Omnipotent

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From Paul. That's read by Chris. Thanks.

So this morning's reading is from the Book of Ephesians, chapter one, verses 19 to 21. But that can be found on page 1173 of the church Bibles. But we'll start from verse 18, from the beginning of the sentence, open to context. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you. The riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people and his incomparably great power.

For us who believe that power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. This is the word of the Lord.

Good morning, everyone. And I don't know you all, but I don't know whether you know me, so I give you a little bit introduction to myself. A lot of people think that I'm retired, I'm not working, but no, I'm not. And I come from. I come from Hong Kong four years ago, and I was a pastor in Hong Kong for almost 27 years.

And when I come over here, I'm no longer working as a pastor and or worker. And I work in a delivery company for a year as a courier. And strange, right. Very strange experience for me for working as a courier in this country. And then now I'm working in a so so research organisation as an interviewer.

So one day if I come around you and lock your door, and then here I am, I'm interviewing you. Okay. Yeah. So I'm working very hard every week and even some, most of the time, the Saturday I working a whole day, you know, and wander around, you know, within the Yorkshire area. You know, that I was in Doncaster yesterday.

Yeah. So that is my job. So. But really thank God that. And thank Kilban that he invited me to share the script.

I mean, the. The message today, and it's my practise that I use the iPad to look at my message. Okay. Right. Today that Ben assigned me.

The scripture is Ephesians, chapter 119 21. And as we just read that, and we have continued the series in the churches about the God is omnipotent, that is almighty. Right. And, well, my boy always say that. Yeah.

You're not pronouncing properly on that word. Yeah. Omnipotent. Yeah. It's difficult for me.

Right. But in Ephesians chapter 100, 1921. Paul told us a very fantastic news, a great news. What is that? It's that God is giving us an incredible, incomparable great power.

And this power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly rings. So Paul told us that God gave us a fantastic gift, an almighty power, to us. Right. And we will ask, what is that power? What is that?

Do you feel that power in us as a christian? So we will come to Ephesians 113 14 1314. Write down when you believe you were martyred in him with Basil, to promise the Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemptions of those who are God's possessions, to the place of his glory. So we will see that Paul told us that, that great power, that almighty power in us is the Holy Spirit. That is no doubt right.

Wow.

The almighty power is in us.

Do you feel it?

Yes. Dave says that I feel it, but I honestly and frankly say most of the time in my life, I don't feel it. I'm still working every day like Sam. Wow. It's fantastic.

You will have a tremendous experience, right. Working overseas in Kenya. Wow. And what you do, if you have this almighty power with you in your mission there, what you will do, do you think that you can, you know, like a magician, you know, change things like that? And then buildings out, yow, my God's almighty power.

And build all the whole building, you know, do you think that you can do that way? No. You need to work yourself hard, and then you will, you find that when you return, you with all your rough hands, you know, and you no longer that move anymore, you know, if you really work hard for that, that's it. So most of the time, we know that, we know, we know that Paul told us that we have the almighty power in us, but most of the time, we don't feel it. So how.

How to let this almighty work, I mean, almighty power work in us? This is what today I want to share with you. And in Ephesians, chapter 118. And it's Paul, right? Paul just read that.

It's your Paul. Chris. I'm sorry, I beg pardon? Chris. Chris just read that.

But it's not in the screen. He read that out for us. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know. You may know first thing, if we want God's almighty power in work in us, that means that if we want the Holy Spirit in work, in us, we must know him well. I think that we all know a lot about our father God, right?

Because you know that he is the creator God. We know that he is almighty. And the most familiar one is our Lord Jesus Christ. We know a lot about him as well. But how about the Holy Spirit?

Do we know enough about him? And you know that he is the Trinity God. He is the first person of our God. Do we know him as much as our father God and our Lord Jesus Christ? So how can we know him more?

And I will tell that I am not referring to any books that I read, but we must read is the Bible. If you want to know more the Holy Spirit, you can start reading the Gospel of John. This is one of the best books I read. It's about the Holy Spirit because Jesus talked about that. And then if you want to know how the spirit works in the church, then it's the book of act, right?

And then the third book I would recommend is the Ephesians. I would say that Ephesians is the, the Book of Holy spirit is a fantastic book in the Bible that we can read through. Of course, other than that, you can read some other, a lot of famous books talking about Holy Spirit. You can read about that. So to know is very important, because if you don't know about the Holy Spirit, you don't know how he working in us is it?

And on Ephesians, chapter 119, Paul told us that in his incomparable great power, for us who believe, who believe, we not just know that about the Holy Spirit, we need to believe in him.

And when we say believe, it's very interesting that I'm doing interview with a lot of people, I mean, a lot of locals. I'm not interviewing the Hong Kong people, doing the local peoples. And I find that one question is, what is your religion? And a lot of locals answered me, yes, I'm Church of England.

What do you think about that? When they told you I'm Church of England, they don't tell me he's a Christian or they are christians, but they told me that they are Church of England. Interesting, isn't it? So what's that mean? Are they believing Christ?

I think so. I dare not to say they are not, but I think that they believe in Church of England. Right? So when we say believe, what's that mean? What's the real meaning for belief?

What's the real meaning on believing our Lord Jesus Christ? So the real meaning for me, I mean, to me is that whoever believes in Christ is to surrender his or her ownership to the lordship of Jesus Christ is to surrender yourself. If you not surrender yourself to the lordship, do you think that you are believing in Christ? So when I say that to believe in the Holy Spirit best means that you need to surrender your ownership to the Holy Spirit. Wow.

Wow. I think that is the weakest one. I mean, the most weak things. David, you are talking about to surrender to the Holy Spirit is very difficult, whereas he.

He is in you. So what, you mean I am surrendered to myself? No, no, no. You are surrendered to the Holy Spirit, not surrendered to myself.

To surrender in the Holy Spirit. I like to share with you my experience. Right. I must confess is that I come from a charismatic english church. Right.

That is my different background. But when I was a pastor, I mean, in Hong Kong, I'm not that charismatic. But in here, I was converted in a charismatic church. And in that church, they speak in tongues when they worship, and they have an open prayer. Like today, I really thank Ben that we didn't say anything, but Ben said, okay, today we have an open prayer.

Oh, that's the first time I come here that you set this up. And I tell you what, in my old church, they have an open prayer. And what happened is the people praying, and when they pray, they're not praying in English. They pray in a different language. I don't know what they are talking about.

Yeah. And then later I asked them, they say that they pray in tongue. They speak in tongue when they are praying. So I'm just thinking that. Yeah, well, just like me, I'm one of the Chinese.

Oh, I don't like Chinese. I'm a Hong konger. Yeah. I would say that I'm Hong Kong. Right.

I'm one of the guys that can speed the differently with you guys. Right? Yeah. Because my mother language is Cantonese, not English. So when I know that they are speaking in tongue, when they are praying.

And of course, at that time, some people interpret the tongue. Yeah. And I just told myself I talk. I speak to myself, like. Yeah, I never.

I never speak in tongue in a public prayer. If I speak in tongue, if God, the Holy Spirit, give me that speak in tongue, maybe the locals think that I'm speaking Cantonese. So I talked to myself that, no, the Holy Spirit don't give me that to give me in tongue, because, you know. Yeah, it's a little bit, you know, sillier to me. Right.

And inside myself, I a little bit rejecting, you know, this kind of spiritual gift, you know, and. And then one night, I pray on my back, you know, that is my normal practise. You know, when I was in university, you know, I usually still don't have a lot of time. Not right now, you know, we're really busy. You know, I'm all by myself.

So when I got converted, I will pray every. Every time before I sleep. So I kneel down and then pray. When I pray, I just let my mouth know. Pray in English, not in Chinese, okay?

Or in Cantonese. So when I prayed, suddenly I heard. I spit out some strange sound. And I'm scared. What I'm speaking, what I'm talking about.

But the Holy Spirit just filled me. And I just let my mouth open. And then it just like that. And I speak in tongue.

To believe is to surrender. To believe is what the Bible writes and what the Bible says. And you believe it not. You decide what the Bible fits. Your thinking or your stance, or your will.

Sorry, what that is me. And that what God teach me to believe is.

It's just like the song that Ben going to sing with us later is the hymns that. The songs that I sing in here. I really like this song. Is that the hymn? Is that.

Yet not I, but full cries in me. And this song is fantastic. I tell you what, this song is that not the song. This song is coming from the scripture, from the Galatians, chapter two, verse chanting. And I think it's in the.

Yeah, it's in the. In the power poem. I have been crucified with Christ. And I have. And I no longer live.

But Christ lived in me the life I now live in the body I live by the faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

And you know that. I don't know whether you know Watchman knee. Anyone know watchman knee? It must be the senior guy. Senior people will know this.

This man. You know that. The young people don't know Watchman knee. And I tell you what. One of my lecturers a christian when I was in the uni.

And he know that I got converted. And then one day he called me to his office and then he handed a book to me. It's from watchman Lee. And the title is the normal christian life. Oh, no.

It killed me. If you know this book, and it will kill every one of you.

And when I open the book, the first page, that is the Galatians, chapter 220. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ lived in me.

That book affect my whole life, the rest of my life. And I really know that to believe in Christ is to surrender my ownership to the Lordship. That is what I so called belief to the Holy Spirit. We need to believe the Holy Spirit because he is the third person of our Lord, the Trinity God. So we need to believe in him as much as we believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and the heavenly Father.

We got to believe in him is that he is God, he is the almighty God. That work in me and talk about the surrender to the Holy Spirit. The Bible clearly says that in Colossians. Col. How to pronounce that one?

Colossians. Colossians. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mixed up the books. Colossians.

Yeah, Colossians. Chapter three, five and verse ten. To surrender to the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that put to death our sinful nature. To me the simple nature is that I would refer as our past will.

Before we believe in Christ we have a lot of will, a lot of our understanding, a lot of ideas in our head, in our brain. So to put the depth of our sinful nature is that to put to death of our past wills, beliefs insists our simple deeds, not just the simple deeds but it's also our past existence that is what to put to death. And on the verse ten is put on the little self which is being renewed in knowledge, in the image of its creator. And I don't read out, you can read because they will put out with compassion, kindness, humanity, gentleness and gentleness and the patience.

Well maybe someone say the David. I know that, I know all this. I know what the Bible tell about, you know how to put to death, how to put a new self. But how it really work out, that's the main question. We know all that, but how does it work out?

I still tell you the same thing is believe the almighty God, he can do it in us. Believe the Holy Spirit, he can work in us.

I know that a lot of people anger is here. I know that she is very good in bakery. Yeah, I have some of that. Oh yummy, yummy, yummy. And I would like to know how to make a cake with a fluffy texture.

Yeah, how you can make it? If I just give you the flour, can you make a fluffy cake for me? How what you put in?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. With flour only, right? Butter, sugar, flour. Then it will make me a puffy cake. I give that to you.

But will you put some yeast in there? No need, no need. Oh wow. I didn't know that. You know that my wife did cook.

I like some puffy cakes. My wife do that and then one day she bought some yeast, but just put aside some dry yeast. And he put aside. And then a few months later, he tried to use that. And then he tried to make that puffy cake for me.

And then the cake is not puffy at all. Do you know why you laugh? That you know why the cake cannot be puffy? You don't eat the Easter. I see.

Angry. Why? The yeast is fresh. The yeast, is it? The yeast is.

Yeah. I don't know. I'm okay for cooking chinese dishes, but not the bakery things, you know? I know nothing about that. So I asked my wife and then he just think, some friends told him that the yeast you use, is that so?

I want to know why the yeast put in the flour. And angry say, is that some sugar, some butter and also some warm water, as far as I know now. And then you will make a good cake. And the baking powder, then you will make a good cake. So what I think is that even as a good coat, even you put all this.

Do you think that you must get the results that you want? Yeah. See, so I would want to tell you that just like, you know that the. The dry yeast in the flour doesn't really make a fluffy cake for you, right? Because you need to activate the yeast.

Am I correct? If you put the yeast not to use them, they will die. And if you use wrongly, put the cold water. Right. Or very hot water, the yeast will die.

If you not put some sugar or some flour to activate the yeast, the yeast won't work. But that still not answer me why the yeast will make the cake fluffy.

How it work?

Yeah, it's life.

Thank God for that. A fluffy cake lead life.

And the Holy Spirit in us needs some environment to activate in us. But can we make that environment to activate holy spirit in me? Sorry, we can't do that. I share another story. I'm sorry, babe, I'm overrun again.

I share a story, a real story. Okay. A christian nurse, you know, that he come to me. She was very struggle. And share his experience to me is that she was now serving in a war that is almost.

Most of the patients are in Tamil. You know what it means by income? That means that they cannot respond. They cannot do anything. They cannot talk to you, you know?

And she served a war like that. And then she saw a struggle. She shared with me that I don't like to work in this ward. I say, why? Because no matter how good I serve them, they have no response.

They don't talk to me. They don't even bring an eyes to me. So I don't like to work in this world. I feel upset on working on this condition. So I told her that, do you know that all this, your so called, is like a dead body?

You know that you serve, they have life inside them. They can feel, they can hear. Only what they can't do is they cannot respond to you, they cannot talk back to you, that's all. But they are real life. So you got to still serve them with love in your heart.

And when I share that to her, and she have puzzled eyes look at me and she don't believe that they all are dead body. That's what she's trying to tell me. So then I turn around and tell him, what about if they are still alive, okay? And if they are christian and then they go to heaven when they all die, right, they go to heaven and then they will talk to our holy Father and then give you a mark on your service on this. What do you think?

They will give you the mark.

And still she is still puzzled. She has now. So after the sharing, we pray. And then, you know, she left. One month later she comes back to me and with her brain bring eyes and tell me that.

David, I want to share you a great story. I said, what? You know, one of the patients in my ward in combo, he's awake.

Really? She said yes, they really alive, praise God. And then she told me that what you say is true. And another month later, she shared me another story. She said that she served them.

She used what they call the fingernails to keep the fingernails. What's that called? Nail creeper. Yeah, yeah, sorry. Thank you.

She told me that she used the nail clipper to clip heavy patients nails with love. I really praised God for her. And I told her that, honestly, I tell you, God really love you. Nothing deal with me. I think you can ask Johnny and then she will tell you the same.

You know that they are alive, right, Johnny? Yeah, but she's just ignorant in the sense, you know what I mean? But some people always have this kind of blind spot, you know? But I just think that this is what God, the almighty God, is amazing. Doing something to let her know what in his will, what he thinks, what she thought is wrong.

So then now she changed her attitude. Is our God do something, not us.

Yes, we admit that. I must admit that we are nothing good in ourselves. We are not a good person. Honestly, from us we are filthy, we are dirty, we are sinful.

But our God, our almighty God, he can do everything to make us more God like. We can do it for ourselves. It's our God. It's the Holy Spirit that makes us more godlike, more like his children. It's him, not us, ourselves.

So in ephesians chapter 210, it says, paul told us that for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. So we are God's handiwork. So what we need is what God do and what we can do. What God can do is that he already give us his almighty power, his Holy Spirit in us. And the Holy Spirit will work in us if we believe it.

And what we Christians can do is to know that we can do our part to read more Bible, to read more books about the Holy Spirit, to believe and to surrender. And let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you that you gave us your spirit, your holy spirit to us, to give us your almighty powers, to raise us from death, from our sins, to set us free from our sins. May your spirit continue to guide us and help us to know you more. And come, spirit, come to every one of us who believe in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Thank you, David.