St.Andrew's Presbyterian Church Fenelon Falls

Rev. Barney Grace

The Message: “Understanding the Present Time & Wake Up!” Do you remember the story of the turtle and the rabbit? The two animals argued about who was faster. The rabbit suggested a race which could be a long distance for the turtle. Interestingly enough, the turtle accepted his challenge. As we know, rabbits are pretty good at running. From the beginning of the race until the middle, the rabbit had run so fast. He knew that he was far ahead of the turtle, so he wanted to sit and relax under a tree for some time. Eventually, he lied on the ground, closed eyes, and soon fell asleep. The turtle was slow in the race; however, he kept on moving toward the finishing line. I could imagine that a big crowd of the animals cheered on the turtle when he completed the race. The turtle won! The joyful sounds caused the rabbit to wake up. He realized then that he slept too much, and the race was already over. This story teaches us that “slow and steady wins the race.” We should never give up when we face with unprecedented challenges. While thinking of the moral story, I asked myself, “What if someone could give the rabbit some kind of advice or warning during the race, ‘Do you understand the present time? Wake up!’” We have recently often heard similar comments regarding this current global pandemic situation. What if the leaders in some countries, in particular, China, would have honestly and urgently shared with us, ahead of time, what had been going on inside the country, instead of hiding and/or minimizing the outbreak occurring in their homeland? And then, we would be better prepared for this worldwide crisis. Since many of our loved ones live in South Korea, my family and I have kept monitoring what has been going through in our homeland. Public events and many religious services there have been cancelled in the last few months. As of today, March 28, the number of people who have been affected by the coronavirus reaches approximately 9,300. The good news is that the daily infected number in the last seven days has been significantly reduced. It used to be a couple of hundred people and even double or triple of that number before and now it is about fewer than 100. Another positive story is that the number of recovering people has been increased up to around 4,500 which is more than a half of the people affected. As far as I am concerned, the people in South Korea are heading to the end of the tunnel and see a light that is getting brighter and brighter. Now, many churches start having their Sunday worship services in their church sanctuary while practicing social distancing at their worship places. They sit on a chair or pew, which is 2 meters apart from each other and there are no social fellowships before/after the services for a while. I believe this kind of practice helps them not only keep them safe but also focus their minds on the Lord and have a deeper intimate relationship with Him. A couple of years ago, when I was on study leave, I planned and prayed about Advent/Christmas Eve services. During that time, one thought had struck me. That was regarding God’s promises and warnings in the Holy Scripture. When I looked at some common themes of the scriptures, I came to realize that from the beginning of the Bible to the end, God’s blessings were usually described with His warnings. After God created the heaven and the earth and everything in the Garden of Eden, He told Adam and Eve, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17). These are God’s blessing for Adam and Eve as well as His warning for them. One well-known Bible passage, John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The following verses of this scripture show God’s blessing and warning more in detail: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:17-18). Did you notice some comparison between eternal life and eternal condemnation? In our text for today, we find another of God’s warning from the Apostle Paul. He started off the phrase “understanding the present time.” In the Bible, there are two kinds of time. One is “Chronos” in Greek, which is used for chronological time. Today is Saturday. Yesterday was Friday. Tomorrow is Sunday. The other is “Kairos” which is used for specific purposes. Some phrases in this scripture, “the present time, the hour, the day, the night” are related to the second term of time. The question Paul had in this context is not about the current time and date: It is around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 28, 2020. It is about a Kairos moment where God speaks to us. In other words, our Lord may want us to be aware of the situations that we are in and of the direction we are heading to. God wants us to understand the present time. This understanding is not just to hear the Word of God but also to act based on what we are taught. God’s wake-up call in this scripture requires us to do two things. Before we look at God’s two recommendations, I would like to share two more pieces of information. The first one is about the metaphor of Roman soldiers. When Paul wrote his epistles, he wanted to use an illustration of soldiers. In the epistle of Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 10 through 20, he explains that we as followers of Jesus encounter some invisible wars against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms and we need to put on the full armor of God. Interestingly enough, nowadays, we often hear the same illustration about the invisible war that we as a nation as well as a whole world have entered into, due to the Corvid-19. It is tough for us to deal with these unforeseen circumstances. The level of anxiety, depression, and discouragement has gone up, and a lot of people are suffering from this uncertain future, on top of losing their jobs and seeing their loved ones sick. The current enemy worldwide seems to be much bigger and stronger than we think. In Paul’s time, the Roman soldiers had a tremendous responsibility to protect their emperor and the Roman Empire. They were always prepared to engage in battle against their enemies. They did not know what would happen to them in the near future. Some Roman soldiers avoided thinking about this by drinking, having parties, and other activities. Keeping this image in mind, let us take a look at the scripture after Paul asked about the present time. He said, “The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber” (Romans 13:11). The soldiers were to be alerted, suitably armed, and ready for the battle. We, as Christian soldiers, are also to wake up from the spiritual slump. We need to humbly and honestly ask God for His strength and wisdom not only to fight our spiritual, invisible enemies but also to stand up for Christ and protect God’s Kingdom and His people. That is the picture behind this text. The second thing I would like to mention briefly is regarding the theme of time. Paul said that the hour had already come. What did he mean by that? The phrases, “the present time” and “the hour” in this scripture need to be interpreted with both of the phrases “the night” and “the day” in the following verse (Romans 13:12). Some theologians say that the night is “the absence of Jesus Christ.” Some say that the night represents the present era. Others think that the night is a symbol of sin and ungodliness. In a similar matter, the day can be “the presence of Jesus Christ.” The day can also be the time of Jesus Christ coming again. So both “the present time” and “the hour” are the period of the time in between Jesus was ascended into heaven and He will come again. In other words, Paul is mentioning the attitude of believers who are waiting for the time of the Second Coming of Christ. In the New Testament, the passage related to the Second Coming is described more than 300 times. Whenever we speak of this topic, one question that always comes up is about the time of His arrival. The only answer that we are sure of comes from the Gospel of Matthew 24:36-44. “But about that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father… Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” The phrase “keep watch” here does not mean just sitting on the couches and looking for Jesus to come through the clouds in the sky. Its real meaning is described by what the Apostle Paul is saying in our main text: “Wake up from your slumber, put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:11-12). O.k. now, let us go back to God’s two recommendations. Firstly, God wants us to “put aside the deeds of darkness” (Romans 13:12). Paul made a list of the works of darkness, such as drunkenness, sexual immorality, lustful acts, jealousy, and so on. All these are the typical passions of the night. We, as human beings, are supposed to live in God’s image. But these types of darkness do not let us move toward God’s righteousness. Someone said: “The first thing most of us do when we wake up in the morning is going to the bathroom.” I think that the person has made a good spiritual lesson from our daily habits. Every day some things, which are dirty and unclean, need to be taken away from our houses. It is like taking the garbage out regularly; otherwise, our homes will stink. Likewise, if we do not remove some things ungodly from our spiritual lives, the house of our souls begins to stink as well. We need to put aside these sinful behaviors. The Bible says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand

Thank you, Caleb Jr., for sharing with us that article which seems sound familiar to us nowadays.    In our main text for today, Mark 4 Jesus and His disciples took a boat and went across the Sea of Galilee. They relaxed in the boat and were happy. A little later, a furious storm suddenly came up to them without warning. The waves began to break across the bow of the boat; however, Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat. The disciples awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown.” They were full of fear and trembling. They were afraid that they were going to lose their lives. They found themselves completely unprepared. When Jesus heard their crying, He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. In Matthew’s account of this event, when Jesus heard their cry, He first rebuked the disciples. He said: “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” And then He rebuked the waves and winds. How do we apply today’s scripture in our walk with God?    Somebody has said something like: “Life is like a voyage from one side to the other side of a sea.” During our journey, we encounter many different situations. Sometimes we enjoy our ride under the blue sky in the breeze when we do not need to paddle because of the smooth winds. We feel that everything is well prepared for us and everybody supports us. We think life will always be that way. At other times we need to row hard to keep moving forward. Sometimes we face the winds and storms of life without warning. To survive, we have to struggle with these unexpected challenges. They come to us, our family, our friends, and our society. Whether they are small or big, they cause us trouble and fear in our lives. We may feel as if we are struggling all by ourselves. We may feel completely helpless and out of control just as it was in Japan for thousands of people on Friday, March 18, 2011, which is almost nine years ago.    In our Old Testament for today, when the people of Israel arrived at the Red Sea, they were complaining to God and Moses. Behind them, Pharaoh and his soldiers were marching to attack them. They were standing in front of the Red Sea. They found that there was no way to escape from death because they felt trapped between a rock and a hard place. They just saw the problem. They did not look to God for help. They had forgotten what God had already done for them. God said to Moses. “Be still. The Lord will fight for you.” Moses told them to trust in God and stretched out his hand over the sea. And then Almighty God led the people of Israel to cross the Red Sea as securely as if they had walked upon the dry land.    In Psalm 46 that we read this morning, we can have a message of great comfort and hope during this challenging time. We need to remember that this psalm was written thousands of years ago. However, it not only tells us our current situation but also provides hope for every person and in every situation. In verse 2, the Psalmist mentions that there are times when the earth is moved and changed by the disaster. There are times when everything in our world gets turned upside down. There are times when things get out of control. Despite these situations, in verses 10 and 11, God says, “Be still and know that I am God. I am with you. I am your fortress.” We can rest in the confidence of knowing that God is in control and is our strength. He will protect and defend us despite the outcome of any battle we face because our God is the unshakable and mighty God. The earth may be shaken, but our God and His eternal city will not fall.   Jesus knew that the disciples were in despair because of the storm. But He did not help them immediately. Instead, He let them stay in the storm. He wanted them to learn to trust Him more fully. He wanted them to mature. He also wanted them to change their faith from “a theory of faith” to “the practice of faith” in their lives.   Sometimes we wonder when our battles will be over. We tend to assume that there would be no struggles if we are faithful to God and trust in Him. But God does not exempt us from disappointments. The disciples got caught by an unexpected storm, in spite of the fact that Jesus was in the boat with them. So even as children of God, we will encounter trials during the course of our lives. When we face these sufferings, we need to rejoice even though we have been distressed. We can do this because we know that our faith will be made stronger and surer than before through these various trials.     After the disciples saw that the wind and the waves had become calm, they asked each other. “Who is this?” Their understanding of Jesus was changed. They asked this because they began to see that Jesus is the Creator who created the winds and the waves. They were amazed by what they experienced. They found that they were not alone in their struggles or their fears. Jesus is always with them, challenging them to move beyond what they think they know. Jesus is also with us now.    When we journey by ourselves, we may be afraid of something we face unexpectedly. But we need to remember that our journey is with our Captain Jesus Christ. When we trust in Him and follow His direction in storms of life, we will discover that He will make a way for us to walk on dry land, even when there are dangers of all kinds around us. He will calm any storms in our lives. He is the Creator, the Master, and the Captain of our lives.    I want to finish this message with a story about the great missionary David Livingstone… This is the same promise God has made to us. When we trust in God who is in control of everything and who is with us always, we have no reason to fear. As long as we are in His hands, we can be still no matter what.

Title: Set Your Hearts on Things Above I have recently read an interesting article about flightless birds. There are two classes of flightless birds. The first type cannot fly because of their tremendous weight or enormous stature. These include ostriches, emus, and cassowaries. In the second category, the birds cannot fly because of the lack of persecution from land creatures. These include penguins, kiwis, and domestic fowls. The kiwi is a national New Zealand icon because it is found on only this island in the world. The kiwi has wings to fly, but they do not work. The kiwis can get good food with ease because the fertile soil in which they live provides insects and earthworms abundantly. They never trouble themselves to fly to find food, and consequently become lazy. The result is that their wings eventually become useless for flying. In our text for today, Paul talks about the importance of setting our hearts on things above. In Colossians chapter three verse one, it is said, “Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Paul also points out in Colossians 2:20 since we as Christians have “died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world” so we are not supposed to submit ourselves to its rules even though we live in this world. Instead, we are to set our hearts on things above because we, as followers of Christ, have died and have been raised with Christ. This is not an option but a command. It is not just a one-time activity but also an ongoing process until we are called to be with the Lord in Heaven. We are commanded to seek the things above every moment. One of the reasons why I have chosen the scripture for this morning is because of the growing relevance of the coronavirus. Since my homeland, South Korea, has been severely affected by the virus which originated from Wuhan, China, I have kept monitoring the daily situations there in Korea and here in North America. I have also been thinking about the possible implications in various sectors, such as health care, economics, politics, education, pastoral care, and so on. These concerns are related to our whole world, to the country I used to belong to, to the nation and community I live, to the ministries I have been involved in, the people, my mother, my brothers and sisters in my homeland. A couple of weeks ago, while my wife and I had a daily walking together, all of a sudden, my wife told me aloud, “Caleb, look up to the sky.” I had not realized that I kept thinking, during our walk, of a number of things on my own and looking down on the road. This led me to think about today’s scripture, in particular, setting our minds on things above. Since then, I have reflected on this passage and have asked myself about what consists of the things above and what it means to walk with God. First of all, setting our hearts on things above does not mean that we should ignore things happening today. In the last few weeks, I have received emails and notices from the Presbyterian Church in Canada as well as some local organizations regarding the safety protocols over the coronavirus. I have shared some of the informative materials with the elders. We, as a session, have prepared some things necessary for the safety of the congregation. We as a church, are now doing alternative ways of greetings, such as bumping the elbows and waving our hands at each other instead of shaking hands or hugging. Everyone is asked to sit two meters apart from each other, except for couples or families in the sanctuary. Since our worship space is big enough, we can practice enough social distancing in our worship setting. Cleaning protocols have been applied to the sanctuary and the church entrance doors and will be done continuously. For a while, we may worship God in different methods, if necessary. If that happens, we may have a worship service at home online, if you have Internet access. We may want to participate in a Sunday worship service on T.V or the radio. At the same time, we as children of God need to set our minds on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. I believe it means that we are supposed to invite Jesus, sitting beside God, who is in control of every matter in this universe, to our thoughts and actions. In a practical matter, we need to pray to God to intervene in whatever situations we are today. We need to pray that our Almighty God may primarily protect people and in danger and keep them safe. We remember the promise of God in Psalm 91. The author of this Psalms has been believed to be King David. As you know, he was the king of the United Kingdom of Israel. We can imagine, from this fact, how strong he was, how talented and gifted he was, and how much he got, in terms of resources and people’s power. However, he did not say that his help came from any of those items he had had when he asked himself where his help came from. Instead, he confessed, “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2). He believed, since the Lord was his shade at his right hand, anything would not harm him at any time. In the Ninety-First Psalm, David also assured his people of God’s protection. The interesting phrase I have found from that psalm is “the deadly pestilence.” The definition of a pestilence is “any infectious, fatal disease that is widespread.” Nowadays, the spread of the coronavirus might be considered as a pestilence. God’s promise to those who put their trust in Him is the following: “Surely he [the Almighty God] will save you from the flower’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you… no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent…” (Psalm 91). Think about David’s prayer. The full and real protection we experience comes from the Lord who “watches our coming and going both now and forevermore” (Psalm 121:6). Setting our hearts on things above is not only thinking of God’s presence in our daily lives but also renewing our hearts in our daily walk with God. Paul describes this in verses 5 through 14. As I stated before, it is about an ongoing reformation in our journey before the Lord our God. Paul compares this with changing our dirty clothes into the clean ones in verses 9 and 10: “Since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator…” In order to recover the full beautiful image of God that was originally made into our human lives, we need to take off our old self with the earthly nature that we have had since we were born and clothe ourselves with the new self that Christ Jesus has provided for us since we died with Him on the cross and was raised with Him on the third day from the dead. Once again, please understand this: this cleansing process cannot be done on our own power. Only the power of the blood of Jesus Christ can help each of us be free from the sins we have committed against God and others in our daily lives. Remember that we are responsible for keeping ourselves off the sinful nature we have in our hearts. Our mind can be renewed through the word of God and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin (John 16:8), and the Scriptures do their work of teaching, reproving, correcting, and training us in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:17). Paul is the author of the statement. He was eager to set his mind on Jesus Christ. He counted all of the things he pursued as rubbish in order to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is.” None of these other things that had been important to him -- his race, his religion, and his reputation -- could have compared with this fellowship with Jesus. When we hear about Paul counting everything as garbage, we may ask if we have to throw all of the things we have into the trash. What Paul is saying here is that if there is anything that blocks him from coming to Jesus or leads him to rely on that rather than on Jesus, he counts that as rubbish – as something that he needs to lose. Paul worked as a tentmaker to support himself, even though he was called to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul used his knowledge and intelligence to write many beautiful epistles to the various believers. Paul gave his best to gain Jesus Christ. To learn about Jesus, to give his life to Jesus, to walk with Jesus each day is the highest value in his life. This is Paul's passion for his entire life. Setting our minds on things above also means that we need to ask God to help us see things happening in our daily lives from the Heavenly perspective. That can help us deal with each of the daily occurring, from God’s eyes. That can also help us seek God’s will in the events we have heard and seen. Jesus came to establish the kingdom of God and to maintain us to be ruled in His kingdom. He taught us in the Lord’s Prayer that “Thy kingdom come” should be in our prayers. He wants us to perceive His ruling power and presence in our lives. He wants us to think as citizens of the kingdom of God and to live in this world as His children. Too often, I try to handle things I have encountered by myself; however, I have recently found myself overwhelmed because things are coming one after another. That is why I come to realize that I need to kneel before the Mighty God and tell Him humbly and honesty every concern and anxious thought I have had. Furthermore, we need to ask God for His strength and guidance to live as His chosen people and fly out as His holy and dearly loved children in God’s realm. Whil

Title: A clean vessel for Noble purposes In our text for today, the phrase, “in a large house” can be interpreted as God’s church. Once again, in the house of Godare various articles. In other translations of the Bible, the word “articles” is described as vessels, dishes, or instruments. In this message, I have used this word interchangeably. The vessels in God’s church can be compared with individual believers. Some believers could appear in a golden or silver status. Some could be known as common followers of Jesus.Sometimes we might misinterpret this part of the scripture. In this scripture Paul is not saying that people in a golden status would be better than the ones in a clay status. Both of them have their own unique purposes when they were created. The only difference between the two is some functions of their usage. Every vessel is blessed by the Creator, God. Now, Paul asks himself this question. I am just paraphrasing it in my own words: “Who can be used for honorable purposes in God’s church?” The answer he gives us is the following: “Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work” (2 Timothy 2:21). We as the people of God tend to think that the Lord can use, for noble purposes,people who have a great knowledge of the Bible, who have impressive talents or gifts, who have abundant resources and so on. When I worked for campus ministry, at a summer Bible conference, I heard a guest speaker emphasizing their social status in the future. During his lecture, the speaker encouraged the university students attending the conference to study hard, get a good education, and become the number one in their work fields. One slogan that he made was “Aim higher than normal for the glory of God.” That was a great message. I still believe that we as Christians need to be in a position to influence people whether we teach students, nurse patients, build houses, plant the fields or run own businesses. Whatever we do, we are supposed to make, for the glory of God, the best out of what we have been given. With that kind of achievement in any areas in which we are located, we can impact more people’s lives when we do something for the sake of God. At the same time, I am aware of some negative outcomes in our society of those prominent Christians who have failed morally. If a person filled with any wickedness is in a higher social status and wants to do God’s work, it may provide more harmful influences. An unclean person is not fit for God's ministry. That is why I pray to God that my heart is affected by the Word of God before I share the Word with you. I often ask myself: “Am I changed by the Word I am delivering?” It does not matter how much time I have prepared a sermon, but the matter is whether I obey and am changed by what I preach. Otherwise, I as a blind person in spirit may not lead others in God’s ways. Today, Paul shares with us a clear answer to the question: “Who can be used for God’s special purposes?” God uses the vessels who cleanse themselves from the latter. The phrase “the latter” in this scripture indicates the previous phrase “common use” translated in the New International Version of the Bible. In the different versions of the Bible, the phrase “the latter” is also translated as “dishonorable purposes.” When we look at the earlier portion of this scripture, which is from 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 14 through 19 and the following part of 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 21, we can find that the dishonorable things are described as ungodly or false teaching, wickedness, quarreling, the evil desires of youth, foolish, and stupid arguments. If we want to be used by God for His special purposes, we need to examine our minds with His Word and cleanse ourselves from anything that isdishonorable in our hearts. This cleansing process, better known as confession and repentance, is so crucial for every believer to do on a regular basis. Some people might question us about whether we are being legalistic or not. The Apostle Paul who was the author of the epistle for today made a clear statement. Before I read his declaration, I would like to mention that before Paul met Jesus and accepted Him as the Lord, he was a real legalist. On his own, he wanted to be righteous by obeying all of God’s laws but he couldn’t. Later, Paul said in Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Once Paul repented of his sins and put his trust in God, he experienced that Jesus Christ had sethim free from all of the condemnations and changed him into a new creation. And then, he said in our text for this morning, “We as new creatures of God are all called to become holy in our daily lives, useful to the Master and Lord our God and prepared to do any good work (2 Timothy 2:21). Once more, please understand this. The cleansing process is not done by us. We are not the one purifying ourselves. We do not have the capacity of cleansing ourselves. By our own effort, we cannot compensate for our sins. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel made offerings to God and asked Him for His forgiveness whenever they did wrong. God heard their requests and accepted their offerings. However, it was a temporary business between God and human beings. That forgiving ministry did not work at all because we as sinners have continuously been against God. In the New Testament, God provided a permanent solution for His people by sending His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. He died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead. Through Him, we, who repent of our wrongdoings and put our trust in the Lord, can have eternal life and forgiveness. The one thing we continue to do is cleanse ourselves constantly by turning away from our sins and turning toward God. In our walk with God, we are responsible to purify ourselves by relying on the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. No matter how unclean we are, the power of the blood of Jesus can purify us and make us pure in spirit when we humbly request God to change us. The Scripture says, “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). I have observed a couple of interesting points from this scripture. First, the verbs of each phrase “flee the evil desires…” and “pursue righteousness…” are present imperative tenses. In other words, we need to obey these commands and do this activity continuously. Once again, it is not a one-time event but a lifetime. Second, we need to flee any ungodly things. We are not supposed to make any consultation with the evil spirits. Our enemy, Satan, is much smarter, stronger than we are. Once we engage in any compromising business, we will definitely be deceived and defeated. It isone hundred percent certain. In the book of Genesis, a man of God named Joseph was tempted by his boss’ wife. At that time, he did not make any conversation with her. He just ran away from her. As soon as possible, he escaped from that place and ran to God. He ran toward the Word of God. Later, Joseph made a wonderful statement to even his brothers who hated him and sold him as a slave in Egypt for the wicked purpose: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). Joseph had been used for God’s special purposes. We need to flee from anything that pulls us away from God’s ways. Third, we need not only to flee wickedness but also pursue godliness. The first divine fruit Paul mentioned here is righteousness. In order to be righteous before God, we need to be cleansed from all of our sins as well as to pursue His righteousness. We can find this righteous stuff in the Word of God called the Holy Scripture. This is one main reason why we need to read the Bible every day. The Word of God is a lamp for our feet and a light on our path. Have we ever driven a vehicle without turning headlights on the roads in darkness? Can we drive in a safe manner? I don’t think so. In the last verse of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament, it is said, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Nowadays, everybody seems to have their own definition of righteousness. It can depend on what kind of perspective individual people have. One issue to some people can be accepted and right. However, that same issue can be interpreted as a wrongdoing. King Solomon asked God for His wisdom to govern His people and to distinguish between right and wrong (1 Kings3:9). Later, he confessed, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” (Proverbs 9:10) During our meditation on the Word of God, we need to ask the Holy Spirit for His divine wisdom to guard our hearts as well as to choose right things the Lord Jesus Christ wants us to do in our daily lives. This morning God wants each of us to come to Him as we are and to cleanse us from all of the things we have made against God and others. God can then use us for His noble purposes no matter how much or little we have in terms of knowledge, talents, gifts, resources, and so on. Remember that one day we will all stand before God and be asked whether we have been useful to the Master before we are invited to the Heavenly banquet with Jesus Christ. God can use only those who cleanse themselves from dishonorable stuff. Before God’s invitation to communion today, we need to make ourselves cleansed. *In this sermon I have used some thoughts from the various sermons texted on 2 Timothy 2:20-26.

Title: Genuine Discipleship - Who is the Greatest? Last Sunday, we explored the potential of one kernel seed and learned that the seed can produce many fruits if it first dies, later to ultimately provide nutrition to the tree. We applied this to genuine discipleship as denying ourselves to be more like Jesus Christ. One godly person’s complete sacrifice toward God and His ministry can have enormous impacts on the lives of many people in this world. This Sunday, we will look at another principle of becoming authentic followers of Jesus Christ. In our text for today, Jesus introduces true greatness to His disciples and those of us who want to follow Him as our Leader. As we read the scripture this morning, we can find an interesting conversation between Jesus and the mother of Zebedee’s sons. She asked Jesus to give a higher position to her sons when He fulfilled His mission and established His kingdom. Through her sons, she had heard that Jesus was going up to Jerusalem to do something great. Over the previous past weeks, Jesus had predicted His death a couple of times to the disciples. He wanted them to be prepared; however, they did not fully understand it. They just assumed that Jesus would soon become a significant person since many people had been following Him and had wanted Him to be the king of Israel. The mother had prayed for her sons to be great disciples. I believe that she thought that it would be a time for her to step in and ask Jesus about this. As parents, my wife and I can relate to this. We have been praying to God to help our boys to fulfill their God-given dreams. The prayers of parents, grandparents, or great grandparents for their loved ones are vital, and God listens to them. What was Jesus’ response to the request that the mother brought? He asked both her and her sons: “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” Immediately, they answered, “We can.” Here in Jesus’ statement, the cup means the suffering that Jesus would be going to bear when he was arrested, mocked, and crucified in Jerusalem. On the night before Jesus was arrested, he prayed on the Mount of Olives. “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). The cup Jesus mentioned in His prayer was shameful, painful, and unbearable things He had to carry on a cross, so Jesus asked God to help Him to go through it. Even though the mother and her sons did not fully perceive the meaning of the cup, Jesus accepted their ambition as good and said to them: “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my father” (Matthew 20:23). Interestingly enough, later, her sons, who have been believed to be James and John, sacrificed their lives for Jesus. That is the implication of what Jesus said in the first half of His statement. What about the second half of Jesus’ declaration? “But to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my father” (Matthew 20:23b). This statement Jesus made means that God is the One giving His reward to the people, in His kingdom, based on what they have done here on earth. Sometimes I hear some people saying that they would not care whether they would receive God’s recognition or not. I respect them and give my big applause to them. At the same time, we need to remember that God’s judgment and His reward are frequently mentioned in the Bible. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). When we are called to be with the Lord, we will all stand before God. “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). God rewards each of us when we genuinely work for His Kingdom ministry. “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 22:12-13). I believe that Jesus, who knows everything about us from the beginning of our lives to the end, will not only bless us with His reward in heaven, but will also provide us with His abundant resources and give us His mighty strength here on earth. In this whole rewarding process, God is the only one to have the final word for each of us. Peter always wanted to be recognized as Jesus’ greatest disciple. We remember that Peter denied Jesus three times after He was arrested. When Peter was ashamed of his failure, the resurrected Christ came to see Peter and assured him of His unchanging love for him three times. Peter was changed and followed Jesus regardless of the recognition he would have received. Later, in his epistle, Peter wrote about this: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). Since Peter believed that God was the real judge, he lived humbly before the Lord and pleased God courageously regardless of what the other people did. Today, the Apostle Peter has been considered to be one of Jesus’ principal disciples. When the other disciples heard about Jesus’ teaching to the mother and her two sons, the other ten disciples were all upset about the mother’s request. Jesus knew that all of His disciples wanted to be the greatest, so He taught them genuine greatness. In the video titled “How to Read the Bible - The Parables of Jesus”, we learn that He used a good example for His audience to understand some crucial principles of true discipleship easily. Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:25-28). Some of us may wonder why we need to have the mindset of a servant instead of having kingship or the mind of greatness. To understand this, we need some background on the concept of a servant or a slave in Jesus’ day. In our culture, being either a servant or a slave has a somewhat negative meaning. We may imagine some people in North America in the nineteenth century who worked hard for long hours and received low payments. However, in Jesus’ day, people became slaves if they were captured as prisoners in battles. They were brought to foreign lands and were sold as slaves. We know the stories of Joseph, Daniel, and so on in the Bible. In those days, some of the servants were more educated and talented in many areas than their masters, so they were asked to teach their owners’ children and take care of their financial matters. Some did housework and prepared meals for the master’s family. All of the slaves had to take their full responsibilities. They did not expect any recognition and/or reward because they were supposed to do as servants whatever needed to be done. This is the concept of being a servant in Jesus’ teaching. Now, let us go back to the main point of this message: Who is the Greatest? Once again, we need to remember that Jesus never said to the disciples not to be great. Instead, He kept saying to them, “Whoever wants to become great among you… Whoever wants to be first…” (Matthew 20: 26). Becoming the greatest in the kingdom of God is a good desire Jesus encourages each of His followers to have. It is a holy ambition that we as children of God are supposed to pursue. The question is, “How do we become the greatest in God’s kingdom?” First of all, we need to approach Jesus and learn the secret of being the greatest in God’s Kingdom. As I stated before, Jesus humbly and honestly prayed to God before taking the cup of being God’s servant to serve and “give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 22:28). Here the word “ransom” means to pay money to set someone free. The ransom Jesus paid was the price of our freedom from slavery. Jesus gave His life for all of us to be free from sin and death. The Gospel of Luke describes Jesus’ prayer like this: “And in being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). Becoming a servant of God is not easy due to our own sinful and selfish desires. We need to invite Jesus to enter our hearts and reign in us. Our invitation from Jesus is not a one-time repented event before Him but an ongoing returning journey toward Him. That is why we need to keep examining ourselves through the spiritual mirror, the Word. We need to keep turning away from the sins, in repentance, that we have committed and, in faith, keep turning toward the direction God has shown us. This is a very fundamental attitude for us to be a servant of God. Our own power cannot do it. No one can be transferred into God’s servants without our honest and humble prayers regarding God’s help and guidance. Second of all, we need to use our God-given resources to fulfill His greatest commandments. One day, Jesus was asked by one of the teachers of the Law about the greatest commandments. That teacher probably wanted to be the most significant person. Once again, Jesus acknowledged his desire and answered him by saying: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40). In this world, our greatness tends to be measured by something visible; what education we have pursued, what type of house we live in, what kind of vehicle we drive, how much resou

Title: Genuine Discipleship - A kernel of wheat   Our main text for today starts with some Greek people. They went to Jerusalem to participate in the Passover feast. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, a lot of people went out to meet Him. When Jesus had entered into Jerusalem with His disciples, they gathered to praise Him as if He was their king. The disciples were extremely happy with Jesus’ popularity. Unlike them, some of the Pharisees were jealous and said to one another, “Look how the whole world has gone after him.” Jesus never traveled two or three hundred miles away from his hometown. He never wrote a book. He was never engaged in a speaking tour. However, His influence was growing not only in Palestine but also in its neighboring areas. I do not know where these Greeks came from or who they were. All I know is that they were coming to worship God at the temple and were drawn to Jesus. They approached Philip, looking for some wisdom and knowledge in life, and were presented to Jesus: “Some Greek speaking people would like to meet you.” Knowing Jesus and His popularity, they might have wanted to know how to heal the sick, perform miracles or the secret to eternal life. What was Jesus’ response? In verse 23 He says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” The word hour does not refer to service time at 9:30 or 11:00 in the morning. The original language means “a point of time or a season when an appointed action is to begin.” In order for the Greeks, the disciples, and the remaining followers of Christ to understand this, Jesus illustrates a universal truth of God’s creation in verse 24.“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” Whenever Jesus says, "Very truly I tell you", it is a really important lesson. We must listen to it with all of our hearts. This lesson from a kernel of wheat seems to be simple; however, it contains the most fundamental principle in God’s nature. While preparing this part of today’s sermon, I wanted to find out what happened to kernels of wheat when they were planted into the ground and died. Have you ever seen a kernel of wheat? It is smaller than a peanut. In order for the seed to grow, the seed is first planted 2 or 3 centimeters below ground. The seed will then root into the ground. It looks like the seed is decaying. When it dies, however, a green shoot of life begins from it. This is the most important part. When the seed dies completely, it produces many seeds. Without this process, the fruit cannot be produced. The seed has to be one hundred percent rotten not ninety-nine percent. Thus, the rottenness of the seed is not a disappearance but a new creation which produces a lot of fruits from the seed. The seed of a kernel of wheat has huge potential. One seed may produce 100 to 125 kernels of wheat after four months. If we plant these again and again for five years, we may get 10,000,000,000 to 12,500,000,000 kernels. Wow! This amounts to 17,000 bags. In other words, when one hundred people eat the food produced by this one kernel of wheat three times per day, they can live for 68 years. Here in this illustration for today, Jesus is speaking of Himself. He is the kernel of wheat. In the same way that a seed is planted and bore much fruit, Jesus was on His way to the cross to die, be buried and resurrected to new life. His life falling on the ground and transformed as a ransom has given new lives to many people in this world. (Mark 10:45) Jesus was confident that through His death, there was a resurrection of Him and that God would be glorified during this whole process. This profound statement was not only designed for the Greeks and the disciples, but also for those all who follow Him today. When God made human beings He commanded us to follow in His footstep and explains in detail in verse 25 what he means by that: "Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life." This is the central message of the Gospel. All four gospels present this truth. (Matt. 10:39, Mark 8:35, Luke 17:33). Now the question we need to ask is the meaning of Jesus’ paradoxical statement. What does Jesus mean by hating our life? Does that mean that we engage in self-condemnation, or torture our bodies in various ways? Not at all! Remember that we are created in God’s image. Our body is the temple of God. So, what does Jesus mean by this ironic statement? “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 13:25) In this verse, the word “life” appears three times. When used in the first and second time, the word for “life” refers to “the human mind, ego, or self.” We Christians often call it “the fallen or sinful nature.” That is why we tend to seek our own selfish desire and pleasure. When used in the third time, the word for “life” with the adjective “eternal”, is translated to a life “everlasting and fruit-bearing.” So the phrase “hate or love their life” in our text means loving or hating our sinful or selfish life. In Mark 8:34 Jesus expands this meaning of hating our sinful life in a little bit more detail. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves...” We as human beings tend to cling to our selfish life if we do not make an effort to avoid it. Following our sinful desires is something we do naturally. In order to become a true disciple of Jesus, we need to think carefully about what hating our sinful nature means and need to work at it daily. How can we deny ourselves and bear a lot of fruits? In our other text for today, Galatians 5:19-26, we are invited to consider the way we are living today. There are two different ways of life. One is known as “the acts of the sinful nature” and the other is called “the fruit of the Spirit.” When we do not hate our sinful nature and follow our sinful desires, we eventually produce bad fruits in life. Paul made a list including sexual immorality, idolatry, hatred, jealousy, drunkenness, and the like. We may be able to cover up these sinful behaviors before the people who are around us. However, one day all of these will be veiled before the Lord and the real problem we will face is His denial. What if God says to us, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matt. 7: 23) On the contrary, there is another way to live. When we trust in the Lord with all our hearts, submit to Him in all our ways, we can have the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5: 22,23) With the help of the Holy Spirit, we must deny ourselves and die to sin again and again Now some of us may wonder and ask this kind of question: “Why does hating my sinful nature matter to me?” Those who are out there in the world are free to do whatever they want to do. “Why do I need to be bothered by Jesus’ teaching?” We can find a couple of answers from the last part of today’s scripture. In verse 26 Jesus said, “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” First, we need to do it because our Lord Jesus said so. Are we the followers of Jesus Christ? Or, are we the fans of Jesus Christ? There is a big difference. The main purpose of being a fan of a celebrity is for our enjoyment. We just need to have fun. That is almost everything we are required to do. As followers of someone or a cause, it is more serious. We are responsible for observing what we are taught and sharing it with others since we love them. Second, we need to think about where Jesus was and where He is now. Our Lord Jesus went to Gethsemane to pray, took the cross, and went to the grave. After that, he was raised from the dead and now is sitting with the Father God Almighty. This leads us to the next point. God will honor anyone who serves Jesus. Are we excited about what happened to Jesus after the grave and what God was going to do after finishing His journey of faith? Of course, I believe that all of us here in this sanctuary are so excited about our final destination. When we look at the world around us, we may be discouraged because of the things we have heard and seen, but as followers of Jesus, we must throw off everything that hinders us and run with our eyes fixed on Jesus who has already finished his journey of faith. “In the First World War, there was a young French soldier who was seriously wounded. His arm was so badly smashed that it had to be amputated. He was a magnificent specimen of young manhood, and the surgeon was grieved that he must go through life maimed. So he waited beside his bedside to tell him the bad news when he recovered consciousness. When the lad's eyes opened, the surgeon said to him: "I am sorry to tell you that you have lost your arm." "Sir," said the lad, "I did not lose it; I gave it -- for France." (William Barclay, Gospel of John) Similarly, Jesus did not lose His life. Instead, He gave His precious life to save us from eternal death! Jesus had a strong desire to please and glorify God. When we look at Jesus’ public ministry, one crucial lesson we can find is that He wanted to glorify God in everything and in every circumstance. Jesus did not move by His own time schedule. Even though a lot of people were looking for and asking Him for His help, He told the disciples, “Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” (Mark 1:38) Before Jesus took Lazarus out of the tomb, He said to Martha, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God.” (John 11: 40) He wanted her and all the people around her not only to see Lazarus become alive but also to experience the glory of God through the miracle. In John 17:1, Jesus prayed to God, “Fat

Title: The Prayer of Faith In our Gospel for today, Jesus’ disciples were amazed when they discovered that the fig tree that they just saw the previous day had withered from the roots. Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree and wanted to know how Jesus did it. Jesus answered Peter, “Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:22-24). Jesus taught His disciples the relationship between prayer and power. Today I want us to explore what mountain moving faith and prayer looks like. Let us also explore how we can have a victorious life in our journey of faith. Firstly, Jesus wants us to talk to the mountains to go and throw themselves into the sea. It is an extraordinary thing for us to do. Moving a mountain takes a lot of time and effort. I’m sure that many of you have learned that, due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, a huge hospital was built in a very short period. It was amazing to see many bulldozers digging into the ground and trucks transporting heavy dirt. My family and I have recently come to realize that the city named Zhangjiajie that we visited with my mother last summer is located close to Wuhan. I want to show you some photos of our travels at the Zhangjiajie National Park. This photo shows a cable car running every minute from the downtown area of the city to the top of the mountains. It is the longest cable car in the world, 7455 meters long. When people arrive at the top of the hill, they go down to the middle part of the mountain through two methods. The first one is taking around a dozen escalators, which are very stiff, and each distance of the escalator would be around 100 meters. The fantastic thing is that those escalators are operated inside the mountain tunnels. The second method is climbing down the nine hundred ninety-nine steps. After coming out of the long tubes by taking the escalators or using the steps, people take a shuttle bus to the bottom part of the mountains. Shuttle drivers are good at driving on a mountain road, which has the ninety-nine sharp curves. There are literally ninety-nine bends on the way. My family and I were astonished to see those fantastic human-made sceneries. It is hard for us even to imagine those kinds of pictures. Can we imagine making tunnels inside mountains and installing more than a dozen of escalators there? Can we dream of making ninety-nine curves alongside the hills? Can we vision running cable cars from the center of downtown to the top of the mountains? The population of China is twelve billion, and its people-made-works are very powerful. If we have heavy equipment, enough people and resources, a mountain can be transported into somewhere. However, if we just talk to a mountain to throw itself into the sea, it is impossible. No matter how loud we speak out or how many times we even shout at the mountain, it won’t budge. So, what does the Bible mean when it mentions talking to the mountain to move away? I believe that it is a way that we as His children pray to God. It is a way that we speak aloud what we want God to do for us. As I stated before, prayer is the expression of our faith in God. Through prayer, we not only have a conversation with God but also request our wishes to God. Some of us may wonder why we need to ask God what we desire if we believe that He is truly the Almighty God. Our Lord knows everything about us as well as what we need. In a way, this is right. As a father, I know somewhat what my boys might need in their lives and try to provide them with those things as best as possible. Sometimes I need to be asked by them; otherwise, I would not know what they want. As our Heavenly Father, God knows what we need in our lives. We don’t need to tell a list of what we need. He knows everything and provides the best for us. At the same time, our Heavenly Father God wants to be asked by us as His children. A little child, who trusts in their mom and/or dad, asks them about anything confidently and courageously. Likewise, in prayer, we can honestly share with God everything we are concerned about. There are no such things too big for God to do for us. There are no such things too small for us to present to God. Whether our requests are big or small, God is so pleased to hear from us. God wants us to come to Him at any time and talk to Him about anything, even our mountain-sized stuff. Remember that our Lord Jesus is the Creator God. Secondly, Jesus wants us to fight against our doubts in God as we come to Him as we are. When Jesus encourages us to pray to him about anything, He also suggests us to deal with our lack of faith in God.The question some of us may have is whether we need complete faith in God for us to receive the requests we have made. If we do not have full confidence in what God can do for us, some of us may think that the Lord may not be able to provide for us what we have asked. The answer I have for you is no. Even though our faith is little or small like a mustard seed, God can move our mountain from here to there (Matthew 17: 21). At the same time, we need to remember that we have to deal with our doubt in God all the time because we are imperfect human beings. Do you know that in the Bible “the unbelieving” is placed in the same category of the things God does not like, such as “the cowardly, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars”? (Revelation 21 8). Not believing in God should not be dealt with in a light matter. The unbelieving is one of the primary roots of sin. In our Old Testament for today, we can find out that God seriously deals with the doubt the people of Israel have toward Him. It is very interesting to see the people of Israel continue showing their lack of faith in God. Behind the Israelites was the most potent army marching to attack them. In front of them was the Red Sea. The people of Israel were in a desperate situation. We tend to criticize the attitude of the people of Israel toward God. But I think that the people of Israel represent us. If we were given those kinds of circumstances, we would also cry out to God and doubt His love for us. We need to think about God’s mighty interventions in the lives of the people of Israel. Think about how many times God had heard their cries. When they suffered as slaves in Egypt, God helped exile them out of Egypt by using the ten miraculous events, including the Passover. While every little boy at Egyptian households was killed in God’s judgment, every boy at the houses of Israelites was saved due to God’s protection. When the people of God complained about the lack of food in the desert, God had provided them with abundant resources for forty years. God had guided them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night. Eventually, God opened the Red Sea and helped them walk through it on dry ground. The people of Israel had received enormous blessings from the Lord. However, they were still hesitant to be led by the Lord when they encountered some challenges. Anyway, at the time the people of Israel doubted God’s protection, He told them through Moses, “Do not be afraid... The Lord will fight for you, be still" (Exodus 14:13-14). When we doubt God’s power, we begin to wander. Since we feel anxious, uncertain, or fear, our minds wanderhere and there. Our eyes are taken off from the Lord and start looking at many other things, instead of looking for His help and guidance. That is why God said to the people of Israel as well as us, “Be still.” God wants us to know who is in charge of the battles we are in and to fix our eyes on the mighty Lord. Being still in the presence of God is hard thing for us to do, even if we have faith in Him. We tend to move around naturally to seek help besides the help we can receive from the Lord. When we are in crisis, God wants us to be still in His presence, be patient, and watch what God has planned to do. A couple of chapters before this chapter in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus said to the father whose son needed to be healed, to repent of his lack of faith in the Lord by saying, “If you can? Everything is possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:23). The father responded to Jesus in repentance, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). God wants us to have the same attitude toward Him as the father did. Before we kneel before the Lord and present our requests to Him, we need to ask Him to help us overcome our lack of faith in Him. This petition is not a one-time event but an ongoing journey until we are called to be home with the Lord. Thirdly, Jesus wants us to keep moving, not only in prayer but also in action, toward the mountain we facein our journey of faith. Being still before the Lord and having faith in God is not just praying to God and doing nothing. Faith also requires us to do something God wants us to do. Before we go any further, I want to briefly share the definition of faith the author of Hebrews describes. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). With our own eyes, we do not see things God wants us to see. Faith is a way of perceiving the things taking place in our lives from God’s point of view. Faith is a way of understanding the events happening to us with the eyes of God. By faith, we can see, perceive, understand what is really going on in our lives, and we can move on to the direction God has shown to us. That is the venues that the author of Hebrews describes in our Epistle for today. In this chapter, there are many heroes and heroines of faith. By faith, “Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did” (Hebrews 11:4). By fait

The Prayer of Jabez (II) One of my favorite books is the book of Psalms. There are many conversations between the authors of the psalms and the Lord in prayers and praises. Amazingly, they express the feelings and thoughts we as human beings have experienced during our challenging seasons. Sometimes I use psalms in my prayer. In our psalm for today, the author describes the prayers about God’s Presence and Protection. We will soon explore each of these requests in conjunction with the Prayer of Jabez. Last week we explored the first half of the Prayer of Jabez, so today I want us to look at the second half of this prayer. This part is taken from the first book of Chronicles, chapter four, verses nine and ten, and this scripture is projected on the wall. Let us read it together. [Jabez was more honourable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain. Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request. (1 Chronicles 4:9-10)] Jabez’s first petition is for God’s Provision. He prayed that God would bless him. He came to realize that God was the only one who could give himtrue blessing. He also believed that God’s grace was what can truly satisfy him. Like Jabez, we can pray to God that He would bless our loved ones and us with His abundant provision physically and spiritually. Jabez’s second request is for God’s Prosperity. He prayed that God would enlarge his territory. Jabez desired to expand his boundary and influence. He wanted to use his God-given resources to impact the lives of the people around him. We can ask God to enlarge our influence in work, business, and ministry to be more of a blessing to others with our God-given prosperity. Today, I want us to examine the third and fourth topics in Jabez’s prayer in detail and apply each of them to our prayer life. The third petition is for God’s Presence. Jabez prayed that God’s hand would be with him. What did “being God’s hand with me” mean to Jabez? As I stated before, the family of Jabez belonged to the tribe of Judah, which was the royal line of Abraham and King David. I believe that Jabez had learned, through his spiritual ancestors, about the power of God’s hand. The Psalmist, who might be King David, the author of the following psalm, says, “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand” (Psalm 37:23-24). Because of the strength of God’s hand, even though the children of God fall seven times, they can rise again (Proverbs 24:16). In the book of Genesis, when Abram was about to be transformed into a new name called “Abraham,” which means “the father of many nations,” God revealed Himself to him by saying, “I am God Almighty…” (Genesis 17:1). The Lord is the Almighty God. He created the whole universe out of nothing. When a person makes something, he or she uses their hands. Likewise, I would say that God’s mighty hands made the heaven and the earth. God’s hand in the Bible represents His mysterious presence. Someone says something like this: “God is in the business of creating new creatures in Christ.” The Apostle Paul says this: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). God’s mighty hand is so dominant, so whoever comes to Jesus in repentance and belief can be transformed from an old self to a new being. In prayer, Jabez expressed his faith that whatever he asked from the Lord would be done in the power of God's hand. In prayer, Jabez wanted God to be with him as the Immanuel God in whatever circumstance. He remembered that God was the real source of everything he was enjoying and had. Likewise, we need to pray that God’s hand may be present with us all the time. The Lord God is always with us. After Jesus gave the disciples, as well as us, the great commission to spreadthe good news with others, He promised His presence with us all the time by saying: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Once again, always, the Immanuel God wants to be with us as Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Wow! Sometimes we may wonder whether the Immanuel Lord is with us or not, in particular, when we go through some challenges and feel uncertain, anxious, and helpless about them. From time to time, I cry out to God due to some of the struggles and concerns I have. I ask God to provide for me His guidance, His power, His love and His peace. I used to think that I had to hold God’s hand firmly; otherwise, I might not have had God’s presence in my journey of faith. When I look back; however, I come to realize that the Lord my God always holds my hands firmly no matter how weak I am. God holds me more tightly than before if I am weak. The Lord tells usthrough the Bible, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). Because of the love, grace, and mercy of the Immanuel God and with the help of His righteous right hand, He can strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees and keep us “running the race marked out for [us]” (Hebrews 12: 1, 12). Somebody has said that life is like a voyage from one side to the other side of the sea. During our journey, we encounter many different situations. Sometimes we enjoy our ride under the blue sky in the breeze when we do not need to paddle because of the smooth winds. We feel that everything is well prepared for us, and everybody supports us. At other times we need to row hard to keep moving forward. Sometimes we face the winds and storms of life without warning. They come to us, our family, our friends, and our society, and they cause us to trouble and fear in our lives. We feel as if we are struggling all by ourselves. When we face these sufferings, we need to pray for God’s hand to be with us in our relationships, in our home, in our work, in all our lives. Let us pray that God’s wise hand may be with us when we decide some important matters. Let us pray that God’s mighty hand may be with us when we are weak. Let us pray that God’s loving hand may be with us when we are lonely. Let us pray that God’s peaceful hand may be with us when we are in fear. Let us also pray that God may do the same things for our loved ones and the people who need God’s presence in their lives. Jabez’s fourth request in prayer is for God’s Protection. He prayed that God would keep him from harm so that he would be free from pain. In other Bible translations, the word “harm” is used as “evil.” We see these two types of prayers in the following statements: “Keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain” and “Keep me from evil so that I might not cause pain.” We need to pray to God to protect us from harmful situations as well as from evil circumstances. So, I want to explain this last prayer of Jabez in two ways. The first one is that it is a prayer of God’s protection for His people. We all need to ask God to keep us safe so that we may live a pain-free life. The Lord our God is the Protector. Regardless of how much we try to take care of our bodies, God is the one truly keeping us from harm. While we are responsible for looking after ourselves, we need to pray that God may protect us in danger. When we examine verse by verse from the beginning of our text for this morning, the Psalm 91st, to the end, we would be amazed by God’s complete protection for His people. I want to show this by reading to you again, some portion of this psalm. I would like to start with the first three verses in this scripture: “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart…” (Psalm 91:1-3). In the middle of the psalm, the Psalmist describes how our enemy Satan might attack us as God’s people. I want to read one verse regarding this. “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you” (Psalm 91:7). Now I want to end this prayer by reading the last three verses of Psalm 91: “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation” (Psalm 91:14-16). Did you notice another type of protection for God’s people? The phrase “with long life” in the last verse can mean that God protects both our long life and the eternal life that we will receive when we are called to be with the Lord. God’s protection for us starts from the beginning of the time that we confess that God is our refuge and lasts till the time we are invited to live with Him forever in Heaven. Wow! Aren’t we glad to receive this incredible protection of God for each of us? Since we live in an imperfect world that could harm us, we need to ask God for His divine protection for each of us. Do we want to have a pain free life? Yes, I do. Every day, actually, every moment, I ask God to protect me in danger and provide me with His strength. I ask God for His protection for me not only physically but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I also pray to God to put a hedge of protection around my family as well as the people whom

Title: The Prayer of Jabez (I) On the first Sunday of this year, we explored the relationship between our real identity in Christ and spiritual power. When some people in the Bible came to realize who they were in God, they were able to make firm decisions and keep them courageously regardless of the challenges they had encountered. Whether we want to make New Year’s resolutions or not, remembering who we are in the Lord our God is essential. Knowing our true self in Christ helps us overcome challenges and become better servants of the Lord in the coming days. As the new yearhas begun, I believe that some of us, including myself, tend to make some decisions based on our abilities and circumstances. That would be reasonable. At the same time, we as followers of the Mighty God are supposed to include Him in our plans and ask Him for His guidance and strength. These wishes we may have for the year 2020 need to be made in consultation with God, in other words, in prayer. Prayer is an expression of our faith in God. Through prayer, we invite God to be involved in our visions. In God’s math, five loaves plus two fish can be more than the amount of resources for five thousand people. In our comprehension, our limited capacity can generate limited expectation from the Lord. With the help of the Creator God, however, we can bear thirty times, sixty times even one hundred times more than we calculate. Keeping this spiritual principle in mind, I pray that each of us may make some resolutions for the glory of God this year, if you like and/or pray for God to open Heaven’s doors and pour out His abundant blessings upon each of us, our loved ones, our church, our community and our country. In our text for today, we can find one spiritual method demonstrated by Jabez to experience God’s mighty presence in our journey of faith. Jabez prayed about four things. And then, the Lord granted all of the requests Jabez made. Today and next Sunday, we will examine each of the prayer topics and apply them to our spiritual resolutions for this year. Before we explore each petition of Jabez, I want to share with you some background for our study. As far as I know, the book of 1 Chronicles “opens with the most complete genealogical record in the Bible.” From chapter one through chapter nine, a lot of names are mentioned: Historical records from Adam to the 12 tribes of the Israel family. In this family tree, there are over 500 names. This book was written for the people of Israel who came back to their homeland from the captivity in Babylon in 538 BC. The author of the book wanted them to remember who they were in God and live as His chosen people. In the middle of this genealogy, the author described Jabez as “more honourable than his brothers” (1 Chronicles 4:9). In a broad way, Jabez and his brothers belonged to the tribe of Judah that was the royal line of David. The name of Jabez means “pain” in Hebrew. The reason why Jabez got this name was that his mom gave birth to him in pain. Delivering a baby is quite painful, and every woman bearing an infant knows this. I don’t know why the mother of Jabez named him in such a terrible way. Being called “pain” must have caused Jabez a lot of challenging times during his childhood. Because of this weird given name, from time to time, Jabez might have fought to overcome the doubt in God’s love for him during his journey of faith. Those kinds of facts, I believe, might have led him to cry out to God. First, he prayed that God would bless him. Second, he prayed that God would enlarge his territory. Third, he prayed that God’s hand would be upon him. Fourth, he prayed that God would keep him from evil. What is your first impression of this prayer? Mine was that it looked selfish for me to use that prayer pattern because there were a lot of the words related to me-me-me. The Me word is repeated five times: three MEs, one MY, and one I. It appeared, to me, that it would be a self-centered prayer. We have been taught that we need to pray to God according to His will. When we look at The Lord’s Prayer, our Lord Jesus Christ taught us as a sample petition, the first topic of the request is “Hallowed be thy name.” We are supposed to pray for God’s sake first. Godly joy comes from the acronym JOY; when we love Jesus first, Others next, and You and I last. How could the prayer of Jabez be one of the recommended prayer patterns in the Bible? If you, like me, have this kind of doubt, I want us to read his request with me one more time. Are you ready? “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” I hope this time you may have some different observations from this prayer. Now, to me, the prayer of Jabez seems to be one of the few sincere and desperate prayers I have ever heard. In a moment, I will explain to you in detail some of the reasons why I have changed my views on this prayer. My simple reason is that Jabez expressed his complete and absolute faith in God in this short prayer. Let us take a look at the first section of the prayer of Jabez: “You would bless me.” Jabez cried out to God to bless him. What did the phrase “Bless me” mean to Jabez? As I stated a short while ago, Jabez confessed that the Lord his God would be the only one giving him a true blessing. God’s blessing is the real one that the people of God in the Bible have pursued during their journey of faith. I want to share with you two examples about this. The first example is taken from Jacob in the Old Testament and the other is from the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. Jacob would be one of the ancestors of Jabez. Many of us have heard of the story of Jacob at the Jabbok River. One day, Jacob was heading back to his home town and sent all of his family members and all of his possessions ahead of him. That night Jacob left alone near that river and encountered God who was in the form of a human being and wrestle with him over the night. Before the sun rose, God told Jacob, “Let me go, for it is daybreak" (Genesis 32:26). At that time, Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me" (Genesis 32:26). Interestingly enough, Jacob prayed to God in the same way Jabez did. “Bless me!” As I have shared with you the journey of Jacob before, he had pursued many blessings he would like to have and had literally gotten all of them on his own. However, because of the possible threat from his angry twin brother Esau, he was restless in his spirit. At that time, Jacob came to realize that God would be the only one to help him overcome that desperate situation in his journey, and God’s blessing would be the only one to satisfy him completely. That is why he desperately asked God to bless him. The second example is found in the journey of the Apostle Paul. As I have stated before, Paul is a very determined person, and he has strong will power. If he believes that something is right for him to do, he will do no matter what. However, he cried out to God like Jabez when he came to realize that there was something only God could do. After that, Paul considered the things he used to value most “loss for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:7). Paul evaluated them as garbage to gain the true blessing the Lord Jesus Christ could give him. Please understand this. All of the resources we are enjoying and we have are not useless. They are valuable when we use them for good purposes in our lives. What Paul is saying to us is that God is the one who gives the real source of strength to us to work hard to get them. After Paul met Jesus, he confessed that all of the blessings he had received comes from the strength of Jesus Christ (Philippians 4:13). What does this “Bless Me” petition signify to each of us? In my view on this prayer, we can apply this prayer method in two ways. The first one can be a reminder of our identity in God. A couple of weeks ago, we learned our real identity in God that we are His chosen people, special possession to Him, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation. Related to God’s blessing is the story of Abraham. When God called him, the Lord promised to him in the following statement: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and your will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2, 3). Since we have become the descendants of Abraham in spirit, each of us is also considered as a blessing of God like Abraham. Whether we realize it or not, God values each of us as His blessing and wants us to influence His blessing wherever we go. We are like a spiritual ambassador of the Kingdom of God and are supposed to share God’s love and grace in our community. For us to do this, we need God’s blessing. The second prayer method involves our awareness of the real blessing in our lives. What I mean by that is that God’s blessing is the true one for us to be fully satisfied in life. I have already stated this through the two examples of God’s people, Jacob and the Apostle Paul. St. Augustine also confessed that we as human beings could not be happy unless we meet God. According to him, there is a big hole in our heart that can be patched only by the presence of God. Otherwise, we could be restless no matter what we have achieved in this world. This fact leads us to remember that our real help comes from the Lord, who is the Maker of heaven and earth as well as of each of us. We need God’s special blessing every day. Every day, even every moment, I ask God to bless me. Without God’s blessing, I will be nothing. I need God’s blessing upon whatever I do, and so do you. Let us pray to God every day for the next thirty days something like this: Bless me with your healing power. Bless me with your strength, wisdom, and guidance. Bless our church in your living word, spiritual power, and

Title: Our True Identity in Christ Have you made some New Year’s resolutions? I usually like to commit before I start doing something right on the first day of the year, season, month, or week. Having a proper determination helps me to be on the right track for an extended period of time. That is why I, once again, want to make some New Year’s resolutions in the coming days. At the same time, I am aware that, at some point after making those determinations, I will encounter some challenges. They would cause me not to carry out those resolutions continuously, no matter how hard I work on them. Despite this, before the Lord I want to commit myself doing what He wants me to do this year. In a spiritual matter, making resolutions can be similar to renewing our minds before God. We as reformed Christians, are supposed to transfer ourselves continually into God’s perfect image, with the help of the Holy Spirit. There is no ending of completing this godly reformation in our journey of faith here on earth. Until the Lord as the Second Coming of the Messiah comes to visit us, we need to have an ongoing fight against our sinful desires and live a godly life every day. This fact should be one of the lists for our New Year’s resolutions. This morning, I want to talk about how we can keep our resolutions and/or where we can get the strengthto keep them in our walk with God this year, followed by what kind of commitments we should make. As far as I am concerned, there are two Biblical methods to renewing our spiritual heart. The first method is taking God’s warnings or His judgmental messages in a serious manner. Some of us might be uncomfortable with this because we have been taught that God is love. Of course, God’s inner nature is indeed loving. Due to His unchanging and eternal love for each of us, God let His one only Son, Jesus Christ to sacrifice His life on the cross to forgive us from the sins you and I have committed. Because of God’s steadfast love, when we believe in Him and repent of our sins, we receive forgiveness and can have eternal life. At the same time, we need to remember God’s warnings in the Bible. When we obey the Lord our God, He promises that He will provide us with all of His blessings (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). But, if we keep following our sinful desires and doing what God does not like us to do, He would not be happy with those activities. Not long after Jesus preached the beautiful sermon called the Beatitudes on the mountain, he told his audience that it would be better for them to lose some parts of their bodies, if these parts cause them to stumble, than for their whole bodies to go into hell (Matthew 5:30). That is a big warning from the Lord, which is related to the consequences of pursuing ungodliness. The Apostle Paul says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). God is love, and He is also just and righteous. Someday we will all “stand before God’s judgment seat” (Romans 14:10). The second method that should continuously motivate us involves remembering our true identity in Christ. While thinking about the subject of identity, I explored some of the people of God in the Bible and looked at the connection between their strengths and their identities. When Moses came to realize his real identity as the leader of the people of Israel, “By faith Moses… refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt… By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered… By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood…” (Hebrews 11:25-28) In this scripture, all of the verbs, “refused, chose, regarded, persevered, and kept” would describe Moses’ strong determination to follow God’s way regardless of the challenges he might encounter. Knowing his real identity in God helped him to keep his commitment toward God and His people. Another example taken from the Old Testament is a fine young man of Israel named Daniel. Because of the captivity of his country in Babylon, he was brought into a foreign land and was given an opportunity to be trained in that country. He was also provided delicious foods from the king. But Daniel made a firm decision not to defile himself with “the royal food and wine” since he knew that the stuff he would consume was spiritually offered to the idols the king had served. Because Daniel was aware of his DNA as a person of God’s chosen nation, he did not compromise anything which was against God’s will. God blessed Daniel’s resolution with His divine wisdom and knowledge. Later, God helped Daniel become a prime minister of that nation. His political opponents were envious of his success and twisted a king’s rule to attack him. According to that rule, everyone was to kneel only before King Darius and no one else for the next 30 days. Even though Daniel knew that there would be punishments if he did not obey that law, he kept praying to God three times a day as he had done before. Since Daniel was confident of his real identity and to whom he was serving, he was not afraid of any challenges and was able to keep the resolution he had made before God. In the New Testament, we can find another good character, of the relationship between the strength and identity, named the Apostle Paul. As some of you may know well, Paul had a very determined mind. As a Pharisee, he wanted to become righteous before the Lord. Before he met Jesus Christ, he was fighting, on his own, against a spirit of evil in his mind. He was so discouraged with the fact that he could not keep up what he had decided to do in his heart. He had the desire to do what was good, but he could not carry it out. One day he had to cry out to God because he found that he was a helpless person. But when he came to believe that he could be justified only by faith in Jesus Christ, he was changed into a new creation. That transformation led him to rely on God’s power instead of his willpower, which was fragile and limited. Later, Paul praised the Lord for giving him a new identity in Christ and Heavenly strength to do what God wanted him to do: “I can do all this through him [Jesus Christ] who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). In our text for today, we can find one more example of the relationship between our identity and strength through the Apostle Peter. He used to have a big mouth. He was proud of his durable will power, so he gave some big promises to Jesus. A couple of times, in front of the disciples, Peter decided that he would never leave Jesus no matter what. But unfortunately, Peter denied Jesus three times after the Lord was arrested. When Peter relied on his own strength, he failed in keeping what he had determined. Later, when Jesus was resurrected from the dead, He visited Peter and changed him into a new creature. Interestingly enough, Jesus asked the same question, “Do you love me” three times and gave him the same mission, “Feed my sheep” three times. Through the loving fellowship on the beach, Jesus wanted Peter to realize his true self in Christ. After that incident, Peter was so assured of how much Jesus loved him and what the Lord wanted him to do. On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached the gospel message regarding Jesus’ death and resurrection in front of a massive crowd of people courageously and baptized many of them in the name of Jesus Christ. Knowing his true identity changed Peter from a cowardly disciple to a courageous apostle. In this epistle, Peter also reminded the followers of Christ of their real identities in Him. In those days, many believers were persecuted due to their faith in God and had been scattered into different places. In his letter, Peter did not say to them how sorry he was since he heard that they were living as foreigners under challenging circumstances. Instead, Peter encouraged them to praise the Lord because of what Jesus had done for them. The Lord our God called them “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” (1 Peter 2:9). Wow! Like the early believers, we are also called to live with the same identity. We are chosen by God to be His special people in Him. The Almighty God wanted you and me to be who we are. When he selected each of us as His child, he was so happy with that decision. Our Creator God wonderfully made us in our mother’s womb before we were born. We are not only chosen by God, but we are also considered as His favorite. A couple of days ago, during our daily walk, my wife was talking to me about how precious life is. God created all of the incomprehensive universes, galaxies, stars, the moon, the sun, and the earth. Every planet He made works perfectly. The Operator God has been performing His mysterious presentation for her and me as well as all of you. Someone said something like this: “How much something is measured in value depends on how much somebody is willing to pay.” Would you like to know how much the Lord our God values each of us? Look at the cross. The Lord our God himself came to earth in the form of human being and sacrificed himself on the cross because He valued each of us as His son or daughter in the Heavenly Kingdom. We are chosen people of God and are unique to Him. God also calls us “a holy nation and a royal priesthood.” These titles would represent not only who we are in God but also what kind of privilege we have in Him. The other character of God is holy, so we are called to be sacred as His children. That is one of the reasons why, according to today’s scripture, we are to abstain from sinful desires. The word for “holy” in this phrase means “separated.” Even though we live in the world, we are not of the wo

Title: Christmas Disciple: Anna, the Prophetess During this past Advent four Sundays, we have studied the very first four Christmas songs. The first song sung by Mary is called “the Magnificat” since her soul “magnifies” the Mighty and Merciful God in the birth of Jesus Christ. (Luke 1:46) The Priest Zechariah tuned the second song known as “the Benedictus” since it means God’s blessing in Latin. He blessed the Lord because God had redeemed His people through the Horn of Salvation, Jesus Christ. (Luke 1:69) The third praise choired by the Angels of the Lord is titled “The Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” On the first Christmas, they raised their voices with joyfulness about the baby Jesus: “Glory to God in the highest heaven…” (Luke 2:14). Sometime after the birth of Jesus, Simeon sung the fourth hymn titled “the Nunc Dimittis” which means “…you may now dismiss” (Luke 2:29) in Latin. When Mary and Joseph brought in the Baby Jesus to present him to the Lord at the temple, Simeon was convinced that this child was indeed the Messiah. He witnessed the coming of the Messiah and praised the Lord for the consolation of Israel which is the Immanuel baby. Today I want us to explore one more story of praise by the prophet Anna. When Simeon was holding Jesus and presided over the ceremony for the Jesus family, she participated in the blessing of Jesus. She gave thanks to God and also praised the Lord for the redemption of Jerusalem through the Baby Jesus. Today I want us to look at some of the characteristics that Anna has shown and make firm commitments to God in the coming year as she did. Let me begin with the name of Anna. Her name means “grace.” Anna was a prophetess, a female prophet. In the Old Testament era, prophets were appointed to speak out God’s words and plans to them. Ever since the last prophet named Malachi, no revelation from the Lord had been available to the people of Israel. In the previous 400 years, they had lived in spiritual darkness and death. The author of the Gospel of Matthew described the situation they were in like this: “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Matthew 4:16). Anna was the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. In those days, this tribe was not considered as a significant branch. Unlike the city of Jerusalem, the town of Penuel and the tribe of Asher was unpopular and insignificant. Anna was also ancient. She “had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four” (Luke 2:37). Today many people might considerher as a candidate for a retirement home, and nothing more. At the appropriated time, God chose her to speak about the baby Jesus. We can learn from the description of the female prophet, Anna that God can use anyone for His Kingdom ministry regardless of age, gender, and social status. God can choose anyone to reveal His plans and messages to His people. Now I want us to think about some of Anna’s characteristics. The Bible does not say much about this. The only verse in our main text for today explains it in the following statement: “She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying” (Luke 2:37). While preparing this message, I had spent quite some time thinking of this statement; in particular, the phrase “never left the temple.” In the Old Testament, the temple or tabernacle is known as God’s dwelling place. King David made a blueprint of God’s temple, and King Solomon built God’s tabernacle based on that print. Levis, priests, and other religious leaders had kept and taken care of the temple of God. The people of Israel came to the temple to have fellowship with God through those chosen people. During the period of the Old Testament time, those earthly temples of God had been destroyed a couple of times and had been unfortunately corrupted. In the era of the New Testament, Jesus Christ is considered as God’s temple (John 2:13-22). When Jesus saw “people selling cattle, sheep and doves and others sitting at table exchanging money,” he was so upset and drove all of them from the temple courts. He said to them, “Stop turning my Father’s house, in other words, God’s temple, into a market” And then he challenged them by saying “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” Later, Jesus explained to them that this temple would be his own body and revealed them death and resurrection through this temple subject. Since Jesus had fulfilled all of God’s will during His public ministry, we as the followers of Christ, can meet God and worship Him through Christ. Jesus also built God’s temple. He said to Peter, “I will build my church” based on the gathering of those who confess that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). The meeting places of these believers are called God’s temples or God’s churches. The Apostle Peter describes the followers of Christ as “living stones to build God’s spiritual house in this world” (1 Peter 2:5). Think about this. How blessed we are gathered today in the house of the Lord and worship Him with all our hearts. The Psalmist said, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” (Psalm 122:1) All of us here enjoy in coming to this sanctuary to worship the Lord our God. We listen to His Word and place all our burdens in His hand and ask Him for His guidance and strength. We sing to the Lord with all our minds and strengths. Since we believe that the church is God’s dwelling place we have installed some things in our sanctuary which represent or symbolize His love and grace for us. Sometimes we present or dedicate some things for God’s ministries. Take a look at this sanctuary. I believe that the Lord our God has been pleased with the dedication we as a church have shown to Him and the faithfulness for His Kingdom ministries. Furthermore, the Apostle Paul describes that we as followers of Christ are God’s temple. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and your together are that temple” (1 Corinthians 4:16-17). According to the Bible, we are “the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16) and our bodies are also “temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19) “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We are all mini temples of God. I will soon explain in detail what I mean by this. The temple in the Bible has been known as God’s dwelling place, Jesus Christ, the Body of Christ, the Church and individual followers of Christ. Keeping this concept of God’s temple in mind, let us continue to think about the statement, “She [Anna] never left the temple”. I don’t know whether Anna had literally never left the temple or not. She might have had a permanent place inside the temple to do her God-given tasks as a prophetess. The Bible did not tell us about this. What the scripture is telling us today is that she never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. The meaning of the word for worship is to put someone or something number one in our lives. In a spiritual matter, when we worship God, we place the Lord our God as the priority in our hearts and want to love Him with all our heart. When we love some people, we want to spend time as much as possible with them to get to know them and do some things well to make them pleased. “Fasting and praying” is one of the expressions of how much we as children of God love Him and rely on Him. Fasting can be done by people who want to have a deeper fellowship with God. Prayer is the expression of our faith in God. We believe in the power of prayer. In our spiritual journey of faith, prayer makes a difference. In our Sunday worship services, we not only pray to God at the Prayers of the people but also pray to the Lord at the sinning of the hymns as well as at the reading of the book of Psalms. The Prophet Anna loved worshipping God at the temple night and day with fasting and prayer. What would be the reason why Anna did those activities at the temple? Did she do them out of her duties as a prophet? Did she feel obligated to do those devotions to God? I would believe that Anna did all those things out of her joyfulness. When I was young man, I was hesitant to fully follow Jesus Christ as my Lord and Leader in my life. The main reason I had at that time was that I thought that I would not have enjoyed any fun stuff if I committed to God. In a way, it can be right. Since our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we need to honor God with our bodies, our daily activities. We need to take care of our bodies, not only physically but also spiritually. As we want to decorate God’s temple in a sacred way, we need to “offer our bodies as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1). According to the Apostle Paul, offering our bodies as a living sacrifice means “not conforming to the pattern of this world, but being transformed by the renewing your [our] mind” (Romans 12:2). The center of God’s temple in our bodies is our spiritual heart. Since I became a Christian, with the help of the Holy Spirit I have been enjoying the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22, 23). These by-products the Holy Spirit has given me are much better than the fun things I wanted to have on my own. I give my huge and sincere thanks to God for helping me to make Jesus sit on the throne of my heart and to be governed by the Holy Spirit during my journey of faith. From time to time, I pause out of my daily routines and want to deal with the similar question that I had when I w

Title: The Song of Simeon (The Nunc Dimittis) We wrap up our Advent sermon series called, “The very first four songs of Christmas” taken from Luke’s gospel. So far, we have looked at the songs composed by Mary, Zechariah, and the Heavenly Angelic Choir. The first song sung by Mary is titled “the Magnificat” since her soul “magnifies” the Mighty and Merciful God. (Luke 1:46) Her spirit was overjoyed in the birth of Jesus Christ. In the second tune known as “the Benedictus,” the first word Zechariah spoke after being mute for an extended period of time was the word “praise.” (Luke 1:68) He blessed the Lord because God had redeemed His people through the Horn of Salvation, Jesus Christ. (Luke 1:69) The third praise choired by the Angels of the Lord is titled “The Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” On the first Christmas, they raised their voices with joyfulness about the coming of Christ: “Glory to God in the highest heaven…” (Luke 2:14). Today we have arrived the last of four Christmas songs: the song of Simeon. This song is often called “the Nunc Dimittis” which means “…you may now dismiss” (Luke 2:29) in Latin. Before we examine the last carol sung by Simeon, let us look at what kind of spiritual characteristic he had. “Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.” (Luke 2: 25). The word, “devout” expresses his dedication toward God, and the word, “righteous” indicates his obedience toward the Word of God. Interestingly enough, in the beginning of our text, Luke 2:25-38, one frequent phrase is “by the Law of Moses or in the Law of the Lord.” Mary and Joseph had performed the three ceremonies according to the Law of the Lord. The first is the ceremony of circumcision. On the eight day after birth, they obeyed God by naming their son Jesus and circumcising him (Luke 2:21). The second one is Mary’s purification. She brought a sacrifice to the temple and purified herself from all uncleanliness. The third one is the ceremony of consecration. Mary and Joseph took their firstborn son, Jesus, to present him to the Lord at the temple. That was their expression of faith that their son belonged to the Lord as well as to show their living in accordance with the Word of God. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” That is what Simeon did. He knew what the Law of the Lord said, and he did it. He was not just a hearer but a doer of the Word of God. I believe that Simeon wanted to walk his journey of faith in the light of God’s absolute standard while he was living in a relative world. Another repeated phrase in our text is “the Holy Spirit.” Over and over again, the author of Luke describes the role of the Spirit in the life of Simeon. We assume that he was a religious leader since he performed rituals for parents and their babies at the temple. When he did his spiritual duties, he was led by the Spirit. In Luke 2:27 it is said, “Moved by the Spirit he went into the temple courts.” Simeon was filled with the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God… Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger…” (Ephesians 4:30–31) In his other epistle, Paul uses the phrase “Do not quench the Spirit… Reject every kind of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22) The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in the heart of uncleanness. During his entire faith journey, Simeon examined himself through the spiritual mirror, the Word of God, asked himself whether he was influenced by unrighteousness, and immediately turned away from it. Through his daily devotion to God, I believe that Simeon was guided by the Spirit. With the help of the Holy Spirit, he knew that “he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah” (Luke 2:26). With the help of the Holy Spirit, he went into the temple courts when Mary and Joseph brought in their child, Jesus. One more spiritual characteristic Simeon had is his patience. For an extended period of time, he had been watching and waiting for “the consolation of Israel.” (Luke 2:25) We do not know exactly how old he was here, but it has traditionally been believed that he was around 100 years old. The consolation here in this scripture is the Immanuel baby which is taken from Isaiah 7:14. “Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Simeon had believed this promise. I would like to believe that he had asked the Holy Spirit this question, “Is this child the Immanuel baby?” whenever he saw parents who brought their babies to him in the temple courts. The name of Simeon means “God has heard.” During his entire life, Simeon would have requested from God to see the Immanuel Child in his lifetime. For a long time, he had presented the same request to God every day; he kept watching and waiting for the answer. At the appointed time of God, the Lord has heard his desperate prayer. Let’s take some time to think about the story of the Magi. In Matthew 2:2 they said, “We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” Like the Magi, Simeon had been seeking the truth and looking for the Baby Jesus with all his heart. The reason Simeon waited patiently was because he not only wanted to know the Truth but also to worship the Messiah. He was hungry and thirsty for God. When Mary and Joseph asked Simeon to bless the Baby Jesus, he would have asked the Holy Spirit the same question: “Is this child the Immanuel baby?” At that time, Simeon would hear the Spirit saying to him, “Yes.” Can we imagine how much delight Simeon experienced by encountering the consolation of Israel, the Immanuel Jesus? As soon as Simeon came to realize that the Child was right in front of him, he was overjoyed. He broke out his heart with a song of great praise to the Lord. Firstly, Simeon expressed in his praise how happy he was: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.” (Luke 2:29) Sometimes I hear terminally ill patients express their wishes saying something like: “I could be happy to be with the Lord until my grandchild or great-grandchild gets married.” This is how Simeon felt when he held the baby Jesus. “Lord, I am now ready to go home. Today I can die in peace.” While reflecting on Simeon’s expression, I was amazed at his attitude toward the baby Jesus. We need to ask ourselves: “How excited have we been to meet the Immanuel baby during the Advent season?” As I mentioned before, the Magi are a good example. They came all the way from Persia to greet the infant King. The famous hymn, “We Three Kings,” describes their journey. They left their homeland and said farewell to their family members. They made a long and dangerous journey, climbing mountains, passing through desserts, and crossing rivers enduring scorching heat during the day and the freezing weather at night. The motivation for this journey was to meet the baby Jesus. In our Advent sermon series, one thing that God wants us to focus our eyes on is the baby Jesus. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us to meet the Immanuel Jesus anew, worship Him, and be filled with true joy during this Christmas season. Secondly, Simeon was so joyful since he had seen God’s salvation. “…You may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:29-30). In this song, Simeon described what he saw and demonstrated his understanding that the Immanuel Baby would bring salvation to all peoples. Here, we need to ask ourselves this question: “Salvation from what?” and “What are we saved from?” Matthew wrote what an angel of the Lord said to Joseph: “She [Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) In those days, the people of Israel had been waiting for the Messiah who would deliver them from their enemy, the Roman government. However, the Lord’s Salvation, which Simeon saw, is from the Saviour who conquers the power of sin and death. Even though we live in a society that provides us with marvellous technologies, miracle drugs, and worldwide communication, each one of us has our own problems. When we look at the root of our issues, we can find that our real enemies are sin, death, and Satan. We could not save ourselves from the influences of sin and death. That is why God sent the Immanuel baby into the world. Our Saviour Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead. We can be saved from our enemies when we repent of our sins and recognize Him as our Lord and Saviour in our hearts. In the birth of the Baby Jesus, we too see the Salvation of God. Thirdly, Simeon continued singing, “which you [Lord] have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel” (Luke 2:31-32). In this baby, he also sees the Light of God who has prepared for all peoples over the years, from the time of Abraham to the one of Joseph and Mary. Here, the word “Gentiles” has not been mentioned in any of the previous songs. Simeon recognizes that this baby is not only for the glory of his own people, but also the light of revelation for the whole world. The angel said to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. (Luke 2:10) Is there any news that is good for everyone? It is hard to find good news for everyone in the world. When the value of Canadian dollars was higher than that of the U.S., customers here in Canada were happy to be able to buy something from America. But the business people in Canada who exported to the States had to struggle due to the strong Canadian dollar. Things happening in our world can often give us relative happiness depending on our interest and situation. But the news of Jesus’ birth is good news of great joy for

Title: The Song of Angels (The Gloria in Excelsis Deo) The word for “Advent” comes from the Latin word that means “Coming.” During the season of Advent, we as followers of Christ are to prepare our hearts for the First Coming of Christ. We are also to develop our minds for the Second Coming of Christ in His return. During this period, we put up an advent wreath and five candles in the sanctuary. The wreath in evergreen symbolizes the Eternity of God, who is the alpha and the omega and the beginning and the end. The wreath also represents the eternal life the Lord our God gives to us as His children through His son, Jesus Christ. Three of the five candles are purple, and this color liturgically signifies a time of prayer, repentance, and sacrifice. These candles are designated to be lit on the first, second, and fourth Sunday in Advent. On the third Sunday, which is today, the candle in pink has been lit, and it symbolizes divine joy. The candle in the center of the wreath is called the Christ Candle. It will be lit on Christmas Eve, and the white color represents purity in the life of Jesus. Each Sunday in Advent has different themes. The first Sunday in Advent is regarding the hope of God through Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, God sent His prophets and gave His messages to His chosen people. However, since the last prophet Malachi, there had been no prophets for four hundred years. That period was considered to be the darkest era in the spirit of the people of Israel. When Jesus started His public ministry, there was a saying by the prophet Isaiah: “the people living in darkness have seen a great light” (Matthew 4:16). Before Jesus was about to be born, the Magi had followed the Star from the east and went to worship Him. Jesus is the Light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5). The True Light gives light to everyone (John 1:9), and whoever follows Jesus will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12), in other words, the hope of God. This theme is for the first Sunday in Advent. The next theme is about the peace of God. During His public ministry, Jesus had assured the disciples that the peace He would give them would be different than the peace that the world gives. Worldly peace can be changed at any time, depending on any given circumstances. The peace of Jesus helps us be calm and still, regardless of the challenges we may encounter. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus made on the cross, we as followers of Christ have peace with God and others, as well as within ourselves. On the second Sunday in Advent, we celebrate the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. The third theme of Advent is the joy of God, and the last one is the love of God. The birth of Jesus Christ brings us these four critical messages, Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Today we are gathered to rejoice in the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Because of the joy in Him, we cannot help but sing to the Lord. Joyfulness is one of the crucial subjects in the Bible. The Bible verses related to “Joy and Rejoice” are mentioned more than four hundred times. Interestingly enough, the Apostle Paul, who had been persecuted most, due to his faith in Jesus, eventually ended up being in prison, wrote the most joyful epistle, which is the letter to the Philippians. Think about the difficulties he had had while serving God. However, the most frequent phrase Paul used in that letter is “Rejoice in the Lord.” Please understand this. Sometimes it is o.k. for us to be crying in challenging situations. What the Bible is encouraging us to do here is to “Rejoice in the Lord” since the Immanuel God is with us and is working in each situation. The Apostle Paul believed that in all things, God worked for the good of those who loved Him (Romans 8:28). The reason why Paul was able to rejoice always was that he met Jesus, who was the source of his joy, and had an intimate relationship with Him. The Apostle Paul rejoiced in the Lord. That joyful testimony was not only taken from Paul, but many joyful stories have also been shared by many godly people in various forms. Have we ever wondered how many songs about Jesus have been written and sung? Think about the significant figures who lived in the same historical time that Jesus lived. Claudius, the Roman emperor who ruled from 41 to 54, is considered one of the most famous people of the first century. Chinese emperor Wang Mang and Greek historian Plutarch are among the other talented people of this time. Have we ever heard of the praises regarding the lives of those people? I have not. Since the birth of Jesus Christ, many people have been inspired by His characteristics and ministries and have expressed their joyfulness to Christ in all kinds of creative works, such as literature, music, arts, and so on. I do not think anyone could accurately count how many songs have praised Christ. What I can say is that there are too many to count! Have we ever also wondered how much Christmas joy had been described in the Bible? Every time the news or prophecy related to the coming of Christ is always with joyful messages or songs. We have been looking at the very first four Christmas songs in the Holy Scripture. These songs are taken from the beginning sections of the Gospel of Luke and are in response to the birth of Jesus Christ. So far, we have studied the song of Mary called the Magnificat and the Song of Zechariah, the Benedictus. Today we are going to look at the tune of Angels known as the Gloria because they sang glory to God. And next Sunday, we will study the song of Simeon or the Nunc dimittis. Unlike the first two songs, the song for today is prepared by angels. When we read the first two chapters of this Gospel, we can understand the essential rolesof angels. When Zechariah burnt incense in the temple, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and gave him a joyful message. “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son… He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth…” (Luke1:12-17). In the sixth month of the pregnancy of Elizabeth, God sent the angel named Gabriel to Mary and gave her a joyful message. “You have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son and you are to call him Jesus… (Luke 1:29-33). Later, when Elizabeth blessed her while the baby of Elizabeth in her womb was leaping for joy, the spirit of Mary rejoiced in God her Saviour because of the birth of Jesus Christ. In our text for today, when shepherds were living outside in the field and taking care of their flocks at night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and gave the joyful message. “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10). The roles of angels did not stop there; they continued doing important tasks for Christ. This morning I want us to explore some important things regarding the subject of angels briefly. There seems to be two different opinions about angels. While some people believe in angels to be spiritual beings, others seem to ignore them because of their unbelief in these fantasy-like beings. I can relate to the second group of people. When I was in my seminary, I did not recall whether there was any subject or assignment regarding angels. At the same time, I have come to realize that there are many references to the angels of God in the Bible. According to Dr. David Jeremiah, “Angels are mentioned 108 times in the Old Testament and 165 times in the New Testament.” I was surprised by the frequency of the appearance of the angels of God in the Scripture. You may be too. I am also aware that "there is a lot of misunderstanding and misconception about angels out there." In the next few minutes, I want to explore two questions about angels based on the Word of God. The first one is: According to the Bible, what are angels?Angels are spiritual beings and are created by God. “For in Him [God] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). I believe that many of us have heard of the two angels called “Michael and Gabriel.” Michael is "the only archangel mentioned by name" in the Bible. Most scholars believe he is “the most prominent of all the angels.” The other angel, Gabriel is known as “God’s special messenger angel.” The second question is: How does God use His angels for ministry purposes? What do angels do in our lives today? Firstly, the Bible mentions that angels pronounce the message of God to us. That is their most vital ministry. The word for angel means “messenger.” From the very first story of Christmas, an angel of the Lord told Zechariah that his wife, Elizabeth would have a son who would prepare the way for the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. An angel of the Lord appeared to both Mary and Joseph and told each of them that their son would be named Jesus because he would save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). An angel of the Lord also came to visit shepherds working in the field at night and announced the birth of baby. “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people…” (Luke 2:10-12). After the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the angel of the Lord appeared to the disciples and confirmed the truth of the Resurrected Jesus. Secondly, angels protect us from harm. The Psalmist says, “For he [God] will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone” (Psalm 91:11-12). Guardian angels are not directly mentioned in the Bible; however, in this Scripture we can get some picture for these guardian angels. Thirdly, angels provide for our needs. When the Lord Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane and was filled with great agony, “an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him…” (Luke 22:39-44).

The Songs of Advent (I): The Song of Mary (The Magnificat) What is Advent? Advent is a word that means “coming” or “visit.” During the season of Advent, we prepare for the “advent” of Christ’s birth. From the opening section of Luke’s Gospel, we find four songs in response to the Saviour’s coming. The Song of Mary (The Magnificat) The Song of Zechariah (The Benedictus) The Song of the Angels (The Gloria) The Song of Simeon (The Nunc Dimittis)For the next four Sundays of Advent, we will explore each song, both in remembrance of Christ’s birth and in anticipation of his return. In our text, Luke 1:46-56, for today, the author tells us about the joy of Mary. One day Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that she would conceive and bear a son named Jesus. At that time, Mary was engaged to Joseph and they were to get married. The angel explained to her whose son this baby would be and what it would mean to everyone. Gabriel had told her about the experience of her relative, Elizabeth so Mary went to visit her. When Elizabeth saw her, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to her. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” Once Mary heard of Elizabeth’s blessing, she came to realize what had happened to her. And then she burst out with incredible joy and started praising the Lord: “My soul glorifies the Lord…” This hymn has been known as “the Song of Mary” or “the Magnificat.” Mary’s hymn can be divided into two sections. The first part is in verses 46 through 49 and is called “the God of Mighty”. Mary praises God because He has done great things for her. One of them is that she has become involved in God’s ministry of salvation. She did not yet know that she was to see her own son, Jesus, dying on the cross. But she had the privilege of being part of this ministry. She shows her adoration of the Mighty one when she says: "All generations will say of me, Oh how she was blessed by God." The second section I would call is “the God of Mercy” and it is taken from verse 50 to verse 55. The word “mercy” refers to God’s unchanging love towards those who do not deserve it. Mary praises God because He was not only merciful to her but also for those who fear Him. “His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation… remembering to be merciful.” Mary’s song can be also parted differently depending on how each one of us takes this hymn. One thing that is for sure and not changed no matter how it is examined is Mary’s attitude toward God. Her mind, soul and spirit magnifying God is the main theme for today’s sermon I am going to share with you. Let us go back to the first line of Mary’s hymn: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.” (Luke 1:46) Other translations say that Mary’s soul “magnifies” the Lord and her spirit “is overjoyed” in God. Here in this scripture, I want us to emphasize one verb for “magnify”. When we see something too small or too big, we may use two different methods. The first one can be done with a microscope. By using this equipment, we can look at something very small and make it look big. The other can be operated with a telescope. With our own eyes, far away things like the sun, the moon and stars seem tiny even though they are really big. When we use a telescope we can see these elements better and have much more understanding of what they really are. I believe that Mary experienced God by using this kind of spiritual method such as, “faith and/or focus.” In other words, when she focused her eyes on the God of the Universe, she saw the Mighty and Merciful One in the birth of Jesus Christ. When she put her faith in the invisible God she was able to recognize God as the Coming Messiah in the birth of Jesus Christ. When she micro-scoped and/or telescoped, in other words, magnified God, she came to realize how mighty and merciful God is through the Baby Jesus. This led Mary to burst out into song to the Lord not only with her voice but also with her heart. Of course, these kinds of the stuff, “Children of God and His blessing” are the wonderful blessings we as believers can receive from the Lord. Do you remember the Promise of the Lord when God called Abraham? “…I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12: 2, 3) This promise is not only for Abraham but also for all of those who have followed the Lord. We are a blessing to our family and our society. This is our spiritual identity. Mary represents all faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Her song to the Lord can be our praise to God as well. As I mentioned earlier, her soul magnifies the Lord. That’s the big idea in the song of Mary. I do not know exactly what kind of background she had. But I think that she was a very ordinary person. She was living in the little village of Nazareth. If she had not been called by God to be the mother of Jesus, she would not have been known to us. Since being called by God, however, she has been admired by people through all generations. But why she praised God is not just because He made her special in His service but also because she found who God was through the birth of Jesus. She encountered God who is Mighty as well as Merciful in the person of Jesus. I would believe that Jesus is the result of the combined characteristics of God. In Jesus, we can find God’s justice and mercy. God hates sins until His Son, Jesus sacrificed Himself for our sins. When Mary found out who God was, she burst out with an indescribable joy and praised the Lord. That is the reason for her spirit rejoices in God. Do you know what the definition of inspirational songs is? I would say that the songs that have inspired us are sung by singers not who just use their talented skills in music but who put their whole souls and spirits into songs. The song of Mary is one best example of the magnificent song since her soul and spirit magnifies the Lord. Sometimes we tend to think that we can sing to the Lord if we have received something good. The Apostle Paul, who was writing in prison the epistle to the Philippian believers, commands us to “rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances”; for this is God’s will for us in Christ Jesus. I believe that praising the Lord with all of our whole hearts and spirits is the way we put together these three things, rejoicing, praying and thanking. We cannot do these on our own. We as human beings tend to focus our hearts and minds on ourselves. When we look at just ourselves, we cannot find anything good since our hearts are deceitful. We can easily forget God and believe that we would be the one who has earned everything we have got and we are enjoying. We can easily forget God and complain to Him whenever we face some difficulties, even though God has been with us all the time. However, once we humbly kneel down before the Lord and start focusing our eyes and minds on God who is in control and is the Mighty and Merciful One, we can praise the Lord with all of our souls no matter what. During the Advent season, to some of us, God may be small and appear insignificant to us in this culture. Remember that we are not serving a dead God, but a living God. Since our Lord God is mighty, there is nothing that God cannot handle. When captured by fear, we feel like giving up and hesitate to challenge ourselves by trusting God. God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. Our Mighty God is not shaken by our circumstances and troubles. As Christians, we are called to use Advent as a time of self-examination before God. Because of sinful human nature, we often lose the heavenly joy. The joy flows through the channel of our relationship with our Saviour Jesus. If some sins block the channel, we may easily lose our happiness in God. Since our Lord God is merciful, there is nothing that God cannot forgive us for when we repent of our sins and humbly ask Him for His forgiveness. Mary’s praise is a beautiful reminder of what we praise the Lord during the season of Advent. Even though her song ends here, we need to remember that it is not over. Throughout her entire life, she would add many more words to her song. The Lord wants us to add our own verses and praise our mighty and merciful God like Mary did, with all our hearts, our strength, and our souls. * In this sermon I have used some thoughts from various sermons based on the scripture, Luke 1:46-55.

­­­­Title: Being an Agent of Mercy Many of you have heard of the book titled “40 Days of Purpose Driven Life” written by Pastor Rick Warren. According to him, there are five purposes which God has created for our lives. The first is that we are called to be loved. We are born to know God’s love and love Him back. We call this Worship. The second purpose is that we are called to belong. We are supposed to love other people and belong to the family of God. It is called Fellowship. We find our meaning and purpose in our relationships with each other. The third purpose in our walk with God is that we are to grow in character to become more like Jesus Christ. That is called Discipleship. The fourth calling in life is that we are to serve God with our gifts and abilities He has given us. The Bible calls that Ministry. Once we know how to do all four of these things, God wants us to pass on what we know to other people. That is the fifth purpose in life called Mission. Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” What is a witness? What does a witness do in a courtroom? All they do is to say, “This is what I saw… This is what happened to me…” Likewise, as Jesus’ witnesses, we are to share with other people what God has done in our life. Over the last number of Sundays we have been studying God’s Merciful Miracles. Being a witness of what Jesus has done for meis to become an agent of what Jesus cares about the most. In our text for today, Jesus said, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13). That statement was how Jesus replied to some of the religious leaders in those days. They did not understand why Jesus ate with tax collectors and had fellowship with them and the other sinners. In His day, many tax collectors were corrupt since they caused the people of Israel to pay more taxes to the Roman government than they were required. At that time,the tax collecting occupation was hated so much so that people did not want to socialize with these types of workers. One day, Jesus called Matthew the tax collector as one of His disciples. Matthew prepared a big party for Jesus due to his happiness and invited many of his colleagues and some of the people who were considered sinners. That celebration was one way of witnessing Jesus’ love to his friends. He wanted them to know Jesus and became an agent of His mercy. Today, while wrapping up the Miracle of Mercy sermon series, we will learn a couple of principles of God’s mercy. We will also explore, in a practical matter, where we are supposed to act God’s mercy for His name’s sake. The first principle of being an agent of God’s mercy is that we need to start looking and listening for people’s needs. Mercy starts with attention and awareness of certain things. In our text for this morning, Jesus saw a man named Matthew and said to him to follow the Lord. Before he went to that place Jesus healed a paralyzed man. When a huge crowd of people witnessed His healing ministry, they were filled with awe and praised God (Matthew 9:8). We can imagine how many people surrounded Jesus when he moved to another place. Among the enormous number of people around Him, Jesus looked at Matthew who was sitting at the tax collector’s booth. When Jesus gave him hisfull attention, He found out that Matthew needed a clear direction for his life. Matthew might have grown up in a poor family,so he badly wanted to earn more money. To do this, he didn’t care about anything, except for himself. He believed that he would be happy once he got more resources. However, Matthew was not joyful with his possession and reputation, and he was wandering to find real purpose in his life. This situation led him to be one of the people coming to see Jesus. When Matthew heard of Jesus saying, “Follow me”, he got up immediately and became one of His merciful agents. There is a book titled “Starving for Attention.” According to that author, “Busyness destroys relationships… Busyness fills the calendar but it fractures the family.” I think that person is right. We tend to be in a hurry. We walk fast. We talk fast. We eat fast. Many relationships are damaged by haste. Many relationships are damaged by haste. How can we give our full attention to the person God wants us to approach? We need to remember that our Creator God first pays attention to each of us in spite of His busyness. Think about how busy the Maker the Lord our God is. He takes care of all of the galaxies in this universe. God, who is in control of every matter in this world,looks at each of His creatures. The author of Matthew’s Gospel describes Jesus’ care for each of us by saying the following. “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns… See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin… Do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ …Your heavenly Father knows that you need them… All these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow…” (Mathew 6:25-34). The reason why we can put everything in the Lord’s hands is because of His promise that He paysattention to each of us. He numbers even the hairs on our head. He knows everything about us and what needs to be done for us, our family, our church and our community. In turn, God wants us to pay attention to Him and to follow Him with all of our hearts, minds, and strengths. When we give our full attention to God and look around at His people, we can be more merciful and become a good agent of His mercy. The second principle of being an agent of God’s mercy is that we need to choose our words carefully. In our epistle for today, Peter said, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18). God’s love needs to be shown both in loving deeds and in truthful words. Sometimes I hear people saying, “Oh, I don’t need to talk about my faith; I just live it.” In a way, it is right. We need to act on what we believe rather than just talking about what we believe. At the same time, we need to remember the importance of sharing the word of God. When we do, we also need to remember that we can never persuade when we are rude. The Apostle Paul also said, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29). Paul understands that we are made in the image of God and we have power in our tongues. Our words can be used as a weapon to hurt people and cause horrible scars. By our words, we can develop a beautiful relationshipthat pleases our Lord God. At the same time, by our words, we can destroy precious relationships. Someone said something like this: “there are two words we should never use when giving criticism: always and never. We need to avoid blaming our loved ones by using the phrase “You never” or “You always.” It is not enough to hold our tongue but to “build the other up” by giving a blessing. Think about our speech in our family this past week. How much of our words have been used to bless our loved ones and people around us? As an agent of God’s mercy, we need to speak in ways that make people stronger. How can we do that? Jesus said "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good… A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him” (Matthew 12: 33-37). Our words are just the fruit of our hearts and only the expression of what is in our hearts. The real goal we need to set is not to change the way of our speech but to fill something true, pure, right, lovely, and admirable in our heart and think about them all the time. (Philippians 4:8) Then the right words that God is pleased with will follow. We cannot do this in our own power. When we ask God to help us to guard what we say, He will give us the power to control our tongue. He will help us to speak words that build up rather than tear down in our relationship with the people around us. The third principle of being an agent of God’s mercy is that we need to value saving people over keeping rules. In our gospel text for today, the Pharisees were not happy with the action of Jesus. In order for them to live a righteous life, they believed that, they should have refrained themselves from unrighteous environments. From a certain perspective, this is right. According to the Bible, we are told that “Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33). We are supposed to “hold on what is good”, but to “reject every kind of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22). In the Old Testament, Joseph did not stay at the place when he was tempted. To keep his heart pure, Joseph fled from that temptation. Those facts might be the defending arguments when the Pharisees accused Jesus of His companionship with the sinners. Please understand this. Even if Jesus was with the sinners and accepted them as they were, He did not approve of their sinful life styles. When Jesus was asked whether or not He would condemn her by stoning her who committed adultery, He did not look down on her. Jesus showed her dignity by calling her Woman, in other words, Madam in these days. But he told her not to sin again after He forgave her. God loves the sinner; but His holy nature dislikes every kind of sin. We often hear and see that there is a lot of conflict due to the discernment between right and wrong, among different groups and even among our brothers and sisters in Christ. I am not saying that we don’t need to distinguish who is right or wrong. There are civil laws that can judge their wrongdoings. There is also consciousness God has given us to discern what is true or false. What I am saying here is that we as an agent of God’s mercy need to help people by showing more of His mercy rather than condemning their failures. In our society, we hear words of discouragement more than ever before. Think

Title: Showing Mercy to Your Family November 18, 2007 was the date for my induction service, which was held at Knox, Glenarm. This coming Tuesday, which is my birthday, my thirteenth year of God’s ministry with you will begin. Time flies. Before I was inducted as an ordained minister here at Knox, Glenarm and St. Andrew’s, Fenelon Falls, I was a student minister at Knox, Campbellton, NB. My family and I were there for two and a half years. Before I got seminary education at The Presbyterian College, Montreal, I spent a couple of years as a pastoral staff to serve the Lord at a Presbyterian church in my homeland, South Korea, as well as in Montreal. Before I got into a congregational ministry, I had worked for a campus ministry for more than ten years. One of the cofounders of that mission church which my wife and I were involved in is an American missionary sent by the Presbyterian Church of the United States. During the period of campus ministry, my wife and I noticed that a lot of students wandered here and there to discover the real purpose of their lives. While teaching young people the Bible on campus, we had witnessed that some of them were changed into new creatures in the Lord once they encountered the Creator God. They built right and godly worldviews in life based on the Holy Scripture. Eventually, they became wonderful leaders in their society. We as a church all agree that teaching the Living Word of God at Sunday school, youth group meetings and campus club activities is a significant ministry. As I stated earlier, I have also been in pastoral ministry for 15 years after the ten-year campus mission. I have been privileged to work with various groups of people in different settings. From these congregational ministries, I have learned the importance of the relationships. Some time ago, at the 60th wedding anniversary dinner, I heard an interesting survey about marriage. For 60 years of marriage, it is beyond the data. In other words, it is a miracle. Over the years, I have seen many living miracles in our congregation. I have also come to realize that there is room for every couple, family, group, and organization to improve. On occasions, I have heard some serious conflicts between family members. These disputes between parents and their children, among the siblings, amongst relatives or friends happen. It is sad to observe those struggles occurring, in particular, at a place called home. Do you know the first argument between humans mentioned in the Bible? That conflict did not occur between the enemies. Unfortunately, the first fighting happened between husband and wife, Adam and Eve. When they got married, they were so happy even though both of them had their weaknesses. However, they started blaming one another once they disobeyed the Word of God. Both Adam and Eve did not take any responsibility for the thing they did wrong before God. They accused one another. Even though they live in the Garden of Eden, they lost paradise in their hearts. They could no longer see each other with the eyes of the Lord. Do you know the second fight recorded in the Bible? Unfortunately, that incident took place between the siblings, Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve. Cain killed his brother Abel. The Bible is not shy of telling about conflicts between the people who are closest to each other. Even in the line of Abraham and Sarah, Jacob deceived his brother Esau. Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers. King Saul wanted to kill his successor. These are just a few examples of them. King David, known as a man after God’s own heart, had to confess this. “I will be careful to lead a blameless life – when will you come to me? I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart” (Psalm 101:2). The Lord our God wants each of us to decide to walk a blameless path, especially in our own home. Before we go any further, I want us to take a quick self-evaluation called How merciful am I to my family? The bottom line of this test is, “Am I more polite with strangers than my own family?”We have been studying the topic of God’s Mercy in our lives. In our text, 1 Corinthians 13, known as the chapter on love, for today, the Apostle Paul describes 15 characteristics of love. These are marks of mercy. This morning I want us to explore the four signs of compassion and apply these to our family relationship. Firstly, we can show mercy at home by not being easily angered and patient, kind. The Bible says that love is patient, kind and not easily angered (1 Corinthians 13:4, 5). Patience is one of the hardest virtues to practice in relationships. Because of this impatience, we may be easily angered at our loved ones and express unkindness in our words, deeds, or thoughts. People hurt one another due to angered and unkind behavior. Anger is one misunderstood emotion. The Bible does not say that becoming angry is a sin. Jesus became angry when he saw some religious leaders turning God’s temple into an open market, selling sacrificed animals at the sanctified place. He was so upset at that incident. Anger is a God-given capacity. When we see people being wronged or abused, it should make us angry. We need to get angry and express it correctly. According to the Bible, uncontrolled anger will cause foolish things to happen in our lives. Due to inappropriate violence occurring, especially at home, family members hurt deeply. Pastor Warren often says something like this: "there are always EGR people. EGR stands for Extra Grace Required.” When people hear of his statement, they tend to look around the people around them. But he points his finger to himself and says that that EGR person is him. I agree with him one hundred percent. I am the one who needs extra grace, mercy and love. I believe that we are all “extra mercy and grace required” people. When we admit this fact, we can be more patient, kind and not easily angered. I used to watch a Korean TV program called “The Changing Relationship.” Every week the program producer introduces different conflicting cases between husband-wife or parents and their children. Each episode of the program shows the differences between before the participants take guidance and/or intervention from marriage counselors and after the counselling sessions. Through having marriage and parenting counseling and learning proper ways of communicating with each other, all of the participants were changed. One method that caught my interest was the decision to reach an understanding of the spouse’s backgroundand burdens. For example, a counselor and his or her team encouraged a husband or a wife to share their family stories, in particular, incidents bothering or hurting them from their early childhood. During the sharing time, the wife was encouraged not only to listen to the stories but also to anticipate the feelings the husband had gone through. That activity was applied to the other spouse as well. After both of the couple heard each other out in their sharing, they were able to better understand their fears or hurts and be patient with one another. Growing in patience with our loved ones requires us to do the same. When we have more understanding of each other’s backgrounds and burdens, we can be more kind to one another. Furthermore, we as followers of Christ need to remember that our patience also depends on our relationship with the Lord our God. If we are close to Jesus Christ, we are going to have a lot of kindness in our lives. Not being easily angered, patient and kind are not easy for us to act out in our lives since they all go against our sinful nature. Think about how much God has been patient and kind to us. If the Lord does not understand the backgrounds we have come from and our burdens, he might be upset at our inappropriate behavior which is a sin before Him. However, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to become human and to die for our sake on the cross. That is why we can “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). With God’s mercy and grace, we can be more understanding of people who need extra grace and mercy in our lives. Secondly, we can show mercy at home by letting go of the past hurts. The Bible says that love keeps no record of wrongs. When people hurt us we have two natural tendencies: Remember it and retaliate. In my background, some of the parents pass it on to their children. One of the common themes in movies is family revenge. The children also remember things that hurt their parents and want to avenge their parents’ hurt. I have some memories I was hurt by somebody or something. While sleeping, I used to dream of those incidents. Even in the dreams I was beaten again and again. I was sweating, crying out and woke up from the dream. Every time we remember, rehearse, and go over it again in our mind, we get hurt again. Every time we remember, rehearse, and go over it again in our mind, we get hurt again. I can never think of forgiveness without thinking of Joseph. As I stated before, Joseph was betrayed by his brothers due to their envy. They tried to kill him and sold him into slavery. Since then, Joseph had gone through many challenges in his life. By the grace of God, Joseph overcame all of the difficulties and later became a prime minister of Egypt. One day, his brothers living in Israel came to Egypt to get food and found out that Joseph was the prime minister there. They were so terrified when they stood before him. At that time, Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me. I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt.” We see that he has not forgotten what they did to him in the past. Joseph might have thought about getting his revenge on his brothers. But Joseph did not retaliate on them. Instead, he forgave them by saying: “Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it

Hope for the future   The passage that we read in the Book of Jeremiah today may seem, at first, like an odd choice. In fact, the chapter that comes before the one we heard this morning deals with restoration and the new covenant and may seem a far more popular and applicable passage. But there is something about this story of an ordinary exchange of land that goes beyond a simple field—it is a story of hope for the future and trusting in God’s promises. The prophet Jeremiah was a captive of the King of Judah. The field in question had an army camped on it as they laid siege to the city. The land was completely worthless and stripped of anything valuable. Yet Jeremiah bought it, not because it was of any current use to him, but because of the promise it held. God promised that one day that occupied field would once again be a growing vineyard. So, Jeremiah bought the field and took the jar and sealed the deed in it because he wanted to keep it safe. There is something about this moment in time that just captures my heart. Jeremiah safely sealed the deed away because he had hope for the future. He wanted the deed to be safe and last as long as it took. So, it was not a question of IF God’s promises would be fulfilled but WHEN they would be fulfilled. It could be during Jeremiah’s time, it could be 100 years from then —but Jeremiah had faith in God’s promise, even if it would take years to come to fruition. In the previous verses Jeremiah had already prophesied that this siege would turn into 70 years of Babylonian rule. But he made it clear that he believed God’s promise that the land would be restored to the people. Fields would be bought and sold again. Vineyards would be grown there again. I wonder at that moment of hope. At the strength of Jeremiah who did what must have seemed crazy at the time. He did not question God; he just trusted in God’s promise and had hope for something more. By buying the field, he put this hope into action. From week to week we read excerpts of scripture. While we tend to follow some of the books over several weeks, we still miss pieces. When we take the Bible as a whole, we quickly see that within its pages, throughout centuries and generations, there is a story of love and hope. Not the human side of love and hope, but rather that of a creator who has remained faithful to creation. God's love changes everything for us as individuals and as a community, and it is in that love that we find hope for the future. That hope gives us the courage to live out God’s call in our lives. Time and again throughout history God’s people have been asked to do the impossible. The Israelites once stood at the edge of the Red Sea, with an army pressing against their back while Moses asked them to take a step in faith. The prophets preached hope every day while they waited for God’s promises to be fulfilled. When the time came, and people were returned to their lands after being held captive, they often found themselves standing before a ruin of their former lives. But God always helped them to rebuild. When Nehemiah finally convinced King Artaxerxes to allow his people to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the ruined walls, they were surrounded by enemies who did not want them to succeed. Yet they managed to rebuild the walls in 52 days. In the New Testament we read story after story of the lame walking, the blind seeing, the leper being cleansed, and demons being cast out. How many times did Jesus stand before the body of someone who was dead and then do the impossible and call them back to life? Just ask Lazarus about that. Through the love of God, the impossible gives way to the possibility of something much more. The only reason God’s people have the faith to do what seems impossible, to face difficult odds, is because they believe at their core that they are known and loved by God. Through that love they find hope, even in the face of invading armies, occupied territory, or the question of whether a vineyard will be replanted. As Jeremiah proved, it just takes one person to have hope. It took one deed, one jar, one act of faith. All these little actions put together created something much bigger: room for God’s work to continue to come to fruition. Today is Presbyterians Sharing Sunday. Today, we celebrate all of the incredible ministries we support both here in Canada and around the world with the gifts we give to Presbyterians Sharing. Our prayers, our money, our support—all come together to bless countless ministries and share the love of Christ. This morning I would like to share a few stories with you—stories of hope, vision, passion, and call. Stories of people like Jeremiah, one by one summoning their courage and putting their hope into action, faithfully working to share God’s love and build God’s kingdom in the world.   Through Presbyterians Sharing we work with refugees Stephanie Chunoo is a young woman from Leaside Presbyterian Church. After graduating with a degree in Communications and a certificate in refugee and migration studies from York University, Stephanie wondered if there was something she could do to serve the church. She was accepted to the PCC’s one-year young adult internship program, which receives support from gifts to Presbyterians Sharing. Stephanie was assigned to work for a year with the Kalunba Social Services, a ministry of the Reformed Church in Hungary, that helps refugees and asylum seekers integrate into Hungarian society. It’s a challenging and even dangerous time to be helping refugees in Hungary. Many Hungarians are suspicious of newcomers, especially since the Hungarian government regularly portrays migrants and refugees as people linked to crime and terrorism. This provokes fear among the people, many of whom are convinced that their Christian country will turn increasingly Islamic with each incoming migrant. The prime minister strongly supports an anti-migration platform, and in April, Hungary’s parliament passed laws which make claims for asylum almost impossible and criminalize individuals or groups who offer to help a person who has claimed asylum. The legislation was passed in defiance of the European Union regulations and human rights groups. Yet in the midst of fear, Stephanie and the staff and volunteers at Kalunba continue to serve the refugees who come to them, providing them with Hungarian language classes and support in their search for employment and housing. Among her many tasks, Stephanie offers child care, English classes, advocacy services and helps plan activities for the children. She recently wrote, “The work here is very stressful, but these situations remind me why God has put this opportunity in my path.” Like Jeremiah, Stephanie and the others at Kalunba have hope for a world where one day all will be welcomed. They are putting their hope into action, with the support of Presbyterians Sharing. Our Contributions Help Transcribe the Word of God in Taiwan In 1982, during his final year at Knox College, the Rev. Dr. Paul McLean and his wife Mary Beth felt God’s call to be partners in mission with the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, living and serving among the minority Hakka people. Paul and Mary Beth soon found themselves in Taiwan, living in the Hakka countryside, literally on the edge of a rice field. There were 40,000 Hakka people in the town, and only one church with about 80 members. With much love, patience and good humour, the Rev. Hiû San-hiùng and members of the church taught Paul and Mary Beth how to speak the difficult Hakka language. During that first year of intensive language study, Paul would stare at his bookcase and wonder why he bothered to bring his Hebrew and Greek Bibles, lexica, grammars and commentaries. Then, one day Rev. Hiû brought a draft translation of Mark’s Gospel to Paul’s Hakka language class and when Paul discovered some typos and mistakes in the translation, he was invited to join the PCT’s newly formed translation team. At that moment, Paul knew why God had called himto Taiwan. In 1984, he joined Rev. Hiû and others in translating the Bible into Hakka. It was challenging work that required much patience—but the team persevered and in 2012, 28 years later, they finished translating the entire Bible. Paul shares, “Over the years that I served on the Hakka Bible translation project, God taught me lessons in teamwork. As each member on the team humbly offered their various gifts back to God, as we prayed and worked together with the same goal in mind, as we looked to the Lord for insights, we discovered that God the Holy Spirit could do wonderful things.” After the Hakka Bible was published, Paul wondered what he would do next. He wondered about pastoral ministry in Canada. But God had other plans. The Bible Society in Taiwan and leaders in the PCT approached him to serve as a translation advisor to several PCT indigenous teams who are trying to complete their Bibles. Even though he didn’t know all of those languages, he could help the teams work through the lessons and principles he had learned while translating the Hakka bible. So, since 2012, he has had the great joy of serving with brilliant indigenous pastors and elders, deacons and lay people, men and women, who are faithfully using their God-given gifts to translate the whole Bible, each into their own minority languages. Like Jeremiah, Paul and his translation teams look to the future with hope. Even knowing that it will take many years, they are putting their hope into action, word by word, as they translate the Bible into these endangered languages – so people can read and hear the word of God in the language of their hearts. Presbyterians Sharing is helping to make this dream a reality. Congregational Renewal is being facilitated by your gifts It can be hard for congregations to discern how they can share God’s love and hope in our changing world. A number of new programs supported by Presbyterians Sharing are crea

Title: How Much You Matter to God   During the Thanksgiving week, I reflected on the paths I had taken in the past and came to one realization: I have enjoyed so many blessings from God. I have a family. I have friends. I am working towards God’s mission. I have gifts and abilities that I can use for my family, my churches, and my community. I also asked myself the following question: Can I experience these blessings if the Lord my God would not have taken care of me during challenging seasons of my life? I had to admit that God had been involved in all of those incidents. I humbly confess that, without the mercy of God, I cannot enjoy His abundant blessings even one day. I am so grateful to God for what He has done for my family and me. I cannot thank the Lord enough. The Apostle Paul describes well how I feel. He said, “[But] by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). We are in the sermon series titled The Miracle of Mercy. In our text for today, Jesus told the Pharisees and the teachers of the law about three parables: the story of the lost sheep, the story of the lost coin, and the story of the lost son. In these stories, the shepherd, the woman, and the father represent God, and the sheep, coin, and son represent you and I. At the end of each parable, Jesus talked about the importance of the salvation of the lost ones. One time they were lost, and now they are found. In God’s eyes, there are two kinds of people, saved and lost. Please understand this. The rescued people are not better than the lost people. The found ones are not more valuable than the lost. Both of them are equally valuable and precious before the Lord. In this message, we will explore the following two questions: What do I lose when I am spiritually lost? What does God’s mercy do when I am lost? Before I share each answer to the questionswith you, I want to point out two brief thoughts. The first thought is that the three of Jesus’ parables end with having a party. The reason for the party is because of having found the lost, which tells us that each creature in God’s eyes is precious. The second thought is the concept of being lost in a spiritual matter. When God created human beings in His image, He used two things. “The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). One was the dust of the ground and the other was the breath of life. That is why human beings consist of a physical body and a spiritual mind. To satisfyour physical needs, we need to eat well, exercise, and manage stress well. To address our spiritual needs, we need to connect with the Creator our God. If the relationship between God and us is loosened, we will easily fall astray and get lost. If we are not connected to God continuously, we are lost in spirit. Now let us go back to the first question: What do I lose when I am spiritually lost?Based on the three parables, there are three things that we can lose. In the parable of the lost sheep, the first thing is losing our direction. The eyesight of sheep is poor so they can quickly lose their way if they do not receive guidance from their shepherd. In the Bible sometimes we as human beings are compared to sheep. Like sheep, we can lose our spiritual direction without the help of our Shepherd. There is a story of a father and son journeying together somewhere. One day, the son was impatient and kept saying to his father, “Dad, we’d better hurry to arrive at the final destination.” Instead of being in a rush, the father kept looking at the compass. Later, he replied to his son, “Son, walking fast is important but waling into the right direction is more important.” In our daily devotion, we can be led to the right and better direction by the Wonderful Counselor, the Holy Spirit. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Sheep can easily lose their direction and tend to go their own way. Like sheep we can be lost and enter into a sinful status in spirit. That is the reason why we need to connect to God and ask Him about what we are supposed to do in our daily lives. The Apostle Paul put it this way. “[Finally,] brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8,9). Having a deep relationship with God helps us tofind God’swill and live a more meaningful life. If we are disconnected from God; however, we may wander and stray from God’s paths. The second thing we can lose is our potential. We see this in the story of the lost coin. We can lose our potential to be the people that God wants us to be and to do the great things he wants us to do. William Carey was a British missionary to India in the late seventeenth century. One day,when he shared his passion for God’s mission at a church meeting, someone opposed his plan by saying, "Young man, sit down and be still. When God wants to convert the heathen, he'll do it without consulting you or me." But Carey could not resist God’s call, so he made a missionary organization and headed for India with his family. Before he left for the mission field, he made the famous motto about his adventure: “Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.” Over the next four decades, Carey had continued great things, such as translating the entire Bible into several native languages of India, building schools and educating people,and doing social reform. When God created Adam and Eve, He blessed them by saying: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:29). Like Carey, I can echo this scripture as our mission to use our potential to do great things for the Lord. Every one of us in this sanctuary has God-given gifts. These talents can be compared to the silver coin in this story. It is valuable because it can be used for many good things. With it we can purchase things we want. With it we can leave a legacy to our descendants. But we cannot do anything with it if we lose it. Our potential can be lost if we listen to negative voices whispering in our ears. Our enemy Satan attacks us to be disconnected from the Lord. That is why we need to ask ourselves on a daily basis whether we are connected with God and listen to the Word of His encouragement. Thirdly, we can lose our happiness and home in Heaven. In the third parable, the younger son chose to leave his father and his home. He wasted everything he had received from his father. The son longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. He was starving to death and became so miserable. When he was out of touch with his father, he lost his happiness as well as his home. In Genesis chapter 2, verses 6 and 7, God took Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden to take care of it. God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” God did not make us function like robots. He gives each of us a free choice. Without having a discerning heart that comes from the Lord, we may make wrong choices and lose our happiness. Furthermore, we may lose our real home, the eternal happy home called Heaven, if we are lost continuously. If I am asked to share one main reason why I repent of my sins and put my trust in God, I won’t be hesitant to answer this. I want to live a happy life on earth and live a forever delighted life in Heaven when I am called to stand before the Lord. Jesus says, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” (Luke 9:25). If we are living in rebellion against God like the prodigal son in this parable, we will lose our happiness and our home in heaven. Before we address the second question, I want to emphasize that we need to remember that we do not lose our value even though we find ourselves losing our direction, potential, and happiness. Even if we are disconnected from the Lord, we are precious in His eyes. We are unique from the Lord’s perspective. That is the reason why God sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ to give up His life for our salvation on the cross. To answer the second question of what God’s mercy does when we are lost, we will look at the meaning of salvation from the three parables from today’s scripture reading. The first meaning of salvation is that we are rescued from ourselves. In the first story, the shepherd saved the sheep that lost their way. The shepherd rescued the lost sheep. Like sheep, we need to be rescued. Some of us here may be thinking. “I don’t need to be rescued from anything.” In reality, our lives will always be presented with problem after problem since we are imperfect and live in an imperfect world. We all have our own fears, sorrows, guilt, anxiety, regrets, and feelings of bitterness. That is why we need someone to rescue us from these things. Over the years, I have noticed that I am the biggest problem in my journey before the Lord. My selfishness, greed, lustful desire, laziness, pride, and so on. The Apostle Paul cried out to God to rescue him from his sinful nature. This Apostle was given excellent education when he was under the famous teacher Gamaliel. Paul had been chosen to do something great on behal