Introduction

Alright, today, on a Sunday, the last Sunday of November, 35 years ago, 16 people gathered in a little room in the Hilton. Of the 16, 12 are still here with us, we thank God for that. 4 have left, not because they didn't like us or something happened. 4 left because they were called home, to be with the Lord. 2 of my parents, 2 of my wife's parents, and all the rest are still here. We thank God for all of them, who have been instrumental in helping start this church. Now today, as we look back, we have a goal. Our goal is very, very simple, right? Our goal is, so that we will know as we look back, how we should behave in the house of God, which is the pillar and the buttress, maybe in our foundation of truth.

Now, in those days, in old towns, written like 2000 years ago, towns, basically at very low lying houses, nothing very impressive. No high-rise houses. But occasionally, there was a building that was very, very impressive. A nice solid pillar, and I like to call it Corinthian pillars or whatever. Those kind of architecture, you know, where the building, maybe house the Roman governor, or maybe house some Greek God. You know the pillar stood up for something, it declared something, all right. That this is the house of the Roman governor or something like that. So, what does this house stand for? We must be declaring to the people around here by our lives as a church. We are children of God, right? And that's a goal that we should have. And it's by our behavior, right? It's not a building. Church is people. And so today, at the end of this message, we want to know how we ought to behave, how we ought to behave in a way that would glorify God, that will announce who Christ really is. Right? So that's our goal for today's message.

Now, last week's message was very different. Last week's message was basically challenging us to be the last lap runner in this great relay race, you know, to bring the gospel to the world. It was also a strong warning to us that don't fool around. God gave us a commandment last week that we should make disciples. It's not an option. It's a commandment. Make disciples of all nations. Last week's message was strong. It was meant to be strong. This week's message, hopefully be a little more reflective. So you look back. Realize, okay, that's what God has done. As you look at the moment, okay, that's why we are like this. And as we look at the future, what we should be like, right?

1. BIBLE teaching

“Rooted in the Scriptures”

Now for many people, Gospel Light has these characteristics. I hear this all the time. Hey, you guys, every week you just preach from the Bible? Verse by verse? Boring, right? You know, it's quite common people say, you mean next week is still like that? You mean Corinthians goes on for one year? I say yes. That's the character. That's what we do. We teach the Bible, right? Then the second thing they'll ask you. Every week, Pastor Jason, we just preach about Jesus Christ. He died for our sins. You must trust him. You mean every week you have to preach the gospel? Yes. Right. That's our character. And wow, you mean in this church? That fellow serving coffee is a General? Are you serious? That fellow cutting vegetables is a Colonel. Yeah, I'm serious. You know, it's like, are you joking? No, I'm not joking. It's very serious. This is our character you know church, right? And then, church is like a family. All of them eat together? Everybody happy? You know? Everybody just call you, PC? And call my wife Nancy? Yeah, we are just a family. That's how we are, right? And then lastly, you all never ask for money? You don't preach tidings? I never preach tidings in my life. Right? You don't preach about money? No, I don't. It's very different from other churches. Yes, it is. Why? Because God has always provided for us, right? So, these are 5 common things I hear about our church. Each church has a different character, just like each family. You have different families here. The Tans, the Lims, the Wongs. Each of you will have a different character. Certain things stand up. You say, wow, why your family very joking? Wow, your family like always eating. You know, each family has a character and neither is better or worse, but that's your character. Right? And so, we do have a character, right? And now the question is, why do we have this character? How did it come about? Right? So, it's good to know your past. So, you understand your present, right? So, Bible teaching. Why are we a Bible teaching church? Verse by verse, right? Well, the answer is... For me, I was brought up in a Christian family. Went to Sunday school, as long as I can remember. Went to Christian school, chapel and everything. Nothing seemed to sink in. I'm sure the teachers did their best. I'm sure they use the Bible verses. Somehow, nothing got into this numbskull. At 33 years old, one day in pure boredom, I opened a Bible. And I started to read line by line, first time in my life, right? And after reading for maybe, I'm not sure, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. God touched my heart. And I got saved. After that, six months later, my wife, for some reason, opened my Bible. And I was asleep. And she read the Book of Revelation. You know, women like to read from the last chapter of a book, that's her style. And so, she read Revelation and I don't know up to which chapter. She can't even remember. But the next morning, she asked me, is that real? And I said yes, it's real. And I shared the gospel and her life was changed. Alright, so basically, we understood. She also grew up in a Christian school. She had been in chapel all her life. I'm sure good preachers have preached in the chapel. She even told me she went up for altar, you know, trusted the Lord. I don't know how many times all right, but nothing really happened. Until she read the Word of God. So, for us, the Word of God had this special kind of power in it. The Word of God is living. It's not a boring Word. It's not a dry Word. It's not an archaic Word. And Pastor Jason was the same. Pastor Jason came to church. Y'all heard the story. He sits at the back, looking at me, shaking his head. And this boring Pastor went from verse to verse. And somewhere along the way, God worked in his heart. And today, he does the same thing. He preaches verse by verse. We believe the Word of God is the most powerful thing, the most powerful instrument that we have, as God's servants. So, what do we do? We teach the Bible, verse by verse. All the old Gospeliters here remember in the clinic, we will have, you know, lunchtime, verse by verse. Give out notes, verse by verse. I don't know what, half of them never came back. But some, somehow got touched, and something happened in their life. Alright, so that's the roots for our Being Rooted in the Scriptures. We believe the Word of God is the truth. What is truth? We are told all kinds of truth. We are told by people, hey, you're rich, you'll be happy. Wow, you're popular, you'll be happy. You know, we're told all this nonsense. And we believe it. And I believed it for years. Until the Word of God, the truth set me free. All right, the truth will set you free. Suddenly, I realized all that is nonsense. All that so called, you know, you get popular, you'll be happy, you get more property you'll be happy. Yeah, for 10 minutes, for 10 days, for 10 weeks. After that, you try new things, you experience new things. Woah, and then goes down again. Alright? But the truth, set us free. It taught us that there is something more than the truths that are marketed in this world. So that's our roots.

2. GOSPEL preaching

“Centered on our Savior”

“Effective in Soul-winning”

Okay. Secondly, gospel preaching. For me, I read the Gospel of John alright? And by the time I reached John chapter 3, I asked myself. I said, I heard this verse before, memorize this in my school or memorize this in Sunday school. For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. I knew this, I could memorize, I could rattle it off. But that day, in April 1980, in that moment of boredom, I read it. And I asked myself, God so loved the world He gave. I'm not stupid. If somebody gives you something, it's worthless until you receive it. Did you receive the gift? No. I memorized the verse. I knew the words. Did I ever receive Jesus my Saviour? Nope. And at that day, April 1980, I sat there, I received Jesus as my Saviour. Life changed, completely. Right? Everything I believed before, every behaviour I had before, every dream I had before. I look at it and say, what a joke. Nonsense, all this. All this stuff that they told you is a real life. The success, it's nonsense. It's emptiness. It's just fake, temporary. And my wife, six months later, asked me is this true? I said, yeah, it's true. I shared the gospel with her and her life was changed, completely changed.

Now it's been 40 years, 42 years to be exact. And you know, the gospel really changes lives. Unbelievable. I don't have the property, I don't have the possessions. I don't have all those things that I used to have but I have peace that surpasses all understanding. I have a joy that is so full. I don't care about what's happening around me, alright? This I cannot explain. I cannot buy. There's no way you can have it. Except through receiving Jesus as your Saviour. You can ask Pastor Jason the same thing. Smart alec, smart kid, you know, having all these things. But all that was meaningless until he received the gospel and for Pastor Jason like 20 years ago. It's never been the same. And I'm sure many of you can say exactly the same thing. The Gospel changes lives. Who is the gospel about? Centered on the Savior. That's why in this church always talk about Christ. What he did for us, not about religion. Not what you can do to get to heaven, are you crazy? Can you reach heaven? You know, a how high it is? Can you ever please God? You know how holy our God is? God is in everything. Unless God comes down and gives himself for us, there's no one who can even...you can jump seven feet high. You can take a pole vault and go 20 feet high. You'll never reach anywhere, even the top of a tree, let alone heaven. It's the gospel that changes lives.

Alright, so we preach the Saviour, we share the gospel every Sunday, and that means a lot to us. In this church, we realize everything else is secondary. You can know all the Bible knowledge, you can get all the best training, you can get all the best friends. But if you don't know the gospel, you haven't begun. You have nothing, you're bankrupt. Whatever you have. But when you have the gospel, whatever you don't have, you have everything. Peace that surpasses understanding, the fullness of joy. A future so clear in your own heart. That I'll be there. In this new heaven and new earth, I'll be there. How do you know, PC? How are you so sure? In there. It's like asking a guy, how do you know you're in love? You say pastor, don't be stupid. I know because I know. How do you know like you like durian? Because I eat I like. It's personal. It's there. You can't argue with it. And for me, it's 40 years. It's not a fake. Right. So, my question is, we don't worry about the risks. Question is to all of you here. One question. Have you trusted Jesus as your Saviour? Do you believe that on that cross 2000 years ago, all your sins, past, present, future, all taken on Him? And he said, it is finished. Whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Till you have settled it, till you have the confidence that I have trusted Jesus. Jesus as my Saviour, all the rest is immaterial. Okay, and that's what we determined to know, nothing else about you. I don't care whether you're a big shot, small shot, no shot. Have you trusted Jesus as your Saviour? Right. That's our church here. That's our flavour. That's our character.

3. SERVING others

“Genuine in Sacrifice”

Next thing is serving others. Why is this church like this? Why is it everybody wants to serve? The rich served the poor, and everybody's perfectly comfortable with that. You see all those inverted commas? That's a church of Acts, right? We have seven things of the church of Acts, one of these is Genuine in Sacrifice. Just willing to be in nothing for others, right? Now, the roots are CBD to FDW. Y'all know what CBD is? You know, right? It's not a name of a boy band. Right? It's central business district, right? Maybe it's the old term. I don't know. FDW most of you probably don't know. You know what it is? It's got nothing to do with Forex. It's got nothing to do with FTX or anything like that. What is it? Foreign domestic workers. That's the roots of our church. Okay, the roots of our church were for me, it was a clinic. Clinic was in CBD. I had several clinics there. And everybody is a banker, you know, decent jobs. Nice jobs. So those are the people I shared. Did Bible study with, they trusted the Lord. My wife didn't work in CBD. She and her friends went to Botanical Gardens. Now in those days, FDWs were rare. This is 45 years ago, right? Foreign domestic workers were just appearing on our scene. Before Singaporeans were doing the job themselves. Right? And so, FDW, foreign domestic workers, had nowhere to go. There was no Lucky Plaza. There were none of these businesses for them. So, the only place they were accepted was nowhere, Botanical Gardens. And so, they would go there. My wife and her friends would just go, serve them, buy Coke for them, buy snacks for them, help them in whatever problems they have and share the gospel with them. So, we have two roots, CBD, FDWs. And when we came together, shortly after we started, we brought the two groups together. That's a very weird combination. Some of the, shall we say the richest in town. And some of the most nobodies in town, the last and the least, came together. And it fascinated me that the doctors in the group, the bankers in the group, would happily serve the nobodies. Happily, nobody said a word. They just happily did it. And so, that was our roots from the beginning.

And it touches me because that's exactly what Christ did. Christ left the glory of heaven, came to this earth, to die for us. And I saw that, I said, wow, this is precious. You can't teach people this. But somehow, they just automatically did it. Of course today, you know, in our church that's quite common. If you come early in the morning, you go to the kitchen and you see all the people cooking. Oh, he's my boss. He is a general and whatever. You know, and all of a sudden, we get shock. Pastor, is he the one? I say, yeah, he is. He is serving coffee? Yeah. Why? Why do you do that? Because it's what Jesus did. You see, Jesus taught for three years. He taught parables. But on the last night, He had to sum up all the parables into one act. And that was the washing of feet. We all know the story. The Bible tells us Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands. He owned the universe. He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper, he laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tied around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, to wipe them with a towel that is wrapped around him. Now to you, what does this mean? To take away your robes and just to put a towel around you was a slave's garment. All non-slaves had a robe of some kind that showed your status. When you take off all this, you were back to slave. You are nothing. It's just a loin cloth, a towel around you. You were a slave, you were dressed like a slave. That's what Jesus did. Of course, the disciples had come for the Last Supper. They had come to a place where they had borrowed the upper room.

Okay, those of you Christians are familiar with the story. And because they borrowed this room for the Last Supper, there were no resident slaves at that time to wash the feet. Normally in a typical house of those days, the wealthy house, everybody go to the house and the slave, usually the lowest slaves. The slaves also had ranking you know. Some slaves took care of the kitchen. Some slaves took care of the kids, you know. The lowest slaves, the no skill fellow alright, would be at the door to wash feet of the guests who come in. You see, those days people didn't wear shoes. They didn't wear socks, they didn't come in a car. They came walking with sandals and had dirty feet. And of course, they also didn't eat like us with our feet on the ground. They ate this way lying down, you know, you have seen Cleopatra. You know how they eat grapes, right? The feet are up. So, when a guy comes in with unwashed feet and with his feet up, that's quite weird for him. Imagine if your feet got a bit of sheep dung or cow dung or whatever. And you got your feet up on the chair. Alright. And so, when they all came in, and they popped into the place for the Last Supper, nobody wanted to wash feet. Why should I do it? I'm a disciple of Jesus, why should I wash feet. And so, all 12 of them awkwardly entered the room and put the feet up? Dirty feet. So, what did Jesus do? He saw a need. So, he summarized his life, his entire life in this one practical lesson.

He came, not to be served, but to serve. He came to meet our greatest need, our sin. None of us could have settled that need. He came and settled it on the cross for us. So that was his act. And then it goes on to say, you call me teacher and Lord? You are right. For so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher who wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done. You see, he was teaching a lesson for us. He said you call me Lord, you call me teacher. You know all of us go Bible class. We learned from Jesus, we learned from our Bible teacher, but will they produce people like this? I hope so. Because the more we know of God through the Bible, the more we know of Jesus through the Bible, the more will be like this. Right? So, when I see this in the church, I am so thankful that I don't have to tell, hey you, volunteer, serve coffee. Hey, can you volunteer to cut vegetable? I'm shocked when I see them there. And I'm thankful. Just the desire to serve. All right, and this has been a hallmark of the church from the beginning. People with big BMWs picking up domestic workers, picking up people. Just bringing them in their cars. People with big jobs just washing dishes, happily. Right. And that is Christianity. Right, this church can have all the crosses on the top. It's not the same as one of you willing to serve. It's a more powerful message then PJ's preaching, week after week. All right. So that's another character of the church. Serving others.

4. FAMILY

“Filled with the Spirit”

“Joyful in Sufferings”

Family, what's family? Family is a certain spirit, I cannot explain it. You know, a family spirit, we just are willing to do things for each other. Some say blood is thicker than water, whatever. You know, in a family, mother is willing to sacrifice. You know, you hear somebody have a problem. You just chip in, you know, it's automatic, almost. This kind of spirit, joyfully giving to our children to our whatever. Our grandma who is old. That's family. Well, in this church, I am thankful we are a family. Now, what are the roots? I think one of the roots is we never had a strong clergy, laity structure. All right, in some churches for various reasons, the whole structure is, there's a clergy, kind of professional clergy with certain dress code, certain titles. You call them, you know, and the wives have a certain chair in the church and everything's quite different. They are like, special. In this church, we never really had that. I am not a product of a Bible school. I'm just do what I can, you know, and so is Pastor Jason. And basically, we are just God and brothers. You see the word brothers in the New Testament, it's all over the place. Hundreds of times, right? Now, is that biblical? God, and brothers and sisters, two layers. Actually, it's not. There's the third layer. According to the Bible, for there is one God, one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all. So strictly speaking, the organization chart of a church is quite flat. God. One person in the middle, called Jesus, the mediator that allows us to go to God, and for us to call God Father and then the rest is brothers and sisters.

Of course, we have Pastors and all that because it's a certain order we need in the church, but they're not sacred people. They're not special. They don't have a special place up there. Right? They are just like us, brothers and sisters who God uses to teach. Who God uses to lead, right? But we don't have a special ranking. Okay, so in this church it's like that, very flat. After we preached, this fella, I call it the Pharisee suit, will stay at the back. What the world you wear this in Singapore. Are you insane, right? And then you just hang it up there and then you walk around and eat with everybody else. In fact, some people will say, Pastor, you go every table and eat? I say, yeah. Are you that greedy? I go here. I got kueh here. I got kueh there. I eat there. Why do you do that? Because the Son of Man has come eating and drinking. You said, look at him, a glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors, sinners. That's what Jesus did. Jesus was eating and they said, you're a drunkard. You're greedy, eating all the time. But you know what? Families. Families always about eating, right? Can you imagine going home for a family reunion? And then you say, hi, mom, I'm home. And then all of you sit around and there's no food on the table. It's almost unthinkable. Every family reunion is always around some food. It lubricates the family spirit. You know, when a mother has all the kids coming home, what's the number one thing she do? It's to work the whole in the kitchen. That's what she does. She can't cook, she will go and buy. Right, but the point is, so is food. And so that's our character almost from day one.

What's family? What is church? Church is people? What is Sunday? Family gathering? That's all it is. Rest of the week, we're still church, you know, but we didn't gather, right. It's still a family. He's still my brother. I'm still brother. You're my sister. But Sunday is a gathering and around a gathering, food. That's I think, biblical. And that's what we designed all our churches to be. This church when you design it, kitchen was critical. Critical. And after meals, I hope you'll stay. I hope you don't go to your mother's house. Hi, mom. Listen to your mothers give you the updates, and then you go off. That's kind of weird to me. I would never do that in my mom's house. Why do you do this in your Father's house? Stay, eat. We are brothers, we are sisters. Right? Unless you have something urgent. I understand. Some allergies to our food, I understand. But other than that, why are you allergic to us? All right. So, this is something I think is important as family.

5. GOD’s provision

God's provision. Pastor, pastor, how come you all never preach on tithing? I said Inever did. For years of ministry, I can't even remember preaching once on tithing. The how you get the money? God. Then they look at you like, you're weird. You're irresponsible. You know? It's like, for us, we have always worked on this principle. Can I repeat it? Know God's purpose. When you are in God's purpose, God will provide the people. Then God will provide the people the program. Then God will provide everyone the place. And lastly, God will provide the provisions. Money is last. Now, almost in every church meeting is the other way around. Hey Pastor, how can you do this project? We don't have a budget. It makes me really mad when I go to a committee meeting, and we don't have a budget. I say we have a God, excuse me. This God has provided for us for 35 years. Is he going to fail tomorrow? All we need to know is this God's project? That's all we need to know. If it's God's project, God will pay for it. God will raise the people for it. God will raise the program, God will give the place. Otherwise, what kind of God is He? You see, we believed this. That God will provide and He has never failed us. Let's always remember, in the 35 years, we started. How can you start a church Pastor? You got no people, no elders. I said God will provide. God provided the elders. They're still here with us. You got no Sunday school. How you start a church without Sunday school? People got children. God will provide. Dr. Chia popped up, doesn't know a thing about Sunday school, came to me and said, what programmed to use? I said I don't know, you go find out. So, in those days, no internet. Every time we like the place we got kicked out. From botanics, we got kick out. God provides the place relax. Is it God's purpose? That's all. So, there's always been the five things that characterizes us. And now I hope you understand the roots for these five things.

Now each church will have different roots. Some churches will have a slightly different emphasis, because their origins were different. Right. Some may be through a miraculous healing in their life, their church was started, you know. Some had maybe a different kind. Their worship is much different because the worship experience touch the founder's heart or whatever. And I understand. God has different ways to different churches to express this God who cannot be expressed by one church. Right? So, having said these five things, we understand why we're like this now. What the roots were. But the most important part of the message is, what will we be? Where do we go from here?

BIBLE teaching to BIBLE bashing

Number one, be careful. We don't turn from a Bible teaching church to a Bible bashing church. What do you mean by that? You know, when you know more of the Bible because you've been fed and fed by Pastor Jason, who is a very excellent, expository preacher, you tend to get proud. You tend to look down on those who don't have Bible knowledge. And I hear this from people. Pastor, all these people that come to church now they don't know anything about the Bible. I say wonderful, they came to the right place. We are the ones that can help them. Hey, I don't want them in my Care Group. They are so shallow, pastor. You help them become deep. God teaches us to do what? To look down on others, is that our goal? To look at people who are not like us? If God gives you more, is it so you can look down on the rest? God gives you more so you can help the rest. Oh, it really makes my blood boil. Pastor, you know, they asked these kinds of stupid questions in the Care Group. I said wonderful. All right. And they just want to sing, they just want to do this. They just want to...You know, thank God, we can learn from them. I was thinking, it's quite bad. I'm sorry. Jonathan Chong, I don't mean anything against you, right? But we could improve. Our caring, our fellowship. When people come from other churches, let's learn from them. They have something we don't have. We can always learn all right. But don't be arrogant. Don't look down on people just because God's given you more, especially the Word of God. Right. So, I hope we'll never be a church that looks down on other people. Pastor, you know our church now is so diluted. It's no more like before. I say, thank God, we don't want to be like before. We want to be better. Right?

Next one. There are two kinds of Trinity. The real Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. There' s a satanic deception. Be careful. It can infect all of us. It's called the Intellectual' s Trinity. Father, Son and Holy Bible. Not Holy Spirit. Okay, it's very, very common. And I've seen that. It affected me for a while. I was thinking, wow, these lousy churches never did it. And you know, it's always looking down on other people and God hates that. God hates pride, whatever pride, whatever form the pride takes. All right. And so be careful. Word, without the Spirit, you dry up. Some people, you know, the Care Groups, the Word, the Word. And then you go three years later, same group. Only the hair whiter. Never grow. The Word, the Word, the Word but dry as a bone. Some Care Groups, not so much Word, pray for each other, help each other, grow. You see, the Word without the Spirit you dry up. Of course, the other way around, the Spirit without the Word, you blow up. There are some people who just are fill with joy of the Lord and they want to do everything but they have no truth. And they don't know any better. Their pastor looks like a film star, flies around in his jet and they say, God's blessing. You mad or what? God's blessing? That means, Jesus not bless. Apostles all are not blessed, all cursed, right? All martyred, right? You mean God's blessings come in the form of material possessions? Are you crazy? Have you read the Bible? You know and they go, oh, yeah, Pastor. You see, the Spirit without the Word, you just blow up. You have all kinds of crazy conclusions. But the Word and the Spirit that's what we want. With the Word, the Spirit, you'll be Christ-like. You know more you share more. Right? Not look down on people. So, God help us to be not Bible bashers. But Bible teachers. Okay, let's be careful. It's very easy to slip into looking down on people.

GOSPEL preaching to COMFORT seeking

Secondly, Gospel preaching. That's what we do in this church, preach the Gospel. Bring your friends in, Christmas event. Gospel event. Youth camp, bring your neighbor's kids, That's our goal. Bring them in and preach the Gospel to them. But is that our church today? 30% of the churches missing today after COVID. It's true. That's a fact. 30% happily watching online messages. All right, for all you online, this message is for you. Alright, I won't look at the crowd. I look at you guys right, Now, in the past, we came to church with a goal that if I get clicked into this church, I get familiar with the church, I can bring my mom, I can bring my neighbour. I can bring everyone because I know everyone and they can come in and be part of this church. Wow, that was the Spirit. You wanted everybody to hear the Gospel. Because we knew that was life and death. Now today you worship online at home. Then Christmas come, you say, Christmas event. You want to bring your mother. Your mother says you never go to church yourself. You want me to go to church. For what? You think your mother is stupid. You try to talk to your children. Let's go to church on Christmas. You know, you need to hear the Gospel. And they say, you never go to church too. You know the truth is, let's always be Gospel preaching, wanting to bring the Gospel out to the world. Not seek comfort. All right, help us. God help us. You stay home, you watch at home. Let me tell you a fact, your children, your grandchildren, everybody is around you. Your life is going to be the message for your kids. I don't care what you say to them after that. You can't even wake up on Sunday to go and serve this God, is he worth serving? That's the question. Is he worth worshipping? Is he worth anything? Alright, serving others to serving me. We used to be a church that serves. Now we come to this beautiful building. And some people think we are a four-star hotel already.

SERVING others to SERVE me.

Hey Pastor, this morning no parking you know. I say you want me to be a valet? Sorry, I'm not valet parking, alright? You know, they expect everything to be fitting me in? It's raining you know? I say umbrella. Pastor, normal food in the kitchen you know? The food already finished. I said next week, you come help cook. You see, we're here to serve. This is not a hotel. You go to hotel, you don't like the pillow you say change. I want another pillow. They customize for you everything. This is not a hotel. This is not Gospel Light Country Club. We come here because we love God. We love others and we want to serve them. Even if there's a parking lot, I'm going to go down, further down because I got better legs than the old person. I'll leave a car space for them. Why not? Right, but you know if we're not careful, this place does look a little bit like a four-star hotel. So, you expect chop chop service. Sorry. This is not hotel.

FAMILY to INSTITUTION

Family to institution. What's the difference between a family and institution? Institution is very organized. Military, all same haircut, same uniform all stand the same way. Very neat and tidy. School, all same uniform, all same age. Family, crying baby, old lady cannot walk. My uncle forgets my name. Messy! Family is always messy, especially a growing family is full of little kids. But thank God for that. I get scared in this church when they tell me hey pastor, have you been to youth group? I say yes. You know what's happening there? Wow, kids coming with long hair? Use bad words, I say praise God. They thought this Pastor is a heretic. I say, you know what it means. It means this kid needs the Gospel. Of all people, he needs to hear the Gospel. Wow this girl slash her wrist.  I said, if anyone needs anything that girl needs it. You see, family is messy. You want a growing family? Messier. You want a big extended family. Very messy. But that's what family is. We serve one another happily. We make adjustments. We make sacrifices and we just thankful they come in like wheeling babies, messy. Hopefully year by year, day by day, we'll watch them grow up to be good people. The day this church wants to be institutionalized, neat and tidy like the chairs I say close shop. Give it to another church that understands what church is. We are not here to be neat and tidy. We're here to reach the last, the least, the lost, the messy. You know Jesus life was never need and tidy. He was surrounded by sick people. You what sick people do? They vomit. They got leprosy. They got all kinds of stuff. They don't bathe.

Messy. Demon possessed falling down at his feet, kicking away, frothing at the mouth. You tell me that's neat and tidy. He loved them. That's what you want. Don't ever be an institution. There's raffles institution. There's all kinds of institutions. We are Gospel Light Christian Church. All right. And that is what we want to be, a family. Lastly, never be a church that thinks that we got to squeeze money out of anybody. Just do the will of God. God will provide. The day this church is asking for money and all this kind of stuff like as if we're beggars, forget it. Just know it's God's will. God gives to people. But it's not by us, pressurizing using psycho tactics, nothing of that. Just preach the gospel. Help them grow in the Lord. And God will provide through them. You don't have to squeeze everybody to give a tithe. Some are so poor, they can't even support their families. You don't expect from a tight family. You give them money. You don't preach tithing, you preach charity here. And those who have money will give. And it's more than enough, in the house of God. So, I hope this, as we look back what we are, be careful of the dangers of what we can be. Bible bashers, comfort seekers, serve me. All right. And then I hope we will always be a family and trust God.

So, what's our mission? The same, what we preach last week. Make disciples, lead generations into a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ by sharing the gospel, helping them grow in the Lord. Loving them. Right? And then you'll have Acts church for today. Now in Gospel Light, there are seven points of Acts church. I didn't put it down because when you go home and you will see in our vision and mission. Seven points on Acts church for today. What makes a church an Acts church for today? Number one, Centered on the Saviour. Number two, Fill with the Spirit. Number three, Rooted in Scripture. Pastor Jason is a master for SSS, alright. Saviour, Spirit, Scripture. Number four, Faithful in Supplication. Number five, Genuine in Sacrifice. Number six, Effective in Soul Winning. Number seven, Joyful in Sufferings. That's what we want to be, That type of church. Too complicated for this message. But let's just remember our roots. Where we are now and where we should be. How we ought to behave ourselves in the house of God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth. May God help us. Church is not this building, it's you. Church is not Sunday, it's us every day. Where you are, are you loving others? More Christ-like in serving others? Right where you are. We are church, wherever. On Sunday, we are corporate. We come as one to shine a brighter, light. But every day, we are Gospel Light Christian Church. You're a Gospeliter wherever God puts you. Okay, let's close in prayer. Lord, we thank you for this time. Thank you that you have allowed us to begin with certain characteristics. Lord, we know you have a plan, have a purpose for us. Each church has a certain purpose to reflect a different aspect of Christ. Every true church, you have allowed. Help us not to be arrogant, thinking we are better, we are special, etc. Help us Lord to just realize we are blessed. We are thankful. We want to help others in any way we can. So, raise up Gospel Light to be that wonderful light, wherever we are, Lord. Help us always to remember, we must be the pillar and foundation of truth. People see our lives. That is the message. That is the message as loud and clear and real. Use us Lord to be your light. Thank you. In Jesus name, Amen.