Title: Someone God Remembers
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bsp; Acts 10:1-8
bsp; Today's text contains the content of a Roman soldier named Cornelius receiving God's grace. Cornelius was a Roman centurion stationed in Caesarea, where the Jewish governorship was located. You remembered your beliefs and deeds. The Word of God does not refer to the memory of God. It means that you have acknowledged your faith. It means that you are happy to receive that dedication and have decided to give it a blessing.
bsp; So, Cornelius received God's special love, and as a Gentile, he was the first to receive the Holy Spirit and to be baptized by Peter to become the first Christian. Perhaps his life was thrilling and rich, and he was blessed with a prosperous child. I believe that if God, the source of blessing, remembered his devotion and received it with pleasure, he would surely have allowed him to enjoy the blessings of the flesh along with the blessings of the Spirit. What did you remember?
ご纛?You remembered his piety.
The first verse that introduces Cornelius in the text is, “He was devout and feared God with all his house” (verse 2). The word ‘devotional’ simply means ‘to have deep faith’. Religion is faith that confesses that you are God and kneels before God.
bsp; Dear brothers and sisters, please have faith in godliness. Even if I forgot all my faith and lived with people in the world, I hope you will restore your godliness even when you come to church. Please restore your godliness even during worship. Godliness--It is faith that truly kneels before God. Even if you forgot the Word and lived a profane life because of your busy life in the world, I hope you will restore your godliness, at least in worship. Please repent with a sincere heart and worship with all your heart. If you live without faith in the world, and even come to worship in a hurry, sing hymns and pray while thinking about other things, and then listen to the word indifferently, where will you restore your godliness and faith? Faith grows only when there is godliness. Faith grows only when you confess that you are God before God and have godliness on your knees.
bsp; Cornelius was a Roman soldier, but he was a pious man. In the words of Acts 10:24, the atmosphere and scene of Peter's house when he was invited to Cornelius' house are described.
“The next day, Peter went into Caesarea, and Cornelius gathered his family and close friends and waited.”
I gathered 'family and close friends' and waited. Cornelius was not ashamed to believe in Jesus. Rather proud of it. I was convinced that this is the way of salvation that I must recommend to my close friends. If not, would you have gathered “family members and close relatives” and waited for a fisherman from a controlled country to come? But, how much more clearly would he have planted the gospel in his family members?
bsp; The faith of gathering family members, relatives, and friends and longing for God's grace, that is Cornelius' faith, that is, the faith of godliness. God valued Cornelius' piety. That is why he was specially remembered and blessed.
ご纛?You remembered his prayers and alms.
In the second verse introducing Cornelius he said: “He gave many alms to the people and prayed to God all the time” (verse 2), and when an angel of God appeared in a vision and spoke, he said, “Your prayers and alms have come up before God for a remembrance” (verse 4).
bsp; Although Cornelius was a Roman soldier with a rough life, he was a man of prayer. He was a man who focused his energy on his spiritual life enough to see God's mysterious visions. Not only that, but in real life, he was a person who took care of his neighbors and worked hard for relief. I had a very healthy faith in loving God and loving my neighbor.
bsp; Faith that is practiced along with faith in prayer, this is called true spirituality. In short, Cornelius was a man of deep spirituality. Usually, when we think of spirituality, we think only of prayer. It is said that praying diligently has deep spirituality. Of course, the first spirituality is prayer. But truly deep spirituality requires prayer and the practice of love. ‘Prayer and almsgiving’ are the two pillars of spirituality.
bsp; I pray that you will give the faith of deep spirituality to our Antioch believers. I pray that we, Antioch believers, will receive abundant material blessings with the faith of fervent prayer and become people of greater blessings that we can give and share.
bsp; Why are people unsatisfied, empty, and unhappy with what they have? It is because they are driven by endless desires. If you keep trying to satisfy your desires, you will end up unsatisfied, only deepening the void. Rather, a truly blessed person is a person who lives a life of mission. A life of plucking out desires that grow like weeds in our daily lives, seeking the will of the Lord, and giving ourselves to the will--that is the life of mission. There is no void in such a life. There are fruits. Joy, gratitude, contentment, and abundance are produced as fruit. May this life be yours.
bsp; Cornelius lived a life of sharing with prayer. So God remembered him. “He was devout and feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the people, and prayed always to God.” Prayer is the representative of the life of faith, and giving is the representative of practice. I had personal spiritual fellowship with God every day enough to see a vision. I prayed with deep spirituality. Although he was a Gentile, the fullness of the Holy Spirit was already working in him. Not only that, he was a 'living believer' who practiced true spirituality, love. Cornelius was not a man who said Lord, Lord, with his mouth. He was a man of faith. Therefore, prayers and alms were received and remembered. And he gave the family a great blessing.
ご纛? He remembered his awe-inspiring faith.
‘Awe’ is the heart that is so holy that it feels fear and trembling in front of it. Faith must have awe. Only then will it be faith that obeys the Word, at least come to church and humbly kneel, and worship with sincerity and longing. A person who has faith in awe can never worship casually. You cannot come to church and be arrogant or arrogant. There is also a proverb that says, “If you love your wife, you bow down even when you see the stake of your in-laws. It means that you will love everything that belongs to what you love. A person who fears God has love and respect for his body, the church, and everything that happens in it.
bsp; Cornelius was a man who always knelt and prayed to God in awe of faith. After seeing his awe-inspiring faith, he decided to give him better faith, words, and grace. So he spoke to him in a vision. “Send men to Joppa and ask for Peter who is staying there.” So Cornelius immediately sent to ask for the apostle Peter in Joppa.
bsp; Cornelius sent people to Joppa, but in fact, Peter was never able to respond to the invitation with the faith and thought he had until now. Orthodox Jews tended to be very taboo from entering the houses of Gentiles. Needless to say, entering a Roman soldier's house. However, because he loved him, he decided to bless him. Through various channels, he showed him three visions and moved Peter's heart by moving his heart. So he made it impossible in reality and made Peter go to Caesarea, which is 35 km from Joppa.
bsp; But here too, we see Cornelius' awe-inspiring faith. 10:25 says, “Just as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and he fell at his feet and bowed down.” Cornelius was an officer in the occupying Roman army. However, the fact that Peter, who is a fisherman from a ruled nation, said to ‘prostrate himself at his feet’ shows his faith in fear of God. How could you bow down to the human Peter? It was because of his fearful faith in God who sent Peter. Because he was a man of God, he knelt before him in faith in the fear of God. What a pure and beautiful faith.
bsp; Faith that is faithful in God's work--that's what people of true faith look like. We see this belief in Cornelius today. Cornelius, who knelt down and worshiped Peter, really, how he could do that, what a beautiful faith, and a beautiful person. It is because he sees such awe-inspiring faith. God blesses such a fearful person. I pray that all of you will receive God's blessing through such awe-inspiring faith.
ご纛? You remembered Cornelius. Although he was a Gentile and a soldier, he had his piety, spirituality, and faith in awe. Piety, spirituality, and awe are all similar words, so it is difficult to remember them well. It can be said that it is a faith that worships, a faith that works, and a faith that serves.
bsp; Antioch saints, I bless you to become true Christians who do not lose their purity, spirituality, service and passion. Therefore, I pray that you will become blessed and beautiful saints who will receive greater blessings from God, the source of blessing, by remembering that beautiful and pure faith, remembering your faithful devotion, and giving you blessings with joy. do.