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So good morning everybody and uh next week's sermon Psalm 32 Dr. Peter.
Wow. Two in a row. 31st August, National Day, Psalm 51.
7th September, Psalm 95. Pastor Joash. So, we are starting our season on the
book of Psalms. Right. U before we do that, a word from our sponsors.
Uh we started a ministry for the marketplace. We had quite a substantial number of people joining. I'm just
giving out to you the the the teaching program for the ministry. And
the first one we're going to call out is God's design for work and calling. And
I'm going to give you a teaser today on this because I'm going to shape today's sermon a bit around that. So for some of
you who have not signed up and you listen to today's sermon uh and you feel it connects, you may want to consider
joining us. This is the rollout uh program and the last one on session
eight we will look at AI. Anyone interested in joining the marketplace ministry you can go to the
church office and talk to Kaisen to register you. We break people up into five groups. One groups are for the
small medium industry people. I'm in that. These are business owners. Then
there's another group for the corporate those who are in corporate. Then there's those in the creative media and
communications. Then there's another one for those in sales and then those dealing with STEM. So if you go in
there, you'll be in a support group of people who are your peers and hopefully they can encourage you. Right?
Let's start with a very simple question. Why did God put the Psalms in the Bible?
What differentiates the Psalms from any other book?
It's the song of David. It's the song of David. Mary is right. Uh
King David was a bit of a rock star. He was a harpist. He wrote almost three quarter of the psalms. But let me give
you maybe a more downto- earthth reason. If you're old enough
to experience some pain in your life, if you're old enough to know what it's
like to be fearful, if you're old enough to want to go to a
text to feel protected, you would know why God gave the Psalms.
When you face an uncertainty, you say, "The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall fear no evil. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, his rod
will protect me." When you feel you can't breathe and life overwhelms, you
say, "Though the oceans roar and the mountains quake, I will be still and
know I'm God." When you feel everyone abandoned you,
you say, "The Lord is my hiding place. Under your wings, I will protect you."
The Psalms are there for those who cry. The Psalms are there for those who feel
lost. The Psalms are there when you want to say, "There's no one in heaven and no
one on earth I have but you." And that's why God gave the Psalms. And so we are
going to take on a whole series on this and I think it's going to be a wonderful journey.
And so the next question which is very strange is Psalm 1
because Psalm one introduces the reader to the rest of the Psalms. Actually Psalm 1 and two, you want to be really
pedantic about it. And if you read it, it's got none of this.
It's got none. It's the word praying is not in it. There's no worship. And so
you ask your question, what is someone doing there? It looks like it belongs in the book of Proverbs is actually a
wisdom psalm. And so this morning I want to take us through why God puts someone there. And
it introduces us to a series of books that teaches us to cry before God to
come before God in our nakedness and to be joyful before God. And Psalm one is
the reason for it. It's a very powerful psalm and we're going to look at it in
terms of what it means to be blessed or I'm going to put it in marketplace
jargon. What does it mean to be a successful person? So think of what it means in to be successful in the ways of
the world and we look at what the text tells us. Let's come before God in prayer. Lord, as we
come before this very powerful text, I ask you humble me and not let my pride
take the better of me. But really, your word and your word out goes out gently and powerfully that your
spirit be poured out on everyone and people would feed on your word and
the word will become flesh. We say this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's read the
psalm. Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked,
stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the
Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by
streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not
wither. Whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked.
They're like shaft that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the
assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked
leads to destruction. Let's take the first part.
Blessed is the one who does not walk, stand,
sit. Now the Hebrew rendering for the word blessed is very similar to the Greek
rendering in the sermon of the mount. And you find actually the structures of both the text are similar and I'll give
you a bit because you need to understand it. Uh in fact the Hebrew uses two words
for blessed and this is the higher version. It means man you are happy.
You are really happy. You are so contented.
You are a successful man. You are you you you you are you are just there. And
you ask most people right what do they want in life? They'll tell you they want to be happy.
I mean, if you're honest with yourselves, we all want to be happy. So, someone
is teaching you how to be happy. So, point one,
life is a battle for joy. Why a battle?
Because he's telling you, choose carefully what you delight in. And you have two
roads to take. Let's look at the first one. And if you look at it,
the first part is quite obvious, right? You don't walk, you don't stand, you don't sit. What's that progression?
Walk, stand, sit. So there's a progression of a person who
starts off and he he walks, he tries it, right? I mean, it's like all you who are
in Shin or TMU or AliExpress or Lazada or Shopppee or Carousel.
I do a bit you click on a oh buy once say very good you know after that got
coins you know so sale happen buy a bit more so you move from walking to
standing after that wow you're really in it every time oh good deal and then
you're selling pre-sale on caros you're comparing prices on Lazada AliExpress and you you you're tracking your
delivery order you are now sitting
It starts and it goes all the way in. Now that one most people have picked up. What people don't pick up is the next
one. There's a paral run you know is wicked sinners and scoffers. And the
parallel is walk. Now wicked in the Hebrew is a generic term for people who
don't who who are not in the favor of the Lord. But sinners is interesting. The Hebrew word is avon. And the word
here means you miss the mark. So wicked is general. When you start to
stand and get comfortable, you have completely missed the mark and then you become a scoffer.
So let me give you a marketplace illustration from my line. I'm in the building line.
Imagine a country where corruption is common. You take your own imagination.
What country? Since this is Yes, Russia. Okay, thank you very much. Because this
is going out live. And in that country is the air you breathe and you try to
renovate your house. You go to the council, you submit the plans and they tell you in their local
language. Oh, sorry, wrong language. They tell you all sorts of things and
you try to think that it'll take you two months, three months, four months and they jam you and then the guy whispers
over the counter. I can recommend somebody
got a fee one you know consultant fee. You pay a small fee. Wow. In two weeks
your plans approved. Nobody disturb you. You renovate your house. Wow. Very happy. Yeah.
You have just what? Walked. Now to be fair, this is so common. I don't want to
judge. I'm not I want to tell you it's wrong. But you actually just got you just got extorted. By the way, you just
got extorted. Then after that, you tell yourself, you know what? I got a factory, you know, and I you know, it's
going to cost me half a million to do it. And you know, if I comply with the fire authorities, comply with that. So
you go back to the same person. May no problem. Same procedure approval two weeks. Wow.
You check save 100,000. Wow. Not bad, huh? What are you doing now?
Standing. And by that time you have missed the
mark and you still come to church. You still say hallelujah. You're still in your
life group. After that you realize every year
factory got renewal one you know and because you started on the wrong food
every year guess what happened you go to pal Petrol
you're now giving regularly you are now sitting
and when you come to church and you hear the word of God about integrity empathy
and truth. You won't say it, but you will scoff
because it doesn't gel with you because you became successful.
So, I want you to take that up. That's one. Now, he gives you the opposite.
So, here's the first. What you do not do, you don't walk. You don't stand. You
don't sit. So, what do you do? You will imagine he will say well then you got to walk with Yen godly man stand with Yulam
very godly sit with I don't know whoever you know and you imagine he give you a
long list but you know he tells you he tells you delight in the Lord the Lord like what
delight in the law the Lord and and the Hebrew here is actually the Torah but
the the implication here is actually the word of God okay you're telling me to do
Bible study. Don't do this and do Bible study. Now look at the the way the verse go. It's a parallel verse. You know that
mean the first line the second line are the same with a nuance. You delight the Lord or Lord and then you meditate on
his law day and night. But what does that mean and how does that help me? All right. So and by the way I don't quite
like to read my Bible. Thank you very much. It's a sure I read it. I go to sleep. How many of you feel like that?
Don't raise your hands. All right. Now, the key here is to understand the word
meditate because he's not exactly telling you to do Bible study. He's
telling you to contemplate and to talk to yourself. Okay, let me take that up a little bit. Now, what it isn't is not
this, right? It isn't emptying your mind. And I know some of us here do mindfulness
meditation for medical reasons. Let's not go there. But it's not this. The Hebrew understanding of meditating is
actually talking to yourself right now. Basically, he's telling you there two ways to be happy. One is to walk, stand,
sit. Another one is to be delighting in meditating on the word of God regularly.
Let's pick that up. Now, when we talk about Bible study, we tend to have a compartment between pray and
worship and study the Bible, right? So, you come to church, you pray, "God, you
know, I had to pay $2,000 to put up my renovation. I feel wretched. Forgive me,
Lord." You pray. That's fair. And if you're in that shoes, that's a good thing to do. You
won't be the only guy alone. You be comforted. So many people have that problem. Actually, you're being
extorted. Let me tell you. Come and talk to me about it. Very familiar with this.
Then you have Bible study and you read about Bible study and you read thou shalt not steal
the Torah. So, so there's Bible study and there's praying. Now, what Tim Keller says,
meditation is when prayer and the study of the word of God confluence together.
It becomes one. Now, I give you an example. This is Psalm 62. Let me just read a
bit. Truly my soul finds rest in God. My salvation comes from him. Truly, he
is my rock and my salvation. Let me ask you a question.
Who is he talking to? What is prayer?
Prayer is talking to God, right? Is he praying?
He's not talking to God. He's talking to himself.
That's the psalm. He is meditating.
He's meditating. He's wrestling. So why is Psalm one the opening chapter
of the book of Psalms? Here's the big picture. Because the meditation on the
word of God incarnates prayers and worship. Incarnation is a
big word. Let me use a word where you will see the trajectory we're heading.
It makes the word of God become
flesh. See where we're heading with this? The word becomes flesh when you
meditate. Let me give you a case study. We're going to do marketplace today.
And I I'm I'm rephrasing this over something that happened to me recently and caused me a lot of caused me a bit
of stress. You at work and someone whom you respect and I thought was a trustworthy colleague does something
which in your opinion amounts to stabbing you in the back.
You found out he said certain things about you. You got it in documentation.
It could have been an email and you say, "Wow, after all I did to you, this is
how you treat me. What do you do? Number one, you pray
because you feel like throwing a chair at that person. Or number two, you says, you know what? I'm going to I'm going to
apply a biblical truth. The Bible tells me I need to show love and grace. I need to forgive him, but man, I actually feel
avoiding him. You know what you're doing? You're doing this. And what someone is telling you is don't
do this. This two is correct. that that's a great place to do this. Don't get me wrong.
He's not telling you not to pray. He's not asking you not to do Bible study. He's telling you when you have a problem
like that, this isn't enough. He's telling you to meditate.
So something similar like this happened to me recently and honestly I couldn't
sleep on that night because that person were dear to me. So
I woke up on the morning. I think Alex knows this. Of course, I shared this in the Delta community group. We quite
close and I say, "Look, you know, I I got stabbed." And I woke up in the morning, I said,
"Lord, give me a verse. Give me a verse." So, I plugged this because we studied Galatians and I pull out this verse and uh one of the accusations was,
you know, my kind of character is I'm quite, you know, I'm in your face. You all know that, right? I I just tell you
off. So there's a big turret in a certain document about you know this guy's character he is a real t you just
tell you off who does he think he is. So I looked at the Galatian I say Lord I need to be gentle I need to have
self-control. So that morning I prayed I prayed I prayed because I was going to a meeting where I was going to see him. I
went to car say hallelujah Lord teach me to be gentle. Hallelujah teach me self-control. I went for the meeting and
he didn't turn up. So Alex asked me what happened. Oh fog
fake. Oh, so at night I pray. I say, "What happened?" Then I read the verse again and I read the verse and and I
say, "Hang on, it isn't fruits, you know, it's fruit. It's singular. It's singular."
And I looked in. I'm going to read again. And I check. And then it realized to me I can't I was trying to be gentle
and self-control by my own strength
because I'm a pushy character. I will tell you what it is. I have no filter.
I was trying to be stoic. And I think as I struggled, the Lord was telling me,
unless you loved him, you can forget about being gentle because that's coming from a very dark place. You know what's
a dark place? You're coming to save your business. And I went on my knees.
And I say, "Yeah, I don't quite I don't quite love him. That's why you have no joy." And the whisper came to me. That's
why you have no peace. What was I doing?
I'm meditating. What does the text tell you of yourself?
It tells me Anolim, you're a smooth talker. You say things to get work. You
don't really care about a guy. What are the text tell you of God? God is love.
God is a person who's joyful and he's a person who is at peace and he wants you
to give out that fruit. The fruit of the spirit is what the character of God and
then the text tell me you know what you should respond and then I went back and I prayed
and then I realized what amounted to stabbing the back was actually reality.
You know what it was? I didn't like the truth being told to me
because I went to read back the email. Email, I I'm I'm distorting the text a little bit, huh? Because it's going out
live. And I told myself, you know what? Everything that person said was true.
You know what I did after that? I went to speak to his wife.
I I apologized to his wife. Sorry chicken
and the wife smile and says yeah your character we cannot what you know come
for a meeting always go hammer everybody we cannot take it
okay I went back with some peace I meditated right and that's not it's still ongoing
right so I tell you what it means to say day and night he's not asking you to read the Bible every day
I did it when I was driving I was stuck in the jam I said Lord what does the text mean
at night in between Netflix series I said what does it mean my wife say what you doing thinking
you know it was before I went to bed I said why does the text start what we love and then oh yeah it's fruit I'm
meditating actually John Piper tells you you know what what the text is telling you is make it part of your life before
you brush your teeth you got two minutes right think when you sit down for lunch thing the
Hebrew people were boing it as part of life. It was the air they breathe. That's meditation. All right. So that's
one. Now here's where it leads to. You are called to be a tree of life to those
around you. Now why do we get that? Number one, the opening chapters of the
Torah focuses on the garden of Eden with trees and streams where mankind live a blessed life. That's Genesis 2.
Genesis chapter 1 and 2 opens the five books of the Torah.
And then in 150 Psalms, it opens with what? The same idea of the blessed life.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields his fruit in season whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever they do prospers. A Hebrew person reading it knows there's an Edenic motive in it. But there's a bit
of a twist. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve for life they pluck fruit from
what? The tree of life. In someone, guess who is the tree of life? You are.
And you say, "Hang on, how can I be that? I'm not God." And it gives you the clue is the streams of water.
All right? So, you are the tree of life. Not because you're a powerful oak tree,
but because you are connected to the streams of water. What is that streams of water? Is the word of God. If you're
connected on the word of God and you meditate of it, that's the water that gives you fruit. So, what's it like to
be a type of tree of life? Let me give you three points coming up from the text. Number one, they are nourishing to
be around. They are nourishing.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season. And John Piper puts it this
way. If you delight in the word of God and meditate on it day and night, you will yield your fruit in season. You
will be a fruitful person. Oh, for more fruitful people. You know them. They are
refreshing and nourishing to be around. You go away from them fed. You go away
from them strengthened. You go away with your taste, spiriting things awaken. Their mouth is a fountain of life. Their
words are healing and convicting and encouraging and deepening and lightening. Being around them is like a
meal. This is the fact of delighting in the word of God and meditating on it day and night. You would yield fruit in
season. And basically there are two ways to live. You are either a filler.
You bring healing and wholeness to those around you. People are drawn to Christ in your presence or you're a drainer.
That's me. Yeah. You are draining to be around at a meeting. You keep complaining about all the other
consultant. You keep telling after what beta mul only complain
and we are called to be a filler. I was on a video call with a young man who
shared me me on his work marketplace again. And the problem with work nowadays compared to long time ago is
it's getting very impersonal with AI you got to pivot people will retrench you on a bed of an eye right he was from
another country where he was in a he was in a work where the is is he's getting
paid well but is nameless and he says something very interesting to me he says I'm getting paid but eight hours a day
five days a week I'm meeting people who I just can't connect with and he says
something interesting you do that repeatedly guess what it does to you on your identity very easy to say my
identity is Christ yeah hallelujah thank you very much that's all politically correct but identity is shaped by the
people you hang out very much with that's the first part of the psalms walk stand sit and you're around people who
are lifeless limbless who don't really care about the job and spend coffee time bitching about the bosses and complain
with office politics and you do that Monday to Friday, guess what that does to you? You become a scoffer.
And we were sharing, he was telling me how in work there was another Christian
and the Christian will come up to him and to say, you know what, because he does youth work, your work at youth,
the Lord will reward you. And he told me, you know, just on that over coffee
break, he felt nourished. And I want to ask you in your work when
you meet the secretary out there, when you meet your Malay colleagues, when you meet your manager in the
boardroom, are you a filler or are you a drainer?
Point one. Point two, they have endurance and stability.
It is leaves that do not wither.
Why do leaves wither? Hot air,
no water. Can you imagine hot winds blowing? We've
been having a bit of a drought, right? The hot winds
of a bad marriage. The hot winds of a job you can't stand
and you're lost. The hot winds of just waking up feeling,
you know what? I I don't know what the beep I want to do in my life. I I can't
breathe. That's a hot wind.
You will dry you. And you're not careful,
he will break you. And the goodness of God is saying,
"Hallelujah. You don't need to be like that. You can be like this.
This is typing. Oh, some typing people here.
And if there is a stream nearby, the hot wind blows in your marriage,
your work sucks, your friends betray you,
you take water, and you still are fruitful.
I want you to pick on this. All right, we're going to build on this because this is a very powerful psalm, right?
And the third one, they prosper in everything.
Whatever they do prospers. Really? Wow.
This is like magic formula. I do this tomorrow. I'm going to get the girl I want, five figure salary,
that condo in wherever. You guys are going to respect me. You know, we better do this, man. formula.
Hallelujah. Come to FBC and you shall be blessed. Actually, I'm the wrong church, man.
Let's see what the psalm is based by prosperity.
And in Psalm 73, he says, "Surely good is good to Israel, to those who are pure
in heart. Great God, we are the new Israel. We are pure. Give me blessings."
Right? But as for me, my feet had almost slipped and almost lost my foothold. I
envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked,
of those who walked, stood, and said.
So prosperity isn't the car, the girl, the relationship,
the good life. I want to say the Bible isn't saying it's wrong, but that's not
its principal aim. And you see that in th other text in the
Bible. 1 Corinthians 15. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.
What are you? A tree by the stream. Let nothing move you. That's a tree again.
Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord. And the work of the Lord in first Corinthians, whatever you eat,
whatever you do, whatever you drink, do it for the Lord. It's everything because you know your labor in the Lord is not
in vain. But God, I'm in a crap job. I've been bypassed for promotion.
In fact, I've been given a warning letter. And then I look at other people in church and they they seem to be flying
in their careers. And I, you know, Lord, after the COVID, I I I
couldn't find my balance. Before CO, I was doing well, but CO
wiped me out and I I I'm struggling. God, I'm in a job I hate.
I'm not a tree. I'm a failure. I I can't pay the rent.
What prosperity Lord? So let me give you a case study
marketplace again. H today you decide to start a small business and
you pledge to be honest even though your particular industry corruption is the norm. You treat your stuff well. You
invest back in the business. That means you don't take out every year know you put it back so that your staff get
bonuses. You do your best to be good steward and witness. You do it and the first few years the P&L is great. You
make money. You make money. Then COVID hit you and you drain your
reserve. You try to recover. The market shifts. AI takes away jobs. You can't pivot. SSD come in 8%.
You borrow money from the bank. It was a badly constructed deal because end financing and also they put in a
percentage. you couldn't even pay the monthly installments, tariff concerns,
suddenly people don't give you the the the POS and suddenly the market shifts because
China could do it at half the price. Now, did you fail
because you were bad? You failed because market forces went
against you. is like saying, "I'm going to be a Ukrainian soldier and I'm going to fight for my country." You can do
your best, but against Russian armor, you can only do so much.
Now, what am I trying to tell you? You look at the last part. Not so the
wicked. They are like shaft that the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor
sinners in the assembly of the righteous. And verse six, I thought was very
comforting for any of you who are struggling. The Lord watches over the way of the
righteous. We will deal with what righteous means in especially in the context in New Testament.
You know what is true success? It isn't you having a turnover so much
you could list your company, you know, and hold your head high up when you come to FBC.
It isn't holding your head down because you say you're just a cler and you can barely make the rent.
True success is when you meet the Lord. And I want to ask you,
when the Lord revealed this person
at the end of time,
what do you think the Lord said to this person?
I can tell you, well done,
good and faithful servant. And he'll say, Lord, I failed.
Had to go back to get a job. And the Lord said,
you were honest. You treated your staff right. They heard
the gospel because of the way you live. But Lord, I'm just back in employment.
Well done, good and faithful servant. That is
success. Two ways to be successful in life. And it gives you an example. One, be like
shaft. Two, be like a tree planted next
to a stream. This is the one where I think the rubber hits the road. If we all honest with
oursel we are much more like shaft than we care to admit. Come on.
Come on. How many of us are that righteous?
You know what is shaft? Shaft is the shell around a seed. It gives you the
impression from the outside is successful. Is hollow inside. So
whenever you look at someone who's got a when you look at a guy, you say, "Wow, he's got it all. He's got a nice car. He
stays in Damasara Heights. He's got three kids, beautiful wife. He's going
on holiday to Europe." And you say, "I wish I could be like him." You are
looking at a shaft. Because those are external things. And
if the hot wind blows, if your happiness is based on that,
you will wither. And someone sets the tone for this. And what is more, someone
recognizes we all more like shaft. Let me give you example.
Delight or despair. So here's part two of uh
my meditation. I went back and I told the Lord
actually I cannot stand the guy if I'm very honestly I can't stand the
guy I see him I rather walk the other way Lord don't ask me to talk to him I
betahan I can't love him I struggle
but but the Bible the text says delight I'm not delighting I'm I'm despairing it
puts me to depress depression. Here's another verse. Matthew 5. Blessed are
you when people insult you, persecute you, rejoice, be glad. Really?
Really, Lord? I'm depressed.
How many of us read the Bible and really go past and say, "Wow, I man, I'm really
happy." If you're like me, you read the Bible, you say, "I'm a sinner.
I know I should live like this but I fall short. So how can you say Lord you
watch over the righteous I don't feel very righteous
and the Lord will say remember the stream
remember the water and there was a woman who was like chef
he had one husband then another husband five not happy,
held her head low, came to draw water because didn't want anyone to see. And
he meets someone to says, "You know what? I'm going to give you living water."
And she says, "Well, give it to me." And this person says,
"You're looking at the living water. draw on me
and you will be like a tree next to a stream.
And she draws on him and understands what? How to
worship. You see the connection in spirit and in truth. And a woman that
was shaft that was shunned suddenly become filled
and doesn't becomes fruitful. She goes to the town and says, "I found the Messiah."
And Stui becomes courageous and steadfast because she drank of the water of life.
Here's the key point. To meditate on the word of God
is to meditate on Jesus. That's the key.
That's how we drink. Now there's another important tree in the New Testament
is called the tree of Calvary. And on that tree of Calvary,
Jesus quotes a psalm. He quotes a psalm which says they give
me poison to drink. I am thirsty.
And then he says, correct. What happens after that?
The curtain in a temple tore
because the curtain had the sheraphim on it. It closed the holy of holies. And
once the curtain is torn, the sheraphim no longer guards the way back. Eden is
open. And the prophecy of Isaiah fulfills. For I will pour water on the thirsty
land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit on your
offspring, my blessing on your descendants. This is how we
become the blessed person. They will spring up like grass in the middle like
popular trees by flowing streams.
There are two ways to live. I want to ask the worship team to slowly come up as we slow ourselves down today.
And and if you look carefully at the text, Psalm one, you are either a tree by
stream or a shaft. The sermon on the mount starts off with
what? Blessed. Correct. And it ends with you either a house on
rock or house on sand. And what does the sermon of mouth talk about? The law.
The Matthew Gospel, sin on good soul, bad Saul. If you go on and on and on,
the Bible tells you there are only two ways to live.
And this morning, God is challenging you on this.
Are you planting yourself on a path that will ruin you?
[Music] And I will tell you if you're honest, a lot of us have one foot in because I I
know I do. So let's have a bit of honesty here.
But that's good news, isn't it? As we struggle with sin,
if we draw from we draw from living waters, his
righteousness covers us. And the Bible tells us there is now no condemnation
for those in Christ Jesus.
sometime uh some time ago I went through a very
stressful period. I don't know whether any of you feel it. Um, I won't go through the details, but
have you ever had that kind of moment where
you wake up and you felt you couldn't breathe.
I felt like, okay, God, that's one problem, right? Then hang on, God, that's another one. Then hang on, that's
another one. And I felt being buried. And I woke up in the morning and I said,
"Lord, I I can't breathe." And and I I went to a verse which my
good friend Steven Sia always likes to go through, Romans 8. And in Romans 8,
it says, "We are more than conquerors through him who saved us." And I I
struggled with that verse in that morning. And then I went through a few verses before that, Romans 8. and is
safe. Who shall condemn us?
No one. Because I was feeling like a lousy Christian.
And then it clicked. Christ Jesus who died
but more than that was raised to life and is what? Interceding for us at the right hand of
God. And at that morning as I got on my knees
I said God Jesus intercede for me.
And as I started to pray I really felt
Jesus was praying for me.
And I think at that moment I understood this.
And so this morning the Lord asks you, do you thirst for him? You see in FBC,
we don't like to sugarcoat sermons. We want to be real. Being Christian is very
difficult. We rather spend time with easier things
that give us happiness. But the goodness of God al is saying if
you put your happiness in relationships or in finances and all of that the the
hot wind will blow and you will wither. But draw on me and you will be
supernaturally strengthened by the Holy Spirit [Music]
and you will be fruitful and you will prosper.
And even though the financial situation may not get better,
maybe the marriage will not improve, maybe the relationship, the children are still bad,
you are drawing on him. His righteousness covers you when you
fall. And the Lord will give you the spirit as
you fall to pick up because there is no more condemnation.
Why? Because he loves us.
And here's my last note. You look at that picture of the tree.
What do you think that branch there is doing?
Doesn't it remind you of another psalm about a deer?
What does it say? As the deer pens for the water,
so my soul longs after you. The tree cannot get
enough of the water. And the moment on the quietness of your meditation,
whether it's the early morning, no one's around or you take your car, you stop by
the side and God breaks you or even seated here right now in the quietness and something moves you and you you
sense how much he loved you, how he died for your sins.
What is the respond? It is this.
I love you Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock.
And upon this foundation of Jesus as my rock,
the gates of hell will not prevail.
Neither a bad marriage, neither bad finances.
You sit there and the word is crushing you. His stream of water,
you will not be defeated. Amen.
We're going to meditate on the word of God now. Correct? We can't do this
without practicing it. And we are going to meditate only on verse
one and the first part of verse two.
The Lord is my rock. I'm going to give you a few moments to
sit on this and ask yourself, what does the verse say about yourself?
What does the verse say about God? And what does the verse say about the
particular struggle in your life that you need to surrender to him
to help you through this? The worship team is going to sing this psalm.
And as we sing it together, as we let the spirit flow in this place,
may God break us and take us to streams of living water.
I'm going to pass the time now over to Chuchang to lead us in uh worship. We
ask that the following words become true in our hearts.
It becomes a burning bush as we hear your presence
and although we struggle with sin and sense of selfworth teach us to delight in you. Hear the
word of God from Romans 8 34.
See there let the word of God soak in you as we meditate. Who then
is the one who condemns? no one.
So if you sit there and you feel you're a sinner, you feel you're not worthy enough, you feel you are wrecked by
guilt because you've been you've been walking
standing planting yourself. Who then is the one who condemns no one?
Why Christ Jesus who died more than that who
was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also
interceding for us. And brothers and sisters, as we sit there, I want you to
think about the love of God that we just sung, as we prepare our hearts to exalt
him. Because do you believe this? As you are seated there
right now at the right hand of God, Jesus intercedes for you.
Just take a moment to just be amazed at at the God who not only
died for our sins and rose for our sins, but loved us so much. He's right there
now. And he's praying for your sinful struggles. He's praying for your bad marriage. He's praying for your doubt.
He's praying for you. If you would say, "Lord, I I want to go to that stream. I
I I don't know how to I don't know how to read my Bible. I I don't I don't enjoy your word, Lord, but I I want to
come to that water. [Music]
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? We are singing. We love you, Lord.
Shall trouble or hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger,
assort, bad marriage, bad relationship, no money in the bank, sense of no worth,
bad habits, you can't broken out. [Music]
No, in all these things,
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Take it in, brethren. Take
it in. Soak it in. In all these things, we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us and we love you, Lord, as we sang.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor
any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation
will be separate us from the love of God.
That is Christ Jesus our Lord. and God's people, will you exalt him?
If you do, would you stand with me? And in one voice stand, we will say, we
exalt you. As God's spirit just moves,
we exalt thee.
We exalt thee.
We exalty. [Music]
Oh Lord,
we exalt him.
[Music] We exalt
thee. We exalt
thee, oh
Lord. There's our voices. Let's declare it. We
exalt thee.
We Exalt thee.
We exalt thee.
Ohord. [Music] Father God.
Take our prayers. Take our worship. We surrender to you.
Thank you Lord Jesus. We are broken people. We are sinful people. We do not delight in your word, but
there's no condemnation for us. Teach us to be like the Samaritan woman.
Give us today that streams of living water. Teach us be rooted in you.
Make us like a tree that is nourishing. Teach us to be fruitful.
Teach us to be enduring. And when we do that, we know in all things we will prosper.
And that we seek only one thing. When we meet you one day, you would say,
"Well done, good and faithful servant."
And God's people say, "Amen." God bless you all. The sermon is over. Any one of you who want to stay
back and talk to us, share with us, share a story, we are here. God bless
you all. Have a great week ahead.
