Date: 26-01-25
Preacher: Ps Ong Kian Kee
Title: Strike a bargain with God
Strike a bargain with God
I feel it’s such a privilege to listen to how the various speakers handled the annual theme and I feel the hand of the Holy Spirit caressing the creative spirit of the speakers. Take this morning’s title and the subsequent message; it was so unique and creative. The biblical reference was taken from Gen 18: 1-33.
Ps Ong started by making a reference to the recent LA fire where there was mass destruction and asked whether it was God’s judgement. No one can say for certain but he went on to say that each time events of mass destruction took place or about to take place, someone would ‘fill in the gap’ as in to intercede for the people God was about to destroy. He quoted the example of Ps 106:23 when God wanted to destroy the people of Israel who had greatly offended God for indulging in the great sin of idol worship but Moses interceded.
Likewise when God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham was the one who interceded and from that intercession Ps Ong extracted 3 lessons.
The first was ‘relationship in prayer’.
Here Ps Ong said the biblical lessons that can be gleaned from Abraham’s intercession was God’s seeing Abraham as a friend. Here he quoted James 2:23 and John 15:15 in support. Then he pointed the various instances God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 12 and as God saw Abraham as a friend, it then carried the depth of Abraham sharing God’s burden and labour. As a friend God also visited Abraham in the form of 3 angels who came as men. God’s agenda at that point was to inform Abraham of His promise of a son to him as well as to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah which leads to the next lesson below.
From the biblical reference, one can infer that Abraham had already touched the heart of God from the way he treated the 3 men who visited and Abraham now knowing God’s intention, seized the opportunity to go forward to intercede concerning His judgement and His mercy. Here I find the ‘content of prayer’ especially enlightening to me. Ps Ong shared the anecdote of a man who saw a marriage counsellor and in his first visit was told to listen to what his wife said for a month and after that he returned to seek the counsellor again. This time the counsellor told the man that for the next month he was to listen to what his wife did not say. Of course the man was bewildered but we know often in our communication with others what’s unsaid also means a lot.
The third lesson was Abraham’s attitude in his intercession. Ps Ong shared we should note Abraham’s humility and perseverance even though he knew it might arouse God’s anger. In all he asked and reasoned with God 6 times while interceding for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. However it was all in vain as apart from Lot there was none other that would make God change His plan of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah.
Despite God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Ps Ong shared that from the Bible, it would appear that God would be willing to deviate from His original plan and that would also spell out more than enough reason for us to pray without ceasing. And he pointed out what a great God we have as a friend for, in the business world,one can only bargain if one has the goods and the money but in our standing with God we have neither for everything belongs to Him but still we can have the audacity to intercede at times. Ps Ong then reminded the church that our prayer should not just be needs driven but more importantly, call driven.
