How was your year 2019?
- Any praises?
- Any challenges?
Psalm 136 (Southview version)
Oh Give thanks to the Lord, for He is Good!
For His mercy endures forever.
Oh Give thanks to the God of gods!
For His mercy endures forever.
Oh Give thanks to the Lord of lords!
For His mercy endures forever.
We give thanks to God for His guidance on Southview
For His mercy endures forever.
Give thanks to God for the committed leaders and teachers!
For His mercy endures forever.
Give thanks for our children who are truly our treasured blessings!
For His mercy endures forever.
We give thanks to you for all the praises and challenges!
For His mercy endures forever.
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For His mercy endures forever.
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For His mercy endures forever.
Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven!
For His mercy endures forever.
Egypt experience
As we acknowledge that we have a prophetic calling from God, the inevitable question we have is, Why me? Why did God call me and call us? It seems that God wants us and needs us to fulfill His purpose. Isn’t He the Almighty God, the creator of the universe? He is certainly capable of doing anything He wants, but when it comes to His good news being preached, it seems that He wants us to get involved in this business. But why? Why does God want this limited, imperfect, full of shortcomings human beings to be a part of His business?
Especially the story of Moses. At least one good thing is that God showed himself to Moses in the burning bush. Moses encountered God. Although that didn’t stop him to ask God to show Himself, it was a good start. God called Moses “to bring God’s people, the children of Israel out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:11). Moses wasn’t sure if that was the right call. Moses knew himself really well, and actually Moses refused and protested to God’s call five times. He came up with different reason why he shouldn’t go, such as he is not worthy, he is not a good speaker, people won’t believe him, I don’t know you and lastly, please just find someone else. God was determined to call Moses to go to Pharaoh and deliver the message from God “Let my people go.”
Moses went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’” (Exodus 5:1) Of course, Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2). Pharaoh was upset that Moses and Aaron came to him and asked him to let the Israelites go free. Pharaoh made their labor even harder and the Israelites complained to Moses and Aaron. If the situation becomes like this, then you may have legitimate reason to ask this question to God. If you are the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, and you are “I Am Who I Am”, almighty, powerful God that if God wants His people go free, then why don’t you do it by yourself?
Egypt was full of idol worship, and even Pharaoh himself claimed to be divine. Oppression was everywhere, slavery was a norm. Descrimination based on ethnicity was wide spread, social justice was long gone, they were physically abused, there is no such thing called religious liberty in that society. They were not getting paid what they deserved. Hatred and violence filled the land. It was a human made glorious land but Egypt was the definition of human wickedness.
In this dark moment, why didn’t God show himself directly but through Moses and Aaron? Why did God need Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Deborah, David, Daniel, Esther? Why did God need the disciples, apostle Paul and many others?
Why does God need you? Why does God need me?
Here is one statement from God to Moses. “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet… but Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” (Exodus 7:1-5)
For the Egyptians, for Pharaoh, they witness the LORD God through the presence of Moses and Aaron and the presence of the Israelites. People see God through them. That’s how God works since the time of Adam through the time of Jesus. That didn’t stop there, and God still works the same way these days.
Twin Cities Experience
Let me change some words. Like Egypt, this world, the Twin Cities metro area, is under the influence of idol worship. Cultures have been worshiped as idols, money has been worshiped as idol, relationship, sex and pleasure has been worshiped as idols. Cultural diversity is important but we are not called to worship the cultures. In every culture, there are good things but there are also evil. The follower of Christ must be more than cultures, more than money, more than happy, joyful life but our values must be more than that. We are living in a society where everyone’s individual rights have become the center of everything, almost being worshiped. Even in the metro area, economic disparities in different racial groups and cultural groups are huge, almost number one in the nation. Discrimination is still out there, and people are bullied because of what they believe. Pro life and pro choice groups make noise sounds like they are making a moral choice but pro life groups easily forget that the system is not working for all, and pro choice groups ignore the biblical foundation of family but proclaiming social justice. Isn’t it little bit confusing? We still see domestic violence everywhere. Overdose deaths on the street is uncontrollable. Homeless problems get worse everyday.
In this dark time, as the same way, people will see God through us. We are here to bring the presence of God to the people around us. That’s what we need to do and why we are called to be here.
Do people see God through us? Or do we make ourselves visible to people? When they see us, do they see God in us?
Nine Words
If people see God through us, then what do we have to do? What kind of community should we be? What kind of values should we promote? Paul puts this in Philippians 4:8-9,
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, Whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)
So here are nine words. True, noble, just, pure, lovely, good report, virtue and praiseworthy! Paul said to meditate (Count, think, and calculate) on these things. When we say meditate, it is more than just an act of thinking. It means carefully meditate, study and calculate your actions based on these values. In the following verse, Paul says people learned these from him, and as people do, they will find the God of peace in them. So, here is the lesson, when we try to be a blessing to people outside of the church, you will find the peace of God. We, church leaders, pastors, elders, ministry leaders will try to do our best to provide pastoral care but you cannot compare the peace of God with the pastoral care of human.
Nine words, these are nine words that our society needs so desperately. Where is truth these days? It is just too difficult to find truth on what is happening in the world. We all have to check the same news in the different news channels so that we can have some idea of what is going on. Who is really noble? Who is kind? Where is justice? It is so difficult to see justice in the world, and it seems like we are going in the opposite direction of Justice. Where do we find purity? Everything is so complicated and it seems it is almost impossible to find anything that is pure. Where do we find true love? We are living in a world where everyone loves themselves. Furthermore, it is promoted that way. We are living in a world where selfishness took over the true love. Where is good report? First of all, people don’t report good things anymore these days unfortunately. Moreover, we find out more of people in power, have nothing to do with good report. We find news these days that you are a hero today, and convicted for crime tomorrow. Where do we find virtue? Don’t we see virtues are tainted with selfish motivations? What about praiseworthy? People do things for praise not for pure motivations. Then where we can learn these nine words the right way?
What about Jesus?
We know for sure that Jesus is the truth that we can trust. Since Jesus is always truthful, we want to be always honest and truthful!
We know for sure that Jesus is noble and he was gentle and truly caring for others. Since Jesus is always noble, we want to be always noble and gentle!
We know for sure that Jesus is just and he is the only one to bring fair judgement! Praise God that Jesus will judge because he is the only one who can judge fairly and justly. We want to promote fairness and justice for all because Jesus is just!
We know for sure that Jesus is pure, and even deep in his motives, everything was truthful and pure. No hidden motives and no hidden agendas. Only Jesus can show us pure love. We want to be pure since Jesus was pure!
We know for sure that Jesus is love! Jesus shows the infinite love for all of us and willing to come and die for you and me so that we can have eternal life. We want to be loving and kind because Jesus is love!
We know that we can learn from Jesus about his service to people. He truly cared about people and he mingled with people, He won the confidence from the people, and He shared the good news of the Father. We want to study the scriptures so that we can learn from Jesus about His good reports!
We know that Jesus was a virtuous leader. He always did the right thing. Jesus made difficult choices even to the point of self-sacrifice! There was no selfishness in Him! That’s why we are here to follow Jesus. Therefore, we want to be virtuous because Jesus was truly and purely virtuous!
Lastly, we know that Jesus is praiseworthy because He was the creator of the world, Jesus is praiseworthy because of His Sacrifice on the cross! Jesus is praiseworthy because He is the lamb of God! Jesus is praiseworthy because He did not seek His own glory but He humbled Himself and gave everything for us. We want to be like Jesus because He is truly praiseworthy!
Be the hope!
So here is the simplest way to have the peace of God. Learn from Jesus. For those nine words, you don’t have to find nine different people to find the answers. You can go to Jesus, and He can teach you all those nine. When we get that, people will see God in you. And you will find the God of peace in you.