This church, the EM, it became an independent church. We're going to go over the history in a later part of this, our program. But they called me and said, "We need somebody to come and fill in because the guy who started this left and we don't have a leader." And only reason why I said okay was because, again, I was so burnt out.
I felt like I couldn't, if I went to any other church, I wouldn't be able to give myself. So I really came back to church, one, to assist and second, to see if my heart would be restored back into ministry. And that's how this church, again, in a nutshell, got started.
I came back thinking, like, can I go back into ministry because I could go through the motion but I don't know if my heart will ever be here again. And to my own surprise, it didn't happen immediately, but as years went by, months, and I started to get to know the new people and then the younger people at that time who were in high school and maybe early college.
And I started to, to my own surprise, started growing affection for them, that I genuinely started caring for them. And I could honestly say that I began to love them. And those were the hardest period of our church ministry for the first five years because I had my first child and then second one and then the third came.
Financially we were struggling. We were a small church. The core group of our church was very, very young. But the only thing that kept me at the church is because God restored my heart, not necessarily for ministry. It wasn't a heart for, like, I have this vision for bringing community to church, that we're going to plant churches and bring people to Christ.
It was just God gave me this love for the young, young people who are at our church and I wanted to be the best that I could be for them. And so I didn't have a vision. If you ask me, you know, what is your vision of the church?
I had no vision. It was just I wanted to make sure that they were growing and they were maturing and that was it and see what that led. And again, to make a long story short, that's how I was restored back into ministry. I really considered walking away because I didn't think I could give my heart to a new group of people and God allowed me to have that heart and God's my witness to this day that to me, bring community to church is not this organization or what are we going to accomplish with this group and all of these things are necessary in a group.
But to me, this is my family. You are my family. I'm your uncle. I'm your older brother. I'm your brother. I'm whatever. Like, I'm, we're, to me, your family. And so God has placed us together and trying to be faithful with the family that God has given us, whether we are 30 or 400 or 500.
So I thank God, you know. Like I think, you ask anybody who was here 15, 20 years ago that 20 years later that we would be in this church celebrating 20th year anniversary with a church of 500, we would have just laughed in your face. You know, like we have one visitor per year and that we would have a joke that that would be a revival.
I really, that's how we used to joke early on in church. So to be here, to be able to celebrate with all of you, it is surreal and very thankful. I'm going to allow you to watch the video. The video is going to summarize some of the different aspects of our church.
And then I'll come back here and I'm going to read off our church history minute by minute and then I'll introduce our speaker for tonight. Okay? The church at its inception, it was started before April 1997 by the former EM pastor that was at Irvine Baptist before I showed up.
And so I left to join another church for about a year. And then the church that I was at ended up splitting. So I was in between churches and then found out that the pastor who launched this church ended up leaving after three months. So I didn't physically join the church launch until August of 1997.
I grew up at the church called First Korean Baptist Church of Irvine. And at that time, when I was basically in college is when there were some issues with the adult congregation. The pastors at that time wanted to build a second generation church and they had the support of the Korean congregation pastors and leaders, various leaders.
So that's really how the church got started. And at that time, Pastor Peter had not even joined the church yet. There was a vacuum of leadership and then these guys that I was working with when I was their youth pastor and then their college pastor. So they found out that I was in between church and they called me and asked me to come and fill in because there's nobody there.
Only reason why I came was to kind of be an interim to help out because these are guys that I knew that I discipled when they were younger. And then once I came, the Korean church had a vision of they wanted to be charismatic. They want us to be more Korean speaking.
And so when I told them that we couldn't do that, they asked us to leave. We had nowhere to go and we had no money. So Tustin Baptist Church asked us or allowed us to stay in and use one of their facilities, their rooms. So that was the first, let's say, total of me about first four or five years of the church.
And so there was never a time when we said, "Hey, let's launch this church and we're going to have this kind of church with this kind of vision." It was just a bunch of young guys that if we left, they would have fallen apart. So it was more of kind of like I felt responsible for the younger guys who were there.
And then it ended up turning into a church because we ended up coming out and having worship by ourselves. You know, at the beginning of the church was very small and young. You know, even our Bible studies, they were done at UCI and it was probably like 10 people.
Pastor Peters always reminds me that I was wearing a yellow dress when I came to the first service. And I insisted I did not own a yellow dress, but apparently later I did find it. So the fact that he could remember what I was wearing indicates that it was a pretty small church to give the picture of how small it was.
I recall when they announced that they were going to start praise, literally half the people in the congregation left their seats to do the praise set. And that was really funny because the church was very small and everyone who was on praise was in the congregation. And it was just a weird thing to see.
Financially, I wasn't able to take care of my family. And then the church was too young. So our offering barely paid rent. So we didn't have insurance. We paid the church bills and then whatever left over came to my family to support. And that was probably the first maybe six years of the church.
I would say the turning point of the church was when we were at Lakeside Middle School. We got to a breaking point where I couldn't pay the bills. I couldn't take care of the church. At least number-wise, it wasn't going anywhere. The church, you know, pretty much was at the same size.
We just kept on having to move around a lot because we had no actual location. Every year we didn't really know where we would meet next. We didn't know if we'd have enough money, I feel like, because none of nobody was really working. It was just very kind of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of thing.
And so it got to a point where either I had to let go of the church or get a full-time job or do something. But I couldn't keep doing what I was doing. I had a conversation with Joe. Pretty much he said, you know, the church is not strong enough.
If I leave, that they're going to be able to make it. If I walked away from church at that time, I wouldn't have a clear conscience. We had a house and found out that the equity in the house went up like $60,000, $70,000 in like a year and a half.
So we made a decision that if we got rid of that and used that to support our family for a year, and if at the end of the year we're still in the same place that we're at, then I can just walk away. Then I can say, you know, I have nothing.
I have three kids and I can't take care of them. Like I can't keep doing what I'm doing. Then I can have a clear conscience and start over somewhere and do something else. It wasn't a plan to fold the church. It was just maybe bring somebody else in, but I don't have that burden of taking care of the church.
We felt like God was waiting for me to make a decision. Like, are you going to fully give yourself to this or not? Either you're going to commit to this church plant or you're going to have to walk away. And so that's when we decided, okay, we're going to give it a year, you know, from where we are.
The thing is, our church never grew for the first five, six years. By the end of that year, we almost doubled. We almost had 50, 60 people. By that time, our offering was the same. We ran out of money. And then I was thinking about going back to work and just keep doing church at that time because things were changing.
And that's when the elders stepped in, which was at that time, Vince, Joe and Phillip, they offered to take care of our family with their own finances for a year until the church can actually support us. So for the next year, they supported our family. The year after that, the church grew from 60 to like 70 or 80.
Each year since then, we've been growing maybe about 30%. When we really started to grow was when we came to Utt Middle School. I think we had about 80 people meeting at Northwood. And then we came to Utt and then we had 110 the first Sunday we met. So we just thought, "Oh, they're coming to visit." But afterwards, we never dipped below 100.
And so basically, one Sunday, we added about 20 people and then we never dipped below 100. Then during Utt, we went from probably about 100 to 280 during the three years that we were at Utt. After that, we were able to purchase a church in Airway. So we came to Airway.
And then from there, the number grew from 280 to like 480. To be honest, really nothing has really changed in terms of how we do what we do over the last 20 years. I think it's just been people have seen what's happening and there has been a desire for the Word of God and teaching.
And I think during this whole process, I could name a few things that I suspect that caused this, but in the end, it was obviously God's sovereignty that he brought people who were itching to hear expository preaching and just the emphasis of the Word of God. I really liked the church.
I wouldn't say I was a believer yet at that time, but I was very, very interested and it was very different from any other church I had gone to. I feel like the biggest difference was that whatever they were preaching, people were actually living it out. So it wasn't just like people were there for social reasons or for fun, which was my previous experience.
His message was just really piercing me. And he was speaking about a lot of things about the Bible that I wasn't used to hearing him. And it really started to speak loudly to me. And so it made me come out more. I just remember coming in and my first impression of the praise was like, what are these Amish people who do not have access to the radio and they just sing hymns?
And so it was just kind of weird. And then I remember the sermon feeling very long. But I think one thing I remember, just my first service at Berean, was just Pastor Peter constantly going through different passages in the Bible. And I remember that being the first time that ever happened to me before, because though I had gone to church my whole life with the same Bible, I remember having to peer through pages I had never opened before.
And so I think that was one thing that really struck me about Berean, being different and just learning about Berean being a Bible teaching church, a church that really upholds God's word highly. I feel like after 20 years, for the first time, we have the resources that we didn't have in the beginning, or even when I recommitted after six years.
We can take the blessing that God has given us and really look to what God can do with that, whether it's a ministry out in China or supporting missionaries or village pastors in India, or even just locally, just discipling and sharing the gospel. How are we going to strategically do this with the blessing that he's given us?
Because prior to this, we were just on survival mode. We have this many people, how do we take care of them? And then we have 30 more people. Well, we have this many people, how do we take care of the church? But for the first time, we're actually thinking about, well, five years from now, what are our goals and what are we trying to achieve?
I could think of so many instances where we could have just folded. And I actually wanted to fold. I just couldn't because I just didn't have a clear conscience. But if something happened and say, "Oh, the church is shut down, everybody left the church," and obviously it would have been hard relationally, but I would have been relieved.
So I could think of... And even the church doesn't know just how close I came to just walking away, as far as ministry is concerned. I can't say like, "Oh, because we did this, because we had this strategy and this is our vision, these were our doctrines, and because our church was organized this way, we discipled people this way." And obviously every church has those things in place.
But I look at 20 years and I don't think that's why we're here. I really don't think that's why we're here. I think God was glorified in the midst of our chaos. And so after 20 years, we look back and say, "God just wanted to be glorified and we can't take credit for what we have." And we really can't take credit for what we have.
It was by the grace of God. So that's why when somebody asks me, "So what do you expect in the next 20 years?" Like, I don't know how I got here, so I don't know how I'm going to tell you what the next 20 years are going to look like.
All I know is just try to be faithful to what He's placed today, and then that will lead to wherever God wants us to take us. So I would definitely say, "By the grace of God, we're here. By the grace of God, we're going to go forward." We're probably going to put that up on the website at some point.
But again, it kind of captures in a short detail about what happened in our church. I'm going to just briefly go over the history of our church. I'm just going to read it off to you. Again, many of you came to the church at different periods of the church, and so you would remember that, and some of you may not.
But again, I'm just going to read it off. In 1997, January, Irvine Baptist Church EM became an independent church under the Southern Baptist denomination with the blessing of the Korean congregation and some financial assistance from the Orange County SBC Association under the leadership of Pastor Jonathan Kang. The name for the church in the beginning was Harvest Community Church.
Some of you guys may not have known that. In 1997, April 12th, the church was officially inaugurated. Soon after the inauguration, Pastor Kang left the church, and a vacuum of leadership was created. Pastor Peter Kim, myself, officially joined the church in August of 1997 as one of the pastors to support the church while having worship at Irvine Baptist.
We were officially asked to take our young group and move out of Irvine Baptist in 1999, March, and began to use the facilities in Tustin Baptist Church. We changed our name to Berean Community Church to better reflect our church's ministry philosophy and focus. In 2001, March, we moved out of Tustin Baptist and started having service at Lakeside Middle School in Irvine.
Our attendance there remained around 25 to 35 through those years. 2001, we also had our first summer mission trip to China. And then in 2002, we had our first summer retreat with Pastor Ray Cosley as our guest speaker at Palm Desert with about 28 in attendance, which is also including the pastor's family and kids.
This was the first time in our church where we began to focus on the future of the church and its growth. Prior to this time, we were just trying to survive from one year to another. 2003, we moved to Harvard Community Park and our attendance grew from 30 to 50.
2004, we moved to Deerfield Community Park and our attendance grew from 50 to 60. 2005, we moved to Turtle Rock Community Park and our attendance grew from 50 to 70. 2006, we moved to Northwood Community Park and our attendance grew from 70 to 90. In 2008, we moved our church to Utt Middle School in Tustin and our attendance grew to 90 to about 280.
2011, with a generous donation from the church, we were able to purchase our first church property in Costa Mesa. Our attendance there grew from 280 to 500. 2013, we planted a church, Berean Mission Church, under the leadership of Pastor Aaron Choi and his wife, Tina, with a team of 30 members in Millbrae, California.
2014, we began our first medical missions to India. 2015, we commissioned Pastor Alex and his wife, Jen, for mission work in China. 2016, in the beginning, we purchased this new building. In 2017, March, we had our first church service at the new building. And that kind of pretty much summarizes our church history.
I want to introduce a logo to the church, if you can put that up. All right. Now I know whenever there's change, there's always going to be resistance. And I'm already expecting some of you to persecute me after this. But we thought it was a good time for us to refresh our church logo.
And the reason why was what I explained, that up to this point, we really didn't give it a whole lot about the thought of going forward, what are we going to do? And so we thought it would be a good opportunity for us to be deliberate. And again, symbolically, it would be good for us to refresh our church logo and our name so that when we put it on this building, it would just kind of symbolize for us that from this point on going forward, we want to be intentional with everything that we're doing.
And so again, I'm not going to go through the details of the explanation of the logo at this time. But again, this is the sign that's going to be hanging outside. And I'm sure our media team did a great job and put so much time and effort behind all of this.
And they may be able to give you more explanations on that. But I wanted to introduce that to you before it goes up. But so that's what you're going to be seeing outside. And the program, obviously, all of that is going to change on the website as well. At this time, I want to introduce our speaker for this evening.
I think many of you already know Pastor Aaron. Again, he led the church plant to Millbrae about four, you guys celebrated four year, fourth year anniversary this year. And again, they've been thriving. And again, we've been praying for their family. As you guys know, the hardship that they went through.
Pastor Aaron was the first associate pastor of this church. He was our college pastor for many years. And he was very beloved and has continued to be beloved. And when we sent him and the team up, it created a huge vacuum in our church. And again, rightfully so, because he was so effective and he was so loved.
And again, and when anybody leaves a church, it should leave a vacuum. It means that they were faithful. It means that they were fruitful. I actually ended up speaking at a retreat just this over weekend and Friday and Saturday. And at the end of the meeting, they were giving me an honorarium and they made me this bag.
And then they said that they contacted somebody from Brienne and they went down the list of all my likes. He likes sushi and then they gave me some socks with sushi on it. And then he said he likes basketball. So he gave me some basketball stuff. And then he said he's into beef jerky.
So they gave me a beef jerky. And then he drinks coffee. So he gave me all of this stuff. And so everything that I like, they just nailed it. And I remember thinking to myself, I wonder who they asked. And three people came into mind. One is my wife, obviously.
Esther may have been the one that told them. And then the second person I thought is like, Pastor Mark probably knows because I spend the most time with him outside of the church. And then the third person that I think of is Pastor Aaron probably knows. And so my immediate thought was, that's the most logical person he probably asked because he knows him.
And so again, Pastor Aaron and I spent so much time together while he was here. And one of the things that I miss about him being up there that we're not able to spend that kind of time, but he's a brother that I love and God is using powerfully.
And again, many guys know he's a gifted speaker. I think he'd be a great professor if he wanted to be, great communicator. But above everything that I appreciate about him, he genuinely loves the Lord. And that's the thing I appreciate about him the most. I mean, as gifted as he is, there's a sincerity in his heart that I appreciate and I'm encouraged by.
So Pastor Aaron's going to come up here and he's going to give us the encouragement. And then I think he's going to introduce a little video from his church before he begins. So let's all welcome him. All right. Well, it's good to see all of you. As Pastor Peter mentioned, we do have a little video prepared in preparation for the 20 year anniversary.
We were super excited to be able to celebrate with you guys. I know a lot of our members up in the Bay, they would have loved to be here this weekend, but we're all having babies and stuff, so it's kind of just too hard to do that. And so this is the next best thing.
But please, you know, like the heart and just the love from which this video came. Hope you guys enjoy. Hi BCC. Congrats. Congrats. Congratulations, BCC. On your 20th anniversary. It's been a great 20 years. 20 years. 20 years. Wow, what a great achievement. I can't believe it's been that long.
I remember when I first went to Berean, we were meeting at a park. It was about 90 people. We had Bible study at Pastor Peter's house. Everyone's crowded around, sitting on the stairs, overflowing into the kitchen. Probably my fondest memories of BCC was just listening to all the sermons by Pastor Peter.
I just remember all the tangents, the crazy tangents he would go on. But in the very end, he would always wrap it up and say something about Christ, and that's how I grew a lot. Thanks for seeing me through most of my life, through high school, through college, back when it was Harvest, through my marriage, and supporting us on our move up to Plant BMC up here in NorCal.
I just really want to thank all the pastors, elders, brothers and sisters who were really with me during my college years. I really feel like BCC was a huge part of why I am the person that I am today, and I just really want to thank you for that.
We're so encouraged by God's faithfulness over your church for these past 20 years. And so it's been great also to see how God has brought you guys so far, how big you guys have grown. I'm thankful for all the relationships that I was able to build there. And I'm so thankful and grateful to the leadership, to the members, to my friends down there.
But really, we want to thank Pastor Peter and the leadership team for just leading the church. For just being men of the word and for always giving us guidance and wisdom. Really encouraged by all of you guys and just everything that you've done. I want to encourage everyone to follow their leadership.
One thing that I know for sure is that they've been praying for you and they continue to pray for you. And I pray that for you, Pastor Peter, that God will continue to use you and your ministry to glorify Christ all the more. We're really thankful for all the support that you guys give us.
There's many of you that supported us moving up here to the Bay Area. And we definitely would not be where we are today without you guys. BMC up here is a fruit of your guys' labor. I only hope that BMC could be a place that models exactly what you guys have been doing through loving each other, following the word, and glorifying God.
And I hope for many more years of BCC just committing to their community and loving and supporting their members. And praying that God would continue to really grow Berean in the next 20 plus years as well. I hope that your church grows even more for the glory of God.
I'm really excited for you guys and what the future holds. So I continue to encourage you guys to just keep being faithful to God and preaching the gospel and having that fellowship and just enjoying what God is doing in the midst of you guys. We love you guys and miss you guys.
We're very thankful just for all your support and your prayers and just your partnership in the gospel. And we can't wait to visit and see you guys again. Right here, okay? Okay. Congrats BCC. I love you. I miss you. I pray for you. And I just pray. Say it one more time.
Congrats BCC. Congrats BCC. I was watching that video before we showed it tonight and was just reminded of the fact that so many people at Berean Mission Church are really originally from Berean Community Church. And like Pastor Peter, I've been approached by church planners as well asking me if they have any, or if I have any tips or advice or counsel to offer as a recent church planner myself.
And really the thing that I always return back to again and again is have a solid team. Have a solid team. And I don't think the team that we planted the church with four years ago would have been possible unless they had grown and they were discipled through the ministry that took place here.
And so we are indebted. BMC is indebted to Berean Community Church for just so many years of faithful ministry. And it's again just awesome to be able to come tonight and to celebrate with you guys. When you see the same person day after day, week after week, year after year, it's hard to notice the changes they undergo over time.
Whether those changes are physical or emotional or even spiritual, change is just one of those things that's easier to observe from a distance. It's kind of like the feeling you get when it's been a while since you last saw a kid that you used to babysit. One day they're just cute, goofy and fun to play with.
And then you fast forward a few years later and they're six feet tall and they got facial hair. Their voice is about three octaves lower than you last remember. That's kind of the sensation I had when I saw Jonathan, Phillip and Mary and Son. I was like, "Where in the world did all this growth come from?" It's really hard for me to believe, but four years have passed since I was last a member of this church.
And so I feel like I have something of a unique perspective that I can offer on how Berean has changed and evolved over the years. I started attending Berean back when I was a freshman at UCSD. And like many other believers my age, I was looking for a church near campus that I could commit to for the next four years.
The problem was home for me was in Irvine, which was only about an hour's drive away. And so every two or three weeks, which was basically any time I went to see my parents or I had to do laundry, I'd end up hitching a ride with a friend. And I would find myself here at Berean on Sunday mornings listening to Pastor Peter preach.
This was back when we were still meeting in Tustin and our attendance hovered around 30 people or so. And it was about halfway through that first year in college that I decided to abandon my search for a church in SD, choosing instead to come home every weekend just so I could attend this church.
It definitely wasn't the most convenient thing in the world, but I figured the fellowship's good, the preaching's great, and I was growing spiritually, so what more could I ask for? And not once did I ever regret that decision. Throughout my time at Berean I've seen a lot of change take place.
I remember us moving from Tustin to Lakeside Middle School and Elder Phillip coming up one day after the service was finished to announce that we needed to hold an emergency offering just so we could pay the rent. I also remember that back in those days Pastor Peter would jet right after church because he needed to drive all the way to Vegas because he had a small business there.
He did that because our budget at that time wasn't sufficient to pay him an adequate salary and so he needed to work. He needed to work to somehow provide for his family. But you know what? Every single week at the end of that week he'd make that long drive back to Irvine because he also needed to provide for his spiritual family as well.
And that's exactly what happened. Every Friday and every Sunday he faithfully preached God's Word to us and we were fed. We were nourished as a result. I remember the church eventually outgrowing Lakeside and us moving to Harvard and then outgrowing Harvard and moving to Turtle Rock and outgrowing Turtle Rock and moving to Northwood and then outgrowing Northwood and us ending up at Utt Middle School.
I remember walking into Utt on that very first Sunday we were there thinking to myself, "This place is way too big for a church our size." At the very same time I remember feeling this sense of relief because being at Utt meant that our church would never ever, ever have to move again.
Of course little did I know that only a few years later we'd end up outgrowing that space as well. Thankfully by then as Pastor Peter described earlier, God's grace had enabled our church to grow to a point where we could purchase and move into a building of our very own.
In 2012 a first in the history of Berean. And that was really crazy when it happened. I know for a lot of you guys you walk into this building and it's still kind of crazy but as nice and big and impressive as this place might be you have to understand that Bereans back in the day we were used to being a bunch of nomads.
Switching locations every few years, going wherever the Lord saw fit to lead us. And so the mere thought of settling down and anchoring ourselves for a long period of time in just one place, I mean that was a paradigm shift for those of us who had been with this church from the time that it was first planted.
So then you can see why moving into our own building four years ago or six years ago rather was such a watershed moment in Bereans history. But not only did we move into that building but here we are today six years later in yet another new building. A building that I hope and pray that the Lord will continue to use as he works to advance his kingdom.
Yes friends Berean has changed a lot. Speaking personally for a moment I remember the exact moment when it dawned on me just how much this church had changed. My family decided to come down on one random weekend and we were coming here to church. We had rolled up into the parking lot.
I distinctly remember looking outside and noticing that I wasn't really recognizing a lot of the faces that were outside of the building. And it was as we were walking in that morning that one of the college students who was serving on welcome team handed me a program and asked me if I was new.
And I remember thinking to myself as I looked at him, what did you just say? I'll be honest with you I was super offended. But at the very same time I was super grateful. And I was grateful because I understood that all these new people who did not know me and whom I did not know were tangible sign and reminder of God's faithfulness to this church.
All that to say whether you've been at Berean for a short time or a long time it's probably somewhat difficult really for any of us to fully appreciate all the changes that have taken place here throughout the years. But I also think that's the main reason why God has given us tonight, he's given us this evening a service celebrating 20 years of ministry to be an opportunity for us as a church to take a collective step back and to consider all that he has done and continues to do in our midst.
So to that end let's briefly turn our attention to God's word. In addition to being an affirmation I'm also hoping that tonight's message would serve as an exhortation as we look to Berean's future together. Turn with me to Psalm 127, the 127th Psalm. Psalm 127 verses 1 and 2.
This is God's word. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Psalm 127 belongs to a special group of Psalms that's generally referred to by commentators as the songs of ascent. Each and every year all God-fearing Jews in Israel, they would make this pilgrimage to the city of Jerusalem so they could participate in one of three religious festivals that were mandated by the Mosaic law.
Since Jerusalem was situated on top of a hill, these worshippers would quite literally have to ascend as they drew closer and closer to the holy city. And over the course of time it became something of a tradition among these Jews to sing these Psalms on their way up to Jerusalem, which is why they've come to be known today as the songs of ascent.
Now in addition to being described as a song of ascent, the inscription that precedes this Psalm also identifies King Solomon as its author. As you guys probably know, most of the Psalms that we have in our Bibles today were written by King David, but at least a couple of them were also written by King Solomon.
As a matter of fact, 1 Kings chapter 4 tells us that Solomon authored over 3,000 Proverbs and 1,000 songs throughout the course of his lifetime, but only two of them have been preserved for us on the pages of Scripture, the Psalm that we're looking at this evening, Psalm 127 and Psalm 72.
Now I'm calling attention to the fact that Solomon is a writer of this Psalm because it helps us to better understand the historical context, the background for what we're reading. See Solomon, he was famous for a number of different reasons. For one thing, he was famous for being David's son.
King David was the greatest king that Israel had ever known, and so his posterity was a subject of great interest among the nation's citizens. Moreover, Solomon was quite famous for being a man who was very wise. I think most of us are probably familiar with all the stories in the Bible that describe Solomon and his wisdom, his interactions with the Queen of Sheba, his settlement of a dispute between two warring women by suggesting that they divide a baby in half.
You guys know these stories. But perhaps the defining aspect of Solomon's reign as king was a simple fact that he was the one specifically chosen by God to build the temple in Jerusalem. Remember, before the temple was first constructed, God had made his dwelling among the people of Israel inside of a tent known as a tabernacle.
We have a picture of it. There you go. As I mentioned before, you know, Berean moved quite a bit throughout its first 20 years. Well, in the same way the Israelites of the Old Testament, they were constantly on the move in the wilderness before they entered into the Promised Land.
For 40 years, any time God wanted them to start walking, the pillar of cloud and fire would ascend. Any time God wanted them to stop walking, the pillar of cloud and fire would descend. And so the Israelites, the nation of Israel, the people of Israel, they were used to moving.
Therefore, any house of worship that Israel used during those wilderness years needed to be as mobile as the people were expected to be, which is exactly why this tabernacle was so ideal. See, not only could it be set up and broken down relatively quickly, but it was also highly portable and travel-friendly as well.
But here's the thing. After Israel had conquered and settled into the Promised Land, the tabernacle had finished serving its purpose. It had run its course. Now that the nation of Israel had taken up residence in the land of Canaan, no longer would the people need a portable tent to worship God.
Instead, a more permanent solution was required, namely a temple. And it was Solomon, the author of this psalm, who was handpicked and chosen by the Lord to be the one to build it. We have a picture of that too. Here's Solomon's temple. Many years prior, it was David, Solomon's father, who initially proposed the idea of building a temple for the Lord.
In other words, the temple was originally his suggestion. Unfortunately for David, God forbade him from building the temple because David was a man of war. That is, too much blood had been spilt on David's account in battle. And therefore, Solomon, David's son, he was the one who received the honor and the privilege of building a temple for God.
Now to his credit, rather than sulking about the fact that he was not allowed to build the temple, David took it upon himself to gather all the different materials that his son Solomon would later need for the temple's construction. Gold, silver, bronze, iron, cedarwood, onyx, marble, and all manner of precious stones.
And after Solomon assumed the throne, he took all of these different things that his father, David, had accumulated and prepared for him over the years, and he wasted no time getting to work. He recruited the strongest workmen. He commissioned the very best artisans. He enlisted the most skilled craftsmen.
And together, all these people, they constructed a temple. A temple according to the specifications and design that David, his father, had received from God. It was the crowning achievement of Solomon's life, or at least it should have been. Follow along as I read from 1 Kings 6.38. I believe the AV team will put it up on the slide for you.
It says there, "In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house, that is the temple, was finished in all its parts and according to all its specifications. He, that is Solomon, was seven years in building it." And so it took Solomon a total of seven years to finish building a house for God.
But I want you to notice what it says in the very next verse, in chapter 7, verse 1. Solomon was building his own house thirteen years. And so it took seven years for Solomon to finish building the temple, but it took nearly double that time for him to finish building a house for himself.
A royal palace befitting the wisest king that the world had ever known. I want us to navigate through the remainder of our time together by addressing three specific questions for us to consider. And the first is this, Berean, what are you building? What are you building? You know, if there's anything that we can learn from Solomon's life, it's this.
Even as we are busy building something for God, we can be just as tempted to build something for ourselves at the very same time. Even as we're busy doing the work of ministry, doing something for the Lord, we can just as easily, if we're not careful, end up doing something really for ourselves.
And if we're not watchful and vigilant, the line between those two things can become easily blurred. As much as I hate to admit it, I think church leaders are especially vulnerable to this. You know, when we first planted BMC, and I saw the church beginning to grow, I will admit to you guys that I got really excited.
And the reason why I got excited was because I knew that there were a ton of church plants throughout the Bay Area that were struggling to get off the ground, but for whatever reason, that was never our problem. People were coming, and the church was getting bigger, and by all accounts, our ministry was thriving.
But after a while, in the height of my excitement, I had to do a gut check, and I had to ask myself a really important question. The question was this, what am I excited about? What am I actually excited about? Am I excited because our numbers are increasing, or because God's kingdom is expanding?
Am I excited because BMC is growing, or because people's faith is deepening? I mean, consider all the metrics that we so oftentimes use to gauge ministry success in the church these days. Attendance, the size of the budget, the fruitfulness of our programs, the production value of our services. No doubt we should strive for excellence.
We should strive for success in all things related to ministry. However, if we are not vigilant, we can easily fall prey to the inherent desire that all of us struggle with, which is to make much of ourselves, to make much of who we are. And so we need to be careful.
We need to be careful because we live in a culture of self-promotion, where we measure our value and worth based on how many likes we have, how many followers we've gained, how much influence we wield, how many people we know, how much recognition we've received. I'm not above that, even as a pastor, and neither are you.
But beloved, this church, Berean Community Church, has never been about any of those things. One of the most important questions that you and this church can ask yourselves is, "What are we building?" Are we investing in people? Are we making disciples? Are we preaching the good news? We need to ask these types of questions because, frankly speaking, nothing else matters in ministry.
We can do a whole lot. People can come and be excited to be a part of Berean, but at the end of the day, it does not mean a thing if all we're doing is building our own little kingdom here on earth. Believe it or not, no one knew this better than King Solomon.
You see, years after he had finished building the temple, years after he had finished building a palace complex for himself, he said this in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Go ahead and keep your fingers in Psalm 127, but flip over with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 2. It's just a couple books over.
This is what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes chapter 2, beginning from verse 4. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.
I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.
Verse 9, so I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me and whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure for my heart found pleasure in all my toil and this was my reward for all my toil.
Look at verse 11. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I expended in doing it and behold, all was vanity. All was vanity in a striving after wind and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. Berean, you guys have an amazing building.
You guys have a wonderful ministry. You guys have great pastors and solid leaders. You have an arsenal of volunteers and servants at your disposal. You have money and you have manpower and you have resources that virtually every other church around you would envy. Be encouraged by how much the Lord has blessed you.
But having said that, know this, it's all vanity if it's not for Christ. It's all completely pointless. Again, ask yourselves, what are we building here? What are we investing in? What are we giving ourselves to? How is our time being spent? How are our finances being utilized? What is this ministry ultimately about?
Is it to build the kingdom of Berean or are we seeking to build the kingdom of God? Are we trying to promote ourselves or are we seeking to proclaim Christ? If you have reason to celebrate anything tonight, and I believe you most certainly do, it's not because this church is big and it's not because this building is nice and it's not because the finances are now finally stable.
Instead, the real reason for us to celebrate this evening is because for the last 20 years, God by his grace has used Berean Community Church to convert sinners, to make disciples, to teach his word and to preach the gospel and lives have been changed as a result. Just look around you.
Keep focused on building the kingdom of God. We've considered the question, what are we building? But I'd like to follow that up with a second question. The question is this, how are we building it? Turning our attentions back to Psalm 127, let me read it again, it's short. Psalm 127 verses 1 and 2, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep." Here in verse 1, Solomon uses a rhetorical device that's known as Hebrew parallelism.
It's very common in Old Testament wisdom and poetry literature. Hebrew parallelism occurs whenever a single idea is being expressed in multiple ways. So again, if you look at verse 1, it says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain." That's statement one. It's followed by another statement, "Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." So you got two statements that essentially say the same thing.
Also notice that Solomon, he seeks to further his argument by means of repetition. Observe how the phrase "in vain" is repeated three times throughout the course of these two verses. "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest." And so the primary idea that Solomon is driving home here is the utter vanity of trying to do anything by our own strength and effort alone. In other words, the folly of human arrogance and pride is buying into the illusion that we can do anything apart from God.
Pursuing the things that this church has been pursuing for the last 20 years. Ministry success, ministry fruitfulness, but doing so without divine enablement. It is a completely pointless endeavor. That is what Solomon is trying to convey. Sure, we may achieve some favorable outcomes. Sure, we may even see some positive results with little to no dependence upon the Spirit of God, but none of it will mean a thing if God is not blessing us.
Whether we know it or not, you and I and this church is absolutely and totally dependent and reliant upon God for everything, for everything that we do. Especially when it comes to ministry. No amount of worldly success can deny that truth. If we hope for Berean Community Church to continue having an enduring impact, a lasting legacy here on earth, it has to come about by a wholehearted commitment, a wholehearted reliance upon Christ.
Earlier this week, I was having dinner with some people here, and I don't know how many times I said something along the lines of, "I wish at BMC we had a Sarah Kim. I wish at BMC we had a Tanya Lee. I wish we had a ..." I mentioned all you guys by name, I promise.
You guys are so blessed. You guys are so blessed. You have an amazing pool of talent and gifts here at this church. But here's a danger. Talented people and gifted churches are more susceptible to depending upon themselves rather than depending upon the Lord. That's just our natural tendency. As I reflect on the history of this church, the thing that I most appreciate is the fact that even though for the most of our 20 years as a church, we weren't the most polished, we weren't the most efficient, we weren't the most organized, we weren't the most impressive, the one thing that we could always bank on was that this church was a church that prayed.
That's a legacy that Pastor Peter and the leaders here have established many, many years ago. This was always a church that prayed. So then as Berean looks to its future, I want to ask the question once again, how will Berean be built? How will this church grow? Will it be solely based on the talents and skills of the people here?
Will it be entirely dependent upon the knowledge and the resources that you have been able to acquire for yourselves? Or will it be because God himself is supplying you with the strength and the energy that you need to labor on his behalf? You are trying to accomplish things that no amount of human ingenuity can possibly engineer or manufacture.
The conversion of sinners, the making of disciples, you can't do that with clever planning and strategy. You have to depend on the Spirit. God said so himself, Zechariah 4, 6, "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts." Remind yourself of that again and again and again.
Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. Friends, only God is sovereign. Only God is totally able. So let's not only make sure that what we are building is approved by God, but let's also be sure that how we are building it reflects our absolute dependence upon him.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Before we wrap up, let me go and raise a third and a final question about the church. Who will ultimately build it?
Who will ultimately build the church? You know, the first ever occurrence of the word church in our Bibles doesn't come from the Old Testament. Back in the Old Testament, God worked through a geopolitical nation known as the nation of Israel. In the New Testament, God starts operating through a multinational, multicultural group of believers known as the church.
And the first time that the word church is mentioned is found in Matthew chapter 16. There Peter, upon being asked by Jesus, "Who do people say that I am?" makes this famous confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And this is how our Lord responds in Matthew 16, 17, and 18, "Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Friends, Jesus has pledged to build his church and he vows that the gates of hell shall not prevail against him. You know, I think some of you guys may be aware, many of you guys probably are aware of the fact that on this Palm Sunday, earlier this morning, halfway across the world, two Christian churches in Egypt were bombed by suicide bombers.
There were 30 people, 30 of our own brothers and sisters were killed. And that is just a small reflection of what's taking place all around the world. Hostility, opposition, antagonism, persecution are being waged against the church and yet still Jesus says, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." We know, we know this is a sure and certain promise that Jesus makes because Jesus loves his church.
The gospel tells us so. In the gospel, in the good news of Jesus Christ, we are reminded that for the church, Christ took on human flesh being born of a virgin. For the church, Christ lived a righteous life fulfilling the law. For the church, Christ died a horrible death being crucified on a Roman cross.
For the church, Christ received upon himself the full wrath of God against our sins as our substitute. For the church, Christ rose from the dead three days after being crucified. For the church, Christ ascended into heaven where today he sits at the right hand of the Father and for the church, Christ has promised to one day return so that we might be taken up with him into glory.
But in the meantime, in the meanwhile, as we wait, Christ builds his church. And so it's my hope and my prayer that we as Berean would be eager to join him as he does so. Friends there is nothing, nothing quite like the church of Jesus Christ. No other human organization, no other earthly institution can compare to it.
It is totally, utterly unique. It is blood bought, spirit led, God ordained. Berean tonight's anniversary celebration is not just an opportunity for us to look backwards, to think about all that God has accomplished in our midst for the last 20 years. This is an opportunity for us to look forward, to look ahead and to anticipate what the Lord will be doing for the next 20 years and beyond as he continues to bear fruit through you for his glory.
So I hope that you would take that as both an affirmation again as well as an exhortation. May Jesus be honored and glorified through the body of Christ here at Berean Community Church. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our heavenly Father, we are thankful for 20 years of ministry.
We're thankful Lord God for all the fruit that you produced by your grace Lord God and through your spirit. Lord, we confess before you now more than ever, we are in need. We are in need Lord God because no amount of resources or manpower or finances that are at our disposal is sufficient Lord God to accomplish the work at hand.
It is kingdom work. And so we pray Lord that you would empower us, that you would enable us Lord, that you would remind us of the fact that we are needy and dependent people and that this church is needy and dependent upon you. And Father Lord as you continue to use Berean Community Church and the saints that you've gathered here to accomplish your work, we pray Lord God that Christ, Christ alone be honored and glorified.
His name that we pray. Thank you Pastor Aaron for a powerful reminder for our church. And again, all of those three points are things that I pray that God would convict in our hearts and things that we follow and examine as we go forward. Before we ask Dr. Proud to come up and he's going to wrap us up, just a few quick announcements.
We do have dinner ready. So after this is over, I think the dinner is set up outside, right? Out in the courtyard. And then while you're out there getting the dinner, we're going to move the chairs and we're going to set up the tables in here. And so you guys can eat in here and then even if it gets dark, we don't have to worry about lighting.
So if some of you guys can help us out. One warning, please do not drag the chairs, okay? Because it'll scratch up the floor and we want to keep it, keep the new church smell as long as possible. So try to, when you put it, don't drag it. We have what are called dollies to kind of move it.
So if you can stack it up and then a few of the people who have the dollies will come and take it and put it to the side. And then meanwhile, the other people will set up the chairs and the tables at the same time. So immediately, if you guys can just move outside after we're done and then just we'll begin to serve dinner.
And while you're getting it, we'll try to get this room set up. Okay? Before we close, I want to introduce our Dr. Michael Proud. He came and spoke to us several years ago and I think a lot of you guys know because I've been telling you about Dr. Proud and how he's become a good friend, you know, and part of the reason why we've been getting more involved with the Southern Baptist is because of him.
And I met him through a friend's ordination and then we made a connection and really felt like this was a like-minded brother, like-hearted brother. And every time I meet with him, I'm reminded that we're not running this race alone. And so it's a great encouragement to know that somebody who is working for the Southern Baptist in this area is a brother that we can really rely on and lean on.
And so I've asked him to come and bless us in prayer as we wrap up. So let's welcome Dr. Proud. Thank you, Aaron. This has been a moving time. I've had over the last six years the opportunity to get to know your pastor and Mark and was here when Aaron and his family left, when your mission group went to China, and now coming to this place.
You know, Southern Baptists for years and years have put on the cover of their magazines and their publications, those churches that have grown exponentially to highlight the things that they have done and how they've achieved success. We still use a model of success by counting how many baptisms we've done, how many people are in seats, and how many, how our budgets have grown.
But I think that 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 6 tells us that Paul said, "I planted a Paulist water, but it was God who caused the growth." I wish that Southern Baptists had had a picture of Berean Community Church when it was five years old or six years old and struggling and making sacrifices because I think that's the picture of success.
Success is when God's people are obedient. The growth part is God's business. And I think that as we remember what Pastor Aaron said moving forward, I was challenged. As we remember that it's God who causes the growth, our business is obedience. And I pray that for the next 20 years and beyond, that Berean continue to move on what got you to this place is what will carry you forward.
I'm just going to ask if everyone, if you'll stand as we dismiss from this evening. And thank you, Pastor Peter, for inviting me to partake and be a part of this. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we recognize that as we celebrate this day, not only 20 years of ministry, but Father, also remembering the triumphal entry as you entered Lord into Jerusalem to die on that cross.
Father, I pray that this time will be etched in our memories, all of us, that we move forward by being obedient. We minister out of a love relationship with you and we trust you with everything that comes out of that. Father, may we be mindful that without you, we could accomplish nothing.
And so Lord, we surrender ourselves to you. And we we ask, Father, that you might bring someone into our path, that we might share the story of how you touched our lives and gave us life. Lord, we love you and we praise you. May you bless us as we leave this place.
For we pray these things in Jesus name.