Date: 01-12-24
Preacher: Ps Ong Kian Kee
Title: Where Are you?

Where Are you?

As the Chinese Language is ideographic, Ps Ong provided an interesting lead-in using the Chinese words for ‘garden’ and ‘far’ which were relevant to his message to provide the backdrop. His message was based on the original sin of Adam and Eve and how God was looking for Adam who had gone into hiding. The biblical reference was taken from Genesis 3:8-10. Ps Ong also mentioned that the questions ‘where are you?’ and David’s ‘Who am I?’ represent the 2 most important questions in the bible. And as he expounded on his message, I could see why.

Ps Ong elaborated on the importance of the question ‘where are you?’ using 4 points and these are articulated below.

The first is ‘Christianity is God searching for man’ as opposed to the other religions of the world where men have always to do the seeking. Hence when a man is lost in the secular world, he will seek out any Gods that will help him, even to the extent that he may even create his own to serve his purpose. Our God does the opposite and will seek us out. Here he shared an anecdote of a fellow believer from his home-town when he was doing church planting. In order to help him with his child’s sickness the fellow believer even worshipped many deities in his house.

The second is ‘Christianity is about relationship’. God asks question because he is a God of relationship. Hence when he was looking for Adam, although he knew he had sinned, he was hoping to restore Adam’s relationship with him to what it once was. For man, the most important relationship is between man and God, followed by husband and wife, father and son, friendship and working relationships. Ps Ong said that if the most important relationship is sound the others will be healthy too. It was also pertinent for him to ask the congregation where our hearts were although we were present for Sunday service. Were we there only physically?

The third is based on the premise of the Gospel. Hence, God did not directly declare the way of salvation but asked a question instead, in the hope that man could come to a realisation on the issue of salvation for himself. He also pointed out that many people look at temporal needs but not the eternal one and so many have sinned to the extent that they no longer bear any more conscience. He gave the example of a cow, having being seared many times at the same spot to provide proof of ownership by its successive owners, no longer feel any more pain at that spot. God hopes that man will self reflect, confess and repent.

The fourth is ‘man has to position himself’. Ps Ong mentioned that when God asked Adam the question ‘where are you?’ it was not just to locate him physically but also to ask man to locate himself with regards to his position with God. It is also for us to know that in order to understand God, you must stand under God. He then gave 2 biblical characters to illustrate: one was the rich young ruler who wanted to know how he could be saved and Jesus told him that if he was willing to give up all his wealth, he could. The rich young ruler could not do it for he loved his wealth more than Jesus. The other was Mary who was picked by God to conceive Jesus. She, despite all the potential harm that could befall her as someone who conceived out of wedlock, was willing to honour God by conceiving Jesus.

What is our position?