Beacon Sunday Service: June 22, 2025

Hello everyone. Good to see all of you here today. I don't know if you ever do this or not. Is it okay if I ask you guys to come a little bit closer? I asked them all time. Okay, okay. Yeah. I was wondering if you guys could come a little bit closer. Um just I totally agree with what uh Pastor Peter Chung said. I heard that uh the other Pastor Peter Kim came and spoke here before. At a retreat. Oh, okay. Yeah, so he is Pastor Peter Kim, Senior, Pastor Peter Kim. We used to call him SPK. I'm Junior, Peter Kim, JPK. So you could call me whatever you want to call me. Um I would also agree that actually in the entirety of my life, I would say that those years in China with the Chungs were one of our happiest times.

And so I remember when we first arrived in China, and I met up with Peter, we met up uh just uh one-on-one one time, and uh I just shared with him some of my struggles that I was going through at that time. And uh I remember him telling me that he really appreciated me opening up to him and being able to share and be completely honest, and I think that um that's when we began to really grow close in our relationship to one another. And uh, we had a lot of wonderful times there, and I can't go into all the details of what kind of fun we had, um, but we had a lot of fun at that time. Um I'm very happy for him and for your church, and I'm really looking forward to how God will continue to use you guys for his kingdom.

Um great. Yeah, the the title of today's sermon is New Strategies for Global Missions. And we're gonna we're gonna be looking at Acts chapter 6, 17, verses 16 to 34. So um, if you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to open it up with me. Um, if you don't have a physical Bible, that's okay. If you have a Bible on your phone or whatever, I also invite you to just open it up with me, just because I'm not gonna go through every single verse. Uh we don't have time for that actually, uh, and I'll explain in a bit why. Um but if you could open it up with me, I'm going to be referencing the passage uh multiple times, and so if you have it open in front of you, then you could just look back at what it actually says in those verses.

So, looking at Acts chapter 17, verses 16 to 34. All right, this is the reading of God's word. Uh, actually, why don't we all rise together for the reading of God's word? This is reading of God's word. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked with him. Oh, I just realized. I apologize. Uh, Pastor Peter told me that you guys use a different version here. I'm using the ESV, so there might be a little bit of differences here and there. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

Some of the epicurean and stoic philosophers also conversed with him, and some said, What does this babbler wish to say? Others said, He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities, because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting, for you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean. Now, all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

For as I pass along and observe the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined a lot of periods and boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.

For in him we live and move and have our being. And even as some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, We will hear you again about this. So Paul went out from their midst.

But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius, the Ariopagite, and the woman named Demeris and others with them. Amen. This was the reading of God's word. Alright, you may have your seats. So the reason why we're not going to be able to go through all the passages, all the verses today is because Pastor Peter he sent me an email. Actually, I had uh a sermon prepared that I was going to use for all the different churches that I was speaking at. And then he sent me, or he talked to me, and he also sent me an email saying, I want you to speak on these four different questions. Number one, what is global mission work? Number two, how do we discern a call to go? Number three, how do we know how to best send and support?

And number four, the work in Taiwan. And I said, Oh man, I have to prepare a whole new sermon because of this. And I was thinking, oh my goodness, these questions are so big, it's an impossible task to talk about all these things in just this short time of two hours. Just kidding. Uh, I'm gonna be speaking uh for about maybe four forty-five minutes or so. Um, but but here's the thing that I want to just kind of bring all these. I'm gonna answer all these questions, but I'm gonna talk about it with one main idea in mind. The main idea is this: be involved in missions in a new way and live a life of missions in Jesus. Okay, and so the three points that we'll go through are number one, be involved, number two, live life, and number three, in Jesus.

Okay, so why don't we just turn to our neighbors real quick and uh just you could turn to your the person in front of you, behind you, to the left of you, to the right of you, and just repeat to them what the main idea is and what the three points are. So let's do that now.

All right, sometimes it feels a little bit awkward to interact with other people in the church, but this is okay. We can do this, okay. Um this is a very interesting passage. It's it's a passage that's very unique in the sense that uh Acts is a book where Paul is introduced and halfway through the book of Acts, and Paul goes around to different places sharing the gospel to all different kinds of people. Um but what we see a lot of times is that his strategy is to first go to the synagogue and to share with the Jews that are there. And so I entitled our sermon today to be New Strategies for Global Missions, and I'm not talking necessarily about how you need to come up with new strategies today, because there have been a lot of new strategies, and maybe we can come up with new strategies as well.

But for Paul at that time, he also used new strategies at that time. And so we're gonna look at some of the things that uh that he did that were different from what he originally, the kind of strategy that he was using previously. So let's talk about being involved in missions in a new way. Um, right before our passage, what we find is that Paul went to Berean, which was a city, and it talks about how Paul would explain the passages and he would explain about Jesus Christ and how the Bereans were so diligent in reading the scriptures and making sure what Paul was saying was true. And so it seemed like the Bereans were people that knew the scriptures. Now in Athens, Paul comes to a place where it seems like there aren't a lot of Jews there.

It seems like. It seems like it's a place where he gets an audience where the people don't know about the Jewish history, they don't know about Jewish scripture, and so then he has to apply a new strategy now. And so the first uh observation that we'll see is that he did not just speak to the Jews in the synagogue, um, but he also was open to speaking to all different kinds of people. He was invited to a place called the Areopagus, where it's this big stone, and uh even today, if you go to Athens, you'll be able to see this place called the Ariopagus, and you can go up the stairs to this big stone that's there at the distance, you'll see these like really really beautiful Greek pillars and and then modern Athens and things like that.

And even the stairs, as you look at it, you could see that it's been there for a long time because it's not straight stairs like this, that they're kind of rounded out at every step. And so at Areopagus, Paul was there, and he began to speak to not Jews, but to the Greeks of that time. Now, when we talk about not just reaching the Jews, we can, and talking about reaching other people, we can talk about what global missions is all about. So, this was the first question that Pastor Peter asked me to speak about. What is global missions? It's preaching the gospel in a place that's different from yours to a people that is different from yours. Okay, so it's specifically about taking the gospel somewhere else in this world to a people that's not your own.

Okay, now uh when we talk about global missions, a lot of times people talk about how they leave their country to go to a different place, and they have to even learn a new language, they have to learn the new culture, and they begin to share the gospel in that kind of place. Now, uh, missions is humongous around the world, and so it's not just the work of preaching the gospel now, but we need people to support the work of preaching the gospel. We need people to help support people to get out there, and so there are all different kinds of roles in missions today. So, global missions is first and foremost about bringing the gospel to people that are out there, but also there's a lot of work that's needed to help support that work, and all of that is called global missions.

Now, Paul mainly focused on bringing the preaching to the Jews, and many Gentiles came to believe as well along the way, um, but then here in the Areopagus, as I said, the it was mainly a Gentile audience, they were uh the Greeks. Now, at my church in Taiwan, we I pastor an international church. Um I realized that here in America, when you talk about like a multicultural church, you have people that are something American, something American, something Americans. At my church, we have just straight up something and something and something. Okay, so uh like even in this picture right now. Oh, I have to not forget to click the clicker. In my church right now, we have people from Indonesia, from Malawi, from the kingdom of Eswatini, from the Philippines, from Canada, from the US, from every single continent in the world except Antarctica.

Um, we have people from every single continent in this world, and so it's it's a very international church, and we have the privilege of having the time that we have with them. They don't stay in Taiwan for a long time, they only come for a short period of time, anywhere between three months to maybe up to two years. Some people stay longer, but we only have a short time with them, and so we want to do our best to uh figure out how do we strategize in a way to bring about the gospel in their lives, both to believers and to unbelievers, to help believers know that the gospel is still applicable in your life, even as a believer, and also to know how to bring the gospel to people that don't know the gospel, and so we have a little slogan where we say we want to take people deeper in the gospel, and we want to help people go out into the world with the gospel, and that's what our church does.

We bring people in, introduce them to the gospel, take them deeper in the gospel, and then send them out into the world wherever they end up going. Um for this reason, we need to, as a church, we need to keep thinking about what is our strategy? What are we trying to accomplish here in our church? Is it just about us and just trying to be a good community here? Or is there something more that God has for us? And so we need to think about not just how it's just about our group here, but also about how we need to be reaching out to the people that are outside of our church. Another thing that we can observe in our passage today is that Paul went in, and what he did first was not just go and talk to everyone, but what he did was that he actually observed what was going on.

And it talks about how he saw a bunch of idols and his heart was uh broken, his heart was moved, he was bothered by what he was seeing. Um, and so for some of us here, we might think that being a missionary like myself, or even being a pastor like Pastor Peter is a difficult thing to do because maybe you feel like you're not an expert in the Bible, but you don't have to be an expert. Um Paul just went in and he started with observing. All it requires of all of you is to just be curious, just to ask questions, just to find out more. Being involved in missions is about just wanting to know more of what God is doing in this world. Not only that, uh, another thing that we see in our passage is that it's not just at church that the preaching of the gospel happens, but it also happens at work too.

Where do we see that? In the passage, we see how Paul not only went to the synagogue, but also he went to the marketplace. The marketplace is the main place where business was happening in that place. And so if you think about it, preaching the gospel is not just Pastor Peter's work on Sundays. Actually, he preaches and teaches and encourages each of you week after week so that you can bring the gospel to your families, to your neighborhoods, to your work places. And so being involved in missions is not just about just preaching the gospel at church and supporting some missionary overseas. Actually, being involved in missions can happen in your life even now, where you understand God is working in this world, even in your neighborhoods, even in your workplaces, God wants you to be involved in what he's doing in other people's lives today.

It's not just through me, it's not just through Pastor Peter, it's through each and every one of you guys. Um this is true. Uh there's a second question that Pastor Peter asked me how do we discern a call? How do you know if God is calling you to be involved in his work? How do you know if God is calling you to be a missionary or a pastor? Well, that's the main question, but then I want to kind of change it to say, no, actually, it's not just a call to be a missionary or a pastor. All of us are actually called to go to all nations and be involved in this work of discipleship. Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 to 20 says, and Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Here in the beginning, it says, Jesus, this is after Jesus died and rose again and before he ascended into heaven. He tells his disciples this one last thing.

He says, your purpose is to make disciples of all nations, not just make disciples of the people that are in your church, but make disciples of all nations. And so this is a call for every single believer to be involved in God's work. So that includes you to be involved in making disciples again in your homes, in your families, in your neighborhoods, in your workplaces. Now, how do we discern a call? Like, how do I know if I'm supposed to go or not go? Well, if all of us are called, then maybe we should be asking the question, how do we discern to stay? How do we know that God is calling us to stay here and be a missionary or be a light, be a salt here, as opposed to going overseas somewhere?

How do we know that? And so we need to be asking the question, not is God calling me to go overseas. We need to be asking the question, what does God want me to do? To stay? To go? What does God want me to do? I know that God wants me to be involved in making disciples wherever I am, but is God calling me to stay here to do that? Or is God calling me to go somewhere else to do that? The simple answer is to live a life of missions, preaching the gospel to both believers and unbelievers. The interesting thing about our society today is that I don't know if you guys have noticed this or not, but the world is a lot more global. People are traveling a lot more. People are able to go on vacations to other countries.

People are able to travel to other states. People are doing all kinds of businesses all around the world. And so I don't know how much you guys have interacted with people from other parts of the world. But in Taiwan, in Taipei, we see people come from all around the world all the time. This was an opportunity for me to actually go to Singapore. And I went to one of the church retreats there, and I gave three sermons there, even did a QA all in Mandarin, all in Chinese. And during that time, there were also some people that were there. So these are all Singaporeans, but there were also people that were there from China. And so one of my uh brothers in my church, um, he had a desire to also be involved in God's work at his work.

He is in Taiwan because he's helping out with the drug enforcement and administration in Taiwan. Um, but what he wanted to do was he wanted to share the gospel with people at his workplace, and so he decided to start a Bible study in his workplace. And he's asking me whether or not we can make a little flyer for our church so that he could stick it somewhere on the board at work so that people would see that and maybe they would think about coming to church. And so all of us, all of us could be involved in God's kingdom work, no matter how much you feel equipped to do so or not, you just need a heart to say, I'm willing to be involved in what God is doing in this world. Maybe you don't have all the knowledge that Pastor Peter does, but you can at least maybe get a group of people together to read the Bible together, and then if you don't know how to explain certain parts, there's always questions that you can ask the pastor Peter, and he'll be able to help answer all of your questions, I'm sure.

Um then you can invite them to come to church as well. And and I believe that God can use each and every single one of you for that type of work. One of the other exciting things that we've observed at our church is that because people come and go at our church, and uh, you know, you guys, uh Pastor Peter told me that we're gonna go to a USC village to eat afterwards. Um, and uh, you know, I went to USC. I'm a I'm a proud Trojan. And uh one of the things is that uh maybe there's a possibility that there might be some students that might want to come to this church. And if students come to this church, then there's gonna be a turnover rate that's maybe similar to what we see at my church in Taiwan.

People will come, stay for a bit of time, and then maybe they might leave after a period of time. Um because of that, one thing that we saw at our church was that there was one brother from India, and he came and he said, I love the gospel now, and I want to share the gospel with other people. He went back to India and he wanted to share with other people there, and then he, and then his pastor there said, Hey, I want you to maybe help us plant a church in our village. And so he gave me a call and he said, Hey, Pastor Peter, um, would it be okay if I plant a church and our church be under your church's uh system, under your church's name? I said, that would be great. Um, and then just let me know what you need.

And so I've been meeting with him to provide theological training. I've been meeting with him to provide accountability, and it's all possible because of Zoom and technology, and these kinds of things are possible now. And so all of us are called to be involved in missions, uh, and perhaps in a new way that you never thought about before. Uh people are coming in from all around the world right now to America. Um, I even met up with a brother uh recently uh who we sent out from Taiwan, and he tells me that there's so many people from China that are coming to America right now. Now, I know with what's going on, the tension with with China and America and things like that. Some people might have some reservations about people from China.

Um, but man, you don't have to go to China to be able to witness to them, to be able to share the gospel with them. A bunch of them are coming here, and so you have that opportunity that I don't. You have that opportunity to reach out to the people from China here. And so we we all want to be involved in missions. But also, our second point is that it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to go somewhere, that you need to know a lot. It just starts with living your life as a Christian. And this is our second point. We want to live life and live it for the Lord. Next point here is that in verses 18 and 28, what we find is that Paul was talking about Jesus and about the resurrection in verse 18.

Um, and he was talking about it at the in the synagogue and in the marketplace. But then later on, he was invited to the Area Pagus to speak to the Greeks. And so when he went to speak to the Greeks, what was interesting was that he did not use scripture. It's kind of interesting. And in I believe in this church and in my church, we emphasize the importance of scripture. But Paul, in preaching the gospel, he wanted to communicate the gospel in a way that they could understand. And these people, they didn't know the Jewish scriptures. So even if he brought up Jewish scripture, it wouldn't really have made any kind of impact on the people. And so you know what he did do? He quoted famous novels and and poems from the great from the Greek culture.

That's what he quoted. And so this is kind of a different thing, maybe even for some of us to think about. Using not scripture, but the culture. God has equipped each and every one of you to have your skills, to have your culture, to have uh talents and you know, things that you enjoy, and you can use all of those things as a tool to begin to introduce the gospel to different people. And so um, again, like with what Paul says to the people, he doesn't talk about, he doesn't use the name Jesus, he doesn't use the word sin, he doesn't talk about sin. He only talks about repentance by turning to God. He only talks about the resurrection, and this is a new strategy. Now, I'm not saying that throughout the whole time that you shouldn't use scripture at all.

This is just a way to start the conversation with the people so that they would begin to have an interest in Jesus Christ. Then you can begin to bring in scripture, and then you can begin to talk about the deeper things that the Bible talks about, but as a way to start the conversation, you can use your your talents, the things that you you enjoy in your life, the foods that you enjoy, the the things that you love to do. Like, like bring all that in, and you can use that as a way to start a conversation with people to introduce the gospel. There's a word in myssiology, that's the word contextualization. Uh basically, it's the idea of using tools, skills, talents, your interests, using tools to help people understand the gospel more clearly without barriers.

Okay. Now, a part of that is definitely standing back and observing the people. Understanding what do they enjoy? What is their culture like? And I can use some point of contact with them and say, maybe if I talk about this, or maybe if I talk about it in a certain way, then that will help them to understand the gospel a little bit more. And so that's what contextualization is all about. This is not just something for missions. This is also for you guys as you begin to know about your neighbors, as you begin to know about your coworkers, and you begin to understand what their interests are. You stand back and you observe, you see what their interests are, you see what their struggles are, and then you think about what is a part of my life that I could bring in to help make a connection with them and then introduce them to the gospel afterwards.

The last thing that I want to point out here as an observation is that it's not just about growth that Paul was emphasizing. You know, in Christianity, a lot of times we talk about we need to grow in the Lord, we need to be sanctified, we need to grow and become more and more like Jesus, and we need to make sure that we're growing our churches, and we want to make sure that people are growing in their knowledge of the Bible. Okay, a lot of that is true. That's true. But in being a missionary, being involved and living your life as a Christian, it's not always going to be about growth. And I point to verse 32 to say that when Paul went and shared, some people mocked him. Some people accepted, and that was okay.

It was okay that the result wasn't like success. Like that he was able to like preach the gospel in a way so that yes, all of these people are coming to believe. That wasn't the point. The point isn't necessarily to make sure our church grows into a big church. The point isn't necessarily for us to make sure that we're doing missions successfully. Because there will be failures. For Paul, people mocked him and they left. And so that's important for us to know because when we live our lives sometimes, sometimes we put pressure on ourselves to try to live a better life as a Christian. Sometimes we put pressure on ourselves and try to make our church a better place. Sometimes we put pressure on ourselves based on what the world tells us.

You need to get a good job, you need to provide for your family, you need to do whatever you can to survive or to thrive and to do well. And so we get all this pressure from the world, and we have all these worries and concerns about how we're supposed to live our lives. You know, even in my own ministry. I've had stresses. I I count some of the white hair that's on my head right now. Maybe you might not be able to see it from where you're sitting, but I think that I have some of my white hair because I struggled a lot with the idea of wanting to see that my ministry succeeds. You know, I want to be able to say that I'm doing a good job as a missionary. I want to be able to say that, you know, when I write my newsletters, like I want to be able to write something good that happens so that people would be able to say, oh, yeah, that's something I want to support.

Like I want to be able to do that kind of stuff, and there's that kind of pressure for me. And so when I look deeper inside, I'm thinking, why am I so stressed about this? Why do I stress about the things in my life that stress me out? And part of the reason was I wanted to find success. Not in the sense of like having a lot of money, but I want to be able to say that I did a good job. I want to be able to say that, yeah, I did that well. And I want to be able to show other people that, yeah, I did that well. But that's that's not always gonna happen. And there are times that I do fail. And that's why we need Jesus. As we think about being involved in missions in a new way, we think about living our lives for the Lord.

We think about trying to live as good Christians. But the fact is that as Christians, we will fail. And I fail. As a missionary, as a pastor, I do fail. And the reason why I get so stressed out is because I'm not looking to Jesus. I'm depending on myself to try to do a good job. That's why I get so stressed out. That's why my heart starts pounding at times, and I don't even know why my heart starts pounding. That's why there are some nights that I can't go to sleep. I just stay awake thinking through all these thoughts. It's because a lot of times I'm not looking to Jesus, but I'm actually looking at what I can accomplish, how to make things happen, how to make sure that things are going to be good.

But as Paul said to the Athenians, the times of ignorance, God overlooked. But now he commands all people to repent. And even Christians who often choose to live life in their own way instead of according to what God has called us to. God is calling all of us to turn back to Jesus and say, with all of my worries, all of my concerns, all of my desires, I come before you, Jesus, because I know that you're the answer. So we want to do things. Oops. In Jesus. And as we look to Jesus, what we find is that Jesus was not just focused on a certain group of people, but he focused on all peoples.

On the rich, the poor, the people that were Jews and non-Jews. Jesus was compassionate to all the different people. What we find with Jesus is that he did not just speak all the time, but he also stood back and observed. And he knew what people were thinking, and not just because he was God, but because he could see what was going on in people's lives. And throughout all that time, he was patiently waiting for people to come to him. And he just throughout many years even stretched out his arms saying, come back to me. Come back to me. Not only that, Jesus did not just focus on reaching the people in the synagogues, but he also went to the marketplaces.

Not only that, Jesus did not just use scripture. This is kind of weird to say, isn't it? But at that time, he used parables. When he used parables, he wasn't quoting the Old Testament. But he was thinking of a new way to explain ideas about the kingdom of God to people that didn't fully understand, maybe they didn't have full knowledge of the Bible at that time too. But he used examples from everyday life to explain to people what the truth about God's word was. And not only that, Jesus did not just think about growth and being successful as a person that gathered people all around, but what he ended up doing was that he ended up in failure himself. He had all these followers, but many of them deserted him.

And then they turned on him and then killed him. And so we could even say from a worldly standpoint, even Jesus failed. But he did it for God's glory. Because even in our failures, God is able to accomplish what he desires to do. And so for us as well, we know that God is working in our lives to demonstrate His love to us, to give us a purpose in our lives. And He will definitely provide for all of your needs, all your deep desires, everything that you're longing for. Jesus provides that for you. And that was only possible because He failed and died. In Romans chapter 5, verse 8, it says, God demonstrates his own love for us in this.

While we were still against God, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we many times fail and not turn to Jesus, and even in ministry, even when I'm doing something that's Christian, I fail to turn to Jesus. And I rely on myself. And for all these ways that we reject Jesus and turn to our own ways, Jesus says, while you were still against me, while you're still running away from me, I still loved you. And I died for you. And this is how I show, prove to you that I do love you. Jesus Christ died, and then he rose again from the dead, and he sends the Holy Spirit to us to continue to work in our lives so that no matter what's going on in your life right now, God knows exactly what you're going through.

And God still has a purpose for you. God still wants to use you for his glory. And so we can be involved in his work because of the way that Jesus showed his love for us.

And we need to remember that our lives is not just about just making money, surviving in this world, uh, having a good job, having kids, getting married, retiring, and then dying. Like, that's not what your life is about. You know, I tell people in Taiwan, people in Taiwan, they save money all the time. They don't spend their money. They save money all the time. And I say, you're gonna use all, you're gonna use all your money just to save it, not use it, but you're gonna save it all so that when you get old and retire, you're gonna use all that money on medicine and hospital bills. Like, what's the purpose of all that?

He desires for you not to live your life like everyone else, but God desires for you to be a salt, a light, a witness, a person that makes disciples in this world, no matter where you're at, and to be involved in global missions, even where you're at by living it out yourself wherever you are, and maybe maybe there will be a day that you go on vacation somewhere and you can be a light there. Maybe you'll do a business trip somewhere and you'll be a light there. Maybe you'll come and live in Taiwan at some point and you'll be a light there. Wherever you go, you can be involved in global missions as you live it out yourself and you continue to support others that are doing the same. Just a couple of verses to remind us.

Um, do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God, you are not your own. So be reminded that God has bought you, Jesus has bought you with his blood. So let's live for the Lord as he's demonstrated his love to us, let's demonstrate that same love to other people as well. Also, in Colossians chapter 3, verse 23, it says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. And so even as you work, it's not just to make money, it's not just to do something that your boss tells you. You work as if you're doing it for the Lord, and in that way, you're also being a disciple maker for people around you as they see your good example, as they see that you're doing your best for the good of the company, for the good of your work, for the good of your workplace environment as well.

I just want to end here with just a couple pointers of this last question that Pastor Peter asked, which is I shared a little bit about Taiwan, and he asked me to share about Taiwan. And he also asked me, how do you get involved? How do you get involved? So let me just give a couple pointers about how you can be involved in global missions, maybe using some of the strategies that I talked about today. Number one, you can request receive my newsletter, our newsletter. And so you can hear, begin to hear and observe what's going on in Taiwan as you receive our newsletter. So if you're interested in that, you can send me an email. My email is USC Peter Kim at gmail.com. Very easy. I went to USC, my name is Peter Kim.

USC Peter Kim at gmail.com. No dots, no spaces, no slashes or anything like that. Just one word. Second thing that you could possibly do is if Pastor Peter one day says, hey, we're gonna go to Taiwan together. We're gonna spend a week to go. And it's gonna be a vision trip, and we're gonna just go and learn. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna set up a week so that I'm not gonna have you do ministry per se. I'm not gonna have you come and do something, but I'm gonna spend the week explaining everything about Taiwan and the ministry that we're doing so that you can have a pretty good understanding of what's going on in Taiwan. And so consider at some point in the future, um, even nudging Pastor Peter to say, hey, you know, when are we gonna go to Taiwan?

Um to actually decide to go on that trip. Okay. So number one, you can receive our newsletters. Number two, you can go on a vision trip to Taiwan or other places in this world. Uh, number three, you can begin to pray. Begin to pray that God's kingdom would come. Pray that his work would be done, not just somewhere way out there, but that God's work would be done in my life, in my workplace, in my neighborhood, in my families, that people in all these places would be able to hear the gospel, and maybe it'll be through me. So we pray that God's kingdom would come. And the last thing that I want to share is that as I mentioned, there are people that are coming from all over the world to the US.

There's a huge number of people that come from China, and some of them they come with a lot of money and they just buy out houses and make it hard for Americans to buy houses these days, things like that, right? Um, there are a lot of Chinese that are coming to America right now, and so also along with all those people, there are people that are coming to America from other parts of the world as missionaries. Uh, there's a new idea that the missions world is talking about, and actually it's been around for a while, but um I attended this large conference called Lazan. Um, if you don't know anything about Lazon, it's okay. But basically, it's a conference that's had a big impact on the missions world for 50 years now.

And uh one of the major things that they talked about in this last conference that happened last year, by the way, they only have it every 10 to 15 years. So they only had like four conferences so far. And so the one of the main things that they talked about was missionaries from everywhere to everywhere. And so traditionally, we thought a lot of missionaries came out of America, from the UK, possibly from Korea, but right now missionaries are being sent out from all kinds of nations all around the world, and they are going to all kinds of nations all around the world. So you might even meet a missionary here. And you're thinking, missionary to America? We don't need that. America needs missionaries as well.

And so this is the thing that I want to encourage you to do. When you meet a pastor from China or a missionary from any part of the world, take care of them. Get to know their story. Help provide for them. Maybe even open up your place to them. Just like the Bible says, sometimes you uh invite people in and you show them hospitality and you don't even know, but maybe they were even angels. Without knowing it, you entertained, you helped and encouraged and uh showed hospitality to angels. And so, because this is the kind of world that we live in now, be on the lookout. You know, are there missionaries or pastors from other parts of the world in our midst? Let's help take care of them. And in this way, you will also be involved in global missions.

Let's pray together. Father, I thank you so much. First and foremost, because you have loved us, and you give us a purpose in our lives. You give us uh the help and everything that we need, everything that we're looking for in this life. You are the answer. And because of that, Lord, you also desire us to be involved in your kingdom work. You give us a purpose for our lives, not just to live it for ourselves, but to actually live our lives for you and for your glory. And so, Father, I pray that you would do this wonderful work in all your people's lives here. And Lord, that through each and every person that you may be glorified, may you use them to make disciples in their workplaces, in their homes, in their neighborhoods, and as a church, that they would be a church that seeks your glory and continues to be involved in your global kingdom work for your glory.

I pray in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.