sermon from September 26

Hope for Our Relationships

Jeremiah 29:4-7, Ephesians 5:20-33

Series on “Our Mission” (part 3)

Jeremiah tells the exiles, “I want you to stay there and seek the welfare of the city. Build houses, settle down. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you.” This applies no less to God’s people in Taipei. However, it isn’t happening much because of the huge confusion that exists about singleness and marriage. How can we find authoritative teaching and help from the Lord and His Word? :

MODERN CONFUSION ABOUT SINGLENESS AND MARRIAGE

• Failure of many parents to have good marriages.
• General sense of untrustworthiness about men.
• Male passivity
• Traditional eastern view that marriage is about preserving the status of the family.
• Romantic view (“Love is everything”)
• Feminism (“don’t trust your heart to anyone”).

THE PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE

• The purpose of marriage is not so much happiness as Christ-likeness (see Ephesians 5, Romans 8:29ff)
• If you want to serve Jesus stay single. If you want to become like Jesus get married because marriage is to be a place where we are known, but loved and learn to serve another person while seeking by His grace to be changed rather than to change the other person.

HAVING LIMITED EXPECTTIONS OF MARRIAGE

• We shouldn’t expect too much from marriage because in the end we can only get our ultimate meaning from God.
• Singles should realize being single is not to be a second-class citizen. You need to ask if you are called to singleness, or if you should be single for a season, or if you are in the right circumstances to pursue marriage. Avoid dating casually. Follow Jesus. Men should pursue a godly woman who will put up with them, but not play with their hearts.
• Married people should realize it is a great opportunity to become like Christ. Nothing is more fulfilling than a marriage where each person is not principally seeking personal fulfillment, but the flourishing of the other. Jesus gives us the model and the strength for this.

TABLE TALK: Get together with someone and discuss how you might apply this in your life.

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sermon from September 12

Mission 2: Hope for Our Work

Ephesians 6:5-8, Titus 2:11-3:9

Series on “Our Mission”

The Bible teaches us that we must think deeply about our work. Many people spend more time working than anything else. What does the Bible teach us about work? These passages in Ephesians and Titus are helpful. Here are some questions to reflect on deeply and to ask for God’s help to practice in your life:

WHAT IS THE MOTIVATION FOR YOUR WORK?

• Is your principal motivation to simply make money, or to please your parents, or to "get a life?” Is it OK to work for a company that actually produces goods that are actually bad for people?
• Here are Biblical, Christian motivations for work: (1) the grace of God. Titus says that the grace of God teaches us to renounce worldly passions and to live godly lives” (2) to please your real boss who is Christ, Ephesians 6; (3) the common good, Titus - “to devote ourselves to good works”….”that are profitable for people.” (4) the hope of the second coming of Christ, “Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great god and Savior Jesus Christ.”

DO YOU USE WORK TO “JUSTIFY YOURSELF” OR TO GET AN IDENTITY?

• Titus says that God’s grace saves us from “worldly passions”, i.e. excessive desires.
• It is OK to gain satisfaction from work, but not to “justify our existence” .
• Titus 3:5-7 says, “Having been justified by his grace.” To be justified means to be declared “righteous” before God because you have received God’s love, and acceptance through Christ’s finished work on the cross. This can begin to free you from the pressure of guilt, and drivenness that comes from making work an idol.

CAN YOU WORK WITHOUT GIVING INTO DISCOURAGEMENT AND CYNICISM?

• Someone said, “When you are in your twenties you try to figure out who you are. In your 30’s you try to prove who you are? In your 40’s you realize it wasn’t worth the effort.”

• Jesus says that even a cup of cold water given his name will not go unrewarded. Revelation says that “the glory of the nations” will come into the new heaven and earth. This means that you can do good work and even though it will never be “done” in this life you can have the hope that it will be preserved for Christ’s second coming, “the blessed hope, the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Note: Some material has been drawn from Andy Crouch’s “Culture Making”, “Culture Making”, Tim Keller, “The Gospel, Hope and the World”, James Davison Hunter’s “To Change the World”

TABLE TALK: Over a meal talk about your work and the questions raised in this message and encourage each other to apply the truth in your lives.

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sermon from September 5

MISSION 1: Hope for Our Lives

I Peter 1:3-13

Series on “Our Mission”

As we begin a new season of ministry, we want to reflect on our mission which is to “live for the glory of God and the good of Taipei.” This means finding a new hope for our lives, our families, our work, our city and for the poor. We desire to be a community that grows as followers of Christ in the world who cultivate this hope. I Peter was written to Christians in the first century who were facing growing persecution. How can we find the hope that sustained them?

NEW BIRTH

• “In his great mercy he has given us new birth.”
• All Christians are “born again”… whether they come from religious or non-religious backgrounds.’ It comes to us as a gift because of “His great mercy.

LIVING HOPE

• Our hope takes place between “the resurrection” and “the revelation of Jesus Christ revealed in the last day.”
• Our hope is largely in the future.

GROWTH AFTER NEW BIRTH

• The good news is so exhilarating that “angels long to look” at it.
• We grow through finding his grace in trials, but also by rehearsing the good news of God’s love in Christ to us in our ordinary days.
• We are also not only saved from something, but to something. Vs. 13: “Therefore preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” All of us, no matter what our occupations are called to do this!

HOW WE ARE BORN AGAIN

• Through the word of God, vs. 23
• Through the suffering of another

Note: Some material has been drawn from Richard Bewes “Easter Confidence”; Andy Crouch, “Culture Making”, Tim Keller, “The Gospel, Hope and the World”

TABLE TALK: Over a meal talk about where you are in your relationship with Christ. What does it mean to be born again? Have you been born again? What does it mean to be saved “from” something and saved “to” something? Talk about what this means in your life.

Listen to the sermon online