Next-Level-Faith

He Was Transfigured Before Them

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In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about the meaning of the scene of Jesus being transfigured before the disciples. The context of the scene is Peter’s confession of Christ. This confession of Jesus Christ is something all believers go through and forms the basis for our faith. It changes our eternal destiny and gives us the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.

After Peter’s confession of Christ, the Lord took him up to a mountain where he was transfigured before the disciples. In this event, he was next to Moses and Elijah and Peter was seemingly happy and comfortable with this. He even offered to build a shelter for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. However, after the voice of God came down, Peter realized that Jesus was on a higher level than the other two and fell down trembling in holy fear.

In the same way, we can become comfortable with our faith in Jesus Christ after we confess he is our Lord and savior. However, the event of transfiguration needs to happen in our faith. We shouldn’t be satisfied with our faith and our faith needs to take the next step and we must open our eyes even more to the Lord. His Word must burn in our hearts and we to know his calling for all of us, including the dream of the Kingdom of God.

We may be small like a mustard seed now, but the love of Jesus has the power to transform us. Also, Gratia Church may be small right now, but we must live truly like the early church and God has the power to change transform us into a beautiful church in His glory.

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Run In Such A Way

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In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about running the race in this year and in our lives. People of this world run the race enslaved in the sinful structures of the world. However, the people of Jesus Christ have been set free. However, although Paul proclaims his freedom in Jesus Christ, he says he makes himself a servant to everyone. We also are free, yet we serve others in order to evangelize them and save them for Jesus Christ.

As we run the race, we should know the end goal of this race of life, this race in this year. The end goal is the eternal crown we receive. The temporary crown of this world fades away, but treasures in heaven will remain. Therefore, we should run knowing the eternal crown and live bearing fruits for God’s glory and Kingdom.

In this way, we won’t live our lives aimlessly. Depending on your goal, you will run the race differently. If we know the goal of God’s Kingdom, then we will self-discipline ourselves and for the freedom of God’s Kingdom. This is the greatest fruit that we should run for. Let us have self-discipline this year, not because we are forced, but because we are free, yet it’s to serve everyone and to serve God’s Kingdom.
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The Parable of the Rich Fool

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In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng introduced the scene in which Jesus gave this parable, in that a person with greed in his heart was attempting to get Jesus to help him. However, our faith shouldn’t be so shallow, as if faith is just trying to get things from God. This is conditional faith in which we only do good things to get good things. A deep faith is simply loving, trusting, and being with God in a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.

However, the hubris of mankind is that we seek to desire control in our lives, particularly with this acquiring of money and things. Money and wealth end up being a gateway to storing up so much sin in our hearts and being controlled by that. We may try to sugarcoat our heart with faithful words saying we will give to God if we’re able to gain a huge wealth, but God sees the depths of our heart and we are too limited and weak to control our greed. That is why Jesus gave us the wisdom to pray for daily bread instead.

The truth is, our life can end at any moment, just like this rich fool. Therefore, we must not store up wrath and sin in our hearts, but rather store up fruits of love and treasures in heaven. Hell is a small place of pride where we lock ourselves in with the sin and wrath we stored in ourselves. Rather, if we open our hearts to Jesus, God pours down amazing blessing upon us that we store in our hearts and we can take to heaven.

When we have faith that Jesus Christ has given us eternal life, then we also can have the common sense wisdom to live for eternity.
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I Press On Toward the Goal

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In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng spoke about the pain of the Apostle, being in jail, and possibly facing death. Though he longs to be with our Father in heaven, he feels that there is ministry work left to be done. This is the pain that we may have felt last year in 2021, that we didn’t accomplish everything we should have. Yet, we see in the Apostle, that he forgets what is behind and goes powerfully ahead because God is the one who overturns everything.

The Apostle has a challenge mindset in him, which is the same challenge mindset that we need also. God is pushing this Kingdom forward here on earth and we should be a part of that. The grace of God is that He lifts us all up at once, changing things so that they are greater and faster this year than any year before.

The more mature in faith we get, we realize that we haven’t obtained all of this, but God has more in store for us. We should focus on the Word of God more. At the beginning of the year, we should focus on preparing our nets, waiting to catch many people that God has waiting for us. Let us prepare well to do Bible Studies and evangelize a lot of people.

With Paul’s challenge mindset, let us have an active faith to push on towards the goal of Jesus Christ and God’s Kingdom in 2022.
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David – What Is Our Goliath

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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.

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God Looks At the Heart

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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.

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From the Cave of Adullam to the Kingdom

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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.

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Matthew 4 – Come & Follow Me

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In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng explained how the historic first four disciples of Jesus were insignificant people evangelized in an insignificant place. Their story didn’t start out in a great way of the world, but it was this insignificant story that showed God’s amazing grace in their lives. In the same way, we ust not judge a book by its and instead see how God works through faith rather than human power.

The disciples showed their faith by leaving immediately everything of their lives. This may seem foolish, when the world tells us to live reasonably and methodically. While living that way may be smart, but there is one clear way that it isn’t always smart. And that is especially when things are at the beginning and missing opportunities because we overlook things. Instead, we should see that the Kingdom of God starts from a mustard seed and follow it. The disciples left their entire personal life worldview and embraced Jesus. In the same way, we should leave our personal life worldview and embrace what the Word of God teaches us.

Finally, Jesus not only changes our worldview, but he transforms our lives. The disciples went from fisherman to fishers of men, in only three years of time with Jesus. The Word of God surely becomes flesh in our lives and we transform. As a fruit of love, we should get a new net and boat, meaning the Word of God and serving at church.

Like these disciples, may we go immediately, change our worldviews, and transform in God’s glory.

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The Three Temptations

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In the sermon, Pastor Tzeng explained each of the three temptations that Jesus experienced and related it to our lives. The first temptation is the temptation of material, visible, physical things. We demand our physical needs are solved before believing in God. Rather, we should know that we need things beyond the physical, and to see the spiritual needs in the Word of God.

The second temptation was the temptation of the mind and control, to live a relationship with God on our own terms how we want to control it and what favors us. However, we do not go to God on the basis of what we think, but we go to God for who He is and that is what a relationship with God is. Therefore, we do not test God, but just simply be in a relationship of faith with him.

The final temptation was the temptation of our dreams and visions in life. The world tempts us by giving us opportunities in the world, to follow the world ways instead of God. In this way, our spiritual direction is drawn to the world. Instead, Jesus overcame the temptation by submitting to God completely. More than pursuing our own dreams, it’s having faith that God knows us better than ourselves and will allow us to fulfill a great glory in His dream of the Kingdom.

May we all be people of faith, surrendering to God completely just like our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Put the Word into Practice

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The sermon delivered by Pastor Walker Tzeng, was on Matthew 7:24-29 entitled “Put the Word into practice in your house.” The message focused on building the church on the rock. Pastor Tzeng referenced Peter’s confession of Jesus Christ in Matthew 7, while saying that Gratia Church should focus on putting the Word into practice on campus. The hope is to build a church that bears fruit for God’s Kingdom.

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