The Bible is authentic because it is ultimately an autobiography of God. It is the Lord God Himself who wrote this book. He has used human agents and inspired them through the Holy Spirit to pen down his thoughts, but it was ultimately His guidance and his hands (figurative sense) that completed all 66 books of the Bible. What does this mean for us today? Listen to the sermon to find out.
For any mission to be accomplished, there needs to be peace and unity among a specific group standing for a cause. If there is no unity, the group falls apart. The disunity also weakens the individual to fulfill the mission so it is impossible to accomplish it alone. We’re hard wired to work and live in the context of community. How can such a unity be established among a group of people in the church who come from various backgrounds? This passage gives us insights into that tension.
As we enter into the new year of 2020, we often come with a sober reminder of things happened in past and things we hope would happen in the future. Our new year resolutions are filled with ideas and principles relating to prosperity either in terms of wealth, health or spiritual life; we want a rewarding life. In this passage, the Psalmist Moses reminds us of the author of our lives, which is God himself, who need to be acknowledged because our very existence depends on Him. Not only that, but our very destiny depends on Him. For Christians, God is their rewarding life!
If you experience great blessings in your life, it’s not because you did something right in the sight of God and earned it, but because of God’s goodness and mercy towards you. In this passage, the Psalmist invites us to know who this God is, and what privileges He gives in order to keep us safe through this journey of life. God not just gives us comfort and hope in difficult circumstances through His promises (that in itself is a privilege we receive which we don’t deserve), but He also journeys with us through life. That’s an unspeakable privilege for those who trust in the Lord.
We often define happiness based on how successful we are in our endeavors. If things in life are not as desired, then we will not be happy. But Jesus does not define happiness based on the good things that happen in our lives, he defines happiness even when bad things happen to us. He presents a counter-intuitive perspective on having a happy life. Listen to the sermon to find out.
We often characterize our cultural distinctive by what we eat and drink. This is not necessarily wrong, but it goes wrong when we look down upon others because of our differences in eating and drinking. But the Apostle Paul teaches us in this passage to live in unity and be mindful of other people’s choices despite our different cultural backgrounds. Why is this unity important? Why should our Christian liberty needs to be carefully exercised? Listen to this sermon to find out.
As Christians we often misunderstand mission as going only to foreign lands, but overlook the immediate context where the Lord has put us. We change careers, places and take major decisions either because of external pressure or because of our internal desires. We’re prone to make too many changes without really understanding God’s will for our lives. In this passage we learn how God calls us to be faithful in our calling wherever he has placed us.
What is the purpose of life? Is it to have a happy marriage or a successful career? Or is it to do something good for your country? Is it just to love someone or something like sex & money? Our culture has often limited life’s purpose to these categories, beyond which there’s no quest for truth. But what does the Bible say about man’s chief end? Listen to the sermon, as we explore the grand narrative of life’s main purpose.
God already showed us in scriptures what it means for us to be His children, and what it costs us to follow Him. In many ways, the Cross of Jesus Christ is the way of Christian Life. He humbled Himself to the cross and sacrificed His own life for us, He suffered for our sake, He endured all kinds of rejection from His own people. In this passage, we see how the Cross becomes the model for christian life.
The Bible does not command Christians to sacrifice truth and pursue unity among people in the church, and neither does it command us to pursue only truth and not unity. Fundamental truths of the Bible and unity are different sides of the same coin. It is ultimately the gospel which unites us to Christ and His church. In this sermon, we learn about the nature and the need for Christian unity.