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Finding Jonah

A talk that I did on the book of Jonah :)

 

Finding Jonah, a talk based on the book of Jonah Chapter 1

We’re going to go through the Book of Jonah today, growing up I always think that Jonah is really about the man and the big whale, I always thought that it’s another Pinnochio story! But after reading it again, I find that we can learn a lot from this man and his journey of faith, but ultimately, we’re going to see what we can learn from the God of this man, so let’s pray to God so that we can understand His word and that His spirit will soften our heart.

 

Friends have you ever disobey someone’s command and do exactly the opposite thing? I believe each one of us has done it before. When I was small, I was 4 years old, I was still slim trust me. I asked my mother (by coincidence it’s also Yenli’s mother) for a pocket money. She gave me some money, 500 rupiah, which was a lot of money back then. She told me to save the money in my piggy bank. I agreed, I told her I want to save the money. So I went out and head to the shop next door to buy some snack with the money I just acquired. This would have been my first rebellion against my parent, All I remember was that my mother was so upset with me when she found out as I was caught red-handed with a snack in my hand right when I said I was going to save the money.

If you have read Jonah before, you might have remembered that Jonah did the same disobedience by being the runaway prophet, but before we go into the details of the passage today, let’s look on the background context of Jonah.

Historical context of Jonah

There is no time and era that’s mentioned in the book of Jonah, but his name is mentioned in another book in the bible, in the books of 2 Kings chapter 14 verse 23

23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria,and he reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, kwhich he made Israel to sin. 25 lHe restored the border of Israel mfrom Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of nthe Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant oJonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was frompGath-hepher. 26 For the LORD qsaw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, rfor there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. 27 sBut the LORD had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

 

From there we know that Jonah is a prophet who is active during the time of King Jeroboam II which is around 782–753 BC.

And this is the time when because of the Israelite’s sinfulness, they were fighting for the throne between David’s descendant and Jeroboam the First. Kingdom of Israel is divided into two, one part is the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the other one the Kingdom of Judah where the descendant of David reign. The northern Kingdom’s capital is in Samaria, while Kingdom of Judah’s capital is Jerusalem.

 

A map of divided kingdom of Israel

Jonah lives around this Era, an era where his land is torn with civil war. Sin rules in the lives of Israelites, their existence is prolonged only by the mercy of God. And the danger from neighbouring countries is always there. He is from this area Gath-Hepher, in the Galilee area a few miles north of Nazareth.

 

The Word of The Lord Came to Jonah

And then one day, the word of the LORD came to him, and the LORD says “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me”

The LORD’s command was clear it consists of three parts:

  • Arise Jonah,
  • go to Nineveh
  • Call out against Nineveh, for their evil has come up before Him

 

But! We can see the word but in the next verse. Did Jonah go to Nineveh?

No, Jonah rose (well to be fair he did the first part of the command, he rose up) to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went to Joppa and rode a ship to Tarshish.

 

Friends, we can see that this is not one of Google Map’s mistake, It’s not like Jonah was trying to go to Nineveh and just got misdirected. Tarshish is way in the west and possibly Spain at that time. Nineveh is on the east, but Jonah went to the west to Tarshish instead! And think about it, He didn’t really need to go to the port in Joppa to go to Nineveh! He should travel by land not by sea! Jonah intentionally went against God’s word, he disobeyed God and  he was running away from the presence of the LORD.

Map Jonah's running away from God instead of Nineveh, he went to tarsish instead

Why Jonah Run away

Why did Jonah ran away and goes against God’s command? Its nit because he didmt understand, god s cmman was dlear. Let’s see where God is telling Jonah to go and let’s examine why Jonah failed on the second part of the command. Now Nineveh is a great city. According to the bible it’s three days journey in breadth, and there are about 120,000 people living in there.

The problem is not where Nineveh is, Jonah wasn’t running away from north because it’s winter or because he had to choose mountain or beach, he was running away because what Nineveh is and what God is telling Him to do. Nineveh is the capital of Assyrian Empire.  

map of assyrian empire on Jonah's timeAssyrian Empire and The Kingdom of Israel are not buddy-buddy, Assyria was the enemy of Kingdom of Israel. Assyria was hungry to expand their kingdom beyond their border, in the history we can see that the empire later on conquered Kingdom of Israel and even expanded to beyond Egypt. Assyria was the most powerful state in the world at that time and Nineveh was their capital. You can compare Nineveh and Assyria with Rome of the Roman Empire or New York of USA today. But even worse for jonah this is the capital of a country that’s hostile to your country.

 

So we can maybe start to understand Jonah’s feeling a bit, there is a sense of nationalism, he was probably thinking:

“Why should I go over to the capital of my people’s enemy, and even warn them about the destruction that is going to happen??”

 

“Wouldn’t it better that if they got destroyed? After all they are not hebrew, they deserve it.”

 

“They are not israeleite, why should god give mercy to gentiles?”

 

But here we see that Jonah failed to understand God’s compassionate character. It wasn’t really his right to decide whether God should forgive Nineveh or not. Wouldn’t it be God’s right? Since He is the creator, he has the right to destroy Nineveh. But God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He told Jonah to call out against them so that they might be warned and they might repent and be saved. But Jonah have no compassion on them, and he chose to go away and run away to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Friends when we’re reading this we might be laughing a bit, “Ha, running away from the presence of the Lord? How can you? Yet sometimes we know don’t we, there are times when we do run away from God, Jonah’s reaction to God’s command is so relatable and all too familiar since we know that sometimes we as Christians do that as well.

 

It’s not because we don’t understand God’s command, like Jonah we understand God’s command but we choose to flee, and we choose to go to the opposite direction. Can we run away from God then?

 

Of course not! Let’s look at verse 4 – “But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.” You can’t run away from God, you can try to run but you certainly can’t hide from God, for God is sovereign,and where is Jonah? He was fast asleep in the inner part of the ship!!

 

The captain was shocked that there is someone sleeping even when death is lurking nearby. So he said “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” Jonah might realise that this is the second time he heard the word “Arise”


Imagine if you’re Jonah, you already heard God telling you to do something then you ran away because you don’t want to do it, then suddenly someone told you to call out to God because otherwise you’ll perish! And ironically, the one who told Jonah to call out to the LORD was a gentile, a non believer!

 

Jonah And The Mariners

From this passage we are introduced to another group of characters, which is the mariners, we’ll find contrasting difference between Jonah and them.

So the people on the boat, they gather, after calling out to their gods and it didn’t work, they then cast lot to find out who’s responsible for this danger. And the lot fell on Jonah. Of course this is very different from lottery, Jonah would be exceedingly glad if he won the lottery, but this is a different kind of lot obviously, they were trying to see who is the cause of this mighty tempest.

 

So the mariners interrogated Jonah asking him :

  • On whose account this evil has come upon us
  • What is your occupation?
  • Where do you come from?
  • What is your country?
  • Of what people are you?

And Jonah answered answer proudly that he is a Hebrew. Hebrew people are the descendants of Abraham, it’s another word for Israelites or Jews. And that he fears the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. And he told them that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD.

 

And the mariners were exceedingly afraid when he mentioned this particular God that Jonah had offend.

 

The mariners were not believer of God, each one had their own god as it was mentioned in verse 5.

But they know…they needed to fear this LORD the God of Heaven, Yahweh who took the hebrews out of egypt. Yahweh who helped Israel to win the promised land. Yahweh the God of Abraham. Yahweh the God of David and Solomon. They know how great is the LORD. They know that they need to be afraid.

 

Especially when they know that Jonah is fleeing away from the presence of the LORD, they know that Jonah is guilty and they’re now on the same boat with him, LITERALLY!

 

Then they said to Jonah, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” Verse 11.

 

Guys at this point, if we’re thinking rationally, Jonah just need to say

“Well…point the ship’s direction to Nineveh. God wanted me to call the people of Nineveh to repent, so let’s go there.” Done, no more running away from God? Right? Surely God will forgive Jonah after that!

 

But no, Jonah said “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”

 

Jonah hardened his heart, for him, it’s better that he’s thrown to the sea, rather than for him to go to Nineveh and tell them to repent.

He doesn’t value the lives of his enemy! It’s better that I die think Jonah.

 

On the contrary the mariners, instead of throwing Jonah straightaway, (after all even Jonah himself didn’t mind) they tried their best to avoid that option. They rowed hard to get back to safety, they rowed and rowed, perhaps they don’t need to sacrifice this hebrew guy, but they could not…

And forcedly, they called out to the LORD that they might not be blamed for this, and they threw Jonah away into the sea.

 

The Merciful God

“And the sea ceased from its raging” the mariners were delivered from their doom by the mercy of God.

 

But not only that the mariners were saved from physical harm, you can see that the mariners showed that they actually fear the LORD in the end. v 16 “Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.”

Jonah was disobeying God, but in the end God actually used that event to bring back the mariners to worship Him in the end. It’s amazing isn’t it?

 

But how about Jonah? He disobeyed God, so he doesn’t deserve the mercy from God. But how merciful God is! He appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah so that he won’t drown in the deep into the heart of the seas. And more about that on next week.

 

The greater call out

Brothers and sister in Christ, from the story of Jonah we can learn about God’s character.

God is a merciful God who doesn’t wish to see mankind to perish.

 

“a bruised reed he will not break,

and a faintly burning wick he will not quench”

 

And we can see that his salvation plan was not only for Jonah, Israel, Nineveh, but for all the nations.

 

For we know that God sent his one and only son on a greater mission than Jonah. God sent his son Jesus to call out not only to Nineveh but against nations to repent and to believe in Him so that they can be forgiven.

 

God sent his own son to die for our sins and evil.

Such is our merciful God. He doesn’t wish that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

 

Application

Now friends if we now know the character of God what should be our response? We’re on the last point:

 

In this life we have two ways to live, one

  1. to keep living the way you are, keep living without acknowledging God.
  2. The other way is to live for God with Jesus as your King.

 

Friends if you feel that you fall on the first category. Our God is merciful, he loves you, and he wants you to repent and accept this grace. To the point that He is willing to send His son Jesus to die for you. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts anymore. Hear God calling you out for your sins and wants you to come to Him. Stop running away from God and know that he’s gracious enough to take you back. If you haven’t responded to his call, respond now, for the danger is imminent. And if you hear today’s passage now, it means God is calling you out again.

And for us who think that we’re already following God, who thinks that we’re already on God’s side already. Isn’t Jonah such a great reminder for us?

From the passage we can see the differences between Jonah and the mariners

 

Despite their different faith and background, they had different attitude and action. Jonah even though he was the one who “Feared” the Lord, didn’t behave like someone who would Fear the Lord, while the mariners who didn’t Fear the Lord, ended up fearing the Lord. Jonah had no compassion of His LORD, while ironically the mariners had similar compassion with The LORD.

 

There are times when we acknowledge Him but not living under His’s rule. This is what Jonah did, he claimed that he feared the Lord, but his action doesn’t show that he feared the LORD. He didn’t respect God’s mercy for the Nineveh, he didn’t respect God’s mercy to the undeserving. The same goes with us today. We can easily claim “I am a christian and I fear the Lord, Jesus Christ who died for me and my sin and is now my king.” But not really living for him at all.

“Yes on friday and sunday I’ll be a good christian, I’ll go to church, I’ll go to bible study. But the rest of the time, it is my life!, Jesus is not really my king.”

Aren’t there times when we know God wants you to share the gospel to that enemy of yours but you feel that person doesn’t deserve it? There are times when we play God, and we pick and choose who God should give His mercy to.

Aren’t there times when we know that making a certain decision that we make will make us further from God but we do it anyway?

Yes I know I shouldn’t date someone who doesn’t believe in God but oh well, we do it anyway.

Yes I know I shouldn’t pursue this job because it will make me super busy and I won’t have any time for God, but oh well, we do it anyway.

Friends this is another way of running away from God, this little rebellion of ours, our very own Tarsish! We hide our life away from God so that He can’t use it for His glory!

Friends, if this is you, I want us to remember our old state, when we were undeserving, Christ died for us. This life we are living has been bought by His mercy. This seconds we’re living are meant to be used for His glory. Sobrothers and sisters in Christ, let us not run away anymore, our God is gracious and he will take us back, so let’s give our life for Him, and live it for Him.

Happy Easter! ~More than Chocolate Egg

Happy Easter! Or I think it’d be better to say happy Christ death and resurrection day! As much as I wish that the resurrection of Christ has any connection with easter egg chocolate, it doesn’t.

Thank God that in Jesus’ death we can attain forgiveness, for he who’s blameless took the punishment and became our forgiveness. And we’re not celebrating Jesus’ death only but his resurrection too for:

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15: 17-20 ESV

Because he live indeed, we have a hope :) A hope that’s not dead, a living hope that for sure as God raised Jesus Christ, we’ll be raised up too with him in the end.

How to test the spirits for Christians – A sermon from 1 John 4:1-6

how to test the spirit for dummies

I haven’t been uploading comic strips since I have been busy doing something else. I got an opportunity to preach at my church :)

 

Here is the transcript below:

Introduction

Good morning brothers and sisters in Christ, my name is Andrias, I’m a member of Gereja Focus Indonesia. I’m married to Savitri over there, she’s the reason I’m here this morning as she keeps telling me “stop playing game and do your sermon”. It is such a privilege that I can be here to preach the word of God today. We’ll need God’s help to go through the passage and to understand His word, so how about I pray first before we start.

 

Prayer

Father in heaven, praised be to your name for your grace and mercy for calling us to be your people, we thank you for your living word and truth that leads us to salvation in Jesus. Father God give us your spirit that we may discern your word, and let your word shape our life today, in Jesus name we pray, amen.

If you would like to write down notes, here is a simple outline of today’s talk.

I’ll leave it there for a while.

Passage Intro

Brothers and Sisters, have you ever been a victim of hoax? In these recent days, it’s very common for people to become a victim of fake news or fake announcement, after all we live in the digital information age, where every kinds of information is within our palm. But it’s very hard to know whether the thing that we just read is true or false. After all don’t we all believe that if it’s on the internet, it must be correct! If it’s on the facebook newsfeed and my friend’s Like is there it must be correct!

 

Let’s do a quick test and let’s see if you can know which one is true or fake?

CNBC has reported that it’s actually dangerous to do a selfie with the victory sign a.k.a the asian style, apparently as the phone camera is getting more and more advanced, identity thief can steal your fingerprint!

 

Story number 2: Some of you may know that The Simpsons correctly predicted that Donald Trump will be president of The United States, but apparently, they also correctly guessed that Pokemon Go will be out in the future! Look at that adorable Pikachu!

 

Story number 3:

Donald Trump is known for his extravagant lifestyle, he had this family photo snapped couple of years ago.

 

Which one do you think is a true?

1? 2? 3?

 

Ah very good guess,

For the first story: it is a hoax, It is not proven that people can steal your fingerprint from your selfies! So yeah, you can continue doing selfie with this pose

 

Second story: Yep the image has been doctored, it’s fake

 

And yep third photo is actually a real family photo of Trump.

 

Brother and sisters not everything that you hear is true, there are lots of lies that circles around in this world. This is the problem that John is trying to address the believers back then. And even worse this is not about fake news about Donald Trump or not, this is about fake teaching, false teaching that has potential to lead the believers’ faith astray.

 

John began this chunk of passage with a straightforward exhortation by saying “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

 

John tells the christians to not believe every spirit, instead they ought to be critical and crosscheck the spirits and test whether they are from God or not. Because clearly as John said, many false prophets have gone out into the world. So not every teaching are correct, not everything that you hear are the from the spirit of truth.

 

How to test the spirit

But the next question is, how do we test them?

How do we know whether someone comes with the spirit of God or the spirit of antichrist? John says in the verse 2 and 3:

 

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, [3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist.

 

  1. Test 1 Testing from the Confession

If we look at the context of the time, John was probably rebutting a movement within the Christian community at that time called gnosticism which talked about separation of spirit and flesh. (again test me guys, go check if what I’m saying is the truth or not later on),  But regardless not confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh has a lot of impact in our whole biblical faith.

It’s saying Jesus didn’t come from God,

it’s saying Jesus didn’t die for you for he didn’t have flesh!

it’s saying Jesus is not human and God at the same time,

It’s saying he’s not suitable for our sin’s atonement because he’s not human

It’s saying that he’s not our high priest,

It’s saying that his death is not valid in front of God and saying that your faith is rendered useless!!

 

Therefore John’s remark was really clear, they who doesn’t confess that Jesus hasn’t come in the flesh, is the spirit of the antichrist!!! Which you heard was coming, and now is in the world already. Christians are led astray by it, and John’s message are written for the sole purpose of that christians won’t be deceived but instead keep abiding in the spirit of truth!

 

  1. Test 2 Testing From Listening

The second way to test a spirit is by testing who they’re listening to. Do not be surprised that those who are not from God, they don’t want to listen to whatever from God because they are from the world. They don’t speak of wiGod but instead they speak from the world and the world listens to them. Let’s look at verse 5 and 6 together with me

 

“They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. [6] We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

It’s very true what Jesus said in the Gospel of John

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

John 10:27

 

These spirits, instead of listening to God and knowing God, they rather speak from the world, teaching things that’s of the world, and guess what the world loves them! Because they’re speaking the same language. And it makes perfect sense that they’re speaking from the world. For they don’t listen to God, that’s why all that they’re speaking is of the world. All that they confess is of the world.

 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if the world loves what you’re saying or whatever you’re sharing and says this to you “Hey you don’t speak like other christians, we like you, you speak like us.” Don’t be happy, that’s definitely not a compliment, that means you’re not speaking the truth enough, you’re a salt that’s not salty enough!

 

The teaching of the world can come in many forms, it can come by speaking in half truth, for example teaching that Jesus didn’t come in the flesh.

The world loves this because it means there is a separation between spirit and the flesh, you can do whatever with flesh, and spirit will stay holy.

Or the teaching  can be pretty subtle, for saying that Jesus is a great philosphical teacher, nothing more, because it means they don’t need to obey him as God.

The world loves this because this means there is not an essence of God in Him!

Or adding stuff to the gospel, as if what Jesus had done is not enough, adding new tradition, saying that you can pay for your sins, the world loves this because they can add their pride to the gospel.

False teaching!

 

Anything that doesn’t highlight the gospel, the real gospel, highlighting what Jesus as the Son of God has done are the teaching of the world, and is not from God.

 

They’re not confessing Jesus, but rather speaking something else. They love speaking things of this world, because that’s what falls onto the itching ears of the people of the world!

 

  1. Real Confession and Real Listening

Confessing that Jesus has come in the flesh and listening to God is the way to test the spirits. But sure confessing sounds really easy, just say that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, then you sort of pass the test. Everyone can say it easily! But this comes from our current worldly standard that word is cheap. You can say anything but don’t really mean it. But a real confession means a much more deeper implication, it carries interconnected  implication. For example, if I say that “I’m married to Savitri”, the reality that is attached to it, is not as simple as a mere sentence. That sentence means that I have made a lifelong commitment to love my wife and to live with her under Christ  until the day one of us die, and all that comes just from the sentence “I’m married to Savitri”

How about the sentence Jesus Christ has come in the flesh then?

The reality that’s attached to confession is that when christians confessing what Jesus Christ has done by incarnating as flesh, they confess that Jesus is the Son of God in the flesh, and only believing and abiding in Jesus they can be saved. A true confession is reflected by their action in abiding in Jesus, whether they keep God’s commandment or not, whether they live for Christ or not. Just like last week’s sermon, in John 3:24 “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him,. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the spirit whom he has given us.”

 

The same goes with listening, it’s not just merely hearing! Notice the difference: According to oxford dictionary:

Hearing is “to Perceive with the ear the sound made by someone or something”

It’s just using your ear. But

Listening is “to take notice of and act on what someone says; respond to advice or a request”

Listening comes with a mind that’s willing to take notice and even act! An active effort to listening the word of God and willing to act on it, that’s the true Listening. It’s not just hearing in one ear and it goes in and out. The mind takes notice and act on it. So if you’re listening to the apostle’s teaching, if you’re listening to the word of God, are you willing to be transformed by it? Are you willing to show it in your real life? Are you willing to keep God’s commandment after listening?


Brothers and sisters in Christ this is the reality that within christians there are spirits that don’t really confess Jesus Christ and doesn’t listen to God. That’s why test the spirit.

 

I hope by now you’re convinced that it is important to test the spirits.

But some say isn’t it gracious to be trusting, to not question everything with suspicion, but giving the benefit of the doubt to someone. That sounds really good, but the motivation behind not testing the spirit is most of the time because we’re lazy! We’re not willing to check up on the bible whether a teaching is correct or not, we’re not willing to learn by ourselves, we prefer being spoon fed by someone else without digging harder and make effort to know what’s the truth!

 

If you want to abide in Christ, test the spirit! The ability to discern truth from error is the sign that you’re growing as Christian!

 

TEST the spirit, test even me too! Am I speaking the truth of Christ crucified today? Or am I teaching you another kind of gospel? Am I teaching from the right source which is the bible?

 

I have a nephew named Joshua (not Joshua Ng) he is now 2 and half years old, he can now start to argue with me. I find this amazing, when he was 2, he wasn’t able to argue with me, anything that I say, he’ll trust me. But now he can test me, I learned this when he’s singing the song Thomas and his friends from the tv show. You guys know Thomas right? It’s a children tv show about a train called Thomas and his friends. And I’ll deliberately sing with the wrong lyric, it’s actually Thomas and his friends. But I sing it as Thomas and his Truck, or Thomas and his Aeroplane, and my nephew will start to pout, and he’ll say NO, No uncle, Thomas and his friends. He can now test me, and say that I’m wrong for he has seen the original song from the TV, he knows which one is the right one!


This is part of growing up as Christian, to be able to test the spirit, to be able to discern what’s of the spirit of truth or what of the spirit of error. You can see from the tone how John writes his letter, he’s talking as a pastor to his sheep, beloved, little children, listen to me, heed my teaching. And his prayer is that the christians won’t be deceived, and that they will abide in the Lord.

 

  1. The Comfort: power to abides

And yes, christians can and will abide in the Lord, John comforted the christians by reminding them that they are from God, and they have overcome them, look at verse 4  

 

“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world”

 

Not that the christians have a super strong faith that they can abide in the Lord and not swayed at all, but because the One who you believe in, is much more greater than any spirit who is in this world. It’s the object of the faith that christians has that is the cornerstone of our hope and salvation, our faith in Jesus the son of God who died and resurrected by God, in there lies the power, much greater than anything in this world. Paul has the same confidence in his letter to the phillipians:

 

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

 

  1. Application

 

So how do we apply what we have heard  today in our daily life?

  1. Firstly of course, test the spirit, be an active and critical listener of the teaching around you. Is it biblical? Is it highlighting Christ or the world?

 

  1. Secondly, Test your own spirit! Whoa, I thought you’re talking about preachers only??? Yes, but with whatever measure that you use to judge someone, you’ll be measured as well! Do not let other’s speck in someone’s eye block the view of the log in your own eye! Have you yourself confessed that Jesus Christ is from God? Is your confession is a true confession that’s produces a reality in your life in submission to our Lord Jesus Christ? Or is it a mere words rather than a real confession?

 

  1. Thirdly, are you listening to God, or are you listening to the world? Which one do you like to listen better? The biblical message, the gospel that keeps highlighting Jesus greatness, or do you have the itching ears to listen the more sensual messages from the world?

    When is the last time you’re listening with joy to the gospel of God being preached? When is the last time you’re listening with excitement and exclaim that this is a faithful teaching, And as we see before, listening is not hearing, has your life been changed by listening to God?

 

If you’re prefer to listens to the world my friend, my message is wake up! Stop listening to the sweet tune of the world, because all that there is will only lead to destruction not salvation! Trust in Jesus Christ who is greater than the spirit of the world!

 

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as we go away from this place, my prayer is that all of us will be strengthened by the spirit from God, to discern the truth and live upon it in our daily life. Let’s pray.

 

Closing Prayer
Father God, we praise you for your great salvation work in Jesus Christ, we thank you for saving us and giving us your spirit of truth, father help us to keep listening to your voice, and keep abiding in you until the end. Amen.