Sunday Message - Build the Holy Temple; Receive the Fire of Spirit 2

13/04/08
<Genesis 12:1-3; Exodus 3:1-12; Joshua 1:1-9; Acts 1:1-11, 2:37-47>

RECONSTRUCT “THE TRUE SYSTEM OF BELIEF”

• Blessed are those who can always see the Lord’s love
• There are a lot of successful people in this world. However, they are not blessed in God’s view
• <John 4> If you love me, you will follow my commands and I will reveal my love to you
• However, how many people in this era are willing to follow God’s commands?
• We must do a self-reflection. If our worships, serving and offerings have never been accepted by
God; how tragic is that?
• The greatest tragedy is when a person gives up everything, serves God with all his might and
strength but has never received the acceptance from God. This is what’s happening now. We
need to self-reflect
• Why did God tell everyone, through Prophet Isaiah, not to bring anymore offerings to Him?
Because He was tired. Not only so, God had detested them and found them bothersome
• Those false prophets did all kinds of things. However, they killed the real prophets when the latter
go to them. This is detestable to God
• In the end, the northern Israel was wiped out completely and Judah was made captive for 70
years. When they returned to their homeland, they tried their best to keep God’s command.
However, in the process they had added in a lot of other laws
• The result of doing so after several hundreds years is the emergence of Pharisees, teachers of
the Laws, Sadducees etc
• The usual phase used by the Chinese when they greet one another is usually, “Have you eaten?”
For the Jews, their greeting is, “Did you receive any convictions from God for me today?”
• People turn God’s teaching into religious teaching easily
• Many believers may say that if they were born back then, they will never do what the Jews did. If
they were born in the era of Jesus Christ, they will never disbelieve, like the Pharisees
• However, in God’s perspective, they never have God in their hearts. God is not in their spousal
relationship nor their work
• What is false belief? It is, men will do anything but fail to see how God is leading them daily. Men
do not know God’s desire or God’s direction from them
• <2 Timothy 3> Paul asked Timothy to be alert. People always learn but never understand and
this is what God hates
• In the end, those people are without love, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They love
all the things of this world. This is how believers behave today
• A lot of people know the Bible since young, just like Timothy. However, we need to understand the
true meaning of the Bible, which can be summarized as:
1) The Bible gives the wisdom of salvation (new identity, new life, new belonging, and new
ways);
2) The Bible makes one righteous. Sanctified because of loving God. Thus, receive freedom, joy
and healings
3) Allows one to serve God, save and edify people
• It is alright for us to be weak or complain sometimes. God will still be pleased with us as long as
we continue to walk with Him

Read <Genesis 12:1-3>

• In this passage, the word “you” appears the most number of times
• When God called Abraham, He had never asked Abraham to worship Him daily before He would
bless Abraham. When God called Abraham the first time, He already told Abraham that he would
be the source of all blessings. Indeed, Abraham was blessed and became God’s child
• God will curse those who curse you and bless those who bless you. Thus, we need not worry that
someone in the company will harm us
• God’s concern is us. Our children, family, company or school will be blessed because of us
• Abraham believed and God credited Abraham’s faith as righteous
• What is true belief? We aren’t blessed only after we have done good deeds
• Because by faith, we will leave our father, our people. Leave all the things that we had learnt
since young. We have no part with those things. We must leave everything to follow God’s
direction and guidance
• Because by faith, we will remove all our roots and follow God wholeheartedly. Our faith is not
about correction
• Our belief is all about denying ourselves completely. We deny because of faith

Read <Exodus 3:1-10>

• v5 Why was that place holy ground? Because, that was the place that Moses went very often.
The place where we are is holy.
• What does it mean by God’s calling? What is belief? It is not a change of religion
• As a person was called, his life was chosen to receive blessings
• Our life of belief [ 信 仰 生 活 ] is active and alive. It is not dead. Thus, the Israelites were never
stationary
• Our life of belief is not merely a change in the character or name whom we worship
• There are many different types of church models throughout church history. Some do not allow
members to do anything; some always need to have some feelings while praying. They want to
feel God with their emotions
• When God calls us, He wanted us to come out and go to the destination that He has determined
for us. We are dead without that destination
• When God chose and called Abraham, He wanted Abraham to be the source of all blessings so
that all nations could be blessed because of him

Read <Joshua 1:1-8>

• God didn’t just say that to Joshua. He said that to all the Israelites and us
• v2 We need to go. We need to move
• v4 What God wants to give us is unlimited and without boundary
• Our life of belief is always in battle. Joshua and the Israelites always went into battles as they
made their way to the Canaan Land. They had to keep moving
• Our life of belief is dead, if all we do is to go to work, attend church, involve in some ministries and
the cycle repeats
• Our spousal relationship, our work etc must be done together with God
• v6 We need to be strong and courageous because there will surely be attacks. We need to move
and fight the battle continuously
• Without tribulations, we will be dead in the wilderness
• v7 Laws are important, but it’s not those laws that talk about what we should do or shouldn’t do

• What are we emphasizing? There is a picture, a blueprint in the Old Testament. There is an
absolute purpose in us since birth
• Our lives are different. Abraham is different
• The Israelites had to cross the Red Sea and enter the wilderness. However, they couldn’t swim
across the Red Sea. They couldn’t defect the Canaan Land by their swords and knifes alone
• Who are we? What does God wants us to do? What is the blueprint from God?
• In the New Testament era, Jesus Christ became flesh from the Word. He died and resurrected.
He ascended into heaven and reigned on the heavenly throne. After which, the Holy Spirit came
and dwelled upon all the disciples. The disciples move after God has first moved
• Thereafter, Peter stood up to preach the message, as if he was drunk, and three thousand people
believed. All those who listened were moved. The same message continues to move lives from
Jerusalem, to USA, to England till now and has never stopped
• God detests people who brings offerings to the Holy Temple but has never seen Him before
• After God has given the blueprint to men, He makes them join, be held together and pray for an
era, in their fellowships of 70 or 80 years. This is how God’s work continues to move on

1. The Model of True System of Belief

• A true belief cannot stop at having knowledge and feeling towards God
• We must really understand how Christ lives in our lives and in our spousal relationship
• Behind us, are another group of people waiting for us
1) Directions that will distinguish “true beliefs”
(1) Does one follow the Lord currently?
(2) Does one love conversing with the Lord?
(3) Does one love the Lord and love men more and more?
• As we come before God, He is most pleased with us when we know His desire and how
He moves
• The Pharisees have excellent conducts. They would do everything. When they saw Christ
was eating with the disciples, they only observed that they didn’t wash their hands before
they eat. They are afraid of the sins and dirtiness of people. All these are religious living
• This is similar to Believers who confess their sins day and night. But what sort of sins are
they confessing everyday? Are the dirty things on the surface or are they internal? Most
of the time, the dirty things come from the inner being
• God has given the Saints, the purpose and direction for the heavenly kingdom. However,
this purpose isn’t in the Saints’ spousal relationships or when they teach their children. If
that’s the case, where should their confession or repentance start from or be carried out?
• Do we understand what nobility is? Though we claim that we are noble, our hearts may
think otherwise
• When God created us, our lives and purpose are already noble
• Before we restore the purpose for our creation, we couldn’t see how noble we are
regardless of what good deeds we do. The Lord will see us as not sanctified. Not lying
does not make us sanctified
• We must really know what God’s desires are. The congregation must move as one. Even
when we are weak, we must move together. We must still go to church when we had
fallen

2) Two most classical models shown in the Bible

(1) O.T.: Exodus from Egypt → Cross Red Sea → Build Tent of Meeting → Cross
wilderness → Conquer Canaan Land as inheritance
(2) N.T.: The covenant after Christ’s death and Resurrection, and before He ascended
to Heaven <Acts 1:1-11> → the unison prayer of 120 disciples <1:13-14> → Peter
received Holy Spirit and strength <Acts 2:1-4> → Testified for Christ <2:5-36> →
 acquired 3000 disciples <2:37-41> → the disciples gathered daily to learn, pray and
testify Christ <2:42-47> → till the end of the world <Acts 3:1-28:31>
• Someone said that churches are like just like washing machines. One just needs to
go to church for cleansing after sinning and continues to go out and sin again
• It is not wrong to say that churches are like washing machines. However, what are we
cleaning in the first place? We aren’t cleaning because we have done something
wrong. We should get cleansed because we have not understood God’s purpose
• We must get cleansed correctly. Wash away the place which has the real dirt
• What did God want the Israelites to restore when they were weak? God gave them a
picture, by asking them to remember how their forefathers had came out from Egypt,
crossed the Red Sea, built the Tent of Meeting, survived in the wilderness by holding
on to God’s provision and wisdom, till they got to the Canaan Land (Heaven). This is
the model, the blueprint for our belief
• We go to work on our own if we didn’t go with this purpose. People who do not have
this purpose, do not have God’s desire regardless of how much good works they’d
done. Such believers will be bullied when they want to be good people
• Who can bully us, or make us insufficient if we live with the purpose of the Lord?
• After we’d gotten this purpose, we will still able to see God’s help though there are
times that we are weak or didn’t do well in our work

3) From generations to generations, the goal of every belief-revival movement is to

restore the true system of beliefs that are represented by the two models
• When Pastor and his wife started dating, they had a plan and dream for themselves, e.g.
savings, getting married, having children etc
• And one day, Jesus Christ came into the picture. Pastor was “crazy” for the Lord. During
then, he tried his best to have his wife understand Jesus is the Christ. When pastor’s
wife’s eyes were opened finally, their topics of discussion changed to be on the church,
brothers and sisters etc
• After they had children, they walked about children-related stuff with a thanksgiving heart.
They knew that their children came from God and God’s grace is upon them. Their
spousal relationship has really changed
• Their will moves together with that of God’s. Our work, our process of teaching the
children must move likewise also. Otherwise, a person’s belief is either asleep or dead
• A lot of church’s elders and deacons would only share the testimonies of their salvation
(i.e. when they start hearing and believing in God) whenever someone asked them to
share something
• Does that mean they did not see God’s guidance in their daily lives after receiving their
salvation, such that they have nothing to share or testify? Didn’t God give them any new
grace? Do people only have the testimony of their salvation to share?

2. The most critical elements <Num 9:15-23; Acts 2:37-47>

• What are the most critical elements for a right belief? <Acts 2:37-47> has the clearest record
for a right belief
• When Peter shared to the 3,000 people, there are 4 things in his message: Repent, be
baptized, receive the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, God’s covenant
1) Must repent = Exodus from Egypt on the night of Passover
• A lot of people have a misunderstanding on repentance. Some people feel that they are
very terrible in the past. Thus, they will need to do a lot of good deeds now that they have
believed in the Lord. This type of people will go into legalism easily
• Another type of people will always be asking, why his/her family has so many problems?
The reason that they came out with is this: because they didn’t love God. This is the
reason that brings them to church. This is another false belief
 • The repentance that Peter mentioned is the same as what God told Moses, “you must
come out from Egypt” = God told Abraham, “You must leave”. These 3 things are the
same
• What we want to say is this; our lives are different from the people of this world. In fact,
the goals, methods, dreams, desires of a lot of believers are the same as people of this
world. This is the first thing that we must repent
• The things we acquire when we follow the Lord surpass all these. God wants us to repent
from our personal motives
• A lot of people say that our message doesn’t talk about behavior or action. This statement
is incorrect. Our message talks the most about holiness. What is true holiness? People
who walk with God are holy (sanctified). Will we be harming others, if we are living in
God’s presence and walking with Him?
• We can never overcome our own selfish desire if we want to change for others or just to
make our conscience feel good. We may be able to change our exterior behavior, but our
personal desire comes from within us (i.e. a monk’s life)
• Behaviors / actions that come from forcing a person not to do, not to see or not to hear is
not sanctification
• Sanctification means, Israelites turn from the world to God’s kingdom; turn from Pharaoh
to God; turn from the darkness of this world to the light
• Generally, believers in the churches are very foolish. We have probably heard the
message on repentance a few hundreds or thousands of times
• Our life’s goal and method do not follow God. We don’t pray or attend church’s fellowship.
When we teach our children, we teach them all kinds of things, but not the purpose of
God’s kingdom. However, we often repent for the wrongs we did yesterday. Is this true
repentance?
• Was the Lord emphasizing on the exterior or internal dirtiness when He spoke to the
Pharisees? They always talk about behaviors/ actions, but the Lord’s way has never
entered their hearts

2) Be baptized (in Jesus’ name) = Cross the Red Sea, receive the Ten Commandments/
decrees/ laws, and build the tabernacle in accordance to God’s instruction
• The person who always talked about repentance and baptism was John the Baptist.
However, the baptism he spoke of was the water baptism. Peter talked about baptizing in
the name of Jesus Christ. It means to baptize with the purpose and perspective (life,
values, priority, world views, financial, career) of Jesus Christ
• We may forget everything after getting baptized after about a week. The important thing is
to use the Lord’s perspective to build everything and format our whole life now
• Baptism is turning to God. It means formatting our life from now onwards
• We may have listened to a lot of messages, but we will still grumble or get worried as
soon as we come across some problems. We will start our calculations when we are
slightly in need financially. This is due to our incorrect perspective
• Some people had never formatted their lives before. They must watch the TV programs
every night before they go to bed. In fact, we must rest when we are tired
• We have yet to format our lives. Thus, our ideology has never been changed
• In fact, pastors don’t have to teach everything. They don’t have to teach a couple how
they must live their daily spousal relationship. There seems to be some pettiness among
couples. Who are we most petty towards? It is usually towards those whom we love most
• We cannot win the hearts of others when we are petty
 3) Receive the Holy Spirit = the pillars of cloud and fire comes upon the tabernacle after it
was built (restore Immanuel)
• The life of Jesus Christ has already come upon us. How can we rely on the Holy Spirit?
Do not extinguish the conviction of the Holy Spirit
• What does it mean by dwelling of the Holy Spirit? It doesn’t mean something has entered
us out of a sudden. We must understand and know the guidance of the Holy Spirit
• After a person has got the ideology and perspective of Jesus Christ, he will have a “know
how” from the Holy Spirit when he rely on the Holy Spirit
• The Holy Spirit makes us know how we should react. Our partners will be comforted,
receive joy and see God’s love when we react in accordance to the Holy Spirit
• Our perspective on all things will be different after we have formatted. Our reactions will
be different too
• E.g. What should we teach and what we shouldn’t teach our children? We must also rely
on the Holy Spirit when we teach our children. Do not nag at them all the times,
otherwise, they will find us such a bothersome person. We will know when to teach them
• The Pastor’s daughter cries the most among her peers. She is a little stubborn. The
pastor gives her a lot of freedom as he teaches her. The pastor loves her because God
has loved her. Pastor will give her authority to scold her younger brother
• Of course, pastor will also beat her when she goes overboard
• Parents might not be able to teach their children everything perfectly. Parents should also
not worry that their children couldn’t learn enough or they are not good in their learning. It
is sufficient for the parents to rely on the Holy Spirit to teach, love and disciple their
children because the Holy Spirit will work
• If our child has a compassionate and loving heart; isn’t that what we want our child to
learn? Some parents want to teach their children everything but have never let them
watched any drama series or have never brought them to fast food restaurant before.
When the children start going to school and make friends, they will feel that they are
aliens among their friends. They will be very unhappy when that happens
• When we teach by relying and being submissive to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will give
them the best result

4) The disciples gathered, learned, prayed, testified for the Lord daily = live a tabernacle,
congregation, serving centered life; in order to save every tribes/ family units/ people’s
inheritance (Canaan Land)/ cross the wilderness, wars, conquer
• The disciples gathered daily after restoring God’s covenant. The end result of Holy Spirit’s
work is to make the people gather. As they gathered and testified, more answers will
come. With that, the Gospel will be preached till the ends of the world
• How can we not come to church or stop attending church’s meeting if we really wish to
see changes in our family members?
• Do we love our parents, and our siblings? If we do, the more we should gather. As we
gather, we will receive indirect experiences to bless the people around us
• Do we want to change people? We cannot do that with our own ferventness or eagerness
• People will come to us naturally and get changed when we have answers in our lives
• We need not afraid that people will not come to us if we always have joy, assurance and
answers
• People will stay far away from us if we are always worried and nervous

3. Evidences will surely come

1) God will surely prepare “painful trials” to fortify the system of belief <1Peter 4:12; 1Cor
4:10-15>
(1) Those who dwell in the false system of belief will not overcome the “painful trials”
 (2) Disciples with true system of belief will not only triumph over “painful trials”; they
can turn tribulations into “strength” to receive “doors to testify” “more fruits and
“more rewards”
• We will definitely have evidences when we restore the four gospelization mentioned
above. However, how can we get hold of those evidences? We must receive through the
painful trial (test of the fire) <1 Peter 4:12>
• After the Israelites came out from Egypt, they must face the Red Sea immediately. As
they traveled in the wilderness, they needed to find water. They found water but it was
bitter. It was only after they heard the Lord’s command and threw the wood into the water,
that the water became sweet. In other words, bitter water would turn to sweet water only
after we have listened and obeyed God’s direction
• The wood symbolized the Cross. Only things that went through the Cross would be sweet
• The people wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb when they told the people that they had to
fight a battle in order to conquer the Canaan Land. They’d been through trials also
• All the Apostles had gone through trials. They were all martyrs for the Lord
• Why must we go through trials? In order to tear down the false beliefs. All of us also have
some form of false beliefs in us that we didn’t realize
• It is for our benefits that God allows us to go through the painful trials, so that the false
things in us can be burnt away
• Some people may fall as they go through the trials. God’s love is still upon them if God
wills
• We only see them departing from us temporarily, but God sees their entire lives
• God has His reasons. God is love. God wants to distinguish people

2) Go through “painful trials” to receive more “answers and testimonies”, and a more
complete system of belief <Heb 5:12; 1Cor 3:1-2; Phi 4:12-13>
• Why must we go through trials? Because, God has a greater mission for us
• After we are tested, we must see if we receive more important prayer topics and more
answers to bless people
• God will not let us be tested casually
• Sometimes, we may face persecutions from our family too. When we go to work, we will
see how people in the company are always talking about physical benefits or material
things. It is difficult to triumph over such temptations / desires
• We may sometimes be able to triumph by endurance. However, we will definitely not able
to be more than conquerors when we do that
• Paul didn’t reveal his Roman citizenship when he was beaten and jailed because he was
one who had been through trials. He used that opportunity to save people
• There was a throne in Paul. After asking the Lord three times, he knew that God’s grace
surpassed his physical weaknesses
• A healthy person will receive more edification when a sick person has joy and assurance
• Starting from now, we shouldn’t focus on getting our problems resolved. Whenever we
face any problems, view them as trials that allow us to receive more absolute answers
• Our “Ten Healing messages” were written after experiencing trials
• People who had been through trials will be munificent towards God. They will not be
always asking, “Should I go to church today?” or “should I offer $10 or $20?”

3) In the process of gathering and praying for each other, the disciples had acquired
more testimonies and channels of evangelism. They also received the inheritance that
God had prepared for an era, together
 • We shouldn’t grumble anymore and claim that we have too much tribulation. Only the
living would be tested. Only the live plants would be attacked by insects. No matter how
beautiful an artificial flower is, it will remain the same forever
• People who behave like the Pharisees, who are always fervent, nice to people, will not
have much problems. Satan will only challenge people who are alive and on the move
• God told us that the trials we face will not be greater than what we can bear. Trials will
make us fulfill greater things
Sharing and Prayer Topics
1. The Bible has shown us the classic models on true system of belief with the examples of
Israel and the first generation churches. Is my current walk with God done in line with this
true system of belief? Is it towards eternity? Relying on the power from above? Join and
held together with the congregation, pray in unison for the fulfillment of 4 Gospelization?
Co-work and move forward as one? What are the evidences we’d received so far?
2. The most fundamental criteria are “repentance, baptism, receive the Holy Spirit, gather
with disciples”: Is my system of belief built upon this 4 foundations? Use the essences of
the “4 fundamental criteria” to examine my life, system of living in order to have more
strengthened and practical system
3. Evidences will come: Have my faith passed the “painful trials”? Has it passed the test?
Ponder: what are the benefits that come as a result for passing the test?