Title: The Bigger Than the World
November 23, 2008 Sunday Sermon
Bible Verse: Hebrews 11:38
Sermon Title: The Bigger Than the World
“The world is not worthy of such a man. They wandered in the wilderness and in the mountains, in the dark caves and in the crypts” (KJV). “The world is not a place to accept such people. So they wandered through the wilderness and the mountains and caves” (Hebrews 11:38).
<By faith>
One of the most common phrases we Christians use is “by faith”. Although this is a biblical term that appears frequently in the book of Hebrews (chapter 11), we can find that it is used in a wrong way in our lives. We often use the word ‘by faith’ when we recklessly challenge ‘what seems impossible’. However, this is a very misused term. That's not what "by faith" really meant.
What does “by faith” really mean? As I understand it, “by faith” is not a vague stubbornness or an arrogant will. So it needs to be changed to something different terminology. For example, it would be good to change to “by seeing” or “by hearing” “by feeling” and “by knowing” rather than “by faith.” Or, it would have to be refined a little more and modified into the term “by the belief in seeing (hearing, feeling, knowing)”.
"Paul's Thoughts"
To put it simply, the dimension of faith that Paul understood is “seeing the invisible world.” “Faith is the foundation of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). In other words, the root of the visible world is the 'world of faith', and that world of faith is, in a word, the invisible world. And since such an invisible ‘world of faith’ enters the visible world of reality and produces something great, the world we should pay attention to is the invisible world, not the visible world. When we say “by faith”, we are “by faith” in seeing (hearing, feeling, knowing) the “invisible world.”
In the book of Hebrews (chapter 11), Paul tells the story of men who lived courageously “by faith in the spring.” A few people give specific examples. △ Abel who offered a more fertile sacrifice than Cain; △ Enoch moved to heaven without seeing death; △ Noah, who climbed the mountain to build a boat despite the good weather; △ Abraham, who did not know where he was going, but left his hometown following God’s guidance. △ Sarah gave birth to a child when she was 100 years old.
"The world we live in"
But what about the world we live in? How do people live in the real world we live in? Are you living with faith in that spring while looking at the ‘invisible world’? Not at all. In the past and now, people in the real world are obsessed with ‘things that are visible’. △Visible house, △Visible money, △Visible company performance, △Visible school grades, △Visible honor, △Visible political advancement, △Visible love, △Visible church. Building, △visible number of church members, △visible church offering.
But the people of God are not like that. A person of God is a person who clearly knows the preciousness of the invisible world and lives according to the calling of that noble world. The people of the world and the view of life itself are different. The values are completely different. That is a person who lives by faith.
<Evaluation of life in the world>
These days, as the US economy faces a crisis situation, there has been a stir in the general media. When stock prices fall, the economy dies, the unemployment rises, consumption shrinks, economic crisis ... Of course, as I am a person living in the real world, I am somewhat concerned, but honestly, I am not worried about it. Because this is a situation that has been anticipated for a long time and “is to come”.
What is the 'modern civilization' that mankind has formed as a framework for present life? What is the core spirit (?) of modern civilization? It was just an extreme obsession with the 'visible world'. Extreme attachment to the 'visible world' can never be permanent, nor will it last. It will be over soon.
<End of sermon>
Now, let's wrap up the sermon. I took the title of today's sermon "The Greater Than the World".
What kind of life do people of God lead? That is, in a word, a person bigger than the 'world'. The word 'world' can be replaced with another word here. The people of God are more than ‘family’, more than ‘workplace’, more than ‘church’, more than ‘nation’, more than ‘country’, more than ‘district’… … It's a bigger person.
If we end our lives clinging to the world we see in the world (family, workplace, church, nation, nation, and district), we will not become people of God. Because the people of God are bigger people who can live in the “invisible world”
A person of God is a person who can live freely, freeing himself from the world (family, workplace, church, nation, country, and district) and communing with God anytime, anywhere. Although he “wanders through the wilderness and mountains and caves” (Hebrews 11:38, Paul) “because there is no place in the world to lay his head” (Jesus), the eternal breath of God lives in his heart and mind, It is a person who exists.
Let me pray for a moment.