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00:00:00 today's passage is taken from the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 this is the English Standard Version Paul sylvenus and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ grace to you and peace we give thanks to God always for all of you constantly mentioning you in our prayers remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and your labor of love and steadfast of Hope in our Lord Jesus Christ for we know Brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because
00:00:39 our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction you know what kind of man we prove to be among you for your sake and you became imitators of us and of the Lord for you receive the word in much Affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all the Believers in Macedonia and in aaya for not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and aaya but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say
00:01:16 anything for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from Idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from Heaven whom whom he raised from the dead Jesus who delivers us from the Wrath to come this is the word of God thank you very much uh Amanda for reading the scriptures a very blessed New Year to all of you this is the first Sunday of the year you know and uh maybe I ask a question by uh whether you guys have actually kept all your 2023 New Year
00:02:07 resolutions huh no I've kept out of mine they all safely locked up in my study desk but um this year I think there's at least one resolution I hope that all of us can make as a church and that is to resolve together as the body of Christ to discover what the gospel is all about and I'll tell you you know why uh as we go along now before we carry on let us commit a time to the Lord in prayer dear heavenly father we thank you for this Gathering and we thank you for how you have seen us through the last year and
00:02:52 at the dawn of a new year we look in anticipation to be closer to you and to enjoy fellowshipping with you to worship you and to receive your blessings so help us Lord even as We Gather here we pray for your presence to be amongst us and that your word Lord may go forth and accomplish all that you purpose for we ask all this in Jesus name amen now on the last last night of uh 2023 watch Night Service okay we normally have a watch Night Service okay uh to welcome the new year uh you know we witnessed a host of Thanksgiving and
00:03:43 sharing and it's wonderful to see all the Ministries being represented here in this room now I remember Elder AR right reminded all of us how far we have come as a church and some of you all may remember you know that when we started about 14 years ago in 2010 there were only about 150 um people okay and I'm sure not all of them were members today we count ourselves as having 300 plus members we have about 600 on a good day 700 uh regular worshippers we have an online service and we have various Ministries
00:04:25 in last year apart from this Main Service and the Filipino service we also started three different language services so by God's grace he has blessed us much now we certainly don't take all this for granted for this we are indeed very grateful for his Providence now as much as I'm thankful to God for all this they alone cannot be the measure of our success numbers and programs right cannot give us the best picture of whether we are a healthy church or not and this is something that has always been the concern of your pastors
00:05:16 and your elders As Leaders we are always concerned about whether we are moving in the right direction we asked the question is our flock flourishing the way God intents us too Our Lives being transformed are we seeing the fruits of the spirit in our congregation and as we engage the community around us do they see the love of Christ manifest in our lives now it's been said you know that the first 10 years of the church is usually the most exciting why well you know I think yall can imagine right first 10 years is is there's a
00:06:08 freshness you know and everybody is committed and rallying around a common purpose you know there's uh usually a lot of commitment and there's usually a lot of sacrifices being made now there's always Zeal you know uh in a new church and then after 10 or 15 years not always but sometimes you know it begins to slow down and then the church kind of plateau right and God forbid it might even decline now a church on the outside can be flourishing you know with all the activities but inwardly at its core it
00:06:55 can be very self-serving you know it can be very cold and it can even be um devoid of the grace and transformative powers of our Lord Jesus now as elders and pastors responsible for your spiritual well-being we certainly do not want this to happen to FBC so how do we avoid such a scenario well we can avoid this from happening by ensuring that we really understand and embrace the gospel which is actually foundational to our very existence you and I exist as Christians and we together as a church exists why
00:07:48 because of the Gospel therefore it is useful and even crucial for us to revisit and to reacquaint ourselves with what the gospel is all about now in the process I'm sure that some of us may even be discovering the gospel the true gospel for the very first time now what is the gospel I mean you know you may be asking like don't we all know what the gospel is I'm sure many of you all can actually articulate what the gospel is you know you say man was born a sinner we are destined to hell and eternity without
00:08:31 God but Jesus the God man the only begotten Son of God came to live a perfect life and died a death that I should have died and all who put their faith in Christ and opened and repent of their sins will be forgiven and have everlasting life some of you may even have heard of The Gospel presentation presented in this way you know over the Ark of the entire Bible you know talking about uh the creation and then the fall all right and then uh Redemption okay and then renewal okay and then the final
00:09:11 restoration when Christ comes again you know we call this the four or the five chapters of the Gospel but you see the thing is this you may be able to articulate the gospel very well but having but have the truth of the go gospel really captivated your life on an ongoing basis that's the question you know it's like um honey I I can describe honey to you you know all right saying that it's golden brown is actually a liquid you know it's viscosity right and it's actually very sweet but until you taste
00:09:51 it you haven't really known what honey is all about so sometimes we live life just like this and I mean we know mentally what the gospel is but the question is does it manifest all the gospel principles does it manifest in our life so today I've only uh Four Points all right for you to consider okay and they are to help you to remember uh the message okay Four Points all starting with PE power preaching prayer and practice and what we will do right uh is first of all right to see the effects of the
00:10:36 Gospel when it was being preached right to the Thessalonian church so before you know for those of you who are not very acquainted okay with uh the Thessalonian the book of the letter to Thessalonians let me just give you a very quick uh uh background okay Thessalonian right is a church of course in Tessalon in the region called Macedonia which today is modern turkey now the background of how this church started right is actually recorded for us in Acts chapter 16 and 17 okay you remember that you know Paul okay had a
00:11:13 vision and seeing a man uh asking him to come to Macedonia right he set forth with uh Silas okay and Timothy okay in what is known as his second missionary journey and then he didn't arrived at the capital of uh a city in Macedonia called Philippi okay and there was some conversions and he planted a church there okay and a sister called Lydia was uh uh converted and then because uh Paul cast out a uh you know demon okay inside a fortune telling girl okay uh the master Trump up some charges right and
00:11:52 put them in prison and you remember the story right of Paul and Silas right worshiping God uh in the jail okay and then God miraculously saved him okay uh uh from that predicament right by sending an earthquake and loosening right all the gates and then the Jailer was about to kill himself right because the the prisoners were he thought the prisoners were going to escape okay uh and Paul says stop stop don't kill yourself all right and that's was how the Jailer was converted you remember the story okay and soon after that okay
00:12:25 Paul and his companions were asked to leave the city okay because the magistrate suddenly discovered that they were actually Roman citizens so Paul having suffered all this persecution right then came to Tessalon and as his his Customs he went into the synagogue and he started to preach okay but you see those people who were persecuting him in Philippi right came after him so he couldn't stay in thessalonica for very long in fact acts 17 tells us that he was only there for three Sabbath day that's less than a month okay that's you
00:13:02 know three to four weeks time now the the the reason why this is important right is when Paul writes the letter to the tonians okay he was actually writing it okay after he had left the church okay uh he had some conversions there all right mainly Greeks okay and a few Jews and of the people that was converted there Paul planted a church okay a church in 3 weeks to four weeks okay and then he had to leave and then when he was writing this letter right he was actually writing it from Corinth okay about a year
00:13:45 later now in between this time he had actually sent Timothy back in order to encourage the church in thessalonica and when Timothy came back okay he gave a very glowing report okay of the church over there okay and this is what U Timothy said uh uh Paul writes in a letter but Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news of your faith and love and moreover okay this is how uh Paul Char characterizes right the church there say and so you became a model an example okay of all the Believers in the
00:14:33 region of Macedonia and ARA the Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and AA your faith in God has become known everywhere 3 weeks of preaching amidst severe persecution with a lot of opposition Paul had expected them to waver but instead when Timothy came back with a report right Paul was glad to find that not only had they not stumbled the Thessalonian church has actually been flourishing and tribing why is that well 1 Thessalonians chap 1 tell us right in verse four for we know brothers
00:15:32 and sisters loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction okay so I want us to focus first of all on the word power okay there is true and genuine conversion in the Thessalonian church and it is the result right of gospel preaching that comes with power this power right is from the Greek word ad dunamis all right from which we get the English work Dynamite okay or Dynamo okay uh and and it is a power right that changes the
00:16:34 lives of uh the Thessalonians now this power right is not a human kind of power it is a supernatural power it is a power right that defies logic that defies expectation okay in 1 Corinthians 1:18 it says for the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are saved it is the power of God Romans 1:6 for I not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes first to the Jew and then to the Gentiles it is a power that is
00:17:18 divine and is power that is able to do the impossible Romans tells us right that it is able to reconcile both Jews and Gentiles in the church and these two groups of people have been hating each other for generations and generations the power that is divine is able to reconcile enemies so what does this power all right what is the impact of this power on the uh on the church well we read further okay for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God
00:18:10 from Idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from Heaven whom he raised from the dead Jesus who delivered us from the Wrath to come so the first effect of the power of the Gospel right is that it creates conversion conversion okay and conversion right is here described as turning to God from Idols to serve the living and true God what does that sound like to you well that's repentance okay when somebody turns 180° away from the idols okay in order to serve God so Idols can mean many in our lives
00:19:04 right in the ancient times it was actually physical material Idols that they worship but if you have been a Christian and you are truly converted your Idols you know it could be your career your family right these are the things that not that they're not important but they become secondary right towards serving God and of course a second trait of conversion right is that they have the hope the hope of Jesus Christ coming again all right in order to usher in right new heavens and the new Earth so hope and anticipation from for
00:19:53 the return of Jesus the Same Jesus that God has raised from the dead who will bring final judgment on this world and Usher in a new era but the third thing all right that the power of the Gospel had uh in their Chang life okay is when they sought to become imitators of us and imitators of the Lord okay as you became imitators of us and imitators of the Lord now the word imitators right means to mimic so true conversion right means that the Christian would want to be like Christ to think like he
00:20:40 thinks and to want what he wants I see it's like an orchestra you know uh uh everybody going their own way all right playing different instrument okay and Jesus is like the conductor okay that whenever everybody is in tuned all right with Jesus all right they give forth a wonderful Melody and so it is all right uh with the church when everybody all right is in tuned and trying to mimic Jesus Christ can you imagine what Unity there would be in the church and then of course one of the effects all right of the power of the
00:21:27 Gospel being Unleashed in the church right is that there is Joy okay remember before our God uh uh there is much joy okay uh Joy uh even in the midst of sufferings okay I think uh the verse is uh there's a verse over there okay that says I mean you will see it it's not on the screen but there's a verse that says amidst much severe suffering right they have experienced Joy now you s see right the word suffering and joy in the same sentence okay so summarize Paul's uh uh characterization of a true Bible
00:22:14 believing converted church right is this right that we remember before God and Father your work produced by faith your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by by hope faith Love and Hope true conversion right is actually active Okay true Faith actually produces work not the other way around okay true love all right produces causes Christians to labor to serve God right and true hope okay sustains the Christian in his walk or in her walk so the gospel is first of all power all right a power to change and bring about
00:23:12 a new creation so all things have become new okay a Christian right then has a new identity in Christ you see they all try to mimic uh Christ who is the firstborn because with Christ we are joined as and children of God okay so there's a new identity as children of God join as with Christ and then there is a New Freedom we are no longer shacked right by the idols in our life okay whatever that may be whatever that is preventing you right from serving the true and living God and then we have a no new motivation and that motivation
00:23:52 right is not uh something that we do out of compulsion out of guilt uh out of of fear but it is out of love right from selflove to love for God so how else did the gospel reach the Thessalonian church not only did the gospel come in power all right it says because our gospel came to you not only in word it came in word and also in the Holy Spirit Spirit okay I just want to say something about here about word you know I'm sure you have heard people say all right uh go preach the gospel and then use word if necessary right okay
00:24:39 there are some people who say you know we can actually preach the goel know through dance right okay through uh you know illustrations right I mean even for illustrations you still have to explain it with words isn't it right so words are important when it comes to preaching okay and we all know the the Romans passage all right that um you know faith comes by what by hearing and hearing by the word of God in Romans 10:17 say how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in
00:25:19 him of whom they have never heard and how are they to hear without someone preaching so the gospel must always come from the lips all right as well as our life okay but not only in words all right in power but also in the Holy Spirit okay the Holy Spirit right Works handin hand with God's word in order to produce the power that transform the life of a Believer you know you to see how the Holy Spirit right and the word interacts it's very interesting right to uh look at two passages of scripture that Bears
00:26:06 this truth out okay the first one is Ephesians chapter 5 on the left okay and uh you see in Ephesians chapter 5 uh Paul is actually exalting okay the the Christians there to be filled with the spirit of God okay and the result of that is you know the Christians will address one another in Psalms and hymns and spirit spiritual songs singing and making Melody giving thanks to God okay and then submitting to one another and then in Colossians right chapter 3 okay Paul exalts the Christian okay to dwell
00:26:41 in the word of Christ let the word of Christ dwell in you and guess what the result is the result is similar all right the Christians started to uh you know admonish one another singing hymns Psalms all right being thankful in their hearts and also submitting to one another okay so the point I'm trying to make is that the Holy Spirit doesn't just come along and zap you right and then all of a sudden you feel something in your kidney right okay and then you become a Christian no it doesn't work that
00:27:19 way God the Holy Spirit right actually applies the word of God right to our hearts it doesn't he doesn't work in a vacuum okay in other words so the Holy Spirit right work hand in hand right with the word of God and they never work apart from each other now the second word I want you guys to remember okay so the first word is power right okay the second one is preaching preaching and by preaching here I don't mean uh you know what you're doing now listening to someone preached okay by preaching I also don't
00:28:02 mean right like how some of us like to do to preach to others all the time okay but by preaching I mean you preach to yourself constantly and on a daily basis the gospel why why do we need to uh uh preach the gospel to oursel you know um last week right right uh I was you know watching you know scrolling the TV uh and I came across this very interesting documentary uh China news Asia okay which is a Singapore Channel you know why right okay uh and and it's very interesting this documentary right
00:28:44 uh talks about how we can actually nudge ourselves to become happier okay it says that if we do the right things like taking a selfie of ourselves every day we can actually Manu effectual happiness in our lives or in our brain so this guy right he's quite a very eloquent uh presenter so he went to look for a psychologist the psychologist I told him okay for the next five days okay you go and take a selfie of yourself and you go and take a a picture of yourself doing the things that you like you know so he
00:29:18 took a picture of himself playing piano and painting you know because he a he's a you know conductor okay uh and he's he's very talented and he he he he took a picture of himself doing very simple things like you know in the morning making matcha you know okay for his breakfast okay right and after a week he went back to the psychologist right and he actually told the psychologist right hey you know first couple of days it was a little bit awkward okay because you know when I I had to take several pictures of
00:29:50 myself because I I see myself frowning and then I started to smile okay because you know for those of you who always take selfie right okay I mean you never frown right when you take self selfie right you're always smiling okay and he actually reported right that he felt happier during the week so he asked the psychology how how how does this happen and so psych okay actually there was actually a study your experience actually conformed to a very recent study okay it says that when you smile to take a picture your facial
00:30:24 muscles right actually send signal to your brain okay that produces the happy hormone it's called dopamine okay and if you do it often enough okay your brain will tell you no no life is not so bad it's happy and especially right when you start looking at the pictures of happy moments in your life all right okay what the point I'm trying to make to tell you this story is that here we have people trying to trick the brain okay into uh uh manufacturing okay happiness right so that they can cope with life and by the way this study
00:31:03 right also reveals to us that by Nature all of us tend to be negative in our thinking you know when our minds wonder you know which is like 50% of the time okay as some of you might be doing now okay all right okay you you think of a lot of 70% of the time you think of negative thoughts okay and that therefore you know know why people are interested in nudging themselves to be happier okay but this is human power it's not what we Christians have which is Supernatural power do you know who do you talk to
00:31:45 most right I know Yan is going to say lean right but that's not true he say true well actually you're almost right you actually talk to yourself more it's true you talk to yourself every moment your thoughts your brain all right and that's why it is important for us to preach to ourselves by the renewing of your mind you see and just like the natural man who tries to trick his brain into feeling happy I think what we can take a lesson there know we as Christians right we have and the Bible validates this we have to
00:32:35 renew our mind all right so that we can appropriate the supernatural power of our God okay in order to cope with the different circumstances and and and we just don't allow anything to go into our mind we allow the gospel to fill our mind that's the point okay so we move on H so understanding the gospel right is is not just a a onetime thing you know right is we have to remind ourselves right constantly of what the death and resurrection of Christ mean to all of us why do we say that you know I think
00:33:27 Paul trip right says it very well he says that the moment okay uh we stop reminding of ourselves okay what the gospel is all about we are like a guy know in a rowing boat right okay R towards a destination okay and we take the OES out and what happens we drift and we allow the the the waves and the currents uh and and the storms of life to buffer us around okay so when we take when we lose grasp of the realities of the Gospel in our life this is what happens we tend to slide right in this diagram right either on one or the other
00:34:20 side okay on one side is legalism okay and the other side is anti- nomism okay and the simple this is a big word okay I like I prefer to use the word license okay so on one hand you have legalism or morality on the other hand you have license or relativism okay now this is not to say that we do not know the gospel we know the gospel of grace okay theoretically in our confession but in reality all right in our lives we often find ourselves sliding right okay down you know either one of these two
00:35:04 slopes do you experience that I do right why every time okay when I I uh you know think that my identity right is uh found in how well I preach for example okay or the fact that I'm an elder right and I get irritated right when people do not live up to my expectation what am I doing I am having a work-based Salvation see so on the one hand these are the legalist right like the Pharisees okay who think that even after they have been saved and forgiven even after they have been forgiven okay they
00:35:48 have to continue to work in order to gain God's favor now on the other side of the equation you have uh you know the the relativist the people who says that the law is not important right uh the the they think that hey the uh God is love okay right so I don't really need to change my life God will understand all right he's like our friendly Santa Claus right okay who forgive us for all the things that we do so if you are at the bottom of those two corners of this triangle all right then I'm sad to say that you are really not a
00:36:33 Christian okay so on the one hand the legalist right lives out of what fear not doing enough guilt or they lived out of Pride right because they are trying to make God to be indepted with to to to him or her so what does the legalist says all right the legalist kind of confused right a justification and sanctification okay they say that God accepts me because I'm forgiven but also because I work hard to live like Jesus and then the uh you know those people who are relativist right uh who says that
00:37:27 the law and keeping God's Commandments are not important right they says we are saved by grace so God loves us no matter what okay change is optional we are just broken but the gospel the true gospel all right can be Illustrated like this that true justification right always leads to a changed life a person who is truly justified by God okay will always produce fruits and good works so we are not saved because we change but Salvation always changes us so we need to preach to ourselves on a daily so what do we preach we preach
00:38:15 of course the person of the Gospel is Christ okay we preached the Jesus Christ his person his works right and and his teachings okay because Jesus Christ himself said okay in Luke 24 this is what I told you while I was still with you everything must be fulfilled that is written in me in the laws of Moses the prophets and the Psalms and then he opened minds of his disciples to understand the scriptures all right this Messiah will suffer and rise from the Dee on the third day and repentance for the Forgiveness of sins
00:38:59 will be preached in his name to All Nations beginning at Jerusalem all right so we preach the person of the gospel and then we preach the provisions of the Gospel which is this very important word called Grace Grace what is Grace now most of you will know the definition of Grace Grace is unmerited favor isn't it is like receiving something right that you don't deserve we receive God's salvation right okay but we have never contributed anything to that salvation we don't deserve it but God has given it to us
00:39:35 for by Grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing okay it is the gift of God not a result of works okay so that no one may boast Pride can never be featured in our life for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them so you remember the story in the Old Testament right that when God okay uh took the Israelites out of Egypt he didn't go to uh Moses right and says all right this is the law okay tell them to
00:40:21 obey the law and then I will take them out of Egypt no God rescued them out of Egypt and then gave them the law right so the Dynamics is that God first loved you God first saved you and then in response to God's first loving us we obey his laws and his Commandments out of gratitude out of love you know a few days ago you all must have seen this right you know the airplane crashed you know into a coast guard smaller plane killed five people and a miracle happened right and they still can't really you know Phantom all
00:41:14 right that 400 people managed to escape in 90 seconds okay I think if you have been one of those people up in the plane how would you feel you'll be so thankful to the stuff isn't it right that's gratitude that's gratitude and a lot of us right when we think of Grace we always think that we are getting something that we don't deserve but have you ever thought about the flip side of it the negative side of it that God is actually not giving us what we deserve God is not giving us his rough all right God is not giving us
00:42:02 hell we sometimes we don't realize right how much we have offended a holy God that God is morally perfect and holy and we seem to think that oh yeah you know we are morally not so bad because we are not murderers we are not rapist we are not you know this and that okay in fact some of us right maybe go to may go to the extent of I think you know we we better help God a little bit right we think that you know just because we serve in Ministry just because we are somebody here just because we preach the
00:42:42 gospel right that God owes us a favor no no no no Grace is when God without any of your contribution sees you just like he sees Jesus Christ who is perfect think about that for a moment and and if you get nothing else I want you to focus on this that the grace that we have from our God and our Lord Jesus Christ is that when we stand before him on Judgment Day he doesn't see all the things that is inside you all right that you you are ashamed of even letting your wife know he sees you as perfect just as he
00:43:35 sees Christ and that's how we passed from going towards hell to going towards heaven you know and and and I just a few thoughts about gratitude all right now you talk about playing Crash you know many years ago I just I just came across this when I was just like Googling the the jll crash that there was a plane crash in 1977 almost 46 years ago in subang I don't know some of you may be old enough to remember that okay uh and this woman right okay uh she was three years old her name Maria jeene bakad was just
00:44:19 three years old when a part-time reporter recovering covering a plane crash near subang airport pluck her out of safety okay 49 people died including her father okay in that plane crash 46 years later the youngest survivor of the Japan Airlines again it was Japan Airline I don't know what's with this Airlines okay 46 years later this youngest Survivor and her accidental rescuer okay have reunited amid extreme emotions Maria said when meeting nadis waran okay also known as nadis all right uh you
00:45:03 know this has been a reminder of how precious life is and how grateful I am of him God had a hand in Saving me and in making sure nadis was in the right place at the right time I'm amazed that I live through the crash and this is the testimony of a lady all right who has been searching for 46 years right in order to thank her savior so to speak okay so you know I'm giving you this illustration to to tell you all right that every day when we preach to ourselves we not only preach the finished works of our Lord Jesus Christ
00:45:45 but also the operational Dynamics right which is Grace okay his love and his grace toward us and last but not least okay the last p word that I want us to remember is prayer prayer power preaching to ourselves the person and the provision of Grace and then prayer how come the clock has stopped oh okay there it goes again okay I'm very conscious of that huh okay all right um you know in any personal red on a daily P basis all right prayer must be front and center all right of Our Lives okay uh in order to have genuine heart
00:46:38 change and in order for uh God to uh you know by the power of the Holy Spirit applying the word into our lives we have to go to God In Prayer okay see uh I I guess you know very quickly uh the the words of Paul all right uh Ephesians right uh is is is very instructive so Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 1 okay 1721 I pray okay that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people now wait a minute all
00:47:22 right okay don't you guys already know the hope that you have in Christ or the Glorious inheritance that you have of course you do okay but what Paul is really saying here is that you know it up here in your head but you might not know it down here in your heart okay therefore you have to be on your knees looking up to God all right and praying okay that he may all right Open the Eyes of our hearts and give us the enlightenment in chapter 3: 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his
00:48:11 Spirit right in your inner being so that Christ May dwell in your hearts through faith right and I pray right that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with the Lord's holy people to grasp to grasp how wide how long how high and how deep God's loved this and only when we meditate by the grace of God In Prayer to him right for him to Enlighten our hearts then we would truly appreciate and grasp how deep how wide how how you know High all right God's love is for us right so the gospel to the degree that
00:49:03 it is grasped believed and lived out will result in how we think and relate to others all right okay how what they effect right how we see God we will see God differently right we will not see God right as a Taskmaster okay but we will see him as a god of love who is full of grace and compassion okay we see ourselves differently we see we see ourselves right as having right become the child of God okay and resting okay in his finished work in Christ finished work all right and not in some other
00:49:42 identity as you know a father or uh you know a career lawyer or whatever okay and we see others differently all right so when they wrong us okay we see them as God sees them okay person who is made in the image of God and deserving of forgiveness and we will see the whole world differently that it is neither as bad as it can possibly be or as good as it should be but we will hold on to the things of the world likely right and appreciate right all the Providence that God has given us so the gospel if it is applied
00:50:24 to our hearts on a daily basis right change our entire perspective of Life all right so the last word that I want to talk about is practice so how do we apply okay all these things okay if once we have preached to ourselves when we have appropriated the power okay it doesn't happen overnight but gradually over time all right we begin to see everything every circumstances in our life through the lens of the gospel and I'll just give you a few examples right so for example in marriage in marriage no longer marriage right okay
00:51:06 is something that is self-fulfilling you know so we all come together right most often okay because we are in love okay and uh we we we you know actually right being married is a lot of times especially when you're in courtship self- serving I love you because you love me okay but the true picture of marriage right as told to us in Ephesians right is a picture of Christ and the church his bride and it's about faithfulness about how Christ unwaveringly okay went to the cross for the sake of his bride and it's also about submission
00:51:52 okay the church submitting to Christ okay so wife submit to your husband as the church submits to Christ right in love not out of compulsion all right right generosity okay when we give to charity or our Tidings okay we know for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor so that by his poverty you might become rich again all right right that generosity right is motivated not by you know the fact that you know people are watching okay but by the fact that the
00:52:39 gospel inform us Christ sacrific for us and death and sickness and it's so relevant to us especially last year we pray for people who are sick how do we Comfort them all right we know through the gospel that we have hope that our situation here is not final but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep Christ in his resurrection all right assures us that because God has risen him from the dead we who are his children would have the same destiny
00:53:30 and very common conflict resolution all right bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone forgive as the Lord has forgiven you right are they from our church okay I look familiar so what is the aim of the Gospel I'll just finish with this the greatest good of the Gospel is not forgiveness it's not justification or eternal life as good as these are these are all part of the Gospel the highest fullest deepest sweetest good of the Gospel is God himself enjoyed by his redeemed people
00:54:21 the gospel is the good news that God bought us or bought for us us the Everlasting enjoyment of God himself see if we are honest with ourselves very often right we like what God or Christ has given us but in terms of the lordship of Christ you know we're kind of more distant so hopefully this is just the beginning in the days to come in the months to come in the years to come all right First Baptist Church Vision right that it is our purpose to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a heartfelt and transformative presence in all areas of
00:55:05 our life driving all our Ministries messages and missions okay and to begin with Dr Peter right has actually created a series of studies okay on the gospel in all of life all right based on our Visions a series of eight studies okay so and these are Series right that every life group right can and take hold of like and uh go through all right we now come to a time uh whereby we once again remember the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ but before we do that I just want to uh read for you a portion of
00:56:12 scripture the reason why we do the Lord's Supper is so as to remind ourselves of the tremendous sacrifice that God has given us the sacrifice of his only begotten son before we uh carry on to take the elements and based on what I have communicated to you in today's sermon I I want us all just to pause all right maybe quietly close your eyes and allow uh the Holy Spirit to apply the word of God to our hearts can we just do that can we just bow down and then after a few moments I lead us in prayer
00:57:46 as you pray and as you reflect quietly I want you all to preach to yourself the gospel message of Christ how often we fail to rest in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ how often we continue to strive thinking somehow we may be able to contribute more to our Salvation but God is telling us today to rest because in Christ the work of Salvation has been completely accomplished we can't do anything even if we wanted to for our righteousness is like FY [Music] ranks but on the cross Christ accomplished the
00:59:50 unthinkable in that he died the death that should have been our us to die so that we might live the life that he has given us so that we might obtain perfect [Music] righteousness that he has purchased on our behalf [Music] dear heavenly father we want to thank you for your word and the gospel Lord the gospel that comes to us not only in word but in power and in the holy spirit with conviction Lord I pray that your grace May indeed operate fully in our lives Lord forgive us for the many times that
01:01:29 we fail to see that our works would not get us to be more accepted by you and our lack of service will not let you love us less Lord we pray that indeed you'll teach us to preach to ourselves the gospel daily so that the transformative powers of the Gospel message May indeed change our lives now and forever more but we ask all this in Jesus name amen so now if you have your elements with you [Music] [Music] before we partake of the bread together let must let let me just read uh scripture all right taken from 1
01:03:20 Corinthians chapter 11 for I received from the Lord what I also pass pass onto you the Lord Jesus on a night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me let us partake of the bread together in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes
01:04:43 can I ask all of us to rise all right okay right let us proclaim the Lord's death until he comes let us drink together let us pray dear heavenly father we thank you that in such a simple ceremony and ordinance which you have commanded us to observe regularly and and as often as we can to remember the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ for this oh Lord we are eternally grateful for what our lord Jesus has accomplished and we look forward oh Lord to the day when he would come again and Usher in and a new era the new
01:05:57 Heaven and the new Earth and we would finally be sitting around the table with our beloved Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we thank you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ amen let us remain standing and we sing the song of response let us uh take it away sing yourself to me Church what gift of Grace is Jesus My Redeemer there is no more for heaven now to give he is my joy my righteousness and freedom my steadfast love my deep and boundless peace to this I hold My Hope Is Only Jesus for my life is Holy bound to
01:07:06 his know how strange and divine I can sing all is mine yet not I but through Christ in [Music] the night is dark but I am not forsake for by my side the savior he will sa I labor on in weakness and rejoicing for in my need his power is display to this I my shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley he will oh the night has been won and I shall overcome yet not I but through Christ in [Music] no fate I dread I know I am forgi the future sure the price it has been paid for Jesus and suffer for my
01:08:48 paron and he was RA to overthrow the to this I hold my sin has been defeated Jesus now when ever is my oh the dreams are I can see I am free and God I you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] with every breath I love to follow Jesus for he has said that he will bring me home and day by day I know he will Reed me until I stand with Jo until I stand oh until I stand with joy Before the Throne to this I hope my hope is only Jesus all the glory ever more to [Applause] him when the race is complete still my
01:10:20 live shall repeat yet not I but through Christ in me to this I hope to this I hope my hope is only Jesus and all the glory ever more to him when the race is complete still my lips shall repeat yet not I but through Christ when the r when the r is complete still my lips shall repeat yet not I but through Christ in me yet not I but through Christ in [Music] me let us REM remain standing as we close in prayer dear heavenly father we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ who is not only our savior but
01:11:37 our Lord and we pray Lord that just as we have [Music] sung We would rest in his finished work for us now receive the benediction now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work even the Gospel Power at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever amen right thank you you may be seated after a moment of silent meditation you may be dismissed
