Today's church sermon was so good that I decided to put it in my post! And the sermon was preached by non other than Pastor Khoo himself. =) The passage today was taken from Romans 12:1(Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.) The title is 'Motive of Our Commitment'. He started by saying that people can be committed to certain things(e.g. work) for various reasons. Those various reasons are:
a) Commitment out of fear
-he gave the example that some people study hard because of the fear of the word 'F'. If you know what I mean ;-) He said that even Christians do that. They often have this paganistic view of God. And they think if they do something wrong God will punish them. And that we tend to see every problem as a punishment from God.
b) Commitment with ulterior motives
-Often than not a worker is committed to his company because he wants to get a promotion. In the same way, many people worship their God in the hope that God will bless them materially, or give them good health, etc.
c)Commitment as payment of vows
-Sometimes we 'bargain' with God and when God fulfilled it, we then return our part of the bargain. For exp, "If God heal my illness, I will serve Him for three years."
However, those reasons should not be the motive of our commitment! According to Paul, his answer is THE MERCIES OF GOD! Our commitment should be motivated by a deep gratitude to God for his mercies. But why did Paul used the word 'appealed'? That is because commitment must come from a WILLING heart! Real commitment cannot be forced.
Then Ps. Khoo gave an illustration which I think is really good. Here goes: One guy asked a missionary this:"Why do you, a good man, give up everything for God?" The missionary replied:"First of all you made two mistake in your question. The first mistake is that you call me a good man. Now if you know how sinful I am, all the lies that I have told, all those wrong things that I have done and how I still struggle each day with sin, you won't be saying I'm a good man. Your second mistake is what have I given compare to what God has given me?"
There are times when we think that we have served enough. And when we start to think that God owes us something, we become calculative. "We have done so much, why are we not receiving anything?"
Then Ps. Khoo moved to the second part: 'The method of our commitment'
1)Present your bodies to God.
-but why 'bodies' and not just 'yourself'? Answer: Commitment is using our physical bodies for God's purposes.
Third part: "The manner of our commitment"
The Greek translations reads: Present your bodies as a sacrifice - living, holy and acceptable to God.
1) We should be throbbing with life for God.
-Our mind should be actively thinking of God's work.
2)It should be Holy, that is set apart equal for God exclusively.
-In other words, we cannot serve 2 masters.
-Ps. Khoo gave us the example of a husband and wife. He then asked: "Who among you would like to share your spouse with another person?" Of course you would not want that. In fact, you would demand that your spouse belong to you exclusively! So is it unreasonable for God to expect this commitment? God is not that harsh. He does not file for a divorce. Instead He still loves us just the way we are=)
3)It should be acceptable to God, that is, doing what God wants us to do.
-We do what our boss tells us to do but we give God lesser than that.
-Therefore, we should do what our Master requires us to do.
Conclusion:
When you think of what he has done for you is this too much to ask? this got me thinking about my commitment to God. Am I serious towards Him? Am I putting my whole mind and body and soul for God?
Anyway, after church, I met up with Beatrice for lunch. Had a good chat=) Then, I followed my parents for shopping in Jusco, Seberang Perai. So in another conclusion, IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK!!! ^_^
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