From Small group meeting to Disciple-Making

• Commitment Part 1 5 Jan
• Commitment Part 2 12Jan
• Character 19 Jan
• Calling 9 Feb
• Charisma 16 Feb
• Competency 23 Feb
• Christ-Likeness 1 Mar

Charisma 16^th Feb 2020

• We are living in a turbulent world today. The Bible called it “The last days” or the “End Time”.
• What we need is not just be a survival, but overcomer and revival.
• Illustration: An Indonesian maid Parti Liyani, started working Changi Airport Group chairman Mr Liew Mun Leong in March 2007 till Oct 28, 2016. Over the years, Mr Liew discovered items had gone missing and suspected that Parti had stolen them. He finally decided to terminate her employment. “The accused demanded to know the reason and accused him of being a very bad person and that God would punish him.” Parti later demanded that he pay for three jumbo boxes of items to be shipped to her home and he agreed. Because they had to declare the contents of what was being shipped, the boxes were opened and they discovered many of their belongings inside ($34k worth).
• What comes into your mind when you read this piece of news? How can one allowed the helper to get away with stealing for so many years?
• Today there is one very precious thing are being stolen from our lives as Christian? The power of the Holy Spirit.
• We are living in the last days:
• 2 Timothy 3:1-5 ¹But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ²People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
• Pestilences (Influenza or virus) – Matthew 24:4-8 ⁴And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. ⁶And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these thingsmust come to pass, but the end is not yet. ⁷For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are the beginning of sorrows.
• Dengue in Singapore: The number of dengue cases in Singapore has increased since the beginning of the year and it could go up further, with the Aedes mosquito population remaining high. It has also detected an increase in a different strain of the dengue virus, which fewer people would have immunity to. “As Singapore has not seen a dengue-3 outbreak in the last three decades, the population immunity for dengue-3 is low and therefore more susceptible to transmission of the virus,” NEA said.
• What we need is not just be a survival, but overcomer and revival.
• What do we need in these last days? Face masks, toilet papers, etc.?
• Spiritual Guidance – John 16:12-13 ¹²“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
• Spiritual life – 2 Peter 1:3 as His divine power (dynamis) has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
• Spiritual gifts –
• Romans 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
• 1 Corinthians 4:20 For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power (dynamis).
• 1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
• Desire (Lexicon: Strong’s G2206 – Zēloō): to burn with zeal, to be zealous in the pursuit, to desire earnestly.
• Spiritual outpouring in the last days (The Day of the LORD) – Joel 2:28-32 ²⁸“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. ²⁹And also on My menservants and on Mymaidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. ³⁰“And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. ³¹The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. ³²And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
  For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.
• All above has one thing in common – Holy Spirit and His power.
• Setting the stage on Spiritual gifts:
• 1 Corinthians 12:31 But earnestly desire the best (Lexicon: Strong’s G2909 –Kreittōn: More useful, more serviceable, more advantageous) gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.
• 1 Corinthian 13:13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these islove.
• Spiritual gifts are given to serve, to benefit others, never for self-gain.
• The best way to receive them is through love.
• We fight the wrong battles by putting each other down. Our knowledge and understanding is limited and to be adamant to claim that I am not and others are wrong is presumptuous, arrogant and outright ungodly.
• What are the Spiritual gifts?
• What do we need to do? Believe.
• KEY VERSE: Mark 9:23 International Standard Version (ISV) Jesus told him, “‘If you are able?’ Everything is possible for the person who believes!”

Roadmap – Believe.

1. All things are possible with GOD.
2. All things are possible for one who BELIEVES.
3. All things are possible through Prayer and Fasting.

1. All things are possible with God.

• Background: Mark 9:14-18 ¹⁴And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. ¹⁵Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him,greeted Him. ¹⁶And He asked the scribes, “What are you discussing with them?” ¹⁷Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. ¹⁸And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”
• Mark 9:19-22a ¹⁹He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” ²⁰Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. ²¹So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. ²²And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him.
• Sidestep: Why Jesus asked “How long has this been happening to him?”
• Jesus was a mere man if not being empowered by the Holy Spirit. Though He never stopped being God for that is Who He is, He laid aside all His deity, emptiedHimself and took the form of a man (Phil 2:5-10). Yet Jesus was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, He can only know what the Father choose to reveal to Him, do what the Father wants Him to do and say what He wants Him to say.
• “O faithless generation” implies that this should not be a problem for His disciples at all.
• Mark 10:27 With men it is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God.
• What do we need to do? Believe.
• As Jesus has send the Holy Spirit, this is the time for us to believe what we can do though the power of the Holy Spirit.

2. All things are possible for one who BELIEVES.

• Mark 9:22b-23a But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help u” ²³Jesus said to him, “‘If you are able?’
• Mark 9:23b Everything is possible for the person who believes!”
• Mark 9:24a ²⁴Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears,
• The father said with tears as the word of Jesus implied rebuke and instead of anger, there was a feeling of grief to realize how destitute his faith was.
• Already faced with the disappointment of seeing the disciples’ failure to deliver his son, this anxious father now coming to the Saviour almost at the last resort.
• How often we would seek everything else first before we seek Christ?
• With such humility and great earnestness, this father certainly touch the compassionate heart of Jesus.
• Lamentation 3:22-23 ²² Throughthe Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. ²³ They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
• God’s compassions fail not and they are always new every morning.
• Mark 9:24b “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
• I believe yet my faith is not as strong as it should be. I want to believe, but I now I am weak. Therefore help my unbelief – Fill up my lack in my faith, give me the strength and the grace to believe in You completely.
• The heart of this deliverance is not about struggling with the demons, but it is the struggle of our faith. It is about whether we believe in Jesus completely!
• Trials and tribulations is the test of our faith and it either refined or weakened us.
• Trials and tribulations when weakened our faith breeds unbelief.
• Like the father, we are to yield our insufficiency to the sufficiency of Jesus.
• That is why we need the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Mark 9:25-27 ²⁵When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” ²⁶Then the spiritcried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” ²⁷But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
• As Jesus has send the Holy Spirit, this is the time for us to believe what we can do though the power of the Holy Spirit.

3. All things are possible through Prayer and Fasting.

• Mark 9:28-29 ²⁸And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” ²⁹So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
• Fasting and praying is not a formula, it is not meant to arm twist God to do what we want. On the contrary, fasting demonstrates the willingness to self-denial and prayer a demonstration of our need for God.
• As Jesus has send the Holy Spirit, this is the time for us to believe what we can do though the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Even the disciples of Jesus needed to learn that unbelief can creep in if we choose to look at the methods and efforts of men.
• It is the ultimate trust and believe in God that yields results by the power of the Holy Spirit.
• It is like expecting to draw near to God by singing, reading the Bible and serving in a ministry. All these will not lead us to a closer walk with Jesus unless it is done with love and with faith.
• John 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
• It is therefore very important that we would fast and pray often.