Title: Let's Live Honestly
I. Today we are going to think about honesty.
First, let's find honesty in the Bible and read it.
In the Old Testament, the king who appears as a representative of kings who acted honestly is King David.
When talking about the deeds of many kings in the Old Testament, you can always see them compared to King David. Who, who king, acted upright like David...etc.
1 Kings 15:5 “For David did what was right in the sight of the Lord all his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, and he did not disobey all that he commanded him.”
② 1 Kings 15:11 “Asa did what was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father did.”
③ 2 Kings 18:3 “Hezekiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as Hezekiah did all that his father David did”, etc.
And many other places speak of honesty.
④ Psalm 7:10 "My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart."
⑤ Psalm 84:11 "The LORD God is a shield and a shield, for the LORD gives grace and glory, and he will not withhold good from the upright."
⑥ Psalm 112:2 "His descendants will be strong on the earth; blessed will be the descendants of the upright."
⑦ Proverbs 14:11 “The house of the wicked will perish, but the tabernacle of the upright will prosper.”
⑧ Proverbs 15:8 "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his pleasure." In many places, such as, honesty is spoken of.
The Bible uses the word honesty about 125 times.
If there was a nickname for us Christians, it would be "truth."
The word for truth is pistos, because it means "faithful, faithful, precisely...". This means that those who believe in Jesus should be given the nickname of a sincere person.
So it means people who believe in it.
1 Peter 2:12 says, "You have good conduct among the Gentiles, so that those who accuse you of doing evil may see your good works and give glory to God on the day that they recommend them."
Let us Christians be honest today! truly! Reasons to live a good life are here
"...to see your good deeds and to glorify God on the day when he recommends them."
In other words, the reason for living in this world as a Christian is to live honestly. This is what God wants.
I hope you will answer in your own mind.
① In a restaurant, if an employee made a mistake and asked for a lower price for food, would you notify the error and correct it?
Or would you quietly put the difference in your pocket?
② If you found a wallet with about 500,000 won, would you report it to the police box to find the owner? Or do you want to drop by the bank right away?
A magazine conducted a survey on this issue, and 25% of the respondents, or a quarter of the respondents, said, "I will not tell the employee."
What do you think? That's right, because God needed me today, is it possible to say a prayer of thanksgiving just because God has blessed me like this...
Among those who are calling for social justice and accusing injustice these days, how honest can you be in this case? You will have to reflect deeply. This is a question we should always ask Christians.
When honesty is disappearing on this earth, it is the responsibility of Christians to live more and more honestly.
Because you are the light of the world... This is because the darker the light, the greater the brightness of even a small light.
This means that we must do it for the Lord.
In 2 Chronicles 27:1 and below, Jotham the son of Uzziah is introduced.
When introducing Jotham, the Bible says, "Jotham did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah had done, but he did not enter the house of the LORD..." (2 Chronicles 27:2).
He must have seen his father act honestly in the early days, earning God's approval and God's presence.
But his father, Uzziah, was really honest with God at first.
However, in his later years, he became arrogant and ignored the priests and exceeded the duties of the priests, committing the sin of blasphemy, becoming a leper and ending in a miserable way.
When Jotham saw this, he must have made a heartbreaking resolution. He said, "I must not be arrogant and I must not live with such wretched words," so I did not enter the temple.
This is the characteristic of being human.
You have to realize it by looking at everything and what is happening around you.
Rather than condemning others for making mistakes and committing sins, I should live a life of being careful not to fall into those sins.
Jotham said that he acted honestly so as not to commit such a sin as Uzziah.
The most serious problem in our society these days is a moral problem, and the moral problem is caused by the dishonesty of the members of the society.
Politicians, businessmen, civil servants, workers, teachers, students, whatever class or profession, everyone is doing big and small injustices, and the reality is that everyone is being harmed by it.
Although there are no statistics, anyone can easily guess that the economic loss that our society as a whole is inflicting due to dishonesty is enormous. If you pay bribes to get government-funded construction work, and if you have to do poorly constructed work to reduce costs, it will inevitably return to the burden of individual citizens.
This is our realistic situation today.
What makes us sad is the saying, “Honest loses money,” but in fact, it is this idea that everyone loses. We often hear about Japanese honesty.
When someone asked how Japanese people are so honest, the answer is, "Because you cannot survive in this society if you are not honest."
In this sense, Christians must first practice an honest life.
The reason we Christians need to be honest is because we are Christians, but we must be honest and truthful because Christians are people who have received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, and are to bear the fruit of light.
"You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, walk as children of light. The fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth" (Ephesians 5:8).
But being a Christian does not automatically make you honest and truthful. So training is necessary.
It takes training and practice to get ourselves straight and straight. Even now, we are training as people of heaven.
According to the book of Revelation, it is said that there are certain people who will be excluded from heaven later.
They are called idolaters, sorcerers (deceivers) and liars.
It is said that all of these people will go into the brimstone fire.
II. Now consider the blessings of an honest Christian.
1 Kings 3:6 (Children's blessing) "Solomon said, "Your servant David my father walked with you before you in faithfulness, justice, and uprightness of heart, so you showed great favor to me, and you You have prepared this great grace, and you have given me a son to sit on him as he does today."
Psalm 112:2 It is said, "Blessed are the descendants of the upright, for their descendants will be strong on the earth." How is the descendant of the upright blessed? Become strong on the ground. Descendants of the family are produced from that house.
② 2 Kings 18:3,5-7 (Blessing of Prosperity) "Hezekiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as he had done in all that David his father did... He relied on the Lord, the God of Israel. He was united to the LORD, and he did not depart; he kept the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses.
, and he prospered wherever he went.”
To summarize these words, Hezekiah did what he did honestly, and the Lord was with me, and God was with me all the time, so he prospered wherever he went. This is the blessing of the honest.
Job 8:6 says, “If you are clean and upright, he will surely visit you and make your righteous house prosper.”
③ Psalm 84:11 (Blessing of good things) It is said, “The Lord God is a shield and a shield, for the Lord gives grace and glory, and He will not spare good things from the upright.”
What does "good" mean here?
This is probably all about spirit and flesh.
Matthew 7:11 says, “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”
It means that He will give you a place to live, including our daily bread, and that He will provide you with various necessities from time to time.
Among the good things, the good things are speaking of the Holy Spirit. Luke 11:13 says, "If you, though evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."
If you act honestly, God will give you good things.
Proverbs 23:16 says, "If your lips speak uprightness, my insides will rejoice."
The honest person always has a pleasant heart. It's fun.
Although life is a bit lacking and lacking, I have no hesitation in my heart.
He gives you the blessing of rejuvenating your heart. This is the blessing of honest people.
Everyone!
Do you want your children to be blessed?
Do you want everything to work out for you?
Do you want to get good out of everything?
I hope that you will become saints who walk honestly before God.
Perhaps that is the way into a narrow road in reality.
He said that the wide road is easy and convenient, and many people go there, but the narrow road is narrow, rough, and strait, so few people go there.
However, it is said that that path is the path that leads to life.
I hope that all of us will be saints on the right and straight path that Christians should go.
It is because God is still leading the history through such people. ♣