The God Of Yes And Amen | Eld Rosalind Ang

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

We hope this message will light up your day.

Let's see what God wants to speak to us this morning. Okay,

so my first question, which I want you to think about,

really think about and note your answer first. We will

come back to it later in the later part of

the message. But for now, I'm going to ask you,

what is the greatest need in your life? Okay?

Or what are some of the greatest needs in your life?

Okay? I want you to just have a moment, think

about it, and ask God, what do I really need?

What is important to me?

Okay? Don't tell me yet. I will come back to

it later. I just want you to note it down.

As we progress, then later on, this will make sense

to you. Okay? What is the greatest need in your life? Right? Okay.

Got that?

Okay, let's continue. Let's continue.

Okay, so many of you have been in church for

at least... Three months, or I just met some newcomers,

so welcome, welcome. But many of us, even non-Christians, know

that in a Christian prayer, there is a commonly used word.

What is that word?

What is one word that is commonly used in Christian prayers? Eh, wah,

y'all know the answer, man. Got God or not inside? God.

Okay, that sounds so Malaysian, right?

Got God inside your prayer or not? Only Janet got me, okay? Hey,

the rest of you, are you awake or not? Hey,

you don't call out to God one night.

In your Christian prayer.

God, God. But you see, our minds are very interesting, right?

We always land at the sort of like the last bit, right? Amen. Okay,

everybody say amen. Amen. So this is a word that

we commonly use, constantly use, all right? I'm sure this

morning itself, you've already said it a few times, yes? Yes. Yes. Okay.

What does it mean? Let it be so. What else?

We agree. Settle.

Okay.

Settle. Okay. How many of you really mean that as

you said amen this morning? Amen. It's settled. Okay. Okay.

So do you know that sometimes it can be very perfunctory?

And what I mean by that is you pray, pray, pray,

then you're just waiting. Amen. Okay, then you open your eyes.

Then you're ready to go for your next thing, right?

It can very easily become a full stop to a prayer.

Through the end of a sentence. Okay, you're praying, praying, praying, praying.

Then you full stop. Amen. Okay, done. Let's go on.

Let's move on. And so we rush through, right? Amen. Okay,

this one I'm talking to some of our chairpersons. So,

you all know who you are. We always say, don't

rush through. Don't rush through, okay? Now, let's go deeper, alright?

This amen is something that we say, okay? Let it

be so, commonly understood. Let it be so, we agree. Yes,

we agree. In agreement, amen. Okay, now let's go on

to the next thought. Let's go on to the next slide. Now,

I want us to engage in an exercise, right? Now,

do you know that in the Old Testament, this word

amen was already used? It's not a New Testament sort of,

You know, like modern church, we use it. But I

wanted us to go back to maybe more of the

original to understand what it really means. A deeper meaning.

Is that okay? It's okay, yeah? And you know what

revival is, right? Revival is going back to the original.

Okay?

And so let's go back to the end. So what

I want to do is participative. What's going to do

is when I say and let all the people say

and you will say, Amen in response. Is that okay?

Okay, so I'm going to read from Deuteronomy.

Let me turn to Deuteronomy chapter 27. Please open your Bible,

Deuteronomy 27 · chapter mention

engage with the Word of God yourself. All right, I'm

going to read from verse 11 onwards. It says this,

And Moses commanded the people on the same day, saying,

These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people

when you have crossed over the Jordan. Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar,

Joseph and Benjamin. And these shall stand on Mount Ebal

to curse. Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali. Now,

I pause there for a bit. How many mountains are there?

How many mountains? Hello, good morning, church. The scripture is there.

There are two mountains. Can you name the two mountains?

Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Which one do you want

to stand on? Which one? If you had to choose.

Which one?

Mount Gerizim or Mount Ebal?

Gerizim, why?

Oh, you all like blessing, huh?

Okay, okay. Never mind, let's go on. Let's read the

word of God. Okay, so verse 14 says this. Ready

to participate?

And all the people shall answer and say.

Curse is the one who treats his father or his

mother with contempt and all the people shall say? Curse

is the one who moves his neighbor's landmark and all

the people shall say? Curse is the one who makes

the blind to wander off the road and all the

people shall say?

Not everyone saying amen, okay. Are you participating?

Curse is the one who perverts the justice due to

the stranger, the fatherless and widow. And all the people

shall say, Curse is the one who lies with his

father's wife, adoi, because he has uncovered his father's bed.

And all the people shall say, Curse is the one

who lies with any kind of animal. And all the

people shall say, Curse is the one who lies with

his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter

of his mother and all the people shall say. Curse

is the one who lies with his mother-in-law. And all

the people shall say. Curse is the one who attacks

his neighbour secretly and all the people shall say. Curse

is the one who takes a bribe to slay an

innocent person and all the people shall say. Curse is

the one who does not confirm all the words of

this law by observing them. And all the people shall say, Okay,

well done church. You have all just bound yourself under

the oath of these curses. And so what that means,

as you responded in the affirmative amen, is that if

you do any of these things, don't blame God if

the curses fall on you. You see that? So you

see now that the whole part of a response in

an amen is to say, I have heard, I have understood,

And I have bound myself to what has been declared.

Do you see this? I have heard. When you said amen,

I heard it. When you said amen, I understood the

gravity of this. You said amen, I am bound to

what was just declared. So, are you going to simply

say amen now? Do you know sometimes in our prayer, right?

No matter what the person says, then we're like, amen.

You laugh, right? Because most of the time, you're not

really even focusing on that prayer. It's perfunctory now. You

see what I mean? That our prayer can be so

shallow that we automatically respond. But do you agree? Did

you really agree with everything that was declared and said? Yeah,

so that's something that I want you to think about. Now,

do you know that in the ancient days, in the

Near East, what happens is when a king makes a decree, right?

Everyone must wear a skirt. Let's say a decree. Or

there is a binding agreement between two persons. Or there

is a covenant. And what happens is the witnesses, and

all of you were just witnesses, right? Witnesses, they will,

what will we do today? If we say, let's shake

on it, let's do an agreement, what do we do?

We drop a contract, an agreement, right? And then you

sign on it, correct? You sign, you chop, you seal,

and then to make it even more legal, you bring

it for notary, notarization, yes? Yeah, sah, sudah sah, right?

That's what we do. today. But in the ancient East,

what they do is they will say a word, right?

They will say a word and that word for the

Hebrews is amen. So it's a binding oath. And so

it's very interesting to understand that then what you say

in Amen now, it's not just a closing word to

a prayer.

It means more than that.

So it's a covenant, it's a declaration. Now let's go

to the Hebrew word of Amen itself. Is that okay?

Is this word called Aman? Say Aman. Aman. Aman. We

say it very easily because it sounds very similar to

the Bahasa word aman, right? What does aman mean? Peace, peace, peace. Okay, aman.

So it comes from the root word and it means,

this word, right, it's not I agree, you know. This

word means to be firm, to be established, to be sure.

That's what aman means. Do you know another bahasa word

which you might know, amanah? What does amanah mean? All

not sure, right? Malaysians, hello?

What does amanah mean? Trust, character, somewhat there, but.

The word amanah actually means a binding covenant. It's a covenant,

a binding promise, right? And so what that means is,

it's more.

Than a contract, right?

It's a covenant, the amanah that was given to us.

We bound ourselves to it, right? So from this word amanah,

to be firm, to be established. Now, if I give

you a picture, I want you to think about this.

It's not just say, oh, I agree with you. It's

to say that when I say amen, it's to say amen.

I can put my weight on it. I am able

to lean on this because it is sure. It's a

foundation that is already holding. Do you see this picture?

Aman means it's a foundation that is already holding. It's

not like, oh, I hope lah. I hope this stage

can hold my weight. I hope this stage can hold

the band's weight. If all of us, 140 of us

come here, do you think this stage can hold all

our weight? Can, right? Would you dare to jump on this?

Some say no already. Come up maybe, but jumping on it,

maybe not so sure. But if I said the whole

thing was made out of concrete, now you can still

see holes, right? If the whole thing was made of concrete,

would you be more confident to jump on this stage? Yes,

you would. Right, so the word aman connotates this idea

that it's something that I don't just agree, but it's

something that I put my weight on. A foundation of

surety and it's established. Got that? Okay, good.

Now, it's very interesting.

Because out of this root word aman comes the other

words that we use very often in our Christian journey.

So tell me, what are some of the Christian terms

that you always hear within the church?

Ooh, someone's phone. You want to answer that? Is it

God calling?

Hello? Okay, never mind. What are some of the other

words that you know that is a Christian setting when

you hear this word said and spoken? What is it? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Boleh. Hallelujah.

Of course, this morning also is the worship theme that hallelujah, no?

Because they are focused on worshipping, right?

Okay, hallelujah.

What other words? Sorry?

Glory to God. Glory to God.

Yes, yes. Okay, what other words? We are in the

business of what? Hello church, we are in what business?

Business of? Salvation. Okay, what other business are we in?

I need to tell you this, you know, because you're

partners in this business. If you don't know what kind

of business we are running, our business will be bankrupt.

What do you go away with every Sunday?

The word, what else?

Faith.

Friends, we are in the business of faith.

Yes? Do you agree or not? If you know that

we are in the business of faith, then I pray

that we will work this business of faith, right? And

our prayer as the leadership is that every time we

meet together like this, you will go away with your

faith even more secure, even more unshakable.

Because what happens is when you go out to the.

World, everything's going to throw at you and you'll be like,

I don't know what I believe already. You become like lalang,

you know. And God is saying, no, what is your faith?

Is your faith secure? Is it strong like a rock? Unshakable, right?

We are in the business of faith. And Jesus says,

without faith it is, it's impossible to please God. So friends,

if you don't have faith, then it's going to be

very hard to know what God wants out of us. Amen?

We are in the business of faith. Okay, tell your friends,

business of faith. Ask your other neighbour, how's business? Truly,

how is your business of faith? Is it thriving? Is

it wreaking profit? Or is it like, oh, I think

our business is going to close down already. Bankrupt.

Think about it.

We are in a business of faith, okay? Alright, so

out of this word, root word aman, comes our other roots, okay?

So a root word is very important to understand because

it branches into different things. So things like the word

of faith is, the next one is emunah, I think. Oh, okay.

Okay, go back a little bit to that.

Okay, I want to say something about this word, Amen,

which is very interesting. Now, do you know that in

the Bible, in historical context, usually what started in the Hebrew,

so Old Testament is in Hebrew. And then when you

move on to the New Testament, it's written in Greek, right?

And then today, modern day, we all understand English, right?

So it's translated. Now, say for example, the word love.

You understand the word love?

Originally, in Hebrew, it's hesed.

But then when you go into the Greek, they translated

hesed into, what is love in Greek?

Y'all should know this. Agape, yes.

Y'all know.

Betul, correct.

Agape.

And then, but most of us don't use agape. Do

you agape me or not?

No, right? It's like, do you love me? So it's

translated into English. But very interestingly, this word, amen, was

never translated. It carried through all the way from Hebrew,

the original, into Greek itself. They still call it Amen.

And today in our Bibles, we have this word Amen. Right?

In our New Testament, there's a lot of the word

Amen in our Bibles today. So do you know why

the Bible scholars didn't try to translate this? It's because

some words just cannot be translated. The weight of it,

The weight of it just cannot be translated, okay? So

that's just some Bible trivia for you, all right? Okay,

so let's go to the next thought. So the amen

branches out into different words, okay? So things like emunah, faith.

Things like emet, truth. Okay, I want you to write

down these two thoughts. Faith and truth. Faith and truth.

And that's what we're all seeking for. Aren't we seeking

the truth? Are you seeking the truth? If you are,

then I say you've come to the right place. Because

the truth is found here. Amen? In God.

In God.

Alright? So it's, you know, I love doing word studies

because it gives us a greater understanding of what we

have in our Bibles today. Alright?

So the word, remember again, the root word aman is what?

Firm, secure, unshakable.

You can put your weight on this.

So friends, I want to say that when you go

away from here, I pray that your amen will be

an aman. It will be so secure, so sure, so

firmly established that you will not be shaken when you

leave this place.

And that's what faith is, right?

Pistis is the Greek word of it. You know how

they use the connotation of like you want to hang

something on the wall and you drive a nail through

it is so firm and secure that you can just

drop your 10 kilo bags on it and it will stay, right?

That's the kind of firmness, security we're talking about, okay?

Let's move on. Let's move on to the other thoughts. Now,

that's the Old Testament. How did Jesus use this word, Amen?

Do you think Jesus used this word, Amen?

Amen? Yes or no? Okay, let's study. Let's go to

the next slide. Now, just some Bible trivia again. In

the King James Version, this word Amen is used 78 times, right,

in the Bible. And in New Testament, most of the

time is used as a closing to either prayers or

doxologies in most of the books, right, in all the

letters that you will see. You will see this word

Amen coming up again and again. Now, interestingly, in the Gospels,

only Jesus used the word Amen. So if Jesus used it,

it must be quite important, right? Okay, so fine. Jesus,

do you know what the Gospels are, by the way?

Can you give me the four Gospels? Okay, so Matthew,

Mark and Luke, John is the Gospels that talks about

how Jesus, His birth, His death, His resurrection, alright? So

it's the story of Jesus. And so it's recorded that

Jesus used this word. Now, if you think about it,

for us, right, we say, oh, I agree... When you

say amen, you say I agree, right? But Jesus, do

you think He needs to agree with anyone? He is

the agreement Himself. And so when He used amen, He

used it at the beginning of the sentence. Let me

show you. Now, that's why I say our English translation

has sort of like diminished. the importance of certain words. Now,

I'm a very word person. And so, you know, sometimes

we lose its meaning because of the translation to English.

Let me show you.

In Mark chapter... What's the... Okay, Mark chapter 10, verse 15.

Mark 10:15

All right. I put there as many translations, versions for

you to see that... These are some of the things

that you will encounter in your Bible. So when you

use this version, you see this, okay? Now, let me

read to you the NKJV version, which is what we

use often. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not

receive the kingdom of God as a little child will

by no means enter it. Okay? Right? Assuredly. Now, if

you are a King James Version, do you use, anyone

use King James Version? Oh yes, we have some friends

who are using this. Excellent. And then you will see

this word, verily I say to you. Is there any

Valerie here? Verily is not Valerie, okay? Jesus is not

calling someone's name. Verily I say to you. In the ESV,

it says, truly I say to you, truly I tell you, NIV. Okay,

do you have these words? If you go into an

actual word study, of the Greek, this is what it

actually looks like. Let's go to the next slide.

Amen, I say to you.

Amen, I say to you.

This is how Jesus used the word amen.

He started off His sentence by amen first. He didn't

use it.

At the end of a closing prayer.

He started off by saying amen. Anyone does this or not?

Like you go to Johnson, oh, uh, Truly I tell you.

You will say that, right? I tell you the truth.

You will say that. Truly I tell you. Most assuredly

I tell you. But anyone will go around saying, Amen.

I tell you.

You don't, right? But this word, Amen, I tell you,

is what Jesus used and it means He is establishing

His authority. Amen has the weight of authority in it.

So Jesus is saying, Amen, I tell you. Church, you

better listen up. When Jesus says, Amen, I tell you something,

it means it's.

Really important, okay?

I want to give you another emphasis and this is

found in the book of John, right? So Matthew, Mark, Luke,

there's one. But in book of John, Jesus actually uses this.

Let's go to John 3.3.

Now, Valerie, Valerie, I say to you, in the King

James Version, right?

Most assuredly, I tell you, truly, truly, I tell you

the truth, Elder Terence.

Right, I tell you the truth. How important it is, right?

Very truly, wow. For sure. But if you look back

into the original, what Jesus is saying, Amen, Amen, is

a double emphatic.

And you know what double means in the.

Scriptures, right? it means it's sure. For sure. For sure.

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one.

Is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

So he's telling this teacher, this Pharisee, that unless you

are born again, and that's why Nicodemus says, oh, but

how can I be born again? I'm an old man.

Do I have to go back into my mother's womb? Right,

remember that? And so he cannot, his mind was blown.

By what Jesus is saying, by Jesus saying this is

the truth. Now this double amen, amen. Now what is

Jesus saying? Why he had to use amen, amen was

because he says, by my authority, by who I am,

what follows from my mouth after this cannot be shaken.

It's firm. It's true. Okay? It's for sure will happen one.

How many of us now when we read the Bible,

We're like, are you sure, Jesus? I don't believe this.

Or I cannot. Now, say for example, when Jesus was

teaching about the parable, right? About the wedding banquet, remember?

The wedding banquet. And he says, go and invite everyone

from the highways and byways to come. Right? And then

they say, and then after that, there was one of

the parables that says, oh, but they came, but they

were not dressed in wedding clothes. What did Jesus say

to this person? He said, go back and change, is it?

What did Jesus say? You cannot enter into the kingdom.

Throw him out where there will be weeping and gnashing

of teeth. Now, how many of you take that literally?

That if you do not come dressed for the bride

and the bridegroom, means you're not prepared, you're not clothed

in righteousness, that you will actually end up being thrown out.

How many of you take that seriously? Because if you

don't take that.

Seriously, what you're saying basically is saying, oh.

This part I like. Being invited, I like. The blessing part,

I like. You know, the prosperous part I like. But

the blood, the cursing part, the being, cast out into

the outer darkness. This one I don't like. I cannot

accept this God. How can? Then, you know, we go

into this theological thinking. But God is so good. How

can He do this to people? True or not? I'm

battling this with a lot of young people now who

cannot wrap their head around. But if God is so good,

why is there so much suffering in this world? This

is the age-old battle of the mind. The problem of suffering,

I call it. We cannot understand it. And I hope

to shed a little.

Bit more light for you. How do we overcome this?

Seemingly very disjointed, but you know, how is this so? Right?

So I encourage you when you read the Word of God,

you either believe 100% or none. If you say, this

one I like, this one I don't like, it means you're.

Calling Jesus a liar. Do you dare call Jesus a liar?

It's either He's telling the truth or He's not. He

cannot tell lies, as far as I know. And so

what He says must be true. And I don't know

how that will cause you to respond to the Word

of God. You're like, oh, this one cannot be. God

is a very kind one. He's very gracious. He will

not cause people to enter hell. He will not because

he's just too good. Then I would say, I would

challenge your theology because where is it in the Word

of God? You see, who thought about hell? Jesus, you know.

Not any of the apostles. Only Jesus did because he

knew the whole picture, right? And so when he says, verily, verily,

I tell you, all these things, we better take note.

Sit up in our seats and say, God, you're serious.

You mean business. Do you know, as we were worshipping

just now, right, I was thinking about this word very,

what is a sort of like a modern way that

our young people can understand this, right? Because if I

say it most assuredly, I say it truly, truly, I

tell you, you're like, okay, you're trying to prove your point.

But then the word came to me, confirm, confirm. You

can understand or not? Can, that one can, right? Confirm, confirm.

Jesus will do this, whatever He say. True or not?

I'm like, oh, thank you, Lord, for that word. I

think our young people can understand.

Confirm. When Jesus say most of the truth, He's like, confirm, confirm,

this will happen. And when someone say confirm, confirm, you

better not doubt it. Yeah? Don't doubt any of God's word, okay?

So that's the part that we want to understand. So

this is the double emphasis. And he says everything that

I have said will happen. It's been established. Now I

want to go to another thought and this is very interesting.

So we will go to the book of Revelation. How

many of you have read Revelation?

Raise up your hand.

Okay, good. Our job then as a church is to

ensure everyone of our church has read through at least

once the book of Revelation in your lifetime here with

us at least. Okay, do you know I was just

reading Revelation chapter 1 this morning and it says, the

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

one who reads this out loud and the one who

hears it and obeys it shall be blessed. I want

to be blessed. That's why I get so excited about

reading Revelation because it's like, you read, maybe you don't

fully understand, but it's okay. You accept the truth of

it and you will be blessed. And God, the Holy Spirit,

will give you understanding. Amen? Okay, so let's read Revelation 3.14.

It says this. Write this letter to the angel of

the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the

one who is the... The? Amen. The faithful and true witness.

The beginning of God's new creation. Do you know that Jesus,

He can use other words. The words that you used

just now. Love. The God of Hallelujah. The God of truth.

The God of peace. But He calls Himself the Amen.

He calls Himself the Amen. It's a name. Of God.

Did you know that now when you say amen, you're

calling Jesus' name? It's His title. You're calling a title

of Jesus, you know. And do you know a Hebrew

name always connotes more than just a name like John, Daniel, Ellie, Joanne.

It's a name I can call you.

But a name in the Hebrew signifies your identity. Not

only your identity, your destiny. It's your destiny, you know.

Can you imagine, I shared this, you know, when I

was growing up in Sabah, there was a neighbour, you know, no,

a friend, like a neighbour's friend, and they were supposed

to meet with my parents. And I overheard their conversation.

And then they say, oh yeah, we want to meet

this person. Then in my heart, I'm thinking, why would

you want to go and meet this person? And, you know,

they kept on saying, jing song bong ah, jing song bong.

Jing song bong! I'm like, already saw Song Bong, why

you want to meet with this person, right? And later

I found out his name is Jing Song Bong. I'm

not kidding. His real name is Jing Song Bong. Can

you imagine if you live up, hi, my name is

Jing Song Bong. Nice to meet you. My name is

Song Bong. My surname is Jing. Jing in Chinese means very.

In Hokkien, yeah.

Very Song Bong.

You laugh.

I'm very sombong.

Okay? I don't know.

Having to live with that kind of name for the

rest of your life.

I don't know. It's hard. It's your destiny. I hope

he never becomes a sombong person. That's why in my mind,

I'm like, why do you want to meet this person?

Already so sombong, right? Mana Tao is really his name. Okay? So, okay, okay. But,

Thank God. All our parents here are very kind to us, right?

I know your names here, okay? Of course, there are

some names.

Like pokok lah, whatever.

Okay. But because we live in a multi-language society, so

that's why they carry over and it means differently in

a different language. But we make fun. Alright, okay. So

it carries identity, destiny and the essence of who that

person is. So basically what this means, let's go to

the next thought. What Jesus is, He says, I am

the promise. The promise. The promise that is sure. The

promise that is unshakable. The promise itself. He was not

a promise deliverer. He was not a messenger, like some

other would say, you know, oh, He was just another

messenger of God coming to tell the good news. He

was the promise itself. The sure one, right? The one

whom all of God's promises lay will be upon Christ Himself.

And that's how powerful Jesus is when He calls Himself,

I am the Amen. Amen? Yeah, you see? So it's

so voluntary, right? We just say amen. It's as though

we're just using it as a way to get you

to respond to me. Okay, I need to stop doing

that as a preacher. Like, I'm like, oh, amen, amen.

I don't know what you're amening to. Do you know

what you're amening to? I hope you do. And as

I reflect upon this myself, because I'm a very quick

person to respond. If you sit in front here, you

know that I'm always with my yes and amen, together

with other people, okay? Because we are mature in our faith. No, no, no, no, no.

Just kidding, just kidding. But because we are, you know,

enthusiastic about the Word of God, right? I pray that

you catch that. You know, you catch that, oh, I

want to, because you know, out of the abundance of

the heart, the mouth speaks, And many times when I

hear all our preachers preaching, right, the Word of God

fills me up with so much truth and excitement. But

I cannot overfill, but just say amen to that. Amen

to that surety. Amen to that being established. It's done.

Do you see what I mean? So we want to

build a culture. Is that okay in our church? Actually,

we are a church who responds to God. You're not

responding to me. Whenever any preacher is preaching here, when

you say amen, you're responding to the amen. You're responding

to Jesus himself. Because it's his word. How come you're

not excited? I'm thinking, how come you're not excited about

Jesus himself? The words of Christ that brings life.

You see, we're not just saying, please say your amens lah.

No, I'm asking, are you excited about the Word of God?

Which is truth itself. And if you are, you will

automatically respond with a yes and an amen behind. Are

you excited about the Word of God? Oh, see lah. Amen.

So shy, never mind. Culture ah. We build culture, is

that okay? So every time, you know, if I'm here preaching,

then I want you to exercise faith.

Do you know saying amen is exercising your faith?

Because faith is a substance of things hoped for, evidence

of things not seen yet. So you might be going

through tremendous challenge in your life, but you're saying amen

to the one who promises. Do you see that difference there?

It's not because God hasn't answered my prayer, I have

no amens for Him. Some of us live our lives

like that. All through your Christian life, you've never said

an emphatic amen to God. Okay? I know I'm a

bit serious here, but I'm very serious about the Word

of God. Is that okay? I'm very jealous now. of

God's people. Because I want you to experience God the

way we should. You know, because He's a good God.

He's an amazing God. And He's alive.

He's right here, right now, sitting next to you. We

don't realise, you know.

We're like thinking God is just some figment or He's

some philosophical concept. And we don't watch ourselves. Seeing how

do we respond to this God. Yeah? Yeah. Come on.

Come on. Okay. Now, so when we come into prayer time,

I want us to really think about how do we

engage the Lord? Yeah? It's not, I'm praying through a checklist. Okay, done.

Prayer time, done.

And we go away from that.

I pray that as we are revived, our prayer lives

would revive. Is that okay? I want all of us

to go deeper. Dig deeper, friends. Because... What's the difference

between us and other people who, you know, are doing

good deeds or are, you know, kind to other people?

The difference between us and those who do not believe

is we can come to a God who hears our prayers.

He's not a statue that is blind and deaf and dumb.

He's not a statue like that. He's a living God.

And so if our If you say, I have no

prayer life, then I'm very concerned. What kind of Christian

faith you have. Don't reduce your prayer life to like,

thank you Lord for the food. In Jesus' name, amen.

And if that's your only prayer right now, praise the Lord.

Can we add? Can we add depth to that? Can

you really just in your prayer, just say, God, I

really thank you for this provision. Because without you, I

would not be eating. I would not have this enjoyment.

Do you see what I mean? By, by, instead of

just perfunctory, like when I say perfunctory, you're just performing

because it's like, oh, but to really say, oh, thank

you Lord for the food. Thank you for this sense

of smell, this sense of taste. Thank you that I'm hungry.

I've got appetite to eat. Thank you, God, I've got

money to pay the vendor. Did you see how your

overflow of your gratitude comes into your prayer life right now?

You see how meaningful it can be? And God wants that.

He wants that community. He wants that relationship with us. Okay?

It's not a transaction, right? Prayer is not a transaction. Okay,

I will go into that in a short while. Okay,

so I want us, it means that everything that you

cry out to, everything that you say, you know, your prayer,

your confession, your declaration, it means you're telling God, this

is done. Even though I don't know the outcome of it,

you might pray for needs and it's completely okay. And

in fact, encourage for you to come to God with

your real needs. Yes, prayer is like come to God

with your real needs and then you say, God, I

don't know how you will answer this prayer, but I

know that I can trust you. I put my trust

not in the outcome of my prayer. That's what we

always do. We put our trust in the outcome of

the prayer. But God is saying, would you trust me?

I will determine the outcome. You don't have to worry

about that. I will work all things out for the

good of those who love me. That's God's promise, right?

So do you believe that even though it didn't turn

out according to your plan or your prayers, God is

working something good? Do you believe that? God is working

something good in all of us. You're saying, I'm putting

my weight on this. And this weight is on the

character of God. Amen. The amen. The character of God

who is established, faithful and true. Amen. Amen. So, next

time when you cry and you pray, you're not surrendering

in defeat, you know. You're surrendering in victory. You're surrendering

in victory. I want you to catch that, friends. That

when you come to God in prayer, you go out

in victory, not in defeat. Because sometimes we think surrender means, no,

surrender to the one who has overcome death. The one

who's risen to life. You're surrendering to that God. Victorious.

Alive and living. Wow. You know, now I'm running to

want to go and pray, right? Because I say, God,

if I surrender this to you, you will turn it victorious.

You will do it for me, not what I can do. Okay?

So I want you to really, really catch this, okay?

And so that's why in 2 Corinthians, and this is

Paul writing to the church in Corinth. Of course, he

was being attacked as a preacher, as a messenger of

the good news. And you know, You know sometimes, right,

people like, oh, you say you want to do this

but you never do. Right? Annoying or not?

Campus students, please don't do that to your leaders.

You say you'll be there at 8, then you come

at 9. Okay? Your word is very important. It establishes

your character, your reputation. And God never minces His word

because it's His reputation. Yeah? Is your word worthy of

your reputation? You think about it. Does your word carry

who you are?

Your identity.

Okay? So now, in NKJV, this one says, okay, so again,

the context of this is Paul wanted to go and visit,

but then after that, he decided not to because of

different things. So they accused him, right? Y'all can accuse

some leaders. Oh, you say you want to do, but

you never do. Right? And so, it's like you're wavering

between your yes and your no, your yes and no.

Is it yes or no? Right? And if you're taking notes,

I want to tell you that the title of this

is The God of Yes and Amen. He is the

God of yes and amen. But we are people of

yes and no, yes and no. We waver, but thanks

be to God, He does not waver. Amen? So it says,

for all... Okay, let's read the NKJV version together. Ready? Three, two, one.

For all the promises of God in Him are yes,

and in Him, amen, to the glory of God through us.

So this is where we get the yes and the amen.

In the NLT, it says, for all... Is it all?

Is it 30%? 80%? All, all of God's promises have

been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding yes. And through Christ,

our amen, which means yes, ascends to God for His glory. Amen. Now,

I want to turn back now, back to our first question.

What is our greatest need in life? Okay, so now

you can, I gave you 35 minutes to think about

it already, right? So what are some of your real answers?

Give me real answers. What do you think are some

of the real needs that you have in your life? Healing.

Okay.

Jesus. Okay, Jesus. Thank you for that.

Real need.

So if I ask you, if Jesus is all that

you have, is that enough? Again. Strip away everything, you know.

Strip away your home. strip away your health, strip away

your job, strip away your EPF, would you still say

Jesus is enough? Yes? Okay, there are some confident yes.

So even if there is no healing, is Jesus enough?

I want you to think about it. Because many times

we have built our understanding of who Christ is. It's

called the Jesus plus theology. Jesus plus this, my career.

Jesus plus a relationship, a husband or a wife. Jesus plus.

And we find that if there is no plus, then

Jesus is really not enough, you know. I want to

bring you this thought. Um... And Jesus taught us about

how to pray. What is, how did Jesus teach his

disciples to pray? The Lord's Prayer. Do you all know

the Lord's Prayer? Okay, let's recite it. Okay, XTV, you

don't have to show yet. Don't, don't show yet, don't yet.

Don't show, don't show, don't show. Let's test whether we

really know the Lord's Prayer. Okay, one, two, three. Okay, tongues.

Now all the tongues come out already. This is an

excellent prayer to have it in your heart. Memorise it. Okay,

I pray this prayer every day. Now, in the Lord's Prayer,

God is so good. Jesus is so good though. He

already tells us the three most important needs in our life.

What are the three needs?

Bread. Do you know Jesus is so practical? He says,

I know you need bread. I will give you bread.

For those of you who are low carbs, your low

carb diet, right? Okay, bread is good, okay? Nothing against carbs.

What is the second thing that Jesus knows we need?

What is it? Forgiveness is in the prayer. It's in

the prayer, guys. Forgiveness. We often miss that we need

forgiveness in our lives because of the sin that we have.

And what is the third thing that Jesus promised to

give us? Deliverance. I call that freedom. Freedom not to sin. Okay?

So many times, we can ask for all these needs

in our lives and Jesus says, I have given you

what you needed. Your daily bread, Forgiveness from sin and

freedom from temptation.

Freedom from sin.

And if you have all these needs, you are okay.

You see what I mean?

These are the promises. But we always say, oh, but,

you know, give us our daily bread. But I also

want the steak and the buffet and the sashimi and

the wayu beef. Do you see the difference between your

need and your wants? God says, I will sustain you.

You will have bread to eat. I don't know where

it comes from, but it will come. And God says,

you will never go hungry. Yeah? So, there is food.

There is forgiveness. And you know, this is fulfilled. How

many of you here have truly, truly been in hunger?

Real hunger? Yeah? Okay. Like, you had really nothing but

you're still alive today. Thank you for that. Because God

has sustained you. God has sustained you even through your hunger.

Forgiveness and freedom. Do you know that as Christians we

can live a life free from sin? Do you believe this?

I hope you do. Or some of you think, oh

no lah, I think I, you know, maybe in this

life it's going to be so hard to not sin.

But do you know that because of Christ and the

Holy Spirit, we can choose not to sin.

If you have no Christ, you will definitely sin.

But with Christ and the power within us, we can choose,

make the right decision to not sin. Amen? Okay. The

other thing about our prayer... differentiating between needs and wants,

is we always pray. You think about your prayer. Is

it a lot about me?

What I want?

Me? What I want?

What I need? My family needs?

And all those things come in the category I call

the happy category. If I get this, I will be happy.

True or not? You think about your prayer. If I

get all these things, I will be happy. I want

to give you another thought that God... in your prayer,

doesn't want to make you happy. What? He wants to

make you holy. Holy. You see, a prayer that answers

to a result of holiness versus happiness is very different, right?

Holiness is a place of trust. Holiness is a place

of I'm setting myself apart for the work of God.

Holiness is a place of like, even though it's going

to be so painful, I'm being made holy. I'm being

made holy. Your suffering, James says, counted all joy when

you go through trial, suffering, persecution. Hey, hello? Why nobody

tell me being a Christian is so hard one ah?

Told me a lie. No, I'm not telling you. I'm

telling you the truth right now. Because what God is

after in your life is holiness, reverence, fear of God,

living in contentment.

But we always want to pray the happy prayer. God,

make me happy.

Make me happy. Make me happy.

God said, no, no, I want to make you holy.

Holiness is what I'm after. God says, be holy because

I'm holy. Be holy. Let's go to another quick thought.

In terms of the promises, let's go to the next one.

The promises of God. I'm going to list this. I'm

not going to go through it. But sometimes we mix

up the promises with what we want versus what God

had already promised. Remember, He says all the promises are yes.

These are all the yeses. All these are the yeses.

Do you see a promotion in my job as a promise?

Because you say, but God say, I pray, then He

will promise. His promise says, it's already yes. So we

often think that the yes means what I want. God

is not saying that. God is saying yes to His

promises and these are His promises. Salvation, adoption as sons

and daughters, life, eternally. Okay, so how do we manage this? Okay,

let's go to the next thought. I have only a

few minutes left. I cannot go deeper into this. Okay,

never mind. Let's go to the next thought. Next thought, next, yeah. I, okay,

I have no time to go through this. But never mind,

I'll teach you another time. Is that okay?

Let's go to the next thought.

One of the greatest challenge to our prayer life, our

prayer life, is this idea of, but God, you already

say in your verse, There are some things that we use, right?

In Psalms 103, it's like, by, you know, we will

be healed from all our diseases and our sickness, right?

And we hold on to that. And when people go through.

Death, we're like, God, where is your yes?

I thought you already say yes. Is it true? Do

we struggle with this? We do. And I want to

give you this thought. Right, Jesus says there is this

tension between what has already been done and what is

not yet. Can you say not yet? Not yet. How

many of you like this word not yet?

You know, your children come to you, they're like, Mummy,

I want McDonald's.

Not yet, not yet. Are we there yet? Not yet,

not yet.

How many of you like this word? Don't like.

Nobody likes this not yet word. But God also tells

us not yet, you know. He tells us not yet.

He says, what is already done for us, done deal,

sealed at the cross is forgiveness, our adoption.

There's so many of the promises, right? The Holy Spirit.

The not yet is we see, do we see the

healing of every disease right now? Do we see the

end of every hardship? No, right? Tomorrow you'll go to work,

still got hardship, right? Still got the boss, right? Still

got the deadline, right? Still got the bills to pay, right?

Still got. Do we see a world full of justice?

Pardon the error.

It's justice. Do we see justice in this world? That

the right are punished? We don't see it yet. But

Jesus is saying, all these things that's happening right now

and you're seeing, is just waiting for its full time.

A completeness.

A waiting season.

Because Jesus is going to come back and that is

a surety. Do you believe that? Establish. And Jesus says

in Revelation that when He comes back and there is

a new heaven and a new earth, there will be

no more tears, there will be no more sorrow, no

more sickness and death, no more separation. So it's a

not yet, not saying not done at all. It's a

not yet. Do you know what? Sometimes we use the

Bible verses where it's like, oh, Jesus healed all the sickness, right,

when he was walking the earth. Guess what?

Are they still alive today? Is Lazarus still alive?

Oh, no lah, he died. Jesus raised him, right?

But he died again. So does that mean that it's incomplete?

Think about it.

Jesus healed all the sickness, you know, in those days,

but they all died. And so death is certain for

all of us. But what Jesus is saying, you don't

look at the now only and think that it's a

full stop. This amen, this yes and amen, these promises

fulfilled in Christ and our response of amen to Him

is saying, it's an amen to our future. Do you

see this, friends? You're saying amen to not the past only,

what Jesus had done on the cross. You're saying yes

to my amen now. of who God is. You know,

you can read so many of the Bibles. Paul himself,

he had a thorn in his flesh. He prayed. He

prayed for his need.

God, take away this flesh, this thorn.

But then after that, he says, oh, but God is

teaching me another lesson. He's teaching me about grace. Because

God told him, my grace is sufficient for you. Live

with the thorn. No, serious. Ultimately, is that like, you

still have the thorn? Learn what my grace is sufficient

means to you because my strength is made perfect in weakness. Hey,

hello friends.

This theology is.

Like crazy, right? You mean God will bring us through?

Not God will.

In this life, we will experience pain and suffering. We will.

But God says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Isn't that His promise? He says, I will walk with

you through the valley of the shadow of death. He

didn't say, I will close off the path of the valley.

That's what we want, right? Just close off that valley.

Why don't you just like, you know, close it off

so that we don't have to go through it. But

God says, but in your journey of holiness, you will

need to walk through this path. You will need to

walk through what dying to your dreams and your desires

look like. You will need to walk through what really.

Saying Jesus is enough is all about.

You know, God is causing us to die to our

old self because the new has come. And the new

is found in Christ and in Him alone.

That is the pathway to holiness.

I don't know how many of you want that pathway

because the road is narrow.

The road will be challenging.

But I want you to see that whenever now you

say the word amen, I'm going to invite the band.

to come. Whenever you say amen, you're not saying amen

to your problems and your challenges or your suffering. You're

saying amen to a future glory where God has overcome. Amen?

I say that already. We trust and we pray to

a God who is not defeated. He is not in

the grave. He is alive, seated at the right hand

of God. the Father. And He is going to come

back to us and restore everything that has been lost,

broken or stolen from us, from the enemy. Amen? Shall

we stand? Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

One of the great misalignment in our lives, in.

Our prayer life is this, is when we begin to

view our faith or our prayer life as a transaction

with God. We say, God, if I pray already, then

you must answer. There's no such thing, you know. You

don't hold God ransom and say, as long as I

pray this, you are obligated to answer my prayer. What

kind of transaction is this? This is not a business transaction.

is far from a relationship. Because a relationship says, God,

I come to you with this need, with humility, with

this great need, and I need your help. But you know,

Jesus himself modelled this for us. He says at the

Garden of Gethsemane, he says, Lord, let this cup pass

me by, if you are willing.

But not my will, but yours be done.

That is Jesus' hard cry of a prayer. Even Jesus

Himself found it so challenging to go to the cross.

And so I want to close us with the final

verses of 2 Corinthians 1. I'm going to read it

again from verse 26. For all of God's promises have

been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding yes and through

Christ our amen, which means yes, ascends to God for

His glory.

Verse 21. This is encouragement.

It is God who enables us. Who is it? It's God.

Along with you to stand firm. Can you just say out,

stand firm. We want to stand firm for Christ. He

has commissioned us and He has identified us as His

own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts. as

the first installment that guarantees everything He has promised us. Amen?

The Holy Spirit is just the first installment, friends. There's

still more to come that will guarantee our future in Him.

Amen.

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

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week is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.