God's Big Picture (Part 2) | Eld Pr Jack Ling

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

will light up your day. I'm gonna go into today's God's Big Picture Part

two, and then okay, I'll do a quick recaps. Okay, got

a big Picture from John eleven. And remember this just theme is still on,

right, and it's Heaven rules, and don't remember, don't forget the

other part of it. Towards the finishing line. Heaven rules for that purpose.

Towards the finishing line, okay, and towards the finishing line has to

do with our vision from hubbakuk to fourt in okay, which is to have

the knowledge of God all right, For the earth will be filled with the

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

is where our vision comes from. That we will be part of God's plan

here that the earth, everyone, everyone will know the glory of God as

the water covers the seas. We'll elaborate a little bit more on that,

but let's go back now to the first slide again. So God's Big Picture.

Let's do a quick recap, all right, all right, let's go

with the points and the points okay, So yeah, so it is for

the glory of God, all right. That's the first thing. Lazarus was

dying. Lazarus was dying, and then Jesus was at another place, right,

and then he heard about Lazarus's sickness. But he and the end of

the you know, in John chapter eleven, the first verse always it the

second it says that Jesus waited. Jesus did not immediately go when he heard

Lazarus was sick. All right. It's like how sometimes we pray, Lord,

there's problem, Lord, someone is sick, and then there's delay,

and then you wonder why, and you expect, you know, God quickly

rest on, all right. But then Jesus delayed. Why he says even

in scripture says that because he loved them, because he loved Lazarus, Martha

and Mary. He waited there, all right, because there's there's a bigger

plan, there's a bigger picture, okay. So he delayed, and then

what's the next one? Jesus then later as as a after he waited,

then he went as he wants as he wanted to go. The disciples asked

him, But Jesus, that's the place where you were about to get stoned.

They want to kill you. Right. The disciples were afraid for Jesus.

But Jesus said, you know, I've got to go. You know,

he does he's not, he's not, he doesn't. He's not determined

by fear or death. Right, he had a death threat, but he

still came anyway to this place. Okay. Uh. Then he did say,

uh, you know, isn't there you know this much of time in

a day that God has given to us. And we were talking about time

that is a gift from God, right, And then I mentioned about the

tithing of our time, remember that, right? So if the Bible tells

us to tithe our belongings, our what we have, our money, all

right, ten percent minimum? All right? Then how about our time?

Can we tithe our time? What if we tithe our time two point four

hours a day? All right? Of course that's just a guide, right,

But if you think about that, if let's say everyone gives kind of

like two point four hours a day to God, what can be done there?

All right? So it could be a form of prayer. Right,

you're reading the Bible, serving going for missions, just giving it to God

two point four hours minimum? Right, You can definitely give more right.

If everyone, everyone who follows Jesus tithe their time, imagine what would happen?

Amen, hallelujah, all right? And then what was that? And

then he goes on and then we see, okay, well, remember the

what happened was Martha and Mary they were surrounded by people. And then in

the scripture it tells us that, you know, there was a place.

The people were from Jerusalem. They came to Bethany, and we did some

calculation, right, and then it was kind of like forty five minutes walk

right, and so they came because it was nearby, and so they sounded

like wow, they were very nice and they were consoling them. But then

Jesus came from another place. The name I can't remember, all right,

but this place was two days away, two days away. That's why he

took two days to come, all right. And so Jesus did not go

by convenience. He he came all the way, all right, took two

days worth of journey to come to this place, compared to these people who

came forty five minutes walk away, all right, and they look very good.

They are consoling Mary and Martha apo thing and right, Lezarus, and

we were saying that possibly even the lingo that they were discussing there say,

yeah, if only you know Jesus was here, And because we see later

the way they spoke to Jesus was that if only you were here, Lord,

all right, so be careful who our friends are. What they say

to us. Sometimes it sounds very comforting, right and consoling. But the

truth is they came out of convenience, all right. It was a bit

further. Maybe they wouldn't have come, all right. I'm not okay,

I'm not judging them, and I'm just saying these possibilities of these things.

But then Jesus came two days from two days away, and then they come

out. And when when Martha came to meet Jesus, was it Mary?

Martha Mather came out right, okay, came to see Jesus straight away.

She said, if only you were here, Lord, my brother wouldn't have

died, right, And so we were talking about that, right, And

then the verse before this was can you see the verse, Frederick? Yeah,

okay, So but even now I know that whatever you ask from God,

God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise

again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in

the resurrection on the last day. So she, you know, Jesus said

he will rise again. Now he's telling her, you know, what he

is about to do. But she has an idea, a preconceived idea of

what that resurrection meant, which is, you know that the Jews understood it

that, Okay, the day will come where there is resurrection at the end,

all right. And so this talks of how sometimes we have preconceived ideas

of God, our understanding of God. You know, the word theology means

the understanding of God, and so we have a preconceived idea of an understanding

of God. And it's not as we argue with God about who God is,

which is kind of silly, because he is God, right, and

so we need to be open to what the Holy Spirit, what God is

telling us, because he knows who God is. He himself is God,

all right. So that's what we were talking about in those verses there,

and then now we move on. Okay, okay, let's let's go to

the verse here now, Okay, pick it up from here, all right.

Jesus said to her, I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever

believes in me though he died, yet shall he live? And everyone who

lives and believes in me shall ever die? Do you believe this? Now?

I let's focus on this verse here for a while. All right,

Jesus is saying, I am the resurrection and the life. And this is

exactly why he had to allow Lezras to die. It was part of the

plan. And as painful as it is to marry and Martha, and as

painful as it is to us when we go through difficult things, problems,

sickness, death, and sometimes we feel like there's a delay, Right,

Jesus has a plan and it's for the glory of God. Amen. And

so now he's making it clear to them, I am the resurre direction and

the life. This is why I need to perform this miracle. All right.

Yet, whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he

live? Shall and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die?

Do you believe this? He's asking this? And so because you know,

they had conversations with the friends, the night friends who came and console them,

all right, and they themselves had an understanding of God. And so

Jesus had to ask this, and he asked us all this, do you

believe? Do you believe what I say instead of what you are thinking?

Do you believe what I say instead of what your friends are telling you?

Right? Sometimes we depend so much on what other people are saying. Right,

Sometimes we depend on what our own experience is. But you know,

sometimes all we need to do is actually go back to what the Word of

God says. You know what I teach Bible. I teach Bible in the

school, all right, in Victory Academy. And this is what I encounter

many, many times with our students. Okay, these are teenagers, they're

young people are and they are very brilliant people, okay, okay, and

sometimes we're also very brilliant. Okay. And so what happens is, you

know, we will read the Bible. We'll read the Bible, talk about

it, and then I will challenge them ask a question, one question only,

all right. I don't need them to ask many many questions, just

one question, because let's say there's ten of them, then they have ten

questions, are right, So as in just one question. Then when they

ask the question I want, I challenge them. You find the answer,

So don't wait for me to feed you the answer, first, you find

it first. Then they go, like, how how to find a google

it? That said, no, don't google first. Google is the last

resort. Do we know that? Okay? How many of us we google

first every time? Okay? Actually, the first thing I tell them to

do is look in the Bible. You have a question, look in the

Bible first, because the answer is always there. The answer is usually always

there, are usually always there. Sometimes it's in another chapter, okay,

Sometimes it's another book. Sometimes it's a question about New Testament, but it's

in Old Testament, so you kind of need to search a bit. But

the Bible is the first place you should look at to find the answer to

your question. For example, well even even a question as as as as

simple as not simpler, but you know, like a question like it's got

real Let's say you asked a question like that, you can actually find the

answer in the Bible. But then I said, the next thing you do

if you can't find answer in the Bible, let's let's discuss after you tried,

let's discuss why not to hear an opinion, but to maybe your friend

knows something in the Bible you didn't know. So that's the point of that

and then finally find it. Finally you cannot you know, discuss realy.

Then okay, let's google something. Google something, or so you please read

the right stuff because because there's so many stuff on Google, right and you

So we're teaching them or so, you know, to verify the right information

from the right website, you know, the right sauce. So I teach

them this because uh, and you know what, every time they will come

up with and answer, it's some brilliant answer. Right. They will come

up with an answer, and then I will go like, uh, are

you sure that's in the Bible. You should have saen the Bible because many

of them they'll come with an answer out of their own imagination, their own

thoughts. And then I always check and go back and say, are you

show us in the Bible? Show me where? Show me where, because

that's where the word of God is. Amen. So do you believe this?

And so the point here is Frederick slide would be do you believe?

Yeah? Who do you believe? Friend's self or God? So if it's

God, make sure we find it from the sauce the Bible. Amen.

Okay, Now we move on. Is there a verse before that? Yes?

Okay, So from here we go verse and then okay, all right,

thanks Frederick. All right, so let's read together again. We've got

to try and finish the chapter John chapter eleven. Okay, we try to.

She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are

the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world. When

she had said this, she went and called her system, call her sister

Mary, saying in private, the teacher is here and is calling for you.

Okay, pause it for a while. Let's remember again what happened before

this. So Martha came out. Mary was seated at home, and I

was saying, why is she seated there? While Martha was able to come

out and meet Jesus. Why because her friends were there. So she had

to, you know, be hospitable to them, be with them, and

you know, let them console her. All right. So she was distracted.

And you know, sometimes we have very comforting friends. They tried to

be nice to you, but then they are distracting you from God. While

Martha was able to come out to see Jesus, Mary was busy with her

friends. Okay, And so what happened was this When Jesus challenged Martha,

do you believe this. See she said, yes, Lord, I believe.

I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God who is coming

into the world. And when she believed, when she believed, she went

and called Mary, stop being distracted, all right? What she says here

the teacher is calling you. Actually we didn't even here the conversation there whether

the teacher is calling, but she's saying, the teacher is calling you.

Get out of this thing. Get out there, your distraction, because you

need to meet Jesus rather than be with your friends here today. Amen,

So what's the point here when we believe we will do the right thing.

Believing leads us to do the right thing. When we don't believe, that's

where we're confused and we're lost. I'm talking about. Also, you know,

many of us will say I believe in God. I believe in God.

But how many of you you actually directly directly here from God. Okay,

unless you're constantly all right, practicing learning and know you know God's voice,

I'm sure it's not the easiest thing to whoah, I know that's definitely

God telling me something, all right, So we've got to practice that.

But I'm telling you so that God uses people, the people around us,

and so who is it that at least you recognize that person that God is

using to speak to you. And when you say you believe, can you

trust this person that God has placed in your life to speak to you?

All right? It's quite as a candid this year, all right? And

I think I share with your before that experience of you know, when Pascanda

came up to called me down, you know, to the office, and

asked me, uh, Jack, can you be the elder for the one

of the elders all right? Where you have some space there for eldership?

Right? Can you and doctor Jill, you know, be eldest of the

church? I told him, I, you know, I it's not that

I was always like that, but I've grown to become like this. And

I said, Pastor, I always say yes first from now because I learned

really say yes first, and because I trust pass Kenne you know as the

man that God has put in my life to speak to me. Amen.

So do you believe? Do you believe even the person that God has placed

in your life? All right? And if you do hear from God directly

hallelujah good, then share with me, share with us all right, then

maybe you are that man or that lady that someone needs to hear from Amen.

So believing leads you to do the right thing. And sometimes, you

know, when you do the right thing, it's not convenient. Sometimes,

like for example, Martha going to disturb Mary, you know, And I

don't know how Mary responded, like, could you see all the people are

here? Who you said? No, Jesus is calling you come out.

She's probably like scolding her. You know, are these people more important than

Christ than Jesus? Who's calling you? Come? The teacher's calling you?

Don't waste your time? Ready? All right? All right? Here we

go next one verse twenty nine. And when she heard it, she rose

quickly a man. Praise God. Mary responded quickly a man and went to

him. She heard it, she rose quickly. Now Jesus had not yet

come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met

him. I can't help but think that Jesus purposely stood there and didn't barge

into the room and said Mary, you know where are you? Miss you?

All right, but he's pur personally waited and see whether Mary can come,

and purposely waited for Mary to take that step of to come out.

Amen. And so you know when God delays and God waits, he's right

when a when we wait and delay most times wrong okay, right, unless

it's for you know, wait for relationship. Okay, wait for the right

things. Okay, all right. So anyway, so Jesus waited, and

so she rose up and she came quickly. Amen. So what's the point

here. Jesus waits for us to rise quickly? We need to rise quickly.

When we know the teacher's calling you and Jesus calling you, we need

to rise not slowly, Everyone say not slowly, but quickly. When you

hear God's voice, God calling you, God uh inviting you, telling you

you got to come. When you hear someone telling you God is calling you,

right Martha, because Martha was the one calling rights, just calling you,

rise quickly, respond quickly, Amen, go against the flesh. Your

flesh will tell you no way, all right, but then your spirit will

say yes, let's go quickly. Amen. Okay, we move on.

Okay. When the Jews were who were with her in the house consoling her,

saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that

she was going to the tomb to weep there. Okay, So everyone followed,

Everyone followed, okay. Next. Now, when Mary came to where

Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him,

Lord, if you had been here, my brother will not have that.

Okay, same same lingo, right, because they've been having that conversation

there, right, If only this powerful Jesus was here. Wasn't he the

one who healed you know, and and you know did all these miracles,

if only had been here? Okay? And so the same lingo that you

heard before, Martha, say Mary saying the same thing, if only okay,

next one, next one. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews

who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit,

and greatly trouble is two different feelings here. One is deeply moved,

you know, because saw them crying, and he had compassion. And you

know, God, you know Jesus has compassion on all of us, all

the pain and the suffering that we go through. He is moved by it,

all right. He's not a god who has no feelings and is cold,

all right. Many different people who believe in other gods. Most times

God has no emotions, all right, because I am above you guys,

all right. But our God is a god who feels with us, amen,

And so he understands what you're going through. So he's deeply moved.

But at the same time, he's greatly troubled also, all right. He

is like, what is going on here? What kind of language are you

all speaking here? All right? And what's all this doubt? So he

is also greatly troubled. So I believe many times, you know, when

God responds to us, he's deeply moved by the emotions that we are going

through, but also he's greatly trouble by the doubt that we have. Amen.

And that's okay, all right, So that's he he's troubled by that.

And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him,

Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. Jesus wept. These

are the shutters verses in the Bible, right in the Bible. Quizt you

know, okay? Whereas the shutters versus John chapter eleven, verse thirty five,

Okay, Jesus webt. But also very significant, right as we said,

Jesus Christ with us, he will weep with us. But I have

a question here. You know, Jesus weeps with us, but do we

weep with Jesus? Do we weep when we heard him? When Jesus is

troubled and he's moved by what we are going through, he cries for us

and with us. But do we actually get moved by what God is hurt

by what is displeasing him? Do we actually are we actually moved emotionally?

Do we feel anything for what God feels? I'm sure many of us we

have thought about that before, but I pray, and I pray even for

myself that more and more, you know, I would feel what God feels

if God feels broken, you know, heart broken for what's going on around

us, for the people who have not known him and received Him as a

Lord and savior, who are going through different things. I pray that we

will be able to feel that too, so that we cry together with the

Lord and are moved and to do something. And you know, when he

after he weeps, he does something, he does something. Okay, we

move on. And so when we weep, you know, don't just weep

for Christ. For God? You know what what you know, how he

is heartbroken. Let's also think of what we can do to please him.

So the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them

said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have

kept this man from dying. So these opinions, all right. But one

of them, Caiaphas, who was high priests that year, said to them,

you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better

for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole

nation should perish. Okay, so this one here all right, now,

okay, yeah, yeah, it's fine, we can move on this one.

Here. This one explains it the next slide. He did not say

this of his own, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that

Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but

also together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad, repulsitive for

a while. Caiaphas was the high priest that year, and he said something

prophetic. Even though he's like kind of like part of that group who is

wanting to kill Jesus, he's still prophesied. He still did something from the

Lord, meaning, as we're talking about the big picture, God is in

control, even you know, on his enemies. Even his enemies cannot have

control. God is still in control. See, he did not say this

of his own accord, almost that he couldn't control it. He was prophesying

because the Lord wanted him to say something, all right, and he still

said, what you know, he's a prophesied that about what's going to happen,

that Jesus would die for us. Amen. So what I'm trying to

say is, don't worry. You think sometimes the enemy is in control these

people. You know, they look like it looks like like so corrupted,

so evil, and you feel like, ah, I got to do something

about it. I mean, yeah, we do what we can, lie

all right, if it's voting or whatever, we do what we can.

But then God is in control. He is the one who put these people

in place. He's the one who allowed them to be in power. So

it's true, right, what the what the Bible says that authority is given

by God. So we can be assured, Amen, we can have the

peace, Amen, that God is in control because he will make them say

what they need to say. He will make them do what they need to

do. Hallelujah. All right, we move on. So from that day

on, they made plans to put him to death. So I think we're

coming to a close here already. All right, you see that. So

this is the big picture for now. This is the big picture for now,

because you know what happened. I forgot about the part two. Actually,

I forgot about the part two. I was preparing John chapter twelve.

I was about the email Pascator, this is my message. It because I

was taking care of the kids, Blue minnow Blue. I was serving at

home, serving from home, you know, and I was preparing chapter twelve.

Already I got amazing weren't there ready? I was about to send down

it right, realize, oh part two? Okay, now why so?

So I already got a hit. So I realized there's actually more to the

big picture. There's more to the big picture. So I say the big

picture for now. Here they this is why again we rewind. This is

why Jesus delayed when he heard Lazarus was sick, and he allowed him to

die. So any of us here you're going through something like that, You're

going through some pain, some suffering, right and something, some of these

things that look like death to you, and it seems like there's some delay

there's a big picture, and God has a plan, and there is resurrection

coming, there is there is a miracle coming. Amen. And so they

want to kill him now, they want to kill him, but it's all

part of God's plan. He knows, all right. And Jesus is not

afraid. He still comes, he still comes. He's not afraid, and

he will never be afraid. So at any time you know you have a

problem, you think you know, is God going to act or not?

He is going to. He's going to according to his time, according to

his plan. Amen. So the big picture now again, Heaven rose towards

the finishing line. Right that all may know as I shed you know at

our getaway, those who were there, all right, Uh, that is

our theme and that's our vision that heaven't rules towards the finishing line. We

have we have a mission, we have something that we all need to do.

As I was preparing also, I was preparing for we're gonna meet,

as we call it, the local spo. We're gonna meet today later and

one of the things I was working on was the Christmas party, the Christmas

party on the twenty fourth of December. All right, we're doing it locally,

all right, So every church plan we're gonna do a Christmas party or

something. I'm not sure what the others are doing yet, but at least

with Cyberjaire, we're planning a party. And what's the party for? Hey,

we're not here to just just have a party, ler, We're not.

Okay, there's a finishing line we're going towards. There's something we need

to do. There's an aim for the Christmas party that we're planning, all

right, and there's some some some interesting, exciting things that we're about to

do. All right, we just need to confirm with the team first.

But the aim is this, we want to share the good news of Jesus

Christ to somebody that needs to hear it. All right, So don't just

think that it's a time we're coming to celebrate Christmas because I love Christmas.

Yeah, everyone loves Christmas. That's why it's the best time to bring someone

as well. All right. Think you can already think church someone just even

one person, just one person, even if it's just the homes bringing one

person, all right, or you bringing one person is going to be amazing,

right, And you know we may not have people saying as I want

to follow Jesus on that day on twenty four December. Right, that's not

the pressure. So don't pressure the persons that you want, all right.

But even if they came and got connected to us on the twenty fourth December,

I think that's a great start, great start, all right, And

they're gonna feel the worms. They're gonna hear the Christmas carols, the worship,

they're gonna hear. You know what I want I want us to do.

I want us to share testimonies on that day. Maybe we won't do

a full en sermon, but maybe it's just hearing your testimonies of your how

you came to know Jesus so that your friend can hear it. You know

why, because I've gone to hit John chapter twelve. I share a little

bit, Ah, I share a little bit. What happened was, you

know? Because letters was alive? Right? Do you think it's gonna be

just just like any other day? This guy died for four days and now

he's alive again. I mentioned you you know someone I don't know, Like

it's a sad thing. I mean, someone passed away, but after many

days they their back to life again. Is it a quiet news? It's

something quite crazy, all right, he'll be on the newspapers or whatever it

is. Right, it's gonna be a celebration. And you know what happened

that time? Uh, someone through a party, someone through a dinner party

for Lazarus, okay, and of course invited Jesus, and Jesus was there,

all right, And and I I was just thinking, what if we

celebrated all our resurrections? All right? How many of you you you've been

resurrected. You've been resurrected, right, not just your not physical death and

resurrection, of course, but you're you know many of us you would we

were date, we were dead, now we are alive. Amen. How

many of you actually celebrated there? Okay? Of course the time has passed

at you, all right. But if you are, if you have not

been baptized yet, I think it's a great opportunity. You want to get

baptized, You make a big deal of that, invite your friends to say,

I just got baptized. I want to party, and I want to

invite you to come and celebrate with me. Right, great opportunity, right

to invite some one to celebrate from death to resurrection. Amen, Okay.

So that's a sleek review of chapter twelve. Okay, but so this is

what we're doing. The big picture is we are all going towards the finishing

line and next year. The theme is that all may know. It can

start now, it can start now. We can invite people, we can

get to know them, we can connect with them so that we can so

that they can know the saving grace of Jesus Christ for their lives. Amen.

All right, So the last part here before we get to prayer or

extreme maybe we can come up here already. Is that is our Habacook two

fourteen? Oh? Sorry? Was that the Yeah? Was there a point

there? Believe and see his glory. Believe and see his glory. Okay,

let's go onto Habogook two fourteen, then Havoco two fourteen, for the

earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the

waters cover the sea. I want to tell you here again maybe I've said

it before, you know, I was saying, you know one of the

was it Eldo one of the leaders meetings, you know, when we heard

this, and then there was you know, pass Kenna's was sharing about the

day will come, you know, the end will come. The end will

come only when the Gospel has been preached throughout, when the Gospel has been

preached throut. And then so I had a sneaky thought in my mind,

like can I stop it? Oh? So if I don't preach, then

it won't come. But then, you know, I was saying, I

believe, the Holy Spirit rebuked me and said, even if you don't,

others will do. Others will preach. You know, those who follow me

will preach. Amen. And it's going to happen regardless. So you choose

your team. You choose your team. So I felt, Okay, I

better be on the right team. Amen. I better be on the right

team. And so I'm gonna go towards the finishing line. I'm going there.

You know, I'm gonna let Heaven rule, not myself rule, all

right, not any other power rule. Heaven rules. Amen. We hope

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We're believing that this week is going to be a good week. I hit

for you, God bless