back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 11.6.2022
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we can look to the cross as a full display of his love, 00:00:04.560 |
that he would send his son Jesus to die on the cross 00:00:11.800 |
So with that, let us sing this first song, "Amazing Love." 00:04:38.300 |
and especially if you're visiting us for the first time. 00:04:42.180 |
After the service is done, please stick around. 00:04:48.700 |
and provide any information about the church. 00:04:51.180 |
Additionally, at 12.45, when this service is done, 00:04:55.020 |
for any of you who have questions about Christianity, 00:05:09.940 |
but also some resources, sharing a little bit, 00:05:21.300 |
For this morning, I wanna invite up Elder Phillip. 00:05:24.100 |
He has some additional announcements as well. 00:05:56.460 |
come on, join us, we wanna have fellowship with you. 00:06:06.060 |
"A good name is to be more desired than great wealth." 00:06:14.140 |
so we're no longer gonna be calling it Season Fellowship, 00:06:23.580 |
In the Bible, the number seven is associated with the Sabbath 00:06:40.260 |
there were to do no harvesting for the entire year, 00:06:58.500 |
and I'm gonna read Leviticus 25, eight through 10, 00:07:03.220 |
"You are also to count off seven Sabbath of years 00:07:09.120 |
"so that you have the time of seven Sabbath of years, 00:07:22.740 |
"and each of you shall return his own property, 00:07:25.620 |
"and each of you shall return to his family." 00:07:29.100 |
So the year of Jubilee was a time of release, 00:07:39.060 |
because it reflects what Jesus did for us on the cross. 00:07:47.360 |
and he restored us back to a relationship with God. 00:07:50.580 |
So we are changing the name to Jubilee Fellowship 00:07:54.920 |
because the year of Jubilee, first of all, it's 50, 00:08:00.660 |
but besides that, why is the name Jubilee better than season? 00:08:17.860 |
Season is what you do to food before you eat it. 00:08:34.120 |
but embrace it, celebrate God's faithfulness. 00:08:46.300 |
So there's more to it, there's a lot of symbolism, 00:08:56.880 |
There is a song, but I will post it on the Facebook, 00:09:01.500 |
and hopefully you see it, but then that's it. 00:09:11.420 |
For the other announcements, please do check out the app 00:09:18.540 |
At this time, we are gonna enter into time of our offering. 00:09:24.460 |
there is a box there at the back, at the entrance. 00:09:27.380 |
Otherwise, you can give it on the online format. 00:09:33.140 |
Our God, we thank you so much for your grace. 00:09:39.620 |
Lord, we thank you for the love that you give to us. 00:09:42.620 |
And Lord, we wanna just regularly reflect upon 00:09:48.740 |
and to be able to come, to call you Abba Father, 00:09:53.020 |
As we enter into a time now, both of singing, 00:10:03.260 |
and help us to just continue to express our heart attitude, 00:10:10.860 |
We thank you, Lord, and offer this time to you 00:12:07.220 |
♪ Come behold, come behold the wondrous mystery ♪ 00:19:55.120 |
to give you all recognition and honor and praise. 00:20:16.460 |
You're the one giving your truth and conviction. 00:20:19.900 |
You're the one giving the ministry of your spirit. 00:20:22.040 |
And I pray that we would have receptive hearts, 00:20:29.220 |
and broken before you, Lord, that we would truly learn. 00:20:32.320 |
We thank you, God, it's in Christ's name, amen. 00:20:36.220 |
I take this opportunity to tell you something 00:20:41.420 |
I'm really happy about is that I was able to just finish 00:20:56.600 |
But also, you know, actually, I'm almost 100% sure 00:21:09.320 |
And some of you guys are probably sitting there 00:21:15.560 |
also have doctorates and you guys have medical degrees. 00:21:28.400 |
And I thought that this would completely solidify 00:21:31.980 |
my place here at Berean by if I just nailed it 00:21:42.460 |
I would ask that all of you would start calling me 00:21:48.760 |
which would be a really big eagle boost for me, 00:21:54.260 |
then that's the time when you have enough credentials 00:21:56.500 |
to start writing books, and I've always wanted to write. 00:22:01.740 |
I have tons of thoughts that aren't well articulated, 00:22:10.780 |
you can call me Dr. Author Reverend Pastor Mark, 00:22:57.960 |
but I actually don't know why they gave me this. 00:23:12.140 |
I don't expect you to call me anything different. 00:23:21.280 |
But I want you to have this feeling inside your heart, 00:23:35.060 |
if you think about it, highly inappropriate, right? 00:23:42.400 |
that means I should have already wrestled through that, 00:23:50.320 |
I want you to have certain words embedded into your mind 00:23:53.680 |
as I enter through walking through some scriptures with you. 00:23:56.880 |
I want you to think, "Meh, Pastor Mark is vain." 00:24:15.020 |
almost demanding that even the people closest to me 00:24:23.640 |
acknowledge the accomplishments that I have attained, 00:24:38.320 |
because arrogance, by definition, has this empty void. 00:24:45.280 |
Arrogance means that in my perspective, I come up here. 00:24:49.600 |
I think I'm capable, I deserve, I have accomplished, 00:24:53.760 |
and you should see me as such in that perspective, 00:25:01.700 |
I have fleshly ambitions that should have died, 00:25:21.640 |
There's a huge rift between what I am expecting 00:25:25.180 |
and the reality of the state of affairs, okay? 00:25:29.740 |
not a single one of you would disagree with me 00:25:34.060 |
that that kind of talk, attitude, and perspective 00:25:43.720 |
all of that would be eradicated from my life. 00:25:57.220 |
We live in a generation of, oh, I wish I could've, 00:26:52.480 |
standing on the stands and throwing dust in the air 00:26:55.520 |
and saying, yeah, this is our year, we're the best, 00:27:01.760 |
So why is it okay if we put it on the screen? 00:27:04.620 |
Why is it okay, rappers, you put it into lyrical form, 00:27:13.640 |
and now you're the best, you're the greatest rapper 00:27:17.600 |
and not only is it okay, but it inspires us, weird. 00:27:21.680 |
And I'm willing to bet that we're all very similar, 00:27:29.580 |
from the people around us, greater accolades, 00:27:41.540 |
So he gave us many, many commands, many, many warnings, 00:27:45.300 |
saying there's going to be an ambition and desire in you 00:27:49.400 |
to secure more and more, to treasure this world, 00:27:52.480 |
to have a false hope into the things that are material. 00:28:00.440 |
those things are fleeting, vain and empty, amen? 00:28:04.740 |
Now, the problem though is we know this mentally, 00:28:17.840 |
a couple arguments to tell you that none of the things 00:28:24.360 |
none of the goals that you have established for yourself, 00:28:38.300 |
Everything under the sun is subject to this kind of futility. 00:28:42.480 |
So first, I want to give you a list of all the things 00:28:52.640 |
I'm not going to read every single one of them, 00:28:59.600 |
We believe in it, and in some sense, rightly so. 00:29:03.520 |
Because through education with greater knowledge 00:29:05.920 |
becomes discernment, becomes decision-making possibilities 00:29:10.200 |
that you will make better financial securities for yourself 00:29:32.880 |
What's more, we have this vision of our achievements 00:29:40.180 |
of the kind of relationships that we'll have. 00:29:46.880 |
Get rid of all the negative influences in your life, 00:29:51.300 |
Surround for yourself people who will support you, 00:29:55.200 |
They believe you can do what you set yourself out to do. 00:30:18.260 |
but now based upon if there's no community for me, 00:30:23.800 |
That's kind of an unfortunate state of affairs. 00:30:37.920 |
shoes, memorabilia from movies to even people. 00:30:44.460 |
We live in quite a wild and dangerous generation. 00:30:48.960 |
Now, I said I'm gonna make an argument in case to you 00:31:00.640 |
I know we have a lot of college students in the room. 00:31:07.760 |
What I mean by that isn't that, oh, you're not performing, 00:31:15.660 |
strangely speaking, let's say we took a sample of this room. 00:31:19.260 |
There are people in their 60s, 50s, 40s, 30s. 00:31:22.660 |
The saddest group are the people between 18 and 22. 00:31:27.540 |
Because statistically, 41% of college students 00:31:37.260 |
the group is called Statista, I believe, .com. 00:31:43.940 |
They had a study done with over 100,000 participants. 00:31:48.940 |
That is a large enough sample of college students, okay? 00:31:54.780 |
I know the words are small there, I apologize for that, 00:31:56.820 |
but 19% of individuals have moderate depression. 00:32:00.380 |
Now, moderate depression, there's different degrees, 00:32:02.580 |
but that means they had either sleeplessness, 00:32:05.180 |
anxiety attacks, which meant their heart was beating fast, 00:32:08.020 |
they had either breath associations, that stuff, 00:32:10.060 |
or they were too afraid to go to class, something like that. 00:32:45.460 |
You have now the prowess to make your decisions 00:32:54.020 |
where everybody is your age, learning the same thing, 00:32:57.780 |
and you, in your time now, you have more free time 00:33:01.180 |
than you'll ever have in the rest of your life. 00:33:20.480 |
that things in the world, these promises of the world, 00:33:36.200 |
I'm pretty sure you have your own life stories, 00:33:43.660 |
when you're young, a lot of times, it's your friends, 00:33:53.860 |
Somebody disappoints you because they leave your life. 00:33:55.980 |
Somebody disappoints you because they're the ones 00:33:57.540 |
who end up hurting you, and then your world shatters. 00:34:13.740 |
and you have your own stories to tell younger people, 00:34:29.460 |
She was at the Olympic Village, and she medaled, too. 00:34:35.140 |
because I preached a sermon about bookleiclesiastes 00:34:40.260 |
"What are your thoughts about this idea of emptiness?" 00:34:42.500 |
And she said, "It's crazy because in one sense, 00:34:52.720 |
"You can say these people are the best in the world. 00:35:06.900 |
You would think then you would just be bursting with joy, 00:35:09.860 |
pride, and a sense of achievement, which is true. 00:35:18.120 |
"and sometimes you don't know if you wanna give it. 00:35:20.340 |
"You have to get other people to vouch for you. 00:35:22.700 |
"You're constantly afraid the next younger person 00:35:25.660 |
"You're constantly afraid you're gonna break something 00:35:28.220 |
"The people who are there, they're not satisfied. 00:35:30.360 |
"You have people who are married go into there, 00:35:33.160 |
"and then they start flirting with everybody else. 00:35:35.060 |
"Some people have a wife in every country they visit. 00:35:46.600 |
"But I'm pretty sure you don't have to be at that level 00:36:12.780 |
the human race is getting better by technology, 00:36:15.860 |
the human race is getting better by cooperative effort, 00:36:19.180 |
getting better by whatever it is that we think, 00:36:27.140 |
but the suicide rate amongst the young people 00:36:32.440 |
in 2020, the people who called into a hotline for help 00:36:43.840 |
Well, many years ago, the scripture already knew 00:36:48.380 |
how we would behave when we placed our hopes on this world. 00:37:35.200 |
and he concluded there is something royally wrong. 00:37:40.200 |
I want you to just listen to this portion of the text, 00:37:49.360 |
He said, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure." 00:37:54.760 |
He has said the world is filled with vanities, 00:38:06.720 |
He said, "I said of laughter, entertainment and joy, 00:38:14.200 |
"I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine." 00:38:29.760 |
"I enlarged my works, I built houses for myself, 00:38:39.820 |
"I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, 00:38:41.960 |
"for my heart was pleased because all my labor, 00:39:12.780 |
You see, we have a lot of people who write in our day. 00:39:18.720 |
They have theories and concepts that they wanna try, 00:39:22.400 |
and they say, "Oh, it would be only good for our nation. 00:39:28.880 |
Yada, yada, yada, but they never had the power 00:39:31.440 |
King Solomon had all the authority to command it to happen. 00:40:01.760 |
He had over 12,000 horses, it says in 1 Kings. 00:40:08.080 |
He had every single luxury and pleasure possible. 00:40:21.640 |
and he's trying to convince us it was so empty. 00:40:31.140 |
but right now I try to visit my mom every two weeks. 00:40:37.220 |
but she also has the reality of life hitting her. 00:40:45.840 |
And then when I show up, she says this weird, 00:40:59.920 |
and she's straight up like, I just wish I had, 00:41:12.760 |
And it's because as men, we don't think about her enough. 00:41:17.680 |
we call her periodically, and she said this to me. 00:41:26.200 |
and be on the floor for days before somebody even notices. 00:41:29.800 |
And you're not gonna know 'cause you come around 00:41:37.360 |
I didn't even know what to say, so I just said, 00:42:01.880 |
Christmas, and New Year's every year for 20 years. 00:42:14.480 |
She's saying to me, I don't know if that's all worth it. 00:42:21.180 |
And she's kind of looking at me for a solution, 00:42:36.180 |
Don't bank on me because I'm full of vanity too. 00:42:41.100 |
Do you remember what I asked you to remember? 00:42:50.920 |
And that's why I wanted to go at length with you 00:42:56.520 |
over and over again is trying to convince you. 00:43:02.640 |
It's not just those guys there who are mean, evil people. 00:43:07.480 |
Anybody and everybody under the sun can be vain, 00:43:12.040 |
And there is an emptiness of value and meaning. 00:43:21.760 |
I'm gonna collect for myself all of the righteous people. 00:43:25.040 |
I'm gonna eradicate all the wicked politicians. 00:43:29.040 |
He said, I'm gonna remove all the corrupt individuals 00:43:40.640 |
and then I gave it to my wicked son who blew it all. 00:44:24.400 |
And we the little guys, it's a short on the stick. 00:44:47.480 |
But right now I wanna take a brief moment to pause. 00:44:53.280 |
Of course, what I'm saying to you is not new. 00:45:05.440 |
What I'm saying now, you would have already expected. 00:45:15.420 |
We put false hope in it because it's completely empty. 00:45:22.960 |
But my point isn't don't touch, don't taste, don't have. 00:45:28.620 |
Because if I, let's say I was your dad, okay? 00:45:46.140 |
My point is not run away, go to the mountains. 00:45:55.560 |
There are people who are monks in temples who are vain. 00:45:59.380 |
You just not having means you just don't have, 00:46:21.020 |
Get your eyes off the world and get your eyes on God 00:46:24.980 |
because a life without God is completely meaningless. 00:46:39.020 |
and we're going towards the direction of God, 00:46:50.380 |
Living a life of physical sight in this world 00:47:05.460 |
sinister, subtle desire to still wish and hope 00:47:09.580 |
that we could have some success in this life. 00:47:17.060 |
The only thing that is truly worth it is God almighty. 00:47:23.040 |
The only true thing that is worth your energy, 00:47:34.300 |
And I wanna show you that earlier I described 00:47:37.140 |
these various ways in which things in life can be vain 00:47:49.180 |
There's so many different ways that things can be vain. 00:47:52.800 |
But in everything that is wrong with this world, 00:48:07.240 |
God is the creator and master and Lord of the universe. 00:48:41.600 |
Let's hear what he has to say about all of life. 00:49:02.160 |
God Almighty can give life, sustain life, and take life. 00:49:14.180 |
And he's worthy of all attention, glory, and honor. 00:49:21.320 |
Scripture says that he is so intentional with you. 00:49:29.800 |
to have a relationship with you, he's thought of it. 00:49:34.300 |
He willed it from before the foundation of the world. 00:49:38.220 |
and he is on target all the time, never misses. 00:49:54.140 |
and stuff like that, but I've heard so many people 00:49:58.700 |
that was one expensive piece of paper, right? 00:50:07.180 |
What's more, for those of you guys who are a bit older, 00:50:09.300 |
those four years of college life went by like this. 00:50:29.760 |
all of their solutions are found in God alone. 00:50:39.940 |
is I'm trying to say, hey, say, be able to say 00:50:48.540 |
to come above that and say, forsake the world. 00:51:01.420 |
One of the grand and glorious things about God 00:51:05.140 |
is that he is a God who is in pursuit of people, 00:51:10.780 |
All of these truths that I just described to you now, 00:51:26.780 |
It's because God intentionally revealed himself. 00:51:35.340 |
because only a person who has love to give in their heart 00:51:56.020 |
Would you be willing to share with me about your thoughts? 00:52:00.840 |
You go and ask him to share with you his life? 00:52:03.300 |
You go and ask him to share with you his house? 00:52:12.520 |
God Almighty is a God who is a freely revealing 00:52:21.020 |
If any Christian has taught you this weird gospel 00:52:28.900 |
then you're gonna really be able to focus and study. 00:52:30.940 |
And then you're gonna do a really good job as a husband 00:52:32.900 |
and you're gonna really succeed and have more stuff, 00:52:46.440 |
We're going to experience, if any believer will tell you, 00:52:54.700 |
As a Christian, I walk through suffering, hardship, 00:52:57.900 |
and weird kind of unfruitfulness all throughout my life. 00:53:09.660 |
Why can't anybody just come and have this great God 00:53:13.900 |
Because remember that idea of Mark Lim is vain? 00:53:21.820 |
in the government, in the world systems at be 00:53:36.760 |
those are realities that people actually want 00:53:47.820 |
The sad state of affairs and the reality of spirituality 00:54:07.480 |
For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks 00:54:10.980 |
As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. 00:54:18.440 |
All have turned aside together, they have become useless. 00:54:21.460 |
There is none who does good, there is not even one. 00:54:46.500 |
I am not trying to say that you, if you're not a Christian, 00:54:50.820 |
are the most wicked and vile and vain person ever 00:54:56.420 |
I am not trying to say that you are somehow as evil 00:55:07.020 |
and there is already a broken vanity in our hearts 00:55:18.300 |
There are so many moments when I make a muck of my life 00:55:20.980 |
because of my decision and lack of self-control. 00:55:24.100 |
And I wanna shake myself almost, why did you do that? 00:55:28.620 |
I want you to think about this weird, weird thought. 00:55:31.840 |
In the last 10 years, who has been the most hurtful 00:55:42.140 |
I have vowed to be her protector, provider, and leader. 00:55:47.840 |
Guess who has caused her the greatest amount of pain 00:55:50.500 |
because of my lack of self-control, my own selfishness, 00:55:54.540 |
weird expectations, and inconsiderate behavior? 00:56:10.620 |
And what the scripture says is that kind of vanity 00:56:18.300 |
because our own wrongdoings have caused a separation 00:56:24.680 |
have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 00:56:29.060 |
I wanna convince you, the current state of affairs 00:56:33.620 |
in your spirituality is not something that can be fixed. 00:56:37.740 |
Some of you aren't in here because you already know 00:56:40.140 |
that just trying to live life with your grit is not enough. 00:56:43.500 |
And I use my relationship with my wife quite a bit 00:56:54.840 |
I love her to death and weird, I was fighting with her 00:57:11.280 |
"Did you take care of what you need to take care of? 00:57:17.880 |
It was like Antarctica, there was nothing going on, 00:57:24.140 |
I gotta tell you something, everything felt wrong. 00:57:31.480 |
I'd go out and try to play, I didn't want to. 00:57:34.660 |
The thing that was supposed to be a loving relationship 00:57:42.020 |
And when your relationship with God, therefore, is off, 00:57:47.220 |
When your relationship with your maker and your creator, 00:57:59.460 |
And if that relationship was off, you can't do anything. 00:58:02.780 |
Your conscience is not clear, your bearings are not right. 00:58:07.780 |
and try to assess what is even going on right now. 00:58:17.980 |
our desire is to say I want you to have the greatest thing, 00:58:25.660 |
Do you want to have that kind of relationship 00:58:32.460 |
and interaction with God, the one who is truly valuable, 00:58:50.100 |
And if your answer is yes, I want to tell you 00:58:56.940 |
Some people will tell you, you know what you got to do, 00:59:00.500 |
you got to buy into our program, join our church, 00:59:13.420 |
Some people will tell you to go on this spiritual journey, 00:59:15.700 |
some people will tell you to just empty yourself 00:59:20.860 |
We want you to fill your mind with the love of God. 00:59:25.100 |
The way is clear and God is showing you his loving way, 00:59:28.260 |
and it begins by this passage where scripture says 00:59:30.900 |
that God has prepared a way, he has prepared to forgive you, 00:59:34.380 |
he has prepared to love you, and he has prepared 00:59:37.140 |
that your relationship can be reconciled with him. 00:59:40.180 |
And that comes from Romans chapter five, verse eight. 00:59:44.260 |
And it says, "God demonstrates his own love towards us 00:59:56.300 |
but while you were yet sinners, "Christ died for us. 01:00:00.660 |
Much more than having been justified by his blood, 01:00:03.780 |
we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him." 01:00:06.840 |
Did you know that the way to God is this simple? 01:00:23.740 |
Guess what, it's true, sinners do need to pay. 01:00:28.120 |
what, he's just gonna let everybody into heaven? 01:00:41.920 |
and to request forgiveness through repentance. 01:00:44.360 |
God, what we're talking about today in the Vandy of Life, 01:01:07.560 |
You come humble this way and I wanna tell you 100% 01:01:23.320 |
You can trust that Jesus in his death and resurrection 01:01:26.600 |
paid for your sin and that perfection you long for 01:01:29.900 |
is given to you by the resurrected life of Christ. 01:01:48.480 |
and he showed me his grace to give me his forgiveness 01:01:55.920 |
There is one of the hardest things that humans will do 01:02:08.900 |
One of the hardest thing that mankind will ever do 01:02:11.400 |
is receive help because it pains us to know I can't. 01:02:16.120 |
It pains us to know that we do not have the resource, 01:02:19.040 |
the power or the know-how to fix the sin inside of us. 01:02:30.600 |
I will tell you, I feel like I'm a humble man, but I'm not. 01:02:36.760 |
I care way too much about the way people see me. 01:03:10.880 |
The other side is to take the blue pill, right? 01:03:24.440 |
Right there in the middle, God says, Mark, I see you 01:03:30.160 |
and just as you were disgusted by your own vain pride, 01:03:42.700 |
and you're gonna have a new life in his resurrected power. 01:03:53.960 |
but says, I, although I can be disgusted with you 01:04:04.080 |
That's the message that we wanna preach to you 01:04:07.340 |
It's not that we wanna take away all your joys. 01:04:11.120 |
It's not that, you know, you can't touch that. 01:04:20.800 |
By way of conclusion, Jesus, the Lord, he said in Matthew, 01:04:24.520 |
in Matthew chapter 16, for what will it profit a man 01:04:31.280 |
if he gains a whole world and yet forfeits his soul? 01:04:38.480 |
nothing on earth, no matter how valuable you see it, 01:04:47.120 |
who can save your soul eternity, he is worth it all. 01:05:14.680 |
you are doing the work of reconciling the lost 01:05:17.960 |
to yourself that you would bring those who are fallen, 01:05:21.680 |
those who are completely lost, to your loving arms. 01:05:28.320 |
would experience that grace of being received by you, 01:05:52.140 |
Help us, Father God, to see just how worthy you are. 01:05:58.440 |
the hearts of those who have maybe been hesitant 01:06:03.680 |
who have been thinking on the outskirts about it 01:06:56.860 |
♪ Firm through the fiercest drought and storm ♪ 01:07:02.460 |
♪ What heights of love, what depths of peace ♪ 01:07:07.500 |
♪ When fears are still, when striving ceases ♪ 01:09:02.740 |
♪ He is God with the precious blood of Christ ♪ 01:10:43.860 |
God our Father, we again wanna acknowledge, Lord, 01:10:48.460 |
you are truly a good, good God, merciful and loving. 01:10:56.820 |
Lord, Christ is going to make right of all things 01:11:00.700 |
But God, we thank you that you don't give us simply things 01:11:03.980 |
that are fleeting, which are actually just simply fodder 01:11:23.460 |
we would both receive and be renewed by your grace every day. 01:13:15.900 |
♪ We will walk the valley with you by our side ♪ 01:13:36.500 |
♪ The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress ♪ 01:14:19.660 |
♪ The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress ♪