A People of Visible Faith

Would you give it up for the worship team for leading us in this time of worship! HELLO. For those of you that don’t know me yet, I’m T. Daryl. Happy Chinese New Year! How many of you did a lot of visiting? This is a picture of me and my family during our CNY visits. That's my wife, Gina, and my 2 yo SON, Micah (Yeah in case you're wondering why “son” is bolded; well interestingly, a lot of people get his gender wrong. Everyone always mistakes him for a girl) Some people say it's the hair, others say it’s his features. Anyway I thought to share a bit about myself especially for the P5s who are seeing me for the first time. I’m the church staff looking after the BeTween ministry. So P5s: welcome and I hope to get to know you better during your next four years with us. At this juncture, could I get the leaders to help me to distribute the sermon cards and pens to the tweens. Let's pray.

Lord, your word is a light unto our path, a lamp unto our feet. So let us hear you through the preaching of your Word. Amen. |

Today is BeTween’s Directions Sunday. It’s the first Sunday that we have Holy Communion together as a 2025 cohort. It’s also a time when we come before God and ask Him, “God, what’s your will for us in 2025?” This year, the whole Wesley church is going to focus on discipleship in the SOCIETY. What’s society? Well, think of your neighborhoods, your communities, the underprivileged, the least, the last and the lost around us. That’s society. And the way we take this back to our BeTween community, is having this direction, that this year, we want to become “a people of visible faith in society”. |

Big Question: Guys, what do you think is visible faith?

Is it wearing a cross? Wearing a Christian wristband or T-shirt? Saying grace in front of your classmates in school? Posting a bible verse on your WhatsApp status or Instagram?

Let’s watch this video first and you tell me if this is “visible faith”? | [TOP Evangelism Fails // How NOT to share your faith // Jesus City Church // Jason Powell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTFfJGzZuPs] - 2:30 mins

So is this visible faith? While he’s clearly showing His faith very visibly, and maybe his intentions are good, you can see that he doesn't care that the persons around him are being turned off by his behavior. So no, I don’t think that that is what it means to lovingly and sensitively be a people of visible faith. | And so, write this simple definition down. Visible faith is showing your trust in God through how you live, so others will see and glorify Him. (Pause) So visible faith shown with love and sensitivity should turn people to God, rather than the opposite. Now what does the Bible have to tell us about being a people of visible faith? Open your Bibles to 1 Peter 2:9-12. |

Chapter 2:9-12 writes this. 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Context

Now the letter of 1st Peter is written by the disciple, Peter, to Christians living in a very non-Christian society.

What does this say for us?

First, becoming a people of visible faith comes from knowing that we are priests.

The verse says | that we are a people chosen by God to be a priesthood (which means “a kingdom of priests”). | Write down in your notes, “1. We are a priesthood”. Now, in case some of you are thinking, is it we must all become like those priests or pastors we see, wearing special clothes and working in church, NO that’s not what this verse means. It’s more of an identity that you can carry into your whole life. What do I mean? | |

Well, in ancient Israel, only the priests had direct access to God. They no longer needed another person or animal sacrifice to represent them in front of God. They could go to God by themselves! In fact, this was very obvious whenever all the Israelites gathered together as a nation. The Tabernacle is where God’s presence is. Now do you notice anything about where and how the priests are positioned? They are closest to God, they are in between God and the rest of the people. And that is the great privilege that you have. | Because Jesus died on the cross for you and I, we can have direct access to God. Hebrews 4:16 says we can approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. A famous writer, Tim Keller, writes it like this, | “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00am for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access with God.”

Write down in your notes, | “2. Because we’re a Priesthood, we have direct access to God.”

Anytime you pray, God listens. He hears. That’s why being a priest was an immense privilege to have.

Some of you might be wondering, “Whoa! Absolutely no way I'm good enough to be God's priest. I’m not that holy. I barely pray or read the bible.” Well, that's the thing. | It's not about who you are or even what you do, it's about whose you are. Let me explain it this way. Did you know that in a random museum in America lies a pair of seemingly ordinary spectacles. This pair of glasses is worth millions of dollars not because of anything it can do, but simply because it belonged to ONE Thomas Edison, the famous man who invented the light bulb. The worth of this spectacles comes from it's owner. Our value comes from the fact that we belong to God - in God's mercy, He's picked us out, chose us to be something very special for Him - a kingdom of Priests.

So Israel’s priests stood in the middle, between God on the one hand, and all the rest of the people on the other. In this middle position, what did they do? |

Well, they taught the law of God to the people. This was their main job. They were appointed by God to make known the ways, words and commands of God to the people. The priests also brought the sacrifices of the people to God. Israelites who sinned in some way would bring their animal to the sanctuary, lay their hands on its head, and slaughter it. It was the priest who would take the blood and throw it against the altar, representing God. Then the priest would declare to the worshipers that their sins were atoned for and that they could come back into fellowship with God. So through the work of the priests, the people could come to God! |

The job of the priests was to bring God to the people and bring the people to God. So write down in your notes, |

“3. Because we’re a Priesthood, we bring God to people, we bring people to God.”

As a BeTween community, we are to be a people bringing the presence of God out into every part of society we go to. The auntie in your canteen that sells you fishball noodles, the uncle that cleans your school, your team-mates in your CCA, your friends in your tuition class - these are people you meet that I will never meet, because they’re persons that God has placed in your life. And yet, they are persons that might be lonely, might need a little bit of hope, a little bit of encouragement. These are persons that need God’s presence. Now do you love the people in society enough to bring the presence of God to them?

But wait, there’s also another part. | We are also to invite and bring people into the presence of God. You know guys, having spent most of your lives coming to church, I hope that each of you will find belonging here, you’ll make good friends, you’ll find a safe space that you feel accepted. I ALSO hope that through your time here, you’ll personally encounter God for who He is - you’ll discover for yourselves that God is real and He’s both powerful and loving. But having been blessed here, my prayer is SO MUCH that you’ll want to share it with others. You’ll begin to feel that this is too good an experience to keep to yourselves, you’ll begin to look outward at who you can invite them to join our community and to discover this amazing God for themselves. Do you love the people in society enough to bring them into the presence of God? |

So to recap, We are Priesthood belonging to God. We’re a people with direct access to God, set apart to bring God to people and bring people to God. But we’re also given a purpose.

So in typical Gen-Alpha style, ask the person beside you this question “What am I doing here?” | The purpose of the church, as written by Peter, is to declare the praises of Him. Worshipping God is your first purpose in life. |

Write down: “4. As a Priesthood, our first purpose is always to worship God”.

(Pause) Why should we worship Him? | Well, it’s right there! Because of His mercy. Despite many times they were sinful, God never gave up on His people. In the same way, God will never give up on you. No matter how many times we did not put Him first, no matter how many times we chased other things ahead of Him, God is always waiting for us to return to Him. And so, worship is our heartfelt response to this loving God. |

How many of you think that worship is only singing songs to God? Actually worship is more than that. | Worship is worth-ship, to give worth to God. Does God need our worship to make Him more worthy? No, He’s already fully worthy. But when we worship God, we see that He’s worthy. We start to see Him for the great God that He is. And so, do you want God to reveal Himself to us? Start by worshipping him! How do we worship God? When we gather for worship, you'll notice that the word “worship” appears everywhere. That's because from the start to the end of church, everything should be about worshiping God. Worship through song, worship through welcoming, worship through reading scripture, worship through offering, worship through holy communion.. Yes, even when you put your money into the offering bag, when you receive the wafer and the cup during Holy Communion, that’s a heartfelt response to God's amazing love in your life. That’s why we must have a respectful attitude when we prepare ourselves to take offering or Holy Communion. All that we do in church has to be about worshiping God. It’s our first purpose. |

So let’s recap again: We are a Priesthood, we have direct access to God, we bring God to people, people to God. Our first purpose will always be to worship Him. Now, all this results in us having a certain way of living life.

What kind of life are we to have as people belonging to God? A holy one. |

Write down in your notes: “5. As a Priesthood, we are to live holy lives.”

(Pause) “You shall be holy, for I am holy” says God. What does it mean to be holy? | The root word for “holy” in Hebrew is Qadosh, which means to be different or distinctive. Something or someone is holy when they get set apart for God’s purpose. And so, as God's priesthood, we are to stand out as different in society. How to stand out? | Peter says we are to “abstain (means stay away from) sinful desires, which wage war against your soul”. See, the Bible is very clear that there will definitely be parts of society that don't agree with our Christian faith. | And so, there will be times when following God means not following the crowd. When being obedient to God's will requires you to go against the flow of what might be comfortable, popular or what everyone else is doing. Now this is where it gets hard. There will be instances when what everyone is watching (on NetFlix, YouTube, TikTok) is cool in society but not cool with God. There will be times when what everyone is listening to (Spotify, YouTube) is cool in society, but not cool with God. Or how everyone is speaking or acting might be cool in society, but not cool with God. Are you willing to stand out then? |

The tough truth is that standing out as God's priests will require faith. | Did you notice that Peter calls the Christians “foreigners and exiles” (in V11)? Were the Christians at that time really foreigners? Not really. | But Peter was trying to let them know that there will be times that they feel like they don’t belong in society, because their true citizenship is with God. And so, there will be times when you’ll wonder, “Why don’t I fit in?” “Why don't I belong?” And I think Peter’s encouragement to you would be if you could have this faith to live differently, your reward will be that God’s presence will be made visible through you in society. | Peter writes that when we live such good lives among non-Christians, they (the non-Christians) may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us. See, the role of the priest actually represents God to the world. In a society that does not know God, they will see God through your holy life. |

Big Idea: Bring God to people, people to God. That's what we’re called to do. |

So as we close, what do y’all think? Does this look like a people of visible faith to you? Well, this is none other than our most recent JAIA camp. You can see that we came together to worship God (and it was awesome worship), but it didn't end there, because God’s presence sent us out. On the last day, we went out to the underprivileged neighborhood of Jalan Berseh and helped organise a Christmas Carnival for the residents there. Through simple actions like bringing food and drinks to the handicapped, welcoming and greeting people, distributing tao huay zui, organizing games, you guys brought God's presence into society, because through your actions, many of the residents got to know that there is a church in the vicinity that cares for them. So yes, definitely a picture of visible faith, and hopefully a “sneak preview” for what God will continue to do through BeTween this year. |

Call to Action

Tweens, this is the vision for 2025. We are called to be living proof of the living God, to bring God to people to bring people to God. That is part of the mission of God’s people of visible faith. You're a kingdom of priests. Will you remember and live out your identity this year. Let's pray. |

I wanna invite us into a time of response before the LORD. Listen to this vision. Every tween living a life of visible faith. Every small group being a group of visible faith. Our whole BeTween being a kingdom of priests that brings God to people, people to God. This is our vision for 2025. But what does it mean for each one of us? Can I challenge you to respond with just one thing everyday that requires visible faith. Do one thing each day that requires visible faith. What requires visible faith? For you it might be to do what’s right, even when your friends make fun of you. Or it might be for you to worship God, even when you don't feel like He's near. It might be to forgive someone who hurt you, even though you know they don't deserve it. It might be to volunteer to pray for a friend or someone in society whose hurting. Or it might be to invite a friend to BeTween this year. Through bringing God to people, and people to God, we can become a people of visible faith this year. And so, what's that one response of visible faith that God is putting into your heart right now. Would you write it down, will you commit to seeing it through this year.

And so, LORD, thank you for your word spoken to us this morning. You've called us to be a people of visible faith, bringing your presence to people, and bringing people into your presence. Help us this week to respond with willing and obedient hearts. Let us be, in 2025, the BeTween community that you've called us to be. Amen.