Title: Finding the Lost...
Contents
"Find the lost..."
(一) Doubling Movement for the whole school
First, I would like to tell you two stories. In his inaugural address, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kanyu said, “I will make Singapore a nation of 1,2,3,4,5. A country with one wife, two children, three bedrooms, a car on four wheels, and a per capita income of S$500 per week, please help the people of this country to come true.” These visions, policies, and dreams were put in the hearts of all the people, gained sympathy, and came true, becoming an exemplary country in which to live the best in Asia.
Our Changcheon Church will celebrate its 100th anniversary in two years. We need to think about what the vision and dream of our church are as we celebrate the 100th anniversary. To this end, while we were praying quietly and earnestly, God commanded us to do the “Whole Church and Church Doubling Movement” as the first thing to do this year. So, today, on the fourth Sunday of Lent, I would like to talk about the double movement of this whole school under the title of "Searching for the Lost..." during the morning worship service.
(二) Find the lost...
First, God seeks the lost. So, in Genesis 12:1-9, God specifically calls the father of faith, Abraham, in the words of the Old Testament. According to the creation story of Genesis, God the Creator created the heavens and things in this world beautifully with his words, created humans in God's image, gave the earth as a gift, and commanded them to be fruitful, multiply, conquer and rule. (Genesis 1: 28) However, the ancestors of mankind, Adam and Eve, fell under Satan's temptation, disobeyed God's will, sinned and fell, and lost the beautiful paradise. The world of harmony between nature, humans and God was broken and fell into a world of discord.
Human beings who had lost paradise fell, and Cain was jealous of his younger brother Abel and killed him and built the Tower of Babel, a symbol of human pride. God destroyed the Tower of Babel and scattered the language. And finally, when mankind's sins reached the extreme, God judged by the flood in Noah's day and saved only Noah and the things in the ark. Nevertheless, when Noah's descendants fell again, sinned and turned away from God, he called Abraham to seek and save the lost and began the work of redemption.
God called Abraham and promised a blessing to him who obeyed. “Now, as I command you, if you leave your country and your relatives and your father’s house and go to a new land that I will show you, I will bless you, and you will become a source of blessing, and all the peoples of the world will be blessed by you.” Abraham said in God’s Word In obedience, he left the home of his native relatives and father, and went to Bethel, Palestine. He went there, built an altar before God, worshiped wherever he went, and moved as God directed and did as God commanded him. Finally, God promised that he would give his descendants like the sand of the sea and like the stars in the sky, and when he asked him to sacrifice the 100-year-old Isaac, he obeyed and showed his faith that he could sacrifice the more precious Isaac before God. Because of this, Abraham became the father of faith, the work of salvation began, and the history of the nation of Israel and the history of the Old Testament era came to be. However, through the traditions, laws, and human deeds through the people of Israel, they could not return to God right away and did not achieve salvation.
At the end of the Old Testament era, when the time was fulfilled, God sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to seek and save the lost. The first Adam, the ancestor of mankind, knew the will of God, but even though he knew the will, he disobeyed the word, sinned and perished. However, Jesus Christ, who came as the second Adam, knew God’s will well and obeyed His word even to death. By dying on the cross, He atoned for all the sins of mankind, solved the problem of original sin that began with Adam, and accomplished the work of salvation. . We were saved through the suffering of Jesus Christ, the grace of the cross, and the work of resurrection, and the Lord sought and saved the lost.
The story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector in Jericho, found in Luke 19:1-9, the text of today's New Testament, is a story we all know very well and always touches our hearts. Zacchaeus, who was obsessed with inferiority due to his short stature, became a publican during the Roman colonial period and became a tax collector in a good area in Jericho to gain a career in the circumstances of the time. But his heart was always empty, anxious, and without joy. Hearing about Jesus, he wanted to meet him, so he got involved in the crowd and climbed up on a sycamore tree. When he saw Jesus passing by, he called Zacchaeus and went to his house. Only after receiving Jesus into his home did Zacchaeus find his lost self, believe in the Lord, change, and come to God as a new person.
Jesus, who came to this world to find and save the lost in the flesh, is still passing through Jericho to find the lost. Jesus goes through Jericho to Jerusalem, to the Garden of Gethsemane, to Mount Calvary and to Golgotha Hill, looking for the lost and carrying the cross. This is the season of Lent. Now, as we spend this Lent, we must meet and receive the Lord like Zacchaeus. And I hope that you will have the grace to be saved and changed and return to the Lord.
Now, as we move toward the 100th anniversary of our foundation, God has commanded the doubling of the entire school. Please join the Seire special early morning prayer meeting that begins on the fourth Sunday of Lent and pray together for one week. There are three specific doubling movements. The first is Inha Guido, the whole school, the second is the search for lost sheep, and the third is the evangelism of unbelievers.
(3) Concluding remarks
As we spend Lent, we pray earnestly before God with this prayer topic, and we believe that amazing things will come true by working together with the Holy Spirit. The Lord comes to Changcheon Church in search of the lost. As we approach the 100th anniversary, we ask that all of us participate in the doubling movement, which is the whole school, and lead them to the Lord one by one this year and bring them to the church. I believe that Changcheon Church, which is celebrating its anniversary, will open a great vision and dream and lead it rightly.