back to indexBerean Community Church - Sunday Service 7/27/2025
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To me, Jesus, all my trust is in your love, Jesus, you rescue us in your great life. 00:00:28.200 |
To me, Jesus, all my trust is in your love, Jesus, you rescue us in your great life. 00:00:56.200 |
To me, Jesus, all my trust is in your love, Jesus, you rescue us in your great life. 00:11:04.440 |
All of you, all of you, is more than enough for. 00:14:48.440 |
We have a men's ministry coming up, Christians in the Workplace. 00:14:53.440 |
So that's what we're going to be addressing on Saturday, August 17th, 00:14:59.440 |
Teaching, there'll be teaching, and there's going to be a Q&A panel as well 00:15:02.440 |
that I believe will be very helpful for Christians in the workplace. 00:15:09.440 |
And there's going to be coffee, light refreshment, and lunch provided. 00:15:15.440 |
Secondly, there's a Vine fundraiser lunch today, 00:15:18.440 |
both after this service and after the third service. 00:15:28.440 |
And if you scan that QR code, you can pay for it in advance. 00:15:31.440 |
So you can just go out and grab it if you'd like. 00:15:33.440 |
And then we're having that fundraiser lunch because today at 2 p.m., 00:15:37.440 |
if you're a member, please come out to our members meeting. 00:15:40.440 |
It's going to be right here in the sanctuary. 00:15:42.440 |
There's going to be a lot of important updates that we'll be giving out there. 00:15:48.440 |
And then lastly, next week, we're going to the all-church retreat. 00:15:54.440 |
But there will still be one service here at church at 9:30 a.m. 00:16:01.440 |
So please keep that in mind if you're not going to be going to the retreat 00:16:10.440 |
So Pastor Ian Kwan from MAS Community Church is going to be speaking. 00:16:21.440 |
After the service today, we're going to be having a guest pastor, Alex Hahn, here to preach for us. 00:16:31.440 |
Well, if there's any offering that you have physically, there's a box in the back over there. 00:16:36.440 |
And then you can also give it electronically. 00:16:39.440 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you, God, for being so good to us. 00:16:47.440 |
being a God who is so worthy of our worship so that we know that despite our shortcomings week to week, 00:16:59.440 |
God, we have ability to worship you because you don't change, because you're good still. 00:17:06.440 |
And Father, we give you glory because of that. 00:17:09.440 |
We submit our lives to you and surrender and gladness. 00:17:12.440 |
And God, we give to you everything that we have. 00:17:15.440 |
We desire your kingdom to come and your will to be done. 00:17:18.440 |
So, Father, use us, all of us, for your kingdom. 00:17:54.420 |
Let us all rise and spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us before we continue. 00:19:51.220 |
Jesus, Jesus, you've rescued us in your real life. 00:20:15.600 |
You've been told where you have been, and by your death I've fully been, and tell your people in love. 00:20:31.600 |
Grant the means for us to face, and shelter by your saving grace, and stream with your own love. 00:29:30.600 |
And so, yeah, we just want to say, yeah, that's our family there. 00:29:36.600 |
And just a heads up, in the front of the doorway over there, we do have updated prayer magnets. 00:29:44.600 |
Some of you may have magnets from before and August didn't exist back then. 00:29:52.600 |
And so, yeah, please make sure to grab one on the way out. 00:30:12.600 |
So, just like what Pastor Nate has said, we serve in Taiwan as the Taiwan Team Leaders. 00:30:21.600 |
And so, a lot of our ministry is focused on the island of Taiwan. 00:30:25.600 |
But, just even more broadly, serving with the IMB. 00:30:32.600 |
Something that we always kind of remind ourselves often is, you know, what is the greatest problem that this world faces, right? 00:30:40.600 |
And you look at the news and you look at what's online. 00:30:54.600 |
And it's tempting to follow along with the world and say, yes, that is the greatest problem that the world is facing. 00:31:02.600 |
But, Scripture would tell us that actually the greatest problem that this world faces is not those things, but rather it's sin. 00:31:13.600 |
Sin is something that we know from Scripture is that active, open rebellion against God. 00:31:40.600 |
And so this problem with sin is something that sometimes we need that reminder that that is the greatest problem in this world today. 00:31:55.600 |
And the greatest result of that problem is the fact that people are separated from God. 00:32:00.600 |
If you go to the next slide here, there's about 8 trillion people right now in the global population with about 200,000 people being born each day. 00:32:15.600 |
But if you go look at the bottom number right there, 174,000 people are dying daily without knowing Christ. 00:32:25.600 |
174,000 people are dying in their sin, never addressing the problem, the greatest problem in this world. 00:32:37.600 |
Now, how many of you guys, I was doing a quick Google search, trying to compare cities, right? 00:32:44.600 |
I'm sorry if you're from Garden Grove, but Garden Grove was the closest. 00:32:50.600 |
Depending on which census you look at, there's about 180,000, 190,000 people there in their population. 00:32:59.600 |
So you kind of look at that and think, a city of a size like Garden Grove, each day that population is passing away without addressing the greatest problem in this world of sin. 00:33:13.600 |
All right, if you could turn to the next slide. 00:33:18.600 |
As you consider what that means for the world then, each red dot on this map represents 50,000 lost people, right? 00:33:31.600 |
And you can see where there's higher concentrations of people who are dying without knowing Christ, you know? 00:33:40.600 |
And there is just a reality that needs to just, every now and then, we need to be reminded, right? 00:33:49.600 |
That sin is not just running a rampant in our communities, right? 00:33:56.600 |
Sin is a global pandemic that is continually drawing people away from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 00:34:05.600 |
With all that being said, because of this global problem, right, the greatest solution to that problem is always, it's the gospel, right? 00:34:19.600 |
I'm not going to pull a fast one on you guys, okay? 00:34:22.600 |
But one way in which we can bring that gospel to those people in other nations is to have a physical missionary presence. 00:34:32.600 |
And this is where I come in, and I just want to say thank you so much to Berean, to say thank you so much to the leadership at Berean, for sending our family out to serve the people of Taiwan, and to bring about more gospel light into this world of darkness. 00:34:53.600 |
Now, how many of you guys have been to Taiwan? 00:35:10.600 |
Well, Taiwan is a nation of 23 million people, with a Christian population of about 2%. 00:35:20.600 |
And even within that 2%, they include Catholics, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses, because they all think that, oh, we all say Jesus, so we must be the same. 00:35:34.600 |
But so in reality, maybe less than 1% of the island is Christian. 00:35:41.600 |
Taiwan also has eight minority groups, like the Hakka, and 16 indigenous tribes. 00:35:51.600 |
The IMB itself has been on the island for more than 70 years. 00:35:57.600 |
And so there's been a strong, just Baptist presence there. 00:36:02.600 |
Even to the point where, even though this island is quite small in its Christian population, we have our own Baptist convention. 00:36:26.600 |
They also have a seminary, a Baptist seminary as well. 00:36:32.600 |
And yet, in spite of all of this, right, more than 90% of that island still lives in spiritual darkness, never dealing with the issue of sin. 00:36:47.600 |
Many Buddhist and many Taoist temples exist, and many families just trapped by family traditions of ancestor worship. 00:37:00.600 |
And so with that being said, we could look at all the problems that we see, all the obstacles, and we could try and address all of them. 00:37:08.600 |
But at least for our team, we choose to prioritize four areas to really work on with our Baptist partners on the island. 00:37:24.600 |
And four, sending more Taiwanese missionaries to the world. 00:37:38.600 |
Now, one of the hardest things for me when I come and preach is the fact that you're here to hear from God's word, right? 00:37:53.600 |
And so, but I also understand the unique opportunity that this presents to share with you about what God is doing in Taiwan. 00:38:00.600 |
And so I'm trying to like, I'm not a good sower, right? 00:38:05.600 |
But I'm trying to weave together something where we hear from God and His word. 00:38:20.600 |
And so while we may be serving overseas, God's word has made it clear that the work we are engaged in is also a ministry that all Christians are called to be invested in as well. 00:38:29.600 |
It is from God's word that we are reminded of who we are and our sources of strength and inspiration. 00:38:37.600 |
In Taiwan, my family and I, we serve at a church named Hope Bilingual Church. 00:38:43.600 |
And yeah, we've been there for about two and a half years. 00:38:48.600 |
I always introduce myself as a pastor at the church. 00:38:51.600 |
But if you do a little background check, I am the only pastor at the church. 00:38:56.600 |
And so we have a lot of work to do to raise up more leaders at this church, at this community that we're at. 00:39:04.600 |
And when I first came to this church, I knew that just theologically and just viewpoint wise, we're kind of like all over the board. 00:39:14.600 |
And so I was like thinking, well, what's a good book? 00:39:18.600 |
What's a good letter that we should start off with? 00:39:24.600 |
And I remember some of my friends in the States who were looking at me like, are you crazy? 00:39:30.600 |
And I'm like, yeah, I did move my family overseas. 00:39:36.600 |
And then even the congregation over there was asking like, are we going to study the book of Romans every Sunday? 00:39:45.600 |
And I'm like, yeah, we're going to go like, you know, passage by passage, verse by verse. 00:39:51.600 |
And they asked me, so how long will that take? 00:39:54.600 |
And I said, well, maybe like two and a half years. 00:39:57.600 |
And they all kind of like, oh, my jaws dropped. 00:40:02.600 |
And then I tell them, yeah, well, you know, my sending church at home, I mean, they've been in the Gospel of Luke for like five. 00:40:08.600 |
So, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, it's like, it's okay. 00:40:12.600 |
You know, I still find it amazing that you're still in the Gospel of Luke. 00:40:24.600 |
Oh, man, Pastor Peter's going to rip me for that one. 00:40:31.600 |
But going through this letter with them for this last two and a half years was such a great joy. 00:40:37.600 |
And I believe it really helped our church to understand what the Gospel is and the implications of that Gospel life. 00:40:47.600 |
And if there was one passage in there that clearly impacted me and continues to shape me as a Christian husband, father and missionary, it would be Romans chapter five, verse two. 00:40:58.600 |
And so if you would turn your Bibles there to Romans five, two. 00:41:04.600 |
And so my goal this morning is to encourage all of us for Romans five, two about this grace in which we stand and to also raise awareness of our of our need to be committed to cross cultural missions. 00:41:27.600 |
Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 00:41:40.600 |
Heavenly Father, I thank you again so much for this opportunity to to speak through your word. 00:41:59.600 |
But it's your word that gives us the steps that we need to take in order to live our lives for you to understand more of you each day. 00:42:16.600 |
And sometimes, Lord God, we need to be to have that illumination, Lord God, of how good your grace is. 00:42:28.600 |
And so, God, I pray that this morning, our time in Romans five, two would be a time where we could recall and remember what you have done for us. 00:42:41.600 |
And as such, what power we have in your grace to serve and to love you and to engage the greatest problem that this world faces. 00:43:08.600 |
The first thing we must talk about is the definition of the grace in which we stand. 00:43:13.600 |
The definition of the grace in which we stand. 00:43:20.600 |
I know Berean has been through Romans before, many years ago. 00:43:25.600 |
And as a way of reminder, Paul is trying to establish a partnership with these believers, with these churches in Rome. 00:43:35.600 |
These churches of Rome and Paul, they know of one another. 00:43:42.600 |
But they have never formally entered into a partnership, a ministry partnership. 00:43:49.600 |
And as such, Paul sends this letter to formally introduce himself, but also to address some cultural conflicts in the church. 00:43:58.600 |
In formally introducing himself to the Romans, to the believers in Rome, Paul talks about his hobbies and his favorite yogurt drinks and all that stuff. 00:44:20.600 |
Paul draws out the deepest and the most meaningful truths about the gospel. 00:44:26.600 |
There is no greater foundation in building a partnership with someone else other than the gospel. 00:44:32.600 |
And as such, Paul uses the first four chapters of Romans to unpack details such as the depravity of both Jews and Gentiles. 00:44:44.600 |
Paul talks about the impartiality of God against sin. 00:44:51.600 |
He talks about the law and the relationship it has with the Gentiles and the Jews. 00:44:59.600 |
He talks about the fact that the righteousness of God is obtained only by faith in Christ. 00:45:06.600 |
And he talks about that the Old Testament affirms that righteousness is only obtained by faith. 00:45:16.600 |
And all of these themes serve under the great umbrella of Paul's main point, which is found in Romans 1:16-17. 00:45:25.600 |
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 00:45:33.600 |
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. 00:45:40.600 |
And so here Paul takes all of these themes and all of these truths and he compacts all of it into two words. 00:45:53.600 |
So what Paul is about to describe is only made possible through faith in Christ. 00:46:08.600 |
It says, "Through him, we have also obtained access by faith." 00:46:14.600 |
Now the phrase "obtained access" here describes someone being introduced or approached with something new. 00:46:23.600 |
The Greek word is used in two other verses in the New Testament. 00:46:29.600 |
And again, this idea fits in with Paul's teaching of Christians having access to the Father as children of God because of their faith in Christ. 00:46:39.600 |
In Ephesians 2:18, we find that same Greek word there being used. 00:46:43.600 |
It says, "For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father." 00:46:48.600 |
With Ephesians 2:18, Paul is establishing the gospel truth that Jews and Gentiles are united by faith in Christ Jesus. 00:46:58.600 |
One result of that is both Jews and Gentiles having access to the Father. 00:47:03.600 |
Now this introduction is important to establish as a shared identity for both Jews and Gentiles. 00:47:10.600 |
Because that's basically Paul's argument in Romans 9-15. 00:47:15.600 |
As he addresses the cultural differences that exist in the church in Rome. 00:47:26.600 |
And so while this introduction is nice, right, having this access is nice, 00:47:30.600 |
I think all of us can sympathize with the idea of like, 00:47:35.600 |
anytime you introduce, you're introduced to someone new, 00:47:38.600 |
there's always this like, awkward phase, right? 00:47:41.600 |
There's this like, little dance that you're trying to figure out the other person, right? 00:47:47.600 |
As you're kind of asking questions about someone new, you're asking them like, you're trying to figure out like, 00:48:02.600 |
There's like this like, constant guessing and analysis going on as you're being introduced to someone. 00:48:08.600 |
And just as a side note, shout out to the welcome team here. 00:48:15.600 |
And the way I know you guys are doing a great job is because like, 00:48:19.600 |
every time I come back from the field, you guys come up and say hi to me. 00:48:23.600 |
And you're like, you're saying, you're introducing yourself to me. 00:48:28.600 |
Don't like, people are like, sometimes come out like, oh, why? 00:48:38.600 |
And I just want to encourage you guys to keep being bold in introducing yourselves to new faces. 00:48:46.600 |
So keep fighting the fight with this awkward dance as you introduce yourselves to new people. 00:48:54.600 |
So even though there's this feeling out stage when we are introduced to a new thing. 00:49:05.600 |
And the reason why we say that is because in Ephesians 3:12, that same word is used again. 00:49:11.600 |
In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 00:49:20.600 |
Ephesians 3:12 further establishes the quality of the relationship between Jews, Gentiles and God. 00:49:25.600 |
Yes, both are introduced to the same God through Christ. 00:49:30.600 |
But while the Gentiles may not have the law like the Jews. 00:49:34.600 |
The Gentile believers do not have to fear or approach God with hesitancy. 00:49:41.600 |
Rather, they, like the Jewish believers, can access God with this confidence because of their faith in Christ. 00:49:50.600 |
Now, even though we have this access in Christ by faith. 00:50:03.600 |
The reality is for us Christians is that oftentimes that access loses its appeal over time. 00:50:38.600 |
I wanted to be a responsible college student and not get into a large amount of debt. 00:50:46.600 |
And the student center was looking for job openings. 00:50:56.600 |
Didn't have to walk as much and open as many doors. 00:51:00.600 |
But before I worked at the student center, I remember walking through the hallways of that place. 00:51:09.600 |
I remember seeing signs like this one, right? 00:51:11.600 |
You know, say like restricted area, like authorized personnel only. 00:51:16.600 |
And sort of being like a good, rule-abiding Asian. 00:51:29.600 |
Like someone's like, police will come and arrest me or something, right? 00:51:31.600 |
And so I knew that that sign meant it's not for me. 00:51:36.600 |
And once I got the job and, you know, they gave me the keys to the building, which is crazy, right? 00:51:41.600 |
You gave me an 18-year-old the keys to the student center? 00:51:49.600 |
I could go through those doors whenever I wanted because I had the key and I was an authorized personnel. 00:52:05.600 |
It's still middle management, so whatever, right? 00:52:09.600 |
And so I remember opening the door the very first time and walking through those doors. 00:52:18.600 |
And lo and behold, all I saw was a service hallway. 00:52:23.600 |
Service hallway with a bunch of boxes, you know, a bunch of like stuff where like, you know, people, workers could come through and cut through all the traffic. 00:52:41.600 |
And as you may know, right, after four years, this sign, which once carried this aura, this mystery, started losing its appeal. 00:52:54.600 |
And it started becoming, became nothing to me anymore, right? 00:52:59.600 |
Just because I was using that access door all the time. 00:53:06.600 |
A lot of times our faith can become like that. 00:53:11.600 |
When our faith in Christ becomes stationary, then it makes sense that our hearts and minds become fixated on the distractions and the stresses of this world. 00:53:23.600 |
When our faith becomes routine and robotic, and as such, we treat this access to the Father like any other access that we have. 00:53:38.600 |
I'm sure this is not a problem only in Taiwan, but you know, there's a lot of believers in Taiwan that treat, treat access to the Father like access to a doctor or access to a psychologist. 00:53:52.600 |
Instead of being the one, only, and amazing option. 00:53:59.600 |
But scripture reminds us that that shouldn't be the case. 00:54:04.600 |
In Romans 12:2, Paul writes, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." 00:54:20.600 |
This call to renewal, right, is what it is, right? 00:54:27.600 |
I'm not going to try to exposit the word renew, it's supposed to be made new again. 00:54:32.600 |
In a sense, the faith, this access that we have to the Father, has to feel like it's new again, it's amazing again, right? 00:54:45.600 |
The problem is, not that it becomes unamazing, right? 00:54:53.600 |
The problem the Christian face today is that it just simply becomes less amazing, right? 00:55:00.600 |
Instead of being at the top of the priority list, it just simply becomes in the middle. 00:55:13.600 |
In Romans 5:2, the focus isn't on who you have access to, or the quality of this access. 00:55:23.600 |
Rather, when people trust in Christ as Lord and Savior, we actually obtain access to another aspect of our faith. 00:55:39.600 |
"Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand." 00:55:51.600 |
The theological definition for the word grace has been understood and applied in a variety of ways. 00:56:02.600 |
And Paul addresses that fact in Romans, right? 00:56:09.600 |
When he talks about, oh, some people believe, oh, if I want grace abound, then maybe I should sin more, right? 00:56:16.600 |
And Paul knocks that down and says, no, that's wrong. 00:56:23.600 |
21 times in the letter to the Romans, this Greek word is used. 00:56:29.600 |
This should inform us that we need to look at the context and not just simply assume that the word means what it means. 00:56:38.600 |
In some verses, the Greek word refers to gratitude and thanks. 00:56:43.600 |
In other instances, the word refers to it as a gift. 00:56:48.600 |
But the majority of the time, it refers to that unmerited or unearned favor. 00:57:01.600 |
The danger with grace is that we can settle for a superficial or surface level application of grace. 00:57:12.600 |
You know, oftentimes, we stop short in seeing the extent of God's grace and how powerful it can be in transforming our lives. 00:57:24.600 |
We keep grace in the realm of our salvation when we first believed. 00:57:28.600 |
And yet we abandon this grace when it comes to our sanctification and pursuit of Christ in his present life. 00:57:37.600 |
Here, Paul is saying that in this state of favor before God, because of Christ, believers are called to stand in it. 00:57:55.600 |
Now, when I think of the word stand here, the first image that comes to mind is me watching my kids at the park, right? 00:58:09.600 |
But as parents, I think we can all confess to the Lord that though you are standing and watching your kids, you are not really watching your kids. 00:58:25.600 |
Your mind is preoccupied with other things, right? 00:58:40.600 |
Or if you're like me, you're on your phone the whole time, right? 00:58:44.600 |
As your kids are playing around, you're on your phone. 00:58:46.600 |
Paul is not talking about that kind of standing where we are distracted and unengaged. 00:58:56.600 |
The type of standing Paul is describing here is where you are engaged and enjoying being in that state of grace. 00:59:05.600 |
I believe most of us don't bother or don't want, we don't like to stand, right? 00:59:22.600 |
You know, people ask me, do you want to sit down? 00:59:24.600 |
I'm like, no, I want to stand because you burn more calories that way. 00:59:27.600 |
But if we had the option to sit down, I think most of us would take that option, right? 00:59:37.600 |
Because y'all are sitting down right now, so I mean. 00:59:40.600 |
But I'm sure many of us can recall a time where we are standing in the midst of an event. 00:59:54.600 |
We're standing for a purpose, and we don't mind the standing, right? 01:00:01.600 |
I didn't mind standing when Korea was beating Japan in the inaugural World Baseball Classic, okay? 01:00:12.600 |
Don't worry, Japan beat Korea later on, and so that's a different story. 01:00:19.600 |
I didn't mind standing with my daughter, Cori, in line for her first roller coaster at Legoland this year, right? 01:00:28.600 |
I wasn't complaining about the pain in my feet or the pain in my back. 01:00:32.600 |
I enjoyed standing with my daughter because we are going to experience something together. 01:00:38.600 |
The reason why we can enjoy this type of standing is because of the grace in which we are in. 01:00:47.600 |
The favor from God that enables us to engage in worship and service of our great God. 01:00:53.600 |
And as Paul concludes in this verse, this favor, this standing in this grace leads us to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 01:01:11.600 |
And so there is a need that we have to talk about. 01:01:21.600 |
About two years ago, we were six months into our time in Taiwan, and I was at Hope Church, and I was going across the street to the mall to grab some lunch. 01:01:31.600 |
And as I was walking, you know, just reflecting and praying and just thinking much about what's been going on in my life at that point. 01:01:40.600 |
If you guys don't know, we had to stay two and a half years in the States during COVID and just waiting for Taiwan to open up their borders. 01:01:48.600 |
And probably definitely one of the darkest moments of my life, not really, I mean, it was, it was, it was good because our fourth son was born. 01:02:01.600 |
But anyways, but if you were to talk to me, 2022, we had a new year's resolution, right? 01:02:10.600 |
Our new year's resolution in 2022 was to be out of America, right? 01:02:16.600 |
And we left America on December 29th, 2022, right? 01:02:24.600 |
Like, good, I fulfilled a new year's resolution. 01:02:28.600 |
So six months in, reflecting, we have a home. 01:02:44.600 |
You know, things at Hope Church was going great as well. 01:02:47.600 |
Just seeing an excitement for God's word and evangelism. 01:02:51.600 |
And so in the end, like I was just pretty happy, you know, really grateful to God. 01:02:56.600 |
And then I don't know, maybe God was trying to humble me or raise my awareness of something else. 01:03:04.600 |
But as I was walking, I just remember recalling, you know, like the temples that are in Taiwan. 01:03:14.600 |
You know, I was reminded of like, you know, sometimes the apartments or the, the, the, the totians. 01:03:25.600 |
Apartment homes, I guess, the, you know, the four, four, four buildings, right? 01:03:29.600 |
Sometimes in the garage, they'll have like a little idol there. 01:03:31.600 |
A little, a little, a little altar there for their family members. 01:03:34.600 |
So they could participate in ancestor worship. 01:03:41.600 |
And, um, it kind of hit me that the fact that, you know, I used to view these things and just like ignore it. 01:03:54.600 |
But I think God was really trying to reveal to me that no, these temples, these altars, these are not just simply white noise. 01:04:06.600 |
These are active forms of opposing worship to me. 01:04:13.600 |
If we believe what scripture says, that God is the only God who is worthy of worship, then every temple, every altar, every burning of incense, every parade that we see on the street is a vivid reminder of the active opposition that people are partaking in. 01:04:36.600 |
And then at that moment, God recalled to mind so many Taiwanese people where we share the gospel with them. 01:04:47.600 |
And we would ask them, "Have you heard this message before?" 01:04:50.600 |
And they would say, "No, we have never heard this message before." 01:05:00.600 |
It brought back the initial moments in China where we're in the college campuses sharing the gospel with college students. 01:05:15.600 |
And after sharing the gospel, they would be like, "Have you heard this news? 01:05:22.600 |
And so with these kind of two thoughts in my mind, it led me to Luke chapter 16, verse 16, where it says, "The law and the prophets were until John. 01:05:39.600 |
Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it." 01:05:47.600 |
Now, the last phrase there, "Everyone forces his way into it," could be translated in the passive, saying that everyone is forcefully urged into it. 01:05:58.600 |
Regardless of where you stand on that translation, in the end, the point is that Christians must be intentional in preparing and entering the kingdom of God. 01:06:11.600 |
Of course, we do not do this based off of our own merit, but rather we prepare our hearts to eternally worship and serve our God. 01:06:21.600 |
This means we understand the grace in which we stand and engage our life with the work and ministry with joy and confidence. 01:06:39.600 |
And so everyone forces his way into it, right? 01:06:42.600 |
The Christian, I'm a, sure I'm a missionary, but the most primary identity for me is that I'm a Christian first. 01:06:51.600 |
I just happen to live in a different culture, right? 01:06:54.600 |
We don't need to, we don't have to like, do some crazy modification of what a missionary is. 01:07:01.600 |
A missionary is a Christian who lives in a cross-cultural context, right? 01:07:06.600 |
And as a Christian, we are trying to grab as many people as we can to enter the kingdom of God together, right? 01:07:19.600 |
And so it was at that moment God made me realize that Taiwan, and to the large extension to the rest of the world, 01:07:29.600 |
that we are not on spiritually neutral ground. 01:07:32.600 |
There are people in our lives today who actively oppose to the worship of God. 01:08:07.600 |
And as a Christian, that sin shouldn't make me feel comfortable or at ease. 01:08:24.600 |
Yes, we get milk tea and fruit tea at a really good price. 01:08:32.600 |
But it's all good things that could tempt me to be comfortable and lose sight of the fact that we are not on spiritually neutral grounds. 01:08:46.600 |
The Christian must have this burning desire to resist the vision of things of just being good and peaceful. 01:08:55.600 |
Rather, Christians, we courageously engage the sinfulness that exists. 01:09:02.600 |
We take biblical risk for God's glory because this world is not just passively opposing Christ. 01:09:15.600 |
And as those temples in Taiwan tell me, there is a world that they actively engage in this. 01:09:26.600 |
They are enemies of God that need the gospel. 01:09:42.600 |
And we could be like, yeah, we need to go share the gospel and rah, rah, rah, and stir up our emotions. 01:09:49.600 |
And as a result, we could try and figure out a strategy, a plan, you know, and all this stuff to figure out how to engage the darkness, how to engage the sinfulness of man. 01:10:04.600 |
And as a result, it's easily, we are tempted to easily put projects over people and steamroll them into submission. 01:10:14.600 |
And that is why Romans 5:2 is, it was and still is so important to me to today. 01:10:23.600 |
Though we have this urgent perspective that we are not on spiritually neutral grounds, we do not take matters into our own hands. 01:10:33.600 |
You know, every ministry, para-church ministry, church ministry, the other, strategy is like the buzzword, right? 01:10:42.600 |
I think it's been a buzzword for the last like five decades. 01:10:50.600 |
Because his word has already given us not only the motivation and the inspiration, but has given us the ways in which we can engage the darkness and the sin that exists in this world. 01:11:12.600 |
We rely on the grace and the methods laid before us from scripture to engage in our task as ministers of the gospel. 01:11:19.600 |
At the end of the day, all missionaries are engaged in either evangelism, discipleship, raising new leaders, helping form healthy churches, or partnering with existing churches. 01:11:34.600 |
While all of these tasks are important, the most important thing for a Christian missionary pastor is to make sure that you are standing, that you are standing in the grace in which we stand. 01:11:49.600 |
Or one could argue that you should be abiding in Christ. 01:11:57.600 |
Christ made it clear that in order to bear fruit, you must be abiding in him. 01:12:01.600 |
Because he is divine and we are the branches. 01:12:05.600 |
In order to engage in the services of the Lord, the Christian must be standing in his grace. 01:12:12.600 |
And as a result of all that, it leads the missionary, the pastor, and the Christian to enter into these various tasks with joy and confidence that the motivation behind these tasks are in line with God's word and his glory. 01:12:33.600 |
Because we know that we are standing in his grace. 01:12:47.600 |
As I mentioned before, Paul is writing this letter to partner together with believers in Rome for the sake of the gospel and to share this good news with others who have not heard. 01:13:05.600 |
This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. 01:13:09.600 |
But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. 01:13:25.600 |
As I said before, our team in Taiwan, we focus on four tasks: evangelism, church planning, leadership development, and sending Taiwanese missionaries to the nations. 01:13:43.600 |
And so I'll share a few stories from here, and then we'll close. 01:13:51.600 |
But if you didn't know, our family had two different stints in Taiwan, okay? 01:13:58.600 |
We were in Kaohsiung from 2019 to 2020 to study language, right? 01:14:05.600 |
We had just joined our organization, and we asked, can we study language? 01:14:11.600 |
Because Chinese is really, really hard, as many of you already know. 01:14:15.600 |
And so a year and four months, we were there studying Chinese, and then something called COVID happened. 01:14:24.600 |
Our original plan was to go into China, but that all of it got kind of tossed aside. 01:14:30.600 |
Now, during our time in language learning, once a month, we were called to go out to the neighborhood and to share the gospel, right? 01:14:41.600 |
And so I remember our tutors were saying, "Hey, how come you're taking this day off? 01:14:48.600 |
And so we told them, "We're going to go out to the streets and share the gospel with people." 01:14:52.600 |
And they were like, "Oh, you don't do that. Buxing." 01:15:04.600 |
And they were just kind of telling us, like, "Well, that's not how you evangelize in Taiwan." 01:15:13.600 |
And so, you know, I asked my tutor, like, "Well, how do you evangelize then?" 01:15:17.600 |
And they're like, "Oh, we, you know, jinli guanxi." 01:15:20.600 |
You know, we build relationships with people, and then we invite them to our homes. 01:15:23.600 |
And, you know, it's a really, really good, good method of evangelism. 01:15:28.600 |
But I said, "But what does that say in the Bible that we can't talk to strangers about the gospel?" 01:15:37.600 |
And then they kind of looked at us, and they're like, "I don't know." 01:15:42.600 |
And in the end, it's like, "Okay, I know you're hesitant. You're like, you don't want to be rejected. 01:15:54.600 |
And so that was kind of my experience when we were there for language learning. 01:16:00.600 |
Fast forward to 2022, we land in Taiwan again. 01:16:03.600 |
And, you know, that experience is in my mind. 01:16:05.600 |
Like, "Oh, man, people are going to be scared to share the gospel. 01:16:07.600 |
We're going to see what Hope Church is really going to... 01:16:12.600 |
And so we go around, as I'm getting to know the church and all that stuff. 01:16:17.600 |
You know, I kind of brought up about the need for evangelism to the congregation. 01:16:25.600 |
And there was one sister in particular, and she just told me straight up, like, "I can't share the gospel." 01:16:33.600 |
It's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I can't share the gospel." 01:16:35.600 |
When I talk to strangers or talk to people, my mind gets all jumbled up, and my heartbeats start racing, 01:16:43.600 |
and I don't know what to say, and I start fumbling over my words, and I just make a complete fool of myself. 01:16:52.600 |
"Hey, well, good. What can we say about that, right?" 01:16:57.600 |
But then I just kind of asked her, like, "Well, have you ever been trained to evangelize? 01:17:02.600 |
Have you ever been, like, have a process of how to organize your thoughts so you could get this message out?" 01:17:08.600 |
And so January, I think in '03--no, '04--we did an evangelism training at the church. 01:17:20.600 |
We used the Two Ways to Live gospel tool, just to keep them organized. 01:17:25.600 |
And one of the cool things was that, right after that, we'd go out to share the gospel. 01:17:30.600 |
Of course, this sister was very scared, and so we go in groups of threes. 01:17:35.600 |
We don't go in groups of twos, because that's what the Mormons do. 01:17:39.600 |
We want to be different, so we go in groups of threes. 01:17:43.600 |
Totally joking, it just happened to be we had three, you know. 01:17:47.600 |
But the sister would always take the role of, like, "I'm going to pray." 01:17:55.600 |
Everyone else could talk, but I'm going to pray. 01:18:01.600 |
And then we had another training, and then that night we went out to go share. 01:18:07.600 |
We were at Family Mart getting dinner with our kids. 01:18:10.600 |
And, you know, I see a guy just sitting by himself. 01:18:14.600 |
And then I slide over, and I'm, like, trying to talk to him. 01:18:18.600 |
But, man, yeah, I mean, I didn't share the gospel with him in English. 01:18:24.600 |
And so, obviously, like, I'm using the Two Ways to Live. 01:18:29.600 |
And, you know, if you don't know what that tool is, there's, like, six pictures that you draw out and explain. 01:18:37.600 |
So I'm, like, fumbling around through the pictures. 01:18:40.600 |
And for those who actually know it, the third image, I don't know why, but my tongue just gets twisted at that point. 01:19:10.600 |
Like, I saw you, the pastor, sharing the gospel, fumbling through all your words in my mother tongue, right? 01:19:19.600 |
And I just, I kept thinking, like, how come I can't do that, you know? 01:19:26.600 |
If this foreigner who's fumbling through with his Chinese is able to do it, how come I can't do it? 01:19:33.600 |
And then she joked around saying, like, oh, maybe I need to think I'm Japanese and then I'll have the confidence to go share it, you know? 01:19:45.600 |
Well, every month since then, we always went out as a church to go share. 01:19:51.600 |
And there was just one day, we're at a mall because it was raining and she just clicked. 01:20:01.600 |
You know, one of our missionary co-workers was there with her and he was like, I was so mad because I couldn't share the gospel. 01:20:14.600 |
This sister, you know, like, to see where she was and to see where she is now is just a true testament to the grace in which we stand. 01:20:25.600 |
She took a biblical risk, right, to get trained and then to go out, right? 01:20:37.600 |
And then pretty soon she is now, she started taking the steps of sharing. 01:20:41.600 |
And one of the greatest encouragements about her is, like, she is probably one of our great, strongest advocates for evangelism at Hope. 01:20:50.600 |
She went on her first cross-cultural mission trip to Korea to go and share the gospel with the Chinese tourists there. 01:21:00.600 |
You know, she's even helping us, trying to share the gospel with, through another church in Mainong, because she could speak Hakka. 01:21:11.600 |
And she's trying to speak and evangelize and share the gospel in her other language, in her other mother tongue. 01:21:18.600 |
All that to say, the result of all of that was the grace in which we stand. 01:21:29.600 |
She took the steps because she believed that the gospel is worth it, because she believes and has been impacted by it. 01:21:36.600 |
Another cool aspect that we have here is in the area of leadership development and sending cross-cultural missionaries. 01:21:49.600 |
How many of you guys are in the education field or have taught before? 01:22:06.600 |
Well, you know, you ever had those, like, lightbulb moments with your students where, like, all of a sudden they just get it? 01:22:15.600 |
Because, like, whatever you did, it made sense to them? 01:22:20.600 |
I remember there was a brother at our church, too. 01:22:32.600 |
And again, great guy, just loves to, just very warm, warm guy. 01:22:39.600 |
And just seeing him develop as a leader in the church has been a tremendous, tremendous blessing. 01:22:47.600 |
Again, same thing with the gospel thing, sharing the gospel. 01:22:52.600 |
But his way was more of, like, a softer way of doing things, you know? 01:22:59.600 |
But once he understood two ways to live, he was able to share more and more. 01:23:04.600 |
But one of the cool things was the fact that he came up, he were debriefing one time, and he just straight up, he just, he just actually shared with us, I shared the gospel, but I didn't use two ways to live. 01:23:21.600 |
You know, he's like, yeah, I think talking to enough people, I realized what I need to say and what to do that I could jump into whatever part of the two ways to live content to reach the person that's asking the question. 01:23:34.600 |
And, you know, my prayer for this man is like, yeah, he could one day, like, like, continue to develop, continue to grow and be equipped and eventually be, you know, one of our leaders at the church. 01:23:46.600 |
But, I mean, there's just so many great things happening in Taiwan. 01:23:51.600 |
And to be honest, I could share more stories and more anecdotes and more experiences. 01:23:59.600 |
But, the bottom line is that the only way that we are going to be transformed is when we come to the word of God. 01:24:15.600 |
And be reminded of this grace in which we stand. 01:24:20.600 |
And so, in conclusion, there's one, two questions I want to ask. 01:24:25.600 |
The first question, as Christians, what ground are you standing in? 01:24:36.600 |
Perhaps you have been serving in the church out of duty and responsibility. 01:24:45.600 |
Perhaps that's the ground that you are standing on. 01:24:48.600 |
However, if you stand long on that ground, you will face burnout and bitterness. 01:25:00.600 |
And I, and again, I speak that from personal experience, right? 01:25:04.600 |
Um, where you stand and motivated for other reasons outside of this grace that God has given us. 01:25:22.600 |
But in the end, you're settling for a different source, a lesser source, than what God intended to give you, which is his grace. 01:25:34.600 |
Perhaps the ground that you're standing on is not on this grace, but maybe it's on man's opinions. 01:25:44.600 |
The encouragement you receive from others fuels your worship and service. 01:25:50.600 |
But what happens when that attention fades away? 01:25:54.600 |
You begin to see the hypocrisy of your public and private life. 01:26:00.600 |
If the reason why you serve and you live out this faith is for other people to look at you, you're going to, you also will burn out and crash. 01:26:16.600 |
So as Christians, we have to come before God and ask him earnestly, am I living out my salvation by standing in this grace that was afforded to me by Christ? 01:26:31.600 |
Am I seeking to overcome whatever sin that is in my life by the grace that has been afforded to me? 01:26:39.600 |
Am I seeking to overcome my fear in sharing the gospel with strangers by the grace that has been afforded to me? 01:26:52.600 |
That is the framework that we must operate by. 01:26:57.600 |
Or else we're going to catch ourselves being lost and losing the reason why we do what we do. 01:27:08.600 |
For the unbeliever, the question is for you, is who are you placing your faith in? 01:27:17.600 |
Perhaps you're placing your faith in another God. 01:27:22.600 |
Or perhaps you're placing your faith in yourself. 01:27:25.600 |
But ask yourself this question, who are you placing your faith in? 01:27:39.600 |
Because if you're standing in yourself, look around and see the result of your life. 01:27:52.600 |
Perhaps you see a lack of contentment in your life. 01:27:57.600 |
Perhaps you see broken relationships because of conflicts that you've had with others. 01:28:02.600 |
All of those are indicators that the ground in which you are standing on may not be good for you. 01:28:11.600 |
The ground that you are standing on is related to the greatest problem that this world has, which is sin. 01:28:21.600 |
And so I'm sure everyone here at Berean, the pastors, myself included, we implore you. 01:28:41.600 |
Don't be the hundred and seventy-four thousand people who died daily without knowing Christ. 01:28:46.600 |
Because you don't know when your life will end. 01:28:58.600 |
And understand and experience the grace in which all of us here are standing on. 01:29:14.600 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you again for your grace. 01:29:17.600 |
Father, we come before you with thoughts and distractions on our hearts and minds. 01:29:32.600 |
That perhaps the grace that we sing and praise you for has simply become less amazing. 01:29:43.600 |
We ask you, Father, that you would use your word and your spirit to renew in us, Lord God, 01:29:57.600 |
a deeper and more engaged understanding of what it means to stand in your grace. 01:30:02.600 |
And that the result of that would lead us not only into a greater worship of you throughout the week, 01:30:12.600 |
but into a greater engagement of addressing the problem that exists in this world. 01:30:22.600 |
And that we would engage that sin problem with your word, with your gospel. 01:30:29.600 |
So that not only the church would be built up, 01:30:34.600 |
but that those that you have called would be saved. 01:30:40.600 |
And so, God, we ask that you would do a mighty work within all of us. 01:30:49.600 |
And to give us that encouragement and inspiration, Lord God, 01:30:56.600 |
to live for you by the grace that you have given to us. 01:31:50.600 |
And through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. 01:32:03.300 |
The work is finished, the end is written, Jesus Christ, my living hope. 01:32:16.620 |
O God, in magic, so great a mercy, what heart could fall out of such boundless grace? 01:32:34.300 |
The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame. 01:34:08.580 |
Thank you, the warning that sealed the promise. 01:34:25.900 |
Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave has no pain on me. 01:34:39.060 |
Then came the morning that sealed the promise. 01:34:52.900 |
Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave has no pain on me. 01:35:06.620 |
Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave has no pain on me. 01:36:30.040 |
Just as a friendly reminder, there's the prayer magnets out in the front, so just please make sure to grab one if you can. 01:36:40.040 |
I appreciate all the prayers and support that you have given to our family. 01:36:50.040 |
Now, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. 01:36:57.040 |
To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever.