Title: Someone Who Lived a Beautiful Life
Contents
Psalm 38 is a psalm written by David during his sufferings.
When David was going through great suffering, many people thought that David was over. That is why Psalm 38:11 appealed to my loved ones and my friends to keep away from my wounds and from my relatives.
We've been through a lot this year.
We had to suffer from countless people who oppressed, ridiculed and biased us all over. It was almost impossible to breathe properly.
There were far more people trying to surround us and knock us down than there were to help us. Nevertheless, God has comforted us and has given us patience to endure.
And he made us experience the ultimate victory.
But Joseph suffered more than we do.
During this time, I want to hear the last Sunday worship service in 2009 with the words “a person who lived a beautiful life” centering on Joseph, a true leader and a person who wants to imitate.
1, The life of Joseph who lived a beautiful life
Joseph has had dreams since he was a child. He believed that the origin of the dream came from God and held onto it and lived. I lived my life hoping only for that dream, and I didn't care about the hardships or hardships that came from that dream. He finally made his dream come true. He has had a truly successful life.
Thousands of people have their own dreams, but few achieve them. Most of the time, it's because they don't want to pay the price for that dream. It's easy to dream, but it's hard to pay the price to make your dreams come true.
So, as a rule, the beautiful dreams given end up as delusions.
However, Joseph did not give up on his childhood dream and made it a reality by challenging himself. A life that has made a dream out of one's own life is a wonderful life. Such a person can be proud that he lived well.
However, many people turn into arrogant people when they achieve their dreams.
Naturally. It was because he had to go through a lot of hardships and adversity to achieve that dream. But the great thing about Joseph is that he was convinced that it was God who made his dream come true, and that he made the dream come true for the sake of his redemptive history. That is why I was able to forgive my brothers who sold them for twenty silver without hesitation at the meeting after becoming prime minister.
Most people maintain their faith during hardships, but when they succeed, they become lazy or give up on their faith altogether. The reason is that daily life is too busy to follow successful people.
However, Joseph did not neglect his religious life even though he was in a position where he could not keep up his mind as Prime Minister of Egypt. Joseph valued the religious life as precious as life. Daniel did too.
He also became prime minister during the reign of King Darius, but he did not give up the habit of praying three times a day on his face to God. Maintaining this custom meant that he valued his faith in God more than the position of prime minister granted him. That's right. Our talents, our popularity, our fame, our power, these things make us happy.
But one day they will disappear from our side. The time will surely come when you will go away However, it is the God we depend on that will never leave us forever. We must respect that God. The most beautiful thing about Joseph's life is that he remained consistent in his faith, even at the height of his success.
So, even when we die, we boldly sing the hymn of faith.
“I will die, but God will visit you and bring you out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” And Joseph said to the children of Israel, “God will surely visit you, and you He said, ‘I will carry my skull up here.”
What do you mean? Joseph said that Egypt was the site of his career and fame, but he was not attached to it. He only hoped for Canaan, the promised land of God.
Joseph's old age was a beautiful life indeed.
Verse 23 says, “Joseph lived one hundred and ten years, and he saw the third generation of the children of Ephraim, and the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up by Joseph.
Joseph raised two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh's grandchildren. He was rich in material, fame, and power.
I'm old and don't want to take care of my children if I don't have money.
When you are young, you live well, but when you are old, you are miserable. Even if you suffer when you are young, when you are old, you must be blessed to have a truly blessed life.
In that sense, Joseph is a blessed life. Although he is one hundred and ten years old, he does not have dementia.
Clearly, before their sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, they bless, exhort, and testify before passing away. What a blessed life! I wish you a life like this.
2, Joseph Seeing a Better World
In verse 24, Joseph said to his brother, “I am dying, but God has counseled you and brought you out of this land.
God has been gracious to me. That is why I have invited you here on this earth and made it a cornerstone for your prosperity. All this was by the grace of God. I am now on my way back to all my life. However, I believe that the God who has been gracious to me will also grant unchanging grace to you.
So I die, but God counsels you---
The word admonishment is the word picard, which means “to look after”.
God will take care of you as He has taken care of me.
I was sold here to my brothers for twenty pieces of silver. But God worked and made me the prime minister in a foreign land in Egypt. What a wonderful grace of God! This God will surely counsel you to achieve His glory.
So, don't be discouraged if I die! Rely on God more actively than me! comforted him. That's right. We have spent this year in peace by the grace of the Lord. For this alone, we should be thankful.
We have several areas of insecurity. But with God's help, we win.
The reason is that God has called us to be children.
This faith is Joseph's faith, and it must be ours.
In verse 24, Joseph said to his brother, "I am dying, but God will visit you and bring you out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
That's right. God's grace never rests on one Joseph.
He foresaw in faith that grace would continue to flow down to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God's magnificent grace does not stop only with one brave man named Joseph, but also flows down like a stream of water to his descendants. Its flow reaches the great ocean of redemption history, and it continues until Shincheonji, the kingdom of God, is formed.
Then, Joseph is only one piece of God's puzzle in the broad framework of God's history of redemption. Joseph saw this clearly.
When the puzzle is in one piece, you don't really know what it's for. But just as the pieces come together to form a beautiful figure, so is our lifetime. Then, our moments of prosperity or failure are also just a process as a tool to complete God's beautiful puzzle.
Egypt was a happy world for Joseph.
It was the place that made Joseph famous, and in a word, it was the site that made him succeed. But that place is just Egypt = the world.
It's just one point on the pilgrimage route you'll have to take someday. So Joseph makes a will to move his skull to the promised land of God.
You can temporarily build a tomb to be welcomed in Egypt.
He could have made his tomb as gigantic as the Egyptian pyramids.
However, such tombs were made by Gentiles with different beliefs in the afterlife, and I could not help but regard them as a foolish act for Joseph who was new to God.
He wanted to bury even his skull in the land of Canaan, which was stained with unpleasant memories when he thought about it, where he had to be sold to his brothers for twenty pieces of silver. Because that is the promised land and the place where the Messiah will be born in the future.
Dear saints,
That's right. This world is not our permanent residence.
This world is a place where God's people make a brief pilgrimage.
Nevertheless, it is foolish to live in the illusion that this world is an eternal place. We must never forget our current address.
Dear saints,
We are on the last Sunday of 2009.
I think we had our first worship service yesterday, but time has already made us go through 360 days. It made us disappear into the other side of the memory called the past. There will come a time when, like Joseph, we will one day face the last moments of our lives.
Today could be a rehearsal for that moment.
Dear saints,
Joseph sang victory at the moment of death.
It instructs us through wills testifying before sons and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He confesses that his life was not in vain, but a beautiful life that benefited many people.
It cannot but be an event that shows how effective the influence of a person who feared God was.
Joseph introduces the God he relied on to receive blessings to his descendants, and teaches them to depend on that God.
He has always believed that God will treat his descendants with the same sincerity as he faithfully worked toward him.
Because He is a faithful God.
If so, we also have to make a decision at this point.
The life that has passed is irreversible.
But, by the grace of God, a new day is granted to us.
Dear saints,
There seems to be a movement to write wills these days.
People instinctively feel sober when they think of the word death, even after chattering and chattering.
This is the same for everyone.
So, it is said that at some point, when you write a will or write your own epitaph, you become serious.
It illuminates my life once again and makes me reflect on it.
And now I think about whether my life is worth it.
No matter what kind of life a person lives, the end must be moving.
So, living well is important, but dying well is even more important.
In that sense, the last scene of Joseph gives us a great example.
The final moments when the whole family sits around to bless each one of them, leave a holy will, and hope to see you again in heaven can be such a beautiful scene.
In the face of death, great wealth cannot be a boast.
A great position is nothing to be proud of.
So is popularity.
At that moment, the most important thing is how you stand before Almighty God.
The Lord who sent me into the world and allowed me to live my whole life, there will be nothing but a poor heart to stand naked before the Lord.
We testify to the children who remain with this hope of what is most important on this earth.
And I earnestly ask you to live along that path.
And we testify of the blessings we received through God's grace, and we testify that we will return to this God who sent them. What a beautiful scene this is.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will have a beautiful life like Joseph.