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You have joined us as we have just begun a series in the book of song, the song of Solomon or the song of songs, it's found in the old testament it's one of the books that is hardly preached about, but I think it’s a glorious book for us to consider in the next few weeks ahead of us. The song of Solomon or the song of songs is written, probably by Solomon himself. Solomon was a brilliant man who wrote a thousand and five songs but the chief of his works, the greatest of his songs would be what we are privileged to study today. And this song is really a song of love and romance. It tells of a story, a story between Solomon and the Shulamite woman. It's a very simple story actually when you think, it revolves really just around the two lovebirds, it's a story that takes us through five different scenes. For those of you who are familiar with Romeo and Juliet you have Act I, scene one, act II, scene two and so on, it's a bit complicated, but what we have before us is far simpler. In my mind, as I read through this book I think there are just five simple scenes for us to consider.

Number 1, the lady, the Shulamite says, I'm  mesmerised by you. Solomon you're altogether lovely and I am absolutely smitten by you. Mesmerised, falling in love, that's what we see in chapters 1 and 2, and then we got, we're going to see, secondly, meeting with you, there's something special about this meeting given to us in chapters 2 to 3 and so we are going to look at that next week, God willing, not just an ordinary meeting but a special meeting. Number three, she's going to say I'm marrying you. So there's something dramatic, something tremendous that will take place in the middle of the book, chapters 4 to 5, I'm marrying you, but their marriage is not always going to be simple smooth sailing, because something happened and then she would say I'm missing you, Chapter 6, 5 and 6 and then finally, in chapters 6 to 8,  we are going to see how she says I maturing with you, our love is going to grow together. So this is not a typical Hollywood movie where it usually ends at the wedding day and then happily ever after. But it is a real story of a couple's love from the beginning, right up to the end. So, without much ado, let's go to the first scene today and that's to be mesmerised by you, she says. I, I say that because the first few verses already tell us what this is all about. In verse two, she says, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for your love is better than wine. So she first speaks in a sense to the audience, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. I’m absolutely longing for his presence. I want to be near him, let him kiss me and then she says to him, for your love is better than wine. There's something intoxicating about your love. Maybe it's the way he spoke to her, the way he cared for her, treated her, but she's absolutely worn over by his love, she's swept off her feet. She's head over heels over him. She goes on to say, your anointing oils are fragrant, Maybe it's Hugo Boss or Giorgio Armani, I do not know, but whatever he puts on, wah you smell good oh King Solomon, not like some of us, body odour, but she says oh you your your anointing oils are fragrant, everything about you Solomon is lovely, your name is oil poured out. Your name, your reputation, your character is like precious oil and therefore the virgins love you. Everyone who knows you loves you. Everyone adores you, admires you, you are wonderful, she is saying, draw me after you let us run, dai wo zhou, in Chinese, you know those shows, “ wah I’m so in love with you,” let’s elope together, let's run away together.

She says, not in a bad way but sweep me off my feet and let me follow you. Then she says the King has brought me into his chambers. So she desires intimacy with the King. I want you to note that it's not that she is saying, this is happening right now, it's not, it's her thinking and dreaming speaking, but the reality is these things of this intimate nature have what happened as yet. That would only take place you will read, in chapters 4 and 5, after marriage. So we are reading her desires we are reading her heart. She longs to be with Solomon and says please take me with you and in the midst of all that the choir sings, the choir says we will exult and rejoice in you. We will extol King Solomon, your love more than wine rightly do they love you. So here is that scene, beautiful scene, a praise of the perfect lover Solomon. Everything about him is lovely, but as she praises Solomon, she now thinks about herself, “am I worthy of his love”, she asks. So we read a dark undertone in this chapter, dark in the sense of insecurity, of fear,  of lack of confidence. She says, I am very dark wah chin oor, I'm very black and very tan.

Now, in our day and age, there are people who are very fair and very beautiful and there are people who are very dark and they are also seen as very beautiful, right, and I don't think tan ladies are saying I'm not pretty, no, no I think in our day and age, it is very well accepted, but in those days, you can understand that they would prefer to be fair and and light-skinned, but she's not. She says I'm very dark. Now I’m  lovely but I'm dark, Oh daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar and like the curtains of Solomon.

Now why are you dark oh Shulamite, you're born dark?  But she says no do not gaze at me because I'm dark and the reason I dark is because the sun has looked upon me and the reason why that is so is because my mother's sons were angry with me, they made me keeper of the vineyards but my own vineyard I have not kept. So the illustration of Cinderella comes in. Of course, Cinderella is written after the song of Solomon, but I thought most of us would be familiar with Cinderella.

So if if you think about Cinderella, it's somewhere there where instead of the step sisters who bullied Cinderella, the Shulamite is bullied by her own brothers and they made her work out there in the vineyards and now she is in the sun and she is dark and she has no time to look after her own appearance and beauty. No time to look herself in the mirror to preen and to fix her hair. So she says my own vineyard but she can't help it but her heart is won over by the King and so she says, tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, tell me where to find you, where you made them lie down at noon for why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions. Now the word veils is where we get thrown off in the ESV, the original Hebrew, can be translated a cloth or fabric or or veil as it were, or it could be someone who wanders away, so I think more appropriately she will be saying, why should I be someone who wanders and is lost beside the flocks of the companion. So tell me where you are, that I may find you and the King says if you do not know, O, most beautiful among women following the tracks of the flock go to where the flocks have gone and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds tents, you will find me there. You know where to find me, basically, he is saying. But what is important is what he said to her in this opening line, O, most beautiful among women she says, “I’m dark, don't gaze at me”, but Solomon heard that and said no, you are most beautiful among women.

Now, it is at this point that I think Solomon will sing, “you are so beautiful to me, can't you see”, hah hah, whatever it is, so he might be singing, o you are so beautiful to me, Solomon, aah, aah Shulamite and then he goes on, I compare you my love to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots. Now of course we know that's not what he really meant in our day and age, you're not a horse. But that's what I'm clear he's not saying, but he's saying that you are majestic, you beautiful, you are regal like a beautiful stallion and she goes on your cheeks are  lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels will make for you ornaments of gold, studded with silver. And now she says while the King was on his couch, my nard, nard is spiked nut a kind of a spice so she's giving a picture, a metaphor a kind of a sensation that we can smell that this is a beautiful scene not just in how it looks but also how everything is including smell, aroma gave forth its fragrance. My King brought out what is beautiful in me, my King brought out what is lovely, what is joyous in me and my beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh that lies between my breasts. My beloved is to me, like a flower, a cluster of flowers, a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi.

So Solomon writes this in graphic beautiful language like this beautiful flower like this beautiful spice and everything is beautiful we we draw out the love from each other the pleasures and the joy and then the king goes on to say, you are so beautiful to me my love, behold you're beautiful,  your eyes are doves. She sings back, behold you are beautiful to me too my beloved truly delightful. Our couch is green, the beams of our house are cedar and our rafters are pine,  you see the couch is green is verdant, it's life-giving, it's er fruitful, it's fertile. Our house is secure and firm, our love is both fertile and fruitful,  faithful she says and then she says, this famous statement. I am a rose of Sharon and Lily of the valleys. Now when we sing this or not sing this, we read this, for those who have been in church for long time, you say this is strange, why is she saying, “I am a rose of Sharon, a Lily of the valleys”, because when we sing, we sing that Jesus is the Lily of the valleys, Jesus is the rose of Sharon. Isn't it,  yes no yes? Those who says you have been in church for long time, especially this church, because these are songs we sang a long time ago, but you remember the song fairest, no, no, not he's the fairest of 10,000 to my soul, remember, He's the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star He' s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. So who are we singing about? The Shulamite? No we sing about Jesus, so the songwriters says he is the Lily of the valley,  strange. I'm saying it's Shulamite.

How about the rose of Sharon, lily of the valleys no, rose of Sharon, not many people know is there a song we have sung before that has the words the rose of Sharon, has anyone heard of about the song, Jesus, the very thought of thee, Jesus the very thought of thee, with sweetness fills my breast, so on and so forth and then the messy part that chorus that goes O Thou the Balsam of the garden, O Thou the sweet rose of Sharon da, da, da, da, forgot how to sing that, O.K. so these are the only parts, but so I'm sticking my neck out here if you don't realise, I'm saying, the songwriters are writing these two references to Jesus, but I'm saying it's probably not about Jesus. Why, because if you read on she, Solomon then says as a Lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women, Solomon is saying yah, yah, yah, you say that that you are a Lily but actually you even if you say are the Lily I go along with your imagery, you are a Lily among brambles, you still stand out even if you think you're just a common flower in the valley. So I suppose, therefore she says I am a rose of Sharon and even in that the English translation probably didn't get it quite right, it's probably not rose but in the Hebrew, it refers to a very common wildflower. So her dark insecure undertone still comes in. She says, I'm just an ordinary wildflower of Sharon, a Lily of the valleys. But Solomon quickly says no, like a Lily among the shurbs so is my love among the young women. I have eyes only for you, ”Only you", ha ha, if I go on to sing alright, you can picture the movie, think of these songs, only you wah, shudder you say but that's what he's probably saying, my love for you is unique, there are many young women around but I have eyes only for you and she goes on to say, I have eyes also only for you as an apple tree among the trees of the forest.

You know, I think if the Bible was not written in the Middle East, or things do not happen in Israel, Palestine but happens in Southeast Asia, Solomon would have written as a durian tree among the trees of the forest or as a mao shan wang tree. She says you're that beautiful tree. So is my beloved among the young men you stand out amongst all of them, with great delight I sat in the durians cannot lah that one dangerous tok, you are in troubled and his and his fruit was sweet to my taste. So, the Shulamite is saying everything about you is lovely, you are my protection, you are my provision,  you bring pleasure to my life you are like the apple tree. He brought me now to the banqueting house. So the imagery shifts from the garden to the palace. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me is love. It's a military picture here where the King displays his ownership of his soldiers, his army and he is saying, you are my King and I submit to you and you win my heart with your love, his banner over me was love. Sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love, not in a bad way but in a good way. I'm I'm so smitten with you, I'm going to faint. It's like those K, those girls, young fans who go for the K-Pop stars oh oh hoh and if the guy comes and hugs her, she says, she says she faints, maybe something like this, I am sick with love, I'm overwhelmed. And his left hand is under my head and his right hand embraces me a picture of that longing and desire for intimacy with him and she says I adjure you old daughters of Jerusalem by the gazelles or the does of the field that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. This will be a repeated  statement in the song and she's really saying though I long for the intimacy with you, I will not do it before time, there is a right time and place for that. So she adjures, she vows on, she calls for witness of the symbols of love in those days, gazelles deer, does, that no, we will not commit to that before time.

So this is really a poetry a song of love and romance, it's a celebration of love and romance. The garden imagery brings us back to Eden,  reminds us of Eden, of how Adam and Eve were together and how beautiful, lovely and desirable it really was in the beginning. You can recall right in the garden of Eden, he was alone and he had all the animals around and he named all the animals one by one, but he said, amongst them all there was no help that was suitable for him. And so, God did the first surgery took a rib from him, fashioned a woman out of that and and when he saw her he exclaimed, I I think you should read that passage, with emphasis she he exclaimed, at last woman, not, “aiyo woman” today, maybe “aiyoh woman” sometimes, but in that day it is “at last woman”, she is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh it must be an absolutely delightful, exciting time for Adam and Eve and I think this is a throwback to that time, to remind us what marriage ought to be like, delightful, aromatic, beautiful, absolutely satisfying and I think that's what we need to see. There's a couple in this church who heard said that as they are going through the song of Solomon they are committing between husband and wife, that they would like to rekindle or rediscover the first love for each other. Don't you think it’s a beautiful thing to embark upon. It's like watching a romantic love movie you watch that?  Romantic movies and after you watch the movie, how how do you feel, hey I hate my wife. No, no after you watch, you say aiyoh, so sweet., aiyoh, I should have hugged my wife, should have brought my wife along or I want to hold my wife's hands, I want to I want to just love, don't you feel that.

So the Bible here is giving you this love movie as it were, to see the beautiful love between the perfect lover, Solomon and the Shulamite and I hope that encourages you to romance your spouse. Say, how do you romance your spouse? I got milk powder, I got diapers, I got household chore, I got car loans to foot.  Aiyo pastor, you don't understand, Singapore very practical one, love means I go and work and bring back money that's all, where got time to romance, are you real? Well, I hope this journey through the song of Solomon helps you to be encouraged in romancing your spouse. Now, first of all, I want to ask you, is it proper for the husband to romance his wife, do you think it's biblical? For my family, my wife can have understanding I'm convicted about one word in the Bible and it comes from Ephesians 5 where it says for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, so the husband is to cherish his wife like a man cherishes his own flesh, or like how Christ cherishes his church. Cherish, say what’s the word cherish? Well in the original language, it is derived from a picture of a mother hen sitting on the eggs. So husbands you are called to sit on your wives OK, not literally but like a mother hen warming the eggs you want the egg to hatch you got to sit on the egg, that's the idea. So the idea here is that the husband is to warm the wife, make her feel that warmth I suppose, that is romance. So, how do you do that, how do you do romance,  is it easy?

No, I mean we have groups of men talking how to romance our wives and we have to struggle you know. The first thing we acknowledge is all of us a terrible at that. Now some of you may say I'm not the type, I'm the macho type I don't know how to romance my wife. Sorry I I think there's a verse here that should help you to think a little bit differently. So how do you get from not romantic to to romantic. My wife will be the first to tell you, hey why are you preaching this, you are far from this right.  But yeah, but are not pretty what I think, I,m preaching what the Bible says, okay, all of us as men, we are on this journey to learn. So how do you romance your wife. I just have one thing to pick up from Solomon in chapter 1, so let's pick up this one thing for man you can handle too many things I know we are like one thing, guys focus on one thing so this is one thing you can think about is look at how Solomon romanced the Shulamite with his what words. So every day, choose one statement from the song of Solomon to romance your wife, for example, I liken you, my darling, to a mare, try that tonight. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from the Hills of Gilead,  your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, wah, like, like, you know that all the wool taken off, and then pink colour, your teeth are like pink colour. Your temples behind your veil are like the house of a pomegranate, your neck is like the tower of David.

I said this to my wife this week your neck is like a tower of David. She said to me what, my neck is stiff like the tower of David, help me massage, so i’m trapped there, have to help her massage. Why, you can go on, you can choose any of this. Maybe not these two, your navel is a rounded goblet that never lacks blended wine, you mean leaking something or what, your waist is a mound of wheat, you eat too much, your nose is like a tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus, what- doesn't makes sense. Well, that's why people make a joke that says, these are the top 10 compliments of song of songs that might not translate for today. Now, we are not supposed to, I think repeat verbatim, I think the concept is one of appreciation, admiration, affirmation, I think you can understand that. And so I went to Google alright oh, no, no, no, I tried to think of very creative ways, of course not, try to think of very creative ways to say nice things to my wife, so these are some that I found. I sent an angel to look over you at night, the angel came back a minute later and asked him why, he told me angels don't watch over angels. wah, score point or not, score point right! Too bad your wife is here this morning, then cannot use.

How about this other one, last night I looked out into the stars and matched each one with a reason why I love you. I was doing great until I ran out of stars. Wah, sorry, spelling wrong, until I ha ha. Okay, our third and maybe final one if I were to choose between breathing and loving you, I would use my last breath to say, “I love you”. Ooh, ooh, ooh, if you do that you win alright but I suppose none of us will do any of this today err, this err not that you should use it but I think the principle behind it is useful.  By the way, when I went to Google to search they are all under the heading how to romance your girlfriend, no one talks about how to romance your wife, somehow it changes after the certificate is signed. So Solomon did that, he he romance his wife or his his girlfriend as it were, and I think that principle holds true in marriage, particularly that we will continue to win the heart of our wife, to cherish to make of her feel warm.

How about the wife, yah, yah my husband need to do and how about the wife what do you do, same thing lah, same thing. Look at the way she declares his her admiration for him, your anointing oils are fragrant wah you very pang ah, versus today, why you so smelly, go and bathe lah! Your anointing oils are fragrant your name is oil poured out, your character, there's something beautiful about you, about your reputation, and that tells me that the Shulamite is not here nagging at his wife. You know how it is, nag nag nag nag nag nag like the the Bible says, like the water that drips from rooftop tok, tok, tok tok, nag nag nag nag your husband switch off one by the way,  he really switch off one. Nag for me lah, when that happens I totally switch off, I'm in, I'm in somewhere else. I look like I'm there but I depart from my body already and I think guys understand that when they nag you, you switch off and and and wives you have to be careful about that be careful about saying, hey be a man, do something about it or you see lah, you see lah never listen to me, or maybe you say, why can't you be like John, he's so much better than you, wah lau, that one, wah the dagger goes in tut, tut, tut, tut, tut, twist, wah, how come you can't be like John? So the wives, romances the husband with praise not with nagging and complaining and comparing and she goes on to say, my beloved to me is, aromatic,is beautiful.

She goes on to say, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. How many of you have said that to your husband. Hey I appreciate all that you've done for the family. I'm praying for you, I admire you, I, I trust in your leadership, I believe in you and I don't compare you with John because there's no comparison. You are the apple tree among the other lousy trees in comparison. Well that's how they romanced each other and I hope this will be something you would think about, it's a song of love and romance. But like I said, I'm I'm not so thrilled about preaching romancing between a husband and wife, I I think that's practical, that's helpful, but I don't think God wrote this book for us, just for that. I think marriage is not even given to us just for that. The Bible tells us that marriages are given, not just for pleasure or partnership or procreation, but I think the supreme purpose of marriage is portrayal, a portrayal of Christ's love for his church and the church er churches relationship with Christ. I think when you look at the song of Solomon it should bring you to the echoes of the Gospel, it should remind you of the love between Christ and his people. And that's why we say that this is the song of songs, in the book of books, from the Lord of lords-Lords because it's about the love of loves. Not just between man and woman, but God and us.

So when I read the song of Solomon today, when I read about the tenderness, when I read about the love and the care and the passion of Solomon for the Shulamite, I'm reminded of God's passion, Christ’s passion for his church. When I read about the Shulamite's love and admiration for Solomon, I read about the church's love and admiration for our Saviour. You see my friends, Jesus loves you with a passion. When I read the epistles, sometimes I miss that because the epistles, which is the Romans, Corinthians and so on they are very factual, great to to give us the solid theological basis for what we believe and do. But sometimes I read it almost with this cold detachment that God loves me simply as a kind of a dry commitment, he loves me so he decided to give His Son for me, but he's not really that excited about it he just doing it. When I read the song of Solomon I hear his heart strike. It's like, Solomon his heart is beating for the Shulamite,  I hear the heart of my God for his people. You say are you sure God is really that passionate for us, are you sure God really delight in us and desires us, yes. the Bible tells us the Lord your God is in your midst, now he's speaking this let me be clear, he's speaking this is about Israel,  about the Jewish people, but it is the same. It is about his love for his people so he says, my love for the people, how is it like is it just dry, ice cold commitment, no, he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you by his love and he will exult over you with loud singing, he is really excited about his people he is really excited about you who are part of his flock and his church How about Jeremiah that says I will rejoice in doing them good, I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

But let me be clear, God doesn't have a heart like that physical heart, but he's speaking as if like a man, so that we can understand it better but he is saying I am loving you with all of my being, my passion, it's a full blooded red love not a legal transactional Jesus died on the cross to save me for my sins kind of thing. Now it is that, but there's so much more than that. It beats with passion and emotion and desire. That's God's love for for us as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. As a bride, you, you, you remember how much your groom loved you, your, your husband loved you or fusses over you, that's the way God fusses over us. That's how he said so in Isaiah and we are called the apple of his eye, precious little one, no one will allow the apple of the eye to be touched he guards us and he watches over us, this is the love of God. Let me tell you, not only is this love, passionate, bleeding with passion and desire. What's so amazing about this love is that he loved us while we were dark. He loved us when we were black, black with what, black with sin.

Someone said this for on behalf of God as it were, I love you at your darkest Romans 5:8 but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. How much does God love us? When we were in our darkest Shulamite says, don't look at me but you are most beautiful among women, oh Shulamite, God will never love me, you say. Oh, but God loves his church while we were in our darkest he loved us with a passion and he gave his life, Jesus gave his life. You know sometimes a couple hides themselves from each other right. I mean some of you may be married for 30, 40, 50 years and you still have secrets that you will not reveal to your spouse why, because you are afraid that if they should know everything about you, they will not love you anymore, but our God knows everything about us and loves us when we were in our darkest.

Keller has a beautiful quote, famous today and he said To be love but not known is comforting but superficial. Think about it, love at first sight you meet your girlfriend, boyfriend you love each other, now how much do you know about each other, very little, but is very comforting to know that at first sight, he loves you or she loves you right, it's comforting but you know it's superficial. On the other hand, to be known and not loved is our greatest fear, so we don't let them know so much about us because what if they do not, she or he does not like what he or she is seeing. So our greatest fear is to be known but not loved. But to be fully known and truly loved, well, it's a lot like being loved by God, because that's the way God loves us. By the way, I think this is applicable in Christian life,  in Christian community, that we love each other, even though we know or we will get to know more and more ugly, dirty things in our lives, in people's lives, but that's a divine kind of love that we are called to exhibit and that's the way God loves us, that's the way Solomon loved the Shulamite, that's the way God loves his church today. So God loves us with a passion when you look at the cross, it is not just a cold icy transactional event. It is God, passionate, desiring, delighting in his people and I say to you in the light of his love for you, do you love God?

Do you love God, do you love him? Pastor, that's a bad question, I'm coming to church right. No, that's not my question, do you love him, but I read the Bible, no, no, do you love him. I pray, I give offerings, I'm serving in children's ministry, I've been serving for 10 years. I'm asking you do you love him. Love beats with passion, desire, delight do you love God. Pastor, are you sure that's the way we should love. Well didn't Jesus say, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and the only way I can love him is when I know how much he loves me.  I love him because he first loved me. So my friends, if you don’t- you can't honestly say to yourself I delight in God. If you can't honestly say to yourself, I truly am passionate for God it might be because you have never really received his love in the first place. You have been to church, you’re attending services, you're going through the motions of the Christian culture, but you do not have the Christ of the Christian faith in your soul, you've not really known him. So I ask you again do you love God? Because if you do, you will want Him, you will long for Him, you will live for Him and you await the day He is coming back for you one day and you say with many of us here, His banner over me is love. You know His banner is publicly declared 2000 years ago and I willingly, joyously submit to that banner, will you do that? Let's bow for a word of prayer together. Some people call God's love, crazy love. Crazy in a good way, that he could love me with such a delight and passion, even though I am dark and totally unlovely, but this is our God. Maybe this morning as you hear about the message of love, you know in your own heart and life, that you have left your first love, you have been busy about the Christian activities, but you have left your first love, you have been good in pointing out false teachers, but you have left your first love, you have been attending services faithfully and you're patting yourself on the back for that, but you have left your first love.

The Bible says, Jesus says, I have somewhat against you, repent and return to your first works. Say where can I find you, Jesus, where can I re re-kindle that first love where can I meet with you? Well that Solomon would say, you know where it is follow the paths where the flocks have gone, follow the old paths, the Scriptures, quiet prayer, Christian community. Go back to your first works, that in all these platforms, in all these environments, in all these spaces you create for yourself, the Holy Spirit would once again show you the magnificence of God's love for you that as you marinate your heart in such a consideration and reflection that by His Spirit, you will love him, you know where to go. If you're here today and you do not know Jesus I want to say to you the Christian faith is not about a set of rules only, the Christian faith is not just about a journey or about the faith, it includes all that, but don't ever forget the Christian faith is a love relationship with God, love not just something that we live up with our minds, we will ourselves to do things, but there is that fleshly heart that beats and pounds and that which bleeds for God , full blooded passionate love and I pray in your heart you will sing, not just to serve but to love thee with all of my heart. My friends we're going to Punggol by God's grace. We are going there because God is calling this church to serve there, to shine his light there.  I pray you will go not because it is convenient for you but because you love God.

We today might be so focused on what we are going to do, serve, full of this, full of that yes but more than your work, it's your walk and before there can be abundance, there must be the abiding relationship, that love, that connects our soul and our God. Do you love him, do you love God, that is the question. Father we thank You today that on the cross, you spread out that banner of love. I pray that your church would gladly gather under that banner. That like a mighty army we move forward, telling others about this love and helping others to gather under the same banner, dear Lord, we pray that this church will continue to minister in the power of the Spirit and in accordance to the Scripture, that people would grow in their love with you,  that we will be a church that is pure and chaste like that bride that is betrothed awaiting for the return of our groom, help us love you because you first loved us. We thank You and we pray all this in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

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