back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 2/16/25
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all the way through, repeat with all the instruments, 00:00:16.560 |
but I think what we'll do is chorus, repeat twice. 00:00:24.400 |
and then we'll die out with just my one defense, 00:00:52.480 |
like a, I don't think it's really part of the track, 00:03:05.440 |
it's just E and B, but I'd like to just keep it 00:14:52.780 |
We have a few announcements before we get started. 00:14:54.780 |
We're gonna start with our family ministry field day. 00:15:09.780 |
This announcement is for anyone who is in family ministry 00:15:17.780 |
You should have received an email about a week ago 00:15:19.780 |
inviting you to this family ministry field day. 00:15:22.780 |
So this event is gonna take place on March 22nd 00:15:25.780 |
from 2 to 4.30 p.m. in Heritage Community Park in Irvine. 00:15:33.780 |
So it's either a husband or wife or a parent and child 00:15:41.780 |
And there's just one team allowed per family, okay? 00:15:44.780 |
We're going to be playing some lightly competitive games, 00:15:54.780 |
There's limited space, so please sign up today. 00:16:03.780 |
who kind of want to meet some more people in the church 00:16:09.780 |
So if you are interested in that, please sign up for that. 00:16:13.780 |
Next Sunday, there's gonna be a newcomers welcome lunch 00:16:20.780 |
and you just want to meet some of the leaders in the church 00:16:37.780 |
the retreat is happening on March 21st to the 23rd at Oakland. 00:16:42.780 |
The speaker is Eric Charbonnet from Pillar Baptist Church, 00:16:45.780 |
and the sign-up is going to be until next Sunday at March 7th. 00:16:54.780 |
VBS, if you have children who are going to be participating in that, 00:17:01.780 |
Just mark it on your calendar so that you'll know--June 23rd, 27th. 00:17:15.780 |
So please, you need to be a member to participate in this 00:17:22.780 |
and then they'll notify you of the meetings that are coming. 00:17:28.780 |
After I pray, again, if you are here and you have a physical offering, 00:17:35.780 |
we have an offering box in the back on the way out. 00:17:38.780 |
But after our praise time, our brother Adam Wu is going to come, 00:17:41.780 |
give his testimony, and be baptized this morning. 00:17:47.780 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning, 00:17:50.780 |
the privilege that we have to come to the throne of grace 00:17:54.780 |
with confidence covered by the blood of Christ. 00:17:58.780 |
Help us, Lord God, to never forget what it is that we have in you, 00:18:03.780 |
that all that we do will simply be a reasonable response 00:18:14.780 |
it would be an expression of our gratitude and lordship to you, 00:18:18.780 |
and may it be multiplied that your name may be honored and glorified 00:19:08.780 |
Let us all rise and spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us. 00:28:49.780 |
My name is Adam Wu, and this is my testimony. 00:28:54.780 |
My mother is a Christian, and some of my earliest memories 00:28:57.780 |
are of going with her to Friday night fellowships. 00:29:00.780 |
However, as I grew older, I primarily called myself a Christian 00:29:04.780 |
because I was afraid of potentially going to hell. 00:29:07.780 |
Often at night, after I was tired, I would remember that I still hadn't prayed, 00:29:11.780 |
and I would always think, "What if this is what makes me go to hell? 00:29:15.780 |
What if I otherwise would have done enough to go to heaven, 00:29:18.780 |
but because of this one missed prayer, I fall just short?" 00:29:21.780 |
This would spur me to action, and I would conduct a sleepy and unfocused prayer. 00:29:25.780 |
This characterized my spiritual life for a long time, 00:29:28.780 |
in the sense that it was mainly superstition and fear 00:29:34.780 |
With no personal connection or deep motivation to follow Jesus, 00:29:37.780 |
I didn't live my life in a way that reflected my faith. 00:29:40.780 |
I didn't do much more than attending church and conducting sleepy prayers. 00:29:44.780 |
Starting college, I wasn't completely ready to walk away from Christ, 00:29:48.780 |
but I justified my lack of faith by claiming that I didn't have enough evidence. 00:29:52.780 |
To me, it didn't seem like God was the most likely explanation 00:29:58.780 |
I heard the testimonies of others, and I saw how they had been personally experienced, 00:30:06.780 |
But I didn't think that that was enough to justify his existence. 00:30:09.780 |
After all, people can have profound religious experiences in other religions. 00:30:13.780 |
I believed that the only universal and objective way to arrive at God's existence 00:30:21.780 |
With this in mind, I looked into apologetics and logical arguments 00:30:25.780 |
to find a proof for God, but I couldn't find anything convincing. 00:30:29.780 |
Nothing I found was foolproof, enough to remove all my doubt. 00:30:32.780 |
Only after a long time did I realize that nothing I found 00:30:38.780 |
If I was seeking satisfaction with a perfect logical proof, 00:30:44.780 |
I would forever be unable to reject God for fear of hell, 00:30:47.780 |
but I would also be unable to embrace him out of fear of wasting my life. 00:30:52.780 |
At this time, I read 1 Samuel, in which, after many years of being unable to bear children, 00:30:57.780 |
Hannah desperately promises God that if he gives her a child, 00:31:02.780 |
God answers her prayer, and she gives birth to Samuel. 00:31:05.780 |
God didn't have to part the clouds and proclaim to Hannah 00:31:08.780 |
that he would give her a child before she prayed to God. 00:31:11.780 |
She placed her faith in God first, and then God answered her prayer. 00:31:15.780 |
Even after a lifetime of wishing for this child, when many would have cursed God, 00:31:19.780 |
she still held true to her belief that God existed and that he was good. 00:31:23.780 |
This struck me because I saw the similarity between my situation and Hannah's, 00:31:29.780 |
I was expecting God to reveal himself to me without first opening my heart to him 00:31:35.780 |
Together, with my earlier realization concerning the futility of logical proof, 00:31:43.780 |
trying my best and my earnest to search for God with an open heart. 00:31:47.780 |
I allowed him to speak to me through his word, 00:31:50.780 |
and I decided that I wouldn't need universal logical proof for God's existence. 00:31:54.780 |
Personal evidence or experience would be enough. 00:31:58.780 |
The personal experience I was looking for occurred when one of my relationships fell apart. 00:32:03.780 |
Throughout this relationship, I had conducted myself according to the wisdom of the world 00:32:13.780 |
As I reflected upon the damage that I had caused, 00:32:15.780 |
I truly realized for the first time the ugliness and evil that was sin. 00:32:20.780 |
The moment when I first saw myself in this way was frightening. 00:32:24.780 |
My actions seemed so disconnected from the good person that I thought I was. 00:32:28.780 |
I realized for myself the truth of the Bible, 00:32:31.780 |
how living by my rules and by my wisdom would only lead to pain and death. 00:32:39.780 |
and I finally knew why I couldn't be in his presence. 00:32:44.780 |
However, I also knew that the Bible promised that I was already forgiven for my sins. 00:32:50.780 |
Jesus had already died for me and given me a path to life. 00:32:53.780 |
I felt relief and joy, but also confusion and guilt. 00:32:57.780 |
It was hard to accept my innocence and freedom from punishment. 00:33:01.780 |
I finally knew that only a love greater than anything I'd ever known 00:33:13.780 |
God demonstrated not only his existence as well, 00:33:16.780 |
but also his love and my need for Jesus as Lord of my life. 00:33:20.780 |
Since coming to faith, my motivation is not fear of hell, 00:33:24.780 |
but appreciation and gratitude towards Jesus. 00:33:27.780 |
He saved me from the death that I know I deserve. 00:33:30.780 |
I have repented of my sins, and although I am still sinful and wretched, 00:33:34.780 |
I do not live in complacency or acceptance of sin. 00:33:37.780 |
Rather, I constantly struggle against it out of a desire to imitate Christ. 00:33:42.780 |
As I reflect upon my testimony, I am struck by God's patience, 00:33:46.780 |
his faithfulness, and the goodness of his timing. 00:33:49.780 |
For so long, my heart was hardened, yet he remained. 00:33:52.780 |
He was always reachable and eager to know me, good in all seasons. 00:33:56.780 |
2 Peter 3.9 reads, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, 00:34:02.780 |
Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, 00:34:09.780 |
I have a deep appreciation and gratitude that God was so patient with me, 00:34:13.780 |
that Jesus sacrificed himself to present me with an alternative to eternal death. 00:34:17.780 |
My life is no longer my own, but I live only so that God may be glorified. 00:34:41.780 |
Do you understand that when you go into the water, 00:34:45.780 |
and when you come out, you are being united to his resurrection life? 00:34:48.780 |
God bless you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:35:11.780 |
If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke 10. 00:35:14.780 |
We're going to be reading from verse 25 all the way down to verse 29. 00:35:31.780 |
"And a lawyer stood up and put him to the test, saying, 00:35:34.780 |
'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' 00:35:38.780 |
He said to him, 'What is written in the law? How does it read to you?' 00:35:42.780 |
And he answered, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 00:35:45.780 |
with all your soul, and with all your strength, 00:35:47.780 |
with all your mind, with your neighbor as yourself.' 00:35:50.780 |
And he said to him, 'You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.' 00:35:54.780 |
But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'" 00:36:07.780 |
that you'd open our eyes to see who you are and what you have given us. 00:36:13.780 |
Help us, Lord God, to pursue you, to love you, to proclaim you, 00:36:18.780 |
that your word would open up not only heaven, but our own hearts toward you. 00:36:23.780 |
Bless this time, Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 00:36:29.780 |
In Isaiah 43-4, Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years before Jesus came 00:36:36.780 |
that John the Baptist, a forerunner, was going to come and prepare the way for Jesus. 00:36:42.780 |
"A voice is calling, 'Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness. 00:36:45.780 |
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. 00:36:48.780 |
Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low. 00:36:52.780 |
And let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley.'" 00:36:58.780 |
This illustration of bringing down the mountain and filling up the valley 00:37:02.780 |
is all over the Bible, the Old and the New Testament. 00:37:05.780 |
And the illustration basically is that every road that leads to Christ will be prepared. 00:37:11.780 |
So this was illustrating that people who are proud, who are in high places, 00:37:16.780 |
are going to be humbled, and they're going to be brought low. 00:37:19.780 |
And that people who are in low places, who believe that they don't deserve the grace of God, 00:37:26.780 |
And we see this illustration all over Scripture. 00:37:29.780 |
In particular, in the book of John, John, as he is introducing Christ to people, 00:37:36.780 |
begins in John chapter 3 where Nicodemus, the spiritual elite, 00:37:41.780 |
comes to Christ concerned about his reputation. 00:37:44.780 |
Because he already has a reputation of being a religious leader, 00:37:48.780 |
possibly a member of the Sanhedrin, one of the senators. 00:37:52.780 |
So this is a guy, Nicodemus, who every Jew aspired to be. 00:37:57.780 |
This is the guy that if somebody wanted to know how to get to God, 00:38:01.780 |
Nicodemus would have been one of the people that they found out 00:38:04.780 |
and waited in long lines to ask him a question. 00:38:07.780 |
And he comes to Jesus in John chapter 3 at night and has his encounter with Christ. 00:38:14.780 |
And then Jesus says, "You must be born again." 00:38:17.780 |
Meaning that everything that he's done up to this point doesn't lead to salvation. 00:38:24.780 |
And then, right after that, we see him in John chapter 4 00:38:30.780 |
And this Samaritan woman, during the broad daylight, is actually concerned for Jesus. 00:38:35.780 |
Because she was known to be not only a Samaritan but a sinner. 00:38:39.780 |
And so she encounters--Jesus deliberately goes to where she is, encounters him, 00:38:46.780 |
Why are you a Jewish man in broad daylight talking to a Samaritan woman?" 00:38:50.780 |
Jesus actually pursues her and then reveals himself to her. 00:38:54.780 |
So if you look at that, it's very deliberate how John introduces Nicodemus 00:38:59.780 |
and the Samaritan woman to introduce the gospel to us. 00:39:02.780 |
That a proud man is being humbled and a humbled woman is being lifted up. 00:39:09.780 |
And then the entrance into the kingdom of God is the same door. 00:39:12.780 |
There's not a better door up in the mountains. 00:39:14.780 |
There's not a lowly door for those who are lowly. 00:39:17.780 |
But it's that the gospel basically makes the road to Christ the same. 00:39:22.780 |
Over and over again, we are taught, over and over again, 00:39:25.780 |
the spiritual pride of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, and the lawyers. 00:39:34.780 |
Whenever the Bible mentions a sinner who has gone ahead of these Pharisees, 00:39:39.780 |
these religious elites, the people who are so meticulous in trying to keep the law, 00:39:44.780 |
and Jesus repeatedly says, "The tax collectors, the prostitutes, the Samaritans." 00:39:50.780 |
Those are the three groups of people that Jesus always mentions 00:39:52.780 |
when he mentions the people in the spiritual valley. 00:39:57.780 |
These are not people who are welcomed into the synagogue. 00:40:00.780 |
These are not people who people just automatically thought they don't know God. 00:40:09.780 |
that it is those that you think are blind, they're the ones who will see. 00:40:13.780 |
And those who think that they see, they're the ones who are blind. 00:40:17.780 |
We see that in Luke 10.21, when Jesus tells his disciples, after they come back, 00:40:22.780 |
that you're rejoicing over the fact that you have authority over demons, 00:40:27.780 |
but he says, "Rejoice over the fact that your name is written in the book of life." 00:40:35.780 |
"I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, 00:40:37.780 |
that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, 00:40:44.780 |
After he tells them that, the text that we're looking at 00:40:47.780 |
gives us an illustration of what that looks like. 00:40:53.780 |
they're the ones who are blind, and it's the spiritual infants who are going to see. 00:40:57.780 |
And so he introduces to us, in the next text, 00:41:00.780 |
a lawyer who would be considered spiritual giants. 00:41:05.780 |
They were the intelligent. They were the wise. 00:41:08.780 |
And we see this encounter with this man, how blind he is. 00:41:12.780 |
And then his encounter with him leads to the parable of the Samaritan woman, 00:41:18.780 |
a Samaritan man, where he is declared to be the righteous one. 00:41:23.780 |
So not only is he telling them this, he's, again, Luke is revealing to us 00:41:30.780 |
A wise man who is blind, and spiritual infants 00:41:35.780 |
who actually are the ones who are righteous before God. 00:41:44.780 |
The fact that he stood up means that he wanted everybody's attention. 00:41:48.780 |
This was not an honest question where he's coming to Jesus and saying, 00:41:52.780 |
"Hey, I have this question. Can you answer this question? 00:41:56.780 |
He stands up basically to show people that this is something that, 00:42:00.780 |
to put him to the test, maybe to put him in a trap. 00:42:06.780 |
He's saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 00:42:09.780 |
We already know that this is not an honest question, right? 00:42:12.780 |
There's a difference between asking a question and questioning. 00:42:16.780 |
I often get people who come to me, and if they're asking a question, 00:42:19.780 |
whatever question that may be, it's easy to answer because I can tell you 00:42:22.780 |
that these are the things that may answer your question. 00:42:25.780 |
But when somebody is questioning, they're questioning. 00:42:28.780 |
They're saying, "Aren't you like this?" or "Why do you do this?" 00:42:38.780 |
You can't answer that question because no matter what you say, 00:42:42.780 |
Because they're not actually looking for an answer. 00:42:45.780 |
Jesus, knowing this, doesn't answer the question, and he says, 00:42:54.780 |
If somebody is questioning me, he says, "What do you think? 00:42:58.780 |
Jesus responds and says, "What is written in the law? 00:43:03.780 |
And so the lawyer, looking at the opportunity to show everybody what he knows, 00:43:08.780 |
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, 00:43:11.780 |
and with all your strength, and with all your mind, 00:43:19.780 |
It says, "Well, he's a lawyer, so he should know this." 00:43:26.780 |
This was a constant debate among the Jews, especially the scribes, 00:43:32.780 |
They had 613 different laws that they identified, 00:43:36.780 |
and they put it in order of which law is the greatest 00:43:39.780 |
and which are laws that you can kind of get away with 00:43:51.780 |
in Deuteronomy chapter 6, 4-5 was the greatest law. 00:43:56.780 |
"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 00:43:59.780 |
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 00:44:02.780 |
with all your soul, and with all your might." 00:44:04.780 |
And then again in Leviticus 19.18, the second part of that, 00:44:07.780 |
"You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, 00:44:11.780 |
but you shall love your neighbor as yourself, and I am the Lord." 00:44:20.780 |
or this is not because he's a PhD in the law. 00:44:23.780 |
Every Jew would have been able to answer this question 00:44:26.780 |
because the Jews called this the great Shema. 00:44:38.780 |
or another way to put it is the great obedience. 00:44:42.780 |
Of all the things that you need to pay attention to, 00:44:47.780 |
And so twice a day, they got in the morning and they recited this. 00:44:51.780 |
Before they went to sleep, they recited this. 00:44:54.780 |
They had it memorized, they had it posted up everywhere. 00:44:57.780 |
And then every night, you know, if you have young children, 00:45:00.780 |
you may be in a habit of having prayer with your children 00:45:06.780 |
Well, this is what the Jews prayed with their children 00:45:09.780 |
when they were young, before they went to sleep. 00:45:11.780 |
The great Shema, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one, 00:45:14.780 |
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:45:17.780 |
And second is like you love your neighbor as yourself, 00:45:20.780 |
and they would recite this before they go to sleep. 00:45:40.780 |
Any Jew would have been able to answer that question. 00:45:45.780 |
When Jesus hears this, he said, "You have answered correctly. 00:45:57.780 |
If somebody asked you, "How do you inherit eternal life? 00:46:00.780 |
How do I get to heaven?" and you answered them, 00:46:02.780 |
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, 00:46:19.780 |
If you confess with your mouth that Christ is Lord 00:46:21.780 |
and believe in your heart that he is raised from the dead, 00:46:37.780 |
And yet Jesus says, "You have answered correctly, 00:46:47.780 |
Well, is it because he's now in the Old Covenant? 00:46:49.780 |
In the Old Covenant, that people are saved by works? 00:46:59.780 |
Because we are told that Abraham was considered righteous 00:47:24.780 |
There's three things that I'm going to be mentioning. 00:47:26.780 |
The second and third I'll be getting to next week, 00:47:30.780 |
And the first answer is because it is correct. 00:47:38.780 |
And I'm going to share with you seven reasons 00:47:41.780 |
according to what the New Testament tells us. 00:48:03.780 |
all your mind, all your strength, all your soul, 00:48:07.780 |
not realizing that that commandment indicts him. 00:48:14.780 |
"If you're going to do that, you're going to have to do that." 00:48:15.780 |
And then third is not just an indictment against the lawyer, 00:48:23.780 |
that they're going to get into the kingdom of heaven. 00:48:26.780 |
Today, we're going to look at the true statement, 00:48:36.780 |
that all of this summarizes what God desires. 00:48:41.780 |
Love your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:48:48.780 |
Number one, I told you I'm going to give you seven of them. 00:48:53.780 |
is because love is the fulfillment of all the laws. 00:49:04.780 |
is a different instance where the Pharisees come 00:49:06.780 |
and ask and test Jesus, "What's the greatest commandment?" 00:49:11.780 |
And Jesus says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, 00:49:13.780 |
soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself." 00:49:17.780 |
And on these two commandments depends the whole law 00:49:21.780 |
All of the laws are summarized by these two statements. 00:49:40.780 |
So the first four commandments is about loving God. 00:49:58.780 |
Because we're dedicating ourselves to love God. 00:50:19.780 |
Some people, and I admit that early on in my faith, 00:50:23.780 |
I thought the Old Testament was about God's righteousness 00:50:27.780 |
and the New Testament is where his love and grace is revealed. 00:50:34.780 |
he says the whole commandment is summarized by love. 00:51:02.780 |
was going to reveal his judgment against them? 00:51:17.780 |
This was not a New Testament, Old Testament thing. 00:51:25.780 |
that the law ultimately was about loving God. 00:51:29.780 |
Well, it's ultimately about loving their neighbor. 00:51:48.780 |
what God desires more than anything else is love. 00:52:00.780 |
The basis of our relationship with God is love. 00:52:14.780 |
when the Young, Restless, and Reformed Movement 00:52:22.780 |
were coming out of the seeker-friendly church, 00:52:56.780 |
church discipline is because of a lack of love. 00:53:06.780 |
and the reason why we don't take that seriously 00:53:16.780 |
and doing something that's going to hurt them, 00:53:17.780 |
you're going to get involved and say something 00:53:21.780 |
But part of the reason why people are afraid to do that 00:53:53.780 |
"For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, 00:53:55.780 |
and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offering." 00:54:22.780 |
He said, "Your sacrifices are meaningless to me." 00:54:25.780 |
There are all these sacrifices that you're giving. 00:54:54.780 |
Instead, they made it a checklist to do something. 00:55:07.780 |
So he said, "Make all these sacrifices to me." 00:55:10.780 |
He said, "No, you're just making these sacrifices, 00:55:34.780 |
which is a passage that's often quoted in weddings, 00:55:40.780 |
and how a wife should submit to their husband, 00:55:43.780 |
and then tells the husband to love their wives 00:56:09.780 |
The whole reason why he gave the illustration 00:56:20.780 |
is what this covenant love relationship looks like, 00:56:29.780 |
What God desires of us isn't simply obligation. 00:56:50.780 |
"You're going to do your legal obligation for me?" 00:57:46.780 |
to restore that covenant relationship with him. 00:59:33.780 |
"and he who loves son or daughter more than me 01:00:59.780 |
"You sure you're not going to do that again?" 01:02:10.780 |
That's a question for every single Christian. 01:02:15.780 |
the primary question that he's going to ask is, 01:02:25.780 |
is a restored covenant relationship with him. 01:03:12.780 |
There's so many other cities that he can go to. 01:05:54.780 |
that your love may abound still more and more." 01:09:55.780 |
so that we may be the image bearers of God again. 01:10:52.780 |
then they will know that you are my disciples. 01:10:56.780 |
Love is the ultimate evidence of our salvation. 01:11:05.780 |
But now faith, hope, and love abide these strings, 01:11:11.780 |
You know, if you were to put it theologically 01:11:15.780 |
if you were to choose which one is the greatest, 01:11:27.780 |
Our whole destiny is changed because of faith. 01:11:41.780 |
because of the hope of the promise of eternal life, 01:12:11.780 |
Of faith, love, faith, hope, and love, the greatest. 01:12:26.780 |
that of faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest? 01:12:29.780 |
Because this was a church that was divided by their faith. 01:12:37.780 |
I follow, you know, I follow Apollos, and I follow Jesus, 01:12:43.780 |
because their faith is greater than the others. 01:12:46.780 |
That we're somehow more righteous because of you, 01:12:52.780 |
Do you not know that God chose you because you were dumb? 01:13:01.780 |
and you're trying to be somebody in the church? 01:13:16.780 |
Of faith, hope, and love, the greatest is love. 01:13:36.780 |
No, no, no, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. 01:13:54.780 |
with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength? 01:14:00.780 |
Man, it is the greatest, but it is impossible. 01:14:07.780 |
It is impossible if you are willing yourself to do it. 01:14:15.780 |
I'm doing all this stuff, and remember Jesus says, 01:14:26.780 |
just soaking it up, just receiving the love of Christ. 01:14:37.780 |
Marthas are the ones who are cleaning the bathrooms. 01:15:12.780 |
He said, "You have forsaken your first love." 01:15:15.780 |
Now, you know what he tells the church to do? 01:15:17.780 |
Remember the height from which you had fallen. 01:15:25.780 |
I remember early on as a Christian back in college, 01:15:36.780 |
Above evangelism and preaching and right doctrine 01:15:41.780 |
but he says this is the greatest commandment. 01:15:44.780 |
And I remember, I'm not sure if I love God like that. 01:15:55.780 |
I'm not sure if I can say I love God like that. 01:15:58.780 |
So I kept on praying, "God, what does that mean? 01:16:03.780 |
And I remember I would ask my Bible study leaders, 01:16:12.780 |
So I don't know how many times that in prayer I would say, 01:16:15.780 |
"I love you, God. I love you, God. I love you, God." 01:16:20.780 |
We've actually say it in Korean, "Saranghaeyo, saranghaeyo, saranghaeyo." 01:16:35.780 |
There was a very difficult, lonely period in my life. 01:16:42.780 |
And I had a prayer closet that me and my roommates would use, 01:16:46.780 |
and I would go in there early in the morning to do my quiet time 01:16:52.780 |
I wonder if I disappeared, how long it would take for my family to look for me. 01:16:56.780 |
It was a very depressing thought because I was away and I wasn't living at home. 01:17:01.780 |
I kind of cut myself off from my school friends because I wanted to get trained, 01:17:05.780 |
and I was in apartment training and all that. 01:17:10.780 |
"and all my roommates are 10, 11, 12 years older than me, 01:17:16.780 |
And that thought is of like, "Oh, I wonder who would look for me if I was gone." 01:17:30.780 |
And all of a sudden, everything that I already knew, 01:17:32.780 |
everything that I already believed became so real. 01:17:40.780 |
I know I'm here because he loves me, but it wasn't real to me. 01:17:57.780 |
Sometimes we get so caught up in like, "What should I do? 01:18:03.780 |
"What's the next stage of my life, and how do I do this? 01:18:06.780 |
We get so caught up in doing something for God, 01:18:10.780 |
but the primary thing that he's waiting for is for us to come to him. 01:18:23.780 |
and I go there, and I'm trying to like, "Okay, I've got to pray, 01:18:26.780 |
"and I've got all these things I've got to pray for, 01:18:27.780 |
"and I've got to pray for this. I've got to pray for that." 01:18:30.780 |
And I sit there trying to think of all the things I've got to pray for, 01:18:42.780 |
"I don't have to go to prayer and go through all this list. 01:18:47.780 |
So I started sitting and saying, "Lord, I'm here. 01:18:59.780 |
"Lord, I don't know what you want me to pray for, 01:19:02.780 |
"and I have so many things, and I will pray for those things, 01:19:04.780 |
"but Lord, first and foremost, I just want to be near you." 01:19:14.780 |
Like even the way I pray sometimes is like, "I've got to get this done," 01:19:20.780 |
And I look at the Scriptures, and Jesus would constantly break away 01:19:26.780 |
And then we look at that and say, "Oh, Jesus needed refueling with his Father, 01:19:31.780 |
"and that's why he needed to be refueled so that he can go back and work." 01:19:44.780 |
Everybody wants to test him that he broke away with his Father 01:19:49.780 |
because that's where he felt home more than any place else. 01:19:55.780 |
That's where he felt the love more than any place else. 01:19:59.780 |
So, yes, he was refueled, but he was simply refueled 01:20:13.780 |
Above everything that we're doing, love him with all your heart, soul, mind, 01:20:19.780 |
And then and only then will God give you the strength to love your neighbor 01:20:34.780 |
Gracious Father, help us to genuinely love you. 01:20:42.780 |
Have confidence, Lord God, that all that we do 01:20:46.780 |
would be an overflow of your tremendous love toward us. 01:20:51.780 |
Open our eyes, Father, to see what it is that we already have in you, 01:20:56.780 |
that we would become worshipers who worship you in spirit and in truth. 01:25:06.780 |
And though you have not seen him, you love him. 01:25:09.780 |
Though you do not see him now, but believe in him. 01:25:13.780 |
You greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. 01:25:18.780 |
Help us, Lord God, to love you, to spread this love to all those around. 01:25:26.780 |
That more and more people may come to know what it is that you have done for us. 01:25:32.780 |
That more and more people would come to worship you, to love you. 01:25:37.780 |
And send us that we may be your ambassadors wherever you send us this week.