You Have a Choice!
BMCC Sunday Sermon · 11 Oct 2026 · Speaker: Pastor Hong
October 11 is National Coming Out Day. On this particularly meaningful Sunday, Pastor Hong opened his sermon with a question that seemed almost too simple: “How many of you feel that you have a choice in life?” When most of the congregation raised their hands, he smiled and said, “Great — then I don’t need to say anything. We’re done for today.” Laughter filled the room. But then he turned earnest, and began to share honestly from his own life: even when we have the freedom to choose, that does not mean we know how to choose well — or that our choices leave no regrets.
This year, Pastor Hong has been teaching at seven schools, carrying a heavy workload. Beneath the pressure, he found himself talking to his husband Alan about the regrets that had crept in. “I had a choice,” he said, “and I still chose it.” He even recalled lying awake until seven in the morning because he had drunk too strong a cup of coffee the night before. This was not weakness — it was the honest texture of human life. We live inside countless choices, and yet we so often cannot see clearly what we are actually choosing.
The scripture that day was Deuteronomy 30:15–20. Moses was 120 years old, at the end of his life, speaking to the second generation of Israelites — those who were about to enter the Promised Land. They had wandered the wilderness for forty years. By now, they had begun to adapt to the values of Canaanite culture; some had even joined the local religions. Moses, seeing all of this, did not rage or condemn. Instead, with deep love, he said: “I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity… Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you.”
Pastor Hong brought this ancient exhortation to life through two people he had personally encountered in his pastoral ministry.
The first was a young Christian, newly come to faith. He had grown up in a broken family — difficult parents, raised largely by his grandmother, with little experience of being loved or held. Seeking a place to belong, he had fallen into drug use and dangerous relationships. When Pastor Hong went to visit him, he found a young man who actually understood exactly what he was doing and why he kept doing it — because those choices, however destructive, gave him things he could find nowhere else: the feeling of being embraced, of being wanted, the dopamine rush of temporary pleasure. Pastor Hong did not scold him. Instead, he said quietly, “Adults make their own choices. But you still have forty years ahead of you. You can live a more beautiful, more abundant life.”
The second was a veteran Christian of thirty-plus years, someone who had once held leadership roles in a church. He, too, had stumbled and been arrested, awaiting trial. When Pastor Hong visited him, he did not see repentance — he saw a man still calculating his next move, still planning what he would do once he was free again. And yet, even in that place of shadow, Pastor Hong spoke of a miracle: in the most unexpected way, God led a friend, by way of another friend, to find Pastor Hong — and so he came to visit this brother. Even though the man was not yet willing to change, Pastor Hong sensed that God’s grace was still quietly at work.
“Moses’s exhortation is not merely about eschatological choices — it is about the choices we make every single day,” Pastor Hong reflected. We so often feel we have no choice because the world is full of lies that say there is no way out. We spin in loops of desire: earn more, satisfy one more craving. And in the spinning, we slowly forget who we are.
In the second half of the sermon, Pastor Hong shared with rare vulnerability about a dark season he had walked through. During a period of deep depression, thoughts of ending his life had crossed his mind. “I thought — it wouldn’t matter if I were gone. I even have a choice about that. How easy it would be.” Yet in that darkest moment, something stirred within him — not a voice that denied the pain, but one that stepped back and, with a quiet tenderness, simply observed the suffering self and asked: “How do I accompany myself right now? I still know that God is with me.”
He called this the “self” (自我) — an inner witness that is able to step back, look with compassion at the person who is struggling, and say: you are still here, and you still have a choice. “The self” does not erase negative thoughts, but it shows up in the darkest hour to remind us: there is still a way through. “When you know you have a choice,” he said, “change becomes possible.” He urged the congregation to cultivate this inner self — and if it feels distant or unfamiliar, to seek it in quietness. Only in stillness can we come to know who we truly are; only when we know ourselves can we find the strength to rise again from the low valleys of life.
In closing, Pastor Hong drew the two stories together: one young believer, one veteran, both lost — in different ways — from their own inner self. Yet he remained convinced of the possibility of change. He believed that every person, at any moment, can choose to turn back toward God. “Human darkness is inevitable,” he said. “But I believe in God. I believe God can lead us out of the dark. I believe our lives, because of God, can hold the power of choice at every moment. May you always be able to find your way back to your own self — to the self that is able to companion you.”
Blessed Ministry Community Church (BMCC) is a home for all people, no matter what struggles you are walking through, no matter how close to the edge you feel. If you are searching for your true self — if you are longing for a place to be still — come to a Sunday service at BMCC. Together, before God, let us find again the courage that comes with knowing: you have a choice.
Depression is not a joke, and it is not something you can simply “snap out of.” Mental health is part of the human experience, and it deserves the same care we give our bodies. If you or someone close to you is struggling, BMCC’s Open Arms Counselling Centre is here to walk alongside you. Learn more about our counselling services: https://hkbmcc.org/counseling/
