Title: God's Triple Invitation (Revelation 22:17)
Contents In the Bible, God is spoken of as [the God who calls us].
Even when Adam sinned, God called to him, “Adam, where are you?” He is the God who called to come to the waters, you who thirst, even when Israel was in captivity in Babylon. Also, in the New Testament era, it is God who calls sinners who suffer because of their sins to come to me, all you who labor and carry heavy burdens. In this time, we are going to share the grace of God by examining God's threefold invitation in the book of Revelation.
[1] God's first invitation is the invitation through the Holy Spirit. "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come." The Holy Spirit invites us.
Why then do you ask us to come? To reprove us or to guide us? That is to give us the blessing of being born again. When God created Adam, he molded it out of the dust and then breathed it "wow". In this way, Adam became a living spirit. But after Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and sinned, everything changed. The image of God in man was also distorted, broken, and his moral character changed. Even the living environment of human beings has changed for the worse.
Birds can only live in the fields that are born in the mountains, not in the water, and the fish only live in the water, not in the mountains or fields. In the same way, sinful human beings only live in this world, but in the kingdom of God they have become miserable. Originally, human beings were created to live in the kingdom of God by allowing them to live in this Garden of Eden, but because of sin, everything has changed. Therefore, humans must be born again to restore their original form. You must be born again. This is what we call rebirth. In the original text, the word “rebirth” means “anothen”, meaning “from above, again”. Now we must be born again from above, not from below.
In fact, there are two things that surprise you when you go to heaven. One is that not many people I thought would come, and the next is meeting a lot of people who will be surprised how such a person can come. Therefore, at this time, in response to the calling of the Holy Spirit, we ask that you repent and receive the Lord, saying, "God, God, come to me without will." Receiving Jesus means accepting, believing, and relying on Jesus as the Messiah and Savior. Therefore, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will all receive the Lord at this time and become the owners of the kingdom of heaven.
[2] God's second invitation is the invitation through the church. In the text, we see, “The priest says, ‘Come.’” Here, the priest refers to the church. Then why is God calling us through the church?
The poorest people in the world are those who have nothing to do. But there are some things that are worthwhile and some things that are not. Humans feel meaningful and happy by doing something worthwhile.
So what are you guys doing now? I'm not asking what your job is. The question is, what kind of mission do you have now?
Every human being is rewarding, valuable, and happy when they become missionaries. Because the question that God asks at the time of the final judgment is whether or not you have performed the task I have entrusted to you well. Therefore, we must heed the invitation of the Church, the bride of Christ, to entrust us with a mission.
Our church has entrusted you with various missions. There are two main ones. The first is the general mission, and the second is the mission as an official in the church. As we well know, the church is a member of Christ. Therefore, we must be the hands of the Lord. Now the Lord is at the right hand of God, so he has no hands or no feet.
We must be the hands and feet of the Lord. We need to give the hand of the Lord's love to those who need it, and we need to find those who groan in pain and become the Lord's feet. But we can't do that now.
The second is how you are fulfilling the duties entrusted to you by the church. Are you really doing your best in the position you have been entrusted with, or are you just occupying a position, or are you just spending your time burying your position in the ground like a person in charge of one talent? Therefore, I pray that you will be faithful to the office entrusted to you by the Church.
Do you know how many people are spiritually thirsty in the world right now? We need to quench their thirst by inviting them to the Lord and to the church. We're not asking us to quench their thirst, we're just asking them to do what they're invited to do. The inviter is the Lord Himself. We are merely the couriers of the Lord. But we're not running that errand. Why is the church empty, because there are no invitations? The church does not grow because of the individualism that only I receive grace and only I need to be saved. Therefore, we must put aside individualism and do the first thing the Lord has entrusted to us.
Next, you need to give the invitation of the Lord to those who want it. Now people want a lot, but they don't really want anything essential. I want something that I don't need, but I have a lot of money. However, there are those who want the water of life.
It is to give them the invitation of the Lord. If there are people who want them and they don't, it is our fault.
God's triple invitation is not an optional invitation that can be rejected. This is an invitation that must be answered with an Amen. And if you answer, you will receive three blessings [regeneration, missionary, and water of life], but if you refuse, you will be judged.
Now I am about to finish my sermon. God is calling us. But looking at the text, he is inviting us in three ways.
First, He is calling us to be born again through the Holy Spirit. We must respond to this invitation because this is the only secret to being a people of this kingdom.
Second, he is calling us through the church, the bride of Christ. He is calling you to entrust you with a mission. Therefore, we must all become missionaries in order to feel rewarding and achieve happiness. Lastly, God calls us to give us the mission of inviting our neighbors to the Lord. It is an invitation to the work of a postman in heaven.
Dear saints,
We pray in the name of the Lord that by responding to God's triple invitation at this time, we will become both heavenly citizens and missionaries, and that we will become rewarding and rewarding, and that we and all of you will be invited to participate in the Lord's work by inviting others as heavenly couriers. [Amen]