Zion Church Online Bulletin

Week No. 05 | 4 February 2024 Lord's Day

LORD’S DAY SERVICE ORDER

PRESIDER: Elder Anthony Lim
*Silent Prayer
*Confession of Faith
Hymn 30
Responsive Reading:
50. Phil 4
50. 腓立比书 4 章
Prayer by Elder Anthony Lim
Scripture Reading:
Philippians 3:13–14
腓立比书 3:13-14
Choir Anthem by Sharon Choir
A Thousand Storms
千场风暴
Sermon by Pastor Samuel Kim
Let us press on without regrets
让我们无怨无悔地继续前行
Hymn 394
Offering Prayer by Elder Anthony Lim
Offering Song:
Hymn 364 – Nearer, My God to Thee
与主更亲近

(Sharon Choir)
Announcements by Elder Anthony Lim
*Hymn 6
*Benediction by Pastor Samuel Kim

*Congregation Standing

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Let us continue to pray for the growth and revival of our church and for the work of evangelism and missions.
  • Please refer to the following for our service times:

    • Lord’s Day (Sunday) service @ 10:45 am*
    • Lord’s Day Bible study at 1:30 pm
    • Wednesday service @ 7:40 pm*
    • Saturday Dawn service @ 6:00 am

    *Also broadcasted live on YouTube for Lord’s Day & Wed Services: http://live.zionchurch.sg

    *也在 YouTube 上直播主日和周三礼拜: http://live.zionchurch.sg

  • The Precept for 2024: “A Church that Arises to Rebuild the Foundation of Faith and Is Devoted to Spreading the Word of Redemptive History. “ (Neh 2:18; Isa 58:12; Matt 24:14; 1 Tim 4:15; 2 Tim 4:2)

    “一个兴起重建信心基础和致力传播救赎史话语的教会”
    (尼希米记 2:18; 以赛亚书 58:12; 马太福音 24:14; 提摩太前书 4:15;提摩太后书 4:2)

  • There will be HORA Youth & Young Adults Conference in New York this year! Please pray for God’s blessings upon the conference and all those who attend.

    Theme: RE:Align (Theme verse: 2 Chronicles 34:2)
    Where: Stony Brook University campus, New York
    When: 3-6 July 2024 (Wed-Sat)

    For members of Zion Church who wish to attend, there is a 50% sponsorship available. Please see Pastor or Evg. Nick for more information.
    Access the registration link at https://hora2024.rsvpify.com/ or visit https://horaministries.com

  • The season of Lent will begin from 14 Feb to 28 Mar, let us use this time to prepare through prayer and repentance to reflect on our relationship with God, and take steps to draw closer to Him.
  • There will be an Extraordinary General Meeting for all baptized Zion Church members above 18 years of age next Lord’s Day (11 Feb) right after service for ROS Constitution amendments.

SERVICE DUTIES

Prayer (Wed 7 Feb) Eld. William Ng
Presider (Sun 11 Feb) Eld. Tan Pau Soon
Basket Bearers (Sun 11 Feb) Eld. Anthony Lim, Dcn. Louis Loy

OFFERING & TITHE

Via Internet Banking

You can give an offering electronically by transferring to the following account:

Please make sure to indicate your name, type of offering and the date info under the memo/remarks sections when initiating the transfer. Please indicate your offerings’ purpose especially for TITHES (to be listed as TH).
Note: Any online offerings without indications of whether for tithing, thanksgiving, building, mission, etc will be recorded as regular offerings.
Thank you for your assistance.

1. For regular, tithes, thanksgiving, special, and missions offerings ONLY
OCBC Bank Account: ZION CHURCH
Account Number: 621835867001
PayNow UEN #: T00SS0141D
Swift: OCBCSGSGXXX
Bank Address: CHULIA STREET, 63, OCBC CENTRE, FLOOR 10, SINGAPORE

NOTE: Please specify Name, Purpose and Date (ddmmmyy) of the offering in the MEMO or Bill Reference Number section. See Example 1.

2. Offering toward Missions Offering or Book Drive to support broadcasts of the History of Redemption Series globally, can be made in the following ways to HORA Ministries:

1) Direct bank transfer to:

DBS (Development Bank of Singapore)
Account Holder: LI JIA TSUEY or CAI XIAO FEN ERICA
Account Number: 271-310151-9 (Account Type: Multi Currency Account)
Currency Type: All currencies accepted (US$, S$, etc)
Address of Beneficiary Bank: 12 Marina Boulevard, DBS Asia Central, Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3, Singapore 018982
Country: Singapore
SWIFT Address/Code: DBSSSGSG

2) PayNow to HORA Ministries via NRIC S7638942Z

3) Indicating “Book Drive” or “Missions” on the offering envelopes.

Use the following acronyms to indicate Purpose (offering type):

    • RO = Regular Offering
    • TH = Tithes
    • TG = Thanksgiving
    • SP = Special Offering
    • MO = Missions Offering
    • BO = Building Offering

Example 1:
JohnDoe TH 05APR20
SamMiller TG 05Mar20
JaneSmith RO 03May20

Example 2:
JohnDoe BO 05APR20

By Mail

You may mail your offering cheques to Zion Church to below address:
“Finance Department”.
2 Gambas Crescent, Nordcom 2 Tower 2 #10-13. Singapore 757044.

By ATM

You may transfer via ATM:
BUT PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO SPECIFY TYPE OF OFFERING if you use this option.
Please inform any Finance Team member if want your offering to be recorded.

  • Eldress May Ling
  • Deaconess Leh Tieng
  • Elder Steve

Living Manna

Sermon Summary
Good Fruit

Scripture: Matthew 7:17–24

In Matthew 7:19, Jesus is speaking about our spiritual identity. It is not just about bearing good fruit but being a good tree.

The kind of fruits borne depends on the tree. Those who say: Lord Lord have we not prophesised in your name? Have I not cast out demons in Your name? These are the fruits they are declaring borne by themselves, but they are emphasising their achievements and seeking rewards for their deeds. The Lord replies: I never knew you.

Apostle Paul in Galatians later speaks of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We say fruit of the Holy Spirit, in singular form, although there are many fruits. This is because they all come as one (Galatians 5:16-26)

We say easily: Let us bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. But that is not correctly understood or what Apostle Paul is trying to teach us. Through this teaching, it is for us to judge and examine ourselves by looking at our fruits. Let us take a moment to think about your fruit, the fruit of your lips, in a 24-hour day do we bear more good fruits or more bad fruits? The fruits of our actions, do we have fruits good enough to be lifted up to our God? But in praying for and working and living our lives to bear these fruits, Apostle Paul and Jesus are teaching us that we need to be able to discern whether we are bearing the fruit from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. With the help of the Holy Spirit? Or are we bearing the fruit from our flesh, with our fervency and ambition?

It is good that people try to bear good fruits in their lives, but if we are not careful, we will be like these people who say: Lord Lord I have these many fruits I have borne in the name of the Lord. Yet the Lord will say: I don’t like those fruits.

They are not speaking of fruits outside of church and faith, they are prophesizing, performing miracles, and healing in the name of the Lord. Why then did God reject those fruits?

There are a few things we need to watch out for, in order for us not to be rejected by the Lord.

1. Flesh

In Galatians 5, the word “flesh” is used as an antonym to the word “spirit”. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot do the will of the Father. Jesus says those who are bearing bad fruit cannot do the will of the Father. The flesh cannot bear good fruit.

What is flesh? Literally, it is referring to our body. Biblically, the flesh is different from the spirit. God created Adam by forming him out of the dust of the ground, and he becomes a living being when God breathes the breath of life into his nostrils. The question and difference here is whether my life depends on my own breath, or does my life depends on the breath of God.

Adam was given the breath of God, but he chose to follow his own judgment, his own thought, his own decision. Which is influenced and affected by the words of the serpent. The serpent is the emblem of the flesh. The result is the fallen state.
God describes this fallen state of man as flesh in Genesis 6:3.

Fallen mankind who had rejected the spirit of God, the Word of God, God will pour out His spirit on them again when the Messiah comes. No wonder after Jesus’ resurrection when He appeared to the disciples, He breathed on them. As a symbolic act, saying “receive the Holy Spirit.” God’s purpose is to give us His spirit again.

Therefore in order for us to bear good fruit, we need to first receive the Holy Spirit. John 6:63 says that the Spirit gives life, and flesh profits nothing. We have to receive the Word of Jesus Christ to receive His spirit.

John 8:38-47 tells us that the Israelites heard Jesus loud and clear but they cannot understand because they cannot hear, understand and accept His Word. There is a spiritual conflict. Those who received the Spirit vs those who have the mind of the devil, who stay in the flesh, who cannot receive the Word of God.

In John 14:10-11, we can see that when you receive Jesus’ Word, you and Jesus come together into the Father, and the Father is in us. It is the Father who gives the Spirit of truth (Holy Spirit), but He only gives to those who know Him. We receive the Word, come to know the Father and the Father gives the Spirit (John 14:16-17).

Jesus says in John 14:23-24, if anyone loves Him, keep His Word. The Word that Jesus gives us is the Word of the Father, which leads us to know Him, and that will allow Jesus and Father to come abide in us, we abide in Him. It will allow us to keep the Word and give us the Spirit.

We can see in John 14:26 that unless the Holy Spirit is given to us, we cannot remember a thing of God’s Word. When I am really following my own anger, my own thoughts, my perspective conquers the whole world, we cannot remember what God said, all the grace I have received before is gone,
But when the Holy Spirit comes to us, He helps us remember what the Bible said, what the Lord said, the times when God gave us grace.

To come out of the state of the flesh, we need to receive the Word of Jesus Christ. When we receive the Word of Jesus Christ, we will come to the Father. It is the Father who will give us life and spirit.

2. Bad fruit

We need to watch out for bad fruit. Apostle Paul speaks of the bad fruit in Galatians 5:18-21. Bad fruits are what we bear when we are in the flesh. Jesus says, the bad tree will bear bad fruit and cannot do the will of the Father. Lawlessness is the bad fruit.

He speaks of the desire of the will, in Greek epithumea = desire, lust.
When we think of this word, we think of lust, greed, sexual immorality, desires of the world. It also signifies excessive, immoderate ambition or desire.
Our focus is to do God’s work, but even in serving the church and God, this ambition and greed may get in our way such that we cannot bear good fruit. I sincerely pray that even when we do the same thing this year may our fruit be good and not bad in the eyes of God. From our intention, down to the method, the timing and to the result.

The fig tree that did not have fruit for Jesus Christ, the Bible says it was not the season for figs. But the fig tree’s task was not to bear fruit in its own opinion of the right season. It should have borne fruits for Jesus in Jesus’ timing and requirement.

What is more important than bearing good fruits, is to become a good tree first. How can we become a good tree? Then you need to be part of the best Tree. According to John 15:1-6, we are one tree with Jesus. A branch is part of a tree. May we become good trees by being grafted onto the Tree of Jesus Christ, the Tree of Life. How do we stay on? Just by being attached to the trunk, be attached to Jesus, receive the Word, and let the Word produce fruit in your life. Secondly, there has to be pruning work. The farmer cuts away branches that don’t bear fruit so more nutrients are given to the branches that do bear fruit. In our lives, we have to assess things we spend energy on that do not bear good fruit, and focus our energy on the things that bear good fruit. May our Zion Church become the beautiful tree, that will bear beautiful fruits when our Father God is looking for it.

AMEN.

Pastor Samuel Kim

2024-02-24T18:01:57+00:00
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