SQJ Taipei

Some might call it the preaching equivalent of the Hindenburg disaster…
I’m not sure they’d be wrong.

I mentioned my Isaiah - Prophecy sermon in this post.

I’m gonna try to “keep it real” for ya here… as I always hope to do…

It was not a good sermon… not at all… if I would have preached this sermon back in JK Jones’ or Mark Proctor’s preaching classes… it would have should have received an “F”.

The majority of my sermon consisted of me reading scripture. Normally this is not a problem… because I’m reading in English. This would be in Mandarin Chinese. It is hard to do this… but that is no excuse… I know lots of characters and have a dictionary and love to use it. I’m just saying… my plan was not chosen for its simplicity. It wasn’t chosen for its difficulty factor either… it was chosen because as I prayerfully read through Isaiah and flipped from the prophecies I read over to their fulfillment in the NT… I knew God was leading me to do this sermon in this way…. to put HIS WORD out into this room of people and to trust him. I’ve learned a valuable lesson over the past few years and especially the last few months… obey God right away regardless of whether it makes sense to you or not and obey Him even if no one else wants to obey with you. So… what choice did I have?

I could mention a few things…. like the fact that while I was reading… someone was also reading with me… at just enough volume for me to hear… and they were reading from a different version… and it threw off my concentration in a huge way. In fact… that might explain the whole deal.

I could also mention that when I practiced (for hours and hours and hours) I was very satisfied with my reading. As a test… I used my Chinese audio Bible and practiced my reading. I can change the speed of the playback and I was reading with the recording when I played it at 85% speed and that girl was talking FAST. So… I decided to press on. I really don’t care too much about the way I am personally received by a preaching audience… so long as God’s Word is proclaimed… but nobody wants to look like a fool… so I was reserving the right to do something different right up to the end. In other words… I was still considering that I might choose to disobey!

With the way my preparation and practice went… I thought that most likely God was showing the truth of Philippians 4:13:

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

He he he he ha ha ha ha ho ho ho ho… silly preacher-boy!

Here’s the verses God planned to put on display through my sermon:

2 Cor 12:9-10

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But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

If you look at the beginning of the next verse… it also applies to my situation… but the context of the passage demands something different… it says, “I have made a fool of myself…” …makes me smile anyway.

In that post I mentioned previously… about the sermon… I said that some have said preaching is one of my spiritual gifts… I’m not convinced of that one… but I am sure that “faith” is one. And right now… that is propping me up. In fact… if you talked with me face to face about this… you might think I’m in denial about what transpired at the pulpit on Sunday AM. I’m not in denial… in fact… just the opposite… I’m “telling all” right here… but what I mean is that I REALLY BELIEVE GOD.

And… in fact that was the whole point of the sermon. DO YOU BELIEVE GOD? If the point of the sermon was to give people 6 things to remember about prophecy or to give them an exhaustive list of messianic prophecies or something else MEASUREABLE… I’d call it a failure. BUT…….. the point was to let people as that question… DO I BELIEVE GOD?

Notice the question… it is NOT “Do I believe IN God?” It is “Do I believe God?” Do I really believe His Word? The prophecies about Jesus’ birth and life and death and their precise fulfillments bring such GREAT EVEIDENCE to the question of the existance of God… that I’m beyond that… and people in Taiwan are beyond that too. (I’m not sure if there are any athiests in this country.) But with all that evidence… isn’t it reasonable that we also trust God when he gives prophecies regarding Jesus’ 2nd coming and the final judgment and the existence of the Lamb’s book of life?

I’m not particularly excited that the Lord used me in this way. But… I’m HIS servant. I call Him LORD. Do I trust this Master? Yes. Completely. Here’s why… all taken from Isaiah.

Isa 40:8
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.

Isaiah 55
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed.”

To my readers: Thanks for your prayers… thanks for your support… thanks for understanding that missionaries aren’t “super-christians”…

To my God: Thanks for your leading… gifting… guiding… and teaching. I want more of all of it in every way no matter the cost.

P.S. I feel like I should add that MANY of my Christian brothers and sisters came to me and recognized the great value of hearing God’s prophetic Word in this way. When I tried to apologize for my presentation… they cut me off every time… and reminded me… in love… it’s about the message… not the messenger. I’m really glad about that.