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This is the third of five sessions from our 2023 Church Camp held in Kukat, Thailand. Our speaker, Reverend Peter Chun, shares session three. A steadfast and vibrant faith depends on the response of your heart.

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We continue with lesson three. A steadfast and vibrant faith depends on the response of our hearts.

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In twenty seventeen, a study commissioned by BBC for Palm Sunday in the UK reported that twenty-five percent of Christians surveyed in Great Britain do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Twenty-five percent. And then over in the United States, a survey done in 2020 reported that 30% of evangelical Christians in America do not believe Jesus is the Son of God. And then another 48-46% of this Christian survey also believe that people are born good by nature. Human beings are not sinful. This is their perspective as a as a Christian. About the person and work of Jesus, about the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, about what it means to be saved and to grow in faith. It's not just that they have different views, but false beliefs. For example, there are Christian leaders who teach that there is no hell. Hell does not exist. And when we die, we just expire into nothingness. Professor, you know, even taught this kind of theologies. And there are churches which support lifestyles and practices forbidden in the Bible, like living together, co-habiting, homosexual practices and lifestyles, same-sex, marriage, etc. Now, we in Singapore also have our shares of heretical beliefs and practices. No, it's so common. Many believe that all religions are the same, even among Christians. You know, and Jesus is no different from Buddha, uh Buddha, Buddha, Bohammad, and other religious founders. Some even believe that at the end of time they all end up in the same same God, you know, just different paths. And there are also churches that promote prosperity gospel, preaching that Christians will be healthy and wealthy when we become one. And some churches also endorse hyper grace, belief that we can remain as we are when we come to faith. No need for confession, repentance, and transformation of lives. You know, church, for our faith to be biblical, authentic, and steadfast, we must know. We must stand by and we must zealously proclaim the tenets of the Christian faith. And not only we know in our head, we must also be convinced in our heart. Now that is the hard part. And that is the most important part, you know, about the truth, about God. God the Father, God the Son, God and Holy Spirit. How much do we know about the understanding of God in three persons? The Trinity and what do they do in our lives? Salvation, what salvation is about, what it means to be a child of God. And we need to not only know accurately the understanding that is revealed to us by Christ in the Bible, but receive it in hearts. That deep down in the hearts, we do have this conviction. And that conviction must change lives. So God's truth and revelation are clearly stated and explained in God's words. How we respond to the truth depends on our heart, the type of soil of our heart. So true faith grows from the heart, not just in the mind, but heart, and not just in our doing without a heart conviction, a heart that is full, that fully appreciates who Jesus is, what he has done to redeem us from our sins. And the result of this deep appreciation is to love God more than anything else. It is a desire to surrender, as we sound just called, a desire to surrender to God what we have, to give him the best that we have, not second best, not the leftover of our time, energy, money, or life. Now Jesus said in Matthew chapter 22, verse 37 to 38. He said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your hearts, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. We see this all the time on Sunday service, especially at communion service. So the way we respond to God and his words, the way we live out our faith, and whether we can persevere to the end, all depends on our heart, on how much we we love God and know his love for us. Let's look at what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus told the parable of the disciple, parable of the Solver to a large crowd who had followed him because they were amazed at his teaching, they were fascinated by his miracles. And Jesus told the disciples that what we need to know about the kingdom of heaven at that time has already been made known. But many people at that time still do not understand. Why? What do you think? Well, Jesus said, though in verse 13, Jesus said, those knowing, they do not see, and those seeing, they do not see. Those hearing, they do not hear or understand. What is the problem? The problem with these people is that they do not have a heart that wants to know and to understand what God is saying. At best, they allow their mind to be tickled to hear, but the heart is not at work to understand. So Jesus, quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus highlighted that the heart, the heart is the source of the problem. In Matthew chapter 13, verse 14 to 16. He said, You will, he told the disciple, you will indeed hear but never understand. And you will indeed see but never perceive. For these people's heart has grown dark. Jesus pinpoint to the problem. Their heart has gone cold. And with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I will you there. So in the parable of the sower, Jesus highlighted four types, four types of soil, in other words, four types of heart response to the message of the gospel and his teaching about the kingdom of God. Let us read the Matthew, the passage, Matthew chapter 13, verse 3 to 9. Jesus held them the parable. And I told them many things in parable, saying, and then he told them many things in parable saying, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path. That's the first time, huh? And the birds came and devoured them. Others, seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprung up. Since they had no deck of soil, when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. And the third seed, the kind, other seeds fell on thorns, and the thorns grew and took them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain. Some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear. Now, if you look listen carefully, Jesus is using the metaphor of a tree to describe a believer. And the yarn plant, which is referring to a believer, is to grow into a tree that bears fruit. So the seed represents the message of the gospel and God's word. And the soil represents the heart, how it responds to the word of God, the revelations of God. And the gospel and the revelation of God are the seed that is planted in the believer's heart. So whether it grows to bear fruit depends on the soil of the heart and how it responds. But unfortunately, not every seed will grow to become a fruit-bearing plant. Yeah. There are many Christians who profess to believe in Jesus, but whose heart is closed, whose heart is divided or distracted. Some are indifferent to what God wants, while others' hearts are hardened to the word of God. So Jesus tells us plainly and clearly that the depth of our faith depends on the heart's condition. And only one type of soil or one type of response of the heart will lead to growth, will lead to life transformation and spiritual maturity. So let me describe or expound on the four types that Jesus has taught in this parable. The first type of response is one year in, one year out response. Okay, one year in, one year out response. And Jesus described this in verse 4. He said, Some seed fell off the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Many people have walked on it and trampled upon it. No, there is not much soil or no soil at all for seed to sprout and grow roots. And this describes a heart that is harder, close, indifferent to the message it received, the sick that falls on it. And it describes the heart of a person who hears God's word, does not understand it. And does not bother to try to understand it. Do not even go to the mind or go down to the heart, go straight here and come up the other way. You know, and the persons with the heart, a hardened heart, ignores, neglects, or even reject what he has heard. And Jesus warned against the consequences of such a heart that is indifferent to God's word. He said in verse 19 that when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil ones come and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. Now, what he says is that Satan will come and snatch the city, erase the message or remove the message that comes to your ears and keep your heart down, untouched, and preventing the word from making an impact in our lives. That is why I call this one year in, one year out response. Bottom line, complacent, indifferent, that does not care to know or to make an effort to understand what God is saying. So we hear and yet we don't hear. Sunday after Sunday, I would faithfully go to church, attend church, but my heart was closed to the sowing of seed to God's word. I even pride myself on being able to shut my mind, my heart, from receiving God's word. You know, to tell people that, yeah, I receive word, but you know, not with my mind and my heart. But God has always, in his mercy, broke the uh hardness of my heart, and I was born again. Praise the Lord. That is the power of God's word and the Holy Spirit. Now, the second response is this firework, I call it firework response. Now, Jesus went to describe the second type of uh hard condition that results in shallowness, shallowness of faith. And he said in verse 5 and 6, other seed fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no roots, they withered away. Now the rocky ground may provide enough soil for the seed to germinate and begin to grow. But because there is no depth of soil, the plant cannot grow deep roots, and therefore, soon it will wither in the sun. And Jesus described the heart that is like rocky ground as this. He said in verse 21, 221, as for what was sown on rocky ground, this is one who hears the words, immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself and but endures for a while. And when tribulation and persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. So, in the beginning, these believers may express enthusiasm, great enthusiasm, but inwardly the word of God really has no impact in their lives. They do not seek to know and understand God's word. They also do not allow God's truth to sink deep in their hearts. So there is no heart conviction. They may understand it with their mind, but no heart conviction. So the initial excitement will be short-lived, cannot withstand the trials and testing. This type of faith is superficial and shallow, and therefore it cannot last. And that is why I said it is fireworks response. Only good for a little while. Now I know many believers who come to God because of something they want from him. Because of the blessing, the needs they have received from God. Nothing wrong with that. This is the way we are blessed by God to come to him. But unfortunately, after receiving his blessing and experiencing his power and love, they fail to grow. They fail to have the plant taking roots into the soil, fail to grow, to move from because of faith, because of experience, to in spite of faith, in spite of persecution, and and and and and so on. So when trouble comes, when our prayers are not answered, you know, our faith quickly peters off or dies. My dear friends, in our faith journey, it is not how we start that matters, but how we end. Whether we can reach the finishing line, and whether you can, like Paul, proclaim at the end of your life that I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith. Now let these words sink into our lives, that we they belong to us, our own testimony of our physician faith. Yeah? Now let's move to the third one. One food in the kingdom and one food in the world responds. Now the third type of response that will not lead to a robust and step fast faith is described in verse 7. Jesus said, Other seeds fell on fell among thorns. And the thorns grew and choked them. Those of you who like gardening, when you grow plants or fruit trees in your garden, you know that you must get rid of the wheats and thorns around the plant, right? You must pull out, not just pull out the wheat, but you must pull out the roots of the wheat, otherwise it will grow again. Right? You know that, right? When I was a kid, I lived in Aukan, uh, Kampong areas before it was developed into HTB. My house, my both my parents were teachers who lived in an attack house, the out house, and around us, they are there are grass patch, they are garden. You know, and my mother used to plant fruits, trees, and vegetable things like this. And I'm asked, cheap labor, I'm asked to go and clear the wheat. And I've been thought when you pull out wheat, make sure that the roots are uh uprooted. Chances are sugar, but you know. So so what is you know, so we will not be an agricultural uh uh country, but we know that the roots of the wheat must be taken, taken up. Now the wheat and thorns are very destructive, okay? They are their strong roots, uh will use up all the nutrients in the soil, leaving nothing for your plant. No, the thorns will also choke the plant, and in the end, this plant can barely grow, much less produce fruits or flowers. So Jesus said in verse 25. As for what was sown among Thorn, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of the riches show the precious word of God. And it proves uh unfruitful. So the the person Jesus describes here is the one whose heart is divided and distracted by the things of the world. I think either Peter or Andrew said just now, we are distracted by the things of the world. And this person's heart seeks after the worldly pleasures and glories, like wealth. James, money making also can be a problem. Wealth, success, power, recognition, seemingly, these are the things that we are all familiar with. We want it. I also want it. But we need to be very careful. That is the only thing, the only thing that makes us different from the world. We are in the world, but not of the world. Yeah? So, and for this person, his desire, his pursuit of all these things consume him, taking him, his mind, his heart away from God. And his life is not rooted in God's word. And therefore, there is no growth, no transformation in him. And therefore, life does not bear fruit. No spiritual fruit. You know, many Christians, all of us here, we all started off well. Really, truly with a fervent heart and a sincere faith. Yeah, we think that. Yeah, that's why we become Christian. Yeah, we we really believe with a sincere heart. We believe in Jesus. We want to know Jesus and become like him, just as some of us here say. But what is to follow? And they want also to live according to the gospel. Very noble, very clear, very good. But we must remember, you know, we live in a world full of thorns and weeds. There are many distractions, worries, and cares that consume our time and energy and attention. Everything that happened, we have to go and attend to it. And we are not constant and we are also constantly tempted by the pleasures of this world. So we end up giving in to the to our to the carnal desires of our heart. That's a bad part of the of the soil. Yeah. So what happens? We may try to hold fast to our faith in Christ. But at the same time, we strive after worldly success and material possession. We want the best of both worlds. Yeah. We hear it all the time. Christians will say it's like worldly reason. Well, yeah, this guy speaks of reason. We can have the best of the world. But this kind of response to the gospel, when it comes to the gospel, is what I taught one foot in the kingdom, one foot in the world response. You know, there is a Chinese saying, yes, you know, right? Standing on two boats with one foot in each boat. What does it mean? It speaks of indecisiveness. It speaks of compromise, agree, last, and putting what we want as equally important as what God wants. You know? Yes, we are trying to do what not what I want, but what God wants. But then after a while, I say that what I want is what God wants. We justify it that way. Right? And the outcome, as you can imagine, will fall, will harm us. Now many of us have one food in the kingdom of God and another food in the world. It is not uncommon in churches today, especially in Singapore, a materialistic countries with quite good prosperity, economic success in our country and in our own life. You know, we we're drawn into pursuing that. And we want so in a church, we want God's blessing in our lives. But I also want to enjoy the pleasures of this world. It seems there's nothing wrong with that. But when you have 50-50% equality, we are in trouble, okay? Now, when we do that, our faith will remain shallow. And invariably it will fall because it cannot withstand the test of time. Tomorrow we have more of this. And this is the outcome of a divided heart. No loyalty to Christ. The one food in God's kingdom, the other food in the world's response. Food-bearing response. Jesus described the fourth type of response to the message of gospel in verse 8. Other seeds fell on good soil. Just one word, good soil, and produced grain. Some a hundredfold, sixty-fold, some sixty, some uh thirty-fold. Yeah. Now, what is this good soil that allows the seed to grow to become a fruit-bearing tree? My wife saw this picture, he said I should find one during pictures. Yeah. Yeah. So Jesus went on to describe the good soil in verse 23. He says, as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the words and understands it. And he indeed bears fruit and yield, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another, thirty. The good soil is the heart that hears the word of God, number one. Seek to understand with our mind and then receive it into our heart. This process from here to the brain goes round, round, round, and then goes out to the heart. It's a very important process. And then it comes out into from our will, you know, our uh uh resolution, resolute volition, volition to to obey and to live up the word that we understand, that we receive. Right? It is a heart that that allows the seed of God's word to take roots, to take roots uh in in our heart, transforming the way we live, the way we think, the way we relate to people, the way we conduct ourselves, and the way we respond to temptation around us. So the word soy is the heart that is uh devoted to God, a heart that is receptive to God's word. It is a humble, trusting, obedience heart, bottom line. Yeah, disciplined and intentional to grow in faith and ready to make sacrifices in order to be faithful to God at the end of the day. So only a fruit-bearing response will lead to authentic faith. So what fruit will grow from the good soil? What do you think is the fruit that Jesus is referring to? What fruit is that that will grow out of the food soil? Anyone not not during that what fruit? What fruit you think that you are bearing? Fruit of spirit. Good, fruit of the spirit, what else? Good works. Good words, okay? So fruitfulness, yeah, productivity, fruitfulness, fruit. What else that Jesus is talking about that good fruit will come out of good soil, patron kindness, yeah, fruit of the spirit. Okay, let's look at uh uh a little bit on Jesus' uh teaching in the sermon of the month. Now, Jesus teaching, I I I just taught a course before I came, five sessions on sermon on the month, and this is uh what is important. Jesus said uh in verse 33, 63, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Seek God's righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. The fruit of God's righteousness in us, you know, uh is what we are to seek after and to bear in our lives. The fruit-bearing person is one who is fruitful. Just now someone talked about fruitful, faithful, yeah. So remember this word. If our life, how do you describe? How do you describe your life in terms of fruitfulness and faithfulness? If you cannot find something to describe that, then I think there is work for us to do, there's work for God to do. You know that whatever it is at the end, we are fruitful and we are faithful uh to uh to God. Now the Bible has many teachings on what it means to be faithful and fruitful. Yeah, we are taught to be faithful and fruitful as witness of for Jesus, Acts chapter 1, verse 8. Yeah, as soul and light to the world in Sermon Among Matthew chapter 5, as disciple and disciple makers, just to name a few. Jesus taught about what it means to be a disciple, take up your cross, deny yourself, and then follow me. There are so many teachings there, you know, but we follow that. We become faithful and fruitful. And then, as we had mentioned just now, Paul also defined for us to have to bear the fruit of the spirit: joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, hopefulness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are things that the world don't talk about, but we talk about because we know that on one hand I cannot produce this, but it is the spirit that produces this in us. So we value, we value that. Okay? Now let me conclude. How we respond to God, how we respond to his gospel and salvation, how we respond to his mandate, his teaching, his will, and his word has to do with our heart, the condition of our heart. Understand this. Not that we want to judge and criticize them, we know that heart is at stake and we may fall into the same trap. You know. So we this morning we have already talked about four types of heart to respond to God and gospel. The first three types uh will lead to faith that is shallow, superficial, and therefore cannot go a long haul. You cannot, you will find that you are even able to reach the finishing line with this weak and shallow faith. Yeah, and only one type of response, one type of heart or soil of the heart that will lead to authentic faith. And authentic faith is fruitful and faithful. Right? So the the first is one year in, one year out respond. Second, fireworks respond. And third, one food in the world, one food. One food in the kingdom, one food in the world, respond. Fourth is fruit bearing respond. You think, where are you now? What do you think is your heart condition? Number four, there is textbook answer. I tell you, when I listen, when I look, even I prepared, I've been through. I I've been through the four times. Jesus is speaking to me. And what means that it doesn't mean that I've been through, I reached the number four, I will remain on the four. You think so? We can go back to number one, number two, number three also. So he's not talking about four categories of people. He is talking about everyone is faced with four responses. You choose, but sometimes we choose the fourth response on certain issues, certain items, or another item we just go out. You know, because too painful, too much a demand for me to follow. So we need to be careful. Look, Christianity, Christian faith is exciting faith. You know, it's uh it's worth living. Someone uh uh Socrates is it that a life that is not examined is not well lived. You know, so so we need to examine a life from time to time again which type of condition I'm in now. Vis-vise what is happening in the world in my life. And then you know, make sure that you are on the floor, on number four all the time. Then I think you are running towards the end. Yeah. And towards the end, it means that God calls us over lead. Because work is done. I always believe, you know. When we finish our work, God will call us back. If God has not called us back, that means He has work for us to do. Okay? So then the next question is what is the work that God calls you to do? Again, I have a lot of questions. So please go back and think about it. What is this work that you want me to do, God? The purpose, the goal, the life that you want me to live. So, what type of faith do you have? What is your response to God in terms of his gift or salvation? Uh, just now I was asked whether a salvation, a gift of salvation, can we lose the salvation? Now, very briefly, this is one topic, a call that I have conducted in cathedral. There are three sessions on this cross. So much things. But I want to say this from Paul's perspective, salvation, once saved, is always saved. From God's perspective. Then I otherwise I cannot trust him. That means he says that I give you eternal life salvation. He must have a way to make it happen. Otherwise, what he promised me, right? How does he make this happen? He gives us the Holy Spirit. So if you believe, accept the gift of salvation, eternal life, you will love the Holy Spirit. Then you are you have been saved, you are being saved, you will be saved. But along the line, somehow the position of God is still there. Yeah, the promise is safe. But you decide to ignore the Holy Spirit. You ignite decide to depart from God. You have a choice because you decide to receive, you also reject beside to reject. Have you ever rejected somebody's gift? You give only, if you don't give to you, don't even look at it, put the drawer. You don't even know that you have a gift. Have you experienced that? So some Christians use this way. Say, yeah, God, you give me salvation, I keep it. Then keep on saying that. One safe is always saying, I can live my life as I want. No, there's no such technology. Okay? So what is the response? To the gift of salvation and eternal life. To his will and truth in your life. All these are questions that I think Pastor Daniel will have to do a lot of tosses for you to take 24. A year of uh running the race to the end. So a true believer is one who seeks to know and understand God's will. That's number one. Obey and live according to his will. Find out his will purpose. For a lot of things to find out, huh? And then bear the fruit. Wrong fruit. No, sometimes bear wrong fruit, right? Because Jesus says that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, bad tree cannot good fruit. So, fruit of godly character, fruit of righteousness. Yeah, and remain faithful and fruitful to the air. This is what Jesus expects from us. Amen.

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Amen.

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Every of you respond with such a positive, you know. Because some of the churches, they're hesitant. When you are hesitant to respond, I have two implications. I know that you got it. And you are not here, not there. You dare not to respond. You keep quiet, can also be that the first day the heart is hardened. They are not answering. They are not there. So there are many others and four response. You can uh go through it. Oh, Li Tang, just mentioned this is meant for now rather than uh I thought I said this uh yesterday. See how how time has fly. I forgot what I said or not. Now, Lin Yi Tang. Let me end with his uh testimony. Some of you may have heard of him. He he was a scholar and philosopher. He invented and patented the Chinese typewriter. And at one time he served briefly as Chancellor of Nangyang University, Nangta, our Singapore Nangta, which is present NTU, right? Lin Itan came from China. He was a third-generation Christian father. His father was a Presbyterian pastor. And Lin was educated in Christian schools, obviously. And at one time, even when for training to be a pastor, must be the father's heart desire for him to see whether God led him to become a pastor. But unfortunately, he was a Christian by habit, not in his heart. So in his early years, he went to the church week after week but had no relationship with God. He knew, we sparked God, he knew about God, but did not know God personally. Like me, or I am like him. A deliberate. So you can tell me salvation once all sin. No, he decided to leave and left the church. And he became an ardent Confucianist, you know, and embraced Taoist and Buddhist belief. But again, God did not give up on him. Praise God. Lin Yitan returned to God when he was in his 60s. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord. No age is too big for God to call, you know, to come back to him. Okay? So Lin and his family were living in New York at that time. And his wife persuaded him to accompany her to the church one day. And he shared that the sermon that day struck my heart. I said, struck his heart. And he decided to come back to God. Now when I read this, I think you are a smart guy. You have read so much. You even delve into Confucianism. You know, you know the difference. But what why suddenly he come back? Yes, it is not the brain, it is the heart that converted him. Conversion in the heart. And so I believe that. I believe on that day he met the risen Christ. And it was all by who Jesus is. And now not only he knew God in his head, but he knew God and Jesus in his heart. Hallelujah! I know there are many people like this, you know, even among us. Yeah. I am also one who thinks I know, but only until the Holy Spirit zappes us then we come to life, born again. So Li Tan said this. Many have asked him why I, when you are famous, why I, a self-declared pagan, have returned to Christianity. He said, I returned to Christianity because I wish to re enter that knowledge of God and the love of God, which Jesus revealed with such clarity and simplicity. And he said, only Jesus, no one else, could bring us to the direct knowledge of God. Praise the Lord. Such testimony, in my view, in my understanding, can only come from a humble and revoted heart. So truly, the conviction of his heart gave him, it is a conviction of his heart that gave him a clear understanding of the truth about Jesus. That Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. So, my dear friends, true faith has to do with the heart. Yeah? It begins only when we have a personal encounter with the recent Christ. And the wonderful thing is that we never get tired of encountering Jesus. We can encounter him time and again afresh. Amen? And I pray that in this camp you will encounter Jesus. You will feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. You will hear the voice of God afresh all the time in these three days or four days here. So if you have met, you have not met Jesus personally, ask Jesus to reveal himself to you. Ask him to come into your. And we look to you. And we know that you are always there. Your words are there in the Bible, in preaching and sharing by many people. But Lord, let our heart be one that is humble, willing, and obedient and trusting to receive your word. And may your spirit do a deep work, a transforming work in us, so that we can be fruitful trees that bear uh fruit, uh, that we are fruitful and faithful till the end of time. Thank you, God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.