Title: The Source of True Leadership
Galatians (18) The source of true leadership (Galatians 4:1-7)
< The blessing of carrying the cross >
A saved believer must have a thorough awareness of being the Son of God. In the text, the Apostle Paul describes the law as ‘guardians and stewards’. Until a certain period of time, children of God are taught and learned as slaves by guardians and stewards of the law. However, when you grow up to a certain extent, you will inherit as a child of God. For example, until Wang Geon grows up, he learns science and martial arts from his master, but when he grows up, he manages the master under his command.
The time has come to fulfill this work, when Jesus was born under the law and received the right to be a son to pay the penalty for their sins (verses 4-5). Therefore, believers should no longer be under the law, but We must live with the conviction that we are children (verses 6-7). How did those under the law get the sonship? By dying on the cross, Jesus made it possible to be set free from the “curse of the law.” Therefore, we must not forget one attempt at the grace of the cross and go further and practice the life of bearing the cross.
What kind of life does the cross-bearing life really mean? A life that prioritizes self-change. There are people who do not realize what they are like in life and think, “I wish that person changed like this.” But before you can think like that, you must first try to change yourself.
Hearing the voice of God, he changed his prayer. "Lord! Change me.” Since then, the ministry has been overflowing with grace. The more I tried to change the members of the church, the more painful it was, but when I tried to kill myself, I realized that the problem was in me, and I was able to move forward anew. If you try to change others without changing yourself, no matter how much you fast, God will not answer such prayers. The truth of the cross is that there is only one way to die. A prayer to kill oneself is a prayer to gain the world.
< The source of true leadership >
Ultimately, the greatest goal of the saints is to practice the life of the cross. Even while living in the church, if you have this kind of faith in the cross, problems will not arise. Some people say they are doing God's work, making the church difficult. But God's work is the work of the dead. What he does without dying is his work, not God's. If there are many people doing their work in the church, it can only be noisy. That is why Jesus told us to take up our cross and follow Him.
The day before his death on the cross, Jesus taught the truth of the cross through the sacrament meeting. What is the message of the sacrament? It means to take up the cross and strive to share in the Lord. After all, the core content of the truth of the cross, the life of the cross, and the spirituality of the cross is ultimately sharing. If you try to eat alone, your physical properties develop, but if you try to share, your spirituality develops. Today's social problem lies in becoming materialized rather than spiritualized.
God wants us to gladly give up thinking and happily practice sharing. The spirituality of Christianity even makes you feel like giving up on privatization. Even the material I have is ultimately the Lord's, so I have to use it as the Lord wants me to. Usually the poor live in debt and the rich live by lending, but in Christianity, on the contrary, what they have is debt. If what you have belongs to God, you are the one who wants God to give you, and if you reject that will, you will be judged. After all, a great life begins when you have the spirituality of the cross.