The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:00:00 so good morning church um we have a Ministry called Family Life Ministry family life has two wings uh two arms one of it we do parenting and marriage courses Brandon and suly anchors that with some I'm quite involved in that if you are dating right and you want to bang your head over with an uncle I'm the man all right I will go out with breakfast especially if the girl complain hey my boyfriend really don't know how treat me right ancle Anna is here so I do a bit of that it's something I take a lot of joy in doing
00:00:30 over the weekends to just spend time with people but we have another arm which is mental health and over the years we have worked with a few uh therapists uh all registered with uh jabatan counselor Malaysia but we are pleased to announce after such a long time FBC is starting its own inhouse counseling service this is our own and uh we just give you the credentials Selena chin uh me and John go has spoken to her uh if you know a bit about therapy out there the most common one is called cognitive
00:01:01 behavior therapy in Christian Church circles we practice something called Christian Counseling Evangelical Fellowship CCF is Bible based and of course once you reach a certain limit we will refer to a psychiatrist or psychologist for medication Selena comes with a masters from Westminister Theological Seminary you don't get more more Bible based than her I have spoken to her she knows the Bible very well she used to be reclaimed very Bible Conference uh so we are starting off right now on two days Monday and
00:01:36 Thursday and it is free and mental health has a stigma people don't like to you tell someone you need to go and see a therapist or psychiatrist people feel very stigmatized so what we want to do we want to bring it to the hall to the church and you can just drop in Selena is a wonderful sister very quiet those of you can afford putting a love give you can't afford because you want to make this service available to poorer people those who struggle and don't have the money to go out there and find a
00:02:10 psychiatrist or a therapist and they will charge you $200 per hour I mean I mean I that's a place for all of this so uh do look at this service and it is something we want to open up to the church okay and now we're going to show you a video now I'm going to pass it time now to the AV [Music] s muru that is from our worship team from our um our uh Malay Fellowship right and so you this morning we're going to try to do something a bit different all right and we're going to try to see whether we can merge our worship together with our
00:03:20 preaching and just now you just saw how our Indonesian Malay service does their worship and uh let if I can get my thing working there we are oops let's go and we have also our Tamil uh service down there and they also worship a certain way there our belov pastor Raymond is he holding a tambourine Raymond are you holding a tambourine oh he is so he's also at a back doing backup singing uh and then of course last week we had our choir right and it was just so wonderful to just hear our choir do worship so
00:03:56 this morning I just want to ask a question you came in you sang what is the purpose of worship now worship becomes divisive in some Churches some people like to raise their hands and they like to really you know and know if you come from those larger churches you know what we like our charismatic friends they like to do that some of us here like to just raise our hands a lot of others don't they're quite quiet they like to you know use the himna book they like older hymns and of course uh there are some people like
00:04:28 to bring in all the Jewish instruments I spoke one month ago and in the second survey somebody brought along a chaua and he started to blow it at the service I don't know the brother whether is here but he came from the heart so what is worship and I want to ask you today what would you consider the worship which is uplifting I want to show you a text in scripture about worship and for me I think this text captures the Heart of Worship all right of all the stories in the Bible that tells you of people singing to the Lord
00:05:07 is this story and this is Paul and Silas singing to God in prison let's just read the text a little bit right and it comes from acts 16 and they are basically preaching the gospel they're saying things people don't like to listen to that's something we're going to talk about today there comes a time where you will say certain truths and people get offended and so we take from verse 22 the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and bitten with rods after they had been
00:05:45 severely flocked they were thrown into prison and the Jailer was commanded to guard them carefully when he received the orders he put them in the cell and fasting their feet in the stalks so they just been you know they just has been beaten and they be thrown in prison so if if I throw you in prison or I do something bad to you what will you do you will crawl into a corner and you were going into depression what do these guys do they start to sing I when you pick this up right at midnight when people are asleep Paul and
00:06:19 Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening to them suddenly there was a violent earthquake in the foundations the prison was shaken at once the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose the Jailer woke up he saw the prison doors open he drew his sword was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners escaped the Paul shelter don't harm yourself we are all here here's the second thing you had a miracle the prison doors open what would
00:06:46 you do run he stays put have you picked that up the chains come loose and Paul and Sila stays put maybe they're still singing the jailer C of Lights rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas he then brought them up and asked s what am I do I do to be saved they reply believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved you and your household I want you to just look at this verse and we're going to we're going to focus a bit of this as we go into our next song Paul and Silas were singing to God
00:07:25 that's what we did this morning but look at the other part the other prisoners were listening to them so you can say this they are singing to God but they're singing to other people and they both happen at the same time you sing to God you sing to each other now where have we heard that but in the context of Christians Ephesians 5:19 speaking to one another with Psalms that's on old Testament hymns that's what Paul were doing and songs from the spirits in the Greek means choruses sing and make music from your
00:08:09 heart to the Lord this morning as you continue to sing as you continue to worship as you sing to the Lord you are speaking God's love and God's truth to one another Charles Wesley found that story so just so uplifting he wrote a song on it my chains fell out my heart was free I Rose went forth and followed thee remember in that story the chains fell off Paul and Silas they stayed get in prison why so they could share the good news with the Jailer you see friends the chains and the bondages were not on Paul and
00:09:15 Silas you know who was in Chains it was the Jailer I want us to come in prayer right now as we ask the spirit to move in our midst as we going to prepare our heart to sing the next song and I ask you are you in Chains did you come this morning just to sing and do your religious Duty and go [Music] back and so the word of the Lord says to you sing this my chains fell out my heart was free I Rose went forth and follow thee father God as we continue to worship you we speak the truth in love we Proclaim it
00:10:10 to the heavens and we Proclaim it to one another father God we ask for those who are heavy laden who come this morning and feel just tired as we come and sing this song Lift Up the spirits and for those of us who are are not going through a bad time i' like you to do this as we sing this song would you think of the brother in your midst who's going through a difficult time and would you sing not just to God but to sing to him and God's people said amen I'm going to pass the time now over to chansen that is all right we sing this
00:11:00 hymn [Music] [Music] together and can it be that I should G and in the savior die he for me whoa hisain for me who him to death shot amazing love how can it be that th my God CH die for me amazing love how can it be that my God die for [Music] me he left his father throne above so fre [Music] gra and of all love and for hel this Mercy all and free oh my God found me amazing love how can it be that the my God choose die for [Music] me my pra L for B in sin and night thy might the great I walk the D flame with
00:13:45 ch my chain fell love my heart was free I Rose went and follow thee amazing love how can it be that my God choose die for me let's sing aloud and Proclaim together no now I dread Jesus and all in him is in Liv and cl in rightousness deine I approach the Eternal throne and claim the CR through Christ my am amazing love how [Music] can my God di for amazing love how can it be that the my God should die for me please be seated as we take a moment to just Ponder on God's amazing love uh let's talk a little bit about speaking
00:15:42 the truth in love and we saw just now with that story you don't just need to speak it you can sing it and as they sang in prison I mean the other prisoners were saying what's what's with these people you're in prison you just got beaten and you're in you're in stalks and you're singing and they listen let me just talk a little bit about speaking the truth in love and I put up some terms on what we commonly understand this to be and this is the most common you know you had someone come say oh no I want to
00:16:17 talk to you uh get worried really can I have a word with you and sit down H I want to say this ah you all have that right or you have a hard to Heart discussion right and you know I think what you did was wrong but I'm really trying to have empathy I'm trying to understand and and if I did wrong can can you tell me but you know I know you shouldn't have done that you know haven't we all had that kind of conversations or you have already called a safe space that's such a big word now and we're going to we're not going to
00:16:50 judge one another and we're going to ventilate and the other guy listens to you gets offended these conversations are difficult but we all tend to frame speaking the truth in love in these terms I'd like to suggest to you let's look at what scripture says right and we'll take a reading from Ephesians 11 to 16 and I'll give you the context later but this immediate context begins at chapter 4 about maintaining the unity of the spirit through the Bor of peace and in verse when he say this Christ gave himself the Apostle prophets
00:17:33 evangelist the pastor teachers to equip his bodies for works of service to equip so after that what does the body do the body of Christ is built up verse 13 until we reach unity in the faith in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ so now Paul is talking about the body of Christ me and you being equipped equipped to to do what to be more mature and to build the body how do you do it verse 14 because about maturity so we will no longer be infants
00:18:08 tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching that's one and two by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming instead speaking the truth in love and it goes back again about the body we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head that is Christ and then echoing 1 Corinthians chapter 12 from him the whole body joined and built together by every supporting lament grows and builds itself up in love second time love from
00:18:48 verse 15 to 16 as each part does its work so the immediate context of speaking the truth in love isn't about me and you having a heart to hard discussion you know the context is what is about false teaching and people who deceive you so there's a difference so let me just give you the context of this what Paul man was speaking the truth in love one is to speak the word of God the problem when two people speak and you have your view I have my view you said honor you did wrong I said no I didn't wrong the wrong I think you you
00:19:29 did wrong everybody walks away getting unhappy how many times you had a heart-to- heart conversations with your husband your wife a church member and everybody just plows into it in the end everybody just leaves very tired but speaking the truth in love isn't that it's about speaking the word of God number two you say well okay well I still going home and I'm going to I need to have a difficult conversation with my son I need to have a difficult conversation with someone else in my Ministry and we just can't work together
00:20:02 and then Paul will say well okay if you do that you make sure Unity spiritual Unity the most important thing one of the reasons why people don't like to serve in church is after serve them sure ah he did this he do this he's like that he's like that he talk behind my back he never informed me he don't respect me this guy like that I don't respect him very tiring he reminds us Unity thirdly you see we like to think of it as onetoone discussion it's not it happens here it happens in what we're doing now it happens in your live room
00:20:40 it happens out there that's the interesting thing and they all connected and happens in church at home at work he brings it up in chapter five and six you speak it you sing it and you pray it in Ephesians 5 he gives you one example he just gives this word wake up sleeper you know what that is that's a song he singing it I want me give you why this is important in Revelation 7 why Unity is important I want you to pause and and this morning look around you and and see these are your brothers these are your
00:21:21 sisters look up look down look at the B this are the people you and I will see in heaven we better start getting into the practice of unity after this I looked Revelation 7 9-10 and there before me was a great multitude and no one could count from every nation tribe people and language standing Before the Throne and before the lamb the Nations will be there Imran and Kathy will be here Imran from Pakistan Kathy from Philippines [Music] our brothers from Africa we hear if you see them I don't see them
00:22:06 today the Nations will be there they were wearing white robes and they were holding palm branches in their hands and they cried out in a loud voice salvation belongs to a God who sits on the throne and to the lamb and you know what that is that's a song you know where that's coming from that's Jonah verse 9 and just like Paul and see us in prison instead of going to depression they sing Jon in the belly of a whale when my life was aming you I remembered you Lord and my prayer Rose to you to your Holy
00:22:48 Temple those who cling to worthless Idols turn away from God's love for them but I with shouts of grateful praise as in this morning when we sing We sacrifice to you what I vowed I will make good I will say salvation comes from the Lord amazing love for what God who so loved us died for us how can it be if you love the word of God you would want to sing and if you want to sing you will love the word of God I want us to process this as the worship team takes us through this next song one day we will
00:23:44 meet in the new heavens and it is my prayer your prayer we meet everyone and all of us here will say salvation Belongs to the Lord shall We rise and get into practice let me pass the time back to [Music] chansen Let's s [Music] together salv Belongs To Our God who sits upon the [Music] and unto the land praise and glory wisdom and thanks honor and power and strength be to our god forever and ever be to our god forever and ever be to our god forever and [Music] ever and we the redeem shall be strong in
00:25:31 and unity declaring Al praise and glory wisdom and thanks honor and power and strength to our God forever and ever be to our god forever and ever to our god forever and ever amen praise praise and glory widom and thanks honor and power and strength praise and glory wisdom and honor and power and strength to our god forever and ever be to our god forever and ever be to our god forever and ever amen forever and ever Lord Jesus one day we will see Father in heaven and right now we just like to commit people that we have difficulty
00:27:38 loving and the spirit is saying we are in a business of maintaining unity and so we start first with the church I want us to just think is there a Christian brother that you have struggled loving [Music] and you ask yourself would you see him in heaven and maybe God one day will put him next to you and both of you will be singing salvation Belongs to the Lord and if we are saved we are a new humanity and Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 he has broken down that wall of hostility and I want to extend that to
00:28:20 any hostility maybe between husbands and wives between children anyone you have friction right now and right now the word of the Lord going out there is Unity by the born of peace and what is this peace that Paul talks about at the beginning of chapter 4 it is Christ he is our peace want you to take a moment so that these words come to us as we sang it we meant it and you say I struggle brother Anor then well we struggle together Lord be with us this morning as we continue to worship you in song
00:28:59 in word and in Revelation we say it in Jesus name amen please be seated and we are not coming to the main body of the sermon and today as you know we are talking about worship I like to thank our worship team for helping us try this today we tried something different now so you let me know whether it works all right we're trying to integrate worship and preaching to be one unit and this is what the early church did all right and and so you then begin to say well God's word was spoken in Truth and Love not just in the sermon
00:29:38 but in worship so bear we meet here all right so here's for all you football fans right I'm not a football fan what is he doing he's singing right so I don't know what club this is okay but all Liverpool people here and revil people if you sing your anthem of your Club you would know your club right sacrilegious if you don't you would know what games where they are in the league you know who is playing what position you don't sing unless you know a lot about your Club correct H you love the football fan correct H see all the
00:30:15 all these men noding their heads all these League guys because you must know the club then you sing you cannot sing of what you don't know now similarly this is what scripture is telling us if you love the word of God you want to sing if you love to sing you want to know the word of God Amen sure not sure not the actual reality people who love to Signature don't necessarily love to read the Bible come on today we have reality check ah correct re smiling alreadying is a lot of people doing people to read the Bible don't
00:31:00 necessar love to sing in church you know I went few years ago for this uh you know among what we call conservative Evangelical Church they put label they like to bring you all these guest speakers you know W famous Americans wrote all these books so remember it was another church I went there I saw Peter walking in it's all our all our heavy weights oh the worship was terrible the worship was terrible it like people 8:00 never mind I go late the speaker 8:30 three nights you know people were just streaming in they were singing uh
00:31:36 sorry be very careful very caou you know but wow the preacher come to share the word of God exit this is what the Greek say the Hebrew the context W everybody light up it's almost like hurry up and sing get it out the way we come to listen to the sermon so you see the problem my think we've the churches nowadays as compared to the early church the church service has become like a restaurant menu now if I offend anyone you after come and speak the truth in love to me in Evangelical churches I going to be
00:32:16 very careful not to label FBC guess what is the main cause the sermon the speaker is a superstar not anim or not they call this word based churches I'm looking for a church which preaches the word of God everything else is like the starter like the soup or the dessert you go to some of the praise and worship churches the main cause is what the singing let me show you an example I give you two photos one of this is a rock concert one is a church service can you tell the difference you can't here's another one one of this is
00:33:09 a t talk one of this is a church servant service can you tell the difference and so we begin what we call worship Wars conservative churches will accus charismatic churches of playing up emotions see like your church service end up like that charismatic churches will say you all are turned the church service into a t talk so I think we want to relook at the relationship between preaching and worship this morning and I want to go to the text and let's spend a little bit of time in this and let the Lord just speak
00:33:47 to us in this Lord we ask you give me humility and that the word will go out in Truth and Love in Jesus name we say this amen let me give you a bit of context of Ephesian since we're not doing a series Ephesians is like most what we call Pauline literature the first three chapters is all theology he tells you in two great prayers the blessings of God he tells you the new Humanity he tells you with the mystery of Christ he begins actually at chapter 4 56 into application now here to all you Bible study leaders that's typical
00:34:25 PA what you call Pauline writing you know theology application but efficience has a difference I want you to think about this as we proceed at chapter 6 at the end of it he slots in another big theological section what is that section the armor of God now you ask yourself what is that doing there because many people preach the armor of God preach it like completely separate I want you to think of that huh this section begins at Ephesians 41 about maintaining the unity of the SP Spirit to the bond of
00:35:01 peace right let's look at it verse 15 be very careful then how you live not as unwise but wise making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil therefore do not be foolish but instead understand what the Lord SP live that's the Preamble so he's talking about living he's telling you to live wisely Mary every time I see you what do you say to me carom then I tell you papadom you know what carom sees the day that's the me and Mary always have this Rapport how do you seee the day he gives
00:35:43 you an example in vers 17 to 18 and they are deliberately contrasted sorry 18 to 19 do not get drunk on wine the Greek word here for wine interestingly is the same as spirit which leads to debout so here's why it's saying you drink this spirit is going to lead to devouty you drink the other Spirit instead be filled with the spirit speaking with Psalms hymns and songs sing and make music from the heart always give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ so that's the contrast be filled
00:36:21 with the spirit be filled with another kind of spirit but how are you you filled with the spirit this is the key he tells you in verse 19 you are filled with the spirit how when you speak to one another with Psalms hymn songs on the spirit now that's interesting because people ask how do I get filled the spirit oh come in front then brother Anna will say hallelujah hallelujah I pray on you Lord Jesus just fill him the Holy Spirit and then you do this and you say oh I felt this fire oh Lord I felt
00:36:57 this then you fall down and then someone put a put a blanket over you I just got filled with the spirit I'm not saying that's wrong but is that what the text is saying here's another one people tell me you know I sat in the service and I felt this sensation I felt the love of God I just I just felt so loved and was filled is that what the text is saying how are you filled with the spirit verse 19 when you sing I think most of us never pick that the issue isn't about the quality the preaching you know or the standard
00:37:37 Praise of worship what's important is the filling of the Holy Spirit during church service and interestingly Paul picks that on singing what's the problem with what we call word-based preaching wow he exited three points he knew he Greek he knew he Hebrew he contextualized it is biblical he checked the commentaries he just gave you a TCH talk it's biblical are you sure the spirit was with him oh I went for this praise and worship concert man everybody was raising their hands they were singing their hearts out wow I I just felt God
00:38:16 hallelujah how do you know there's not emotionalism so that's what we're going to look at number one the Holy Spirit fills us when we sing from a great heart drink church service I want you to pick this up and ask yourself when we come on Sundays is the worship like entree and a restaurant I don't eat entree okay don't eat appetizer okay so long I don't miss the sermon so can I give a gentle rebuke I come late never mind 8:45 is okay come 9:00 also can 95 also okay so long miss a sermon okay okay or not cannot you know other
00:39:07 churches they lock the door you know I I I agree but if we lock the door we become legalist we want you to come on time from the heart but if you're not coming on time not trying to t you are I want you to bear with me what the word of God says now this isn't necessarily singing that is being filled with the Holy SP Spirit you know because he singing from the heart have you ever seen you uh Yan raise his hands he raises his hands never above the elbow like that one we to all God forever ever then I
00:39:48 say higher but he got there we haven't meant to get it with you love you love is still like that and you did AB any but it's from the heart Paul doesn't care whether you raise your hands or you halfway like that like you doing weights or you stand like Caillou he's talking about the heart now here's where the connection is by speaking the truth in love right if you look at Chapters 4:15 to 520 we links to the idea of speaking to one another in Psalms hymns spiritual songs I just put it up for you
00:40:32 uh what is the commonality here is what you and I say every day one verse 25 do you lie 29 is it UNH wholesome meaning you like to gossip say things 31 it comes from a bad place you slander and then you have caus joking foolishness it's all about talking now Paul is lining this up to speaking the truth in love so here's what he's telling you and I think many people don't get this you know the connection this in teaches us to speak the truth in love as a habit think of worship like a sponge the more you
00:41:19 sing God sponges you the moment you have that one to heart one discussion with those with your wife your husband your colleague in office those that you find that you end up having a quarrel with the guy walks off the person that you just cannot get through Paul is saying worship is the key why because of verse 15 that is the preamble be careful then how you live making the most of opportunities do not be foolish understand what the Lord's will is what is the Lord's will Verse 18 that's that's what he saying verse
00:41:59 19 now here's another thing I want you to pick up just now I ask you why does Paul put the armor of God at the end of Ephesians and then you have all these people preaching on the armor of God like a separate book the armor of God the breastplate of righteousness the helmet of salvation and then they like to go into what you call spiritual warfare sermon and then you ask yourself well hang on what's that got to do with the first five chapters that's the key now one thing Paul does in the book of Ephesians there are few major
00:42:40 themes one theme is the body of Christ another one is the mystery of Christ but the main one is the holy spirit I just listed it down look at that from chapter 1 chapter 2 onwards chapter chapter three chapter 4 if there is a string that ties everything together is about the Holy Spirit and in in his various facets look at this the power of the Holy Spirit chapter 26 to 17 the unity of the Holy Spirit chapter 3 3 to 4 do not grieve the Holy Spirit 3:30 and be filled with the spirit 4:18 and earlier on spirit
00:43:23 that gives you wisdom the infilling Holy Spirit you know there's a a lot of it and chapter five gives you the key closer six the sword of the spirit so you're supposed to read Ephesians 610 to1 17 in context of all of this now what's interesting of the S of spirit what is it the word of God how does Paul Define speaking the truth in love speaking what the word of God you see the connection so we can put it this way the sword of the spirit firstly is the only offensive weapon in the armor of God I
00:44:09 can give you a shield I can give you a helmet give you a breastplate I don't give you a sword you're going to die because you can't kill the enemy so what Paul is saying the most important part of the armor is actually The Sword and the sword is the word what is speaking the truth in love the word so let me tell you this and I think we miss this a lot including myself singing dring church service reminds us that speaking the truth in love is part of spiritual warfare you can put it this way the
00:44:48 sword of the spirit is wielded when you are filled with the spirit do you know when you sing from the heart from a place of gratitude and coming really to honor God something Supernatural happens in this Hall the spirit descends you see I don't feel it I don't have that we call it shock the Bible never say shock I don't need to have a fire tingling down me go like that like that I'm not saying that doesn't happen he but we only singing we're not exting we didn't go into the Hebrew you didn't give me three points you didn't give me
00:45:34 the context you know but that's right off the text how are you filled with the spirit by singing and when you sing the word of God the sword of the spirit is builded let me give you example you know when we talk about fights between good and evil right let's I don't know Harry Potter and what's the name the bad guy I not a Potter guy vort uh thank you oh he take the one guy take the one you know fire and brimstone right I mean Star Wars lightsabers when you when you talk about fighting evil right is always like something from a
00:46:23 Marvel movie right somebody going to shoot out some laser or some that's what we think so the devil had a confrontation with Jesus he tried to tempt Jesus how did Jesus overcome the devil did he call fire from heaven and zap the devil that's what happen with Elijah can do that did he part the sea and drown the devil he can do that right did he like I don't know Peter call an ananas and the guy just F dead how did he defeat the Devil he spoke scripture and interestingly it's from Deuteronomy every time you
00:47:21 sing power is being Unleashed then you say I don't feel it then you have to ask yourself a very important question are you singing right are you singing right now before all of you start to rush oh your feel very guilty I better raise my hands it's so nothing to do with raising your hands it's about the heart if we speaking truth in love through praise and worship we need to understand what the the songs are saying so let me give you one song My Sweet Lord hallelujah my Lord hallelujah My Sweet Lord hallelujah I really want to
00:48:10 see you but it takes so long great lyrics H very Godly it's it takes me to place where I want to see you Lord you agree this is Josh Harrison song do you know who he's singing to Krishna this isn't a Christian song you know you see the point I'm trying to make right do you know what you're singing I I don't mean to rebuke let me give you a Tesla and not Tesla that sounds very like I'm not a teacher here to whack people we are brothers very careful you just sang Let Your Kingdom Come do you know what you're saying let
00:49:09 me give you one part of it h give us your strength oh God and courage to speak you are speaking the truth in love perform your wonders Deeds to those who are weak he's just speaking to yourself and to people around you you know did you really mean it when you sang just now to God perform your wondrous Deeds to those who are weak and you say yes I did well okay name me one person here you know who's weak No Name It by name and are you praying for that person are you going to go out there talk to him because you
00:49:49 just sang that you just said perform your wondrous Deeds through those who are weak are you do you sing there say Lord I feel weak I don't like to come to FBC actually Franklin don't quite listening to Arnold he guil trips me but can you do your wondrous Deeds to me you just sang that and he say Lord use us as you want whatever the test that's very loaded you know Lord us us you want whereever test all right I want you to give up certain things and suffer for me that's just what you're saying by Grace we preach your gospel to
00:50:33 your dying breath so you ask yourself I ask myself when was the last time I preached the gospel be very careful what we sing and then you say well I don't I don't feel I'm worthy to do it that's the point Paul is not asking you to say well I I I I take off the boxes he's asking for your heart do you want to do this do you want to preach the gospel do you want to perform this this when you're weak do you want to do things when God puts you through the test do you want to do that and you say yes but I feel weak
00:51:13 the spirit Falls in this Hall that's the spirit filled Church it isn't because a preacher here can give you three points and is biblically correct or you had a fantastic worship team up there who can just wow get your emotions going it is me and you and that's the question the Lord is asking us this morning is a very important question so how is SBC going to be a Spirit-filled church sing from the heart know what you're singing and some things we sing are very very scary because we can't do it but we
00:51:59 say Lord we sang it you know what we going to try to do it you know few weeks ago we had a guest speaker uh from uh from masimo church and and before he came up to preach on Daniel we sang a song I can't remember the name now but he had a line if we go through the fire fire you're there with me and I sang that I told myself I don't want to go to the fire but I remember the lyrics but it really struck me and then it said something even more frightening I will be crucified with you and I sang that I said I don't want to
00:52:43 be crucified with you but I prayed Lord take me there and if you remember that day I was really struggling with something at work I still am by the way and so a guest speaker comes up and preaches on Daniel and tells us about the writing on the wall about sacrifices and so I go up to Chu Chang I say you know what I I feel very troubled I need to share this and so I came up and I shared about a tempting I'm going through at work this law and I'm very thankful for people like brother Ry you know uh sister par a
00:53:38 lot of people encouraged me you know why I did that because I told myself if I don't declare it I'll be tempted to do it you know this is how the spirit works let me take you a bit more into the Theology and you need to hear this early ear on Paul talks about another type of spirit let me read this to you in Ephesians 2 as for you you de in the transgressions and sin when you used to live when you followed one the ways of this world that's what we all do that was what I was tempted to do the ways of this world right let's not go
00:54:15 into the details that the ways of this world means why in my line giving a bribe is common we can argue a lot about the great area two the ruler of the kingdom of the air the spirit is not at work in those who disobedient you know what that is that's Ephesians 6 why because the sord of spirit is in the context of what spiritual warfare and you know why he calls it ruler the kingdom of the air it means you can't see the devil this is Hebrew language is geographical the ruler of the air is Hebrew cosmology meaning when the Devil
00:54:49 Comes he's not going to come with you fangs you know so there two then he adds on all of us live among at one time gratifying the Cravings of flesh now that's where it's interesting because if you have Bible Gateway in your Bible and you typed out that word uh Ephesians 2 and Bible Gateway comes up there will be a footnote there and the footnote says this the Greek word for flesh refers to the sinful state of human beings is the power in opposition to the Holy Spirit just do that and if you Google the word
00:55:16 scks for all you Scholars you'll find multiple writings it is the opposite of holy spirit so do you know why when we sing we are not filled with the Holy Spirit Paul just gave it to you there three things one because the world has conditioned us two we are predisposed in our flesh and here's where we miss we always say the flesh is predisposed toward sin that's not what he's saying you know what he's saying the flesh is predisposed to not one to be filled by the Holy Spirit that's what he's saying in no honor I came in front of I
00:55:56 got zap that's not being filled with the spirit he h I sat there and I feel this oh I felt really the presence of God that's not necessary being filled with the spirit because we don't want to be filled that's why he's telling you and why he gives you one other thing because there's another voice Whispering you and he doesn't come from the Holy Spirit he comes from the ruler of the kingdom of the air you see when we think of spiritual warfare we think it looks like this you know demonic forces you
00:56:32 take out the sword you're like Luke Skywalker right you like Harry Potter against Voldemort we think of the devil like this all like you know in the 1970s you put out the cross the cross got light some more know then the Dr ah now we think it's funny and it's a joke I tell you in love this is very rampant in Christian churches you say come on Anna where got Christian Church take the cross and point it in your face no they just do this this is called being slain in the spirit I used to go for this kind of uh
00:57:28 Services some of the more bigger churches in Malaysia grew out of this I want to be very careful about judging number one the Bible never says anything was cleaning in the spirit now I'm not trying to tell you this is wrong if you are at War right you're at War what would you do if you're an intelligent enemy you reach sunu out of War you know what the first thing they call it and the Allied Forces did it at World War II and Normandy I give you a simple example recently there's war in the Middle
00:58:14 East and hisbah went into the freay where do you think hisbah thought the war was coming drones Rockets missiles where did the enemy come from the pager the pager they built a backstory so big so deep and so pln and one day they blew off all the fingers you know why they did that because his b hides in the masses and if they see you in Lebanon with missing two fingers and a burnt face the IDF will pull you up that's called intelligent Warfare if the devil was was going to fight a war FBC you know what the first thing he'll do they
00:59:01 call this misdirection the problem with these things is that it misdirects you to where spiritual warfare is you think spiritual warfare is sensationalized is you need to shake you need to fall you need to convate let me tell you what Paul is saying spiritual warfare is right from Ephesians 4-5 this is spiritual warfare come on when you go home and you quarrel with your husband you quarrel your wife and you see nasty things don't like KY do that to Imran you must love him I saw her seean listen to
00:59:54 other canot this I love this couple you know I I was recently involved in I got a big of was patching up between two people they from another church and he went on about the hurts from the other person he start about what they did in Ministry they did and they he escalated to personal and he went on it went on and after while you know I I I felt something you know I told him you know what you got to stop this is getting way too personal and you could look at his eyes you know now you tell me hey I
01:00:33 think you over exaggerating it well if you think I'm exaggerating it tell me how you explain this verse there front and center you know and this is part of what how not to speak the truth in love that's what Paul is saying is front and center every time you have a fight with your husband your wife it's not matter who's right or's wrong there's one voice whispering in you you see you've been hurt you've been Hur they did it to you this fellow very CH this one your wife shouldn't do it to you this fellow is
01:01:09 Troublemaker that's the voice of the ruler of the kingdom of the air there will be another voice saying this only one word unity and that's why later on Paul says do not grieve the Holy Spirit and how do you not grieve the Holy Spirit Get rid of bitterness forgive sometimes I have quarrels you know I'm not very a good husband my wife listening to this so better be careful I think we all have it but one thing we both have learned to do we have learned to forgive faster last time wow har see you in the morning this what you
01:01:59 did to me yesterday cannot T maybe we getting older not very fast for give really but that's what spiritual warfare is then you say you know under I think you are only giving isolated incident okay let's look at text you go to work tomorrow hey any of you play office politics I do I bet you you play it you just can't admit it let me show you one up your your midman mid level management this young Millennial com in and you guys talking to all the jet X and Jet baby boobers wow this young guy young pun you
01:02:44 know very good in his work unfortunately he reports to you he's a threat to your career so what you do you need to maintain your your place in as head of the department now but he just did a great report you know fantastic you see the report you don't see it's a great report you know what you see he's ATT trct to your position so what you do in Malay we see you Goring the guy what kind of report is this hey hello you got your numbers right there you are you sure this not you don't know what the company is doing are
01:03:24 you sure the compan cannot do this I know you're new you're trying to do it you got to get it right and you eyeball the guy why the V said also want to cry already and Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him saying far breed from you Lord this shall never happen to you wow very good at politics man but Jesus turned and said to Peter get behind me Satan Matthew 16: 22-23 did Peter see a wing devil dropped down on him he saw nothing lie let me just do this you know the story of Nas and saira why has Satan filled your heart to
01:04:20 lie to the Holy Spirit and what did they do they do something we all do you know they want to make theel look good in church fa what is the commonality between this example this example and this example let me just run it through to you quarreling with your husband wife playing office politics lying to look good all of them have got to do with your tongue that's the commonality in all three examples the devil is L at work with the ways of the world and with your flesh and you can't see it this is
01:05:04 spiritual warfare and that's why Paul list it all down and you know what is the cure the Cure is worship one of the ways one of the most uh ped books written about this is by Dr Michael Heiser the late Michael Heiser called the Unseen realm I want go to it uh if you really want a Theology of this this is a this is a seminal work his Hebrew is first class he talked a bit about spiritual warfare he used one word he's called it intelligent evil an intelligent evil makes itself so invisible you can't see
01:05:45 it if people fall here and we have those church services where people zap and all of that you think that's how the devil works that's exactly what the devil wants because when you see that you go go back and yell at your wife you don't think the devil's at work that's his point so FBC isn't a church that into Sensational things it's the quiet way it's the it's the pager strategy the devil is using on you let me end with this music from the heart flows when you are at the foot of the cross the end of the verse says this
01:06:22 sing and make music from the heart to the Lord always giving thanks to God the Father for everything you would ask yourself what do you mean by everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ let me end with this you know you could listen to this sermon and say you know what I'm going to go back and be a better husband I'm going to learn to speak empathetically I'm going to I'm going to wash my body language I'm going to learn to forgive an say must learn to forgive I'm going to sing tomorrow in church and
01:06:56 really sing from the heart and and pray I'm G to do all of these things and then you're going to go back and you're going to still quarrel with your wife because it's never that easy we had people come to our church listen to sermons get very hopeful and go back and try to do good and the other party just spits in their face and they come back and tell us you know what I did everything you told me God didn't help me so here's the bottom line about speaking the truth in love and we're going to talk about personal
01:07:34 conversations where you have a disagreement with somebody somebody who dislikes you someone who hurts you somebody who you just if you think of him right now your blood boils you know I want to really take us to that here what Paul is saying in a very indirect manner no matter what you do sometimes it's not going to work you're not going to fix it and so you need to give thanks because when you give thanks you have the power to persevere how do we know this and what am I going to give thanks for what is this everything he tells you
01:08:12 in Ephesians 1 I have not stopped giving thanks remembering you my prayers I keep asking that the god of our Lord Jesus Christ may give you the spirit of wisdom and Revelation so we know him better here's one more thing we should do in worship and we are trying to do and I don't know don't know whether you've been picking this up we live in a world of a lot of white noise their voices competing when I'm very Hur I only hear one voice what's that whose voice my voice my narrative and very often my
01:08:56 narrative is this I'm right you are wrong correct think of it think of this thing of a conflict you're having in right now I'm right they are wrong and there are 15 reasons why and you can sit down with a pastor you can sit down with a counselor I sat down with people for hours going round and round nobody backs down why do you think Church splits why do you think the Christian church is so divided because my narrative is correct you are wrong so there's one thing in worship we do which the worship team will give us
01:09:39 that space later which David did in Psalm 27 is called silence and so in worship we give you a space to quieten down and for your heart to break and for you to ask this question maybe I was wrong and then only the holy spirit will fill you and when then you meet that person whom you hate I know we shouldn't hate but that's a truth you dislike the person who hurt you and you try to speak your truth in love you know what had just happened God spoke to you unless you experience God speaking his truth in
01:10:34 love to you this morning you will struggle to do that and we're going to do that now let me end with the story of our safe space a safe space is a Sacred Space and Jesus meets this woman at the well and why did the woman begin to experience the spirit because she thirst for Jesus unless we close this song with you genuinely wanting to thirst for Living Waters and Paul and Jesus says streams of Living Water will not spill from you that's John 6 I want you to pause a bit about this and I'm going to put up these words of
01:11:29 the final song we're going to sing and as we prepare our hearts I want you to think of someone you're having a conflict with someone you have difficulty to love and look at the verses of this and I would beseech me and you to sing this from the heart and I will say this when you do that something Supernatural happens the Lord descends in this Hall let's look at the verses carefully as the worship team prepares us to get our hearts ready I want you to just internalize these words and have a quiet
01:12:14 moment Lord we need your grace and mercy we need toay pray like never before and I'm going to urge you after this maybe to meet me or anyone in front and we will pray with you like never before you don't need to give me the detail we have people come in front and just say can you pray I say pray for what I don't know just pray I don't want to tell you we pray because that's courage we need the power of your Holy Spirit to open Heaven's Door and and Lord right now we ask for heaven's door to open we
01:12:57 ask for power to descend we ask for the filling of the holy spirit for we are at War We At War With the Enemy that's invisible we at War whenever we go home and we yell at our wives our husbands at work at friends when we cannot forgive we are at War can I head back my words please can we head back my words now mind we can use this H it's okay guys let's leave this Lord we ask right now is is open in prayer that you touch our church that we now enter into an important time of worship and we hear the words of
01:13:45 Paul that we speak to one another in Psalms hymns and songs of the spirit we sing to the Lord From The Heart always giving thanks for everything for we are so blessed because you oh Lord died for our sins and we have been forgiven and forgiven people forgive much you died for us to build a new Humanity Breaking Down the Walls of hostility and a new Humanity fights for Unity much right here right now as we enter into this Sacred Space can we all try to be like a Samaritan woman who came thirsting to
01:14:39 know Jesus and when she came thirsting to know Jesus she left knowing how to Worship in truth and in the spirit to give her every self to worship and to know Jesus is an anchor as we prepare to sing some of us here need to learn to forgive I want to give a quiet moment for you right now to just if you struggle to forgive somebody can you try to do [Music] that some of us our hearts are hardened and Paul picks it up the Gentiles have their heart hardens and they give room for the devil to speak to them you have
01:15:29 a view of a narrative in a conflict and the Lord is telling you maybe your version of events is not very true you know and you say I try to speak the truth in love but maybe your truth needs a bit of correcting and right now I ask for the spirit of humility to dispel the spirit of Lies let's Pi a moment to do that and here's the last one as we come to sing sing from the heart if the Lord ask you to raise your hands raise your hands the Our Lord asks you to stand still you stand still if the Lord ask you to come in
01:16:23 front and kneel you kneel and you you sit there you say well Anna how do I know if the Lord is telling me this it's quite simple really there will be a voice saying I think I should come in front and kneel I think I should come and talk to somebody but then there will be another voice that says no I'm scared I'm afraid of what people think and then the Lord will say decide
