Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “The Experiential Gospel.” Christian faith is not philosophy or study based on the third dimensional world that relies on theory or reason. Even if human beings come up with an excellent theory, we cannot have faith without grace that can be experienced while we live. Our faith must take root on living experiences. Our living faith in our hearts can change Saul to Paul. Even a delicious dish can’t prove its taste only with explanation; we should taste it first. Even a nice picture of a beautiful scene can’t be compared with direct seeing. It is the same with faith. Even if we hear a thousand times of theoretical explanations about God, it can’t be compared with a direct encounter with Him. To experience is far most important in our faith. Apostle Paul once persecuted Christians and took care of those clothes which belonged to the witnesses who stoned Stephen to death. Once Saul gnashed his teeth at Christians and went to Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard Jesus’voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," He replied. At this Saul surrendered to Jesus and became one of the greatest apostles in the history of Christianity. In order for this, vivid experience is essential. When we carry around in our body the death of Jesus, we can experience the living Jesus. 2 Corinthians 4:10-11 says, “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.” This means that there are many things that kill Jesus. Jesus was not crucified without cause. All those evil things in the world that rebel against God killed Jesus. Jesus held mental insecurity, fear, despair, hatred, breakdown, and depression in our life. He also embraced all those diseases such as tuberculosis, heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. And Jesus took all our nakedness, starving, and painful life. It is because Jesus would not have to be crucified on the cross if they were not here. As all sins were rampant to destroy humans spiritually, mentally, and physically, Jesus came to the earth to resist all those negative things. As Jesus destroyed all of them, He could deliver us from them. Therefore, when we carry around in our body the death of Jesus, He will pour out life on us. When we face a crisis of life, most people are possessed by fear even before they fight against it. The Israelites saw Goliath and were frightened beforehand. 1 Samuel 17:24 says, “When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.” When fear caught them, they ran away even before they fought with him. However, David came forward with boldness toward Goliath. It was because he had experiential faith. David had experienced God’s help much while tending his father’s sheep. David said in 1 Samuel 17:37, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you." David had been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, he went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. As he depended on God and fought against it, he could strike it and kill it. Therefore, David believed that he would not be killed by a lion or a bear, but rather kill it when he relied on God. As he had experienced God’s deliverance, even though other people feared Goliath when he attacked the Israelites like a lion or a bear, David could boldly cry out, “What are you talking about? I already killed a lion and a bear so what should I fear?” His experience made him that bold in front of his enemy. “Why should I be afraid of him as I had already experienced a great victory?” Deuteronomy 7:21 says, “Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.” When God is with us, nothing can terrify us. If we experience God’s presence in life, we can overcome fear and our faith will be much strengthened. In this world, might outweighs logic. The powerful overwhelm the powerless. However, in the kingdom of God, it is quite the opposite. The believers in the Early Church were most helpless, weak, poor, naked, and starved. When they preached the Gospel, their seemingly powerless Gospel turned out to be most powerful that it toppled down the Roman Empire. Although they were helpless, what really mattered was who was with them. As God was with them, the Roman Empire surrendered before them. In Acts, Peter and John boldly said before the Jewish authorities, “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."(Acts 4:20) They said that they had to preach because they witnessed Jesus’ death and resurrection. They couldn’t help but preach the Gospel. The Apostles were so bold because they saw and heard Jesus’ death and resurrection. They had experiential faith. Even if you believe in Jesus and serve God and attend church worship service regularly, when you don’t have experiential faith, you can be shaken in your faith without ceasing. When we believe in Jesus, we must have Jesus’ experience. Then even if we are mocked because of our faith in Him, we won’t be swayed by anyone’s harassment. In the Bible, when Babylon took the Israelites captives and brought them to their country, there were young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, and quick to understand. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon chose wise young men among the Israelite captives and among these were three young men named Sadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. As they were promoted to higher positions and afforded richer and more abundant lives than any other captives, other officials accused them before the king. “O king, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?who neither pay attention to you nor worship the image of gold, O king. They do not work on the Sabbath and worship their god. You must give them hell and punish them harshly!” Thus King Nebuchadnezzar summoned all his officials and commanded, “As soon as you hear the sound of all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold I have set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.” Then Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and said to them, “Now when you hear the sound of all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace.” However, three of them laughed at this. They said, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king." They refused to compromise. So when everyone bowed down before the image of gold as they heard the sound of all kinds of music, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stood there without falling down before the idol. Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with them, and he commanded his soldiers in his army to tie them up and throw them into the blazing furnace. The king said to them, “Even now, if you worship the idol and bow down before it, I will save your lives. If not, I will throw all of you into the furnace.” They replied, “We can’t betray our God whom we serve. If we perish, we perish. We can’t desert our faith.” So the King’s soldiers threw them into the furnace, but King leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, "How many of them did you throw into there?” “We threw three men into it.” “Then who are they, dancing in the fire? Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods." Above all, they were not burned at all! Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, come out!” So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and the fourth man disappeared. The king and other people saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed, and there was no smell of fire on them. At this they could not deny the living God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Daniel 3:16-17 says, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.” What a bold faith they had! In the Old Testament, there are so many people who experienced the power and works of the living God. They overcame hardships and sufferings with uncompromising faith and prayer. Hebrews 10:38-39 says, “But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” God tells us to overcome difficulties with faith. Prophet Habakkuk lived in the era of total darkness without any ray of hope. The life of the Israelites was devastated by the oppression of surrounding countries and economic privation due to famine and a bad crop. Furthermore, the poor had to live a more miserable life because of the corruption and the tyranny of the powerful. In this hopeless situation, when Habakkuk asked the Lord, He answered, “-- but the righteous will live by his faith.”(Habakkuk 2:4) God wants His people to live by faith in Him no matter what situation they may be in. When Habakkuk saw his situation with the eyes of faith, everything changed. While he saw with faithless eyes, he had to complain, but with the eyes of faith, he could not help but give thanks and praises to God. Habakkuk 3:17-18 says, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” Even though nothing is visible, audible, and touchable and our future seems pitch dark, we will move forward while believing in God and relying on Him. It is quite a faith! 1 John 5:4 says, “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” Therefore, we should overcome all difficulties with faith. When we see that Jesus carried all our burdens for us, we must rely on Him further. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus carried all our sins, unrighteousness, filth and curses on the cross. Jesus came to the earth as a human and took all our sins, unrighteousnes, curses, and despair. As Jesus carried all negative forces in the world, when we embrace this Jesus, a life from Jesus will overflow in us. We don’t have any burden to carry. Our burdens are mentally and physically and materially weary and heavy in our life. As Jesus carried them all, when we rely on Him, He will solve all of them. Matthew 11:28 says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” When we run the race of faith, if we leave all our weary and heavy burdens to Jesus, we can finish the race well and win the victory. When we have to face difficulties and a crisis, we must be watchful of negative thoughts. In the autobiography of Hudson Taylor, the hardest thing in his mission works was negative thoughts. The most harassing thing in his ministry was his negative thinking that everything was unfavorable and adverse to him. If he had let it go that way, It would have kept on without ceasing. At last it would have made him to give up, saying, “It can’t be done. I can’t make it.” The best way to overcome these negative thoughts is to encourage ourselves by saying positive words of faith to us. The Psalmist talked to himself in suffering and hardship. Psalm 42:5 says, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior.” He encouraged himself by saying, “Put your hope in God.” Unproved and inexperienced faith is just a theory and playing with words. Because 120 Christians who gathered and prayed in Mark’s upper room approximately 2,000 years ago experienced the Holy Spirit, they were able to have a miraculous life of faith. Jesus carried all our sins and unrighteousness, filth and curses, and despair and death. He left nothing behind. And then finally He said on the cross, “It is finished.” He did not accomplish a little. He neither finishedhalf. He finished all on the cross. Jesus is the etenal God so He finished it eternally. He shed His precious blood to pay our whole debts so the devil had to be cast out for eternity and all things in heaven and on the earth belong to Jesus. Now when we pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ, He will answer to us. Jesus loves us with endless love. Therefore, don’t despair easily, but follow Jesus and seek His help; then He will take full responsibility for us. Now the devil has no right to steal, kill, and destroy us directly. He just makes false accusations against us and threatens us, but has no power to destroy us. It is because Jesus took the whole universe back by His eternal blood, which had been robbed by the devil through Adam. Now when Jesus Christ is with us, no one can harm us. When we have Jesus in our hearts, Jesus and we will be united as one. Then joy and gladness will overflow in our hearts and we will prosper spiritually, physically and materially and have the full life.