Sermon Transcript — May 1, 2004
Well, brethren, yesterday was the twenty-ninth anniversary of the fall of South
Vietnam. There was a family by the name of Do who left Vietnam a week before
that, on the twenty-third of April, and five of them left and went out on a
transport plane and went to Malaysia and now live in the United States, but
they left their son behind. It was very sad and I'm sure tearful to leave their
oldest child behind, whose current name in the Caucasian realm is James; he
took upon the name James. It was very difficult because James was only twenty-two
at the time when he left his family, and they parted company, and he'd been
in the military, South Vietnamese military. He had a girlfriend, who he hadn't
married yet, and he knew what was going to happen when the North Vietnamese
came in. But James was there, and he had courage, and all those who had been
in the military had to register. And so he registered. And in the next month
he was shipped off to re-education camp about one hundred miles from Saigon.
It was an interesting time, but a very difficult time for James, because the goal of the Communists was to break down their captors, and they tried to break them down through all sorts of things they could possible do. They wanted to brainwash them from their old beliefs; they wanted them to take on the new beliefs of the Communist regime, and James went off to the prisoner of war camp. He'd just married his childhood sweetheart, had a month together before he had to go.
The work was very difficult, and for three years, he didn't get to see any of his family members. He worked there seven days a week, ten hours a day probably, or more, and they were contained; they were not free to go, so the only way he could communicate was by writing letters to his family. They didn't give him any protein in that three years. They had to fend for themselves, and James had to go out with his friends and kill bears, snakes and field mice. They could eat anything that crawled. They drank water out of the river, and the only thing they would give them was a little rice. And they gave them the worse crop of all. And I'm sure that many of them felt like giving up.
But James had a will to live; he had a will to continue. Many of the others did give up; they committed suicide. Some of them obtained guns, and shot themselves. Others gave up as they got sick, but James didn't. He kept persevering; he knew what his goal was; he knew he had to endure to make it through. He knew he had to do it to get to the United States. If he gave up and succumbed to the Communist desires, he may have died just through discouragement and probably suicide.
After three years, he got out of that prison camp and he went back to Saigon and reunited with his wife, but he still knew he had to get out of Vietnam because he was blacklisted; he couldn't even get a job. They had difficulty in surviving, and the family from the United States at that time sent them provisions, sent them lots of little things that they could sell on the black market. And so they began to sell things on the black market and to buy little gold bars so they could buy their way out.
He and his wife had a child after about a year, but they knew they had to leave. There was no future in the country for them, being ex-military people, and so they began to make arrangements to become one of the boat people, and so they began to collect gold bars and to pay for this trip. And what they did is they went down to the beach seven times before a boat came to pick them up. Seven times. The boat never came, and they lost their money.
There were unscrupulous people in those times that did this type of thing, but eventually, the eighth time came, and the boat was there. They got on the boat, all three of them, and the baby who had been heavily sedated because they didn't want it to make noises so the guards would hear, didn't want anyone finding out about this; they left under the cover of dark; the baby woke up and began to cry. And so the wife volunteered to get out of the boat with the baby and to let James go on. And so she did that, and she stayed behind so that he could go on and start a new life and prepare a life for her as well and their children. And that's what happened. And then later on, she had to wait two more years before she got out the same way.
She had a very difficult time. They got out on the open ocean; they ran out of fuel, and they were just about to perish when a Japanese drilling vessel came by and picked them up. And now she lives also with her husband in the U. S. This is a very difficult story for these folks that went through it at the time because in the first six years, they were apart five years. But they endured, and they eventually got out, and today they do live a successful life here in the United States.
Well, Brethren, one of the biggest challenges we will face ourselves in the twenty-first century is the challenge to endure, to hang on to our goals, our objectives, and we need to endure, just as they endured. They had a greater goal in mind, a greater vision, just like we have a great vision that God has given to us. And today I would like to discuss three points to help us to endure in our circumstances no matter what they are that we find ourselves in in the future. We will find ourselves in difficult circumstances over the next few years, and we need to make sure that we're thinking in terms of these three main points I want to bring out today.
And the first one is this: To have a goal. Brethren, we have a goal and a vision that is so great and so wonderful that God has given to us. Let's turn over to Mark 16:15.
Mark 16:15 - "And He said to them," You know, our goal is very clear. "And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Verse 16 - " 'He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.' " Brethren, we have a very clear goal that God has given to us. We need to hang on tenaciously to that goal so that we will also endure as James and his family endured. We're not just in this for our own salvation.
We have a huge job ahead of us; the work is not done; it's not over, and we are so-doing, and we need to continue so-doing and to hang on to that goal just as James hung on to his goal and wanted to get out. And he persisted, and he kept that goal uppermost in his mind. We're here at the GC not just to fellowship; we're here for a great purpose to help propel the work of God forward in the most effective manner in the year ahead. Then we have an incredible calling, and we have to take it very seriously. We have more in common that we have uncommon. Yes, we have differences, but we have more in common than those differences. And the biggest thing we have in common is to preach the gospel.
We need to keep our eye on the goal and off ourselves. I remember years ago in learning the game of racquet ball and squash that in Bricket Wood, when Samir Nadim was there teaching us that he taught us it was really a game of the mind, and if you took your eye off the ball, you lost the game. You have to keep your eye on the ball at all times because once you take your eye off the ball, you're going to miss a shot, and that could be the winning point. So it's very important for us to keep our eye on the ball, on the goal, and so that we can be successful in our task. You know, I believe that the goal is probably the strongest thing that we have, the mission that we've been given. It is very important for us to keep that uppermost in our mind. I think if we keep that uppermost, then we're going to diminish many of the other things that come along that cause us, to want us to be distracted and to take our eye off the ball.
The second main point I want to bring out this afternoon is persistence. You know, James was very persistent in wanting to get out of that country. He had no future there, and brethren, there's no future in this world. There's a future in the next world, the world tomorrow. James was persistent; he tried seven times to get out and failed. The eighth time was the time that he was successful.
We cannot allow adversity to get in our way. We can't allow things to come along and cause us to falter in what we've been given to do. We must be persistent. Sometimes it's easy to get our minds on ourselves instead of on what we've been called to do.
The apostle Paul also spoke about this over here in II Timothy. Let's go over to:
II Timothy 2:1 - "You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Verse 2 - "And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Verse 3 - "You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Brethren we have not been called to an easy life. God wants us also to persist in the midst of hardship. There is hardship all around us. There is difficult times around us, but we must persist despite that, just as James persisted in the re-education camp in Vietnam. He persisted. He knew that if he persisted and endured, he would be able to get out; not like some of the other more senior soldiers there that they picked on more directly because they had been higher up in the military. Many of them committed suicide. They couldn't handle it. And brethren, we must not commit spiritual suicide. We have to hang in there, persist.
You know, farmers need to be persistent. They can't make decisions based on everything they see. Let's go to Ecclesiastes to see that. I think this is a scripture for us to keep in mind for the future. We can't just look at those things around us and be discouraged from what we're doing. We need to be very persistent in our roll that God has given to us. Ecclesiastes 11 - God has inspired the scripture here to tell us what approach we should have as well; the principles here are very important. He says:
Ecclesiastes 11:1 - "Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days.
Verse 2 - "Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, For you do not know what evil will be on the earth." We have to work while it's still daylight.
Verse 3 - "If the clouds are full of rain, They empty themselves upon the earth; And if a tree falls to the south or the north, In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie.
Verse 4 - "He who observes the wind will not sow," No, we cannot observe the winds of this world and not sow. "And he who regards the clouds will not reap." We cannot observe the clouds out there in the world, the menacing clouds that are out there, and stop us from doing the work. We have to forge ahead.
Verse 5 - ". . .Or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, So you do not know the works of God who makes everything." Yes, we haven't seen an awful lot of growth in the church over the last few years, but we have sure planted a lot of seed out there, and we should expect results.
Verse 6 - "In the morning sow your seed, And in the evening do not withhold your hand; For you do not know which will prosper," We should be trying all new things that God allows us to try that makes sense. ". . .Either this or that, Or whether both alike will be good." You know, God tells us to move ahead, to forge ahead, to keep planting the seed and watch for the results. And God Himself makes this analogy between agriculture and His word over here in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 55:10 - He says:
Isaiah 55:10 - "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater.
Verse 11 - "So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; and it shall not return to me void." Brethren, I find that very encouraging that God is with us in what we are doing, and He's going to make the seed grow when He wants it to grow. ". . .But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." So, we're all farmers here planting seed, and we shouldn't allow the world to discourage us from moving forward. We need to continue to move forward.
You know God has given us a great blessing in the United Church of God to use as a tool to do what He wants done. And we can openly disagree on things and with respect and humility. You know, we know what it says in Proverbs that "iron sharpens iron." What a wonderful blessing we have to be out to talk to each other and help each other see things differently, to move to a different level, a different plane maybe what God wants us to see. It's so wonderful that we have so many different talents and abilities in the church that we can work on together as a unified body with our talents and abilities and to be able to come to synergy - to be able to produce synergy in the church together as a body. What a wonderful thing that is! But we cannot allow the world, or sometimes even each other to wear us out.
Let's go over to the book of Daniel. Sometimes the devil, our adversary, wants to wear us out. He wants to mentally wear us out so that we will give up. We must not allow that to occur. And he's going to use this in the future as well. It says in:
Daniel 7:25 - And "He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High," and that word - persecute - means - wear out, and apparently in the original language has the words - mentally wear out, to wear out the saints. Do you feel worn out sometimes? I know sometimes I feel worn out mentally. Brethren, we have to persevere; we need the strength of God. God says He'll give us the strength to continue on, to keep on with our mission, to endure, to persist. You know, we have the opportunity to contribute to the process. What a wonderful blessing we have in the United Church of God to contribute to the process, where everybody's opinion counts. But we must also hold each other up in a Godly fashion because God holds us accountable for that. We must hold each other up with respect and humility.
The third point I want to bring out this afternoon is sacrifice and hard work. Brethren, this is so important for us to endure to the end. You know, Jesus said, "He that endures the end, the same shall be saved." We must endure in the work that He has given us to do, not allowing little things on the side to come up and take away our mission, take away our focus. We've got to endure; we've got to keep going. We can't allow little things that come along to upset what God has given us to do. We need sacrifice and hard work.
You know, James had sacrifice and hard work when he was in that prison camp. He realized that if he gave up, he wouldn't make it to America; he wouldn't make it to his promised land. He wouldn't be with his wife and his little boy. He wouldn't be with his family in America. He would have failed. He had to keep going. He realized that he had to sacrifice and that's why he sold some of the provisions, many of the provisions he was sent from America. He sold them so he could buy those little gold bars, and it took him a long time to do it, and he lost it, time and time again, seven times. But he didn't give up. He sacrificed and worked hard at what he was doing.
Do we sometimes lose focus, brethren, what we're really about? We're really about the work of God here, at the GCE. We are really about that. It's not about anything else; it's about doing the work. We are here to do the work, and whatever we do at this conference should be with that focus in mind. Let's go over to II Corinthians 11. You know, it's never been any different in the work. It's always had this component of sacrifice and hard work. Things don't always go the way that we might think they should go, and sometimes we end up with difficult times, both personally and in the church. But we must persist and continue on doing the work that God wants us to do.
II Corinthians 11:23 - He says: "Are they ministers of Christ? - I speak as a fool - I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.
Verse 24 - "From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.
Verse 25 - "Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked;" Brethren, these are difficult times the apostle Paul went through, but he didn't regard the clouds, and he didn't regard the wind. He kept going. He persevered; he put his heart into it. He didn't allow other things to cloud his vision. ". . .a night and a day I have been in the deep;
Verse 26 - "in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen. . ." Brethren, we have similar problems from time to time, similar things that come along. We've got to persist; we've got to keep on keeping on; as the Eveready bunny rabbit goes. We've got to continue.
Now as Jesus said in Matthew 13:45:
Matthew 13:45 - He says: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls,
Verse 46 - "who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." Brethren, we have the pearl of great price; we have it. Let's not lose sight of that because of some little thing that may come up to distract us from our purpose. Let's really try hard to focus in on the things we need to focus on and realize that as every little trial or problem comes up, to see it in perspective, that it's really not a big thing after all. The big things are in doing the work of God, and sticking to our mission, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, baptizing those that God calls, and preparing a people. That's what we're all about.
The other things are administrative things and so on that come along in order for us to do the goal. Let's keep our mind on the goal in persevering and sacrificing and working hard. Now in:
Revelation 22:12 - It says: "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work."
In conclusion, brethren, I want to say that in looking at the three points - the goal, persistence and sacrifice and hard work, the beginning letters of GPS, which relates to our Global Positioning System we have in the world today. You know, our GPS, our goal, persistence and sacrifice, our Global Positioning System today to help us to endure to the end, to help us to keep on going in doing the work of God.
You know, God and Christ will be here in spirit this weekend; They are here today in services, but let's not disappoint Them. Let's keep our activities on a Godly level. Let's act as Jesus Christ would act at this conference. Let's put Him and God, the Father, first in our lives and have the right perspective. They will be working actively to help us accomplish our goals of what is right and true for the United Church of God. How much will we represent Jesus Christ this weekend? That's a very important question. You know, Christ said, "We can do all things through Him who strengthens us."
And finally I wanted to mention that James today is a successful associate engineer at a computer company in Texas. They have three children now, I believe, and have a successful family. Their oldest son, who got off the boat with his mother, is twenty-four years old and pursuing his own life.
What I find is interesting about James is his real Vietnamese name. His first name, Hung, means bravery. His middle name, Minh, means wisdom and insight, and his last name, Do, means pass the test.
Brethren, can we be brave, have wisdom and pass our test? We need to endure with wisdom and bravery, as James did. Let's do our best in our lives and especially now this GCE weekend to do our best, to have the insight we need and to pass the test.