Introduction and Context
[02:01]
Today, we are… all agreed that we live in a pretty messy world. The world has been messy since Adam and Eve sinned against God but after thousands of years, the mess gets messier and messier. And I'm very sure, all of us look around us and say, “My goodness, what is this world coming to?” Climate change, nobody has a clue what to do. Crazy leaders who just want to kill each other. They can just have more weapons to kill more and more, more randomly, so to speak, corrupt leaders everywhere who just enrich themselves at the expense of people, and the incompetent leaders in our nation, in our church, in our families. Everything is one big fat mess. And so, what do we do?

As good Singaporeans, what do we do? Complain, right… right? I mean that's instinctive, that's natural, we grew up that way. We pretty expert at it but I think, like three weeks ago, our Pastor Jason said, “Don't complain, right?” So that probably put a lot of stress on all of you. Now, if I don't complain where does my energy go, right? I mean, hey, that's my number one activity. That's my number one contribution to the nation, to the world, to everything. I must complain but now I'm not supposed to, all right, and so, we have this big struggle. But how are we going to fix this mess in this world? Who's going to do the job? Is there anybody going to do the job? Well, let me tell you, today there's somebody who can do the job and that somebody is seated on the chair you're in. Wow, this is a bright lot of people. Let me repeat that, somebody can do the job to fix this world better than anyone on earth and that somebody is sitting on the chair you are sitting on. [04:26] One acknowledgement, all right, is that you? Are you sitting on the chair you're sitting on?  Wow, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. All right, now you say, what the world are you talking about? You're talking about a mess in this world, a real serious mess in this world and I am the one who is going to have to fix the problems of the world. What is this? Is this some motivational speech? Is this hype? Is this Trump speaking today?

The World’s Greatest Untapped Power

Well, the message for today is “The World's Greatest Untapped Power” happens to be sitting on the chair you are sitting on. Now this is not for every chair in this church but for the majority of chairs. It's not marked clearly but if you're born again, you've trusted Jesus as your Savior. You are the world's greatest untapped power. Is this hype or is this biblical?

Image of God

Genesis 1:27
All right, number one, you're made in the image of God. What the world does that mean? Do I look like God? God has no physical appearance. So, what the world does it mean? Right? So, let's just look at the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. For many of you probably never read the Bible through but I hope most of you have at least tried to read Genesis and survive the first few chapters, all right. And you probably read that, and so, let's look at this, right. “So God created man in His own image, …” That's already very clear, right? Repeat “…in the image of God he created him; …” almost sounds… what's up, God? Saying the same thing twice and then he says it the third time, “…male and female…”, [Genesis 1:27] even the ladies are created in the image of God. What in the world does that mean? What does the image of God mean?

All right… before we look at the next verse, we say, well… maybe, unlike… you see this, this part is verse 27, you know the 26 verses before that talk about the birds and the whales and the creatures, the dinosaurs and all that, that were created. And then it comes to man, and for millions and millions of species and genus and whatever, types of stuff that was created. Only man, only man, Homo sapiens were created in the image of God. All the rest were created not in the image of God. So, you say, what's that? What does that mean? What makes us unique from the other creatures? Oh, maybe we have potential to create. Yeah, that's true. [Be]cause Creator, He gives us potential. You know birds sing the same song from Adam's time, probably they sing the same tune. Or today got all kinds of… apateu, apateu [singing APT.], all kinds of silly versions of everything under the sun, all right… You never thought there's a new version coming up, there is… man can create anything, all right. Maybe that's what it means but actually the second verse tells us a little bit more specific. I was very amused to see our Prime Minister walking up to that and seeing the former Senior Minister's wife go like that [hand gesture]. [08:02] Did you see that? Watch it… watch it again. All right, you got to watch it again. [08:08] Ho Ching went [hand gesture] bang! …like that…that was amazing. To me, it was like, Wow… I couldn't appreciate that song and I got granddaughters sing that all the time, send me insane. You know, it's like… that's music? okay, all right, but obviously it is, right.

Genesis 1:28
Now, what does it really mean? Or what does it mean more clearly to us, “And God bless them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful [and] multiply [and] fill the earth [and] subdue it, [and] have dominion over…’” [Genesis 1:28] etc, etc, etc. There are two fellows there, Adam and Eve. Two little fellows, in a sense, maybe about my size [08:50] and [08:53] they saw these creatures around them which were made, dinosaurs of every kind, animals of every kind, whales leaping in the sea. And God said, subdue it, rule over all this, this little garden, this paradise I’ve put you in. Two of you! Expand it man! Fill the earth… Make the world, bring the blessings of this little garden, the paradise garden. Bless the whole world with this, I give you the privilege to spread this throughout the world. So, do you know what was the mandate given to man at his creation? What was the mandate? Go be a blessing, spread out the blessings throughout the whole world. As God blesses us, God makes us in the same image to be a blessing. All right, so we are made in the image of God. We are given a role, a purpose, a mandate, call it a commission or whatever you like to call it. [10:16] Go! Rule! Spread! [10:22] It's all there. All the adjectives are there and make the world a better world. All right, so number one, we do have a job besides the jobs we have, there is one overriding job. We all have different jobs in different places but there's one overriding job we all have as humans, made in God's image.

Spirit of God

Number two, why are we the greatest untapped power? To have that purpose without the power, what's the point? I know I'm supposed to spread the image, but can I? It's Adam and Eve standing there and looking at you and me, look at the creatures, look at the… this vast world. They looked around and said, you and me? All right, now I can imagine that you're given this huge mandate, purpose, potential but do you have the power? Oh, my dear friends, if you and I are born again, you trusted Jesus as your saviour, you have not just the image of God, you have the Spirit of God. This is quite almost sarcastically written… was written to the Corinthian church. They were Christians, and for three chapters, they were like baby Christians but though they were not babies, but the mentality was like babies.

1 Corinthians 3:16
Finally, he says, you don't know? “Do you not know you are God's temple [and that] the Spirit of God [God’s Spirit] lives [dwells] in you.” [1 Cor 3:16]. You [12:02] know, it's like… these are [12:05] people who claim to be Christians but they didn't know the most important fact of all. Don't you know this vital truth that the Spirit of God lives in you? In who?

Roman 8:9
In every Christian, every believer, right. “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” [Romains 8:9]. This is not for strong believers. This is for all believers. If you have not the Spirit of Christ; If you don't have the Holy Spirit of Christ in you, you are not a believer. You've never trusted Jesus as your Saviour. Wow… but do you know what all this means? This means that you have awesome, awesome power. I don't mean the power to make yourself rich and handsome and beautiful and prosperous. I don't mean that, but power to bless [13:17] the world, all right.

Matthew 3:15
[13:22] “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him.” [Matthew 3:16]. Now, a bit of theology here, just stop for a while, we all know Jesus is the Son of God, right? Okay, we know that… we agree on that… Jesus is Son of God. We know that he's the second person of the Holy Trinity, God the Father; first person, God the Son; second person, God the Holy Spiri; third person. Now, does it make any sense that the second person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus, needs the third person of the Holy Trinity to come to him? Eh…eh… Excuse me, excuse me… You said Jesus is God, right? Yes, we all believe Jesus is God. Yes… then you believe that God is a Trinity? Yes… it's very unique, I can't grasp it but it's what the Bible tells us, is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Then if Jesus is the second person of the Godhead of the Trinity, why does he need the third person? Does that make sense? Because we realize that Jesus when he was on this earth though 100% God, 100% man, set aside his divinity, so to speak, essential divinity and function as a man like you and me. And as a man like you and me, he needed the Holy Spirit to empower him.

Acts 10:38
Can I show you the next verse? All right, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” [Acts 10:38]. I thought you just said, Jesus is God. What are you talking about? He is God and you say, God is with him. What's up? How did he do all the miracles? By the power of the Holy Spirit because he functioned on this earth as a man. All right, for all those who are not believers, let me just step back a little bit and explain this. Okay, we believe… Christians believe Jesus is 100% God come down to this earth and became 100% man. All right? Now, if your mathematics can't grasp it, it's okay. It's called a miracle. All right, not everything we can figure out because miracles are beyond our understanding, right. So, he's 100% God and 100% man when he came to this earth, you say, what in the world? But preacher, what are you telling me this for? What the world is all that for? This is vital because he came down to save us and he came down to go to the [16:46] cross, [16:48] and on that cross to die for our sins. But you see unless he was God, can I repeat that? Unless he was God, the very God, 100% God, how would he know PC [Pastor Paul Choo]? How would he know you? You were not born 2000 years ago.

2000 years ago, on the cross in Jerusalem, outside Jerusalem, he hung there and he died for me who was not yet born. Because He is God, He can see me. You see, God lives again beyond time, He lives in something that is not limited by time. He sees the past, sees the present, He sees the future, and He saw me there 2000 years later. And as God, He not only saw me, He knew every sin of mine. I don't even know my own sins most of the time but He knew every sin of mine. And as God, He doesn't forget anything because God is perfect. And on that cross as God, He didn't miss out one sin of this fellow who was not yet born. He took all the sins but as God, He cannot suffer, He cannot bleed and He cannot die for you. Only as man, he can do that. So that's why it's so critical to know he is God man, and only God man can go on the cross, take all our sins and say “It is finished” and prove that fact three days later by rising from the dead. And we, the Christians here, believe that, all right. You see, so we understand 100% God, 100% man in one person but as man on earth, he operated as man, man, man, not God, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Hope this helps, the same spirit that helped Jesus do a lot of things, to bless people, the sick, the depressed, the oppressed, the confused, the deceived, the same Jesus did it by the power of the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that dwells in you. Wow, that's a lot of power. That's a lot!!!... waiting to be tapped. You know, one little grain of uranium, there's a lot of nuclear power waiting to be tapped. If you know how to tap it, doesn't mean that uranium is going to just have power. In the soil, there's a lot of power. In the sun, there's a lot of power to be tapped but we need to tap it. That's the world's greatest untapped power is someone given a great purpose in life and the great power to do that purpose, and to… We not only have the image of God as our potential and our purpose, we have the power of God.

Word of God

We now have the Word of God to guide us. All right, do you believe that you are the world's greatest untapped power? Does it make sense? All right… now, having said all that, we come to another very simple truth, right? So, first thing, very simple truth, it wasn't hype, it was biblical.

Know, Grow, Go

Second thing, GLCC [Gospel Light Christian Church] says, “Know, Grow and Go”. For many of you, you can say, thank you, Lord, I know the Savior. He is my Savior. He died for my sins. He paid the price for my sins. He said, “It is finished.” I believe him. I trusted him. Many of you can say, I know him. Many of you also can raise your hand and say, I'm growing. Thank you, God. GLCC has good preaching on the pulpit, good teaching in our CGs [Care Groups] and we are growing. Thank you, God. We are knowing and growing! But does that automatically translate to going? Right… does knowing automatically become growing? No, it must be intentional. You got to stand here and preach wine upon light, precept upon precept, teach truth upon truth, to grow. And I think we're doing [a] good, good job there. But does growing automatically lead to going? [21:53] Answer is no, [21:57] you see, growing is nice. Who doesn't like to grow, likes to be stunted? Eh, you're stunted. Not nice. Eh, why you so short? Why you never grow? Why you so stupid? Right, it's not nice. So, growing is quite, I would say the word, nice to have and all of us like to grow. Wow, Christian, you're growing. [22:26] How many of you like to go though? Not too many, right? So rather than ‘Know, Grow and Go’ maybe our slogan should… [22:39] ‘Grow and Grow and Never Go’. True or not? Because you're so comfortable unless you are…Umm… and certain things are done, you will never go unless you're weird. Some of you may be the adventurous, crazy type but the vast majority would rather sit here and grow and grow until they go to heaven.

All right, so that slogan is something like a… nice to have, not easy to do. That's the reality. So, who do we blame for the ‘Go’ part? Natural, all right… human nature ah… first everything goes wrong, blame the guy next to you. Husband, anything not happy in your family, blame your wife. Natural… wife, blame your husband. Children, no… not happy, blame Papa. Papa, not happy, blame… aiya… kids nowadays like that lah. All right, but when we run out of things and PJ [Pastor Jason] said, “Hey, don't, don't complain ah… don't complain ah… Walao [Singlish expression to express disbelief/shock], where do I go now man? This is very serious, y’know. I have nobody to complain about. Ah… most churches find a very convenient right… not, not all wrong… Devil lah… all right, they always blame Satan bind here, Satan bind there. Everywhere got Satan, under the chair, everywhere got Satan. Bind Satan. Satan make us do all this. Wha nice leh… always blame someone lah, at least if you can't blame humans because PJ [Pastor Jason] didn't say you can't blame Satan, right? So, blame Satan lah, right. So, you know, like good smart people we are, we always find the journey, all right, so our natural journey is and this is not wrong. Satan does do something.

Deceive

He deceives you. It's true. It's not altogether wrong. Satan is real. Satan does several things. One, he deceives you. He tells you, how you want to go? You preacher ah? Hey, PJ [Pastor Jason] is different from you, you know? PC [Pastor Paul Choo] different, [you] know? Can you see a little bit… Wha… you see the Bible they carry, black big one… not, not small font one. Wha… they stand behind the pulpit, big, big one… like coffin, like that. Don't want to talk like that… collar backwards, you know. Different! You're not a preacher. Stay, just learn, learn, learn. Be humble, so many of us are very humble, very humble. Okay, we know our place, we are laymen, you know… what's the layman mean? Lay low, don't kay kiang [act smart in Hokkien], all right… act blur, right.

Distract

Well, he distracts. Eh… Pastor, don't say, I never serve lah. I've been this church for 37 years, I serve nonstop, [you] know. Every Sunday ah… I wash dishes. Now I'm the best dishwasher in Gospel Light [Christian Church]. 37 years, now I Senior VP [Vice President] of dishwashing. What else you do? No lah… Busy lah…every Sunday I wash dishes. You see, he will give you something to do, don't worry. If I can't deceive you, I can distract you. You see, we know the main thing that Jesus asked us to do is bless the world, washing plates does bless some people when they eat in GLCC [Gospel Light Christian Church], stomach lah ah, all right, [26:30] but it's [26:32] beyond that.

Jesus gave, actually, one command only. After 40 days he rose from the dead ah, he taught a lot of things and he summarized in one command, what is that? Go therefore and make disciples. We say the main thing is to make the main thing, the main thing. That's the one job we will… we are put in different homes, so you can shine in your home. You put different office; you can shine in your office. Put different, whatever Kampong, you can shine in your Kampong. You see, God put us there so we can bless those around us by helping make them disciples. All right, now so… but you’re busy every Sunday, I'm serving God. I'm serving God. Wha… Okay lah… I won't disturb you. I won't, you're very busy already.

Discourage

Discourage…. Who are you? You can't even talk. You're not eloquent, like PJ [Pastor Jason], like PC [Pastor Paul Choo], like Hanniel, you know. Wha…who are you? You try one, two times, don't work… die liao… you see lah, I told you, it doesn't work what, right, and all your CG [Care Group] members will say, aiya, you know… discourage very easily.

Disunite

And lastly, disunited, we can't even work together. That's the truth. As a doctor, I tell you, the world is arguing because different colour, different culture, different accent. Actually no, as a doctor, I tell you, we're all 99.9% the same, you know. Correct or not? If you need a heart transplant, a surgeon here, you don't say, this heart… Indian heart or African heart? All heart the same. You need blood, blood transfusion, all the same also. All right, we are actually the same lah… little bit of difference only but we can highlight the differences. I don't like to work with that person at church, she always like that. I don't like to work with that person, you know, 99.9% we are exactly the same. If we in heaven… new heaven, new Earth forever and ever, the same, you know that. And yet we will find that one difference to give excuse not to do anything. I find very hard to serve here. I find very hard to serve there, you know. Wha… so all this we can blame the devil, right or not? And is it true? Not bad lah… quite true lah, the devil does, do these things. Okay, so why are you not going? Satan lah… deceive me what, discourage me what, disunite me what. So today we bind him, okay? Then you mati [die in Malay], got nothing else to blame already. So why are we not going? Why are we not going?

Equipping and Empowering the Saints to Make Disciples

[29:37] Anybody has any solution? Gospel Light [Christian Church] needs your help. 1000 people, 2000 people, all ever growing and growing and growing, and a handful going. Please help us. What do we do? Truth is [30:07] we need to be honest; we’re not doing our job. Gospel Light [Christian Church] has not done its job. You don't expect people to go if they're not equipped. You can educate people. You can send them to military school and learn the 100 tactics of warfare, 100 types of weapons, 100 times defend yourself until you equip him and tell him to hold the rifle. This is how you hold it; this is how you shoot it. Until you teach him real skills, you can tell, you need to go out and evangelize in the boat. Pastor, I don't even know how to start a conversation. Pastor, I don't even know how to share the gospel. Oh, every Sunday you hear, hear, hear sermon. Do you hear anything on how to share the gospel? Any of you hear anything… the last three years!? Be honest! Did any of you learn skills on how to start a conversation that will lead to the gospel? Anyone… in this church, youth group or whatever group? No, we are master educators. We are like the best university in the world [to] train the best people in all the physiology, anatomy, biochemistry but we never teach the doctor how to hold a scalpel, [31:33] how to cut. [31:37] The first time I cut someone, I panic, y’know. I have to practice on an apple first, you know… to cut the skin. You shiver, y’know, I thought I very gung-ho, y’know. First time you have to cut ah… your hand actually shakes ah, you see, no… nobody tells us how you go out there. How do I go to my colleagues and even start a conversation? But go, know, grow, go and then go and do what? Make a fool of yourself ah… kill the fellow ah. Hey, you study in medical school 10 years already… Go lah!!! You die ah! you don't… you don't give me the skills, right? Furthermore, you don't give me the license. I cut and then he died, I die also. [32:22] You got to equip and empower, right or not? It's common sense, right? You don't tell people, go, go, go. You got to equip… reality check… that stuff is so high for you, think… know, grow, go… Leading generations to a life changing relationship with Jesus… chey… stylo [cool in Singlish].

[32:53] All right, how many led generations to a life changing relationship? I'm not blaming you. After 37 years in this church, we need a reality check. Otherwise, you be what? Gospel Light what? GLCC stands for what? Gospel Light Convenient Church… Why you come? I stay in Punggol. Nothing wrong with convenience, what's wrong with convenience, right? But is that the only reason you come here? Why you come? Gospel Light Country Club… Wha… newcomers, everybody knows my name ah. Wha… the food not bad leh… Wha… every time I come; everybody greets me. Hello. Hello, Johnny. Hi, Mary. Wha, shiok ah…like country club, I go the… Candy knows me, everybody knows me. Wha, shiok ah… all right… Wow, country… Gospel Light Classroom Church, every time we get smarter and smarter. Wow… now I know, meekness is power under control. Wha… next time talk to… meek is not humble, y’know, not meek is not like that, y’know, meek is power under control. Wha... so clever. Wha… GLCC stands for what? Gospel Light Classy Church. We all are…. we are not like those Prosperity Gospel ah… blur, y’know. We all know the theology. We know Ephesians. We know Numbers some more, y’know. Not lotto, Numbers, you know. You ever read Numbers or not, ah… classy leh… You see, if we don't have a reality check, we'll go the way, [34:43] the natural way.

[34:46] Who likes to go? [34:49] Very few, [34:51] I'm not saying none, there’re always some crazy people like to do stupid things [that] they're not prepared for [35:00] but the vast majority of us are not equipped. We're not empowered. Doesn't even sound high class. How to start a conversation, imagine in this… [35:15] Next week sermon, how to start a conversation? Start, smile first, okay. All of us practice smiling, smile then wave. Hi, all right. Walao [Singlish expression to express disbelief/shock]… so shallow ah… this church. You see, this is how you hold a knife, very shallow. No need to go to medical school but you need to know how to hold a knife the right way, cannot hold like that and do surgery.

All right, okay, so my point is this, we need to equip our people. Doesn't have to be done on the pulpit but you'll never go till you are equipped and very few would dare to go till they're empowered. Are you following me? That's why, when we wanted to send Pastor Kah Hong out, we bring him on stage, commission him, that's commissioning service is part of empowering. University, you wear a square hat, right? Then you come out [as] doctor then you can kill with license, license to kill after that because you're empowered already, right? But until you got the square head and the red, don't know, I think it's red 36:37 [graduation stole/sash], right? Is that, 36:39 Chwee Meng? doctor still red? The blood, you know, the blood, right? Then you got a right to practice on people. Doctor always practicing… die also never mind, I practice, license to kill, all right, but until that time you dare not. Sue you, you die ah! You know, life is like that, you have to be licensed to go out and sometimes make mistakes but you have the license to do it. I have people in the church ask me, “Pastor, I want to start a cell group in this place, do I need permission?” I said, “Please I beg you, just start”. Walao [Singlish expression to express disbelief/shock]… You know that, these are real questions, last week someone asked me that, “Do I need permission?” I said, “I've been waiting for you to ask me this”. He said, “I'm waiting for you to tell me this”. All right, you see until we empower them and say, here you have a community, you have staff, you are leading this group, you are influence of these people. These are your relatives; these are people you trust. These are blah, blah, blah, blah, I train you to reach them. Go therefore and make disciples. Now how the church comes up with new programs? I hope they do; this is a wakeup call. If we don't, we know where we'll go, the natural way, comfort, convenience, complacent [38:20] is the way to go.

[38:23] All right but Christian Church, Gospel Light… GLCC stands for Christian Church. Christ… Christian means follower of Christ. What does that mean? He left heaven, eternity up there, worshiped by, I don't know, zillions of angels and he left that to come to this earth. That's Christianity, guys. That's Christ leaving the comfort zone, for a time he came, put aside many things to serve, to do the what is needed, to meet the needs of people and the greatest need is sin that need to be resolved and settled. He did it. Christianity is about going, leaving something behind and going. It's comfortable to come here. It's nice but we are here to be trained, equipped, empowered, to bless the world. The main thing is to make the main thing, the main thing - Go make disciples. There are many ways to serve God, many ways but there's one main way. There are many different things we do with different talents and gifts we have but there's one common thing we are mandated to do - Make disciples. Have you? Question [yourselves]? All right, so I hope that this is not a charge. People say, “Pastor today, you're going to scold us”. I'm not scolding you. I scolding myself. I'm scolding our church. We failed, period. Don't blame anyone. We failed… badly, all right.

After 37 years, how many are going? How many of you can say your communities are reach? Do I point a finger there? Why didn't you? Why didn't you? Or do we reflect on ourselves? Reality check… at this point, I want to thank some of you, all right, well over 100 of you open your homes for our master of ministry students. Some of you who have opened your homes know what [I’m] talking about. I run a program that helps train pastors from other countries and leaders from other countries to be more effective in their ministry. We called it a master of ministry program and many of you opened their homes and made a huge difference two weeks ago. All right, I never had a chance to thank you personally, thank you for opening your homes. You are a huge blessing to them. Encourage you [as] many came from poorer countries around us and they were greatly blessed. I heard nothing but good stories made me very proud of being part of Gospel Light [Christian Church]. But I want to add that for all this time I've been training basically outsiders, 95% of our students are foreigners and I made it a quota that only 5% are Singaporeans. And I was thinking about this and I said, “That's not right”. We need to train our own people, all right.

And so, in the coming batch in February, I'm going to invite some of you who I think are ready to be equipped and empowered, to a two-year program where I expect you to study for 15 hours a week, go through quizzes every week, go through zoom discussions, sit with other leaders and learn how to be equipped and empowered. I'm going to invite some of you, not a lot of you but some of you, others of you who I don't know and say, I want to be trained. I want to be equipped. I don't want to play games anymore. I've been a Christian for I don't know how many years, I'm growing and growing and never going. I don't know how to go. This is not a master of theology program. It's not for preachers. It's master of ministry. Ministry is a high-class word for servant, all right. Okay, you know, we say “Prime Minister” Wow… sound… Wha... actually supposed to be “Chief Servant” ah, all right, but somehow… Okay, master of ministry sound like… Wow… jin kao, jin kao [clever in Hokkien], actually not, you be very clever to serve. Okay, if you are serious, all right, pray about it. Okay, I want to start the ball rolling seriously. We can't go 37 years as a church and say how many of you are reaching your communities and I really have to scratch my head. [43:39] What are you doing? Are you playing church? What are you doing here? All right, [43:48] we have to equip the saints for the work of the ministry and you will never regret it. I can tell you this, you will never regret it. There are many things you can do with a new heaven and new earth in ways you can't even picture. But there are two things you can't do for eternity; you can't lead one soul out of hell [44:15] to Christ. [44:18] You can't disciple anyone.

You know, the mess we see in the world, you think this is a mess? You think this is a mess that we have to live through for 70 years? Don't kid yourself, this is paradise. Even in this messy world, this is paradise. If your relatives don't hear the gospel, your best buddies don't hear the gospel, let me tell you the mess they'll be in for eternity. That's real mess. That is the real mess! It'll make Gaza and Ukraine look like paradise; I tell you that. And we have the good news. We have the mandate, the command to help the world get out of that mess. Let stop play games. I look at pictures of Gaza and I say this is unreal but honestly, just read two lines on hell and you know what I'm talking about. [45:23] You can make a difference.

[45:27] Let me end with a story, many of you say, but you know, Pastor, the service, the sufferings, the sacrifice I'm not willing to pay. It's true, there is an element of that very much, Christianity is about [45:44] sacrifice. It's about sufferings. It's about service. [45:52] That's the truth. [45:54] That's Christ. [45:57] You know I have four kids, many of you know that, I have seven grandchildren. The greatest joy I have is to have the 17 of us together for a meal which is not very common because some don't live here. But the greatest, greatest joy of all is to have all 17 go on a holiday which is rare, once in a blue moon, to have your family around you, just enjoy your family. And my greatest dream is all the 17 of us will serve [46:33] God, all right. [46:36] 17 sounds like a lot, right? But that's not my… the end of my dream. I want my 17 biological family to be eternity with me. I hope they all will be, I hope in eternity the 17 of us will serve and expand the glory of God through the galaxies. [46:59] But am I satisfied with 17? No. 17,000? No. 170,000? Maybe. 1.7 million? Maybe, I’ll be smiling. Is it possible? Could I have that many children? Am I as a Christian allowed to have so many wives? [47:23] Could I have 17,000 grandchildren? Great grandchildren? Can or cannot? Spiritually, yes. Teach someone, share the gospel, mentor him, disciple him to share the gospel. You know what? 17,000 grandchildren in eternity, in the new heaven and new earth, a big family reunion every day, serving God together every day, expanding the glory of God from Galaxy X to Galaxy Y to X, Y, Z [48:03] forever and ever. [48:07] For me now, once in a blue moon, I get that, one day, [48:14] one day I expected that, [48:18] you're never regretted, never regret it. You live life and regret many things but you never regret serving God and making disciples. May God bless you.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this time. Help us to do a reality check, Lord. It's good to sound good, look good and we do. We do look good as a church but help us, God, to check ourselves, our slogans for sure, know, grow, go, sounds so smart. [48:55] Help us, Lord. We [48:58] plead with you, may this message change Gospel Light and each of us, each of us will say, I know what God created me for. I know the one who saved me. I know the message of salvation. I believe in eternity, a new heaven and new earth. I want to be part of your great commission. Hear our prayer, God. In Jesus' name. Amen.