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00:03 This um this was a royal wedding and uh
00:08 it was probably considered the most romantic wedding of the 21st century. How many of you watched it?
00:17 Quite a few. This glare is really getting to me. There's no chance we can sort of get the spotlights off, you know, sort of, you know. Okay, I'm going
00:24 to ask a quiz to all you guys who seen it. She whispered something to him. Any of
00:31 you remember what she whispered? She whispered something to him and the cameras actually caught on to it. The
00:38 camera actually zoomed and managed to catch what came out of her mouth. Any one of you can sort of shout out what
00:44 she said. She said this.
00:51 What's that? Yeah. She said, "I love you." you know,
00:56 and he replied, typical English man, oh good, you know, not the most romantic response ever, but today we want to
01:03 really look at this word called love. You know, it's such a such an overused word. And you can imagine she's so
01:11 caught up in the emotion that was probably her day, you know, uh she had this fairy tale wedding. She had a
01:17 coach, the adulation. I I want all of us maybe as we start off the message to
01:22 sort of just look a bit at your past and remember times of your life where you
01:31 know you you you it brings a smile back to you. You know were there times in the
01:37 past which just gives you this surge of emotions. You see you can't talk about
01:42 love without talking about emotions. That's why the symbol of love is the heart. So for myself for example uh my
01:50 marriage was nowhere that spectacular but I remember it fondly.
01:55 I remember the day my daughter was born. We were very anticipating it and when
02:01 she came out we were filled with emotions and we found out she's healthy.
02:06 It really filled us. Um, I remember the day when I graduated and my dad came and
02:15 he I still remember standing up there in in Australia in University of New South
02:21 Wales and he was standing in front and he had it big broad grin
02:26 gave me a you know that they call this this fuzzy feeling you know
02:32 we all have it right and it all we have it at certain times of our lives and
02:37 they come in big gushes that just fill us like her where she's so overwhelmed
02:43 or just pleasant little nice gooey feeling. You know, like when you have dinner with some very close friends and
02:50 you're so glad you had those friends or when you were sick in the hospital and
02:55 people you cared came to visit and you knew you weren't alone and you
03:00 remembered in this moments when when life can be difficult and you need passage of time.
03:06 All these little spurts, they remind us what? They remind us we are loved.
03:13 Correct? And that's what living is all about. So today we look at this text and
03:19 Paul says this. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may
03:28 have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and
03:35 deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.
03:42 And what's true on an emotional level with our parents, children, close
03:49 friends, people that we circle ourselves that we make life meaningful
03:56 is true on a spiritual level. But here's the tragedy of it. The
04:01 tragedy it is is that most of the time we be honest yourself don't feel the
04:09 love of God. And this morning we just really want to talk about this. Do you feel his love?
04:17 Or to be more exact, do you have a spiritual experience? We all have emotional experiences, but
04:25 do you have a spiritual experience? And I think it's important and I hope by
04:32 the end of this service we begin to assess a part of our ourself that what
04:38 we call evangelical churches tend to overload because we tend to be very much of the mind
04:44 and we accuse other people with playing with emotions but we keep this quite locked away and I pray the end of this
04:50 service this comes out because this is such an integral part of our faith. Let's come before God in prayer. Lord,
04:57 we um come before you now and we ask that your
05:03 power moves, not the eloquence of man.
05:09 We ask your spirit moves here in such a powerful way. We ask right now with fear
05:15 and trembling. Your presence is here in the second service and we just not only know it, we feel
05:22 it. And when we feel it, we grow closer to you and we learn to walk more in
05:28 righteousness and holiness. We say this in Jesus name. Amen. Malcolm, if it's really possible, if it's not, I'll live
05:36 with it. But if you care because I think this was from yesterday at the boys brigade and the glare is really a little
05:41 bit bit glaring. If you can, if you can't, don't worry about it. Okay. Okay.
05:47 Let's go on. And thanks. That's great. Okay. You can't see me, then put it on a
05:53 little bit more. Okay, fine. You guys can see me. Okay. All right. This is just nice. Great. Okay. So, all right.
05:59 Now, let's get cracking. And we're going to look at three things. What is it? Spiritual experience. Why do we need it?
06:06 You know, some of us say, "Hey, you know, this playing with emotions. We don't need this kind of stuff. How do we get it?" So, we're going to look at and
06:12 I'm going to define spiritual experience in an actual phenomena. You feel
06:18 something. That's something Baptist don't like to do. You feel it. It's
06:24 emotional. It hits you. You get fuzzy. Now, how you feel it, whether you start
06:29 to weep and cry and fall to the ground or you just get a nice tingly feeling, that's that's not for us to judge.
06:35 That's subjective. But you have to feel something. And we're going to really get
06:41 into that today. So, let's get the first thing first and look at the prayer. And the prayer is divided into two parts.
06:48 You have two prayers. Let's look at it. Verse 16. Pray that out of his glorious
06:53 riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being.
07:00 First, God is a gracious God. He's his his glorious riches. He wants to
07:07 strengthen you. Important word implication here that we are weak. We
07:12 need that power. And what kind of strengthening it is is an internal strengthening,
07:18 not an external strengthening. It's through his spirit in your inner being.
07:24 And the Greek rendering of inner being simply means your heart. You feel it.
07:30 It's an emotional response. And so he repeats that and he says, "So that
07:36 Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." We we we'll look at that prayer
07:42 first. And the second prayer, we'll take it uh a little bit uh further on as we go on. Now, what does he mean on that?
07:49 And what we see is there's an emphasis on a few things. A there's an emphasis on your heart. Not your mind so much,
07:55 but your heart. Now, how do we get to your heart? And you get to your heart and he says two things. Christ, he says
08:01 the Holy Spirit. He's intertwining now how Christ through the Holy Spirit works to our heart. And what is it not? First
08:10 thing we say, just because you get emotional when you get to church,
08:15 doesn't mean it's spiritual. That's the first thing. Some churches
08:20 have alter calls every week. We don't do it. We do it once a month. So that's a
08:26 warning to you. We're going to do an outer call later on. And we are so thick skin nowadays.
08:31 Whether one person come or 15 people come, we don't care. We just going to do it. And we trust God. We did it in the first service. We we don't keep a check
08:38 and tell everyone how many people come. We don't. We do it because our conscience says we offer that to you. So
08:46 now what's the danger? I think when you have auto calls every week at a risk of being judgmental and you play the piano
08:52 and the music and the drums, people come in front to get their high and they feel it and they get their rush
08:60 and they feel good. But does that mean they had a spiritual experience?
09:06 Now when you are in a crowd
09:12 and the crowd roars or the crowd raises his hands and you get caught out in it,
09:17 you get emotional. Just go to a football match. So in in the midst of this, it's very
09:25 easy to get an emotional response. You're in the church and the band starts
09:30 to play the music and and you feel something and you had a bad week. You
09:36 feel an emotion. The question is not whether the emotion is real or not. The
09:43 question is what happens when it's over. When the doors are closed and everyone
09:49 goes home and you leave the church, where does it lead you? And Paul tells
09:56 us this. What he's saying is a spiritual experience
10:02 brings you closer in your relationship with Christ. If it doesn't lead you to
10:07 that, it's not a spiritual relationship. It's just an emotional thing. You see,
10:12 he begins the prayer with this word for this reason. And if you have your Bibles
10:18 with you, you find the beginning of chapter 3, he says the same thing, for this reason. So the immediate context he
10:26 ties it with that at the end of that section before you begin the prayer he
10:32 says this. I ask you therefore in verse 13 not to be discouraged because of my
10:40 sufferings for you which are your glory. He is suffering because he been trying to bring Jews and
10:47 Gentiles together. That's chapter three. Probably he's in prison. We're not sure.
10:53 And even though he's suffering, he has joy. In the midst of all this wrestling, he
11:00 finds rest in the presence of God. That's what he's saying. So it's not
11:07 just an emotional high. The emotional high has to lead to something and it leads him to Christ. He rest in Christ.
11:14 Now let's take that even a bit further. I asked this in the first service and
11:19 most people didn't get it because first service a lot of old people here got younger people
11:25 you know there I I keep a list of what silly songs are there's some really silly songs out there what does the fox
11:31 say I mean what kind of song is that the selfie song okay the younger people know that the silliest song right now period
11:40 900 million hits on YouTube and counting is a song that says watch me whip, watch
11:48 me na nigh. I mean, what does it even mean? If you are a if you're a youth, every
11:54 youth knows the song. Now, since quite of you are also quite senior, let's find out how many of you know that song.
12:03 We have quite a few, better than first service. Not that many. The song is very weird, you know. It's a dance song. And
12:10 the song basically teaches you to do something really dumb. It says, "Watch me whip. Watch me na na." I can't do it
12:16 very well. So if you ever see your son or your daughter going around doing like that, he's been listening to that song.
12:22 It's a really dumb song. There's no meaning. What's what is na na e n e. So the song is a parody of many dance
12:28 moves. So all these youth are going around going like that, you know, waving you know like you know. So I did it at
12:34 home and my wife got very irritated and she said like in English would you please grow up?
12:41 You're 50 years old. They go say ne. Then she gets even more irritated with me. So I have to revive myself at 50.
12:49 Now you think that's stupid, right? Kids going around waving their hands, saying silly things.
12:56 But you come to church and you raise your hand and say, "I love you, Lord. Hallelujah. I love you, Lord." Is that
13:02 silly? It's silly if you don't mean it.
13:08 So the question is, do you mean it? So even if you don't raise your hands and you because a lot of Baptists are not
13:14 the type that like to raise their hands, but if you sing it like the song just
13:20 now, you say, "God, you're sovereign. You're my everything.
13:26 I'll go through the storms with you. I love you." What different is that from a kid who
13:34 says, "Watch me, Nene." It's meaningless.
13:39 is empty words unless you mean it. And the same way when the kids sing this,
13:46 you know, Malays call it I I shock, you know, kind of shock. You're kind of shocked. You come to church very shocked
13:52 going worship. It has no meaning unless it leads you somewhere. So
13:58 the point is in these two books and here's how we tie it. You need to know
14:03 God. But the danger with us is that in especially in what we we will call ourel
14:10 evangelical church we like to call labels that knowledge has no value unless is translated into an emotional
14:17 experience. They have to tie. They have to tie because here's a
14:23 picture of FBC. Sorry, Simpsons. Did I say ABC? I apologize.
14:30 You see any spiritual experience, any emotional experience requires an
14:37 emotional response. This one the wise would know if the husband tells you I love you, you won't believe that, right?
14:45 He must say, I love you and he must mean it. And then women are sharp enough to
14:50 know whether he's trying to be funny. But what I'm trying to say is that the word must have an emotional response.
14:59 Early morning, I sometimes go up to my wife and I give her a kiss cuz your first thing she asks, "What you
15:05 want?" Me, "Did you break something in the kitchen?"
15:10 But but that that little gesture has an emotional response. I do it and it makes me feel good. And
15:17 when I do it, I know she feels good. She won't tell me, but I can see in the smile on her face.
15:23 Let's take another another thing. When when when I come back late at work and my daughter rushes up to me and hugs me,
15:31 love you, Dad. You think she says it without feeling something? She feels something and I
15:38 feel something. So when you sing those words in church, when you pray it,
15:45 what the text is saying, if you don't feel anything, then you you really got to ask yourself
15:51 why you're saying it. Because if you don't, it makes no difference than saying, "Watch me na na." Because any
15:58 spiritual experience requires an emotional response. Let me take you back
16:04 to Ephesians 1 and I'm going to take you verse 15.
16:10 If you have your Bibles, turn to it. And this is the first prayer. The first prayer Paul says the same thing for this
16:17 reason. Notice the two prayers are tied. In fact, the chapter 3 prayer is part two. And I want to go through the whole
16:24 prayer. I want to take you through one verse and is this. It says in verse 18,
16:32 I pray also that the eyes of your heart
16:37 may be enlightened. He didn't say renew your mind.
16:43 That's Romans 15. He says eyes of your heart.
16:49 Interestingly, the preceding verse he said God give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Meaning if you have a
16:56 revelation of your mind, if it doesn't go to your heart and your eyes of your heart, meaning your eyes are open, your
17:02 heart is open, it's not closed and shut, that revelation has no value. So we can
17:10 almost say an emotional response requires a deeper understanding of God.
17:18 Now why do we need all of this? simply for this.
17:25 I had a had let's just see you and I you had a hard day at work. You come home
17:30 and like I said your kid comes and hugs you and do you feel refreshed? Of course
17:35 you do. You you you had a bad week and you go to
17:41 the mama store with your friends. Roti China is really bad. got GSDs are
17:47 more but these are friends who've been with you through thick and thin you come home
17:54 don't you feel refreshed yes because the bond of friendship is there and that's why in generally what a
18:02 spiritual experience is it gives you rest because in this world we wrestle all the
18:09 time you will be wrestling with problems at work you'll be wrestling wrestling
18:16 ling with struggles with sin and in this country we are wrestling
18:23 with uncertainty and in this world you can't even go for holiday at knees
18:29 without knowing what's going to happen. We living in probably the unsafest time in human history.
18:35 Now it's almost every week you wonder which country is going to get hit, which stabbing, which who's going to be hacked, what bomb is going to go off.
18:42 It's a weekly occurrence. And against this backdrop, against this uncertain
18:48 life, God calls us this morning to find rest in him and to experience him in
18:55 where? In here. Here. And that's so important.
19:02 Let's see how we do that. So, this is what it is. A spiritual experience draws you close to God. Spiritual experience
19:09 makes you feel something. You got to feel it. How you express that feeling, that's up to the individual. Now why do
19:15 I need it? Beside the fact that I need to rest when I'm wrestling in life
19:23 and look at the whole prayer you find one word repeated again and again is
19:28 repeated three times is this word and this is many ways the glue that holds
19:36 the text together. You see, I can I can go out with with some close friends and after that I come
19:44 home, I feel nice and warm because these guys have been with me. It just gives me
19:49 comfort. And here is what God does. He's blessing
19:54 us with this spiritual experience beyond just giving you this comfort and rest.
20:01 And here's this word we all need is this word called power.
20:07 is is something we all got to tap to because if we are to survive this world,
20:12 if we are to be witnesses for Christ, if we are to pick up our cross and when persecution comes and to stand for him,
20:20 this is this word is called power. Now, where do we rest that word from is in
20:25 this word called love. The text ties it to love. So, let's look at the power of
20:30 love. Because at this point, even if you're not a Christian, everyone will believe this. This is the single song
20:37 with the most versions. If you are like me, a musical person, Jennifer Rush had a version of it. Selen Dion had a
20:43 version of it. Old New Way band called Frankie Goes to Hollywood had a version of it. There many versions of this song
20:50 because everyone's got a view on the power of love. And let's go back to the
20:56 royal wedding because that was the wedding of the 21st century. In the 20th century, the
21:03 wedding of the 20th century of the robot of the British monarchy had the same
21:09 carriage, had the same adulation, had the same couple waving from Buckingham
21:15 Palace in the same place and Princess Diana had the same emotions.
21:23 And she probably didn't turn to the husband to say, "I'm so happy." But
21:32 she probably felt it. What's the problem? What's the difference between
21:38 Queen Diana and Queen Kate? We all know, right? One lasted
21:44 and the other didn't. So, here's the problem with human love.
21:50 Human love is tainted. We know that some of you
21:56 unfortunately go through that with spouses who are not very loyal
22:02 with spouses who are cold. Some of you go through that. I'm talking about you and me with children who are
22:10 not appreciative. Some of you who are older generation feel alone
22:17 and worse still you feel backstabbed. Go and look at this article. It's great.
22:23 When Jesus says, "I love you." Seriously, pick it up and look at what it says in the first
22:29 line. A faithful friend saw after the opening
22:36 actually said, "Often those who have injured us, the most have been love's greatest spokesman." A faithful friend
22:42 saw, "Brother, I love you, only to leave the dagger in your back after his embrace."
22:48 The codependent mother muttered, "Is only because I love you, my child," as she devoured him like a black widow. So
22:56 we may conclude that talk is cheap, the inflation of pretty words bankrupt the
23:02 three little words that should be the most precious I love you. In the midst of profuse, pleasantries
23:09 and sweet nothings, how can we as a friend ask trust those words when they come from our savior's lips?
23:17 First thing we want to ask like they say I love you is cheap. Second thing I want
23:22 to tell you love because love is tainted. love. Have you you have seen that where
23:27 people be very good friends go to business and then something goes wrong and they feel betrayed. Why in families
23:34 brothers don't talk to sisters you feel an uncle did this an auntie. We get this everywhere because love can very quickly
23:43 turn to hate. Same magazine that tells you that you defend your love will tell
23:49 you you had a husband from hell. And we see this again and again and and
23:56 the church sometimes in FBC those of us in our leadership level we we do quite a
24:02 lot of we spend a lot of time a lot of people and we find so much of this that
24:07 people come they don't tell you but privately they hurt and a lot of it is betrayal
24:14 so people get cynical love is cheap talk is cheap but here's the thing I want to
24:21 ask you at moment when you were in love, you meant it, you felt it, you had an
24:26 emotional rush, but later on it went cold, got betrayed. You have siblings,
24:32 you know, who love one another, genuinely love one another. Years later,
24:38 they don't talk to one another. And that that's so true. And in our midst year, you will have that. It's such a common
24:44 thing. Love and hate, two sides of the same coin. And because of that, God
24:51 beckons us to a higher love. And your article, it says, "A love from greater
24:57 heights." It's a great article. And what is this greater love? It's like this picture is a love that doesn't fail.
25:05 It's a love that's pure. A love that doesn't backstab. And and this morning, God invites you to embrace this love.
25:14 You may have been a Christian for a very long time. You may not even be a Christian. This is God's greatest
25:20 blessing to us. And God invites you this morning to soak in it, to bathe yourself
25:26 in it, to immerse yourself in it. A love so deep and pure. And what is it in your
25:33 article again? That's a poem in the second section. A love from greater heights. The Savior who loves you says
25:41 so from above you from high on a hill and hung on a tree. The Savior who loves
25:49 you cries so from above. His blood paints a picture of love you can see.
25:56 And this is why we need this love. Why we need it? Because is the love of
26:03 Christ. And the love of Christ compels us. He does many things to us. And what
26:10 I would like this morning is for you to to really pause, go home, and you may
26:16 say, you know what, I don't feel the love of God. And I'll tell you why you and I don't feel it. Because we don't
26:22 know God. That's why chapter three in Ephesians finds it grounding in the
26:27 Ephesians one prayer. And I will challenge you then to go home and read more, pray more, and seek to understand
26:35 God more. And sometimes it will hit you in a way when it when when he does. You see I I read it as a teacher and a lot
26:42 of it is there. It's not here. Then sometimes occasionally God does something to just push it in. Give you
26:48 example. For some strange reason they made me the chaplain of the boy's brigade. It's a very strange decision
26:54 because I'm the most undisiplined person in the world. I never on time. My wife says I'm the laziest person at home
26:60 because I don't help on anything. So when I became chaplain, my daughter couldn't believe it. So God's wisdom or
27:07 the wisdom of the officers of boy brigade is a mystery to me. Now yesterday they had what they call
27:13 ENA day. They call it uh enrollment and and awards day is the day for the boys
27:18 brigade. The hall was packed and they had officers from other company. They had a march of honor. It was a military
27:25 drill. It was the day for it. No such a big day. And me at the chaplain had the
27:31 seat of honor. They dressed me in a coat one day in 365 days. I actually looked
27:38 handsome for once, you know. The other day can I
27:43 was in a coat. I look dashing for once. I had medals on me, stuff on me which I don't know. I do know how to put it all
27:50 because I'm not very good at this. And they put me at a seat of honor in front
27:56 and everyone took pictures with me. And the god of honor came in from another company, a captain. And he
28:02 saluted me and they had a flag. They gave it to me and I went every way. All the kids say, "Chaplain, chaplain,
28:10 chaplain." Oh, very shocker. But here's my point. And in later on,
28:16 Ephesians will tell you about how God cloaks you. He puts on on you a new self. You know, I ask you a question.
28:23 Did I did I deserve that respect? No. I haven't done enough push-ups. I don't do
28:29 the drill. Did I earn the right to take the seat of honor in front? No, I didn't. Did I deserve the adulation?
28:37 I didn't. It was given to me by grace because it was put on me or or it was
28:45 imputed to me. It was credited to me. And this is something and when when yesterday I was walking around I was
28:51 very high. there so much respect of me for I was like oh you very high and he dawned upon me that's God's love to me
28:59 that God would take me a sinner not only rescue me from my sin but put his love
29:05 and he clothed me in his love he gave me a new purpose and he told me I love you
29:11 I I'm going to give you honor his riches was put on me not because I worked at it but because
29:18 of his grace and there last Yesterday I felt the sense of it. And I said, "Thank
29:24 you, God." And I pray God does that to you because until you and I feel it, it
29:30 becomes just an intellectual faith. And we have to feel it. And why do you need it? Why do you really need it? I'm going
29:37 to give you three key reasons. Number one, it renews us during times of
29:42 difficulty. We're going to explore what it means to wrestle and rest. Secondly, is our main source of strength in
29:49 fighting sin. And lastly, most importantly, for each one of us, it
29:54 encourages us to reach our true potential for God. Let's look at the
30:00 first one and we take to Romans at the end of chapter 8, which is such a
30:06 wonderful chapter. And Paul tells the Roman Christians, if you read Romans up to chapter 7 is very depressing. Chapter
30:13 7, he tells you about a man who struggles with sin. and he calls this man a wretched man who will rescue from
30:20 it. Chapter seven is the most depressing chapter in the whole New Testament. Then chapter 8, praise be to God, he talks
30:28 about the Holy Spirit. He talks about although outwardly we are groaning, inwardly we are renewed. He tells us we
30:34 are predestined. He tells so many wonderful things of it that at the end
30:40 of chapter 8, Paul writes this in response to all he realizes God has
30:46 done. God has given him the Holy Spirit. God has predestined him. He can call God
30:52 father. God's love is so much on him. He says, "I'm convinced. Neither death nor
30:58 life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor future or any words, neither height nor depreparate
31:08 us from the love of Christ that Christ Jesus our Lord. And when we read that, we understand why now in Ephesians 3, in
31:16 the midst of suffering, he can say the same thing. Now, how does this work out for us? Haven't you had this? You had a
31:23 bad day in the office. you got backstabbed then you pause and you say you know what
31:30 thank god I have my family because that gives you strength because
31:36 with that it helps you go through the suffering now that is on the emotional
31:41 human level imagine the power of that when you unleash it on the spiritual level it makes us more than conquerors
31:51 and when you really grasp it you become like Paul, no bomb, no terrorist attack,
31:58 no intimidation, no personal insult, injury, illness,
32:05 cancer, bankruptcy, isolation, humiliation will prevent us
32:11 from the love of Christ. And when we get there, the power of God is with us. Now,
32:18 how do we get there? Let's break this down a bit. Here's a song for all the old people.
32:24 It's by Elvis Presley. It's called This is Living. Any old They're not very nice to say. Older people know this.
32:31 Nobody the first we had, you know, because we ying there, I guess. Let me read you. This is Elvis Presley. And
32:38 he's telling you what life is. This is life. This what living is. This is living. Full of fun and free. This is
32:46 living. That's the life for me. It's good to laugh and sing. Don't worry
32:51 about thing. Wear a happy smile, cut loose, run a mile. If you relax and just
32:57 enjoy it all, enjoy it all. Life's got has got to be a ball. He's got an experience. He's got an emotional
33:04 experience. He's got emotional high. He's happy.
33:09 But it's stupid song because this kind of happiness is not going to last. Look
33:14 at the last line. Second last stanza. Don't want to settle down. I got to move around. I got a lot of time. I'm going
33:21 to wait and find the kind of girl whose heart is restless too. The kind who feel
33:26 the way I do, you're just going to get hurt. You see, we all seek that happiness and joy and all of that. And
33:33 if this is living, then you're in for a lot of pain. Now, there's another song
33:39 called This is Living is by Hill Songs, Young and Free. Anyone of you here know this? I suspect not, right? Nobody,
33:46 right? Okay. First service we had a few. And it's it's it's an interesting song. Really interesting song. Uh it's got a
33:53 rap in it, you know. Uh and it says the sweet embrace, the lovely taste. I taste
33:58 and see I'm under grace. I better stop there. There you say preacher doing this very very unsightly. You know how can
34:04 you go? But let me let me read it for you. The rap is interesting.
34:12 The place to be means I don't ever need an umbrella. It's a metaphor. I'm cool
34:18 in the cold and hot weather. You know that's Romans 8. He's saying because he
34:25 tasted grace. Whether whatever the weather is in his life, whether there
34:30 are storms in his lives or whether things are going sailing,
34:36 he has tasted grace and he knows what it is to live. The song, the lyrics of song
34:42 are really good. And I pray tomorrow, Monday, this is your song. Because
34:48 Monday, when you and I wake up, we get depressed. And he says, "Waking up knowing there's a reason all my dreams
34:55 come alive. Life is for living with you." Here's a person who's not
35:00 depressed on the routine of work. And he goes on, "See the sun now bursting
35:07 through the clouds. Black and white turned to color all around. All is new
35:12 in the savior I am found. This is living now. He's got a perspective of life. He
35:18 doesn't drive through the traffic and says crap man. This is a horrible life. Things that are black and white turn to
35:24 color. And he says you take me higher than I've been before. It's your perfect
35:32 love. That's Ephesians 3 that sees me sore. love that's so wide, so high, so
35:39 long, beyond all understanding. God, your freedom is an open door. You are
35:46 everything I want and more. You are everything I want and more. And if you
35:55 sit and get that prayer in, you will say, "Wow, that's what living is." I
36:01 want to just tell all of you Christians should be happy.
36:09 If it's not a church, people will say amen. You don't have to just because I said
36:15 it. But here's my thing in all seriousness.
36:20 If you're not happy and you can say, "Brother Arnold, because I got a lot of problems." But
36:26 Paul had a lot of problem. He was suffering. He was happy. The author of this song is saying even
36:33 though his storms come, he's cool. He's happy because he's got grace. He's found
36:39 the love of God. And I want to I want to share this with you. God's greatest blessing to all of us is that we are
36:47 meant to be joyful and happy. And I want to ask you, when was the last time you
36:54 went home and raise your hands and say, "God, hallelujah. I thank you. This is
37:00 living." And if you haven't had that,
37:08 God is telling you today, embrace the power of his love. It will help take you
37:15 through times of suffering. You see, suffering is tied to another thing
37:20 called sin. Because when we suffer too much and Christian life becomes a life of guilt and pain. And there's a lot of
37:27 place for for for feeling guilty of your sin and carrying the cross. But life is
37:33 not all about wrestling. You rest to wrestle. And if you're depressed about your
37:39 Christian life, you feel bitter. You come to church, you say, you know, I feel guilty. I'm not a really good
37:44 Christian. I've been trying to fight sin. can't get it. And I've been trying to break habits. I can't do it. I I've
37:50 been trying to do this and do that. Then you feel like a lousy Christian. You sit at the back. You don't tell people what
37:56 you feel because you think they'll judge you and you get even more depressed. Then you feel like a hypocrite. And what
38:01 this text is telling you that the main main impetus to fight sin and we all
38:08 need discipline. We all need to feel raffle God who hates sin is this.
38:13 Knowing God leads to experiencing God. Experiencing God leads to desiring God.
38:20 And where God so satisfies you, the things of the world don't.
38:28 And fighting sin becomes easier because God is your all in all. Like the song
38:35 says, you are all and so much more. And then this is living. I don't need to
38:43 live in sin. I'm going to close with this example
38:49 and I pray that this morning this really goes into all of us.
38:55 This is a very famous police winning picture taken during the Vietnam War.
39:02 And it is a girl and this cameraman got a shot of this Vietnamese girl as she
39:09 was running when the Americans bombed the village with Napal.
39:14 And as you know, NAMA as a bomb burns your skin. And you could catch the
39:20 horror of it as she runs and her skin is burned. Her name of this girl is called Kimpuk.
39:29 And years later, even as an adult, you can see the scars on the back. They're very painful.
39:37 So, let's talk about suffering for a while. Yeah. Because you may sit there and say, you know what, this guy, what
39:42 he's talking about, what do you understand what I'm going through? You may sit there and say, all this thing about love and all of that, you don't
39:49 understand me, brother Anna. No, I don't. But let's look from her story
39:55 and she described this was that is a daily painful experience
40:02 and she says I got burned I became ugly. People will see me they'll turn away. It
40:08 filled me with hatred, bitterness and anger. See how suffering leads to sin. We all have that problem. And what
40:14 happened was the Vietkong uh when the Viet communist warned and took over the
40:19 government, they used her as a main propaganda too, she was paraded around everywhere to show the evils of the
40:27 American government. So she was full of hate for the Americans who did this for her. She was very full of hate for
40:34 herself. She was insecure. And here's the interesting thing about story.
40:40 She was studying medicine. One day in the library in communist
40:46 Vietnam, she comes across a book and the book is about Jesus.
40:51 This is her real testimony and she reads it. And there in communist Vietnam, without
40:58 alpha evangelism explosion, without ppastors and preachers, without a
41:03 church, in the most unlikely circumstances, you read it for herself with the Holy Spirit
41:10 coming down to Vietnam to a girl that was so full of anger and hate, she makes
41:19 a confession of faith. And that is in in itself remarkable.
41:25 And what happens after that she managed to find in Canada
41:30 and years later this is an April article this year. She
41:36 shares her love for God. This is the power of God's love.
41:45 Is a remarkable story. And she shared in one interview how she
41:51 said she was so ugly, she was so insecure, she felt no one loved her. But
41:56 then she realized God loved her. So when scripture says the love of
42:03 Christ has power, the love of Christ has power.
42:09 And it changed her. She got in contact with the old photographer. The bound down there is the same photographer who
42:16 shot the picture. She forgave all those who caused her trouble,
42:22 who made her uh uh made her what she was with daily pain.
42:29 But you see this is what the love of God does. It goes beyond that because after that she learns as the song goes this is
42:38 living. Because when you embrace these words that I pray that we are rooted,
42:44 established when you understand how wide and long and high and deep is the love
42:50 of Christ and this love that surpasses knowledge, it it goes here friends and
42:56 this is something I plead with you today because we tend to have a faith here.
43:02 But the moment it does this and your eyes are open here, you start to live
43:08 and breathe and stop thinking of yourself as a victim. Because many of us
43:13 see ourselves as a victim. We'll sit down and say, "Look at my life. My life is like D. Why is God
43:21 punishing me? Am I bitter?" And here's a woman where God's love so
43:26 riched down into her. She went on, she got married, she had a child and she she
43:32 went home and she breathed life. And this is what God is giving you today as
43:37 a gift. Breathe again, brothers and sisters. Live life. Live life for Christ
43:44 and be happy. Be happy. Why? Because that is your destiny.
43:52 That is your predestination. That is your will. You see we are not to be ordinary people. I put to you each one
44:01 of us here are meant to be extraordinary and extraordinary can come in many ways.
44:08 When God puts you adventure, he does strange things to you. He takes an undisiplined man like me and makes me a
44:14 chaplain. God knows why only and that's my only latest adventure. He does. He'll take you on a road which you don't
44:21 expect and life begins to breathe and you find joy in so many things. And
44:27 that's why he then ends the prayer with a doxology. A doxology is a very strange
44:33 way to end a prayer because a doxology is always at the end of the letter. And
44:38 he's so filled with the love of Christ. Paul says this now to him who is able to
44:45 do and these are such powerful words immeasurably more than all we ask or
44:53 imagine according to his power that's worked within us. And brothers and
44:59 sisters I pray you take this to heart. Do you believe
45:06 sincerely that God is able to do immeasurably more
45:12 than you ask or imagine? If you're like me,
45:17 you would say with all honesty, no. That's an honest answer.
45:24 But the spirit will pull us out and say, Arnold, have faith. You aren't faithful.
45:31 He is faithful. And when you pull that out, you then do something very
45:36 important. You ask, Lord, how do I get it?
45:41 How do I get this happiness, this joy, this burst of happiness? When takes me
45:47 out of my pit of me being a victim of suffering and and I look at my life and I say there's no joy and I want to be
45:54 happy. You do this. You kneel before the father.
46:02 When do people kneel before the father? Olden days people pray standing.
46:08 Remember when the last time you knelt? And I don't mean posture as in really. I tell you when I knelt when I had
46:14 problems. I prayed I never prayed before when I had big problems. When was the last time
46:20 I prayed to have power from God? Never. I'm being honest with you.
46:26 And Paul beckons us this. You want to have power, pray on your knees. Meaning,
46:32 pray fervently. Not only that, what is this telling you in the words I
46:37 highlight? He's not asking you to pray quietly in the room where no one can see
46:43 you. Where is he asking you to pray this? Where
46:48 where can't hear you? This second service really very
46:55 where is he asking us to pray for power? I really cannot hear you. I'm going to
47:02 keep doing this until I irritate all of you. I'm serious, you know, because you guys can I be very honest with you. You
47:07 guys don't access your emotions. But maybe I have to respect your your your your reservations, but once give face to
47:13 me for once in 365 day. Let's let's loosen up today, shall we? Just for today. I mean there's times in life
47:20 where you really got to root it out. Can you imagine going to football match and you guys being like this? You they'll
47:25 kick you out of stadium stadium. Where should we pray like this?
47:31 Amen. So last question,
47:36 will you do it? And that's a challenge to you. Will you
47:42 get down and do this? I'm going to invite the the worship team to come up and we cannot talk about prayer without
47:49 really praying. And I ask as as God leads us to prayer, you will begin to
47:56 receive prayer. Can I ask the counselors to come in front? We have a few counselors and uh I know second service
48:04 uh most of you are not very comfortable with coming in front to prayer. Is okay. Okay, I'm very thick skin
48:10 and I I want to say I'm not here to pressurize anyone, but counselor, can you stand? Let's come. Let them see you
48:15 and know you're prepared. Okay, uh we need some men, maybe some Victor, Frank, thank you. And we are here to say that
48:22 as a song sings the the the Paul encourages to pray together. would you
48:29 come in front and bring it before God any pain, any any struggles, any issues
48:35 and and praying publicly is always embarrassing. Kneeling before the public is
48:41 embarrassing, but Paul didn't care. So, I want to gently encourage you as as Ashley leads us through this song and
48:49 the spirit moves in our midst, would you have the courage to receive prayer?
48:55 Here's the next thing. Some of you are very uncomfortable coming in front and we respect that.
49:01 You find it too charismatic. Then we ask you to sit and we will come
49:07 to you. But prayer is a gift from God.
49:13 Power is a gift from God. And the greatest gift is the love of Christ.
49:19 Let's close in prayer. And shall we stand as we prepare our hearts to receive the power of God's love. Lord,
49:26 we humble ourselves now. We ask that we prepare our hearts
49:31 that the spirit move in us. We ask for myself as speaker and the
49:37 worship team. We come with clear conscience. We are not here to manipulate anybody's emotions.
49:45 We're not here for a numbers game to feel proud because people come in front.
49:53 Lord, this morning we remember to have a real faith with you involves assessing our emotions.
50:02 And if our hearts are not open to you, oh Lord, then our faith becomes intellectual.
50:08 This morning we have one simple prayer that we feel your love, feel it
50:15 emotionally in our deepest fiber of being. And that love so moves us, we can
50:21 move mountains for you. And we say this in Jesus name. Amen. Ashley is going to lead us through this
50:28 song. And as the song sings and you want to receive prayer, do come in front. This is blessings from God. And the
50:34 counselors will pray over you. Shall we just come to the Lord in in song and
50:41 Lord Jesus as your spirit just moves in our midst
50:48 we just ask that you just do a wonderful work this morning Lord just move in our midst quietly
50:58 and we ask again if you are standing there and you feel that you really do
51:03 you feel God is calling for prayer We just like to gently encourage you to
51:09 either stay back with us or just come in front and and let God
51:15 just bless you that you feel in your deepest being. These three words
51:22 that the world has made so cheap, but God has brought it to a higher
51:27 ground. And right now, if you're standing there, hear this from the Lord. hear these
51:34 three words and make go right inside. And here if you are standing there brothers and sister, these are these
51:41 three words and God is saying it. I love
51:46 you and that power is in you. Would you just receive that? I love you. I love
51:52 you. me close now to him
51:57 who is able to do imaginary more than all we ask or imagine
52:03 according to his power that has worked within us. To him be glory in the church
52:09 and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. And the church say
52:17 amen. God bless you all. Have a great week. May you feel God. Can you live
52:22 quietly because God's spirit is still with us? Those of you who want to be
52:28 prayed over and you want it privately, just stay back. Just stay where you are.
52:34 We will come to you. God bless you all. God's power rest in your and and be
52:39 joyful in the Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you all. Thank you.
52:47 Heat. Hey, Heat.
62:44 Thank God
63:06 we Yes.
63:26 Carry on. Carry on.
