Johnny Chang
Appearances
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
To kind of build off of what Sister Angela was saying, too, I think a lot of people, and as well as the identity being brought up, a lot of people don't understand that sin is also an identity issue in terms of Romans 5, verse 19. Through one man's sin entered the world, and death passed upon all men. For that, all are sinners, right? So Adam's sin passed it down to Cain.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
He didn't teach Cain how to murder or anything like that. It was a nature that was passed down. And a lot of people think that, well, you know, like for the lady in your example, she's feeling condemnation because she's looking at her actions, not understanding that it's an identity issue. And that's why Jesus says, Galatians 2.20, that I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
The issue is people trust their thoughts above the word of God, right? John 16 verse 9 tells us very clearly that unbelief is sin, right? Of sin because they don't believe in me. Well, believing in Jesus, not just knowing about him, is believing exactly what sister was saying, what he did for us. He perfected us, made us righteous, made us holy.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
And that's something that people struggle with because they're trusting their thoughts and what they see, not walking by faith. So a lot of the times people live this happy, sad lifestyle, this up and down lifestyle, serving ministry for 10s, 20s, 30s, you know, years. And it's because they're focusing on what they see. And our eyes are obviously deceitful. Our heart is deceitful.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
So any feeling that they have, right, anything that they look at with their own eyes, observing, it causes them to live this rollercoaster lifestyle. And that's why they're saying, I can't be, I'm not worthy. Well, our job is not to look at ourselves, but to only be in the scripture, only look at what God is saying about us.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
And he shows us beautifully in the first miracle with the wedding at Cana, right? When they look at it, it's water, right? Six water pots, touch it as water, taste it as water, smell it as water. But Jesus says it's wine. What he's teaching them is actively metanoia, which is repentance, distrusting your thoughts, going above your mind, transcending your mind back to the word of God.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
So Jesus says it's wine. We look at it, it's water. Likewise, Jesus says, I made you righteous. I died for everything. No, but I'm still a sinner. When we focus on ourselves in this way. that's when we're able to kind of really fall short and not experience the true love and the blessing from God. And this is what I notice with a lot of people who come and say, I got to stop my sins.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
Well, God already crucified everything. Second Corinthians 517 says you're a new creature. It doesn't say you're being made a new creature. You are. So either you're a new creature or you're going to trust your thoughts. And if you trust your thoughts and what you see, you will fail. But if you trust the word of God that never changes. And you can continuously move forward with that identity.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
Oh, I'm perfected through Jesus. I don't have to trust my thoughts. The world tells me to trust my thoughts, follow my heart. God says, lean not on your own understanding. Your heart is deceitful above all things. So which one am I going to trust? Either trust the word of God or trust my feelings. And that's kind of.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
What I've noticed, at least in my experience, of why people continuously fall short, feel that condemnation, which they think is conviction, two different things, right? So, yeah.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
Yeah. So, you know, Matthew 12, 37 tells us, you know, by the fruit of your lips, you shall be justified by the fruit of your lips. You shall be condemned. The reason why Adam, you know, God had Adam named the animals was not because God was tired. He could have named the animals himself. What he was teaching Adam was that there's power in your tongue. Right.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
So if you're sitting there and you're saying, you know, it's a rhinoceros, it's a dog, you know, it's a hippo, whatever. So shall it be is what you know, God was teaching Adam, but it's in the same stroke. If I say that I'm a sinner and nothing's going to work out, I'm depressed, I'm lonely, I have anxiety. What I'm doing is I'm giving that power, right?
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
And it's leading me and dragging me according to what I say. But if I sit there and I say, although I sinned, God has washed my sins. I can continuously move forward boldly and meet him at the throne of grace, at the throne of mercy, then it gives us this type of confidence to move forward. It's not a prideful ego thing. It's, God, I'm assuming my identity because you gave me your identity.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
You gave me your crown. You gave me literally everything that I need. Even your cross, you gave it to me because I was crucified on that cross with you, right? So it's very important. to understand that what we say, our heart is going to follow that as well. There is power in that tongue. When I thought I was a gang member, that's how I moved. Oh, I got shot. I've been stabbed.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
I'm just going to be a prisoner for the rest of my life. I'm a two-strike felon. When I followed that mindset and I trusted that, yeah, I'm a gang member. I'm no good. Like, I'm going to just do whatever I want. I lived in that depression. But when I heard the gospel through Hebrews 10, 14, for by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
Perfected as in past tense, forever is eternally. Meaning Jesus did everything. He didn't fail. So I was able to assume that, wow, I need to stop trusting Johnny Chang and his thoughts. I need to start trusting the word of God. And the more I did that, I started to read the Bible. I started to really know God, and it was much different than me trusting in myself.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
I think baptism is more of a spiritual, like symbolic one. Right. Of course, if you have an actual water baptism, it is a declaration of faith. And it is an opportunity for us to preach the gospel because at the end of the day, the gospel is what's going to save us. They're not being dunked in water.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
And so and that's why Paul, you know, when he wrote all the epistles, he also mentioned in Corinthians that. I come not to baptize but to preach the gospel. So I think truthfully preaching the gospel is symbolic of, you know, washing away your sins. It's the very core message of Jesus. It's the testimony of Jesus to have the blood wash away all of your sins.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
Now, the water baptism is just symbolic of that. Whether that's up to the families or not, we shouldn't worry about it causing division. As long as we keep everything gospel-centric, I think it won't divide anything, right?
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
So it's not like, oh, you got to do this and you... If we are to do those things, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, 22, to the weak I became weak so that I could save some of them. I am all things to all men so that I can save some of them. Instead of getting into these quarrels about this is the right baptism, this isn't, if we keep it all focused on Jesus and the gospel...
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
There is no division, right? So I think if you just focus on that, if they want to get baptized, great. If they don't, great. We don't have to argue about those things.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
The gospel is the true, I would say, the spiritual baptism. Because what does the blood do? It cleanses you from your sins, just like the water.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
If I believe that Jesus washed away all of my sins, that is the baptism. And it goes to Cliff's point with the thief on the cross.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
Yeah, he's the true rest, right? Sabbath day is the rest, right? So what do you do on the Sabbath day? You rest. In Colossians 2, 16 to 17, it says, don't let people judge you in meat and drink or of the Sabbath days or even the holy days. I am the Lord at Sabbath. So what do you do on the Sabbath day? You are to rest. What do you do when you meet Jesus Christ?
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
When you're a dirty, evil sinner and you can't, you're defeated, you are to give all of your sins over to him, believe in him, and rest, right? That's why he says you have to enter into my rest. And then also Mark 11, 28 also says that, Matthew 11, 28, I'm sorry, tells us that, you know, those who are heavy burdened and laden come unto me and I shall give you rest. So Jesus is the true Sabbath.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
And that's, again, it stops all the quarrels between is it a Saturday? Is it this day? Of course, there's also a Jewish Sabbath. There's also, you know, different ones. But if you just keep it gospel-centered, if you just keep it Jesus Christ-centered, there is no division.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
Well, James tells us we've got to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
I think also believing, right, with the prayer.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
So a lot of people pray, and it's almost like a transactional thing. God, I pray. Now, where is it? Mark 11, 24, it tells us pray, believe, receive.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
A lot of people pray, wait to receive, and then believe. It's backwards. And I think we should definitely pray for people, but also believing. You know, hey, like, that's what my mom did. I was, you know, still selling drugs, and I was carrying a gun, and mom goes... you're going to be the world's best gospel preacher. And I'm like, you got schizophrenia. I was like, you're crazy.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
I got drugs for that. Right. And then she, but she believed it inside of her heart, even though she didn't see and the situation and the circumstance wasn't it, she was able to recognize that, you know, and it's just beautiful believing. In your prayer, after you pray, is the most important thing. Amen.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
Again, it's a contextual thing. Go ahead, go ahead, sis.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
Actually, I think I'll answer with an example. I was recently at Polinski Unit. It's a death row unit. And I was preaching the gospel to, you know, it was like 50 death row inmates. And they had a date, meaning an execution date. And, you know, everyone was saying they were righteous, perfected, Hebrews 10, 14, John 3, 16.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
And then one of the guys was like, you know, Johnny, don't you think that's a little bit... undermining like people and the victims that they affected because I'm telling them that Jesus died for them. And when I went outside, I kind of pulled them to the side and I said, you have a point, but you have to understand we're all victims. We're all victims to sin. We're all interconnected to sin.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
I love you too. I think it all ties back into like knowing the context, which is reading the Bible, right? Second Timothy chapter two, verse 15 tells us study to show yourself approved. And that's very important because how are you going to understand the context if you don't study?
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
right, so if I'm trying to teach trigonometry, right, just because I'm Asian does not mean I'm good at math, okay, I wasn't one of those guys, I was a bad Asian, don't like anime, all right, so if I want to teach trigonometry, I have to at least study it, right, I have to at least put in the work and the hours, and this is why God tells us to be in our word, because if you're not in your word, then you're in your feelings, and then you're in your interpretations, and
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
And I think that's something that our audiences have to understand too, is that when we're judging other people, we are people also who are interconnected through sin. We're all falling short with the glory of God. And that's something that we have to you know, kind of ingrained. And with my community, they understand like we're dirt. That's our saying, dirt gang, right? God made us out of dirt.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
No manner of scriptures for interpretation, as they say. So it's important for us to understand that as you read the context, as you continuously read the Bible, it gives you the actual context. And it basically is a byproduct of it.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
Dirt is something that stepped on, spat on, peed on, pooped on, undervalued. However, when it remains that way, you plant a seed inside of it, it produces life, right? The word of God is the seed, but only if we can accept the seed, we have to be this good soil, right? So I've taught people that we have to come with humility.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
If you're judging other people, you're coming from a point of pride, ego, whatever it is, and it doesn't allow people to humanize other people. So we have to just take the Bible as what it says. Remember who you are.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
So if I can offer a perspective. No, you. I think it's a deeper rooted issue of trying to conceptualize things and bring a checkbox to God. We are finite individuals. We cannot understand the infinite wisdom and that takes humility. A lot of people tend to question because they are like, okay, God, I don't want to have faith in you. I want you to confirm things with me and then I'll believe you.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
That in itself is not love either, right? So we need to come from a position of, okay, God, whether it makes sense to me or not, we are called to trust you as well because the beginning of love is trust. You cannot
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
love somebody you don't trust you know what i mean so i feel like it's important to kind of step away from all of this vain quarreling and babbling respectfully and bring it back to oh i don't know anything god i trust that you have set everything up you know exactly what's best you love these people more than me to your point amen then you will know exactly what you're gonna have like how you're gonna handle it who am i being finite creation telling creator x y and z right so
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
I think that's helped me a lot. And then bring it back to the gospel. Because we have to then teach people, hey, like, you don't have to go to hell. Like, God made it where everybody can get to heaven. And he, you know, predestination, all that. We can talk about all that. But we're going to be missing the forest for the trees. We have to focus on the gospel. At the end of the day. Amen.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
And I think this is one of them that I got to have to put away and just... If I can just add to that too, not to cut you off, but George, I'll hold him accountable. He calls me and he called me about that exactly. He's like, they're murdering me on the comments. And I was expressing, we spent like two hours on the phone talking about this.
The George Janko Show
The Christian Avengers | EP. 100
So at the end of it, he is definitely, I can attest to this, that he's definitely trying to learn. And we're all students at the end of the day. We're going to learn until we die. So... Please be nice. Yeah.