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We're ready.

Are we ready?

Okay. Good morning.

Good morning.

Well, welcome to Wilmington Community Evangelical Church. We are super happy to see you guys here even after Easter Sunday. We know some people are already slacking off, but maybe we can keep them accountable. So, but anyways, last week we celebrated Easter and we know our Lord Jesus is risen. He is not dead; he is risen indeed, and he is now seated at the right hand of God. What do we say? Amen! Hallelujah! Right? Okay. Well, a few months ago, maybe a few weeks ago, I shared my personal testimony with you, and you heard me talking about some of the not-so-accurate teachings that I heard growing up. So as I was contemplating on Jesus' death and the resurrection, I remembered another teaching that's not so accurate. So when I was much younger, when I do something bad or when I was being disobedient, sometimes my parents would say, "You know you are sinning and you are nailing Jesus to the cross again." And of course, that made me feel terrible scared and ashamed and guilty. Well, I do need to feel bad about my sins, but I do not nail Jesus to the cross every time I sin. And thank goodness. And because, you know, Jesus said that it is finished, he has done it and once for all. So we now all have liberty in him, and we don't— we are not— he's not dying every time that we sin. It is finished. Okay, but he did say he is coming back sometime. We don't know when, nobody knows, but we need to be prepared because when he comes back, he will settle account with us, and we want to be called the good and faithful servant. We want to be on the right side. Okay, please join me in praying. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Son Jesus. You have purposed from the foundation of the earth for him to come and die for us sinners, to save us from eternal condemnation. Lord, we are certainly not worthy. It is all because of grace, because of your love. Lord, we pray that we will share the abundant love we have received with those around us so many more can experience you and accept you as their Savior. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

There's plenty of, uh, good open seats right here in this section. You know, if you go to a concert, people pay a lot of money for these type of seats. So I encourage you to come forward. Uh, this is a great section to, uh, to join me in singing and praising God. So if you can come forward and stand with me, let's lift our voices to God.

Upon us, send us, we virtue in our weakness. Shine on me, shine on me. Shine, Jesus, shine. Fill this land with the Father's glory. Blaze, Spirit, blaze. Let our hearts on fire flow, river flow, flood the nations with grace and mercy. Send forth your word, Lord, and let there be light. Lord, I come to your awesome presence. From the shadows into your radiance. By the blood I enter your brightness. Search me, try me, consume all my darkness. Shine on me. Shine on me. Shine, Jesus, shine. Fill this land with the Father's glory. Blaze, Spirit, blaze. Set our hearts on fire. Flow, river, flow. Flood the nations with grace and mercy. Send forth your word, Lord, and let it be light. As we gaze on your kingdom's brightness, so our faces display your likeness, ever changing from glory to glory. Mirror, here may our lives tell your story. Shine on me, shine on me. Shine, Jesus, shine. Fill this land with the Father's glory. Blaze, Spirit, blaze. Set our hearts on fire. Flow, river, flow. Flood the nations with grace and mercy. Send forth your word, Lord, and there will be light. You came to us a man, in very nature God, and pierced your own iniquities as you hung upon the cross. But God exalted you into the highest place and gave to you the right to bear the name above all names. And at the name of Jesus, we should bow. And every tongue confess that you are Lord. And when you come in glory, for the world to see. We will sing. Hail to the King in all his splendor and majesty. Hail to the King of Kings. Lord Jesus, our God. We eagerly await the coming of the day when the glory of the risen King will shine upon the earth. The rival thrones will fall before the Lord of all. And hail supreme authority in the true and living God. At the name of Jesus we will bow. As every tongue confesses you as Lord. And when you come in glory for the world to see, we will sing, hail to the King, in all his splendor and majesty. Hail to the King of Kings, Lord Jesus our God. Hail to the King in all his splendor and majesty. Hail to the King of Kings, Lord Jesus our God. of the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes will not perish, they shall have eternal life. I shall hold to the cross. I shall hold to God alone. For his love has salvaged me. For his love has set me free. Set me free. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Whosoever believes will not perish. They shall have eternal life. I shall wait upon the Lord, I shall wait upon his word. By his grace I am released. By his grace, I am redeemed. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Whosoever believes will not perish, they shall have eternal life. By his precious blood I have been set free for the glory of Jesus' name. I surrender all now to Christ alone. In Jesus I am saved. By his precious blood I have been set free. For the glory of Jesus' name, I surrender all. Now to Christ Christ alone. In Jesus I am saved. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, who Whoever believes will not perish. They shall have eternal life.

Let's pray. Uh, Lord, we just thank you for your great love for us, that you offer your only Son to be the sacrifice for our sin, to be the atonement for our sins. And we're just so grateful for that. And that's why we want to share the message, the gospel message of love and the forgiveness and the salvation. For one day, your Son Jesus will come again, and we look forward to that day. But we just want to spread out your good news to everyone so that they know about this love and your grace. We give thanks for what you've done and what you continue to do. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Before you sit down, uh, take a time to just greet each other and welcome each other.

Good morning, everyone. May the peace from God be with you all. My name is Linda Ong. I'm a third-generation Christian through my mother. I grew up in Taiwan. I was physically weak. My nose bled a lot when my classmates in bed climbed Ali Mountain. I had to stop halfway. But I was active.

Clever.

You were clever.

My mother say, "You are not stupid." I earned a bachelor's in Chinese literature when I came to California to get a master's of educational psychology and later a computer science. A matchmaker set me with a friend of mine. Third old brother, he was not a Christian. We settled in Marmos, New Jersey, where he worked for Bell Labs. I had a daughter.— and ended in Monmouth Chinese Christian Church, MCCC, which was very small at that time. I became close to a girl there who also married a non-Christian. Sadly, he, his friend gave, this friend gave birth to a boy with a heart defect. The church held emergency prayer meetings. The medical situation was bleak, but through the church, a doctor was— through the church, a doctor was found and operation performed. They saved the baby. Through that incident, the baby's father and my husband became Christian. Later we had a son and he was good. I led the church youth and adult choir for many years. I served the youth group and children choir. Later, my husband lost his job and went out of state for work. I stayed in New Jersey while my children finished school. Then my mother-in-law got sick, so weak.

Who took care of her?

I took care of her. Ours was a long-distance marriage for 10 years. Sadly, a few years later, after moved back to Mama's in 2016. My husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. How could I take care of my mother-in-law and my husband? It was the Sunday morning after Thanksgiving that year. I prepared for church. I felt suddenly I had a stroke at the age—

How old were you when you had the stroke?

60. From that moment, I cannot take care of anyone anymore. Thank God providing an emergency doctor to operate, and it saved my life. But my husband died 3 years later. 3 months later. My daughter moved me to Hockinson, Delaware, near her. My son fixed me a house with ramps and a special bathroom. Thank God for Larry from Liberia. She is the wife of a pastor. Every day she takes care of me physically and spiritually. She encouraged me in the Lord and she sings with me. I gave her a Chinese name, Wang Na Yi, because it sounds like Larry. Thank God for YouTube, which satisfies me curiosity about music, news, and theology. Thank God I still have use of my right side, my right hand, so I can navigate YouTube without assistance. Thank God I can chew, taste, and enjoy food. Good. Thank God I have you, my church community, 5 minutes from home, I attend the English and Chinese service. I cannot direct the choir anymore or volunteer in other ways. When socializing, I'm worried I speak slowly, but I appreciate your greeting and a smile. Sometimes I wake up and the night fades. I wonder, is this all my life now? But I remember Isaiah 43:2. Versus— A bruised reed he will not break, and a mouldering wick will not snuff out. Faithfulness he will bring forth justice. I thank you for listening to me this morning. God bless you all. Next, I will introduce my Nurse caregiver Larry. Only, only 1 minute, okay?

Praise the Lord. My name is Larry Reese. I'm a wife of a pastor. I'm also a pastor. We have a ministry in Liberia, and so we have schools, we have churches. I've been working with Miss Lena since she came This is our 8th year, and I just want to bless God. I've learned a lot from her because she's a woman of resilience. She's a woman that has strength, and this woman gives me joy and makes me see life another way. Despite her condition, she's always joyful. She smiles, she laughs, she's not moody. She's very thankful for everything anything that you do for her. And so we have become so close, very, very close. And sometimes I say, you my boss. She said, no, I'm not your boss. You are my loyal friend. So that's how we are. Even my, my place of work, the people take us to be like special group of people. And I just want to bless God that I have the opportunity to be a help to her too. I do appreciate it. And I thank God for her. I also thank God for you people that are here. From the time I came, I've been here 80 years, I've always been welcomed. I've always been respected, even down to the kids that are here. And so even the leaders that are here, I'm thankful. And this church has also been a blessing to my ministry. This has been the greatest, the biggest donation I received from this church. To the church in kind and in cash. Again, I want to say thank you, Pastor. Thank you, Mama Lena. Thank God for you. I call her Mama Lena, and that's it. So I want to tell God thank you in Jesus' name.

And I hope you appreciate the bilingual today here. You know, for the young people, if you have the chance, you know, You learn both language.

Amen.

Just like Pastor Kong.

Okay, thank you all. And by the way, I just forgot, I brought— I traveled to Africa, and so I brought her an African suit, so she's wearing it.

Today I'm different clothes for her. Sometimes Chinese, now today is African.

So she's wearing African today.

This is the latest style in my country.

This is one of the new clothes that I have. The young folks are wearing it, everybody. So I thought to get this for her.

Thank you, Sister Sherry.

Well, thank you, Linda and Larry, for that sharing. That's very touching, and I think it will encourage all of us here, and that is precious. So let's read the scripture together. If you would rise, please. And let's read together. Do you see all these buildings? They will be completely demolished. You wicked and lazy servant, throw this useless servant into outer darkness. Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. The Son of Man on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world. This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things happen. Thank you. You may be seated.

Well, thank you, Linda. That took a lot of strength and energy and practice for her. We worked on the words. They're her words. I helped her to type it out, and I put it in nice big font. At first she said, "No, I can't read it." But then I showed her the page that was printed in big letters. She said, "Oh, I could read this." So yeah, that's a hard act to follow. But I'll do my best. Make Israel Great Again. When I told my wife this title, she said, "No!" And later I told my son the title. He said, "No!" And so I felt the need to right off the bat, I have to clarify what's happening here. And that is from Acts chapter 1. My goal is to get into the shoes of the people who are listening to Jesus as he's speaking some of the things that he says in Matthew 24 and 25. And we can indirectly understand when we observe the apostles, the disciples right after the resurrection. The very beginning of Acts is those days after the resurrection before the ascension of Jesus. They're still— they have, I think it was 40 days to hang out. And it says, "The apostles kept asking him, 'Lord, has the time come to free Israel from the Romans, that is, and to restore our kingdom?'" Restore our kingdom. Kingdom. They had heard about this restoration that was coming, the renewal of the covenant or the new covenant, and they assumed that meant that Israel was going to be restored just like it had been perhaps in the time of David and Solomon, and it would be a great country once again. And you've heard how some of the disciples even wanted to be the secretary of the state and secretary of treasury and secretary of this or that and had asked for special rolls there. So we know that this was on their mind. They had heard all of his messages and had much closer, you know, the original languages. They had all of Jesus' life as a context, so they should have understood it, right? But what in fact we know is it wasn't their kingdom, it was God's kingdom. And that God's kingdom, it turned out, was bigger than just Israel, wasn't it? And who else aside from Israelites is in God's kingdom? The rest of us. Yah! How many Israelites in the room today? Maybe there are some. You don't know what's in your blood sometimes. God— and it says then later in Paul, he explains this contradiction or shift from Jesus' message to Israel now being applied to everybody. And he says, Paul says there is this mystery. He says, "God himself revealed his mysterious plan to me." Now I'm picking from several sections to put it together in a logical way that you can see at a glance. The mystery, what was it? That the rulers of the world had not understood. If they had, they would not have crucified the glorious Lord. And the message was, or the mystery was, that among the Gentiles, the glorious riches of this ministry is Christ in you, the hope of glory. In other words, the devil thought he and Jesus were arguing over Israel, and little did he know that after the resurrection, Jesus says, "Nope, it's not just Israel I'm after. I'm after the whole world." And that part was a surprise. And according to Paul Condrell, if the powers that be knew that Jesus was not only going to take over as King of Israel, but He's going to be King of everything, they probably wouldn't have even crucified Him. They would have just let Him have Israel. "You can have Israel. We'll keep the rest of the world." But that was not what was on Jesus' mind. So when I say, "Make Israel great again," what I'm really saying is, "Make the new Israel, make God's Kingdom great again," or make it great. And it's Gentiles too now have access. And so we saw a couple of weeks ago when we were in Matthew 19 how Jesus promised that the disciples or those who follow him will become rulers in this new kingdom. And he even described it as the 12 tribes of Israel. You disciples will sit on the thrones of the 12 tribes of Israel. He's still using the language of Israel. But then later, as we see in the New Testament, it becomes the new Israel and has a broader implication. But I ask a question. We have this word again here, at the top of this verse, Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel." So why do they need renewal? And you see, of course, and you know very well how the Pharisees and the leaders of Israel had co-opted God's kingdom and turned it into their kingdom, and you could say they were the deep state of the time. And we've seen this in all the parables. And we came across this before where Jesus challenges the Pharisees to their face, or the scribes, and he tells a story about a landowner who sent his servants to collect his share of the crop, the rent. But the farmers, the tenants that is, they grabbed the servants, they beat one, they killed another, they stoned another. And when the tenant farmers saw the son, his son coming, they said to one another, let's kill him and get the estate for ourselves. And so they murdered him. And so Jesus asked the scribes that were there, he said, when the owner of the vineyard returns, what do you think he'll do to those farmers? Well, duh, even the scribes could figure it out. They said, he will put that those wicked men to death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest. And Jesus said, yes, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, you who have let it into the ground, and it will be given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. So this is the backdrop as we're going into these last chapters and the ones that we'll read today, 24 and 25. We're not going to read them all, but we're going to cherry-pick some of the highlights in those two chapters that are going to line up with this story. Because what's going on here is regime change. The old regime, you could call it the Pharisees, but you could also call it the whole Mosaic system where you had to have a temple and you had to have animal sacrifices. And what's the new regime? It's without a temple, it's for the whole world, and it's for everywhere that we are gathered, and it's in the name of Jesus that we now receive atonement and no longer the blood of animals. So this is the change that is happening, and everybody can really see. And in this chapter 24, he gives these prophecies, and then in chapter 25, he has 3 more parables that line up with those prophecies. And one is the— we just read a little bit of it. That you've all heard about this man that goes on a long trip. And on his long trip, he leaves his money to his stewards, different amounts of money to different stewards. But after a long time, he comes back and calls them to account. And what happens? Remember, there's 3 that are given money to invest or to manage, and 2 of them do a decent job and 1 of them, no, does a bad job. To the two good ones, you see how I have two verses here that are underneath references under the exact same word. So he says the exact same thing to the two good guys with different amounts of money. Well done, my good faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount. So now we will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. And so here is the bedrock principle. For the kingdom to thrive, to it be great again or to be great for the first time, is very simple. If those who are given, who do a good job will be given more responsibility. So unlike the Pharisees who sort of got a position and so they would hold on to it even if they did a bad job, that's not the principle. The principle is you start with a little and then you work your way up. Now, here's a different picture, but the same parable. "To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, that they will have an abundance." Now, if they're talking about money, that seems strange that the person who already has a lot of money will be given more. That doesn't seem right. But if you understand in terms of responsibility, the one that's handled their responsibility is given more. That makes a lot more sense, doesn't it? So these are the two guys that have done well with what they had. This is the He calls the wicked and lazy servants because what did he do with his talent? Who remembers what he did with it? He buried it in the ground. So it didn't move. It wasn't used at all. And worse, he even blames the landowner for that. He says, take the money from this one and give it to the one with the 10 bags of silver. From those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 'Now throw this useless servant into the outer darkness.' So that is one of the three parables. And the next one is about the 10 foolish virgins— excuse me, the 10 maidens. Let's call them the 10 young ladies who are all invited to a wedding feast. And 10 were wise— excuse me, I did it again— 5 were wise and 5 were foolish. Now I looked for some good artwork for this one, and there's So many paintings of the 10 maidens. You wouldn't believe how many are out there on the internet. But usually it shows the 5 foolish maidens are there, and they have these like contorted faces like, "Oh no, we missed the wedding." But I only wanted to focus on the 5 wise because they made it into the feast. The door was not locked on them, and they are now going to do what they have to do. They are— essentially, it's another version of these servants that have done well and stewarded their property. And it says that those who are ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. And the third parable, and I'm sure you all remember this one, is about a— the great shepherd calls— let's see, wait a minute. I was going to introduce this with— I'm getting ahead of myself. You know how it starts. It's the— this— I forget how it starts. The Lord basically calls all the goats and all the sheep up into— to come up before him, and he's going to make a judgment. And then he divides them up according to this standard. He says, "For I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me drink." I was a stranger and you invited me into your home. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me. When you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you were doing it to me. Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. So here we see the three pictures, and in each of them there's some judgment or some settling of accounts or some— there's some harvest, there's some moment that there's a change. And at that change, those people who are doing a good job are given more responsibility. But those who are doing a bad job, what happens to them? They're either locked out or there is destruction of one kind or another. Now we're going back to chapter 24. Jesus again, he's teaching on these topics over the last few days. And as he's leaving to go back up the hill towards Bethany, the disciples commented to him, "See, look at all these cool buildings." They're like admiring because they come from Galilee, right? They're up from the countryside. They don't get down to Jerusalem that often, so they're admiring the Buildings, and Jesus says, "These buildings, they're going to be completely demolished. Not one stone is going to be left on another." And if you go to Jerusalem, and just about 100 yards down from where the Wailing Wall is, where you see the Jews there sticking their prayers into the cracks in the wall, along the same wall, that's the same wall, it's only down, uh, in the southerly direction about 100 yards, you'll see these enormous boulders that were pushed off the Temple Mount, and they're still there to this day. So Jesus had said in that same context, just earlier in that same day, he said, "You," talking to the Pharisees, "are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Judgment will fall on this very generation. Look, your house is left to you." abandoned. So he, he made this prediction. It was for those people at the time that their city, their, their whole system, the world as they know it, was coming to an end. But that was only to clear the way for the new generation, the people that would emerge out of it, where those who have been doing a good job would be given more responsibility. So what I'm trying to do here, and I'm sorry for those of you who are not at all familiar with these stories, It may be hard to lay them on top of each other because we haven't taken the time to read each one. But I'm— I just wanted to show the method is to look at these several stories that are all about the same basic issue, but they're looking at it from slightly different angles. And if you know, for example, how color printing works, you'll know that the inks— they use 4 different colors of ink in order to produce a full-color photograph, and each of the colors, this blue, pink, yellow, and black, are little tiny dots. And if you use a magnifying glass, you'll see those tiny dots. But if you step away, you'll see how those 4 layers put together gives you the full picture in color. And so that's what I'm trying to do by saying that the judgment of the sheep and the goats is the same as the wedding, the moment of the wedding feast, which kept the wise, separated the wise virgins from the from the foolish ones, which is the same as the settling of accounts with the two servants who did a good job and the one servant who did a bad job. You see how those layers, you can line them all up. And if you know about printing, when they have the four separate inks, they have to run through the paper on different drums. And so you have to line them up so they don't— if they're off just a little bit, it'll look really bad. So they have these little marks on there so you can get it all lined up. So what we're seeing then is this pattern, which is similar to the Exodus. So the Exodus provides like a framework to understand it, that the children of Israel were in Egypt as slaves in Egypt. Then they went into the wilderness for 40 years. And finally, they got to the Promised Land. And we talked about this a few weeks ago. And I said, now this is like— this new covenant is a new Exodus. And it follows a similar pattern where they started out in exile. They're about to enter enter the apostolic age, and then finally they will be— that moment where the settling of accounts will happen and they are now in the kingdom of God. So the— so what we— and a few weeks ago when we talked about it, we said there was that verse that's really sort of cryptic where it says the first shall be last and the last shall be first. It's like, you know, what's going on with that? And if we understand it in this framework, we can see, oh, The last— the first are the Pharisees and the other leaders of the time. They're going to hit this point where they're going to be out in the outer darkness. So they're going to become the last. Whereas the last— who's the last? These humble pilgrims who are sitting at Jesus' feet, who are drinking in, who are going down to be baptized by John, who are following him, who are forsaking whatever it takes to drink in the gospel that they hear from Jesus. So there's this reversal. And this reversal is the same time as this renewal is going on. Now, this is later on then in the same chapter of Matthew 24 where he's talking about the destruction of the temple. He says, don't worry. This is where Make It Great Again starts. He says, a faithful servant, a faithful A sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of everything he owns. So this is another way of looking at the Great Commission. And then he goes on in the next verse to say another word And he says this: The Son of Man is coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and he will send out his angels with a mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world. And so this sounds just like what we hear in Revelation, where there's these trumpets and there's this gathering in the heavens. But, but what other word is gathering What's another word for gathering in the Bible? Fellowship, congregate, and collect together. How about church? That's what I was looking for. The ecclesia, calling together, is to church, synagogue together. So this is another way of interpreting or translating would be to say that he's going to blow the trumpet And he's going to call the church out of the ashes of the Old Covenant. And he goes on then in the next verse, or a couple of verses down, he says, "I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." Now, there is a sermon I heard in our Chicago church a few years ago. It was a Baptist church. And the speaker stopped. He was doing this chapter. And he stopped at this moment and he said, "Okay, this is trouble. This is like cognitive dissonance going on here." And so this is the analogy that he used, I'm giving him full credit for it, to explain what is going on. And he said, "We need to understand this, we need bifocals." This is what he said. And if you have bifocals like me, you can see there's two different, 2 glass shapes of glass. There's the top part there and then there's the part here. This part is for reading something up close and then this other part is for, for distance. So what he's saying is in this chapter we are learning, or they were learning stuff that was gonna about to happen right there and they're looking through the, the near lens. But then we're reading it now, obviously many years later, So we have to also understand what he's saying through the far lens. Does that make sense? There's a theologian who has another concept which some of you— which is really catchy and easy to remember, which says— he said, it's both already and not yet. So there was a destruction that happened in Jerusalem that was the end of the Old Covenant, but there is not yet. There is a future time. When the New Covenant will also be subject to a judgment. And we learn of that in Revelation, and therefore we can look back at this one and see, oh, there's a— sometimes they call it double fulfillment. So there's an already and a not yet. Now it's already because we're living after the destruction of Jerusalem. And so the already is kind of like the up-close part where you can get a much more detail of the already part because it's already happened. But the "not yet" part is a little blurry. And in fact, there's a lot more history and there's scripture about what was going on then and a lot less about what's coming in the future. And that's why, as you can imagine, I'm sure you've seen it in Christian circles, you could have long conversations over various beverages discussing, you know, what's going to happen someday. And it's, you know, it's hard to— there's just not enough really good scripture to figure it out. But the already is pretty clear. So this man that was sharing this as part of his sermon was concentrating on don't be distracted by the already. This was his point. Don't let the already distract you. We need to focus on the distant because that's more relevant for our age. But I'm trying to do the opposite or to supplement that by saying, okay, we talked a lot about the distant. Let's focus on the already, and to see what we are going to learn and how we can apply that, because I'm afraid it's been a little bit overlooked. And this idea of making Israel great again is really saying make the church great again, because we know from these parables that all line up to each other that God is clearly interested not only in the kingdom in the future, in the afterlife, he's interested in the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. That's very much in his perview and therefore in Jesus' purview, and he wants to overcome the works of the devil here and now in the already time, not just in the end. In the end, for sure, he's the winner. But in today, is he a winner? Well, we have to work together with him to make that happen. Now, there's another problem here that we have to address, and that has to do with the issue of by grace We are saved and not of works, lest any man should boast. And yet, being a good steward, taking care of the naked and the lame and the blind, or being wise or being ready to go into the banquet, all of these things are work. There's not much grace involved, or it doesn't appear to be. And so this raises a question. And I had a— make sure I don't say this too soon. So I just want to make sure we got that point. So all these things that we just read about Jesus is praising these people and saying, these are the people that I want, people that are taking care of my brothers and sisters. I want you to feed my sheep. I want you to be wise. I will reward those things. I'll give you more responsibility. Those are all kind of in the works kind of category, right? So it raises this question, and even there's that— well, so I was going to mention another pastor that I worked with in China. He happens to be from Hungary, but he had very good English, and we were discussing this, we were discussing this very topic, and he was speaking sort of pastor to pastor. He was saying, you know, we shouldn't talk about this in church. And I was like, well, why not? He said, because by talking about works, you're going to just confuse people because we've been telling them it's by grace, and that sounds like, you know, works, that's bad. And so I said, what's wrong? He said, it becomes pride. He basically said if you talk about works, it not only encroaches on the grace idea, but it can be People who are into works get prideful. And I thought, "Hmm, that's really a good point." And so I thought about this question, and this is how I kind of put it together. That by grace, we become his little brothers and sisters. We are born into the family. Just like the Israelites got into the wilderness just because there was blood on their doorposts. They didn't do anything. That was by grace. But then when we go from being didis or little brothers to being older brothers, that takes work. So we start out our life, like Christian life, as the didi and memei, the little brothers and little sisters, the ones who need help. But we're in the family by grace. But now that we're in the family by grace, for those who willing to be tonggong, to take a share of responsibility, then we are given more responsibility to go with it, to help serve the Church and build it up. But could they become prideful? Absolutely. So what, what's the remedy to that? Well, anybody that's, you know, been working, uh, in the Church, they know that there is temptation to that. But there's also— we need grace all the time. We don't just need grace to become in the family of God. We need grace every time we work with people, every time we get into a situation that we need prayer, that we know that we need God for. So in other words, even though it's works, it's not sort of works like the world works. It's works with a godly attitude where God is still very much partner with us in the work. So I have this one illustration here.

Whoops.

My part 2 is missing. Do I have part 2 there? The illustration, you've seen it before, but is from the— is contrasting the Israelites putting their blood over their doorpost with that moment in the wilderness we talked about a few weeks ago where the 12 spies went into Israel. Now, all these 12 spies, they're all Not only are they family members, they're the leaders of these 12 tribes, right? Or they're representing the 12 tribes. They go into the Promised Land, they come out, and everybody's like, "Should we go in?" And what did 10 of them say? "No, don't go in. There's big giants there. We're just little grasshoppers compared to them." But Caleb and Joshua had a different take on it. What did they say? "Let's go." And why did they say, "Let's go"? Didn't they see the giants? They saw them, but what did they also see? What? They saw—

what?

They believed that God was with them. God has brought us out of Egypt. God's putting us into— he's given us the Promised Land too. He's promised it, and that should be good enough. God is with us. In other words, they said, we're going to do our work with God's blessing, with God being with us. So that's totally different from just doing it in your own power, or just, "I'm gonna do something all on my own," or for me, or to brag about it. That's completely different. So that's why I wanted to use that as an illustration, that just because you do work doesn't mean you have to be proud about it, right? We can work humbly, or we can work with teammates in the church, or we can work with God, and that will always keep us humble. Now there's last— this is the— do I have my— oh, it's not there. Okay, it's not there. So that's the end of the message, but it all leads to our next series. So that's the end of the Matthew Sermon series. We're now having the next series, which is called Sharing Responsibility, and it's on the book of Philippians. And the book of Philippians is all about the transfer of power that Paul is giving He's about to die and he's giving over authority to the next generation of leadership in the church. And he's basically teaching them how to keep your head on right. And he's teaching about humility and he's teaching about keeping up your attitude. And it's really good stuff. So we're going to have from the beginning of June through the middle of July. That's it. That was the illustration in the wilderness of the guy pantomiming how big these— This is how tall the giants are. And you see this one guy saying, "Look, we're just like grasshoppers." And Caleb or Joshua saying, "But look at the fruit. You're going to give up the chance to go for this fruit? God's with us." So, and so here's the front page of the new series coming starting in June, and that will be on Philippians, sharing responsibility, which is we're not on our own at all. We're very much with God. But God's not on his own either. So it's like a relay race going on, and we're not alone with each other too. So we definitely thrive with grace and need it very much. But we don't just want to bury our talents in the ground. Okay? Father, we are thankful for your word. It is a challenge. There's so many stories, and we're just trying to piece it together bit by bit. Thank you for the study of the book of Matthew, for how systematically it goes through the life of our Lord and Savior from start to finish and lays the groundwork for, for all time, that we can understand through it what you are asking of us and your promises to be by our side. For your grace toward us when we first show up at your door, for your grace toward us as we learn to spread our wings and fly in whatever way we can contribute to your kingdom. I want to say a special prayer for Linda and say thank you for her witness, for all the years of service that she's poured in, for the time that she has now to contemplate you, to give you glory. I just pray that, uh, that was really, uh, well, just thankful for that moment that we had her here this morning and for Larry. You're a great God. I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

He came to us, a man, in very nature God, pierced for our iniquities. Iniquities as you hung upon the cross. But God exalted you to the highest place and gave to you the right to bear the name above all names, that at the name of Jesus we should bow. And every tongue confesses you as Lord. And when you come in glory for the world to see, we will sing, "Hail to the King." In all his splendor and majesty. Hail to the King of Kings, Lord Jesus our God. Eagerly await the coming of the day when the glory of the risen King will shine upon the earth. When rival thrones will fall before the Lord of all and hail supreme authority in the true and Living God. At the name of Jesus, we will bow. As every tongue confesses you as Lord. And when you come in glory for the world to see, we will Hail to the King in all his splendor and majesty. Hail to the King of Kings, Lord Jesus. Jesus, our God. Hail to the King in all his splendor and majesty. Hail to the King of Kings, born Lord Jesus, our God.

You can be seated.

So we do have a few announcements.

We do like to website, wec.churchcenter.com.

You'll find our bulletin there as well. So if you come in here without one, you can always go there. So do we have any new visitors for today? Okay, oh, we got one new visitor. So we like to give you a little gift. Um, I will give it to you right after this. All right, so, uh, the announcement's coming up. Momco on May 6th at 6 PM. Salt and Light on May 10th at 4 PM will be here in the lounge at the lower— below us in the— in this church. Our Memorial Day retreat is going to be on May 24th through the 26th. We ask that you It's a little hard to read it all. We ask that you register before next Sunday. You can complete the form and text it to Paul Wu or drop it off here at the church. There's the phone number for Paul. And there's a book club on the Memorial Day retreat that will be starting. So if you want any details about that, please contact Michael Battalora. And so, and then as I was mentioning, please see our website churchcenter.com for more information from the church congregation. All right, please rise for doxology.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below.

Praise him above the heavens.

Praise God from heaven. Thank you. Please remain standing for the dox— not the doxology, we just did that— for the benediction. Before I do, a moment ago I could hear the voice of my Hungarian former colleague Joseph Marian tapping me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "You forgot something." And I said, "What was it?" This is— I'm making that up, right? All of us that serve in the Church, no matter what, you know, we achieve, guess what? In the end, we just take whatever crown we are and we have and just lay it down at His feet. So it's not like we're going to accumulate, like in the Game of Life, you know, that board game where you accumulate money and whoever has the most money wins at the end. No, no. Whatever we do have, it's going to be laid down. So like the little drummer boy, remember, in the Christmas song? That's what he had and that's what he played. So we're not in a competition because we're ultimately all going to give it all back. May the Lord shepherd you and make you lie down in green pastures. May he restore your soul and lead you in paths of righteousness, and may he be with you and comfort you. May he anoint your head with oil and bestow his goodness and mercy on you all the days of your lives.

Amen.

Thank you for being here.