Blessed day today! And I'm so glad that all of us are present here. Will you say “hi” to those who are watching us in the Internet, in YouTube and all our satellites? Today they are all tuned in, and I praise God that we have this amazing privilege of worshiping God together. Now we will continue our series on the book of Colossians. Quick review: The book of Colossians has two parts. Part number one, it's called Right Believing. You have to believe the truth so that it would impact your behavior. Right Living. If you missed out, you can download our messages. Feel free to review. So, chapter one and two talks about who Christ is, what He did for us. It's important you know who Christ is, and what He did for us. And then today, we will continue our series on what Christ will do in and through us, it's called The Practice of the Believer. How should you behave? How should you act? So, everybody, our topic today is, Live Out God's Best for Your Life, part 2. Turn to your neighbor, tell your neighbor. Live Out God's Best. Many people don't realize, God wants you to experience His best plan for your life. God is smarter than you. He knows much more about you, and He knows what will make you bloom to your fullest. So, tell your neighbor God wants what's best for you. So last Sunday, we talked about three important principles when it comes to living out God's best. Do you recall what are the three principles, remember? Point your finger up. Remember? Think upward, ok. Think upward. Set your mind on things above. When you think properly— everybody point up, point to your head. Make sure you think properly, okay? When you think properly, it will impact your emotion, your heart. It will impact your actions. So these are the actions: Knowing who God is, realizing what He has done for you. The Bible says you now know your true identity. Put off the old life. Put on the new life. I call this the 200% Christian. What do you mean by 200% Christian? Christianity is not 50/50. It is hundred percent of God— by His grace, God chose you. By His grace, God forgive you. By His grace, He paid for all of your sins. Hundred percent God's part. What is the other hundred percent? Your part. The Bible tells us you have to do your part. The Apostle Paul says, “I discipline my body.” So you have to do your part. Your part is 100%. God's part is how many percent? 100 percent. God gives you the power to do 100%. So today, let's talk about the outline. What's the outline today? Well, today you will learn life is about choices. You must choose God's word to govern your life. You must choose God's ways, not your ways. Remember, you want to do God's will, but you have to do it His way, His time. And then you must choose God's weapon. What is God's weapon? You will find out. All right, let's begin. Tell your neighbor, choose God's Word. All right. Colossians chapter three, verse 16. Everybody, let's read together. “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” I want you to notice something. This is a command. This is not a suggestion. “Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you.” Grammatically, it means you must keep on allowing God's word to richly overflow in your life. The word “dwell” this word, dwell— “Let the Word of Christ richly dwell” has the idea of, make the Word of Christ central in your life. Your life. The word “dwell” means home. Is God's word at home in your life? Think about it. Is God's word central in your life? Think about it. He's not peripheral. You don't have God's Word only on Sunday. It's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. That is the meaning of this verse. “Let the Word of Christ,”— the Word of God “richly dwell within you.” Make it central. “With all wisdom.” The Word of God will give you wisdom. The Word of God can be used to teach others. “Teaching and admonishing.” Teaching. It will tell you what's right and wrong. Admonishing. It will warn you what you are doing is right or wrong. So, you must use the Word of God as a guide. Ladies and gentlemen, life is about choices. Let me ask you, what governs your life? How do you make decisions? Let's give some examples of important decisions. Who should you marry? What kind of work? Are those important decisions? All right. You will be surprised. The word of God will guide you eventually whom to marry. How many of you are singles? Raise your hands. The singles. Higher, higher. Singles. All right. Singles, would you like to know whom God wants you to marry? If ever He wants you to marry? Yes or no? Now, how do you know? I'm going to tell you something. The Word of God will guide you. What kind of job should you have? Believe it or not, the Word of God will guide you. But you will not know how the Word of God will guide you if you are not filled with the Word of God. You will not discern. You are not able to tell because you are a stranger to the will of God. So this is so crucial for you. Do you want God's best. Yes or no? Well, let the word of Christ be central in your life. Use it to teach, use it to admonish. And then the byproduct of being centered in the Word of Christ— What will be the byproduct? My goodness. You will now be able to use psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. Do you know, in the early days of Christian music, music is used to help people memorize verses? Music will trigger your memory. It will help you remember the word of God. So there are many hymns that are teaching hymns. Today I praise God for music, but you be careful with the wordings of today's music. Sometimes it's all about feeling good, but it is not Biblical. So in the early days, they use music to teach the word of God. So psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. This is about God's word. “Singing with thankfulness in your hearts.” By the way, this is a command, okay? You are to be thankful. Now, what are the parallel verses of Colossians chapter three, when it comes to “let the word of Christ really dwell within you”? One of my favorite verses is found in Joshua chapter one. Let us read this together. Joshua chapter one. “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, you shall meditate on it day and night.” That's the meaning. “Let the Word of God dwell with you.” What must you do? You meditate— “Meditate, day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” So the purpose of studying the Word of God is for you to master it, meditate on it, let it dwell in your heart, in your life. For what purpose? “So that—” everybody read, “so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written.” Now, what is the incentive? What is the motivation to let the Word of Christ be central in your life? Here is the motivation, everybody read. “For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” You see, many people don't understand the heart of God. God wants to bless you. Now, His blessing may not always be material, but one thing is sure, at the end of your life you will never regret. I have friends, I have all kinds of friends. Some are very rich. Some are super, super rich. But I noticed something, riches do not make you happy. Riches do not equal a happy family life. But what is very sure is this, if you make the word of Christ central, the result will be joy, fulfillment. Because God knows what is best. For example, how do I know what to do? Well, look at Psalm 19 verse 9 and 11. Let's read that together. “How can a young man keep his way pure?” Well, the truth is, I'm not perfect. I've made mistakes. But when I make a mistake, I know it is wrong because the word of God will tell me “you are wrong.” “By keeping it according to Your word.” Everybody read this, “Your word I treasure in my heart that I may not sin against You.” You know, when I went to China, I was shocked at many of the believers. They memorized the Bible. And I asked, “Why do you memorize the Bible?” This was years ago, I went to China in the 1980s, and I said, “what happened?” He said, “They don't allow us to have Bibles, so we memorize it, and then we have one page. I memorize this, I pass it on to you. You memorize it, then you pass it to your friends.” So when they worship together, they memorized the word of God. When they were put in jail, they memorized the Word of God. They had the Word of God to make them strong. I don't know about you. The problem with us, we have many Bibles. Some of you have so many versions. You have all kinds of versions. But the problem is the Bible is sitting on the table, on your bookshelf. I suggest you learn to open the Bible. How many of you have read the entire Bible at least once? Raise your hands. Higher. Higher. You know, every year we are getting better. Every year you have more hands raised up. Last year, somebody took my challenge. I said, this is a challenge for new believers. You memorize the Bible and I will give you a gift. What did you say, honey? I know. I didn't say memorize. Did I say memorize? Will you forgive me? I said, read the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, at least once in one year. Old Christians are not included. Some of you are too old to be included already. You have been a Christian for many years. You keep listening, but you don't really read. you don't study it. No. For young believers, if this is your first time to come to CCF. You enroll. You say, “I will participate in the challenge.” What's the challenge? Read the entire Bible. How will I know if you have read the entire Bible? How would I know? It's called honor system. I believe you. If you lie, you are lying to God. And the gift I give you will become a curse. So please memorize the Bible, now— What did I say? Read. However— No, no, no, let me tell you why the word memorize is repeated in my mouth, because if you want God's word, look— How do you treasure? Treasure in my heart. How do you treasure it? You’ve got to memorize. “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.” Yeah. Thank you. Clap some more, clap some more, okay? Hey, guys. I want you to memorize scriptures. You need to memorize scripture. Now, I don't expect you to memorize genealogy. Okay. Adam begat Ben... Beget, beget, beget. No, no. I don't expect you to memorize those, but I expect you to memorize important, relevant verses. Yes or no? Okay. For example, you will learn today what verses to memorize. Okay. Are you ready? All right. What's point number one? Choose God's Word. Now you'll be amazed, God's word and the Holy Spirit have the same impact. What's my point? Look at this chart in Colossians chapter three, verse 16 down, it talks about “Let the Word of Christ dwell within you.” In Ephesians chapter 5:18 to 20, you have parallel instructions and the effect is the same. Here, “Let the Word of Christ dwell within you.” It’s a command, present tense. Keep on, keep on. Don't get discouraged. Here, “be filled with the Spirit.” It's a command, day by day, moment by moment, allow the Holy Spirit to control you. Here, let the word of Christ control you. And then look at the impact. “Admonishing one another, with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs.” Ephesians— “speaking to one another, with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, making melody with your heart to the Lord.” Next, “singing with thankfulness in your hearts.” The word of Christ will make you joyful. The spirit of God— “always giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” What I'm trying to say, is you have the parallel impact, the word of God and the Spirit of God. You need both, the word of God, you use it as a guide. The Holy Spirit, you need the Holy Spirit who gives you power. Notice the impact. Next chart, the impact of Colossians chapter three— Now, ladies it talks about your role, be subject to your husband. Husbands, love your wives. Children, obey your parents. Fathers, don't exasperate them. Slaves, work hard. Masters, be reasonable. Ephesians chapter five, exactly the same thing. Wives, be subject to your husband. Husbands, love your wife. I'm going to explain this in a short while. Do you know this is all the same? Let me tell you why. The Bible is so practical. The word of Christ will impact the most important thing in your life. It's called relationships. The test of spirituality is not knowledge. The test of spiritual maturity is not how busy you are. The test of spirituality is not how often you go to church. The test of spirituality is not your title. The test of spirituality is Christlikeness. How you impact relationships. Let me repeat, the test of your spirituality is in intimate, committed relationships. What do I mean? I can be nice to strangers, but God is saying, the test is your family. If Christianity does not work at home, how in the world are you going to export Christianity? If there's no love in your family, no forgiveness, what are we talking about? So, Colossians chapter three. Choose God's Word and the way you apply it, apply it first in committed relationships. What are committed relationships? Families. Employer-Employee. Co-workers. These are committed relationships. With which you bump into them daily. So, let's go to point number two. What's point number two? Choose God's way. Now, between God's word and God's way, I have a testimony that I want to share with you. We have a member, she's an amazing lady, she will share with you how God transformed her life when she chose God's way, God's word. Let's welcome Eunice. Growing up in a disrupted household where my parents separated at a young age, impacted my view of God's design and my identity as a young woman. Studying in an all-girls school further exacerbated the confusion I had with my gender, and in high school, I entered into a two-year relationship with the same gender. By college, drinking, partying and smoking had become a norm. But it was also during this time I started asking what the purpose of my life was. A cousin then invited me to attend a Christian church near our place, where I would eventually start being discipled and even started serving as a small group leader in the youth ministry. I thought everything was going well, until the same struggle and sin were exposed in my life. To make matters worse, Christian friends who I thought would walk with me through it, left. This was, for me, the real turning point of my life. When I started to seek God wholeheartedly because I was tired and I knew I needed His help to break free from immorality. It was also during this time I started watching CCF’s Sunday worship services online, which eventually led me to worship on site. In CCF, I recommitted my life to Christ, enjoying Dgroups, the True Life retreat and the Glorious Hope program. As I grew in the faith, I was able to trace back the root cause of my struggles to unresolved childhood traumas, but also understood that I was accountable for the sins I committed and that I couldn't blame my parents’ separation or others for it. I then attended— I then started attending WoW Thursdays at the center where I met my table facilitator and now D12 leader. By God's amazing grace, His love, the love of His church, and through the example of strong marriages I see in CCF, Jesus started to work in my heart and life. He started to restore my identity as a woman and help me live my life in a brand new way. Slowly but surely, He put to death the old appetites and brought in a new desire to grow in love towards Him and reach others for Christ so they too can learn about and experience the extraordinary love God has for them. By God's grace, God has given me the opportunity to serve in the Women to Women ministry, and the privilege to reach out to people around me for the Lord. I have witnessed how God's love and His word, continue to transform lives. During the pandemic, we started a Dgroup with one member. Now, we have around five active members and two are leading their Dgroups. Through prayer, my mom and sister both encountered the Lord and joined Dgroups in CCF. I also praise God for a co-worker who embraced the Gospel after five years of prayer. She's now part of a CCF Calamba Dgroup. It's been more than a decade since Jesus set me free from my gender identity issues and more than a decade since He first brought me to be part of CCF as my spiritual family. Over the years, Jesus showed me a glimpse and a picture of the kind of life I can live with Him in it. And it's a promise He continues to help me step into as He comes to have first place in everything in my life. For we are God's masterpiece, He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. To Jesus, our God be all the glory, honor and praise! Praise God. Eunice, stay there. We will pray for you. I've asked Emily. Emily is the discipler of Eunice. Wilma. What did I say? You know, I woke up in the wrong side of the bed this morning, okay? So Wilma and Eunice, are the names correct? All right. Come. Come closer. I want to encourage everybody here. In CCF, we love all kinds of people. In fact, I like to believe we have probably one of the greatest numbers of LGBTQ+ people attending. Why do they attend? Because they are loved. Why do they attend? Because they know we teach the Bible unapologetically. And why do they come? Because their lives are transformed. You can love somebody without affirming their gender. We, you and I, must love all kinds of people. Remember, the sin of the world is not just homosexuality, lesbianism. It’s adultery, it's lying, it's cheating, all of these are sins. Do we love sinners? Louder. So tell your neighbor, “I love you.” That's right. We love sinners because I'm a sinner, you're a sinner. Do we forgive people? Yes. But we don't encourage or affirm what sinners are doing. We love sinners, but we don't affirm or encourage what they are doing. There's a big difference. So when your lives— when our lives are governed by the word of God, I choose God's word to tell me what's right and wrong. And that's what happened to our sister here. She had this relationship in high school, and by the grace of God, God broke free. Amen? So, ladies and gentlemen, don't feel estranged if you have these kind of problems. We are here to help you. Any time you are enslaved to any kind of sin, we’d like you to know you have Dgroup leaders and pastors who will be happy to help you. Amen? So let's all raise our right hand or left hand, it doesn't matter. Just pray. Lord, I thank You for Eunice. Thank You for reaching out to her at a young age and helping her break free from a lifestyle of sin. And thank You for making her humble to realize You want what's best for her life. And I thank You for our sister Wilma, for her patience, her love and her graciousness and generosity to help others. I now pray for these ladies, that You will expand their borders, use them mightily in the years to come. And thank You for using Emily to influence her entire family. I now commit to You the rest of our members, that we will learn to trust You and follow You and thank You for Your goodness. In Jesus’ name, we all pray, Amen and amen. God bless. Praise God. My friends, the Bible is very, very emphatic when it comes to choosing God's way. You know why? Here's the warning in Proverbs— everybody, I want you to wake up and read this verse. Everybody read this. “There is a way which seems right—” to a person, “to a man, but its end is the way of death.” You see, many of you are choosing. You are going on a direction in your life. Whether you like it or not, you are on a direction in your life. Whether you are walking nearer to God, following His ways, or you are living a life based on your own choices, based on your own experiences, listening to people, listening to famous people, or whatever. But you are making choices every day. Let me tell you something. You are free to choose, but you are never free to escape the consequences. You want to be angry at God? That's your choice. You want to turn away from God? That's your choice. But you are going to have consequences. So when we say choose God's way, our sharer Eunice, decided to choose God's way. You see, God designed you and me. He knows what's best for you. Do you remember this saying? Yes, you can choose your way, it’s like a fish. The myth of freedom. A fish is designed by God to be in the water. Yes or no? Louder. Yes. But if the fish is going to be stubborn, “I don't want restriction. I don't want to be confined to the water. I want to go to the land.” Can the fish go to the land? Yes or no? Yes. But what will happen? It will die. A bird is free to fly in the sky. It's designed to fly. But if a bird decided. “I don't want just to be limited in the sky, I want to go under the water. I want freedom.” All right. The bird can go into the water. What will happen to the bird? It will be eaten by fish. My friend, it will die. Somebody once shared this, water without fish, is still water. Fish without water will die. God, without you, is still God. But man without God will die. Birds without the sky— If the birds want to be under the water, it will die. But the sky will still be there. God will still be there. With or without you. But you will not survive without God. The myth of freedom. Now, what is God's way? Well, God is saying you be careful. Don't be so proud to think your ways are the best. It takes humility to listen to the word of God. Let's read, the ways of God. How are we to interact? I call this where the rubber meets the road. Christianity is tested in the home life. All right. Let's look at Colossians chapter three. The foundation for all your actions. “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” What this verse is saying is simply this, whatever you do, privately, publicly, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. It means you are representing Jesus. Whatever you do, you make sure Jesus is happy with what you are doing. Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are conscious that Jesus is approving your action. You are conscious that this would bring glory to Jesus. Are we clear? Now, if that is your motto in life, it will protect you. “Should I stay in this company or should I quit? Should I stay in this degree or should I quit? Should I stay in this church or should I quit?” Whatever is your decision, ask yourself, “Will this bring glory to God?” It will help you. Think about it. Now, how do you bring glory to God? How do you do everything in the name of Jesus? The Bible gives us practical applications. All right. So, let's read the next verse. Colossians three, 18-19. Wives— May I ask all the wives to stand up? All the wives? Only wives. If you are not married, sit down. Only wives. Remember, this chapter will impact everybody. Sooner or later, you too will stand up. But right now I am referring to wives. Later on, I'll talk about children. I’ll talk about teenagers. I’ll talk about singles. Whatever it is, ladies I'm sorry, it is your turn. So, ladies, will you please read aloud? Ready? Go. Now, ladies, whether you like it or not, this is not a suggestion. This is a command. Not from me. From the Lord. Gentlemen, this command is not for you to impose. So, gentlemen, it's not for you. It's only for wives. Wives, be subject— In other words, submit/ Present tense. Not submit when you feel like it. Not obey when you feel like it. Submit. How often? Present tense. All the time. Ladies, talk to the other ladies. Submit all the time. But it does not mean when your husband asks you to go against— to do something against the Bible, that's not what it is saying. It does not mean you don't appeal. It does not mean you say, “Honey, regarding your command, I have an idea. What do you think?” It's okay to appeal. But then when your husband says “Thank you for your appeal, the Supreme Court has decided.” So, ladies, what must you do? Say? “Thank you!” Don’t say, “Thank you, honey.” (Angrily) No, no, no. So the best way to share this with you, I asked my wife to come. Thank you, ladies. Sit down. Now, my wife will come and share with you how to apply this verse. All right. While my wife is coming, I want you ladies to read 1 Peter. Ladies, please read. 1 Peter, chapter three, as my wife is coming, all right? Now, ladies, stand up again. Sorry, wives. Wives again. Wives. I'm sorry. I need you to exercise with me. Okay? Wives ready? Go. Wives, read. Ladies, ladies, you have to read this with feeling. You have to read it together. Okay? Suddenly you don't like to read. No, no, no. You learn to read. Honey, can you read with them, please? Okay, ladies, let's read this with enthusiasm. “In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.” That's hard ladies, without a word. Right? Okay, so I have to say that I've not always been perfect in submission. You know, we women, if you can if you can relate to what I'm saying, don't we think faster than men? Yes, we do. Right? There's a problem. We think we already have a solution, and the man is still pondering the problem. So, we start running ahead. And because of that, we think we think better. But actually, God has made our husbands to be our leader. And ladies, we should be his first enthusiastic follower. And when we do that, we model that to our children. But there was a time when I had sties in my eyes, you know what sties are? They're like bombs. And they get— they would hurt, they’d get itchy. And I had some operations. And when Peter saw me, he said, “Honey, the solution is very simple. All you have to do is wash your eyes out with soap and water every night and you'll be okay.” And I thought, that is a crazy Asian idea, and I didn't listen. And so I still struggled with sties. So finally, I went to a doctor and I had my eye scraped, my eyelids, and they brought it to the lab. And I was so excited to hear his solution. So I went to the doctor and I said, “So doctor, what? What's going on?” He says, “Well, Deonna, you have something in your eyes that you don't have immunity to, and that's why it's breaking out. So you can take these drops.” And he gave me the name of the drops. He said, “But the solution is really very simple. All you do is close your eyes at night and wash it out with soap and water and you'll be fine.” I was appalled. I thought, oh no, how can I tell my husband? He's right! But ladies, you know, God uses submission. It's his design and it's perfect because God is perfect. And when we are submitted to God, we have the blessings of God. I'll tell you another story. We submit first to God, right? And then we submit to our husbands as onto the Lord. Even if you're angry at your husband, you don't feel like submitting, he's not appreciative. Remember, “Jesus, I'm doing this for You. You deal with him.” Okay? So. Okay, so I have a friend. We just came from Brazil and she's an amazing, awesome woman of God. She's a pastor's wife, and they had an amazing ministry in a smaller city in Brazil. They had about 40,000 in their church, which is a big congregation. But one day, her husband came to her and said, “Honey, God has spoken to me, and He's told me to leave the church here and move to Sao Paulo and start a church there.” She was appalled because she was, she told her husband, “But honey, you know, it's so nice here to raise our children. We have this church—” and she was resisting. And the husband looked at her and said, “Remember my mother? She came from the U.S. as a missionary. She was very rich. One day my father told her, ‘Honey, God's telling me to leave the U.S. and go to Brazil to be a missionary.’ What if my mother had not followed my father's plan and God's plan? What would have happened to the mission and the vision for Brazil, where there's so many churches now?” And she thought, “Oh yeah.” So, I will teach you something when you submit— Submission is interesting because “sub” means “to come under voluntarily” the leadership of your husband in obedience to God, but Then you can accomplish God's mission for your life's submission. So you know what she did? She said, “Okay Lord, I'm scared, but I will trust You. I will follow my husband, I will submit to him and I'm going to do it with a happy heart.” And so she decided, they moved to Sao Paolo. You know what? By her model of following her husband and embracing the vision, 300 people followed them also to Sao Paolo to start the church that we were in. It's amazing. Thousands of people worshiping the Lord because she submitted to the decision of her husband as her leader. So when we submit, come under the authority, we will see God's mission accomplished in our life. God bless you. Thank you, baby. Sit down, ladies. Ladies. This has nothing to do with superiority or inferiority. The Bible is very clear. Galatians Chapter three. Let's read this together now, ladies and gentlemen, together now. Everybody, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there's neither male nor female;” We're all one in Christ. So submission is not a question of superiority or inferiority. It is God's order. It is God's way of any organization. In any company, you cannot have two bosses. You need one leader. So, submission is following God's design. Now, gentlemen, before you get so excited, I want you to stand up, gentlemen. Because you have a big responsibility. Gentlemen, stand up. Those of you who are husbands, husbands, only husbands. Colossians 3:19. All right, husbands, please read. “Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.” Against them. Now notice, in the time of Jesus, in the time of the Apostle Paul, the culture of that day is simply this: Women are not equal. Women are not even second class. They're probably third class citizens. In fact, even the Jewish culture does not treat women with respect, as equal. You know why? These are the prayer of the Jewish people, they pray three times a day. Do you know what is their prayer? Something like this. “Lord, I thank You that I am not a Gentile, I am not a slave, and I am not a woman.” That is their prayer. So women are not really valued. And here comes Jesus, here comes these amazing teachings, telling the men you are not to use your wife as an instrument or a tool, but you are to love her. So gentlemen, what is the meaning of the word love? One more time, gentlemen. Love your wife. Say that. Love your wife. Notice, that is a command, and that word love used in the New Testament when it comes to your wife, has nothing to do with the word— you see in the Bible, the Greek language is very precise. Example, the word for love in Tagalog, what is that? What is it? What is the word for love? Mahal, pag-ibig. English, what’s the word for love? Love. Any other word for love? Love. So it's confusing when you say, “I love you, honey” and you say “I love ice cream” You want to eat me? You see? But the Greek language is precise. It's not Eros, erotic love. It's not Phileo, conditional love. It’s not Storgé. Storgé is family love. It is Agape. What is Agape? Agape is unconditional love. What is Agape? Sacrificial love? What is Agape? Giving, not taking. So gentlemen, the Bible tells us in Ephesians, the model of love, in chapter five. Gentlemen, read this, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church.” The standard is Christ. How did He love the church? “—and gave Himself up for her.” You must love your wife to such an extent that you're willing to die for her. Wives, would you be happy if your husband loves you so much that he would die for you? Ladies? Only a few are happy. I think the rest you don't want your husband to die. My friend, gentlemen, look at Colossians chapter 3. Love your wives. Colossians chapter 3, Love your wives. For me, the challenge is this: I can love somebody for one minute, for one day, for one week. This verse says, you love your wife, not just one day, not just one week, not just one year, not just two years. For the rest of her life, you love her. Be willing to sacrifice. Choose what's best for her, not what's best for you. That is the meaning of true love. And that's what we are asked to do. And then, “don't be embittered—” Don't be irritated. You know, maybe two weeks ago, we had a dinner with some friends, and I got irritated with my wife, because my wife put some food on my table, on my plate. What she does not like, she puts on my plate. So I told her, I said, “Honey, how many times have I told you don't ever do that?” I got irritated. I think my other friends probably saw my irritation, but to me, that's it. I did not know. When my wife reminded me of what I did to her— Honey, will you forgive me? Have you forgiven me? So I asked for forgiveness from my wife. But you see what I'm saying? Don't be irritated, don’t be embittered. Because sometimes, gentlemen, I understand you. Sometimes our wives act in ways that— it's unbelievable. But gentlemen, gentlemen, the Bible tells us what? Don't be embittered. What must you do, gentlemen? Love. Thank you. Sit down. You know the Bible, you must choose God's ways. And I’ll tell you something, let’s now ask children, all of you have parents that are still alive, stand up. All of you who have parents that are still alive. Either father or mother, alive. You stand up. I have something for you. All right. You see, I told you, sooner or later, all of you is going to be affected by this message. Remember, you want God’s best, yes or no? What must you do? Choose God's word. Make that be the central— center of your life. Next, what must you do? Choose God's ways. His ways are not your ways. How do you deal with people? All right, children, are you ready? All right, let's look at the Bible. Colossians chapter three. Let's read together. Verses 20-21. All right, everybody, if you have parents who are still alive, read this, “Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.” Now, I’ll talk to fathers later. Children, this is a command. “Children be obedient to your parents in—” Louder, louder. Some? Louder. All. You may not like it, you may like it. The only exception is this, when your parents ask you to rob a bank. Okay? Which is seldom. But other than that you are to obey. Now, look at Ephesians, the way Ephesians is written is this, together. “Children—” everybody now, all of those who are standing, “—obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” And then you have the word, “honor your father and your mother (which is the first commandment with a promise)” This is in the Old Testament, “so that it may be well with you, and you may live long.” There's a promised blessing if you honor your parents. So this is how you apply this. When you are young, and you are living within the roof of your parents, the operative word is obey. However, when you are married already, or you are outside the home, the operative word is honor. The word honor is respect them, take care of them, even if it means financially. But you don't do it without the permission of your husband or your wife. You do it together. But the idea of honor has the idea of respect. So, children, you may be living with your parents, you may no longer be living with your parents, God says, you honor them. God says, you obey them. Now, there came a point when somebody, one of our members, came to us, “Should I obey my parents?” Now, he's still living under the roof of the parents. I said, “Yes.” Would you believe it? There was a class outing, the entire class they were going to go to a beach. They were going to take a boat. But I do not know why that particular day the father said, “No, you don't go.” Now this is in the province. And that young man was not happy. “My father doesn't understand me.” Well, guess what happened? The boat sunk. There was no— that young man had no idea that the boat will sink, I don't think the father knew. I realize submission to authority is like this umbrella, okay? You know, gentlemen, ladies, young people, when you submit to authority— Okay, look at me. You are under the protection of God's divine principles. Rain will come, you will have problems, but if you stay under God's guidance, you are protected. However, is it possible that you will make mistakes? Your parents will make mistakes. Honestly, our parents do make a lot of mistakes, but in their mistakes, God can override and God will use, many times, their decision to guide us. So please sit down, I want you to hear a video of my daughter about obedience. Ladies and gentlemen, those singles, honor your parents, obey them. Because God usually, will protect you through their guidance. Amen? All right, fathers, stand up. Fathers. I want fathers. Fathers. This is for you. Fathers. Yes, your children are commanded to obey you. But you must understand, in the time of the Apostle Paul, fathers have absolute authority. You can kill your children. You can sell your children, you can enslave them. You can do anything you want with your child. It's called the authority of the father. That's Roman law. But God is amazing. God changed the system. Let's read this together. Fathers, please read together. “Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart.” Do you know many young people are discouraged because fathers you exasperate them. By the way, the word “fathers” is used as parents also in the Bible. In the book of Hebrews, it talks about the parents of Moses that word was Pater. So it is applicable to parents. So because of that, I'm going to ask mothers to stand up now also. So mothers, stand up. Mothers and fathers, the Bible commands you, Do not exasperate, do not provoke your children to anger. How do we do that? How do you provoke your children to anger? Well, let me first tell you, Ephesians chapter six, what the Bible says. Now parents, Ephesians chapter six. Again, fathers can also refer to parents together. Now read, “Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” If you don't train them properly, you will have a problem. Now here is the problem. We provoke. We exasperate. How do you exasperate your children? I gave some suggestions on what you should not do, on what you should never do. Number one, hypocrisy. Children are exasperated today, we made a survey in CCF, young people. You know what exasperates them? Hypocrisy. When you parents tell them “You go to church.” But parents, you fight. You are so— you don't practice what Jesus tells you to do because you are not consistent at home. What do you do? Sometimes you can be shouting, all right. Now, how do we exasperate our children? Number one, beware of hypocrisy. Saying something and not doing it. You are so nice to your friends, but when you are at home you are a different person. That's hypocrisy. You tell your children to read the Bible, but you don't read the Bible. Hypocrisy. You pretend to be a nice person, but you are not a nice person at home. That's called hypocrisy. That's how you provoke them. That's how you embitter them Unreasonable. You are not reasonable. You are over controlling. Some parents are over controlling, they are called the “helicopter parents.” “This is not allowed!” Everything is “no, no.” You might as well be called Dr. No. You remember the James Bond movie? No, no, no. Not listening. You don't listen. You jump to conclusions, you don't listen to your children. Shouting. You shout at them. You are critical, always negative. Over correction. You always compare them with other children. These are just samples of fathers and mothers— Now fathers, what's the command? Do not exasperate. Thank you. Sit down. Now, what about employees and employers? All of you who are employed, you are an employee, stand up. Stand up, if you are employed. You work for somebody. You are not the boss. See, I told you sooner or later all of you will stand up. Now, what is God's command for you? Let's find out. Now, even though you are not the slaves, I want you to understand the culture. All right? Idea. “Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men.” Now, today, praise God we don't have slaves. But in the time of Jesus, almost half of the population, in some places you have more slaves than free men. In the entire Roman Empire, almost one third to 50% were slaves. You know why? When they conquer some— when they conquer a country, those conquered people become slaves. So you have slaves who are educated, doctors, lawyers, all kinds of work. But the application today is simply this: Employees, are you listening to me? All right, What must we do? So change the word okay? Employees. Okay, so we are, we work for somebody. Even in CCF, staff. Okay? You have supervisors, whatever it is, everybody together, “In—” Louder. Obey. Respect. And that's why there are many Christians who will never join a union. They will never join a labor union because it will now contradict. Many Christians, they will never join a union. But we can discuss that another time. In the meantime, what must you do? “Not with external service.” Literally, that's from the word ophthalmology. Not to please your boss because he's watching you, don’t work because somebody is watching you. Don't ever do that. You must work for the Lord “as those who merely please men—” Everybody read, “with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do—” Everybody read, do your work heartily as for the Lord.” This will now change the way you report for work. My friends, my prayer is God's people, like you would be so good in your company, that your boss will see the difference. Wow. Christians are different. I remember in a communist country where the Communist Party mandated the factory managers, “Get rid of Christians, fire them.” And then after one month, two months, for review. “What happened? How come you did not fire the Christians? How come you did not let them go?” You know what the manager said, “Sir, if I fire the Christians in our factory, the factory will stop because they're the best employees. I cannot afford to fire Christians.” Wow. Praise God. Now I pray, I pray that that's how your boss will think of you. You are so precious. Thank you, sit down. What about the motivation? The motivation is very clear, “knowing that from the Lord—” everybody now read, “from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord whom you serve. He who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.” The Bible says, eventually God is the ultimate rewarder. So whatever you do, you do it for the Lord. God is going to be the one to reward you. Do you agree, sometimes bosses are not fair. Do you agree? Some bosses are not exactly very equal. They mistreat some employees, yes or no? Yes. But the Bible says that's not your problem. Your problem is to work hard. God says, My problem is to reward you someday. And that's what he's saying. “Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” So my prayer is this, all of us will be working in such a way that we honor God. Okay? What about the boss? There's an instruction for the boss, right? May I ask all managers, supervisors, you have people under you, stand up. Bosses. Yeah, bosses. All of you who are managers. All right. You guys have got to know your responsibility. Now remember, in the days of Paul, slaves have no rights, no vacation leave, no sick leave. No rights. If the master wants to kill the slave, so be it. Absolute authority. Slaves are not considered people. They are considered chattel, things to be used. But God says, “Masters—” boss, managers, everybody read, “grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.” This is precisely what happened to the Roman Empire. Eventually, slavery was abolished. You know why? Because Christians understood justice and fairness. They allowed their slaves eventually to go free. God is not asking Christians to lead a social revolution. Attack the government, change the system. No, no, no. Your job, my job is to share the gospel. Teach Jesus. Let people practice Christianity, and society will become a better place. Amen? Good. Sit down. Now, let's look at the last point. The last point is simply this: Choose God's weapon. What is God's weapon? Let's read together, God's weapon. Colossians chapter two. Everybody read, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;” notice the command, “Devote yourselves to prayer.” The word “devote” it's a command, present tense. Keep on praying, keep on focusing. You see, prayer is not just asking, prayer is also listening to God, prayer is also worship. So, devote yourself to prayer. Notice, “keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” Be prepared to give thanks. Always pray with thanksgiving. Continue reading, “praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.” I was surprised when Paul asked for prayer. You see, when you encounter circumstances, problems beyond your control, you must choose the weapon of God. The weapon of God is prayer. Paul cannot get out of prison, but notice what he prayed for. He didn't ask to be released in prison. He asked “that I may have opportunity to share the Bible.” Look at his prayer. He should have said “Pray for me that I can get out.” No, no, no, he said. “Pray for us that God will open for us a door for the word.” Paul was in prison when he wrote Colossians. But notice, prayer is also doing your part. Notice the next verse, when you choose God's weapon, you trust God, but you've got to do your part. “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. Paul is saying, I pray for wisdom that I will know how to share the gospel and I will take, make up every opportunity. Notice what he says, “making the most of the opportunity.” Literally it means that I will buy back time. I will not waste time. My friend, prayer, according to Billy Graham, I like to use his quotation, according to Billy Graham, prayer is a Christian's greatest weapon. You know the greatest sadness? Let me read for you another quotation about prayer. Prayer. “The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, It is—” what? “unoffered prayer.” And that's why I like all of you to attend this week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. What are we going to do? We're going to pray together. We're going to enter the presence of God, and ask God to do mighty things in us. Look at Oswald Chambers’ quotation about prayer. Let’s read this together, everybody read together. “If God sees that my spiritual life will be furthered by giving the things for which I ask, then He will give them, but that is not the end of prayer. The end of prayer is I come to know God Himself.” So, my friend, when you pray, you do your part. Paul is saying, pray for me that I can witness for Christ. Do you remember that story of a guy who died and went to heaven? And he asked God, “Lord, why did You not answer my prayer?” And God says, “What do you mean?” God says, “When there was an alarm that there would be a flood, I sent you policemen, and they asked you to get out of the house. But you did not listen to the policemen. And then when there was flooding, you prayed. I sent you the firemen. They came with a boat, and you told the firemen, ‘I'm still praying.’ So what do you mean I didn't answer the prayer? And then when the flood entered your house, you climbed to the roof. You prayed.” and God said, “I answered your prayer, I sent a helicopter. And what did you tell the helicopter people? ‘I'm still praying.’ So now you are in heaven with Me.” My friend, you know what's the story there? The story there is keep praying, but you’ve got to do your part. What’s your part? Paul said, “Pray that I will know how to speak, pray I will know how to witness.” Do you remember his prayer? Look, look, look at what Paul said, the last part. Everybody, “conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders. Let your speech be with grace.” Recently, my wife and I, as we traveled, I sat beside a Brazilian businessman. And as I sat beside him, I prayed, I said Lord, how will I witness to this businessman? So we began talking. I asked him about his business. He loved to talk about his business. I asked him about his family. Then I asked him how’s your spiritual journey, you see, you ask questions. And then he began telling me. I said, What do you believe in? So he believes in Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, blah, blah. But I said, You seem to know Jesus. “Yes, yes.” He said, “I grew up in a Christian home. I know Jesus.” Really? He said, “Yeah.” So what do you think of Him? To make a long story short, I led him to understand, Jesus cannot just be a good person. Jesus cannot just be a good teacher. Because I told him, Jesus claimed to be the Messiah. He claimed to be the only way. So either He's lying or He’s telling the truth. So I made it very clear to him in a very nice way, and he said, “Thank you.” So I thought that was it. The next morning, of course, we landed and I said goodbye, goodbye. The next morning I received a text, you know what he said? “Peter, Yeshua brought us together. Thank you.” Wow, my friend, you will never know what you can do. When we were in another airline, there was a stewardess who noticed my Bible. This was on our last trip. She said, the best book. So I asked her— you know, when you are on a flight, that will take you 12, 14 hours. Okay, a long, long time. Stewardesses have time, you have time. So I asked her, what's your religion? She was a muslim. So then I asked her. I said, You seem to be interested. So I began to share, and then she began to cry. Now, can you imagine a stewardess crying with a passenger? Can you imagine a stewardess praying with a passenger? I have discovered something. Prayer is God's weapon to accomplish God's work. You want God’s best for your life? Number one, choose what? God's word. You want God's best for your life? Choose God's ways, how to interact with people. What is God's weapon? Prayer. Let’s bow our heads and pray. If God has spoken to you in any part of the message and you want to say, “Lord, from this day onward, I will choose You always. I will choose to know Your word, and I’ll choose to be more prayerful. If that's your commitment, and I’d like you to commit to join our prayer and fasting week, will you raise your hands? Praise God. Now, remember it’s a commitment between you and God. You commit to also be prayerful. Okay, everybody, those of you who are committing to do what I asked you to do, with God's grace, stand up as we close in prayer. Stand up, I'll pray for you. Between you and God, you want God’s best for your life, you say, “Lord, I choose your word to be my guide. I choose to follow your ways, when I interact with people as a father, as a mother, as singles, as children, and I choose prayer as my weapon, to live the Christian life.” My friend, the Christian life is not hard, it is impossible. You need prayer and I’d like you to commit if possible, the next— either Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, come every night or come at least a few nights. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, I thank you for this group of men and women who are making a simple commitment to choose to follow Your word, Your ways, and to choose Your weapon, which is prayer. We need You, Lord. And I now pray for everybody that you be the one to really help them experience that You are more than sufficient. Help them realize You only want what's best for them. And to those who may not be sure of their salvation, help them to read Your word so they can trust You. In Jesus’ name wa all pray, amen and amen. God bless.