Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is
an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.
We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website ecb .asia or our
mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. Good morning, ECB. It
is... Great to be here on this commissioning
day for commissioning Pastor Pablo and to his
new role as lead pastor at ECB. Pastor Pablo
and I actually share the same birth country of
Chile, and we grew up in the same city there
in Santiago. But more importantly, we share the
same eternal home. So it is an honor to share
God's word with you this morning. Today I hope
to leave you with an invitation. Transitions
are usually pretty challenging, and so I also
want to thank Pastor Rene for listening to the
Spirit and following God's leading and for your
desire to pass the baton well in this transition
here at ECB. So thank you. I'd like to start
out the journey, the sermon this morning, looking
at the transitions in John 14, 25 through 29.
But before we do that, let's pray. Lord, we come
before you with grateful hearts. Thank you for
the opportunity to commission Pablo today. We
pray that you would guide in all the details
of this leadership transition here at ECB. We
pray that as we look at your word, that you would
speak to our hearts today, to our hearts, and
that you would draw our hearts to you. In Jesus'
holy name, amen. John 14, verses 25 through 29.
These things I have spoken to you. While I am
still with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name, he will
teach you all things and bring to your remembrance
all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with
you. My peace I give you, not as the world gives
do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled,
neither let them be afraid. You heard me say
to you, I am going away and I will come to you.
If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because
I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater
than I. And now I have told you before it takes
place, so that when it does take place, you may
believe. We have the scene here in the upper
room just as the disciples and Jesus have finished
the Last Supper and they're about to leave when
Jesus announces that there will be a transition.
There will be a new way that the disciples will
experience the Trinity. They have had Jesus face
to face for a while, but now the Father is going
to send them the Holy Spirit who is going to
teach them and remind them of what Jesus has
told them. If you were to read a little bit further
in chapter 16, you would see that the disciples
are not fully understanding what is going on,
and their hearts are probably feeling some fear
and anxiety in this transition. ECB is an international
church, and so most likely all of you have experienced
transition and can relate to fear and anxiety.
Maybe even in the midst of this transition between
Pastor Rene and Pastor Pablo, you may experience
some anxiety, maybe even some fear. So I want
you to get a glimpse of Jesus' character in this
transition in John 14. He's about to go to the
cross, which we'll be celebrating soon. He's
about to go to the cross. And what is on his
mind in verse 27? That his disciples will experience
peace and that their hearts would not be troubled.
That they would not be afraid. In fact, in verse
28, he even longs for them to have joy. For as
he is going to his father's house, the eternal
perspective, he wants them to have joy. And in
verse 29, he invites them to have faith. And
now I have told you, before it takes place, so
that when it does take place, you may believe.
Have faith. The scene just before Jesus goes
to the Garden of Gethsemane, just before he is
about to be arrested, what does Jesus say to
the disciples? I am inviting you to trust me
with an unshakable faith. I want you to have
the kind of peace that I give, not the kind that
the world offers, that's a substitute that won't
last. The kind of joy that I give, not the type
that the world offers, that is a temporary high.
The kind of faith that I give. Not that the world
offers that will bring disappointment. This is
good news. In the midst of transition, Jesus
is offering peace, joy, and faith all through
his sacrificial love. Now, the invitation to
faith has always been a tough one for me. I like
to control outcomes much more than I like to
trust. Maybe you're with me on that. In fact,
most of my prayers are about praying not to have
to trust. Lord, if you would just solve this
problem, dot, dot, dot, then I wouldn't have
to trust you. Lord, if you would just provide
financially, dot, dot, dot, then I wouldn't have
to trust you. Lord, could you just make it so
I don't have to trust you? So my prayers are
always trying to not have to trust God. But the
invitation from the Father is always to trust.
to believe, to have faith. For that is what the
relationship with Him is built upon. Years ago,
in my early 30s, coming out of corporate America
where I worked for United Airlines, I transitioned
into ministry. I brought many corporate ideas
with me into ministry and even wrote a thesis
suggesting metrics for determining ministry success.
Talk about not wanting to trust. Mission organizations
were interested in being able to track and determine
success in ministry. And I was busy creating
systems, some of which simplified and some of
which complicated the very thing that God was
doing. I like efficiency and organizing. And
I've come to find out that God is just not as
interested in efficiency and organizing as I
would like him to be. Jesus, who on his way to
the cross with his disciples. In the midst of
transition is offering peace, joy, and faith
in an upside down and non -intuitive way. And
there it was in the middle of all my striving
and organizing ministry to make my life work
apart from God. Yes, you heard that right. I
was using ministry to make my life work apart
from God. But that's for a different message.
In the midst of my striving, God got a hold of
my life. in a way I'd never known. And he brought
me face to face with a gospel I knew but had
never lived. The gospel had become a system for
me of checks and balances and not a life of faith.
God invited me into some very tough years of
processing my own childhood wounding, my own
story of my childhood sexual abuse, which I had
buried deep into my heart for no one to touch.
And then God invited me to a more challenging
task, to process my own waywardness out of my
wounding and how I had created a life around
me to keep me safe and that my very strategies
for survival deeply hurt the people closest to
me. I was doing more for Jesus, but I was not
becoming more like Jesus. So as you, ECB, began
this year going through Treasures of the Journey
series, I would like to share three treasures
in my journey that I hope will encourage you
as a congregation and you, Pastor Pablo, as you
step into the role of lead pastor here at ECB.
Then I'll close with an invitation for each of
you. Treasure number one, learning to live from
my identity rather than for my identity. One
of the biggest shifts in my own heart as I began
to really grow in the gospel was learning to
live from God rather than for God. You see, because
of my wounding, I believed in the God that was
always disappointed in me. And I had learned
so much in my church life that I was to live
for God and that I must perform for his acceptance.
And in all my ministry leadership, I was performing,
trying to make God pleased with me so that my
life would work. Do you hear the exhaustion?
The issue is that living for God makes me the
initiator of life. And God is the only initiator
of life. He breathed life into Adam. And I am
designed to be a receiver of life, which requires
humility and surrender. And those are not words
that I'm accustomed to living out of. The invitation
from the Father is to live from God. Throughout
scripture, God has already given us many banners
of identity, such as loved, delighted in, significant,
adopted, chosen, righteous, and many more. These
are banners of identity who I already am as a
believer. Can I begin to trust God with who he
says I am? Most of us spend our lives living
for these things, chasing after these things,
not from these things. When I live for significance,
I will run around and prove my worth and I will
make you prove yours. When I live from significance
in Jesus, I can actually meet you where you are
and walk with you on this journey of faith. The
same holds true for if I live for being delighted
in. I'll run around seeking the eyes of people,
TikTok, Instagram. Whereas when I live from being
delighted in Jesus, I actually have the capacity
to delight in others. The incredible shift in
my heart changes the way I approach every day,
every conversation, every task. It makes me a
funnel for the work of God, for the Spirit of
God in and through me. It unblocks the channel
so He can do His work. Here's the issue. A simple
definition of ministry is holding these banners
of identity over someone else. The problem is
that you cannot hold the banner of identity over
someone else if you can't hold it over yourself.
If your banner is over you, don't say loved,
delighted in, adopted, righteous. then you have
no capacity to hold that over someone else. The
other problem is that the banners that you do
hold over yourself, which are usually banners
of contempt, hatred, that might say, I'm a disappointment,
I'm too much, I'm not enough, then I will hold
those banners over someone else. So now there
is a reason that we struggle to believe our identity
in Christ. Because our woundedness will always
lead to our waywardness. So the invitation for
today is can I begin to trust the Father with
whom he already says I am loved, delighted in,
child of God, justified? Can I begin to trust
the Father with who he already says I am as a
believer and begin to live from my identity?
instead of for my identity. Second treasure,
learning to trust God to write the impact stories
of my life rather than turning good desires into
required goals for more impact. Another shift
in my heart has been learning to actually desire,
learning to go after the dreams and hopes that
God has put in me. The issue is that as I begin
to engage with desire, I often feel pain. And
so subconsciously, I turn my desires into goals
so I can achieve success and feel better about
myself. While it may be a great desire, it may
be a terrible goal. For example, my wife loves
gifts. And 30 years ago, we had just been married.
We were celebrating her birthday for the first
time as a married couple. I had a great desire
to pick out just the right gift for her. What
I thought was a beautiful dress. Don't worry,
I didn't get her a blender. I thought a beautiful
dress would be the perfect gift. And I bought
this dress. It was plaid green and blue with
a bow on it. And my desire was for her to really
enjoy this dress. But once I purchased it and
spent the money on it, my desire quickly turned
into a goal. Now she has to enjoy the dress.
The issue is that my wife now becomes an obstacle
or an asset to my goal, and it places an unfair
demand on her to enjoy the dress. Let's just
say my goal was not achieved when she returned
the dress. When I turn desires into goals, the
people in between me and the goal suddenly become
assets or obstacles to the goal's success. People
are never meant to be assets or obstacles. This
happens all the time in ministry. Many years
ago, our family arrived in Romania and I began
working with a Romanian ministry. I had a desire
that God would raise up Romanian ministry leaders.
Then I turned it into a goal, not only a goal,
a ministry goal. And I was going to invest in
them and they would help me achieve my ministry
goals. Did you know that people are not always
interested in being an investment? but prefer
being in a relationship? Again, the issue is
now these Romanian leaders had to become obstacles
or assets to me achieving my ministry goals.
The very people I had desired for God to raise
up now became obstacles to my goals' success,
all because I wanted to write the impact story
instead of trusting God that He is the only one
that really gets to write the impact story. So
the invitation, can I trust the Father with my
desire without turning it into a goal, demanding
that I get to write the impact story, or even
discard desire, get rid of desire, because I'm
unwilling to sit with Jesus in the pain of unmet
desire. Which brings us to treasure number three,
learning to go to God and experience His presence.
rather than going through God to get the outcome
I want. Finally, I want to encourage all of you
as you dream of what God will do with ECB in
the years to come to see God as the answer and
not use God for the answer. We tend to add spiritual
language to our requests to go through God as
if he were a little genie and we had to get the
outcome that we want rather than going to God,
period. This past October, my wife and I were
in Nairobi, Kenya, when we received a call that
our 23 -year -old daughter, who is at the university,
Karina, was in the hospital ICU completely unable
to use her legs or move anything from the waist
down. You can imagine our distress and our longing
for God's work and healing in her body. We flew
to the U .S. where she was. It was devastating
to walk to that hospital room. She was paralyzed
from the waist down. We spent 30 days in the
hospital with her. We cried out to God to heal
our daughter, just fix her. We eventually had
to come face to face that we were more interested
in what God would do with our daughter than his
promised presence and comfort. In the situation.
So often we use God to get the outcomes we hope
for. But following Jesus means we get God. We
get his comfort and presence in the middle of
the worst circumstances or nightmares. But so
often we don't value the presence of God. We
just need him to fix our situation. Isaiah 43
says, Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have
called you by name. You are mine. When you pass
through the waters, I will be with you. And through
the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When
you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned.
And the flame shall not consume you. For I am
the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your
Savior. And our response is, I don't need your
presence, God. How about you take some of that
water and put out the fire? God, I just need
you to get me out of pain or come through with
me when we are asking. Come through what I'm
asking you. Please make my daughter walk again.
So the invitation, can I trust the Father with
his presence even when the ground is shaking
beneath our feet as it did this week in Bangkok?
Can I experience his comfort, his presence in
the midst of my pain instead of demanding that
he fix my situation? So as we return to the upper
room in the midst of transition in John 14 verse
27, Jesus says, peace I leave you. My peace I
give to you, not as the world gives do I give
it to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither
let them be afraid. In the midst of transition,
fear and anxiety, can I trust the Father? Not
to fix or get the outcomes I want, but to experience
His peace, presence, and comfort. So as we close,
I just want to give a charge to Pastor Pablo
and to each of you. It has been a privilege to
Pastor Pablo. It has been a privilege to sit
under your teaching. Pastor Pablo, one of the
things I appreciate the most about you is your
compassion. I also appreciate not only your heart,
that people know about God, but that your heart,
that people actually know God. You create a space
for people to share their hearts as you share
your heart. And you set the stage for God to
do His work. One of the biggest things the enemy
could do to derail you, It's to attack your identity.
To attack your identity. To invite you to live
for significance rather than from significance.
To live for these banners rather than live from
these banners. These things that God has already
named you. My prayer for you, Pastor Pablo, will
be to stand under these banners, trusting the
Father with who he says you are as you lead ECB.
To Pastor Pablo, the elders and ministry leaders
at ECB, in just a few chapters after John 14,
we come to John 17, where Jesus is now in the
Garden of Gethsemane. In John 17, Jesus gives
us his prayer. And it says, this is right before
he goes to the cross, it says, to the glory that
you have given me, I have given to them that
they may be one even as you are one. I in them
and you in me that they may become perfectly
one so that the world may know that you sent
me and love them even as you loved me. One of
Jesus' greatest prayers for us is our ability
to relate to one another as the Trinity relates
to one another to put his love on display. What
God wants to transform in us is greater than
we've ever imagined. He wants to transform the
very way we relate. So for those of you on church
leadership working together and hoping for what
God will do here at ECB, I would encourage you
not to turn your desire for ECB into goals. As
soon as you start seeing each other as assets
or obstacles to the success of the mission, you
won't walk with each other and love each other
and relate to each other like the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit relate. And just to clarify,
this is not about avoiding conflict or living
without rupture in relationship. There will be
rupture. The question is that can we trust the
Father and receive the gifts of repentance and
forgiveness to move towards that repair? How
things progress here at ECB matter and how you
care for each other and love each other in the
process says a lot about what God is doing in
your hearts and lives. May you never replace
what the Spirit is doing at ECB. with strategies
and goals. To the congregation, you are in a
season of transition. There will be a new season.
There will be new systems here at ECB. There
will be changes. When you experience pain in
those changes, may your heart not move to getting
stuck in statements about the way it used to
be, but may you surrender that space in your
heart to the Father and bow on your knee as a
receiver of life where the source of life comes
from, God himself. My prayer for you is that
you can trust what God says about you, that you
are his and that you will experience his presence
and love in the midst of transition, and that
you will actually have the capacity to be present
with each other and to love well. And finally,
to the children and teens at ECB on this Family
Sunday, do you know that you are not created
to be perfect? You don't have to perfectly play
the violin, piano, and be on the swim team by
the second grade. You will face struggle, but
in your struggle, you are created worthy of love
and belonging. My prayer for you is that while
you are here at ECB, you will have curiosity
and courage to explore the wonderful uniquenesses
of how God made you and be reminded of his great
love for you. And to those who don't know this
Jesus, the one who can offer such peace. Jesus,
the one who says in the midst of all your mess,
in the midst of all your dysfunction, I'm staying.
When everybody else leaves the room, I'm not
going anywhere. I am staying. I have come that
you may have life. My prayer for you is that
you will talk to someone today to get to know
the one named Jesus who knows how to love perfectly.
Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, for your gift
on the cross, that you took all of our sin and
gave us all of your righteousness. We thank you
that there is nothing that can separate us from
your love. We thank you for Pastor Rene's leadership
over these past years, and we thank you for Pastor
Pablo being willing to step into the role as
lead pastor at ECB. We pray that you will bless
him and his family in this role. We pray, most
importantly, that you will give him faith. And
all of us... who believe in you, faith to trust
you that with who you already say we are, deeply
loved, significant, delighted in, in your hands,
and on our worst day, we are wrapped in your
robe of righteousness. In the wonderful name
of Jesus, amen. Thank you for tuning in to the
ECB Sermon Podcast. Whether near or far, if you
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