(soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) - Good morning, Church family, happy Lord's Day. We will now begin our service.

(soft music) ♪ Teach me your way ♪ ♪ Teach me your way, oh Lord ♪ ♪ And I will walk in your truth ♪ (soft music) ♪ Show me your path, oh Lord ♪ ♪ For I am devoted to you ♪ ♪ Purify my heart's desire ♪ ♪ I long to be your servant ♪ ♪ Give me an undivided heart ♪ ♪ That I may fear your name ♪ ♪ Give me an undivided heart ♪ ♪ No other gods, no other love ♪ ♪ No other gods before you ♪ Teach me.

♪ Teach me your way, oh Lord ♪ ♪ And I will walk in your truth ♪ (soft music) ♪ Show me your path, oh Lord ♪ ♪ For I am devoted to you ♪ ♪ Purify my heart's desire ♪ ♪ I long to be your servant ♪ ♪ Give me an undivided heart ♪ ♪ That I may fear your name ♪ ♪ Give me an undivided heart ♪ ♪ No other gods, no other love ♪ ♪ No other gods before you ♪ Give me an undivided.

♪ Give me an undivided heart ♪ ♪ That I may fear your name ♪ ♪ Give me an undivided heart ♪ ♪ No other gods, no other love ♪ ♪ No other gods before you ♪ No other gods. ♪ No other gods, no other love ♪ ♪ No other gods before you ♪ - Good morning.

Welcome to the Green Community Church. We have a few announcements before we get started. But again, before we get started, today was declared from the IMB, International Mission Board, as the day of prayer for the persecuted church. And so we don't have any slides or anything like that, but we'll probably post some stuff up for you today and also throughout the week about what's going on with the persecuted church around the world.

And obviously, specifically, we've been engaged with ministry that's going on in India, and we're praying for our pastors. Obviously, you know that Pastor Isaac passed away because of COVID, and so I've been communicating here and there with the pastors there. But it's obvious that they're pretty saddened by it because he was the next spiritual leader outside of Pastor Matthew, who started the ministry over there.

And so if you guys can continue to keep them in your prayers. And along with that, we are doing fundraisers for them, and so we have an announcement from Rachel about that, what's going on. I'm here to announce that our second annual service auction fundraiser for the India pastors will officially start the bidding process today.

We'll be posting a photo album in our Berean Community Church Facebook page, hopefully latest by 9.30 p.m. today, hopefully earlier. And once that's posted, bidding is officially open. You can bid on a service or item by commenting on the photo. More details on how to bid will be posted in the album description, or you can contact me with any questions.

But basically, everything is the exact same process as last year. Please remember to keep this auction and the India pastors in your prayers, for as you know, all this will be worthless without God's blessing and provision. I am excited for you to see just how talented and gifted our church members are.

I'm really impressed and surprised by what people submit. We have over 100 submissions this year, so there's a lot of good writing talent. The auction starts today, and bidding will go until this Saturday, June 12th at 9.30. So we're going to send out a Zoom link this week, where we'll be online on June 12th for the last 30 to 45 minutes to hang out, banter, and watch the auction end live together.

So hopefully you're looking forward to it, and thanks for your participation. Okay, thank you. Those of you guys who participated last year, you know exactly what's going on. So tonight isn't the auction. Tonight is they're going to post like what kind of services, and what kind of things have been donated.

So you can go on there, and you can make a bid onto that. And then next Saturday is they're going to be doing the live bidding over Zoom. So this was an idea that Andy and Rachel had last year while we were in the pandemic, and it was such a great idea, and they just did it voluntarily.

We had no idea how successful it would be. And so this would be, again, another opportunity to do that this year. And again, all the funds will be going to support our pastors who are out in India. So if you guys can participate in that. So you can start taking a look at it.

If you don't have Facebook, you can borrow someone else's Facebook to go take a look and just kind of scroll down because that's where it's going to be posted. And again, if you for whatever reason refuse to get on there, maybe can they download that? Okay, so you need to get Facebook basically, temporarily, fake account, whatever you need to do.

That's basically what's going to happen. And then next Saturday is where the Zoom is going to happen, where the actual bidding is taking place. Okay? All right, so a few things we want to announce before. Not next Sunday, but Sunday after is Father's Day. Just give you a heads up.

So those of you -- usually Father's Day kind of sneaks up on us. But if you are a father or you're making an announcement that you're going to be a father or you're going to bring a father to church who don't normally attend, please let us know ahead of time so that we can make the proper arrangements.

So there is going to be a Father's Day lunch that's going to be taking place over there on the cafe side. And I'm assuming that there will be pizza and stuff for the children as well for the moms. Right? Yeah. Okay? So that's in two Sundays. And then membership class, that's eight weeks long from 9 to 10.20 a.m.

for eight. And it takes place at the youth group room on the other side, the cafe side. And, again, if you are interested in becoming a member of the church, please sign up with Pastor Nate, and that will be starting on July 4th. So it's a few weeks away from now, but the sign-ups are taking place right now.

Okay? Please contact Pastor Nate. And all of this stuff will be on Facebook or it will be on the church app, and you'll be able to find where you can sign up for that. VBS, live VBS, is taking place this year. Last year we tried to do it online, but this year it's going to be live.

It's on July 19th through 23rd. The theme is, along with our church theme, Watch and Pray. And so the registration is open, and it's going to close on June 27th. And so if you are planning to bring your children or bring some other children to participate in that on June 27th, obviously we have more facilities this year where you can kind of spread the kids out and they're going to do what they can.

So please register for that as soon as possible. And along with that, they need volunteers to help out. So even if it's just one day, whether it's decoration or skits or whatever it may be, they'll give you assignments on how to participate. And so if you want to sign up for that, Jane Shin is the one who is in charge.

Again, you can go to the church app or the church Facebook page or the website, and they'll be able to give you information where you can sign up for that. Along with that, there's an evangelism outing that's going to be taking place on July 17th, 18th, and the main event taking place on July 24th.

All of this in preparation for the cafe outreach night that's taking place. So if you want to sign up for that and help, again, the links will be available on the church app and I believe also on the website as well. All right. We'll give you a minute to prepare for your offering online, digitally, and also a physical offering will be in the back as you are leaving if you need that.

So let's pray, and we'll jump into the service today. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for the love that you pour upon us. Things that we are aware of, things, Lord, that sometimes slip by. Help us, Lord God, to fix our eyes upon Christ.

That even this week, if our hearts have drifted away from you, help us, Lord God, to be reminded of who you are. That all that we strive for, all that we desire and hope for, will be grounded in eternal things that you've given. We pray, Father God, that even the offering that we give may be given to you, Father God, joyfully, willfully, and may be multiplied for your use in your kingdom.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let us all rise as we sing these praises. Who breaks the power? Who breaks the power of sin and darkness? Whose love is mighty and so much stronger? The King of glory, the King above all kings. Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder?

Who leaves us breathless in awe and wonder? The King of glory, the King above all kings. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. That you would lay down your life. That I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me.

Who brings our chaos? Who brings our chaos back into order? Who makes the orphan a son and daughter? The King of glory, the King above all kings. Who rules the nations with truth and justice? Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance. The King of glory, the King above all kings.

This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. That you would lay down your life. That I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

Worthy is the King who conquered the grave. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Worthy is the King who conquered the grave. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Worthy is the King who conquered the grave. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Worthy, worthy, worthy. This is amazing grace.

This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You would lay down your life. That I would be set free. Oh, Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Sing grace and peace. Grace and peace. Oh, how can this be?

We're lawbreakers and thieves for the worthless, the least. You have said that our judgment is death. For all eternity without hope, without rest. Oh, what an amazing mystery. What an amazing mystery that your grace has come to me. Grace and peace. Grace and peace. Oh, how can this be?

A matchless king of war paid the blood price for me. A slaughtered lamb, what atonement you bring. A mild-listener's heart can be cleansed, can be free. Oh, what an amazing mystery. What an amazing mystery that your grace has come to me. Grace and peace. Grace and peace. Oh, how can this be?

But songs of gratefulness never rise, never cease. Loved by God and called as a saint, my heart is satisfied in the riches of Christ. Oh, what an amazing mystery. What an amazing mystery that your grace has come to me. Oh, what an amazing love. Oh, what an amazing love I see.

What an amazing love I see that your grace has come to me. Oh, what an amazing love I see. What an amazing love I see that your grace has come to me. What an amazing love. Oh, what an amazing love I see. What an amazing love I see that your grace has come to me.

Oh, what an amazing love I see. What an amazing love I see that your grace has come to me. You may be seated. Okay, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 12, verses 4 through 11. We're going to be going warp speed today. Okay, yeah, we're going to cover all the passages, all of it.

4 through 11, okay? So Hebrews chapter 12, verses 4 through 11. Reading out of the NASB. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him.

For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good so that we may share his holiness.

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness. Let's pray. Gracious Father, we pray for your grace. We pray that your word would convict us, guide us, sanctify us, that we may see a greater glimpse of your glory, that we may change, we may be sanctified, we may be able to persevere through all the ups and downs, Lord God, of living in this fallen world.

Help us to be reminded, Lord, that we are aliens and strangers just passing through, eagerly waiting and longing, Lord God, for the second coming of Christ. So for that end, we pray for your blessing. We pray. Amen. I'm sure many of you have been watching the news that there are UFOs in the world, okay, or at least there's more attention given, right?

There's been speculations and pictures and stuff that's been around since we were kids, right, but recently with all the videos and now especially the government fanning the flames that they're not absolutely certain anymore whether they can deny it, and so there's been a lot of speculations. Are aliens real, right?

And all this space exploration, you know, a lot of that is, is there life there? Are there water? Is there oxygen? Are there enough things to sustain life? And so they've been studying this for many, many decades, but recently, obviously, it's come to the forefront, and there's a lot of speculations and talking about it.

I've heard a lot of Christians talking about it. What would it mean if there are actually aliens in this world? What if there was irrefutable proof that that was actually the case? How would that affect us? I've heard some people say recently, some Christians say that if aliens are real, that it would rock their faith.

I'm not sure exactly what they meant by that, but the way that it came across was that they would probably question their faith if that was true. And it made me think, how would it affect you? Is this simple evidence of a UFO enough for you to say, "You know what, everything that I believe was false"?

Is your faith so weak and tender that something as a speculation of maybe possibly intelligence outside of Earth is enough for you to walk away from your faith? And if that's not the case, what would cause you to walk away from your faith? Maybe it's a loved one who gets cancer and say, "You know what, God took him too early." Or maybe a child who got sick and they left the Earth too early.

What if maybe your business went bankrupt? What if your marriage fell apart or you're having difficulty or your child walks away? What would cause you to walk away from your faith? You don't think that your faith is strong enough to be able to endure that. Whatever it is that you think may happen that's going to cause you to question your faith is probably at that very place where you are constantly being poked and attacked.

Because the Bible says that we have an enemy, the devil, like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He's not devouring his own. He's not devouring the world. He's devouring people who follow Christ because his primary objective is to be the anti-Christ. So anyone who exalts Christ, anyone who says they're a believer in Christ, is at that very place where you feel like that's your Achilles heel.

That's where your weakness is, is probably the place where you are constantly being poked. If it's finance, if it is relationship, circumstance, peace, reputation, whatever it may be, that may be the area where you are constantly being poked. The book of Hebrews, the whole book is written to people who are just drifting.

They didn't decide to walk away from their faith. They weren't in danger of apostasy because something happened. You know what? I deny Christ. They were simply neglecting their faith, and they were becoming tired. See, most people who walk away from their faith, it doesn't happen by choice, at least not clear choice.

It's just they become fatigued, tired. They get caught up with life, just like the third soil, concerns of paying bills, raising children, the difficulty in the trials of getting a job, dealing with coworkers, and trying to save enough money for retirement and raising children. All of these things, it just fatigues you.

And then instead of paying attention, you just kind of allow things to happen. And the natural course, natural flow of life is going to take you away from Christ. Well, the text that we're looking at in verse 4 begins by saying, "You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin." Now, you can look at that and be challenged and say, "Yeah, you know, we need to strive harder." If you have energy, and you already came into this room with some vitality, saying like, "Yeah, I want to do this," and this may be an encouragement to you, for a lot of you to read this passage, it's like, "Wow, I'm already tired as it is." And his encouragement to me is, "Well, you haven't shed blood yet.

You haven't even shed blood yet. It's not time for you to quit." Again, you have to remember that the whole point of the book of Hebrews is really this. The whole point of the book of Hebrews is to challenge people who are drifting away from Christ that it's not time for you to quit, that you have no reason to quit, to continue to persevere.

And the reasoning that he gives is because you haven't shed blood yet. In other words, you're not dead yet. That's what he means, shedding blood. Shedding blood isn't simply like, "Oh, you got cut." Shedding blood is another way of saying you have breath, you have life. And the reason why you have breath, you have life, is because somebody else shed blood for you.

And that was the point that he was trying to get at, right, the whole book of Hebrews. You have life because somebody else shed blood. You still have life because he did it, so you have no reason to quit. Because he's already bought your eternal life by his own sacrifice.

So therefore, his challenge is, no matter how fatigued, no matter how tired, how wearisome, he says, "No Christian, if his faith is genuine, has a reason to quit." I remember years ago when I was being discipled back in college, I was working probably about 20 hours a week. And I was a super senior, so I was taking 22 units to finish school.

And then I was involved in ministry. I was a part-time youth pastor. And then I was heavily involved with the campus ministry, so I was probably giving about three or four sermons a week. I was leading three small group Bible studies. I had a 20-hour a week job. And so I was just fatigued.

And I was in this apartment training, and so I was probably getting about three to four hours a day. And I was just so dead tired. But we had a rule in that apartment that no matter what time you slept, you have to get up at 5 in the morning.

And we'd have to go running and do quiet time together. And after about a month and a half of doing this, I was so tired. And I went to our trainer, and I remember asking him, like, "I don't know if I can keep doing this because I'm like --" I would go to the library, and literally I would just fall asleep at the table, fall asleep eating, fall asleep.

And then I remember every time I would go to him, his advice to me was, "Peter, expand your capacity." Now, in a typical setting, I would have been angry, right? How much more can I stretch? I don't have any free time. I have nothing. And he said, "But, Peter, everything you're doing is important.

Expand your capacity." The reason why I took that to heart was because who that was telling me. He had aging parents at that time. He had a full-time job. He was doing everything I was doing, and he was excellent, and he was running the apartment, and he was a youth pastor, and he had aging parents, and he had a brother who was mentally challenged, so he was constantly going home to take care of his brother.

And he did all of that excellently. And so if that advice came from anybody else, I would have said, "Who are you talking to? I'm sleeping four hours, so you want me to sleep two hours?" But I remember always coming out from that counseling challenged because he was setting an example for me, and to this day, it's stuck with me.

"Expand your capacity." Christ looks at our circumstance, and the advice now, he says, "You haven't to the point of shedding blood. I shed blood for you to live. Now you continue to persevere." Jeremiah 12:5, it says, "If you have run with footmen, and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses?

If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?" In other words, God is fully in charge, and he's training us and building us up. The text that we're looking at this morning, verses 4 through 11, the word "discipline" is used repeatedly over and over.

You need to persevere because God is the one who is in charge of this discipline. So when I say the word "discipline," some of you will have the idea of discipline as punishment immediately. Maybe it's your upbringing. Maybe it's your background. Whenever we say "discipline," punishment. God's going to punish you.

Some of you, when we use the word "discipline," maybe you like to work out. Discipline means making a schedule, getting up at 6 in the morning, going out to work out and not eating certain things and doing certain things, saving up money. Maybe in your mind, that's the first thing that gets triggered, discipline.

So discipline, the word, is being used in our English language in various ways. So we don't want to project what we think discipline is, what this is saying. We want to make sure that we understand what he means by it, because the word he uses really is a word that encompasses all of that.

In fact, the word that is used is "pidea." Pidea, the root word, is the word "pious," and pious is the Greek word for "child." So when he uses the word "discipline" in this text, he's not simply talking about punishment, although that is part of it. He's not only talking about training, although that's part of it.

It's basically he's describing a relationship where God makes us his adopted children and he becomes our Abba Father. Now in this relationship between son and father, that he's raising us up. And in raising us up, just like if you raise a child, there are times you have to discipline them for doing wrong.

There are some times you need to discipline them so that they may be properly trained to do what is right. But the word "discipline" is a broad term referring to that now that he has made us his children, so that we may live up to the calling that we have been given.

He hasn't just adopted us and said, "You know what? Now you have life. Just go enjoy it." You're free. You have Christian liberty. Just do whatever you want. That's not what the Bible says. Just like if you have children or if you adopted a child into your home, you don't just adopt them, make sure that's on legal paper, and then you just kind of let them be.

Part of the adoption, the reason why they go through all that process is they want to know that if you're going to be a good parent. They want to know if you have the means to take care of them. They want to know if you're psychologically, physically able to take care of them.

That's why you have to get reference letters. Are you part of a good community? What kind of reputation do you have? Because they want to know if you are a fit father or mother. And so this word that is being used here to talk about God's discipline is basically talking about God's parenting.

How does God parent us? And so it's in that context that this text describes, and I put it in three parts. To understand the perspective of how God deals with us as his children, three things. One, God's discipline is perfect. That's the first point that I want to make.

The second thing that this text teaches us is that God's discipline is proof of our sonship and his love for us. It's proof. Third, God's discipline is for our own training. For our own good. That's the exact words that is used here. For our training. So one, God's discipline is perfect.

Second, God's discipline is proof of our sonship and his love for us. Third, God's discipline is for our training. In this text, firstly it says God disciplines us perfectly. Verse 5, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him." In other words, there's two ways that an individual can wrongly accept or respond to God's discipline.

One, to take it lightly. Kind of like, whatever happens, happens. This is an individual who really doesn't see sin as that horrible. I remember, I think this week, and I was listening to Piper, and John Piper made a very clear distinction between confession and repentance. Somebody who is constantly taking lightly their sin is somebody who is in the habit of confessing but never repenting.

The difference is, repentance basically means not only to acknowledge your sin, but to turn away from your sin. But somebody who is constantly confessing is an individual who feels guilty. And the only thing that he's concerned about is that he gets out of his guilt. It's like, oh, once saved, always saved.

God forgives me. He loves me unconditionally. And then you confess it. And you get it off your chest, and then you cling to verses where God's--your sins are forgiven, and then you move on, and then this cycle repeats over and over again, never repenting, always confessing. This is an individual who takes the Lord's discipline lightly.

Think about this pandemic. The whole world was shut down. And an individual who kind of looks at the circumstance and says, you know what, years later, you're going to tell your children or grandchildren about how difficult it was because it was shut down for a year, and you couldn't hang out with your friends to get boba when you wanted.

So you look at it, and say, it was inconvenient. There's no deep thought into it. There's a why did God do this? What opportunities are made? It's just inconvenienced. And so circumstances and trials and difficulties come into our lives, and you just kind of brush it off. I'm just going to move on.

What's the big deal? He says, do not take the Lord's discipline lightly, meaning the Lord has a purpose for this. There's a purpose. There's something for us to learn. There's a reason behind it, and that's why he says, do not take it lightly. The other end of that, he says, do not faint.

Discouraged to the point where you don't want to do this anymore. How many people have you met, but because they were discouraged, at this point, and somebody let them down, and said, I love God, but I don't love the church. They become faint. And the reason why they become faint is because they don't see God's hand in it.

Or if they see God's hand in it, they don't believe in a loving God. So therefore, they become faint. One of the most common questions that I get from people, especially if you've been alive for a while, is like, how do I trust people when they've wronged me in the past?

I've had this, and I've heard some horrible things that have happened to people way before they've come to church. And the wrestling mass is, I don't know how I can ever trust anybody considering what they've done to me. Here's the good news and bad news. The bad news is, you can't just turn that off.

It would be insensitive for me to say, hey, suck it up and move on, right, I mean, considering the horrible things that have happened. The good news is, God didn't call us to trust them. God called us to love them. God didn't call us to trust them. God called us to love them.

It doesn't require trust for us to love. See, when we become faint, part of that reason is because we don't see a sovereign God who loves us, who've allowed this situation to happen. You know, as parents, that's our constant fear, right? Did we do too much? Did we not do enough?

So when we're disciplining our children, you know, years back we look at it and say, oh, maybe I should have been more patient with them. Or maybe in that particular situation I should have been more harsh with them, that I should have squeezed harder, or maybe I shouldn't have squeezed so hard because our constant fear is that if we squeeze too hard, we're going to discourage them, and they're going to lose heart.

But if we don't discipline them enough, they're going to get spoiled, and they don't think this is important. So there's a constant balancing act that parents do to make sure that we're doing what is necessary. Well, our God does not have that problem because God is all-knowing. He knows our heart.

He is all-knowing, and he is all good. So therefore, even though we can't connect the dots, the Bible says that our God disciplines us perfectly. That's why we don't take it lightly, nor do we faint, because whatever it is that God has placed us in, he's doing it in his perfect knowledge, in his perfect love, in his perfect will.

In Psalm 42, 5-6, it says, "Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence." Oh, oh my God, my soul is in despair within me. "Therefore, I remember you from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon from Mount Mizar." Today, we're going to be participating in the communion.

All of you guys have this communion wafer and thingy that we have, and hopefully we don't have to do this for long. But the reason why God gave us this communion is for this reason, because he knows that you and I have a tendency to look at circumstances through our physical eyes.

That all that we have, we walk by what we see, not by faith, because that's our natural tendency. So the communion is given to the church to constantly remind us to look to him. That do you believe in a God who loved you enough to send his only begotten son?

How will he not, along with him? If he gave his only begotten son, along with him, give us all things. If he gave us his only begotten son, why would he withhold any good thing from us? And that's what the communion table really is, is to recalibrate our thoughts, our focus.

So that in the midst of trials, in the midst of raising children and busyness of life, that we would look to Christ, that we would look to God, who is completely sovereign and completely loving. In 1 Corinthians 10.13, it says, "No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man.

And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape, so that you will be able to endure it." That no matter what circumstance that you're in, past, present, or future, God is completely sovereign.

You remember the story of Job? His whole suffering was initiated because Satan challenged God and said, "Your child that you say is righteous is only righteous because you've been protecting him. Let me at him. Take away your hedge of protection and see if he praises you after I'm done." That's the beginning of the book of Job.

So all of his suffering was initiated by Satan saying, "Let me at him. Stop protecting him. Let me go at him." And God says, "Okay." And then you see the cycle of pain and suffering. Anything that you can possibly think of. Financial hardship, losing his children, personal health goes out, his reputation of righteousness being challenged, his closest friends coming and saying, "You must have done something wrong." There's no part of his life where he's not touched.

Any one of those things would cause an average man to crumble. Every part of his life, his reputation, his family life, health, wealth, everything, most things that people would fear, all of that happens to him in his life. And yet Satan's name is never mentioned after the beginning. All of it is, "God is doing this to you." Why is God doing this to you?

Even at the end, God doesn't show up and say, "It wasn't me. I didn't do that. Satan did it. Don't blame me." No. God takes ownership. Because that only happened because God allowed it to happen. Same thing happens in the New Covenant. Before Jesus goes to the cross, remember what Jesus says?

"Satan has asked permission to sift you like wheat." He has permission. He didn't gather up an army to challenge God. He has permission. Even satanic work was under God's sovereign plan. And he allowed it to happen. So when he says, "No temptation has seized you, but what is common to man, but God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able." In other words, that even in your trials and temptations, God has us in his arms.

And what God does, he does perfectly. And therefore, that's why he says, "You have no reason to quit." Because you're not the one fighting alone. Everything that he does, no matter what circumstance, no matter what has happened to you in the past, no matter how horrible that memory is, no matter how hard of a time we have connecting the dots, God was sovereign.

No matter what circumstance you are in now, no matter what hardship and struggle, no matter what relational problems and hurt and pain that you hold on to today, God is sovereign. And no matter what you may face, your greatest fear may happen tomorrow, the answer is, God is sovereign.

The God who is perfectly sovereign, perfectly knowing, who loves us like his own child, he is completely sovereign. And that's why he says not to take it lightly. Don't brush it off like, "Yeah, that's not going to bother me." Or don't become faint. Because whatever God is doing, he does perfectly.

That's number one, to understand that God's discipline is perfect. Two, God's discipline is proof of sonship and love. He says in verse 7, "It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." So if you say you're a follower of Christ and you have no hardship in life, he says maybe you're illegitimate.

If God genuinely loves you, hardship will come. He said, "If you follow me, they hated me, so they're going to hate you." If there's any reflection of myself in you, the world is not going to be happy with you. I mean, the problem that we have in our generation is we want to be cool in the kingdom and in the world at the same time.

And we want to attract the world so that they can come into the church and have a smooth transition from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. And somehow people have convinced themselves that this is possible. That you've gotten accustomed to darkness and somehow you're going to come into light and there's going to be no shock whatsoever.

There's going to be a smooth transition. There's going to be no difference between a non-Christian sitting here in the Word of God and a Christian here in the Word of God. So we need to make it as dim as possible. We can barely see. And so people whose eyes haven't adjusted to the light can also feel comfortable here.

He said, "If there is no discipline, that may be evidence that you're illegitimate children." He said, "Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live for they disciplined us for a short time?" In other words, it was common grace given to us temporarily as seemed what was best to them.

In other words, they're sinners too. They did what they thought was best, but they're sinners. So therefore, whatever discipline we receive, even though it was for our own good, was never perfect. But he disciplines us for good so that we may share his holiness. Discipline for God's children is evidence of our sonship, is evidence ultimately of his love.

You know, we think that maybe the opposite of love is hatred. And you can make an argument for that. You could make an argument, make a point of that. But when we disobey to love, it's usually not hatred. When God says to love, "And the world will know that you are disciples of mine if you love as I have loved you," as Jesus said, then the world will know you are my disciples.

And then we choose to reject that. We don't go out hating the world. "I hate you. I'm not going to obey Jesus, so I hate the world." That's not usually how it's expressed. When we disobey love, usually we disobey with indifference. Indifference. Because getting dirty is uncomfortable with us.

I have enough problems. I don't want to stress over your problems. So typically, it's indifference. I remember years ago, I had a pastor friend who came and told me, "You know, I think the biggest problem in our generation in churches today is that we don't practice church discipline. And so we allow sin to be rampant and do whatever they want, and that's our biggest problem, so we need to bring church discipline back." I agreed and disagreed.

I agreed that sin should be taken seriously. I agreed. Because the Bible clearly teaches us to practice church discipline. But the reason behind that is not what you think. The reason why the church generally does not practice church discipline is because of lack of love. Because if the people who are going astray was your brother or sister, father or mother, or daughter or son, you would not stay silent because you love them.

Even if they resent you for a period, you are more concerned about the harm that they are doing to themselves than what they may say to you, because your love will supersede whatever discomfort that you may feel. Part of the reason why we are cautious and we stay away is really because we're indifferent.

Don't be confused with practicing grace. That's not grace. Allowing a child who's running toward harm and saying nothing isn't grace. That's not loving. That's not being gentle. You're saying, "I believe you're going to crash and burn. I'm just going to let you be because I'm loving." No. That's indifference.

That's the opposite of love. Part of the reason why sin is not taken seriously, why we don't confront each other in truth, in love, is because we are not practicing the biblical love that he preaches. God did not leave us alone in our sins. He engaged us. He continues to engage us.

Think about the nation of Israel. Think about the nation of Israel and we say, you know, you read the Old Testament and God seems so harsh. He's constantly sending prophets, telling Hosea to marry Gomer, a prostitute. Why would you do that? Just to tell them this is how hideous your sin is.

And you read the Old Testament and say, "Oh, God is a God of judgment." In the Old Testament, we come to the New Testament, it says, "God so loved the world that He only begotten Son." He demonstrated His own love while we were yet sinners. He died for us.

So the God of the New Testament seems like a loving God. God of the Old Testament seems like He's a judgmental, vengeful God. But the only reason why He's sending these prophets to warn them is because He loves them. If He was done with them, we wouldn't have the Old Testament.

There wouldn't be this drama of sending His prophets and warning them to turn from their sins. Because all He had to do was, "Go. I'm done with you. I'm done." What would it take for Him to wipe out the earth? I mean, it says in six days He created the earth.

I'm sure destroying is a lot easier than creating. Right? Building takes time. Destroying could, one day, you can bring those buildings down in one day. Boom! It's gone. The only reason why He sends His prophets to warn them, to discipline them, and why He perseveres with them is because He still loves them.

He says discipline is a proof of His love. Same thing in the Old Testament. I mentioned that in the book of Revelation. Why this whole drama at the end with seven judgments? The seal judgment, trumpet judgment, the bowl judgment. Why all of this judgment? Because God is pleading with the sinful world before judgment comes to turn and to repent.

So He says, "If you are truly His children, He will discipline you." God's discipline is proof of sonship and His love toward us. Third and finally, God's discipline is for our training. It's for our own good. Discipline is hard to take when we don't understand what it is. Discipline is hard to take when we don't understand what it's for.

I can remember probably the most pain that I've ever experienced, a physical pain, was at the hospital. I've broken my ankles, my arms, and there's an immediate pain that comes, but like prolonged pain. I remember, I think I was about eighth grade, and our family never went to the dentist.

Like ever. We're immigrant families. We didn't have insurance, so everything cost so much money. My teeth, if you look at my third grade picture, there's more cavities than I had regular teeth. So I went and basically I had like 20 some cavities that I needed to work on. I remember listening very carefully to my mom trying to get a discount.

And even as an eighth grader, it's like, "Please don't get the discount. I need the full work." You know what I mean? I don't want discount teeth work. And I remember that I just dread. It was like four Saturdays or something that we're going, and each time I went, it was excruciatingly painful.

And I don't know if the Novocaine or whatever they were putting in my mouth just wasn't working, especially my front teeth. I remember they were drilling inside of it for 30, 40 minutes, and I felt like I felt every single bit of that. And I was pinching my thigh just to take away from this pain that maybe this pain will distract from this pain.

But I endured through that. I didn't jump out of the seat and say, "What are you doing?" Because I knew it was for my own good. I had to fix my teeth. But when you don't understand what the pain is for, you don't understand who is doing it and why it's happening, it is very difficult to endure.

Pain just becomes pain. But what he's trying to say is that a God who practices perfect discipline, and he's doing it because he loves us, has a specific purpose for our own good, for our own training. And that's why he's saying no matter how hard things get, he's telling the Hebrews, that you're drifting away because all you're seeing is the difficulty, not recognizing who it is that is allowing this to happen.

And that's why he's saying to fix your eyes on Jesus. He's in control of this. Satan is not roaming around outside of his care. So whatever pain that you may have experienced in the past, present, or even in the future, God who doesn't make mistakes, who loves us to the point that he would send his only begotten Son for us, has a purpose to equip us and to train us.

James chapter 1, 2-4, consider joy. Consider it all joy. My brethren, when you encounter various trials, consider it pure joy. You know, some people look at this passage and think that if you're a good Christian, that you should always have a smile on your face. Even in the midst of excruciatingly painful things that happen in life, because you want people to know, "Ah, nothing bothers me." And you got this fake smile, fake, you know.

He's not saying like, "Act silly." It's like, "Oh, I'm a good Christian. I love Jesus." Even Jesus, as he was facing the cross, was agonizing before God. Is there another way? Because that's a natural human response. That's why he says in verse 11, "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful." So the fact that it is hard, the fact that it is not pleasant, is natural.

But when he says, "Consider it joy," he's saying, "Think, consider, and calculate." When you're putting it in your ledger between positive and negative, when you look at it from the perspective of eternality, within the hands of a sovereign God who loves us, who doesn't make mistakes, consider it, think of it, pure joy.

When you encounter trials of various kinds, knowing that you're testing of your faith, produces endurance. Endurance. He said that's the point that he's trying to get us to. To endure, to persevere, to not quit. That's what endurance means. Our natural instinct is, when hardship comes, is to get rid of that hardship.

Avoid the circumstance. If it's coming from people, avoid those people. If it's whatever it is happening, I don't like it there. It's uncomfortable. And so I'm going to change. So we keep people at bay. We can switch churches. Change friends. Whatever it is, our natural instinct is, when we're uncomfortable, to change.

Because we don't want to be there. But he says, when the testing of your faith comes, in order to produce endurance, and when endurance happens perfectly, when you continue to endure, this is not saying that there is no good time to ever change anything. There's times when false doctrines are being taught.

When there's apostasy happening. There are times when we need to cut ties. Our unity is in unity with Christ. But he's saying this, if our natural instinct is, every difficult circumstance, our immediate thought is, God doesn't want me to be uncomfortable, and so I need to change this. Change this relationship.

Change this and that. He says, no. He said, consider pure joy, because it produces endurance, and when you continue on the right path, you will have perfect results, so that you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. Perfect meaning, God's intended purpose of your suffering. That if you continue, that's why an individual who is constantly switching from one uncomfortable situation, until you get to another comfortable situation, until that becomes uncomfortable, and then you go somewhere else, and then that becomes uncomfortable, he said, you never produce the result that God desires.

Because what God desires requires perseverance. Just like raising a child. You don't snap a finger and read them a bedtime story of the rules that you're supposed to follow, and your parenting is done. It requires years. Those of you who are potty training your children. Did you just tell them, show them a picture, and show them a video, and then walk away?

No. You have to persevere. Right? Seemed like they got it right, and then the next thing you wake up in the morning, you see a puddle of pee on the ground, and it's like, oh my gosh. But you didn't quit on them. Right? It required, even something simple as potty training, required perseverance.

So if God is raising us as children, maybe some of us are being potty trained right now. Spiritual potty training, because you keep peeing everywhere. Maybe. Maybe some of you really smell. He says you need to persevere in the right direction, because God is raising us up. He says to consider purity because God's perfect loving hand is trying to teach you something, and when you persevere in it, you will be complete lacking in nothing.

In Romans chapter 5, 3-5. And not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations, knowing that the tribulation brings about what? Perseverance. Again, what is the primary thing that he says that happens when tribulation comes? You learn to persevere. Persevere. Go through trials and endure through suffering. Because when you endure through suffering, you have proven character.

Now, especially for the younger people in our generation, we have a tendency to think that character comes from being famous on TikTok. Or your character comes from being successful at something, or getting a lot of attention. Character is not something that you get from reading a book. Character is not something you get because you're successful in business.

Character is not something you get because you made a few right decisions. He says character comes from perseverance. Doing hard things and enduring through it. That's what he says. He says when you have proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint. Because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts, though the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Trials causes us to persevere, which develops character, and character is what we have hope in. Character basically is proven faith. We've been trained to look to Christ and not to the world. We've been trained to run to Christ and our comfort come from Him and not to the world.

Not to any worldly means. That's how the Bible describes character. So in everything that we do in life, we have some kind of training. Like I said, if you're a child, you're potty trained. Like pastors, we go to seminary and we get trained. We get trained, meaning how to study the Bible.

I would say 90% of what I do at church, I was not taught in seminary. They don't teach you. I remember the first baptism that I did, I had no idea what I was doing. I just remember what my older friends did and I just copied it. And then when they told me, "Why did you do that?" I said, "I don't know." They did it.

So it took me a while to figure out why am I doing it this way. Same thing with communion. Why am I doing this? So it kind of forced me to question everything that we're doing at church. Oh, this is what we're doing. Oh, this is what we're doing.

And I realized so many things that I was doing, I just did it because that's just what I saw. But everything that we do, we have some kind of training. But the true training does not happen in classrooms. It doesn't happen in classrooms. That's why when you go look for a job, it's good that you have training, meaning that you were taught in a classroom.

But usually what do they look for? Experience. Because what they really value more than your education is, do you actually know how to do this? Not do you have a degree. I remember years ago when I was younger, I was like 19 or 20, I got a job at Hughes Aircraft as a janitor, and I know I shared this before.

And for eight hours a day, I had to clean trash can and vacuum. And it was in semi-darkness because I had to go to the other side of the building to turn on the light. There was just enough light so that I wouldn't have to waste time going to the other end.

So eight hours a day, by myself with no human contact, I was picking up trash and cleaning up, doing vacuum. And I remember about a month and a half to two months into it, I started hearing my own voice. Because it's just no human contact, zero. This is before cell phones, the Internet, there's nothing.

So basically once you go to work, it's just dead silence, dim light, and you're throwing away trash. And I remember carrying the trash out with my both hands to the dumpster, and I started talking to myself. What? What did he say? What? What? And then I caught myself talking like, "What are you doing?

You're crazy!" And I said, "Oh, this is what happens to people who are isolated for a long period of time." Because I had no human contact at night, and then during the day, I attended class by myself. And so I had literally no human contact. So I asked my boss, "I don't think I can do this anymore.

I'm going to go crazy." I'm not going to be able to distinguish between real voice and fake voice, right? So he said, "Well, the only other position we have open is the guy who was cleaning the toilets, he quit." And I said, "Where is it?" He said, "Oh, it's in the other building." And that's where all the nighttime workers were hanging out.

So I said, "Oh, that's got to be better than this." So I said, "Okay, I'll take it." So I walked in, and they had about 23 different toilets. It was a huge building. It was a huge aircraft in Fullerton. So my job was to walk around from 5 to 2 in the morning to clean up all the bathrooms.

And I got so many stories from this period of my life, which I won't get into today. But I remember the first time doing the job, he said, "Oh, this couple who is doing this, they're going to train you." And I remember when they were training me, they just would tackle the toilet with bare hands.

They'd take the brush, and then they would wipe it down. And I said, "Really?" And then they looked at me. It's like, "Oh, okay, okay. So here's what you're supposed to do." So they opened up their cart, and in the cart, they had this huge apron, rubber apron, you know the kind that they had at the butcher where every part of them is protected.

So they had this rubber apron that comes from the neck all the way down to the floor. So it covers your whole body. And then they had a glove that comes all the way beyond your elbow, both of them. And then you wear a mask, and then you have a hood.

So basically, if anything splatters, the only part that's not protected are your eyes. So you wear glasses. So I said, "Okay, all right, I can do this. This is better than being in darkness all night." So I did it, and then even the brush isn't that typical, like a foot and a half brush.

It's just like three feet, you know what I mean? So I can get to the toilet from a distance, so if it splashed, I have enough time to jump out of the way. So the first two to three weeks, I did exactly what they told me to do, or thought like, "Oh, this is how to protect yourself from this junk," right?

So I would go into the bathrooms, and, you know, again, I learned so many things. I won't get into it today. I'm so tempted to tell you. One of these days, okay, maybe at the retreat when we have more time, I learned so many things about different cultures through their bowel movements.

Anyway, it has nothing to do with the sermon, so I'm not going to sidetrack. So after about a week and a half of this, it's like, "I can't do this because it would take forever." And then every time I need to take a break, I got to, you know, hose down, take all things off, wash my hand, and I got to go take a break, and then five minutes later, I got to come back, put it all back on.

And so every bathroom was a chore. I was like, "I can't reach in there. There's a spot underneath. I can't get to it." So every day, something was coming off. "I can't wear this hat. It's too hot in here." And I gave the brush. "I can't reach this with a brush.

I get the shorter one." Then after, "Oh, I can't bend with this apron on. I can't take this off." Eventually, I took everything off, and I was doing exactly what they were doing. Because I was able to do it half the time and do it much faster and effectively, because I wasn't concerned about getting dirty.

Obviously, you know, I'd have to go home and take a shower, you know, and clean myself. But if I wanted to do this job effectively, I had to do what they're doing. What does this have to do with the sermon? There's so much training that you can get in the classroom because you're hearing, and people are telling you, "This is what you're supposed to do." Until you're willing to get dirty, you're never really going to learn.

If our natural inclination is, "You see sin in other people. You see sin in circumstance. You see difficulty." And our natural instinct is to put on the full garb or just stay away from that, your training is always in theory. You don't really know how to disciple. You don't really know how to love.

You don't really know how to persevere because it's all in theory. It isn't until we are willing to get dirty, just like Christ came and took on humanity and walked among the dirt with us, that He was able to sympathize with our weaknesses. God is working to train us to walk in the same shoes that He walked in, to be in the midst of sinners.

And if you're in the midst of sinners, you're going to have some of that stuff splash on you. But God is doing that to train us. And that's why He said, "If you want to come after me, you take up the cross too. And you deny yourself and follow me." In God's perfect plan, He allows certain things to happen in our lives.

A God who is perfect, a God who loves us, has a specific reason why He placed you and allow you to experience what you are experiencing now. So my prayer is that this morning as we participate in this communion, to recognize maybe we are looking at our physical circumstance and our past through our own physical lens, but this morning that we would look at it through the lens of Christ who was crucified on our behalf.

And it changes everything. If you believe that a loving, perfect, sovereign God is the one who placed us where we're at, it changes everything. So this morning as we prepare for our communion, as we ask the praise team to come, I want to open up our communion with us in 1 Corinthians 11.

As I read the passage, after I read it, I want to give you a few minutes to take some time to meditate and think. And again, communion is meant for baptized believers. So baptism is our union with Christ, and communion is like celebrating the anniversary so that we may be renewed in our relationship with Christ.

So if you have not been baptized and you're not a believer, we ask that you would just not participate in it, just kind of take some time to think carefully. Do I really believe this? Is this true? If you are a believer, again, we want you to take it seriously.

Don't take it lightly. Why was this given to us? For what purpose? And how would it have the effect that God had for us when he ordained this time? In 1 Corinthians 11.23, it says, "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given things, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.'" So let's take some time to contemplate, to pray, to confess, and to honor Christ, okay?

As the music is being played, and after a few minutes, I will tap my hand on the podium, and we will participate together, okay, all at once. So let's take some time to pray as our worship team begins to prepare. Again, if you've done this before, obviously you know there's two layers to this, and the first part, if you open it, will unveil the wafer, and then the second part will be the juice, okay?

So it's a little tricky, so... I'll give you a minute to do that, and if you take the first layer off, the wafer will come out, and then the second layer will expose the juice here. Okay, so if you're ready, we're going to participate together. All right. Okay, let's pray.

Gracious Father, we thank you for these elements and what it symbolizes for us, that Christ's body, which is broken for us, the blood that he shed for our atonement, that we may be justified, Lord God, as sinners before you. We pray, Father, that as we continue to strive not to drift, but to fix our eyes upon Christ, what does it mean to love you, to honor you, to worship you?

I pray that you would renew us so that our greatest joy may be our fellowship with you and not anything in this world. Help us to be people, Lord God, where our souls, our hearts, our mind, our flesh are firmly planted and grounded upon Christ. So for that end, we pray for your blessing.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. My worth is not in what I own, not in the strength of flesh and bone, but in the costly wounds of love at the cross. My worth is not in skill or name, in win or lose, in pride or shame, but in the blood of Christ that flowed at the cross.

I rejoice in my Redeemer, greatest treasure, wellspring of my soul. I will trust in Him, no other. My soul is satisfied in Him alone. As summer flowers we fade and die, fame, youth, and beauty hurry by. But life eternal calls to us at the cross. I will not boast in wealth or might, or human wisdom's fading light, but I will boast in knowing Christ at the cross.

I rejoice in my Redeemer, greatest treasure, wellspring of my soul. I will trust in Him, no other. My soul is satisfied in Him alone. Two wonders here that I confess, my worth and my unworthiness, my value fake, my ransom paid at the cross. I rejoice in my Redeemer, greatest treasure, wellspring of my soul.

I will trust in Him, no other. My soul is satisfied in Him alone. I rejoice in my Redeemer, greatest treasure, wellspring of my soul. I will trust in Him, no other. My soul is satisfied in Him alone. (soft music) - All right, let's pray. 1 Peter chapter 4, 12 to 14.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fire ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange things are happening to you. But to the degree that you share the suffering of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exaltation.

If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Lord, help us to believe this with all our heart, that we would not live for the temporary, but for the eternal. Help us, Lord God, to wait eagerly for the second coming of Christ, as our life is now hidden with Christ, that when He comes in glory, that we will be glorified in Him.

I pray that our longing, our desire, will be firmly placed on the promises that was given to us through Jesus. For that end, I pray that you would help us, train us, sanctify us, that your name may be honored, and that the world may know that there is hope in the name of Jesus Christ.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. ♪ God sent His Son ♪ ♪ They called Him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to love ♪ ♪ Heal and forgive ♪ ♪ He lived and died ♪ ♪ To buy my pardon ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there ♪ ♪ To prove my Savior lives ♪ ♪ Because He lives ♪ ♪ I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because He lives ♪ ♪ All fear is gone ♪ ♪ Because I know ♪ ♪ He owns the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living ♪ ♪ Just because He lives ♪ Amen.

All right, if I can have, again, this side, go out that side, and this side, go out this side. Thank you. If you have these trash, if you can just take it with you and throw it in the trash can as you're going out. All right, thank you. (chatter)