Title: Pride and Excrement
I don't know if any of you know, but I'm fifty-seven this year. I'm fifty-six, but I've never said my age in ten thousand. I like fifty seven. I've been waiting patiently for years. Because it can be said that from fifty-seven to the end of fifties. I want to be 60 and 70 soon. And when I die, I don't want this mindset to change.
The reason I like getting older is because I'm happy with my life, as it may sound cocky, or it may sound naive. Because I have no regrets in my life. It does not mean that I have lived a flawless and perfect life, but it is because I am living a life that I cannot achieve on my own, given that there are many flaws and deficiencies. Because even if I become young again, and even if I make up for and recover from all the mistakes I have made, I have a feeling that I cannot live a better life than I am now.
Excellence or excellence were words that had nothing to do with me. It is still the same today. I sang a little better than others, and exercised a little better than others, but it was just at an amateur level, not enough to make my life bloom brilliantly. I think the best time to study in elementary school was around 11th out of 100. At that time, it was acknowledged that being in the top 10 was a good study, but I don't think I've ever been in that top 10.
In junior high and high school, I attended the so-called third class. It was a commercial high school. At that time, Sanggo was not a school for high-skilled children, so I did not hear that I could not study in high school. If I had thought that I would just go to any university without being too greedy, I would have been able to go, but in the end, I was not able to go to college due to my lack of ability.
The life I am enjoying today is above average in all respects, after living such an extremely ordinary, or, in a way, below average life. When I look at myself alone, it is the highest level that cannot be better than this.
From a young age, I received a lot of grace by listening to sermons, reading the Bible, and singing hymns. I don't know how to pray, Lord, I'm still not good at singing three choirs or even a hallelujah, but I've had a lot of grace in my own way. Because I believed in God and His Word, of course, there were many times when I made mistakes and there were many times when I sinned, but it seems that I always had a heart to live according to the Word of God in principle. Even though it was just a heart, God saw that heart as faith and poured an unbearable blessing on that faith.
I cannot list all the blessings I have received, but the representative blessings of God that I have received, which are considered to be blessings over time, would be as follows. It's clich to hear, but it's not to me.
The first is the blessing of the forgiveness of sins. When I came to my senses and thought about living a better life, when I really came to my senses to live as a man of God and as a man of God, it was my sin to become desperate. It didn't really matter that I didn't study well or that my family was a little poor. What really disappointed me was that the vessel of my life was clean and beautiful and too dirty and ugly to contain life. For me like him, the gospel of forgiveness was really the gospel of the gospel. Of course, one of my favorite sayings is, 'Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered.' (Psalm 32:1) ' 'Come, let us argue with one another, so that though your sins are as scarlet, they will become as white snow. and though it be red as crimson, it shall be like wool' (Isaiah 1:18).
The second is the blessing of salvation. The ultimate in forgiveness of sins is salvation. Because the purpose of the forgiveness of sins is salvation. Through the love of God revealed on the cross of Jesus Christ, sins were forgiven, and as a sinner, salvation was impossible to obtain. Salvation means the restoration of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, which was lost through sin, was restored through faith. Because the kingdom of God is an eternal kingdom, it is not a kingdom that only goes to death. Of course, the kingdom of God that we will enter after death is the perfect kingdom of God, but the life of those who believe in Jesus and receive salvation is somewhat incomplete, but it becomes the life of the kingdom of God on this earth as well. You can enjoy and feel the satisfaction and happiness of true life that you feel in the kingdom of God on this earth.
The satisfaction and happiness of life enjoyed through that saved life cannot be compared with any other satisfaction and happiness that the world enjoys in the world. ?쁚ou have put more joy in my heart than when their grain and new wine abound??(Psalm 4:7). Amen.
Third, it is the blessing of wisdom. Jesus said that he is the way and the truth. (John 14:6) And in Psalm 119:105, there is a saying, ?쏽our word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.??I live right. Fortunately, I believed in God and the Word of God, so I followed the Word little by little, little by little, and I got to where I am today. Although God's way was narrow, it must have been the way of life according to the words of Jesus. Through the Word of God, I was able to see the numbers that the smart people of the world could not see well, and I did not lose in the world and the Go of life with the number of God. Although he was ignorant in worldly knowledge, because of his faith in God, he became a wise man and lived by solving problems that could not be easily solved.
Fourth, it is the blessing of diminishing greed. One of the really good things about believing in Jesus is that your needless greed diminishes little by little. I like money too, but I don't envy people with more money than me. Do you know how nice it is to not envy someone richer than me? You can say that even if you become poorer than you are now, you can say that.
There was an article about my sermon last week in an internet newspaper. There were several comments, one of which was this one. The title was 'Kim Dong-ho was good', but to sum up, if I lived by sharing half of my annual salary with the poor, I would recognize myself and accept what I said. As I read the article, I answered to myself: Then you will have to acknowledge me already. I have been using the cash register for almost 5 years, and I think the standards he asked me for have probably been exceeded.
Still, I am not poor. I don't even like poverty. However, one of the blessings I received from believing in Jesus is that I can no longer be greedy enough to risk my life for money, and I dare to point out that although it is not perfect, I can control money even a little. I do not forget the words of the pastor's wife who raised me. ?쏧 hate poverty. But it's not scary."
Everyone, you probably don't know, but there was an election for vice presbytery in our presbytery last year, and I lost that election. It is arrogant and arrogant to say such a thing, but maybe I could have done it if I had worked a little harder to be myself. eventually fell off. I am not ashamed of it and it is not difficult. If I had become the vice president, I would have taken on my own responsibilities. However, it is neither difficult nor shameful that it has not been done. The reason is that I do not know the job, but I am not very greedy for a seat.
I don't want to dress up in front of him because I just like that I'm Dongho Kim. I do not want to embellish myself as a presbytery president, a moderator, a chairperson, or a president. If I brag, I will boast of God and the blessing of receiving forgiveness of sins and salvation through God's grace. I do not want to brag about that I am the president of the presbytery. It's because they're not even a game compared to the grace I've been given.
Today, our church holds an election to elect ordained deacons and priests. At some point, elections for church officers began to heat up. Church offices began to become honors and ranks. Church offices began to be bragging, and not having them began to be a shame. And that is sinking our Korean church.
As I prepare this sermon today, I have an earnest prayer to God for our church. It is, ?쁏lease do not let any unbelieving person who thinks his position as an honor be elected.??
I like hymn 102.
There is nothing more precious than the Lord Jesus. There is nothing more precious than the wealth of this world. There is nothing more precious than the Lord Jesus. There is nothing more precious than the Lord Jesus.
There is nothing more precious than the Lord Jesus. There is nothing more precious than the Lord Jesus. There is nothing more precious than the Lord Jesus. There is nothing more precious than the Lord Jesus.
There is nothing more precious than the Lord Jesus. It cannot be exchanged for the happiness of this world. Even when temptations and persecutions come, I cannot change my heart to serve the Lord.
I'm about to finish my talk. Beloved, the best thing in the world is to believe in Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, you are blessed in such a way that people can regard what they are proud of as excrement. That blessing is incomparable with the riches, glory, honor, and pleasures of the world. It's really nothing but shit in comparison.
Even though you believed in Jesus all your life, you did not receive that blessing, so would you still greedy for excrement like the people of the world and live a life proud of it? Would you consider all your pride and greed like excrement and live a life of freedom while enjoying heaven on this earth?
I pray in the name of the Lord that you and I who are living will be blessed by the blessings of heaven by believing in Jesus and receiving such a tremendous blessing that all the pride of the world is visible only like excrement. Amen. *