- Thank you, Pastor Mark. And it's fine. I mean, I know Corey can be both a male and female name. You did a better job than me because I think last time I came up, I didn't even acknowledge her. So, yeah, I think I said I had two kids and I realized, "Oh, wait, no, I have three." So, you're ahead of the curve.

All right. Again, I'm grateful for this opportunity to come and share the Word of God with you this morning. And so, let's pray and then I'm going to jump into the sermon. Lord God, thank you again so much for this morning and, again, what an opportunity to come and to worship you in spirit and in truth, in connection, in relationship with our spiritual family.

Thank you so much for providing this avenue and we pray, Lord God, that as we go into your Word this morning, that you would engage us, that you would help us, Lord God, to be sober, to be alert, to know, Lord God, that we have been given a tremendous honor to be messengers of your gospel.

And so, please, Lord God, help us to understand that this morning. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. This week was a little bit more hectic than most weeks because this Saturday, we'll be departing to go overseas. And so, there's a lot of things that our family is just juggling through right now.

And so, the title of the sermon is kind of...it wasn't my first option, okay? It was more like, it was Saturday morning and Pastor Mark messaged me and said, "Hey, I need a sermon title." I'm like, "Uh." And typically, for me, that's kind of an indication like, "Oh, there's going to be some problems because either you don't have a main point that you want to stick to and it's just like a hot mess." But I titled this sermon, "Planning to Fail or Failing to Plan," primarily because there was a quote that stood out to me by John J.

Beckley. And his quote is, "Most people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan." And I think as our family is getting ready to leave, there was something in my heart that said, "You need to plan the next phase of your life now." And it was just such a great opportunity even though life was pretty hectic this week and, you know, my sister-in-law is having a baby shower today, so my wife was busy doing that.

And my wife is amazing, Jen is amazing, she's juggling all that and packing all of our stuff. But that afforded me the time to start thinking ahead. What can we do to prepare for this next phase in life? And obviously, this quote who came from this guy isn't anything new in God's eyes, right?

There was always a plan, there was always something that involves planning and purpose. 1 Corinthians 9, 24 to 27 says, "Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

They do it to receive a perishable reef, but we, an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified." And so, as we see in this text, in this imagery of an athletic life, Christian living is designed to be with purpose and with plans.

And so, as I come before you this morning with God's word, I just want to share with you guys, I guess, four components of our plan when we get overseas, what we hope to do and hope to accomplish, primarily in regards to just our own spiritual walk, okay? I hope that any one of these goals that we share with you may resonate with you.

I hope that something will stick in your heart, something will stick in your mind, and that you'll take away with that, and that it will be impactful for you. And if you ever are reminded, "Hey, I remember that sermon that Pastor Alex gave, and I remember this one point," take some time to pray for us as well.

We are in dire need of your prayers. And so, the first point, and I'm sorry, I didn't make a PowerPoint today, so we're in old school, so listen carefully. We're going to be flipping through our Bibles. Turn with me to Hebrews 6, 11 through 12. I felt confident I could use Hebrews 6 because you guys probably won't get there until next year.

So, hopefully, by then, you guys will forget about this. But Hebrews 6, 11 through 12. And the first component of our plan, at least in regards to our own spiritual walk, is to be more assured of my salvation, to be more assured of my salvation than today. And so, the question we must ask is, "What is assurance?

What does that word mean?" We're not talking about insurance, we're talking about assurance. And the way I would define assurance is, it's that unwavering belief that your faith in Christ is real, genuine. You're not looking at the doctrine of what brings about salvation, but you're looking at the quality of belief.

All right? There's a book I read recently by Sinclair Ferguson. It was titled, "The Whole Christ." And his book was basically talking about legalism, antinomianism, and a specific controversy in the Presbyterian Church a long time ago. And there was a specific book that was written that kind of sparked this controversy called, "The Marrow of Modern Divinity." And "The Marrow of Modern Divinity" was kind of written like Pilgrim's Progress, where you have different characters talking to each other, and as you see their conversation, it kind of produces like this understanding of certain doctrines from the Bible.

And so, there's this conversation that took place between these two characters named, Neophytus and Evangelista. And I wanted to share with you this conversation just so you get the gist of what assurance means. Neophytus starts off by saying, "Sir, I know that the foundation whereon I am to ground my faith remains sure, and I think I have already built thereon.

But yet, because I conceive a man may think he has done so when he has not, therefore, would I fain know how I may be assured that I have so done?" And so, Evangelista, he replies, "Well, now I understand you what you mean. It seems you do not want a ground for your believing, but for your believing that you have believed." I know that you're going like deep dive, right?

You're like, "Oh, my gosh, do I believe what I actually believe?" And that's what assurance is actually focusing on, right? We could come and sing songs every Sunday. We come to Bible study and participate in filling out the worksheets and listening to the Word of God being taught. But if that just stays in your head and it's just knowledge, and it doesn't move you to some sort of action, then you have to answer this question, "Do you actually believe what you believe?" Now, why assurance?

Why do I want to be more assured of my salvation than today? Well, the assurance of salvation was one of the most...one of the prominent biblical truths that affected my walk with God immediately. It was a chapter in J.C. Ryle's book, Holiness, called Assurance. And that chapter just really flipped my world upside down because it caused me to recognize that if I truly believe what I see in Scripture, then my life needs to match up, at least align myself to what the Scripture is saying, right?

There's no halfway in, halfway out when it comes to Christianity. There's no category for that in the Scriptures. You're all in or you're all out. And so, by responding to the gospel, by going all in, there was a certain degree of purpose and direction, at least for my life and in Jen's life.

And it gives us assurance that whatever we're doing, we know has value and purpose in God's eyes. I'm going to quote from J.C. Ryle, and I hope that this quote will help you understand more about what assurance can do for the Christian life. Ryle writes, "Now, assurance goes far to set a child of God free from this painful kind of bondage and thus ministers mightily to his comfort.

Assurance enables him to feel that the great business of life is a settled business, the great debt, a paid debt, the great disease, a healed disease, and the great work, a finished work. And all other businesses, diseases, debts, and works are then by comparison small. In this way, assurance makes him patient in tribulation, calm under bereavements, unmoved in sorrow, not afraid of evil tidings, in every condition, content, for it gives him a fixedness of heart.

Assurance sweetens his bitter cups. It lessens the burden of his crosses. It smooths the rough places over which he travels. It lightens the valley of the shadow of death. It makes him always feel that he has something solid beneath his feet and something firm under his hands. A sure friend by the way and a sure home at the end.

And so when it comes down to assurance, it provides this, I guess you could say, a safety net of sorts when you walk in faith, as you walk as a Christian wherever you are, whether it's on campus, whether it's at work, whether it's at home. Because we have to remind ourselves, right, we are not of this world, right?

We're not supposed to be liked by this world. And as a result, pressures will come, whether pressures from inside our own hearts, whether pressures from outside, pressure is going to come. And if we understand what this doctrine does for us, it frees us, it empowers us, it enables us to continue to walk by faith and not by sight, even in the stormiest seasons of our lives.

Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 6, 11 through 12, and it says, "And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." And so, I looked at this passage because there are three reasons why we should pursue assurance, right?

Why that should be at the forefront of our minds as we pursue Christ. And the first desire for assurance is so that we may not be sluggish in our present lives, right? So that we may not be sluggish, right? In deepening our sense of assurance, it can only heighten the awareness of God's presence, His grace, His holiness, every other attribute of God, right?

It only heightens that in our lives. The word sluggishness there could be replaced with the word dullness, right? So sluggishness or dullness will not be an issue because we know our purpose. We know what the end goal of our lives is supposed to be. And so, we have purpose.

We do not lack direction. The second reason to desire assurance is so that we may be imitators of those in our past who confess faith. Now, pursuing assurance can be a lonely thing because sometimes we don't think about our salvation in that way. And as a result, it can be very, very lonely.

But Hebrews 6, 11 through 12 tells us that it's not a lonely path at all. In fact, many other believers have walked down this path in history. It's a sense of assurance for us knowing that this path is the right path that we're supposed to be on because so many others have gone before us.

We have a rich history as believers of faithful men and women who ran this race of faith, and so we need to tap into that resource to know our spiritual heritage, to understand what these brothers and sisters have gone through in the past. The third reason we should desire assurance is because we get to inherit the promises that God has already given, right?

We get to inherit the promises that have already been given. And these promises, we get to enter the kingdom of God, right? We get the forgiveness of sins if we confess it in faith. We're able to understand that our life does not belong here. So we don't waste our resources trying to build our kingdom here, but we wisely and shrewdly use our resources so that we can see God's kingdom expand here in the proclamation of the gospel, in the planting of churches, in the discipling of the believers.

Now, you guys might be wondering why assurance, right? Why are you talking about assurance so much? I mean, you are a pastor. You've gone overseas, right? And I don't share this with you because I'm doubting my salvation, right? I'm pretty assured of my salvation. But the reason why I share this prayer request with you is because I want to know more about who my God is, right?

I want to know more. I desire that intimacy with Him. And when you desire that intimacy and when you walk in obedience to what God has called you to do, you will see a quality of life in you that is so much more different than your past life, than before you were a believer.

And it should cause us to hunger more for that. And so, the first one that, again, the first component of our plan when we go overseas is so that we would be more assured of our salvation than today. Now, I move to my second point here. Our second component is to continually count the cost of a life abandoned to Christ.

To continually count the cost of a life abandoned to Christ. So, if you turn with me to Mark 8, verse 34, let's go ahead and open up your app and go to Mark 8, probably faster than me. Mark 8, verse 34. And in this particular section of Scripture, Christ is teaching his disciples and what he is teaching them is paradigm shifting, right?

My professor, Dr. Harris, would say, "These are theological bombshells," right? Because it's just like, "Boom," right? To these disciples. It's the first time that they're hearing that Jesus affirmed his messiahship, right? The first time that Jesus affirms that he is the Messiah. Okay? This is also the first time where Jesus speaks about his death and resurrection to his disciples.

Okay? And we're going to focus on this third theological bombshell because in Mark 8, verse 34, he lays out for them, what is the cost of being a disciple? And the primary focus of this cost comes in these three commands here. "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Three imperatives in the Greek, which means we have three commands here.

Three imperatives where there is no wriggling around whether I should obey it or not. Rather, we need to obey it. And as we look at these three commands, I want to point out that there are two relationships that are going to be sacrificed. Two relationships that are going to be sacrificed.

In one sense, Christ is calling for an end to a relationship of yourself. The word "deny" here means to act in a selfless manner, right? To deny yourself means to basically no longer consider yourself. One commentator wrote in regards to the word "deny," "I must not confess myself and my own being nor cling to myself, but abandon myself in a radical renunciation of myself and not merely of my sins.

I must no longer seek to establish my life of myself, but I resolutely accept death and allow myself to be established by Christ in discipleship." So when it comes to denying yourself, right, it's a command in which we are called to renunciate ourselves, right? I mean, you can look at the culture, you can look at the news, you can see what people are going after, and it's strong, guys.

I mean, having been in America for the last seven months, I mean, I'm like ready to leave. I was getting my teeth done and, you know, they have a TV up on the ceiling, which I've never done that before because I haven't gone to the dentist in a long time.

And I'm just reading the little ticker things, the headlines, and I'm just, like, getting so discouraged. And maybe it's because I'm getting drilled too, you know, by the dentist. But, man, it was just, like, really discouraging to see what was going on. And seeing the commercials, you know, like, "Lose weight by coming to our office and, you know, sucking out your fat." I mean, they said it more nicely than that.

That's what I understood it as, you know. "You've been injured in an accident. Call this lawyer and he'll get you all the money and he'll fight for you." Larry H. Parker, right? All this for yourself, right? And sometimes even in Christian culture, that idea of promoting yourself has seeped in.

When clearly in Scripture, Christ commands us to deny ourselves, to not worry about building yourself up or to building up your family up. Rather, we are called to radically renunciate ourselves and to accept death and allow ourselves to be established by Christ. So that's the first relationship in which we see comes to an end as we consider the cost of discipleship.

But the second relationship is our relationship with the world. The phrase there, the command there, "To pick up your cross or to take up his cross," points to the sacrifice, shame, pressure, and persecution that a Christian will receive from this world. John 15, 18 through 19 says, "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore, the world hates you." Now, there is always going to be an innate desire in us to be liked, right?

If I have offended you in any way, it's not because I purposely offended you, okay? We all want to be liked. We all want to be well thought of by our neighbors and by our coworkers. But when it comes to that split-second decision of whether you're going to share the gospel with them, and if that thought enters your mind where it's like, "But if I share with them, they might not like me.

If I share with them, they might think I'm a weirdo or that I'm awkward," that is where we see the need for us to pick up our cross, to recognize that we may be ashamed by this world, right? We may be shamed by this world, but we will not be shamed by Christ as long as we proclaim Him faithfully, boldly, and clearly.

Now, the last command here, "Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." I talked about the ending of two relationships when you follow Christ, when we become a disciple of Christ, right? We end that relationship with ourselves, we end that relationship with the world, but we also gain a relationship.

When I see the phrase "follow me," at least in my younger, immature days, I would like to think that I have matured. That word "follow me" often carries a very like heavy and negative connotation, right? Who wants to be a follower, right? I think we've been taught in school, like, we need to be leaders, we need to be like, you know, innovators.

We need to be like the boss of ourselves. Who wants to be a follower? However, when I look at this command to follow Christ, I think we have to come to this conclusion that though it is a command to follow Him, it is a command that is inviting a relationship into your life.

It's a command that brings about an invitation to gain a relationship with our Lord and Savior. We think about the word "follow" and it sounds so derogatory, and yet, by following Christ, we gain a relationship with the greatest man alive in Jesus. And so, when we understand this phrase "follow me," and we see what we gain by having this relationship with Jesus Christ, or to deepen that relationship with Jesus, then that command doesn't become a burden anymore.

It actually becomes an accelerant to desire Him more, to give up more of our lives for Him. This particular component of our plan came into my mind because as I'm getting older, I'm finding more reasons not to give up. Right? I'm finding more reasons to think about the cost and be like, "No." Right?

I mean, people ask me if saying goodbye this time around is harder than the previous times, right? Because we did something like this three and a half years ago, right? And I would say it's actually much more difficult this time around. And I think primarily it's because of age.

I'm older and the people around me are getting older. You know, it's harder to see when you come back, obviously, your family getting older, right? You want to help your family. You want to be there for your family. You want to make sure your family is set up right.

You know, it's harder because your friends are getting older and they're going through these milestones and you're like, "You're not really a part of it." Right? Like, "I'm a part of it because of Facebook and I like a picture, but I'm not there with you celebrating these milestones." We're not there when suffering happens in our family, both in our spiritual and our physical families.

That's hard to see. The older I get, the more stability I want in my life, right? When I was younger, like, it's okay if you could say, "I don't know." But I'm 35 now and I'm like, "Man, I don't know if I could say, 'I don't know' anymore." So what do you do with your life?

"I don't know." I want stability. And so when I'm confronted by these pressures and by these situations in my life stage, the question that always comes to is like, "Is it still worth it? Like, is it still worth to pack up our bags and still go overseas?" And I can say with confidence, it's a thousand times yes, because of this command, "Follow me." Because in my understanding of Scripture, if I am obeying what Christ has commanded me to do in very specific applications, then I'm going to be where my most favorite person in the world is going to be.

And I'm going to be in his presence. And I'm going to experience a joy and purpose and fulfillment and satisfaction in knowing that I am following my Lord and Savior. And so pray, pray that our family will understand that we need to count the cost more, see where we could give up more for the sake of Christ.

Now, the third component of our plan here is to learn how to share the gospel more clearly, to learn how to share the gospel more clearly. You know, prior to going out the first time, there will be moments in a day where I would go through different scenarios in my mind, where if I were to go and share the gospel with this person and this person responds in that way, how would I respond back, right?

I know, you're probably thinking like, "You're such a weirdo. Who thinks about that?" I do. And I remember when we were in East Asia this past time and we were sharing the gospel with people, and we're talking about sin and we're talking about law, right, we're talking about you fail the commands of God and so you're destined for judgment.

I mean, people were like nodding their heads in like polite, like they don't want to like embarrass you. But there wasn't like a category in their minds for that. It's like you're building it up for them. And I was reading journal articles, I was just reading stuff on like, "Okay, where are more effective ways to share the gospel in Asian context?" And I realized that certain categories are not built in their cultural mindsets, right?

I know, I'm like Asian, I should have picked this up a lot sooner. And so I remember thinking about, "Oh, man, what if I talk...instead of talking about sin, we talk about shame, embarrassment, right? And we talk about honor and share the gospel in terms of those words and that terminology." And I just remember when I was sharing it in that way, it was like a light switch in their eyes.

Immediately, they understood. This is what God did for me? He took away my shame by dying on the cross and replaced me, he gave me this honor? It was mind-blowing for the people that we were sharing the gospel with. And so it got me understanding like, "Okay, I need to learn how to share the gospel more clearly." And Apostle Paul had the same prayer request too.

Colossians 4, turn with me quick. Colossians 4, verse 4. This brought me so much encouragement, right? Colossians 4, verse 3 and 4, we read that here. "At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak." So he's asking for prayer requests for open doors, right?

Even though he's in prison. But on top of that, he's saying, "Pray that I may speak clearly. Pray that I could speak the mystery of Christ in such a way in which the audience will understand it." Now, if you know Paul's speaking history, it's kind of a mixed bag, okay?

He wasn't this dynamic speaker in according to the cultures and customs found in Scripture. And I'll read some Scripture passages that might paint that picture more fully. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1. "And I, Paul, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom." Okay?

2 Corinthians 11, 6. "Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge. Indeed, in every way, we have made this plain to you in all things." So again, the phrase, like, "Even if I am unskilled in speaking." 2 Corinthians 10, 10. And this is what Paul's enemies are saying.

"For they say, 'His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no account.'" I know we read his letters and we're thinking, "Man, Paul's such a clear communicator. Why is he asking for, like, more prayer that he may speak it clearly?" Well, because he recognizes that you don't assume communication.

Right? You don't assume that you are the clearest communicator in this world. Even though Paul has written almost 50% of the New Testament, it appears that his preaching didn't fit the stylistic demands of his time. And yet, God still used Paul. And so, if Paul is making this prayer request, then I think it provides for us a sanctifying moment for us.

Maybe we need to pray and ask God to improve our abilities to speak biblical truths so that we know how we ought to speak. Again, communication is always going to be hazardous to your own health because of the frequency of misunderstandings. I remember I was learning Chinese and I was paired up with Alicia and we had one tutor in front of us.

And he were just going over tones and going over certain words. And I don't know what happened, but I think I was trying to say that, "Oh, I teach kids who went over to America and they came back." Right? Like, the literal translation of that word is like sea turtle.

Okay? But, you know, for Chinese people, it's like they looked at us, "Oh, you went overseas and you came back." Apparently, I said the word turtle wrong. And when I told it to my teacher, I like basically said a curse word. Right? And he knows I'm a Christian and he knows like why we're here.

And so, he was just laughing uncontrollably for like 10 minutes. Like, he looked at me and was like... I was like, "What, man? Like, what did I say?" And finally, he pulled up his dictionary, he showed me the word, I was like really embarrassed, like what I said. That lesson is like imprinted in my mind because of the country that we're trying to minister to.

In one sentence, you could say either Jesus is Lord or Jesus is a pig. Right? Big difference there. And so, the question we have to ask ourselves is, have we ever wrestled with the practical aspect of how to communicate the gospel? Have we considered that the gospel work that is presented to us requires us to pray and ask God for help to figure out what to say and how to say these biblical truths?

As most of you guys know, we're going to be going overseas, but the first two years is really just going to be focused on language study. And if you asked me three years ago about it, I would be very, very, very, very, very, very reluctant just because I'm like, "I don't want to go back to school." But this time around, I'm really excited to learn because I know if I learn this language, if I'm able to master it, if God gives me and Jen the grace to learn this language, how many more people will be able to understand the gospel?

There will be no barriers or misunderstandings, but rather, they will understand it very clearly that they are in need of a savior. And so, that's one of... That's, again, that's our third component of our plan, which is to learn the language well so that we could share the gospel as clearly as possible.

Now, the last component of our plan, the last component is to trust and seek after obedience and joy in Christ. And we'll see that in Isaiah Chapter 12. If you want to flip there with me, Isaiah Chapter 12. Okay. Isaiah Chapter 12, to trust and seek after obedience and joy in Christ.

Now, we got to understand the book of Isaiah. So, in broader context, Chapter 7 through 12 could be considered like a unit in Isaiah, okay? And the reason why is because there are just recurring themes that are connected in all of these chapters from Chapter 7 through 12, right?

We see in Chapter 7 through 12, there's a lot of judgment, right? A lot of judgment and very little blessing. These judgments in Chapter 7 through 12 are against Israel and the nations. In fact, if you go after 12, in Chapters 13 and on, you'll see much more judgment upon the nations, more detailed judgments.

And so, because there are so much judgment in Chapter 7 through 12, when you come across the blessings, right, it just really stands out to you, right? It's such a strong contrast. And some of these blessings include the promise of the Messiah, right? Right, the root of Jesse, the Prince of Peace.

Blessings include a remnant that will be kept by the Lord, right? That there will be a small group of the people of God. They will be preserved. And that the nations will be accepted into the kingdom of God. So, though there is a bunch of judgment against the nations, in these same chapters in 7 through 12, there are promises that the nations themselves will enter into the kingdom of God.

So, when we look at Isaiah Chapter 12 specifically, we have to understand that this is a concluding chapter to this entire section. And if you just look at Isaiah Chapter 11, it's describing this beautiful, peaceful, and just world because the Messiah is on the throne, the root of Jesse.

And so, Chapter 12 kind of gives us the answer to a question. And the question is, how should the people of God respond when all of these good blessings come? When there's all this peace, when there's all this, you know, this goodness that comes from knowing that the Messiah reigns on high?

Remember, the audience has just heard a bunch of judgment. And now, all of a sudden, these blessings are coming. So, they're probably trying to reconcile, "What are we supposed to do here?" And we see in verse 1 that they're called to be thankful, right? "You will say in that day, 'I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry at me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me.'" And there are, again, two reasons for their thankfulness.

God was angry and now he is not. And the same God who was angry is now there to comfort them. Now, again, we could come across this verse and read it as if it was nothing. I mean, we could read it very quickly. But if we sit and dwell upon this truth, I think it will be beneficial for us.

I hope as believers and as members of our church that we don't fall into the trap of thinking that God is somehow some irrational, knee-jerk-reacting God, right? God's anger is not based off of an emotional response. God's anger, when we see in Scripture, does not come as a result of him just feeling insulted and his pride got hurt.

As we know, God and Israel had this relationship because of the Mosaic Covenant. If Israel obeyed, God would richly bless them. If Israel disobeyed, then God will bring upon discipline and judgment. And again, we must know that God's anger is something we do not trifle with. If you look at chapter 7 through 12 in Isaiah, you will see a lot of anger and a lot of judgment.

In fact, Isaiah chapter 9, 14 through 16 talks about God eliminating Israel's king and prophets, right? In essence, saying, "Relationship with you is done." We see in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 17, that God is not going to rejoice over their young men nor have compassion on the fatherless and the widows.

Isaiah 9, 18 through 21, in God's judgment, he allows sin to run amok, unabandoned. Isaiah chapter 10, 5 through 11, there's a raising of enemies that are just bent on the destruction of Israel. And that's just a small snippet of what God's anger comes in the form of. Now, Israel in these last days where the Messiah is reigning has to recover from all that.

They have to recover from what they have experienced, they have to recover what they have seen, they have to reconcile what just took place and what is taking place now. Things are good now. We just came out of this bad situation. So how do we respond? Again, if I were Israel and if I was fully aware of my sins, again, it would be very, very hard for me to think that God would ever forgive me.

If our nation has fallen that far off, if I'm a member of Israel, if our nation has gone so far away, how do we know that we have been forgiven? How do we know that these good blessings are not just simply going to be taken away because we disobeyed again?

Again, we're not just simply talking about facts and doctrines here, but we need to be assured and believe that in fact God has forgiven, that God has replaced our shame and has shown us his love and his mercy. And so I want to give you guys just two fruits that are going to come forth that will be indicators of that assurance and forgiveness that we see in Isaiah 12, chapter 12, verse 2 and 3.

And the first fruit is trust. We see in verse 2, "Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid." The word trust here describes a reliance upon someone confidently. Again, don't mix up the word trust and faith or belief, right? There's a slight difference here, okay?

One theological dictionary states, "It is significant that in the Septuagint or the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, they never translate this word, trust, with believe in. In fact, the word trust in the Septuagint is translated to have hope in, right? This would seem to indicate that this Hebrew word for trust does not connote that full-orb intellectual and volitional response to revelation, which is involved in faith.

Rather, it stresses the feeling of being safe and secure, right? So it's one thing to say you believe it, but it's another thing to trust it. Because when you trust in something, you feel safe, you feel secure. And so again, how can Israel trust God after seeing all of this anger and judgment being poured out?

Well, the first thing that they trust is that they see God as their salvation. That's mentioned twice in verse 2. God is my salvation. He has become my salvation. And the word salvation there gives us the image of something that was once narrow, but someone made wide, okay? It is a move from something distressful to safety, okay?

So the first thing of trust is recognizing who God is. God is my salvation. Secondly, it's what the word promised would happen. If you don't like spoilers, I'm sorry, but Deuteronomy 28 kind of spoils it for Israel, okay? Deuteronomy 28 reveals all these blessings and curses. But when you get to Deuteronomy 30 verse 1, that is the spoiler here.

Because God, through Moses, tells the nation of Israel, "And when all these things come upon you," right? There's no if there. It's when. And so if there was some Israelite in Moses' camp that was thinking, "Oh, yeah, we're just going to obey God and we're going to get all these blessings.

We're not going to get any of those curses." Sorry, you optimist. God has made it clear that the blessings and curses are going to fall upon Israel. But Deuteronomy 30 continues on. "And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice and all that I command you today with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you.

And he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has gathered you." And so trust came in the form of trusting in God, knowing that the same God who judged Israel is now the same God who is our salvation. But to trust and also to trust in his word, to find safety and security in what we find in scriptures.

You believe what you read to be true and it informs how you ought to live, which then leads into the second evidence of knowing whether you have, you know, having this assurance. Joyful obedience. We see that in verse 3. "With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation." Now, we have to unpack that phrase a little bit because you're thinking like, "What does drawing water have to do with joyful obedience?" Okay?

The first phrase in the Hebrew text is the phrase, "You will draw water." Now, we know that drawing water here is not like a literal, like you have to take it out of the well, right? It's not literal because you're taking it out of the wells of salvation. Okay?

So this sentence is meant to be taken like metaphorically here. Okay? "You will draw water." And so this phrase is a metaphor for a renewed life. It is a life of obedience. It is a life recognizing that you have been renewed. By drawing out the water, it is telling us that the people are living their life according to God's word in faithful obedience.

Because why? Where are they drawing this water from? The wells of salvation. And while that word obedience, again, brings up this connotation of drudgery and forced action, again, I think what I was struck by was the next phrase, "With joy," or some translation, "Joyously." Now, I don't know about you, but I've never drawn water from a well before, but I can imagine that it's very tiresome, right?

It's a lot of work to pull up that little bucket of water and then pour it into a bigger bucket, and then to carry that bigger bucket back home. It is done out of necessity. And so I find it hard to believe someone is going to wake up in the morning really excited to go to a well and draw water from it.

But the more I think about this metaphor, the more appropriate I believe it reflects a Christian life. Because again, obeying what we see in Scripture is hard, right? A lot of times we see what we see in Scripture and we're like, "Do I really have to do this?" We sometimes think it's up for debate.

"No, God, you didn't really call me to do that. No." But as we see from verse 3, if we really believe that we have this renewed life in Christ, then the commands that we see in Scriptures are not a command. We see it as a choice, and it's a joyous choice.

It's a choice that we choose with joy to follow and to obey. And so this metaphor really, again, just captures what we want to try and do when we're overseas, to continue to trust, to continue to obey, and to obey with joy. And the reason why I share that with you is because when we're, again, overseas, it was so hard.

I mean, there were days where you're just in darkness, and it's not because of the pollution, but you're in darkness because spiritually, you're just in a dark place. You're dwelling upon mistakes. You're dwelling upon disappointments, discouragements, uncertainty, and it just piles and piles and piles on your shoulders. And again, you start answering some of these questions with, "I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know." It gets tiring. It gets shameful, right? It appears that you don't know what you're doing. And I think in the end, what this verse reminds me of is the fact that it's okay. It's okay to have those burdens because you get to draw water from the wells of salvation with joy.

It's a battle to maintain obedience in a worshipful and joyful manner, and it takes its toll. But isn't it necessary for all of us to draw water from these wells of salvation in our lives? Absolutely. In a book that I'm reading, Maurice Roberts, "The Thought of God," he wrote, "Let no one imagine that the spending of much time conscientiously in daily fellowship with Christ will result in loss of service.

Time spent with God in the secret place is never the case of spiritual inefficiency. On the contrary, it is the highway to fresh vision and to new triumphs. To have prayed well is to have studied well. This motto was Luther's and announces to us the secret of his immense labors and abounding faithfulness." I just want to say in conclusion, I have a lot of thank yous for this church, for our church.

I am grateful for the leadership here who has supported and encouraged, affirmed a lot of friendships there that I'm going to miss. I'm thankful for the pastor's wives and the leadership wives and, you know, them, like, just really just loving on Jen while we've been here. I am grateful for the MCARE team.

You guys are awesome. You guys are just constantly a source of encouragement for us. And, yeah, I mean, I think about Andrew Fuller and the analogy of the rope, and every missionary needs someone to hold the rope, to pray, to support, to encourage, and I'm always grateful for our MCARE team for all of that.

I'm grateful for the Sunday school program here. Man, my kids are, like, loved, and I'm just sad that they have to leave. Think of something funny. Think of something funny. Yeah. Thankful for old friends and new friends that we made here. I'm thankful that we'll be in a country where a lot of you came from, and so hopefully we'll see you in the summers.

But overall, I'm thankful that we are part of a healthy church. And though we leave, obviously, we're going to pray for Berean, of course, but there's a sense where we don't have to worry about what's going on here as much. And so we're grateful. And so I'll share some prayer requests for our team.

I don't know if you get the PowerPoint slide up on the board. There'll be some, like, these magnets that look like this. I don't think we have enough for everyone, but just one per household if possible. Okay? If you have, like, roommates, one refrigerator per person, please. We'll try to get more next week after we're gone.

And so maybe if you want to wait until then, you can get it then, too. But obviously, sanctification and salvation for our family, everything I shared with you this morning, that's part of the sanctification process that we want prayer for. So I was interweaving these sermon points to our prayer requests, so please have that with you.

Salvation for our kids, salvation for our lost loved ones. You know, pray for language acquisition. I keep asking prayer for this because I know that I can easily get frustrated, and I want to push the limits of my own body, but I want to trust in God in this.

And so please pray for that. Pray for transitions. Obviously, our family is going through a lot of transitions right now. Our kids, especially, are going through these transitions. The first time, Haddon was only a year and a half, and he really didn't know what was going on. But now we have, like, you know, Haddon got older, but, you know, we have Ryle, too.

And I think, yeah, it's going to be hard on them. And lastly, just pray for the growth and sanctification of the Chinese church. As some of you guys know, there's a lot of pressure and opposition to the unregistered churches there. And so continue to pray that the church will grow as a result of this persecution, and that they will continually be involved in their gospel-sharing ministries, whether for them locally or overseas.

And so if you guys could take some time to pray for that, that would be very, very great. Thank you so much.