>> We're a church family, happy World's Day. We will now begin our service. Sing all that I am. All that I am, all that I have, I lay them down before you. Oh Lord, all my regrets, all my acclaim, the joy and the pain, I'm making them yours. Sing all that I am.

All that I am, all that I have, I lay them down before you. Oh Lord, all my regrets, all my acclaim, the joy and the pain, I'm making them yours. Lord, I offer my life to you. Everything I put through, use it for your glory. Lord, I offer my days to you.

Lifting my praise to you as a pleasing sacrifice. Lord, I offer you my life. Things in the past, things yet unseen, wishes and dreams that are yet to come true. All of my goals, all of my plans, my heart and my hands are lifted to you. Lord, I offer my life to you.

Everything I put through, use it for your glory. Lord, I offer my days to you. Lifting my praise to you as a pleasing sacrifice. Lord, I offer you my life. Lord, I offer my life to you. Everything I put through, use it for your glory. Lord, I offer my days to you.

Lifting my praise to you as a pleasing sacrifice. Lord, I offer you my life. Lord, I offer you my life. Good morning, everyone. We have four announcements here. The first one is for this Wednesday. We're going to be having a gospel presentation where Pastor Mark will be presenting on Heaven and Hell.

And afterwards, there'll be a panel Q&A with David Mobley and Elder James. If you have any questions about that, please contact Pastor Mark and he'll give you more instructions. Secondly, a Jubilee Picnic Fellowship is going to be on July 14th. That is for anybody that is 50 years and older.

And it's going to be $10 a person. Elder Phillips should be tabling after each of these services. So if you could go out there and sign up for that, that would be very helpful. Third, Berean Family Ministry Beach Day is going to be on a Saturday on the 20th of July.

And it's going to be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Bolsa Chica State Beach. Please RSVP for that so that we can get a headcount. And lastly, Family Ministry Summer Retreat is 95% filled. Next Sunday is the last day to sign up, so please sign up immediately so that you can reserve a spot.

Well, today we have a little bit of a packed service. After our praise time, we'll be having our brother Elijah baptized today. And after that, we'll be having a video play about the Korea team that just came back, as well as a testimony. And so if you could just ready your hearts for all of that, that would be good.

Let me pray for the offering this morning. Heavenly Father, we thank you, and we pray, God, that you would receive pleasing sacrifices to you. Lord, with our voices, with our lives, and with our money. Father, I pray that this would be because we desire your purposes and your goals.

So thank you, Lord, for all that you give us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Let us all rise, and let's spend a few moments just to greet the neighbors around us. Today, we'll be introducing a hymn. It is called, "Oh, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing." And I'd like to read just a few verses from it.

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise. The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace. He breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean, his blood availed for me. He speaks, and listening to his voice, new life the dead receive.

The mournful broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe. Amen to this gospel. So let's sing this hymn together. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise. The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise.

The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace. My gracious master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad the wonders of thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease. 'Tis music in the sinner's ears, 'tis life and health and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest flee, his blood availed for me. He speaks. He speaks, and listening to his voice, new life the dead receive. The mournful broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe. Glory to God and praise and love be ever, ever give.

By saints below and saints above, the church in earth and heaven. Oh, for a thousand. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise. The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace. Amen. From the brightness-- from the brightness of his glory, Jesus, the Son of God, descends.

Takes on the nature of a servant, Jesus, obedient to death. A father willed to crush him as a sacrifice for sin. He satisfied God's justice, and in victory rose again. You are highly exalted, name above all names, worthy of all praise. You are reigning in glory, Jesus, you're the King over everything.

Exalted to the highest place, given the name above all other names. The tomb is empty. The tomb is empty. Christ is risen, Jesus, the Lamb was crucified. The angels never cease to worship Jesus in heaven glorified. To him belongs the power, the wisdom, might, and strength. All glory and dominion to the Lord of every age.

You are highly exalted, name above all names, worthy of all praise. You are reigning in glory, Jesus, you're the King over everything. Exalted to the highest place, given the name above all other names. Our knees will bow, our tongues proclaim that you are Lord of all. Our knees will bow, our tongues proclaim that you are Lord of all.

Our knees will bow, our tongues proclaim that you are Lord of all. Our knees will bow, our tongues proclaim that you are Lord of all. You are highly exalted, name above all names, worthy of all praise. You are reigning in glory, Jesus, you're the King over everything. Exalted to the highest place, given the name above all other names.

Amen, you may be seated. Good morning, Berean Ministry, friends and family. My name is Elijah Hom, and I am currently attending UCI, nearing the end of this journey. Like many, I grew up in the church. I've been exposed, taught, and experienced God's word many times. It took me a while to realize, but I had just been blindly listening.

I had falsely believed I was saved, and his word never really took place in my heart. I had the mindset of just doing what I was told. There was never any growth, and it was more of a cover to make myself look better in everyone else's eyes. Eventually, as I got older, I got more and more defiant, more confident in being able to say no to going to events.

I'd come to believe the self-idolization of not wanting to attend any church events or doing anything at all, because I simply didn't want to. I had no desire to grow in God. Transferring to UCI last year and being on my own, I believe it really put me in a position where I had to acknowledge that what I had been doing previously was just me being selfish, ignorant, and avoiding the truth that I was not saved.

I can't say that there was a specific moment that I received Christ, but that it was a gradual growth, understanding acceptance throughout the past two years. I had come to realize my own sin and how I was serving only myself. I only went to events that I deemed was more fun for me.

I had succumbed to my own laziness and essentially spat at God. I was living for myself and only doing things that I wanted to do. Luckily, I was given many opportunities from God, in which my sin was presented more adamantly to me. There are many teachings that would feel like an attack to me because deep down, I knew it was true for me.

I didn't want to accept it, but God was persistent, and I had no choice but to acknowledge my sins. I was but a mere fake, only keeping up a physical appearance with a wicked heart to God. I simply had no desire to love God, to follow Him, or to devote myself to Him.

Gradually, I accepted that I was in fact not saved, and I needed to accept God and have Christ grow in me. I had to acknowledge that I was afraid, afraid of not being accepted, afraid of being mistaken and wrong. It took me some time, but I finally came to accept that I needed to trust in Him and burn into my mind and heart that God loves me and wants to save me from my sins.

I needed to fully give my all to Him and not put up a false act. I had to stop thinking of what I would want and live for Him. I am still growing in Christ, and I know now that I do have a desire to love God, and I know that I want to continuously strengthen my faith in Him and spread His Word.

I believe that God sacrifices only His Son for our sins. I believe that we must repent to be saved. I believe that God knows all and has everything according to His plan, and I believe that I must work to cast away my sinful life and grow in this new body provided by the Lord.

As I cast out my old life, I declare my love, trust, and devotion to Christ, and I hope to also be held accountable to everyone that witnessed. Thank you. Dear passengers, welcome to Seoul. For your safety, please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until the sign is turned on.

Good morning, church family. My name is Woojin Chong, and I'm one of the 19 members that had the privilege of being part of the Korea Summer Mission team. We traveled to Korea for two and a half weeks, primarily hosting an English retreat with Namu Church and running an English camp with Pastor Noh from Sarang Dongsan Church.

Coming into the trip, I had mixed emotions about doing mission work in Korea. I had been praying for and looking forward to going out to Korea prior to COVID when I last went on a vision trip to Japan with Rian in 2019. Through that trip, my desire to want to do mission work in Korea has been steadily growing over the years, with a bumpy road along the way as various life circumstances over the years prevented me from going.

As the date to Korea got closer and closer in the last few months, I started feeling anxious as well. Would I be able to say that I was in a place in my life where I was being faithful in my witness as a Christian? Would I be useful and effective to the team, or would I be a hindrance in the work?

Lots of unknowns of the trip brought about nervousness and anxiousness, but I continued to pray that whatever the outcome, I would do my best to stay faithful to the Kingdom work whenever we went. With this mixed emotion, I went to Korea, and from the moment that we landed, I can say now with full confidence that as I look back, God was faithful in stirring up a heart for the country and the people, not just inside my heart, but as well as the rest of our team members, as we got to interact with various people throughout the trip.

From the beginning of the trip, I was unexpectedly pulled into translating and interpreting from English to Korean and vice versa, as there were some difficulties with language barrier, especially with the younger audiences like the children when we visited Jinmyung Care Center in Incheon. Because I was not fully confident in my ability to effectively communicate for the team in real time, I was a little hesitant to do so, but despite the limited experience, God was able to graciously use it to bridge the gap between the Korean and the English that was present throughout the trip.

I got to see how God used my circumstances of being both fluent in Korean and English as a way to be a support to the team. It was truly a humbling experience as I got to learn how to better communicate not only in common and casual conversations, but also translating intentional conversations back and forth during my small group discussion times at the English retreat, because my small group was divided between Korean-only speakers and English-only speakers.

This was one of the times in the trip where I vividly remember some of the most thought-provoking and intentional conversations that came up with the different attendees in there. With one attendee who only spoke English, I would encourage and challenge a struggling, professing believer in their walk and pointed them back to the gospel, while with another attendee who spoke only Korean, I would challenge them to think through the spiritual realities presented in the Bible and to show them that a life lived for the world and for self-pleasure and sin was ultimately in vain, and that true life and purpose could only be found in Christ alone.

And then I would have to wrestle through how to translate this back and forth. The opportunity to be able to share the gospel in both languages was truly an insightful and memorable experience throughout the retreat as this went on in multiple small group sessions. I also had the privilege of being able to share my testimony fully in Korean for Namu Church, which in of itself was a challenge trying to write it out in Korean, but thankfully God used it to encourage the believers at the church.

In a strange way, I felt out of place and yet at the same time comfortably home. I was legally by citizenship an American, and yet at the same time I was a Korean native born and raised in Seoul and had the privilege of being able to experience both sides at the same time.

My heart kept wrestling back and forth between the desire to return back home to my family, my church, and to continue the work that I was doing here, while at the same time there was a desire in my heart to remain in Korea and be God's worker in the field where the harvest was truly plentiful, but the faithful workers were few.

There is an urgent need of the gospel in Korea, and we got to witness the decline of Christianity not just through hearing, but with our very own eyes throughout the trip. As I continued to wrestle with these thoughts, I continued to reflect on what it meant for my own future trajectory.

From a practical and worldly perspective, I would hope that in the next five to ten years, I would start advancing in my career, look to start a family and settle down, maybe buy a house down the line and so forth. Without any major changes going on, I would assume that this was most likely the things that I would be pursuing down the line.

But it was in these pursuits that I had to really wrestle in my heart. If God called me to a different life where I had to give up these pursuits, would I be willing to sacrifice these pursuits to go out and pursue a life unto God's kingdom? Would I, like the prophet Isaiah, be able to confidently proclaim, "Lord, here am I.

Send me." One of the passages that I got to meditate on a lot during the trip was Acts 15-16. As I reflected on Paul's ministry, in which he was sent out by the church with full confidence, and in whatever direction God pulled him to, he was flexible and faithful in preaching the gospel wherever he went.

I desired the same outcome for my own life, that whether I am sent or I stay back home, to remain faithful to God's calling for my life and to be faithful to the preaching of the gospel to those around me that are lost and in need of the salvation.

Being sent out does not mean a greater godliness or greater faithfulness to Christ compared to remaining at home. Yet, if God does call me at any point to anywhere, whether it is Korea or a different location, that I would be flexible and heed God's calling with eagerness and with excitement.

It was such an encouraging two and a half weeks, spending time with our team members, many who were also wrestling through similar thoughts on their calling and future life trajectory. I think one of my favorite aspects of the trip was getting to know some of our team members better in a way that could only really be experienced because we were all united in our efforts to bring witness in Korea.

Through many of the conversations with our team members, I was encouraged to see how there were many within the team who also shared in the desire to be faithful to God's calling in their lives, wherever they're called. And I earnestly pray that this experience would not be something that is only felt by our team members, but with the rest of the church body as well.

It was also encouraging spending time with the faithful workers in Korea who are all passionate to share the gospel locally and globally and seeing their heart for God's mission work. The same God that works powerfully here is the same God that works powerfully in Korea as well, through all the individuals that are involved.

I am confident that whatever plans God has for Korea, that He will continue to sustain and bring about fruit in the labor and work that are being done out there. I want to thank all of you who have been fervently praying for our team and for Korea these last few weeks.

I ask that the church would continue to pray for Korea. Pray that God would open a clear door for our church to be able to go on a longer term and that we will be able to bring the gospel to a nation that is in desperate need of Jesus Christ.

I also pray that God would call His workers and that they would heed His call for mission and to go wherever God sends them, whether locally or globally, knowing that it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good things to the knees of good things." Thank you.

- All right. Well, thank you, Eugene, and thank you for everyone who's prayed for us. We're very thankful to be back and continue the work here, and we are very much kind of ignited, I think, as a team, and remembering again what it is that we're trying to do here as well.

Would you turn with me to Romans 12:1? And this is a passage that I was thinking about as I was over there. Romans 12:1-2. "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Father, as we go into your Word, I pray that you would impress it deep into our hearts, Lord, that you would show us what it means, even a passage so often visited, that we would respond in obedience to your will and call.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Today, we're not going to be going through every portion of this text, and yet, this is a very common sermon that's given because it's so rich, and there's so many angles and so much that can be pulled up out of a text like this.

But we are going to be focusing very singularly on this thought that kept coming into my mind, which is that growth has a goal. And that's what we're going to be looking at today. This is our sermon title, that growth has a goal. And so I want to invite you to think about that.

What would it be like to run without a goal? Or to work without a goal? Make money? To go on a vacation without a goal? If there is no goal, if there is no direction to it, then what happens to that action? 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24 says, "Do you not know that those who run in a race run, but only one receives the prize?

Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air.

But I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified." So here in this passage, even in discipline, even in self-control, it happens because there is an end goal, that there is a direction to our lives.

If you were to think about any kind of movement without a goal, then it's just expended energy. If you were to shove someone across an ice without direction, then it doesn't really have any kind of end desire or matter. At the end, there is no such thing as having no goal.

There is no such thing as having no direction. If we think that we're doing something and there is no goal or direction, then one will be supplied for us. Because in our lives, the direction and goal that tends to appear is going to be the things that we love, the things that we worship, and that there is going to be a purpose, whether we know it or not.

For worshippers, regardless of whether you're worshipping the one true God, or whether you're worshipping something else, there is going to be a direction and goal. So we have to be careful here. In Romans chapter 1 through 11, it's been leading up to this passage, these chapters that describe the gospel and all the outworkings of the gospel.

It's been talking about it for the individual, but also through the people of God, and how he's working out his plans. In essence, there is a goal and direction that God has been working towards. And so we're going to be looking at two points, as it all funnels down to what he desires for us.

What our goals and what our desires ought to be. And the first is that our goal is not just sacrifice, but acceptable sacrifice. Not just blindly giving whatever it is that we think that God wants, but it must be acceptable in his sight. So if you look at verse 1 again, it says, "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." And so, a lot of what we've been seeing in this book, up till chapter 12, is going to be foundational.

And so he uses this word "therefore" at the beginning of chapter 12. Looking back to the entirety of the gospel message of what God has been trying to accomplish, to this salvation that has been given to you, and to me. This is the origin point of movement. This is the foundation, and the origin point, the foundation is different than goal and direction.

This is that call not to forget where you're from. Don't forget what you've been given. Don't forget that there's an urging going on here because of this foundation. It's an earnest request. This urging is a personal appeal that he's giving. An urgency in how we're called to live. This urgency is matching up to all the foundation of what is given in the gospel.

God has shown us that the word used here is by the mercies of God. He's shown us mercy. And so now from this truth, from this foundation, is given to us a direction, or a goal. For us, we are all sinners. We're all unworthy. We have all received love.

There's nothing that we have that we have not been given. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, as believers, we do not walk past the suffering person. Why? Because God didn't walk past us. When we were in need, God stopped. In the parable of the unforgiving servant, we don't withhold forgiveness because God did not withhold forgiveness from us when we pled before him.

And so we forgive because we've been shown forgiveness. We show mercy because we've been shown mercy. We love because we've been shown love. And so our foundation, this is the therefore. You are to live in such a way which provides us the direction. So this is letter B, direction.

This is towards the goal. This is also a call to remember in which direction to go. Christianity is not just a marching order that we're called to just perform blindly. It's not just a checklist of to-do things, of this and that, and we move along and forward in our lives just marching in a mindless direction.

If the foundation is the therefore of this passage, that we've been given such a great salvation, this movement towards an end is going to be found in the rest of it. Justification is a point. It's a point in time in something that God has accomplished for us. But that is not the place we simply revolve.

It's an origin point that constantly pushes into this place called sanctification. Direction has a goal. If I were to use a loose illustration here, since many have kind of gone through our college ministry, sometimes in our college retreats, or if you can think back at the time, a long time ago when you were a college student or something like that, there's a game that we play.

It's called cannons. What we would do is there would be one student on the ground and he would blindfold himself and there would be a student behind him directing him on where to go. One of the common snacks that we have at retreats are these Welch's fruit snacks. We would just dump the entire box all over the ground and the point of this game would be for the person who's blindfolded to grab one of these fruit snacks and launch it and hit another team.

They would go out. That was the whole point of the game. Inevitably, as you were watching this, you would begin to see, wow, there's a pattern as to who wins and who loses. The ones who win or the ones who lost, it's because they would either follow directions or not.

There were students who just were so enthusiastic. Perhaps they felt the eyes of all those that they were trying to impress. They would grab one of these things and without heeding the directions of those behind them, would grab it and just throw it in any which direction, which in the beginning they might get some people out, but towards the end, that wouldn't work.

I saw another thing, which is that the person who was standing behind would give directions as to where to throw. They would say, "Pick it up." They would not know how to pick it up. They would say, "Oh, it's a little bit to the left." Then they would swing too far left.

They'd grab it and say, "Fire!" They would just throw it up in the air. They would have to listen to these directions. Inevitably, in panic, there's always someone who just grabs and fires. There are going to be those who actually listen to the directions. Those were the ones who won the game.

When we think about our lives, if you were to think about the direction of your life, if you were to think about God providing direction, if there is a goal in all the things that we are trying to do in our decisions, in the pursuits, are we just grabbing and firing?

Is it just in a certain direction? Or are we listening to our God? What is the goal? What is the purpose? I believe that many times this is what we're doing. We're just firing away. In 1 Corinthians 9, he says, "Do not box as if you're just beating the air." I believe it's very, very easy for us to go down this path as believers from a foundation point that we have been saved, we have been given such a great salvation, and then our decisions, and our will, and our actions, and the things that we desire to accomplish in our lives, we're just firing away.

Titus 2, verse 11 shows us that there's direction. "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age." It's an instruction set upon the believer to live denying the ungodly and worldly desires that come.

To live in a way that makes sense to the believer that there is an end to our righteous and godly, even in the present age. We don't get to just do whatever we want now because we have been given salvation. We have been created for good works. We are made holy for a purpose.

Our lives belong to God. Our desires have been changed. We don't want our will any longer, but God's. We don't invite God into my plans. Our desires are for His plans. We know that God has direction for my life. We know that He has direction for our church. And we know that God has a direction for this world.

Of course we believe that. We believe that He desires His goals to a redeemed world, a redeemed humanity that will glorify Him. Are we just firing away wherever we want? Are we just generally saying, "Yes, I believe that." But our decisions to which university to attend, to what major to go, to careers, to relationships, to what we purchase, the use of our money, our free time, expenditure of our energy and resources has become directionless, mindless.

His purposes, His magnification, His glory. We say that with one part of our mouth, and out of that same mouth, just use it however we want. See, God doesn't accept all sacrifices. Not all sacrifices are true worship. Sacrifice has a direction. True worship has a direction to His ends, His desires, to His plans.

In this passage, when He says to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, He uses this idea of presenting your body. Another way to understand this word is to make available your body. There is potential for us to do quite the opposite. To make our bodies unavailable to His purposes.

To make our time, our energy, our money, our resources, unavailable to God. Why? Because the direction that we're going towards is our goals. Our checkbooks betray us, don't they? Where we spend our leisure time, it betrays us sometimes, doesn't it? The things that we think about over and over again, what dominates our attention many times, is it God's direction?

To fulfill our own desires, our own ends, our own purpose. Sometimes I think we can feel it. Sometimes we can feel it in our church. Are we just running programs at church? Are we just studying the scriptures? Are we just running things mindlessly? Are we too easily satisfied in our efforts without it actually accomplishing anything?

Are we running around, chasing our own tails, thinking that we're living a Christian life that honors God with no rubric as to gauge whether we're truly honoring God or not? Are we saying we're worshiping God and yet it is not bringing God worship? Are we saying that we desire to do His will, His purposes, His goals, and yet the decisions that we're making in our lives have nothing to do with Him?

If we read the text plainly, we are sacrifices. Another way to think about this is that we're dead. Our own personal desires are dead. Our own personal aspirations are dead. Our own personal checklists and to-dos are dead. That is why the sanctification is described as a process of death.

This idea of living sacrifice is sanctification. To lose our lives in order that we might live. It's found in Scripture, this understanding of the believer in this day and age. Lose self to follow Christ. Lose your life in order to live. Follow Him into suffering and death, not only at the moment of salvation but as a course and direction of our lives until the moment we die.

Of course, this is not to say that we're not allowed to have our own desires. I'm not saying we're called to micromanage ourselves and wonder and police ourselves and check every single little thing that we do, but we know if we're to back up and look at the trajectory of our lives, what direction we've been going.

You know it and I know it. And we can say permissible and beneficial all we want. We know that we're given away in the choices that we make. In the places where we expend our resources. This idea of sacrifice was that it's meant to be consecrated. That we're meant to be set apart for His purposes.

For His glory. He's the center. It's not, we get to live our lives and we try to pull Him into ours. And our prayers then betray us. Because the things that we pray show whether we want His goals or my goals. If you look at, if you read through the Pentateuch, the seriousness of God's holiness shines.

God is meticulous in His instructions to worship and sacrifice because each part actually matters. I think what we do is we try to wipe it all away because we say because Jesus. Why was that written like that? Each ceremony, each memorial, remembrance, the lamp stand, the altar, the curtain, it tells you how many rings on the curtain there is.

It's like why are you doing this? Why do you tell us what to cover it with? Why do you say that it needs to be done this way? Why do you say that it needs to be sprinkled like this? How come it has to be this animal? Why is it all there?

What is the purpose to show who God is? To show why reasonable worship is meant to look a certain way. That that was meant to show reasonable worship. Sometimes it feels unreasonable. Really? All of that? Sometimes we like to wipe it away because Jesus came and fulfilled it all.

And yet what that was trying to show was who God is. Do you know what the most used phrase in Leviticus is? I am the Lord. That's the most used phrase. Because of who God is. All these instructions given, not arbitrarily but to show He is. Show who He is.

That He is the same God there and now that He is the same God now. Jesus might have accomplished this but worship still matters. Now instead of a temple we'd have to travel to. This is a scarier concept. It doesn't just wipe away the idea of the temple. He says that we are the temple of God.

And He uses this imagery to show something in this passage in Romans 12, 1-2. That we are the living sacrifices. Meticulousness needs to be found in our worship. Not as a burden of rules to follow but truly knowing who He is. Allowing the seriousness of that to dictate and infiltrate how we live and that our decisions matter because we are sacrifices to God.

Our worship matters. So the one who sacrifices without the proper direction towards the goal is not allowed to say just take whatever I give. You'll receive it, right? And God says no to that. Because any sacrifice given without the proper direction, without the heaven word goal is considered detestable in His sight.

It's evil. No matter how much it mimics the true thing, the direction, the goal of sacrifice is everything. And so He says in this passage even to be acceptable to God. That's the goal. Not just sacrifice but acceptable sacrifice is the goal. It's what God wants. So in our day-to-day living, our lives fundamentally changes.

The way we make decisions, the expedentia of our resources, it fundamentally changes. We don't live for ourselves. Our prayers change. When we say your kingdom come, your will be done. Even as Jesus stated in the garden, not my will but your will be done, we're right there with Him.

Our money then is not God's money and so we don't use it like that. Our time is not our time, it's God's time so we don't use it like that. Our energy is God's energy. Our bodies belong to God. There is no desire that we have that's meant to be isolated to just me.

There's no energy that we're going to be expending as a church that's isolated to just what we're doing here at Berean. They're to be wrapped up in His desires. What is the goal and direction of your life? Our eating has a goal. Our relationships has a goal. Our rest has a goal.

We engage in entertainment with a goal. We play video games with a goal. We play sports and we watch it with a goal. It can't all just be a neutral thing. It can't be where the ultimate goal is a side point. This has to be the center. There's something that brings all this together.

There's intention. There's purpose. There's direction in our lives. And all that we do reflects the direction. What has our direction been? On the Korea trip, we felt it. Many of us have felt it. Just in general. We rested with the goal. We woke up with the goal. We read with the goal.

We hung out with the goal. Even our leisure time, it was with the goal in mind. So it was very freeing. We had the same goal. This idea of sacrifice acceptable to God. This idea of worship means that it needs to be in spirit and truth. It can't be just desires.

Just because you say you want to live for God's glory and you try really, really hard in that, doesn't mean that God is pleased by your life. Doesn't mean that God is pleased by mine. It has to be saturated in truth. If you've ever heard that phrase, someone can be sincere and be sincerely wrong.

That's what we're looking at. In 2 Samuel chapter 6 verse 6, the story of Uzzah, it says, "But when they came to the threshing floor of Nakhon, Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen nearly upset it. And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence, and he died there by the ark of God." I don't think he had the wrong desire.

What was happening here in this passage is that he was terribly mistaken. His sight was not based on the truth and on the reality. Him saying, "I didn't know," didn't cut it, because truth mattered here. Him saying that, "I didn't understand the amount of people that say I didn't mean to." So what of us?

If that's the case, then God's truth matters. Truth matters in our worship. If you want to be acceptable to God, it needs to be based upon His truth. You can't just have an emotional feeling at church and say, "That must be God." And how we think about love, acceptability, the world.

Some of us were at a conference somewhat recently, and I was pretty disappointed by one of the things that was coming out as a marching cry from many churches. That we must change the way we're doing things because the world is watching. I understand the sentiment and parts of it.

I really, okay, I get it. But I believe the whole of the matter of this was to be 100% false. Because as a matter of why we make the decisions, we do have everything to do with God's sight. In Galatians 1, verse 10, it says, "For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God, or am I striving to please men?

If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ." The sentiment that ought to drive us in our direction, in our goals, in our worship, is that God is watching. We want to be acceptable in His sight. We strive not to please man, but to please God.

So thankful Pride Month is over. I believe there are so many so-called churches that have compromised because they have good intentions to try to be a good witness. Good intentions to try to love people, but they've missed the whole point. Good intentions are not enough and must be saturated in the truth for us to be acceptable in the sight of God.

For Him to receive the worship, there are many churches who are not giving Him acceptable worship. No matter how sincere our hearts. And I'm going to pull ourselves away from this because Berean Community Church is not immune to this. It is in our church. It is in our hearts.

I believe many of us are fooling ourselves into thinking that we're giving God worship when He is not receiving it. That we have been keeping worship. We have been keeping our hearts from Him. So that was the first point, the goal. It's not just sacrifice, but acceptable sacrifice. The second goal, the second point, the goal is not conformed, but transformed.

In Romans chapter 12 verse 2. He doesn't want us to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed in a way. So it says in verse 2, "And do not be transformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Today, there are many ways in which we can attack this, and look at this, but I'm going to be not looking at this idea of conforming to the secular world, but I want to call on us not to be conformed to the so-called believing world.

This includes of course those who are heretics and theologically and doctrinally false in their teaching, but this also includes what has crept into our own circle of churches. That we must not become a church that conforms to the world of churches that have been erroneously and sinfully built, and I felt this in Korea.

In Korea, there are many huge mega churches that have been built. Some of the biggest churches in the world are in Korea. We pass by huge churches, and as we look at what's going on in Korea, one of the questions that came to mind is, is the spirit alive in these churches?

Is there obedience happening in these churches? Is there true worship going on in them? With tens of thousands of people packing the pews week after week after week, and I thought, what is going to happen if it's not? What is going to happen when the previous generations of Christians die off, when the current generation where there is just a little percentage of believers that reside in Korea, and it's a predominantly unbelieving society, that these buildings then will become shells?

Empty buildings that might have these pews, crosses made of wood, and cafes that have nice coffee that are being presented in them, projectors that cost thousands, and music equipment, and banners that come up with themes just like ours, year after year after year, rolled up and put away, great and grand productions of VBS and retreats.

Many in Korea were saying that the Korean church has lost its witness, and that was heartbreaking for me to hear. That the reason why people didn't want to go to church was because of the church. Fleshliness is not just secular worldliness. It can also be a religious on site.

You can conform to the world of nominal religion. Religion can be conformity to the world. In fact, at the end, the Antichrist is going to mimic Christ, right? It's not just going to be something that is our religious. In the book of Revelation, we see that, right? That there's going to be this mimicking that goes on.

There's going to be worship that goes on. The false prophet mimicking the spirit. The dragon mimicking the father. There's going to be an altar that mimics the altar. There's going to be worship. And it's going to look a lot closer to Christianity than we feel comfortable with. So we can say what we want about Islam and Marxism and all these things that's taking over, but all these things are being pushed for in the name of goodness and the name of righteousness and the name of what is truth.

But humans can yell as loud as we want, but what matters is the truth. Is it acceptable to God or not? And so, to be acceptable, we must not be conformed to the world but be transformed. Chapter 12, verse 2 again. We must be transformed. Transformation can only happen by the power of the spirit.

It's not something that you can generate with programs. It's not something that you can do as you go through a curriculum. It's not something that you can do as you just say the right things to your children. It can only happen by the power of the spirit. And that's why Paul says, "Not with eloquence of words," he says, "I came with demonstration of power, of spirit." We must be transformed.

There are people at our church who have written me encouragement notes before and they say, "You seem so happy and I know that that's the joy of Christ." I'm so thankful for those encouragement notes, but one of the crazy things that I think back on, one of the things that kind of disturbs me is how do I know that that is of Christ?

Because before I became a Christian, when I was in high school, you know those yearbook things? When I was most likely to be the next president of the United States, things like that? I got the most happy. That was what I want. Most happy. People are saying, "He's so smiley all the time.

So happy." That was as a non-believer. How do I know? What is that? I'm not saying what you're seeing is false. Don't like when you see smiley. That's fleshly. Please don't think that of me. But at the end, how do you know? How do I know? How do I know there's a transformation?

It has to be the transformation that occurs inside of us. It can't just be a shell. It can't just be programs. It can't just be what you hear when I pray in front of you. It needs to be the inner man. It needs to be real. Cain and Abel, they both presented sacrifice to God and only one was accepted because Cain was conforming to the expectation.

He was not transformed in his heart. He says that this needs to be the renewing of your mind because sanctification has a goal. It needs to be the renewal of the mind. This is not a renewing as we think about library books that needs to be renewed from time to time.

This renewal means that it is something that is a complete overhaul in your life. It's a death to present self and alive to new self. It is transformation. That our minds are different than the way we used to think. Everything is different. And so we will not say it's unreasonable when the Bible says that we must deny ourselves, take up the cross to follow Christ because all of our lives are wrapped up in this idea.

And so in Colossians chapter 3 verse 5 it says, "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.

And in them you also once walked when you were living in them." He says that's gone. In Colossians chapter 3 verse 10 it shows you then what you are to be renewed to. Put on a new self which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free man.

But Christ is all. That's the renewal. It has nothing to do with our identity, it has nothing to do with all of these other things, everything to do with Christ. If we do not have our minds renewed, then there is no way for us to prove the will of God.

The direction here, God's will, this is the whole point, death to self, life to God. And so he says in Romans chapter 12 verse 1 through 2, "The goal is to prove God's will." What is God's will? What does it mean to prove God's will? That means that our lives become proof, that our lives point, that our lives actually are what brings God's will to fruition.

Not mine. Worship of God defined by him, not me. Love of God defined by him, not me. Weeks ago PPK brought up, Pastor Peter Kim brought up that if people knew him, he said his children would not get him Disneyland tickets because they knew him. And if we know God, just giving is not enough.

He uses these words, good, acceptable, and man, the most unfair word of them all, perfect. That that's what our lives are to be. How are we to know if we are presenting our lives as a sacrifice that's good, presentable, acceptable, and perfect to him? So this is where the rubber meets the road and I'll conclude with application.

Because I think this is where direction happens. It's not just truths that are just points in our lives. Every Sunday, right now, it's a point. We're looking at scripture and there's a truth that's been presented to us. Direction happens when we acknowledge it and we submit to it. That we make changes.

Application. Look at three quick ones that are on the negative sphere. Our application, to have a goal to this upward call is not simply being a nicer or better person. Sometimes I think that's our goal. We're trying to be better people. So I'm impatient, so I want to be more patient.

I'm angry, so I want to be more kind. Doesn't it feel that way sometimes? And we have a goal that is altogether just apart from God's goals. And so we end up creating these goals that were meant to be byproducts. Of course, I'm not saying don't fight impatience. I'm not saying you have anger.

That's okay. That's not what we're saying, right? What we're saying is when we look at this, that can't be our goal. Just simply becoming a nicer, better person. That means our measure, our gauge, our barometer is broken if we think that that's what's causing us to change because I just don't feel like I'm a nice person.

The second one is not simply serving however we want. That we think that if we write our names down under this ministry or the fact that I'm actually going to Bible study here or the fact that I'm investing in this person there. Simply serving however we want is not the goal.

That might not be received by God. Remember, if I have not love, then it is nothing. It's very clear that it could be nothing what we give. Thirdly, not simply doing our best not to sin. We get around in our circle saying this is how I've sinned and please pray for me and it just becomes a perpetual goal of trying to fight sin in our lives.

That is not the goal. We have to sharpen our intentions. We have to ask this question, what does God want? What is his goal? We don't get to just answer that. We don't just get to fill in the blank however we want. God has presented his goal to us in his scriptures.

And so we need to ask ourselves, what does God want and how then can I live in accordance to his desires? So then we need to look at our lives. Identify. We need to diagnose and we need to plan. We need to do it. We need to identify the things that are going on.

We need to diagnose the problems, the things that have been causing me to be away from this and the things that do cause me to move forward into his directions and goals and then to plan it out how I'm going to accomplish this. I was very close to just passing out pieces of paper today and asking everyone to write down what is something that is killing us when it comes to desiring his goals.

What is the thing that we can cultivate, the good things that cause us to go towards his plans? And then to say, how are we going to do this? But that's something that must be done. Ask what it is that God wants in our lives. Personally it starts. Let it leak over into the ministry that we have with one another and then think globally.

What does God want for the world? I think that's how the Christian grows. Over in Korea it just felt like that again. It feels like that every time. You feel like this is the missing ingredient. Sitting around doing seminars and all these different things which are very, very important and yet if there is no goal and purpose to it, it all gets constipated up in our church.

So to conclude, ultimately it's the Great Commission. You see where we're going with this, I hope. That's God's goal. So in application what that means is how are we going to use our time to accomplish God's goals? How are we going to use our career to accomplish God's goal?

How are we going to use our energies? What will our leisure time look like? What about our relationships? What about our demands and the things that we say we must have? How are we going to think about our children and how we raise them or whether we even have them or not?

What are we going to do? I hope that we can ask this of ourselves and really ask, "God, are we just giving lip service? Saying that we want your goals, your plans?" Yet in my life it's reflecting something a little different. And instead of awakening guilt, I hope this is God's desire for the believer to say that we want to live in accordance to him.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would cause our church to be one that doesn't just sing and pray and say the right words. A God that we truly do out of the foundation of what we know project forward in a direction to the proper goal. I believe God that there are many goals in my life that are wrong.

It's the wrong way. And my energies have betrayed me. My energies have shown me which direction that I'm going. I pray, Lord, that you would start with us one at a time. But God, we present our church to you and ask because our desire is to be a living sacrifice.

Holy, pleasing, acceptable in your sight. Help us to do this as we meditate on your word. As we come to know who you are to deeper and deeper degrees. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Stand together. Sing "All I Want." All I want, how dear, build my life upon.

All this world reveres and wars to own. All I once thought gain, I have counted loss. Spent and worthless now compared to this. Knowing you, Jesus. Knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best. You're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you, Lord. Now my heart, now my heart's desire is to know you more, to be found in you and known as yours.

To possess by faith what I could not earn. All surpassing gifts of righteousness. Knowing you, Jesus. Knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best. You're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you, Lord. Oh, to know the power of your risen life and to know you in your suffering.

To become like you in your death, my Lord. So with you to live and never die. Knowing you, Jesus. Knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best. You're my joy, my righteousness. You're my all, you're the best. You're my joy, my righteousness. And I love you, Lord.

Father, I pray that it would be out of a great love for you that our desires change to your ends. And I pray, Father, that our lives would effectively be different. Lord, that we would have goals and that they would be yours. And Father, help us to change. Help us to lay down our lives as living sacrifices to you.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, both now and forevermore. Amen. God sent his Son, then called him Jesus. He came to love, heal, and forbear. He lived and died to buy my heart away.

An empty grave is there to my Savior rest. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future. And life is worth the living just because he lives. Heaven's glow on earth, my heart is strong to self-exalting. Help me seek your kingdom first, as Jesus walked.