Title: Second half of life
Everyone who has will receive and have an abundance, but from everyone who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.
I really like soccer during exercise.
When I was in middle school, I played soccer betting directly with the local children, and then suffered an injury for a while. However, in soccer matches, the spectators are more excited than the players who play in person. All of them talk like people who kick the ball better than football players. When a player makes a mistake, he says, 'That's it, that' and criticizes the player. What makes football so interesting to everyone is because of its dynamism. This is because it is an exercise that requires you to run for 90 minutes without paying a single glance.
It's so strenuous, you run for 45 minutes, rest for 15 minutes, then run again.
So the soccer match is divided into the first half and the second half.
That rest period is called half-time.
1. You can compare life to a soccer game played on a large lawn soccer field.
It means that life is all about running and doing your best for the set 90 minutes. If an average of one lifetime is 80 years old, then the first half can be compared to 40 years old. This is an issue that people in their 40s should especially consider.
Up to the age of 40, it can be compared to the first half of the race, where you can only look ahead.
Until the age of 40, I have been running all my passion towards the goal of my self.
It's been years since I set a goal and worked hard to achieve it. So, maybe there are some who are immersed in a sense of victory by scoring a few goals in the first half of their lives. Obviously there will be some who are ahead of others. If you go to alumni gatherings, there will be people who have been promoted faster than their peers and have gained honor.
On the other hand, there are some people who have already saved up some money in their 40s.
Such people must be the victors in the first half of their lives. If the first half of your life was aimed at and, you should know that the second half remains. Some of you may have reached halftime ahead of the second half. Halftime is a time to take a break and look back on the first half. During halftime, you get pointed out by coaches and managers, and you come up with new strategies. All will be reflections to win the second half. I think today's words are very important to those who are approaching the second half of their lives.
In fact, no matter how well you play in the first half, if you fail in the second half, it's enough.
In that respect, the second half is even more important. Even if you score a few goals in the first half, if you don't keep them in the second half, you have no choice but to lose. Instead, even if you lose in the first half, you can turn it around if you make up for it in the second half. Therefore, the second half is more important. Don't be complacent about winning the first half of your life.
However, when I watch soccer games, I often see that if I become arrogant or complace with a sense of victory, I will not be able to win in the second half. So, in a sense, the second half of life is where you should run better. Because even if you fail in the first half of your life, you can make up for it in the second half.
In a sense, the comeback in the second half is even more dramatic.
Throughout my life, I've seen a lot of people failing to defend their first half victory and failing in the second half. On the other hand, we saw people who failed miserably in the first half but turned them around in the second half. It teaches us an even greater lesson, so today we have to think about the second half of our lives. There are many people in the Bible who failed in the second half. The representative figures are Solomon, the priest Eli, and King Saul. All of these guys played well in the first half. In the case of Solomon, when he was young, he was the king of wisdom. However, looking back later, my eyes were darkened by the luxurious life, and many foreign women were drawn into court ladies, and later the shrines of many foreign gods entered the city of Jerusalem. Eventually, the country was divided into two parts.
How miserable is this?
So I have to play well in the second half of my life.
2. We must understand the meaning of today's words well in the second half of our lives.
It is often said that at the age of 40, it is said that there is no chance (訝띷깙). A person who has not yet been able to stand up to this age is considered to be a little short. You have to make up your mind already in your 20s.
If not, it is only a case of underdeveloped mental age or a premature infant.
I heard someone say this.
It was said that a person who does not know that his wife is precious at the age of 40 and does not fear his wife at the age of 50 is an immature person.
In a way, it seems that way. I'm sorry, but no matter how loudly shouting the men here, if they are over 50 and over 60, it's easy to become insignificant beings.
By this age already, grandmothers are still useful, but grandfathers have nowhere to go. That is why it is easy to go to the park and gather at the stone wall at the foot of Namsan Mountain to be exposed to the sun.
If you have lived about 40 in your life, it means that you have gone through all the rough things in the first half of your life. Now that you are over 40, the second half passes in the blink of an eye.
It is years of chasing when a timeout will occur.
These days, I feel that the passage of time is too fast. It has been 18 years since I came to Sangdo Church, and now it is 19 years.
When I was appointed to this church, when I went to the market, I called 'uncle'. Then, all of a sudden, I said 'father', went through 'old man', and these days, 'grandfather'. The years have passed unjustly like the saying in a popular song, 'Give me back my youth!
Even the elders said every time they prayed, but these days it has become . In the near future, it will be called Noh (??. "Don't laugh!" You don't think so?
Everyone should play well in the second half of life. There will be some who are close to the time-out that is not too far left in the second half. That is why we need to listen to these words even more.
It is very difficult to keep the success achieved in the first half of life.
If we do not have faith, then there are many people who talk about the crisis in their 40s. If you are over the age of 40, you are more tempted to fall into a sense of emptiness if you do not have faith. What is the reward of my life that I have been running through so much suffering? What did you get?
And is it really the right life to run like this without knowing how to rest? It's easy to get lost in meetings. Therefore, it is easy to fall into the path of pursuit of pleasure at this time. You may have earned something, you must have reached a certain level of social status, and since you have had some spare time in life, it is a time when it is easy to fall into doubts about and rather than achievement and success.
So, how can you defend yourself to win this second half?
It consists in correctly understanding the meaning of today's Word.
3. We must have a spiritual understanding of the talents given to us.
First, what is a talent? We will understand this correctly.
There are many people who often think of talent as {one's talent}.
In other words, there are many people who know that they have , or . However, if we look carefully at today's text, verse 14 says, "It is like calling his servants and entrusting them with 'one's possessions'...".
It was said that the talent belongs to the master.
He said that he entrusted each of his masters with his servants.
What are talents? This is not the word.
So what do I have now? is it knowledge? it's not mine
what do i have now?
matter? money? health? I mean, this isn't mine. Why do you say it's not mine? If you do, you are saying that you do not know the owner properly. Nothing is mine in this world.
There is only one God, the owner of all things in this universe.
We are all living with the things of God. My children are not mine. It is just a gift entrusted to us.
But people don't know this.
They are mistaken as if they were their own.
So the money I earned! I don't know who I'm going to when I die, so I'm enjoying it while saying I'm going to play while I'm young. Power was also given by God, but he wields it as his possessions when he possesses it.
You must realize that the talents given to you are not mine, but belong to the master.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of managing it to the liking of its owner.
Here is a misconception that can be made by successful people in the first half of life.
It is easy to think of it as success achieved through one's own efforts and one's own abilities.
In most cases, I think so. So there is no sense of ownership.
Also, even if they are conscious of their master, they become like a person who has one talent due to prejudice.
Maybe this is us Christians today. There are many cases where the owner is known to be a very stubborn person.
What does hardened person mean? It is such a ritual to be only for yourself without knowing how to serve your servants. So the owner says that he only asks for it.
Even these days, if you look at people who believe as if they had received one talent, they say that they are living a religious life, but they do not show any gratitude for their master at all. There are many people who go to church reluctantly and worship, but there is no joy, no emotion, and even more so, there are many people who do not know how to be thankful.
Such people are stingy in the life of giving. He doesn't pay attention to even a few hundred or a few thousandths of what he does for his son-in-law or his sons and daughters. Such was the consciousness of the one who received one talent.
There was nothing to be thankful for for the owner.
You can tell from the words, "I brought yours back, take them back." He always thought that the master was the only one who knew him.
This kind of thinking is your own opinion of yourself.
So I got a rebuke from the owner. If you really thought of me like that, I would rather leave it in the bank and pay interest as you said.
Even today, in order to win in the second half of life, we must first have the right awareness of the owner. And there must be a sense of responsibility to manage the owner's property immediately. So, if the first half of your life is a time of achievement and success until you reach your 40s, the second half of your life means that you will have to live the years of pursuing wa.
What is true value?
What is the meaning of living like this? It means that you should think deeply about it in the second half of your life.
Those who knew this immediately went out and buried it.
I mean, you made an effort. That means no time wasted. He did not regard his time, health, wealth, or money as his own, and did his best for the enjoyment of his master. It means that he lived with a sense of mission toward his master.
At that time, the praise was given the same regardless of how much or how little. "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful over a few things, enter into the joy of your master."
How can a servant dare to participate in his master's delightful feast? However, this is the gift of grace to those who have been faithful.
If you could take good care of your master's things for the rest of your life in a sinful world, and then be able to participate in the master's joy, what more could you wish for?
To all the saints who are facing the second half of their lives today!
And all the saints who are already playing in the second half!
We must do our best to run until the whistle of time-out blows in the stadium of our lives, which is not far away. So even if the first half failed, I sincerely hope that all the winners will decorate the second half beautifully. ??