Jan 17th Worship Leading Message

On the sunday of Jan 17th, I gave a word on little Christs or Christians. I said that Christians are powerful but we behave like the Lord Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Phillipians 2:5-8. I went on to say that as Christians we should commit our lives to God and we sung the chorus of 'Above All' with the intention of God using us to be Christ to the nations.

Well, that was the spirit of that word. There were a whole lot of impressions and emotions that I could not have expressed well in that live setting. So I have decided to put it here. During the time of worship I remebered and felt the incidents below:

In 2007, Korean aid workers to Afghanistan were kidnapped by the Taliban.
These were Christian doctors, nurses and volunteers. As for the rest of the news you can find them here.

2 hostages were martyred, though I am not sure if it was from the same group or incident. Click here.

Here's a comment posted on Youtube,

"i was just trying to say that these idiots shouldnt have gone into a war zone to do whatever the hell they went for.....all we can do is feel bad for them now.....but its ultimately their fault"

If you look at it from a human perspective, that comment is fair. Let's rationalise this: Why would anyone leave the safety of their home country for a warzone? These are doctors and nurses with a comfortable life. They went on this mission on their own accord. They had to bear the expenses. Probably took a leave of absence from their employment, thus losing even more money. I really cannot imagine going over to a place like Afghanistan. The people you are doing relief work to cannot pay you back. They are of a different culture, religion and social status. Heck, maybe, their entire's year pay may only buy a week's grocery in Korea. There is no reward when it comes to appreciation and satisfaction. At the end, look what the militants did to them. So why did they do what they did?

BECAUSE THEY ARE CHRISTIANS OR LITTLE CHRIST
What I see are not Koreans doing just relief work. I see Christ going to the Afghans. After all, is not Jesus the Lord of Christians? Are not Christians little Christ? Or Christ Ambassador? Is it not Biblical that a Christian's aim is to be Christ-like? If you substitute the Afghans with the human race, doesn't it look like a familiar pattern? Read Phillipians 2:5-8 again. Yes it is the Agape love for the human race that Jesus was nailed on the cross. It is the same Agape love for the human race that drove the 23 Koreans to the mission field. And yes no one in their right mind would do it....unless the same consuming agape fire that was in Christ in in them! Yes it is madness to those who do not know Christ. I mean, which Taliban will go to Australia and help put out the bush fire at his own expense with no rewards or religious/political mileage whatsoever?

So the Taliban is not mad but Christians are? You tell me who is mad. Let me bring this one step higher. Who do the everyday Afghans think is mad? The 'enemy' or Koreans who travelled half way around the globe to bring love and medical care OR their own, the Talibans, who murdered the enemy? Note that their own did nothing to elevate their pain or provide medical care. We, humans, lost in our sins were so undeserving, and yet Christ came for us! Read Phillipians 2:5-8 again.

Now what are you feeling? Maybe that was what I felt when we sung the song Above All. That we should rise up, take up our cross, act like little Christ and be the sacrifice that is much needed to cover the whole earth with God's love.

Summary
1. Worship leading can sometimes de-tour from your songlist. In a live situation, God can and many times will impress things on our hearts. We should allow freedom to our structure should we sense the Holy Spirit speaking. All this is possible if we spend much time in God' presence in worship and the study of His word.

2. If God decides to speak through the worship, do we break away from our structure of 35 minutes of songs and no preachy stuff from the worship team, or not? Obviously the answer is to follow God. But, the implementation of it can be so tricky.

3. We are called to revolutionize the world, but it is not an armed revolution. It is a revolution of Agape love. To love all men unconditionally, that through this love that we have for one another as well as others, the world may know that we are Christ disciples. It is easy to destroy a building. With enough explosives, you could do it in a matter of hours. Try building that same building, It will take months. The Agape love of God is the ultimate transforming power. With the death of Christ, and not through armed revolution, Christianity the religion has at least 30% 'market share' on the population of the earth!