12-August-2012, Sunday
Today, it was the 23rd anniversary of City Harvest Church. There were around 200 pastors from different parts of the world including Pastor Phil Pringle from Australia, Paul Scanlion from UK, Jeffrey Rachmat from Jakarta and Abraham Ku from Taiwan.
At morning, we took 162M bus from Sin Ming Avenue to Suntec city and reached suntec at 9:50 am. The service started at sharp 10 am with Praise and Thanksgiving followed by beautiful Worship led by Sun Ho.
The sermons were given by 5 different pastors and there were beautiful songs and testimonies after each sermon.
Pastor Kong Hee gave sermon on Greatness of God and that God is omnipresent, omniscent and omnipotent. He quoted verses from Psalm 8:3-4, Psalm 18:20-25, Psalm 27:5, Psalm 62:5-6, Psalm 73:25-26. He spoke on God’s care for people and that He’s not looking for golden or silver vessels but He’s looking for yielded vessels. He also spoke on God’s care for Church and that the Church is built upon the Rock – Lord Jesus Christ.
After Pastor Kong Hee, Pastor Paul Scanlion gave message about People of God.
1 Peter 2:9-10
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; 10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
According to Pastor Paul Scanlion, our universe is like a golf ball and we are a tiny speck of 7 billion dots on this golf ball. He highlighted following points:
1. You were chosen by God even before you were born.
2. You were chosen first.
3. You are a chosen one for all time and eternity.
4. You are special for God.
After Pastor Paul Scanlion, Pastor Jeffrey Rachmat from Jakarta, Indonesia spoke about Rest of God. After God created Adam, Adam was working in the Garden but when Adam was sleeping, God was working for Adam. He created Eve while Adam was asleep.
Similarly, in our life when we are resting, God is working for us. Just as there is day time and night time, in our life also, there are good seasons and dark seasons. When we are in one of the dark seasons, we must rest and allow God to work.
Mark 4:26-27
26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; 27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how
Matthew 11:28
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
After Pastor Jeffrey Rachmat’s sermon, Teddy Hung who was once upon a time a Mafia head in Hong Kong, shared his testimony of how he gave his life to Jesus Christ through Sun’s crossover project. Before he gave his life to Jesus, he was a gang leader and led many illegal businesses in Hong Kong. It was an awesome testimony of his conversion. After accepting Jesus, he stopped all the illegal activities and now he’s sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to other gangsters.
After Teddy Hung’s testimony, Rev. Abraham Ku, from Taiwan gave sermon on Heart of God.
Later, Pastor Phil Pringle spoke about Blessing of God. He mentioned that in life we will go through valleys but we will surely cross the valleys. Going through valleys develops character and fortitude in our life.
Psalm 23
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
He spoke on Thanksgiving that we must enter into God’s court with Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving or gratitude gives us access to God’s Presence. We must express gratitude for past blessings of God, present blessings of God and future blessings of God.
The service ended with cake cutting ceremony and we sang Happy Birthday for CHC’s 23rd anniversary.
After service, we had Korean lunch and also had apple pie and chocolate ice cream from Andersen’s of Denmark.
Praise God for awesome time.
