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00:07 It wasn't until the young man was up here leading the music that I understood
00:12 why I was asked to come here this morning. I was asked to come here this morning
00:18 because no other visiting speaker would come on April Fool's Day.
00:26 But it's by the foolishness of preaching the Lord does great things. Huh. And uh
00:31 it is good to be back with you again. I I'm always honored to be here. It's a
00:38 privilege to to be with you and uh I'm I'm thrilled inside and I'm doubly
00:44 blessed because my wife is able to be with me this time. And uh the last time
00:49 Yeah. You remember the last time I confessed
00:55 to you that without her I'm just half a man. So yeah. Yeah. Oh, isn't it sweet?
01:10 He was lying on his hospital bed
01:17 and he was soon to depart this life.
01:26 He was my hero, my role model,
01:32 my mentor, the model for ministry that I was
01:38 following. And I thought at that time I was well on my way to serving with effectiveness.
01:45 And I went to visit my role model in the
01:51 hospital to comfort him. He had a very serious disease and we all
01:58 knew that his time on this earth was not too long. And as one of his young
02:04 Timothies, as one who had learned so much from him, I I thought I was going
02:11 to go to the hospital room and I was going to comfort my Paul and tell him
02:17 that I'm going to be faithful and I was going to extend to him some of the grace
02:23 that he had extended to me during the time that we served together.
02:30 This man loved me, showed his love in so many ways. And there on his
02:41 could say deathbed at on at death's door, this man looked at me and spoke words to
02:50 me that I needed to hear that I will never ever forget.
02:57 my model for ministry. Everybody's following somebody.
03:03 Everybody's got a model. Our world is filled with people who are selling
03:09 themselves as the model. Some are taking drugs. Some are living
03:17 wild lifestyles. Everybody's selling something. And everybody's following a
03:22 model. And if you forget any any and everything else I say this morning, I
03:28 want you to hear me say that this morning, you and I have the benefit of
03:34 choosing the models that we follow. And why why why would we not choose the very
03:43 best models for our lives and for the ministries God has called us to and for
03:48 growth? Models will either pull you along and propel you into greater things
03:56 or models will pull you down dooby-dooby down all the way down to the bottom of
04:03 planet earth. Models are very very important. This morning I've been asked to speak about the models for ministry
04:11 growth. And the the text I've been given was from Acts chapter 18 all the way to
04:17 the end of Acts chapter 20. And I looked at that and I thought, why you talk about a mission impossible, huh? There's
04:23 so much. Take about 14 days to preach through this. Uh, no, I'm not going to preach 14 days. We we'll get out before
04:29 then. But I have chosen this morning to focus on Acts 20 17-38.
04:36 And we can look at those passages of scripture as we see the role model, the
04:42 role model of the apostle Paul as he himself uh serving his master. Paul was at
04:50 Myitus. He was on his way down to Jerusalem. He did not have time to go
04:56 all the way back up to Ephesus. He wanted to get there uh go to Jerusalem. And so he called the elders together and
05:04 he sent for them. And when they arrived, he said some words that I think are very important. He said, "You know how I
05:11 lived the whole time I was with you from the first day I came into the province
05:17 of Asia." You know, if you want to have a good role model,
05:24 you need to have a role model that is proactive in life. Proactive.
05:30 Brothers and sisters, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is not called to sit
05:36 on the seat of do nothing and wait until Jesus comes back from heaven to take us
05:41 home. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is called to be on mission and we are called to be proactive and we as his
05:50 body as his body as his hands and at his as his feet we are called to be
05:56 proactively invested in ministry in the world. I'm told that a lobster that a lobster
06:04 when it's carried onto the rocks that the lobster has neither the instinct nor
06:10 the capacity to climb back into the water when the uh tide recedes. The
06:17 lobster just kind of sits there and waits for the water to come back in and take it away. Brothers and sisters, let
06:25 us never have a lobster kind of model for our lives. Let us never have this
06:31 beongda, this passive approach to life that says, well, if God wants it done,
06:37 God will have to do it. Dear friends, God, when God wants something done in
06:42 his world, he often chooses people to do his work through. And we're called to be
06:47 proactive. The Apostle Paul was proactive. proactive
06:53 just like my Paul in ministry was proactive in taking this young Timothy
06:59 under his wing to love me and to raise me up and to teach me what it means to
07:04 follow the Lord to be proactive. I heard a story a story of a man who ran
07:11 a business and he was getting ready to take a vacation. So he called his uh second in charge in and he said now
07:17 here's a list. I've got all these things I want you to do. And he enumerated every one of them. He said, "Now when I
07:24 come back," he said, "I want you to do this and this and this." And he said, "And I this is the list of everything.
07:30 And every day, every day, I want you to look at this list. I want you to read this list twice." The man said, "Okay."
07:38 So the boss came back and do you know he found things in a mess. And he said,
07:43 "Why? What's happened? Did I not leave you the list?" And the man said, "I did exactly what you told me to do. You told
07:49 me to read that list twice every day. I read that list twice every day, but did not do a thing.
07:57 Brothers and sisters, uh, is that not the way that sometimes we we do? The Apostle Paul, he was very
08:06 very proactive. He was an activist. He did not just kind of sit around. He was
08:13 serving. He was spreading the gospel. And he was a man who was very, very proactive. Let's see if I can do this.
08:19 Did it happen? Okay. That's because he was able to overcome the centripal force
08:26 that would cause all of us to come together and have a holy huddle, you
08:31 know, to have the the holy clump together. He was empowered by the spirit of God. And therefore he had this
08:38 centrifugal force that cast him out into the nations unto the known part of the
08:45 world that that he was a part of and that he wanted to be a part of. It's amazing to me that he wanted to go all
08:52 the way to Spain. He want you talk about going to the end of the world. It's kind
08:58 of reminds me when I went to Perth, Australia. If you drew a line from where we were
09:04 from in Kentucky and Ohio, and if you could draw a line from there to Perth, Australia, I don't think you could get
09:10 any farther away in the world than that. Far, far away. That was the Apostle
09:15 Paul's spirit. You see, having a model to follow that is a model that's
09:22 proactive and a model that is outside the fellowship of faith. brothers and
09:29 sisters, we gather together and I like it too. I like to worship and and then the sisters kind of swaying with the
09:36 music and we're clapping our hands and I'm kind of going, "Yeah, this is good. I like this." There's not a thing wrong
09:42 with that. But brothers and sisters, in addition to that, let us add and let us
09:47 have the spirit of God add to us this centrifugal force that will move us out
09:53 of our comfort zones, move us out of our fellowships and allow us to embrace with
09:59 effectiveness the world for which Christ Jesus died. It's it's amazing to me that
10:07 we spend so much of our time and our energies and our resources upon ourselves when there is a world out
10:14 there waiting just waiting to hear a good word about God.
10:21 Consistent. Oh, how we need to be consistent. The apostle Paul said he
10:26 served the Lord with great with great humility and tears in the midst of
10:32 severe in in the midst of severe testing by the plots.
10:38 Consistency that means that regardless of circumstances I tell you there has never
10:45 been there has never been a convenient time that I've ever been called to serve the Lord. Never. It's always
10:51 inconvenient. Uh, do you know we people are very inconvenient people? Isn't that true, brother Moby? Have you ever met
10:58 anybody, brother Rama, who has a crisis that's a convenient time? I've never met that. I mean, it we're just kind of
11:04 inconvenient. But in the middle of all this inconvenient stuff, we're called to be consistent. Always consistent. The
11:12 Apostle Paul was always consistent. You could count on him. You could count on him as the model for ministry. He was
11:20 going to show up. He was always going to be there. He was always going to be who
11:25 he was. And he was a person that it's it's like there was a man in the 15th
11:32 century, actually 16th century, his name was Nicholas Houseman. And Martin Luther, that great that great reformer.
11:39 Here's what he said about this humble pastor. He said, "This man named
11:44 Nicholas Houseman, what we preach, he lived."
11:50 What we preach, he lived. Brothers and sisters, let it always be
11:58 said about us that what we preach, we live. That there is a consistency, that
12:04 there is a correlation between life and lip, between what we say and what we do.
12:11 consistency. When you have role models, choose role models for ministry that are consistent,
12:19 that every day they show up, that they are who they are,
12:24 and that they are humble. Now, this is a little thing about what consistency and transparency is all
12:32 about. Transparency, huh?
12:39 a person who's to be transparent and a person that's to be humble and a
12:45 person that's to be consistent and a person that's to be proactive. This
12:51 these characteristics these characteristics they
12:57 reflect the kinds of role models that we need to both have and to be. You wait a
13:06 minute have and to be? You mean I'm a I'm a role model. I'm supposed to be a
13:12 role model. Uh yes. Uh we all are role
13:18 models for somebody. Everybody has somebody looking to them.
13:25 Everybody has influence over somebody. You say, "I have no influence." Oh, do
13:31 not say that. God gives everybody influence. The question is not do we have influence. The question is what do
13:36 we do with our influence? Positive role models, kingdomoriented role models,
13:42 they teach us how to use the influence that we have. There are people that you
13:47 will come in contact with that all the pastors and all the churches and all the uh lay leaders of your churches will
13:55 never be able to impact. But you know them and you work with them and you
13:60 interact with them and you have influence with them. And under God, you can be a role model for them and produce
14:07 growth in their life as God through you blesses their lives.
14:14 Are you with me here? Are we all together? Am I just flopping my tops up
14:20 here? Yeah. Maybe say, "Oh, that maybe he is the April fool." I'm not so sure.
14:27 Hm. To be transparent, to be humble. H
14:35 wow. Hudson Taylor, he was introduced to the big church in
14:41 Melbourne and he got this flowery introduction. You know, it's almost kind of like Jesus had come back, you know. I
14:47 mean, they really painted this picture of of Hudson Taylor and how wonderful a
14:53 ser and truly he's a ser wonderful servant of God, you know. Uh Hudson Taylor got up and he said well he said
14:59 uh although I appreciate everything he said I I prefer to think of myself as a
15:05 little servant of an illustrious master.
15:14 Role models that are humble humble kind of role models with great humility
15:21 and with tears. great humility and with tears. What's
15:26 the tears all about? Willing to pay a price, not playing games, being
15:32 transparent. Um some sometimes, you know, we we're
15:37 not real transparent. Um you know, transparency is a wonderful thing. Um the Apostle Paul did not say,
15:45 "I I'm a great apostle and I'm with you in all days and life is wonderful and sweet and isn't it grand?" It's not
15:51 Hollywood, you know, it's truth and advertising. It's being who you are where you are and being humble where you
15:58 are. This this is the role model that we all need to emulate for ministry. This
16:04 is the role model each one of us has the the potential of becoming and also of
16:12 selecting. There's too much Hollywood in the modern church. There's too much too
16:18 many games. There's too much that we take from a world and we look at things from a worldly perspective. And the
16:25 reality is our savior suffered. And when we serve him in humility, we will have
16:31 tears and we'll have severe testing. It's a joy to serve the Lord, but I tell
16:37 you honestly, there are tests that come. And here here's we need to be transparent with it. And this is what we
16:44 don't need to have when we have the weekend phase. Yeah. the weekend phase.
16:51 You know, you you see some people, how you doing? I'm fine, brother. Praise God. Glory. Hallelujah.
16:58 And you say, "Well, if you're doing so good, how how come your family's falling apart? And how come you lost your job
17:03 and everything? You you you're struggling." No, there are struggles in life. The weekend face that that plastic
17:10 stuff that that's not good role modeling. That's not a model for ministry. The Apostle Paul said, "I was
17:18 with you. You know, I was transparent in your midst. You know my struggles. You
17:24 know my humility. I was there." A role model will let you know who they are.
17:30 See, a role model is much more interested in influencing you and
17:36 allowing you to grow rather than trying to impress you. Our world wants to
17:42 impress you. Hey, look us over. Aren't we something? We got the latest thing. We got a iPhone 4S.
17:52 Now, I've got an iPhone 4. My iPhone 4 is smarter than I am, but I I'm not
17:59 going the iPhone 4S. I'll tell you why. I don't want any phone smarter than me to talk back to me.
18:08 I'm afraid of what I might hear. Might be a dangerous thing.
18:13 and and persistent. The the Apostle Paul very very Let's see if I can do it this
18:19 way. Very He's consistent. I kind of like this one. I don't know has anything to do with what I'm saying, but you
18:24 know, consistency is a virtue only if you're not messing up, you know. Yeah.
18:29 see to be consistent and the humble to be an humble person.
18:36 Paul said, you know, he said that I have not hesitated to preach anything that
18:42 would be helpful to you, but I've taught publicly, taught you publicly and from
18:48 house to house. Persistent, would not give up. Refused to give up,
18:55 would not give up. Nothing can take the place of persistence. We had a president
19:01 named Calvin Culage that said it this way. He said nothing can take the place of talent uh uh persistence. Talent
19:08 cannot. Genius will not. Education will not. Nothing can take the place of
19:16 persistence. How many smart people do you know who are doing nothing with their life? How
19:23 many geniuses do you know who are doing nothing with their life? How many
19:28 talented people do you know who are doing nothing with their life? lacking one thing, persistence.
19:37 Never give up. Winston Churchill said it like that. Never, never, never, never
19:42 give up. The Apostle Paul would never give up. He would never quit. I know
19:48 when I'm going to quit, though. I figured it out. I got to tell you, I know. I know when I'm going to quit. I
19:55 know when I can stop being persistent. Right after the devil quits, then I'm going to quit.
20:01 Yeah. right after the devil quits, then I'm going to stop. But until then, I'm going to be like the old country
20:07 preacher. He said, "As long as I have strength," he said, "I'm going to fight the devil." He said, "When my arms stop
20:14 working," he said, "I'm going to kick him." He said, "When my feet stop working, I'm I'm going to bite him." He
20:21 said, "And when my teeth fall out, I'm going to gum the devil to death." He said, "I'm not quitting."
20:28 Brothers and sisters, there's no finish line in this business of serving the
20:33 Lord. And this business of having the model ministry for growth means that
20:39 growth is always out there. Our our reach ought to always exceed our grasp.
20:48 Lifelong learning is not something that was just developed by you know educators in the last little couple hundred years.
20:56 lifelong learning, lifelong growth, lifelong maturity. That's the goal that
21:01 we have as believers. Every one of us, we're not what we can be. We're not
21:08 mature yet. The most tragic thing in the world for me is to see a believer in
21:13 Jesus who has stopped growing. Tragic. It's very tragic. The only thing worse
21:19 is to see a preacher stops growing. When you see a preacher stop growing, guarantee you you see a church that
21:25 they're leading stop growing. Hey, you can just kind of mark it on a on your chart,
21:31 but I know where the mature ones live in heaven. The mature ones are there.
21:37 That's where the mature ones are. But the model for ministry is a model that
21:43 emphasizes growth. Ah, yeah. This is I kind of like this. This is what it means to be persistent
21:49 like a little childh. He says, "Forget it, Josh. I tried walking once, but it doesn't work."
21:55 Well, you know, how many times did you fall down when you learn to walk? How many times did I mess up trying to
22:02 preach? Oh, let me tell you the ways of how practiced. You just have to struggle
22:08 with it. It was brother Brandon who took off to Sunday school. One thing I I looked at the the butterflies that they
22:16 had and that butterfly was beautiful but and they went from that butterfly just
22:21 climbing out to that butterfly had its wings off. Did you know there was something that took place there? It was
22:28 that struggle of that butterfly trying to flap its wings that allows the uh the
22:35 the muscles to develop. And if someone were to say, "Oh, you poor pitiful butterfly. Let me exercise your wings
22:42 for you and that butterfly would die. Yeah, the butterfly would be dead. See,
22:50 growing all the time, growing. And I I like this. Never ever ever give
22:56 up. Never
23:01 just never give up. Huh?
23:06 Okay. It doesn't hurt to laugh a little bit, you know. Yeah. Some people's halos give me a
23:13 headache. It's okay to laugh. And it's also okay to be serious. Huh. There you go.
23:19 Let's do this. Now, a a role model to follow is someone who's a team player.
23:26 This is not what a team player is. A team player is not someone who who sits
23:32 on top of the burden and tries to just talk a lot and say, "Oh, yeah. Believe
23:38 me, everybody, we're all equal in this thing. Um, a team player is a doer as
23:44 well as someone who's just an advisor. A role model is someone, a role model
23:52 for growth is someone who is also doing it rather than just being an advisor.
23:59 It's too easy to offer advice. But you know, really, you know how we learn best? We learn best by involvement. And
24:08 the best model is an example. Someone who is a practitioner, someone who is
24:14 involved in ministry and life.
24:20 Now, the Apostle Paul said, "I have declared to you, declared to both Jews and Greeks that
24:27 they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in the Lord Jesus.
24:34 inclusive. Inclusive I one of the things I like about coming
24:41 back to Malaysia, one of the things I like coming back to this church, I see all kinds of different people.
24:48 I really do enjoy that. I miss the multiculturalism of Malaysia. I tell you too. uh we love
24:55 Taiwan and we're in Taiwan and and that's where we're supposed to be and we do have the joy of obedience of serving
25:01 the Lord according to how he's led us. But coming back to Malaysia, seeing the
25:06 the the the multiculturalism of Malaysia and seeing my my brothers and my sisters
25:12 of every different tribe and nation, it reminds me of Revelation 7:9. That great
25:19 crowd around the throne from every tongue and every tribe and every nation. That's why I always get excited about
25:25 coming back here because I see God's kingdom vision among you. Inclusive
25:32 leaders. Some people's attitudes like this. He
25:39 drew a circle with a pout. With my circle, I'll draw you out.
25:48 But I drew a circle with a grin. Because with my circle of love, I'll draw you
25:55 in. Love's inclusive. Love's very, very inclusive.
26:02 Love includes all. For God included all. For God so loved the world. The
26:09 scripture says one of one of the the challenges that that we do face honestly uh among our
26:16 Chinese churches um of Taiwan and other places is the is the tendency to clump
26:23 together and the tendency to be to be exclusive to to not embrace others who
26:32 are different brothers and sisters. role models. Role models that produce growth
26:39 are those role models that include all. The Apostle Paul was a Jew. The Apostle
26:45 Paul did not exclude the Gentiles. He was called of God to include them
26:51 because God's love included them. Therefore, he was preaching the gospel to both Jews and Greeks,
26:59 to everyone. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Not just
27:04 a few but all. And he included them all. Inclusive leaders are leaders that will
27:11 help you grow. Inclusive models are those that will produce ministry growth
27:17 in you. And inclusive leaders are also courageous leaders. A
27:24 courageous kind of love. A courageous kind of love that that
27:30 includes everything. This includes it all. What will a dog not eat? A dog will eat
27:38 everything. And you see the K9 food pyramid is everything. The dog includes it all. And
27:45 brothers and sisters, we are called to include all. How how could anyone
27:53 reject someone else who was made in the image of God who's precious to their
28:00 creator? Brothers and sisters, that's one of the reasons why I have great hope for your
28:06 church because you have the open arm policy.
28:12 You accept and love all peoples and that's a wonderful thing
28:19 and courageous love.
28:25 I I love my brother Ian uh with a passion.
28:30 I really do. We've served together several years and and I I found this quote and I send it to him because it
28:38 reminds me of him. Our brother Ian says things that we all need to hear and sometimes it's uncomfortable for us
28:44 missionaries but he says what we need to hear and I sent this quote to him because it reminds me of him courageous.
28:52 He says, here's the quote. To go against the dominant thinking of your friends
28:60 and most of the people you see every day is perhaps the most difficult act of
29:06 heroism you can perform
29:15 to go against the flow.
29:20 group think to challenge group think
29:26 to care enough to confront to care enough to ask the question, have
29:33 you looked at things from another perspective?
29:41 I I wanted to, but I was afraid I couldn't include it because um I didn't know if it would pick up. I didn't know
29:48 I could run it on the on the machines. But there is a YouTube video that I I
29:54 really wanted to show because it has a bunch of sheep running
29:60 around and instead of it's not called leadership,
30:05 it's called leader sheep. Everybody thinking the same way. Listen,
30:13 if everybody's thinking the same way, somebody's not thinking.
30:19 That's really true. There there's there's a a multiplicity.
30:25 There's a d of of perspectives. There's there's a wonderful diversity that's
30:31 scattered out among the body of Christ.
30:36 And it takes courageous love to speak truth and takes courageous love
30:44 to challenge the presuppositions that people hold to.
30:51 It takes courageous love to look at someone and say to them,
30:58 "You need Jesus Christ." And the reason why your life is in such
31:03 a mess is because you've messed it up and you've got a problem in your heart. And that problem is called sin. And it
31:10 takes courageous love to say to someone, but there is hope for you. If you will
31:16 just but recognize the need in your heart to have the sin forgiven and the
31:21 hole in the heart healed. If you'll come to Jesus, he'll heal you and give you new life and hope. That takes courageous
31:28 love. And brothers and sisters, it's very easy to be courageous within the fellowship of faith. But courageous love
31:36 is to be expressed out there as well as in here.
31:43 And mentors, mentors who bring growth, who are models
31:48 for growth are those who are speaking truth inhouse and who are speaking truth
31:54 to those who are out of the house as well. The apostle Paul was under a
31:60 divine a divine mandate that he must speak truth to all.
32:10 And now he said, "I'm going to Jerusalem." And he said, "I don't know what's ahead
32:16 of me. I don't know what's going to happen to me there. I only know that in
32:21 every city, the Holy Spirit warns me that prisons and hardships are facing
32:28 me. I I'm burdened this morning.
32:36 I've been burdened about our modern church.
32:42 And And the reason I'm burdened is I I I'm afraid we forgot something.
32:48 I I'm afraid that we have forgotten that this business of walking with
32:54 Jesus, while it's a call to celebrate, it's also a call to sacrifice.
33:04 That's not popular. Who wants to sacrifice?
33:10 That's going to be painful. Athletes say, "No pain, no gain." Isn't that what they say? No pain, no gain. We
33:17 say, "Yeah, that's right." And brothers and sisters, for those of us who are in
33:22 the family of God, no pain, no gain.
33:30 I I I'm burdened this morning. as as a black pastor said to one of my
33:38 white pastor friends, he said, uh, we've learned something in
33:45 our black church experience that you white folks have forgotten.
33:52 He said, we we remember that it took Jesus bearing his cross to
34:00 bring salvation into the world. And we remember that it takes us bearing
34:07 our cross to carry salvation out into
34:12 the world just like Jesus.
34:18 Models worthy of your following are those
34:24 models that are sacrificial models.
34:30 Because you see, it takes a lot of love to be willing to sacrifice.
34:35 A lot of love to sacrifice for others. Takes a lot of love for God to sacrifice
34:42 for his glory. It takes a lot of love to be willing to pay the price. But we also
34:49 have the flip side of that. Sacrifice is not a waste.
34:57 It's an investment. It's an investment in the kingdom of God
35:02 and that investment gives eternal dividends.
35:09 I mean it's great. It's great to get that kind of interest back because you
35:14 see those who have invested in us are depending upon us to continue to
35:22 invest in others. And this is the way God's kingdom moves from heart to heart
35:30 to heart. It took somebody. It took somebody sacrificing and loving
35:37 enough to bring the gospel to you and to me.
35:45 And it takes us loving that much to carry the gospel on to others. Does that
35:51 not hang together? Brother Rama, is that logical? Does that make sense? Does that
35:58 communicate, brothers and sisters? Model for ministry.
36:08 This is thinking outside the box. Got to think outside your pyramid.
36:18 And flexible. Flex. Honestly, the only difference
36:23 between a grave and a rut are the dimensions.
36:29 Yeah. You know, flexibility. The Apostle Paul said he wanted to become all things to all men and he by
36:35 by all means win some. Flexibility is so important.
36:42 There's a story that goes, "A great big storm came through across a big field. And across this field there were big oak
36:48 trees and blew the oak trees down. But next to the field there was like a
36:54 little sungai and there were reads growing on the sungai. And the wind never moved the reads at all. Just kind
37:00 of moved them, but the reads were still there. The the wind was gone. The tree was down." The oak tree said, "Hey,"
37:06 said, "What's up with this? Why did the wind blow me down? I'm stronger than you, but you're still there. And the
37:12 reed said, "Well, that's because I'm flexible." Yeah. Flexible
37:19 brothers and sisters. Role models are flexible. Now, they're
37:24 not flexible about truth. The truth is truth. Principles,
37:32 methods are many. Principles are few. Methods must always change but now
37:39 principles never do. Truth is not negotiable but the application of truth
37:45 and how we ex extend the truth and how we share and how we do things. And this
37:52 is something you know instinctively because you're you're used to living multiculturally. You're much more
37:59 flexible than this angulang. You know, I've had to learn flexibility, but you know how to do this just kind of
38:04 naturally to be flexible. These kinds of role models, that's what's needed.
38:14 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me.
38:23 My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus
38:28 gave me, has given me. The task of testifying to the good news,
38:35 goal oriented. Goal oriented
38:41 kingdom of God oriented.
38:46 Did Did you get that? Kingdom of God
38:51 oriented. Um, brothers and sisters, if you don't know how much I love you, you don't know
38:58 anything. If you don't know how much I enjoy being with you, I just totally miscommunicated everything. But, but let
39:04 me say this to you. This church is not an end in itself.
39:12 This church exists for a much greater purpose than itself.
39:18 This church exists for the sake of the kingdom of God and extending his kingdom
39:25 throughout the world. Not just in Malaysia, but throughout the world.
39:32 You whoa, how can this be? It's the same thing that Jesus said.
39:39 He said that you you'll be my witnesses when the spirit comes upon you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and
39:46 Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth.
39:52 This church exists not to make us happy. Not to make make us feel good and we
39:59 should try to feel good if we can. But this church exists for a much greater
40:05 purpose than just survival or paying the bills or gathering a crowd or getting
40:11 people together. You know, getting people together. If if that's the criteria, you know, Manchester United,
40:18 they have us all beat. Huh? No. It's not how many we gather
40:24 together, it's how many we send out. It's the influence that we have outside.
40:32 that that's what it's all about the kingdom goal and sharing the good news
40:39 outside with everyone. The apostle Paul was goal oriented. He
40:45 just wanted to complete the task that Jesus gave him. That was his goal. The kingdom goal, the task of testifying to
40:53 the good news, the good news of God's grace. Oh brothers and sisters, this is a role
40:60 model worthy of your following. The Apostle
41:05 Paul could say, "Follow me cuz I'm following Jesus."
41:11 Let it always be said that this church can say, "Follow us because we're
41:18 following Jesus. Follow us to that big world. Come and go with us. Come first
41:24 to Jesus Christ. come and take him as your own personal savior and then go with us as we impact our world as we
41:33 realize the the fulfillment of the goal that God has for us. May that always be
41:41 May that always be for this church. The Apostle Paul just didn't stop there.
41:50 They all cried. He told him, he said, "I I don't know if you're ever going to see me again. Now, I hope to see you next
41:56 Sunday. But they all cried and they all wept and the the Apostle
42:03 Paul gave them some things to remember.
42:08 He said, "Just remember how I was among you." And he he told the elders, he said, "I I
42:15 want you to remember who owns the church, who it belongs to.
42:23 Christ purchased the church with his own blood. It's not ours. It's his. And honestly,
42:31 brothers and sisters, a lot of foolishness in churches could be dealt with when we realize it's not ours. It's
42:37 his. It's not ours. And then he said, "Be alert. Be alert.
42:44 Don't let nothing divide you." He said, "Be alert cuz there'll be people that rise up and and they'll be selfish and
42:50 they'll be ambitious. They'll try to carve people away." They said, "Be alert. Remember to be alert and remember
42:55 the words of Jesus. It's more blessed to give
43:00 than to receive." Oh, brothers and sisters,
43:06 you're preparing for your future. I looked at those kids and my heart just I said, "Whoa." And I'm watch the youth up
43:11 here. I'm going, "Yes, yes." He called them to remember the future all the
43:17 time. All the time. We are laying foundations for our future. Remember
43:23 that, brothers and sisters. Remember that everything you're doing is going to yield fruit
43:32 in the future. Sew well. Sew the seeds well into the
43:40 hearts of others. The best way to do that, friends, the
43:47 only way to do that is to first have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
43:56 And that happens when somebody says, you know, I'm done with all this stuff and and I recognize I've got a problem in my
44:02 heart and I can't heal myself. And I I recognize that somebody died on the cross, paid a price for my sins, and
44:10 they were raised from the dead. They they paid the price for my sins that I can have healing in the heart.
44:17 And the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead means that there's power there to heal. It's not just talk. It's
44:25 reality. Jesus will change your life. And we who know him, we have changed
44:31 lives. Stories have changed lives. And for those who don't know him, very simple. We said, "Jesus, I need you. I
44:39 need you for my own. Would you come into my life? Will you forgive me? Will you heal me? Will you be my master? Will you
44:47 take this mess and do something with it? I commit it to you. The moment somebody's ready to do that, I guarantee
44:54 you God's willing to receive them. That's what the cross is all about. That's what Easter's all about. That's
44:60 what this church is all about. That's what the kingdom of God's all about. seeing this love grow from the heart of
45:06 God into the hearts of people. Amen. Let's stand and pray together.
45:18 Father, I want to thank you for the privilege of being with my brothers and sisters here again at Subong.
45:27 Father, I want to ask you to move among our hearts in our time of invitation.
45:35 Got this hymn of invitation, Lord. And it's a time not just a way to get out of church, but it's a time to reflect and a
45:43 time to commit. It's a time to talk to you and hear you
45:49 talk to us and a time for us to humble our hearts before you.
45:55 It's a time to celebrate the role models that you've given to us. It's a time to
46:01 ask about how well we're emulating those. And and Father, for some, it's a it's a
46:07 time of asking the question, maybe all the models they've followed have been
46:13 flawed, and it's time to take the model of Jesus Christ.
46:19 Lord, you move among us as we have this hymn of invitation. Uh would you touch our hearts? Would you
46:25 do your work? Would you call us to yourself?
46:30 Yeah. In Jesus name I ask. Amen.
