Sunday Message

31/12/06
<Isaiah 60:1-5， 19-22>

Conclusion for “Arising and Shine”

• Today is the last day of 2006. We will always think of what had happened in a
year as we come to the end of the year
• In the past, we often only look at what good or bad things had taken place in
a year. In fact, if we look at it from another angle, the end of a year means we
are one year nearer to the day when Jesus Christ will come again, isn’t it?
• Our joy should not be placed on only the good things that had taken place in
a year. We should be joyful because we are walking in the direction towards
the Heavenly Kingdom
• We ought to know God’s purpose of us in a clearer manner in the new year
and new grace will be given to us
• Another joyful thing we can have for 2006 is: I’d done whatever God has
asked me to do and I have expectation on the things that God has asked me
to have hope upon
• The greatest joy for a Christian should be: no matter if God asked us to die,
live, stop, move or wait, we can gladly follow His command
• God is our Head
• Although we are still bound by a lot of problems, all of us have become more
spiritual. We want to love God more and get closer to Him
• If we have revival in all things, yet we remain very carnal, all the revivals we
have are useless
• Some Believers do not believe in God at all, neither do they ever pray for
their family members’ salvation. If their family members were to believe in
Christ one day; though they may rejoice, they will not receive any crowns for
the salvation of their family members. Moreover, their joy will only be
temporary
• The Bible tells us that “those who sow in tears will reap with songs of
joy”. Therefore, how great will our joy be when our family members believe in
Christ after we have been praying for them in tears! Blessed are such people!
• We cannot do much to make our family members believe in Christ. Thus, for
the sake of their salvation, we must become more spiritual
• God wants us to be revived in our lives and in our hearts, and not on the
outward or carnal things. This is the conclusion for “Arising and Shine”

Read <Isaiah 60:1-5, 19-22>

v1 We are strengthen when we hear God’s voice. This is what arising means.
v4 It is just a matter of time that our sons and daughters will come to us from
afar. The question is whether we have the desire to receive them
v5 Is God telling us about promotion or increment? Even if it is, we should first
have the desire to know the purpose for promotion or increment. God’s
blessings refer to the blessings we have in Him and not things that are on
the surface
v22 God will fulfil great things in us in His perfect time
1. Arising and Shine: Be different
• The meaning of Arising: we can remain calm, have peace and can tell
others the reasons for being so when everyone else is living in fear
• We will naturally shine after arising. It means we will become different
• How can we be different and what does it means by being different?
• Does it mean we try to be different from others by forcing or psycho
ourselves to have joy no matter what had happened?
• If we really want to be different, we need to establish the basis for our
differences:
1) We are Children of God (God’s promise)
• God’s Word tells us that regardless of our children’s conditions, they
are born by God, taken care of by God and loved by God. Therefore, we
have seen that our children’s lives are God’s concern. As such, we take
care and love our children because of God
• A lot of parents will fall because they do not understand this Truth.
Thus, their concerns are only upon the health and studies of their
children
• A lot of people work for the sake of promotion, increment, status or
hierarchy. They thought that they can influence more people or provide
financial assistance to more people only if they are high in status or if
they are wealthy
• This perspective is incorrect
• The correct perspective should be – no matter whether our status is
high or low, whether we earn a lot or little, we are still able to bless the
people beside us. We do not bless others out of our own motives
• We really ought to believe: God can use our conditions to bless others
no matter how good or bad they seem to be. This is what makes us
different
• We should not live like children of God. We really ought to live as God’s
children
• Some times, due to our greed, we do something or hope for a
promotion. However, we still claim that we did that or wanted to get
the promotion for God’s sake. These are all lies because they were
done out of our own motives

2) God’s purpose: Glorifying God, benefiting others and building God’s

Kingdom
• Does wanting to be different mean doing things out of our ferventness
or quitting our jobs immediately and becoming a full time Preacher?
• We need to restore God’s purpose (glorify God, benefit others, build
God’s Kingdom) in our lives in order to be truly different
• What is the purpose for us to be filial to our parents? Is it because they
are our parents, thus we have no choice but to be filial? Or do are we
filial to them because we want to win their souls?
 • It is very rare for a person to become a Preacher for the sole purpose of
glorifying God, benefiting others and building God’s kingdom. Those
who really have this sole purpose are the Remnants
• Should a man behave like a good husband or father in a superficial
manner only? We should know the reason for us to love our spouse and
children
• We will stop loving our spouse or children when they become
detestable, if we fail to know the reasons for loving them
• Therefore, we must become Spiritual people and not carnal ones
• The common points of a carnal person: he lives for himself. A Spiritual
person is not like them

3) God’s power
• A person with God’s power is victorious in all things
• Whether we are like Paul, educated, or like People, not so educated;
they are both victorious
• Peter shared the Gospel outside the prison while Paul influenced people
with the Gospel within the prison. Thus, they were victorious regardless
of where they were
• We can share God’s Word as long as we have received God’s power. It
is regardless of our background, conditions or education level
• When God works, He will get rid of the things, thoughts, and nature in
us that harm us. And He will give His provisions to us timely

2. Darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the people
• We need to understand what is darkness before we can shine
• True darkness is:
1) Man is not able to see God <Genesis 3>
• The inability of man to see God is the greatest sin
• Man is bounded by the evil spirit because of their sins. Such people will
only know about spiritual things like Heaven and Earth, after they leave
this World
• The favourite work of the evil spirit is to bind man’s hearts, causing
them to be busy in their lives and to waste their time on Earth
• Man will leave God when they are deceived. Thus, we need to discover
God’s reason and purpose for all things
• Men often boast about their wealth and possessions. Thought they may
sound humble, they always want others to envy them
• A person with greater earthly possessions and conditions will tend to
boast more than others. However, they feel incorrect after they had
boasted. Thus, they will either go into religion teachings or do good
deeds

2) The weakness and worldliness of the Church and Believers

• What is darker than that of man not being able to see God?
 • In fact, God already knows that man will sin. Thus, He had prepared
Salvation for us
• God also knows that man will leave Him. As such, He had prepared the
Way for us
• Thus, the greater darkness is not merely about man sinning or leaving
God
• The greater darkness is those who already know this Truth, i.e. knowing
what is darkness and what is light, but do not share it to others
• This is the weakness of today’s Churches and Believers. This is their
problem! Many have become worldly Believers
• This is similar to what had happened in Noah’s era, where the sons of
God had fallen in love with the daughters of the world <Genesis 6:1-
3>
• When God first created Man, they were given eternal life. However,
Man’s life is numbered after they’d fallen and sinned. Abraham was
able to live for a few hundreds years, and so did his sons. However, as
Man becoming more and more worldly, God reduces the number of
years they can live. Till a point, the average lifespan of a person now is
70 to 80 years.
• If God does not reduce the age of man, man will only commit more sins
as they live each day
• The Bible also tells us about Churches becoming weak and worldly:
<Matthew 24:15> and <2 Timothy 3:1-7>
• God has allowed some non-Believers to have far better conditions than
that of His Children as a warning to the latter
• The darkness of this era was already reflected in the 3 events recorded
in the book of <Genesis>: The fall of Adam and Eve, the flood in
Noah’s era & the Tower of Babel

3) Prosperous
• The greatest darkness is - Churches and Believers are becoming very
prosperous even when they are worldly and carnal!
• This is the culture of Babel, where men wanted to build a tower to
reach God, as recorded in <Genesis 11>
• Man in that era did not know God but were very doing well and
prospering. Thus, they wanted to build a tower to reach God
• A carnal Believer will only be deceiving others when he comes
prosperous
• Their wealth and the success of their children will only cause those
weaker Believers to envy them because the latter might think that God
is greatly blessing the former. Thus, they will want to gain worldly
success too
• Read <Deuteronomy 13>
• In that Chapter, God tells us how to deal with those Priests who led
people away from Him. However, God has also allowed them to live in
order to distinguish the Believers
 • Not only for the Priests, God has even called to get rid of our family
members who lead us away from Him! Of course, God does not want us
to do that to our family members now. This is to show the emphasis of
God! God emphasised strongly how He hated the people or things that
lead us away from Him
• Our Church will continue to share message that aims to remove the
hidden desire for the world in us because we understand God’s
emphasis.
• Therefore, those who continue to listen to our message will have to
make a decision sooner or later. Either they will leave the Church for
the World, or they will want to know God deeper
• God is not ferocious. He really loves us. However, He really hates the
sins we commit because He knows that the sins in us will bind and
harm us
• Have we ever thought of this, “why do I want to remain in this Church
with a congregation of around 40 people instead of going to a Church
with at least 4,000 people?”
• God will wait patiently for us to leave our selfish desires and our
weaknesses. God will give us time
• At the same time, God will continue to allow Satan to test us. Satan will
use the success of carnal Believers to test us
• God allows these tests so that we can be differentiated. We are all
fighting a battle. A Soldier will be overjoyed when a battle is won.
However, there will surely be casualties in any battle, especially those
in the frontline. Their sacrifice are for the benefit of the whole battalion
/ army
• The General who leads us in the battle is Jesus Christ, Himself. Thus, He
will not lead us wrongly or sacrifice us for no reason

3. God is looking for 1 person: Abraham

• Abraham can hear God’s voice. He is being called, loved and blessed.
• God calls those who are different and not those who are knowledgeable
• When God works, what is the smallest can become the greatest <Isa
60:22>
• The blessings that God gave Abraham are:
1) Purpose: 4 Gospelisation
• Individual, family, regional and world Gospelisation
• This is the purpose why God created Man. Therefore what we try to
achieve using our own motives and desires will be a waste of time
• Is it for this purpose that we go to church, love our wife and children?
• Our children should become co-workers and serve God together
• We must understand what it means by relying on God. No matter what
our condition or situation is like, we must rely on the promises given to
us by God
• God does not give us suffering “for fun”. We will only be freed from our
problem when we discover God’s reason for them
 2) Method: 5 Mysteries
• Born again, rely on God to succeed (by following God’s will), living a
prayer-centred life, living a congregation-centred life and sharing the
Gospel all my life
• This is God’s Power
• It does not matter how others perceive or treat us. What matters most
is that God looks up to us

3) Priorities
• What is revival? Revival is when all that we achieved is from the result
of loving God
• A revived life is one that loves and follows God more and more
• Do not rely on God because of our studies, career or our family’s
salvation
• It is because of our love for God that we are given a success career,
studies, and our family’s salvation
• When we do everything out of our love for God, we will not receive
temptations and bondage

Prayer Discussion Topics

1.‘Arise and Shine’means to shine by “being different”. Reflect: How
has the Lord taught me to “become different” in 2006. Also, based
on this Sunday’s Message, once again confirm: Where is my basis for
“becoming different”.
2 ． Am I able to see through this world’s darkness as well as the
darkness in this era? Having seen through them, what is it that the
Lord wants from me that I am able to glorify Him? Please confirm
again and not be deceived!
3．In the darkness era, God called on me! Must confirm: What calling
have I received? In 2006, how closely have I followed to this calling?
In 2007, do I have a willing heart to live out this calling?