It is January 28th and that marks the 4th and final Sunday of January, the Teenz group always does something special, and that is called Power Sunday. Normally, the Teenz group joins the main worship in the church hall and proceeds to a room provided by the Cowboy's Hotel to listen to a preacher. But on Power Sundays—marked as the 4th Sunday of the month—the Teenz will have their own worship section prepared by one of the youths.
On January 28th, one fellow youth stepped up and led us in our worship that week. Shaohanna was acting as the lead singer with Peterson and Elyon singing as backups for her, and some adults and teens going at it with the instrumentals. All went together in a beautiful harmony that led to a great worship session.
The songs that were chosen were: My Testimony, Reckless Love, and Rest on Us.
Again, I want to sing my praises for the worship crew as they led her in our praises to the Lord, I had a fantastic time during the worship session. Thank you to the singers and instrumentalists, you guys did great.
Carrying on now, the youth leaders created a game for the youths to play. The game works as follows:
-All of the youths were split into 4 groups each having about 7-8 people each
-Once each group was settled, they were given a booklet filled with essentials that had prices on them, I.e. chicken, rice, tissue papers, etc.
-They were then given a random budget, which could range from RM100 to RM500
-Next up, each group will select a place to "share their wealth," they were told to use the selected budget to buy goods for their selected places. These places consisted of:
Kampung Orang Asli, the village has 3 choices: family A which consists of 2 parents and 4 kids. Family B which consists of an elderly couple with their son, and Family C which has a mom, a grandma and 3 kids.
An Old Folks Home which includes 18 elderly people who may fancy some arts and crafts and new clothes for CNY
Lastly, an Orphanage Home has 23 kids.
-Once a group selects a destination to give to, they will go "shopping" and buy the necessary items for their respective homes.
-After a few minutes of debating and discussing within the group, they will present the place they chose and the items they bought for the homes.
Everyone used their money, whether they did it wisely or not is within the eyes of the beholder, but everyone used as much of the money given to give the chosen homes a good CNY.
Once the little activity was done, we proceeded towards the preaching led by Pastor Jarren. The talk of the week was about money; it was titled, "Money Matters."
Pastor Jarren led us off with a verse. Luke 16:13:
13"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
As the verse says, we cannot serve both God and money as we will have one priority, and in turn, will despise the other as serving one of them will take away time from the other.
Pastor Jarren then passes the time to Xin Yi to share her word. She starts us off with a few verses. Mark 10:17-23:
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’ ”20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” 28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” 29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Xin Yi proceeds to preach to us, her thoughts, her visions, and her emotions on the topic. The main topic of it, it is about money. Taking the example of the story above, the man with riches could not let go of his riches to enter the Kingdom of God. It continues from the last verse, that we cannot serve 2 masters and ultimately, serving one will take away from the other. The man not being able to give up his riches on Earth, will lose his riches in Heaven. But why do we lose our place in Heaven if we are too fixated with earthly riches?? What gives them their value and what value does it have to us?? Worry not for a young boy will share his thoughts on it.
With this, Xin Yi's session was finished and she passed the mic onto Aidan. This is his first time standing on the stage to talk his talk. Like everyone else, he starts with a verse.
1st Timothy 6:10
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Aidan's thoughts on this go beyond what the verse says, he said, "Money is not necessarily evil but the temptation behind it." His thought process around this is that intentions play a major part in rather if having earthly riches is a good thing or not. But why is money tempting, it's just a piece of paper, so why??
"What makes money tempting is the value we place on it. Money is just a piece of paper you place the value on it. Society created a system to put a value on it," Aidan said. Money only has value because we put value in it, we need it to pay our taxes, our mortgages, our food, clothes, whatever it is. So we seek to gain more, and that leads to temptation because we start to lean on it and do whatever it takes to get more. So is money bad?? Sure it has numerous negative connotations when it comes to serving God but Aidan continued by saying, "For money to NOT be tempting, to be able to use it for good...is be ready to give if God asks you to give its your values. Don't focus on blah blah blah but focus on your values. If your values are good what you do will be good." If you are ready to give God everything, all your money, your values, then money isn't bad but instead great, as God has given you these riches to help his people, to strengthen his kingdom. It's not about the riches but instead what you do with them that determines their values on Earth and in Heaven.
All the sections connect in a way: you cannot serve 2 masters, it is either you follow God and abandon your earthly riches or abandon God and follow earthly temptations. But what if you don't worship earthly riches, instead using them for the Kingdom of God, trust what God has to say and follow in his way for he will grant us an everlasting treasure instead. Put value not into money or items on Earth, but instead into what they can do for God's Kingdom. Ultimately the value of earthly riches is the way use them, for God or for flesh.
And that marks the end of the preaching session. Big thank you to Ps Jarren, Xin Yi, and Aidan for sharing their thoughts and emotions about the value of money. The youths probably had a great time listening to all of you share and maybe learn a thing or two. Another thank you to Ps Daniel and the worship team for closing us with a song and prayer.
(Ps Jarren - XinYi - Aidan - Ps Daniel)