Title: Miracle of Faith/Romans 4:18-22
There is a saying, “Be deceived and believe. It is said that this word came from a nursery seller who sold trees. I am digging a persimmon tree, do you know what kind of persimmons can be opened through this persimmon tree? As the persimmon tree seller says, “The world’s most delicious persimmons come from this tree. Pretend to be deceived and believe.” Trusting each other is the foundation of our society.
In particular, we live in a credit society now. It is a society that wants to live by trusting each other's promises. This belief is called the universal gravitational force of the spiritual world. It is the gravitational force that holds the entire universe in order. If there was no universal gravitational force, the world would be completely messed up. Likewise, if there is a universal gravitational force that holds the order of human society, it is trusting in mutual promises.
However, in the society we live in, trust in mutual promises is being broken. What is a credit card? It is a mutual promise that we will buy the things we need now and pay the money back within the set time limit. If you don't keep this promise, you have bad credit. The same is true between countries. If you borrow money and pay it back well, you will get a high position in your credit rating, but if you borrow money and you think you will not be able to repay it well, your credit rating will go down.
When I go somewhere to buy something and take my credit card with me, I feel a bit uneasy. Maybe where do I take my cards and copy them secretly? there is a fear of So these days, when I use my card and the authorization goes down, I immediately get a message on my cell phone saying how much has been approved. This is proof that the society we live in has so many unreliable things.
One president shouted “Please believe” and “Trust me” because people did not believe him. However, I vividly remember that the result made the hearts of our people truly bitter.
US dollars have the words In God We Trust written on them. It is an expression of our belief in God. I want to interpret it this way. In God we trust. You don't know how important it is to trust each other. In particular, in this society we live in, keeping promises to each other is like a universal gravitational force that holds order in society.
Likewise, mutual trust between people is important, and so is our relationship with God. God loves us. Then we respond to that love by faith. Worship is an expression of faith, devotion is an expression of faith, and service is an expression of faith.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. God loves us and sent his only begotten Son to this earth. There is a gift from God that grants eternal life to those who express the love he has sent through faith.
Just as faith is essential among people, what we must have in our hearts toward God is faith. So what is faith? It can be explained in various ways, but the words of the text teach us the definition of faith. “Faith is the assurance that God’s promises are fulfilled.” When Abraham was 100 years old, God promised that God would give him a son. He already knew well that he could not have children through his wife Sarah's body. But God spoke to the family. “Because he did not doubt the promise of God because he had no faith, but was firm in his faith, convinced that he was able to fulfill what he had promised....” Faith is the assurance that the promise will come true.
The God we believe in is a faithful God. It means that God is faithful and keeps His promises. The Bible is the book of promises God has made with us. The history of Israel is the footsteps of God's promises being fulfilled as promised. “Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, and they will serve them (the Egyptians), and they will torment your descendants four hundred years… . After that your descendants will come out with great wealth” (Genesis 15:13-14). In other words, in the second half of Genesis, Jacob's descendants went down to Egypt, and after suffering there, they came out of Egypt, not by chance, but as God promised Abraham.
There are three signs in the Bible that make Israel realize that they have entered into a covenant with God and that they are in a covenant relationship. The first is the Sabbath that appears in time, and whenever the Sabbath is celebrated every week, Jews recognize themselves in a covenant relationship with God. The second is the rainbow that appears in space. Every time you see the rainbow in the sky, you remember the promise of God's judgment. Third, the evidence of the covenant appears in your body is circumcision. Every time you perform circumcision, you can see the traces of circumcision. Each time they confirm that they are a people who made a covenant with God. In the end, the covenant between God and the people of Israel is evidenced by time (the Sabbath), nature (rainbow), and the body (signs of circumcision).
The God we believe in is the God of promise. The assurance that God's promises will surely come true, that is our faith. Abraham is called the father of faith. The reason was that he believed without doubting the word of promise that God had made to him.
The New Testament clearly states, “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Anyone who believes in God becomes a child of God. What more can be expressed? Almighty God, who made the heavens and the earth, has promised to become my Father soon.
Faith is the assurance that this promise is being fulfilled in my life now and that it will be fulfilled in us as children of God in the future.
Faith works miracles. When the disciples asked Jesus, “Give us more faith,” Jesus said, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would have said to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would have obeyed you.” This belief works wonders.
Confidence that God's promises will come true. This is faith, and what kind of miracle does this faith work? It gives us dreams for tomorrow. gives hope for tomorrow Your perspective on tomorrow will change. Abraham and Sarah had no children, and they despaired. But in the meantime, God promised to give him a son. Abraham was sure that the promise would come true. Abraham sees the world from a new perspective. Indeed, through this son, I have a hope that will give me as many children as the stars in the sky and as the grains of sand in the sea.
In this way, belief makes our point of view different. The way you see the world changes. This is the miracle that faith brings. Twelve spies came to visit the land of Canaan. The ten spies are worried that something big has happened. They are like the generals, and we are like grasshoppers compared to them. But what are Joshua and Caleb talking about? This land is the land that God has promised to give us. I was certain that the promise would definitely come true. This is faith. What are we afraid of when God is with us? They describe it as our rice.
The miracle of faith gives us a new perspective. Change from a negative perspective to a positive perspective, and from a negative perspective to an active perspective. From the present state, a perspective arises from which we can look at the possibilities of the future.
The miracle of faith opens the eyes of one to see the possibilities of the future. You see a big tree in a small mustard seed. The miracle of faith is to see a 100-fold fruit in one grain of wheat. Jesus saw the 'new man' in the prodigal son who betrayed his father, the 'sons of Abraham' in Zacchaeus, the duck, and the future of eternal happiness from the beggar Lazarus and the 'tomorrow of dedication' from a married woman who boldly broke the alabaster box. you saw This miracle of faith changes our perspective.
When the dove returned to Noah's ark, he returned with a small olive leaf in his mouth. The small, tender leaves that just sprouted are not even able to light a fire in terms of quantity, but for the eight people in the ark, it was a wonderful gospel that announced the joy of salvation and the beginning of a new work. A small olive leaf might seem like nothing, but it was a symbol of hope for tomorrow.
Faith works miracles. We hope that the miracle of faith will happen through our church. Philosopher Descartes saw a large snake hanging on the road one night and ran away. The next morning, when he went to the place where the snake was, it was not a snake but a rotten cord. He mistook the rotten cord for a snake and was very surprised. Human failures and tragedies usually stem from vague and uncertain fears. People who overcome the crisis think of a more rewarding life. The most frightening virus that destroys people is 'desperation'. To a strong and courageous person, even a 'big snake' is seen as a 'rotten rope'.
Dear saint! God's promises are fulfilled. Be confident that the promise will come true. This is faith. In a certain family, it was difficult to give birth to a child, and the child was a deformed child. The nurse said, "He's a son, but his mouth is a little bit..." The nurse's words were blurry and he seemed apologetic for some reason and said, "Lips? Why?" And I replied. "It's a bummer." Still, I asked if I would see the child, so I got up and turned my head, but the child was crying with her mouth open like a trident. It was the first time she had seen a child that looked like that, and she couldn't speak. I couldn't think of anything to say. Still, through this child in my mother's heart, I was convinced that God had a plan and sent it. did not despair I began to see the child from a different perspective. What great things will God do through this child? Through this child, I became convinced that there is a providence that God wants. I started raising my son from a new angle. After several surgeries, he became able to speak well. In the end, it is said that this son grew up bright and is now an announcer for a famous broadcasting station.
The mother's confession said, "There are many women in the world who have given birth to deformed children. The house where the deformed child was born becomes the house of portraits. But if we abide in the word of the Lord, the house of portrait immediately becomes the temple, the holy dwelling place of God.” This mother was convinced that there was a promise God had planned to fulfill through her son. This is faith. He did not suffer because of the child's chapped lips, but looked forward to what God would accomplish through it.
So faith works miracles. It changes the way you see the world. Dear saint! May hope fill our hearts through the miracle of faith.