Title: New Year's Man (1 Samuel 10:1-13)
Contents
The modern era is always in pursuit of new things, so it changes day by day. The shape of buildings and the shapes of products are also changing frequently. Now, if you do not know how to cope with the new era, you will become a loser.
A person living in a new era must always have a new perspective to cope with the new era and an attitude that responds to the new era.
The world is rapidly changing day by day. But what should not change is faith. Adapting to the ever-changing and diverse world is not new just because we have to be renewed every day. Being spiritually renewed means being closer to the Word.
Just as people's hearts return to their hometowns at the start of the new year, believers must return to the Word of God. If you distance yourself from the Word, you become an old person. When you return to the Word, you become a new person.
In the old days, the Israelites returned to Jerusalem physically from their captivity, but their faith was poor. At that time, the prophet Ezra had the people gather at the floodgates, read the word of God and interpret it. All the people heard the word from dawn to noon, wept and repented and were renewed.
Ephesians 4:22-24 says, “Put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which after God was created in righteousness and holiness of truth.” Says.
The text tells us that a new king was elected at the time when Israel ended the period of the judges and entered a new monarchy.
A new person was chosen in the new age, Saul. His end ended badly, but when he was first chosen as king, he had a new heart.
1 Samuel 10:6 says, “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you greatly, and you will prophesy with them, and you will be changed into a new person.” When God appointed the leaders of the people, he made Saul a new man and made him king.
1. To become a new person, you must be anointed.(6)
After Saul was anointed by the prophet Samuel, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he became a new man. The new man is not created by human will or effort. When you receive God's anointing, you become a new person. To be anointed means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Ezekiel 36:26-27, “And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of hard work out of your flesh and give you a heart of softness; I will also put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes. Keep my ordinances and do them.” I will put my spirit within you so that you may do my statutes. It is to put the Spirit of God in our hearts. Only the God who created us can re-create the human heart that has been distorted so that it cannot be restored.
In a province of Scotland, a wealthy woman bought a huge, dilapidated mansion on a hillside and spent thousands of dollars repairing it. In time, the old mansion became a beautiful home. Then she threw a party at her friends house, including the famous painter Sir Edward Henry Landsier.
One evening a servant at dinner dropped a bottle of colored soda water and broke it, splashing the soda on the expensive wallpaper and ruining the wallpaper. My wife was very offended by it.
The next morning Sir Landseer stayed in the mansion when the others went hunting. Then he took out his brush and paint, and the servant dropped a bottle of soda and began to paint on the unsightly stained wall. With this stain as a backdrop, he beautifully painted one of his most famous masterpieces, a cornered stag. When the wife and her companions returned from hunting, they were astonished to see the beautiful painting.
The painter took the ugly stain and made it the most beautiful painting in the world. We too should be able to lift up our hearts toward God and say this. “Dear Lord, I leave my life with blemishes and blemishes and sins in your hands, and renew us for your glory in the good and beautiful image of God.
Colossians 3:10 says, “Having put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.”
2. You can become a new person only when you meet a new person.(1-5)
You have to get to know people well. If you meet the wrong person, the new person will return to the way of the old person, and if you meet the person well, the old person will also enter the new way.
Saul met the prophet Samuel. Because I met the servant of God, I was anointed and became a man filled with the Holy Spirit.
I met a faithful servant. They told Saul that they had found the donkey and that his father was concerned about him. Loyal servants are those who carry out the word. You can become a new person only when you meet loyal people. Be close to people you trust. When I get close to someone who complains and is full of dissatisfaction, I become the same person.
I met a man going up to Bethel. Bethel means house of bread. It is the place where Jesus was born. This is the place where Jacob had a spiritual dream and met God.
After Jacob returned from his maternal uncle's house as a rich man, he stayed in the land of Shechem, where the Gentiles lived. Here, Dinah, the only daughter, went out to explore the city, and the chief's son fell in love with her, molested her, and asked her to marry her. Jacob's sons deceived him that all of Shechem's sons had to be circumcised before they could get married. He underwent surgery and killed them all while lying down. They stayed in Shechem without pitching their tents in Bethel, but their daughter was raped and their sons committed murder. When Jacob was trembling in fear and did not know what to do, God said:
“Arise, go up to Bethel, dwell there, and build there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother” (Genesis 35:1).
Jacob said to all who were with him. “Put away foreign gods among you, and purify yourself and change your clothes. Let us rise up and go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my trouble and was with me on my way” (Genesis 35: 2)
No one pursued the sons of Jacob, because God had made the towns all around him greatly in fear.
3. New people must do new things.(7)
The prophet Samuel had the new man Saul offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. “Wait seven days until I come and teach you what to do” (8).
Now, instead of doing what I want, I must obey God's word and command.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
A person with a renewed heart lives by discerning what God's good will is. It is to abandon my claims and my will and live according to the great will of God.
Isaiah 43:18-19 says, “Remember the former things, and do not consider the old things; behold, I am doing a new thing, and now it will be revealed, do you not know it?” We must live according to the Word of God.
Victor Hugo said that England has two books, one by Shakespeare and one for the Bible. The Bible is truly a strange book. Queen Victoria, who promised to rule according to the Bible, built a splendid British Empire during her 64-year reign.
In Germany too, after Martin Luther's Reformation and distribution of the Bible into the hands of the common people, the German people began to wake up. Historical figures such as Germany's famous Giraseong also appeared after the Reformation and after the Bible came into the hands of citizens.
Even a woman who has only graduated from elementary school is ripe for thinking and acting when she learns the culture of the Bible. It's not like a college graduate who puts only knowledge like an encyclopedia. The Bible alone is not enough to provide basic culture, but reading the Bible changes people. This is a statistical truth.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
In this new year, I hope you will receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, meet new people, do new things, and live a life that glorifies God. Hallelujah!