Preacher Lingkang had shared about "what shall a man give in exchange for his soul" at the Gospel meeting last week. Sermon text: Mat 16 : 25 - 27.
(I) Preamble
What is the soul? Something spiritual (in contrast with the body). It differentiates us from the others, it is also eternal. It leads us to worship God.
What value do you place in your soul? Do you care where is the final destination of your soul? We ought to care! It is the only part of our body which connects us with God.
What then is the role of our soul? It drives us to pray to God, commute with him and glorify God.
(II) An explanation of sermon text
(Mat 16: 24) What is "lost our soul"? Our soul is always with us, that is without doubt, what we really lost is to lose our soul relationship with God, it will lead to us not to be totally connected with God. (Mat 16:25) What then is to "lose our life"? (Answer is in Mat 16:24). How then we "lost our soul"? It is when, due to our carnal mind, want to acquire the whole world. (Our world = we want to pursuit of our Earthly goals, such as our grades, more relationships, CCAs). No doubt that some of us did this due to noble aims, but in the end, what will we get? What will we profit from it? What if in the process of doing so, our relationship with God deteriorates? What if we suffer some adverse consequences from doing so? Hence, the ultimate question we ought to ask ourselves is - Is a Earthly centered life what we really want?
(III) Answers from the bible
(1 Pet 2:11) Our existence on this Earth is just temporal, hence, we ought to distance ourselves from these sinful lusts which destroys our souls. We should ought to live for God (Mat 10:28), not for our body. There is no profit if we just seek for riches in our lives, it will never prolong our short existence on this Earth.
Then, how can we gain our soul and get true fulfillment? (i.e. Grab our soul towards heaven). In order to understand it, we should first understand the obstacle towards heaven. It is SIN. We will never pass the test of God as we are all sinners (Rom 3: 23).
(IV) Redemption found
It is not by works alone, as a single sin will lead us to be condemned by God. Redemption cannot be obtained by unilateral acts done by ourselves. It is obtained by Jesus Christ, our LORD and personal saviour crucifiction on the cross (John 3:16). God is gracious to us (1 Pet 2: 24). God the Son, Jesus, the anointed one, whom lead a absolutely perfect sinless life, took on all the punishment for us on himself. We are then saved by Jesus. He gave us salvation !
(V) How to accept this salvation?
Pray for salvation and admit our inadequacies and powerless condition. We should also admit ourselves that Jesus is the only solution to save us.
(VI) Conclusion and steps to accept Christ
This will lead to us to feel the true meaning in our lives. The meaning should be to worship, glorify God as well as abode with him.
(Note: If you had been convicted by the Holy Spirit and will wish to accept Christ, do contact us and we will follow up with you and we warmly welcome you to come to our meetings and understand and learn more about Christ)
Our meeting is at Amos & Shuhui House, Block 494C # 13 - 344 Tampines Street 43. Tuition will start from 1.30 pm and the meeting will start at 3:30 pm. You may take service 28, 29 from Tampines Interchange and alight at the fourth stop. For more information and transport arrangement, do call Uncle John at 96236448 or Amos at 91077152.
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