SPEAKER_00 0:00

Which stage of life? Which stage in the life of faith do you think you are at? Take a look at the worksheet that we have provided in your camp booklet. This chart that you have in your hands shows us six stages in the life of faith. These six stages, let me say, are not derived from the Bible. They are derived from a qualitative research done by the authors Hecber and Goorlich. They interviewed thousands of Christians about their Christian life, the progression of their Christian life. And from their study of all the interviews, they came to a conclusion that the majority of Christians go through these six stages. So each stage is characterized by a kind of team and also by the characteristics in each stage. So if you are a Christian of some years, you would actually be in one of these stages. Do you know which stage you are in? This is what we are here to sort of talk about and discuss. So as I run through this very briefly, it's actually a book, a very thin book that you can actually pick up on Amazon, I think. But I want to just run briefly through it. And then as I run briefly through it, maybe you can sort of identify where you are in the life of faith. What stage are you at? And uh we then break up into groups, and then you can discuss further to get greater clarification or to share with others where you think you are at. So the first stage is, of course, when you come to Christ, right? There's a recognition of God. And the theme of this stage is that you recognize that God is real, a recognition of God, a faith is uh recognizing who God is. So the characteristics are there's a sense of awe, you're impressed with this God, his love, his forgiveness. You feel a deeper sense of your need for forgiveness. You have uh begin to enter into a greater meaning in life, and you have a very childlike faith and innocence uh at this stage. But the danger here is you feel also still a sense of worthlessness, and perhaps you feel very ignorant of what the Christian faith is all about. So, this is this stage. Uh, I don't think there are many of you in this stage, right? You're all like more seasoned Christians. So let's go to the second stage. The life of discipleship. Uh, unfortunately, the description here of discipleship is not as broad as it truly should be, but it's just a description of the stage. So at this stage, faith is about learning about God. Uh, you belong, you start to belong to a group. Normally it's the Christian faith community, whether it's Anglican, Methodist, or whatever it is, and you look up to a leader, normally it's a pastor, or a vision, or perhaps a belief system, the Anglican belief system. Uh, and then you have a feeling of what is right, a clear sense of what is a clearer sense of what is right and wrong. And sometimes the danger is you can be quite rigid about what is right and wrong, and sometimes you can be a bit comparative with others, and you think you're right, and others are wrong. So this is the life of discipleship. Anyone in this stage? Then you go to the productive life. That that is where you see your faith as working for God, and here uh you find your uniqueness in the community. What is it that I can uniquely contribute to this community? Is it teaching? Is it going to the Sunday school? Is it uh taking photographs? Is it uh uh whatever gift and responsibility it is? Is it leading in a church council, parish council, or whatever it is? Um you also reach out to spiritual goals, but the danger is you become overzealous, you become weary, you become tired, you become performance-oriented. How many of you think you are here? Not sure, huh? Or don't want to say, yeah, the productive life. Usually between the productive life and the journey inward, you hit what you call the wall. You go through a trial, you go through a challenge, a difficulty, maybe at your job place, maybe in relationship, maybe experiencing a loss, uh, going through an illness or some kind of trial that really puzzles you and shakes your faith in the God that you think He is. In the God that you think He is. And uh suddenly you begin to take a journey inward. You begin to rediscover God. Maybe I put God in a box that God is like this, like this, like this. But then suddenly this trial happens and you say, Hey, I don't understand. What's happening? I thought God is good. How come this is happening to me? You rediscover who God is, you no longer put him in a box. So, in this journey inward, you lose the certainties of life and faith that you had in the earlier stages. You begin to search for direction, not answers. You pursue your authentic self, renewed in the knowledge of God. This has to do with uh your identity. And you release God from that box, you put God in a box that He is like this, He will do this, He will do that. Suddenly, because of the trial, hey, how come God is not like that? You rediscover who God really is, and then the danger here is you're always questioning and you make a lot of self-assessment that immobilize you, uh, you incriminate yourself, you condemn yourself. The journey inward. After you make the journey inward, you have a clearer sense, a better sense of who God is. Uh sometimes you're still puzzled, I don't understand him, but I trust him. Uh and then you make that journey outward. You you surrender to God at this stage. You reach a stage of surrendering all to God. Here you have renewed acceptance of who God is, that his mystery, that sometimes you don't understand his ways, and you have to leave it at that, you have to surrender that. And self-acceptance, you begin to accept yourself, who you are, what's your identity. Renewed life of personal ministry from a strong anchor. You might have ministered with wrong motives earlier on. You were not ministering out of being the beloved out of love, but now you are realizing you are a child of God. Your identity is not based on your performance, your identity is not based on how much you have, who you are in the church. You minister out of being the beloved of God. Minister out of love, a strong anchor. You have a strong sense of calling, uh, you have a deep calm, a stillness, and you care less about institutional needs and expectations and concerns about productivity. Yeah, I met some cell leaders from mega churches. Wow, they they are like uh uh they were saying they they lost themselves because they were always trying to meet the targets of the church. You know, you go to work, you have KPIs, right? Suddenly you go to church, wow, also this church got a lot of KPIs. You must bring how many people into the cell by what year? Wow, they felt so much stress. That kind of uh stress that they have. But here uh they have a deep sense of calling, a deep calm and stillness. And the danger here is sometimes the institution needs something, they just don't care. The danger is they don't care, uh they begin to uh uh uh don't care about expectations of the institution. They just do what they want to do. That's the danger. There needs to be a balance. Lastly, you enter into the life of love, which is like becoming what Jesus is. Remember, we are talking about formational uh discipleship, right? Faith is then reflecting God, reflecting Christ. Uh Christ-like living, wisdom gained from life struggles, compassionate living for others, detachment from things, the things of this world, separation from worldly values anchored in the simple life. This these are not really dangers, but these are actually strengths. I don't know why it's there. Anyway, these these are the uh how many stages? One, two, three, four, six stages, alright. Where do you think you are? Stage five. I want you to break up into groups and share with one another where you think you are, and then look at what the next stage is like, because that is where you want to move. Remember, this is not Bible, okay? This is from qualitative research. So generally, it will hold true for most of us. It's not all true. You will not fit all the characteristics, but you fit many of them. Can you go in, just turn the chairs around, it's okay, all right? You can rearrange the chairs later on. Groups of three so that the discussion doesn't go too long. I was so encouraged. I was so blessed to see so many of you consecrating yourselves to discipleship, to the Lord, to do his will. I hope you have not washed off the anointing oil. You know, some people after they shake hands with famous people, they don't wash their hands for days and weeks. You know, uh this this bowl in which the wafer was put in came from the kitchen. It was used for common use in the restaurant as a maybe something for soup or porridge. But it was taken and used here, you know, in the tabernacle and in the temple, instruments that were used in the conduct of worship and sacrifices were marked with the blood. The blood says this belongs to God, this is separated from common use, cannot be used for the world anymore. It must be used and totally dedicated to God's work, to God's will. So when you came here to consecrate yourselves, and we put the anointing oil on you, you are no longer for common use. You must be useless to the world, so to speak. You don't offer yourselves to worldly values anymore. You are separating yourself and saying, I'm gonna give my life to God totally. This is what they call holiness when the vessel is consecrated from the common use to holy use, it is holy. So if you have that mark here, you're holy. You're holy. Turn to someone beside you and say you're holy. I don't know whether there's a difference between in pronunciation between H-O-L-E-Y and H-O-L-Y. I'm full of holes. I'm always leaking the Holy Spirit. Holy. Be holy as I'm holy. So maintain that holiness. Today we are talking about how we can actually do what Jesus did so that we allow God to form our lives, transform our lives, and empower us to do the things that He did. And if you have wondered over the last few sessions, who is Jesus' rabbi? The disciples had Jesus and a rabbi. But who is Jesus' rabbi? Who is Jesus' rabbi? Mother? Father. Yes. They were formational in his life, right? But who is the primary one? I believe his rabbi is the heavenly father. Because there is a passage in Isaiah 50, verses four to seven, that describes that. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught. And the word who those who are taught is can be translated as disciple, learner. That I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning, he awakens. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. Those who are taught his disciple. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious. I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me, therefore I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. Morning by morning, Jesus, besides receiving formation through the mother and father, is being discipled by the Heavenly Father, who awakens him, awakens his ear to hear what God was teaching him. From his time in the school, memorizing scripture, learning scripture, hearing it being read in the synagogue, he was memorizing, he was meditating, he was listening. What is the father saying to him through the scriptures, through creation? He was hearing God even as he walked to the fields and see the farmer's farm and sow the seed, and as he looked at the lilies, as he looked at the mountains, and that is where many of his parables came from. He was always listening to the heavenly rabbi, teaching him, forming him. Always not just listening in theory, but putting it into practice, obeying, obeying till the time where the obedience required allowing people to beat him, spit on him, crucify him. Jesus was human too. He's divine 100%, and yet he was human 100%. He had to learn. We learn that in Luke, right? Luke chapter 2, he says, Jesus grew in stature physically, in favor with God and man, relationships, and in wisdom. Remember that verse? He grew. He's just like a human. He was being formed. His knowledge increased as he listened to God, as he meditated. So we see in Jesus the F-I-R-M. It's formational, it was intentional, it's relational, it was missional, experiential, obedience. How did Jesus grow? Through the teaching of the Father. But we observed in Scripture that he had nine spiritual practices. Some people observe less, some people observe more. We're going to look at these nine practices that helped Jesus to receive the grace from God that formed him. Because these are the same nine practices that will help you and me allow God to form us and empower us. What are these nine practices? Look at these nine practices. Let's start with Sabbath. The scripture says in Luke 4 16, Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath as was his custom. Habitually. Do we still practice the Sabbath? We are no longer under the law. In fact, we have entered the Sabbath rest spiritually when we put our trust in Christ and no longer perform works and good works in order to earn his approval and acceptance. But yeah, even under the new covenant, I think there is a Wisdom in the Sabbath, in the purpose why God gave it. And I think it's highly relevant for Singaporeans. In the Sabbath, God thinks of human beings and what is good for them. Stop working one day. Don't do any work. The work that you do for six days, don't do on the seventh day. During that day, focus on God. Renew your faith. So there's rest, there's spiritual renewal. And finally, relish. Enjoy. Enjoy the day. Do the things that give you life. I think there's wisdom in that. You know why? Because Singaporeans, we are too productive obsessed, too efficiency driven. In Germany, there's a law. You cannot call your employees after the working hours. It's against the law. You can get fined. I wish they had that in Singapore, huh? I think the pastors also will be happy to do that. Singapore society is a lot very much shaped by fines, you know. You try to use encouragement, nobody put back the plates at the the the corner when the once the fine came in, I see everybody. And it becomes so ingrained in us, even here, I I I thought of putting back. Where's the where's the where's the tr where do I put this tray? Even your children, you need to practice Sabbath. Because they're so stress. Five days a week, study, study, study. Tuition, enrichment class, everything. Then last time, Saturday, you are ECA. Very stressful. So you know what I did for my children? Sunday is Sabbath for them. No homework, no study. The things they do for six days on the seventh day, no, no, no. No tuition. They love Sundays. My children love Sundays. They get to rest their mind, they get to rest their bodies, they get to play with daddy. They love Sundays. Sabbath. I love my Mondays as a pastor. Sabbath. I just don't think about work. I have a friend. He shuts off his phone. You call him on his Sabbath, he doesn't answer. He's my colleague. But as a senior pastor, I can't do that in case of emergencies. Second, solitude. Jesus practiced solitude. I don't want to elaborate on that because Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. No one around, no distraction. Alone with God, intimacy with Him. So I like the term quiet time. Time of quiet, away from distractions. It could be morning, it could be afternoon. I'm not a morning person, I usually do it at night. But now I'm a retired person, I do it in the morning. Prayer. Right? I don't want to talk about this. I just want to say this set prayers. You know, the Jewish people, they have a lot of sad prayers. When when when you see in the movie, Jesus, when he prays and blesses the bread, it's a common sad prayer for the blessing around the table. And Jews have all kinds of prayers. They thank God that they were born a man and not a woman. Not a very good prayer, but that's one of the sad prayers they pray. They even have a sad prayer after excretion. After going to the toilet, they thank God that they can side. You know what it's like to be constipated. When you have ever been constipated, you will thank God when you can excrete normally. And they have a sad prayer. Believe me, go and do some uh Google research and you you can keep that prayer for yourself. And Jesus, in fact, left a sad prayer for his disciples. What is the sad prayer? Well, teach us to pray after this manner, pray, our Father. All these are disciplines that are important. I'm so glad you all have the liturgy. Maybe as Anglicans, you ah, why didn't you go through all that just to drink the wine and take off the bread? But you know, liturgy's repetitiveness is so important. It's like reading the scripture over and over again. Certain things will strike you certain Sundays, other parts of the liturgy will strike you on other days and it forms you. I think your liturgy makes you as a people more humble. More humble. Anglicans are more humble compared to the Methodists. Really? Really, the liturgy. The liturgy has something to do with it, I think. The confession, the humbling. You know, in my Bible school class, I have Methodists, I have Anglican, I have Lutherans, I have Presbyterian, I have a Roman Catholic nun, and I have a Matoma girl, and I'm a Pentecostal. All the denominations are there. So liturgy is important. I don't know why we stopped saying the pledge. We should keep saying the Singapore Pledge. We the citizens of Singapore pledge ourselves as one united people. Come on, join me.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

And then you want to be wow, wow, wow.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

That's still good. You say over and over again, it does something for you, it forms you. Okay, let's move on to fasting. Fasting is important because the control of the flesh is weakened. The flesh has power over our life, but it's weakened as we fast. And the spirit's influence over us is enlarged and strengthened. So fasting is often accompanied by humbling ourselves in repentance before God. So it strengthens your ability to hear from God as well as to be heard by Him. You know, when you pray with fasting, you have that faith to believe that God hears you. Scripture. As you know, Jesus was good in scripture. He loved the scripture, he memorized large chunks of the Old Testament. In just the gospel records, people who have looked all the quotations that Jesus used of the Old Testament, they found 150 different verses that he quoted from the Old Testament. From memory. So I was challenged because that time I was trained by the navigators to memorize 150 verses, but I could never reach that goal. But he helped me. 150 verses. He was schooled in scripture. And can you imagine? They don't have Bibles then. No mobile phone, no paper Bible. They hear the scripture, they memorize, they repeat it, and they become like walking Bibles. They meditate it slowly, meditate on the scriptures, let the Lord speak to them. And this is what we should do with scriptures today. Ponder, meditate. The practice called lexio divina, divine reading, slow reading of scripture, meditating, making it part of your prayer with God, your response to God. That's the way we should go. The practice of scripture. Jesus not only did all these other practices, he also had that discipline of community. He could be by himself and do things by himself, but no, he chose the twelve. And out of the twelve, he had a closer community of three: Peter, James, and John. They say if you want to walk, if you want to go fast, what do you do? Walk alone. But if you want to go far, walk with others. Then generosity, we see this practice of generosity in Jesus' life. He poured out his whole life to the mission. Even with the offerings that came. Service. Remember the smelly feet at the Lord's supper the last night. Nobody wants to wash. There was no slave there. Jesus, everyone was waiting for someone else to wash the feet. Jesus saw what was needed and he solved the problem. He acted in love and he said this after washing the feet of his disciples, including the person he knew was going to betray him. I've set an example that you should do as I have done for you. That's service. Witness, Jesus, when he began his ministry, he was faithfully preaching the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom of God. Right to the time he was crucified on the cross in excruciating pain. He wasn't pitying himself, he wasn't complaining, he wasn't grumbling, he was reaching out to the thief. Today, you will be with me in paradise. The discipline, the practice of witnessing. Now let's look at the wrong way to look at the nine spiritual practices. Jesus has these practices. We want to adopt them into our lives and practice them. But we must have the right perspective. The wrong perspective is to look at it as a measure of spirituality and maturity. Oh, you do all nine. Wow, you are more mature than me. Oh, you only do one now, one of them, one of the practices of the nine. No, it's not a measure of spirituality and maturity. And you don't gain merit with God. You are not, God is not gonna love you more if you do more. He will love you as you are. He's not gonna uh uh put you on his right hand or on the left hand when you uh depart the earth. You don't gain merit with God, and you don't do it to cover your guilt. You're guilty for some sin you did. It's not a penance, you know. And you don't do it so you cover your guilt. And you don't want to do it to look good and to impress others. Remember, Jesus was talking about giving, alms giving, talking about prayer, talking about fasting. He said, Don't do it to show off, don't do it to impress others. Do it in secret. What is the right perspective? It's to position yourself to receive God's grace and power. When I was in secondary school, I studied in Swiss cottage secondary school. You all heard of Swiss cottage, right? It's the top school, the best school in Singapore. You all heard, right? Those days, the buses, very hard to get. I remember they don't kill all the students after school waiting there. And you know what? Positioning is very important. You don't know where the bus is going to stop, they don't have that line for the bus to go in, they don't have a bus bay. What? So everybody wants to go home. There are not enough seats in the bus. So when the bus comes, you're estimating where should I go? Should I stand there? Should I stand here? Should I stand in the front? Because if you don't, you miss the bus. Your positioning is very important. So when I was in secondary school, my positioning is very good. 173, the only bus that goes right into Princess Elizabeth Estate. If I don't position myself, I miss it. Now, sometimes I use this analogy to think of these spiritual practices. It's to put yourself in a place where you can receive God's grace, God's power, to empower you, to transform you, to give you what you need for your life to be transformed. Secondly, is to train you, it's a form of training to be and do what we could not be or do. Yeah? Sometimes you look and well you look at the reverence. Oh, I cannot do what they do. I cannot be what they be, what they are. But with these spiritual practices, it's training for you to be able to be and to do what Jesus is and was able to do. To become like him and to do what he does. It's a form of training. We go to the national service. We have to do pull-ups, we have to run. And and I don't know how many KM you have to run by how much time because I was exempted from all this. You know, I was in what you call the 5BE. Do you all know it's 5BE? Five basic exemption. Because of some illness they detected in me. I was I I was sent to the toughest unit in the national service. Typing. My training is people are climbing up the hill. I was climbing up the the typewriter keys. Up and down, up and down. Memorize file, this, this file, that file. This is the leaf form, it's eight, three, four, six. Oh, that's very tough, tougher than commando training. Where am I? Why am I saying this?

unknown 39:19

Training.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Training, yeah. It's a national service is training you to do and to be what you couldn't be. So my time, it takes two and a half years. How many of you did two and a half years? Yeah. The younger generation, two years. I hope the next generation, one year. One year is enough. Train yourself to be able to be operational. This is what spiritual practice is all about. You you can't be like Jesus with your willpower. You can't be like Jesus by more Bible study. You can't be like Jesus instantly. You need to train. And these spiritual practices help you to develop that. Let me give you a few guidelines, huh? Four guidelines about how to adopt and adapt these spiritual practices. Number one, again, it has to be intentional. Our life, Singaporeans are like overpacked suitcases. You know, like you buy a lot of stuff and you want to bring it back to Singapore and you have to you force, you force everything into that back out. Schedule is like that overpacked suitcase. So, Pastor, how to add? Nine practices. How to add? You must take out something la. Take out something. Maybe Netflix, instead of watching two hours, watch one hour. Oh what else can you take out? What else can you take out? Instead of working so much overtime, work less. What else can you take out? Don't take out church. It has to be intentional. Something has to give way if you want to add something on. John Odberg, one of my one of very prolific and very good author, John Odberg and Pastor, you must arrange your days so that you experience deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life with God. Secondly, balance. Alright? You have to have balance in what practices you think and what practices you do not take. Look at the nine practices. There are some that are called engagement practices. These practices engage you in activities, in doing something. And then there are abstinence practices, which you give up on something. Sabbath, you give up working, fasting, you give up eating. Solitude, you give up company to be alone with God. Abstinence practices and engagement practices. If you are a lethargic, feeling lethargic in your Christian life, in your spiritual life, feeling a bit indifferent, tida apa about spiritual things, feeling a bit lazy, engagement practices. Adopt. One, two, as you feel led a few of those, or just one of those into your schedule. Abstinence practices are disciplines of not doing. Right? Singapore's number one addiction. Why not fuss? Half a day. Don't touch, switch off. Pornography. Fasting. Some people cannot live without people. They cannot live without activities. They must go somewhere, do something. Sabbath. Solitude. The practice of solitude. Okay, half a day. I don't want to meet anybody, I don't want to chat with anybody. I'll just be alone in God. Can or not? Who are the people who say can? The introverts. Who are the people who are quiet? The extroverts. Don't know can. Balance also. To overcome the sin of commission. What is the sin of commission? The sins that you commit, the sins that you do, the wrong things that you do that you should not do. Look at the abstinence practices. They will help you overcome the sin of commission. To overcome the sin of omission, things that you know are good to do but you don't do. You look at the practices of engagement because they encourage you to do something, to engage, to do good. Number three, guidelines. Persevere. When you go through periods of change, this is the what you call the typical J curve. When you go through periods of change, things tend to get worse before they get better. This is a theory, but I think it works. So before a change, you're on a Plato. During a change, oh it's so tough. You feel like you're going down, you're failing, you're missing something, you know. But if you persevere during a change, you will experience the benefit of that new change in your schedule and in your life. Whether it's putting a quiet time in the early morning or it's practicing the Sabbath, you're going to go through a period of struggle. But if you persevere, you're going to enjoy the benefits of having that practice. It's the same with running, you know. Yeah, you want to start running. I tell you, running is just so difficult for me. I have to wow, really, I don't have the will for that, you know. But if you do it, I heard from runners, you struggle for a period during the change, but after a while, the the natural drug that comes in, or you feel high. You feel high, and then you cannot stop running anymore the rest of your life until you get a knee injury. So persevere, form that new muscle memory, and gain the benefits of adopting uh spiritual practice. Number four, do it in community with others. We need others. As iron sharpened iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. Proverbs 27 verse 17. Tell someone, hey, I need you to, I need your support, I need your encouragement. I'm adopting this practice. I'm going to wake up every morning. Or in the MRT, I don't want to touch the phone. I'm going to uh uh memorize scripture or something like that. I'm just going to be quiet before God and pray for my day. Share with somebody about it. Yeah. Okay. Now, you have the other worksheet, right? You have the other worksheet. I'm going to give you like 10 minutes to look at the worksheet. You look at the worksheet, what does it look like? Yeah. Yeah, you see her hand? Yes. You see those hands? Yeah, can you see the worksheet? It's on the other side of the one you used just now. Okay, on one column are the practices. Nine of them. Wow, very nice. This worksheet. I I did I sent something, but it didn't, it wasn't that nice. Oh, this one is really good. Whoever did this, I tell you this got class. Your your camp booklet really got class. My one is all black and white in my church. Uh daily. What can you add? Maybe as you pray, see what speaks to you. Maybe you like to look at scripture. Okay. I'm gonna read the scripture daily. When? Morning? Afternoon? Night? What scripture? What are you gonna read? Be a bit specific. Weekly! Or maybe you besides scripture, you want to witness. You want to do something about witness. Witness daily is very hard. Uh let's say general uh wow. Prayer, scripture and prayer daily, yeah. Some of it depends what you what you feel led to do, okay? Weekly, or maybe the Sabbath. I'm gonna have a Sabbath, I'm gonna practice Sabbath. I'm gonna tell my wife. No more teaching our son, forcing our son to do homework on Sunday, huh? Or your son say, Daddy, I love you. Fasting, maybe? Wingly. Monthly or seasonal, once in a long while, maybe I go on a silent retreat for three days. I make a big donation to the church. Can you look at all this? Right? I don't know, be creative, don't follow me. As the spirit leads you. I'm gonna give you just ten minutes by yourself. You don't have to share with anybody. So we're gonna stop at ten thirty-five. Can we do that? Remember, huh? Intentional. Some people say, I wanna see the northern lights. Year 2000. Now year 2000, I want to see the northern lights. Never plan, never set a date, never say which place to see the northern lights. You must be intentional. Then things will work out. Make a plan. Pray and then just write what comes to mind. You can review it after a month and change again. So, Lord, draw your attention to these people who have consecrated themselves to discipleship. Draw their attention to that which is helpful for them. Those practices that will draw them closer to you and grow in Christ's likeness. Lay it on their hearts, inspire them, and lead them. I really hope some of you will feel led to meet up with non-Christians for a meal and build friendship and trust so that one day you could share the good news with them. Whether it's once a week, once in a fortnight, once a month, how how wonderful it is to make space for the gospel. I'm just giving suggestions. Some of you want to inculcate the practice of the presence of God. Maybe you can make it a point every day, three times a day, to just connect with God. Breakfast time or after lunch, after dinner, I'm just gonna spend two minutes in silence and just connect with God. For senior citizens like me, memorizing scripture is good for you. Wow. Our memories are fading, right? After 65. Memorize the word of God. I'm also gonna suggest every week you're gonna pray for all your loved ones who are unsaved. Put that weekly. I'm gonna pray for all my loved ones that are unsaved. For a few years I prayed for all my classmates to come to know Christ. And after 20 years, I saw so many of them come to Christ, even though I did not share the gospel with them. It's power in prayer. How about this? I'm gonna set some money aside every month to give to the poor and the needy. And I know some Christian who needs something, I'm gonna just send that money to that person. About the power of prayer. For many years, my wife and I have been praying for all the unsaved people in our family. My brother is unsaved, my sister-in-law is unsaved, their children. So we pray for them regularly, not like every day, but every time it comes to mind when we are praying for families, we'll pray for their salvation. But you know what? Lately, I've been seeing answers to my prayer. It's very hard to share the gospel with my brother. He's my big brother, right? How to share the gospel very hard. I can only pray. One day a friend called and said, his colleague who is also a mutual friend, your brother became a Christian. Can you follow him up? I say, How can I follow up my brother? I can't even share the gospel with him. Can you do it for me? Follow him up, disciple him, and bring him to your church. I say, How do you get saved? Alpha office. He attended the Alpha office, he came to Christ. Next thing I know, he's baptized. Next thing I know, he's serving in the church. Next thing I know, he's helping while he went to pack things for the foreigners, foreign workers. I say, wow. Just prayer. I did not see results for years. Suddenly it just happened. That's the power of prayer. Then my nephew broke up with his girlfriend. Go on a long journey all the way to South America to find himself. He's not a Christian. Instead of finding himself, he found God. He watched all those videos about the second coming. He said, What? God is real. I don't know how people can watch YouTube videos about second coming and still come to Christ. He came to Christ. And he came back, he attended Bukin Panjang Methodist Church, just opposite his house. And not only then, his mother, non-Christian, my wife and I have been praying for her. My wife has shared many times with her, sometimes almost to the point of tears, but she never accepted the Lord. So I don't think she attended the same church as her son. The power of prayer. Why am I sharing you this? I want you to stand with me and pray for your loved ones. How many of you have unsaved loved ones? Whether brother, sister, sister-in-law, nephew, nieces, pray today, mark this day, and believe that one day these people will come to know the Lord. Amen? Shall we stand up and then form groups and just pray? I just felt we should do this, and I'm trusting God that we're gonna see some uh uh dramatic uh conversions in the coming weeks, months, or years.