Hope that does not disappoint

Isaiah 49:23, "Those who hope in me will not be disappointed."
Isaiah 29:23, "When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.  Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction."

Hope sees the future beyond helpless, confusing, chaotic swirls of present reality.

Hope sees the future of God in control, working out his sovereign will for the good of those who love him. 

Hope sees the future of God at work with his invisible hands transforming his promises into present reality.

Hope sees God.

God saves… to be full of God (Isaiah 2)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon

What’s wrong with this picture? The picture shows a boy reaching for an apple and a mother who looks like she adores her son with pure joy.

This picture is not in touch with the reality. As parents, I don’t think we ever seen our girls reaching for that healthy, delicious granny smith and have that pure joy displayed on our face with huge smiles. No, let me break it to you. Here is the reality. Parenting 101, when you take your toddlers to grocery, you avoid the aisle loaded with snacks. Those cute little hands and those little legs, those little hearts are helpless in the sight of candies, you will never get out of the aisle. So, avoid the snack aisle at all cost.

But, then there is the inevitability of having to face the biggest challenge of doing grocery with the little toddlers. Check out line. Here is a typical picture of a checkout line. This is the most dangerous part of doing grocery. You are distracted from having to load the grocery onto the convey belt, having to wait for the clerk to scan them, having to pull out your credit card and sign it, load the grocery to your cart. And, when you are most distracted those little wondering hands can reach for that candy bar and put it in their mouth with the wrapper still on. And, just like that you lost the battle. I lost two battles so far at the grocery lines.

Why do we battle like this as parents? Why don’t we just let them have all the candies they want to eat? Why don’t we just let them have their full? We will have happy children who would love us to death. The simplest answer is because we love them. We know once our children become full from consuming bars of chocolate, they will have no desire to eat the real food at the table, the real food that grows them.

That is the battle we see in Isaiah 2. Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” in John 6:35. But, what if you are not drawn to Jesus and don’t want to open the door for Jesus to come in and dine with you because you are already full of stuff from the world?

The vision of the future: full of God.

Isaiah pictures another vision of the future. You know it is the picture of the future because it is “in the last days” (Isaiah 2:2). In his vision, Isaiah saw the mountain of the house of the LORD being established as the highest of the mountains, lifted above all the hills.

There was a story this past week about a 13 year old boy named Jordan Romero. He took out a satellite phone and called his mother and said, “Mom, I’m calling you from the top of the world.” He is the youngest ever to climb the peak of the world’s highest mountain, the Mount Everest at 29,035 feet[1]

The temple ground of Jerusalem is elevated from the surrounding area, but it is no way the tallest mountain. Mount Everest would dwarf it. But, what Isaiah saw of the future was this picture of the nations streaming to God’s house situated on the highest mountain. Many peoples from all the nations of all different backgrounds, skin colors, cultures, languages will be streaming to the summit where God’s house dwell (Isaiah 2:2-3). We see the peoples motivating each other, calling each other out. “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD” (2:3), “Come… let us walk in the light of the LORD” (2:5). Not only they yearn for God’s presence, we see them embracing God’s law, we see their intense desire to be taught in God’s ways, to walk in his paths (3:3). In this future scene where God is elevate above all things in the world, where God is the center and supreme, where God is the judge, we see this picture of incredible peace where the nations turning their weapons into the instruments of peace.

The present reality: full of stuff and full of yourself

Having presented us with the future vision full of God from 2:1-5, now the rest of the chapter 2 deals with the present reality where people are full of stuff and themselves.

In Isaiah 2:6-9, we see what the Israelites were full of. They were full of superstitions, divination and dependence on pagans. Superstitions are instead of believing in the evidence of what God is doing in our lives, believing in something like “luck” or “chance.” Divination was various practices like inquiring dead spirits, studying shapes of kidneys from dead animals in order to learn about future. In our time, practicing divination takes a much more sophisticated shape like trying to figure out the next up and coming companies, or the next hot stock items that’s going to give you greatest returns for your investment. In our time, clasping hands with pagans that is alliance with pagans is equivalent to us trying to seek happiness through other people.

They were also full of idols. He calls them “the works of their hands… what their fingers have made” in 2:8. I don’t know about you, but for me whenever I put my time and energy, and even creativity into making something, it is really hard to let go. When the ancient people either made for themselves or pay dear money for others to make idols for them, the idols required great deal of money, energy and creativity and initiation. We may not pay someone to make us piece of statue that looks like weird disproportional looking cow with big horns, but for us, our idols can take shapes of building career, reputation, keeping up with the hottest fashion, the latest and the greatest thing to have and behold, the next bigger house, the bigger wedding… the list can go. Idols can be anything that we invest our energy, our resources, and our time and takes over the center stage with the promise to make us happy and fulfill. We create idols that they may serve us.

Consider the ugly transformation of Smeagol in the Lord of the Rings. When Semagol saw the ring that his cousin found from a lake, he claimed the ring as his birthday present. He took it by strangling his cousin to death. Over time, he became this ugly creature known as Gollum.

What’s behind the tight grip over idols, the practices of believing in lucks and chances, incessant obsession over controlling their own future? It’s called pride. We see the portrait of pride in more detail in Isaiah 2:10-21. The tall and lofty cedars and oaks, the towering mountains and high hills, the lofty tower and fortified walls of defensive system, the trading ships of economic prosperity were the prize possession of the ancient Israelites. Instead of seeing God’s blessings in their lives, they saw themselves as people who could engineer their own happiness with their own hands and little bit of luck. This is what pride does to a person.

The solution: throw away the idols

The solution for Gollums of today is to throw away stuffs engineered in our pride and to make the room to be full of God. That is what we see in Isaiah 2:20, “In that day men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship.” Why would any of us throw away that which we consider precious because we made it with our own hand, precious because it has cost us money, energy, and creativity?

Isaiah gives us two reasons. Two reasons are repeated captured in these phrases, “the dread of the LORD” and “the splendor of his majesty.” He does it in verse 10, 19, and 21.

• “The dread of the LORD” answers, “Who is in charge?” Isaiah says in verse 12, “The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled),” verse 17, “the arrogance of the man will be brought low, the pride of men humbled.” When you filter through yourself and what the stuff represent through this question, you can identify if you are holding on to idols.
• “The splendor of his majesty” answers, “Who is it for?” Another helpful way to identify idols is to ask this question. If it is sorely for our own pleasure while does nothing to bring glory to God, you know you have something that needs to go.

May God allow us to be courageous people who deal with the idols in life and the areas of pride with decisive action to rid of them!

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/sports/23sportsbriefs-jordan.html

There is a time for everything. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon

From talking with some of you, I feel your anxiety, frustration, pains, grief, doubts, tiredness, conflicting emotions that have been wearing you down.  When you hear about the vision for CMC, what we are to become, to become the lighthouse that shines the light of the gospel far and broad, you get excited.  But at the same time you feel this heavy weight descending upon you and suffocating you.  You hear the vision about how God wants to use us beyond what we are accustomed to, you get excited, but again you feel heavy and uncertain. It's not because you don't believe in God's vision to expand his kingdom through our church.  You believe that we must become a church that spread the gospel far and broad.  And, you know and believe that we as a church must undergo radical changes. Yet, there are these feelings that are really hard to shake off. 

In the midst of excitement over envisioning what we can become, you feel discouraged by the protracted confusion about where God is leading our church.  You feel discouraged by many voices as to what we must do as church that make it difficult for you to discern.  Some of you are frustrated because you are not sure what's going on. Some of you have been disappointed by me and by church and you are struggling to trust again. For some of you, you see the strain and fracture in our church and this discourages you.  Many of you feel burnt-out and worn-out and have doubts about how we as a church will be able to thrive not alone survive out there; you feel so spent and tired that you cannot imagine ministering to others. Many of you are feeling relational strains with your parents as they have real hard time believing that there will be anything good out of our us becoming the fully independent church, if it will be worth the cost! Some of you are discouraged because you feel alone in our church.  

As your pastor, as God revives me and renews his calling for me to lead you, I've been casting what I believe is God's vision for us.  Yet, in my enthusiasm, I feel like I am running way ahead of you.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.

I feel like I am out there calling you to let’s go, but so many of you are burdened with heavy feelings and unable to decisively move.  So, I think it is time for me to slow down and help you deal with your burdens. Now, this doesn't mean I am not going to stop casting God's vision for us.  It doesn't mean I am not going to stop sharing with you how you must change, how I must change, how we must change in order to realize God's purpose for us. 

But, I realize that if you have a hurting leg because of fatigue or perhaps some infections, motivation, cheering, casting vision will not help you run out there to win the game.  So, I would like to come along side of you and minister to you as your pastor, as your friend, as your brother in Christ. 

• Take time to invest in relationship.

In about a week, we are going to find out what God sees for our church.  I believe that majority of you already have the clarity about what God wants for our church.  And, you will have choice and will need to decide which way you personally want to go.  You will have to choose for yourself whether you want to be a part of CMC as an independent church or be a part of EM of KCUMC.  Or, perhaps, some of you are thinking about finding a third church option.  
Regardless of what you choose, it will be costly decision for you, for all of us.  It will be my honor if you would allow me to come along side of you and let me be your sounding board; I would like you to try out your thoughts and your feelings with me that I may help you sort things out.  I realize that my strongest gifting is in the area of counseling.  And, I am confident that God can use me in your life.  I also realize that I am far better at communicating my thoughts and feelings privately than in my preaching.  Some of you need to hear more from me about where and how I want to lead our church.  I also need the opportunity to hear from you.    
So, I am going to make some phone calls this week to talk either on the phone or to meet up in person.  So, think about what your concerns and questions and share them with me. I want you to share with me what ways I can help you.  
Also, if there is anything about me that bothers you, if there is anyway I've sinned against you, I would like you to talk to me.  Just like it damages you when people talk behind your back, please extend the same courtesy to me.  Besides, it is the Lord who commanded in Matthew 5:23-24 to go and be reconciled to your brother.

I cannot promise you that I will never disappoint you as your pastor; I can promise you that I will do my best to fulfill my calling to shepherd you.  But, for whatever reasons, you become disappointed with me, your temptation will be to go and find someone else to talk about your disappointment over me.  But, if you don't come and talk to me, you will be depriving me of the chance to ask for forgiveness for my sins against you; you will also be depriving me of the chance to become a better pastor, you will also be depriving me of the chance to clarify my name.  Not only that you will be in danger of sinning by gossiping.  For Proverbs says, "A gossip betrays a confidence" (Proverbs 11:13).
Satan would love nothing more than to destroy our church.  And one of the surest ways to destroy our church is to put a wedge between you and me and between us.  And, the gossip is the Satan's rumor weeds that can destroy God's garden, God's church.  So, keep things current with me.  
I believe that when our church decides what we must become, we will need to spend time to regroup; we will need time to heal, we will need time to nurture each other.  Our relationship needs to be strengthened and affirmed.  You will need to allow me to minister to you where you are hurting.  We will need to commit to build our connection stronger.  We will need to battle distrust by speaking truthfully to each other.  We will need to exercise forgiveness and risk boldly by giving trust and earning trust.  We must not be satisfied with merely maintaining vague sense of familiarity and confuse it with the genuine relationship in Christ.  We need to relearn how to love one another from the zero ground.  We will need time to be restored and be united again.  
It is a time to heal (Ecc. 3:3)

• Take time to identify the sinful attitudes.

We will also need to honestly reevaluate and access ourselves and identify the sinful attitudes that will hold us back from realizing God's vision.  
Before we can call other English speaking Korean Americans to join us, before we can bring the gospel to our friends, colleagues, neighbors, and strangers beyond ethnic and racial differences, before we can invite them to church, before they can become followers of Jesus Christ, we will need to confront the sinful attitudes and beliefs that hold us back from responding God's vision.  
We must battle against apathy and indifference, we must stop blaming others, but be responsible, we must not be ashamed of the gospel, but become bold, we must let the gospel penetrate our own hearts and let it transform our inner person, our families, our brotherhood and sisterhood, we must confront our selfishness that goes against the very fabric of the gospel.  We must know what sinful attitudes and what practices must go and be replaced by godly attitudes and practices in order to become all things to all people to save some.
In order to build, we must first tear down (Ecc. 3:3). 

• Take time to be responsible.

As your pastor, your friend, and your brother, I want to also encourage you to be responsible.  You've heard me speak enough about what I believe is for our church, to become fully independent church with the renewed vision for the future.  I know that many of you share my conviction.  Yet, I also know that the some of you feel so strongly that you shouldn't leave your families at KCUMC.
Here is the reality.  I cannot make the decision for you.  No one can make the decision for you.  It is time that we all become responsible adults and make our choices. 

You've been praying for long time about this, you've been thinking about this long time, you've been talking to others about this for awhile.  You have common senses.  You know the word of God.  Now, it is time to choose.  As I have said in the past, it is wrong to frame the decision to join EM of KCUMC or to become fully independent CMC as all or nothing.  Some of you have strong conviction that you don't want to leave KCUMC.  Then, you should stay and do what you can to serve the vision of KCUMC.  But, some of you like me have different conviction to pursue different vision for CMC.  Then, stand on that conviction and move to build up CMC.  In either way, in the totality, God gets the glory; his kingdom will be expanded among the 1st generation Korean Americans through the ministry of KCUMC and his kingdom will be also expanded through CMC as the English speaking Korean Americans reaches out with the gospel as Paul did beyond ethnic boundaries.  Paul never forgot his people for he didn't stop reaching out to the Jews; it just that he didn't limit himself only to the Jews with the gospel.  The mandate of the gospel upon him was bigger than just the Jews.  We as CMC will not be able to forget English speaking Korean American generations, so we will continue to reach out to them.  But, the mandate of the gospel demands that we embrace the Pauline attitude, to become all things to all people to save some. 

Remember even after Paul and Barnabas had their sharp disagreement and they went their separate ways, the end result was that instead of having one missionary team of Paul and Barnabas, now there were two missionary teams, Paul with Silas and Barnabas with Mark (Acts 15:39-40)

Remember Peter stayed behind to build the Jewish church; he gave his life to build up the 1st generation Jewish church.  But, also remember Paul went to build the Gentile churches, primarily non-Hebrew speaking, but Greek and Latin speaking Gentiles. 

So, it is time to be responsible.  You must be responsible with your choice.  There is no need to demonize either choice.  There is no need to blame anyone else; there is no need to make decision because of someone else. Don't fool yourself for one second believing the lie that you don't have the choice.  Don't let others make the decision for you, even me or your parents.  You always have the choice.  So, be responsible and make your stand. 

• Take time to grieve.

The wisdom says that there is a time to plant and a time to uproot (3:2).  And, there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance (3:4), a time to embrace and a time to refrain (3:5) a time to search and a time to give up (3:6), a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak (3:7), a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace (3:8). 

I believe that we are at a time to uproot, a time to weep, a time to mourn, even for a time of war.  I saw many of your tears; I've heard how deep the pain goes for you to be part of the independent church away from your family church.  It is a time when many of you will face the anger, bewilderment and misunderstandings from your families, even from people who know you very little.  And, I know that for some of you, it is a time when your family relationship feels like it is being torn apart.  And, it all hurts like crazy!  If your choice is to build up CMC and be carried away in the zeal of the apostle Paul, it is now time to grieve.  As a pastor, I release you to grieve.  So, give yourself permission to grieve.  I too grieve with you.  I don't know how long it will take to grieve, but we must grieve until there is no more tears.  I don't know when the pain will stop for you and me. 

• Time to hope

But, as the wisdom says, as there is a time to grieve, there will be a time to celebrate.  Having uprooted, it will be time to plant, having cried the tears of pain, there will be time to laugh and dance, having restrained, there will be a time to embrace, having given up, there will be a time to search again, having faced a war, hate, and tear, there will be a time to mend, a time to love and time for peace.

Break from the past and become what you really are. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon

Lately, I've devoted my sermons on casting the vision for our church under the premise of Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” In my vision casting, I’ve challenged us out to subject our church under the supremacy of the gospel. I’ve challenged us to embrace and to live out the explosively powerful gospel. And to do this we have to make changes. We cannot do church the way same we’ve been doing for over a decade. Because the gospel must go out beyond the boundaries of cultures, ethnicity and races, we must build our church towards multiethnic/multiracial vision. Because the gospel must go beyond maintaining and perpetuating the familiarity of biological family ties and because it must create spiritual families, we must answer to God’s call to evangelize. The reality is that we cannot subject ourselves to the supremacy of the gospel unless we as church are willing to change. And, willingness to change requires willingness to count the cost and willingness to boldly risk.

Having spent so much of time seeking God’s vision for our church, the big picture for our church, I believe it is now time for us to decide. I know that we are up against skeptical minds who cannot envision how small church like us can really survive and thrive on our own. But, I believe that 15 to 20 is more than enough to build the kind of church that is for our generation if that 15 to 20 are committed to the biblical vision for the church.

Two paths are before us, one is to become a Korean church and the other is to freshly envision the new course for CMC. Each of you must decide. I believe that some of you are better suited to serve in English ministry of Korean church. No doubt there is need for that. But, I believe that for many of you including myself and my family, we are created to be like apostle Paul to become all things to all so that by all possible means we might save some (1 Corinthians 9:22). And, to realize this, we cannot do the church the same way anymore. We need to radically step out and change in order to embrace the explosive power of the gospel. So, it is time that you decide.

Now, let me switch the gear little bit. So, far I’ve concentrated on the vision casting to help you see what God can through our church. Here is the reality check. We can envision all we want about what God can do through our church, what we can offer the world. But, unless you and I experience the gospel personally, we have nothing to offer. The vision casting for our church tells us that we can be the lighthouse that can shine the light of the gospel broadly and far. But, without first the gospel brightly shinning here at home, here inside of each of us, the light won’t shine far.

In order to shine far, our lives must brightly shine. To burn brightly, we need to break away from the past and become what you really are. There are things from the past, unless we put them to death, they become hindrances, major stumbling blocks to embrace God’s vision for our lives.

Perhaps, I can use another analogy… Before we can invite people to enjoy our home, we got to do spring cleaning to do. We got to break away from the past and become what we really are.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11, "Do you know not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And that is what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 

• The past…

Let’s read the list again: the sexually immoral (sex before marriage), adulterers (sex outside of marriage), male prostitutes (sex for money), homosexual offenders, idolaters (worshiping anything other than God), thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanderers (badmouthing others falsely), swindlers (cheaters)… Paul said these are what some of the Corinthians were. Before the gospel came to them, before they became Christians, they were defined by how they perpetually behaved. Their sexual promiscuity defined them sexually immoral, adulterers. Their love of money defined them thieves and greedy. Their lack of self-control defined them drunkards. Their words of hatred defined them slanderers while their selfish behaviors defined them cheaters.

Here is a little background about the Roman and Greek culture of their time; these out of control behaviors of sexual promiscuity, selfishness, hatred, and drunkenness and idolatry were tolerated and practiced readily. Another word, the bar of standard was set pretty low. Living in the morally comprised environment, many of the Corinthians were defined by these behaviors. They were enslaved by these behaviors.

• Break from the past.

But, once the gospel infiltrated their lives, they were no longer under the power of these behaviors. Once the gospel shined their hearts, they were now given power to break away from what once consumed them, behaviors marked by self-serving, self-indulgent and self-destructive attitude. Once the gospel infiltrated their cords, they had to reject their society’s low standards of morality. The bar was no longer set by what their peers tolerated and practiced. The bar was set by the holiness of God. So, Paul called for the break from the past. What mastered you yesterday, what you were enslaved by yesterday no longer holds power over you today when you stand in Christ. That’s the message of the gospel. In Christ, you can break from the past.

Not only can you break from the past, but more than that, you can

• Become what you really are.

As a Christian do you know who you really are? Are you becoming what you really are, one who is washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God?

You are justified. This speaks to what you really are your true identity. To be justified means you are declared righteous. When Satan, the accuser tries to define you by the past behaviors, you have to remember that he no longer has power to call you anything. Satan has no power to define you anymore. It is now Jesus Christ who defines your identity. Every day when you rise, every night when you go to bed, every moment between them, Satan’s going to hunt you down in order to pull you back to your past, yesterday’s sins, yesterday’s wickedness. So, today, you must actively recall in your mind what you really are. You are not a wicked person. No you are a righteous person in Christ. That’s who you are, righteous person.

You are sanctified. This speaks to becoming what you really are. Since in Christ, you are not a wicked person, you don’t do wicked things. Since in Christ you are now a righteous person, it means you become righteous person by doing what’s right.

You are washed. This speaks to the spiritual reality of baptism. To be baptized in Christ Jesus is to identify with his death and his resurrection. This is what it means to identify with Christ’s death. You are dead to sin. Meaning, you no longer respond to sins. When sins walk into your life, what they are should find is that they walk into a morgue only to find a dead body on a stretcher. That’s what it means to be dead to sin, to identify with Christ in his death.
To identify with Christ’s resurrection means, you are alive to righteous. You are rewired now in such way that you respond to righteousness.

Breaking from the crippling past, breaking from the sin infested identity, breaking from the power of sins and becoming what you really are in Christ is what the gospel is all about.

While I challenge you to envision new way of doing church, you must also envision new way of doing life. We must not live by the past. God paved the way for you to break from the past, from sins, from addictions. God pave the way for you to become what you really are. Do you believe it? Do you believe that in Christ you can be dead to sinful impulses and behaviors? Do you believe that in Christ you can be alive and responsive to godly impulses and behaviors? Do you believe?

Hope against all hope (Romans 4:17-21)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon

Romans 4:17-21, “As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed-the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead- since he was about a hundred years old- and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”

To ‘hope against hope’ is to have hope even when the situation appears to be hopeless…

Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all...As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength. (G.K. Chesterton, Signs of the Times, April 1993, p. 6)

What causes hopeless?

· Powerless to dream… Hopeless sets in when you are just getting by and trying to be content with status-quo. But, you are aching because you know deep down inside of you that you are created for something more; you are created to dream beyond what seems possible because you know God. Yet, you have lost the ability to dream. You no longer think in what’s possible. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God “has set eternity in the hearts of men.” You are made for eternity, but you have lost your way and you don’t dream any more. Busyness, trying to survive and get through, even the entertainments bore you now... You no longer dream and you are hopeless.

· Powerless to know where you are going… when you feel lost, when you don’t know where you are going, when you cannot see the big picture, when you are not driven by God given purpose in life you lose meaning.

· Powerless to change… It’s been too long since you saw real changes. Nothing is changing and you’ve been slowly sinking into the deep hole of hopelessness because you feel powerless to see any meaningful change.

· Powerless against setbacks… When you are defeated, when you mess up, when life turns for worse, it also cause hopeless.

What causes you to feel hopeless about your life? What makes you feel hopeless about the state of your family? What makes you feel hopeless about our church, about our nation?

When God stepped into Abraham’s life, God spoke in the language of promise of what he was going to do. He was going to raise Abraham to be the father of nations, to bless all people, all nations through him. When God spoke in this language of promise, sure certainty, it was as though God set his eternity into Abraham’s heart. How could he an old man 100 years old, how could Sarah his wife beyond human possibility to get pregnant at 90, how could he, how could she dream the possibility to have a child, to dream the birth of many nations? … The present reality, the human impossibility, was so far off from what God said he was going to do through Abraham. One without faith would brush God off as making a cruelest and insane joke.

But, it was far worse in those and agonizing dark days when Jesus’ dead body was put away in the tomb. There is nothing in the world that can compete against the lethal power of death to destroy hope. Death is like great flood that wipes away anything and everything in its path. Death is like great fire that burn down homes with memories into rubbles and smokes. Death is like catastrophic engine failures and structural failures that impair an flying airplane to nose-dive to destruction. Death leaves casualties of hopelessness.

Yet, on this Easter Day, God has set eternity into the hearts of men and women like he has never done before. When death seemed to have the final say, when death seemed to have pronounce all is lost and gone, when death seemed to have destroyed any hope, God broke into the darkness moment of history. But, it was like the sun rising from the east and the darkness couldn’t hold it back.

Just like that God broke into the powerlessness to dream, powerlessness to make sense out of meaninglessness, powerlessness to change, powerless against setbacks. Just like that God broke into the dark present reality with his eternity. And, the history has never been the same since then.

I believe that just like the way God evoked Abraham and Sarah to dream that which was humanly impossible, just like the way God brushed Abraham and Sarah with eternity, he is doing that with you and me. God wants you to know today that he has power to do what had promised to do with your life, in your family, in our church, in our nation, in our world. You will not thwart God’s sovereign purpose. Your choice is either to yield to his purpose and welcome it in faith or you reject his purpose and descend into hopeless death. Romans 8:28–30 says,

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

God’s goal is that you share in his glory as Jesus shares in the Father’s glory. It is the purpose beyond time boundary. Before you were born, while you were little like the babies today, while you were children like my older girls, while you were teenagers, now as grownup adults, God’s purpose is that you be conformed into the likeness of Christ and lived for God’s glory, get on with the Father’s business!

Church, brothers and sisters in Christ, today God has set his eternity in your heart. So, set your heart on something far greater and far glorious beyond your present situations.  Don't be defined by powerlessness to dream, inability to see where you are going, powerlessness to change and powerlessness to fight against setbacks. It is time to rise and to march with Christ. Don’t let the present reality defines you. Let the Great I AM of eternity defines your today. Set your eyes on God’s purpose to conform you to the image of Jesus, to embark on his mission to bring glory to God.

So, as apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:14,

Church, I charge you today, “Wake up, O Sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

The Supremacy of the Gospel – redefining family (Mark 3:31-35)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon

The story of Joyce’s dad… adoption into a new family… illustrates the supremacy of the gospel that redefines family as more than based on blood relationship.

As I have mentioned to you last week, I am devoting the month of March to explore God’s vision for our church, Cornerstone Mission Church. In order to understand what God envision for CMC, we must understand the exclusive demand of the gospel to share Jesus’ commitment to God and radically inclusive nature of the gospel

When family is understood as connection built on blood relationship, you will find these definitions for family.

A group of individual living under one roof and usually under one head

A group of persons of common ancestry (clan)… < a people or group of people regarded as deriving from a common stock (race)

The basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children… a single-parent family[1]

But, the supremacy of the gospel taught and lived out by our Lord Jesus envisions family quite differently. There is another dictionary definition of family that is not defined by blood relationship.

A group of people united by certain convictions or a common affiliation (fellowship)[2]

The gospel envisions family not just as relationship defined by blood relationships. The gospel envisions God’s family beyond the boundaries of the nuclear family ties, extended family ties, beyond clan, tribal, ethnic or racial ties. The gospel envisions radically inclusive family, God’s family based on the exclusive demand to share Jesus’ commitment to God’s will.

The supremacy of the gospel demands exclusively sharing Jesus’ commitment to God

Let’s consider how the supremacy of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ redefines family.

Do you know what family values are? Family values are so highly regarded by churches that most of the Christians believe that it is essential and foundational for churches. Wikipedia defines family values as “political and social beliefs that hold the nuclear family to be the essential ethical and moral unit of society.”[3] When we as Christians focus so much on the values of building nuclear families, we become desensitized the biblical vision for God’s family, spiritual family.

Paul uses the language of “God’s household” to describe the biblical vision of God’s family.

“God’s household” in Ephesians 2:19, Galatians 6:10, “those who belong to the family of believers,” 1 Timothy 3:15, “God’s household”, 1 Peter 4:17, “the family of God.” Oikos of God.

So, how is the biblical vision of God’s family different from family values?

We can see the clear difference when we consider how Jesus explained about why he came to live with us.

Matthew 10:35f-36, “For I have come to turn “’a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law- a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

Luke 12:53 reads, “They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Jesus is not saying that family isn’t important. Family defined by blood relationship was God’s idea and it is quite important. But, what Jesus is saying is allegiance to family, blood relationships, is only important if it honors Jesus’ commitment to God. The gospel carries the vision of division and strife over family relationship because the gospel demands complete allegiance to Jesus’ commitment to God. Let me illustrates this from the Wall Street Journal article from March 6.

The article is about an interview with Mosab Hassan Yousef who is the son of Hamas founder and leader, Sheikh Hassan Yousef. Mosab said, “I absolutely know that in anybody’s eyes I was a traitor… To my family, to my nation, to my God. I crossed all the red lines in my society. I didn’t leave on that I didn’t cross.” He explains his encounter with the British cabbie who gave him an English-Arabic copy of the New Testament. Reading through it, he said, “I found that I was really drawn to the grace, love and humility that Jesus talked about… I converted to Christianity because I was convinced by Jesus Christ as a character, as a personality. I loved him, his wisdom, his love, his unconditional love.”

And, he had some very harsh words to say about Muslim; there will be people who will try to kill him for what he said about Muslim. “At the end of the day a traditional Muslim is doing the will of a fanatic, fundamentalist, terrorist God… The problem is not in Muslims… The problem is with their God. They need to be liberated from their God. He is their biggest enemy. It has been 1,400 years they have been lied to.” About these dangerous words that he spoke against the religion of his family, Mosab said, “Palestinians have reason to kill me. Some Israelis may want to kill me. MY goal is not to defeat my enemy. It is to win over my enemy.”

His father Sheikh Yousef issued a statement that he and his family “have completely disowned the man who was our oldest son and who is called Mosab.”

Family values are only good if they serve the greater purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ to advance God’s will. But, if family values demand allegiance to families over Jesus’ commitment to God, he will not compromise, but will bring division and strife.

The supremacy of the gospel envisions inclusive family of God

Let’s consider now the story about Jesus and his family from Mark 3:31-35. What we see leading up to our text is Jesus actively engaging the world beyond the boundaries of social norms. While religious Jews were afraid and refused to associate with anyone beyond their ethnic and religious boundaries, Jesus touched and healed the leper, liberated demon possessed men, healed the sick, dined with social outcasts, and sinners. Jesus was even accused of casting out the demons because he himself was possessed by the prince of demons, named Beelzebul. To which Jesus dismissed their accusation as silly nonsense and sternly warned them of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.

And it says in Mark 3:21, “When he his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”” They thought Jesus was going mad. The family believed that Jesus had to be stopped.

To “take charge” is to force. They showed up in order to force Jesus to abandon his madness. When they arrived, they stood outside and send someone in to call him. They were outside looking for Jesus in order to take charge of him, to force him to leave what they considered as craziness.

To this Jesus replied, “Who are my mother and my brother? …Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Do you get the picture? Jesus’ biological mother Mary and his half brothers were standing outside; they were outsiders because they opposed Jesus and his mission. Those who were inside of Jesus’ family circle were those who did God’s will.

This would have been utter shock to the first century mindset. The family defined by blood was the foundation of society and economy; unlike us, they couldn’t envision their own identities apart from identity that of belonging to a group, their family.[4]

Jesus rejected the priority of biological family relationships; he rejected putting family values first, family values to preserve their family lines, family wealth, family honor…[5]

Jesus rejected the belief in exclusively defined family; instead, he completely redefined family inclusively to include anyone who shares Jesus’ commitment to God. Family defined by Jesus cuts right through the boundaries of class, race, or ethnicity as long as there is the obedience to God’s will.

Only one qualification matters to belong to God’s family… “Do you share Jesus’ commitment to God?” Do you see how Jesus redefined inclusively?

• The vision for CMC

Envision family inclusively- We must work towards the vision of inclusivity to expand God’s family beyond the boundaries of ethnicity, race, or social class. This means, we must consider the future of CMC beyond the immediate family relationships many of you have with KCUMC. Will we be able to fulfill effectively the inclusive vision of God’s family as CMC or as a part of Korean church? I believe that we can be much more effective in realizing God’s vision of inclusive family by not defining our church as an ethnic church.

Envision family exclusively -We must focus on sharing Jesus’ commitment to God for this is how the biblical family bond can grow. The biblical family grows through the inclusive vision with the exclusively sharing Jesus’ commitment to God.

“Our shared commitments to God tie us more closely together than biological kinship.”[6]

Envision family beyond nuclear families- We must envision the purpose of nuclear families as the means to realize the biblical vision of spiritual God’s family.

“The French novelist André Gide, in Les nouvelles nourritures, bitterly expressed against the selfishly ingrown nuclear families: “Families! I hate you! Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessors of happiness.”[7]

Envision family to grow - We must work towards growing the family by diligent and creative evangelism. We have experienced a lot of natural births in our church. Imagine what would be like to share the joy of spiritual new birth and grow church that way! We must become church where people can experience adoption into God’s family.

Envision family to belong - We must become a church where lonely and people of differences can find meaningful family relationship in Christ through doing God’s will together. We must adopt each other as family.

Envision family to restore -We must become a church where healing and restoration is possible for people who have been wounded in their broken and dysfunctional families.

Envision family to love - We must envision the family of God that extends grace, forgiveness, acceptance, and hospitality to each other and also loves enough to confront sins in each other.

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[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/family

[2] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/family

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_values

[4] NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Mark. By Garland, 131. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 1996.

[5] NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Mark. By Garland, 131. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 1996.

[6] NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Mark. By Garland, 145. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 1996.

The vision of the supremacy of the gospel over cultures (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon

You probably have not memorized what Proverbs 29:18 says. But, you’ve heard it enough that you know it by heart. KJV says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Often people think of vision in this verse as coming up with your freshly minted, never thought of, original kind of stuff that grabs you. But, here the vision is of the prophetic nature, meaning it is what God had communicated to the people through the prophets. And, the prophetic ministry was called into place in order to call people back to God. So, without God grabbing the attentions of the people through the prophetic vision, without the word from God through the prophets, there would be quick descend to anarchy and destruction.

Let me illustrate it this way… I am a stickler when it comes to wearing seatbelts. My girls will tell you that I get very intense when it comes to wearing seatbelts correctly. When I first learned how to put seatbelts on my little girls, I took my time, I watched video on how to put it on correctly, and I read a manual about it. The prophetic word from God is like parents putting on seatbelts on their children correctly so that if they ever get into accident, their children will not fly off the windshield, but be kept safely.

Now, imagine parents no longer putting seatbelts on their children correctly… you are going to find little children squirm their way out of their seatbelts. You will see the little children “cast off restraint” sort to speak and put themselves in danger.

Last year I felt like a child without wearing my seat belt, vulnerable and fearful. I felt this way about us as a church. It felt like we as church were heading towards a crash without our seatbelts on. Without God’s vision, we perish!

But, what difference it makes when God speaks through his word. In this month of March, I am going to share with you confidence I have because God has placed me back in my seat, and put the seatbelt to secure me. He is been speaking to me through his word. I believe that you and I as church will experience confidence because God is securing us for the ride ahead of us through his vision, through his Word. God’s vision, his word absolutely demands changes. You cannot embrace his vision and do things as usual. We have to change. No status quo in the kingdom ride.

I believe that God wants to secure you in his vision not to have you ride on the all too familiar smooth, comfortable, lazy scenic route we’ve been on too long. It’s been a journey with no edge. God knows that the boredom without adventure is going to kill you because you are a creature shaped for the kingdom adventure. I like my Toyota Siena… but really I think it is time for my family to trade it with Land Rover with eight seats because we are about to go off the trail for the kingdom adventure. And, I want you to come with me. Buckle your seatbelts and fire off your Land Rover. Are you up for the adventure?

The word of God that has been speaking to me is 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. What you are going to see in this passage is the vision of the supremacy of the gospel over cultures.

• The supremacy of the gospel over cultures

You know great deal about Paul, how he lived, what he lived for through my preaching from Acts and 2 Timothy. 1 Corinthians 9:19-27 is another passage that speaks so clearly how Paul was a man who was fully committed to the supremacy of the gospel over cultures.

If you know Paul, you know Paul was once the proud Jew, so proud of his culture, traditions, and beliefs that he didn’t think twice about cracking down any threat against his Jewish culture; he would never have befriended the Gentiles. It wouldn’t be wrong for me to describe him as once an ethnocentric jerk.

But, in our text, we see him speaking with words like, “I make myself a slave to everyone,” “To the Jews I became like a Jew,” “To those under the law I became like one under the law,” “To those not having the law I became like one not having the law,” “To the weak I became weak,” “I have become all things to all men.” Paul wasn’t talking about being a man with no sense of identity and character, full of compromises and no purpose in mind; merely a chameleon shifting his colors depends who he was talking to with no moral convictions. No, that’s the farthest thing from what Paul was saying here.

To “become all things to all men” had very specific purpose… “to win Jews,” “to win those under the law” that is God-fearing Gentiles and among those who converted to Judaism, “to win those not having the law” that is the Gentiles, “to win the weak” that is the social misfits of his time, “to win as many as possible,” “by all possible means… save some,” “for the sake of the gospel.” Paul stood for the supremacy of the gospel.

Paul went from being an ethnocentric jerk with massive dose of superiority complex to being a sincere and humble, winsome, down to earth kind of guy; he was able to befriend, to come along side of non-believing people of different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs; he didn’t befriend them just because they were potential converts to Christ and only to abandon friendship if they rejected the gospel. He really cared for them and loved them.

Just like Jesus who befriended people labeled as sinners and misfits of the society, Paul did the same thing. All for the purpose that some of his non-Christian friends from different culture, backgrounds might come to embrace the gospel and be saved.

Paul was gripped by the telos, the vision, the end goal of the gospel that can never be contained, restricted into the domain of one subculture. To restrict the gospel into one dimensional subculture is like putting a wild mountain lion into a 6 by 6 foot cage. No, they need tens of hundreds of square miles to roam and thrive. Paul understood this about the gospel. Do you?

I believe that each of you is uniquely gifted to live out the vision and the power of the gospel. Generally speaking, the first generation immigrants cannot engage the greater territory effectively; they cannot broaden the network of friendship beyond those who speak the same language.

But, you are uniquely positioned with God given capacity to form friendship with anyone you choose to and you can invite them to Jesus. Imagine with me. Imagine what it would be like us as church being driven by the supremacy of the gospel over cultures. What would it be like to be released from the restriction of a subculture into the wild? Once you’ve seen the wild, I don’t think you would want to go back.

Some of you heard from me last time to consider the path to join KCUMC and become their English Ministry instead of continue CMC. And, hearing from me today, you might be thinking that I did a 180 flip on you. You may say I had a vision to join KCUMC and now to I have a different vision. As I told one of you, I would say that through the month of December last year, I lost the vision for CMC. I had no resolve to see what could be. And, it is not an understatement that I felt like I was slowly dying inside.

But, as I renewed my relationship with him, as I recommit my love to Jesus and freshly hear his call to me to feed you, his sheep, and to lead you, God is making things very clearly to me.

The decision that was before us, either to cease to exist as Cornerstone Mission Church and join KCUMC or to continue to exist as Cornerstone Mission Church, is not a moral decision. Whether there is one church or two separate churches, there is only one true Universal Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

However, it becomes a moral decision of right or wrong when it involves what God wants to see with CMC, with us. If God has his vision set on for Cornerstone Mission Church to be a church that honors the supremacy of the gospel, to be released into the wild beyond the little plot of our subculture, then surely it become the moral decision. We either obey God’s vision for the supremacy of the gospel and go for the kingdom adventure that requires bold faith or withdraw from his vision and remain in our comfortable, non-threatening, non-committal lot only to die in boredom and frustration.

What do you think?