Category Archives: Evangelism

The Hardest Soul to Win – ASL Sermon

Bible, Christian, Evangelism, God, Sermons, Video


Title: “The Hardest Soul to Win”
Passage: Romans 2:17-3:8
Location: Open Bible Deaf Church, College Park, MD
Permalink: https://vimeo.com/169703612
This sermon is presented in American Sign Language with no voice interpretation.*

Special thanks to Open Bible Deaf Church and Mid-Atlantic District of the Christian & Missionary Alliance for making this sermon possible to be shared online!

*If you want this sermon to be voiced, your help and/or financial support will be greatly appreciated so this sermon can be made accessible to our hearing brothers and sisters in Christ!

Day 37: Healing & Forgiveness

Evangelism, Lent 2016, Meditation

Day 37: Healing & Forgiveness

NT Passages: James 5:10-16, Romans 15:1-7, I Corinthians 12:27-31-13:1-8, II Corinthians 1:8-11, Galatians 5:22-6:2, I Thessalonians 5:14-23

Gospel readings: Luke 10:25-37, Luke 19:1-10, Matthew 10:1 & 10:5-8, Matthew 8:14-23, Matthew 25:1-13, Matthew 15:21-28, and Matthew 9:9-13

Link to Lent 2016 Vimeo Channel

Transcription of the video above:

Jesus is our Great Physician, and He has the power to heal us from all our infirmities. The foremost business he goes about everyday as our Physician is to heal us of our sin-sick soul. When Jesus encountered many needy people throughout His ministry, He often dealt with the sickness within their souls at the same time he brings them physical, emotional, or social healing. To the woman caught in adultery, Jesus commanded her to not sin any longer. To Zacchaeus, Jesus meditated forgiveness to him. To the lowest and the vilest offender who repents and desires to follow Jesus, Jesus promises to forgive them of their sinful past and give them new life, hope, joy, and peace.

Only until sinners are forgiven from their sins will they be able to be healed. Humans are made whole only when they have a personal and saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Complete healing of our sin-sick souls is given to us by God only because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God completely forgives us of all our sins on the basis of His Son’s sinless life and atoning death. God desires to heal us of our sin-sick souls and have a personal relationship with Him forever. Easter is a message of God’s triumph over sin, death, and the power of darkness. The same victory over sin and death is promised to everyone who chooses to follow Jesus. Through Christ and his finished work on the Cross alone, you can claim victory over sin, be healed from your past, and experience new life, hope, joy, and peace made possible.

Day 34: Outside the Gates

Christian, Evangelism, Exhortation, Lent 2016, Meditation

Day 34: Outside the Gates
Passage: Hebrews 13:12-15
Link to Lent 2016 Vimeo Channel

Transcription of the video above:

Just before the armies of Babylon arrived, Jerusalem was happy in their comfort zone; the walled city; and they didn’t feel the need to uphold or share the Law they had been given. They became insular, greedy, and distrusting of anyone that wasn’t them. And only when God smashed their very foundations were they forced to live among those they had despised, those whom they had hated, those whom they didn’t know.

As humans, we tend to construct a city for ourselves, a city made up of us and ours, with walls and gates built not as a sanctuary for those who seek life, but as a bunker for those we think deserve to live. But when the city, shelter, bunker is threatened, then that illusion of a calm haven is shattered. We fall into despair, or worse, lash out and fight to protect what’s ours. We are just plain scared by what might lie outside of our comfort zones beyond the gates of our lives. We forget that the people who we might not like or don’t agree with are also made in the image of God, sinners just like the rest of us.

In Hebrews 13:12-15, apostle Paul tells us that Jesus suffered outside the gate of Jerusalem in order to set apart a people through his sacrifice, which means that we should willingly suffer for His sake since we are not citizens of our own cities, but of the city of God.

Jesus suffered outside the gate by hanging on the cross and died. He was buried and raised to life by his Father in order that we might become heirs to his Kingdom, his everlasting city. Through Christ, we might be able to live forever with His Father as our Father, as co-heirs of Jesus’ inheritance. We must deconstruct the city we have built on our own and get to know the people around us outside our city walls. Befriend them and bless them because it is an opportunity for you to encounter Christ in the world. Be around them, get to know them, learn to love them.

Because only by suffering with people, those outside the gates of your city, will you see Jesus Christ and offer people hope, peace, and joy.

Day 21: “I Cannot Speak!”

Evangelism, Exhortation, Lent 2016, Meditation

Day 21: “I Cannot Speak!”
Passage: Exodus 4:10-12

Communication takes place when thoughts are exchanged between two parties. When effective communication takes places, marriages tend to be strengthened, friendships solidified, and business relationships flourish. It is an art that can be learned, and those who harness this skill usually succeed in life.

Prayer is a form of spiritual communication between believers and God, and when Christians pray, their relationship with God grow. While he was praying to God, Moses tried to avoid what God had called him to do by claiming that he cannot speak eloquently before people (Ex. 4:10). He humbly recognized who he was before God and also his own morality in his prayer. Moses was afraid that he would mess up when he speaks before the Pharaoh and the Israelite nation. Even though Moses was raised in the palace of Egypt, he was not quick witted and so he thought he would be inadequate for the task God was calling him out for.

God then reassures Moses that clear communication and speech is only given by God to human beings, and that he will give Moses words he needs to speak before Pharaoh and the Jewish nation (Ex. 4:11-12). In fact, Moses was the perfect man to stand before Pharaoh and be the deliverer of God’s people because he was raised in Pharaoh’s household and knew the ways of the Egyptians. God has already providentially worked in Moses’ life to mold him into just the right person for the work of delivering Israel. All Moses had to do was to know, trust, and obey God if he was to be an effective communicator.

Throughout the Scriptures, God often uses people who appear weak or unworthy to accomplish His mighty work. God desires to use humble people who intimately knows and completely trusts God as His chosen vessels to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world. If people respond in a belligerent manner to the message being proclaimed, believers must continue to love and express kindness toward them. They are to pray for the people who oppose them: “Bless them that curse you, and pray for them who despitefully use you” (Luke 6:28). Above all things, all believers must remember that they are sinners whom Christ died for whenever they share the gospel (Romans 5:8).

Do you love God enough to look past your own convenience and comfort zone? Do you love mankind enough to let yourself to be used by God to reach them with the good news? Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Matt. 5:9). By biding our time and praying for them we stand ready to be used by God to bring them into fellowship, not just with us, but with God in Christ as well. In every discussion or connection with others – especially during the Lenten season – let us remain humble enough and dependent on God to reach them for Christ.

Day 20: “Suppose They Say?”

Evangelism, Exhortation, God, Inspiration, Lent 2016, Pastoral Advice

Day 20: “Suppose They Say?”
Passage: Exodus 4:1-9

Moses’ first two protests were formal by nature, properly expressing his humility before such a great assignment. But here, Moses presents his third objection with a hint of uncertainty concerning God’s promise: the possibility of being rejected by the Israelite masses. Knowing God’s divine name itself does not validate Moses’ claim to be divinely commissioned, for since the days of Jacob no Israelite had professed to receiving a theophany. In other words, Moses was saying, “Suppose they did not believe or listen to me when I tell them about you?”

God was prepared to reassure him with three distinct signs he could use to overcome the doubting people he was bound to encounter. The first sign was an ordinary shepherd’s crook supernaturally transforming into a serpent, only to be changed back to its original state once Moses took hold of its tail (Ex. 4:3). The second sign was that of Moses’ hand becoming encrusted, or flaky (not necessarily leprous as identified in Lev. 13-14) that supernaturally returned back to normal once he took it out of his cloak the second time (Ex. 4:6). The third sign, which was to be performed only inside Egypt and foreshadowed the first of the ten Egyptian plagues, was the transformation of Nile River from drinkable water to blood (Ex. 4:9). Every sign points towards God’s complete sovereignty over harmless things by supernaturally changing it into something harmful and then changing it back. Moreover, it demonstrated the matchless power the Israelite God would have over the Egyptian gods who supposedly controlled the nature.

All believers are commissioned by God to deliver those who are in bondage to sin, to set people free with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Just as God gave three signs to Moses to overcome his fears, God wants us to overcome three areas we tend to fear in this world:

Satan (Ex. 4:3)

In the first sign, Moses threw down the rod at God’s command and it became a snake. As a shepherd living in the wilderness for forty years, he knew enough to run from the snake. But God told him to stop and grab it by the tail – which required a great amount of faith!

The snake has always been a symbol of the Devil. Moses probably have known the power of Devil was real in Egypt (remember how “powerful” the magicians were in the land of Egypt – they could also do the signs and wonders). Moses needed to know that his God was greater than the gods of Egypt. Later on, the rod-turned-snake would swallow the magicians’ snakes. God used this sign to show Moses that he could provide for all of his “spiritual needs.”

In a similar manner, God promises His people that He would overcome our adversity, the Devil, and meet all our spiritual needs. 1 John 4:4 says that God has already overcome the Devil because He is infinitely greater than our adversity.

Sickness (Ex. 4:6)

Moses was eighty years old when God called him to go into Egypt. He used the second sign to show Moses that he could take care of all his “physical needs.”

People live in constant fear of their health and death. The greatest fear of most people eighty years old is that of “falling down.” Who is going to help me back up if I should fall? The “I AM” will!

Later in his life when he was one hundred and twenty years old, Moses’ natural strength had not abated and vision not dimmed one bit (Deut. 34:7). This is an amazing testimony to how God has provided for all of Moses’ physical needs!

For believers, Jesus assured his disciples in Matthew 6:25,26: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” Whatever befalls in your lives, God will continue to provide and care for your physical needs.

Sin (Ex. 4:9)

Moses might have been afraid of the failure of past memories and what he had done that forced him out of Egypt. He knew that he was a murderer and thus a “sinner.”

God knew that too; with this sign, God tells Moses that when he pours the water of the Nile River upon the ground, it would become blood. Blood is associated with the forgiveness of sins; for present-day believers, this forgiveness is found in Jesus Christ alone. God used this sign to help Moses overcome his “emotional needs.”

There are many people that would serve Christ, but are afraid to say anything to others because of their fear of being reminded of their past failures. God sent Moses to the Pharaoh to tell him about who God was. The message that believers must give to the world is not about them, but rather about God’s extravagant grace and of His insurmountable power to save to the uttermost. It is because of God’s grace believers are commissioned to serve Him in a ministry and to have the privilege to proclaim the good news to people.

God can change your life, and he wants to use your life for His service. He can help you overcome your greatest fears and unleash your potential to reach the lost world with the gospel message. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that our fears have been replaced with spiritual strength, extraordinary love, and a rational mind: “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” When you are assailed with fear and doubt when he commissions you, do you run to God in your prayers and depend on Him as the source of your strength, or are you prone to run away from and not allow God to use you as he sees fitting?