Title: Saints who experience grace
Contents
Title: Saints who experience grace
Bible: Matthew 8:23-27
Starting Point of the Word>>
Today, we would like to share the sermon with the title of “Saints who experience grace” through the words of the text.
Many Christians today want to receive and experience the grace of the Lord, but on the other hand, can the grace of the Lord still happen? I see you have doubts.
At the same time, when I look at the words of the Lord's miracles recorded in the Bible, I vaguely have hope that I too can experience such grace.
Christianity can be said to be a religion of experience.
If you have faith in Jesus Christ, of course, you must have a confession of experiencing grace.
Among the hymns, there is a song called “Jesus is my savior”.
If you look at the chorus,
“This is my testimony, and this is my hymn. As long as I live, I will continually praise the Savior.”
praises.
If you look at the words of today's text, there are disciples who experienced the grace of Jesus.
To summarize the words of the text, when the Lord and His disciples were sailing on the sea in a boat, a great wave arose and hit the boat.
Jesus was sleeping under the boat, and when the disciples on the deck saw a great wave, they were greatly perplexed and terrified.
If we look at verse 25,
“Then his disciples came and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us, for we are perishing.”
and started waking Jesus up.
At this time, Jesus woke up and came to his disciples and said,
If we look at the words of verse 26,
“Jesus said to him, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Immediately he got up and rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.”
After rebuking the disciples for their lack of faith, Jesus rebuked the wind and the sea and calmed them.
Now, the disciples are standing at the crossroads of their lives, but Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith.
Do you want us to experience the grace and miracles of Jesus today?
If so, I hope that it will be a time to pray so that your faith in Jesus will become unshakeable.
In the name of the Lord, I ask that you become believers who experience the grace of the Lord by realizing the confession of faith that the words of today's text give us.
Go to Word>>
Then, what kind of faith should we possess in order to become saints who experience the grace of the Lord?
First, you must have an awake faith.
If you look at the history of the Bible, the period after the prophet Malachi is said to be an age of spiritual darkness.
It means that the history of Israel's faith was dormant for three generations from the time of the prophet Malachi until the coming of Jesus.
Sleeping faith can do nothing and see no power and grace of God.
Conversely, those who wake up and shake the Lord's heart can experience God's grace.
Looking at the words of the text, a storm struck the boat that Jesus was on.
But while Jesus was resting, the disciples were able to wake up and wake Him up.
As Jesus said, the disciples had little faith.
But they knew that the only one who could protect them was Jesus.
Let's take a look at ours.
What can we do?
What can we do with our strength when winds and waves strike our lives as in the text?
What we can do in times like these is to wake up Jesus.
Although I have little faith, I can receive the Lord's help when I wake up to the Lord and realize that only Jesus Christ can save me.
According to Luke 12:37,
“Blessed are his servants when they find their master awake.”
said,
In the words of Luke 21:36,
“Therefore, keep watch in prayer so that you may be able to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
In this way, the Lord tells us to stay awake and experience His grace.
Today, if our spirits are asleep like in the dark ages of faith in Israel, I ask in the name of the Lord that this time will be a time to pray together and wake up again.
When we wake up and possess the faith to awaken the Lord, we can experience the Lord's wonderful grace.
Second, we must have faith to draw close to Jesus.
The reason the disciples were able to awaken Jesus in the words of the text was because they were closer to Jesus than others.
Being close to Jesus means not departing from the arms of Jesus.
As saints, we must become close followers of Jesus.
When you draw near to the Lord, there is nothing to fear, nothing to worry about, nothing to be anxious about, and nothing to be afraid of.
A few days ago, an Internet article reported a scene where the bride of the ‘Catholic Order for Justice Realization’ was engaged by the police and the groom.
Catholics have a slightly different ideology than our Protestants, but anyway, they are people who do God's work according to their words.
But, what they are doing these days is amazing.
At the time of the Yongsan disaster, there are people who say “three times a day” with the middle class to oppose the Lee Myung-bak administration and the police force. I did something to block the condolences.
I wonder how much they stand right in front of God?
How close are you? I thought about it.
To have the faith to draw close to Jesus means to become more like Him.
To unite with other religions and follow their rites and to make others suffer because they love the people is to live a life completely different from the Lord.
We must become believers who are thoroughly close to Jesus.
The world may say that the church is too ignorant of the affairs of society, but the important thing is that we still pray for them even now and realize that the church is always with them in their difficult circumstances.
When we are close to the Lord, there is grace.
When I am close to the Lord, I experience that the problems in my life are solved.
In the name of the Lord, I ask that this time will be a precious time for our faith to move one step closer to the Lord.
Finally, third, we must have the faith to cry out to Jesus and pray.
Now, the disciples' cry of despair and urgency should become our prayers.
When the disciples encountered the problem of wind and waves,
“Lord, save us, for we perish,” he cried out.
Everyone, if there is a problem in our lives right now, it is that we cannot cry out.
What foolish faith would it be if the wind and waves in our lives were not crying out to the Lord but looking for something else?
Example>>
It happened when I was injured in the military and was hospitalized.
One day, a family came to the church.
As for the reason, my husband is a soldier, and he was diagnosed with liver cancer at the Seoul General Hospital and was sentenced to death, saying that he had only one week to live.
However, there is a reason why this person came to the church.
Since he was an officer, he tried to receive treatment at a social hospital instead of receiving treatment from the military.
The cancer was already in progress, but it was never cured.
So I went to the hospital and said that it could not be cured, so I started looking for folk remedies.
I went to a shaman, visited a temple, and if there was a drug or food that was good for cancer, I ate it.
Still, the disease does not get better.
Then, the officer's wife barely spoke.
“Honey, I went to church before I married you, let’s go to church one last time and pray”
My husband initially opposed it, but at the earnest request of his wife, he left his life for a week and went to church.
That church was the church in Gwangju General Hospital where I was hospitalized.
Four times a day, at dawn, in the morning, in the morning, and in the evening, I cried out and prayed with the disciples.
It's been a week since I did that.
But only a week has passed, and not a single member of the family has been found.
I was thinking in my heart that for a week, God had finally called me, but I was glad that I received the Lord before I died.
But the surprising news came.
He said that he had recovered from his illness and returned to Seoul.
One week later, an X-ray was taken, and it was clear that the cancer cells were completely gone.
When we seek and cry out to the Lord, He hears and answers our prayers, and guides our way so that we can express our gratitude.
I hope that today, like our disciples, we will cry out loud and experience the grace of the Lord.
At the end of the speech>>
I hope that the lives of all our members who worship and pray together at this time today will be wonderful and overflowing with the grace of the Lord.
To live this amazing life of saints, we must become awake saints, become saints with Jesus, and cry out for help from the Lord, experience the Lord's help, and live the life of a witness who confesses by faith. I bless you in the name of the Lord to become living saints.