Had two Thanksgiving gatherings. Students came home and we celebrated the Sunday before with a traditional American meal - Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, sticky-rice, and Tiramisu cake. With parents on Thanksgiving day and had the traditional Chinese hot pot. Parents older, soft foods, savory sauces to help with appetite.
There’s a western folktale dating back between 1700-1800. Stone Soup Story.
Once upon a time, there was a great famine in which people jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day, a kindly looking stranger came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.
“There’s not a bite to eat in the whole province,” he was told. “Better keep moving on.”
“Oh, I have everything I need,” he said. “In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you.” He pulled a large metal pot from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.
By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the stranger sniffed the “broth” and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.
“Ahh,” the stranger said to himself rather loudly, “I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage — that’s hard to beat.”
Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he’d retrieved from its hiding place and added it to the pot.
“Wonderful” cried the stranger. “You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of beef as well, and it was fit for a king.”
The village butcher managed to find some beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all.
From 1700 to … 2021, the recipe for Stone Soup is available! “By working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.”
Chinese hot-pot is a lot more appetizing - thinly sliced meats, mushrooms, head-on shrimp, Chinese lettuces, fresh noodles, and more—in a single pot of simmering, seasoned broth heated on an induction burner or electric range. Once cooked to your liking, you dip it in the sauce of choice and eat it. Rinse and repeat until extremely full. Burp with approval, body is cozy, heart is warm …
Wake up from your imaginary food-coma! The moral of the story - “it’s what you bring to the pot!” That should have been the sermon title. As it applies to our church, “By serving together, with everyone offering their gifts, a greater love is shared!”
(Opening Prayer)
Scripture:
13Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. (12Jesus suffered outside the city gate) 14For here we have no enduring city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. 16But do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
From story book to sacred book
The Bible is the Living Word of God. It is life-giving, life-preserving, and life-changing. Anyone who is guided by the principles of Scripture will have the power of the Holy Spirit in them. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38). ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? : ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?(M) Xìn wo de rén jiù rú jing shàng suo shuo: Cóng ta fù zhòng yào liúchu huóshui de jianghé lái.
(C) Sun ngo de yan jao yue geng siong soh suet: Cong ta fuk zhong you lau-chut wut sui de kong ho loi.
Flowing rivers is a metaphor for life.
Water may not seem special. It’s clear. It has no taste. It doesn’t smell like anything. But if it couldn’t do the things it does, life on earth would not exist. Water is a tiny molecule. It consists of three atoms: two of hydrogen and one of oxygen. Water molecules cling to each other because of a force called hydrogen bonding. It’s the reason why water can do amazing things.
71% of the earth’s surface is water-covered. The oceans hold about 96.5% of all earth’s water. The globe illustration shows blue spheres representing relative amounts of earth’s water in comparison to the size of the earth. The volume of the largest sphere represents all water on, in, and above the earth. The smaller sphere over Kentucky represents earth’s liquid fresh water in groundwater, swamp water, rivers and lakes. The tiny bubble over Atlanta, Georgia represents fresh water in all the lakes and rivers on the planet. Most of the water people and life on earth need every day comes from these surface-water sources. We have too much water, and not enough.
Water is never sitting still. Thanks to the water cycle, our planet's water supply is constantly moving from one place to another and from one form to another. Things would get pretty stale without the water cycle! Does our spiritual reservoir contain a stale & lifeless pool or does it flow out streams of living waters? Jesus says, “Rivers of living water will flow from within those who believe in Me.” What is living water?
It’s a supernatural resource characterized by (transcendental) life and vitality; understood as running water (as opposed to still and stagnant) (BSL). When Jesus told the woman she should ask for the living water, He was meaning that she should ask for the words of the Gospel to be preached to her. She had a spiritual need. The message of Christ contained the solution. We have spiritual needs and the living water Jesus offers, the words of the Gospel, is still the solution. (Jonathan McAnulty - Chapel Hill Church of Christ.)
The title of this morning’s message is Gospel in Motion. Each of us here is like a single drop of H2O - water molecules clinging to each other because of a force. Just as earth relies on the gravitational pull from the sun to move, we who have the gospel are designed by God to share Christ with the world. The writer of Hebrew tells us how.
Bear His Marks (of shame, suffering, and sorrow)
13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. (Jesus fought for His purpose, suffered for His cause, and died for His mission. Shouldn’t we also?) 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
The writer’s exhortation - “Let us - therefore - go.” Question is, “go where?” First, we shall look at the invitation which is in the form of exhortation.
An exhortation is a demand or command that includes the speaker as well as others; the demand or command expects performance of what is stated (LPOG). Church is a place where we exhort each other to grow in our faith, to obediently respond to the teaching of Scripture, and to live together by grace and through faith, serving, helping and sharing in the works of ministry. That is the Gospel. Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians says - “We continually remember before our God and Father your work, produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 1:3). ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? yan sun sam suo zho de gung fu
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? yan oi sam suo sau de lou fu
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? yan pan mong suo chuen de yan noi
Our work is produced by faith. The ability to do work is a blessing. When our work blesses others, God is pleased.
Our labor is prompted by love. Difference between loving what we do and doing out of love for God and others. Preach, choir, teach, serve, etc.
Our endurance is inspired by hope (in Christ). Patience, perseverance, and persistence - because Christ is worth it. We must not fear failure and rejection. We keep our eyes and set our hearts on Christ and “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Phil. 1:6).
Illustration: The Japanese makes the best swords in the world. Had to create a sword that was hard enough to retain a sharp edge, but at the same time soft enough not to be brittle. Hard steel achieves sharp edge but brittle and break when clashed in battle. Soft steel not as brittle but easily dull unable to slice through armor. What Japanese sword makers learned to do was to create a sword made of hard and soft steel. Multiple sheets of hard and soft steel are heated, folded and pummeled together over and over again. Japanese swords go through a lengthy forging process until they have up to 33,000 paper-thin laminations of hard and soft metal. Each of these layers is one hundred thousandth of an inch thick. This is all done to a very precise recipe of temperature treatment. The end result is a finely crafted weapon with extreme pliability and a blade that will retain a finely honed edge. Just as Japanese sword makers repeatedly hammer together layers of metal to produce a sword that will be strong enough to withstand breaking, so God allows trials to hammer metal into the lives of His children. Just a sword made of hard metal will easily break in battle, so the believer filled with pride will also break in adversity. It is in the forging hand of God that humility and dependence on Him are developed into our lives to create character that will triumph in adversity. The hard steel in our lives is the word of God. The soft steel in our lives is humility and a dependence on God. These are forged together in our lives through fiery trials and prayer to produce vessels that will give Him glory. We need the hard steel confidence of what we believe together with the soft steel of humility. (sermoncentral.com)
Yes, there’s power in the name of Jesus but only with humility will grace win them over.
Secondly - Go where? Go to Jesus, outside the camp! As a Church, we must go as much as ought to come. To follow Jesus is to “deny ourselves and take up our cross” (Matt. 16:24). Too unreasonable? Not if you understand what denying self means. Self-denial is to reject the natural human inclination towards selfishness. It means to renounce oneself as the center of existence. It is having a born-again and renewed mindset of Phil. 2:4-8. “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
“Many are trying to bring God down to their own level. They don’t know that between human love and divine love there is as much difference as there is between darkness and light.” (D.L. Moody). We go to where our Lord is in His suffering. We go to where our Lord is in His obedience to the Father. We go to where our Lord is in His glory and grace. We don’t only go to Him to be part of the crowd that follow because it is easy to say we are Christians. We are not Christians by association with others but by our relationship with God’s Son. Can the world tell the difference in us? We don’t bring God down to our level but we look at the way Christ lived and strive to raise to His level.
Every believer, together, we go out to where Christ had suffered to sanctify the people with His own blood. We too must go outside our camp to take up our cross and continue following Jesus.
God died on the cross. By His wounds we are healed. But we are to bear His scars. These are scars of persecution as a result of obedience, faithfulness, and sacrifice. The beautiful thing is our scars are not nasty or gross. They are not ripped, or sown, or wrinkled or deformed. We bear Christ’s glorious marks of grace because His blood washed our sins away - completely and His mercy rejuvenates our hearts. By being born again we no longer bear an old-self but our lives which have gone through divine transformation radiates hope, peace and joy.
Our identity with Christ does not stop when we become Christians. Our Christian faith does not stop in the church. It is from the church that we begin our spiritual journey with our Savior. When we walk with God we don’t walk alone. We bring others with us to walk together. v14 tells us “we don’t have an enduring city.” We don’t have a resting place until we find rest in Jesus Christ. This world is not our home. Christians are on the look out for the city that is to come. The word “seek” means to search, inquire, and desire. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”
Bless His Name (forgiven, redeemed, restored)
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
We lead a successful adult praise team. Other than the pianist, none of the members have received formal musical training. Not the dummer or guitarist, or those who stand faithfully month/years to lead the church in worship. Some are gifted, others not so much. In fact, a few of us, me included, are illiterate in Chinese. But by God’s grace, those who serve to bless others are themselves blessed the most. See our praise team consists of women who have troubled marriages or dysfunctional families. Some of our younger brothers and sisters are students from mainland China or Thailand and have not mastered English. A couple of older brothers are in retirement and needed a platform to contribute. Most feel inadequate, have low self-esteem, and perhaps never would have the opportunity to stand before a congregation to do what they enjoy doing most - singing. Music brings people together, ministers to broken hearts in ways that sometimes sermons can’t do. Even the hearts of those who are leading - I know very well that’s a reality. When we stand together to serve the church in music, we get to witness people expressing their love to Jesus. Occasionally we can see tears. In spite of our own pain, agony and suffering, sacrificial praise is sweet.
Sacrificial praise pleases the Giver of sacrificial providence.
(Merriam-Webster on Sacrifice) The act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone
The war required everyone to make sacrifices
No sacrifice is too great when it comes to her children
God gave up His only begotten Son to restore, to reconcile, and to recompense for our sin. When we offer a sacrifice of praise, meaning when we praise Him in our agony, when we praise Him in our anguish, and when we praise Him in our affliction, and God’s name is glorified in both the best of times and worst of times, the act of praise melts God’s heart, our tears are collected in a bottle, and with it we are remembered and recorded in His book (Ps. 56:8). Out of praise, peace. Out of peace, strength. Out of strength, victory. Because when we offer to God a sacrifice of praise, we are emptying the bitter gall of sorrow, and He replaces it with the dew of heaven.
Bring Your Gift
16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Bear His Marks - of shame, suffering, and sorrow
Bless His Name - because we have been forgiven, redeemed, restored
Bring Your Gift - to share with each other as an offering of thanksgiving
(Story Book)
Children are a gift from God. God pours out His gifts into our children. That is why we are so happy and filled with joy. You are a gift from God.
Earlier we have the recipe for Stone Soup - “By working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.”
Hebrews Chapter 13?1. Love one another
2. Care for strangers
3. Suffer with believers
4. Honor marriage
5. Be content
6. Profess God
7. Live in faith
9. Keep the truth
10. Observe the law
8. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever
11. Jesus is our atonement
12. Jesus is our Savior
13. Bear His marks
14. Seek eternity
15. Bless His name
16. Bring your Gift
This is our recipe for Growth, Advancement, Motion with the gift of the Gospel: “By serving together, with everyone offering their gifts, a greater love is shared!”
I know this is an English Adult Service. Thank you for your patience and acceptance for my random use of broken Chinese and storybook illustration for our precious children who are present. I don’t want to be a loud megaphone - I just want God’s voice to be heard by as many who are here as possible.
And let us together as a church commit to be a church that doesn’t only celebrate Christ’s birth but to share the good news of baby Jesus continually here and outside of the church. May God help us to be excited about Christmas but to be even more joyful to live out the love of Jesus Christ - every day!
