The sermon was taken from a Sunday service (June 12, 2011) at Citichurch Cebu by Pastor Jo Alfafara. Here’s a blog preview:

Psalm 33:12

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

The Philippines is rich. The land is rich. The seasons are bearable. Majority of trees in the Philippines are not seasonal. Bananas, jackfruits (langka) these fruits grow any time, anywhere. The seas in the Philippines are also rich. Other countries come to the Philippine seas to fish. Under the ground is still rich. There is gold and aluminum. Even the people in the Philippines are rich – they are smart, educated, happy, polite and skillful.

The question is why do we end up like this?

Rich land + rich seas + rich underground + rich people = poverty

The cracks on the pavement have weeds already. We’re so poor we have to go abroad. There is something wrong! And the easiest one to blame is the government or the politicians. And then we change the government, we change the politicians, but it’s still the same. We’re still poor. There is more than enough wealth in this land to bless every Filipino. But we have so many greedy people we end up still poor.

There is something wrong and there is one responsible for this. It is not the mayor of the city. God will not ask the mayor why the land turned out this way. God will ask the church. The church is responsible for the welfare of its community. The church knows the answer to all our needs – Jesus Christ. And because we, the church, knows that – we are responsible to bring that answer to our land. We bring Jesus Christ to this nation. This is the job of the church.

Proverbs 11: 10-11

¹⁰ When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices;
And when the wicked perish, there is jubilation.
¹¹ By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted,
But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.

When it goes well with the church the city rejoices. When the church is blessed, the city is exalted. We want the nation exalted because of Jesus and not because of guitars or mangoes. We all believe that a city can be a Christian. Marawi City is a muslim city -

Proverbs 14:34

Righteousness exalts a nation,
But sin is a reproach to any people.

Righteousness exalts a nation. Not skill, not even Manny Pacquaio (thank God for Manny Pacquiao). What is it with Filipinos? We know what is right but we don’t do it. We know it’s means to stop when the traffic light is red, but we go. We’re the only Christian nation in Asia but we’re one of the most corrupt. We know what’s wrong and we still do it.

Proverbs 29:2

When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice;
when the wicked rule, the people groan.

Is the Philippines rejoicing? or groaning? People are groaning, stressed out because of all the burdens we carry and we look for answers at videoke houses when the answer is Jesus Christ. We, the church, is responsible in bringing the answer to these people.

The question is, if we leave the church for the next 10 years and come back. What would Cebu be like? Is traffic better or worse? Where is the church 10 years from now? There will be SM Tabernacle and Ayala Temple. The commercial progression is so obvious but the church? Change will not happen in this city until the church, itself will embrace change. Shutdown Ayala, Cebu will cry. Shut down Church, Cebu won’t even know – won’t even care.

To view the complete sermon, watch it below:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/24992606[/vimeo]