just.

May show that we are not depending on God to grow.

If we just only wanted those things like, oh, Pastor Daniel,

I need this, so that more people will come, then

we are not depending on God to grow. Friends, growth

is not just about, oh, 5,000, 10,000. No, it's not.

Maybe adding one, two. I was challenging one church plant coordinator.

I just said, look, your church plant hasn't been growing.

I said that, would you consider moving out from this

very comfortable location? To a location whereby God may put

you in, maybe uncomfortable, maybe not what you are thinking of,

but there's potential. Hard, but also you don't understand. I

got this bunch of people that like this place. Yeah,

I know, but why is God speaking right now? Because

if your church plant is stagnant, we have to re-look back.

You know, Ezekiel 37, verse 1 to 3 says, The

Ezekiel 37:1–3

hand of the Lord came upon me, brought me out

in the spirit of the Lord, set me in the

midst of the valley full of dry bones. I want

you to imagine right now, a valley full of dry bones,

and the Lord just asked Ezekiel, Son of man, can

these bones live? I want you to imagine right now,

if it's just a valley of dry bones, then what

our response would be? Don't say valley of dry bones.

Right now, at this 1.30 service, I know the aircon

is supposed to be colder than this, but it's not.

Even the air-con went for holiday. Right? Now, can the

service grow if there's no air-con? I know it's tough,

I understand. But I'm not saying that it happens all that,

but sometimes buildings like this does happen. Right?

But can these bones live? Can you grow in.

An environment whereby may not be what you are asking

or maybe the words you wish for? Because many times

in our life, we just say, God, if only if

this could be better, if only that could be better,

if this or that then we could have missed the

point because sometimes God allows us to be placed in

a place whereby it's dry but yet at the same

time God wants to hear our response. If we're not careful,

what happens is that we wish for something to happen

when the things that happen, we don't even want it

in the first place. Oh, if only I have a room,

I can do my quiet time. And God has given

you a room. Quiet time, what time we still don't have?

If only I have this, I can seek the Lord.

If only that... It'd be better. And many times we

wish for things when things come to pass. We don't

really want it because it's all work after that. Who

wants to wake up at 5.30 in the morning to

seek the Lord? Who wants to read the Bible? All words,

no picture. Let's get those children's Bible. But the children's

Bible don't have the full context, you see. I want

us to imagine right now because the Lord is asking,

can these bones leave, friends? Can growth happen where you

are at right now? And Ezekiel just said, God, only

you know. Friends, even the toughest place on earth can

have a testimony. Even the toughest place on earth can

have a testimony. The question is whether we want We

heard tough, Lord, no.

Lord, not me, Lord.

I want to have a testimony but not so tough.

I want to have a testimony but not the kind

of environment. Therefore, growth cannot be pushed, tempted or even

engineered by human ways.

As far as our faith and church is concerned, we

need to go back to God.

As far as our faith and our church, growth of

our faith and our church is concerned, We have to

go back to God. We have to. Because this spiritual thing, friends.

John 15 verse 5 says, I am the wine, you

John 15:5

are the branches. He who abides in me and I

in him bear much fruit. He who abides in me

and I in him bear much fruit. Growth.

Growth.

Happens when there's alignment. Botswana is one of our church

part internationally that's doing really well. Pastor Lazarus will take

whatever he hears and sees, whatever we do in Malaysia,

he just implement it. He doesn't care whether there's a Malaysian,

or Trump will say it's a Malaysian culture, UK culture. No,

this is kingdom culture. I'll take whatever God has given

to XKL, I'll do it. I think right now it's

going to start a second service for Pakalani, if I'm

not wrong. Tough. How now a few of their members

lost their job because the economy is not doing very

well and not getting paid and stuff like that.

So they have been praying, God, would you open the door?

They're raising leaders over there.

I'm not sure.

Sometimes we look at it and go like, when we

have everything, we may not grow. So the Bible here says,

I'm the wine that you are, the branches that we

need to recognise who is who.

Who is who.

It would be nice, friends, that whatever we say to

other people, cause other people to grow. Think about it.

Sometimes it's very nice, I talk to someone, the person

took your advice, started saying, I'm a guru right now. Right?

It's something, it feels good. But the Bible here says

that I am the vine, that you are the branches. Therefore,

you have to take the nutrients from the vine. You're

just a conduit, you're just a highway for God to

move into your life. It says, for without me, you

can do nothing. Friends, whatever I understand this, alright? When

the Bible says nothing, it doesn't mean that you are poor.

It doesn't mean you can have everything but no purpose.

You can have everything but no direction. Everything but no

zeal to live. That time with my dad yesterday, So

my dad was telling me that his medical condition not

doing very well. Sitting down with him, helping to clean

his house. I said, I have to go to my

dad's place. I got to clean up the house a

bit here and there. So as I was cleaning, I

was cleaning, taking out some stuff. Then after that, he

was just sharing with me about like, you know, one

of his friends, right? Who had some medical ailment to

a place whereby he told everyone, please don't call me anymore.

Please don't look for me. you know, I think I

just want to be alone. And my dad said, I said,

have you contacted him? No. I said, dad, when people

say don't call, you can call one, you know. You

don't have to be so obedient. I said, dad, those

no-U-turn signs, you disobey?

Huh?

When you're at 50km, you go at 70km? When you

disobey all the friends, you don't call me, you really

don't call. Cannot.

You can't disobey what I say. Did you call him?

No, I didn't. So what happened to him? Don't know,

he could have died already. I'm sharing this with you

because sometimes in our life, friends, there is no direction.

Can I just say this? No purpose or to look

forward to is, I think I'd rather die. And that's

why my dad bumped to him a few times at HUKM.

He just told my dad, I think I just want

to die because of this condition. Embarrassing.

Got to wear adult pampers.

Embarrassing. I'm not sure, friends, because the Bible says, without me,

you can do nothing. It's not that nothing here doesn't

mean that you don't have anything, no, friends. That means

you could be a high achiever, but empty inside. Friends,

the growth here is not about the physical, external abundance

of things, but growth inside spirituality, friends. Purpose zeal. If

we are not growing, we need to ask ourselves, where

are we unhealthy? Just a few more slides. Where are

we unhealthy? Have you ever asked yourself that why and

And how did I get myself in this place? No,

because of my medical condition and because I've been having

to see a cardio doctor every six months, right? Now,

I look at other people's medical report, I go like, right?

I go look at people's LDL, right? The bad cholesterol LDL.

I go like, 3.2? Let me share with you, Mike. 1.5?

I said, you got a long way more to go.

You got to cut by 1.5 more points.

Sometimes, friends, you go like, you know the words, right?

Kicks in, right?

And because you look at your LDL, I got buffer.

I got buffer to eat the Hokkien noodle right now.

I got buffer to eat some of this fatty food.

We can come to a place whereby How did we

become unhealthy? Because we make choices like that. I got buffer.

Have you ever asked yourself, how did you land up

to this place? I was having a chat one day

with a couple and they were financially in debt. Financially

in debt.

Right?

About 30,000, 40,000 credit card debts. I asked a question there.

How did you get here? Because you know that debt

doesn't just happen. It's not that you wake up one day,

I got debt. I said, how did you get here?

Did you buy a RM40, 000 bag? Did you buy a

MyV with your credit card? Did you, how did you

get here?

Friends, the answer came like this.

I don't know. Serious answer. I don't know. I do

not know how I got here. I do not know

how I accumulated this $ 40, 000 debt. I didn't even know

when it started. Can you see how dangerous it can be?

I didn't know how it started. I didn't know how

I got here. And sometimes when we are unhealthy friends,

we don't even know at which point in life we

took the wrong turn and we got to a place like, huh,

I'm supposed to go quantum, but where am I right now?

Go Musang. I must have taken the wrong turn somewhere.

But the signboard says Kuantan. Have you tried following our

signboards or not? Huh? If you go NKVE right now,

you will see, right? Bukit Kayu hit time, if I'm

not wrong. All the way up north, you go like,

I'm in PGA right now. Right? And you are driving,

then you hit a fault road. You take a left,

go to Ipoh. You take a right to go to

Sri Hatama site there. Right? Both sometimes sit there up

to you at the same place.

So what, friends?

How did we get here to be unhealthy friends? We

have to ask ourselves the question. Right? And therefore, once

you know what causes you to be unhealthy friends, we

need to ask ourselves, what do we need to focus on?

We need to ask ourselves what we need to focus on.

Your spiritual life, friends, sometimes we build it on the

church plan. If the church plan is excited, you are excited.

Pastor one time was just talking to another senior pastor

and the conversation just went like this. You know, in

the coming days, it will not going to get easier.

In the coming days, professing your Christian faith won't be easier.

Things will be a bit tougher. Huffer meaning to say

that government may not allow you to meet in buildings

anymore in the coming days.

The word persecution might come.

And the question here is this, that friends, neither we

want persecution, but in fact, if it does come, when

persecution does come, if it does come, friends, the question

here is this, that would we hold on to our faith?

Or would we say that There's no joy ever here

to cheer me on.

Right? His laughter. There's no Johannes on the band right

now to encourage me during place of worship. All this

guilo I see on the screen, I cannot relate. Right?

I'm not sure if our faith, if our faith is just,

the word is built on some of these building blocks,

then when those building blocks are no longer around, will

we still hold on or we just have a form?

That's why when we're not growing, we need to go

back to basics. Come on. Basics. Please do not shift

the blame.

No, Pastor Daniel did not preach the word correctly, so

that's why I'm like that.

I've heard that before. Shift the blame to the church,

to the leadership because they're not doing it right. Therefore, therefore,

I turn out like that. They're not doing it right,

therefore I'm like this. I'm the product of the environment.

Then I might as well say that you go to Uniqlo,

you are the product of Uniqlo after that. You'll walk

out with all Uniqlo blinks after that. Think about it

for a moment. Why Uniqlo have this sale one? Caused

me to buy.

Shame on them. Caused me to spend money.

I have not heard anyone blaming Uniqlo for their promotional ads.

One day my wife was in Uniqlo and she took

out her clothes and she looked at it She folded

it back. The staff looked at her. Are you working here?

Are you working in Uniqlo? I said, why? Because the

way you fold the clothes is the way we are

trained to fold the clothes. I always told my wife, hey,

today which store you want to check out? Which store

do you want to check out today? Which Uniqlo you

want to go and check out today? I will drive

you there. You go check whether the staff are doing.

And sometimes it happens. I saw it with my own eyes.

Tourists will come and look at the thing and ask

my wife, do you think this one looks good on me?

Then my wife said, no, let me get you another piece. Friends,

if you're not, if you're not going, we need to

go back to basics. Basics.

Basics, come on. Pray.

Seek the Lord. Ask God for wisdom. Pray, open the,

honor the word. Friends, the 12 values is not just

a teaching but a way of life. It's not negotiable. Friends,

being Christ-centered, what's wrong with being Christ-centered? It's not just

for the church. Oh, this is just for the church.

You mean as a believer, your personal faith, you don't

have to be Christ-centered? You don't have to be kingdom-minded?

In case you already know, the majority of the churches,

about 90% of the churches in Malaysia, the senior pastors

are in their 70s and 80s. If we don't, as

a church, being called in Malaysia to provide a formal answer,

then what are we doing?

Oh, this doesn't do with us. You know, this is

just them.

Then we have to kind of mix them up. Being

kingdom-minded is not just for the church, it's for our

own self. If we can only worship in ex-church style, friends,

then we are in trouble. Because one day when you

go back to your home church, back in your hometown,

could be a Presbyterian, could be a Methodist church, where

expression of worship like in 130 will be frowned upon.

Why so loud one of y'all? Can you still worship?

Then you go like, oh, this is for old people.

That's why after a while, old people worshipped. Don Moran

is for the older people. Friends, don't get there. I

don't think so. Don Moran can... Hey, this album right now,

if you are 50 and above, this is for you.

God will make a way, right? Because older people always

get lost. Younger people always find a way. But older

people always need direction. God will make a way when

there seems to be no way, right? I know why

because my dad always goes, hey, I'm in this location.

Where am I right now? Can you tell me how

to get out from here or not? Go back to

your basics. If your worship style is only based on

this service church plan, then we have missed the mark already.

We're not being healthy.

My first final slide. That's the temptation when we are

not growing is to do something new. There's a temptation

when I'm not growing is to do something new. I

was talking to one home leader and this home leader

was saying, my home is not growing.

Okay, so what are your thoughts?

Maybe will Homes Board be open to do a swap?

My homes go to Joy Edward Homes and Joy Edward

Homes member come to my homes and we do a

swap in Klang Valley and this will excite the homies.

I go like, wow. We are only at 88 homes.

Could you imagine if one day we touch a thousand homes?

The swapping will be crazy. I say that do we

need to do this to keep our homies' excitement up?

Do we need to like sell some of this? Hey,

home swap week.

Come. You may find your life partner here. But then

you go, eh, why my same homies won't? Yeah, my

homies went to their homes already. As I close, friends,

there's always a temptation to do something new. Really. When

we were doing youth ministry earlier days, we see the

ads that was coming out from everyone else. Come to

our youth meeting and just stuff like that, free iPods

and stuff like that. We always envy people with a

bigger budget because, you know, and stuff. Then one day,

God has to remind us and show us that, you know, really,

at the end of the day, the youth is not

hungry for another earphones or phone and just stuff like

a pair of shoes. The youth in Malaysia is just

hungry for connection. The youth is hungry for purpose, for direction.

Don't always try to think of you need to do

something new to grow. Because sometimes really it's just as

simple as going down on our knees. Going down on

our knees to pray, to ask God, to seek the Lord.

As I close friends, growth resulting is really good mental basics.

Another thing for growth resulting is capacity. Do you know

that everyone of us here has a capacity to grow?

Capacity to grow. When God made you, formed you, Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1:5

1 verse 5, I call you to be a prophet

to the nations. He already, the words have, there's a

calling on everybody's life.

There is a purpose on everybody's life.

Your capacity is for the nation, not just for your

neighborhood only. As I close, friends, what is your daily habits?

What is your daily practices? Jesus had his early morning,

he went off, to a quiet place to pray. He

fasted on a regular basis. I'm not going to open

an altar call because I truly believe that the word

has went forth and you understand it. The challenge here

is that after you understand it, what are you going

to do about it? An altar call won't resolve the

issue because you go back, friends, you're staring at the

very thing that's causing you to not grow, which is

called the bait.

Your mattress is calling you.

Start tomorrow. Your power of course, is telling you that

four meters tomorrow, but today, take a break. And when

you wake up tomorrow, you actually forget what you're supposed

to do today. As I close, friends, I'm right extreme

up on the front here. As I close, where are

you right now? Really, where are you right now? Where

are you right now? Where are you right now? Where.

Where is your faith? Where is your growth?

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

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God bless!