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SERMON SUMMARIES
The Inner Battle on the Lordship
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Sunday, February 05, 2012 “Jesus is Lord” means He owns our everything and He is the Head of His church. Why is it so difficult to give allegiance to the lordship of Christ? Because we are still living in the flesh with its desires that are contrary to the Spirit. This inner struggle will prevent us to do what is good, but to keep on doing what is sinful. This is a continuous battle until we take our last breath. To win the struggle, we must learn the following four principles: First, the spiritual person must be stronger than the flesh to win. Secondly, the strength of the spiritual person comes from what we feed our heart and mind with. Remember the saying: “Garbage in, garbage out!” Thirdly, we must starve our flesh by cutting off all its food sources. The story of a mountain climber named Aron Lee Ralston in Utah taught us his determination to amputate his lower right arm to survive. The best way to avoid of keep falling into the spider’s webs is to kill the spider. One thing you can practice: “Turn off your cell phone before the worship time.” Fourthly, feed our spiritual body well. The best food for our spiritual body is the Bread of life (Jesus). Bread is one of the essential food sources for life. Knowing this truth cannot do us any good until we eat the bread. Not just eating the bread once a while, but we must do this daily. The story of “manna” reminds us how the Israelites had to depend on this bread daily to survive through the wilderness for almost 40 years. Jesus taught us to pray for the daily bread, and not just on Sundays. How can our spiritual body that is fed weekly overcome the flesh that is fed daily? “Eating Jesus – the Bread of life” means to believe in Him and take in His words. How much weight do you put on Jesus’ teachings daily? The best time that we can “eat the Bread” is the daily devotions. Depending on what level of your daily and personal devotion, it defines how strong you can overcome the flesh. We must crucify our flesh so that Jesus can be Lord; and there is no shortcut! |
The Red Dragon and the Lamb
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Sunday, January 22, 2012 2012 Chinese New Year is here. One of the important customs in New Year is giving blessings to others. What kind of blessings do you wish? People usually wish for prosperity, peace, great health, fame, and lucks. With the recession economy and rumors of wars in many places, these wishes look gloomy. One truth that we all must accept is that these earthly blessings will end one day because our life is mortal like a flower of the field. Revelation 19:9 shows us a true blessing as “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” According to John the Baptist, the Lamb is Jesus Christ Who has the power to save the world from the sting of death of a dragon. This New Year is the year of the dragon. The Bible in Revelation 12:3 mentions about “an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads.” This dragon is the fallen angel, Lucifer, satan, the ancient serpent who tempted Adam and Eve in the garden. Because Adam and Eve sinned, the sting of death came to all men. Who can save us all from this curse? We cannot overcome the snake, the red dragon, the rulers, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms by our own strength, but by the power of the Great One coming down from heaven. This One is the Lamb, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The title “Lamb” was a picture in the Old Testament as a sacrificial atonement, pointing to the blood that Jesus on the cross as the antidote for the dragon sting of death. The blood of the Lamb washes away all the sins of those who believe. The proof about the power of this blood overcoming the sting of death was when Jesus resurrected after three days in the tomb and now He lives forever. Moreover, the Lamb even has the power to protect His people, the church on earth from the wrath of the dragon in the end times, after he is thrown out of heaven down to earth. At the end, the Lamb will bind the dragon in the Abyss for a thousand years and later in the lake of fire forever. The great and final victory for God’s people is demonstrated by the wedding supper of the Lamb. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes; There will be no more death, or mourning or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Those who are invited to the wedding will receive the greatest blessing – the eternal life in God’s kingdom. Note that only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life are invited, and anyone whose names are not written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire. How can one know his name is in the book of life? Have you repented of your sins and called upon the name of the Lord Jesus? That’s all it takes. God has prepared great mysteries of heaven and hell, of dragon and the Lamb in His words, so that we can make wise decision and be saved. Listen to the invitation of the Lamb: “Come! Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.” May you make a wise decision to trust Jesus Christ today and are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb one day. Happy New Year to You! |
The Lordship of Jesus Christ
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Sunday, January 08, 2012 What are you wishing for VHBC in New Year? I wish that the Lord Jesus reigns in all church members’ heart and life, beginning in me. Many churches have not been functioned with right purposes because Jesus is not being placed as Lord over His churches. What does this mean? To understand about this Lordship, we must first get rid the belief that Jesus is only the Savior and not Lord. Many Christians today just want the forgiveness of sins, the guarantee of the eternal life, but don’t want Jesus reign over their present life. How is a person truly saved? We are saved by grace through faith, and not by our own works. Through the same faith that we are saved; It is a dynamic and living faith and must continue to grow in the knowledge of Christ to the next level. That next level is to acknowledge that Jesus is not just the Savior but He is also the Lord of all. Jesus deserves to be Lord because He paid a high price to redeem us by His own blood flowing down from the cross. This means that we are no longer own anything or living for ourselves. The life we now live in the body, we live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved us and gave Himself for us. So many Christians’ lives are still un-regenerated, or have not experienced the transformation yet just because they do not understand this truth about the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus is Lord also means that He is the Head of His church. We make a terrible mistake when we think that we are in charge of Jesus’ church. Jesus established His church. He shed His blood to save the church. When will we learn how effective the early churches were because they always reserved the Lordship of Christ. There are two things that you can practice to submit to the Lordship of Christ. 1) How do you pray each day? Who is in charge of your life and not just others? Learn to pray “I surrender all” each morning; and 2) Self check yourself in all decisions to make sure that Jesus’ will be done because He is Lord and not your own motive and desire. What a peaceful thought to know that Jesus is Lord of our lives and His church! |
Conduct a Spiritual Performance Review w/ Jesus
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Sunday, January 01, 2012 Today is the first Sunday of 2012. It’s time to close the book and get ready to file the income tax. For professionals, it’s also a time to prepare for a Performance Review (PR) with the boss. Two main objectives for conducting a PR are to define an employee’s raise, and his long-range career path. Have you prepared for a spiritual PR with Jesus? Self-review is one of the three key objectives why we come to church each Sunday. There are some suggested guidelines that can help us to prepare for a spiritual PR. First, how long have you been saved? The first three years in a Christian life are the learning age to be fed by the word of God. The next three years goal is for training in preparation to serve. By the 7th year, you should be mature enough not to just look out for self, but begin to care for others. Secondly, what spiritual gifts do you have? All gifts are given by the Holy Spirit, not with the purpose for self-use, but for building up the body of Christ. There are four major gift areas: Using tongue, mind, money, and showing mercy (caring). What will happen to me if I do not exercise my spiritual gifts? Learn from Jesus’ parable of the Talents. After a PR with the boss, the wicked and lazy servant lost his job. How would you define a perfect church? When all the members in that church discover their gifts and diligently exercise them. Thirdly, what kind of motive were you serving God last year? Were you serving God with sober judgment and not for self-pride? Were you serving God and His church generously, diligently, and cheerfully? Do you want to serve God even more this year by accepting more responsibilities? Make sure that you want to carry more responsibilities because of the love for God and the church and not for seeking more power to control. Of course, to carry more responsibilities, we should first try to do a good job with our current duties. And then pay attention for opportunity, pray about it, and volunteer as the Holy Spirit leads you. So how is your spiritual New-year PR? What changes should you make today? |
The Greatest Plan on Earth
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Saturday, December 17, 2011 With the Internet, we today can do a research basically on any topics. I am always interested to know about some of the great architectures in the history of mankind. Do you know that there are 7 wonders of the ancient world? In these wonders, only the great pyramid of Giza is still remained largely intact. There are also 7 wonders of the modern world. The greatest is probably the Great Wall of China. The next one that is more close to us is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. However, in all the great designs, there is no plan greater than the plan of salvation. The first reason is because this greatest plan was originated from the self-existed and mighty Creator of all things. His name is God, the Jehovah who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth. The second reason that it is the greatest plan because it affects every person born and living on this earth. To understand this, we have to know the original sin of Adam and Eve. Because they sinned, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Since none of us can save ourself, our need is a Savior. The greatest plan is that when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son (the Savior Jesus) born of a woman. Christ was born in the first Christmas not to live, but to die on the cross for our sins. God “shrunk” Himself in Christ to redeem us from the judgment of sins and to righteously adopt us to become His children. If we are His children then for sure, we will inherit His kingdom in heaven one day. That is the true meaning of Christmas. Open your heart today and receive the greatest Gift Who is Christ the Lord. Have a merry and wonderful Christmas! |
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