Skip to content Session 5 - Building Word-Centred Disciples Sep 7 · 46 min ...more
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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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0:00 Hi everyone. When my wife Anne and I were in Bible College, that was in the early eighties, that was the first term break for 1 week. I made a determination0:12 in my heart. I want to read through the scriptures in that single week. And I was excited about that prospect. So day after day, I pored through the Scriptures and read and read.0:24 There was a particular day that I was reading the Scriptures. Then I discovered it was a public holiday that day. And in that public holiday, there was a special edition on television of0:36 David Copperfield. I was an amateur magician that time and I was excited about the magic of David Copperfield. And so I was thinking to myself, that's only an0:47 hour's program. I can watch television for an hour and then go back to my Bible reading. Not a bad plan. But while I was planning to do that, something spoke within my heart.1:00 Is it David Copperfield or Jesus Christ? Now don't get me wrong, I don't think there's anything particularly wrong in watching a television program and then getting back to reading the scriptures.1:12 But for my young heart that day, I was challenged with a singular devotional decision. What's it going to be? Am I committed to this that I set my heart and my heart1:24 was on fire for the living Scriptures that I believe will point me to my Lord Jesus or to watch that program. So as I was struggling with Him, I told, surely you won't mind,1:35 right? And then I made a decision. It's not a question of whether God minds or the decisions we make. It's everything to do with the heart's and1:46 soul's delight. That day it was Goodbye, David Copperfield. Hello, Jesus Christ. That simple decision I made that day wasn't just about a television1:58 programme, it's only an hour, it was about the fundamental aspiration and delight of the soul. What I gained from focusing on what I felt the2:10 Lord called me to do, I felt my heart burning with, was this sense of cultivating a delight in the Scriptures. Now this is what getting into the Word is all about.2:22 It's about growing in the delight in God's Word, in the devotion to God's Word and in the discipline necessary for cultivating that devotion. 1 of my favorite2:34 stories is about a theological student. He didn't study for the exam. So in the final exam, he panicked. Went through his theological notes overnight, burned the midnight oil,2:46 studied through the night, crammed all the theological knowledge he could, went into the examination hall ready for the exam, opened up the questions and his mind went blank.2:58 So he decided to write on that blank piece of paper these words, I don't know, God knows. When the papers were returned, the exams were being marked, the professor wrote on3:10 this piece of paper, In that case, God passed, you failed. We cannot come to the Scriptures with only the thinking God knows we3:22 don't know. Why? Because God who knows has revealed to us the things that pertain to our faith, that things that pertain to our pilgrimage, the things that pertain to3:34 growing as a redeemed community in Christ Jesus, because the revelation has been given in the Word of God. Would you bow with me in prayer as we come to this final session together?3:46 Father, once again, ask open our eyes to behold wonderful truth out of Your Word. We thank You in Jesus' magnificent name. Amen. Amen.3:58 Let me unpack these 3 words for you a little bit. The first is cultivating that delight in the Word of God. It's about a cultivated taste. It's like4:10 durian. It's either you like it or you don't but liking durian in a sense is a cultivated taste. It's like wow tasted it, loved it. Delight in the Word of4:21 God is a cultivated taste. We don't immediately go into oh I delight in God's Word. It is something where we encounter the living God, the revelation of God. It4:33 grows in us. Look at Psalm 1. This is an amazing Psalm with regards to the Word of God. I just want to explore verse 1 with you. As we begin4:45 verse 1, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Just that phrase alone, Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. This word blessed4:57 in the original Hebrew is a very deep and rich word. It is ashrays in the plural. So it's translated, Oh, the many blessednesses. Plural.5:09 Oh, the many blessednesses of the man. And the man is emphatic in the Hebrew. Hayish. Oh, the many blessednesses of that man is a certain kind5:21 of man. Look at this man. It is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Now the word walk is a metaphor in the Scriptures for the way we direct our5:33 life, we determine our decision and we determine the course of our action. In other words, our manner of life, our conduct of life, who does not walk in the counsel of5:45 the ungodly rather he walks in the wisdom of God's Word. Now notice it did not say who walks in the foolishness of the ungodly or the wicked. The word ungodly or5:57 wicked is translated from the Hebrew rasa, It means the wicked, foolish, ungodly person. What it means is a person who lives life with no reference to God. Now6:09 if a person who lives life with no reference to God, why didn't the Bible say, Blessed is all the many blessednesses of that man who does not walk in the6:20 foolishness of the ungodly, or in the errors of the wicked? Why the counsel of the wicked? The word counsel means the apparent wisdom. Here's the6:32 thing, the world has its apparent wisdom and we have to choose between the apparent wisdom of the world or the true wisdom of the Word. A Word6:43 centered disciple is tutored to discern between the 2, the world's value system, the world's worldview, the world's truths or the6:55 reality, the ultimate reality, ultimate significance, ultimate truth of the revelation of God's wisdom in His Word.7:07 All that the world offers cannot compare to what the Word of God reveals because the Word of God reveals for us the ultimate reality of God. Oh, the many7:18 blessednesses of that man who does not walk after the apparent wisdom of those who live life with no reference to God. But here's the contrast. Now when you7:30 study the scriptures, pay attention to the contrast. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. In other words, this is his magnificent delight. So7:42 when I talk about that delight in the Word, the devotion to the Word, it's a cultivated taste of the 1 who understands the magnificence of the7:54 revelation of God through His Word. Now just as an aside, a secondary consideration, but an important 1, what is the key verse of Psalms 1? Because8:05 Psalms 1 has some very wonderful verses, like verse 2, His delight is in the law of the Lord. Or verse 3, He is like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in its8:17 season. What is the key verse of Psalms 1? I believe the key verse has to do with his theological anchor. The theological anchor in Psalms8:28 one:six For the LORD knows the way of the righteous. The Hebrew word for know is da'ar. What that means is the LORD reckons.8:41 It's not cognitive knowledge, it is the Lord judges, the Lord reckons. So it says here in verse 6, For the Lord knows there are the way of the righteous, but the8:53 way of the wicked will perish. Now, why didn't the Bible say the Lord knows the righteous? Why does it say He knows the way of the righteous? Again, has to do with the9:04 word reckon, to know. He reckons, he pays attention to and get this, he approves the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.9:17 In other words, there is a judgment made by God here and the principle in Psalms 1 is this: the approval of God is of ultimate importance. The9:28 Lord knows the way of the righteous and His approval is of ultimate importance because the Lord weighs it. Now if the approval of God is of ultimate9:40 importance, therefore, get the cycle now. It goes back to verse 1. 0, the many blessedness of the 1 who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly! His9:52 delight is in the Word of the Lord. Why? Because in the Word he flourished for the approval of God is in the revelation of His Word10:04 and the 1 who walks and directs His life according to the Scriptures. That's why Psalms 1 is the foundational Psalm. That's why the whole of this 15010:16 Psalm begin with this foundational psalm. And this foundational psalm brings us right back to basics, brings us right back to the foundation of true spirituality, brings us right back to what10:27 really matters in life, the Word of the living God. And if this is God's Word, the revelation of His truth, shouldn't we grow in it?10:40 Learn to know of His truth and live by His truth and therefore reproduce Word centered disciples. It's a cultivated taste, a10:52 delight in the Word of the Lord. And the psalmist came to that place to say, My magnificent delight is in the Word of the Lord and in His Word he meditates day11:03 and night. See, delight and discipline goes together. We don't say we delight in God's Word but we don't have the discipline. When we delight in the Word of God, it says11:15 he meditates therein day and night. There is a second part of it, a devotional love that brings delight and discipline together. Because you cannot move from11:27 delight to discipline without that deepening love for the Word of God, that devotion to the Word of God. I mentioned Doctor Benjamin Chew earlier, the Christian statesman in11:39 Singapore. This is his testimony from his son Jim Chew, 1 of my early spiritual mentors. Jim Chew was then the National Director of The Navigators and we met regularly together and11:51 a lot of what I learned about discipleship came from the deposits of Jim Chew and his boss, Doug Sparks of The Navigators. Jim Chew told me this story of his father, Benjamin Chew. He said Benjamin12:03 Chew went for surgery 1 day and he was under GA and he is a doctor himself He knows that when you are under general anaesthesia, sometimes in a kind of12:15 stupor, is often a case where someone will sprout some things he doesn't know he is speaking about. So Doctor12:26 Benjamin Chew, when he came out of his GA, he asked the surgeon, Did I say anything embarrassing when I was under general anaesthesia? Did I embarrass myself?12:38 The Christian surgeon said, Doctor Chew, No, it's the very opposite. When you were under general anaesthesia, you were sprouting the Word of God, you were quoting the Word of God and12:50 you were preaching Christ. I thought to myself, Now that's 1 way to select pastors. Put them under general anaesthesia and see what comes out of them. Can you13:02 imagine it? Under GA, out comes the Word of God. The proclamation and preaching of Christ. It is a devotion. So when you13:14 move from delight to discipline, you need that devotion to the Word and a devotion to the God of the Word, a deepening love, a devotion to the Word.13:26 So we have to choose, is it devotion to the Word or a dissolution of the Word? Os Guinness were, some years ago, were preaching together on the same13:38 platform in a discipleship conference. And then at the airport, I saw us at the luggage carousel, so I said, Are you visiting Singapore? He said, Yes, I'm coming here for a few days. I13:50 said, Do you by any chance have any time to meet with my church staff, my fellow pastors? He said, Sure! And so I called up my staff and said to them, Os14:02 Guinness will meet with us, let's come back together. And we gathered, we were all excited because Doctor Guinness is going to spend some time with us and he came and shared with us some of his paradigms and his14:13 insights. We had a great time. I took him for lunch. At lunch, he said to me, What you have in your staff team is a wonderful thing. I have met different14:25 Christian leaders, spoken to different staff, and then he says, Your people have 1 distinguishing feature: have depth. And that depth is in the Word of God.14:38 Some years ago, in Singapore, we continued to have our IDMC Conference and some years ago, 1 of the pastors came and told me this. He said during the break, and our conferences on-site at that time was larger, rather14:50 large, at the expo, about 5000 people. So on the toilet breaks, they have to line up and queue up for the toilet. This pastor said, I was behind 3 men.15:02 Apparently, they're from your church because they quoted you and they said, Our pastor said, Our pastor said, and so I took behind them and I hear the sharing and the thing that impressed me was15:13 in their sharing, they were quoting the scriptures, You have a people of depth. And then he said, I watched them as they prayed for 1 another outside the toilet. And in that queue as they prayed for 115:25 another, the thing that impressed me and impacted me, they were quoting the scriptures while they were praying. There was a depth in the Word of God. We15:37 cannot build a people of depth if we are not grounding them in the sacred Scriptures. That's what building Word centered disciples is about giving them the delight15:49 in the Word, the discipline in the Word because there is a growing sense of devotion to the Word. A cultivated taste, a delight in the Word, a deepening love, a devotion to the Word, and16:01 a growing mastery Growth takes time. And we have to learn to keep at it. And here's a reality check I don't16:12 have statistics and data for you. What I do have is anecdotal evidence. In my dialogue with senior pastors and pastors and anecdotal evidence, I get a feeling about 60 percent16:24 of pastors do not have a daily quiet time. In some churches it's more, in other churches it's less, but round it up, it's about 60 percent of pastors who do not have a daily quiet16:36 time. Now if that is true, you translate it to the congregation, on an average as a reality check, about 80 percent of the congregations do not have a daily quiet time.16:48 That's just a ballpark figure but that's a reality check. I say ballpark figure because in some churches, the percentage of Christians having a daily quiet time is more. In some churches, maybe less.17:01 But if that is true, about 60 percent of pastors, missionaries and Christian leaders don't have a daily quiet time and the congregation that is about 80 percent17:13 that doesn't, we are in a serious biblical deficit. The antidote for that is a growing daily journal by which we share with 117:25 another. And this discipline, this growth that takes time, this keeping as were, is critical.17:37 1 of the things I share with my friends with regards to getting to the Word is we have to come and just grow in the Word and mark the Scriptures day by17:49 day, chapter by chapter, just kind of mark it and as you go along, find a margin in the Bible, write out whatever you learn from the Lord but mark18:01 the scriptures. I want to share with you this marking system. Now you don't have to follow my marking system but I want to share with you what's helpful for me. First of all, the red that I use represents the blood of18:12 Christ covering our sins. So when there are sins, I mark it with red. The blue has to do with blue background information like for example, in the 718:23 mile walk from Emmaus to Jerusalem, the Bible says 7 miles, so I marked the 7 miles in blue. Or when the Bible says, Jesus asked what things18:36 and then they stopped and there was sadness in them. I underline the word in blue, they stopped. That is background information for me. So in terms of the Scriptures, this18:48 is how I mark them and then the yellow are the principles. The general principles that come in the light of the scriptures is marked in yellow. The orange are the promises of God.19:00 All the fundamental key principles. I can't find a gold ink that will sit well without smudging the bleeding into the page. So I mark it with orange.19:12 The promises of the Word or the fundamental cardinal principles. And then the green is like green trees, fresh green grass. These are19:24 fresh insights that I glean. And so for these fresh insights, I put them in green. So when I look at my Bible, those that are in yellow principles, orange, these are the promises of19:36 God's Word. The red, oh, the sins, the blue, oh, these are the background information. Whatever system you use, mark the scriptures,19:48 grow in it day by day. It is a growing Grow in it takes time. Here20:00 then are 5 major paradigm shifts I want to share with you in terms of our looking at the scriptures and our growth in that paradigm shift so that we can20:12 develop Word Centred Disciples. Let's look at the first paradigm shift, our orientation. This is the orientation. The Bible is not just a book of messages. It is! But20:24 it's more than just a book of messages. It's a place of meetings. In other words, it's a place of encountering God. It's a book of meetings where we encounter God in His20:35 glory and the glory of God comes in 1 of 2 radical and fundamental cardinal horizons. The first, the glory of God is in the greatness of God and the20:47 second, the glory of God is seen in the goodness of God. And the glory of His greatness and the glory of His goodness must be married together in an encounter20:58 with God. Over and over again in the scriptures it says, God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, God who created the seen and the unseen etc. It's talking about the21:10 greatness of God, the glory of His greatness as our Creator. And the theology of God as Creator is the theology of ownership. In other words, is God saying21:22 to us, I own you, you belong to Me, you are Mine, I have created you. And therefore we come, yes we worship21:34 God, yes God is our Father, yes we love God, but we have to see God as the sovereign 1 who owns us. He has the right to our life. That's the glory of His greatness21:46 as Creator. But the Bible also tells us the glory of His love as Redeemer. I'm the 1 who delivered you. I'm the 1 who redeemed you from the21:57 bondage of sin and given you a tremendous destiny in Christ Jesus. The greatness of God and the glory of God is moved together and joined at the cross of22:09 Jesus Christ. Because in Jesus we behold His glory and it's the glory of His greatness as God and His goodness as our22:20 Redeemer. You know in Genesis 3, at the fall of man and the temptation of man and the fall, The greatest ground that was22:32 contested in Genesis 3 in the Garden of Eden was on the goodness of God. Not the greatness of God although God is greater, everybody knows God is great.22:44 Satan does not come and say, You think God is great? He's not that great. No! The entire attack was, You think God is good? He is not that good. He's holding out on22:56 you. Has God really said? No, He knows that the minute you take of the fruit, you will have the knowledge of good and evil and and listen, you will23:08 become thy God. Is that a lie? It's a half truth. Because we as humanity are23:19 created in the image of God. That's our destiny. But no, Satan whispers God's goodness, he is not really that23:31 good. He's holding out on you. Listen, when we talk about encountering God in the scriptures, we are encountering both the sovereign greatness of God and the redemptive goodness23:43 of God. God is good. He is a God who loves us. And that's why when we come to the Scriptures, as we open up23:54 the Scriptures, we see right through the Scriptures both the glory of His greatness and the glory of His goodness. Take for example the Torah, the Pentateuch, the first 5 books24:06 of Moses. First 5 books. The first, Genesis. Genesis is about the theology of God Almighty. But God Almightiness is painted24:18 on the canvas of 3 things: God Almighty in His creation therefore He owns us God Almighty in His judgment because we have fallen in sin and God is24:30 righteous but yet listen carefully now, there is also the theology of not just God Almighty in His creation and His judgment. It could have stopped there, it did not.24:42 It is God Almighty in His redemption. That is why the book of Genesis begins with life and creation but ends up in a coffin in chapter 50, the end of24:53 Genesis. Begins with life in the Garden of Eden and ended up with a coffin in Egypt. It tells us, listen, the saga continues, because25:05 Joseph gave word to his children, actually an instruction to his children, I charge you, he says, when you live meaning into the promised land that God has25:17 given, into His goodness, into His redemption. Don't forget my bones. Because I want to be in that promised land, want to be in that destiny, I want to25:29 be where God promised because God is good. That's how the book of Genesis ended. It ended with the sadness of death and yet the glory of25:41 the promise and covenant of God that Joseph believed. And then the saga continues into Exodus. Exodus is the deliverance of God. Once again,25:53 the people were in bondage, in slavery, Their slave masters were too powerful for them, but God delivered them. Genesis,26:05 Exodus, Leviticus is about the laws, the Levitical laws, but underneath the theology, the grounding theology, the holiness of God. It explains why God has26:17 to judge because He is righteous, He is holy, otherwise He is an arbitrary God and if the character of God is compromised, everything else is compromised. It's the goodness of His character,26:29 the holiness of God. Do you realize the holiness of God is the defining attribute of God? Isaiah 6 declared 3 times, Holy, holy, holy. In other26:41 words, it's in the Hebrew superlative. He is the most holy. In the English, when we want to emphasise something, we use words like very. God is good, God is26:53 very good. In the Hebrew, they repeat it as an emphatic emphasis. Truly truly means this is very true. Holy holy means this27:05 is very holy. What you have in Isaiah 6 is totally unprecedented in Hebraic literature. It is a Hebrew superlative. Holy,27:16 holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. In other words, God is very, very holy. The holiness of God is the central attribute of27:28 God. Why not love? Why not faithfulness? Why not truth? These things are true. But listen, God's love is a holy love. God's truth is a holy truth. God's27:40 righteousness is a holy righteousness. Everything about character of God, He is distinctly holy, meaning He is completely set apart and27:51 wonderfully unique. That's His glory. So when we come to the sacred scripture, we are encountering not just messages but an encounter28:03 with God Almighty. Leviticus Numbers is about the faithfulness of God. In 40 years in the wilderness, God was faithful. In other words, God28:15 is saying, I will never let you go. In spite of all your unfaithfulness, I will show myself faithful on your behalf. I will provide for you. I will supply you the28:27 glory of the goodness of God. And finally, Deuteronomy Moses was 120 years old. He knew he was about to die. This is about the last month of28:39 Moses. He preached 3 sermons and in the book of Deuteronomy is his 3 sermons to a new generation. What are the 3 sermons? Go back and read it for28:51 yourself! It's there in the Bible! Go back to Deuteronomy, I want to learn what the 3 distinct sermons of Moses are and what he is saying to the next generation.29:04 Do that as an assignment. Go back and read the Scriptures and allow the Scriptures to come alive. The second paradigm shift is our29:15 action. We are not just a Bible believing church, we are to be a Bible living church. Meaning the question is not just, Do you believe the29:27 Bible? The question is, are you living out the Bible? Living out the Word of God. Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In other29:39 words, be missional in your life. Let your life be captivated by the awe and wonder of the glory of God, the glory of His majesty and greatness, the glory of His29:51 goodness so that don't miss the so that so that your life could be missional under the mighty hand of God. Are we30:02 living missional lives? There are 4 basic convictions for a disciple making church. 4 basic convictions that give us a clear sense of what it means30:14 to live that missional life. Principle number 1: Conviction number 1: Jesus is coming again soon. Second conviction: Because Christ is coming again soon, the urgent task is world30:26 evangelization. Nothing less than a global vision is worthy of a global God. And God's heart is for the nations and we as a church, we have a great commission.30:39 We are not just here to get coffee and donuts and enjoy fellowship, sing kumbaya and wait for our days in heaven. There is a mission for the church. Otherwise, why30:51 didn't God just translate us to heaven the moment we receive Christ at our conversion? Why does He leave us on planet earth? Because there's a mission for the church. Are we31:03 living missional lives because Christ is coming again soon and the urgent task is world evangelization? Conviction number 3. The key to world evangelization is31:14 intentional disciple making. And in this conference, we are emphasizing building Word centered disciples. Disciple making! Ground them in the31:26 Scriptures! And then the fourth, the focus of intentional disciple making is a radical discipleship to Jesus. That's what the Word of God31:38 does. The Word of God points us to Jesus, shows us Jesus, the glory of who He is greatness, and the glory of His love and redemption. It's all about31:49 Jesus. Because when we have Him, we have everything. If we don't have Him, we have nothing even though we think we32:01 have everything. It's all about Jesus. So live out the Bible in this conviction. Third paradigm shift: Our priorities. In the32:13 past generation, I heard, No Bible, no breakfast. It doesn't work with this generation because probably they don't take breakfast anyway. For this generation, it's No Bible,32:25 no social media. No Bible, no emails. No Bible, no internet. No Bible, no WiFi. We have to put the Scriptures as our32:36 priority. Romans 10 17 says, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. In other words, our faith is being built by the32:48 sacred Word of God. When it comes to the Word, we have to learn that it builds our faith. Not a shallow faith that simply says God can. Of course32:59 God can, that's not faith. That's a theological statement. Not a pseudo faith that says God will because sometimes He doesn't will it the way we hope He will it.33:11 God's ways are mysterious often. We need to understand the ways of God. We cannot make false declarations like God will heal you, God will bless you, God will set you free. Not necessarily33:23 so because sometimes God lets us go through these seasons of life affliction, pain, and tribulation to sanctify us, humble us,33:35 rewire us. The Father knows what He is doing. He is the potter, we are the clay. The Lord is molding and shaping us.33:46 And so we have to learn these are shallow faiths or that kind of faith that say God must. Lord, I served you all these years. You must do this for me. That's a spiritual spoilt bread speaking.34:00 True faith is simply saying God is. Hebrews eleven:six, For without faith it is impossible to please God, for they who come to Him must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them34:12 that diligently seek Him. God is. God is good. God is real. God is faithful. God is love. God is true. God is. In other34:23 words, we encounter Him, we know Him and we put our priority of growing our faith in Him to really know that we know that we know God. This is the cry and34:35 the need of the church to raise a redeemed community, a spiritual remnant that they know God, not just know about God, and they know God because they know the Word of the34:47 living God. Please don't tell me you know God if you don't believe the Word, know the Word and live by the Word. Here's the fourth34:59 paradigm shift therefore, it is our submission. Our submission from mastering the Word to being mastered by the Word of God. And this sense of the Word of God35:11 mastering us is key. Many years ago when I was a senior pastor, this is a medical student. He graduated from35:23 medical school, we were in the church camp and his name is Kai. His father was 1 of the wonderful doctors in 1 of our hospitals, our national35:34 hospitals, 1 of the head of departments there and Kai was following his footsteps as a young doctor. Kai came to me at the camp at Fraser Seal in Malaysia. Pastor, can I see you in the morning? I said,35:46 Sure. So I said, Meet me before the sunrise, before dawn. So before dawn came, in the darkness we met. Then we walked from the campsite to the golf course. I35:58 asked him, Kai, what has the Lord laid upon your heart? And he said, Well, before I became a doctor, when I was in medical school, I surrendered my life to the Lord. Then after I graduated, I have a title. I'm36:10 Doctor Chua Chung Kai. Doctor. The bank started giving me their credit card invitations and various other things come my way. There was a bright future as a doctor. He36:22 said, However, I remember my commitment to the Lord. So pastor, he said, I want to surrender my life afresh to the Lord. I said, That's wonderful, Kai. What would you like to36:33 do? He took up a stethoscope from his plastic bag. He said, This is a symbol of my profession as a doctor. I want to bury this stethoscope. I said, I'll join you. We were looking36:45 around for 2 sticks to dig a hole. For the record, we did not dig an additional hole in the golf course. We went to the side by the bushes, cleared it, dug a hole by the side36:57 and then we buried the stethoscope as a symbol of Pastor Chochung Kai or Doctor Chochung Kai at that time bearing his stethoscope in surrender of his life to the Lord.37:09 And then when the sun came up, we worshipped the Lord and in that worship, his girlfriend at that time, Tina, came to join him. As they walked back to the camp, I was walking behind them,37:21 I heard Tina talking to Kai and she asked a question, Kai, do you love me? And Chung Kai said, Yes. And she said to him, Don't37:33 bury me. Oh, this wonderful couple has since become a pastoral couple in our church for many years now. And he has consecrated his life to the37:45 church, served admirably as our pastor, became the chairman of our denomination and it all started because somewhere down the line, there was a submission to the37:57 calling of God. Build Word centered disciples so that they are not just Bible believing disciples, they should be, but they are Bible living disciples who38:08 surrender their lives to the Lord. Then the fifth paradigm shift, our goal. Our goal is from knowing God to knowing the God of the Word.38:22 Some years back in between worship services, my secretary came to me, my PA, and said, Pastor, there's a lady who wanted to see you. I asked who it was and recognised she38:34 is a sister of a good friend of mine. I said, Sure, I'll be happy to see her. She came and she clutched a journal and then she said, Pastor, I've written something in this journal. I want38:46 God to speak to me. But He doesn't speak to me, so I know God speaks to you, so I want God to speak to me through you. But in order for me to know that God has spoken to38:58 me through you, I've written something in my journal. If you can tell me what I wrote in my journal, then I know what God has spoken to you, then whatever you say I know is from the Lord. Now,39:10 if you were me, what would you say? I say, Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you because God don't give prophecies or demand. But He is the speaking39:22 God, so since you are already here, would you just bow in prayer with me and we have a moment of silence? Just allow God to speak and then I'll pray for you. In that moment of silence,Show more
Paul Jeyachandran
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