Paul disciples the Corinthian Church Pt1 | Elder Terrence

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

We hope this message will light up your tea. We're

going to look at the Book of Corinthians and we're

going to look and see how poor disciples the Corinthian Church.

And when we actually go into this, we begin to

understand why it's important for us to be discipled, and

why discipleship first is actually a good thing. It's a

good thing. It's a good thing for us this year

to concentrate on learning from the Lord, you know, what

he wants for us, becoming more like him. This morning,

even as I was praying, I got up at five,

started walking and praying for this message. And you know,

before I actually asked the Lord to speak through the message,

I spent about half an hour just worshiping him. All right,

So about one kilometer is spent just thanking God for

all the things that He's done for me throughout the week.

You know, Thank God, God, thank you for this, Thank

you for that. So good, it's so wonderful. Praise You. You

gave me this idea, You help me with this, You

help me with that. Praise Lord, Praise Lord, Praise Lord.

So my first round one kilometer spent worshiping him for

you know, the things that he has done. Then the

second kilometer, I worship him for everything that he's done

for the people that I know. Thank you, Lord for this,

Thank you for my parents. You've done this, You've done that.

Worshiping the Lord, praising him. But I spent the last

kilometer of my three kilmeter worship thanking God and praising

God and worshiping God for who he is, not because

of the things that He's done for us, but just

because he is God. And you know, when you consider this,

you so what do you worship the Lord? You know?

How do you worship the Lord for who he is?

Think about this? Okay, this just give you a few ideas.

This God plans and knows everything that is happening at

the same time for seven billion people on this planet Earth,

And the scripture says God works together for good, you know,

those that call according to His purpose. So you know

things that happened to you today, Hey, God was planning it.

God planned that when you fell, no car would come

behind you and take your head off. Do you think

about it? You see, that's what I mean by thanking

God for who he is. Then I say God. You know,

I praise you Lord. Can you imagine, Lord, there are

billions of galaxies in this universe and we are just

exploring our own galaxy, and Lord, you hold everything together.

Galaxies don't come in collide with one another. Can you imagine?

I say, God, how great that must be? You know,

do you actually look over some of these scientific things.

It's quite exciting. Do you know that there are planets

that are just solid diamond, solid diamond? One planet, solid diamond.

Do you know there are planets that have the consistency

of candy floss. The whole planet, you know, as big

as Jupiter, like candy floss, So you fall into that

planet is soft. It's amazing. God's ideas are so amazing.

In fact, they're limited by our knowledge. Some things that

we see we kind of describe because our knowledge is limited.

That's worshiping God for who years? So now we look

at bring it closer back to bring it down, bring

it down? What does the Lord have to speak to

us in Corinthians? Do you know that the Corinthian Church

is very very much like this world today. In fact,

if you compare Corinthians and the world today, we are

like living in the same time. And that's why there's

a very very good book to pick when it comes

to discipling ourselves, to being discipled by the Lord, to

helping disciple someone else, the Book of Corinthians is an

excellent place to be because do you know, just like today,

the Book of Corinthians speaks about an affluent society. If

you think we are not an affluent society, praise the

Lord that you are here in Malaysia. It's quite an

affluent society. When you come to church, you got nice

clothes to wear. I'm sure you had breakfast before you

came to church. For those of you that did not

have breakfast before you came, sad, sad parting. But you

know that there are some places where they didn't even

have dinner last night and they still go to church.

So we actually are really, really in a good place.

The thing about the Corinthian Church was it was a

decadence society, just like the world today. Sexually immorality number one.

You want to know something. It was a prosperous country,

the prosperous city. It had a lot of money. In fact,

it was a center of trade. It was such a

great place that people were being blessed financially, so much

like us today, God does bless his church financially. But

at the same time things were not going well. You

had people living the way they wanted to live. You

had people that were not experiencing the power of God

as they should have. They were not glorifying God the

way they should have been. I mean, sounds like us, right,

we are so comfortable with so many good things around us.

Maybe just maybe we're not living our best life. Maybe

we're not living the way we should be because we

kind are comfortable in the ways of the world. This

was in effect the Corinthian Church, and because they lived

this way, they started to bring a lot of what

was going on into the world into their fellowship. So

if you compare the church and outside the church, they

kind of looked alike. Do you know that in the

Corinthian Church, Christian brothers were swing other Christian brothers. They

were taking them to court. It's quite a shameful thing,

isn't it, Where you take your own brother to court.

It's not nice. Today. I was listening to the news,

there was these two boys that killed their parents, the

menandez brothers. They killed their brother their parents in the eighties, okay,

because the parents were very rich, but they were found

out and then they were sentenced to life without parole.

And now that the family is coming together and trying

to get them out of prison. You see, when you

live in a in a place where money rules COmON,

you know, good sense doesn't take over. You think you

can get away with murder. Well they thought they could

get away with murder, but they but they didn't. So

you see, that was what the world was about. But

I want you to know there's an answer. Don't fret,

don't panic. There's an answer for us. And the answer

for us is in being disciples according to what Jesus

wants us to be, to be changed, to become a

new creation, to put aside the old things. You know,

I was sharing in in uh Subanjai tentary. I know

many people, some people not many, some people born again

trying to be dedicated in the church, but couldn't give

up the smoking habit. You know. Can you imagine, you know,

working hard in the church and then with cigarette in

the head. You know, they found it so hard to

give up. But did God give up on them. No,

While they were still smokers, God was using them to

share with Is that an any smokers here, That is

not an avenue for you to continue smoking again, because

the moral of the story is there's always a moral

of the story. They worked hard in trying to do

what Christ wanted them to do. You know what happened

after many years for some of them, they give up

just like that today as smoker tomorrow or not, you see,

because they hit a point where God said, I have

seen you, and I'm pleased with what you do. This

is your miracle boom, and so you see, it really

doesn't matter whether we don't get it right or not.

What we need to do is we need to be

disciples according to how God wants us to be and

do what you know, live what God has taught you,

and your life will change. Let's get to the word. Okay,

First Corinthians chapter one, reading from one and two. You've

got some very pretty slides complimentary of Ai again in

that court. Trust me, all these slides are going to

be pretty cool, okay, because Ai produced the slides. Okay,

Let's read Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus

Christ to the will of God, and Sostans our brother

to the Church. Of God, which is in chorect which

is at Chrinth. To those who are sanctified in Christ,

call to be saints with all those in every place.

Call on the name. Call in every place, Call in

the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both the yeas

and ours. You see it in Corinthian. Corinth thrived in

a significant trading hub. Okay, you can go on two slides.

You see what I mean when I say these are

pretty good slides. Look at that. Why is issuing running?

Because next to the Olympics. Do you know that Corinthian

was corinth was famous for its spots. It was a

hub where everybody came to compete. You know. It was

you know where the East and Western culture met. There

were there was so much commerce, so much a vibrant

economic activity. Oh all was good. It was one of

the most important cities of the time. And Corinthian was

known for its cultural richness. You know, Malaysia is known

for its cultural richness. We have we have the Chinese culture,

you know, chong Sam, I don't know what, some food,

some food. Then you have the Malay culture, Kabaya, Bachukuro,

you have the Indian culture, Sari lenga. You know, then

you have the Western culture full suit. You know, you

have Paranakhan culture, which is a mixture of you got

two kinds of One is the mixture of the Chinese

and the Malay. The others the mixture of the Indian

and the Malay. Yeah, Portuguese as well. That's malaqua malaqua Paranakhan.

You got the Pinang parana Khan is a mixture of

Chinese and Malay. You got those some of the Indians

who actually took up the Malay type of culture. So

you see the pure Indian ladies are wearing kabayas. My

great grandmother in law was one of them, you know.

So the thing is this, there was there was a

lot of richness and influence, all right. And usually with

this kind of influence, what is scripture saying? Scripture will

tell you that there comes moral problems. So when we

find in the church that perhaps we are not leading

our best lives, we have to check our lives and

see where we need God to help change us, to

help make us, you know, have a difference, and we

are called to be different. How do you share how

do you share Jesus with someone? If you yourself, do

not live Jesus Christ. You need to share Jesus. You know,

sometimes it's not easy. There's this one person in my neighborhood.

We are trying to reach out right, trying to reach

out to her, good friend, trying to reach out, but

lately don't want to come to our homes because I think,

you know, she knows that Holmes is a place where

we share Jesus Christ, and she is of a different faith.

So I told Elder Mabel, this is what you tell her.

We shared Jesus with you because we want you to

know you have someone to call upon if you run

into trouble. Because if you run into trouble, call on

the name of Jesus and he will come and help you.

You know what we're doing. We're sharing scripture Jeremiah thirty

three thirty three three, which is call unto me, and

I will show the great and mighty things which thou

know us not. And these kind of things can happen

because when people close their eyears because they are afraid,

there is only one thing that can break it, Jesus Christ.

When they are alone and there's no help, they will

remember what you say and they will call on that name,

and Jesus always comes true. I mean, that's the best

way to witness to somebody is to tell them there

is an answer. So we are, like I said, batteries

everywhere we go. We are sharing Jesus Christ with the

words that we say. See, we don't have to go

into theology. We can just go into simple things and say, look,

he come through for you. If you're in trouble, you

come through for you. He's always there for you. Just

call on him and he will come and he will

help you. The Bible says that no one lights a

light and puts it under a basket. You and I,

each one of us, you know what we are. We

are walking lamps. We carry the light of Jesus wherever

we go. So if you will not open your mouth

and tell somebody you have put yourself under a basket

or what you sir, you you know, let's not be so,

let's not be so heavenly minded that we have no

earthly use. You see, God put us on this earth

to make a difference. If not everyone of us, once

we saved that He'll take us home straight away. Why

keep us here? I mean saved oria a mission accomplished.

Off you go. It's not about that, you see, because

God uses you to help somebody else. And how wonderful

is that? I mean, how many of you have heard

or no, have met someone that you shared with in

the past, so long ago and now you find out

that they have received Christ and are living for the Lord.

How many of you have experienced that? Can I see

show hands? One, two, three, four, five, six, at least

six of you? You see at the time, did it happen? No?

But what did you do? Like a battery? You just

gave the life and when the time came, something happened.

This is what we are called to do now. Church

problems Within the Prindian Church, divisions arose among believers. Ha.

One of the greatest things or greatest problems in church

today is divisions happen. And you know when divisions happen

when things are good. Do you realize that when things

are going very well, you have to watch out. You

and I we have to watch out, because that's when

it is right for divisions to take place. Different factions

are from oh I'm with this person, I'm with that person,

aligning with various leaders detracted from the unity of the

intended church. This is a challenge to the community. Exclaim,

does that mean you're on your own? Does that mean

you are apart from X ten thirty mean you're apart

from X menrin? How about X brick fields? Come on,

you know we're apart from them. You want to know

something you are not because you're teaching the children's sign language.

I noticed today that gone are the days when you're

just you know, when they're teaching the children, you know,

nice way of waving the order they're teaching. They're teaching

them sign communicate with people who cannot hear. See. The

thing is this, although we are in different places Clang

and Nila, and and and Umpang, we are still one.

Do anyone of us say I don't follow that because

we're all under Jason Martin. Jason calls the shots. If

Jason calls the shots, Jason Jason should be saying, I

call the shots under the divine leadership and guidance of

our executives, senior executive Executive, Senior founding Senior Pastor, Pastor

Kenneth Why because the vision is given to the senior pastor,

who has the responsibility if anything goes wrong. Pastor the

senior founding. Senior pastor is held responsible. He has to

answer to God because the leadership is given under him. God.

Your unity divisions immorality. When things are going well, immorality

tends to creep in immorality. You know, you don't have

to go very far. I just look the world today.

Look at the excess we have to all the wrong things.

Kind of easy, right, there's easy access to all the

wrong things. Immorality abounds. Go to these states. Go to

the states United States. One state in the United States

has past the law that if a parent miss genders

their child in a conversation, Okay, if the child says,

I'm a girl, when the child is a boy, and

you're given the boy, say the name. Okay, give me

a name where you've got a male and a female. Okay,

Alex Alexis is the girl's name. Alexis the boy. Right,

So now Alex says I'm a girl, call me Alexis.

The parents say Alex, come here. Goes to the police

and say, my parents call me Alex when they should

call me Alexis. You know what the government can do,

come in and take the child away from you and

put you in jail. Past the law. When did this

happen within the last two weeks? Immorality abounds. The world

is crazy. You need Jesus. That's what happens when things

kind of go to well, okay, sectary sect sectarianism, there's

another issue. I believe in this. You believe in that

we're not together? Is that what we want for ourselves?

You see, this is what Paul was facing. Paul had

to deal with this. Where was this outside? No, it

was in the church. It was in the presence of God.

All these things were happening. So you see why did

this happen. The people's lives were not changed. Somewhere along

the line. The world was discipling them, but it wasn't God.

They were getting caught up in the ways that the

world was doing things. Let's look at the path to discipleship.

We learned from the last time that I will here.

The discipleship is about learning about Jesus and about teaching Jesus.

Jesus has the ability, the Holy Spirit has the ability

to teach you many things. You share this now. I

can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I

don't know did I share with you about the roof

leaking roof last week, last time I was here. If

you can't remember, probably not, because what happened was there

was this roof that was leaking, and man, I called

everybody to come and fix it. Because at sixty years old,

you think I want to go on the roof to

fix it. I do want. I'm not exactly sixty kilograms. Okay,

so one wonders whether the roof can take my weight

anot right, and then roofing is not my specialty. But

since nobody wanted to come, I told Elder maybe I'm

going to do it. No, no, no, you cannot. You

know I go on the roof. So what am I

going to do just allow this place to leak? I cannot.

So what I did was I got the material. I

climbed through the window onto the roof. Elder neighbor is

inter city the city praying and him not for my

neighbors are all passing and looking me standing on the roof.

What it was wrong with this guy? But you see,

I had to do it, and the Holy Spirit gave

me an idea of what to do, and you know what,

I just went ahead and I did it. Okay, one

whole metal sheet which is a big metal sheet, composite

medical metal sheet had slipped, causing a space with which

to leak. God gave me what to do, what to remove.

I carried that whole plate by myself, moved it back

into shape, put it down, and resealed everything. I've got

five cuts on my hands to show it, okay, which

I didn't realize I had cut my hand till after

the job was over. But that's okay. You know, there's

a war wounds, you know, so I can remember God,

you actually helped me. But the thing is this. Do

you know that I fixed the roof better than the

guys who fixed it in the first place. I mean,

if you look at it's perfect? Is it because of me? No?

Do I know roofing? No? Who knows? God knows, and

he is able to teach. So when the church was

going wrong, Paul came to the rescue. Okay, Paul came

to the rescue because the goal of the church is

to make you and eye more christ Like? Isn't that

the goal of discipleship to make us small christ like?

You know, it's wonderful being christ like because when you're

christ Like, you get miracles like what happened to him

having a leaking petrol tank and driving to the repair. Shon,

that's madness. Don't do this at home. Don't try this

unless the Lord leads you to. I mean, come on,

it's crazy. You have one of these jokers who are

smoking the cigarette and throw it out and the fire

will chase your car until it catches. Cry. Not that

couldn't happened, isn't it? But it didn't happen. No, because

God was in cone true. You see, when you and

I become more disciple, God becomes more in control of

our lives. When God is in more control of your lives,

when your child is in danger, you will be able

to say stop in the name of Jesus, and it

will stop. You will be able to say be healed

in the name of Jesus, and it will happen. You See,

it doesn't happen because you and I are great preachers.

It doesn't happen because you and I have got some

fantastic gift. Though there are these gifts of healing. It

happens because you and I are disciple. Hey guys, how

many of you are parents? Say? Can I see a show?

Hence you need Jesus Christ. You need him in your

life because there will be situations that you will not

be able to help. You'll need some miraculous intervention. And

that comes with being disciples. I mean, I could have

died so many times in my life. Who preserved me?

God preserved me so many times. I could have died

before I became a Christian because He knew that when

I became the Christian, became a Christian and would be disciples,

some people will come to the Lord. And you know

how many people he helped me, how many times he

saved my life after that? See, your being disciple has

some great privileges. Let's look forward to it. Okay, So

let's address modern issues. So like today, we need to

address these issues. We need to look and see how

is God going to help us with our problems and

situations today? You know, what's what's the big issue? If

all this only remained in the Church of Corinth, what's

the big issue? Don't you need God to help you now?

Don't you need God to help you? Here? And now?

I mean this. I remember once that I was I

was studying in Singapore. Once I went out with my friends.

This is about nine nine thirty am. So I took

the bus from Jerome and I reached Orchid Road. You

have any you know Orchid Road? Okay, Jerome in Orchard

Road is about forty minutes forty five minutes by bus.

Moment I got off the bus, I became so sick.

I mean, I felt like I was going to drop

there and faint, and I said, Lord, help me, help

me get back. You must remember I was only three

months as a Christian, three or four months as a Christian.

I didn't know very much, but I knew. I didn't

know that when I went to God for help, he

would be there to help me. I said, God, please

help me. I literally got off the bus and I

told some friends were already waiting for me at the

bus stop. I said, you had to continue on your own.

Something's not right. I need to get back. I'm feeling

very sick. So from there I struggled to the other

side of the road and got back by bus. I

reached my hostel in Duo not Pandam Gardens say. I

reached my hostel at ye Juro about eleven o'clock. I

struggled to get up to the fourth floor where my

room was. I mean literally holding the banners and pulling

myself self up like because I was so weak. I

came to the edge of my bed and I collapsed,

shoes on my clothes that I went out. I just collapsed.

I woke up the next day at six pm. That's

how many hours twenty four, twenty four and six close

to thirty hours. I woke up thirty hours later. I

was fine. I literally was fine. I went and had

a shower when the church because when I had no help,

I called on the name of Jesus and he came

to my rescue. Let's address these issues. Okay. Now, if

you look at Corinthians one, Paul says he's called to

be an apostle. All right, he's called to me. But

look at verse two. Verse two says it is for

those people who are called to be saints who he

is called to be a saint. Can I see a

show of hands? Something's wrong with you? Let me try again.

How many of you are called to be saints? Something's

still wrong. How many of us are called to be saints? Okay,

getting better, still not quite there? All of us who

believe in Jesus Christ, what are we saints? Are we called. Yes,

we are all called to be saints. This word call

comes from the word clitus. So some people they've got

a name called Clayton Critus. That name actually is from Scripture.

It means this. It means called, means invited, summoned by

God to an office or through salvation. You and I

we have been summoned by God. You are not ordinary people.

So this is not Paula. This is not for paul alone. Oh,

it's only for the big names in Jesus Christ. Who

am I? I am a nobody. Let me tell you more.

Work in the world gets done by nobody's who don't

have anyone to sing their song. When we go to heaven,

we're going to be hearing a lot of great testimonies

of these people whom we don't even know their names.

Why is this because they have been called, they have

been summoned. You know that in the Greek this word summon,

this word call, it refers to a special event. You

and I have been called a special event. It's significant

social honor. That's why the Jewish people took this word called.

When they were called, they took it very seriously. Do

we take it seriously that we have been called because

if we don't take it seriously, the problems with us

because God was very, very firm in knowing that he

wanted you. You know that God wanted you, he wanted me,

he wanted us. So what did you do? Call hey, Julian, Hey, Max,

hey Jane? And you know what you heard? So you

came to him. He brought you into a fellowship with

Jesus Christ. And in verse four it says, I thank

my God always concerning you for the grace of God

which was given to you by Christ. Jesus. Do you

know that Paul was quite good here? The people were

a problem, right. The people were doing some things that

were not right. They were doing things that could have

been considered wrong. But you want to know something, Paul

could still find something to praise God for because he

was what I praise I thank my God concerning you

because the grace given to you by Jesus Christ is real. Hey,

when you are looking at your life and you don't

quite see yourself as meeting the market, you know what

you can do. God, I praise you. What did you

call me? God? I praise you. Of all the people

in the world, Why did you save me? You know.

This is what I as I was walking today, This

is what I was actually telling the Lord. Lot of

all the people, you save me? What? Thank you? Lord?

I mean, there's seven billion people in the world. Why

did you love me so much that you would call me?

And I would hear and I would answer, isn't it

something to praise God for you? And I are were

so so so caught up in the wrong thing. Oh

I'm not good? Hey, Yeah, let's get this out of

the way. We are not good. I mean, that's clearieh.

What's so great about us? What's so wonderful about us?

That's clarie air. We're not good. Bible says that's none

of us that are good, No, not one. So it's okay,

we qualify for that statement. But what's good? Jesus loved us.

Jesus could be praised because he still called us. Hey.

Isn't it a wonderful place to be? It's a wonderful

place to be because now you don't have to live

a fake life like somebody or not. You know, many

of us will go and meet the Lord one day

and then after that, you say, you know, God will

tell you I loved you so much. I love all

the things that you did, But you want to know

something something you couldn't handle was your bad temper. You

had a bad temper. So God will talk to you

about that. But you know what, He will still love

you for all the things that you've done. But you

want to know, even though you had a bad temper,

you still got a lot of things done. Isn't that good?

It means that we struggle with ourselves, But it's okay.

It's okay to be honest with God about who you

and I are. Lord. I'm the most lazy person on earth.

You know, if I don't have to do anything, I'll

be so happy. God will say, yeah, I know you're

so lazy that I brought people to you because I

know you wouldn't walk to them. But I thank God

at least those two people you spoke to, they came

to the Lord. You see what I mean? You are

a battery, You're a light. Do you see that God

sees that in you. God saw something fantastic about Gideon. Hey,

when Gideon was banging his wheat behind the threshing floor,

God say, you, mighty man of Ella. But the follow

us hiding, you know time and God called him you,

mighty men, he was hiding. You do not see yourself

as God sees you. Let me tell you, God sees

you as somebody's special. So I thank God always concerning you.

You know, in verse five it says that you were

enriched in everything by Him, in all utterance and all knowledge.

Do you know that the meaning of this that they

were enriched was they were rich. They had a lot

of money. Honey, they were enriched. Do you know that

God is the one that makes us wealthy? God made

them wealthy? You mean, these people who are getting so

many things wrong, God made them rich. The Bible says, yes,

the word enriched means that they didn't start off as rich,

but because they came to the name of Jesus, they

got their riches. They got their wealth. But it wasn't

only in wealth, but they were enriched with utterance and knowledge.

In spite of their problems, God through his mercy, had

also blessed them with spiritual gifts. You see it, Richness

is not only spiritual gifts. Sometimes you only think of

richness in terms of spiritual gifts. Or I want the

gift of healing, or I want the gift of this,

and I want the gift. That's all good. The Bible says,

you know, eagerly desire all these things. Bible says, desire

all these things. But you know you can as you

are still effect much. Why don't people get healed under

your hand? Because how many of you laid hands on people?

If you don't lay hands on people, how they're going

to get better? But miss you, if you go and

lay hands on twenty people, at least one is going

to get here. But if you don't lay hands at all,

no one's going to get here. So you see, it's

God who gives the utterances, God who gives the knowledges,

God who gives the riches. They were enriched because God

still looked at them and say, although these people are

my name still needs to be glorified. I wanted how

many of you have heard of this name? Aa Ellen? Okay,

I don't blame you if you haven't heard it. It's okay,

don't worry, don't fret. Aa Ellen was a was a

was A was a great preacher in the forties and fifties,

nineteen forties and nineteen fifties. How many of you have

heard of the great tent Revivals? Okay? These were where

you know, the churches were growing at such a great

rate in the US that the churches were too small,

So they used to have these big tents like a circumstance,

you know, and people were coming by the thousands. This guy,

a Ellen, was someone who was blessed by God. He

was a preacher and under his ministry, many, many, many

people came to the Lord. But you know that this

guy had some fantastic healings. He would pray for people

and they would be healed, and they were recorded and

proven cases where internal organs regrew, internal organs regrew. So basically,

this man had such a great healing anointing. But he

was a drunk. You know that while he was many

times he still laid hands and prayed for people and

they still got heeled. Why did God use him? He

was a drunk. Why does God use us? Why we

are such great people. God will use anybody he wants

to use. So when he uses you, praise the Lord.

Yes I'm not good, but God still use me. That's okay.

It's in scripture. It's okay. So they were blessed. I

give you an you want a biblical proof, biblical example,

look at Solomon Solomon, look at Samson? Did I say,

someone Samson? Look at Samson? Okay, Samson was just like

a Ellen. The guy was a drunk. But you know,

in his drunk state, under the power of the Holy Spirit,

harmony of the enemy, he took down one guy, taking

down a thousand, taking down two hundred, and in the end,

without eyes, he destroyed an unholy temple with all those

that worshiped someone other than God. But you're such a

flawed character. Hey, we can all identify with Samson. You know,

don't look at Samson badly? How can Samson be like this?

You know? If ever, you look at Sami and say,

you know, he had such an anointing from God, how

can he be like that? Go and look in the

mirror and say, you have such an annoying from God?

How can you be like that? Because Samson didn't have

the Holy Spirit living in him, you do. Scripture says

that the people were also blessed with understanding. Who, in

Scripture was blessed with understanding? Solomon? Solomon was blessed with

fantastic understanding. Yet the guy had three hundred concubines and

seven hundred wives. So is it the other way around.

I mean he would see one wifer once in three years?

What's wrong with the guy so wise and can be

your so weird? You see, God is trying to tell

us something. He's trying to tell us He's willing to

use you, and as you and I are being used,

he will change us. In Verse one in one Corinthians

one sixties says, even as the testimony of Christ was

confirmed in you, do you know that Christ's testimony will

be confirmed in your life? How many of you at

worker having so much of problems and Sydney an answer

comes and you clear the mess? How many of you

have experienced that before? A few of you do? People

say that's amazing, and what have you said? Did you

not say it is God? Did you not give glory

back to God and say if it was not for

my God, I would not know how to do this.

Let me tell you. In my working life, I always

used to tell people it's God who give me the answer?

The idea is God to give me the answer? You

know why? Because when I do that, I'm opening the

door for more ideas and answers to come. If I

try and be so smart. Yeah, it's my intelligence. How

far do you think my intelligence will take me? You

and I we need something more than our intelligence. We

need God's intelligence. We need God's ideas. God's testimony is

confirmed through the lives of believers, showcasing his transformative power.

Why did it happen to you? So that when you

share that has the money somebody else who's riding a

bicycle and falls and gets up, we'll know. Wow, that

God that preserved Jason's life preserve my life as well.

How many we attended homes last week? Is it last week?

Week before us? And in the topic of worship that

we were doing, we learned that some things don't exactly

work right, so that some people may be blessed correct

through God will help us with those things that are

not right, to help us get it correct. The fire

and Putra Hids. How many we live close to Putra Heights.

Let's see a shoe hence, Well, my brother in law

does that morning of that great explosion, I got started

getting calls about ten in the morning. I say, we're

running for our lives. The fire happened about one hundred

meters from his house. The explosion, they were sleeping And

when you know, the whole world sort of woke them up.

They thought it was an earthquake, but when they opened

the window they saw the fire. I must show you

the picture of the fire taken from their house. It

was actually easily one hundred feet high. Some reports say

thirty feet high. No, do you know that the fire

could be seen from my house twenty kilometers away. The flame,

not the smoke. The flame could be seen, so it's

abo one hundred feet high. When they came out, they

got into their cast to try and escape, but couldn't

because the fire happened where the entrance was and it

being hrry rayah, all the emergency gates were locked, so

all of them had to go. They parked their car

and there was nowhere to run, nowhere to get out

of My sister in law actually climbed over the fence

and ran into the jungle to escape because the air

was so hot that it was cooking your flesh. They ran.

Fire department came and broke open and they all escaped.

They were not allowed to go back to the house

for two three days because their house was actually facing

the pipeline one hundred meters away. You know that they

escaped their house when they went back two days later,

not a single bit of damage. They had this parrotner,

the African gray parrot. They tried to save it while

the fire and tried to run, but they couldn't because

of the panic. They were falling all over the place.

And when my brother in law he heard his leg

as he ran out, hurt his knee. He had to

be taken out by ambulance. The ambulance said only for people,

not for animals. They left the parrot outside outside the

house where there was no shade, where there was no shelter,

no food, no water, the smell in the air, the

gas in the air. They left the parrot there. Myself

kind of said that, you know, these animals were left,

so we prayed, say God to do something. Inside the

house there was a rabbit, a pedigree rabbit, also left

in the house, no food, no water. Two days they ran.

When they got back to the house, gave a report

the animals were safe. Despite that, the animals were safe,

So what's their testimony. God preserved my life, God preserved

my property. Now my brother, on the other hand, has

some church members or from his church living in that area.

House completely destroyed, nothing left and as they ran out

of the house. The air was so hot. Not direct fire,

the air was so hot second first or second degree

burns on the hand. That was the air. You know,

that's why people ran, because the air was I think

the temperatures between a thousand and thousand, four hundred and

fifty degrees. That's how hot it was. They were burned.

You know what's their testimony. God preserved my life. God

heal me, and God will restore everything. You see, everything

works for good. So when you've got a good testimony,

it's for somebody else to be blessed. When you've got

something bad happened to you, you've got a testimony, how

God is going to turn it around, and he's still

going to be something good. You see, God knows everything.

He knows who can take what and who he needs

for what purpose. Confirming his testimony in one Corinthian seven,

it says, so that you come short in no gift,

eagerly waiting for the revelation of Jesus Christ. You know

that all this is just Paul's introduction before he gets

into what he wants them to change. He is thanking

God for them. How many of us thank God for

the people around us. How many of us thank God

for those that God has brought into our fellowship. We

can make a difference in their life. So Paul was saying,

I so that you come short in no gift. Eagerly

are waiting for the revelation of Jesus Christ. Do you

know that the Corinthian Church, despite all their problems, did

not lack in any good gift. They had good gifts

from the Lord. They had blessings from the Lord. You

were rotten people, you know, much like the world today,

rotten people. But God is good in them. God can

make a difference. So allow ourselves to be disciple because

God wants us not to lack in any spiritual gift.

Are we eager for Jesus return? Guys, we're not eager

for Jesus returner. We better get eager. This Bible says

Jesus will come like a thief in the mine when

you do not expect it. So do you expect Jesus

to come now? Most of us will say not, really,

So now's the time. It's as simple as that. Faith

hope can thrive strongly when we anticipate Christ. I want

you to know Paul gave them an assurance, and this

assurance is very important for us even as we're disciple,

he says. In one eight, he says, who will also

confirm you to the end that you may be blameless

in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. I love AI.

It's such nice signs. You know what this means. In

spite of who or what we are, Paul had confidence

that Jesus would save them. So you and I were

not so good. We don't get an act together. That's

all right. In the final analysis, we are eagerly are

waiting for Jesus if we are trying to do what's right.

The Bible says that he will confirm us. Paul said,

he will confirm us. You know this word comes. This

word confirm It means be bio if I can't pronounce

that right, and it means to confirm or establish. It

is a robust nature of God's promise, meaning it's so strong,

this promise is so real it will happen. Is derived

from the Greek word firm or so cure. It emphasizes

God's commitments as steadfast and reliable. The concept reassures believers

that their faith is anchored in a trustworthy foundation. Highlighting

God's role as a guarantol God will bring it to pass.

In to Timothy one twelve, Paul also says this for

this reason, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am

not ashamed, for I know who I have believed, and

am persuaded that He is able to keep that which

I have committed to him until that day when we

gave our life to Jesus Christ. He is able to

keep it until the day of his appearance. The only

time we will lose it is if we reject it.

Let us not reject it. Let us keep on going. Now.

In one nine it says God is faithful by whom

you were called into the fellowship of His son, Jesus Christ,

our Lord Jesus is faithful. God is faithful. So when

we study the book called Corinthians, we're going to get

into a lot of things that God is going to

help us to change our lives in, to tweak those

things which are not right to disciple, because what is

discipling getting us to be more like Jesus. So this

book of Corinthians, it's a great, great book to study,

and it starts with praising God in everything that we do.

It starts with acknowledging God first, so we want our

lives to change. What was Paul talking between verse one

and verse nine, He was giving glory to God. You

and I will never be able to really experience the

greatness of God until and unless we give God the glory.

We have to give God all the glory. Why do

we worship the Lord before we get into the world

because we need to praise him, We need to remember him.

And there's a lot of remembering taking place in the

Book of Corinthians. When you look at the Book of Corinthians,

there's a lot of lessons which Paul talks in other places,

you sort of summarizing it here in Corintians. So we

have like a manual to live. Book of Corinthians is

like you know the when you buy TV these days,

you got a manual right one book, but you know

you got a one pager. You know, the one pager

will tell you quickly, okay, you fix this. This is

how you're turning on. It will not tell you all

that is, just tell you to get this. Is like

that one pager. Get to a lot of life changing matters,

a lot of lessons. When we talk about discipleship. First,

we're talking about getting our lives ready, ready for what

eagerly waiting for the appearing of Jesus Christ. You know

a lot of miracles take place during this time. If

you believe that you have the power of the Holy

Spirit with you, Imagine the great works you're going to

do with your friends, even in school, with your friends

praying for them. I mean I had one my my

director in my workplace. Wo is the you know, Pophat

in the school having knee problems. You know what I said,

can I pray for you? So I knelt down by

her side, touched her knees and prayed for God to

heal her in the name of Jesus. Imagine what that

did for her spirit. I mean I didn't just pray.

I got on my knees and pray. How many of

you would pray for your friends like that, Hey, let

me help you. I did that to my classmates and

today I've got so many great testimonies coming from them

because I spend time with them. You have to have

a spirit of forgiveness for your friends and concerned they

will let you down often even as you will let

them down often. But have a spirit of forgiveness. I mean,

there was one guy. There's one guy in my school.

He was so so, really irritating, disrupting the class, disrupting

the lessons. Really nobody liked him. Nobody liked him. He

was the one that everybody kind of shunned because he

was such a pain. Until one day I had to

have a word with him and say, if we're not

interested to study, leave the class, do not disturb us,

want to listen and learn. It shocked him and from

that moment, that very moment, he changed around. He started

becoming better, becoming nicer with all of us. We gravity.

I was the first to gravitate towards him and forgive

him and bring him into the fall. Why is that?

Because he didn't know any better. But I helped him,

and now he came into that fellowship with us today.

You know what he is. He is a professor in

a United States college university, one of the top universities.

He is a professor there. And how cool is da

your friends? You mean to say you don't have an influence,

You have an influence on your friends. Do you know

that friends listen to friends more than they listen to parents.

Because suddenly when the children become teenagers, the parents become irrelevant.

Oh you don't know, doesn't matter to your parents were

once teenagers. Suddenly they don't know. They know, they know.

Listen to them, give them a chance. Okay, So conclusion

in reflecting of these lessons, and we're going to be

getting the next time I come, we'll be actually getting

into some of these things even more. But for now,

always remember it's good to praise the Lord. Give glory

to God for the things that can be given glory

for because even though people are rotten, that God is

still good in them. You want proof of that, go

and look at yourself in the mirror, and you see

rotten people whom God loves. I do that all the time.

Thank you Lord. You thank the Lord that he loves you.

And your life changes. And it's okay if you make mistakes,

and it's okay if you're not that good. But you

know what, you're a work in progress. You're a work

in progress. Bible says you are being perfected, being perfected.

You are not perfect. So if you're perfect, the job

is over. No, you're not perfect, you are being perfected.

We are all worth We hope you've been blessed by

this message. For more information on our church, please visit

as church org. We are also active on Facebook and Instagram.

We're believing that this week is going to be a

good week ahead for you, Godless