St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

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Mark 1:21-28

They went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent, and come out of him! And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Today’s story is a very unique and strange story. Jesus made it to the synagogue sanctuary. There was a man with an unclean spirit. Jesus drove that unclean spirit out of him. I’m not quite sure what Mark meant by the unclean spirit, because we don’t use that term in modern days. We don’t use that anymore. I don’t know whether there is a psychiatric labeling for that or it’s just a spiritually unclean spirit. Just generally they refer to this kind of situation, as unclean spirits, so it’s not quite clear what that meant, he was going through. But even before he actually drove out the unclean spirit, the first thing Jesus did it. This was the first Ministry of Jesus Christ. As soon as he began the ministry, what he did was he went into the synagogue and taught. I think teaching is a very, a central core of Jesus’ ministry.

So the first thing Jesus did was teaching and then people were astounded. That is what people said when they heard Jesus teach. They were astounded at his teaching for he taught them as one entity of authority and not as, the scribes. I meditated on that as one having the authority and not as the scribes. What does that mean? Teaching as a person who has the authority and not as scribes. When you read the Bible, we often labelled Jesus as the word of God. For example, Gospel John, which was the most developed theological book. John said, “Jesus is the word of God and that word of God became flesh. And that is Jesus Christ”. So Jesus and the word of God are very intimately connected with each other. After Jesus’ teaching they there were astounding that Jesus drove out the unclean spirit part of this man. I was thinking about what was the condition of that man with the unclean spirit. Was he lonely? Yes. Isolated? Probably. He was completely isolated from others. Experiencing the void of life. The emptiness. Maybe surrounded by the absurdity of life. Out of focus. Estrangement from reality. An endless struggle.

I think this is what this man with an unclean spirit experienced when he met Christ. But when you look at all these, as a matter of fact, these are what modern people often complain about. This is what modern people experience. So, I realized that this story is not about one individual. It’s not an isolated instance about one individual. I think this is about human beings as a whole and both ancient and modern. That is a predicament that we human beings experience. When Jesus’ word came to him. Something wonderful happened to this man. Mark said, “And the unclean spirit throwing it into convulsions and it cried with a loud voice, and came out of him”. The unclean spirit came out of him. He was released from the power that controlled him, oppressed it and took the life out of him. You know, teaching, when you receive teaching what do you do? You accumulate knowledge and it becomes a power. You get educated, you learn about accounting and all that and you get so much experience and knowledge that you can really become powerful or a doctor or an engineer whatever. With that knowledge or teaching, you accumulate certain knowledge and you have power.

But in what ways was Jesus teaching different from the teachings that we know or teachings of scribes? I think Jesus teaching was not to accumulate. I think Jesus’ teaching was to drive out what we don’t need. That’s the difference between Jesus teaching and the teaching of scribes. The scribes gather the knowledge about God, about the law, about everything, and maybe “Kevin (Made up name”), I’m an expert on the law”, but Jesus teaching was not to accumulate these things, but drive out things that bind us, or enslave us. One is about taking out and the other is about adding on. Very different things being taught. Most of the teaching that you receive is adding on, but Jesus’ teaching was to let go. Let go of the things that enslave us and bind us. That’s Jesus’ teaching. Jesus did not come to add more to this world. Jesus’ teaching was not about adding more information about God. They said that Jesus’ teaching was a new type of teaching, but Jesus never taught anything new. All he taught was already in the Old Testament. Love God. Love your neighbour. That’s all in the Old Testament. So Jesus never taught new teaching or new information that way. Jesus Christ came to this world. Not to add more, but to drive out what bound the world.

Real teaching is not about adding more knowledge and more power because you already have lots of people who have knowledge, that is not teaching. Real teaching is about freeing us from things that enslave us. When you receive real teaching, then you have the empowerment to let go of the things that is leaving. Certain desire that you have, you can let go. So if you have a lot of greed and pride, when you received the right teaching, you can let go of those, especially religious pride. Jesus taught the Pharisees, said that they could never let go of their pride because they were so religiously absorbed into their own self-interest. But when the right teaching of Jesus Christ happens within us, then we have the power to drive out the darkness within us. People accumulating knowledge and they’re very proud of how much they know. And yet nothing much changes in them. Maybe we know much more than what we used to. With help of the Internet, you could ask me anything. I can give you the information about how to use your phone or how to take pictures or any question you ask me? I will probably be able to answer your question. By the end of this service. A few strokes, you get the information. And yet, we human beings feel more isolated, more lonely, feel more abandoned. The emptiness is more severe than before. So the answer is not having more. The answer is to have, the right teaching of Jesus Christ so that we can be free from what enslaves us. From what drives us into darkness.

So in your journey, I think the important thing is to remember that whatever teaching you have, don’t try to put it in your brain. Meditate on the teaching so that you can be free. You have the power to be free from that enslavement. What is the thing that enslaves you right now? Is it your insecurity? Or is it your lack of confidence, or stubbornness, or hatred, anger and religious pride? What is that enslaves you pray that Jesus’ teaching may free you from that enslaving you? When you read Mark, the word schizo comes out quite often. Schizo from the word schizophrenia divided. When Jesus was baptized.

Jesus’ teaching us schizo, it divides us from the darkness. It drives out darkness within us. It makes us pure and clean. The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to a dividing soul and spirit. Jesus sees very well how enslaved we are, and Jesus came to tear apart holds this world and what enslaves this world. As Jesus tore apart the unclean spirit from the men. Jesus came to tear apart the darkness from us. You don’t need to live in that darkness anymore. Jesus’ teaching can help you, empower you to be free from the darkness, and live your life in the light. And that is the difference between Jesus and the teachings of scribes or teachings of this world. Nothing in the world can teach us to be free from the darkness. Jesus’ teaching can free us from the darkness. May Gods work and the teachings of Jesus Christ truly transform you and help you. And that is the journey that we want to take this year. Trust in Gods word, and see what happens within you.

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This is the first session of the brand new “Friday Night Gathering” Bible studies. The first series was an in-depth study on the book of Romans. This letter of St. Paul articulates the core of Christian belief, and a good understanding of it is important for those who profess the Christian faith.

The series was a great and informative time of deep learning and reflection on how the message relates with our real lives. Please join us in this learning journey!

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1 Corinthians 7:29-31

{Transcript}

“I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.”

It is hard to truly understand what Paul is trying to say. He advises those who have wives to live as though they had none. I mean what kind of message is that? Those who have wives as you have none', it requires interpretation. Is it the message that you should take your wife for granted, or is it the message to not to take your wife too seriously? If you by mistake think that that’s the message and you’ve practiced it, you will probably be in big trouble. You know, these days if you don’t listen to your wife and take her for granted, probably you will starve or you can’t do anything. If you are going to make an appointment you have to first check with wives. When I arrange visitation, I don’t arrange with the husbands. I arrange with wives, because if they say yes, it’s yes. If they say no, it’s no. Fortunately, that is not the message Paul is trying to communicate. Paul does not say, to take your wife for granted.

Weeping, rejoicing, buy things, dealings all over the world… they’re all very much part of what we do and what we experience. Common experiences and important things are very much part of how we live day by day. You know, there are times when you have experience, great joy of life. When you have your first child in your hands, when you get a job you want so much, when you meet a special person of your dreams… you experience great joy when we go through these things. There are also times when you experience the sadness of life. When we lose our loved ones, when we had difficulty with our job or our business, with our boss. There are children who are in trouble at school or in their personal lives. We feel the deep sadness of life when we experienced these things. When there’s a family fight, conflict, difficulties, relational difficulties, we experience the sadness of life.

So we only experience joy, rejoicing and we experience sadness, weeping. That’s very much part of who we are, and what we experience, and these are really important moments of our lives. When you experience joy, you want that moment to last forever. I wish that this moment is everlasting. I’m so happy. It’s just perfect right now. I hope nothing changes, that it just eternally stays there as it is. When you experience sadness, you don’t want it. You want that to pass by quickly, but somehow you feel like that sad moment will be with you forever. You have this worry that this suffering and sadness will never disappear, will never go away. Will it be with me for the rest of my life?

St. Paul in today’s passage is saying that these moments will not be with us forever. They’re passing by, they are transient. He said in verse 31, “for the present form of this world is passing away.” So marrying, reaping, rejoicing, and doing business, they are all important human activities, but still they are not permanent. They will not stay with us forever. They’re important and we should do our best to do well with all those, but we cannot attach eternal value to it. We cannot assign eternal value to these things that we experience. If we do that, we’ll be disappointed. We will be disillusioned. When we experience these things going away from us, we will overreact to our situations. That suffering comes to us, and if we attach permanent value to that suffering that we experience, we will be consumed by our fear for that suffering. Suffering may come, but it will pass. Same with joy. When we experience joy from our circumstances, we wish that joy we get in the things of the world may be permanent, but that’s not possible. The joy will soon go away. At the prayer retreat, in our group a woman shared “You know, I set this standard on my life, you know about children, about finances, about help and all that. I just wished that I could just maintain that level and when it goes down, when it crumbles, I worry and I worry that it may crumble.” And she said, “I’ve experience being crumbled, I experienced being at the bottom of my life. And then all these years I built up to get to this standard again, but now I’m more worried than before. What if this just crumbles? What if my children, what if my finances, what if my help? The fact is we have no control over that.

I shared this with you at the retreat, there was a movie called Shadowlands, that portrays the life of C.S. Lewis who was a professor at Oxford University and a great Christian writer. Later he became converted and became a great Christian writer. He married Joy Gresham, a divorcee from the United States in his late age. All his life, he was just a scholar living in an ivory tower. As soon as he got married he realized how great life is. He really enjoyed the married life, but soon after the marriage they discovered that she had cancer. While taking care of her he experienced what it mean to truly love somebody. That’s something that he never experienced before as a scholar, but he understood what it meant to truly love somebody, but at the same time he experienced how painful it was. Once they went to their favorite part in England, a rural area, they really enjoyed being there, Louis, filled with happiness and joy, he said this to Joy Gresham, “This is my kind of happiness, by the present moment is entirely self contained, untarnished by any fleeting thought of what has come before or what may come later.”   He really enjoyed that moment, not bothered by any other things, that pure present moment he enjoyed. Then joy his wife gently rebuked him saying, “That’s only temporal isolationism. That happiness cannot be genuine if it involves shutting off the past or the future, what is yet to come to the future infuses the very texture of what is now experienced, the pain that is part of this happiness now.” That’s the deal. She realized that that moment can not stay there forever. That beautiful moment, however beautiful that moment may be, cannot stay there forever. So after that, she passed away. Joy knew that the joy that they experience at that moment cannot be self contained. Nothing in this world can be self contained. They all pass by. You will soon disappear and the suffering will replace the joy. After her funeral, C.S. Lewis said, “A child chooses safety, but a grown person chooses the suffering, the pain is part of the happiness. Now I find I can live with the pain after all.” That’s the deal. What St. Paul is teaching us today is to experience inner freedom, inner freedom so that you may not be so attached to things that pass away – so that you may not be so obsessive about the things that cannot stay there forever, eternally.

Live as though not, let those who have wives as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present of this world is passing away. With inner freedom, we can handle all our life situations including the transient nature of life. It doesn’t depress us, it doesn’t make us feel hopeless, so instead of trying to hold on to what cannot be held on to, hold to God, who is permanent, who is eternal. Our inner freedom prepares our heart to let go of things that have passed away. When you try to hold onto the things that pass away, you become so powerless, helpless and hopeless. You lose the meaning of life. No matter how painful your life may be right now, the pain will pass away someday. Don’t let the pain consume your life. We are more than just victims of our temporary circumstances. We are stronger than that. You’re stronger than that. They cannot completely control us, we have eternity within us. We have eternal life within us. Those who only have hope for the transient things, the things that passed away, ultimately will find meaninglessness in life. But when you find that eternal life in you, that in spite of our transient nature of life, we can live out our life with courage, joy, hope and peace. What are you holding onto? Things that have passed away, are you scared to let go? Hold on to what does not pass away. Everything may pass away, but not the light of the word of God.

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On January 23-24, 2015, we held our first ever prayer retreat. Contrary to some images that come to mind, this wasn’t a time where all we did was physically pray! Rather, we had seminars led by Rev. In Kee Kim, plus in-depth discussions in smaller groups where we learned more about what prayer really is. We often think of prayer as just the physical act we do, but we learned that prayer is a lot more than that.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to record the first seminar in this retreat. What we have here is the second of the two seminars Rev. Kim gave. You will still be able to get a good sense of what the first seminar was about by listening to this one.

May your life be filled with a prayerful heart!

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John 1:43-51

John 1:43-51

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth. Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit! Nathanael asked him, Where did you get to know me? Jesus answered, I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you. Nathanael replied, Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! Jesus answered, Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

What I wanted to talk about today is a little bit of a difficult topic. I’m going to talk about the mystery. I’m going to talk about reasoning. I’m going to talk about how those two are working together. So it’s a difficult topic. The Christian journey is a journey into God and journey into God is a journey into mystery. By nature, the journey into God, is a journey into mystery. We don’t really know what the outcome will be. We see Phil and Nathaniel in today’s story, when you look at it there are a lot of missing holes. Jesus was in the side that Moses talked about and the proverbs talked about and how Nathaniel knew that Jesus was the son of God and the King of Israel. There’s no explanation.

They just made a confession. Sometimes the Bible has that when there’s a mystery aspect, there is no explanation necessary. But their lives were completely changed after this incident they neither expected nor imagined that their lives would turn out that way. Before they met Christ they were probably living very normal and ordinary lives. Then all of a sudden, once they met Jesus Christ, their lives turned around completely and they followed Jesus. In that sense, life is a mystery beyond our control and our power. We cannot always predict our life’s outcome. These days I really, really enjoy seeing my grandson, Nolan. I don’t have much time to visit them and actually see him, but Josh sends me pictures and video clips. So my daughter Grace is from Boston, so she came and stayed with us and we sat down and watched the pictures and video clips.

She said, I can watch this all day, and then cry. Everything is so beautiful. It’s wonderful to see your grandson. But while I was asking myself what future is waiting for him? What will he be like in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years later? And I realize that I don’t know, it is hidden. It is hidden to us. It is hidden because it is part of our life. We live our lives in the natures of the known and the unknown. The certain and the uncertain. The revealed and the hidden. Nobody lives with absolute certainty. Nobody should claim that they live with absolute certainty. Philip and Nathaniel didn’t expect at all that their lives would turn out the way it turned out. It was a mystery to them. Yes, it was their choice. But when you look at it and yet it wasn’t totally your choice. Don’t you feel that sometimes, yes you made a choice but it wasn’t really totally your choice? Life is like that, we think it’s our choices, but we realized that it wasn’t purely our choices. Life turned out all right, but not necessarily because of our good choices. Some of the times, life turns out in spite of our bad choices. We didn’t always make the right choices to make our life good, sometimes life turned out good in spite of our bad choices.

We are thankful to God for that. There is a force that leaves our lives much more powerful than the power of our choice. That’s what Philip and Nathaniel experienced in today’s scripture passage. Nathaniel was a skeptical person. like most of us. Most people who live in the 21st century are very skeptical. Philip came to him and said, oh I met this great guy he was the one that Moses and the prophets were talking about. It’s Wonderful. And then Nathaniel said, “What good comes out of Nazareth?”. And Philip’s answer is so refreshing. Come and see, come and see. That’s the formula of John, come and see don’t try to figure out, come and see. You actually have to come and see. What good can come out of Nazareth? That was Nathaniel’s prejudice, in the end, he was proven wrong. The real good came from Nazareth, Jesus Christ came from Nazareth, and then ultimately you are the son of God and the king of Israel.

There is another famous skeptical person in the Bible and his name was Thomas. Thomas was another skeptical person. It’s interesting, both people came out from Johns Gospel. Nathaniel comes out right in the beginning, in chapter one right at the beginning of John’s story. Thomas comes out at the end of the story, almost like John was trying to say how a skeptical person became a believer. From the beginning to the end he put those two people right there. After Jesus was resurrected. Thomas wasn’t there, so when he was soon there he said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hand and put my fingers in the mark of the nails and put my hand into his side

I will not believe. Thomas wasn’t there and he said this, “But as soon as he encountered Jesus, he didn’t put his finger there. He didn’t put his hand in his side. He didn’t do any of that”. That skepticism evaporated. As soon as he encountered Jesus, the only thing that came out of his mouth was the greatest confession. My Lord and my God. In the entire Gospel, no one ever said that Jesus was gonna die. The highest confession was that Jesus was the son of God, but nobody dared to claim that Jesus was God. And from the lips of Thomas, we hear a confession, my Lord, and my God. They both overcame their skepticism when they met Christ. You know, skepticism comes from our intellectual reasoning, but when we encounter the divine, our reasoning stops. That’s what it is. When you read the Bible. That’s what happens. When you encounter the divine the reasoning stops, and something more powerful than the reasoning takes us over. That’s why religion can be very, very dangerous.

Also, religious fanaticism was caused because of this aspect of God. You can justify almost anything in the name of God, and the name of God, they did horrible things. In history and right now we use God to justify their hidden beliefs, their anger, their hatred, and the fear of being powerless. We don’t condone that. They simply use God for their purpose. But encountering God is the most beautiful thing. The most beautiful thing that we human beings can experience. It is not something we can figure out or explain. There is such a thing as figuring out God, you can never figure out God.

That doesn’t mean we put aside our reasoning. We don’t use our reasoning to figure out God, we use our reasoning to understand God deeper. As we encounter the divine, all our reasoning stops. We are simply in awe of Gods presence. That’s what we have seen today’s scripture. When Jesus calls Phillip, Phillip did not try to figure out, he simply understood that he was the one Moses and the prophets were talking about and that was what he communicated to Nathaniel. In the beginning, responded skeptically, but that was before he met Christ. But as soon as he met Christ, he made his confession. He was a son of God and king of Israel.

Being able to reason is the power we human beings have. When we lose it we become very uncomfortable and vulnerable. It is a power to protect us and build our lives. With reasoning, we make our living. With reasoning, we make our judgment. With reasoning, we say what is right and what is wrong. So being able to reason is very, very important in our lives. When your reasoning is screwed then it becomes a problem because he really drives our lives. With reasoning, you can pretty much control your life. Yes, with reason, we can control our live’s, but we cannot experience life with reasoning. You can control it, but we cannot experience God. You can experience life. Life is not to be controlled, life is to be experienced.

God is not to be figured out. God is to be understood. God is not to be controlled. God is to be encountered. God who is controlled is not God anymore. It is an idol that we create for our own convenience. God gave us this greatest gift, reasoning. I think that’s a wonderful gift that God gave to us. If he didn’t then we would become quite arrogant with our reasoning. It is the greatest power we human beings are proud of, and rightly so.

But we have to understand that this power of reasoning can limit us, blind us, and keep us locked in our own small world. We don’t experience the magnitude of life. We don’t experience the love and joy of life. We just live with a taste of a little control we make in our lives. As Nathaniel encountered Jesus, he was in awe. He was quite shocked by how deeply Jesus knew about him. And then Jesus said, “Are you surprised only with this?”. And then he said an amazing thing. You don’t see the greater thing you don’t know yet, what that greater thing is. You’re just surprised with this. You’ll see a greater thing. Jesus really showed what the greater thing about life is, That is what the life journey is all about. As we take the life journey, we will see greater things in life. In that sense, I’m an optimist. I always believed that life will get better.

I always believed that everything will work out for the better, and I believe that the present is always better than the past. I have beautiful memories in the past but still right now, the moment I’m living, the present time I am living in is better than the past. We’ll see greater things in life. To do that, we need to be open to fully encounter Christ. Jesus where do you want to take me? If you’re with me I will go with you. Jesus, what do you want me to experience in life? I’m scared, but if that’s what you want me to experience, I believe to experience that. We have to trust God.

God wants you to experience the most beautiful things in life, but we have to trust him. Our journey is a journey into mystery, our journey is a journey to experience greater things in life. As we meet God our eyes will be opened and see greater things. Jesus said to Nathaniel, heaven will open, but we have to trust in God. With small things that you’ve created. Don’t be bound by it. Don’t be scared of going beyond. Don’t let your fears stop the journey. Have the courage to take into a deeper level of our living, deeper joy, deeper love, and a deeper sense of justice. In that journey, we will experience that life is wonderful. All things beautiful and bright. Yes, life is wonderful my friends. Don’t be scared of taking on this journey. God will be with you and God will take you to the most beautiful place.

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John 7:53-8:11

Mark 1:4-11

Good morning. Today I like to reflect upon our life, and through the bible, and Jesus was left our lord with the woman. Chapter seven, briefly touch upon the things today’s story. Chapter seven ends by saying that each of them went home and each of the people went home, chapter seven days about a story that is very different and the hostile people trying to arrest Jesus, just to lay their hands on him. The Bible says, then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. Verse 44 says some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid, laid hands on him. There are different people, different groups of people here. One group of these people think they know where Jesus came from and from what kind of family background. So that, a fairly cynically saying that Jesus cannot be the Messiah. If they said now, some people observed, some were saying, it’s not this man, this the man whom they are trying to kill. Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah? They civically lapping at the government here, the government trying to arrest Jesus, another group believes in Jesus. They believe, but not as the Messiah. They believed in miracles Jesus did, but not Jesus. They just believe Jesus’ number of miracles did. How will our spectacular Jesus’ miracle work, but they didn’t believe Jesus? They only believe in miracles. Many the crowd believed in him and was saying, when the Messiah comes, we get two more signs that this man is done. So then they get religious, but they don’t actually believe Jesus as Messiah. And there’s another group when the whole group to us Pharisees and chip priests, they want so badly to lay their hands on Jesus.

They want to just do something harm on Jesus Christ, but there are many people kind of support Jesus Christ. So they are afraid of the puppy. So then they just, they just sent temper police. The chief priests and Pharisees sent temper police to arrest him. They were different kinds, different groups of people, but they all share one common faith. They have faith among themselves. Now in a single time, that is a thing that time ever and ever no profit comes from gaining profit ever, and ever come Galilee, the unknown, not powerful. And most of them are wisdom in Israel. I would say that the paper said search and you received it. Then no profit is to arise from Galilee. Galilee that’s not possible. That’s not possible. That’s what they believe. This kind of group, this kind of courage, this kind of family background. No, That’s not possible things. No good person comes out of that background. That’s what they believe. So they try to arrest him and they tried to lay their hands on him. But as we all know, they are failed to do so. So that each of them went home. And what happened after was John chapter one starts with this. Jesus went to the Mount of olives, the mount of olives. This was the place to Jesus always went heavy cherry. Jesus always went to this mountain, only one popple to pray this, this was the place Jesus went the brain type of, Oh, this loud and boys commotion and fuss were gone. He went to the mountain by himself. He didn’t bring his disciples by himself. He may not be as there. And they’re all in the next morning. He came back again to the temple where another loud and noisy commotion was very for him.

All the people came to him and he sat down and he began to teach them right there. This time, the scribes and the Pharisees wrote one, poor woman who had been caught in adultery and making a stand before all of them and picturing Jesus like this teacher, there’s a woman who was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now, in the law of Moses commanded to stones, such a woman now, what do you say they had only one intention. They said this testing. So then they might have some charge to bring against teachers for various changes in me. Jesus didn’t respond to that at all. But he just bent down and wrote with his fingers on the ground. In the midst of this noise, the fuss, and the craziness. He was the only one who was calm this day. Then they raise their voice. When you are, when you’re upset and you just keep telling something like somebody and that somebody doesn’t respond to you, it makes you feel much angrier. And then you just don’t respond. Then they start much angrier and that they just can pull in our case, questioning on him. Then you just trained it, straightened up and said to them, let anyone on you, who is with us with the forest to throw a stone at her. And once again, and wrote on the ground, we don’t know why he wrote on the ground. The list of their sense. I don’t know, or Jesus giving them some time to think about themselves. We don’t know. As soon after they went away, one by one beginning with the Adams and there only Jesus was left alone. And this woman, this poor lady this time, this is this woman standing on the, before him, Jesus just straightened up and said to her woman, where are they? Has no one condemned? You shouldn’t cry, no answer. Then she just said to her, neither do I condemn you here? go your way. And from now on, do not sin again in the midst up, lots of people in this crazy world so-called in the temperature of seven something. I see two lonely people, two more new people, Jesus. And the woman said, seven people try to grab Jesus, just try to lay their hands on him. They tried to make Jesus stand before. Then try to charge him, trying to make Jesus, his life much more difficult and shameful and try to strip you just naked. But they failed on. And it’s this time they actually grabbed this poor woman. They laid their hands on her. They made her stand before all of them successfully charged her successfully made her already difficult life, much more difficult successfully made her it’s Timney shameful. They sweep her dignity or naked in the midst of this crazed craft in the midst of this, crazy world. I see these two lonely people, but there’s a difference. The walk of Jesus was fairly much different than the walk of the woman. She just was very lonely, but dignify, the woman was also very lonely and she nearly and miserable. Jesus bent down, writing something on the ground was lonely but dignified. The woman also bent down on the ground, not by her own Weir, but grabbed by somebody powerful and pulled to the ground. Miserably surely.

I say also modern life and our lives. Maybe the misdemeanor from discipline. Look at the Pharisees here. This clean, the scribes and the Pharisees brought, who had been caught in potentially making a stand before all of them. They said to him teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now Moses commented us to stone, such women. what do you say? I just highlight my point there. What kind of life the life could have by somebody caught alive road by somebody pulled to the ground, shoulders dropped. Show me a lady making a post here and there. I saw somebody buy something by this powerful, by that powerful, that kind of life. There’s a woman on this ground cannot have her own way. She cannot have a name, cannot have any dignity. She may want something so badly. She may hope in our lives, something so badly, but they are all in vain where people hit be hit. When people push it pushed, maybe they put on the dress or dignity, your shame crime, one around them listens or cry. There is literally nothing she can do on this miserable grad pool to buy someone powerful by someone righteous. She is for a service. She is just no one and nobody and many times are I’m speaking like this. And many times somewhere out there in this world, many times there are a lot of lives that just like this poor lady. And there is another kind of life that meets her. Life is life or paper and authority. It’s trying to lay their heads, but this life just bent down. And wrote on the ground, this life no matter what so much dignified said to them, let anyone among you, who is without sin. You’re the first one to throw a stone. Are these people, these crazy people encounter this very strange life. And one by one from the enters to the young ones went away from her. This constant, that person, this authority. And this authority, this powerful for that powerful, this righteous one, that righteous one, like a Scarlet letter on her body sharing. They’re making them more like miserable, all those things went away from her or detached from her, how much we want our life to be like this, how much we want our life to be free. Like this, how much we want our life to fly high. So free in the sky. After all these detachments, the Bible explains the situation. Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him again, she just was left alone with the woman standing before him. In other words, all went away and only the woman was left alone with Jesus. And I believe our spiritual journey is exactly like this. When do you mean was I left alone with Jesus or Jesus? And we left her alone. Jesus asked her, has no one condemned you should apply. No one sir. no one, no one, sir.

No spiritual journey is like this. No ones are normal, but the person who called me, the prostitute who brought the prostitute, who pulled me to the ground, the attachments, the shape, the regrets, all of them, sir. No one sir no one. They don’t even myself stand before him. Does the only Jesus meet to just say me? Who said caught and brought Jesus. Stand up and say, there is no one except me or left. And baby, we are not a day has no uncondemned you the one, sir, no one they own gone. Jesus said I don’t condemn you to go your way, go your way. Not just that somebody is this way, but to go your way straight up your shoulders, walk your way. The way only you can walk, walk now with dignity. Jesus was left alone with me standing before him. This must be our journey.

What turn in the year, 2013, I had to say goodbye to my father. How much I had something in mind, art to say, sorry for him. How many words are heard him? How many coming back I showed him and how many words I had for him. Life was a long-standing before him as a pastor. I could shed light on this one, that hospital room with gas and messages and many, many prayers of mine and where my father was alive, but eventually life for so long, we had Jesus standing before him and must go his own way. The journey or initial must take the journey. I must take, even though my father had many words that speak for me yet many worries or his wife who’s to be a widow. Life must be left with Jesus standing before him on my journey. There could be many companions. There could be many friends, your friends, your parents, your children, your spouse, but I must call my own way. I must pick my own journey. It’s my portion of this life. That’s my journey that as in this world can pick my father’s faith is my father’s faith. That’s not my faith. My faith cannot be mine. Precious. Children’s faith. That’s my faith. They must take their own journey. Only I left only me is Jesus. The way she just walked was always like that. On the way. There are many people who liked Jesus and also who hated Jesus and also who even care about Jesus. And she just went to the Mount of olives by himself there. only Jesus was left alone with his father? That was Jesus. This journey. What dignifies that honor? the dignified step. Jesus took the journey, the journey that the only Jesus could take. And I always wonder, what did you just do an iron mountain that amount? Or did he say a lot of words to God? Did he cry? did he wrestle? Today is the Sunday of baptist of the lord. You may not know, but today is the Sunday of the Baptist. That’s what it be. Read a passage from the book of Mark. But there was only one voice when it was the voice heard from heaven. And this voice was very intimate for us. Bible says a voice came from heaven. You are my son, the beloved with you. I am pleased.

I believe this was the voice. Jesus kept saying at the mountain over and over and over again it’s. So many people try to grab to Jesus, try to lay their hands on him, try to catch him, and bringing it to where they want it. Try to pull him to the ground, making him undignify. They should be it on this very long journey. Jesus can go to the mountain and listen to this for his offer and keep in mind that himself over and over again. This one voice you are my son, the beloved with you. I am pleased, and only God and Jesus left around Jesus. Stand before God on the cross is where listen to this voice over and over again on the grass. You are my son, but beloved with you. I am pleased Jesus just my beloved. You must go your own way. Even your way leads to the cross to die. You must go your own way. no one else can take your way. There’s your push. There’s your calling. Yes, your vocation. And you just listen to this mountain. This voice came down, came down from the mountain and he calls me Kiko to death. He goes to that death dark in the dark, crazy world no one else, no one else. Jesus could walk to the way to the cross one step, another step, another step as Jesus had this one voice from his father, Jesus left one voice to this poor woman. Neither do I condemn him. Go your way. And from now on to that scene again, listen carefully, call your way, call your way. We need you to just send the woman that you just said to go your way, go to the crowd, go to the crazy world, go your way, pick your own journey. But this time with a dignified step on the dignified step, call your wind walk, strong walk tall.

I pray that we may live on this walk like this. Take my own journey that this goes where only me and Jesus left alone. stand before him detach from the things they were pulling me to the ground one by one, then in a way, and we need me and Jesus left alone. And when Jesus asked me, where are they have no one convention. Then I would say, I must proclaim to this word, no one sir, no one. And I listened to the voice. neither did I condemn you. You are preaching in which credible you are. My son, the beloved. You are my daughter, my beloved with you I am Pleased to listen to this voice, open working, and get up from the ground. Brush the dust, stand up dignified Square your shoulders and go your way. Walked away. Stands tall, stand tall, walk strong, walk tall, and take the journey only you can take that’s your push that you’re calling that journey only you and with Jesus Christ.

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Colossians 2:1-10

For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face. I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. (Colossians 2:1-10) This is the word of the Lord.

Last year, the theme was change. We have reflected upon change, and then we have also experienced a change. Actually and personally, I experienced a lot of changes last year. My daughter got married and my son had a son, so I became grandfather and hal-abeoji in Korean. But you know, these days, grandfather, it’s not necessarily very, very old. It's not like his life is almost over now. There's a lot of young and cool grandfathers. So in 2014 I realized that, you know, God has been so good in many ways. Whenever we encounter difficulties and hardships. God always tells people to hope and that it’s okay. Things will turn out alright so don’t give up, you know? Also, when we experience dangers and crisis, God always showed us a way out. And when we are so down in darkness, God always gave us the light. Gave us the hope to go on and move on. So we are very thankful for a god who has been with us, all along in the past year of 2014. I do believe that God will be with you in your life and guide you and lead you and God will show you much, much more wonderful and mysterious things. I think in 2015, I pray that your life becomes much, much fuller this year and the next year.

So this year the theme is a journey to fullness and that’s what we are going to explore this year – journey to fullness. As Pastor Jane said, let us think about these two words, journey and fullness. For this today, this is just the introduction of that theme, but throughout the whole year we are going to reflect on a journey and fullness. I like the word journey, life as a journey.

When I hear that life is a journey, I feel that life is moving. It’s not static, it’s not just staying where you are. Life is not like the turning wheel or mouse wheel or turning butter in the same place. The life is not just turning around and around and around. Life is going somewhere, progressing towards somewhere. So journey tells me that it has a movement, life has a movement, and I like that. Life has movement. I mean, sometimes we don’t feel like our life is moving at all because you know, when I first start Monday I get a little bit of rest and already prepare a sermon for Sunday. Then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, everything happens in it. All of a sudden another Monday. So sometimes you feel like you are almost enslaved to your routine and everything.

But I believe that life is about moving towards something. So life as a journey is that life has a goal and direction. Life is not as floating around. It is intentional, an intentional journey. That’s what the journey is. Life is not just floating around by the power of the windmill around you, but you are making a conscious and intentional step towards the goal or any set direction in your life.

Life as a journey is a beautiful thing. As I looked at my own life, as we look back our own lives, we realized that there was a certain path. There were certain roads, a certain way, a certain path that we have walked a long. You know, when I look back… 10 years ago, 20 years ago, even 30 years ago Oh yeah, I lived here longer than 30 years, and 40 years ago I could never imagine that where I am now. I can't even think about where I'll be. So back then I didn’t really know what I would be like in 20 years, 30 years, 40 years down the road, especially with high school students here. And then I can sit down and think about, in 20 years or 30 years, 40 years…. In 40 years will I be that old man up there?

Can you imagine what I mean? I don’t think you guys think about these things. When I saw Joel reading the scripture, Wow, John is standing very strong and solid, you know. So life, we cannot even imagine what it will be like in 20, 30, 40 years. That’s what life is, and this path that we have walked on is what’s created and paved by the people that we've met. By the experiences that we had, whether good or bad, or the peers that you made, or the choices that you've made. All these things helped your path be created in a way. Depending on the people you met, certain path is also created in your life. So whatever you live, whatever you do in your life… that creates a certain path for you to walk on.

One thing unique about life as a journey is that you don’t always have a path, or you can't always can see that path. That’s one thing that's unique about a life journey. It’s not that the paved road is there and you just walk on it. All of you take the 401 and you go somewhere. It’s not like that. Sometimes you don’t see the path. Sometimes there is no path, period. So here, what am I going to do now? Which path? There’s no path that I can see. That’s what life journey is like. From here, at this point, where do I go? I don’t know many times. That is what's unique about life journey. Sometimes you have to find that path. You have to think very hard to find a path, or other times you may even have to create a path, because there is no path. So you have to paint the path, create the path to walk on it.

The path other people took, it’s not necessarily the path for me. But the path my friends take is not necessarily the path for me. You don’t want to follow other people’s paths. You want to walk your own path. Your life is one life that you have. You don’t want to walk on the path that other people paved. That is a copy of people’s lives. You don’t want to live a copy of life. You want to live an original of your life. I don’t want to repeat what other people do in my life. I want to see what’s in store for me originally and uniquely for me. God has created me not just as a kind of product manufacturer by the factory, God created me as a very, very unique person. That means I have a unique life that I have to live, and I have to find a unique path that God wants me to at all costs. No matter how great the other person’s path may be, that may not necessarily be the path for me.

This is what Jesus said once, entering through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the road is easy. That leads to destruction and there are many who taken for the gate is narrow and the road is hard. That leads to life. And there are few who find it. Narrower road, narrow path. I took a picture once at knox college. Narrow path, a narrow road. I mean Jesus said walk on the narrow path, go through the narrow gate and some of you most of will think that, oh, that’s Jesus is telling us to take a hard life, difficult life. I mean, it’s true. A lot of people take certain path because it’s easy. That’s why a lot of people take it. So narrow path can be sometimes difficult and hard. Not many people want to take it because it’s hard.

It is true that Jesus was talking about life being hard and difficult, but I don’t think Jesus was talking just about a hard and difficult life. What Jesus is saying is the unique path that you want to take that had been taken. That’s the narrow road. Not what everybody else is doing, but what you want to do, what you want to achieve, what you want to be in your life. That’s a very narrow road that I need to take. Sometimes that road can be lonely because nobody else shares your region. No one else shows you your dreams. It’s your unique dream and it doesn’t matter what it is. It may not be a popular dream, it may be an unpopular thing that people want to do. I want to do this, so I feel lonely because nobody else shared How great you’re doing up that path.

The narrow path is the path that I want to take, not a copy of other people’s paths. That’s what I wanted to do in my life and I hope that you lifted that live that life in your life. A very famous poem by Robert Frost – you all know this poem – so if we look at it, The Road Less Traveled; “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both. And at the end, he says, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

The one less traveled by people, that had made all the difference in my life in your life. So our journey is the journey of finding my own unique life. It may not be glamorous, it may not be envied by people. You may not be rich and famous life. It must be my own life. It must be my colour, taste, smell and my own, not anybody else’s. So this journey in that sense can be a lonely journey. But when you take that journey, on the road, you will find yourself, you will discover yourself. You will get to know yourself more deeply. If you continuously trying to copy other people’s lives in that journey, you can never find yourself because it’s not you on that journey. You’re just following other people. You’re just copying other people’s lives. But when we take my own unique, authentic journey and life on the road, we discover who we are, what we really like, what we really don’t like. Well, it’s my vision. What is my dream? We find that on the road.

There’s a famous apostle St Paul. St Paul was on the journey to Damascus when he took that journey to Damascus. He tried to kill off Christians and imprison Christians. He was full of himself. He was full of his stubborn own ideas. How he should live. So he took that journey in himself thinking that these Christians are supposed to be persecuted. But on that journey he met Christ. That was mysterious encounter and he met Christ. After that he’s changed completely. He was looking for the mystery and great treasure in Christ. I mean this is a what a St Paul said. “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” He found this quest in him in treasure in Christ. So my friends, every decision you are making, it’s reflecting who you are and has to reflect who you are. Therefore every decision you make create your own unique path. That’s why you have to make very intentional decision.

Don’t let other people make decisions for you. You have to make decision on your own because that creates unique path for you. We may not always know the best, best decision. I made so many wrong decisions and you probably made many, many wrong decisions, but what is important is that decision is my own because we don’t see what’s ahead of us. We cannot make always the good decision. We made the wrong decision, but that’s all right, but it has to be your decision, not anybody else’s decision. You know, if you let other people decide what happens to you, after that h, my mother told me to the this, or my grandfather told me to do this, or you know, my friends told me do to this. You’re just blaming other people. You have to make your decision. And that’s very important. But let me tell you, our ultimate goal though of our journey is not to find me. Our ultimate goal is to find the way of Christ. I do believe that is ultimate goal of my journey to find the way of Christ as we just read the scripture because there is fullness in Christ.

Our journey is not just to find me, our journey is to find Christ. That’s why your journey, when you take a journey to find Christ, your journey becomes mysterious journey and spiritual journey. It’s like finding hidden treasures. St Paul found that hidden treasure on the road to Damascus, and this is what he said also verse 2-3,” I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Ultimately, let me just find me. We’ll find entities. But when we find Christ, you will see the treasure, the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I am the 2015 becomes a journey. Of came to know Christ more fully, more deeply, more intimately. Then to do that, of course, you had to take your own unique journey. That’s the way that leads you to Christ. If you copy other people’s lives, you can never find Christ. When you start taking your own unique journey, that takes you to Christ. That’s the first step. Ultimately I hope you get to know Christ in the authentic way, in your unique way. When you copy other people, you will end up with that person’s emptiness. Or when you take that spiritual journey seriously, day by day, uniquely, and you find Christ, you find all the wisdom and knowledge hidden. So journey to fullness in a sense is a journey to emptiness. You need to find yourself and then deny yourself. Find yourself and then empty yourself. When you find yourself, you empty yourself if don’t understand that’s fine. You will understand later in your life you. If find yourself only then you can empty yourself and deny yourself. So journey to fullness in a way journey to emptiness. The first part journey is what we do. But second part, fullness, this is what God does. In the first part we continuously do the journey to emptiness and then second part, God comes and gives you the fullness. We don’t create fullness. It is a gift from God.

2015, it will be an exciting year to take a great journey. High-school students, Hi-C, I hope that in 20 years down the road, 2015 was turning point in my life. I teach you the journey of life. Happy New Year. May you have a blessed year this year.

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Philippians 1:3-6

{Transcript}

Philippians 1:3-6

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

Life isn't Always Easy

We have grown a lot. We have experienced many wonderful new things. We have done a lot of good things. We have many things to celebrate personally and as a community and as the years’ theme indicated, we have experienced much change as well.

It was a wonderful year, not because it was necessarily any easier. Life is not good all the time. At times, it was very painful and sometimes the future did not look bright and we did not see any hope. Sometimes we even lost our passion, desire and appetite for life at times. We struggle with our job and career. We were all worrying about the future and financial assignments. There were times that we stayed up all night because of the worries about what is going to happen in the future. We struggled with our family issues and personal issues. Sometimes we seriously wondered about where our lives were going, What am I doing all this time and where am I going from this point on? We had moments of frustration and anger and we didn’t know what to do with this anger within us.  And there were also times when we sighed and cried uncontrollably.

Life is wonderful but not because it is given to us on a silver platter. Life is wonderful in spite of frustrations, disappointment, anger, and  fear. And in spite of all these, we still say life is wonderful. People are happy not necessarily because their life is any easier than other people. There are some people I see who always have on a cheerful face, but I know deep down what they’re really going through.  It is because of their bright and cheerful attitude towards their life that they can have a cheerful face. In traffic, you can easily get frustrated and that will ruin your day, or you can take it easy and accept that of which cannot be controlled. It all depends on your attitude. When you are caught up in an argument that is going nowhere, you can either push your point or simply back off. It is your attitude that matters. What I realized was that whenever something happens to us, it does not kill us.  

A for Attitude

Our attitude either kills us or makes our situations better. Whatever we experience in life cannot destroy us, but our attitude towards the experience can either destroy us or save us and make our lives better. So I realized that the events that happen to us do not have value in themselves. It only has value by what they do to our lives.

So even if it is really bad, we cannot attach a value to whatever happens to us itself and what that does to our lives. There’s one Korean or Chinese word, it’s called  ‘saegongjida’. The story behind this word is that one day a boy found a horse in the fields and came home with it. When he came home, the whole village came to him and told him how lucky he was since he had a horse now. The village was so envious of that family. One day, the boy was playing on the horse, but then he fell off and broke his neck. The whole village came by and said Oh, how unfortunate you are. The next day, a war broke out and every son was taken to the army, but the son who had broken his neck did not have to go to army. And now all the village people came by and said, How lucky you are that your son doesn’t have to go to the army. The events themselves don’t have any value. In the end, sometimes we think that our events are really bad but that experience may not be as bad as you think.

I realized that we’re not very good at dealing with what happens to us.  We often make it worse. When bad things happen to us they are difficult to handle because they are bad experiences. They themselves are very difficult to have but we make them worse with our attitudes. Let’s say you make a mistake, you move on. Everybody makes mistakes.  By not forgiving yourself and by not accepting yourself, you’re making your life much more miserable than it should be. Let’s say you lost a job by being too critical about your performance, about your situation and about yourself. You are making your own problems more difficult. Let’s say you have health issues, by worrying about your health excessively, you make that disease worse or may even be diagnosed with another type of disease.

Having a bad experience itself is difficult to handle. The underlying problem is that we are making our bad experiences worse because of our wrong attitude. Essentially, we should have a good attitude, right? But a good attitude is not possible by trying harder and it’s not possible by a strong will. Making a hard effort and working harder does not last long. I realized that there is something within us that we believe and without that thing that we believe, it doesn’t matter how much effort we put in it because it does not help us to obtain a better attitude.

Start to Finish

The real question that we should be asking is, what is that thing that we must believe in our lives?  St. Paul said something related to this. It was the philosophy and theology of St. Paul when he said: Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

St. Paul wrote this letter in prison. His situation was not that great. He could’ve told himself, My goodness, what am I doing in prison? I’ve been preaching the Gospel to the Philippians, to the Thessalonians, to the Romans and all these places. I got a call and it was to preach the gospel to all those people, so what am I doing in prison? Instead, the first thing he said were greetings. Then he says, I thank my God. He says, I thank my God. That is amazing. Paul says, I am confident in this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

That’s what was the core of his existence, his spirit, his heart, and his thoughts. He believed that God who began good work, will complete it.

What God began, God will finish. That is what St. Paul believed and that is what we believe. What God began in me, God will finish.

What Does God Want from Me?

What is important is what does God want to do through me. My personal ambitions are not what Paul is talking about. When your personal ambition is frustrated, don’t get so discouraged. Due to your discouragement and disappointment, you may hinder what God wants to do through you. What is important is not your personal ambition, what is important is what God wants to do through you.  

Sometimes, I catch myself falling into my old personal ambitions. My ambition takes over and it controls my life so I get overly stressed, frustrated, and unhappy. I can always just find myself saying, Oh, I’m doing this for God and I’m doing the gospel right. It’s easier to justify that because I’m in ministry. I always still work for God. I always do work for people so I can justify myself all on doing all of these things for people. But ultimately, personal ambition is for your own personal glory. Whether you're doing it through ministry, through other achievements, or through your children, it doesn’t matter.

Chasing after personal glory is just like a bubble, it pops and then it disappears. That’s why we can never fully satisfy ourselves by chasing after our personal ambitions. If you do that right now, you’ll be left with nothing. But if our life is chasing after what God wants to do through us, then we do not need to worry about life. What God began, God will finish. That gives us stability and confidence. We’ll then be able to bless others. The people around are not your competitors, they are the ones that you bless. We’ll have strength to take on life’s difficulties with perseverance and to enjoy life’s totality, not just the small parts in life. We can not only enjoy candy that give us pleasure, but also medicine that gives us healing. I believe that God worked what he wanted to do through you in 2014. Whether you were aware of it or not, he did wonderful things through you. I thank God for that. In 2015 I hope that we are more aware because it is awakened within us. When you’re more aware of it, your life becomes richer and more abundant.

God is faithful, and I thank God for his faithfulness. In the midst of up and downs, there’s a constant truth and that is God’s faithfulness. God began a beautiful work in you and he wants to do it. In 2015, remember this: don’t make your life problems worse by worrying about it, but trust in God and let God work out your life.

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Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.  But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.  Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin?  The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.  Then Mary said, Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. Then the angel departed from her.

Today’s passage is a little uncomfortable passage. A virgin having a baby. That doesn’t sound right. It was difficult, even for Mary, to accept that fact, to accept the uncomfortable truth, and so she asked, “how can this be since I am a virgin how is it possible?”, so it was very difficult for Mary to hear this news and very difficult to accept it. But the angel said to her, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

As I was reading this, how could she say that? How could she accept that? Was she a religious fanatic to accept things like that. Or was she mentally not healthy to just accept?, “yeah, I’m a virgin, but I’ll accept it”. Just from this passage, this is really hard to say, what Mary was really like, what kind of person Mary was? No ordinary woman can accept what the angel said even though it was an angel, no ordinary women can accept what the angel said to her, and you know she was a very ordinary woman from a village. There was nothing special about this Mary. The scripture doesn’t say anything about Mary. She was simply an ordinary woman. But as I reflect on this person, Mary, I realized that she was not just an ordinary woman. She was a very strong woman. Not only was it difficult for Mary to accept the birth of a person while she was a virgin, even though that was a very difficult, but more difficult thing was to live with the son of God, to raise the son of God and to live with son of God for the rest of her life. It was difficult to be the mother of the son of God. As soon as Jesus was born, her life became very very difficult. Until then, she lived a very ordinary life, a comfortable life, but as soon as the Jesus was born, trouble after trouble. The first thing was Herod tried to kill all the babies, so when Joseph, her husband to be and herself had to run away to Egypt and then live in a foreign country, it was trouble after trouble.

Then when Jesus was a teenager, it was difficult to really handle this is a teenager boy. Once they went to the temple and Jesus on the way that they realize that their son was gone. So they went back to temple and Jesus was sitting there with the scribes and teachers and discussing important things or whatever, I don’t know what they’re talking about, but he said, “did you know if I’m supposed to be in my father’s house?” Things like that. How can they handle the kids like that? Not even that, he’s too big for his mother to control. He was too big to guide and control, he was always ready to run into trouble. I mean he was the Son of God, but he ran into trouble all the time. People always criticized him, accused him and sometimes even accused Jesus of being crazy and demon possessed. How as a mother, how can you take that? How can you take that when somebody said, “your son is crazy and your son is demon possessed?” How could Mary, how could a mother take that your child demon possessed and crazy? Mary had to go through all this troubles and difficulties and hardship, you know having a baby as a virgin is just the beginning of the troubles in her life. All throughout her life, she went through so much trouble because of Jesus.

It was hard to be a mother of the son of God. I don’t think you’ll ever envy that, I think you just wanna be the mother of an ordinary person. You don’t want to be a mother of the son of God. Then she experienced something that any mother should never experience, she experienced the crucifixion of her own son dying on the cross. She was right there, strong women. John records that, John says “When Jesus died on the cross, one of the seven last words of Jesus as a mother. This is your son, to John, and then John this is your mother”. She experienced something that she should never have experienced as a mother. So Michelangelo painted this a pity and a suffering and sorrow in his sculpture called Pietà, and that is the sculpture Michelangelo made. Her son, her dead son, the corpse she was holding. It was difficult for Mary, the mother to live as a mother of the son of God. So when Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord, Let it be with me according to your word”. That’s not an easy thing to say. It was not a casual thing to say or more, it was a pietistic thing to say, what she said came from the depth of her heart, shows the faith of Mary. She was an ordinary woman, but she became a very special woman because of this faith. “Here am I the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me, according to your word”. This statement was her statement for the rest of her life. It was not just this time she said she lived with that statement, “let it be with being, according to your word I am your servant”. That’s how she lived for the rest of her life after she made that statement when she received the message from the angel, she lived like that.

Luke, the Gospel writer, the author that saw all that, was all along with Mary. Luke saw what Mary did and saw how Mary lived like that, “Let it be with me according to your servant”. Even after Jesus died, Mary was with the disciples and this is how Luke records that. When they had entered the city, this is after Jesus died. They are the disciples. They all went to enter the city. They went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Phil, Thomas and Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon the zealot and Judas son of James. These are 11 disciples. Judas was not there, he already committed suicide. All of them were constantly devoting themselves to prayer together, including Mary, the mother of Jesus. As well as his brothers. Mary’s life, how she lived her life, and how she lives her life after even after Jesus died, Mary was a wise woman. She was a humble woman. She was a strong woman. She was a woman of courage. She showed to all of us how we should live, “I am your servant Lord, let me be with you according to your word”. That’s wisdom, that’s how we should live our lives. That is the best way to live our lives, my friends like Mary, we sometimes experience the uncomfortable truth as Michelle prayed eloquently in the world, there are many mothers who are crying because of the uncomfortable truth that they experience in their lives, and sometimes my friends not only those mothers, but we all sometimes experience the uncomfortable truth about our lives, about us, others around us, things that we don’t want happen to us, life is not that easy. Things that we don’t like to happen to us. Our situations are too difficult to handle. Our problems are beyond our capacity to deal with and I see many people who don’t deal with situations very well. When these things happen, they get really, really stressed out and they complain and try to manipulate the situation with their shallow understanding of wisdom. They try to manipulate the situation and if everything doesn’t work out, then they give up and they become totally helpless and hopeless. Mary, she experienced the uncomfortable truth. What did she did not want to happen to her? She did not fight that. She was a woman of thinking. She sat down and she accepted it, “Let it be with me according to your word, I am your servant”. When we experience similar situations as Mary, what we need is faith or they need to trust in God and you will see how God will work miraculously. The other day, this man from KSM received really unfair treatment in his work, racism when I heard that, but he resists and forgets. One day he said to himself, “Ok I will give everything to God” and the next day, all the problems were solved. He experienced the miracle of his life and he told me that “Moksanim, I received the best gift, Christmas gift this year” Life’s impossible situations.

Nothing is impossible with God who strengthens us. Some of you may go through very difficult problems in your life, don’t try to handle with your wisdom and power that work in your lives, and experience and witness the miracle that is that can happen in you. Mary, because of her faith, she allowed the savior, the Messiah to fulfill God’s will, without Mary, Jesus would not have done what he could do. She was a wonderful woman, who brought a miracle to the world, who brought the best gift to all of us, and in the end, she never lost her faith in God. She did well as a mother, as a mother of the son of God, and I’m thankful that she did well. She made it possible for the Messiah to work out the salvation for all of us. My friends, Merry Christmas and think about Mary and every faith in every possible situation, don’t give up. Let it be with me according to God’s will and God will work out for you.

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