Author: RCCM

　↓Audio link to the sermon:(1st worship recording) (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) “But let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me” (Jeremiah 9:24) This is my sixth message on the book of Jeremiah. In my previous sermon, the theme was from Jeremiah 7:4, “Do not trust in deceptive words”. Those deceptive words, said by false prophets, was that Israel will surely be safe from foreign invaders, just because they have the Lord’s temple. This is similar to Japanese beliefs about supernatural blessing or protection. For the Christian, we have to know what we believe and consciously

　↓Audio link to the sermon:(1st worship recording) (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) “Repent . . . and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38) Today we celebrate Pentecost. On Pentecost we remember the birth of the Church, a birth that was the work of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost takes place 50 days after a Jewish festival called the Passover. Pentecost falls on a day when the Jewish people celebrate the barley harvest. Let’s begin by reading in the Bible about the first Pentecost. In the book of Acts of the Apostles, 2:1-4, the Holy Spirit came upon a group of

↓Audio recording of the sermon: (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) In my high school, there was a teacher we were all scared. Mr. Ang had a loud booming voice, a stern face that rarely smiled, and a thin long cane that he carried everywhere. When he passed by, even naughty students cowered in fear. During his lessons, no one uttered the smallest squeak and no one fell asleep in class. He was the school’s head of discipline. So when I think of the word “authority,” I think of Mr. Ang. In today’s passage, Jesus is described as a person who taught with authority and

　↓Audio link to the sermon:(1st worship recording) (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) This is my fourth message on the book of Jeremiah. The theme of the previous message was “Return, faithless people” (Jeremiah 3:22). In that passage, God desired his people to repent and return to him. In Jeremiah 3:14-18, God said he would forgive his people and bring them back to Zion. He will restore both the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. This restoration will involve a small remnant of exiles from Israel who had lost their country. The stubborn hearts of his people will change; and the

↓Audio link to the sermon: (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) Last month I watched a movie called The Peanut Butter Falcon. Set in poor, rural America, the film is about a troubled fisherman who befriends a young man with Down’s syndrome. I’m sure that not all fishermen are the same, but the ones in this movie were rough men, foul-mouthed, covered with tattoos, and ready to fire a rifle at you. If I met them in real-life, I would be scared of them. In the gospel of Mark, we are told that Jesus’ first disciples were fishermen. Today we’ll read a short passage about

　↓Audio link to the sermon:(1st worship recording) (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) This is my second sermon on the book of Jeremiah. Last month we saw how God called Jeremiah. God said to him, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” The phrase “I knew you” can be translated as “I chose you”. Jeremiah was chosen to be raised up in a close relationship with God. But God does not only know Jeremiah; He knows each one of us. And God wants to raise each of us up in a relationship with Him. God loves us and wants to nurture our

↓Audio link to the sermon:(1st worship recording) (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) A few years ago, an international student attended our Bible study. He enjoyed eating with our group and discussing the Bible, but he was firm in his beliefs as a Muslim. He said, “How can a great God have sexual relations with a human? It’s blasphemy.” He had heard that Christians believe in three gods: God the Father, Mother Mary, and Jesus the Son—which, as you know, is inaccurate. So I explained what we actually believe. Like him, you too may have wondered, “What does it mean to say Jesus is ‘the