The Church (Part 2) | Pr Stephen Kong

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

will light up your day today. I'm going to continue on with my part

two of the about the church. I spoke about that two weeks ago.

Uh and I told you that the church is about the people, right.

It's the people. It's not a building, but it's the people of God

that makes up the church. Right. And today I'm going to do take

a slightly different approach because I want to show you what does our church here

in X really believe in? Okay? And for some of you you may

have heard this before, but I think for the majority of you this might

be your first time. Okay. Whereby I will show you our vision of

EX Church. Did you know that we have a vision? Okay? And

I'll also show you our mission of EX Church and the direction that we are

hated to this year? Is that? Okay? All right? And so

let me just quickly see a shore hance. How many of you have seen

our overarching vision of X the long one. Okay, it's long, It's

quite long. How many of you have seen it? Okay? So quite

a few hands in here, okay, So most of you may not have

seen it. Before okay, and today I hope to present it to you

and show it to you so that even as you unpack your bags in ext

Church, at least you know what we really believe in and what's our vision.

Okay, at least you know at least you've heard it once for the

leaders. I encourage that you memorize it. It's long, Okay, it's

long. I encourage that you memorize it. But I'm going to show it

to you, okay. But before that, let me give you just two

words first, and the slight will go up. Okay. Which is vision

and mission? Okay? And so what's the difference. Okay. Vision is

what we see, okay. Mission is what we do to see the vision

come to pass. Does that makes sense? Okay? So again, vision

is what we see or what we want to see, okay. And mission

is what we need to do okay for the vision to come to past.

Okay. And so let me give you now the vision of ex Church.

And this is the overarching vision of ex Church is the long version. Of

course we are shorter ones, but this is the overarching vision of Excers.

And the vision is this a community of faith, hope and love that shines

the way, truth and life of Jesus Christ, until the whole earth is

filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover

the sea. So that is our overarching vision of ex Church. How many

of you this is your first time seeing this? Let me see your hands

first time seeing this? Very good? This is about eighty percent of you,

Okay. So if we didn't know, this is our overarching vision of

ex Church. Okay, and it's biblical. Let me tell you it is

biblical. You will find that in this vision we have three different scriptures in

which we have taken this from. Okay, or how fast have formed this

vision? Of course led by the Holy Spirit, and that's found in First

Comentance thirteen thirteen, which says, now a bye, faith, hope,

love these three but the greatest of this is love. I don't have a

slight for that, but you can just hear me. Okay. The scriptures

are there on the on the slide, okay. And another scripture we may

be very familiar John fourteen six. Jesus said to him, I am the

Way, the Truth and life. No one comes to the Father except for

me. Okay, that's what Jesus said and hyper Cook two fourteen, which

is a very famous verse use for missions. Okay, for missions, and

as we approach to the month of missions next month, actually August is our

missions emphasis month. You will hear this verse quite quite commonly. Okay,

for the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea. Okay. So, ladies and gentlemen,

that is the over vision of X Church. Okay, a community of faith,

home and love that shines the way, filth and life of Jesus Christ,

until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the

Lord as the waters cover the sea. Amen. So there's the long version.

Okay. So now let me give you a few other phrases or lingo

of the vision that we have that shorter Okay, you may have heard this

before. Okay, here we go. Okay, a church in every school

and on every street. That's all you want to see. Okay. Another

one for that is to grow small to grow big. Now, if you've

been in X for some time, you will know that the answers rerets homes,

right, true homes. We actually can make this a reality. This

is what I want to see. Remember, want to see this. We

want to see it a school, school, a church. Okay, And

remember I told you two weeks ago that the church is not a building,

because if you're thinking of a building, you will find that you have a

problem with this. Right, it's not a bit, it's a people.

Right. So a church in every school and on every street, and our

desires to see that the whole of Malaysia be filled with people, or the

Church of God gathering in every street, in every school. That's a desire.

It's a vision you want to see. We want to see it come

the past. And how do how do we do? Of course? In

order to do that, we need to see us growing small in order to

grow big. That's why you find that our homes are very small in size.

Need you know this? You know they of course, there may be

some weeks that the homes becomes big because we in my friends, Yes,

that's good, right, but after we hit a cap or a limit.

Actually our limits about ten okay, So don't get too comfortable with a big

homes a big small group, because if it's big, it's not small anymore.

We might call it a big group, you know, but it's called

home. It's a small group. It's meant to be small, okay.

So ten is a good number. Sometimes you may have twelve, thirteen,

fifteen the most right, and even cfs can happen in the schools, you

know, and so we believe we want to see that come to pass.

We want to see that happen. And then two homes and grow small,

grow big. And you would have also noticed that our church plans, we

have set a limit for our church plans at one hundred and twenty people.

Okay, then mikes up twelve homes in a church plan consisting of ten in

each homes. If you do the math, it's one hundred and twenty.

Okay. So we have sort of, like said, a limit for our

church plans in which when we hit one hundred and twenty, the church plan

or to multiply from another service, either do a second service, or send

people out to plan and not the church somewhere else. And that has been

what the law has given to us, right because we are actually looking back

at the Book of Acts. If you realize you look at a Book of

Acts, the churches grew and multiply greatly, especially even during the persecution.

Okay, but the whole point is that they multiply greatly. Okay, and

so we want to be like them. Okay, amen, Next, let

me give you two more Okay, every partner a pioneer or every partner becoming

a pioneer. And there's one more, which is a thousand times a thousand.

So you may have heard this before but have no idea what it really

means. Okay, what does every partner a pioneer mean? We believe that

everyone who comes into our doors and gets rooted can be raised through discipleship to

become a pioneer. We really believe in that you will find that X is

a church. That is, we grow our church through a strategy of church

planting, right, and we do that through pioneers. Right. It takes

a man, a man of peace or a woman of peace, who's willing

to say, yes, Lord, use me our planer church where you have

called me. That's discipleship. So we want to see every partner to become

a pioneer. You can pioneer either a small group. You know some of

you students are pioneering a small group, or you're leading a small group.

You can pioneer even a prayer group in your school in your marketplace, in

your office, whatever it may be. You know, I still remember the

day that me and my boss together we started a prayer group in my in

my office, so our in my office, because not my office, my

boss's office that I work in. We meet alternate weeks for prayer and we

try our best not to skip it because sometimes work can get really busy,

and we try not to skip it. So we meet every alternate week to

pray and to read God's word, and we get everyone to take them to

share the scripture. So it's quite quite quite interesting. Yeah, so you

believe everyone can be a pioneer. Amen. And one thousand times one thousand

simply speaks about potential. Potential. Imagine with me, if we had one

thousand disciples in church, right, we can multiply to an a thousand.

All it takes is one thousandich another one. You're already multiply, okay.

And one thousand by one thousand just simply talks about potential. A man simply

speaks up potential. Everyone who comes into our doors have a potential and we

want to see them a partner becoming a pioneer a man. So that's what

we want to see it's a vision. Okay, let me move let me

move on. Let's go onto the mission now. And the mission is what

we do, okay. And here's the mission, helping people believe, helping

people believe. If you look at our logo of extras, you will find

that the tech line in the logo itself, it's called helping people believe.

How do we have people believe to teaching of the Word of God through the

preaching to examples a man, to our testimonies. So everything that we do

here is to help people believe. And if it can help you believe a

little bit more, just a little bit more. Every week we have at

least done one thing right, at least one thing right, okay, And

that's what we want to do. We want to help people to believe so

that we can see the vision come to pass. Amen. The second one

for that is making disciples that make the difference. This is really very huge.

We want to make disciples in ex chios that makes the difference in the

world out there. And for every disciple that we make here in Excious we

believe more lives will be reached. Amen. And that's how we can see

the vision come to pass. So if it is your first time seeing this,

Remember we are here to help people believe. Amen. It is the

work of the Holy Spirit that convicts hearts, is the work of the Holy

Spirit that transform lives. Not us. We can do none of that.

All we need to do is point them to the director, to the right

direction, point them to the Word of God, help them to believe.

And if some of the scriptures in the Bible are so difficult to live out,

we as leaders, or at least as leaders, have to first leaved

ourselves so that you have a living example to see and know that it's possible.

And that's how you see, and that's how we help people to believe.

Okay, let me move on. So let me give you three words.

The vision refers to the direction with the destination in which we are going.

So imagine you're sitting in a car and your vision is the destination in

which you want to go. Okay. The mission is the vehicle. Okay.

It can be a train, it can be a car, it can

be a motorcycle, it can be a bicycle, or it can be bus

eleven. Bus eleven is your your your two legs. Okay. So I

mean whatever it is okay. The vehicle that gets you from point A to

point B. That's our mission, that's what we do, right. And

the direction is the plan or the map, okay, And we need all

three of them, okay. And I'll share with you the direction in a

little while which you would already have known about our team for this year,

right, which is that all may know. Amen. So we in a

church, we need all of this. We need to have a vision,

a destination in which we are going. We need to know our mission.

What are we called to do? What do we need to do time and

time and time again, you know, in order to see the vision come

to pass? And the turm one is what is our direction? Okay?

Where are we hated? Which direction should we focus our energy and our efforts

on? Okay? Looke nineteen verse ten says this, for the son of

man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. So that's

what the son of men have come to seek and save that which was lost.

So likewise that is actually what our call is is as well. That's

what we also called to do. Amen. So let me give you this

phrase, the greatest challenge, that the greatest challenge for the vision listen to

this. The greatest challenge for the vision is that we can't achieve it without

winning the loss, in fact, lots of them. Because what does the

vision say that the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory

of the Lord. As the waters cover the sea, the whole earth,

they miss every corner, every face of the earth needs to hear the Gospel

of Jesus Christ, and in doing so they will come to know Christ.

And then so the greatest challenge is that we cannot achieve this if we don't

win souls, if we don't save the loss. We can't Imagine a fisherman

that goes to catch in the sea and has no catch, you know,

has no fish. Imagine a world without new babies. What would the world

be. We'll be in trouble. Right, And likewise, imagine a church

without new believers. Think about it for a moment, right. It's like

saying, we've gone into a factory and all the workers are ready, the

machine is ready, the factory is ready, but there's no rom material.

What are we gonna do? You know, we'll be just sitting sitting down

here and looking at each other and having a good time and church is just

about us. But it's not right. It's not about us. It's about

saving. It's about seeking and saving the loss. And man, we need

to be out there before they can be in here. We need to be

out there before they can be in here. And this ryanhard Bonke, a

very famous evangelist, had this one saying, he said, a church that

does not reach the loss is lost itself. A church that does not reach

the loss is lost itself. You see the problem with the challenge of achiving

the vision. The problem is never about the harvest. Did you know?

The problem is always with the labors. You see, the Bible never teaches

us pray for the house us. Never what does the Bible say, pay

for the labors. In fact, when Jesus met the woman at the well,

he said, look, he told the disciples, look up, the

Hovest is white. White just means it's right. He's ready for hours.

Right. And of course in another scripture he told them, you know,

pray to the Lord of the Hovest, pray to a lot of the hours

to send out laborers. Laborers. He didn't say us to pray for the

hours. He asked to pray for the laborers. So the problem is never

about the Hovest. It's about the labors. You and I turnt your nember

and say you are laborer. Come on. So we have a part to

play. We have a part to play in this mission and in achieving the

vision in which God has for us in this world and ex church as well.

Amen. So often we spend more of our time teaching the world how

to behave in the church, when we should be ending more of our time

teaching the church how to behave in the world. Because we are being sent

out into the world, we have to be an example to the world so

that others may see and know that we have a God, we fear God,

and we have example a testimony that others can follow and they will want

it as well. Amen. So so everything that we do here is to

teach us how to be victorious in our week, in our Monday to our

Friday and our Saturday as well. You know, it's not about teaching you

how to behave here, it's about how we ought to live our lives out

there. Amen, Because we are out there on the Monday to our Saturday.

We're only in church on a Sunday, or at least if you come

for homes is another once in every alternate week or per service, and so

on and so forth. So let me give you the direction. The direction

or the map or the plan is our fifth w which is with us.

Now you may have known that the team for Excers this year is that all

may know, Amen, that all may know. And the ex Church we

have five ws that mix up the DNA of ex cherch. Okay, it

is very important. Now, I think if you go for the partnership class,

I think they teach this, if I'm not mistaken, they cover these

five ws, which is the DNA of ex Church. And so what are

the five ws of Exchers? Okay, I'm gonna show it to you,

but I'm gonna just give you a quick summary, okay, because if I

were to share each and every of the item, it would take one whole

message to share one of the items. Each of the items. So the

five wiles that we have that makes up the DNA of extra this worship word,

warmed works, and witness. I'm sure and convinced that if you're if

you've been in the Excers long enough, you would have experienced five of them.

Amen, you would have experienced all five of them. And there's the

DNA of extra So let me just give you a quick summaray and get to

the fifth w which is witness. So worship is first because God is first.

Worship is first because God is first. And if God is not first,

right, even if you have the Word, it doesn't matter already because

you may hear the word. But because God is not first, the world

has no meaning. He has no power in it. So worship must come

first because God is first. Worship speaks about our submission, our dependency on

God, and who is God in our lives. That's worship. Because worship

is a lifestyle. Amen. So worship comes first. And after worship is

the word in fact we have. If we don't get the worship right and

we have the Word, there is no power in it. I told you

right. In fact, Satan even knows the word. You should know that.

And I would think that Satan knows the Word better than many of us

or all of us. He can't even scripture, and sometimes he will twist

the scripture and coding back to you did God really say? Did he really

say, just change one or the words? You know? I've heard that

in certain parts of the world. Now they are changing certain scriptures, certain

words in the Bible. I've heard it, and they're printing it. Can

you believe it? Sometimes it's going to be one day it's going to be

hard to even tell which is the actual Bible and which is not because some

of the words have been changed to suit their community and their culture. Very

dangerous. So, friends, worship must come first. And when you get

worship right, then the word is powerful. So in actually have a saying

worship brings people to church, or people were coming to church because they enjoyed

the worship. Maybe some of you walked into your service because you heard some

loud music from downstairs. You know. So worship brings people to church.

It draws people to church. The word will bring them back. And man,

they're coming a second time for the world. But what friends, They

will only stay because of the warm. That's our third warm. Warm speaks

about our relationships, speaks about the community and relationships and community is really important

to hold a church together because without relationships, then how are we practicing the

Bible in church? Right? You won't right without relationships, people will will

not stay. You know. In fact, I believe that people actually stay

in church because they have friends, or they have relationships, or they find

community. Right. In fact, the opposite is also true. They also

leave church also because of the relationship. So it it goes two ways.

I pray that we will stand on the on the on the former and not

the letter. Not the letter. Relationships is something that we need to work

on. Bill. Relationships build a strong community so we can stick together and

be united as a church. Amen. Because relationship are very important. People

will come, they will stay because of a relationship, good relationships, and

many also leave because of hurt, because of relationships that didn't work out.

Well, I'm just talking about brother and sister relationship in church in general.

Okay. So I pray to you will stay and even if you had to

go, make sure that there is honor. Make sure there is honor.

There's the right way to do it. That's the right place, that's the

right time. Pray about it. Seek the Lord first, because if the

Lord has planted you here, he has a reason for you. If God

has brought you here, he's the only one that can bring you out.

So think about it. Pray before you make such big decisions. Amen.

So the fourth w is works so we can have all the warm in church.

You can have come to church, someone shook your hand. We give

each other, high five each other, hanks is everything is good. But

if we have all the warm but no works, then we're just it's just

dead. You know. Warm is dead without works. In fact, when

you come to church and we receive the Word of God in our hearts,

we need to exercise our faith. If not, we'll be spiritually fat.

Spiritually fat, that means we are dormant or we are sluggish. Because we

can be we can be fed with the word of God so much, but

we don't exercise our faith, we become sluggish, become fat. Right,

But we don't want to be fair. You want to be fit, spiritually

fit, and that is why we need to do the works of God.

And then it's like working out. Some of you here work out. You

want to get muscles, you want to look good, right, and when

you work out, you got to push beyond your limits. Orly, when

you push at the limits, that's where you really build. Right. And

those who say, yeah, so we need to do we need to do

the works of God in order in order to stay fit. Baby tually amen.

So that's the fourth W and the fifth W is this witness and fans.

Even though the fifth w Witness is the last w it is not the

least important. Can I say that? Because here on earth actually the fifth

w is the combination of all the other four ws put together. What do

I mean by that? Because all of the other four ws you still can

do it when you get to heaven, but the fifth w you will only

do it here on earth. Think about it. In heaven there will be

lots of worship. In fact, I do think that the worship in heaven

will be more happening than here on earth. You mentioned the angels singing,

thousands of them. You know, worship in heaven it's going to be amazing.

You can You'll have lots of worship in heaven. I'm sure we have

some word in heaven, and there's no better person to here directly then from

Jesus word. You have that in heaven warmed. I'm sure it'd be very

warm in heaven. Not warm physically, but warm because you'll meet people,

friends, family in which maybe have gone gone home to be with a lot.

You know, there will be a lot of joy and happiness in heaven.

There are lots of warm In fact, I do think you can do

works in heaven. You can do some good works in heaven, you know,

maybe have somebody be nice to somebody you know. But among these five

w witness is the only one you will need to do in heaven. You

don't need to witness in heaven because there are no loss people in heaven,

only saved ones in heaven. So the fifth double witness becomes our most important

at this point I'm on this earth. Of course, I shouldn't say it's

the most importantly. I started by saying worship comes first, But what I

mean by that is that the fifthu Wle Witness is a combination of all four

of them put together. Because thing about it, if you can get worship

right, our winnessing will be better. If you can get the world right,

our winnessing will be better, more effective. You get a warm right,

you get the works right. It will also see a more effective witness

in the world. Amen. So that's what we need. So that's our

five w and exhers and witness is what we are going to focus on this

year, and what we have been focusing on this year, and man,

everything that we do and teach here is to equip the saints you and I

for the work of His kingdom. So now let's turn to some scripture.

Ephesian chapter four Versus one. Let's all turn our bibles. Efficient chapter four,

Verse one. Emphesians is after Galatians, which is after covenience. Okay,

first, second convintence Galatians Ephesians. Okay, all right. Ephesians chapter

four, and this passage talks about the unity in the church, talks about

the body of Christ. So let's read. Okay, why do we read

the whole thing verse one to sixteen. I therefore the prison of the Lord

beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. With

all loneliness and gentleness, we long suffering, bearing with one another in love

and darving to keep the unity of the spirit in the Born of Peace.

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one

hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one

God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and

in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to

the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on

high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this he

ascended, What does it mean that he also first descended into the lower parts

of the earth. He who descended is also the one who ascended far above

all the heavens, that he might feel all things. And he himself gave

some to be apostles, some forphets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,

for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry,

for the edifying of the Body of Christ, till we all come to the

unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a

perfect man, to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ,

that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carry it about

with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, in the cunning,

cftiness of this sinful plotting. But speaking the truth in love, may grow

up in all things into Him who is the Head Christ, from whom the

whole body join and knit together. By what every joint supplies, according to

the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the

body for the edifying of itself. In love, Amen, the Lord Blessed

the reading of His word. And so in efficients, I'm going to draw

three key traits that the church needs. Three important traits that the church needs,

And the first thing is this obedience. Obedience. Actually, if you

read this scripture right, you won't really find any part that talks about obedience,

but you will see that as a scripture that talks about He gave some

to be apostles for a first evangelists, teachers, sorry, pastors and teachers,

right, and this is what it calls the five to four ministry.

And think about it, right, even though God calls us, right,

we see it to be obedient to his call. Because if the Lord had

asked you to do something, to be a teacher, or to help in

an area, you know, or to even to be a pastor, let's

say, right, he also takes your obedience to answer the call. Right,

So obedience is actually involved in it, you know. And if we

do not obey, the said reality has got me find somebody else to do

it. So we have a call to answer. We also have an obedience

and a part to play. So let me tell you what X was built

and started and founded on obedience, obedience by the word of the Lord.

So let me share with you a quick I mean, like a background of

how it started. Pastor Kenef was asked from the Lord to start the church,

and he and when he was praying in a week's coming up to starting

the church, he asked got two simple questions, two very simple questions,

God, what would the name be? What's the name of the church?

And the second thing was he asked what should the church look like? And

the Lord told him X acts X with your name. And when Pastor found

the name called X, he already knew what the church should look like because

there was an example in the Word of God, right, the ax of

the Apostles, the church in the Book of X. So there was two

very simple questions that Pastor Kennel asked, asked the Lord, and the God

gave him clarty the name would be called X acts X church. And so

that's why today we tend to refer a lot to the Book of X to

see how the Book of X does it. Where do you think we found

our homes from, like getting from house to house? It's not in the

Book of X. Right, Where do you find the gifts of the Holy

Spirit that we practice? You know, the gifts of the Holy Spirit is

in the Book of X, because the X Book of X talks about the

gift, about the works of the Holy Spirit, right, And so we

reference a lot of what we do in church to the Book of X.

And so I'll let you know that X Church was founded on obedience, and

obedience is always better than sacrifice. In first seven fifteen, verse twenty two,

the Perfect Samuel told King Saul that obedience is better than sacrifice. And

you hear us use that phrase quite quite frequently. And let me give you

the beggar of that story in which he said obedience is better than sacrifice.

So long story shot. God gave a command to perfect severe to King Saul,

right, to go and attack the Amalekites and to wipe them out completely.

Okay. The order was very simple, wipe them out completely because they

were evil, right, and do not spare a single one, not even

the animals, not even any any man. Right. And King Saul,

in his own wisdom, he spared the king I think the I think the

king's name is called a gag okay. And when he saw the choices the

good oxen and sheep, he also spared them, okay. And so the

Lord said that, you know, I regretted. I've greatly regretted of making

him king because he has not followed my command. And so Pa Samuel then

came to King Saul and told Saul, what are you doing? I thought

that the command was very clear, and you know what King saw said,

well, I kept this good sheep and oxen because I wanted to sacrifice to

you. Sounds good, They paused there for a moment. Sounds good,

sounds right? Well, I kept the best ship and octen because I want

to sacrifice to you. But let me tell you, good, all right,

may not necessarily be God. Yesterday at our prayer Valley, doctor Gilway

emphasized that good it's not of God. Of course, some good things can

be of God, but not all good things out of God. Not all.

But how do you ever know that? When God is good, and

that everything that comes from God is good? So seek God first, and

not the good sick the giver, and not the gift. Because God is

good. And so in this stitution, King Saul fabably, in his wisdom,

thought, it's good. Sounds like a good idea, right to keep

the good ship and accent to sacrifice to the Lord. But if you think

about it, right, It's like saying, I go to my enemy and

steal from my enemy, and I give to the Lord in offing back.

Sounds doesn't sound right at all when you put it away, right, It's

like saying I steal from my enemy and put the offing back to offer the

lot. It doesn't sound right at all. Right, It sounds right at

first, but not really sounds very wrong. So it was reating insult to

the lot now really, and so some may have thought in his mind it

was a good idea. You don't want to sacrifice to the lord. And

that's where Buffet Samuel told him obedience is better than sacrifice, because God's command

was so clear. Just do this one thing, to go all the way

and not not not diverge, and not do anything differently, just because we

are smarter or we're smart in our own ways, you know. And even

if you had obeyed the Lord and as a party you did wrong, it's

still not obedience. Obedience you've got to go all the way. Half obedience

is still this obedience, you know, I should say half obedience. It's

still this obedience. You know, it's still sin, right, because the

Bible does say that if you know what to do, you know what was

right, but did not do it to him it was sin, you know,

if you knew what was right, and I'm sure King Saul knew because

the command was very you can go with the story. Very interesting, okay.

And so there are many many stories in the Book of Acts as well

that talks about obedience. Right. Many of the apostles when they were preaching,

when they were doing miracles and science and wonders, they were brought before

the leaders for the counsel, before the Sanhedrin, and they would ask them

to stop doing this, to stop preaching in his name. And what would

the apostles say? It is better to obey God rather than to obey men.

Right, So obedience really is a choice, friends, Obedience is a

choice to submit even when you do not agree, or even when it does

not make sense. Because that's what verdical is. How many of you know

that may oftentimes we pray and ask a lot for an answer when he speaks,

more often than not, it doesn't quite make sense in the natural.

That's why we pray to a supernatural god and man. That's why we need

faith, and that's why we need to trust him. For the impossible,

because if everything makes sense to us, then you probably didn't need to pray

about it out right, You probably didn't need to pray about it. So

many things that we do here, the Lord has spoken to pass the cane.

You know, there are times that he the Lord told him to close

your youth service. Everyone thought it was a bad idea. Why would you

close a youth service? Why would you close a striving youth service? And

all we could say is because the Lord told us two And did you know

when we close the youth service, some people left the church because they didn't

agree. We did pass the kennef stood firm, he said, because that's

what the Lord had told me to do. And if you'll do it,

you know, so, I won't let you know. Extra is founded on

obedience. When God speaks, we will do as he asked us to do.

Submission is strength, and it's not weakness. It is strength even when

it makes no sense, and even when you do not agree with it.

Of course, make sure you're hearing God right. Okay, make sure you're

hearing God right. And that speaks about your quiet time or your intimacy with

the lot, because if you don't have a solid quiet time. How can

you say that the Lord spoke to me? You know what I mean?

It's very quiet right now because it's sticky, right, It's something that we

don't like to talk about, you know. And oftentimes many of us can

say, the Lord spoke to me, the Lost said this to me,

or the Lot asked me to do that. And the first question is you

ask yourself is do you have a solid quiet time with a lot, because

how is speaking to you? Because the Bible also reminds us that our heart

is deceitful above all things it is, so be careful, make sure you

test the spirit, and you know there is the Lord who is speaking to

you, because when the Law speaks to you, you will see his hand

and his supernatural hand involved in it. And that's how you know that the

Lord has truly spoken to you. So today you can see in our youth

ministry we now have a much better and a striving youth ministry. I remember

even the times that Pastor has asked us to close down even campus city right.

Camper City is where the campus students gather for their service, like a

campus service. And because the Lord told him to right, and the reason

for that is because when we shut down a place whereby everyone's coming to a

central place together, now we are sending them out together wherever the different church

plans are. So there's a strategy behind it. And we want to obey

what God tells us to do because His ways are higher than our ways,

and His ways are better than our ways. Can I hear a good amen?

Amen? So the church must have obedience. I want to let you

know that we were constantly obey what the Lord tells us to and that's what

we are called to do, and that's what we will do. Amen.

Second thing is this unity. If you look at this scripture, you will

find that it talks a lot about the unity of the believers of the Church,

of the Body of Christ. And there is a promise of blessing when

there is unity. Psalms one hundred and thirty three says this, behold,

how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

It is like the pressure is all upon the head, running down the beard.

The beard of van is a high priest, okay, running down the

age of his garments. It is like the deal of Hermann descending upon the

mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing life Forevermore so,

this is the scripture in which you hear say that where there is unity,

God commands a blessing. And when I read this scripture, it's so interesting,

you know, in such a way that when you pour all in the

annoying that hit with all right, they pour so much in abundance that it

comes down, It drips right, running down, running down. No,

that's how much blessing the Lord will pour out upon his church when there is

unity. There is a promise to it. When there's unity, God commands

a blessing. So you may ask me how does this connect with witnessing.

I'm gonna give you another scripture. John seventeen twenty the twenty three Jesus,

when he was praying before he went to the cross, he prayed this prayer

for the believers and also, of course those who are yet to believe.

He said, I do not pray for these alone, referring to his believers

or his disciples, but also to those who will believe in me feel their

word, that they all may be one, as you, Father are in

me and I in you, that they may also be one in us,

that the world may believe that you sent me, and the glory with which

you gave me, I have given them that they may be one, just

as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they

may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you

have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. Did you

see the key for them? That the world may know that you have sent

me, and you have loved them as you have loved me. Friends,

unity is really very so powerful because today I realize, right the churches all

across Malaysia and in the world have many differences, many many differences. In

fact, I would say there are man made differences, cultures, customs,

even calling. Calling is not man from the Lord. Different churches have different

callings. Some are called to wish the young, some are called to wish

the kids. You know, there are some churches who have amazing annoying thing

to wich kids their kids is bigger than that was congregation. You know,

some churches have more elderly than than young people. Right, so that I

recognize that every church has is calling and the calling comes from the Lord.

But we should never allow the customs, the practices and the culture of our

churches to separate us. Never. We need to stay united so that the

world may see that though we are different in many ways, we are still

united as one. And man, that's how all will know when they see

that we are still united even in the differences. Today, if you go

online, won't find any YouTube or any Instagram that has some church even you

know, or worship services or speakers speaking. You will always find half away

is negative comments half of it. And when I read them, it's fascinating,

you know, and it really breaks my heart. You read you will

find that some people will comment or the church is like that is gone astray,

you know, it's this this, this preaching is wrong and whatnot and

so on and so forth. And then you will find that another another believer

bashes him back again. And then after you will find a peacemaker. Someone

will say, guys, why are we even arguing about this kind of thing?

You know, like, you know we should be one. You know

we are different, but yet we are one. And so every time I

look at it, I pray that the church we have unity and not and

not be separated and argue over all these kind of things. You know what

I believe in the church is truly and truly accountable to God. First,

you should know that every pastor, every leader of the church is first accountable

to the Lord, and we are never in the place to judge them.

Of course, we may see that some things are going out of hand,

but we're not ever in a place to judge them. They are first accountable

to the Lord because the church belongs to him. It belongs to him.

So I want to encourage us, or if I want to implore us,

don't ever get into a discussion about which church is right or wrong. Never,

because that's very dangerous territory. You know, when we talk about if

this church is doing this thing, it's not right, or that pastor did

this thing and it's not right. You know, they are accountable to the

Lord. The Lord will deal with them, you know, the Lord will

we'll judge them. It's not us. It's not our place to it's not

our position to judge them. So you've gotta be very very careful because just

imagine what if they were right. What if they were right and we couldn't

see it, we didn't know why they did that, you know, So

that's a very dangerous place that we should never put ourselves and pastor can Have

is always taught our church to never talk better about another church, never go

see up another church, because they are first and foremost accountable to the Lord.

Amen. So unity is so important, friends, we need unity in

our church. Come on the third and my final thing is this love.

As a church, we must never lose our first love. Can I hear

good? Amen? Never lose our first love. Come back to the basics.

Keep the main thing, the main thing I told you earlier. Not

everything that is good is of God, but everything that is of God is

good. So we must never forget our first love. Yesterday, at our

prayer rally, Passano, even as she was in Chiang Mai ministering to the

church, she prayed for us here in kl and the Lord told her remind

the church to come back to their first love. So yesterday there was a

moment where doctor Jill, or Elder Doctor Jill led the church to come back

to our first love. You know, we sang the song. Of course,

it's not just about the song, but it's about hearts. Right for

a moment, we just pondered and paused for a moment to give our heart

afresh to the Lord to we dedicate our hearts back to the Lord, because

God is really after our hearts, our first love. That is something the

church must never forget. And this was a warning that was given to the

church in Revelation. Actually what church in Ephesus. It says, since Revelation

two two to five, I know your works, your labor, your patients,

and that you cannot bear those who are either. And you have tested

those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars.

And you have persevered and have patience. And I've labored for my namesake

and have not become weary or sounds very good things are nevertheless, listen to

this. I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Remember therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first

works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your limpstand from

its place. Unless you repent. Friends, you can be very very busy

and occupy in church just going about emotion. And I can be honest with

you, I too can come to the camp place. It's very dangerous,

and I too had to repent and say, Lord, we come back to

our first love to keep the main thing, the main thing. And yesterday,

even as we reddicate, rededicated our lives and our hearts affreshed to the

Lord, I actually saw a vision, or actually a sense, that there

was incense being lifted to the Lord. Incense, you know. Sweet.

The Bible says, sweet, smelling ourma to the Lord, and that the

Lord was pleased with ext church. Amen. So we must always come back

to our first love, never forget our first love, which is God.

God is always after our hearts first, before anything else that we do.

Our hearts first. And the second thing is this, If we have not

love, we are nothing. Paul talks about this. I can speak in

tongues perverse. I have all the knowledge, you know, have faith to

move mountains. I can give to the poor, all of it. You

know. I can do all these things. But if I have not loved,

he said, I am like a resounding gong and a clanging symbol.

In fact, he says, I gain nothing and I am nothing if I

have not loved. That's how important and powerful love is. First convintence thirteen

words thought to it bury me. I'm coming to my last lap. Okay.

Love is patient, love is kind for those of you who are gonna

get married soon. This is your guide book. Okay, this is always

a scripture user. In marriage. Love is patient, Love is kind.

It is not envy. It does not bos, It is not power.

It does not dishonor others. It is not self seeking. It is not

easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in

evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trust,

always hope, always perseveres, love never fails. And Verse thirteen says,

and now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest

of this is love. Amen. We need to express love in the church

and more importantly outside there in the world. But friends, we can never

express the love if we have first not experienced the love of God. So

I pray that even as you continue to be rooted in the House of God,

you will first continue to experience the love of God, and through that

we can also express our love for one another, for one another and others.

Amen. And my final point is this, The church must be filled

with love. I told you earlier. When we truly experience God's love,

we will then be able to express the love to others, so that others

will know of His love. John thirteen, verse thirty four to thirty five.

I want to show you how powerful this word love for one another can

be, it says a new commandment. I give to you that you love

one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

By this, someone know all, all will know that you are My disciples.

By what by having love for one another? Can you see this?

How amazing that is love, friends, love for one another, And through

that all will know that you are My disciples. That's what Jesus says.

Amen. So there is the power of love. I just shared with you

our vision of X. I shared with you our mission of X. I

shared with you the direction in which we are hated. In fact, we

are actually already half way through the year already, and by now we were

ever already known that winnessing is our main plan and direction for the year and

our team for the years that all may know. I wonder how many of

us will say, give me a piece of this pie. I want to

be a part of it. Count me in into this mission or into this

plan in which Exchurch has, and in everything that we do, it's all

for His kingdom and unto his kingdom. We all have a part to play.

I told you two weeks ago that in the church, some do the

some of us do the equipping of the saints. Some of us are being

equipped, and we are sent out to reach the laws outside. And both

has his part to play, and all of us here have a part to

play. Until the whole earth is rich with the Gospel, and then the

end will come again. I'm going to close by giving you the vision again

of ex Church, a community of faith, hope and love that shines the

way, truth and life of Jesus Christ. Until the whole earth is filled

with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

That is what we want to see. Amen. We want to see

the whole earth be filled with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyone deserves to

at least hear the Gospel once in their lifetime, at least once. Would

you partner with us, Will you join hands with us to make this vision

of reality a reality? Amen? We want to see this come to pass.

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

more information on our church, please visit as Church RG. We are also

active on faith, Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week is going

to be a good week, a hit for you. God bless