The Essence of Koinonia

Fidel accompany dad to Ipoh on 27-28th Apr to preach at Elim Gospel Hall's young adult and youth fellowship anniversary.
It is important for dad to have separate private time with each of you, to build our close relationship individually.
We had a good time chatting and laughing all the time.
When dad was preaching, Fidel sat alone quietly at the front row. I am a very proud dad.

Using only one verse from 1 John 1: 3, "that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.", dad pointed out that true fellowship is build upon individual's spiritual fellowship with God and His son through the Spirit.We must ensure we are 'in' the fellowship in the first place, not allowing activities to mislead us of thinking that we are, but actually is 'out side' of the true spiritual fellowship. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the means to enter into the fellowship, and the fellowship grows through the preaching of the good news.

Thank God for this wonderful fellowship with the church and with my son.

  

Let's promote Expository Preaching!

Thanks mom and children, for accompany me to Petaling Jaya, to conduct a workshop on Expository Preaching, at PJ Gospel Center. (13th~14th Apr 2013)
It was a wonderful fun time for you, as we stayed at Cititel Midvalley, adjacent to two huge shopping mall.

Dad delivered a 6 hours intensive workshop on Expository Preaching.
I hope that all participants enforced their conviction of preaching the Word rather than something else!

 

'Here we come, KL'

'the secret of expository preaching is preach the Word!'

About Preaching God's Word

Sons,

Here is something about preaching I learned, and I think you should know.

A Theme
Every sermon should have a clear message, a theme. What we want to say.
A sermon is not worth preaching if the preacher is uncertain what he wants to say to audience, in one sentence.

A Goal
Related but not identical with what I mean by a theme, a goal or purpose is why you want to say what you are saying. Or put it in another way, what you wish the Holy Spirit to accomplish through your preaching. A same theme will have two different way of delivery if the purpose of delivering it is different.

The Source of the Message
Needless to say, but easily be tempted to ignore, the message must be Biblical.
It is sad that these days in your dad's generation, many sermons I heard are based on stories and theories from various sources, including secular, myth, atheist, psycologist, religions, and philosophers. Your dad called it 'Chicken Soup preaching'. We as preachers should hold on to this two convictions: The sufficiency of the Scripture, and the power of the Scripture. Holy Spirit does not bring true conviction with stories but by His own Word.

Expository Preaching
In order to avoid the temptation of Chicken Soup preaching and based our sermon in something else, your dad advocate expository preaching. Put it simply, it is expounding the Scripture, let the listeners understand what God says in Scripture, and help them apply it in their lives through illustration, exhortation, challenge, comfort and rebuke (with love and sorrows).

Remember sons, people need God's Word (although they may not realize). It is God's Word that changes lives. Let us humbly hide ourselves behind His Words so that people can see the Lord of the Scripture, not the preacher who put himself upfront and obscure what the Bible has to say.