Are you fully confident of the Gospel | Elder Rosalind Ang

You're listening to a message to go from at church. We hope this message

will light up your day a half, your reflection of saying God for the

next half year of twenty twenty four, What am I going to do with

this? What am I gonna do? Am I gonna let it just flow

and pass me by? Like the first half of this year has been?

Or do I want to make it count? You do? You want to

make it count, and you want to make it count in a way that's

meaningful to God? Right. I mean, you can have built many things

in the first half of the year, but I wonder if it's tested by

the fire of God, will it stand? Will it stand? Will it

stand? Will it will? Will God say? Yes? Those things that

you have put your effort and your time and your resources into, these other

things that will last forever? Does it have an eternal value? Right?

And so this is something that we want to continue to realign ourselves. This

is a challenging, tough It's a very tough thing to do, guys in

this day and ith is very hard because it's so much easier to get distracted

by everything and then to just remember God, Thank you Jesus for breakfast,

lunch, and dinner, and that's as much encountered as you have with the

Lord. And then you go like, I don't know how real God is

am I speaking truth here? Or is it just me? Because I go

through this season as well. It's like, I'm so busy doing things and

getting things done, and you can be working in ministry and still miss the

point. Do you know what I'm saying? You can be in church and

still miss God. And that's what I don't want us to miss out,

all right? So now so you see the things, right, I think

some things that we can learn from Paul and from his language, right,

he says, Paul a bond servant of Jesus Christ. Now this term bond

servant, what other translations do you have? What other words do you have

in Romans? One? Slave? Whoh wow? Thank you for bringing that

out. How many of you are slaves or want to be slaves? Anyone?

Anyone? Ain't no one, no, nobody wants to be slave?

How come you know that in today's day and age we've abolished slavery because we

say human rights. You know, everyone should be their own persons, right,

correct? Correct? Right? But Paul is using slave language, He

said, you say the thing is right. We think that we are free?

Correct? We sang a song freedom, I don't know, okare?

What's the type? The last second song? Free? I want to be

free. I want to be free? Okay? And many of us long

for the idea of freedom. But Paul is subjecting himself to slavery. Hey,

hello, roight, different doctrina or what? Why is it different?

Why are we longing to be free? And then Paul is saying, but

I'm a slave? How do you how do you rationalize this contradiction? Right?

See the things right? We may not recognize it, but we are

all slaves. We are all slaves. The choice is this. You either

become a slave to sin, your old nature, which we all were bonded

in sin, or you can say I am now slave to Christ. This

is the kind of freedom that we're talking about. Which one do you want

to be in? Slave to sin or slave to Christ? Say yeah,

slave to Christ? Ask you to sir, no, thank you? No?

Not free? Right? I think it's funny. Okay, it's funny

because we say one thing, but we behave otherwise. It's human nature,

it's the sin nature within us. We say one thing, but we behave

otherwise, right, and and so God is you know, Paul's heart is

like, yeah, I but Paul was true and true consistent. He says,

I'd rather be a slave of God and you know, do his way

and be a donkey for him, right, than to be a prince or

king somewhere else. You know, you can see this theme right for those

of the amazing characters in the Bible that had God as their central focus,

They're like, everything is central around you. David himself, he was a

king of Israel, right, it would they were. The whole kingdom prospered

under his his leadership. But he says, God, if there's one thing,

if there's one thing I want is to be in your presence. That's

the only thing, you know. I don't want anything else, but the

one thing that I desire is to be in your presence. How many of

us long for that? Like God? Not nothing else, never mind,

can take away all the gold and the glitter and the silver and the promotion

and all the work whatever, But I long to be in your presence.

One day in the house of God is better than a thousand elsewhere. Can

you see all these words of the heart because it describes the deepest longing that

we have. Right. And you know, as I was, you know,

meditating on this and reflecting, I'm like, God, I'm so far

from this because my life is so feel with me. My life is so

feeled with me, myself, I my family, my job, my datelines.

Can you see where is going? My hell? Me? Me?

Me? Right? And then I have to stop myself and say, Okay,

God, this is not about me. I am to actually say I'm

a slave or Christ. Right, It's a huge thing, and it's to

say, God, whatever you say, I will do what, no matter

what the cost is, I will do it because you've asked me to do

it. You've said it, and I will obey. Right. And so

this is Paul at the right, at the get go, even before anything,

paul a bond serven his title is serven slave? Say sorry, not

even servan. Now slave, my title is slave. Have you brandered around

yourself going around I'm not a leader by my slave, by the way,

leaders, right, you're slaves. You're not slaves to the church as slaves

to God. Can you understand that? And many people shy away from that.

It's like I don't want the commitment is saying God, I don't want

to come under eula, right, and so I pray it, we will

not fear, We will not fear the one thing to get closer to God

and understanding what it means to be fully sold out for God. Right.

And then he goes through all that thing. And one of the great things

about Paul is you know that his heart is always about others. Right.

Remember I just say that the slave slavery to self is me, me,

me, me, me me, and Paul slave to God is others.

Because you see why in verse eight, let's go to verse eight. Let's

let's see how he even starts off right. He says, firstly, I

thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all. And he says that for

God is my witness. What now he's calling God as your swittness? Do

you dare call God as your witness? God, you stand witness of me?

Because this is what he claims to to do. Right. He says,

whom myself with my spirit in the Gospel that without seizing, I make

mention of you always in my prayers. Whoa do you dare to call God

as your waitness to say you've been praying for others. Have you been praying

for others? Has there been intercession for others in your prayer life? Let

me ask you that question. Is there a heart that goes beyond yourself and

your needs? Every time we come up prayer, we're like, okay,

it's about me, right, my needs? We come and we're like,

come, come, come and pray. You know, God with me your

need. But how many of us harm into prayer? He saying, God,

I want to bless others. I want to see my neighbor get their

breakthrough. How many of us do that? Paul's heart is always about others.

He's his his mind and his heart beat is a to make mention of

someone every day in prayers. You know it's it's not like, Okayla,

Tuesday preservice twice a month we remember others and Sunday maybe we remember others.

But this is every day in his own personal prayer, He's remembering others because

his heart is always that they will catch the fire that he himself is burning

with. Can you see his desire? His desires. I'm consumed with God

and the things of God, and I want to, Ah, can you

guys catch the fire of Paul or his desire is always for others to flourish,

and that that's why he makes intercessions for them. And he says,

Sir, I thank God. How about thanking God for the people around us?

Do you do that? Do you actually thank God for those who are

serving? Later on? You know, those who are serving on holes or

sound or XTV? Can you do you thank them for serving? We forget?

Right, we forget because it's like, okay, same old sam old

you know, in and out in and now can you make a vow within

yourself or or at least made a commitment to open up your eyes and see

other people? Because uh, many times our eyes are just focused on me.

And when we are focused on me, we miss others. You don't

see other people struggling. You don't see other people. You know, one

person by itself carrying the heavy drinks for express I don't know, I don't

know how, but we don't see it. Ma. Why we don't see

it even though it's under our nose. It's because our eyes is focused on

me. Right, Can can you see that? Now? Open our eyes?

Maybe the Lord open our eyes to see others around us, semen.

And when we see them. Don't just say okay, good on you,

thanks for serving. But then you got hands, so so all right,

got correct, you got feet as all right, you also got mount right,

and all those things are to be used. Why keep it to yourself?

Correct? I went like laughing, I don't know why you're smiling,

lidy, Okay, Uh, go ahead, encourage. I went after this.

Okay, but they bove, they boy, but they boy Okay,

So he remembers them, even though you you have to recognize this. The

church in Rome was not a church that Paul founded. He went around planting

a lot of churches, but this was one of the churches that he didn't

plan. But he knew that Rome was the seed to the government. Do

you understand that? And you know that's why for us, I like this

brother here wearing the shit experienced Putrajaya. Do you remember that? Why we

we we kind of boldly went and took hold took hold off Putrajaya significant right,

because that's where the heartbeat of this nation is gonna be. And so

so Paul is like he's one thing to lay claim of Rome because he knew

that the gospel gets spread from there, the whole nation will will get to

hear the gospel. Amen, right, So, so understand things in the

bigger perspective of what God is after right now? All right? And then

Paul had the mind of God. Now that's the first thing. He always

had this intercession for people. Number two, What else can we learn about

the life of Paul? Right? So the first one is is he's making

intercession for others. I pray that we will learn to begin to pray for

others. Can we make intercession? You know, if there's something that you're

feeling a little bit edgy about, then why don't you make intercession? Right?

Is it your homes? You feel like a very stuck lad? There's

no growth in my homes he pray. Pray for your homies, lam,

pray for your homes leader. If your leader, homes leader is not doing

his or her job, pray, right, why do you just let nothing?

I can do nothing? Hey? Hello, pray? Do you know

your prayers powerful? Right? If you're you're feeling like, hey, how

come so many EMPTI sis? Huh? Why do so many empty seds?

Pray? Pray and declare that there's a life, a precious life that needs

to sit on this seat and hear God's word and be transformed by him.

Amen. Our precious salvation is not to be kept for ourselves on you you

know, right, just like any good news, right, best Nasi lama?

Why you keep the good news to yourself? Spread it? Spread the

gospel of the good news. The most important good news is the salvation of

Jesus christy man, So I pray you don't come in and just see,

oh you ampcs and PCEs. Would you declare church? Can I encourage you

and invite you to see with your spiritual eyes? You want to exercise spiritual

right, you want to get strong spiritually. Every time you come you see

mpt SS you declare, declare God. This will be filled with a life.

This will be filled with a soul, a child, a teenager,

a campers, student, a family, an adult, a mom or dad,

someone who needs to know God. Amen. Right, you know all

of us have a part to play in making this work, the body of

Christ. Right. You know you're called the body of Christ and every one

of us are parts of it. Right, So that means that you you

you have something to contribute. You know you're not You're not just a date

weight cell. Can you imagine if you're an organa liver, liver liver Okay,

I don't know why liver d talks. Okay, we're trying to detox

people are that's why live ala. You're trying to d talk and then you're

you happen to be the cell in the liver that's not working. How cannot

naw? The whole liver needs you to function correct And if you have other

giftings, then you you play that part well, all of us when we

come. Do you know what makes this place a spiritual place? It's your

faith. It's the faith that you choose to bring in. If there's one

person that comes in here unbelieving, do you think that the be a miracle?

Do you know Jesus says right that I cannot perform many miracles? Is

it because he cannot? But he says because nobody believes. So if you're

asking yourself how come there is no miracles here? Then ask yourself, did

I come believing that there will be miracles? Did I come with the faith

that will move mountains? Or did I come and like, ah, just

another thing? Okay, after wordship's word, afterward, it's fellowship. Okay,

did you come believing or not. Did you come expecting? Did you

come with this heart that says God, I want to see you move because

I know you can. Well can you imagine it? All of you came

with the faith whoa, whoa, whoa, the lame will w the blind

will see, you can even raise the day. Do you believe that?

Man? So, the faith is not depending on whether God is here or

not, because He's see you all the time. It's whether you choose to

dvate the faith that God has given you. No point, no point just

coming a empty shell. Right? You come with faith, faith that moves

mountains, faith that God will see whoa come on the thing the day?

Whoa you guys, believe and it shall be done. You believe and it

shall be done. Imen, Wow, come on, I really sends God

wants to you know, bring you to another level? Right that from this

day onward, every time you step into any gathering, any place, even

in your office, you will bring that difference. Do you know that it

doesn't own Your faith doesn't only work in church and Christians, I think hello,

and your fath is to work in your office. Your faith need to

work in your campus because when you, as the bearer of the faith you

step into your office, you are gonna make that difference when two or three

are gathered in His name. Find someone else. Don't be alone, Okay,

find another believer and say, God, we're gonna claim this company for

you. How about that, God, We're gonna change this jealan where I

stay in for you Because when two our three are gathered, God, we

will make that difference. We will be the salt and light. And that's

what makes life exciting. Guys, do you know life is gonna be so

exciting You're gonna be like whoa? You know, I can't wait for next

day because I'm gonna enter into whatever God calls me to and I'm gonna bring

my faith and I'm gonna see God work. You see, the things like

life gets very boring and dull as a Christian is when you don't see anything

work, when there is no transformation, when there's no breakthrough, same old,

same old, you know. But if you're beginning to walk by faith

and you're beginning to bring faith into where God has placed you, you're gonna

see differences. Amen, a man, Every relationship can be transformed God.

Amen, Let's see what else. Paul is right, every time he met

with the believers, and this is him before he met them. He had

two goals. Two ambitious. Actually, Paul is a very ambitious man,

you know that, very ambitious. Now the first one, let's see what

he is. Okay, So that is the intercession. He says, I

remember you, So let's remember someone. Okay, let's remember someone who is

the person that God's bringing your mind. Pray for that person. Okay,

what is this ambition? Now? In verse eleven, let's go to verse

eleven. He says, for I long to see you that I may impart

to you some spiritual gift so that you may be establish. That is,

that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you

and me. So the first ambition that Paul has is always two to what

what is The word starts with an E. To encourage and thank you,

to go on the ball. Okay. Every time that he met someone,

he wanted to encourage, and he's like, I long to impart you some

spiritual gift. Right, you think about it. Every time you meet someone

else, are you bringing encouragement or are you bringing discouragement? I use this

as as a test for myself where after every conversation that I had with someone,

did they leave this conversation edified or not edify? Meaning after I talked

to Brendon already, right, he goes away thinking, oh, my life

is a misery. I'm so discouraged of the hopeless. Everything is hopeless.

After talking to the elder, rous you watch inside out? Not by the

way, are you so good? So good inside out? To please go

watch it if you're you know you've got family or friends. I had such

a good time, but you're always like sad. Right, every time you

think about it as an asset test, every time you have a conversation with

someone, do you think the person went away from the encounter with you encouraged

and lifted up or discouraged? That's a good way to think. How to

guard your mouth, right, how to guard your conversations? Or you go

around and you're talking tonight, it's like that leader like that, you know

what, always let that one and you know what happens when we leave that

conversation. He's gonna think Wenied's got some serious problem. Did that actually edify

him? Not at all? In fact, it's actually tearing the body of

Christ. Do you realize that how gossip tests the body of Christ apart.

And so I make it a point to never talk bad about a person.

Don't all right if you have nothing they say, if you have nothing to

say, don't say anything right, But then ask God, God, can

you reform my mind? How about that? Instead of not just saying God,

you know, I will behold from saying something bad, would you ask

God to give you new eyes to see that this person was also made in

the image of God. When you are actually talking down on a person,

you're talking to down to an image of God. Do you realize that?

Can you realize the significance and the severity when you talk bad about a person,

you're talking bad about a creation of God. That means you're ultimately saying,

God, I think you did a bad job with this guy. Right,

God, Then how do you respond? Then? Can you intercede?

Long? Right? Instead of complaining about this person, would you intercede God

show mercy to this person? Would he find Christ as well? Oh?

Okay, there's some eye contact going on here, Like, okay, I'm

using this illustrative Okay, illustrative. I don't know. I don't know because

I haven't been here for a long time. I don't know what's happening.

Again, I don't know. I don't know. So, but but can

you see can you see how practical God's word is? You know, it's

not just some every fairy thing, right, it's it's really in your daily

things, in your daily life. How you how you converse, how you

talk to someone, right, is it gonna be edifying or not? And

if you catch yourself not being edified? I says I'm gonna stop. Okay,

God cleansed my mouth, you know, with some clorox. If no

clors, use cold or fire? Ooh like isiel like that? Okay?

Not mine? Okay? So the first ambition of power is to bring bring

what encouragement? Would you do that? Would you say? Okay, God,

every time I meet someone, I want to bring encouragement. All right,

that's right, Okay, repeat after me. I will bring encouragement.

That's right, Bring encouragement to someone. Let the person you know you you

know what what Actually, every time we come to worship, you know that

worship, right, we are bringing glory to someone, right, and for

us when we worship, we worship God, so we are we are bringing

glory to him. But you know what we add weight? You know,

glory means adding weight. Uh. And and the illustration comes. You know

how in some cultures they will lay you laiden you with wreath of flowers like

uh is it in India or wherever where? If you go to there,

if you're a person of honor, I give you a wreath of flower.

I add a lot of weight around you. And that's what what praise is.

When we praise God, we are adding glory to God. We're adding

weight to God. Okay, And and it's important for us to remember that,

all right, we are we're just adding value to someone. All right,

Let's let's always remember can I add value to imen? So that's the

first ambition to bring encouragement. Now what is the second ambition that Paul has

Let's read this, Okay, this is now in verse thirteen. It says,

now, I don't want you to be mon tatar, or to be

blurbcase, or to be unaware brethren, that I often plan to come to

you, but was hindered antenna that I might have some fruit among you also,

just as among the other gentles. Now, what is this fruit that

Paul is talking about? What is this fruit? Okay? You see,

oh very nice. Not XTIV well done? Other you know service plans day

they just have the black color screen and white with not this God Bible behind.

No. Wow, can you give it up for XTV? Such a

nice background? Okay? What is this fruit that we are talking about?

Sorry, it's okay. I don't buy an I just make fun of you

and you after that, okay, just give some wild guess. Well,

what do you think this fruit that Paul is talking about? What kind of

fruit does he want to have? What's the first thing that comes to your

mind? Fruit of the spirit? Okay, which is why would you know

that the fruit of the spirit? You actually go back to X Kids,

okay, or I've not asked for an internship so that you learn the fruit

of the spirit from ex kids, love, joy, peas, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Okay, bring

you back to X Kids okay, Children's church. But anyways, any other

thoughts around what kind of fruit that we're talking about here? What is Paul

really after? No, Now, the fruit that Paul is thinking of here

not the fruit of the spirit, but it's the fruit of the harvest of

souls. Do you see that this fruit right is talking about about evangelism.

So Paul had two ambitions. Every time he is thinking about someone, he

is corresponding to someone. Every time he wants to go and visit this church,

he has two ambitions. One is to bring encouragement. The second one

is to bring evangelism, because he says, I also want to have that

fruit. For one. Sometimes we think of fru it. It's just like,

Oh, as long as I'm a holy person, be all the fruit

of the spirit. I'm okay. But Paul is thinking beyond just you.

He's thinking, how about the others who have not heard of the message of

the Gospel of Christ. So he is thinking about all the pre believers,

and he's like, I also want a bit of the fruit, because you

know what, at the end of the day, when we are standing before

God and he's gonna ask us, what did you do with your life,

You're not gonna say to him God. You know, in my EPF right,

I got a many million and I provided two bungalows for my kids and

I send them to our Havard and Oxford, and I got a very nice

retirement plan for myself. Is that what you're gonna tell God He's gonna say,

what about all the souls that I put around you? Where's the harvest

of that? And you're gonna go, lie, Oh, was that my

mission? Ah? I didn't know. Nobody told me. I'm telling you.

I'm telling you now that that is your mission. So you cannot stand

before God and say nobody told me. Then suddenly my voice will say,

ha ha ha. Remember today, the end of June twenty twenty four,

out of the road. I already told you that the fruit that God is

looking at is the harvest of souls. Can we catch that heart of God?

Because the heart of God is not just one thing. All of us

to be saved and blessed. He's saying, bring the other sheep into the

sheep. Four, Bring the others out there out there. Something got a

lot know a lot of people out outside there right now? How are we

bringing them? This is just the how first. So if you can think

about it right, Oh my gosh, how do I spend my resources on

things that matter to God? You can? You can't, slowly, but

surely, how about taking up this challenge to say, God, in the

next six months of twenty twenty four, I'm gonna commit to bringing one soul

unto you? How about there just one? I'm not asking for a hundred?

Yeah? One? And how do I start this? God? Can

I? Can you give me a name? Sometimes you're like so many people

are don't know where to start one name? Just ask God. If you

ask God, he will give you a note and he'll give you to a

tree. I can ad know. Now, mind take God? One by

one? Okay, one by one? One? First? Can I start

praying for this brother or this sister or this family member? Am I hungry

for this person to know you? If you don't feel that hunger? God,

give me this hunger, give me this desire to see this person come

to know you. And then you begin to strategize, Okay, God,

what do I do next? What do I do next? Right? Right?

And because then you become consumed like Paul. Every day I'm thinking about

you unseasically, pray day and night for this brother, this sister who needs

to know God. And then suddenly you're like, can not the hundry?

Dad? Right? Okay, a bro, that's y. I'm ta Let's

go for something. You know, I have this hunger that I need to

tell you something. You know, because this is so important for you.

Now, whether this person receives Christ or not is the person's journey. Your

role is to go because God will just look at you and say, Elie,

did you go talk to that person? The conversion I will do.

But I wanted you to go and talk to that person. Did you go

or not? And you're like, uh, I wanted to, but my

scheduler, you know, doesn't permit it. See. God will call us

to account of all the connections that you have, all the influence that you

have, even what you use on your social media. Do you know that

many times now we spend two hours on social media and you're just scrolling through,

right, and you think, is this edifying anyone on earth? I

don't know. I seriously you have to ask yourself that you know, am

I adding value to anyone or not? Or is it just precious time wasted

away? Because there's no eternal value in that. I don't know. I

don't know if you have the no knowledge of the latest viral trends or whatnot.

You're like the cool key. You know, you know what to say,

the language, and not that it does it have eternal value? If

we put our actions in the light of eternal value. Then I think we

will we will start to live our lives a little bit differently or radically radical

for God. It's like, you know, got in this two hours?

Is there someone that I can go and talk to? Is the someone that

I can go in minutes or bring encouragement to spend time with? Can you

see now? If all of us catch hold of this, the church will

be different. Your life will be different, and not just your life,

the life of others will be different. You know, what a great what

a great ambition to have to think that. You know, every time I

have encountered with someone, can I have an edifying, encouraging conversation? Or

can I bring the message of the good news? Do you know that you

know we love our friends and family? We say that right, right?

Do we say that we love our family and friends? Do you know that

the greatest act of love is to give them Christ? Don't say, you

know, give them all the money and all that, right? The greatest

gift. And parents, I'm speaking to you here, The greatest legacy that

you can give your children is faith in God. Believe in God, Trust

in God. That is the greatest gift, and that one no economic crisis

or political crisis or war will rob you of that, because that is a

fruit that will stand the test of fire and that will bring that's an eternal

value. Nothing in this world can give you that. Amen. Let's let's

let's ask God like, Okay, God, I think I want this,

right, I really want this. I don't just want to profess myself as

a believer. I'm a believer and a doer. Right, a follower.

You don't just believe, but you do what you believe in. You follow,

you know, you follow of the Christ or what Christ do. He's

every day he's either found preaching in the synagogue or he's healing people or ministering

or giving them words of life. Right. If you want to say how

do I follow Jesus? I tell you, La, you look at the

scriptures. I read the by right right the Gospel saying what did Jesus do?

All Jesus today went to the temple? Okayla, let me go to

church. Right, bring encouragement to Albert laud for you know, serving the

Lord on on DVFC and DVFA. Let me bring encouragement to him. Than's

your mission for the Dayla. Then the next day I say, okay,

I'm going to buy a workplace. Now, God, who is this person

that can share your love with? Right? And love is acts of kindness,

is saying you know, I see you, I hear you, I

feel you. I want to pray for you, and I want to give

you. God. That is the ultimate act of love. Amen, let's

move on now he is bound. Okay, just now, I say we're

all slaves. Right now, I give you another word that you don't like.

How many of you like hung? That's that? No negative? What?

Right? It's such a negative connotations like, oh, I want to

be dead free for the young people here, I want to be financially free

by the time I'm thirty five, so that I can go on vac for

the rest of my thirty five years on earth. See, although you'm a

kid like, I think that the picture you're like, that's the life that

I want. Right, to be debt free. I don't want any debts

at all. In fact, we work so hard so that we can pay

off all financial obligations. Correct. So I here I am saying to you

that, yes, don't owe anyone anything. Okay, that's biblical right,

a scripture old don't owe anyone anything. If you have your mortgage, your

loan, your column, pay off. Okay, pay off your debts as

they come to you. That's a responsible thing to do. Okay, I

see Redia. Don't say you must go into dead. No, no,

no no. The only debt that you have is two scripture? Ly,

what do you know about the Bible? Verse? Oh each other? Nothing

except love? Do you know that's in the Bible? Where is it?

I go find find it out, Go search it up for yourself, Oh

each other? Nothing except love? And Paul is saying, now, okay,

so this is Paul right again. Let's go to verse fourteen. Sometimes

we read it one is true and we don't catch it right. So let's

go through verse fourteen. He says, I am a debtor both to Greeks

and two barbarians, both too wise and to unwise. And he says,

so as much as in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to

you who are in Rome. Also. Now Paul has an obligation. He

he's the kind of man that goes around like, okay, now I have

a see the thing is right. As humans, when we think we have

a dad, what's the thing that we want to do quickly. When you

have a dad hanging around your hate, what do you want to do?

You pay it off? Right, same thing with the financial that. If

I have a credit card, I'm like, I just want to pay it

off so that I'm clear of death. But now Paul has this lifetime dead

hanging over his head. He's a debtor, he says, I am a

debtor both to Greeks and and Greeks. Okay, not Greeks. Okay,

how many Greeks do we have here? Did anyone Greek here? Ain't nobody

here? Nobody Greek here? Then we're all barbarians, he says, Right,

I'm a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians. You know, I

say one, Paul say one. Okay, So technically we're all barbarians because

we're not Greeks to the wise and to the unwise. But he's saying that

the debt that I have is to preach the good news to you. Well,

when I learned the truth of this, right, I go like,

oh my gosh. That means when I see the coming to clean hair,

I owe her something, you know, Do I owe money? No?

Do I owe her my goodness? No? I owe her hearing the gospel

of Jesus Christ. Can you see now how that consumes Paul because he's now

saying everyone that he sees, if the person is not in Christ, I

have a debt to you. Now you look about look around your life.

I think we owe a lot of people something. There's a lot of people

in our lives that we are owing a debt to. And if we keep

our mouths shut and don't even think about how can I even begin to share

this good news with this person? Then we're not catching this right Because the

mindset and the perspective of a Paul is like my life missioner is to pay

off this debt, meaning every person that I meet right now? Do you

know God? Do you love God? Do you know that he loves you?

Right? He's going around saying, are you sure you're in the Kingdom

of God? Do you know God's way? Do you know that Jesus is

the only way? You know? Good? Come, let's go and bring

someone else? Do you know? Paul is always like that. It's like

every day he's just consumed with this passion to pay us this debt of saying

the whole will needs to know the whole will needs to know that Jesus is

the only way, and so he equips himself. He go and read,

do research, He shares of his life experience. How are we doing that?

Right? How are we doing that? And then it goes on to

say, and that's how we come to verse sixteen. Can you see that

the billup of it in just fifteen verses the whole bill up of understanding Paul.

Now, in verse sixteen, he says this, for I am not

ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to

salvation for everyone who believes, for the jew first, and also for the

Greek, and for everyone else. Amen. He says, I am not

ashamed. How many of us are ashamed of the gospel? I had to

ask myself that am I ashamed? Is it why I'm not sharing it?

Do you know the reason why we don't share something is either we're not confident

or we look at our own lives and you got Actually, my life also

doesn't look like the victorious life that you know everyone preaches about in church.

But I also struggling God, I also got sickness. How do I share

Christ? Then? Can you relate to that part? Yes? Right?

When we feel that our own life doesn't measure up, and you look at

other people so much more successful than you, earning ten times you, traveling

ten times more than you, right, and everything seems to be so nice

on their Instagram, everything curated right, with the nice music and everything.

And you go like, but if I share Christ, how is it gonna

add value to you? I think you already got it all. Then we

have missed our understanding of the spiritual poverty that this person would have, right,

Because then you're you're a shamed You're like, oh, but if I

share Christ and how God is so good to me and how he provides.

But when I compare my life to yours, it's nothing much to shout about.

And I realized that that's my operating system. Why I find it hard

to like, hey, let me share to you about God, about Christ,

because you see the things right. And we have to recognize this that

the message of God of Christ dying on the cross is foolishness. It's foolishness

to the world because for them it's like, hey, I'm so successful,

Why do I need to believe in this God who got crucified? Why there's

no reason to write you think about it. You think about it. If

this person has got everything under control, their life, the family life,

the children are super, super awesome, why is there a need for Christ

until the person comes to this knowledge that actually, above all the facade,

I am still empty inside. There is still something and we need to be

confident in this. We need to be confident to say, all the glitters

and goal that you see outside is not going to bring you to a right

relationship with God. It's not going to You might be happy here, but

you will have to make an account to God one day. And are you

ready for that? Because God will look at all those and count it as

nothing everything that you build up for. So can I encourage you to not

be a shame of the gospel. Whenever you feel a bit hesitant, you

ask yourself, actually, am I ashamed of the gospel. It's just something

that I can't wrap my hip around and ask God, like, God,

could you give me that confidence, give me that courage. It's two things,

right, both confidence and then the courage. Once you have the confide,

then then you have to ask God to say God, I need this

courage to share the gospel. All right, I'm gonna close in a bit,

but I want to share true story. Is that? Okay? So

I've had so okay, So coming back to Euy right, So that's my

first career. And at that time when I entered EY, I was a

junior all right, junior associate and at that point I had a senior team

leader. And so she's been she's actually my age. Can you imagine she's

my age, she's my team leader. I'm like, oh okay, I

feel bit small than mine, right, And she is so diligent in her

work, and that's why she climbed very fast. After three and a half

years of a crazy life in audit, I decided enough, Reda, I

cannot take it anymore. She's still in euy right now. Can you imagine

how many years? Really? Two thousand and five? I do? Now,

Wow, got almost twenty years in ey Okay. So she's already at

a director position, really really high up there, very respected because she's very

good at her job. My asia, my age. So the thing is,

we we kept our friendship because you know, after all the long nights

of eating meggimi for three and a half years together, you you built a

friendship, write a friendship that is beyond this kind of friendship. I don't

know. Only auditors can understand. La. If you have a great teamer,

if you have a great teama, you guys born like anything, you

know. So, so I've always felt the closeness to her, and then

over the years, over the many years, we occasionally met up. But

I think even a few years ago, even a few years ago, when

I started to say, God, I need to pray for my ex colleagues

because I believe they need to know Jesus as well. Right, So,

the bunch of them that I remember in prayer every day, all of them

were not Christians except one became a Christian. I don't know about the rest.

Yeah, but this particular senior or friend of mine was very close to

my heart. See, the thing is right, God will give you a

burden one you understand. God will give you a burden for someone. So

she she became the burden I carried, and I pray for it every morning,

seriously I pray. I'm like, oh, I don't know how,

I don't know when, I don't know how, but I know that I

want to see her come to know you. All right. So, so

over the years we've done many meetups, and and the thing is, right,

she she's she's come to a place, she's married, got a kid.

Now she's come to a place where she's like, oh, I'm actually

curious, curious about this whole Christian faith. Right. So I'm like here,

okay, good good. No. Then the last time I met her

was in last October, and I was like sharing about church and stuff like

that, and she's like, okay, okay, that's that's cool. Curious.

So and I try I a month ago I was like, okay,

I need to meet up with her again. I need to meet up with

her again. And then so timing a bi halla timing, trying to beat

someone, I say, okay, I'll book you for yesterday, right,

so two weeks in advance, we're going to meet out over tea. So

yesterday or yesterda. It was a full day for me, but I remembered

I had a mission that when I met up with her, it was not

just gonna chat and same bunkers. I just sense in my spirit that today's

the day for salvation for this person. So I went with her, and

of course we talk about everything about kids and da da da da da da,

And then I'm like, okay, God, help me bring God into

the picture. Right, And so then the conversation revolved around God. And

then for the next two hours she was my captive audience. I was telling

her all about from Genesis to Revelation, about the cross of Jesus, you

know, about sin, you know, serious one. She was just like

hungry, you know, for more. And I just went out and I'm

like, I don't know what I'm talking about. I think, like,

I'm like, okay, so, so is this what sharing the gospel is?

Right? So I just chared with her towards the end and she and

she was just very grateful. She's just like, oh, you know,

thank you for spending time with me, you know. And every time I

see you, I just I'm more curious about this God that you believe in

and church and all that, and so so I was like, okay,

you know, and then we left yesterday, right, So I'm like thinking,

oh God, I never asked that question, do you believe? Because

ultimately you have to ask that question, no matter how how we can have

a debate and discussion right on, you know, how Jesus is and how

good he is, right all the apologetics, right, what he is the

only way and not the other other ways. You still have to pose that

question to that person. Do you believe in Jesus as your personal Lord and

Savior. So I woke up this morning six am. I'm like, oh

that that question is burning in me. So I texted her and say,

hey, you know yesterday you said I want to begin to build this relationship

with this God. I say, oh, since you have that desire,

can I ask you to whenever you're already, prayer this prayer? Yeah,

you know, that's why we have that prayer every Sunday is to prepare you.

One day you're going to have to ask that correct all the weeks and

sundays of you hearing you know, it's gonna come handy, you know,

one day. So I remember that. So I just put it in the

text and I said, you know, if you're ready, say this prayer

and tell me because I want a journey with you. And then so I

was like, oh, okay, La, I don't know why she's gonna

respond, right, But to me, right, it doesn't meant to what

she responds. It was more important for me to just obey what God had

asked me to do. Right. So came to church and all that.

And then after the tenth of this service, I saw her text. She's

like, Rose, thank you for leading me to Christ. Right, And

for me, I was like, okay, what does that mean? Does

that mean you believe in Jesus? But you see the things? Right?

I rejoice. I rejoiced because she confessed that she is being led to Christ.

And for me, now it's the journey of this hypership after this,

because right, I am not so hung up about decisions, right, you

can just say, oh wow, twenty hands went up. I'm more interested

in how she ends up twenty years down the road. Right. So then

I I'm thinking this is a long game. You know, this is not

just a boom. And then you become Christian so to speak. And then

I leave you alone, and I'm like, okay, I do know my

life, right, But do you know that the whole journey of discipleship then

is to walk with this person now until either I meet Jesus first or she

meets Jesus fust right to make sure that the fruit becomes full and mature.

That is the whole game, guys. Can you see it now that it's

not just about doing church It's not about just about being faithful, but it's

seeing these kind of fruits in your life. Do you want that? Do

you want that? Amen? We hope you've been blessed by this message.

For more information on our church, please visit as church org. We are

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be a good week ahead for you. God bless