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Assignment, Alignment, Accountability | Eld wong Kien Yiak-Edited MTG

Acts Ampang

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

  2. We hope this message will light up your day.

  3. So I want to show you from Scripture really. We

  4. also have an assignment, alright? Luke 19 verse 11, okay?

    Luke 19:11

  5. Now these things, Luke 19 verse 11, he spoke one

    Luke 19:11

  6. to another parable. Jesus was near Jerusalem because they thought

  7. the kingdom of God would appear immediately. The kingdom of

  8. God will appear immediately. I'm not sure how many of

  9. us here expect God just to Do miraculous work immediately. God,

  10. change my workplace right now.

  11. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, right? Change my spouse behavior.

  12. I didn't say change my spouse. Change my spouse behavior

  13. right now in Jesus' name, right? Change, you know, my

  14. husband who is so stubborn. So he has to be

  15. more flexible and stuff like that. And stuff like that,

  16. we are wired for immediate resolution. We are wired for

  17. immediate change. We are wired for, we just want things

  18. right now to happen. You turn on Waze and, you know,

  19. we expect Waze to show us a way out of

  20. traffic immediately, alright?

  21. Not knowing that we'd be liked to.

  22. Instead of bringing us away from traffic, it brings us

  23. into traffic and asks you to wait, right? I'm not

  24. sure how many of us here, when we spend time

  25. with the Lord and we be with the Lord, the

  26. word is, we develop patience, perseverance. Develop patience and perseverance.

  27. Because some things doesn't happen immediately. Some assignment in your

  28. life doesn't happen immediately. Some things you want clarity right now,

  29. doesn't happen. And the Lord wants to encourage you this

  30. morning whereby He doesn't, the Word is revealed fully your

  31. entire journey to you because if He does, I believe

  32. and I do know that we might be afraid to

  33. take that path. Could you imagine Daniel, in the book

  34. of Daniel, right? He fasted for 10 days. water and vegetables,

  35. fasted for 10 days. And in the 10 days, could

  36. you imagine God revealed His entire challenge.

  37. In front of him? You know, Daniel, after these 10 days,

  38. you get promoted, praise God, right?

  39. After the promotion, your friends will be thrown into the

  40. fiery furnace, right? Then you have a boss, a king,

  41. that will throw you into the pit of lions, right?

  42. If he does reveal this to you, for example, if

  43. you are Daniel, how many of us here could say, yes, Lord,

  44. count me in.

  45. Yes, Lord, I'm worthy.

  46. I just want to experience the truth, the excitement of

  47. what it feels like to be thrown into the den

  48. of lions. I think if God does reveal to us

  49. the entire plan, I think the majority of us here

  50. may not go fully with the Lord, saying that, God.

  51. I know maybe in the journey you'll change your mind.

  52. Maybe in the journey that you'll be, you're just testing

  53. me only.

  54. Sometimes God brings us through stages so that He can

  55. strengthen our faith.

  56. Sometimes God brings you through stages so that your faith.

  57. Can be on firm foundation. Your faith can be real.

  58. Because in life, things does happen.

  59. The good and bad.

  60. Faith doesn't mean that we are exempted for life challenges.

  61. It doesn't.

  62. Faith doesn't mean that you never had a heart attack.

  63. Faith doesn't mean that you'll never go through lack in

  64. your life. But faith allows us to go through it victoriously.

  65. Meaning to say, when you come out of it, you

  66. know that God is so real that He will come

  67. through for you. Verse 12 says, A certain noble man

  68. went into a far country, received for himself a kingdom

  69. and returned. Verse 13, He called ten of His servants,

  70. delivered to them ten minas and said to them, or

  71. ten talents, Do business till I come.

  72. Do business till I come.

  73. Friends, there is a part of our Christian faith whereby

  74. you and I, the word is, have to be busy

  75. with the things of God.

  76. Right?

  77. Now, verse 14 says, But the citizen hated him, sent

  78. a delegation after him, saying, We will not have this

  79. man reign over us. So, point number one is just

  80. this assignment. I want us to know that you and

  81. I have an assignment. He says, Do business till I come.

  82. He did not say the word is that you will

  83. not retire. The word is He has given each and

  84. every one of us here talents.

  85. He has.

  86. He has given you an amazing talent. The question of

  87. the day would be, whose business are you busy with lately? Really,

  88. all of us are busy.

  89. We are.

  90. We are busy in our own life and stuff like that.

  91. But I think it's good for us to just reflect

  92. and pause for a moment. Whose business are we busy with? Now,

  93. God did not say that, you know, come in full-time

  94. ministry and therefore your business is exempted.

  95. No.

  96. That sometimes in our life, we are busy with things

  97. that really doesn't bring value, doesn't add joy into our life.

  98. We are busy with things that, I think some things

  99. can be not as important. There are some things that

  100. are important, we are not doing it. For example, cleaning.

  101. We should be busy with cleaning at least part of

  102. our house, I think, I believe, I trust. I asked

  103. this at One Church Plan. I said, hey, the word assignment,

  104. and everyone understands the word assignment is basically you got

  105. things to do, correct or not? But what are we doing?

  106. Because we could have a very different lingo, different interpretation

  107. of what assignment is. So I asked a question to

  108. One Church Plan. how clean must your toilet be? How

  109. clean must your toilet be? So I asked one husband, brother,

  110. how do you clean your toilet? As long there is

  111. no stains.

  112. Praise God, it is clean enough. I said, great.

  113. I said, nothing wrong. So I went to ask the wife, wife,

  114. to this gentleman, is that acceptable? As long as there

  115. is no stains. On the toilet bowl, elder, there is

  116. a floor that you need to look at. Make sure

  117. there is no hair. There is a basin, right? To

  118. make sure that there is no yellow stains, right? There

  119. is something called the toothpaste residue. If you all did

  120. not know, that might be on the tap. She went

  121. through the list, you know. And finally, there is a

  122. shower area. If it's a glass, it has to be

  123. sparkling clean. As she was going through the list, I

  124. looked at the husband. Husband, did you misinterpret?

  125. No. To me, clean is no stain. You just improperly

  126. can already. Could you see how much, if.

  127. That's real for us in a real physical world, how

  128. much more in the spiritual world.

  129. The interpretation of do business till I come.

  130. Sometimes new business to come is just, really the word

  131. is just this, is that we just keep ourselves busy.

  132. We just, what we think we should be busy with,

  133. not expanding our faith. The next question for us is that,

  134. do you know that you have talents? The Bible says,

  135. God has given the disciples, each of them, talents five, two,

  136. and one.

  137. Most times in our life, we go like, I'm not talented.

  138. Says who?

  139. Who? The Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5,

    Jeremiah 1:5

  140. before you were formed, God already knew who you are.

  141. He already knew who you are before you were formed.

  142. He says that I've called you to be prophet among nations.

  143. Meaning to say that He already has known what you're

  144. capable of. Even before that you and I discover our

  145. name on our ID. God already fashioned you. He knows you. Therefore,

  146. He already, the word is, blessed you with talents. Do

  147. you know that you have talents in the first place? Friends,

  148. our talents is beyond the ability to finish all the

  149. leftover food on the table. Oh, this guy very talented,

  150. can finish all the food, right? It's beyond that. Oh,

  151. your talents is beyond just, oh, this guy can drive

  152. very fast.

  153. Right?

  154. It has to be more than that, friends. Your talent

  155. must add to the kingdom of God. Friends, you and

  156. I this morning must come to the place of realising

  157. that God has blessed us with amazing talents.

  158. Now, even you say that, Elder, I know I'm talented.

  159. Praise God.

  160. Do you know how to use them? Do you know

  161. how to use the talent that God has blessed you with?

  162. I was with the church in Ex-Bacassif about two weeks

  163. ago and you know, and we were just talking about

  164. manuals and training materials.

  165. And stuff like that.

  166. Pastor Fran said, yep, we have all the training materials

  167. and the whole SPO and the leadership of the church

  168. have the materials. Wow, we all said, wow, praise God,

  169. you're even quicker than some of our church plan in KL, right,

  170. in getting the materials out. So our next question is,

  171. because we know the church, do you know how to

  172. use them?

  173. Dead silence.

  174. You know, sometimes we hand out materials to individual, assignment check,

  175. everyone in X Ampang got the materials.

  176. Praise God, we achieved.

  177. Until we turn the pages of the book or the

  178. manual and stuff like that, we really don't know how

  179. to use them. Or we think we know how to

  180. use them. We have this assumption we think that this

  181. is supposed to be the way. Just like the people

  182. that receive the talents. Do business till I come. And

  183. you and I know that there was an individual that

  184. took one of the talents and just hid it in

  185. the ground. He thought he was doing business for the Master.

  186. Every day, God gives the opportunity for us to be ambassador, representative,

  187. to show and demonstrate His kingdom here on earth.

  188. He does.

  189. He gives you opportunity every day. The word is to

  190. show His talents that He has given you. But many

  191. times in our life, in our journey, we go like, oh,

  192. maybe not me, maybe I'm not worthy, I'm not good enough.

  193. And sometimes we.

  194. Resent, not resent, we miss the opportunity to do the assignment.

  195. In verse 14, it says, but his citizens hated him,

  196. sent a delegation after him, saying that we will not

  197. have this man reign over us. Until you get a

  198. relationship and perspective right with God, you'll miss the mark

  199. of doing what God wants. There is two types of people, friends,

  200. in the kingdom of God. One is just a citizen.

  201. You know, in every citizen, friends, you complain when there's pothole.

  202. Pothole, then you go, what do you do? You complain

  203. to your local council. Get the local council to come

  204. and fix it.

  205. Public servant, you are part of the public servant ministry,

  206. you fix the road. Selina is leaking here, you fix

  207. the roof. Selina, I don't want enough ex-kid teacher. Find

  208. ex-kid teacher. Very good example. Every problem with the church plan,

  209. you tell the person who is serving.

  210. But God has never asked us to remain citizen. Come on.

  211. God has never asked us to remain at the citizen level.

  212. He always asks us to come closer to Him. The

  213. greatest of all shall be servant. He has always asked

  214. you to come closer, to be more like Him. He

  215. did not come here to be served, but to serve,

  216. the Bible says. The citizen always complains. This is not right,

  217. that is not correct. Yo, today espresso food not good enough.

  218. Last week one better. And you begin to complain and compare.

  219. And you begin to say, I don't like this assignment.

  220. Maybe one day God asks us to shift into another place.

  221. Maybe for a season, maybe they have to do renovation

  222. in this place. Oh no, Selena, last time, Ji Tao

  223. was so good.

  224. It was so good. Free flow coffee, right? So nice.

  225. That OSK, okay lah, not too bad. Now this place....

  226. This place may not be as nice. And you begin

  227. to compare, complain. And you know what? We will miss

  228. out on the assignment.

  229. Come on. In life, it's the same.

  230. When you just begin to compare, complain, you will miss

  231. out on the assignment that God has given you. You'll

  232. miss out on the assignment God has given you. That's

  233. the reason why you and I need to get our

  234. relationship with the Lord correct.

  235. Because without getting correct, friends, you will miss the assignment.

  236. And no matter what it is, friends, because it is

  237. the Master, you don't have a relationship with Him, you

  238. won't like the assignment. I was about to say, Pastor

  239. Joel Lloyd, no. If Joel Lloyd gives you an assignment,

  240. you say, I'll run with it. But if I give

  241. you an assignment, you go like, maybe, because I don't

  242. have a closer relationship with you.

  243. Compared to, again, I was about to call you Pastor Joel. No, Joel.

  244. Because he has a really, he has a really, but

  245. if you become Pastor, I'll be more than happy, you know,

  246. and stuff like that, you know. Deacon Joel. Anyway, because

  247. Joel has a.

  248. Relationship with you.

  249. When he, when he, when he asks yourself something, you

  250. do it because there is a relationship. But if it's me,

  251. I don't see you as often as some of the

  252. leaders here. Some of you who knows me longer, you'll

  253. do it. But some of you knew, who is this guy,

  254. bald-headed guy and stuff like that. It's very normal. Could

  255. you imagine how much more the master and the servant

  256. and the citizen, the citizen said, I don't want this

  257. man to reign over us. So the few thoughts that

  258. you could have right now is that, how is your

  259. relationship with the Lord?

  260. How is your relationship with the Lord? It's not something

  261. for us to just do. My relationship with the Lord

  262. is good. But if it's good, then spend time with

  263. Him because the assignment does come, friends. It does.

  264. That's why it's beyond your normal vocation. Because if it's

  265. a retirement age, when it comes to the things of God,

  266. then God will just say, serve me until you reach 65, okay?

  267. Then the next balance of your years, that's it. You

  268. wait for me. I'll bring the bus. When the bus comes,

  269. just hop on the bus. I'll see you in heaven.

  270. It doesn't suit your assignment in life all the way

  271. until it calls you home. That's why there are full-time workers,

  272. you and I know, who serve the Lord until God

  273. calls them home.

  274. Until God calls them home. So there is an assignment, friends.

  275. Next word I want to ask is the word alignment.

  276. Alignment.

  277. Are you aligning your life with the assignment that He

  278. has given you? Are you aligning your life with the

  279. assignment that God has given you? That act of alignment

  280. shows whether we are close to the assignment or not.

  281. It does. Meaning to say that, friends, many times we don't,

  282. the words is.

  283. That evaluate where we are going with our life. Where

  284. we are going with the choices that we are making.

  285. With the values that we are adopting. With what is

  286. in front of us. Sometimes, trends will come into our

  287. life whereby we can be so taken up by it.

  288. In the early 2000 plus, the church and every one

  289. of them were trying to reach the unchurched, was trying

  290. to reach the unchurched. And therefore, there was a change

  291. and a shift in Malaysia in terms of the leaders

  292. they did away with the ties and the jacket. Did

  293. away with the ties and the jacket. If you have

  294. been in Malaysia long enough, you'll be attending church in

  295. the late 80s and stuff like that. Every church, this

  296. is the traditional wear. Shirt, tie, jacket and everything like that, right?

  297. There was a time whereby this went away because you

  298. want to reach the next generation. They did away with

  299. it and it become trendier and trendier. Pastors were the

  300. word is sometimes pressured.

  301. Not pressured. Yeah, you can see it's pressured. The word

  302. is pressured.

  303. The word is, you know, compared to have different color hairstyle.

  304. Yeah, so it's dye your hair. I can't.

  305. Dye your hair in a particular color so that you'll

  306. be more trendy, more youthful looking and stuff like that.

  307. Then came the youth pastors after that. whereby the older

  308. clothing was out, skinny jeans was in, tighter baby.

  309. Tee was in.

  310. Some of you are like, baby tee, I heard that

  311. word for wear. Tighter t-shirt was in, right? And everyone

  312. had a certain look. You must have that look and

  313. a nice coffee mug, right? Takeaway coffee cup. So you

  314. fit the image of what a trendy youth pastor is.

  315. So that was a wave at one point. And having

  316. big guns on your bicep is in.

  317. Ben, yeah. Bigger than yours, yes. Perfect candidate for youth pastor.

  318. Praise the Lord.

  319. So having that, and having that was in, and after

  320. a while, friends, that was a trend. That was a

  321. trend that people caught up with. Caught up with.

  322. Could you see sometimes, Trend can cause us to misalign.

  323. Come on.

  324. At one point in time, in the early 2000s, every

  325. church wanted their own building.

  326. Every church.

  327. The bigger the building facility, right, the better it is.

  328. And you know, there was one point in time and

  329. we were... And even us, we were caught up with

  330. wanting our own building as well. We wanted our own

  331. building as well. We wanted to grow big and just

  332. stuff like that with our own stage, our own lives,

  333. our good sound system, a great band. We have amazing

  334. bands here and stuff like that. We wanted that and

  335. God just put a pause in our direction. He said, hey,

  336. you're going on to a path I've never wanted you

  337. to go in the first place. You're going on to

  338. this journey whereby If you carry on this path, you might,

  339. the word is, miss all that I have for you.

  340. Miss all that I have for you. And sometimes it's

  341. hard to go against the natural. That's why in Luke

    Luke 22:42

  342. chapter 22 verse 42 says that, if it's your will,

  343. take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will

  344. but yours be done. Friends, it is hard to surrender.

  345. It is hard to say, God, I got to realign.

  346. It is hard for us to say that, God, that

  347. you are my master, my Lord. It is hard for

  348. us to say, may your will be done. But nevertheless,

  349. not mine but yours. I'm sharing all this with you

  350. only because that, friends, we can be so.

  351. Right in our mind yet so wrong.

  352. Let me draw an example for you from Prophet Samuel

  353. and Saul. The assignment from Prophet Samuel to Saul in

  354. 1 Samuel 10 was this.

  355. You shall go down before me to Gilgal.

  356. Surely I will come down to you to offer burnt

  357. offerings and make sacrifices of peace offering. Seven days you

  358. shall wait till I come to you and show you

  359. what you should do. What was Samuel's assignment to Saul?

  360. Go down to Gilgal?

  361. And he will come to make the burnt offering, you

  362. have to wait for seven days. Saul's response to the

  363. assignment was this in 1 Samuel chapter 13.

    1 Samuel 13 chapter mention

  364. Verse 7 to 9. As for Saul, he was still

  365. at Gilgal. Checked.

  366. And all the people who followed him were trembling. Then

  367. he waited for seven days.

  368. Checked. He waited for seven days. Checked.

  369. According to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did

  370. not come to Gilgal and the people were scattered from him.

  371. Verse 9. Saul said, bring a burnt offering and peace

  372. offering here. And he made and he offered the burnt offering. Friends,

  373. Saul thought that by offering up the offering, he thought

  374. that he's in alignment. If Saul knew that he was wrong,

  375. I don't think he would do it. But he thought

  376. that he could. Sometimes in your journey with the Lord, friends,

  377. in your journey with the Lord, we think that this

  378. is right, but we could be so wrong. That's why

  379. it's so important for us to get back our relationship

  380. right with the Lord in the first place. I was

  381. talking to one leader, and one leader just said, you know, Elder,

  382. so after Holmes, talking about Holmes, just the last Holmes, um,

  383. I think the last one point was community, right? So community,

  384. you know. See, all the community need is just love.

  385. All the community need is just love. I say, well,

  386. it's true. All the community need is just love. But

  387. in love, it's so wide. And your definition of love

  388. is so limited. Because we view love as what we

  389. experience in our personal life. But with God, Love has

  390. to do with sacrifice.

  391. Has to do with obedience. Has to do with alignment.

  392. Has to do with conviction. But a human love is

  393. just acceptance, you know, mistake. It's okay lah, don't mind.

  394. But God, in the sight of God, love is very different.

  395. Love is long-suffering. Love is patient.

  396. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, every marriage all had that. But

    1 Corinthians 13 chapter mention

  397. after two weeks, everybody forget. But friends, I want to

  398. encourage you. Church, I want to encourage you. There will

  399. always going to be distraction in our daily life that

  400. causes us to miss a line. There will always be

  401. distraction in our daily life that causes us to miss

  402. a line. Saul looked at the people on the ground

  403. and they were afraid because they were afraid. He decided

  404. he could do something about it. And you know, there's

  405. something to do about it, friends. It is so crazy.

  406. Because sometimes we think we can do it better than

  407. whoever God has appointed.

  408. We think we can do better. I'm running a church.

  409. So I heard from another, not our church, but I

  410. heard from another church. So in a normal church setting,

  411. there were partners that had disagreements with the senior pastor,

  412. had disagreements with the senior pastor, shared with a few

  413. other congregation members, decided to leave the church and start.

  414. Their own church.

  415. Decided to leave the church and start their own. We

  416. will start our own church because after all, how difficult

  417. could it be? Putting a few people who could sing

  418. and worship, that we have a worship team, preaching, we

  419. have the material, the Bible, we can preach. Then, as

  420. they were going through with that, so I was asking

  421. the pastor, how's the church doing right now?

  422. Oh, they're averaging about 50 people. Oh, okay, great. 80%

  423. from our church. Oh, okay.

  424. They changed pastor three times already. And right now, they

  425. don't have certain people. They're asking our people that's coming

  426. to our church to attend their church to help out

  427. the church. I'm sharing this to you not because to

  428. put any church down, but I'm sharing this to you

  429. because sometimes distraction will come in your life to distract

  430. you for the assignment that's given. It was never, never

  431. God's intention for you to be distracted. That you and

  432. I today, friends, you and I today need to know

  433. that God still has an assignment for you.

  434. Don't worry about the noise. This is nothing compared to

  435. what I went through in Indonesia. Seriously. Seriously. This is nothing.

  436. I'll share with you. So, I was at Serpong Camp,

  437. Serpong Camp, the first night, first night. First night.

  438. First night, was preaching, and it was in a hotel,

  439. in a hotel, and it was, just imagine the place

  440. is like a PD, Parkinson's, alright? But 10 times bigger.

  441. The whole stretch had resorts after resorts. And you know,

  442. so this place was huge, but run down. Typical church

  443. camp style. Huge by right now, okay? Anyway, I was

  444. preaching that day. Next thing I know, there was a

  445. function that was happening two doors away.

  446. Two doors away. So this sound was considered quite okay already.

  447. Quite okay.

  448. The function I had in Indonesia, they had K-pop music

  449. louder than this.

  450. It was as loud as a worship team just now.

  451. Right?

  452. It was two doors away.

  453. And we went there, could you hear, we're having church

  454. right now, could you lower down your music, lower down

  455. your volume, They did for 10 minutes, then they put

  456. it up again, right? So we thought, okay, I was

  457. preaching tonight, I want to do auto call, it was

  458. very hard because it's hard to respond to auto call

  459. when K-pop was happening, right? So I decided to end early.

  460. Maybe people are tired coming to the place, let's end

  461. it early. Then fellowship, like, you know, we like to

  462. do fellowship, right? Only to find out the moment we

  463. opened the hall out to the, it's a shed foyer,

  464. it was smoke everywhere, not because of haze, because people

  465. were smoking.

  466. In a hotel. So in Indonesia, you can smoke in

  467. a hotel one, I think. Right?

  468. They were smoking and it was huge smoke over there.

  469. We were like, okay guys, I tell you what, we

  470. fellowship to a more monarchy, everybody just go back to

  471. your room. So it was, it was difficult and, but, but, but,

  472. let you know friends, you could be, could be distracted

  473. really by the surroundings. So in, at the camp, it

  474. was tough because of some of these things, yet, it

  475. was so joyful.

  476. We witnessed three Iranians people got baptized.

  477. One of those joyful, there was a boy I met,

  478. he's 18 years old, but he was in Indonesia since 8,

  479. 10 years already in Indonesia. Parents sent him off, grandparents

  480. sent him off because his parents, the moment you accept Christ,

  481. the moment they know, the government knows that you accept Christ,

  482. they will call.

  483. You in for coffee.

  484. Basically for integration and bullying and stuff like that. They'll

  485. call you in and chances are you won't come out.

  486. They will physically abuse you and stuff like that in

  487. the prison. So this boy was there, I met him

  488. and majority of them, majority of them, they were waiting

  489. to be resettled in another country. Some of them have

  490. been there for 10 years and all of them had

  491. great jobs back in Iran. Great jobs. Local council and

  492. stuff like that. They said, what to do? We are

  493. here right now. We have to escape. But I met

  494. three families over there, friends, in the midst of, you

  495. and I know friends, it's not the best of the

  496. best things, right? I met three of them there and

  497. they just said this, if ever a chance that, you know,

  498. the government does get changed, we want to go back

  499. to our home country, number one. But elder, if you

  500. do get back to our home country, would you do

  501. us a favour? Would you come and visit us? The

  502. country is so beautiful, we want you to experience, right? Secondly,

  503. it was just this that, next time you do come

  504. to Indonesia, could you stay longer?

  505. I said, why? because I want to cook for you.

  506. I got two families who say they want to cook

  507. because by the time I described what Middle Eastern food

  508. I ate, they said, this is not Iranian food. Then

  509. I went to share with them and they had this

  510. joy on their face because friends, they had this joy.

  511. On their face.

  512. There was a guy, okay, I don't know his full name,

  513. but we call him, we give him a nickname.

  514. His name is Champion. His name is Champion, okay? Seriously,

  515. I tell you why.

  516. In Iran, he used to be a, if I'm not wrong, a.

  517. Property guy, right? Just selling property, real estate guy, real

  518. estate guy. He has the widest smile that you could

  519. ever see, I believe. He can advertise with any toothpaste. Seriously.

  520. Big, bright, white smile and he is the life of

  521. the church. Meaning to say that you've been to church

  522. camp before. Comes, there's a part of the church camp

  523. agenda which is called games.

  524. All of us drag our feet to church camp games.

  525. We do. Because we rather sleep. Eat, fellowship, right?

  526. So I was there, it was 2.30 in the afternoon,

  527. I was like, must we play games?

  528. Must we go through this?

  529. You know, this is for the, now older, this is

  530. for the younger people and just stuff like that.

  531. And this guy say, no elder, we will win!

  532. He was going through, he doesn't understand a lot of

  533. English at all, all he could just understand, champion!

  534. Stuff like that. So I found out from Pastor Kaijin

  535. just recently, I said, how is this.

  536. Guy brother doing? He, had a heart situation. Basically, he

  537. had a heart situation. His heart was just beating really fast.

  538. And he was admitted to the hospital.

  539. Right? Admitted to the hospital. And this is what Pastor Khajin,

  540. how Pastor Khajin described him. Talking about alignment to what

  541. he believes.

  542. You know, in the hospital, you know, most, majority, when

  543. you go through the kind of heart scare, you'll be

  544. like down, you'll be... But this brother, so different. When

  545. I asked him, champion. He still could say that in

  546. his weak voice. About a week later, he got discharged

  547. back in church, having the same attitude, having the same

  548. zeal of life. I'm sharing this to you because sometimes

  549. distractions will happen, cause you to be misaligned. Hurt can

  550. take place. Disappointment can take place. It is very natural

  551. in the course of the church. If we are If

  552. we run the church so professionally, friends, then people just

  553. say this church is so cold. When we try to

  554. love people, that's the time when people do get stunned,

  555. get hurt.

  556. But we have to be.

  557. Mature and just get over some of these pains. Not

  558. if we wanted to. If we could avoid it, we'll try,

  559. but sometimes we couldn't. I'm sharing this because the misalignment

  560. is very real. Different things can happen in your life

  561. that cause you to say, I don't want to have

  562. anything to do with faith. I don't want to have

  563. anything to do with church. You can go through your

  564. life for the next 30, 40 years, yet miss the mark.

  565. I don't want anyone here to really, the word is

  566. to end their life missing the mark. The final word

  567. is the word accountability. You can just jump to the

  568. last slide there. I'm supposed to add my 12, right?

  569. Is that correct? I know. I know.

  570. I got one church plan, say, elder, you got five

  571. more minutes, but the person just show four fingers because

  572. she only got four fingers. Anyway, I said, so unfair,

  573. you give the other PC, you have five fingers, so

  574. you give five minutes, I'm one minute short. Alright, accountability

  575. is how I'm going to end.

  576. If you know that you're supposed to give an account,

  577. come on, if you're not supposed to give an account

  578. of your life, how will it change your life? Think

  579. about it.

  580. If one day, God calls you home, and the question is,

  581. How have you been living your life? How would it

  582. change you? How would it, the word is shape your

  583. top personality. Yeah, I shouldn't be so petty about certain things.

  584. I shouldn't be, so the word is possessive about certain things.

  585. I shouldn't be.

  586. If you know that one day you're supposed to give

  587. an account, how would it change you? You know, I've

  588. been to a lot of wake service, being a church leader,

  589. I've been to a lot of wake service, a lot

  590. of funeral and stuff like that. At every funeral, friends,

  591. everybody has sort of an opportunity to share about the

  592. individual who has passed away. How good this individual is,

  593. how kind this individual is. Because in your, while they

  594. were alive, self, their deeds may not be known. But

  595. the moment they are no longer with us, and people

  596. start sharing, he's so kind, he always shares his food,

  597. he always calls me up.

  598. Because accountability is so important.

  599. Because the master asks the servant, What do you do

  600. with the talent I've given you? What do you do

  601. with this life that I've given you? I've called you

  602. to be prophets among the nation. What have you been

  603. doing with it? Now, I'm not asking you to go full-time.

  604. I'm not asking you to resign from your job, to say,

  605. tell Selena, say, Selena, I want to serve the church full-time.

  606. Huh? Amen? Okay. Selena got more faith than me, alright?

  607. I'm not asking you to do that.

  608. I'm asking you to Even at our workplace, God, I

  609. know you have an assignment for me because you opened

  610. this door for me to work.

  611. So therefore, I want to play my part. I want

  612. to play my part.

  613. Even as I close right now, accountabilities, I'm not asking

  614. us to account your life. I'm asking us to think

  615. about one day when the life here on earth ends, right?

  616. We need to give an account. How would it change

  617. your life?

  618. How would it change I knew, let me share a personal,

  619. I knew my mom was a very strict lady, tough.

  620. The moment God came to her life, things changed.

  621. When she went home, passed away, well, she passed away

  622. about three years ago.

  623. Have ladies in.

  624. Their 80s, 80-something, coming up to me and say, you're

  625. the son? I say, yes, I'm the son. I want

  626. to let you know your mom, your mom, was such

  627. an amazing lady.

  628. I said, wow.

  629. All I said, all I know about my mum was

  630. the cane, the tight slap, the strictness, the one who

  631. said they would send me to work if I don't

  632. pass my exam and stuff like that, to ask me

  633. to work in the construction yard, right? Sell cement, repair motorcycle.

  634. because that's all they think the son, this son, this

  635. second child could be good at, not very good at studies.

  636. So she mapped out everything already. So I thought, your

  637. mum was such an amazing person. I said, what did

  638. my mum do for you? She cooked for me, she says.

  639. Nothing much.

  640. She cooked and she called me up because she's 80-something, alone,

  641. abandoned by the kids.

  642. She didn't want anything to do with them, the parents.

  643. So they were attending a Methodist church somewhere in Puchong.

  644. But your mum cooked. Your mum cooked. Drove all the way,

  645. about half an hour, 45 minutes. Your mum and your

  646. dad came over, gave the dish, and started talking to me.

  647. Just have a chat. Another lady came, you know, widowed,

  648. husband passed away, no children. Your mum would call me

  649. up once in two weeks, talk on the phone for

  650. an hour. Talk on the phone for an hour. I said, wow,

  651. my mum never talked to me for an hour. Talk

  652. to me for an hour to encourage me to find

  653. out how I'm doing and.

  654. This stuff like that. I got a few of them, okay,

  655. the SMSs and this stuff.

  656. I'm sharing this to you not because it's to highlight someone,

  657. but I'm not asking us the word is to start

  658. the church. I'm asking us in our course of life,

  659. the assignment, the talent that God has given you.

  660. God has blessed you with, let's say for example, a

  661. place to stay.

  662. But in your time with the place that you have,

  663. would you consider opening up your place for homes at least.

  664. Once a year? Let's start once a year. I understand, okay?

  665. If you have opened up your homes before, but once

  666. a year. I say, God has blessed you with a

  667. vehicle to come to church.

  668. Would you at least once a year, start with once

  669. a year first? I'm giving low-hanging fruit.

  670. Once a year. Offer up, offer up. Say, hey, I'm

  671. going to church. Do you need transport?

  672. Nothing, but you don't need, you don't need a fancy

  673. car to do that, anything like that. I'm sharing this

  674. because sometimes you think that, oh, I want to do

  675. this for the Lord but I need.

  676. A lot of resources. No. God said, I have really

  677. given you talents. Right?

  678. Make use of it because as you're making use of it,

  679. the miracle does happen. Your one becomes one more. Your

  680. five becomes five more. But many times you go like, Lord,

  681. I wish I only have this. One phone call, friends,

  682. is all it takes to encourage someone As I close

  683. right now, friends, there's always an assignment for you and me.

  684. Assignment for you and me. There's always.

  685. The assignment is not full-time, but assignment could be, hey,

  686. I think I can do about an hour helping out.

  687. Let me try. Community work, let me try. Let me

  688. try doing missions. Let me try something. I think I

  689. can do something for the Lord. I think I can. Lord,

  690. you have You have blessed me with a great job.

  691. What is my mission here at this job? Is there

  692. someone I need to encourage? Is there someone I need

  693. to reach out to? A phone call for 10 minutes?

  694. I don't know why these friends, but there's always an assignment.

  695. There is always an assignment.

  696. So at our SPO retreat, I was talking to the

  697. director of sales of a place we ran. Talking, talking

  698. to her.

  699. She's not a believer. She asked me this question, say, hey,

  700. where's your church? I said, well, I have multiple places.

  701. I said, why do you ask me about church? Then

  702. she said, her journey. Not a believer until now. She's

  703. a Buddhist.

  704. When I was young, my parents, my mum, who's not

  705. a believer also, put me and my sister in Sunday school.

  706. Sunday school. So, we go to Sunday school more often

  707. than sometimes the believers, okay? Because parents, okay?

  708. Also because free childcare services for a quarter of the day. Anyway,

  709. She said, you know, but one thing I found out

  710. about Sunday school, it's very peaceful, very joyful. Something that

  711. cannot be replicated somewhere else, not in the daycare, nothing

  712. at all. It's something about the church and Sunday church.

  713. I called, now she's a mum of one.

  714. Could I, could I, is there any way I could

  715. put my child, 11 months only, I'm like, wow. This

  716. is really like baby care or something like that. Hey,

  717. we should be charging you. Could we put my child there?

  718. So my child could experience what I experienced. I said,

  719. you could.

  720. Just talk to all my top leadership right here. Let

  721. me introduce you to Pastor Sarah and stuff like that, right?

  722. Then you talk to her and see which is the

  723. best place you could go to.

  724. The assignment. I'm asking us and friends to hand out tracts.

  725. By asking us that when the opportunity comes, when the

  726. opportunity comes, don't shrink back in shyness, don't shrink back

  727. in fear, but just share what God already has done

  728. in your life.

  729. This is my track.

  730. We have a suicide prevention, we have this organisation or

  731. that organisation that could help you.

  732. It's Christian-based.

  733. But they are more than happy to just be your

  734. listening ear for this moment of the time.

  735. Because many times, the assignment comes, friends, we don't like

  736. to lie. Huh? Share about my faith. Share about my faith.

  737. I remember having to sit with DBKL one day because

  738. of a concert.

  739. They were doing. They said, you know, I have the

  740. power to shut down your concert in the stadium. And

  741. because you didn't go through the proper channel, you just

  742. put your thing together.

  743. I said, well, we don't really need that. We come

  744. for praise and worship. But we got foreign people coming in.

  745. I said, well, yeah, I know. But what can you do?

  746. Then there was threats after threats after threats. But I

  747. ended the conversation this, that, you know. You know, today

  748. I'm not feeling well, but I still have to come

  749. and talk to you. So I just thought, let's just

  750. end with something, huh? I said, Sir, you're not well.

  751. I just want to let you know that I'll let

  752. my team know that we'll be praying for you. Majority faith.

  753. I just thought that since it's going to be a

  754. tremendous video to close up, I should just.

  755. Share.

  756. As I close, friends, I want to close. There are

  757. a lot of opportunities God has given you. Don't miss

  758. a line. Don't say that it's not me. It's someone else.

  759. Or Selena is so bold, like lying like that. She'll

  760. insist on every opportunity. I'm not like Selena. I'm very timid.

  761. If she's a liar, I'm a cat, right? And stuff

  762. like that. Don't do that because you'll miss a line.

  763. That forever you have this mindset only Selena can do everything, right?

  764. Then you, hold on for a second, let me call Selena, okay? See,

  765. this is my pastor.

  766. Pastor Selena. This is my pastor. And you talk to her, right?

  767. You don't talk to her, okay? She'll sort out your

  768. problem for you. No, friends, God has given you. Don't

  769. shrink back. And one day, one day, friends, one day,

  770. you have to give an account We do.

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

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

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

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

  775. God bless.