From 'Me-ssion' to Mission | Elder Rosalind

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

We hope this message will light up your day.

What do you know about the Book of Acts? Tell me?

Since you are called X church, right, I think we

should know something about the Book of AX, not not X.

Right.

Every time when you know, you go to meet people

and then they ask you if we shore you're from

from ex Chug, You're like, huh this X churcher.

No, No, from the book of AXT. What do you

know about the Book of Acts? Tell me? Holy Spirit? Good?

What else? Fellowship of the believers? What else? They saw

their possessions together? Have you all saw your possessions? Oh? Okay,

I think we're far from Anna. Okay? Anything else? What

else do you know about the Book of ACX? Soul

become Paul? All right? All right?

And you know that the Book of X was just

after the Gospels, right, So at the end of the gospels,

what is the conclusion of the gospels? What do you

know about? What was the conclusion of the gospels? The resurrection? Amen,

Jesus went to the cross, he died, and then he

rose again, and then he has ascended.

Right, And that's where the Book.

Of X started and the Holy Spirit became the key

figure to now empowering the people of God to do

mighty works for him.

Amen.

So so in summary, that is the Book of X.

So I think we have to ask ourselves. Do we

live like the Book of X.

Yeah? So let's think about it, right, don't worry.

You know, we are here, and I really believe that

our name calls us to a higher calling, right, just

like your names, whatever it is that God has given you.

God has given this name, and God has called us

to that purpose.

Okay.

So I'm gonna be reading of course you would know

from the Book of Acts, yay. And you know that

with the prayer and fasting for the nation as well.

I think I've been part of it. And as I

was really trying to take this time seriously, oh I

didn't tell you, right, So, I mean the profits came

and say, you know you, guys, you need to come

back to the heart of the Book of Acts again

and don't forget that you have a mission, you have

a call, right, So if you want to take notes,

I have titled the message for this morning from mission

to mission. Both sound the same, right, Mission to mission Okay,

And do you know that before the lot sends us

from any mission, and sometimes when we think about mission

the other mission, we always think about going for a

mission trip. Right, is it right going for a mission

trip or maybe swing into the missions fund? And that's

how we limit what mission is. Right, It could be that,

But you'll hear more so when you come for the conference.

You'll hear that mission takes a lot of form, right,

not just like I go for a mission trip. Yes,

that's also part and parcel of it. But it's a

great purpose, right because you can only go for your

mission trip maybe twice a year.

True.

Uh, there's one lady for her name is Isabella from

X eight am Mandarin. Some of you know she goes

for a mission trip every month, Okay, yes, every month.

She has decided that she's gonna go for a mission

trip every month. And she has such a bad cast sickness,

you know, very every mission trip that she's gone for us,

she has vomited. The recent one that she went for

pray Scott, she didn't and she was also sped from

the diary that the rest of the teammaker. Now okay,

so okay, that's a testimony for but but you see

the things, right, where we think about mission, we think

we go for it twice a year and most and

then for the rest of the year we don't do mission.

Is it.

No?

Right? Okay?

So, but before God sends us on our mission, his

greatest purpose, his greatest mission is you and me.

I want to say that again.

Before God sends us for a mission, his greatest mission

is me, you, because God wants to work something in

us before he wants us to do something for him.

Amen, you get that? Okay.

So the key text I'm gonna be reading today will

be from X chapter nine, as you can see on

the screen, and so let's read through that together. I'll

be reading from the NKJV version. And do you have

your Bibles with you?

Yay. We are a Bible believing church.

That's what extrage is, and we believe and we encourage

you to bring your physical bibles, all right, so that

there is less distraction on your phones.

That's what we believe in.

Okay, So next week if you forget this way, never mind,

next way, you bring your bibles.

Okay.

If you don't have one, never mind, by or you

can ask your CPC wait to buyer. You know that

bibles are getting more and more rare, and it's harder

to find good ones. Yeah, I mean, that's a state

that we where we are are, right, So let's take

this opportunity to invest. So the Bible is probably the

most important thing that you can invest in. Okay, all right,

So let's go to read. I'm going to read through

once and then let's see where we can unpack from that.

Okay, are you ready? Acts Chapter nine, verse one.

Then Saul, still bringing threats and murder against the disciples

of the Lord, went to the high priests and asked

letters from him to the synagogues of the maskers, so

that if he found any who were off the way,

whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

As he journeyed, he came near the Mascus, and suddenly

a light shone around him from heaven.

Is this story familiar? Some of you familiar? Right?

Okay, let's move on. Okay, maybe I give you a

bit of context before this happened.

Was do you remember.

Stephen Stephen, he was martyred, right, he was mutterred, killed,

and then after he gave this long sermon, and then

they stoned him to.

Death, and then he gave up his spirit. Okay, and

Saul was there consenting to his death. Okay.

So that's why we are moving now, because this is now.

So can you imagine this is now?

Saul?

Okay, breathing threats? Have you breathed threats before? I don't

know how do you breathe threats? Okay, So imagine imagine

with me. Okay, the Bible is real. Okay, he's breathing

threats and murder okay, against the disciples.

Okay.

Let's this is a context, and I'm gonna read on

from verse three.

That's where I stopped. Now.

As a journey, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a

light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to

the ground and heard a voice saying to him. Saul saw,

why are you persecuting me?

And he said, who are you? Lord? And the Lord said,

I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard

for you to kick against the goads.

So he, trembling and astonished, said Lord, what do you

want me to do? Then the Lord said to him,

arise and go into the city, and you will be

told what you must do. And the man who journeyed

with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one.

Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes

were open, he saw no one. But they led him

by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he

was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drink.

Now there was a sudden disciple at the Mascus name Ananias,

And to him the Lord said in the vision Annius,

And he said, here I am Lord. So the Lord

said to him, arise and go to the street called

Straight and inquire at the house of Judah's for one

called Saul of Tarsus.

For behold, he is.

Praying, and in a vision he has seen a man

named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him

so that he might receive his sight. Then Ananaias said,

answered Lord, I have heard from many about this man

how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.

And here he has authority from the chief priest to

bind all who call on your name. But the Lord

said to him, go, for he is a chosen vessel

of mind to bear my name before gentles, kings and

the children of Israel. For I will show him how

many things he must suffer for my namesake, and Ananaius

went his way and entered the house, and laying his

hands on him, he said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus,

who appeared to you on the road as you came,

has sent me that you may receive your side and be.

Filled with the Holy Spirit.

There fell from his eyes something like skills and receive

his side and was baptized at once. And he arose

and was baptized. Then he received food, he was strengthened.

Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at the maskers.

Amen.

The Lord add to the reading of his word, Wow

power one right now. As I was reading this, and

then you know, the Lord told me, there's three things

that I want you to share. Okay, three things. And

the first question that I'm going to ask you is

what are the questions I think we need to always

ask ourselves some deep questions. Is that Okay, do you

ask yourself questions or not? Initially, I want to say

the difficult questions because the questions that I'm going to

be asking you later it's going to be very difficult,

not easy to answer. And I realized that sometimes we

can get into a rut, a routine, into our you know,

it's very easy to do life as a Christian.

Correct.

It's easy to just come in, you know, sing some songs,

listen to some words for forty five minutes, and if

she's kind, you know, she won't take it to one

hour one and a half. And then after that you

go for lunch. Right, it's very easy to do that.

And you can't do that for thirty years without any

change and transformation. Okay, And so I want us to

be careful not to get to that place.

You know, as we entered the.

Sanctuary this morning, did you have this sense of just

I'm entering into the presence of God? Did you have

this sense of there is a fear of the Lord

in these places all and reverence every time we come

to worship God together. Did it happen for you? I

think we have to ask ourselves that, right, because it's

very easy. That's why I say it's very easy to

take things for granted. You know, if you're rushing from

here to there, everything you know, you're thinking about, your

serving your.

Ministry, all in the name of the Lord.

But we can forget that, actually it is the Lord

that we are meeting. You can do everything, Remember Mary,

and Martha. You know, Mary was waiting.

Martha was so busy, busy, busy, busy.

You know, we can be so busy serving the Lord

that we forget that it's Him that it's all about.

It's all about him.

And so I'm so conscious now that everything, every time

I come into the present of God, put the fear

of God in me. Do you know that nycf forty

days the team is fear of God. I'm like, wow,

so apt because I feel that if the church has

lost the fear of the Lord, then we would have

lost our cutting age. You can try and do things,

but we would not be able to hear from the Lord,

will not be able to do what he wants.

Us to do. We can do everything except what God

wants us to do. You know that. I think it's

a scary thing.

You know, we can do everything, you know, so our

life go into full time ministry, and yet if God

says that's not what I wanted you to do, then

you have wasted your entire life. Oh that's scary, man.

You want to talk about real fears. I think that

that that's a real fear. So to me, now it's

not about you know, what is it that I can do,

how far I can go with my career is.

More like God, what is it that you want me

to do? Sometimes I'm so deaf? Like God, can you

just got it? By tellinger? Okay? For our internationals?

It means like dig my ears so that I can

be still and hear that voice?

What is it? And my desire is.

Just to be able to do what you want me

to do today? You know I'm not intriguous time for

your side, but today.

What is it? Lord? What is it? Who? What you

want me to do? Right?

And so the first question that Jesus will ask us

time and time.

Again he as he asked Saul, is this Saul? Saul?

Why are you persecuting me? Have you ever identified with

this question before? Or did you think that this was

specific to Saul? Of course, not a Saul. You know

you kill so many You allow so many Christians to

be killed? Right, do you allow other Christians to be killed?

No? You didn't consent to other people's death? What right?

We're not We're not sault any saults? Yeah, of course

not right. But you see the thing is right.

I think sometimes we forget that we can be a Saul.

Do you know that this question. You know, many times

you can just read through this right, read through that.

It's all yeah, okay, it's Aul was a bad guy.

But actually you think about it, Saul was very zealous

for God.

Do we agree with that?

Saul was a godly man, god fearing men.

The reason why.

He did all these things persecuted Christians was because he

thought that there were against God the law of Moses,

and he wanted to upheld uphold that he was Pharisee

of the Pharisee. Okay, he called himself that like top

notch Bible teacher, scripture, the Torah, he was there.

He was a.

Godly man, and sometimes godly man can miss the point,

you see. And so although at this time you know

that Jesus had already risen, right, so in that sense,

we cannot persecute Jesus anymore.

Is it possible? Let me ask you this question, is

it possible to persecute Jesus again? Okay, I see some hates. No, No,

it's not.

Possible to persecut Jesus. And we may not be able

to persecute Jesus. But you think about it, right, If

that's the answer, then why did Jesus say, so, so,

why are you persecuting me? Remember this is after Jesus

had risen from the death. That from death, how come.

Why is Jesus still accusing Saul? Saul? So, why are

prosecuting me?

Actually he's sitting at the right head of the Father already, right,

So is it possible that, in Jesus' reason state, that

someone can still persecute him?

Yes, every time a.

Believer is persecuted, you are persecuting Jesus. This is why,

he says. You know, so, so why are you persecuting me?

Jesus risen from the Dad. He's he's technically no longer

on earth, but he is still The question was, so,

why are you persecuting? Not the Christians? Why are you

persecuting me? Is Jesus getting very personal? Okay, very personal?

Why are you persecuting me? He didn't say the Christians,

he didn't say my followers. He took it directly, he said,

why are you persecuting me? So, dear friends, I think

it's very possible for people today to persecute Jesus. Is

it possible? Yeah, it is possible. Do you know there

was a global status? There is global Do you know

that in our church, right, No, in Malaysia, I have

to say, we have not experienced persecution, not in the

way the Book of Experience it, not in the way

our surrounding country nations experienced persecution. Let's look at this next.

Can you see the colored ones right, The orange ones

are those with high persecution, and then the rate ones

are like the highest persecution persecution level. And this was

this church was taken in twenty twenty five.

This is twenty twenty five.

More than three hundred and eighty millions Christians suffer high

levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.

Do you see Malaysia highlighted? I look at all the years.

You're not thiny for any three. Malaysia not persecutor a man.

So if you think you're being persecuted right now, okay, friends,

I think we don't know what it means to be persecuted.

Some of the other nations.

Actually, do you know what's the number one number one

country being persecuted for being a Christian?

North Korea or Korea? Okay?

And of course South Korea is Christian. Now that's why

it's not highlighted at all. But persecution is very real, friends, right,

and so last year alone, four four hundred and twenty

six people died or were killed for professing faith in

Jesus Christ. So I think the question is I think

Jesus asking whoever it is, why are you persecuting me?

Every time someone dies for their faith, they are being persecuted,

And who is being persecuted is Jesus ultimately, because if

you profess to follow Jesus, then.

You are at risk. Yeah, we are walking risks, right,

and if someone persecutes us, actually they're persecuting Jesus. So

this is this is real, real stats.

And you know, when I think about it, like wow,

we are we are a call and a chosen nation,

but we are also at risk or being persecuted.

You still want to be Christian? Do you know?

Pasa Santra was sharing with us, right, She wanted to

get some discipleship material from one of the pastors who

was doing a lot of work in one of these

persecuted countries. I can't remember whether it was Africa or

in Middle East. And so the pastor has his material, right,

and so we want to invite him to speak in

our church. And then he asks this question, Joe, are.

You ready to die for your faith. He's like, let

me think about it. There is not a straight yes,

not yet, right, not yet.

And so that pastor told us, if you're not ready

to die for your faith, I'm not interested in your church.

I'm only interested if you're ready and willing to die

for your faith, then I will come. Because do you

know that in many countries, that's what it takes to

be a believer. They only have they have fourteen lessons

in three three weeks time. They only had that much time.

And I'm not gonna give you everything. And by the

fifth lesson, are you ready to die for Jesus? If

you're not, really, then let's not.

Even talk about diciples.

She know, we all talk about disciple sheep, And all

that right for them is like are you ready to

die or not? Are you ready that your whole family

is gonna turn against you? They're gonna send assassins after you.

And that's true in Pakistan right the many. That's why

you have so many Pakistani refugees who are here seeking shelter,

because that's what happens to them. They're on the run

for being passes and for they're risking their lives. How

you guys, like think. I also think about my own faith,

you know, like, hey, I'm so comfortable. No, I just

wake out in the morning, get dressed, go to church,

you know. And most also traffic jam, but someday no

traffic jam. Also, maybe that's why our faith can be

weak sometimes, Yeah, there's not enough, Like do I really

believe this or not? So there's a global persecution, and

I like this because at a personal level, there is

also the persecution of Jesus.

I'm taking this.

I'm gonna read this from Oswald Chambers. Do you know

who Olswalt Chambers is.

He's a really good.

Teacher, a already died already that did right. But his

devotional materials are really really deep. Okay, so I'm going

to read to you what it says here. This is

his from one of his devotions. He says, stubbornness and

self will will always step Jesus Christ, ouch, are you

persecuting Jesus? Says it may hurt no one else, but

it warns his spirit whenever we are obstinate and self

will and set on our own ambitions, we are hurting

Jesus every time we stand on our own rights, and

insists that this is what we intend to do, we

are persecuting him. Whenever we rely on self respect, we

systematically disturb and grief with Spirit. And when we finally

understand that it is Jesus we have been persecuting all

this time, it is the most crushing revelation ever. The

spirit of Jesus is conscious of only one thing. We

talk about the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit and the spirit

of Jesus is the same, is one of the same.

It's only conscious of one thing, a perfect oneness with

the Father. Do we desire that in our lives every day?

A perfect oneness with the Father.

And if this is not our goal, we're like, okay, God,

you know, just please pray through this, answer my prayer.

And this is not perfect oneness with the Father. Yeah.

And if we are out of this desire to have

perfect oneness with the Father, we are grieving the Holy Spirit.

And that's how we persecute Jesus. Ouch. It was a

real ouch when I read this. You can do all

kinds of things.

And then when you realize that, Jesus, you mean, every

time I'm stubborn, every time I am lazy, I'm persecuting you.

Ouch. Ouch.

So as I'm sharing this with you. This is also

for me, right, So like, oh Jesus, why am.

I prosecuting you?

No, that's the last thing we desire, right, I think

all our hearts we don't intentionally want to do that,

but as we live, and if we're not careful, we

can just like.

Soul was zealous for the things of God, and yet

he means that Jesus was the one that he needed,

and so he went around killing believers in a name

of Jesus. But Jesus is stop Saul, why are you

persecuting me?

And also with this, I think I think encouragement because

you know what, Jesus doesn't want to leave Saul.

The way he is.

You know, you could have just gone like, okay, this

is not condemned to health forever, true or not. But

I can can I encourage you Church that Jesus will

stop us in our tracks like today, and he will

ask us this question, why are.

You persecuting me? Elaine? To give us a chance? Do

you know that that's the God that we serve.

He doesn't just let us continue on in our error,

erroneous ways. He doesn't let us continue on doing the

wrong thing. He wants to get us to the right

path again.

Man.

So that is the first difficult question, right. And so

when you have this realization that you know this is

Saul right. He's never encountered Jesus before. He wanted to

persecute him because he thought he was, you know, a

crazy man. And I like this other question, and we

need to ask this question church, And this is Saul's question.

To Jesus, who are you Lord? Have you ever asked

this questions? Who are you? Lord? Who are you? Have

you ever you asked this question to the law who

are you?

Or you just take whatever the preacher says to you

or his son of God? Do you remember the same

thing that happened when Jesus asks Peter, who do men

say I am? Some say what some say Elijah, some

say a prophet, good teacher. But Jesus, I don't care

what people say. I don't care what the church leaders say.

I don't care what pastors say. Who do you say

I am? And if we cannot come to a place

where we say you are the son of God, then

we cannot go further from that.

You know what I'm saying.

You cannot go further when you don't have the acknowledgment

of who Jesus is, and I pray Church, the me

part on the mission is for us to really seek

the Lord this season, to say, who are you Lord?

Really? To me? Who are you Lord? Are you so

precious to me? Are you the center of everything in

my life? That nothing else matters? You know?

We always sing the song nothing else matters, you know,

everything I do, I do it for you.

My songs love we had to do, you know, beautiful lyrics,

but so hard to execute. And it says, who are

you Lord? Who are you Lord?

So we have to ask the Lord this question, amen,

because this is what Jesus said to him after that.

So can I encourage your church that when you ask

the Lord who are you Lord? He will tell you.

He will reveal himself to you. So let's think of him.

And he says it is yes, I am Jesus. Wow,

I am Jesus Lord. Say to him whom you are prosecuting?

And he said this, You know it is hard for

you to kick against the goods. Now do you know

what this means?

Don't know? Right?

Any of you farmer here, ginny, do you farm before?

Go to farm in the city? No, anyone farming farming.

So have you ever.

Understood this verse? It is hard for you to kick

against the goats? Have you understood this? I still didn't

understand that, not farmer? Okay, So now can I tell

your gods?

Right?

Is this tool that has a sharp pointy thing added?

Okay? Another version is like it's hard for you to

kick against the pricks? Okay.

So what happens is you know oxen, right, Oxen, you

go and if you do farming, what they want to

do is they want to give you direction because remember,

you have a piece of land. I don't know how

many acres you need to go in a straight line

to plow the land? Correct, you cannot like plow plow

right then base lie, you cannot grow anything. So so

what they do is a farmer will have to guide

the oxen. And they are always in pairs. They are

yoke together. Can you see they are yoke together? Any

familiar verse comes to you about yok okay, do not

be an equally yolk is one thing?

Good? Good, I'm glad that.

Okay, Please do not be an equally yoked Okay. If

you want to know what that means, talk to CPC

or Joe later. But there's another verse that Jesus said

about being your Do you remember that verse?

Do you remember that verse?

Take my yoke upon you, right, And that's where it says,

you know then you know you will?

What does it say after that? Take my yoke upon

you and I will give you rest.

We always like to quote the verse, but we don't

know what it means, you know, to be yoke together

with Jesus, right, and.

It is it means that you're you're like chained together. Literally.

Do you like to be chained to your wife and

walk together like that? You know? You ever played the

trick leg race? Right? And like're trying to walk together?

Oh I saw some loving couples like, oh, I don't

mind being yoke to you.

Oh good, good good. Romance is still there. Go go

keep it, keep it going.

Uh.

And and it's it's very hard to walk together, right,

It's very have to walk together. And the thing is

sometimes we go through life bearing all the burdens on

our own, and Jesus says, no, I'm going to be

yoke to you.

And he's the one.

That's going to guide you through and he's gonna carry

the heavior weight because Jesus can carry all your weight.

Amen.

So so okay, so they're guiding, and what the farmer

needs to do is I will need to have this device.

Because they don't understand English or Hebrew or Greek. The

oxen don't left, left, right, right, they cannot. What they

understand is if I go to the and the farmer

wants me to go to the right, there's the thing. Ah, Okay,

I'm gonna go to the lab ouch, but I will.

I know, I understand the signal. I understand the signal.

Okay, you get it.

You might think it's very cruel, but the Bible uses

a lot of this analogy.

I was so surprised, you know, because I.

Was just reading the Book of Ecclesiasts in my devotion

and can I just point you to it. Ecclesias, just

the final verse. It just kind of blew my mind.

Let's go to Ecclesiastis the final final chapter twelve, okay,

just Ecalsis.

Oh, this is so hard to say. Ecclesias, this chapter twelve,

verse eleven, And this was my devotion this morning, and this.

Is what it says. The words of the wise are

like goats. Hey, how come these will come up with you, you know.

And the words of the scholars are like well driven

nails given by one shepherd. You mean what God uses

shop things to get us into the direction that he

wants us to go. Yes, ouch, And you're like saying, Nola,

you know, you just use the gentle way.

But you know this is what the word says. The

words of the wires are like God. So you don't

like sometimes have to hear the wisdom because they freak

you correct, not prick your conscience. You go like, ah,

but guess what, it's good.

It's good to be pricked by the Lord because if

you're not being pricked by the lot, now we can

go off tangent without knowing and you can be walking

in circles your whole life without knowing. How come my

life is, you know, going around in circles.

I don't know how come? And so it's good to

be pricked by the Lord.

And so God is saying, it's very hard for you

to kick against the ghosts.

You know why?

You know that if you the shopping is there, right,

try kicking against it? Have you tried kicking against the nail?

Do you want to?

No? Way? Right? And God is saying, why you try

to resist me, I give you the warning already out

a little bit. And if you continue resisting God's will,

You're gonna hurt yourself. Do you know You're gonna be

kicking against the nail and you go like, ah, I'm bleeding.

But God is saying, no, I brought you gently.

But if you reverse and you don't want to go

the way I want to go, I am directing you.

Know this is what the shepherd does, right, I'm directing

you to where you need to go. Wake up early,

do your quiet time.

No lazy bird.

You know someday you know we keep on saying this,

do your quiet time Church. You cannot afford to not

have your own.

Quiet time out.

Why I say again and again, Can I tell you

that's a good if it breaks you good.

Because you need to do something about it.

Because if you don't grow in the world of God,

how can you grow in faith? How can you really

grow in spiritual maturity?

Right?

It's things like that is disciplined, is walking with the

Holy Spirit, right, being guided and being pricked. It's okay,

I'm like, okay, God, It's okay, I'm okay being pricked

now at least I know I'm going in the right direction. Right,

So don't kick against the God's example.

Don't kick against the God. Don't go against God's will.

God wants the best for you, a man, just as

he's encountering Saul right now, he's encountering you right now,

and God wants to turn you from where whichever direction

you're going to, and God saying, no, this is where

I want you to go. Amen, don't go against God

because you're res hurting yourself. Now, once we have answered

this question successfully, who is the Lord? And he will

tell you I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, and

he says, stop resisting, Mila, Can we stop resisting Jesus?

Many times, we don't resist anyone else except Jesus, Okay,

And then.

What is the right response?

After you know who Jesus is already, you're like, wow,

son of God, king of Kings, lord of Lord's majesty,

the Lord of the Heaven's armies.

You know all this about Jesus. Really? Then what next?

It's found in the next question, what do you want

me to do? Yeah?

Simple, if you acknowledge Jesus already as who he is,

the son of God, the One, our Savior, our Lord,

our master. The next thing you do is you take

this position of saying, okay, Master, what do you want.

Me to do?

Correct, it's all like, okay, so, Jesus, I know that

you are of God. I know that you're a master.

I'll see you next.

Year at Christmas.

No, right, it's straight away. I submit myself. What do

you want me to do? Now that you say, before

you can go, you can ask the Lord what do

you want me to do?

You have to get that revelation of who are you Lord.

You see that without the revelation of who Jesus is,

it's very hard to ask the Lord what do you

want me to do?

Because it will be futile because you don't know him.

You don't know his motive, you don't know his heart,

you don't know his mind. Right, So what do you

want me to do? And of course Saul trembling and astonish,

he said, the Lord said to him, arise and go. Now,

this is a rise and go is very important. Do

you know that God will always want us to arise

and go? Yeah, He doesn't ask us to stay comfortable

where we are. A rise and go every time Jesus

heals someone, He healed the paralyzed men. He say, take

up your mat and walk right. It's arising and going.

So as church, that's what we are. We arise and

we go. We don't stay, we don't stay where we are.

So many of of us are trapped in our comfort zone.

Trap.

I say trap because I realized that because we are

not persecuted, our God becomes comfort. Do you know that

when you have persecutions, people chasing after you are You're

like Jesus, you're real in me.

I will be praying, I'll be reading the word. You're not.

You're not thinking I think I'll do it tomorrow. Oh

I think maybe if I got time, I will, I'll

do it. No, no, no, because your life now depends

on it.

So so I feel that the modern church, at least

in Malaysia, we are fighting our greatest enemy, which is comfort.

And it's true, it's very true.

We you know, because when prosecuted outwardly, inwardly we become God.

And that's how we persecute Jesus.

So so so he yo pawla Lord. So Jesus says, arise

and go.

So let's let's ask God arise and go, Lord, would

you give me the courage to arise and go?

And so he did.

Now after the first question, after going through these difficult questions,

and once this has been sealed in your spirit, in

your mind and your heart, then what will happen is

what do you see?

The next question, what do you see? Right? And do

you know that at this time soul was blinded. He

was blinded right.

The light shone from heaven and he's like, oh, cannot

see and everyone heard a voice but saw nothing and

saw no one all right, And so that's why they

had to bring him by hand because he was blinded.

Now and then he says that for three days he

was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

Okay, he went into fasting. Word.

Sometimes, when we have our eyes open too much to

the things of the world, we get very attracted and

consumed by everything. And for God to do something deeper

within us, he has to close our eyes. And that's

why I feel when we pray and when we fast,

we are saying God, I'm gonna close these eyes that

is very attuned to the physical world, so that I

can open my spiritual eyes.

Do you see that the prayer and a fasting.

That's what it is, is saying God, I'm gonna remove

myself from the normal things that I do, the normal

things that I see, so that you can awaken in

me the spiritual things of God. Do you know that

fasting is not magic? You know it's not magic. Fasting

and prayer it's not magic. But it's a discipline. It's

a discipline of saying God, I am serious about you.

Every time I'm start it's hungry. I'm serious about you.

And God honort that because Jesus seems solf faster and pray.

Amen.

So so let's let's follow after what Jesus did. It's

a spiritual discipline. And when we feed our flesh, then

we become. What do you get when you feed your flesh,

you get your flesh. What you saw is what you reap.

Right.

If I feed, I constantly feed my flesh, you know,

I constantly eat, I constantly watch things. Then that part

of me will grow, the flesh of me will grow.

But when I start sowing into no the word of God, time, God, prayer, intercession,

serving ministry, I'm sowing into my spiritual side.

You see that?

Do you want your flesh to win or your spirit

to win. Of course, the text will answer is spirit

like right, But how often do you like the spirit win?

Ouch?

Whenever you're angry, how often does your flesh tex over?

And then you silent the Holy spirit within you?

No, let go forgive, No hurt me so bad, cannot forgive.

You're silencing the Holy Spirit.

And the more you silent the Holy spirit, guess what,

Your flesh becomes stronger and you become more angry. It's

a cycle. Whatever your feet will grow, true or not.

Whatever your feet will grow, including your own body. And

now you're growing this way. Never mind, it's okay, we grow.

We want to grow spiritual strength.

Amen.

So yeah, he was three days without food and neither

ate or drank. And then you know, of course Annis

came and ministered to him, and you see the thing

is right.

God is so good that from revelation. What do you see,

Let's see the next light.

Our eyes may be open, Oh, but go back to

Our eyes may be open, but we still can't see.

Do you see that? Our physical eyes may be open,

but we can't see. We can't see the point. We

can't see it. So that's what it is.

And then what's the next light until someone prays for

us and we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember

that's what happened with Saul. Ananias came, Thenest came, and

then he said, okay, you're gonna kill all the Christians.

You've been killing all Christians. And then now I have

to pray for you. And you notice what And I said,

not brother, brother Saul, okay, brother Eddie, will you do

that to your enemy, someone that you fear. But no,

Annius received the vision, and he says, okay, brother Saul.

The Lord Jesus said, even though I think Ananias must

be scared, scared like anything, because he can throw me

into jail, you know.

But he went and said, okay, I received this because

I had the revelation. And when the revelation comes, let's

go to the next light. You will get sights. You

will receive sights, you will receive the spirit of God.

And he says that you will receive strength.

You see that in verse seventeen. Brothers saw this is

what and and I said to him, the Lord Jesus,

who appeared to you on the road as you came,

has sent me that you may receive your sight right

and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

So from the revelation he received his side, he received.

The Holy Spirit, and he received strength because you know what,

God is very very practical as well. He says, after that,

something like skills fell from his eyes. He received his sight,

and he was baptized. Do you know that soul was

baptized as so immediately. So as an encouragement church, you know,

we always do this if you truly know who the

Lord Jesus is. I don't wait until you're too.

Old to get baptized. I don't know what that means

to some of you.

Right, if you are a follow of Jesus Christ and

you have not been water baptist, can I encourage you

to take that step of faith?

Yeah?

I don't think that it's nothing. By the way, it

doesn't affect myselfish. No, you want to do it.

You want to do it, right, Jesus who didn't need

to be baptized, was baptized.

What more us who's full of sin and needs to

be cleansed from our sin. Right, So I just want

to encourage you. We run baptism like at least four

times a year.

So just take this step again, arise and go be baptized.

Don't just sit and say no, no.

I don't know what your reason or excuses are, but

enough just say yes.

I will go with you all the way.

Publicly declare that you belong to Jesus Christ a man.

He was baptized, and then when he had received food,

he was strengthened. And then sauls plan some days with

the disciples of Jesus, and all this, all this right

when Jesus encounters saw, even when he was the most

I think he's probably the worst of the worst. You

think about it, right, I mean all of us everage, Lah?

Are we every sinner? I think we're every singer correct? Correct,

We're not the worst of the sinner's la, every singer,

every sinner?

Correct.

That's how you think, you and I think, actually, right,

we are not so bad. We're not very good either,

but we're not so bad.

True? Not true? Not? Is it just me? Okay? Maybe

I I think like that I am the everyge syner.

I'm not so not bad.

Lad, you know I'm saving you God, I'm every sinner, Lah.

And compared to soul, it is not bad dealer. These

are really really off the skills, right. And Saul, who

turned to Paul admitted, I'm the worst of sinners. I'm

cheap sinner than actually think, are you. Yeah, I'm not

that far off. I'm not that average. After all, you know,

sin is sin, right, there's no such thing as an

average sinner. You sin means your sinner again against God

already right, And then he went and.

He met with the Lord. There was that revelation of

who God is.

Now all this after the hard questions and then the

restoration of sit The final question, and the very important question.

Is what for?

What's all this for? Why did Jesus go through all

the trouble to go ahead and meet me? So he

didn't need to, you know, but he's recorded in the

Word of God because God wants to tell us something

that he wants to have a very personal relationship with

you and I to that extent, you know. And there

were so many incidences where Jesus met with individuals and

can I tell you the good news.

Is our God is a very personal god' just like oh,

one big church, three thousand people.

Okay, I don't know your name. I forgot ready, So

I am like that, Okay, I.

Will forget your name. I'm sorry, Tim If I forget

your name. Okay, Jesus will not forget your name. Okay.

He remembers your full name, Chinese name. He can pronounce

it better than I got Chinese name.

Not God.

He knows you from your mother's womb. That's how God

knows us, and he wants to get personal with us.

So the revelation is there. But what do we do

with this? Right?

What do we do with this? And we can see

this come in it Finally, in the revealing of the purpose,

he spends some days. We remember we read up to

verse nineteen, right, okay, let's read again versse nighty. So

he had when he had received food, he was Strengthen,

what do you need strength for.

To continue living your life? You're always nope?

Then saw spend some days with the day disciples at Damascus.

Please do that.

This year we are in the theme of disciples. First,

we are in the journey of disciple making. And if

you don't know what that means, what that looks like again,

talk to your leaders here. It means that we have

a relationship with you. It means that sometimes we can

be the goat that you don't like, the prick that's

gonna help you as representatives of God to make sure

you come the right way, you walk the right way. Okay,

So do that? Do that, you know, and we don't

stop just being disciples. We are disciples who make disciples, imen,

and that that's our call. And you know that in

matiy that that's what we always talk about when we

talk about missions. Right, go and make disciples. He didn't say,

go and make babies, although some of you do make babies.

It's okay, then disciple your baby la right Crystal, She's like, okay,

got it, got the message, Go and make disciples.

Every opportunity is disciple making opportunity. Amen.

Every conversation do you know that every conversation is an

opportunity to disciple?

Right, So let's have that within us. All this to say.

That there is a purpose because in verse twenty, now

look at verse twenty.

Immediately this is Saul.

Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues that he

is the son of God. So if you ask me

what is all this thing for why God appears to

us intimately personally, some of us physically. If you ever

met the Lord in a vision in a dream, and

he confronted with all these difficult questions until we get it.

And then he says, okay, now go arise and go.

And that's remember what Saul asked him, What shall I do?

What do you want me to do? And he went

around proclaiming, you know what the Holy Spirit is for?

Someone says, the Book of ex is all about the

Holy Spirit? Right? You think the Holy Spirit is for you?

To help you? I don't know, wash toilet, cook well,

sleep well.

Fine packing?

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know this fine fucking thing.

Holy Spirit, help me find pucking. Is that all the

Holy Spirit is for? They help me find pucking.

That's a good one. And the Holy Spirit shall come

upon you so that you become my witnesses in all Judea,

Samarah and to the ends of the world. If you

think about the Holy Spirit, and we say, you know,

come Holy Spirit. The whole purpose of the Holy Spirit

is to empower us to become witnesses. Are we witnessing?

Just like Saul here immediately he preached Christ that he's

the son of God.

That's it.

So from the mission now it's all about me. My righteousness.

Soul was known for that his self righteousness. Some of

us when I say that we are self righteous, right,

it means that we are not so bad. Lah, the

average sinner thing not so bad now self righteous until

we recognize my righteousness is like rubbish, that's what Paul says.

He says, actually, in the actual translation, he says, my

righteousness is like a youth sanitary pat.

You're like, what are you being to graphic? Yes, that's

what he says. It's like dumb, it's rubbish. Whatever you

think that you're good for, if you know who.

Jesus is, is rubbish because the only righteousness that we

can receive.

And impute it upon us is Jesus. The righteousness from Jesus,

and Jesus gave it freely to all of us. Have

we taken jesus righteousness for granted? Have we stopped thanking

him and saying, Wow, God, you have given me all

that I need. Actually, sometimes we feel like we're so

needy and Jesus, hey, hello, I give you the keys. Ready,

I gave you all of it already, I died, I.

Did the difficult part. Okay, I die, you didn't, but

I gave.

You all the keys.

And why do we live Christians in such a scarcity mindset?

Like I don't have enough law. I don't know what

to do. La Hello, Holy Spirit.

Also given to you already, not only to find bucking

only ogay is to give you wisdom and revelation onto

all truth, and all truth points back to Jesus. Amen,

so that we can preach Christ. Because until the whole

earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of

the Lord, our job is not done. So it doesn't matter.

I you know, as crude as it, maybe it's like,

I'm not interested in what you do as your career.

I'm not interested in where you are in your relationship status.

I'm more interested in are you really following Jesus.

That is the core of it. I mean, if you

were talking about church right that that's what it's all about.

Are you following Jesus? Do you love Jesus with all

your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength. If

you don't, then let's get that together. Imen.

This is not a session to condemn anyone, but it's

to convict our hearts. It's the God that's gonna prick

us until we say, okay, Lord, I don't want to

kick against the pricks. I don't want to do this

if I'm you know, that's what discipleship is for. If

you are struggling with some parts of your life, certain habits,

certain mindsets, that's what discipleship is. Go to any of

the leadership and say, hey, I really need to keep

myself accountable in this. I want to grow in this area.

If it's a discipline of I don't or praying, if

it's a discipline of you know, having the right thoughts,

I want this And the Family of God is here

to support one another for that.

Amen.

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this week is going to be a good week ahead

for you.

God bless