Welcome to
Zion Bread of Life Christian Church

Sunday, 11^th February 2024

Rev Daniel Xi An Poon

Deuteronomy 11:10-12 says, “For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.”

God has prepared the land for us, it’s far more better than what we have ever imagined. It’s in God’s plan, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Yet we still live in the land of Egypt, we work hard, we labour, and we strive to produce fruits in our land. Slowly we may lose our ways in our busy lives, we may lose the purpose of why God first created us, but as children of God, He cares for us and He has so much blessings prepared for us.

Do we really know who God created us to be? He has already told us in the Bible, but we are easy to overlook the truth in the Bible. The world distracts us with many teaching and information, and we don’t realise that the Word of God already has everything we need in life! Our life is not a copy of someone else’s life, each individual one of us is special, each one of us has dreams, and they are different to other people’s dreams.

In God all things are possible, we don’t need to be afraid to dream, and we must not only focus on what’s in front of us, because our life is not a SOP, Christians are not just a group of religious people. We come together through the grace of God, and dream together with the guidance of Spirit of God. We need to presence of God, we need to believe that only when the presence of God is with us, we can go forward and our dreams will come true.

Pastor Joakim Iundqvist (Guest Speaker)

There are seeds in our lives, but if the rain doesn’t come, then the seeds will never grow. The Holy Spirit is like the rain, it may look like a death valley in our lives, but when the Holy Spirit comes, the rain will fall on our dry land, and lives will begin to grow. What is it that has gone dried in our lives? Maybe our marriage, maybe our relationship with people, maybe our relationship with God… there are seeds of change buried in our lives, and the rain of Holy Spirit is coming our way, it’s about to fall, and will turn our dry desert into a colourful garden.

In the Bible, there are so many stories about how God called people, who were living in dry land, but when they responded to God’s calling, their lives changed. Moses’ death valley was that he could not speak well, Jeremiah’s death valley was that he was very young, Mary’s death valley was that she was inexperienced… but God does not look at our death valley, He does not look at our desert, He looks at the seeds that He has already planted in us.

Genesis 17:4-5 says, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.” God did not see Abram’s childless life, He knew the seeds He planted in Abram’s life, to be the Father of all nations. God doesn’t lie, He looks at us, He doesn’t look at the sand of our desert, but He looks at the seeds.

Men see the outward appearance, but God sees the heart, because the heart is where the seeds are planted. Many godly people may look weird in the eyes of the world, but God calls them heroes, because God knows the seeds He put in their hearts. As a church, we are fighting against the spirit of the world, because what the world sees is different to what God sees.

If God is the One planting the seeds, if God is the One sending the rain, that what is it that we must do? It’s all about taking care of our hearts. It’s all about the Bible’s commandments, to care for our heart and to not let darkness come to our hearts. Keep our hearts a good ground for the seeds to grow. The word ‘heart’ is the second common word in the Bible, besides the Name of the Lord. Because God cares so much about our hearts.

1. God Needs a Humble Heart

James 4:6 says, “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” God needs our hearts to be humble. If there is pride in our hearts, then we will want to do everything by ourselves, but God says, not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of God, we can let the seeds to grow. God is working so hard to keep our hearts humble, to give us teaching and disciplines, so we can stay humble. Through the Word of God, God calls us to humbleness and to repentance. God also send other people to us and point out the area in our lives that is prideful, so we can stay humble. When we elevate our concerns about what other people may think, above what God wants us to do, then it is pride.

2. God Needs an Open Heart

Sometimes God’s dream for us is bigger than what our hearts can take, so we must open our hearts and make them bigger, otherwise God’s dreams will be shrink smaller. It’s like planting an acorn in a pot plant, it will never grow up to its potential size. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” God wants us to dream bigger dreams, allow Him to challenge us to see greater things in the future in our path. What seems like an impossible dream will come within reach, because God is real.