Title: Fellowship with God/Leviticus 6:1-7
Fellowship with God / Leviticus 6:1-7
The core of the Qi speaks of right fellowship with God through a sanctified life. The fundamental purpose of the sacrifice is for man to continue his fellowship with God. Human beings were created in God's image because God made them to be able to have fellowship. He taught us various ways to have a right relationship with God.
In my opinion, if there is one thing that God requires of us in the Bible, it is service in English. When the word service is used in relation to God and me, it is called worship. And when we talk about this service in our relationship with others, we call it service or service. God requires this of us.
For example, the Old Testament is the law, and the core of the law is the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are on two stone tablets. One stone tablet tells us how to serve God and how to worship God. The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The second commandment is not to make idols. Third Commandment, Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD in vain. The fourth commandment is to remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. It's all about how to serve God, how to worship God. Another stone tablet is what to do with people. The sixth commandment is, do not murder. The seventh commandment is Thou shalt not commit adultery. The eighth commandment is not to steal. The ninth commandment is that you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. The 10th commandment is Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's. It's all about how to serve people, how to serve people.
If the many lessons of Jesus can be summarized in the New Testament, it is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and also to love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). In our relationship with ourselves, we do our utmost to love ourselves, and the other is to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The Lord's Prayer is also a simple prayer, but he taught us as an example of prayer that we can do. The first part of the Lord's Prayer is a prayer to God. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The latter part of the Lord's Prayer is a prayer for man. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, and lead us not into temptation. The Bible requires us to have a right relationship with God, that is, to have right faith with God through right worship, and to have a perfect life through a right relationship with others, that is, through right service.
Isn't the symbol of Christianity the cross? The cross is a sign of redemption in which our Lord died for us to save us. However, if you look at the process of making a cross, it becomes a cross when the two lines, the vertical connecting the relationship between God and me, and the horizontal connecting the relationship between me and others, are in harmony and balance. To follow the Lord while carrying the cross that was born in me means to follow the Lord by fulfilling the complete faith of the cross.
However, in our faith, we often make a cross that is out of balance and carry it. For example, this cross. My relationship with God is good. Keep a good Sunday, pray a lot, read the Bible, and there is nothing wrong with your relationship with God. But your relationship with you is broken. At home, at church, or at work, they are criticized and edified. This is not a complete cross.
There are also people who have this kind of faith in the cross. My relationship with my neighbors is very good. He has leadership with an amicable character. When he is gone, the atmosphere is chilly. But my relationship with God is weak. There is no joy in singing hymns, and I miss the prayer life without noticing a verse of the Bible all week. It is an unbalanced cross. But I see this kind of crucified faith. My relationship with God and my relationship with others were smooth, beautiful, and balanced. We must strive for the faith that draws this cross and fill in the weak and weak areas.
In order for us to have spiritual fellowship with God, there is a step that we must go through first. It is a step that is not a step in a straight line with God. That level is the level called Neighbors. In our relationship with our neighbors, we are not able to have fellowship with God while being resentful, reviled, and hated. The Lord also said that if you are offering your gift on the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go first, be reconciled to your brother, and then offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24) It is said that the relationship with God is right when the relationship with God is good.
If you steal, deceive, lie, and hurt others' hearts, you are sinning against God. He tells us to restore the right relationship before we go to God. Before we can be used by God, we must go through one step, and our neighbor must become a being who needs us. The measure of the length of my faith is not the age of faith or the position I have, but my neighbor, and the scale that weighs my faith is also my neighbor.
In Acts 11:24, we read that Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. He said that he was a good person before the Holy Spirit and faith. That's a very important word. There is a saying that before you become a believer, you must become a gentleman. What is more important than differences in beliefs is what kind of character you are. The first step you must go through before you can become a worker of God in the church is your relationship with your neighbors. You have to be a good person to everyone, and a person who is absolutely necessary everywhere.
Next is egocentrism to overcome.
In today's text, there are five types of sins committed between humans. First, it is the sin of entrusting a neighbor's goods and then lying that I do not know. In the past, there was no bank or insurance system, so there was an example of entrusting valuables to a neighbor when traveling for a long time.
When they see small children, they all say they will have it. When you eat only yourself and have only yourself, you feel refreshed. Even adults are not mature now. I only know myself. No matter if others suffer, business goes down, or loses money, as long as you have selfishness that only thinks about your own desires, you cannot have a right relationship with God. It is difficult because there are no people who want to serve others in the church, family, or society, and there are only a lot of people who want to be served. Even if I suffer a loss, I must have a heart to think about the interests of my neighbors. You must have this to have a right relationship with God.
Lastly, there must be a high-level practice for the love of neighbor.
In the Old Testament law, it was said not to steal from others, but in the New Testament, it requires that we not steal, but rather, work and help. He told me to make a trespass offering by adding one-fifth of the principal if I have shown any loss to my neighbor's property. The purpose of the trespass offering is to love your neighbor. For a higher practice of love for neighbor, we should be happy and accept the loss. In Luke 19: after Zacchaeus met the Lord, he confessed that if I had stolen anything from my neighbor, I would repay him four times. It means that we will lose four times as much as we did before the crime and give four times more attention and love. As I said last week, the path to discipleship is a life of loss. You are being persecuted for your name and you suffer losses in your name.
At the end of each business day, tithes are deducted from the sales of that day. For example, an average of 500,000 won a day is sold, and the tithe is deducted from it. Also, 50% of the net profit from sales is 25,000 won as a relief offering, and 50% as a missionary offering. It is said that no matter how urgent it is, they do not spend the money in the jar and give it to God on Sunday. It has become a famous teahouse that no one knows about in the area. The IMF has been doing it for decades without even knowing it.
Right fellowship with God is faith that cares about our neighbors. When we have true spiritual fellowship with God, we can love our neighbors as ourselves. I hope it will be a year of beautiful relationships between me and God and between me and my neighbors.