Garden City KL: Our Values

In 2025, Sermons by harvest.admin

Resource by Eric Weiner

I’m excited for you to be here this morning because over the next several weeks we are unpacking who we are and what we’re about as Garden City KL.  

As part of replanting, we wanted to take the first month of this year to tell the story of God’s faithfulness to our church and to share more about our new name, mission, vision, and values. So let me just start by defining that for us. 

A church’s mission explains what we exist to do. Our vision explains what it looks like if we do it, and our values say these are the things we’re gonna prioritize that move us in that direction.

A church’s values are kinda like the light from a lighthouse. They’re not the destination, but the guiding principle that helps the boat navigate to shore. 

It might be possible to make it to shore without the light, but it’s also possible the ship could drift off course and miss the shore entirely OR fail to see where they are and come crashing into the rocks. Good values help guide us as we pursue our mission and vision. 

Next week, Pastor Peter will spend some time unpacking our mission: We exist to advance Christ’s kingdom through a gospel movement of disciple-making disciples in KL and the world. We’ll keep putting that in front of you, but I want to spend time this morning talking about our values.

To be clear, we’re still working on the best way to articulate these. Last year, I heard a pastor say it took their church 5 years to finalize language around their core values. That doesn’t mean they went without values for 5 years. It just means we don’t have to be in a rush. 

If you remember, last September, about 100 of us went away for a church camp, and we dedicated some of that time to brainstorm what we value most. I would summarize what you said like this: 

  • We want the gospel to be central to all we say and do.
  • We want to do what we can to win all the people we can with the gospel (Because we want to be a church for the nations).
  • And we want to equip every member to grow in the gospel and to live on mission for the gospel (Because we want to see faithful, gospel witness multiplied throughout our city).

These are the kind of pursuits we want to guide our practice that align us with our mission. 

And I hope you’re hearing a common thread through all of that. So, if you have a Bible, turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15.

The gospel defines the core of who we are and is what gives us the power to do what God’s called us to do. That’s what the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15 is all about. 

[v. 1] – Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received…

Right off the bat, Paul tells us four important things about how we interact with the gospel: 

(1) It’s the primary message we preach.

(2) It’s the greatest gift of grace we receive.

(3) It’s the foundation on which we build our lives.

(4) Because it’s the means by which we’re saved.

And that’s just the first 1.5 verses. The gospel is the central truth of the Bible, the foundation of our faith, and the fuel for living the Christian life. 

That’s why Paul refers to it in [v. 3] “as of first importance.” Paul is so emphatic about this that earlier in [1 Cor. 2:2] he says, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 

Now that doesn’t mean every topic of discussion led Paul to address the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus or that he thought nothing else was important. When I was a university student we used to call that a Jesus juke. Mark confesses to Connor he can’t believe he just spent 5 hours binge-watching some Netflix show and Connor says, “Yeah, just think if you had spent 5 hours sharing Christ on campus?” Mark walks away deflated. 

That’s not what he’s saying. It just means that out of everything Paul taught, wrote, and did, the gospel is what motivated everything else. It was his driving agenda and highest authority. Everything he did ultimately led back to the gospel. 

And the same should be said for us. Just think about this: There is no other institution in all the world that’s been given the responsibility of stewarding and heralding the gospel. And that responsibility comes directly from God to his Church. 

[1 Tim. 3:15]: Paul calls the church “…the pilllar and foundation of the truth.” 

[1 Thess. 2:4]: Paul says, by God’s approval, that he had been “entrusted with the gospel.”

Likewise, the gospel has been entrusted to us. It should be our top responsibility and our greatest joy. Because the gospel is what grounds us and grows in Christ. And the gospel is what gives us the power and strength to do what God’s called us to do. Which is why:

We must keep the gospel central to all we say and do.

To treat the gospel as anything less would mean becoming something other than what God’s called us to be. But before we go any further, let me lay out the gospel as Paul summarized it. 

[v. 3b] – that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

Let me break that down for us: 

1. Christ died. 

At the center of the Christian story; what brings it all together, is the claim that God became man; that he lived the life we could not live and died the death we deserved to die. Remember, Paul said “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” To know Jesus is to know him in his death. 

2. Christ died for me. 

The gospel is deeply personal. Gospel means good news, and it’s good news to us because Christ died for “our sins.” He takes our place. See, the turning point in the gospel story is that God judges us, not according to what we failed to do for him, but according to what Christ succeeded in doing for us.

3. According to the Scriptures.  

What Jesus did was thoroughly biblical. God called his shot a long time ago. And he’s been telling us from the beginning how he intended to restore our relationship with him. Sin happened because we chose not to trust his Word. But now grace is received when we put our faith in the Word who dwelt among us. 

4. He was raised.  

Jesus really died. He wasn’t half dead, he was all the way dead. The Romans didn’t invent crucifixion, but they sure did master it. Jesus really died, and he really rose. You say, well you just believe that because of the Bible. Okay, fine. Let’s look at the non-biblical sources:

Josephus was a Jewish historian who wrote in the 1st and 2nd centuries. We learn from his writings that there was a man of good repute named Jesus who had both Jewish and Gentile followers and that “Pilate condemned him to be crucified…And those who had become his disciples reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive…”

Tacitus was a Roman historian writing around the same time. He reported that Christ had suffered “the extreme penalty” during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of Pontius Pilate.

And we know from Pliny the Younger, a Roman governor who wrote to the Emperor Trajan, that one distinctive of Christian worship was singing hymns to Christ “as to a god” and not even the fear of death deterred them.

Even the non-Christian historical record testifies that Jesus was a historical figure who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and that early Christians believed he had resurrected from the dead and worshipped him as God. 

And death did not deter them from this because they believed if Jesus had really risen then their sins had been forgiven. And if their sins had been forgiven, then they had been reconciled to the Father and one day soon he would resurrect them too.

5. He appeared. 

After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to Peter and to the Twelve. He appeared to 500 disciples at one time. He appeared to James and to all the apostles. He appeared to Paul. 

Jesus appeared to him and to them, he appeared me and to you. We know from Acts 1 that Jesus appeared to many disciples after his resurrection to give them proofs and to teach them about the coming kingdom of God. 

Put together–the gospel is the good news that while we were dead in sin, God sent his son Jesus to live a perfect life on our behalf, to die a substitutionary death to pay the penalty for our sin, and to rise again from the grave to offer us new life in his Spirit. 

This is why the gospel is so important. Now, let me give you three ways we work this out and keep the gospel central in the life of our church. We need to understand: 

FIRST – The gospel is the entrypoint into the Christian life. 

Apart from the gospel we’re all lost. Now, I understand why people want to believe there are many ways to God, and the Christian faith offers many comforts, but that’s just not one of them. 

Jesus says he’s the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him. But here’s the thing: Jesus is so inclusive that he makes this offer to all. The biblical story makes it abundantly clear what God thinks about lost sinners. He loves us so much that he sent his only Son to die for us. His desire is for people from all nations to receive his invitation of grace, and we honor him in that when we proclaim this news and disciple people in the truth.  

But he’s also so exclusive in that he will not share you with any other. Just as Christianity teaches that marriage is an exclusive relationship between one husband and one wife, the Bible teaches that God wants an exclusive relationship between one God and one people. And that people is not based on age, ethnicity, social status, or any other human designation. It’s based on the finished work of Christ alone. 

There is no other way to God except by humbling ourselves, confessing our need for Jesus, repenting of the sins we’ve committed, resting in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross, and learning to walk in service to him as his beloved children. 

Those who profess faith in Jesus may have different stories for how they came to trust Jesus with their lives, but we all enter through the same door: through faith in Christ. 

That’s why when we announce our new member classes we don’t ask you to bring a CV with you because belonging to the family of God is not based on what you can or cannot do, but on what God has already done for you in Christ. 

SECOND – The gospel is the foundation on which we stand. 

We don’t just rest in the finished work of Christ. We build our whole lives on him. Without Christ, the entirety of the Christian faith falls apart. But in him, all things hold together. 

Don Carson illustrates the point like this: He says if you could somehow prove Gautama the Budda never lived it wouldn’t destroy the credibility of Buddhism because it’s a philosophical system. It can stand on its own apart from him. 

And if you could somehow prove that Krishna never lived it wouldn’t destroy the credibility of Hinduism because Hinduism has many gods and one truth enmeshed in infinite variations. Hinduism doesn’t rest on the fate of Krishna. 

And if you ever went to a local mosque to speak with a mullah, we all know he would tell you that Allah worked through many great prophets in history, but he gave his greatest and final revelation to Muhammad. But if you were to ask the mullah, “Hypothetically-speaking, could Allah have given his greatest and final revelation to someone other than Muhammad if he had wanted to?” The mullah might say, “Of course. Allah is sovereign and can do whatever he pleases. Muhammad is not himself the revelation, and Allah could have given his revelation to whomever he wanted, BUT we believe he chose to do so through Muhammad.” 

IOW, Allah worked through Muhammad, but he’s not dependent on Muhammad. 

But Christianity is different in this way: If you asked if the God of the Bible could have given his final revelation to anyone other than Jesus Christ the Christian would say that’s impossible. Jesus is the revelation. The greatest gift of Christianity is not a text, but a Person. 

Yes, there are truth claims to consider, but those truth claims are also grounded in historical events that make Jesus’s divinity impossible to ignore. 

Let me give you an example: After a political election, you can say you didn’t like the outcome because you didn’t support the newly elected official, but whether you approve or not has no bearing on his right to govern. And you have to learn to live with the results. 

Similarly, with the resurrection, you may not want it to be true, but that doesn’t stop Jesus from being who he is or from having the authority he does because of what he accomplished. And if he’s really Lord of all then you owe your life to him. You have to live with the results. 

See, without the resurrection, the Christian claims are irrelevant. Jesus might have taught some nice things, but who really cares? 

That’s why Paul says: [v. 17] – …if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

But if Jesus really rose from the grave, then you owe your life to him. Faith in Jesus is an all or nothing proposition. 

That’s why as a church we want you to go all in. We want to build our lives on Jesus, our firm foundation. And doing that will make you uncomfortable. Because eventually Jesus will ask you to do something you don’t want to do. And in that moment you must learn to surrender and seek his will above your own. That’s what it means to prioritize the gospel. 

We literally just baptized people this morning who agreed that they would do whatever Jesus commanded them to do and go wherever he called them to go. I don’t think we should take that as a hypothetical question, but get ourselves ready to do whatever he asks us of with the help of his Spirit. 

THIRD – The gospel is what supplies us with the power to grow. 

Some people assume the gospel is just the starting point or the lowest common denominator for Christian belief. But the truth is we never outgrow our need for the gospel. 

I have friends currently in ministry in Central Asia, but back in the day, we were both in the same small group in our little city in the US. I won’t tell you his name, but one week our group leader let Aaron lead our group for the first and only time. Aaron felt compelled that night that we should all go door-to-door around our neighborhood to share the gospel with our lost neighbors. 

It’s probably one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever done in my life, not because I was ashamed of the gospel but because culturally speaking, there’s just a certain point in the evening you don’t disturb people. And it was in a pocket of our city that’s known for high crime. And without getting into all the context of what that means, you just don’t know what you’re going to find on the other side of some of the doors you’re knocking on. 

But we did it. And I’ll never forget the interaction I had with this lady. She basically told us we were crazy for being out that late. And when we shared the gospel with her, all she had to say was “Oh, we’re good. We already know that stuff.” And while internally, I agreed with her that our friend’s suggestion to do door-to-door evangelism at that time was a bad idea, I have to be honest that I was put off by her attitude toward the gospel. 

I know that lots of people will reject the gospel. And I know what it’s like for someone to come knocking on my door at a bad time. But to act as if the gospel is something you believe and then put away is a failure to understand the gospel and its ongoing work in your life. We never outgrow our need for the gospel. That’s probably why the first thing Paul says in chapter 15 is to remember the gospel that was preached to them. 

The gospel is less like a trinket you put on your shelf and more like your smartphone you keep in your pocket. Sometimes you pull it out to look at something because it’s useful. Sometimes you pull it out to look at something because it’s beautiful. But you never go anywhere without it. 

Just consider how Paul’s devotion to the gospel transformed his life. The biblical account tells us that:

He went from persecutor of Christians to preacher of the gospel.

[v. 9] – For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am…I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

What a wild course correction. And that also shows us how…

He went from self-righteous leader to humble servant. 

Prior to his conversion, Paul judged himself according to his merits under the Jewish legal system. 

He says in Philippians 3 that he was “a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”

The gospel undermined his entire worldview and led him to put all his trust in the person and works of Jesus Christ. 

He went from cultural isolation to global mission. 

Paul went from being a Pharisee who focused on Jewish identity to–in Romans 15–calling himself “a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:16).

For the advancement of the gospel he went on three missionary journeys and dedicated his life to taking the gospel to the Gentiles that he might present them as mature in Christ. 

He went from Jewish titles to Roman prisons

Paul was trained under the great Gamaliel, considered one of the greatest Jewish teachers of his time. Paul was on track to be the next rising star among the Pharisees. But the gospel called him to embrace other priorities that saw him get beaten, shipwrecked, and imprisoned. 

He went from church-opponent to Church-Planter. 

Think of how many churches would’ve been thwarted by Paul the opponent and how many churches were started or influenced by Paul the church-planter. About a quarter of the words and half the books in our NT were penned by Paul to help us understand what it means to be the church and to live out our faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Now the point is not to say be more like Paul. The point is to embrace the gospel and watch it change you.

Paul’s transformation reminds me how the gospel changed John Newton. He was involved in the slave trade as a ship captain. And even after he became a minister of the gospel he struggled to rest in God’s forgiveness from his former life of sin. But Paul’s words here taught him to say: “I’m not the man I ought to be, I’m not the man I wish to be. I’m not the man I hope to be. But by the grace of God, I’m not the man I used to be.”

And you can only say that if you’ve really learned to trust Jesus with your life and let the power of God work in you. Just imagine the kind of things God can do through you if you let him work in you. 

See, the gospel must be central to all we say and do. It’s what changes everything for us. And it’s what gives us the confidence and power to do everything in Christ’s name. 

What has God called you to do for the sake of the gospel? 

Have you believed and received it? Are you learning to stand in Christ’s strength and to do the good works he’s prepared for you to do? Let me give you an example of what this has looked like in my life. 

Not everyone is called to FT ministry. But who knows? Maybe God wants you to reconsider your career. My entrypoint into full time ministry felt like an impossible proposition because a lot of churches in the US want someone with 5 years experience minimum and a masters degree and they want to pay you little to nothing for it. 

The only real opportunity I had required I raise support to pay my salary, which I had zero desire to do. I was ready to move on with my life. 

But the reason why I said yes is because I believed God had called me to do it and I didn’t want to say no just because it would make my life harder and put me in uncomfortable situations. And I can’t help but think how saying yes to that opportunity is what prepared me to say yes to even greater and more difficult works. 

When we receive the gospel, God calls us to make it our top priority and to position ourselves to do something about it. And so at Garden City, we want the gospel to motivate all that we say and do. 

One of the things we’ve been telling our welcome team is that the gospel is offensive, but nothing else should be. And the reason why we say that is because when people come into our church for the first time we don’t want them to get distracted by lesser things that cause them to miss the most important things. 

So, we’ll keep talking about our motivation to welcome others as Christ welcomed us because we need to remind ourselves of the gospel. What Christ did for me, I pray he forms in my heart so that I can go do for others. And we’ll keep talking about how we can create welcoming environments for all people to encounter the gospel because it’s our top priority. That’s a proactive posture fueled by the gospel. 

See, if a family of four walks into the room and can’t find seats together, they’re gonna wonder if our church is a good fit for them. And it may not be. But we’d rather they decide that because they don’t like our message and not because they couldn’t find a seat. 

Instead, we want them to be free to hear the gospel because it’s refreshment to the believers soul and an invitation to new life for the unconverted. 

We want the gospel to shape how we serve and also how we give. In our church’s 2025 budget we designated 10% of all our tithes to go toward missions. Because we want to multiply gospel ministry on purpose. That means we support local networks like the Gospel City Network. We give to church plants. 

We recently gave support to a future church plant from Gospel City Church. I had the pleasure of guest preaching there last week, and they send their love and thanks for partnering with them in those efforts. They’re in the process of forming a core team now and they hope to start gathering in Damansara later this year. 

We do this because we value multiplication and to reach a city as diverse as KL we need lots of different churches reaching lots of different peoples. And to be able to reach the world, we need to partner with lots of different people who feel called to go to places we cannot go. 

And so, I want to encourage you to take responsibility for the message God’s entrusted to us by continuing to look to Jesus and clinging to the hope we have in the gospel. 

I want to invite us to do something similar to what we did last week. I want to invite us to pray together that we would be a church that values the gospel above all: whether you need to receive it, to rest in it, to hold fast to it, to grow in it.  

Maybe someone who came with you this morning is ready to take that next step in receiving Jesus. Pray with them. 

So if you’re comfortable, find a neighbor around you to pray with. Pray that we would make the gospel central to all we say and do.

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