The Curious Case Of The Zero Dollar Chef

In my post, dated 4 April 2009, entitled "The Curious Case Of The Half A Million Dollar Chef", I used the parable of a restaurant and its chef to talk about the relevance of the salary of my senior pastor, Pastor Joseph Prince which the news media had found out and reported to be about $500,000.

Well, Pastor Prince just announced last Sunday at the Singapore Expo (where New Creation Church held its Sunday services instead of Suntec City as it has been "commandeered" for the Apec Summit) that the church board, after four years of objections, has finally acceded to his request to be removed from the church's payroll. In effect, he has just "demoted" himself from the Half-A-Million-Dollar Chef to the Zero-Dollar Chef.

Just as it did not matter to me then that Pastor Prince was paid $500,000 a year, it does not matter to me now that he is paid a big fat $0. What matters to me are the sermons he preach week after week, whether those sermons are glorifying Jesus and helping me to know Jesus more and more, because that is the measure of his calling.

Let me ask you: "How do you measure the performance of a pastor? How do you conclude whether a pastor is a good pastor or not?" Some Christians (or maybe even non-Christians looking in) may feel a pastor is good because he knows many members by name, visits the sick, is easily accessible whenever a member needs help or counseling, etc. While these traits may be seen in a good pastor, I firmly believe that the true measure of a good pastor is his sermons. If you don't feel fed by the pastor's sermons or the Holy Spirit in you somehow does not agree with the pastor's sermons, then he is not a good pastor for you.

Frankly speaking, visiting the sick or praying for you, etc can be a show (I'm not saying that it is but that it can be) put on by the pastor and if we base our assessment on these aspects, we will be deceived. At the risk of sounding like a broken record player, the true test is the pastor's sermon. When you hear the sermon being preached by the pastor, are you hearing the voice of man or the voice of God? 1 Thessalonians 2:13 says "And we also [especially] thank God continually for this, that when you received the message of God [which you heard] from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the Word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it]."

The pastor cannot fake a sermon because he needs the Holy Spirit to speak through him. When you hear a pastor's sermon and it starts sounding like "the word of [mere] men" instead of the "Word of God", then you know that something is not right with this pastor; something must be happening in his life which is causing him to avoid God and close his ears to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. He can still churn out "sermons" for a while based on his head knowledge and his training in theological college but there will be no life in those sermons.

Have you heard such lifeless pastors before? I have but I shall not name them here; instead, I'll like to introduce you to preachers who preach life, who preach JESUS - Joseph Prince, Andrew Wommack, Joel Osteen, Paul White, Åge M. Åleskjær, Peter Youngren, Steve Mcvey ...

So, how is the chef going to survive now that he is earning a $0 salary? I don't know but Pastor Prince is not worried; he told us to watch and see what the Lord will do. I eagerly await his testimony ... watch this space ;-)

Psalm 35:27-28 (NKJV)
²⁷ Let them shout for joy and be glad,
Who favor my righteous cause;
And let them say continually,
“Let the LORD be magnified,
Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”
²⁸ And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness
And of Your praise all the day long.

Fill Up Your Faith Tank

Last Wednesday, a local tabloid, The New Paper, reported on the rising divorce rate among couples who are above 50 years old, and highlighted the tragic case of a 54-year-old woman who committed suicide after her 59-year-old husband confessed to having an affair for the past 6 years and wanted a divorce.

At first, I regarded this report only as a commentary on a current social phenomenon as Singapore becomes a progressively aging society but this report took on a whole new meaning for me after my wife asked me, "Did you look at the pictures?"

Actually, I only glanced at the pictures as I had concentrated on the written report but as I took a closer look at the pictures and wondered what my wife was fussing about, she pointed to the guy in the blue shirt and said, "This guy looks like Pastor Gabriel!" (from our church, New Creation Church).

While I cannot confirm it, I think the guy in the blue shirt is indeed Pastor Gabriel and hence it is highly likely that this couple or either one of them attended New Creation Church. My immediate thought was "How could this happen to them if they were attending NCC regularly?" To be fair, I don't know the couple personally and have no idea whether or how long they have been attending NCC but this tragedy does set me thinking: week after week, thousands file into the Rock Auditorium and overflow rooms for Sunday church service but how many have truly absorbed the gospel of grace into their spirit?

I suspect Pastor Prince may be wondering about the same thing too as I find that he usually repeats his series on "righteousness" after a few seasons. I remember that Pastor Prince once said that he does this over and over again to drum this into our hearts.

The people of Isaiah 6:9 "Hear and hear continually, but understand not; and see and see continually, but do not apprehend with your mind.", are we like them? No, we are not because God tells us, "I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart." (Ezekiel 36:26, NLT), which is why Pastor Prince's constant drumming is a good tactic since "faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ." (Rom 10:17, NLT)

That is also why I keep listening to the same sermons on CD or MP3 over and over again; often, it is only after many many listening sessions that a truth which Pastor Prince preached in a sermon finally dawns on me and sinks into my heart.

Do you know that faith, like physical fitness, cannot be stored indefinitely? Just as you need to exercise regularly to build up and maintain your physical fitness, you need to keep hearing the "Good News about Christ" over and over again to build up and maintain your faith. Just listening to the sermon preached by the pastor when you attend church on Sunday is not enough. Go and buy sermon CDs and listen to them as often as you can during the week.

Faith needs time to be built up and maintained. Don't wait till a crisis strikes, just when you need faith the most, and you suddenly discover that your "faith tank" is nearly empty. Start listening to the "Good News about Christ" over and over again NOW.

The Holy Communion and Anointing Oil (by Peter Youngren)

The Holy Communion and Anointing Oil

by: Peter Youngren

One of the bonuses of traveling to places in the world where most people don’t get to go is unusual experience. Now I don’t mean seeing strange animals, or mere traditions; I mean unusual spiritual experiences. Indonesia is a fascinating country. Though it is the world’s largest Muslim country with more than 200 large unreached people groups, among the Chinese people-- which are 40 million strong, there are many large churches.

One of the most inspiring I’ve come across is the Tiberias Church, which conducts 178 services per Sunday across various locations in Jakarta. Total membership across Indonesia is 500,000, with most of these in Jakarta. According to church growth experts, it’s the 9th largest church in the world.

The pastor, Yesaya Pariadji was a muslim to whom Jesus revealed himself in 1986. He became acquainted with the Full-Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship and visited a number of conventions across America with its founder Demos Shakarian. Jesus appeared to Pastor Pariadji after healing his wife out of a debilitating disease, commissioning Pastor Pariadji to bring a deeper understanding of the Holy Communion and anointing with oil in the name of Jesus Christ. Last Sunday, after our Gospel Festival in Kupang, I flew to Jakarta, to speak in a couple of the services at the Tiberias church. I had met Pastor Pariadji a year ago and was deeply impressed with how Jesus is shining through his life. This time I gained a greater understanding of the church. The message of God’s grace permeated the praise and worship. Every song, many of them written by Pastor Pariadji’s son, Argo Pariadji, really lifted up Jesus and the Father’s love. The people received my teaching with great joy. I hope to be able to show it on one of our telecasts. You could tell the message of grace had already penetrated the congregation and they were ready to receive. Though we were on a tight schedule, I was anxious to stay to the end of the service when Pastor Pariadji would give out the Holy Communion and anointing oil. I have never witnessed people so eager to receive the bread and the wine; such energy of faith. The church bulletin featured testimonies of people who have been healed simply by trusting in Jesus and receiving the Holy Communion and the anointing with oil.

Pastor Pariadji’s teaching on the anointing oil from the olive tree as symbolic of the redemptive work of Jesus is profound. I felt that what I saw and heard would have been just like when disciples in the first century received the bread and the wine. I went home with a determination to not only take the Holy Communion in Sunday services, but at our Grace TV headquarters.

Well my last two days in Indonesia were intense. First the closing service in the Kupang Gospel Festival with a huge crowd [see photo report], then the flight to Jakarta and the services there, and after the final meeting in Jakarta I took the last flight to Medan, the largest city in Sumatra (the area of recent earthquakes), in order to spend almost a day with the Gospel Revolution Bible College headed by Susan Hoover. The students were ready and receptive. It was exciting to see growth in the school, and I also met many of the missionaries that have come out of our Bible College; Sarah DeRidder, Kyle Laviolette, Gola Tiruneh, and John & Lasmian Kingma. Do you have a testimony of Jesus revealing Himself to you through the Holy Communion? Let me know. -Peter

Keeping The Faith - Online

The local tabloid, TODAY, in an article dated yesterday, entitled "Keeping the faith - online", reported on the phenomenon of "internet churches":

"The World Wide Web has become the hottest place to build a church. A growing number of congregations are creating Internet sites that are fully interactive, with a dedicated Internet pastor, live chat in an online "lobby", Bible study, one-on-one prayer through instant messaging and communion (viewers use their own bread and wine or water at home)."

Personally, I like the concept of an "internet church" although I do attend a "regular" church. I believe that this is what the world wide web was created for - the spreading and sharing of the gospel. The internet is a very useful tool to reach the previously unreachable, eg. those living in remote or sparsely populated places, or those who are incapacitated who are now able to participate in a church service as long as they have access to the internet.

Some Christians might think that the internet church encourages Christians to be lazy, to stay at home on Sunday instead of going to church (the physical one). I say if the Christian doesn't want to go to church, then let the church come to the Christian; at least he can still feed on the Word, and I believe when he has fed enough, he will eventually want to go to a regular church as well for even more feeding.

On a personal note, while I have not "attended" an internet church service before, I have watched and listened to sermons from great preachers like Andrew Wommack (a lot) and Joel Osteen (a little). I would probably not have been able to ever hear them speak in my lifetime (unless they come to preach in Singapore) and learned so much from them if not for the internet. I have also made a lot of new friends on cyberspace, linked by the gospel of grace and facebook ;-)

We do not need to fear that the internet church will replace the regular church because both have their roles to play and both complement each other. I foresee that New Creation Church will have to involve the internet in its church services soon as the church expands beyond the shores of Singapore. Even within the shores of Singapore, the church is growing at such a fast rate that by the time we move to our new and bigger premises at one-North, the church will probably be operating at close to full capacity, and will eventually need (not "overflow rooms" like at present but) overflow off-site premises.

The internet has been abused by the devil for a long time (pornography, terrorism, etc) but it is time now for the Church to aggressively make use of the internet for the glory of God. Amen?

Seeing Defeat In Victory

In my previous post, I put up the picture on the left and asked, "What do you see?" Many of you had to look very hard to see the word "DeFeat" in yellow embedded in the word "victoRY" in black.

This picture illustrates the kind of preachers and preaching we see in many churches today - preachers who do not or dare not preach the total and absolute victory we believers have in Christ; preachers who try very hard to preach defeat into the victory we believers have in Christ.

Casting aside differences in teachings about the baptism of the Holy Spirit or Holy Communion or the Lord's prayer, etc, let us talk about the most basic thing about Christianity ie. if you accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you will go to heaven after you die. This is quite straightforward, isn't it? This is at least what Christ died on the cross for, isn't it? This is the ultimate victory for us believers, isn't it, that regardless of how we suffer here on earth, at least we can enjoy heaven after we pass on?

No, we have preachers who preach defeat into this victory. These preachers preach that our salvation is not assured, entry into heaven is not guaranteed because of Matthew 7:21-23; that we risk losing our salvation at the very last if we do not live holy lives. These preachers do not or dare not believe in and preach the finished work of Christ on the cross; they believe and preach that Christ's work on the cross is just the beginning and we have to finish it through our own efforts by living holy lives.

Does Matt 7:21-23 really say that we may not enter heaven unless we do our part by living holy lives?

"21"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’"

Many preachers interpret that "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven" means not every believer is guaranteed to go to heaven BUT they fail to see that in v23, Jesus says "I never knew you". If you are a believer, then Jesus can't say that He never knew you because He at least knew you once before!

Moreover, v21 says that the one who can enter the kingdom of heaven is "he who does the will of My Father in heaven". Preachers then interpret doing the will of the Heavenly Father as obeying God's commandments or living a holy life BUT what truly is the will of the Father? In John 6:40, Jesus himself defines what is the will of the Father - "this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day".

It should also be noted that in the context of the book of Matthew and Matthew 7 in particular, Jesus was preaching to his fellow Jews who were under the Law. Jesus was telling them that now that He has been sent to replace the Law, they cannot go to heaven under the old system of the Law, no matter how fervent they were under the Law. They could have prophesied and cast out demons in the name of God BUT that cannot get them to heaven. Now that Christ has come, they can get to heaven only through believing in Him (John 6:40). Jesus confirms this again in John 14:6 - "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me". Therefore, I submit that Matt 7:21-23 was not referring to us believers.

The total and absolute victory of Christ's sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection has thus been tainted by the defeat which many preachers strenuously squeezed out from their erroneous interpretation of scripture. There are many more such instances of preachers seeing defeat in victory and I hope to share more on this in future.

Isaiah 25:8

He will swallow up death forever,
And the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.

1 Corinthians 15: 54-57

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“ O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.