Title: Real Change / Acts 9:1-9
Contents
Real change /Acts 9:1-9
□ Real change
I asked for official documents to go to the various synagogues, because if I met anyone who follows that way, both men and women should be bound.
So he was going to bring them to Jerusalem. So Saul went and came near Damascus, and suddenly he went up to heaven.
And the light shone all around him, and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, yes.
Why are you persecuting me?" He answered, "Who are you, Lord?" He said, "I am the one you are persecuting.
The mint is Jesus. Arise, go into the city, and someone will tell you what to do.
These people who were on the way stood speechless, hearing only the sound and seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground.
I opened my eyes, but saw nothing, and were led by men into Damascus, and stayed there for three days.
Without seeing it, they gave up food and drink.> (Acts 9:1-9)
1. Real change is from above.
It's been a month since the New Year, and it's already February.
As we enter the new year, we all want to change.
The theme of last week's stewardship retreat was 'Workers who respond to change'.
The world is changing so fast, how annoying it would be if my thoughts and life didn't change.
are you? Something everyone wants to change.
When people feel boredom in their lives, they seek to change something.
So, I try to change furniture, travel, and try to change the environment.
However, such an outward change cannot be regarded as a change in the true sense.
A true change is a change from the heart.
When you change your mind, your appearance will change and your actions will change.
Therefore, when we seek change from the heart, the body will follow.
However, this is only to some extent and has limitations.
This is because most of the cases are won in the heart, but lose to the body.
For example, if you see failures while trying to lose weight, most of the mind is the desire, but the desires of the body are
This is the result of not winning. People have all the thoughts they want to change, but they are drawn to the body.
You can't follow your heart.
Will you save me?" he sighed.
And I have a desire within me, but my fleshly desires prevent me from achieving it.
I sighed that there was.
This is true for anyone.
Because humans are essentially the same.
Who doesn't want to change because they don't want to change?
As I entered the new year, I said, 'I have to be a little different this year...'
I mean jean. Nevertheless, people want to change.
Without this consciousness, the very person would be dead.
Being alive is proof that we have a consciousness to change.
Therefore, true change is possible only by the power from above, not by my willpower.
is. That was the first step in Saul's transformation into Paul.
2. Real change requires hearing the voice of God.
No real change can be expected from the sounds or writings of the world.
No matter how much you have mastered it, no one has ever changed.
No matter how many majors they majored in, no one has changed.
There is nothing as incompetent as a human being.
Because people don't change just because there are so many worlds.
In our reality of today, do you play this board like this without phosphorus?
no. It's because you're using it wrong as much as you have it.
Those who know the law more cleverly evade the law.
To change a person, you must directly listen to [God's voice].
[Heaven's voice] means [God's revelation].
God must have spoken to His people in this voice.
Sometimes it comes down to not being able to hear it.
The priest was like that.
Little Samuel heard it, but Eli the priest did not hear this voice.
All who have left great deeds have heard a voice from heaven.
In the wilderness of Tao, I heard this voice in the midst of a burning bush.
To experience real change, you must hear this voice. Hear a voice calling out your name
must go
However, the way to hear this voice is not [arbitrary].
It is because he is a person who comes [vertically] from God.
This is sometimes heard of [by chance].
Or even in [emergency situations].
Fallen man will never be able to meet God in ordinary reality.
In most cases, we hear the voice of God at the crossroads of life and death.
There must be an event where God directly intervenes.
I also heard this voice when I was in pain in a hospital after a car accident in the United States. any
In a remote place where no one knows, even in the midst of uncertainty, where all circumstances are not favorable
It was because there was so much pressure all at once. I heard the voice
I still remember it.
"Do you understand why I pulled out your arm without breaking your head?" It was a voice that said
And then it reminds me of the answer to that question, when Jacob cut the Hwando bone from the Jabbok ferry.
As I thought of the reason why I did it, I thought, "I've given you all the circumstances so far, and I've never been able to do it.
I opened up the road to study abroad, but I was exhausted and said that I would not do pastoral work...?
I came
"Lord! I made a mistake. Now, just give me one more chance. I'm leaving."
I returned home unconditionally.
After that, there were many ways to tempt me to stay in America, but I defeated them all.
At that time, many pastors lied in front of the consulate while obtaining visas at the embassy.
is. There were many pastors who said they would definitely come back and did not come back. that
I vowed in my heart that I would not become such a pastor.
And after that, an alumnus of the school where I studied in the United States came out as a consul for a while and worked several times.
I was tempted. But even then, they were all defeated. Then, God saved me who was lacking
I think it took a while to get to this point.
I still can't forget Easter 1968. Can't you forget US Highway 81?
All.
Just as Saul met the Lord on the road to Damascus, so I am on Highway 81 in America.
because I met
Dear saints!
Real change does not come about by one's willpower like this.
We believe that it is possible only through the providence of God and the power of force.
3. Only those who have experienced real change will realize the mission.
When Saul, who had been led away blind, saw again through Ananias' prayer, his eyes were like scales.
The silver was peeled off and I could see it again.
What had hitherto been hidden from his eyes was peeled off.
Looking at the way he has lived up until now, he has come to realize how wrong it was.
All. After that, he realized his mission was not done by anyone, and he lived his life as a witness of the gospel
is. Throwing away everything you loved before, like dung, and the love of Christ
I decided not to know anything other than that.
When I realized this mission (使命), I had no strength to bind him.
Even the Roman bayonet couldn't be beaten before him.
His body was imprisoned, but his spirit became more and more aroused.
In the end, the neck of the flesh fell before the sword of Rome, but his gospel had to conquer all of Rome.
All. This was a great power.
When I saw the Roman prison where Paul was martyred several years ago, I was deeply moved.
It is said that when the sword of the person who executed the death penalty struck Paul in the neck, it bounced three times. which
It is said that a spring of water gushed from there
So now I saw that a memorial was erected there and opened to many people. That
The road that was taken to the burial place was still preserved as bare ground.
Did you stir up infinite emotions in the hearts of the pilgrims who followed the path that Paul walked on?
All.
What was it that Paul lacked to spend his whole life suffering like that?
He was one of the most elite courses of his time.
As a foreign Jew, he studied Greek philosophy and science under Professor Gamaliel at the University of Tarsus in Cilicia.
it broke
Among his classmates, he became famous judges of the time and became professors. later planted
Governor Festus, who was inquiring, also recognized Paul, and said, 'Paul! Your many studies have made you mad.”
Judging from what Paul said, how much
It's easy to tell if I'm a person who has taken an elite course.
But for some reason he suffered and died many times while being naked, unable to eat, and being beaten.
Did you become an evangelist who spreads the gospel of Jesus while overcoming a turning point? The more you think, the more rational the world is
It is incomprehensible to the enemy's reason.
But because he heard the voice of heaven and had the experience of meeting the Lord, no matter what anyone said,
His sense of duty did not waver.
So I decided not to know anything other than the cross and resurrection of Christ.
In this way he became a man of thorough righteousness.
Therefore, there were many people who lived in the same era as Paul today, but their
We don't remember the name.
But even though it was Paul who seemed humble at the time, and who looked like a madman, he
conquered the realm.
You defeated the mighty Roman spear with the gospel of the cross without firing a single shot with your bare hands.
All. This is the power of the gospel.
This is the power of the cross.
Everyone!
What do you see as a path that can truly change? We are helpless sinners.
No matter how many times we make up our minds, we make up our minds, we are sinners beyond salvation. human being
Liver. We are all stinky humans.
No matter how much you dress up, no matter how fancy you wear, you are a stinky person.
God did not forsake such a human being and came to seek him.
And he calls us and makes us new people.
And he entrusts you with a mission. How grateful this is!
We must change for that. You have to be a new person.
To do that, you must meet God.
To do this, we must listen to God's voice.
For that to happen, things have to happen.
We can't make it artificial.
But, God gives you that opportunity.
Please do not give up at that time.
In that case, I hope you don't procrastinate.
Like Paul, you will have to fall down and ask, "Lord! Who are you?"
That is true prayer.
When you are healthy, prayer is not like prayer.
No matter how earnest I try to pray when I have time, it doesn't work.
That's why he gives us one chance.
that is our
It is a blessing to realize this before the shadows of death fall.
Blessings in the true sense are not and are not.
On the contrary, it may be a passage that leads me to the path of decadence.
They all committed crimes when they had spare time, and I have never seen them commit crimes when they were in an emergency or sick.
Do you want real change?
I hope you will hear the voice of God.
Now is the time to receive grace.
It's time to refine me with restructuring.
It's a time when you've been pushed to the extreme by losing your job.
It's time to lay sick.
We must not miss this opportunity. It is an opportunity to meet God.
May we all be people of real change. ♣