back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 7.23.23
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Good morning Church family. Happy Lord's Day. We will now begin our service. 00:03:01.000 |
The sun cannot compare to the glory of your love. 00:03:15.000 |
No mortal man would dare to stand before your throne. 00:03:27.000 |
It's only by your blood and it's only through your mercy. 00:03:47.000 |
No one on earth deserves the praises that I see. 00:03:54.000 |
Jesus, may you receive the honor that you're due. 00:04:23.000 |
The sun cannot compare to the glory of your love. 00:04:37.000 |
No mortal man would dare to stand before your throne. 00:04:49.000 |
It's only by your blood and it's only through your mercy. 00:05:09.000 |
No one on earth deserves the praises that I see. 00:05:16.000 |
Jesus, may you receive the honor that you're due. 00:05:38.000 |
No one on earth deserves the praises that I see. 00:05:45.000 |
Jesus, may you receive the honor that you're due. 00:06:30.000 |
I know that everybody's been asking, "Are you recovered? Are you recovered?" 00:06:37.000 |
We have some announcements before we get started. 00:06:42.000 |
Those of you who are members, during our members meeting, 00:06:49.000 |
but because of time constraint with baptism and various things, 00:06:52.000 |
we're going to save that until the members meeting. 00:06:55.000 |
I am going to give a bit of an update through the sermon. 00:06:59.000 |
Today's members meeting is happening at 1.30. 00:07:03.000 |
So please, right after, if you need to go out and get lunch, 00:07:14.000 |
So please go and get your lunch and then come back. 00:07:19.000 |
The shuttle system is going to be running after the members meeting again. 00:07:22.000 |
So I know we have the regular shuttle system that's going, 00:07:26.000 |
there will also be a shuttle system to help take you back to, 00:07:29.000 |
if you parked a bit further away, so you don't have to worry about that. 00:07:33.000 |
New visitors welcome lunch is happening on July 30th. 00:07:41.000 |
So this is for people who are just interested in just checking out the church 00:07:44.000 |
and meeting some of the leaders, the welcome team members. 00:07:53.000 |
So please sign up for that, and that's happening on next Sunday. 00:07:56.000 |
Galatians Bible study, that's happening on August 31st. 00:08:01.000 |
And if you haven't signed up for it, please sign up. 00:08:03.000 |
And again, if you wait until the last minute to sign up, 00:08:06.000 |
we're going to end up having to connect you to a Bible study that, 00:08:12.000 |
So we're not going to be able to strategically place you anywhere. 00:08:14.000 |
So please sign up for that as soon as you can for the Galatians Bible study. 00:08:22.000 |
So please come join us at 7.30 to do that so we can corporately pray. 00:08:26.000 |
And some of the things that was shared about the Korean missions, 00:08:29.000 |
we're going to take some time to pray for that as well. 00:08:31.000 |
Sprouts PTA meeting happening on October 10th at 2 p.m. 00:08:35.000 |
So we'll give you more announcements about that that's coming up. 00:08:38.000 |
ISF International Sisters Fellowship is happening Friday mornings at 9.30 to 11.30 00:08:49.000 |
And they're going to be reading through a book called "Adorn" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss-Waugh-Goumous. 00:08:59.000 |
Yeah, I have no idea how you're supposed to pronounce that. 00:09:01.000 |
So that's taking place, so please sign up for that. 00:09:03.000 |
Our sister Carrie is in charge of it, so let her know, 00:09:06.000 |
and they'll give you more information about that. 00:09:14.000 |
All right, so this morning, before I pray, after I praise, 00:09:22.000 |
She's going to be giving her testimony, and then she'll be baptized. 00:09:25.000 |
And then after that, our brother Brian Chisaki, who went to Korea with us, 00:09:29.000 |
he's going to be coming up and giving what he saw and his testimony. 00:09:35.000 |
And so he'll be doing that, and then I'll come up and give my sermon. 00:09:38.000 |
So let me pray for the offering, and then those of you who need to give a physical offering, 00:09:45.000 |
Make sure you visit that as you're on the way out. 00:09:51.000 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you again for the privilege that we have to serve you. 00:09:56.000 |
Help us, Lord God, not to take the weekly gathering for granted, 00:10:00.000 |
knowing, Father, that there are many brothers and sisters around the world 00:10:04.000 |
in persecution and just risking of health and family, Lord, to gather. 00:10:11.000 |
We pray, Father, that you would continue to guide us and lead us 00:10:14.000 |
and help us to be responsible for all the blessings that you've given us, 00:10:17.000 |
that they may return to you in full glory and praise. 00:10:21.000 |
I pray, Father, this morning, as we have a packed schedule, 00:10:25.000 |
help us, Lord God, to, in the midst of all of this, remember you 00:10:28.000 |
and why we're doing all of this, Lord, and that you may be given all the glory. 00:10:33.000 |
We pray that even the offering that we give, help us to give intentionally 00:16:02.000 |
But in the costly wounds of love at the cross. 00:16:25.000 |
But in the blood of Christ I flow at the cross. 00:17:39.000 |
But I will boast in knowing Christ at the cross. 00:20:10.000 |
Hi, my name is Madeline Poe. I'm from the College Ministry, and this is my testimony of God's faithfulness and His ultimate plan in my life. 00:20:20.000 |
I grew up in the church to two faithful parents, but my knowledge of Christ was all that I had. 00:20:24.000 |
I believed in Christ so that I could have a hall passed to heaven, which led me to pray the prayer of salvation every Easter and Christmas in order to make sure that I was saved. 00:20:32.000 |
I accepted God the same way I accepted that the sky was blue, and didn't really care to question or investigate my faith growing up. 00:20:39.000 |
In high school, I continued to attend church, but I didn't know what God's Lordship over my life meant. 00:20:45.000 |
I was able to understand sermons and say the right thing to my church friends, but my understanding of sin was limited by my own personal standard. 00:20:52.000 |
I would only repent of actions that I judged as really bad, while enabling other sins like pride and anger in my life. 00:21:02.000 |
In college, I experienced the freedom that came with leaving home, and allowed more sins to abound unchecked in my life. 00:21:09.000 |
I was able to join a campus fellowship against the counsel of those at my home church, and then left for cultural reasons that were ultimately self-centered. 00:21:15.000 |
Even though I checked out Brie and after, I didn't commit because I joined a professional fraternity on campus. 00:21:20.000 |
I thought that I was going to come back to church later, but never did because I was tired of trying to do the right thing, and wanted to experience the world. 00:21:27.000 |
In the fall of my junior year, I was fully indulging in the depravity of this world through a lifestyle of reckless and selfish living where I went to parties and glorified relationships that were full of malice and gossip. 00:21:38.000 |
Even though I felt a nagging pressure to return to church, which I now recognize as God's mercy on my life, I was content with ignoring his call. 00:21:46.000 |
I thought that I was saved and was doing okay as a person, but in reality, I was numb to my sins after a lifetime of indulgence. 00:21:53.000 |
Through God's perfect wisdom and unconditional love for me, he began to soften my heart through the people he placed in my life. 00:22:01.000 |
The first person he used was my boyfriend, who told me that my life was falling apart because the values that I claimed to hold weren't aligned with the life I was living. 00:22:08.000 |
As a new believer, he felt that my new lifestyle was causing our lives to drift apart and that the difference would cost us our relationship. 00:22:14.000 |
I emailed Pastor Nate in my desperation to hold on to my relationship, but after talking with him and attending Bible study for the first time in a while, God began to open my eyes to the deception that I had justified my whole life with. 00:22:28.000 |
My false understanding of Christ led me to live a life where my faith was dependent on my emotions and my works were man-centered and not God-glorifying. 00:22:35.000 |
I experienced a spiritual high where I was engaged in my reading of Romans and committed to coming out, but I hadn't given God full lordship over my life just yet. 00:22:44.000 |
I fell back into a sin in my life one weekend, and it felt like I was at square one where I was once again unsure of my salvation. 00:22:51.000 |
I met up with other sisters in the college ministry in order to get to know them and share about my struggle, and they encouraged me to persevere in determining where I really was at in my faith. 00:22:59.000 |
I became wary of the constant self-introspection that I had to do, but God was faithful because he would not allow me to stay in my false understanding of salvation, nor would he allow me to find the insurance I was looking for second-hand through others. 00:23:13.000 |
One night, I met up with my high school small group leader over Zoom in order to ask for her guidance on my life and whether she thought I was saved, and after that call, God revealed in my heart the truth to all my wrestling. 00:23:23.000 |
Deep down, I didn't believe that Christ was enough for me. I was convicted through Romans 5.8, which reads, "But God demonstrates his own love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 00:23:33.000 |
The pride that I took in myself, as well as my unbelief and distrust of the full power of Christ's sacrifice, had led me to search for salvation through my own works. 00:23:42.000 |
My understanding of sin was surface level, and in fact, my sinfulness was more than just disobeying God's commands, but the natural core of my being that motivated everything that I did. 00:23:50.000 |
Through his faithful work within my heart, I was finally confronted with the full weight of my sinfulness and inability to do anything to save myself. 00:23:57.000 |
I was scared and honestly still unsure about whether all my brokenness was covered by Christ, but that night, I prayed for my salvation by faith in him instead of my own feelings. 00:24:07.000 |
My life after Christ has been transformed through the purpose and newness of life that only the Holy Spirit can give me. 00:24:12.000 |
A verse that's been encouraging for me is Hebrews 7.25, which reads, "Therefore he is also able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercessions for them." 00:24:23.000 |
Instead of doing things for other people to see or to satisfy myself, my love for God produces a life of true worship for the one who really saved me. 00:24:32.000 |
There are a lot of sins that I still have to uproot in my life that have been embedded for so long, but I desire and take godly joy in the process of being sanctified to become more like him. 00:24:40.000 |
My salvation rests solely on Christ's perfect work on the cross alone. Thank you. 00:25:02.000 |
Adam, do you understand when you go into the water, you're being united to Christ's death and when you come out, you're being united to his resurrected life? 00:25:09.000 |
And I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:25:42.000 |
Good morning, church family. My name is Brian Shisaki, and I had the honor and the privilege to share with you this morning about my experience at the South Korea missions trip this summer. 00:25:53.000 |
Before going on this trip, I had no idea what to expect, as this is my first missions trip ever, and I've never visited Korea before. 00:26:03.000 |
All I knew about Korea was from my Korean-American friends, the K-dramas and the K-pop that I watched and listened to, and also our three months of training, which Pastor Peter led. 00:26:15.000 |
From what I saw there, Pastor Peter, what he described was exactly what we saw there. 00:26:23.000 |
Starting with the first week, we witnessed and learned about the deprived state of this nation through the orphan and special needs care at Hilsan Shinmun Orphanage and Baby Box. 00:26:37.000 |
It was so challenging witnessing the injustices that were happening there, yet see the tender and loving care which these workers had for these children. 00:26:50.000 |
No ordinary person would ever do such a thing unless they first experienced the love of Christ. 00:26:56.000 |
Transitioning to our next ministry, our team helped organize, facilitate, and run a summer camp for international students. 00:27:05.000 |
We had about 29 students from all around the world, from Korea, Vietnam, Peru, Cameroon, Russia, India, the Philippines, and also Mongolia. 00:27:18.000 |
Although the camp was in English, communication was a challenge. 00:27:21.000 |
It was a mix of broken English and a mix of broken Korean. It was difficult to communicate. 00:27:27.000 |
And yet, we were still able to quickly find ways to be creative and share about the work of Christ in our lives. 00:27:37.000 |
We grew in relationship with these students quickly and transferred past the superficial talk into deeper conversations throughout the retreat. 00:27:46.000 |
Through the body worship skits, testimonies, small groups, teachings, there were plenty of opportunities that were available to interact and build our friendships with these students. 00:27:55.000 |
Following this very busy first week, our second week was even busier. 00:28:00.000 |
There was a split between sightseeing, street evangelism, homeless ministry, an English cafe night, and a multi-church worship night. 00:28:10.000 |
We primarily worked with the Namu Church, Iyum Church, New Life Church, and the Campus Crusades for Christ in our public street evangelism in the Shincheon District. 00:28:19.000 |
This was very difficult at first as we felt timid and fearful of the language barrier and the foreignness of doing street evangelism in a foreign country. 00:28:29.000 |
But the Lord gave us boldness and creativity in how to share the gospel with these people. 00:28:36.000 |
Due to the crowds which we attracted due to our evangelism and busking, we gained quite a lot of attention by the cults. 00:28:44.000 |
These cults were very aggressive. They watched us, they mobilized around us, and they tried to take the people who we were sharing the gospel with. 00:28:53.000 |
It was quite sobering and it troubled me much to see that they were doing the things which we were doing and to say things in the name of Christ. 00:29:05.000 |
They are so far from the truth and leading souls to destruction. 00:29:08.000 |
Through this experience, we learned the reasons why these cults are present and growing in Korea. 00:29:15.000 |
It is because the church in Korea is not healthy, nor is it contending for the faith. 00:29:21.000 |
The people there are not against the gospel, but they are against the Korean church. 00:29:28.000 |
That is why they are being picked off by these ravenous wolves and false teachers. 00:29:32.000 |
This was a valuable lesson to learn why personal evangelism is so important. 00:29:36.000 |
It was convicting to know that if you do not share the saving truth of the gospel, someone might preach to them a damning one. 00:29:43.000 |
Despite these many challenges, God prepared us to encounter a few people to be able to invite to our English Cafe Night. 00:29:51.000 |
We praise God that at the English Cafe Night, these people were able to hear the good news of the gospel through the sharing of testimonies, 00:29:58.000 |
and we were able to connect them to the churches that we partnered with. 00:30:02.000 |
We later found out that some of these students who we invited came out to the church that following Sunday. 00:30:08.000 |
In our final week of ministry, we partnered with the Baptist Student Union and Love Community Church for our English Camp. 00:30:17.000 |
We met about 12 students and taught various topics such as American slang, education and career, travel, holidays, hobbies, and the best for last, dating. 00:30:28.000 |
Like the ISF Camp, we were quickly able to connect with these students and dive deeper in our conversations. 00:30:36.000 |
I personally felt that it was here that we felt and saw what was going on in the larger Korean church. 00:30:44.000 |
The students that we talked to felt that it is very discouraging to walk faithfully in the church, 00:30:52.000 |
as there are few younger folks who they can walk and fellowship with. 00:30:57.000 |
Although it was disheartening hearing this, we were encouraged by their faithfulness and were able to bond together over our common faith and unity in Christ, 00:31:06.000 |
even though there was a language barrier and culture differences. 00:31:13.000 |
To conclude this experience, this will be one of the best experiences that I will remember for the rest of my life. 00:31:20.000 |
I gained new insights to what global missions looks like, witnessed and experienced the work of ministry in Korea, 00:31:27.000 |
and built friendships that I hope will last for many years to come. 00:31:31.000 |
Although South Korea was a foreign place to me, I can only but credit all of our success to God. 00:31:39.000 |
He was the one who provided, sustained, and enabled this ministry from happening. 00:31:44.000 |
I also want to thank all of you here who provided and were generous with your donations and for the many prayers which you had for us. 00:31:53.000 |
I am confident that he heard your prayers and through them will accomplish his sovereign purposes through them. 00:31:59.000 |
I believe that God is not finished with South Korea. 00:32:03.000 |
As we move forward, please pray for the wisdom and discernment for our leaders as many decisions will have to be made about future trips. 00:32:11.000 |
Also pray for the relationships that we built during the trip, that God will provide more opportunities for the gospel to be shared. 00:32:30.000 |
Alright, as I mentioned, we're going to give you a more extended update at the members meeting with some pictures. 00:32:36.000 |
We initially had a video to show you, but for the purpose of time constraint, we're going to save that for the members meeting. 00:32:43.000 |
I promise I will be jumping back into the gospel of Luke next week, but I wanted to take at least a week, or this Sunday, 00:32:51.000 |
to kind of share with you some of the insights and some of the things that I've seen, 00:32:58.000 |
and hopefully to bring you along with us, not just the ministry in Korea, but what I believe that God is focusing on as we go forward. 00:33:08.000 |
If you can look with me to Revelation chapter 2, verses 1 through 7, before we jump into the text. 00:33:14.000 |
"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, 'The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this. 00:33:26.000 |
I know your deeds, your toil, your perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men. 00:33:30.000 |
And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false. 00:33:36.000 |
You have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary, but I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 00:33:44.000 |
Therefore remember from where you have fallen, repent, and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. 00:33:55.000 |
And this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 00:33:59.000 |
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of the life which is in the paradise of God." 00:34:11.000 |
Father, bless us, guide us, lead us, teach us, rebuke us, challenge us, encourage us, and build us by your word, your word only. 00:34:25.000 |
As we came back from Korea, as I mentioned before, we went out to Korea, and I shared with you why, why did we pick Korea? 00:34:36.000 |
Obviously we've been heavily involved in China for many years, and now we are heavily involved in India, and we've had some trips out to Japan, hoping to make some connections there. 00:34:49.000 |
And so, every time I would go out to Korea, I would talk to my friends, or I would visit the missionaries or the churches there, and they would keep telling me the same thing. 00:35:01.000 |
That this is a nation that experienced a huge revival. 00:35:04.000 |
In fact, if you ever study Christian history in the modern era, Korean Christianity, the Christianity that came into Korea in the last hundred years, 00:35:16.000 |
is on the top of the list of the greatest revivals that took place, again, in the last hundred years. 00:35:20.000 |
Because it went from a country that almost had no Christianity, and then now, in the modern era, it's like 33%. 00:35:28.000 |
They said that has not happened in the modern history in any other country but Korea. 00:35:33.000 |
But just as quickly as revival came in, in the last four or five years, I've been hearing from missionaries and from various people that the Christianity is crashing. 00:35:44.000 |
In fact, the statistics is that the general population, whether they're true Christian or not, they claim to have affiliation with Christianity, 33%. 00:35:53.000 |
But if you go to the college campuses and you survey how many of them claim to be Christians, it's less than 2%. 00:36:00.000 |
So, in one generation, it went from, the revival breaks out, and along with that, Korea coming out of poverty, and it's a nation that was so poor. 00:36:13.000 |
At one point, after the Korean War, and it's become what it is today. 00:36:17.000 |
Just as quickly as it rose, now it is sinking, just as quickly. 00:36:22.000 |
Korea has the highest suicide rate among the youth of any developed country. 00:36:36.000 |
It's anywhere from 0.7 to 0.9, meaning all these young families who are married, if they have, they have one, and many of them are not having children at all. 00:36:47.000 |
In fact, one of the things that I noticed while I was there is that, and it took me a couple of weeks to even figure that out, I didn't see any children. 00:36:55.000 |
On the subways, on the buses, even at the churches. 00:37:00.000 |
We thought we were going to be spending a lot of time with college students, but the church members there were older. 00:37:06.000 |
So, they were in their 20s and 30s, some of them in their 40s, and it took me a couple of weeks to kind of take a step back and say, "Hey, none of these guys are married." 00:37:13.000 |
There's no children in these churches, so I started asking them, "So, what's going on?" 00:37:18.000 |
And they gave the exact same answer, every single one of them, "We don't have money." 00:37:25.000 |
Meaning, if we can't get married, we can't provide, and we can't rent an apartment, we can't get a job, we can't do, then what's the point? 00:37:31.000 |
And so, I can see why the birth rate is crashing. 00:37:34.000 |
Korea was ranked number one as the hardest place for young people to live right now. 00:37:42.000 |
People are, which is crazy because so many people are traveling into Korea because they're going through K-drama, and there's like, you know, tourist areas where this is where summer sonata or winter sonata or whatever sonata it was, they have things set up, like this is where they filmed this, and this is where they filmed that. 00:37:59.000 |
So, all these people from all over the world are coming because they want to experience the culture, and yet, it's ranked number one, the hardest place for young people to live. 00:38:11.000 |
And the only reason why I found that out is because I was reading an article about Taiwan. 00:38:14.000 |
And the whole article is about how young, it's so difficult for young people to live in Taiwan because of their economy and the education and family background and all this stuff. 00:38:23.000 |
And then at the end of this article, it says, "There's only one country worse than this in South Korea." 00:38:32.000 |
At the end of our trip, we all went to Itaewon. 00:38:36.000 |
This is where 120 young people, ages anywhere from 17 to 24, 25, 120 of them got smashed to death coming out of the nightclub, and they were smushed. 00:38:47.000 |
And when we went there, it was raining, and so we began to pray, and it was so eerie to know that in this small area, and that alley is probably maybe two or three times the size of this alley right here. 00:39:01.000 |
Thousands of people were jammed into this thing, and some of them got crushed to death standing up. 00:39:05.000 |
And I know that there was a lot of concern over the young people because the whole country knows what's going on. 00:39:12.000 |
There's a sense of desperation, and they say a lot of these young people were just locked up for three years because of the pandemic, used Halloween as an avenue, as a party, an excuse to come out. 00:39:24.000 |
And way too many people ended up jamming into this, and 120 people died. 00:39:30.000 |
And everybody understands and knows and agrees that this culture is sinking, and they're sinking quickly. 00:39:38.000 |
But there's a sense of despair because they don't know what to do, which is crazy because there's megachurches about 30 minutes to an hour driving distance in any direction. 00:39:51.000 |
In fact, Seoul is known as the capital of megachurches. 00:39:54.000 |
In the United States, if you have more than 2,000 people, they call you a megachurch. 00:39:59.000 |
In Korea, if you have less than 20,000, it's a medium-sized church. 00:40:03.000 |
They have churches that have 30, 40, 50, 60,000 members in a church. 00:40:09.000 |
And again, this is not in the rural area where you have plenty of parking. 00:40:13.000 |
This is like in one apartment building where you have 40, 50, 60,000 people coming in and out of this building. 00:40:26.000 |
They're losing their children, and everybody knows that they're losing their children, but yet the church has almost kind of like given up. 00:40:33.000 |
They've thrown their hands up. What can we do? 00:40:35.000 |
I think what's happening in Korea has already been happening in the United States and all over the world, but it's much slower. 00:40:46.000 |
Korea just never does anything halfway. Koreans tend to be spicy. 00:40:52.000 |
So whatever they do, they do like full-blown. So when revival came, it's like, "Yes, we're going to die for Jesus." 00:40:57.000 |
And now that it's crashing, they're setting the example of crashing too. 00:41:03.000 |
I think the only difference is that the ship that's been sinking has been slowly sinking here. 00:41:09.000 |
In fact, most people, they have visited many churches. 00:41:15.000 |
One of the first things that they say when they visit our church is, "We have so many young people." 00:41:20.000 |
Again, I'm not fully aware because this is all I know. I travel here and there, and then I see, but the most common thing that I hear is, "Oh, you have a lot of young people," because they just don't see that in churches. 00:41:32.000 |
But it's just slow sinking, that the next generation is being lost. 00:41:37.000 |
And in Korea, it's just sped up exponentially. 00:41:46.000 |
Why are the nations who have at one point experienced the greatest revival, have the most people who are hostile toward the gospel? 00:41:54.000 |
Why is it that the places where they have so much money, so many church buildings, so many seminaries, eventually become the hotbed of hostility toward Christians? 00:42:10.000 |
I don't know how many times I was walking around in Korea, and somebody would be out there handing out a track or I have a loudspeaker preaching the gospel. 00:42:19.000 |
And then you would hear the others walking around mumbling in Korean how they despise what they were doing. 00:42:25.000 |
And because I understand Korean, I was just listening as I'm walking along. 00:42:29.000 |
And I saw this one mother talking to her young child, basically telling her that this is no good, that don't do this. 00:42:40.000 |
And she was just saying this to her child as she was walking along. 00:42:45.000 |
And I heard this over and over again in different places. 00:42:48.000 |
Why has Christianity fallen so quickly in Korea? 00:42:52.000 |
This is the reason why I want to look at this text this morning, Revelation chapter 2, verse 1. 00:42:59.000 |
It says, "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, 'The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, and the one who walks among the seven golden lambs, and says this." 00:43:08.000 |
The first church out of the seven churches in Revelation, he says, "The one who holds the seven stars," meaning the one with authority. 00:43:18.000 |
This is not just some letter of many letters. 00:43:23.000 |
He says, "The one who holds the seven stars." 00:43:26.000 |
The one who is responsible for the life and death of the church. 00:43:32.000 |
In other words, he's saying, "Pay attention." 00:43:35.000 |
And then he says, "He's the one who walks among them." 00:43:37.000 |
That this is not addressing some church that he just kind of surveyed from a distance and saying, "These are things that I've observed and this is my analysis of you." 00:43:46.000 |
He says, "No, Christ is walking among them. He knows them intimately. He knows their thoughts. 00:43:53.000 |
He knows the things that people can obviously see and he knows the things that we try so hard to hide." 00:43:59.000 |
He says, "The one who has authority, the one who knows you intimately is speaking." 00:44:05.000 |
In verse 2-3, he begins by telling them, commending them for their good deeds. 00:44:12.000 |
Now we know, if you know this text, you know already that the purpose of this text is a rebuke. 00:44:20.000 |
But he begins by commending them for their good deeds. 00:44:23.000 |
And the reason why I think this is important that we examine exactly what he is saying here 00:44:29.000 |
is because we have a tendency to throw up what we're good at. 00:44:35.000 |
So if we're really into mercy ministry, we say, "Well, we're doing this. We're not praying. We're not doing other things." 00:44:43.000 |
But we're doing this. And we have a tendency to hide behind the things that we're proud of 00:44:48.000 |
and then kind of shift under the rug the things that we're not. 00:44:52.000 |
So he says, "I know your good deeds. I'm not saying this because I don't know you. 00:44:58.000 |
I know you intimately." And this is what he says, "I know your deeds, your toil, your perseverance, 00:45:02.000 |
you cannot tolerate evil men and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles 00:45:07.000 |
and they are not. And you found them to be false and you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake 00:45:15.000 |
Let's examine for a little bit exactly how Jesus describes this church. 00:45:20.000 |
He says, "They toiled and endured suffering patiently. 00:45:24.000 |
They weren't brand new Christians. This was the problem that they had. 00:45:29.000 |
It's not because they weren't trained or they haven't been around long enough 00:45:32.000 |
or they weren't gifted or they weren't taught well." 00:45:35.000 |
He says, "No, these are veterans in their faith. 00:45:38.000 |
They have toiled and endured suffering patiently." 00:45:41.000 |
Now, in our generation, suffering is the air conditioner breaks, the parking's a bit too far, right? 00:45:48.000 |
Or you get squeezed and you can't do this and there's some restrictions put on us. 00:45:57.000 |
He talks about a period when people were literally crucified for their faith, put into prison. 00:46:07.000 |
So, he said, "These are not new Christians. These are seasoned veterans." 00:46:12.000 |
He said, "They toiled, they endured and they suffered patiently." 00:46:16.000 |
That in and of itself, for our generation, is like, "Wow!" 00:46:23.000 |
We're so encouraged and challenged every time we hear about the faith of our Indian pastors 00:46:29.000 |
He said, "Well, this church experienced the same thing and they are patiently enduring." 00:46:36.000 |
They practiced church discipline in the church. 00:46:41.000 |
They upheld the honor of God, the holiness, the temple of God, which is very difficult to do. 00:46:50.000 |
If you want people to be happy and encouraged all the time, 00:46:53.000 |
but he said, "No, this church took the command of Christ seriously." 00:47:02.000 |
They tested and rejected the claims of false prophets. 00:47:05.000 |
They weren't swayed easily by charismatic leaders. 00:47:08.000 |
You know, one of the biggest problems that we have is in every generation, 00:47:12.000 |
we have a charismatic leader who is very gifted and talented, 00:47:17.000 |
who has written a best-seller book or pastor of a large church. 00:47:20.000 |
And they have so much power over people's lives that oftentimes, if we're not careful, 00:47:28.000 |
That we're not confident about what the Word of God says until he confirms it. 00:47:35.000 |
If he makes a mistake, the whole church goes down the line. 00:47:37.000 |
He said, "This church tested just like the Bereans of Acts 17. 00:47:43.000 |
They tested to make sure that their foundation was upon the Word of God and not a charismatic leader." 00:47:49.000 |
And then finally, at the end, it says, "I want one thing for you." 00:47:53.000 |
It said, "You fight against the Nicolaitans." 00:47:58.000 |
They were basically saying that you can do whatever with your body 00:48:05.000 |
And so the Ephesian church was fighting against heresy, 00:48:24.000 |
They didn't get easily swayed by charismatic leaders. 00:48:28.000 |
And they were in the forefront of fighting wrong doctrine. 00:48:33.000 |
So you would think at the end of this commendation, it would end by saying, 00:48:37.000 |
"My good and faithful church, keep up the good work." 00:48:42.000 |
"I know all your deeds. I know these things. These are commendable to you. 00:48:46.000 |
But I have this one thing against you, that you have left your first love." 00:48:52.000 |
Now the word for "left" here in the NASB, in other translations, 00:49:02.000 |
Oftentimes people think that this is the natural process of a Christian life. 00:49:08.000 |
That you start out big, but if you've been a Christian for 10, 15, 20, 30 years, 00:49:15.000 |
Mission work, street evangelism, these are things that young people do. 00:49:20.000 |
Old people pay money to buy churches, to support missionaries. 00:49:26.000 |
That's what old people do. They take care of their family. 00:49:30.000 |
But this passionate pursuit of Christ is something that you just lose. 00:49:38.000 |
It says that you have forsaken it. You have abandoned your first love. 00:49:41.000 |
Now, if we're paying close attention, and if you're engaged, 00:49:46.000 |
your natural reaction to this is, "Who can live up to this?" 00:49:50.000 |
If this biblical church, who endured through physical suffering, 00:49:58.000 |
who was not easily swayed by charismatic leaders, 00:50:01.000 |
who was at the cutting edge of fighting against false doctrine, 00:50:08.000 |
how are we going to stand up against scrutiny? 00:50:13.000 |
Kind of like if you came home with an A-minus, right? 00:50:22.000 |
Or at least people say that this is what it is. 00:50:41.000 |
I know the sacrifice you made, but you didn't get an A-plus. 00:50:48.000 |
Now, if you're not careful, you may look at that and see, 00:50:51.000 |
"Oh my gosh, who's going to be able to stand up against this scrutiny?" 00:50:56.000 |
In order to understand what he is saying here, 00:51:01.000 |
we have to understand the relationship that we have with Christ. 00:51:06.000 |
There's many different descriptions of what the church is, 00:51:10.000 |
but one of the most intimate descriptions of our relationship with Christ 00:51:21.000 |
Christ didn't die for us so that he can change our legal position with Christ. 00:51:26.000 |
So that we can legally say that we belong in heaven. 00:51:33.000 |
Christ died for us so that he can reconcile us 00:51:42.000 |
And so just to help us to better understand what's going on. 00:51:50.000 |
and you can switch the other way just to be fair, wife, 00:51:53.000 |
but since I'm a husband, I'll use husband as an illustration. 00:51:57.000 |
I have a husband who is so faithful and he cooks all the food, 00:52:02.000 |
he cleans all the bathrooms, and you know, he does everything. 00:52:14.000 |
the children are crying, he's the one who takes care of it, 00:52:19.000 |
I mean, he is working hard to take care of the family, 00:52:23.000 |
except when he's at office, he flirts with his secretary. 00:52:29.000 |
Now, how many of you would look at that guy and say, 00:52:33.000 |
"Oh, he's an exemplary husband, except he flirts with his secretary." 00:52:46.000 |
"That's an example. That's an example of your husband." 00:52:51.000 |
I don't think so. I think most of us would consider 00:52:53.000 |
that maybe the reason why he's working so hard 00:52:55.000 |
is because he feels guilty when he comes home 00:52:59.000 |
Because he has compromised his covenant relationship with his wife. 00:53:04.000 |
He's toying with the idea of possibly, even if he hasn't done it. 00:53:12.000 |
"You're doing all of these things, but the central thing, 00:53:15.000 |
the central thing that God wants more than anything else 00:53:19.000 |
is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." 00:53:22.000 |
That's the central thing. He said, "All the laws, 00:53:25.000 |
everything that I have commanded you is summed up in that commandment, 00:53:28.000 |
to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." 00:53:34.000 |
on the surface, looks like a fantastic church, 00:53:38.000 |
but at the core, at the core of their relationship, 00:53:45.000 |
And in fact, he says that this is so dangerous 00:53:53.000 |
In other words, your church is going to be irrelevant. 00:53:57.000 |
In other words, the covenant relationship is going to be tainted and broken. 00:54:08.000 |
I don't really give a lot of thought about the, about the sermon title. 00:54:13.000 |
You know, usually if I'm in Luke, I say Luke chapter five, right? 00:54:17.000 |
And then I'll just give you whatever the title is here in this. 00:54:21.000 |
If you're curious about what the sermon title is going to be, 00:54:24.000 |
just look at the outline in your, in your Bible. 00:54:27.000 |
Usually I don't put a lot of time and thought into it. 00:54:29.000 |
But I was meditating on this, this whole time while we were out in Korea. 00:54:35.000 |
And the title of that sermon, in my sermon this morning, 00:54:39.000 |
if you haven't read it, is "Don't Be an Ian." 00:54:53.000 |
Okay, let me say it again for some of you guys who are just waking up. 00:55:06.000 |
Okay? This is just an illustration so that it'll stick. Right? 00:55:20.000 |
The church is having a prayer meeting, so I'm going to show up to it. 00:55:22.000 |
We need to have a prayer ministry, so we're going to do it. 00:55:25.000 |
But it's not an overflow of our love for Christ. 00:55:31.000 |
Ian can evangelize, do mission work without Christ. 00:55:34.000 |
Ian can mimic everything that a Christian is supposed to do, but without Christ. 00:55:42.000 |
He's the danger of all the works and labors and studying. 00:55:48.000 |
But at the core, you have forsaken your first love. 00:55:55.000 |
You missed the whole core of why we were saved. 00:55:59.000 |
Coming to church Sunday after Sunday, serving, taking care of children, raising, 00:56:06.000 |
funding missionaries, going out to mission work, all of that. 00:56:11.000 |
He said after all of that, you can live your whole life fighting against bad doctrine, 00:56:16.000 |
keeping the church pure, persevering even against physical harm for being a Christian, all of that. 00:56:24.000 |
If your love for Christ isn't at the center, he said it's for nothing. 00:56:30.000 |
It's for nothing, because more than anything else, Christ wants our love. 00:56:38.000 |
More than anything else, everything that we do is supposed to be fueled. 00:56:43.000 |
Our worship, our singing, our giving, our serving, to be fueled by the love of Christ and love for Christ. 00:56:51.000 |
You know, while we were out there evangelizing, we didn't know it was going to be hot. 00:56:58.000 |
Everybody told us like you chose the worst month to go because it's muggy, it's hot. 00:57:05.000 |
It was supposed to be about 96 degrees, but when we got out there, the temperature said 102, 95% precipitation. 00:57:13.000 |
So we went out there from 2 to 4 trying to evangelize, and everybody was so cranky. 00:57:19.000 |
So initially I thought nobody is interested and everybody's angry with us. 00:57:22.000 |
And I realized later on that from 4 to 6 that more people were willing to talk to us, 00:57:27.000 |
that they were more angry because it was hot. 00:57:33.000 |
And so we were out there during that period, and so it ended well. 00:57:35.000 |
But no one was out there but us, except the cults. 00:57:47.000 |
And we thought, "Oh, 102, who would be out here sharing the gospel at 102 degrees? You know who? The cults." 00:57:54.000 |
We were only there for one or two days. These guys are there every day. 00:58:00.000 |
And once we've gone, they're going to be there all throughout summer, all throughout the year. 00:58:05.000 |
You know how the Shincheonji, those of you guys who may know this cult, it's a fast-growing cult. 00:58:11.000 |
Even in this area, they target all the universities, and you'll see it around here too, but in Korea, they're everywhere. 00:58:17.000 |
And their primary strategy is to get the prettiest girls and the prettiest boys. 00:58:23.000 |
I was going to say handsome, but pretty is probably a better description. 00:58:28.000 |
Prettiest girls and the prettiest boys, guys, they stand around with an iPad, and they target the opposite sex to engage them. 00:58:42.000 |
Because they're bored, they're lonely, many of them aren't dating, they're in despair, and here's this pretty young girl coming up to you and saying, "Hey, do you have a minute?" 00:58:52.000 |
There was this one guy who was with one of these Shincheonji girls, and I was watching them, and he was engaged talking with this girl for about 45 minutes, so I waited patiently until she was done. 00:59:02.000 |
And so I wanted to go target them. They were doing that to us, so I said, "Okay, I can do that." 00:59:15.000 |
So she was talking, and she was looking over her shoulder, just like they were doing to us, and I made her know that I was there. 00:59:22.000 |
I was just watching and watching, and then she was done, and then the young man was walking the street, and I went over to him and tapped him on the shoulder, and I did it on purpose so that she can see. 00:59:33.000 |
And I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Hey, you know that girl you're talking to? She's from Shincheonji. That's a cult, so be careful." 00:59:42.000 |
And then his response to me was, "Eh, I was just bored. I just wanted someone to talk to." 00:59:52.000 |
That's what he said to me. He said, "Don't worry. I know who they are, but I was just lonely." 01:00:05.000 |
The cults are more organized than us. They have more money than we do. 01:00:11.000 |
I mean, their strategy—I mean, you have millions of people who claim to be Christians, and they're nowhere to be found, saying, "I don't know what to do with these young people because we're losing them." 01:00:26.000 |
And these are children of parents who go to church that they can't reach, and yet the cults are bringing them to the cults. 01:00:34.000 |
I mean, just everywhere. They're being so effective. 01:00:40.000 |
So if we're going to challenge them, we're in big trouble. 01:00:47.000 |
In fact, while we were there, the Mormons started showing up, and them you can tell right away because they got those white shirts on. 01:00:55.000 |
They started one, then three, and next thing you know, we had ten of them surrounding us, and we felt like there was a spiritual battle going on. 01:01:01.000 |
And they told me that Mormonism in Korea is growing so rapidly that this one temple is being multiplied, and they see this being multiplied everywhere in Korea. 01:01:12.000 |
Why are the Mormons spreading like wildfire? Why is Shincheonji so effective in reaching the young people, but the churches are nowhere to be found? 01:01:24.000 |
Any strategy, any human strategy, they have more money than us. 01:01:34.000 |
We say, "Oh, 102, oh, today's not a good day for evangelism. 01:01:39.000 |
Oh, it's going to rain. It might be a little bit sprinkly. Oh, it's not good for evangelism." 01:01:49.000 |
So, I can understand why they would be in despair. 01:01:55.000 |
In fact, one of the pastors who was setting up the busking, that street performance, he said that previously, in the previous month, when they were setting up, and they're very gifted, talented people, 01:02:06.000 |
and they would draw a crowd when they started singing and doing their stuff, and he said, "Shincheonji came." 01:02:13.000 |
He said, he thinks there was over 100 Shincheonji people who showed up, and so while they were performing, whatever crowd that showed up, the Shincheonji would get in the middle of them and start sharing their heresy to them. 01:02:32.000 |
In fact, in Revelation 13, 3, it says that the Antichrist mimics everything Christ does. 01:02:39.000 |
And so, his strategy is to mimic the things of Christ, without Christ, to bring them to himself. 01:02:48.000 |
If the church is the only power that we have, is our intellect, is our commitment, is our organization, with our money, we're done for. 01:03:08.000 |
You can get the greatest seeker-friendly church, with all the performers, greatest music, greatest preacher, you cannot match the work of the cults. 01:03:19.000 |
There's a reason why the whole book of John centers around Christ stating, "I am." 01:03:30.000 |
"I am the bread of life." You're looking for bread. You think that if you come to Christ, that your bills will be paid for, your family will be taken care of. 01:03:37.000 |
And Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world." 01:03:41.000 |
You're looking for the Messiah to come and lead you, and he said, "I am the light of the world. I am the gate." 01:03:47.000 |
He's talking to the blind man who was just kicked out of the synagogue, because he refused to deny Christ. 01:03:53.000 |
And as a result of being kicked out of the synagogue, he can't get a job, he can't work, he can't get married. 01:04:01.000 |
They're so afraid of these leaders who are abusing them. He says, "I am the good shepherd." 01:04:07.000 |
He's talking about Mary and Martha, who are in tears and weeping because their younger brother has died, and said, "Lord, why didn't you answer?" 01:04:16.000 |
"Why didn't you come when we asked you to come?" And Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life." 01:04:26.000 |
"And he who believes in me, though he dies, shall live." 01:04:33.000 |
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." 01:04:37.000 |
And then he ends by saying, "I am the truth by." 01:04:51.000 |
Your preaching, your teaching, your theology, your experience, your money, your organization, 01:04:56.000 |
the number of people, your strategy, all of that is useless against the schemes of the devil. 01:05:04.000 |
If what he called us to do was to simply get people who aren't going to church to go to church, 01:05:16.000 |
Get the prettiest boys and girls, men and women, to represent our church. 01:05:29.000 |
I need to give more exposition, like perfect exposition. 01:05:38.000 |
Maybe promise a car here and there, once in a while. 01:05:47.000 |
If what he called us to do is to get people who are not at church to come to church. 01:05:52.000 |
If people who are not studying the Bible, to get them to study the Bible, 01:05:57.000 |
then we can just make it more fun and active and stop boring people. 01:06:01.000 |
Make it easier so every time they come to church, they leave and say, 01:06:04.000 |
"Wow, I want to go there because every time I go there, I'm uplifted and encouraged." 01:06:11.000 |
So if Shin Chan-ju comes with pretty girls, we send prettier girls. 01:06:15.000 |
If they come with good-looking guys, we get better-looking guys. 01:06:25.000 |
The only power to get a sinner to turn from his ways 01:06:36.000 |
and the temptations that this world offers to rich people like me and you 01:06:45.000 |
No amount of power in the community, no amount of effective preaching, 01:06:49.000 |
no amount of money that we can pour, no amount of strategy 01:06:54.000 |
can get a life that was headed for condemnation to be called a child of God 01:07:03.000 |
even forsaking everything and going to the remotest part of the world to preach the gospel. 01:07:13.000 |
How do you do that just because you're good at expositing? 01:07:17.000 |
The power of the exposition is unveiling the beauty of Christ. 01:07:30.000 |
we didn't just miss something, we miss the core of what it means to be a Christian. 01:07:37.000 |
He says, "Remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first." 01:07:47.000 |
He says, "You know you've climbed halfway and you got to keep going, don't quit, you just keep going." 01:08:04.000 |
He's like, "No, remember before you had all this theology in your head?" 01:08:09.000 |
the Bible clearly tells us that we need to be theologically pure. 01:08:12.000 |
He commends them for it, but he says, "Remember." 01:08:16.000 |
"Remember the height from which you had fallen." 01:08:19.000 |
"Remember when you first met Christ, when you were desperate and you didn't know anything." 01:08:25.000 |
"Remember when you came to church, you were so eager to sing and any type of fellowship was an encouragement to you." 01:08:32.000 |
"Before you knew anything, before you were a leader, before your head was filled." 01:08:39.000 |
He said, "Remember the height from which you had fallen when you were like a child." 01:08:46.000 |
"And you're just so enamored that a God of the universe would love a sinner like you, like me." 01:08:57.000 |
"And you felt like everything was such a privilege and you wanted to share that with other people." 01:09:04.000 |
"You wanted your mom, dad, your brother, sisters, that you wanted them to know this Christ that you love." 01:09:12.000 |
You notice how he doesn't say, "Hey, you study more, do more." 01:09:22.000 |
I mean, think about it. If you did all of that and you come and say, "I have this one thing against you." 01:09:31.000 |
"You need to study more." I have been studying. 01:09:33.000 |
"You need to keep your life pure." I have been doing that. 01:09:36.000 |
"Don't be so swayed by the leader." I have been doing that. 01:09:39.000 |
"You need to know better systematic theology." I know all of that. 01:10:00.000 |
The most safest place for a Christian to be is when he is the most desperate for Christ. 01:10:07.000 |
No matter what may be happening in your life. 01:10:10.000 |
The safest and the place that God is always driving us to be is when we are desperate for Christ. 01:10:20.000 |
When we got to figure it out and the biggest problem is what other people are doing. 01:10:35.000 |
He says, "Remember." And then he says, "Repent." 01:10:40.000 |
2 Corinthians 16, 9, "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, 01:10:44.000 |
that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his." 01:10:50.000 |
You notice how every time he says that, he says, "Those who are completely committed, 01:10:54.000 |
completely given, completely love the Lord your God with all your heart, 01:10:58.000 |
with all your soul, with all your might, with all your strength, 01:11:05.000 |
Because a good marriage, at the core of it, is not what you're doing. 01:11:15.000 |
We're in wedding season now, so we have so many weddings coming up. 01:11:19.000 |
And I've counseled and walked young couples through so many marriages. 01:11:24.000 |
And sometimes you get so caught up in making sure that you have the best wedding. 01:11:32.000 |
The purpose of the wedding is to get you to be married. 01:11:42.000 |
And very little attention given to the marriage itself. 01:11:46.000 |
I don't know how many couples that I know get into their biggest fight preparing for the wedding. 01:11:52.000 |
And then they have the biggest fight because they held it in because they didn't want to ruin their wedding. 01:11:56.000 |
And then they go to their honeymoon and they have their biggest fight, so they ruin their honeymoon. 01:12:07.000 |
All our labor, our work, our sacrifice, our giving, 01:12:16.000 |
And if that is not at the center, we missed the whole point. 01:12:19.000 |
It says repent and do the things that you did at first. 01:12:24.000 |
"Oh, okay, that's good. I'm glad that you pointed out something that I need to be reminded of." 01:12:31.000 |
That's not repentance. Repentance is only repentance if it causes you to change. 01:12:35.000 |
I don't know what's going on in your life right now. 01:12:44.000 |
Some of you are having problems with your children. 01:12:51.000 |
There is no issue more urgent to a Christian when his heart has strayed from Christ. 01:12:58.000 |
There is no greater emergency for a Christian whose heart has become hardened toward the affections of Christ. 01:13:10.000 |
That your Bible study, your giving, your sharing, your singing, all of it, 01:13:18.000 |
is tainted because our love for Christ isn't where it ought to be. 01:13:26.000 |
He says, "He who has an ear, let him hear that the Spirit says to the churches, 01:13:32.000 |
'To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is the paradise of God.'" 01:13:43.000 |
Ultimately, isn't that the promise, central promise of Christ? 01:13:47.000 |
I have come to give life and give this life abundantly. 01:13:51.000 |
The difference is, an Ian, Ian has a name of a Christian, but he seeks life somewhere else. 01:14:01.000 |
He seeks his life in sports, vacations, trying new food, maybe the future, maybe the work. 01:14:13.000 |
He's seeking life too, but his life is found outside of Christ. 01:14:18.000 |
So church is something that you have to do because you're a Christian. 01:14:27.000 |
But the one who loves the Lord, this is where life is. 01:14:37.000 |
Where I feel the greatest, where I feel the most alive is where I am the nearest to Christ. 01:14:58.000 |
Korea, like I said, they don't do anything halfway. 01:15:08.000 |
We have a lot of Chinese-American, and I know some of you guys are nervous I'm going to say something racist. 01:15:12.000 |
Like a lot of, we have a lot of Chinese and a lot of Korean, right? 01:15:22.000 |
What I noticed between the Chinese culture and the Korean culture, the Chinese culture is very steady. 01:15:29.000 |
So they're kind of on like a huge cruise ship. 01:15:34.000 |
They're like, yeah, you know, they've gone through wars and civil wars. 01:15:46.000 |
So everything that they do is very slow and steady. 01:15:54.000 |
Anything we do is like, oh, yeah, let's get on the boat. 01:15:58.000 |
So our Chinese brothers and sisters look at that, Koreans are crazy. 01:16:01.000 |
You know, they're the entrepreneurs, so either they're like millionaires or they go to prison. 01:16:19.000 |
That they've been running so hard, working so hard, sacrificing so hard. 01:16:25.000 |
And their love for Christ was not given to the next generation. 01:16:31.000 |
So they're trying to live up, to hold up to this form of godliness, to keep up this mega church image. 01:16:39.000 |
They have hundreds of millions of dollars preparing to go into North Korea and to do all of this. 01:16:45.000 |
And they're losing them to young girls with iPads. 01:16:51.000 |
Losing their next generation, their children, their grandchildren. 01:16:56.000 |
We may not be going at that speed, but we're in the same danger. 01:17:03.000 |
If Christ is not at the center of our affection, what we see in Korea is where we're headed if we're not careful. 01:17:15.000 |
We can keep it steady, but will it be here in the next generation? 01:17:21.000 |
Will our children and our grandchildren inherit our affection for Christ, 01:17:25.000 |
or will they inherit just the building and our activities and the number? 01:17:42.000 |
Gracious Father, every single one of us is more desperate than we know. 01:17:49.000 |
Lord, we are comfortable, our bills are paid, 01:17:53.000 |
and sometimes the things that we wrestle with seem so trivial in the light of eternal things. 01:17:58.000 |
Open our eyes, Lord God, that we may see how fleeting this world is, 01:18:04.000 |
the things that we have given our hearts to, things that we've made idols and made excuses for, 01:18:10.000 |
that you would shed light, that your word, your spirit, would judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart. 01:18:17.000 |
If we have drifted from you, if we have forsaken our first love, 01:18:23.000 |
help us to give our full attention to restore that covenant relationship, 01:18:29.000 |
that when we say we love you, that we would say this with all sincerity, with clear conscience. 01:18:36.000 |
Help us to remember the height from which we have fallen, to repent, 01:18:42.000 |
and to redo the things that you've called us to do. 01:18:47.000 |
May Christ be exalted in all things. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. 01:19:17.000 |
I once was lost in darkest night, yet thought I knew the way. 01:19:26.000 |
The sin that promised joy and light had led me to the grave. 01:19:35.000 |
I had no hope that you would all arrive to your will. 01:19:45.000 |
And if you had not loved me first, I would refuse you still. 01:20:04.000 |
But as I ran, but as I ran, my help thou brings indifferent to the cause. 01:20:15.000 |
You looked upon my helpless state and led me to the cross. 01:20:24.000 |
And I beheld God's love displayed. You suffered in my place. 01:20:33.000 |
You bore the wrath reserved for me. Now all I know is grace. 01:20:44.000 |
Hallelujah, hallelujah. All I have is Christ. 01:21:41.000 |
Lord, I would be yours alone and live so all might see. 01:21:50.000 |
The strength to follow your commands could never come from you. 01:21:59.000 |
Oh, Father, use my ransom life in any way you choose. 01:22:08.000 |
And let my song forever be my only boast is you. 01:23:19.000 |
Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit 01:23:27.000 |
and eternal life-changing love of God the Father restore us, rebuild us, 01:23:36.000 |
encourage us, challenge us, and direct us wherever it is that you send us. 01:23:43.000 |
That the aroma of Christ, the love of Christ, the affection of Christ, the hope of Christ 01:24:28.000 |
An empty grave is there to fill my Savior's lips. 01:25:12.000 |
And life is worth the living just because he lives.