Kong Hee Podcast Kong Hee

Most of us wear our busyness like a badge of honour—the busier we are, the more we feel like an achiever. But being too busy causes anxiety and burnout; we have no time for our family and worse, we have no time for God. If we are seeking balance in our life, the answer is to slow down. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus tells believers He will give us rest, which is to slow down; He invites us to learn from Him.

Adapting from John Mark Comer’s teaching on “Slowing”, I'll be sharing five things we must learn from Jesus: to adopt slow-down spirituality, to faithfully observe the Sabbath rest, to practice silence and solitude, to make devotional prayers (not just intercession and petition) and to develop detachment, which is to be content in any situation.

If we can slow down and follow Jesus’ unhurried pace of life, we will be changed, we will find His yoke easy and His burden light.

One of the greatest challenges to our faith is when we go through suffering, yet our most urgent search for God happens when we are in pain.

This sermon will unpack the purpose of suffering, which is to transform us to be more like Jesus. Very few people in history suffered like Job: until the day he died, he never knew the reason he had to suffer, yet he loved God for who He was and not for His blessings. God’s purpose for us cannot be stopped (Job 42:1), and He has a purpose when we face hardship—He is working out something glorious in us. No matter how deep our pain is, God’s love for us goes even deeper. Jesus is with us daily in our suffering; nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

If you are going through a hard time in life, let this sermon encourage and empower you to hold on to your faith and trust in the Lord, having eternity in your heart.

The twelfth statement of the Apostles’ Creed is this: I believe in the life everlasting. Amen.

Eternal life or "zoe" in Greek is a promise from God to His people who believe and have faith in Him. While the apostle John says that whoever believes in Jesus has eternal life now (John 3:16; 1 John 5:11, 13), the Bible also clearly teaches that eternal life is a gift in the future. Those who believe in Jesus experience a little measure today but the fullness of it is reserved for the future, at the return of Christ.

This is the whole purpose of our Christian faith – not merely to be forgiven of our sins and becoming successful in the this lifetime. The end purpose of our salvation is to come into a loving communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sharing in the fullness of the divine life. This "zoe" is an ever-deepening intimacy with the LORD and the experiencing of ever-growing love, joy, and peace from now till all eternity. Hallelujah!

The eleventh statement of the Apostles’ Creed is this: I believe in the resurrection of the body.

The Bible teaches that our hope is not fixed on the fact that we go to heaven when we die, but that God will raise us from the dead to be with Christ forever in our resurrected bodies (Rom. 8:23). It is a bodily resurrection where we will be given new spiritual bodies which are immortal, just like Jesus’ own body on Easter Sunday!

With our new resurrected bodies in the new heaven and new earth, we will be able to fully express ourselves and completely obey and fulfil God’s will and purpose for all eternity. Being swallowed up by the life of the Holy Spirit, we are at last fully baptised in the Spirit and have Him without measure (2 Cor. 5:4). Wow!

Until then, may we regularly confess this statement in the Apostle's Creed with our eyes fixed on that glorious day!

The tenth statement of the Apostles’ Creed is this: I believe in the forgiveness of sins. 

The word “forgiveness” in the Greek is 𝙖𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙢𝙞 which means to let go of a debt, to release it, and send the wrong or sin far, far away. Forgiveness is an expression of love. Because of His great love for us, in Christ we can find forgiveness (Col. 1:14). In fact, this is what Easter is all about. By dying on the cross, Jesus cancels out sin’s penalty. All the evils we have done, the right things we have failed to do, and the horrible attitudes we have expressed to God and to others have been erased and wiped off the record!

Likewise, we must learn to keep no record of wrongs (1 Cor. 13:5). Jesus says we forgive as many times as necessary (Matt. 18:22). Because love and forgiveness are synonymous, to be a loving person is to live in a constant atmosphere and attitude of forgiveness. Every time we recite this statement in the Apostles’ Creed, let us renew our commitment to walk in a constant atmosphere of forgiveness!

The ninth statement of the Apostles’ Creed is this: I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints.

The word “catholic” comes from the Greek word katholikos, which means “universal”. The Christian church is universal because it doesn’t belong to any one nation but to all nations of the world. The church is not a building of brick and mortar, or a religious organisation, it comprises us – the believers of Jesus Christ. We share in the “communion of the saints”, a sacred bond of love and fellowship by the Holy Spirit, uniting all true believers in Christ in His body.