5 December 2016 (5.30pm service, New Creation Church
at Star Vista)
- Sermon delivered by Pastor Lawrence Lim
Sermon Notes (Note: These are
personal notes and not a transcription of the sermon.)
I.
Creation of Male & Female
When God created heaven and the
earth, he created everything in the first five days of creation. He saw the
creation as “good”:
Genesis 1:20-23
Then God said, "Let the waters abound
with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across
the face of the firmament of the heavens."
So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves,
with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird
according to its kind. And God saw that it
was good. And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." So the
evening and the morning were the fifth day.
On the 6th day, God created man. He created male and female. He said it was “very good”. Man is created in the image of God. While He referred to other things He created as “good”, He created man, which was “very good”:
Genesis 1:31
Then
God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
What was the first thing He did after created man?
Genesis
1:27-28
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be
fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the
fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that
moves on the ground.”
God created men in His own
image, and blessed them. The first thing after creating the man was to bless the man.
That was before the man has done anything good at all. The first thing God did
was to bless man. Today, God’s heart is still to bless man. In fact, His heart
has always been to bless.
God is happy to give. When we
receive from God, God is happy to know that we receive. God is a giver, and God
gives freely, without conditions.
God’s heart is to bless the
family.
In Creation, it is not good
that man should be alone:
Genesis 2:18
And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper
comparable to him."
Thus, God created a helper for
man, and created beautiful Eve. Eve was created from the rib of Adam. Your wife is thus on equal footing as
you.
God’s heart is for man to be
fruitful and multiply. God wants our marriage to prosper. Now, in the current society, there are
marriages that do not work out or marriages that fail.
Marriage is not easy. No marriage is perfect. You will have your
arguments/quarrels, but you really need Christ to be in the centre of the
marriage.
II. Turning Water into Wine in Your Marriage
The first miracle Jesus
performed is at a wedding.
He turned 6 water pots (about 600 litres) into wine:
John
2:6-10
Now there were set there six waterpots of
stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty
or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to
them, "Fill the waterpots with water." And they filled them up to the
brim. And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master
of the feast." And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted
the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the
servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the
bridegroom. And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the
good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have
kept the good wine until now!"
Jesus turned all into wine in
an instant. His first miracle also tells his heart for every marriage to be
blessed. He wants you to enjoy days of heaven on earth.A marriage without the Lord Jesus Christ could have begun with wine, and as days go by, the wine gets diluted, and the wine could become like plain water.
With Christ in the centre of
a marriage, He can turn the plain water into intoxicating wine. Just look to Him,
and He turns your marriage from water to wine!
The first thing you do is to
look to him. He is here to help you, to save you. He is able and willing as He
loves you. He is your only hope.
Let Lord Jesus Christ turn your
marriage into intoxicating wine.
In Pastor Lawrence’s personal
journey in marriage, he shared that following the honeymoon stage after happily
married, he actually quarrelled with his wife, and both he and his wife were in
shocked, as at the beginning of the
marriage, there was no quarrel, and they were happy that they were blissfully
married.
Pastor shared that very often, couple
don’t quarrel about “big things” but small things. He shared a personal example
of washing of clothes.
During that time, both pastor
and his wife were working. Pastor was brought up in the family where washing
clothes meant to dump all the clothes into the washing machine, and then press
the buttons needed. The wife thought differently though. While Pastor threw
everything including socks and undergarments into the washing machine, the wife said, “Dear, you cannot do that”. The wife told him he has to wash them in
another way— to “hand wash them", which means that they need to separate
undergarments and socks, and these have to be further separated according to gender. Thus, they started to have four pails of different
undergarments and socks. Due to the difference, they quarrelled, and they were
shocked that there actually quarrelled and felt horrible about themselves.
Pastor mentioned that he didn’t
like what he saw about himself in a quarrel.
He later realised that when you
enter into a marriage, it is not just about you living your own life. It is
about:
1. You needing to accept who your spouse is. Don’t attempt at changing your
spouse.
2. You, as a spouse, especially
a man, need to change for the family, as you are the leader.
After the pastor saw the
negative aspect about himself, he was despair. He told himself he must change,
and that he cannot be impatient. He has principles that are good, but it’s not
the principles that can change you. Knowing the principles doesn’t help.
How you can have a real and lasting transformation?
The grace of God.
God transforms us by changing our hearts.
Pastor experienced that very often
after a service, something happens to his heart. Something that was hardened
becomes soft in the heart and he is no longer harsh on his wife, and it’s
supernatural.
Pastor realised that he finds
that when he immerses himself in the Word of God or listening to worship songs,
something happens to him, the goodness of God that leads to love and repentance.
It is heart transformation and not behaviour modification. As heart changes,
behaviours modify.
III. Heart
Transformation, Not Behaviour Modification
As Jesus met the Samaritan Woman at
the well, who married 5 times, and the man she was living with was not
her husband, Lord did not give her a
single word of condemnation or correction though this woman is not moral, and is
living a lifestyle of sin:
John 4: 11:29
The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have
nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living
water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank
from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever
drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I
shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will
become in him a fountain of water
springing up into everlasting life." The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this
water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." Jesus said to her, "Go, call your
husband, and come here." The woman
answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no
husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not
your husband; in that you spoke truly." The woman said to Him, "Sir,
I perceive that You are a prophet. Our
fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the
place where one ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe
Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in
Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what
we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is,
when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the
Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him
must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to Him, "I know
that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He
will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am
He." And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked
with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are
You talking with her?" The woman
then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come,
see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"
The Lord did not utter a single
word of condemnation. Our Lord Jesus Christ just told her “well
said”. He extended the fountain of living waters and grace to
her. After that, she went on her own accord to the village and told the rest about
Jesus.
Grace makes an evangelist out
of a sinner.
Tax collectors were hated by
their nation and they were considered as dishonest people while Jesus was walking on Earth. However,
Jesus did not voice out a word of correction to Zacchaeus, and He told him that
He was going to eat at his home:Luke 19:2-10
Now behold, there was a
man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the
crowd, for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead
and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that
way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up
and saw him, and said to him, "Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house." So he made haste and came
down, and received Him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, "He has
gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner." Then Zacchaeus stood and
said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I
give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone
by false accusation, I restore fourfold." And Jesus said to him,
"Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of
Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to
save that which was lost."
Jesus didn’t tell Zacchaeus to give his money to the poor, but he did.
Thus, it’s not what you can do,
it’s what He can do for you from your heart.
First, we receive grace, and receive
his love. When we receive his love, our hearts will change.
Pastor is married for 16 years.
He feels that he is a different person now, as compared to 16 years ago. He
also realises that we love, because He first loves us. Thus, today, you love as
a response because He has first loved us.
According to old covenant, if
we do not forgive, neither will our father in heaven forgive us:
Matthew
6:15
But if
you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses.
However, according to the new
covenant, we should give one another, just as God in Christ forgives us:
Ephesians
4:32
And be
kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
and
that you put on the new man which was
created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
You need to realise who you are
in Christ today. You are a new creation:
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
You are no long who you were, and
you are no longer a sinner. We should let the Holy Spirit do the work in us.
IV. Conclusion
How does a married woman conceived and bear fruit?
When the woman is intimate with
the husband, in the act of pleasure, the seed is implanted and she bears fruit.
Now, when we are intimate with
the Lord Jesus Christ, we will bear fruits. It is important to have love and
intimacy to bear fruits. It is the fruit of Holy Spirit. This is how we live
the Christian life. For instance, now, Pastor and his children benefit from his
positive transformation.
The marriage between a man and
a woman speaks of Christ and His church:
Ephesians
5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for
her,
Thus, husbands, love your
wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for her.
Before you love, there must be
love in your heart. Love comes because we are love by Him first, and we forgive because He first forgives us. Jesus was naked at the cross, so that we can be clothed, and that there is no more shame.
Ephesians
5:26-29
that He might sanctify
and cleanse her with the washing of
water by the word, that He
might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to
love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated
his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the
church.
According to Song of Solomon 1:15:
The Beloved Behold,
you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove's eyes.
We are always beautiful in the
eyes of the Lord. We are the bride, and He is the bridegroom.
He said not say it once that “you
are fair”, but twice. And this is what God sees us as:
Song
of Solomon 4:7
You are all fair, my
love, And there is no spot in you.
Song
of Solomon 1:8
The Beloved If you do
not know, O fairest among women,
Follow in the footsteps of the flock, And feed your little goats Beside the
shepherds' tents.
“O
fairest among women”: God sees us as most beautiful.
When God looks at you, he sees
you as the most beautiful.
You are his sister, his spouse:
Song
of Solomon 4:9
You have ravished my heart, My
sister, my spouse; You have ravished my
heart With one look of your eyes, With one link of your necklace.
In a crowded room, He only has
eyes on you. You have ravished his heart.
We cannot have heaven without
him, but he doesn’t want heaven without you.
A note to the husbands— don’t
focus on finding the right words to your wife, but focus on receiving these
words from Christ.
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