Intro
• Intro: Urban Legend of the Highbeams
• Do you ever have a good intent toward someone, wanting the best for them, and then end up turning against you, as if you were the enemy?
• It happens, and it happens in the Bible. Right here in John 8, we see Jesus wanting the Jews to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but the Jews don’t like all that Jesus has to say and turn against him as if he were the enemy!
• I want to talk about the truth today, and share 3 things about the truth that we can learn from Jesus’ interaction with the Jews. Let’s pray.
1. The Truth Gives Freedom
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
• Jesus speaks to those who had just put their faith in him, and he says that the true disciples are those who really hold to his teaching, just like we said last week. It’s those who follow him, and does as he teaches.
• Those who choose to do so, will know the truth, and they will experience true freedom.
• Now that brings up the question: What is Freedom?
• Well, we know Jesus is talking about freedom from Sin, because he says in v. 34 that anyone who sins is a slave to sin.
• By nature, and at birth, we were born into slavery because of our sinful nature.
• Because of the fall, we are born with the chains of sin tied around us.
• Most people in this world who have not been freed by Christ know no other life. We get so used to being slaves to sin that living in it becomes attractive and desirable… because we’ve never known true freedom.
• EX: Me and a Friend were watching on Tru TV a documentary on prison life. And he was like, “Yup, yup, yup.” That’s how it really is. He was locked up for 1 year in prison. He told me about one of his friends who was locked up for most of his life. And when he finally got out, he didn’t know what to do with himself. He had grown so accustomed to life in prison, and so comfortable with it, that he committed armed robbery, and waited for the cops to arrive, just to go back to the way of life he had become so used to.
• That’s what bondage to sin looks like. We are born as slaves to sin, we come to love it and desire nothing else, even if it means true freedom.
• But I think true freedom is more than just being free from sin. It is, but I think it’s more significant.
• Freedom is living in the way you were created to live.
• It includes living free from sin, since God never intended us to live in sin.
• But more importantly, when we live in the fullness of the image and in fullness of the purposes that God designed for us, that’s true freedom. It’s not just “not sinning”.
• It’s embracing who we were meant to be.
• People often think that if I can live for myself and do whatever I want to do, then that’s freedom!
• EX: What do footprints, driftwood, crabs and raccoons have in common? I was reading up on baby sea turtles this week. Don’t ask me why. But baby sea turtles are called hatchlings, because they hatch in the sand. Mommy sea turtles will bury her eggs in the sand, and after about 1.5 to 2.5 months, the baby turtles hatch. But once they hatch, they are on a quest to find life in the ocean. Only about 1/1000 actually survive because of these obstacles they face that keep them from getting to the water. Why is it so important that they get to the water? Because that’s what they were created for! They were created to live and to grow in the water! That’s freedom for them.
• Keeping them in the sand and on land would trap them and eventually kill them… because that’s not what they were created for. They were created for the ocean. And until they live in it, they will not be free to live. They will be trapped.
• How can we be set free?
• Jesus turns to those who put their faith in him, and says that if they continue to hold to his teaching, they will know the truth.
• Last week I made it a point, that it’s not just about saying “I believe!”
• It’s not just saying “I acknowledge that you’re the Only Way!”
• Jesus says our faith is proved by doing, following, holding to his teaching and his words.
• That is the person who will know the real truth. That’s the person who will know true freedom.
• When we hold to his teaching and make our lives about living according to what Jesus has taught, guess what?
• WE START LIVING IN THE WAYS THAT GOD MEANT FOR US.
• Yes, we are set free from the life of sin we’ve been so enslaved by and so accustomed to.
• But more than that, we start living according to our true design. That is freedom to live.
2. The Truth is Offensive
33They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants[b] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
• I think this is quite interesting, and it even confused me a little bit.
• This passage starts in v. 31 saying that Jesus was talking specifically to those who believed him.
• Yet the conversation turns ugly and Jesus gets into a heated discussion with them.
• What the heck? Didn’t they believe in him? Why are some now turning and going against him?
• I’ll tell you why… because the Truth can be pretty dang OFFENSIVE.
• There’s a series this week on the radio on the Hard Teachings of Christ. Let’s face it, it’s hard!
• It’s exactly why Jesus says, “You must hold to my teaching, then you are truly my disciples.”
• Some had claimed to believe in him, but even among them, some would prove to not be able to keep following and keep holding to his teachings, because it got too hard, it got too offensive..
A. SLAVES TO SIN
• How does Jesus offend them?
• If Jesus says, follow me and hold to my teachings, and then you’ll be free… what does that imply?
• That they are slaves! That they are currently slaves!
• And NOBODY likes to be called a slave.
• EX: I was preaching at the LBRM one week, and I spoke on Slavery, and how we’re often slaves to sin. I gave an example of a guy named Eddie that I had met and been ministering to in MacArthur Park in Downtown LA. I had driven out quite a few times to meet up with Eddie, even getting in touch with his sisters just to let them know I’ve been in touch with him and that he’s still alive.
• I found out from his family that he was a very bright and smart man. He had graduated from college and had a Master’s degree.
• When I encouraged Eddie to go home… he kept saying, “I can’t. Not yet, it’s just not the time.”
• I shared at the LBRM how Eddie was slave to sin, and how his addictions in the inner city had kept him there.
• Right after I finished preaching, this big guy comes up to me, and had some words to say. He was bothered that I called Eddie a slave. I have a strong feeling that it struck a chord with him, and somehow he took it that I was indirectly calling him a slave to sin.
• NO ONE LIKES TO BE CALLED A SLAVE… especially if it’s an accurate description of them.
• The Jews are offended by this and start defending themselves by saying (v. 33)"We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
• Rowr. Jesus was just talking about sin, but I guess someone’s sensitive.
• They start claiming that they’ve never been slaves to anyone. Oh really?
o What about Egypt, under Pharoah, that bitter time in your history?
o What about under the Exile of the Babylonians?
o What about under the Exile of the Assyrians?
• You’ve never been slaves? Obviously it was a touchy issue for the Jews. It offended them.
• Jesus was just telling them the truth. He goes on.
B. SONS OF SATAN
• Jesus says in (v. 38) “Hey, don’t get mad at me, I’m just telling you what I have seen from the Father. I’m just telling you THE TRUTH.”
• But then he turns it on them and says “But you on the other hand, you do what your father tells you.”
• HE says this RIGHT after he just accused them of wanting to kill Jesus. Of wanting to murder.
• Now, think this through with me. If he’s accusing them of wanting to murder, and then tells them that they do what their father tells them to do, what is Jesus implying?
• Either he’s saying that their father Abraham is a murderer, or someone else is their daddy.
• The Jews say in (v. 39), “Hey, our father is Abraham.”
• But Jesus makes it clear what’s he’s implying.
• (V. 40) He says “you want to kill me, but Abraham would never do such a thing. Instead, you do what your real father wants you to do.”
• Heres a point Jesus makes: We tend to do what our fathers do.
• EX: You all know Daniel is all about kung fu and martial arts, that’s his whole life. But I was a kung fu master way before his time! My uncles called me Fat Kung Fu master and Fat Ninja growing up. I had my own karate club with my friends and even invented my own martial art called Tak Shing Do. What does it mean? I have no clue, but it sounds Chinese martial artish.
• Where do you think me and Daniel got this love from? Our dad.
• Isn’t true, that often times we grow up loving the things our fathers love.
• Jeff loves the great outdoors. Where do you think he got that from?
• Jack is a doctor, where do you think he gets that from?
• But more than just doing things that your father does… I think Jesus hits at something deeper to the core.
• I think he’s talking about how sons behave according to the things their father’s value.
• Me and Daniel grew up going to church and learning to read our bibles, praying in every situation. Why, because at 5 years old the Lord convicted us? Not really. It’s because our father values thing of God and Spiritual things. We’ve been influenced by our Father.
• As sons, we do what our father does, but more importantly we act upon what he values at the core.
• In v. 39, They claim that Abraham is their father
o Oh really? Jesus shows that they’re not doing anything Abraham valued, because Abraham valued God and the God’s truth.
o The Bible says Abraham longed to for the day of God’s son, which is Christ.
o So if they were Abraham’s true sons, they would embrace everything about Christ and all his teachings.
• In v. (41), they then claim God is their father.
o Oh Really? If they were really children of God, they would value what the God values.
o What does the God the Father value?
o At Jesus’ baptism, he said “This is my son, whom I love. With him I am well pleased.”
o When Jesus was transfigured, he said, “This is my son, whom I love. Listen to him”
o V(. 42) Jesus himself says, “If God were your father, you would love me.” You would love him because God loves him and values his Son.
• He shows that they are enslaved and living in the ways of their real father, the devil!
• And as the Jews are listening to Jesus expose their (1) Slavery to Sin and (2)their influence as Sons of Satan, they are extremely offended.
• Sometimes, the truth can be offensive. But Jesus gives it to them.
3. The Truth is Not False
44You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
• Here’s the truth about truth: The Truth is Not False. Well, duh.
• NO, but think about that.
• We tend to act as if there is a middle ground, like something in between true and false.
• Where if you’re not of God and of the truth, and you’re not a devil worshipper, then you’re somewhere in between.
• Do you believe that? Of course you don’t.
• But why are we so afraid to tell people that they’re going to hell and living in the lie of Satan if they don’t follow Jesus into the truth?
• Because isn’t that the truth? You’re either of God, or of the Devil. You’re either of the truth, or you’re of the lie. THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND.
• Jesus tells these Jews that their father is the devil.
• Now, easy there, Jesus. I mean, shouldn’t we be a little more gentle?
• After all, it’s not like the Jews were really saying anything mean to Jesus. They were just responding to what Jesus was saying.
• Like, all they’ve really said is “Abraham is our father”, and “we haven’t been slaves to anyone”. And Jesus seems to get all crazy on them saying, “Your father is the devil! He’s a murderer, he’s always been a murderer, all he speaks are lies, and you want to carry out his desires.”
• Wow. Really Jesus?
• Yeah, really. Actually, Jesus isn’t being harsh…. He’s actually just being truthful.
o We just see it as being harsh because many of us aren’t use to telling the truth.
• The truth of the matter is that there are two rulers among two kingdoms.
• You’re either a child of God, in the heavenly kingdom.
• Or you’re a child of the Devil, in his earthly kingdom.
• You’re either living the truth, or you’re living the lie.
• Jesus isn’t too concerned about having the largest following. He’s not too concerned about being the most popular preacher in town. He’s much more concerned about telling the truth and exposing the lie.
• These people claim to believe in him… but Jesus’ business is about searching out the people who are serious about the truth and serious about experiencing God’s freedom.
• This is convicting to me. Does it convict you? Are you willing to tell people the truth? That if they aren’t living in the truth of Christ, they’re living in the lies of Satan?
• EX: Francis Chan, an increasingly popular preacher, had a revelation while trying to sleep one night. He said to his wife while lying in bed, “If Jesus had a church in this town, I bet you mine would be bigger. And if Paul built a church across the street, I bet you mine would be bigger.”
• And it haunted him.
• He realized that up to that point he wasn’t willing to say the hard things Jesus said, or teach the hard things Paul taught.
• He was too concerned about saying things that people like and that made people feel good. He was too concerned about not stepping on toes… he hated the thought about losing his friends n followers.
• Whereas Jesus, he realized, was only concerned about separating people of the truth and people of the lie, and making sure that those who said they believe really held to his teachings.
Closing
• Church, the challenge is before us. Will we be willing to expose the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth of the Gospel by exposing the influence of Satan?
• Will we be willing to make known the harsh truth that those who do not follow Jesus and hold to his teachings, are by default living under the lie of the Devil?
• EX: A few weeks ago Jack talked about raising the hard questions with our friends and helping them get off the fence about what they thought about Jesus and their commitment to him.
• I was challenged. And I responded by talking to a friend that week about his relationship with Jesus, when I would have normally passed it up in fear of offending him.
• Will you be challenged, along with me, to speak up, and talk to your friends or your family about the reality of their relationship with Satan if they aren’t living in the truth of God?
• Church, I’m scared. I’m challenged, just as much as you this very minute. I don’t know if I can do it.
• It Freaked me out that I had to preach about this before you guys today, knowing that the challenge is mine just as much as it is yours.
• EX BRIAN: I think about a testimony that Brian Lam shared one Friday, about how he heard in a sermon about an Atheist say, “I’m bothered by Christians who must really have to hate me in order not to share with me their Gospel of eternal life and warn me about hell.”
• And at the time I thought it was a little extreme, and I still do. Because I don’t think we hate people when we fail to share with them the truth.
• I think many times it’s just that we’re chicken. We’re scared.
• But the result is the same. We are letting people we love live in bondage to Sin and under the influence of Satan, and we’re not saying anything.
• Whether it’s because we HATE them, or we LOVE ourselves too much.
• EX EVAN: I think about baby Evan, if one day he was playing in the street, would I not yell, “EVAN GET OUT OF THE STREET NOW!!!!” Would I ignore the imminent danger because I’m too scared of what he might think of me as a dad because I yelled at him?
• It makes no sense.
• EX HIGH BEAMS: Would I not flash my high beams even if I knew there was a predator lurking in the darkness waiting to steal, kill and destroy?
• Because truth is, the Bible says that there is a predator lurking, who has come to steal, kill and destroy.
• Will we not tell people the whole truth, that if we follow the teachings of Christ, we will not only be free from sin, but we will experience true freedom?
• Will we not tell people the whole truth that if they don’t follow the teachings of Christ, they are following the lies of the Devil?
• Let’s tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. So help us God.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Just Follow the Light - John 8:12-30 - Kairo Worship
• Remember the last time I spoke, I gave you all this background on the Feast of Tabernacles?
• I told you it was time for families to gather in Jerusalem to gather in these little booths that they set up for themselves, as a way to remember all that the Lord did for their Israelites when God rescued them from Egypt, and brought them into the desert for 40 years.
• And one of the things that was big was the whole ceremony to remember when God provided water from the Rock in the desert.
• And the way they commemorated this was to draw water from the Pool of Siloam every morning in a very festive celebration, people clapping and dancing and crying out “Save us, o Lord!”
• And at the climax of the celebration, Jesus stands up and says “If anyone is Thristy, let him come to me and drink.”
• Jesus totally interrupts the party, but at a time when it was so opportune because the picture before them was such a perfect analogy for who Jesus is… the Satisfying, life-giving, source of water.
• Well Jesus just has this ability to find the perfect moment for these claims that were so revealing of who he is.
• I say that because in this passage, he’s at it again!
• Setting: Still at the Feast of Tabernacles. Jewish families from all regions still gathered in celebration.
• Scene: The Temple court in Jerusalem. And now another big ceremony during the Feast of Tabernacles.
• After the sun sets, two giant candelabra (two Menorahs, as in the PICTURE), were lit and they illuminated the whole the temple court. The giant lamps in the temple is said to even cast its light over the city of Jerusalem and the darkness was penetrated.
• It was a reminder each year that during the wilderness wandering the pillar of cloud by day and the fire by night accompanied the people when they left Egypt until they crossed over Jordan into the Promised Land.
• Jesus stands up in the Temple courts, as people commemorate the light provided by God, and he shouts out in v. 12:
• V. 12…"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
• Jesus makes this bold claim to be the light of the World.
• Today, I want to look at this passage and answer the question: What does light do?
• I Hope our understanding of Light as Jesus understood it will teach us more about who Jesus is.
What does light do?
1. Light reveals and enlightens
• VIDEO: Not being able to understand.
• Now Jesus really exposes their ignorance and their lack of understanding. It’s clear from this point on that some of the Jews there talking with Jesus have NO CLUE whatsoever what’s going on or what Jesus is saying.
• Let me show you.
1. For example, in v. 14 Jesus makes known where he has come from and where he’s going back to.
• But he says “you have no idea where I come from or where I am going”.
• He acknowledges in the same verse that they have no clue what he’s talking about
2. In v. 18, he tells them his witness is the Father.
• Then the clueless Jews say in v. 19, “Where is your Father?” Thinking he’s some human dad in Jerusalem.
3. In v. 21 Jesus tells them that he’s going to go away, and where he goes, they cannot go.
• And then they say, “Will he kill himself”? What does he mean we can’t go?
4. Then Jesus says in v. 24, “If you do not believe I am who I say I am, you will die.”
• Then they say, “Who are you?”
5. Then in v. 25 Jesus says, “I am who I’ve been saying I am. I tell you what the One who has sent me has told me.”
• And once again it says they did not understand who Jesus was talking about, that he was talking about the Father in heaven.
• It’s clear that the Jews are totally in “The dark” about who Jesus is and what he’s saying.
• I mean, come on. How clueless could these guys be? It’s clear to us that Jesus is saying that his Father is God in heaven, that he is the Son of God. And no, he’s not going to kill himself, he’s going to die and resurrect and ascend back into heaven. And who is he? He’s the Christ, the messiah who has come to them from the Father.
• If you weren’t so sinful, you would see that! Would you?
• To be honest, if I put myself in their sandals, I don’t know if I would get it right away either.
• I mean, if you go back and read what he says, it’s kind of hard to gather all that without assuming what we know now.
• EX: I remember in 5th grade, our teacher did this object lesson to teach us about how to give good instructions and not to ASSUME the other people understand all that you understand.
• She asked us to write down instructions for her on how to make a Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich.
• Some would write: Put the peanut butter on the bread. Put the Jelly on the bread. Put the bread together.
• Others would write: Put the peanut butter on one side of the bread. But the jelly on the peanut butter. Eat.
• Her point was clear: Don’t assume understands what you understand.
• For us, the Pharisees and Jewish leaders didn’t have the wealth of information we have now, with the New Testament that we have and all the four Gospels that we’ve read over and over and, oh yeah, and the 2000 years of Christian tradition passed down to us!
• In this conversation, Jesus basically lays out the Gospel:
• He says he is the Christ
• He comes from the God the Father in Heaven
• He will die and resurrect and be exalted to heaven.
• They will go to hell if they do not put their faith in Him.
• But he says all these things without saying any of those things!
• If you look at it, we just assume he’s saying all those things because of what we already know!
• But put yourself in their shoes, and you too just might be like, “Eh?”
• But here’s the grace of God that gives me hope.
• In v. 30, after all the confusing language and difficult claims that Jesus makes, it says, “Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him”.
• What in the world? How is that? How is it that some of these people actually get it?
• Here’s how: The Light Reveals it to them.
• I believe that Jesus will reveal truth to those he will reveal truth to. Those that the Father allows to know the truth, those that the Spirit enlightens, those that see the Light of Christ.
• V. 30 proves to me that Jesus meant it in Ch. 6 when he says that no one will come to him unless the Father grants it.
• It proves to me that Paul wasn’t joking when he said in 1 Cor. 2 that “these things God has revealed to us by the Spirit of God” and that these rulers did not understand otherwise they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.
• Guys, that is the Grace of our Lord Jesus. That Jesus would shed his revealing Light upon you. That he would reveal and enlighten truth to you in a way so that you’d get it. That’s what light does.
• EX: It’s kind of like the parables, where to some it was super confusing, but to others, they got it.
• Jesus says, to those who had hard hearts, they would never understand. Though hearing, they never hear.
• But Jesus said that those who were given the ears to hear, would hear. Those He gives light to, will see.
WE NEED JESUS, WE NEED THE LIGHT TO REVEAL
• EX: This week I was thinking about baby Evan. And I have to tell you that it’s kind of scary being a 1st time parent. Like seriously, I freak out about trying to figure out what we’re supposed to do, and what we’re not supposed to do. Like seriously, what if I do something terribly wrong? I was think this week about how utterly dependent Evan is on us. Like for example, how do we know if he’s burning up, or if he’s freezing cold? Like what is a baby’s bodily temperature like? I asked the nurse, and she said, “Oh, he’s human like you. So if you’re hot, he’s probably hot. If you’re cold, he’s probably cold too.” I said, “Oh, simple!”
• Problem is, there were so many nights this week where Monica’s like burning up, and I was actually cold because we had the A/C pumping. If Monica’s human, and I’m human, then which human is this human like? Is he hot, or is he cold?
• And I thought about it… it really stinks for Evan. He has no ability whatsoever, to help himself; to cover himself if he was cold, or to strip off blankets if he was hot. He doesn’t know how to.
• It doesn’t even cross his mind. He simply just cannot know how to adjust himself.
• He is utterly incompetent on his own. He has no clue how to do any of these things.
• At some point in our Christian lives, the bible says we are like infants who need to grow in our knowledge and understanding. But even before that, we are like fetuses who have no clue what the truth is, unless God opens up our understanding for us. He has to do enlighten us. We cannot figure it out on our own!
• You can study and investigate all you want, which you should do if you’re a non-believer. But ultimately God needs to reveal the truth and enlighten you with his light.
• You might think you get it here (in your mind), but God needs to enlighten you here (in your heart), so that you could understand it in a way where you actually embrace the truth as life.
• Jesus says “I AM the Light of the World. Follow me, and you will not walk in darkness.”
• For those of you who believe, you might be thinking, “It’s easy. The Gospel is so simple. Jesus died for my sins.”
• But realize, you were once a spiritual fetus that had no clue as to what the truth was.
• Can I remind you how much light Christ has shed on you. Think about how much grace was given to you.
• Do this for me right now. Take a step back. Peanut Butter Jelly time.
• You believe:
• There is only One God, but he’s three completely different persons.
• God, the indescribable, creator of the heavens and earth became man.
• God, the man, was born of a virgin, just divinely conceived, dwelling in a woman was God
• He turns 2 fish/5 loaves of bread to feed 5000 men, he spit in a dude’s eye and caused him to see! He walked on water.
• He died on a cross, and that death covers all the billions of sins committed… every sin your believing grandfather ever committed, every sin your believing grandchild will commit.
• You bank your eternity, you altar your life, on this understanding.
• And not only does he die, but resurrects! Not right away, 3 stinking days later!
• And he doesn’t just resuscitate, he goes up into heaven and all of a sudden this man beaten to death by man, is ruler over man AND all angels and demons and spirits in this universe.
• It’s foolishness I tell you!
• Please DO NOT tell me that that is easy for any normal human being to understand. Please do not try to tell me you understand that on your own.
• Somehow, God has enlightened you. The Light of Christ has revealed to you the truth, he’s opened your eyes to see.
• You could not do it on your own, you were completely helpless.
• You were a spiritual fetus before you were born again.
• But by the grace of God, like some of those guys in v. 30, you saw the Light and you were enabled to put your faith in him.
• Light reveals, and Light enlightens. Praise Jesus! Now, what else does light do?
2. Light leads and guides
• Jesus says “I am the Light of the World.” This is one of Jesus’ 7 “I AM” statements.
• In Exodus 3, God reveals himself to Moses and tells him to tell the people who he is.
• Moses says, “What shall I tell them when they ask who sent me?” And God said, “Tell them, I AM who I AM”. I AM is my name. IAM has sent you.
• It was the holy name of God. I AM was the God that was among them.
• And then I AM, or as we know it, YAHWEH, makes himself known physically by appearing before them in a Cloud by day, and a great Fire by night.
• His light from that fire was to guide them as they traveled through the dark wilderness.
• It was the presence of God among them, the light that led them and guided them.
• Here, Jesus comes among the people, and all of a sudden, in the midst of this great lighting ceremony that was lit in celebration to remember the time when Yahweh, the Great I AM, was among them shining his light…
• Jesus stands up once again and proclaims, “I AM the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
• AGAIN. Jesus, the boldness and audacity of the guy, claims to be the TRUE GOD who is among them, the Light of the World.
• What does light do? Light provides leading and guidance for those in darkness.
• What did God do for Israel? He led and guided them in the darkness.
• So if Jesus is the light, in what way is he the light?
• Jesus leads and guides the people into God’s truth.
• He is saying that in Him is truth. He is THE truth, personified. And if we follow after him, we will never walk in darkness. We will be saved from the darkness of sin and corruption.
• Now I want to point out something from this passage. Salvation is not one time belief in the truth. It is a lifetime of following.
• It isn’t just knowing, it’s doing. Just like we’ve learned before.
• Notice that Jesus says, that whoever “follows me”, will never walk in darkness.
• Whoever walks in the light, will not be in darkness. But the idea here is that we must be walking and following!
• EX: When we were in Taiwan, we went to a national park and decided to take a hike. ON the trail were these long tunnels cut through the mountain. It was already getting kind of dark outside, so when we entered these tunnels, it was absolutely black. Like, blacker than black. Have you ever been in a cave where there is absolutely no light? It’s the most eerie thing.
• Where you literally could not see your hand in front of your face. And I remember Monica was freaking out because it was getting dark, AND we’d have to go through these tunnels to get back.
• If I had a light, it makes little use for Monica to say “I Believe You have a light!” and that’s it.
• It wouldn’t even be of use for her to say, “I believe that you have the light, and you are the only way for me to get out of here safely!”
• The only way she would be able to escape the darkness, would be if she made the active decision to follow me step by step. To follow the light.
• When I turn right, she turns right. When I turn left, she turns left.
• If she follows me, and as long as she follows me, she will not walk in darkness. She will be walking in light.
• Jesus says “follow me”.
o Let me ask you, does he ever say “Acknowledge me”? Yes
o Matt 10:32"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.
o Does he ever say “Believe in Me”? Yes
o John 11:25 “Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies”
o But here he extends to the truth by saying you must ALSO follow me. Walk with me.
o If you follow him, you also acknowledge him and you also believe in him.
o This command to follow is the greatest commandment because it presupposes that you are already believing and have already acknowledged him.
• EX: Driving a car.
o I can tell you that in order to drive a car, you must have a key.
o I can also say that in order to drive a car, you must start the car.
o Which are both true. But you can have either of those, and you can still to be driving a car!
o But if I say, in order to drive a car, you must be able to press the gas peddle to move a car, it is the ultimate requirement.
o It’s true that you need a key, and it’s true that you must start the car. These are absolutely necessary. But if you don’t press the gas peddle, the car ain’t moving!
• We must believe, we must acknowledge that Jesus is the truth… but we must start following him and walking according to his ways, or we will still be standing in darkness.
• Now, will you respond and follow him? Will you walk the rest of your life in the light by following Jesus?
• CLOSING: I want to close by leaving you with a challenge.
• Many weeks ago I challenged you with a 7 day challenge of living in obedience. I don’t know how many of you guys tried it, but I did.
• And I learned a lot. In fact, I wrote a list of reflections on the challenge.
• I won’t give you the whole list now, But one thing I learned is that you really have to be intentional and really think about what Jesus has said and what he has taught.
• I want to challenge you again to another 7-day challenge. And it’s very much like the last one.
• But instead of asking at the end of the day, “What did I do in obedience to Christ today”, I want you to ask yourself throughout the day, at every significant decision you’re faced with… “How Would Jesus Lead Me in this?”
• WWJD: Many years ago, there was this huge fad where everyone had these braclets and stickers and bible cases that said WWJD? And it was a challenge to ask yourself in each situation, What would Jesus Do?
• I remember Ted talking about how he didn’t like the whole concept. Why? Because it doesn’t matter what Jesus would do… WE”RE NOT JESUS.
• It’s like if I were a basketball coach and I gave you each a WWJD bracelet, What Would Jordan Do?
• So in the last 10 seconds of the game, we’re down by one, look at your wrist and ask yourself what Jordan would do.
• Well it doesn’t matter what he would do! He would soar above the rest, and on his way down, switch hands, rise again, and dunk on y’all. Cuz HE’s JORDAN. But you’re not. You can’t do that stuff.
• His point was, doesn’t matter what Jesus would do. If a guy was blind, Jesus would spit in the guys eye and cast the devil out and he’d see again!
• So my challenge is, don’t ask WWJD. Ask, HWJL. How would Jesus Lead?
• How would he want you, _____________, to live this decision out as a follower of Christ?
• And then go, and do it. God and just follow the light.
• I told you it was time for families to gather in Jerusalem to gather in these little booths that they set up for themselves, as a way to remember all that the Lord did for their Israelites when God rescued them from Egypt, and brought them into the desert for 40 years.
• And one of the things that was big was the whole ceremony to remember when God provided water from the Rock in the desert.
• And the way they commemorated this was to draw water from the Pool of Siloam every morning in a very festive celebration, people clapping and dancing and crying out “Save us, o Lord!”
• And at the climax of the celebration, Jesus stands up and says “If anyone is Thristy, let him come to me and drink.”
• Jesus totally interrupts the party, but at a time when it was so opportune because the picture before them was such a perfect analogy for who Jesus is… the Satisfying, life-giving, source of water.
• Well Jesus just has this ability to find the perfect moment for these claims that were so revealing of who he is.
• I say that because in this passage, he’s at it again!
• Setting: Still at the Feast of Tabernacles. Jewish families from all regions still gathered in celebration.
• Scene: The Temple court in Jerusalem. And now another big ceremony during the Feast of Tabernacles.
• After the sun sets, two giant candelabra (two Menorahs, as in the PICTURE), were lit and they illuminated the whole the temple court. The giant lamps in the temple is said to even cast its light over the city of Jerusalem and the darkness was penetrated.
• It was a reminder each year that during the wilderness wandering the pillar of cloud by day and the fire by night accompanied the people when they left Egypt until they crossed over Jordan into the Promised Land.
• Jesus stands up in the Temple courts, as people commemorate the light provided by God, and he shouts out in v. 12:
• V. 12…"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
• Jesus makes this bold claim to be the light of the World.
• Today, I want to look at this passage and answer the question: What does light do?
• I Hope our understanding of Light as Jesus understood it will teach us more about who Jesus is.
What does light do?
1. Light reveals and enlightens
• VIDEO: Not being able to understand.
• Now Jesus really exposes their ignorance and their lack of understanding. It’s clear from this point on that some of the Jews there talking with Jesus have NO CLUE whatsoever what’s going on or what Jesus is saying.
• Let me show you.
1. For example, in v. 14 Jesus makes known where he has come from and where he’s going back to.
• But he says “you have no idea where I come from or where I am going”.
• He acknowledges in the same verse that they have no clue what he’s talking about
2. In v. 18, he tells them his witness is the Father.
• Then the clueless Jews say in v. 19, “Where is your Father?” Thinking he’s some human dad in Jerusalem.
3. In v. 21 Jesus tells them that he’s going to go away, and where he goes, they cannot go.
• And then they say, “Will he kill himself”? What does he mean we can’t go?
4. Then Jesus says in v. 24, “If you do not believe I am who I say I am, you will die.”
• Then they say, “Who are you?”
5. Then in v. 25 Jesus says, “I am who I’ve been saying I am. I tell you what the One who has sent me has told me.”
• And once again it says they did not understand who Jesus was talking about, that he was talking about the Father in heaven.
• It’s clear that the Jews are totally in “The dark” about who Jesus is and what he’s saying.
• I mean, come on. How clueless could these guys be? It’s clear to us that Jesus is saying that his Father is God in heaven, that he is the Son of God. And no, he’s not going to kill himself, he’s going to die and resurrect and ascend back into heaven. And who is he? He’s the Christ, the messiah who has come to them from the Father.
• If you weren’t so sinful, you would see that! Would you?
• To be honest, if I put myself in their sandals, I don’t know if I would get it right away either.
• I mean, if you go back and read what he says, it’s kind of hard to gather all that without assuming what we know now.
• EX: I remember in 5th grade, our teacher did this object lesson to teach us about how to give good instructions and not to ASSUME the other people understand all that you understand.
• She asked us to write down instructions for her on how to make a Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich.
• Some would write: Put the peanut butter on the bread. Put the Jelly on the bread. Put the bread together.
• Others would write: Put the peanut butter on one side of the bread. But the jelly on the peanut butter. Eat.
• Her point was clear: Don’t assume understands what you understand.
• For us, the Pharisees and Jewish leaders didn’t have the wealth of information we have now, with the New Testament that we have and all the four Gospels that we’ve read over and over and, oh yeah, and the 2000 years of Christian tradition passed down to us!
• In this conversation, Jesus basically lays out the Gospel:
• He says he is the Christ
• He comes from the God the Father in Heaven
• He will die and resurrect and be exalted to heaven.
• They will go to hell if they do not put their faith in Him.
• But he says all these things without saying any of those things!
• If you look at it, we just assume he’s saying all those things because of what we already know!
• But put yourself in their shoes, and you too just might be like, “Eh?”
• But here’s the grace of God that gives me hope.
• In v. 30, after all the confusing language and difficult claims that Jesus makes, it says, “Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him”.
• What in the world? How is that? How is it that some of these people actually get it?
• Here’s how: The Light Reveals it to them.
• I believe that Jesus will reveal truth to those he will reveal truth to. Those that the Father allows to know the truth, those that the Spirit enlightens, those that see the Light of Christ.
• V. 30 proves to me that Jesus meant it in Ch. 6 when he says that no one will come to him unless the Father grants it.
• It proves to me that Paul wasn’t joking when he said in 1 Cor. 2 that “these things God has revealed to us by the Spirit of God” and that these rulers did not understand otherwise they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.
• Guys, that is the Grace of our Lord Jesus. That Jesus would shed his revealing Light upon you. That he would reveal and enlighten truth to you in a way so that you’d get it. That’s what light does.
• EX: It’s kind of like the parables, where to some it was super confusing, but to others, they got it.
• Jesus says, to those who had hard hearts, they would never understand. Though hearing, they never hear.
• But Jesus said that those who were given the ears to hear, would hear. Those He gives light to, will see.
WE NEED JESUS, WE NEED THE LIGHT TO REVEAL
• EX: This week I was thinking about baby Evan. And I have to tell you that it’s kind of scary being a 1st time parent. Like seriously, I freak out about trying to figure out what we’re supposed to do, and what we’re not supposed to do. Like seriously, what if I do something terribly wrong? I was think this week about how utterly dependent Evan is on us. Like for example, how do we know if he’s burning up, or if he’s freezing cold? Like what is a baby’s bodily temperature like? I asked the nurse, and she said, “Oh, he’s human like you. So if you’re hot, he’s probably hot. If you’re cold, he’s probably cold too.” I said, “Oh, simple!”
• Problem is, there were so many nights this week where Monica’s like burning up, and I was actually cold because we had the A/C pumping. If Monica’s human, and I’m human, then which human is this human like? Is he hot, or is he cold?
• And I thought about it… it really stinks for Evan. He has no ability whatsoever, to help himself; to cover himself if he was cold, or to strip off blankets if he was hot. He doesn’t know how to.
• It doesn’t even cross his mind. He simply just cannot know how to adjust himself.
• He is utterly incompetent on his own. He has no clue how to do any of these things.
• At some point in our Christian lives, the bible says we are like infants who need to grow in our knowledge and understanding. But even before that, we are like fetuses who have no clue what the truth is, unless God opens up our understanding for us. He has to do enlighten us. We cannot figure it out on our own!
• You can study and investigate all you want, which you should do if you’re a non-believer. But ultimately God needs to reveal the truth and enlighten you with his light.
• You might think you get it here (in your mind), but God needs to enlighten you here (in your heart), so that you could understand it in a way where you actually embrace the truth as life.
• Jesus says “I AM the Light of the World. Follow me, and you will not walk in darkness.”
• For those of you who believe, you might be thinking, “It’s easy. The Gospel is so simple. Jesus died for my sins.”
• But realize, you were once a spiritual fetus that had no clue as to what the truth was.
• Can I remind you how much light Christ has shed on you. Think about how much grace was given to you.
• Do this for me right now. Take a step back. Peanut Butter Jelly time.
• You believe:
• There is only One God, but he’s three completely different persons.
• God, the indescribable, creator of the heavens and earth became man.
• God, the man, was born of a virgin, just divinely conceived, dwelling in a woman was God
• He turns 2 fish/5 loaves of bread to feed 5000 men, he spit in a dude’s eye and caused him to see! He walked on water.
• He died on a cross, and that death covers all the billions of sins committed… every sin your believing grandfather ever committed, every sin your believing grandchild will commit.
• You bank your eternity, you altar your life, on this understanding.
• And not only does he die, but resurrects! Not right away, 3 stinking days later!
• And he doesn’t just resuscitate, he goes up into heaven and all of a sudden this man beaten to death by man, is ruler over man AND all angels and demons and spirits in this universe.
• It’s foolishness I tell you!
• Please DO NOT tell me that that is easy for any normal human being to understand. Please do not try to tell me you understand that on your own.
• Somehow, God has enlightened you. The Light of Christ has revealed to you the truth, he’s opened your eyes to see.
• You could not do it on your own, you were completely helpless.
• You were a spiritual fetus before you were born again.
• But by the grace of God, like some of those guys in v. 30, you saw the Light and you were enabled to put your faith in him.
• Light reveals, and Light enlightens. Praise Jesus! Now, what else does light do?
2. Light leads and guides
• Jesus says “I am the Light of the World.” This is one of Jesus’ 7 “I AM” statements.
• In Exodus 3, God reveals himself to Moses and tells him to tell the people who he is.
• Moses says, “What shall I tell them when they ask who sent me?” And God said, “Tell them, I AM who I AM”. I AM is my name. IAM has sent you.
• It was the holy name of God. I AM was the God that was among them.
• And then I AM, or as we know it, YAHWEH, makes himself known physically by appearing before them in a Cloud by day, and a great Fire by night.
• His light from that fire was to guide them as they traveled through the dark wilderness.
• It was the presence of God among them, the light that led them and guided them.
• Here, Jesus comes among the people, and all of a sudden, in the midst of this great lighting ceremony that was lit in celebration to remember the time when Yahweh, the Great I AM, was among them shining his light…
• Jesus stands up once again and proclaims, “I AM the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
• AGAIN. Jesus, the boldness and audacity of the guy, claims to be the TRUE GOD who is among them, the Light of the World.
• What does light do? Light provides leading and guidance for those in darkness.
• What did God do for Israel? He led and guided them in the darkness.
• So if Jesus is the light, in what way is he the light?
• Jesus leads and guides the people into God’s truth.
• He is saying that in Him is truth. He is THE truth, personified. And if we follow after him, we will never walk in darkness. We will be saved from the darkness of sin and corruption.
• Now I want to point out something from this passage. Salvation is not one time belief in the truth. It is a lifetime of following.
• It isn’t just knowing, it’s doing. Just like we’ve learned before.
• Notice that Jesus says, that whoever “follows me”, will never walk in darkness.
• Whoever walks in the light, will not be in darkness. But the idea here is that we must be walking and following!
• EX: When we were in Taiwan, we went to a national park and decided to take a hike. ON the trail were these long tunnels cut through the mountain. It was already getting kind of dark outside, so when we entered these tunnels, it was absolutely black. Like, blacker than black. Have you ever been in a cave where there is absolutely no light? It’s the most eerie thing.
• Where you literally could not see your hand in front of your face. And I remember Monica was freaking out because it was getting dark, AND we’d have to go through these tunnels to get back.
• If I had a light, it makes little use for Monica to say “I Believe You have a light!” and that’s it.
• It wouldn’t even be of use for her to say, “I believe that you have the light, and you are the only way for me to get out of here safely!”
• The only way she would be able to escape the darkness, would be if she made the active decision to follow me step by step. To follow the light.
• When I turn right, she turns right. When I turn left, she turns left.
• If she follows me, and as long as she follows me, she will not walk in darkness. She will be walking in light.
• Jesus says “follow me”.
o Let me ask you, does he ever say “Acknowledge me”? Yes
o Matt 10:32"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.
o Does he ever say “Believe in Me”? Yes
o John 11:25 “Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies”
o But here he extends to the truth by saying you must ALSO follow me. Walk with me.
o If you follow him, you also acknowledge him and you also believe in him.
o This command to follow is the greatest commandment because it presupposes that you are already believing and have already acknowledged him.
• EX: Driving a car.
o I can tell you that in order to drive a car, you must have a key.
o I can also say that in order to drive a car, you must start the car.
o Which are both true. But you can have either of those, and you can still to be driving a car!
o But if I say, in order to drive a car, you must be able to press the gas peddle to move a car, it is the ultimate requirement.
o It’s true that you need a key, and it’s true that you must start the car. These are absolutely necessary. But if you don’t press the gas peddle, the car ain’t moving!
• We must believe, we must acknowledge that Jesus is the truth… but we must start following him and walking according to his ways, or we will still be standing in darkness.
• Now, will you respond and follow him? Will you walk the rest of your life in the light by following Jesus?
• CLOSING: I want to close by leaving you with a challenge.
• Many weeks ago I challenged you with a 7 day challenge of living in obedience. I don’t know how many of you guys tried it, but I did.
• And I learned a lot. In fact, I wrote a list of reflections on the challenge.
• I won’t give you the whole list now, But one thing I learned is that you really have to be intentional and really think about what Jesus has said and what he has taught.
• I want to challenge you again to another 7-day challenge. And it’s very much like the last one.
• But instead of asking at the end of the day, “What did I do in obedience to Christ today”, I want you to ask yourself throughout the day, at every significant decision you’re faced with… “How Would Jesus Lead Me in this?”
• WWJD: Many years ago, there was this huge fad where everyone had these braclets and stickers and bible cases that said WWJD? And it was a challenge to ask yourself in each situation, What would Jesus Do?
• I remember Ted talking about how he didn’t like the whole concept. Why? Because it doesn’t matter what Jesus would do… WE”RE NOT JESUS.
• It’s like if I were a basketball coach and I gave you each a WWJD bracelet, What Would Jordan Do?
• So in the last 10 seconds of the game, we’re down by one, look at your wrist and ask yourself what Jordan would do.
• Well it doesn’t matter what he would do! He would soar above the rest, and on his way down, switch hands, rise again, and dunk on y’all. Cuz HE’s JORDAN. But you’re not. You can’t do that stuff.
• His point was, doesn’t matter what Jesus would do. If a guy was blind, Jesus would spit in the guys eye and cast the devil out and he’d see again!
• So my challenge is, don’t ask WWJD. Ask, HWJL. How would Jesus Lead?
• How would he want you, _____________, to live this decision out as a follower of Christ?
• And then go, and do it. God and just follow the light.
Friday, October 1, 2010
"For His Sake and Ours" John 6:1-15 - Kairo English Ministry
o This month is missions’ month here at SBECC.
o As you know, Kairo has the opportunity of doing ministry both in the inner city, as well as short-term missions overseas.
o Once a month we go to the homeless shelter in Long Beach. We also work occasionally with Powerhouse Church in Watts.
o Once a year we also travel to teach the Gospel in Taiwan.
o But today, I want to share with you something I’ve learned that is more important than the missions and ministry itself.
o It is a principle that applies to every kind of ministry we do, whether at home, or abroad; in the city or on the hill.
INTRO-LBRM
o Back in college, I used to have this prayer that I would always pray.
o “God, I want to reach many, many people for your kingdom. Give me opportunities.”
o I didn’t have in mind what that was going to look like. I just knew that I wanted God to use me as an instrument to bring people into the kingdom. I just wanted opportunities to share the gospel.
o There’s a weird thing that happens when you pray.
o At the time, my dad used to preach monthly at the LBRM. I think it was actually PCC’s ministry at first.
o He always asked me to go with him, but uh-uh. Wasn’t for me.
o At the LBRM, you have a whole bunch of scary looking guys, many of them are homeless. Every night they come to eat and find shelter.
o Before they are fed with food, they are fed with the word.
o So around 100 men or so will come pouring into the sanctuary to receive the word.
o In 2003, my dad was called to go to SF to pastor a church, and so he asked me to go speak for the LBRM.
o At once I began to weep. These weren’t tears of joy. I ain’t that holy.
o I was terrified. I’m this 23 year old kid straight out of college. I’m just a little boy to some of these guys.
o Who am I to tell men 2-3x older than me how to live and what they need in their life? What do I have to offer? What do I have to give?
o But I realized that this is exactly what I had been praying for... an opportunity to reach the multitude.
o This morning, we’re looking at a passage where Jesus uses a little boy to reach multitudes.
o How? Well, by taking what the boy had to offer.
John 6:1-14
1. God wants to Use You for His Name Sake
o God is jealous for His own Name. For his own glory. This is his Mission. To make his name known.
o I was asked by a church recently to preach about the boy in the Bible who had 2 fish and 5 loaves, and to prepare a biographical sermon about him.
o As I began to study, I started to worry because there’s only one verse in the whole Bible about this boy!
o The feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle recorded by all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
o This miracle in Jesus’ ministry is extremely significant.
o But the boy is only mentioned in one of the gospel accounts- John’s- and in only one verse of this one account!
o Here it is: in V. 9 Andrew says “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish…”
o And as I began to read over the passage, I began to wonder “So how in the world do I preach a sermon about a boy who we know so little about?”
o Well, as I prayed and read through this passage, it became clear to me how to preach this story.
o Something the boy probably came to realize.
o Whether or not the boy became a believer, the boy probably now realizes that his offering of his 2fish/5loaves was NOT about him.
o It was for a greater purpose, even greater than just providing food for thousands of people…
o It was for His NAME sake. For the sake of Jesus’ name. For the sake of His glory.
o This story really isn’t about the boy at all, nor is it about the people. It’s about Jesus! The name of Jesus.
o V. 14 calls this a feeding of 5000 a “miracle”.
o In the Greek the word for miracle is “semeion”, literally, a “sign”.
o What is a sign? A sign labels something and marks it as distinct from everything else. It points out something significant about whatever it is assigned to.
o EX: Do we have any visitors today? How did he know that this structure made of concrete walls is SBECC? By the sign that marked this place. It distinguished it as not a Jewish Temple, not a Mormon church, but SBECC. South Bay Evangelical Christian Church.
o The miracles of Jesus were signs, as John called them, to mark him as, Christ, is the divine Son of God.
o They point to him as the one sent by the Father. He’s the Lamb of God.
o In the same way, when God uses us in missions or in ministry, we realize that we are to be sign posts pointing not to us, but to the Savior of the world.
o That’s JESUS! Call on his name!
o God wants to use us for HIS NAME SAKE. For the glory of his name.
o But it’s hard isn’t it. We love to have our own name glorified, don’t we?
“Oh, so and so is such a great bible study leader. He is so wise and has so much insight.”
“Oh, so and so’s testimonies are always so powerful and touching.”
“So and so is such a wonderful singer, her voice is so angelic!”
o EX: Retreat I was at a retreat this past year, and during free time we had 3 hours to spend.
I was so touched that one of the youth spent most of his free time with me.
People don’t usually go out of their way to spend time with the speaker, and it can get lonely.
At the end of free time, he said “So do you think maybe you can mention my name in one of your sermons?”
?!!! That’s why you hung out with me?!
o If the boy in John 6 was anything like us, he must have felt pretty proud of himself, pretty special to have his little lunch be “the” lunch that was able to provide a filling for well over 5000 people.
o “It was my lunch that saved the day. It was my sacrifice.”
o But I can imagine that as the boy grew up, and as he read some of the reports written by people like Matthew, Mark, or Luke…
o It must have been crushing to find out that his name didn’t make the headlines.
o Crushed by news that… he didn’t make the news.
o There were no stories circulating titled “Boy feeds 5000”.
o Why? Because the boy didn’t feed 5000. Jesus did.
o History does not remember the name of this boy. Matthew, Mark, and Luke didn’t find it significant enough to even mention him.
o History remembers this incredible miracle as the time when “Jesus fed the 5000”.
o It was a sign that pointed to Jesus as the almighty one.
o It is his name that is glorified.
o Do we realize that what we have to offer and sacrifice is not to bring glory to ourselves?
o That we are not to touch the glory?
o Whether it’s short term missions, or long term missions, or serving at home in church… It’s not to advance my name?
o We know that this story isn’t about the boy at all, it’s about Jesus! We know that.
o But why is it when it comes to our story and our role in all of this, we still hope that our name gets remembered! That our name gets mentioned? Our name gets glorified?
o I wonder why it’s so hard for me to get.
EX: John 1, John the Baptist Jack preached a couple weeks ago about John the Baptist.
o And he showed how John understood who he was, and he understood who Jesus was. HE GOT IT.
o When people were drawn to him and the Chief priests started inquiring about him:
o “Are you the Christ?” The anointed One sent by God? “No.”
o “Are you Elijah? The man of God who is to return?” “No.”
o “Are you The Prophet? With a capital P, that Moses prophesied to come?” “No.”
o It’s exhilirating when people think you’re really something, even if you’re not, doesn’t it? And we’re not often very quick to deflect the glory to God.
EX: I sometimes get to speak at Korean churches. I’ve noticed that they hold the speaker in high regard. Even though I am not ordained as a pastor, or even finished with seminary, they always address me as “Pastor”. I ask them to just call me Greg, they say “Ok Pastor Greg.”
I have to be honest, the sin in me loves to hear that title attached to my name.
Recently, I received a phone call, and the person asked if they can speak with the “Reverend” Greg Mah.
And I have to tell you the truth, it felt good. And there was a struggle within my soul.
I was flattered, and tempted to let the person continue thinking that I was worthy of the title “Reverend”.
Finally, I had to come forth and struggled to say to her, “Please just call me Greg.”
It felt good while it lasted.
o I want to highlight v. 21. John the Baptist did not hesitate to point these guys in the RIGHT direction.
o He says, “NO! not me!”
o “There is one who comes of whose thongs of his sandals I am not worthy of untying!”
o I’m not even worthy enough to touch those dirty feet that he walks on!
o I’m reminded of others who have encountered God, and have come to experience and understand the holiness of God’s Glory.
EX: Paul as deity
o IN Acts 14, Paul healed a crippled man, and at once, the whole crowd was in uproar. They thought that Paul and Barnabas were deity, so they all brought wreaths and bulls and sacrifices to offer to these deities.
o What does Paul do? He tears his clothes, which means great distress, and he says “Men, why are you doing this?! Don’t do this! I am a man, just like you!” And he tries desperately to turn them to the Living God.
EX: Angel and John
o In Rev 19 and 22, two separate occasions.
o An Angel of the Lord is showing John the glorious things of God in Heaven, and John is overwhelmed and he immediately as a natural reaction fell down at the feet of the angel and started worshipping.
o And the Angel, who understood the holiness of God, said “DON’T DO IT! I am a servant, just like you. Worship God!”
o Paul and the angel both experienced the awesomeness of God’s glory, and at any moment when someone was tempted to give them glory, in holy fear they immediately cried out to their worshippers, DON’T DO it!!!
o It wasn’t like, “oh no, Praise God, you’re too kind”. It was DON’T DO IT. I’m just like you. Lift up JESUS!”
EX: Herod
o Then there’s that story in Acts 12. King Herod gives a speech and he wins over the hearts of the people.
o And they shout out, “Here is the voice of a god!” 21On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. And Herod didn’t do much to redirect any praise. He just soaked it in. And “Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.”
o Do NOT touch his glory.
o He will use us, on missions and in ministry, but for HIS name sake!
o He is exalted, The king is exalted.
o God may send us on missions, but his ultimate mission is that his name is exalted.
o How can we be sign posts pointing people to God, to exalt his name?
o
o In Jn 6, We don’t know who this boy who offered his lunch is.
o And I don’t know if the boy humbly stepped out of the scene to leave Christ in the spotlight, or if that’s just the way history wrote it.
o But for us, that’s how it will go down.
o God wants to use you on his mission, but for His name sake. Our story is about Jesus.
o At the end of this age, when Christ comes in all his glory, the Bible says that every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that “Jesus Christ” is Lord.
o At that time, our short-term trips to Taiwan, or our serving at Long Beach Rescue Mission, will not be on people’s minds. They will be too overwhelmed with His Majesty and glory.
o But we pray that with the opportunities that God has given us to go, we will have been faithful to point people to Jesus Christ, the name above all names.
o And we pray that those bowing down and confessing Christ as Lord with us, will be some of those we were able to point to Christ.
2. God wants to use you for Your sake.
o Here’s the graciousness of God in glorifying His own name:
o He will use us and bless us in the process.
o Not for the glory of our name, but for the deepening of our faith. For our Faith sake.
o I hate to break it to you...God can glorify himself without us, no problem. He doesn’t NEED us.
o EX: Feeding with Manna. The feeding of the 5000 is one of the most famous miracles. But what about the feeding of the 600,000 men who Moses led out of Egypt?
o (That was just the number of men. People estimate the Exodus to be 2-3 million Israelites. )
o God brought bread called manna from out of nothing to feed the Israelites, not just for one meal, but for 40 years!! That’s 14,600 days of food God provided. Assuming they ate 3x/day, that’s 43,800 meals!
o And all this out of nothing to start with!
o No offence to the little boy, but Jesus didn’t need his fish and bread to perform a miracle.
o GOD DOESN’T NEED US to do miraculous wonders that Glorify Himself.
o He doesn’t need us to feed the needy, in LA or LB.
o He doesn’t need us to go overseas to save the nations, Taiwan or Japan.
o But God graciously CHOOSES to use us. He chose to use the boy’s fish and bread.
o I think a secondary reason was for the sake of the boy.
o To take him, and the disciples, deeper into their faith in who Jesus is.
o God’s primary mission in all the earth is to make his name known, but sometimes He chooses to use you when doing things for His name sake.
o So that our knowledge of who he is would grow. So that your faith in His power would grow. So that ultimately our love for him will grow.
o There’s something powerful about watching a man multiply 2fish/5loaves…
o But it’s significantly more powerful for you to watch…when it’s YOUR fish and bread that’s he multiplying!
o I’m certain that the thousands of people there, and the disciples, were changed by the experience when they saw Jesus multiply the food.
o But I suspect that the boy’s faith was impacted more so than the rest of the 5000 who were fed.
o Why? Cuz it was his offering that Jesus took and multiplied!
o There are many opportunities to witness the power of God at work, it’s all around us.
o But it seems most powerful you when God chooses to take you and uses what you have to offer.
o Ex: Taiwan Team
o Last year during this time, I showed a video to you of something that happened on our Taiwan trip.
o It was the video where Mona and Foster accepted Christ, and we were all jumping and celebrating.
o I showed that video last year to the Chinese congregation.
o Some people told me afterward they were so touched that they were crying.
o I showed it to the English ministry. Same thing
o As moved and as joyful as Christians may be when they see and hear of this… I don’t know if anyone is as impacted as the 9 of us who were able to be used by God.
o Watching this video probably doesn’t cause you to go and invest your life into overseas missions.
o But the 9 of us short term missionaries watched God take what we had to offer: our time, energy, investment, gifts and testimonies, and use it to speak truth into Mona and Foster’s life.
o And when we saw God use it to bring others into the Kingdom, God’s name was glorified, but man were we deeply and personally impacted by it. We were blessed by it.
o Clam go to share this morning to the CM how the trips personally impacted her, in a way no one else who simply heard about our trip were impacted.
o God was using us in Taiwan for His Name sake,
o but chose to use us also for our sake, for the strengthening of our faith.
Closing
o When my dad asked me to do LBRM, I ran to my room and like a DQ fell to my knees as I wept. My dad came after me and we prayed together.
o We prayed that God would use me and empower me to preach the gospel.
o I went to LBRM. I was so terrified that I had 20 friends come with me. Not to watch me, but to sit and pray for me.
o Then came the part I dreaded: Altar call.
o 25-30 hands go up.
o Another 25 hands or so go up, and one by one people start coming forward.
o We didn’t even have enough man power to pray for everyone who needed prayer!
o God took the little that I had offer, and he used me that night.
o But he used me to Glorify Himself. He used me for his name sake.
o But He used the little I felt that I had to offer, and man was my faith in the power of God deepened.
o I often feel scared, nervous, and inadequate in particular opportunities to serve.
o I can’t tell you how often I return to that night at LBRM to be reminded of the power of God and his Sufficiency in our insufficiencies.
o We don’t know much about this little boy in John 6.
o All we know is this…that he gave what he had to offer at the moment.
o Offer all that you have to the Lord, whether great or small. It all belongs to him anyways.
o Whether it’s your finances or possessions, your gifts and abilities, maybe it’s your time and your energy.
o The most selfish thing you can do is to completely surrender all that you have to God.
o He will bless you in doing so. Your faith will be made strong. He will use you for your sake.
o 1 Tim 3:13 “Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.”
o But most imortantly, God WILL be glorified, He WILL be exalted among the nations.
o As you know, Kairo has the opportunity of doing ministry both in the inner city, as well as short-term missions overseas.
o Once a month we go to the homeless shelter in Long Beach. We also work occasionally with Powerhouse Church in Watts.
o Once a year we also travel to teach the Gospel in Taiwan.
o But today, I want to share with you something I’ve learned that is more important than the missions and ministry itself.
o It is a principle that applies to every kind of ministry we do, whether at home, or abroad; in the city or on the hill.
INTRO-LBRM
o Back in college, I used to have this prayer that I would always pray.
o “God, I want to reach many, many people for your kingdom. Give me opportunities.”
o I didn’t have in mind what that was going to look like. I just knew that I wanted God to use me as an instrument to bring people into the kingdom. I just wanted opportunities to share the gospel.
o There’s a weird thing that happens when you pray.
o At the time, my dad used to preach monthly at the LBRM. I think it was actually PCC’s ministry at first.
o He always asked me to go with him, but uh-uh. Wasn’t for me.
o At the LBRM, you have a whole bunch of scary looking guys, many of them are homeless. Every night they come to eat and find shelter.
o Before they are fed with food, they are fed with the word.
o So around 100 men or so will come pouring into the sanctuary to receive the word.
o In 2003, my dad was called to go to SF to pastor a church, and so he asked me to go speak for the LBRM.
o At once I began to weep. These weren’t tears of joy. I ain’t that holy.
o I was terrified. I’m this 23 year old kid straight out of college. I’m just a little boy to some of these guys.
o Who am I to tell men 2-3x older than me how to live and what they need in their life? What do I have to offer? What do I have to give?
o But I realized that this is exactly what I had been praying for... an opportunity to reach the multitude.
o This morning, we’re looking at a passage where Jesus uses a little boy to reach multitudes.
o How? Well, by taking what the boy had to offer.
John 6:1-14
1. God wants to Use You for His Name Sake
o God is jealous for His own Name. For his own glory. This is his Mission. To make his name known.
o I was asked by a church recently to preach about the boy in the Bible who had 2 fish and 5 loaves, and to prepare a biographical sermon about him.
o As I began to study, I started to worry because there’s only one verse in the whole Bible about this boy!
o The feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle recorded by all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
o This miracle in Jesus’ ministry is extremely significant.
o But the boy is only mentioned in one of the gospel accounts- John’s- and in only one verse of this one account!
o Here it is: in V. 9 Andrew says “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish…”
o And as I began to read over the passage, I began to wonder “So how in the world do I preach a sermon about a boy who we know so little about?”
o Well, as I prayed and read through this passage, it became clear to me how to preach this story.
o Something the boy probably came to realize.
o Whether or not the boy became a believer, the boy probably now realizes that his offering of his 2fish/5loaves was NOT about him.
o It was for a greater purpose, even greater than just providing food for thousands of people…
o It was for His NAME sake. For the sake of Jesus’ name. For the sake of His glory.
o This story really isn’t about the boy at all, nor is it about the people. It’s about Jesus! The name of Jesus.
o V. 14 calls this a feeding of 5000 a “miracle”.
o In the Greek the word for miracle is “semeion”, literally, a “sign”.
o What is a sign? A sign labels something and marks it as distinct from everything else. It points out something significant about whatever it is assigned to.
o EX: Do we have any visitors today? How did he know that this structure made of concrete walls is SBECC? By the sign that marked this place. It distinguished it as not a Jewish Temple, not a Mormon church, but SBECC. South Bay Evangelical Christian Church.
o The miracles of Jesus were signs, as John called them, to mark him as, Christ, is the divine Son of God.
o They point to him as the one sent by the Father. He’s the Lamb of God.
o In the same way, when God uses us in missions or in ministry, we realize that we are to be sign posts pointing not to us, but to the Savior of the world.
o That’s JESUS! Call on his name!
o God wants to use us for HIS NAME SAKE. For the glory of his name.
o But it’s hard isn’t it. We love to have our own name glorified, don’t we?
“Oh, so and so is such a great bible study leader. He is so wise and has so much insight.”
“Oh, so and so’s testimonies are always so powerful and touching.”
“So and so is such a wonderful singer, her voice is so angelic!”
o EX: Retreat I was at a retreat this past year, and during free time we had 3 hours to spend.
I was so touched that one of the youth spent most of his free time with me.
People don’t usually go out of their way to spend time with the speaker, and it can get lonely.
At the end of free time, he said “So do you think maybe you can mention my name in one of your sermons?”
?!!! That’s why you hung out with me?!
o If the boy in John 6 was anything like us, he must have felt pretty proud of himself, pretty special to have his little lunch be “the” lunch that was able to provide a filling for well over 5000 people.
o “It was my lunch that saved the day. It was my sacrifice.”
o But I can imagine that as the boy grew up, and as he read some of the reports written by people like Matthew, Mark, or Luke…
o It must have been crushing to find out that his name didn’t make the headlines.
o Crushed by news that… he didn’t make the news.
o There were no stories circulating titled “Boy feeds 5000”.
o Why? Because the boy didn’t feed 5000. Jesus did.
o History does not remember the name of this boy. Matthew, Mark, and Luke didn’t find it significant enough to even mention him.
o History remembers this incredible miracle as the time when “Jesus fed the 5000”.
o It was a sign that pointed to Jesus as the almighty one.
o It is his name that is glorified.
o Do we realize that what we have to offer and sacrifice is not to bring glory to ourselves?
o That we are not to touch the glory?
o Whether it’s short term missions, or long term missions, or serving at home in church… It’s not to advance my name?
o We know that this story isn’t about the boy at all, it’s about Jesus! We know that.
o But why is it when it comes to our story and our role in all of this, we still hope that our name gets remembered! That our name gets mentioned? Our name gets glorified?
o I wonder why it’s so hard for me to get.
EX: John 1, John the Baptist Jack preached a couple weeks ago about John the Baptist.
o And he showed how John understood who he was, and he understood who Jesus was. HE GOT IT.
o When people were drawn to him and the Chief priests started inquiring about him:
o “Are you the Christ?” The anointed One sent by God? “No.”
o “Are you Elijah? The man of God who is to return?” “No.”
o “Are you The Prophet? With a capital P, that Moses prophesied to come?” “No.”
o It’s exhilirating when people think you’re really something, even if you’re not, doesn’t it? And we’re not often very quick to deflect the glory to God.
EX: I sometimes get to speak at Korean churches. I’ve noticed that they hold the speaker in high regard. Even though I am not ordained as a pastor, or even finished with seminary, they always address me as “Pastor”. I ask them to just call me Greg, they say “Ok Pastor Greg.”
I have to be honest, the sin in me loves to hear that title attached to my name.
Recently, I received a phone call, and the person asked if they can speak with the “Reverend” Greg Mah.
And I have to tell you the truth, it felt good. And there was a struggle within my soul.
I was flattered, and tempted to let the person continue thinking that I was worthy of the title “Reverend”.
Finally, I had to come forth and struggled to say to her, “Please just call me Greg.”
It felt good while it lasted.
o I want to highlight v. 21. John the Baptist did not hesitate to point these guys in the RIGHT direction.
o He says, “NO! not me!”
o “There is one who comes of whose thongs of his sandals I am not worthy of untying!”
o I’m not even worthy enough to touch those dirty feet that he walks on!
o I’m reminded of others who have encountered God, and have come to experience and understand the holiness of God’s Glory.
EX: Paul as deity
o IN Acts 14, Paul healed a crippled man, and at once, the whole crowd was in uproar. They thought that Paul and Barnabas were deity, so they all brought wreaths and bulls and sacrifices to offer to these deities.
o What does Paul do? He tears his clothes, which means great distress, and he says “Men, why are you doing this?! Don’t do this! I am a man, just like you!” And he tries desperately to turn them to the Living God.
EX: Angel and John
o In Rev 19 and 22, two separate occasions.
o An Angel of the Lord is showing John the glorious things of God in Heaven, and John is overwhelmed and he immediately as a natural reaction fell down at the feet of the angel and started worshipping.
o And the Angel, who understood the holiness of God, said “DON’T DO IT! I am a servant, just like you. Worship God!”
o Paul and the angel both experienced the awesomeness of God’s glory, and at any moment when someone was tempted to give them glory, in holy fear they immediately cried out to their worshippers, DON’T DO it!!!
o It wasn’t like, “oh no, Praise God, you’re too kind”. It was DON’T DO IT. I’m just like you. Lift up JESUS!”
EX: Herod
o Then there’s that story in Acts 12. King Herod gives a speech and he wins over the hearts of the people.
o And they shout out, “Here is the voice of a god!” 21On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. And Herod didn’t do much to redirect any praise. He just soaked it in. And “Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.”
o Do NOT touch his glory.
o He will use us, on missions and in ministry, but for HIS name sake!
o He is exalted, The king is exalted.
o God may send us on missions, but his ultimate mission is that his name is exalted.
o How can we be sign posts pointing people to God, to exalt his name?
o
o In Jn 6, We don’t know who this boy who offered his lunch is.
o And I don’t know if the boy humbly stepped out of the scene to leave Christ in the spotlight, or if that’s just the way history wrote it.
o But for us, that’s how it will go down.
o God wants to use you on his mission, but for His name sake. Our story is about Jesus.
o At the end of this age, when Christ comes in all his glory, the Bible says that every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that “Jesus Christ” is Lord.
o At that time, our short-term trips to Taiwan, or our serving at Long Beach Rescue Mission, will not be on people’s minds. They will be too overwhelmed with His Majesty and glory.
o But we pray that with the opportunities that God has given us to go, we will have been faithful to point people to Jesus Christ, the name above all names.
o And we pray that those bowing down and confessing Christ as Lord with us, will be some of those we were able to point to Christ.
2. God wants to use you for Your sake.
o Here’s the graciousness of God in glorifying His own name:
o He will use us and bless us in the process.
o Not for the glory of our name, but for the deepening of our faith. For our Faith sake.
o I hate to break it to you...God can glorify himself without us, no problem. He doesn’t NEED us.
o EX: Feeding with Manna. The feeding of the 5000 is one of the most famous miracles. But what about the feeding of the 600,000 men who Moses led out of Egypt?
o (That was just the number of men. People estimate the Exodus to be 2-3 million Israelites. )
o God brought bread called manna from out of nothing to feed the Israelites, not just for one meal, but for 40 years!! That’s 14,600 days of food God provided. Assuming they ate 3x/day, that’s 43,800 meals!
o And all this out of nothing to start with!
o No offence to the little boy, but Jesus didn’t need his fish and bread to perform a miracle.
o GOD DOESN’T NEED US to do miraculous wonders that Glorify Himself.
o He doesn’t need us to feed the needy, in LA or LB.
o He doesn’t need us to go overseas to save the nations, Taiwan or Japan.
o But God graciously CHOOSES to use us. He chose to use the boy’s fish and bread.
o I think a secondary reason was for the sake of the boy.
o To take him, and the disciples, deeper into their faith in who Jesus is.
o God’s primary mission in all the earth is to make his name known, but sometimes He chooses to use you when doing things for His name sake.
o So that our knowledge of who he is would grow. So that your faith in His power would grow. So that ultimately our love for him will grow.
o There’s something powerful about watching a man multiply 2fish/5loaves…
o But it’s significantly more powerful for you to watch…when it’s YOUR fish and bread that’s he multiplying!
o I’m certain that the thousands of people there, and the disciples, were changed by the experience when they saw Jesus multiply the food.
o But I suspect that the boy’s faith was impacted more so than the rest of the 5000 who were fed.
o Why? Cuz it was his offering that Jesus took and multiplied!
o There are many opportunities to witness the power of God at work, it’s all around us.
o But it seems most powerful you when God chooses to take you and uses what you have to offer.
o Ex: Taiwan Team
o Last year during this time, I showed a video to you of something that happened on our Taiwan trip.
o It was the video where Mona and Foster accepted Christ, and we were all jumping and celebrating.
o I showed that video last year to the Chinese congregation.
o Some people told me afterward they were so touched that they were crying.
o I showed it to the English ministry. Same thing
o As moved and as joyful as Christians may be when they see and hear of this… I don’t know if anyone is as impacted as the 9 of us who were able to be used by God.
o Watching this video probably doesn’t cause you to go and invest your life into overseas missions.
o But the 9 of us short term missionaries watched God take what we had to offer: our time, energy, investment, gifts and testimonies, and use it to speak truth into Mona and Foster’s life.
o And when we saw God use it to bring others into the Kingdom, God’s name was glorified, but man were we deeply and personally impacted by it. We were blessed by it.
o Clam go to share this morning to the CM how the trips personally impacted her, in a way no one else who simply heard about our trip were impacted.
o God was using us in Taiwan for His Name sake,
o but chose to use us also for our sake, for the strengthening of our faith.
Closing
o When my dad asked me to do LBRM, I ran to my room and like a DQ fell to my knees as I wept. My dad came after me and we prayed together.
o We prayed that God would use me and empower me to preach the gospel.
o I went to LBRM. I was so terrified that I had 20 friends come with me. Not to watch me, but to sit and pray for me.
o Then came the part I dreaded: Altar call.
o 25-30 hands go up.
o Another 25 hands or so go up, and one by one people start coming forward.
o We didn’t even have enough man power to pray for everyone who needed prayer!
o God took the little that I had offer, and he used me that night.
o But he used me to Glorify Himself. He used me for his name sake.
o But He used the little I felt that I had to offer, and man was my faith in the power of God deepened.
o I often feel scared, nervous, and inadequate in particular opportunities to serve.
o I can’t tell you how often I return to that night at LBRM to be reminded of the power of God and his Sufficiency in our insufficiencies.
o We don’t know much about this little boy in John 6.
o All we know is this…that he gave what he had to offer at the moment.
o Offer all that you have to the Lord, whether great or small. It all belongs to him anyways.
o Whether it’s your finances or possessions, your gifts and abilities, maybe it’s your time and your energy.
o The most selfish thing you can do is to completely surrender all that you have to God.
o He will bless you in doing so. Your faith will be made strong. He will use you for your sake.
o 1 Tim 3:13 “Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.”
o But most imortantly, God WILL be glorified, He WILL be exalted among the nations.
Choose This Day- Rowland Heights Chinese Community Church
• Ted Ewing introduced my church to a place way up North called JH Ranch.
• JH Ranch has become for many of us our most favorite place to be in the world. It’s beautiful retreat place up in the mountains of Northern California.
• One year, I remember our whole group was so excited to get up there to spend a whole week.
• When we got there, after a 12 hour drive, we step out, and I wanted to get right back in and go home.
• It was the dead of summer, and it felt like 100 degrees of dry heat. I’m the type of guy who’s generally out going and excited to be around people, but when it’s that hot, I shut off and I don’t want to be around anyone. Don’t even talk to me.
• I pull some guys over to pray for me, because I’m seriously lacking the energy to want to be there.
• So as we’re praying, these bulls come charging us from behind the brushes! We get up and start taking off for our lives. Our hearts are beating and adrenaline is rushing!
• We said, “God you’re quick!” But we were half joking and decided to keep praying.
• As we were praying, I feel a drop of water hit my face. And I think the dude is spitting on me.
• But I feel it again, and we look up and it starts pouring down rain! We all run for cover because the clouds had come and the rain was pouring down.
• That day was a powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness to answer prayer.
• At the end of JH Ranch, Ted gave each of us a slice of a tree trunk. We were to write down what God showed us at JH Ranch as a memorial to what God has done.
• Every time we see these pieces of wood, we were to be reminded of what God had done.
1. Commemorate the Past (v. 1-13)
• Here’s Joshua, in the last of his days.
• He has literally fought the good fight, he has served the LORD faithfully.
• And as one of his last acts of leadership, he draws all the Israelite leaders, elders, judges, and officials together at a place called Shechem.
• Now Shechem was a landmark in Israelite history.
• Shechem was the very place where their patriarch, Jacob (Gen 35), was told by God to gather his household there and build and altar to God.
• Jacob and his household got rid of their idols and jewelry, and buried it right there at Shechem.
• And now, with all the praise that Joshua deserves, for a life well-lived, he gathers them not in his name or in his presence, but it says that they gather before the presence of God (v. 1)
• He gathers them at the end of his life, not to remember his life, but to remember the LORD. To commemorate Yahweh and his mighty works.
• And the LORD takes this generation of Israel down memory lane to remember how Yahweh has saved them time and time again.
• And not only does he save them from harm, but he blesses them in the process.
1. Do you Remember when God saved you?
• When he saved your Father Abraham, your most celebrated Patriarch, and he delivered him out of the Idolatry of your fathers?
• And not only did God save him, but God Blessed him by giving him many descendants?
2. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When he saved you from slavery out of the hand of the Egyptians and brought you out.
• When he saved you from the Egyptian army who trapped them up against the Red Sea, But God causes the sea to split for you and to crash on them?
3. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When God saved you from the hand of the Amorites.
• When the attacked you, God put them at your mercy.
• And not only did God save you, he Blessed you by giving you their land!
4. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When God saved you from Balak, who wanted to fight against you, and he sent Balaam to curse you.
• And not only did God save you, He blessed you by causing him to bless you again, and again and again.
5. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When God brought you across the Jordan and into Jericho, and saved you when the people there tried to fight you, along with the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites?
• And not only did God save you, but he blessed you over and over by giving you the land and abundance that you didn’t even labor for? They made the land abundant, and God gave it into your hands!
• God just delivers them over and over and over.
• And not only does he merely save them, just Blesses them over and over and over.
• Joshua calls the people to commemorate the past and remember what the Lord has done.
• Church, do you remember? it is good to remember what the Lord has done.
• We were discussing in Sunday school at my church, and one person asked, sometimes it’s so easy to forget how faithful and good God has been in our lives. How do we not forget it when things get hard?
• I raised my hand, and said “That’s easy. Just remember.”
• Brilliant, right?
• No but really, God has been so good to us, and his goodness and faithfulness is all around us, how do we keep from forgetting what God has done? Remember it.
• Be intentional and find ways to commemorate what God has done.
• God is good, amen? Has God been good to you? Amen?
• And he’s been good to me! But why is it that whenever I face my next struggle or trial in life, I forget all that the Lord has done for me and I weep and pout and feel so hopeless in this current situation?
• Why is it that when it gets miserably hot and nasty and I’m hating the world, do I forget about the times when God sent the rain and brought refreshing?
• The Israelites were gathered together to commemorate and remember the LORD, how time and time again he Saved them, and blessed them, Saved them, and Blessed them….
• What has the Lord done in your life? How will you remember? How has he saved you? How has he blessed you?
• We have to be intentional in our ways to stop occasionally and remember, to go back and be reminded of how faithful God has already been.
• PSALM 13: David cries out to the Lord in his distress. He’s on the brink of death, hanging on for his life, and he cries out “How long, oh Lord, How long?!”
• And after a whole prayer for venting and expressing his sorrow, he ends the Psalm with a song of Praise….
• He says “I will rejoice in his salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.”
• God had delivered David from death time and time again…. From men, from armies, from sickness, from lions and giants and bears!
• He decides to intentionally remind himself by singing to the Lord for how he has been good to him.
• Some of you are musical… write a song
• Some of you are journalist. Keep a journal, or maybe an online blog. I’ve started a blog to record things the Lord shows me or teaches me in my life. On there I have sections where I record answered prayers as God answers them to remind me of how he’s working in my life.
• Build a monument, collect a souvenir, write a poem, paint a picture.
• God has been so good, but it’s so easy to be blinded and stricken with a case of amnesia every time temptation or difficulty or suffering confronts us.
• Do you remember the God who has saved You?
• Do you remember, when God saw that you were his enemy, and he still gave you his Son to die for your sins?
• Do you remember when Christ died for you, was put in a grave, and three days later, God does the physically illogical and impossible by raising him up from the grave to conquer death for you, so that you would never have to perish?
• Do you remember the times where he not only saved you, but blessed you?
• How he keeps pouring out his grace upon you?
• When he gives you grace by gifting your spiritual gifts, when he gave you joy and peace and abundance of life? When he gave you eternal hope? When he changed your situation and has been making you into a new person?
• The LORD saw that it was important to gather the people together to remember the LORD in their life.
• Do you remember the Lord in your life?
1. Choose This day (v. 14-15)
• At this point, Joshua, begins to exhort the people.
• In the past, Jacob called his household together there at Shechem, and together they got rid of their idols and objects of worship of foreign gods, Joshua calls this generation of his to do the very same thing, right there at Shechem.
• He says “Throw away the gods of your forefathers, and serve the LORD. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the religion and gods of your ancestors, or the religion and the gods of this culture you live, the Amorites.
• Because everyone will worship someone.
• But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
• You have a choice today whom you will serve. You will serve someone, it’s in your nature.
• But you can’t serve everyone. You either serve God, or you serve the gods.
• Choose this day whom you will serve.
• You can serve the gods of your ancestors, or the gods of the culture around you.
• But for Joshua and his household, they’ve already made up their mind whom they will serve.
• Brothers and sisters, the LORD has been so good to us. Remember?
• Remember all the ways he has been faithful to you, and so gracious to you, and so powerful to work in your lives.
• We all have a different story in here, but for those of us who have by faith, believe in Jesus as the Son of God and savior of our souls, remember that he has saved us from the grips of sin and death.
• He has blessed us with everlasting life with our Creator and the lover of our souls.
• Not just a blessing for future events, but he has been blessing us since we made that commitment, time and time again.
• Some of us are temporarily blinded by temptation or suffering you are experiencing right now.
• But if we open our eyes and remember, we will see the faithfulness and graciousness of God in our lives.
• Choose this day whom you will serve.
• Is God worth it to you? Is he greater than anything else in your life?
• John Feng: I was deeply impressed by a prayer of one of the brothers from my church. He was praying one night, “God, help us to prefer you over everything else in life.”
• IF it comes down to sin, or God, I prefer God!
• If it comes down to money or God, I prefer God!
• If it comes down to popularity or God, I prefer God!
• If it’s between finding love from another person and God, I prefer God!
• If it’s between pornography and God, I prefer God.
• EX: FIREPROOF. I was blessed when I watched the movie Fireproof. In the movie, there’s this couple who’s marriage is about to break up.
• One of the reasons was because of his addiction to Internet pornography. In one scene, he’s struggling with temptation, but knowing that that stuff hurts his wife and kills her inside, he rips out his computer, takes it outside, and in a godly way, destroys it with a baseball bat.
• But the best part is that when she comes home, she sees on the desk where the computer used to be a vase of Roses, and a note that says “I Love You More”.
• So here’s this thing that he loves in his life, something that had taken great priority. And yet, he made a choice, and said, “NO, I love my Wife more. I prefer my wife.”
• Would you be able to place a note in place of the temptations and sin that you face, and say, “God, I love you more.”
• I’m willing to give this up, I’m willing to not to gossip/look at pornography/ use foul language/ watch these movies/ talk about that girl/ , because I love you more. I prefer YOU over sin.
• Guys, God is SO good, and He’s so Worth it. He deserves the first and greatest place in our lives.
• And he says, there should Be NO other gods before me. There should be nothing else in this life that takes greater place than Me.
• Not the things we love. Not the bad sinful things. Not even things that are good. Nothing is to take greater place than God.
• Joshua says in v. 14-15 “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
• Joshua is about to depart. He’s fought the good fight. He’s going on to be with Yahweh.
• And he lays it out before the people.
• “I’m not going to be with you much longer… make a choice this day. Who will you serve?
• Choose God.
2. Prepare for Tomorrow
• EX: Albert’s Step Dad: I have a friend named Albert who tells me an amazing story of how his step dad gave his life to Christ.
• One day in high school he felt the tremendous weight of his sin, and feeling guilty, left the dinner table and went to his room weeping.
• That night, a pastor in the city felt compelled to get a hold of this kid and get a hold of him. He finds him, and calls him, and tells him to come down to the church to meet him.
• Albert’s stepdad ran, not walked, ran to the church.
• That night, Albert’s stepdad learned about the forgiveness of God and gave his life to Christ.
• Imagine the scene: It’s like a rally or a revival meeting. And so the Israelites choose God, or at least they say.
• Joshua says choose this day whom you will serve, and they say “We choose God! We will serve the Lord!”
• They repeat the things Joshua highlighted and acknowledge how God has been so good and faithful to save them and bless them.
• Joshua tries to push back on them and says “You are not able to serve God! He is Holy and jealous for his glory. If you say that you will choose him and then forsake him, he will bring disaster upon you!”
• But they insist, and they say, “No way! We will serve the LORD!”
• So Joshua says “Fine, throw away all your gods right now and choose God.”
• And so Joshua builds an altar right there at Shechem under the oak, the same place where Jacob built his altar for his people, and it was to be a reminder and a witness of their covenant made to God that day.
• How many of us have made commitments to God before. How many of us have been quick to say “I choose this day to serve you! I give my life to you Lord!”
• But then sooner than later it’s back to the normal, mediocre life, living for self and chasing after the desires of this world.
• I have seen countless friends raise hands and a praise concert, commit their lives at a retreat, go down onto the field at a crusade, stand up at a revival meetings, and then quickly return to their old way of living.
• It’s a sad thing when people think that Christianity is merely praying a prayer or raising your hand at a Gospel meeting to ask Jesus into your heart.
• Coming to Christ is not a one time commitment, it’s a FULL TIME commitment.
• Jesus says in Luke 9:23 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
• We must daily choose God. Daily make the decision to follow him by faith and to follow hard after him.
• ISRAEL: A generation later, after these Israelites raised their hands to the Lord, and committed themselves to throwing away false god’s to follow after Yahweh, they are back where they started.
• In the next book, its stays that after Joshua died, “the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.” (Judges 2:13)
• It would do you good to be faced with the challenge of Joshua each day, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”
• In Heb 4:13 “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.”
a. What day is it today? It’s today.
b. When you wake up tomorrow, what day will it be to you? Today.
c. How about in a month? It’ll be today.
• Just as we are encouraged to encourage each other as long as it is called today, I want to challenge you to plan for tomorrow.
• You can plan for tomorrow, by committing to each new day.
• As long as it is called today, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”
• EX: Albert was chatting online, and his friend im’s him and says check out this website. It’s a website called Megan’s Law, where sex offenders and sexual molester’s are listed so that people may be aware and keep their family safe. So my friend, Albert, checks out the site and decides to check his city for any sex offenders. A few pop up. He clicks on one, and the information pops up. It’s his own address. Meaning that there is a registered sex offender living in his house. He clicks on other links, and finds out it’s his step-dad.
• That’s right, the one who came to Jesus and for a while was going to church.
• Turns out that he also cheated on his wife, Albert’s mom, multiple times.
• Brothers and sisters… Remember the LORD.
• Commemorate his faithfulness and goodness. Remember how he has saved you and blessed you over and over again.
• Choose this day whom you will serve. Throw away your idols and the things that contend for the affection of your heart. Choose God.
• And Plan for tomorrow. Plan for tomorrow by making a commitment to day, that each day, when you wake up, you will “Choose this day whom you will serve”.
• Then take up your cross, and follow him at all cost.
• JH Ranch has become for many of us our most favorite place to be in the world. It’s beautiful retreat place up in the mountains of Northern California.
• One year, I remember our whole group was so excited to get up there to spend a whole week.
• When we got there, after a 12 hour drive, we step out, and I wanted to get right back in and go home.
• It was the dead of summer, and it felt like 100 degrees of dry heat. I’m the type of guy who’s generally out going and excited to be around people, but when it’s that hot, I shut off and I don’t want to be around anyone. Don’t even talk to me.
• I pull some guys over to pray for me, because I’m seriously lacking the energy to want to be there.
• So as we’re praying, these bulls come charging us from behind the brushes! We get up and start taking off for our lives. Our hearts are beating and adrenaline is rushing!
• We said, “God you’re quick!” But we were half joking and decided to keep praying.
• As we were praying, I feel a drop of water hit my face. And I think the dude is spitting on me.
• But I feel it again, and we look up and it starts pouring down rain! We all run for cover because the clouds had come and the rain was pouring down.
• That day was a powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness to answer prayer.
• At the end of JH Ranch, Ted gave each of us a slice of a tree trunk. We were to write down what God showed us at JH Ranch as a memorial to what God has done.
• Every time we see these pieces of wood, we were to be reminded of what God had done.
1. Commemorate the Past (v. 1-13)
• Here’s Joshua, in the last of his days.
• He has literally fought the good fight, he has served the LORD faithfully.
• And as one of his last acts of leadership, he draws all the Israelite leaders, elders, judges, and officials together at a place called Shechem.
• Now Shechem was a landmark in Israelite history.
• Shechem was the very place where their patriarch, Jacob (Gen 35), was told by God to gather his household there and build and altar to God.
• Jacob and his household got rid of their idols and jewelry, and buried it right there at Shechem.
• And now, with all the praise that Joshua deserves, for a life well-lived, he gathers them not in his name or in his presence, but it says that they gather before the presence of God (v. 1)
• He gathers them at the end of his life, not to remember his life, but to remember the LORD. To commemorate Yahweh and his mighty works.
• And the LORD takes this generation of Israel down memory lane to remember how Yahweh has saved them time and time again.
• And not only does he save them from harm, but he blesses them in the process.
1. Do you Remember when God saved you?
• When he saved your Father Abraham, your most celebrated Patriarch, and he delivered him out of the Idolatry of your fathers?
• And not only did God save him, but God Blessed him by giving him many descendants?
2. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When he saved you from slavery out of the hand of the Egyptians and brought you out.
• When he saved you from the Egyptian army who trapped them up against the Red Sea, But God causes the sea to split for you and to crash on them?
3. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When God saved you from the hand of the Amorites.
• When the attacked you, God put them at your mercy.
• And not only did God save you, he Blessed you by giving you their land!
4. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When God saved you from Balak, who wanted to fight against you, and he sent Balaam to curse you.
• And not only did God save you, He blessed you by causing him to bless you again, and again and again.
5. Do you Remember when God Saved you?
• When God brought you across the Jordan and into Jericho, and saved you when the people there tried to fight you, along with the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites?
• And not only did God save you, but he blessed you over and over by giving you the land and abundance that you didn’t even labor for? They made the land abundant, and God gave it into your hands!
• God just delivers them over and over and over.
• And not only does he merely save them, just Blesses them over and over and over.
• Joshua calls the people to commemorate the past and remember what the Lord has done.
• Church, do you remember? it is good to remember what the Lord has done.
• We were discussing in Sunday school at my church, and one person asked, sometimes it’s so easy to forget how faithful and good God has been in our lives. How do we not forget it when things get hard?
• I raised my hand, and said “That’s easy. Just remember.”
• Brilliant, right?
• No but really, God has been so good to us, and his goodness and faithfulness is all around us, how do we keep from forgetting what God has done? Remember it.
• Be intentional and find ways to commemorate what God has done.
• God is good, amen? Has God been good to you? Amen?
• And he’s been good to me! But why is it that whenever I face my next struggle or trial in life, I forget all that the Lord has done for me and I weep and pout and feel so hopeless in this current situation?
• Why is it that when it gets miserably hot and nasty and I’m hating the world, do I forget about the times when God sent the rain and brought refreshing?
• The Israelites were gathered together to commemorate and remember the LORD, how time and time again he Saved them, and blessed them, Saved them, and Blessed them….
• What has the Lord done in your life? How will you remember? How has he saved you? How has he blessed you?
• We have to be intentional in our ways to stop occasionally and remember, to go back and be reminded of how faithful God has already been.
• PSALM 13: David cries out to the Lord in his distress. He’s on the brink of death, hanging on for his life, and he cries out “How long, oh Lord, How long?!”
• And after a whole prayer for venting and expressing his sorrow, he ends the Psalm with a song of Praise….
• He says “I will rejoice in his salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.”
• God had delivered David from death time and time again…. From men, from armies, from sickness, from lions and giants and bears!
• He decides to intentionally remind himself by singing to the Lord for how he has been good to him.
• Some of you are musical… write a song
• Some of you are journalist. Keep a journal, or maybe an online blog. I’ve started a blog to record things the Lord shows me or teaches me in my life. On there I have sections where I record answered prayers as God answers them to remind me of how he’s working in my life.
• Build a monument, collect a souvenir, write a poem, paint a picture.
• God has been so good, but it’s so easy to be blinded and stricken with a case of amnesia every time temptation or difficulty or suffering confronts us.
• Do you remember the God who has saved You?
• Do you remember, when God saw that you were his enemy, and he still gave you his Son to die for your sins?
• Do you remember when Christ died for you, was put in a grave, and three days later, God does the physically illogical and impossible by raising him up from the grave to conquer death for you, so that you would never have to perish?
• Do you remember the times where he not only saved you, but blessed you?
• How he keeps pouring out his grace upon you?
• When he gives you grace by gifting your spiritual gifts, when he gave you joy and peace and abundance of life? When he gave you eternal hope? When he changed your situation and has been making you into a new person?
• The LORD saw that it was important to gather the people together to remember the LORD in their life.
• Do you remember the Lord in your life?
1. Choose This day (v. 14-15)
• At this point, Joshua, begins to exhort the people.
• In the past, Jacob called his household together there at Shechem, and together they got rid of their idols and objects of worship of foreign gods, Joshua calls this generation of his to do the very same thing, right there at Shechem.
• He says “Throw away the gods of your forefathers, and serve the LORD. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the religion and gods of your ancestors, or the religion and the gods of this culture you live, the Amorites.
• Because everyone will worship someone.
• But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
• You have a choice today whom you will serve. You will serve someone, it’s in your nature.
• But you can’t serve everyone. You either serve God, or you serve the gods.
• Choose this day whom you will serve.
• You can serve the gods of your ancestors, or the gods of the culture around you.
• But for Joshua and his household, they’ve already made up their mind whom they will serve.
• Brothers and sisters, the LORD has been so good to us. Remember?
• Remember all the ways he has been faithful to you, and so gracious to you, and so powerful to work in your lives.
• We all have a different story in here, but for those of us who have by faith, believe in Jesus as the Son of God and savior of our souls, remember that he has saved us from the grips of sin and death.
• He has blessed us with everlasting life with our Creator and the lover of our souls.
• Not just a blessing for future events, but he has been blessing us since we made that commitment, time and time again.
• Some of us are temporarily blinded by temptation or suffering you are experiencing right now.
• But if we open our eyes and remember, we will see the faithfulness and graciousness of God in our lives.
• Choose this day whom you will serve.
• Is God worth it to you? Is he greater than anything else in your life?
• John Feng: I was deeply impressed by a prayer of one of the brothers from my church. He was praying one night, “God, help us to prefer you over everything else in life.”
• IF it comes down to sin, or God, I prefer God!
• If it comes down to money or God, I prefer God!
• If it comes down to popularity or God, I prefer God!
• If it’s between finding love from another person and God, I prefer God!
• If it’s between pornography and God, I prefer God.
• EX: FIREPROOF. I was blessed when I watched the movie Fireproof. In the movie, there’s this couple who’s marriage is about to break up.
• One of the reasons was because of his addiction to Internet pornography. In one scene, he’s struggling with temptation, but knowing that that stuff hurts his wife and kills her inside, he rips out his computer, takes it outside, and in a godly way, destroys it with a baseball bat.
• But the best part is that when she comes home, she sees on the desk where the computer used to be a vase of Roses, and a note that says “I Love You More”.
• So here’s this thing that he loves in his life, something that had taken great priority. And yet, he made a choice, and said, “NO, I love my Wife more. I prefer my wife.”
• Would you be able to place a note in place of the temptations and sin that you face, and say, “God, I love you more.”
• I’m willing to give this up, I’m willing to not to gossip/look at pornography/ use foul language/ watch these movies/ talk about that girl/ , because I love you more. I prefer YOU over sin.
• Guys, God is SO good, and He’s so Worth it. He deserves the first and greatest place in our lives.
• And he says, there should Be NO other gods before me. There should be nothing else in this life that takes greater place than Me.
• Not the things we love. Not the bad sinful things. Not even things that are good. Nothing is to take greater place than God.
• Joshua says in v. 14-15 “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
• Joshua is about to depart. He’s fought the good fight. He’s going on to be with Yahweh.
• And he lays it out before the people.
• “I’m not going to be with you much longer… make a choice this day. Who will you serve?
• Choose God.
2. Prepare for Tomorrow
• EX: Albert’s Step Dad: I have a friend named Albert who tells me an amazing story of how his step dad gave his life to Christ.
• One day in high school he felt the tremendous weight of his sin, and feeling guilty, left the dinner table and went to his room weeping.
• That night, a pastor in the city felt compelled to get a hold of this kid and get a hold of him. He finds him, and calls him, and tells him to come down to the church to meet him.
• Albert’s stepdad ran, not walked, ran to the church.
• That night, Albert’s stepdad learned about the forgiveness of God and gave his life to Christ.
• Imagine the scene: It’s like a rally or a revival meeting. And so the Israelites choose God, or at least they say.
• Joshua says choose this day whom you will serve, and they say “We choose God! We will serve the Lord!”
• They repeat the things Joshua highlighted and acknowledge how God has been so good and faithful to save them and bless them.
• Joshua tries to push back on them and says “You are not able to serve God! He is Holy and jealous for his glory. If you say that you will choose him and then forsake him, he will bring disaster upon you!”
• But they insist, and they say, “No way! We will serve the LORD!”
• So Joshua says “Fine, throw away all your gods right now and choose God.”
• And so Joshua builds an altar right there at Shechem under the oak, the same place where Jacob built his altar for his people, and it was to be a reminder and a witness of their covenant made to God that day.
• How many of us have made commitments to God before. How many of us have been quick to say “I choose this day to serve you! I give my life to you Lord!”
• But then sooner than later it’s back to the normal, mediocre life, living for self and chasing after the desires of this world.
• I have seen countless friends raise hands and a praise concert, commit their lives at a retreat, go down onto the field at a crusade, stand up at a revival meetings, and then quickly return to their old way of living.
• It’s a sad thing when people think that Christianity is merely praying a prayer or raising your hand at a Gospel meeting to ask Jesus into your heart.
• Coming to Christ is not a one time commitment, it’s a FULL TIME commitment.
• Jesus says in Luke 9:23 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
• We must daily choose God. Daily make the decision to follow him by faith and to follow hard after him.
• ISRAEL: A generation later, after these Israelites raised their hands to the Lord, and committed themselves to throwing away false god’s to follow after Yahweh, they are back where they started.
• In the next book, its stays that after Joshua died, “the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.” (Judges 2:13)
• It would do you good to be faced with the challenge of Joshua each day, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”
• In Heb 4:13 “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.”
a. What day is it today? It’s today.
b. When you wake up tomorrow, what day will it be to you? Today.
c. How about in a month? It’ll be today.
• Just as we are encouraged to encourage each other as long as it is called today, I want to challenge you to plan for tomorrow.
• You can plan for tomorrow, by committing to each new day.
• As long as it is called today, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”
• EX: Albert was chatting online, and his friend im’s him and says check out this website. It’s a website called Megan’s Law, where sex offenders and sexual molester’s are listed so that people may be aware and keep their family safe. So my friend, Albert, checks out the site and decides to check his city for any sex offenders. A few pop up. He clicks on one, and the information pops up. It’s his own address. Meaning that there is a registered sex offender living in his house. He clicks on other links, and finds out it’s his step-dad.
• That’s right, the one who came to Jesus and for a while was going to church.
• Turns out that he also cheated on his wife, Albert’s mom, multiple times.
• Brothers and sisters… Remember the LORD.
• Commemorate his faithfulness and goodness. Remember how he has saved you and blessed you over and over again.
• Choose this day whom you will serve. Throw away your idols and the things that contend for the affection of your heart. Choose God.
• And Plan for tomorrow. Plan for tomorrow by making a commitment to day, that each day, when you wake up, you will “Choose this day whom you will serve”.
• Then take up your cross, and follow him at all cost.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The End- Matthew 7:1-29 - Kairo YKS
Jesus is in the middle of his Famous Sermon on the Mount. If you notice, many pastors give 3 pt sermons. Jesus is the man. This sermon is like a 15 pt sermon! He talked about murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, revenge, giving, prayer, etc.
Here in Ch. 7, he wraps it up and give two last points, one on Judging, and one on Praying. Then he concludes with final challenges.
Judging Others (v. 1-6)
1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
6"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
Paul says in 1 Cor. 5 that we should judge other Christians, and here Jesus says “Do not judge.” Who’s right here? Should we listen to Paul, who’s pretty godly, or should we listen to Jesus, who’s pretty GOD? The answer is: YES.
There’s different kinds of judgment in the Bible.
Judging to correct- making known their wrong so you can help them be right. If you have a bad habit of murdering people, I would bring that up and make it an issue, so you would stop!
Judging to condemn- making known a person’s wrong and looking down on them for it. Before I knew Monica, we always went to this church, and she tells me she always thought I was dumb. Like literally dumb. So she was shocked when she found out that I actually study!
I judged a classmate of mine for missing a week of school. I started giving her a hard time, only to find out her mom died.
So which one is Jesus talking about in this passage? Judging to Condemn or Judging to Restore? Answer: YES!
He’s don’t judge people to condemn them, because you’re guilty too!
If you’re always judging people and looking down on them and pointing out their wrong just to point them out, people will tend to treat you the same.
First, They’re never going to listen to you,
And then they’ll point out your wrong and look down on you. Yeah, they’re a sinner, but so are you!
Jesus doesn’t say don’t judge at all. “Don’t take the speck out of your brothers eye at all”. Jesus says before you take that speck, that little piece of wood from you brothers eye, take that huge plank of wood from yours first.
Jesus says don’t judge a brother and look down on him, but we should care to judge a brother in order to help correct a his wrong,
But we must first correct ourselves before expecting to help him with his problem.
Perhaps this way people will be willing to listen to us, because we’ve gone through it.
Plus, when you struggle to turn from your sin, then you might understand why it’s so hard for them. You’ll start to have more compassion for them because you know that it’s not an easy thing.
Here’s the thing… when something someone does really bothers us, and then we stop to examine ourselves before we go to bring up other people’s wrongs, we’ll find that we are guilty ourselves, and often times it’s the very same things!
EX: David and Nathan.
Do you remember when King David sinned? He sinned by taking Bathsheba, who was married to another man named Uriah. David was the king, he had concubines and could have had any wife he wanted. But he takes Uriahs! And then he gets Uriah killed in battle to cover it up and so that he could marry her.
So his friend Nathan comes to him, and tells him a story:
David was furious! “As surely as the LORD lives! This knuckle head deserves to die! He needs to pay four times over!
And Nathan says, David, you are the man. “Not YOU are the man!”
He didn’t realize that the sin that made him so angry was the sin that he himself was guilty of.
EX: Internet in Class. You know what I hate? When I’m in class, and I see other people checking websites like espn.com, myspace, email. I get so angry. And I would totally raise my hand and tell on them, but I can’t, cuz I need to finish updating my facebook.
A lot of times we are hypocrites, because we see flaws in other people, when we often have the flaws ourselves. We want to get rid of it in others, but fail to recognize our own need.
When someone does something that really bothers us, let’s stop first to let God search us to see if there’s anything we need to correct.
Sometimes God shows us another person’s flaws to get our attention regarding our own.
And when our sin is taken care of and realize the battle involved, then go and help your friend take care of his.
Ask, Seek, Knock (v. 7-12)
7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Did I just read what I think I read? That God will give us whatever we ask? That we just have to ask, and it will be given to us?
EX: When I was in college we were going on our Mexico trip.
We need our DL to go, but the day before as I was going home, I couldn’t find it. It was gone!
Wouldn’t it be great if I open my wallet and BAM! It’s there?
I was praying, God I know you can make it appear. Up to the last minute, after checking everywhere, I got on the freeway and that was it. I went home without it.
Jesus says 7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Meaning that you just have to ask God, and he’ll answer you.
Is that really true? This is a bold statement by Jesus. If you ask, you will receive?
What’s the catch? Well, did you catch the phrase in this promise?
(V. 11) the “Father in heaven will give good things to those who ask him.
That means if we ask for things that are good in God’s eyes, he’ll give it to you, if not, something better! He won’t give you something bad if you ask for something good!
He won’t give you stone instead of bread, or a snake instead of fish.
Ex: Bible and the Sports Car. The son who wanted a sports car, but got a Bible instead.
His father wanted to give him something good, but not just “good” in his sons eyes, but even greater.
In James 4, he says that we fight and quarrel because we don’t have what we want. He says we don’t have what we want because we don’t ask God!
But then he says, “Sometimes you ask, but you don’t receive. That’s because you asked with the wrong motives.
But Jesus says that when we ask for things that are good, The father loves to give good things to his children!
How do we know what things are good according to God?
The more we spend time with God, and read his word, and talk to him in prayer, the more we know him and the things He likes and dislikes, and the things that please him.
EX: If we pray like ‘God, please provide for us so that we can go on missions this summer to help the needy. We need $5000 so please help me to somehow find a bag of crack so I can sell it on the streets and raise enough money.
Now that’s way out of line. Way out of line of God’s idea of good.
I know it’s kind of silly, but I think we’d be surprised if we play a tape recording of some of our prayers
EX: when I was a Freshmen in high school, this is how mature and profound I was. I used to pray “God, please help all the girls to like me.” He’s still waiting to get back to me on that one.
So how can we know what things are good? The more we study God’s word and the teachings of Christ, the deeper we will understand the heart of God and what is good.
15 years later, I no longer pray prayers like “Please help the girls to like me.”
Come to God and ask, and if it’s good, you will receive, seek and find, knock and it will open.
It might not be in the way you imagined, or even the way you thought was best, but if it’s good according to God, He is faithful and good to give you what you ask for!
EX:
That night I went to church kind of bummed. I Couldn’t help think about it during church worship and BS.
He didn’t make my DL appear. I mean, isn’t missions good? Why wouldn’t he answer my prayer?
After church, about 10:30, I went down to get some food, and my dad was there!
He said, you got a letter in the mail. That’s weird, cuz Dad never checks mail.
I open it, and it’s my DL! Someone found it and mail it to my home address!
Ask, seek, knock. It might not be in the way we expect, but his will be done!
Conclusion
Jesus just finished his famous sermon, which we call the sermon on the mount. He’s talked about the beatitudes, the law, oaths to murder, adultery, divorce, revenge, giving, prayer, fasting, treasures, worrying, judging, asking. And now he’s coming to a close.
And of course every good sermon ends with an invitation. Kind of like “What are you going to do now? How will you respond?
Jesus closes with a series of 2’s: 2 Paths, 2 Prophets, 2 Practices. You gotta choose one.
Two Paths- The Narrow and the Wide (v. 13-14)
13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Ex: Disneyland door. When you go to Disneyland, this is crazy, but I walked through the castle door before. Everyone walks through that big door, and they think they’re going to enjoy everything in there. But there’s a small door that if you look for it, you will find it. If you find it, which few do, you can walk through the beautifully decorated and illustrated tour of the castle, the inside of the Kingdom.
The door to eternal life isn’t the default path that everyone is headed toward. Everyone is headed toward hell, the path of death and destruction. But if there is a door, a path to life. But if you look for the path to life, and you really seek it, you will find it. How?
Ask, it will be given.
Seek and you will find.
Knock, and the door will be opened.
Christ says I am the way. I am the gate. If you ask, you won’t be rejected. You can choose to go the way most people seem to be going, where it seems fun and entertaining.
Or you can go the less popular way, in the way of Christ, and find out there’s much more there than the world can ask for.
Which path will you choose?
Two Prophets- The Good and the Bad (v. 15- -23)
15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
Jesus just finished giving a long sermon, with all kinds of teachings from the law. And people are mesmerized by his teaching.
And as he closes, he says, be careful who you listen to. Many people will come dressed as nice people who want to lead you, but some are really out to devour you.
They want to control you, or take from you, or cause you to do things according to their selfish motives.
Jesus says that not everyone who seems good and seems like they do great things for God are truly known by God. Although they may lead great churches and seem like super Christians, some have never really come to know God.
“But Jesus, wouldn’t that put you on the spot, and make them doubt you? How do they know you’re of God?”
Christ says, by their fruit. By the way that they live. If they bear good fruit and the things they do and say are according to God, then you know that they are a good tree.
A bad teacher cannot live a good Christian life. If he can, he’s probably a good Christian.
But a good Christian isn’t just what you see on Sundays at Church or Friday nights. A good Christian is what you see Monday through Friday, behind the scenes and in front of the scenes.
Be careful who you follow. Watch their life closely, and choose whom you will follow.
Two Practices- The Hearer and the Doer (v. 24-29)
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
28When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
EX: When I was little, I used to love to build sand castles. What’s like the given rule to sand castles? When you build it, it will come, meaning the waves always come and wash it away. Even when you think you’re far enough away, there’s this one way that seems to find you.
I was at a retreat last week, and we stayed in a Beach house. But Beach house is an understatement, because this house was so close to the ocean. When it’s lowtide, the water level is low and you can see the sand and it’s like a beach. But when it’s high tide, the waves are literally crashing against the concrete wall that the house is built on. There’s pictures of massive waves crashing against the house, even reaching to the second story of the house.
But for some reason, we weren’t huddling together and praying that the walls wouldn’t come tumbling down. No, we just worshipped, studied God’s word, played games and hung out. We were on solid ground.
Many of you guys come every Sunday and hear different people teach. Some even come every Friday. Well, I know the other leaders would never say this, but I’d ike to say “BIG WHOOP”.
And I know many of you guys during the small group time after this probably know all the answers to all the questions and know every thing about the bible passage. “BIG WHOOP!”
Jesus says so what if you hear what I teach. If you don’t obey them and put them into practice, you are a foolish little man who builds his house on the sand. It has no foundation. When the tough stuff comes, like rain and wind, that house will fall apart.
Our life, when tough times come, like when you’re not doing well in school, or when you’re not getting along with your parents, or your friends are mad at you, you will come falling apart.
Why? Cuz you haven’t been living out the words of God.
God wants you to hear them, and he wants you to come to church every week.
Don’t just hear, and think that you’re an amazing Christian because you have perfect attendance at church and answer all the questions right.
Do what it says. Live it out, and you’ll be like the strong house.
Here in Ch. 7, he wraps it up and give two last points, one on Judging, and one on Praying. Then he concludes with final challenges.
Judging Others (v. 1-6)
1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
6"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
Paul says in 1 Cor. 5 that we should judge other Christians, and here Jesus says “Do not judge.” Who’s right here? Should we listen to Paul, who’s pretty godly, or should we listen to Jesus, who’s pretty GOD? The answer is: YES.
There’s different kinds of judgment in the Bible.
Judging to correct- making known their wrong so you can help them be right. If you have a bad habit of murdering people, I would bring that up and make it an issue, so you would stop!
Judging to condemn- making known a person’s wrong and looking down on them for it. Before I knew Monica, we always went to this church, and she tells me she always thought I was dumb. Like literally dumb. So she was shocked when she found out that I actually study!
I judged a classmate of mine for missing a week of school. I started giving her a hard time, only to find out her mom died.
So which one is Jesus talking about in this passage? Judging to Condemn or Judging to Restore? Answer: YES!
He’s don’t judge people to condemn them, because you’re guilty too!
If you’re always judging people and looking down on them and pointing out their wrong just to point them out, people will tend to treat you the same.
First, They’re never going to listen to you,
And then they’ll point out your wrong and look down on you. Yeah, they’re a sinner, but so are you!
Jesus doesn’t say don’t judge at all. “Don’t take the speck out of your brothers eye at all”. Jesus says before you take that speck, that little piece of wood from you brothers eye, take that huge plank of wood from yours first.
Jesus says don’t judge a brother and look down on him, but we should care to judge a brother in order to help correct a his wrong,
But we must first correct ourselves before expecting to help him with his problem.
Perhaps this way people will be willing to listen to us, because we’ve gone through it.
Plus, when you struggle to turn from your sin, then you might understand why it’s so hard for them. You’ll start to have more compassion for them because you know that it’s not an easy thing.
Here’s the thing… when something someone does really bothers us, and then we stop to examine ourselves before we go to bring up other people’s wrongs, we’ll find that we are guilty ourselves, and often times it’s the very same things!
EX: David and Nathan.
Do you remember when King David sinned? He sinned by taking Bathsheba, who was married to another man named Uriah. David was the king, he had concubines and could have had any wife he wanted. But he takes Uriahs! And then he gets Uriah killed in battle to cover it up and so that he could marry her.
So his friend Nathan comes to him, and tells him a story:
David was furious! “As surely as the LORD lives! This knuckle head deserves to die! He needs to pay four times over!
And Nathan says, David, you are the man. “Not YOU are the man!”
He didn’t realize that the sin that made him so angry was the sin that he himself was guilty of.
EX: Internet in Class. You know what I hate? When I’m in class, and I see other people checking websites like espn.com, myspace, email. I get so angry. And I would totally raise my hand and tell on them, but I can’t, cuz I need to finish updating my facebook.
A lot of times we are hypocrites, because we see flaws in other people, when we often have the flaws ourselves. We want to get rid of it in others, but fail to recognize our own need.
When someone does something that really bothers us, let’s stop first to let God search us to see if there’s anything we need to correct.
Sometimes God shows us another person’s flaws to get our attention regarding our own.
And when our sin is taken care of and realize the battle involved, then go and help your friend take care of his.
Ask, Seek, Knock (v. 7-12)
7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Did I just read what I think I read? That God will give us whatever we ask? That we just have to ask, and it will be given to us?
EX: When I was in college we were going on our Mexico trip.
We need our DL to go, but the day before as I was going home, I couldn’t find it. It was gone!
Wouldn’t it be great if I open my wallet and BAM! It’s there?
I was praying, God I know you can make it appear. Up to the last minute, after checking everywhere, I got on the freeway and that was it. I went home without it.
Jesus says 7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Meaning that you just have to ask God, and he’ll answer you.
Is that really true? This is a bold statement by Jesus. If you ask, you will receive?
What’s the catch? Well, did you catch the phrase in this promise?
(V. 11) the “Father in heaven will give good things to those who ask him.
That means if we ask for things that are good in God’s eyes, he’ll give it to you, if not, something better! He won’t give you something bad if you ask for something good!
He won’t give you stone instead of bread, or a snake instead of fish.
Ex: Bible and the Sports Car. The son who wanted a sports car, but got a Bible instead.
His father wanted to give him something good, but not just “good” in his sons eyes, but even greater.
In James 4, he says that we fight and quarrel because we don’t have what we want. He says we don’t have what we want because we don’t ask God!
But then he says, “Sometimes you ask, but you don’t receive. That’s because you asked with the wrong motives.
But Jesus says that when we ask for things that are good, The father loves to give good things to his children!
How do we know what things are good according to God?
The more we spend time with God, and read his word, and talk to him in prayer, the more we know him and the things He likes and dislikes, and the things that please him.
EX: If we pray like ‘God, please provide for us so that we can go on missions this summer to help the needy. We need $5000 so please help me to somehow find a bag of crack so I can sell it on the streets and raise enough money.
Now that’s way out of line. Way out of line of God’s idea of good.
I know it’s kind of silly, but I think we’d be surprised if we play a tape recording of some of our prayers
EX: when I was a Freshmen in high school, this is how mature and profound I was. I used to pray “God, please help all the girls to like me.” He’s still waiting to get back to me on that one.
So how can we know what things are good? The more we study God’s word and the teachings of Christ, the deeper we will understand the heart of God and what is good.
15 years later, I no longer pray prayers like “Please help the girls to like me.”
Come to God and ask, and if it’s good, you will receive, seek and find, knock and it will open.
It might not be in the way you imagined, or even the way you thought was best, but if it’s good according to God, He is faithful and good to give you what you ask for!
EX:
That night I went to church kind of bummed. I Couldn’t help think about it during church worship and BS.
He didn’t make my DL appear. I mean, isn’t missions good? Why wouldn’t he answer my prayer?
After church, about 10:30, I went down to get some food, and my dad was there!
He said, you got a letter in the mail. That’s weird, cuz Dad never checks mail.
I open it, and it’s my DL! Someone found it and mail it to my home address!
Ask, seek, knock. It might not be in the way we expect, but his will be done!
Conclusion
Jesus just finished his famous sermon, which we call the sermon on the mount. He’s talked about the beatitudes, the law, oaths to murder, adultery, divorce, revenge, giving, prayer, fasting, treasures, worrying, judging, asking. And now he’s coming to a close.
And of course every good sermon ends with an invitation. Kind of like “What are you going to do now? How will you respond?
Jesus closes with a series of 2’s: 2 Paths, 2 Prophets, 2 Practices. You gotta choose one.
Two Paths- The Narrow and the Wide (v. 13-14)
13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Ex: Disneyland door. When you go to Disneyland, this is crazy, but I walked through the castle door before. Everyone walks through that big door, and they think they’re going to enjoy everything in there. But there’s a small door that if you look for it, you will find it. If you find it, which few do, you can walk through the beautifully decorated and illustrated tour of the castle, the inside of the Kingdom.
The door to eternal life isn’t the default path that everyone is headed toward. Everyone is headed toward hell, the path of death and destruction. But if there is a door, a path to life. But if you look for the path to life, and you really seek it, you will find it. How?
Ask, it will be given.
Seek and you will find.
Knock, and the door will be opened.
Christ says I am the way. I am the gate. If you ask, you won’t be rejected. You can choose to go the way most people seem to be going, where it seems fun and entertaining.
Or you can go the less popular way, in the way of Christ, and find out there’s much more there than the world can ask for.
Which path will you choose?
Two Prophets- The Good and the Bad (v. 15- -23)
15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
Jesus just finished giving a long sermon, with all kinds of teachings from the law. And people are mesmerized by his teaching.
And as he closes, he says, be careful who you listen to. Many people will come dressed as nice people who want to lead you, but some are really out to devour you.
They want to control you, or take from you, or cause you to do things according to their selfish motives.
Jesus says that not everyone who seems good and seems like they do great things for God are truly known by God. Although they may lead great churches and seem like super Christians, some have never really come to know God.
“But Jesus, wouldn’t that put you on the spot, and make them doubt you? How do they know you’re of God?”
Christ says, by their fruit. By the way that they live. If they bear good fruit and the things they do and say are according to God, then you know that they are a good tree.
A bad teacher cannot live a good Christian life. If he can, he’s probably a good Christian.
But a good Christian isn’t just what you see on Sundays at Church or Friday nights. A good Christian is what you see Monday through Friday, behind the scenes and in front of the scenes.
Be careful who you follow. Watch their life closely, and choose whom you will follow.
Two Practices- The Hearer and the Doer (v. 24-29)
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
28When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
EX: When I was little, I used to love to build sand castles. What’s like the given rule to sand castles? When you build it, it will come, meaning the waves always come and wash it away. Even when you think you’re far enough away, there’s this one way that seems to find you.
I was at a retreat last week, and we stayed in a Beach house. But Beach house is an understatement, because this house was so close to the ocean. When it’s lowtide, the water level is low and you can see the sand and it’s like a beach. But when it’s high tide, the waves are literally crashing against the concrete wall that the house is built on. There’s pictures of massive waves crashing against the house, even reaching to the second story of the house.
But for some reason, we weren’t huddling together and praying that the walls wouldn’t come tumbling down. No, we just worshipped, studied God’s word, played games and hung out. We were on solid ground.
Many of you guys come every Sunday and hear different people teach. Some even come every Friday. Well, I know the other leaders would never say this, but I’d ike to say “BIG WHOOP”.
And I know many of you guys during the small group time after this probably know all the answers to all the questions and know every thing about the bible passage. “BIG WHOOP!”
Jesus says so what if you hear what I teach. If you don’t obey them and put them into practice, you are a foolish little man who builds his house on the sand. It has no foundation. When the tough stuff comes, like rain and wind, that house will fall apart.
Our life, when tough times come, like when you’re not doing well in school, or when you’re not getting along with your parents, or your friends are mad at you, you will come falling apart.
Why? Cuz you haven’t been living out the words of God.
God wants you to hear them, and he wants you to come to church every week.
Don’t just hear, and think that you’re an amazing Christian because you have perfect attendance at church and answer all the questions right.
Do what it says. Live it out, and you’ll be like the strong house.
Why You Shouldn’t Go on Short Term Missions- SBECC CM Worship
As you know, our church has started sending a short term Missions team to Taiwan for the past two years.
I am certain that there may be some of you who hesitate to support short term trips overseas.
I’m sure there are many good reasons in your mind.
And so this morning, I want to affirm you in your reasons for why you oppose short term missions.
I’ve called this message “Why You should Not Go on Short Term Missions”.
“It is a burden to the Long Term Missionaries.”
Before we started going to Taiwan, we were told that short term teams overseas can be a heavy burden to the Full time missionaries:
They have to break from the work they are doing in order to take us around,
They have to have to baby sit us and make sure we’re taken care of,
They have to make sure there’s enough for everyone to do.
These things happen all the time.
Instead of advancing the work of God, STM’s hinder the work of God.
When we first decided to go to Taiwan with OMF, it was on the condition that we would help carry the burden of the missionaries.
(picture of all of JOME)
Our missionary host, David Ullstrom, cannot teach English to 50 different kids, ranging from 4 years old to 20 years old!
The church staff does not have enough English speakers to hold an English camp by themselves.
We, as Chinese Americans, can provide that resource.
We have the youthfulness. We have the energy. We have the motivation. We have the sense of call. And we speak English.
By the end of our first trip in Taiwan two years ago, and after a successful English camp, the OMF Missionary and the Pastor were requesting that we come again the following summer.
They insisted that I schedule the dates with them before we returned back to the US.
Can short term mission trips be a burden to the Missionaries? YES.
Do our short term trips to Taiwan burden the missionaries?
Apparently Not if THEY are asking us to come back year after year to help them.
“You can’t have too much impact in just one month!”
We are told that one month in another country is too short of a time to make any long-term impact.
You’re in an then you’re out. I agree!
But when David and Cindy asked us to schedule a time to come back the next year, it’s exactly what we had in mind!
We went on the first short-term trip with a long-term strategy in mind.
Our strategy and intention was to build a long-term relationship with a church in Taiwan, so that we can continually pray for them and support them, even when we returned to the US.
WE didn’t want to just go for one month and that’s it.
Since we can’t stay in Taiwan forever, we wanted to work with a church in Taiwan that is!
Through this relationship we can continually go back to help them and support what God is doing through that Taiwanese Church in particular.
By holding annual English camps in the Church, we have been able to bring in many non-Christian families into the church.
By coming into the church, they have been able to hear and learn what the Gospel is about.
They have been able to learn of the Church’s presence in the city.
We have seen so much fruit from this English camp that Parents are booking their children for next years camp.
We also wanted to build relationships with individuals that would be long-term.
PICTURE: During the first trip in 2007, these were three non-Christian friends that we met: Alice, Charlene, and Mona.
They came from a local university in Taiwan to help us teach English.
We spent nearly every day with them.
They helped us translate our lessons. They helped us translated Bible stories. Several times they helped us translate the very gospel.
They would spend many nights at our apartment, as if they were part of our team.
When we came back after the first year, we brought them with us.
Not physically, but in friendship, and also in prayer.
Part of our mission is to build long-term relationships. Not just with the church, but with people.
We came and asked the church to pray for them, and for the next year, we remembered them in our prayers.
We asked the Lord to save these Taiwanese friends of ours.
Today, almost 3 years later, members from our team still keep in touch and build the relationship with them.
So how much can you really do in 1 month? You’re right, not much.
But you can do a lot, with the help of God, over the course of many years. That takes a long-term strategy.
“It really only benefits the Short term Missionaries who go.”
People say that STM’s only benefit the Short term missionaries who go, and so they argue that it’s not worth supporting.
Does it really benefit the short term missionaries?
Absolutely!
PICTURE:
Looking over the past two years, 12 of the 12 team members who have gone have grown significantly in missions mindedness.
Julian: He's convicted that he wants to use his life more than working a secular Job, and particularly wants to become a missionary, Taiwan a big place on his heart. However, his dad blew up on him recently when Julian mentioned this and threatened to cut off his support for Julian's schooling. Right now, Julian wants to honor his dad and show him that he wants to love and care for him, with the hope of missions still as his future goal.
Mike: Wants to become a missionary in China. God really put that in his heart this summer. However, he's struggling to finish is studies.
Cindy: She is not only considering full time missions, but expects to be on the field in the future. She's pretty certain of it.
Christine Lam: VERY open to longterm missions after this past trip. She'll be going to Taiwan this year with us, though her dad insists she raise her own money. She says the trip has broadened her perspective on missions in general. Since she's at USC, she really has a heart to invest in inner cities missions now.
Jamie: Jamie says she's definitely open to full time missions if GOd calls her to. She has a huge heart for Taiwan, and will be going with us for the 3rd time this summer.
Debra: She REALLLY REALLY wants to go with us this summer, but she's having surgery on her knee, and her parents don't want her to do anything but rest. She is joining a "Harvard Taiwan Leadership Conference", a ministry reaching out and teaching students who are in the US from Taiwan. She has a huge heart.
Emily: SHe's really convicted to go on missions, and will be going to Nicaragua with her Church, Living Water, in Berkely over the spring break.
I know that as a parent, that may cause many of you to hesitate in ever letting your child go on a short term trip, in case they get this crazy idea to become a missionary!
But this is the truth about the impact of short term missionary trips!
It really can change our lives!
So do STM’s really radically impact and benefit the Short term missionaries who go.
YES! But are they really the only ones who benefit?
The greatest benefit that we see and that we pray for is the salvation of dying souls who don’t know Jesus Christ.
God is working to save the nations in order to Glorify Himself in all the earth.
Our work as Christians is to be willing and obedient to be used in God’s purposes.
We trust that God can use anyone or anything to use as a link in a chain to save a sinner.
Each link is like an event that’s part of a greater process that God uses to sovereignly draw people to Him.
In Acts 9, God is on a mission to save a sinner, the wicked Pharisee named Saul.
In this story we see that God uses different events and people to bring a person into a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
God encountered him.
In v. 3, God encounters Saul directly as he’s traveling on a road to Damascus.
God reveals himself to Saul through a powerful flash of light and a voice from heaven.
This encounter blinded Saul and prepared Him to later receive the Holy Spirit by faith later on in Damascus.
I believe God is also encountering people in Taiwan in order to prepare them for the Gospel.
It may not be a blinding light from heaven, but Jn. 14 says the HS will convict the world of their sins.
PICTURE 2: In this picture, I am talking with a guy named Foster. He is not a Christian, but came into the church on the last Sunday before we left for the US.
Here, he was telling me that he was getting ready to move to Australia.
He said he was sick of the kind of person he was, and he wanted to get out of his environment so that he could “change his personality.”
I said, “what do you mean?”
He said, “I’m not a very good person. I am a bad person.”
I was shocked! I believe that before we ever met, the Lord himself was convicting Foster of his own sinfulness!
In Taiwan, we saw God encounter people to prepare them for salvation.
His Friends walked with him.
In Acts 9:7-9, Paul was blinded by his encounter with the Lord, so it says that his companions “led him by the hand into Damascus.”
If it were not for his companions, Paul could not have made it to Damascus where he would later receive his sight, as well as the Holy Spirit.
God can use companions to lead you where God wants to meet you.
PICTURE 3: This is Mona, one of the non-Christian helpers that you saw earlier.
Not long before we met her, Mona’s found her mom at home. She had committed suicide and she was extremely depressed.
Her friend/companion Roting brought her to church to help with the English Camp because she felt like it might be good for Mona to be near Christians, even though she wasn’t a Christian herself.
Roting did not attend, but was the friend who “led her by the hand” to the church.
Our STM team was able to befriend her and build a very meaningful friendship with Mona.
When we came back, we asked the church to pray for her. And so we prayed for her throughout the year and continue building our friendship til this day.
Sometimes God will use companions as instruments to take an unbeliever to a place where they can meet God and receive His Holy Spirit.
For Mona, God used Roting to take Mona to the church.
As her new friends, our team also led her by the hand and walked with her.
physically, in bringing her daily to the Church to be with us.
But also Spiritually, in comforting her and introducing her to Jesus Christ.
Stranger spoke to him.
In Acts 9:10-19, God used a stranger named Ananias to speak to him and Pray for him.
They had never met face to face or talked with one another.
But Ananias knew of who he was, and was afraid of Saul.
But in faithfulness and obedience to God’s call, Ananias trusted God and he went and spoke to Saul.
When this stranger prayed for Saul, his eyes were finally opened, both physically, and spiritually.
He was once blind, but now he could see. In more ways than one.
Acts 9:17 says that because of ANnanias, Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit, and was baptized.
Sometimes God will use strangers who are faithful and willing to be used.
PICTURE 2: The day we met Foster, we were supposed to leave for Kenting in the South of Taiwan.
But God provided a typhoon, so we were stook at the apt.
We were happy because it meant more time with our Taiwanese friends before we left for the U.S.
Mona joined us, as well as Foster, even though we only met him that day.
That night, we continued our conversation with Foster about the Gospel. He kept asking us to tell him stories of how God worked in our lives.
By God’s sovereignty, part of our training before leaving for Taiwan was to prepare testimonies
We each prepared our stories of how God has worked in our lives, “just in case” the opportunity comes up.
Foster kept insisting that he needed evidence of God in his life, of a God who cared about his situation and who’s existence was real.
We went around the circle, and a few of us sitting and talking with him got to share out stories. The rest of the team quietly gathered in the hallway to pray as we shared the gospel.
We prayed, and Foster began to cry.
He said that this was a “wonderful day”. He kept saying in Chinese that he was so touched.
Soon after, another conversation started in the hallway of our apartment.
Throughout our trip, many of our team members talked and prayed with Mona about her pain.
That night, Emily Yang and another friend began to talk with Mona about the difficulty she was experiencing in her life.
After a long conversation, and much prayer, Mona finally gave her life to Christ as her personal Lord and Savior!
Foster was so touched to see the joy in that apartment over one soul saved!
VIDEO: Foster.
Foster stayed the night with us. And the next morning, there was a powerful typhoon, but something even more powerful than that was going on.
VIDEO: Foster
PICTURE 2: In this picture, I was virtually a stranger to Foster. This was our first real conversation I ever had with him. Me and the team were strangers.
What we didn’t know until later was that three years ago he had a girlfriend who was a Christian in Taipei.
that week she had been praying everyday at church for people in her life to be saved, including Foster.
Somehow God worked it out that 9 missionaries would come to Taiwan and be there at the right place at the right time.
That night we read her blog, and she wrote “I never would have imagined that something like this could ever happen.”
Who would have known that 9 strangers from America would be the final link that God would use to reveal Himself to Foster?
As a stranger spoke to Saul, God used strangers to speak to Foster.
God encountered him, friends walked with him, and a stranger spoke to him.
God is the sovereign one who brings different links together and forms the chain.
God can use a STM to save souls if we are faithful and willing to be used as links in his purposes.
I don’t think that an STM will be able to turn an entire nation around.
But I do think native Taiwanese who live in Taiwan can.
I also think that missionaries who are committed to the Taiwanese can.
And I do Believe that God can use a STM team willing to commit a month of our lives, to be an important links in the long-term process.
The story of Foster and Mona are just two stories out of many that God is doing through our trips.
When we left Taiwan, we challenged the missionary, Foster and Mona to start a small group since they didn’t really have a group for young people.
Here is one of the many updates we received from the Church:
PICTURE 4:
“Our 1st meeting: August 7th Our 1st meeting: August 7th
Attendance: Foster, Mona, me
Our 5th meeting: September 6th
Attendance: Foster, Mona, Alice, Carmen, Pastor Cindy, Bruce, David, Jenny, Flora, Wendy, me”
Closing
So back to the question at hand. Should we go and support STM’s?
If you are going to be a burden to the Full Time Missionaries there, then don’t go.
But if we can help be a useful resource and carry the burden for the Missionaries, then let’s go!
If your work is really limited to just the one month we are there, then don’t go.
But if we can be part of a longterm strategy and build longterm relationships, then let’s go!
And if your trip is only going to benefit yourself, then save your money and don’t go.
But if we experience growth, and the church in Taiwan experiences growth, and sinners are saved, then let’s go!
And let’s do all that we can as a church to prayerfully and financially support those who are able to go.
Amen.
I am certain that there may be some of you who hesitate to support short term trips overseas.
I’m sure there are many good reasons in your mind.
And so this morning, I want to affirm you in your reasons for why you oppose short term missions.
I’ve called this message “Why You should Not Go on Short Term Missions”.
“It is a burden to the Long Term Missionaries.”
Before we started going to Taiwan, we were told that short term teams overseas can be a heavy burden to the Full time missionaries:
They have to break from the work they are doing in order to take us around,
They have to have to baby sit us and make sure we’re taken care of,
They have to make sure there’s enough for everyone to do.
These things happen all the time.
Instead of advancing the work of God, STM’s hinder the work of God.
When we first decided to go to Taiwan with OMF, it was on the condition that we would help carry the burden of the missionaries.
(picture of all of JOME)
Our missionary host, David Ullstrom, cannot teach English to 50 different kids, ranging from 4 years old to 20 years old!
The church staff does not have enough English speakers to hold an English camp by themselves.
We, as Chinese Americans, can provide that resource.
We have the youthfulness. We have the energy. We have the motivation. We have the sense of call. And we speak English.
By the end of our first trip in Taiwan two years ago, and after a successful English camp, the OMF Missionary and the Pastor were requesting that we come again the following summer.
They insisted that I schedule the dates with them before we returned back to the US.
Can short term mission trips be a burden to the Missionaries? YES.
Do our short term trips to Taiwan burden the missionaries?
Apparently Not if THEY are asking us to come back year after year to help them.
“You can’t have too much impact in just one month!”
We are told that one month in another country is too short of a time to make any long-term impact.
You’re in an then you’re out. I agree!
But when David and Cindy asked us to schedule a time to come back the next year, it’s exactly what we had in mind!
We went on the first short-term trip with a long-term strategy in mind.
Our strategy and intention was to build a long-term relationship with a church in Taiwan, so that we can continually pray for them and support them, even when we returned to the US.
WE didn’t want to just go for one month and that’s it.
Since we can’t stay in Taiwan forever, we wanted to work with a church in Taiwan that is!
Through this relationship we can continually go back to help them and support what God is doing through that Taiwanese Church in particular.
By holding annual English camps in the Church, we have been able to bring in many non-Christian families into the church.
By coming into the church, they have been able to hear and learn what the Gospel is about.
They have been able to learn of the Church’s presence in the city.
We have seen so much fruit from this English camp that Parents are booking their children for next years camp.
We also wanted to build relationships with individuals that would be long-term.
PICTURE: During the first trip in 2007, these were three non-Christian friends that we met: Alice, Charlene, and Mona.
They came from a local university in Taiwan to help us teach English.
We spent nearly every day with them.
They helped us translate our lessons. They helped us translated Bible stories. Several times they helped us translate the very gospel.
They would spend many nights at our apartment, as if they were part of our team.
When we came back after the first year, we brought them with us.
Not physically, but in friendship, and also in prayer.
Part of our mission is to build long-term relationships. Not just with the church, but with people.
We came and asked the church to pray for them, and for the next year, we remembered them in our prayers.
We asked the Lord to save these Taiwanese friends of ours.
Today, almost 3 years later, members from our team still keep in touch and build the relationship with them.
So how much can you really do in 1 month? You’re right, not much.
But you can do a lot, with the help of God, over the course of many years. That takes a long-term strategy.
“It really only benefits the Short term Missionaries who go.”
People say that STM’s only benefit the Short term missionaries who go, and so they argue that it’s not worth supporting.
Does it really benefit the short term missionaries?
Absolutely!
PICTURE:
Looking over the past two years, 12 of the 12 team members who have gone have grown significantly in missions mindedness.
Julian: He's convicted that he wants to use his life more than working a secular Job, and particularly wants to become a missionary, Taiwan a big place on his heart. However, his dad blew up on him recently when Julian mentioned this and threatened to cut off his support for Julian's schooling. Right now, Julian wants to honor his dad and show him that he wants to love and care for him, with the hope of missions still as his future goal.
Mike: Wants to become a missionary in China. God really put that in his heart this summer. However, he's struggling to finish is studies.
Cindy: She is not only considering full time missions, but expects to be on the field in the future. She's pretty certain of it.
Christine Lam: VERY open to longterm missions after this past trip. She'll be going to Taiwan this year with us, though her dad insists she raise her own money. She says the trip has broadened her perspective on missions in general. Since she's at USC, she really has a heart to invest in inner cities missions now.
Jamie: Jamie says she's definitely open to full time missions if GOd calls her to. She has a huge heart for Taiwan, and will be going with us for the 3rd time this summer.
Debra: She REALLLY REALLY wants to go with us this summer, but she's having surgery on her knee, and her parents don't want her to do anything but rest. She is joining a "Harvard Taiwan Leadership Conference", a ministry reaching out and teaching students who are in the US from Taiwan. She has a huge heart.
Emily: SHe's really convicted to go on missions, and will be going to Nicaragua with her Church, Living Water, in Berkely over the spring break.
I know that as a parent, that may cause many of you to hesitate in ever letting your child go on a short term trip, in case they get this crazy idea to become a missionary!
But this is the truth about the impact of short term missionary trips!
It really can change our lives!
So do STM’s really radically impact and benefit the Short term missionaries who go.
YES! But are they really the only ones who benefit?
The greatest benefit that we see and that we pray for is the salvation of dying souls who don’t know Jesus Christ.
God is working to save the nations in order to Glorify Himself in all the earth.
Our work as Christians is to be willing and obedient to be used in God’s purposes.
We trust that God can use anyone or anything to use as a link in a chain to save a sinner.
Each link is like an event that’s part of a greater process that God uses to sovereignly draw people to Him.
In Acts 9, God is on a mission to save a sinner, the wicked Pharisee named Saul.
In this story we see that God uses different events and people to bring a person into a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
God encountered him.
In v. 3, God encounters Saul directly as he’s traveling on a road to Damascus.
God reveals himself to Saul through a powerful flash of light and a voice from heaven.
This encounter blinded Saul and prepared Him to later receive the Holy Spirit by faith later on in Damascus.
I believe God is also encountering people in Taiwan in order to prepare them for the Gospel.
It may not be a blinding light from heaven, but Jn. 14 says the HS will convict the world of their sins.
PICTURE 2: In this picture, I am talking with a guy named Foster. He is not a Christian, but came into the church on the last Sunday before we left for the US.
Here, he was telling me that he was getting ready to move to Australia.
He said he was sick of the kind of person he was, and he wanted to get out of his environment so that he could “change his personality.”
I said, “what do you mean?”
He said, “I’m not a very good person. I am a bad person.”
I was shocked! I believe that before we ever met, the Lord himself was convicting Foster of his own sinfulness!
In Taiwan, we saw God encounter people to prepare them for salvation.
His Friends walked with him.
In Acts 9:7-9, Paul was blinded by his encounter with the Lord, so it says that his companions “led him by the hand into Damascus.”
If it were not for his companions, Paul could not have made it to Damascus where he would later receive his sight, as well as the Holy Spirit.
God can use companions to lead you where God wants to meet you.
PICTURE 3: This is Mona, one of the non-Christian helpers that you saw earlier.
Not long before we met her, Mona’s found her mom at home. She had committed suicide and she was extremely depressed.
Her friend/companion Roting brought her to church to help with the English Camp because she felt like it might be good for Mona to be near Christians, even though she wasn’t a Christian herself.
Roting did not attend, but was the friend who “led her by the hand” to the church.
Our STM team was able to befriend her and build a very meaningful friendship with Mona.
When we came back, we asked the church to pray for her. And so we prayed for her throughout the year and continue building our friendship til this day.
Sometimes God will use companions as instruments to take an unbeliever to a place where they can meet God and receive His Holy Spirit.
For Mona, God used Roting to take Mona to the church.
As her new friends, our team also led her by the hand and walked with her.
physically, in bringing her daily to the Church to be with us.
But also Spiritually, in comforting her and introducing her to Jesus Christ.
Stranger spoke to him.
In Acts 9:10-19, God used a stranger named Ananias to speak to him and Pray for him.
They had never met face to face or talked with one another.
But Ananias knew of who he was, and was afraid of Saul.
But in faithfulness and obedience to God’s call, Ananias trusted God and he went and spoke to Saul.
When this stranger prayed for Saul, his eyes were finally opened, both physically, and spiritually.
He was once blind, but now he could see. In more ways than one.
Acts 9:17 says that because of ANnanias, Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit, and was baptized.
Sometimes God will use strangers who are faithful and willing to be used.
PICTURE 2: The day we met Foster, we were supposed to leave for Kenting in the South of Taiwan.
But God provided a typhoon, so we were stook at the apt.
We were happy because it meant more time with our Taiwanese friends before we left for the U.S.
Mona joined us, as well as Foster, even though we only met him that day.
That night, we continued our conversation with Foster about the Gospel. He kept asking us to tell him stories of how God worked in our lives.
By God’s sovereignty, part of our training before leaving for Taiwan was to prepare testimonies
We each prepared our stories of how God has worked in our lives, “just in case” the opportunity comes up.
Foster kept insisting that he needed evidence of God in his life, of a God who cared about his situation and who’s existence was real.
We went around the circle, and a few of us sitting and talking with him got to share out stories. The rest of the team quietly gathered in the hallway to pray as we shared the gospel.
We prayed, and Foster began to cry.
He said that this was a “wonderful day”. He kept saying in Chinese that he was so touched.
Soon after, another conversation started in the hallway of our apartment.
Throughout our trip, many of our team members talked and prayed with Mona about her pain.
That night, Emily Yang and another friend began to talk with Mona about the difficulty she was experiencing in her life.
After a long conversation, and much prayer, Mona finally gave her life to Christ as her personal Lord and Savior!
Foster was so touched to see the joy in that apartment over one soul saved!
VIDEO: Foster.
Foster stayed the night with us. And the next morning, there was a powerful typhoon, but something even more powerful than that was going on.
VIDEO: Foster
PICTURE 2: In this picture, I was virtually a stranger to Foster. This was our first real conversation I ever had with him. Me and the team were strangers.
What we didn’t know until later was that three years ago he had a girlfriend who was a Christian in Taipei.
that week she had been praying everyday at church for people in her life to be saved, including Foster.
Somehow God worked it out that 9 missionaries would come to Taiwan and be there at the right place at the right time.
That night we read her blog, and she wrote “I never would have imagined that something like this could ever happen.”
Who would have known that 9 strangers from America would be the final link that God would use to reveal Himself to Foster?
As a stranger spoke to Saul, God used strangers to speak to Foster.
God encountered him, friends walked with him, and a stranger spoke to him.
God is the sovereign one who brings different links together and forms the chain.
God can use a STM to save souls if we are faithful and willing to be used as links in his purposes.
I don’t think that an STM will be able to turn an entire nation around.
But I do think native Taiwanese who live in Taiwan can.
I also think that missionaries who are committed to the Taiwanese can.
And I do Believe that God can use a STM team willing to commit a month of our lives, to be an important links in the long-term process.
The story of Foster and Mona are just two stories out of many that God is doing through our trips.
When we left Taiwan, we challenged the missionary, Foster and Mona to start a small group since they didn’t really have a group for young people.
Here is one of the many updates we received from the Church:
PICTURE 4:
“Our 1st meeting: August 7th Our 1st meeting: August 7th
Attendance: Foster, Mona, me
Our 5th meeting: September 6th
Attendance: Foster, Mona, Alice, Carmen, Pastor Cindy, Bruce, David, Jenny, Flora, Wendy, me”
Closing
So back to the question at hand. Should we go and support STM’s?
If you are going to be a burden to the Full Time Missionaries there, then don’t go.
But if we can help be a useful resource and carry the burden for the Missionaries, then let’s go!
If your work is really limited to just the one month we are there, then don’t go.
But if we can be part of a longterm strategy and build longterm relationships, then let’s go!
And if your trip is only going to benefit yourself, then save your money and don’t go.
But if we experience growth, and the church in Taiwan experiences growth, and sinners are saved, then let’s go!
And let’s do all that we can as a church to prayerfully and financially support those who are able to go.
Amen.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)