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00:06 Once again, it's my joy and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of God. We are in the midst of
00:12 the uh Chinese New Year season and so let me first wish you uh singer.
00:19 It's good to see so many of you come dressed in red. I was telling the Dr.
00:24 Mano, I say you look more Chinese than Chinese.
00:30 Yesterday I went out specially to buy this Okay,
00:35 last minute. The Luna New Year is a very significant
00:41 date in the Chinese calendar and observing it is something very central
00:47 in Chinese culture. If you celebrate this occasion, I trust that you have had
00:52 a wonderful time with your family and perhaps also reconnecting with uh family
00:58 members who might have uh come back from afar. It's a tradition for the family for the
01:03 members of the family to try to come back and together for a meal the reunion
01:09 dinner on Chinese New Year Eve. Indeed, to the Chinese, the family is such an
01:16 important part of life. and members of an earthly family uh we are bounded uh
01:22 we are bonded by uh by blood or by marriage and the Chinese family is often
01:28 a very closely knitted community. In fact, it is like a mirror of the
01:35 spiritual family of which we are also a part of. While the earthly while earthly families
01:41 are bonded by uh by blood or marriage, the foundation of God's family, the
01:47 spiritual family is the gospel. And uh that's why our theme for this year is
01:53 close to my heart, building gospel- centered communities. And this will be the backdrop of today's sermon.
02:01 The title of today's sermon is uh hold on, let me switch this on.
02:10 The title of uh today's sermon is barely fruitful or bearing fruits uh with a
02:16 question mark. We have finished the series on the book of judges and next week we'll begin a new series on uh one
02:22 Corinthians. And in between these two series I've been given a free topic. Initially I thought it would be great to
02:28 be given a chance to speak on any topic I want. Uh perhaps I could preach on my
02:33 favorite Bible passage. But later it turned out to be quite a headache because I couldn't decide. I couldn't
02:38 make up my mind on on what to speak on. So in the end I I thought this will be a
02:43 nice uh uh topic of bearing fruits and I crafted this uh title with a bit of
02:49 alliteration. Are you barely fruitful or are you bearing fruits?
02:56 in in support of our our theme this year of building gospel- centered communities. I shall describe at length
03:03 uh what a member of our spiritual community ought to be like and I shall elaborate on the qualities that define a
03:11 child of God in his family. The text I've chosen uh is the first eight verses
03:16 from uh John chapter 15 which revolve around the metaphor of the vine and its
03:22 branches and their fruits or the or the lack of but the text will only serve as
03:27 a springboard to our main topic and I don't intend to dwell on the text in the usual depth. Instead, the verses will
03:34 lead us to the larger question of what it means to be a child of God uh bearing fruits as a believer within a community
03:42 of believers. But shall we first uh commit this time to the Lord in prayer.
03:47 Our father in heaven uh in this happy season of Chinese New Year, cause us also cause us also to reflect on what it
03:53 means to belong to the spiritual family that you have blessed us with. open the eyes of our faith as we discuss this
04:00 topic of bearing fruits within the context of a community of your people.
04:05 For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. As an introduction, uh let me relate to
04:12 you a story uh with a bit of a obscure but interesting history thrown in.
04:20 Almost 40 years ago uh in the early 1980s a long time ago I found myself uh
04:26 staying in this foreign students do in Osaka while pursuing my tertiary
04:32 education in Japan. In that dometry with me there were six other Malaysian students
04:38 uh whose company I greatly enjoyed. I still remember who they are names. When
04:43 you're far away from home in a strange land for for a number of years, it is nice to be among your own people. There
04:50 were hundreds of others foreign students living in a dometry from countries across the world. I remember the South
04:57 Americans, they were fond of uh drinking and partying. Uh the uh the students
05:03 from Thailand, they were always very clickish, you know, sticking together, doing things together. And the group
05:10 from Singapore, I don't I don't often see them because they are locked up in their room. They say they're studying
05:15 very hard. You know, the Singaporeans always very competitive. And there were other students from Africa, the Middle
05:22 East, and various parts of Asia. And we were a bunch of uh only seven from
05:27 Malaysia. Now, right about this time, we're talking about the early 80s, China was
05:34 going was undergoing rapid reforms under the leadership of Deng Xiaoing
05:40 and they began to send students overseas to study and a number of them started to
05:45 appear in our dometry and they were mostly above the age of 40 and they had
05:50 come to pursue uh mostly post-graduate programs. At first, the Chinese government wasn't confident about
05:56 sending young people for studies overseas for fear that they might get uh brainwashed. So, they only send the
06:03 older ones whose minds were not so meleable.
06:09 One evening, like any other evening, um I was having uh dinner with my Malaysian
06:14 friends in the cafeteria downstairs and a student from China was sitting nearby eating quietly and it was a gentleman in
06:22 his 50s who had arrived recently. And unknowing to us, he was listening in to
06:28 our conversation. And when he finished his meal, he turned to us and in a friendly tone, he asked
06:35 in Mandarin, "Are you all from Malaysia?" And we said, "Yes." And he says, "You
06:42 know, actually I was from EPO." What? We were stunned.
06:50 Now about 10 years ago uh some some 25 years after I left Japan I was back in Osaka for a meeting and but I took some
06:57 time to visit the place uh where I used to live and it was in a suburb to the
07:02 north of uh of the city a place called Sandy and to my surprise the dometry was
07:08 still there and I was overwhelmed by a sense of nostalgia as I look at this
07:15 building my room 408 was on the fourth floor to right of the building and all
07:21 those sweet memories came back to me and this was where uh this story took place
07:27 and anyway we were very surprised that this student from China was from and who is this Chinese national who was
07:34 born and bred in and it turned out that he had something to do with chairman Maoong
07:43 who took power in 1949 and that event in 1949
07:49 uh caused uh or triggered a nationalistic fever that swept overseas
07:55 Chinese communities from Singapore to San Francisco. There was an urgent call
08:01 uh to help to come and help build rebuild the motherland. And many young idealistic Chinese from
08:09 Singapore to San Francisco, they responded to that call, including some from Malaya and including this guy from
08:16 Hippo. They left their homes and went to China to help build a socialist utopia.
08:24 But sadly that turn out that turned out to be utterly disastrous and even deadly
08:29 because during Mao's great leap forward from 1958 to 62 tens of millions of
08:36 Chinese died of starvation and China remained very poor and backward until perhaps the later half of
08:44 the 1980s. By the mid60s, many of these overseas Chinese had become very disillusioned,
08:52 but they could not they couldn't go home either because they might have uh got married and had families in China or
08:59 they were not allowed to come home. The Malaysian government didn't want them back. And our chat with this Chinese
09:06 national continued in the cafeteria. And he was very curious to know what life was like in Malaysia, whether we were
09:14 living comfortable lives back home. And some of my friends were very mischievous. And he told him and we told
09:19 him, "Oh, you know, on the average, we own two cars for family and in, you
09:24 know, in a typical home, a TV in every every room." You know, of course, we had
09:30 a bit of exaggeration. remember China was was still very backward uh and poor at that time.
09:36 But what has this got to do with our topic today? It is actually my long- winded way of telling you something
09:43 which is Malaysians in general have a common identity. There is something
09:49 about Malaysians that set us apart from other nationalities. You know, when I travel abroad for for
09:56 holidays, I could tell if another tourist is a Malaysian with almost 100%
10:02 accuracy. And on rare occasions when I when I get
10:07 it wrong, it's because that guy came from Singapore.
10:13 Especially if he lives in Malaysia and someone married a Malaysian wife. And I know one such Singaporean.
10:26 Now in in the case of this gentleman from China who sat near to us at the cafeteria, he heard what we talk about
10:33 and how we said it. He observed our our body language, our mannerism and he
10:38 could tell that we we were Malaysians cuz our behavior and our language resonated strongly in his heart because
10:45 he was one of us and he was an EPO boy. And okay, I'd like to uh to pause here
10:51 for a while and but I'll come back to this shortly and we will link it to our discussion on bearing fruits. Now we
10:57 shall take a quick look at uh uh at our text for today uh John 15:es 1-8. As I
11:04 said, this will only uh uh serve as a as a kind of a stepping stone to our main topic and so I will not dwell I will not
11:11 examine these verses in any detail. Okay. Now, a quick scan of the text shows us that the word fruitful or fruit
11:19 is all over the place and it appears seven times in eight verses. I counted
11:25 them, trust me, seven times. And it's obvious that the need to be fruitful is
11:30 a dominant theme in the text. Now, to put this into context, these were words
11:35 spoken by Jesus on the night when he had his uh last supper with the disciples. And the night before he was arrested,
11:43 tried and crucified. And this text is part of the so-called
11:48 upper room discourse because it took place in this upper room in Jerusalem.
11:53 And a number of you might have visited this historic place. The upper room discourse stretches over five chapters
12:01 uh from John chapter 13 to chapter 17 and they constitute the last teachings
12:06 of Jesus to his disciples. And as a part as part of this teaching, Jesus
12:12 emphasized the need for Christians to bear fruits. He used the metaphor of a
12:18 gardener working in a vineyard. And he described a vine or the main trunk with
12:24 its many branches and whether these branches are fruitful or not. With its
12:30 um with its many branches, you know, uh we see some that are fruitful and some
12:37 that are not. And right at the beginning in verse one uh he uh he explained the
12:42 symbolism behind the metaphor. Uh Jesus identified God the father as the
12:47 gardener and he himself is the vine. Now what about the branches? Who are the
12:54 branches? Although although not explicitly mentioned here the branches are people who profess to believe in
13:00 Jesus who claim to be followers of Christ. But what about the fruits?
13:06 grapes of course in this case. What do they represent? If the branches bear
13:12 fruits, what are believers supposed to produce? Now, although not mentioned here, the fruits are the outer evidence
13:20 of our inner faith, the outer evidence of our inner faith. And this is our main
13:26 topic today. But more on this later. Now coming back to our text, it says that
13:32 the gardener does two things. Firstly from verse two, every branch that does
13:37 bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. And so using a pair
13:43 of pruning seasons, the gardener trims each fruitful branch, cutting off
13:49 unwanted bits and pieces of the branch and leaves so that it will produce more fruits. Because the gardener wants what
13:57 what the gardener wants is more fruitfulness, not less. And the branches are supposed to produce fruits in
14:03 greater and greater quantities. But the second thing the gardener does
14:08 also from verse two is that he cuts off every branch that bears no fruits. And
14:14 from further down from verse six, these useless branches are then thrown away to wither and later they are cast into the
14:22 fire and burned. And this time uh the gardener doesn't use pruning scissors
14:29 but a but a saw or an axe to chop off those unfruitful branches. They are cut
14:36 away completely from the vine and then destroyed. Now this is certainly a scary metaphor
14:43 and many Christians are rather unsettled by these verses because it raises a a
14:49 troubling question. If I'm a Christian, but if I don't bear fruits, will I lose
14:55 my salvation? And some will point out, doesn't the Bible teach once saved, always saved?
15:03 Now, I hesitate to get entangled in this controversial subject because it will
15:08 take a full sermon for me to address this adequately. And furthermore, this isn't part of our main topic. But I'll
15:15 offer you later some thoughts so that you can go home and think uh and ponder over this. But just before that, let's
15:23 quickly look at the rest of the text. In the rest of the text, uh Jesus told his disciples uh how to be a fruitful how to
15:31 be a fruitful branch. And that is by remaining in him or remaining in the
15:36 vine. And he said this repeatedly uh in our text. And if I include uh verses uh
15:44 9 and 10, he actually said it seven times, remain in me, remain in a vine or
15:50 remain in my love. Now I don't includes verse six because it says if you don't remain in me. So seven times Jesus
15:57 talked about bearing fruits and seven times he implored his disciples to
16:02 remain in him. But what does it mean to remain in Jesus? briefly it it means to
16:08 be committed to him to be true to him to be faithful to him and to stay on course
16:15 and I shall leave it at that because again it is not part of our main topic. Now quickly going back to the question
16:21 of once once saved always saved and I promise to share some thoughts with you. I believe many of you are itching for an
16:27 answer. The question is can I lose my salvation? Is my salvation secure? Does
16:34 the Bible teach once saved always saved? I'm sorry to tell you that uh that there
16:40 is no straightforward answer. This is not a question to which a simple answer can be given. But nevertheless, let me
16:47 frame it in a way that might prompt you to study this further on your own. And it's like this.
16:54 For those who are unsure of their salvation, for those who harbor doubts
16:59 whether they are really saved, scripture offers plenty of asurances. Scripture
17:06 offers plenty of asurances. And there are many verses that comfort us with a hope and certainty that there is now no
17:13 condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you are a true believer, nothing will ever separate you from the
17:20 love of God. And several weeks ago, a young man came to see me, the son of a
17:25 fellow FBC member. And he was very troubled because he wasn't sure of his
17:31 salvation even though he had been baptized. And we had a long chat. And I spent a great deal a a great deal of
17:36 time to point out to him that his salvation is assured. I pointed I I
17:42 quoted him u I quoted him 1 John 1:12. Yet to all who
17:49 who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. And this is a
17:56 beautiful verse guaranteeing that our salvation is secure if we would receive
18:01 Jesus and believe in his name. But the ones who hear the word but that
18:07 means there's a caveat. But for those who take their salvation for granted,
18:13 for those who don't take their faith seriously, the Bible at the same time carries plenty of warnings for these
18:20 Christians. Scripture both in the Old and New Testament cautions those who take God
18:27 and his commands lightly or carelessly. Our text today from John 15 is one such
18:33 passage warning us to be careful in the conduct of our faith.
18:39 A similar uh uh warning verse from from Matthew chapter 7 says, "Not everyone
18:47 who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one
18:52 who does the will of my father." A serious warning verse, not to make a
18:58 mockery of our salvation. So in summary, in if you're unsure of your salvation
19:04 after receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Bible assures you that your salvation is secure and solid. But if
19:12 you make light of your salvation, if you don't bear fruit, the Bible at the same time contains plenty of warnings
19:20 directed at you so that it will make you think very carefully. And I'll leave it
19:25 at that. this topic of once safe always safe as I'm reluctant to dwell too much on it and I don't want to this to
19:32 distract us from the main topic of bearing fruits. I know in choosing uh this passage from John 15 uh as a
19:40 background text for today's sermon I I I'm aware that I I need to issue I need to address this issue even briefly but
19:46 let's move on to the main topic of bearing fruits. We are almost done with the text but it's clear uh from the text
19:54 that followers of Jesus must bear fruits. This the consequence of not
20:00 doing so is is clear and severe as we saw just now and the whole text may be
20:05 summarized uh by verse five. This part of verse 5, if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
20:15 And this implies that if a believer remains in Christ and and vice versa,
20:20 bearing fruits will come naturally. And this means that a true believer who is
20:26 committed to Jesus not only must he bear fruits, he will bear fruits in due
20:31 course. And this also means that the gospel is not only just about salvation. It is not
20:38 just a matter of getting your passport to heaven and that's it. You can go back to your old way of living. Salvation
20:45 must be followed by transformation. As the Holy Spirit works in us, in our
20:51 lives, molding us and shaping us. And as the spirit does so, the fruits will come
20:58 out over time and in growing quantities. And that's why is called the fruit of
21:04 the spirit. But what the text doesn't do is to describe this fruit since it's a
21:11 vineyard. Jesus was using the metaphor of grapes. What do the grapes represent?
21:17 Now, as mentioned earlier, the fruits symbolize the outer evidence of our
21:22 inner faith. The visible signs of uh uh our transformation inside. And it'll be
21:29 useful for us, very useful for us to take a closer look at this. What kind of
21:34 evidence or signs from various parts of the New Testament?
21:39 I have picked up four different manifestations or expressions of this
21:45 fruit of the spirit and which all believers must and will produce.
21:53 One, the fruit of character from Galatians 5. Two, the fruit of good work
22:00 from Colossians 1. Three, the fruit of communal love from uh John 15 further
22:07 down from our text. And lastly, the fruit of lips from uh Hebrews 13 or the
22:13 fruit of worship. There may be some overlap between the first three.
22:19 Now, I'm not talking about four different fruits, but one fruit manifested or expressed in
22:26 four ways. And this list is by no means uh exhaustive. You may be able to offer
22:32 other descriptions of this fruit but these four will serve our purpose today and I shall explain them one by one
22:38 especially in the context of our membership in the community of believers.
22:44 Let me start by asking an important question. A question I'm often asked. How can we
22:51 tell if a person is a Christian or not? Let's assume that he doesn't openly say
22:57 that he's a Christian. From one's speech and actions, is it possible to determine
23:03 if he's a follower of Christ? The answer is
23:09 yes or no. Yes. It's a yes. How?
23:15 Look at the fruit he produces. Look for these four things.
23:22 Because Jesus says in Matthew 7, by their fruit you will recognize them.
23:30 The logic is simple. If you tell me this is a rambutan tree, then let me see some
23:35 rambutan fruits on that tree. If I see mangoes or durian, then it cannot be a
23:43 rambutan tree. Similarly, if you say this person is a Christian, then let's
23:48 see the fruit of the spirit. If we see a different fruit then he cannot be a
23:53 Christian. And then at the end of our text Jesus said this is to my father's glory that
23:59 you bear much fruit showing yourself to be my disciples. Showing yourself to be
24:05 my disciples. Meaning the fruit is visible for all to see.
24:12 And that's why I started to talk I started the sermon by talking about the uh uh what happened in the dometry in
24:17 Osaka. is each group of student from a different country was unique each with
24:23 its own set of characteristics. We were like a a huge this big field planted
24:30 with different types of fruit trees and the fruits could be seen. Each tree uh
24:36 in that field represented a certain country and the Malaysians including me
24:41 uh the Malaysian tree had had this its unique characteristics and we were different from the other trees by our
24:47 fruits in the way we talk and the way we behaved. And to use a Malay term we
24:52 Malaysians were satam or literally one kind and other people were l macham or
25:00 another kind. That was how I felt. Now the student from China who sat who
25:07 sat nearby and watched us. He watched our speech and our actions and he could recognize us because he used to be a
25:13 branch in the Malaysian tree. He knew the fruits from this tree. But as a
25:19 young man he chose to graft his branch on the China tree.
25:25 Yeah, that's what he did. Whether it was a wise decision or not, uh it's hard to tell. But I did sense at that time that
25:33 he must have wondered what it would have been like had he remained in EPO.
25:40 Now each of us here we are a branch in attached to the true
25:46 vine who is Jesus. We are not branches of other trees. There are many other trees especially trees of the worldly
25:52 kind but we don't belong to them. And therefore we have to and we will bear
25:58 the fruits that we are supposed to bear namely the fruit of the spirit.
26:04 But if your branch isn't bearing this fruit or was still bearing a wrong type
26:09 of fruit and pray then pray and ask the gardener to prune you so that you will
26:16 become fruitful again. Now let's examine each of these four
26:21 expressions of the fruit of the spirit. uh the first is the fruit of character. These are the four fruits, four
26:28 expressions of the fruit and the first is the fruit of character from the well-coated uh Galatians 2 uh 5 22 and
26:36 23. In fact, when I mentioned the fruit of the spirit just now many of you were thinking of these two verses.
26:42 The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,
26:49 fruit, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
26:55 And notice the word fruit is singular.
27:00 It's one fruit, not nine different fruits. This is a poster I came across uh on the
27:07 internet sold by a supplier of Sunday school teaching material. But can you tell the mistake in this
27:15 poster? You see, it is not nine different
27:20 fruits. So, they got it wrong. What we have in these two Galatian verses are nine
27:27 different attributes of the same fruit and they all related to character. And
27:32 that's why I term it the fruit of character. is a description of the
27:38 Christian character which should be a reflection of the character of Jesus himself.
27:43 Now character comes from deep within that defines what we are. The dictionary
27:49 defines uh describes character as the as the set of mental and moral qualities uh
27:56 distinctive to each individual. So what Paul is doing here is to prescribe a set
28:03 of qualities, inner qualities that defines what a Christian ought to be
28:08 like. Qualities that are shaped by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
28:13 And this godly character in turn drives our behavior. I didn't say uh fruit of
28:19 behavior because behavior is how we act in public. Behavior is the way we conduct ourselves before others. Our
28:27 behavior largely springs from our character and partly also moderated by our circumstances. But character goes
28:33 deeper and that's why I use the term fruit of character. Now as we look at this set of nine
28:40 attributes that defines uh the Christian character, a question may arise. Can I
28:46 have some of these but not some of the rest? Is it possible that a Christian is a loving person also joyful and peaceful
28:54 but he totally lacks self-control? Sorry. These nine attributes come as a
29:00 set one set. You cannot pick and choose. You can have some and and at the same
29:05 time not have others. There may be varying degree in how each of these
29:10 attributes shows up in our behavior. But when the spirit works within us, all of
29:15 them, I repeat, all of them will eventually be evident in our lives. Now,
29:21 we certainly don't have the time uh to go through each of these nine attributes. But as I said earlier, I
29:27 would like to discuss this topic of bearing fruits in the context of our membership in the community of
29:33 believers. And to do this, I shall pick just one of these nine qualities and
29:38 spend a a couple of minutes to look at it closely. And let me zoom in on the quality of forbearance.
29:45 And this isn't a common word that we use today. But interestingly, good for us
29:51 that the RSV and the NASB versions use the word patience, which is a word we
29:56 can understand. The Bible often paints God as a patient God. And there are many
30:02 Old Testament verses that describe God as slow to anger, meaning that he is
30:09 long-tempered. if there's such a word, you know, as opposed to being short-teered. In Romans 2, uh verse4,
30:16 Paul depicts God as as being tolerant and patient. And hence, hence, patience
30:23 is a godly quality, a virtue. But what exactly is patience?
30:29 Patience, you see, is the capacity to tolerate delays and problems without
30:35 becoming annoyed, meaning very hard to get irritated. But generally we are impatient people.
30:42 We react with impatience when the bank teller uh takes a long time to attend to us or if the car in front is too slow
30:51 and we become impatient when the doctor takes forever to see us. Talk about an
30:56 impatient patient. Funny, huh? The patient is impatient.
31:03 Now if you think about it, we show impatience when things are not done in the manner that we demand or according
31:10 to the timing that we expect is what we want is what we demand what
31:16 we expect. And hence impatience is a very self-centered thing. It doesn't take into consideration the circumstance
31:23 of others. For example, the driver of the slow car in front of you. He could be an old man
31:30 from out of town and is unfamiliar with the roads. But we often don't think of others in that way.
31:37 More importantly, in the context of our community life in this church, patience
31:42 can cause tensions uh in our midst. It can result in strains in our
31:48 relationships. If we wish to build a godly community in FBC, patience is such
31:54 a desirable quantity equality among its members. We want all of us to be
32:02 patient. Proverbs 15:18 has this advice very
32:07 interesting. Hot tempers cause arguments, but patience brings peace.
32:15 And the Bible also teaches us in James chapter 1, everyone should be quick to listen,
32:22 slow to speak and slow to become angry means patience
32:29 because get human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.
32:36 Moving on, number two in our list of the four expressions of the fruit of the spirit is the fruit of good work. And I
32:43 draw this from Colossians 1:es 9 and 10. Again, Paul is writing here. We
32:49 continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through the through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives so that you may
32:55 live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work.
33:04 Bearing fruit in every good work. So I call it the fruit of good work and
33:12 good work. And good work here includes extending love and care and help to those who are in need, to those who are
33:18 less fortunate. And the basis of this isn't hard to understand. And we we recall throughout Jesus' earthly
33:24 ministry how he reached out to the poor uh to the sick and to the oppressed. He showed much compassion to these
33:31 categories of people. And so every bibleelving church would want to emulate
33:37 the way Jesus ministered to these people. The church of Jesus Christ must
33:42 be actively involved in social work. Of course, this kind of work can be done by the individual. I know many of you would
33:50 would not hesitate to spend money and time and energy to help the needy in your personal capacity. God bless you
33:57 for your efforts. But when we come together as a church, we can do much more and we can do it more effectively.
34:05 members with different giftings and and skills and expertise. When they work together to do good work, they can carry
34:12 out a very successful ministry. Collectively, we can be more than the sum total of our individual efforts. And
34:19 the two macario homes that we run nearby for the underprivileged kids are good examples of this collective effort. And
34:27 I thank God for pastor Rama and pastor Lawrence who spearhead this ministry.
34:32 And I also give praise to many others who are involved in the Saturday uh street feeding and the Tuesday English
34:39 classes. These are for the benefits of children from the povertystricken areas of uh desamaria near to sunway because
34:46 when the spirit works in our lives he will motivate us to to do such good work
34:52 and if you have a heart or calling for this kind of good work please contact the uh respective persons in charge.
34:59 Paul writes in uh in in Galatians 6:9, "Let us not become weary in doing good,
35:06 for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." And the
35:11 harvest here means a harvest of blessings from God.
35:16 Now here I would like to point out something important but not well appreciated. You see immediately after
35:21 this verse in verse 10, Paul also writes, "Let us do good to all people,
35:29 especially to those who belong to the family of believers."
35:35 Especially to those who belong to the family of believers. In other words, our good work must start from within this
35:43 community of of believers. When we help others outside the church, we must not forget to render assistance to our own
35:50 people. Which brings me to the next point in our list. The fruit of communal
35:57 love. The fruit of communal love. And I take it from uh John 15:16.
36:03 Uh Jesus is speaking here. You did not choose me, but I chose you and pointed you so that you might go and bear fruit.
36:11 Now this is part of the uh upper room discourse I mentioned uh further down from our text. Emily says go and bear
36:20 fruit. But what kind of fruit? Although the exact nature of the fruit mentioned here isn't described but we can easily
36:26 deduce this uh uh from the immediate context of what Jesus was saying because
36:32 because four verses before this verse in verse 12 Jesus instructed his disciples
36:38 my command is this love each other as I loved you and two verses after this in verse 14 he continued if you are my
36:44 friend you're my friends if you do what I command and right after verse 16 in verse 17 Jesus repeated what he had just
36:51 said this is My command love each other. So the clear context here is to love one
36:57 another and hence I term it as the fruit of communal love or love within the
37:03 community of believers. Now it's worthy of note that this command to love one another is a
37:08 prominent is a crucial theme in the upper room discourse. When the last supper was uh in progress,
37:15 Jesus started to wash his disciples feet. And shortly after that, he proclaimed in John 13, "A new command I
37:22 give you. Love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are
37:28 my disciples if you love one another." And this command to to to to love one
37:34 another is repeated in John 15 as we just saw where Jesus told them to go and bear fruit. The fruit of loving one
37:42 another. And based on verse 35 here, if we show this fruit of loving one
37:47 another, this fruit of communal love, people around us will see the fruit and they will know that we are followers of
37:53 Christ. If members of FBC obey this commandment earnestly, this church will
38:00 become a model for the other churches. We will have a caring and loving
38:06 community as what Jesus desires us to be. You know, we have about 600
38:12 worshippers or maybe more than that from the two main services here. Maybe four to 500 people excluding the youth and
38:19 the Sunday school kids. But we have only two pastors. Pastor Rama and Pastor Ling
38:26 who shoulder the bulk of the work of pastorial care. How can two pastors possibly meet the
38:32 needs of 600 worshippers or more? Numerically it is a difficult task. But
38:38 we if we all can lend a hand to extend care and help to those in need within us
38:44 in our midst then this fruit of communal love will be very evident in our
38:49 community. If each of us can reach out to just one more person, God will be
38:55 very pleased with you and with FPC. Now coming to the uh last and fourth
39:03 expression of the fruit of the spirit which is the fruit of lips or the fruit of worship and this is derived uh from
39:10 Hebrews 13:15. through Jesus. Therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of
39:17 praise, a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
39:24 And that's thus this fruit of lips is the inclination in us to praise and worship God for what he is and for what
39:32 he has done for us. When the spirit works in us, he will propel us to want to praise and worship God. there will be
39:39 an urge from within us welling up and bursting out of our lips.
39:45 Now how can I illustrate this? I was trying to find a way to illustrate this and that is uh I thought of this. As you
39:52 may know, we have recently started uh our Baselor service happening every
39:57 Sunday at 4 p.m. at the U4, including this afternoon. And this is catering more uh to the uh to those from East
40:05 Malaysia. During the inaugural service last month on the 6th of January, uh we invited uh
40:12 an Indonesian pastor to grace to come and grace the occasion. This pastor Widi
40:18 uh who was standing on the extreme right. This picture is from uh the 6th of January uh inaugural service
40:24 downstairs and she is the one on the extreme right and such a committed uh
40:31 servant of God. Now two Sundays ago I had a privilege of visiting Pastor Widi's congregation in
40:39 Sunai not far from here 10 10 minutes drive it's called the batony church of
40:45 Malaysia. I attended their 8:00 p.m. service and wow
40:51 I had a wonderful experience. The small hall was packed with 200 worshippers
40:58 mostly female uh factory workers from Indonesia. I think I counted less than
41:04 10 guys. The rest you know mostly uh these ladies uh from uh from Indonesia
41:10 working in factories around here. And pastor Widi told me they run four such
41:16 services every Sunday. Why am I telling you this?
41:21 Their time of worship it was an excellent example of this
41:27 fruit of the lips. I mean these girls were singing their heart out. Their worship was vibrant and
41:34 uplifting and simply wonderful. I marvel at the way they worship God. And you got
41:40 to see this one minute video that I took that night. Can we have the video, please?
42:10 Hallelujah.
42:22 Okay, we'll stop it. So you get the you kind of get the idea even though the video doesn't really fully uh capture
42:28 the energy and and and the atmosphere there you got to be there you know.
42:33 Well, compared to these girls, uh we are all much older. I know. So I understand
42:40 if we can't, you know, do all those actions, our body
42:46 of course very stiff. But nevertheless, I hope this will
42:52 inspire you to open your mouth and to move your lips and to worship God from
42:58 the from the bottom of your heart from within from deep within your soul. If
43:04 you want to uh attend this service, let me know. I'll call pastor Widi to expect
43:10 you. You will have a wonderful experience not far from here. 10 minutes away.
43:15 Of course, the fruit of the lips can include private worship when you are alone with God, when you are uh still
43:21 before God. And I trust that your private prayers are marked by much praise and worship. But at the same
43:28 time, corporate worship is something you shouldn't miss on Sundays because there's something special about
43:34 corporate worship. God loves to hear voices singing in unison.
43:43 And the apostle uh John saw plenty of this type of worship in his vision in the book of revelation. So let us be a
43:50 community of believers typified by the fruit of lips.
43:56 Now we have discussed all four expressions of the fruit of spirit from the fruit of character to the fruit of
44:01 good work to the fruit of communal love and lastly the fruit of lips. And as the
44:07 spirit works in our lives, we will start bearing the fruit of the spirit. And all
44:13 these expressions of the fruit will be visible. Now in closing, earlier I described how
44:20 the Malaysians were sat macham in their dometry in Osaka. The parallel question
44:25 is are Christians also satumacham? The answer is yes. Christians uh satum
44:33 macham because they all bear the same fruit the fruit of the spirit and to
44:39 finish the story I started I didn't tell you that I also met three fine Christians in the dometry and I got to
44:46 know them well and till today 40 years later I still remember their names
44:52 from Guatemala such a gentle lady and this young man Inoti from Kenya always
44:60 smiling and full of joy and Juliana from the Philippines, such a
45:05 helpful lady. And we, the four of us met regularly for for Bible study and fellowship in the
45:11 dometry. But what I found most amazing is that even though we are from various corners
45:18 of the world, even those we are from vastly different culture, all four of us
45:23 shared so many similarities in our values and outlook and qualities. How
45:29 can this be so? Because the same spirit is at work in four of us and we bore the
45:36 the same the same spirit is work in each of us and we bore the same spirit.
45:41 There's an old joke about children in the class who were told to write an essay my cat and there was this boy who
45:48 copied his sister's essay word for word. The teacher scolded him why is your
45:54 essay the same exactly the same as your sisters? And the boy replied, "Teacher,
45:59 it's the same cat.
46:06 Same cat, same essay." Similarly,
46:12 same spirit, same fruit. That is the moral.
46:18 This uh is the FBC family, the FBC community that I've been talking about
46:23 throughout the sermon. I'm showing you the group photo from the church camp in 2017.
46:30 You may not be in this uh picture, but you are part of this community.
46:35 Now, incidentally, I just want to digress a bit to promote the church camp a bit.
46:42 You have to attend this year's church camp. Okay? Amen.
46:48 My wife and I two years ago, we absolutely enjoyed the camp. Okay? Just just believe me. So, please sign up.
46:57 Anyway, take a a good look at this at this look look at it carefully. No, I'm not
47:03 asking you to look for yourself in this in the in the in the photo. Okay. It's not easy to find yourself in such a
47:10 big group. Mine easy. I I just quickly look within one second. I saw myself the the only guy with the white hair.
47:17 Well, take a good look at the members of this FBC community.
47:24 Or you may take a look uh around where you're sitting. Some are taller, some
47:30 are shorter, some are more talkative, some are less.
47:36 Some are uh leaders, some are not. We are all different.
47:42 And yet at the same time we are the same because we bear the same fruit in our
47:49 character in our inclination to do good work in our duty to love and care for one another in our in our desire to
47:57 worship God. And having been touched by the gospel let us therefore strive to be
48:02 a community of God's people that bears more and more fruit of the spirit. Shall
48:07 we close in prayer? Our father in heaven, cause us to submit
48:13 more and more to the working of your spirit in our lives so that we will bear more and more of the fruit of the spirit
48:20 so that we will become a community of your people that pleases you and honors
48:26 you. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
