Where’s Your Confidence

Introduction

Morning to all of you, I may not be familiar to you, because this is the first time I preach in this main congregation. My name is Kay Hong. And because this is the first time I'm going to preach in this congregation, I'm going to share more about myself. This is my family picture. The one behind me is me. She's somewhere around. The two girls are my daughters, and the two young men are my son in law. The little baby is my grandson and I’m a grandfather now. I have one grandson. This picture was taken about two years ago. Today he can run faster than me, he is two years old but can run very fast, I have to chase after him. So this is my family picture.

My wife, May and I are married for 34 years. We married in 1990 December. So this month is our anniversary month. We married for 34 years. But for the first 10 years, our marriage was not smooth sailing. Because we did not know Jesus. We are trying to use our own method, our own philosophy, to manage our marriage. And because without God, and because we were trying to build our career and we live a separate life. And when we come together, we always have friction, we always quarrel. I remember on the 10 years anniversary, we tried to celebrate, we went to a nice resort but when we came back and then we have a big fight. And in my mind was thinking, enough is enough. And my wife also very tired of it. And even she told me that maybe we should go and find a lawyer.

Thankfully, my business dealing I know someone that brought me to this church, GLCC, Gospel Light Christian Church, and that was 2001 January that we came to this church. It was located at Dunearn Road and Pastor Paul Choo was a Senior pastor. He is our founding pastor, and he was a senior pastor. He preached a series of horizontal relationship, how to relate to God. Frankly, I don't really remember what the preaching was about, but I remember one thing. He talked about marriage; he talked about marriage was designed by God and there’s instruction. Now, it's very new to me, I always thought that, oh, we try to do our best to manage our marriage, we appreciate each other. And now I know okay, this is from God, I need to learn about what marriage is all about. And we continue to attend this church. And week after week, sermons after sermons, and I realized that the problem of our marriage is not because I don't know how to manage it, is because I'm a sinner. Likewise, my wife is a sinner. I'm so selfish, I love myself more than anyone. I love myself more than her. And I'm so self-centered. So, because of that, my marriage has problem. And also, I realized sin, the punishment of sin is death. So, I need to repent of my sin and turn to Jesus.

And I was saved in 2001 June, and that year, we baptized in October. Three years later, 2004 June, there was an opening to China for missions. And we decided to grab hold of this opportunity, afraid other people may take it. So, we grabbed, and we went, because we are so thankful and grateful, we thank God, how he saved my soul, and how he preserved my marriage. So, no turning back after that until today. Now, because of COVID, I'm back and I serve in a local church. And my role in this church right now, I'm serving in family life ministry. If you see the bullet proof workshop, my team is running this bullet proof workshop, and also serving in care group ministry.

So today, I'm going to share with you the passage from Philippians chapter 3, verse 4 to 10. This is one of my favorite passage, it speaks to my heart. I can relate what Paul was saying or teaching in this book, in this chapter. The title of this sermon is, where's your confidence? Where's your confidence? As we are pursuing success in our life, we want to achieve certain achievements. And we always think that confidence is a very important ingredient. Whether you are building your career, you're running your family, especially if you are leaders. And you think that I need to have confidence. Parents, how you teach our kids, when the kids want to go for exam, you say must have confidence, don’t be distracted, must have confidence. So we always talk about confidence, confidence, but what kind of confidence that God want has to possess. Where is your confidence? Today we want to talk about it.

I remember when I was doing sales, I was very young, I started my new life as a working adult. So, I was doing sales and my supervisor always tell me that you must have confidence in front of your clients, your prospects, so that they think that you know your stuff. If you don't have, pretend you have it. Yeah, this is what the world will tell you. The supervisor also tell you if you don't have, go mixes with someone that are successful people, then you will be influenced by them. There is this saying. I don't know it's very old school, maybe during my time, there is this saying that if you want to fly like an eagle, don't mix with a turkey. Yeah, maybe nowadays, people don't say that anymore. But the idea is, the idea is that you want to be successful don’t mixed with those people who are not successful. The idea is that. So this is what the world teach us. So I'm going to examine today, we're going to examine Paul’s life from Philippians chapter 3, Verse 4 to 10 and learn from Paul’s, his confidence, where is his confidence? There are three points here. First, we want to look at Paul’s loss, then followed by Paul’s gain and Paul’s confidence from this passage.

Paul’s Loss

Chapter three, verse four, Paul says, ‘If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh. I have more.’  Who is Paul talking to? Paul is talking to the false teachers, the Judaizers, who came to the Gentile believers and say that if you want to be saved, you need to be circumcised and you need to obey the law of Moses in order to be saved. So this is the false teachers who are trying to teach the Gentile believers and Paul strongly against it. Even in Galatians, he say that this is another gospel. Because once you add something on the grace of God, on only Jesus alone, then it becomes another gospel. It's like the Judaizers say that you want to be Christian, you need to be Jews first, in order to be Christian. If Paul did not defend the gospel, defend the truth, I don't think today we can listen to the gospel, the gospel will not come to us today. So, thank God, Paul defended and strongly against it. This is a constant battle that Paul was facing. Even in Colossians that Pastor Jason preached. Remember, one of the sermons talks about Jesus plus, is talking about adding something in order to be saved, exactly the same idea, Jesus plus. When we have Jesus plus, the plus will get bigger and bigger, bigger and bigger. Because the plus is based on our performance. Performance means you want people to notice, you want people to see, you want to brag about it, you will start comparing, oh, mine is bigger, yours bigger, mine is stronger, yours stronger, I commit more, I pray more, I fast more. You're getting bigger and bigger. You compare, and you become very judgmental. Oh, you see, he never do this, you never do that. So, once you had this Jesus plus, it will get bigger and bigger. So this is the issue.

So Paul gather all, assuming, just paint you a picture. He gathers all the false teachers into a room and say, If you think that you have reason for your confidence in the flesh, I have more. And he gets everybody to stand up. And Paul says I'm going to list out all my achievements, if any of these achievements that you think that you can depend on, you can put your confidence in, you can sit down. So, Paul goes on. He say first circumcised, circumcised on the eighth day. Why eighth day? Because he was born in a Jewish family, so circumcised on the eighth day. So this is the plus, if even circumcised is something to brag about? My circumcision is on the eighth day, how about yours? My circumcision is better than your circumcision. So, there's something to brag and compare. So, he said I circumcised on the eighth day. I'm going to read it to today's context. And maybe you also can examine yourself, are you putting your confidence in this? This is about ritual stuff. In our context, maybe baptism. Maybe you think that oh, I’m baptized in this church, in this form, I should be saved. There are churches that think that if you baptized in other churches, you are not saved, unless you’re baptized in my church. They go to that kind of extreme. Maybe Holy Communion. Oh, I took holy communion every week, or every time they have Holy Communion, I accumulated enough of righteousness, I should be saved. Oh a common one, altar call. I remember that year when pastor had altar call, I walked down the aisle, I made a sinner prayer, I should be saved. Is this your confidence?

Next, Paul says, he was of the people of Israel. Israel is a very special race, chosen by God, has special relationship with God. So, Paul is saying that I have this special relationship with God. In today's context, you may think that oh, I born in this Christian family, I should be saved. When I was in mission, I talked to a lady in a church, I asked, oh, can you tell me your salvation story? How you got saved? She say I was saved in my mother's womb. Oh, how can it be? Oh, my mother is a Sunday school teacher, I attend church every Sunday even in my mother's womb. So there are people who may think that oh, now I'm born in a Christian family, I should be saved.

Then Paul say that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. Hebrew of Hebrews is talking about he has very prestige linkage of his family tree, maybe his grandfather or his family or the generation, they are Hebrew of Hebrews. Today, many people may think that oh, my father is a pastor, he is a missionary, my grandfather is a founder of this church. And I now attending this church, I should be saved.

And Paul followed by saying he, as the law a Pharisee. Pharisees obey the law strictly. they memorize Scripture, they do what they're supposed to do, they don't do what they are not supposed to do, they will not touch unclean things, they won't eat unclean food, they follow the rule very strictly, very conservative. Maybe you think that oh, I'm very conservative, I only worship with certain kinds of music. I only watch certain kind of movie, listen to certain kind of music. And I should be saved because I follow the law. I follow the rules very closely, I should be saved.

Then Paul said as to zeal, a persecutor of the church. Nobody can question Paul’s passion, Paul’s zeal, he can even brag about it. He's a persecutor of the church. Because at that moment, he looked at this Christians, they call themselves the way, following the way. This group are the betrayers, they are like a cult, they are betrayal from Judaism. So, he thinks that he persecutes this group of people, he was okay. But he was full of zeal, passion, persecuted, persecuting these churches. And today, maybe you feel that I'm in charge of big ministry. I put in a lot of effort, every Saturday, Sunday, I'm in church, I should be saved.

Last one, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. What is Paul here talking about. He was a very righteous person, he thought he was a very righteous person. He has this high moral standard. And because my moral standards are very high, and I always keep close to it. And I feel that my conscience is very clear, and I should be saved because I always do good. People look at me, they know that I'm a good person. I'm very helpful, I am loving, I help a lot of people. So, I should be saved.

So, when Paul, list down all these achievements, and the group of false teachers, probably everybody already seated down because they can relate. And maybe one of them look at Paul, why are you still standing. And Paul will answer them. Yes, I have all these achievements. In fact, I did all this better than any one of you. But I cannot ignore the countless sin I have committed. And no matter how well I perform my achievements, I cannot pay my sin. And the wages of sin is death. That's why Paul, need Jesus. He turned to Jesus. That is verse seven. He said, ‘but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ’. For the sake of Christ, he counted whatever gain he had as loss. This is like a balance sheet, on one side is all the achievements, on one side is Jesus. And Paul has to make a decision. You can choose either one, you cannot have both. But we tend to think that we can have both. I want my current life and on top of that, God give me more blessing, give me more wealth, give me more health, on top of my current life. Many teachers teach you, Oh, you can do whatever you like, you still can have your own lifestyle and you just believe in Jesus, bless you more, bless you more. And claim by faith. Once you have faith, Jesus will give you. No, now it's a balance sheet, you have choose either one. Unless you truly see that the value of Jesus, you will not forego whatever you have gained, your achievements. The value of Jesus had to be far greater than these achievements, that will help you to make that decision. Right. When we met Jesus, our life would change. Our life would turn upside down.

When Paul met Jesus, when he wrote this letter about 20, 30 years ago, when he was on the way to Damascus, he went to high priests, he obtained a letter and wanted to go to Damascus, to capture, to arrest, Christians in Damascus, he wanted to go door to door, house to house to arrest them and bring them to Jerusalem. So while he was on the way to Damascus, and suddenly there's this great light shone around him, and he fell on the floor. He heard Jesus say, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? That time, his name was Saul until he converted and changed to Paul. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? I believe at that moment, Paul, repent and turn to Jesus because he said, who are you, Lord. He called Jesus as Lord. (Acts 9:3-5)

Maybe in his mind, a lot of things that he heard about Jesus, perform miracles, heals all the sick and the blind can see and die on the cross three days later resurrected, all click or put into pieces. And he can see that Jesus is the Messiah, that is the time he recognized Jesus as his Lord. So, he repented and turn away from his sin and accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. So, from then on, Paul's life has change. He has a bright future. He's a young Pharisee, bright future. But because when we met Jesus, we will make some radical decision, unbelievable decision. Our life had changed because all these achievements is no longer what we want to achieve. We want to have more of Jesus.

When I met Jesus some 22 years ago, 2001, yeah, 22 years ago, my life has changed. And when there's openings for mission, we drop everything, we go. To me, it is a blessing. When you look at your loss, it is no longer loss and because you can gain Jesus, the loss is no longer a loss to you. And we enjoy the time together as family and enjoy Jesus in the mission field. There was once my daughter, one of my daughters came to me with a business card in a mission field. So she said Daddy, your title is branch director. Oh yeah, I say I was brand director in one of the big four property agencies in Singapore. Oh, who is your boss? I say oh my boss, so and so. And the time was one of the big four. Today, I'm not sure, I don't think so. So, my boss was so and so. And my boss like to brag about how he started his business, his agency from nothing. His education level is secondary two, he likes to say how he built his company from nothing. So, he has this tagline, he say from zero to hero. Tagline: from zero to hero. Then my daughter heard and say oh, Daddy, people from zero to hero but you from hero to zero. Exactly. When you know Jesus, you will from hero to zero. Paul was hero. Because for the sake of Christ, he became zero. But the zero is nothing. The Zero is because you will have Jesus, you will gain Jesus, but you must understand the value of Christ, then you will treasure it. If you don't see the value, you will not forego what you have, your achievement to gain Christ. Jesus in Matthew 10 also say that whoever finds his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake, for my sake, for Jesus’s sake, will find it. (Matthew 10:39) It's the same idea. You have to lose it in order to gain Him. If you try to put your faith, your trust, your confidence in what you have and at the same time, you say, I want Jesus, you will lose it. You need to know that only Jesus, only Jesus is enough. You cannot have Jesus plus.

Let me tell you an incident that I encounter in this church, maybe can help you to understand Christ’s love better. There was once we have this prayer meeting in the church office, devotion and prayer meeting. And we divided into smaller groups. And I was with Pastor Jacob, you know, Pastor Jacob? The Telugu pastor, our Indian pastor, Pastor Jacob, so I was with him and with another brother. So, he shared, he says, Please pray for my wife. She's going to do a kidney transplant. Is it, Oh, in my mind I was thinking, oh something happened to your wife? She has sickness? Kidney disease? What happened to your wife? Is your wife sick? He said, No, no, no, no. She's not donating one of her kidneys to someone. Oh, is your children sick? Is any of your siblings sick? Because in my mind I was thinking, who would you donate your kidney to? Definitely be your children or someone close to you? Is No, she's giving to one of the brothers in church. He's dying. She’s giving away one of her kidneys, donating one of her kidneys, to someone, a brother in church because he's dying. That was in August. Thank God, the transplant done successfully. Now they're both on the road to recovery. If I happen to meet this brother, if I asked him how much pastor Jacob's wife loves you? I'm sure he will say, very much. Without her, I cannot be here. She gave me her kidney so that I can live. If not, I will die. Likewise, how do you know Jesus loves you? He died on the cross for you. And not only that. Pastor's wife, we see a glimpse of Christ’s love only, because when Jesus died on cross, we are yet sinner. We are yet sinner, we are unworthy, we are nothing good that Jesus had to do that for us. When we are yet sinner, Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. So that we in Him, we can have reconciliation with God. In Him, we can have this eternal life, eternal hope. I hope this incident can help you to understand how much Christ love us when we are yet sinner, it is far greater than donating a kidney. Donating a kidney is so great to me, it is great love. But Christ’s love is far greater.

Paul’s Gain

If I stopped here, you probably think that I am trying to preach you to give up everything for Jesus or for the church or become a monk. Let's look at the gain. We don't just look at the loss, the gain. The important thing is the gain that will motivate us that we counted as loss, those achievements. In verse eight, Paul said ‘Indeed, I count everything as loss’, he said, ‘I count everything as lost’. Please note this is present tense, count, just now Paul said I counted everything as loss was past tense. So here Paul is talking about from salvation to sanctification, Paul is talking about from new birth, after you met Jesus, you counted everything as loss, accept Jesus, you are new birth, you are new creation, you have a relationship with Jesus and you are in God's family, you are children of God. Now we are talking about Christian living. Some 20, 30 years ago when Paul trusted Jesus and today at this time he wrote this letter, he said, I'm still counting, I'm still counting as loss, everything as loss. Importantly, is he can see ‘the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ’. That is the secret of Christian living, focus on Jesus, look at Jesus, treasure Jesus, embrace Jesus, by knowing Him. The knowing here is not talking about intellectually, you will know who Jesus is, Son of God, He came, He died, He resurrected, many second gen, third gen Christian, they only know Jesus, they ‘know’. Intellectually, they know Jesus, but here is not just simply I know in my mind, it is talking about the relationship, talking about experience God, experience Jesus, and you taste Him.

If I tell you, Mao Shan Wang is very nice. And you say how do you know? I say oh, I watch Tiktok, Tiktok tell me it is very nice. Or Simon told me, Simon Lim is a durian king, I don't know, you know him or not. And Simon told me, Mao Shan Wang is very nice. And if you ask me, have you taste before? I say, oh, no, not really, I just know it's very nice. And I don't really know what Mao Shan Wang is until I put a seed of Mao Shan Wang into my mouth. And wow, the seed is so thin, the flesh is so thick, so creamy. And I taste it, I know Mao Shan Wang is very nice. And I tell you it is very nice, then you will believe me. Likewise, we need to taste it. We need to experience it; it is about relationship. Psalm 34 also says that, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Psalm 34:8). You need to experience it, not just intellectually, oh, Jesus is Lord, Jesus, Son of God, came down. This is just information. How to put this information into your heart. You need to have personal worship. Personal worship is your devotion, your prayer time. How to build this intimate relationship with Jesus? You need to go to the Scripture to know Him. The more you know Jesus, the more you will put your trust, faith and confidence in Jesus. When you want to put your faith, trust and confidence in an object, you need to know what is this? If you just vaguely, Oh pastor say this, pastor say that, I know about this and that, but you don't really go into it and taste and experience our Lord, then you and your confidence is not there. Your faith and trust is not there. You need to build that kind of relationship. And the more you have that kind of relationship with Jesus Christ, the more satisfaction you can have. This Christian living, we want to be in Christ, and we want to find satisfaction in Christ.

Paul following say that ‘For his sake have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish’ (Philippians 3:8b). The comparison, the result of the comparison with Christ, whatever he owned, whatever achievements he had, he counted them as rubbish. The other translations translate as garbage or dung. When you have this comparison, the glory, the light of Jesus Christ is far greater than, the value is greater, far greater than whatever your own. But it doesn't mean that whatever you own right now, is bad. It's not, it's not bad. Whatever your own now, the god of the world, Satan will use it to blind you, to prevent you from drawing near to Jesus. So, you need to focus on Jesus and when you focus on Jesus, the resources, the provision that God gives you, that is no longer your confidence, but you still can enjoy it. But if God take away, you will not, wow, I'm dying because I don't have this, I don't have that. Because your satisfaction is in Jesus, your focus is on Jesus. And all these, you will enjoy it even better. You will not be afraid that people may take it away. You will not afraid that one day this may be gone, and you will enjoy even far better.

Paul’s Confidence

Let's look at Paul’s confidence. Verse nine says that ‘Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which come through faith in Jesus Christ’. In the past, before the conversion of Paul, all his righteousness is from the law, from the flesh. Isaiah 64 says that ‘our righteousness is like a filthy rag’, it’s like a polluted garment, ESV translated as polluted garment. So in the past, Paul is wearing this polluted garment, in God's eyes. he was wearing this polluted garment. And it's like, dung, trash, rubbish, garbage, is disgusting. But now, because of the faith in Christ, he's clothed with Christ's righteousness. So Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse 21 explained it very clearly. He said that, ‘For our sake, he make Him to be sin’, for our sake, God make Jesus to be sin, ‘who knew no sin’, Jesus has no sin, but he took all our sin on Himself on the cross, and die for us on the cross. And ‘so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God’. So in Jesus, now we have God's righteousness. Now, God's righteousness is credited into our account. Now we are clothed with Christ's righteousness. So, when God see us, he see us like His Son, Jesus Christ, never seen before. This is why sinners like us can have access to God. God is a holy God, how can sinners like us have access to the holy God? No way, unless we have this, Christ's righteousness. We clothed with Christ's righteousness, then we can access to the throne, we can access to God, we can have this relationship with God, intimate relationship with God, we can pray to God, God is our Heavenly Father, because of this righteousness that now is in us. When Jesus was on the cross, after He said, It is finished, He gave up His life, at that moment, the curtain between the holy of holies torn into half from top to bottom. It tore into half symbolizes that if you go to Hebrews 10, he said that this curtain is Christ's body. It is Christ's body break into half, so that He opened a new and living way, so that we can access to the Holy of Holies, without fear. Now because of Christ, because we are in Christ, we can have this relationship with our God and assess to the throne of grace.

Three days later, He resurrected, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so important because in First Corinthians chapter 15, Paul say that, if without resurrection, if Jesus was not raised, all of our faith, all of our preaching are in vain, is useless. But Jesus resurrected three days later. So ‘the power of resurrection’, the power of resurrection that make sure our faith in Christ, we will have the righteousness. So with the power right now, I have the confidence because I no longer depend on my own credits or own righteousness, I now depend on Christ's righteousness, the finished work of Jesus Christ. And now I can share His suffering, I am united with Christ, I can ‘share His suffering, and also becoming like Him in His death’. This is the Union; I am united with Christ. I'm sure when Paul says share His suffering is not just simply three words, it is a lot, what Paul went through, what kind of suffering he went through, he shared in Christ's suffering, shipwreck, he was stoned, he was persecuted. He was betrayed and he went through all this for what? For the gospel’s sake, for the gospel’s sake.

Let me share with you another story of me when I was in the mission field that can relate to this sharing of Christ's suffering. There was a year, the city that I'm serving in, the police decided to check on all the foreigners. My role, my ministry there, I was, like a businessman, bringing a lot of quality English teachers, they are missionaries by the way, from America, from Philippine, from Canada, from different places. And I bring them, place them in universities to teach English. So, there are about 30 universities, big and small in that city. So, there are more than 80% of the university actually get teachers from me. We started with about seven teachers. And during that year, about four or five years later, we have about 30 over teachers, God blessed us with many labels, and we are then reaching out to many students. So, this particular year, the police decided to check on all the foreigners, they start calling all the Foreign Affair department and ask who is your foreign teachers, where are they from? How are they doing? And when he asked where are they from? All of them point to me and the police were so surprised, ah, there's such a person, Mr. Lim from Singapore, they call me as Mr. Lim from Singapore because they see me as a businessman. They say salesperson Mr. Lim from Singapore, bringing so many foreigners and this department actually monitor all the foreigners’ movement in the city. We didn't even know who this Mr. Lim. is So this police called me, summon me to the office. So I went to the office, he sit me down and say oh, he was quite nice. Oh yeah, where are your teachers from, who are they, which school and give me your list and then I write to him and all these. Then he said, oh, this is like writing a statement. Okay, sign here, sign here. So, I blur, blur, I sign, sign already he put this aside, stand up, with a very thick law book, hit on the table, do you know you did something wrong? Did you know you commit this offense, this offense, this offense, flip, flip, flip. I was stunned, I said, oh, what happened? And he said I'm going to fine you. I'm going to jail you, I'm going to chase you out of our country. I said, Lord, please give me your Word, I don't know what to say now. And I say, Sir, I need to check with my lawyer. I don't have a lawyer anyway. I need to get off from that situation. I need to check with my lawyer. Okay, go and check with your lawyer. So, I went back and checked with all the foreign affairs directors, ask them saying, Please, can you do something?

And one day the police called me again. Tomorrow come and see me. Wow, anxiety, a lot of anxiety. So next day morning when I wake up, my devotion is all about the suffering of Jesus, what He went through, spit on Him, the crown of thorns, torture. He went through all this, how He died on the cross, how He resurrected. And I cry, that morning I cry. I tell myself, what is this that we're going through right now compared to what Jesus had done for me. I share Christ's suffering, because for the gospel’s sake. Christ’s suffering encouraged me, motivated me to face the challenges, give me the confidence to face the challenges in life. Thankfully, someone knows someone, you know, in that country, you need relationship, someone knows someone. And in fact, he called me and he wanted to be nice to me, so next time anything can come look for me. I'm thankful, things just settled like this.

Conclusion

So today's sermon is talking about confidence. Of course, now you know, our confidence shouldn't be in our achievements, in what we own, our confidence should be in Christ. And just now the video about this anniversary video also talk about how we have to drink in the gospel, live out the gospel and give out the gospel. It is the same thing. Now we have the gospel, we need to live out the gospel. How? Have confidence in Jesus, put our faith in Jesus, focus on Jesus, recognize His value, treasure His value. If you always sway away, or you try to depend on yourself too much, remember, we have care group here. Remember, we have discipleship group. Remember that our church statement, mission statement is leading generations to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. This is spot on, you need to have this life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. You cannot fight alone in this battle, you need to fight together as brothers and sisters, as a church. So join a small group, join a care group, oh I’m in charge of care group, advertisement time. Join a care group, if you don't have, so that you can be in the community to encourage one another.

Prayer

So that's all I'm going to share today. Prayerfully that you will be encouraged, you will know how to live out the gospel and give out the gospel. Let’s pray, Lord, we thank you, thank you again for your grace and your love. Thank you again for your Son, Jesus Christ, who love us so much and willing to take the form of man and came to this world to die for us on the cross. And today through Christ, in Christ we can have this relationship and reconciliation with our God the Father. Pray that we will know how to drink in the gospel and live out the gospel. We will know how to put our confidence in Christ. We know how to focus on our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I also want to pray for those who are seeking. Pray that through today's message, they will see that whatever they are holding on to, think that can save them, it can’t save them, they need Jesus. Only Jesus is enough. There's no Jesus plus. Help them to count all they have as loss so that they can turn to Jesus and follow Jesus. For the last song, pray that it will be our prayer and commit this time unto you, in Jesus’s name, Amen.