Your Sins have Hidden His Face from You:
Why God’s Face Appears Hidden from our Face
(ISAIAH 59:1-13)
 
Pause & Reflect

1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
    or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but your iniquities have made a separation
    between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that he does not hear.

1. [v.1-2] *Biblical principle – DISTORTING HIS FACE – disfiguring the power and knowledge of God: The LORD’s face is always turned towards us, but our sins have hidden His face from us, making Him appear powerless to save and dull to hear. The people continued to bring their unacceptable worship before the LORD, continuing their deceitful, conditional, and harmful false-worship. They were double-minded and double-actioned in all their ways with false humility – seeking God without turning to God, hearing yet not repenting, drawing near yet still forsaking all His righteous ways. They sought to stop eating (fasting) and stop working (sabbath-keeping) without feeding those in need with compassion and without resting in the LORD’s finished work for them. They sought God for favors from God. When He did not answer them the way they wanted, they thought the problem was with Him and not with them.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – How are you distorting the character of God? When He appears silent and powerless, are we distorting His face? Is it His face that is hidden from you, or your face that is hiding from Him?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Why did Jesus cry out in agony on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (MARK 15:34). What was happening to the Father God’s face and why?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – Ultimately, it is our sins and our reaction to the sins of others (reactional sins) that cause God’s face to be hidden. Just as the LORD asked to Adam and Eve after they ate of the forbidden fruit in the garden, and Cain after he murdered his own brother, how is the LORD asking you the same question, “Where are you?”

 
3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
5 They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
6 Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways.
8 The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.

1. [v.3-8] *Biblical principle – DEPRAVITY IN OUR FACE – the fallen totality within us to see His face: Without the grace of Jesus Christ, every part of ourselves speaks lies, conceives sin, and runs to evil. “Sin” is not just the bad things we think, say, and do – which is part of our iniquities (immoral actions) and transgressions (violation in crossing over His command) – but it is the very thing we are in our identity apart from Jesus Christ. From head to toe, sin is our nature to push God out of His place and then to take His place. From birth, sin is our only desire that works itself out through our hands, lips, tongue, and feet. That desire is to crucify Jesus out of us, while resurrecting ourselves (and the devil) to reign within us. No matter how pleasing or successful life becomes in our sinful desires and sinful nature, we will never have peace.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – Do you know the sin within you? Without God’s grace in Christ, what are you saying is good and right? Before His face, are you partially or totally depraved?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (JOHN 15:5). Apart from Jesus, everything is sin. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing and we are nothing, like dead branches disconnected and fallen off the vine. Apart from Jesus, who are you and what are you doing?

 
9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us;
we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
11 We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves;
we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities:
13 transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.

1. [v.9-13] *Biblical principle – DENIAL OF HIS FACE – intentionally departing the LORD: Because God’s face appears hidden and our face appears sinless, we intentionally deny God, turning back from following His eternal Son Jesus Christ. Because the people were misguided in their false worship and false humility to use God for their own gain and their own self-centered purposes, there was only greater darkness and gloom. They hoped for light, but it was their own impression of brightness to illuminate their own self-pity. So now, like dead men walking, they stumble around trying to find a wall to lean on, blind to their own sinfulness. The cries they call out to God with are like senseless growling and moaning of animals, for God could not understand them. Their sins multiplied before them and testified against them. At this point, the people come to know their iniquities, confessing they have denied and turned back from following the LORD.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – Have your sins been multiplied before you, to continually testify and confess the grace of God? Do you intentionally depart from your sins, to turn your face towards His face, and turn back to follow Jesus above yourself?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Are you following Jesus intentionally? Are you growing your motive to seek after the things of God? As you do, do you see it is the Spirit of God working in you, for his good and pleasing purpose?

 
The central truth of this word was –
Because the Father God turned His face away from His eternal and beloved Son, He now forever has His face turned towards you. Nothing can separate you from His face turned towards you. His face is never hidden from among us. But because of our sins, we make His face hidden by distorting His powerful sovereignty and omniscience. We make His face hidden by the depravity in our face – from head to toe infected with the nature of sinful desires contrary to holiness. We make His face hidden by the intentional denial of His presence within us. Let us not hide His face with our sins, but hide our face before His glory. Fall facedown, so that you can walk courageously faceup with His face before you!

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
Apply & Be Doers of the Word
 
(1) In silence and confusion, do not question His knowledge and sovereignty. He has heard. He is still in control. He answers in His way. He remains in power for all time. Be at peace in His changeless character. Let God be God! Do not distort His character. Before Him, we are utterly facedown. Without Him, we can do nothing. Apart from Him, we are nothing. There will be times coming in your life where there’s a period of silence and confusion. Let God be God. Let sin be sin. See His face is never hidden before you!
 
(2) Fall facedown daily. Repent daily by opening the Scriptures daily. Reading and meditating on the Word is the continuous action of mental repentance. Let His thoughts become your thoughts. Humility is the prerequisite to opening the Scriptures. You cannot approach the Bible with the attitude – “okay what’s in it for me today, what applies for me right now.” *Do not conform the text to apply to you. Rather, apply yourself wholly to what the text says. Let the Word be the Word. Do not add to it. Do not take away from it. From head to toe, the Word of God redefines who you are. You are totally fallen, totally lost, totally depraved in your face to see the light of His glorious face in Jesus Christ. You are approaching holy words, holy ground, and holy presence. Do not keep your sandals on, but like Moses, know that something must always be removed and taken off in ourselves before the LORD. Do not come to LORD’s Day resurrection Sunday worship like any other day of the week. Be ready to be transformed in your mind, body, and soul, from head to toe, and be washed with the grace of Christ.
 
(3) Examine your motives. Be intentional to follow Jesus. Practice confessing and testifying His ways. Be intentional in honoring the Lord. Let it be your motive to honor the Lord, to look away from evil, to seek the holiness and righteousness in Christ alone. Do not live like He’s an imaginary friend. Live like He’s the Lord of your life – because He is! Do not come late to a worshipful gathering when you make to class or to work on-time every day. Serve one another. Build up His Kingdom.
 

Holy Spirit Moment & Group Prayer
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)
 
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. (GALATIANS 6:2-5)
 
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (HEBREWS 10:24-25)
 
For the body does not consist of one member but of many... The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 CORINTHIANS 12:14, 21-27)
 
- Park’s (JP, Maria – Julia, Ben, Abe)
- Park’s (Hanna, Jim-Bob – Samuel, Sophie)
- Huh’s (John, Angela – Athena, Eliana)
- Choe’s (Chong, Kate – Stella)
- Park’s (Ben, Hanna – Evelyn, Louie)
- Jeng’s (Jonathan, Nara – Emma)
- Yi’s (Jonathan, Christina – Samuel, James, Ethan)
- Gee’s (Waywah, Gloria – Emilee, Melanie)
- Kim’s (David, Josephine – Elliot, James)
- Lee’s (Andrew, Heather – Amanda [Jake], Kristen)
- Krief’s (Miki, Mr. Krief – Noa, Mya)
- Shin’s (Jay – Ethan, Ivy, Iris)
- Jun’s (Kevin, Sarah – Ellie, Ella)
- Chung’s (Chester, Ashley – Joy, Jonah)

Prepare the Way for Revival
(ISAIAH 57:14-21)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
14 And it shall be said,
“Build up, build up, prepare the way,
    remove every obstruction from my people's way.”
15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
    who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
    and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.

1. [v.14-15] *Biblical principle – HE BUILDS HIS WAY – removing every obstruction against His peace: Every obstruction must get out of the way when His high and holy place comes down to revive our low and contrite heart. As the nation was in turmoil with blind watchmen as leaders and rampant idol worshippers representing His covenant people, everything appeared hopeless. No word from God, His prophets nor even His disciplining judgment turned these stubborn hard-hearted people around to repentance. At this point, the LORD knew only He had the ability to bridge the widening gap between Him and His covenant people. By the prophetic voice of the last prophet – John the Baptist – the LORD Himself would build and prepare the way to remove every obstruction between Him and His people. As the God who is high and lifted up, inhabiting eternity, dwelling in the highest and holiest place, He would come down by sending His suffering servant and eternal Son Jesus Christ, to the lowliest of place, into the heart of the lowly.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – What obstruction is still in the way of revival between you and the LORD? Are you building back what He is clearing out? God is building up, but are you tearing down?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – What does “revival” mean to you? Have you seen revival? If so, describe your experience – what it is and what happens when it comes.
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – God desires to have you as His own with an everlasting love. He will build the longest highway from His eternal habitation to the lowest of hearts on earth. How is revival about getting a glimpse of this eternal highway? When we do, are our hearts staying high in sinful pride or low in godly humility? How is revival about letting God draw near to you instead of your efforts to draw near to Him?

 
16 For I will not contend forever,
    nor will I always be angry;
for the spirit would grow faint before me,
    and the breath of life that I made.
17 Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry,
    I struck him; I hid my face and was angry,
    but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.
18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;
    I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,
19     creating the fruit of the lips.
Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord,
    “and I will heal him.

1. [v.16-19] *Biblical principle – HE RESTORES HIS WAY – removing His anger to create His peace: Because His righteous anger was satisfied in the giving of His eternal Son, God no longer remains angry but available to create peace for those far and near. Rightly so, the nation was under God’s righteous anger. Steeped in their idolatry and iniquity that gained only their own unrighteousness, the LORD was angry. He disciplined them through exile. He hide His face from them for a moment. Yet still God knew they would not learn to fear Him, but rather go on backsliding in the way of their own heart. Out of His great love for us, God resolved in Himself to put an end to His anger. He knew that He could not contend with it forever. He knew that the only way was to resolve His anger in the sinless and eternal sacrifice of Himself, in the sending of His eternal Son our Lord Jesus Christ. By doing so, sinful humankind and sinless holy God would once again have peace by the shed blood of the cross (Colossians 1:19-20).
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – How is the LORD creating peace by removing anger? Or are we creating anger by removing His peace?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Although the LORD has seen our sinful ways, why does He still choose to heal us from them (verse 18)? How can we see the sin in each other, but still choose to forgive, heal, and correct their ways?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – God would have been righteous in His anger to destroy a way for us to approach Him. Yet, He chose to put away His anger through His eternal Son to restore a way for us to be with Him forever. Like the heavenly Father has done for you, what must you put away for restoration with God and with one another to happen?

 
20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea;
    for it cannot be quiet,
    and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
21 There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

1. [v.20-21] *Biblical principle – THOSE WHO DO NOT FEAR GOD HAVE HE MAKES NO OTHER WAY – removing the wicked from His peace: There is no peace for the wicked, for they do not walk according to His ways. Since His peace is created only by His enabling grace through His eternal Son Jesus Christ, the wicked person who continues walking away from Christ cannot have it. The wicked live unanchored to Jesus, like the tossing sea. They trust in the waves that toss them around instead of the One who has power to silence the wind and the waves. Their waters toss up mire and dirt compared to the pure, cleansing and quenching living waters of Christ’s fountain where all can come to for drink and have life in His name. There is no other way to revive the dead person – spiritually and physically. Unless we turn to trust in His grace, we will all likewise suffer in this life and the eternal life to come without any anchor or any calm, for there is no peace without Jesus.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – Are you searching for another way for revival? Are we seeking to be resuscitated temporarily instead of being revived eternally in His peace? Why is there no peace within us? Are we in the process of being removed or restored to walk according to the ways of His peace?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – The hallmark of a follower of Jesus is the shalom (wholeness of peace beyond understand in mind, body and soul) imparted by a thriving relationship with Him. Shalom is the wisdom from God that brings stability, steadfastness, and sovereign control from Him. Shalom is faith that dispels doubt, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (James 1:6-7). Like tossing sea waters that kick-up mire and dirt, there is no peace nor purity for the wicked. They do not ask God for it. How can you ask the LORD for His shalom to fall upon you? How can you close all other ways to attain it, except through Jesus?

 
The central truth of this word was –
God has already prepared the way for revival! We had no part in contributing to it. He built the highway to Himself! He removed every obstruction so that His heavenly presence could dwell with the lowly heart. He satisfied His own anger by the sacrifice of His own eternal Son. He gifted us with the power to walk according to His way with the peace that Christ Jesus purchased on our behalf. He warned us there is no other way to be at peace in a revived heart before Him. This must humble us, bring our spirit low to make our heart contrite. Let us come down from our high place of pride and restlessness to His repentance and peace! Be revived!

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 
Apply & Be Doers of the Word
 
(1) Let go of your obstruction. It’s in the way of His revival. We can’t experience revival when we’re holding to our obstruction while the vacuum of His peace sweeps our lives. Be humbled by how far God came to you from His eternal habitation. In Christ, you are revived, so release it! Fear Him over everything!  
 
(2) Let us stop guilt-tripping ourselves and others of their sins. In Jesus, the anger of God is removed! We fall under His mercy – not anger. Godly guilt leads to repentance. Sinful guilt leads to condemnation. Although we see the sin in each other, let us be moved to heal one another through forgiveness, correction, training through the Word of God with the empowering help of His Spirit.
 
(3) Do not play around with the path of the wicked. There is no peace there. Stay on His path to revival. Close all other doors, get off every other path, that you strive to attain shalom. It will always be lacking if you stay that course. It will be the ruin of you and others around you. Let’s not be tossed like sea waters, but let the One who can silence the winds and the waves and the seas draw us into Himself, into His ark, into His boat, where can breathe, be revived, and sail through this temporal life into His eternity.
 

Holy Spirit Moment & Group Prayer
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)
 
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. (GALATIANS 6:2-5)
 
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (HEBREWS 10:24-25)
 
For the body does not consist of one member but of many... The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 CORINTHIANS 12:14, 21-27)
 
 
- Park’s (JP, Maria – Julia, Ben, Abe)
- Park’s (Hanna, Jim-Bob – Samuel, Sophie)
- Huh’s (John, Angela – Athena, Eliana)
- Choe’s (Chong, Kate – Stella)
- Park’s (Ben, Hanna – Evelyn, Louie)
- Jeng’s (Jonathan, Nara – Emma)
- Yi’s (Jonathan, Christina – Samuel, James, Ethan)
- Gee’s (Waywah, Gloria – Emilee, Melanie)
- Kim’s (David, Josephine – Elliot, James)
- Lee’s (Andrew, Heather – Amanda [Jake], Kristen)
- Krief’s (Miki, Mr. Krief – Noa, Mya)
- Shin’s (Jay – Ethan, Ivy, Iris)
- Jun’s (Kevin, Sarah – Ellie, Ella)
- Chung’s (Chester, Ashley – Joy, Jonah)

His Watchmen are Blind
(ISAIAH 56:9-12)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
9 All you beasts of the field, come to devour--
    all you beasts in the forest.

 

1. [v.9] *Biblical principle – BLIND WATCHMEN DEPART HIS FLOCK – who become open prey for the beasts: While God’s flock are devoured as the beast’s prey, are we walking away? Just as Jesus could not stand still and watch any longer while His Father’s house of prayer became a den of robbers, are we standing still or even walking away while God’s flock continually become open pray for the demonic beasts of the world? These beasts will not only devour God’s flock, but also their unfaithful watchmen who should have guarded them from the open field of danger. The beasts are invited to come devour, commissioned by the prophet Isaiah himself, especially these watchmen, as a sign of God’s unrelenting wrath against those who lead His sheep astray or fail to keep them to account. Instead of searching, rescuing, and protecting the sheep and His house, they have been idle and fed themselves.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – In what ways are we departing God’s flock – with our presence, with the ministries God has entrusted and called us to do together, with prayerful concern for one another, with forgiveness given and received from each other, etc. – how are we walking away instead of walking into fellowship with Jesus, with His people and aligned to His mission? As a result, in what ways do we live like beasts of the field, devouring everyone in our way and everything in the world apart from the Lord?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Define “beasts of the field… beasts in the forest” – the demonic influences of the world sourced in the head devil – Satan (the beast of REVELATION 21). What devouring and demonic influences lead us away from the LORD?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – Have you experienced a time when someone who should have been responsible to watch over you failed to do so, even departing you? Have you experienced a time when you should have been responsible to watch over someone, but failed to do so, even departing them? How can Jesus – our faithful watchmen, our good shepherd – speak into both failures and heal us?
   4. *FOCUS QUESTION #4 – How can we stop devouring and start devoting? How can we stop devouring (one another and the world)? How can we start devoting ourselves to Jesus and to one another?

 
10 His watchmen are blind;
    they are all without knowledge;
they are all silent dogs;
    they cannot bark,
dreaming, lying down,
    loving to slumber.
11 The dogs have a mighty appetite;
    they never have enough.
But they are shepherds who have no understanding;
    they have all turned to their own way,
    each to his own gain, one and all.

 

1. [v.10-11] *Biblical principle – BLIND WATCHMEN NEGLECT HIS FLOCK – without proper warning: While warnings of danger need to be sounded to God’s flock, are we staying silent? When we live like beasts instead of God’s image-bearing humans, there is no sense of godly responsibility. We live with mighty appetites for our own gain, without any understanding or knowledge of our God-given responsibility and purpose to grow into faithful watchmen of His house (His church), that is His flock (His people), whom He purchased by the shed blood of His Son. Instead, we live in negligence of God’s purposes, like blind watchmen, like dogs who are silent and cannot bark when danger is at hand, loving to slumber. Also like dogs, our hunger is set on a mighty appetite of anything on the table (or under the table) of the world – what never satisfies but what we can never get enough of.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – The apostle Peter warns us, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 PETER 5:8). How are we neglecting God’s warnings in His Word as false alarms? How would a lion, a serpent, or a beast (all representations of the devil in Scripture) in our midst seeking someone to devour, bite, and tear us apart change the way we live today?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – What warnings from God (ex. His coming judgment, His call to repentance, His call to forgiveness, His second coming) are we staying silent about and “loving to slumber” about?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – Watchmen warned of approaching danger, signaled entrance into battle, and sounded victory with their hollowed ram’s horn called the shofar. Being called as a watchman required a sense of great responsibility and stewardship to sound the horn at the appropriate time out of a sacred trust from God to care for His people. In our families, God has entrusted us to be watchmen over our children at home. When is a time you sounded the horn (shofar) of alarm in times of danger and the sound of triumph in times of celebration? Are we doing the same for God’s flock in His house? Are we not as responsible for His house as we are for our own homes?
   4. *FOCUS QUESTION #4 – In the world, joy is found “each to his own gain.” Yet in Christ, it is found each to his own loss. Joy in Jesus is found in (J)esus first, (O)thers second, (Y)ourself last. How can we be watchmen who understand this kind of joy from Jesus today?

 
12 “Come,” they say, “let me get wine;
    let us fill ourselves with strong drink;
and tomorrow will be like this day,
    great beyond measure.”

 

1. [v.12] *Biblical principle – BLIND WATCHMEN STARVE HIS FLOCK – by filling themselves: While we fill ourselves with all kinds of influences to satisfy our appetites, is not God’s flock starving? Why are God’s watchmen acting like they are blind, not sounding the alarm as they should – the alarm that the flood of His judgment against all ungodliness is coming, so build the ark as Noah did, get on that ark of Jesus, be rescued by Jesus? It was because they were dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber, and had a mighty appetite to fill themselves with their own gain. Whether it be intoxicating drinks or the hope of an endless tomorrow, the “relax, eat, drink, be merry” (LUKE 12:19) lifestyle of ignorance to the glory of God or the body of Christ’s flock was of no real concern. By filling themselves, they starved His sheep. By filling themselves, they became ignorant of their responsibility before God and His people.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – How are you feeding yourself while starving His sheep? How can we starve our flesh to feed His flock?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – How can we not live like “tomorrow will be like this day” but rather like tomorrow will be our last day? If tomorrow were our last day, how would we spend it in the way Jesus desires us to?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – As the good shepherd that searches for His one lost sheep until He finds it, how is Jesus like a watchman for us (LUKE 15:1-7)? As the father who waits and watches from afar for his prodigal son to return home, how is our heavenly Father like a watchman for us (LUKE 15:11-32)?   
   4. *PRAY THESE SCRIPTURES:
      1. Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. (EZEKIEL 3:17)
      2. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (REVELATION 1:7-8)
      3. Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 PETER 5:7-10)
      4. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. (PSALM 121:4-7)

 
The central truth of this word was –
We are not the blind leading the blind! Jesus has opened the blinded eyes, deaf ears, mute mouth of His flock. He has called us to the post of His watchmen to sound the alarm of His Word – both to warn His people of danger approaching and to bless His people of victory already-achieved in Christ Jesus’ finished work of the cross and through the resurrection. Take this responsibility seriously! Do not forsake His flock, neglect His flock, nor starve His flock! Instead, grow in covenant with His flock. Nourish them, and as Jesus instructed, “Feed my sheep” (JOHN 21:15-17).

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 
Apply & Be Doers of the Word
 
(1) The JOY that only Jesus can bring: (J)esus first. (O)thers second. (Y)ourself last. Take this joy seriously. Take this responsibility as watchmen over His flock seriously. Live with His joy.
 
(2) Sound the alarm! Do not stay silent about what Scripture warns against. The most loving thing we can do is to keep warning one another – not as enemies but as comrades in Christ – of His commands with all gentleness, compassion, and conviction.
 
(3) Feed His sheep! By feeding them, Jesus is feeding you.
 
 

Holy Spirit Moment & Group Prayer
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)
 
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. (GALATIANS 6:2-5)
 
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (HEBREWS 10:24-25)
 
For the body does not consist of one member but of many... The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 CORINTHIANS 12:14, 21-27)
 
- Park’s (JP, Maria – Julia, Ben, Abe)
- Park’s (Hanna, Jim-Bob – Samuel, Sophie)
- Huh’s (John, Angela – Athena, Eliana)
- Choe’s (Chong, Kate – Stella)
- Park’s (Ben, Hanna – Evelyn, Louie)
- Jeng’s (Jonathan, Nara – Emma)
- Yi’s (Jonathan, Christina – Samuel, James, Ethan)
- Gee’s (Waywah, Gloria – Emilee, Melanie)
- Kim’s (David, Josephine – Elliot, James)
- Lee’s (Andrew, Heather – Amanda [Jake], Kristen)
- Krief’s (Miki, Mr. Krief – Noa, Mya)
- Shin’s (Jay – Ethan, Ivy, Iris)
- Jun’s (Kevin, Sarah – Ellie, Ella)
- Chung’s (Chester, Ashley – Joy, Jonah)

We Grieve, but not without Hope
(1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

1. [v.13-14] *Biblical principle – DO NOT BE UNINFORMED – grieving without hope for those asleep: Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, those who have died in Christ do not ever taste death. Rather, they fall asleep until it is time to awake when God the Father brings Jesus again with those who have fallen asleep in His Son. Although the Thessalonian Christian already knew this information, they were acting like they were never informed about it in their excessive and hopeless grief. They desired to put Jesus into their own timetable. Eventually, they became discouraged when He did not return in their lifespan. All the while, the corrupt idea began to spread – that Jesus may not have risen, or that He was late to appear, and the dead are not asleep, but lost forever.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – How influential and harmful is misinformation?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – At the heart of the resurrection and the gospel (good news) is the right information. Yet even the first witness to the resurrection – Mary Magdalene – presumed the body of Jesus was stolen (see JOHN 20:2). Likewise, the Corinthian Christians became weary as death kept prevailing, one dying person after another, thinking Christ had not been resurrected at all. Yet the apostle Paul writes to Corinth of what is of first importance – “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve… to more than five hundred brothers at one time… to James… to all the apostles… also to me” (1 CORINTHIANS 15:3-8). How are you staying informed with the right news? How are you reminding yourself of what information is trustworthy and what is untrustworthy?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – The first scene Jesus left for us in His resurrection is an empty tomb with His graveclothes and facecloth neatly folded, and the stone entrance rolled away. Everything speaks of His absence – He is not there, but has risen. How are you looking for the living among the dead? How is your life still like a tomb with a stone entrance intact? How can you turn away from the tomb, let Jesus roll away the stone entrance, to see He is standing right before you?
   4. *FOCUS QUESTION #4 – Although Jesus has risen and conquered our death, we still grieve when exposed to death, especially those loved ones passed into glory ahead of us. But how can we grieve as those with hope instead of without hope? How can we carry sorrows with the hope of His joy? How can we go through difficult times with the trust He brings times of refreshing? Are our past loved ones dead or asleep, according to Scripture? Are they gone or more alive today than they ever were on earth? Will they never return or will God bring them with Jesus’ return?

 
15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

1. [v.15-16] *Biblical principle – BE INFORMED BY THE WORD FROM THE LORD – those asleep will rise first when Jesus returns: Being informed correctly comes only by way of the word from the Lord through holy Scripture. Those who have passed into glory ahead of us in Christ are not forgotten and gone, for they will rise first when Jesus returns at the descent of the Lord Jesus from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. Those asleep in Chrit are first in line to be resurrected. There will be an order to how Jesus will raise the dead. So too, we who are alive until the coming of the Lord should not think otherwise about those who are asleep. Whether awake or asleep, we are together with the Lord. He “died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him” (1 THESSALONIANS 5:10).
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints” (PSALM 116:15). The LORD cares deeply about those who fall asleep in Him and pass into glory. They will be resurrected first before the living. They will stand-up again – not in ghostlike fashion but in an imperishable immortal bodily fashion. All the saints will be, but those asleep and who have gone ahead are first in order. What can we learn from this priority that the LORD puts on those who have gone ahead of us into glory? What have you learned from those who have left a legacy for Christ through their passing life? How does this teach you to live life now for Jesus with fuller passion, urgency and obedience instead of later?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command – the archangel’s voice and the trumpet’s sound. At times, the return of Jesus Christ appears trivial and aloof, so far away and removed. Yet this unknown time and unknown hour comes like a thief in the night. He is risen, and He is returning. Can your heart say – come, Lord Jesus, come? Or does your heart say – later, Lord Jesus, later… stay away, Lord Jesus, stay away… next time, Lord Jesus, next time? How do you need to be realigned to say – come, Lord Jesus, come?

 
17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1. [v.17-18] *Biblical principle – ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS – those alive will be caught up together with those awakened from sleep to meet the Lord in the air: Eventually, we will all be together – both the living and those awakened from their sleep – to meet the Lord in the air. Those asleep will rise first. Those live will then join them to be caught up together  in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so we will always be with the Lord. For those of us alive and yet to pass into glory, this ought to be incredibly encouraging. We will meet our past loved ones in Christ. We also will meet the Lord Himself in the air, to always be with Him. God will suspend the natural law of gravity and take us to the realm of His clouds and air – to have that great union with the saints of ages past and with the Lord Jesus Himself.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – Tell each other about a time that you went to a reunion (family, high school, college, church, old friends get-together). What made it a blessing? What made it sorrowful? One day, we will all pass into glory, but we will be reunited together. How can we make our reunion with one another in the clouds, together in the air as we meet the Lord Jesus Himself, a thrilling and joyful hope instead of a meeting to avoid? How must we live with each other now as the church in light of the reunion to come with our Lord?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – We long to be reunited with our passed loved ones in Christ. The pain is real and deep. Yet is our longing to be with the Lord Jesus just as strong? Have you seen the risen Lord Jesus in the eyes, face, and life of your passed loved ones in Christ? How is their lives a reflection of Christ’s life with you?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – Christian music artist Chris Rice wrote the song Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus), where he describes the course of our life, until we fly to Jesus and meet Him in the air. Listen to this song along with the lyrics, and sense all that the Lord Jesus desires to be throughout your days.

Weak and wounded sinner, Lost and left to die
Oh, raise your head for Love is passing by
Come to Jesus, Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live
 
Now your burden's lifted, And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain
So, sing to Jesus, Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live
 
And like a newborn baby, Don't be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk sometimes we fall
So, fall on Jesus, Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live
 
Sometimes the way is lonely, And steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark and pours the rain
Then cry to Jesus, Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live
 
Oh and when the love spills over, And music fills the night
And when you can't contain your joy inside
Then dance for Jesus, Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live
 
With your final heartbeat, Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side
And fly to Jesus, Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live
 
The central truth of this word was –
You are informed today!
(1) We grieve, but not without hope
(2) Jesus is alive, and so are those asleep in Him
(3) The Lord Jesus is coming again to bring those asleep and those awake to meet Him together in the air
(4) Encourage one another with these words

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 


Apply & Be Doers of the Word
 
(1) Jesus says, “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (JOHN 11:26). We will not taste death, but keep on living with the Lord at all times. Make plans for that. Talk about that with your family and friends. Just like you will plan for retirement, or write out a will to whom your possessions will be inherited, or not hesitate to discuss with your doctor about your aging health condition, or down-size your cluttered items to make life simplier, or even consider end-of-earthly life issues, plan out and talk about eternal life with Jesus to your family and friends. Even in eternity, it may be a long time before we realize that we’ve fallen asleep and passed into glory! The pleasure of being with our risen LORD will be so great that even the thought of our earthly lives may not pass our minds very often. So before eternity arrives, make sure you have a plan in how you are preparing for that coming eternal life with Jesus and His people. A plan involves how you spend the time, possessions, investments, church etc. all things (however small or great) that God entrusted to you. A plan involves how to live now in light of the eternal future with Jesus.
 
(2) Don’t make too much of your grief! Grieve, but not without hope. Keep your tears momentary. Keep sorrow at a distance. Bring what grieves you daily to Jesus on prayerful knees. Write-out what is grieving you on a notepad, and prayerfully speak against each one in the power of Jesus’ name. Renew your mind away from grief and onto the gladness in Jesus. Release it to Jesus. Do not carry its weight any longer. Do not seek excessive attention for others and their sorrow for you. Seek only the attention of your heavenly Father, who sees you and lifts you up in due time.
 
(3) Take out all misinformation and fake news that infiltrates your day through leisure, devices, screens, and shows. Start each day informed correctly and rightly with Scripture. Narrow what enters the attention of your mind and focused energy. Narrow it on information from the foundation of His Word. Yet do not let it remain solely information. Make use of it as wisdom from God. Speak against the misinformation and news of the world with the good news and informed word from the Lord. Look at the world around you through the lens of holy Scripture, the lens of Christ. Discern what is on His heart and what is not.
 
(4) This weekend, encourage four different people with an encouragement from Jesus’ resurrection. Greet them with, “He lives!” instead of a “Hello!” and “He has risen!” instead of a “Goodbye!” Don’t just give fake complements, but speak God’s promises over their lives (ex. “God has promised you…. His eternal life, His joy… in His only Son”) and see the ways it transforms your hope in Christ.
 
 

Holy Spirit Moment & Group Prayer
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)
 
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. (GALATIANS 6:2-5)
 
For the body does not consist of one member but of many... The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 CORINTHIANS 12:14, 21-27)
 
- Park’s (JP, Maria – Julia, Ben, Abe)
- Park’s (Hanna, Jim-Bob – Samuel, Sophie)
- Huh’s (John, Angela – Athena, Eliana)
- Choe’s (Chong, Kate – Stella)
- Park’s (Ben, Hanna – Evelyn, Louie)
- Jeng’s (Jonathan, Nara – Emma)
- Yi’s (Jonathan, Christina – Samuel, James, Ethan)
- Gee’s (Waywah, Gloria – Emilee, Melanie)
- Kim’s (David, Josephine – Elliot, James)
- Jun’s (Kevin, Sarah – Ellie, Ella)
- Shin’s (Jay – Ethan, Ivy, Iris)
- Lee’s (Andrew, Heather – Amanda [Jake], Kristen)
- Krief’s (Miki, Mr. Krief – Noa, Mya)
- Chung’s (Chester, Ashley – Joy, Jonah)

With His Wounds We are Healed
(ISAIAH 53:4-6)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.

1. [v.4] *Biblical principle – HEALED FROM THE WEIGHT OF OUR WOUNDS – the load of carrying our own griefs: The pain of a wound eventually makes us grieve. Many times, that grief is even greater than the wound itself. Without Jesus, we end up carrying the griefs of our own wounds that spirals us into greater hopeless grief and sorrow. Yet the hope to God’s people then and now is the same – the Father has sent His exalted Son and our suffering servant to bear in His own body our griefs, to not only suffer with us but suffer in place of us! He carried our sorrows! Surely He has borne our griefs! Yet our self-inflicted wounds in grief do not esteem Jesus as our wound-carrier. In pride, our wounds still outweigh His wounds. His wounds appear to be caused by another.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – When Saul (Paul) met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was blinded by a sudden light from heaven with the voice of Jesus that called out to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (ACTS 9:4). Saul had never persecuted Jesus. He had only been persecuting followers of Jesus. Yet why did Jesus say hurting His followers was no different than hurting Him too? What connection does Jesus have with our wounds and sufferings? How has the pain of a wound/suffering made you grieve and become sorrowful? Although wounds and sufferings persist in this life, what is the hope of healing offered in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – What happens when we continue carrying the load of our own griefs and sorrows? How can the sufferings of Jesus on the cross become distorted and unrelated to us when we continue to carry the weight of this life on our own? How is the root of our sickness not in our wounds/sufferings themselves, but the griefs and sorrows that grow out of them? How can we say with the late hymnwriter Horatio Spafford after a ship collision that killed all four of his daughters, “Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul”?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – Do you scale your sufferings against the sufferings of the Servant-Son Jesus Christ? Do yours outweigh His? What is so heavy, weighing you down so much, with a load that just won’t let up? And what is the hope you have as you hear the Lord Jesus say, “Let me carry them for you”? One Pastor said it this way – remember to HALT when you are (H) hungry for an appetite not given by God, (A) angry at someone Christ died for too, (L) lonely even when the Spirit indwells you, and (T) tired when there’s strength found by rejoicing in the Lord. How do you need to HALT, stop, cease, when those four things appear?

 
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.

1. [v.5] *Biblical principle – HEALED FROM BEING THE WOUNDER – with our transgressions and iniquities: Jesus not only heals us from the weight of our wounds, but the cause of His wounds – He was pierced for our sins, and equally pierced by our sins. No one can esteem Jesus without connecting His wounds to their sins. God’s people then could not make a connection between exalted Son of God and suffering servant for sinners. Likewise, anyone today can look at the cross of Christ with no significance, and the horrid sufferings of the crucified Jesus as just tragedy, trivial or historically impersonal. Yet Isaiah reveals the exact reason why Jesus had to be wounded – it was all for our sins. All have crossed God’s line (transgression). All have violated rightful duty with immoral conduct (iniquity). Jesus was not just pierced for us. He was pierced by us. We are the wounders. He not only stood in our place, He took our piercings. He received our penalty and our wounding to set us free!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – Carrying the weight of our own lot will eventually pierce and crush us. There is no need to do this ourselves any longer, for Jesus was pierced and crushed for us, and even more – he was pierced by us. When Jesus took upon Himself what was meant to be our load, it brings us peace, healing, and life. Like a mother in labor whose belly needs to be pierced for a cesarean delivery to bring forth life, how have the piercings of Jesus brought forth your new life from the womb of heaven? Have you been born from the womb of heaven, born again of “water and the Spirit” (JOHN 3:5)? How is the life-giving nature of the Spirit treating your wounds? Are you letting Jesus be your wound-carrier?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – In our pursuit of healing, we often view ourselves as the wounded. Yet Jesus flips this viewpoint – He is the wounded while we are the wounders. This is not to say Jesus is in denial or immune to our wounds and sufferings. He desires for us to see from heaven’s perspective. Have you connected the piercings of Jesus with your wounding of Jesus? Is the message of the cross tragic, trivial, and impersonal to you? How is acknowledging our brokenness, transgressions, iniquities foremost the path to healing and seeing the full picture of the cross of Christ? Oftentimes, our desire for healing is tainted with a prideful right to deserve a life free of sufferings and wounds. But when we look to what happened at the cross when Jesus took our place, what do we really deserve?

 
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

1. [v.6] *Biblical principle – HEALED FROM GOING ASTRAY – like lost sheep but with a shepherd who lays our iniquity on Himself: The consequences of carrying our own wounds and staying wounders of Jesus, ourselves, and others is this – everyone turns to his own way. Sheep are prone to wander. It is their nature apart from the shepherd. So also it is our nature apart from the chief good shepherd Jesus. Unless the shepherd pursues, finds, and saves His lost sheep, the sheep are doomed to remain astray, hurt themselves and those around them. Unless Jesus first pursues, finds, and saves us, we are doomed to turn to our own way and stay wounders of Jesus, ourselves, and one another. Yet the good news is that Jesus has come, wounded by us but still pursuing us. When He finds us, He lays us on His shoulders to take us home. All of our iniquity is laid on His shoulders. What is left is only His joy in having found His lost sheep! He joyfully celebrates our return!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – The natural person cannot discern the spiritual things of God. Their desires to be healed from their wounds and sufferings are astray. It is their own way and not the way of Jesus. Instead of letting our sufferings and wounds drive us to Jesus, how have we let them drive us to our own way without Jesus? Like sheep who are prone to go astray, how prone are we to leave the way of Jesus? When has keeping your wounds and griefs from sufferings kept you off the path of Jesus, who calls you to lay them on Him?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – How can Jesus heal you from going your own way? How does He bring you back to His way? Read the following Scriptures –
      1. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. (1 PETER 3:18)
      2. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 JOHN 1:9)
      3. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (JOHN 8:31-32)
      4. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. (PSALM 86:11-13)
      5. Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. (PSALM 25:4-5)
      6. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. (1 PETER 2:21-23)
      7. 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 CORINTHIANS 12:9)
      8. My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (PROVERBS 4:20-23).

 
The central truth of this word was –
In order to be healed, we need to know what has made us sick. Jesus healed many who were sick –  the blind, the deaf, the lame, and even the dead. Yet their healing did not last when met with death – Lazarus, who was raised, had to die twice! Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (LUKE 5:31-32). The sick acknowledge their sinfulness. The sick desire their need for the physician. Anyone can desire healing, but not everyone desires the Great Physician. Jesus shows us that desiring Him is the only path to be healed eternally. Our wounds weigh heavy in this life. Yet the scars of Jesus tell us that they will heal one day and speak of His deliverance, love, and glory through us! Our wounds teach us to keep looking at His wounds, for He was pierced for our sins and by our sins. His wounds keep us from going astray from His way. His wounds declare that all wounds were laid upon His Son. His wounds give hope for His day, when all will say, “we are healed.”

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 
 

Holy Spirit Moment & Group Prayer
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)
 
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. (GALATIANS 6:2-5)
 
For the body does not consist of one member but of many... The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 CORINTHIANS 12:14, 21-27)

- Park’s (JP, Maria – Julia, Ben, Abe)
- Park’s (Hanna, Jim-Bob – Samuel, Sophie)
- Huh’s (John, Angela – Athena, Eliana)
- Yang’s (Beomjoo, Haemin – Doyoun)
- Choe’s (Chong, Kate – Stella)
- Park’s (Ben, Hanna – Evelyn, Louie)
- Jeng’s (Jonathan, Nara – Emma)
- Yi’s (Jonathan, Christina – Samuel, James, Ethan)
- Gee’s (Waywah, Gloria – Emilee, Melanie)
- Kim’s (David, Josephine – Elliot, James)
- Jun’s (Kevin, Sarah – Ellie, Ella)
- Shin’s (Jay – Ethan, Ivy, Iris)
- Lee’s (Andrew, Heather – Amanda [Jake], Kristen)
- Chung’s (Chester, Ashley – Joy, Jonah)

Behold, My Exalted Servant
(ISAIAH 52:13-15)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
    he shall be high and lifted up,
    and shall be exalted.

 

1. [v.13] *Biblical principle – EXALTED IN WISDOM – Being God yet still an Obedient Servant: Jesus acted wisely as both exalted Son of God the Father and lowly servant to sinful humanity, obeying the Father’s will completely as His servant yet being high and lifted up as His exalted Son. Servants stay servants. They are never exalted to another status. They are slaves who carry no rights nor identity of their own, and their only purpose is to obey the Master’s command, who owns them. Yet this vulgar term of “servant/slave” is how God the Father describes His only Son. By acts of wisdom, His Servant-Son will be high and lifted up – a promotion and expression of worship only belonging to the LORD God Himself (Isaiah 6:1; 33:10; 57:15). In Jesus, we learn how to act wisely as both beloved sons/daughters of our Father yet obedient slaves to our Master. Controlled, submissive, full of mercy, good fruit, impartial wisdom begins in the two natures of Jesus in unity – exalted LORD yet humble servant to sinners.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul writes about the future glory of God’s children, “and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (ROMANS 8:17). Even creation itself waits with eager longing for this to happen, “groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (ROMANS 8:22). This glorification of God’s children into God’s heirs – and co-heirs with Christ – is guaranteed, for “those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified” (ROMANS 8:30). From the beginning of creation – before sin entered the world – we were called not only to be beloved children of God, but glorified stewards with God to wisely rule over His creation as inheritors and co-inheritors of it with Christ, reflecting His image into the world (GENESIS 1:26-30). As Jesus acted wisely in His journey from obedient servant to exalted Son, how are you taking that same journey from suffering to glory today? For you, is there a costly suffering in following after Jesus? For you, is there wise stewardship in ruling over all He has entrusted to you (His gifts, His time, His resources, His family [parents, siblings, spouse, children], His church, His life[body, health, nurture] etc)? Although there is suffering before glory, is your heart thrilled with joy for this journey in which the present sufferings are not worth comparing, for “the glory that is to be revealed to us” (ROMANS 8:18)?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Jesus held two natures in perfect union – the lowly servant of the Father to sinful mankind and the divine Son of the Father as savior of mankind. With His actions of wisdom, Jesus did not compromise both His natures of sinless humanity and exalted divinity. How can we learn godly wisdom from Jesus that is controlled, submissive, full of mercy, humble, fruitful, and impartial? How can we practically act in His wisdom today?

 
14 As many were astonished at you--
    his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
    and his form beyond that of the children of mankind--

 

1. [v.14] *Biblical principle – EXALTED IN APPEARANCE – Forever Marred as the Suffering Servant: One day every infirmity in our body will be perfectly restored to imperishable immortality (1 CORINTHIANS 15:53), but the body of Jesus will forever be marred with the scars of His great suffering to show that by His wounds, we have been healed (1 PETER 2:24). There was nothing in the appearance of Jesus that made Him attractive. “He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him” (ISAIAH 53:2). So much more undesirable will be the way His sufferings disfigured and marred His body beyond human semblance. It was not only His hands and side that were pierced, but His entire body during the beatings/scourging (LUKE 22:63-64; JOHN 19:1-3). Our scars will heal, but His scars forever remain to tell how much He loved us.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – When Jesus brings the new heavens and new earth, we get new immortal bodies, perfectly restored without defect, pain, or tears. But why does Jesus’ body remain defective, scared, and marred forever – although it wasn’t that way before being sent to the earth? In this life, we will eventually pick up wounds that turn into scars. How can our scars become a beautiful, wonderful, and exalted appearance of Jesus’ scared face, legs, arm, back, chest, hands, feet, and thorn-pricked head?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Both testaments of Scripture declare, “with his wounds we are healed” (ISAIAH 53:5), and “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 PETER 2:24). How is focusing on our wounds or wounding one another not the path to healing? What is the only path to wholeness in healing? How can we look off our wounds and onto His wounds?

 
15 so shall he sprinkle many nations.
    Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.

 

1. [v.15] *Biblical principle – EXALTED IN VICTORY – King of kings shutting mouths of all kings: Even as a lowly suffering servant, forever marred in appearance, Jesus Christ is exalted to the highest place of victory above all earthly kings, rulers, and authorities, where every knee will bow and mouth will confess that He is LORD. Many nations are cleansed/sprinkled by Jesus’ faithful servanthood in being the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world. Some nations may still resist His cleansing work, but the kings of all nations will one day shut their mouths in awe of seeing and understanding Jesus as King of all kings. Whether believer or unbeliever, at the name of the Servant-King Jesus, every knee – including the devil – must bow and every tongue must confess in heaven and on earth and under the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord (PHILIPPIANS 2:9-11).
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – For God, the way up comes by first taking the way down. When the divine Son obeyed completely His eternal Father’s will to be His servant to sinners, the Father exalted His Son to such an eternally high place that no knee could ever remain unbowed, nor tongue ever remain silent that Jesus Christ is LORD (PHILIPPIANS 2:9-11). Usually, a reaction of shock comes by utter silence or scream out of fear, or sheer excitement and joy out of thankfulness. Which reaction is yours today when you behold Jesus daily in Word and prayer? Which reaction will be yours on that great and awesome day when He renews all things, bringing the new heavens, the new earth, and gifts us new bodies to reign with Christ forever?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – In what ways do we need to close our mouths? In what ways do we need to confess with our mouth? What kind of mind and mouth did Jesus have? Read the following Scriptures –
      1. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11)
      2. 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. (1 PETER 1:13)
      3. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (PHILIPPIANS 4:8)
      4. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (COLOSSIANS 3:2)
      5. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (ROMANS 8:5-6)
      6. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 CORINTHIANS 10:5)

 
The central truth of this word was –
Are you beholding this Servant and exalting in His wisdom, appearance, and victory over all of life? Jesus is not your slave to serve your selfish purposes. He is King and LORD, serving God the Father’s purpose to cleanse you and draw near to you. So Jesus drew near by wearing the full vulnerability of frail humanity, wearing the fullness of our sin and shame in our place before the wrath of God the Father against all ungodliness throughout the ages. By His actions of wisdom to draw near to our lowly place, the Father exalted Him to the highest place. Now the scars of Jesus forever retained in His body will forever speak of how our suffering Savior loved us to the end. So behold, the LORD’s Servant! Let Him be high and lifted up! Let His wisdom indwell you! Let His scars heal you! Let His cleansing flow touch you! Let His Word cause you to see, to understand what has been spoken of our Servant-King!

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 
Group Prayer Requests
 
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. (GALATIANS 6:2-5)
 
For the body does not consist of one member but of many... The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 CORINTHIANS 12:14, 21-27)
 
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)
 
 
- Park’s (JP, Maria – Julia, Ben, Abe)
- Huh’s (John, Angela – Athena, Eliana)
- Yang’s (Beomjoo, Haemin – Doyoun)
- Choe’s (Chong, Kate – Stella)
- Park’s (Ben, Hanna – Evelyn, Louie)
- Jeng’s (Jonathan, Nara – Emma)
-  Yi’s (Jonathan, Christina – Samuel, James, Ethan)
- Gee’s (Waywah, Gloria – Emilee, Melanie)
- Kim’s (David, Josephine – Elliot, James)
- Jun’s (Kevin, Sarah – Ellie, Ella)
- Shin’s (Jay – Ethan, Ivy, Iris)
- Lee’s (Andrew, Heather – Amanda [Jake], Kristen)
- Chung’s (Chester, Ashley – Joy, Jonah)
 

How Beautiful are the Feet that bring Good News
(ISAIAH 52:7-12)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” 8 The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion.

​

1. [v.7-8] *Biblical principle – Beautiful Feet carrying Beautiful News – The beautiful news of God’s reign and coming peace – ultimately through Jesus Christ – makes even the feet of those who carry it beautiful. As was then and likewise today, the most difficult part of the body to keep clean were feet. Even Jesus said, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet” (John 13:10). So feet became synonymous to the dirtiest part of the body. Yet even this dirtiest part is made the most beautiful part when carrying the beautiful news of the gospel. God had just promised His name would be known to His people in their oppression and His presence would be assured for them (verse 6). Now the portrait of a messenger running across the mountains and bringing this news to His people is in view. The news is that God reigns, and all things will fall in their proper relation to His reign. There will be peace and joy. Ultimately, this is Jesus Christ. From head to toe, you are beautiful because You carry Him. So be sent! Preach so others may hear (Romans 10:14-15)!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – After Jesus miraculously raised Lazarus from the dead, his sisters Mary and Martha hosted a dinner for Him. During the meal, Mary rose, took a pound of expensive ointment, and “anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (JOHN 12:3). At the feet of Jesus, what are your feet bringing to Him with a thankful heart? At the feet of Jesus, what is your fragrance that fills His house? Is it a pleasing aroma or an unpleasant odor? Why are even the feet of Jesus the place to encounter His powerful love and our whole-hearted surrender?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – The beautiful news that turns even our smelly foot into an aromatic fragrance is the “good news of happiness… ’Your God reigns.’” How is God’s ordered reign in us through His only Son as our Savior and LORD a happy thing? How does this reign of God in Christ define what “happiness” is? Why must this happiness touch every part of us – from head to toe – from emotions of the heart to emotionless decisions of the mind?

 
9 Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

1. [v.9-10] *Biblical principle – Active Feet exposing His Holy Arm – The LORD’s holy arm is connected to our swift feet. He uncovers His holy arm of strength – ultimately Jesus Christ –   through the active feet of His joyful people. Both the feet of the watchmen and messengers are moving, waiting with readiness, and rejoicing at the news of God’s reign and coming peace. As they break forth into singing and gladness, they declare the promises of God – that He has truly comforted His people, and that He has exposed His holy arm for all to see their salvation. When the beautiful news of God’s reign, comfort, and strength are exposed into our hearts, it will begin to move our feet to joy. Through our active feet, His beautiful message spreads. Through our active feet, every eye sees the salvation, strength, and Savior from God – Jesus Christ. Our feet can either expose or conceal the holiness of God’s strong arm at work. Let us prepare our feet for action and move as the LORD directs us!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – Active feet move around. Where are your feet in motion? Where are they in standstill? In what ways can your feet be swift for your mouth to break forth into singing that the Lord has comforted and redeemed His people?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Active feet get noticed. All eyes will see the salvation of God that is brought to them by the swift feet of His messengers. What are you getting noticed for? Is the holy arm of the Lord’s work being noticed? Or is the work of your own arm getting the attention?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – Active feet create paths on inactive ground. Jerusalem was a wasteland of a ground to return to after 70 years in exile. Many decided to stay in the idolatrous land of Babylon. Yet the faithful remnant returned to the promised land in Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls and ruined temple. Are your feet creating God’s paths for ruined ground? Or is your desire to only walk on the red-carpet runways of life? How is God calling you to go into wasted places, situations, and hardships to be the activity of His holy arm at work?

 
11 Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the Lord. 12 For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

1. [v.11-12] *Biblical principle – Clean Feet departing Unclean Things – Jesus’ cleansing flow must touch the dirtiest part of our lives – even the feet – transforming us from head to toe, so that we might depart to walk with the LORD who goes before us and guards behind us. As God’s people received the beautiful news of God’s return to reign in them with His peace, they were commanded to depart from the impurity and uncleanliness around them. In that time, this was the departure from exile in the foreign idol-worshipping land of Babylon. The LORD says their departure will not be in haste or as in flight, but carefully guided by Him. This exit from exile is the portrait of Jesus’ cleansing flow through the cross and resurrection. He has cleansed our feet to depart with our feet. We are called to depart unclean things, to purify ourselves with His blood. Our feet now become His feet that do not move in haste or flight, but in step with His leading. He guards from behind and goes on ahead!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – It is time to go. The exile is over. Get up on your feet! Depart from this idolatrous land! Can you hear the voice of the LORD? How are you staying behind? How are you hurrying in haste? How are you timidly in flight? Are you mindlessly stepping in dirty puddles again, or have your feet learned to skip, hop, jump, and depart?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – What are we to depart from? Where are we to go to? Read the following Scriptures –
      1. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (JAMES 4:7-10)
      2. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. (2 TIMOTHY 2:22)
      3. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. (1 CORINTHIANS 6:18)
      4. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 PETER 5:6-11)
      5. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm… and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. (EPHESIANS 6:12-13, 15)
      6. The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe. (PROVERBS 18:10)

 
The central truth of this word was –
If you have listened up, wakened up, sobered up, drunken up the filling of His Spirit, dressed up with His holy garments – now it’s time to move your beautiful feet! The beautiful news of God’s reign in Jesus Christ bringing final peace, deliverance, and joy is carried on your feet and indwelling your heart! His news transforms the dirtiest of feet into the most beautiful of them. He has readied your feet to be swift and active, exposing the holy arm of the LORD’s work. He has cleansed your feet to depart from unclean things, walking in step with His Word and Spirit. What’s on your feet? Put on the shoes of the gospel’s peace, making you ready to move with your Lord. Receive the commission of Jesus – be sent out, for how will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe whom they have never heard? How are they to hear without someone preaching? How are they to preach unless they are sent? So go with your beautiful feet! Preach His beautiful news!

 

Holy Spirit Moment
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)

- Park’s (JP, Maria – Julia, Ben, Abe)
- Huh’s (John, Angela – Athena, Eliana)
- Yang’s (Beomjoo, Haemin – Doyoun)
- Choe’s (Chong, Kate – Stella)
- Park’s (Ben, Hanna – Evelyn, Louie)
- Jeng’s (Jonathan, Nara – Emma)
-  Yi’s (Jonathan, Christina – Samuel, James, Ethan)
- Gee’s (Waywah, Gloria – Emilee, Melanie)
- Kim’s (David, Josephine – Elliot, James)
- Jun’s (Kevin, Sarah – Ellie, Ella)
- Shin’s (Jay – Ethan, Ivy, Iris)
- Lee’s (Andrew, Heather – Amanda [Jake], Kristen)
- Chung’s (Chester, Ashley – Joy, Jonah)

Put on Your Beautiful Garments
(ISAIAH 52:1-6)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
1 Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. 2 Shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

1. [v.1-2] *Biblical principle – GARMENTS MADE WITH 100% HOLINESS – God’s holiness is sown into every fiber of His beautiful garments – once only for the Levitical priesthood but now covering all in Christ Jesus as a royal priesthood, a chosen people, a holy nation, a people belonging to God (1 Peter 2:5-10). In a time of hopeless despair in exile, God continued to call on His people to listen up, wake up, sober up, drink up (His sobering judgments), pass up (His wrath to their enemies), and now dress up with His beautiful garments. This is the third time the phrase “awake, awake” appears, beginning from the previous chapter 51 (verse 9; verse 17). Awake, put on your beautiful garments! These are no ordinary garments. When worn, they represent God’s holiness that marked out His priests then, and His people now as a royal priesthood in covenant relationship to Him. When worn, even the bonds of the old covenant sign (circumcision) are broken.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – In Jesus Christ, we have been made forever 100% holy – forgiven of all our sins in the past, all our sins in the present, and even all our sins yet to be done in the future. This holiness is the garment of the gospel to be worn right now. You are a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9) with the royal priestly garments (Exodus 28) covering you, never allowing any sin to stain you or drain you below the bar of 100%. You’ll endlessly be recharged to full capacity. Are you wearing this? Do you trust in this, no matter what sins have entangled you that you will always return to 100% holiness/sinlessness/set-apart as cleansed and belonging to the LORD? Like law enforcement in uniform or court justices in robes, has wearing this holy garment changed your identity, who your commanding authority is, and your integrity before the LORD?     
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – What same sin-stained clothes are you putting on that only get dirty and smelly again and again? What clothes – old ways and old self – have you been living in while the new garments of Jesus remain unworn? Jesus has indeed broken the chains, but you must remove/loosen the chains. How are you still living chained when the power to remove them is before you?

 
3 For thus says the Lord: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.” 4 For thus says the Lord God: “My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing. 5 Now therefore what have I here,” declares the Lord, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail,” declares the Lord, “and continually all the day my name is despised.

1. [v.3-5] *Biblical principle – GARMENTS SIZED FOR HIS SOVEREIGN WILL – The LORD’s beautiful garments are sized (E-XL) – Eternally Extra-Large – for when worn, we decrease while He continues to increase – His grandeur, bigger, and surpassing sovereign redemption from trial to triumph, from sorrow to gladness, from suffering to glory. God is not a broker with anyone. He gets no advantage by delivering His people into judgment, nor does He demand of His people a price to redeem them out of it. What He permits (even evil to do) does not nullify all that He controls. Who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him (1 Corinthians 2:16)? We often cannot understand why God does this or does not do that. Yet, He sovereignly sees us. At just the right time, He redeemed us without price to us, but at the great price of His only Son. By His own free will, all is for our good and for His glory (Romans 8:28).
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – To us, the redeeming work of the gospel is a free gift at no cost. But to God, it came at the most costly sacrifice of His only eternal Son. By wearing these oversized garments of His grace, how have you experienced both the free gift and the costly gift of Jesus?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – God acts according to His own free and mysterious will. He sees everything, and when time comes to pass, all that happens is in accord with His will. When worn, His garments show us to live by His will and say, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” When has the LORD brought you to a place to confess this? Why is it far more important to obey His will rather than understand all of it? How can you obey His will today without getting all the questions to His will answered? Instead of “why” how can we live with a “why not” mindset?

 
6 Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.”

1. [v.6] *Biblical principle – GARMENTS STYLED TO MAKE HIS NAME KNOWN – Wear your beautiful garments of God in style, for it reveals the designer who always has the last word at the runway – in that day when all will know Jesus Christ is LORD. Wearing the beautiful garments of God will draw us into the sovereign thoughts of God – thoughts higher than our thoughts, ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). As His people journeyed with Him through judgment, discipline, oppression, and deliverance they came to know who their God was personally by His name. They came to know His style. God never panicked, nor was surprised, nor was in a dilemma what to do. The garments taught them the divine style of God’s last word – He would prove His promised word all the time. As we continue to wear these garments, we begin to know His style too. God always proves He is the designer and fulfiller of His Word. Already, He has in Christ. By His garments, we truly know Him and long for the day of His Son’s return!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – When worn, our holy garments are noticed by others who want a peek at the backtag to see who made it. How is the name of Jesus getting noticed through you? How can we go viral with the name of Jesus humbly, wisely, winsomely, and creatively without compromising the integrity of His glorious name?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – What kind of style do we need to put on? Read the following Scriptures –
      1. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (COLOSSIANS 3:12-17)
      2. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (ROMANS 13:14)
      3. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (EPHESIANS 6:11-17)

​The central truth of this word was –
Listen up! Wake up! Sober up! Dress up! Wear your beautiful garments, church! As God’s people then were a kingdom of priests – beginning with the tribe of Levi set apart as the priesthood of the nation – these special garments (Exodus 28; Leviticus 8) to display the holiness of God is now ours in Jesus Christ! He calls us all – not just a special tribe – to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to the LORD as His royal, chosen, and holy people, calling His people out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:5-10). We have garments more beautiful than the priests of Israel. We have the Designer’s holy fabric, never staining with time and wear. We have a style that never goes out-of-fashion in the world. We can wear this for all seasons – a garment larger than ourselves or our own will! It’s time to dress up, church!

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?

Empowering Stewardship
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 PETER 4:10-11)
 
Summary:
As God’s Word is faithfully administered and delivered to His people, His Spirit will only continue to beckon more people to join Him in fellowship at Hosanna. Unfortunately, growth and pain go hand-in-hand, and as He continues to grow His flock, so do the needs. Currently, the Elder Board has considered hiring support staff to attend to these operational needs, but first would like to determine a clearer criterion by opening these needs to the current covenant partners to discern the best path forward. The needs are the following:

1. Directing the Praise Ministry
   1. Time needed: Sunday’s, 9:50am to 12:30pm; possibly Saturday’s for one-hour practice
   2. Direct rotations of Praise Team members/form weekly Teams – temporarily helped in interim by Deacon Amanda Jeong
   3. Lead musically/vocally all-weeks or minimum 2x per week – temporarily helped in interim by Ben Park
      1. 2 opening praise songs
      2. Announce time for giving
      3. Play instrumental for giving time
      4. Close giving time in prayer
      5. 1 closing praise song after-sermon
   4. Other responsibilities – create list of 15 or more songs to reuse and improve skillful capability with the Team, create filing box of music sheets, print the music in the correct keys needed for each member
   5. Currently, looking for a leader on 2/18 (Sunday), as well as all weeks in March

 

1. Directing the Sunday Setup & Cleanup Crew
   1. Time needed: Sunday’s, starting 9:45am
   2. General outdoor prep – taking out the flag signage
   3. General indoor prep – unlocking the doors, propping-open the inside door, setting A/C to comfortable setting, boiling water & coffee in office, straightening misaligned chapel chairs
   4. Media & Praise prep – turning on chapel lights, computers, sound board, projector, setting stands & microphones, untangling wires, making sure the day’s praise team is setup properly, be of assistance to media coordinators (Patrick Liu; Jake Jeong; Trey Reynolds)

 

1. Facilitating Preschool Worship
   1. Time needed: Sunday’s, starting 10:30am
   2. Pre-worship room prep, Bible video prep, activity prep, snack prep
   3. Lead the video praise & lesson, snack time, craft time (11:10am – 12:10pm)
   4. Safely hand back children to parents, post-worship room cleanup

 
 
Prayer:

• God will reach out, open the hearts of His people, and bring those who desire to serve
• As God continues to call people to Hosanna, His church will not be swayed by outward or prideful influences but remain focused on seeking God’s heart and mission

​Prayer Requests
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7):

 Awake, Awake, O Arm of the LORD!
(ISAIAH 51:9-16)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? 10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? 11 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

1. [v.9-11] *Biblical principle – “WAKE UP, GOD!” – Calling for His Strong Arm: Calling upon the LORD to awake is purposed to wakeup ourselves from our slumber, recalling His strong arm that leaves us to ask, “Was it not you…?” The LORD does not need to be woken up, for He has never fallen asleep (Psalm 121:4). Rather, we are the ones who are asleep, in slumber, and need to wake up from assuming He has been inactive to hear or help us. God’s people at the time had been hopeless in His deliverance, asleep to His powerful arm that moved to deliver them in the past from the pride of Pharaoh, described as “Proud One” (=Rahab [Isaiah 30:7]) and “dragon” (Ezekiel 29:3). Although his pride chased them to the sea, it was the LORD’s mighty arm that dried up the sea, making a path for the redeemed to pass over. Call upon the LORD to awake, for you yourself to awake, with gladness and joy, to His powerful arm!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – When have we desperately called for God to wake up? Was it God who needed to be woken up, or you who had fallen asleep?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – The LORD desires to pierce our prideful and anxious desperation that labels Him asleep. When God appears asleep in our times of desperation, how should our reactions of “sorrow and sighing” be warnings to awake ourselves? In all circumstances, how can we awake to reactions of “everlasting joy upon our heads…. obtaining gladness and joy” in His presence? Share a time when God awakened you to give thanks, rejoice, and pray no matter what the circumstance you found yourself in (see 1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)?

 
12 “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, 13 and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor? 14 He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking.

1. [v.12-14] *Biblical principle – SNOOZING HIS ALARM – Forgetting His Comforting Arm: The LORD’s response for Him to wake up is to assure us that He has never fallen asleep. He has remained our promised comfort and Creator while we have consistently forgotten Him by fearing man and things in creation. Like pressing the snooze button constantly after the alarm has rung, God’s people were consistently forgetful in their spiritual slumber. He had promised to be their rock of comfort (Isaiah 51:1-3), turning their wilderness back into a garden again. Yet it was the trials and oppression along the way that made them waver from the LORD. They continually set their fear on their captors – the Babylonians – and lost hope in being delivered. Some even preferred life in Babylon over hoping in God’s promised return to their homeland. Snoozing numbs the soul to remember. Stop snoozing! Start arising to His alarm!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – God is always awake and at work within us, around us, ahead of us, for our greatest good and His highest glory. Yet at times, we “snooze” His work, delaying it or forgetting it in our lives. When have you “snoozed” God, asking for Him to come back another time or not come back at all? How are you deferring the work of God by fearing things of creation?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – When the time came for the release of God’s people after 70 years in Babylonian captivity, a large portion of the people did not want to be freed. Instead, they wanted to stay in Babylon under their new rulers (the Persians) because they had grown comfortable to life in a foreign land/language, treated fairly well by their newer captors, and had forgotten God’s word to return them back to their home. In addition, the prospect of the long and difficult journey back home to a ruined city with nothing left for them was daunting and unappealing. Many did not want the added task of rebuilding the demolished temple for worship nor the crumbled city walls. What and where is your “Babylon” – your bed that you have refused to wake up and move out to do what the LORD asks of you? What is the “Babylon” that makes you settle for the prosperity of here and now, cancelling out the narrow road to life with Jesus as something too daunting and unappealing because there’s nothing in it for you? Where are the ruined temples of worship and walls of God’s protection we need to stop delaying and starting rebuilding in our lives?

 
15 I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

1. [v.15-16] *Biblical principle – [v.15-16] “WAKE UP, CHURCH!” – Covered in His Arm: Like the stirring up of the sea so that its waves roar, the LORD stirs us to wake up from our slumber – not uncovered, but covered – by His promised Word to roar them through our mouth. If we know the LORD has always been awake, and His alarm has gone out to comfort and deliver us, it must move us to arise from our slumber. He stirs us and shakes us to wake up, as He does the sea as it awakes with the roar of its waves. The LORD stirred up His people to move out of captivity in the past. He still does the same today. We arise out of slumber and sleep, fully clothed with His shadow – His image – on us with the words He put in our mouth. Only those awake can roar the words that He has become our God, and we have become His people. Only those He has awakened are stirred up to speak what comes from the power of His arm covering them!
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – What are you “stirred up” by? What does God need to “stir up” to get your attention and wake up to His presence, like He stirs up the sea so that its waves roar?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – In the movie “Inception,” the “totem” was an object that could show you if you were still in the dream world or back in the real world. For us, this is the Word of God. When God’s Word remains closed, what dream world are you living in? When God’s Word stays open, what real world is before you? How can we be God-dreamers instead of daydreamers? Read the following Scriptures:
      1. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. (LUKE 21:36)
      2. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:6-11)

 
The central truth of this word was –
Will each new morning of 2024 awaken you to more of His strong arm at work in your life? Let us set our alarms aright – not for God to wake up to our needs, but for us to wake up to His ways. Call upon the LORD’s strength which He is working in you and has worked for you, even from the days of His overwhelming power over Pharaoh’s pride in ancient Egypt, to the way He made by drying up the sea for the redeemed to pass over. Stop snoozing the alarm of His Word ringing to get your attention. Snoozing strengthens forgetting. Do not forget Your Creator who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth! He remains as Your promised Comforter and Deliverer from all oppression! His arm destroys the fear of anything in fallen creation. When we bow down to Creator and not creation, the LORD stirs us up to be freed from our slumber with the roar of His Word indwelling us. Awake, O soul, for your LORD God is not asleep!

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 

Holy Spirit Moment
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)

I Have Set My Face like a Flint
1.[v.7] The Immovable Face of Jesus: “But the Lord God helps me… therefore I have set my face like a flint”
2.[v.8-9] The Imperishable Face of Jesus:
     A.[v.8] Perishing adversaries: “Who will contend with me? … Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.”
     B.[v.9] Perishing prosecutors: “Who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment”
3.[v.10-11] The Illuminating Face of Jesus: “Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord… Walk by the light of your fire… you shall lie down in torment”

 
I Have Set My Face like a Flint
(ISAIAH 50:7-11)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
7 But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

1. [v.7] *Biblical principle – IMMOVABLE FLINT: Like streaks of immovable flint rock trapped between sediments of towering stone in the Judean wilderness, the face of Jesus was immovably set towards Jerusalem at the cross for the joy of bringing you to Father God (Hebrews 12:2): Jesus was resolutely unshakable in His mission – to give His back to those who strike, give His cheeks to those who pulled His beard, give His face to those who disgracefully spit. Like flint rock that cannot be removed in sediments of stone, Jesus’ face never moved away from the earthly shame and sufferings of the cross. Yet by the LORD’s help, He was not disgraced nor shamed, but rather vindicated for His perfect obedience and sacrifice for our sins. So Jesus has never looked-off of you. Are you moved by His immovability? Set your face to Jesus!
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – In honor/shame culture of biblical times, shame was to be avoided on the face at all costs (known today as “save-face”) in order to preserve being honored. Yet, how does Jesus show the way to truly “save” our face? Was the face of Jesus “saved” by avoiding shame or bearing shame? In what ways has your face avoided shame in following Jesus? In what ways have you welcomed shame in following Jesus?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Our sin nature is set on shaming ourselves, shaming one another, and shaming God. With the Lord God’s help, we can overcome all three of these shaming ways like Jesus did. How do you need to repent in these three areas? Shame is hard to look at, but does the face of Jesus move away/turn away like us? How is the immovable flint-like face of Jesus helping you not turn away from shame, but use shame to bring glory to God through Christ-exalting confession and testimony? With godly discretion, wisdom, and discernment, confess the shame that Jesus has delivered you from that brings glory up to the Savior and joy down to the saved.

 
8 He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

1. [v.8-9] *Biblical principle – IMPERISHABLE FLINT: Like flint rock that cannot perish over time, the face of Jesus remains imperishably unblemished, without guilt nor defeat from unjust prosecutors nor adversaries, because the LORD vindicated Jesus by raising Him from the dead forever: Jesus can never fade away nor become worn out like an old garment. He is immortal as the very substance of eternal God. No one can contend to stand up and over Jesus. No one can be an adversary equal with Jesus. No one can get away with declaring Jesus guilty. Everyone’s face will become blemished with perishable existence, but the face of Jesus continues to eternity without a single blemish. Because we were in danger of perishing, the imperishable Jesus put on perishable humanity to show the way to Father God. Is your face turned that way?
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – What perishables are you afraid to stand up against because they have become such a contender in your life next to Jesus? What perishables have you allowed to defeat you as a stronger adversary next to the still stronger Jesus? With a tight grip on your perishables, how is your face accusing Jesus as guilty, inadequate, a failure, at fault, deficient, limited, weak, defective, constraining, or flawed?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – If the perishables perish, why do we keep holding on to them and what eventually happens (like perishable food) when they expire? What is the worn-out garment you are still wearing, where your face still thrills with excitement for? When we look into the imperishable flint-like face of Jesus, what happens to our rotten, smelly, blemished/stained, worn garments? How can we throw away our perishables, stop covering-up our blemishes to preserve our own self-image and secrecy, look-off ourselves to behold the unperishing beauty of what is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ? What does a life look like that is face-to-face with this unperishing beauty of Jesus Christ?

 
10 Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.
11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment.

1. [v.10-11] *Biblical principle – ILLUMINATING FLINT: Like the luster shine of flint rock alongside its power to produce fire when struck together with steel, the face of Jesus illumines the way to walk, even into our present darkness, guided by the fire of His voice calling us to trust and obey Him: In the darkness of Babylonian captivity, the people had to trust that God was going to deliver them. This was the illuminating light He was shining forth to His people. Yet instead of listening to His voice and following His light, they kindled for themselves their own fire, equipped themselves with torches, and walked by the light of their own illumination. The only end that awaited them was torment. Let us discern which fire is warming us, which voice is guiding us, which light is illumining us to walk. Our kindled fires will burn us and harm us, while God’s fire will heal us and guide us, even through this present darkness.
   1. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #1 – Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” When we walk in the light of Christ, His Word is a lamp to our near-sighted next step on foot as well as far-sighted long distance by path. Walking in His light means to fear the LORD and obey the voice of His servant Jesus. How is your fearing of the LORD and obedience to Christ illuminating both your next step and long-distance path?
   2. *RE-CENTER FOCUS QUESTION #2 – How has your own kindled light and fire burned and harmed you? How has God’s light and fire healed and guided you? How can we discern which light is illuminating us to walk? A central work of the holy Spirit is illumination. We cannot understand spiritual truth by our own efforts or knowledge, but only when the Spirit illuminates His Word into our minds and hearts. Ephesians 1:17-18 says, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” How is the Spirit’s illuminating glow being a teacher, corrector, trainer, reprover/admonisher, even rebuker, warning you of your own kindled light?

 
The central truth of this word was –
Into the new year 2024, where will your face be set? Jesus set His face resolutely to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51), to bear your sins in His body at the cross, for the joy of bringing you to God. Like an immovable flint rock, nothing can turn the face of Jesus away from you. Like a flint rock that cannot perish, the face of Jesus did not grow old, wrinkly, and defeated. Instead, He conquered His perishable enemies and remained unblemished as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Like flint rock that shines and ignites real fire, Jesus’ face speaks the light of God’s words that carries us through the darkness. Won’t you turn your face to His face more and more this new year? Fear Him. Walk courageously into your present darkness, for Your Rock like a flint sees you, goes before you, and is the light to carry you through.

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 

Holy Spirit Moment
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)