Title: Ultimate Hope! A sure promise! (Pet...
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ultimate hope! A sure promise! (1 Peter 1:3-9) 2000.09.10.
What kind of person can be said to have been successful in this world? I can say it in many ways, but I am a person who has lived a life that makes others happy. I think that the person who made others happy is the person who has lived the most successful life, not just temporary pleasure or temporary joy, but eternal joy and eternal joy. What can make someone happy and entertained forever? Is it not the person who opened up a certain future, a guaranteed future? The happiest time in my life was when I accepted Jesus as my Savior. That is why I think that the person who preached the gospel so that they could receive Jesus was the person who lived the most successful life.
People in our time today can say, 'We are living in a blessed time when we can have so much more than ever before and have much more than ever before'. Especially when adults talk to children, it is easy to say that we were young when we were young. We can say that we are living in such a time as those who have gained so much and have been given so much. I enjoy a lot of freedom.
It may sound like a blessing, but anyway, we are living in a state of being given so much. However, as I said now, there are many things I have lost just like I lost my health due to driving a lot. The good old things, the good looking things The traditional things are lost. That is why people say, on the other hand, that they live with a sense of loss despite having a lot. However, there are many things that human beings have lost in their subjectivity and internality rather than outward ones. We have the snobbery that if we have money, gold, or power, we can solve everything. And because of this snobbery, they eventually lose their humanity and live. It is as if we become like parts of a machine, we become exhausted, and when we are sweet, we are thrown away, and we see the human form that seems to be useless.
In regards to this appearance, people like T.S. Eliett are in an empty state. an empty human People like Eric Frum say they are market-oriented people. It is said that humans are market-oriented because the market seeks only profit. We are now in the organization. That's why I say organized people. All of these things are a tragic picture of the loss of human innerness. This is what we can say. It seems that we have gained a lot with many things, but we lose our inner self, lose the meaning of life, live with various dissatisfactions, eat and enjoy life, and then die. How many lives around us are like this?
That heart, that song, that truth, that is the gift that God has given us. It is a gift of grace that transcends you and me, and is a grace given in God's providence of creation, which transcends time and space. This is something no one can deny.
Among the leaders of the early church, the most important people were Peter, John, and Paul. People specifically refer to the apostle Paul as the 'Apostle of Faith', the apostle John as the 'Apostle of Love', and Peter as the 'Apostle of Hope'.
This is an age in need of hope. There is abundance, but more and more people are losing their dreams. People don't value hope because they cling to what's right in front of them. Without hope, people become obsessed with reality. So they indulge in pleasures and lusts of the flesh.
One of the greatest blessings God has given us is ‘hope’. For those who believe, true hope is the source of courage and strength to overcome hardships. Dante expresses hell in his work ‘The New Song’ by saying ‘abandon all hope here’. A life without hope is hell. A life like hell is not a life without suffering. Even in the midst of suffering, if we do not lose hope and move forward with faith, suffering can never destroy us. Suffering itself does not destroy us. Despair is what destroys us when hardships come our way. Our despair is defeat by evil forces
What you need is not money and fame. Tomorrow. tomorrow! That is, it is a matter of the future and a matter of hope. It can be said that a man lives not as much as he knows, not as much as he has, but as much as he wishes. Happiness does not depend on how much he knows or how much he has, but on how much hope he has and what kind of hope he lives with.
We are concerned that the young people of modern times seem to be degenerating morally and socially out of control, but we do not despair because we fall, we fall because we despair. It is not that there is no hope because something is wrong, it is that we fall because we do not have hope. This is the problem.
Comparing the hardships of a young man with the life of an old, wealthy grandmother, which one would you be happy with? No matter how well you live, what do you do? I don't have time. What does it mean here? But the suffering young man is happy enough with just that young man. Older people will want to say this. "These people have nothing to worry about and nothing to be sad about. They sing hymns all day and there is no end. Being young is enough." Why? There is a future. How important it is to have a future and to have hope. There is no future, and no matter how much you have, what do you do and what do you do when you know? If you're healthy, what else do you do?
The future we have is our happiness. It's about evaluating me. A famous theologian named Paul Tillich wrote a book called Ultimate Interest, and that ultimate concern is religion. And he defines faith as living in the grip of ultimate interests.
Guys, where are you interested? Are you in reality, in matter, in this impermanent life, or in momentary pleasures? Humans always think of the next. In spring, think of summer, in summer, think of winter, and when you are young, think of when you are old. After that, I think about the next thing and go a little further and be interested in the ultimate thing. Being drawn to that interest and living today is what a Christian is.
Our bodies obviously live in the present. But our attention should be at that end. I think of four ultimates. The first is the ultimate purpose. We clearly have a purpose. The ultimate purpose, what the ultimate purpose is, must be known and lived. Another is to think about the ultimate state, how it will change in the end, and what form it will appear in.
Everyone asks. Next, you need to know what the ultimate state is. Don't panic, don't dig deep, there's nothing to be sad about. Of course you have to go this way. The ultimate state, anyone who lives without knowing this is a fool.
Also, the ultimate master needs to know someone. I am not the owner and you are not the owner. Who are you drawn to right now? There is a famous saying by Martin Luther. "Human beings are like horses controlled by a rider." Here's the saying. There is a rider on horseback. As the rider whips the horse, he grabs the reins and goes where he wants to go. Stand up and run. Now, who is the master who is dragging the human being called me? Is it money, is it fame, is it jealousy, is it hatred, is it endless greed? Whose slave am I? Is the ultimate master a devil or an angel? Is it the Holy Spirit or is it a sin of the past that cannot be washed away? What have you been drawn to and struggled with? Who is the ultimate owner, you have to think about it, and you have to think about the ultimate value. What the hell is worth Is that a woman's dress or a diamond? What is really worthwhile? We must not forget things that we can never regret, things we want to remember and do well, such high values and ultimate values. It means that you have to live today by being drawn to it.