Author: Tim Nguyen

Mental Health – April 3, 2022

Psalm 3

Pastor Tim Nguyen

How do we face overwhelming trouble?

I think often times, when we are overwhelmed, it’s not this sudden thing and you have to figure out what to do right away. It’s usually something that slowly builds up. Like procrastinating projects and neglecting responsibilities for a long time…  we let it gradually build up until we can’t handle it anymore.

This has been a common pattern and theme recently because I’ve been in contact with a lot of people who are just falling apart emotionally and mentally. More often than not, we’re stuck in these problems for a very long time.

But we find hope in the middle of overwhelming trouble when we
1. Go to God
2. Trust what God says

Mental Health – March 6, 2022

Romans 12:9-16

Pastor Tim Nguyen

As we continue our series on mental health, it’s most natural to talk about community, because healthy communities and relationships make a huge difference. We need each other, because as we enjoy life together, support each other, speak truth to each other and really empower one another in the mission of God, our mental health is going to be much better than if we were to go at it alone.

So on that note, the question we’re looking at today is: How can we shape an amazing community?

In our context, how do we become the church that Jesus intended? What does that church even look like?

I think a wonderful description of such a church is found in Romans 12:15, where Paul says: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”

An authentic Christ-following healthy church is filled with members who can so deeply identify with one another that they can rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. People who love their neighbours as much as they love themselves. Jesus told us this would be the mark of his disciple. When we get it right, we have a depth of love that is arguably greater than anywhere outside of Christian community.

We’re walking through two points today on how we can cultivate such a community;

  1. Logic (Where we’re going to look at the why)
  2. Empathy (Where we’re going to look at how it’s practically lived out)

The Ten Commandments – January 23, 2022

Exodus 20:14

Pastor Tim Nguyen

Adultery is where people sleep around with others and betray their marriages.

We read this commandment, and we are so fast to just move on because it’s like the biggest “DUH” ever. No one gets into a serious relationship or a marriage and thinks, “Huhu, hey I’m going to cheat on this person.” But I think this needs a second look because the reality is.. It happens. And it happens so frequently too.

But there’s more to this commandment. To understand it properly, we need to understand what it’s doing in the Ten Commandments. As we’ve been going through the ten commandments, it’s more than just random rules. We see it as God claiming control and sovereignty over all dimensions of our lives. And in this commandment about adultery, the full meaning is that we need to give God control of our whole love life, not just the physical part, but also the emotions and the thoughts. That’s how Jesus reads this commandment.

The Ten Commandments – January 9, 2021

Exodus 20:12

Pastor Timothy Nguyen

Today, we’re talking about parents. We’re continuing our series on The Ten Commandments, and instead of just viewing these as seemingly random rules to memorize and follow, we’re looking at each one as a different dimension in life that God is claiming sovereignty and control over.

God’s showing us how to live in step with him with our WHOLE lives rather than just our Sunday mornings. Last week, David talked about how God stakes a claim over our time. And this week, we see how we can love and worship God through our family life.

I’ll be focusing on our relationship with our parents today, but you’ll find that a lot of these principles apply to other members of your family too.

The Book of 1st Peter: Resilience – November 7, 2021

1 Peter 2:1-3

Pastor Tim Nguyen

Love is the difference between a great life and a terrible one. Between a blessed life and one full of regret. Love is all that God asks of us and as Christians, we are marked by it. Like that one song says, “They will know we are Christians by your love”. And yet, we come across many Christians and even moments where we ourselves are very unloving.

So our experience tells us that love is not automatic. Which brings us to our main Bible passage, because our passage teaches us how to grow in love. We’ll learn that if we want to grow in love:

1. We need to FIGHT
2. We need to DRINK.

It kind of just sounds like I’m describing a very toxic relationship but to be more precise: we fight the evil inside of us, and we drink what Apostle Peter calls spiritual milk.

Genesis: Chosen to be a Blessing – October 10, 2021

Genesis 39:19-23; Genesis 40:5-8

Pastor Tim Nguyen

Even if you are a strong Christian, it can feel like you’ve been forgotten, and thoughts start bubbling up in our minds like:

“If God is supposed to be here with me, then why are these bad things happening to me?” And we often subconsciously answer these questions by making up assumptions. Maybe God’s not real. Maybe He’s not in control. Or maybe he’s in control, but He’s not good, He doesn’t want what’s best for me. Or simply, God’s too busy with other things to waste time on me. And because of our misunderstanding of God, many Christians get bitter or become complacent in life.

Our story today reminds us that when these hard moments come, we are exactly where God wants us to be and we just need to continue believing in what he is doing and to work with him. But what IS God doing in difficult times?

We’ll learn from our story today that God is:

  1. Blessing us
  2. Preparing us for greater things.

Genesis: Chosen to Be a Blessing – September 12, 2021

Genesis 30:32-31:19

Timothy Nguyen

Sometimes life can be disappointing. It feels like we’re stuck on a huge detour, and sometimes we’re unsure with where we’re headed. And it feels like no matter what path you take, there’s this underlying feeling of uncertainty and disappointment. The Bible tells us that we don’t have to live this way. That there is a path we can take to get to a right and satisfying place in life.

How do we get to the right place in life? And the answers we’ll be exploring is:

1. Give credit to God
2. Obey God promptly

Titus: Building Community – August 29, 2021

Titus 3:3-7

Timothy Nguyen

Today’s message marks the conclusion of our sermon series on the bbok of Titus.

The story of your life is the lens by which you see all things. Tell yourself the wrong story, and your life will go the wrong direction, committed to useless things. But if you have the right story, a right way of seeing life… then you can be confident that you are living your life well.

With that said, our focus today is this:
“What is the story of every Christian?”

Ecclesiastes: Our Culture’s Wisdom – July 4, 2021

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Timothy Nguyen

As Pastor David mentioned last week, the teacher in our Bible passage gives us a wide scope of worldly wisdom. And in his worldly wisdom, he says life is vain, or even meaningless. But then he says, despite his pointless and confusing life, it’s still better to be together.

So for us, as Christians who don’t believe that life is meaningless, how much more important is it for us to seek community and teamwork? So this writer’s worldly wisdom is even more valuable for us because we believe its effects will last forever.

Ecclesiastes: Our Culture’s Wisdom – June 20, 2021

Ecclesiastes 2:10-11

Timothy Nguyen

This week, we’re starting a new series in the book of Ecclesiastes.

The narrator of the book goes through a bunch of different aspects of life and then concludes, “it’s all fleeting so therefore it’s pointless.”

Meaningless. Vain.

Today, we get to take a quick look at what he says in regards to chasing pleasure. Our big question today is: what is the point of worldly pleasure?

My big idea today is: worldly pleasure is a means to an end.