Labour Into His Rest

15 January 2017 (8.30am service, New Creation Church at Star Vista)

- Sermon delivered by Pastor Mark Ng

Sermon Notes (Note: These are personal notes and not a transcription of the sermon.) 

 

 

I.           To Believe

The ram’s horn marks the declaration of the year of Jubilee.

We should surround ourselves in the resurrecting power of Lord Jesus Christ by hearing to the Word frequently. By hearing, the mind is totally transformed. Transformation comes not by what you can do, but what you hear.

When you encounter Jesus, you fall in love with Him. Jesus gives us an abundance of peace and rest. Come to Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us a big invitation to come to him.

When people ask, “What can we do to work for the Lord?”

The answer is “to believe”. Our part is just to believe.

Let God work. God will be the one fighting our battle. Let the glory be given to him— I am blessed not because of who I am. I am blessed because of You.

Whatever God says about me, and when He says He has blessed me, it’s for me to believe.

The world is going to get darker, but we are in the world, we are not of the world.

We belong to Him, we will eventually return to our possessions.

Maybe 2017 is our time of Rapture.

Every one of us shall return to our family:

Leviticus 25: 9-10

Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.

Our holy reunion dinner is up there, in the heaven.

II.        Testimonies

A lady was shown in a video earlier on, sharing her testimony. In the testimony, she shared that she met an accident at work and almost lost her arm. With her belief that Jesus heals, the arm is restored.

The lady was divorced in 2010. After the divorce, she stays with her daughter. She was struggling with her life after the divorce. She is a minister of a church but the church also could not accept her when she was divorced. The church stopped her from preaching when she was preaching onstage.

Condemnation killed. Being rejected by many around her, including the church, she started to develop a bad habit of watching pornography.

This lady reminded Pastor Mark of the woman at the well in the Bible.

When this lady encountered Christ, she knew she should not watch pornography. However, with shame and condemnation, it was much more difficult for her to quit the habit.

In the previous Sunday, Pastor Prince spoke about King Darius who loved Daniel but could not do anything to prevent him from being sent to the lion’s den. When the king loved Daniel, he could not do anything to stop that.

But when Jesus saw the lady at the well, he knew he will die for the sinners, including her, and thus her sins will be all paid for.

The pulpit is not a place to tell people not to sin. People do not want to sin. Who would want to wake up in the morning with the intention to sin?

The lady said the more she wanted to suppress the urge of watching pornography, the more she could not. For two years, she could not control that act till she encountered Pastor Prince’s broadcast.

At first she could not accept the message of grace. However, the holy spirit in her prompted her to watch Pastor Prince’s broadcast again and again. She listened and listened, and gradually got the revelation. She began to see the Lord’s love for her.

Recognising the Lord is important.

In Luke's chapter 7, Jesus went to a Pharisee's house, and a woman came to start weeping and kissing his feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil:

Luke 7: 36-38

And He went to the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

The woman in Luke 7 recognised the lord, not the Pharisee Simon.

Back to the lady who shared her testimony in the video. She continued to listen to Pastor Prince’s message for over a year. One day, when she woke, the bad habit of watching pornography is gone.

If we can save ourselves, Lord Jesus doesn’t have to come.

Previously, this lady had lots of guilt. When she encountered Jesus, she learnt how to affirm her daughter's actions in life. When the daughter failed her exam with 30 marks, mother affirmed her and told her that she would bring her to KFC. She told her daughter than even if she has 20 marks, she would still bring her to KFC. Now, the daughter receives very good results. The certificate of excellent performance given on 13 Jan 2017 to her daughter was shown during the service. The lady shared the good news with New Creation Church and sent the copy of the certificate to the church immediately. She received the revelation of “I [Jesus] am the way, the truth, the life.”

Pastor Mark shared another testimony about a man of God. In church, he went onstage and admitted that he was a drunkard, and when he encountered the message from Pastor Prince’s broadcast, he knew that he was loved deeply by Lord Jesus and that Jesus paid for our offenses:

Romans 4:25

who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.

He kept on drinking, but he also kept declaring that Jesus will do the work for him. Right believing like this is important. One day, when he was drinking, he suddenly spoke in tongue. The next day, alcohol left him.

You rest, you listen, you flow.

Pastor Mark says that for believers, we may have right believing in a certain area, but do not have right believing in another area.

A lady is running a sea cucumber business. She believed in healing and was healed of thyroid cancer. She believed in healing in the area of health, but she didn’t believe in financial healing. So, she kept thinking that she would be poor. In April 2016, the prices of sea cucumber dropped. When the business was not doing well, she became worried. When she was worried, she became religious, and started to read the bible and fast too.

She studied the bible and fasted for three months, but the business kept on dropping, and she became bitter.

Why was that so? When she prayed, her heart was not in the Lord but in the business and sea cucumber, thus her motivation was wrong.

Pastor Mark then reminded her to rest— if worry works, then you continue to worry. She realised that she had to rest and simply listen to the Lord.  She rested and fed on the Word for more than 20 days. During those days, she had been feeding and encountering Jesus Christ daily, and became really glorious. And, her business suddenly grew.

When we encounter Jesus, health and wealth will come:

John 6:26-29

Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.  Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

Trust Jesus to give you everything, to you give the abundant life.

Thus, the lady who runs the sea cucumber business read only when she wanted to read the Bible, and she started to enjoy the Word of the Lord. After feeding on the Word for more than 20 days, her face shone. She finally realised that rest does not mean stop working. Rest to her is listening.

She said just by resting, the Lord turned everything around for her, and now her business is doing very well.

III.      Rest, Listen, Flow

You don’t earn. You rest and let Jesus do the work for you:

Galatians 3:5

Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—

Isaiah 60:2

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.

John 16:33

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Genesis 31:7

Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.

Whatever bad situations we experience right now, remember the BUT. God is watching out for us always.

When we absorb Jesus in our life, God will absorb you in His life.

Genesis 32:10

I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies.

Genesis 32:12

For You said, 'I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.' "

God will do you good. He said, “I will surely treat you well.”

It’s the goodness of God that brings repentance. It’s not having repentance first then receiving the goodness of God.

Labour into rest of Jesus.

IV.       Conclusion

Hebrews 12:2

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus took our shame at the cross.

My rest does not come from my strength. It comes from the one who gave up everything for me. Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. I must learn to flow with my master, my Lord.

Pastor Prince said in his sermon “Why Jesus is the answer” on 14 April 2013:

Look away from your troubles, look away from your symptoms, look away from your needs, and look to Jesus Christ. Every time you come to church, it should be— I want to see Jesus. Every time you worship— I want to see Jesus more and more. If you are in crisis, if you are in trouble, make sure crisis— Christ is in the crisis.  Look for him. Whatever trouble you are going through, physical or financial, listen to messages that are full of Jesus. Start listening, listening, listening and listening again!

Your rest will come from listening. Your flow will come from listening.

Rest. Listen. Flow.