hello lovelys :)

here are my notes from today's sermon that Pastor Prince preached. posting them up cos SOMEONE missed service today (i wonder who huh...)

so, pastor wrapped up his series on wisdom today :) he was talking about some random stuffs at first (before he started his sermon), but i took down some stuff.

He talked about how honour is important because when you learn honour someone you're bound to be honoured by them too :) and he mentioned again how Singapore is blessed because we honour our government, prime ministers, our elders. & also we shouldn't just honour our elders only, but also our peers, juniors, *whatever's under us? :O* (you know what i mean) :)

so yes, honour :) you can read Pastor Benjamin's sharing about honour here at his blog ;)

then pastor mentioned something about how insecurity brings jealousy and how jealousy typically occurs between people of the same age group + gender.

he talked about why we don't need to be jealous of others because God already has a portion of grace for us, individually, in which He does not give to anyone else :) He already has a calling for all of us. A different one of each and everyone of us :)

also, he mentioned that John the baptist instead of feeling jealous, when he was told that Jesus' disciples have baptised more people than him. He says that a man can have nothing good except that which comes from and has been given to him/her from heaven. Everything good comes from heaven. So when you find that you're jealous of someone over something good, you just have to remind yourself that it all came from God and not out of that someone. (do you understand this part? if you don't never mind. cos it's not part of the sermon. hahaha.)

okay, sermon!

so, Wisdom is the principal thing. and Christ has been made wisdom under us.

pastor mentions how Jesus is not a religious person, but a real and spiritual one. and how most of his problems when He was walking on earth didn't come from prostitutes, sick people, murderers, etc; but instead, those holyholy religious priest/people :)

1 Kings 3:4-5
And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.
In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.

Notice God appears to Solomon in his sleep through a dream; where Solomon is most vulnerable and does not doing anything to resist God. This makes it a whole lot easier for him to receive from God :) because he does not interfere with God's plans.

Solomon's efforts didn't get in the way because he was at rest.

Pastor said tell God your problems and stuff and then go to sleep, because you can trust that He'll be your permanent solution to your problems and because when you're asleep, you won't be interfering with God when He's helping you solve your problems :D

and he goes on to saying that after that Solomon asked for wisdom and God was pleased with that so He gave Solomon a wise and understanding (hearing) heart, and also riches and honour! :)

Money is NOT evil, if it was, God wouldn't have given riches to Solomon, no? :)
It is the LOVE FOR MONEY that IS evil.

Proverbs 3:16
Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.

Wisdom is pictured to be a woman. On her right hand it's length of days, and on her left riches and honour.

Right (= priority, power and authority): Length of days which is long life, logevity. So effectively, health! :D
Left : Riches and Honour.

exercising and running everyday doesn't give you health. it just keeps you fit. Health comes from the Lord, in fact, EVERYTHING GOOD COMES FROM THE LORD :D

All these are GIVEN. Wisdom, Health, Riches, Honour, (His blessings for us), all we have to do is acknowledge God and receive!

Also, we do not just have length of days, we have ETERNAL LIFE. because Jesus died for us for that and He is sitted at the Father's right hand! He's seated in the center of the universe. and we are there with Him too, at the right hand of Wisdom :)

1 Kings 11:3
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

Solomon and God had a very close relationship, but when his wives turned away his heart from God. It was when things started to go downhill for him.

Women have the power to influence men.
Women have influence, men have the position.

Which do you think is stronger? Influence, or the position? :)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

:)

1 Kings 3:13-15
And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.
And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.
And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

So, Solomon went to Jerusalem to offer the peace offerings instead of offering it at Gibeon. because Gibeon lacked The Ark of the Covernant. it was at Jerusalem (and it still is :O)

The Ark is a symolism of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ at the tablenacle :) His presence is there.

Also, the ark is made of Acacia wood and Gold. Acacia Wood is a not easily corrupted wood (you can go search on it) the wood represents Jesus being a 100% man.
The overlayered gold represents holiness which represents Jesus as 100% God too.

So you see, our Jesus in heaven is holy & he has a human heart too! He completely understands how we feel. He knows our sufferings, but we will never be able to comprehend His (the stripes, cross, we will never now how pain it is cos we'll never feel it). ;) He knows how we feel.

Also, the word 'ark' in hebrew (i think it's hebrew? :O) literally means coffin (or chest)

Inside it there's the Manna and Aaron's Rod (which budded) and the two tablets of stone (that has the ten commandments on it?). The main focus here is the two tablets of stone. They are all barried in the ark, covered by/under the mercy seat.

the tablets of stone represent law.
the marcy seat represents grace

Grace is higher than law.

In order for law to be higher than grace, the law has to be taken out of the ark of the covenant. and the ark should NEVER be lifted up. (something bad will happen i missed this part of the sermon cos i was busy taking down notes, i was writing very slow :X )

then after that pastor said something about at the name of Jesus, every knee bows. everything that has a name bows to Him :) Be it H1N1, AIDS, Headache, etc (Everything!)

and pastor tells us how scientists still have no idea what is holding the atoms together. but in the bible it tells us that

In Christ, ALL things are held together! :)

Our health, relationships, EVERYTHING!

John 15:5
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

Without Him, we can do nothing! Absolutely nothing. We wouldn't even exist without Him! God is our everything :)

and then pastor went on to saying something about:

1 Corinthians 2:6-14
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God

Spirit of the world = "there's no such thing as a free lunch"
Spirit of God = grace! it was given FREELY in the first place! :D

pastor made an example by using
"forgiveness"

if someone offends you, would you forgive?

the Spirit of God, would forgive, freely. before the person apologizes or makes it up to you. because Christ has already died for all our sins that we may have grace :) grace to forgive freely :)

the Spirit of the world, however, wouldn't forgive. because it'll go "this person is unworthy of my forgiveness". but hey, i know it's your choice to forgive or not, but forgiving the person would be a whole lot easier wouldn't it? there wouldn't be any grudges and stuff to burden you and hold you back and tire you out.

after all, whether or not you forgive doesn't really matter to that person because God has already forgiven the person :)

we forgive because God first loved and forgave us that we may love Him too and love others around. we'd definitely be able to forgive someone we love right :) even if the person is not a lovable person we can still love the person out of God's unlimited love so that would make it easier to forgive the person righttttt :D









okay, i'm sleepy nao. :(
baibai :)