Spring Quarter Week SEVEN (May 14, 2009)

SPEAKER Pastor Richard Kim (Gospel Life Mission Church)
Be Serious and Be Confident 1 John 2:28-3:10

Be Serious
- 1 John 2 – you need to be serious by doing what you are., for doing is a confirmation of being.
- The doing of righteousness is the confirmation of who we are.
- 2:29 – Doing right does not make you a Christian, but it shows and reveals that you are a Christian.
- During John’s time, enemies of his church were sharing with the church goers that they could be righteous without practicing righteousness.
- 3:6,7,9: These verses repeatedly reminds us that doing confirms being, practice of sin confirms that one is not a child of God.
- Be serious about obedience, stop ignoriong your sins. Learn to confess, talk, struggle and transform yourself through relying upon God.
- Being angry is not one’s personality, being people-pleasing, lustful, greedy, discontent are not part of one’s personality. Don’t ignore the sin in your life when God is ready to help you fight through it all.

Be Confident
- Many of us have confused seriousness with confidence, because most of us who are morally upright struggle with this issue.
- Where does your confidence in drawing near to God come from?
- Can you worship God after you: cuss out a person and get into a huge fight with them? watch porn and masturbate? fall into premarital sex? get drunk? cheat on an exam? get really busy and stop meeting with God? have not gone to church for a while? worshiped God all week?
- We unconsciously place our confidence in our work.
- Learn to be serious about doing, but be confident in being.
- Your confidence in Christ makes you who you are! You are a child of God, be confident in your being! Have confidence in your status, rather than your words and works.
- What does it mean to be one of God’s children? It means that you share in the baptism of Jesus Christ. God is pleased with you, because he is pleased with his son. Romans 6:3, Matthew 3:16-17, Zeph. 3:17
- A person who says I believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and says God doesn’t love me, does not understand the Gospel.

Application
- We fall all the time, but God wants us to come to Him because he is not angry or mad because of the cross.
- If you cannot go to Christ after you have sinned, you don’t know the cross.
- Hebrews 4:14-16 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

 

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Prospective Small Group Leader: If you still have a desire to serve the ministry in a way that allows you to focus on deep growth, accountability and vulnerability with three or four brothers, please consider becoming a small group leader. We have extended this deadline for filling out the small group applications ONE MORE WEEK until Monday, May 18, 2009. Please pray about it and ask God whether He wants to use you to serve in this way. I encourage all of you to fill out an application and prayerfully consider being a leader next year.

2. Senior Banquet: We invite all CCM members, present and past, to join us at Shanghai Reds Restaurant in Marina Del Rey for a honoring of the seniors in CCM this year. It will take place at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, May 20, 2009. $25 for Seniors, $30 for CCM members, $35 for guest and alumni. See you there!

3. Beach Night: Are you tired of meeting for CCM at the same old UCLA campus lecture hall? Well, we are going to the BEACH this coming Thursday! If you would like to go, please meet us at Sunset Rec. Turnaround at 5 PM on Thursday for rides! Bring yourself, $5 for food, and an a smile because we are going to enjoy God, each other, and his creation all night long!

4. Prayer: We continue to encourage the ministry to pray for each other, for seekers of Christ, and for those that have not had an opportunity to know God. Stay consistent in your prayers because they are so powerful. 2 Thessalonians 5:16

Take care everyone and God Bless! Notes from Pastor Richard Kim’s sermon will be posted and pictures from the Small Group Outing at the Getty as well!

 

Spring Quarter Week FIVE (April 30, 2009)

SPEAKER Pastor David Kim (The Garden Christian Fellowship)
The Posture of Mary Luke 10:38-42

Before we look at the posture of Mary, we will look at the problem of Martha.
- Martha was Distracted, v.40. She was caught up in a lot of good things such as preparing a great meal for Jesus and tidying up the house, but she was distracted by the busyness of life that it kept her from building her relationship with Jesus. It kept her from intimacy with God. We all do good things that are important, however we cannot get caught up by them and lose focus of what is most important – Jesus! (Matthew 6)
- Martha was Distressed, She worried and stressed about many things, but we are too blessed to be stressed. We are worried because we don’t trust in God, but we trust ourselves. If you are worried all the time, something is definitely wrong with your relationship with yourself, others and most importantly God. Psalm 121
- Martha was Demanding, She was upset that Mary wasn’t helping her and she became spiritually unstable. When you lose your intimate connection with God, you lose your JOY. If you serve in your own strength, you will burn out.

The Right Posture of Mary
- She had the posture of a disciple of Jesus, sitting and kneeling at the teacher’s feet.
- Mary not only knelt at Jesus’ feet, but she also gave a whole year’s wage in a matter of seconds in worship to God. John 12.
- Understand that Christ is in charge of not only the heavens and the earth, but the entire universe.
- Luke 6, understand that you can only have one Lord, thus you cannot be the Lord of your life.
- Only when we acknowledge Him as Lord do we lose our life to God, Galatians 2:20.
- Lord means Lord, Lord means maximum authority has been given to Jesus and we need to learn to Listen. We need to learn to take the posture of Mary and listen to God, even if we don’t like to hear or listen to it.
- Understand that the truth is not mean, the truth is truth and it would be mean if it wasn’t told to you.
- We show God our love, by listening to him and being obedient to his Word. John 13 – there is power in obedience.
- Your relationship with God is a dynamic, two-way relationship like David’s relationship.

Jesus weighs in
- He told Martha not to lose sight of the best and most important things in her life.
- He wanted them to understand that intimacy with him is the most powerful and greatest thing to have. It provides peace, power, love, and salvation.
- While men look toward the outward things, Jesus looks towards the heart.
- Jesus wants to commune with you, so stop taking your relationship with Jesus for granted, and start having great intimacy with your Lord, your personal Savior Jesus.

 

Spring Quarter Week FOUR (April 23, 2009)

SPEAKER Pastor Tim Yu (Living Hope Community Church)
The Good Shepherd Luke 15:1-7

When we refer to Jesus as our shepherd, we usually feel safe, warm, and protected, but this is not the picture Jesus Christ was trying to paint.

We need Jesus as our shepherd because we as sheep are ridiculously dumb and stupid.
- Sheep got lost very easily and are helpless without a flock
- When encountering a lost sheep, they will not follow you, and you will need to carry it on your back

We are sheep are in need of being rescued, Luke 15:5-6- We need to have someone save us from ourselves.
- We are in need of a Savior because we are utterly sinful, and in need of saving.

When Christ shares this parable, he is addressing the Pharisees and teachers of the law about his ministry to the social outcasts of society- Luke 15:1-2, Christ was responding to people, to a situation.
- If Christ was truly God, should not he have spent his time with the Pharisees, the chosen people or race?
- Luke 15:2, To invite someone to eat with you was an invitation to become part of their community, and to be considered an equal. The Pharisees were shocked that Jesus would make himself an equal in comparison to the “sinners.”
- Jesus openly ate with the prostitutes, defying social structures and spent time with those that were considered unclean. His time spent with the unclean needed cleaning rituals to be rejoined into the normal society.
- Jesus used this parable to share a radical way of thinking to the teachers of the law.

This parable, along with the parable of the lost coin and prodigal son are all about the JOY we find in Christ.- In this parable, we get a glimpse of heaven, through the rejoicing of the angels of the repentance of one sinner.
- People rejoice when sinners are saved by grace!
- What brings you joy? If what brings you joy is not Christ, that joy automatically separates you from those that do not have the same joy. For example, if you find joy in your relationship with your significant other, you exclude those that do not have a relationship like that.
- HOWEVER, if Christ is your JOY, you cannot feel better than another because you are lucky to be saved like everyone else.

Christ spent time with the “sinners” and the lost because they are the ones in need of a Savior.
- We are called to love our neighbors, but do we know our collegian neighbors?
- Are you a bible belting sales Christian? Do others see you as a Christian with an agenda? Do we talk to others for them, or do we talk to them for us?
- If we present the Gospel when we feel like it, what passion is that? What kind of mentality is that?
- What good is a light when we congregate among other lights? “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” – 1 Peter 2:12

We have segregated ourselves further and further from those that Christ has called us to minister to.- Start cutting back on things that you may not need, and gauge the world in a Christ-centered perspective.
- Be in the world, but not of it.
- Do people know who has saved you? Do they know what drives you? Are we taking the knowledge we have and sharing it responsibly?

Jesus was both a shepherd and a sheep. He not only saved us, but he lived among us.
- Christ created the community that’s only requirement is for us to recognize that we are merely humble sheep.
- The climax of this parable is not the saving, but the rejoicing in Luke 15:7 that took place after the saving.
- Understand that we were once lost, and know that we are found, we should continue to share God’s love, mercy and gift of eternal salvation with those who do not know him, that we might rejoice along with those in the heavens.

 

Spring Quarter Week THREE (April 16, 2009)

SPEAKER Pastor Dan Matsuoka (The Vine)
Gospel Night John 3:16-17

“The gospel of Jesus Christ is both intellectually credible and existentially satisfying”
- Tim Keller

Intellectually Credible
- Huston Smith: Who and What are Buddha and Jesus?
– Buddha: Didn’t want to be believed in; wanted his teachings to spread
– Jesus: Taught people to believe in him

John 14:6
“Jesus said, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
Mark 10:45
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”
1 Corinthians 15:6
“After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”

- This here is proof that Jesus was in fact resurrected: the fact that there are eye witnesses to see Him return.
- What we have to realize is that we cannot debate someone into becoming a Christian

Existentially Satisfying
- There’s something in Christianity for all of us
- Christianity is the only religion where salvation is free!
- There are no qualifications necessary to becoming a Christian

 

Spring 2009: Week ONE (April 2, 2009)

SPEAKER Pastor Sam Shin (Bethel Presbyterian Church)
An Invitation… John 4-8

- People are very different from God – you can do 100 great things for someone, and yet they will focus all their attention on that one bad thing you did against them. With God, you could do an infinite amount of bad things, yet one good thing is enough to create celebration with God and his angels in heaven!
- With that in mind, there will be three stories of Jesus that will be discussed today.

John 4: Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
- Unlike what it says in the bible, Jesus did not have to pass through Samaria, because Jews were not supposed to speak and talk with Gentiles, especially those in Samaria.
- However, Jesus had an appointment with someone there.
- A lot of women went to the well to get water, but many of them excluded this one Samaritan woman who was believed to be an adulterer.
- Unlike those women, Jesus talked with the woman who went to the well alone, and she realized that he was the Messiah.
- The woman then shared the gospel to everyone she knew, even those that excluded her.
- There is something about Jesus that includes everyone into his relationship.

John 5: Jesus and the Invalid
- The pool at Bestheda was considered to provide healing to the first invalids who went into the pool whenever it was stirred by angels.
- An invalid who waited by the pool for over 38 years had an encounter with Jesus, who asked him “Do you want to get well?”
- The man declared that he had nobody to help him get into the pool, and Jesus poured his grace and love upon the man by healing him up.
- May nobody accuse you for not helping those that need help. Many Christians have been accused of being hostile because instead of caring, hugging and loving, we are going around picketing Christian beliefs that do not pertain largely with our salvation.

John 8: Jesus and the Adulterous Woman
- While Jesus was teaching people who were captivated by his every word, the teachers of the law and Pharisees brought an adulterous woman to his attention.
- They wanted to stone her for her actions, however Jesus said “If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw the stone at her.”
- The only man that could have thrown the stone was Jesus, and he did not throw it, but instead let her go.
- What would we do if we encountered a similar situation? What do we do with those that are homosexual?
- Jesus would tell them that he loves them, but that he hopes they will sin no more. Jesus teaches us to genuinely love others.

Invitation to be like Christ.
1) Invitation to teach others as Christ treats us.
2) Invitation to forgive as Christ forgives us.
3) Invitation to love ans christ loves us.

 

SPECIAL ANNOUNCMENTS

I hope everyone had a great spring break! Pictures and sermon notes from retreat will be put up, so keep checking in for those! There are a few announcements that need to be made for the next couple weeks:

1. Gospel Night: We are having a night for Christians to specifically bring out their non-Christians friends in order to expose them to the Good News about Jesus and the Gospel. We will have Gospel Night on Week 3, April 16 with CCM Advisor Daniel Matsuoka speaking for us. Please invite and pray for your friends in order that they may come on Thursday with open ears and hearts. If you would like to help plan for gospel night, please talk with Bekah (contact information is on the contact webpage).

2. Cafe Night: On Saturday, April 18, 2009, we will once again, we are having a great night of celebration for the work that God wants to do around the world through many of our CCM members. Come for a night of amazing showcases of talent, great food and incredible worship with God. If you would like to go, sign up with a second year on Thursday nights, or e-mail Jerry Chang at jerrers.chang@gmail.com If you would like to perform, e-mail Jerry Chang as well.

3. We are going to have many more amazing activities throughout this year. Please keep an eye out for opportunities to serve and enjoy the fellowship of your fellow brothers and sisters in CCM!

Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. – Romans 12:2

 

Winter 2009: Week NINE (March 5, 2009)

SPEAKER Pastor James Han (Redeemer Presbyterian Church)
Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness? Matthew 5:6

Righteousness is NOT an option
- Have you ever been so hungry and/or thirsty that you would eat or drink anything because you are going to die? Hunger and thirst are the only two things that will satisfy our bodies in such a powerful way.
- Esau was so famished that he rejected God’s promise and blessing in his birthright for a bowl of soup. We are like this as well, throwing away God’s promise for the things of this world.
- Righteousness has become an option for many. People now say blessed are those that compromise, or accept all. We no longer focus on what is right, but on what is convenient!
- If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be satisfied because you will be filled with Christ, and there will be a natural outpouring of life.
- If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you will be persecuted. That persecution should bring you joy because of your understanding that we do not belong to this world.

NOT self-righteousness, but the righteousness of God
- There is an emptiness that rages in our hearts because we all have a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill, while we try to fill it with things already on our hearts. Isaiah 55:1-2
- Our hearts are restless, until it finds its rest in Him and Him alone.
- Do we long for that righteousness? Matthew 5:20
- Our righteousness is not based on our abilities, because they are like filthy rags Isaiah 64:6.
- Tim Keller describes two types of sinner: 1) Irreligious sinners are those that pursue the things of the world, 2) Religious sinners are those that pursue religion as an idol.
- Our righteousness needs to be based on Jesus Christ because we are too poor in spirit, too broken and sinful to stand righteous in front of anyone.
- If living a righteous life is a burden, then you are doing it on your own strength.

GOD’s righteousness
- Recognize the poverty of your spirit and your evident sin, recognize that you need Jesus in your life. Through Jesus, be renewed and refreshed.
- Live Christianity by changing from the inside out.
- Thirst and hunger after Christ everyday!
- Understand that God’s love and grace abounds. Romans 5:20
- We have tasted and seen God’s righteousness, but we have not experienced it fully. The full reality is that Jesus has not yet come and let us continue to long for that day.
- The day you were born was the day that you started to die, but the day you are reborn is the day that you may start to live.

START NOW
- One day we will be fully righteous, but why not start now to reveal that hunger and thirst for the righteousness we have in Christ?
- The more content we are in this world, the more content we are that we do not need Christ yet.
- We have God’s righteousness now, but the fullness will come later when Christ returns.
- Christians should want Heaven over Earth, not just Heaven over Hell.
- Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness?

 

Winter 2009: Week EIGHT (February 26, 2009)

SPEAKER Gary Purtee, (Former Missionary with Y.W.A.M (Youth with a Mission) and current employee at Fuller Theological Seminary)

It is difficult to put Gary’s words into different categories or even a systemized type of thinking. In order to attempt to do so, I will simply share how Gary’s words spoke to me. Gary basically shared His personal testimony with us which was a moving and powerful display of honesty and vulnerability, based on the experiences that he has had in his life. I am not sure of some of the chronology of the events of Gary’s life, but some of the important details included dedicating his life to overseas missions with YWAM in several asian countries, especially in the Philippines. It was during Gary’s early ministry that he went through a divorce from his first marriage and began to suffer from depression and anxiety in his time as a missionary, and eventually was forced to leave the mission field.

Imagine being so excited to dedicate your life to God for overseas missions and full-time ministry, only to have to give it all up and come back home after having others tell you that you weren’t good enough or weren’t doing a good enough job. Imagine the loss in self-esteem and self-worth that would come with this! Gary shared with us that this was a big struggle for him, and it added to his struggles with depression and self-esteem.

Gary entered Fuller Theological Seminary upon being called back from the mission field and began a process of healing and recovery with hopes of an eventual return to full-time ministry and the mission field. It was during this time that Gary realized that the biggest reason that He was sovereignly removed from the mission field by God was that He had not developed a personal intimacy with God. It is this personal intimacy with God that Gary needed to carry Him through the depression He faced in His life.

In Gary’s humble presentation of this testimony, the message that He wanted to share with CCM is that God loves you and wants to have an intimate relationship with you. Often times we are quick to ignore this idea of personal intimacy with God, but in Gary’s experience, it is the ONLY thing that can get us through our lives and our difficult experiences. Many times, we are quick to ignore God, we are quick to forget to pray, and we are quick to make ourselves busy. I know I am so often so guilty of this. God works in amazing ways in my life, and yet I am so slow to thank Him by taking the time to spend with Him and to grow in my intimacy with Him.

Gary referenced Galatians 2:20.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

God loves us and wants to live in us in every experience of our lives. Gary had to learn this hard way by being called back from something as Godly as the mission field. It does not matter what we do with our lives, careers, gifts, and talents. The truth of this life is that without a relationship with God, none of it will satisfy us, and we will not ever be fully capable of all that we can be unless we make God a part of everything in our lives. For this reason, we are to discipline ourselves in our own personal times with Jesus in Scripture and in prayer. The biggest message that I took from Gary’s testimony was that without this relationship with God, we can miss out on something very important to us in our lives, no matter how Godly it might be. For me personally, this was an important and necessary reminder in my life, and I was extremely blessed by Gary’s testimony and His message to us in regards to intimacy with the Lord.

 

Winter 2009: Week SEVEN (February 19, 2009)

SPEAKER Marcus Choi (The Vine)
Meditation for Maturation Psalm 1
“But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.”

Biblical Meditation
- Involves the filling of the mind through Scripture as opposed to emptying
- How can you gain something from reading the bible EVERY single time? (Meditation!)
- 10 years from now, how do you see yourself spiritually? Statistics note that after college 1/2 of people who attend church will fall away. God will become less important to them. How is it so that someone can so easily fall away from God? Right now, are our minds filled with God’s righteousness to the point of lasting faith?

The Godly Life
- The pivot point between a godly and ungodly life lies centrally on the Word of God and what you do with the insight you gain
- There will be times when you are under a dark cloud and God will seem distant. How then are you supposed to continue to trust in God and do what is right? (Through meditation of course!)
- But Godliness does not just happen upon deciding; you need to train!

Blessed is the Man (v.1)
- “Blessed” gives the vision of going straight
- A lot of things can hurt you and wear you out; Ask yourself: Is this wise? Is this edifying?
- “Wicked” is the path of loose-minded, unstable, and ultimately immoral things
- The true test is not allowing your mind to become captive to such things! Instead, be…

Taken Captive by God (2 Corinthians 10:5)
- “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
- Let God’s Word give you long lasting flavor and EXTRA spiritual energy!
- Mold your thoughts to be in-line with obedience to Christ so that our actions may bear long-lasting fruit

Be Filled with Goodness (Select passages to meditate upon)
- 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
- Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
- Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Application: With a partner, read the passages to one another, and focus on different words of the passage each time, each one powerful and God-breathed in its own sense!