Person of Interest | Pr Dave

You're listening to a message to go from at church, we hook this message

will light up your day. How do you know that when Jesus asked someone

to say get up and walk, they needed to respond and get up to

walk. Amen. And so I believe that the word of God is over.

Possibly could be this is that he wants to use our church strategically positioned

in the in in in in qualm. I know it's called unbound, but

you know, you know, you know if you know, you know,

and but this is gonna be a place of revival, and this is gonna

be a place of worship, and and there's gonna be revival, there's gonna

be warfare, there's gonna be you know, you know that's that's this is

strategic. And this sis that the law said this strategic. We're not meeting

in g tower for no reason. This strategic. This is gonna be a

place where we uh re establish the altar and and and and and stand on

behalf sending in the gap for this city and and and worship the Lord uh

and and and pray over the nation, pray over the city. Uh and

and and you know it kind of like you know, calling down fire from

heaven, because so much of what is happening in the city is not merely

flesh and blood. It is there's there's so much things happening the spiritual realm

that we we can't even see. If we see, we will, we

will, we will freak out. But the law says that it's not on

our place to see. It's not a place to praise. And and we

just need to praise God, live up the name of Jesus, and and

and the Lord will cause fire to come down and and revive those that need

reviving, burn away the things that need to be burnt away. But the

question is this, will X say yes, Lord, comeing in, We'll

say yes, Lord, from from from today onwards. We're not gonna We're

not gonna be passive when it comes to worship. Where we're gonna. We're

gonna come early. We're gonna give us all. We're gonna. We're gonna

worship the Lord with a band man. We're gonna worship the Lord like how

King David, worshiping the Lord with reckless abandonment, not caring what the neighbors

thought, but just worshiping, dancing and glorifying God, and and and and

ultimately you know that that is the the the offer that the law is making

and said, I'm looking. I'm looking for people who will stand in the

gap for this city. And and he's he's extending the invitation to ask pray

that as this community, will you know high fight the lot and says yes,

Lord, thank you for this privilege can be in Amen, Praise God.

The good thing about being an invited speaker is I I can just release

words like this and then he knows Selena will have to follow up. But

no, no, no, by God's by God's grace. Uh uh,

you know he would do it. Amen. He God's word will not return

to him void. All right, just just quickly allow me to pray,

and then I'm just gonna open up God's word. Lord. We thank you

for your word. It is living, it is powerful. Lord. We're

not here from more information. We're not here for entertainment. Lord. We

desire transformation that only can come from you. And so in a Wildlord,

as we read your word, would you let every verse, every letter of

the Bible jump out of the pages and let it leap straight into our hearts

changes from the inside OUTLAWDS, so that we become more like you in Jesus.

Let me pray Amen, Amen, Praise God, Praise God. Yeah,

I'm reminded that you know this. I'm not the coordinator of this church,

so I will do my best to keep the time, so we'll all

be finishing service at one point thirty. No, just joking, just joking.

You know, in London I can preach longer and they have no choice.

But but here, you know, I have teachers in Linda kind of

by staring me down. But yeah, and uh, you know, truly

the Lord is positioning our church into a new year, new new theme.

They all may know, they're all may know. And like I said earlier

on a both myself and Kat, we've been living in fact, March,

middle of March will be kind for ten years away on the official start of

our tenth year, because we were away since March twenty fifteen. We reached

UK March twenty fifteen, and I've been serving the lot there ever since.

Don't check my math, and I'm a lawyer, so you know, don't

trust my math. But it's about that. We definitely have been there for

a while. And this coming back to Malaysia again, I am reminded of

just the beauty of the people, the beauty of this land. And you

know, especially when we were able to just even the last week, spent

a couple of days having a planning retreat with all the international past us in

Putrajaya and just you know, being reminded of just how beautiful Malaysia is,

but most importantly how beautiful the people are. Every town, tribe, and

so many, so many, so many still do not have access to the

Gospel, and and and and and we need to as a church, we

need to, as a people of God, begin to take the Great commission

uh more seriously and more personally as well. And so this year, if

the whole church wants to encourage us in that uh train of thought, in

that theme. Know, the desire is that all may know, amen,

uh, that God rules and reigns. And they all may know that even

though they're going through cancer, cancer does not have the final say amen,

you know, they they all may know that there is there's hope. Uh.

You know that the children might be going through challenging time in school or

in life. But but but but may all know that there is there is

there is revival in the name of Jesus, that can be healing in the

name of Jesus. Uh. That can be you know, the law can

change lives uh and turn lives around. Uh. And so you know,

even as as meditating on this, I started to come of like prepare what

I would be speaking to the UK church for for kind of like the whole

year. And so he said, Okay, if I kind of like,

you know, test out my first message with you guys uh uh. And

and so as I was beginning to meditate on the theme of just proclaiming God's

word, uh, the Lord begins to to help me understand. It says

that there are three components in sharing the good News. There are three components.

Right, there's the person, the promise, and the power. Right

the person of cous right the messenger the promise. The promise is the message.

I mean, you know that the good News is not just a promise

that that if you believe in Jesus, God promises to to to to to

erase your sin and and to give you life and life to the full.

I mean, that is just part of the gospel, you know. Just

even Jesus coming is a fulfillment of the promise that God promised uh uh from

Genesis that where men feel that uh, that that he would send that there

will be a descendant of the woman and the li woman that would smite,

that will crush the serpent's heads. And the whole gospel message is a promise

that God will never leave us or forsake us, and that that that He

is here to rescue us. That is the promise. And of course the

power, the power we all know, we're all from ex church. You

probably are very firmilive this and the asks chapter one, verse eight. We

shall receive power to become his witnesses, because how many know that that just

knowing the right thing to say, that the truthful thing to say. You

needue courage to say. Right, don't even talk about the gospel, just

talk about normal things. Right. Let's say you're very good friends, ask

you hey, you know for me, you know, my very good friend.

My wife will sometimes say, hey, does this dress make me look

fat? And you have the truth. But sometimes you need the power to

speak the truth. And sometimes the reason why we don't speak the truth is

because we're afraid of another power, the power the wife, you know the

power of you know, sleeping on the couch. Uh, do you understand

we need power? Amen? No, no, no, I'm not here

to talk to you about that. We can talk a lot about all these

components. Person, promise, power, and I'll probably, you know,

try to unpack that with with the church in the UK throughout twenty twenty four.

But today I want to focus in on person. Person. All right,

person, So if you're taking our notes, the title of a message

today is called person of interest, Person of interests, person, the messenger

of the gospel. What makes a person a good messenger? What makes a

person interesting that you want to hear more about what he or she believes?

And again I sense that the Lord broke it down to three components, and

these will form out three take home points today, and I hope this blesses

you. There three things that will enable a person to be an effective messenger

of the good news. There are three things that will help us help all

to know and and and the three things are the it's the character of the

person, the closeness of the person, and the calling of the person.

All right, the character of the person, the closeness of the person,

and the calling of the person. Let's focus on point number one, the

character of the person. How many know the character is important right before?

We you know, uh, wanna hear or wanna believe? Many times we

say, don't judge a book by its cover, but we do, we

do. Uh, you know, society does you know? I'm again,

you know, my references could be old because I'm from an old dinosaur era

like Joe hal Lloyd. Uh and uh, he's he's order than me.

He's ordered by how many days? Brother? Seven days or yeah, seven

days older than me. And we were both born in seven day advent is

hospital anyway, And so you know, character is important, right, And

I know previously nowadays interviews, a lot of it happened over zoom. I'm

not sure Malaysia still, you know, so people just dress up just the

top half, right, And sometimes I joke when I see people wear face

masks, I Joe say, haha, you're lazy to put the bottom half

of your makeup, is it? And then they gave me a very angry

look and then I walk away. But previously, when when we were you

know, growing up, we were told that, hey, when you go

for dropping too, you gotta dress up. And it's not just dressing up,

it's the way you walk in. It's the way you carry yourself.

You know, you go in if your back hunch, and people immediately make

an assumption about you. You go in walking confidence. If you hit hell

high, people make a positive assumption about you, whether we like it or

not. In church, we should not judge a book by its cover.

But the world out there, they will judge you. And so sometimes if

we want to be a messenger and go into the world and not be off

the world, we got to work on our character. We got to work

on the way we carry ourselves right And and so you know, the question

is can people tell all spots that you are a follower of Jesus Christ by

the way you act, by the way you work, by the time you

show up for work, by the way you carry yourself, by the way

you lead your family, by the way you know you interact with them?

Can they tell you? You know? And and I was just thinking about

this thought, the Lord said, you know, can people tell them?

In this social media age everybody is on Instagram and and TikTok or whatnot.

And the question is is can people tell you a Christian? If you don't

post about it, Sometimes people go like, yeah, I'm a Christian,

yeah, because you post about it all the time. You know, every

single thing, you know, you're doing your quiet time or so know have

you been those? I hate those? I hate those. I refuse to

light those pictures. I don't know why they think I'm a Christian? You

know, can you get some am I I hate those people who posted that

reed a quiet time on Instagram? Because first of all, how is it

possible you can get the anger? You're there? Who's taking the picture?

That's why I want to know who's taking the picture? Right? Right?

It's the Holy Spirit? Someone said, you know that they're like how like

you know? In fact, it goes against what Jesus is. Jesus,

if you're gonna pray God in the choir, don't let people know. And

you and your God who sees what it's done in secret, we will honor

you for it. You know if you if you post it, yeah,

you get a lot of likes, but you might not get your praise.

So you might not get a breakthrough. Right, and so a lot of

us we we we post, we post, we post, we post your

posts or we just wear a cross. Do do people know that you're Christian?

Because you wear a cross or because of the way you carry that cross,

you know what I'm saying. And so character is so important, you

know, and and and this is in line the word of God. That's

why God says that, you know, if if you want to represent me,

you need to bear fruits. You know, it's it's called the fruit

of the spirit. And this is found in relationship to five verse twenty two.

And thank you for flashing up. But when we turn down, you

know Galatians five twenty two. You know, it lists down the fruits of

the spirit. And in fact I say fruits. Actually it's fruit of the

spirit. Because many times as Christians, we we think that, oh,

you know, we mistake the fruit of the spirit with the gifts of the

spirit, and we go like, you know, yeah, you know,

everyone has a different gift. You know, some people can prophesize, some

people can do this, and correct, everyone has a different gifting, all

from the same spirit, and God gifts as he wills. But when it

comes to the fruit of the spirit, we don't have a choice. We

can't say that, hey, I just only want this, I don't want

that, Because the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,

long suffering, kindness, and goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control against

these that is no, there's nothing against this. That the law has no

power over this, right the froid spirit, thank you for flashing up met

this. By the way, by the fluid spirit is love, joy,

peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Amen, and and

and all these things that we're gonna understand. This is not an option.

This is how a fruit. The Bible says, this is how people will

tell you apart like now, I'm not a botanist, okay uh. And

so the only way I discover what kind of fruit is by what kind of

fruit, what kind of tree? It's by looking at the fruit. And

so you know, you know if if if you see apples on the tree,

it's apple fruit. If you see orange on the trees, an orange?

When I say fruit, no orange on the trees. Yeah, if

you see orange on the trees, orange tree. Anyway, Okay, jet

light, jet light, blame me on the jetlight. But but what's not

jetlin? Is this love? Joy, peace, long stor friing, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, yet self control? And the question is this We're

gonna ask ourselves. Lord, am I am I? Forming and my hope

and my prayer is this right today. I'm not here to punch down anyone.

I'm here to encourage you because we're all not perfect. But we need

to start recognizing and working on these things. And so we need to start

walking in love, right. We need to start living with an evident love

for God and a love for our neighbor. And so maybe for some of

us here before all may know, you might need to just get to know

your neighbor right and just go like so sorry delay Chinese near cookie thing,

you know, And that's when you found out the house is abandoned for many

years, you know, and they begin to question, what was that sound

like here in the middle of the night anyway, So you need to be

walking in joy, amen, the joy of the loarn. We need to

be exhibiting gladness in what God has done is doing in your life and what

He will do. So maybe the situation right now in your life it does

not look pretty. But joy joy is different than happy happy. It's just

a response. Joy is is ability to to be happy even when the circumstances

don't look happy, don't look peaceful. Joy we need to learn to work

on our peace living in a way that is not defined by worry and anxiety.

Nowadays, you know the world that we live in, everyone is so

educated, Alena, Right, I'm sure the kids are. They know how

to talk about and shift. You know, I got OCD, you know,

I got this, I got that. And then you go like,

are you properly diagnosed? Are you just saying it? And a lot of

times we're just saying it, and but we don't realize that the Bible actually

says that there's there's power of life and death in what we say. And

so when we are just saying this has oh CD. Hey, friends,

be careful, you know, just just you know, find more creative ways

to describe what they're going through. You know, just just say it.

Just say that the way you work is very messy, you know, don't

call them OCD because you know. But but anyway, you know, we

need to start walking peace because sometimes if not careful, we can end up

being defined by worry and anxiety. You know, I know everybody likes to

say, oh, the economy is not good, blah blah blah blah bah.

Yeah, and when you meditate on that, it leads you to make

decisions that are rooted in worry and anxiety, always planning for the worst case

scenario. But that is not how God wants us to live, because if

you live like that, everybody leaves like that. But Christians, we need

to live differently. We need to speak differently. Amen, walking in long

suffering or walking in patience? Are you known church for having a temper or

being slow to anger? Ooh? At work? Are you known for having

a temper, being a difficult boss, difficult supervisor, difficult to work with?

Or are you someone who is slow to anger and people say, thank

God, that person's on our team. Thank God. You know, I

hope your colleagues will say the man, I didn't feel like coming to world.

In fact, I wanted to throw in the tower, But because of

you and your friendship, I'm staying on. Amen. You know how about

walking in kindness? Showing concern for others and their needs? Christians? I

think we need to be good at this even okay, not not here knocking

out anyone, let me not okay, okay. So sometimes when we go

out after church and we have fellowship over lunch, sometimes I'm like, guys,

church hasn't ended yet. Some of us we think that church ends the

moment the benedici is declared, you know, but no, no, it's

when we go out that that's still church. That that's the fellowship that happens.

And sometimes what happens over the table at the restaurant can either help somebody

to know Christ or somebody to hate Christ. And so sometimes every now and

then, you know, because you know, church people get accepted. And

then the waiter is that who ordered the chicken child? Who? Or I

sense as it's standing there, his life is just you know, withering away

because you know what I'm saying, he's nobody, you know, like my

boss goded me. Now I'm waiting this table and they're all like, you

know, they're as Christians. I hope we're not never known to be demanding.

I hope that we're known to be people who are kind and courteous,

you know, whether at the Mama or at the micheline style restaurant. You

see what anyway, so you know whether the whatever, you know, we

gotta be nice. Don't just write right, we gotta be kind and courteous.

Some of us here only when we go to the high end restaurant.

We pay a lot that we are nice even when the food is not nice.

Hi, sir, how's the food? And you go it's like she's

really bad. I mean, you go, fine, everything is fine,

fine, you know. But then when we go to other establishings, what

we complain, we have total Karen about it, and we need to start

going like, you know what, I need to be kind. I need

to start saying my thank you, my please. It's not the young children.

It's not just ex kids that needs to thank you and please the adults.

We need to go and go like thank you, thank you for something,

thank you, thank you for the meal, thank you, and and

and all these things really go a long way because they know that you say

grace. They know that that that you're Christians. You know, but are

you only known as Christians because you say grace? Or are you known as

Christians because man, they say grace? They're kind to us. Now,

I look forward for this group of Christians to come during my shift at work

because they make my day easier. That should be our testimony, Amen,

a man. That should be what you know as a church. After service

you go to let' school, find a place to be a blessing. Amen.

Anyway, carry on, because I don't end I one thir day a

goodness, a life of virtue and holiness, goodness. Right, only God

is good, so we reflecting him? Is that holiness in our lives?

Do we take God seriously? Do we do? We have lines that we

say that this can never never, ever ever ever cross it. Right.

We live in maulticultural Malaysia, and you know for a fact that there are

tribes that really prioritize prayer even more than believers. And that's that's not something

for us to go like, oh, maybe we're wrong that. No,

No, it's for us to go like, wow, God, I need

to get better at this. There needs to be more holiness in my life,

more holiness in the way I carry myself. You know. I need

to you know, be you know less a shame of the Gospel. I

need to be walking in faithfulness, a life that trusts in God's word and

God's nature. Right. The truth about the Christian life is this, most

of the days it's hard. Most of the days can be very I hope

this doesn't put off anyone from becoming a Christian, but this is the truth.

Most of the days is hard. But that's where faithfulness comes in.

The reward ultimately is super worth it. And even though it's hard, the

hardship is its own reward because we also serve a God who walks with us.

Amen. And when we're going to a tough time, we're never alone.

He's dead with us. But the question is are we faithful? Do

we trust in God's word and God's nature even when things are not going well

and and we can't hear God can encourage you as a past and pray.

Sometimes I don't hear God in theday. Some people feel like, oh hallelu

you have been set free because you thought that there's something wrong with you.

And sometimes when God doesn't speak back, it's not because you've done something wrong,

it's not because he's ingreat you. It's because maybe he wants you to

trust his nature. Right. Can you imagine like you know, you you

have somebody in your life who is so good, so dependable, and that

you send them a message and we all hopefully should have a friend like this,

Hey can you help me do something? And it doesn't look like it

was replied, But then on that day you confidently show up and you know

that it's done. Amen. We all know some some some of these people

they are called parents in our lives, you know, and as kids,

you know, fetch me that no reply. But then at the right time

when school ends, the guys there or something right and and and or we

just have a very good friend that has our God has all back. And

so sometimes when you don't hear anything back, don't be frightened. Learn to

trust in his nature. He is good all the time. Amen. So

walking in gentleness, in humility, in grace to other people, of course,

walking in self control with moderation, living a lifestyle sacrifice, and saying

no to the flesh. Character. Let's come back to character. Amen.

And so you know, another way for us to be reminded of this is,

you know, we've been meditating on the book of Daniel, but talk

about Daniel's character. You know, in Daniel chapter four, verse nine and

Daniel chapter five, verse ten. Daniel chapter four, verse nine, King

Abuken has had that powerful dream and then he silly remembered, Hey, there's

Daniel. And what he remember Daniel was this that that you are the person

who I believe the spirit of the Holy God dwells in. You see,

this was a pagan king and you know it's the Chinese culture. We're very

pagan, so we understand this. We had the god of money, the

god of the kitchen, the God of the land, the god of the

sky. Right, so we have gods of designations. Right even even the

you know, ancient Europeans understand this. And sorry, Northall is the god

of thunder, in all Loki is the god of mischief. You know,

all these kind of things that they have. They're like doctors. They have

a specialization. But and so king A thought that, okay, there is

there's a holy God. That's his specialization, the god that only does things

in the holy way, not realizing that this is the god of all gods.

But what was remarkable was that when he looked at Daniel's life, he

says, to see, but don't get tripped up by Betheltians, because that's

just Daniel's Babylonian name, okay, And it says, and don't get tripped

up by chief music magicians because they they didn't understand the walkie a miracles,

and so they attributed this must be magic. But but Daniel knew. But

because I know the spirit of the Holy God is in you. It's in

you, friends, when you walk around do the people around you this sense

that there's something in you that's different. There's a holiness in you that's different,

there is a presence in you that's different. And it goes on even

in Daniel, Chapter five, verse ten. This was one whole generation after

King Aberkaneza, and yet the reputation of Daniel proceeds, and even the Queen

of the future Prince then say that, hey, hey, no, there's

this weird writing on the wall. But don't worry. There's this I remember

in your father's kingdom. There's this one guy. And then the spirit of

the Holy God is in him again. Character character, if you forget all

that we talked about, but the fruit of the spirit and how we need

to have them. Daniel summarized this. He was a person who walked around.

He was clever, but he wasn't known for his brilliance. He was

probably upright, but he wasn't known for his upright nows. He was known

as a person who carried a different spirit. And so the question is,

friends, let us be like that is, as we enter you turn,

let us work on our character. No. Let one of the things that

you're fasting and praying for is this God, would you search my heart and

would you help me to work on areas I need to work on, Lord,

because I want to be a vessel of honor for you. Amen.

The second thing we gotta work on is the It's not just the character of

the person, but the closeness of the person. The closeness of the person,

in short, what's close to your heart. Because if you want to

be messengers, you know, in the ideal will it should come naturally right.

And so for me, for example, I'm from Penang and Penang is

close to my heart, and I am I will. I will fight anyone

verbally, not physically because I'm weak, but I will fight anyone verbally if

they ever say that Singapore food is better than Penang food, I will.

I will love you with the love of God, but I will fight you

with my words. And I love. I love telling people about my favorite

dish in all of Pinet. I think it's the most brilliant dish, Chock

with Dew, Chalck with Dell. It's it's just just wow. If you

you know, if anyone say that, you know, you know, you

know, how do I know there's a God? Tell them that's check with

Dew check with Dell because because all the ingredients have no right tasting so good

together. You have rice snoodles, you have cockles like ill like who wants

cockles? No? You have like Chinese sausage not i and and egg and

bean spouts. You know who likes there's just no chives and fire and somehow

comes out. It's like manna. And and so you know, if something

is naturally close to your heart, you can't help but talk about it.

So the question is this, if you find yourself hard to talk about Jesus

about your faith, the question you're gonna ask is this, what's close to

your heart? Because we all talk about something. Some of us we talk

about our children. Yesterday, my wife was hanging out with some of her

UNI mates and then one of them, you know, cannot stop talking about

children, you know, while they're having hot pot. Oh, look at

my children. And all the other friends are like, girl. We arranged

for us to all have babysitters so that we can have a mom's night out.

And here you are bringing up your children. It's not that you know,

and they say, we clarify, we love our children, but you

know, and they per oh, my children. And then later on,

a friend said that, yeah, even when she went for the reason is

a Coplay concert in Malaysia. In the middle of the set, she was

picking out her phone and showing to the people around her, Oh my children,

you know how many we were there for Coplay? Constant? Do't raise

her hands? Um, you know, don't. I don't course church spliting

you were there. I thought you said your mom was sick. That's why

I didn't go to homes anyway. Yeah, she was so sick. I

brought her to Coplay. Joking, But some people in the midst of Coplay,

right, you have this award winning artist performing is hot out and then

your dad because your children are close to your heart, you know, some

of us it's money that's close to our heart. Cannot talk about money,

money, money, money, money, money. You know, we call

them crypto bros or finance bros. In London. They they even wear a

certain type you know where Passic Cat works in London, you know, we

know one time went there to me and I said, I felt so underdressed.

Everyone here dresses like a like a finance bro. You know. And

and because they all talk about money, investment, this and that that,

because it's close to their heart. You know. Sometimes you go to I

don't know whether it's Malaysia, but once a year we have you know,

some comic con in in uh in in in London, and whether they have

the body shape or not, they costplaying and so you get to see all

sorts of Captain America. You know, you have the Captain America that looks

like Keptain America, and you have you have the Captain uh you know it

looks like Keptain Malaysia because of the obesity anyway, you know, but they're

just loud and proud white because comic well, it's close to their heart,

you know, you see, you know some of them, Manga is close

to your heart. And so you have like you know, all the Asian

people want to be white people, but then the West or the white people

want to be Asian people, you know, and so they are like dressing

like Japanese carriers, no wearing, wearing like somewhere out there walking on the

tube station. And they're not a shame of it. You know. If

people want to typicture, they probably pose because it's close to their heart.

What's close to your heart? Friends, Because the Bible says in Matthew,

Chapter twelve, verse thirty three to thirty seven, out of the abundance of

the heart or mouth speaks right, either make the tree good or it's fruit

good, or else made the tree bad. It's free paid. But if

you read on from verse thirty three to thirty seven, it goes on to

say that you know, if if, if you know, out of whatever

is close to your heart, Let's put it this way, right, whatever

is close to your heart, you'll be spending a lot of time meditating on

it and talking about it. And she says it out of that abundance you

will speak. And so my question is it's God close to your heart?

Because some people it's football. It's football. We used to have this guy

praise God now he's safe and revived. But we usually have this guy,

you know if that's you know, at most, I mean, I'm not

a football person. It's not close to my heart. You know, I'm

the opposite. You know, my family long line of Liverpool fans, uh,

and I have you know how some people come up to you and go

like, hey, what's your faith? And then they tell you like I'm

born into a Christian family. And then you find out that but do you

believe? Do you practice it? Maybe I go once a year. I

watch it sometimes when it's on. You know, I'm like that when it

cost the football. No. So I'm born into Liverpool family, but I

know nothing about it. But some of us it's different. We we we

support, we stay up. And we used to have a guy in London

who if his team was playing that day, he will not be in church.

You tell me he will not be a shame of it. But praise

sCOD. The Revival caused him to be a shame of that. And of

course now his his his you know, one fund leaders, so praise God.

Uh. But you know, we gotta know allow the right things to

come near. I wrote here if if if it's God that's close to your

heart, let it overflow. Let it overflow into everything, Let it overflow

in your conversations, let it overflow into you know, be be natural about

it. You know all of us were natural Bond evangelists. You know,

I just share you. I just happened to be evangelist for Penang Howker food,

Pang street food. Some of us here were evangelists for your favorite facial

product cream. Right when people go like wow, wow, your complexion is

so good? Is this brand? You know, and you take it out

and that that's what's close your heart. Beauty, beauty. You follow all

the beauty influencers, you know, some of us exercises close to your heart.

And so every time you know, our number one thing we always tell

people. Know, okay, now that you follow Jesus good, you know,

follow me to the gym, you know, like like you know,

we just tell people. And again, you know, overflow is good if

it's God, let it overflow. But here's this thing that I want to

minister. But if you're hurting, us for healing, because sometimes what is

close to our heart is hurt, and sometimes it's Christians. Is hard for

us to talk boldly about God, about church because the truth is this,

we have been hurt. We have you know, hurt by the Church.

I don't want to say hurt by God because God never hurts people. In

fact, the story of the Cross is this, God would rather hurt his

own son first to see us hurt. You know, Jesus took our hurt

and so but sometimes what can happen is this we we we we have questions.

Maybe you've been praying for a healing and it didn't happen. You lost

a loved one. And what we need to understand is this that we gotta

ask for healing. And uh in London, we used to have this girl.

She shared a testimony she lost her father to a plane crash one of

years where you know, there was an Asia crash flying out from Indonesia to

Malaysia. Whole flight was lost and the father was the only Malaysian talk about

the darts, the only Malaysian and he was her father. And her father

was flying back because he had just retired. He's been working in Indonesia for

many, many, many years. And so this Christian girl was like,

God, how he loves you, our family loves you, and he's retiring

and on his flight back, we never see our dad. And so for

many years she struggled. But ultimately, you know, she realized this that

even when I was doubting, God was there with me, even when I

was hurting, even when I was angry at God, he was there with

me. And it was true that eventually when she shard test when she says

that if you ask me why that happened, God never gave me a wife.

But I realized that better than the why is the who who was with

their all this with you, all this God, and He is gonna be

with you through the pain. And sometimes we don't not know why certain things

happened. But the good thing is this, we we know that there is

a God we can depend on. And so, friends, I don't want

to be naive some of you here. You know when you hear this,

oh may no, you know, you get a bit annoyed on the inside

because you go like, if only people knew what I knew or what I

went through. And so, friends, I'm here to tell you, don't

bury that pain. You know, those of you who do first ad you

know that if you get a cut, you one of the best things to

do is, you know, don't cover. You gotta oxidize it. You

gotta let the oxygen to heal it. And you know, we reserve the

Holy Spirit, He's the breath of God. Let the Lord blow over your

wound and let me heal it. Amen. And because once you fix that,

then you know otherwise what comes out is just hurt as well. God

hurt. Church hurts. I mean, there's no such thing as a perfect

church. There's just no such thing. You know, like, like you

know, with social media, all of us have a parasocial relationship with our

favorite Christian preacher, pastor, and we think that that person's perfect. But

I don't think so. I don't think so, you know, But what

we need to do is this, Hey, God, you know your church.

We always say church is an imperfect place. So why am I so

bothered by another person's imperfection in church? Isn't church also a place of healing

and reconciliation? So you know, how can we win the world if we

can't even win over each other? A mean? So again, watch what

you allow close to your heart. Jesus says this or so that the eyes

are a lamp to our whole body. And and in other words, there's

something about, you know, the things we experience and the things that we

see that actually affect us. And would you got that amen? You know.

On on a more practical way, it could just mean that, you

know, allow God to minister. Maybe maybe learn to enjoy God a little

bit more. Don't draw closer to God. You know, if you go

like I don't know how to know share the God's whatls? Okay, just

start coming to church. Learn it by osmosis, you know, learn it

by you know, so many people are here around the testimonies. Is this

that people say that, wow. You know when I give a presentation in

church, sorry it work people always my boss always says wow, I didn't

know you could speak so well publicly, this and that, and then they

all say that wow. But actually I learned it in church. And we

learn in church how they were never the homes leader, but they learned it

when they observed the chatperson. How the chapperson stands, how the chat person

speaks, and they learn and learn, they learn, and then when they

go when it was their time to shine suddenly and performing it and knocking it

out of the park. And so a lot of us here, maybe the

closest it says, come back to God again, come go to homes again,

you know, hang around with the right people again. You know know

that it was a proprentice message. The Lord just gave me this image,

you know, lyon King. I don't know why. Suddenly, but there

was a scene where young Simba was trying to impress the dead because he just

can't wait to be king, and but he started hanging around the hyenas that

were telling him that oh your you know, your father moved fast as brave.

You're not brave. If you're really brave, you should go and try

to conquer the wilder beast. And of course we know how all that ended.

And a lot of times, you know, sometimes we have allowed you

know, hyenas into our lives, having a good love, and they're poisoned

their colored of a vision of God's church, God's people, and we gotta

say, God, Lord, help me, help me to discern, help

me, I know, if help me to you know, like like God

helped me to God. Because the space God is trying, this space that's

close to your heart, is very sacred, very powerful. If you let

the right things in, it's gonna be wonderful for you. If you put

the wrong things there, it's gonna poison you as well. Amen. Part

number three, The calling of the person. The calling of the person.

All right, and this is my last point, the calling a person.

Right, I'm not talking about like, oh, no, understand where God

has placed you? Yeah? Of course, of course that goes without saying,

right, all of us here, God has a calling, God has

a place. Some of us are are working in certain industries, some of

us are are living in certain areas, some of us, you know,

we have so many ways to to you know, specific callings for us.

Just recently I heard a testimony from the elder Terrans. How he said that

how because he adopted a dog, that dog now has become like an icebreaker

in his neighborhood and has led six people to church. You know, the

dog. And you know, sometimes you got to be that repent. The

dog is out there saving souls God, you know, and anyway, and

but one of one of the most recent things was that dog allowed him to

go and minister to someone in the hospital, someone who's on the deathbed,

who was previously pushing all Christians away. But because of the relationship build over

you know, uh uh, in a common ground over dog and the neighborhood,

the elder Terrans was allowed to go near and pray for this person and

lead him to Christ, you know, before he passed away. And and

and so calling don't get me wrong, callings upon them. But all of

you know that, right. But what I want us to understand is this

that you know, you can go to by the school and have a good

grass of what the gospel is, the promise of God, you know,

you can, you can spend in all time in God's presence and few courageous,

But ultimately I want us to also come back to that place on a

personal level to understand and cherish and fall in love with the fact that God

called us God to see salvation as as a calling from God to be involved

in this life changing world. Because a lot of times, you know why

the person is not activated, it's because the person thinks that, I don't

know, Christianity is just a good thing in his life, not understanding that

it's the thing that defines life and and and and we need to as Christians.

Sometimes we can allow other things to take the place where God should be,

and we need to come back to the place of understanding that I am

called in Matthew Chapter nine, verse nine to thirteen. If you can have

it, the whole passage fleshed up nine to thirteen, this is the calling

of Matthew. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named

Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, follow me,

And so he arose and followed him. Now it happened as Jesus sat

at the table in the house that behold, many text collectors and sinners came

and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,

they said, to these disciples, why does your teacher eat with text

collectors and sinners. When Jesus heard that, he said to them, those

who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

But go and learn what this means. I desired mercy, not sacrifice,

for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Amen. And so what we need to understand is this that Christianity is.

It's not a system. We have not been called to believe in a

system or in a set of morals. But we've been called to follow a

person. And his name is Jesus, our Lord's Savior and God. And

until you understand this again and allow us to change your life again, you

will always be a little bit stuck in your motivation to tell people of the

good news. What do I mean by this? What I mean is this

this all of us here, any person who wants to represent the gospel,

we need to first and foremost come back to that place of humility and gratitude,

you know, like for me, personally. You know, I still

remember when I first got saved, the very idea that God would love me

and not only save me, absolve me my sin. By said, Christianity

is not just the forgiveness of sin. It is a whole new way of

life. And the way of life includes telling people that there is redemption,

that is forgiveness. And I'm thinking, like God, I was eleven years

old and I was saying, God, why nobody picks me? I told

God, I said, nobody picks me in class? All boys school.

You know pe Okay today, uh, you know the most motivated pee teacher.

Uh, today we will play football. Okay, shirts versus non shirts.

Okay, pick a captain and then captain picks the rest of class.

Nobody picks me. And here I am going like, nobody picks me.

I only get picked on by Belie. First day in kindergarten. My baptism

was being shocked to the ur real until today, I still don't. It

might be two personal, but let me share it. I don't do.

I don't go to UNI even now as a doubt man. I go into

the men's bathroom and I wait for the cubicle because for me, it was

like traumatic. You know, as a kid, you know half you in

all you spend the rest of the day being known as stinky and smelly.

I was never somebody. People picked on me, but they never picked me

for something. And here there's a god in the universe who would say,

I choose you, I choose you, I pick you. Think about it.

It's not coincidence. Why did you get saved, those of us who

know Jesus, Why did you get saved in that unique situation that you did

all the way back in that I don't know when you were that age or

in that scenario. It's not happenstance. That it's a purpose, that is

a calling, and we need to come back to the place of God.

You've called me. You could have used anyone, but you called me to

this not too long ago. I remember, maybe it was a few U

turns ago. In the UK, maybe last year. I was doing my

Youtue Di version, doing my quiet time, and in UK I have a

dog, and so I was there reading scripture and and and and and and

and you know, the passage of Scripture came where there was this woman,

this Smaritan woman, if not mistaken, who was saying that God, would

you hear my daughter? And then Jesus basically saying, no, not yet,

I need to do ministry to the juice verst And then he says,

but but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the children's table.

And right there and then I understood, you know that that she was using

lingo because back then the gentiles and non Jews, the the the you know,

they will be called dogs. There was this, you know, an

animosity. And right then then, as I was reading that scripture, my

dog came, you know, next to me for sketchers and pets and belly

raps and whatnot. And then and doing devotion and just patting my dog and

say, I had this moment of like, wow, how blessed I am?

I am right now communing with the King of Kings and the Lord of

Lord's True, his living word. And and at one time, without Jesus,

this wouldn't be. This is so wrong. Without Jesus, a gentile,

a part eating gentile, patting a dog, touching the wood of God.

Like without Jesus, I'm sure there will be a lightning boat where I

am. And yet because of Jesus, now this becomes something I can enjoy,

and I certainly started tearing because I realized that that this, this,

what a gift. The gospel is, what a gift. The very fact

that we get together like this, what a gift. What a gift.

There's so much here that we take for granted, the fact that we we

really don't know each other. You have you should have no right sitting there

believing anything I say. But because of Jesus, there is trust. Because

of Jesus, there's good will towards men. Because of Jesus that there is.

There is a shift in the atmosphere. And we need to understand that

all of us we have been called friends. Evangelism proclaiming the good news is

not a gift and anointing for the few. It is if all need to

know, then all must be mobilized, and every person needs to come back

to the place and remember again, you have been called. Turn to your

neighbor, says you have been called. You's been called. There is a

territory that God has marked out for you. Right. We all love good

real estate, some of you you know, because it's close to your heart.

New development. Whah by, put that deposit ten percent and check it

in twenty percent here you go. How we know that God also has a

spiritual real estate for you. I'm not talking about in heaven. I'm talking

about people group your office. That land is for you. But until you

understand that you're not just there for a paycheck, you're called to your company.

You won't treat your company as a mission fuel. You will go there

dragging your leg, whining about your boss. But when you begin to understand,

I am called to my family. Yeah, my family doesn't know Jesus

and they hate me for it. But I am called to them, and

so I will go to them. Because I'm called to them, I will,

I will. I will share what is near and dear to my heart.

And even if they hurt me, I will not let that close to

my heart. But I will let He who is truly close to my heart

overflow into every conversation. I'm going to be mindful to work up my character.

I'm going to represent Christ in my family, in my workplace, among

my friends, even sometimes among our Christian friends. Church. She's an imperfect

place, but we owe a duty to love each other and we get it

wrong sometimes, but that's where we need to You know, Holmes is a

beautiful place where we can gather together and meet with people who not only love

the Lord, but love us enough to tell us the truth. Don't hate

Selena when she tells you the truth. When she disagrees with you, it's

because she loves you with the love of the Lord. And we need to

come back to that place again. I'm called, I'm called to this community.

So don't give out on church yet. You might be hurt by church,

but don't give up. Don't give up on God, your cult,

your cult. Don't give out on your workplace, your cult, your cult.

Amen. Amen, let's pray. Hallelujah. Thank you Lord, Thank

you Jesus. Lord. You called Matthew and you ask him to follow you

at the table. You were the center of the focus. We hope you've

been blessed by this message. For more information on our church, please visit

as Church Org. We are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing

that this week is going to be a good week. I hit for you.

God, bless