Sermon Preaching at Anyangjeil Church

Sermon Preaching at Anyangjeil Church
Sunday Night Oct 26, 2008
xem bai giang tai: http://www.anyangjeil.org/vodPlayer/moviePlay3.asp?idx_num=41&board_id=subworship&group_name=church&viewOpt=strLink1
Let the Nations be Glad
Bible: Psalm 67
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, 2 that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
3 May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you. 4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth.
5 May the peoples praise you O God, may all the peoples praise you.
6 Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God will bless us. 7 God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.
Introduction
Let us pray.
I am very happy to have an opportunity to preach the word of God to all of you tonight. This is in fact an honor for me to stand in front of you on behalf of the Vietnamese.
Basing on the text we just read, I would like to share with you the title: “Let the Nations be Glad”.
Psalm 67 is a prayer of David and an instruction for the readers about how we should pray to God to ask for blessing.
The author of the Psalm said “Lord please bless us, so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the nations be glad and sing for joy. God will bless us, and all the end of the earth will fear him”.
The interesting thing here is that this prayer aims for personal blessing and yet it appears in the context of the nation.
My question is that why the blessing of God has to do with the nations? Why God bless an individual person, a group of people, or a nation has something to do with the whole world? What is so deal about it? What can we learn from Psalm 67 today?
The aims of my sermon tonight are: (1) to present the reason why God’s blessing to us relates very much to mission; (2) to encourage you to do mission more seriously; and (3) to present my vision to serve God.
(1) Reasons Why God’s Blessing Relates very much to Mission
Blessing is understood differently by many people. Normally it refers to material and physical blessing. Because of this blessing, many people find their way to religion.
Vietnamese non-Christians worship idols to ask for blessing. They go from place to place to look for the most powerful idol gods who are able to bless them. If their prayers are answered, they will continue worshiping him/her, and if not, then they will move to another idol at another place.
Sometimes, people ask their ancestor to protect from bad luck and accident, or to support them in business. More interestingly, there are many government officers samonim, go to pagodas to pray for the blessing. Their prayers are that their corruption, their bribes will be covered and protected well.
In the context of the church today, of course, we believe that God bless us in many ways. However, recently, there is a trend of theology who believes that Christians are God’s children, the King’s Kids, therefore we should ask and claim for his great blessings in term of good life, good health, good business and so on. And because of God’s children, we should not be poor, sick or sufferings.
What is the most important definition of blessing? The most important definition of blessing found in the Bible is somehow different in definitions as well as in purposes. The blessing of God for his children is not only at the prosperity, power and fertility, but its meaning goes beyond that.
In term of definition, I believe that most important meaning of blessing we can find in the Bible that are the forgiveness of sin to have peace with God, and the relationship between God and men is restored, then followed by other material blessings.
The primary factor of blessing is the statement of relationship between parties. God blesses us with a benefit on the basis of the relationship. The blessing makes known the positive relationship between the parties, in our case, God and us, the church. I pray that all of you will realize Jesus forgiven us is the greatest blessing.
How about the purposes of the blessing? According to the Psalm we read today, the author reveals that there is a purpose of God’s blessing upon our life.
There are three reasons that God’s blessing to us relates very much to mission. God bless us so that the nation will (1) Know God (v.1), (2) Praise God (v.3), and (3) Fear God (v.7).


First, they will Know God
the Psalmist says:
V1.May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us,
Be gracious to us or have mercy to us means to forgive us. Forgiveness is the way to have our relationship with God restored. Only by the mercy of God, we can come to him and receive his blessing. The author prays to God to ask for forgiveness not only for himself but also for the community, for the nation.
Then he asks God to bless them. The blessing here includes spiritual and physical. How this relates to mission? The purpose of God’s blessings upon us is for our joy. Blessing shows how much his love upon us. God will not bless his people just merely blessing but through blessing he shows his love. Through which, the relationship between God and his children become sweeter, closer and stronger.
Psalm 126:2-3
“Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.”
The joy and gladness that we have, signify to the nations that our God indeed is a good God. Why our blessing has something to do with nations? For they will know the Lord. They will know the way of God saves and bless his people.
All the nations in the ancient East knew that the Israelites people have crossed the Red Sea, crossed the Jordan river, taken over the Jericho and inherited the land, and they all trembled.
I believe God has blessed Korea and Korea churches so much, their joy and salvation are known to the world. People from various countries knew about this, and they wish their churches develop much as the churches in Korea.

Second, they will praise God.v.3
Please bless us so that, in order that, the nation may know your way. The way here is the salvation that God is doing upon his people. The question here is why the nation needs to know God’s salvation, and that they praise God and will be glad.
Are they not being glad at all? Are they in the situation of sadness, tiredness and cursedness? The answer is Yes. They are sad because they don’t have the true blessing. They are sad because they are under the bondage of sin. Their understanding of blessing is just merely worldly things and not the true blessing which means the forgiveness of sin.
They will be glad when they believe in Him. How could they believe in God when no one speaks to them? Telling them about the salvation is the purpose of God’s blessing. “Lord blesses us so that we will tell them about Him”.
After healing the demon possessed man, Jesus told him “Return home and tell how much God has done for you. So the man went away and told all over the town how much Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8:39)
As we tell them about Jesus, about the salvation, the nations believe. And now they are able to praise God. They are glad and sing for joy because the God they worship is a true God, a just God and a loving God. (V.4). They had heard and knew about God’s way upon his people, but now they are able to praise Him. The reason why they are glad and praise God is because they believe in Him and they are blessed by Him.

Finally, they will fear God v.7
Oh Lord, please bless us, so that all the end of the earth, all the nations may fear you. From the stage of knowing, to praising and now is fear God. It is the ultimate purpose of the blessing. God’s blessing to us, finally bring the nations to know, praise and fear God. What it means by fearing God? They will change from worship idols to worshiping God. Before if they worship idols, now they will worship God and fear Him. Fearing here means completely and totally submitting to God.

In order for them to know, praise, and fear God, God decide to bless me and you. Therefore, the author of this Psalm prays to ask for blessing, in God’s purpose. God bless us so that the nation be glad.
I am very moved by one deacon in our church who said that “I pray to ask God’s blessing upon my project and my company, so that I will use the money to do missions and bring the gospel to Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and so on.”
God said to Abraham in Gen.12:2 “I will bless you and you will be a blessing, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” I pray that, God will bless you more, and you will be a great blessing for the nations.

How should we apply this lesson to our life? I would like to use this sermon to encourage all of you to continue your mission work.

(2) To encourage all of you to continue your mission work.
The churches in Korea have applied this principle and they became a great blessing for all nations. Far and wide, the world has witnessed the mission work of your church to them. Korean churches have been a great blessing for Vietnam too for the past 15 years.
Up to now, the churches in Korea have helped to build the churches, hospitals, houses, doing social charity and many more unspeakable works. So far, there have been over 100 church buildings are built by the support of the Korean churches.
I am moved when I see so many Korea missionaries who came to Vietnam with their family, trying to learn to speak the language and they have to face many problems for the sake of the gospel.
I am moved when I see many elders from Korean churches came back to visit Vietnam. Before they came to Vietnam with the gun, but now they came with the Bible and with blessing.
I am moved because the mission team from Anyangjeil who came to Vietnam for the past four years. Though, only a short period, they have brought great blessings to the churches, especially the children. Did you see how much joy they were? They were so glad and sing praises to the Lord. Some of them were so happy that they cried because of your love upon them.
Why your short-term mission for the children at the moment is important for the future church of Vietnam, of Cambodia, of Malaysia, of Russia and so on? The answer is because that group of people, who believed Jesus, will later change the society and their nation.
When the VN war ends, the communist took over the country from North to South, people lived a very difficult life. In the context of chaos of the post-war period, I was born. In the morning I went to school, in the afternoon I went out to pick up the garbage food, vegetables, fish-heads, old carrot, potatoes that people threw away, to feed the pigs, chicken, the rapids that we were raising. Sometimes, my mother took them and tried to look for some part that we might eat before giving to the chicken and the rapids. My mother made ice-creams to sell for student. She also made the caps and then I went out to sell those caps to people. The Lord was still with us and we were happy in that situation.
One day, when I was about 13 years old, there came a mission group from Australia, they came to sing and tried to talk with us. We were happy to see white people came, singing and encouraged us. Before they left, a man came to me and gave me an English Bible. He encouraged me to learn English more to read the Bible and became a pastor. I did not understand fully what he said, but I guessed what he meant. I gave the Bible to my father and he opened it, and you know, there was a hundred US dollar note. I thought it must be a mistake, and then I went out to look for the man. But they left. With that money, our family can live for a few months. That incident has impressed me until now, how the Lord blessed us in those trouble days. Today, I became pastor, not because of that hundred note, but because the Lord have been so gracious to me.


(3) My Vision to Serve the Lord
Therefore, I encourage you to do mission, and do it even more seriously. God blesses us for the sake of the nation. God will bless us as we plan to bless others. I am encouraged to share to you about my vision for the serving God in the future. My vision will base upon the principle that we learn today. May God bless me so that the nations will be glad and sing for joy.
As you know, Christians in Vietnam is more than one percent of the total 85 million people. Vietnam includes 54 ethnics groups with more than 54 different languages. The Viet people are 65 percent and the rest are the minority groups. In the plan how to preach to gospel of the Jesus to all of them, my vision is to establish a mission school to train missionaries and pastors.
I would like to train more missionaries to reach out to the Vietnamese as well as the minority people. In our country, among the ethnic group, there are Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Chinese, therefore, I would aim to train missionaries from Vietnam and send them to those countries as missionaries as well.
In the future, if God’s willing, in my vision, the church of Vietnam would like to help North Korean people and we may send missionaries to there. In the past, as a communist country, Vietnam used to help North Korea economically, in the future, if God’s willing, we will plan to help them spiritually.
In conclusion, I am here, on behalf of the Vietnamese and the churches, to say thanks to God and thank the churches in Korea especially Anyangjeil church who has been a channel of blessing to us. I would like to encourage you to keep doing the good work that the Lord has bestowed on you not only for Vietnam but also for many others nations.
Maybe, Korea is facing the economy crisis. This situation affects the whole society including churches. Your company, your work place, your business, your family may face certain financial problems. I encourage you to ask God’s blessing upon you and your family, your community, your church. The prayer for blessing should be done in tune with Psalm 67 that we learn today. Oh Lord, bless us that the nation will know your salvation. Amen.

Sermon Preaching at ISA/KESA Chapel on Friday

Sermon Preaching at ISA/KESA Chapel on Friday

Title: A Training for Life
Scripture:
10 He sustained d him in a desert land,
in a howling wilderness waste;
he shielded him, cared for him,
guarded him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest,
and hovers over its young;
as it spreads its wings, takes them up,
and bears them aloft on its pinions,
12 the LORD alone guided him;
no foreign god was with him.
Deuteronomy 32:10-12

Introduction
It is my privilege to share the word of God to all of you this morning. In fact this is my first time to share the word to you. Please pray for me. May the Lord help me and encourage all of us by His word this morning. Let’s pray.
This morning I would like to use the above passage to meditate with the title “A Loving and Painful Training” All of us have come here to be trained. You and I are in the same boat. We face the same difficulties, we deal with the same problems. Therefore, we share the same feeling and experience as student.
My aim in this sermon is that to encourage all of us to continue with your study and training courageously and confidently in the Lord.
When we talk about training, we think of learning and practicing and acting out. It requires physical trainings, skillful training, and in our context, may be spiritual training. However, training sometimes involves not only at knowledge but also at experience, not only at success but also at failure. Training is wonderful, joyful, and yet very often painful.
The Lord trains us in a very powerful and wonderful way, sometimes we cannot even grasp or imagine. The scripture we read today reveals a very wonderful picture about how God love us, care for us, and train us. That is the picture of a mother eagle taking care of her eaglets. How did God train us in relating with this image? What is this passage about?
First, we need to look at the whole chapter 32 and then verse 10-12.
Deuteronomy 32 is a type of Psalm, or a song by Moses. It was written by Moses before his death. In fact, the song was composed by Jehovah himself. The context of this song was that Israelites at their transitional period. Moses came to his last moment on earth. The term of Moses as the great and powerful leader now is end. Joshua will be the new leader. The first generation had passed away in the desert, the new generation of the Israelites will move in battles with the Canaanites to claim their promised land. Before all these events happen, Moses writes this song for the people.
This song was written for the Israelites to sing, to remind and to encourage them going on with the journey before them. The purposes of this song are first, to remind them how much the Lord has loved them, cared for them, trained them, brought them from Egypt and became a nation; second, to remind them how unfaithful they have been to the Lord. They have tasted the good things from the Lord, yet they rejected Him, their Savior; third, to warn them that the Lord will punish them for what they do. The overall purpose is to appeal them to listen and obey the word of the Law.
Verse 10-12 is the first part. The mother eagle in this song becomes the most powerful and beautiful image for the readers. The LORD compares himself as a mother eagle cares for her eaglets. The Lord is the mother eagle, and the Israelite is the eaglets.
How does this image relate to us today as pastor, theological students? Our training is a wonderful yet it is difficult, suffering and even painful too. You and I may face a lot of problems and difficulties. However, above all, the hope that we have today is that the Lord will surely lead us. V.12
There are four things that the eagle does for her children. I believe the Lord will do for you as we go on our journey. Four C that we may easily remember, you may mark them along as we read from the Text today: They are four verbs Care (v.10), Cause, Catch and Carry (v.11).
(1) Care
The eagle is a symbol used many times in Scripture, in fact, it is mentioned 38 times throughout the Bible. The eagle builds its nest in a safe place, on a very high tree or on the ledge of a sharp cliff. The eagles start their nest with a lot of large sticks, thorns and off and ends to build the base. Next, they get smaller sticks and grasses to it more comfortable, then they pull down and feathers from their own bodies to line the nest for a comfort to the newly hatched chicks.
When the babies are born, both parents assume responsibility for their care. The parents care for the chicks from beginning. They sit on the eggs for one month. The babies came out, they start feeding them with food. Only about 45 days after birth, the baby eagles gain weigh 40 times their birth weight. Food brought into the nest is cut into very small pieces and gently fed into the hungry mouths.
This picture conveys a message that God in the same way has carefully loved us and taken care of us. At times we are just small enough to do nothing but wait for the food provided from God. God prepares everything ready for us to provide for our needs. The spiritual journey with God in this period is wonderful. We ask God, he answers. We cries out, he replies. When enemies try to attack us, he is ready to defense for us. This is how God has done to the people of Israelites. I believe he has done to each and every one of us here.
(2) Cause
The second word we study here is Cause. The baby eagle becomes very big after a short time in the nest. May be because of eating too much. They grow very fast. Now they have become big enough to stand up and move around the nest. The problem is that they cannot stand up because of too fat. The mother eagle now has to cause her children to stand up. First she may use the mouth to kick off. It does not work. What will she do? She flies away and brings back some thorns. She makes them stand up by the thorn. Ough..ama what are you doing? She continues to bring more food and yet with the thorn. The baby cannot understand why? Sitting too long may not good for the legs. The body is big and they need to stand up.
In our journey with God. God will use some thorns to make us stand up. If he pinks us, stand up right away, don’t wait. It is painful. When we are lazy and do not get up for our own sake, God will come after us. May be the nest is so comfort, so good, we don’t want to stand up. The bed is so warm in the morning, cannot get up for prayer...Everything is ready for us, food is ready, we start to complain.
Verse 11 said, like the eagle stirs up his nest. What happen here? The mother eagle knows that it is the right time for the chicks to get out from their comfort zone, to move out of the nest, she takes away all the feathers, all the grasses, there the nest is barely with thorn and odds. Get out of the nest. She stirs up.
The chicks then move out and look around. The mother eagle starts flying and shows the chicks how to fly.
We can get very comfortable in our nest. Perhaps that could be our way of doing things, our ways of thinking, our opinions, our way of living life. Then God comes and Cause us up. He stirs our nest and then we get upset. We don’t identify this as a growing experience. Sometimes we really don’t want to grow. We satisfy with what we have and where we are. But God wants us to get out and fly. He never stirs up our nest without good reason.

(3) Catch
The time for real training comes, the mother eagle will kick the chick off from high. Why? Mother? The baby falls out of the nest and begin heading for the earth below. The legs are good now able to stand but not the wings. Never having used the wings before, he is not sure what to do and just make a lot of flapping. Just before the baby hits the ground, the mother eagle flies underneath in order to ‘catch’ the baby on her powerful wings.
Without being kicked off, and falling into the ground, the chick never learns to fly. God has brought so many lessons for the people of Israelites to learn to grow up in faith. Instead of getting into the promised land 4 years, he lets them do it 40 years. Many times they fails to trust God, punishment came, but he will not let them die, before they hit the ground, he is there to catch them.
Falling is not a good experience. Why do we fall? For we know how to pick ourselves up.
(4) Carry
Finally, the word Carry is so much meaningful here. : The Lord carries them on his pinions. The eagle will not let the chick hit the ground, but she is there to carry them in her wings. Pick the baby up and carry him back to the nest. And take a break, then she will do it again and again. Until the chick now how to use the wings and start to fly and soar by themselves.
The Lord will carry you and I on his wings and never let us hit the ground. You may struggle with the training now. Hebrew and greek may be very difficult for you but God has a purpose in that. I have to study again the subject that I already taken, same professor, same materials, same things.. But I believe there is a purpose, may be I have not mastered it yet. I need to study again.
May be we are struggling with financial stuff. Tuition fee, pocket money, and many others needed expenditure, let us have hope in the Lord that, he will provide enough.
May be we fall in our spiritual life and sin against God. Stand up, come to him. Fix your eye in Jesus, for he is our Saviour and Redeemer.
Conclusion
Up to his point of time, due to the situation of the school and other reasons, I have decided about three times to quit the study. All my theological study program have problems. I don’t have problem with the study itself but external problems. First is about finance then about professors, then now about tutorials. I used to ask myself why are you here and keep facing the problem, just quit and go off. But God is faithful and he wants to kick me off from my comfort zone to see his marvelous work and deeds. He wants me to fly, to grow up and be more matured with him. I decide to continue my study, I don’t know the future, but I believe, the LORD has his will upon our training. I encourage you to find confidence in the LORD in whatever situation you are.
The training that we have now is a loving and yet sometimes painful training. God will not allow anything happen to us without his good reason. The most important verse is verse 12. The LORD alone will lead us. He led the Israelites people, he will lead you and I. Remember these four C, Care, Cause, Catch and Carry. Whenever you do or wherever you go. God will care for you, to a certain time, He will surely cause you up, he will catch you when you are falling, and finally he will carry you up to fly with him.
Therefore, have hope in the LORD and be faithful to him. Look upon him for our strength. Isaiah said, 40:31
“But those who hope in the LORD, will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”