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For the next five, six, seven weeks, we are starting a brand-new series called Ekklesia - this is the Greek word for the English word church. We say church in English, but in the Greek, in the Bible, in the New Testament it’s called Ekklesia - that's why we use this high class term, Ekklesia but I think this term reminds us, church is not about a building church is about people.  The word Ekklesia tells you that.  The word Ekklesia is a compound word made of, made up of "Ek" and "Kaleo" or "Klesia".  "Ek" means “out”, that's why you have the English word – exit – “Ek” is “out”.  “Kaleo” is “to call” so what is the church?  The church is really made up of people called out of this world, to belong to God - that's what church is all about, people called out of this world, to belong to God through Jesus Christ. So in this new series, you can call it church you can call “Ekklesia” it's about the people of God and the very first message this morning we're going to look at is really the Vision of the Church so we are going to look at mission, vision, stuff like that, but this first Sunday we are just going to look at one thing, the Vision of the Church.

Vision is where you see, alright you need your glasses, you need your eyes, you see and vision in particular is what you want to see, what we envision ourselves to be, what we hope we will become, it's the ideal state, it's the perfect picture where we dream of being. So the Vision of the Church is what we are going to look at today and remember it's not about the vision of the building, what this building looks like, it's a vision of how you and I will look like, what we aspire to become and in this church it's just five words, the Vision of the Church is in five words. If at the end of this sermon, at the end of the service, you can remember these five words, I will be very grateful to you, alright that's all we need to strike at.

The Vision of the Church in Gospel Light is to be An Acts Church for Today. Can you repeat together with me… 1, 2, 3, An Acts Church for Today, that's it, that's as simple as that!  Now be very clear, this is not an acting church for today, we are not here to pretend, we are not here to act, it's an Acts Church, you say what's an Acts church? Well it is a church that is based or given to us in the Book of Acts.  You know if you open the Bible, you have your Old Testament and you have your New Testament. In the New Testament the first four books are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, everybody knows that.  I mean just flip it's all there but the fifth book is called the Book of Acts and the Book of Acts is really about the story how the early church started, how Jesus rose to heaven, and how His disciples in the power of His Spirit started a church and and was a wonderful church.   In my opinion, it is probably the best church the world has ever seen, the Book of Acts.  The early church, church filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and that's the kind of people we aspire to be so the Vision of Gospel Light is that we look forward to something that has been given to us as we look backwards, alright, it's very strange, I know, but our future, our desired future is to be like the people 2000 years ago, people in the book of Acts so there are 28 chapters in Acts, a lot to read about, a lot to find out but we will just summarise them in or rather examine them in a very crystallised form in Acts Chapter 2, verses 42 to 47. I'm not going to read that to you, you’re going to read it yourself. Our Communications Team has put up a simple video clip and so take a look and read the verses and think about what it means to be An Acts Church for Today.

Video plays………………

Ekklesia, a church that started in Palestine some 2000 years ago, spreads to all ends of the earth today and really, this is what we are going to look at Acts 2:42 to 47. I know it looks like a busy mess in front of you. I'm not going to read them again, you can read it more intentionally when you get back home but I want to say that if I were to give you some 15 minutes right now to read these verses and to start writing out the various qualities and characteristics of the people then, you might be able to come up with 10, 15, 20, qualities that would not be that challenging. Our pastors, our shepherds, we met together and we actually wrote down the characteristics, we, we started to list them one by one, we said “what is the church in the Book of Acts like?”  What are some of their qualities, their characteristics and we say these are things that we should pray for and emulate so we wrote them and we came up with some 20 over and so, today's sermon will be very long, 20 over points. Now you all laugh because I know that's not possible but it will be good to give you some 20 over points, but you probably can't remember much of that at the end of the day so we decided to crystallise them into seven points and they are all I think derived from the church in the Book of Acts and all the seven points have keywords that start with the letter S so that maybe easy and err for you to remember. I hope you remember so if you can remember an Acts Church for Today, I will be grateful and if you can remember the seven, I'll give you a kiss, oh no, no, no err, of course not so that would be the challenge, to be able to go further and say alright what does the Acts church of today really look like, these seven values, I hope will be what this church embraces so the first one is straightforward. I,I list them in a sense, in order of some degree of importance. The first one is the most important you miss this, you miss what church is all about, alright.

The Acts church is centered on the Saviour. Someone else said something else, alright I hear Saviour and I think you're absolutely spot on alright, the Acts church is centered on the Saviour. It's all about Jesus Christ. The Book of Acts is not about James or Peter or Paul, yes a lot is written about them, but it is not really all about them. The central focus of the church must be Jesus Christ. See in Acts one verse eight this is the key verse of the entire book, it says “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem”. You say, why such records of the apostles’ movements, travels, preaching, because they were all doing one thing; they were on a mission, their mission is to witness Jesus is the Christ. This whole book is about Jesus Christ. They were told and they were called and charged them, not these are the enemies of the Gospel, these are the religious leaders who hated Jesus.   They said to them stop doing this - you cannot teach or speak at all in the name of Jesus. Obviously the apostles were all preaching about Jesus so when the enemies heard that “don't speak of that anymore, I know it's all about Jesus, but you can't do that”. The early church was all about Jesus. In Acts 5, we read of this statement, then they left the presence of the Council, they were intimidated, they were threatened not to preach but they were not deterred. They left the place, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour. For what? For the name, the name of Jesus, it's all about Jesus. In Acts 5:42 they continued to teach and preach that the Christ is Jesus so what is the early church like, what is it about? It's centered on Jesus Christ. I pray Gospel Light will be more and more and more a church centered on Jesus and what He has done for us. Today you see many people serving some are doing traffic marshals, they are sweaty, they’re out in the hot sun, there are people cooking, they wake up at 4am, there are ushers, there are care group leaders here, there is an AV team, worship team, everybody’s  serving the Lord somewhere and why do you serve God? You know how it get started in Gospel Light? Oh, eh, kawan, kawan, [Malay: friend] come and help lah, [local slang] serve lah and that’s how people start, a lot of times and there's nothing wrong with that but I hope with time with growth in Scripture your reason for serving is not just because your friends are serving, not just because this is the culture, but because you love Jesus and you do it for Jesus. When you fry the bee hoon I hope you’re frying it for Jesus Christ; really I'm not kidding, whatsoever you do you do all for the glory of God. When you direct traffic and one sweat drop comes down, you say that is for Jesus Christ. I mean that's what it should be, our motivation is to be in our Saviour. It's all about Him because He has given His life for us, we now live our lives for Him. The love of Christ compels us to live for Him. I hope that when you give, you give for the glory of God, you give for Jesus sake. You know, one thing about this building it's a massive financial outlay; there is no doubt about it, but if you come to this building, you will see no man's name attached to anything in this building. You don't have a Jacob room, you don’t have a John Auditorium, you don't have a pew that- or a chair that says Mr. Tan Ah Kow sponsored this chair, nothing like this. I know there are practices like this, but not for us because we say there is no other name that should be lifted in this church except the name of Jesus Christ and that's the philosophy to giving in Gospel Light. It's all centered on Jesus. I pray this will be true for you. Everything you do, you live for the glory of God but not only must our motivation be Christ centered, our message must be all about Christ. There's so many topics to talk about, do you think, every Sunday you must be wondering, “Pastor what are you going to preach, how come you got so many things to preach”.  Well there are many topics to talk about and by and by I receive requests from people that say “Pastor, you should talk about this, Pastor you talk about that, and there are many hot button topics”. For example we have a LGBT which is a very prominent issue today in the world - uh lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals, this lifestyle and you say “well Pastor, we should really preach more on this.”   I think we must definitely address these issues but I also remind the church that this church must not be about anti-LGBT movement. I mean we are clear that we disapprove according to the Bible of the LGBT lifestyle. We love these people, we are against the practice but we must be careful we do not become a church that is totally consumed with preaching anti-LGBT things because we have a central message to preach, and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now if we preach the Gospel correctly these issues will be dealt with, I'm sure, but let our central focus be the Gospel.

Some time ago there was this Pokemon craze,  Pokemon Go and people cross the road, wa almost banged down, young people are obsessed with Pokemon Go, even people now are still playing Pokemon Go, amazing and some church members actually text me and say “Pastor, you really need to preach it this Sunday”. Did you see the news; did you see how crazy it can be, our children are affected and I said, “Yes, I understand that but I also shared that I'm not an anti-Pokemon church”. We're not, we are against many things because they are sinful and they lead people away from God but let us be known not just for things we are against, but let us be known for what we are for and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You know what's the name of this church? You got it!  It's all about the Gospel - Gospel Light Christian Church. You've many issues, health, wealth, there is a false gospel floating around, actually swirling all around us, coming to Jesus is about money, that's, we need to preach against that but let us not be just anti-health and wealth but let us be pro Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's more important don't you think? It's when you know the truth that you will be able to discern the falsehood so if you preach against false things all the time, you don't know what is right, you can't discern after a while.

Recently I saw a video clip from a particular well, well known church in Singapore that promotes academic success that's the focus of their church. I got a scare, I mean, what, when did a church become MOE? I mean that's not our business, I mean, er ok don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with saying your kids should study well and put in their best effort but is that the main message of the church? I'm afraid we have gone off tangent if that becomes our focus and then there are people who may be obsessed over issues such as music, such as there’s a lot of peripheries, now I'm not saying music is a bad thing, I'm not saying that save the world is a bad thing, I'm not saying that Christian Zionism and things like that are totally out of the picture. No, but I'm saying that all these things fade in the background when you realise that the central focus ought always to be the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul said, “I have decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”  Now Paul is an extremely smart man. I think he is extremely knowledgeable, he knows the Greek culture, he knows the Hebrew culture, he knows a lot of these things, but he says, this is what I decide, this is what I determine the Greek word can easily be translated determined. I know there many things, interesting things to talk about issues that may tug at heart strings, people that maybe talking about, but I am clear, I'm determined, I'm decided, this is my message Jesus and Him crucified.

I think it's so important for us as a church to preach Jesus and Him crucified. Pastor Paul goes to Indonesia in time past and he regularly laments the fact that in the big churches there, many big churches, thousands of people attend, very few know the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You will be shocked. I thought you go to church to hear about Jesus no you go to church to hear about religion and all the religious outward forms, not true religion but the outward form of religion. Oh, it's about how you dress; it's about what you say; it's about the ceremony; it's about the liturgy; it's about the steps, one by one; it's about all these things that people could see but nothing about being born again. Nothing about faith and repentance from sin to Jesus Christ so you have thousands of people who attend church who imagine that they are now accepted by God but they’re far from God because they do not know Jesus and Him crucified, that is a horren-horrible state to be in. I shudder to think what would happen to this church. I mean, those churches, he talks about in Indonesia, hundred two hundred years ago they were Gospel-centered churches, but with time, topics, issues, personal preferences come in and it leaks out. I pray we’ll never leak from Gospel Light Christian Church that's why we preach in our Sunday School our children's ministry if your kids are right there right now, let me tell you what they are going to listen to, they're going to hear the Gospel.  They’re not just going to hear about how to be a kind neighbour, friendly guy, about this moral behaviours actually school can teach them, but only the church, only the people of God with the Bible can show them Christ and Him crucified in every page of the Bible that they are regularly pointed to the reality, God loves us and sent His Son to die for us. Believe in Him and be saved, all ye ends of the world, this is the regular call in our children's ministry, and that will be the regular call in this pulpit or in this stage and I pray in all our care groups and all our platforms to pursue God it’s all about the Gospel. Paul says I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, it's not limiting, the Gospel is so rich and it's so powerful because the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. The only hope for this world is not anti-LGBT movement. The only hope for this world is not anti-Pokemon movement. The only hope for this world is not about these issues, yes let me get this clear, we need to deal with these issues, but the real hope of this world is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May Gospel Light once again be faithful!  So number one, now don't worry seven points I know are very long, wah pastor you take so long for the first one “siao liao”! [local dialect : crazy].  The rest will be shorter, alright, the rest will be shorter, but this is the most important you see, the church must be centered on the Saviour.

Number two, the church in the Book of Acts is filled with the wa, this is a very smart congregation; you know the answer alright they are filled with the Spirit, the word filled means to be controlled alright it's a biblical term they are filled they are controlled and empowered by the Spirit. See, we say we want to be all about Jesus, we want to preach Jesus effectively, but you have no power in and of yourself.  In this church, we realise that man can do a lot but they are all ineffective, if not empowered by the Spirit so we believe that all that we do must be dependent on the Spirit, Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ who lives in us. The early church knew that because Jesus told them, He ordered them, He commanded them His disciples don't leave, don't go don't preach the Gospel yet, don't go on a mission yet, do not depart from Jerusalem, but just wait, wa, that's a very difficult thing for people to do right, just wait, why, why do we have to wait? We already heard the message Jesus, we have been waiting for three years we learn all that you have to teach us. Moreover after you died and rose again, we spent 40 days together with you and you taught us great theology. We learned a lot we know a lot we are ready to go no need to wait, don't waste time. Jesus said, “no, you've got to wait, I know you know a lot of things but you have no power and you will fail if you do not wait for the promise of the Father who is the outpouring- which is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit”.

There's a story I used to tell in this church many years ago I've stopped telling it because I think it's so easy to remember that all of you who are old timers, you say ahh, I've heard the story before, but because now we're new place, new friends, new guests, let me share it with you again. Many of you might be familiar with the story of romance of the three kingdoms, right, romance of the three kingdoms “san quo yan yi, san quo zhi…” 三国演义   To all our Filipino brethren, non-Chinese speaking brethren, bear with me, alright I'll try to make it as simple as I can. There's a popular film today or in some years or months ago is called “chi bi” 赤壁 or Red Cliff, famous battle, a story found in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  It's actually a battle between Cao Cao , one warlord, against a coalition force of “Liu Bei and Sun Quan”, so two armies are going to fight. Cao Cao’s soldiers vastly outnumber the coalition forces so if it's a straight fight he will definitely win no question but the problem is that this battle of the Red Cliff is on waters and Cao Cao’s soldiers are not used to battles on the waters so they got seasick and Cao Cao was getting worried. I know I have more soldiers but my guys are like “mabok” [Malay: dizzy] already you know like wa, they, they cannot balance, they are seasick and how are we going to win?  So someone came along and said to Cao Cao, just tie all your rafts, all your boats together so that with a bigger surface area it will be more stable, they shake less and your soldiers will win. So the Cao Cao listen to the advice, tied all his fleet together and ready to go. The coalition force heard about this and say wow, this is our opportunity. Say why?, they thought of a plan they said they will set some boats on fire and send them over to their fleet and everything will burn up in flames and it's just like that by fire attack, we will win the war so they got ready, they, they “sms” Cao Cao and said we want to surrender to you. Please accept some of our boats as an indication for surrender.  Of course they were not boats to surrender. They were boats loaded with incendiaries and inflammables so that at the right time it will be set on fire and it will “kamikaze” [Japanese: suicide] themselves and die and seriously there was a general who said “I will do that, I'll be the one that commands this fleet and we’ll burn, we will die together with this Cao Cao’s soldiers”. So they get all that ready everything was in place and then they realised they couldn't go, you say why?  Because the generals realised that if they were to go right now and set their boats on fire, the wind direction is contrary to what they are going and instead of burning Cao Cao’s  troops they will burn their own fleet and so Zhu Ge Liang, who is one of the advisor in the coalition force, he came out with this statement which I think you're such a smart church, you know, and he said one, two, three, wa some of you save the world, save our ignorance, alright “wan shi ju bei, zhi qian dong feng“ [万事俱备，只欠东风]  You say, what does that mean? Everything is ready except for the wind. Everything is good to go but if there is no wind, no victory. I think on that day if the church was in China, Jesus might have said “wan shi ju bei, zhi qian sheng lin de feng“. Everything is ready, except for the wind of the Spirit. So wait here for the promise of the Father. The absolute necessity to be filled with the Spirit empowered by the Spirit so this is our second essential value in this church, we are centered on Jesus we want to be filled with the Spirit but then you ask, hey what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? What does it mean to be controlled by the Spirit? What does it mean to be empowered by the Spirit? Is it like like this Pastor ohmmmm… antenna not so strong, move a bit, ohmmmm… is this how we get the Spirit?

That's why we come to the third critical value, number three, the church is not just centered on Jesus, filled with the Spirit but number three, they are rooted in the…. very smart church, absolutely they are rooted in the Scriptures, in other words, they are based, rooted, grounded in the Bible. It's not a mystical, no I'm not saying that the Holy Spirit cannot speak to us in unique ways. I'm not saying that, but I'm very sure that the regular way by which the believer is to discern the will of God is through the Word of God. Not a lazy, mystical, superstitious process of smelling the air, walking around, antenna, high, high, whatever; doesn't work that way. The Bible because the Word of God is inspired by the Spirit of God, say what is God's will? It's all in the Bible. It's so scary that when Christians say I want to know God’s will but they don't want to study the Bible.

Well, the early church demonstrated a regard, a healthy strong regard for Scriptures which I think is losing traction in our day and age sadly. In Acts  2, we are told that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. They devoted themselves. They paid great attention and desire to learning the teachings from God. I pray Gospel Light will be a church that wants to go deep into the Bible. You know what I suspect? I just read Randy Alcorn this morning and he had this little… I, I didn't sort of, put it up here, but he said that the church today, even though we have greater access to truth and biblical teaching, like no other generation, it's contrary-wise, more shallow than the church in time past. This is, he says, is ridiculous, the good old days the saints of old they don't have much biblical access to good teachings, but they seem to know the Bible more than the church today. I think this age of superficiality and immaturity and mediocrity is striking us that we somehow think that reading the Bible is so “per se”; reading the Bible and studying is so academic. No, no, no, sure, never study the Bible just to fill your head, and be proud and arrogant about it, don't do that but if you do not know the Word of God how can you live the will of God? Study the Bible, I tell you, you will not go wrong. If you have nothing to do in life today, you’re 17, 18 years old, “zuobo”, [hokkien : idle] wait for Army, I say study your Bible. If you're a housewife and say aiyah everyday have nothing to do but to watch my Korean drama a bit boring, I'm glad you said that, then study the Bible, you’ll never go wrong. If you’re on the train, in a bus, in your office, there is nothing to do, study the Bible. Don't ever let people tell you aiyaya you're such a bookworm ha ha, ha, ha. Well, the early church devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. Again, let me balance that. Study to obey, alright, and if you have the attitude, study as much as you can, it has done me great, done me a lot of good and I know many saints here many Christians here will say, you must study the Bible. Well, Paul, he reasoned with them from the Scriptures I, I just want to show you some verses here and there, verse 11 as well, he said they received the word with all eagerness, this is amazing, this is the Berean people, the Berean church, the description of them is that they received the Word with all eagerness. How are you hearing today? (Snore) zzzzz… Pastor, New Year la, yesterday New Year’s eve, very tired la, can you please hurry up, I need to go home already. Some of you are like that, literally y’know, because I was in your shoes.  I know how it feels sitting there, you you feel I can't, but but the Christians then were saying, I want to learn, their eyes big big, but the Bible never say eyes big big. But I'm imagining their eyes big big, their eyes were huge, say teach me, I want to learn and not only are they satisfied with hearing, they examined the Scriptures. They checked for themselves. How do you know if you're speaking the truth? Hey, it's Apostle Paul leh? [local slang] No, no, no, you still need to check the Bible. Look at the way they were rooted in Scriptures, not even Apostle Paul would they blindly follow. They checked the Scriptures, if these things were so. How often? Daily. The diligence and the eagerness with which they loved the Word of God. I pray Gospel Light will be a church like that. Paul says I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. In other words he taught everything he could, and that must be where we are. Otherwise, people would come in speaking twisted things, just a little bit of twist they take the truth, they twist a little bit and they can draw you away and so Paul says I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace.

Now if there's one thing Gospel Light is known for I think up to today, it will be the fact that we stick and we endeavour always, to go to the Bible. The way we make decisions in this church is not based on tradition or history or what the pastor says or what other people say. I think I can say with all my heart, we endeavour to stick to the Bible. The Bible is the sole authority for life and practice right here in Gospel Light, rooted in the Scriptures and I pray you will have such an attitude to learn the Word of God. In the New Year, in some weeks to come, we will unveil to you some of the Bible study plans, you can avail yourself to that you may learn, you may be trained, you may be equipped in the Scriptures. I tell you it is the best investment you can make in your life. It is, not in blue chips or whatever stocks, the Bible; that's the best investment for life so that number three.

Number four this is a bit harder not only must we be rooted in Scriptures, we must also be faithful in shhhhhh… can't hear, we must be a faithful in, okay this is a bit harder because you know it is prayer right but prayer is P a bit hard to fit in, so got to be supplication. It is a, it is a, is not a very “chim” [hokkien : difficult] word, it is actually found in the Bible like for example, Philippians 4. Urh, so, supplication is prayer and the church must be faithful in prayer. You see what does it mean to be  filled with the Spirit? It's not just theory it is saying Lord I want to know the Bible I want to obey you and I’m going to pray that You help me. I'm going to pray it's all about You, I can't do it, I, I depend on You and so the practical outworking of being filled the Spirit is in obedience and dependence, expressed in the Scriptures and in prayer. The Book of Acts tell us a lot about prayer. It is said that every chapter in the Book of Acts has a mention of prayer. For example, in Acts 2:42 again, they devoted themselves not only to the Scriptures, but also to prayer. In Acts 12, when Peter was caught and kept in prison, what did they do? Appeal letter to the government? No they went to God in prayer and in Acts 6 verse 4, the apostles, the leaders of the church knew where their primary responsibility lies, giving themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

What does Gospel Light aspire to be?  To be a church that looks like the Book of Acts, and will be faithful in prayer. Now I just want to say this, and I do not want this to be a guilt trip for anyone at all but in this church, we have prayer meetings here on Sunday mornings 8am,  Wednesday evenings at 8pm. Sunday morning is right there; just in the cry room. It's 8am, I know, but would you consider joining in prayer because you know why? This is what God wants. You say “aiyah, why can't I sleep at home longer and pray at home, no need to come here”? I say, there is a place for private prayer but the Bible also tells us a lot about prayer meetings, congregational, corporate prayer. When was the last time you were part of a corporate prayer? We say we want to be like an Acts Church for Today, we want to see great things that God will do through us, then would you be faithful in prayer? Wednesday night at 8pm, right upstairs - attic hall 3. Faithful in supplication, practical and I dream of a church that will be a house of prayer. That people will not just come for Sunday service, though that's great, but far more than that, they say we want to pray to our God together as a church.

Well number five, genuine in? Urh, I got you! Huh, number five, genuine in…suffering……wa…. suffering also must be genuine? Did I hear suffering ….genuine in sacrifice, absolutely spot on. You know, they were a church that loves one another. Real love is seen in sacrifice. How did they love each other? Amazing and all who believe, by the way this is about the family of God, alright, it is about believers and all who believed were together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had needs. Now they were not selling for the sake of selling but they were selling their possessions to meet needs. This is love so if I have a Gucci bag I sell it. Chanel bag I sell it. Ferrari car, I sell it. I’d sell all my possessions and belongings. Say why? because they are brothers and sisters who have needs and we are the church, united, centered on Jesus and we must serve and help one another. Pastor, this is a bit too extreme lah, where got sell Gucci bag and Chanel bag, this is precious to me know? They didn't just sell the belongings and possessions. In Acts 4 we, we just see here that there was not a needy person among them. Why? For as many as were owners of lands or houses, sold them. Wow, property guru will be very popular y’know in those days. Imagine some of you stay here at Flo Residence and Water Woods hor, how would you respond if there was really a need and one of the ways alleviate that need is that you’ll sell your Flo. This church very scary, tell me to sell Flo. No no I’m saying this is what the church was you know, not just apartments I don’t think they have apartments but they sold houses and lands, not to loan but to give. When I see a verse like that I said while this is so……. this is so amazing and there’s so much in me that needs to grow, in order to have that joy and that willingness and that privilege, sense of privilege to be able to give to my brothers and sisters in need - that’s the Acts Church folks, phenomenal people, genuine in sacrifice.  Now you say Pastor, this is a long shot for me, I agree. Maybe for many of us, this is unthinkable that I will sell my Sentosa Cove apartment, wa very difficult, you know this is my investment…well ok alright. Maybe you would say this is too far, but let me suggest something simpler for you. One of the excuses we have that we don't give is because we say we don’t know people's needs so let me say this genuine in sacrifice, begins I think, in knowing our brothers’ needs and to know our brothers’ needs you got to know one another so the first step, say I would encourage you to do is not just come for worship service on Sunday, but to actively in the course of this year, develop relationships in the body of Christ.  5 persons 10 people, but start there. I know it's not possible to know everybody here, but church is not just a seminar when you come in and go as if you are at Eng Wah cinema or Golden Village. It is about family and you start by developing relationships. Don’t wait for people to come to you, but proactively get to know one another. Maybe the Lord will open doors for you to meet needs and grow in the in the grace of giving. So that's number 5.five,

Number six, effective in…, wah you guys are not bad, 1st service had some difficulty then, is effective… in soul winning. That was what they were all about right? Witnesses of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. You know this is the amazing thing, day by day. In Gospel Light, so far, maybe week by week. I'll be grateful if it’s week by week. Some of you may even think year-by-year; every year bring my family to Christmas service “kao liao“. [hokkien – enough].  Let the pastor preach, maybe year by year got some people saved. The early church was day by day. You say why? Well the Bible continues to tell us, there were multitudes, huge numbers that were being saved.   They didn’t by the way, they didn't need a Punggol building like this, they were a people that were not dependent on this building but great numbers were being saved, because every day they were teaching and preaching that Christ is Jesus. That was what they were doing. It was so successful that the number of disciples multiplied and not only were, so it’s no more addition huh, in the beginning Acts 1 to 5, is addition, addition, addition, addition and Acts 6 it became multiplication and after multiplication as if is not enough, Luke the author of Acts tells us a great number of priests believed. It’s phenomenal because these priests were the ones who wanted the blood of Jesus, but after the resurrection, after the witness of the Holy Spirit through the apostles, even the priests came to be saved and you say why? Because people were preaching the Word everywhere. Say Pastor, this one apostles preached la …. no no no, go check Acts 8 verse 1, and you realise these people who are preaching are not the apostles, but the followers, you and me. I pray Gospel Light will be effective in soul winning. Say, how do I even start?

Remember I shared with you three simple words to be effective in soul winning? To start the process of soul winning, do you remember? Don’t remember that’s why I had to repeat, always got to repeat one. Three words. First one, yes, excellent. First word is to greet.  This morning on err my grab share I greeted the driver, I said hi, he talked and then number two, I befriend, very good..so after you say hi, you don’t say ok thank you. After hi, you say, hey, what are you doing and so how are you? Did you work late? How about New Year's Eve? We talked, we what, befriend. Be interested in their lives and then number three, you invite. Don't always have to invite to church, although that may be included, but invite them maybe to study a book, a short book or a short pamphlet, invite them to a short Bible session, Bible study with you. Invite, it's as simple as that. Greet -befriend - invite because you never know what God is going to open for you as you obey Him, taking a step to overcome your own desire to keep to yourself, you say I am here as a witness, I‘m on a mission. Maybe this is a man or a lady that God would let me share a little bit more of. Greet, befriend, invite. Now, maybe you already have greeted, befriended and invited, but you say I don’t know what to say? Ah… this is where we want to help you in learning how to share the Gospel effectively. There are many ways to share the Gospel, but I think there is a very simple, useful and winsome way to share the Gospel that we’ve learned in our church camp last year- 2016. We learned in the camp, how to share the Gospel without overly confrontational- being overly confrontational and Pastor Randy who was our camp speaker will be back with us in May this year. So mark it down on your calendar if you can. I know you’re booking holidays blah blah blah, don’t book these dates, but try to be here 27th to 29th of May. It's a Saturday, Sunday, Monday, so you probably have to take leave for Monday, that's about it. So this year we’re not be having any family church-wide camp we do it, like once in two years, but this year we’re going to have this training. I just want this to be really given to all of you. It’s for your sake, that you will be equipped to be a soul winner for Jesus sake. Doesn't it’s not about some program that we want to run this. It’s really to equip you to give you the tools to do the job that God gives you. Alright, so  alright, May 27 to 29, mark it down on your calendars, I don’t see anyone marking, all right never mind the blood is on the head, I told you, but desire to be equipped alright because that's one of the great joys, but trust me it’s as simple as greeting, befriending, inviting and you never know, after that, just sharing the Bible. It’s s a fun journey and I think you learn much more, and you’ll be glad God can use you in such a simple way.

Lastly, number seven joyful in …wa this time you are right, joyful in suffering. In the first service, people laugh ha ha ha, what do you mean - joyful in suffering? How can you be joyful in suffering? I thought coming to Christianity means my God “bao yu wo”. [Chinese : bless you].  My God will make sure my life is “soon soon li li”. [Chinese : smooth sailing] . I, my God will make sure everything is … in Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year’s coming up …. “yi fan feng shun” . Yi fan feng shun means what? one sail, one, one sail and the wind smooth means you’ll get to your destination as swiftly as you can. Hate to break this to you, but the reality, truth in the Bible is God never promises to be the genie in Aladdin's lamp to do our bidding. God is not here to make sure your life is smooth and easy. No, because God is not committed to your comfort as much as He is committed to your character. You don’t grow in easy times. So, your Father knows best. He knows what kind of a training, what kind of adversity you need and so sometimes God gives us pain, difficulties, trials, sufferings but  through it all, because you believe God that He is always for you that He works all things together for good to them that love God, though you go through outward suffering you have inward joy so you have pain because you are sad because it's painful, but you also have a deep joy because you know God is your God and then as you go through pain and loss, you realise, Jesus is really all I need. The early church was a phenomenal church, people were being beheaded for their faith but the Bible tells us, they rejoice, they rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour. I pray Gospel Light will be a church that would have such joy.

Some of you this year, last year have gone through great pains and even though. it may even flow and continue into 2017, I'm not here to say oh believe in God and everything will be right, bright and rosy and cherry no, but I'm telling you that there is a real God who loves you and then one day it will all make sense, it will all make sense, you will say, I count it all joy, all my sufferings today are working out for me, an exceeding weight of glory that is to come, you can rejoice. So Pastor, what is Gospel Light?  Baptist church, er, charismatic church?  Let me try to explain to you by means of several factors.

First of which today is that of our Vision - An Acts Church for Today, I hope this will not just be something you think about for the church, but this is something you something about for yourself. Maybe in 2017, you have a new resolution - lose weight, I want to see six packs, not six combined into one. I want to have urh, find a girlfriend, wife, have kids, you may have some dreams and goals, but let me say this, I I think these are biblical desires, biblical goals, it's about the church as a people, but also as individuals. So seven little goals for you to remember so what is the Vision of Gospel Light? Eh..tolong [Malay: begging] faster, give me the confidence that you learn? What’s the Vision of the church? Wow, that is great and what are the seven values, ah…jur jur jur… start from the top: number one - centred on the Saviour, excellent.  Number two - filled with the Spirit.  Number three - rooted in the Scriptures.  Number four - faithful in Supplication.  Number five - genuine in Sacrifice.  Number six – effective in Soul-Winning.  Number seven - joyful in Suffering.  It’s quite easy. Christ, Spirit, the Word, Prayer, loving your brethren, sharing the Gospel, going through tough times. I hope these will be the seven values, for Gospel Light. Thank you for listening and may the Lord bless you.

Let's bow for a word of prayer together. Maybe this morning you have come and you’re new with us, and you wonder what kind of a church this is. The purpose of this Sermon series is really to inform you that you may be able to make a good decision, a biblical decision, a Godly decision with regards to the local church, you ought to belong to. It is clear from the Bible that God's desire is not for you to be a drifter but to be rooted and grounded in the local body of believers so I want to say right from the beginning of this Series, pray about the church you ought to belong to and I think foundational to that decision is, where is this church heading? What kind of a church is this?

I'm not saying that I assume and presume that you must be in Gospel Light. I'm saying I think you owe yourself this responsibility to pray and discern if this is God's will. Do you want to be a people like as in the book of Acts? Would you agree that we must be centered on the Saviour, filled with the Spirit, rooted in Scriptures, faithful in Prayer, that we’ll be genuine in Sacrifice, effective in Soul-winning and that we can be rejoicing even in Suffering.

Maybe some of you are here today and you do not know Jesus as your Saviour. Let me say this, this church is all about Jesus Christ, because there is no name under heaven whereby man may be saved, only Jesus so I pray this morning, you will see your sin, you are separated from God and that only Jesus can save you.  He did go to the cross, He did die, He did rise again proving He has defeated sin, death and hell and the Bible says, whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. The Bible commands you today to repent and to believe. This is what it's all about.

Maybe some of you are here and you're going through some rough times, tough times, and I pray that the very last value here today, will speak to you. God never makes mistakes. The sufferings you go through are not accidents. They are God's incidents for you. They are God's intention for you. He wants to grow you, bless you, prosper you spiritually. He wants you to be a better man, better lady, a better follower of Jesus Christ and you can count it all joy trusting Him.

Maybe some of you today need to make some choices in your life, to be rooted in Scripture, to be part of some training for Bible studies, to to be more faithful in prayer, personal prayer, congregational prayer.

Maybe some of you may say to God, Lord, help me to be a better witness this year. Help this church to be like the Acts Church for Today.

So Father we thank You this morning for Your Word, bless each one here, day by day we trust You. Day by day we endeavour to believe and obey.  Lord bring us to the blessed picture of being an Acts Church for Today, we look to you, we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

 

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