WELCOME (15minutes)
Choose one of the following icebreakers:
(If you have first-time guests, begin with a round of introduction and warmly welcome the new visitors.)
- A HEART OF WORSHIP
We heard from SP Daniel last week on what it means to have a heart of worship. There are many forms and expressions of worship and each of us have our own “comfort level”. Give one minute for everyone to consider how they normally express their worship to God and tell them to get into that posture as you count down from 3 to 1. Have fun expressing the posture of your heart in worship of God!
- WHAT ANNOYS YOU?
All of us have our likes and dislikes and things that rub us the wrong way. In getting to know one another better and to build a strong relationship, the process involves not only becoming acquainted with each other’s preferences but also understanding what annoys us. Share with each other one thing that really annoys you. Have fun growing strong in community.
Transition to Worship:
In Psalm 100, the Psalmist exhorts us to worship the Lord with gladness and to come before him with joyful songs. To enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Let’s join our hearts and voices as one to worship and praise our Lord and God. Hallelujah!!!
WORSHIP (20 minutes)
You may use the following suggested worship songs:
- Majestic – Lincoln Brewster (A)
- Happy Day (D)
- Build My Life (D)
- Amazing Grace (D)
Be sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to wait upon the Lord for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Encourage the release of the gifts of the Holy Spirit - words, visions, tongues and interpretation of tongues - to minister to the people who are present.
Transition to Word:
Colossians 3:16 tells us, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Let the Holy Spirit teach and guide us as we meditate on His Words shared in the sermon by our SP Daniel.
WORD (45minutes)
Memory verse of the week: John 18:37
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
Sermon Title: LOVE
By Senior Pastor Daniel Khong on 7 – 8 Mar 2020
Scripture Passage: John 3:16-17 (NKJV)
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Introduction
A couple of weeks ago, SP Daniel spoke on Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit and shared with us that in our response to the situations around us, we must demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is truly in us.
Galatians 5:22-25 (NIVUK)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
When we live by the Holy Spirit, there will be tangible traits in our lives that show people around us that the Holy Spirit lives in us. While the fruit of the Spirit has several traits, we need to learn how they apply to us individually.
This weekend, SP Daniel focused on one of these aspects – love. The word “love” is mentioned over 600 times in the Bible, and is obviously something that is foundational in our faith.
Love is not just a feeling, but an action. Love must be shared with the people around us. How can we better express our love to those around us? What should be the focus of our actions in loving others? SP Daniel shared 2 truths that demonstrate our commitment to love those around us. To love one another we must be willing to:
- Serve Usefully
- Sacrifice Unconditionally
Discovery and Understanding Questions:
Q1. How did God demonstrate His love in a useful and practical way to serve us?
A1. God’s great love for us (John 3:16) compelled Him to give to us something that we needed – Jesus Christ. God so loved us that He gave. Jesus also demonstrated love throughout the gospels in tangible ways to serve us (Matthew 20:26-28). An example was when Jesus encountered a leper (Luke 5:13), he reached out and touched the leper who was an outcast of society. No one will go near, much less to touch him. This is love that serve usefully.
Love is something tangible and measurable. It’s not just a feeling, but it’s how we act and how we serve. The Bible tells us, let us not love with words or speech but with actions.
(1 John 3:16-18).
“In the New Testament, love is more of a verb than a noun. It has more to do with acting than with feeling. The call to love is not so much a call to a certain state of feeling as it is to a quality of action.” R. C. Sproul
John 3:16 (NKJV)
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Matthew 20:26-28 (NIVUK)
26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’
Luke 5:13 (NIVUK)
13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him.
1 John 3:16-18 (NIVUK)
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth
Q2. What does it mean to sacrifice unconditionally to show love for others?
A2. God not only sacrificed something precious in giving us His only Son but He also does it unconditionally (“whoever” John 3:16).
This is how God demonstrated unconditional love. Even though we had no relationship with God, no desire for His love and we did not even have any concept of who God is; yet He chose to love us and give us a magnificent gift – Jesus Christ as an atonement for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10).
God’s love isn’t just based on emotion or feeling, and it’s not even based on whether His love will be reciprocated. He chooses to love by sacrificing unconditionally for us. (Romans 5:6-8)
“Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.” C. S. Lewis
John 3:16 (NKJV)
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
1 John 4:9-10 (NIVUK)
9 This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Romans 5:6-8 (NIVUK)
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Application Questions:
Break into smaller groups, share, pray and minister to one another.
Q1. “The world does not understand theology or dogma, but it understands love and sympathy.” (D. L. Moody). How are we demonstrating God’s love in tangible ways to serve the people around us usefully?
Q2. We respond naturally to others conditionally. You treat me well, I will treat you well. You look out for my wellbeing and I will return the favour. Share one challenge you face to sacrifice unconditionally (supernatural) for those around you?
Transition to Works:
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Let’s do the good works through the power of His Spirit so that glory is given to our Father God in heaven.
WORKS (15minutes)
Give cell members some time to share on their prayer walk. As they prayer-walk, encourage and challenge them to include their neighbours as their Bests. Get the cell group to do the following:
1. Continue to Connect
a) With cell group members
- Hold your cell members accountable to go into live streaming or download the service message to listen to it.
- Occasionally you may wish to arrange for the cell group to meet to view live streaming together. Note: This should not replace your weekly cell group gathering. [Currently FCBC encourages cell group gatherings to continue as much as is possible. Cell group gatherings should be a time of spurring members on to faith & good works. Seek ways & means to help each other, especially those who are impacted by COVID-19 either directly or indirectly.]
- The cell group can continue to connect with their members who are quarantined, on Stay-Home-Notices, or suspected to be exposed to the virus & hence cannot attend cell meeting.
a. Synchronize prayer times together.
b. Discuss devotional thoughts through WhatsApp.
c. Create a cell group hashtag - Post uplifting messages, sermon videos and notes, or even bookmark pretty verse images that you like on Instagram by leaving these in your cell group hashtag as a comment. Everything that has been tagged with your cell group hashtag will be available for the entire group to see!
d. Video call each other. [Note: This is not meant to be a replacement for cell group gatherings.]
b) With Pre-Believers
- Continue to encourage evangelism. Evangelism need not take a back seat with live streaming or COVID-19. Either as an individual, as a family or as a cell group, you can still invite your pre-believer friends/Bests/3x3 contacts (depending on their comfort level) to join you in watching the live stream service. You should still try to continue connecting with them & spur your cell members to do so.
- When the salvation altar call is made during live streaming, use the link (Response Form) screened over the live stream for those who have responded or want to respond, to fill in. The link is:
- For English live streaming - www.fcbc.org.sg/connectwithus
- For Chinese live streaming - www.fcbc.org.sg/zh/connectwithus
Please encourage your pre-believer contacts to fill up the Response Form or you can help them fill it up. When filling up the Form, try to provide as much of the information needed as possible.
- If your cell group is not running a XFXZ Group, check with your G12 leader to see if you can exercise the option of inviting your/your cell group members' pre-believers contacts to the XFXZ run by the other cell group/s in your Tribe/Team. Encourage your cell group members to do so.
- Be sensitive to, and meet the needs of those impacted by COVID-19 – e.g., offer them masks, alcohol swabs if they need them and don’t have them; prepare meals to send over to those on Home Quarantine Order or Stay Home Notices, etc. [While you are doing this make sure you also do things to protect yourself so you don’t get infected.]
2. XFXZ Group (幸福小组)
Press on with the consolidation of your BESTs. Continue to build relationships and inform them about the live streaming of our services. Give them the link and encourage them to go into the live streaming. Or you may wish to invite them to view the live streaming at your home. Challenge them to get baptized and sign them up for the next baptism. To download baptism forms, click on this URL link: www.fcbc.org.sg/pastoral-care/baptism
[Baptism services are temporarily suspended. But submission of baptism forms is still open.]
3. XFXZ Wave 3 – (Session 2 – The Whole Truth)
Continue to make as many connections as possible and pray for all our potential BESTs. Fix a time to synchronize prayers daily for your Bests and for your XFXZ sessions.
4. 3x3 Prayer
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the strongholds that bind the people. Ask Him to set up divine appointments for us to minister His power over them (words of knowledge, healing, helps, etc.). Pray for one another to have boldness, courage and obedience to follow through.
4. Consolidation of New Converts
Assimilate them! Let them have a sense of belonging with our faith community! Connect with them via phone calls; meet up with them over a meal; make home visits; introduce them to cell members and invite them to fellowship with our faith community in cell groups and through live stream services.
Announcements:
Please visit https://www.fcbc.org.sg/bulletin/ or our FCBC App for more details.