Date: 11-01-26
Preacher: Ps Ong Kian Kee
Title: Forgetting What’s Behind 

Forgetting What’s Behind

Although Ps Ong did not mention the church annual theme, his message this morning is a great start in furthering the theme of ‘To continue the work of Jesus’. For a start, it was not the usual 3 to 4-point format but a beautiful whole delivered with such anointing.

He was very thorough in his build-up to the core of his message giving multiple examples and anecdotes to ensure the congregation understand spirit of his message. The main biblical reference was from Phil 3:13 – 14.

I like the way he contrasted the sense of time as envisaged by most people vs how Christians should envisage it. Most of us would view time as a chronological event starting from the present and progressing into the future. Of course there is a past. Ps Ong said Christians should start from a future eternity and live a life that is worthy of Him. He also spoke of life being very much a race (Heb 12:1) and as Christians we should ‘press on’ in this race as articulated by Paul in the main biblical reference. His analogy of walking up an escalator in the opposite direction captures the essence of the race well as when we stop running we retreat. To do well in this race, we also need to be disciplined in all aspects because to be like Jesus is a life-long process.

God has also equipped us with the necessary resources to be trained so that no one has the right to say he or she lacks. These resources can come in the form of friends, books, videos etc but the most important would be help from the Holy Spirit.

Next he spoke about the parable of the servants in the Bible receiving various talents and how each multiplies them. This parable reveals God's requirements for our lives. This is where he talked about Christians as ambassadors of Heaven bringing people to God.

Then Ps Ong focused on the core of his message and he quoted Heb 12:1 which also spoke about laying down our burden of past hurts, setbacks, slander and depravity. He said that Paul himself did not forget his own past hurt as shown in 2 Cor 11:23-33. He also spoke of John Newton who must have experienced such grace from God that he was able to write ‘Amazing Grace’ which is sung throughout the world. Ps Ong said that while grace cannot erase the past as what’s done cannot be undone but grace can repair the past and as God does not condemn our past, we should do likewise.

We should then focus on the future. Ps Ong said that we often talk about ‘If finance permits, if health permits, etc then we would do such and such a thing’ but not many of us would say ‘If God permits’. He said that tomorrow is full of uncertainties but Christ alone remains unchanged. Hence we should do like Paul and that is to know Christ deeper. He noted that Book of Philippians was written by Paul about 25 years after his conversion. It shows the length of time Paul took to know Jesus better. He said nobody can graduate from knowing Jesus better.

I also like the way Ps Ong talked about us having the power of a resurrected life. It is saying that we have the power over death and Jesus’ love for us is also demonstrated by the fact that He still wants us even after we have fallen.

Finally, he spoke about the 3 million Jews who were sent to their death in the gas chamber. For many of them as they were near the chamber, they uttered ‘Ani Ma'amin’ which translated means that they were hoping for the arrival of a messiah. It was an inaccurate utterance as the Messiah had already arrived, did what He needed to do and had been resurrected. He ended with a question for the congregation and that is ‘what is the basis of our claim when we say we believe?’