by Pastor Daniel

Introduction
The topic is a pretty common slogan - step up and step out.  However in the church context, what are we thinking?  As we begin a new year in 2019, there must be a check in our lives and in the life of the church.
We have completed 10 years since her beginning and it had been good in all.  We have our struggles, our learning points, our problem corners but it is always the Lord that has sustained us all this first decade of our lives.
Where do we go from here?  The answer to this question is and should always be, “Lord, where do you want us to go?”
                        
STEPPING UP - Rekindle our intimacy with God
With each year as we envision growth in our lives and in our church, it is so easy and tempting to say, “It has been good.”, and then fold our arms in comfort and pat our shoulders with pride.
Should that be the case for FCC too?  May we not yield to that kind of temptation because the first is not quite complete until Christ comes again and the Lord has installed for us greater blessings with each passing year.
As we approach 2019, greater is our excitement about moving into our new premises.  Yes, it is a bigger place with better facilities.  However, together with this wonderful provision, there is inevitably a greater challenge to do more for God.
However, before doing more, we need to continue to grow.  Stepping up is about growing upward in the Lord.  With that we want to look at how we can rekindle our zeal to grow intimacy with God.  This is after all the desire of God - that his children will first and foremost want to be close to Abba, Father.
When Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossae, he prayed that they might increase in the knowledge of God, thereby filled with wisdom, bearing fruits in every good work and know God.  That is the cycle of growth and the ultimate pursuit of every disciple of Jesus Christ.  It is the call to grow in intimacy with God.  My prayer for the church likewise is that we may grow in intimacy with God, having the desire of King David whose one pursuit was to be in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.
As we begin a new year, what is our aspiration?  Earn more money?  Going for more frequent overseas holidays?  Upgrade to a bigger house and a bigger car?  While they are all good, being indications of a blessed life, I believe our greater and continual pursuit must always be intimate with God.  A truly blessed life is one where God is in it all the time.  
Let us hold our hands together and say, “We want to grow together as a family of God and be close to God.”

STEPPING UP - Rising up in service
As we consider this rekindling of our intimacy with God, we also step up in our service to God.  As we recount our blessings from God, His love for us, the truly appropriate response is to love Him and serve Him.
Another aspect of stepping up is rising up in service to the Lord as well.  Perhaps, some of us have been thinking - what can I give to God?  Well, as King David said, we give what God has placed in our hands.  Everything comes from God actually, even the lives we live today.
I recall a song I loved in my youth days and in it is this sentence, “If just a cup of water I placed within your hands.  Then just a cup of water is all that I demand.  Be faithful weary pilgrim, the morning I can see.  Take up the cross and follow close to me.”
When we learn to surrender to God joyfully and willingly, even 2 fishes and 5 loaves are sufficient to feed 5000 people.  Let us join hands together and rise up in serving our Lord.  Find your place in service, find your 5 loaves and 2 fishes.

STEPPING OUT - Reaching out for Jesus
Stepping out!  As we grow together, we become the channel of God’s blessings.  We bless others because we are blessed.  That is how the Lord works all the time.  When God gave Abraham His promise to bless him, God specifically mentioned that all the nations would be blessed because of him. 
We reach out because we are blessed.  We share the blessings God has given us.  Let the new year be a year where we will extend our love to people near and far.  May the love of God be seen, felt and experienced by others.
Let us be diligent to bring our loved ones, our colleagues, our relatives, our friends, our neighbours, our classmates and any of our contacts to the feet of the Lord that their hearts will be opened to the Lord.

May 2019 be another year of great challenges and great blessings.  A very blessed New Year to all of you.