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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Paul Yoo

Touch of Faith

Well, thank you very much for the special music, the World Rangdang Trio and Jeff Huang, the classmate of mine in dental school.

It's good to see each and every 1 of you here.

I just want to kind of start off by saying that nothing gives me more like butterflies than speaking in front of public, let alone speaking about spiritual things.

I feel unworthy and at the same time understand the holiness of God's work.

And when I come and speak in front of the public, you know, I get the sense of butterflies and I never feel comfortable.

But I do it mainly because, well, I speak and I'm also actively involved in ministry mainly because of a promise I made when I truly accepted Christ into my life.

And it's a promise that, as the song goes, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord to Thee.

And that's kind of, you know, it brings me back to the commitment I've made.

Regardless of how uncomfortable I get or how unworthy I feel, if I have an opportunity to share to God's people, you know, I would do anything.

As you've heard, you know, it has been, Ivanhope is a place where people come and go and they're trained and they leave and do other things, great things for God in different places, and it has been a tradition for an outgoing director to say a few things before he leaves, and I guess my time has come.

My wife and I, Janie, we will be leaving towards the end of June.

And this may be the last time for me to be up front.

So I take this pulpit with a mixed feeling or emotions.

Knowing, I guess I have a sense of joy in knowing that the Lord has been leading in our lives and we'll be going to a different area where we can continue to serve Him.

So I have, we have complete peace with that.

So we have some joy in knowing that God is leading directly in our lives.

But at the same time, we leave this place with a feeling of sadness.

We leave the only spiritual family that we know.

We've gone through the struggles and victories and challenges all together, and we've become a family through the goods and ups and downs of life.

And it is a sad, sad period to be leaving this place.

But I know that the work calls, and we're all called to wherever the Lord leads.

I want to begin by thanking you all for being such a blessing in our lives.

This ministry has not only brought us closer to Christ, but it has also reinforced the purpose of our existence.

And as some of you know, Janie and I will be leaving to Boston.

She'll be continuing her last year of training, a fellow Spinkornia out there.

So we leave to Boston at the end of June.

And at the end of that year, we're committed to go to Zambia and Zambia, Africa.

Janie is from the area of Riverside, born and raised in Riverside, and so she's kind of familiar with the area here, whereas I've been here, I'm from Hawaii, and I've been here for the past 8 years, and I can say it was past a good 8 years of my life that I've been here.

And as I mentioned, we are going to Zambia to fulfill our dream of doing medical mission work abroad.

Medical mission work is what truly motivated us into health care.

And after the struggles of going through the various programs, especially for her, it's been a long ride in her program.

And it's been kind of challenging on my end as well.

But through it all, I can still look back and still say that God has been good in his leading, and I'm still committed to what I've committed to him from day 1 when I first pursued this.

And we feel honored to have the training that we've been granted, knowing that it's, we will deal with the health of individuals, And we continue to seek God's guidance as we delicately handle souls, as they're entrusted into our hands.

Some of my fondest Christian experiences come from here.

I've had the privilege and the opportunity to work side by side with some of the most committed individuals, Christian individuals that I've ever seen.

And I'm sure some of you can attest to that.

And it's been refreshing and encouraging.

Having been in the area from the earlier periods, I can say that I've definitely witnessed the moving of the spirit in people's lives.

I remember being here with the early part of GYC and restoration and all these things.

And just to see lives being committed and being transformed by the grace of God, you know, has kind of reinforced my purpose of why I'm involved in this kind of ministry.

And it has encouraged our lives in knowing that we are part of this great work in saving souls.

And I recall as I was involved in the work here, as some of the fondest moments were coming together for long night meetings, you know, long hours, and just meeting into the wee nights of how we can best, I guess, serve the people here.

And some of the other experiences were feeding at different events, organizing chairs, whatnot, whatever it took to get the work done.

And that has definitely been something to look back and to smile about.

I recall 1 New Year's Eve where there was all-night prayer.

And I was part of that for part of the time.

But I remember some of these people were praying all night till the next morning.

And it was amazing to see that kind of commitment for our condition and for prayers of others.

And I fondly remember that experience as well.

And last but not least, I remember when we had the Messiah's mansion.

That's the life-size replica of the sanctuary.

We had them down here near the Drayson Center.

And it was an exciting period of time when you know it was a strong witnessing opportunity and people were coming in and out and learning about the law of God, the sanctuary and things like that and I remember we had to sign up to kind of guard the sanctuary.

And I remember spending a night in the courtyard, you know, pitch the tent, and I had my shift there.

And it was, you know, being in there, you're thinking like, wow, you know, it's exciting.

You know, although it's not the sanctuary, but still knowing and understanding what we know.

It was something to always look back and smile about, as I mentioned.

Well, with that being said, I wanna open this morning's message with a scripture here.

If you can turn with me to Matthew chapter 9.

And before we begin, let's open up with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, we come before you seeking understanding.

And as we open up your word, I pray for a blessing and insight.

For this we pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.

You know I'm a pretty simple guy and I'm just going to share with you a simple story that hopefully will make sense to you and you'll be blessed and encouraged by that.

So Matthew chapter 9 verses 20 to 22, his garment.

For she said within herself, if I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort.

Thy faith has made thee whole." And lastly, let's look at Luke chapter 8.

It's the same story Luke chapter 8 verses 43 to 48.

And a woman having an issue of blood 12 years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him and touched the border of his garment and immediately her issue of blood stanched.

And when all denied Peter and they that were with him said master the multitude strong the and pressed thee and say thou who touched me and Jesus said somebody had touched me for I perceived that the virtue is gone out of me.

And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she has touched him and how she was healed immediately.

And he said unto her, daughter, be of good comfort, for thy faith hath made thee whole.

You know, perhaps before getting into the talk, it may be fitting for me to share with you how it all began and how I ended up here.

And it's always nice to hear of people's experience, and I've always enjoyed that.

And so I want to just kind of take this opportunity to share a little bit about that.

You know, it all started with a simple bus ride, believe it or not.

I remember 1 Saturday morning, my mom waking us up and saying that someone was gonna come to pick us up, you know, this was my brother and I, for church.

It seemed fairly odd that we were going to church on Saturday and when I say we, it was just me and my brother, It wasn't my mom.

And I was around 11 or 12 years old, and I was used to spending my Saturdays playing video games or watching cartoons or playing or running around with the neighborhood kids.

And that was kind of the way I spent my Saturdays.

Having been raised by a single mother due to an early divorce, she would occasionally attend church on various Sundays, just seeking or searching for something.

But on this particular day, she sent us off to church on Saturday.

I recall being out in front of the apartment building as an old, rusty, beat-up bus started to roll down the street.

The bus had its share of years on it, the faded paint, the rusty doors, and obviously no air conditioning back in those days.

And it kind of struggled to make its way down the street.

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Touch of Faith

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