Title: Who Am I (1 Thessalonians 1:5)
Contents Missionary Cho Yong-jung
Growing up in an unbelieving family, I had not known God until I was old, but one day a verse from the Bible came to me. This is Hebrews 11.
‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Advanced people have obtained evidence from this
By faith we know that the whole world was created by the word of God; for what is seen was not made out of things that are seen.
By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than that of Cain, and received evidence that he was righteous, for God testified of that gift, for he died, but by his faith he speaks.
By faith Enoch was transferred so that he could not see death, and he was not seen again, because God had removed him. Before he was moved, he received the testimony that he was a God-pleaser.
Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
The message of 1 Thessalonians 1:5 that I am going to preach today is the most preached message to missionaries when sending or training missionaries in our GP mission. This is an exhortation to each of us to go to the mission field as a missionary to preach the gospel fervently, and to become people who can tell the people of the mission field if you don't know what kind of person I am and what kind of life I have lived. However, the words that gave the background to these words are the words of Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11 is the chapter of faith.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Growing up in an unbelieving family, when I was sent as a missionary 20 years ago, all of my new family members were against this. At that time, my heart ached a lot because I had not had time to preach Jesus because I had lived apart for 10 years, so there were very few people in my family who believed in Jesus. As soon as my parents or brothers came to America, God said strongly that we should leave them behind and go for other peoples at a time when they preached the gospel but were not yet accepted. Considering the family left behind, my heart was heavy to be sent to Thailand, the mission field. I said to God, 'Is this really what I need to do? My family doesn't believe in Jesus yet, so do we have to leave for the salvation of other peoples?' However, I had a strong thought in my heart that if I did not obey this time, I would not be able to obey, and if I did not go this time, I would not be able to go forever. So it has been 20 years since I left my family after telling my parents that if God told them to obey, I had to do it.
While praying for unbelieving families and peoples in the mission field, I heard that my father-in-law's mother-in-law was coming to the morning prayer. It had been three years since I was dispatched. Also, at the end of last year, as I was organizing the mission for a year, I realized that the missionary support expenses from the unbelieving family accounted for more than 1/3 of the total donation. You do not know how grateful and moved you were to God at this time. The unbelieving family now understands this and is working together. I lived a life of faith thinking that my family would one day believe that way, but 20 years later, I saw that my family had really changed.
I believe that there are some of you who came to church with such a feeling this morning. Also, there will be some who brought their children to God with a heart of devotion to God at the altar this morning in order to leave this beautiful legacy of faith to our children. I wonder what kind of faith our children will live in the next generation. The reason we can freely come before God to worship and praise Him is because someone sowed the seeds of faith.
The Bible introduces people who lived by faith, and in verse 6, it explains what kind of faith that faith was.
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
To believe is to believe that God exists. In the eyes of the world, it seems as if there is absolutely no God, and there are things that are truly unfair and incomprehensible to us in our lives, but nonetheless, we have to believe that there is a God who knows everything and is in control.
Last December, I had a hard time visiting the place where Missionary Jaegwan Yoon was working in Herat, Afghanistan, to encourage them. The seeds of the gospel of God are being sown little by little in those places where electricity is turned on only one day a week, nothing is visible now, and the missionary's identity is hidden. Because they expect to see a group of people praising God from that place one day, and they see this with the eyes of faith. I left my father, who was battling cancer, in the United States, and my father asked God to take responsibility for me. He said he would do the work God had entrusted to him. When Missionary Yoon went back to Afghanistan and obeyed, I heard that God is alive and is recovering my father's illness. . God is alive.
God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
During the praise and prayer, I said to God, “Are you giving me such a great blessing for holding on to someone who is weak and lacking like me, entrusting me with God’s work, and obeying it a little?” I felt hard, not treated, unfairly, and misunderstood from moment to moment, but when I look back on the past 20 years, nothing but ‘Thank God’ comes out. Because I know that these words have been applied to my life as living words.
The Bible speaks of ‘Abel’ as a person who lived like that.
“By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than that of Cain, and received evidence that he was righteous, for God testified of that gift.”
When Abel offered livestock and Cain offered crops, God only accepted Abel's offering. Whatever was offered, the important thing was better sacrifice. No matter what form we give, God sees the pure heart of giving our all. God alone is my hope and life, and when we pray with the heart of trusting only in God, this becomes a better sacrifice.
“By faith Enoch was moved so that he did not see death, so that he was not seen again, because God had removed him.
Enoch was the first person to go to God without seeing death. Genesis 5:21-24 says, “Enoch was sixty-five years old when he begot Methuselah, and after begot Methuselah, he walked with God three hundred years, and had children, and he lived three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God, and God took him. Because he was gone, he was not in the world.” There is no exact record of Enoch's life, but his son's name, 'Methelah', means 'while Methelah lives, there will be no judgment; if Methelah dies, there will be judgment'. At the time Enoch named his son, there seems to have been some trigger that the death of this son would result in judgment. Although there is no detailed explanation, it is recorded that he lived a life of walking with God from the moment he started living with a son with that name. As the name suggests, he was able to walk with God because he lived with the feeling that the end of the world would come.
The son after Methelah was Lamech, and the name of the son Lamech bore again was Noah. Methelah becomes Noah's grandfather. Medeselah is 969 years old, the longest-lived person ever recorded in the world. The period from Enoch's birth to Methelah's death is about 1034 years. Surprisingly, 1034 is the year of the flood when Noah was 600 years old. God gave Enoch a child to Methelah, and made her name Methelah, endured while Methelah was on this earth, and constantly warned of God's judgment in the name of judgment when Methelah died. Seeing the name of Methelah, Noah also thought of his grandfather from a young age, so Noah also became an ark builder. Only those who believe that there is a reward for those who seek the God who judges the world and that there is judgment for those who do not seek the God of judgment can live the world righteously.
Some people think that too many years have passed since Jesus said he would come again. Many Shiram in the days of Noah must have lived for 969 years, thinking that there is no judgment and judgment as the meaning of Methelah's name means. But when Methelah died, the Bible says that Noah's flood occurred and the world was judged. For the past 2000 years, Jesus has said that He will return, but people say how and when will He come again. But the Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in His promise, as some consider slowness, but is patient with you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. Jesus has not yet come to give us the opportunity to be saved. It was God's kindness and mercy that enabled Methelah to live the longest without dying. The reason Jesus did not come today and is still patiently waiting for us at this time of the end is because there are people in our family and neighbors who need to be saved today.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
Watching the annual evangelism meeting and the missionary sending ceremony, you may think that it is just an annual event and another missionary is sent. However, if we know the heart of God who is long-suffering and seeking the soul in the time given to us before Jesus comes, we will not be able to remain still. God has entrusted us with missionary work. He sent us to bring forth those who believe in Jesus and worship God from all nations. Before coming here, I came here via Thailand, Myanmar, Brazil, South Africa, South Africa, and again Thailand, Myanmar and Korea. They are busy, but they take care of your health and encourage you to do the work God has entrusted to you. I thank God for giving me the health to handle such a schedule. I believe May we be blessed by believing in the Word of God, that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Give up those who have not yet been saved in your family to God by faith and ask God to take responsibility for them.
The reason we are sowing the seeds of faith in many unsaved Muslims and their unseen lands is because we think of the missionaries who came to Korea 120 years ago.
At a time when no one came to Korea, a man named ‘Marqueen’ donated $5,000 to the Presbyterian Church in the United States to use it to spread the gospel. ‘John Haeron’ died of dysentery while treating patients for six years, and the place where he was buried is ‘Yanghwajin,’ when he said, ‘I want to love Joseon and Koreans more.
E. Avison, a professor at the University of Toronto Medical School, meets Underwood and hears that a medical team is needed, and is challenged. With the help of a person named ‘Severance’, he established a medical school and Yonsei University, where Yeonhui Specialty and Severance were combined. Missionary 'Underwood' prayed for those who would donate to the mission, and a brother from the Underwood Typewriter Company in the United States donated $25,000.
When I meet young people, I often say that the reason you and I can be is because God sent people like these and there were people who invested in them. People like John Harron and Missionary Underwood E. Avison were 1.5 years old from the United States and Canada. Behind them were the first generations who sent them, and behind them there were supporters who generously gave their money like their lives. that there was All are people of faith. We want all the members of the Church of Love to become victorious through faith. Praise God for giving us victory.