Today Pastor Choi talks about the second divine resource that God has made available for us to tap into in times of need: God’s strength.  Expounding on Isaiah 41:10 and Philippians 4:13, he exhorts the congregation to rely not on their own wisdom and might but on God’s.

  Rely on God’s Resources (2)

Following is a summary of his sermon:

Rely on God’s Resources: His Strength                    

• Isaiah 41:10
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
• ¹⁰ do not fear, for I am with you,
  do not be afraid, for I am your God;
  I will strengthen you, I will help you,
  I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
• Philippians 4:13
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
• ¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
• Recap: Last Sunday, I started a new sermon series, “Rely on God’s Resources,” and talked about the resources God has made available to us for our life journey.  The first resource available to us is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in our hearts.  He resides in every believer who confesses that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior.
• Today, I am going to talk about the second divine resource that we can tap into: God’s strength.
• Nowadays, we are living in a constant state of fear and anxiety.  Everything today seems fragile, volatile, uncertain, and unpredictable.  Think, for a moment, of our society, our government, our national security and economy, let alone our health and families.  I don’t have to go further.
• We are inundated with heart-wrenching, sad, and fear-raising news every single day.  People in the media, in competition with each other, seem determined to bring the shocking news to us by all means.   Do they even care about the impact of news on the audience?   We cannot completely shut down the news, either.   I wish all of us were free from fears and anxieties.  I wish we would be exempt from all life’s uncertainties.
• However, we are not.  In fact, I, your spiritual leader, am no different from you.  Almost every day, I too go through life’s uncertainties, challenges, struggles, worries, or fears.  I too know what it is like to have worries and fears.  Here’s an example.
• About twenty years ago, I was in Michigan serving a small congregation.  At that time, my daughter was about 3 or 4 years old.  Like today, back then, I would pray for her every night.  I still remember one particular night.  I was on my knees praying for God’s protection on my daughter from any harm and evil forces.  All of a sudden, in my heart, a fear arose about her future.  The fear was about what would happen to her when both of her parents were gone (she had no siblings and no relatives in the States.  All of them lived in South Korea).  The fear totally gripped me and began to take away the peace from my heart.  That feeling of panic bothered me greatly, so I continued on asking God the question: Lord, indeed, who’s going to be there for my daughter in times of need, when neither of us (parents) is around?  I remember how God answered my question that night.  I love the way He did.  He answered my question with a set of three questions.
• The first question He raised in my heart was this: Do you remember when you first came to America?  “Yes, Lord,” I answered.   In fact, I still do quite vividly that summer of 1985, August 2, to be exact.  Both my wife and I landed at the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago with several pieces of luggage and $5,000 in cash.
• The second question from the Lord was: Who took care of you since then?  “No brainer, Lord,” I answered, “It was You.”  Indeed, He provided everything my family needed more sufficiently than we ever imagined.
• The third question from the Lord was the clincher: “Don’t you believe that I will still be around long after you both are gone and be there for your daughter as I always have been for you?”  That did it!  It melted away my fear right away!  That night, the Lord assured me, once and for all, that He is with me and my family forever and takes care of us!  Amen.  The antidote to our fears is the presence of the Lord.
•  That leads us to our first verse: Isaiah 41:10.
• Here, the LORD spoke to His people, Israel, through the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah.  Obviously, Israel as a nation, even back then, was fragile, caught in between the mighty powerhouses such as Assyria and Egypt.  Fear and anxiety of an uncertain future filled up the hearts of the people.  So, God spoke to them,
• ¹⁰ do not fear, for I am with you,
  do not be afraid, for I am your God;
  I will strengthen you, I will help you,
  I will uphold you with my victorious right hand (Isaiah 41:10).
• Let me unpack the verse.  First, God says, “do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God;” The English translation doesn’t do us justice here: it barely shows the meaning of the original Hebrew.   The better translation would be: God says, “stop fearing.”  God saw His people already engaged in fear and worries about their future.  So, He says to them, “Stop fearing now!”  In the same way, God sees what we are going through.  He knows you and I are already engaged in constant worries and fears.  And, to us, He says this morning, “Stop fearing, my child!  Stop being afraid!”
• In the next sentence, God provides us with the reasons why we should stop fearing.  Because He is with us.  Because He is our God.  Do you see what I see here?  Throughout the Old and New Testament times, God consistently provides His assurance to His people reminding that He is with them.  However, we the people of God constantly forget that truth and keep worrying about our future.  This morning, He reminds us, once more, “Stop fearing, for I am with you.  Stop being afraid, for I am your God!”  He is not just anyone’s god, but your God.  My God.  E.g.  One pastor, in order not to forget God’s presence with him, would walk for the rest of his life with one hand closed as if he was holding someone’s hand in his.  In this case, he was holding the hand of Jesus.
• Three promises: After the assurance of His presence with His people, God provides three promises to them: I will strengthen you, I will surely help you, and I will surely uphold you with my right hand of righteousness.  I love the way King James Bible puts it:  “I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”  Three times God repeats that He is our true source of strength and help.  Three times He reminds us that we ought to go to Him for help in times of need.
• One more thing: with my right hand.  In Hebrew language, the right side means strength and might.  Here, God says to us that He will hold us with His mighty hand and will never let go of us.  Let God’s hand have a grip on you, not fear.
• That leads us to Philippians 4:13.
• Philippians 4:13
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
• ¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
• Here, Paul the apostle talks about the true source of his strength: not himself, but Christ who strengthens him.
• Most of us are familiar with this verse and, in fact, this is a favorite verse to many.  How great it sounds!  How wonderful it is to know that we can do all things!  Often, though, focusing on this positive attitude that we can do all things, we easily forget who enables us to do all things.  It would be a great illusion/disaster to believe that we can do all things by our own might.  In fact, Paul is actually saying here that he cannot do anything without Christ who strengthens him.  He declares that Christ alone is the true source of all things possible, not himself.  If we believe otherwise, and if we believe in ourselves, it would be very risky.  E.g. G.K. Chesterton talks about people who are full of themselves in his book “Orthodoxy.” He writes: “Shall I tell you where the men are who believe most in themselves?  For I can tell you.  I know of men who believe in themselves more colossally than Napoleon or Caesar.  I know where flames the fixed star of certainty and success.  I can guide you to the thrones of the Supermen.  The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.” (p. 14).  He clearly points out the danger of being full of self: lunacy.
• Paul wasn’t full of himself, here.  In fact, he discovered a simple yet profound truth in accomplishing anything in life: Do not rely on your own wisdom and might.  Rather, rely on God’s wisdom and His might, and you will never go wrong.    He later went on to say that when he was weak, that was when he was strong (2 Corinthians 12:10).  When he was weak, he relied on God’s strength, which in turn made him strong.  The same line of thinking also helped King David when he was fighting with Goliath.  He said to Goliath, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted (1 Samuel 17:45).”
• Do not rely on your strength.  Rely on God’s.
• Let’s pray.

Today Pastor Choi talks about relying on God’s resources for our daily walk with God.  As Part 1 of the series, he emphasizes the importance of knowing that we are God’s temple and that the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.

  Rely on God’s Resources

Following is a summary of the sermon:

Rely on God’s Resources: Holy Spirit

• 1 Corinthians 3:16
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
• ¹⁶ Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
• 1 Corinthians 2:12
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
• ¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

Introduction:

• A Christian friend of mine once was walking in his neighborhood.  He heard loud music coming from one of the houses down the street.  Out of curiosity, he headed in that direction.  As he arrived at the house where the music came from, he noticed that the gate was wide open.  There were several bystanders, too.  They all peeked into the house to watch what was going on.  My friend joined the crowd.  Inside the house, a shaman was doing her rituals, dancing to the drums.  Typically, the family would ask for blessings on the house or casting out an evil spirit that made someone sick in the family.  My friend never witnessed this kind of thing before, so he stood there watching for a few minutes.  Then, all of a sudden, the dance stopped along with the music.  Everyone was wondering what happened.  A couple of minutes later, the father of the house came out and asked if there was any Christian among the bystanders.  No one except my friend raised his hand.  Then, the owner begged him to leave the premises so that they could go on with the rituals.  My friend asked the owner why.  The explanation was: in the middle of her rituals, the shaman noticed the nearby presence of a spirit that was far greater than those spirits she was trying to appease.   Furthermore, the presence of that greater spirit prevented her from going on with her dance.  So, she had to stop and asked the father of the house if there was any Christian in the family.  When the owner said no, then, the shaman asked him to go outside and inquire of the bystanders.  That’s how he came out to my friend.  Anyway, as my friend left the place, he realized for the first time that he indeed carried in him a Spirit that is far greater than his own spirit – the Spirit of God, known as the Holy Spirit.
• In the gospel stories, the same thing happened to Jesus.  Whenever evil spirits saw Jesus approach them, they all cried out acknowledging who Jesus was: the Son of the Most High.  These spirits knew who Jesus was long before than people did.   When people failed to see who Jesus was, all the spirits knew right away and recognized the Holy Spirit in Jesus.  You see, in the spiritual world, the spirits all know that there’s a greater spirit than they, and they also know that that greater spirit lives in us—the believers in Christ.  Say after me, please: the Holy Spirit is in me.  How many of us know this truth, though?  Not many.  This leads us to 1 Corinthians 3:16.

1 Corinthians 3:16

• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
• ¹⁶ Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
• Do you not know?  Literal translation would be: You sure know, don’t you?  Greek grammar here:  the writer expects an affirmative answer from the readers.  They are expected to say, “Yes, we do.”  The same question is still relevant to today’s Christians.  You sure know about this truth, don’t you?  However, lots of believers still would say, “No, I don’t.”  This is one of the greatest spiritual tragedies among the believers today.  The ignorance of the presence of God’s Spirit in them.
• This is a mere reflection of the spiritual climate in the American Church.  The Bible says that God is with us through His spirit in our hearts.  Yet, lots of believers are simply ignorant of this spiritual truth: we claim and believe that God is with us, but we don’t know how.  Somehow, we believe that God is with us both mysteriously and supernaturally, but never believe that God is indeed with us in our bodies through His spirit.
• Speaking of ignorance of God’s truth, it is never God’s will for us to stay that way, especially on God’s resources available to us such as His spirit.  I believe our poor experiences of God result from the ignorance of God’s resources in us.  God has made divine resources available to us (and the Holy Spirit is the number one resource,) yet seldom do we tap into those resources.  No wonder our walk with God is so dry and boring.
• Jesus says in John 14:21, “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me.”   I can safely say, then, that those who don’t keep His commandments don’t love Him.  How can we love Jesus when we don’t even know what His commandments are and what He wants us to do?  The ignorance of God’s Word is equal to not loving Him.
• You are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in you:  What is the temple of God?  It is the place where God dwells.  Not physically but spiritually, since God doesn’t have a physical body like we do.  He is a Spirit.  God’s temple is the place where we come and worship.  It is the place where we offer our prayers to God.  Jesus says God’s temple to be the house of prayer.  Paul the apostle here calls our body that temple of God where God dwells.  As God dwells in His temple through His Spirit, so does He in our body through His Spirit.  (Cf. 2 Corinthians 1:22: Holy Spirit in our hearts as mark of salvation, Galatians 4:6, Romans 5:5).  E.g. A person who smokes, as a matter of fact, fills God’s temple with smoke.
• Let’s be clear on the understanding of our body.  Our body is no longer ours but God’s.  It belongs to God not to us.  God is the owner and we are stewards.  Take good care of God’s temple.
• Same truth goes with the Church: the body of Christ.  Church is not one of the social gatherings like clubs, but rather it is the place where God dwells among His children.  Wherever we gather in the name of Jesus as church, so is God in our midst.
• How can it be that God is with us in our hearts through the Holy Spirit?  E.g. A farmer’s wife asked her pastor a question how the Spirit of God can be in millions of believers’ hearts at the same time.  Pastor explained that His presence is like the moon’s reflection on the surface of waters in rice paddies in full moon.  She understood perfectly.

1 Corinthians 2:12

• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
• ¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.
• Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God:  We see here a spiritual dichotomy of two spirits around us.  God’s spirit vs. the spirit of the world.  God’s spirit dwells and works among His children.  The spirit of the world dwells and works among the non-believers.  We the believers received the Spirit of God.  People who don’t know Christ receive the spirit of the world.  Notice here the past tense (i.e., we have received).  Not will receive, but already received the Holy Spirit.  We have the Holy Spirit in us.  Yet, a lot of us remain ignorant of this spiritual truth and, therefore, live our Christian life without the aid of the Holy Spirit.  Any Christian who walks life’s journey without the help of the Holy Spirit is like a spiritual orphan to God.  Orphans who are left alone without parental protection and love are often a target of mockery and harassments.
• Naturally, that is exactly what our enemy Satan, the spirit of the world, tries to do to us.  His age old strategy against God’s children is to keep them in ignorance of God’s truth and harassing them like orphans.  In fact, by not getting into the word of God, and therefore remaining in ignorance of God’s truth, we are doing a great favor to our adversary and doing a great disservice to ourselves.  Furthermore, it is far easier for Satan to harass those folks who are ignorant of God’s truth than those who are in the Word of God.
• Here’s what Jesus did to His disciples before He left earth.  He promised to them that He would not leave them orphaned.  Rather, He would send the Helper and Comforter to each believer.  Listen to what Jesus said to them in John 14:18, 25:            
• ¹⁸ “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.²⁵ “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Advocate,the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”
•  In John 15:26, He also promised to send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate:
• ²⁶ “When the Advocatecomes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.
• So that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God: so that we may understand what God has freely given us such as  eternal life and salvation.
• Also, the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23): love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
• Let us never forget that we have great resources from God, the Holy Spirit.  God never leaves us orphaned.  He is not far from us.  He is within us through the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is our helper, teacher, advocate, truth-teller, and comforter.  It is time that we turned to the Spirit of God in us for wisdom, guidance, and courage.
• Let’s pray.

Today Pastor Choi talks about the importance of sharing the good news, the gospel, with our loved ones.  He talks about not being ashamed of the gospel which is God’s power for salvation to all who believe in the name of Jesus and also about responding to Jesus’ call to be fishers of people so that we all together share the eternal life in the presence of God.

   Live the New Life (6): Evangelism

Following is a summary of the sermon:

Live the New Life (6): Evangelism                 Matthew 4:19, Romans 1:16

• Matthew 4:19
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
• ¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”
• Romans 1:16
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
• The Power of the Gospel
• ¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Introduction:

• If you had to choose someone who made a world of difference in your life, who would that be?  If you had to name someone to whom you are most grateful, who would that be?  (Talk with your neighbors for the next minute or two.)
• It could be your parents who gave life and raised you well.  It could be a friend who helped you with finances.  It could be your first grade teacher who instilled the love of books in your heart.  It could be your boss who led you to a great job.  It could be a matchmaker who introduced you to your spouse.  The list goes on.
• In my case, I would choose someone to whom I owe my life, literally.  First, I would choose my friends at high school.  In the summer of 1973, we were vacationing together at one of my friend’s house whose father was an admiral of the Korean Navy.  One afternoon, we all went swimming at the bay.  I almost drowned that day.  Unless my friends had come to rescue me, I would have been a goner.  Next, I would choose my brother as the person to whom I am most grateful.  If I am grateful to my two high school friends who made a difference by adding forty years to my life, how much more should I be grateful to my brother who made an eternal difference in my life?  How did he do so?  With a simple invitation to join him at church.  I still thank God for my brother who made a world of difference both in this life and in the life to come.  I am eternally grateful to him for introducing me to Jesus.
• Wouldn’t you like to be the one who makes the eternal difference in someone else’s life?  I would like to be that one.
• This morning, we are going to think about evangelism.  This is the word that was hijacked and misused by a few Christian politicians especially around election seasons.  It sometimes carries negative publicity among people saying, “Those evangelical Christians!”  It is time that we reclaimed this beautiful word in our faith.  Evangelism is originated from a Greek Word “ευαγγελιον” which means the good news, the gospel.  This morning, I invite you to think with me about the good news, the gospel, especially sharing the good news with others.   What is evangelism?  It is the act of sharing the greatest news of all with others.  This leads us to Romans 1:16.
• Let’s listen to Paul the Apostle:  ¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
• Paul was not ashamed of the gospel.  Neither should we.   I pray that none of us are ashamed either of the gospel or of Jesus.  America today is not really a gospel friendly nation.  E.g. Pressures from outside such as government, in the name of separation of church and state, make it extremely hard to share the gospel with others.  E.g. Gideons are forbidden to distribute pocket Bibles to students on school premises.   Sometimes we hide our faith from people in the name of privacy.   We’d rather keep our faith to ourselves.  But, let’s make sure that we are not ashamed of the gospel.  E.g.  A boy during the Korean War: didn’t deny the Lord and the Lord spared him from being executed by the communists.  As much as we believe Jesus’ promise that He will give us eternal life in heaven, we must also believe His word that if we are ashamed of Him in front of others, He too will be ashamed of us in the presence of angels (Mark 8:38).
• It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith: We tend to think that God’s power is always something supernatural, some miracles and wonders.  Yet, here, Paul says the gospel is God’s power for salvation to those who believe.   The same gospel is foolishness to those who don’t believe in Jesus and what He has done.  But, for us, it is God’s power who rescues us from the bondage of sin and the power of death.
• Here we see that the gospel is for everyone.  Both for Jews and gentiles.  It is for Buddhists and Hindus. It covers all race, gender, and age.   It is God’s power for salvation for all.  Everyone is invited to accept God’s salvation through the gospel.
• Let’s look at Matthew 4:19 where Jesus invited Peter and his brother Andrew to follow Him.  Both of them were full-time fishermen at the time.  At Jesus’ invitation, both dropped everything and followed Jesus.  The same Christ invites us today to be the same: fishers of people.
• Fishers of people, not fishers of fish.  We can learn a lesson or two from real fishermen.  Did you know that none of them is casual about their vocation but dedicated?  They work hard every day, no matter how bad the weather or season may be.  Sometimes they have good catch.  Other times, they have none.  However, they always go out to fish.  Their minds and hearts are always out there where the fish are.  They constantly think of the best ways to catch fish, too.  So should every believer.   As fishers of people, our hearts and minds ought to be with people, constantly thinking of the best ways to bring people to Christ.
• Why does Jesus call us to be fishers of people?  So that people too can come to Him through the message of good news from us.  How can anyone become a believer unless she hears about the gospel first?  And, how can one hear about the gospel unless someone else shares it with her?  E.g. A high school friend of mine.  He and I were buddies, the best friends.  He was a believer before me.  One thing bothered me the most, though, was the fact that he never said one single word to me about becoming a Christian (church, Jesus, salvation, eternal life, or Heaven).  In other words, he had all the good things in Christ yet never shared with me.  Wouldn’t you rather have someone recognize you in the presence of God saying, “Lord, please remember (your name) because s/he shared the gospel with me and led me to Christ?”  This is what evangelism is all about: stand by someone to share the gospel and eternal life together.

Action Points:

• We don’t have to be like Paul to share the gospel with others.  We can begin with someone whom we already know well; it can be our best friends.  It can be our family members.  It can be our coworkers.  It can be our neighbors.  It can be our school friends.  Let’s begin with someone we are familiar with.
• Take your friend’s name to God: Ask God to open the door of evangelism for you.  Ask Him to provide you with the right opportunity to share the gospel with your friend.  Ask God to open the heart of your friend so that s/he may listen to the gospel message.
• Take God’s name to your friend:   After you asked for God’s help in prayer, then go to your friend in the name of Jesus.  Ask God to give the right words that you need to say to your friend.
• Don’t get discouraged with the first try.  Remember too that believing in Jesus doesn’t have to start with church, either.  Some of the people carry a negative image of the church such as “organized religion,” or “full of hypocrites.”  Stick to the salvation message.  Tell them how much Jesus loves them.  In due time, they will join the church as well.  Be friends first.  Let them see your genuine interests and motives.   Be there for them whenever they need you.  Let them see your light in Christ.
• Let us pray.

Pastor Choi talks about who Jesus is to people, to His disciples, and to you.  Your confession of who Jesus is makes a world of difference in your walk with God.

Who do you say Jesus is?

Pastor Choi’s first sermon at Manahawkin UMC talks about who he is:
Not a Messiah, or a monster, but a messenger of God and His Word.