2008 END OF YEAR MESSAGE BY RONNY CHAM“ACKNOWLEDGE GOD AND BE THANKFUL”. Scripture
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 16
Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything
give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (NKJV) Let me
begin with a story of a rich man and a beggar called Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).
The rich man lived a life of luxury, probably in branded attire and indulged in
fine dining every day but the beggar Lazarus was full of sores and laid outside
the rich man’s gate begging for food, even dogs came and licked his
sores. The
beggar Lazarus died and angel carried him to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died but he found
himself in torments in hell (Hades).
He lift up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off,
and Lazarus in his bosom. He cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the
tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.'
But
Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your
lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but
now he is comforted and you are tormented.
And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so
that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass
to us.' Then
the rich man said, 'I beg you therefore,
father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he
may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' Abraham
said to him, 'They have Moses and the
prophets; let them hear them.' But
the rich man was insistent and he said, 'No,
father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' But
Abraham said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'" It is
so important for us to know that the redemptive work of God has been completed
by Jesus Christ when He died on the Cross and was raised on the third day. In His prayer to His Heavenly Father in
John 17:4, he said, “I have
glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work
which You have given Me to do.” On the Cross, in John 19:30, the Bible
tells us that He said, "It is
finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. Therefore,
there is nothing else God has to do in order to cause His Salvation plan for
mankind to be accomplished. Jesus
had already finished that work on the Cross. Thus, all that is required of mankind is
to “confess with your mouth the
Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you
will be saved” (Romans 10:9). God’s
entire salvation plan through Jesus Christ is contained in the Bible. God had spoken His Last Word in Christ
Jesus. He had given all in Christ
Jesus. Just as in the rich man and
Lazarus story, there is nothing more God or anyone can do to ensure that
mankind can be saved, one can be saved only if one
believes in His Word, in His Son. Thus,
Paul in Romans 1:16-17 said, “For I
am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation
for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it
the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written,
"The just shall live by faith."” (NKJV) In 1
John 5:4, the Apostle John said, “For
whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has
overcome the world — our faith.” (NKJV) Thus, Christians must
live by faith, by faith is believing in His Word. How do
you know you are living by faith? Apostle
Paul in Hebrews 11:1 defined faith as: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen.” Thus anything
that is ‘by faith’ means you just do not know what is going to
happen, it is mere ‘hope’, the result of which is not known, it is
thing not seen. Does it
therefore give a Christian or a believer a free ticket to do anything just
because you do not know what the results are going to be or what consequences
your thought, words or action will bring? On the
contrary, a Christian knows that it was by the Grace of God he has been
saved. We have been saved while we
are still sinners. So, there is a
definite difference between one who is saved and one who is not, one who
believes and one who does not.
There was the difference between the rich man and Lazarus. One who is saved is one who testifies,
sings and proclaims that once I was weak, now I am strong, once I was poor now
I am rich, once I was blind and now I can see, because he believed. Thus, this
faith we have, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. This means that our faith
produces substance of the things we have hoped for in the past. God faithfully brought to past what we
hoped for, therefore be thankful to Him.
It is the evidence of things not seen. What God has accomplished in our lives
are things which we were not able to see before, but now we can look back and realize
what He had done in our lives in clear evidence and we are thankful to Him. The blessing and goodness, health, soundness
of mind, riches and wealth, everything, are evidence of trusting and believing
in Him and we are thankful to Him. Thus,
since we can look back, reflect and recall the goodness and blessing of God in
the past as we believe in Him, we can now continue to live by that faith, and
continue we should. But how do we
ensure that we can continue to live by faith. The Apostle
Paul in Romans 1:18 to 21 pointed out to us something very important. First, the Glory of God has been
revealed and shown to us, we have no excuse but to
acknowledge His Glory. Secondly, acknowledging
His Glory will lead us to be thankful for our very life on earth, let along the
blessings and goodness. However,
he pointed out the weakness of mankind, of those who do not believe in God even
though they knew God. Their weakness lies in not acknowledging the true God and
not being thankful to him. As
simple as that! Thus, the
Apostle Paul did not stop there, in Romans Chapter 1, verses 24, 26 and 28,
Paul said, because those man who knew God and refused to acknowledge him and be
thankful to Him, instead they chose to believe and glorify their own created
gods, GOD GAVE THEM UP to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts (vs 24), GOD GAVE THEM UP to vile passions (vs 26) and GOD GAVE THEM OVER to a debased mind, to do
those things which are not fitting.
I encourage you to read verses 18
to 32 carefully. God
gave them up! God gave them over!
This sounds so unlike our graceful, compassionate and merciful God!!! Pause now and think. God has spoken His Final Word in Christ
Jesus. He had given all He has to
save mankind. Jesus cannot come a
second time to be crucified for the sake of those who refuse to believe and
those who knew there is a Almighty God yet refuse to
acknowledge Him and be thankful to Him. In
Revelation 22:11, the Spirit inspired the Apostle John to state that, “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still;
he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be
righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.” This is
like the story told by Jesus about the rich man and the beggar Lazarus. Mankind is free to choose, those who
choose to believe, can continue to believe, those who choose to refuse God, can
continue to refuse. Those who
choose not to acknowledge Him or be thankful to Him, our God says to such, ‘please
continue’. God will just let
such person to do as he pleases, as he chooses. God will give such person over to the
lust of his heart, the debased thought in his mind and evil deeds of his flesh. So, the
Apostle Paul gave us a glimpse of the choice we can make as a believer. As a Christian, as a believer, we choose
to live by faith. How do we live by
faith? We choose to acknowledge God in everything and be thankful to Him for
everything. If we don’t so
choose, we would be in danger of choosing to go OUR WAY and when we choose to
go our way, it would mean we no longer acknowledge Him and will no longer be
thankful to Him. What is
the meaning of acknowledging God?
This means that whatever are the circumstances of our lives, our faith
will lead us to acknowledge that He is inside of us, we are in His presence, He
is in absolute control of our lives and circumstances of our lives, He has us
in His palm, which He said, He will never let anyone to take us out of His
hand. In Romans 8:28, we know that ALL THINGS work together for good to
those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Therefore,
in every circumstance, in every situation, acknowledge His presence, His
guidance, His intervention, His involvement, His plan, His purpose and be ever
thankful to Him. By doing that, i.e.,
acknowledging Him and being thankful to Him, we shall continue to live by that
faith which He has given us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the
power to salvation. Finally,
1 Thessalonians 5:16, 17 & 18, the Apostle Paul said, “16 Rejoice always, 17
pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (NKJV) A believer who acknowledges God in
everything is one who will rejoice always in whatever circumstances and
situation life is. A believer who
acknowledges God in everything is one who knows what it means to depend on God
and is one who will always pray to God unceasingly. That being the case, there is only one
thing God desires from a believer, His only Will, is that such a believer be
thankful in everything. As we
close 2008, we acknowledge that in the past one year, it is our Father God who
has started this SIB Metro Church, it is Jesus who has led us, given us the
opportunity to serve, found us worthy of being His servants, called us to
minister to Him. We are not serving a man-made organization, a social
association or a leader of such organization or association. We acknowledge that we serve our Lord
Jesus Christ because we acknowledge that this is His Church and His Glory. It
is not by our might, it is not by our power, to be where we are, it is by His
Spirit. None of us is to be glorified
or thanked for anything that happened in this Church. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who has done
all and in all. All we can say is, “Thank
you Jesus!”. Ronny Cham |
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