Houston Chinese Church - English

God stirs us up by showing us work that needs to be done. He often uses our concerns to stir us up. We feel concerned that our congregation fails to welcome newcomers well. Work needs to be done in welcoming others. We feel concerned that believers struggle to think biblically. Work needs to be done in helping believers think biblically. What should we do when we feel this stirring?

This Sunday’s theme is on the Sanctity of Life. Every year, we set aside a Sunday to reflect on what the Bible says concerning unborn life. This morning we’ll be looking at Psalm 139 to see what David has to say about unborn life.

For this MLK weekend, we want to designate today as Ethnic Harmony Sunday where we’ll consider how the gospel calls us to pursue ethnic harmony in our personal lives and in our life together as the church. In our text, we’ll see how the blood of Christ has established a unity – and forged an identity – between Christians that runs thicker than blood.

HCC’s legacy and vision is rooted in church planting. For nearly fifty years, we've been on a mission to make disciples and to plant churches. This morning we have the privilege of sending off a team to start Ethnos Church – a church-planting church hoping to reach the nations that have come to Houston, particularly in the neighborhoods surrounding the Energy Corridor.

For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. He is transcendent over all creation. He sits enthroned in the heavens above. And yet during this season we celebrate his nearness. He is immanent among all creation. He lays enwrapped in a manger below. This juxtaposition accentuates the love and mercy of our Savior God – who made himself nothing so he could give everything to all who would believe.

As finite creatures, we can only be in one place at one time. But God is different. He is everywhere all at once. He is omnipresent. Studying God’s omnipresence is an experience that can be comforting, chilling, and confounding – all at once.

Thinking about God being independent can make God seem pretty cold and distant. It can make us feel like there’s really no point in trying to be in a relationship with him or to relate to him at all. So why would God being independent be a good thing for us?

Time. We wish we could slow it down, speed it up, stop it, reverse it, ignore it, escape it. But time is a formidable foe and no respecter of persons. It takes it toll on everyone. Except one, the Lord of Time.

Because we live in a world of constant change, all of us are longing for stability – for an immovable, unshakable Rock upon which we can anchor our volatile lives. Scripture would point us to the immutable God who never changes.

It is not about God being able to wait for something for a certain amount of time, but it is about how He responds to our sin with mercy and kindness. In His patience, we see the goodness and beauty of the heart of God for the world that stands against His will. A heart that longs to show this world unending mercy and grace.

We praise people, places, and things we find good. We extol the qualities of our spouses. We comment about the beauty of exotic locales. We express our enjoyment of gourmet meals. But if God is the source of all good people, places, and things, then why do we find ourselves not praising Him more often? This morning, we’ll discuss three reasons we should praise God for His goodness.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians concludes with final instructions for this young and troubled church. He already addressed a number of problems that threatened their peace and unity. And he had alluded to the underlying solution in chapter 13. The answer is love. In these concluding remarks, the Apostle explains how a church can practically love each other and the wider body of Christ.

As our bodies age, they grow weaker and more prone to illness and injury. Making them constant sources of pain and frustration. Yet our Christian hope is not to one day shed this burdensome body – but to see it radically changed. We anticipate being raised, like Christ, in an imperishable, resurrected body.

We live in a world that is broken. It is filled with news of discord, death, disease, and disaster. Yet as Christians we live with hope because of the gospel. The gospel is not just merely about Christ dying on the cross for our sins to restore us unto a relationship with God. It is also about resurrection, which is the promise of new life. Why does belief in the resurrection enable us to live as...

When a church just assumes their people know the gospel and neglects to regularly proclaim it, they are one generation removed from confusing the gospel to outright abandoning it. This was happening in Corinth. Some were already confusing the gospel, so Paul’s first response is to make the gospel explicit. He reminds them of the good news they had previously received and believed.

Passages like the one we’re studying today can make us cringe, wondering how in the world one can reconcile a good God with the kind of things said in the Bible. In this case, when it comes to the kinds of rules and restrictions placed on the way we gather for worship, why do we need to heed these principles when they seem to not only stifle spontaneity, but to be oppressive to women?

The Christians can legitimately disagree on whether the gifts of prophecy and tongues have ceased or if they continue in the church. But even if they have ceased, that does not mean our text ceases to be relevant. Churches that practice neither prophecy nor tongues are still expected to order our corporate worship in a way that edifies believers and evangelizes non-believers.

The Corinthians sought out excellence. They put value in great speakers, people with wealth and power, and as we discussed last week, people with “better” Spiritual Gifts. All of these created division within the church instead of building up the body of Christ. Paul wants the Corinthians to see the most excellent way is Love. Love is the way the church will grow and be healthy.

The Corinthian church was a divided body with some claiming to be more spiritual than others. As a sign of their advanced spirituality, some point to their gift of speaking in tongues. Paul responds with a reminder that the church is the body of Christ and every Christian is a part of the body – with an essential role to play and a spiritual gift to employ for the overall health and growth of the...

Unaddressed division leads to disorder. What contributes to division? Jealousy. Greed. Impatience. Grumbling. The Lord knowing that the church would be susceptible to division gave us a way to remember the unity we have in Christ. A family meal. The Lord’s Supper. How does the Lord’s supper help us guard against division?

  Some Bible passages are notoriously difficult to interpret because they were written to people living in a very different age within a very different culture. 1 Corinthians 11 is a prime example. It instructs wives to wear head coverings while praying or prophesying at church. What are we to make of such odd instructions and what relevance is there for us today?

We as God’s children should represent God well by being set apart from the world. May we learn from past failures of over-estimating our rights, which led to disunity and even temptation of idolatry. Instead, may we be united in the Lord, who is faithful and has set us free. May we be willing to surrender our rights for the sake of unity in the body

When Christians are too influenced by the wisdom of this age, they tend to adopt an ethical framework that says, “I can do whatever I want as long as it’s within my rights.” But a truly Christian ethic goes further to say, “I will do whatever it takes to advance the gospel and to remove any obstacles, even at the cost of denying myself and laying aside my rights.” That is the ethic that guided Pau...