Sermons « ..be transformed by the renewing of your mind

Sermon on money–who is rich?

January 18, 2008 at 3:53 pm | In Sermons | Leave a Comment

Last sunday’s sermon on who is rich is an insightful sermon on money.

www.edenbp.org

Please do visit, click on the jiang tai sin xi and click on the 13/01/08 sermon on who is rich..

For chinese ppl.. hee

Living with Wisdom. (Sermon notes–awaiting audio version to be out)

January 6, 2008 at 5:35 pm | In Bible study, Sermons | Leave a Comment

Today is the first time I partake of the Holy Communion– eating of the 1cm by 1cm bread and “grape wine” in remembrance of Christ as told by Him. It was a very happy experience. I’ve waited nearly 5 years come on.. In my church, only those who are already baptised can partake in it, but those who are not baptised, are not to take the bread and wine, but they join us at heart.

And today sermon is on living with wisdom. Can’t wait for the audio version to be out, then I can post on the blog.

It’s from Proverbs Chapter 30: verse 24-28:

24 “Four things on earth are small,
yet they are extremely wise:

25 Ants are creatures of little strength,
yet they store up their food in the summer;

26 coneys ^[d] are creatures of little power,
yet they make their home in the crags;

27 locusts have no king,
yet they advance together in ranks;

28 a lizard can be caught with the hand,
yet it is found in kings’ palaces.

At first I don’t really understand much but only about the ants’ wisdom, but after the sermon, I got a better and deeper understanding. Brief notes only. Please do wait for the audio version.

1. Ants’ wisdom is to use well the current now, the current opportunity, the current time, to prepare for what is needed in the future. Ants– represent those minutes, those little efforts which are unseemingly small and insignificant, but do not underestimate these little efforts, each day.. Each day, read a little bit of the bible–15 mins, or read up a little bit on a new topic or something you want to accomplish. It may be a few minutes, but it is good, nobody can really sit straight and read for 2 hours on-going. So to make use of what we have now, be it time to study or work or learning, we need to make good use of it.

2. Crags are something like wild rabbits,they are very weak because they have very soft bones, but they hide in strong rocks to protect themselves. Once they leave their rocky homes, they will be in danger of being predated. Wisdom in knowing your strengths and weaknesses in your life. Know your weaknesses and what are the things that tempt you the most, avoid the things that bring you into temptations. Our God is our fortress, our big solid rock to hide in. In life, if we leave this Rock, our lives will go haywired and be in danger of being devoured or led astray by the evil one. To have wisdom in life, we need to rely on God and obey his teachings. I like this analogy– A kid was in the garden playing while the father watches him. The kid was trying to push a big boulder with all his might, he tried and tried, and the father just stood there watching. The kid became angry and said,” I have already tried my best and you did not even come and help me.” The father said,”No, you have not yet tried your best.” The child resented even more and became more angry. But the father said,” You have not tried your best, because you did not ask me to help you with it.”

3. Locuts don’t have a king, but they advance in ranks. We don’t believe in the lone ranger fighting the battle alone, but in numbers that will be our strength and wisdom in developing the church and the growth. Locusts on their own are very weak creatures. But when they advance in ranks, they just need to swap down and lift up from the ground and millions of property will be lost. That is their wisdom. I like this fact— there is this notorious prison where it houses the worst criminals in the land (US I think), and there are 100 prisoners to be managed, and only 3 prison guards are needed to take care of them. Because, each prisoner is isolated away from the rest. They know the importance of isolating them, once they gather together in numbers, hell will break loose. We as Christians, when alone, are very weak, that is why we need to attend church, cell groups, prayer meetings or fellowship, to give us encouragement, prayer support and fellowship.

4. Lizards’ wisdom — is that it never gives up, always moving forward courageously, that’s why you can find lizards in palaces. Once caught, it continues to move in. I like this true story too— A king was defeated in a battle, and had to go hide in a cave, and in the cave, he saw a little spider spinning its web. Soon a wind came, and blew the spider down, the web is gone. But the little spider climbed up again and start spinning another. Not long after that, the wind came and blew it down again, and the spider did the same and yet started spinning another. The King watched and counted 7 times that the spider did this over again, he was very touched, he thought, ”even a small little spider never gives up, how much more should I?”. He went back and gathered his troops and reformed his country. Our life is also like that, winds come and go, we have failures but we need to learn from the spider and move on again. Are there anything that we want to accomplish in our lifetime? Do not give up, go for it. Our spiritual life is also the same, we have failings at times, but we still need to move on each time.

Ultimately, wisdom comes from God. For God has created all his creation, even little insects and small animals display the wonders of his wisdom. How much more should we learn to have wisdom, to make good use of our time, and to live well. From Proverbs 1:7-The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” To fear God is to shun evil. In this new year, we need to pray that we will live with wisdom. If we do not, another year will just pass us by, and what will we have–nothing. Pray that God will give us ability to live with wisdom, more than ants, spiders, lizards and crags. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray for you who are reading this, Amen.

Sermon 30/9/07

September 30, 2007 at 5:01 pm | In Bible study, Sermons, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

*Found today’s sermon (in church) really helpful to me. Because yesterday I had a struggle of playing a phone prank on someone, but I know that I shouldn’t be controlled by my sinful desires.*

Date:30/9/07

Speaker: Ye Xiao Dan (chuan dao)

Topic: Using the truth to triumph over temptations.

Bible extract- James 1:12-27

*These are my own sermon notes, which I’ve translated from Chinese, of course, I would have missed out on some points as I take the notes by hand.*

James 1:12-27 (New International Version)

12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

13When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

16Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Listening and Doing

19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Temptations comes from our own sinful desires and from the Devil, whereas trials (difficulty in life) are from God.
We need to use the Truth to overcome temptations.
Desires can be “good” or evil. “Good” desires are those which are without unrighteousness, like we have the desire to eat when we are hungry, we have the desire to sleep when we are tired, and we have the desire to drink when we are thirsty. Evil desires are those that uses indecent means to satisfy the selfish need.
Although we know that sin come from the fall of Adam, our ancestor, and that we still have the “old-me” in us, we as Christians, cannot always blame Satan and Adam when we sin, but we should actually take the responsibility ourselves.
Verse 15: Desire gives birth to sin, and sin gives birth to death. “birth” is only possible in a human when a man meets with a woman. Here, Sin is given birth when our sinful desires/ selfish desires combines with our free will of choice.Like sinful desire+ free will of choice= birth of sin. just like man+ woman= baby. It is normal to be tempted, in the stage of “being” tempted, a Christian plays a passive role in the involvement of sin. But when the Christian sins, then he/she plays an active role in sinning.
So do we still have hope? Or do we have to despair in our fate of sinning forever? Of course, we have hope!
An eg was then given of a Christian businessman who is an executive in a big company. It is part of his job to entertain customers. He was assigned the task of seeking out beautiful “ladies” for his customers as their entertainment. At first, he may think that he will not be affected by it. But then, as he sees the beautiful and often sexy ladies, he becomes wavered in his innerbeing. It is important to see how our thoughts form our actions. And from his thoughts, he began to act out on them, and in the end, he committed the sin of sexual immorality. When sin is conceived, it gives birth to death. Death here connotes to the death of the soul. As time passes by, he began to stop going to cell group(biblestudy), then he began to stop attending church, and finally he even denied that he was a Christian.
Thus we cannot let sin be conceived. If it is still in the womb of contemplation, we need to literally abort it. Let it die in the “womb”.
Temptations are not sin. That’s is why we pray in our Lord’s Prayer (which is taught by Jesus Christ), ” Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”.
If we are won over by temptation— we sin.
King David and his adultery with Bathesheba began when he watches her bathing from his balcony, and he sinned after that when he ordered her to sleep with him. Further later on, we see him failing, as his Kingdom becomes divided and even his own son Absalom conspires against him.
But Joseph, when he was tempted by his master’s wife Potiphar’s wife, he said a very famous sentence:”How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

From Genesis 39:6-

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”

8 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

Joseph did not sin, he has overcome his temptation. And in the end, he became great, although he was accused by Potiphar’s wife and sent to prison for a while, and the Pharoh even put him in charge of the entire Egypt later on.
We must think of that when we are tempted– How can we sin do such a wicked thing and sin against God?
The reason why we are sitting here in Church today is because God’s truth gave birth to us.
vs 18:He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
We can use this truth to triumph over temptation.
Refer back to verse 25:

But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

We cannot just listen to God’s words and then forget about them. This truth is a truth that is able to be carried out.
Refer to verse 21:

21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

The root of the word that is planted in us is linked to God.
See also Galatian Chapter 5- Fruit of the Spirit-vs-22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
To let the word that is planted in us to grow into the fruits of the Spirit.
James 1:19-

vs19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

Verse 19 tells us that we should take note of the previous verse 18:-18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
In accordance to verse 18, the truth that we have, should overcome temptation by these ways:

vs 19Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

The speaker at first thought that verse 19 relates to how to be involved in social conversations, but actually it is not in context with that, but in context with overcoming temptation.

Quick to listen- To be quick in listening to God’s truth, God’s words. In verse James1:21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. To get rid of – in the Chinese bible version it’s tuo qu, like taking off of, akin to taking clothes off. A sponge that is saturated with water, needs to be squeezed off first before being able to absorb more water. We need to get rid of all the moral filth and evil that is so prevalent in us, in order to accept God’s truth.
Slow to speak- we shouldn’t be quick to anyhow interpret what God is trying to tell us. Not anyhow commenting on his words, or even sermons like” Oh that was such a good sermon!”
Slow to anger- Sometimes when we listen to God’s words, we may get angry, as we may have difficulty carrying out his commands for us. ( Like when when the more we listen to his words, the greater the sense of our sinfulness). Our heart may be a hard soil for God’s word when it’s hard. ( see Jesus’ parable of different grounds where the gospel seeds fall on) When we have difficulty in carrying out God’s words, is it because the problem lies in His word, or does the problem lies with us? There is no problem in God’s word definitely, the problem lies with us.

James1:22-25 : 22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
Why do we continue attending Church, give tithe (10%), or love one another? Because we have heard God’s words.
Mirror-vs 23: The mirror that is often mentioned in the Bible is another name for God’s truth. Which acts like a mirror, showing us our faults and seeing more clearly. If we look at the mirror and forget about what we saw, it is because we never look intently. It is the same when we listen to God’s words without going to understand it, and maybe even treating the Bible as our pillows. Jesus’ teaching to us to “Love our enemy”— we don’t want to love our enemy, so can we don’t love our enemy? It is because we did not “chew” on God’s words, to digest them and then to absorb them. Just like how we eat food, if we never chew properly, we can have stomachache. We must spend time understanding God’s truths.
In Singapore, one side is setting up the resort with Gambling, and on the other side, we are setting up counselling centres for gambling. The love of money is the root of all evil. Why do ppl get cheated for 5 apples? because of greed.

When we have a tight rein on our tongues (which includes not anyhow commenting on God’s words)we can then we able to do more meaningful things like looking after others and keeping self from being polluted by the world.

We live in a society full of temptation around us. We need to remember that we are born of God’s truth and we can triumph over temptation.

Yesterday’s sermon 8/7/07

July 9, 2007 at 6:21 am | In Sermons | Leave a Comment

*I’m blogging down my sermon notes for it to leave a deeper impression in myself. Actually I could have just downloaded the audio recording from the net, but my computer keep on showing the pop-up to deny the access the to wmp file. So here are my notes which are only a brief overview and would have missed out on some points too.*

On the 8/7/07

Speaker: Zheng Jian Yao (传道)

Topic: Daring to be Different

Passage: Daniel Chapter 1

Notes:

The whole world has a trend of following a common direction to be accepted by others. In eg,

1. Fashion. This kind of blind following of fashion is not about chosing things that make you look good. The point is, some people just follow fashion and they don’t care whether is it really nice or they would not have bothered if it doesn’t suit them. They just wanted a sense of belonging with the rest in society and to keep up with them.

2.Dying sport– sometimes come back alive, because of just a movie on it, or a TV show or publicity about it, and suddenly everyone just remember it and it become hot again.

3. It is sad and a pity that some churches wanted to attract the world to them and they don’t care whether the ways and means they use is right or wrong/compromise with worldly ways/ bringing worldly influences into God’s sanctuary.

Nobody wants to be left behind or be so different from others that they can’t be accepted by them.

Two kinds of being different, one good, one bad.

The bad kind of being different is from a rebellious nature/ bad ways/ strange ways. (e.g. Body piercings all over the body ..etc.)

But in the Church’s history, there are some individuals who dare to be different. E.g. Martin Luther. He pulled the Church from it’s dark history and caused a revolution for the good of the Church. Wei Si Min Si Te (still need to find out who’s that in English), Paul, Ni Si Mi ( need to know this too), Jeremiah, Elijah and of course Jesus Christ’s extraordinary life (his words, actions and life is extraordinary, of course he had died, and resurrected 3 days later and ascended to Heaven at God’s right hand and will descend on Judgement day.)

Daniel was an individual who dared to be different. (in 600 B.C.) He served a total of 60 years in a country not his own and survived through 3 empires in Babylon.

He was determined not to eat the food of idol sacrifices while in a palace where the king gives the same food he eats with him (Daniel)and his companions.
From his stellar performance and wisdom exceeding other chiefs in the court, envy from others are common The other chiefs gathered to harm him by attacking on his religion, as there are no other things that they can accuse him of.
Even though threatened by a decree that no man can pray to any other god except the King, if so they would be thrown into a lion’s den, Daniel kept on praying 3 times a day to God in his own room.

And we read Daniel 1

Daniel 1 (New International Version)

Daniel 1

Daniel’s Training in Babylon

1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia ^[a] and put in the treasure house of his god. 3 Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility- 4 young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. ^[b] 5 The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.

6 Among these were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7 The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. 9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, 10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your ^[c] food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”

11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.

18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them in, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. 20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.

21 And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

Footnotes:

Daniel 1:2 Hebrew Shinar
Daniel 1:4 Or Chaldeans
Daniel 1:10 The Hebrew for your and you in this verse is plural.

How did Daniel dare to be different?

1. (Xing Nian 信念)should be Determined thought.

Daniel 1:8-But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.

A determined thought is a very powerful motivation. It can make you unwaivering in times of testing because you have a very strong faith or determined thought.

How did he have such a strong determined thought? ( I hope I got it right for my translation.)

Remember that we are God’s children and we belong to Him. Every first Sunday of the month when we participate in the Holy Communion-圣餐, we ought to remember what Christ has accomplished for us at the cross. ( I can’t take the 饼 and the drink yet as I wasn’t baptised yet).
Hate sin. John Wesley said that ” Give me 100 ppl who fear God and hate sin and I will show you how they can change the world.” So we have to tell ourselves, what are the things we won’t do, the places we won’t go, music we won’t listen to, websites we won’t visit and words we won’t say.

2. Always depend on and Trust in God.

Daniel 1:11-13-

Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.”

Daniel’s faith is a living faith, which enables him to go through barriers, stormy situations, although he was enslaved in Babylon.

3.Daniel has a group of spiritual good friends with him.

Daniel, along with Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were from Judah and they are God fearing Jews. Why were they still God fearing Jews although they were enslaved in Babylon, a city of idolatry? They have very good spiritual models most likely their parents, that they look up to, and long time before they were enslaved, they were already God fearing Jews in they own land.

Thus it is important for us to be good spiritual role models for our children, so that the next generation can be God-fearing too. ( doesn’t apply to me now.. most of the people in my Church are married with kids.)

Just like Ruth (in the chapter of Ruth), although she was faced with the destruction of her homeland and the deaths of her husband and family, she still trust in God and follow his way.

We need to have good friends as much as we need to be careful of the kind of friends we make. Because when you make a friend, the other person’s thought, beliefs, actions, and way of doing things become your thoughts, beliefs, actions and way of doing things very easily. (Not to underestimate the influence a close friend can have on you.) But a very good friend can influence you for an entire lifetime.

The person who offers you the first cigarette is not your good friend, neither the one who is the first to bring you t0 hangouts that are indecent, neither the one who teaches you to tell lies…etc.

A good friend always reminds you when you sin and becomes your help when you needed it. ( Brings to mind the friends that I had. *touching past of previous friendships*)

But in order to have a good friend, we need to be a good friend to others first too. We need to be more mature and strong and right in the way we live…etc

And these 3 points, to have a convicted belief/determined thought, always trusting and depending on God, and having good close spiritual friends, we ought to exalt God’s name in this generation and to abandon sin.

Last week’s sermon 1/7/07

July 8, 2007 at 8:49 am | In Sermons | Leave a Comment

Note: this is the first sermon in my blog here, these sermon notes are just notes that I’ve written while hearing the sermon in my Church on Sunday mornings. I would have certainly missed out on some other points which I did not include.

On the 1/7/07

Speaker: Zhang Ke Fu- mushi (pastor in Chinese)

Topic: “The Perfect Man” refers to Jian Quan Nan Ren (in Chinese)

Passage: Titus 2:7

Zhang ke fu mushi began with talking about Micheangelo’s David’s statue. King David’s statue is a very well-sculpted piece of art, which shows a youthful (David) man’s healthy, muscular and strong physique, and a handsome face. But that is just the LOOK of a perfect man.

But is a perfect man just like a good looking piece of stone, no.. it’s more than that..

This sermon applies to sisters not only the brothers, because the principles are general.

In Titus , Paul speaks to Titus in his letter, and to tell him the qualities, criteria and the expectations of the life of a ”perfect man”

(We read Titus 2)

Titus 2

What Must Be Taught to Various Groups

1You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

6Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

9Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

15These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.

Like what Confucius said, a perfect man is also called a Jun Zi ( a gentleman in Chinese)

Our Saviour, Jesus Christ is a gentleman. He is not chauvinistic, he did not (bian di) oppress women, but he came and raise women’s status in society.

Paul also told Titus to follow him(Paul) as he (Paul) follows Christ.

What is a perfect man then?

Someone who does good. In verse 7:- In everything set them an example by doing what is good. DO is a verb. He did not tell them to understand what is good, but to do good until they become a blessing to others. And to do good until it becomes a mould in others’ mind, that whenever they think of you, they know you are someone who does good. Must be determined and to set it in your mind to do good (li4 zhi4). –by default to do good, a nature to do good. Titus was in Crete then a place that is full of evil. Same as in Singapore now, if you wanna see men who are unabashed or not ashamed of doing evil, just turn around the corner. (My Church is in Geylang)

Not only to do good in the society, but also at home. Love your family, protect your family, don’t bully them.

Do good in society, not just infront of people, but also behind people’s back.

Do good in Church, be open-hearted not narrow-hearted esp when conflicts arise or you dwell on past misgivings/misunderstandings.

Then here he said an idiom of Confucius, something like:

The good man is not sorrowful, the brave man is not afraid, and the wise man is not confused. HOWEVER, Confucius said he cannot do it. Why did Confucius said he cannot do it? But the secret to do it lies with Paul.

Here my pastor said, if one day after work, your colleague ask you to go to a bar. Then they keep on insisting you go with them. You will be thinking, bible said not to gamble, but the bible did not say not to go to bars right.?? Then you are confused (huo4) already. That would be unwise. A wise man is very clear on what is right and what is wrong. ( with biblical basis).

When Joseph who is a youthful and handsome man (Genesis 39) is tempted by Potiphar’s beautiful wife to go to bed with her, he by default knows that he cannot sin against God by doing such a wicked thing, and so he fleed away from her.

2. Responsible ( of spreading the gospel, faithful to God)

A gentleman/ a good man will not shove aside responsibility for his own selfish motives/gain.

In Titus2: 7 (cont’d)-In your teaching show integrity, seriousness

Here my pastor talked about Joel Auston, the most famous pastor of the megachurch in US. He was interviewed by Lenny King, an award winning interviewer, who has interviewed all kinds of ppl, including murderers and pastors. Lenny King let in a telephone call Q&A directed at Joel Auston, the listener asked Joel,” Jesus said in John 14:6, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ Do you strongly believe in that ?” Then Joel Auston stopped for a moment, thought deeply and said something like,” No body knows if you are saved, I’m not God, I’ll never know if somebody will be saved or not.” Why did he not dare to say he strongly believe in that? Because of the mass media pressure.

A good man who is responsible at home, blesses the family, the children and his wife. His wife would be happy and knows that she can depend on him.

If he is responsbile in society, then society also benefits from him.

3. Soundness of speech.

Soundness of speech is related to a person’s character.

Again in Titus 2:8

and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

( yan2 yu3 cun2 quan2) that cannot be condemned.

A few points here:

Not to say (chan3 mei4) untrue things about ppl, relating to gossip, or to flatter ppl. Let your yes be yes and a no be no.
Don’t be a “small man”. here he gives another idiom, from Confucius. A small man is the same as others but not benefiting them/compatible with them, but a jun zi/a good man is different from others but compatible with them. Same as in trying to get acceptance by doing compromising your standards..erm getting hard to explain. Be brave to speak out when you have an idea or you have a different opinion from others.
Don’t exaggerate, or ppl will discount your words next time. Be accurate in what you say. Don’t blow things out of proportion.
Don’t say things that you don’t do. A gentleman get things done, but just mention briefly about it and let the matter pass.

Here my pastor again mentioned about Confucius sayings that Jun1 wu2 xi4 yan2. It is to a shame of a man if he talks too much but do little.

And to detect your inner feelings by your speech. Like when you are speaking sourly, faster detect your inward self as a reflection or a reminder.

Finally, Do these because of Titus 2:11-13–

11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

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whew, after that sermon, I’m more determined to do what is right before GOD.