City Harvest Church Weekend Sermons

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.

There is virtue in hard work: “All hard work brings a profit” (Prov 14:23). But God instituted the Sabbath as the fourth Commandment, which means that not keeping it is as grave a sin as stealing or adultery. In this powerful sermon, Pastor Wu Yuzhuang unpacks the Biblical concept of resting on the Sabbath through three points. One, the Sabbath is about obedience, hence to not keep the Sabbath is to willfully disobey God. Two, the Sabbath is about rest. God rested on the seventh day of creation, and we must do likewise. He knows the capacity of our human body; if we choose to disobey, we may have to endure forced rest when our bodies break down due to illness. Three, the Sabbath is about trusting God to provide for you supernaturally as you are resting. Listen to this message and let God restore that divine rhythm in your life.

There are seven wrong reasons to serve, and love is not one of them. Jesus Himself did not come to be served but to serve, and He calls us to take up His easy yoke and light burden. In the fourth part of this series, Kong Hee elaborates on the secret of serving, which is the love that comes from the Holy Spirit Who is promised to us by God. The Holy Spirit creates in us a new heart, and pours out God’s love into our hearts like a waterfall. This love creates in us a desire to serve, and as we serve Him, we enjoy His love more and more. Listen to this sermon and be encouraged: if you are tired of serving, don’t serve more, but love more.

Is it good enough to continue watching weekend services from the comfort of your couch at home? In this sermon, Aries Zulkarnain encourages Christians to gather in person for church services now that the worst of Covid is over. The main reason to do come back to the house of God is to ensure that believers do not replace community with self-directed religion, which makes one prone to self-deception. No man can grow spiritually in isolation. Pastor Aries cites how Jesus went to the temple and cleansed it (John 2:13, Matt 21:12). From that, he teaches two things: one, believers must make sure convenience does not replace their commitment. Romans 12:1 tells us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God—instead of animal sacrifices of old, all we need now is to bring ourselves to church. Two, we must make sure convenience does not diminish the value of worship. Jesus was angry with the traders in the temple because they had turned a place of worship into a place to profit from the poor and the pilgrims. The people had gone from pleasing God to pleasing themselves. Let this message encourage you not to neglect the gathering of the saints, but come back to church and give God your true and proper worship.