"In Christ, Building Vibrant Multilingual Congregations..." (Our Family, Our Mission)

[0:00] Would you like to open your Bibles? I'm going to briefly read from Psalm 67, and then we'll jump straight into our sermon for today. Psalm 67, and this is the word of the Lord.

[0:20] For the director of music, with stringed instruments, a psalm, a song. May God be gracious to us and bless us. And make his face shine upon us.

[0:32] That your ways may be known on earth. Your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, O God.

[0:43] May all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy. For you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth.

[0:57] May the peoples praise you, O God. May all the peoples praise you. Then the land will yield its harvest. And God, our God, will bless us. God will bless us.

[1:08] And all the ends of the earth will fear him. This is the word of the Lord. We'll hear more about this psalm in a moment. But again, it's a privilege to be here with you, worshipping together in this English service.

[1:22] I want to share with you two life-changing things that happened for me. When I was nine years old. That was the year that my family and I moved to New Zealand.

[1:33] I'm an immigrant kid. 1.5 generation, if you're counting. Two life-changing things happened when I was nine years old. One was that my family moved to New Zealand.

[1:44] And two, I got glasses. Now those aren't my glasses, but you can see my family photos. In one moment, I'm this kid that runs around without glasses, probably needing it.

[1:55] And then next moment, I've got glasses on. And yeah, there's always a before glasses and after glasses moment. And some of you know how glasses work, because you use them all the time.

[2:06] Or you use contacts or something else. Look, if the lenses are correct, what happens? They help you see more clearly, right? Yeah. Cynthia, you can confirm that?

[2:16] Yeah. Okay. That's what glasses do to your vision. Or they change your vision, right? These are my cycling sunglasses. And you know, I put them on and things just look different.

[2:29] I don't know about you. You're looking a little bit more yellow today. Yeah. So glasses do that to you. They change your vision. And this is exactly what a vision or mission statement aims to do, right?

[2:44] To clarify what we see. To help us see clearly what we are about. Why we exist. So PCBC, why do we exist?

[2:57] What is our mission? Do you know? Who knows our vision as a church? Who couldn't even recite it? Who's even looked at our website? Well, our vision is very easy.

[3:11] Actually, our vision, first and foremost, comes straight from the mouth of our risen Lord Jesus. Our vision says this. Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

[3:23] Right? Teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the end of the age. That's from Matthew's gospel. And so from this vision, we have come up as a church.

[3:35] We believe that God has called our church to join this vision with the following mission statement. Right? It's up there. It's on the front page of our website. Our mission statement is this.

[3:46] In Christ, we're building vibrant multilingual congregations, blessing local communities, and beyond. And so for the next three weeks here in the English service, this is what we're going to explore.

[4:00] We're going to pull this statement apart in three parts. Right? We're going to see what the Bible has to say about each part of our mission statement. And then we're going to explore how you and I can respond to it.

[4:14] Kids, your little response sheets, half of it is an ideas section. Right? So you fill those bottles, right, with ideas of how can we join in this mission.

[4:27] Okay? The different parts. And afterwards, we'll chat about it together. If you feel like young at heart and you want to join in too, you're most welcome. We want ideas here. Right? This is a two-way conversation.

[4:37] But here's the question I want to ask you today. What happens when we read the whole Bible, right, with the first part of our mission statement in mind? What happens if you and I read the Bible with multilingual congregations in mind?

[4:53] Maybe you're thinking, does the Bible even talk about multilingual congregations? Like, where did that come from? Like, is it just us? Because, you know, we are an immigrant church. That's our story. Normally, at PCV's English, our usual practice is to go through books of the Bible, right?

[5:08] So we've just finished 1 Corinthians. We've gone through lots of different books now. Well, this is our main diet here as we chew on God's Word together. We understand and apply the books of the Bible to our hearts and lives.

[5:22] This is God's Word. We want the whole counsel of God to shape us, refine us. But sometimes I think it is helpful, occasionally, to take a topical approach, right? What does the whole Bible say about work?

[5:35] Or what does the whole Bible say about politics or dating? I'm not sure the word dating, I couldn't find it in the Bible. But when I find it, I'll let you know and we'll have a topical one on that. On New Year's Day, some of you might remember, a friend of ours, his name is Vaughn, he came, he was in town.

[5:53] You remember he shared a couple of books he wrote. One of them was called God's Big Picture. It's a really helpful book because he used it to summarize what the whole Bible says, in a sense.

[6:04] And he summarized it, and this is a diagram of how he summarized it. He used eight Ps, right? You can see them at the top. Eight Ps to summarize the whole Bible story from start to finish, from Genesis to Revelation.

[6:21] And so I want to borrow Vaughn's paradigm, okay, pattern, to go through the whole Bible this afternoon. Okay?

[6:32] The Bible is 66 books inspired by one author, the Holy Spirit. And it tells one big story about God's people in God's place under God's rule.

[6:42] So to answer the question, what does the whole Bible say about multilingual congregations? This is what we do. We go through the whole Bible. All right? Phrase by phrase. Well, it's more going to be a flyover, right?

[6:53] Because if it was phrase by phrase, it would be here. It takes a long time to read 66 books. So imagine this as a spider cam view of God's word, right? The whole Bible story. We're going to be zooming through, flying over the Bible a fair bit.

[7:07] I would recommend you get your Bibles out and follow along, okay, so that you can keep up, right? Because we will be moving, and we'll be moving in flight mode, right? So get your thumbs ready.

[7:18] We're going to turn the pages of Scripture. And you might want to help your neighbor out as well. Maybe they're not as familiar with the Bible. And we're going to journey through the whole Bible together. What does the whole Bible say about building multilingual congregations?

[7:32] Let's start from the beginning, okay? The pattern of God's kingdom actually begins, believe it or not, with a multilingual story. In the beginning, Genesis 1-1 says, God created the heavens and the earth.

[7:47] How? How? One kid's author puts it this way. With words. Strong words. Powerful words, right? You read through the whole of Genesis 1 in front of you.

[7:59] God is speaking the world into existence, right? God is speaking, and the world comes into being. And who was doing the speaking? It's the triune God.

[8:10] It's God himself. Father was there. Son was there. Read Colossians 1 if you want to know more. The Holy Spirit was there, hovering over the face of the waters. One God, three persons, relational, imperfect community already.

[8:26] And this triune God speaks into existence trees and flowers and stars and seas and people. Men and women in his own image.

[8:36] And in the beginning, look at Genesis 1-28. God says, right? Sorry, 27. God created man in his own image. Humans in his own image.

[8:48] In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. And what happens next? Verse 28. God bless them. Be fruitful and increase in number. In other words, go build a vibrant congregation.

[9:03] Right? In the very first garden, God nourishes and feeds humanity. He walks and talks with them. This is paradise. Vibrant community.

[9:15] Pure. But put on today's glasses today, right? And you will realize, okay, there's a question that we haven't asked. What language?

[9:27] What language? Because we have the privilege of reading this in English, right? But the Bible didn't come to us in English. Right? First recorded, it was in Hebrew.

[9:38] But I'm not sure whether our first parents spoke Hebrew or whether it was something else. It's humbling to realize, isn't it? The story of creation begins as a multilingual story.

[9:49] It's been translated to us at least twice. How gracious of God. To speak creation with words. And to share the pattern of his kingdom in a multilingual way.

[10:02] So remember that. But if we want to know why there are many languages in the world and not just one language, we have to read on. The Bible is clear. It's a result of sin.

[10:15] Look at Genesis chapter 3. Okay? And your title might say, the fall of humanity. What happened? Well, the Bible says sin entered the world from our first parents.

[10:27] They were tempted by a desire to be like God. You have Adam and Eve. They disobeyed God's good word. They listened to their own wisdom instead. And the result? You can read it in Genesis chapter 3.

[10:40] They blame each other. The first marital squabble. Blame shifting. And God must judge them. Paradise lost. Expelled from Eden Park, as it were.

[10:52] And the Bible keeps going, though, right? It doesn't stop there. It's not a thin book. It's a thick book. Because the story continues. Because even there, in the depths of the first fall, God promises a redeemer that will come from Eve's womb.

[11:09] All right? Genesis 3.15. Eve will be the first mother. And so this first mother has real hope that her kids might change the course of history. But we know Genesis 4.

[11:21] We've heard this last year when we went through it. There's politics. There's the first murder. Cain kills Abel. Chapter 4, verse 8. Generation after generation of Adam's offspring do the same kind of killing and murder in their hearts.

[11:37] You see them geographically move further and further away from God's place, away from God's rule. That is what sin does. And actually, you fast forward to Genesis chapter 11, and we see a multilingual story.

[11:49] Do you know it? It's a story of Babel. Have a look at Genesis 11. I might read a bit of it to you. Genesis 11, verse 1 says, Now, the whole world was one language and a common speech.

[12:02] As people moved eastwards, right, away from the garden, they found a plain of Shinar, and they settled there. Sounds amazing, doesn't it? Sounds like paradise.

[12:14] But what happened? Genesis 11 tells us.

[12:48] And he says, look, as one people speaking the same language, they're doing this. What else will they be capable of? And so the Lord confuses their language.

[13:02] And so the very next day, they're off to work building a tower. And this is perhaps what happened. Abang, boleh kasi saya? Batu lagi? Ko? Oi, kong hami ya?

[13:14] No surprise if you can't understand each other. If you confuse your languages, the building stops. What happens?

[13:25] The party's over. They scatter. You and I need to remember this, okay? We are a multilingual people, but as beautiful, as fun, as Finnish, and Klingon, and Terea, whatever's in your Duolingo list, as fun as those languages are, our multilingual world came about because of sin.

[13:46] Because people, our ancestors, tried to make a name for themselves. People like us still trying to make a name for ourselves. And the judgment was scattering multiple languages.

[13:59] Why do we fight to understand each other today? Why is there racism? Why do you get mocked and bullied for speaking with an accent? The same reasons we saw at Babel.

[14:13] Sinful pride. Multilingual communities, yes, but scarred by sin. We share this heart, don't we? Because of the fall. We're no different.

[14:24] We argue because of the fall in long-winded meetings in different languages. We fail to help people just because they don't speak our audio. We switch languages, maybe, at home to hide things from our parents.

[14:38] We insist on English-only spaces. Or we talk down to people if they can't keep up. Look what sin has done. The parish kingdom has created sinful, multilingual congregations.

[14:54] And we are all at fault. We are scattered people in need of hope. And hope comes very early in the book of Genesis, chapter 12, the very next chapter.

[15:04] This actually fast-forwards hundreds of years in God's story and chronology. Here, from the failure of Babel, the Bible zooms in on one family. His name is Abraham.

[15:15] Abraham. Who knows the song? Father Abraham had many sons. Had many sons at Father Abraham and so on. Look, Abraham is a crucial character in Scripture.

[15:27] Consider this. Right? Dr. Glenn told us this last week. He's a father of the Jews. But he's a Gentile. He's a Chaldean. Okay? By ethnicity.

[15:38] He's called to leave his country. It's called Ur. And then go to Canaan and start the Jewish nation. And in Genesis 12, what does God declare to him? Right? Leave your country, your people, your father's household.

[15:50] Go to the land I will show you. And here are some big promises. Look at verse 2 to 3. What will we promise to Abraham? I'll make you into a great nation. I'll bless you.

[16:02] I'll make your name great. You'll be a blessing. I'll bless those who bless you. Whoever curses you, I'll curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

[16:12] Do you see that? Blessed to be a blessing, not just to one ethnicity, to all peoples. That's a huge promise.

[16:24] To an immigrant. To an immigrant like Abraham. Look, Abraham wouldn't get a work visa into New Zealand. Right? He wouldn't be able to speak enough. Right? Look, but what does Scripture say?

[16:36] Romans 4, 3. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Amen? Amen. Amen.

[16:47] Amen. In the promised kingdom, all nations are blessed, will be blessed through Abraham's seed. Someone is going to create through him a vibrant multilingual blessing.

[17:00] But how? Zoom forward. Let's keep going. The promised kingdom gives and becomes, gives birth to a partial kingdom. Okay?

[17:11] And actually through the rest of the Old Testament, so a lot of history, a lot of things going on, we see a glimpse of this blessing through the nation of Israel in the Bible.

[17:22] Israel's been in the news a lot. Right? But in ancient Israel, we see God's people. Right? They started as 120. Okay? People. Right? And they were enslaved in Egypt when they grew to millions.

[17:37] Then they're set free. Then they grumble and die off. And then the next generation, they are able to conquer Canaan. They set up an earthly kingdom and an earthly king.

[17:49] And now you hear all that and you're like, oh, the nations. It seems like they're coming to Israel. Wow. Is this how a vibrant multilingual congregation is going to form?

[18:00] Right? Right? King David's neighbors. Right? We read in the history books. They start making alliances and trade deals. Right? Seems like a pretty canny politician. Solomon's wisdom.

[18:10] Wow. Wins the favor of foreigners. Even the Queen of Sheba comes to him for advice. Is this how all peoples on earth will be blessed? By coming to Jerusalem?

[18:23] Can I say, many churches think and operate like this. Right? Come and see. Put on a show. Build a temple.

[18:35] Be a lighthouse. Build a movement. Win this mountaintop. You might hear some of this language. And then invite the nations. You should come and see what God's kingdom is like.

[18:46] All of us can do this from time to time. You could be a Chinese Baptist church. And you'd be like, come. Come to church. Come to church. Yeah. You could be a Kiwi mega church, right?

[18:58] That caters to a specific demographic. And you'd be doing the same. Come. Experience this. See this. Be a part of this. We are all tempted to this easy model of church.

[19:09] That says, let's attract. Let's be seeker sensitive. But this is actually only a partial picture of God's kingdom. Right? We're not at the end of the Bible yet.

[19:22] This vision is good at gathering birds of a flock together. But this vision excludes people who don't fit the mold. So we want to be careful not to lean too much into building an earthly kingdom.

[19:36] A partial kingdom. Because remember how the story goes, right? With this partial kingdom, Israel. What does the Bible tell us? Even this partial kingdom, you can see that it splits north and south.

[19:50] There's civil war. King David wins battles. Yay. Commits adultery with Bathsheba. Boo. King Solomon's wealthy and wise. Yes. But his heart is led astray by wealth, wine, and way too many women.

[20:06] You see, friends, Israel in the Old Testament could only ever be a partial picture of God's vision of a vibrant multilingual congregation. Because there is still a Messiah, a promised king to come.

[20:21] And even as the Bible grieves over the sin and the failure of God's partial kingdom, God through prophets speaks hope. God gives a better story.

[20:32] A better future. A better future. Right? So in the next P, the prophesied kingdom, we see this. God reveals to his people the prophesied kingdom.

[20:43] And this kingdom will be a vibrant multilingual congregation that hopes in the Messiah and his saving power. Right? And let's look at Psalm 67 again.

[20:54] And notice, notice the key phrase. All the peoples praise you. May all the peoples praise you. Verse 5. May the nations be glad and sing for joy this fall.

[21:07] Can you see? Even as Israel is at worship, they are singing about how all the nations need to come and praise God. Doesn't say they have to learn Hebrew to join in.

[21:20] Right? The Bible is wanting us to see. Right? The prophets are giving us a vision of all humanity seeing the glory of the Lord. Isaiah 40 verse 5.

[21:31] Or Jeremiah foretelling there's going to be a righteous branch of David who's going to regather God's people from all the countries. Chapter 23 verse 8 of Jeremiah. You remember Haggai 2?

[21:41] We look at the start of the year. God's going to shake the nations. There's going to be treasures among the nations that come to the Lord. Haggai 2 verse 7. This is God's promise.

[21:54] God's prophecies for us. One day, look forward to a vibrant multilingual congregation that hopes in the Messiah, the promised one. But who is this Messiah?

[22:07] I know you know the answer now. But they didn't. And they might have thought things. They might have thought big king like David. Right? We're waiting. We're waiting. Wise guy like Solomon.

[22:18] We're waiting. We're waiting. First page of the New Testament. What do we see? What? Are you sure?

[22:30] This family tree? Look at who's in there. Mary and Joseph from backwater Galilee. Brought up as an obedient. How can a Palestinian man from a small town in the Middle East, how can this be the answer for the savior of the world?

[22:46] Are you sure, Matthew? Hang on. Yes, descended from Abraham, right? But Rahab? A foreigner? A foreigner? Ruth?

[22:58] Oh, a Moabite. The nations literally flow through our Lord Jesus' veins. Right? The bloodline. And you know, Jesus, this mixed up refugee kid, Jesus.

[23:10] This half blood, as it were. He grows up to love God and neighbor perfectly. He becomes the perfect Israel, does he not? Our Messiah. Look at his life in the Gospels.

[23:22] He sits with the Samaritan woman when no one else would. He heals the centurion's daughter, the Gentile, foreigner's daughter, when no one else did. And he promises a way to be a blessing to the nations.

[23:39] Our Lord, Lord Jesus, the Messiah, he was completely innocent when the religious leaders of his day, blinded by ethnic pride and politics, they put him on the cross to die a traitor's death.

[23:57] How shameful. As our Lord Jesus hung on the cross outside the city of Jerusalem to die. He was labeled a threat to national security. You remember, in the Gospel of John, how his death was recorded, right?

[24:10] Let me read that to you. John, I think it's 19, sorry. Let me find it for you. 19, 19. Pilate, the governor that ordered us to crucifixion, he had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross.

[24:26] John 19, 19. It read this, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read the sign for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city.

[24:39] And the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Do you see, church, even as our Lord hung on the cross, even as he was nailed to the tree to heal the nations, even as our Savior cried, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[25:01] He lays down his life as sinners before a multilingual congregation of witnesses. People from different backgrounds, different languages, coming to see the crucified Savior.

[25:12] And some of them lovingly buried him in Joseph's tomb, sundown, before sundown. And then the witnesses who saw him three days later, they saw him more alive than ever.

[25:27] He's risen. Risen indeed. And even on that Easter Sunday, when the grieving Mary realized she's talking to the risen Lord Jesus, what does she say? Exclaim to Jesus.

[25:40] Chapter 20 of John, verse 16, she turned towards him and cries out, and Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. She tells the disciples, I have seen the Lord.

[25:50] And you can say that in whatever language is in your heart. And if people understand, that is how people know God's kingdom has finally arrived.

[26:01] Do you see? Even on Easter Sunday, I have seen the Lord declared in different tongues and in multiple languages. This is how God's community starts to form. And if you're here and you do not know the Lord Jesus in your life, I want to ask you, and I'm asking in English so you understand, have you seen the Lord?

[26:22] Have you confessed your sins, your selfishness, your pride about who you are and how you speak, perhaps? Have you turned to the Lord Jesus for everlasting life, peace, and hope?

[26:37] Because this is how much God loves you. He hung on a cross to die for your sins. He crossed space and time, language and culture, to speak to you the greatest story of the universe, of love, sacrifice, his death on the cross for your sins.

[26:56] Take off your broken glasses. Put on the glasses of faith. Trust the Lord Jesus for your sins today. You can do it today. Believe, repent of your sins, believe in this good news, and you will be saved.

[27:14] And then can I say to the rest of us, church, can I ask you, how are those special glasses that you're wearing? I know this is a brief overview of the Bible, but I hope you can see now, these are not magic glasses.

[27:27] We're just going through Scripture, aren't we? But with fresh eyes, right? The hope of a vibrant, multilingual congregation in Christ. It's woven through the pages of Scripture, is it not?

[27:40] That's good, isn't it? And so when we come to our next phase, the proclaimed kingdom, because Jesus is Lord, and we tell people, I've seen the Lord. We see the story of the early church, don't we?

[27:51] We looked at the book of Acts last year, and we saw Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, the curse at Babel with the confusion of languages is reversed at Pentecost.

[28:02] What happens there? Acts chapter 2, God kick-starts the church of Christ with the gift of tongues, languages. Listen in. Dr. Luke fills it out for us. Acts chapter 2, right?

[28:14] When they heard the sound, Acts chapter 2, verse 6, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were utterly amazed. They asked, aren't all these people speaking Galileans?

[28:27] How is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, nation after nation, language after language.

[28:39] There is a multilingual thing happening here at Pentecost. This is how God kick-starts the church of Christ. This is how he sets the flame alight. Isn't that amazing?

[28:51] And when Peter gets up, first preacher, and he says, God has raised this Jesus whom you crucified, and he has made him both Lord and Christ, the church of Christ repents and believes, and there is a church born.

[29:07] And this church, this church is devoted to God's teaching, to fellowship, food, and prayer together. But ask yourselves, what language do they use? Because they're not just Hebrew.

[29:20] Not just one language. They came from all kinds of places. And so, it is a multilingual congregation right there in the book of Acts. This may appear to be a very Jewish thing, but don't be fooled, right?

[29:32] They've come from all over the place, and they speak different languages. Remember the argument, right, in Acts chapter 6 about sharing bread, because there was an argument because there were two languages, right? There were the Hellenist Jews, and there were the Hebraic Jews, speaking Jews.

[29:46] You see, from the beginning, there's multiple languages at play as God's church grows. And how do we solve the tensions that come about when you can't understand each other?

[29:58] Acts 6 tells us they appoint godly servants, they sort out the cross-cultural issue, and the Word of God grows and increases. We see ordinary men like Paul and Barnabas.

[30:10] We see women like Prisca and Lydia. They are bringing God's extraordinary message across borders, are they not? Beyond Jerusalem, beyond just one language, one people, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

[30:22] When Europe, under the Roman Empire, first hears about Jesus, Acts 16, right, actually Acts 14, sorry, it's actually in a different language, right, not in Greek, not just Greek, but also in Laconian.

[30:37] And then later on, Acts 22, Paul uses Aramaic, and then he speaks to the Romans in Latin, Acts 23. Can you see, step by step, God's mission is advancing and it's going to take multiple languages to get it done.

[30:52] And let's be honest, if you look through church history, we've not always been faithful to this vision of building multilingual congregations. Did you know it was once a crime to own a Bible in English?

[31:05] In England? Of all places? Yeah. And is it true that actually Christians have done terrible things to erase people's culture and language, invade other countries?

[31:18] They got it wrong, right? God is wanting to build vibrant multilingual congregations. And by God's grace, here we are today, 2023, East Auckland, and we are here building multilingual congregations.

[31:34] And because this is part of God's mission in the Bible, because this is part of our mission here at church, I want to just share quickly three attitudes that we can adopt as God's people here.

[31:46] We speak different languages. We come from different backgrounds. But firstly, let's be thankful for our past. Let's be thankful for our past.

[31:58] Our church is full of people from a past-oriented culture. What that means is if you talk to your parents or your grandparents, they're always talking about the good old days, right? Okay? Just seems to happen. That's how they think.

[32:10] It's part of their world. And look, let's respect that. Let's be thankful with them. We don't idolize the past, okay? Not everything that happened 30 years ago was magic. But let's be grateful for the aunties and uncles who face the hardest battles to even get to this country so that we can take for granted good coffee, lights on, a building in our midst, a nice location here in Pakaranga.

[32:37] Because they had to split families to get here. They had to work overtime. They had to sacrifice so much. Retrain, take pay cuts. Did you know that? Face discrimination as they were outnumbered.

[32:49] Be laughed at, mocked to build this community here. You may not understand their language today, but you can understand their sacrifice to be here.

[33:02] Thankfulness for yesterday and the past, I think, can cure so much discontentment that we feel today. Even at them, about them. Be grateful for our past, brothers and sisters.

[33:14] Secondly, be ambitious for our future. Let's be ambitious for our future. Nobody, as we heard in the 1 Corinthians, nobody wants to be a baby forever.

[33:26] PCBC English. We should have a holy discontent with who we are today. We are so thankful God has brought us thus far, four years together.

[33:39] But we are not here to cruise into eternity on a cruise ship. Wake up. Wake up. Our captain has given us a mission and it involves building vibrant multilingual congregations in Christ.

[33:54] Christ. And some of us will have different gifts. Some of you will be focused on our English-speaking whānau because you only speak English and that's totally fine. What about the English-speaking youth not here?

[34:06] They come on Sunday mornings. How will you bless them? Or Saturday nights in our Cantonese-speaking services. What about your Hindi-speaking neighbour and they've got English-speaking kids?

[34:17] Have you thought about them? What about your Kiwi co-workers who are busy Sunday morning but they're free right now? Okay? Thinking, do I go to the beach or do I go shopping?

[34:27] Bring them to church. Will you bring them to church? Will you build bridges with them to reach them for Jesus? I don't know. Maybe we need to drop the Chinese term from our label, right?

[34:38] Is this PCBC? Yes, right? Is it a Chinese church? I don't know anymore. Look around. Look around. Maybe our service needs to be English first but not English only because some of our friends and neighbours are still learning the language and we can be patient with them.

[34:58] We can welcome them in. There's plenty of room, is there not, around here? I see some empty seats. Let's look forward. Let's be ambitious about our future for Christ's sake. And finally, brothers and sisters, can I encourage you to be patient without compromise?

[35:14] Be patient without compromise. We are four years old. Our average attendance this past year is about 40 to 50. So we can't and we don't need to do the kinds of things that amazingly, thankfully, a church of 500 people can do or a megachurch of 2,000 will try to accomplish.

[35:37] Listen to Daniel Chan. He is another English pastor in the States. His claim to fame, he's pastor Jeremy Lin once upon a time. He says this, I know that it can feel like a compromise to stay at an immigrant church or any church.

[35:51] That's still working stuff out, working through its how to do church, ironing out how to do ministry, recovering from past conflicts. But if there's a faithful understanding of the gospel, if there's a genuine commitment to the preaching of God's word, a desire to affirm biblical leaders, there are many marks of a healthy church can be achieved if we just exercise more patience.

[36:19] Let's not grow weary of doing good, Galatians 6, 9 says. In due season, we will reap if we don't give up. So be patient.

[36:31] Can I ask you to be patient without compromise? Don't give up. Don't compromise on the Lord Jesus, but keep staying faithful to the task. Because one day, praise God, one day, our work here will end.

[36:45] Why? Not because PCBC is finished, but because Christ will return again. And the proclaimed kingdom becomes the perfected kingdom, which is, as Revelation promises, a vibrant, multilingual congregation in Christ.

[37:02] We see that in Revelation 7, verse 9 to 10. That's one of the last visions in the Bible, isn't it? Right? People from all tongues, tribes, languages, praising God, worshiping Jesus.

[37:16] And rather than tell you more about it, I'm going to sit down. I'm going to invite Chris to play a video. We're going to see a glimpse, perhaps, of what this multilingual congregation at worship of Christ could look like.

[37:31] So you may know the song, you may not. Just join in, maybe at the end, once you get the hang of it. And then I also want to invite, then afterwards, the worship team will come and help us with a response. Thank you.

[37:41] Thank you.