Good morning. Wow, missions. December 15th, the second Sunday of December, 10 of our people Cambodian mission team Stood right here in front of you and you prayed for them I was one of the leaders of that group, but at the time I was already gone so I didn't get to receive your prayer, but But you can still pray for me now, but anyway anyway now This is a time to report to you the result of what you prayed for, what you invested in. Thank you very much for your prayers, for your financial support, for me individually, and then for all our team members. We had more than enough. Thank you. And somebody said a photo, a picture is worth 1,000 words, so let's watch the video. ♪ In the darkness we were waiting ♪ ♪ Without hope, without light ♪ ♪ Till from heaven you came running ♪ ♪ There was mercy in your eyes ♪ ♪ To fulfill the law and the prophets ♪ ♪ To a virgin came the word ♪ ♪ From the throne of endless glory ♪ ♪ In the darkness we were waiting ♪ ♪ Without hope, without light ♪ ♪ Till from heaven you came running ♪ ♪ There was mercy in your eyes ♪ ♪ To fulfill the law and promise ♪ ♪ To a virgin came the word ♪ ♪ From the throne of endless glory ♪ But I guarantee you, God knows your name. Take a long look at Jesus crucified on the cross. He died to set you free. It's time for you to respond to the call of God. God is seeking you. Come forward and stand in front of me. I want to pray. And the dead rose from their tombs and the angels stood in awe for the souls of all who called to the Father are restored. And the church of Christ was born. Wait. So, we had a meeting and we thank you very much for your time to make it happen. In two nights and two days, we were able to make it happen. So, we have a lot of people coming in. So many people. In the second night, it was full of people. It's not because we want to, but we want to help those who have lost their lives to come back to life. So this is my message to you. The second message is to help those who have lost their lives to come back to life. Hi! Happy New Year! We wanted to share the results with you of the Christmas of Love Gospel Festival held in Sisyphone, Cambodia, December 24th and 25th. We were so happy that over 18,000 people attended the festival over the two nights. 892 people came forward to receive Jesus as their Savior. We also estimate an additional 100 or more people came to Jesus during the time that the Grace Community Church team was going door-to-door with Cambodian pastors and church leaders. So thank you so much for the way that you supported this festival. We pray that these new converts will grow in Christ and over the next five years bring transformation to their nation through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you again for your support. Keep praying for these new converts and we are so grateful for the way that you gave and you prayed. I had no idea our church people were evangelism machines. They were going everywhere, knocking at the door, sharing the gospel one by one, and then as they gained confidence, they were preaching to a group of people in the street, and I'm going, wow, are they our church people? And I'm, if we do that here, yeah, we can, man, turn this city around, huh? Wow. Well, you know, thank you so much for your support. We did it together. There were 11 of us that said, yes, sir, to the call of God, and we went there, and the rest of you said, yes, sir, and then you supported us. Thank you. This is the gamut of what we did. We did way more than just preaching the gospel in a small church or something. We wrote a significant chapter in the history of the Cambodian church together. You know Grace Community Church is an amazing church, isn't it? What is really significant about our ministry is not the record number of people that came. Cambodian leaders were saying, in the process of preparation, we knew it's going to be big, but we never thought that it's going to be this big. They said, we never thought that we could proclaim the gospel in this grandeur. But the real great thing that happened is this. In the area, where only 0.2% of Christians exist. We united all the churches together for the first time in their Christian history. We united all 200 churches together for the work of God's kingdom. And the second important thing is this, in the area where only 0.2% of people are Christians, if that's what it is, Christian culture is suppressed by the surrounding culture. But in that area, Christian church gained confidence that they can share the gospel, they can make disciples, and they can grow their church on their own. Thank you for your support. About a year ago, my nephew, after he finished his military service, came to America, spent a month of time with me, and I had the privilege of sharing the gospel with him, and he accepted Christ. That was exactly about a year ago, and he was baptized right here. He went back to Korea to go to college and then he flew to Cambodia to join us and he served on our video team and this is what he told me after the event was over, Uncle David, as I was, when you gave an invitation and hundreds of people were coming forward, I was capturing the scene on the video and I began to weep, I began to weep. And I saw a man in his 40s or so, obviously poor man, by looking at the clothes he was wearing, maybe he was involved in a manual labor or something, barefooted. He was coming forward and I was asking, did he really understand the message? And I looked at his face, his face was so sincere and so full of Confidence and I knew for sure that what he was he knew that he was what he was giving his life to And then, and then, and then my, not yet, not yet. And then, and then my, and then my nephew, and then my nephew said, he became teary eyed and he said, Uncle David, at the moment as I was zooming in on him, I learned that my camera is not powerful enough to capture that grandeur of that man giving his life to Christ. After our event was over, I told the church leaders, our festival is beginning today. Jesus never said, go make converts. Jesus said, go make disciples. Disciple making starts today. The festival may have ended yesterday, but discipleship should start today. As I was leaving that place, one of the leaders came to me and this is what he said, Dr. Chang, you and your supporters have many, many sons and daughters in our city. Gosh, you have sons and daughters. And he said, maybe five years later if you will come back or your friends will come back, you will see that your sons and daughters will have transformed our city into a different reality. Amen. That's what discipleship is all about, isn't it? So, now we are still in the Jesus, Our God, Our Good Shepherd series. Pastor Jesse has been preaching from that series, from the book of Psalm 23. The topic that's assigned to me for this morning is this. Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me. Without thinking this morning, you know, in the first service I said, for thou art, and then I'm going, oh, I'm not that old, you know. Yeah. For you are with me. I am going to cast light on the role of our good shepherd Jesus. as our protector and our provider from the words of Jesus himself in Matthew 6, 25 through 34. Shall we look at the screen and we'll read this text responsibly. I'm gonna start and then you will take over the next verse, so on and so forth. 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 and the body more than clothes? Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. So do not worry saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? Shall we read verse 33 out loud all together? Ready? But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Now, in this short text that we read together, Jesus mentions worry, worry, worry six times. Therefore, the main theme of this text is about worrying. Now, when we walk in the valley of the shadow of death, How many of you have ever been there? Yeah. Am I getting too deep now? I mean, I've been there. I mean, you've been there. I mean, you know, I'm a preacher. You're so-called the lay people. You know, I'm a holy man. And being lay people, you might not be as holy. However, our commonality is that you and I have been all in there. And another commonality, when we are in there, the natural, most profound theological reaction is that we freak out. Yeah, amen. Yeah, we freak out and we are full of worries and anxieties. I'm dead meat. You know, what's going to happen? worries. I mean, I've been there, you've been there, some of you are there now. Well, welcome to the family. We are there. But, you know, most sermons start with introduction, and then the main body, usually point one, two, three, and then a conclusion, right? But if you will allow me to, this morning, I'm going to start my sermon with a conclusion first. Are you ready? This is the conclusion. Don't you worry. That's my message, that's the main point. Don't you worry because God is sovereign. My sermon is over, go home. Wow, I was slightly worried that some of you may stand up and go. You know, Jesus did not say out of the blue, you know, No worry, I mean, don't worry, be happy. And then he whistled away. How do you do that? Like, I cannot do it. I tried it in the first service. It never, I was quite able to do it. You know, it's like Jesus didn't say, here is a little song I write. You might want to sing it note for note. Don't worry, be happy. Instead, instead, Jesus is giving us the important reasons as to why we Christians should not worry. Not a vague idea, just don't worry, everything will go well. No, Jesus says, these are the theological reasons, these are the logical reasons why you should not have to worry so much. Number one, don't you worry because God cares for us. He says, therefore, I tell you. He says, I tell you, emphatic. Do not worry about yourself, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. In verse 31, he also says the same thing. So do not worry, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear. Now, to make his case, Jesus is using nature for his illustration. He says, look at the birds in the air, they never farm, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Look at the flowers on the field. Aren't they beautiful? They never spin, and yet the beauty, their beauty exceeds the splendid royal robes of Solomon. And then there is the punchline. Jesus says, are you not much more valuable than they? During the time of COVID, my wife and I developed a different hobby that is farming, gardening. Boy, we worked a lot on our yard. However, we never farmed or worked on the yard to the point that our daughter was starving to death. You know, no matter how evil I may be, My priority was straight. Farming versus daughter, no way. I'm her dad. Jesus says, God is your heavenly father. Now, Don't get me wrong, Jesus is not saying therefore you need to plan for your future. No, Jesus is not saying you don't need to work hard at all for yourself and your family. No, that's not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is pointing out This, he says, as you carefully plan for your future, as you work hard to bring bread to the dining table for the family, don't you ever be caught up in excessive worries because they can suck life out of you. How many of you are worrying now? Your life is being sucked out. Now excessive worries indicate two things according to this text. Number one, a lack of faith or trust in God. Jesus says, you of little faith. Little faith doesn't mean absence of faith. Little faith means deficiency of faith. Why are you here? Because you have faith in God. That's why you came to worship God. Isn't it so pitiful that you came to worship God? You have faith in God as your savior, but you have no faith in God as your provider. Deficiency of faith. If God is big enough to save us and redeem us from our sin, how come you have a hard time trusting that he will provide for you? And number two, it indicates messed up priorities. Jesus says, the pagans seek after all these things. The pagans, we are Christians, we are God's children. But what about our values? What about our perspectives? What about our priorities? Are those Christian as well? Or are you only Christians on the outside, but on the inside, you are still holding on to worldly views and worldly perspectives and worldly priorities? Jesus is referring to them as pagans. Out of my ministry, I learned that unless your wallet is born again, you are not born again yet. I saw in a little cartoon, a pastor wrapped his left arm on a young man, raised his right arm and he said, Charles, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The moment I dip you into the water, everything that touches, all the water that touches your body will become God's. And then he puts slowly Charles into the water and his wallet comes up. This is mine. I cannot give this to God. Don't you dare, God. Well, Jesus' answer is simple and powerful. Don't you worry about the fundamental needs of life God will provide for you because He is our Heavenly Father. Amen. Amen. Let's give it up to God. My daughter, Amy, graduated from College in and working in LA now, when she was going to college in LA, from time to time, she did not mind texting to me and said, Dad, I need $3,500 for part of my tuition for next semester. And I wanted to ask her from time to time, honey, have you ever deposited money in my account so that I could withdraw money and give it to you when you needed it? I mean, she was so bold, I need money. Believe me, she has never given me one penny yet. But somehow, I am happy when she's asking me for it. If she never asked me for it and works hard like crazy woman and I'm going, honey, why do you do this? And she goes, dad, you're not, you're not really, you have no ability to provide for me. So don't worry about it. I'm going to work to death and I'm going to worry about my tomorrow. That's insulting me. That's not the spirit of independence. That's an insult. to her dad. Jesus says, you are not an orphan. God is your heavenly father who cares for his creation. And you are far more valuable to God than all the other creatures because you are his children. So number one, why should we not worry? Because God is our Heavenly Father who cares for us. And number two, why should we not worry? Because worrying does not resolve any issue. Huh? Have you ever thought about that? Am I the only profound thinker whose thoughts goes there? Worry doesn't solve any issue. Jesus raised a rhetorical question. He says, can any one of you add a single hour to his lifespan by worrying? Of course not. Worrying cannot extend the duration of one's life. However, Oh well, I heard about an exasperated man, a husband, who asked his wife this question, honey, why are you always worrying when it doesn't do any good? And the wife piped back, she says, oh yes it does, 99% of the things I worry about never happen. Let me tell you the negative effects of warring, how serious it is. Listen to these staggering statistics. During World War II, slightly over 400,000 young American boys were killed on the battlefield of Europe. 400,000! During the same time, in the United States, where there was no war, Over one million people died of heart attack while they were worried about the safety of their sons and husbands and grandsons and so on. You see, the lethal power of anxiety is over twice as much as that of guns and cannons. Worrying never helps solve an issue. Actually, worrying will exhaust you, will deteriorate you. And you have, at the end of that worry, you will lose all inner power to really tackle the issue. Don't worry. You cannot, and even, you cannot add even one hour to your life span by worrying. Worrying is absolutely of no use. Then what is the alternative? Jesus doesn't stop at saying, don't worry, but Jesus is giving us the alternative. In verse 33, well-known text, Jesus says, instead of worrying, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. In other words, Jesus is saying that if we are living the kingdom priorities, then God will provide for fundamental human needs. Seeking God's kingdom and his righteousness first means we obey all commands of Jesus. Jesus commanded, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And as long as we are leading that type of lifestyle, Jesus promised, lo, I am with you always to the end of the age. Christmas is one of the most important family Holidays in the United States of America and yet 11 radically committed Christians from our church Gave up their family Christmas and went to this unreached people country called the former killing fields Cambodia and you saw the outcome of their commitment on the video This year, our church is sending two teams overseas. One to Honduras and the other to a nation in North Africa. Are you willing to go? Or will you worry? I want to go, but I have no money, I have no time. Worries after worries. What if my wife says no? You know, God's here, but wife is here, right? I mean, what do I say? The deputy minister of religion and culture at our festival asked me, would you come back next Christmas again and preach the gospel in this Buddhist country? He said, so many people don't know the meaning of Christmas. You're welcome to come. If you come back, you and your team come back, I'm going to send you any province, any state of our nation that you wanna go. But the governor of that state where we have the ministry said, no, you cannot. You must come to our state. 11 years ago, I had a citywide gospel festival in Rwanda. On Monday, a week before our team was going to depart Seattle for Rwanda, I had $20,000 short in our festival budget. And if it had been $2,000, I could have borrowed that money from somewhere, some person, and I would have done it. But if you're lacking $20,000, the issue was way bigger. and I was so agitated and I was worrying every day, every moment. That was the year that was the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide in which the rebels killed over one million people in three months. During that time, whatever might have happened, all those people that ran into mosques seeking refugee were protected, but all those that ran into Christian church were all obliterated by the government military. So the popularity of Muslim religion was skyrocketing, whereas Christianity was big time going down in Rwanda. It was against that milieu that I was invited to hold a gospel festival in a city. And the evangelist was $20,000 short for the festival. And it was agonizing. And I was under enormous pressure. That was Monday. On Tuesday, a friend of mine sent me a letter, and I opened it. He says, David, how is your Rwanda preparation going? I sent you a check, and there was a check of $400. I was so grateful. Now I have $19,600 short. On Wednesday, a friend of mine pastoring a church in Louisiana called me and said, David, how is your Rwanda preparation going? And he said, do you need money? Do you need money? And I'm going, wow, it sounds Greek to me, you know? Do you need money? And I said, why do you ask me? And he said, last Sunday, our church ended our fiscal year, and we have $30,000. $3,600 left over, and our finance committee is going to carry it over into this year's budget. But I said, the purpose of Christian church is not to save money. The purpose of our church is to spend money for the kingdom of God. So, David, if you need money, let me know. All your prophets and prophetess, you know what I said. Yes, I do. And he sent me $3,400. Praise God. No, $3,600. My mind is all confused. But anyway, now I have $4,000 and wow! Wednesday, no, so Wednesday morning, while I was working at my seminary office, at the time I was teaching at a seminary as a full-time professor, My wife calls and says, honey, you better come to emergency at St. Francis right away. An ambulance came to your dad's nursing home and took him to ambulance. And I ran up there and talked to the doctor. And the doctor says, your dad lost so much blood. It takes two hours for for the Tacoma Blood Center to find the matching blood and send it over to us in federal way. But look at your dad's electrocardiogram. Look at these graphs. If he has this graph, chances are he will likely to die in 30 minutes. My heart sank. I'm going on top of all this stress, and I have this happening. I didn't know what to say to my dad. And my wife says, honey, shouldn't we tell him? If I were dying in 30 minutes, I at least want to know that I'm dying so that I could tell my loved ones something important. So I mustered all courage I had, and I told him what the doctor said. But man, my dad is a strong man. He didn't care. He's like, oh, OK. And he didn't care. Thankfully he did not die that day. Blood came and he received the transfusion and he fell asleep. And that night I was watching over him all night right by his bed in the hospital room and I had all kinds of emotions washed over me. I was thinking, if somehow my dad dies tonight, I might have a legitimate excuse to cancel the citywide festival in Rwanda that I had worked for for the past four years. If the Rwandan people learn that this Christian evangelist had to cancel the festival because he did not have money, the morale of the Christian church would plummet further. The Muslims would laugh at God. If somehow my dad dies tonight, it might help save God's faith and mine. All kinds of extreme scenarios flooded into my mind as I sat next to my dying dad through the night. On Thursday, my friend invited me to have lunch with his pastor and I went there. Out of our lunch meeting, After our lunch meeting was over, he handed me an envelope and he said, David, our church wants to support your ministry in Rwanda with this gift. I thanked him, I took it back to my seminary office and I opened it to my shock. There was a check of $5,000. Tears filled in my eyes. So I called my friend, and I told him that his pastor gave me $5,000, and I thanked him. I thanked him for connecting me to his pastor. And he says, David, I'm so happy to hear that. You know, my wife and I have been supporting your ministry with a monthly donation, but because Rwandan people suffer so much, we wanted to do something special for your ministry in Rwanda, but we didn't know what that something special would be. But now I have an idea, I will match the gift that our church blessed you with. So the next, let's give it up to God. So the next day, I went to his office, picked up a check of $5,000. Now I have $16,000. I cannot even count. I have $14,000. I'm deficient of $6,000. On Friday, I got a call from my friend pastoring a very small church in Leesville. He asked me if I could come preach revival at his church. And I said, well, thank you for the invitation, but I'm sorry, I'm a full-time professor. I'm a full-time missionary evangelist. I have no time and energy to go preach at your church. And he graciously understood my situation. He said, how is your Rwanda ministry unfolding? And I told him I was short of $6,000. And he said, David, When do you leave? I said, tomorrow morning. Will you go there by faith on Sunday? I'll talk to our church leaders and see if there's something we can do. So we left on Saturday morning, flew, two days or so. As soon as we landed at Kigali International Airport, we checked into the hotel and I pulled up my email. There was a mail from my friend. He says, hallelujah, our church decided to send you $6,000. God is a providing God. And the ministry went amazingly well. On top of preaching the gospel, there was a Mongolian dentist that came to join us. And I heard that that could have been the first Mongolian Christian's international outreach. God truly blessed our ministry, and yet my dad was still dying. But my wife, Kay, called me one day and said, honey, don't you worry about your dad. Your dad is not going to die. And I said, how do you know? You know, my dad, my dad is a gadget person. He has all kinds of gizmos and gadgets, and he's an early adopter, so he buys those things even before most people don't even know that there was something like that. So my dad, my wife says, honey, one day after work, I went to see your dad in the hospital. Your dad was lying in bed. He looked at me, and he says, K, I need iPhone 6 Plus. She says, a dying man never need an iPhone 6 Plus. He's not going to die. He didn't die. He lived two more years after that. I came back, I called my pastor friend in Leesville, Louisiana, and I thanked him for that timely $600 support. And he said, David, you won't believe how small my church is. And I said, I knew your church is small, but how small is it? He said, all of my church members are women, female, who got married to American GIs who stationed in Korea. They came to America with their husbands. The husbands are all old and retired. We have 16 of those ladies coming to our church, and the youngest woman is 67 years old. I was shocked. And because our church is so small, no evangelist coming to preach revival. I said, why did you not tell me that your church was so small like that? Give me the dates. I'll go there. They set the dates. I went there to preach revival. We had an amazing three-day revival in the church, and the ladies were so happy. They gave me a check of $1,500 for my honorarium, and then they handed me a check of $5,000 of donation for my ministry, and I was shocked, your church is so small, how can you afford this? He said, our church is so small, our church has no fund, that's why our ladies began to make egg rolls. and they sold egg rolls all over Leesville. That's how we made $6,000 to send to Rwanda, and that's where this $5,000 check came from. And that church that was 11 years ago, that church is even smaller now. I heard three or four people coming, most of them died, but that church is still sending me $100 of donation every month. Jesus said, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Now, why should we not worry? Number one, don't you worry because God is our heavenly father. He's alive, he's on the throne and he cares for you. Number two, why should we stop worrying? Because worrying doesn't solve the issue at all, as profound as it is. What is the alternative instead of worrying? Can we get out of that fear mode and we will initiate to believe in Jesus and seek his kingdom and his righteousness first? then all these things shall be added to you according to the word of God. The apostle Paul said this to the church that gave to his ministry for missions in spite of their lack of sufficiency. Paul said to this church, may my God shall supply all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul also goes on to say, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God, not the anxieties of the world, but the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Does anybody have worries and anxieties? I've been there. On your imagination, get out a little plastic bag that we call trash bag. Put that anxiety into that trash bag and throw it out in that empty spot. ask God to fill that spot with faith in Him and the hope in Jesus Christ. May God bless you, may God lead you, may you experience God's abundant provision. Shall we pray? Father, we are so grateful for the message you have given us, Lord. All of us have anxieties and worries, which seems to be a very natural reaction when we are walking in the shadow, the valley of the shadow of death. But, oh God, Would you open our eyes and help us to see even a bigger reality that you are way bigger than the problems or the valleys in which we find ourselves? So would you remove deficiency of faith from us? Would you remove our worldly priorities and help us to stand firm? in godly priorities and help us to seek your kingdom and your righteousness first and then we will experience the glorious provision of God so that all those around us who knows me shall all say God truly blessed me. May that kind of life be a reality in our lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.