CCIC-SJ Sermons

Guest speaker, Pastor Peter Wang takes us through the incredible account of Mary's encounter with an angel. How would a normal virgin respond if they were told that they would suddenly become pregnant? Not only that, the baby is the Son of God! Mary is truly blessed as she humbly accepts her role to bring mankind's greatest joy to the world!

Our sermon series in Judges left us in a very bleak place. When everybody did what he/she wanted, everything seemed to fall apart. As we enter into the Christmas season, we are reminded even more from Judges how much we need a Savior, how much we need Jesus. However, before we even get to the story of Jesus, Luke tells us the story about a family with a boy named John. What's so important about John? It is through John and his story, we see how we are to anticipate the coming of the Savior Jesus with a joy that changes our lives.

As we wrap up the book of Judges in chapters 19-21, we see the Israelites hit rock bottom. They are without a judge, without a king, and "everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Everything they do to try to solve their problems ends up digging them a deeper hole. However, in the midst of this chaos, violence, and depravity, there is hope of a future king who will deliver Israel and deliver all of us from our brokenness.

Samson, this week's Judge is covered in four chapters, Judges 13 to 16. In these chapters, we see the cycle of rebellion, punishment and deliverance throughout the book repeated again. We also see the other important underlying theme of God's covenant faithfulness and patience. In this message based on Judges 16:23-31 and drawing from passages in the chapters, learn how God uses imperfection illustrated by Samson and how this applies to our lives today.

In Judges 11, we look at Jephthah, another unlikely judge who was used by God. As Christians, all of us are capable of doing great things for God, but we are also prone to fall to sin. This was true in Jephthah's life as well. When talking about Jephthah, we often jump straight to his foolish vow, but he also led the people of Israel to great victory. So as we study his life, we can see both positive things that we can aim to emulate and also things that we want to avoid.

Despite the victory and blessing that the Lord bestowed on the people of Israel through Gideon, they soon turned back to idol worship. After Gideon's death, Abimelech murdered nearly 70 of his brothers to seize power. God's justice ultimately prevails. Abimelech is killed by a woman and the citizens of Shechem who supported him were also punished.

In the previous sermon, we saw how the Lord gave victory to Gideon and his small army of 300 men over a vastly superior Midianite enemy. The Lord showed his own glory through this, but in Judges 8 Gideon later made a golden ephod and led Israel into sin through corrupted worship. He had often had trouble overcoming his fears and having confidence in God's word, and his later failure showed that he was not the leader that Israel needed.  

We live in a culture of self-promotion. But as believers, the whole of our lives should be an aim that God gets all the glory. Our hearts cry should align with the Psalmist's “not to us, but to God be the glory (Ps. 115:1).” In this section of the book of Judges, we see another downward cycle of the spiral of idolatry and sin. Yet, we learn of another instance of God's gracious and miraculous deliverance of Israel through Gideon. More specifically, we can learn from this text that God receives glory when we give credit to him alone, when we trust him to work out the “impossible” in our lives, and as he graciously works through our shortcomings. Ultimately, we give God glory for what he has done through Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Guest speaker, Pastor Johnson Chiu continues our series from the book of Judges. As God's people continue the cycle of sinning against God, suffering the consequences, and begging for God's mercy, our Lord sends help through a cast of unlikely candidates. How did an unarmed, untrained band of villagers defeat an army with the latest technological weapons? And who was the unassuming woman who tricked and killed the top military commander of the enemy's forces? It is not about who He called or what He called them to do, but who responded in obedience and faith.  Through these verses, we see God's infinite love and patience to draw His people back to Him.

The book of Judges is characterized by a repeating pattern of disobedience and deliverance between Israel and God. In today's message we see through this cycle how God relentlessly pursued Israel and is relentlessly pursuing us. This cycle in the book of Judges challenges us to break the pattern by moving from disobedience to obedience in God and reminds us of the ultimate, perfect judge that God has given us in Jesus Christ.

The book of Judges describes a long, dark period of Israel's history in which they were stuck in a cycle of idolatry, punishment, deliverance, and then idolatry again. Yet they did not turn to other gods immediately but through a more subtle downward slide. Their failure to drive out the Canaanites completely from the Promised Land was the first part of this downward slide. Although they were able to conquer the land with the Lord's help, they did not do so completely. Their experience is a reminder to us to beware of similar subtle slides in our own lives, families, and society.

Jesus' definition of true Christianity involves dedication, commitment, and sacrifice for His sake and the gospel's.  Although salvation is a free gift from God, Christ demands that we deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Him out of gratitude for what He has done for us.  This message spells out exactly what Jesus meant by His call.  Christianity is not merely about insurance against hell, but its essence is a single-minded focus on developing an intimate relationship with Christ and doing God's will, no matter what the cost.  We must understand the Christian faith as Jesus defined it so that we will know what it is, be able to examine ourselves and see whether or not our lives reflect it, and then commit to living out real Christianity.

Wrapping up CCIC's mission conference, guest speaker, Dr. Rev. Eddie Byun challenges us to ask ourselves, "what will it take for us to finish the mission that Christ has given to us?" To succeed, we need to be committed to three key items -  cultivating Intimacy with God, practicing constant Intercession / Prayer and focusing on Eternal Investments.

In preparation for the upcoming Missions and Compassion Conference, we will look at Matthew 5:14-16 and discover what Jesus says about the identity and purpose of a disciple. In the second half of the service, we have the opportunity to hear from a diverse group of congregation members on their experiences and thoughts on participating in God's Mission. 

It is often said that a person's last words are their most memorable words because that is often the message that they want you to go forward with.  When Paul wrote 2 Timothy because he anticipated being executed in the near future and he wanted to prepare Timothy as best as he could.  This book is full of Paul's last words, and in today's study, we will look at 2 Timothy 2:1-2, where Paul admonished Timothy to Pass It On.

What is joy? We all want it but when it comes to describing what it is, the idea is a bit elusive to us. As we conclude our sermon series on the book of Philippians, Paul gives us himself as an example of one who has found joy and encourages the Philippian church and us to do the same.

In Phil. 4:2-9, Paul give a series of brief instructions to the Philippians. This message focuses on the first two of them: to pursue peace with one another in the church and to rejoice in the Lord always. Paul modeled joy in the Lord through his attitude toward his own suffering, including the possibility of his own death. Joy in the Lord is a powerful testimony to the worth of God himself and the preciousness of the gospel.

Relationships with Jesus are like marriages.  They begin with promises made and much optimism.  But if relationships are not tended to and invested in, then they tend to sour.  You can yearn for the good old days, and you don't feel as good about the present days.     Last week's message, “The One Ambition of Our Lives” was kind of like that wedding day, or for many last week, like a renewal day.  To make those vows meaningful, you need to keep building on it over the time going forward.  Otherwise, you've only made some empty promises.  The Apostle Paul called this “pressing on” and today's message will focus on what that means.    With that in mind, let's examine Philippians 3:12-4:1 and learn two reasons why Paul pressed on to follow Jesus, and six ways how he pressed on. Then from Paul, we too can learn how to apply these lessons to our own lives.

Why do you get up each morning? What are the ambitions of your life? In Philippians 3:1-11, the apostle Paul exhorts the believers in the church of Philippi and us to make knowing Christ as the one ambition for our lives. In this sermon, we'll explore what it means to know Christ by being found in him through faith, in the fellowship of his suffering, and through his resurrection power. 

In Philippians, Paul often sets positive examples before the Philippians for them to learn from. He also provides negative examples for them to avoid. In Philippians 2:19-30, he commends Timothy and Epaphroditus as examples to not simply be admired but to be imitated. We should also imitate positive examples of Christian faithfulness around us and beyond.

What are some of the things we celebrate in life? We usually think about big events or achievements that we celebrate and while those are worth celebrating, the Apostle Paul calls us to celebrate ordinary obedience in Christ. Through Philippians 2:12-18, we can discover how keeping the goal of growing closer to Christ in mind can help us celebrate the ordinary things of life.

Just as unity is essential for healthy relationships, unity is essential for healthy churches.  In today's study on Philippians 1:27-2:11, we will learn how unity is not only a way of life but also a matter of heart, as exemplified by Jesus.  

What matters most to you in life? Is it health? Is it wealth? Is it some other kind of success? We'll see from Philippians 1:12-26 what mattered most to Paul and what didn't matter quite as much to him. And even though his life and his trials were quite different from ours today, we can see how we can strive to be similarly focused on what matters most in our lives.

The Apostle Paul had plenty to stress about.  He was persecuted, prosecuted, and chained to a Roman guard while awaiting trial in Rome's highest court:  appearing before Caesar himself.  He faced the likelihood of losing his case and being executed for his faith in Jesus.  Amazingly, Paul did not worry or complain; instead, he wrote letters to build up some of the churches and people he loved so much.  The church later called these letters the Prison Epistles.  One of these letters was written to the Philippian church, and this letter exudes with joy.  We are struck on how Paul had so much joy in the face of so much hardship and uncertainty.  We will spend the next nine messages on this book, focusing on Paul's sources of joy and how he chose to live based on that joy.    We will begin our study looking at Paul's joyful relationships with the Philippian church:  what these relationships are based on, how they take commitment, how they are intentional and how they are mutually beneficial.   

Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:9, “We have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.”  We, followers of Christ, have also been made a theater to the world to demonstrate God's power, love, and grace through the gospel.  We are not acting but living our life.  Our life is the theater.  1 Corinthians 4:1-13 helps us learn our role, what is required of us, and what message God intends us to convey to the world on the Stage of Life.

Bringing our series on Jonah to a close, guest Pastor Jacob Park expounds on Jonah's reaction to God's mercy for the Ninevites. He reminds us how easily we could all be guilty of expecting God's grace and mercy to be bestowed on those who we deem as deserving. Ultimately, God graciously teaches Jonah, and us, that His grace is for everyone.  Today's passage is from Jonah 4:5-11.

God is a God of love and compassion. In Jonah 3:4-10, we learn about God's desire for all people to repent, to be delivered from judgment and to come to have a relationship with Him.

After obeying God and preaching to the Ninevites, Jonah was upset at God for being God. In fact, upset may be too mild a term for how Jonah felt. Yet in this encounter between Jonah and God in Jonah 4:1-4, we can see how God is willing to work with Jonah in processing his anger and eventually helping him see the bigger picture. Let's explore together how we are like Jonah and begin to face the ways in which we might be unhappy with how God does things.

Jonah was far from the perfect prophet. In the book of Jonah, we find that God was exceedingly gracious to those who didn't deserve it. God gave Jonah a second chance and He chose to use Jonah for His purpose in spite of his imperfections. Surprisingly, we find that even within the prophetic message that Jonah gave, it seems that there was a glimmer of hope for the Ninevites. God, through Jesus Christ, has also offered humanity a second chance. And as believers, God works in and through our imperfections for his mission. Are we willing to trust and obey? 

Two weeks ago, we left off in Jonah chapter 1 with Jonah being tossed overboard into the sea, to an almost certain death. But this week, we see how God miraculously sends a giant fish to swallow him up and spare his life. From inside the belly of the fish's belly, Jonah cries out to God, both lamenting the situation he was facing, yet confident in God's salvation. Though we may never face being in the belly of a fish, there are many lessons we can learn from Jonah's prayer that we can apply to our own lives when we face hardship.

In the midst of the affliction of childlessness, Hannah vowed to the Lord that if he gave her a son, she would give this son back to the Lord. The Lord remembered Hannah by answering her prayer, and Hannah followed through on her promise. In so doing, she shows us how to pray for our legitimate desires while also seeking first God's kingdom.

An informal congregational poll revealed that NO ONE in our congregation saw the prophet Jonah as a spiritual role model.  Those who are familiar with the book that bears his name can see the wisdom in this finding.  However, the book of Jonah is about more than just a man who struggled and failed to follow God.  Jonah was also a man who mirrored our spiritual struggles.  We too, flee from God, we too, choose to disobey Him.  With that in mind, let's learn some lessons that God wanted Jonah to learn, because we need to learn them as well. 

The prophet Jonah stands as a mirror for many of us. In looking at his life, we see that we are also often running from God because of various reasons. But as we look to Jesus' life and example, we find a God who runs toward us in spite of the great costs.

Jesus' resurrection is the victorious proof of God's redemptive plan. We can learn valuable lessons from how the first people responded to the risen Lord Jesus and reflect what the resurrection means to us in two aspects. First, does it compel us to praise and worship God with gratefulness and joy? Second, does it compel us to be bold and share this good news with others in obedience to the commission that comes with it?

This message goes into detail on how the prophecy of Jesus' crucifixion and its fulfillment affirm: God's Word as His supernatural revelation, Jesus as the Messiah, and salvation as His accomplished mission. As a result, we are motivated to respond in the following ways.   For Christians Be thankful for Christ's great sacrifice and salvation Be respectful and studious of God's Word and be obedient to it Be trustful that God will never forsake you Be bold in sharing the gospel. For those who have not yet believed in Christ Receive Christ for today is the day of salvation!

If the West Coast of US were invaded like Ukraine and all the women and children had to flee, what would you and your family do? If you could cheat a little, knowing that you would not get caught, but you could get a substantial position or benefit, what would you do? At what point do you pray about this? As Jesus drew His Sermon on the Mount to a close, He first challenged them to enter through the narrow gate, and not the wide gate (last week's message).  This week, He continues by telling us that the gate you chose is but the beginning of your journey; what also matters is how you continue your journey.   In Matthew 7: 15-29, Jesus gives us three tragically wrong ways to follow Him and then the Biblical way to follow Him. 

In Matt. 7:13-20, Jesus begins to conclude the Sermon on the Mount by calling us to make an all-important decision between the broad, easy road that leads to destruction and the narrow, difficult road that leads to life. Will we choose to follow Jesus and enter the kingdom, or go to our own death? This passage also warns us against false prophets who would lead us astray by telling lies in the name of God. They are a real danger, but we may know who they are through their lives and actions, and whether their teaching agrees with Scripture and its meaning.

We often go through our Christian lives without considering whether we're actually living the life God wants us to live. As we continue in our series on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenges us in Matthew 7:1-12 to examine how we might be wrongly judging others and how we are to approach God in prayer - by asking, seeking, and knocking. 

Anxieties can confuse us, freeze us or even shut us down.  They can lead to all sorts of problems:  physical, mental, and relational, to name a few.  Join us as we look at Matthew 6:25-34 and discover how Jesus helps us to face our anxieties.

In Matthew 5:31-37, Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount by addressing the issues of divorce and the taking of oaths. In his brief teaching about divorce in Matt 5:31-32, he forbids divorce except in the case of sexual immorality. In a related passage in Matt 19:3-9, the Pharisees ask Jesus about divorce for any reason, and Jesus affirms God's original design for lifelong marriage between one man and one woman.

This message addresses the Lordship and stewardship of Christ in our lives.  If God is your Master, you will store up treasures in heaven, and if money is your master, you will store up treasures on earth.  If we cannot see rightly about money, then we will not be able to see spiritual things, but we will be spiritually blind.  The kind of treasure we store up indicates who our master is.  You can have only one master.  You will serve either God or money, love one and hate the other, and be devoted to one and despise the other.  Jesus issues an ultimatum to us to choose between God and money and as a result, either earthly treasures that have only temporal value or treasures in heaven that have eternal value for God.

So much can happen in a year.  In January 2021, on Episode 39 of our "God is Faithful" podcast series, Dinah Chin shared a testimony on how privileged she was to participate in God's amazing plan to serve and care for others.  This time, Dinah shares another powerful and inspiring testimony of trusting in the Lord as she went through a year of battling cancer.   Dinah's faith, positive attitude, humbleness and sense of humor permeates her narrative as she gives credit to the Lord for providing for her spiritual, emotional, mental and physical needs. God is truly faithful!

Christians are known to be people who pray. We pray before meals, we pray before meetings, we pray at our worship services. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches us how to pray through a well-known passage known to Christianas far and wide as "The Lord's Prayer." As we break down how as Christians we are supposed to pray we see that through this passage Jesus teaches us why we are supposed to pray, that is to grow deeper in our relationship with God.

Great acting makes great entertainment.  Great artists can lead the viewers into their roles and into their realms.  But in real life, great acting can be dangerous.  Look at the many ways people try to scam us, gaining our trust only to steal from us, to use us, and sadly to abuse us.  This world needs people to be open, transparent and honest.  How we wish people would stop lying and deceiving.  The ancient Greeks had an interesting word for "actors" = "hypocrites."  In Matthew 6:-8, 16-18, Jesus warned against those who "play church" or "play spiritual" in order to gain praise or other benefits instead of being wholeheartedly devoted to God.  He challenged us to look deeper than the actions, to look inside to our motives, why we do what we do.  Let's take this time to look at the scripture and then look into the mirror.

Whether we're young or old, we all face situations where it's difficult to love people. Sometimes people seriously wrong us, annoy us, or just disagree with us and we find it easy to harbor anger and resentment towards them. We want to take revenge and right every wrong on our own. But Jesus teaches us a different way to respond in Matthew 5:38-48. He teaches us to turn the other cheek and to love our enemies. In this message, we learn three principles of why and how we can love others, even when it's difficult.

Lust is topic that is often very difficult to talk about and discuss. It's a sin that, while obvious, somehow sneaks into our lives. In this passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus demonstrates for us that the fundamental problem of lust lies with how we look at other people. He invites us to be transformed by his Gospel in order that we might begin to look at others in a way that does not lead us into the temptation of lust.

Anger is something that many people struggle with. You see it in the news. You see it on social media. Perhaps more so during the pandemic, we see it in our own lives. In this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that as citizens of his kingdom and his disciples, we must tame the problem of anger by the transforming power of the Gospel. In doing so, we begin to reshape the world around us as salt and light.

In Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus makes the bold claim of being the fulfillment of the Old Testament, which center on the coming of a perfect king who is also a teacher. The Scriptures will endure until all it says is accomplished, and we are to pay attention to all of it, including its smallest details. This does not mean that we should become like the scribes and Pharisees, but that we should seek from the Lord a greater, authentic righteousness that is rooted in a restored relationship with God the Father.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus spoke to people living under an oppressive foreign government, divided religious leaders, and weary of living as slaves or subjects to for the preceding 600 years.  He wanted to show them freedom in a dimension many had forgotten:  spiritual freedom from sin, which would help them live in whatever circumstances they were facing.    Regardless of whether we talk about people living two thousand years ago or today, understanding our identity is essential to understanding how we will live. In this message, we will look at our being salt and light are integral to being God's children. Knowing these identities will help us navigate the many stresses and changes we face.

People often mistake Jesus for some mild-mannered teacher who gave benign messages about being good to one another.  That could not be further from the truth.  In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus challenged His listeners to follow Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and He showed them how God expected them to go well beyond the religiosity of their day.  This is the first of fourteen messages on the Sermon on the Mount, and we will begin with Jesus' opening remarks, often called The Beatitudes.  These are a collection of 9 blessings that God develops in every believer, and we will cluster them under three overarching  "attitudes:"  Being emptied of yourself, Being filled with the Holy Spirit, and Being ready for hard work.    Open your Bible and join in for the ride!

To be strong and courageous, Joshua needed to trust and obey God and lead the people by remembering God's promises and acting together on His commands. In this sermon, we look at Joshua 1 and the lessons for us today.