Star or Rats

Rev Gideon Lee

Last week I spoke about John the Baptist and he was one who did not beat around the bush. He stressed in the call to repentance to change 180° from where you are here to what God has called you to. He then call us to share. We are blessed to be a blessing. We are a people who is called to share. Especially this Christmas season we are called to share the gospel. The good news. I pray that it will be more than just a season, not just a day, but is a lifestyle. What else are we called to do? The last one. We are called to serve. Remember the tax collector. Where God has placed you, serve in the best capacity. God has called us to serve. 

Matthew 11:1-6

Jesus and John the Baptist

11:2- 19pp – Lk 7:18- 35

1 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.

2 When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 6 Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”

Sounds familiar? It's our missions statement. Look behind you at our poster. 

We find that John the Baptist is in prison. Is he in a good or bad situation? Bad right? He was put in prison because he corrected king Herod. Herod had his brother killed and married his wife. That is bad even by world standards. John the Baptist told the king he was wrong so he was thrown in prison awaiting his trial if there is one. He knew that his time was short and was probably disappointed. This week I am going to talk about disappointments. 

I know Christmas is around the corner but I want us to know Christmas may not be a joyous occasion. Maybe it's financial or health problems and you don't feel like celebrating Christmas. Especially for those of us that have just lost a loved one, this may be a bad time as occasions like this brings them to remembrance. 

How we handle disappointment is very important. My title is Star or Rats. I will explain why I chose this title at the end of the service. 

John the Baptist has an expectation of what Jesus should be. Remember he asked his disciples to ask if he was the messiah or should they wait for another. Imagine saying this at the end of your ministry. 

Firstly, many a times we get into disappointments because of expectations not met. 

An example is my daughter Elisa. We wanted our children to go to a Chinese school so that they learn our root language because both my wife and I don't speak Chinese well. Maybe my wife is a little better. So we rely on the iPad to help write the Chinese word and find its meaning to help her in her studies. So coming to UPSR, it would be wrong to expect her to get an "A" for her Chinese. But we would expect her to do well in English as we can help her with that. 

But we cannot be expecting her to get an "A" for her Chinese. But we still expect that of our children right? By the way she got a "B" and a "C" for her Chinese. What do you expect, we are banana. We cannot expect that of her. We need to have right expectations. 

John the Baptist expected Jesus to come and establish his kingdom and kick the Romans out. He expected those that follow him to rule with him. Different expectations. 

Husband expect the wife to be like that. 6.00am wake up and make your breakfast, coffee made just right and the children all prepared for school. Come home and the home is all set. We have different expectations of our wife. And when they are not met, we get disappointed. 

I remember in bible school, I remember I loved the subject the Dynamics of the Holy Spirit. What do you expect, I am a Pentecostal and a true blue AOG pastor. You cut me I bleed AOG (laughs). I never liked to study and had to do the research paper. It was a compulsory subject. End of semester came and I have not finished my research paper. I asked my lecturer for an extension. You know, Christian lecturer, so you would expect him to be an angel. He said okay, I give you two weeks extension. 

Lo and behold, two weeks went in a blur and I have not started on the outline yet. So I tried my best and did maybe one or two pages. So I called my lecturer and asked for another extension. So you would expect a Christian lecturer in bible school to be merciful. You know what? He failed me. I was so angry. I mean I finished all my exams, only my research paper. But it was a compulsory subject. He said I have no choice but to fail you. I was busy because I went for mission trip and expected God to understand. I had to repeat my paper. It could be one or two year down the road and I cannot graduate. 

I was upset and I told God all kinds of reasons. More than that I was embarrassed. I was a student council president, youngest, never in the history...fail. 

Coming back to John the Baptist (laughs). He was disappointed. How did Jesus reply? The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 

Second reasons why he was disappointed is because he was looking at the wrong signs. 

I want to being you the the story of Elijah. He went to the mountains and what did God do? First there was a strong wind that shook the mountain but God was not in the wind. Then came fire and earthquake and God was not there. Then Elijah found God is a still small voice. God is often not in the spectacular but in the ordinary. 

John the Baptist was distracted. He was looking at the wrong signs. Jesus entered Jerusalem in a small donkey. Imagine the King of kings and Lord of lords come on a donkey. What would you ride on if you were that? I would be riding a white elephant with a long tusk. Why? Special. Not a brown elephant but a white elephant. (Congregation said grey elephant). Grey and brown same la (laughs). You paint your elephant grey I paint mine brown. I would ride in in majesty. 

If you look just at the signs you will miss it. God often comes in the still small voice, in the mundane. In the everyday things. Not in the spectacular. 

The last reason why he was disappointed is because he didn't give God enough time. 

How many of you know we are impatient people. We pray God grant me patience, but grant it to me NOW! We want things done immediately. Jesus took his time. In fact He is still taking His time. His work is still being done today more than 2000 years ago. We often do not allow time for God to do his work in our lives. We often look at our schedule but we need to work in God's timing. He is never too early or too late, always in time. 

Coming back to my testimony, fail. I cannot graduate. I cannot serve you God. I don't know what I am going to do. I don't know when they will offer it again. I don't know how to go back to church and tell them I cannot serve there. 

God begins to deal with me and it is for my own good. How often when God deal with you it's painful. I went to my lecturer and instead of arguing with him and presenting my case like how all good lawyers will do, I went to him and said I am sorry. I made a mistake. 

He told me okay, here's what I will do for you. You are going to take the course under me personally. You don't have to do the whole course but only some assignments. He didn't have to do it. It took his time away. So I did it all up to his satisfaction and I think I got an "A". I think (laughs). He passed me and that year I graduated as speaker of my class that year. Not to boast. 

If we allow God to work things in our life according to his timing it is always the best one. If you want to be a lalang, you do not have to do anything. No need to water also. To be a lalang, no need time. If you don't want God to take his time, you will be a lalang, like my garden. 

But if you look at the majestic rain trees like those along Greenland, it takes time to grow and withstand all the storms. It takes time. It didn't grow overnight. 

We all face disappointments because of expectations. It is hardest to be a pastor because there are over 200 expectations. Managing our expectations is difficult. 

At the hokkien service this morning, I preached the same message this and I had a lady that came to me and asked me to pray for her as she wanted a grandson and she said the doctor said 50-50 chance it's a girl. I do not want to be judgmental but I prayed for her that no matter boy or girl they will love the same. Expectations, I pray we learn how to manage them. 

There was this Sunday school presentation at a church where the children were told to do a Christmas play. They were each given cutouts of letters and when the time came they were to turn the letters around which spelt "STAR". Unfortunately, something when wrong and the words came out "RATS" instead (laughs). It's Christmas so it was supposed to say stars. So what do you want to be? Stars or rats? I pray you all will be stars shining for God. Not only during Christmas but everyday of your life.

Pastor Gideon praying for those that responded to the altar call.
Wonderful ministry by the worship team led by Sis Melissa Cheah and Joshua Teh.