Preaching & Rest

Yesterday when I stopped preaching I looked at my watch and it was 11.10am after ascended to the pulpit at 10.30am with 30 minutes for praise and worship as the service started at 10am. As I knew I was going to conduct a seminar in the afternoon, I would not preach more than 45 minutes as I needed to conserve my energy. The Seminar started at 12.40pm after an hour plus lunch break and it went until 2.45pm before we ended. We had afternoon tea and by 3.30pm I left the church filled with joy on my way back, only about 10kms away. So Monday is a day of rest for me and last night's sleep was intermittent, perhaps due to the exertions and exhaustion of the day. But I saw the joy in the faces of many church members.

For the sermon, I preached about prayer and not lose heart in prayer and trust in the Lord's intervention (Luke 18; John 14; John 16). Even when I left the church at 3.30pm after the seminar many women stayed on near the church doors and greeted me and one gave me a gift something she bought in the nearby Sunday market during the lunch break. I saw smiling faces all round and it is so important God's Word is made to bear on people's lives to encourage them to fight the fight of faith for another day, another month and another year. It has been a tremendous year for me, and I had just prepared a montage of photos in a slideshow. 

This is the year of breakthrough. As the year of the dragon started, I preached in one church after another, within Kota Kinabalu and outstation as well. Then on March 18th, as I was preparing to preach my first session in my former College's Retreat, I was getting excited about my brother's elevation as High Court Judge of Sabah & Sarawak. Throughout the day until night I followed the news and watched his taking of oath live on the Justice Department's website. But I looked back at the photos yesterday, I felt the Lord spoke to me that "even as your brother is elevated to be the High Court, you are called to be my mouthpiece, my Servant and witness", saith the Lord. 

Then in April, I travelled outstation to conduct a one day seminar on the book of Revelation, and preached on Sunday. One immediate impact was that there was one villager and her family that were very resistant towards our church for a long time but for the first time she joined the Seminar on Saturday and worshipped in the SIB church on Sunday whilst I preached. A month afterward I was told by the pastor that this villager now welcomes the pastoral team to visit and hold cell group meetings in her house and she even prayed freely like the rest of the villagers who belong to SIB. I would not go too much on what a break through year for me culminating in the call to pastor a church in Kota Kinabalu and the launch of my 7th book on 1st December 2024.