Title: Passing a Year with Repentance
Contents
A Year of Repentance
Matthew 4:17
We welcome the eventful last Sunday of 2009.
Today's text is from this time Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
On the last day of the year, we look back on the year that has passed. And it is heartbreaking to see the beautiful hopes, dreams, and expectations that we had at the beginning disappear as unfinished rather than fulfilled.
And we must clean the dust of many wounds, regrets, and guilt that remain in our hearts.
In that sense every year, our church conducts a general cleaning. As the year goes by, you have to clean your mind too.
Because cleaning the temple we use all the time is pleasing to God.
Dear saints,
As we approach the New Year at this time, we must clean our hearts through repentance so that new hopes, dreams and expectations can be established.
1. Failing to seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness (Matthew 6:33)
What we need to look back and repent is whether or not I have lived seeking the kingdom and righteousness of God first for a year. In fact, if you look back, you can feel greatly that you did not seek God's kingdom and righteousness first and live. We have lived by seeking our own interests before God's interests.
God's first concern is to know, to fear, to love, to respect, to give thanks and to praise His name. The altar of Israel in the Old Testament was always on fire.
Likewise, the altar of our hearts should also be burning with thanksgiving, praise, honor, and worship for God's name, but we have long forgotten God's name and have committed a very embarrassing sin.
Ephesians 1:6 says, “For the praise of the glory of his grace, which is freely given to us in him whom he loves.”
The fire should not be extinguished on the altar of our hearts that always praises the glory of God's saving grace.
Instead, how many times have we worshiped and followed the god of gold, power, and pleasure?
French writer mile Zola became a famous writer with a novel called <Nana>.
There is a woman named Nana. She used to be a theater actress, but started her life as a prostitute using her beauty to raise money. Her characteristic was that she did not believe in tomorrow.
If I live for pleasure today, that's all, I didn't think about tomorrow Chasing the temptations around them, many rich people flocked to them, celebrities came, soldiers came, and young people came, throwing all their money, status, and honor at her feet to win her favor.
As a result, one or two of them left in disgrace, and she also died of cancer in a palace-like house. This tells us that if we live according to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and this world in the world, eventually destruction will come.
Nevertheless, it is true that we have lived by serving the god of gold, the god of power, and the god of pleasure.
Have we not been living on our knees to our idol? We must repent that there were not once or twice that we were led by our own desires and bowed down to an idol that was called ourselves rather than God.
We have neglected to exalt and praise God's name. We struggled to make a name for ourselves, not to exalt the name of God.
2 Timothy 3:1-4 says, “Know this that the times of trouble will come in the last days, when people will love themselves, love money, be proud, proud, slanderers, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, bitter unrestrained, accusing, unrestrained, ferocious, not fond of what is good, treacherous, selling, hasty, sleeping, loving pleasures more than loving God.” Isn’t this what we are today? Now is the time for us to listen and turn to the Word of God.