49 Stops & 1 Sermon

The bus I took to church must have stopped 30 times along the 49 Stops to my destination. It was a 65-minute ride but the return trip was even longer. From Kembangan MRT I stopped at Bugis and took a bus to Chinatown and alighted. After drinking coffee for a while I took the Bus 961 and it was another 60 minutes before it stopped at Bukit Timah Beauty World where I had burger for lunch. By the time I reached home it was 2:45pm, exactly 7 hours after I left home. I preached on 1 Sam 10 with the topic, "Anointed for Leadership" with three sub-themes - Provision, Power and Prophecy for leadership. Saul was said to prophesy along with other prophets when the Spirit came upon him. For those God would anoint to be a leader, He would provide: Saul was given 2 loaves of bread and at the end of chapter 9, he had the thigh portion, the best portion for those who are favoured by God (or the prophet). Leadership demands sacrifices and often we suffer financial disadvantage when we serve as leaders because our time, energy and occasionally our own money is spent to serve the Lord. But the Lord will provide. The second point is the anointing is also empowerment. In the beginning of the sermon I explained what anointing meant. 1) special calling 2) consecrated or set apart for a task 3) empowerment. Saul was anointed and empowered to lead as king. The third point "prophecy" was a sticky point because I sensed the church was probably not quite ready to accept the full teaching on this. What I am interested is the truth and the will of God on any subject-matter and be like the Lord Jesus, "teaching the way of God in truth without seeing the face of men." (Matt 22). I ended by referencing the NT in Luke 4:18-19 and Acts 1:8; 2:17-18. I preached a 40-minute sermon. It was a combined service and the church was full. I was touched by two testimonies of two sisters after the sermon. After the service, 7 or 8 people came up and thanked me for the message. We had fellowship over mee-hoon and I left the church at 11:45am with joy in my heart knowing that I had glorified the Lord Jesus and edified His Church. During my Mcdonald's lunch, I took out my large Bible, small note book and pen and prepared for the next sermon in the same church in a fortnight's time.