God Is Faithful | Eld Wong Kien Yiak

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We hope this message will light up your day.

While doing worship, I had a question that dropped in

my spirit. What does a victorious Christian look like? We

always have an image of successful people, correct? There's always

an image of how successful people look like or a type.

So how does a successful Christian look like? You know,

what image do they project? You know, prim and proper.

I just really wonder sometimes, you know, when we get

to heaven, where we actually get to see Moses, how

he looks like, right? What he went through. Maybe he's limping.

Maybe he's really overweight. Eating carbs only in the desert.

I really wonder how really Daniel looks like, you know,

having 10 days of, you know, of vegetable and water.

like eating hot pot like that. I really wonder how,

you know, other people look like in the Bible when

you get to see them because sometimes you have this

image of how a successful or rather a victorious Christian

will look like, you know, a person without trials, a

person without challenges, a person that is, you know the words,

constantly smiling, a person that is constantly rejoicing. Or maybe

a victorious Christian could look like man, I just got

out of one mess, you know, I'm still standing right now.

I want to encourage you really, you know, sometimes in

the midst of our journey, in the midst of your

journey with the Lord, your personal journey with the Lord,

sometimes we wish that we could have, the word is,

continuously a victorious, overcoming spirit, but there are times whereby

we just wish that we could crawl to the end

of the day and make it to bed. and sleep. Amen?

So I want to turn with you right now. All right,

I know this is not a chapter that a lot

of people read, but Lamentations. Lamentations, in case you do

not know where, Lamentations is sandwiched between Ezekiel and Jeremiah.

All right, Lamentations chapter 3. Actually, I'm so sorry, I'm

Lamentations 3 · chapter mention

going to read the full chapter, so I only give

you one portion of the verse, but I just thought

that I want to give you the full context of it.

So if you can put Lamentations chapter 3 onwards from

Lamentations 3 · chapter mention

verse 1. I am the man, this is Jeremiah writing,

who has seen the affliction by the rod of his wrath.

He has led me and made me walk in the

darkness and not in the light. I want you to

just pause for a moment. Here is Jeremiah writing that

I am the man who has seen the affliction by

the rod of his wrath. You could imagine right now

being caught by God or being, the word is, you know,

having the word of God in your life, having, you know,

the word is that a victorious spirit, a prophet of God.

Yet in the midst of all his challenges, he writes

in chapter 3, the first line, I am the man

who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

He led me and made me walk in darkness. I

want you to pause for a moment because, yeah, let me, Yeah,

if you have your Bible, just look at Lamentations chapter 3.

Lamentations 3 · chapter mention

Oh yeah, okay. It's all the way down there. It

just shows that you just turn to your Bible app, alright?

It's okay. Thanks, Siri. Thank you so much. Thank you,

thank you. Thank you so much. I just really want

to bring an encouragement to you because, you know, it's

hard to write a verse down and say, He led

me and made me walk in darkness and not in

the light. Sometimes our Christian walk looks like in darkness. Yes.

When I say darkness, meaning there's no breakthrough, the word

is that, you know, there is challenges. You know, in darkness, friends,

in darkness, it's hard to find things. It is hard

to find things. I think younger that time, we like

to be cool, so everything has to be a monocolour, right?

Black or something that looks cool, looks slim. But I

guess as I age, now I want colours because it's

easier to find your keys in a black bag. You

want your keychain to be colourful. You want your kitchen

to be colourful because in the midst of, you know,

let's say you're driving at night, you drop your keys

on the floor mat, you see something that's reflective, something

that is of colour, you know that that's the key.

But younger that time, friends, the words that we thrive

or rather we want to be cool, we want to

be in, right? So multicoloured is not your thing, right?

And that's why when we're growing up, if you remember

days of my time, In the 80s, there's a brand

called Kikilala. Do you remember that? Some of y'all who

are in 80s or born in 75, parents let you

choose one of those departmental stores. There's a brand called Kikilala.

I remember those t-shirts really well because It's very colourful.

Now you go to Uniqlo, right? You hardly see those

kind of design anymore. But back in those days, right?

It's like kids who have their polo t-shirt and their

pockets in front. It has multiple colour stripes on, right?

And growing up back then, I just thought like, oh man,

this is not cool. This is ugly. This is like,

you know, like who wants to wear it? Now I

look back, I cringe back at some of my childhood photograph, okay?

I know there's a revival of the 80s photograph. But

those of you who were born in the 70s, you

look back at your old photograph, you don't want to

be reminded how you used to look like, right? And

truth be told, truth be told, that none of us

in our 80s looked like that. That's more like 70s, right?

With super tight jeans and stuff like that. But friends,

I'm not sure what the word is. When you see darkness,

what does it cause you to, the word is that,

exhibit darkness. When you walk through darkness, what does it

reveal in your own heart, in your own spirit? Because

sometimes it really reveals your foundation. Who do you call upon?

You know, sometimes, I think most times, those of you

who are quite used to, the word is dim lights,

for example. You know your way around. So in our office,

when we renovated our place, So we put out light bulbs, okay?

As long as the light bulb doesn't break, the light

bulb doesn't fuse, we use it until the day it

calls home. For the longest time, we have not changed

our light bulb. For the longest time. Until one day,

we realised you couldn't see very well. Because the light bulbs,

there's a shelf life, it keeps getting dimmer and dimmer.

After a while, we got so used to the darkness.

so used to the situation, so used to the fact

that it is like that. And there was a pathway

that goes to our office toilet and it's just, the

word is, it's like one little like five voltage bulb

like that for the whole, and people like try to

find a way around. I got Elder Mabel telling us that, Elder,

can you please change the light bulb? I cannot see,

cannot see, cannot see. And sometimes in the midst of

that situation, friends, I want us to reflect what, actually,

are we, the word, I don't want to use the

word complain. I want to use the word reveal. Because

we complain about a lot of things, but reveal, because

sometimes it's not that we want to, but after a while,

we can get to this place like, it's been so long,

this light bulb has been like that, you guys not

doing anything about it. I heard one statement that came back. Wow,

this church, will only move when someone complain. This, seriously,

this church, will only change things when someone complain. As

long no one complain, Nothing gets changed. I don't think

that we ever set out in a manner, okay guys,

don't change things, okay? We are like government. Fix only

when someone complains. Investigate when someone lost a report. I

don't think we ever started off our journey that way

in life. But in the midst of the busyness, sometimes

it's not that you want to, what to do? Priority list.

It's that so many things, there's only so much time.

So let me go down to verse 4. He has

aged my flesh and my skin. He has aged my

flesh and my skin. How many of you felt like

you have aged much faster than your ICH? You have

aged much faster. I keep telling my wife, you know,

one of the benefits of not having hair on my

head is that, you know, now I know who to

complain when the floor is very dirty, filled with hair.

I say, dear, you know, you, You have to vacuum

more because it's not my contribution to the dirt on

the floor. He has aged my flesh and my skin

and broken my bones. It's not a very nice picture

as a prophet Jeremiah writing it. God, you have aged me. God,

you have aged me. In fact, not just aged me,

I experienced broken bones. I have experienced hardship. Here is

prophet Jeremiah. Sometimes we think as a victorious Christian, right,

nothing can touch me, you know. I shall have youthful

skin all the way I die until they see me, right,

in the casket. Wah, so young ah. Right? It doesn't

happen that way. Can I just say this? It doesn't

happen that way. It doesn't mean that, you know, that

we are down to one keyboardist or one guitarist. We

are a failure. It doesn't mean that, you know, there

are empty seats in between that it's not a thriving church.

Because many times we view success or we view victorious

as it has to be packed. It has to be full.

But there are days, friends, they are like that, but

there are most days that's why it's empty. Later this

evening or rather tomorrow morning, we're going to meet with

some pastors too, Pastor Palen and Pastor Sam from from Penang,

then Pastor Daniel Tan from SIB Life, and Dr. Victor

Lee from the head of Bible College Malaysia. We are

sort of going to go through a document whereby we

are trying to encourage churches, really, the word is to

loan out their youth or loan out their leaders to

other churches that don't have a leader, a singular leader

that's been serving the church for the past 40 years.

A singular leader that's been serving the church for the

past 40 years. there's no such thing as holiday for

the family. Every time there's a funeral, the parents have

to cancel their family plans. And I remember hearing someone,

a pastor's kid just said this, you know, there's no

such thing as a family holiday. Somehow, whether someone should

die or not. No, seriously, I say it in the

middle of like that, but she just said that somehow

growing up, we were on the way for holiday. My

dad got a phone call, one church member just passed away.

What to do? Parents look at us, dad look at us.

If he's very pastoral, I'm so sorry, we have to

cut short the holiday. You turn and do the funeral.

So could you imagine how many burnout pastors we have

in Malaysia? So we are, we as a part of

the church in Malaysia want to be an answer, want

to be part of the solution. Cannot be the only answer,

but part of the solution. Try to help a bit. And, uh,

It's very interesting to see some of these pastors who

have been serving so faithfully. It may not be much.

One pastor serving, I think, from around three places, Cameron Highlands.

He drives out to Kuantan and goes up to Kuala Tengganu.

He does a route for the past 40 years. Faithfully.

And just like Jeremiah, he has aged my skin, he

has broken my bones, he besieged me, surrounded me, he

set me in dark places like a dead of long ago.

Very bleak, you know, friends. Very bleak. I want you

to just, I'm painting the background to you all because

comes hope. Comes a scripture of hope. Comes in the

midst of the challenge, friends. In the midst of that

moment of testing. It really reveals, number one, what we

are made of. Really, really reveals your foundation. It's easy

to worship God in a Christian setting. But when rival

meets the road, when commitment comes, when you're only one

you know, that having to take care of your parent, right?

It takes a toll on you sometimes, right? At times

whereby you have people offering more advice and solution. Jason

Martin should be doing this. You should be doing that.

And all he gets is advice and we as good

Christian leaders, yeah, I did my job to encourage Jason Martin.

I sent him my text, give him point one to

point five, what to do. not really providing the answer.

I'm not sure how many of us here have this

image of a Christian whereby all they could project, all

they could project is their nice, good-looking haircut, good-looking t-shirt,

jeans and sneakers. Yes. And sometimes it's very easy to

say to be victorious but you have not been into

the trenches of life. I want to let you know

that the message I got for X-Claim was God is faithful.

But yet in the midst of you can't say God

is faithful until unless you go through a moment, a

challenging moment, then you know God is faithful. We don't

say God is faithful because of a song. We don't

say God is faithful because of a a theme for

the church. We don't say God is faithful because it's

a nice slogan. We say God is faithful because in

the midst of the challenging moment, in the midst of

the challenging moment that no one is around you, right?

You still know that God is good. Let me just

give you encouragement and hope. Verse 16, or verse 14.

I've become a ridicule of all my people. One translation

say that I've been a laughingstock to all my believers,

to all my friends. I've been a love fixer or not. Friends,

isn't it true? None of us like to be loved that.

None of us really, like you think about it, none

of us love to be loved that. No matter whether

you're young, you're old, none of us love to be

loved that. I remember sitting down with someone who was

of wealth and, you know, initially we just, the word

is like, you know, very condescending, talking to you. Like,

you know, almost like you are nothing. Only recently, I

met up with him together with Elder Terrence. I said,

how have you been? You have not been well. So what?

So I thought it was cancer. Only they found out

it was stroke. I had stroke. Oh, okay. I'm so

sorry to hear about it. Yeah, so I couldn't walk

very well. So I took some time to recover. As

he was just... I think he's late 70s. And I

was talking to him. And he just said... Sometimes I

just really wonder what's the meaning of life after all.

Because I work really hard. I work really hard. I say, well,

the meaning of life is through God, right? Me and

Elder Terrence was trying to find an opportunity to share

the gospel to him. And as we were talking, he said,

you know, I said, so I guess you don't travel

as much, you know, as a businessman, I guess you

don't travel as much as you used to. No, hardly. Hardly.

And he just dropped a line, I only use my

plane once a year now. Sorry, I cannot relate. I cannot, yeah,

I only use my plane once a year. I went like,

oh man, I look at Elder Terrence like, okay, cool.

Even in the midst, even in the midst of that,

the whole situation, he has to just drop me. I

used to just like, yeah, now when I travel, you know,

the doctor and the nurse follow me on my plane.

I went like, I just really, at that very moment, friends,

at that very moment, I just want to say, you

show off like you. But me, I always look at him,

look at this individual, look at this gentleman, older gentleman,

just with compassion and say, it must be so tough.

You must imagine at one point or stage of his life,

very active, to get to where he is, I'm sure

he's been very busy with life and everything like that.

Then a curveball hits an individual, right? Now, when we

finished our meeting, he said that, could I put my

hand on your shoulder, on my shoulder, because I cannot

walk very well. I went like, I said, sure, just,

you know, I'll walk you to your car, don't worry,

at your pace. I'm sharing this with you because sometimes, right,

we feel that we have been laughed at and none

of us have been laughed at. But yet, at the

same time, can I just say this, this individual, last

time I talked to him, I just felt I'm nothing.

Then after that, to a stage whereby we became friends.

God is the one that really, is the one that

sustains you. Gives you really, He will turn every laughter

into a testimony. He will turn every laughter into a testimony.

And as I finished my meeting, I talked to other terrorists,

you know, it's really sad to come to a stage

in life after working so hard, working so hard, just

to come to a place whereby what's the point? I mean,

he will still do what he does, but you know,

in the moment of just having heart-to-heart conversation, say, what's

the point of working so hard? Right? He has everything

he wants. He's quite a rich man. He has everything

he wants. Me and the other terrorists just walked away like,

you know, I pray that you find God. I pray

that you find God. So, verse 14 says that, you know,

I've been ridiculed for all my people. They be taunting

songs all day. They fill me with bitterness, make me

drink wormwood bitterness. Right? Come verse 18, alright? Come verse 18.

Come verse 18. See that my strength and my hope

have perished from the Lord. Remember my affliction, roaming the

wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers and it

sinks within me. So friends, challenges in our life will

come on, friends. Can I just say this? It will come.

It will come. Whatever it is, it will come. You

want to organise church camp, it will come. I came

back from Exeter Pong about a month ago. So, at Exapong,

when we were supposed to fly off, Pastor Siddy texted me,

he said, you know, Kenyak, just want to let you know, right,

there's a possibility we might cancel the camp. Possibility we

might cancel the camp. I said, why? Because where we

are going, if it's clear without haze, you see it

towards the horizon of the sea, the edge of the sea, right,

you will see the famous mountain, that erupted very badly

in the 18th century. Right? You can see one. And

there were rumours already. There were reports that, you know,

there are some tremblings that's happening. And the leadership prayed.

They said, just jalan. I said, very easy for you

to say, just jalan lah. Because you are local. Anything happens,

you still got places to run. But if you are

a foreigner, if you just jalan in a place whereby

you don't have your support of your home and you're

staying in a foreign country, the just jalan is not

really just jalan anymore. You just can't wait to come home.

So I told Pastor Sidney, I said, I think you're right.

You know, we'll get there. So we flew there. We

flew there, we got in in the evening. And you know,

it was, although it was a church camp, we had

a lot of challenges. My wife was just throwing up.

Not throwing up. She had purging before she left. Purging

after every meal. And you know how the feeling is.

It's not a nice feeling. When we got to the place,

it's about two hours and 30 minutes car ride. two

hours and 30 minutes car ride. So imagine Port Dickson,

but you know, but it's like 10 times the size

of Port Dickson. The whole street is just full of

resorts and stuff like that. Pastor Kai Jin said, I

got to top up petrol, you know. I realised, you know, Malaysia, France,

we have taken petrol experience pumping for granted. Because every

petrol station we go to, they have subsidised fuel. Every.

Not so in Indonesia. Indonesia. if you subsidise petrol today,

you cannot pump tomorrow. It's alternate days. And not only that,

I realise those, sometimes you watch news, people queuing up

for petrol, thinking that there's not enough petrol, it's not true.

It's because there are pump attendants. You cannot pump yourself one.

The attendant must help you to pump. It doesn't really

work because sometimes the attendant takes longer time in the toilet.

You use it for him to come out from the toilet.

So we were looking for a particular petrol station with

the least queue. We went to at least five petrol stations.

We were driving. He was looking at Google Maps. Then

we went to one petrol station only to find out that,

you know, to talk. But we were there queuing up.

I said, ask Pastor Kanji, you know, why don't they

implement like Malaysia, you know, like, you know, self-service? Cannot.

If they do that, the whole country here got huge unemployment.

Labour here is cheap. I went like, okay. Then when

we finished putting petrol in the car, we have to

wait for at least two more minutes. I said, why

are we waiting for? Just pay and go. Like, you

know how we tap our credit card and we charge already, right?

You have to wait for your turn to pay because

there's only one credit card terminal. And this guy is

running from one car to another car for you to tap.

I said, I was selling Pasir Khajin. these are the

things I take for granted in Malaysia. At every kiosk,

there's a credit card terminal. And he's like, running around, Pa,

I'm so sorry, okay? I think Pastor Kanji really got

no patience. He's like, next time faster lah, I cannot.

But I want to let you know, friends, when I

went to the camp, so I preached like this, in

the back of my mind, thinking that, no, I can

do auto call the first night. Two doors away, or

maybe like, that ex-kid's room there, There was an annual

dinner that was happening. Their base was so loud until

church attendants, if you're sitting on this side, everybody putting

their finger to the ear. I said, wow, this is

really a good sign. I want to take a picture

because it's the first time I know that when I

preach gospel, it will not go out the other ear.

But it was so loud, really loud. And the people

were getting restless already. So I ended the meeting. So

I thought, okay, fellowship. Only to find out that nobody

wants to fellowship. Everybody wants to run straight back into

the room. Because outside in Indonesia, you can smoke in

the hotel. So outside the foyer, there was so much

cigarette smell. So ex-kids decorated their room. You know, decorated

their room. So very nice decoration. Only discovered that the

entire decoration was thrown away the next day. They told

a staff, they told a staff, keep the decoration. This

staff going to tell another staff. right? This stuff, we're

going to tell you another stuff. All the balloons all removed,

all the decoration, all removed. They came in the next day,

they go like, what happened? And they ask the staff,

I thought I told you. No, you told my colleague.

My colleague didn't tell me. So how, got balloons or not?

So he said, let me go to the tong sampah

and find. Maybe, maybe they still have some, some of the,

how to say, the decoration that's still intact. I'm not

sure how many of us at that very moment, you

just feel like, Lord, are they testing me right now?

You know, are they testing me right now? How am

I going to minister to children? How am I going

to pass on the values to them? Like, you know,

we spend hours just putting air into the balloons and

stuff like that. And here comes this scripture, friends. Through

the Lord's mercy, verse 22, we are not consumed. Through

the Lord's mercy, we're not consumed. In the midst of

the challenge, friends, challenge must be there because without the challenge,

we won't know that God is faithful. Come on. We

won't have the full experience. But yet, at the same time,

the challenge also reveals, friends, not just about His faithfulness,

really reveals the condition of our hearts. Where are we?

How do we respond to challenges? I saw the ex-kids teacher,

they just say, what to do? We will just make

do lah. So I went to talk to the person. Hey,

does your hotel have balloons? I think we have over

10 balloons. So we have balloons for ex-kids with the

hotel name on it. Not the best, but what to do?

That's the best we had. I had the privilege of

witnessing three Iranian refugees. Three Iranian refugees got baptized in

the camp. I went to talk to some of them.

I said, why do you have to leave your country?

Why do you have to leave Iran and come to Indonesia?

They said, you know, we got saved. The moment you

are a Christian in Iran, you won't have, the word

is that, you know, there's a possibility that you might

be caught in by the police. Once you get caught

in by the police, there's a very high possibility you

may not come out. You get called in, but you

won't come out. So we have to, the words, flee

for our life. Run away. There's a boy I met

there who's 18 years old. He left Iran at eight

years old. He's been in Indonesia for 10 years to

try to resettle to another country. I said, how did he,

as an eight-year-old boy, I'm sure he did not make

his plans. So what happened? His parents got saved, became Christian.

got wind that the police couldn't call them in. Parents,

parents immediately told their son, I'm going to send you

to grandma and grandma will make the necessary arrangement to

leave the country. Eight years old, left the country. Grandma

sent him to a relative who happens right now to

be in Indonesia, been there for past 10 years. He

hasn't had contact with his parents back then. Doesn't know

why put to his parents. But yet, in the midst

of everything, I met about 12 of the Iranians, every

one of them, friends, at the camp. At the camp,

they did not volo into self-pity or the word is hardship.

They are one of the noisiest bunch of people I've

ever seen. If I ever get to show you a video, friends,

they'll break out in song and dance at the drop

of a hat. If during worship just now, you can

see them doing marching around the chairs already. So when

the Bible says that when David danced undignified unto the Lord,

I could imagine if this, our brothers from Iran would

do that, how much more David. So the Bible here

says that the Lord's mercies, through the Lord's mercies, we

are not consumed. Through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed. Friends,

challenge is there, either it consumes you or you overcome it. Right? Now,

it doesn't mean overcoming it, you come out, the word

is being untouched. Doesn't mean when you overcome it, you

come out perfect. It doesn't. It just means that when

you go through that very moment, friends, all you could

have is, Lord, I need you. All you could have is, God,

I need you. And in that moment at that time, remember,

I look at this Persian brother and say, brother, tell us,

you know, There was this brother, his name is Syed.

I said, oh, Hamid, Hamid. His name is Hamid. Met him.

I said that, you know, how do you reach out

to other Persian? I was doing my laundry one day. Walking,

finished my laundry. Heard some other people speaking Persian. I

turned around and I said like, I know your language.

What are you doing here? And... He said this that,

you know, we are here just like you. We want

to leave the country because the country is going down,

don't like the regime and this stuff like that. And

fled the country. He invited them to church, which will

come and join. Now, majority of them don't really speak English.

Some of them are really, the way is that they

work for local councils and this stuff like that. So

they are of a certain education level. And I sat

down with, them and this lady was asking, I was like, Kenya,

when are you going back to Kuala Lumpur? I said that,

you know, right after camp, you next time, please, please

stay a bit longer. I said, why? We would love

to cook for you. Then after that, met another family,

after you finish eating in her home, please come to

my home. I want to cook for you. Then another

family said, after you finish with two homes, please come

to my home. I want to let you know, in

the midst of, could you imagine right now, in the

midst of that challenging moment of their life, they can

still offer a meal, a meal, come on, a meal

in that challenging moment. Because most times when we go

through challenges, we want to be alone, don't touch me,

don't disturb me, you know, when I'm all well, then

I only come and connect with you. But yet, in

the midst of it, they, in that challenge, they found Christ.

In that challenge, they found Christ, found, found encouragement. And

they said to me that, you know, I only got

one request. Now, Some of you know, when you meet

people like that, when people sometimes may say, Goan request,

sometimes you always think, oh, you want money, is it?

I say, I only Goan request. Can you remember to

pray for Iran? Or Iran? Can you pray for Iran?

It's a lovely country. When everything is well, we want

to go back. We don't want to be anywhere else.

We want to go back. When we are back there,

please come and visit us. Take you around. Pastor Kylie,

who doesn't speak a single Persian, meets up with them.

engages with them. And you know what they do every Sunday?

They have like this speaking. They have them sitting in

front row because they're using live translation into Persian. So

I was at the camp, I'm speaking and the Arabic

words is coming behind me. I said, they could read.

The font size is font size number 11 like that.

By faith, they just read. In the midst of everything

comes games time. You know church games that nobody's excited

for one? You know what I mean? The games time,

forget about games, you want to sleep only, right? And

these Iranian friends, I could tell you what, they were

playing games, friends, like they were like five-year-old. They were clapping,

they were dancing, they were so happy. I was telling Coco,

who was one of the leaders there, I said, this

bunch of people, the energy level is so high at

3 p.m. in the afternoon. Elder, you have not seen

anything yet. They are so noisy. So we were given

straws to build bridge. Yeah, you know those kind of games, right?

Given straw to build bridge. And you're supposed to work

as a team. They took the bunch of straw they

decided to build on their own. And when they finished building,

they broke out into singing and dancing. Me and Coco

looking at them like, brother, one team. They didn't understand English.

So they didn't bother. Don't worry, we'll try to connect

somehow or other. And they were going around making noise.

I'm sharing this to you because the circumstances in our

life could hijack us. I'm sorry, XTV, I'm going off

my slice, I know. Yeah, I try very hard. The

circumstances in your life could hijack you from the joy

of the Lord. Can. The word is drown you in darkness.

Cause you to remain where God asked you to walk

through the valley of shadow of death. Cause you to be...

camp there whereby God said, you just have to walk through.

So met with them and all they just said was,

come back again, we love to have you. I told

all of them, next time please don't cook for me,

please teach me how to cook because I love, I

love to, I love to, to know how you do

your cooking. That is Sepung Camp. Pastor Kajin, got introduced

to Hamid, another bunch of people from Afghanistan. Could you imagine?

He didn't ask for it. Right, Jason Martin, you didn't

ask to be CPC. It's somehow or rather, it came.

You see, Hamid came to Pasir Khajiit. I found out

there's a group of Afghan who is residing in Jakarta.

Let's try to reach out to them. Now, Iranians and Afghans,

although they are sort of same region, they are totally

very different people. This bunch of Iranians we have at church,

very friendly. Afghans, totally different, Pastor Khajin said. They are

very close. So I said, how do you reach out

to them? They are all not Christians. They left the

country because, you know, they didn't like the regime, you know, uh,

ladies can only have education until 12 years old. And

after that, that's it. No more studying anymore. Get married,

have kids, and serve your husband. So they didn't like that.

They all left the country to reside in Indonesia. So

Kajin is sort of like a group FC for one

of the bigger conglomerates in Indonesia. So I want you to,

in the midst of that busy schedule, somebody ask him,

I got this group of Afghans. As a person, this

is like, please don't disturb me. His schedule is so

busy already. Sometimes his boss, I mean, I remember one

time his boss told him that, hey, I know that

you take two hours to go to jam to come

for meeting. Just take my helicopter to come for meeting.

Because he does the numbers, he says to the boss,

you want me to pay 50,000 ringgit for fuel to

go for meeting? Are you crazy? Yeah. So it helps

them to save money that way. I'll share this with

you because he just said this that, you know, Hamid,

what can we do to help them? These ladies, they

like to play football. Could we, as a church, sponsor

the field or not? Rent the field, rent the football field.

We fetch them there, slowly build bridges, hopefully can do

alpha with them. So they did. Every Tuesday, a bunch

of Afghan ladies who go and play soccer. Now, once

they play soccer, no male are supposed to be on

the field. They just fetch them there, drop them off,

they play, after they send them back home. I say,

how do you handle sending them, how do they go

back home? Do you rent, do you get grabbed or

something like that? They say, no. Sometimes they do rent cars,

but sometimes you have to send them back. And when

we send them back, your windows cannot be down. Cannot

wind down your windows. Thank God, Indonesia, their car is

super tinted. No one can see who the driver is.

The moment their family members see a male sending them back,

they will get scolding. Are you having an affair outside?

Have I like, why did you trouble yourself? Have you

ever wondered, why did you So I'll say yes. Did

you ever have a biased regret? Why did I say yes?

Like Jeremiah going through, you know, Jeremiah went through this verse,

it takes about 21 verses to come to this point

whereby through the Lord's mercy, I'm not consumed. Right? Why

do you say yes to take this path with the

Lord whereby it's a bit more difficult? But sometimes the

Lord allows us to go through it to know Him

even more intimately, to know Him better. So Khajin just

said this to me, he said, you know, they are

right there at our doorstep. If we don't reach out,

who's going to reach out? So he tried to hear

together with Hamid and a few more Afghan, a few

more other leaders, try to reach out to them. He said,

how do you sustain them? We try to engage them,

get to know them by asking them to cook for us,

for our events and stuff like that. As I want

to bring encouragement to you because through the Lord's mercy,

we're not consumed because of compassion, fear or not. They

are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. They are

new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I'm not sure

how many of us really like our mornings. My final

point is our mornings. Our mornings, how has it been? Brother,

it's not in the XTV slide, I'm so sorry. Our mornings,

how has it been? Do you wake up worried? Do

you wake up with heaviness on your head? Or do

you wake up, Lord, I just got to engage you

for a moment. I got to engage you for a

moment because I don't want to have the same, the

word is mantra in my mouth that says that, another day,

another stress. Another day, another worry. Another day, another bill.

I don't want you to come to this place whereby

you wake up every morning and just be like, even

before you get out from your bed, it's your messages

that woke you up. I read messages or the commitment

that you have to look through in a day or

the agenda you have to go through the day. Because

if that is your highlight of your morning, then it

really paints what you have to do for the rest

of the day. But the Bible here says, great is

your faithfulness. Friends, we can only come to this place

whereby we know God is faithful. It's where we don't

give up. In Galatians chapter 6, it says don't, Give

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

up on doing what is good. Come on. Don't go weary.

Because friends, we can go weary in two things. Number one,

weary through worrying. Friends, worrying does cost us energy. It does, right?

Worrying does cost us sometimes sleep. It does a few

other things as well. Some of you know it. But yet,

at the same time, you can go tired of doing

a certain thing or you can go tired of doing

the Lord's work. I think we have to decide or

we have to choose because you go to read anything already,

you sure fall asleep. I don't know, I think being 51,

I realised these days I hold a book after page

number three, right? I fall asleep. After page number four,

I'm like, wow, it's so hard to get through 10

pages these days. Last time when I was younger, 10

pages is a breeze. You just consume books. Now, one

book takes like two years to finish. Right? You go like,

what happened to me? Facebook. It's true. It's like, I

tend to reach out for books with more pictorial now.

That's why comics are very good for older people because like,

I know it's not the best, but hey, colours, movement, animation. Right? Friends,

I'm not sure, because sometimes in our life, we have

this image, this is how we project an image whereby

a victorious Christian service, but sometimes you wake up with

such heaviness. Can I just say this? In order to

break it, like what Romans chapter 12 verse 2 reminds us,

Romans 12:2

be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Be transformed

by the renewing of your mind. In the Amplified Classic

Version puts it as, when you renew your mind, new ideas,

new attitude. Do you know that after a while, challenges

ship you to a way whereby you become very cynical

about everything else? It's always you. it's always you. We

can come to a place whereby being conformed, being shaped.

It's never easy, friends, to take care of people. Pastor

Dave and Kat took care of people who never say

thank you. Clean the house and everything like that for

a student. Only have the student turn around saying that,

you know, the passes are bad. I don't think they

did that to win people's, they just did that out

of love. But yet at the same time, it hurts.

Nothing can really, the word is, envelop you or shelter

you away from something. Words does hurt. You walk through

an individual, they turn around, say things about you. It

does hurt. It does cut deep. And because of that,

that hurt, sometimes we take a position whereby I don't

want to be hurt anymore. And that's why we close

that door. We are not so, the word is, quick

to say yes. But the Bible here says that They

are new. Every morning, great is your faithfulness. Every morning,

present new opportunities. God's reminding us. New opportunities reminds us

that God is still faithful. You're still standing. It's because

of His faithfulness you're not consumed. As I close, friends,

I just want to encourage you. Number one, challenges. It's

going to be there. Jeremiah 11, Lamentations chapter 3 reminds us.

Lamentations 3 · chapter mention

The few scriptures there. challenges reveals what's really in your heart.

Without going through the challenges, you would never know. You

would never know what is really in you. Whether we

put our trust in the Lord or in our own ideas,

you would never fully know. Went to Bekasi, talked to

Pastor Franz. He was just sharing with some people who

left church. And we're just encouraging him, brother, you know,

if there's any opportunity, if you've done, if you say

something too strong, would you be the first one to

say sorry? He did. He took our encouragement. He went

up to one brother and just said, I'm so sorry

if I hurt you. They reconciled back. But it's never easy, friends,

to take the path of God. It's never easy to

take the path of God. Your mercy is anew every morning.

To say, I'm sorry that I hurt you. To say, God,

I need you. Instead of just complaining every day, would

you take this path, God? Your mercies are new every morning.

I know it's a counterculture thing, but as you celebrate

12 years of God's faithfulness, sometimes it's easy to go,

or the word is, to be led to a place

whereby complaining, or rather not complaining, but, you know, stating

the obvious is easier than stating conviction. It is boring,

for example. Right? It's so easy to say. So, we have,

we have, we've met home leaders before, say, my home

is not growing. My home is not growing. I say, what? Then,

followed by, I got an idea. I said, what's your idea?

Can we just change homes? Today, if KG1, all the

KG1 homies go to KG2, KG2 homies go to KG1,

leaders stay the same, but homies just swap. I said, brother,

it doesn't answer anything at all. Unless you tell me

you got problem with the leaders. But if this could

resolve and cause homes to grow, we would know already.

But I don't think that they want to go to

different homes and they're excited too because number one is distance.

I said, number two, you think about it. I said

that although it sounds nice, but I would just create excitement.

So I guess I have to boil it down. So

I guess you're not excited with your home leaders. Because

if it's the same homies that, come on, if it's

the same homies, it's like the children of Israel tell Moses, Moses,

I don't like you, I want Aaron. So the problem

has never been about Moses or Aaron. The problem is

the children of Israel who's never satisfied. So I guess

after this home swapping thing, the word is, excitement wears out,

what are you going to do? Dress like clowns? I'm

just saying it with a bit of joke. I said,

dressed like Klaus, why do you have, you know, buffet

spread all? As a close friend, travel of God's faithfulness

just reminds us that He's still there with you. He's

still there with you. Yes, sometimes, you know, our hair

may grow a bit thinner or whiter or maybe lesser.

Maybe there'll be more wrinkles on our head for guys,

not for girls. Right? I don't know. Things may change

on the outside. But your conviction on the inside, as

I close, friends, can I just encourage you, don't stay there.

Don't stay there whereby it's just hard, it's just darkness.

If you stay here, people will continue to laugh at me.

But I say, God, your mercy is anew every morning.

Great is your faithfulness. Pastor Khaji for the longest time,

ex-Karawachi has not grown. They've been around 12 people for

the past five years, right? Belle, Pastor Khaji's daughter, was

the only kid, ex-kids. Mum's concerned that, will my kid

grow up without any children around her? The church started

having people, but they were stagnant after a while. Just

12 people, 15 people, some like eight. They say, Pastor,

could we move to Sepung? There's just one town earlier

than Karawachi and they've got more people staying there. Right now,

they're averaging about 30 plus people. I share this with

you because sometimes the moment you feel like giving up,

could I just say this? Don't. Galatians chapter 6 says,

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

don't give up doing what's good. In due season, you

shall reap. Amen. I came here to give you like

five steps to do this. I just want to share

a story with you all. How good and faithful our

God has been with us. Not just here, but globally

as well. Not just here in Klang, but every other

church plant. X-Mandream wasn't growing at all for the past

three to four years. Pastors just told them maybe you

should take a step of faith to move to somewhere else.

They prayed. Taylor's College opened up. went there. First Salvation

was one of a guy that operated a store at

the food court from China, the owner. got saved. After

he got saved, he just said that, you've got any

promotional materials, please, please put at my shop. I want

to give to every Taylor College student that come to

my shop. After that, they've been praying for students that

are staying in the hostel there. And they got a

few people that just came Some of them came towards

the end of the service because they found out there's

a church there. At least about four salvations already now.

So they've been praying week after week, God, give us

more people. I want to let you know it's not

the end because when you partner with the Lord, great

is His faithfulness. Amen? So leaders, I want to encourage you,

keep on doing what you're doing. It's never easy, I understand.

They say Clang is another country, maybe it's true.

Right?

But it's not just another country, friends, no. people are

just very different. Very different. You're no different from Ex

Quotable Morning. It's a family-based church. But yet at the

same time, people are still looking for hope. As I close,

can I invite Xtreme on the stage? I want to

pray for you all. Every precious one of you who

have been with us for the past 10 years, 12 years,

some of you who just joined us, Thank you so

much for being part of this journey with us. It's

not the end if I exclaim. There's a new beginning

chapter for you. My word for you this morning is

God is faithful. That's why we're not consumed. God is faithful.

That's why you're not overwhelmed. Yes, you have drunk a

lot of seawater already. Yes, there are times whereby there's

no air to breathe. Yes, there are times whereby you

just feel like quitting. Can I just encourage you, don't.

Because He is still faithful. He is. In your life,

in your personal life, He has never left you nor

forsaken you.

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

information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week

is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.