St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

Rev. Kim shares an insightful lecture on the beginning stage of the Journey to Fullness.

Recorded live at the retreat held on June 26-28, 2015. The first 2 minutes of the recording is very staticky, please bear with the noise, it gets better!

Click on the image above to read this session in e-book format.

It’s wonderful to have you here. This is our sixth retreat on the happiness seminar, so as we look at the slides, these are the topics that we have covered. First the pursuit of happiness. We look at the dynamics of happiness by using four chapters from Philippians. We can break down happiness. 50 percent you’re born with it, 10 percent comes from your circumstances and 40 percent is what you do about it. St Paul’s main principle states that your happiness comes from your belief system and God will bring it to completion. That was St Paul’s belief even though he went through difficult circumstances he was able to be happy despite his circumstances. And the second lecture we look at the meaning of life and we reflected on suffering and the third lecture we look at the happiness that comes from the relationship.

There is two kinds of relationships, “I-thou” relationship and “I-it” relationship. Most of our happiness from the “I-thou” relationship rather than “I-it” relationship. In “I-it” relationship you use the other person for yourself so “I” is the most important so “it” is just an object for your own happiness. Everything else is a becomes just an object for your own happiness, but that doesn’t really give you happiness. But most of our business relationship and everything is “I-it” relationship. But “I-thou” relationship is you give up yourself for the sake of relationships. So, in “I-thou” relationship important thing is not I nor thou. It is the dash that connects I and thou, so the and is important. So, through that, we experience true happiness.

And then we looked at, change, last year, and then this year we are going to look at the journey to fullness. Think of it as a, for most of you, a vacation, with a spiritual reflection. It’s a good enough place for you to have a vacation time away, but with a spiritual reflection component, I hope that. Spiritual reflection, when can you do that? Really, I don’t want to live like an animal, you know, doing all kinds of things. Just work and eat and enjoy and a pleasure and whatever. I don’t want to live like an animal because I’m not an animal. I’m more than animal.

I want to live meaningfully and then to live meaningfully, spiritual reflection is very much part of it, because we, human beings are not just a social being or just a biological being. We human beings are a spiritual being. And if you’re a spiritual being then without spiritual reflection, how can we live a meaningful spiritual life.

Just before the lecture I was talking to John and go, how’s your life? And you’re busy. And he said, “really, too busy you know, it’s not good. And that is a more modern life. In a modern life, the word busy is what you experience all the time. Doesn’t matter who you are, busy, whether you’re a professional or a mother’s staying home or ministers, religious people, people busy me too just, we’re busy. Being busy really reflects my life. So many things to do. So many things to take care of, such as work, taking care of kids and so on. Every day is filled with a schedule.

Without my journal, I cannot survive. It’s my second Bible. One day I left. Right? Do you keep bothering? Okay? Is he okay? Yeah. This is my second Bible, without this, I cannot go anywhere because one day I left this at home. I feel so vulnerable. I can’t do anything. I couldn’t even concentrate or even focus because I don’t know what’s going to happen, maybe email, maybe a text or maybe somebody’s trying to call me in case of an emergency, whatever. This is my second bible and all schedules are within me without looking at what I have every day. I don’t know what I have because so many I can’t just remember anymore. We are so busy. Every day is filled with a schedule and we must also squeeze in what we want to do with the time leftover. If there’s any time left over, if there’s no time left over, we make sure that there is, there’s time left over for golf or for something that we want to do.

So, this kind of retreat is a good opportunity to just forget about everything. To just forget about your life in Toronto. Just forget, forget about everything. Just enjoying each other, enjoy God. Enjoy the nature. When can you do that? You don’t even see the earth, you know, you don’t even touch the earth, many times. So, enjoy, some quiet time. Maybe today and tomorrow. Put your life into reflection mode instead of just talking. I mean talking is good have good talks. But, instead of just social life, why don’t you have time for yourself, the spiritual aspect of your life? Don’t think of this as just another activity to check off, be more focused on being in touch with yourself. Maybe. Who am I? What am I going through, how do I feel? What am I feeling? Do like my life? Do like my relationships. Do like what I do? What is bothering me? This morning devotion we talked about it. Do I worry about something? Why do we worry about these things? Or do we have some issues or challenges, family issues or family problems? Just think about it. Or you have personal problems. Health or finance or a relationship, you know, sit down. Is the best way, to just emotionally react to my situation or is there a better way to respond to my situations, in my life? So, things like that, I hope that we can have some, moments of reflection, you know, you may not actually get an answer, but what is more important is direction rather than rather than the answer, if you find a direction, the answer will come. So, the answer will not come immediately.

At least I hope that you can find some direction, for, your issues and problems. Doing spiritual reflection is important to keep our sanity in this very busy life. We are living, we are facing all kinds of challenges and problems. We worry about our future, our career, and some of us shared already that I’m making a career change, professional change. I’m very, very scared. What that might mean, what if, I don’t get a good professional career, then how am I going to have a material basis for my living, for some others. You take care of your aging parents or ill parents and you’re very worried about your sick, parents, some of you have children, that you must take care of and some of your children may have some personal issues and problems, or some of you have a newborn baby, and then you’re struggling with a sleep or lack of sleep. And then, Oh God, how am I going to raise this child in this cruel world? And some of you are thinking about who my future partner will be, for me, to share my life with. So, all these things are issues. And some of you may simply feel that so lethargic and you suffer from meaninglessness and pointlessness of life as stress may have been piled up and you feel totally defeated. Or some of you are eager to have more, deeper spiritual life, deeper relationship with God.

How can you deal with all these things without spiritual insight and spiritual understanding? I think spirituality will help us greatly to restore passion, joy, and meaningfulness of life. I mean, recreation helps us deal with our stress, so we need recreation. But recreation can only do so much. Some of the stress you can be relieved off, but recreation can only do so much. You have deeper problems you cannot deal with it even with recreation. We need to cultivate our spirituality to deal with the deeper challenges of life. You know, the people are becoming smarter and smarter and they realize that a lot of people realize that our material life is not good enough anymore. So even whether you’re Christian or not, modern people have found the importance of spirituality. They’re not religious necessarily. The found the importance of spirituality for their healthy living or good living, meaningful living. They’re not any more satisfied with material success and all that. And even in our church, some of you are really reducing, you know, houses and all that. And because they believe to live with that kind of luxury, you must work that much more and all that stuff that’s not worth it.

So, some modern people, whether you’re a Christian or not, they have the wisdom that I need to cultivate a spirituality there. So, you see yoga clubs everywhere, Meditation Groups and book clubs and all that. All that. If exercises for your physical body, then these groups are for your mental and spiritual body for your mind and for your soul. Even modern people, whether you even non-Christians, they, do that. The person that I know, she’s a Christian, but occasionally she comes to our church too. But she, not Christian, she says she’s not Christian, but she comes to our church and she enjoys it. I know she went to Guatemala or Chili. I’m not sure which one. She’s a yoga teacher and went to a yoga retreat. So, there’s a beautiful mountain. You go there and then have meditation and quiet timing. I will show you some, sometimes here just over there and then sit down looking over the lake, you know. See there’s another one. Oh yeah. No. So the importance of spirituality.

You know, human beings are not stupid. You live with luxury for a while. You realize that the luxury doesn’t satisfy you anymore. You need deeper things to satisfy you. And so, we Christians do them. Meditation on our faith, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what you’re doing right now here. So, I hope that you use this opportunity to do that during this weekend. This year’s theme is the journey to fullness. This is interesting to see life as a journey. I got two slides for that. That is what I took ours. When we pray a prayer for the Santiago Camino trip, which, which place was that? James garden in the winter. And that is Santiago. We went to Santiago Camino for one weekend.

So, journey. When we say life is a journey, what does it mean? What do we mean by that? Of course, it’s a metaphor, life is not a journey, life is like a journey. It’s a metaphor, but when you use a metaphor, you do it because it carries certain meetings. So, when we say that life is a journey, what meaning does it communicate? You know, we use metaphor to communicate something abstract, something that there’s hard to describe or define. You use a metaphor. Something is like something, for example, you’re like an angel or you’re like a flower. Then, you know, you, you carry certain meaning about a person. Then maybe we say life is a journey. What the same me? I mean, we can use a different metaphor at least three metaphors I could come up with to describe modern life. Life can be like a hamster wheel. And when we say life is hamster’s wheel, what does that tell us? Every day seems to be the same routine.

You wake up in the morning, go to work and on the weekend you kind of have downtime and it’s too short and on Monday morning you must go to work like crazy. And in doing the same thing repeatedly. The movie Groundhog Day depicts that very well. You wake up in the morning, you go through the same pattern, same route. You know, when I look at it, look at myself, I take the same road and I got the same coffee shop and I do exactly the same thing. Almost like Groundhog Day. Every day is the same thing. It describes the meaningless repetition of life. If you cannot go, go ahead with your life because of your fear, you live like that.

If you don’t change because of your fear, you’ll just go around and round and round like that. Twenty years, 30 years, 40 years will pass by and then your life is over. What we’ve done, I can see life in that way. The second picture that I see is you can see life as a conveyor belt. The second one, the entry level into middle management, senior manager. You go up, but it’s already programmed. You know, that there are a little bit more scary pictures. Oh, my goodness. You go to hell if you keep going down. You know, it doesn’t repeat itself at the same place. It goes somewhere, but the destiny and path are already decided. You don’t have much control over its direction or destiny. We are moving forward, but not by our will or intention. What I must do is already programmed for me. I don’t have much choice. This metaphor shows life that is trapped in an already fixed pattern. time and space, we are trapped, or we can see their picture.

We can see life like Sisyphus in a mythology. Start there. What happened? That’s the next picture. Next slide. How come? Okay. Sisyphus is a Greek mythology; this man rolls a big huge boulder to the up to the mountain. And then as you get to the peak, the rock rolls down to the bottom. You go down and pick it up and roll it up again. And at the top, it goes back down again. And I know this man he had a restaurant, he made lots of, not lots of money but enough money. And then he invested all that money for a retirement fund in stock. And then a few years ago, there was a stock crash. He lost all of them, he lost all of it. All is immigrant life. He saved money working so hard without having a vacation just for preparing for the retirement fund. And then it just disappeared. So, he is back to zero with my congregation. And that is kind of a, we can see life. I mean we did all that and at one point you lose everything.

And then sometimes life is like that. So, when we see life as a journey, we see a very different picture from those pictures that I showed you. When we say life is a journey, it has purpose, direction and process. These three things are part of journey, purpose, direction, process. You must have a clear purpose for the journey. What is your life’s purpose? What is your unique purpose in life? And you must set the direction in trying to achieve that purpose. And I don’t believe that purpose can be making money. I think we have a greater purpose. I don’t think the purpose is just to enjoy it. We have a greater purpose. God called us for a certain purpose in life, not just for myself, for humanity, for others, for the church, for God. And then if you don’t find that purpose, I don’t know whether we can do even journey. So first we must find purpose and if you found a purpose, then you must have a direction. What am I going to? How am I going to serve this purpose or fulfill that purpose? And then there is a process that you must take. So, when we say life is a journey, we are saying very intentional living. You don’t live life because it’s there. You don’t climb a mountain because it’s there. You intentionally choose to live a certain life.

So, you are an active agent in choosing what kind of life you’re going to live. You’re not going to just live life because life is given, circumstances given to you. This is kind of life I’m going to live. So, then I must cut down that part of it and choose to live. And that is empowerment. When we say the life is a journey, it is empowerment. I decide what kind of life I’m going to live. I don’t live life as it is given. I want to choose what kind of life I live, where there are some 40 years, 50 years, six years, seven years, eight years. This is one life, and this is the kind of life I’m going to let you choose. And then you set the direction and then you make the process of it.

You know, some of you love to travel. And when you travel, you experienced something new, all the times, what your experience is never the same. You may go to the same place twice, but what you experienced there is very, very different. Each time I went to Paris three times, but every time it was different is it is never like on a conveyor belt. Unpredictable, mysterious, but fun. Not always pleasant, maybe, but still memorable. So, it is wise to spend money on travel, a wiser than buying things because you buy experience.

I was reading this article, the science of why you should spend your money on experiences, not things. It was written by Dr. Thomas Gilovich, of Cornell University. Here’s, here’s been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades. This is what he said. We buy things to make us happy and we succeed, but only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them while they’re happening from material purchases diminishes over time. Experiences become an ingrained part of our identity. You know, when you buy a good tv, after a while you don’t even feel it's a good tv. You won’t really feel this, you know, new one when you buy a new car, the same thing. You drive it and after a while, you even forget that you are driving a really, really, I don’t know. Maybe if you buy really, good car, you may feel every day Vroom Vroom.

I don’t know if you know that. Yeah. So, you know, whenever I go on a mission in different places, I always experienced something new. You know, I went to several places, South Africa, Malawi, Brazil, Madagascar, Kazakhstan, China, and other places. Every place was so different. People I met or different enough. Funny thing is I met some Korean, secondary or third generation Koreans, second generation, third generation Koreans in Kazakhstan, in China, in Japan are all different. They all look like Russian and Chinese and Japanese. Every place you go to you have a different experience. Whenever I did that mission, the journey transformed me and challenged how I will think, and in that way,  it shaped my identity. So sometimes you know, the shorter mission is better than just vacation. On vacation, you go to one place and then come back. But when you go shorter mission, you experienced something different. What I experienced there is ingrained in me. It will always be there as a memory, but not just as a memory, even when the memory is faded away, what that experienced it to me will remain deep in my soul.

That was what happened to the disciples. When they met Jesus, the experience was so deep and profound that it changed their lives. Gospel was written in such a way that it is a journey of the disciples who met Jesus. To discover that life is a journey you don’t need. You don’t need to go to Kazakhstan, you don’t need to go far, far away, place right here in your life. You can experience their life is a journey. Jesus never went to any place other than Jerusalem and Galilee, 150 kilometres. That’s all he travelled shorter than from here to Toronto is about 200 kilometres. Of course, Jesus walked so much longer than our journey. But Jesus didn’t go or Rome or any, exotic places to experience their life is a journey, right in his own circumstances. He experienced that life was a journey. I hope that you take life. A life is a journey seriously. This journey’s seriously an intentionally. Life is more than a hamster’s wheel. More than the conveyor belt. It must be otherwise too depressing. Why do you live? Kill yourself. Show up and now we’re sad. Why do you live? kill yourself. If life is like a conveyor belt or if life is just like a hamster wheel, what’s the meaning of just going on? kill yourself. So, life must be more than that. And I refuse to live like a hamster wheel or a conveyor belt.

Life is a journey and journey to fullness. Whether you take it intentionally or not, the fact that life is journey does not change. Every place you go to, every person you meet, every experience you have will have a profound impact on your life. It will shape your identity and your destiny. You know, I don’t know where I read it, but this or what I got and it’s beautiful. So, I so I cannot tell you who’s, who said it. Every thought. We have, every decision we make, every action we, there’s song, every step I take every wasn’t his song, right? Da, da Da da Da da Da da Da da, right? Yeah, please. Okay. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Every thought we have, every decision we make, every action we take, every emotion we can shape our behaviour. Every response we make to the world around us, every relationship we enter, every reaction we have towards the things that surround us and impinged upon our lives. All these things, little by little, are shaping us into being. How true that is.

The people that you meet, new people that you meet, the new relationship you enter a new experience that you have, it all kind of makes you who you are. It shapes you. You are not completely formed yet. Your identity is not completely fixed yet you’re being formed and being reformed and being transformed. That’s what life is. Journeys like you’re continuously being formed, reform and transform and depending on who you meet, depending on what you did do and depending on what experience you have. As you look back, as I’m looking at, I’ll be able to see the path to have walked on and then I say to myself, that is the path that I took, but when I look for and try to look at the path, it’s not visible. I can’t see it. What path am I going to take? And from here, maybe that path is not there yet. I need to make that path. From this point on, I can see the path behind me. Ah, this is the pathway to but the path I had on me is not written yet. It’s not paved yet. It is you who must pave it. It is you that must make it and you must intentionally make it. You cannot just, okay, somebody can you please make a path for me so there I can walk. That’s a wimpy way of looking at life. You must look at it and create and pave the path. What kind of life you want to live.

If you take our life journey more seriously, how much more meaningful and enriching our experiences maybe? Yeah, but as you look at it, it is not you who take the path to who make that spiritual journey. You allow God from now on to shape your journey. Can you do that instead of you create your own path? Can you allow room for God to shape that journey from now on so far? If you have worked so hard to shape your own journey from now on, do you have enough room for God, for allowing God to shape that journey for you? God will shape the journey for you, my friends. The real journey is not what happens outside. The real journey is what happens within us. What we are talking about is not what happened on the outside, such as having a new child, new baby, changing your job and career, moving and buying a new house, having children go away for school, beating a significant new person and so on. That’s what happens on the outside. But what’s happening on the inside, that’s the journey when you just had a little baby. What happened on the inside?

You know, when I share already with you when Grace was born, she had a really difficult time to survive. My wife was in a kind of she was in an unconscious level. She couldn’t even see the baby. I was the one who went to the room by myself and she was in an incubator and she had, I don’t know how many needles, her whole body was filled with needles I don’t know exactly what those. And then when I looked at those needles, you know, my heart, he ached. He came in tremendous pain, the little baby. Instead of being in the arms of mothers or fathers, you know, gentle, comfortable, the hand that in the incubator with needles and I was thinking about the nail on the cross. I was thinking about Jesus being nailed an on the cross. So what’s happening on the outside is not as important as what’s happening inside. If you ever a little baby, probably you learn compassion patience even sacrificial, painful, loving you don’t mind that. You know what love is? I think I told you, then I talked to Joshua and then, yeah, I gave him something and, and then yeah, I can give you everything that I have a 10. And then he said, now I know what you’re talking about, you know because he has his own son. Yeah. So, when you have a baby, what is happening inside of you? That’s what’s more important than what happens on the outside. So a real journey is what happens on the inside, how they affect what happened on the outside, how they affected you internally. Did he make you a happier person and why or did it make you think about your life in you in a new way? How did that change the way you think about your life? Did it open your eyes so that you can see new things about your life and God? Did it make you think, why I have lived all this time with this narrow and suffocating attitude?

What is happening outside affects what is happening inside and we need to reflect on what is happening inside. The fact is we can see what is happening outside easily, but what is happening inside is hard to see are too lazy to see it or we are too scared to see it. We don’t even think about what is happening inside us. How many times do you really think what is happening inside you? Many times, we don’t even think about what is happening inside us. We’re just busy doing outside, so this kind of opportunity you come, and I think about what is happening inside. If he only knows on our person, Gary, we are living only half of life. If we focus on inner life, we’ll get to know our inner self better and the inner self is as real as our outer self, but it is harder to see, harder to hear and harder to understand our inner self. There’s a person in the Bible you Nicodemus. He was a well-educated man, rich, powerful, religious and everything he had on the outside, so our men, he was almost perfect, but when Jesus met, what did he say? You must be born again. In other words, start your journey again with your inner person. What is happening inside of you? You must start new, born again, so Jesus is talking about, not an outer person, but the inner person.

We have two self's outer person and the inner person that what St Paul said. For which because we faint not, but though our outer man perishes at the inner man is renewed day by day. It’s a King James version and NRSV says.  So, we do not lose heart even though our outer nature is wasting away. Our inner nature is being renewed day by day. The scripture consistently says that happiness resides in the inner person, not the outer person, not only the scripture but a lot of spiritual people, whether they’re Christians or not. They all say that real happiness resides in the inner person. Most of you here will conceptually agree that that is true, but we naively believe this is not. I think, naive belief. We naive only believe that if our outer person is okay, our inner person will be okay. Our parents teaching their children immigrant parents, they only focused on outer man our outer self. Work hard, study hard, get a good job. It’s all about the outer person. Then you’ll be happy. They naively believe that if your outer person is okay, then your inner person will be okay. If your outer person is happy, then your inner person, will be happy, so we learned to focus on our outer person. We get a good career going, beautiful home. We make enough money to be comfortable. Nothing wrong with all of those, but it is wrong. If you think that these things will magically be translated into inner satisfaction, no, the happiness of our person will not automatically translate into the happiness of the inner person. That assumption is wrong

When you read Paul’s life or other disciples life after meeting Jesus, their outer person became worse. They went through so much persecution, difficulties and hardship, but their inner person became renewed, tremendously. so outer person and the inner person they are not necessarily together. Our inner person is much more complex than our outer person. If we, if we like, this morning’s breakfast was good, Huh? Yeah. That was good. And you know, said the highlights of the all the retreats are good food. It is, it is good food. If we eat good food, our outer person enjoys it. If you go to an exotic place and our outer person will say, Oh, nice, luxurious, but not necessarily the inner person. The inner person can be still sad, unsatisfied unhappy. The inner person cannot be satisfied with things like eating good food and buying good things. We cannot simply say that our outer person controls or determines the condition of our inner person, but we focus too much on the outer person. If the inner person will be okay

Today in the morning reflection. Bob, you lead a very, very good morning devotion today. Thank you. He was our leader, our leader, and he was so gentle and gave people time to reflect and meditate. We meditate on to not worry about tomorrow. Jesus’ message, and it said, your body’s more important than clothes while reading it. This thought came to me. All this body is your real self and the clothes are your present yourself, who you are and who you present to be. You were clothes to show who you are, but the body is, Jesus said, is more important than clothes. Who you are is more important than who you present to be, and Jesus said, you’re much, much more valuable than all these he’s talking about wherever you are, you’re much, much more valuable than anything in the world. If we focus only on outer self, we don’t see the value of who we are. What did Jesus say? The Kingdom of God is where the Kingdom of God is within you. This is what Jesus said, neither shall they say, low here or low there for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you, so in you, what do you have? You have the kingdom not on the outer person, but in the inner person.

The image of God is carved not on the outer person. The image of God is carved on your inner person. When your inner person, he’s happy, he’s all right. Even though difficulties come, you’ll be all right. You’ll be taken care of. Do not worry. If your inner person is strong, you’ll be able to overcome all the challenges that you face in your life. Find the kingdom within you. That’s our journey. Finding the kingdom. What St Paul. What do you have in you? You have a treasure. He said, this is what St Paul said, but we have this treasure in jars of clay jars on the outer person, but in the inner person we have treasure so that it may be made clear that the extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us, and how many times we completely ignore what’s going on in the inner person, our journey, his journey of finding kingdom, finding treasure within us. That’s what salvation is. I hope that you can all find that beautiful treasure within you. Until then, all your efforts will go into proving yourself how valuable you are. You don’t need to prove to yourself how valuable you are. You already are very valuable. Jesus said you are more precious than the whole world.  

Jesus died for you. that much you are precious for the son of God to die for you. That much of your precious. In that sense, because your journey is to discover our true inner self. {At Carr} said, God, is at home. You’re the one who went out. God is home. You’re the one who went out. Prodigal son's stories fair much that. So, journeys journey to come back home to yourself. You went out, you need to come back home to yourself. Unfortunately, we don’t see what’s inside of us, so at this retreat, even though it is hard, practice it. Try to see what’s your inner person. Have quiet time. Walk on your, have a coffee and think about what your heart tells you. Pray if you can, whatever you do, be in touch with your inner self. At first, you’ll have a hard time. You don’t even know what you’re doing. You’ll hear nothing at first, but slowly you’ll be able to hear something truthful about yourself. So, prepare your inner self. My friends. I really hope that nothing bad happens to you. Nothing bad happens to you. I truly prayed it and I truly wish that and hope that, but the thing is life is not like that. Nothing bad can happen. So, I don’t want to live life wishing that nothing happens. That’s a weak life.

That’s kind of your waiting. You’re just wishing for the lottery. You know. What is the chance that nothing bad will happen in your life? What is important is instead of just wishing that nothing bad happens in your life. You prepare your inner self so that when something bad happens, you know how to deal with it, but if you’re not prepared but nothing bad happened, something bad happens, you collapsed, so I really wish that nothing bad happens to you but living with that wish is weak life. That’s not what Jesus taught. Even something bad happens now it’s good, good. Everything is good, but even then, something bad happens, I know how to deal with it. To do that inner-self has to be trained. Discipline can handle. It must be strong, then you can handle it. Then bad things happen. Good, good things happen. I can handle it. I’m not fearful. I’m not scared anymore of my life. Anything can happen in any situation. I can deal with it. That’s what Saint Paul said. I learned to be content in all I do. Whether I’m hungry or well fed, I can do all with God who makes it possible. That inner person. If you have that, then your life will be much, much more confident and handle the challenges. You can risk more and then you can move on. That’s why I’m saying the inner person is that important to build and cultivate that inner person in your life.

Later, I’m going to share three things about what really makes a journey not possible, because of three things in our inner person. What three things are bothering us to stop us from taking a journey seriously. So that’s what I’m going to share tonight. So today we talked about the journey is not journey on the outer person, but the journey on the inner person and the journey are finding treasure, kingdom and value within us and be strong. And then what are the things, our false self that we create for ourselves? Tonight, I’m going to talk about the false self-false inner self than, or you can, you can say the outer self, a false self that we create for us.

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2 Kings 5:-14

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Today, I would like to reflect on this scripture passage that we read. As you read the scripture, you will find many examples where God works in unexpected way.

Samuel came to Jethro, Katie’s father, and he wanted to choose the king and Jethro, David’s father had many sons, but he never expected that David will be the once. So the father told David, you, go to the field and tend the sheep because your brothers will have important time with Samuel. He never expected that David would be the one. So he sent David to tend the sheep and it showed all the brothers as he expected. But Samuel saw them all no. Don’t you have any other or other son? Yea there’s another son in the field but he’s tending the sheep breathing. And then when David came, Samuel said this is the one that God has chosen. God is working many times in unexpected way. Galilee was not a known place. It was small village. Especially. Nazareth was a small town. You don’t see that in the Old Testament.

And Jesus Ministry began in that small village, a very unexpected place. God accomplished his work, not in the temple, nor in the palace but on the cross nobody. Nobody expected that God will accomplish his ministry and his world for humanity on the cross. Very unexpected. We see today Naaman the chief commander of the army of Arab Naaman was a man of great power and influence in today’s scripture you see very powerful people Naaman the King of Aram and the King of Israel. They were all powerful people. But none of them played an important role in today’s story. Actually, the main character of today’s story was a little servant girl who had no name, no one expected this insignificant no name person could help out Naaman that is god of the Bible, the Bible teaches us God who works beyond human expectations. Paul said, “but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong God chose what is low and despised in the world things that are not to reduce to nothing. Things that are.”

Meditate on that. This is how God works, God does not work with all these people, all this power, God works with those who are very very unexpected. God will use that to do his work. We human beings, live with expectations we defend the power that we have accumulated, we depend on our good circumstances and we depend on our ability and capability. We expect things to happen with our own power. When we don’t have these things. We feel kind of insecure and we experience despair when the king of Israel heard about the news of Naaman coming to his country and then asked him to heal him from leprosy. He was angry because he doesn’t have power and the capability and ability to be able to kill Naaman. He tore his clothes and said, “am I God?” he knew he didn’t have power to kill him.

His anger and despair, we all understand very well, but one thing that king did not know that king did not know, that there was God in his own country God’s servant who work beyond human expectations. Naaman was also angry with the prophet because his expectation was, “if I come here, the prophet will do something wonderful kind of raise his hand and then touch his leprose part and then do something, something dramatic but, prophet said, go to Jordan river and dip yourself for seven times. “Are you kidding me? Are you joking with me? Don’t we have great rivers in my own country. I came all the way here for you to tell me to go into the river Jordan. You want me to go there and dip myself seven times, are you kidding me? He was angry because the prophet did not work as he expected.

That’s what human beings are like, how often we are slaves to our own expectations. We even expect God to work in our way in the way we want. God. I want you to do this. That is what I expect of you to do, If you don’t do that, I’m not sure whether you’re god. You know, we want even God to work according to our expectation, our schedule and our way and when our lives do not turn out as we expect, we get disappointed, upset, frustrated, and sometimes we even give up. We think our expectations are the best way for our lives and there is no other way better than that. We don’t even know sometimes whether what we ask for ourselves is the best thing for us. We pray for it, but we don’t even know that that’s the best thing. Even Jesus shared that human weakness.

Jesus prayed, let this Cup away from me. He thought that that was the best way for me, but soon he realized that God’s way was different from what he expected then he said, not by my will, but by your will and he accepted the cross which he did not really want to take. Our wishes and our expectations are not always the best way. Of course, we human beings cannot live without any expectations. We always live with some expectations, but when our life does not turn out as we expect, don’t get so disappointed and give up. Don’t give up your journey because the journey does not turn out as you expect it.

Just because life did not turn out as expected. That does not mean that my life is over. Maybe that’s when new life may begin. The new life which is very very different from your own life, so from now on, don’t be so rigid. My like should be this way. Your life may turn out very differently, accept that. May be very different, accept that and live out there may be new life. The world that we don’t know and the world we have never experienced may open up for us. We’ll encounter God who works beyond our expectations, demanding that our life should be this way, can be another form of bondage.

What is important is not to make and shape our life according to our expectations, but to know and sense the movement of God in our lives and following. God does not lead our life as we expect you are not God. Let God be God we are not God, be still and know who God is. Sometimes God leads us in a way that I don’t want. I never imagine we’ll do our best in our life but let us not forget. Let us never forget, the key to our life is not in our hands. The key in our life is in God’s hands who works beyond our expectations. Let us not be enslaved and let us not enslave each other with our expectations. Let us entrust our life in God’s hands and then experience the freedom. Why do you worry? you entrust your life in God’s hands. D’on’t limit God’s power to your expectations. Don’t let the size of your expectations be the measure of God’s power, the size of your expectations much smaller than the size of God’s power, God’s power goes beyond that. Famous psychologist and philosopher he knew that, this is what he said, “let your mind start a journey through a strange new world, leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be close your eyes. Let your spirit start to soar and you will live as you have never lived before.

I’m not sure whether Christian or not. I don’t know him that well, I just know him as a scholar, but he sensed that and that’s what our Bible teaches us. That’s what our God does. Your journey, an exciting journey. Our theme was journey to fullness this year, and your journey will be exciting journey to fullness. It may not be easy journey. It may not be what you expected. A lot of strange things may happen in your life, but entrust yourself in God’s hand and you will experience the guiding hands of God. You’ll be shaped as God shapes you. If you have shaped your life all this time on your own, from now live in God’s hands and see how God shapes your life. Just because things did not happen as you expected, don’t get angry, don’t get frustrated, don’t get disappointed. Just sit down. Listen, God, why trying to do that through this? Listen and God will show you the insight and God will shake you and God will show you and God will pave a path for you to walk along and then God, will never leave you alone. God will always be with you along that journey.

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Mark 4:34-36

he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, Let us go across to the other side.  And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.

How wonderful it is for us to come together once a week and reflect upon our lives through the teaching of Jesus Christ. I think that is a tremendous blessing that God has given to us because during the week it is pretty hard to really reflect upon our lives. We are busy doing many things. At least we are forced to come to reflect and think about it when we gather once a week like this. I think it is pretty healthy spiritually and psychologically to truly reflect upon what is going on in my life and what is going on in my inner self. I think that’s pretty important for us to do that and I do believe that and have confidence that Jesus has a very good teaching and very good wisdom and truth to really apply that to our lives and I think we will be very much that we will be very much blessed by the teaching of Jesus Christ. Today Jesus told us what the Kingdom of God is like, and then this is what he said about the Kingdom of God, “The Kingdom of God is someone who would scatter seed on the ground and it will sleep and rise night and day and the seed will sprout and grow”. He does not know that is the teaching of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God. I want you to reflect upon it a little bit this afternoon. What does it mean to really understand the teaching of Jesus Christ? A person without it’s scattered the sea and then he came back and slept and rose again a few nights probably and then he saw the seed sprout and grew, but he doesn’t know how. What message does it have for the kingdom of God? First of all, what is the Kingdom of God?

The Kingdom of God is not a visible kingdom, it’s not a structure, it’s not a country, it’s not a system it’s not something that is tangible. What is the Kingdom of God? Let me simply say that the Kingdom of God is life with God, that’s what the Kingdom of God is, basically the kingdom of God, his reign of God reigns in your life. And then that is the Kingdom of God. But God is the sole of control, controlling your life, and then that is a kingdom of God. So the Kingdom of God is life with God. So Jesus is talking about our life and our life is with God. That’s what the Kingdom of God. Today Jesus is talking about our life somehow this is the passage that gives me peace. I was thinking, why? This passage gives me a peace, probably that phrase, “Sleep and rise”. You spread a seed and go to sleep, night and day and the seed will sprout and grow. We don’t live like that, we work hard, but many times I feel that working hard is not enough. Many times I feel that especially the nature of work that I do as a ministry, working with people endless, so I work hard, but working hard is never, I feel enough. Don’t you feel that many times, you work hard, but working hard is not enough? We worry about the result, we always worry about the result. But you know the results are not necessarily always good. Even though you work hard, the result is not guaranteed to be good. What will happen to my children? What will happen to my job or what will happen to my health? and what will happen to my future? Will my future be good if I really work hard now?

We constantly worry about the results and sometimes that affects our present life. We can’t even work hard and focus on our present because we worry about results and we seek ourselves if the result is not going to be while we work hard. If I put so much energy and passion and that turns out to be bad, I mean why work so hard? If there’s a guarantee, then I will work hard, but if there’s no guarantee why work hard? Human beings are very smart. They calculate all the times and then we work hard, but say you don’t see the results and if you don’t see the future then that affects our present life. In that sense, life can be tiring. Not only do we work hard, but you also worry about your precarious future. Maybe that’s why we cannot go all the way because of this reservation. Maybe because of this fear about the future, because of this worry about the future. Maybe in the present, we cannot go all the way because it will be disappointing.

Jesus said the Kingdom of God is different. Life with God is different. You spread a seed and sleep. In other words, you work hard and leave the future in God’s hand. You spread a seed and you don’t go dig the seed to see whether it’s growing or not, then you kill the seed. You spread the seed and wait, sleep and rise. You can only sleep and rise when you have faith. When you don’t have faith, you cannot sleep, you worry about what’s gonna happen to the seed, but when you have faith, you can sleep and rise and then next, what you see is seed miraculously grows and makes fruit. My friends, we don’t always control the result. That’s the nature of life. You don’t control the future. That is the nature of life.

God will use our hard work and God will bring results. Our future is not in our hands. Our future is in God’s hands. In the prison, I can work hard, but our future is not in our hands, it is in God’s hands. All the believers have this philosophy that the knew that their future is not in their hands, their future is in God’s hands. Listen to what they Saint Paul had to say, “I am confident of this. I am confident that they want to get a good word among you, bringing to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. God who began this good work in you. He is the one who will bring completion, not you. It’s not you bring everything to completion. It is God will bring to completion”. Life with God is like that, life without God is not like that. You leave the result totally and completely in God’s hands. That does not mean that you’ll prepare for the future. Of course, we will prepare for the future. Preparing for the future is spreading the seed around. But if there’s no seed, where is the seed supposed to sprout and where is the seed supposed to grow? So preparing for the future is like spreading the seed, you have to prepare for the future. You have to spread the seed first, but we don’t force the future. We don’t manipulate the result to fit our ideas of what our futures should be, we don’t manipulate it, we don’t force it. When you try to do that, all kinds of bad things started happening. We work hard as much as we can and always leave the result in God’s hands and then what you will see is that’s how God moves. The people who always control the result that controls the future never seek God’s hands, but when you leave future in God’s hands, then you understand how God moves and that’s who God is like. You understand God and you’ll understand the will of God and you understand the movement of God and that is only possible when you have faith. When you don’t have faith, you cannot see it. First of all, you cannot leave your future in God’s hands, second, you cannot see how God moves. You can not see the will of God and you can not see who God is like. Amazing feel about having faith in leaving your future in God’s hands that you can intuitively understand who truly God is like. Even if the result is not what you expected or wanted, we have to accept the results and move on. Trusting that God will ultimately bring it to completion.

We need radical faith in God’s doing. We need radical faith in God’s doing, that radical faith is a foolish fit. Sometimes we need to be a fool, don’t be too smart with God. Sometimes we have to be a fool to truly trust in God’s doing. Abraham left Haran, completely trusting in God, he didn’t even know where he was going. God said simply “Promise land you go” and he just left and then God says, unacceptable thing, God said, “sacrifice your son Isaac”, and he even trusted that and tried to sacrifice his son. It’s kind of ridiculous in a way, but in that process he learned the truth.

Jehovah’s meaning “God prepares”, prepares something for our future. My friends in spiritual journey, journey to fullness, if faith is not there, there’s no journey. Only two things, you work hard and you believe, you believe and you work hard. Even if the result is not what you expected, you still believe. As you start learning to leave results in God’s hands. When you start doing that, when you started learning how to do that, leave your future God’s hands. What you experience is freedom. You become totally free and then from the freedom you experience peace, you’re free from anxieties and worries and you experience peace in you. Even though you’re tired, that life is difficult and that all kinds of problems and that life can be messy and all these things happened, but still there is peace in your heart when seeing your future in God’s hands.

When you leave your future in God’s hands, you will become much more effective and creative. You may become bold and courageous. You can try new things because you’re not scared of failures. You may fail at times, but you are never a failure. As long as you are in God’s hands, you are never a failure. We may fail many times but we will never ultimately be a failure, so when you trust in God, we get better. You can be bold, courageous, creative and can even be effective. The present comes alive when you leave the future in God’s hands.

That’s the beauty of this, a secret in being in God. When you try to be safe all the time you lose yourself. When you leave your life in God’s hands, you’ll boldly move on. In the second parable, Jesus said, “the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, the smallest seed in the world, but in the end, you’ll be the biggest of short”. You start with being a small person, but when you trust in God, God will make you a bigger person who will bring tremendous results and people will come to you and experience freedom. I hope that you leave your future in God’s hands and today live peacefully, freely and happily and work hard and do not worry about tomorrow. Your children leave it in God’s hands. Your family, your job, your house, leave it in God’s hands.

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Mark 3:20-35

and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, He has gone out of his mind.  And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.  And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin  for they had said, He has an unclean spirit.

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.  And he replied, Who are my mother and my brothers?  And looking at those who sat around him, he said, Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.

To me, people’s utter can be forgiven, but if you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, that sin will not have forgiveness. It is a serious charge Jesus uttered, and since it is a very serious charge, we have to take it seriously too. We cannot just take it lightly and casually, whatever sins can be forgiven. But when you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, then that sin will never be forgiven eternally. What does it mean to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit? So I to really reflect on this, what did Jesus mean by uttering blasphemes against God? Against the Holy Spirit is like swearing at Holy Spirit or saying bad things about the Holy Spirit, what is it to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit? Just after he said that there’s a little note, and this was what Mark said. Mark said for they had said he has an unclean spirit. The people said Jesus had an unclean spirit. And Mark thinks that because they said that Jesus told them that they blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. So I was reflecting on this. Was Jesus angry? Because the people accused him of being demon possessed or gone out of his mind or were they angry at? Was he angry? So he blurted out this thing that your sin will never be forgiven or blaspheme against all the spirit is a kind of one kind of act that you do. So, because of that act, you will never be forgiven eternally. To both questions. My answer is no. I don’t think Jesus was angry. I don’t think it is just one kind of action or words that you say against all the spirit.

And so that’s what we’re going to focus on today. Jesus cast out demons and he healed many people. He did all kinds of things that we normal human beings will not be able to do. His teaching was amazing. He showed tremendous power of God, so people were quite amazed at this man, Jesus. What sort of man is this? Who does all these things, but at the same time, when you look at Jesus, Jesus not only did heal and exorcised demons and all that stuff, Jesus did a lot of things that irritated and frustrated people. Jesus did a lot of things that normal Jews would not do at that time. Like breaking sabbath, or eating food without clean hands, or associating with sinners and drinking and eating with them. And then normal Jews saw Jesus. He’s supposed to be the leader, but he doesn’t look like the leader. On the one hand, yes, he was powerful. He did all kinds of wonderful things as a leader. He had charisma, but on the other hand, they cannot really accept him as their leader because Jesus was breaking all kinds of traditions. So they cannot really pinpoint, yes this is Jesus. They cannot really pinpoint who Jesus was. They had a hard time figuring out who Jesus was. In other words, Jesus was too big to be contained in their well defined small world. They cannot really contain Jesus. They could not figure out who Jesus was. Jesus was like them also at the same time, she just was so different from them.

People lived in their well defined small world. We try to define our own small world. In the well defined small world. There is logic and formula that they use to make a judgment, to assess and to figure out. So they had this logic and formula. This is the formula: if you do one, two, three, then you’re a good person, but otherwise, you’re a bad person. If you do these things or you’re a religious person or if you do that, you’re not a religious person and if you do this, then you have salvation. But if you don’t do that, you don’t have salvation. They have their own logic and formula to figure out who the good people are, who the bad people are, and then with their logic and formula, Jesus cannot fit in their logic or formula. They could not really figure out who Jesus was. You know, in the English language, there is understanding and there is comprehending the word comprehend comes from the original word, prehendere and prehendere meaning a grasp you put in your small hand and then you look at it, “ah… now I comprehend. Prehendere”

With Jesus, they could not do that. They cannot put Jesus in their own small hand. And then just look around, turn it around and say “oh, I know this is Jesus.” Jesus was too big to be grasped in their small hand, in that sense, comprehend and understand are two different things. In understanding God. If you try to understand God by grasping it, if you try to understand God, by putting God in your small hands and looking around and saying”, oh, I know this is this God”. If you have that attitude, you can never understand God, my friend. You will never be able to fully understand God because God will never be able to come into your small hand. In the same way, if you try to understand other people with your own logic and have well defined, and already set my mindset. If you try to understand anyone, you can never understand anyone but yourself.

With very fixed thinking, narrow minded fix thinking. You can never understand the world. You can never understand other people. You can never understand God, especially God. To understand God it’s almost like not putting God in your grasp. You’re reaching out and barely try to touch God. You reach out as far as you can. Your imagination and everything, but still you can’t quite get it, but at your fingertip, you feel the sensation of the presence of God. You barely understand who God is, never in your hand. You can see it. You cannot see it. You can touch it. You cannot touch it. There you start understanding who god is. That’s why it’s sometimes frustrating for some people, some people are such control freaks, so they have to have everything in their own hand. And now I understand, but God, you can never do that. Michelangelo, I think he expressed that kind of thing very well in this picture. When you look at it you see the two hands reaching out to each other and does not meet. So try to understand God in that way.

I think that picture tells us a lot about reaching out with an open hand. The scribes did not try to understand Jesus. They tried to comprehend Jesus. They try to put God in their own hands. They did not try to understand Jesus. They tried to fit Jesus in their small world. As we discussed last week, we try to fit God into our lives rather than us fitting our lives in God. No matter how hard they tried, they could not understand Jesus. You know, human beings are strange. When you cannot understand. They don’t humbly acknowledge their ignorance, but rather, what do they do? They said that he was demon possessed. Here’s an unclean spirit, very convenient way of things that you don’t know, very convenient things to do when you cannot really understand your demonize. Other people who are very, very different from you. Well not like you, they are demon possessed. They are bad. You said, I’m just trying to understand Jesus. They spit out Jesus saying that he was demon possessed. That the attitude is attitude of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. You already have fixed thought logic. Formula and idea, and everything has to fit in there. If it doesn’t fit there, then it’s evil.

Even God has to fit in there. If God doesn’t fit in there, then I won’t accept it. Then you will remain in your own small world and you remain in your sin. It can never enter into the bigger world of God. No matter how hard you trying. So many people have this fixed thinking about themselves, about life. They think I know it all, so they never opened their hearts and minds to the new world that God is bringing to us. That’s why we cannot hear God. We cannot enjoy the world of God. That’s why Jesus kept saying, let those who have ears to hear, let them hear. Jesus was so frustrated because they did not have ears to hear. Can we say hundred percent that life is exactly as I perceive and there’s nothing beyond that. The life you’re living is the best life, can we say 100 percent? We don’t need to change how we are living. We just have to live the way I have lived all this time and that is the best way to live and that is the way to salvation. Are 100 percent sure on that? Then, if that is not the case, what makes us not even consider changes? Is it our stubbornness, is it our pride or is it our laziness? Then we don’t change. We won’t change. If you are not 100 percent sure, then we should change our attitude. Not The I know it all attitude. Not the I know the best attitude. When we were younger. We may might have done that, but as you experienced more mysteries of life, complexities of life, we cannot say that anymore.

As we get older, as we experience more about life, we need to learn the humility of accepting the world bigger than the world we know. They demonized Jesus. It was the most convenient way to do it. But I hope that we don’t do that. I hope that we don’t reject things. There are very different, from what I think we need to open our hearts and minds to be able to receive what Jesus offers. Yesterday, I had a Bible study in the evening. Most of them were in their fifties, and then they were all saying, you know, I want to get older nicely. I don’t want to be a cranky nagging old person. I want to get old gracefully and beautifully. And then they said, I want to be more accepting. I realized that there are all kinds of people and I want to accept them as they are. You will encounter all kinds of different things in your life. Don’t fix life with a small world that you have created. You will become a small person. Whoever is different, whatever is different, learn from it.

When Jesus speaks something very different from your idea of a good life, think about it again. Maybe there’s a truth or there is a mystery there. I hope that we can all be open to the guidance of the spirit. The spirit will guide you exactly in the way you expect because you are not God. The spirit is going to sometimes make you very uncomfortable. The spirit maybe sometimes challenge your thinking. Even the spirit will guide you into the bigger world. When you reject it, that’s blaspheming against the spirit and you remain in your own small world. Instead of experiencing the wonderful world that the spirit provides for you.

All of you are beautiful people. Beautiful talents. You are much more capable, and much more talented than me and I envy you, but you have to be open to the guidance of the spirit and the spirit will surprise you. You can be a much, much bigger person than who you are. Bigger, not in the sense of success in terms of the quality of a person, and I think you can do that as you let go of your fixed thinking and let the spirit guide you in your life. Day by day why don’t you practice that. Spirit? How do you want to guide me today? I will surrender myself. Before, I lived like this, I want to surrender myself and see how you guide me, how you lead me. I want to experience you. I want to experience God. I want to experience the beauty of life. So let us think together with that in mind.

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John 3:1-16

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God. Jesus answered him, Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Nicodemus said to him, How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be? Jesus answered him, Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Last week I had a visitation from one of our church members. She told me that she had tried to fit God into her life but now she tries to fit her life into God. That was a pretty profound statement. What does it mean to be a Christian? Being a Christian, I realized, is not about living a thoughtless life just full of activities and doing things. The Christian life is very much a reflective life. It’s about asking What am I doing?' and How is it connected to God?'. Whatever is happening in my life, whatever emotion that I go through, you kind of reflect on it and then understand God better and, as a result, your life better. I think that’s what the Christian life is all about. Christian life is not just about doing good things and being full of activities, the Christian life is very much about leading a reflective life. Spiritually you reflect about your life in that way. It does not necessarily mean the Christian is a better person than the non-Christian, but you continuously reflect about what God wants to do and what God is doing in your life. So that reflective aspect of life is very much ingrained in Christian life and very much a part of life.

I saw that woman living a true Christian life. She’s continuously reflecting on whatever is happening in her life with God. And then she found this kind of profound statement: I used to try to fit God into my life, but now I realized that I should fit my life to God. And she has realized the secret, the truth about life. I think that’s what a Christian life is. You try to fit yourself in God because that’s what it means to be born again.

Maybe the Christian life is simple. You used to be at the center and then you try to even use God and fit God into your life, but after you are born again, you truly understand God’s theory. You try to have God in the center and then you fit your life into God, that’s what it means to be born again. Being born again does not make you a totally different person or a fanatic. Being born again is a reorientation of your thinking. You don’t put yourself first anymore, you put God first. That is the criteria, it is simple as that. So let us look at our life,  do I put God first or do I put myself first? Can I really create myself being a Christian when I put myself first before God? Jesus taught us this interesting and ironical truth. This is what scripture says: the more you control your life, the more you lose control over it. The more you try to find yourself, the more you will lose yourself. Rather if you lose yourself, figuratively speaking, then you’ll find yourself. I think that’s amazing, truly amazing. That’s what I find in myself. The more I try to find myself, the more I lose myself. But when I forget about myself, I end up finding myself.

Life is not in my control, it’s a simple fact. It’s not in my control, and that’s what Jesus kept telling us. To Nicodemus, he said this about a person being born again (John 3:8): “The wind blows where it chooses and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes to. So it is with everyone who was born of the Spirit”. Jesus taught us the truth about life. You go out into the field and then you feel the wind and think, oh, the wind comes from the north. You hear the sound of it and you feel the direction of the wind, but you cannot control the direction of the wind. You don’t even try to control the direction of the wind. I wonder how many times we have tried to control the direction of the wind of our life. We are very clear about the fact that we cannot control the direction of the wind, but I’m not sure whether we’re truly clear about whether we can control the direction of the wind or not. And then sometimes we try to control the wind of our life. I think trying to control the wind of our life is an illusion. The faster you wake up from that illusion, the faster you will find joy and freedom.

I do believe that there are two different kinds of order in life. The order we bring in our life by trying to control it is very different from the order God brings to our life when we surrender ourselves to God. The order we create for ourselves is very rigid, limited, and sometimes suffocating. When we’re younger, that order was okay because it makes life safe and controllable. But as you become older, that order becomes suffocating. Rather than helping you feel safe, it inhibits you. You cannot be satisfied with the order that you create for yourself. The order that God brings to us is open, limitless, and liberating. Life is like this– first you start with order and then that order gets destroyed, then you bring in another order and then that order get destroyed, and so on.  We cannot just choose one order and let it just fit our life continuously until we’re done because there is no growth, there is no liberation. The essence of life is always the old life perishing, and then discovering a new order. The order we create is rigid, but the order God creates is open, limitless, and liberating.

The order we create for ourselves will be shattered by the hardships that hit our life. Strangely, the order that God brings to us when hardships hit our life enables us to somehow find a new shape. It molds our life into a different way and a new order. There are two orders that express strength. One is hard, the other is resilient. The real strength of a Christian life or spiritual life is rather resilient than hard. When something is hard and the pressure hits it, it sustains for a while but when more pressure hits it, it breaks. But resilience is like when the pressure hits you, it goes down, comes back up again, goes down and comes back. It never breaks. I think the Christian life, or spiritual life, has the strength of resilience.

Life in the spirit has tremendous freedom and yet tremendous resilience. When you build your life with your own strength, you have no choice but to build a small life. No matter how big you are, you are very small compared to God. The kind of life we build with our own strength is one where we have no choice but to live a small life. That life’s future is precarious. But with the spirit, your future is unknown and yet you’re in the good hands of God.

My friends, work hard and live diligently but don’t try to control your life. Let the spirit guide you. Let the spirit mold you. Let the spirit shape you. You’ll find a new dimension of order.  When you surrender and let the spirit guide you, all of a sudden you’ll be taken to another level and another dimension of joy. You will struggle with life, how can we live without struggle? Every day’s a struggle, every week is a struggle. Everyday something else happens. We cannot live without struggle but I hope that your struggle is not the struggle that tries to hold onto something that you cannot hold, that’s a meaningless struggle.

Let your struggle be a struggle that you can let go of. I know some of our members have financial problems, they struggle so much. If they tried to hold onto something that they cannot hold onto, then that person would perish right now. Let it go. Let go of that grudge, let go of that hatred. If you don’t let go, you can never forgive. Jesus said, forgive each other 70 times 7 – endlessly. Sometimes you’re worried about your children, you must even let that go. I’ve experienced that in my own children, I had a moment of strong uncertainty about their future. I remember I said, I leave them in Your hands . Let go and surrender to the greater power of God who brings wonderful things to your life. Then you will find peace and see the Kingdom of God.

Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Very truly, I tell you can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above”. When you let the spirit control your life, you can see the beauty of life, the joy of life, the freedom of life, and you’ll see the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is not a place nor a time, the kingdom of God is God’s reign. When you completely surrender yourself to God to God’s hands, that’s when the kingdom of God gets established in your life. I think that’s the truth that Jesus talks about. You have tremendous desire to control – just like children, so scared.

Why don’t you let go? That’s what it means to grow up. Let us experience how God will lead you, and that will definitely be better than what you experience. You will be able to experience tremendous joy, freedom, and vision. Life has to open up, don’t close it. The Holy Spirit can burst it open so that you come out confidently. You can live out your life fully and abundantly. That what life is. Life is to be celebrated. Life is to be enjoyed. Life is to do something you truly enjoy. Life is to discover God’s amazing plan for all of you.

Reflection

Let us truly let the Spirit of God come upon us, melt us, mold us, fills us and use us. We need to surrender ourselves and let go of the things we hold onto because of our fear. Let us have the opportunity to let go of the things we so tightly hold onto and let the Spirit control you, guide you and lead you.

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This is the last session for this season in the study of Mark. Rev. Kim realized that 5 weeks is too short of a time to cover the whole book in detail and do justice to it. Therefore we concluded the study up to Chapter 10. Interesting to note is that Chapters 1-10 cover the first 3 years of Jesus’ ministry, while the last half of the book covers only 1 week of his life. We look forward to studying that one week!

*NOTE: the first 10 minutes or so of this session was not caught in the recording, so the recording begins part-way through it. We apologize for that inconvenience.

There was a lot of engaging discussion and dialogue in this session. Please listen to capture the vitality of this study of the Word of God!

We will resume the study of Mark in the fall of 2015.  Enjoy your summer!

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Ezekiel 37:1-14

Listen to this week’s powerful sermon. Too often we live our lives in mere comfort and mediocrity, instead of allowing the Spirit to unleash the fullness of life within us. No matter our circumstances, being in the Spirit is a true part of the Journey to Fullness. Please listen and be blessed in your own life!

Let the Spirit come upon you, or let the spirit within you come alive, and may the Spirit truly make your existence come alive.

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, Mortal, can these bones live? I answered, O Lord God, you know.  Then he said to me, Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.  I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

Then he said to me, Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.

It was the Spirit who brought him this vision and he was taken down in the middle of the valley and then he saw a pile of dry bones. It is kind of horrific scene. A valley full of dry bones. It is a vision. And then you realize that that dry bones represented the condition of the Israelites. When you see Ezekiel, he was taken into captivity by the Babylonian. Israel was destroyed by Babylon. And then they took all the people into captivity. Ezekiel was part of the group that was taken. So they lost the country, the laws, the religion, they lost their God they lost their temple, and they lost their worship. Among that, they lost hope. The people lived in Babylon without much hope. But today Ezekiel is telling us, I saw dry bones, but in the whole process, Ezekiel found hope in the Spirit of God. Only in the Spirit of God, Ezekiel found hope. This is what Ezekiel said at the end of the vision. I’ll put my Spirit within you and you will come alive. You shall live. He saw the dry bones, but when the Spirit came upon the dry bones, somehow the dry bones came alive. That’s what the Spirit does. The Spirit makes our lives come alive. Spirit is Ruach in Hebrew. It is wind, breath, and life. So when the Spirit comes to us, it makes our soul, Spirit in our whole existence, our whole self, come alive.

You know the modern life is great. Life has become so easy and so convenient. I can’t believe that in this small device called a cell phone, there are more than a 100 books. Can you believe there are more than 100 books in this small device? I carry it everywhere. If I had to carry 100 books with me, that will be pretty tough. And I do most of my reading on the phone. I can’t read a book anymore, the words are too small and you can’t read if it’s dark. With a phone, that’s not the problem. So most of my reading I do on my phone, most of my studying I do it, and sometimes I even write sermons on my phone. It is very modern. Life is comfortable and convenient, but even though my life has become so comfortable and convenient, I can not say necessarily that made our life more fulfilling. Are we more fulfilling than those people will live 50 years ago? I can confidently say that our life is very different from the people who lived 50 years ago. But the fulfillment of life, in better terms, the sense of fulfillment with your life, I’m not quite sure on that. But still, the modern life is obsessed with convenience, not much interested in the enrichment of life. Even though we have so many things that make our lives very comfortable and convenient, we are looking for more comfort and more convenience,

But we are not much interested in the deep enrichment of life. Modern life provides us with fun and pleasure, but we become more and more estranged from ourselves, separated from ourselves. We do not know what our heart’s desire is. We do not know who we are. And sometimes we don’t even care who we are. We do not know our own emptiness and hollowness. Modern life constantly has many distractions. It has a lot of things so we don’t even think about our own emptiness and hollowness. We have deep empty space, but we don’t look at it. We don’t have time to look at it. We just made ourselves distracted so that, we don’t need to look at our own hollowness, emptiness because it’s scary to see how empty we have become. We learned not to say it. We learned to forget about it. We live just doing what we’re supposed to do. There is no such thing as self discovery. And I wonder to myself, how can you truly enjoy your life when you don’t know yourself. How can you truly enjoy your life when you don’t see what’s going on in your heart?

How can anybody be fully satisfied when you don’t feel about yourself? Sometimes when I look at people, including myself, we have become numb. We have become desensitized. We do a lot of things, but nothing makes us come alive. “Yes, I’m living. I’m alive. We don’t know. Yeah. Another day I just do this and that. Yeah. Yeah. I have to make living another day.” There’s no such thing as, “yes! Good life!” Even though we did not lose our country, we’re losing ourselves. Even though we were not taken into captivity, we have become a prisoner of ourselves. We have become like dry bones. My friends, I think we need to find our own spirituality. I need to find my own spirituality. Real spirituality, no religiosity. I’m not much interested in religiosity. It is good, but I think that’s very different from spirituality. I think we need to really find our own spirituality and cultivate it. We need to find the Spirit that makes us alive.

A lot of people don’t do much to cultivate their spirituality. Even though we know that spirituality is important, that we say that is important, we don’t do anything about cultivating our spirituality. Then it becomes just habit just living like that. Not much sense of fulfillment or enrichment. Oh my goodness, I don’t have many years to live on 57. The rest of my life. I’m not going to just do lots of things and just let it pass. I want to live a fulfilling life, every moment of my life. I want to really experience fulfillment.

Today’s the day of Pentecost. As a Christian, you are celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit. My friends, without the Holy Spirit, Christianity can never break through persecutions and hardships they went through. You know, when Jesus taught them, they didn’t understand until the end, until they received the Holy Spirit. Only then they experienced the power and courage. And with that power and courage, they were able to, to break through hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. Christianity did not just come about. If Holy Spirit did not come, I don’t think there would be Christianity. For these mundane, weak, and vulnerable disciples, the Holy Spirit came down upon them and they, all of a sudden, they were strengthened. And then they persevered, and they broke through the hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. That’s why we have Christianity now. The Spirit was with them and the Spirit strengthened them and the Spirit gave them the life force to go forth through the storm.

I do believe that the same Spirit will strengthen you, and give you courage so that you can break through the storm. we can be strong people with the help of the Spirit. This is what Saint Paul said. “Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words and God who searches the heart knows what is the mind of this period because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good, for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

The Spirit helps us. The Spirit intercedes us. Interceding meaning pray. When you’re vulnerable, when you’re not able to do anything, it is the Spirit who prays for you, who is with you, who intercedes for you. God gave us the Spirit. We are not an orphan and we are not alone. You don’t serve God alone. If you serve God alone, you’ll be tired. You’ll be exhausted. There’s only so much you can do as a human being, but when you are filled with Spirit, then you can do so much more. Christianity is not about what I do. Christianity is about what the Spirit does within me.

This is what our Lord Jesus said, “and I’ll ask the father and I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate to be with you forever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you and he’ll be in here. I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming to you.” This is a promise. As he left the earth, he left the Spirit with us. We don’t see the Spirit. The world cannot receive the Spirit, but we the believers of Jesus Christ, we received the spirit. The Spirit abides with us and within us. Now the Spirit is given to not just a few individuals who has spiritual experiences, the spirit is given to all of us who believe. And with that Spirit, you can do amazing things with that Spirit. More than what Jesus did. All his life Jesus did everything with the help of the Spirit. He didn’t do it by himself. It’s not that Jesus was a special person and he could do all these things, Jesus completely depended on the Spirit and the Spirit, helped him do all those things, and that same Spirit is given to us and we’ll be able to do what Jesus did and even more.

This is what Jesus said, “very truly, I you the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and in fact, we’ll do great greater works than these.” Think about it. You will do greater things than what Jesus did. There is this nagging voice within me that says we are not doing as well as you’re supposed to. We could do much better, but somehow we are saddled with mediocrity. We’re just settling with mediocrity because they’re so used to mediocrity and instead of going all the way they are content with the mediocrity. In other words, we ourselves are the stumbling block. Jesus said, we can do more than what he did.

You have a great potential. You have great gifts and talents, but somehow you’re paralyzed. You’re limited. Your thinking is limited. When you’re thinking is limited, your life becomes limited. Whether with your work or with your life, with your performance, everything, you’re just limited. What the Spirit does is opens up, expands you, brings you out so that you can live out your full potential. That’s what the Spirit does. Cultivating the spirituality is very simple. Be always in the Spirit. When you listen to the sermon, listen in Spirit. Otherwise, you won’t understand. When I preached this sermon, I preach in Spirit. I’m aware of Spirit right here with me. Take time to be in the Spirit. Discipline yourself to be always conscious of the Spirit in you. Everyday take even 10 minutes, 15 minutes, to be conscious in the Spirit. Just sit there and enjoy the presence of the Spirit. When you’ve read, read in Spirit. When you work, work in Spirit. When you think, think in Spirit. All of a sudden your life will come alive. Your life will be expended. The Spirit will open your eyes and lead you into the truth. And the Spirit will awaken your soul and the Spirit or give you the courage that defeats your fear. Fear is one of the biggest stumbling block we all have, but the Spirit will fight off that fear that paralyzes you and gives you the courage. The Spirit will enliven your soul and your feel deeply satisfied and experienced the full richness of your life.

By ourselves, we have no choice but to become lonely, empty and hollow, but with the Spirit, we’ll feel enriched. Everything comes alive. Black and white becomes colour. I forgot that commercial. Black and white becomes with a Spirit or drink or whatever. It’s like this with the Spirit. Our life comes alive. When the Spirit touches our lives, everything comes alive. I realized that the Spirit doesn’t necessarily changes your circumstances but the Spirit changes you, so that your attitude, the way you see your circumstances, become very different. The early disciples, when they received the Spirit, their life was not necessarily easier. The same persecution was there, but they were able to change because the way they look at their circumstances and the way they look at their persecution changed. They had courage, had the strength to persevere. And they persevered through. This year’s theme is Journey to Fullness. You can never have a journey to fullness on your own. You can only have a journey to fullness with the Spirit. So my friends give it a try. Give yourself fully in the power of the Spirit. Let the Spirit do the amazing work through yourself and through your life and see how big you can become. Stretch your boundary. Don’t limit yourself with the boundary that you set up, break it, stretch it, and see how far you can go. See how deep you can get. If you’re a writer, stretch yourself. Be a creative writer. If you’re a magician, stretch yourself. A businessman, stretch yourself. A teacher, stretch yourself, be creative with your teaching. Whatever you do, what God wants from you, is for you to live out the full potential that God has in store for you.

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Rev. Kim continues to lead us in a study of the Gospel of Mark.

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John 17:11-19

John 17: 11-19  

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

This is the Word of the Lord.

This week I had a particularly difficult time writing a sermon. Sermon writing is not like you craft the writing as you like. A lot of the times what I do is wait for the message to come and it is a little bit different from Bible study. So a lot of times I spend my time reading and reading, reflecting and reflecting and then waiting and waiting. And yesterday, I waited until 11:30 night here at Church and still the message did not come clearly, and this morning at 5:00 I woke up and then meditated on the passage again. Of course I wrote a draft yesterday, but the difficulty about this passage in particular was that we did not belong to the world, Jesus said. When I reflect upon my own congregation including myself, we are so in the world, we are so engaged in the world.

How do I say to people who are so into the world that you do not belong to the world. And that was partly the difficulty about today’s passage. Today’s passage is Jesus’ last prayer on earth. Just before he died, he said this prayer, and then few days later, he would be killed. It was probably the most important prayer because when people die, they say the most important thing; last words on earth, last prayer on earth. Jesus spent three years with the disciples and now he had to say goodbye to them and now they would be left all alone without Jesus. Until now they followed Jesus and just did whatever Jesus told them to do, but this time they had to take the initiative of carrying on the ministry that Jesus began. When Jesus looked at the disciples, they were probably not ready yet, so Jesus was really concerned.

I’m really thankful that the disciples did not give up. They carried on what Jesus did. That’s why we have the gospel, that’s why we have good news, and we have salvation. If they said, oh, this is too much, I don’t think I can carry on this ministry. If they gave up there, then Christianity would not have been birthed. It all depended on their shoulders. The twelve disciples, they were the ones, everyone else left Jesus already. Now, the only people that were left were the twelve disciples and they had to carry on, and the task was too much for them. That’s why Jesus was concerned for them.

When I read the prayer of Jesus several times, the strong message that came from the prayer was protection. Jesus wanted their protection. When you look at verse 11, “and now I’m no longer in the world”, that’s what Jesus is saying, “but they are in the world and I’m coming to you, Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me. So that they may be one as we are one”. Jesus knew that their life would not be necessarily easy, so he asked for protection. As you know, all the disciples were martyred. The world to them, especially without Jesus was not a comfortable place. The world was hostile to them. Jesus even knew that the world would be hostile to them. This is what Jesus said. “The world has hated them because they did not belong to the world.” The world has hated them because they did not belong to the world. Just before that he said they have my word. That’s why the world will hate them because they do not belong to the world.

At times, as Christians we will have difficult times in this world. It is hard to survive in this world. The world is not necessarily a kind place for us to enjoy. We have to constantly prove ourselves about our worthiness. And sometimes we face problems and they are quite overwhelming. It’s like when you go to the ocean the wave comes to you, but not just once, continuously over and over and over again. Sometimes problems come to us like waves, instead of okay, now I’ve had enough problems, no more. Another problem can come. Life can be quite cruel to us sometimes. We feel like sometimes we are surrounded by helplessness and we have no place to hide or escape.

Often we get disappointed with the world and we get frustrated too. And we realize that it can be quite a cruel place in this world. We do not belong to the world. That was what Jesus said in his prayer. Same phrase twice, verse 14 and verse 16. They do not belong to the world. Just as I do not belong to the world. They do not belong to the world. Just as I to not belong to the world. It’s not a typo. He repeated it intentionally twice in verse 14 and 16, the exact same sentence. I realized that you cannot be too comfortable in this world. This is not our eternal place to stay. We cannot permanently settle here.

My daughter lives in Boston and I ask all the time, so did you make some friends and then, do you go to church or you know, how’s your life there? And then basically they were saying, oh you know, just work and home, and work and all, we have no friends still and all that. And then Will said, you know, we’re not planning to make many friends here because we’re not going to stay here too long. We’re gonna come back to Toronto, so we are not really worried about making friends. I said yes. If they’re too comfortable there, they won’t come. They would like Boston more than Toronto, because Toronto is a better place.

This world is not our permanent place to stay. We cannot be too comfortable in this world. The world may have treated you very nicely so far, but never forget that you do not belong here. You will not permanently stay here. Of course, we should not hate the world or despise the world for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. God loved the world so we should also love the world, but loving the world does not mean that you should completely immerse yourself into the thinking of this world. That’s not what loving the world is. you cannot completely attach yourself to the world. While Jesus lived on earth, I think he really enjoyed the world. He had many friends, sinner friends. A lot of them were sinner friends. I think he really, really enjoy the world very much, but I get the sense that he never had a  strong attachment to the world. He enjoyed it. He loved it, but he never attached himself all the way to the world. He did not live to stay here or lengthen his stay on earth as long as possible. When you read John, right from the beginning, Jesus always said, my time has not yet come. My time has not yet come. My time has not yet come. He was waiting for his time. His time of death, time of the cross. Jesus always said, my time has not yet come. He loved and enjoyed the world, but he knew soon he would leave the world, and he has no attachment to it.

That is the kind of attitude Jesus had about this world. He lived only 33 years, very short life. You may say what kind of life is that? 33? But that 33 years, were the most meaningful years and they made a profound impact on other people. With only 33 years living on earth, his life made a tremendous impact on people.

It is one thing to love the world and another thing to totally immerse ourselves into the world. Please don’t be bought into the thinking of this world. Don’t be fooled and don’t be blinded. By the pleasure that this world may give you. St. Paul said in his letter to the Romans, for 11 chapters he wrote about the theory of Jesus Christ and salvation eloquently. And from chapter 12 he described how you should live. The first thing that St. Paul said was give your body as a living sacrifice and that is spiritual worship. And then he said this, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect. When you experience that disappointment, disillusionment with a world do not be so sad. It may be a good reminder that you do not belong here, that you do not belong to the world. Rather, use that as an opportunity to be transformed by the renewing of your minds. Use it as an opportunity to transform yourself then you’ll be able to see the perfect and acceptable will of God in your life.

This is what Jesus prayed and this is what I also pray for my congregation. Jesus said in verse 17, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is the truth. Don’t be tainted and completely influenced by the world’s thinking, by this world, but sanctify yourself with the word of Jesus Christ, because that word is the truth. Immerse yourself into the truth. Sanctify yourself with the truth. Don’t be fooled. Don’t be blinded. Life is short. You’re supposed to find the perfect will of God rather than just enjoying every moment of it.

People who experienced deep pain in the world, all of a sudden they have a different perspective about the word of God. The word of God is no longer an aging theory. The word of God becomes life to them. I’ve been with you for many years. I’ve been in this church since 1992 so I’ve been in this church for 23 years. I’ve seen you since some of you were really young, before marriage, while you were in school. For a while. I saw dedication. I saw a deep passion for the word of God, a deep passion for Jesus, but somehow life carried some of us to a totally different place. We don’t have that passion anymore for the word. We used to have it, we used to be so dedicated, but somehow through life experiences, something else started influencing people.  

When we go through hard times and difficult times, the word of God becomes living life, not just an ancient theory. Some of them confessed to me without the word. I don’t think I could survive my difficult time. They had unimaginable pain, hardships and difficulties, and they come to me and say, the word of God saved me at that time.

If we do not know the word, we’ll be lost. Jesus taught the disciples the word. That’s why they could survive. Be sanctified with the truth, be sanctified with the word of God. That’s the only thing that can sustain you. Don’t base your life on good experiences that you have in this world. That will not last too long, and you cannot control that either. The end will be disillusionment and disappointment. Let the word of God transform you. You’ll be able to love the world and enjoy the world without being fooled by it. You’ll never get lost when you have the living word. You’ll find true joy. That’s what St. Paul said. He said, rejoice always not only when things are good, rejoice always. He said this in prison without knowing the future of tomorrow. He said, rejoice always. He was sanctified by the truth, so joy becomes a characteristic of his life and that was what Jesus also said today in his prayer. I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. Jesus was leaving, but he wanted disciples to have complete Joy.

The joy the world gives cannot give true joy. The peace the world gives you is temporary joy. The life the world guarantees is a temporary life. The joy, peace, and life that truth guarantees us is for eternity. Don’t invest all your time, energy, resources into things that are here for awhile and disappear. Invest all that into eternal things. That was Jesus’ prayer for the disciples.

Let us think about our lives. Where do we invest all of our time, energy, talents, and resources? Things that are here for a while disappear. Let us really think about what it means to put our lives into things that are eternal.

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