Willow Welcomes | Hosanna Wong

Hey, Willow, I am super excited for this weekend because you're about to hear from my friend, Hosanna Wong. You know, the first time I ever heard Hosanna speak was about 10 years ago. I was serving at a church in Vegas. She shared one of her spoken word pieces and I will never forget it. I was completely captivated, not just because it was creative, though it was, but because every single word just pointed people to Jesus. And over the years, Hosanna and her husband, Guy, become really dear friends of Lindsay and me. I mean, they are the real deal. They love Jesus deeply. They love people recklessly. They've dedicated their entire lives to helping people discover the hope of the gospel. And today they both faithfully served at a great church in San Diego while continuing to encourage churches all over the country. And so I know today you're gonna laugh, you're probably gonna cry. And most importantly, I believe that God is gonna speak to your heart today through my friend, Hosanna. So would you please give a very special Willow welcome to my friend, Hosanna Wong. Hey, Willow Creek Church family. I'm so blessed to be back with you all. If we've never met before, hey, my name is Hosanna. If you were raised in church,

you might be familiar with the name Hosanna. Some of us grew up singing songs like Hosanna in the highest. So you might be here today meeting someone named Hosanna Wong and think, okay, Hosanna Wong, maybe like a Chinese worship leader is here to sing some tunes. Something between Lauren Daigle and Mulan is about to happen right now. I just want you to know, that's not what's gonna happen right now. I didn't grow up singing. I grew up doing spoken word poetry. I grew up on the streets of San Francisco. My dad battled a heroin addiction for 15 years. He fought in a gang and a woman introduced him to Jesus and Jesus changed his whole life. And my dad ended up, yes, amen. Jesus is still in the business of transforming lives. My dad ended up starting an outdoor church to our friends, living without homes and battling with addiction on the streets of San Francisco. And that's how I grew up. We had outdoor church services two to three days a week, every week of my childhood. People brought their drugs. People brought their alcohol bottles. That's how I learned church, by the way. I learned later in life when other people said they were also raised in church.

We weren't talking about the exact same thing, but that's where I learned that Jesus could save anyone's soul and redeem anyone's story and would use anyone who would say yes. My dad has since passed and gone to be with Jesus. When I was 18 years old, he passed away. But what never left me was a desire to just know God for real and love people for real. And I am so blessed when I get to be around other people who just love God for real and love people for real. So that's why I'm so thrilled to be at Willow Creek this Sunday. Hey, would you just join me in honoring all of our teams, volunteers, staff, Pastor Sean, all the pastors at all our locations in kids, production, worship, our ushers. I am so thankful that we are the church in 2026. Praise God. Today, I wanna talk about how you can know who you really are and live like it every single day. Since my last time teaching here, I've had a new addition in my life. I wear glasses now. It's a whole thing. It turns out I was blind and nobody told me. And I remember I went to my doctor. My doctor showed me something and she said, Hosanna, can you see this? And I said, no, can anybody see this? And she said, yes, everybody can see this except people who need glasses.

And I said, you know, I'm really okay. I've lived my whole life this way. And she said, just because you've grown used to it doesn't mean that's what's best for you. She said, you've been living your whole life with a broken lens. And then she started describing all these situations where it might be difficult for me to see. She said, do you struggle with any of these things? And I said, yes, I struggle with all of those things. I thought everybody lived that way. And she said this to me and I'll never forget. She said, you have been living your whole life with limitations that you don't have to live with anymore. And then she prescribed me these glasses. So praise God, people are so much better looking than I thought they were. Some of us are living with limitations that we don't have to live with anymore. Some of us are seeing ourselves through a broken lens. Some of us see ourselves as unworthy, unwanted, not good enough. Some of us constantly feel like we're always doing all we can, but we're never doing enough. Some of us feel like God chose the wrong person. Some of us feel like we're a mistake. Some of us feel like our past will always define us. Some of us feel like failures. And this is what I know. What you believe about yourself

will determine how you live. If you believe you're unworthy, you'll start living like you are. If you believe you're a burden to be loved, you'll start living like you are. If you believe you're a failure, you'll start living like you are. And the enemy of your soul knows this. He hopes you believe all of these lies about yourself because he hopes that you see yourself through a broken lens so you answer to lesser names and you live a lesser life because the enemy knows who you really are. He knows that you are loved by God, chosen by God, and created with an important purpose to give lots of glory to God. So he's on this whole mission to make sure you don't find out too. If you've ever struggled with knowing your worth, I want you to know you're not crazy. You've just been told lies your whole life. And I came here today to tell someone, you are more than you've been told. I don't know what names other people have called you or what names you've told yourself, but God has some other names for you. And no one has the power to define you but the one who created you. That's what we're going to unpack today. I want you to know that God knew that throughout our lives,

we would hear all of these lies about ourselves, that we'd get stuck in the wrong patterns of thinking and then eventually in the wrong patterns of living. So God sent a solution. He sent his son Jesus to come and be with us, to die on a cross to pay for all of our sins and all of our shortcomings so then when we put our faith in Jesus, we can have a real relationship with God. And also he sent Jesus to share in our human experience. So Jesus would be a living example of how we too can know who we really are and live like it every single day. I want to unpack for you a story in the Bible that I grew up reading, that I grew up hearing about, but it wasn't until this past season of my life when I saw something in it I used to miss. You might be familiar with this passage. We're gonna dive a little bit deeper into it today. This is Matthew 4. As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. And at once they left their nets and followed him. The one thing about this story that I used to miss is that the place those boys were at in their lives was actually a place of defeat.

They were living with limitations. They did not know who they were so they did not know how to live. And to unpack this story, I wanna bring us back to school a little bit. I wanna unpack the first century Jewish educational system for us, what school was like back in the day, back in Jesus' day, which was a little bit different than ours. So I'm gonna take us back to school really quick. And if you've never had a Chinese teacher before, let me tell you, A pluses only. Okay, praise the Lord. Just so you know, there were three levels of schooling. The first level, students would have to memorize the first five books of the Bible, what was written at that time. The second level, students would have to memorize the rest of the Hebrew scriptures and also learn critical thinking skills to analyze them and answer questions about them. And then the third level of schooling was this whole other level of schooling. Not all students made it to this part. And to this part of their schooling, they would have to audition for a teacher, audition for a rabbi. This was really hard to get into. This was like Yale or Harvard admissions times 10.

And a rabbi, a teacher, would grill the student to see if they were good enough, if they were good enough for this level of schooling, if they were smart enough, if they had good teachers, if they had good learning skills, if they were worthy to follow a teacher. And historically, after the student tried to prove their worth, if after the teacher grilled the student to see if they were good enough, if they looked at the student and they said, man, this kid has what it takes, they're good enough, they're worthy, this is what the teacher would say to the student. Historically, the teacher would say to the student, come. Come and follow me. And students longed to hear those words because what it meant is that they were good enough and they would literally leave their hometown and they would literally leave their synagogue and they would go and follow this teacher, this rabbi. They would follow his lifestyle. They would see how he lived. How did he have rhythms? How did he have relationships? How did he rest? They would literally see how he lived to learn how they could live too.

But if the teacher grilled the student and discovered they were not good enough, perhaps they didn't come from a great family, perhaps the family couldn't afford the best tutor, perhaps they didn't have a great community that loved them, saw them, and helped them study, perhaps this kid did not have what it took, then historically, the teacher would look at the student and say, go home and ply your trade, which meant go back to the family business. Go back home and do what your daddy does, your daddy who also wasn't good enough to follow me. Go back to a legacy of defeat of people who were not good enough. Go home and ply your trade. Now this changes the significance of the story a little bit when we realize that when Jesus met these boys, he was not sitting behind an admissions desk. He was not sitting behind an American Idol-like judges' desk trying to see who could sing the highest note or perform the best. But Jesus instead was going to where these boys were. And as he met them in their boats holding onto their nets, he was meeting them in a place of defeat. He met them at their boats, they were holding onto their nets because they were fishermen. Why were they fishermen? Because they had already been told they were not good enough. At the age these boys were,

they would have already tried to go through the school system. The fact that they were there doing their daddy's trade showed that they had already done their best and were told they were not worthy. And as Jesus meets them at their boats, he invites them to do three things that I believe he's inviting all of us to do today. And the first thing is this, drop the old name. As he meets them at their boats, they're holding onto these nets, these symbols of defeat. They've heard names like not enough, unworthy, unloved. They've already accepted what they've been told from other people is the ceiling for their life. And as Jesus meets them, he's saying to them, drop the thing that you have held onto as a symbol of disappointment. He was saying drop the story that someone told you that you accepted and you've repeated of why you'll never be good enough. He was saying drop the narrative that you've hold tight to of why you'll never be good enough, why your mistakes will always define you, why God can never be glorified in your life. Jesus was saying to them the same thing he's saying to us today. He is saying you may have been told that you're not enough, that your life is not as important as other people's lives, that your past will always define you, that you have to work harder, impress more people

or overextend yourself to prove your value. But you are more than you've been told. And perhaps nobody told you this, but you are valuable. Perhaps nobody told you this, but your life is important. Perhaps nobody told you this, but you don't have to stay stuck in your past. You can live a life that is healed and whole and filled with purpose. Come and follow me and I'm gonna show you the truth of who you really are. And Jesus is saying this same thing to all of us today. He said, drop the old name. And then he said, now come and follow me. The second invitation we have is this, follow Jesus for real. What does it mean to follow Jesus for real in 2026? Not as a concept, not as something theoretical. What does it literally mean for you to live your life following Jesus for real today in your real world? You know, my husband, Guy, is here with me today and we're about to celebrate 12 years married coming up here, oh, thank you, thanks, thank you. It has truly been the best 12 years of his life. So, praise God, thank you for clapping. We actually met in Las Vegas last weekend. Again, you heard from Pastor Judd Wilhite. My husband, Guy, served with Pastor Judd for eight years. And so Pastor Judd and Lori Wilhite are some of our dearest friends, just like Pastor Sean and Lindsey. And we met at this church in Vegas,

and now I still teach there every so often. And so one year, our anniversary lined up exactly with the weekend I was teaching. And so my husband got us tickets to a Cirque de Soleil show. And I did not know what it was. So just in case you don't know what it is, it's like an athletic acrobatic experience with people flying through the air, doing flips, and there's pirates and glitter. It's amazing. And I remember after seeing this experience, we're walking out of the amphitheater, and I turned back into the room, and I looked at my husband, Guy, and I said, I wanna do that. I looked at him and I said, do you think I could do that? And because he wants a happy life, he wants a happy wife. And so he said, yeah, my love, I'm sure you could do that, and tries to pull me away. And I doubled down and I walked back into the room and I said, do you think, do you think I could do that right now? And he looked at me and he said, no. He said, you would have to train. You would have to practice. He said, they weren't able to do all of that because they just tried really hard in a moment. He said, you know, they have a whole lifestyle leading up to that moment.

He said, the only reason you were able to see them do all of that in public is because of the lifestyle they live in private. And you know, the same is true when it comes to following Jesus, for real. Jesus does not expect us to put our faith in him and then all of a sudden, we know exactly what to do in every single situation. No, Jesus said, come and follow me and come see my rhythms. Come spend time with me, you're gonna see how I live. I'm gonna show you how I have relationships. I'm gonna show you how I plan my weeks. I'm gonna show you how I rest. I'm gonna show you how I live and how you can live as well. That was his invitation to his students then and it's his invitation to us, his students, his disciples now. And I just wanna unpack for you really quickly two rhythms of Jesus that we can follow this month if we wanna follow Jesus, for real. There's many rhythms of Jesus. I'm just gonna unpack two. Here's one. One is closeness with God. I put some scripture references for you as well. You can take a picture of the screen, write it in your notes, read these passages. Jesus had a rhythm of going out of his way to engage with God's word,

to know what God said about God and about him. Jesus had a rhythm of going out of his way to talk to God, to be in prayer. He had a rhythm of being close to God throughout his life. The second rhythm was closeness with people. Jesus had a rhythm of being in real community with people, inviting people into his life for the small moments and the big moments. And we see Jesus demonstrate this specifically through confession and celebration. Now certainly Jesus didn't have to confess sin the way we do, but Jesus does show us a rhythm of these two things, confession and celebration, getting real with other people about what you're really going through and celebrating what God is already doing. His disciples, his students would have seen him have these rhythms and then be able to know who he really was and live like it every single day. Because Jesus knew that when hard things in life happened to us, if we wanted to truly follow Jesus and live the lives we say we wanna live in public, it will take changing the way we actually live in private. Jesus was demonstrating these rhythms to us. And this is what I just wanna say to our church family today. The fight for your life, if you're struggling with knowing who you are, your worth, your value, or what God has called you to do, the fight for your life might look like fighting to spend real time with God.

The fight for your life might look like fighting for your schedule. Looking at your real month, this month, taking the time to say, okay, how will I follow Jesus for real? When am I gonna plan closeness with God and actually being in God's word and actually praying? When am I gonna plan closeness with other people, doing life with people, confessing to people, and celebrating with people? The fight for your life might look like. fighting for your schedule. And you might say, what does following Jesus have to do with knowing who I am and how to live? Everything, it has everything to do with it because here's what I know, you will know who you really are when you spend real time with the one who knows you the best. A real relationship with God is the key to knowing who you really are. Jesus says to them, he says, drop the old name, follow me for real. And then he says, I'm gonna make you fishers of men. Other translations say fishers of people. And I used to understand this as meaning now we're gonna go make more disciples of Jesus. I used to understand this as now we're gonna catch people, now we're gonna tell more people how much God loves them. And that is true, that is 100% what this means. And also, as Jesus made it a point to say,

I'm gonna make you fishers of men, as Jesus made a specific point to say, I'm gonna make you fishers of people, Jesus was saying, I am going to use the thing that other people used to point at when they told you you were disqualified. Jesus was saying, I'm going to use the thing that you used to point at as a reason for why you're a little too different. Jesus was saying, I wanna use the thing that other people used to use to tell you you're out, that's exactly what I wanna use to tell other people that they're in. Jesus was saying, other people tore you down, saying you were just a fisherman. I am saying, thank God you're a fisherman. I've been looking for a fisherman. I wanna use what being a fisherman has taught you. I wanna use what your background has taught you. I wanna use what your daddy's trade has taught you. And this is exactly what God is saying to each and every one of us today. God is saying, nothing that life has thrown at you will be wasted. If you surrender it to me, you give it to me, I will use it all for my glory and for your good and for the good of many. God is saying, I will use the resilience that came from that one season you thought you wouldn't survive, but you did.

God is saying, I will use the character that came from that one season when you fought for people who did not fight for you and you had integrity when nobody else was looking. God is saying, I will use the humility that came from that one season when nothing went the way you wanted, but you surrendered to God and you trusted God and you relied on God's power and not your own. God is saying, everything the enemy wanted to use to hold you back is exactly what I wanna use to propel you forward. God is saying, it's actually where you're from. It's actually what you've overcome. You might think you're disqualified, but you're exactly who I've been looking for for the most important mission in the world. He invites us to do the same. Drop the old name that came from people who had no power to define you. Follow Jesus for real, not as a concept, but as something you plan for. And finally, answer to a new name. Hey, would it be okay as we close this service if I ended with a spoken word poem? Would that be okay? I'm gonna invite the band up. Would you join me in giving it up for the band? If you're new to this church and you're wondering is this normal that they do spoken word poetry

in the messages? Do all the preachers do poetry? I want you to know the answer is yes. Next time Pastor Sean comes, he's gonna drop some rhymes for you. Next week, my friend Megan's gonna do some freestyling, so come back, it's gonna be awesome. I wanted to share with you a spoken word poem that came out of a season of defeat. My husband and I would say it was the most difficult season of our lives. We had so much loss, physically, financially, relationally. The people we thought would stay didn't. The people we thought would defend us didn't. And I lost who I was. And I was living with limitations that I didn't have to live with. And I want you to know that the fight for my life was not public, it was not cute. It was me fighting to spend real time with God and fighting to be close to other people, getting real with people through confession and celebration. It was fighting to be close to God through getting real with him in prayer and having real time in his word. And during those days, those difficult days, just fighting for time in God's word, I realized God. had some other names for me.

And I started memorizing names God calls me, making his voice the loudest voice in my life. And I wanna give you a sneak preview of what God says about you and what you will discover when you fight for time in his word as well. Thank you so much for allowing me to share this spoken word poem that came out of that season. This one is called, I Have a New Name. God spends a lot of time in the Bible telling us who we are. It's almost as if he knew that we would doubt who that was from time to time. It's as if he saw it coming, that we'd spend our whole lives searching for what our identity, what our real name was, and that there'd be many moments in our lives where we'd let different kinds of names define us. When we've looked in the mirror, compared ourselves to pictures and heard the name ugly. When we've been left by loved ones, people we trusted once and heard the name unworthy. When we've been drowning in discouragement, living in a seemingly never-ending crisis and heard the name forgotten. When we've had our hopes up and our hearts open only to be brought down by closed doors and we've heard rejected. When we've looked for infinite affirming love through lesser physical fleshly versions. When we gave it away or when it was stolen

and we heard impure, we heard garbage. When we go to other vices to ease our pain and we hear addict, we hear forever broken. When we feel like we're living in the shadow of someone else's calling and we hear second place. When our pain cripples us to a point where we don't even know how to let others in and we hear lonely. When our past seems too gross for others to forgive and we hear disgusting. It's overwhelming. These voices we're constantly hearing. It's suffocating. This air of constant critique and comparing and it's sort of amazing the people whose voices I've allowed to name me. The power I've given to my past, to my mirror and to my surroundings and enabled them to identify me. The amount of years I've spent living up to whatever others say about me. But God says something else about me. It's like he knew there would be other voices. So he wrote his voice down in a timeless book of truths that would remind us over and over again in the moments when lies would block his truths and somehow make us forget. So I'm going back to the source. Not the people I've allowed to represent God to me but the actual, literal, tangible words that he has written down for me.

And there's some other names he's given to me. John 15, 15, he calls me friend. First Thessalonians 1, 4, he calls me chosen. Ephesians 2, 10, he calls me his masterpiece. He calls me his art. He calls me handmade. He calls me purposed and fashioned for good things. First Corinthians 6, 19, he calls my body a temple. He calls it the residence of the Holy Spirit. Acts 1, 8, he calls me his messenger to the world. Galatians 3, 26, he calls me his child. Romans 5, 8, he calls me greatly loved. John 8, 36, he calls me free, free indeed. Second Corinthians 5, 17, he calls me brand new. And it's amazing how different these names are from the names I'm used to listening to and in my journey to discover who I really am. In my battle to uncover the truths of myself, I have learned something new about my name. And now this is what I am certain of. My name is not the name the world calls me. My name is not the name my past calls me. My name is not even the name my own mirror calls me. But my name, my name is the name I choose to answer to. And I can choose today from this moment forward to answer to a new name. When I hear lonely, that's not me. When I hear disgusting, that's not me. When I hear unworthy, I don't even look over my shoulder. When I hear broken, they must have confused me. Please look elsewhere. When I

hear ugly, abandoned, useless, forgotten, I figure someone just has to remind them. Maybe those were my old names, but they're no longer the names that I will respond to. My name is the name I have chosen to spend my days living up to, and if these other voices are not saying the same thing that the truth is, I look in my mirror and I repeat this, they have no right to be speaking to you. When you stop answering to your old names, they will stop having power over you. The names that my father, eternity's author, the world's creator has called me are the only names that I answered to. So when I hear friend of God, that's my name. Chosen, that's my name. Loved, wanted, created with the purpose, that's my name. God's messenger, that's my name. God's masterpiece, that's my name. Child of God, you must be looking for me. Greatly loved, you must be calling for me. Brand new, that is my name. So that is the name that I will respond to, because the enemy has no power here. Perfect love cast out all our fears, and perfect love has named me and you. So what is your new name? What is stirring up inside of you when you hear these words, that his word, that the word has proclaimed? What do you know is the name God is calling you? Maybe it's not the name you grew up with. Maybe it's not the name your old friends associate you with. Maybe it's not the name that your whole life you were used to identifying with. But it's the name you now answer to. So when the enemy tries to get to you, it's just the name you introduce yourself with. As for me, my name is forgiven. My name is free. My name is brand new. Loved, wanted, child of God, created with a purpose. And it's been a pleasure to meet you. Thank you, Willow Creek family. Hey, we want to do something a little bit different. We're gonna put all nine names from the Word of God up on the screens. You can take a picture of it. Fact-check me later. And hey, for this next portion, I'm gonna invite you to all our locations to take your seat, and here's what we're gonna do. When you put your faith in Jesus, He calls you all of these names. But I believe that sometimes there's a specific lie that we need to speak a specific truth to. So here's what we're going to do before the end of this service. I'm gonna say all nine of these names again. I'm gonna start with friend,

and I'm gonna end with child of God. And when you hear the name you want to answer to today, the truth you want to speak to the lie, in that moment I'm gonna invite you at all of our locations, in that moment when you hear that name, I'm gonna invite you to stand to your feet and stay standing as your brothers and sisters are gonna join you in answering to their new names. And if you got to answer to a couple of new names, that's cool. I want to invite you to, as you're standing, raise your hand and agree to every single new name you need to answer to today. If you're here today and you need to answer to John 15 15, He calls you His friend. Would you stand to your feet and stay standing? If you're answering to friend, I see you my friend. All our locations, stand to your feet. If you're answering to friend, I see you sir. And, sir to friend, stand to your feet. I want to call up the Chosen's. Will you join us, Chosen's? 1st Thessalonians 1.4. Who here needs to stand or raise your hand if you're answering to Chosen? Stay standing, I'm gonna call up the temples. Who here needs to stand and raise your hand if you're answering to temple? Who here needs to stand raise your hand if you're answering to Acts 1.8. He calls you His messenger to the world. Will you stand and raise your hand? Who here needs to answer to Romans 5.8? He calls you greatly loved. Will you stand at your feet and raise your hand if you're answering to greatly loved? Masterpiece. Who here needs to stand and answer to masterpiece today? All our locations. Nice to meet you, masterpiece. Who here needs to stand and answer to free? John 8.36. He calls you free. Free indeed. Stand to your feet all the locations if you're answering to free. Who here needs to answer to brand new? 2nd Corinthians 5.17. He calls you brand new. You have a new life. You have a new focus. You have a new lens. And who here needs to answer to child of God? Would you stand to your feet and raise your hand if you're answering to Galatians 3.26. He calls you His child. As we're all standing at all locations, if you have never put your faith in Jesus for real before, I want to give you an opportunity to do that today. Okay, so here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna lead you in a prayer.

All you have to do is mean it in your heart, and I'm gonna invite you to say this prayer out loud with me but you're not gonna be alone. I'm gonna invite everyone who's already put your faith in Jesus at all our locations to join us in this prayer, to say it out loud with our friends, to add on to their faith so that everyone who's already put your faith in Jesus and all of you who are doing that today, we're all gonna say this prayer together. So let's mean it with our heart and come to God. Will you repeat after me? Say, Jesus, I believe in you. I believe you died and rose again. I turn away from my sin, I turn away from my shame. I want a new life and a new name in the name of Jesus. And if you agree with me, will you say amen? Amen and amen.