The Cost, the cross, the conviction | Pr Steven Soon

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

We hope this message will light up your day.

When we love someone, when we truly appreciate someone and

we want to do something for them, we will do

something that will cause us. Right. We want to do

something that the person knows that he has caused us

something cause us. Time causes effort, causes energy, causes money, right.

And I think sometimes when we give unto the people

we love, sometimes when sometimes when it really causes us,

you see the reaction, Oh, this must have cost you

a lot, and then you also feel good right because

you know that you have been appreciated for the effort.

If we can do this for people, then my starting

question for us is are we doing this to the lot?

When we love the lot? Are we permitting this love,

our love to the lot to cause us? All? Right?

And this is the topic that I have for us today.

The title for today's message is the Cost to Cross

and the Conviction, and we're going to go through is

exactly the three points that I'm going to share today.

And the key scripture. If you know, I would encourage

us to flip open our bibles. The key scripture I

want us to look at today. It's Second Samo twenty

four eighteen to twenty five. So you can open your Bible.

I'm going to flip open mind as well. Second Samuel

in case you don't know where second Semo is after

First Samuel twenty four eighteen to twenty five. All right,

if you're there, say I'm there. Oh my, this is

why we must flip open bibles so we know where

it is. Okay, just fill open your bibles. Second Samuel

twenty four eighteen to twenty five. All right, ear market, uh,

you know, put your bookmark there, keep your finger there.

We're going to be looking at this scripture a lot today. Okay,

so you are looking at it as you are, you know,

brushing through the versus. I'm just gonna share a little

bit about this story, okay. So what happened Contacts was

basically there was God brought a plague to Israel for

three days and many died. We're talking about tens of thousands,

if not mistaken, it was seventy thousand Israelites died. So

came David, King David pleading to the Lord and say

I need to And of course that time, you know,

a prophet actually told David, you ought to build an

altar for the Lord and ask for the Lord's forgiveness,

ask for the Lord to release his anger and his

wrath to not be angry upon the people of Israel anymore.

So David went and of course at that time this

was spoken to him at that time. Let me just

look for the verse, right, Sorry, it wasn't. Yes, yes,

So there was gad Is, one of the prophets. And now,

of course in this place there's this man called Arouna,

all right, and in around us thrashing field. When King

David went past there, he came upon an injury of

the Lord, all right, and then they spoke. And what

happened all of that was that King David was instructed

to build an altar around us trashing field. Around that

is a guy, all right, and he owns the land,

all right, The trashing field belongs to him. And at

that time what happened was David went to that place

and approach around he and said, I would like to

build an altar at your trashing field, thrashing floor, your land,

all right, and then around U being just like, wow,

I have the King of the people come to me

and said this, I want to offer to the King

and to God. Right, I will give my land. He

even said, I will give you my arson to offer

as burns sacrifice unto the Lord. Right. But then amazing

thing that David. You see, David had every right to

take that offer number one, because he's King of Israel,

so technically he can take the landlind number one. Number two,

it was kindly offered to him some more right, so

he could very easily have taken up the offer. But

yet something interesting happened. King David told arounda no, I

will not give unto God that which cost me nothing,

and that will be the theme of our message today.

You see, David. When that happened, David understood a principle.

And yet the first point is the cost. Okay, if

you're writing notes, that's the first point, the cost. David

understood a principle at that moment. He understood that if

he truly loved someone, when he offers something, it had

to cost him. He understood the principle that if he

truly loves the Lord, he cannot give unto the Lord

that which is convenient or free. He ought to give

unto this law, this God that he loves something that

costs him. And what is the price he paid? In

the Bible it says he paid fifty pieces of silver.

It sounds minimal, right if you think about just the numericals,

fifty pieces of silver. But let me give you a

rough equivalent of it, all right, fifty pieces of silver

is equivalent to five to seven years' worth of salary. Okay,

So it's very hard for also be more. Because which

currency are we using the gay show. I'm just gonna

use usd as a gauge, right, US dollar okay, So

in US dollar US dollars, it will between hundred and

fifty to two hundred and ten thousand that he bought

the land that he used to pay to buy the

land from arounda. It's not a small price. He paid

a price. And of course sometimes we may feel, right,

why why is this so legalistic? Right? Like you pay AROUNDA?

Was so nice to give the lend the g's offering

all this around us chance to also offer to the lord. Right,

But just now I mentioned that King David understood a principle,

and that principle is something I want to share. You see,

the principle of giving unto God that which will cost

him offering unto someone he loves that which will cause

him wasn't so much a principle of law. It was

a principle of love. David understood, not because it is

written in the in the laws that he ought to

offer that which will cause him, but he understood that

out of love he ought to do it, giving unto

God that which will cost him. And you see, right,

the principle that he practiced here in this scripture wasn't

one of You may think that he's a king, or

he can't afford to pay two hundred and ten thousand USD.

But you see, he didn't do it once. And how

do I know he didn't do it once. It's because

this is a man that served the Lord since he

was a kid, all the way till his death. This

tells me that he's way of leaving out this principle

of love wasn't a one off things with the Lord.

This was something he practiced throughout his life. So this

leads me to believe that it really cost him, because

if it's a one off, I write all this two

hundred and ten thousand checks to buy this land Kila

Easilah one time, right, but throughout scripture, you see David

constantly devoting himself to the Lord. That means, when he

lives out the principle of love of giving unto the Lord,

that which cost him, he was constantly paying a price.

It sounds like, how can this God demand us to

pay a price. But again, I want to humanize this

a bit. You would do this for your love ones, right,

you would constantly pay a price for your loved ones,

If your loved ones, if you love you know someone,

every birthday, you will try to get something and it

will cost you. Right, in every significant moment of the

love one's life. You want to be a part of it,

you want to contribute, it'll cost you. So in the

same way, that was what David was practicing unto the

Lord in first seven of the teen fourteen the chapter

before you know a few you know, just ten eleven chapters,

oh sorry, in first seven, one book before in thirteen fourteen,

you see that David was being called a man after

God's own heart. And interestingly, even though this was before

he became king, all right, because that was told to

the prophet uh you know, to basically say, Saul is

no longer you know, going to be king for long.

I found someone that's after my own heart. That's what

the Lord says. And God was talking about David. You think, oh,

maybe this was before he did. He wasn't the man

after God's own heart for his whole life. But you

see in X chapter the teen verse Ney too, it

is said the same thing, that this man is a

man after God's own heart, again giving evidence that he

in fact did constantly pay a price loving the Lord.

It wasn't a one of things. That was David's reputation

and proof that he lived by this principle of love.

I will not give unto the Lord that which cost

me nothing. It has to cost me if I love God,

if I really really love him, I ought to do

things that will cost me for him. If you pursue

after someone's heart, let's humanize this again. If you love someone,

you have a crush for love with someone, If you

pursue after someone's heart, you would willingly pay the price,

many times not even counting the cost. And you see,

that is what the Lord is truly after. It's not

about how much we give, but how much we love

the Lord. That's the principle. The first point I want

to bring the cost in terms of the first point,

The cost is this, it's loving God costing us. Okay,

I'm gonna puck it there for a moment. All right,

I'm going to talk about the second point now, the cross.

So we talk about the costs, and I'm gonna talk

about the cross. I wanted to flip our Bibles to

Isaiah fifty three, verse three to twelve. You see, the

idea of paying a price for the people that we

love is not foreign to God. In fact, he probably

understood it the most if you look at Isaiah fifty three,

verse three to twelve. I'm just gonna read this. I

wanted to encourage us to imagine and meditate on this

versus as I read this. I'm gonna read it from

the NLT. All right, Isaiah faifety three, verse three to twelve.

This was talking about Jesus, all right. He was despised

and rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.

He was despised and we did not care. Yet it

was our weaknesses he carried. It was our sorrows that

weigh him down. And we thought his troubles were a

punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins. But

he was pierced for our rebellion. When we read that again,

he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.

He was bitaten so we could be whole. He was

whipped so we could be healed, all of us like

sheep have straight away. We have left God's path to

follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the

sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly,

yet he never said a word. He was led like

a lamb to the slaughter, and as the ship is

silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that

he died with the descendants, that his life was cut

short in midstream. But he was struck down for the

rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and

had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal.

He was put in a rich man's grave. Stand But

it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and

cause him grief. To read this again, it was the

Lord's good plan to crush him and cause him grief.

Yet when his life is made and offering for sin,

he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life,

and the Lord's good plan will prosper in his hands.

When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,

he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my

righteous servant will make it possible for many to be

counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I

will give him the honors of a victorious soldier. Because

he exposed himself to death, he was counted among the rebels.

He bought the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

I want to point out attention to the cross. Jesus

knew all too well about paying a price for the

people that he soul loved, and he did not pay

a price of a painless death. He went through crushing,

he went through humiliation, He went through whipping. I won't

go into the gross details of how the whip was done.

You guys know this. His skin was torn apart. He

went through that. Yet he went through all that with silence.

This is a god that knows all too well that

love requires a price, and Jesus paid that price. Jesus's

love for us was portrayed when he gave his awe

for us. Now, before we say that, God, how can

you can you demand us to pay a price to

follow you? As remember that he was the first to

know what it means to pay a price for the

people he loves. So the first point was the cost,

The second point was the cross. The third point I

want to bring a cross across is the conviction. Okay,

I did a pun unintended that one, actually, but it

worked well. Okay, Mark twelve forty one to forty four.

This is a story of the widow that gave two

copper coins two mites. All right. So it was in

this time that Jesus was sitting at the temple observing

people's giving unto the Lord. And there were a lot

of rich people came who pull in large amounts into

the offering. Oh, praise be to God, pouring large amounts.

But yet Jesus interestingly pointed our attention to the widow

that gave only two mins. And Jesus said this, the

person that gave the most is the widow paraphrasing, because

the widow gave her all. Again, it's not about the

amount it's about the heart. The widow truly loved a

lot that she was willing to give her all. For

the rich people pouring in large amounts probably don't cost

them as much. But for the widow, she gave everything,

and Jesus honored her. It's not about the amount, it's

the heart. It's the heart. What do you think pleases

our Father in heaven, The amount that we gives, the

amount that we are giving, or the posture of our hearts,

amount of money we put an offering back, or our

love for him. Because sometimes if you're not careful, it's

very we can be easily carried off with oh it's

just okay, I keep giving giving, But I see the

Lord is interested in our hearts. The Lord is interested

in our love for him, Mark twelve thirty. This is

where when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandments amongst

all commonments that are there, Jesus say, the first one,

of course, the very famous one, is this, love the

Lord of God with all your heart, so on mind

and strength, with all our heart, soul, mind and strength,

pointing back to King David. King David kneel out of

his true love for God, that he must give unto God,

not out of convenience, but out of conviction, because he

could have easily taken around us offer and it would

have been justified in men's side, totally understandable. You are

the king. You can take this land, and your instruction

is just to build an altar. If you read scripture,

it wasn't to buy the land. That wasn't the instruction.

Given it's just a build an author he could have

just done that. Oh so kind of around not to offer.

Let me take up your offer or praise beyond to God.

You're so kind and so generous to the Lord completely

could have been completely justified. But David must have loved

a lot so much that there's such deep conviction that calls, Nah,

I'm not gonna love God out of convenience. It has

to cost me. It has to cost me, and this

conviction can only come when we truly truly love the Lord.

If not, you feel like an obligation. If not, we

can be easily offended by this. That's why giving in

giving is one of the hardest topics to talk about

in church. A lot of people get offended. Are they

not like any a series and they're coming up it's

by talking about giving at this Homan all the church

one is our money. But I'm sure for those of

you who have been ext church long enough, you know

our interests is never in money, but in your breakthrough

and your growth with the Lord, and one of the

steps to grow our faith. It's true the giving, and

I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about lives

because the Lord says to love the Lord your God

with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, not just money,

but with your awe, with your awe. How much do

you love the Lord. It's a simple question I want

to ask us this morning. Is here everything I spoke

about giving, and of course the examples in scripture that

was brought up, with the key scripture being David saying

I will not give unto the Lord that which cost

me nothing, and I talk about the widow with the

two minds that she gave for all. Giving is a

litmus test of our love towards the Lord. It's often

the first indicator of where we are, we've got and

this is something that no one will be able to

tell you. This is something that only true self reflection

you will know what is our posture when we give

to the Lord? Do we give our convenience? I have

a confession right last time, right, funny story. I was

a campus student. I didn't prepare my giving for Sunday. Okay,

so in my wallet there are a few notes, and

back then there was a certain amount that I would

give every Sunday. But that Sunday I didn't prepare that

particular note forgiving. So when the offering back came, I

opened my wallet. It was a much larger note there

was there. So I'm like, oh man, why didn't I

prepare a smaller note for the Lord? Which I always do?

And it was at that moment the Lord convicted my heart?

Is this how you love me? Do you even love me?

Why are you so calculative? Number one, you didn't prepare

and number two you're hoping you can give me lesser.

See again, I want to pay us to pay attention.

It's not about the amount, but how a heart is

what I need to give you this purple note? God? Yeah,

is there a posture towards the lot? And of course

I'm using giving as an example, but it's often a

litmus test or a hard check when we really dig

deep into our hearts. Why do we find it hard

to give? Why do we find it so difficult and

sometimes we grumble? It's a good check of where we

are with the Lord. I don't have much experience in

terms of years with the Lord. I accept the prist

for myself when I was fifteen, okay, fifteen years now,

it's about fifteen years. But in these fifteen years, I've

come to realize that the days where I found myself

easiest to give unto the Lord sacrificially, no matter what area, money, time, obedience,

it was when I'm closest to the Lord. That was

when it was the easiest. Even when I have nothing,

I found it such a pleasure to give the God.

It's easy. It's very weird feeling because it's still stung,

but there was pleasure in giving. That's why the Bible says,

you know, the Lord the lies in cheerful give us.

It's not to force you to be happy, but it's

actually an indicator of where you are. If you're able

to give cheerfully, it shows where your heart is with

the Lord. Right. So I found myself in the past

fifteen years of following the Lord that when God says

do something, I do it. Willingly and happily, even if

it costs me. It is when I'm the closest with

the Lord. Sometimes I even do more than But the

Lord said, Lord didn't say anything. I would say, do

it out of love for God. So that is something

that I want to ask us today. How much do

you love the Lord? The Bible gave us a benchmark.

If you don't know what's a benchmin The Bible says,

love the Lord your God with all your mind, soul strength.

So that's a question I have for a simple question.

How much do you love the Lord? Is he your everything?

Or has other things taken that place? Has our love

been given to something of someone else? Mother Teresa, the

woman known as the Lady with a huge compassion, She

said this, if you give what you do not need,

it isn't giving. Are we giving leftovers to the Lord?

How much do we love God? Are we giving leftovers?

Whatever's life, of our time, energy, money, resources, is our

giving to the Lord. And after thought, Yo, it's offering

time whatever I have, healer or God Sunday service. Lord,

you understand last night I partied really hard. I need

to sleep. It's our giving onto the Lord, whether it's

whatever areas of our life and after talk and what's

ever left? Or are we giving God what's best? The

Bible has always taught us the principle of tithing, and

I'm not talking about money, only tithing meaning giving our

best unto the Lord, our first foods, first foods. Why

money is used because it's the easiest illustration we can

all relate, right, But the Lord teaches us in the

Bible over and over again that we ought to give

our first fruits to the Lord. That's why we do

our prayer rally at the start of the year, first

of January, because when I say, Lord, before we do

anything else, we're all of ten percent of our day

unto you. It's based on that principle that we're doing it.

The principle of giving God your first fruits, giving God

your best crops, that was taught in scripture. We learned

this in homes recently. There's a thing called bargain giving.

Are we giving out of a bargain? I find myself

if I'm not careful in this situation? Right God? And

if a three gif you challenge me to give this amount,

I give, but I believe you give me tenfold in return.

Sounds okay, right, but what is the spirit behind it?

Am I giving out of love or giving expecting something?

In writturn? Because being Christians we can fall into that trap.

I have fallen into that trap many times because if

the goal is to please the Father again, it's not

but as the heart, the Lord's looking at your heart.

If you're giving mince, you're giving give it in a

way that pleases the Lord. And that can only be

done when we truly love the Lord and that our

giving is coming out of love. I'll share a story

next picture. There's a story of the giant carrot and

the horse. It is ai generated not there kenva, very good, okay, Yeah,

it's on canva to help us imagine. Okay, So this

is a story of the carrot and the horse. So

this in olden times there was a king and then

there's this gardener who one day, when he was collecting

his crops, he found the biggest carrot he ever had. Huge,

and the first thought he has, like, I ought to

offer this to the king. Let me give this to

the king. So he brought this carrot, put it onto

his wagon, drag it all the way to the palace,

and brought it before the king and said, my lord,

my lord, this is the biggest carrot I've ever farmed.

Take it. Take it. And then when he was doing that,

there was a nobleman, all right, nobleman who saw this

whole exchange happen, the huge carrot, the carrot going onto

the wagon, the whole pulling of the the wagon into

the palace, and the offering to the king. And a

nobleman thought, ah, wow, what in the world is he doing.

And then an exchange happened after that that he heard

the King said to this this, this, this farmer, this gardener.

He said, wow, that's very generous of generous of you.

Let me give you a plot of lead. And he

got a plot of land. Wow. And then the nobleman,

being a businessman, thought this is a good deal. Let

me try. He brought his finest horse from his stable,

brought it to the palace, presented to the king. My lord,

my lord, this is the finest horse I have in

my stable. I will want to offer it unto you.

And you know what the King, in his wisdom said.

The King said this to the nobleman. The gardener was

giving me the carrot, but you were giving yourself the

horse be complex, but let that sink in. I'm going

to say that one more time. That gardener was giving

me the carrot, but you were giving yourself the horse.

Because the gardener came out of a cheerful heart to

want to offer the king his best, but the nobleman

wanted an exchange, a bargain, a trait of a lifetime.

What is our posture when we come before the king

of kings and a lot of lords? Here of these

stories that happened in churches when when I was growing up,

stories of how there can be certain politics in church

where there will be wealthy men that give a lot

of money to the offering back, who give into the

building fund, give on this Who sponsored this sponsor there

with the expectation that they would have a say in

the church decisions. It's said, but it's true for their

names to be mentioned on stage. We want to thank

this so and so for generously sponsoring this amount of

money into our building fund. Is that an offering? My

question is is that an offering you think that pleases

the Lord? What is our posture when we served the

lot and to all the Christians here? Do you remember

your response when you first experienced God's love. Take a

trip down memory lane. Remember that very first time you

encountered the Lord. I remembered it very clearly. I'm going

to share my story to you in a bit. Do

you remember that first time you encountered God? Try to

recall your first response. I'll share a few mind so,

I mentioned when I was fifteen. I grew up in

a Christian family, but I only personally gave my life

to Jesus when I was fifteen, when it was my

first time encountering the Lord. I was a rebellious child

back then. They didn't really like studying. I got myself

into a relationship and then parents found O. I had

to break it off. Feel very said, very emo, very depressed.

You know. It was in not good terms with my parents.

Every conversation is least to an argument. It was a

very down down moment in my life. And I remember

I was at this youth conference and the author was

opened and I went out, uh, and I said, God,

I mean this place now, if you're really real, you're

the God that I've been studying in Sunday School the

past many years of my life, and you are real,

proved to me, are real, dangerous prayer, dangerous prayer. So

what happened after that was I felt like a truck

hitting me, invisible truck hitting me, and I felt backwards.

No pain, though interesting first time. And then I was like, okay,

this is weird. But I don't hear anything, nothing is happening.

And then I don't know. I was just on the ground.

Time just flew by. I didn't I have and no

concept or time. In that moment, everyone worship thing was

backing up, everybody left. My pastor came to me, Stephen

can come up already. Okay, okay, I got up. Boom.

Now the truck hit me. I feel backwards again, and

that's why I heard the Lord whispered to me, Am

I real enough to you? Now. That was my first

encounter with the lot, and I remember very clearly my response.

I say, Lord, you're real, You're my God, You're my Lord.

I don't have much on me now. I feel like

I can't do anything well. I can't study well, I

don't have good relationship. I don't have a good testimony.

But whatever I have I give to you, Lord, whatever

I have in my hands I offer to you. I

don't even know what is the whatever Because I had

nothing in my head, I just say, got my whole life,

give un to you, the fifteen year old, rebellious child

that can't do anything. Well, here I am to day

testifying of course reality. That was my first response to

the Lord. And I will always remember that first response,

and my prayer to myself is every day I will

have the same response to the Lord wherever I have

a give un to you. Oh, Lord, you revealed this

need to me. I'll do it. Lord. You want me

to serve you in this area, even though I'm so

scared and not confident. I'll do it. Lord. You want

me to go and care for this person, even though

I myself feels like I need a little bit of caring. Okay, Lord,

I do it. What is? Do you remember your first

response to the Lord when you first encountered him. Then

the next question is what has changed? What has changed?

Definitely not God, because God is the same yesterday, today

and tomorrow. So it has to be us. So what

has changed within us that has caused us to go?

From God? I give you my whole life, Lord, I

gave you my heart. Two Lord, you can understand R

do so much? Ready? What happened in between how much

do we love the Lord? You know again, just that

I mentioned giving, it's a litmus test. It's giving. Still

our response to the lot I want to clarify again,

not just about money. I'll time, our resources, our energy.

What is our response to the Lord? One last story

before I come to the end. I remember this was

when I first started Uni. I'm from Beneng so when

I came down to study in Sunway, UNI, it was

twenty sixteen. So every sem break I would go back

home to visit family. I remember one time, right, because

I studied film production, so there was my background. So

we do a lot of scriptwriting. So we have a

lot of documents and look, it's documents. You have storyboard

and you draw a storyboard and you prepare a production

list in all schedule and or that. So it's a

lot of paper and document So I thought, HM would

be really good if I have a document holder on

my table. They can just keep my document there. Right,

So I remember my parents had run so I when

I went back home, I say, hey, do you know

me this document holder? It's been there before I was born. Actually,

it's very old. So I asked the question where do

you think I can get this? But you know, my

parents' first response it was very I don't know why,

but it registered deep into my mind in my heart.

My parents said, he's just the killer so some things

so was simple. I think, parents, you guys understand this.

You would do it without a better But in that

very moment, it just occurred to me this document holders

have been faithfully serving my parents so many years, and

they use it, they really really use it. But yet

when I asked with doubt, it's just in a split

second you just say, just ti kula, bring it back

to you. I felt really bad that I know they

really so I didn't take it, and today don't have

document holder. But God is good. I still survived. Uni okay,

but but you see, that is how much my parents

loved me. Even something that they find is useful for

their daily life without its just in a split second

they just gladly offered to their son and say, just

take it, take it back. Do we have the same

response to the Lord when we the way we love God?

Do we have the same response? Do we offer our

lives like how we're offered when we first accounted and

encountered God? Or has life jaded us has spiritual experience

or many years being a Christian created wolves within Earth

and God. Because we can have all the form of Christianity,

do everything right, even serving in church, coming for homes,

serving in homes, inviting people for church, sharing the gospel,

we can have all that, but still at the same

time not really have love for God. Where are we

in our love with the Lord that is always the

most important. Ministry is great, but ministry is not priority.

And share to those of us here that self faithfully

without ministry is not your God. Ministry is a response

to your love for God. When we get this upside down,

there's where we start getting burnt out. That's where we

start facing problems, getting frustrated. But where are we today

with the Lord? And this is something only you can

answer unless God gives me a spiritual revelation prophetic revelation.

I wouldn't know, but you would know, but you would

take some time of reflecting whether you still love the

Lord the same way that you did like before? Are

we giving God out all? And giving God out all

is a response and reflection of our love towards Him.

Everything in this world will come and go. Finances, material wealth, relationships, friendships.

But you know, the love of the Lord towards us

would never move and never change. And there's an encouragement

to all of us this morning. Are we giving our

awe unto the Lord? How are we loving the Lord?

Are we willing to lay down our life for the Lord?

Are we willing to go like God? I have my plans,

I have my dreams, I have my desires. But Lord,

let your will be done. I want to please you. Lord.

I may have my problems, my challenges, and my obstacles

in life. But Lord, as difficult as it is, I

still want to please you. Lord. Sticking by my convictions,

the convictions that you have given me, the things of

the Word, will cost me. But yet Lord, I will

do it because I love you Lord. Are we willing

to do that? Are we willing to lay aside our preferences,

lay aside our own desires to please the Lord? Because

that is all it is about Christianity, pleasing the Lord,

loving God enough to want to please him. Because if

we are at a place where we go like I

don't really feel like pleasing God, then we have missed

the whole point. Because the whole point of our faith

and our work with God is to journey with him,

to have a relationship with him, to love him as

he loves us, to bring pleasure to our Lord. So

if we have come to a place where I don't

think I want to do that much to do this,

that I'm saying we have missed the main point. We

are completing the psych Christs, but not the main mission. Oh,

thinking serving in church, coming home, you think all these things,

but yet the main thing of loving the Lord, pleasing him,

we don't achieve. So that is a reminder for us today,

had check how are we loving the Lord today? A

love that is conditional, that has a lot of bargaining involved,

or love that is Lord, whatever you say, Lord, I'm here.

I love you Lord. And you know the beautiful thing

about this is love of God is guaranteed in your life.

You can never outgive God. You think God will ask

you the man you're all from you and then just

leave you be? Don't you think God loves you more

than that? And with that and we're going to come

to an end. I'm going to close. So in this moment,

just take this time to reflect, do a little hard check,

as I have to do it too. Where am I

with the Lord? Where am I with the Lord? Lord?

Where's how is my love to you? Lord? Has it

gotten colder? Has it gotten harder for me to say

yes to you? Has it gotten harder for me to

give my all to you? Has it gotten harder for

me to trust you? Has it gotten harder for me

to follow you wholeheartedly? Has it gotten harder for me

to let go of certain areas of my life? Oh? Lord,

help me? Maybe I'll stand as I come to it

to a close. My challenge to us today church is

will you still give your life to God daily? I

once heard this saying that the decision to follow Jesus

is not a one off decision, but it's a daily decision.

Every day we wake up. We have to decide, Lord,

do I follow you, Lord, following your all the way?

Wherever you say goes, wherever you say I trust you, Lord,

I will obey. I'll do it. And if some of

you are struggling to do that is a reflection again

of where your heart is with the Lord, your love

for the Lord, if your love for the lives gotten colder.

There is actually no complex formula. It's actually very simple.

Have you been spending time with him or have you

been distracted by other things? Have you found pleasure in

other things? Have you found your time better spend elsewhere

and spending time with the Lord. Because if you truly

desire to experience this beautiful relationship with God, then you've

got to ask yourself what are your priorities? Are you

spending time reading the Word daily? Are you praying daily?

I remember saying this a year ago or a year

plus ago, that it's only going to get harder you

to read the Word if you don't start now, the

world is getting more and more complicated seeking to draw

you away. There will always be the next fun thing

to do. Start reading the Word of God. Now. That

is God's love letter for you.

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. I

hit for you. God bless