St Timothy Presbyterian Church

Scripture Passage John 11:1-45 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Grace and Miracles Life is full of miracles. Miracles are not just supernatural events. Miracles are events where you experience God's grace. Sun rises in the morning. Babies are born. As you lie down, you get a good sleep. People learn to cope with unbearable suffering. People overcome incredible challenges to live happy lives. These are all miracles we see. We all experience God's grace. If you don't believe in miracles, you miss a big part of your life. Why do people choose to serve instead of being served? Why do people choose to love instead of hating? Why do people choose to forgive instead of staying angry? They are all miracles to me. They do that because they see God's grace in their lives. Experiencing miracles and experiencing God's grace: They go together. Last 7 weeks, we did a series of Knowing Christ from the 4 Gospels. It was a long journey for me. At first, I was very uncertain about this series. I was thinking about t

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Scripture Passage John 9:1-41 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script But Now I See Salvation is seeing. It is very much being able to see. Through Jesus, our eyes are open. Now we can see hope in despair. Healing in sickness. Life in death. In today's Scripture, the born blind man was healed by Jesus and he was able to see. This was what he said. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. (John 9:25) We are familiar with this phrase. I was blind but now I see. We heard that in our favourite hymn, Amazing Grace. Amazing grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; Was blind, but now I see. What happened to the man in today's story was more than a physical healing. At first, he didn't really know who healed him. He simply said, the man called Jesus healed me. The Pharisees kept asking him who healed him. And he said he was a prophet. Then finally after he was kicked out from the community, Jesus came to him. When he met Jesus again, he finally rea

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Scripture Passage Romans 5:1-11 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Rootless The Bible provides an image of the kind of people we should be: They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. (Psalm 1:3) What a beautiful image of life. The word that comes to mind for me is rooted . People who bear fruit and prosper have strong roots and are firmly planted. Life today often seems to be the opposite. It seems rootless. So many things are out of our control. So many changes happen around us. So many things happen to us. We don't know what to root ourselves in. St. Paul Today's passage is written by St. Paul. As a young man, he rooted himself deep in his Jewish identity. This is what he says about his previous life: If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as

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Scripture Passage Genesis 12:1-4 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Immigrant Life Life is a combination of settlement and journey. We cannot always live out of a suitcase. We need to be settled. That's why immigrant life is difficult. You are uprooted all of a sudden and have to survive in a totally strange land. Too much change all at once. Too many unknown variables. Abraham was also an immigrant. He immigrated twice. His original home town was Ur. He went to Haran. And from there, he immigrated again. He left the place where he was well settled. It wasn't just his decision. He felt that it was God's calling. He was called to take the journey. So you can see his life was a mix of settlement and journey. That is what life is. A good harmony of settlement and journey. The question is when to take a journey and when to settle. How do you know that? The settlement gives us a sense of rootedness. It gives us a feeling of being grounded and we feel stable. You are quite comfortable when you are settled.

Scripture Passage Matthew 4:1-11 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Temptation We are in the middle of Lent. Lent is a period of 40 days, commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert before his ministry. Even though we may reflect on Jesus' suffering, it doesn't have to be always dark and gloomy. In Eastern Orthodox, it is known as the season of Bright Sadness. Bright Sadness. I like that. It is sad but it is not hopeless sadness. At the end of DARKNESS, there is a light waiting for us. At the end of TEMPTATION, there is a victory. At the end of DEATH, there is resurrection. Life is not always good but life is not always bad either. Life is not always bright. There are times when life can be gloomy. But there are times when things are good too. The secret is how we deal with each situation with graciousness, graciousness to yourself and to others. There are valleys and hills in life. Count Basie, American Jazz pianist said. Learn to deal with the valleys and the hills will take care

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Scripture Passage Matthew 17:1-13 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Six Days later Matthew began with Six days later What happened six days before? This was what Jesus said six days before. From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. (Matthew 16:21) Jesus told the disciples what would happen to him. Then, six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John to a mountain to pray. There they experienced this wonderful divine manifestation. Theophany: Experience of God's manifestation. Jesus completely changed. Out of this world kind of experience they had. His face shone like the sun. His clothes became dazzling white. Moses and Elijah, two great prophets appeared. Silence When these amazing things happen, the usual response will be to be quiet. Silence that comes from being deeply immersed in the moment. That's what people do. SILE

In this session, we reflected on the second half of Mark. This is where the question: “Who is this person?” gets answered. The post Mark Part 2 (Jesus in the Gospels) appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Church.

Scripture Passage Matthew 5:21-26 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script More than Cordial You shall not murder is the basic minimum level for us to live with one another. Yes, I should feel safe and assured that just because you and I have a beef, you're not going to take my life! We need basic limits on our behaviour to live peaceably with one another. We need minimum standards and expectations. But that alone does not make life good. We need more than just cordial and civil relations with one another. That is what Jesus is saying in today's passage. In the 1930's, a group of scholars at Harvard began a study on human happiness. They selected two groups: one, a group of students from Harvard from varying backgrounds; and two, a group of teenagers from a poor area in Boston. They kept track of them, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They were from all walks of life, and have had such varied experiences. But after 84 years, they've boiled down all of their findings to one conclusio

This is the first study in an 8-week series on “Jesus in the Gospels”. In this first session, we reflected on the first half of Mark. The key question that emerges from the first half of Mark is: “who is Jesus?” There is nothing like the in-person experience of being there, but we hope this recording will bless you still! The post Mark Part 1 (Jesus in the Gospels) appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Church.

Scripture Passage Matthew 5:13-20 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Slat of the Earth Jesus said, you are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world. That is a wonderful statement about us. He didn't say this lightly. This tells us exactly who we are. He didn't say try to be the salt of the earth or be the light of the world. He said you ARE already the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Since you are the salt and be the light, live like the salt and live like the light. Don't be something else. Don't lose that saltiness and don't live in your darkness. Salt and Light were the two most precious things during Jesus' time. During Roman period, the salt was so precious that they called it, white gold. Since it was so precious, and people knew that, sometimes soldiers in Roman Army were paid with salt instead of money. It was called Salarium. Sal is the Latin word for the salt. From that word, the word salary came out. Jesus used the most precious things around him to tell

Scripture Passage 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Real Wisdom The real wisdom doesn't come to your brain. The real wisdom comes to your soul. The real wisdom is not knowing what to do. The real wisdom is knowing who you are. The biggest problem we have is not that we don't have enough knowledge. We have so much knowledge. Especially with the development of the internet, so much knowledge is available and accessible to us instantly. Since we talked about searching God through a google search last week, I google searched God. It was endless. The first question was Who created God? I guess that's what people are interested in knowing the most. Interesting. Anyways, we have so much knowledge but they are all information, data, and factual knowledge. It doesn't give us wisdom. Because wisdom is more than having factual knowledge. Information, data, and factual knowledge are what people seek after, ultimately for their own benefits. To control and conquer. To have upper hands. Wi

Scripture Passage Matthew 4:12-22 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Calling Last week, we reflected that passionate life comes from having a sense of calling in life. When you realize that you are connected to something bigger than your life, you find new passion for life. When your life is deeply connected with the higher purpose, then your life becomes meaningful and you can find passion in life. How can you find this sense of calling? That is a very difficult question. It is not something that you can arbitrarily choose. Just to make your life meaningful and purposeful. But let's think about calling. You don't call yourself, do you? So, calling comes from outside of you. It is not something you decide. That's why we call it calling. That's what Jesus said. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. (John 15:16) Life is more than your decisions. We can see that in today's p

Scripture Passage Isaiah 49:1-7 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Calling It is wonderful to live with passion. It is also important to live with passion. Life and passion go together. Being alive means being passionate. It is sad to see people merely exist but not being alive. It is sad to see so many people live without passion. They may coast along without serious problems but they lack passion in life. Passion is a strong desire to live. Passionate living is living with clear knowledge of why you live. A mediocre lifestyle will not satisfy those who live with passion. What gives us passion for life then? What gives you a strong desire and what gives you clear reason to live? Calling. A sense of calling. It is not just your desire that makes you passionate. You somehow discover that you are chosen. Chosen to do something or to be somebody. That is the sense of calling. Seeing your life as calling gives you passion. This sense of calling will not come automatically. It is something that you discov

Scripture Passage Isaiah 42:1-9 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Big Storms Last week, Rev. Kim introduced the image of storms. Over the last few years, we experienced many storms.  We are slowly emerging from them, and we see many ruins. 2023 is the year to start rebuilding from the ruins. There were big storms that we all faced. We faced circumstances we had never experienced before. Some of you also endured difficult individual storms. Death of loved ones. Failing health. Strained relationships. Some of these storms made life very challenging and difficult. Some of them made us feel very weak and vulnerable. When just one storm hits us, we can endure it and wait it out. But when many storms come one after the other, it can take a toll on us. When we get battered by continuous storms, we lose heart. We lose vitality. We lose vigour. Instead of being positive, we can become more gloomy. Isaiah’s Storm When a very big storm totally destroys everything, where do we find the will to carry on? How do

Scripture Passage Colossians 2:2-3 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Aftermath Happy New Year! It is wonderful to have the first day of the new year, worshipping God. What better way is there than starting the first day, praising God and thanking God? God has been good to us in 2022. We thank God for that. We have come here with a thankful heart. As God has been good to us in 2022, he will also be good to us in 2023. For those who love God, all things work out for good. As I look back last few years, I realize that we went through a lot. I feel like a big storm passed by. There were times when I felt very unsure about the future, not only the future of our world, but also the future of the church in general. 1.1 million Americans lost their lives because of Covid. Closing down the church? I could never imagine that and I have never experienced that. But we were very close to that. Do you remember? There was a time when only five people were allowed in the sanctuary. We were lucky to have something c

Scripture Passage Matthew 1:18-25 Worship Video Worship Audio Sermon Script Comfort An English Actress Imelda Staunton said, You can only do your best. That's all you can do. And if it isn't good enough, it isn't good enough. It sounds comforting. It sounds like a wise advice. What else can you do? You can do your best and just have to live with what is not good enough. But it is hard to accept that. Today is the World Cup final. All the teams did their best. But when their best was not enough, they felt so sad and disappointed. Many of them cried like children. When our best is not good enough, it is hard to swallow. But sometimes I wonder, Did I really do my best? Doing our best is a very subjective statement. Often, it is a convenient way of explaining away of not going further when we could. It is a comfortable excuse to close the door for new possibilities. It is rational justification for accepting the status quo and doing nothing about it. I hope that we don't use doing our best as a coverup for