Humble Future 2

Sacraments: Channels of God's Grace

2011-09-23T02:26:00.000-07:00

Roughly one sixth of the world does not have a reliable supply of clean drinking water. More than 3.5 million people die every year because of water related illness. Scientists and community organizers have tried to solve this problem in a variety of ways, but one of the most creative is atmospheric water generators. AWG’s take water from the air around us. In most environments,

Scripture and Preaching

2011-09-16T01:14:00.000-07:00

2 Questions for Discussion When have you really felt God speaking to you through a sermon? What were the main points of the last 5 sermons you heard? Raise your hand if you could remember at least one of the last five sermon topics? Keep your hand up if you could remember two? Three? Four? Five? But I expect that almost all of us could point to at least one sermon that was a

Life's Fast Moving Opportunity - 1 Thessalonians 5

2011-08-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

First of all, I want to thank you for all of your care and support for our family over the past week and a half. Many of you came to visit us. Several offered to help or brought us meals. John David is a blessing, but you have also been a blessing and an encouragement to us. Second, I want to let you show you some pictures of the newest member of our family, and this is not John David.

Stronger Through Sharing (1 Thessalonians 3)

2011-08-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is 광복절 (Korea’s Liberation Day). For more than forty years, the Korean people resisted Japanese colonization. Sometimes, this resistance was public as in the March 1st, Declaration of Independence in 1919. More often though, the resistance was through guerilla warfare, covert meetings, secret newspapers delivered at night, and hidden educational gatherings. Throughout the

Questioning Our Leaders - 1 Thessalonians 2

2011-08-04T00:59:00.000-07:00

My ministry here is not a failure. You know that I have not been wasting my time and yours. You may or may not know that sometimes I have been misunderstood, criticized, and treated unfairly. Yet God has given me the strength to continue preaching God’s Good News boldly, in spite of those who may object. My teaching is not in error. My motives are pure. I’m not doing a bait-and-switch to

Turning the World Upside Down (1 Thessalonians 1)

2011-07-30T01:49:00.000-07:00

For the next five week’s we’ll be walking through a little New Testament book called 1 Thessalonians. It’s pretty small - just five chapters and only about two pages in my Bible, but it was actually written to a really important city. Thessalonica (now Thessaloniki) is still the second largest city in Greece, but it is some 2,300 years old. Around the New Testament times, it was the capital

Conversion (Tough Theology - Week 6)

2011-07-22T01:07:00.000-07:00

When I was a university student, I did a one semester exchange program at European Nazarene College - a beautiful little campus on the Rhine river at the border of Germany and Switzerland. That spring, we had lots of holidays. Germans take almost as many holidays as Koreans. One of the holidays was Ascension Day, to which I said, “Thanks for the day off and everything, but what’s that?”

Doubt and Faith about Heaven and Hell - Tough Theology Week 6

2011-07-14T19:21:00.000-07:00

(First read Matthew 25.) After today, I hope you have two things: more doubt and more faith. I hope you have more doubt about that are not true, more doubt about issues on which the Bible is not clear. More doubt about things you SHOULD doubt. And I hope you have more faith in things you SHOULD have faith in. I hope you have more faith in a few things the Bible is very clear about. But

Eschatology: Rapture or Restoration?

2011-07-08T01:07:00.000-07:00

We humans have a love-hate relationship with eschatology. Eschatology is the study of the end. What will happen at the end of the world? What comes next? On one hand, we seem to be irrevocably drawn to the apocalyptic, end-of-the-world stuff, especially in movies. apocalypticmovies.com lists 61 apocalyptic movies since the year 2000. In his article, “It’s the End of the World, and

Denominations: What Happened & What Now?

2011-06-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

There are almost 7,000 languages currently spoken on earth. We started with one. Then came the tower of Babel - when God confused our languages and sent us running to the ends of the earth, scattered into the small groups of people who could understand each other and get along together. There are some 33,800 different Christian denominations around the world. We started with one. Then came a

First and Last (Revelation 1:17-18)

2011-06-28T01:17:00.000-07:00

[This is a children's sermon for Galilee Methodist Church Promise Land next Sunday. They are going to be partnering with us on Cheonan Migrant Shelter, so I said yes when they asked me to preach for their kids' program. They assigned this text.] Revelation 1:17-18 ... Jesus “said, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look - I am alive forever and

Shaped by the Trinity

2011-06-17T00:31:00.000-07:00

It’s time to think. This week we’re starting a six week series on tough theology topics. This is not easy business. We’ve chosen some of the most complex and most difficult theological issues of our era. Each week, we’ll give you a handout as a guide to further research. I encourage you to take this home and look up some of these articles and deepen your understanding. So buckle up. It’s

Pentecost - Fire, Wind, Water

2011-06-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

Today is Pentecost Sunday. In Korean it is SoungNyoung GangNim Jeol - the commemoration of the Holy Spiritʼs coming. Today, we are going to take some time and talk about some of the symbols of the Holy Spirit which were active on Pentecost Sunday. With each symbol, weʼll read some of the most important texts for that image of God. First is ﬁre. Fire is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. [We lit a

Giving Up our Snakes - Numbers 21

2011-06-05T23:03:00.000-07:00

This week, I'm preaching at the monthly pastors' meeting for the Nazarene pastors in Cheonan. Here's my sermon. 4 Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea[a] to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, 5 and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the

Blind Love - 1 Corinthians 13

2011-06-02T23:42:00.000-07:00

Just before she died in 1964, Flannery O’Connor wrote a brilliant short story called, “Revelation.” O’Connor seemed to like symbolic names. The lead character Mrs. Turpin - bringing to mind Turpentine, that cleaning chemical which is poisonous and stinky, and the other key character is an “ugly girl” named Mary Grace, who doesn’t like Mrs. Turpin and keeps giving her mean looking stares.

Culture Shock Therapy

2011-05-26T00:52:00.000-07:00

KNU International English Church May 26, 2011 Josh Broward These days, we are talking about what it means to be the church. So far, we’ve talked about hospitality, family, living the mission, and conflict. Today, we’re picking up an issue that is really important for our local church: Culture Shock. I want to start with a simple example. Words are like bags or containers for meaning.

The Family of God

2011-05-06T01:54:00.000-07:00

Part 1: Today we are celebrating several holidays: Children’s Day, Parents’ Day, Teachers’ Day, and Family Day - and while you’re at it, you can throw in Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day. We had some debate about how we should deal with these secular holidays in our Christian worship service. However, as we began to think about our series on the Church, we remembered the Christian teaching

Living the Hospitality of God

2011-04-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

The big news this week is the wedding of England’s Prince William and Kate Middleton. Some 2 billion people watched the wedding on live TV. That’s nearly a third of the world! One of the things that has caught my attention is the sheer number and variety of people involved in making this wedding happen. People from every sort of career and genre are involved in this massive procedure.

The Great Exchange - 1 Peter 4:1-14

2011-04-07T23:21:00.000-07:00

This week I’m going to do something I don’t usually do. We’re going to walk through this passage slowly verse by verse. It really builds on itself, so we’re just going to talk about it bit by bit. Here’s verse 1: So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ,

Ghosts, Zombies, Hell and Jesus - 1 Peter 3:13-22

2011-03-31T23:37:00.000-07:00

Today is survey day. I have three questions, and I want you to vote your opinion on each of these three questions. You can vote: yes, no, or I don’t know. First question: Do you believe in ghosts? Do you believe there can be contact between the dead and the living? I want you to actually raise your hands. It’s OK. Nobody’s going to judge you one way or the other. Everybody who

Weaving with Peter - 1 Peter 2:11-25

2011-03-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

Sarah is learning how to knit. When she found out she was pregnant, she got some yarn and knitting needles and started watching Youtube videos about how to knit. So far, she’s finished enough to cover the baby’s left leg pretty securely. Not bad for her first attempt! But her goal is a beautiful striped blanket that looks something like this. She still has about five months. During

The Beggar King - Matthew 25

2011-03-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

Read Matthew 25:31-46. Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a King who wanted to establish a perfect kingdom of mercy, justice, and love. He often taught his people how they should live. He told them they would be blessed and happy if they were humble and merciful. He told them that if they worked together for a just and peace-filled society, their dreams would be fulfilled. He taught

Not Without the Cross - Matthew 17

2011-03-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

Read Matthew 17:1-13. OK. Let me set the scene for you. For me, it all started one day when my brother Andrew and I were out fishing. We see this young preacher named Jesus come walking down the shore. Andrew and I start talking about him. He’s been making quite a stir, preaching “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near.” Something about him just makes sense. Well, lo and

Sharing the God-Life Together (Acts 16)

2011-03-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

Read Acts 15:36-16:15. 100 years ago, deep in the jungles of Africa, there was a small clearing. In this clearing was a single village made up of a single tribe. The people lived off the jungle, eating its fruits and animals. They had some good times, when there was plenty of food and plenty of peace. They also had bad times when other tribes took their food and killed their men. But

Doing It - Matthew 7:15-28

2011-03-04T00:45:00.000-08:00

Read Matthew 7:15-28. Every preacher has stories of sermons gone wrong or heard wrong. I have my share. “Ooh, didn’t mean it to come out that way” or “I’m pretty sure I didn’t say that” or the occasional sermon that just bombs. But as far as I know, I’ve only had someone walk out on me once, and that was when I was preaching from today’s text. It’s a hard passage. Jesus says three