4Ws for Week 12, 20-26 Mar 2017 WELCOME (15minutes) Choose one of the following icebreakers: (If you have first-time guests, do begin with a round of introductions and warmly welcome the new visitors.) 1. SALT AND LIGHT NAME GAME Divide the people into smaller groups of 4. Ask each group to think of as many characteristics and uses of salt and light as they can. After a few minutes ask each group to feedback their ideas and write these on a flipchart or whiteboard. For example, Salt Needed to maintain health Preserves things Brings out flavour Prevents infection and heals Makes you thirsty Light Removes darkness Causes growth Gives life Transmits messages Lights the way Conclude that Jesus used the senses of taste and sight to illustrate the effect his followers should have on the world. Explain the background to the Bible reading i.e. this was part of Jesus teaching known as the Sermon on the Mount. Read Matthew 5: 13-16 in a modern translation of the Bible. 13 You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. 14 You are the light of the world - like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. 2. SHEEP AND SHEPHERDS Before cell starts, organize the meeting venue so that there is one chair for every two adults. When your member arrives tell them to find a partner. Designate one member to be A and the other to be B. A will stand behind B, who will sit in the chair. A s are shepherds and B s are sheep. There must be one member who will be without a partner, as a shepherd, standing behind an empty chair. This single shepherd will try to get a sheep to move to his/her chair by signaling to them (via a look or wink ). The sheep will try to escape from their shepherds and run across the circle to the new chair. The shepherds will keep their sheep by tagging them (GENTLY) before they can make it out of the chair. If the sheep is tagged, they cannot move. If a shepherd loses a sheep, the game resumes and she/he tries to attract another. 3. Crucifixion Prepare a small prize. Ask every member to form as many words as they can from the letters found in the word crucifixion. Give the person who comes up with the most words a prize. Transition to Worship: Let us now enter into worship with thanksgiving in our hearts to our great and mighty God. He is the One who love and care so much for us that He sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins. Indeed He 1
deserves all our praise and adoration. Let us enter His courts with praise and His gates with thanksgiving. Hallelujah! WORSHIP (20 minutes) You may use the following suggested worship songs: 1) My Redeemer Lives (D) 2) Forevermore (A) 3) Divine Exchange (A) 4) Jesus At The Center (A) Do give some time to wait upon the Lord for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Encourage the members to listen to what God is saying individually and corporately and for the release of the gifts of the Holy Spirit - words, visions, tongues and interpretation of tongues - to minister and encourage the faith of those present. Transition to Word: Lord we thank You for your great love in our life. We are able to gather here because of Your love to us that while we were yet sinners You sent Your Son, Jesus to die on the cross for us. Lord, we love You and we want You to fill us with Your love. Teach us O Lord from Your word, open our ears to hear Your Word, open our hearts to receive Your Word and reveal Yourself to us. In Jesus name we pray! Amen WORD (45minutes) Memory verse of the week: Luke 18:17 (NIV) Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. Sermon Title: Living Life to the Fullest the Crucified Life By Apostle Lawrence Khong on 18 & 19 Mar 17 Scripture Passages: John 12:23-26 But Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Introduction Every person wants to live life to the fullest. How do we live life to the fullest? We can only live life to the fullest when we know the destiny we have in Christ and fulfill our destiny in Christ. We will live life to the fullest and fulfill God s destiny for our lives when we understand that the call to discipleship is a call to the crucified life. It is not about commitment; it is about crucifixion. It is not 2
about dedication to God, it is about death to self. It is not about being driven by a cause but driven by the Cross. What is the Crucified Life? a. The Crucified Life is Absolute. b. The Crucified Life is Extreme. First, the crucified life is absolute. You can t be a little crucified or partly crucified. There is no middle of the ground when it comes to the crucified life. The crucified life is, it is no longer I. The crucified life is not a balance between God s Agenda and our own agenda. It is a complete eradication of our own agenda and ambition. It is no longer my agenda but Christ s. It is not a compromise between what your desire and God s will. It is not about me any more. It is coming to the revelation of the cross and finding ourselves dead, buried with Christ. There is no price too great to pay to obey the call and commandments of Christ because a dead man does not own anything. Second, the crucified life is extreme because nothing is extreme for a dead person. Discovery and Understanding Questions Q1. How do we live life to the fullest? A1. We can only live life to the fullest when we know the destiny we have in Christ and fulfill our destiny in Christ. Q2. How do we fulfill God s destiny for our lives? A2. We will fulfill God s destiny for our lives when we understand that the call to discipleship is a call to the crucified life. It is not about commitment; it is about crucifixion. It is not about dedication to God, it is about death to self. It is not about being driven by a cause but driven by the Cross. Q3. What is the Crucified Life? A3. The Crucified life is absolute and extreme. It must be absolute as there is no middle ground when it comes to the crucified life, as Paul had said, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I that lives but Christ lives in me. It is death to self. It must be extreme as God had gone to the extreme in order to save us, He had sent His only Son, Jesus to die on the cross for us and because nothing is extreme for a dead person. Application Questions Break into small groups to discuss and pray and minister to one another: Q1. What areas of your life need to change in order for you to live a crucified life? Q2. Is there any area in your life that stops you from living a crucified life? Commit to God today and be set free. Family Altar Time (F.A.T.) 3
(Cell Leader: Encourage your members to be faithful in keeping the weekly F.A.T. and refer them to this segment of the 4Ws for suggestions for their F.A.T. A possible time for the F.A.T. is after a meal together, say during the weekend.) Use any of the 3 icebreakers in the WELCOME segment above and select worship songs that are meaningful to your family. If they are old enough, ask your children to select the songs and lead worship, and take this opportunity to teach them skills in waiting on God, praying, and leading with a servant s heart and as a willing vessel for God. After worship, you may wish to: 1) Discuss last Sunday s Family Bible Study in the Living Life journal, or 2) Review your children s take-home materials from GKidz (www.fcbc.org.sg/youthchildren/gkidz/parents), or 3) Review and discuss this week s memory verse, or 4) Ask one person to read John 12:23-26 and another person to read John 10:10 and Galatians 2:20. Questions: i) What is an abundant life? ii) What is a crucified life? iii) In the world s eyes, can an abundant life be a crucified life? iv) In God s eyes, can an abundant life be a crucified life? God has designed for an abundant life to come through a crucified life. That is why to become a Christian, we must give our lives to God. It is an exchange between our human, limited life and God s eternal, abundant life. a) What does the crucified life look like? First, it is absolute. Someone is either dead or alive there is no in-between. John Sung, an evangelist who brought revival to China and Southeast Asia was such a man. He encountered the Holy Spirit one night in his hostel room and saw himself in a coffin and went around his hostel, knocking on the doors of his hostel mates, telling them John Sung is dead! For this, he was committed to an asylum for 193 days during which he read the bible 40 times. That laid the foundation for one of the major revivals in the 20 th century. b) Second, the crucified life is extreme. The love of God in our lives is extreme. All 12 of Jesus disciples died a martyr, except for John who was exiled to live a life of loneliness. The first Western missionary to China Robert Morrison spent many years alone persevering at a seemingly impossible task. He had to learn Chinese during a time when anyone who teaches foreigners the Chinese language is considered to have committed treason with death as the penalty. Morrison was robbed, cheated, struggled with his daily expenses and suffered ill health. Over his 27 years of missionary work, he lost his wife and two other missionary friends. However, he published a Chinese dictionary for Westerners and the Chinese translation of the Bible. He also found 12 disciples. Another Western missionary to China is Hudson Taylor. This is one of his quotes:- If I had a thousand pounds China should have it if I had a thousand lives, China should have them. No! Not China, but Christ. Can we do too much for Him? Can we do enough for such a precious Saviour? 4
These men are our examples. God can do so much in a dead man but nothing through a man who thinks that he matters. We matter a lot to God, but our best lives are lived after we have died in Christ. End by praying for each other, that we would encounter God, be crucified with Christ and then rise with Him. Pray also for the salvation of pre-believing family members, relatives and friends. Transition to Works: Now, let s apply one of the 5 languages of Love for God, which is our Acts of Service. Let s take some time to carry out some of the following: WORKS (15minutes) 1. 3x3 Prayer Let s lay hold of God s promise in Galatians 6:9, pressing on to intercede for our 3x3 prebelieving contacts. As we pray, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the strongholds that bind the people, preventing them from drawing near to God. Ask the Lord to set divine appointments to grant us opportunities to minister His power over them (words of knowledge, healing, helps, etc., as revealed through our prayers). As the Holy Spirit leads, plead the blood of Jesus over the circumstances, strongholds and barriers that block them from come to our cell group and our celebration services. Pray for one another for boldness, courage and obedience to follow through. 2. Consolidation of New Converts For those who have accepted Christ, look forward to consolidating them by contacting them via phone calls, meet ups or house visits. Introduce to them to members of the cell and invite them to fellowship with the faith community during cell meetings and celebration services. Affirm them on their decision to embark on this journey to begin a new life in Christ. Introduce them to LifeClass commencing in March 2017. LifeClass is an exciting package of equipping that guides new believers through the foundations of their faith and leads them into a life-transforming encounter with Jesus. It does this through nine weeks of personal study, combined with fun and interactive classroom sessions of Bible teaching and an Encounter Weekend. It will replace the current Pre-Encounter Class, Encounter Weekend and Post Encounter. Please check out the Equipping page at our website or Mobile App. Announcements 1. Faith Community Bible School (FCBS) Application for FCBS 2017 intake is open. School term will run from 11 May to 22 September for the four-month course and 11 May to 21 July for the two-month course. This programme is specially designed to improve your effectiveness as a Christian in the marketplace. Get an application from the self-help counter or fcbc.org.sg/fcbs and sign up today! Registration closes on 26 March, Sunday. 2. Gideonite Training Programme Registration for the Gideonite Training Programme, a one-year church planting mission trip to Japan and Timor Leste, is in progress till 26 March, next Sunday. Selected applicants will be called for interviews before acceptance. If you ve got a heart for Japan and Timor Leste, register now! You ll find more details on our website or app. 5
3. Annual General Meeting The Annual General Meeting for FCBC and our related companies is coming up on 29 March, Wednesday, 7.30pm at TC auditorium. You ll be updated on our finances and accounts, as well as upcoming challenges and projects in the coming years. You may pick up the Annual Report at all centres starting from this weekend. If you re an FCBC member, see you there! 4. Marriage Encounter Weekend The Marriage Encounter Weekend is held on 8 and 9 April, Saturday and Sunday, at the Furama Riverfront Singapore, for $400 per couple. Even if you ve been married for ages, it s never too late to learn more about your spouse and experience God s blessing and revival in your marriage. So act fast and register now before 2 April, Sunday. You may either fill out and submit the registration form at the self-help counter or visit fcbc.org.sg/ewregistration to register! 5. Marketplace Ministry Seminar with Elim Chew We are thrilled to have Elim Chew, entrepreneur and founder of 77 th Street, with us for our first Marketplace Ministry Seminar of the year! You ll hear testimonies of her extraordinary journey in the marketplace, where she s constantly reinventing herself to keep up with the times. So be there on 4 April, Tuesday, 7.30pm at TC. 6