Title: Exercises to thoroughly control lust
Contents
I thought that I was asked to pray this morning, so I prepared the sermon yesterday.
But in the morning, I set the alarm by mistake, so I woke up at 6:30.
When you wake up at that time, you get caught up in a really desperate feeling.
It is the time of morning prayer.
I blamed myself, but I came to school with a glimmer of hope that I hope the early morning prayer will pass safely because of the Lord's will.
And when I contacted Butler Chung Chun-gyu...
Hallelujah! It is said that Deacon Jeong testified of the word as scheduled and prayed with the elder.
I thank God that there are saints like camel knees who keep the early morning prayer of Jesus Village even at a time when everyone seems to be asleep. Although it is not a powerful early morning prayer where many people gather like a cloud, we all remember that the light is not extinguished... .
I couldn't prove today's Word, but I'm posting the sermon I prepared yesterday.
Salom!!!
Acts 13:1-12
Today's sermon is the scene where the church in Antioch sends Barnabas and Paul as missionaries according to the word of the Holy Spirit. The church in Antioch is where Barnabas, who is called in the Bible, “a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and faith,” brought Saul, who had just been converted, and taught a great crowd for a year. It was then that the disciples of Antioch were first called Greeks. This is where the amazing transformation began. It was a blessed church where God's work occurred very dynamically. And as we see in today's message, we are developing into a missionary community. As a church that wants to imitate the Antioch church, we need to imitate and follow the way the Lord's work is done through these words today.
Looking at verse 1, the church in Antioch had various workers from various backgrounds and ethnic backgrounds. The gathering of people from different backgrounds and circumstances does not impede the growth of the community. It is important whether there is a work of the Holy Spirit that unites those who were gathered together.
In verse 2, the work of the Holy Spirit begins to take place, and the background is important. It is called “when serving the Lord and fasting.” Although the church is only a year old, they served the Lord fervently under the spiritual leadership of ministers Barnabas and Paul. That is, they devoted themselves to worship. It is that God exalted and human beings thoroughly practiced finding their place under them. And fasted. It is a practice to thoroughly control appetite, the most basic human desire. Why do you need fasting? This is because it is difficult to live a life of complete obedience to God in a situation where basic human needs and desires are satisfied.
But let's take a look at ourselves with these words. If you tell them to put effort into worship, you may agree without any objection, but if you ask them to put effort into fasting along with worship, you will immediately feel a backlash. Do you really have to? Wouldn't that be necessary only in special circumstances? I am still not sure about fasting in the church life as a community. However, we believe that when we gather in a community, we need not only worship but also community training to thoroughly control our fleshly desires.
What is the typical desire of the 21st century Korean church and the members of Jesus Village? Isn't it a desire for economic freedom and high-quality education? I hope that in the future, community training to control these two will be suggested by spiritual leaders and lead to community obedience. We want to pray together this morning for this part.
In this way, the Holy Spirit comes upon us “when serving the Lord and fasting.” “Set aside Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then the church in Antioch again wrote in verse 3, “They fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them and sent them away.” I also fasted and prayed. Please don't just pray hard and don't forget that the word fast is used twice. There are many churches that want to imitate the Antioch church, but it is not surprising that there are many churches that do not actually experience its history. I believe that not practicing the word as it is, and always applying it creatively to modern social transformation is the biggest ill of the modern church.
In fact, I think that the history that follows this is a natural result of this earlier part. Barnabas and Paul first arrive at Cyprus, the hometown of Barnabas. And I go to the synagogue there, and, as always, I preach the word of God in the synagogue first. Then he came to a place called Foss, met the governor Sergio Paul, and preached the word of God again. They thoroughly obeyed the command of the one who gave the ministry, that is, the Holy Spirit, set a destination, and immediately carried out their mission. All this beautiful missionary history was not just made out of longing or envy for missions, but it began with thorough obedience to the worship and restraint of desire of the community, who were trained in the Word for a year and fasted in the service of the Lord. Of course, God's sovereign work was at work in such obedience and temperance.
No matter how well the missionary work progresses, sometimes there is resistance. In today's text, in verse 8, it is said that a shaman named Eluma appeared and opposes them and tried to distrust them as governor. How cunning and nerve-wracking would you have been? However, Paul was “filled with the Holy Spirit” and opposed him at this time. When something interferes with the work of the Holy Spirit and a person appears, the power to discern comes only from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will guide the person who is filled with the Holy Spirit, whether to just go away with a modesty so that there is no conflict, or to resist and curse in the name of the Holy Spirit. If you leave a mission without being filled with the Holy Spirit or perform God's work, then the Lord's firearms will disappear.
Isn't this the reason why we wake up this morning and pray with longing to be filled with the Holy Spirit before we go through the day? If everything and people we meet today are part of the Lord's missionary work, we should refrain from one of our desires this morning, the desire to sleep more and rest more, and thank the Lord for the guidance of the morning prayer. I believe you can pray for fullness.