(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) (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) (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) (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) (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) (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. I hope all of you had a good week in the Lord. We're gonna go ahead and start our worship. (soft music) (soft music) ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Holy and anointed one ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ - Resurrect and exalt.

♪ Risen and exalted one ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Your name is like honey on my lips ♪ ♪ Your spirit like water to my soul ♪ ♪ Your word is a lamp unto my feet ♪ ♪ Jesus I love you ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Holy and ♪ ♪ Holy and anointed one ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Yeah your name ♪ ♪ Your name is like honey on my lips ♪ ♪ Your spirit like water to my soul ♪ ♪ Your word is a lamp unto my feet ♪ ♪ Jesus I love you ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Risen and exalted one ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ - All right, good morning everyone.

Welcome to Berean Community Church. We have again, a few announcements before we get started. Let me ask Pastor Nate, where's Pastor Nate? He's gonna come up and give some announcements for our college ministry before we jump into the other stuff. - Hello, good morning. My name is Nathan, I'm the college pastor here at Berean.

I know that a lot of us have been seeing a lot of the younger kind of students coming through and it's because the college school year has officially begun for the quarter system. And so for those of you who are newer to our church, who are visiting for the first or second time, we have a lot of things going on, especially in the beginning part of the school year so that you can kind of acclimate and connect and get to know what this church is all about.

So just three quick things. Number one, we have a welcome table that's devoted to the college ministry that's gonna be up for about two more weeks, this week and next week. If you have questions, it has a black tablecloth, it's pretty clear in signage. So go over there, you can sign up for a rides ministry if you need rides.

You can sign up to kind of get more information about the church and all the different things going on can be told to you there in detail. But that brings us to our second announcement, which is that this week we will also continue to have a few events going on.

On Tuesday we have a What is Christianity? info night. And if you don't know what Christianity is about, it's a good place to start. So you can come there on Tuesday night. On Wednesday we're gonna be kicking off Searchlight Campus Ministry, which is our on-campus presence over at UCI.

So please join us there at 8 p.m. And then on Thursday we're gonna be having some hangouts and our Bible study continues on Friday. And so there's a lot of things going on. But thirdly and lastly, next week, after second service, so this service, we're going to be having in this room a college lunch devoted to welcoming those of you who are kind of here very new.

And we'll be explaining to you what the church is about. You can connect with other students there. And hopefully we'll connect you to the weak things as well. That's it, thank you. - You can clap. (audience applauding) It's so awkward. All right, along with that, we actually have a new visitors welcome lunch after this service.

So as soon as the service is over, we're gonna clear some of the chairs and then we're gonna set up tables here and lunch will be provided. So even if you haven't signed up and you just happen to visit and you wanna learn more about the church, they told me that there will be plenty of lunch.

So you're welcome to come. If you just stick around this room, right afterwards we're gonna be setting up. And as soon as we're set up, we're gonna get started. So please try not to roam around the church 'cause we're gonna, if you are attending that luncheon, please stick around right afterwards.

And then if some of you guys can just kind of help us out and move some of the chairs, that'd be appreciated. Heads up, next Sunday we do have communion. So prepare your hearts for that. There's a members meeting that's coming up on 10/10. So in a couple of weeks at 2/30.

Again, our members meeting is a quarterly meeting. So if you are a member or you are being introduced as a new member to the church, again, because it is a quarter meeting, we're asking all the members to come and participate in that. ACBC Counseling Mini Conference, that's coming up on October 15th and 16th.

Again, that week, because we want to have you, as many of you attend as possible. So we are not having regular Bible study this that week on Wednesday and then all the home groups. Instead, we're having our mini conference on Friday night and then it will last until Saturday afternoon.

And so even if you can't attend all of it and if you can attend some of it, we're trying to encourage you to attend as much as you can. So again, if you are attending Bible study, whether it's home group and small group, please sign up for that 'cause we're doing it in replacement of that.

Okay, so please do that as soon as you can. All right, after I pray an offering, our brother, Jerick Kwong, is gonna come and he's gonna give his testimony and he'll be baptized this morning. So we'll give you a minute after we pray to electronically give. If you've brought physical offering, we do have a box in the back as you're leaving.

There's a offering box so you can drop it off there, okay? All right, let's pray. Gracious and loving Father, we thank you so much for the privilege that we have to worship you this morning. We pray that your Holy Spirit would guide and lead us, encourage us, exhort us, rebuke us, challenge us, that we may truly live lives worthy of the gospel that you've given.

I pray, Father God, that with the offering that we give, may it be an act of worship that we give to you, that we would give joyfully, intentionally, that Christ and the gospel would be exalted, that more and more people will know the hope that is in Christ and Christ alone.

So for that end, we pray for your blessing. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) Church family, let's all go ahead and rise together as we sing this song, the glories of Calvary.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) Sing, Lord, you're calling. ♪ Lord, you're calling me to come ♪ ♪ And behold the wondrous cross ♪ ♪ To explore the depths of grace ♪ ♪ That came to me at such a cost ♪ ♪ Where your boundless love ♪ ♪ Conquered my boundless sin ♪ ♪ And all of mercy's arms ♪ ♪ Opened wide, I saw ♪ ♪ Your heart is filled with a thousand songs ♪ ♪ Proclaiming the glories of Calvary ♪ ♪ With every breath, Lord, how I long ♪ ♪ To sing of Jesus who died for me ♪ ♪ Lord, take me deeper ♪ ♪ Into the glories of Calvary ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Sinners find eternal joy ♪ ♪ In the triumph of your wounds ♪ ♪ By our Savior's crucifixion flow ♪ ♪ Holy wrath has been removed ♪ ♪ And your saints below ♪ ♪ The saints of love rejoice ♪ ♪ Rejoice in the risen last ♪ ♪ Lord, my heart ♪ ♪ My heart is filled with a thousand songs ♪ ♪ Proclaiming the glories of Calvary ♪ ♪ With every breath, Lord, how I long ♪ ♪ To sing of Jesus who died for me ♪ ♪ My heart is filled with a thousand songs ♪ ♪ Proclaiming the glories of Calvary ♪ ♪ With every breath, Lord, how I long ♪ ♪ To sing of Jesus who died for me ♪ ♪ Lord, take me deeper ♪ ♪ Into the glories of Calvary ♪ ♪ Yes, Lord ♪ - Amen.

(gentle music) (gentle music) ♪ Amazing grace ♪ ♪ Amazing grace, how sweet the sound ♪ ♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪ ♪ For I once was lost, but now am found ♪ ♪ Was blind, but now I see ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ ♪ The prodigal's welcomed home ♪ ♪ The prodigal is welcomed home ♪ ♪ A sinner now a saint ♪ ♪ For the God who died came back to life ♪ ♪ And everything has changed ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ ♪ Oh death ♪ ♪ Oh death, where is your sting ♪ ♪ Oh fear, where is your power ♪ ♪ The mighty King of kings has disarmed you ♪ ♪ Delivered and redeemed ♪ ♪ Eternal life is ours ♪ ♪ Oh praise his name forever ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ ♪ Oh what eternity ♪ ♪ Our sorrow be the same ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ And on the day you come ♪ ♪ To heaven's sweet embrace ♪ ♪ I'll see your scars, your open arms ♪ ♪ The beauty of your face ♪ ♪ Your tears of joy I'll lift my voice ♪ ♪ In everlasting praise ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ ♪ Oh death ♪ ♪ Oh death, where is your sting ♪ ♪ Oh fear, where is your power ♪ ♪ The mighty King of kings has disarmed you ♪ ♪ Delivered and redeemed ♪ ♪ Eternal life is ours ♪ ♪ Oh praise his name forever ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ ♪ Oh what eternity ♪ ♪ Our sorrow be the same ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ ♪ And on and on throughout eternity ♪ ♪ Our sorrow be the same ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Christ is risen from the grave ♪ (gentle music) - Amen, you may be seated.

(gentle music) - Hello everyone, my name is Jared Kwong. I'm a fourth year biology major at UCI and I will be sharing my testimony with you today. My testimony is a little different in that I did not have a specific date where I came to know Christ but more of a gradual coming to know him.

I was raised in a Christian family for most of my life. I went to church. Before coming to know Christ, I selfishly desired Christ as a means to get to heaven. I was introduced to the gospel at a very young age where I was told that I was a sinner and if I believed in Jesus, I could go to heaven.

Out of fear of being punished, I put my faith in Christ but not actually understanding the weight of my sin and who Christ really was. With this very shallow understanding of the gospel, I grew up thinking I was a Christian. I would remember all the rules and commandments I learned in Sunday school and follow them as best as possible.

Anyone who didn't follow them, I looked down upon and saw as inferior. Throughout high school, I began to indulge in an assortment of sins such as lust, pride, and selfishness. At the time though, I did not think I was indulging in these sins but just struggling. I saw these sins as bad but nothing more than that.

I knew I needed to stop sinning but because I did not know the true implications of my sin, I did not. I would be challenged in my faith that I had in God through my home church's youth group. I began to doubt my salvation and began to seek counsel from an elder from my home church.

After many meetups, it became evident to me that I wasn't saved. I again placed my faith in Christ and would be baptized but again with a shallow understanding of the gospel and only seeing Christ as a means to get to heaven. In a span of a year and a half, God would work in my heart to break down the gospel I created in my head and would work in my heart to see his true gospel.

He would do this through books, meetups, and sermons. In the book, The Holiness of God, was the first time I understood God's holiness and that he is set apart from me. Then through the gospel according to Jesus, God revealed to me that Christ was not just Savior but also Lord over my life.

Then in a sermon from Pastor Peter that broke down my view of the gospel was when he mentioned that the gospel is not just a safety net or some free ticket out of hell. Finally, through a meetup with Pastor Nate, God made me see that I saw my sin as bad but not sorrowful over my sin.

This was the final piece that made me realize how far I was from God and that I truly did not know him. After realizing this, I began to pray to God to reveal to me my sin and to understand the magnitude of my sin. After some time, God revealed to me how great my sin is toward him through Isaiah 6, 3-5, which states, "And one called out to one another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory.' And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, 'Woe is me, for I am ruined. Because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'" From this verse, God revealed to me my need for Christ in order to be forgiven because of my sins. After recognizing this, I asked for forgiveness for Christ to be Lord and Savior over my life and to no longer live for myself but for Christ.

Although I may not be perfect, I see God sanctifying me after coming to know him. One of the big differences in my desires is that I want others to know him and to be saved. I see how broken I am, but also see the grace of God that has saved me, and I want others to know Christ and have a personal relationship with him.

As I reflect on the past, I see God's sovereign work being done in my life and how he has been so gracious and merciful to me no matter how much I sinned. This is something I am always going to be grateful for. Thank you. All right, thank you, Jared, for your great testimony.

If I can ask you guys to turn your Bibles to Hebrews 13, and we'll be reading the first three verses together. Hebrews 13, verses 1, 2, and 3. Okay. Hebrews 13, verses 1, 2, and 3. Now I'm going to be reading out of the NASB. "Let love of brethren continue.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask the Holy Spirit to anoint this time.

May your people, your children, hear the voice of Christ and follow him and him alone. Lord, you warned us that in the end times, because the increase in wickedness, that love for you will grow cold. Help us, Lord God, to not to drift, not to neglect this great salvation that you've given, that all that we do may be a reflection of your grace in our lives.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I'm just going to give you a heads up ahead of time that I'm going to be in the introduction a little bit longer than normal today, because I feel like this is something that needs to be addressed before we jump into the text.

So this is going to be more like a setup. In the past, maybe about six to ten years, I don't know exactly when it became prominent, but the term "social justice" has spread like wildfire. Especially in the last maybe year and a half to two years with all the political and social unrest, that churches have become divided.

Are you for this or against this? How can you ignore the suffering around us? And then you have the other churches who say, "No, we're about the gospel." And so this has become a hot topic in our generation. And I want to point out something before we jump into the clear teaching of this text, that we need to understand what the Bible says about this particular subject, because it is such a hot topic.

Tim Keller, in his book called "Generous Justice"-- some of you guys may have read it-- it has a huge impact. It's made a huge impact, especially in the younger generation, for the social justice movement in our generation. I don't want to talk about what's happening outside the church, because movements come and go.

What's popular in one generation is not popular in the next generation. I'm concerned about what's happening inside the church, how what is happening outside is penetrating inside the church. I want to read you a quote from that book, because I've had so many conversations with people about this book and certain things that he said in here, that I want to make sure that we're on the same page.

He says in this book, "If you do not actively and generously share your resources with the poor, you are a robber, you are unjust." Now, I'm not taking a phrase out of context, because the whole book is about expounding on this thing that he has said. That it is not simply a call, but a mandate, and if a Christian does not share his wealth, you are basically in sin, you are robbing.

Now, and we're Bereans for a reason. We're Bereans because our challenge and encouragement is, test everything, even test what I'm saying today. Test it with scripture, because especially right now, there's so many things that are being said in the general atmosphere that has some truth to it, and because it's being said in certain contexts, and through certain people that are respected, that we just assume, well, he said it, it must be true, and there's certain things about that that is true, so it must be true.

Now, does God call us to live justly? Absolutely. If you've been with us studying the book of Titus, it says one of the qualifications of an elder is that he cannot seek sordid gain, meaning unjust gain, that he does not cheat people out and cut corners, and does not have integrity in the way he makes money.

Jeremiah 22, 13, God says, "Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who uses his neighbor's services without pay, and does not give him his wages." So clearly, the Bible calls us to justice, but justice he's referring to are people who are taking advantage of the poor, who are causing them to work and not giving them their fair pay.

Leviticus 19, verse 13 says, "You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning." These are texts that are quoted in this book as an argument for his point, that if you do not give to the poor, you are robbing, you are in sin.

And so that the term social justice is being thrown around in our generation, which I believe needs to be corrected, because it is not justice that the Bible calls us to when it comes to helping the poor, unless you actually robbed somebody, unless they worked for you and you didn't give them their fair pay, then you need to practice justice.

But what the Bible calls us for is charity. Charity. Now if you remember, justice is getting what you deserve. You earned it, and so you did. Whether that is penalty of your sin, that's justice, or whether you worked and a certain amount was promised to you, that would be justice.

You're getting what you deserve. You worked for it, it belongs to you. Mercy is withholding. Maybe you deserve to be punished, and God withholds the punishment, and so you are receiving mercy. Charity, or the word grace, is receiving something that you do not deserve. That they are not required to give it to you, but they give it to you.

And that's the love that you and I have experienced in Christ. And so the Bible calls us, the way that we discuss this topic, when we use the term justice, there's a confusion in the church that if we don't do this, we are in sin. Now let me tell you, the first problem that the church experiences in the book of Acts is recorded in Acts 5, where if you remember, Ananias and Sapphira is inspired, for whatever the reason, other people, other rich people, who are selling their land, they're giving it to the poor, and it's being distributed.

And so they were being very gracious and generous with the wealth that they had, voluntarily. Ananias and Sapphira decides that they're going to do the same thing, but the problem with them was, instead of selling and then donating it all to the church to be distributed, that they kept some of it, and they lied to the church, pretending that all this was given to them.

And as a result of this lie, they are punished. So look what it says in Acts 5, 3 to 4. "But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.'" So this punishment wasn't because that they withheld some. The punishment was they lied. And the way that he describes it was, when before you sold it, the land was yours, meaning it was not required of you.

When you sold it, nobody commanded you to do it. You could have just held on to it, and you wouldn't have been guilty because it was not commanded of you. So the sin was that he pretended to be generous while lying, holding some back. The term "justice" and then using that term to say that this is the mission of the church, this has to be one of the missions of the church, is a mistake.

It sounds godly, but it is a mistake. If you study history, you'll know that there has been back and forth of the rich people and the poor people, and the poor people rising up and overthrowing the rich, and then after a while, the poor people will get rich, and then the poor people will come up and rise against them.

And this social justice movement that we have seen in our generation reminds me a lot of what I studied and saw for myself what was happening in China during the Cultural Revolution. In 1966, after the Communist Party took over, they had this thing called the Cultural Revolution under the leadership of Mao Zedong, and it was a movement of the poor.

And so poor farmers got together, and they felt that it was not fair. It was unjust to have a certain portion of the population to be filthy rich, and then the farmers have such a struggle in paying their bills because they were having such a hard time. So this Cultural Revolution basically ignited poor young people, and they wanted basically to overthrow those who were in power.

During this period, they went after anybody that represented the previous generation, anybody who had wealth, anybody who was religious. And so the Communist Party ignited these young people, and during this period between 1966 and 1976, they said anywhere from several million to up to 40 million people got executed.

We don't know the exact number because the Communist Party has never reported that, and we know that it is always underreported because this is not something that they want people to know. But the information that leaked out from China, people who were there, they said it was probably closer to anywhere from 20 to 40 million people got executed.

When I was there in 1993, I went to visit major sites because part of our trip was a mission trip to kind of have a vision trip toward China because at that time Christianity, at least the outsiders, were just starting to come in. And so I would visit the Forbidden City.

So those of you who visited Beijing, you know the Forbidden City is one of the main attractions there. And half of the Forbidden City was not open because during the Cultural Revolution, it was burned to the ground. We would go to the Summer Palace, and the majority of the Summer Palace was not open because that was also burned to the ground.

We would go to the countryside, and any monument that represented the previous generation's power was burned to the ground. And so it took years for them to rebuild that. Since then, they've spent billions of dollars rebuilding the Forbidden City, rebuilding the Summer Palace, and all of this. But what's ironic about all of this are the people who are rebuilding this are the same people who tore it down.

The young people who went and executed and forced themselves into power because they wanted to make it equal, they're the ones who are in power now, and they're using billions of dollars to rebuild the very things that they tore down. Now I say this because the idea and the practice of justice in the eyes of the world always leads to disenfranchisement in the next generation and the next generation.

Does that mean that God doesn't want us to be charitable, not to care about the poor, that you can just-- if you're rich and you have all this money, that you have the freedom to do whatever you want? Clearly, the Bible is not teaching that. I say all of this not because I'm trying to convince you that you can chase money and it doesn't matter.

Clearly, the Bible does not teach that. But what is happening right now in our generation, in our culture, is not a biblical movement. I would say it is unbiblical. So even the very language that we use to say it is social justice is unbiblical. We would say it is social charity that God calls us to.

Charity. To be generous. When I was younger, and I shared this with you before, when I first came into ministry, Esther and I, we thought we were going to commit to homeless ministry. In fact, to this day, my Costco card says "Axe Homeless Ministry" because I got the Costco card because it was a cheaper way to buy hot dogs.

And I would buy me Farmer John hot dogs. I don't know how much it is now, but it was for $6 I can get 50 hot dogs. They were not the best quality. But I bought two packs of those and we were able to feed about 100 homeless every week, and then got some hot chocolate, and then some people would donate some old stale donuts, and that's what we took out in the street every Tuesday.

But during that period, I was very upset with the church. In fact, I was up in Canada, and we were attending this service, and there was a homeless man outside begging for money, and I saw all these people, hundreds of people just walked by. And I would be angered because I was so wanting to see this ministry take off, and I really felt like that's what God wanted me to do.

And so there was a slogan that I picked up, and I would preach this everywhere I go. And the slogan was, "A condemnation to the church, how can you worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore a homeless man on Monday?" I mean, that's a great slogan to have.

If I could make t-shirts, I would have made hundreds of t-shirts and passed it out. "How can you worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore that homeless man on Monday?" And my preaching was as angry as you can get because I felt like, "How can you take the gospel seriously if you don't care about the poor?

How can we possibly go out there and represent Christ if you don't actively give attention to this?" So that was my passion. I was a youth pastor and then a college pastor, but my real passion was to try to help the homeless and try to get as many people involved.

And that's why I started AXE Ministry, an accented for Alliance of Christians Trained for Service, homeless ministry. But after years of trying to help people off the streets, I gathered enough money. And I remember Jin, Jin sitting back there, we had a, we had a, I forgot what it was.

We had this fundraiser and we sold tapes, you know, and Jin was there when we did that. And we had bands that performed and we would sell that and the proceeds that came from that, we used that for homeless ministry. But after years of doing that, I ran into frustration after frustration after frustration because I thought, just like probably many of us here think, they're homeless.

So if I can get them off the street, feed them, help them get a job, and then disciple them in the process, that would be great. After years of offering and some even, you know, putting them into hotels, paying their bills, I would run into moms who had young children living out of their car, and then we would put them in a hotel, buy the food, pay for the motel, and then try to meet up with them and share the gospel with them.

After years of doing this, and again, some of them even at our house, after years of doing this, I've never seen any progress. And the biggest frustration that I ran into is more than that, they didn't want to get off the street. I said, I'm offering a place to stay for free, help you get a job, food, discipleship, and they didn't want to get off the street.

And what I learned from that was homelessness was the symptom, not the problem. Our natural inclination is because we have homes and we're wealthy and they don't have it, so if we give it to them and then they get off the street, problem solved. Most of the people that I met out on the street were out on the street because they'd lost desire to run this rat race.

Something happened. Drugs, family tragedy, something happened, and they no longer want to run this race and they'd rather be out on the street. And what I realized, that this problem was not simple, that this problem of homelessness was not financial, it was spiritual. And so as much as I didn't want to be involved with the church, as much as I was angered with the church, my paradigm started shifting because I realized until the church is healthy, all we're doing is plugging up holes in a dam that is going to break.

And we're not fixing any problem, all we're doing is solving surface problems, but we're not getting to the core issue. 1 Corinthians 1, 21-25 says, "For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God." And that's the problem. The problem with mankind is that we've been separated because of our sins.

And God, who is the author of life, that mankind has no access to him. And he says, "Through all of man's wisdom, all the man's effort could not bring him to God." And so homelessness, drug addiction, sex trafficking, family issues, all of it is related to this problem because we have been separated from the God of the universe, who is the author of life.

He says, "All through mankind, history through their wisdom could not come to know God. God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed, Jews ask for signs, Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To Jews, a stumbling block, and Gentiles, foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." And I realized that until the church is reformed, until the church is healthy, that all the work that we're doing, all the mission work, and all the mercy ministry that we do, eventually get poured into an unhealthy church.

And we just recycle the problem that came down from us from generation to generation. That's what caused me to commit to the church. Because what I wanted to see, not because I've given up on the mercy ministry, but until the church is reformed, until the church is healthy, like I said, I realized all we're doing is plugging up a hole in a dam that eventually is going to break.

Does this mean mercy ministry is not important? Absolutely not. Everything that I felt at that time was because I was seeing it in Scripture. Because I was reading it. It wasn't because I had some sort of special affection for homelessness. It wasn't because, "Oh, I was homeless, so now I know how they feel." No, I was reading Scripture.

I was doing quiet time. I was doing inductive Bible study, and I would go passage after passage after passage, the Bible calling us to care for those who are suffering, just like the text that we're looking at. I want to show you from this text two things that we need to know in order to practice what the Bible says, social charity, not necessarily social justice.

Number one, we practice charity to reflect who God is. Remember we talked about Jesus said to his disciples, "They will know you," by what? By the love that you practice with them, "as I have loved you." And it wasn't just any kind of love. Remember we talked about that last week, that this commandment to love your neighbor was not a new commandment in the Old Testament.

It was not a new commandment that all of a sudden, they've never heard this before. No, it's repeated all throughout the Old Testament. The new commandment was, he said, "as I have loved you." To love people who are not lovable. Love people who may not be able to pay you back.

Love people beyond your comfort zone. We love because he first loved us. Love of Christ is what ought to compel us. And so the kind of love that he calls us to is what reflects who he is. You and I were created to be what? To be reflectors of his image.

Right? "Imagio Dei." That's what the theologians call it. We are to be image bearers of God. And Jesus says, "That image that I want you to bear is the kind of love that I practice with you." In Luke chapter 14, 12-14, he says, "And he also went on to say to the one who had invited him, 'When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors.

Otherwise, they may also invite you in in return, and that will be your repayment. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.'" The word that he uses here last week was "philadelphia," love of brethren.

Here it's "philazenia," and the word "zenia" basically means strangers, people who are outside of our comfort zone. So the scripture tells us that we practice charity because it reflects his charity for us. And it is clear that in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, it's the same God.

In Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 19, it says, "So show your love for the alien, for you are aliens in the land of Egypt. Because God was merciful to you, be merciful to the aliens." Leviticus 23, 22. "When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor gather the gleaning of your harvest.

You are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the Lord your God." I don't know about you, but I remember the first time reading that, and I was thinking, "Why does he care?" I mean, imagine, in his mind, at some point, he's going to have to sacrifice his son to save the lost.

But in the process of this redemptive history, he gives attention to nobodies, just aliens, strangers. They're not anybody significant. He said, "When you harvest your field, leave a portion of them so that the poor and the needy and the orphans can have some of that." Now, you and I don't farm, so it's kind of the imagery doesn't really hit us like it should.

I think what's equivalent to now is, if you're getting a paycheck, you give a portion to the government, you pay your tithe, and then God says, "Another portion of your paycheck, put it in a bag and leave it outside." That makes it more real, right? Because we don't farm.

So you say, "Oh, what's the big deal? We'll gather this, and this part, we'll give it to them." Well, that was their wealth. That's what they harvested to feed their children. That's what they used to gather wealth. So when he says to leave a portion of that, basically he's saying, "Take a portion of your paycheck and leave it outside." For who?

Just anybody who's in need. This is our God. This is not new in the New Testament. God had always concern for those who are in need. God says God is near to those who are, what, brokenhearted. In Psalm 146.9, it says, "The Lord protects the strangers. He supports the fatherless and the widow, but he thwarts the way of the wicked." When the Bible says that he counts the very hair on our head, he's not just saying that.

You see it throughout redemptive history, all through it. And so he calls us that because you and I were strangers at one point, you and I were recipients of this love that you and I didn't deserve. He says, he calls us as Christians that we ought to reflect this love.

Not just the love of your neighbor, not just the love of your children, but strangers that you went out to be hospitable deliberately. In 1 John 3, 17-18, "But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" How can you proclaim the love of God and how gracious he's been and yet not reflect that in your life?

How can you say that you won the lottery and be so stingy with your money? That's basically what he's saying. James 1, verse 27, "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world." That word, philisania, is to invite people into your homes.

That's literally to love people who cannot help you, love people who can't pay you back. You know, one thing that I learned is as I was doing homeless ministry, that you are praised. If you do mercy ministry, you're praised. I've never heard anybody say, "What is wrong with you trying to help the poor?" Never.

And it was never really that hard to raise money, to collect, "Hey, we're going to go feed the homeless. We're trying to get them off the street." And people are generous, especially if you're doing orphan care. People throw money at you. "Hey, I want to help. I've been praying about helping the orphans, so can I give you some money?" What I realized was as long as I went out on the street to help them, I got praise and I got support.

But when I started getting pushback was when I started bringing them to the church. Because it made people feel uncomfortable. Initially it was, "Oh, it was great." I remember the first guy that I brought to church, you know, and he was hooked on crack. And so he would lose his shoes out on the street.

So our church guys decided to celebrate his birthday, and they bought him $120 Michael Jordan. $120 now may not sound like a lot of money, but back then it was like buying this guy who's hooked on crack, buying like $250, $300 pair of shoes. So it was exciting. He was good at basketball, so he fit right in.

And so we were doing that, but after a while people started feeling uncomfortable because he doesn't have money. Every time we went out to eat, somebody had to spot him. I mean, it's one thing to have him and do mercy ministry out there, but it's another thing when we brought him into the church.

And then when we brought him into my house, people who were like, "Oh, yeah, Peter, that's great. You know, you're doing mercy ministry, homeless ministry." And all of a sudden it's like, "What are you doing? Is your wife okay with that?" As long as we're keeping our home safe, we can be generous.

As long as we're comfortable, as long as we have all that we need and out of abundance, okay, they can have it. And we're the same way when we go to short-term missions. We go out there and we're bold for Jesus Christ. Out there. But we have such a hard time even mentioning Christianity to our coworkers.

So we have a tendency to practice love from a safe distance. But this word, "As Christ in every way being God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he emptied himself, became nothing, and he walked among us." Imagine that. Imagine how uncomfortable it is for us to come out of our comfort zone and to be somewhere that is uncomfortable.

And so we avoid discomfort like a plague. Where we buy our house, where we work, where do we go, where we go on vacation. Because we avoid discomfort like a plague. This word, "Philisania," is a challenge to go beyond that, as Christ did for us. To bring them into not just our homes, but to break beyond our comfort zone, so that our love would exceed and go beyond just the superficial.

Now, the Bible is not, I mean, there's nothing that says, "Oh, we can't help the poor. We can't do this." But again, we need to understand biblically what he's talking about. Secondly, one, charity is to reflect his nature and who he is. And "Philisania" reflects that. But number two, and this is the part that I really want you guys to understand.

Because the way that social justice is being practiced today completely misses the mark of what the scripture teaches about this. Number two, we practice charity to advance the gospel. We practice charity to advance the gospel. Never in the New Testament will you find where the church is challenged to go look out for homeless people out on the street.

Right? I'm going to explain that, and some of you guys are going to say, "What?" Find me one passage in the Bible, and we'll have a conversation, where God calls the charity to help the poor outside of the context of the gospel being spread. Charity is to be practiced in the context of sharing the gospel.

He said, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers." Now, who are these strangers he's referring to? Was it just at that time just a lot of homeless people just walking around, and he's saying just generically if you find homeless people, that you would open up your home and bring them into your home?

What is he referring to? If you know how things worked at that time, today if we were going out of town and we're going into the city, the first thing you would do is you would book your flight, book a hotel, find out the nice places to visit maybe, and then you find food, and then you come back home.

That's kind of how it works. And then if you happen to have a friend there, you might go to their house just to save some money. Well, at that time, it was almost impossible to travel if you didn't have help from the villages that you went. And so when he says to show hospitality to strangers, and I'm going to prove my point through scripture, that he is specifically referring to people who are coming into town in the context of sharing the gospel, just like Apostle Paul, just like all the apostles who went from village to village.

When Jesus sent out his 12 disciples on a short-term mission trip, this is what he instructs them. He says in Matthew 10, 40-42, "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward, and he who receives a righteous man in the name of the righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.

And whoever in the name of the disciples gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." He told his disciples that when you go on this mission trip, don't take food. Don't take things because you're going to go in, and if they receive you, then bless this home.

And if they don't receive you, shake off your dust and continue to go. That was the culture at that time. This is not unique to the disciples. This is how information and the philosophers ended up spreading the right doctrine and even the wrong doctrine. So to receive a stranger means that you are receiving not only the stranger, but what he represents.

That's what Jesus says. Now, the negative part of that in 2 John 10-11, this is what he says. "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds." So to practice hospitality, meaning you bring somebody into your home, basically means to support their work.

That's what that meant in that culture. So this was not devoid of the spreading of the gospel. In fact, he gives the same instruction in Luke 10 when he sends out the 70 disciples, and he says, "When you go out, do not carry money or bags or shoes." And he says, "If they receive you, bless them, and then receive their help.

If they don't, shake off your dust and go move on." That was the culture. So when he says to remember and be hospitable, he's telling within the context. Now, this does not negate. It's not saying that we shouldn't help the poor whether they're Christians or not. It's not negating that.

But the priority is clear. That charity is not a separate ministry from the gospel ministry, the way that it is being practiced today, where you have mission department, and then we have a mercy department. The church never separated these two things. They went together hand in hand. I remember years ago when we first started going into India, and I asked Pastor Matthew, some of you guys who were with us, and I wanted to find out.

I wanted to hear about his testimony because I kept on hearing about his testimony through his son. So I had an opportunity to talk to him, and I asked him, "What was it like early on?" Because he just went from village to village with his four small children to preach the gospel without any support.

So he said, "Those guys who went to India with us, we're in a remote area in the city, but we have to take the van somewhere anywhere between an hour to two hours just to get into the village in a van." But with no support, he would walk from village to village.

So him and his four children, who used to be a Hindu priest, and now he's excommunicated from his family. He's just doing this on his own because God laid this burden to preach the gospel. He told me that he would go to the village and he would share the gospel.

If they received him, they would feed them and they would house them. If they didn't receive him, sometimes they would be hassans, and they would throw rocks at them to chew them away. I would ask him, "So what would you do when that happened?" He said, "Well, we would just sleep out in the field, and we weren't able to eat.

My children weren't able to eat that time." And it's like, "This doesn't sound real. This is the kind of stuff that you read in history books." So I asked his children when I had time, just to kind of--I'm being a detective. I'm trying to--like, "Is this guy making this up?

Is this real?" So I would ask these--and they would tell me, they said, "How much they hated going to these villages with his dad because they remember so vividly when they were children sleeping out in the field and going hungry. And so when they grew up, they determined not to follow Christ, and all three of them became pastors." You guys know Pastor David, he was in pharmacy school.

In the middle of that, he dropped out and became a pastor. And then the youngest daughter ended up marrying a pastor. But they were telling me how much they hated going to village to village with their dad. And so I went and talked to Pastor Matthew, and I asked him, "Man, that must have been hard." And he said, "Yeah, I actually considered taking my life." And I said, "That's a weird thing to say as a pastor." But he was just being honest with me.

He said, "At that time, I considered taking my life because this burden to preach the gospel was so heavy on him that he saw what it was doing to his family. He saw his children not being able to eat, sleeping out in the fields. And so he thought that if he disappeared, that this burden would be lifted from his family." And I was like, "Wow, I'm skeptical." So the first thing is like, "Is this real?" We were very slow to get involved with India because of my skepticism.

Through the years of interacting with these pastors, that's exactly how the gospel spread over there. They went from village to village, walking without support. Gospel spread. In fact, majority of human history, majority of the church history, the gospel spread in that way. What you and I have now, just getting on an air-conditioned airplane, sometimes business class, to get over there, sleep in a nice hotel while we're texting with our friends, and taking selfies and putting it up for people to see way over here.

I mean, that's fantastic that we have the avenue to do that, but that's not how the gospel spread. For majority of human history, people picked up their cross, literally gave their life. Some of you guys are old enough to remember when we said bye to missionaries when we were children, we said bye.

It was for good. Many of them couldn't afford airplane tickets, so they got on boats. Some of you guys are old enough to remember that. And when they said bye, we all said bye, thinking we're not going to see them again. That's how the gospel spread. He's talking within that context, to be hospitable when they come into town.

And it is in that context he says, he says to them, he says, "Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourself also are," what? "in the body." Who are in prison? Is he just talking about anybody who committed crime who happens to be in prison?

No. He's referring to Christians who are being dragged in. The reason why they were drifting is because it became hard to be a Christian. And he's reminding them, remember, in Hebrews chapter 10, 32-35, "But remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured great conflict and suffering, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were also mistreated.

For you showed sympathy to the prisoners, accepted joyfully seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a last one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward." So he's not randomly saying, "Go visit prisoners." He's talking about Christians who have been caught, and they are suffering for the purpose of their faith in the context of sharing the gospel.

So the show of charity clearly is in the context of the gospel ministry. In Acts chapter 11, verse 29, Paul says, "And in proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the," what? "brethren living in Judea." Romans 15, 26, "For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem." 1 Corinthians 16, 1, "Now considering the collection for the saints, as I directed in churches of Galatia, so you do also the same for the saints." 2 Corinthians 8, 3-4, "For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of," what?

"of the saints." Repeatedly, over and over and over again, every challenge for us to practice charity is within the context of spreading the gospel. They are not two separate events. They are the same thing. We are called to be charitable, to reflect who he is. One of the texts that we probably use the most to challenge churches to be mindful of those who are in need is found in Matthew chapter 25, and you know the text.

The text goes, "He who has done it unto the least of my children has done it unto me." He who has done it, basically, has done it unto me, right? And we use that text in saying, like, when you see the poor and you take care of them, that this is our way of showing support to our God, right?

Which is not wrong, but if you remember in Matthew chapter 24, what's Matthew chapter 24? It's Jesus' final teaching about the end times, and this is where he says that all the tribulations, all these things are coming, and persecution is coming, and he says, "Because there's going to be increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold," and in chapter 25, he goes into the parable of the end times.

And so it's in that context, the last thing that he says is here. So the context of this parable, the context of this teaching, is preparing for the coming of Christ and being faithful and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, and it's in that context that Jesus says, in verse 35, "For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was stranger, and you invited me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

And when did we see you stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?'" Jesus responds in verse 30, "The king will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these," what?

"Brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.'" He's telling us this in the context of the gospel ministry, being faithful, to be fruitful. And at the end, as we are being faithful, he who has received them, our hospital, visited them while they were in prison, while they were suffering for his name.

He says, "Do not forget them." Does this mean that he is telling us that we don't need to worry about those who are suffering, who aren't Christians? Absolutely not. Because we are to reflect his grace. We are to reflect his mercy for us. But the primary call to Christians and to the church to be charitable is in the context of the gospel going out.

Because until people are transformed and regenerated with the gospel of Jesus Christ, thinking that we are somehow going to move somebody from homelessness to homelessness, that we've solved the problem. The problem with sex trafficking isn't simply the lust of certain men. It's all interconnected. Poverty, sex trafficking, homelessness, political unrest, these are not disconnected from each other.

The Bible says that sin, when it came in, it reigns over mankind. It has not just affected one thing. It affected our relationships. It affected our marriages. It affected our economy, our politics. Our sense of right and wrong, the rich and poor, it affected everything. Until the gospel comes into an individual's life, and there is a transformation that takes place in their heart and in their lives, they will not and cannot practice the charity that he calls us to practice.

We can be slightly generous. We can be good moral people. But the love that he tells us to practice can only be practiced by those who are recipients of this love. We need to be charitable to reflect who he is. We also need to be charitable and engage in the ministry that God called us to.

I have shared with you, like every once in a while I'll share with you, about the persecution that's going on around the world. And I'm not telling you this just so that you can feel bad, or just so that you can have information. That the calling that he has given us, that in the context of sharing the gospel, that you and I, whether they live in North Korea, whether they live in India or China, that we are all connected as brothers in Christ.

That even though we may not know them, they are our neighbors. And as they suffer, we ought to suffer with them. As they pray, as they are spreading the gospel, we are to pray with them. But our tendency, if we're not careful, is to, "I don't see them." And because I don't see them, they're not my neighbor.

I remember years ago, I had a sister in the church, years ago, and I think this is one of the most honest confessions that I've heard. We were on this topic of talking about mercy ministry and about caring for the poor and how people are suffering. And she said to me, honestly, "I didn't know." And that was not her confession.

It was what she said after that. She said, "I didn't know because I didn't want to know because it made me feel uncomfortable. Because every time I hear about the suffering of our brothers and sisters around the world, I would feel guilty." And so she said, every time information would come, she would either ignore it or give a glazed look, and then she said, "Well, I didn't.

I claim ignorance." So ignorance is bliss. And so she was confessing that to me. She said, "I didn't know, but it was deliberate because I didn't. I hardened my heart on purpose." You know, I've been preaching long enough to know, and I could be wrong. I've been preaching long enough to be able to see in your face whether the Word of God is getting into you or not.

Okay, now all of you are faking it. Because you can tell when the Word of God is preached, it makes some people uncomfortable, and there is a glazed look because they don't want to know. And so it's better to kind of have a vague understanding of who God is, a vague understanding of mercy and love, because we don't want God's Spirit coming into-- like, I will meet God in the porch, but not inside the house.

Maybe I'll invite him into the living room, but I don't want him to see my bedroom. Maybe I'll allow it, but don't open the closet. And so we have a tendency to deliberately remain in ignorance and keep God at distance because it makes us feel uncomfortable. That word, "hospital," "love of strangers," "hospitality," is to go beyond just a superficial band-aid and to recognize that He, in every way, God-- consider equality with God not to be grasped, but He emptied Himself, became nothing, He walked among us.

We usually think about His suffering on the cross, but Him, the King of kings and Lord of lords, just walking among us, putting on flesh. Imagine how uncomfortable that is. How much does it take for us to even just get on our knees to talk to the little children?

When we're in neighborhoods that we're not familiar with, when we have food that we're not familiar with, how uncomfortable. It's hard for us to be humble, even with our wives and our husbands. Jesus stepped off of His throne and walked among us, humiliated Himself, in order that you and I can be saved.

That's what He's calling us to do--to examine, to live in such a way where His love is being reflected above us. Non-Christians practice love for their brothers and sisters, for their children, for their friends. That's not Christian love. That's just love. Christian love is what He's talking about here.

This is why we got involved with India. I had a friend who asked me to come out to India. You were heavily involved with China, and we're busy here. I went to India because he asked me to go and preach and to train the pastors who were there, and I happened to go because I wanted to connect with him.

Then while I was in India, my eyes got opened. The way it got opened was I found out the heaviest concentration of unreached people groups were in India. I didn't know that. I always thought it was a 1040 window in the Middle East, and I found out it was in India.

The heaviest concentration of poverty was also in India. I didn't know that. I thought it was somewhere in Africa. Heaviest concentration of illiteracy in the villages-- there are parts of India that's getting very wealthy, but the heaviest concentration of poverty was also in India. I found out the heaviest concentration of sex trafficking was also in India.

I wanted to know--even though I didn't have a heart, God opened the door and said, "Okay, I could either say no or I could at least get engaged." It just happened that we had connection with the pastors, and we went. We went to an area where it was uncovered.

Some of you guys were with us when we went. Since we've gone there, I can honestly tell you that some of the things that we've experienced and seen-- and it helped me to understand what was going on in the early church. I remember in one village in particular, we were doing our work, and I could hear there was a buzz, and some of the pastors came and ran to get me, said, "We need your prayers." So I went with the pastors, and I could see this young lady, and she must have been no more than about 25, 26 years old, and she had a very limp child in her arms, probably no more than about 3 to 4 months old.

The child was breathing, but you could tell it was struggling to breathe, and she's desperate. She doesn't know what to do. So she basically was asking us to pray, pray for this child, for a miracle. And as we were trying to hear the story, and obviously all of us, the pastors that called me to that, we were all, you know, compelled, but we were also very saddened because we could tell whether the child lives another few days or a few months, that it wasn't going to make it.

It was already too late. But what really was heart-wrenching was that the problem that this child had was a very simple problem, that if she had access to the hospital early on, the baby would not be in this position. And she was in tears, and as we were praying, she was crying.

The pastors were crying. And after we prayed, we gave her the hope, but at the end of the day, it was already too late for the child. And the whole time I was thinking, if this was in the United States, it would have just been one run to the hospital, and that's it.

But because she didn't have access, her child was going to die. We were in Romania one year, and we were out in the remotest parts, and this older lady came out, and she had-- we found a big hole in the side of one of her legs because of the infection.

And then she said she had the same problem on the other leg, so we opened that up because we had medical workers there with us, and the nurse looked at it and said, "This is really bad." That most likely, in order to save her, that she has to amputate her legs.

And so we asked her, "What caused this?" And she said it was a mosquito bite. She was out in the field, and she got bit by a mosquito. She didn't know how to take care of it. She had no access to medicine. All she probably needed earlier on was some antibiotics, but she didn't have any access.

So we didn't know if she was going to be able to live or not. After we left, was she going to be able to go to the hospital? Even the amputation is going to cost a lot of money. And I remember coming back from that trip thinking, "Wow, over here you get bit by a mosquito.

I mean, it would be a joke." But we have brothers and sisters around the world who are dying because of mosquito bites. We have children dying in their mother's arms because they don't have access to a hospital. If you remember, also in India, there was this young lady, another lady, and they might have been on the same trip.

The pastor asked me to pray for her again. And her story was a little bit different. He said that she became a Christian, and she joined the church, and her family was infuriated that she became a Christian. And soon after she became a Christian, her husband fell into some kind of illness, and he ended up dying.

And as a result of that, the family blamed her. They said, "Tragedy came into our home because you disrespected our God." And so they disowned her and basically kicked her and her children out. So she had no means to live. Some of you guys may remember, I came back, and I asked and collected some funds to send it over.

All we did--it wasn't a ton of money. Some of you guys were very generous, so we sent the money back and asked the pastor to make sure that she's taken care of. And because she was taken care of, she had enough to not only feed herself, she started feeding her in-laws because her husband was a primary breadwinner.

And as a result of the generosity, her in-laws not only received their back, her in-laws called the pastors. They called the pastors and asked, "Tell me about your God." And they were able to share the gospel with the in-laws, and that whole family came to faith as a result of some of your generosity.

You guys remember that story? The gospel ministry and the mercy ministry are not separate things. He calls us to be charitable, to be gracious, to be merciful. We cannot live in a world with all the resources that you and I have and to plan all of that for our selfish gain and somehow think that we are being the aroma of Christ.

But it is not justice that he calls. It's charity. Charity. We must live with charity. Not simply because they're hungry, not simply because people are in need, because it gives us a platform to tell them about Jesus Christ. What's happening right now isn't biblical. Let me make that clear.

What's sweeping the world in our generation that has penetrated into this church or churches in general is not biblical. And I want to warn you and I want to encourage you, because so many false teachings that is only skewed just a little bit, that sometimes is hard to tell, is penetrating into the church in every which way, that you have to be Bereans.

You have to be. You have to test everything to make sure. Don't quote me. It is not safe. Don't quote some pastor. Don't tell me you read this in a book. Don't tell me that this is what church history practiced. Don't tell me all your other Christian friends believe this.

You must not turn from the Word of God to the left or to the right. Test what I say. Examine the passage that I quoted and make sure that it's the voice of God that we're following, not the movement of our generation. So yes, in conclusion, we must be charitable for the sake of his name.

And I got--remember I told you I had this slogan that I live with, and I used to pound the pulpit back then, "How can you worship a homeless man on Sunday and not worship him, and forget a homeless man on Monday?" I got another slogan. I picked up from a friend a while back, and this is the slogan.

And I'm not going to explain it to you, so if you don't get it, let it sink in, and then ask somebody. So hopefully discussion will take place. If your face is bigger than your cause, then your face is too big. Let me say that again. If your face is bigger than your cause, then your face is too big.

If you are compelled when you see the poor, if you're ignited and you have compassion, then preach the gospel in season and out of season. Let's pray. I'm going to pray for us as our worship team leads, and usually I'll just give a few minutes for you, but I want to pray for all of us, and then after our worship team comes, we'll finish with the final song.

Let me pray for us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we live in a country that's free. We thank you that our children are taken care of. We thank you, Lord God, that we have wealth that others do not have to live in a warm home, not to worry about what we're going to feed our children each day, to be able to gather in a nice building without concern of a physical threat.

Help us, Lord God, to be good stewards of everything that you've given us. Help us, Lord, to open our eyes to see the suffering around us, Lord God, that we do not insulate ourselves from the suffering of the world. As you saw the multitudes, Lord, and you had compassion on them because they were like sheep without shepherd being tossed back and forth.

As you pleaded with your disciples, Lord, to beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers, Lord, we beseech you that you would raise up men and women, Lord God, even in this congregation, that you would help us to take our eyes off of ourselves and know, Father God, that eternity is coming, that we would not be satisfied with our bills being paid, with our children being saved, but that we would truly live to proclaim the gospel to the fullest.

Lord, that those who are suffering, those who are lost, those who are hungry, those who are orphaned, Lord, that they may know that there is hope in your name. Lord, ignite our hearts. Soften our hearts, Lord God. Help us to see our wealth, Lord God, not to be a trap, but to be used, Lord God, for the sake of your name.

I pray for my brothers and sisters who are around the world, Lord God, who are suffering because they have boldness and courage to stand up for their faith. Give them the faith that they need, strength that they need, Lord God, to stand up even for their life, that their testimony would bring others to Christ.

Lord, we pray for the North Koreans, Lord God, who are in secret reading your word and praying to you in fear of their own lives. Give them courage to know. Give them courage to know, Father God, that you are their refuge, that whether they live here for a long time or a short time, that eternity is coming, that when you come in glory, that they will also be glorified.

Lord, we pray for our brothers and sisters who are hungry around the world. We pray for the young ladies, Lord God, who are being violated, Lord, because of this sinful world. Lord, give us compassion for them. As you had compassion for us. Help us, Lord God, to intercede on their behalf, that we will be broken, that we would be on our knees, Lord God, crying out.

Lord, help us. Help us, Lord God, to break away from this rat race. This temptation to think, Lord, that if we have nice homes and nice cars, that we're good. Teach us what it means to love aliens. Lord, give us broken hearts, that we may pray effectively, we may live purposefully, that your name may be honored, that eternity will be more real to us than ever.

Lord, bring revival. Revive us. Revive this church. Revive this generation. May Christ and his name be exalted through us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. Let's sing "What Love Can Remember." What love can remember no wrongs we have done. Omniscient, omnowing, he counts not their sum.

Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore. Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. Praise the Lord, his mercy is more. Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. Patience await. Patience will wait as we constantly roam. One Father so tender is all we assume.

He welcomes the weakest, the foulest, the poor. Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. Praise the Lord, his mercy is more. Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. For riches of kindness he lavished on us. His blood was the payment, his life was the cost.

We still need not have it, never of all. Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. Sing it out, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, his mercy is more. Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. Praise the Lord, his mercy is more.

Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our sins, they are many, his mercy is more. Let's pray. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy.

To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. And since his son, they called him Jesus, he came to love. He'll end all grief, he'll live and die. To by my power now an empty grave is there to put my Savior there.

Because he lived, I can face tomorrow. Because he lived, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future. And life is worth the living just because he lived. Amen. >> Thank you. >> If you guys can help us to rearrange the chairs.