Ordination Service

 
 28 Mar 2004

Tonight, we are here first and foremost to worship, praise and glorify God as a Diocese.  In this glorious and dynamic worship we celebrate the offering of life to God.  In ordination our church celebrates and affirm the reality of the touch of God and the call of God in each individual life, and the receiving of the special gift of God to our church in the long process of selection, training and finally this act of ordination.

 

Tonight, we want to declare that every ordination is unique, vital and God breath. Clarence Fu, Clarence Chin, Lin Khee Vun, David Wong were touched by God, called by God, offered their life to God, we are here to celebrate with joy, we are here to affirm and to thank God for this reality. We are

here to assure them of our on going support, care, love and prayers as they begin this life long journey to be ordained ministers in God’s church.
As we give thanks to God for their offering of life, I want to take this opportunity to than God for their parents and families.  All 4 of these candidates come from strong Christian families. They were nurtured, encouraged and supported by their parents and families.  Now, they are married with family of their own.  We thank God for their wives and children and the sharing of ministry in each family.

On this solemn and joyous occasion, what is in God’s heart?  What does God want to say to all of us?  As I pray to get the sermon for tonight ready, many wonderful examples of the call of God in the Bible came to

mind, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Gideon, Joshua….. in the Old Testament and Peter, John, Matthew, Paul, Barnabas, Timothy, Titus….. in the New Testament.  There is a whole lot of rich, colourful, exciting and inspiring deposit of God’s calling to human lives in order to make these lives into the big river flowing with God’s blessing.
 

Tonight we lock these four brothers into that fantastic and exciting spiritual reality that only God can do.  This ordination is part of God’s own exciting move in calling His own children to serve Him in ordained ministry.  We must never miss this vital dimension.  We are excited, we are grateful because God is moving in our midst.  Yet with such high view of the calling of God, my heart was moved by the story of Elijah.  I have asked this [I Kings 19: 9 – 21] to be read as the Old Testament lesson for tonight.  Without loosing sight of what I have just said above, I want to draw four [4] important truth  for this ordination under four [4] headings: [For the website only 4 headings are listed]

 

I        Every exciting ministry is full of Ups and Downs.

 

II       The Ministry is full of Ups and Downs, but God is always there.

 

III      God is always there in ministry to make sure  that God’s way is not our ways.

 

IV      The most important work in Ministry is to build a strong, faithful and firm church for the future.

 

Conclusion

This is what the Lord required of you  my dear young brothers in the Lord.  Your ordination put you right at the centre of the Spiritual Conflict between Jesus and his enemy.  This is a powerful enemy.  The battle will be fierce.  There will be Ups and Downs.  But the Lord has won the war on the cross.  He is interested in you.  He cares and loves you.  You need to learn to know God’s way and not the ways of the world.  You as spiritual leaders called by God for His church is to proclaim Christ to as many people as possible, to anoint many more leaders, to build a strong, firm and faithful church for God and to leave a heritage of faith to the future generation.