Our God Who Comforts | Pastor Roland Lee

0:01 From Anniversary Joy to Personal Grief: Introducing God's Comfort Praise God and last weekend we had such an amazing anniversary service. Were you blessed those of you who you were here who are here and we had such a great sense of God's presence. You know, just celebrating our 40th anniversary and just enjoying the Lord's presence and enjoying our presence with with one another. 0:20 Well, this weekend I'd like to share a message that is quite not quite, but very special and very, very personal to me and I hope that this message will be useful to you and it will bless your heart. 0:36 About two weeks ago on the late night of 21st August, my dad passed away peacefully at the age of 88 and my family was settling the Fed, the Funeral arrangements all the way to the early morning of Friday, which was 22nd of August and 22nd of August. 0:58 I was still settling my dad's passing. I was looking through my calendar and it happened to be my anniversary, OK, the anniversary date of my ordination in FCBC. OK. That means basically ordination. 1:14 They'll put a Reverend OK in front of our name and I hope I'll be relevant also. And, and it was coming close to 10 years really of that ordination service. And you know, during the few days of our the bereavement, I used an opportunity to also pay tribute to my father, who so many years ago, more than close to 30 years ago, despite his great objection, OK gave me permission to resign from Ministry of Defence, even though he was really, really hesitant and unhappy about it. 1:47 But he finally gave me his, his blessing. And just like Pastor Roger, I'm coming close to 30 years as a full time pastor already. So I gave on and tribute to my dad. Yeah. Clap louder for Jesus. 2:03 OK. And go ahead and do that. And well, it is. Yeah. My dad passed on two weeks ago. And you know, as a pastor, I've done many memorial services and Funeral services as well. And this weekend, as I come to share this message, it is not something that I'm unfamiliar with as a pastor. 2:25 Even when my dad passed on, you know, we were handling the different arrangements that were needed. I knew exactly what to do LA OK when I was in my mother's home. But as I come to share this message and I asked, senior pastor, can I share this message related to what has happened for me and my family over the last two weeks? 2:45 Pastor. Yeah, go ahead and share this message. The lot is just reminding me that today as I come and share, I'm not just sharing as a pastor, OK, but I'm sharing also as a son who is still grieving the loss of my father. 3:03 Is that OK with us this evening for me to do that? So some church members asked me, hey, pastor, how you feeling? Are you OK? You know, are you good? Are you all right already? So and so forth. The truth of the matter is that different moments, different feelings and my personality is that I, I, I'm someone who needs to be doing a lot of things, quite active person. 3:28 So there are those times when I'm doing a lot of things, settling a lot of things. So I think I'm OK. But there are also those moments where I actually don't feel so OK, especially those moments where I have nothing much to do or think about. And then that kind of feeling or that sense of grief and loss will come back. 3:45 But I guess like someone once said, you know, pain or grief actually comes in waves. And I guess I'm in that kind of situation. And of course, people around me have advised me and also people, and the Lord himself has been speaking to me. 4:01 We don't have to rush through that pain or that grief in our lives. 4:05 Understanding God's Comfort in All Our Troubles So I pray that this weekend the message will speak to you. And of course, God's Word is always powerful. Amen. And the power of God's Word is not dependent on how strong or how weak the preacher is, but God's word is always powerful regardless. 4:24 So this weekend my message related to all that has happened is called our God who comforts, Our God who comforts. Turn to your friend and say our God is a God who comforts you, and I our God who comforts. 4:43 Amen. And I like to read our key passage for this evening from 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 3 to 4. And the word of God says all praise to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4:58 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given to us Now, right here in God's Word, the apostle Paul actually says God comforts us in all our troubles, all our troubles. 5:19 And what does he mean or what did Paul mean when he talks about all our troubles? Well, I believe it covers different aspects. It covers the pain of loss, of trials, of disappointments, of pressures and difficult seasons that we all will at one point or another go through in our lives. 5:38 And the fact of the matter is, friends, brothers and sisters, none of us in life can ever be shielded from all these things. But whatever is the cause of our pain, God is always the source of our comfort. 5:55 And Paul says right here and describes God as our merciful Father. Our merciful Father is the source of our comfort. This means that when we are going through pain, when we are going through grief, when our hearts are broken and we are feeling lost and wondering where should we go to, we can maybe, perhaps not understand what is happening. 6:18 Well, there's one place or one person that we can always go to. We can always go to God because He's the source of our comfort. How many of you can say an Amen to death? We can always go to God. And the Bible has never, ever promise that Christians will never experience sicknesses or disappointments or loss or death. 6:42 We are not exempted from all these things which other people all over the world are experiencing. And the reality is that we are we are living in a broken world and we will go through pains, but we do not go through pain on our own or go through pain alone. 7:02 And our Father will always draw close to us. Now in the verses that we have just read in two Corinthians that we have just read chapter one that we have just read the Bible points us out, points out to us another important fact that in the pain that we are going through in the difficult seasons that we are going through, God can use us as well. 7:25 So in two Corinthians, one for it's, it says God, he comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. And God wants us to know tonight, church brothers and sisters in Christ, that God meets us in our pain, not just to comfort us, but God meets us in our pain so that we can in turn bring his comfort to others. 7:54 In a sense, what the Word of God is saying to us is that there is a purpose to our pain. And one of the very important purpose is that we become people who will bring comfort to others. So over the past two weeks of my father's passing, I've been experiencing God's comfort in very, very real ways. 8:19 And I prayed as I share this sermon interspersed with some personal stories and experience. It will bless you. So we want to learn together this evening. How does God comfort us in times of pain? 8:34 Right. If God is our God of comfort, how does he then comfort us in times of pain? 8:39 God's Presence Amidst Our Deepest Pain Well, God comforts us in times of pain. Firstly with his presence, with his beautiful, beautiful presence. You know how many of you enjoy the time of worship just now? God's presence was just so strong here. 8:56 Amen. As our team was leading us as Pastor Asher was leading us to the Lord's. But the Lord's presence was just so strong. And God in our times of grief and pain, He will always comfort us with His presence. Psalm Study 3/18 says the Lord is close to the broken hearted. 9:15 He rescues those whose spirits are crushed. The Bible doesn't say that God is disappointed with Christians and the disciples for being so weak, for being so sad or struggling. He doesn't. He doesn't say that God doesn't avoid the broken hearted. 9:33 God doesn't even say that He is watching over the broken hearted. But the Word of God tells us that the Lord is close to the broken hearted. How many of you can say Amen to that? As you are going through pain, as you are going through difficult moments, the Lord is close to you. 9:51 Fist bump your friend and say he's so close to you, bro. He's so close to you, sister. He is that close to you. You know, over the last few weeks of what my family has gone through, I experienced and understood God's comforting presence in a much, much deeper way. 10:11 And you know, when we think about God coming to comfort us, sometimes we have this misconception that, oh, God is coming to comfort me. That means he will very quickly, he will immediately take away the pain that I'm going through. 10:31 Ah, you answer my prayer. If I will say to him, God, make this horrible feeling, this painful feeling go away right now in the name of Jesus, Lord, change the situation now. Give me an answer now, God, why is this happening? 10:47 Well, the truth of the matter is that yes, there could be times when God comes to our rescue immediately, but there are also often times and moments that the circumstances do not change the way we want them to. 11:05 And when things do not change and when we don't get the answer that we pray for, then what do we do? What should our attitude be? Well, in those moments when nothing is happening, the answer or the outcomes that we want is not happening, is not taking place. 11:28 Something very, very precious happens. God's comfort does not always remove our pain, but it assures us of His presence amid our pain. 11:44 And we need to capture and receive this into our hearts and to our spirit that if you are to paraphrase this, in those moments when we are struggling so badly, God is saying my presence is with you, My presence is enough for you. 12:05 No answers, no solutions, no running away from that pain. Well, my presence is with you. And King David says in Psalms Retrievers 4 Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. 12:28 You know God. As we walk with the Lord, we will realize that sometimes as we go through the darkest valleys, God may not take us out of the darkest valley, but he promises that he walks with us through the darkest valley. 12:50 And King David, the man of God, has learned this important truth that Jesus, God, was his shepherd. But it doesn't mean that because he's our shepherd, we will never walk through dark valleys. 13:07 But the promise of God is that even when we walk through the darkest valley, the Lord is with us, His presence is with us. And I've learnt over these few weeks of everything that has happened, that in our lives there will be valleys, there will be difficult seasons, there will be days that we cannot understand everything fully. 13:35 But I must learn to say, and I want to encourage you to learn to say, Yet God, you are with me. Your presence is with me. You know, if you have gone through dark valleys or trials or testings in your life before, you would know that some of those dark valleys could be a few days. 13:59 Some of those dark valleys could be a few weeks. For some of us, the dark valleys a few weeks. Some of us the dark valleys many, many weeks or even months. Some of us are dark valleys, even years. 14:16 And as I was thinking through this truth, I recall that my dad had to journey for more than 40 years of his life. He had to journey 40 years of his life for mental Wellness treatment. 14:34 And I preach about that and later I'm going to mention more about that, but he had to go through 40 years of his life, more than 40 years of his life through the dark valley of mental Wellness and treatment for his mental health. And actually on the day of his passing, the, the night of his passing, my mom just brought him to, to the clinic and collected a bag, not really a literally a bag of medicine for him. 40 years of walking through the dark valley of mental Wellness and other health issues. 15:08 He had to go through that and, and that happened. And you know, regardless of how long our dark valleys are, the presence of Jesus our shepherd comforts us in all our valleys of pain. 15:24 How many of you can say an Amen to that? Your Amen becoming like, oh man, and God is merciful, He is kind. But if you are going through a very long dark valley, OK, maybe it's a sickness. Maybe it's mental Wellness issues that you are still struggling with or other things that you are going through. 15:44 No matter how long the dark valley. Maybe we praise God if it's a quick one, but if it's a it is longer than you wish for, just know that the Lord is with you and perhaps you're walking through that and it could be a family situation, it could be a health situation. 16:04 The Ministry of Presence and Spiritual Family You know, just understand that the God of all comfort will always meet us with his presence in those dark valleys, in those dark moments. So how does God comfort us in times of pain? Firstly, God comforts us with his presence. 16:20 Secondly, God comforts us in our difficult moments, in our painful moments, not just with his presence, but with his people. Turn to your friend and say you and I are the people of God now you sound happier. 16:39 We are in this together, and 2 Corinthians 1/4 says He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given US1 Corinthians 12/26 says this. 16:59 If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. So no, just not. Does God just comfort us with His presence? But He comforts us through His people, you and I Amen. 17:14 Now last weekend when we came for anniversary service. So it's just such an amazing service because our creative team thought about getting people to bring their mementos. And you guys really brought your mementos, man. Some of it like T-shirt never washed for 40 years, kind, you know, so faded and mementos of all kind. 17:33 Cards, key chains, T-shirts, training material, bookmarks, so many, many, many, many of it, right? And wow, it was just so wonderful. So people did ask me, hey pastor, what is the memento that you would bring? 17:48 Or what is the memento that you brought that really makes you remember FCBC for this last 40 years? You want to guess? I think none of you brought it, or none of you would have this memento. Steadier want to guess or not? 18:06 Diet pills No. OK. This memento was what all of us held in our hands a moment ago. The memento that I would have brought would be the Lord's Supper element. 18:22 The Lord's Supper element. Now let me explain it. Was it pastor? You pastor was spiritualized. OK, let me explain to you. OK, I still have this memento from 30 years ago. Not just kidding, not just kidding. Modi and Tausan already. Now this lost upper element as I was thinking about the 40th anniversary means a lot to me and I remember and I can still see clearly in my mind that I was a backslidden Christian. 18:49 I sin against a lot. I left my previous church and in my national service day, I was just running away from God and the Lord brought me to FCBC. OK. And I just stepped into FCBC service and and I remember more. 19:05 Wow, this is more than 30 years ago. And we just had TC and I think was one of those dedication worship service for TC where we came before the Lord and we partook of the Lord's Supper. And I was sitting right there. 19:20 Can that brother wearing white shirt just raise your hand? Yeah, Roland. No, just kidding. I was sitting somewhere there holding that lot supper as a brand new person coming to FCBC, still remembering all my brokenness. 19:37 And I sat there and partook of the partook, correct? Yeah, partook of the lot supper. I peel open the lot supper while kneeling there and as I took the lot supper and I can still remember the exact words the Lord spoke to me. 19:54 The Lord says, my son, this is your family, this is your home, this is your family, this is your home. 20:09 And why I call that my memento is because for the last many, many years, this is what SCBC has been to me. And my wife and my family, not that we are perfect family, we have many, many ups and downs. But when we celebrated our 40 years, I remember that I said I was kneeling there and the Lord says this is your family, this is your home. 20:30 And not just mine, yours as well. So without being forced, can you turn to your friend and say, hey, this is our family, this is our home, OK, shall we sing? This is OK? Nevermind. 20:46 Later got copyright issue so I want to share and this should be to the personal sharing. During the four days of memorial and and funeral, my family was overwhelmed by the comfort that God's family brought. 21:05 We had our memorial and funeral for my dad at Singapore casket and we only managed to get the room at 6:30 PM. Then this is how my wife would describe it at 6:30 PM and news got around that my dad passed away. And you know the memorials, the memorial started from 6:30 PM. 21:24 The moment doors open like church like that, the moment doors open on the first evening, people just kept coming and coming and coming and coming and coming nonstop. The church family just came from FCBC, from my mom's church, from my sister's church. 21:45 The people of God just kept coming and coming until pastor I find I, we only had our dinner at 12 midnight because we had no time to eat. And we're not, we're not angry. We're actually very happy, OK. And and you all just kept coming and coming waves after waves. 22:00 On Saturday night, senior Pastor and Pastor Sarim came by. They were the they were the, we thought what 1010 plus already You can close. You can close it. Go back and rest already. Then we saw Pastor Daniel and Pastor Serene walk in. OK. And there were some some church stuff around. 22:17 Then there's Allama cannot talk already. Shall I mention their name now? Just kidding. And they came in and actually Pastor Daniel that that evening, that Saturday weekend, she was not feeling well and and yet he brought us a message. So they came, Pastor Lawrence and Nina, they were ministering in Japan. 22:35 They text us their well wishes for us. And we just experienced such comfort that came from so many, many people. Some of them posted on social media, some of them text us. They couldn't come. They text us. 22:50 There were people who have gone to other churches, they have left FCBC. They also came waves after waves. And I just want to use this opportunity, you know, to to say to all of you here, OK, everyone of you here, it doesn't matter whether you came or not, but you all have expressed love on social media, on text, on whoever We just want to use. 23:12 I just want to use this opportunity to say thank you so much for being that family and your presence, those of you who who all came and all the SP twelves came it, it means so much to my family. 23:28 OK, but let's praise God for our spiritual family. Let's thank God for that. All right? So God's comfort really comes through the presence of his people. And I want to I can't overemphasize this because that is the beauty about the body of Christ. 23:48 We are not here just to listen to a once a week sermon and do our things, sing our worship songs and then we are done. We are a family that stick together. We are a family. They are there for one another. We are there to pray together in good times and in bad times. 24:05 You know, pastor life, I will. We were, we were at three out of five of our FCBC anniversary service, you know, say why, why you all go so many times. We just, we just came for three out of five and we enjoy every session of it, you know, even though we, we know the whole program, we have seen it three times. 24:25 We came, you know, and we were just so blessed and just enjoy ourselves sitting in this family time. OK? By the time we reached Sunday, we had no energy to comfort anymore already. But we, we just sat there and we just came out of bereavement and we just wanted to sit there to be with the spiritual family. 24:41 And we were also very pleasantly surprised to hear that both of us were part of the Pioneer generation, right? And we received our Pioneer Generation card that day, OK. But it was just so nice. OK, There's no partner generation card, by the way, just in case you're wondering how come you don't have part of the Pioneer Generation? 25:00 And we came when we were youths to FCBC, and now we are loud youths already. So Romans 12/15 reminds us, be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep. And you know, as we think about God using the spiritual family, his people to bring comfort and reminder of this pastor who used this term, that some of us, we need to learn what is called the ministry of presence. 25:32 That means your presence to those who are going through difficult times is a ministry unto them. And sometimes we may not know what to say to someone who's in pain, but we can always choose to be there for them. 25:50 You don't have to be a trained counsellor. You don't have to know to how to say a lot, a lot of comforting things. Sometimes your presence, the ministry of presence, your very presence with that friend who is grieving, who with that friend is going through pain itself brings a lot of comfort. 26:09 You can be there to pray, you can be there to listen. And this was what we experienced as a family. Different people came. Some of them didn't say much. They just sat there with us. Some of them just wanted to come by and, and, and see how we are Texas, so and so forth. Well, the ministry of presence is so important and it brings a lot of comfort to people who are going through a difficult time. 26:31 Galatians, 62 says share each other's burdens and in this way, obey the law of Christ. And I believe as we cross our 40th anniversary and we go into the next season, we're going to be stronger as a church in what God is going to call us to do in Singapore and for the nations. 26:55 But besides being stronger in ministry, we're going to be stronger as a family. How many of you can say an Amen to that? And we're going to be real. We're going to be caring. We're going to practice the ministry of presence. And when someone is crying out, God, where are you? 27:12 Have you abandoned me? Well, be that presence, bring that comfort as God's family and sit with this person and say, hey, don't worry, you are not alone. I'm here with you. 27:27 I'm present with you. You know, during my dad's bereavement, we got to know one of his friends. And this friend is a very special friend of his sister. This friend is not from my dad's church, which was Eternal Life Baptist Church. This friend was just a Christian that my my dad got to know. 27:46 And this friend help my dad do. He did Bible study with my dad. OK, so he did Bible study with my dad and those of you who came from my dad's week, you will see that, you know, we displayed his, his Bible, which is this blue colour NIV Bible, a small one. 28:05 OK, some of you, you received free last time. You know, some of us wear this free Bible and in this Bible you'll see a lot of we displayed my my dad's Bible with a lot of writing on it. Basically it was the notes that he was taking through this friend was leaving him through Bible study. Now this friend, very, very interesting, this friend of my dad, he actually resides in KL. 28:25 He resides in KL. So on Sunday he flew in to be my family on Sunday. Then Sunday evening he flew back to KL OK. Then my dad's funeral, cremation was on Monday. 28:40 So Sunday he flew in to be my family. Sunday night he flew back to KL to settle some work Sunday. Monday morning he flew back in again to be my family for the cremation. And I said, you, you own the airline or something? 28:59 You say no, I just wanted to be with you. I just say, wow, my dad got this kind of pan, yo. I pray that I will have also luck. But that is the ministry of presence. That's the ministry of us bringing comfort to others and all of us can do it. 29:19 Grieving with Hope in God's Eternal Promises Amen. So turn to your brother and sister sitting next to you and with a white warm smile say you can bring the ministry of presence to others. OK, tell them that. All right, you can. OK, I don't have to say until. So I don't know. 29:34 I put it pretty. OK, you can bring the ministry of God's presence to others. So how does God comfort us in times of pain? Firstly, God comforts us with his what presence. Secondly, with his people. And thirdly, with His promises, I know some of you are trying to guess the last one. 29:54 So it is with His promises, First Thessalonians 413, which is one of my very favorite verses. And the Word of God says, And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so that you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 30:17 The Bible has never said or thought that Christians or believers cannot, cannot grieve or do not grieve. But the Bible actually teaches that we grieve, but we grieve as people with hope. 30:34 Christian hope does not mean that we grieve less deeply, but it means that we do not grieve hopelessly. Amen. And that's a, there's big difference there. So my family in this season we are going through, I would say still that season of, of grieving. 30:55 And sometimes you'll feel that loss. Sometimes we look at my dad's room, that empty space will think about him and up and down basically. But in our grief, we have great hope in God's promises for us and especially God's promises for my father. 31:16 I remember as I was thinking about this sermon that I think some weeks ago, I think I probably in the month of July, I preached a message about God's peace, right, about receiving God's peace. And I shared that my dad, just like my grandma who passed away many, many years ago, part of him learning to experience God's peace is to memorize the whole of Psalms 23, right? 31:39 The whole of Psalms 23. So my dad memorized the whole of Psalms 23, and the last verse in particular was comforting for my father. And the last verse of Psalm 23 says in three verse 6 says, surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. 32:01 And very interestingly, the undertaker, without asking us what banner to put, put up this verse without asking us, OK? And it happened to be the verse that my dad memorized. In fact, those of you who came to the back, you will see a piece of paper where my sister hand hand wrote the whole of Psalms 23. 32:16 And every day he will memorize the promise of God, promises of God found in Psalms 23. And this is so beautiful because Jesus is indeed our Shepherd who brings us great hope, and our Shepherd will one day bring us all home safely for eternity. 32:37 Amen. And whatever pain or whatever grief or whatever emotional struggle and life's challenges that you're going through, the Lord says you do not need to go through this pain without a sense of hope. 32:53 We grieve, we go through pain, we go through difficulty with a great sense of hope in our lives. In John 1125 to 26, the Lords Jesus spoke these words. 33:09 Jesus told her and the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never die. And church, as I went through the bereavement, I began to experience something deeper, that our hope in God is not just a doctrine, but our hope in God is in the person of Jesus Christ. 33:40 And his name is a beautiful name, the name of Jesus. And during that few days of going through my father's bereavement, I realized that death does not have the final say in my father's life. Amen. Because Jesus gives to my Father that true hope. 33:59 And our hope is in Jesus. And it changes the way we deal with pain. And interestingly, again, without really planning or thinking very deeply about it, we decided to scatter my father's remains. 34:16 And he was, his remains were scattered in this garden called the Garden of Peace. OK, and flows well. We didn't plan it. It was quite rush. We didn't have time to plan. But everything like the banner that the undertaker put, like his scattering, all had to do with this, with that whole idea of Jesus is the one who gave to, who gives to him true peace. 34:40 So how does God comfort us in times of pain? 34:43 God's Comfort: More Than Just Sympathy Our God comforts us firstly with his presence, secondly with his people through you and I, and thirdly through his promises. And you know, God meets our pain so that we too can bring his comfort to others. 35:01 Come on, let's go ahead and give Jesus a big clap of praise. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Amen. Well, just you are my spiritual family and I, I want to share since you are my spiritual family with two things, two other things that happened during this period of bereavement. 35:23 And I, I'm very OK to share it because this is home. This is spiritual family. So the first is that, you know, as I've shared with in my past servants, my dad struggled for many, many years from mental Wellness issues. 35:40 And when I was in Primary 4, for some of you who are who are newer, you have never heard my sharing. When I was in primary four, I personally witnessed the attempted suicide of my dad when he climbed onto our 11th floor 11 story HTP flat and tried to throw himself, kill himself by jumping out of the back kitchen window. 36:01 But the Lord saved him and we managed to rescue him and save him. In fact, I shared this story during his week as well because not everybody knew what happened. So we witnessed his a dental suicide so long ago and for 40 over years after that incident happened, my father's mental Wellness was managed very well actually by medication and psychiatric help. 36:28 However, in the few years in the few years in the few weeks prior to his death, something actually happened. There were some changes to his medication. They adjusted some of his medication and when his magic medication got adjusted, his mind went back to 40 years ago and he once again wanted to kill himself. 37:03 My mum told my sister and I what was happening and said you know this last few weeks dad tried to ask the helper to pass him the shark knife. You know that he was using a Walker. 37:21 He asked the helper to help him push the chair to the kitchen window latch so that he can try and climb and jump again. Public service announcement. Please take mental Wellness treatment seriously and medication seriously. 37:40 OK. PSA So when my sister and I heard that from my mother, we were really, really grief. You know, we were really, really very sad. I remember my sister and I were in the car. I was just driving her somewhere and I say, hey, we can't believe this. 40 years ago when I was primary 4, my sister was set to. 38:05 We experienced this whole thing about my dad's attempted suicide and God saved him. Now he's already in his old age, in his final years. We are going through this again. Is he going to succeed? 38:20 And how to prevent? We also do not know. And we became very, very sad. And I actually became very, very angry, not my father, but at what was happening. And I was, I was really upset, I think. 38:38 And I and I and I started to pray, OK, I mean, after my, I sent my sister whom I started to pray, I said, God, I will not accept this. I cannot accept this, that my dad in his final years will have to die this way. 38:55 True suicide, I cannot. God, I really care. In the name of Jesus, I take authority as a child of God. And I say to you, Satan and power of darkness, you will not take my father's life in Jesus name. 39:17 You will not end his life this way. Jesus is his shepherd. And I started to pray, I started to intercede, I started to cry out to God. I said God, please have mercy on us, have mercy on us, have mercy on us. 39:32 And by God's grace, my dad passed away peacefully in his bedroom on 21st of August. And my family felt such a great sense of victory and such a great sense of assurance and thankfulness to God. 39:54 Go ahead and give Jesus a big clap of praise. 39:58 God's Victory in My Father's Final Days Amen. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. And you know as I as I thought about this, the Greek word comfort in Two Corinthians one verse 3 to 4 in the verb form paracaleo. 40:19 IS describes comfort as this more than sympathy. It means active strengthening encouragement and giving courage during hard times rather than just offering passive sympathy. 40:35 And I sense that I need to say this to us brothers and sisters this evening as we bring our sermon to the close. Some of you, the comfort that God wants to give to you is the the comfort of strengthening you. Not just Cy Young, Cy Young. 40:51 And that is good, OK, Not just making you feel better, that is also great. But God wants to strengthen you in your spirit being and say you got to rise up and fight this. Amen. You got to rise up and pray. You got the right. Not against people, OK, not against human being, but come in prayer before the Lord. 41:10 And if you cannot pray, you have no strength to pray. Just like senior pastor always taught us, if you have no strength to pray, we will lend you our strength, we will pray with you, Amen. And that is why we come together to pray. That's why we have prayer meetings every week online, on site, in our cell groups. 41:26 We come together to pray. And some of us this evening, we need to hear this word that is time to be strengthened. And God wants to strengthen us in our spirit being. That is why we need to be strong disciples so that we can come against these things that are coming against us. 41:44 And our enemies are not human beings or necessarily just circumstances, but our spiritual enemy is, is the one that we need to take authority over, not with our own strength, but with the strength of the Holy Spirit. How many you can say an Amen to that? 42:00 And you know, during our bereavement, we had a little bonus Victorino from God. So we went to the undertaker from casket and my sister, myself and pastor life, and we sat in front of this sales manager who was trying to sell us the packages are package one, package 2, package three. 42:22 What's the difference? More and more expensive. OK, so so as she was telling us the package, she was she was she was very puzzled with the three of us because how come this three person like very joyful, like got laughter so and so forth. And I told I told the undertaker, I say, hey, you know, actually how package one package 2 package 3, right. 42:43 Doesn't make a difference to me. No, because I spoke, I spoke to her in Mandarin and Cantonese. I say doesn't make a difference to me because where my father is right now, your three packages, no fight. She laughed, you know, she laughed at me. OK, and and and she said, wow, we're very peaceful. 42:59 Then suddenly Pastor Lyfan had this inspirational. So Pastor Lyfan carries around all these cards that one of our one, one of our twelfths created. And these cards are the sinners prayer cards. OK, that means the you know, when we pray the prayer to receive Jesus Christ, she was carrying this whole stack of cards. 43:19 So she took out these cards Chinese one and she passed she decided under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit what she's the person was trying to sell us the package right gave her the card and say read this OK, you say in Cantonese because she was speaking to us again. 43:36 Then she the person to the card Jesus. So and started to say word for word. Dear Lord Jesus, I open my heart to you. I receive you as a lot and say I believe in you today I'll be with you and have her. Please cleanse me, say the host sinner's prayer. Then we look at her are you is it lady Lay took me MO do you know what you're reading? 43:58 I know. OK. And she said she used to go to church when she was young, but she left God her husband passed away. She was she's raising her son on her own. And she said the sinner's prayer while we are trying to sort out three package which one to to order. 44:15 Do you think she gave us a discount? No. OK, but but every day she the few the few days there she supposed to knock off at 5, she decided on her own time to do overtime to help my family. 44:31 Allowing the Spirit to Grieve and Heal Come on, go ahead and praise Jesus. So that's the first thing that I want to share with you. Now. The second thing that happened to me, second significant thing that happened to me is about how the Lord helped me to grieve. 44:48 I'm going to show you this picture now. This picture was at Mundai Crematorium and this was that final moment when, you know, we usually the family members and all the people that are there were just put flowers into the casket of the deceased. 45:09 So all the family members that put already and I was the the last one to put. OK, so for the few days of bereavement, actually, wow, really very busy. Like the way I describe to people is like running youth camera, you know, really I'm very tired, OK, No time to feel, no time for any to feel anything. 45:29 And it came to my turn to put the flower and I was actually, you know, I already told you that I'm a pastor who does all these things. So I was thinking, OK, when is the cremation? Is there delay, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I took some stops of the flower and I place it on my on my dad's chest, like on his heart, and I just put it there and I placed my hands there. 45:50 The moment I placed my hands there, the Lord's presence fell on me and I started to wail. There are witnesses there. I can't mention their names, but the more I put my hand there, I went into I'm not, I didn't go into. 46:11 I will I went now now fake one now but it happened went on for about 3 minutes or 4 minutes. Then after that I stopped OK, ready. 46:29 Later on when I reflected the Lord spoke to me. My son, I was allowing you to grieve in your spirit being and I and I asked one sister in Christ. I said, hey, this thing happened to me. No, the Lord allow me to grieve in my spirit being. 46:46 You understand a lot you say I absolutely understand. You know, the last time we got encountered weekend right then sometimes part of the healing is God just allows to cry just to grieve. And I just it's not that I was sad emotionally, you know, but my spirit being needed to grieve and God my father allowed me to grieve and I grieve in my spirit being and I just grieve for three minutes. 47:15 The biggest grief. I know how to grieve, the deepest grief that my spirit man could grieve. And as I grieved in that way, God's presence and God's healing just took over. 47:31 You understand what I'm trying to say, right? And I just want to thank God for that. Amen. Go ahead and thank the Lord for that. 47:41 Jesus Wept: Our Hope in His Sacrifice So our God is truly a God who comforts us. And as Charles Spurgeon says, all will be well with all who are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. 47:58 All will be well. That is why, brothers and sisters, the greatest assurance that we can give to our loved ones, to our friends, is the assurance of having a relationship with God and the assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ. 48:14 Amen. And I'm just so thankful that my Father has gone ahead of us into the presence of the Lord. And I want to say as we bring our service to a close to some of our friends here, perhaps you are visiting our church for the first time or maybe second time someone brought you. 48:34 And whether here watching online or over there at Suntec and you have never invited Jesus Christ into your heart. You know, the Bible has what we call one of the shortest verse in the whole Bible. 48:50 In the whole Bible, the shortest verse is found in John 1135. Only two words. Jesus wept. Jesus wept. You know, friends, whatever you may be going through in life, whatever pain, whatever grief that you may be experiencing, the Word of God and God wants you to know that Jesus wept. 49:17 And this tells us that Jesus Christ stepped into our grief and pains. He wept because he could feel the grief and pain of all those whom God loves and whom God is calling to be His children. 49:36 And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who wept, He came down for from heaven because he loves us so much. God loves us so much, and God cannot bear to see us separated from him. And Jesus not only wept, but Jesus went through the most severe sufferings by dying for us on the cross. 49:57 Crucifixion on the cross was invented by the Roman soldiers. That is known to be one of the worst way to die, most humiliating, most painful torture and punishment. And Jesus went to the cross, took our punishment upon himself. 50:15 Why? Because He had to pay the price for our sins, which we ourselves can never, never pay, John 316 and 17 tells us. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 50:35 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. You and I, just like my Father's by my family, needs to be saved. And the only way that you and I can be saved is not by our good works. 50:51 Because we can never pay the price for our own sins. We can never earn our way into heaven. We can never earn our way into salvation. Only God can pay the price for our sins to Jesus Christ. And He had to come to pay the price for our sins so that we can be saved and be restored in our relationship with God. 51:11 And the penalty of sin is death. And this death is not just a physical death, but it's eternal death, separated from God forever and ever. Even though physically we have passed away, our spirit lives forever. And those of us who do not know Jesus, we will be separated from God forever and ever and ever. 51:31 And this evening, if you are here and you have never received Jesus, God is giving you an opportunity tonight, right here, right now, here, Sun Tech and even watching online for an opportunity to come to know Jesus Christ. 51:48 And I want to urge you, I want to urge you with all my heart, do not delay, but believe today is the day that you can receive Jesus Christ. 51:58 Don't Delay: A Call to Salvation I say a lot and Savior, so do not say. But Pastor Roland, I don't know enough. Maybe another day when I know more things about Jesus, then I can decide. Well, you know, all of us do not know everything about everything, right? 52:14 Like we don't know everything about how our hand phone works, but we still use it because we know enough that it works and it's reliable and it it helps us in many, many things. So don't ever say we don't know enough, but we need to just know sufficient to take that step of faith. 52:32 Don't say I don't have faith, pastor. I don't have faith to believe in Jesus. Do you know that all of life is about faith? Tonight when you go home, you're going to take the lift to 16th floor. Let me ask you, how many of you every day when you take the lift to 16th floor, 30th floor, you will jump onto the top of the lift to check the cable to see if it's working, whether the license is valid, check everything about the lift before you step into the lift. 52:55 No, you and I don't check because we say, well, it works well, this thing we put our faith in a lift to bring us up 16th floor. That is an act of faith. Don't say it's OK. La pasta. Not tonight are very busy like maybe another day. 53:13 Listen, I've been a pastor for so many years. I can tell you another day may never come for some of us if we don't receive Jesus Christ today because that is the fact of life that we, we can be too late. 53:28 And maybe some of us say by pastor, my family is not yet safe and if I believe in Jesus, then I'll be the only one. It will be not easy for me. Well, so many of our church members here in FCBC because they've took the first step of faith to receive Jesus, it opened a door of blessing for their family to be saved. 53:50 Can I have all of us to close our eyes and bow our heads and no one looking around, no one moving around because we are in a very, very sacred moment where our eternity is at stake. If you have never received Jesus Christ into your heart, tonight he's knocking upon the door of your heart and he's in, He's inviting you to allow him to come into your life to be your Lord and Saviour. 54:16 And with all our heads bow, all our eyes closed, whether over here over at Suntec or whether watching online, you have never received Jesus Christ today. But you say, pastor, even as I listen to you, I want to receive Jesus. Can you help me? Well, I'm going to help you. And the way that I'm going to help you is to lead you in a prayer. 54:34 And what you need to do with your eyes closed and your head bowed is to repeat this prayer with me word for word and line by line. And as you say that, it is taking a step of faith to invite Jesus to come in. So follow me in this prayer, word for word and line by line. 54:52 And everyone of us here in FCBC will pray this prayer together with you. Sit together in me, dear Heavenly Father. 54:59 Speaker 2 Dear Heavenly Father. 55:00 Speaker 1 Thank you for your love for me. 55:02 Speaker 2 Thank you for your love for me. 55:03 Speaker 1 Thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ. 55:06 Speaker 2 Thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ. 55:08 Speaker 1 To die on the cross for my sin. 55:10 Speaker 2 To die on the cross for my sin. 55:12 Speaker 1 Tonight, tonight, I open my heart to you. 55:15 Speaker 2 I open my heart to. 55:17 Speaker 1 You. I know I'm a Sinner. 55:18 Speaker 2 I know I'm a Sinner. 55:20 Speaker 1 Please forgive my sins and cleanse me. 55:23 Speaker 2 Please forgive my sins and me. 55:26 Speaker 1 Today, today I declare. I declare you are my Lord. 55:31 Speaker 2 You are my Lord. 55:32 Speaker 1 Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, lead me and guide me. 55:36 Speaker 2 Lead me and guide me. 55:38 Speaker 1 I want to follow you, Jesus. 55:40 Speaker 2 I want to follow you. 55:41 Speaker 1 Jesus, all the days of my life, all the days of my life. Thank you Jesus. 55:46 Speaker 2 Thank you Jesus. 55:47 Speaker 1 Thank you, Lord. 55:48 Speaker 2 Thank you, Lord. 55:49 Speaker 1 With our eyes closed, our heads bowed, if you prayed that prayer with me for the very first time ever over here over at Suntec or watching online, I want to know who you are and how I'm going to know who you are is I'm going to count 123. And when I count 123, lift up your hands to just indicate to me, Pastor Roland, I prayed that prayer with you. 56:06 Now, why do I want you to lift up your hands? Because I want to see who you are. And I want to pray a blessing for you and not just for you, but for your family as well. So with nobody looking around, at a count of three, lift up your hands. If you pray that Prairie me just now, whether here over at Suntec or at home, 123, lift up your hands. 56:26 Say, Pastor Roland, I pray that Prairie you keep your hands lifted. Keep your hands lifted wherever you are. And over at Suntec, yes, yes, I can see you through the screen. And those of you who are lifting your hands, if you can at home, keep your hands lifted, Thank you, Lord, just allow me to pray for you. 56:42 Father, I just want to thank you for those of our friends who have made a decision to receive you this evening. Tonight, I want to pray for them, Lord, that you'll bless them, that you'll bless their families. And I pray for these who have opened their hearts to receive you, Lord Jesus, that beginning today, they will have a relationship with you that is so meaningful, Lord, that regardless of what they may go through in life, they will always experience your presence, your love, and your comfort. 57:13 So bless them, Lord, bless their families, bless their loved ones. In Jesus name we pray and you can put down your hands and everybody say Amen, Amen, Amen and Amen. 57:24 Responding to God's Call and Receiving Ministry Come on, let's cry for our friends who have made a decision. And some of you, I may not be able to see you clearly, whether over here or sun type or even at home, but we are just so happy for you and you have made a decision. It is so special. And now church will always say that when you come to receive Jesus Christ, you're like a brand new baby that needs help to grow in the faith. 57:44 All right, so this is what we're going to do. Those of you, if you came on your own or you're watching alone online over at Suntec as well, if you came in on your own, you're going to put up two QR codes on screen. If you came on your own, please scan the QR code on the left so that you, we can get to know you OK and help you in this journey like a little young one growing up. 58:06 And if you came with a friend, an FCBC friend, let your FCBC friend know and your SCBC friend will scan the QR code on the right. OK, and on on your behalf so that we can connect with you and help you grow in this spiritual family. 58:24 All right, so I'm going to give you a minute or so to do that, and we're going to prepare ourselves for a time of ministry, Hallelujah. So those of you who need to scan the QR code, please go ahead and do that right now. Hallelujah. 58:40 Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Just take another 30 seconds or so. Amen. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. We have our intercessors who have been praying, and these are some words that we can respond to. 58:59 And if these words apply to you, please come forward from ministry. There are people here who are emotionally very exhausted, and God wants to minister to some of you who are caregivers to your families, and you're just feeling very tired and exhausted. There are those who are helping family members with disabilities and the law says he knows your struggles and he wants to comfort you. 59:23 Someone here, you are very exhausted because you're carrying burdens. And the picture here is that you are someone who is worried about many, many things, OK, that you cannot change. The law says it's time to let go and surrender these things to God. 59:38 Someone here, you are financially trapped. And the picture here is this person who is financially trapped. You are you are like in a very dark tunnel and you can't see any way out of your financial burdens. Come and allow us to minister to you. 59:55 Someone here. You need the strength of the Lord to be upon you. There's this word called recharge. You need to connect with God for a recharge and the Lord says come and be reconnected to God and be recharged and and it's because you have gone into the ways of the world seeking worldly comfort rather than. 1:00:15 The comfort of God and the pursuit of God, a lot of people feeling discouragement in their lives and it's due to yourselves feeling not feeling that you're not performing in your studies and your work. The Lord wants to minister to you and you're discouraged by circumstances. 1:00:34 Other words come and read upon the Lord and someone here you are crying out for transformation and God says come and allow others to pray for you for that transformation to take place. Many, many says I need to come and put my hope in God once again. 1:00:51 And there are those who need physical healing symptoms of bronchitis. And of course due to the haze you are badly affected. Some here who are having blur eye vision for about a week, you need to come. And I just want to release one more word the Lord showed me as I prepare for this sermon. 1:01:08 There are some of you here who really need to come and have a good cry in God's presence and just come and cry in God's presence. And our ministry team and leaders that are here will just come and stand with you and cry with you. 1:01:25 So can we stand right now? And if those words apply to you, the moment we start to sing, come forward as our worship team leaders, whether over here, over at Sun Tech, and if you are watching at home, reach out to a friend to minister to you. But come, whatever your ministry needs are those words that have been released at the count of 3123. 1:01:42 Just make your way forward. Just come, just come. Just come for good. Cry for the sense of hope. Just come, brother, sisters, and allow us to minister to you. Hallelujah.