20th June Sermon Discussion - Consider the Goodness and Severity of God

Scripture: Romans 11:21, 22

INTRODUCTION

• Take a moment and think through what God is like. Now try and put a picture to what God is to you.

• Is God like an old gentle man floating up on the clouds giving out gifts and love to everyone

OR

• Is God like an angry giant up in the heavens looking down in anger waiting to zap everyone with lightning?

• God may or may not be either one but to know God as who He truly is, we need to know God and see Him completely.

MESSAGE

• The truth is that God is good and loving, but at the same time God is severe and fierce.

• God’s goodness is always popular but people usually don’t want to talk about God’s severity.

• In order to truly know God, we need to see every part of Him and not just choose the parts that we want to see.

Question: Based on Romans 11:21-22, what do you think will happen if you only choose to see God’s goodness and not His severity?

• We need to see and understand God’s severity before we can understand God’s goodness.

• If we choose to see God in an incomplete way, then we will end up falling away and rejecting the truth – Look at the book of Jeremiah!

• We need to see God fully and complete! He is not 50% gracious and 50% severe – He is 100% gracious and 100% severe!

How then shall we live?

#1: We need to be overwhelmed by the grace of God

• We are all imperfect and have sinned and because of that we actually deserve to die and not live another second. But take a look at Lamentations 3:22-23.

• God loves us so much that’s why He doesn’t consume us! And He demonstrated that love in Romans 5:8!

• We all actually do not have the right to live and have any form of blessings in our lives. But because of God’s grace and mercy, we can live a life full of blessings.

#2: We must not take His grace for granted

• Hebrews 12:29 tells us that God is a consuming fire.

Question: Take a look at another verse, Hebrews 10:26-27. What do you think will happen if we always say that it’s okay to sin because God will always forgive us?

• Always listen to the voice of God and do not harden your heart (Hebrews 3:15).

• If your heart is hardened, your reject the word of God and because of that you cause yourself to stop receiving God’s grace, mercy and love.

APPLICATION

• The way to always be overwhelmed by the grace of God and not to take it for granted is to walk closely with God.

• The question is, how is your quiet time? Do you spend time with God?

• Choose today to walk with God every day. Do your quiet time every day. As you obey God and spend time with Him, you will learn and see God in His completeness. Don’t choose parts of God that are better for you. Choose God for all that God is.

MEMORY VERSE

Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV) “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

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13th June Sermon Discussion - "You Can Be A Blessing!"

Introduction:

How many of you want to see yourself leading a group or inviting your friends to the 40 days of faith? If you want, you need to start now! Yeah! Though 40 days of Faith officially starts on 1 August, you need to start praying and planning now. Don’t worry its just a few simple steps☺

Bible verses: Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-8

3 simple steps that we can take in response to this call and experience the miracle of multiplication

1. Go and see the need

Write down the names of your friends/family members that you want to invite for 40 days of Faith.

How many of you here are troubled or stress out on what to do to reach out to them? Let’s look at what Jesus do when He reach out to the multitudes.

In Mark 6:34 states ‘When Jesus arrived, he saw this huge crowd. At the sight of them, his heart broke – like sheep with no shepherd they were. He went right to work teaching them. Looking at this verse, it says that the crowd was like sheep with no shepherd and what Jesus did was to meet their needs by teaching them. He didn’t spend thousand of dollars nor perform a talent show to reach out. He just met the needs of the people.

Activity 1:

a) How did you come to know Jesus and what makes you believe in Jesus? Write it down. I believe many of you here believe in Jesus because Jesus met your needs. Maybe some of you here a wounded heart and Jesus met your needs by healing it. Maybe some of you here have fears and Jesus met your needs by helping you to overcome your fear.

b) Look at the names of the friends/family members that you have written just now. Do you know their needs? Write it down beside their names and start praying for them. If you don’t, then its time to spend time with them, to know more about them and pray for them. And if their needs are something that you can meet, are you willing to help them meet it? For example, some of them need friends to study with. Are you willing to set up a study club and study together with them? Or maybe some of them need friends to go out with. Are you willing to organize a simple outing for them to spend time with them?

2. Pray and bring them to the Lord

In Mark 6:30-44, we see how God was able to feed the thousands despite having five loaves and 2 fishes. Indeed, with God, all things are possible.

Activity 2:

a) As we are talking about leading a group or inviting friends for 40 days of Faith, how many of you are fearful doing it or think that you can’t lead a group? Write down those fears and reason why you think you can’t.

b) Today, God wants to tell you that you can! In Phil 4:13 ‘ I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.’ Just like how Jesus was able to feed the thousands with 5 loaves and 2 fishes, He is able to help you overcome your fears. As long as you tell God that you are willing to lead a group or willing to participate in the 40 days of Faith, God will help you.

c) Make it a commitment to pray to Him daily for the people that you are inviting.

3. Organize and serve them together

Jesus was very detail at His execution. Similarly we need to be organize in our 40 days of faith.

Activity 3:

a) Take this time to think of the venue that you want your 40 days of faith to be held and write it down. Make sure it’s comfortable, convenient and conducive. There will be a short video for them to see. Do ensure that the place is able to show the video.

b) Which day and time do you want it to be held? After school? Sat?

c) From now till 40days of Faith, it’s about 1 month plus. Organise activities that can fellowship with them or meet their needs before the 40 days of Faith officially start. You can have a study club/a once a week movie outing/a bbq gathering/play sports or computer games etc. It will be good if you can work together with a fellow sister/brother in Christ.

Yeah, remember 40 days of Faith don’t start on 1 August. It starts NOW!

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29th May Sermon Discussion - "I CAN!"

Scripture: Philippians 4:13

INTRODUCTION

Did you know...

• You could share the gospel to your entire school?


• You could lead 100 people?


• You could be the top student in your school?


• You could reach your generation for Christ?

God’s word for you today is that YOU CAN do great things!

It doesn’t matter whether you’re smart or rich or how old you are; God can and will use you to do great things if you let Him because God lives in you!

The most ordinary people can do great things through our extraordinary God!

You can be great! (But you need to believe it!)

Activity: Share with one another in the group what is your greatest dream. It could be to become a millionaire, a pilot, own a mansion or even to be the next Apostle Lawrence Khong! Regardless of what it is, do you believe that you can do it? Do you believe that you can do even more than that? End off telling one another “you can!” and then by saying it yourself that “I can!”

- So why do we need to believe that “I can!”? Is to please Pastor Khong? Is it just so that we will feel excited about the 40 days of faith? NO!

- So what is believing that “I CAN!” all about?

MESSAGE

#1: We live with an attitude of FAITH!

• Attitude is important because it is what shapes our lives.

• Attitude will either liberate us (free us to do great things) or limit us (push us down to never do great things).

• If we always tell ourselves that we can’t do it then we will end up not being able to do it. But if we tell ourselves that we can do it then we will end up being able to do it.

• Romans 8:31 (NIV) “If God is for us, who can be against us?” – God is for you! So step out in this attitude of faith to believe that God can and will use you to do great things!

#2: We choose to act in OBEDIENCE!

• We cannot just believe that we can do great things. We must actually start doing it!

• James 1:22 (NKJV) “But be DOERS of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

• A true attitude of faith that believes God can and will use you will lead to action.

• Philippians 4:13 doesn’t just say “I can”. It says “I can DO”.

• Don’t just believe that you can do great things. Great things don’t just happen. Great things happen through doing something.

#3: We allow God’s POWER to come!

• We can believe that we will do great things. We can start to work on great things. But only when God’s power comes and empower us can we fully do great things.

• Philippians 4:13 doesn’t just say “I can do”. It says “I can do all things THROUGH Him who strengthens me”.

• We can easily say “I can pray and heal the sick!” We can believe that we can do it. We can do something by praying. But only when we allow God’s power to come and empower us can any healing take place.

• 2 Corinthians 3:5 (Amplified Bible) “Not that we are fit (qualified and sufficient in ability) of ourselves to form personal judgments or to claim or count anything as coming from us, but our power and ability and sufficiency are from God.”

APPLICATION

• 40 Days of faiths is just around the corner. In fact it starts now.
• Do you believe that you can lead a group?
• When you believe it and step out to start doing it, God will empower you and you will see great things being done through you.

Activity: Spend some time seeking the Lord and asking Him to help you lead a group through the 40 days of faith. If you are serious and believe that God can and will use you, tell your leader that you want to lead a group. You may not know how, but take that step of faith and obedience and allow God’s power to come and use you!

Memory Verse:
Philippians 4:13 (NIV) “I CAN do ALL THINGS through Christ who STRENGTHENS me.”

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13th March Sermon Discussion - "Quick Feet"

Bible Scripture: 1 Chronicles 12:8

Ice-breaker: Cat & Mouse

Sit around in a circle of at least 8 people; prepare 2 objects (e.g. water bottle or bible). One object will represent a ‘Cat’, and the other a ‘Mouse’. Moving in a clockwise direction, the ‘Cat’ will be passed from person to person by having the object go 1 round around the waist of the person, before passing on to the next person. The ‘Mouse’ will be passed in a similar fashion except that it needs to go 2 rounds around the waist of the person. The objective of this game is for the ‘Cat’ to catch the ‘Mouse’. Start the game with the ‘Cat’ and ‘Mouse’ at opposite sides of the circle and you will see the ‘Cat’ catching the ‘Mouse’ soon!

Introduction:

In the ice-breaker, why was the ‘Cat’ always able to catch the ‘Mouse’? The answer is simple; it moves from person to person faster. In short, it has quicker feet!

God has destined great things for our lives and our church, represented by the ‘Mouse’. For us to claim them, we need to be just like the ‘Cat’, we need to have quicker feet. Just like in the ice-breaker, when we chase God’s purposes for our lives wholeheartedly, we will always be able to catch them. That is God’s divine will!

1 Chronicles 12:8 (NASB) “From the Gadites there came over to David in the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men trained for war, who could handle shield and spear, and whose faces were like the faces of lions, and they were as swift as the gazelles on the mountains.” Just like David’s mighty men had quick feet, God calls us to be well-trained and have quick feet too.

How To Have Quick Feet:

1. We Must Have The Right Spirit

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that our hearts can deceive us. What this means is that we can easily harden our hearts and not even realize it! The only way we can always be in the right spirit is to always be in the presence of God, Philippians 4:8-9 shows us how – our daily devotion of reading God’s word will bring His presence into our lives!

Philippians 4:8-9 (NIV) “8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

One sign of a hardened heart/wrong spirit is the unwillingness to learn or grow anymore. Check our hearts: are you someone who would choose to do things the easy way, laze around, find some excuse to do less for God or are you someone who pays attention to the things of God and pay the price to obey Him?

Will you make a choice today to put God in the highest place in your life? You can do so by stepping out of your comfort zone and joining in the 24/7 prayer at TC Chapel this week or joining in the G12 conference looking forward to hearing God speak to you.

2. We Must Guard Our Hearts

Proverbs 4:23 (MSG) “Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that's where life starts.” When need to guard our hearts because issues of life flows from our hearts. If we do not guard our hearts, we get wounded easily. ‘Injuries’ in our hearts such as resentment, un-forgiveness, pain, anger or bitterness, weighs us down and can create insecurities. King Saul became envious of David’s success in battle instead of being proud of his fellow man’s victory, 1 Samuel 21:11.

Paul and Silas showed us an example of guarding their hearts in the midst of imprisonment in Acts 16:22-26. They experienced spiritual attack in their relationship with God when they were caught, emotional hurt when they were put to shame when their robes were torn off and physical pain of being beaten. Yet at about 12 midnight, they were praying and singing hymns to God. Evidently, they guarded their hearts and did not allow circumstances to cause them to focus on their hurt. Like Paul, we can stay focused on God and His calling to win the unsaved instead of the hurt and pain suffered. Don’t live with the victim mentality but rather, have a secure, victorious mentality!

What are some negative emotions that affect you usually? Envy, anger, resentment, worries? Identify and learn to be on your guard against these emotions.

3. We Must Renew Our Minds

Our minds can receive the truths and revelations of God because we have the mind of Christ, 1 Cor 2:16 (NIV) "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.” God also pours new wine (His revelations) into new wineskins (our renewed minds), Luke 5:37.

To have Quick Feet for God, we need to let God transform us by the constant renewing of our mind, Romans 12:2 (NIV) “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

One way to be transformed by the renewing of our mind is to have the positive attitude of wanting to learn and staying teachable. Your feet will become quicker when you want to learn. God will pour into you His fresh anointing and revelation. Let us make an effort to learn new things every day, so that we are trained to run faster for God.

What are some new truths / revelations God has shown you recently?

4. We Must Have Vision

God always completes what He has begun, Psalms 138:8 & Philippians 1:6 (NIV) “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” God’s plans for your life will be completed if you know the vision and choose to follow after it.

Bartimaeus was blind and begging before he received sight from Jesus, Mark 10:46, 51-52. When God gives you vision, you will have passion because you have a reason to live.

To find out more about God’s vision for your life, come to the G12 conference ready to receive God’s Word. Don’t think of yourself as being too young and cannot relate to God’s plans for your life. Prepare your heart and ask God speak to you! The G12 vision has transformed so many lives all around the world, it can change yours too!

If you have not already done so in response to the sermon from last Sat / Sun, would you decide right now to have Quick Feet?

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6th March Sermon Discussion - "From Victory to Victory: The Painful Lessons from Ai"

Bible Scriptures: Joshua 7 & 8

How to have Victory to Victory Despite Failures

1. Corporate Commitment to Holiness

Activity 1: Games Time

I. Split yourself into 2 groups
II. In your group, take out a pen and a piece of paper
III. In order to win, the group that finishes the given task in the fastest time wins the game.
IV. This is the task: Every member in the group has to use both their thumb and their second finger to hold the pen and use that pen to write the word ‘UNITY’ on the piece of paper. If any member’s thumb or finger leaves the pen, the group has to redo.
V. As you played the game, do you realized that in order to win, everyone has to play their part? If one stops, there will be great difficulty in moving the pen. If one decided to disobey the rules, the group can’t complete the game. Everyone’s action affects one another.
VI. Similarly, if one sins, the body of Christ will be affected. Let’s look at the book of Joshua.

In Joshua 6:18, God told the Israelites to keep away from the devoted things. The devoted things refer to the gold and silver of Jericho. However one man decided to disobey what God has commanded.

In Joshua 7: 1 it states, ‘ But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.’ The Lord didn’t just punish Achan. The Lord punished Israel. They lost the battle in Ai and 36 men lost their lives.

VII. Do you know when we sin and choose to be ignorant of it, it affects the body of Christ? Maybe your fellow sister in Christ need God to heal her from a disease, but because of your sin, God’s hand can’t move. Today, if you have a sin in your life, are you willing to repent?

2. Communal Circumcision for Cleansing

In Joshua 7:13, it states ‘ Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says; That which is devoted is among you, O Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it.’ The reason why the Israelites lost Ai was because of sin. Thus, in order to win, they need to remove the sins in their lives. They need to set apart themselves for God.

i. Do you want to experience victory in your life? If you want, consecrate yourself daily. True freedom comes when we choose to obey Christ and live like Christ.

3. Courage to Fight on Again

Joshua 8:1. When Joshua was about to fight against Ai again, he was afraid as he had lost to Ai before. He was afraid that history will repeat itself. But God told him to not be discourage or afraid as God will help him.

Activity 2:

I. What does courage means to you?
II. Courage is simply letting go of the past and letting God take you into His plan.
III. Break into groups of 2 .Is there any areas in your life that you have given up and need courage to fight again? Share and pray for one another.

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28th Feb Sermon Discussion - “Taking Cities for God- Overcoming Insurmountable Obstacles”

Have you been joining in the 40 days of prayer? Believe that as you draw near to Him, you will experience inner victory. With that, you can experience outer victory.

Bible text: Joshua 6.

3 Strategies in Overcoming Insurmountable Obstacles:

1. Divine Plan

In Joshua 6:2-5, the Lord gave Joshua a divine plan in tearing down Jericho. Jericho signifies the obstacles in our lives. As a Christian, our obstacles are not just about our needs in our lives. It includes a bigger plan in transforming your school, transforming Singapore.

Activity 1: Sharing

i. Is there an obstacle (a Jericho) in your life right now that you find it hard to overcome? Share and pray for one another.
ii. Just like how the Lord gave Joshua a divine plan, God has also given Pastor Khong a divine plan in transforming Singapore. One of the 7 gates of culture influences is Education and Schools. As a student, you have a part to play to transform your school. However, do you want to? Do you believe that your school can be transformed? Do you believe that there will be salvations happening in your school everyday?
iii. You can make it a habit to pray for your school everyday. Also set up a prayer group in your school. On top of that, plan ways to be a blessing to your school and execute your plans. For example, you and your friends can help to clean the classroom every day.

2. Divine Presence

The reason why Jericho fell was because the presence of the Lord was with them. In Joshua 6:8, it states that the ark of the Lord’s covenant followed them. The Ark of the Covenant represents the presence of Lord.

Activity 2: Sharing

i. Do you know when we only ask God for His power/blessings rather than His presence, our relationship with Him will not be too strong? The reason is because you only know Him for what He can do rather than who He is. Thus, when you don’t get what you ask for, you will feel disappointed and leave Him.
ii. Are you willing to desire God’s presence and not just His power? When we desire God’s presence, we can overcome the obstacles in our life.

3. Divine People

All of you are God’s chosen people. You can overcome. You are special. You can win the nation. You can be strong. You can do great things. You can dream. You can be happy. Out of all these, which is the one that you find it hard to believe you can do? Share with your partner and pray that you will experience breakthroughs.

Activity 3: Memorise a verse

John 15:16 ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.’

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Baptism Testimony - "The Greatest Gift Anyone Can Ever Have!"

I was born into a Buddhist family. I grew up following my parents to temples to pray and perform the different rituals that Buddhists usually do. Eg. burn paper money, drink the ash water, hold joss sticks. Before I knew Christ, I was a very wild person. I used to say words that hurt others’ feelings, especially those rough Hokkien words such as ‘Wa Lao, Wa Kao’, ‘Siam la’.

I was not sensitive to my friends’ emotions and said whatever I felt like saying. I was very immature and can even be impolite at times. I used to be very impatient too and often lose my temper over small things. I remembered one time when I shouted at my grandmother just because she had forgotten to do something for me. But above all these, I felt that my life was meaningless. Going to school was meaningless, doing homework was meaningless. I did not have a sense of purpose and even felt lousy about myself.

The time when I began to realize that I needed God was when I came to Secondary school. I was from Fairfield Methodist Secondary. We had daily devotion every morning before the start of lessons. A teacher would come up and share a word from the bible as well as pray for the whole school. We also had chapel once a week. It is like a service with worship and a short message. Though I’ve heard about Jesus from my grandmother when I young, but it was in Secondary school that I slowly began to understand who He really is.

I realized that Christians are happy people. They tend to do things more effectively than me. Also, I can see that they have a lot more motivation and purpose in the things that they do in their everyday lives. As time passes, I realized that deep down inside I wanted to believe in this God but I was not totally convicted yet.

My turning point came when my grandmother had a heart attack in 2004. I was in secondary 3 then.

The doctor said that she needed to go for an operation but there was only a 50-50 percent survival chance. It is possible that she’ll slip into a coma or even pass away during the operation. I was terrified. I realised that I needed a miracle to save my grandmother’s life. My grandmother was the one who brought me up and I was very close to her. Losing her would be too unbearable for me. So I made a deal with God. I told God that if He’s really real, He would save my grandmother’s life. In the end, my grandmother’s operation was successful. God came true to me. He saved my grandmother’s life and she’s living with me up till today. That was the time that made me confirmed that God is real. However, I didn’t knew how or what to do to accept Christ.

How I accepted Christ was when my physics teacher then, Joanna invited me for a Good Friday concert in April 2005. It was a harvest event organised by FCBC called ‘Starlight’. I agreed to go since it was a school holiday and I had nothing to do. After the performance, Ps Eugene gave a short sharing and that really touched my heart. Thus, during the alter call, I said the sinner’s prayer and gave my life to God. That was how my journey as a child of God began. Soon, I started coming to church and cell and continued to learn more and more about Jesus.

To me being a Christian is to have the Holy Spirit inside of me. It means having God everywhere I go and everything I do. Right now, I’m living a life that seeks to do the will of God. My life is meaningful and purposeful. I understand that God has a perfect plan for my life and all I have to do is to obey Him. I’m now more conscious of my own actions. I also have better control over my emotions. I begin to have more patience to the people around me especially towards my parents.

My aim now is to live a life that is righteous before God. Furthermore, I’m learning to practice this unconditional love to others just as God has showed His unconditional love to me. I’m starting to have more confidence in what I do. I’m a much happier person, knowing that I have a God who loves me and will see me through every single situation of my life. It is the greatest gift anyone can ever have.

Written by Michelle Ho Jia Yee, baptised on 26 Feb 2010 (Click here to read full post)