Title: So You Must Serve God
Contents
1. Words that begin
When faced with an unbearable reality, it is necessary to remember the good times of the past.
Memories of past successes not only protect you from the setbacks of today's failures, but also inspire confidence that you can succeed in the future. Memories of happy times in the past give us hope and confidence that we can be happy in the future despite today's misfortunes.
However, many people mistake today's failures and misfortunes as if they were everything in their lives, creating greater misfortunes for themselves, or even throwing away their only life.
The way to become a saint who knows how to face riches and lows is to remember God's unchanging love yesterday, today and tomorrow.
2. Serve God Only
As Moses' successor, Joshua, who led Israel in the war to conquer Canaan, gathered all the officials and all the people in Shechem and preached the word of God.
First, their ancestors worshiped other gods beyond the river, but they brought Abraham out of the river so that they believed in God only and prospered.
Second, the descendants of Joseph, who entered Egypt by the grace of God, worshiped all the gods of Egypt and fell into slavery in Egypt. It is said that he performed miracles to save Israel and bury the Egyptian army.
Third, although he did not farm or weave on his journey through the wilderness, he guided him without any lack.
Fourth, He helped us to win the war of conquest of Canaan.
Therefore, we must now fear Jehovah God and serve Him with sincerity and truth.
If it is reverence, sincerity, and a sincere heart, it does not mean that we are allowed to serve the gods our ancestors worshiped beyond the river and in Egypt, and also serve God. It means to get rid of all those evil spirits that are not absolutes, and to serve only the one and only absolute God.
Joshua did not give him any room,
“If serving Jehovah doesn’t seem good to you, it doesn’t matter what race or family it is, but choose the one you will serve today, remembering God’s wonderful grace and blessings.”
Through these words, we realize another wonderful grace.
In other words, God did not create human beings as impersonal machines serving the absolute God, but as personal beings with the freedom to choose to serve God or to serve other gods.
The God who saved us, the God we believe in, cannot be chosen along with other things.
It is not something that can be served along with other things. God, the Creator of all things, please believe that the God who saves us and continues to love us is the one and only Absolute One.
We must not argue with the salvation grace of God, the Absolute God, accomplished in Christ, on the level of mere finite and relative human conscience, man-made religious doctrine, or ethics and morality.
Only Jehovah God is absolute.
Only this God can save mankind, give us abundant grace and blessings, and allow us to go beyond death and enjoy eternal life.
But the sad thing is that even among the members of the church who claim to believe in God, they are also worshiping idols without realizing it.
One day when I was attending church in elementary school, a bunch of local aunts gathered in a church-going house and chatted.
When I went there, they were doing Byeonggut. in my young heart
I had fun watching it while saying, “I think I can do good even if I go to church,” but I got strangely upset and came out. But unless you believe, the old woman looked at the lady next to her and said, "You can't do that while believing in the school!" was heard.
In a certain Kwonsa-nim's family, the daughter who believed in him stopped suffering from a mischief, and eventually performed Naerim-gut and became a shaman and made a name for himself.
I can't help but feel sorry for how he did it because he believed and served God.
However, it is said that the woman was an old man who believed in Buddhism all her life and then repented and believed in the Lord.
Maybe it's because I'm satisfied with receiving a lot of grace, but I keep talking and asking questions, but at the end of every word I say, "Pastor Monk, Pastor Monk, ... … ” He said.
How many other idolatry is hidden among the church members?
Not to mention the ordinary people who believed in God, and seeing the work of the public officials who believed, can it be said that they believed in and served wealth and power more than God? It's so common, don't you even think about idolizing yourself to serve yourself more than God? If you are in a bad mood, you do not do the Lord's work, if you are upset, you do not worship at all, and if you do not go according to your will, you can often see church members who abandon God.
The pastor, who praised the retired pastors at this banquet, was surprised that he had been baptized twice.
Like Joshua, let us all confess, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
I hope you will completely eliminate all forms of idolatry, deny yourself according to the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and trust and serve only Jehovah God. If we do, we and our families will do great things like Joshua did.
3. The People's Determination and Joshua's Warning
The Israelites, who heard God's word through Joshua, replied that they would never forsake Jehovah and serve other gods. As Joshua preached, he experienced the Exodus from Egypt by God's amazing grace, experienced great miracles on the wilderness journey, and saw the enemies being driven away.
Therefore, they also want to serve their God. That's a really good confession.
However, like Maeyang, confessing only the heart and thoughts is meaningless.
This is especially true in the world of faith that believes in the Absolute God who is in charge of life and death.
Confessions that do not lead to actions, and confessions that are only words that do not appear in life, are meaningless to God.
So, Joshua issued a warning to the confessed people.
“You cannot serve the LORD, because he is a holy God and a jealous God, and he will not forgive your transgressions and sins.”
Confession of serving only God is not the problem, but that the act of serving God must be revealed in everything.
When you study, you have to serve God, when you wash the dishes, you have to serve God, and when you run a large corporation, you have to serve God.
We should think about what kind of attitude we should take in everything we do to serve a holy God, that is, a great and holy God, and we have to do it that way.
God, who is absolute, does not accept all actions and actions of his beloved children in Satan's way, in the manner of trespassing and sinful attitude.
God is jealous of the children who live in the attitude of serving all kinds of evil spirits, who are Satan's minions.
If you forsake God and serve foreign gods, even after you give them blessings, they will turn around and get angry and destroy you.
Hearing this warning, the Israelites reassured themselves, “We will certainly serve the Lord.” Joshua is also
“You said, ‘You will choose the Lord and serve him,’ so you yourself became witnesses.” the people
When he said, “We are witnesses,” Joshua said,
“Now, put away the foreign gods that are among you, and turn your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.” again the people
“We will serve the LORD our God, and we will heed his voice,” he affirmed.
4. Conclusion
We all believed in the Lord and became children of God who were saved from Satan's sin, death, and destruction, and have lived by God's grace until this day.
Therefore, we must now fear only God, serve only God with sincerity and truth, and obey God's Word.
We earnestly pray that all of us will get rid of all idolatry, including idolatry, which is the path of woe and destruction, and that we will enjoy new grace, abundant blessings, and eternal life every day by serving only God and obeying His Word.
(Poongseong Methodist Church. Book: Complete Commentary on 27 New Testament Books/ Interpretation of Difficult Scriptures I, II/ Salvation Before Jesus Came/Paul’s Understanding of Man/ Prosperity Prayer/ Seasonal Sermonbooks/ Sermonbook 18. -3051)