Live Your Now Moments!

Saturday 26th July 2025

I have the most amazing testimony to share!

Many of you may not know this, but I have a favourite pastor here in New Creation Church, and it is not Pastor Prince, but Pastor Julia Lim Lian Neo (whom we call Ps Lian).

She was previously from a Methodist school and used to attend a Methodist church, so our backgrounds are similar in that sense.  She also used to be a school teacher, so she delivers her sermons in a very clear and concise manner.

On 10 June 2025, my best buddy David Tang asked me whether I wanted some of her classic CD sermons from way back in 2006 and 2007, to which I told him definitely yes, because they are not even available from the Rock Bookstore website anymore.

He passed me the sermons but I did not get down to doing anything about them until Thursday night, just before we sent dad's helper Vanessa to the airport.

I managed to find a portable CD player, wiped off the dust that had gathered on it, and got down to ripping the 3 CDs (ie converting the audio to MP3 format).

Yesterday,  I had to look for a software to merge the files into a single one (back then, sermons were split into several tracks (like a pop music album), so that listeners could pause the sermon at convenient intervals and resume where they left off.

While doing the merging of the tracks for the sermon "Live Your Now Moments!" preached on 9 Dec 2007, I listened to Ps Lian relating the story about how a staff at a coffee chain had gotten her so upset, that she kept on repeating the story for 2 days straight.

But what really arrested me was Track 2, which I have used Otter.ai to transcribe:

"I realized I counsel people of all ages, even those in their 40s and 50s and 60s, some of them still don't let go of their past. They're in their 60s, and they're still recounting to me, how they were hurt when they were in their childhood. whole 15 minutes about they were hurt. injustice was done to them. They are so bitter, and it's all about their childhood. 

After 15 minutes, they go on to the husband. So the husband had misunderstood them and and rejected them and made them feel so lousy. Oh, 15 minutes. Then after that, another 15 minutes on the children. Oh, my children, they are so rude to me. They don't respect me nowadays 15 minutes, then the next 15 minutes about the boss, oh, he is, and then another 15 minutes on the colleagues.

 
And I realized, what God wants us to let go and to let God, you know why? Let me show you the verse in Isaiah 43 that tells us why he wants us to let go. 

Because he says, do not remember the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing now. It shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 

You know why God wants us to let go? Because he says, Why hold on to the past when I am doing a new thing, and I am doing awesome and wonderful things, and I'm making even a road in the wilderness, and I'm making rivers in the desert. So don't hold on to the past. Don't cling on to all the old hurts and the bitterness and the anger, Let it go."

You can listen to track 2 here

Track 2:

https://app.box.com/s/taf0765ee95aa42bfrmcco5vaz3k987o

This was the Rhema word for me, 18 years on.

But what was truly amazing is that God used Ps Lian's sermon from Dec 2007 to address the very deep hurts that I had in Dec 2007!

I felt God telling me, "Son, why are you still holding on to things that happened 18 years ago?  Just let it go and let me.  Stop re-living in the past." 

I went on to listen to the rest of the sermon and Ps Lian also spoke about how in Isa 43, God does not only talk about forgetting the past, but also about having hope for a better future (a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert).

The overriding theme is for us to enjoy each day at a time and to live in the NOW moments (hence the title of her sermon).

This part of her sermon also spoke to me and I will blog about how I have inadvertently hurt people very dear to me by placing unnecessary pressure and expectations on the vision God had placed in their heart. By doing so, I had become the voice of condemnation and I want to publicly apologise for plucking the proverbial rose before seeing it blooming (to quote my CG Leader).

Meanwhile, here is her Entire Sermon for your listening pleasure.  May it minister to you as it did to me.

https://app.box.com/s/1iquxvkgfgrdsft3xuknfl3f44x8uha5