0:02 So, let's uh recite our memory verse for the week. Hebrews 12 3. You will need to apply. Okay. So, let's do it. Consider him who has endured such hostility so that you may not lose 0:22 heart. Hebrews 12 3. Let's do it again. Consider him who has endured such hostility so that you may not lose heart. Hebrews 12 3. Yeah. 0:46 Yeah, I'll share first um before today we're going to hear from some more brothers and also at the end we'll have a we'll have a chance to get to hear from many. I wanted to share what God has been encouraged me with through his word. 1:03 For the last few weeks, one thing came to my heart quite often to have a firm faith in the Lord. When I think about the circumstances, trials that me and my family are in, I felt that my strength is going down day by day 1:20 uh despite praying hard and waiting on the Lord. Um this memory verse encouraged me to consider Jesus and to think about him. And if I don't consider the way the Lord endured the cross, then I will be tired and lose heart. 1:40 It is God's will that I should never give in to despair and lose heart for anything as we have a mighty and caring, loving loving heavenly Father. And I thought to myself, how did Jesus handle his own hardest trials? And on the cross he endured painful 2:00 sufferings, insults, broken fellowship with the Father, and he despised the shame because of the joy set before him that he will be with the Father and will will take his brothers and sisters to be with him one day. And uh when we think about um what Peter 2:19 reminds us that he writes in 1 Peter 2:23 says, "He did not retaliate when he wasn't insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered." And he left his case in the hands of God who always judges fairly. So, looking looking at these words, I 2:38 must fix my eyes on Jesus continually, but not on my trials, and walk in his footsteps by surrendering everything to into the hands of God. He knows how to take care of my take care of my needs, and also all of his children's 2:57 cry. And I was reminded of a great promise in Isaiah 43:2, "When you go through the deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through the rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, 3:13 you will not be burnt up. The flames will not consume you." And I praise God for his wonderful great promises. In the midst of trials, I should think about the goodness and the kindness of God as we sang today. And his his goodness is always running 3:28 after us. And he deals with me as a son, and he is merciful and full of compassion. And I should never throw away my confidence in the Lord, no matter what happens, since God allows a trial or a hard situation in my life to shape me 3:45 and to fulfill his purpose in my life. And also uh Hebrews writers uh writer reminds us that in um Hebrews 10:35, "Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you. Patient endurance is what you need to 4:01 know need now so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised." And uh it is very encouraging to see the Lord values the genuine faith when I endure trials and and remain strong in my faith, then 4:20 he promises that he will he will reward us with praise, honor, glory at his coming. 1 Peter uh 1:6-7. So, concerning faith, the Lord is pleased only when I live by faith. And he says, "I will uh he says, 'I will take no 4:39 pleasure in anyone who turns away.'" Hebrews 10:38. The Lord has been um faithfully giving me the strength and grace to endure day by day uh as as the hymn writer says, uh we used to sing in the in the church, "He giveth more grace as our burdens 4:56 grow greater. He's He standeth He sendeth more strength as our labors increase. To added afflictions, He addeth His mercy. To multiply trials, He multiplies peace." And lastly, so when Jesus endured the cross and finished doing God's will, and God 5:14 exalted Him to be seated at His right hand on the throne. And I can only inherit God's promises through faith and patience. May the Lord help us to endure trials and to do His will. Amen. Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. 5:36 Uh I just want to say I'm very grateful for these last few Sundays to hear the various different sharings from the brothers and sisters. I hope for the children you paid particular attention last week cuz it was very special to 5:47 hear two that I hope you can all commit to your memory. One was brother Thomas Kurian's speaking about Habakkuk 3:17. We sang that song. Memorize that verse. It's a really precious verse. And the other message that really spoke to me was a 6:02 very simple message that brother Andre spoke. Anybody remember the message? It was about three things. The lips, the tongue, and the breath, the wind. It's a very good picture. I thought that whole message we should rinse and repeat it. 6:21 You could You could hear that and every child should hear that over and over again. It's a very simple message. And I praise God for these memory verses because they are really important. So, if we can put that memory verse back up 6:31 there, I love the picture on that because it taught you sees the picture of of consider him who endured such hostility so that you may not lose heart, but see the picture of of Jesus and and one of my favorite verses is 6:46 James chapter 2. James chapter 1 where in verse 2 it says, "Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials because the testing of of your faith produces endurance. And when endurance has had 7:00 its perfect result, you may be perfect and complete in lacking in in nothing." And two things that have really helped me not just this week in reflecting on this memory verse, but also in life in dealing with some kind of 7:15 weight. Number one is to really reflect on what the Lord's taking me through and say, "Lord, this is a mosquito bite compared to what somebody else must be facing in the world." That's not to mitigate something else that you may be going 7:28 through, but think about it. If you're having a a rough time in your work, and and there's a political situation you're dealing with, think about a brother sister who's looking for a job. And they may say, "I would wish I had this 7:40 political so because at least you have a job." Or think about some when you're going through a health issue. Um um and it may be a tough issue, but think about somebody else who's going through cancer. Um so if we can say, "Lord, 7:52 you've blessed us much more and even if it's a trial, this is nothing compared to what the saints had to go through um in the 1st century, burned at the stake. Um you can give me a nothing compared to the cross you had to bear." But 8:05 sometimes it feels like a really heavy load. So what do we do when it's a heavy load? And this passage and this picture came to me from I shared this at the Tuesday night. Um sometimes it feels like we're carrying the weight of the 8:17 Lord. And and um their daily devotional had a picture of an ant that's carrying a small piece of rice. And many of us from India, we see these ants that that carry a small piece of rice and they go 10 ft and they're carrying it to their 8:31 nest of all their little ants. And um that's how we must look to God. God must see us carrying this heavy load and I we think it's the weight of the world. And the And And the the God must think the Lord must think, you know, I can carry 8:46 this piece of rice much more than 10 ft. I can carry 10 mi. I can carry 100 mi. That's how we look at the ant and say, "That's such a small piece of ant." And And we can really at that point in time, even if it feels that our load is the 8:58 most severe in the world. And we can give that load completely to Jesus and say, "Lord, I want to take your yoke upon me because it's it's light and it's easy." Uh then we get true comfort and true blessing. Um and I thought about the the thing 9:12 that that allows us to do that every day um is what we've heard before, which is dying to ourself. Um the cross is a great picture because Jesus took took up the cross and certainly there was that pinnacle experience uh at at the 9:27 Calvary, but he took up his cross every day. He's He's asked us to do that daily. Uh constantly, in fact, it says. Constantly. We heard about it before. And I've been thinking and reflecting on a number of verses where it says daily 9:39 do this or constantly do this. We've talked about rejoice and pray and give thanks. But one of the verses also again from the daily devotional as you can tell the daily devotionals have been really helpful to me. I find it to be extremely 9:51 blessed to me every day. But there was another great verse that that really fit into this context of this memory verse which is the verse we all know Psalm 90:12. If you turn to that, "Teach us to number our days." Okay. So that we may present to you a 10:06 heart of wisdom. And at the end of our life, that's the most important thing the Lord wants us to do which is present to God a heart of wisdom. And there's a few things that it talks about at the end of your life. Well done 10:18 good and faithful son. Present to God a heart of wisdom. And to me, the result of doing this daily which is taking up our cross that picture, doing that daily, dying to myself is at the end of the life you know, we get here from our our 10:36 savior, from our God, "Well done good and faithful son or daughter. You took up the cross daily. You are now presenting to me that heart of wisdom." So I pray for every young person here all the way to the oldest we would take these words 10:51 seriously. It's a tremendous joy to hear the new covenant teachings. If we can reflect in that and make that part of our daily life, I can go well with us. So I pray that for each one of you from the youngest to the oldest. 11:05 Amen. Praise God. Thoughts I wanted to share today were based on what to do when I'm troubled. And there's two examples from Jesus' life 11:23 that encouraged me. And so with that, you know, let's if you could turn to John chapter 11. John chapter 11 verse 33. Towards the end it says, "He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled." Um and you know, the context of this 11:37 verse is if you go further up, I think we all know this passage. Mary and Martha have a difficult situation. Their brother is sick. They call to Jesus. Jesus comes not on time, according to Mary and Martha. And Lazarus is dead. And when Mary sees 11:52 Jesus, she says to him in verse 32, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Then Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. And what struck me was this was a family 12:07 that was very dear to Jesus. Mary and Martha had served Jesus um in ways that most of us probably won't. You know, if you talk about Mary in verse 11, verse 2, that he she was the one who anointed his his the Lord with ointment and wiped her 12:24 his feet with hair. And we know that Jesus loved this family dearly. And as they go through this immensely difficult trial, um Mary is struggling. And it blesses me to see that as Jesus saw Mary weeping, as he saw her struggles, he wasn't aloof 12:39 from it. As he saw her troubles, he was there with her being troubled with it. And um it really blessed me to see that God is there with us in our trials. But what encouraged me was also when you come further down, what does Jesus 12:51 remind I believe Mary and Martha? Is that verse 40, Jesus says to her, her being Martha, "Did I not say to you that if you will believe, you will see the glory of God?" And in some ways what I see here is Jesus turns Mary's eyes away from the 13:07 problem that she's facing of her brother being dead and Jesus apparently not being there when she asked him to be here. And she says, "Look instead at the glory of God." Cuz if you believe, you will see the glory of God. 13:18 The story is beautiful cuz it's comforting cuz at the end of it, Mary gets what she wants. Her will was aligned with what Jesus willed in that situation. Mary and Martha got her brother back. It was great for Mary and Martha. I 13:30 don't know how Lazarus felt about it. He's one of the few people who had to die twice. And so, maybe one day when we get in heaven, we'll we can ask him what that was like. But, Mary was happy at the end of this, right? She had She got 13:39 her brother back. Uh a different example a a chapter later, John chapter 12, verse 27. Jesus again says, "Now my soul has been troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But, for this very purpose I came to this hour. 13:56 Father, glorify your name." And what we keep reading on, then a voice came out of heaven, "I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again." And what I see here is this is If you read down in verse 32 and 33, Jesus is 14:08 talking about how he's going to die. He's going to face this biggest trial that, you know, none of us will ever have to face if you've accepted Jesus. You'll never have to be forsaken by God. We won't have to feel the wrath of God 14:18 for our sins. But, Jesus was about to face this, and his soul is deeply troubled as he's reminded of this trial that he's going to have to face. But, even in the circumstance, his mind doesn't go into Lord, save me from this 14:28 trial, but his mind rather goes to God, glorify your name. And it blesses me what the Father tells him back, right? And it again it see it's for me seeing that God coming into the trouble that Jesus had. He sees the burden in his heart that I Jesus Jesus 14:42 pray prays Lord, I want your name to be glorified. And what the Father tells him is, "I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again." And what I see is Jesus God the Father encouraging Jesus in that moment saying, "Think 14:54 back. Not too long ago you just faced this impossible situation where Lazarus was dead, and I glorified my name by raising Lazarus. Think back to when you had to feed 5,000 people that come to hear you, and it seemed like they'd all have to go 15:05 hungry, but I glorified my name through you, right? Through your life. And so, I believe what what the Father was saying through Jesus in that moment was look back, see how I've glorified my name through your life, and it will be done 15:16 again. And I believe that would have brought brought comfort to Jesus' heart. So, translate that into, you know, as we heard, the mosquito bites of our of our current circumstances. Uh I think about for me it feels like work is really busy 15:27 right now. I've just I feel that there's places where I'm not able to meet the demands that's put on me. It just feels very busy. I wish I had more time at home. But as I face this trial, I can face this trial with me being in the focus 15:39 and saying God, save me from this business. Save me from this pressure. Save me from this stress, right? And I feel, you know, we I don't claim to believe in the health and wealth gospel. I don't think that God's going to, you 15:49 know, make me millionaire or make me live till I'm 99, but a part of me does feel God, I wish I had some comfort here. I wish this trial went the way I wanted it to go, right? I wish I had more time with my wife. I wish I had more time with my son. This 16:00 seems like good things to ask you for. But instead, I'm seeing God's desire for the circumstances, not my comfort and my ease, but that his name be glorified through my life in this trial, right? And so what does that look like? 16:12 For me it's not being anxious. Can God look at my life and say, "Rinchu's facing trials at work. It seems busy. It seems like his skill set is enough to match the the demands that's being asked of him, but he refuses to be anxious. He looks to me 16:24 instead, right? He turns his eyes to the Lord. Can he say he Rinchu refuses to be stressed and and frustrated, but he he remembers that God is on the throne that God's going to bring him through this, right? Or is my mind focused on my comfort and ease? How 16:37 does this trial end? Does God want me to switch jobs? Maybe. Does God want me to stay here and work hard? Maybe. Does God want to give me different, you know, make me work really hard for the next 5 10 years? Maybe. But I don't know what 16:50 that holds. And there's no promise in the Bible that I can go to and claim for that. But one thing I can go to the Bible and claim is Lord, I want your name to be glorified through whatever this next year or these next 5 years 16:59 look like. I want your name to be glorified. That's non-negotiable. My comfort and my ease, that's negotiable. Your glory, not so much. And so I pray that through the trials that we face that we can bring God glory and and lift 17:10 his name up. Praise God. Okay. Hello, family. Um today I wanted to share on Matthew 17:26 chapter 4 verse 19. Um this is I would say one of um the verse in in the Bible that has blessed me the most um for many years now, and this week I was reminded of it. Um so, in Matthew 4 verse 19, it says um 17:45 then Jesus said to them, and them here is Peter and Andrew, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Um and this verse is such an encouragement to me um in the early days of my Christian life um 18:03 close to 13 years ago um I was in my late teens, and I've been listening to um Brother Zach for a while, but then it was hard for me to feel as though I was a part of a local body. I was plugged into a church. Uh there 18:23 wasn't any church around me where I was comfortable with, and also I had a lot of insecurities, and so even though I was listening to this wonderful message very often, I did not feel like um my life was 18:40 being useful for God's kingdom. Um and that brought a lot of discouragement, but uh I felt like God was speaking to me um through this verse and making a promise. Um and I I think of the verse as containing three parts. 18:58 The first is follow me. The second is I will make you, and the third is fishers of men. And if I will start from the last part, fishers of men. I believe what Jesus was saying here to Peter and Andrew was that 19:15 he's calling them to be apostles. Um, and I don't believe God has called everybody to be that, but God has as has a calling for each person. And for me it was the reminder that God has a calling, God has a purpose, God has a role for me 19:34 in in his church. And, um, I should not That's not a decision I should make for myself what role that is. Um, in 1 Corinthians 12, the Bible talks about how God has different gifts, different ministries, 19:53 different, um, operations of gifts and it's the Holy Spirit that decides that. And I believe that if I seek to have a role in a church that God has not called me to just because I see other people having it or people are others are being appreciated 20:12 for a certain role they play in the church and I desire it then that would lead to a lot of discouragement and frustration. So, that was the first part that helped me. God has a calling, I don't need to know what it is, I just need to trust that he 20:27 has it. Um, and then the next is where Jesus says, "I will make you." And Jesus did not say, um, "Follow me and make yourself fishers of men." No, he's making that promise and for me 20:46 even though it I did not know how, um, I did not know how things would change, I did not know how I would find a church where I could really be connected to. Um, I did not know how God would help me overcome a lot of the 21:02 things I struggled with personally. This was a promise that kept on always brought encouragement Jesus saying he would make me who he has called me to be. And finally the last part follow me and this in this 21:20 verse this is only responsibility I have and that is to follow Jesus. I can't be tempted to want to do the other things that Jesus has taken responsibility for which is transforming me which is deciding who he wants me to 21:36 be but that's not what he's calling me to he's calling me to follow him and from Luke chapter 14 which brother Zach spoke about several weeks ago conditions for discipleship denying 21:52 myself my own self-interest putting God above the interest of other people my family members friends and forsaking all I have or not allowing anything to be my idol to become my idol that is the condition for following 22:11 Jesus and in those days I was reminded to just follow Jesus make sure I'm seeking to die to myself each day I'm seeking to do the will of God in any area making sure that I don't get attached to 22:29 any material thing and having the confidence that Jesus will figure out every other thing whether it's finding local body whether it's helping me overcome insecurities or fear or anxieties opinions of people all of those things 22:47 and looking back I can say that Jesus has fulfilled or he has begun fulfilling it I don't think it's finished yet I've come I there are so many things that I look back and I'm like, I don't know how this was possible, but 23:06 um I'm encouraged by this verse and I even now, I don't want to get complacent. I don't want to get become too comfortable thinking that I know who God is is calling me to be because 23:23 I'm in NCCF here and part of the local body. I still believe that God has plans for my life that I don't know about and so I should be open to hearing that. And also, I shouldn't begin to think I've figured out how to grow as a 23:41 Christian or how to overcome weaknesses or any of those things. My reliance should still be on God. And finally, I should take my um my Christian life seriously, especially in the secret. Um The The conditions for following Jesus 23:59 talks about I believe most of it happened um in the secret. And finally, I just wanted to share this verse which uh people have used to illustrate the importance of al- allowing God to prepare us in the secret place and that's in 1 Kings 24:16 chapter 6 verse 7. 1 Kings chapter 6 verse 7. Um This is talking about when um Solomon was building the first temple and it says, "The house, while it was being built, was built of stone finished 24:36 at the quarry and neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool was heard in the house while it was being built. And so, these stones that were meant to be fitted into the building into the temple were prepared not at the site of where the building 24:54 was or like in the church and in the church building on Sundays, but it was in the quarry site and um the way what I get from that is by the time the stone was being was brought to the construction site, it fit perfectly 25:11 into where it was supposed to be. And even though when the stone was being shaped, if I picture myself to be that stone, I may not know where I'm supposed to fit in. But if I allow myself to be um built up by God, to be broken, to be 25:26 shaped and formed by God, and I trust him in every situation that he's preparing me for um for what he has for me, then I can have that confidence that in the right at the right time I would be ready for whatever God has 25:44 called me to. Um so yeah, I just wanted to share these verses. I hope it's an encouragement to as many as are seeking to to build the body of Christ. Um that the most important thing and the one responsibility we have is to be faithful in the secret 25:59 and Jesus Christ will figure out every other thing. Thank you.
