Excellent Employee and Employer

Talking about employment, I have zero experience in it and thus obviously have no idea how to elaborate this sermon decently based on real-life encounters. I guess the only noble “work” that I have done so far is “supervising” my mom’s cooking through pre-tasting. (as in “curi makan” lar) XD

Anyway, I would say I am here to share rather than to write a sermon. Since it is my first time here, so please don’t mind my lousy command of English and it’ll be my honour if you can finish reading it. Smirk.

Last Sunday sermon was (as the title says it all) “Excellent Employee and Employer”, based on Ephesians 6:5-9.

⁵Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. ⁶Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. ⁷Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, ⁸because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.⁹And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Brother Chee Lim was the preacher. Basically, the whole sermon was divided into 2 major parts:

Roles of Employees (v5-8): Obedience (v5)  + Serve Wholeheartedly (v7-8).

OBEDIENCE

1.1 Obey with Respect.

I’m sure all of you know what does respect mean; AND every living creatures on earth deserves to be respected and desire to be respected. No? Even my cats demand respects too. The bible says, “respect your earthly master with respect and fear.” Well, for students, there were times when we grumbled about our lecturer..for example, “Ooh, my lecturer don’t know how to teach lar..I think I can teach better than him lor..etc..etc..” But, I believe everyone that God has put in our lives serve their purposes. Be they good or evil, they were planned to be there in order to shape and mold us. Thus, learn to respect and obey, as this shows the faith that is in you.

1.2 Obey with Godly Fear

God, is the big boss of all big boss. Undoubtedly, we should obey and fear of God’s power. During the service, Brother Chee Lim talked about King David who had a cruel boss that wanted to assassinate him. Actually, King David did have a few chances where he can murder his cruel boss for his own safety, but he chose to endure. ‘Cause he believes and surrenders his life to God, knowing that God is always faithful and has the best plan for His children. Amen? Here is a verse that you can refer to, in Rom 13:1, it says, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.”

1.3 Obey with Sincerity of Heart

To be frank, I am a “fake” person. There were cases where I seems to be comfortable with the orders. However, when the lecturer turned and walked away, holla..the devils’ horns will appear on my head with all the complaints, cursing and dissatisfaction. Sounds familiar? I bet many of you have the same encounters as well. Hehe.

Eph 6:5 says that, “..and with sincerity of heart just as you would obey Christ.” There were certain occasions in lives where we will doubt the decision on God, sometimes we even put the blame on Him. Well, do you still remember your vows to God that let thou will be done in our life? Sometimes, we not only need to obey with respect but the sincerity counts too. Like a saying goes, “It’s the heart that matters.” Without sincerity, definitely doubts, wrath and so on will appear and stagnant our walk with God.

Here is some practical notes from Bro Chee Lim’s slides:

- We do not encourage blind obedience.

- Absolute obedience belongs to God only.

- Within working hours, work faithfully, serve man as if you were serving God. After working hours, use personal time well. Use time wisely, maximize for God.

[[Notes: Of course, please..please..please..don't try to utilize these as the excuses to skip classes or works.]]

1.4 Two Wrong Attitudes in Obedience

(a) Obedience to win favour.

This is definitely a no-no to be practiced. Eph 6:6 says, “Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.” It’s undeniable that it’s important to make our boss pleased. Of course, please do it in a positive way. Don’t practise backstabbing, avoid creating politics, and same goes to bluffing, bribing and bullying. Instead, be honest, hardworking, dedicated to prove yourself as a trustworthy worker.

(b) Obedience when only Boss is around.

Let’s take a real-life example in campus. You went in the lab, you switched on the computer, you opened your lab manual but you also opened your facebook account..then you hid your taskbar and everything was set nicely. The lab session started and you put on a serious face while the fingers happily typing away on the keyboard, replying comments. There, the lab demonstrator approached you…elegantly, you pressed alt+F4. Tadaa..the lab manual appeared and saved your day. ^_^..such a happy ending, no?

Yeap, this happens in workplace too. Well, I would say please be honest to yourselves ’cause God is watching you. Be truthful and be dedicated to your work even boss is no where to be seen.

SERVE WHOLEHEARTEDLY

2.1 Do Your Work with Wholeheartedness!

Col 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Even in working place, we must serve wholeheartedly, as if we are serving the Lord. Students, for instance, besides praying to God for good results, we must put in our effort to study as well. As we do our part, God will reward us with what we deserve.

2.2 Why Serve Wholeheartedly?

There..you can find the answer to this question in 1st Corinthians 3:12-13. So, please hurry up now and search through your bible. Winks.

So why? Favourite quote from lecturers, “That’s a very good question.” At the end of the day, when our time on earth is up and it’s time to meet God, we would have to answer for all that we had done. God will examine every hearts and lives..and therefore, if we are good sheep of him, we definitely will receive reward in heaven. However, if we didn’t “perform” well, there’ll be punishment for us too.

I guess it’s a very long passage to read. LOL. I hope you are still in one piece and not out of breathe after you finish reading it. Last but not least, I end my post with..

Happy B'day Jan-Feb Babies!

River of Life

Reference : Ezekiel 47:1-12
Preacher : Ps Moses,Hope KL
Date : 31 Jan 2010

I shall briefly share, in my own words, what is written in Eze 47:1-12, so that we all have a rough picture what the passage is about =)
Ezekiel saw water coming out from the threshold of the temple. The man who brought Ezekiel there measured 1000 cubits from the gate and led Ezekiel to ankle-deep water. Then measured off 1000 cubits more to knee-deep. The man led Ezekiel 1000 cubits further to the water now waist-deep. Another 1000 cubits more, Ezekiel couldn’t cross anymore.
The Man brought Ezekiel back to the bank of the river, and Ezekiel noticed many good things. More on this later.

So what is the River of Life?
It is … the spirit of God within us.

1. The river of life flows from the temple of God.
From the temple of God.
Wanna see repentance and revival in the nation?? It starts from the aisles of the church!
Wanna see revival in the church? It starts with yourself.
A few individuals with the river of life flowing within is powerful enough to ignite the fire of revival. Would you be the one?

2. Move deeper into the river of life
According to the vision in Ezekiel, where do you think you’re standing?
Ankle-deep? Knee deep? Waist deep?
Or probably still at the bank, dry? Or are you swimming in the river of life?
What is true spiritual maturity?
It is about coming to the end of ourselves, and realizing how BIG God is.
What is the secret of REAL revival?
When individual christians will become all that God has intended for them. Surrender with no reservation.

3. Blessings from the river of life
It will bring freshness. (v8 The water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into Arabah, where it enters the sea. When it empties into the sea, the water there becomes fresh.)
It will bring life. (v9 Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because THIS water flows there and make the salt water fresh: so where the river flows everything will live)
It will bring growth. (v12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month, they will bear…)
It will bring healing. (v12.. because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.)

River of life brings life. People might be living day by day having no purpose in life, or sick and tired of life. Jump in the river of life, go deeper! Let the river of life, the spirit of God flows within us. Then, you see fruitfulness, see healing, see growth, see freshness… and you will see revival in you, in your CG, in the church, in our nation.

Building a Model Family.

Today is the end of January 2010. One month has passed! Wooh time rockets eih… And today we are blessed to have Hope Ipoh’s mummie Jessie sharing the Word of God, with the sermon title of ‘Building a Model Family’, based on Ephesians 6:1-4. As a mum, she does have the credibility and experience when it comes to building a family huh.

1Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2“Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3“that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 4Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Reading the verse alone shows the important elements in a family- Lord, parents, children. There are two main points in this sermon, which are the responsibility of children and responsibility of parents. First, responsibility of children.

We all have parents. And we all go through that time of growing up and learning. As a child, it is our responsibility to obey our parents in the Lord. Obeying here doesn’t mean our freedom is taken away. Obeying also doesn’t mean obeying blindly, following without judgment. Obeying in the Lord means not doing what is wrong but if your parents make a wrong decision, you as a child correct and give proper biblical reasoning lovingly and firmly. We obey by listening and doing our parents’ instructions and correction while learning from them.

Honoring our parents is also one of the responsibilities. In fact, God specifically commanded us to honor our father and mother! Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land the Lord you God is giving you.” Honor means to appreciate and to value. As much as children are gifts from God to parents, parents are also gifts from God to children. Our parents took care of us when we were just helpless little babies, what would we do without them! By honouring and loving our parents we will be able to experience blessing from God, as written in verse 3.

Now, responsibility of parents. In verse 4 it was written: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Do not exasperate means do not annoy or drive mad. In fact, sister Jessie kindly researched and shared about the 10 ways to lose your child before five! Whoa, let us take lessons from the points eh:

• Use worldly counsel instead of godly counsel.
• Consider your children a burden and a waste of time.
• Puts your possession before your children.
• Compare your children with others.
• Make a big deal out of small issues.
• Threaten and discipline ineffectively.
• Make them feel useless.
• Torture them physically or verbally.
• Quarrel in front of them, confuse them.
• Do not listen or talk to them

Instead of doing things listed above, parents should always bring up their children in training and in good discipline. Proverbs 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it.” How to discipline? Parents must draw up clear boundaries especially when it comes to their children’s actions, by explaining and making the consequences clear to them lovingly instead of forcing the idea with violence or public humiliation. Proverbs 22:15 “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.”

Parents should be observant, consistent and firm before their children. Discipline and training must also start from home. Teaching and guidance since young is crucial to ensure that children learn their lessons and manners well before going out to meet the public. Parents must avoid public humiliation that can hurt their children but correct them in a loving manner in private. Last but not least, father must take lead; take lead in correcting and deciding what is best in a godly manner.

Brothers and sisters, I believe we can all relate to this sermon in some way, be it in being a child or a parent. Either way, we must always refer to godly behaviours in our conducts to bring honor to our parents or to bring love to our children. For by honouring God, we will be able to find God’s blessing in our household.