證道細節
Rooted In God's Word-zh
Rooted in God's Word
1. God’s word mature us
Ephesians 4:11-13
[11] So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, [12] to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up [13] until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
1 Corinthians 14:20 ESV
Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
James 1:22 ESV
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
- If you catch a small shark and confine it in an aquarium, it will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium. Sharks can be six inches long yet fully matured. But if you turn them loose in the ocean, they grow to their normal length of eight feet.
- It doesn’t matter how amazing the aquarium is, the shark will not grow to its potential size unless it is in the ocean.
- Perhaps, it may be pretty scary for young sharks to first released into the ocean..
- Are still living in our “aquarium” of comfort and not growing to the maturity as desire by God?
- God expects us to grow and mature
Hebrews 5:12-14
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
- The scriptures here shows us the signs of spiritual immaturity
- Is this where we like to be spiritually in 2017?
- Maturity sometime seems like a hurdle
- Illus - Cables at Penang Hill no 84
- But Our God is bigger that!
- We just need to remain in his word
John 15:5-8
[5] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. [6] If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. [7] If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. [8] This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
- “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.” - Chinese Proverb
- We all are God’s Gem and needed the polish in order for us to
mature
2. God’s word build us from within
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Our Body is deteriorating
Brain Cell - 20s (Starts & by 40 loosing 10K Cells per day
Gut – 55 (friendly bacteria drops)
Bladder - 65 loss bladder control.
Lungs – 20 (Starts decrees & by 40 breathlessness)
Our Body is deteriorating
Hair - 30s start loosing hair
Fertility – decline after 35
Taste & Smell - 60 gradually decline.
Eyes – 40 Starts aging
Heart – 40, pumps blood less
Kidney – Start aging at 50s
Psalm 39:4
"Show me, O Lord, my life’s end & the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life"
And again,
in Psalm 90:10
[10] The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span * is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
- 70 or 80 years to live sounds like a very long years especially all the youngsters
- That means, I have 13,140 days left to live and YOU AND I cannot guarantee even on more day nor if we can be sure we get there
- No matter how much we dressed up or how much we put our make up, at the end it is still us
- Chinese New Year Hampers. No mater how nice the packaging at the end it is the content that matters.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
- The goal at the end is, are we renewed from within? God’s word renew us from within when we fixed our eyes on things that are unseen
- Sharing – GEP with the Government