Why Do We Exist | Pastor Gloria Paul

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

The title of today's message, and since we are very

much in the missions month still, August is the missions month,

We're gonna be learning again about what is our purpose

and you know the heart of missions. Yeah, So the

title of today's message is why do we exist?

Okay?

Turn to the person next to you and ask them,

do you know why you exist? I hope you have

no doubts why you exist? Yeah?

Okay?

And sometimes there can be a point in our lives

where we wonder, okay, especially adults. Okay, sometimes you know

when you hit a certain season or a certain part

of your life and you're like, actually, what's the purpose

of all this? You know, why do we exist? What's

the bigger plan? And everything else that we are doing

and life?

Right?

And so I'd like to just draw us into what

the Word of God tells us on our existence, Okay,

And I pray that as we hear today's message, we'll

be able to catch the very heart of why He

created us and to never forget it.

Right.

So the first example that we're going to look at

is very much Jesus himself. And then we're going to

be learning from the Book of X. Okay, as when

if you're familiar enough with the Book of X, you'll

realize how the church grew. Okay, and it just didn't

just grow in just one to write, but thousands. There's

so many people who came in and were added into

the church. And so we're going to learn what was

their secret, what did they actually learn and realize that

made it so different for their journey with God. Right,

and if you were here in the previous sermon that

I shared about missions, we learned about Paul, right, and

not so much about the main character Paul, but the

behind the scenes people that we don't always talk about.

So we mentioned three different names. If you miss the message,

you can catch it in Spotify here. And so these

three different names just reminding us that, you know, we

may not be always the one in the front, you know,

or people are always calling your name, but yet you

still have a plan and a purpose. Yeah, and these

people were silent in nature as in personality, but yet

they had such a powerful calling. And the same thing

is with you and me. God can use anyone, write

anyone to do his work right, So let's start with

the reading of a scripture here from the book of

John chapter four. Okay, could you turn your bible spit together, okay,

John chapter four, verse thirty one, give me a minute, okay,

John chapter four, verse thirty one. Right, So a bit

of background in this portion of the scripture. You will

see that it's a conversation that Jesus has with the disciples.

Yeah.

And this was the time right after him having a

conversation with someone the Samaritan lady.

Okay.

So if you no familiar with this story, we have

the woman by the well has a fair share of challenges, right,

and Jesus actually intentionally goes and have a conversation with her.

And that is the time that the rest of the

disciples went to find food when they were in the

journey of doing their ministry.

Yeah.

So this was a conversation after the disciples came back

and found Jesus there and tried offering him food, okay,

And so he had something to tell them here. So

let's read from John chapter four. Let's maybe start from

verse twenty seven, okay, so you have some context here.

So verse twenty seven, it says and at this point is.

Disciples came, and they marveled that he talked with a woman.

Yet no one said, what do you seek or why

are you talking with her. The woman then left her

water pot, went away into the city and said to

the men, come see a man who told me all

things that I ever did? Could this be the Christ?

When they went out of the city. When they went

out in the city and came to him, So this

is what the lady did. Yeah, she was marveled by him.

Now in verse thirty one, it says in the meantime,

his disciples urged him, saying, Rabbi, eat, But he said

to them, I have food to eat of which you

do not know. Therefore the disciples say to one another,

as anyone brought him anything to eat. And in verse

thirty four, Jesus said to them, my food is to

do the will of him who sent me, and to

finish his work. Do you not say, there are still

four months and then comes the harvest. Behold, I say

to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields,

for they are already white for harvests. And he who

reads receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life. That

both he who sows, and he who reads may rejoice together,

for in this the saying is true. One source and

another reaps. I sent you to read that for which

you have not labored. Others have labored, and you have

entered into their labors a man. Right now, what can

we learn about Jesus here the disciples? You know, we're

trying to offering him food. Of course we know the

physical kind of foodever, that's bread. Yeah, but what did

Jesus say? I mean, imagine it is a human He

was in a human form at this right at this point.

But his respond to them was that my food is

to do the will of him who sent me, and

to finish his work. What can we learned from this

scripture is that Jesus was very clear of his existence. Okay,

I'm not saying that he didn't eat. Of course, as

a human, he definitely ad I mean there are scriptures

that talked about how he even prepared food for the disciples. Yeah,

so he definitely cared for his physical but ultimately in

the mission ground okay, where he is with the people,

he knew why he existed. And that was the kind

of response he was telling the disciples. And if you

have read scriptures long enough, you will know by now

that Jesus was whatever he said, was always trying to

teach the disciples something they don't either. It'sn't just say

it for the sake of it, right, And he was

trying to teach them something here that is not about

just getting carried away to meet our physical needs. But ultimately,

what is our calling? What is our focus?

Right?

And that was Jesus calling. He was right after speaking

to a woman that the society will will just put aside. Right,

they were first. I mean, when we read verse twenty seven,

they were marveled. There was surprised. What is Jesus doing

with this sinner they call us, they refer to as

a sinner. But yet Jesus, when against all those oughts,

it went against all the remarks that he might get,

and still pursued his calling. Right, what does it tell

you and me this morning? Are we clear of our

existence in a world that creates so much for physical needs? Right,

You're constantly trying to feel our satisfaction, be in the

form of finances, be in the form of success or happiness. Right,

You're constantly pursuing these things. But ultimately, what is it

that gives you eternal life? What is it that fulfills

the calling that you.

And I have?

And I believe one of the things that Jesus knew

from the start or what he learned, was his focus, right,

his focus.

Did he go through persecution? Yes?

Did he go through Did everyone always agree and say

yes to him?

Definitely?

Not? In the scriptures when we read, you know, we

can see that there were a portion of disciples who

chose not to follow him at a certain point when

he was about to go to the cross.

So that speaks so much about the things that the

world brought to him.

Yet he knew his focus and his purpose right, And

that is Jesus for you and me. Right, He has

modeled it out for us so beautifully that we can,

you know, we can remind ourselves of what is our existence?

Why are we here? Why are we pleased here? Right?

And I hope that all of us can walk out

of this message thinking about this question, you know, not

just being so caught up with what we're doing in

our careers families. Yes, God blesses us with all of that,

but at the same time, to recognize the supernatural part

of it as well as believers amen, are you following. Yeah,

so let's look at some examples. It's always good to

be practical, right, And when we read the Book of Acts,

you would see these people were just normal humans, okay,

going through their lives, I believe, having their own families,

their own work. And at the same time, by when

they're pursuing all of this, they learned a secret okay,

they learned what was important. Okay, so they knew why

they existed and they were very much unified about that purpose.

How many of us know that when it comes to missions,

or when it comes to doing ministry, we can't do

it alone. Yeah, all of us have a certain calling, yes,

and we pursue that, but at the same time, it

requires unity.

It takes all of us.

I mean, if you're comfortably sitting today for church, it's

because we had so many others who made that sacrifice

to come early, to do the setup, right, to make sure.

If you look at Andrea behind in a beautiful paying outfit, okay,

I'm sure she woke up so early to make sure

she prepared expresso for us so that we can enjoy

fellowship later.

Right.

Our ex kist teachers are always preparing. I mean we

see them, you know, on the show on Sunday bham

Mania of you know that they actually take time throughout

the week to pray and prepare the lessons for our children, right,

And so it takes a certain amount of sacrifice, and

it takes a certain amount of knowing the purpose of

what God has called us to do.

Yeah.

So when we learn about these people on the Book

of X here they were one, okay, in heart and

soul and true that they saw how God using them

to do his work.

Okay.

Now, Jesus as told as the follow us not to

a life of leisure, but to a life of service, okay,

and which each one of us have different tasks to

fulfill the great commission, right and especially in the Book

of Acts at that time, to bring the word out

to others. So they had just one leader, right though

there were so many churches that grew in the Book

of Acts, all of them recognize that their one true

leader is Jesus, and they had one purpose, which is.

To communicate the Gospel to the world.

And so if you're going to look at books like

our ex church, now we can be planted in all

across the world, all across Klang valley at this very

time ten forty five. There are so many other services

that are reading by the end of the day. What

is our one purpose? Canyone tell me what's our one purpose?

It's to serve God, right, It's to make his name known.

Right.

It could be in different languages. We have X breakfills

going on within the deaf community. That's a different language.

We have our Mandarine service going on. We have the

Tamil community who has their homes going on, different languages,

yet one purpose, which is to bring the name of

God to be known.

Right.

And so that was the unity that the Book of

X had as well.

Right.

So I'm gonna share with you a couple of points here,

and we're going to look at the Book of X

to understand. Right now, the first thing about them is

that there was unity in the Church of God. Right,

there is unity in the Church of God. Let's look

at X chapter four, verse thirty two. Okay, are all there?

Yeah? Right?

So X chapter four, verse thirty two. Here it says,

now the multitude of those who believe were of one

heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that any

of the things he possessed was his own but they

had all things in common. Yeah, so it says one heart,

one soul. And they didn't just say oh it's just

mine my skill, my talent, my ability.

But they shared it together.

And as you read on the scriptures you will see

how you know, they shared their possessions and say shared possessions,

meaning they gave to those who were in need, They

blessed others, they gave their offerings, they visited those who

were sick. Yeah, so that is what they learned, right,

That unity is important. Do you think that the Book

of Acts the people at that time were all same

as in did they all come from the same personality,

same background, same culture? Maybe same culture?

Right?

I don't think so. I'm sure they were very much different.

Right.

But yet if they could still come together in one unity,

it speaks a lot, right, it speaks a lot. The

partners of a church are a group of people from

various backgrounds, with different interests, different perspectives, who have been

called together for a purpose. So if you turn to

the person next to you, now he or she looks

anything like you, I'm sure not right?

If it scary?

If it is, even a twin would look different in

many ways, right, and that's the beauty of it. And

in the differences, God wants us to stay united. And

if you think about unity, right, it's not always the

easiest to achieve, I least okay, it's not always the

easiest to achieve because if you think about the different

events that are happening around the world, why are there

always conflicts? I mean, if you think within Malaysia itself,

we are multiracial, there's so many race represented, but at

the same time, there can be chaos when we start

picking on different race.

Right.

We all have heard different stories about it. But is

it also important for us to keep the unity?

Yes? Is it easy?

Well, if you go into schools, if you talk to kids,

I don't think it's always difficult because if you think

of it as a natural way, and if you recognize that, yes,

it is a purpose that I have to be with

this Chinese friend or Indian friend or Malay friend, it

becomes very natural. But the moment we give room for differences,

like hey, why are you so different from me? Or

you are not good enough? I am better than you.

The moment we start comparing, the moment we think that

we are better than another. That is when disruption happens.

That is when conflicts happen. Right, Sometimes you may think,

why there's so manys happening around the world, If only

we can just accept and love one another, we wouldn't

have that many war and troubles around the world. Right,

And can you see what's going on here? God always

intends unity for the church and for everyone else, but

because we live in a fallen world, things will always

go the opposite direction. So the enemy is always trying

to find ways to take us out of unity. And

the moment when there's no unity, problems come in. Why

because there can be five people and everyone have their

own agenda, everyone have their own say, own thing, and

then we forget, Hey, what is our purpose of having church?

Right? It's not just to.

Have great lights and great chairs and all those things.

But the main purpose is to make His name known.

So if everyone can recognize that and we all do

our part, and our part can be in different forms,

can you imagine how the church would grow? Right, because

we're all doing our partner. And that is what the

early church learned. You know, they had a family relationship. Yeah,

they knew that they had one spiritual father, God Almighty

and they came together for fellowship. They enjoyed each other's company, right,

And we always love seeing this after church, when we

all gather at the back and just talk and soness,

you have to rush you to lunch, because you just

enjoy each other's company, right, And that is fellowship. Because

you just enjoy each other's company. You're not just pushed

into it, but because you do it out of love.

Right.

And the next thing that we can see is that

they were also followers of Christ in partnership. And that's

the reason why when we're in ects, we don't just

call us members but partners, because if you're a partner

of company, you also have to contribute, right, and the

same thing in a church as well. If we're a

partner here, we all play a part in contributing in

building His house, in serving right, and so we are

partners in this together. So what's the purpose?

Right?

That purpose is to corporate together in reaching out beyond

our walls so others can know the love of Jesus Christ.

Meaning we are in the life saving business.

Right.

That is what we refer as purpose, or at least

what we can see from the Book of Acts as well.

Right.

So how many of us recognize this and we are

living that lifestyle, yeap. I mean doing church here is great, okay,

because we all share the same faith. I mean the

very reason why we do church is so that we

can edify our faith. Right when you come, you hear

the word, you worship together, we disciple, we pray, and

all these things. But the real deal of our faith

is actually what you do between your Mondays to your Saturdays,

when you're out there with people who don't know Christ.

I mean, it's only effective that way, right, I mean it.

What's the point when every goodness you're just keeping it

to ourselves. I magine you have a big piece of

cake and you're just eating it all. I don't think

you can finish it, even though though it could be

so good, too sweet. But if you can cut slices

and share with everyone else, it's around you, everyone can

experience the goodness of God and his love. Yeah, and

so that should be our purpose. Let's just take some

time to think about it, Okay. If you've been long

enough in church, I'm sure you've put this message many times.

Missions to go out there to reash to the laws, right,

and sometimes it's the messages that we often hear can

be the hardest to do right, And so let's just

have a heart check. How is my every day? Am

I doing at least one little thing that can help

someone else to know Christ? Sometimes it can just be

the way our actions are, you know, because people are

always looking at us. So if you're in the office

and if you're someone who's always greeting and smiling, well,

this person is different. There's so much stress in the office,

yet they can just the smiley and you know, finding

joy in little things that goes a long way, right,

And you'll come to it.

Richard, what's your secret? Oh? My secret is go to

the flow. My secret is.

That I know Jesus. The joy of the Lord is

my strength. I can go through things, yet God gives

me the joy to keep going for real. Yeah, So

why don't we we live our lives in a way

that people would asks good questions? Okay, like, hey, how

come you can just still keep going despite like what

life has thrown to you? Okay, how come you can

wake up so early on a Sunday and go to

chish when everyone else is out there having brunch and

or sleeping in. Well, because I come to church. I

enjoy it. I enjoy being in God's presence, I enjoy

serving him. Right, let's create that kind of questions the

people are asking and you're able to answer because you

know the goodness of God and you want artists to

know it as well. All right, Okay, let's do that.

Let's be a church where we're always coming. Every time

you're meeting. You have stories like that you share at homes, right,

I'm sure your homes leaders or your you know leaders

asking anything to share any testimonies. And sometimes it's quiet,

sometimes there's a lot of stories, right. So but if

you want stories, we need to put ourselves out there.

If you admissions conference yesterday past the parlan was sharing

about the risk, right, if you want blessings, you've got

to take the risk. Okay, you're not talking about you know,

scary risk. I mean for some yes, but just risk

to maybe be the first person to speak, be the

first person to initiate something right, or to take that step,

and you'll never know what comes your way.

Right. So let's be that church you.

Know where we're constantly looking for ways to share the

love of God.

Amen, All right? Doing good?

Yeah? Now the second point that we can learn from

the people during the Book of Acts is that they

experience the power of God.

How many of you want to experience the power of God?

Man? Not many hands raised that. I hope it's lifted

up in your hearts. Yeah, to experience the power of

God for yourself, not only when a past the preacher

is in the front and then you feel God's presence, right,

not only when someone is with you. I mean it

happens that way as well. But let's desire to experience

God's power even in your quiet moment, when you're all

by yourself in your room or in your car, you're

praying and you can feel God's presence. You know how

powerful is that. It just changes the atmosphere, It changes

your emotion. Right, God's presence and He's always waiting to

help us feel that. You know, it's like this my power.

But sometimes we are closed up. We are so caught

up with different things. We are caught up with the physical.

Like these disciples they were figuring out, Oh, Jesus didn't

want to afford any of you try to feed him.

They were so caught up with that physical. But what

Jesus was referring to is the spiritual. He knew his purpose, right,

he knew his purpose. The apostle testified powerfully to the

resurrection of the Lord Jesus and God great blessing was

upon them all. Now purpose is the power in the

engine of life.

Yeah, now they have to saying.

Here it says without purpose, there is emotion without emotion. Yeah,

so deeper motion without emotion, meaning you're just Have you

seen someone who's just walking like a zombie and you

don't feel anything, just so numb whatever, come, let it

be right, and just going through the emotions, I don't

feel anything. As humans, we've got to feel, We've got

to cry, we've got to laugh. That's how God created

us to be. Okay, when you're going through hard times,

it's okay to cry. Cry to our God, Cry to

our Father God, I need your help. Emotion, right, there

is activity without accomplishment. Have you seen someone who sometimes

works so hard?

Okay?

Friends, sometimes you know, during school days, they can be

the one who studies the hardest, always taking down notes,

always trying to memorize. But during EXAMSTI you can't get

true right, because what are you trying to study? What

are you trying to do because sometimes we can keep

doing one thing from another. Right, we're trying to achieve Okay, this, this, this,

I've got so many things to do. But at the

end of the day, what am I accomplishing? Maybe God

just wants you to sit in his presence. Right. We

read that scripture at our prayer service, and the previous

time we met Mary and Martha, sisters in the same home,

they had the same visitor, Jesus. Okay, he was visiting them,

and one of them was so caught up in the kitchen.

How many of us are like that? Sometimes I can

be like that. I like to do things, make sure

everything is in order, right. But Mary recognized who came

to a house, and that moment was so precious. You

know that she knew that Jesus is not going to

be all the time here, and I want to sit

at his feet and truly communicate, enjoy his presence. And

maybe that's for some of us today. You know, if

you're so caught up getting things done right, there could

be our nature. Can we just lay that aside and

just sit before the presence of God? Right, Sit before

the presence of God. Many doesn't mean it's always good, Yeah,

it's sometimes a little bit more, a bit of effort,

but the.

Focus is there. Right.

There is efficiency without effectiveness. So we can think that

we're doing well, we keep going, but how effective is it?

Right?

Is it actually achieving the purpose that you are created?

Faur Right?

Sometimes our focus can be on something else, somewhere else,

But God may be saying, hey, come back, why don't

you start with where you are instead of thinking of

going somewhere else. I'm saving up so much to do

missions far away in another land. But what if God

is saying, why don't you start where you are now?

In your family, right in your office, in your church. Yeah,

so purpose is very important. Now we think of the

illustration of a light. Okay, we all know how powerful

light is, and sometimes the weather, the sun can be

just so bright, so hot, and you know, we can

be just burning bright. A diffuse light has no power.

But when you focus the power of the sun through

a magnifying glass, we can even set a leaf on fire.

And when light is concentrated at a heaven eye higher level,

it's like a laser that can cut through a block

of steel. Even, that's how powerful light is. If light

is just there, well, yeah, it is effective. But if

you can focus it even more, imagine how it's going

to penetrate true and cut through.

Right.

And I believe that the Disciples during that time in

the Book of Acts, they had that kind of a focus, right,

that kind of a focus, And when you read the

Book of As enough, you realize that they still had oppositions.

There were people who still they didn't believe that was God.

You know, there were communities at that time who actually,

you know, worshiping to a point that they actually started

labeling to the unknown God. There was a passage that

says that to the unknown God, meaning they were praying,

they're worshiping, they're finding for answers to the point that

they don't know or realize like who's this God? Actually

is God?

Right?

But the Disciples, you for very sure who is that

person that they're serving? And they focused on that, right,

They focused on that. They had a laser like focus

on their purpose, and that resulted to the power of

God moving. And I think it's time for extra us

to experience that power. How many of you believe that, Yeah,

we need to experience that. We've got to see the

baptism of the Holy Spirit. For those of you are

desiring to pray in tongues, you know there's power when

we see the praying of tongues is the edifying of

our spirit. And if you desire that, God is able

to grant healing, break truth. Okay, imagine there'll be a

day where people say that, hey, are you praying for healing.

There's a church here in Prescott. They meet every Sunday.

Why don't you come and you can be set free

if we desire that, if only our chich desires, that's

going to happen. But if you're just going to be

very comfortable, okay, it's just a Sunday, it's me, my fellowship,

my growth, and then buy I'll see you at homes

and then the next week and then the next week,

nothing is going to happen. But if we desire and say, yes, God,

we are made for so much more because I've experienced

the goodness of God and others should know. Remember, char

Us is huge. We are so huge. There's so many

people who need to come come to know about Christ.

We are in a Chinese community. To us is mainly Chinese,

yet to learn the language yet, and he wants to

offer me some tutoring can okay, and how many of

them have yet to know Christ? Right, We've got to

do something the campuses that we're reaching out to. You know,

we had few of our leaders who went into the

CF you know, Christian fellowships and speaking about unity. You know,

the enemy is always trying to find ways to disrupt it, right,

And so I mean if you look at maybe years back,

we don't often hear much of cults.

Or false teachings.

Maybe they were there here and there, but it's growing

even more of you know that, you know, false teachers,

false prophets. The Bible talks about it that we've got

to be aware of it in the last times, in

the end times, right, and we see more and more

of it. I work in a campus and I see

false teachings, you know, of the different cults actually walking

to campus, and they're always trying to reach out to

these students. You know, what's the question the last time?

Do you know where you'll go after you die? They

asked a student that way, and then they try to share,

but of course that's not the true gospel. They come

from different backgrounds, right, and so there are always people

out there or maybe all where it comes from the

enemy who is trying to take us away from unity.

So what is the idea that people are going to get, Oh,

Christians are just in all forms, right, because yes, you're

using the name of God. But someone who is not

a believer, they might think that, oh, these are all Christians.

And so that was one reason why the Sunway Christian

Fellowship was going through some challenges to actually even attract

Christians because or even pre believers, because they were thinking

that they were the same with the cult because they

came in the name of being a Christian. Yeah, it

can be that deceiving. It can be that deceiving, and

that is what breaks unity because as a Kingdom of Christ,

as a church not just ask every other church, we

are called to be united. But the enemy is always

trying to find ways to confuse us. Confuse us with

the Bible. Right, I'm sure we all know this that

with the different translations that we have, people are tweaking things,

moving scriptures. Would we be aware enough that when we

read the Bible online, you'll realize, hey, this is something wrong,

or it could be the other way that you're not

familiar with the Bible, that we'll just take whatever that

is there, even if it's wrong, or even if it's

something else. So what I'm trying to tell us church,

is that we are living in times where things are

not certain. You know, people are always trying to find

ways to confuse our faith and ask you, you know,

is God really there with you?

Is he real? Yeah?

If someone is going to ask you that, how confident

are you to say, yes, God is real. I know

the word of God, I know how and who it is,

and no one can confuse my faith. How many of

us are firm enough with our foundation?

Right?

I've asked myself this question too, because it's good. We

can be firm when everything else, when the sea sug

just breezing away, right, the oceans, small waves, But when

big waves comes your way, and if your hit, is

your foundation still strong?

Is it still firm?

Because it's easy to also be drifted away with the

big waves if you don't know what's your foundation? Right,

And I'm speaking to all of us here, you could

be young, you could be old, no matter what age

you've got to build that strong foundation. Let's not just

wait and say let me do it next year. Let

me do it when I reach a certain age, well,

the age might not come before you know it. Yeah,

so there's an urgency, right, there's an urgency. There's a

need for us to rise up as Christians. Let's not

keep the goodness of God to our hearts, to ourselves,

to that quiet time that I have just for myself,

but to also bring it to artists. You mean to

bring it to artists. You know, the early Church they

found such strength in the diversity. They were so different,

yet they came together. They used the different talents, the abilities,

and that is how they grew the chich right, And

the same thing is possible in our chich in our country.

Right.

If you know, we're familiar enough with politics and all

we're always trying to find reasons of differences to disrupt

our peace.

If if you're familiar enough.

With that, right, But if you can still push us

side and say no, we pray for unity in our country.

We keep going, We keep respecting different people, you know,

we accept people of different backgrounds.

It brings unity together. Yeah.

God is always in the business of unity. He wants

us to come together, right, and so experiencing the power

of God. So I'm gonna ask you this question again,

do you want to experience the power of God. Right, Yes,

And if you're wanting to experience experience the power of God,

are you willing to give what it takes your time

with God, your intimacy with Him, right, and the ability

to just go that extra mouth for another person?

Right?

Okay, let's do that Church, let's desire for it him.

So experiencing the power of God.

Amen.

Now.

The third thing that we can learn from the Book

of x here is that they discovered the favor of God.

Right.

If you want to experience the favor of God, we've

got to be obedient to his purpose.

Okay.

And we read four word study tree. Here it says

and with great power, the apostles gave witness to the

resurrection of the law Jesus, and great grace.

Was upon them all.

So some of your versions might say grace maybe favor right,

meaning God was with them. So when we talk about

all these things that the world hits us with, right,

the difficulties, the challenges, or the deceiving lies of the enemy.

We may face or encounter those things, But at the

same time, God's word tells us that his grace is

with us, his favor is with us only if you

choose to take the risks and be obedient.

Yeah, to be obedient, to be risk take us.

Right. If anything at all I learned from yesterday's Missions

conference was to be risk take us. If you want

to see something happen, you've got to do something. It

really makes sense, right, You've got to pay it forward,

be it through your talents, your abilities, to go, to believe,

to have faith. It takes an action, right, So it's

to be obedient. If you want to experience God's blessings,

we need to be obedient to his purpose. And like

I said, we all have a purpose and a calling, Okay,

And never look at yourself any smaller. When I say,

don't look at yourself any smaller, even the things that

you go through in life, God can use that.

Right.

Just two weeks ago I met this this lady okay,

and she was the very first time I'm meeting her,

total strangers. And I was connected to her with one

of our leaders in ex Melbourne, right Ilona, And so

she knows her okay. And so this lady she recently

lost her husband. Okay, she's only an age of thirty

eight years old and her husband just died when passed

away sudden, right, and she's left with a one year

old baby and a six year old daughter, right. And

so they were in Melbourne for a while and they

came back to resettle in Malaysia and so sudden. So

this leader in Melbourne, she was saying, Glora, I want

to connect. I want to be there for her, but

we are so far away and I can't. Can you

please reach out? And I said yes, I'm open as

long as she's open about it, because we don't know

each other at all, right, And so then she said, yes,

I want to meet Gloria and talk. Because I think

she was just looking for comfort. She's looking for someone

to speak to, right, because she comes from a parents

are a pre believers, and so the kind of advice

they were giving her, she just felt that no one

could understand her, you know.

So I went and saw her. She just leaves this

in Klang.

I went with another friend from stre Combungan and because

she's a mom, so you know, she could at least

relate to her.

So we went and so me and my friend we

just prayed.

We prayed together and we're saying, God just uses we

don't know how it's going she's going to respond, and

what do we tell her? Right, and especially me myself

walking after losing Mom, I can understand the pain of grief,

but of course as much as I can understand, it's

her own different journey as well. Right. And my another

friend she lost her dad some years back, and so

we could relate in the form of grief. And so

we just said, God, uses, I mean, you know what

we have gone through, and maybe this is just a

way of us helping someone else. And so we prayed together.

We went and saw her. The moment we went to

a house, we didn't know what to expect. She just

hopped in into our car and we took her for

a drink. And the first question she asked me was

is there hope? Can I leave? Can I leave again?

There was a question and she just start crying and crying.

That was just pause, you know what to tell her?

So we just listened, listened, and I think she was

so much more interested to know, like, ay, how did

you get through your grief? That's the question she asked me.

And I just shared with her and I told her

it's still a journey. Still is never easy, but it's

a journey. And we had maybe talked about different things.

I told her to you know, take time. But I

think one of the main thing that we left with

was that I told her, Sister, I do not know

how long it would take for you to heal. It's

never easy. But I can assure you of one thing

is that there is hope in God. That's one thing

I can assure you off that there is hope in God,

and you can live again because God lives in you. Yep,

you might be feeling weak at this point, but I

always remember that someone who is always watching over you.

And I can only tell her that because I've experienced it. Yeah,

as much as I'm a pastor and I can't preach

experiencing it is a whole different thing. And so when

I told her that, Corus reminding me that, hey, God

uses even your brokenness, He uses your life, He uses

your stories, you know, your struggles, the good and the

downtimes to help someone else. And I never knew down

the road that I'll be speaking to her total strangers.

You don't even know how each other will looked like.

And the last time amanment before we left her, we

just prayed and gave a huk and she said glory.

I'm so glad we did this. I'm so glad that

we could speak.

Right.

And that could be your ministry. It doesn't always have

to be in the big, great ways, in the fun

good times, but it could be in those slow time

of yours. So what I'm saying here is never see

those moments that you have gone through in your lives,

the pain that you might have experienced. Never see it

as just oh, I mean it's it's sometimes, I know,

easier to say than done, when you go through tough

times to feel like the world is crumpling and it's hard, right,

But beneath all that, God uses those moments or your

stories to help someone else, if only you want to.

Because when I had to see her, I had to

be obedient to do that.

You know, that was a part of me.

I was thinking, am I Because when you speak to someone,

you've got to also remember what you went through to

tell her the stories, and so I had to kind

of have a flashback to all of that. But when

God calls you to do something, he creates the way

as well.

It gives you the.

Strength you need, It gives you the words that you

need to speak. Sometimes you may be thinking I don't

know what to see, I can't pray well, I don't

have the right words. But because God has chosen you,

he tells you exactly what to say and what to do.

The only question is whether do you want to do it?

Do you want to do it? Because there's a lot

of needs around us. Okay, if you're wondering and you're asking,

like how can I serve? What can I do? Come

and speak with me because we need a lot of help.

There's so many people who need someone to speak to,

someone to disciple, someone to serve. Right, that is why

Jesus says in the scripture, and you read the very

first scripture, he says, the harvest it's plentiful, bad the

laborers are few.

You see the same till today.

Yes, there's so much to be done and sometimes so

little time. Right, So can we start somewhere today with

whatever that.

You have in your hands? Amen?

And as we do that, you'll experience the favor of God.

He'll never leave you alone.

Yep, he will never leave you. He will be.

With you all the time. And the last thing that

we can learn right from the scriptures here and about

the whole thing of why we exist. What's our purpose.

Is that?

Because it's the prayer of Jesus himself. Did you know

that it's very own prayer that we become one and

we recognize our purpose. Okay, let's look at the scriptures

here in John chapter seventeen, John chapter seventeen, verse twenty.

Right, are you there? Yeah?

So, John chapter seventeen, verse twenty. If you have your Bibles,

you'll see that sometimes there's maybe a title that it

says Jesus prays for all believers, meaning he prays for

you and me. Right, Sometimes when they are days when

you're thinking I don't know what to pray about, there's

always someone praying for us.

He's always interceeding for us. Yeah. Now, John seventeen, verse twenty.

I when you read here, it says, I do not

pray for this alone, but also for those who will

believe in me true their word, that they all may

be one, as you, Father are in me, and I

in you, That they also may be one in us,

That the world may believe that you sent me, and

the glory which you gave me, I have given them,

that they may be one, just as we are one,

I in them and you in me. That they may

be made perfect in one, and that the world may

know that you have sent me and have loved them

as you have loved me. Was twenty four. Father, I

desire that they, also, whom you gave me, may be

with me where I am, that they may behold my

glory which you have given me, for you loved me

before the foundations of the world. All righteous Father, the

world has not known you, but I have known you,

and this have known that you sent me. And I

have declared to them your name, and will declare it

that the love with which you loved me may be

in them and I in them.

Amen.

And do you know when he says this prayer is

right before he was arrested to the cross. So can

you see how important or was in the heart of

Jesus right before he went for such a big thing,

right to go to the cross. He didn't just pray

for the success of the people. He didn't say, oh,

bless them, take care of them, right, He didn't pray

those kind of prayers. But he prayed that we become one.

And that's how important unity is. It's so important, and

that's why he says, when we are one, then others

may know, right, then others may know because when there's unity,

when we all come together, imagine all of us are

always talking about Christ and then everyone years the same thing.

How powerful would that be because they can tell, Wow,

this God is really good because they are all saying

the same thing. They're all believing in the same God.

There's no you know, confusion, because there's so much of

confusion in the world that sometimes people question like, is

this what it means to be a Christian that you

guys are always having issues on your own churches, or

there's so many kind of teachings, what.

Do I follow? Then?

Because there's so much of confusion, can you see what

the enemy is trying to do? That is trying to

find ways to confuse people even more. And until us

as Christians rise up and stand up for our faith

and know what we are believing in, then others will

come to know about Christ.

Amen. Right.

And so that is and always been the prayer of God.

He prayed for their unity and that they would fulfill

his prayer, and in fact it was his last prayer.

So the important thing here is that unity matters to God,

and this unity disturbs him. Right as you read John

thirteen thirty five. It says by this, all people will

know that you are my disciples if you have love

for one another. Right, So can we leave lives that

shows that we are disciples of Jesus of the most High.

So the moment someone sees you, they may not know

you as a person, but when they look at your actions,

when they look at your deeds, your words, they can say, hey,

this person is a Christian, a child of God, a disciple. Right,

And I think that's very powerful when we can show

it through our actions.

Yeah.

So, could it be that unity is the key to

reaching the world for Christ. Let's think about it, right?

Could it be that unity is the main thing that

can help us bring the good news to others? And

so the part that we can play, we can ask

ourselves today is what can I do? How can I

contribute towards unity? What role do I play in this

church that you are in today?

Right?

Be a prayer, Let it be a desire in your

heart saying God, I want to contribute towards others getting

to know about you, But could you show me in

what way can I do that? And he reveals, Right,

he reveals he's gonna invite extreme forward, and I hope

you're catching something from today's message to recognize what is

our purpose? Yeah? And you know, as we read the

scriptures earlier, is to firstly experience the power of God, right,

and to be obedient to what He has called us

to do.

Yeah. And so as we're going to take.

Some time to even worship and just even set aside

this time, I pray that you'll be a personal time

between you and God.

Okay.

And again, with Missions, you can hear a lot of things.

You've been hearing different messages throughout the Sundays. For those

of you in conference, I'm sure God spoke to you

in different ways as well, But ultimately it goes back

to one thing, right, which is what is your purpose?

Which is to make the God's name known?

Right? But how am I going to do that? Okay?

How am I going to do that?

And I pray that as you walk out of this

Missions month, Okay, we're stepping into a new month, September,

would our lives be different then? Because we have learned

all these messages, we have heard all this about missions.

Are we going back to the old ways then?

I mean no point?

Right, we heard all these messages and you know, coming

in and giving our priority pledge, there must be some

impact to our lives. Right can be leaved differently? Can

we speak differently? My choices may be different. Right that

I can glorify God's name and make his name known.

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

information on our church, please visit Exchurch do r G.

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that this week is going to be a good week

ahead for you. God bless