16 Jan 2013 by Robin Piong CM-
Timothy Loh, senior pastor of Eaglepoint Puchong addressed the packed congregation of 250 people on Sunday’s service on the need to rely on God as our strength. The strength of God is our inheritance and God wants us to experience that. He is now teaching a series, entitled simply ‘In’.
Before Pastor came up to speak, Clement Loke, a lay leader of the church, shared a few words of encouragement about seeking God and seeking his grace. God is our father and when he looks at us, he sees Jesus in us. God our father will always accept us as his beloved, where his grace abounds in us. After sharing, the offering bags were passed around and Clement prayed fervently that God will bless the offerings for the work of his kingdom.
Subsequently, Steven Teoh, a full time pastor shared about the coming church retreat ‘Victory Weekend’ and how in the past, an attendee named Lily experienced God moving in her life; she witnessed her father accepting the Lord. Steven had the privilege to pray and to tear down idols of three generations in Lily’s father’s home. “You see Lily had prayed for her dad to be saved for more than 20 years,” Pastor Steven added.
Interestingly, Chris Leong, a lively young man who have been serving in the church children ministry and community service in Puchong came up to bid farewell as he will be going to Australia to further his studies. Chris gave a heart-warming thank you speech to the people who invested their lives and time in him and also the church who has been very loving and caring. He stressed, “Not only have I found God’s love and care here but I also found God’s people here.”
Mark Ng, the church lay pastor then came up and prayed for more divine appointments for Chris.
In today’s message, Timothy Loh preached that we must be strong ‘In’ him and that we must decide our ‘In’. Once we have decided on our ‘In’, we will see the result of it. We are the product of our ‘In’. He stressed that our ‘In’ will determine our ‘Out’. The more Christ is in us, the more Christ will be seen out of us or through us.
In general, people draw strength from a few sources to overcome whatever trials and difficulties. There are those who draw strength individually and there are those who draw strength from the team.
Some are dependant on their financial strength and some through friendship. There are those whose families are closely knitted, where they can draw strength from their families.
But all in all, we should draw our strength from God because not only it is our inheritance but God wants us to experience his type of strength.
Zechariah 4:6 ‘Not by power nor by might but by my spirit, says the Lord’
Timothy shared about his early days work as a pastor where it was never a bed of roses but of hard work day in and day out. He would routinely wake up at 5am to get ready for his work at an international IT company. He need to leave his house early just to beat the traffic jam and like most international company, it was very result-oriented. After work, he would have at least three meetings in counseling people or attending church meetings. Also, he will need to spend time to prepare sermons and prayers.
“Looking back… the only way i manage to do all these things is because I constantly drew strength from the Lord,” said Timothy.
He shared some bible characters on Daniel, David, Samson, Nehemiah, Joseph and Haggai, on how each one of them overcame adversities, wars, trials and tribulations by relying on the strength of God. In short, his teaching was straight-to-the-point, compact and inspiring to the congregation.
Particularly fascinating was how God delivered David from Saul who was going after his life.
Psalms 18:32 ‘For it is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect’
Psalms 18:35 ‘You give me your shield of victory and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.
Ironically, in one of David’s battle at Ziklag, his own men who were demoralized and depressed planned to kill him because of a losing battle. But David found strength in God.
1 Samuel 30:6 ‘But David found strength in the Lord his God’
Also inspiring was Samson in Judges 16, where he lost all his strength and might because of his folly in a woman named Delilah. Samson prayed to God to strengthen him just once more where he famously brought down the pillars and destroyed the temple of the Philistines killing all the people in it.
Timothy Loh then raised the fundamental question: How can we be strong in the Lord? The answer lies in Ephesians 6:10,11,14-18
Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the devil’s schemes.
- Belt of Truth
- Breastplate of Righteousness
- Feet fitted with gospel of Peace
- Shield of Faith
- Helmet of Salvation
- Sword of the spirit, the Word of God
- Pray in the spirit with all kinds of Prayer
It is by having all these SEVEN undeniable ingredients in our life that we are able to be strong in the Lord and have strength at all times and strength in all things.
In closing, an altar call was given to those who need prayers to receive the strength of God.
Many came forward in response to the altar call. Incidentally during the earlier part of worship, the church was worshipping God with the song “Cornerstone” from Hillsongs which simply summed up today’s sermon;
Christ Alone,
Cornerstone,
Weak made Strong !
To know more about Eaglepoint Church Puchong or to listen to the audio sermons, log in to www.eaglepoint.org.my
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