Hey, it’s always great to be here. I just got a text message from my wife saying that she’s praying for me, which is right on cue. I’ve been married 42 years. You get this ESP sense, sometimes it’s too much but this is very spiritually timely. It’s very interesting, very, very interesting. I tell my wife that. I think I’ve been here at Cornerstone for over 15 years running, I believe so. I should get a monument or something, a plaque pretty soon once I hit the 20th year. I always like to share about my life. I don’t know when I came last, I’m getting older, I don’t remember, I came a while ago. I’ll tell you my life, like many of yours, is a journey. It’s one of the benefits that I have of coming here because this is like a pulpit away from home. If you’ve been here for years and have heard me, then you’ve heard about me through my journey. I tend to be quite honest.

My journey right now is one where there are some happy things. I’m expecting my fifth grandchild in November, and I am very, very happy. I have some neutral things as well. My other daughter has just moved to Taiwan for three years with her three grandchildren. They lived on the East Bay. So I’m a little neutral on that one. There are chronic things like my mother-in-law. The last time I came, I shared that my mother-in-law suffered four strokes. She is in a subacute nursing facility in Los Angeles. It’s been almost a year now and that’s a chronic thing. If you have to deal with loved ones who are in a chronic situation, you know the burden and the emotional burden upon the family, that’s the big thing.

There are acute things too. I wanted to spend a little bit more time on the acute things because it has something to do with the message and my life too. Not this past Friday but the Friday before, nine days ago, I went to my Kaiser. If you know me, then you know I don’t like going to the doctor. I just don’t like it. I don’t want to go to the dentist, I don’t like anything. I went and had a CT scan. The doctor said, “Well, we should schedule you for an MRI.” Because about two and a half weeks ago I was experiencing a loss of 1% of my vocabulary, headaches, and nausea. It’s just a little brain fog. It was affecting my speech and ability to complete sentences. They needed to do these things because they said, “Well, we have to see, make sure it’s not that the serious stuff.” Which would be a stroke, tumor, or something like that.

I got my results from the CT scan right away. For the MRI, we waited a day or something and it wasn’t negative. They have to move on to what’s causing my symptoms. It’s very interesting because I always thought that that was one of my strengths in being a person. There are always strengths and weaknesses in a person. My strength is that I’m not tall. I’m not athletic. I can’t shoot the three-pointer, that’s not my skill. But one of the things that was my strength was the ability to process very quickly and to speak. When that occurred about two weeks ago, I said, “Oh Lord, this is really interesting,” because I was having a hard time completing my sentences. The prayer is whether I would be able to preach and complete this sermon without major gaps in the message and whether I could stand. It’s very, very interesting.

I texted Pastor Terry. I said I was almost at the point where I wanted a medical out for this sermon. It’s, “I think the dog ate the homework,” type of thing, but it’s not a dog ate the homework. I still have some humor in me with the brain fog. It was one of these where “I can’t stand up. I can’t speak,” sort of thing. I texted Pastor Terry and I said, “Well, I’m glad I didn’t send that message because I think I could still preach.” Which leads very well to the subject of this message of this sermon.

Life is full of conflict, life is not easy, life has its ups and downs. That’s the proverbial statement, if you live long enough you know that. The issue is how does your faith deal with the downs? What controls you? What guides you? How do you determine how you are to respond in the downtime? It fits very well with the passage because Cornerstone is going through the book of Acts, Rise. The passage that was assigned to me was Acts chapter five. Acts chapter five is one of the most unusual passages because it has one of the most iconic verses of scripture in terms of how your faith must be manifested in the midst of conflict. There’s only a short portion that is written in your program because I want to share with you the setting of this. I have a minute or so to tell you what the background of this was. Acts chapter five is very, very interesting.

Through the bestowal of the spirit and the giftedness of God to the apostles, the early Christian leaders were able to do marvelous things. Miracles that you could never even dream of. It would be the type of emptying the hospital type of dreams. They were shadows healing people, things you don’t even see today. They were endued with great supernatural empowerment from on high. As a result of that, not only were they doing marvelous healing and marvelous works of compassion to people, they were trying it with the teaching of the resurrected Christ. When they were in the city of Jerusalem and Jesus had not been crucified more than two months ago. It didn’t look good. “The person you murdered or executed is now the basis of this huge revival occurring in the city of Jerusalem.”

They were arrested, some of the early Christian leaders. The arrest could not stop them for God miraculously let them out. They were proclaiming more and were arrested again. They were causing a big turmoil in the city of Jerusalem. With that background, I will now read Acts 5:27-32. “When they had brought them, they stood them before the council. The high priest questioned them saying, ‘We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in His name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.’ But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than man. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a prince and a savior, to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We are witnesses to these things. So is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.'”

When I was texted that I had the opportunity to preach this I said in a reply message, “What an honor to preach this passage.” It talks about the supremacy of Christ and the message that we have in the midst of conflict, trouble, downturns or whatever conflict you have. Not only does it talk about the power that we have in Christ, but this passage also corrects some of the misconceptions we have about our faith. These misconceptions are very, very important. Some of you may be new to Cornerstone and may not really be a follower of Jesus, but just interested. Some of you are long-term members and attenders of this church and may have some misconceptions. So I want to go through three misconceptions, the fourth, what I think is the true conception, and then the application to end the message.

The first misconception is that some people believe that if we follow God we will live on easy street. Oh man, I’ll tell you what, I want to sign up for that God. The easy street God. Easy street is always the primary goal, so if I’m on the side street or I’m stuck on 101, if I do the right thing I’m back on easy street, I’m on 280, not 101. That’s all I want because God is the 280 God. He’s not a 101 God. He’s not definitely not an 80 God, now I could preach like that. A lot of us have that, “Oh, we got trouble. I come to God because if I do everything right, it’s on easy street.”

I want to tell you that’s a misconception. I’m not saying that there’s no marvelous deliverance of God in a believer’s life. I will swear to you on a Bible type of swearing. I swear on the Bible that in my journey and I was a Christian when I was seven, so it’s been over 55 years, that I have seen God work in incredible ways. Oh wow, incredible ways. Miraculous ways.

Answered prayer ways that would make your jaw open wide and say, “Oh, wow, I never thought that happened.” But to say that that’s all of life and now I’m on easy street. I’d be lying to you there. I want to bring up two passages of scripture. First is in Ephesians 6:2-3. It’s taken from the law of Moses, “Honor, your father, and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise. If you honor your father and mother things will go well for you and you will have a long life on the earth.” This is one of these weird passages that as a child you didn’t like, but as a parent I love it. It’s one of these things that is a nice principle.

Then Jesus said this other passage that’s a little bit different, Matthew 10:34-36, “Don’t imagine I came to bring peace to the earth. I came not to bring peace, but a sword. I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Your enemies will be right in your own household.” As a child, I liked that one. As a parent, I don’t like that one. Do you know what I mean? It’s one of these things where you say, “Oh, maybe it’s all like situational ethics.” No, it’s not situational ethics, both are true.

How can you be on easy street and easy street has potholes all over it, that’s the incredible thing. This is a misconception because sometimes we only come to Christ because all my problems will go away. I will tell you what, your problems and burdens will be lightened. God will give you ways out, but there will be new situations that will come up because of your faith that will cause conflict. Because you have an answered venue to pray with God. It’s just that when you come to human interaction your faith in God may cause some degree of conflict in your life.

When I was really young, that’s a long time ago, I grew up in New York City in Chinatown on Mott Street. My sister and brother were the first believers in the whole Louie clan in New York City. My sister told me that when first attending church with some friends, our mother hid her Bible because she didn’t want her to read it and told us not to get baptized, “You go to church so you don’t get into gangs, but you don’t take this stuff seriously.” Hiding the Bible is not like a beating, whipping, or reprimand but it was not a friendly thing.

What do you do? It’s not one of these things that you believe everything’s fine. No, there are going to be times when there’s conflict. There are going to be times that the things that you hold will be in direct opposition to what other people hold. So what are you going to do? You could be nice to people but when it comes to opinions, thoughts, theological concepts, and things they hold to be true, there’s a difference. There’s a difference between behavior that you can control because it should be filled with grace, but thoughts, that’s the troublesome part, those who believe that we will always live on easy street. If you live alone, you might be on easy street. Once you live with people, life is not an easy street anymore. 

The second misconception that we have is some people believe that if we follow God, we will always defer to others. It’s easy. We’re on easy street but when we’re not on easy street. We always go the way the other person wants. We always turn the other cheek, do unto others as others would like you to do unto them. Or you would like them to do to you. Do what people want, be a doormat for Jesus. Turn the other cheek. That’s not true at all. In this very passage that I am preaching on in Acts chapter five, if this principle were true Peter would have said, “Oh, so sorry.” If he was Asian it would have gone like this, “So sorry. We should always defer to the elders. So sorry. Thank you for correcting us. So, so sorry, we will stop doing this. We’ll only do it with your permission and with the proper application and the licenses. So sorry.” No, they didn’t do that. There is a time in which you defer to other people and that usually refers to actions, things you do. As you grow in Christ these are strange things. I believe as you mature in Christ you get less picky and a little less OCD. You can defer to other people. You don’t need to have your way all the time.

That’s a mark I believe of a Christian because by default we always want our way. But as a Christian, we can say, “It’s okay. I’m a little bit more flexible these days.” There comes a point in which you can’t be flexible and it always comes to that action you can be flexible. With interaction, you can be flexible. But when it comes to what you hold and what you believe, paralyzed, “Oh man, what in the world is going on? I can’t defer to that.” There’s a third misconception that comes around. Some people believe that if we follow God, we will be prophet-like and irritate everyone around us. I want to throw that one in because about a month ago I met someone at my new gig at Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto.

The person was visiting the church. I was talking to the individual and the person said, “I’m thinking of leaving the church that I’ve been in because I can’t find any church that agrees with what I hold.” I said, “What other churches have you gone to?” He said, “I went to this church and they don’t agree with that. I don’t want that.” I said, “Well, who holds to your view?” He says, “I really don’t know anybody.” I said, “How do you know it’s true?” He says, “I believe that there are people who hold my view. I just haven’t found them yet.” Then we were talking about a theme that this person brought up. I told him my view and the person said, “Oh, that’s a wicked view.” That’s not really nice to say that wicked view, things like that.

I told this person, I said, “Well, I welcome you to the church but I don’t think you’ll like it here. Because I don’t know if you’ll ever like anything you find there. There’s no one that holds your view.” Then the person says, “Aren’t we supposed to be prophets in this world? Tell people what they don’t like, tell the truth of God. ‘True. But if there’s no one else in this world to your knowledge who holds your truth, the way you say it, I don’t think the problem is with us.'” Call me a little harsh, a little judgmental, “I don’t think the problem is with me, man. I think the problem is with you.”

I think the problem is you go so far to the side of the truth that you cannot even manifest an ounce of grace to people. Why is that other problem there? “Oh, but I’m a prophet of God. We’re the new John the Baptist, I’m eating bugs and honey all day long.” You’re not eating bugs and honey, you’re eating your vegan hamburger that’s what you’re eating. God didn’t take away my wit. But some people hold this, just tell it like it is. I’m going to give you a passage of scripture in Titus, the book of Titus, “They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show humility to everyone. Once we too were foolish and disobedient, we were misled and became slaves to many lust and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy and we hated each other. End quarreling instead be gentle and truly humble to each other.”

Where is that prophet thing? Oh yeah, there’s a point in which you tell the truth. People get in trouble in Christianity when you go into extremes, all grace behavior, no conflicting thought. That’s so anti-Jesus. All conflicting thoughts, no gracious behavior. I’ll tell you what the truth is in the balance of those two things. With those two things, that is when you rise and you truly understand the transforming strength of our Lord Jesus Christ upon our lives. You realize how transformationally you are as a person. Then you realize what you stand on as a child of God and how you live your life. Because the fourth is the truth, I told you I have three misconceptions. The fourth one will be the one I think is the truth, closest to the truth.

The truth is that when we follow God we will be kind and gracious to all. Our central truth about our faith cannot be withheld or silenced. The key to this is to separate the gracious behavior and the truth that you hold and champion both. Rather than suppress one, you uphold both. What does that look like? In American society, there’s a very splintered society now. Religion is one of the themes within the conflict. You must figure out what gracious behavior is, it will always be gracious. I believe that believers are to be uber gracious. That is what we are, but there’s a point that says, “This is what we hold. I can’t suppress what we hold. I will excel in the grace that we exhibit and manifest.”

That’s the difficult aspect of being a Christian in America. We’re changing a religious social setting in this great nation. Being a person of color, the last time I saw I’m a minority and minorities were getting better status, I just want to tell you that. I view Christianity differently because I view Christianity as a minority. When you view Christianity as a minority, you take a global view. When you take a global view that 80% of Christians in this world live in nations that are not tolerant of their faith; the church planting with Indian brothers, the big turn, persecution of Indian believers, pastors being beaten up, and the church being burnt. In China, the wave is now turning anti-Christian. I don’t even want to think about what it means to be a Christian in Iran, Iraq, Syria, or Egypt. I don’t even want to think about it. I don’t know how they even want to go to church on Sunday. For those people, it’s different from who you are going to vote for in November. For these people, it’s a matter of, “You want to get beat up? And if you don’t, all you have to do is renounce your faith.” Simple, isn’t it? It’s very, very different.

What drives those Christians? Being an American, sometimes I can’t even fathom how these people hold on to their faith. It must be so that it’s so close to Acts chapter five, “Well, you can take everything away from us, but we’ll still believe” What’s that? It has nothing to do with changing society or what you need to do. It’s about what is at the core of your being and your identity. For these people, the core of their belief and identity is their faith in God, which is non-negotiable. You’re not going to pry it from our hand. 

For my sister when she was growing up in Chinatown, New York, it meant to her, our brother, and eventually to me, I’m seven years younger, is that “No, I’m going to go to church. I’m going to read the Bible and I’m going to get baptized. One of your sons is going to be a pastor. Isn’t that ironic?” Why? Is it because I always defer to others? Is it because it’s always on easy street? We are always gracious to people, but there comes a time in which your identity is at the heart. The soul of who you are and what you hold to be most valuable is non-negotiable. I cannot, I cannot. “But we told you, Peter, not to preach. ‘We cannot, we cannot stop.'” 

10 days ago I went to get a CT scan to see if I had a stroke. When the results came back, it was negative and the MRI was negative. So I gave it a shot to come to Cornerstone, my pulpit away from home. I walked through the door in the dark and I felt like falling because I’ve been here for over 15 years running sometimes four times a year. Suddenly it just felt strange to me. I have a problem with hearing now, noises bother me, which never did before. I like quiet now. I have trouble ending my sentences and for someone who speaks as a profession that is not a good thing. It’s not a good thing, but I have to tell you something. The faith that I hold and the faith that many of us hold here is not always a faith because of convenience, it is who I am. Whether I can finish my sentence or whether I cannot finish my sentence, that is not who I am. So wherever you are in the journey of life, whether you are in conflict, medical disability, or emotional turmoil. I was talking to friends here earlier, there was plenty of burden here. At the end of the day here is the question, who is the one upon whom you will base your life to determine how you will respond?

Sure I have Kaiser, but who will I base my trust upon? Who am I going to base my trust upon? Who are you going to base your trust upon? Is he going to be the one that drives the narrative in your life so that whatever comes whether it is political, societal, or you are in physical ailment? Life might not be as good as it could be, but I cannot stop trusting and believing that my Lord will bring me through. At the end of the day that is all I ask of you. Allow me to pray. Our Heavenly Father, I give thanks for the grace that you have bestowed this weary body of mine and I gave you many thanks. Lord, I pray for my friends at Cornerstone, wherever they are in their journey, whatever acute, chronic situations they face, that ultimately we cannot but believe in you and declare your truth. If there are those who are visiting Cornerstone for the very first time, may you allow us to understand a little bit more about your gospel and about your truth. For those who have been a little bit too prophetic to be kind, for those who have been a little too silent to be a little bit more verbal, for those who have been a little bit weak to put our confidence in you. Lord, I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.