Psalm 81:10

Sermon preached at Gospel Light Christian Church, Singapore
by Pastor Dr Paul Choo
on 1 Jan 2006

“Dream” Gospel Light Christian Church (1/1/06)
Scripture: Psalm 81 (today’s sermon text is taken from verse 10)
Introduction: In Psalm 81:10 we are told to dream big things for God and ask big things from Him. At the start of 2006 let us ask God to make GLCC the “perfect” church, for His glory.
The five “pillars” of our church’s activities are Finest Worship, Warmest Fellowship, Deepest Commitment, Fullest Training and Widest Evangelism. These five activities are taken from the two “Greats” in the Bible – the Great Commandments (Matthew 22:37-40) and Great Commission (Matthew 28:19,20). Careful nurturing of each of these five church activities will help us to build a balanced church. Satan knows that it is difficult for him to make us deny the faith, so he focuses his efforts on making us imbalanced.
Today, let us look at how we can improve each of these five pillars.
1. Finest Worship (Matthew 22:36-38): Our theme for this year is “Finest Worship.” On hearing this, many people will immediately think that we are going to spend this year arguing about the type of songs that we will sing, the instruments that we can use and the style in which we will sing those songs. Jesus Christ clearly teaches us that true worship is in “spirit and truth” rather than in outward form (John 4:19-24). True worship comes from a heart that loves God. Therefore, we should begin by loving God rather than debating about the forms of worship. Since He has commanded us to love Him “with all our heart, soul and mind” we can trust Him to help us to do so. So let us first pray that He will enable us to know Him as we read His Word. To know Him is to love Him. Therefore, true worship does not begin with a style of singing but with a Person. We need to develop a personal relationship with Him so that we will be in love with Him – and then because of our love we will eagerly come to church and gratefully sing of Him. True Christianity is a personal loving relationship with God through His Son. Other religions are about religious ceremonies and rituals. Matthew 15:8.
2. Warmest Fellowship (Matthew 22:38-40): When we are in love with God, we will also love His children. Only when we are enjoying God’s love to us, can we love those around us – by reaching out to them with our smiles, handshakes, encouragement, help and prayers. Warmest fellowship in GLCC does not begin with pastor’s handshakes, help or prayers, it begins with God. When our relationship with God is right, then warmest fellowship will naturally flow from all to all – to visitors, newcomers, younger Christians, discouraged Christians, needy Christians. It will be like sunshine! The most important part of “warmest fellowship” is prayer but it is the most neglected because it is “invisible” (Romans 1:9, Philippians 1:4, Colossians 1:3, 1Thessalonians 1:2).
3. Deepest Commitment (Matthew 28:19): When a person is saved, God commands that person to show his commitment by baptism. A person, who truly loves, will commit himself to the one he loves. When there is a lack of commitment in the church, the problem is a lack of love for God. Many “Christians” chose a church the same way that they choose a supermarket or hotel, namely, for what it can provide. Any request for help is looked upon as the “pastor taking advantage of them.” Others realize that the church is God’s family and are willing to give what they can comfortably spare (of their time, talents and treasures) because they know that it is privilege to serve God (Philippians 4:17) but will not commit – for “better or worse.”
4. Fullest Training (Matthew 28:20): When we love God, we want to honor Him as best as we can. May every Gospeliter identify his gift/gifts and be trained to use them maximally for God’s glory. The commonest form of training is classroom training and this is fairly easily done with quality teachers and teaching materials. However, the biblical form of training is “follow me” discipleship (Matthew 4:19) – “follow me” to be a better welcomer, befriender, encourager, cook, driver, evangelist, father, prayer warrior, etc. GLCC does not need an army of “gurus” but of ordinary willing people to share their lives with others.
5. Widest Evangelism (Matthew 28:19): At the beginning of last year, our leaders gathered together at Batam for our Prayer Kickoff and we prayed for “widest evangelism.” At that time, I imagined that God would help Gospeliters to reach out to their family and friends and that GLCC would double in size by the end of the year and be a good size, nice, middle-class church. Thankfully, God had other plans and answered our prayers in His own way by bringing in hundreds of Chinese construction workers, Telugu shipyard workers, Filipina runaway maids, young teenagers but very few “nice, middle-class” families. On the mission-field, God allowed us to open many “house-churches”/fellowship groups in the mountains of the Philippines, slums of Indonesia, villages of Cambodia, colleges of Bohol, cities of Malaysia. Today, we do not have a comfortable, middle-class church but a messy, diversified church that continues to have “widest” evangelism to all types of people. May God continue to use GLCC to reach all – especially the “poor who are rich in faith” (James 2:5). May we continue to be live in the borderless mission-field which our Lord calls “all nations.”
Let us glorify God by “teaching all nations” – while enjoying Him forever!