Be The Leaven for God’s Kingdom | Pr Janaronson Nagarajah

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

will light up your tea. Matthew thirteen ver was the three? It says

here another parable He spoke to them. The Kingdom of Heaven is like living,

which a woman took and hid it in three measures of meal till it

was all living. How many of you here you have big breaks? Before?

You're a baker? Give me a wave? Wow? And when I

didn't know you're a baker, Praise a lot. How many of you you

like to eat break? You cannot start your morning without having a nice fluffy

break. Wow, Praise a lot. So we all know that you know

the fluffiness of your brain. The aromatic flavor that comes out of your braid

is caused by a very small ingredient called live or yees right years eleven,

and we know that it is an ingredient that causes the break to rise.

It is an ingredient that enhances the flavor and aroma. Okay, so I

give you an overview today. I'm going to talk about how as Christians just

been like that, right, how as Christian we should be a positive influence

wherever God has placed us. We always have a choice. We can be

of good influence, we can be of negative influence, or we can be

of no influence at all. But it is my strong belief that if you're

a Christian this morning, God has given you the power to influence situation around

you. God has given you the power to influence people around you if you

believe. It's a amen. So the kingdom of heaven is like a leavin.

So when I preach this in nearly about two weeks ago, a couple

of days later, someone texted me says, past, actually, a levin

also represents sing in biblical context. And it's like, oh, yeah,

actually, you're right, because that's why we when doing the Okay, Later

I share with you, Uh, levin also represents sing, right, it's

a it's a symbolic meaning. So I thought sharing with you this verse before

I enter into my message for clarification purposes. Now, if you look at

first Quarrenthines, chapter five, we're gonna read from verse six and we'll take

it to verse eight. Yeah, six to it, your glory is not

good? Do you not know that a little livnt leavens the whole lump?

Therefore perched out the old livant, that you may be a new lamp,

since you truly are unliving. For Indi, Christ or Passover was sacrificed for

us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old living,

nor with the living of malise and wickedness, but with the unliven braid of

sincerity and truth. So Paul was writing to the Church of Corinthians, the

church that he planted, and while he was away he heard a lot of

stories of how immorality crypt into the church. So in his first epistle he

needed to address and put order into the church. So in this specular context,

he is saying that you know, a little living leavens the whole lump.

It basically means that if you tolerate certain sin in your life, if

you tolerate certain sin in your community, if you tolerate certain negative influence in

your community, like wickedness, malise, et cetera, be very careful.

Your entire community can be impacted negatively. So as leaders in church, it's

very important for us to address situation and things when it is not right.

It's also important as homes leader for you to address it because if you don't

address it slowly, the entire congregation part of me. For my word can

be infected. Right, So today I want to talk about the positive aspect

of being eleven Luke, seventeen, chapter twenty twenty one. Sorryluke, Chapter

seventeen, verse twenty twenty one. He says, now, when he was

asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, he answered them

and said, the Kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will

they say see here or see that. For indeed, the Kingdom of God

is within you. Amen. So think about the first day where you say

yes to Jesus, come into my heart, be my Lord and my Savior.

The Bible says that when you declare Christ as your Lord and savior,

when you receive Him into your heart, he comes and he lives in your

heart. Right, So think about it, right, God often illustrate his

kingdom in the Kingdom of Man. Men will conquer lands to establish their kingdom.

Right. You study this s throug history. You have the Roman Empire,

you have the Persian Empire, you have the Babylonian Empire, etc.

Even in the early nineteen hundred, different nations were out conquering different nations.

So men conquers land to establish their kingdom, but Jesus establishesus. Say help

him lot, But Jesus establishes his kingdom by conquering hunts. So when they

Pharisees, when the religious teachers asked him when the Kingdom of God will come,

Jesus establishes that his kingdom is at once through the heart. Of course,

towards the end of the age, he will come, and he will

restore his physical kingdom. Bible says in the Book of Revelation he will reign

one thousand years in the New Earth, et cetera. So by then he

will still have that physical kingdom. But from now until then he still has

a kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. But on Earth, where is his

kingdom? Because Earth is still ruled by darkness, Earth is still ruled by

Satan is the prince of the end. But where is the Kingdom of God.

It's within you. So every time you enter into a community, you

bring with you the Kingdom of God. You bring with you Jesus. They

may not see Jesus, they may not see the Kingdom of God, but

they can see Jesus in you. They can see the Kingdom of God in

you, by the way you live, by the decisions you make in your

life, by the interaction you interact with them. So God's kingdom is within.

So some of you may know that in the world today we have the

seven mountains, or what we call the actually have slice. We have the

seven fears of influence. Right, these are to say, seven areas that

essentially influence you on a day to day basis. Right, so we know

as and entertainment for sure, right, you would have a Spotify account during

that. Recently I just downloaded Spotify. I just registered and surmember last week.

Right, y'all look very shocked. You know, I did it because

all of our amazing youthan devotion. It's only available there. So therefore,

and you know, downloard Spotify. I think most of you have Spotify.

How about Netflix? How many of you share account with one another? You

share rights and entertainment influences. People, keep up, it's an in thing.

During my time, You're right, there was no pot because capeon wasn't

a thing. But today you look at how people dress, you look at

how people uh fashion themselves. There's a lot of influence from entertainment. When

you listen to uplifting song. You feel uplifted when you listen when you just

had a breakup, you keep on going a cycle of romantically emotionally song.

It affects your emotions right when you're hooked into a sea when the main actor

or main actress died, how do you feel? How many of you have

really cried in front of a TV before? There's power to influence as an

entertainment business. You know, if you're a business owner or you aspire to

be in business, you have an amazing power to influence. Either you can

impact the area of the business. You can impact your society, you impact

your client, You have a direct impact even to your staff power. A

lot of businesses have changed the world. Your handphones, your sampson, your

apple change the world. Grab changes the way we travel around as well.

During my time, it's just a car with a raid and yellow. You

don't know rad and white. We call it taxi. They simply change one.

Right. But today you have changed the way we commute. It has

changed the way. Last time we have to drive out just to tap out.

Today people can tap out for you and deliver to you so that you

save time, so that with the time you have. You can watch TV

right rather than reading the word of God. So it changes our life.

It influences us. Hey, education, A lot of things you believe in

today, of how you see the world today can be directly attributed on how

you're being educated in your formative years during primary school, secondary to college to

uni. It shapes you. Now, if you're a teacher here this morning,

you have an amazing power to influence your students. Family, for sure,

you know how parents bring up their kids are very important. The values

that they impart. It's very important. Family parents have a direct influence over

their children. Government, please be politically saving. Please be aware of the

political situation in your country, especially during election time. You might think that,

hey, even if I don't know, it doesn't matter. Do you

know that the policy that the government may can affect your day to day life?

It can? It can. Government holds the position to influence us.

Media as mentioned, either printed social media a social media Facebook, Instagram,

they talk. My prayer is that please watch good content, Jesse. Contents

that will help entertain you is good because it increased some dopor meaning you great

content that allows you. Please, please don't feel our mind and our spirit

with things that are not worthy. Then we end up into mindless scrolling.

However, you do mindless grolling right? These days? You take up,

you take away your phone from someone almost having withdrawal effect. Really right,

you know, hold a book to scroll, need to realize that it's a

book. You see how it influenced our day to day. It's scary.

You know. I have a nephew. They say it's about six years old.

The parents have decided to uninstall YouTube. So when he comes to my

house, he watched all the YouTube once. And I can tell you the

way young kids without supervision consume information. It's very scary. Back then our

time, we need to sit down in front of the TV, wait for

commercial break, run to the toilet, come whatever the TV give us.

We watch four years old to six years old. My nephew have the power

that we all desired to change content. We didn't five seconds, don't like

next content, And he doesn't watch like your three minutes content, your five

minutes content anymore. Watch all the nonsense, uh, the ten seconds content

the real the real content. So imagine at a young age, when you're

exposed to non supervise consume consumption of media. What it will do to you

religion for sure. For sure, it shapes our worldview. Now I'm not

about the kingdom of God. You have to understand that in God's kingdom,

he has also given you a domain. Right, and your domain essentially can

be one of these seven Right. If you're stay at home mom, your

domain is your family right. My domain is education. I work in education.

Your domain can be education as well because you're a student there. If

you are in a company, your domain is business or depending on the industry

you're in. So I want us to understand that when God gives you a

role or a domain, you are expected to take charge of the domain.

You're expected to take control in whatever role that He has given to you.

I always tell people this might be an extreme example. If you're going to

be a mister Malaysia, you're going to be a Miss Malaysia, go for

it, but go with the right mindset and the right influence. Right,

be a beauty, man, have to say, a handsome, be a

beauty with a brain. Be a handsome with a brain, all right,

go influence in a right way. So in the domain that we are in,

we are supposed to be like a living that causes everything that we touch

to rice. You cannot be a silent Christian. A good gauge is when

you graduate from campus, all people say about you. Have they really say

that you have made a difference in their life? Have they? Can they

really say that you have made a different in your campus? Those of you

who are about in the tail end of quitting your company, and eventually you

quit, can they really really say because of you, the entire company rises?

Or they'll say, what, thank god he's gone, man, thank

god she's gone. Then we'll pray for you. Alto Collator. So as

Christian, wherever you are placed, you have the power to influence. You

cannot remain silent and like an even which causes the break to have enhance flavor.

You are to create an impact in your community. Now we are not

talking about oh, let's impact one hundred lies one thousand life. Often it's

about that one that is closest to you, your neighbor. That's why Jesus

and Courageous love your neighbor. So often it's not about going to the crowd.

It's not about going it's not about coming to stage at all, because

it's never about that. It's about your neighbor. It's about your family.

If you stay with your family, it's about your housemaid. If you have

a housemaid, it's about your roommate. If you're have a roommate, it's

about making a difference in their life. I find it very sad if I'm

active in church, in loving people and one thing to be positive, I

don't treat my family right. That makes me and people create. So influence

domain, impact your domain. Two characters that I'm wanting to point out today

will be from the Life of Joseph and the life of Damn Neil, So

people will have different thoughts about how can you influence others. To me,

I just want to focus on one key thing today. That is character.

Character, and I define character Okay, basically I'll talk about credibility first.

To influence people, you need to have strong credibility. What does it mean?

How trustworthy you are? What is your track record? Without credibility or

an establishment of a credibility in a relationship, you can really influence people.

Like today, I don't want you to see as yeah, he's a pastor,

he's holding the mind. Therefore you speak, he is influencing me.

No, I want you to see me as a person. So the one

that I've journeyed with all the old timers here, you have seen me for

ten years and lead eight years or so. And I hope when I speak,

I establish a certain credibility with you because you have seen my track record,

you have known my life. Likewise, right, many of you who

are still young, when you enter into the workplace, is very important for

you to establish credibility because the world will always look at what do you have

to offer. The church is an environment where we're very positive ferent. We

welcome everyone with or without title. We will still hear from you, but

the world will always look at title first before they hear from you. The

church always get testimony first. Great, but the world will always look at

title. So as a Christian, what should we do? We should pursume

both. You should have a good testimony and you should have a good title.

So, Chracter, there are many definitions to character. I would just

define character very simply as the quality that you have in you, right,

correcter, Chracter, So when you look at the fruit of the spirit first

galicious chapter five Versus twenty two to twenty three. Ita easier, but the

fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. How many of you here

you are looking for an open door. You're hoping that someone will open door

the door for you. I mean, I'm not the host opening the door

for you later, but you get what I mean either an opportunity. Okay.

What I want to share with you next is my opinion. Okay,

Okay. Through my experience and through my observation, I have come to understand

that God only opens his door of influence for people with good wait for it

character. It's just that. So when I look at the life of Joseph,

when he was sixteen or seventeen years old, the brothers sold him off

to be a slave. In fact, they dug a pet, put Joseph

in the peed, and eventually one of the brothers, I believe it was

Ruben, either Ruben or Judah, you remember this. I think it was

Ruben, could be wrong, decided to go back to the other brothers and

say, you know what, he's still our brother. Instead of killing him,

let's selling off. When Joseph was in Egypt, a master brought him

over called Potifa, right, so he worked as a slave or as a

servant to Potifa. The Bible says that God was with Joseph and he established

such a strong credibility with Potipha that Potifa decided to and trust every that's under

Joseph's care to just Joseph. You take care of my house. You take

care of my household, you take care of everything. We know that Joseph

was framed by Portiswas's wife for a crime that he didn't commit. What happened,

but his fast wife wanted to sleep with Joseph. Joseph ran away,

so she made a false accusation. Joseph ended in a prison. In the

prison, Joseph was promoted to be like, you know, a tychle,

like a big brother, to take care of the entire prison. There,

he met the butler and the baker interpreted their dream. The butler was released.

Joseph told the butler, remember me in front of Pharaoh. It took

about two to three years, nothing happened. Eventually, Pharaoh had a dream.

No one can interpret the dream. The butler remembered Joseph and Joseph was

then taken up from a prison into Pharaoh's court. I believe Joseph was thirty

years old when he stood in front of Pharaoh and then interpreted Pharaoh's dream.

Pharaoh thenned appointed him to be like a prime minister in that nation to manage

the femine that is about to come. So between let's say sixteen to thirty

years old, fourteen years would have lapsed. At sixteen years old, Joseph

actually had a dream, or just one, but two dreams about being having

a destiny for greatness. Okay, so fourteen years before that can be fulfilled,

Joseph could have been living a life where he could have had that victim

mentality. He would have could have blamed his brothers because of my brothers,

I'm here in Egypt, my dream, my destiny is gone. He could

have blamed Partisa's wife because of her I'm in prison to me. Joseph is

a role model of character, tested and proven under fire. He didn't ran

away from his challenges, which he could have when Potifer made him a ruler

over his house. He actually has money, He actually has influence a man,

not his money but body first money, but it was entrusted to him.

Joseph could have ran away with it. Joseph could have escaped from Egypt,

but he didn't he was faithful. In my observation, today, many

of us find it difficult to even be faithful in our toughest time. Many

of us would want to run away from our challenges. Some would blame the

circumstances that we are in or what have caused us to be in the situation,

rather than taking responsibility and ownership to say that we can rise a birthdays

in God's grace. So God actually gave Joseph forty years of fire to mold

his character so that when eventually the time comes for him to fulfill the calling

of God in his life, he has the character to sustain it. He

has the character to thrive in his calling. Because if Joseph were to do

hanky panky with or his first wife, honestly, nobody would knew. God

knew, God would have known, but nobody would have knew. And you

cannot afford to have a prime minister who have been engaged in sexual immorality,

being an adulterer to run a country one more to carry out the plan and

purposes of God. You see, many young people today wants to stand next

to a pharaoh. So they focus a lot on skills. They focus a

lot updating my CV. They focus a lot on self learning. They focus

a lot, which is good, don't get me wrong, it's very good.

But you must also focus on your character. You must because God will

only open the door for you to fulfill his plan and his purposes when he

knows your characters have been tested and proven. How many of you hear you

like to drink tea tea? Yeah? I like to drink tea as well.

How many of you you are you like to drink coffee? A lot

of coffee? No? I always tell people coffee it's not my cup of

tea. But to truly enjoy tea, what do you need before the flavor

of the tea can fully come up? You need hot water? Right,

you try to make tea with cold water, you put in a tea bag.

You're put in cold water. Nothing comes out a little bit. So

someone says before to know the true flavor of a person is like a tea

bag, you put them under hot water. Because when a person is tested

under fire, everything that is in here will come out. Sometimes God gives

us pressure to measure us. Someone say, before they was pasted kind of

pressure measures How you take pressures in life will measure you in terms of your

character of where you are at. Daniel stating in Jerusalem one day, then

decided to conquer Jerusalem, take the inhabitants there, and brought the best of

the best from Jerusalem to stay with him. In Baby Long, Daniel was

taken away from his family, from his community, forced to learn something that

he didn't sign up for. Force I have a gay education. I know

there are situation where the sun doesn't want to study law, but the parents

made the children study. Come here, you you're in that situation. Daniel

understands you because Daniel was forced to study the Babylian literature. But you see,

he never gave into excuses like you know, woe is me. But

because of his faithfulness, Daniel self under at least four kings in Baby Long.

And one of the key words I want you to understand today is this,

don't just be good, be godly also, because there's a difference between

being good and being godly. Aspiring to be good is good. Aspiring to

be both good and godly it's even better. What is the difference? And

me show you, For example, if I treat my church people better then

I treat my family am I godly. I don't think I am. But

to my church, they may think that a ronson is very good. But

I'm not god me because I don't know how to treat my family. If

in my office I excel in my work, I got promotion after promotion,

but you know what at the water cooler, I joined my colleagues and gossip

about the company, gossip about other colleagues, gossip about my boss, gossip

about other bosses. Am I godly? No? I may be good in

my work, but I may not be godly. Pursue godliness. Godliness to

me is basically this to be christ like. That means, in that particular

interaction, in that particular situation, what would Jesus do? What would Jesus

say? What decision he will make? Godliness to me also means to have

a fear of God in my life. The day we do not fear God,

the day we make decisions without factoring the fear of God in our life,

is the day we will end up in trouble. The fear of God

kept Joseph from saying with Policewa's wife because Biber clearly says that Joseph feared God

first. Timothy chapter six, Verse ten, For the love of money is

the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the

faith in their greediness, and pierce themselves true with many sorrows. Money is

not evil. Yeah, guys, if you think money is evil, please

give me all your money. I will story for you. I will use

it on your behalf. It is the love of money that is evil.

You cannot love money and love Jesus at the same time. I pray that

we will love Jesus more than we love money. The world will say cash

is king. We should say Jesus is King. Yeah, so I understand

the love of money is the root of all evil. In verse eleven,

he says, but you, old man of God, how many men of

God here, how many women of God here? Right flee these things and

pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness, of which

it is also the fruit of the spirit. Joseph was promoted by Pharaoh.

So remember, because of Joseph's press perseverance, the entire Egypt was safe,

not just Egypt, but the will during that famine. So Joseph, to

me is a solid example of being a leavin from nobody to somebody that influences

Pharaoh influences Egypt. You know, one of the testimony that I desire for

myself is this in Genesis forty one thirty eight. In Genesis chapter forty one,

when Joseph Hath interpreted the dream for Pharaoh, nobody could solve the puzzle

except for Joseph. Pharaoh's said to his servant, can we find such one

as these? A man in whom is the spirit of God? This is

a pagan king. Imagine this is a non believer testifying to you Ban.

Can we find someone like Ban where the spirit of God is? Isn't that

an awesome testimony? Daniel five fourteen is the same of Daniel. I had

heard of you the King say that the spirit of God is in you,

and that the light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now

I will close by saying this, being in a marketplace for this many years,

I have to recognize that I must constantly improve myself. Again, you

have to understand that learning is lifelong. As an employee or as a boss,

you have the responsibility to consistently develop yourself, either in your skills,

your competency, or to be an expert in that area that your calller what

you mean, engineering, field, marketing, fuel, sales, feel whatever.

Feel you have that responsibility to grow in that. But you must understand

that as Christian d H. E. Edge, the h that we have

compared to others is this the Kingdom of God is in us. That also

means the Holy Spirit is in us. So there's really no excuse to not

to excel. There's really no excuse not to be a role model. Last

scripture before I end, Proverbs twenty two twenty nine. Do you see a

man who excel in his work? He will stand before kings? What is

thirty yeah, okay, twenty nine is that he will stand before kings.

He will not stand before unknown men. My prayer for all of you this

morning, wherever God will place you in the future or where God has placed

you today. Now, be that influence, Be that Joseph, be that

Daniel. All right, life will hit us hard. Really, it is

a fact and the truth of life that there will be challenges. But it

is also the truth that God has given us every provision to overcome, every

provision to persevere. Character is always shaped during half time. It's always that.

So maybe it's some of us. We should change the way we pray.

Instead of praying God, please please take away this half time, maybe

we should say, Lord, walk me through this fire, because often God

will not remove that fire. Should drag misscheck and a bad nagle. They

fell into the fire. They didn't deny God. They fell into the fire.

God being so great, he would have just zep out the fire preserve

them. He could have just delivered them any other way. But the fact

that the king saw three men entered into the fire, a fourth men was

in the fire walking up with them. You know what that tells me in

life, God doesn't necessarily take out that fire. He will be with you

in the fire. So maybe for you today, the only thing that you

need to hear is Lord, now that I understand you will not take the

fire, I pray you will be with me in the fire. Because when

they came out of the fire, the king promoted them. The King promote

them. Go by and rear scriptures. The King promoted them. So perhaps

your next level of promotion will come. Whether you're in the marketplace or in

any area or in life. Go through that fire. It's hard, it's

painful, but that bills character because there is a calling of God waiting for

you to be fulfilled after that fire, and the calling is basically to be

able to impact and influence full around you. We hope you've been blessed by

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