28 May 2017 (11.30am service, New Creation Church at The Star
Vista)
- Sermon delivered by Pastor Lawrence Lim
Sermon Notes (Note: These are
personal notes and not a transcription of the sermon.)
I.
The Power of Right Believing by
Pastor Prince
Before Pastor Lawrence delivered his message for the day, he showed a
video of Pastor Joseph Prince’s interview with Joni Lamb on Daystar
Television Network's Joni Table Talk about the “Power of Right Believing”.
Very often, people may think that Christianity is about behaviour
transformation. However, it’s about heart transformation.
Watch the video and discover how one can inspire change from within with
God’s love. Find out why those who believe right will live right, and why what
you believe is important through the Table Talk!
Video: http://www.daystar.com/ondemand/video/?video=3081462117001
II.
God’s
Love Triumphs Over Sin
After the video, Pastor
Lawrence continued to speak about how God’s love triumphs over sin. He said
that this year is the Year of Jubilee, however, some of us may still see
ourselves trapped in negative habits or situations, and thus feel disappointed.
Pastor reminded us that it’s not about us, but it’s about Him.
God is an abundant God;
He can give everyone and still has more than enough for anyone who asks from
him:
Luke
12:32
Do not fear, little
flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
For instance, God also
told Adam and Eve that they could freely
eat from the Garden of Eden:
Genesis
2:16
And the Lord God
commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
“Freely eat” – God told Adam and Eve.
It is the goodness of
God to freely
give us all things.
God wants to give
freely. His heart is to bless us:
John
16:24
Until now you have
asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you
will receive, that your joy may be full.
Ask and you shall
receive, and when you receive you are happy, and this is what God is after. God
wants you to be happy.
John
4:4
But He needed to go through Samaria.
Jesus needed
to go through Samaria. He went out of the way for one woman.
As Jesus met the Samaritan Woman at the well who married 5 times, and the man she was living with was not her husband,
the 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."
God loves us. He could seek out for just one woman to extend His love to her.
This woman was living
with another woman’s husband. She was someone who had committed sexual immorality.
Though Jesus knew everything about her, He wanted her to know that He still
loved her. God wants to bless you though He knows everything about you.
Jesus, without
condemning her, revealed himself as the Messiah, the fountain of living water.
The
woman went under the hot afternoon sun to draw water. She wanted to go when
nobody was around as she was ashamed. 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 made an evangelist out of a sinner.
Romans
6:14
For sin shall not have
dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
We often thought that
for people to be holy, we have to tell them what to do, what not to do.
However, most people know what to do and what not to do. The question is not
whether you know it, but – can you do it?
The law cannot make
you holy; it cannot modify your heart. Here, we are talking about heart
transformation.
Luke 4:16-19
So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And
as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up
to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had
opened the book, He found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me To preach the
gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim
liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty
those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
In the Old Testament,
there was no blind person who was healed.
In New Testament,
there were many blind people who are healed.
All these are
subjective:
“To preach the gospel to
the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the
captives, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord."
However, the “recovery of
sight to the blind” is something that can be seen and proven. He
showed the crowds that He is the Messiah.
This year, God wants
to set you free if you are bound by any negative emotions or situations.
The bible talks about
a chief tax collector, Zacchaeus. He is 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
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.
How was he
transformed?
Jesus extended grace
to him when he was at the tree, and told him that He wants to go to his house.
A man cannot do
anything to change himself, but when he receives God’s love, he will change.
III. Conclusion
Look at Matthew 22:35-40 and John 13:34
Matthew
22:35-40
Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him,
and saying,
"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
Jesus said to him, "'You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with
all your mind.'
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it: 'You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the
Prophets."
A new commandment was given
in John 13:34:
A new commandment I
give to you, that you love one another;
as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
There is a difference
between the two.
Matthew 22:35-40: The focus is on you loving God.
John 13: The focus is on “God loving you”
- Love one another, as I have loved you
Love one another as I have loved
you. This is how you become holy, and able to fulfil the 10
commandments without trying.
Now, let’s look at Matthew 6 and Ephesians 4:
Matthew
6:15
But if you do not
forgive men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Ephesians
4:32
And be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
The holy life is not
about telling people what to do, but telling them that God loves them.
The emphasis is not
about power, but the power of His love:
Yet in all these things
we are more than conquerors through Him
who loved us.
Instead of focusing on
your bad emotions and trying your best to overcome problem and gain victory, you
can gather all the strength to believe that God loves you.
We forgive not because
we want to be forgiven. Today, we forgive because we have been forgiven.
