St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

Acts 1:8

Beautiful music. God is so good, and also thank you for your special music today. It was very, very inspiring. You inspire me because you also come out early in the morning to sing in KSM service. There’s no KSM, there’s no ESM. We are one church. And your sense of oneness and love for the community really inspires me, you know, loving the church, that is an expression of our faith. It isn’t an individual faith, personal faith between you and God alone. It is about loving the community. Out of love for the community. You kind of sacrifice. You give yourself for that.

I just came back from Madagascar and I'm very tired right now. The time difference is seven hours and as soon as I got there, I got there around 12 o’clock at night, and their system is so bad. The infrastructure is so bad at the airport. I had to wait around and wait and wait, and by the time I got to my place, to the place we were staying at, it was two o’clock in the morning and because of jet lag, I couldn’t sleep much. That morning at nine o’clock, they started the lectures, so it was kind of a hard time, but I’m glad that I was able to survive and I could feel your prayers every time. Everywhere I went, I felt that you are with me. Your prayer is with me and I really thank you for your prayers. God, I felt the strong hands of God guiding me and leading me. I did teaching in two different places. One in Antananarivo, they call it Tanah, it’s the capital city. And then after that I went to Tama Taboo. Tama Taboo is about a 10-hour drive, but the road is really bad. So 10 hours we drove. So the people from villages came to the capital city. You’ll see the capital city and see what the capital city looks like. I took a little video, so you will see that later, after the sermon. But, I did teaching and there were some pastors and also there were some leaders from the village and there were not that many trained pastors there. They don’t have many pastors, period.

The church where I did my teaching and the minister was reverend Unjatoo. Last time when I went there a few years ago, the membership was 8,000 people. This time I went it was 20,000. It grew almost three times. So many people, so many people. I couldn’t imagine, they started worshipping at 5:30 in the morning, three or four services and it's incredible, their passion. And I realized that the community of faith does so many good things there. Here, the community of faith, sometimes we’re here just for ourselves sometimes, and it’s just psychological comfort and, you know, all the other things are already prepared, but there, nothing is prepared. Infrastructure’s bad, hospitals are bad, the education system is bad, and their church does so many wonderful things in conjunction with NGO. They work together to build schools. And then, for example, in Korea too, the missionaries came and they established the schools like Yancey university or Yale University, and they created high schools as well. Like that, all the churches were kind of involved in children’s education because they don’t think of sending their kids to school so they don’t get a proper education. For example, the GDP is $450 a year, 450. They live on that. Many people said they went over through the river and then in the sand, they pour us, put a sen and then it has to be reversing to, for construction. So they do that all day and at the end of the day, they get $2, $3 at most. I mean, for us $2 is just nothing. You don’t even think about keeping it. But it is one day worth and medical facility, there are many places where they don’t get medical treatment, especially villages. They don’t have doctors, they don’t even have nurses. So the train kind of first-aid workers and then medical kind of agent whatever. They don’t have medical knowledge, but at least they know what to do in an emergency. So, they are missionaries that are there, they built a hospital and they got permission, a permit from the government. And they also got doctors prepared, but the thing is they don’t have the equipment, medical equipment, to bring. So, there’s an organization in the United States, they collect all the medical equipment, for example, second-hand medical equipment and also some kind of deal didn’t go through well, so there are some new ones and they collect all these medical equipment including an ambulance. So somehow we arranged it so they are going to send that equipment to this hospital. But the thing is, we don’t have delivery money. The delivery is about $25,000. My interpreter, in the village I asked him, “So what happens, do they get surgery?” “No, they don’t usually get surgery. If you get about $2 a day, how can you afford surgery?” “So what, what do you do?” “They just die in the village.” So I gave them some money because his sister has cancer, so she has to get some kind of treatment. So I gave him some money but things like that we cannot even think of doing, it’s a very, very different lifestyle and churches are involved in many schools and hospitals and prison ministries. One prison ministry, I preached at a prison. Oh my goodness, I mean, I was not allowed to take pictures, but it was about a quarter the size of this room, there are like two double beds and they all slept together, and just a few years ago there was a pest going around and everybody got infected and they don’t even have their own separate bed, they just lie down on a double size bed and live like that and they get a meal, one meal a day. And then one meal is just jook, like congee. That’s what they get. And if they have family members, then other family members come in and they provide food so they can survive. But the people who don’t have families, they just survive on one meal. Which is just congee with no nutrition, it just fills their stomach. Just last year, 13 people died of malnutrition and our missionary could see that, but the government would not do anything right now. But they couldn’t just see that. So his strategy was raising funds from Korea, so he brought some money and started giving them meals, and then a doctor diagnosed all 1500 people. They found 190 people were on the list of malnutrition so they provided a meal and stopped people from dying of malnutrition. They do wonderful works there and the need is overwhelming. So $1 here is nothing, but $1 there is very precious and I thank you for your support. Financial support. You raised a fund from the mission dinner and also personally, a lot of KSM members gave money so with their money I could use it very well.

I taught in two places and visited many places. I taught at the mission school in Antananarivo and people came from the villages and the pastors they don’t even have travel costs, bus fee. And so with the money that you gave me, we provided transportation and meals, we provided those while they were there. Then after a 10-hour drive, I went to Komatsu and also their pastors, and local leaders came to here. They knew the scripture pretty well, in Antananarivo our understanding of the scripture is much higher than people in Tohmatabu, so they knew about the scripture very well and in Tohmatabu knew a little less than in Antananarivo. And I taught them how to read the scripture and, I mean, I could feel your prayers when I was teaching and also through all the Bible studies I did there TBS and WBS and all the other Bible studies that are ingrained in me and you taught me a lot about this scripture study. When I did the teaching there they knew scripture very well, but they were hearing almost as though they heard the first time and they’re saying, there is this kind of thing in the scripture. And then there was one doctor, he’s a surgeon, his wife is also a doctor in internal medicine, and then a doctor after the lecture, he came to me. And then he said, I’ve done bible study for so many years when I was in university and then while as a doctor, I have done so many Bible studies, but I didn’t know that there was so much in the Bible and I learned so much . He’s about in his thirties he really was able to see the scripture in a new way. Also, in Antananarivo after the lecture, one sharp woman came to me. I never heard that interpretation of this particular scripture. How did you do it? Can you tell me the process of interpreting the scripture? I’ve never learned this kind of interpretation of the scripture .

They were just so shocked and they were so interested in the Bible and as she was saying and also he was saying that I was licking the melon all this time. I just knew about the scripture, but I didn’t know that so much is involved in the Bible. And then, they were quite fascinated about the scripture study and so I basically taught them how to read the Bible, how to interpret the Bible and sat down with them. And I started with the scripture. And then one by one I showed them how to interpret the Bible, not just in a religious way, but life study, how you reflect your worldview, how you reflect about your life. Things like that. We had a great time together. I could feel your prayers. God even gave me what I didn’t prepare. All the things that I’ve taught you and when I worked with you just came up from the bottom. All these things, whatever is needed, I was able to communicate that. I believe there’s a work of the spirit and work of your prayer. So I thank you for your prayers, that was so powerful. Through this trip, I could get involved in building a community of faith because a faith community does wonders in Madagascar and a community of faith is very, very necessary there, not just for religious reasons, not just for spiritual reasons, but even for social reasons. They gathered together they do so many good things for the community, for the society, a very exemplary kind of thing they do, as I said, prison and mission, education and hospital, they get involved in every fabric of society, you know, in a very positive way. So they are very well respected by society. Reverend Unjatoo, he’s a minister of the Church which has 20,000 members. It’s only one minister with 20,000 members because they don’t, by law, they don’t allow more than one minister in a church because they don’t have enough ministers. There are so many churches and they don’t have enough ministers. So one church can get only one minister maximum. So with 20,000 people, one minister is running it. But the thing is, all the laypeople like ministers, they work so hard, he doesn’t have to do much, they do all the work. 

So this is kind of a very different setting and this reverend Unjatoo, very sharp man, I met him a few years ago and you know, there’s a story when I was in theological school here at the U of T, once I gathered all the theological students from different countries to my home and I provided dinner for them and there was one African man who was there and after the dinner he was talking with me and he was telling me, I envy you because you are Korean, you have a history and all that stuff, you know, if I was African and if he said that he came from Madagascar, I wouldn't know, I didn’t know where Madagascar was and I didn’t know what Madagascar was and he said, you know, we don’t have a history and we are suffering. We were having a conversation and after he finished his Ph.D., he was doing a Ph.D. I was doing a basic degree. And after he finished a Ph.D., he went to France and he taught there and the last time I went to Madagascar he was there teaching at one of the seminaries, and I was so shocked, and then this time I realized that he is a cousin of Reverend Unjatoo. What a fate, I mean, 20, 30 years ago I met him, I didn’t know where he was about and then I met him and I realized that I’m working very closely with Reverend Unjatoo who is his cousin, on their mother’s side. So we are talking and Reverend Unjatoo and three groups are involved. Reverend Unjatoo, for the last few years, he prepared people for missions. About 1500 people. These are the people who committed themselves to go on missions. So 1500 people there and there’s a Senate, the presence of the Senate came and they talked and I wasn’t able to be part of that discussion because I was doing a lecture, and the Senate was involved and they studied all these rural areas of Madagascar, places like, for example, you have to drive about 700 kilometers to get to that place but after that you have to take a boat about eight hours up, and after that they have to walk for five hours to get to this rural area. I mean there’s no road, even the place that we went to, there is no road. So we have to take a boat and it takes forever. This is a much, much more rural area, so that’s how they get there. What they are going to do is, they are all like you, they’re teachers and they’re working for the government and they did all kinds of stuff. So they cannot take more than two weeks of vacation. So with their vacation, they go and plant a church, plant a community of faith. So these two people, will go there and we send two people and then those two people will start the children’s program and also they go door to door and do evangelism, that’s how they build a community of faith and then after one or two weeks, another two people go in and then do that for one year. For a whole year, they’re going to do it. And after one year, you know, people, there is a very big difference here, you know, it’s the sharing phases, it is very difficult and people are very skeptical and all that. But there, they just accept the gospel very easily. So after one year, they will probably build a church there. Once the church is built, then the Senate will send a pastor so that they can start the church. Once they start this church, they start school right beside it. Once they start building the school, they start the medical clinic. So they do the church, school, and clinic, this all goes together and then they do tremendous work for the community. We said we are going to do 10 churches for our church planting, in a way so 10 churches and Reverend Unjatoo will provide the people who will do that. And we’ll provide the fund for that. And Senate will provide their research and also provide a pastor. Once the church is built and probably then they will have to raise money to build a church and all kinds of stuff. This is the first project that they are going to do, a lot of churches are in our town, but there is no church in the rural area. So that’s what they are going to. 10 churches. It takes about a thousand dollars for one church for one year. This is for two people going there, transportation and food and, education material, all that. Only a thousand dollars a year. One church will be built. So I gave $4,000 to start a project. They can start as soon as December. So I first gave $4,000 to start the mission and then after that, I have to raise about 6,000, but I don’t think I have any problem raising 6,000, our church members KSM and ESM, can easily raise 6,000, then the pilot project begins, 10 churches will be established in a year. When I went to prison to deliver the message, oh my goodness,  there was such powerful worship in the prison, but their worship is so inspiring, more inspiring than other churches that I went to. We went to a kind of area where you gave the money to build a school there and then went to school. And then right beside the school, there was a church and the Minister of that church, you know what, our weekly offering is 35,000. 35,000 ariary is 10 US dollars. That’s their offering for one week. And with that they built a church. I mean, they save money and also they need to do the roof and all that. So I gave them some money so that they could do the roof. The money that I gave is not much here, but it’s tremendous value over there. So thank you very much for your prayer.

Today’s the 22nd anniversary of our church. Last 22 years, God blessed us so much. Each one of you is blessed so much by God. I feel that it’s time to give, it’s time to give. From next year, I hope that we can give generously because your money is so precious, so valuable in other parts of the world. So, I hope that we all work together on this project of giving. Let us give whatever we have. Let us not be selfish. Let us not just live for ourselves. Let us live for others. Let us give that kind of mentality. That’s what I would like to challenge you with so that this church becomes a church that is reaching out to the people in need and we are electing to very capable people are for eldership and thank you, Daniel and Veronica, for taking on this job that you’re willing to serve the community. I realize that it’s a small community, but what you did here is just wonderful. You shaped me in many, many different ways. So when I went there, I did that with what you shaped me and I was able to teach them effectively. It’s the same as Saint Paul. He just taught the Philippians, a small church, he sent letters, but that teaching, that’s only to 30, 40 people. But that became the foundation of influencing so many other people in the world. So what you’re doing is not just remaining here. What you’re doing is spreading all over the world in this way. So it is a powerful thing, and I hope that you can all join a Friday Bible study when we study James, we all study together. We challenge each other, we sharpen each other, and we understand a description, not just in a religious way, but in a way of understanding life. And in that way, we can help other people understand the scripture and live out in fullness. That’s what life is. Life is not just about getting or earning money and enjoying it. Life is about giving and life is just getting excited about helping others. And that is what life is and that’s what God called me to live out. So the North American lifestyle can be quite deafening, but we’ll not be victims of this North America affluence. We’ll fight against it and resist against that kind of lifestyle and we’ll regain the spirit of giving, sharing, and loving. That’s what we got to do. That’s what God called us to do. Thank you. 

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Job 38:1-7, 34-41

That was a beautiful anthem. Thank you. When you’re going through tough and difficult times, one thing that we most often hear is silence. We hear nothing but our own voices. God seems silent and absent from us. Someone put it this way, a door slammed in your face and a sound of bolting and double-bolting on the inside. When you hear the silence, we feel like we were all alone. Jesus faced the silence when he was praying in the garden of good semini. He was grieved and agitated about what he was about to face, so much so that he sweated drops of blood. He prayed that God would spare him of his faith, but he heard nothing from God. King David also experienced the sounds from God. It made him feel abandoned and alone. This is what he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me? From the words of my groaning, Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer and by night I find no rest.” Silence. When God is silent, it affects us very strongly. It confuses us. It angers us. It frustrates us. It stirs up all sorts of emotions. But in us, it leaves us feeling totally helpless. It makes us question, why, why me? Why am I going through this now? Why did it happen? Why is God letting this happen to me?

Back in August, we had our summer retreat for the Hi-C students and on the last night, as we usually do, we have a time of prayer for all the students. So students pray for each other. The pastors pray for the students, and Simon had invited all the students to come. The purpose of the prayer time was to come and lay down all the burdens that they had on their hearts. And I had a student come up to me at one point, he was young but very mature for his age. He began to share with me about the pain that he had experienced when his parents separated. He asked himself the same question, why? Why did my dad have to leave my mom and the rest of the family behind? He couldn’t make sense of why his mom had to go through so much pain because of it. No matter who we are, where we come from, I believe we all ask ourselves this question at some point in our lives, Why? For some reason, it never really gets answered.

That was the case, especially the case with Job. He wanted to know why someone like him had to suffer the way he did. Joe was a righteous man. He was wealthy, well-respected. He had everything. He had a family and he followed God faithfully, but like that, he lost everything that he had. He lost all of his possessions, his children. He lost his health. It was so overwhelming to a point that even his wife said, all you have left to do was to renounce his faith in God. But Job wanted to know why. He demanded God for answers. He cried out to God, but he heard nothing. No matter what he did, all he heard was silence. This was what he said, “I cry to you and you do not answer me and I stand and you merely look at me.” Job felt totally helpless and desperate like he had no more gas left in the tank. He felt like he did all that he could. Yet the question of why still lingered in that silence. But in that same silence when Job laid down everything that was on his heart, God answered him. The scripture passage we read today begins like this. The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind after nearly 37 chapters of silence, God finally answers him. Yet we see that God does not really answer Job. God doesn’t even seem to acknowledge Job’s pain and sorrow. We see that God answers Job by asking him questions one after another after another. Even reading them, we feel almost overwhelmed by the nature of these questions. God sounds firm and even demanding, and this was something that I struggled with as I was reflecting on today’s passage. Why? Why didn’t God just answer Job’s question? Wouldn’t that have made things much simpler? Why did God ask him questions that seemed like they had absolutely nothing to do with what was going on? It was a difficult passage. Then it dawned on me, I asked myself, what if, what if the answer to why wasn’t what Job really needed at the time? What if God knew that what job needed in that particular moment was not the answer, but God’s own presence? Because Job’s friends tried doing that for him. They try telling him why. They try to explain to him why he was in the situation that he was in and they did it from a place of genuine care, but what they said only ended up hurting him more. Rather than empathizing with the situation. They only try to fix it, but God did the exact opposite. In silence, God gave Job space and the time to voice his questions, his frustrations, and his doubts. Rather than giving him answers, God asked him questions. We see a movement in today’s passage. God begins with the big question, he asks him, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.” God starts talking about earth and creation, things we don’t even think about in our day to day life, but by the end, God ends with questions about the smaller things of life. This is what he asked, “Who provides for the raven and its prey when its young ones cry to God and wonder about their lack of food. God points to the birds of the air and reminds Job how they find their food to get by.

It was through these questions that God gradually brought Job to a deeper understanding. God was truly present in every aspect of his life. Even in the midst of silence and the confusion that he was experiencing, God gave Job a new perspective. In his silence, Job had a meaningful encounter with God and that was enough for him. The question still remained. The situation still remained the same, but Job, he wasn’t the same. In the end, this was his confession before God. This was what he said, “I know that you can do all things that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I uttered what I did not understand things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” In the silence of his heart Job met God in a meaningful way and God’s grace gave him the faith to embrace the mystery of his life with confidence. When God is silent, I believe we are invited to freely and honestly express our feelings, our questions, and our doubts before him. God does not interrupt us. He gives us the space to lay down our burdens before him. He gives us the time to go through our own journey of faith and it is in that same silence that God meets us. Rather than giving us answers, God answers us with his own presence and comforts us. He brings us to a place of healing and understanding the questions and the pain may still remain, but God gives us the faith to move forward in confidence.

C S Lewis, a well known Christian author. He had to go through a personal journey of his own. When he lost his wife to cancer. He could not make sense of his life nor his faith. He experienced silence from God. He was confused and angry. He questioned God and his faith and what he wrote down during this period of his life, these raw personal reflections later became a book called ‘A Grief Observed’. But through this period of silence and personal reflection, he eventually came to a deeper understanding of his faith and this was what he wrote, “I have gradually been coming to feel that the door is no longer shut and bolted. Was it my own frantic need that slammed it in my face? The time when there’s nothing at all in your soul except the cry for help. It may be just the time when God can’t give it. You’re like the drowning man who can’t be helped because he clutches and grabs. Perhaps your own reiterated Christ deafens you to the voice you’d hope to hear.” For him what he saw as silence from God took on a different meaning altogether. At first, he saw it as God’s absence, indifference, but he came to realize that God had been present with him in that silence all along. It was a journey that he had to go through to come to that understanding on his own time and the person that wrote the book by the end, he was a little different than when he began.

When God is silent. Preparing for this message has been incredibly difficult than humbling experience. It had been brewing in my mind for quite some time, and even in my relatively short time, here in ministry, I’ve been able to witness and hear stories about the struggles and the pain of those who are in our church community. In fact, what I become most aware of when I entered the sanctuary on every Sunday is that all of us, no matter who we are, come from a place of pain and carry heavy burdens in our hearts. It is a very palpable feeling and I see that most revealed in our time of worship. When our spirit meets God’s spirit in silence. On people’s faces, I see moments of healing, transformation, and joy. You often see me sitting behind the drums up here, but I see everything and that’s what I see. I see people leaving this place a little different than when they came in. It is the most beautiful thing to see, and my prayer is that we will experience God’s comfort here in this place today, especially as we now enter into a time of reflection and prayer. I pray that our spirits will be lifted up, I pray that God will be with us here today.

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Mark 10:17-31

That should be our existence and thank you, John, for leading us in very meaningful prayer and devotion. That is what worship is about, we are not here just to go through the motion of worship, but we want to be connected with God. Today’s story is a very difficult story for us to enjoy it simply, comfortably. It disturbs us. It shakes us to the core. It was even hard for the disciples who gave up everything to follow Jesus, so they asked Jesus, “Then who can be saved, who can be saved?”. If that is how to be saved, who can be saved? It was a hard message for the rich man to take, so he went away sad when heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Very hard message. This man was a good man. He had a pure heart and he was sincere. He was not one of those who are rich and squander his money, enjoying the pleasure of this world, doing this and that. He was now one of those. From when he was young, he was very sincere. He kept all the commandments faithfully. He was a very nice guy. The scripture said that Jesus loved him. Jesus looking at him loved him. You know, Jesus was able to see through people. Jesus did not see just what they look like on the surface. Jesus did not just see what they were doing. Jesus was able to see the core of someone’s heart, and Jesus said he loved him. Jesus was not fooled by so-called great people, but he loved him. So he must have been an extraordinary person for even Jesus to love him.

Then I asked myself, why did this man come to Jesus from the first place? Why did he come? He had everything. He was living a good life. He had wealth. He was well respected by people and people who live such a good, upright life. People love him. People respect him. So he had all the respect from the people. He had everything we could ask for in a person, but he came to see Jesus because he felt that there was something missing in his life. His life was not enough. He had this nagging thought, he felt that he lacked something in his life. Many people in his shoes would not even have been bothered, would not have struggled at all. I’m living a good life. No, God blessed me with wealth and I’m doing all the right things. So why do I struggle? So people in his shoes, most people will not even struggle. But he struggled. He struggled. He felt that life was more than what he had. That itself shows us that he was a decent man. That’s why Jesus loved him. He wasn’t cocky. He always felt that there’s something missing in my life. I’m reading a book by Haruki Murakami. The title is ‘Absolutely on Music’. He wrote about Seiji Ozawa, a very famous conductor. He was a conductor of TSO, but Berlin and New York and everywhere, he is a very well established conductor. And then he said he and Haruki Murakami was a nominee editor for the Nobel prize for literature. But he failed to get it. But he said he and I are very similar. Seiji Ozawa, when he has all the scores of music until he reads it, it’s not music to him, not just listening. He sees the music and then every morning, four o’clock in the morning, he gets up and he reads and reads, over and over again to interpret the music and Haruki Murakami, same thing. Every morning he wakes up and then always writes for many hours and they said, we must dig deeper, forge farther ahead. They felt it’s not enough. I have to go further. I mean, people in their shoes who say, you know, I’m a good writer or I’m good magician, but they felt, that's not enough,

This man was like that. Jesus just told him you lack one thing. He said this not to criticize him nor rebuke him. That was exactly what that man was feeling inside. There is one thing that I lack and Jesus simply confirmed his role. Yes. As you feel you lack one thing. Then Jesus said to him what that one thing was and that was like a bomb to this man. Rich man. He said, “Go, sell what you own and give them money to the poor.”. This statement was like a bomb to him, Why? Because he knew that that was his problem. He struggled with that problem all his life and then Jesus pointed it out right in front of him and he knew exactly what he lacked. That’s why it was like a bomb to him. That was his core problem. Attachment to wealth, attachment to his money. The problem of rich people is this attachment. That’s why Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” Camel going through the eye of the needle is kind of comic, the kind of image. It’s impossible. Impossible. It is impossible for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. Basically, that’s what Jesus is saying. Not because they’re rich, but because of their attachment to money.

As we reflected last week, the problem is not the money. The problem is the love of money. The love of money takes away our joy in life. It creates so many problems. Love of money causes exploitation, oppression and injustice and love of money brings violence in this world. Because of money, they kill each other. It creates constant dissatisfaction within us. But it’s so hard to overcome our love for money because money can do so much for us. Even this man in today’s story, he was a good man, but because he loved his money so much that he couldn’t take what Jesus said. When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving for he had many possessions. We realize how hard it is to let go of our love for money. But he was so shocked, what Jesus said was so loud he could not finish. He could not really listen to what Jesus said in the end. When Jesus said, “Go sell all your possession and give to the poor.” That was so loud, he could not hear the next sentence. Jesus said, “You will have treasure in heaven.” Jesus did not mean just treasure stored in heaven, but the treasure that would come from heaven.

That’s how I read it. When Peter said, “I give up everything to follow you.” And this is what Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left the house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake, and for the sake of the good news, who not receive a hundredfold now in this age, not in the age to come, but in this age you’ll get that. Houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields and with persecution.” He added that with persecution and in the age to come, eternal life. My friends, God will provide what we need and he will provide it abundantly. You don’t need to have a love for money to have your needs provided. It is important to believe this. That’s how we don’t become slaves to money. You don’t create abundance. Abundance, God gives to you as a gift. You don’t achieve salvation. You don’t make salvation. Salvation, God gives to you as a gift. When the disciples were shocked at what Jesus said and asked him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus said this, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God. For God, all things are possible.” Even letting go of your love for money is not what you can do. You cannot do it with your efforts. Only God can help you do it. A good example is Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. Tax collectors were hated by people. Why? Because they ripped off people, their own people. The Roman people are very smart. They said, okay, from Etobicoke, you get a million dollars, you give me a million dollars tax. Whatever you collect beyond that, it is yours. So tax collectors went to Etobicoke and they tried to get as much as possible. If they collect $1 million, $100,000, a hundred thousand dollars, it’s theirs. If they collect $2 million and then $1 million is theirs. So they ripped off and Zacchaeus was a tax collector. But through Jesus, he met God. When he met God, his salvation was not the salvation of the soul, the salvation of anything else. As soon as he was saved, he dealt with his money problem. When he experienced salvation, he said, okay, all my money, half of it I’ll give to the poor, and then if I rip off anybody, I will pay back four times. So I sat down and calculated, okay, let’s say $10,000 he had, and then conservatively he ripped off 10% probably more, but only 10% he did. So then $5,000 he will give and then 10% thousand dollars times four $9,000 so out of $10,000 he’ll give $9,000 as soon as he was saved, as soon as he experienced God, he was completely free from the love of money. Before he lived the low life just for the sake of money. Only God can do it, not your effort. Only when you meet God in a meaningful, real way, real way, then you can let go of your love for money. Very concrete, very concrete. Meeting God is not abstract, meeting God is not emotion. Meeting God is very concrete.

I think today’s story is not ended here. This rich man went away sad, but I believe that Jesus’ words to him became a steep seed deep in his heart. Became a seed in his heart, always there. Whenever he saw someone poor, it was there. All his life, this encounter, he remembered, I’m sure he must have changed in the end and he became free from his money. His love for money. That’s what the legend says too, about this rich young man. God wants to bless you abundantly, but if you are enslaved by your love for money, even God cannot help you. Last week I said, money is not given to us just for us. Money is given to us to use it for a good purpose. That’s what money is for.

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1 Timothy 6:6-10

Blessed we are to have a choir and every week we come and have a time of reflection and have some time with God and you know, once a week coming here and reflecting upon our lives and about God and worshiping God, it’s just such a blessing. You know, God made such a good system, once a week we gather together, the people, believers, gathered together and then just forget about everything else. Just let the world be out there. Just forget about everything else. Just sit down and enjoy the presence. Enjoy this moment, enjoy the moment of God, the presence of God. And, I mean this is really healthy for our existence to be able to do that. Sometimes we really let down all the garbage within our consciousness, all the worries, anger, hatred and all that stuff in, in our brain is constantly going on.

We just need to empty ourselves and just purify, empty your thoughts and minds and just focus on God. Focus on beautiful things. Focus on the good things in life. At least once a week. We need to have this cycle of continuously cleaning up and then be filled again. I mean, every week you go clean your room. Don’t, don’t you just maybe not. I mean, you gotta do that. You’re supposed to, every week we got to clean up and then dust and then fill that place with a good fragrance and joy. And I used to do that with your consciousness to your existence. Just empty out and then worship God.

Today’s Thanksgiving Sunday and Happy Thanksgiving and God has blessed you with many, many blessings and God has blessed me with many, many blessings. I’m really thankful for that. St Paul said, if we have food and clothing, there is nothing else to complain about. We should be content. He said, if we have food and clothing will be content with these. You will be content, you should be content. That we all should be content because we have enough food and clothing and maybe too many clothes. But that is not the case. There are so many people around us who are not very content. Even though they have enough food and clothing. Look at ourselves. We all have lots of food and lots of clothing. But we are not at always content. So I realized that Ah, contentment does not come from food and clothing. Food and clothing do not give you contentment along the same line of thought. Contentment does not come from lots of food and lots of clothing. Containment does not come from things like that. What we have does not give us contentment. What we have does not give us contentment. Even money cannot do that. Money, gifts as a lot. It gives us not only for food and clothing but also it gives us a good car, a good house, and many good luxuries. Money is very useful but cannot, cannot give us contentment. It is useful, but cannot give us contentment?

Money, money can rather give us discontentment when our desire for money is too strong. When you like money too much and instead of giving you contentment, it gives you discontentment. In that sense, I think money can be very dangerous. I think money is the most dangerous thing. Money can truly destroy a person’s life. St. Paul warns us about the danger of money. He said, “those who want to be rich, fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction”. Very strong worry about wanting to be rich. Paul saw the danger of the love of money. He even said for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich. Some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. Money is very useful but it is very dangerous. You know it is like a very sharp knife. A sharp knife is very useful because it is so sharp. It can cut through anything but since it is so sharp it can hurt you and others very easily. You don’t want to give that sharp knife to children because they may harm themselves. You don’t want to give it to those who are planning to harm other people. Then that useful knife becomes a very dangerous weapon. So money can be quite dangerous depending on who has it, depending on who has it. Money itself is not evil. The love of money is, love of money can cause so many evil things. He can hurt you badly. It can take over your sense of priority and judgment. It can take away humility. It can destroy human decency. Often because of money, people become divided. People fight with each other. People hate each other. Brothers against brothers, children against their parents. Why many times when money is involved. When money’s involved, everything becomes so serious. The love of money creates all kinds of problems. So don’t try to find satisfaction in money. It will never give you the satisfaction you want. Don’t even try to find satisfaction in money. It will never give you the satisfaction you desire. Being content has nothing to do with what you have. People who are content doesn’t matter whether they have anything or not. But people who are not content doesn’t matter what you give, they still are discontent. They’ll never be content.

If you are content you are just content, that’s what I realized. If you’re discontent, you’re just discontent. Nothing to do with what you have or with what you don’t have. If you’re content, you are just content. You’re content not because of what, you’re content no matter what. That’s what contentment is like. I like to be a person who is content and I want you to be a person to be content too.

Habakkuk prophet realized this secret about being content. He said this, “though the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit is on the vines. Though the produce of the olive fields and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.”. That’s what contentment is like. If you can rejoice even when the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit is on the vine, you are a very special person. If I see people like that, I respect them and you should respect them too because they are very special people. Being content is a tremendous power in life. To me, being content is confidence, the confidence that you can deal with all kinds of situations. That’s what content people are like. I can deal with all kinds of situations. That’s why they are content. The people who complain all the time because they are filled with fear and lack of confidence. That’s why they complain, but people who are content they have confidence because they have confidence they’re content in any situation because they can deal with all kinds of situations like Habakkuk profit. Even though I don’t have anything, no fruit on the vine or olives, I still rejoice in the Lord because he can handle the situation. That is what St. Paul taught us. This is what he said, “For I have learned to be content with whatever I have, I know what it is to have little and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”. He said I’ve learned to be content. He didn’t say, oh, because I have this, I’m content. He didn’t say that, He said he has learned to be content in any situation. What is the secret? The last verse. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. I smell confidence here. I hear confidence here. I can do all things who through whom, who strengthens me. I can do all things, I can survive all circumstances, I can deal with all situations. That is confidence and that confidence gives you contentment. So, people who are content, they are strong people. People who are constantly complaining, they are weak people. You don’t need to respect them. You don’t even need to hear them. But people who are content in all situations, you should pay attention to them. You should respect them.

Being content means also to be thankful, to be thankful. A Thankful Heart is the heart of contentment. Be thankful in all circumstances. I’m leaving for Madagascar. Next Monday, I’ve been there. I’m in South Africa, there are rich people and poor people. Madagascar, everybody’s so poor. It’s incredible the kind of poverty you witness when I go it is just incredible. If you are not satisfied with what you have, nothing in the world can satisfy you. If you are not satisfied with what you have here, nothing in the world can satisfy you. Just be thankful, you will be alright, everything will be alright. Thankfulness gives you life’s protection.

About money, don’t try to get satisfaction from it. Money is given to you, to use it wisely. That’s all money is. Money is not given to you so that you can have satisfaction. No, money is given to you so that you can use it wisely. So learn to be generous with money. Give out a lot, that’s what money is for. For a good purpose. Spend your money generously. Build that heart of generosity is important to learn to make money. Yes, it is important to learn to make money, but it is more important to learn how to spend money. I don’t mean to waste your money, but for good works. Show your generosity. People who are generous in giving out the money are the people who value other more important things than money. They know what is more valuable than money. Money is only a tool, not a value. I learned that when I use money for a good purpose, somehow, miraculously, it never gets exhausted. It never gets exhausting. I don’t know-how, it always gets filled up. That’s a miracle to me. A lot of people think that if I spend the money, money’s gone. No money is not gone, in that empty space, it gets filled up again somehow. That is what blessing is.

I believe that money is a blessing. I want to make that money as a blessing. The blessing you give away gets filled. Elijah met this widow and then she had her last meal because there was starvation there and a famine shared last meal and Elijah said, give that to me and out of generosity, she gave her last meal. She was going to die after that with her son, but she gave her last meal to Elijah. You know, her jar of meal was not, never emptied. Neither did the jug of oil. Never failed. Always filled up again. That’s a miracle. That’s a miracle of life. God will remember a cup of water you share with the least of these. We’ll soon do a special offering of tsunami victims in Indonesia. 1600 people died. It’s terrible. The devastation, the families, children, I feel for them. The love you share with them. God never forget. I hope that you can do the donation generously.

The only way money can give you contentment is not when you use it for yourself, but when you use it for other people, then you can experience contentment from money. Trying to get satisfaction by spending money for yourself is like drinking salty seawater to quench your thirst. It’ll make you only thirstier. But when you use that money for other people, that seawater somehow comes back to you as freshwater and it will quench your thirst. This is thanksgiving. We are very thankful for what we have, but also at the same time, we have responsibilities to share with others who are less fortunate than us. Have confidence, have contentment, have generosity and be satisfied.

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Psalm 19:7-14

Our thinking controls our life, our thinking controls our emotions, our decisions, our lifestyle, and our future. If I think that I’m ugly constantly, then I’ll become ugly. If I think that I’m miserable, then ultimately I’ll become miserable. That’s what happens. Thinking is very important because it really influences how you see yourself. And often thinking is influenced by our experience in the environment. You know, for example, your parents are always, kind of insulted you, then you form certain thinking. That’s why the soldiers when they come back from the war zone, their thinking is very much distorted, influenced by their experience. So thinking is very important. It really determines your identity and your life. That’s why it is very important that you think about, you reflect and care about, what you’re thinking every day, every moment of your life.

Well, what are you thinking? What is your thinking like? So our thinking is so important in our lives. It is directly related to your happiness. If your thinking is distorted, if you’re thinking is unhappy than it is impossible to live a happy life. But when we really look at ourselves, observe ourselves, our thinking is not very good. Often we realize that we don’t do healthy thinking. We are surrounded by thoughts of worries, fear, and anxiety. And often negative and dark thoughts fill our minds, even about other people too, instead of having positive thinking about other people, we have more negative things to say. We have more negative thoughts about other people. Our thinking is often very distorted. It is scattered and has no focus. Since our life is shaped by our thinking, it is hard to be happy when our thoughts are not very good. You know, you’re happy not because of your environment. Your thoughts, you always carry around, circumstances come and go. But your thoughts, your thinking, always you carry that around with you. So, your happiness depends on rather, on your thinking rather than your environment. No matter how much good food you may have, if your thoughts are filled with unhappiness, you can never be happy. So thinking, we have to do something about our thinking. But when we try to do something about your thinking, you realize this aspect of thinking or nature of thinking, you realize that thinking is hard to control. That’s what you realize. When you start controlling your thinking or think about your thinking, you realize that thinking has a mind of its own. It is really hard to control. It is so, so wild and has a mind of its own and it just goes wherever it goes, it’s like it has wings and flies wherever it wants to go.

It takes us sometimes to where we don’t want to go. I don’t want to go there, but thinking just takes us there. Sometimes it attacks us all of a sudden, maybe you’re not ready. It just hits us really hard. Other times, thoughts of dark clouds surround us and we realize that we don’t control our thoughts. Thoughts control us. We are like hostages of our own thinking. You don’t have ownership of our thinking rather or sometimes thinking seems to have ownership of us. So you should never let your untamed thoughts take control over you. That’s very important. You should never let your untamed thoughts take control over you. We have to discipline our thoughts. You know, there’s a pathway for our thoughts too. There’s a first thing that I said in the “Inner Voice” the first day the “Inner Voice” is about thinking has a pathway, has a road. It is a pathway for our thoughts to flow like a river. It is very important to create a good pathway so that your thinking flows in a certain direction. Have you experienced some people, they talk and talk and talk and at the end always gets the same place? I mean, do you talk about anything else? And then finally, they still talk about the same thing. They’re fixed on the thing because there is a pathway. They just go around and find the pathway to get to that negative place that you don’t want to be.

Spiritual discipline is about creating a pathway, a good pathway for your thoughts to flow to a good place. When you go to a mountain, you see a pathway. It is not made by construction workers. It is created because so many people walk the same path over and over again. In the same way, we cannot create a pathway for our thoughts overnight. Just because you think about good things once or twice or several times it doesn’t create a pathway, but when you continuously think about good things, then pathway is created, so repetition is a very important, then the road can be created and once the road is created, then our thinking goes in that way, so it’s you have to make it like a rhythm of your life. I believe that the best way to discipline our thinking is to meditate God’s word every day. Not once in a while, it’s useless. It is important to meditate the word of God every day. You have to do it every day. You have to make it your life rhythm so you don’t even think about it. You just do it in the morning. You get up, you will brush your teeth automatically. You don’t even have an make an effort. Some who don’t do it, please do it. It’s good for other people :D. I mean, you don’t even think about it. So meditating God’s word every day, make it as a rhythm. Automatically you do it. If you keep doing that, you will see your thinking flow in a certain direction because the pathway is now created.

But if you think about gloomy thoughts all the time, 24 hours a day, even in your sleep, the negative pathway will be created for you and you’ll be enslaved to it. You’ll become a hostage of your own thinking. David loved God’s Word so much, not just because of its content, but because he experienced that the Word of God does that to his life. He creates a certain pathway for his thinking to flow. He experienced that. He knew that our thinking is uncontrollable, but when he meditated on the Word of God, it starts controlling your thinking. This is what he said. “The ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are the thing gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.” He experienced the sweetness of the Word. Not just content, but what it does in his thinking, what it does in his life. It does so much good to him. So you’re meditating on God’s Word was like honey to him. That’s why he did every day. This is what he said. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation on my heart be acceptable to you oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” I think it’s so important that we do that. The best thing that we can meditate, I believe is God’s Word. You can meditate on Shakespeare. You can meditate on famous philosophers and all that stuff. But I think God’s Word is the best thing to use to meditate. The word of God refreshes our soul. The word of God gives us wisdom. Wisdom to the Foolish God’s Word gives us joy. God’s Word enlightens our eyes. What more can you ask for? I hope that you use God’s Word! Precious gold is out there and some people don’t even touch it. What is so precious? And when you meditate on that, what it does to you is so precious and so good. And I don’t know why people don’t do that. As you start the life of meditation, you will realize that your life is changing slowly. Is that a really radical change. It’s not an overnight kind of change. It’s not a change that you’re aware of all of a sudden. It’s changing sometimes so slowly happening but so surely. You say to yourself, “Oh! I don’t worry anymore. I used to worry a lot, but how come I don’t worry anymore?” And as you realize, how come I feel good about myself? I used to feel very bad about myself, but how come I feel good about myself?

You realize this kind of change is happening. Before you feel that, “oh, I’m so miserable.” But you realize that you’re okay. The first thing that the meditation of the Word of God does is this. It frees you from your guilt. Guilt is a scary thing. Guilt makes all of us depressed and dark. Guilt makes us feel ashamed. The life of meditation, you realize that God sees even our hidden errors, hidden flaws. See, as you start doing the meditation of the Word of God, what you discover is grace, and that grace finds even your hidden faults, but it’s okay. You don’t feel exposed or totally a shame, but you are exposed to that a hidden fault and yet you accept that and you experience the power of grace forgiving that hidden faults. This is the what’s David found, he said in 1912 “but who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults.” He experienced that.

You know, as you start doing the meditation of the Word of God, you realize that the fact that God loves you is a miracle. How could God love me? You realize that that is a miracle because he sees all the things within me, even hidden things, and yet he still loves me. And then you’re completely free from that guilt that has oppressed you all your life. Okay. We’ll experience our soul become refreshed. Soul becoming refreshed. You experience inner renewal inside. It’s kind of, you feel your inner self is renewed. You become you, you, you, you find confidence and new strength. You become courageous. If I perish, I perish kind of attitude. If I perish, I perish kind of attitude. New courage, new strength before small problems that really scared you. You see, you got so scared and intimidated, but you’re not scared and intimidated anymore by these small waves and small problems anymore. You have the courage to deal with your problems. One at a time.

Your life becomes bright. Your face shines brightly. You know, face has to shine. It has to be bright. Your face has to be bright. Not gloomy like this. Yes, you have to raise that. You know, when you smile, it goes up, right? So don’t go like this. It goes down, right? But raise up, your face has to be bright. Your thinking becomes clear because inner strength, inner strength, you raise you experience within you. Third. When you meditate on the Word of God, you’ll get insights about life. God’s Word gives wisdom to the foolish and opens our eyes. You become mature, once your eyes are open when you look back on your life. “Oh my goodness, how self-centered I was.” You realize because you have become mature, you see about life. We studied Joseph on Wednesday and Joseph had a dream, but his dream is not as important as his interpretation of dreams. He had the power and the ability to interpret dreams then he had the ability to interpret his life. What happens in your life is not as important how you interpreted what happened in your life. Lots of things happen in your life. but many people don’t even know what that means. But Joseph knew exactly what that meant. So what happened to you is not as important as how you interpret what happened to you. For example, Joseph’s brother, they interpreted the dream in a wrong way, so they tried to kill Joseph, but Joseph knew, Joseph was able to read God’s plan in that dream. Whatever happened to you, whatever is happening in your life, it’s not just happening randomly and accidentally. There is a message in what is happening in your life. If you are able to hear the message and if you are able to detect God’s movement in that, then you get insights about life. And it’s you to the meditation of the Word of God. You experience that wisdom in your life. When we have that wisdom, we’ll enjoy the happiness in any circumstances through your meditation. I pray that your thinking changes and you may experience life’s happiness. I see many people around me, some people, they are tormented by fear and negative thinking. I feel so bad. They’re attractive, they’re smart and all that, but they’re thinking is totally distorted and then destroyed their lives and they are not happy all their lives. They’re not happy because of that. I hope that all of you start taking the meditation of the word of God. Seriously. It’ll do a lot of good for you.

As I shared, this Wednesday with a women’s Bible study, I write a journal. I write two journals every day, one in the morning, one in the evening, one in the morning. I think about, dream about the day. It’s not a long journal. Sometimes it’s just a few words. It shouldn’t be really burdensome to you, it should be enjoyable. Uh, but in the evening, I always reflect on and how God moved in my life and a lot of thanks in my journal. Don’t ever go to sleep with negative thoughts in your mind during your sleep. It’ll affect you. Always sleep with positive thoughts before you go to sleep. In your life, if you see good things, don’t just say it’s a good thing. Once you see this good thing, make a habit of it. That’s what’s important. You see something good. Make a habit of it.

Every Sunday I make coffee for our praise team. When I first come in the morning, I make coffee. That’s the least I can do for the people. Serve the church. Sorry ESM, if you want to, I’ll do that too xD. But I do that every week without missing it because I make a habit of it. Whatever good things that you do, make a habit of it. If you have negative thoughts, shake it off. Shake it off. Don’t let it stay. If you have a positive thought, keep it. Keep it in your soul. Keep it in your heart. Do that automatically. But many people do the opposite. Good things. They just let it go. Bad things, they think about it all the time, all night. Oh, she said that he said that. Don’t do that. That’s not good. You know, shake it off. Bad things, shake it off. Good things. Keep it. Do the meditation. You’re not going to be a saint or you’re not gonna be a superman or superwoman, but it will do so much good to your lives right now, Paul, Reverend Paul Kim is sitting here. He loves meditation and he can teach you one of these days. He does that a lot. He even taught us at a senior level. So I hope that he can’t do that for us one day. But do the meditation of the Word of God every day. Now, once in a while, you will really benefit you so much.

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Psalm 1

People, I want all of you to be happy and also, I want to be happy too. NRSV translates the beginning of Psalm 1 with these words, “Happy are those.” so these are the people who are happy. The reason it didn’t say, “Blessed are those” where NIV uses blessed, but in NRSV says “happy are those “because the word happy is different from blessing. “Baruch” is an original word for blessing, but “Ashrae” is more like happy, but “Ashrae, comes from the root word related to journeying through life. So happiness is not just a condition or state of being, happiness is a lifetime process. It’s not just sometimes you feel happy. That’s not what happiness is. Happiness is your entire life. Psalmist has that in his mind. That’s why when he wrote Psalm, the first word that he uses, he starts with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, “alef.” And the last word he uses the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is “tough” or “tar”. In other words, the Psalm one includes the whole alphabet or whole life. So someone is not just introduced to the Psalm but, Psalm one is more like an introduction to your whole life. That’s why people like Martin Luther said, Psalm is a little Bible cause within Psalm, the whole Bible is contained, whole life is within Psalm. So happiness is not a temporary feeling or condition you’re in. So I hope that you all understand what happened is this, so in life, accept that there are good times but also bad times, painful times. There are times when you laugh, but there are also times when you cry. There are times when you can see very clearly what’s ahead of you, but there are also times that you cannot see anything but darkness.

So life is like that. Happiness is being made in these highs and lows of your life. Happiness is continuously being made in every circumstance. It encompasses every circumstances that you’re in. That’s how the scripture sees happy people. For example, Jacob we studied in Wednesday Bible study at TBS, Jacob, there were times when he had to run away from home and then spent the night all alone in the wilderness. Probably he was pretty depressed then, but there was also a time when he came back and met with Esau and reconciled with Esau and that was his lifetime problem. So Jacob did not always have a good time, he had a bad time too. Joseph same thing, when he was sold off into Egypt and then when he was in prison, he hit rock bottom of his life. But also there was a time when he became the highest person next to Pharaoh in Egypt. So happiness Joseph includes his whole life.

Just because right now you’re entangled with your problems. That doesn’t mean that your life is not happy. Just because you are surrounded by darkness, that doesn’t mean that your life is not happy. Just because you are right now tormented by pain, that does not mean that your life is not happy. Even in that pain, even in that darkness, somehow the happiness is booming alive within you, the happiness moves forward through problems, through the darkness, and through the pain. Happiness has its power to move. It’s like the root of the tree planted by streams of water, their roots continuously moves through the hard soil to reach the water. In the same way, happiness within us, even though we have a lot of problems and difficulties and pain, it has the power to go through, move through those to reach God’s blessing. That’s what I believe.

The only thing that you need is not to give up, not to give up. If you give up, no one can help. You don’t even have to try so hard to make your life happy because happiness has its own course of moving, so you don’t need to do so much of it. But if you’ll give up, that happiness will not have the power to move through your life problems. What you need is to open up the way, open up the road so that happiness can move through. That’s what you gotta do. Never give up. What is giving up like? Life of giving up is like living without passion. Life of giving up is like a reckless and thoughtless life. Life of giving up is merely to exist. You just go through the motion of life, the life of not giving up. What does it look like? Life of not giving up is a life of seeking, a life of searching, trying to find treasure in life, and a life of knocking.

That’s what life of not giving up is like. The Psalmist describes what a happy person is like. It says, “their delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law, they meditate day and night.” They meditate day and night. It’s not the action that psalmist is talking about. It is a whole outlook of that person, the happy person. It’s not just and now you take 10 minutes and then meditate on the desk. No that’s not what he’s talking about, it is lifestyle or meditating day and night. What is that? Meditating in life is like seeking life, seeking treasure day and night. When you read Psalm one very carefully, there are so many happy people. All they do is meditate day and night. Nothing much. It looks like nothing but it is not nothing. In their lifestyle, what you have to see is their attitude towards their life, their passion, their seeking, the courage to live, deep understanding of life, the power to exist. All these things involve in that simple-looking meditation of day and night. It’s not nothing, it’s everything. Meditating day and night is like a propeller that moves your life forward. That’s what keeps you going! People who have that power never give up because it’s like a propeller that moves your life! Even when you want to give up! Even when you have no energy, it moves you! For people who meditate day and night, there’s no such thing as giving up. They never sit on their problems and just complain. They rise and move on. There’s a powerful force within them. The force, nothing can stop, no life circumstance can stop the powerful force that is moving within you in that lifestyle. Happiness moves toward happiness. That life is like opening the door and paving the road for happiness. The Psalmist to express that in this way. “In all that they do, they prosper.” The word prosper is used but probably not the best translation. That word ‘prosper’ in Hebrew. It has the meaning of pushing forward to pass through, to get on. Somehow Korean translation is a little better. It says “…” passing through.

Life should be completely opened up. It should not be blocked. What is a life of being blocked like? That’s a sinful life. Do you want to see? Look at the life of the wicked, I used the NIV because it’s a better translation there. Walk in the step with the wicked or stand in the way the sinners take or sit in the company of markers.” Do you see the movement walk, stand and sit? In other words, in the end, you get trapped. Ultimately you get stuck. That’s what happens to the sinful life. Sinful life always takes you deeper and deeper into this trap and in the end, you become so stuck that your life cannot move on, your life cannot go forward. For example, if you have a sinful habit, ultimately that binds you. You get so stuck. Your life cannot move on. Your life cannot go forward. Life has to go forward. When every chain that binds you gets broken up, then we can powerfully move forward and meditating day and night is like a breaking every chain that binds you up so that now you have the freedom to move forward.

That’s when we can fly like an eagle. Isn’t that what Isaiah confessed? “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Even youth will faint and be weary and the young will fall exhausted, but those who wait for the Lord, those who meditate on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.” That is a life of prospering. When you have this power to pass through, nothing will be able to stop you. The power, that power will be ultimately. The power that passed through death, that power will pass through death. Don’t just trust yourself. You’ll be drained. You’ll be exhausted. You’ll not be consistent. Your life is not going to be consistent. At times you get excited, but soon your power is gone and you get so exhausted and burned out. Meditate the Lord Day and night. Happy people are those who have this power. Of course, they have their own difficult time. They get frustrated. Sometimes they cry as the choir sang, Jesus went through tremendous pain and suffering, sometimes even fall and fail, but the power then moves forward through all the thickness of life works within them. The power comes from meditating God’s Word day and night. That’s not nothing. That’s everything. That’s what makes your life strong. Do that live your life meditating day and night, your life will be different.

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James 3:1-12

Thank you choir for the beautiful anthem. That is a hymn that we sang a lot at my father’s funeral, it reminded me of my father’s funeral. And thank you praise team. Wonderful, really inspirational praise. Two weeks ago, I think two weeks ago or a few weeks ago, I talked about being kind and I mentioned that. Be kind in your words that you speak and also put a smile on your face. Those two things we should do. And today’s a lectionary passage and it deals with the words. So I’m going to deal with the words a little bit more in-depth today.

Word’s are God’s gift to us so that we may be connected with each other and we may share life together. Without words how can you enjoy the party? You go there, you don’t understand anything. You just listen to music. Even if you listen to the music. What meaning is there without words? How can we enjoy beautiful books and beautiful movies without words? How can I communicate God’s message to you? Words are powerful, James knew the power of the words very well. He said, “our words are like a small rudder. It is very small, but he controls the huge ship, the direction of a huge ship. It is like a small fire, but it can set ablaze a whole forest.” We have a problem with forest fires in Ontario, BC and California, but often they start with a small fire. James knew how powerful words are. James seemed to focus on the negative side of words because that congregation has so many problems. So he tends to focus on the negative side of it. Yes, if you speak your words from anger and hatred, they can damage others, no matter how nicely you say it. If you speak from anger and hatred, that can damage other people, words can kill people, literally kill people. I experienced the negative power of the words myself. When I heard that nasty word, it was like being hit by a hammer. I was stunned for a while, I couldn’t even move. The verbal violence can be as cruel as physical violence if not worse. But speaking from your heart is not the same as speaking from hatred and anger. That is speaking from raw emotion. Speaking from your heart does not mean that you speak from your raw emotion. Those two are two different things. Speaking from your heart means speaking from care, speaking from the truth, speaking from love. Words spoken from your heart have power, more power than those words spoken from hatred and anger. They have the power to empower others and build others up. Our words can kill people, but the words spoken out of deep meditation and prayer can save people. 

You know these days I find it very very disturbing to hear political leaders speak not from the heart, but from anger, prejudice, and hatred. I just get so shocked to hear what they are saying. How could they say that in public, their words do not free people or empower them, they insult people, downgrade people and oppress the weak. They promote anger, they promote prejudice. That’s not what words should be used for. That’s not why words were created in the first place! Don’t let words come out of your mouth without careful consideration. If you did not carefully consider the words, don’t speak them. We should never speak carelessly and mindlessly. We should always speak from our heart. You cannot just say what you feel like, you cannot just express your raw emotion in a raw way. We cannot do that, but many people do that because it is so hard to control our tongue, to tame our tongue. James said, “no one can tame the tongue,” how difficult must it be that he said no one can tame the tongue. And he further said, “anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect.” The person who makes no in speaking is perfect. He describes even that, what you say shows who you are. It shows your maturity, your integrity. What you say is who you are. People who are always negative, every word that comes out of their mouth will be negative things. People who are always thinking about filthy things, the words that come out of their mouth will be filthy.

Tame your tongue. When you speak from your heart, people appreciate it. They feel your sincerity. You don’t have to say much, little words from your heart can carry more weight than thousands of empty words. Always speak from your heart, you’ll find the right words to say and God will tell you what to say. If you have a desire to speak from your heart, then God will give you the words to speak. Don’t use words to manipulate others. That’s not what words are for. Don’t use words to manipulate others. Don’t use words to suddenly make yourself look good and others look bad or inferior. Use words to lift up others. Words are God’s gift to us so that we can build each other up, words are not your weapons. Words are not weapons! Words are God’s gifts! They are not weapons to attack others and crush them down. That’s not what words are for. It is sad to see the most beautiful gift God gave to us become so ugly. Slander, gossip, backstabbing, unfounded criticism, curse, foul language. When we use these words, not only do we poison other people’s soul, but we ourselves become very darkened. When we use these words, the words that curse that come out of your mouth will return to curse you. We need to restore the beauty of the words, words of hope, words of encouragement, words of empowerment and words of love. The words that bless that come out of your mouth will return to you to bless you. As we speak positive words, we become positive without even realizing. When you continuously speak positive words, then you become positive. But if you continuously speak judgmental words, then you become judgmental.

As we speak words of thanksgiving, we become filled with thanksgiving. As we speak, words of love, we become full of love. As we speak words of hope, the hope will come alive within you. When words come from your heart, they glorify your existence. There’s a magical power in words. When you speak from your heart, those words glorify your existence. As we speak beautiful words. We become purified. Don’t ever say foul language with your mouth. If you do that don’t say that you’re a part of St. Timothy. Just say that you go to church somewhere in the west end. Even as a joke, don’t say foul language. There’s a very strange restaurant in North York, it is a Korean restaurant and the title of the restaurant is [inaudible] if I translate the name, which will be soon bankrupt and as small little title after a thousand years. Don’t even play with words. Yes, it is hard to tame our tongue, but I do believe that we can do that with the help of the Holy Spirit. We have lived our lives with a bad habit of our tongues. That’s why we should keep disciplining ourselves. I’m sure it is very difficult because it is ingrained within you. You have done it for so long that is a part of you, but I think we can do that with the help of the spirit through spiritual discipline. As we try to discipline ourselves, we’ll build spiritual integrity. Keep the manner of words, especially in the church, especially to those who are very close to you, to your spouse, to your friends, to your children. Don’t say anything because you are emotional. Don’t say anything. You’ll regret it. You’ll regret it. Maybe you’re already regretting it. When you’re filled with anger, don’t speak, be silent because you will say something you’ll regret later. Just be quiet and when you’ve calmed down, then speak from your heart. If possible, let your words be gentle and kind. Being tough is not being rough. Those two are two different things. You can be tough by being gentle and kind.

The last point, you’d not only speak from your heart, but you also speak to your heart, to yourself, and to your soul. Do that. Don’t only speak from your heart, but speak to you yourself. That’s what Isaiah, that’s what these people did. Hear this, the Psalmist, “Why are you cast down oh my soul?” He’s speaking to himself. “Why are you cast down oh my soul and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise him, my God.” He told himself to have hope in God. You’re gonna tell yourself right now, so tell yourself, “don’t worry.” Do it!. “Don’t worry.” Tell yourself, “do not fear!” Tell yourself. “have hope in God!” Whenever you are troubled, speak to yourself and use your words to praise God. And if you have some scripture passage that you’ve memorized, whenever a situation comes, recite them. Isaiah, he met God in the temple and the first thing he said is, “I am a man of unclean lips.” And then God sent a tongue of fire and it burned his lips. Purification starts from here *gestures heart*. Not from here *gestures brain*. Purification starts from here. Purify your language, purify your words, then your soul will be purified. Be positive with your words first and then your heart will become positive. Be clean with your lips. Then your heart, your soul will be cleaned.

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Matthew 6:25-33

It’s good to have our choir back and also the full praise team. It was quite a powerful time of praise. As Jonathan shared, it’s the 2nd week of September and there's kind of a lot of changes. The weather is ready for receiving fall, it’s almost like fall already. Just yesterday, two days ago, it was very hot, but all of a sudden this morning it's kind of chilly and cold. This time of the year, everything begins anew. Your children go to school maybe in Toronto or abroad or somewhere else in Ontario. But also, your work begins, summer vacation is almost over. Now you’re back to work. As we start a new beginning, we always have this worry, how about our kids? Would they survive the first year? Will they do okay? Also, your job comes with a lot of stress. You have a lot of things to worry about, but Jesus said not to worry. That was Jesus’s word. So then don’t worry, that’s what Jesus said. If Jesus said, “don’t worry,” then don’t worry! It’s as simple as that. Don’t make it complicated. If Jesus said to you not to worry', then do not worry.

Not worrying is simple but very difficult because worry is almost ingrained within us. Worry is almost a part of who we are. It’s not that sometimes we worry, there’s not a single moment we don’t worry. We always constantly worry. We say that human beings are a social animal, but we are like worrying animals. This is our characteristic, I don’t know whether animals worry, dogs maybe they dream, but nonetheless, we are a worrying animal. Descartes, a famous philosopher said, “I think, therefore I am.” It’s almost like, “I worry, therefore I am” by seeing myself worrying, I know I exist and I’m still here. For a while, we forget to worry and all of a sudden you catch yourself not worrying and then, “oh my goodness, I’m not worrying” and you start worrying. I should worry about but how come I’m not worrying? You get very uneasy and then you start worrying. You worry if you don’t worry. It just strange, whether you worry, you worry and whether you don’t worry, you still worry. Worry is what we do. We don’t work hard, we worry hard. When the students have an exam, instead of studying they just sit down and worry about their exam. Then they do something else like surfing the web and they do all kinds of things except studying because they worry so much. Worrying is like working. We have this strange conversation mentality. We kind of have a superstition that if you worry a lot about something, then that won’t happen. We have this kind of strange compensation mentality that if you worry so much about it, then it won’t come to you. So almost like an evil God out there, if you worry and he sits and like a sacrifice you give out your worry to the evil God. If you don’t worry, he will bring you to bring disaster, but if you worry so much then it’s all right. Negative things, bad things will not happen.

So do not worry. However, it is too scary not to worry. We are too scared, not to worry. It’s almost like, “do not eat.” We protest saying that this is how I survive, worrying, but to be honest, we all know that worrying is eating us away. Worrying takes energy out of us, takes joy out of us. We may do that without choice, but we wish that we didn’t have to do it. We wish that we didn’t have to do it. We all know this, stress kills us, not saves us. Worrying is negative energy that makes us negative. Then Jesus said, “do not worry.” He said it because we can do it, if it is impossible, Jesus would not have said it. Jesus said do not worry, that means we cannot worry. It is possible for us not to worry. It is possible to live your life, not worrying. That’s why Jesus said to not worry. When I look at myself, I used to worry a lot but I don’t worry that much anymore, so it is possible not to worry. To help us not to worry. Jesus told us three things, I hope that this is helpful for all of us. First of all, worrying is useless. Jesus said, Why do you worry when it is useless? But it’s not just useless. It is harmful. Worrying is harmful. This is what He already said, “can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life span?” Jesus is talking some sense into our heads. Worrying does not add a single hour to hour lifespan. It rather shortens all life. In a study of a half a million people, British people, they discovered that coffee is good and coffee makes you live longer, but I bet stress kills many people. It doesn’t do any good. So don’t do it. It is a waste of time, it is a waste of your energy. If you worry if you’re stressed out, what do you do first? You eat a lot and you drink and also you do a lot of shopping. You want to spend something to forget about your worries. So it is a waste of money, waste of your health, waste of your energy, waste of your time, it is a total waste. It’s not really good, it’s harmful to us. So why do we do it? Are we stupid? We’re not that stupid? Are We? Yeah, we’re stupid. We still do it right? So, we have to learn not to worry so that we can be a little bit smarter because it’s useless and harmful. 

Secondly, Jesus said, “you’re not alone.” You’re not alone. There are people around you who will help you out. You have friends, your family, you have our church community. They’re all there to help, you don’t need to figure out your life all by yourself. You don’t have to solve every problem that you encounter all by yourself. You’re not an island! There are people around you who are willing to help. If I starve, would you just not do anything? Won’t you give me some money so that I can buy some food? Of course, there are people who help each other out. That’s how the world is made! That’s how life is made! That’s how we are supposed to live. That’s what global community’s all about. Unfortunately and sadly, the greed of people took away that kind of spirit. There are people who are hungry and we don’t help out much, but God created the world in such a way that we can help each other out.

Jesus said, “look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” What does that mean? What does this mean? Birds of the air, the lilies of the field. They don’t need to figure out their life on their own, but they’re living fine. Why? Because nature is made that way. The world is made that way. Our life is made that way! You’re not supposed to live alone, individualism is not a good idea. It is not, it is a fantasy. We can never live all by myself. We have to help each other. God created the world in such a way that we are taken care of. I realized that our life is pretty strong, resilient. Life has its own way to deal with itself. When you’re blocked, when you’re totally blocked, life somehow finds a way to survive. That’s hard. What I realized, it doesn’t matter where you are, when you are stuck, somehow, even though I cannot do anything, life has its own course to find its way to survive. So there’s nothing for you to worry about in Thailand, twelve boys and a coach were kind of captured in a cave. The cave looks very strange looking, very narrow and very shallow. Water has filled it and they couldn’t get out. For several days they couldn’t get out. And as soon as there’s a flood, they will drown to death.

The whole world watched the news. I watched the news every day praying for those 12 boys. I could see their faces, but they were locked up there and they were waiting for death. So I prayed every day, I don’t know them, but I prayed for them. The whole world, the scuba divers from every part of the world, came over and they tried to help out. A human victory! That’s what the world should be like! That’s how God made the world, to help each other, to be with each other. When you’re sad, when you’re depressed, you don’t need to solve your problem all by yourself. There are friends around you who are willing to give their hands as much as possible. So you are not alone. So don’t worry, when you cannot do it by yourself just to ask for help and then God will send help to all of us.

God is very much a part of our life. God rules in our lives. Third, because there are people around you, don’t worry. You just need hope and faith. One boy said, from that experience, what I learned was that I need to be more patient. Yes, you need to be more patient in life, when you have problems, one day at a time. Don’t worry about tomorrow as tomorrow will take care of itself. One day at a time, that’s what Jesus said, and have full faith and hope. Yesterday morning I had a counselling session and at the end, I told them, have faith and hope, he’ll be alright. Don’t worry too much about your future. Life has its own power to survive and that’s what I believe. Life has its own power to survive. Even if you don’t have the solution, life has the solution because God is very much part of your life. Wait and see how life turns out. Don’t imagine the worst, always have hope and faith. Third, this is the truth that I realized and it’s a very important truth that I want all of you to apply to life. Where is your focus? If your focus is on helping others, then worries, no problem. Worries flee away. When you focus on the Kingdom and God’s righteousness, the worry, will not be a problem anymore. That’s how we human beings are created, but when we focus on myself, my own success, then worry will be the characteristic of your life.

When you’re trying to help others, then you somehow don’t worry that much, but if you focus on what you shall eat, what you shall wear, then worries will always follow you. So day by day, live your lives. How can I help others? How can I serve God? If that is your focus and that’s what you want to do, then you will live a life without worries. It is wonderful to live without worries. It is terrible to live with worries all the time. So which one are you going to choose? Somehow life has his own way of taking care of worry. When you take care of others and when you take care of God’s work, then God will provide anything that you need. When I was a youth pastor, my pay was $300 per month. My rent was about $600 so I was short $300 every month just for rent and I still have to eat and all that. So we always borrowed money from the bank, but even then, I didn’t worry that much. God will take care of your needs. Just focus on God’s Kingdom and God’s righteousness. God will take care of your needs. You don’t need to worry that much about your needs because God will take care of it. Just do good things in life, help others and do a lot of good things and God will take care of your life and your life will be filled with joy, peace and happiness. Let us sing together. 

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2 Corinthians 5:17

As we get older, when we ask each other what’s been up, it becomes more and more like, “ahh same old, same old.” But for teens, change is perhaps the only constant thing in their life. And this was the theme of our Hi-C youth group retreat that we just had this past week. It was an unprecedented five days and four nights. And yes, it was tiring. So much so that when I noticed people continuing to nod off during my sermons, we decided to adapt to what my son Nathan does in daycare, have a group communal nap time. Led by none other than our own Hi-C whisper, pastor Dave who is now known to everyone as pastor Despacito. I had to do that. The weather really held up too. I was kinda nervous about that cause the forecast was very gloomy. It said 80% chance of rain, 70 to 80 percent. But you know what, it only rained that first night. So the weather was beautiful. So we’re really thankful for that because what’s a summer retreat without outdoor stuff? Right? So they got to go to the water and all that stuff. So change, just physically, there’s so much going on. I look at the pictures from one Hi-C retreat to the next year, and the amount of change is startling. Emotionally and socially too, so many changes going on. You know, we have Jacqueline and Evelyn getting baptized here and Caitlyn, their eldest. You know, as a child, your family is the center of the universe, right? And parents are the anchor that a child will look to keep them safe. And I see that in my own kids too. I mean, just today, Nathan just wouldn’t let go of me.

But teens, they’re now discovering a larger world beyond their family. They’re trying to see where they fit in this larger world. The desire to belong somewhere becomes so strong. I mean so many things are changing within them and around them. They’re seeking a solid anchor by belonging and being accepted somewhere where their peers are at. People will do what they need to do to fit in and be accepted. For little kids, you know, children, they present who they really are to the world, right? Without any inhibition. But once you become a teenager, you start realizing that maybe this is not gonna get me accepted. And so they start presenting maybe different selves, it can be a false self or an altered self. So much so that one’s identity starts to become blurred. You know, where does the real me end and the false self begin? What is the real me?

During these teen years, especially the early and middle ones, this overriding desire to be accepted, I think it’ll take over the search and cultivation of one’s own authentic identity. So one can easily develop a distorted identity. And so this was the first focus of my first Hi-C retreat two years ago and I’ve come back to this theme many times because it is such an essential part of life during these years. And there’s something I’ve realized after a few years of ministry now with youth and young people, the mission of the churches when it comes to young people? The mission of the church with youth, I think, is to create a safe space where people can feel welcomed and accepted for who you are and where you can feel safe to explore your developing identity. There’s nothing more fundamental than that in my mind, for the mission of a church with young people. And indeed this has been I think the focus of the highest seat for the past two years, to build a community built on love and acceptance.

The love and acceptance that God has shown us. You know, one challenge initially was integrating the KSM Hi-C with the ESM Hi-C, that was under pastor Dave’s leadership and last summer at the retreat that really happened and it came together. I think the Hi-C had a breakthrough in forming a community where they really bonded with love and acceptance and felt like they can just let down their guard and be themselves. Through these bonds, memories were forged and connections were deepened and we had a kind of stable year without too much change. This allowed the bonds to settle and deepen.

But as this summer retreat approached, however many changes were coming, our beloved grade twelves, a big group. There are eight of them at the retreat, they’d be leaving the Hi-C after this retreat. And we also had a record number of new people coming. So there were eight grade twelves who were going to leave and eight new kids who came to the retreat. Kind of a funny coincidence. In a way, I felt like this was God kind of saying, okay, now we’re ready and here are our new brothers and sisters and it’s an opportunity to test whether we really were a welcoming community. Then we prepared leading up to the retreat by kind of studying a few passages from Ephesians, talking about one body in Christ and breaking down dividing walls. We reflected on the tendency, when you have a group of friends and that friendship over time, you start also forming your own kind of social norms language and stuff and whatnot. It's that history when you go through experiences together. For some of the guys that became kind of like slapping each other’s butts, the social norms, right? That kind of indicates I belong to this group. Sometimes when that bond gets so tight, that bond becomes a wall for those who are new or coming from the outside, that’s the natural human tendency, right? But we study that Christ came down to break down these dividing walls so that in place of two groups, there is now one new humanity. That’s the whole message, right? Reconciliation, the dividing walls. So could we be a community where there is no outsider or insider difference, but we are all one body in Christ. And in this aspect, I’m just so proud of the Hi-C, I believe they’ve passed this test with flying colours. I think everyone, all the new eight kids, they felt so welcomed and embraced for who they are. They shone through during games and activities and everyone was having such a good time. It was so good to see. I attribute a lot of this social cohesion and the welcoming community as a legacy of our dearly departing grade twelves, their leadership and their nurturing spirit really forged this culture rooted in love and they lead by example with their love.

But as the retreat went along, for some reason, I kind of felt a little block during games and recreation, they’re having a fun time, but during group discussions, it seemed kind of flat and on the surface level. I wasn’t sure what it was. I mean the group leaders who are our grade eleven’s going to great twelves, they’re doing a fabulous job trying to work hard and trying to get everyone to participate and whatnot. But then on the second last night, it kind of hit me. So I was having a debriefing, a meeting with the executives late at night to plan the next day. I know they are physically tired, but I don’t know, something felt a little heavy. So I asked them, what’s on your heart guys? And that’s when one by one, they began to kind of pour out what’s in their hearts. They poured out the burdens that were weighing heavy on their hearts. You know, leaving home, maybe unresolved issues that remain in their families, fears of their own inadequacy. It’s such an honest sharing of the burdens. We had a wonderful time of sharing, crying, praying, but that’s when it really became clear to me that all of us, we all carry burdens in our hearts. Burden. It’s a heavy load.

For teens, I think their emotions are just rawer and a lot more heightened. They can feel the burdens more deeply. Often they don’t know how to articulate it, but they feel it. And the other thing is, (and this is what really gets to me often with children but also youth,) is often the burdens that they carry are not ones of their own making. The heaviest burdens in the hearts of young people come from within the family. Experiences they’ve had, concerns for loved ones, circumstances that have just been thrust upon them. Because they haven’t had a say in their situation, often they’re confused, they feel helpless or sometimes maybe they even blame themselves. I mean the specific burdens that they bear, they’re as unique as their own personalities and life experiences. Everyone’s been through and has their own story, so the burdens are very unique too. But what have I started to realize is that our youth is a time where they’re beginning to bear the burdens of a broken world that includes all of us as broken people. What’s also common is that often these burdens remained buried inside of us beneath the surface. I mean, they remain buried because it’s too painful to deal with them. They remain buried because we haven’t learned how to deal with them. They remained buried because we then just get used to keeping them buried and moving on with daily life. Right? So what do we do? I mean, we escape from our burdens by trying to think of other things or we numb ourselves so that we can’t feel them anymore.

As I was reflecting, I realized, I think that’s what many adults of our generation and above have done. Our burdens were too painful. Maybe the loss and tragedy of war were too much to deal with, immigrant life was so harsh and painful, or maybe feeling like a stranger and foreigner was too hurtful. So maybe we focused solely on surviving in the hopes that the next generation wouldn’t face such burdens. I realized, burdens that are buried, they don’t go away. They are like a heavyweight that keeps you down. It weighs you down and allows only a diminished version of yourself to surface. Or it can emerge just as kind of a lifeless or smaller you and the other thing I realized is that we deceive ourselves in thinking that they go away by burying them. 

So what I realized is that burdens that are not dealt with, they get passed on. I often used to scratch my head, working with our youth on the surface, many of them lacked for nothing. I mean they should feel free and confident to explore and discover the world but there was something that I felt kind of weighing them down a bit. And at the retreat, I think it started to become a little more clear. You know, many of our kids are carrying the burdens that they’ve inherited.

I mean, it’s a lot more muted because on the surface things are not bad. What do we really have to complain about circumstantially? Right? But it is there. The Christian life is one of freedom from the burdens that weigh us down. That is what Saint Paul meant in today’s passage when he proclaimed that anyone in Christ is a new creation. The old things that used to weigh us down, have passed away and everything now is new. That’s the gospel! This was not just a theory for him, on the road to Damascus, Jesus encountered and met Paul and said, “Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me? Why are you hurting all these people?” I believe that it was at that moment that Paul came face to face with the burdens that were weighing him down. I mean, I don’t know exactly what they were. What we do know is that he was blind for three days and he neither ate nor drank. In the Bible, the three is often used for kind of an extensive period. So in other words, Paul really suffered and went through the pain of dealing with his burden. It’s not easy to deal with them. But at the end of that process, when the scales fell from his eyes and he could see, Paul was now free to discover his true identity and calling in life. When we truly encounter God or when God truly encounters us, I believe that God reveals the burdens buried deep inside of us. The Christian life is a journey and process of finding freedom from the weight of these burdens. No healing and change. They take a long time and Paul addresses that. But I believe that this is where true change starts with the recognition of the things deep inside of us.

Jesus said this in Matthew, “come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” He said that for a reason. Here’s the other thing, I realized what a true Christian community is. Saint Paul said it so precisely in Galatians: bear one another’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.” It’s okay Jaclyn, we’re burying your burden. Whatever is bothering you. Bear one another’s burdens. We don’t bear our burdens alone. Nor is it just between even just me and God, but the law of Christ, the very will of God is that we bear one another’s burdens. We first have to realize what they are and become willing and courageous enough to address them, but then we find a community of faith that can bear these burdens with us. That is why we have the gift of the church. I really believe that this community of bearing one another’s burdens is the most powerful vehicle for healing and change that we can ever experience. A community that bears one another’s burdens.

I’ve seen this with our youth group. For example, last summer, the Hi-C retreat was very emotional, but it was like a raw and kind of passionate emotion. And I think that came from the joy of finding love, acceptance and belonging in a community of peers. It was really the joy of discovering this bond, it was very raw emotion. That kind of acceptance became the hallmark of the Hi-C this past year that led into this retreat too. I believe that our calling by God now is to go further and become a community that really bears one another’s burdens. So the last night of this passage, it was very emotional as well. But what I sensed was rather than a hot, raw emotion, I sensed the much deeper and rooted emotion. One that sprung forth from deep within as they started sharing and bearing one another’s burdens. It was such a beautiful thing to see. I really believe in an intergenerational church and intergenerational ministry, from babies that we have baptizing them into the community of faith all the way up to when we send off our elders into the next life. There’s so much that we can all learn from one another and my hope for our youths is that they can cultivate relationships with other generations to appreciate the richness of the Christian community. I also think we adults can learn so much from our young people and their openness to searching. They’re yearning for meaning and connection and their eagerness to learn, connect and love. I could not have been more blessed to begin my ministry with this group of people. I’ve learned so much from them, they’ve been such rich, fertile soil and it really shows that when you give love, they blossom and transform.

I think I have a glimpse now of what it’s like to be a parent who learns to watch their children grow up. My kids are still so young, right? I haven’t been through it, but speaking with a few parents I can sense the kind of grieving process. But I think I got a taste of that now watching these great twelves depart, thinking of them and writing the sermon. I’ve never cried so much for preparing a sermon before, I’ll miss them. I’ll miss them in our weekly discipleship sessions. I think it’ll really hit us when we have our resume our Hi-C worship next week. We’ll just miss their loving presence that brought that energy of love to us. You know, I’ll miss, how they’re trying to round up Hi-C, Sarah Choe’s “Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-CCCCCCCCCCCCC”, followed up by Jocelyn’s, “Yo, listen up!” I think we’ll have to settle with Taebin's, “Hi-C-!” I couldn’t resist that, sorry. I enjoyed this past weekend, pastor Despacito and I was just roasting on the executives in the Hi-C you know?

We’ve been through grief, mourning, but also thanksgiving and celebration for who they are and what they’ve meant for us. What a blessing it is for all of us in Hi-C to go through this fullness of life. We’ve experienced all the emotions, right? May our youth be a blessing and inspiration to the rest of the community. May we too be open and courageous for God to reveal, allow God to reveal the burdens that had been buried within us. May we be a community that bears one another’s burdens. May God lead all of us into life as a new creation.

Amen.

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Jeremiah 1:4-8

Congratulations to all the graduates. You’re now entering into a new stage of your life. A new stage of your life can be both exciting and scary at the same time. Entering into the unknown is always exciting and scary. I hope that your excitement takes over your fear, it is your choice. Are you going to let the excitement take over or will you let the fear take over? I hope that you let excitement take over your fear because life always consists of excitement and fear. These two always come together. Whatever you do, not only graduation, not only university, not only high school, but whatever you do in life, when you face challenges, you always get excited, but at the same time, you get really scared. I chose a passage from Jeremiah. It is a story of God calling a young, insecure and a very fearful young man. God makes this man, Jeremiah to be a prophet.

He didn’t have confidence because he thought he was only a boy. He thought I’m not a prophet. I’m only a boy. I cannot handle all the big things that you are asking me to do. To this insecure young man, God said, “do not say I’m only a boy, for you shall go to all to whom I send you and you shall speak whatever I command you. Don’t worry. Don’t fear, I’ll be with you. I’ll give you what you need. You just have to hear what I have to say and you just have to speak.” That’s what God said to Jeremiah. To those graduates and to all of us, I'd like to say a few things for us to reflect. What will be the best way to prepare ourselves to live an exciting and meaningful life? Graduation is not only for those who graduate from school. I think for all of us, life is like graduation all the time because graduation is also a new beginning, that’s why they say commencement. Always, we graduate from one thing and we start a new thing. So graduation applies to all of us.

I was thinking about three things, for those graduates and all of us. First, be humble, be humble. Being humble is not a gesture, it is an inner attitude. It’s not a gesture that you show on the surface on the outside, but it is an attitude, an inner attitude that you have within you. Many people misunderstand humility. They think of humility as a sign of weakness or inferiority. I don’t see humility in that way. Jesus was very humble. He said that he was humble. This is what he said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.” Jesus was humble, but I don’t see anywhere from the scripture where he is inferior in any way. Jesus was humble, but we learned from him. 

I see a very confident person, confident men. That is what humility is. Humility is confidence. Humility is not inferiority. Humility is not weakness. Humility is confidence. Confidence even to embrace one’s own shortcomings. Yes, that’s what humility is. Strong people can admit that they’re weak, strong people can admit that they have not figured out yet. Only weak people pretend they are strong but strong people don’t need to pretend that they’re strong because they’re already strong. So humility is confidence, is it is the attitude of saying that it is all right not to be perfect. It is the attitude that you don’t have to be so smart and so great. You don’t have to be accepted to be loved. You know that very well. The confident people behave with the attitude of learning, changing and growing.

Humble people don’t think that they have it all and that they have life figured out. They believe that they can always learn, they can always grow and they can always get better. That’s what humble people do. When I see humble people around me, I see their openness. They are not set in their own ways. They’re not strangely stubborn in their own ways. They are open. They are good listeners. They are very interested in other’s opinions. Then are not busy talking about themselves. They value other people and they appreciate what other people have to say. That’s what humble people do. You’ll experience lots of new things in college or high school, but be humble and absorb. Learn a lot of new things in your life and grow tremendously to be courageous. I said entering into the unknown is exciting, but at the same time, scary. That’s why you need to be courageous.

Fear is a universal emotion. As Joshua took over the leadership of Moses, he was really scared because of what Moses did, it was so great. The shoes were too big to fill. Moses parted the Red Sea, he brought manna from the heavens and did all these great things. So when Joshua took over the leadership, the shoes were too big to fill, so he was really scared. But also at the same time, the promised land did not come to Joshua on a silver platter. He had a lot of problems and challenges that he had to deal with before taking over the promised land. So Joshua was very scared in many ways. That’s why God said to Joshua, be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened or dismayed for the Lord is with you.

Your God is with you wherever you go. That is the message for you. The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go, whether it’s Hamilton or London or Queens or whatever. Wherever you go, the Lord, your God will be with you wherever you go. Be Courageous, be strong! Even in today’s passage to the young man Jeremiah who was filled with fear, God said, do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you. That’s the message of God. The Bible talks about fear a lot. Everywhere you open the passage, you will see the word fear. Somebody actually counted the number of times fear shows up and there are over 365 passages about fear. So in other words 365 times, that’s like once every day. Why so many passages about fear? Because it is such a common emotion that all human beings experience. Even Jesus’ disciples had to learn to overcome their own fears before they became disciples. Jesus took them on purpose into the ocean, into the storm and they experienced a life crisis. They learned to overcome their own fears in order to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

Being courageous. It’s not the absence of fear. Being courageous is not known without the feeling of fear. The absence of fear may be a sign of cowardice because when you run away from fearful situations all the time, you don’t even have to feel fear. Whenever problems occur, you turn your face away and whenever there is a difficulty, you give up. You just turn around all the time and you never have to use your courage. Avoiding your fears and being a coward doesn't make your fears disappear. We all have fear. We all feel fear. What if I cannot make it? What if I cannot get a good enough mark? Usually, from high school, when you go into university, your average tends to drop five to ten percent. So for example, 95% to 90%, and if you’ve got 90% it will probably drop to 85% and so on. As you can see, universities and colleges are more difficult. So now you wonder and you feel scared. You think, what if I’m not as smart as I thought? What if I’m not as good as I thought? What if I fail? What if I fail not just in school but in life? If I don’t do well in university or college, can I make it in the world? We have a lot of “what if” questions in our lives.

Let me tell you, my friend. Don’t be scared of failures. Fail! That’s the best lesson that you’re going to learn. Get used to failing. Failure is part of the process of success. I will say that with courage. Don’t be scared of failure. That is Courage. Cartoonist Scott Adams, who created Dilbert said, “failures are merely the cobblestone on the path to success.” He is right. Although he is a pretty successful cartoonist, he experienced lots of failures in his past. Every single person who made it, all experienced failure. Jim Carey, a successful Hollywood comedian said that he experienced his first failure right here in Toronto. It was his first debut performance at the Yacht club committee and he did stand up comedy. He stood up and people booed, they booed him off the stage. He couldn’t even finish his comedy. Failure, get used to it. Don’t let your failures become the defining moments of your life, make failures as a turning point of your life. That's very important. Don’t let failures be the defining moments of your life, make failures as a turning point of your life.

Failures are not a reason to give up. Failures are part of the process of making life great. If you are scared of failures, you cannot do anything. If you’re scared of failures, you’ll never do great things. Embrace your own fear of failures and trust that God will be with you. God will help you. You can always live a life of running away from fearful situations. Just safe. You can do that, t’s up to you to see your choice. You can live like that, but you will not make anything great with that attitude.

Third, be always hopeful, always hopeful. There’s always darkness around you. Don’t let the darkness control you. It’s your choice. Darkness is always around you. Gloominess is always around you. You can allow gloominess and depression to take over your life, but don’t do that. Be Hopeful. Always see the light. Always see the light. Real strength is not shown when everything goes well. It is shown when everything goes wrong. Your real character is not shown when you’re at the peak, but it is shown when you’re at the bottom of your life. It’s like stars shining brighter in the dark sky. When you have a true character in the darkness, it will shine better. As I said before, a Russian novelist said the darker the night, the brighter the stars, the deeper the grief, the closer is God.” Always remember that. Always be hopeful when you face difficulties and hardships. When you have doubts about yourself, always be hopeful. Don’t ever let the darkness take over your life. Believe that God who began a good work will bring you to completion in His own time and believe that everything will work out for good. Believe that life is not just random events. Your Life is in God’s wonderful plan.

Living with hope is the strength of life. When you live with hope, no darkness will overcome you. No despair will cripple you. You’ll be able to come out of the most difficult and challenging situations fine when you’re hopeful. When you’re hopeful, it will never allow you to give up, suffering and hardships will only make you stronger. Enjoy it. You’re entering into the unknown but is all right. Embrace it. Live it with courage. Live it with hope. Live it with humility.

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