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Good morning, everyone. Welcome, welcome to this morning's worship. In Jesus' name, we We begin today's worship. Last Sunday night, there's a big snowstorm. In fact, I heard on the reports, it says, in New— somewhere in New York City, this is going to be once in a century snowstorm. So I— that time I thought maybe Delaware will be doing better than that. So last Monday morning at about 5:30, when I Open the deck window— deck window blinds. In fact, I saw it's about 6, 7 inches of snow sits so beautifully and calmly on the picnic table. I thought, "Well, since that evening the snow is going to come again, so maybe I don't have to hurry." I didn't even bother to open my garage door. So at about 3 o'clock In the afternoon, when I open the garage door, I get a complete surprise. You know what? The west-facing driveway and the sidewalk has been cleaned, squeaky clean. And in about half an hour, my wife told me that the south-facing sidewalk has also been cleaned. I was surprised. I thought this time I can show off some of my muscles. I was shivering, but I didn't get a chance. Too bad. For 42 years, we lived in the same community. In fact, it's a beautiful community. That's— for 42 years in the community, my family has been living a harmonious life. So I really appreciate God gave us this property. It's a beautiful place. I just like to thank God. And in Jesus' name. And let's pray. Father, we thank you. Thank you for being so kind to us. As Psalm 117 says, Giving thanks to the Lord, all nations, give thanks. Extol him, all people, because his kind— Steady, fast kindness is great. Praise the Lord. Thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Okay. Good morning, everyone. Could you all please rise and join us as we sing together?

to the Lamb.

And all who've gone before us and all who will believe will sing the song of angels to the Lamb. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. All thrones In dominions, all powers, in positions, your name stands above them all. And the angels cry, holy, holy, your creation cries, holy, you are lifted high, holy, holy forever. And if you've been, and if you've been forgiven, and if you stand redeemed, sing the song forever to the Lamb. And if you walk in freedom, and if you bear his name, sing the song forever to the Lamb. Will sing the song forever and amen. And the angels cry, holy, your creation cries, holy, you are lifted high, holy, holy forever. All people sing holy to the King of Kings. Holy, you will always be. Holy, holy forever.

Sing your name.

Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. All thrones and dominions, all powers and possessions, your name stands above them all. Jesus, your name is the highest. Your name He is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. All thrones and dominions, all powers and positions, your name stands above them all. And the angels cry, holy, holy, holy. Your creation cries, holy. You are lifted high, holy. Holy forever. And here your people sing, holy. To the King of Kings. Holy, holy, you will always be holy, holy forever. You will always be holy, holy forever. How high the mountain I could not climb. In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night. Then through the darkness, your lovingkindness tore through the shadows of my soul. The work is finished, the end is written. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Who could, who could imagine So great a mercy, would I could fathom such boundless grace. The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame. The cross has spoken, I am forgiven. The King of Kings calls me his own. Beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. And hallelujah, praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave has no claim on me. We sing that again. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, The roaring lion declared the grave has no claim on me. Jesus, yours is the victory.

Whoa!

And hallelujah, praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. We sing hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Oh God, you are my living hope.

Let's bow our heads in prayer. Lord, we proclaim that this morning that Jesus Christ is our living hope, our rock on which we place our whole trust. Our whole health, our whole foundation is built on him. So Lord, thank you, thank you that you've provided that Savior for us, the Savior of Jesus Christ, that we may be able to worship him because his name is holy, because his name is forever enthroned above everything that this world has to throw at us, above all the powers and dominions of this dark age and this dark world. Lord, I know there's many things happening right now, many things that might be weighing on our hearts. Lord, would you remind us this morning as we gather and sing around your throne that we are building our lives, building our hope in our future, not on what we see, not on the, the things of the world, but on a future hope that is grounded in the person of Jesus Christ. So Lord, thank you that we have that to rely on this morning. Would you give us fresh utterance from the Spirit as we receive the word and as we receive communion this morning, Lord, that we might be able to remember all of this as you speak through Scripture, as you've spoken through history, and as you've spoken to each of us personally through your Spirit, Lord. So be with us again this morning. Would you speak to us, thresh, and sustain us, give us hope in you. In Jesus' name, amen. Before you're seated, could you please spend a few minutes and just greet those around you?

It is scripture reading time. Luke chapter 11, verses 37 to 52. Please rise. While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was laughing. To see what he did, not first watch different. And the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also?" That give us that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. Well, for you, ties, means, and rules, and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These who are to have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you, Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogue and greetings in the marketplaces. One of the lawyers answered him, Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also. And he said, "Woe to you lawyers also! For you have burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the— your fathers' killers. So you consent to the deeds of your fathers." Therefore, the blood of all the prophets, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering. Please be seated.

Thank you, Michael. A special shout out to Henry Swoto in the back there. He's functioning without Dwight. Dwight is not here today. So Henry, you're doing a good job. Everything's doing fine. Welcome. Nice to see everybody. And we are talking about the invisible Kingdom, which is the Kingdom of God, which is all around us, but you can't see it. And we just read how Jesus exposed the spiritual blindness of some of the smartest, best-educated, well-dressed, well-connected people, the elite of His day. And their blindness was hidden. It was underneath their religious busyness and their outward success. But these leaders had been neglecting the inward things, the more important matters, so much so that it harmed God and harmed His nation, His people. They led Jesus— this led Jesus to proclaim the end. Regime change is coming. To that generation. And indeed it did. Just 40 years later when he spoke these words, Jerusalem came down, the priesthood was destroyed, and the temple was destroyed and gone forever. But that's not the end of the story. The visible nation of Israel died, but it was resurrected in the form of the invisible kingdom, which is what we have today, and we have inherited its mission. And here we are 2,000 years later reading these words of warning to them, but that's also a warning to us, or at least to me, right? Because I'm up here in front. It's the leaders that he's speaking to, not just everybody. They're a warning that we wouldn't, or that I wouldn't have the same blindness as they did, because aren't we all subject to it? And you might think, "Okay, you're in the seats, you're not up here, so you're safe, right?" Well, actually, all of us have some influence in the church. And your sphere of influence might be not as many people that are listening to you today, but actually it's quite important and maybe equally or more important than mine over time because you have sisters and brothers and extended family and coworkers, you have friends. All these people are benefiting from your influence. Influence, or if you're neglecting, they are suffering from it. We're all leaders in the Kingdom of God at some level. That's why they call it a priesthood of believers. And so I hope this— the words that we're reading today will help us all to not be blind to spiritual matters for Christ's sake, and that it will all be valuable. So I want to look at 3 questions this morning. The first is, why is Jesus so mean to these these people, right? And that's not— doesn't seem to be in character. What did they do that was so bad? And finally, what are our blind spots today? Now, you'll notice at the very beginning of the meal, they jump on him right away for not washing his hands. Now, evidently he did— he wasn't dirty, but he didn't do the proper, like, ritual cleansing. They had some kind of Like if you go, I know the Muslims do, but I think the Jews as well, they wash in a certain way. And so He wasn't— He knew what those were. He knew the right way to do it, but He intentionally, evidently intentionally, didn't do it their way. And He wasn't gonna play along with the game. Now I speculate, and I can't really show you a source for this, that the Pharisees were hoping to kind of recruit Jesus onto their side. And that they were inviting him over as kind of a— to bring— to curry some kind of favor or to become his allies. And so they were watching. And that's why, like, right off the bat, they're watching and how he washes his hands, that's not good. And Jesus is actually antagonizing them and doesn't seem to mind that they are going to notice this. So why? And the first reason, of course, is Jesus is a prophet. And what do prophets do? They get right to the point, right? They tell it like it is. Now, it's not Jesus' fault that these guys were doing crazy stuff, so that's on them, right? Now, it sounds mean, or depending on how we read it, it may sound mean, but as with all prophets, the reason they make these accusations or judgments is to give people a chance to repent. And you'll see this all through the prophets, that I'm giving you these warnings so you'll change. The judgment won't happen if you don't change, but if you do— if you do change, but if you don't change, then the judgment will happen. So he and people like Nicodemus, we know, did respond to some of his words and came to see him at night in another gospel. One reason that prophets will speak this way is when their words come true, it proves that they're speaking for God. It's because only God has knowledge of the future. So there are many reasons why he has to— he has a duty. Jesus has a duty as a prophet to, to do what he's doing and to speak very directly. Now, uh, we know he's also quoting in some places, and he's following in the footsteps of other prophets in the Old Testament. And there's one place I wanted to read now where Ezekiel Paul in chapter 34, speaking to the— this is like some 500 or 600 years earlier. He says of the shepherds of Israel of the time, "Should not shepherds feed the sheep? But you clothe yourselves with wool, but do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, and the lost you have not sought. And with force and harshness you have ruled them. Because there was no shepherd, my sheep were scattered all over the face of the earth. And so we see there's this foreshadowing of exactly what's happening now with Jesus and the Pharisees. And it's clear that when he's speaking to the shepherds of Israel, he has a higher standard that he holds for the shepherds or for the teachers. And he has to be stern with this kind of audience because they have a greater a responsibility. Now we see this also later in the New Testament in James when he's speaking to the churches. He says, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." And so again, that applies to me first today and to any of us that are up front, but it also applies to any of us when we're in conversation speaking for God. With each other. So don't think that this doesn't have to do with you as well. So when I ask, why was He being mean? Was He really being mean? Obviously, He was on one level. And the lawyers even, "Hey, you're insulting us." But He may not have— and the words He used, "You fools, you're full of greed." But He may have said it in a nice respectful way, right? When he confronted them, he might have said, "Hey, man, your hearts are wicked." He's confronting them but with a certain amount of empathy. We can imagine because we know his character. And in the very next chapter, Jesus laments over the response that he's getting in Jerusalem with these words. He says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 'You who kill the prophets! How often I've longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate!'" This house that was going to be destroyed, the temple, the priesthood, the city, that was not a happy thing for Him. It was something to be sad. And so in this confrontation of the Pharisees, a "Woe to you," this like judgment is coming is not He's not celebrating in that. He's also partly warning and partly lamenting. Now, we see— and so I wanted to go back. So I'm wanting to think about when we rebuke people, do we have a license to be mean? Because if you've been around the church long like I have, you've run into people that can be pretty mean. When they're quoting from the scripture, they may feel kind of strengthened or energized or emboldened to be a little nasty sometimes. And so I think we don't want to necessarily take Jesus' words as we should go around deciding who's the fool and telling them that they're fools, that this is a very unusual situation. Jesus does talk about if you have a problem with his brother, what are you supposed to do? A problem with your brother, you don't just call him out in the church like, "I have a problem with you and you and you." No, you find them alone, right? You go to them just between the two of you and have a talk about it. So I hope that if we are going to be stern that we do it in that setting would be better. Okay, let's go to the next question. What did they do that was so bad? Is it just the way that they wash their hands? No, they did indeed. They were much more concerned about the dirt on the outside than the dirt on the inside. And so what's that talking about? It's all of the things that are going on in their heart. Now, He doesn't describe or go into more detail in this scripture, but He does in many other places. And He kind of teases them or criticizes some of the things they do. So one of them is the what they wear. So they wear special clothes to show how holy they are. That thing around the arms is supposed to be like a wedding ring. It shows how you're devoted to God. Tefillin is one of the— and phylacteries are these boxes. They put a little box with a little scroll in it with little scripture writing in a little box, and you put that on your forehead as if somehow that's going to help you have a better connection with God or shows you're more holy. And I don't know, they spent a lot of money or they had to be approved to wear these special things. And then there's the shawl. So the clothing is one way that they were outwardly showing that a religious character, but not on the inside. Jesus also criticizes the way they pray. He said they would repeat. So he has a prayer book. Of course, in those days it wouldn't be bound like that, maybe a scroll, but they read repetitive prayers. Not quite like chanting, but they would read it not necessarily from the heart, they're just going through the motions. He said that you do your alms, like when you give to the offering, it's always while people are watching. You want to see— wait till people are watching and then you'll do your alms in public so that you'll receive praise, but not in secret. And these are people who wanted to be addressed with terms like rabbi. They wanted to have the best seats because they were interested in their position or drew a certain amount of pride from that. And we know other parables that Jesus told even in the same Gospel of Luke where later he talks about the Pharisee that's quite doing his offering like he should, but he's right in the— behind him is another man who's crying before God and asking for mercy. And the Pharisee's reaction is, "Well, I'm glad I'm not like him. I wonder what he did that was so bad." He doesn't see that he also needs God in the same way. So last week, we saw how so many common people would have instincts to do the right thing or kingdom instincts. But here the Pharisees just have the total opposite set of instincts because of their blindness. So this is some of the things that they did that was wrong. But also they were focusing on really minor issues, neglecting major issues. And Jesus says they, they would even tithe of their herbs. Does anyone have an herb garden? So can you imagine if you had a row of herbs and you took 10% of it and you took it to church, you could and put a little bit of the herbs in a little envelope. "I'm bringing my herb tithes to church today." Now, good for you. It seems like a pretty minor thing, right? It's just less than an ounce of herbs. But they neglected other things that were much more important. Now, one really good example of that, as you've read the Gospels at all, you'll notice it over and over, is when Jesus does anything on the Sabbath, they're always saying, "Hey, stop it." You shouldn't do anything on the Sabbath except go home to your— stay at home. And so several times— these are both from Luke— he says, come on, what should we do on the Sabbath, save life or destroy it? Should we be healing people on the Sabbath? Is that prohibited to do the right thing? And he's sort of showing how they're much more concerned about the regulations and not concerned about helping people or concerned about the needs. That people had. Now Sabbath, of course, is rest, and rest is a good thing, but they just took it to a whole new level by adding on a lot of ceremonial requirements. Has anyone been to Jerusalem to visit? Even to this day, they have a thing called the Sabbath elevator. The Sabbath elevator is you get on, like if let's say you're in a hotel and you're staying on the 6th floor, work. If you go into the elevator on the— and you're living on the 6th floor, you can't push the button. That would be work. So instead what you do is you just get on the elevator and it's built to stop at every floor. On the Sabbath, they set it up so it'll stop on every floor. And you just wait a little longer to get to the 6th floor and that way you don't have to touch the button. Isn't that nice? So this is one of the ways that they even to this day will have ceremonial requirements and lose little loopholes. So another thing, or category of things that they did that was so bad that Jesus was upset about, is that they were closing the door to the kingdom. That when you add up all the practices, the whole lens through which the Pharisees understood God was distorted and had a distorted vision for what God was all about. And beyond that, it imposed burdens on the people, and some of them were financial burdens because they had to— it's like taxes. So if you wanted to— if you were unclean or you wanted to make an offering to the temple and you went in, would they accept your dollars, renminbi? Nope. You want to make an offering to the temple, you have to change your money into the temple dollars, the shekels, the temple shekels. Well, when you changed it, you couldn't change it in the temple, you had to change it outside the the temple gates. And guess who would change it for you? It's the authorized change stall, and they take a commission. So they would add— the scholars think it was like 8%, as much as 8% in addition to the regular taxes added in so that they could keep the money flowing to the priestly class. So this is one. And so when you read about how Jesus went in and He overturned the tables of the money changers. What He's trying to do is all the things that are blocking the access from the normal people into God's Word, He's trying to show that's the wrong thing to do and to overturn it. He said, "My house should be a house of prayer, and you've turned it into a den of thieves." So they had a good thing going on. The priesthood did, and they wanted to keep it going. Another rule they had, and this is very sly. You know how honor your father and mother, when we learn in Sunday school, it means obey your parents. But when you get to be my age, honor your father and mother means you take care of your parents when they're elderly and they can't work, right? So you have to— your money has to be shared with your parents to make sure they have a place to live and something to eat. So honor your father and mother was a part of the Jewish culture forever and ever. Well, guess what? If you have some savings and you call it a gift to the temple, if you commit to give your savings to the temple instead of your parents, then you're off the hook. They allowed— they had an exception to the obligation to parents for any gifts made to the temple. Now you might have a property or something, you don't have to give it right away, but you just pledge it.— you call it korban, was the name. You'll have remembered some of that that you've read in the Scripture. You go through some kind of a ceremony and had a way to get out of that obligation. And Jesus calls— in this other record says that was terrible. And the rule is totally subverting the principle of the law in the first place. And when you add all these things up, it was so distorted that even John the Baptist who many people recognized as a prophet, the leading class, the Pharisees and the lawyers, did not. And so much so that they— he ended up being killed. And of course, they put Jesus to the cross as well. And even later in the book of Acts, when Stephen is witnessing to them, he is stoned. So they do not recognize— they celebrated the prophets of old, and they decorated the tombs and have festivals for Saint So-and-so, but when they had the real saints right in front of them, they couldn't recognize them. So these are some of the things they did that were so bad and why Jesus had to be so mean or stern with them. Now, that's all good and that's all in history, but the big question, of course, is what about today? Are we modern-day Pharisees? Am I a modern-day Pharisee. And we know, of course, that the New Testament is better than the Old Testament. The covenant is more powerful. It's got— Jesus is our High Priest and He is the head of the church. So we're already ahead of the game compared to the way they were 2,000 years ago. But if we remember in the book of Revelation when Jesus, through the vision, He meets 7 churches, He writes to 7 churches. In the first century that are in Asia Minor, and He points things out to them. He's— of all 7 except one, I think, He says something good about, "You do this right, and you do this wrong." And He says the other, "You're doing good on this, but you're not good on that." And this one, He says, "You're doing good here, but you're not good there." So He's still doing it even in the New Testament, or I should say even after the Day of Pentecost, Jesus is confronting in the book of Revelation, the church, on where they are, both where they're on and where they're off. So let's think about it. Now, I don't want to talk about the whole church, like criticize all of Christendom. We don't have time for that. Mostly I'm interested in our church. How's WCC doing? We have Elder Huang, Elder Emeritus, sure, is here with us, so you can correct me if I make any mistakes on where is WCC BC going. I've been here 21 months now, so going on 2 years, so I have a little bit of preparation for this. Now, the 3 categories of what they were doing wrong, we're going to look at all 3 categories and how that applies perhaps to us. So when we think of outward versus inward, and I'm sure many of you have been to other churches to visit, you've seen there's a tendency for many churches to be very focused on the institution, our church, our sign, our name, our people, our land, our constituency, our following, right? And that's not bad, but what if it gets in the way of what God's doing with his institution? So sometimes we might— churches might be real interested in their building, the clothing or the robes that they wear, and in many other ways, like the equipment they have for worship. I'm sure Jonathan would like this, but there's some places where they have these, you know, big soundboards and the speakers everywhere. And they even have in some big churches— have you been to visit? They have like this boom. It looks like you're in a Hollywood studio, and they've got a camera mounted on this boom, and it like zooms around the air in the middle during the worship so people at home can get a better view. So this is what we might be focused on the outward. And again, it's not always a bad thing, but it can become a distraction or cause us to neglect things that are more important. So for example, when we do worship, and I don't know how many churches you've visited, but sometimes you'll visit a church and, you know, there are people up in the front and they're doing this thing. I can't think about God when they're doing all— you know, there's people doing this up in front. I don't know about you. When I grew up in church, the choir was like off in the, in the back. You couldn't even see them. But anyway, so what we are obviously interested— what God's interested is how— what's worship happening in the hearts of all the people that are there, not just what's on stage. And I think we do good on that. I think we do pretty well on that. I'll give us a pass. And then communion. I remember going to a communion this church we used to go to in Illinois, and they would do it every week, and I felt it was like going through the motions sometimes. In fact, I would say— in fact, we have one gentleman here today, Joel, who remembers that church. Remember we did it every week with the— I was like, "Oh, not again. Couldn't we just have a week off?" I remember thinking, because it was, I don't know, it was just too rote. Well, we only do it once a month. See, that's better. So I hope today, in a few minutes we'll do communion, that it will be something that that is meaningful and that the self-examination will be from the heart and not just going through the motions. Sometimes you will hear testimonies at church and sometimes the testimonies are curated, like hand-selected to be like little TED Talks or like super spectacular stories of how someone was totally in the gutter or whatever, just dramatic, very dramatic testimonies. That can be good and very moving in some ways, but it's also not very normal. It's not very realistic. So in our church, we have testimonies. We hope that people will just open up about what's really going on in their lives or has in their life. And we have heard some amazing stories. Some of my favorites are some of our Chinese brothers and sisters that grew up in mainland China or Taiwan, and they tell— or Vietnam too— and they tell the story of their life, their previous life. It wasn't just before they were Christian, but before they were even in the West, and it's very dramatic indeed. In our preaching, you'll see some preaching is very emotional, and it's very much, you know, rah-rah, and wants to get people very excited because it wants to give them that kind of feeling on Sunday. They're going to get this feeling on Sunday, they're going to come back next Sunday, But never mind if these were to crash for the rest of the week, that's not so important. Of course, what we're looking for is food. So we want something that you can digest both today and all week. And are we like to— sometimes you'll think that we all try to put on a mask. Like in the church, we try to always smile and say, you know, everything's good, right? We're all— everything's peachy. Oh, everything's great, you know. But, and that can be also to a fault, especially if it's hiding something that really is going on. Now, if you come to WCC, if you stay for adult Sunday school, which we're doing down in the lounge, okay, after the service, don't just go running out unless you really got to go. You're welcome to stay down in the lounge. Get all the way down the stairs, and we have coffee and some refreshments and hang out for a little while.. And if you go to our— stay long enough for our Sunday school time, we have a conversation, small groups, break up into groups, and we have— we talk about our highs and lows. So when we talk about our lows, it's a good time that we hear about the people who are— have physical pain, or they've lost a close family member or relative, or they're dealing with struggles in their workplace. So that's one way that we try to do it. Now the best or the most vulnerable that we ever are is in a prayer meeting setting. But it's a fact of life in every church I've ever been associated with that the prayer meeting only draws about 10 to 15% of the total people that come. Only 10 or 15% will ever come to the prayer meeting. Now, I don't blame you because until I was 34, I never went to a prayer meeting either. It just sounded like that thing that those people did. You know, those really, those, what do you call them, like nerds, church nerds. They go to prayer meeting, but I wouldn't go to prayer meeting. Well, once, one time when Stacy and I were like 33 or 34, we were invited by this couple. And okay, well, we went. Well, I just was so amazed at how much we enjoyed it. And we talked through the things we wanted to pray for, we prayed, and then we sang a few hymns a cappella, which was a very big draw. And then after we were done, the wife pulled out some baked goods. So it was a complete package. It was wonderful. So I think we could do better in this. But if you can't make it to the prayer meeting, you could still let us know how, you know, what is on your mind, what is going wrong. And here I'm asking for help, okay? I'm gonna be vulnerable Paul at this moment. All right. I need help to be effective pastor. And one way that I need help is I need to be approachable. Am I approachable? I don't want you to feel like, you know, if you call me or show up at my door or come to my office or come up after service that I'm going to say, "I'm sorry, I'm too busy for you," or "Not interested." I want to be approachable, but sometimes I need help. I can't read your mind or I can't always see, or sometimes quick things happen so quick and I want to talk to you and I want to talk to you and I missed the chance or I didn't notice. And so help, help me to know the pulse of what's going on. And so we can pray about it so that we can be, be there for each other. So I'm asking for your help. Also, we can help each other in that way. Are you approachable by other people in the fellowship? If right after the services someone comes up and then you, pshew, exit stage left. So let's cultivate that culture. Now, there's this other category of what goes wrong for the evangelical churches. Do we ever major in minors? Well, maybe not on the Sabbath day, although there's one church called Seventh-day Adventists. That's what they're all about. We're the Saturday church. That's like, they're part of their identity. And so they're kind of following the original plan of the, the, of making the Sabbath very important. Well, if not that church, there's many churches. I call it tribal. They're a little tribal. They like to have their identifying— we're different from other churches. Well, what are you different? Well, it could be that we have different politics, we have different worship styles. We have different view of spiritual gifts. We have different view of end times. We have different ways of dressing. We have different ways of saying amen during this. We're different. And why do you want to be different? Well, so that people who are us will feel closer, right? If you also say amen during the, the Mass, we'll feel like we're brothers. But those other churches feel cold and different and distant. So we try to have our own for sub-identity. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but I am saying that at WCC, what's our identity? And that's what we're— we have Chinese heritage. That's one thing. We had this 44-year history. We have this building. We have this land. We have this location. We have these people. But one of the— I feel like one of our characteristics is the opposite of what I just described. We're trying to be anti-tribal. We're trying We want to be a broad-based church that isn't doctrinally specific, like focusing on one kind of interpretation, but we're more broad-minded. Why? Well, because we want to be the Chinese church for the whole county, for the whole state, anybody that's within communing distance. So we can't just be, you know, left, right, center. We have to be everything. Now, everything could be a little wishy-washy, and so that's the risk. And sometimes people come to, "Oh, I wish, you know, you could be more—" pound the pavement, pound the podium a little bit more and yell about, you know, raise your voice once in a while like a good preacher does, right? I could raise my voice. Of course, then I'll make half of you happy. Then what are you raising your voice for, you know? So, so that's, that's where we are. And so I use the word cross-denominational. We try to be cross-denominational. In the, in our mission statement, we say cross-cultural. So that means we want to be aware that, okay, some people are from China, some are from Taiwan, Some are from Korea, some are from Greece, like me. Actually, not me, my ancestors are from Greece. We have a Liberian, only one, right? What other countries? Who else was born in somewhere that was not China, Greece, or Liberia? Anybody born? Or America. Anybody else? Yes, Vietnam, we have Vietnam. So we've got a certain amount of variety. We want to be able to expose ourselves to being a little different. We had a small group Bible study last night. Do we agree about everything? No, but we can have a talk about it, and then it's time to eat. So the discussion doesn't have to be a debate or acrimonious because we're all going to eat together in a few minutes. So that would be— that's how we try to to focus on major issues. It's not that we don't— aren't aware of minor issues, but we want to have— when we see those, we be curious about why do people feel this way or that way. For example, I was infant baptized, and you say, "Well, why would anybody do that?" Because it's not in the Bible. It doesn't seem to be— not in the New Testament anyway. But there is a way to read the Old Testament and that you can see that even infant baptism can be justified from the Bible. So, the third category that we have to be careful is how we hinder access. We don't want to become blocking people's understanding of God or making it worse or distorting it. And at some churches, if you go, it's actually confusing. I've even as a visitor, even as a Christian, I remember going to this one church and they had all the songs— I like to sing harmonies, right? But it was all like original music. I didn't know any of the songs and they were hard. They were like really hard to sing. And I was like, "Why do you have such hard songs?" And they said, "Well, you'll learn them eventually." Okay, never mind. So sometimes people will go to a church and they feel, "I don't belong here because I'm not dressed well enough or I'm not as clean or as smiley. I'm more mopey." You know, somebody's kind of mopey out on the street, they come in and the only mopey a happy one, they might not feel that they fit in. We're too happy. So, of course, what is the antidote is we're just a friendly church, and I know we are already. I have visitors that have come and they've all, almost all, without exception, told me how friendly this church is. But we need to be aware of two things underneath this hindered access. One is leadership and one is our culture. And the leadership, something very important that I don't know if you're all aware, that many churches are led by a single person, like the pastor runs the show. But we have a team leadership concept, which we believe goes all the way back to the New Testament when Apostle Paul appointed elders, plural, for each church, not just single men to be in charge. And when you have that team leadership, we have to talk through things and have to reach consensus. And so that's a very good characteristic. Another one is we don't like to badmouth other churches. There's just no reason that we would do that. There are a lot of churches right in Hokkessen, all down the street on Limestone. We have pastors' lunches. We try to get to know these people. We're not jealous of those churches. Let them do their thing. We can coexist because we're all part of the kingdom of God. So I'm really thankful for the culture that we have in our leadership, and I think the shared decision-making is really good. There's also division of labor. So, for example, the pastor doesn't touch money. I don't manage the accounts. I don't even know how much the offering is except when they post it, which is when you can see it too. So that's another way that we can avoid trouble. And in our culture, you'll see a lot of churches that have that insider culture I was describing coming with a special jargon or special unwritten rules or the cliques within the church. And we are trying to have that, like I said, cross-denominational, cross-cultural, cross-generational feel so that we have a normal language, normal vocabulary, normal behavior, and that we can get along in a warm way. Some churches have, as I was just saying, the performance culture. Culture, try to show how, you know, we're so got ourselves together. We want to have a grace culture because all of us have been forgiven and we remember, we haven't forgotten that we also are in need of God's grace. Now, it would be nice if we had larger lobby space so that when you leave, there's more spaces that we can hang out together. So that's something that we are working on and we'll see what happens in the next couple of years. So let me close there and say, Father, I am thankful for your word, for Jesus daring to confront those leaders that day. Thank you for his warning, and let us take it into account, what parts of it are relevant to us. And we thank you for all the Christian churches around the world, for so many of them with so many devoted, dedicated people serving you out of of a pure heart. But we know all of us still need your correction and your leading and guidance. So we pray that you will continue to guide them, guide us, and let WCC respond in humility, doing our best to reflect you, to give space here for your spirit to do its thing. That your kingdom can be itself, that it can show evidence in the real world that your word is true and that your grace is real and for us, and that we can have hope for, as you promise, eternal life. I feel good about this church, and I pray your Spirit will take root here and grow. Let our doors open, be open wide. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Okay, could you all please rise and join us as we sing a reflection song and prepare our hearts for communion?

Sing, I take the bread. I take the bread of life. Broken for all my sin, your body crucified to make me whole again. I will recall the cup poured out in sacrifice. To trade this sinner's end for your new covenant.

Hallelujah!

And I'll live my life in remembrance. Hallelujah, your promise I won't forget. I'll walk salvation's— I'll walk salvation's road with fear and trembling. Your way born as my own, as Christ is formed in me. Hallelujah! And I'll live my life in remembrance. Hallelujah, your promise I won't forget. If ever I should lose my way, if ever I deny your grace, remind me of the price You've been so, so good to me. You've been so, so good to me. Oh, to think where I would be if not for you, if not for you. You've been so, so good to me. You've been so, so good to me. Oh, to think where I would be if not for you, if not for you. You've been so, you've been so, so good to me. You've been so, so good to me. Oh, to think where I would be if not for you, if not for you. As far as I'd reach from the depths As far as east is from the west, so far your grace has carried me. Until I see you face to face, until at last I've won my race, remind me I'm not finished yet. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, I'll live in remembrance.

You may be seated.

Good morning. I didn't realize Paul was going to talk about the cup about being clean on the outside versus the inside, which is appropriate for the passage that the Lord brought to my mind as I was thinking about communion. Thinking back in Exodus 19, we just finished our series in Exodus, but Before God presents himself to the people of Israel and they receive the law, they have to consecrate themselves. He says this in Exodus 19:10. He says, Then the Lord told Moses, "Go down and prepare the people for my arrival. Consecrate them today and tomorrow, and have them wash their clothing." Now washing their clothing, it wasn't going to make their sins go away. It wasn't going to make them less sinful, but it was going to set apart that time. That's what that word consecrate means. It means to set apart as holy. And God, throughout the scriptures, he has— or whenever he, he marks times or consecrates times more than he does places. So the Sabbath day is set apart as holy, and this moment now where the people are before God is set apart as holy as well. And so it— we in the New Covenant, we have a much better, uh, maybe consecration than the people of Israel received. So the Holy Spirit comes and he cleanses us rather than us having to wash our clothes. And as Paul said, we have a high priest that intercedes on our behalf for us, that we don't need Moses to speak on our behalf. Flip over to 1 Corinthians. But as we reflect on communion, Paul asks us, he says, to examine ourselves before eating the bread and drinking the cup. You think, well, what does that look like to examine myself? And when I was younger, I would maybe think about like the Passion of Christ. I just like put those images into my head of Jesus being crucified. But I think it's deeper than just maybe what's going through my mind in the moment. I think about David when he says, "Search my heart and reveal any sin to me." And maybe during this time, that's what you need to do as we examine ourselves, is to ask the Lord to speak to you, that he would reveal to you maybe sins that are in your life, or maybe there are things that you've been ungrateful for that you need to thank the Lord for. And, you know, setting aside a heart of pride. But I'm gonna ask the ushers, whoever is passing out the elements, to come forward. And as we receive the bread and the juice, we'll take them together. And we practice open communion here, so if you've been baptized as an adult or as an infant, you are welcome to join with us. But as you receive these things, take this moment to reflect upon yourself and ask the Lord to speak to you. Is there anything in your heart that needs to be revealed? Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Lord, we thank you for what you have done for us, Lord. Lord, we thank you that we do not have to wash our clothing and our bodies before coming to you, Lord, but Lord, that your Spirit has baptized us, Lord, once and for all. But I pray that you would continue to speak to us in these moments, Lord. Lord, that as we take this, this bread and this juice, Lord, reflective of your body and your, your blood, Lord, Lord, as we claim your, your death for ourselves, Lord, Lord, I pray that we would take it seriously, God, that we would consecrate this moment, Lord, so we do not take your sacrifice for granted. But Lord, we are thankful for the price that you have paid for us, Lord. And Lord, that your, your blood has atoned for us, Lord, washing not our outside but our inside, God, that we can come before you forevermore. Amen. Now Paul says in 1 Corinthians, he says, for I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Please join with me. Pardon me, I should have taken a smaller piece. In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.' Please join with me. Now, Lord, I, I thank you once again for your sacrifice, Lord, and what you have done for us, Lord, and what you are doing in us, Lord. I pray that your, your power would continue to live, uh, inside us, God. I pray these things in your name. Amen.

Good morning, brother and sister. Let's bow our head and make a prayer together. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus We thank you for the beautiful church, a place where everyone can come and worship you. We also would like to thank you for brothers, sisters who are serving you diligently in today's worship. Lord, we thank you for the bread and the cup in the communion this morning. With humble gratitude, we remember your selfless love and great sacrifice for our sins. Thank you for the gift of salvation and your sacrifice on the cross. Lord, we ask for your forgiveness of our sins, for your healing our diseases, and help us to live a life that is a present to you, so that we will be able to honor you and glorify your name. Please also bless our family, our children, wherever they are, at home, away in college, at work, or with their family. We would like to lift them up to you and pray for your protection, guidance, and wisdom. Please also seal them from harm way and from infectious disease. We would like to lift up those that are in need of healing, physically, mentally, as well as spiritually. And for brothers, sisters who are job seeking and adjusting to a new job. We also would like to lift up our pastor, minister, and church leadership to you. We pray that you will give them the wisdom to preach accordingly to your word. Faithfully, for your will will be done. Lord, we lift up our church building extension project to you and ask your guidance, wisdom, through the planning process according to your will, so that your name will be glorified. We pray for our youth Friday night program for the new curriculum, choosing Summer Mission Trip. Consider it. We pray that our English conjugation be fruitful and attract more people and non-believers to our church. And I would like to lift up the sisters in our congregation that her father passed away and she have to go back to China. A lot of peace be with her, be with her family. That let you— let them know that you're there with them and comfort them. Also, I would like to pray for our country's leadership, for peace and unity. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Good morning, everybody. If there's anybody here visiting for the first time, I'd like to give you a little gift that we have. So if you'd raise your hand, we can get that to you. Matthew, you're not a visitor. Okay, I don't think anybody's raising their hand. Thank you, Mike. If you go to the next slide, the opportunities up ahead are the prayer circle, as we always meet on Wednesday night, details in the bulletin, and you can read the other things up there. One thing I want to make sure that you remember, which is not up there, does anybody know what happens this coming Saturday at 2:00 AM at night? Yeah, I hear mumbling of it. Yeah, daylight savings time. And so if you come here at the wrong time next Sunday, we will, you know, you might be surprised. So you will lose 1 hour next Saturday night when you go to bed. So for the next slide, I'm going to ask James if you'd come up. And I think it's the next slide to— you can go on to the next slide. James, you can talk through this. And your slide's up.

Hello again. So one of my projects here as I've been working with Paul is to work on our Church Center app. And if you haven't downloaded the app yet, it is a great resource. Within it we have our bulletin, we have a way to submit prayer requests. Somebody submitted our first prayer request this week after I set it up. You can see upcoming events and you can also see the past sermons as well. And as we continue to develop it and put more resources into it, it will be a more helpful tool for us as a church to communicate with one another, schedule volunteering, and to just see what else is going on in the church. So it, it's available for Apple or Android. You can download it in the appropriate store, and then I think all you need is your phone number to set it up. And I set it up so that there's the English ministry and the Mandarin ministry, so select for the English ministry when you're setting it up. But if you have any questions about that or want some help getting on your phone, you can come talk to me and I can help you with that.

And if you don't have a phone, we still do have the website, so you can get there. I know some of you guys don't have your wand yet and such as that. So anyway, if you would please rise for the doxology. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise him, all creatures here below.

Praise him above, ye heavenly hosts.

Praise God, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen. May God our Father, who sees our hearts, cleanse our inner lives. May the Son, the life of the Son, teach us what truly matters. And with the help of the Holy Spirit, may our doors always be open wide so that his kingdom comes on earth in us and through us now and forever. Amen. Thank you for being here and God bless you. Go in peace.