A Glorious Chinese New Year Service @ City Harvest, KL

9 Feb 2013 by Natasha Kim-

 

City Harvest Church Kuala Lumpur (CHCKL) recently held their special midweek service in celebration for Chinese New Year (CNY). The service began with a Praise and Worship session where everyone danced and sang their hearts out for the Lord. This service, they also incorporated many Chinese and English translations and songs for the New Year to cater to the mix crowd of 800 over people who attended. 

 

 

They then added a bit of fun with a game session where they had the crowd guessing the songs. They also gave out CNY hampers. There was even a singing performance by truly talented singers as well as a beat boxing and dance performance. Everyone was excited and they definitely loved it.

 

A Family that Prays together Stays together.

When it was time to listen, everyone calmed down, took their seats and fully devoted their attention to the front., A family of three came up to share their touching testimony of their past and how they got closer as a family as they started attending the Church.

 

 

Initially as parents, they felt uncomfortable because the majority of the congregation was very young but through bible studies with guidance from their Pastor, God opened the door of communication between them and now their family relationship has improved tremendously!

 

Building a Kingdom Culture

A culture is a collective growth and a system of belief, practices and relational boundaries. It reveals how life is lived among a particular group of people.

Pastor Keith Tay preached the sermon on this special day. He starting, “If you know how to give God the priority, God will set the priority in your life.” A lot of times when you listen to this word culture you’ll relate to hard work, excellence and growth. We should always present the best on behalf of God and to learn to serve people the best we know how. “Everyone learns to embrace culture for example in our music, fashion sense, and the way we present the Church of God in this Century.” he said. The culture of growth is in our DNA. Everything that has life will grow and everything that doesn’t have life just won’t grow. Therefore it is important that all of us must not lose it but instead protect it.

 

 

Biblical & Spiritual Culture.

It is important for a Church to cultivate the right habits. Pastor Keith said, “These habits will eventually shape our character and determine our destiny. I want to talk to you about the culture of honouring God and your parents.” This is the first commandment in the Bible that comes with a promise.

Exodus 20:12

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Honour in this case, would be to celebrate a person for who he is and not to stumble over who he is not. “If you can get this revelation then it will not be difficult to honour your parents anymore or even your teachers! Do not focus on areas that a person is not good at but rather focus on the good and respect the person, because none of us are perfect anyway.”

 

 

The Book of Ephesians stated that, “We are accepted as the beloved.” The fact that God accepts us for who we are indeed shows us that we should accept other people for who they are! Pastor Keith added on and said, “If there is more criticism and judgment within the house of God than outside means there is something very wrong. In reality people really get judged when they come to Church e.g why is your hair like that? Or why are you dressed like that?  If this happens in the church, we will become paranoid.” Therefore we really need to remember this, ‘When we respect, we draw people to us but when we disrespect, we distance people away. And unless we respect that person and their anointing, we would distance ourselves away.”

 

Honour the Person Closest to You

Pastor Keith reminded us to understand the grace of the person and know the distinctiveness of the person. Jesus understood this perfectly. Honour should be given to the one closest to you, those who see your weaknesses. He simply explained this truth, “The fact that parents stay with you (they are the closest to you), you should honour them. For those who are not married, your parents are the ones closest to you, for through all the good and bad, they are the ones that have raised you up. On the other hand, parents must also honour their children even though they have seen all the bad and the good in you.” he said.

 

 

For example, the Nazareth was the people who watched Jesus grow up and they are the ones who are closest to him yet they did not honour Him. And because of that no great miracles happened. Pastor Keith mentioned that, “Jesus was honoured everywhere except for his own home town.”

This is especially true in the Chinese culture as Keith pointed out. They like to make comparisons of between each other, between relatives or between their own children. The fact is honoring the ones closest to you is the most difficult because you see all their flaws. To put it simply, it’s just like when you come face to face with someone all the time, you will soon realize their scars and their pimples yet we are to love them.

“Kingdom culture says that we honour the ones that are closest to us. It is easy sometimes to honour those above you but when you are close to them, it would be challenge to do so. When more things are being shown to you in a personal way, you start wanting them to earn your honour.” The people around you have been placed there for specific reasons and as you honour them, you will truly be blessed by God!

 

Dear Viewers in Christ, if you find this article edifying to you, please share with your friends or loved ones by using the social media plugs (Share, Email to this article). The Lord will surely bless you as you bless others. May the Lord’s peace and love be with you. Amen.