Title Ephesians 04:1-6 The Lord's Family
Contents The Lord's Family
Ephesians 4:1-6 "I, who was imprisoned while working for the Lord, admonish you. God has called you, so live worthy of the purpose for which he has been called. Treat one another generously with humility, gentleness, and patience with love. Try to preserve what the Holy Spirit has made you unite with the cord of peace. There is one body of Christ and one Spirit, so there is one hope that God has called you to be His people. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God, the Father of all. He is over all, sees through all, and is in all."
Today is the day our church worships with all members of the church mobilizing as one family.
* I hope that it will be a blessed day for all of us who have become one family in the Lord to come together to share the Lord's love and to build a more perfect church.
The church, the body of the Lord, has two characteristics. The first is the new life that the Lord has given birth to, and the second is the Lord's family, a community that does the Lord's work. I hope that the church that is the Lord's family will receive grace through what kind of church it is and that our Shinpoong Church will become like that.
1) The church that became the family of the Lord is the one church.
Verse 3 says, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” This is because there is one God who made us children, one Christ, and one Holy Spirit who rules our lives.
The period of greatest revival of the Protestant Church in England was in the 16th and 17th centuries. When I was leading British society, serious problems were emerging. Atheism began to sprout. Later, the theory of communism gradually developed from the atheism that arose at this time, and finally Karl Marx's theory of communism was born.
Of course, it is almost collapsing now, but the communist revolution in history suffered the greatest wounds in the global village, and our country is still in the midst of the division of South and North Korea.
Why did atheism appear when the Protestant church was most revitalized, when the entire nation was mostly Christians, and when leaders from all walks of life were mostly Protestants? I wonder
Francis Bacon pointed out three reasons for the erosion of atheism. The first is the division of the church, the second is the corruption of the clergy, and the third is material abuse - corruption of sexual morals, gambling, etc.
As feared, less than 100 years later, the church began to decline. A man named Eliot who saw this phenomenon diagnosed the reason why the church had entered the path of decline and pointed out that the reasons were church division and urbanization (material affluence).
It is said that the growth of the Korean church has slowed recently and is finally entering negative growth. If the Korean church is in decline, what is the problem? The flow of church history in Korea from the Japanese colonial era to the present is literally the continuing division of the church.
It is being pointed out that the division and conflict structure of the church is no different from that of the world.
Of course, the issue of church division and conflict did not occur at a specific time, but emerged at any age.
The early church, longing for the ideal church, had the same problem. At that time, the church grew rapidly through fervent faith, miracles, and explosive evangelism, but there was also a problem of division.
According to 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul heard the good news that the churches he had established by preaching the gospel were revitalized, but there was another thing he was sad about. It was a matter of division in the church. He pointed out that there were the Apollos, Cebas, Paulians, and Peters, and the verses in Chapter 13 on the topic of love are also verses that recommend solutions to the church's problems.
What are we to do as one family of the Lord? It is to stand firm in the unity of the Spirit of Christ, the Prince of Peace and Lord of the Church.
I hope that Shinpoong Church members will become a united family through today's One Heart Sports Festival.
2) The church, the family of the Lord, has the characteristic of acceptance.
When children are young, they do not know to tolerate. He insists on his own and knows only himself. Then, as you grow older, you become more tolerant. They know how to understand, they know how to yield, and they show the courage to sacrifice later.
When they grow up to a certain extent, men will tolerate women and women will tolerate men.
Although we are a church gathered in the name of the Lord, everyone is different. They grew up in different backgrounds... They have different preferences and different values. Nevertheless, being a family is about accepting each other.
* If you insist on what you like and only deal with people close to you, you will soon form a faction and you will not be able to form a true church. A mature church does not come from a long history, but when there is an abundance of mutually forgiving love.
They are people with completely different and heterogeneous elements, but when we harmonize and accept each other, we can achieve the kingdom of God and fulfill our great mission as a church.
What is Hell for Sartre? “Hell is being in a place that does not tolerate me.” In a similar way, the French poet Jeanne Poel said, "I am unacceptable to myself as hell."
So how do you tolerate it? It is to think generously and accept it with love.
It is not acceptable to haggle or compromise politically. It is an insecure thing that can only be broken soon and causes even greater wounds and distrust.
To tolerate in the sense of the Lord's will has three elements. The first is humility that treats others better, the second is not to have impatience or anger, and the third is love that knows how to wait.
I hope that you who are part of the Lord's family will become mature Christians who can tolerate.
3) The Lord's family is a living community that is moved by the Lord, the head.
If we tolerate in order to become one, who do we tolerate as the center? a certain person
Not water, but only Jesus Christ as the center of oneness and acceptance.
There are several parts in our body. Hands, feet, eyes, nose, mouth, etc. You can live a healthy and beautiful life when harmonious with each other
The church also has several branches and offices. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul said that there are apostles, teachers, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, ministers, rulers, and givers of spiritual grace. It is to be a model for the church.
Why did you use the expression “as the head of Christ”? It means that only Christ has the truth. He said that the head of the church is Christ because it can be a true church only when it is moved by Christ.
Now let's organize the words. Please remember that Shinpoong Church is one family, act like that, and live a new life.
The members of the Shinpoong Church family are not the only people who enter the chapel building. The Lord came into this world to save all people in the world. We need to find the sheep outside the cage.
You said.
The community is where our church will be more interested in the future.
If we expand the class of church members, they are "people (prospective church members) - registered church members (worshipers) - devotees (service in the church - maturity) - missionaries (those who are used everywhere in the body of Christ)".
In the name of the Lord, I ask that you all become one in the Lord, accept with love, and be used as missionaries by the Lord. (Amen)
Thanks to everyone who read it. I hope you have a good time.