Title: Humility and Obedience: The Kingdom of God
Contents
[Humility and Obedience: The Kingdom of God] Matthew 11:25-30 2006.10.28. Sunday worship service
country and power
1) A nation is composed of a ruler who rules, the people who are governed, and the territory, which is the space under the rule. These days, there are many democracies in which the governing power is the governed people themselves, that is, the sovereignty rests with the people themselves. A nation is when people are humbled and submissive to the authority of a nation and are loyal to it. The kingdom of God is like this. Whether it is the intangible kingdom of the heart that is formed within us or the externally visible country of the church and society, those who belong to the country obey the sovereignty with humility and submission.
2) The kingdom of God must also come before the sovereignty of God, which governs us who are members of that kingdom. Our Lord Jesus invites us as the people of God's kingdom through the text of the Bible and teaches us how to meet the Lord.
3) Last week, through Solomon's temple prayer, we said that those who become the people of the kingdom of God are those who have the Lord at the center and that they will look back on themselves with the Lord's words, repent and return to the Lord. How important is it that we return to the Lord?
meekness and humility
1) However, there are many people who are like Mok-seok who are not moved at all even after hearing these important words. They were the Pharisees and scribes in the Lord's day. In verse 20 of the Bible we read today, Jesus strongly rebukes the people, “Because the towns in which Jesus gave the most power did not repent”. The Lord who demands repentance, all who labor and carry heavy burdens, come before the Lord, hear his words, receive them, and receive the Lord's favor. The people of the kingdom of God live a life of obedience to the meekness and humility of Christ before God through repentance.
2) The Christian faith is, by its very nature, centered on the truth. A person's knowledge of what I know cannot go beyond the small limits of a person who might know it wrong. But what I believe is the truth. Confessing that, it is not faith because I know the truth, but receiving the truth that God has revealed to me through faith. This truth is perfect and there is nothing other than this truth. And I am determined to give my life for this truth. Rarely would anyone give their life for what they know. However, there are those who risk their lives for their beliefs. It is the same with the words of the Lord, “I lay down my life for my sheep.” But this kind of faith is submission to the Lord, the center of the truth that is the object of the believer, that is, the Lord comes to me and I bow down to him, and the Lord is my true God. It demands humility or humility.
eating out of the Pharisees
1) At the time of Jesus, Pharisees were orthodox people who said that they believed in God the most and lived according to the commandments and laws. But the Lord criticizes and rebukes them today. You say you believe in the best, but why can't you humbly practice the word before God, boasting about yourself, and indulging in a sense of superiority that I am better than others? He says that being humble and arrogant is not the attitude of being a people of the kingdom of God, which is hypocrisy.
2) The people of God are people who live in the Kingdom of God. Because they have God in them, they always think of themselves as useless and useless and weak before God. Such a person does not boast of the standards of appearance. He doesn't show how powerful he is. A superficial rich man is called a jolbu, who shows off that he has money. A vulgar intellectual brags about his knowledge as if it were printed with a copycat. Even those who openly despise others and boast of their authority are not happy with our aftertaste. Don't you feel terribly uncomfortable, as if you stepped on dirty dirt?
3) So is the church and so is the act of faith. The church becomes the kingdom of God by following his will with meekness and humility, not a place boasting of its size or beauty of buildings or rich finances or worldly authority.
So to us, the people of the kingdom of God, the Lord says: “If you are my kingdom, see my burden of the cross and imitate my meekness and humility. This is the work of building the kingdom of God.”
Godliness achieved through that meekness and humility.
1) The characteristic of the kingdom of God is to set oneself before God. So, repentance, who finds their faults before God and returns, is the image of the people who gain his kingdom. Repentance is to make us always stand before God and to turn completely back to God. We call this the piety of the saints. Therefore, the people of the kingdom of God must be people who achieve godliness. Piety originally means to strike with a whip. And there is a word for training. It is always about pulling oneself out of the world, defiled by one's own lack and world, and it means training to beat oneself and obey God's Word.
2) If God's people do not have training according to His will, we cannot be called children of God. Athletes who train their bodies for the Olympics can practice well and win gold medals. But the practice of godliness gives us a greater benefit than that. God says that godliness is beneficial in all things.
The Bounty's Rebellion
How could a world of power, fists, and debauchery become synonymous with piety? It was possible because God's people misread the Word. It is the same with Kim Ik-doo, a thug who ate the livers of traders by punching in the market place in Seoncheon, North Pyongan Province, who was able to change into a person of godliness.
The Kingdom of God: Devotion
2) The place where people who hope for God's goodness and mercy dedicate themselves to that God and decide to live for him, that is the kingdom of God, and such people are called God's blessed people. When we call ourselves God's people, we must remember this goodness of God and his commitment to him. Let's remember the first love we confessed to the Lord. And let's remember the first faith, when we devoted ourselves to the Lord with fiery passion in our hearts. The characteristic of the first faith was the devotion of such first love. It was the time when the kingdom of God came upon us.
Conclusion.
1) Last week, we remember the promise God gave to Solomon who was praying, “If you return to Me and pray here, I will hear your prayers and heal your land.” Healing the land means that God will establish the kingdom of God and raise us up as people of that kingdom.
2) The reason we become the people of the land is that we humbly submit ourselves before the word of God, confess ourselves, and seek his help. And that kind of self distinguishes itself from the world and forms a gender, yes. The people of God's kingdom should never be like the world. This is because we must live by keeping the constitution of the kingdom of God. And I devote myself diligently to that word.
3) This is the image of God's people, like a tree planted by a brook, where we are truly blessed before God. I pray in the name of Jesus that we all do the same and be blessed as God's beloved children.