GLORIOUS MORNING – JESUS IS RISEN!

[ Matthew 27:62 - 28:15 ]
An Easter Message by Rev. Dr. Vincent Leoh on 15 April 2001

Wouldn’t it have been marvelous to participate in that first Easter Sunrise service? Scripture records there were few in attendance that morning. Matthew 28:1-6 lists three – Mary Magdalene, out of whom Christ had cast 7 evil spirits; “the other Mary”, identified by Luke as the mother of James; and then there was the angel of the Lord. When all the evidence is in we’re convinced that Jesus is alive. He is risen from the dead. That’s what made that first Easter morning so glorious. But not everybody felt that way…

I. THE PHARISEES AND CHIEF PRIESTS

Voice of prohibition – Jesus must not rise! [Matt.27:62-66]
The Pharisees affirmed the resurrection of the dead. “The chief priests and Pharisees came together to Pilate” [Matt.27:62]. Why? To prevent the resurrection of Jesus. For it was this very sign of His resurrection on the third day that Jesus had given when they demanded a sign of His deity. [Matt.12:23,40]. They must prove that Jesus is not the Son of God.

Read Full Entry

MERCY (PSL)

[The Way To Happiness]
[ Matthew 5:7 ]
A Message by Rev. Dr. Stanley Lim on 7 & 8 April 2001

INTRODUCTION:

John Wesley once visited a famous general in the US Army when he was governor of the colony of Georgia. The name of a man who had angered the general was mentioned. The general said, “I shall never forgive him!” Wesley answered, “Then I hope, sir, you never sin.” Wesley was surely thinking of the teaching of Christ in which those who will not show mercy and forgive, will not be treated with mercy and forgiveness.

Read Full Entry

THE MYTHS OF HOLINESS

[ Haggai 2:10-19 ]
A Message by Rev. Dr. Vincent Leoh on 24 & 25 March 2001

“The destined end of man is not happiness, nor health, but holiness. God’s one aim is the production of saints. He is not an eternal blessing machine for men; He did not come to save men out of pity; He came to save men because He had created them to be holy.” [Oswald Chambers]

Holy means “separated and set apart for God, consecrated and made over to Him.” To be holy is to be separated from sin, and therefore, consecrated to God.

This message came on the 24th day, 9th month Dec. 18,520 BC, exactly three months after the people had responded to Haggai’s initial challenge.

I. MYTH #1: HOLINESS IS “CONTAGIOUS” [2:10-12]
Read Full Entry

DISCOURAGEMENT – IT’S CAUSES AND CURES

[ Haggai 2:1-9 ]
A Message by Rev. Dr. Vincent Leoh on 17 & 18 March 2001

There is a plague sweeping the country, which is more pervasive even than AIDS. It’s more dreadful than the Foot-and-mouth disease, the JE, the Beijing Flu, or cancer, or even the common cold. This plague is called discouragement. Several characteristics, which make discouragement such a dreaded problem: It is universal. It is recurring. It is highly contagious. Discouragement will come. The challenge we have is to know the signs of its coming and the actions we must take to overcome it. We need to understand both the causes and the cures for discouragement.

I. CAUSES OF DISCOURAGEMENT [2:1-3]

1. Unfavorable Comparison
When we compare ourselves to others or to the past, it is easy to become discouraged. There was an implicit defeatism and demoralization caused by the unfavorable comparison.
Read Full Entry

HUNGER & THIRST (PSL)

[The Way To Happiness]
[ Matthew 5:6 ]
A Message by Rev. Dr. Stanley Lim on 3 & 4 March 2001

INTRODUCTION:

There are no two people exactly alike in all the world. There never has been. There never shall be. We are different in so many ways. We have different fingerprints, personalities, heritage, intelligence, not to speak of height or weight.

But every one of us are alike in that we all hunger and thirst. Jesus in his usual manner of simplifying the complicated, uses this common demonstration to communicate the truth of the 4th, way to happiness.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” A rather strange statement indeed. How could hunger and thirst ever make a person happy. To be quite truthful. I am not only unhappy when I am hungry and thirsty, I am might be in an angry mood. But Jesus contends that the right kind of hunger and thirst will lead to happiness.
Read Full Entry

MEEKNESS (PSL)

[The Way To Happiness]
[ Matthew 5:5 ]
A Message by Rev. Dr. Stanley Lim on 24 & 25 February 2001

INTRODUCTION:

Can you picture a meek person who is also a happy person? It is difficult, isn’t it? Our misunderstanding of “meekness” creates this difficulty. In a world which thinks that only the super aggressive, hard-driving person will ever get ahead in life, it is hard to believe that the “meek” shall inherit anything, much less “the earth!”.

Many of the bliblical writers has much to say about meekness.

a. James writes that meekness is to characterize our initial response to God’s truth
[James 1:21].

b. Peter says that Christians are to witness to others in a spirit of meekness
[1 Peter 3:15].

c. Paul lists meekness as one of the integral part of the fruit of the Spirit
[Gal.5:22,23].
Read Full Entry

SPEAKING, STIRRING AND SHAKING

[Stirring of the Spirit]
[ Haggai 1:12-15; 2:6,7 ]
A Message by Rev. Dr. Vincent Leoh on 17 & 18 February 2001

How does God communicate with His people so that they will do His work? What does it take to motivate and mobilize a people? It takes God speaking, stirring, and shaking His people!

I. GOD SPOKE … THE PEOPLE BELIEVED AND OBEYED [1:12,13]

How had the voice of the Lord come to the people? “And the message of the prophet Haggai, because their God had sent him.” “And” here, might well be rendered “that is.” It does not add another source of information but clarifies how the Lord’s voice had come to the people. They recognized that it was indeed the Lord who had commissioned Haggai.

Read Full Entry

THREE PRIORITIES FOR LIVING

[ Haggai 1:1-11 ]
A Message by Rev. Dr. Vincent Leoh on 3 & 5 February 2001

Haggai is a very brief book of two chapters and thirty-eight verses, and the events that are narrated cover a period of only four months at the end of the year 520 BC. His message contains five separate proclamations.

What is Important To You?
What do you consider “top priority” in your life?
Three Priorities for Living:

I. GOD’S WORD MUST COME BEFORE OUR WORDS [:1]

“The Word of the Lord came.” We have no record of any prophetic voice in the promised land since the time of Jeremiah. Daniel and Ezekiel had been prophets in Babylon, but now the long silence is broken and the restored community hears the voice of the Lord again.
Read Full Entry

PURSUING THE WAY OF HAPPINESS -THROUGH MOURNING (PSL)

( Matthew 5:4 )
A Message by Rev. Dr. Stanley Lim on 27 & 28 January 2001

INTRODUCTION:

As stressed the last time, the teachings of the Beatitudes were meant for the disciples not for unbelievers. Verse 4 says, “Blessed are those that mourn.” Does this mean that the person goes around with a dismal, deary, gloomy, mournful countenance? No, not at all! J.B Philips translates this verse as Christ saying, “How happy are those who know what sorrow means, for they will be given the courage and comfort!”

They are two kinds of sorrow. One leads to happiness and the other leads to misery. One has a blessing and the other has no blessing at all. One leads to life and other leads to death. Paul distinguishes between the two in 2 Cor.7: 8-10. One he calls, “Godly sorrow” and the other he calls “worldly sorrow”. He states, “Godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation,…but the sorrow of the world produces death.” To understand this Beatitude and to experience the happiness it promises, we need to distinguish between sorrow that leads to misery and sorrow that leads to happiness.

I. SORROW THAT LEADS TO MISERY
Read Full Entry

HOW DO YOU SEE?

(Haggai 2: 3-7)
A Message by Rev. Dr. Vincent Leoh on 6 & 7 January 2001

Notice the question in the middle of the third verse, “And how do you see it now?” [NKJV] or “How does it look to you now?” That is a good question to ask during the first few weeks of a new year, “How do you see it now?”

Behavioral scientists have discovered that we usually see things we are prepared to see, and that is all centered in a network of nerve cells called the “Reticular Activating System.”

So let’s ask the question, “How does it look to you now?” and consider it in 3 different areas.
Read Full Entry