Scripture Memorisation Dogs Matthew 15:26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. A Word on Worship VOLUME 29, ISSUE 36 06 NOV 2016 * Congregation Standing Call to Worship Elder Alan Choy Hymn 93: To God Be the Glory* Invocation & Gloria Patri* Scripture Reading in Unison* 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Hymn 558: We Plough the Fields Collection of Offerings Doxology & Prayer* Hymn 287: Wonderful Grace of Jesus Scripture Memorisation Pastoral Prayer Sermon Pastor Prabhudas Koshy “The Sin of Blasphemy” Matthew 12:22-37 Holy Communion Hymn 555: According to Thy Gracious Word Hymn 277: Blessed Be the Fountain* Benediction & Threefold Amen* ose who seek God in true worship shall not be devoid of truth. Just as Abraham’s servant had testified that God “hath not leſt destitute my master of his mercy and his truth” (Genesis 24:27), the psalmist has also declared that “his truth endureth to all generations” (Psalm 100:5). Furthermore, we who abide in Christ have this promise to be guided by His truth, for “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Let us therefore confess: “O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth” (Isaiah 25:1). Order of Worship
Transcript
Scripture Memorisation
DogsMatthew 15:26
But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread,
and to cast it to dogs.
A Word on Worship
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* Congregation Standing
Call to Worship Elder Alan ChoyHymn 93: To God Be the Glory*
Invocation & Gloria Patri*Scripture Reading in Unison* 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Hymn 558: We Plough the Fields
Collection of OfferingsDoxology & Prayer*
Hymn 287: Wonderful Grace of JesusScripture Memorisation
Pastoral Prayer Sermon Pastor Prabhudas Koshy
“The Sin of Blasphemy” Matthew 12:22-37
Holy Communion
Hymn 555: According to Thy Gracious WordHymn 277: Blessed Be the Fountain*
Benediction & Threefold Amen*
Those who seek God in true worship shall not be devoid of truth. Just as Abraham’s servant had testified that God “hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth” (Genesis 24:27), the psalmist has also declared that “his truth endureth to all generations” (Psalm 100:5). Furthermore, we who abide in Christ have this promise to be guided by His truth, for “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Let us therefore confess: “O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth” (Isaiah 25:1).
Order of Worship
Today, 6 November 2016 Next Lord’s Day, 13 November 20169.00 – 10.00am CHURCH CHOIR & CHILDREN’S CHOIR CHURCH CHOIR & CHILDREN’S CHOIR
MALAYALAM FELLOWSHIP MALAYALAM FELLOWSHIP
10.30amCH
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RVIC
EWorship Leader:Preacher:Musician:Flowers:Ushers:
Gan Chin HwiPr Daniel LimDyllis TeoFrancis TanRobert Ooi & Lawrence Ng
Eric DelinaPr Dennis KabingueDorcas KoshyJomart TindaanJuvy Lynn Anaviso
3.30pm
LIO
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ME Venue:
English Speaker:Dialect Speaker:
487 Bedok South Ave 2Elder Ng Poh KokElder Alan Choy
Venue:English Speaker:Dialect Speaker:
9 Bishan Street 13Elder Mah Chin KwangPr Kelvin Lim
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Andrew Koh
06 November 2016
“Despise not prophesyings” (1 Thessalonians 5:20).The Greek word for “despise” is translated as the following words in the King James Bible: “despise” (6x), “set at nought” (3x), “least esteemed” (1x), “contemptible” (1x). It means to make of no account and to look down upon utterly. “Prophesyings”, in the context of 1 Thessalonians 5:20, refer to the proclaiming or revealing of God’s will or purpose, i.e. preaching. Despising preaching is to regard preaching as useless, worthless, insignificant and beneath one’s consideration.
Ignorance of the purpose of preaching will yield a condescending attitude towards it. This can be seen from the context of 1 Corinthians 14. The Christians in Corinth had undervalued preaching because they rather wanted to have the gifts of speaking in tongues or the working of miracles. They coveted after the spectacular ability to speak in tongues and perform miracles. In response to that, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:5, “I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.” The Christians in Corinth
despised preaching because they had not understood that the purpose of spiritual gifts (and in particular, preaching) is to edify Christians. Preaching can edify others in the most direct and beneficial manner. When one speaks in tongues, one is unable to edify others without an interpreter. On the other hand, when the truth of God is communicated plainly to Christians through preaching, Christians are built up.
Preaching is the means that God has ordained for His truth to be communicated to Christians. Therefore, it must be highly valued and take centre stage in the church ministries. All church activities should as much as possible include and not sideline preaching. Preaching does not need any embellishments in order to be well received. When God works through the plain preaching of the Word, nothing else is needed. No sound effects, music, dancing or worldly entertainment is needed.
Regular access to sound preaching edifies Christians, but when any Christian thinks that he is wise or good enough after being in the church for many years and feels that he does not need continual instruction or reminder regarding his spiritual life, he is in fact
Beware of Despising preaching
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despising preaching. As a result of that, he may slight or neglect preaching.
Preaching is also despised when one listens to sermons carelessly. A lot of attention is being paid to listening to schoolteachers, lecturers or worldly gurus who specialise in specific fields, whereas the same amount of attention is not given during preaching. One who listens to preaching carelessly will not bother to retain anything from the sermon heard. Two illustrations given in the Biblical Illustrator aptly describe this:
Father is ill and cannot go to church. Daughter, who has spent three years at a boarding school and is a communicant and a teacher in the Sabbath school, enters. "Well, Mary, did you have a good sermon this morning?" "Yes, splendid; I never heard Dr. X. preach better." "What was the text?" "Oh, I don't remember! I never could keep texts in mind, you know." "What was the subject? Don't you remember it or some of the ideas?" "No, papa, but I remember a beautiful figure about a bird soaring up into the air. Why, I could almost see it and hear its song!" "Well, what did he illustrate by the flight of the bird?" "Let me see. It was something about faith, or about going to heaven. I can't just recall now what it was, but the figure was splendid." And the father is satisfied. Why shouldn't he be? That
was the kind of listening to sermons that he taught her by his own example. If he had heard it he could not have made a better report unless there had been something in it about politics or the news of the day.
The story of the Scotch woman and the wool has comforted a great many careless and forgetful hearers of the Word. When criticised for claiming to have enjoyed and been edified by a sermon though she could not remember a single idea in it (or even the text), she held up the fleece she had just washed, wrung it dry, and said: "Don't you see the water is all gone, and yet the wool is clean? So the sermon is all gone, but in passing through my mind, as I listened, it did me good." We think that hers was an exceptional case. We don't believe in cleansing hearts as she cleansed wool. Yet like her, we are losing the habit of attention and the use of the memory in the house of God. The Saviour said, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you". And Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "By which also (the gospel he preached) ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you". He evidently had no faith in the saving power of truth that merely rippled on the ear like water over a rock.Many churchgoers, like the father, daughter and
the Scotch woman in the illustrations above think
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Thanksgiving TesTimonyAll praise and glory unto the most High God for His merciful deliverance in my life! On the night of 25th October, I experienced a rather severe allergic reaction to the gastric medicine I had taken. The linings of my oesophagus swelled and my throat constricted, such that I had difficulty breathing! Whilst on the way to the hospital, a fleeting thought entered my mind that I might possibly die on my birthday, which caused me to seek the Lord more fervently in prayer. I thank God that the allergic reaction only resulted in a partial constriction of the throat and did not persist for long. After a few hours spent in the observation ward, I was able to return home.
Other than the physical deliverance, I greatly praise God for spiritually reviving my soul through
this trial. Amidst the physical afflictions, darkened indeed was the path I trod, which was accompanied with deep emotional pain stemming from other events. Yet, as one hymn-writer put it, “behind a frowning providence / He hides a smiling face”. Truly, God moves in a mysterious way. Through these providentially arranged events, the Lord has deadened my affections towards the things of the world, and drawn me much closer to Him than before. Having experienced His unceasing love and care towards me, “I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust” (Psalm 91:2). Amen.
-Joey Lim
that preaching is good when their ears are tickled by beautiful illustrations or stories in sermons, even though they have not understood the spiritual lessons behind them. The same group of churchgoers may also look forward to have their feelings lifted and entertained without retaining anything from the sermons preached. Christians must realise that the manner of listening
to sermons matters. God is not pleased by your mere attendance in worship service or fellowship meetings. God is pleased by how you listen to the preaching of His Word. There must be retention of the things preached instead of just being emotionally touched or lifted by the things preached. We must “keep in memory” what is preached to us.
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republished from 5 July 2015
Behemoth!Job 40:15
“Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee;
he eateth grass as an ox.”
Prabhudas Koshy
Behemoth was an animal of mammoth size that lived in the time of Job. We have a detailed description of it in Job
40:15-24. Consider some of the following features of that animal:
• It was herbivorous.• Its strength was around the navel of his belly.• Its tail was like a cedar tree.• Its bones were hard and strong like bars of brass and iron.• It had a huge appetite and needed mountains full of
vegetation to feed on.• It needed cool and shady places to rest.• It drank lots and lots of water from brooks
and rivers.• It could pierce through obstacles with its nose.No animal of our day has all the above features of behemoth.
However, the fossils of certain extinct dinosaurs fit the above description. So behemoth could well have been a very large dinosaur that lived in Job’s time.
It is important to note that God is the Creator of this giant animal. He created behemoth together with all other animals on the sixth day of creation. It was also on the sixth day that man was created. That is why God said, “Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee.” Therefore, it is unbiblical to say that dinosaurs (behemoth) lived millions of years before mankind. According to the Bible, in the time of Job there were dinosaurs.God is the Creator of all that ever existed on earth.
Illustration by Melissa Neo
“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3:10
Pastoral VisitationBeDok NoRTH ReGIoNDate: Fri, 11th Nov, 8.00pm
Venue: Home of Mr & Mrs Robert Ooi Blk 107 Bedok North Road, #10-2252
