On his first visit to City Harvest Church in 2014, advisory pastor Phil Pringle gave the congregation the keys to staying unshakeable.
CN PHOTOS: Daniel Poh & Simon Ang.
The faith of City Harvest Church members were greatly boosted last weekend (Jan. 25 and 26) when advisory pastor Phil Pringle proclaimed CHC a part of an unshakeable kingdom.
“CHC, you are unshakeable in Jesus’ name!” he declared.
Pringle is the founder and president of C3 Global Network of churches, a thriving movement of more than 200 churches worldwide and the senior pastor of C3 Church in Oxford Falls in Sydney, Australia.
Preaching from Hebrews 12:26-28 which speaks of earth and heaven being shaken and and the things that cannot be moved will be found in the unshakeable Kingdom, Pringle taught shaking is a promise from God. Yet while it is unpleasant, it will make one stronger. “Shaking is meant to strengthen and fortified you, not to destroy you.”
While empires and political systems might fail, the Kingdom of God will never be shaken or moved, declared Pringle. The advisory pastor emphasized how important it is for every Christian to know the Bible well—it helps them remain unshakeable in the midst of storms and to stay rooted to the end. It is vital to understand the Scripture, whether they are in the ministry or marketplace, so that they will not swayed by false doctrines.
“Truth is truth, no matter what you sincerely believe,” Pringle said, pointing out that one can be “sincerely” wrong in one’s beliefs. It is not enough to believe in something sincerely—Christians need to believe in the truth. Pringle explained that living in truth is living in the light. In order to be in the light, it is important to have a high standard of character.
In order to be unshakeable, Pringle advised, the first thing to do is to first dig deep into one’s character. This is the preparation stage for the Christian life.
Preparation is annoying because people don’t see the results right away, but preparation is vital, said Pringle. He illustrated his point with a story about the first house he bought with his wife. Pringle wanted to repaint the house, but discovered he had to do much preparatory work: he had to replace walls that had rotted and remove all flaky paint before he could paint. In an effort to speed up the process, he tried various methods, including using a flamethrower to get rid of the leftover paint quickly, but ended up starting a fire in his home. He returned to sanding down the wall by hand, and completed his repainting job 18 months later.
Likewise, in the Christian walk, it is tempting to try to find a shortcut; but the truth is, “nobody else can do the digging for you,” stated Pringle.
“Dig deep so that the foundation is strong and our house will be stronger when the earthquake comes in.”
Secondly, commitments must be resolute in order to be unshakeable. Pringle defined commitment as “relentless routine”.
“We will ‘unmake’ our character when we only do things we feel like doing; we’d have too much random things that even God can’t use us. But relentless routine will give you a breakthrough. Commitment yields rewards,” he said.
One way to be committed is to be active and serve in the church, because it provides motivation for one’s spirituality. Being steadfast in church life is basic in the Christian walk. Even Jesus went to church every week, said Pringle, citing Luke 4:16. Pringle exhorted the CHC congregation to make it a habit to attend church service every week (Hebrews 10:25).
Finally, and most importantly, to be unshakable, Jesus has to be the cornerstone of a Christian’s life. There is no greater foundation that Jesus Christ Himself. The cornerstone, or capstone, is a huge stone that is perfect and precise in its dimensions. All measurements for the other stones are taken from the cornerstone. Similarly, the believer needs to keep a hold of their relationship with Jesus above all other relationships, and Jesus Christ should always be at the center of their lives.
Just like how Peter walked on water, Christians need to keep their eyes on Jesus and not be distracted by the waves and storms around them. “Keep your vision set on Jesus Christ,” said Pringle.
