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David – What Is Our Goliath

In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about the faith of David and asked the question, “What is our Goliath?” Goliath was a Philistine champion, over 9 feet tall, strong, with heavy armor, and representing the greatest of human strength. In our life, there are imposing things of the world we must overcome whether it be the obstacle of sin or even victory for God’s Kingdom. Goliaths speak to our fears and insecurities in the world. The Israelite army faced Goliath with fear, but David only had the holy fear of the Lord and faced Goliath with faith in God.

Like the rest of the world, Goliath puffs himself up with a fake form on the outside, but has nothing true and eternal on the inside. David has the form of a weak shepherd boy, but he has a big heart of love for God on the inside. What image do we have? Rather than the fake outside form of the world, we should go with the image of God. Saul wanted to fit David in his armor, but it didn’t fit him. Instead, David went with what God has given him – a staff and 5 smooth stones from the river.

Finally, very famously, David strikes Goliath on the forehead with a stone and defeats him. This is the method of faith. He doesn’t use the tools of the world, but went with what God gave him. The staff is the Word of God that God has given us. He’s also given us all the tools we need. We should find the 5 smooth stones around us that we can use to gain victory. God has already given us everything we need to defeat Goliath. The victory is with the Lord. God is the one who overturned the cross of Jesus into the resurrection.

May we walk with the glory of resurrection and victory that God has given us as well.

God Looks At the Heart

In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng told the historical story of King Saul and King David. Saul started off humbly, but his pride led to using humanistic thinking, rather than the power of God. He looked at the situation around him and tried to use his own power, rather than obeying God. This was true when he failed to wait for the prophet Samuel to give offering and was true again when kept what he considered “good” things of the wicked nation of the Amalekites. Anything with a humanistic start cannot give glory to God.

Through the prophet Samuel, we can learn that deep inside of Saul’s heart was rebellion, arrogance, and self-idolatry. He asserts the biblical truth that obedience is better than sacrifice. There are layers of depth in the heart and obedience is a deeper heart of love than is sacrifice. It’s not that sacrifice is bad, but sacrifice can easily turn superficial. Obedience is simpler, but relies on God and has humbleness. Obedience is a deeper heart of love than sacrifice is.

When choosing David, his own father Jesse overlooked him, but the Lord looks at the heart. Whatever our outward image may be, we can’t hide from God, He knows our hearts clearly. Is what I am doing have a pure motivation? Do I have a humanistic motivation, or is my motivation one of overflowing in God’s love. God doesn’t look at the outward appearance, because He can use even the one without a great outward appearance to do great work. Jesus himself was born in a manager and died on the cross, yet his heart of unconditional love shined through and he gained victory on the cross.

May we also gain victory with the power of God, knowing that God looks at the heart, so let us be a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.

Christmas Retreat : The Birth of Jesus, Fellowship, Prayer

On December 19, 2021, Gratia Church continued its Christmas Retreat and members and Bible Study students from all these regions are gathering in the mountains of Lake Tahoe to enjoy God’s Word, fellowship, and prayer together.

Day 2 of this graceful retreat featured the opening services, Sunday service, and multiple Bible Studies. The opening services was delivered by Pastor Nancy who spoke about spiritual blindness and the importance of opening our eyes and heart to Jesus Christ.

Pastor Walker and Julia Tzeng did several Bible Studies on Matthew 1-3. Pastor Walker’s message on Matthew 1 was also the Sunday service and focused on the birth of Jesus as the coming of infinite eternal God into our limited and finite world. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. Pastor Julia message on Matthew 2 emphasized this fallen world in which Jesus came. Whereas many want to just leave this fallen world, Jesus came to save this world with amazing love and grace.

Following a full day of Bible Studies, the retreat featured fellowship games where the members to celebrate in laughter and joy. Also, in between Bible Studies, were plenty of time to take walks, sit in fellowship, and have meals. Through these times, members could speak deeply about faith and understand a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Gratia Family Celebrates Thanksgiving with Students

On November 25, 2021, Gratia Church family celebrated Thanksgiving with Bible study students who were not able to go home for Thanksgiving. Moses and Levi both said it was their first ever Thanksgiving celebration, since they do not celebrate Thanksgiving in their home countries. Other members of Gratia celebrated Thanksgiving with their families. Gratia members are so thankful for God’s grace upon the church in this year.

Thanksgiving Retreat Overflowing in Grace, Gratitude

On November 20, 2021, Gratia held a Thanksgiving mini-retreat that was overflowing in grace and gratitude to God. The mini-retreat Bible Studies were led by Pastor Walker Tzeng who preached two messages on Joseph from Genesis 37-50. Through the stories of Joseph, Pastor Tzeng emphasized important aspects of faith such as purity, receiving the love of God, focusing on the Word, and receiving the dream of the Kingdom of God.

The mini-retreat also featured time of praise and prayer. Following the Bible Studies, students had breaking bread to reflect on the message. Members testified overflowing grace of God through the Thanksgiving retreat. After the retreat, some members had further fellowship by going to the San Francisco beach together.

From the Cave of Adullam to the Kingdom

In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about the people that joined David in the Cave of Adullam when he was at rock bottom in his life. They were the 400 who were distressed, in debt, and discontented ones. They were people who shared in his suffering and served together. It was a suffering that only the ones that were there could understand. Church is this kind of place – not a place of elite people gathering, but the suffering ones who serve together. From this Cave of Adullam, a genuine, true, authentic heart for God’s Kingdom came.

In suffering, there are two paths we can take. The path of Saul was to become inexplicably jealous over worldly things and have crazy irrational anxiety. This is what Satan causes us to do. The path of David was to live a life of reconciliation and redemption. David tried to reconciled with Saul despite Saul trying to kill him. David also lived a live redeeming the nation of Israel to the glory of God’s Kingdom. Jesus Christ also lived a life of reconciliation and redemption. Christianity teaches us that true suffering in Christ is what actually gives us stability in our hearts to move forward, away from the inexplicable anxiety of the world.

Finally, we also see some biblical parallelism in 2 Samuel 22:1-3, where David refers to the Lord as my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. It was David’s time in the rock of the Cave of Adullam, where he truly met the Lord. While the Cave of Adullam could be viewed as the stronghold base where he started for the Kingdom, it was really the Lord who was the rock for the whole time. Truly, there is hidden beauty in the rock of the Cave of Adullam, because that is the place we can meet the Lord.

May we be the ones who suffer and serve together for God’s Kingdom and let the Lord be the rock that ultimately strengthens our lives.

Monday Group Bible Study

Gratia church held a Monday group Bible study on October 25 and they studied Romans 8. There were two newcomers who joined it along with regular attendees and the sharing after the Bible study was very touching and graceful.

“ This Bible study is really deep and touched me so much. When I think about the comparison mind governed by the flesh versus the mind governed by the spirit, it hits me how I am living. I obey God in order to get things from God versus I obey God to get God and to delight and resemble him in love is a huge difference. I want to find back my original relationship with God by reflecting this message.” shared Alice.

We pray that all members can continue to grow deeper in the Word of God and experience God’s grace every moment.

Gratia Graceful Joint Retreat with Berkeley Students

Gratia church and Berkeley students had a very graceful joint retreat on October 9. They studied Genesis 6-9, the story of Noah. There were two Bible studies in the morning and had an outdoor fellowship in the afternoon.

“We learned about Fall of Adam and how sin spread in Cain and see results in the time of Noah. How is history? It is divided; a fallen history of sin in the world and a righteous history of God building the Kingdom of God. We learn the history of God through Noah how God judges the evilness of the world but He continues the history through the righteous ones. There’s time for judgment and all evil will be judged precisely, sin always has its limit. The God of love is also God of justice, in love, there is justice and evilness is not just forgiven but judged.” said pastor Walker in the Bible study.

Students received lots of grace through the time of retreat and held the sharing time one by one and prayed for each other. After lunch, they hiked a short trail near Berkeley and members were able to get to know each other deeply through talking and sharing their life.

Gratia Continues on Teaching and Evangelism

Gratia church had graceful individual and group Bible studies. Ivan, Kellie and Bill had individual Bible studies with pastor Walker and Julia. Each of them continues to learn the Sermon on the Mount, Galatians and Romans and every time they receive lots of grace and deepen their understanding on the Word of God.

In the late afternoon, there was group Bible study with regular students and studied Romans 6. Afterward, they shared their struggles in their sins honestly and openly and prayed for each other.

Pastor Walker and Julia went out for the campus evangelism in the afternoon and made appointments who wants to join the Bible study this week. They want to continue on teaching and evangelism and pray that God can let them grow in His grace.

Gratia Holds Dedication Service at New Location

On September 26, 2021, Gratia Church held a dedication service for its new location where it will hold Wednesday Service, Friday Prayer Meeting, Bible studies, and other fellowship activities. Gratia will continue to hold Sunday service at its chapel location which was previously dedicated, but held a special Sunday service for this day.

In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about rebuilding which was the situation of Nehemiah and the Israelite nation. In the same way, we are relocation and building a new location after a pandemic. All of us are also rebuilding our lives after the pandemic.

What we see from Nehemiah is concern after hearing about the devastation from his brothers that came back from Jerusalem. Nehemiah could have easily ignored it being around the grand palace, but he had a deep concern. For us, nothing will ever change if we don’t begin with concern for this fallen world and the restoration of God’s Kingdom.

Also, Nehemiah had conviction for God’s greatness, who is higher than even the kings of the world. In the face of God’s greatness, he humbly confessed his own sinfulness. This is the honesty of Nehemiah that it wasn’t someone else’s sin, but it is all of our sin. He didn’t try to blame anyone, but owned up to the problem.

In the final part of Nehemiah’s prayer, we see the confidence he has in God’s promise that God will do what He has already said. At the same time, Nehemiah was personally committed to God using him to complete His work. He didn’t pray for someone else to do it, but he prayed for himself to be used by God. May this prayer of Nehemiah strengthen us and may Gratia Church be a place of great prayer.

Gratia Community Church

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