Title: Those Who Believe (Mark 11:20-25)
An unusually long and boring winter has passed and a new spring has arrived. There are things that make you feel spring. It means that the spring greens sprouting in the fields and mountains, the wedding season, the spring rain pouring down, flower buds sprouting and forming on each branch, and the women's clothes make you feel spring.
With Saebom, let's also open the window of our hearts and prepare for spring. And we need to check our beliefs too. If spring comes and you don't feel it coming, then you probably have hardened feelings. If it is a tree that cannot grow even if it rains and the spring wind blows, then that tree is probably dead.
This text is one of the lessons he gave to teach us how important faith is and how great the power of faith is. Verse 22 says, “Believe in God.”
To believe has several meanings:
The first is to agree to absolute authority. Only God has absolute authority. To consent to that authority is faith. The highest authority in our country is the president. However, its authority is not absolute. There is only one absolute, and there is only one absolute authority. Accepting, following, and obeying that authority is faith.
The second is trust.
Since the IMF era, Korea's credit rating has deteriorated poorly, but international economic organizations have begun to gradually upgrade its credit rating. However, there is no country and no organization with 100% credit. During Clinton's administration, the US economy started to decline again after wondering if it would recover, and the Japanese economy, which had been buying up real estate all over the world, is also in a slump and cannot get out of the swamp. Korea, too, wondered if it would get out of the Yongke IMF tunnel, but it is facing an economic crisis again. Neither the United States, nor Japan, nor Korea, nor politics nor the economy can be 100% trusted. But faith is trusting God forever and entrusting everything.
Please answer my questions honestly. When the economy is difficult and difficult like these days, 100 million won in cash that was not deposited at all was made free of charge. It was a huge amount of money that I couldn't even dream of.
“Should I keep the money at home or in the bank?”
“Would you like to leave the money to your parents or to the bank?”
“Would you like to give the money to your married daughter or to the bank?”
“Would you like to leave the money to your husband or to the bank?”
Our attention and credit are more banks than people, and banks more than family.
Untrustworthy means untrustworthy, and untrustworthy means untrustworthy. We live together, we work together, we live together, we call you honey, but we are not the object of credit or faith. Every time I tell this story, a hymn comes to mind. 449 Hymns by Arthur A. Luther. Let's pay attention to the lyrics.
1. Friends of this world Even if you forsake me, you will be the only Jesus who loves me
Jesus, my friend, you forsake me. Even if the whole world changes, you won't forsake me.
2. Even if the dark clouds cover and a storm arises, Jesus is my strength, there is nothing to be afraid of
Jesus is my strength, there is nothing to be afraid of
3. Don't be discouraged even if you are faced with hardship, the eternal power of the Lord will sustain you.
The eternal power of the Lord will hold you
Notice Isaiah 43:1-2.
"Now the LORD who created you speaks, O Jacob, now speaks the one who made you, Israel. Do not be afraid, I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. As you pass through the waters, the waters will bring you down. It will not sink you, and it will not burn you as you walk in the fire, and the flame will not consume you.
We live by trusting and trusting that God and entrusting everything to us. That is faith. The text explains to us how to believe and what results will come if we believe.
1. Do not doubt
Verse 23 says, “If you do not doubt in your heart, believing that what you say will come true, it will be done for you. Doubt is the enemy of faith. If you doubt it, you can't even live a married life. Neither a man nor a woman should do anything suspicious. Marriage is about trusting and trusting each other. However, it is difficult to live together from one to ten wearing sunglasses, a hearing aid, and looking through a microscope. Generally
1.5 is the average visual acuity.
I have a vision of 2.0.
from 1.0
2.0 is said to be very good eyes. But there is more that the eye cannot see than it can see. I don't see everything with my own eyes. The stomach or large intestine is viewed by a doctor with an endoscope. The inside of the body is shown using computerized imaging (CT) techniques. The bone marrow and the inside of the bones are called MRI, so they are viewed with a machine scan. Even if you stand in front of a 100-day mirror, you cannot see your back with your own eyes. When you doubt, you see only the good and only the bad. But if you believe, you can't see bad things, only good things.
To doubt means to "separate." If you doubt, the couple, the brother, the church, and the nation will be separated. In the text, the Lord said, "If you do not doubt in your heart, believing that what you say will come true, it will be done for you."
As American columnist Art Bukwald said, "The best things in life are not things you can see with your eyes or touch with your hands." What is better than this world, power, money, is faith in Jesus. Jesus is the best, the most precious, and the most loved one. But that Jesus cannot be seen or touched. Just because I can't touch with my hand and I can't see with my eyes, don't doubt it If you doubt, your prayers will not be answered and your faith will not be established. Let's dispel doubt.
2. Pray and ask
Verse 24 says, "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
There is a difference in expression between the terms used by Americans and Koreans. For example, Americans like to say, "Can you help me, would you like to help me ... would you like to ... would you like ...". But we can help. say please.
I set a date and time and told them to drive the forklift to the front of the church. The forklift arrived in front of the church at the set time on the set day. I went up to the forklift driver's seat to pray and sat down, and he sat next to me. The forklift driver's seat was three times higher than that of a passenger car. It was hard for me to go up. I prayed a blessing from the forklift driver's seat. "Lord, please allow this forklift to do a lot of forklift. Help me to become rich in faith and material things." It was the first time in my life that I rode a forklift and prayed. I liked the deacon's pure and simple faith. “What you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Amen. Pray and ask. I believe it will be the same.
3. Forgive.
Verse 25 says, “If anyone in the group of people standing and praying has an agreement, forgive him, and your Father who is in heaven will also forgive your transgressions. This word has already been taught in the Lord's Prayer. "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us."
The Greek word for forgiveness is apollyo. It means 'to let go. release send it'. Forgiveness is freeing a slave, letting go, letting go completely. That is, it sets you free. There is also the term carizomaira. It means to allow for no reason. If you find the reason and dig the cause, you will not be forgiven. Just as God forgave us without reason, reason or condition, when we forgive ourselves, we must do the same when we forgive others. If you say "Forgiveness is forgiveness, let's discuss what matters", then a fight arises again. The Agricultural Technology Center in Gimje, Jeollabuk-do, launched a campaign to share the love between high- and high-income families and suggested a way to become a wonderful mother-in-law. Just to name a few: "Find things to do outside the home, understand the young daughter-in-law, do not interfere in everything, take care of the daughter-in-law's birthday, do not gossip about her daughter-in-law, praise her daughter-in-law, and honor her daughter-in-law in front of her daughter. Build up, don't repeat the same thing, don't get up too early in the morning, etc.
Forgiveness is the heart of God if it is a generous heart. Forgiveness is a heart of reconciliation. If there is no forgiveness, there is no prayer, and without prayer, without prayer, faith dies.
Let's reaffirm the lesson of this text. "Believe in God" "Do not doubt" "Believe that you receive" "Forgive" Amen.