At this Candlelight Services, Kong Hee preaches this encouraging message for those who are facing a dark time in their lives. Matt 4:16 declares that on those living in darkness, a Light has dawned. When we go through dark seasons, it is easy to get discouraged and to quit, but Christians can be assured that no matter how dark things look, God is always next to us. Sharing powerful testimonies of the Lord bringing victory to impossible situations, Pastor Kong reminds us that it is when we find ourselves in difficult situations that we grow in God. Isaiah 45:3 promises that we will find treasures in darkness: we pray more, we press in to God—our affliction is our spiritual gym. Let this message remind you that the treasures we find in dark places are His anointing and His presence, the things of eternal worth.

God is a Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—that exists as a circle of love, eternally joyful, overflowing with never-ending delight. In this sermon, Kong Hee teaches that the Trinity wants believers to enter into this circle of love, a love that transforms us into the fullness and likeness of Christ. Pastor Kong lists three ways to grow deeper in love: one is to exercise zero anger, following the Lord in being slow to anger and abounding in love (Num 4:18). Two is to constantly forgive. We cannot claim to love God and hate someone—we cannot experience God’s love if we don’t forgive and keep forgiving. Three is to have unlimited patience, just like Jesus (1 Tim 1:16). The first characteristic of love is patience. If you have unlimited patience, you are stronger than a warrior. Listen to this sermon and learn to cultivate these three things—you will find rest for your soul.

Thanksgiving is a time to prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus. In this sermon, Lin Junxian teaches what the benefits of giving thanks are. The whole Bible calls believers to continually express gratitude and stay in an atmosphere of thanksgiving, which is both an inward attitude of the heart and an outward expression. Thanksgiving is a theme that runs from the Old Testament to the Epistles. Pastor Junxian teaches that God wants us to remember what He has done for us in the past and what He promises to do for us in the future. Three things thanksgiving does to and for us: it redirects us to God’s grace, it realigns us with God’s will and it results in God’s provision. Let this encouraging message relight your fire for God through an attitude of thanksgiving.

Song of Songs 8:5 reads “Who is this coming up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved?” In his second sermon based on this verse, Pastor Bobby Chaw goes into detail about who the “Beloved” is: one, He is the giver of life—God spoke and created life. Two, He is the sustainer of life—He feeds His creation. Three, He is the resurrection and the life—He raises dead situations and brings life. Leaning on the Beloved makes all the difference to a believer’s life, and Pastor Bobby teaches how to imbibe in the overcoming life that Jesus came to give us, by capturing every thought and making it obey Christ, by professing with our mouth words that align with the Word of God, and by our actions to do the will of the Father. Listen to this message and be greatly encouraged by the teaching and the compelling real life examples of what it means to lean on the Beloved.

Man is spirit, soul and body; having a strong spiritual life has everything to do with one’s body. We must not stop at being saved by grace—our salvation must translate into a lifestyle, one that imitates Christ. In this fourth part of his series on spiritual disciplines, Pastor Kong Hee spells out how to train the body by taking on exercises unto godliness, which will form Christlikeness in us, which leads to the easy yoke that Jesus promises. To be spiritual, our body and spirit must be in sync. We fight cravings of the flesh daily, but the more we present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, the more our souls come alive. Let this sermon encourage you to sow to please the spirit, and from the spirit reap eternal life (Gal 6:8).

In this third part of his series on spiritual disciplines, Kong Hee goes deep into 1 Tim 4 and what it means to “exercise (gumnazo) yourself toward godliness”. In the Bible, every miracle Jesus performed came after a spiritual discipline He practised, eg He fed the 5000 after a time of silence and solitude; He walked on water after doing quiet time. Jesus “learned obedience from what He suffered” (Heb 5:8), therefore we must immerse ourselves in His lifestyle until the fruits of the spirit come forth. Pastor Kong reminds us that we are saved not only by Jesus’ death but also by the way he lives (Rom 5:10), and that the living soul came about when the divine came into contact with the human body. Every time our bodies have an encounter with God, we become more and more like Christ. Hence let us go to our spiritual gymnasium daily and become fit in the spirit, and in them we find rest for our souls.

Song of Songs 8:5 speaks of the Shulammite woman emerging from the wilderness leaning on her Beloved. In this message, Bobby Chaw teaches us how to do likewise and lean on our Beloved, Jesus when we are going through tough or dry seasons. There are three ways to lean on Him: one, surrender to God, that is, to give yourself up to the power of the Holy Spirit instead of struggling on your own. Two, be joined to Jesus and detaching yourself from carnal things. Three, delight in the Lord, which will take spiritual disciplines to develop. Be encouraged by this sermon by Pastor Bobby and start leaning on Jesus Christ every day.

In this follow-up to his first sermon on spiritual disciplines, Pastor Kong Hee explains that a believer has the free will to love God or reject Him. When a person is first saved, he experiences the “honeymoon period” where the grace of God abounds—all he needs to do is repent and believe in Jesus. But as he progresses in his faith, he has to choose for himself whether he will grow in the Lord or not. Growth comes by way of practising spiritual disciplines–if we draw near to God, our spiritual life will grow. A believer is spiritual to the degree that his life is influenced by God. Having knowledge along doesn’t mean one is spiritual, but bearing the fruit of the Spirit shows that one’s personality has been brought under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Listen to this important message and understand why and how we must exercise unto godliness.

Ekklesia means “called out ones coming together”. Pastor Lin Junxian teaches a powerful lesson on why coming to church and cell group is necessary, because the gathering of the saints ushers in the glory of the Lord. Jesus declared in Mt 16:18 that He would build His church, and He is still building it today. All through the Bible, believers are called to gather as a people for the glory of God: the Tabernacle (Exo 25:8-9) was a sanctuary for God to dwell with man: the children of Israel went wherever the presence of God went. The Temple of Jerusalem was built to fulfil God’s desire to live among the Israelites (1 Kings 6:11-14). In the New Testament, Jesus came and dwelt among men (John 1:1, 14), and now, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Christians are meant to be fitted together to form a holy temple (Eph 2:19-22). How can we experience the kind of revival like the Azusa Street Revival, where an encounter with God transformed so many lives? We must desire His glory, we must hunger for His presence and we must seek for His glory. When we gather each week, we become the Ekklesia, a place of hope for those who need Jesus.

For the last two years, Kong Hee has been teaching Christlikeness to the church. However, in practice, bearing the fruit of the Spirit seems impossible. In this sermon, Pastor Kong teaches the secret to growing to be more like Jesus: the body must be activated to practice spiritual disciplines like Jesus did, exercising oneself unto godliness (1 Tim 4:7). Such spiritual disciplines take effort and sacrifice; they include going to a quiet place to practice silence and solitude, fasting, worship, prayer, studying the Bible, showing up to church, gathering with other believers. Faith is not merely mental—Rom 12:1 calls us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, therefore our goal must be to change the way we live to be more and more like Christ. If you struggle to make time for God, listen to this sermon and exercise yourself toward godliness.