Labour Day Message

With an overnight trip to KK to get my Trinity booklet printed I was back in College just in time for dinner last night. I prepared for Sunday sermon forthwith and since it was still early May and I did not preach last Sunday, I preached a sermon today entitled,  "The worth of a servant of God" Nilai seorang Hamba Tuhan. I preached from 1 Cor 9 and managed to expound several verses only before my time of 45 minutes was up. I took sometime to explain why the month of May was especially significant. For most years, May is the month of the Feast of Pentecost (next week). I shared how on the 9th May 1982 I was baptised in the Holy Spirit. The month of May is also the month Israel celebrates its independence Day on 14th May 1948, the nation Israel became sovereign once more after 1,900 years in the dispersion. The month of May is also the month when some countries celebrate Mothers' Day though I did not mention that in my sermon today as I wanted to focus on the worth of a worker in God's Kingdom.  I told my colleagues and students that we must have self worth and self respect though our pay may not be great since many people value a person by the amount of dollars he draws every month.
As Paul says, "I do all things for the sake of the gospel." I shared many stories about my experience as a pastor, a leader and working alongside lay leaders and church council that could be difficult to handle especially in terms of respect and honour due to a worker in the Lord's vineyard. And Paul had to defend himself against criticism and how he and Barnabas decided to serve for free in the light of the circumstances in Corinth. Paul was not reticent in accepting money for his ministry but that the conditions and the church's attitude must be right before he does so like the Philippians' gift and also the Macedonians. I told my College community not to despise oneself or have low self worth if not elders and deacons might step on us or look down on us. I told my College community that though pay is not the main issue why we serve but we must teach the church at least once a year during Labour Day month that they should honour God's servant in their midst and provide their needs and the needs of their families. We ended the service at 10.45am after another 40 mins of intercessory prayers after the sermon. And I also conducted my first Communion for the college's service today. And tomorrow exams will begin and my Greek paper is first up.