we can look to the cross as a full display of his love, that he would send his son Jesus to die on the cross so that we can be forgiven of our sins, so that we can receive true life. So with that, let us sing this first song, "Amazing Love." (gentle music) ♪ I'm forgiven ♪ ♪ I'm forgiven ♪ ♪ Because you were forsaken ♪ ♪ I'm accepted ♪ ♪ You were condemned ♪ ♪ I'm alive and well ♪ ♪ Your spirit is within me ♪ ♪ Because you died and rose again ♪ ♪ I'm forgiven ♪ ♪ I'm forgiven ♪ ♪ Because you were forsaken ♪ ♪ I'm accepted ♪ ♪ You were condemned ♪ ♪ I'm alive and well ♪ ♪ Your spirit is within me ♪ ♪ Because you died and rose again ♪ Amazing love.

♪ Amazing love ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ ♪ That you, my king, would die for me ♪ ♪ Amazing love ♪ ♪ I know it's true ♪ ♪ It's my joy to honor you ♪ ♪ In all I do ♪ ♪ I honor you ♪ I'm forgiven.

♪ I'm forgiven ♪ ♪ Because you were forsaken ♪ ♪ I'm accepted ♪ ♪ You were condemned ♪ ♪ I'm alive and well ♪ ♪ Your spirit is within me ♪ ♪ Because you died and rose again ♪ Amazing love. ♪ Amazing love ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ ♪ That you, my king, would die for me ♪ ♪ Amazing love ♪ ♪ I know it's true ♪ ♪ It's my joy to honor you ♪ ♪ In all I do ♪ ♪ I honor you ♪ You are my king.

♪ You are my king ♪ ♪ You are my king ♪ ♪ Jesus, you are my king ♪ ♪ Jesus, you are my king ♪ Amazing love. ♪ Amazing love ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ ♪ That you, my king, would die for me ♪ ♪ Amazing love ♪ ♪ I know it's true ♪ ♪ It's my joy to honor you ♪ Amazing love.

♪ Amazing love ♪ ♪ How can it be ♪ ♪ That you, my king, would die for me ♪ ♪ Amazing love ♪ ♪ I know it's true ♪ ♪ It's my joy to honor you ♪ ♪ In all I do ♪ ♪ I honor you ♪ ♪ In all I do ♪ ♪ I honor you ♪ - Good morning, everybody.

I wanna extend a warm welcome to you, and especially if you're visiting us for the first time. After the service is done, please stick around. We do have our welcome table right at the entrance of the parking lot. We love to visit with you and provide any information about the church.

Additionally, at 12.45, when this service is done, for any of you who have questions about Christianity, would like to learn more, we have a special meeting, a Q&A session across the courtyard on the right entrance. You'll see a little Q&A entrance there. We're gonna be just providing some snacks, but also some resources, sharing a little bit, and also answering any questions that you may have in a formal sense.

We have a small panel to answer, field some of the questions that you have. So we'd love to have you join us. For this morning, I wanna invite up Elder Phillip. He has some additional announcements as well. - Okay, good morning. I have a couple announcements. First of all, there's going to be a Season Jubilee Fellowship lunch for November 27th at 1 p.m., and the cost is gonna be $10 per person.

So this is for those who are 50 and over, and I know there are a handful of you, and especially if you're new to the church, you're checking out the church, come on, join us, we wanna have fellowship with you. The other is I call the event Season Jubilee Fellowship Lunch, and Proverbs 22, one says, "A good name is to be more desired than great wealth." So the season for the name Season is over, so we're no longer gonna be calling it Season Fellowship, but rather Jubilee Fellowship.

And why you ask the name change? In the Bible, the number seven is associated with the Sabbath and God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day, he rested. But also in the Old Testament, there is a Sabbath rest for the land. So every seventh year, there were to do no harvesting for the entire year, and there was rest.

Well, there's also in Leviticus 25, on the seventh Sabbath of the year, so it's 49 years, and on the 50th year, it's called Jubilee, and I'm gonna read Leviticus 25, eight through 10, just follow along. "You are also to count off seven Sabbath of years "for yourself, seven times seven years, "so that you have the time of seven Sabbath of years, "namely 49 years.

"You shall thus consecrate the 50th year "and proclaim a release through the land "to all its inhabitants. "It shall be a jubilee for you, "and each of you shall return his own property, "and each of you shall return to his family." So the year of Jubilee was a time of release, redemption, and restoration.

For New Testament Christians, the year of Jubilee was also significant because it reflects what Jesus did for us on the cross. He released us from sin, he redeemed us from the penalty of sin, and he restored us back to a relationship with God. So we are changing the name to Jubilee Fellowship because the year of Jubilee, first of all, it's 50, so it's for those who are 50 and over, but besides that, why is the name Jubilee better than season?

First, season focuses on the age. It says we are old, all right? Jubilee focuses on the status. We have been saved by the blood of Christ, and he is our Jubilee. Season is what you do to food before you eat it. It is here today and gone tomorrow. Jubilee is what you proclaim in celebration throughout the land the day is celebrated.

You should not be ashamed to be seasoned, but embrace it, celebrate God's faithfulness. Season looks back at how things used to be. Jubilee looks forward to the Jubilee that is coming in Christ. So there's more to it, there's a lot of symbolism, which I'd like to use as a vision for the Jubilee Fellowship.

So I invite you to come to the lunch. There is a song, but I will post it on the Facebook, and hopefully you see it, but then that's it. Thank you. (audience applauding) - Okay, thank you Elder Phillip. For the other announcements, please do check out the app on the various sign-up link trees.

At this time, we are gonna enter into time of our offering. For those of you who have a physical check, there is a box there at the back, at the entrance. Otherwise, you can give it on the online format. Let's take a moment to pray. Our God, we thank you so much for your grace.

We thank you, God, for your mercies. Lord, we thank you for the love that you give to us. And Lord, we wanna just regularly reflect upon just how privileged we are to know you, and to be able to come, to call you Abba Father, and to worship. As we enter into a time now, both of singing, giving offering, giving you our attention as we listen to the word, we pray, God, you be pleased in all these things, and help us to just continue to express our heart attitude, knowing, God, that everything we have comes from your gracious hand.

We thank you, Lord, and offer this time to you in Christ's name, amen. (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) Let us all rise as we sing these praises. (soft piano music) (soft piano music) ♪ Go behold the wondrous mystery ♪ ♪ In the dawning of the King ♪ ♪ He the theme of heaven's praises ♪ ♪ Robed in frail humanity ♪ ♪ In our longing, in our darkness ♪ ♪ Now the light of life has come ♪ ♪ Book to Christ who condescended ♪ ♪ Took on flesh to ransom us ♪ (soft piano music) ♪ Come behold, come behold the wondrous mystery ♪ ♪ He the perfect Son of man ♪ ♪ In His living, in His suffering ♪ ♪ Never traced nor stained of sin ♪ ♪ See the true and better Adam ♪ ♪ Come to save the hell-bound man ♪ ♪ Christ the great and sure fulfillment ♪ ♪ Of the love in Him we stand ♪ Come behold.

♪ Come behold the wondrous mystery ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord upon the tree ♪ ♪ In the stead of ruined sinners ♪ ♪ Hangs the Lamb in victory ♪ ♪ See the price of our redemption ♪ ♪ See the Father's plan unfold ♪ ♪ Bringing many sons to glory ♪ ♪ Grace unmeasured, love untold ♪ (soft rock music) Come behold.

♪ Come behold the wondrous mystery ♪ ♪ Slain by death, the God alive ♪ ♪ But no grave could ever strain Him ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, He is alive ♪ ♪ What a foretaste of deliverance ♪ ♪ How unwavering our hope ♪ ♪ Christ in power resurrected ♪ ♪ As we will be when He comes ♪ What a foretaste.

♪ What a foretaste of deliverance ♪ ♪ How unwavering our hope ♪ ♪ Christ in power resurrected ♪ ♪ As we will be when He comes ♪ ♪ What a foretaste of deliverance ♪ ♪ How unwavering our hope ♪ ♪ Christ in power resurrected ♪ ♪ As we will be when He comes ♪ ♪ He comes ♪ (soft rock music) - All creatures.

♪ All creatures of our God and King ♪ ♪ Lift up your voice and with us sing ♪ ♪ Oh, praise Him ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Thou burning sun with golden beam ♪ ♪ While the silver moon was soft and green ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Let all things ♪ ♪ Let all things their creator bless ♪ ♪ And worship Him in humbleness ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Praise praise the Father praise the Son ♪ ♪ And praise the Spirit three in one ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ (upbeat music) All the routine.

♪ All the routine washed by His blood ♪ ♪ Come and rejoice in His great love ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Christ has defeated every sin ♪ ♪ Cast all your burdens now on Him ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ He shall return.

♪ He shall return in power to reign ♪ ♪ Heaven and earth full of joy to sing ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Then who shall fall on bended knee ♪ ♪ All creatures of our God and King ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Oh praise Him ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Amen, you may be seated.

- Okay, good morning again, everybody. As we enter into time of the word, let's go before God and pray together. Our Father, we want to always just continue to give you all recognition and honor and praise. And as we say, Lord, it is our prayer, God, that as you are the creator, that everything that has breath, all of your creation are rendered to you, the worship that you are due.

And Father, at this time, we thank you, God, that you're the one giving. You're the one giving your truth and conviction. You're the one giving the ministry of your spirit. And I pray that we would have receptive hearts, God, hearts that are sensitive and soft and broken before you, Lord, that we would truly learn.

We thank you, God, it's in Christ's name, amen. I take this opportunity to tell you something I'm really happy about is that I was able to just finish yet another semester of my doctoral program. So I was able to, oh, thank you. That's great. I didn't expect it, but thank you.

But also, you know, actually, I'm almost 100% sure that next year I'm gonna be able to graduate with a solid 4.0. And, oh, okay, okay, all right. And some of you guys are probably sitting there because I know some of you in this room also have doctorates and you guys have medical degrees.

But do you have this? This is a Draven image. And this just looks exactly like me. And I thought that this would completely solidify my place here at Berean by if I just nailed it to the pulpit just like that. So once I finish this degree, you know, it's gonna be quite an accomplishment.

I would ask that all of you would start calling me Reverend Dr. Pastor Mark, (audience laughing) which would be a really big eagle boost for me, so please do it, okay? And then once I actually finish, then that's the time when you have enough credentials to start writing books, and I've always wanted to write.

So I have, actually, if you know me, I have tons of thoughts that aren't well articulated, but I put them into documents and they kind of build over time. I've got many books I wanna write. So once I become an author, you can call me Dr. Author Reverend Pastor Mark, and I'll be Rad Pastor.

(mumbling) (audience laughing) But my qualm, actually, is not so much what you would call me. I was trying to think about what I would ask Bea to call me, you know? 'Cause once you attain to that level, I don't know, she calls me hun and yobo, but is that appropriate for my level?

(audience laughing) Okay, guys, okay, time out. You know I'm joking, right? I'm joking about everything, okay? I'm not gonna be graduating with a 4.0, that's for sure. (audience laughing) I'm not gonna be asking my wife to call me something special, and this was actually a gift. Thank you, congregation.

During Pastor's Appreciation Month, I didn't make this graven image of myself, but I actually don't know why they gave me this. I'm guessing it's like a stress tool. You know, when I mess up, I just (growling) It'd be a great stress reliever. I am joking, okay? I don't expect you to call me anything different.

As a matter of fact, just the fact that I get stuff like this, you guys give us leaders far more respect than we deserve, okay? But I want you to have this feeling inside your heart, which was, it was getting weird, wasn't it? Yeah, it was getting real weird when I was waving your applause on.

You know, that's kind of strange, and as a matter of fact, if you think about it, highly inappropriate, right? I stand up here, just the fact that I'm standing up here as a pastor, that means I should have already wrestled through that, and then killed that stuff prior to coming up to the pulpit.

And as a matter of fact, I want you to have certain words embedded into your mind as I enter through walking through some scriptures with you. I want you to think, "Meh, Pastor Mark is vain." You don't have to say it out loud, but just have it in your mind.

"Meh, Pastor Mark is vain." Because to have that kind of arrogance where title matters and expect people, almost demanding that even the people closest to me give me some kind of honor, expecting that you, in some sense, acknowledge the accomplishments that I have attained, there's something grossly vain about that.

And what's more, it's arrogant. Let's use those words, it's narcissistic, it's sinfully arrogant, because arrogance, by definition, has this empty void. What am I talking about? Arrogance means that in my perspective, I come up here. I think I'm capable, I deserve, I have accomplished, and you should see me as such in that perspective, when in reality, I'm down here.

Spiritually, I'm compromised, I have fleshly ambitions that should have died, I am susceptible to the work of the devil, who will have a foothold in my life, and I have no authority to speak. But I come at you up here. That's all smoke and no barbecue, right? It's fake.

And that gap, it's vain, it's empty. There's a huge rift between what I am expecting and the reality of the state of affairs, okay? And the reason why I did this is because not a single one of you would disagree with me on what I'm saying. Every single one of us would know that that kind of talk, attitude, and perspective is narcissistic vanity, correct?

And I pray that more and more, all of that would be eradicated from my life. But confession, am I pure of that? We live currently in a generation of fantasy land narcissism. We live in a generation of, oh, I wish I could've, only if I would've, then I might've.

And then we live in a generation where we have visions, daydreams, fantasies, but also we feed ourselves images of things that are narcissistic. As a guy, any element of sports, where you have guys in the cage, MMA, they just beat somebody up and like, oh, I'm King Kong, I'm the best, no one could ever beat me, I'm the GOAT, greatest of all time, right?

Meaning, in not only those elements of life, but probably in my own heart, even though I know it's narcissism, I still love it. That's my guy, yeah, that's right. Young guys dreaming about taking a ball and dunking it on somebody's head, having fantasies of the glory, standing on the stands and throwing dust in the air and saying, yeah, this is our year, we're the best, no one can defeat us.

So why is it okay if we put it on the screen? Why is it okay, rappers, you put it into lyrical form, you know, I'm not gonna do it. But you put it into lyrical form and now you're the best, you're the greatest rapper that ever will be and it's all okay, and not only is it okay, but it inspires us, weird.

And I'm willing to bet that we're all very similar, that we have fantasies of greater glory, greater attention, greater affection from the people around us, greater accolades, greater success and hope even for more. We are souls that are intentioned like that and Jesus knew it, our Lord knew it.

So he gave us many, many commands, many, many warnings, saying there's going to be an ambition and desire in you to secure more and more, to treasure this world, to have a false hope into the things that are material. And he gives us this warning to say no, those things are fleeting, vain and empty, amen?

Now, the problem though is we know this mentally, but subtly we allow for this desire to grow and develop in our hearts. And so I want to move forward to give you a couple arguments to tell you that none of the things that you are pursuing currently, none of the ambitions in your heart, none of the goals that you have established for yourself, that none of it is worth it.

Scripture actually tells us actually that there is this vanity, meaning that it's empty all over the place. Everything under the sun is subject to this kind of futility. So first, I want to give you a list of all the things that scripture describes as vain and is not limited to education.

But I want to highlight these things. I'm not going to read every single one of them, but clearly we live in a generation where we have given much hope to education. We believe in it, and in some sense, rightly so. Because through education with greater knowledge becomes discernment, becomes decision-making possibilities that you will make better financial securities for yourself and that's why people will risk it to pay 20, $30,000 a year to go to college.

Yes, that's a huge risk. It is not uncommon these days to have people come out of college with 80, 90, $100,000 in debt, okay? What's more, we have this vision of our achievements and efforts wanting to leave a legacy. What's more, we have visions of the kind of relationships that we'll have.

The secular world and their advice, they're going to get really explicit. Get rid of all the negative influences in your life, even if it's your family, get rid of them. Surround for yourself people who will support you, believe in you, and trust you. They believe you can do what you set yourself out to do.

The world will be explicit about it. Has it infiltrated the church? Sure. Unfortunately, sad state of affairs is it's a great thing we have many churches. It's a great thing that we have churches of different size, right? Different kind of dynamics, et cetera, but now based upon if there's no community for me, I can just go to the next church and choose.

That's kind of an unfortunate state of affairs. We are a generation of people who have great human accumulation. Our generation, if you look at the media, social media, whatever it may be, we have people collecting anything, shoes, memorabilia from movies to even people. We live in quite a wild and dangerous generation.

Now, I said I'm gonna make an argument in case to you because of the fact that we are so prone to still nevertheless believe in it, I wanna show you some strange statistics. And here they are. I know we have a lot of college students in the room. I'm not just trying to pick on you, but our college students are sad, okay?

What I mean by that isn't that, oh, you're not performing, or that you're doing X, Y, and Z. What I mean is, statistically speaking, strangely speaking, let's say we took a sample of this room. There are people in their 60s, 50s, 40s, 30s. The saddest group are the people between 18 and 22.

Why? Because statistically, 41% of college students between the ages of 18 and 22 are depressed. This study that I looked up from, the group is called Statista, I believe, .com. It's not some conservative group. It's not a Christian group. They just do surveys. They had a study done with over 100,000 participants.

That is a large enough sample of college students, okay? And within this, they said that, I know the words are small there, I apologize for that, but 19% of individuals have moderate depression. Now, moderate depression, there's different degrees, but that means they had either sleeplessness, anxiety attacks, which meant their heart was beating fast, they had either breath associations, that stuff, or they were too afraid to go to class, something like that.

And then another 22% had severe depression, which means there was function loss. They couldn't function in the classroom. What's more, severe depression typically includes suicidal ideation. That blew my mind when I did the research. What? College students, in many ways, are in the epitome of hopefulness. You're in your prime, looking forward to all that is ahead of you, and you've bought into the system that said your education is now going to put you into the top one third of America.

You have now the prowess to make your decisions so that you will be financially secure, and you're in a unique environment that's tailor-made for you, where everybody is your age, learning the same thing, going through the same routine, and you, in your time now, you have more free time than you'll ever have in the rest of your life.

But then you're hopeless. If this world tries to sell me on college, I'm gonna say, "Look at this." Right? The fruits tell the tale of the story is very disappointing. And what we know to be true, that things in the world, these promises of the world, are actually very susceptible, full of holes, and in many ways, vain.

Now, that's just the statistics, but I want you to think about this, just even in your own anecdotes. I'm pretty sure you have your own life stories, because you have probably tried. You have probably tried to pursue, when you're young, a lot of times, it's your friends, so you try to pursue so hard to hold on to those relationships, to build strong community, and then somebody disappoints you because they pick another group.

Somebody disappoints you because they leave your life. Somebody disappoints you because they're the ones who end up hurting you, and then your world shatters. Some of you have already invested yourself into these other vices of wanting to have success at all costs, so you completely ruined your health. You even took drugs to get there.

You did everything in your power, and you have your own stories to tell younger people, this world is full of vanity. You know, I was talking to my neighbor, and she was an Olympian. From starting at a young age, she trained hard for this one purpose, to go to the Olympics, and she made it.

She was at the Olympic Village, and she medaled, too. And I talked to her about this topic because I preached a sermon about bookleiclesiastes about a year ago, and I said, "What are your thoughts about this idea of emptiness?" And she said, "It's crazy because in one sense, "when you're at the Olympics, "you are literally at the top of your game "and of everybody else's.

"You can say these people are the best in the world. "Not at your school, not at your university, "not in your city, not in your country, "but the world." Can you imagine that? The weight of that? You would think then you would just be bursting with joy, pride, and a sense of achievement, which is true.

Short-lived. She said, "You get there, "you have sponsors you have to deal with. "They want certain things out of you, "and sometimes you don't know if you wanna give it. "You have to get other people to vouch for you. "You're constantly afraid the next younger person "is gonna take your place.

"You're constantly afraid you're gonna break something "in your body. "The people who are there, they're not satisfied. "You have people who are married go into there, "they get into the Olympic Village, "and then they start flirting with everybody else. "Some people have a wife in every country they visit.

"It's a madhouse in there. "There's so many things wrong in that world, "it feels empty." And I said, "Wow. "Thank you for telling me. "But I'm pretty sure you don't have to be at that level "to have stories." Amen? You have your own. How disappointing this world can be.

Now, this first point, I wanna continue on by sharing with you that it's not only about these statistics. This is a statistic of young people between the age of 10 and 24 who have committed suicide over the years. Why is it that if we are getting, the human race is getting better by technology, the human race is getting better by cooperative effort, getting better by whatever it is that we think, whether it's financial, environmental, or systems and government, but the suicide rate amongst the young people are so horrific.

This is outdated because 2017, in 2020, the people who called into a hotline for help because they were trying to attempt suicide was at 1.2 million people. Yeah, it's shocking. Well, many years ago, the scripture already knew how we would behave when we placed our hopes on this world.

I wanna give you a change of argument now from the scriptures. King Solomon was a wise king, so wise. He was an actual human being, but he was gifted with wisdom by God. He was a wise individual among wise men, and he had a wise think tank, making him an incredibly wise person, and he had this to say.

He said, "The word of the preacher, "the son of David, king of Jerusalem, "vanity of vanities," says the preacher, "vanity of vanities, all is vanity." All is vanity. And what he was trying to say was he observed with all of his wisdom, he observed not only with his wisdom, but with his experience, all that the world had to offer, and he concluded there is something royally wrong.

I want you to just listen to this portion of the text, and it says in Ecclesiastes chapter two, this is Ecclesiastes chapter two, King Solomon speaking his wisdom. He said, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure." He's speaking to himself. He has said the world is filled with vanities, and then he said, "By experience, "I'm gonna test that principle." And so he says, "So enjoy yourself, "and behold, it was futility." He said, "I said of laughter, entertainment and joy, "this is madness, and I said of pleasure, "what does it accomplish?

"I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine." Okay, people nowadays try that. "While my mind was guiding me wisely "in how to take hold of folly, "until I could see what good is there "for the sons of men to do under the sun "the few years of his life.

"I enlarged my works, I built houses for myself, "I planted vineyards for myself, "and all that my eyes desired, "I didn't refuse any of them. "I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, "for my heart was pleased because all my labor, "and this was my reward for all my labor.

"Thus I considered all the activities "which my hands had done, "and the labor which I exerted, "and behold, all was vanity, "and striving after wind, "there was no prophet under the sun." There is no prophet under the sun, he says. So those are the words of King Solomon, who had the power to actually try all of his concepts and theories.

You see, we have a lot of people who write in our day. We have a lot of authors. We have a lot of analysts and critics. They have theories and concepts that they wanna try, and they say, "Oh, it would be only good for our nation. "It would be good for our people.

"It would be good for our generation." Yada, yada, yada, but they never had the power to do all that stuff. King Solomon had all the authority to command it to happen. What's more, he had all the resources to experience it for himself, and he's telling you, "I tried it." Don't you sit there telling yourself, "No, no, no, let me just taste and see.

"I need to see it for yourself." Listen to this man. He tried to give himself to women. He had over, this is a disgusting sin, but he had over 700 wives and 300 concubine. He collected horses and chariots. He had over 12,000 horses, it says in 1 Kings. He had over 1,500 chariots.

He had wise men around him. He had every single luxury and pleasure possible. All the stuff we flip through on YouTube, on Instagram, and the social media about people with their grandeur, this guy was a king, and he's trying to convince us it was so empty. And this reminded me of a personal note, not necessarily about me, but right now I try to visit my mom every two weeks.

Love her to death. She's trying to be a godly woman, but she also has the reality of life hitting her. She's in her late 70s now, and honestly speaking, she's sad. And then when I show up, she says this weird, and cryptic, but also hurtful thing to me that makes me laugh, but also be like, hey, you know what she says to me?

She goes, I wish I had daughters. It's just me and my older brother, and she's straight up like, I just wish I had, and I'm like, what? And I didn't know how to react to that. I was like, okay. And then I realized what she was saying, 'cause I was asking, why would you say something like that, you know?

And it's because as men, we don't think about her enough. So we visit like once a month, we call her periodically, and she said this to me. She said, one of my fears, Mark, is that I'm straight up gonna die in my room and be on the floor for days before somebody even notices.

And you're not gonna know 'cause you come around once a month, and I just went, oh my God. Turn around, shed a tear. I didn't even know what to say, so I just said, don't say that. What am I supposed to say to that? The reality of life is hitting her.

But she was an ambitious woman. She went through suffering. She went through the Korean War, lost her father at age four. She risked everything to come to the States. She didn't know the language. She worked every single day. My mom and dad worked through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's every year for 20 years.

Never took a break. And then now, at the end of her life, she's just saying to me, I don't know if that was all worth it. She's saying to me, I don't know if that's all worth it. Those are some real words. And she's kind of looking at me for a solution, but I told her, I have my duties as a son.

I have my duties as one who loves you, but I'm not your hope either, remember? I'm not your solution. Don't bank on me because I'm full of vanity too. Do you remember what I asked you to remember? Dang, Mark Lim is vain. There's an emptiness in what I can provide.

And that's why I wanted to go at length with you to just hit this point that the scripture over and over again is trying to convince you. It's not just one thing, it's everything. It's not just one person. It's not just those guys there who are mean, evil people.

Anybody and everybody under the sun can be vain, including me. And there is an emptiness of value and meaning. What's the meaning of this all? King Solomon, he basically said, I'm gonna collect for myself all of the righteous people. I'm gonna eradicate all the wicked politicians. And he said that.

He said, I'm gonna remove all the corrupt individuals and knock them out. You know, he said next day, another corrupt man took his place. What was the point of all that? There is an empty purpose. He says, I've gathered all his money and then I gave it to my wicked son who blew it all.

What was the point of all that? There's such a fleeting, short-lived life. And he's the one who was saying, you die and no one truly remembers you. You talk about leaving a long legacy, okay? People will forget the next day. There is an absurdity to reality. Why is it that the wicked people prosper and they're all filthy rich and then the good guys, the humble guys, the sacrificial guys are just suffering?

What gives? And I think right now in our day, that's like part of the mantra, right? There's something wrong with this world. People who are evil are in power. The oppressors are succeeding. And we the little guys, it's a short on the stick. Everything is backwards. Pow, and you slam the table.

That is the sentiment of our day. There isn't justice all around us. It's true, there is injustice all around us. And we think about that and we demand, demand a righteous judge. We demand somebody who would come and make right of all of that. But right now I wanna take a brief moment to pause.

Of course, what I'm saying to you is not new. Every single one of you would expect that the church would continue to push a kind of purity from the world, yes? What I'm saying now, you would have already expected. Don't love the world, the world is evil. What I'm saying to you is the world is evil on multiple levels.

It is wrought with inconsistency. We put false hope in it because it's completely empty. And the more that you bank on it, the more vain you become, okay? But my point isn't don't touch, don't taste, don't have. Because if I, let's say I was your dad, okay? I would want you to have a good job.

I would want you to meet someone nice. I would want you to have a community and I would want you to be successful. Why would I not want that for you? What's my point? That my point is not don't have. My point is not run away, go to the mountains.

Because people have tried that and even human religion is vain. There are people who are monks in temples who are vain. You just not having means you just don't have, but it doesn't mean you have purpose, doesn't mean you have meaning, doesn't mean you have value. It just means you don't have.

My point isn't to make you escape this world because you can't come out of it. What is the point then? King Solomon point is the point that the scripture is trying to drive to us. Get your eyes off the world and get your eyes on God because a life without God is completely meaningless.

But a life that is centered upon God, where we are in his presence, where he knows us and we know him, we are living according to his will, we feel his spirit, we understand him, and we're going towards the direction of God, that is life, amen? And that's the constant struggle for every Christian individual.

Living a life of physical sight in this world or living a life of faith. And so my first point was to show you that what we're most susceptible to is this regular, I guess you can even say sinister, subtle desire to still wish and hope that we could have some success in this life.

The scripture is saying, you know what? Even some of that is not worth it. The only thing that is truly worth it is God almighty. The only true thing that is worth your energy, time, sacrifice, endeavor, investment, and every synonym you can possibly use is God almighty. And I wanna show you that earlier I described these various ways in which things in life can be vain and guess what?

There's more. You know that there's a lot more. Things are vain because things don't work. Things are vain because they're ineffective. Things are vain because it's just fluff. There's so many different ways that things can be vain. But in everything that is wrong with this world, God is the solution.

I wanna show you this counter, kinda antithetical look at God. God is the creator and master and Lord of the universe. You see, we have this strange innate desire to elevate and give this adoration to things that are impressive. So earlier I talked about sports fighters and basketball players.

Have you ever thought about that? Why is it that we say things like, man, that guy's the man? Because he can throw a punch, but he's a corrupt individual. He's a morally corrupt individual. Well, this guy can dunk a ball, wow. Let's hear what he has to say about all of life.

Why is he a role model? What in the world is that? Well, because we found value in the kind of skill, power, and ability God Almighty can create out of nothing. God Almighty can stay the world. God Almighty can give life, sustain life, and take life. You wanna talk about power?

God Almighty is the most valuable thing. He sustains everything. And he's worthy of all attention, glory, and honor. What's more, God is so purposeful. Scripture says that he is so intentional with you. Whatever step you take, he knows it. In terms of his intentionality to have a relationship with you, he's thought of it.

It was in his heart and in his mind. He willed it from before the foundation of the world. He's gonna execute it, and he is on target all the time, never misses. That's wild. God, he's not temporary and fleeting like so many things in life. I mean, I kind of dogged on college degrees and stuff like that, but I've heard so many people look at their diploma and be like, that was one expensive piece of paper, right?

Like, what value did it really hold for me? What did it really do for me? What's more, for those of you guys who are a bit older, those four years of college life went by like this. Half of it you don't even remember. So fleeting, doesn't last. God is eternal.

He doesn't expire. There is no change in him. And shall I go on? What I'm trying to say to you is, truly, truly, all the things that are vain, all of their solutions are found in God alone. And so I want you to think about that because the main thing I want us to realize is I'm trying to say, hey, say, be able to say that it's not a matter about having or not having in this life.

As a matter of fact, you gotta be willing to come above that and say, forsake the world. I don't need it. So what I really wanna have is God. And what I wanna share with you is that God really wants to have you. One of the grand and glorious things about God is that he is a God who is in pursuit of people, his creation.

I want you to think about this. All of these truths that I just described to you now, especially if you're joining us today and you are not a Christian and you've been thinking about these things, where am I getting all these ideas from? How am I able to say God is eternal, God is this and that?

Do you know why? It's because God intentionally revealed himself. And that is an act of love. That is an act of care for you because only a person who has love to give in their heart would give of themselves. Why don't you try? You try going to somebody who has clout, influence, prestige, and money, and power.

Go to Bill Gates and say, hey, can you share with me about your next plans? Would you be willing to share with me about your thoughts? How did you think about your success? You go and ask him to share with you his life? You go and ask him to share with you his house?

Share with you his inheritance? Share with you his money? That would be wild and crazy. God Almighty is a God who is a freely revealing and giving God, not just of stuff. If any Christian has taught you this weird gospel that says when you believe in God, you're gonna be a Christian and he's gonna straighten you out so that you can really succeed in life, then you're gonna really be able to focus and study.

And then you're gonna do a really good job as a husband and you're gonna really succeed and have more stuff, more cars, more success, lives. God wants to give of himself to you. That's why Christians long to come here. We're going to experience, if any believer will tell you, no, no, no, the world is still silly.

It's still folly. As a Christian, I walk through suffering, hardship, and weird kind of unfruitfulness all throughout my life. But what I have is God. And what I get to do is love him. So what's the problem here? Why can't anybody just come and have this great God who's revealing himself?

Because remember that idea of Mark Lim is vain? Vanity is not out there in the others, in the government, in the world systems at be and the powers at large. It is actually there. Vanity is everywhere. But that vain individual is here. What I started with as an illustration, those are realities that people actually want in their lives.

And this is what the scripture says to us. We're not only vain like that, we're corrupt in so many different ways. The sad state of affairs and the reality of spirituality is that we have a hard time coming to God because of the brokenness and sinfulness bound in the heart of man.

Take a look and listen to this. What then, are we any better than they? Not at all. For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God.

All have turned aside together, they have become useless. There is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving. Poison of ash is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.

Destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. What am I trying to say? I am not trying to say that you, if you're not a Christian, are the most wicked and vile and vain person ever that walked the face of the earth, no.

I am not trying to say that you are somehow as evil as evil could be. What I am trying to say is that already that we have been stained with sin and there is already a broken vanity in our hearts and in our minds and I know you feel it.

My greatest frustration, I made a joke, I brought this up for a purpose. There are so many moments when I make a muck of my life because of my decision and lack of self-control. And I wanna shake myself almost, why did you do that? I want you to think about this weird, weird thought.

In the last 10 years, who has been the most hurtful to my loving, treasured, beloved wife who I see as my dream girl? It's me. I have vowed to be her protector, provider, and leader. Guess who has caused her the greatest amount of pain because of my lack of self-control, my own selfishness, weird expectations, and inconsiderate behavior?

(claps) It's me. Vanity is not out there, it's right here. And it comes out when I'm pressured. It comes out when I'm frustrated. It comes out when I'm stressed. And what the scripture says is that kind of vanity is what's keeping us from God, from enjoying a relationship with the Lord because our own wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

I wanna convince you, the current state of affairs in your spirituality is not something that can be fixed. Some of you aren't in here because you already know that just trying to live life with your grit is not enough. And I use my relationship with my wife quite a bit because it is an appropriate example.

There was a moment early on in my marriage, I've been married for 15 years, when I had fought so deeply with my wife. I love her to death and weird, I was fighting with her and my heart went hard and cold and I said, "You know what? "I'm tired of talking to you today." And so we stopped the argument, we stopped talking to each other and that lasted for two weeks.

I didn't talk to her at home except, "Did you eat? "Did you take care of what you need to take care of? "Let's go to sleep." And that's all I said and the house was ice. It was like Antarctica, there was nothing going on, there was no life going on in that home.

I gotta tell you something, everything felt wrong. I was at work trying to type up an email, my mind would just drift. I'd go out and try to play, I didn't want to. Why? The thing that was supposed to be a loving relationship that I committed to with my wife was off.

And when your relationship with God, therefore, is off, nothing will feel right. When your relationship with your maker and your creator, whom God is now pursuing you, I have been giving you now revelation that God is coming to pursue you because he wants a relationship with you just as a father would with his son.

And if that relationship was off, you can't do anything. Your conscience is not clear, your bearings are not right. You don't even have the ability to address and try to assess what is even going on right now. And our desire is not to confiscate your little joys you have in life, our desire is to say I want you to have the greatest thing, a loving relationship with God.

Do you want that? Do you want to have that kind of relationship and interaction with God, the one who is truly valuable, the one who will truly last, one who promises you all of his resources? And he's proven it by giving his son. He's proven it by giving himself.

And if your answer is yes, I want to tell you the way is clear, the way is simple, and the way it can be today. Some people will tell you, you know what you got to do, you got to buy into our program, join our church, attend this class, have years of training, and da-da-da-da-da, the answer is no.

If we're having a relationship with God, you can have a relationship today. Some people will tell you to go on this spiritual journey, some people will tell you to just empty yourself and free your mind. No. We want you to fill your mind with the love of God. The way is clear and God is showing you his loving way, and it begins by this passage where scripture says that God has prepared a way, he has prepared to forgive you, he has prepared to love you, and he has prepared that your relationship can be reconciled with him.

And that comes from Romans chapter five, verse eight. And it says, "God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners," not while we were fixing ourselves, not while we were working hard, not while you're getting it right, but while you were yet sinners, "Christ died for us.

Much more than having been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him." Did you know that the way to God is this simple? And some of you, it bothers you. Some of you will say, "Pff, you don't know what I've done in my life." It can't be that simple.

Sinners need to pay. Guess what, it's true, sinners do need to pay. It can't be that simple that God is, what, he's just gonna let everybody into heaven? That's also true, God demands perfection, he will not let anybody into heaven. So what does God do? God says it must be this way.

The first is you must come humbly and to request forgiveness through repentance. God, what we're talking about today in the Vandy of Life, I believe it. This world is corrupt and so am I. And I have sins in my life. I have hurt the people that I love most.

I have tried all the vices of the world. I tried to go and solve it by myself. I'm at the end of me. Will you forgive me? You come humble this way and I wanna tell you 100% God has prepared the way. He has already shown and demonstrated through the sacrifice of his own son, the one he counts as pure and precious, that his life would pay for yours and therefore you can trust.

You can trust that Jesus in his death and resurrection paid for your sin and that perfection you long for is given to you by the resurrected life of Christ. Christianity is not about people who said, God demands perfection and guess what? Here I am. I'm the man. No, we are people who said, God intervened in my life and he showed me his grace to give me his forgiveness and I received that by faith.

There is one of the hardest things that humans will do is to receive help. Can I help you? - Nope. - Are you lost? - Nope. - I know my way. One of the hardest thing that mankind will ever do is receive help because it pains us to know I can't.

It pains us to know that we do not have the resource, the power or the know-how to fix the sin inside of us. Christianity says, God knows that and that's the thing I wanna share with you, my own experience. I will tell you, I feel like I'm a humble man, but I'm not.

I care way too much about the way people see me. I tried to fix that. So I pendulum swung. I went, you know what, I'm just stupid. I would constantly be self-deprecating and I know some of you guys do that too. You're constantly apologetic. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

And then you reacted in your flesh to the deficiency you saw in yourself and so you said, you know what, forget it. I'm gonna judge myself. You know what that leads to? Self-condemnation and then suicide. That's the end of that road. The other side is to take the blue pill, right?

And say, you know what, I'm not that bad. I can do it. I can work. I don't care what you say. The end of that is complete delusion and everybody sees it but you. Right there in the middle, God says, Mark, I see you and just as you were disgusted by your own vain pride, I am so I'm gonna solve that.

Your life is gonna die with Christ and you're gonna have a new life in his resurrected power. That's the Christian gospel. Not my flesh here or not my flesh there, the Christ who sees all of my sin but says, I, although I can be disgusted with you just as you were, I'm gonna come in and take all of that sin.

That's the message that we wanna preach to you who don't know Jesus yet. It's not that we wanna take away all your joys. It's not that, you know, you can't touch that. You can't have that luxury. That's not even the point. We want you to have the power of God.

By way of conclusion, Jesus, the Lord, he said in Matthew, in Matthew chapter 16, for what will it profit a man if he gains a whole world and yet forfeits his soul? I began this sermon telling you, nothing on earth, no matter how valuable you see it, is worth it.

But the one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who can save your soul eternity, he is worth it all. Let's take a moment to pray. Lord, we thank you for this grace to hear the gospel message of salvation that from ages ago you have prepared a way for sinners to be reconciled to you.

Lord, you tell us in the scriptures that through your son, Jesus Christ, you are doing the work of reconciling the lost to yourself that you would bring those who are fallen, those who are completely lost, to your loving arms. And I pray every single person here would experience that grace of being received by you, to be known by the loving Father, to be adopted into your house, and to have all the rights and privileges of being called your own.

I pray, Father God, that that would be what motivates and fuels all of our worship, all of our time here together. Help us, Father God, to see just how worthy you are. And I ask now that your spirit would convict the hearts of those who have maybe been hesitant to come to repentance, who have been thinking on the outskirts about it but not yet making a decision.

Help them to know, Father God, it is not about man striving at all. It's about your grace and love. We thank you, it's in Christ's name, amen. - Let us all rise as we sing our praise. (gentle music) (gentle music) In Christ alone. ♪ In Christ alone ♪ ♪ My hope is found ♪ ♪ He is my light, my strength, my song ♪ ♪ This cornerstone, this solid ground ♪ ♪ Firm through the fiercest drought and storm ♪ ♪ What heights of love, what depths of peace ♪ ♪ When fears are still, when striving ceases ♪ ♪ My comforter, my all in all ♪ ♪ Here in the love of Christ I stand ♪ Christ alone.

♪ In Christ alone ♪ ♪ Who took on flesh ♪ ♪ Fullness of God in helpless pain ♪ ♪ This gift of love and righteousness ♪ ♪ Scorned by the ones he came to save ♪ ♪ 'Til on that cross, as Jesus died ♪ ♪ The wrath of God was satisfied ♪ ♪ For every sin on him was laid ♪ ♪ Here in the death of Christ I live ♪ They're in the ground.

♪ There in the ground his body lay ♪ ♪ Light of the world by darkness slain ♪ ♪ Then bursting forth in glorious day ♪ ♪ Up from the grave he rose again ♪ ♪ And as he stands in victory ♪ ♪ Since curse has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ For I am his and he is mine ♪ ♪ He is God with the precious blood of Christ ♪ ♪ No guilt in mind ♪ ♪ No guilt in mind ♪ ♪ No fear in death ♪ ♪ This is the power of Christ in me ♪ ♪ From life's first cry to final breath ♪ ♪ Jesus commands my destiny ♪ ♪ No power of hell ♪ ♪ No scheme of man ♪ ♪ Can ever pluck me from his hand ♪ ♪ Till he returns or calls me home ♪ ♪ Here in the power of Christ ♪ ♪ I'll stand ♪ No power.

♪ No power of man ♪ ♪ No scheme of man ♪ ♪ Can ever pluck me from his hand ♪ ♪ Till he returns or calls me home ♪ ♪ Here in the power of Christ ♪ ♪ I'll stand ♪ ♪ Here in the power of Christ ♪ ♪ I'll stand ♪ - Amen, let us pray.

God our Father, we again wanna acknowledge, Lord, you are truly a good, good God, merciful and loving. And what we also know that is in your power, you will return. Lord, Christ is going to make right of all things that are wrong. But God, we thank you that you don't give us simply things that are fleeting, which are actually just simply fodder to be burnt up with the rest of the world.

Rather, God, you give us your protection, you give us love, and you give us life anew. So for all of that, we thank you so much. And I pray, Father God, then with humility, with great, great faith in you, we would both receive and be renewed by your grace every day.

Now may the love of God the Father, precious gift and grace of Jesus Christ, the presence of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forever, amen. ♪ God sent his Son ♪ ♪ They called him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to love ♪ ♪ Heal and forgive ♪ ♪ He lived and died ♪ ♪ To buy my pardon ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there to prove ♪ ♪ My Savior lives ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ All fear is gone ♪ ♪ Because I know ♪ ♪ He holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living ♪ ♪ Just because he lives ♪ ♪ We won't fear the battle ♪ ♪ We won't fear the night ♪ ♪ We will walk the valley with you by our side ♪ ♪ You will go before us ♪ ♪ You will lead the way ♪ ♪ We have found the refuge ♪ ♪ Only you can save ♪ ♪ Sing with joy now ♪ ♪ Our God is for us ♪ ♪ The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress ♪ ♪ Raise your voice now ♪ ♪ No love is greater ♪ ♪ Who can stand against this ♪ ♪ We have God is for us ♪ ♪ Even when I stumble ♪ ♪ Even when I fall ♪ ♪ Even when I turn back ♪ ♪ Still your love is sure ♪ ♪ You will not offend ♪ ♪ And you will not forsake ♪ ♪ You will cheer me on ♪ ♪ With your never-ending praise ♪ ♪ Sing with joy now ♪ ♪ Our God is for us ♪ ♪ The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress ♪ ♪ Raise your voice now ♪ ♪ No love is greater ♪ ♪ Who can stand against this ♪ ♪ We have God is for us ♪ ♪ Neither high nor death can separate us ♪ ♪ Hell and death will not defeat us ♪ ♪ He who gave his Son to free us ♪ ♪ Holds me in his love ♪ ♪ Neither high nor death can separate us ♪ ♪ Hell and death will not defeat us ♪ ♪ He who gave His Son ♪