love

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Pastor Ryan’s sermon “Love Begins at Home” teaches that loving one another, within the family of God, is the first thing that must happen before anything beyond that can be fully and truly realized. Also, since our love for others comes from our love for and in Christ, we must fill ourselves with God’s love above all.

John 13:31-35 (NLT) / 約 翰 福 音 13:31-35 (CUVS)
1 John 4:15-21 (NLT) / 約 翰 一 書 4:15-21 (CUVS)

Here is a PDF of Pastor Ryan’s sermon notes (not a transcript) for you to download.

The CBWC Heartland “Theology of the Ordinary” podcasts include a series by Ed Neufeld called “Not Improving On Our Instructions“. It deals with this topic of loving each other as Jesus’s primary instruction to the church.

Photo by Rajiv Perera on Unsplash

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Pastor Ryan’s Fall 2023 sermon series “Generosity” is inspired by a series of videos put out by the CBWC Foundation on that topic. You can watch the videos there.

The key verse for the series, chosen by the Foundation, is the words of Jesus in Luke 6:38: “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

路 加 福 音 6:38: ” 你 们 要 给 人 ， 就 必 有 给 你 们 的 ， 并 且 用 十 足 的 升 斗 ， 连 摇 带 按 ， 上 尖 下 流 的 倒 在 你 们 怀 里 ； 因 为 你 们 用 甚 麽 量 器 量 给 人 ， 也 必 用 甚 麽 量 器 量 给 你 们 。”

(Pastor Ryan notes that this is not an invitation to bargain with God by giving with the expectation of getting more financial return. It is an attitude of the heart and part of the larger principle of treating others with compassion, the way God treats us.)

  1. Why Give?
  2. How Should We Give?
  3. Where Should We Give?
  4. How Much Should We Give?
  5. Giving: A Transformation of the Heart

He also did some other sermons on the general topic of Giving:

Pastor Ryan recommends these three books as good resources on the topic of giving and generosity:

  • God and Your Stuff (The Vital Link Between Your Possessions and Your Soul) – Wesley K. Willmer
  • Your Money Counts (now more than ever) – Howard Dayton
  • How to be Rich (It’s not what you have…it’s what you do with what you have) – Andy Stanley

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

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This sermon was given by Rebecca Zhang on July 9, 2023. The recording is in Mandarin, but her sermon notes have an English translation. The slideshow below contains the Scripture passages in Mandarin and English as well as the photographs that Rebecca refers to in the Witness section of her sermon.

Philemon 1-19 (NLT) ; 腓 利 門 書 1-19 (CUVS)

Download a PDF of Rebecca’s sermon notes in Chinese and English.

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Pastor Ryan’s sermon series “The Flawed Yet Faithful” looks at a few of the people on the list of the “faithful” in chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews. Sometimes this list is called “The Heroes of the Faith”. Each of them was flawed but used by God in mighty ways. What can we learn from them so that God can also use us in spite of our flaws?  

  1. Flawed, but NOT Faithful (Rehoboam)
  2. Abraham
  3. Moses
  4. Rahab
  5. Samson

Photo by Danny Nee on Unsplash