Unleashed as a Church: Working Together With a Church Inter-Generationally and Inter-Culturally

0:02 This morning I was speaking to the Chinese service, in Chinese of course, and with a translator, but So I got up early this morning and I typed out some notes because I just felt like, you know, I think I'm supposed to really prepare for this morning. And then I went to print them out in the business center at the Doubletree and it wouldn't print. And then I thought I'd bring my laptop up and I thought, I don't like preaching with a laptop. And then I thought, you know, maybe this of God. I mean, I thought it was a good sermon, but I thought maybe it's of the Lord. And so I came here without my sermon. But to be honest, I was kind of dreading speaking to the Chinese group because I don't like speaking through a translator. It's hard to communicate your heart through someone else. And also, I just felt like the thoughts in my mind sometimes, like I'm just, I think so differently that I don't know if I can get through.

1:15 but then as I was praying and worshiping, beforehand they were singing in Chinese, so I was just doing my own thing, just talking to the Lord. All these thoughts started flooding my mind that were very different from what I'd planned on speaking about, and it ended up being a really special time, and I loved it. Like I loved it. It just felt very much of God and the temptation when something like that happens, you know, just a few minutes ago on the stage is for me to come up and do it again and assume that, okay, let me just say everything I said in that last service because it went really well.

2:10 but whenever I try to do that it doesn't work because God isn't really a duplicator. He's a creator and there's different things that I believe that he wants to speak to each of us at different times. That's why I don't like bringing a canned message that I've given 50 times to different places because I think, Lord, you guys don't need to hear the same things your parents did or that the Chinese group did. Maybe there's something different for right here, right now. It could be the same thing, but I really believe that the Holy Spirit leads me.

2:56 And I always test everything to make sure, can I really defend that biblically? Is that really in Scripture? And can I prove it biblically? And is it the general flow of Scripture, not just some obscure thought. So I'm not talking about getting up here and go, I think God says, give me your money. It's not that. It's just this idea of, Lord, what scriptures that I've studied in the past can you bring to mind that's for right here and right now? And so would you guys join me in a word of prayer? But not just close your eyes and go, okay. you know really like think about coming into the presence of God and saying God would you literally put thoughts in his head thoughts that that not that I say what you want me to say but God would you just have him say what you want him to say would you have him turn to the passage of scripture that you want him to turn to and really believe in that prayer and believe that God could do that right now for the sake of your spiritual growth, the growth of his church, and for the sake of his own glory. Would you join me in seriously praying to him with faith that that could happen and that your prayers will make a difference in my message?

4:24 Let's just bow our heads before him. Thank you. Father, I just want to surrender my tongue to you,

5:06 my reputation to you, my self-preservation to you. God, I want you to be pleased. I want to sense Jesus standing here next to me. Now please speak through me, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. You know, even as I prayed that, and I don't know if I've ever prayed that, for me to picture Jesus standing next to me, it made me think about the last service where I was speaking through a translator, you know, where I would say something, and then her whole goal was to communicate what I am saying.

6:14 I mean, that would be insane if the lady next to me gave a completely different message. Right? And she might have. I have no idea. You know, I don't know. I don't speak Mandarin. And I don't... So she could have said something totally different. She could have total blasphemy. You know, she could have been Buddhist for all I know. like I don't know what she said but I'm dependent on her and I guess as I was praying I was thinking what if Jesus was here like what would he want to say and I don't want to just go off on my own message I really want to think Jesus what would you say here would you want to confront things well if that's the case then I don't want to give a fluffy flowery message or would you want to encourage people?

7:11 Well, then I don't want to rebuke people. Like I'm supposed to be the translator. That's all we are. Okay, don't think this is all about you. I mean, that would have been crazy if the woman last service just thought it was all about her and saying, forget Francis. I got some other things. He has no idea what I'm saying. You know, and she just went off and did her own thing. and I think sometimes as pastors, we do that very thing. We just say what we want to say. We talk about what we want to talk about. We don't really come into the presence of God and say, Jesus, what do you have for us? We don't really dig into his word and going, your thoughts are so much higher than mine. What does your word say? Look, when I get alone in the mornings, I don't sit and just say, God, speak to me.

8:04 man I get into his word and say God speak to me it's not about looking inside and what does the inner me believe and what do I think who cares what I think I sure hope you don't care what I think because my thoughts God says are not his thoughts my ways are not his ways you know we live in a time when everyone thinks their thoughts are so valuable that's why we all tweet you know that's why you all have facebook that's why you have instagram because you really believe that your life is that important that everyone should know about it you know rather than saying you know what who cares what i think here's what the Bible says and I want to be faithful You know, yesterday before I spoke, I'm just going to throw it out there, I was at a college nearby, Claremont College, and Claremont's about 10, 15 minutes away from here, and because a friend of mine was looking at purchasing the campus and changing it and doing something different.

9:30 But we were talking to one of the leaders over there, and I was just trying to understand the place. And he says, well, we have all different, it's a seminary, a grad school program, but we have all religions here. I'm like, well, then what do you teach? So one group says that Jesus is the Son of God and the other group vehemently opposes Jesus? Yeah. well then what do you teach? What do you stand for?

10:11 And he goes, well, we just, we're not allowed to proselytize and everyone can believe their own thing, but then what do you actually say? and he says well in order to exist in this climate in southern california we had to open it up to other religions that's what we had to do to survive do you know how expensive and he went through all the costs to keep a huge campus going he says it's survival the only way we could survive is to broaden our theology and allow all groups in here because that's the way the world thinks down here. and I said so through the years like when did it happen you just had to keep the campus going so you brought in other things and now it's like what do you even teach what do you believe just that everything's true if you believe that everything's true like what what what do you say what's there to teach what do you believe right on how about you right on and then no one's ever wrong.

11:24 but we had to do it to survive. And it just hit me as I was praying during worship. this last week I read the book of Revelation and in the book of Revelation it talks about the Antichrist coming and the spirit of the Antichrist coming into the world and how there's going to come a time when in order to survive if you want to buy anything to eat you're going to have to receive this mark on your head or your forehand your forehand your backswing your hand or your forehead something like that you've got to receive this mark or you won't be able to buy or sell so people give in and take the mark and those are the very people who will go to hell.

12:34 You read about it in Revelation 20. I mean, it starts off... Let's go back to chapter 13. We definitely didn't talk about this in Chinese service. Revelation 13 talks about this beast that comes out,

13:07 and in verse, I can't even read, hold on. verse 15, it was allowed to give breath to the beast, to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. And it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both slave and free, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark. That is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man and his number is 666.

14:01 Then you read on in chapter 14 verse 9. It says, another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured out full strength into the cup of his anger. and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name. Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

15:02 You want to survive? Take the mark. it didn't hit me until this morning I was so irritated at that college yesterday just going man this is terrible so in order to survive in order to keep the campus going you just start letting everyone in in order to survive join the majority join the thinking of the world and I even told the guy, I go, man, if that's the case, I don't want to survive.

15:45 What's the point of survival? I told him, look, we as a church, man, at one point when I was in Southern California, we were talking about building this giant auditorium and I said, you know, I'm just, we had the plans, everything, I'm just concerned about this. I said, because I know the way I am. If I have a room this big with all these seats, I hate empty chairs. And so I'll be tempted to fill those chairs. And if we have bills to pay, then I need people to come and pay. I've never missed a payment. I don't believe in my whole life on anything. I pay my debts. And the pressure, if we put ourselves in debt to make sure we have enough people to pay the bills of that building, I go, man, I'm scared because at the end times, Paul tells Timothy, look, they're not going to put up with sound doctrine. They're going to go and they're going to find teachers who will suit their own desires. They're going to leave you, Timothy, in the last days. And so if you need to pay some bills. You need to pay some salaries. You've got to fill the seats. And in order to survive, you better be careful of that. Look, I'm not in survival mode. That's not what the Bible teaches. I'm on offense. Man, we're about the light penetrating the darkness. Man, I believe there's power in me, and the darkness is not going to be able to keep that out. And you know what?

17:28 yeah there may come a time I don't know how you interpret the book of Revelation whether or not we are going to be here when this stuff happens but if we are and your whole goal is survival,

17:48 then I'm very sad for you. and some of us are our goals in life is i just want to keep my house i just want to keep my 401k i just want to keep my retirement plan i just want to keep my family together in one place i just want to keep keep keep keep i want to survive survive survive i want to save this I want to preserve this, I want to preserve this and what does Jesus say? If you want to save your life you will lose it. But if you lose your life for my sake and for the gospel's sake you will find it. we're not about survival we're not about preserving something we're about giving it up and saying you know what if I have to take the mark and I just read what scripture says kill me I would much rather starve to death are you kidding me to go hungry for a few days and die that's fine What's not fine is the same.

19:09 is drinking the wine of God's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger. What's not fine is being tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb and the smoke of my torment going up forever and ever. What's not fine is having no rest day or night. These worshipers of the beast and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name. that's not alright with me shoot me take away my house take away my family I don't want to survive on this earth that badly.

19:52 And if I try to save my life and protect it, you're going to lose it. See, what happened at that college, I think, is prophetic. And now they're having to sell the campus anyways. Praise God. they tried to save it, and they're going to lose it. And I hope they lose it. I hope they lose everything. Because that type of teaching is satanic. It sounds beautiful. Well, let's just love each other and not judge anyone. Because that's the way God is. God's a God of love. He doesn't judge.

20:30 Wait, did you hear what I just read? does that sound like a gentle God who doesn't judge when he says I'm gonna make them drink of the cup of the wine of my wrath poured out in my full anger see I get angry but I don't get angry like God gets angry his wrath is on another level I punish my kids but not like that I don't even get that just like I don't understand his holiness like I don't understand his power.

21:08 Man, I could go to the gym and go, you know what, compared to other 50-year-old men, I'm pretty ripped. You know, like, yeah, you know, like, and I can think on this level of human, but then I thought, I think about God's power? And I go, there's not even a comparison.

21:33 And in the same way, like I think about my mind, and I'm like, man, I'm not an idiot. I mean, I did all right in school, but compared to the mind of God? And in the same way, there's times when I want to take revenge, but then I read the scriptures and the way God avenges himself, and he says, he goes, vengeance is mine, God says. is that spirit of revenge you have in you you shouldn't have that all vengeance belongs to me It's like, whoa. Okay, I'm not smart like you. I'm not powerful like you. I'm not angry like you. I'm not joyful like you. we've got to understand when we meet that match. And I'm just praying that you don't fall into the same trap that the majority, the Bible makes it very clear.

22:26 If you want to join the majority, if you want to join the wide road, Matthew 7, where does the wide road lead? To destruction. Because the wide road is the easy road. it says you can join the wide road but the narrow road he says is difficult and few will find it see it's easy for you to go back to your jobs and just join the wide road just don't judge anyone man join Claremont College go you know what no one's going to hell and everything you believe is fine. Just believe whatever you want. That's how we'll survive. That's easy. So whatever someone says to me, right on. It's good, good, good, good. It's easy. I mean, that's what everyone's preaching in the media. Every movie's about it now. But there are those in Scripture that are the overcomers.

23:30 and we go no I'm not taking the mark I'm not jumping in there I know that road looks fun I know it's wide I know all my friends are going down that road it's so much easier it's like going down a slide so much more fun than trying to climb up one you know but I'm just committed I go God I would much rather die please Lord have me die. I am so excited, as I've shared before, about the future of the church.

24:34 I mean, as the world goes one direction, I believe God is calling out some of us that we go, I'm not going there. And I don't want to judge other people more than I look inside at myself. I want to look at the church and go, I'm always looking at the church and go, God, what did you want? What did you intend? And there's certain things in the church. You know, it's funny. I was thinking that this morning when I woke up, I assumed I was going to have more of a confrontive message to the old people and the Chinese group. And a more encouraging, you know, like comforting one to you. And I feel like the Lord's kind of switched it all.

25:30 Because this morning, the whole, when I got up there, I don't know, God gave me such a love for them as well. Not that I don't love you guys, you know. He made, you know, just feelings of anger towards you. No, it was, I just felt such a love for them. and I had to repent in front of them and let them know, you know, I think sometimes I come with such a critical attitude towards the older generation because of my frustrations as a kid and being in the Chinese church and hating it. But I was forced to go every week. And I told them the only thing I liked about the Chinese church was the rice. like we always had a big pot of rice afterwards and you know and someone would cook something pretty good and we'd all eat it and then after that the kids would go play football while the adults had more meetings about things they'll never change and but I didn't care you know what I liked was oh we got our rice and now we're going to go play football with all my buddies And then sure enough, as happens in most churches, the adults started fighting.

26:51 And then the church split. And then the following week, suddenly, we don't have enough for a football game. And my buddies that, it's like, hey, where's Clarence now? Where's Olivia? Oh, they're with the other group. Where's Chester? Where's Warren? Where's Jimmy? They're with the other group. Well, who do we have left? Oh, we've got, you know, it's just, well, can we go over there and challenge them to a football game? Like, if we beat them, you know, like, can we, what are we allowed to do? Am I allowed to play with my friends anymore? Can I even talk to them? Can I even consider them my church?

27:31 You know, I just grew up with this annoyance. Like, what is this thing? but as I realized a lot of times I can be critical and focus on all the things I didn't like and I felt like the Lord just wanted me to get up there and start thanking them for the things that they were great at you know my mother died giving birth to me out here She sacrificed her life for me. My dad, yeah, he was an angry man and had a lot of issues, you know, in my, but you know what? You know how hard it was for him to come to this country hoping that I would get a better life, not speaking the language?

28:19 I just recently found out about this other older man who's still alive in Miami and finding out that when my dad came to the country, this guy had come a little bit sooner with like 40 bucks in his pocket just trying to make it and somehow eventually was working in a Chinese restaurant, saved enough money, started his own restaurant, got it going so that when my dad came over as the church, as a brother in Christ, he helped my dad get a job and then eventually helped him start his own business there in New York and eventually got him going with his own laundromat cleaner place. And he made it.

29:05 And somehow the church, the way they cared for another, and just say, man, what's mine is yours. Let me help you get on your feet. As I started hearing about this man, through his son Abe, he and I became friends through this all. And now he and I, 50 years later, are deciding to go into business. together. I go, man, that's so awesome. You know, our dads and everything they went through to make it in this country, but sometimes we can get just so focused and irritated at the weird things they do, you know? And it's like, gosh, don't you even understand, dad? I don't answer the phone. We text, we, you know, whatever. It's like, are you kidding me? Dad, you don't even know what an emoji is? you know just whatever that was a decade ago it's just all the things about the church and and and i just felt like you know what what about all the amazing things that they devoted themselves to because the truth is is the older generation they understand devotion way more than we do they can commit to something good or bad i remember my stepmom i hated going to church as a kid especially the Chinese church and so every Sunday morning my brother and I would pretend we were asleep and yet every time we kept thinking because it's my stepmother it's our third mother you know and it's like she's not going to wake us up every Sunday she'd wake us up she'd bang on the door and we'd pretend we were still asleep and I don't know why we tried every week because it literally never worked she forced us why because she was devoted to that she was committed no sunday morning is for the lord she was devoted to that and i was thanking that older generation i go the thing i love about the chinese american church and especially that older generation is you refuse to change

31:10 that's also what i hate about you but what i love about you because you know what there are too many Claremont colleges out there that just say, you know, I'm going to change in order to survive. I'm going to just loosen up on everything I believe to where I believe nothing anymore. And we need that older generation that teaches us commitment. Because nowadays, we're not about commitment. We're just about success. We're just about happiness. And if we need to leave our company, jump to another one, I mean, we're switching nonstop. We're leaving our husbands, our wives. We're just not about commitment. But they were. Let's learn that devotion to them. But let's also, and this is what I was talking about, is let's devote ourselves to the right things. Okay, we need to learn commitment. We need to learn commitment till the end. Say, no, I'm not taking that mark. I don't care. I won't eat then. You'll die. I'll die then.

32:12 my life is not that precious my soul is what does it profit me if I gain the whole world and I forfeit my soul that's a bad deal, Chinese know bad deals okay, bad deal you know, I am not going to forfeit my soul and so I'll devote myself to certain things and when you learn that from the elderly. But what I believe, we need to change. And believe me, we need to change too. That's what repentance means, right? To repent means to change. And so if we've never changed, that means we're not in this state of repentance. What is sanctification all about? It's the rest of my life. I keep changing, changing, changing, devoting myself. That's why you've got to be in this book.

33:06 As you're saying, man, what does this say? Man, it's always going back to this book and going, man, what did they devote themselves to? I mean, it says in Acts 2, 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, to the breaking bread, and the prayers. They devoted themselves. And I just got to ask, are we really devoting ourselves to these things? Are we devoting ourselves to the apostles' teachings? because what I've seen in the American church is we're not devoting ourselves to the apostles' teaching. We're devoting ourselves to Tim Keller's preaching, John Piper's teaching. Just name a name. We're about these people. And again, I love these people.

33:58 But this is what was driving me nuts about the church down here where people would drive into the parking lot and say, is Francis preaching this week? No, he's not. He's out of town. And they drive right out of the parking lot. And attendance going down because I'm not preaching. Well, then what are you devoting yourself to?

34:22 I mean, you know that if I or some other speaker, let's say this next Sunday, I was going to be there, Tim Keller was going to be there, Lecrae was going to be there, and Hillsong was going to be there. You'd be excited to gather. That place would be packed, I promise you. But what if you said, hey, this week, you know, Pastor Chong is just going to read four chapters of God's holy word.

34:57 And we're going to sit there and we're going to tremble and we're going to go, oh my gosh, the word of God. And then we're going to pray. No way, shut up. I'm there. And then we're going to take communion. We're not excited about that. you guys it's time for change i actually can see it in my mind and i'm starting to experience it in san francisco where i love getting together to pray with other people who love getting together to pray i would much rather pray with a group of people that actually believe that god is here i was much i'm not against hillsong i'm not against piper i love these people make sure you understand that. I'm just saying I would rather get with seven or eight of my friends with horrible music if any music and really pray and get in the presence of God because there's a chance of something supernatural, amazing.

36:13 I love it. I crave prayer now. You know, I love communion more than I ever have in my life just to get with other people and stare. Do you understand? This is what the early church did. They went house to house. Let's do it again. Let's do it again. Let's just stare at that bread and go, shut up. This is the body of, how? It was a mystery. Like, are you telling me that God became flesh and his flesh was broken for me? And now he says that, wait a second, the Bible says we are the body of Christ? That passage I read yesterday of Ephesians, how he's head over the church and he's exalted over all things, it ends with saying, and we are members of his body.

37:06 Wait, so God, Jesus is way above everything else and somehow I'm attached to him. It's like he's the head and I'm the body and we're above everything. And this body of Christ and his blood so that I could be up there in the highest places in the presence of God. Man, I love staring at the body and blood of Jesus.

37:32 You know, one of my favorite times in our churches is when we just take turns reading scriptures. And everyone just starts reading the scriptures that really impacted them this week. And I don't know, it's like the greatest music to my ears. or when someone's praying and really just worshiping. Like we had a lady the other week, she was just like crying, sobbing, yelling, just like, God, I'm sorry I've ever been ashamed to worship you in front of my brother and sister. It reminded me of that woman in, I believe it's Luke 7, where the sinner that's crying at Jesus' feet and washing his feet with her hair. She didn't care that anyone else was looking.

38:24 And I feel like so many times in the Chinese church, we're the ones that are all looking going, you know, it's just like, what is she doing? She's making a fool of herself. You know what? I want to be the, I mean, I don't got hair, but I want to be the one. Go ahead, stare at me. I look stupid. I'm not going to back off on my worship. I'm going to throw it all out there. Because I don't care what you think. You're not my audience. It's about Jesus. I really, I'm starting to see it. And I believe there's going to come a day in our country, in America, where people will devote themselves to this again. It won't be the masses. It never will be.

39:17 if we're trying to reach the masses, then we'll have to take a mark to do that. If we want to fit in with them because we want to survive. But there's going to come a day, people won't put up with this, but the church will, and we'll even hunger for it. There's going to come a day when people will actually flock to prayer. It's starting to happen in our churches in San Francisco where we love, love praying. Love getting together. Like Jim Cimbala said years ago with Brooklyn Tower, he goes, you can tell how popular a pastor is by how many people come on Sunday morning. And you can tell how popular Jesus is by how many people come to a prayer meeting. it's time we just come to adore him again and we start new expressions of the church we're still devoted in fact we're more devoted than ever and explain to the older generation look we're more devoted and we've strayed a little bit and we got too into people we got too into being entertained it got so creepy that at some point we're even going leaving church and going, I didn't really like it.

40:32 I didn't really like the worship today. do you think the angels in heaven ever go, I didn't really like it? Holy, holy, holy, I didn't really like it today. Like, it's just stupid. Worship is not about us.

40:53 We come because we want to adore him. Do you realize how ridiculous it's gotten when, I didn't really like worship today. is just a normal statement. Doesn't that show you that we need to change? That we've made church about us. I don't know who started it, but it's time to kill it. Where we come to actually give. We come like that woman crying at the feet of Jesus going, it's just so awesome to be in your presence. It's so amazing to break bread. I cannot believe I get to talk to you. now people are reading your thoughts out loud from the scriptures it's got to end you guys I'm excited about the future of the church because I believe we can be the generation that puts an end to this consumer mindset I was telling my 13 year old daughter the other day I said you know it's I said what if I had a birthday party for you and I said, you know what, I'm just going to make a cake.

42:01 I've only made one cake my whole life, but I'm going to make one. And all your friends can come over to the house and bring you presents. That's it. That's the whole party. How many of your friends would show up? She said, honestly, probably two. I said, what if I rented out Dave and Buster's and said, unlimited tokens, the whole place is yours, eat all you want, play all you want. I go, how many people would show up? She goes, maybe the whole school. And I said, how stupid would it be if I put my arm around you that day at Dave and Buster's and said, look at all these people here just for you. They're not here for you, because they wouldn't come if it was just for you. But honey, I would come if it was just for you. I don't care if you're sitting in the desert somewhere by yourself and it's your birthday.

43:01 I'll come and find you because you're worth it. And I'll give you something. And you know what? I'm tired of putting on the giant party. Let's just, because we just have to outdo it every year. Oh, they're not coming for Dave and Buster's Dave and Buster's. Okay, next year I'll rent Maui. You know? That's what the church is doing. we just keep thinking this, this, this and we don't realize actually if we stripped it down and we just taught people to actually love prayer you start to love that even more than the show and then pretty soon people start reading the scriptures and you go I actually love the word I don't even want you to preach would you just read the scriptures can we just take communion? I don't need another solo or video to get me into it.

43:58 I actually love communion. That's what I saw in that early church. And there was a fellowship, a unity, where we just loved being together, worshiping God. And there was this fellowship because we all love the light so much. I'm excited because it's starting to happen and I know that the Chinese church is usually I don't know a decade or two behind you know and I'm just saying it doesn't have to be that way what if we're the ones that set the pace this time I mean really it's the underground church in China that's really set the pace for the world and my thinking comes from them where there was no great preacher. There was no great singing. It was pretty simple. And people just gathered to find God again. And they were willing to die for what they believed. I love that heritage and I want to be a part of it. And what if we could move that DNA over here into the States and we say, Jesus is enough.

45:10 I'll come to his party just to be with him. Let me pray for us. Father, without your power and your Holy Spirit, this will be another sermon where we nod our heads and change nothing. we are notorious for our lack of repentance and change may we not be hearers of the word and so deceive ourselves give us the courage to do what it says in Jesus name I pray