No Idols: sketch note Sermon

Rev Wendy Watson: 

Sermon: No Idols

Text: Exodus 20:1-8

QUOTE: Os Guiness

Of Idolatry

HUGE in the Bible

DOMINANT in our personal lives 

yet IRRELAVENT in our mistaken estimate

Some idols are easy to identify

Statues

Deities

Tablets

Secret Societies

Others less so

Yet they all destroy us

The bible is big on idolatry

#1 issue

More than 50 laws about idolatry in the first 5 books of the bible

The penalty for idolatry is death

Idolatry is a big deal for God

Kyle Littleman : book： "gods at war"

"Every sin we struggle with:

Discouragement

Lack of purpose

Is because of idolatry"

Idolatry is the worship of wrong things

What is worship?

Worship is a heart thing

Praise

Intentionally following

Adore

Serve

Who, what do we worship??

We were created by God to worship him

What and where are the idols in our life?

Where do we place our

Time

Money

Focus

Listen to?

Internet search engines place sex and pornography and video as top searched topics

What does your data search show?

QUOTE

I talk to people every week who are hurting.

They come to me

Unload their troubles

They are actually talking about their symptoms rather than their problem

The problem is idolatry.

Case Study #1

Businessman 

Caught for cheating income tax

Worried about family and reputation

Why did you do it?

Don't know 

Is money what drives you?

"Never thought of it that way"

Case Study #2

Girl wants to move out, live with boyfriend

Have you thought of what you are doing to your future husband?

This relationship probably will not last

You are prepared to disobey God and disobey your parents?

Seems to me that you have turned thus relationship into a god

"Never thought of it that way"

Case Study #3

Ordinary guy

Started on pornorgraphy since young

Images burned into his soul 

Changed the way I relate to momen

An itch I cannot satisfy

Need to scratch harder and harder

"My brother,

you think you have a lust problem but actually you have a worship problem: you worship sex"

"You need to ask yourself

'Will I worship God or will I worship sex'"

"Never thought of it that way"

Case Study #4

The Haze

Root problem is idolatoru

God of money is being worshipped

"Do I have a part in this"

Haze is a good reminder

As long as haze remains 

Daily ask God

What are the idols in my life

Prayer is the only offensive weapon available to us 

Leads to

Confession

Forgiveness

Repentance 

Reconciliation 

The Discipleship Journey

Our church camp was held at Equitorial Hotel Malacca: I took the opportunity to practice Graphic Recording using flip chart paper landscape format stuck onto white board easel.

My opus magnum: Four sessions teachings in one panorama!

Session 1: the speaker was Pastor Benny Ho. 

The overall theme was The Discipleship Journey.

Examining the four action words on the great commission,

 comparing and contrasting 

GO, MAKE, BAPTISE, TEACH, 

we find that there is only one IMPERATIVE: MAKE (disciples)

This should be our primary mission

HENCE the value of IDMC: Intentional Disciple Making Church.

MacD sells coffee

Starbucks sells coffee

(This is when I woke up and started paying attention to the teaching)

Both sell coffee but what is the difference?

One sells coffee as a byproduct

One is intentional : focused on selling coffee.

THUS this roadmap for the discipleship journey, that we all can respond to the Great Commission.

There are four steps

CONNECT 

EQUIP

MENTOR

RELEASE

The first step CONNECT  is finding a hand to hold:

Ps Benny told us of the true story of 

Ole Kirk Christiansen who was a Danish carpenter who 

lost all when his furniture factory was burned to the ground

He started afresh making wooden toys

That was  successful  for a while but also ended in disaster when that factory burned to the ground

He borrowed money to buy a plastic injection machine and made a simple toy of plastic bricks. Lego became a world wide phenomenon (now we would say "it went viral")

 Lego bricks connect to the brick above and connect to the brick below. 

As Christians we need to connect above to God and below to others (church)

Lego really took off after the Lego mat was introduced . 

On the met the different Lego constructed models have a relationship with one another 

Benefacio ; the Lego principle : connect connect connect 

Mark 12:13 Love God. Love neighbor

 God is a relational God.

Developing the theme of CONNECT

There are three major connections 

Connect to God

Connect to Church

Connect to Cause (Reconciliation)

Session 2

This session focused on equipping

The bible text was Eph 4:11-13

The Greek word on the text that is given In the text as "equip" is katartizo, 

which means put right, mended, repaired: 

even as a broken fishnet it repaired: 

it suggests making ready for service that which can not be used in its present state.

For equipping to happen there needs to be a convergence of three forces: 

Teaching ( head, knowledge)

Coaching (hands, skills)

Mentoring (heart, attitudes values)

The pathway to spiritual maturity needs you to play your part

RESPONSIBILITY

HUMILITY

PRIORITY

PROACTIVITY

Purpose of equipping is for 3Ms

Ministry: works of service 

Maturity: unity of faith, full knowledge of the Son of God

Maturity takes time

It takes time for an oak tree to grow

If you want results overnight yiu have to make do with mushrooms

Multiplication: big harvest of fruit in 29 years

There was a town where all the residents are ducks. Every Sunday the ducks waddle out of their houses and waddle down Main Street to their church. They waddle into the sanctuary and squat in their proper pews. The duck choir waddles in and takes its place, and then Rev Duck comes forward and opens the duck Bible. He reads to them from Ducksiah 61: “Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fences can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings, and you can fly like birds!” 

All the ducks shout, “Amen! Amen” 

Rev Duck pronounces the duckology

AND THEN THEY ALL WADDLE HOME. 

Nothing happens unless you put into practice what you hear and believe .

Session 3 Mentoring

The bible text was 2Thess 1:4-8

A situation was described in a nature reserve in Africa where Rhinos were being attacked by Elephants. This is a very unusual situation in normal nature. Review of the problem revealed that the root issue was that young elephants were airlifted to this nature rear be without adult elephants. Without adults to teach them and be their role models and mentors, the young elephants grew up with unusually aggressive behavior to rhinos

Moral of the story: we need mentors

Mentors help us bring forth our fullest potential.

It is like rubbing a gold brick and a lead brick together:

After some time the lead brick starts to look like a gold brick

Some of the good qualities start to adhere

Four key steps to the mentoring process

DISCERNMENT 

DEFINITION 

DEVELOPMENT 

DEPARTURE 

DISCERNMENT 

Come and see phase 

Take time to evaluate a potential new mentor/ mentee relationship

over three meetings you should be able to decide if the chemistry is right

DEFINITION 

Commitment phase

Work out the objectives and time frame

Mentee should be the one who actively persues

DEVELOPMENT 

Come and learn

This is the intense phase of growth

Mentor is a 

BRAIN to pick

SHOULDER to cry on

BOOT to kick your butt if you stray!

Jesus demonstrates the ratio of mentor/ mentee

He preached to the masses

sent forth the 72

Disciples the 12 apostles

Mentored the inner three

And loved the one most loved

LESS is MORE

More time with fewer people equates greater lasting impact for God

Quality of questions that you (as mentee) bring to the table determines the quality of mentor time.

The spectrum of Mentoring was described 

From Intensive to Occassional to Passive

Mentoring takes time

Frequency and intensity lead to bonding

Integrity needed not to allow such bonding to occur across the gender line

Men do not have intensive mentoring with women.

DEPARTURE 

Mentee departs to multiply

Session 4 

This is the fourth stage of the discipleship journey

Indeed the harvest is plentiful and we are called to GO

With total dependence on God

All the equipping,, all the development is of no use if we do not use it for a purpose .

Four steps to impact the needy

BLESS them

FELLOWSHIP with them

PRAY with them

SHARE gospel

BLESS them 

Shalom

Make peace with the lost

Speak peace over them

Push back the powers of darkness

Neutralize the demons

Introduce grace into their life 

Blessings overcome curses

FELLOWSHIP with them

stay, eat drink

As you fellowship you create safe environment

Zaccheus was  a needy person. 

Short of acceptance

Jesus met this felt need

Zaccheus experienced repentance restitution reconciliation salvation

PRAY with them

Pre-elievers are very open to prayer

Many Christians have preconceived fears " what if I pray and God does not answer?"

prebelievers do not demand that their prayers are answered

they are satisfied if yiu as a person close to God is willing tompraybfor them.

Suppose you as the office cleaner in the prime ministers office was willing to bring a petition letter to the prime minister for a person. If the prime minister responded positively would not that person be very grateful. Yet if the prime minister did not respond, the petitioner would not be angry with you.

So it is with prayer.

Do offerer prayer to those you meet.

SHARE gospel

we help to build bridges

We are equipped and released to make a difference in a broken world.

We can storm these 7 gates of influence

Arts & Entertainment

Buisness & Commerce

Church & Religion

Disadvantaged & Marginalised

Education & Schools

Family & Home

Government & Office

Rather than trying to drag the lost into the kingdom, we should bring the kingdom to the lost

Sermon illustration

Afro-American Christian switched to Islam after being disillusioned

He was marginalised and ostracized.

At one meeting someone took the trouble of crossing the room to meet him and talk to him 

Long story short: he was led back to Christ.

Will you find the grace to reach out to a lonely person?

 

The Journey

Pastor Raymond Fong lead the morning devotions today (Sunday 16 June) at our church camp.

The bible text was from Luke 24, the road to Emmaus .

Three pointers from the text

Gracious Presence (of Jesus)

Pivotal Experience (Emmaus vs Damascus)

Powerful Symbol (breaking of bread)

Gracious Presence (of Jesus)

Cleopas et al did not at first recognize Jesus, but looking back they recalled their "hearts burned within". This was Christ's gracious presence.

Driving thru the immense traffic jam, ps Raymond was physically basked by the sun and blessed with 4 hours of meaningful conversation with his gracious wife.

The prayer is that we will experience His gracious presence throughout the church camp .

Pivotal Experience (Emmaus vs Damascus)

Emmaus was a pivotal experience: a time of communal revelation

Contraiwise, also a pivotal point, Damascus was for Paul a personal experience.

The prayer is for those who are private will expand their communal experience,

And those that are communal will enhance their private experience.

Powerful Symbol (breaking of bread)

The sacrament of love an exposure of vulnerability

The prayer is that we extend this sharing with others

Sketch note : Poor & Mourning

This is sketchnote for Part 1 of mini-series on Beatitudes by  Rev Ivan Tan

Wesley Methodist Church Singapore

For Part 2 click here PART TWO

Bible Text Matt 5: 1-10

Date 9 June 2013

Beatitudes: Happy, Blessed "Huat Ah!"

Eight character traits 

Good News

Jesus says Repent for the Kingdom of God is near

Jesus wants us to recieve all these eight blessings

These enable us to be salt and light

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

What does it mean to be poor in spirit?

Literally poor

contrite heart

moral bankruptcy

wretched, poor, blind, naked

understanding their unhealthy love of the ways of the world.

When we are poor spirit we are Blessed with God's kindom

Living in God's rule

The kingdom of God is already in us!

Heaven is alraedy in our soul

Rivers of blessing will flow from our heart.

Blessed are they that mourn
Mourning:
A)  Bereavement
Loss of innocence
Loss of righteousness
Loss of self respect
Mourning related to our own sins
combined with Repentance and Forgiveness

B) Mourning over others sins
(Dont be too quick to judge)
Pray for those who fall
that God would bring them to repentance


....for they will be comforted
As Smeon waiting for the consolation of Israel
Intense
Responding to someone crying out for help

Jesus wants to console us

The Lord wants you to have
Life Transforming effect on the world
Be Salt & Light

Sketch note : sermon: simply bread

Sketchnote: Simply Bread

Pastor Raymond Fong

2nd June 2013

Wesley Metchodist Church

Singapore

The context of the "I am the bread of life teaching"

John 6: 35-36; 47-51

FIVE: Jesus had blessed 5 loaves 2 fish and fed 5000 men with women and children beside and there were 

12 baskets full of crumbs and remnants of food.

THREE different expectational responses from the crowd

1) Materialistic: only came for food

2) LegalIstic: what work must we do to earn God's favour?

3) Sensational: show us another miracle

They challenged Jesus to be better than Moses "who gave manna"

Jesus clarifies

It was not Moses who gave the manna but God

Furthermore God provides "true bread"

Now they were interested 

Poor people ate barley loaves

Richer people ate wheat loaves

Now they wanted this "true bread"

TWO promises

Jesus made two promises if you eat this "true bread"

1) Promise of satisfaction

2) Promise of resurrection: eternal life

ONE question

Will you believe?

FOUR part take home message

1) RECOGNISE your need for the bread of life: Jesus

2) COME to the bread of life

3) EAT of the bread of life

4) COMMIT to believe in God

GR-SIG meet 23-5-2013

Bebionic jar getting topped up

What a great joy it was for me to get to meet this Graphic Recorders, Singapore, Special Interest Group.

And to add icing on the cake, my Bebionic Jar was heavier after the meeting!

Show and tell: tools of the trade

We had decided a few days earlier that "show and tell" was to be the theme of the meeting: We would share the pros and cons of our favourite tools of the trade:

I do it like this.....

Marker pens in holder

Bento-box makes nice holder

Colour pencils

Graphic Recording of our meeting: NOT!

I will attempt to "unpack" this cryptic "meeting notes".

Firstly, the joy, messiness and fun was real. I believe that networking between practitioners on a human level just improves our quality of life.

Plus as far as GR is concerned
tips are shared
on-line purchases might be grouped
group support is provided as we make forays to Art Friend, Popular BS & Diaso!

Just trying out each other stuff was exhilerating
Like a kid in a candy store is a GR with blank paper before him/her and uncapped marker in hand.

Markers, Neuland, Big ones, Diaso; of various tints, brilliance, 

fading water based colours were thought to be less outstanding
pungent uneco-friendly markers were cost effective
Tri-color pencil, no wood pencils,
Three varieties of pastels,  thick stick oils, soft sticks, and pan
cosmetic sponges

Some hints
Learned from Aussi friends: when using a set of double ended markers (Copic?) use masking tape to tape a row of caps together and have all markers in same direction: so you dont have to guess "is it thick or thin?"when you pull one out to use;

Use of plastic tablecloth taped to wall prevents risk of marker ink bleed thru paper staining a wall.

When supported by a client, don't stinge on markers and colours, masking tape etc: nothing but the best!

When doing workshop on GR, take at least 2 days:
Day 1 focus on the drawing:
Big mental hurdle "I can't draw"


This question prompted heated response
"What do you use to wash marker stains off your hands?"
1 Hard work, wash many times
2 Wash once only and let remanant wear off
3. Leave "battle scars" on esp when meeting client: adds street creds

Post meeting was a discussion on carrier tube for our 1.2 metre paper
a ski bag with wheels was an option. Or a fencer's foil, sabre bag?

NEXT MEETING (not written in stone)
Agenda: "Icon sketching jam session" 

Venue: Kampong Kembangan Community Centre

Date: Tuesday 30 July 2013

Time: 3-5 pm

Sketch note : Abiding... 3 Branches...

Sketch note Sermon: Dr Foo Fung Fong: 

12 May 2013, Wesley Methodist Church Singapore

Staying Spiritually Aligned by Constantly Abiding in Christ

The text was John 15:1-6

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

Context:
this was Jesus last teaching to his disciples
He had just shared with them 4 shocking blows.
1) He had washed their feet: something no master would ordinarily do: task for the lowliest of slaves.
2) He had told them "one of you will betray me"
3) He had prophesied "one of you will deny me three times"
4) He had told them, "I am going to leave you: Where I am going you cannot follow  now"

Jesus uses a common agricultural metaphor that the disciples could well understand: that of the grape vine.

I am the vine; remain in me
You are the branches.
my Father is the gardener

 Of this portion of his teaching we can identify three branches
I) Positioned to Grow
II) Positioned to Bloom
III) Placed in his Presence


I) Positioned to Grow
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.
The key phrase is  "every branch in me"
Implicit is the fact that we need to be "In Christ"
Placed within him we are positioned to grow.

A viginette of the life of John Newton:
worldly slave trader prayed to God during a storm at sea and was saved, converted:
 Later wrote "Amazing grace"
Became a church pastor:
Helped William Wilberforce end slavery in Engand.

Beset by fading health in the last two years of his life, even then, Newton never ceased to be amazed by God's grace and told his friends:

My memory is nearly gone;
but I remember two things;
That I am a great sinner, and
that Christ is a great Saviour.

John Newton was embedded in Christ
He was positioned to grow.

Take home message 1
When you are "In Christ" you are positioned to grow.

II) Positioned to Bloom
Every branch attached to the vine will be pruned;
Dead, dying and diseased parts will be cut off.
Less is more:
Eg Joseph the dreamer and his multi-coloured coat
Pruned: Stripped, cast into prison.
             Works his way up to Potiphar's household
             Cast into prison V2.0 on account of Mrs Potiphar's false accusation.
             Interprets dreams for baker and cupbearer
             But cupbearer "forgot" about Joseph for a very long time
Pruning process removed pride: allowed Joseph to mature.






David, appointed and annointed to be king.
But Saul was murderously jealous.
David had to run for his life
This was pruning time for David

The timing of the pruning usually is in winter, during the barren season

Take home message 2
Are you in crisis?
Facing closed doors?
Is there pain in your life?
Are you experiencing a season of "winter"?
Going through a desert experience?

Take heart: this could be your pruning time
God has a special interst in you
He will bring you to a point where you can bear much fruit
 You are positioned to Bloom

III) Placed in his Presence
"ABIDE" in me.
The root word is μενω
3306 meno men'-o a primary verb; to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy):--abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry (for), X thine own.

It is given both as a command and as a relationship.

Mama Maggie Gobran of Cairo said,
"The hardest task of a leader is to get to know the Almighty and to keep your heart pure." One way to do that, she said, is through silence. There "you discover a taste of eternity." Her means:
"Silence your body to listen to words.
"Silence your tongue to listen to thoughts.
"Silence your thoughts to listen to your heart beating.
"Silence your heart to listen to your spirit.
"Silence your spirit to listen to His Spirit."

We need to continually be in God's presence.
Only when we abide in him can we bear fruit