Dr. AR Bernard preaching on 12 August 07
Felt that the preaching is so important that I cannot leave it just like that.Want to make mention of my sister Xuan, for without her detailed note taking, would not be able to post this here. Her notes contributed 50% to this post!
Preaching by Dr. AR Bernard on 12 August 2007:
Human erred for 2 reasons --> Don’t understand:
1) The Word of God
2) The Power of God
Babylonian culture
(In Old Testament Scripture the ancient city of Babylon stood for the power structure of evil that opposed God)
Babylonian King offered Daniel & his friends upward mobility (opportunity to prosper and succeed) but was concerned of the conflicts in culture, values & philosophies.
Hence the king put them in education program for 3 yrs to study Babylonian culture.
Daniel was willing to do the following:
· Studied Babylonians culture for 3 yrs
· Was given an identity in Babylonian culture by changing his NAME
· Studied Babylonians arts, language, science…etc
BUT he drew the line by NOT willing to eat Babylonian FOOD --> cos food symbolizes values, philosophy, sense of purpose, destiny....
Daniel would not feed on what the Babylonian society FEEDS on!
(Especially pride, fear, lust, greed, selfish ambition, envy, jealousy….etc)
Daniel & his friends engaged the world BUT were not defiled because they put a limit on the world’s influence on them --> they exercised SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE
Learnt:
Word of God sets us free from intimidation of the world.
We cannot lead a culture we’re afraid of.
We learn about the culture but we DON’T FEED on it!
Else we’ll fall prey and be swallowed by the dominant culture!
Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world.
Only way to engage culture WITHOUT compromising values --> SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE
1) Always Pray
2) Reading Bible consistently
3) Consistent Bible study
4) Regular Fasting
5) Thanksgiving & Gratitude to God
--> the world has discontentment (Lust & Greed), this is the reason why people fall, gratitude to God gets rid of dissatisfaction
6) Solitude
--> set apart from people at times so that we can be with God; when Jesus needs to make important decisions, he’ll go off in solitude & spend time with God
7) Repentance
8) Forgiveness
9) Confession
--> you’ll not change in your life what you’re NOT WILLING to confess, Confession gets the negative out of your life.
If I don’t do the above, I will become vulnerable and influenced by the negative values of the world and culture I am in.
The church helps us in the spiritual disciplines but we individually are responsible to keep the discipline going.
3 John 2
“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”
--> only when our soul prosper will we be prosperous and be in health
--> Maintain Spiritual disciplines for they are your lifeline!!
Labels: Sermons and Revelatns
posted by Fleur De La Lune @ 12:53 am
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