From The Inside Out | Eld Wong Kien Yiak

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

We hope this message will light up your day.

I want to speak about, by title of my message,

from the inside out. I want to speak about the

Holy Spirit. If you have your Bible with you, would

you turn to Matthew chapter 15 verse, I'm going to

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

read from verse 1 to verse 9. Matthew 15 verse

Matthew 15:1

1 to verse 9. Then the scribes and the Pharisees

who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, Why do

your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they

do not wash their hands when they eat bread. Jesus

answered and said to them, Why do you transgress the

commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying,

Honor your father and your mother. He who curses his

father or mother, let him be put to death. But

you say, whoever says to his father or mother, whatever

profit you might receive from me is a gift of God.

Then he need not honour his father or mother. Thus

you have made the commandments of God of no effect.

By your tradition. Verse 7. Hypocrites.

Well, did Isaiah prophesy about you saying, these people draw

near to me with their mouth, honour me with their lips?

But their heart is far from me.

In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrine as the

commandment of men. You know, as you read through this

portion of Scripture in Matthew chapter 15, you realize that

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

God is really after something deeper. Not just about keeping

up with tradition. Not just about keeping up with the doing.

But it has to go deeper than that. Have we

been just caught up with the doing only? have you

been just caught up with the doing? I just want

you to ponder this for a moment. Being at a

certain age, you reflect a lot these days. Being at

a certain age, right, you tend to reflect a lot,

thinking about the future, how.

Many more years you may have, right?

You think about the next generation, you think about, you know,

how would the future look like? What do you leave behind?

Those are some of my thoughts. And one of the

things that, you know, me and Pastor Kenneth, sometimes we

do dialogue, I do talk about when we do have time,

is that how will we pass on? What would this

generation learn from us?

Right?

Some of you were with us in the earlier days.

We didn't have much, but we prayed through some things.

God came through. Now it's almost like the Solomon generation,

like David prepared everything for Solomon.

Right?

And in the Solomon generation, he didn't have to go

for wars. He didn't have to fight against Goliath. He

didn't have to face so many things. All Solomon was

just have to learn is how to govern. Govern the land.

Even with that, he struggled with us all. So this

whole thing about the external, the doing, the external, the

coming to church, the external, the prayer service, the leaders' meeting,

the different meetings that catch up you have. After a while,

I'm not sure about you, but sometimes when you are

driving your car to those meetings, you're wondering like.

Yeah, what's this all about?

Right?

Why am I going through the jam? What's it for?

And sometimes we could be like the Pharisees, essentially just

keeping up with a certain tradition. certain tradition, but not

understanding the heart behind it.

Why do we do it? Why do we keep it

in the first place?

The Pharisees and the scribes were focusing on the external

actions of the disciples, the tradition and manner, but they've

really forgotten the heart. We can keep with coming to church,

for example, or going for meetings, anything to do with Christianity, right?

We can keep all that on the external, but sometimes...

If you're not careful, you might forget the heart. The

heart is very important, friends. The heart is very important.

People celebrate anniversary every year. Some people do, some people don't,

all right? I'm not here to debate whether it's... But anyway,

people do celebrate anniversary.

After a while, we tend to forget.

The purpose of anniversary because, oh, you better do something

with your wife, right?

For your wife and just stuff like that because it's anniversary.

But they actually can forget what is the purpose of

anniversary after a while. Birthdays, after a while, we celebrate birthdays.

And after a while, as you grow older, like, no

need to celebrate lah. I come from a family that

don't really celebrate birthdays. I know of other people, family,

they don't celebrate birthdays at all. I was talking to

my colleague and she said, yeah, my parents don't celebrate

my birthday one. I said, so what do you do

when the actual day happens? Like normal day lah. Could

you imagine the heart, of any event is forgotten, it

becomes like any other thing that we do.

Right?

So focusing on the external or the outside sometimes means

attendance without conviction. We can go for any meeting, any meeting,

not just church, any meeting, sometimes corporate meetings, your business

meeting without conviction, meaning you see that I'm just, one

of the.

Things I have to do for work, one of the

things I have.

To do in my daily schedule, right? But you just

can't wait for the meeting to finish. You can't wait

for the thing to end. Some of us couldn't wait

for church to be over. Some of us couldn't wait

for lunch to, I mean, we just want to go

out and we want to do things, all right?

Attendance without conviction, serving without a relationship.

We can serve God, we can serve the Lord, but

At the end of the day, it's not just about serving.

It is not just about scheduling. It's really about relationship

with the Lord. Do you have a relationship with God

or not? Do you read His Word? Do you spend time?

Do you pray? Do you ask Him.

For direction?

Do you ask Him to reveal more of Himself to you?

Do you ask Him, God, who? Can I just know

more about you? I think in our journey, in our Christianity,

sometimes we do forget to ask God, God, could you

just show yourself a bit more to me? Not asking God, God,

I want to do more for you alone. Because it's

just about a checklist that God will have given you,

a checklist. Okay, 2027, this is your checklist right now.

You achieve this.

Once you achieve this milestone, therefore, I will release the

next trenches of funds to you.

God doesn't operate that way.

Serving without relationship, sometimes messages of the world becomes information

rather than transformation. I've seen a lot of people saying

that they want to go deeper, but not just deeper

in terms of relationship, but deeper in terms of knowledge.

While we exhort knowledge, knowledge is important, but it's not

sometimes as important as relationship. Someone asked me a question

just recently, how do you know the Bible is real?

How do you know the Bible is real? I said,

I'm not here to convince you.

No matter what I say, no matter what I do,

try to tell you the history and the stuff like that,

I do not know the fullness of history, but you

may just say it's just a printed paper at the

end of the day. I said, that has only happened,

I said, only time when the Bible comes real to

you is when you ask God to reveal Himself through

the pages to you. Then he asked me the next

question was this, is that, how do you, uh, But

what about you?

What do you say about the Bible?

I just went and I said, look, I may not

know a lot about the Scripture, I just know that

God is real in me because He spared me from

different dangers, harm and death. At the end of the day,

sometimes in your journey, that's all we need to know.

That's all you really need to know. You don't really

need to know the fullness. But you really need to

know that God is real. He's going to be real

for you and your family. He's real for you in

every situation. Because sometimes we can go into the Hebrews

and Greek, we forget about the relationship.

That's why Jesus did not say do away with the tradition.

He just said.

That don't let tradition get in the way of relationship

with Him and honour Him. And sometimes we can follow

a lot of tradition, but we really could have forgotten.

What it's all about.

And I want to encourage you today that, you know,

don't let the messages be information. Really don't let the

messages be information. I was clearing my house and looking

through all the journals, okay? Back then, the early days,

before the tablets, before the phone, we used to take

exercise book or buy journals. We scribble, we write, and

we have stack and stack of journals. And the question

that I ask myself is that, what on earth am

I going to do with these journals right now? Right?

Do I put it in a box, keep it away,

display it out? Because some of the journals really like,

not read it very slightly lah. in terms of the

cover has pecah already and stuff like that.

And to throw away such good memories.

But after a while, I asked myself, all that God

has revealed for you, for me, do I sometimes even

look at those journals? Do I actually look at it

and just reflect upon it? Do I think about what

God has revealed to me? Because sometimes we can go

through motions of life forward and go through the speed

of everyday transaction, everyday life, without pausing for a moment

to reflect, actually God, you've been so good to me.

And God, you've revealed yourself to me. But sometimes the

world is that we want a new recipe. How to

cook different dishes. We want a new... recipe to cook

the same dishes again.

Right?

It's not good enough just to make a cake. Now,

you want to deconstruct a cake.

Right?

It's not good just to deconstruct the cake.

It's to make it extra pretty. Alright?

Dainty, small, bite-sized. But ultimately, it's still the same thing.

And And sometimes we get so stuck in searching for

a new revelation, we forget that God actually did reveal

Himself to you and to me.

Right? The disciples were with Jesus for three years.

Come on, three years? Yet still betrayed, denied and left Him.

Think about it for a moment. The disciples who we

have called to walk alongside.

With Him for three years. There's no other.

I would say best discipler there is besides Jesus. These

people walked with him, saw miracles, saw supernatural, saw all

that he has done, yet at the same time, still denied, betrayed,

one of them betrayed him, and majority of the disciples

left him. Think about it for a moment because in

our Christian world, what happened, I mean, I want you

to just imagine right now that you came to church,

just wanted to exclaim, and there were policemen outside. Policemen outside,

wanting to have a word with your coordinator, Jason, for

a moment. I wonder how many of us here, we

just say that, see like, this Jason must have done

something wrong.

That's why he's here. Didn't pay, he's summoned. He didn't do.

Anything of that, but sometimes we heard that the police

did show up in one of the churches this morning.

Not now, church plant, but another church, another denomination. One

car and a couple of people on the bike came

and were at the entrance of the church. I just

want you to imagine, right, if this happened to ex-client,

for example, not because you did anything wrong, because you

decided to follow Christ. What would your faith be? Oh,

this church is just a bit too hot to handle.

Let's look for something a bit more mellow, a bit

more quieter, a bit more easier, a bit more safe.

What will happen, friends, when you have police right in

front there and just, you know, taking down, recording whoever

comes in?

Will we still follow?

Don't talk about police, talk about situation, talk about circumstances.

Sometimes when pressure do come, we actually can forget who

we are following. Sometimes when pressure do come into our heart,

we can actually forget what God was trying to teach

us all these years. Jesus' response was more than just

keeping up with the tradition. He was asking the scribes

and the Pharisees to keep close to God at the

end of the day. He answered and said to them,

why do you transgress the commandment of God because of

your tradition? Why do you transgress the commandment of God

because of your tradition? God, at the end of the day,

wants us to get our hearts right.

He does.

He wants us to get our hearts right because, it's

not on the slide, but Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23

Proverbs 4:23

says that guard your heart above all else.

Outflows life, right?

Guide your heart, chapter 4, verse 23.

Guide your heart with all diligence, outflows the issue of life.

I want us to ponder for a moment, why was

the scripture in there? Because our hearts, friends, when you are,

for example, in a situation, whoever controls the heart controls.

The outcome, right or not?

Whatever emotion controls the heart controls the outcome. If we

are the type that easily gives in, let's say, for example,

anger or jump to conclusion, then the outcome would be

that those decisions we make is based on that. If

we are the type that, you know, that harden our hearts,

when God wants to say something, harden our hearts, we

will go our own way, we will push God aside.

That's why the Lord wants to remind us this morning

to get our hearts right. Jesus reminds the problem is

not with the tradition or custom.

It is not.

It is not about tradition or custom. It is our

hearts where we got just so used to keeping up

without keeping close to God. We got so used to

certain situations, certain things that we forgot to keep close

to God. I say this only because sometimes in our,

even as believers, as leaders, you know, as people serving, right?

We can come to a place whereby it's the doing

rather than the relationship. The doing rather than having a

relationship with God. I understand sometimes it's very weird. You think,

how do I have a relationship with God? I can't

see Him. It's so abstract, right? Everyone claims to have

a relationship with Him. Everyone has a different interpretation of

what relationship with God means. Which means to say, He

just accepts me for all my flaws and everything like that.

I don't have to change. But sometimes we can miss

the boat. Can miss the boat. And sometimes we think

that we view things in our situation, our life with

our own lenses rather than through the lens of the Bible.

We view things through the lenses of our own life,

our own experience rather than through the lenses of the Bible.

And that's a very scary thought because if we reveal

things to our own life experience alone, friends, we make decisions,

we make life changes based on our own experience and

that may not be what the Lord wants. Matthew 15

Matthew 15:7–9

verse 7 to 9 says, All the external, right?

You can draw near to God with our mouth, right?

We praise Him, we come to church, we know how

to worship Him, we honour God with everything else. Everything

on the external can be heard, can be seen.

Right?

But God sees through that. God sees beyond the outward expression.

He knows where we are. That's why he says that

their heart is far away from me. Their heart is

far away from me in vain they worship me. So

God is reminding us this morning that if we will

go down this path of just honouring God with our

mouth and our lips, and you look at worst night

in which they worship me, we can come to a

place whereby we can be so quiet. Asking ourselves, what's

the point? I can worship God in my house after

a while. I don't need to come to church. I

can do things for God in my own interpretation. That's

why sometimes in our life, there is no breakthrough. There

is no advancement in our walk with Him. There is

no revelation of who God is. And the danger sometimes

with this is that we can come to a place

whereby we can be so tired on the outward expression.

Really.

God understands, He knows to worship needs strength. To worship,

you need strength. To praise Him after a while, it's like,

if you don't really fully believe it, we stop even reciting.

If you don't fully believe the Word of God is

the Word of God, we stop reading.

And God wants us to remind us and He wants us,

let's get our hearts right because if our heart is right, when.

You worship Him, He's no longer in vain anymore.

The heart means that, I'm going to do a bit

of teaching, the heart means the inner man or soul.

Let me just show you from a few scriptures what

does the heart really mean. The heart is a seat

where desires or inclinations are formed. The heart is a

seat where desires or inclinations are formed. Exodus chapter 7

Exodus 7:14

verse 14. So the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart

is hard. he refused to let the people go. Because

the heart is hardened, the heart is stubborn, because the

heart refused to do certain things, he decided that the

people cannot, cannot, cannot be released. If we look at

our own hearts sometimes, if our heart is stubborn, that's

why change is difficult.

If our heart is stubborn. That's why moving forward is hard.

I like to use this analogy that sometimes we always

think that cleaning, for example, is cleaning is how we

see things. How clean things are is how we see things.

Some of us, a clean toilet means to say no

hair on the floor. So I did, I'm not sure

I told you before, I did an interview one time

with One Church Plant Service and I know the husband

and wife. I know the wife is a bit more

OCD but I have to interview the husband first. So

I asked the husband, hey, what is your visualization of

a clean toilet? His answer was, Elder, as long as

there's no stains on the toilet bowl, it's considered good.

As long as there's no stains on the toilet bowl.

It's considered good. I said, really?

He said, yeah, it's clean already. The toilet can be used.

So I went and asked the wife. I said, hey,

what do you think of his answer? Partially correct. partially correct.

I said, have you tried to educate your husband before

how to clean the toilet?

Many times. I said, did it work?

No.

No.

Because sometimes when our heart, the word is, when we

refuse to change, when our heart is hard in a

certain way because we think we are right, that's why

change is so hard.

So I said, what is your definition of a clean toilet?

The toilet bowl must be clean, the sink must be spotless,

No watermark on the shower screen.

Right?

And finally, no hair on the floor. So, same household,

two different definitions. Same household, two different definitions. So my

wife has a perfect plan right now. She says, dear,

I tell you what, I surrender.

I cannot live up to your toilet cleanliness. I surrender.

I cannot live up to your toilet cleanliness. So therefore,

you clean the toilet.

Because no matter how I clean it, you will find fault.

Say that it's not clean.

In the mind of trying to educate her that my

way of cleaning is better. You see how sometimes when

the heart is just hardened, right? My wife's heart is hardened.

When the person's heart is hardened, I refuse anymore. And

she would take out kitchen utensils and tell me, Dear,

you didn't wash properly. You see, I still get garlic,

garlic stuff on the microplane there, the.

Grater, right? I still get pieces of garlic there. I

just say, garlic is okay. Okay.

I said, do you know how dirty outside kitchen utensils

are in a restaurant or not?

You still eat it without complaining. Our house is considered

very clean already. It's true, right?

But anyway, what I'm trying to say is that when

our heart is hardened, we refuse to change. And both

of us having this dialogue constantly, you know, constantly about

who cleans better and stuff like that. And because of that,

we refuse to change. We refuse to change. And sometimes

she can... Yeah, I'm just going to say it. Sometimes

she can use the toilet, right? For two, three weeks,

you're washing the toilet. It's clean, no spot. Whereas the husband,

when she goes on tour, I go clean, scrub the

toilet nicely, make sure it's soaked in Clorox, everything, right?

Smell of chemical lab than anything else. Huh? Oh, yes. Yes.

or get bored, right?

So the heart is also the seat of emotion. Heart

is also the seat of emotion. You shall love the

Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,

and all your strength.

It is. Your heart is the seat of emotion.

So the question has been is that what emotion has

been driving your heart? What emotion has been driving your heart?

I'm not asking us like, oh, today I feel joy,

so joy is driving it. Friends, in situations and circumstances, right,

when those things does happen to you, to me, what

emotion is driving that heart. Because sometimes the word is

that you feel that injustice has been done to your life.

For example, injustice, right? You want to get even, right?

You want to pick up the phone immediately. I'm like

that sometimes. I have this bad habit. I want to

resolve things immediately, right now. Right now, let's talk about it.

No matter what time in the morning, 6am or so,

I'll call people. But that translates the person receiving the

phone call like, I'm angry.

I'm angry. But to me, it was, I'm not angry, I.

Just want to resolve the issue. So I want us

to just think about it. You shall love the Lord

your God with all your heart. So the heart is

a seat of emotion. So it drives you because when

you love the Lord your God with all your heart,

your soul will follow, right? And your strength will follow

as well. But the challenge is sometimes we don't know

what emotion is driving our heart.

Majority of us say, oh, my emotions is checked, it's good, right?

Until we go through a fire, until someone hit our car,

until we get a bill that you.

Did not, the word is planned for, things like that.

And the emotions just hijacks us, cause us to make

certain decisions, life-changing decisions, that will.

Take us away from our destiny. The heart is also

a seat of understanding.

1 Kings 3, 9 says, Therefore give your servant an

understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern

between good and evil, for who is able to judge

these great people of yours? The heart is a seat

of understanding. So therefore, if you lack understanding, you can

ask God, God, could you give me an understanding heart?

But the problem with Solomon with his life was that

he likes to give out advice but rather seldom give

advice to himself.

He likes to give.

Out advice rather than advising himself how to live out

his life. The wisest man on earth loved to give

out advice, very filled to live out.

His own advice.

He missed the mark, he missed the boat, you know,

the wisest man ever lived. People sought for him for advice,

for understanding. Yet he can decipher everything. He can give

a really good advice. But yet sometimes in his own heart,

his own heart, he can't see his own flaws. The

heart is also a seat of rebellion and pride. Whatever

good about the heart, sometimes the heart takes the form

of rebellion and pride. The Lord's smelled the soothing aroma,

then the Lord said in his heart, I will never

again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination

of a man's heart is evil from his youth. Nor

will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

So the Bible, Genesis chapter 8 verse 21 says, the

Genesis 8:21

imagination of a man's heart is evil.

Evil.

It's hard sometimes.

To correct ourselves because our heart is always inclined towards

a particular direction. Inclined towards a particular direction. You go

to buffet lines, you see people pile up things, even

though they cannot finish, they still pile up. We want

the best for ourselves and sometimes we forget about others.

And sometimes the Lord says, give up your seat. But Lord,

I'm tired. It could be a crowded bus. Sometimes, you know,

we do. I'm not sure we all take bus here.

But in my earlier days of work, I have to

take public transportation to work and, you know, and stuff

like that. It could be a crowded bus and you

see someone who needs a seat. You go, God, I'm

also tired. Pretend not to see, close our eyes. Those

are not necessarily bad, but sometimes you know in the

heart of hearts. The heart becomes harder and harder when

the man goes his own way. The heart becomes harder

and harder when the man goes his own way. The

heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked.

Who can know it? The heart is deceitful above all things,

desperately wicked.

Already the Bible describes it as rebellion and pride, evil.

The imagination of a man's heart since young is evil.

Here Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says, The heart is deceitful

Jeremiah 17:9

above all things, desperately wicked.

Who can know it?

As you read some of this scripture, you go like, God,

is there hope? God, is there hope for me? Even

though the heart is wild, God can do a miracle

in our hearts. Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 6 says that

Deuteronomy 30:6

Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart

of your descendants to love the Lord your God with

your heart, with your soul and with and so that

you may live. Only God can do a change in

our heart. Church, Only God can do a change in

your heart.

Why is it so important? Because here's the thing, if

you look, the Lord.

God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your

descendants to love. There's something in our hearts that needs

to remove so we can love more. There's something in

our heart that needs to change, transform, renew so that

we can understand God's love and God's plan and God's future. Friends,

the Bible says the Holy Spirit came to help us

from the inside out. The Holy Spirit came to help

us from the inside out. Acts 2, verse 38. Then

Acts 2:38

Peter said to them, Repent and let everyone be baptized

in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So

Peter said to them, Repent and let everyone be baptized.

there must first be repentance, there must first be a change,

there must first be a realisation and awareness that we

need to change the way we live our life. We

want external changes and we have moved a lot of

things in our life, in our house, so that we

can experience a change. But friends, all those external changes

won't happen I come to this realization as being a

leader in the church for some time already, that even

after two hours or three hours of conversation, doesn't really

change a person's life. Although you can walk away thinking,

I achieved what I set out to do. I achieved

what I've done. We go back happy. We go back like, yay.

Only to see this individual.

Hasn't changed and we felt that we just wasted three

hours of our time.

The word repentance here in.

The Amplified Classic Version says that change your will and

purpose to accept God's will, the will of God in

your inner self instead of rejecting it.

To change the way you think. Come on. The word

repentance is to change.

The way you think and accept God's direction instead of

rejecting it. Accept God's direction instead of rejecting it. Sometimes

that's so hard. Again, because we have our own definition

of things. We have an image of how we think

God should move. We have an image of how we

think love should be expressed. We have an image of

how church should be. But all those images, friends, is

nothing if we don't surrender it before the Lord because

God has a plan for every church. God has a

plan for your life. But many times we want our

plans to be accepted, our direction to be accepted, our

advice to be received. But God says, I operate on

a different plane. I'm operating on a different manner. He says,

He's asking us to change our point of view. Change

our point of view. change our purpose, our direction. He's

asking us this morning, he's challenging us this morning, is

that how have we been thinking lately? How do we

see ourselves? The Bible says if you're skillful and trained,

you'll stand before kings, for example, in Proverbs chapter 22.

Proverbs 22 · chapter mention

If you're skillful and trained, you'll stand before kings. The

Bible does not say that if you're If you study hard,

then only you can stand before kings. If you get

good grades, if you have high distinction, you can stand

before kings. No, he says that if you are skillful

and trained, you can stand before kings. God already understands

and knows human potential.

He does. But that only comes when there is submission

to him.

If you look at the life of Joseph, I want

you to imagine right now, I have a diagram, but

you look at the life of Joseph. The life of

Joseph is very interesting because at a certain point of

his life, critical point of his life, he could have

given up. For example, being betrayed by his brothers. Some

of you have brothers here, right? Imagine being betrayed and

sold off by your own kind, by your family.

Betrayed and sold off. I guess the word is that

very drastic, right?

And that formulates, if you are the person that's being

sold off, I want you to imagine right now, You

already formulated that when you get out from this situation, you.

Want to prove a point.

You want to prove a point because you felt that

you were betrayed by someone. We've seen enough Korean dramas already, friends,

to know that whoever has been betrayed by their own

family members always.

Gets correction at the end.

But yet, friends, Joseph kept his heart pure, served in

Potiphar's household, got framed by the wife, put in jail.

At the second point in life, go like, what's the

point of me keeping my heart pure? If I did

something wrong, you put me in prison is one thing.

But I did not do it. I did not do

it and yet I'm in prison.

At the prison, friends, he could have just made a

decision from today onwards. I'm going to transact with the

world in this worldview. I shall be mean, I shall

be tough, I shall be cruel, I shall... I know

a lot of I shalls in prison you could have

made in our daily life, but Joseph did not. He

decided to keep his heart pure, remember that he served

the Lord, got out from prison, only to be betrayed,

to be forgotten, put back into prison again. At the

end of the day, you know the story that he

stands before Pharaoh, governs Egypt. But first, if we don't

change our view, friends, and keep on giving in to

what our heart emotions is for the day, Joseph could

have missed out. We have missed out on a few testimonies.

We have missed out on a few breakthroughs because our

emotions was in the driver's seat. So what did Jesus

say about the Holy Spirit? When the Holy Spirit lives

in us, we will experience supernatural renewal. John 7, 38-39

says that, He who believes in me, as Scripture has said,

out from his heart will flow rivers of living water. Friends,

your heart will flow rivers of living water. Your heart

will be a place whereby you'll be so filled and encouraged.

Your heart will be a place of abundance. Your heart

will be a place whereby God can draw even more.

You will experience supernatural renewal. And no matter what we

go through, a flowing river is full of life. There's

life in the flowing river. The Bible says that He

is also our helper and our teacher. But the helper,

the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,

He will teach you all things and bring all things,

remembers all things, that I said to you. I want

us to pause for a moment the word helper. To

allow people to come into our life to.

Help us is hard. It is very hard.

To almost say that I can't do it and I

need your help. We've been trained from young to be

independent to, the word is, you know, to manage everything

in the household. To ask for help is hard. To

ask for help when we are older is hard. I

met a guy who had a stroke in his 70s.

I said, why don't you use a cane to walk,

to help you to walk? He said to me, the

moment I start using a cane, I'm telling my body

already that I'm very frail and I need a helper

to walk.

Without this cane, I cannot walk. I refuse. I refuse.

And sometimes our life is like that. I refuse because

I don't want to be dependent on you. I don't

want to be dependent on the cane.

I don't want to be dependent on other people. I

want to be on my own. It is hard.

I got off my phone with my dad yesterday after

one hour on the phone with my dad. Sometimes, anyway,

one hour on the phone with my dad, I said, Dad,

I said, the time will come you have to decide

what you want to do with the rest of your life.

My dad is about 82, 83. I said, you have

to decide.

I said, you want to stay with me, I can

take care of you and stuff like that because the

day will come you cannot drive. The day will come

that you cannot drive, you cannot drive on your own anymore.

You find it hard.

I was listening to another pastor who's I think 81

or 80 or 81. He said, I don't know why

that turning 80 years old, cannot park straight anymore.

I cannot park straight anymore. He said, parking straight is

what I normally.

Do for 80, I mean, 50 years of his life

after he got his driver's license, I can park straight.

But the moment I turned 80, I cannot park straight anymore.

He said that his hearing becomes, he couldn't hear properly anymore.

He said, especially when his wife talked, he couldn't hear

properly anymore.

Right?

And he falls asleep more frequently now than not. It's

hard sometimes to depend on other people. It's hard to say,

I need help. When we are younger, the word is

that we think that we can conquer everything on.

Our own strength.

But God has really His timing whereby there comes a

time in our life we need help.

The Bible says the Holy Spirit is a helper.

I think many times we go through our daily journey,

our daily life, we forget to ask Him for help,

for wisdom in how to navigate, what to do.

The Holy Spirit is given to our advantage.

I want to show you, Peter was with Jesus for

three years, yet he denied Him when Jesus was taken

by the soldier. However, when the Holy Spirit fell upon him,

Peter rose with boldness and preached and became a martyr

for Christ. Peter denied Jesus, but yet when the Holy

Spirit fell upon him, he changed, he became bolder, he

became on fire, surrendered his life to God and died

for Him. I want to let you know the Holy

Spirit can. The Holy Spirit can change our life. When

He captures your heart, He can direct you, teach you.

As I close, friends, let's invite the Holy Spirit and

let us walk, be guided by Him so that our

life glorifies God. Let us invite the Holy Spirit Let

us be guided by Him so that our life will

glorify the Lord. The Spirit of truth has come. He

will guide you to all truth. He will not speak

on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak.

And He will tell you of the things to come.

He will glorify Me. He will take what is of Mine,

declare it to you. Friends, as I close, as I

just want to encourage you, this morning. I pray that

our Christian walk, our Christian faith is not just faith

that's on Sunday. But we'll know what to do when

we hit a problem. We'll know what to do when...

I'm not talking about just a normal problem. I'm talking

about things that are really beyond our control.

We'll know who to turn to, where to ask.

Because if we do not know, then God wants us

to be ready because the times are coming whereby things

are going to become more challenging in our daily life.

He wants us to know, He wants you to know,

He wants you to know today that He's here to

help you. He wants you to know today that you're

not alone. He wants you to remind us that I'm here.

Because it takes a person to change from the inside

out to be able to know. It takes a person

that has invited the Holy Spirit to understand and to know.

As I close, friends, might actually mount on stage as

I close.

I pray that we will not just, the word is just.

Live by tradition. What's your Sunday tradition? Just come to church.

I pray that we will live out by faith, having

a relationship with Him. I pray that you and I

will just turn to the Word and just say, God,

speak to me through this Word because I.

Have a relationship with You. Only God can change our life.

If God can change Peter's life from someone who denied

Him three times, God can change your life. If God

can guide Joseph's life all the way to stand in

front of Pharaoh, God can.

Guide your life as well. But it takes surrender. It

takes God. I need you. It takes God.

Would you take control of my heart? At the end

of the day, friends, it's not just More of God

is really God, would you take control? The hardest thing

for every person here is to release control.

It is so hard. It is so hard. God, take over. God,

take over.

I recently heard a testimony of a mom that was

pregnant Not in our church.

A non-believer.

I think she was only 26 weeks. Only 26 weeks.

Doctors say that, you know, I got to operate you already.

I got to deliver you already because it's not safe anymore.

She really wanted to have the baby. She said, God,

if you are real, if you are real, please save

my child. Please save my child.

Unbelievable. Please save my child. You know, in the quietness.

From a well-to-do family, in the quietness, you know, you

have all the necessary health care, but no peace. All

the health may not do a big difference because it's

beyond your control anymore. So in the quietness of that

war that she was in, she just cried out to God, God,

spare my child. Spare my child. Let her grow up

strong and healthy. Delivered the child. The child grew up

strong and healthy. But the beautiful part is that she

said that God is so real.

Decided, of all things, a non-believer.

She decided to call her child Hosanna.

Called her child Hosanna because God hears. God knows. God knows.

And she gave her life to Christ.

As I close friends, know God is not far, that

He won't hear you. If you know Him more, I

pray that it's about, just God, would you take over,

not just take over God, would you have control of

my life? I know it sounds such a bad word,

the word control, but when you place your life with

someone's hands that cares for you, When you place your

life with someone that loves you more than his own life,

it's very different than placing your life in the hands

of men or government at the end of the day.

Because God is the one that really carries us through.

Carries us through. Elder Terence, I'm sure you'll share a

story that we share with Elder Terence's father was supposed

to go through amputation.

I said, Terrence, you know, your dad is 94.

I said, let's ask God to.

Spare him from going through all this, you know. Spare him.

He prayed.

His BP was fluctuating up and down. I said, my

dad might go home tonight because BP was very low.

But God has a funny sense of humour. I said, why?

I went to see him the next day. He called

me by name. He talked to me like a normal person.

His BP shot up. Like a normal person like that.

Up and down, up and down.

God gave him extra, extra, extra, extra months to be

with the family to say what he needed to say.

But the dad went home to be with the Lord

that day. The whole family rejoiced, saying, I know my

dad is in a better place. But more than that, friends,

the whole journey, friends, God's hand was in it. Every

one of them said God's hand was in it. So

as I close, friends, as I close, I'm not here

to bore you more. So as I close, friends, I

just want to encourage you really today. Today, trust God. Today,

trust Him. Today, know that He wants us to rely

on the Holy Spirit.

He's our helper.

Without Him, friends, without Him, it'd be so hard in

our daily life. But with Him, it's easier. That's why God,

I really understand He knows. He already knows and understands

what we go through every day. That's why He used

the word helper. He used the word teacher. He knows

that we will be lost. Many things we don't understand

what's happening around us. But He understands.

He knows. He's encouraging us this morning to put our

trust in Him.

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

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

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

is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.