Title: Let's Rise and Go Together
Contents
Let's get up and go together (Song 2:10-14)
As the Polish proverb goes
Spring is the season of smiling virgins, Summer is the season of sweaty mothers,
It seems acceptable to say that autumn is the season of a lonely widow and winter is the season of a ferocious stepmother. Indeed, spring is the season of laughter, the season of warmth, and the season of quiet sleep. It is truly the good season of the Yangchun Autumn Festival.
There are countless songs about spring in Korea. Here is one of them.
“The spring maiden is here. You're wearing a new full coat. He wore a white cloud veil and pearl dew. Are you looking for someone with a bouquet of flowers in your chest?”
In such a good season, we are afraid that we will live too meaningless and worthless. I thank God for giving me such a beautiful season, and I pray that you will make up your mind to lead a life of faith that is not shameful in spring. Amen.
The text (Song 2:11) says, “The winter has passed and the rain has stopped.”
Since the Jewish winters are always foggy or cloudy and often rained and shaded from the sun, even the noun “winter”, setau, comes from the verb sataq, which means to close. Winter means a cold season, a hidden season, and a closed season. Winter is the season when frogs, snakes and bears are trapped in the ground, flowers and leaves are hunkered down in logs, and people are locked inside their homes.
That is, it means a period of pain/suffering/difficulty (spiritual, mental, physical). It is said that the time of lonely winter has passed and now it is time to return to the reviving spring.
Here is the saying “the rain has stopped”. Rain here refers to the tribulation/persecution/testing of the world. If the tribulation/persecution/testing of the rain follows us for the rest of our lives, how will we live our lives through suffering? However, there is hope because the rain is only temporary, and even if it rains, the sun (God) itself does not disappear.
Twice between verses 10 and 13 of the text, he emphasizes, “Get up, let’s go together.” Winter has passed and the rain has stopped. Now is the time for us to stand up together.
Now we need to get up in the following state.
1. We must rise from the power of death.
In the Bible, there are eight instances in which the dead are brought back to life.
G. The story of the resurrection of the dead widow's son (1 Kings 19:19).
N. The incident where the son of the dead Shunammite was resurrected (2 Kings 4:32-35).
c. The story of the resurrection of the widow's son from the dead of Nain (Luke 7:15).
L. The story of the resurrection of Jairus's daughter from the dead (Matthew 9:25).
e. Lazarus from the dead came back to life on the fourth day (John 11:43).
f. The story of Tabitha's resurrection from the dead (Acts 9:36-42).
g. The incident where Eutychus, who fell and died while sleeping, was resurrected (Acts 20:9-10).
o. These are the events in which Jesus died on the cross and came to life again after the tomb was removed on the third day (2 Corinthians 5:14).
If the three days of Jesus' suffering, death on the cross, and burial were dark and long, and cold and difficult winter and rain, the resurrection of Jesus would be a bright, warm, glorious and victorious spiritual spring. Now the bleak winters and dark days are no more. God, the Sun of Righteousness, shines the light, the birds sing, and the flowers cover the mountains, giving off the fragrance of Jesus.
Death no longer reigns over us. Amen.
2. We must wake up from sleep, laziness and indolence.
Spring is not a romantic season, nor a season of napping indolence. Spring is the working season. It is a season of producing something new, a season of moving forward.
It would be right to believe that the cause of all failures, setbacks, and poverty lies in sleep and laziness rather than helplessness and incompetence.
The Bible (Proverbs 6:9-11) “O sluggish man, how long will you lie down? When will you wake up from your sleep? Sleep a little longer, sleep a little longer, put your hands together and lie down a little longer, and your poverty will come like a robber, and your poverty will come away. I will come like a soldier.”
It is said that if it is the Buddhist scriptures of spring medicine (春若不耕), it is a harvest of autumn and harvest. This is the lesson that taught me that if I don't work in the spring, I must starve in the winter.
There is nothing to be ashamed of like playing and eating. Lazy people become poor, and lazy nations perish (Proverbs 10:4).
The German iron man said, "Man's greatest evil is sloth."
Said, "The grave of the living is sloth" and said, "Working is the greatest happiness."
Future success and wealth are the promised checks to those who work (Proverbs 23:21).
It is said that the job resume in the United States is not about academic background or background, but about the possibilities and skills of what kind of work one can do.
In the Greek country, it is said that the decision is made by examining whether a person is a filial son who serves his parents well or a filial son on his resume.
A young man came to the inventor and asked, “What is the secret to success?” He replied that the secret to success is 98% sweat and 2% inspiration.
The Bible (2 Thessalonians 3:10) says, “...If anyone does not want to work, let him not eat.”
3. You have to rise from failure and frustration.
No one lives without failure in one lifetime. A person who never fails is not a great person, but a person who does not get frustrated even if he fails and gets up again is a great person. Failure does not destroy us. Being frustrated and giving up on failure is what ruins us. There is a saying that failure is the mother of success. At least as long as you try to get up without getting frustrated, yesterday's failures are the foundation for tomorrow's success. Only those who rise from failure can eventually succeed.
The great leaders and entrepreneurs of history are not those who did not fail, but those who failed many times and did not sit down and rise again.
The Bible (Proverbs 24:16) says, “For though the righteous shall fall seven times, he will rise again, but the wicked fall by calamity.”
It is the same as the saying in the Korean proverb, “Eight times of the seven fields” (八起). It means that you fall seven times, but get up eight times (Ottogi faith).
Let's get up and go to the garden together. So where is this garden? I believe this is the church of today.
On the day of Pentecost, when the wind of the Holy Spirit blew and a new spring came to the early church, flowers of love bloomed, there was a march of prayer, hymns did not cease, there were abundant words, and the saints exuded the fragrance of Jesus.
We all “rise up and let’s go together” Our church will also become a spring garden where the hot wind of the Holy Spirit blows on the day of Pentecost, so that love, prayers, hymns, words, and the fragrance of Jesus are in full bloom. it should be Amen.