{"id":12116,"date":"2022-05-01T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-01T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/?post_type=ctc_sermon&#038;p=12116"},"modified":"2022-05-03T09:41:22","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T13:41:22","slug":"breakthrough-the-isolation","status":"publish","type":"ctc_sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/sermons\/breakthrough-the-isolation\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakthrough the Isolation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-gdm-google-drive-embedder-viewer\"><iframe width='100%' height='100' frameborder='0' scrolling='yes' src='https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/19pvMTE7IbjlGwzVfT9WIGJcIdBTLGDxA\/preview?usp=drivesdk' allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n<h4><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">Read<\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Psalm 32<\/p>\n<h4><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">Consider<\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Amid a pandemic, physical illness isolates us from our loved ones.\u00a0 In the last two years of the pandemic, I have been in physical isolation two times.\u00a0 The first time was 2 years ago March 2020, I had breakfast with a young adult before the lockdown.\u00a0 A few days later he told me he got COVID.\u00a0 At that time, we did not have enough knowledge about the virus and there were no guidelines on isolation.\u00a0 I self-isolated myself from families and kept a physical distance from them.\u00a0 It was not a good experience at all.\u00a0 Recently, I got sick and needed to be isolated for 10 days.\u00a0 It was a time for reflection and at the same time, felt the pain of the isolation from friends and families.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">What about spiritual isolation from God?\u00a0 There will be spiritual pain and loneliness as we are isolated from God because God is the source of joy and peace.\u00a0 One might argue that our sins and transgressions separated us from God.\u00a0 I would argue that it is the unconfessed sins that isolate us from God.\u00a0 In Psalm 32:3-4, Psalmist David expressed his emotion and helplessness, <em>\u201cWhen I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.\u00a0 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 When King David kept silent, he was spiritually, emotionally, and physically exhausted.\u00a0 It may be the guilt feelings from the unconfessed sins that filled his heart and mind.\u00a0 It drained his energy away from him. David might think he was his only hiding place.\u00a0 He hid all the sins and transgressions from everyone and God, and he was all alone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The gospel of Jesus Christ removes all the spiritual loneliness.\u00a0 The scripture said, <em>\u201cMy dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense&#8211;Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.\u201c (1 John 2:1-2)<\/em>.\u00a0 Everyone will sin and we are all sinners.\u00a0 But Jesus Christ, our atoning sacrifice takes care of our sins, and He is our defense.\u00a0 We no longer have to defend our own and as the matter of fact, we cannot.\u00a0 God does require one thing from us though, we need to confess our sins as he is faithful and just, He will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).\u00a0\u00a0 God is our only hiding place.\u00a0 As we sin, we no longer need to be alone.\u00a0 We can run to our fortress and hiding place, He will forgive us.\u00a0 We can only experience the joy of forgiveness when we confess our sin before our faithful and forgiving God.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Hope to see you in-person or online at worship this Sunday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Pastor Julian Wong<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Pray<\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your love and faithfulness. Because of you, Lord Jesus, I can experience the joy of forgiveness.\u00a0 Holy Spirit, please remind me that God is our only hiding place.\u00a0 I do not have to hide and run away from God.\u00a0 Instead, I run to our God and confess our sins.\u00a0 [CONFESS YOUR SINS IN FRONT OF GOD HERE].<br \/>I rest assured that God will forgive me in our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Thank God for your everlasting love and presence.<br \/>In Jesus Christ\u2019s name, I pray. Amen.<\/p>\n<h4><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">Diving<\/span> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">Deeper<\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Are there any unconfessed sins and transgressions in our lives?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Have you ever experience the emotion of powerlessness? At that time, how close were you to God?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">How can we live closer <strong>WITH GOD<\/strong> in our lives?<br \/>How are we being <strong>TRANSFORMED<\/strong> to be more like Christ?<br \/>How is the Holy Spirit empowering us to imitate Christ in what we <strong>DO<\/strong> this week?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psalm 32<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":12099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","ctc_sermon_topic":[],"ctc_sermon_book":[55],"ctc_sermon_series":[524],"ctc_sermon_speaker":[520],"ctc_sermon_tag":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/12116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ctc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12116"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/12116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12138,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/12116\/revisions\/12138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_topic?post=12116"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_book?post=12116"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_series?post=12116"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_speaker?post=12116"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_tag?post=12116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}