Title: Man of Jesus Christ
(Jesus said to his disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." For what will it profit you if you gain the world and lose your soul There are some who will see the Son of Man come in his kingdom before they die.
like a child's false cry
shed a few tears
For this new year
I'm so ashamed
it was used every year
It's an old method.
give strength to the stomach
'Lord!' In the three chant prayers
I made a new year's resolution
me too
I'm so ashamed
That's right, it's only three days
like a beggar
Sit around the rags of my heart
That's how I greet the new year every time.
I made a division that didn't fit the class
my look
I'm so ashamed
Oh God!
Repent me in your way!
Transform me with your power!
Adorn me in your image!
so this new year
Help me to live by your grace!
The above was a prayer for a man named Youngheon Kim to welcome the new year.
Perhaps we too have greeted the new year that is repeated like this due to the inertia of our religious life. We need to reflect deeply on whether the outside and the inside are playing separately, and yet, like the content of the poem we are reading now, we are not saying that we are living the faith like that or not. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This year's church motto is 'Become a person of Jesus Christ'.
There are many people who believe in Jesus these days.
The people of Jesus Christ have become a rare world.
What is the difference between a believer in Jesus and a believer in Jesus Christ?
The early church believers were people of Jesus rather than people who believed in Jesus.
Because they followed him with their lives, not with their lips, and they endured all kinds of persecution and persecution for him.
Then, how should people of Jesus Christ live?
They are people who follow the example of life taught by Jesus.
Today, there are many people who believe in Jesus and live their own lives.
Today we are going to think about just that.
Do we really smell the people of Jesus in our lives these days?
The Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, "You are the fragrance of Christ..." 2 Corinthians 2:15 says, “We are the fragrance of Christ before God, both to those who are being saved and to those who are perishing.”
It should be the fragrant smells of Christ, but what kind of smells are we getting these days? We must reflect deeply.
Also, the people of Jesus Christ said that they had crucified their passions and lusts. If you are still not free from lust and lust, can you really say that I am a person of Jesus Christ? Many thoughts came to mind in the new year.
1. People of Jesus Christ are those who have Jesus as Lord and follow Him.
To 'follow' means to 'walk the same path' with him.
To 'walk the same path together' means to live according to 'his will.' It means to follow the Lord's will, the Lord's insistence, and the Lord's thoughts, not according to my will, my insistence, or my thoughts.
Why?
Because he is our eternal way, truth, and life.
We are called Christians because we confessed that way, confessed with our mouths that we would follow, and believed in our hearts.
This can also be seen in the relationships of couples in the same family. I know that I am living as a married couple because I confessed with my mouth, and believed in my heart, that among countless men and countless women, I would make him my husband and my wife for the rest of my life. .
This can be easily understood even in the world.
This also applies to those who formed a political party by bringing together people with the same purpose and the same purpose. It means that I join the party and walk the same path in order to realize the political ideology of that party because the political ideology I have and the purpose I want are aligned with.
The people whom the Lord called to walk the same path as him were the disciples. Disciples, narrowly, refer to the twelve people called by the Lord Himself.
When the Lord called, they left everything behind in the field of livelihood and followed the Lord. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were all like that.
However, in a broader sense now, all those who have confessed to the Lord as Savior and are determined to live according to His word have become disciples of the Lord.
In order to hear the word of disciple of the Lord, we must become people who live according to the word of the Lord. Because that is exactly what the Lord wants.
But in order to hear the word disciple, we must keep in mind what the Lord said.
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.
What does self-denied mean?
Denying one's thoughts, one's will, one's assertion, one's own possessions, one's self. It's really hard to deny that.
But because it is such a difficult task, it is the most precious thing in the world.
When it comes to success in the world, not everyone is self-denial. It is self-fulfillment. It is about winning by spreading your will.
But how hard is it to deny yourself?
However, that self-denial is not the kind of self-denial that we can't do and weep and cry out of surrender.
It is precious because it is a self-denial for the Lord because it is to humble oneself and live according to the example of Christ, who took on the form of a servant.
Self-denial means self-renunciation.
Self-renunciation is, in reality, a cross.
So, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
But where is the problem with us today? It is said that they do not deny themselves but follow the Lord.
As I look back on the years that have passed these days, I often ask myself:
'How much have you denied yourself and followed the Lord?' It's because no matter what others say, you know it best.
The apostle Paul had Roman citizenship, but he gave it up and lived. Although the apostle Paul heard the title of son of the law and the high learning of Greece, he did not rely on it.
The Apostle Paul was born into a Jewish tradition and a shining family, and was able to live a life of respect and preferential treatment in front of people, but he gave up all of them because of the gospel. So he said, "I have counted all things in the world as dung, because of the noblest knowledge of Christ" (Philippians 3:8).
But what about our situation today?
How many disciples do you know and do not know?
How many cult pastors say their words are the gospel?
How many people in the church want to carry out their thoughts?
The Apostle Paul confessed that he did not use up his authority in preaching the gospel. We too must imitate the faith of the apostle Paul.
By the way, they say self-denial, but in reality, who can deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow the Lord? We all need to think deeply.
However, there are many cases of people trying to achieve themselves in the name of the Lord because they do not deny themselves and try to follow the Lord without a cross.
However, on the last day, the Lord will know all about it, so he promised to repay him according to his deeds.
The cross must be carried.
A decorative cross is not a cross.
How many Christians are walking on the cross today?
In Roman times, that cross was a terrible tool for execution.
I was afraid that I might see it in my dreams.
It was the mold of a terrible curse.
But the cross has now become a decoration,
As a result, faith has also been commercialized.
2. A person of Jesus Christ is a person who gives up on himself.
Giving up on your own is different from forced giving up.
Forced renunciation is despair, but self renunciation is an act of love.
This was how our Lord gave up the glory of heaven and came to this earth.
He gave up his equality with God and became a man in a low position.
And he showed that love.
And he told his disciples, 'Love one another as I have loved you'.
In the act of giving up on yourself, love grows, grows, and bears fruit.
It is also an act of love that parents give to their children.
Because parents gave themselves up for their children, their children continued their lives, grew up, and formed mature personalities.
If we are Christ's disciples, it is very natural to live by practicing the love of Christ. Even though we know this very natural fact, we cannot live as it is, so we have to live with our incompetence and guilt all the time.
Therefore, in the church, which is the body of the Lord, we cannot but serve humbly.
For the people of Christ, three things must be given up. First, I have to give up the sense of ownership that I am the owner. Second, I have to give up the sense of ownership that I have nothing. Third, I have to give up the right to live that I cannot live as I please.
Because without giving up these three things, we cannot be called people of Christ.
3. Those of Jesus Christ who have lived in this way are rewarded with works.
It was not an act that asked for a reward, but even though he had done what he had to do, when the Lord comes in glory, he said that he would repay him for what he had done.
This means that you will be rewarded for the actions you gave up on yourself.
Even those who are loyal to the princes of the world give them the title of Gongsin (功臣) as they have done, and they create a place of honor, how much more can the Lord be still with those who have given up for them!
Mark 10:29-30 says, “He that has left houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children, or lands, for me and for the gospel, is in no time at all, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands. There is no one who will not receive a hundred times as much, with persecution, and in the age to come eternal life."
And at the end, he said, “But there are many who are first to be last, and those who are last to be first.”
We should keep this last word in mind.
Among those who believed first, there are those who will be pushed out later, and there are those who believed later but will be the first.
If a Christian lay down his life for the sake of Christ, and for the gospel of Christ, how could he be still?
The motto of our church this year is 'Let's become people of Jesus Christ'.
I hope that, as this year's motto, we can live a life of giving up something for the sake of Jesus Christ. Then he said that it would not be a worthless foolish life, but a source of a 100-fold reward on this earth.
I hope that all of us will strive to become people of Jesus Christ, strive and pray, become all believers. ♣