'ME-SSION' to MISSION | Elder Rosalind Ang

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

All right, turn to another neighbor, if you have another

neighbor and say, I have a mission? What's your mission? Oh? Okay?

So I heard one answer, but have you really thought

about it? What is your mission? Spread God's love some more? Yeah?

To look for others and to journey with them. Right,

that's it. It's getting personal. Thank you? What else? What else?

What is your mission to see God's glory? Okay? What

else is your mission? I know? Sometimes? Right, we can

always you know, talk about yeah, you know, we believe

in mission. But when we get down to it and

ask you what is your mission? And then it becomes

very real, because very personal, right, Because then it doesn't

just become the ex church mission or the mission trip

that's going out on a mission trip, right, it becomes

You're personal And like I said, God wants to ask

you what is your mission today? Okay? And so if

you're taking notes, the title for my message today is

called from mission to Mission from mission okiller? So I

have to me inverted a mention right from mission to mission?

And I want us to break out this idea that

mission is just for missionaries, those who are caught full time. Right.

That means if you are working out there in the secular,

you're not a missionary. You're It's not that I want

you to take hold that. If you are a person

created by our loving God, you have a mission. And

the reason why you're alive today is because your mission

is not completed yet. Correct. Now tell your neighbor, my

mission is not complete yet. So that means we have

a job to do, guys, right, It's not done until

we meet with Jesus, all right. So it's so apt

that you know, today, as we think about Medica, think

about Malaysia, what is our role in Malaysia today? Right,

tomorrow is a holiday, But what are we going to

do from the next Tuesday to Thursday? You know, every

day from Mondays to Fridays to Saturdays. What is our mission? Right?

And so, and I recognize that the greatest mission that

God has is me. It's you, it's your neighbor, it's

your colleague, it's your mom, it's your dad. God is

very interested in the me part before he sends us

on that mission. Is that? Okay? So I want to

bring and draw us to one of the greatest missionary.

Who's the greatest missionary that you know from the Bible? Okay,

Jesus is one. The other one Paul Okay, Okay, so yeah,

Jesus is gonna be in the picture. But I wanted

us to draw to someone that you all know, Paul. Right,

tell me what you know about Paul. He's a ten maker?

What does that mean? What does being a tent maker mean? Okay?

So in the old ancient days, right, what that means

He's literally making a tent because you know that they

were some of them were nomadic, so they lived in tents.

So he made tends to sell. That's that's what it is.

A tent maker. Right in today's context is you're in

the marketplace, meaning you go out into the corporate world,

you work something and then you earn. All right, he's

a tent maker, but he was also what else? What

else do you know about Paul? He's a Jew? Okay,

there is an identity. We are Malaysians, proudly so. And

I think I think Jesus would really love being in

Malaysia because he loves to eat. Right, And the one

thing that you all agree on is Malaysia has awesome food, right.

I think Malaysia won one like best dish in Osaka

food something competition, right, worldwide thing. I don't know. I

kind of glimpse at that. So Malaysian food has you know,

international fame. Okay. Besides being a Jew, what else do

you know about Paul? He was a Roman citizen persecuted. Okay,

how many of you want to be persecuted? No? Not voluntarily? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah.

Can I tell you that the being a Christian sometimes

you cannot run away from being synonymous with being persecuted,

true or not? And if you have bought into a

lie that you know, when you become a Christian, everything

is gonna be easy for you. Everything, all your prayers

will be answered. You know, your life will be easy.

You have you know, no need at all. I want

to tell you that's not true. Sorry, yeah, sorry, that's

not the Christian life that we want to share with you.

But we want to share with you within that there

is greater reward enjoy being with the Lord. Amen. Okay,

So let's go to the Book of Acts because we

are called acts. Yeah, that's the reason why. Because we

to really go on the mission of where X left off.

You know X left off at X twenty eight, right,

And sometimes people tell us, oh, you guys are called X. Right,

you better write X chapter twenty nine. What is X

chapter twenty nine. It's today, it's you and me. It's

what we do right today until we meet with Jesus. Okay,

So the focus of my text today will be from

X chapter nine. So are you there with your bible? Right? Please?

We want to encourage all of us to bring the

sort of the Word of God, the sort of spirit

all all time with us. Okay, And yeah, it's just good.

It's just good to read from a physical Bible. Okay,

nothing like it. If you're doing your quiet time on

the phone. Can I encourage you in the next how

many more days we have in our prayers? Father? Fifteen

more days? Yeah? But fifteen about that to try and

just focus on. You know, you can't put your do

not this that button on your phone, but this is

where you say God, I want to meet with you

in the word. Amen.

All right?

Okay, So let's read from X chapter nine, verse one.

All right, So this is Saul. This was before he

became Paul. Are you familiar with this sort of last

so he had an encounter, all right, and encounter with

the Lord that completely changed his life. You know, we

always know Paul as a great man, right, but we

want to know how he started. Okay, so this is

his starting point. Okay, let's read from verse one. Dan Saul,

this is from the NKJV version, still bringing threats and

murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the

high priests and asked letters from him to the synagogues

of Damascus, so that if he found any who were

off the way. Do you know what is the way?

Being a Christian? Okay, it's called the Way, and Jesus

is called the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That's

why they name this. At the time they thought it

was a coul right, they named the fellow believers the Way,

whether man or woman, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Verse three. As he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and

suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he

fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul,

why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you? Lord?

And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

It is hard for you to kick against the goads.

So he, trembling and astonished, said Lord, what do you

want me to do? Then the Lord said to him,

arise and go into the city, and you will be

told what you must do. And the man who journeyed

with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one.

Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes

were opened, he saw no one. But they led him

by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he

was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Are you still following me? Let's go on a verse

night verse ten. Now there was a certain disciple at

Damascus named Ananias, and to him the Lord said, in

a vision, Annaius. And he said, here I am Lord.

And the Lord said to him, arise and go to

the street caught straight, and inquire the house of Judas

for one called soul of Tassus. For behold, he is praying,

and in a vision he has seen a man named

Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him so

that he might receive his side. And then Ananias answered, Lord,

I've heard from many about this man, how much harm

he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And here

he has authority from the chief priest to buying all

who call on your name. But the Lord said to him, go,

for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear

my name before gentles, wow kings, and the children of Israel.

For I will show him how many things he must

suffer for my namesake ouch Verse seventeen. Then and Naias

went his way and entered the house, and laying his

hands on him, he said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus,

who appeared to you on the road as you came,

has sent me that you may receive your side and

be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately there fell

from his eyes something like scales. And when he received

his side at once and he and then he arose

and was baptized verse nineteen. So when he had received food,

he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the

disciples at the maskers. Amen. In the Lord add to

the reading of his word, Amen, big chunk of the

portion of the letter. Right. And so that's where we

are right now. Okay. Chapter nine. Okay, Now, there are

about four points that I want to bring to you today.

All right. The first one is what are the questions are? Okay,

thank you, yeah, I prefer any closer to you, guys,

Thank you, thank you see so observant and thank you,

thank you for that. Okay, So there are a few things. Firstly,

what are the questions in your journey as a believer?

Have you asked some tough questions or not? You have, right,

and I want you to continue to ask these kind

of questions because you know what, as the Lord meets

with you, he's also going to ask you some questions.

What is the first question that Jesus asks Saul? Saul, Saul?

He called him by his name twice, Saul, Saul, why

are you persecuting me?

Now?

This is very important for us to understand because do

you know what happened before this, right? This was you know,

the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John right, and

then of course Jesus was crucified, and then he rose

again on the third day, and he was gone from

the disciples. Now that's a situation now, right, And so

what Saul was doing going around that time, he was

there putting the believers into jail, all right, even consenting

to Steven's death. Being stolen to death. Okay, have you

been such a person? No, right, I don't think we

know anyone like that who has persecuted any of us

in that way. All right, So so but do you

think Okay, let me ask you this question. Is it

possible for us to persecute Jesus? Saul? Saul, why are

you persecuting me? Now? Let me ask you, is it

possible for us to persecute Jesus today? Yes, sounds like it, right.

I mean, Jesus is not physically there, he's no longer

being persecuted. That he has gone to the cross, he's risen,

he's no longer on earth. But can you see the

Lord's question or not? The Lord's question is very personal,

you know, He's like, why are you He didn't say, Saul,

So why are you persecuting the Christians? He didn't say, soul?

So why are you persecuting my disciples? He says, Soul?

So why are you persecuting me? WHOA? Jesus? You are

very personal, you know, And so when I when I

reflected on this question, such a thing Jesus? You mean

I can persecute you today? And you know the thing

is right? Sometimes we give Saul that time about rap.

We're saying, a Saul, you a really bad guy. La.

You know, how can you put Christians to that? None

of you have put any Christian to that, right, No

one is gonna be as bad as Saul. True, not

so this guy is pretty bad stuff, Lah, this soul guy.

But do you know, right to his credit, do you

know that Saul was one of the most God fearing

person in his time and age. He was a romanced,

a Jew Jew of the Jews. He was a Pharisee

of the Pharisees, meaning he was really trying to live

in a godly way. This is not a bad guy,

you know, he was. He studied under one of the

you know, teachers, Gamaliel, I think, one of the top

teachers in the ways of the Lord, and even in

his zeal for God. That's why he went persecuting others.

So we can say that actually he was a man

who really really believed in God and wanted to do

things God's way. It's just that he was a bit

off the Angela right, and he didn't know that Jesus

was the one true and living God. He was a

Jewish Messiah that they were all waiting for and so

he went on this hunt to get rid of all this.

It looked like a cult a time. You have to

understand that the Christians looked and felt like a cult

following this one man called Jesus. Right, have you ever

been persecuted for, you know, being so radical for Jesus?

I'm sure God right in one way or another, like

oh why every day? Or so Jesus, why every day

you're in church? When growing up, when I was in CF,

you know, my mom would always say, you know, why

are you in church again? Why are you doing things?

Why are you doing that? Being persecuted in a small

whaler right for being radical about Jesus. And may want

to be that. When you follow Jesus, you've got to

be radical. Otherwise we are not following Jesus. Right, So

how are we persecuting Jesus? Now? You would know in

the next light at the global still, at a global scale,

there are much persecution that we know nothing about. Ass Malaysians. Okay,

let's go to the map. Do you know that every

year more than four four hundred people are killed for

being Christians? Four four hundred? You might think small number one? Hello,

even if one died. They died as a martyr. Three

hundred and eighteen million Christians suffer different levels of persecution. Now,

what do you think is the number one country being

persecuted in the whole world being for being a believer

in Jesus? North Korea or your eyes very shaow, who's there?

It's number one? It is North Korea, North Korea. The

ones in ret means they are at high levels of persecution.

The ones in orange means lesser. And do you know

where Malaysia is? Malaysia or no color? Meaning in the

level of persecution there is none. Malaysia is not considered

being a persecuted country for being Christians. Right, So if

you think that you're so hard to be a Christian,

here news guys, you have not been pointed with a

gun to your heat to say you either confess and

deny Jesus or I will shoot you. Anyone experience that none? Right? So,

Actually we don't even know what persecution really feels like.

And sometimes I feel maybe that is the danger, the

danger in our modern church. You know where we meet

in a very beautiful is this five star hotel, five

star hotel, guys, swanky la sit on nice ray chairs

at console call. You know, we don't. We're so far

removed on what real persecution is. And I feel that

the danger of us is we can become so comfortable,

and honestly, we are true, We're very, very comfortable. And

so the greatest battle that we as Christians have is

to fight against comfort and to scheck and to ask

God to like God. I think you got to disturb

my lifestyle a little bit, you know, I think you know,

there are some things that needs to be shaken up

and for us to understand what it means to really

learn how to follow God, to be obedient, to sacrifice,

to serve others lovely. You're serving others is one way

that we start to follow Jesus, right, And I know

Joe always goes out on the on the weekends, she

sacrificeses or she I would say that she invests her

Saturday mornings into the next generation, right, always serving the community.

So I mean there are things like that, all right.

So now this is on a global scale, right, But

how do we persecute Jesus in our own personal walk?

Now this is I want to read to you and

exerpt from this devotional, from this guy called Oswald Chambers.

You don't know who Oswald Chambers is. He's dat ready,

by the way, but he wrote some great devotionals in

I don't know, eighties or something like that. Lah, so

quite all already now. This is from an excerpt from

one of his devotions, and we're gonna read this. He

says this. You know, stubbornness and self will will always

step Jesus. He may hurt no one else, but he

wounds his spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self will

and set on our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus.

Every Time we stand on our own rights and insist

that this is what we intend to do, we are

persecuting him. Whenever we rely on self respect, we systematically

disturb and grieve his spirit. And when we finally understand

that it is Jesus we have been persecuting all this time,

it is the most crushing revelation ever. The spirit of

Jesus is conscious of only one thing, a perfect oneness

with the Father. Amen, this is really out. You know

when you read this and you go, like, what you

mean all this time that I have been stubborn, I

have been disobedient, I have been slow to obey. You

mean I am actually persecuting Jesus. Sounds like it. You

know why is because we hurt him and when we

heard the Holy Spirit from all this obedience, we hurt

Jesus and we will hurt the Father. And you know what,

God's heart cries out when he looks at the wall

more than your heart will cry out for the brokenness

and the sin in this world. God's heart is grieving, grieving,

stabbing wounds into his heart. When fellow brethrens are fighting

each other, when the world leaders are bombing each other,

it's people who suffer. You know, it's people who suffer.

It's people innocent lives taken away, image bearers of God.

And that's why whenever a person is hurt, God hurts.

Do you see that God hurts when the world hurts

because we are made in His image. We are called

image bearers. So I pray that we will begin to

catch God's heart. Do you know when you see around

you and you see people, you don't just see them

as oh, this is just a cleaner, this is just

a hotel stuff, This is just you know, a grab driver.

I pray that God will now begin to open our

I used to see, this is God's son, this is

God's daughter who is lost, and they need to be

reconciled to Jesus, their creator and man. That is our mission.

Our mission is to be able, like what Resa said,

to be able to see others. Do you see others

around you or our church? Sometimes we're so busy in

our own world that we cannot look out to others.

And that is reality, guys. The reality is we're so

consumed with our own life that we have no time

for others. And that's always our challenge. From day one

that God created us as humans from Adam and Eve

time until today, the problem has never changed. The problem

of sin is that we are always looking inside of us.

We're looking inwards, and to break out of that if

you you want to be really like God. God does

not look at himself. He's always looking at others. Amen.

And the only reason why he said Jesus was not

because he you know, it was not that God loved

Jesus less. It was because he loved you and I

so much that he was willing to sacrifice Jesus. Thinking

about others, always thinking about others. Have we thought about

others recently? Think about it? Have you? You know, in

the last it's gonna be a long weekend, you know,

and then you got extra Friday off some more. Did

you think about someone to reach out to or was

it just full of plans for yourself? I don't know.

I have to ask myself that question, you know, is

like God, okay, So every day that you give me

life and breadth, is this full of myself? What I

want to do, what I want to eat, what I wear,

where I go, you know, updating my social media? It's

very me, right, And that is a consumer world that

we live in. It's all about me, myself and I

and that is not a mission Heart. A mission Hart

is to look out to others. Amen. I know some

of you are thinking, oh man, this is a not

nice message to hear that, right if you came here

to listen, like, oh I want to encouraging message. Ah, sorry,

Today I want to give you some truth, amen. And

the truth is very hard to swallow sometimes. And the

thing is right, Church, we do not have much time

any longer. I'll time is short. If you think that

you know you're twenty years old, wait till I'm fifty

years old. Then I do something for Golah, can I

tell you, I don't know whether you and I will

be around tomorrow. And by the way, do you know

that there was an earthqua instagram mat heard of before

or not? Never in my entire living life have I

heard of an earthquake in Malaysia. And and you know

we always say thank God that Malaysia, you know, is protected,

right all our neighboring countries got earthquake. Law, I don't

know what la you know, Typhoon. We have been spared,

you know, so protected by the other countries. But yet

God is shaking the very things that you think will

never be shaken. You know, in the last days God

is there will be an increase of earthquakes. Yeah, oh,

Malaysia has got a day so Gama somehow, that's where

my mom comes from. Yeah, you know, it's so close

to home. There will be earthquakes, there will be wars

and rumors of all. I'm like, yeah, don't need rumors

or all already war happening hello today, War is happening

right now in the Middle East in you know, the

western country is like oh why And then sometimes we

are we're still so oblivious, you know, church ex church

you're so oblivious. You're like, oh, you know, what's my

next meal? What's my next problem? You know? Yeah? Come on?

Can we see the signs? Church? Do you recognize the

signs that Jesus, as we sang earlier, he's gonna come back.

He's gonna return and he's gonna ask all of us, Sharon,

what have you done with your life? Charon's like, uh,

busy planning my wedding? No, No, that's kidding, Like can

plan reading one? Can flat reading one? That's kidding? No, really, guys,

let's let's make our life count for what in matters

a man that Let's make every day purposeful, useful for

the Lord. Right, and so the thing is right, as

as Jesus was asking, solve this very very personal question,

So so why are you persecuting me? Wow? Sometimes the

word of God just slices through your heart. Right, God,

you mean what I've been persecuting you? And when the

question comes, then our next response is this, who are

you Lord? Have you asked Jesus, who are you Lord?

Have you answered this question yourself? Who are you Lord?

Because until we come to this point where we can

answer the question who are you Lord? To me? Then

you will always be that Jesus. You will always be.

You know, he's a good teacher, he will always be.

He was a nice man. Until you come to a

relationship like Ryan did that. When you feel I'm the

most alone person sitting on this plane, you know, going

from here today, and Jesus is with me, then you

have truly encountered Jesus personally. Do you have that kind

of relationship with Lord Jesus or not? Church? Because right

until you answer these questions who are you Lord? And

you hear from Jesus, you will never change. I will

never change. We will still be the same thirty years

from now. It is this question that is so deep

and so searching. Until we can you know that the

disciples will be Jesus right. And Jesus asked them these questions,

what do the people say? Who do the people say?

I am? And then they said what did the disciples?

Says that what the people were talking about Jesus? He

was Elijah, he was one of the prophets. Right. But

Jesus says, okay, that's what other people say, Who do

you say I am? And it was Peter who answered,

it is you the Messiah, the son of the Living God.

Do you have that revelation or not? Church? Xbu Can

you truly say that Jesus is the one true living

God whom created the whole earth, who gave me my

own life and breath and my purpose And in him

I believe and I fully trust. Do you have that revelation? Church?

Who are you? Lord? And so when Saul asks Jesus

this question, he says, it is me Jesus. It is

me Jesus, Church, I really really My prayer for you

this morning is that you will know Jesus. It is

at that point of revelation that you know it is Jesus,

that your life will transform and change and it will

never be the same again. Do you know why? Because

it was from this question that Saul's life took on

a different trajectory until what we know of him today

as the Apostle Paul. It was this moment, and all

of us need this moment with the Lord. We all

need this one and conten say, you know, God, who

are you really? Who are you really? And Jesus, when

you're asking that question sincerely you're seeking with all your heart,

he will answer you. He will say I am Jesus.

And it's very interesting that Jesus. What Jesus said after that,

he says, it is hard for you to kick against

the goats. Yeah, it is hard for you to kick

against he Do you know what this means? Anyone? Have

you ever read this? It's like, huh, what was the meaning?

What's the context? Don't understand this at all? Any of

you are farm farming? Farming? Do you know farming? Have

you done farming before? None of you farmer or engineer,

godla aeronautic girl and all that. Sorry, I ran I

have to use you as context today easier for me

to relate to them. You know. It's it's like if

you don't know farming. What they do, right is they

will use a shop object, a stick at the end

of there is something sharp. And what they want to

do is they want to drive oxen. Okay, do you

know what oxen is? Ox ox ox tail soup, you know,

oxtail soap, you know ox you don't know? So the

oxtail soup came from the ox okay and the ox. Right, Basically,

it's an animal use in the olden days and today

as well to what do they do? They plow the land? Yes, right,

So because the land is so hot, right, and can

if you want to plant seeds, right, would you use

you know, we just throw your seats into a land

or soil that is haddened. Do you do that? No?

Logic tells you you need to soften the soil, right,

same thing. So what they do is they will use

the oxen to plow the land, walk through it, right,

carrying something very heavy to break up the soil. Okay,

some of our has are very hot, and God needs

a little breaking, you know, of the soul of our

hearts so that it's fruitful. So what happens is they

will put this two ox You can see the next picture.

Can you see this two oxen and they are yoked together,

yoke by something wooden or metal. When we think about

yok right, what is the other verses that comes to

your mind from the Bible? York? Do not be unequally Okay,

that's the one that we always say, right, and what

does that mean? Don't be together with someone? We always

use it in a context of relationship, right, because if,

especially marriage, you're gonna be yoke together to someone, do

not be an equally yoke to someone of a different faith?

You know why because you're always trying to go different way.

Can you imagine if you're yoke together and one one

to go like one want to go right, then where

will you go? Circles? That's what you will go right?

Never in unity? Today we pray for unity. Right, So

same thing with this now can you see this object here,

this shop thing, and this would and then there's a

shop thing at the end. Now that is called a

good God, right, not good, not the campaign, but a God.

And what it does is when the farmer wants to

drive the oxen to go left or to go right,

it will pro you ouch a little bit right. Some

of you who are animal lovers will you will say

it is very in humana, very inhuman. I don't like this.

But do you know that the farmer uses that. And

then so if let's say they are going to the right,

and then the farmer wants them to go to the

left or to straighten the path right, then he will

prick them. Okay ouch, and then we will go straight.

And do you know that the word of God is

a god to us? You don't believe it? Read Ecclesiastics

the last chapter It says that the word of God

is like a god to us out right. That's why

when you listen to the word of God, it's gonna

be ouch on, you know, But it's an ouch to

you simply because God is trying to get you onto

the right path. When we stray to the left or

to the right, and then God's word comes and it

goats us. It breaks us in our deepest hearts and

our spirits, like, oh, that's really hard to hear, because

God wants to bring us to the right path. And

do you know out of everything that I take away

from this encounter that God has with Saul is that

he wanted Saul so much that he even bothered you

know he God could have just like, oh yeah, just

kill him, lah right, easy for God to just get

rate of Saul who was persecuting his believers, persecuting him.

But he and you know, he did this whole encounter

with him so that he could redeem Saul. Do you

see God's hard for people? Can can you see that

even beyond everything else, God is so personal and intimate

that He's gonna come and meet you today right here

right in Xbu to say that I want to bring

you to the right path. It's gonna be hard for

you to kick against the pricks. You know every time,

do you know, Like it's like there's a nail in

front of you and you purposontly hit it. Ah, it's

gonna be hard, you know why, because it's hard for

you to go against God's will. Let's try not to

purposely hit against the gods. Okay, kid against the pricks,

so that we get hurt at the end of it.

We get hurt, we get lost, we get wounded along

the way. So let's take the warning, heed the warning

of the god and say, okay, God, you want me

to go lift go life. You want me to go right,

I go right, Guching, I go gujing, send me right.

So let's hear the Let's be quick to obey. Amen.

So that's the first point. Let's move on now. After

that you'll see, let's go to the next light. From

Who you are? Lord? Right? The question was firstly Jesus

ask him why are you persecuting me? And then when

there was a sense of repentance, Saul told him who

are you Lord? And immediately after he knew that it

was Jesus, He's like, what do you want me to do?

Correct or not. Once you have that revelation of who

Jesus is, the next natural response is okay, Lord, what

do you want me to do? Can I? Can I

encourage you to take this question into your own personal life?

You want to take about application? Right? Would you just

ask yourself this too? Question this entire week? Who are you?

Lord and God? What do you want me to do?

You ask this question, I guarantee you you will hear

from the Lord. If you say, oh, I don't know

whether God is speaking to me or not. I can

tell you God wants you to do something. He wants

to speak to you a man. He does because, like

I said, he has a mission for you and me,

and it's not done until he takes us home. Every

day is mission, you know, every day, not only when

you go to like soon I support or you go

out for outreach. No, every day it's a mission for us.

What do you want me to do? And of course

you know that after that he went and he received

his site. Now the next let's go to the next

light from what are the questions to what do you see? Right?

Do you know that at the time Saul was blinded

and many of us right can be having our eyes

but are still blind. We can see, but we cannot

see right, And so I pray that the skills will

be removed from our eyes to really see what's really

important to God. You know, we can see our busyness,

we can see the stress that we have. We can

see all the obligations the responsibilities that we have. But

do you see the point? Do you see the point

of why you're living? What's your purpose? Imen? Right, let's

move on. You can't see. There's a next light that

goes do you have that? Okay, move on. Our eyes

may be open, but we still can't see yet until

someone prays for us and we are filled with the

Holy Spirit. Do you see that? And that was the case.

We saw right, And that's why, you know, please do

not journey alone if you are in this journey of

being a Christian. And that's why this community is important. Yeah,

because many times when we walk at it alone, we

don't realize we are blind. And so having a community

of faith like this allows us to be prayed for

so that we will be filled with the Holy Spirit

and we'll be able to really see from the Lord. Amen.

And not of course, once God restores he restores not

just our sight, he restores our strength. Amen. If you

feel like, oh I'm weak, God will give you food,

not just physical awesome Malaysian food, but spiritual food, right,

spiritual food to strengthen your spirit. And then he will

give you the Holy Spirit. Amen. All things that we need,

all things that we need for the mission ahead of us. Amen. Now,

what is the point of all this thing? Right? What

is the point of all this thing? God orchestrated this

encounter with Saul. You know, he gave him this elaborate

vision and then he's like, oh, you must go to

this guy called Ananias, and then he will pray for

you and you will hear the world. What is the

point of all this thing? Let's go to verse twenty

Acts chapter nine. After all these things right, verse nineteen,

it says when he had received food, he was strengthened,

and Saul spent some days with the disciples at the

Mascus Verse twenty. Immediately, think about it. Immediately he preached

the christ in the synagogues that he is the son

of God. Then all who heard were amazed and said,

is this not he who destroyed those who called on

this name in Jerusalem? And has come here for that purpose,

so that he might bring them bound to the Chief

Priest Verse twenty two. But soul increase all the more

in strength and confound that the Jews who dwelt in

the Mascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ. Amen.

I pray that when we seek the Lord and we

encountered him with ask him that question, immediately, we ourselves

will have such boldness, such confidence to preach Christ that

he truly is the Son of God. Amen. Can I

hear an? Amen? Do you believe that this is what

you and I can do? It's not just pastes Stephen,

It's not just the passes and the elders. All of

us can be empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring

this truth to others. Amen, I pray that this is

your desire. I don't know what else you're looking for. Hope, encouragement,

you know, solution to your problems? Can I say you

will all be found in Jesus as you walk along

the way, Amen, as you walk along the way. Now, now, okay,

you know when we think about this whole Damscus conversion experience,

we will all say, ah, yeah, but we are not

like so. I never had this blinding vision. You know,

you know I'm not gonna be someone great like Paul.

Can I tell you that Paul was never alone in

the mission that he did. Some of us think right that, oh,

until I become someone that great then no, poinna? All right?

Who am I the nameless one? I want to give

you three quick examples from the Bible that mission does

not mean that you have to be a Paul. Yes,

we acknowledge that he was one of the greatest missionaries

there was, but let's look at this few other people

that made his work accomplished. All Right? Have you heard

of this guy called apple Fredite? So hard to pronounce

the name. I have to practice a few times. Apple prouditis?

Have you heard of him? No? And yet Paul mentions him. Okay,

so let's see where Paul mentions him. He is found

in Philippians chapter two. Let's go to Philippines chapter two.

Philippians chapter two. All right, verse twenty five. I'm gonna

read it. So you're thinking, Hey, who is this guy,

mister Eppa Okay, let's go mister Eppala easier? Who is

this guy? Verse twenty five? Yet I considered it necessary

to send to you. Apaphroditis, my fellow brother, follow fellow worker,

and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who

ministered to my need, since he was longing for you

all and was distressed because you have heard that he

was sick. For in this he was sick almost until death.

But God had mercy on him, and not only on him,

but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

Therefore I sent him the more eagerly, that you may

see him again, when you may rejoice and I may

be less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with

all gladness, and hold such men in esteem, because for

the work of Christ he came close to death, not

regarding his life to supply what was lacking in your

service towards me. Wow, you mean Paul wrote about this

guy named Epaphroditis. Why was he so important? Do you

know that when Paul was sick in prison, great missionary right,

but he was suffering. He was persecuted as well. I

don't know how many of us are ready to go

to prison for the Lord. I know this is a

very hot question, very high question, do you know? But

Sis Andret shared with me this story before. So they

met with this guy. He's from I think the Middle

Eastern country, one of the Middle country, and he has

this great discipleship program, great one, okay, and we wanted

to get the materials, and so he was sharing about

the I think it was a fourteen week fourteen week

lesson right fourthen week I you go through this lesson

with us, and you're ready to go and make disciples.

Now then this, you know, I don't know whether he

was a pastor or not, and he asked pastor this question,

are your church members ready to die for Jesus? And

she's like, huh, what kind of question is that? And

if you're not able to say yes, this is sorry.

I got no time for you. I have no time

for people who's gonna be playing church. But I'm you

know in the fifth lesson, right that the in the

fifth lesson, one of the questions is are you ready

to die for your faith? And if you don't pass lessen,

you cannot graduate after less than fourteen That's how serious

it is for many parts of the world when they

say I follow Jesus those rate remember those paintered in

rad in those countries, it means that you are at

the risk of death for saying you believe in Jesus.

If someone says that to you, are are you really

ready to follow Jesus or all? I struggle with this question,

you know, because I don't know how I will answer. Honestly.

In my head, I can say yes, but when push

comes to a chef, I really don't know if I

will stand for my faith. And that's something for us

to just really say God at the time, please help

me to real to recognize that if I die, I

die because then I'll be with Jesus. Do you believe

that when you die, you're with Jesus? You know, these

are the hard questions because if you don't believe that,

you won't live for Jesus. If you will not die

for Jesus, you will not live for Jesus. I know hard.

Christian Nema is the word of the Lord, gording us, okay,

pricking us where it really matters. We don't want you

to go through church life just thinking it's all about me. No, No,

we are here to equip your church. If you came

to actually your wondering when doing this church, can I

tell you that our aim and our goal is to

equip you like this so that when you leave this

room you will be a disciple of Jesus, meaning you

will then go out and share with others. This is

equipping time only. The real work is when you leave

this room, when you go out into your offices, when

you go into your schools, when you go back to

your family. Are you equipped to say, yes, Jesus is

the son of God. Jesus is the one that I

believe in. Amen. This is what we're about church. This

is about us getting ready to do the work, and man,

the ox is there to do work. I know sometimes

we are in this minor. I don't want to do

any work. I want to retire. The tea, please financially free, right,

no need to work. The whole mindset and the mantra

of this generation is I don't want to work. I'm

looking at all my young woking adults, all of you

is like us. I just want to quickly retire and

live the life on social media kind of thing. Can

I tell you that's a lie. Don't buy into that lie.

Because as long as we live and breathe, we have

worked before us what calls laborers. We are laborers for

the Lord and someone was like, I don't like hard work,

sweat toil. It's worth it? Friends, Can I tell you

it's worth it? If I'm gonna work, right, I might

soll work for the Lord while I work for the

things of this world that will be gone you cannot

carry with you. Right. And so this guy epaphroditis heard

of Jesus, and he came to minister to Paul. He

took this long journey to minister to him, right, and

so what else do we know about him? Called him

co worker, fellow soldier? Wow, would you like to be

called a fellow soldier in the work of the kingdom? Yeah?

I know you want to hold gun right and hold

the sort of the spirit. I saw that courage, loyalty,

and sacrifice. Now I want to draw to you to

another person. You know, have you had this person called

Phoebe in the Bible? Phoebe? Yes? What do you know

about Phoebe? Probably nothing? Business? Oh, well done, Adrian, Oh

you know your ladies in the Bible, good, good, good good.

It's interesting that you know, because all of you didn't know. Right.

So this Phoebe and in the whole Bible, right, there

was only two verses about her only two verses, and

Adrian knows her. Okay, So let's go to Romans chapter.

Let's see, uh, where is Phoebe found in Romans? Romans?

Where was it? Okay? Romans sixteen, Roman sixteen only two verses.

I'm gonna read to you these two verses. Right, It says,

I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a

servant of the church in Cankorea, that you may receive

her in the lot, in the matter worthy of the saints,

and assists her in whatever business she has need of you.

For indeed she has been a helper of many and

of myself also. Now the thing is right, Paul hardly

talks about women because in those days, right women and men. Firstly,

you don't associate with them. Right, It's like a like

a haramla men here women kind of thing. For Paul

to acknowledge this woman as a great helper to him

in ministry. Speaks very highly about this woman Phoebe. Right,

and like what Adrian has told us, she was a rich,

wealthy woman patron, but she's also called a servant. That's

how Paul describes her. Some of your Bible versions would say,

you know, a deacon, but basically that means a servant.

She served Paul. And you know what was the greatest

service she did for Paul. She was entrusted by Paul

because she was a business woman. Right, She went around

to many places, and she went to Rome for a business.

Some of you might you know, I go somewhere for business.

So what Paul entrusted her. The greatest thing was to

give her that letter to the Roman Church to deliver

to the church in Roman in Rome. That's the great

task that she has without this, right, do you know

that we may not have the Book of Romans because

the Book of Romans is actually a letter, a letter

that was delivered by Phoebe to the church there. And

that's why when he wrote it, he says, I commend

to you this person. You know, actually Paul did not

found the church in Rome, but he what he did

was he wrote to them to encourage them. So he's

a church that he doesn't know, people that he doesn't know,

and that's why he was commanding Phoebe right as someone

who is to be looked at and welcome and to

take care of. So I don't know how you feel

about you know, all this seemingly unnamed, unpopular people, but

they all did something to serve the Lord. You could

be an Aprophetitis, maybe no one knows your name. You

could be a Phoebe and all you did was deliver

a letter. And can I tell you that that will

be your great mission? Because without all these things, Paul

alone couldn't have done it. Some of us might feel

that until I become someone great, that I cannot save

the lot. Do you know that there are so many

unnamed heroes in the Bible? And today can I say

today as well our name? But they go out, they

get sent forth, and they complete the work of the Lord.

Do you know that the reward I believe of Phoebe

will be just as great as the reward for Paul was.

It was simply because she obeyed what God called her

to do. And all of us have a part, doesn't

matter big or small. Yeah, is that okay? Church, I'm

gonna invite the band. I'm gonna draw her close. I

pray that you're catching something. Yeah. Just allowing the Lord

to come and minister to you, and to just say God,

I'm open, I am open to what you want to

do in my life. It doesn't matter whether I have

an encounter like Saul, or it could just be my

faithful ministry. And you are here today, You're here now,

and I believe that you have a mission for banda Otama.

This this, this is It's no accident that you live

nearby here, that you work around here. Do you know

there's so many buildings out here filled with people that

do not know Jesus. And every day you know, I,

I you know, I can just only imagine if every

day you just say you just pray, Lord, tell me

what to do today, tell me what to do, and

God will show you and you begin to lead you

to people.

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