Our church has 10 articles of faith. If we keep and understand them correctly, we’ll be able to make it to heaven. In addition, the 10 articles of faith provides principles in which we can lead this life.

5 of them have been discussed. This sermon will cover the 6th and how it can apply to our lives today.

The first teaching is about God; about authority. Not only the authority of God but also the authority of governments. To overcome the virus problem, we ought not to be too smart and do our own things.

We also learn about the Bible and it being our standard of truth. What does the Bible say about the virus? At the beginning sometimes we wonder as a church whether it’s a lack of faith if we don’t meet together. Would it be a lack of faith if we tell people not to come to church when they’re sick? But we know when we read the Bible in Leviticus, there’re rules on what to do if someone is suspected to have leprosy. There’re rules for the priest to check if he is contagious, and to quarantine him for 7 days and check again, and quarantine for another 7 days. The method of quarantine is biblical! And so it’s not a problem of faith for us to follow quarantine rules. But in the understanding of the Holy Spirit, we also ought to look at things from a spiritual perspective. If we see the virus as just a physical threat, then we miss the point that we the human being are the intersection of the spirit and the flesh. From a spiritual perspective we still need to come to church and gather, and believe our God will guide us.

These principles from the 10 articles of faith help us live a life with meaning. Because the world goes against the Bible and God’s teachings in many many ways. On the matter of rest which the Sabbath teaches us, the world tells us to work hard and play hard. So we see some Chinese businessmen work the whole day 7 days a week, and then during Chinese New Year, they close for 15 days. This isn’t good for the body. The Sabbath teaches us to rest regularly.

We are also taught to live in faith, and the importance of life, because one of the articles of faith is salvation by grace through faith. It teaches us the value of life— both physical and spiritual. The world again leads us astray, because the emphasis is now the quality of life! Because of that, they justify abortion. They said, “Well if you can’t guarantee a good life when the baby is born because the parents are out of wedlock, or it’s not convenient for the mother’s career, then you can abort.” It also leads to euthanasia being considered when a person grows old today. People talk about the quality of physical life, but we learn about the importance and sanctity of physical and spiritual life.

This sermon will talk about the Holy Communion.

John 15:13
There’re many things to learn from the Holy Communion. One of these that should guide us in our lives is sacrificial love. We know in 1 Cor 13 that there abides faith, hope and love - the greatest of which is love. All 3 cannot be missing, but the greatest of the 3 is love.

And in these verse it says the greatest of greatest is SACRIFICIAL love. That’s what we learn from Holy Communion.

Eph 5:25
Who did Jesus die for? In Matthew it says that He died for His friends. So as individuals, we can be considered friends of God; the children of God; the servants of God. But as a collective, we are the bride of Christ. It’s very important that when we pray to God, our personal relationship with God shouldn’t be that we have the romantic feeling that we’re the bride of Christ. This bride of Christ is the collective; the church. That’s what we learn in Eph 5.

The hymn 431 chosen at the beginning of the service is a wedding hymn. It’s a beautiful hymn that talks about love between a husband and wife. This is the love Christ wants to show us; that’s His love for His Church. That He came to die for His bride. The love between husband and wife is special. There’re many sacrifices involved. First of which is to leave your father and mother to be together.

There’s another sacrifice.
Gen 29:20
The common notion about the love between a couple is that waiting is torture. “Oh we’re meeting tonight! When will I see you again?” “Oh! Every hour is like eternity!”
But this verse says that Jacob had to serve 7 years before he could marry Rachel. But it seemed only a few days to him! Why is that so? Because of the love he had for her. So there must be something wrong about this modern notion of “When will I see you again?” “The days are stretching!”

Many people are unhappy with their work/jobs. However, there’re many people working in very common jobs who get through. Some people work very hard. Maybe they work in a checkout at the supermarket standing there whole day. But they get through. Very often it’s because of their families. They feel that their sacrifice is worth it. That their work is meaningful. This is the meaning of sacrificial love.

Today the world is always saying “I’m unhappy with my work! “Not enough time/money/space!” “I work one year and I’m not promoted…” But those older than us worked very common jobs but it passed just like a few days. 8h on a farm just passed. The work was meaningful because of their families.

This is our perspective of life. When we have sacrificial love for our wife and children, sometimes even our aged parents, time passes easily. And normal work becomes meaningful.

1 Cor 13:3
When we talk about sacrificial love, there’re two components - sacrifice and love. In this verse we are warned about it being bad to have sacrifice but not love. In short, sacrifice without love profits the giver nothing.

We just lost a preacher recently (the one from Myanmar). Preachers are supposed to have sacrifice. They had sacrificed to give their whole lives to the service of God. Why did a preacher fall? Some years ago another preacher fell. The dangers facing our church does not come from the ordinary member. Heresies unfortunately come from the preachers. So to be a preacher is a matter of great importance, and to preserve one in the truth is very very important.

It all begins with the motivation to become a preacher. Why do you want to make the sacrifice? This verse warns us that if we sacrifice without love, it is nothing.

A preacher said that he was asked why he became a preacher. He answered it was a secret. This preacher fell.

If we look at our Myanmar preachers, many became preachers because they were already theological students from other churches. So when they were converted to our church, they felt that it was their right to become a preacher. “This is what I’ve been training my whole life for! If I don’t become a preacher how am I going to make my living? I don’t want to work in the field. As a preacher I have power and influence over the church!” They became preachers and we have lost so many preachers in Myanmar as they have fallen. Their motivation was wrong and the temptation of power and money was there.

Another preacher said, “When I was young, I noticed that preachers were very popular. People admired preachers. I wanted to be like that.” He’s still a preacher. We have to pray for him.

There’s another preacher who said, “I like to preach. That’s my hobby. Isn’t it good I get paid for my hobby?”

We worry when the motivation is not love. To sacrifice without love is very sad. It profits the person who sacrifices nothing. And if one is to lose spiritual life because of that, what a tragedy.

Matt 19:16-22
We know about the rich young man. He did all these good things v19 “Honour your father and your mother” “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
He did all these things! He had love! But when Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (v21) The went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (v22)

This is a case of love without sacrifice. All of us must be careful that our Christian life and love doesn’t only keep within our own boundaries; means we only do things that benefit ourselves. They may be good things but only benefits ourselves. It’s hard to discern; it’s between a man and God.

For example in Singapore, our children are getting too soft. They’re having too good a life. So the schools organise trips to poor countries. They go to Bhutan, North Thailand to build a toilet, etc. And they get community service points. These are acts of love because it benefits another person, but taken wrongly it’s also meant to benefit oneself. “So I won’t be so soft. So I learn about the world outside.”

When we work for God in church, sometimes we get clashes, because people are unhappy they’re doing a little bit more. We have to sometimes step back and wonder why we’re doing this church work in the first place. We ought to do this because we love God and the people. If there’re clashes, if we have sacrificial love, we should be able to take it. With this idea of sacrificial love where we give and are willing to be hurt, we will go far.

We have not been asked to sell all we have and give to the poor. That was the requirement for this particular person. But for others, God has particular requirements for each of us. And our love grows when we’re willing to suffer pain.

The speaker contrasts two different persons doing carpark duty. In another church, there is another guy who scolds people. Is that called serving God in love? In another church, we have a person doing carpark duty, and he’s trying very hard to squeeze as many cars as possible in the carpark. He stands in front of the car and guides them with a smiling face. When the speaker saw it he was a bit worried because some of us aren’t so good drivers we may press the accelerator too hard and crush him. Yet this person was willing to sacrifice.

We have to love and we have to sacrifice.

Matt 16:24
Jesus told us to follow Him. How far should we follow Him? He gave the example: as far as to take up the cross. In other words, it’s a Christian ideal, even a principle to have sacrificial love. Jesus says to follow Him. To be able to understand what sacrificial love is, a good way is to look at examples.

Just like when we try to understand faith, we look at the examples in Heb 11.

Jesus said, “Look, follow Me!” First example is taking up the cross. We can also see examples of people in the Bible.

1 Cor 10:32-33, 11:4
Paul’s life was a life of sacrificial love. v33 says he lives to please all of them, not seeking his own profit. It’s as simple as that—learn not to take offence so easily. A person who takes offence easily is a person who pleases himself. “You don’t please me? You offend me!” Roughly it’s like that. People quarrel because they’re not pleased. Paul’s life was to please others. This is his encouragement to us.

Gen 13:8
Abraham sacrificed for harmony. Harmony is very important. In church, we need harmony. There’re things in church where people have differences in opinion. If it’s in doctrine or truth, there should be no compromise. But if it’s in the matter of administration, we should seek harmony.

But some people get offended easily. Person A told Person B, “You think you’re always right!” Even though Person B never said that. He just said his points well and they were right. Then person B said, “I’m never wrong.”

It’s hard. Sometimes for harmony, we have to step back. So don’t judge a person when he doesn’t want to be involved in certain activities. Because where he goes it seems that people disagree with him. So for the sake of harmony, he rather not do that.

A preacher is like that. He’s had so many fights on important things that in the end he felt that yes, sometimes to win is good for the church but sometimes the disharmony that’s caused is not worth it. So he pulled out. He sacrificed for harmony.

Ruth 4:14-15
Ruth loved Naomi, and all others could see it. They said she was better than 7 sons. We know Ruth sacrificed herself to care for Naomi. These two are daughter and mother-in-law. Unfortunately in our society, there seems to be tensions with in-laws. There’s even a cartoon that makes a joke of this.

A (probably Muslim) man was thinking of having two wives. Two thought bubbles with each woman in it. He had a big smile. In the next frame, the thought bubbles had two old women - two mothers-in-law. Then he swiped away the thought bubbles - didn’t want that HAHA

Naomi loved Ruth a lot. Her love was exhibited first by trying to push Ruth away. It looked so harsh, but that’s the thing about love in such relationships. Every action in our family - in-laws, husband, wife, children - is out of love. Just that the actions clash.

Ruth wants to stay with Naomi, Naomi says go away. And both are out of love. If we can see that, it’s a beginning.

Grandparents may want to pamper the grandchild. Whereas parents say, “Don’t spoil the child. It’s MY child!” It’s a difference in opinion but both are loving the child.

What do we do? The stronger must yield. If we feel we are stronger in faith, in many areas, in wisdom, education, then we yield; we sacrifice.

Naomi yielded to Ruth, because she was just a beginner God worshipper. Later on everything that Naomi told Ruth to do, Ruth followed. If we being stronger, yield, God will bless us. If we’re wiser, more educated, more spiritual, we can find ways, so called, to do damage control if things aren’t being done right. But we must respect each other. And be willing to sacrifice.

Phil 2:7
Jesus gave up His reputation as God. Often there’s strife because of reputation. One person claims to be the wife, the other claims to be the mother. “Where is my reputation? My son/husband doesn’t listen to me!” As the one in the centre, “Where is my reputation if I’m henpecked/a wimp?” If it’s reputation, then we have no solution, because everybody’s reputation is affected. But if we have sacrificial love, we’d say, “Who cares about reputation? I want love. I want peace.”

That’s what Jesus did. He didn’t care about His reputation. Whether in church or at home, if we’re willing to lose our reputation, things will turn out fine.

Esther 4:11-16
Esther saw Mordecai in sackcloth. Out of love for him, she was willing to send somebody to clothe him. In some sense, it was a sacrifice because she was not supposed to be related to him. Remember at the beginning Mordecai told Esther not to tell anybody she was a Jew. But Mordecai said that this was the time for her to make the ultimate sacrifice. And Esther obeyed.

We have young people like Esther. We have youths in the church who love God. And sometimes they can be quite extreme. There’re people who say, “I must sacrifice for God! So I don’t want to go to school anymore; I want to help people!” There are people like that. So there is the duty of older people like Mordecai to give advice on how and when to sacrifice.

We cannot overload our young people, because they will burn out. We should help and guide them, in both their physical and spiritual lives.

In a war there’re generals who’re willing to sacrifice their troops just to create a diversion. You must always ask a general one question: When he’s going for a suicide mission, if his son was in one of those troops, would he do it?

If we ask others to sacrifice, it must be worthwhile. And not just a chess game. Just moving a pawn and not caring if it gets eaten.

Most important, a general must lead from the front. But we do thank God our leaders here lead from the front. Let us think carefully whether our sacrifices for some actions/activities are worthwhile.

Rom 12:1
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

This sermon covered some ideas of what sacrificial love is and how we can apply it to different aspects of our physical and spiritual lives. But this requires a transformation of our minds. And our minds are always controlled by the world, with very opposite ideas. May God guide us to be a living loving sacrifice. That we help one another. Older will guide the younger.