Title: The Practical Sovereignty of Mission
Contents
title; The Practical Sovereignty of Mission (Acts 4:23-31)
The church in Asia Minor is closed. And it has been a long time since the European Church has entered the path of decline. How can the Church of the Living God be like this? If God lives, the gospel of Christ lives, and the Holy Spirit is with those who believe, how is the church that should save the world collapsing? This is because the church does not have the sovereign will to actually use God's power and authority. How, then, can real sovereignty become a living church?
1. We must know and believe in God, who is the Sovereign of history.
We must acknowledge the sovereign will of God who creates and controls the heavens and the earth. We must know God's sovereign will to overcome the power of darkness and the power of evil that has taken away God's belongings and to find souls again and establish the kingdom of heaven, and we must possess the same will as God's children.
All of God's grace, power, and authority are accomplished through faith in God. It does not originate from our conditions, nor is it created by our abilities. Fallen human beings have neither the ability, nor the wisdom, nor the will to do so. All impossible conditions are overcome by the grace that is bestowed in Christ Jesus, the kingdom of heaven is built by God's salvation, and we become holy saints, powerful children of God, and powerful ministers of the gospel.
Through the many prophets of the Old Testament, God revealed and promised His plan and will to save mankind from sin and death. , the law and power of the Holy Spirit to fully enjoy His grace through His Resurrection became a guarantee to those who believed. To set all peoples free from sin, to raise souls from the dead, to enjoy the abundant life in the kingdom of heaven, to give them the status of children, to exercise their dignified legal rights by the authority of children, God the Holy Spirit is with us to allow us to follow the path of Jesus and to work as much as we want. We must understand this fact and accept it by faith.
2. Practical missionary sovereignty must be alive.
However, no matter how much we understand and believe in the work of salvation of the Triune God, that is not the end. That wonderful grace, power, and authority must live in the believer. That is, it must be a practical ability. In order to do that, all the contents of the salvation of the Triune God must first be accomplished in the believer. You must be saved from yourself. My problem must be solved by the grace of Christ. My problem is that I have to be saved by the salvation of the savior. Then, to the extent that Christ lived and worked in me and worked out salvation in me, it would appear outwardly through me.
Even if you know the salvation of the Triune God only in the literal sense of the Bible, understand it only through doctrinal theories, and have extensive theological knowledge, if the content is not knowledge that lives and works in you with practical power, that knowledge is dead knowledge. only to Only those with living practical knowledge can be used by God. God's sovereign will and missionary will to save all peoples is manifested in history as much as that faith is actually believed and experienced in him. In other words, God's sovereign missionary will is realized in the whole world through those who have the living faith that God can work with all authority in heaven and on earth.
In order for this practical sovereignty to become a living worker, you must experience the grace of the grace of the blood of Christ always working in you through the Word every day and more deeply. There must be no lack of prayer of faith. We must not commit the sin of trusting the Lord with absolute faith and ceasing to pray. We must pray in faith until God's saving grace is full daily.
As in the text, in order to restore real sovereignty in a situation where the evangelist is blocked with the threat of murder, we must have compassion for those who persecute us, rather than fear of death, and have the will to love and save them. To that end, today, the church must unite its hearts to know and pray to God, who is the great Lord of heaven and earth, so that it can gain boldness with greater grace and exercise its real sovereignty.
If our faith is thwarted and the work of God is thwarted, it is our responsibility. If we know that the Lord wants to accomplish everything and work in us as the Holy Spirit, how can we stop it! Those who believe in and depend on God the Holy Spirit who have come in us are always living the real sovereignty of missions.