The Victory 2011 Conference was held on 16 to 17 July
2011.In the Sunday service at the Victory
Conference in Taipei, Pastor Chang, a retired mainline church pastor
preached about being a disciple of Christ, and running the good race,
enduring to the end.
1 Cor 9:20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I
might win Jews; to those under the law, as under the Law though not
being myself under the law, so that I might win those under the law
1 Cor 9:23 I do all things for the sake of the
gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.
1 Cor 9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a
race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that
you may win.
1 Cor 9:25 Everyone who competes in the games
exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a
perishable wreath, but we an imperishable
We are all Disciples of
Christ, learning to have the discipline to train hard to reach the crown
of glory. Pastor Chang Snr mentioned that the Crown of victory
is not about salvation or eternal life.
There are two crowns of Glory:
1)Eternal life Crown
2)Victorious Crown
The Eternal Crown belongs to
Jesus alone. Pastor Chang talked about the
a)The Tests of
accusations
b)The Tests of
comparisons
In our race for a victorious
Crown, we are to closely follow Jesus, for the disciples were known to
be often with Jesus. We are to be willing to give up our rights and our
freedom just as Paul gave up His right and honour to be regarded and
treated well as an Apostle to labour for the Gospel sake including his
mission work where he had suffered much.
Our primary goal remains to go
to the world to make disciples, the baptise them, teach them to accept
the commandments of Jesus, remembering that Christ is with us till the
end. What are we to give up to achieve this Victorious Crown?
The witness of the Gospel
message constraints us, sothat
we will not take the grace
of God for granted in all our activities but
to do good and not to cause harm or to stumble the weak, and worst
still to cause others to sin against God. Our liberty is not the license
to stumble the faith of others but to put priority the message of the
Gospel.We get disqualified from the race by rejecting the Gospel message.
The Corinthian Church was
inclusive ofgentiles who were not particularly adamant of following the
Jewish Law’s strictly. By God’s grace, the laws pertaining from eating
food from idols need not be followed. Paul was emphasising that our
grace in God must always be restrained from doing harm, from causing the
faith of others to be shipwrecked. He was willing to adhere even to the
strict religious laws in 1 Cor 9:20, for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ being preached into the lives of the Jews.
In Singapore most churches
condemns the GLBT Community and insisting on the religious law thus
putting the requirement of heterosexuality for being a Christian. As a
result many Gay Christians have been stumbled and fall at the wayside in
this journey of faith. We should not go beyond the Gospel of grace.
In the midst of our faith
challenges and temptations, we are responsible for our own race of faith
– to keep in the race, and to finish the race of faith that we may still
continue to have faith in Jesus Christ at the finish line. Are we
stumbled by those whose religious behaviour and theology have
discouraged us? Are we impacted when they condemned us as sinners
because of our innate sexual orientation?We should be running the race
in a manner as to keep the faith despite all..
We all run in a race of faith,
the race to be above water to sustain our faith in spite of the
challenges, and persecutions! We run the race in a manner to reach the
finishing line to receive the crown of eternal life, not that it is by
works that we are saved, but to run this race to sustain our faith.
Corinth was a city that was
famous for the worship of the god Aphrodite where thousands of
prostitutes would serve the visiting sailors in the name of worshipping
the god. The men would even have sex with the temple priests in order to
join themselves with the deity behind the gods. There was a demonic
portal in Corinth with powerful satanic demonstration.
Paul didn’t ask the church
members to flee from sin, to flee from Corinth, but to run the good race
when there were hurdles and obstacles in the path of the race. When they
joined in the city to worship the idols, their faith will be shipwrecked
and drawn away from God in the long run.
At the end of our faith journey,
will we still be faithful to God’s calling and will for our lives? Will
our passion for God be strong? Will we still even attend church? Or
depart from the faith? Many
have returned to worshipping the pagan idols. For many gay
Christians, it is difficult to run a long race faced with so much
condemnation from the church, family, and state.The strength and journey
of faith is not only an intellectual religious affirmation, but a
spiritual walk, a closeness and fellowship with Jesus that is tangible.
We run the race, just to survive and no more.
Discipline is having a goal to
achieve in our lives, so that we will not waste our effort and time on
activities that does not support this goal. Our goal is the Crown of Heaven not that it is by works by
which we are saved, but for gay Christians whether our faith in Christ
can tarry till the end. Many have strayed away from the calling of God in their
lives. They continue to believe, but neither attends church nor have
much to do with the Christian faith/church. Though hanging on to their
faith, they will receive the Crown of Glory because they
have not rejected Christ. Yet,
great ministries have been lost.
Paul called us to run with
discipline not just to survive but with the victory in mind.
Will we last the distance? The race
of faith is about
a)Giving up our
rights and privileges. Often as
GLBT Christians, we wanted to stay on in the comforts of the
mainstream/mega churches, with friends and people of similar theological
backgrounds.Are we prepared
to venture out from the likes of City Harvest and New Creation, to setup our
own Rainbow family of a few dozens as compared to being part of a
fellowship of ten’s of thousand. It
is a hard and missional works that takes sacrifices of our time and
strength. Are we willing like Paul to step out from our comfort zone, to
be a seed of grain, for the Rainbow Harvest?
b)Redeeming
the time. We are to use our time,
effort and resources wisely as to focus on the Gospel message. So much
of our time is spent in eating, drinking, holiday, dating, and shopping. For
many, our daily activities are driven by relationship with our partner
and family matters. There is nothing wrong with this, yet the Gospel
message should have a priority.
c) Able
to withstand accusations. Paul was constantly
criticised by the Jews of not insisting that the gentiles follow the
Jewish laws. Yet he kept on preaching the Gospel of Grace and not by
works or through the law. He preached in Romans, that the Law did
nothing to change the hearts of the Jews for God. Paul had a
mission to the Gentiles, and preaching the
law would have hindered it. Each one of us has a special calling and
ministry and despite all the criticism must find the necesarry strength
from God to remain faithful to race of victory.
d)To avoid
non-profitable tasks. Not to do
worthless activities which do not contribute to the Gospel message or
the furtherance of our spiritual walk and calling in Christ Jesus. Many
of our activities make us fat instead of fit for the work of Christ.
e)To avoid
Gospel blocking activities. The
Gentile Jews were careless to offend the Christian Jews. Yet, we
do it all the time. Christian Churches have been excommunicating gays,
and in Nigeria even insisting that they be put to death. In New York, we
see thousands of Christians protesting the first day of day marriage.
How does that lift up the Gospel message? We use our liberty and grace
in Christ, to block the Gospel message of God’s love and grace. This is
a real tragedy.
f)To be
constrained In our religious acts vary of the impact.
In the context, discipline means restraining our liberty in order not to
cause any harm to the furtherance of the Gospel message. Here the
Gentiles had every right to eat the food offered to idols, yet by their
liberty, they stumbled the Jewish Christians who wanted to hold on to
the religious Jewish laws.
g)To be in
Self Control as not to stumble others.
Be mindful and self-controlled of what we say, and do, and be restrained
in all that we do as a good testimony for Jesus Christ, for the sake of
the Gospel. A wrong harsh word may set back our destiny.
h)To chose our
friends carefully. Be mindful of
who we are together with, choosing those who can build up and encourage
our faith and focus on Christ. Our friends are our influence.
i)To be
prepared for an answer. To build
up our spiritual strength, understandingand knowledge to overcome the
challenges when they do come including answering to the flaming arrows
fired by Satan. Gay Christians should engage themselves to study the
bible as to engage with those who condemned us.
j)Spiritually
in communion with the Holy Spirit.In
a daily communion with God, so that when challenges’ do come, we have
sufficient “oil” to last the days of adversity. When we are under
spiritual attack, do we have the oil of anointing to stand up against
our foes.
k)Know
yourself. In knowing and
understanding ourselves, our weaknesses and strengths and the baggage we
carry. An athlete may have to go through different types of races –
track, field, swimming, etc. Are we weak in swimming that we will drown?
Build it up! Our weaknesses may shipwreck our destiny and ministry.
For many of us in the GLBT
Christian community, the baggage of deep hurt, rejection and
condemnation by the churches and our families can be quite debilitating.
In a religiously bound closet our
very faith in God is used by others to bind us and our innate sexuality
can deconstruct and destroy the core of our being and our true self. The
shame, deep loss of self-confidence comes from self-denial.
The measure we are able to rise
above our past, and enter into the presence of God especially when we
have gone through much will often determine how we walk our Christian
faith. When we know our weakness, we can stand guard lest the enemy makes
use to enter into our lives. In giving grace and forgiveness to others,
we counter the harm done to us with the grace of Jesus Christ.
Loving and accepting ourselves
can be difficult in a world where we have been the object of scorn and
rejection since young. Letting go is often God's answer.
We do all things for the Gospel
sake so that we can be in turn be partakers of it. ie if the Gospel message
of salvation in Christ is not central to our lives and our ministry, and it doesn’t become
the driving force in our lives, soon we may lack the discipline and the
Christ centred focus. Without discipline especially with such temptation
to worship other gods in Corinth, the Corinthian Christians were on the
slippery slope to perdition.
Our lives may be swayed by other
spiritual beliefs, worldly thoughts and self-centredbeliefs. If Christ
and the Gospel is not central to our lives, then other religious
influence and beliefs comes in, until we no longer believe in Jesus
Christ and ending our race of life not partaking in the hope of glory,
Jesus Christ.For Gay Christians, this is a major risk as the
condemnation by the church have resulting in many falling away from the
Christian faith and rejecting Christ Himself thus not receiving the
Crown of Glory.
It is not God who rejects us,
but we who reject Christ, hence not receiving the crown of Glory at the
end of our faith journey. It is the Crown of eternal life to be with
Christ. We are to plan our journey so that we can run this race of life
knowing that we will reach the goal of spending eternity with Jesus
Christ and not finding ourselves departing through life’s challenges.
For Paul, when we start of
taking the “sake of the Gospel” lightly in our lives, our passion and
focus will soon be apart from the ministry of Christ here on earth, and
in the long run succumbing to the attractions of the other faiths
prevailing at Corinth where they have all the fanfare and attraction, we
end further and further away from Jesus, until we lose the race of faith
which we are called to be disciplined for.It is a discipline to stay
connected with Christ, to be passionate for the Gospel.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is
the Amazing good news that it is by grace that we are saved and not by
works. We enter into this race not by works but by decision by faith
that Jesus died for us and is resurrected, His payment for our sins
complete. It is His grace and not by our works. This is a race of faith
that we do not disqualify ourselves from the Crown of Glory by rejecting
Jesus Christ and worshipping our gods. If we end our race by changing
allegiance then we will not partake in the Crown of glory. Nothing can
separate us from the Love of Jesus Christ and the Hope of Glory, even
wilful sin, except when we deliberately and wilfully reject the Gospel
of Grace.
There is an incredible call and
ministry of GLBT churches to come along side GLBT Christians to support
and encourage them to run the good race of faith that all may finish the
race set before us to receive the crown of glory to be with Christ Jesus
our Lord in heaven.I have seen to many good Christians too overwhelmed
by shame and rejection that they are no longer in this journey of faith.
Entire cell groups could disappear. The ministry of GLBT Christian
organization is one of mission to retain and keep the rainbow harvest
from being devoured by the birds of the air.
The heart of God
cries out tonight for the grave harm caused to the GLBT Christians due
to the condemnation and rejection by the church, state, and family. As a
result, gays even suffer from self hatred and self rejection, feeling
that Jesus Christ had rejected them. Many have fallen in the wayside
rejecting the Christ for the church has taught that Jesus had rejected
them. They did not finish the race of faith. And just like Paul, God
will show us His way to bring the Truth and the Life - of God's love and
acceptance of their innate sexuality that Your glory and grace may shine
through the nations.
Let us run the God race, to know the heart of God, to walk in His
ways, and to see His glorious power and miracles through our ministries,
and at the end of our days to receive the Victorious Crown when God
would say, "Welcome Home, well done my child" and wipe our tears away.
Let us run the race not only just to survive but to be victorious.
Let us run the race to wear the Victory Crown and not just the
Crown of eternal life.