Sermon Transcript
Well, hey, uh, if you haven’t been with us, uh, this summer, um, each week during these summer months we are hearing from a different one of our elders or a different one of our church staff, um, how God has worked in their lives. Um, and so one of the reasons we want to do this, um, is to show that God is still in the business of working in people’s lives, and he works in very similar ways today as He has worked throughout all time and as we see in Scripture. But another reason we want to bring up all of our different elders over the course of the summer is for you to get to know them a little. Maybe you know some of our elders but not all of them, or maybe you’re brand new and you don’t know any of them, and so this is a way for you to put a face and a story to a name. And you can walk up to them after service.
They’re around and you can hear about their lives. One of the things I’ve noticed as we have gone through this series this summer is that it seems like faith develops in all of their stories. Faith for none of them came full blast all at once. Faith was a process. And so if you feel like faith is a process in your life that is growing, we do call it spiritual growth, If you feel like that’s how God has worked in your life, you’re in good company because it seems like that is how God has worked both in the lives of our elders and in people throughout Scripture.
And we’ll definitely see more of a story of process and progress today. And I’m going to ask Mark Liu to come up here. Mark Liu, if you don’t know him, is one of our elders, has been serving as a couple of years, year and a half as an elder. Um, and we’re grateful for him and to hear what you have to share, uh, what you’re going to share today. But let me pray for you.
Father, we thank you for Mark and how you have worked in his life. We pray that you speak through him today as he shares what you have done and who you have formed him to be. I pray our hearts and minds would be open to receive your word. Lord, we pray those things in Jesus’ In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen.
Hi, if you do not know me, I am Mark. I’m one of the elders on the elder board, as Pastor Dan was saying. Recently, I went to visit Reflection, and Brother Logan asked me a question that I could not answer. You don’t hear that from a Christian. The question was, how do I come to know Christ?
I still couldn’t really answer the questions because Unlike a normal person, when you accept Christ as personal Savior, you have baptism, you come out refreshed, energized, like brand new, like, wow, this is a reborn situation here. For me, on my Baptist confirmation, it was just another day. I didn’t feel anything special, anything particular. Now, I was born in Hong Kong. And I was baptized as an infant.
And I have really never gone to church or taught anything about Jesus. And when I was 15, I went to Arizona by myself. I stayed with an uncle who went to college, so it was natural. He’s not a Christian, and I didn’t go to any churches neither. Because I was like, okay, I was interested to go to church, but then there was like Mormon Church, there’s Latter-day Saints, there’s Church of Christ, there’s Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Southern Baptist.
I was so worried to join a cult, so I was like, no, no, maybe I’ll just wait. Plus, English was not my, you know, favorite foreign language at the time.
But for some reason, God was always in my life, and I cannot explain. That’s why I couldn’t answer the questions. Maybe during my infant baptism that God already sent his Holy Spirit in me. When I aware of things, I always know there’s a God. And I had a pretty rough and difficult childhood.
My families are not Christian, obviously. I have never met my mom. She left when I was 1 year old. So my dad is not a Christian and he’s busy with his life, you know, so I never really got to learn anything properly. But somehow, somehow God was always teaching me, stay away from drugs, don’t smoke, don’t drink.
He didn’t even teach me how to dance, so I don’t even go to parties. So I really don’t know why, but God was always there for me. And because of my interesting childhood, he was my buddy. Now obviously I’m an introvert, so I was pretty lonely in my childhood, but God was always there for me as a friend. When I was sad, I could go to him.
I shared my sorrow with him. When I was happy, we rejoiced together. When I was angry because certain things happened to me, I blamed him. Now, all this changed when I met my wife. No, no, I mean, she didn’t do anything about this, but she was dragged— I mean, she was invited to a campus evangelical fellowship at Berkeley.
And of course, being her boyfriend, right, drag me along. And that is where I finally know what Christ means to me. What is that relationship between a son and a heavenly Father? This is where I learned what salvation means, what serving means, what baptism, everything. I mean, it was an eye-opener, but I was really concerned.
Because they start with Old Testament. And I was like, whoa, I’m not sure if I was that respectful with the Lord, you know, all my life. Well, I mean, during my childhood. And I got really nervous until we get into New Testament. I said, oh, praise the Lord.
He is a loving, forgiving God. So I’m okay. I was good.
But while I was at Berkeley, I joined a church called Berkeley Chinese Methodist Church. BCCC, Berkeley Chinese— not Bridges, Berkeley Chinese Community Church. And that must be a destiny. So what happened is I started serving there. So for about 30-some-odd years, I felt that I have learned a lot through serving God, experienced God, and that’s why today I would like to share some of the aspects of my serving experience with you.
First thing first, pray. Yes, pray, because I, I need to know that this is God’s calling, and it’s not because I wanted to or my pride or think I can do it, whatnot. And also, I need to know that God does want me to do this and not because I don’t want to do it, I’m afraid, So pray is very important. The next thing really hit me was compassion and love. I was blessed with the Lord who grew up with me.
He really filled me with compassion and his love. And I’ll give you an example. My first serving duty was in Berkeley Chinese Community Church. As I look at this group of teenagers, They don’t have anything on a Sunday because we’re just roaming around chatting, whatnot. I was like, they look like a group of lost sheep to me where there’s no shepherd.
And I thought, well, you know, I guess I could start a Sunday school program with them. But now here’s the thing. I have no teaching experience. I have no gifts in teaching. I have no experience or spiritual maturity for that matter.
I just, I was a new Christian, newborn, well, I was just confirmed, so I was a new Christian. So I was like, I don’t have anything, I have no gift. But it just, well, you know, I’ll just hang out with them. I’ll just keep them company. But my, I mean, the amazing thing is we bonded really well.
I was just out of college, we were able to share a lot of experience in college, high school, and the college pitfalls to watch out for. And then we learned a lot by studying together in the Scripture. We’re sharing discussion and voilà, it turned out great. It was a wonderful group. But that leads to my next point, faith.
Sometimes we think we need to know how to do this in order to take up that task. No, I learned it the hard way. And it’s not about me. It’s about God. God doesn’t need my lack of ability or anything that I have.
God just needs me to say yes so he can work with whatever things we’re serving through me, not by me. And the other thing about faith is, you know, we have a lot of burdens in our life. You know, you got financial responsibility, you know, pay bills. You need to take care of your house chores, um, you know, figure out what to cook every day. You might have families you need to tend to, your children you want to spend time with.
There’s just so much stuff in our life.
We need to trust God to take care of those. Look back in your life. Situation where it was challenging, how did God work through all those issues? His plan is better than ours.
I mention partnership next. It’s something very important to me because, you know, I’m a man of many no skill, so it’s important for me to have a I was very fortunate. Community life group, I met this guy who dragged me into there, literally dragged me into that life group. His name is Joshua Sun. My goodness, this guy, if you want to work with him, it’s funny, 120% of the time he will say yes.
The 100% time is when I ask him, hey, can you help me? The 20% time is like he saw me doing something, can I help you? So it is wonderful to have someone so devoted and dedicated to be your serving partner. Buddy because there are times the task will be overwhelming enough that you just— well, or maybe you got busy, but you just can’t handle it by yourself. And then you know someone has your back.
When things get challenging, discouraging, and it can, you get— we can encourage each other, we can motivate each other. Serving buddy is very important. Trust me, find one in your life group and man, you’ll be a super servant.
Lastly, humility. We have to have a mind, a mindset of a servant. Not a— well, I mean, you need to be a leader, but not be a bossy leader. Not be someone that walks in and says, you know, hey, I got a plan and this is how things are going to be done. I’ll give you an example.
The recent women ministry retreat.
So Jana came over and asked me, she said, hey Mark, would you like to cook for us? Because, you know, you’ve been doing that at Men Day. And I was like, you know, I have been doing Men Day for a few years and this last year is like, me and Josh figured out a great menu. It’s like, you know, we got like, oh, ham and cheese croissant and pasta and all. Oh, by the way, this year Men Day, you’re probably going to have the same menu.
And I thought, hey, I can do this because I just did it and it looks like those guys love it. So I said, yeah, sure, no problem. A few weeks before the retreat, I got an email from Darrell Winslow. He said, oh, Mark, you know, this is what we like on the menu. Egg bites and like yogurt, you know, all this chick food, right?
And all this. And it was like some of them I didn’t even know what it is. I had to Google it to find out what it is. I never seen it before. You don’t understand how stressful I am.
I’m serious, I was so stressed. I was like, I prayed. Now here, remember I talked about faith, right? I understand God has a plan and he’s going to get it done through me, but I really don’t know how to make egg bites. And here comes Don, Don Darling.
I don’t call him Don Darcy because every time you ask him to help, he will say, yeah, sure, I’ll help. And he would come in with that little walking stick. Like, I said, dude, you need a new hip. What are you doing here? But he always offered to help.
He give us, say, no problem. He give us the recipe, what to purchase, a grocery list, and like, you know, literally everything, instruction. So I was like, wow, we’re saved. So a day before the retreat, We went and got grocery. Me and Josh spent 5 hours going to different locations.
We got all the grocery. Okay, we bought 10 pounds of meat, the wrong kind, the wrong bacon, the wrong sausage. And I’m getting— I’m starting to get stressed out. I said, okay, we got the wrong thing. Don said, no problem, we can just make the batter and it’s gonna be okay.
So he came and teach us how to do the batter. You know, we did all that. You know, Mark Chin, me, and Josh, you know, and Don, we did all that. It was great. And then Don said, oh, by the way, Martha got COVID.
I test negative. I got mask on, but I don’t think I should be here tomorrow to cook. And then I was like, what? The only person who knows how to make egg bites is not going to be here tomorrow? It was only a few hours before.
I was like, oh.
We pray. Of course we pray. So at 11 o’clock at night in the kitchen, Me, Josh, and Mark Chin were sitting there, standing there. It was like, okay, what are we going to do? We just have to pray to make sure the egg bites turn out okay.
And, you know, I should have tried it first. I don’t know what I was thinking.
And then God gave us some idea. You know, we got 10 pounds of meat sausage and ham. Why don’t we make a hot dish out of it to make another hot tray? That way we won’t waste it. But also because when you talk about like a retreat, right, you have speaker, we have all these people attending, you have one hot tray of maybe egg bites.
And then I’m like, okay, let’s think about something else. So we figure let’s do another meat dish and we would be able to use it. So we pan-fried it and then we make another hot tray. Great. And then we still worry.
See, men of little faith. Faith. And then I talked to Joshua, I said, you know what, hey, let’s make potstickers. You know, people who actually been to our coffee and snack, it’s like, come and eat this whole thing. Oh, let’s go have some potstickers, because always there.
You know, me and Josh is like the potsticker man. We always have potstickers in stock at home. When Costco have it on sale, we buy more. If we have more and they’re on sale, we still buy more. So at 11 o’clock, We have no problem getting potstickers, so we make potstickers.
Now, to conclude the story is that the next day at the end of the event, there were a few egg bites left and everything almost gone. I consider that a success because it used to be just egg bites, but God gave us the idea to get 3 hot dishes and They all pretty much consumed, which means, praise the Lord, he got it done again. Now what’s going on with this story? First, we have a problem here. I was so full of myself, I did not pray to ask if God wants me to do this.
I’m sure Shigena said it is, but that’s another story. I need to pray about it. And the other thing is, I walk into the situation thinking I know how to do this. I didn’t know women is from Venus and men is from Mars, so their foot are different. So, I mean, it’s a lesson I learned, but more importantly, it’s that I have to have that humility, that humbleness.
I need to be a servant, to be ready to provide me whatever you need so I can serve you. Do it, and not, I have something in mind and let me do this. And fortunately, the faith part always works because God made it happen.
I am certain that God wants us to serve. My 50-some-odd years as a Christian, God has taught me that. And in the Scripture, John chapter 21, John 21:14-17. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the 3rd time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than this? Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love Jesus said, Feed my lambs. Again Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you truly love me? He answered, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Take care of my sheep.
The 3rd time he said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the 3rd time, do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said, feed my sheep.
Feed my sheep. Tend my sheep. Feed my lambs.
Serving is not easy because we have a lot of worries in our life. You know, we worry about our financial situation, we worry about our job security, we worry about our children eating or not eating. We worry about a lot of things. When I was struggling with all my worries in my life, when I started off in college, first job, this verse always gets me through it. Matthew chapter 6, verses 25 to 27.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or do not store in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Can anyone by worrying add an extra hour to your life?
As a follower of Christ, But there’s something very important to me is communication. We talk about praying to the Lord. It’s like picking up a phone. You call God, tell him all this stuff, and you hang up. How are you going to hear from him?
How do you connect with him?
Sunday service, Pastor Dan’s sermon will provide you answers. You see, the thing is that the topic could be something something weird or whatever. But God will have a message for you which will address the concerns you have in your hearts. Your fellowship, this is how God reaches out to you, how God touches you, how God comforts you, how God encourages you. Your fellowship brothers and sisters sometimes is the source of how God communicates to you.
And of course, BSF, Bible study, That’s how God communicates with us through scriptures.
But nothing, I felt that nothing is more valuable to me than experience God yourself.
Imagine when you step out of that comfort zone. Look, listen, this is not my comfort zone. This is not my comfort zone. I don’t like that. I stress months about doing this.
My comfort zone is on that La-Z-Boy in front of the large-screen TV in my family room. That’s my comfort zone. Comfort zone, not this. But when you step out of that comfort zone with being vulnerable of failures of doing the task at hand, worrying about all the stuff we have that we need to deal with at home in our life, with all that, you step up to the plate and serve the Lord, you will experience God. In a way you would never fathom.
It’s a very precious experience. Now, I had the privilege to serve with David Ng, Marian Tse, and Joshua Sun and a couple others to buy groceries for our elderly couple and some shut-ins, especially during the pandemic.
Some of them are no longer with us.
Let’s not wait until we have time to serve. Let’s not wait until we’re less busy. Let’s step out of our comfort zone, trust God with everything we have, and walk that path, experience His miracles.
Let’s pray.
Abba, for the last few months I’ve been contemplating what you want me to say. I hope this is your message because if it’s not, just ask Pastor Dan to do it. I don’t want to do this. It’s too stressful. But I thank you for walking through this with me.
But I beg you to help each and every one of us to learn to step out of that comfort zone. Give us that courage to trust you with our life so we can feed the Lamb, take care of your sheep, feed your sheep. In your Son Jesus’ name we pray.
This is valuable time. See, they want to take it from me. I talk too long. Monday, I want to mention Monday because I’m doing this. Bobbie Evans, you heard that right.
Invite your friends. Now I am sorry for the ladies, but if you invite Taylor Swift to come to talk, I’ll come. If you are interested in any activities that you’re really passionate about and you want to lead it on mandate, August 17th, Saturday, please let me know or actually let the church know. They will relay the message to me. We can hook up.
We would like to to provide more activities for our men to connect and bond on Man Day. Thank you again for your time.
Thank you, Mark. We are grateful for you and the servant heart that God has put in you and how you have shared with us today. Today how God really developed the habit of service within you. We pray that your story inspires many of us either to begin serving or to find a new way to serve, to step out of our comfort zones. Um, what if, if you could tell by some of Mark’s stories, he is always serving somewhere around here.
Um, and Man Day’s coming up, you just mentioned, or a women’s ministry event, or taking food to folks who need food, always somewhere serving. But one of the things I’ve noticed about Mark is it never seems like duty or obligation for him. It seems like he’s really serving out of love for others and love for the Lord. As he said, one of the aspects he’s learned of serving is this compassion. You serve because you have compassion for others, and that is, that is where it comes from.
We not serve out of obligation or guilt. We serve out of love for others and love for God. As we have been loved by Christ, so then we go love and serve others. One of the interesting notes on the story when Jesus says, feed my lambs, is the time that that happens in the biblical story. Of course, Jesus says this, it’s the end of the Gospel of John, it’s after his crucifixion and it’s after his resurrection, but it’s also after Peter’s betrayal.
You know, Peter had denied Christ. Peter had disavowed Christ. Somebody came up to Peter and said, aren’t you with him? And he said, absolutely not, I do not know that guy at all. And Jesus told Peter that he would do this.
He said, you will deny me 3 times. And sure enough, Peter did. And then he after that fact, Jesus comes to Peter and he’s saying, I still want you to be part of what I’m doing. I still want to include you in my plan. You can be part of my work in the world.
Commentators note this as Peter’s reinstatement. It’s Peter had denied Christ, had bailed on the plan, and then Jesus comes to him and reinstates him for the 3 times that he’s denied denied. Jesus comes and reinstates him 3 times. Feed my lambs. You can be part of what I’m doing.
You’re included. 3 different ways of saying, I’m still with you. I’m still for you. Even though you betrayed me, I am still for your good. You can still do my work in the world.
That Peter was still loved by Christ even after his betrayal. And if you that Jesus is saying something similar to you after we have betrayed Jesus or denied Jesus or disavowed Jesus, and Jesus knows about it, of course, but he comes and says, I still accept you. I still want to include you. I still want to put you as part of my plan, when you know that really you shouldn’t be in the plan anymore because you bailed on the plan. But Jesus comes and says, no, I still I want you to be included.
When you see that he has loved you like that, that is what will motivate us to then serve. Because we betrayed, yet we could still be included. Jesus still served us. And so if someone betrays us, then we can still love and serve them because we have been loved and served in that way. If you don’t know Jesus, if you’ve never met him, as Mark was describing, we are always wanting to have that conversation with you.
We will drop everything else to talk about our favorite person, Jesus. And so you can always find me or Mark or any of our elders or staff after our service, and we would love to begin a conversation of introducing you to who Jesus is. Let’s, let’s pray, and then our worship team is coming back up here to lead us in another song. Father, we’re grateful for how you hang on to us even when we are like Peter and deny you. We’re grateful that you still have a spot for us on your team even when we have walked away from you, Lord.
Thank you for pursuing us always. Thank you for giving us work to do. Thank you for letting us be part of how you are remaking the world through our service. I pray that we are motivated, Lord, to find new ways to serve others and that we do it out of a deep love for you and for them. We pray all those things in Jesus’ name.
