Sunday Message - 2008's Theme Message

06/01/08
<Isaiah 43:1-21>
ANTICIPATE 2008, THE YEAR OF “INFLAMING THE SPIRIT’S FIRE”
• We are the ones who have received God’s greatest love. Thus, the things that we’ve prayed for
year 2008 will surely be fulfilled
• God told us that, in the end days, God’s people will come together to see vision, dream dreams
and prophesize. During then, God will pour out His spirit upon His children
• Therefore, God will fulfill everything that we prayed in the Lord
• We must value the convictions in our hearts
• The convictions that we’ve received after sharing during the New Year’s eve prayer meeting come
from God
• Thus, if we have peace in the conviction we’ve received, God will surely fulfill everything that we’d
anticipated
• We have all become independent unknowingly. All of us have seen God individually
• God will fulfill things beyond what we have thought of or asked for
• We, who pastor and want to serve God, must not follow the method of this world or use our own
intelligence, to do so. We must do it by knowing Jesus Christ as surpassing greatness
• Whenever we receive any accusation, we must hear God telling us that though we can’t do
anything, He has already loved us
• Since God loves me, such a weak person, we should also love those who don’t seem lovable
• In fact, regardless of the dreams we have, God’s word has already given them to us
• God likes to give His people a picture (vision). When He has given someone a picture, He will
continually talk to that person concerning that picture
• God has given us, the Truth that won’t change. However, we don’t believe in His truth most of the
time
• Did we realize that God is always telling us the same thing? He is telling us, that we are the most
importantly people. It is when we disbelieve that God will allows us to face some problems
• Though God allows us to have problems, His plans for us will not change. He didn’t give us
problems to torture us
• God’s purpose and plans are in the tribulations we experience
• Therefore, we must anticipate year 2008 and inflame the spirit’s fire in our hearts

Read <Isaiah 43:1-21>

• v1 All of us have two names. “Jacob” is the name we receive at birth. “Israel” is our original
name
• Throw away all fears and disappointment. We belong to God and God called us by our
names
• v3 Egypt exists for Israel. We will only receive the greatest light in God after we’ve been
through the darkness of Egypt
• v4 God isn’t a fair God. He favors His children
• v8 All the people around us are like them. They have eyes but cannot see and have ears
that cannot hear. Thus, we need to tell them the truth
• v12 There is an “ability to share” life in us. We didn’t share because we didn’t see
• v15 Jehovah is our King. Who can oppose Him? In other words, we are able to do anything.
Those who can give thanks in 2007 will not suffer in 2008

1. Do not be deceived by the relative things. See the Truth!

1) God is the one who continually fulfils His work!
Individual, family, regional, and world Gospelization are not fulfilled in the future but are in a
process of fulfillment. Therefore, we must realize it now! We must realize it in 2001-2008!
 • Very often, we look down on ourselves. Because of our “inadequacy”, we look down on
ourselves and want to compare ourselves with others
• However, God has never looked down on us. God wants us to forget our past
• How do we open up a path in the wilderness? The path was formed when the Israelites
walked through the wilderness
• In other words, God is ever working
• We must not get too excited. We should quiet down. Only then, we can realize that God’s
work is in the situation and place where we are in/at
• We must recall how God is leading us:
• 2001: we depart from the ex-church
• 2002: we started our church in Mun Kong’s house. We had nothing then
• 2003: Stand Firm on the Land of Covenant
• 2004: Expanding the Land of Covenant. Vincent becomes full-time Pastor
• 2005: The Year of Increasing Disciples
• 2006: The Year of Arising and Shine (year of differentiation). God wants to differentiate
our lives from others. This is the year where we have the most tribulations
• 2007: The Year of Joining and Grow (year of binding)
• Is there any year which is not important? We may be weak at times, but God’s main plan
has never been changed

2) God continues to fulfill His work with focus on us! Therefore, do not look down on ourselves!
The common point of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel… the Apostles… is that they
seemed to be insignificant in this world, but they had never look down on themselves
because of Christ. Therefore, Jacob (his given name since birth) was changed to Israel (his
original name)… I am the most treasured person in Jesus Christ! <1Cor 4:8; 2Cor 5:17-21;
2Pe 2:9>
• Although we may have given up hope on ourselves, God has never given up hope on us
• E.g. we might have given up on the salvation of our family members after praying for
them fruitlessly for many years
• Even though we may witness a miracle now, we will completely forget about it shortly
• We are always looking at things that are relative
• Things that our eyes can perceive always change. This world and our situations always
change
• However, God’s love, plan and abundance will never change
• The truth that comes upon me from God never change. Our salvation never changes.
God loves me once and He will love me forever. God saves me once and we will be
saved forever
• We must not look down on ourselves. What sort of people did God use throughout
history? God didn’t use men of great fame or success, neither did He use insignificant
minors
• God use people who seems to be insignificant but will not look down on themselves
• E.g. David was an insignificant shepherd. However, he didn’t look down on himself. Thus,
he was able to stand before Goliath
• E.g. Moses was an old man. However, he was able to face the Pharaoh
• God used these people because these people were the ones who could glorify God
• We envy David and Abraham because they were the ones who had restored the greatest
self-confidence
• We need not become someone great or someone insignificant. We must become
someone who will value ourselves
• People of this world always boast about themselves. However, they will become useless
as soon as God takes away some of their conditions
• Before God revives our families or careers, He wants to revive us first because our lives
will not be changed
 • God values us, not our condition
• “Jacob” must be changed to “Israel”. Nobody would have thought that a shepherd will
become a King one day. That was the work of God
• Therefore, we must always look at the unchanging truth

3) God will value my brothers and sisters (i.e. congregation) because He has valued me!
• Our congregation is the most important. If God values us, He will surely also value those
people (congregation) who will be with us forever.
• Two types of congregation
(1) The noble “church’s congregation”
• How noble is the church’s congregation!
• It is very possible that our promotion in work is a result of the prayers of our brothers
and sisters
• The reason why our marriage could be sustained, and the grace our children are
receiving are all because of the prayers of our congregation
• When we are valued by our congregation, all the things we receive will be different
• Therefore, we must value the brothers and sisters in our church
• We don’t just love them, we must value them
• God doesn’t just love us, He values us. We are able to grow because God has valued
us
• Everyone in the congregation has different conditions and characteristics. However,
the church will only be revived when all these different conditions and characteristics
are pulled together
• We have been together for many years now. We have all experienced problems,
tribulations and joyful moments together. If that was the case, would we simply fall out
with each other?
• Will we deny God’s grace upon a person that we have already witnessed simply
because of a couple of weaknesses of that person?

(2) The importance of “the congregation to come”

• It is very likely that those people whom we have a burden and intercede for, are
people whom God wants to save
• However, God doesn’t want us to behave like those who pray in the temples
• It is God who gives us the heart to want to intercede for others
• We must intercede for others with the heartbeat of a Priest
• Some of us always say that, it is pointless to pray. This is because, we begin our
prayers incorrectly. We didn’t pray to God with our noble lives. Therefore, even when
God had worked, we wouldn’t have noticed
• The Bible says that “the prayers of the righteous” are effective
• When we intercede for others, God’s timetable has already started. Therefore, we
shouldn’t give up. We must really value ourselves

2. Because of the unchanged truth; the Lord wants us to establish a “strong local church” (i.e.
Antioch Church) in 2008 <Acts 11:19-30, 13:1-3>
• The vision God has given us for 2008 is “to be a strong local church”
• Our destiny lies with the church
• The network for our family, career and children will come when we have become a strong
local church
• We always lose our battles against Satan because we do not have a “base”
• Our base will always make us remember the covenant of Jesus Christ and give us strength
• A lot of people want to evangelize, want their careers to be successful. However, they always
couldn’t see the answer and do not have strength. All because they don’t have a base
• Where does the strength and wisdom of educating our children come from? It must come
from the church (i.e. base)
• Before a strong local church is established, we will not be able to triumph nor evangelize

What does it mean by “a strong local church”?

• We must start systematically
• There are a lot of different organizations in this world. However, only the church will battle with
Satan
• Only the church is able to heal our spirits, souls and bodies
• A strong local church is established by when we have no choice
• What are the things that can leave us with no choice? When we are helpless but we know the
solution
• The churches of this era have everything except the restoration of Immanuel
• We are often in agony also. We are living in darkness. We know that we shouldn’t be weak,
but we don’t have the strength to recover. Even Paul faced the same thing

1) Know the reason for darkness / pains (i.e. losing Immanuel)

We have experienced the darkness / pains (depart from God, sins and accusation from
Satan) ourselves <Gen 3:1-21>
• We will understand the great light of Jesus Christ only if we’ve experienced darkness
• There is a reason for us to go through our past pains and setbacks. God is asking us, if
we are still able to take it?
• It is pointless for us to groan. We must see the reason for groaning. It is useless for us to
regret. We must repent
• We do not want our church to become a community center

2) There was a group of Remnants / Stumps who cannot leave <Isaiah 6:13>
• All of us are like the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ. They were often timid and powerless.
However, regardless of how timid they were, they would not want to leave the Lord. They
saw that there was eternal life in the Lord. Thus, they would not leave
• All of us had been through problems, tribulations and hurts together. However, we
couldn’t leave. We didn’t leave not because our church is exceptionally good or our pastor
treats us with much friendliness. We didn’t leave because we’ve tasted the goodness of
the Gospel

3) Tasted the Gospel! The reason for establishing the Church is to restore the Gospel <Rm1:16>
What is Gospel? i.e. restoration of covenant, restoration of prayers, restoration of evidences
that God is always with us
God wants to inflame our lives with the Gospel in year 2008!
• It is alright that the church doesn’t have anything. The most important is that the church
must have the Gospel
• The church cannot resolve all our problems, like financial, children, relationships, spousal
problems, etc. However, all these problems are allowed by God. The church will not want
to give anyone these things. The only solution that the church has is Jesus Christ
• People with Jesus Christ will have all things and will have all their problems resolved
• The church will want us to restore the Gospel till the return of Jesus Christ
• Restore the Gospel: restore the covenant, restore prayers, restore the ability to see
evidences that God is with us
• We will need to rely on the Gospel to inflame our lives

4) Everyone would heard about people whose lives were inflamed <Acts 2:1-41>
Note: Only God’s passion ( 热心 ) will make people “hear about” (i.e. propagation of news / 风
闻) and only the inflamed lives can make God passionate!
• People will only go to church when they have heard about the church. Church doesn’t
attract people by advertisement. Otherwise, a lot of people will go to church with other
motives (e.g. to do business)
 • We can do a lot of ministries in church. However, God allows us to do so in order to bless
us
• Only God’s passion will make people “hear about”
• The Jerusalem Church started when the twelve tribes gathered and heard Peter’s
message. Antioch Church was gradually built when the news of Stephen’s death was
propagated
• Paul’s ministries were all started as a result of news propagation

5) Disciples gathered because of vision and love

• News propagation will result in gathering. Disciples gathered because of love and vision
• Those who gathered because of programs or people will separate someday. Those who
gathered because of the love and vision of Jesus Christ will not get separated

6) The Lord wants the workers (i.e. mainstream) to standup

7) More local churches will be built (multiply) – Malaysia, S.E.A., Taiwan, and China
• Our church will only multiply to other countries when the disciples become workers
• No matter how good our career is, we can only expand it by relying on God’s passion
• How can our spirits get inflamed as we gather?
• When a person steps into our SSG, he/she must feel God’s love and our sincerity towards
them. A local church can only be termed strong by this

3. How should we enter year 2008?

• How should we enter year 2008? We should not be asking, what we must start doing this
year. We must start the year by hearing God’s voice

1) <Isaiah 43:1> The Lord says, “… I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”
Must start by hearing God’s voice! Those who heard will have their perspective changed…
from an ordinary one, it will be changed to a special one! Start 2008 by establishing a
covenant!
• We must know the difference between religion and Gospel
• A religious believer will pray like this, “Lord, give me special evidences, miracles,
testimonies so that I can be used by you”
• The believer who knows the Gospel will pray like this, “Lord, in this new year, I know that
you have summoned me by my name. Therefore, my life is already special.”, “The
situations I’m in and the things I do will all contain special evidences”
• We must not use start 2008 with some religious methods. We must receive the Gospel
• Religious teaching emphasize that we must ask the Lord for special condition so that we
are able to do some things for Him. What the Gospel talks about is that we are called by
God by our names. Therefore, we are already special and the places we go to will
become special
• What is so special about our congregation? They are all ordinary people in this world.
However, their ordinary conditions will become the most special ones through prayers
• When we use our conditions to do the best in our roles, then our conditions are the most
special ones
• There are special evidences on special people. Are we able to see that?

2) As a result, we are able to see evidences on all things. Therefore, we must know how
evidences appear before us… learn to see evidences in 2008!
• All of us hope to receive some evidences in the new year. However, how will evidences
come? We don’t ask for evidences. Evidences could be discovered as we value ourselves
and walk each step
• How to receive true evidences? When God brings us to a situation where there is no way
out for us; evidences will come when we go ahead to face that situation
 • In other words, when God brings us to a situation where we have no way out and we
cannot run away from it, that is the situation where God wants to reveal His evidences to
us
• When the Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years, they had no choice but to
continue traveling in it. Paths will appear as they walk
• When the Israelites came to the Jordon River, they had no other ways to go. But the
moment they set their foot into the river, the water flowed in the opposite direction
• A working person has no choice but go to work everyday. When we go to work, evidences
will come
• If we have no choice but to attend a funeral, we must know that we are the main
character in that funeral. With that, we will naturally receive evidences when we attend it
• It is very common for most believers to face “religious funeral” by endurance. However,
those with the Gospel will know that they will receive evidences and testimonies when
they attend those “religious funeral”
• Those who are married shouldn’t be always thinking of being single. However, for those
who are still single, evidences will appear as we go through the process and situation of
single hood

3) <John 15:7> “… ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you”
Family, career, education, Boy-Girl relationship, ministerial serving and doors of evangelism,
etc. We must know how to ask in 2008!
• Those who have already seen that they are valued by God, will hear God telling them,
“ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you”
• If we have already received the correct perspective, will God not give to us when we pray
for family blissfulness or success in our careers?
• We already know that we can glorify God in season and out of season. E.g. we can glorify
God if our career is successful; we can also glorify God if we have lost our jobs. If that’s
the case, why would God not give us the best to glorify Him?
• If God can give us an unchanged perspective, which is the best gift of all, He will definitely
give us other good things as well
• If we are very sure that we cannot remain as singles, God will definitely let us know
someone who deserves our love if we know how to value ourselves. When we know that
we are noble, God will surely give us someone who values / treasures himself as well as
us
• Our lives are very sacred. Therefore, God will not give us someone as partner in any
manner whatever, whose life cannot match up with ours
• Moreover, that partner may not simply be “just another Christian”. He will have to walk the
path of heaven with us together. He will value himself as well as value us
• A relationship and family that is build upon the truth will be different
• We can glorify God regardless if we are rich or poor. If that’s the case, why will God want
to torture us by making us very poor? We will be able to enjoy all blessings from heaven
when we have restored the abundance in the Lord
• God will add upon us, all the abundant grace from above. It is beyond what we have
thought or asked for
• Since our Lord Jesus Christ has already come into our lives, we must value our lives
above everything else
• We must be raised up by God and with a solid foundation

Sharing and Prayer Topic

1. During my days with The Life Church and Missions, what are God’s works that I have
discovered? How did God continually fulfill the work of individual, family, local and world
evangelism in my life?
2. How can I be a part of the vision of building “a strong local church” in year 2008, with the
position, conditions, roles, gifts that God has given me?
3. As year 2008 begins, we shall start by changing all the relative things (failures, setbacks,
emotions, difficult situation, weakness, etc) in our life to something absolute (God values
me and He values everything that are related to me)