Title: What will I choose to live?
Contents
What will you choose to live with?
(2012. 2. 12 (week) 11 o'clock sermon)
A video that challenges priorities and choices (Ridle, a 100-meter gold medalist, chose Sunday Seongsu, gave up, and won a gold medal in the 400-meter race on Thursday, where he pursues a rotten crown in the future. Instead of becoming a runner, he becomes a Chinese missionary and a fisherman who saves people.)
In the 1800s, Bismarck, the German iron-blooded merchant, was a person who thoroughly refused to be commissioned or to be commissioned. When he was young, he went hunting with a friend. Then, by chance, a friend fell into a bog and shouted, "Save me." The friend's body slowly began to sink into the abyss. Seeing this, Bismarck ran and aimed the gun at his head. And then he said. “If I reach out my hand to rescue you, I will drown too. If I let it go, I will suffer infinitely, but this is not the way of a friend, so I will ease your suffering. Don't forget." Bismarck tried to pull the trigger. The friend who saw it was so bewildered and thought about it that he said he would come out on his own and did his best to get out of it. As a result, the friend was able to get out of the swamp. To an angry and protesting friend, Bismarck said: "My gun wasn't aimed at your head, it was your thoughts, it was aimed at your child's fragile heart."
Beloved, human life is a series of choices. We are always thinking about what to choose. Choices always come with responsibility. It is up to you to regret or rejoice in your choice. So the choice must be prudent, thoughtful, and responsible. What did Abraham, the father of faith, choose in the text? What is the criterion of choice in the Christian life? We want to find that standard in the Word and receive grace.
First, we must choose to live in harmony.
Abraham valued reconciliation and peace above all else. But reconciliation requires a price. How have we been reconciled to God? This is because Jesus became a propitiation sacrifice in return for his sacrifice on the cross. The same is true of the religious life. No matter how good our faith is, if there is no reconciliation and peace within us, God will not receive that worship. Therefore, Christians should live a life of reconciliation. Hebrews 12:14 says, “Pursue peace with all men and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” Even if you succeed and become successful, you cannot see the Lord without being reconciled to God. Also, when you are in harmony with all people, a holy life is achieved.
Second, we must choose to live with spiritual insight.
Abraham did not dwell on visible conditions. 9 Is not the whole earth before you? Leave me. If you are left, I will be right; if you are right, I will be left. 10 Then Lot lifted up his eyes and looked at the Jordan, and there was plenty of water in the whole land as far as Zoar, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was like the garden of the Lord, and it was like the land of Egypt. 11 So Lot chose all the Jordan, and it was like the land of Egypt. , and they departed from one another.
Lot, his nephew, chose the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, which was like the garden of the Lord and like the land of Egypt.
It's convenient to have property, but it's okay if you don't have it. Abraham met God, neither position nor honor was very important to him. All we had to do was walk with the living God. For Abraham, the right life before God, the standard of faith, came first. Where do religious standards come from?
Let's look at the confession of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:17. “The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, has given you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you may know God.” Religious judgment and insight are God-given gifts. God wants us to live according to the Word of God and the standard of faith, without being led by selfish greed or being swayed by circumstances and circumstances. We believe that the Lord grants us more abundant blessings when we make these efforts.
Third, we must choose to entrust our future to God.
12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and moved his tents as far as Sodom. Abraham believed that only the promises of God were absolute. And he entrusted his future to that promise. I put down all the conditions that could be easy for me. And I prayed that it all depended on God. It is entrusting the future to God's promise as a whole person.
Beloved, we are faced with a choice in everything we do. I hope you do not make foolish choices that blind you to the future, blinded by greed. Let's live by choosing harmony in everything. As we are reconciled to God through Christ, so let us be reconciled to our neighbors. Let us trust in God's promises and have religious insight in that faith. When God entrusts our future and we choose to live according to God's will, God will lead our future to the good and right path.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to choose with your insight whenever I am at the crossroads of choice. Help me to live as a reconciler like Christ. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.