Title Set the Dial / Luke 21:34-36
Contents
set the dial
Luke 21:34-36
After meeting the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, the Apostle Paul lived a life of preaching the gospel for the Lord. However, in his later years, he spent many years in a Roman prison to evangelize, and on the other hand, he wrote letters to various churches that had been created during that time, exhorting them with the word of God.
When I read Paul's letters, at the beginning he always greeted me with [Grace and peace.
[Grace and Peace!] We cannot live without it. Our members should enjoy the blessing of living in peace, overflowing with God's great grace and blessings.
By the way, although our saints are blessed with grace when they receive grace, especially people become more beautiful. Because when we receive grace, we become a true believer, and when we become a true believer, we bear the fruit of light and become a good, righteous and true person. Not only that, the more we receive grace, the more we will bear the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is so beautiful that it is overflowing with love, overflowing with joy, and overflowing with peace.
In addition, as it bears the fruits of patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, it can only be more beautiful.
And when our members receive grace, their faith and character become healthy. Change your lifestyle and change your goals in life.
First of all, the way you use your time changes. In the past, a lot of time was wasted on useless things, but after receiving grace, it is better to use it wisely and value it.
Ephesians 5:15-16 says, "Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, saving time, for the days are evil."
Saving time here means not wasting time. Above all, it means to save time.
Time is like flowing water, it passes whether it is used or not. Therefore, time does not belong to you if you do not use it. It's just to lose.
Not only that, but some people just kill this precious time. Time can be divided into past, present and future. The past is time that has already passed, and the future is time that may never come. If God gives it, it will come; if God does not give it, it will not come because you die and leave this world. Our time is always [the present] only. Only the time called [now] is our time. So, how you live now is the most important thing. What you do now matters.
But some kill the present with the future, and some kill the present with the past. For example, if you tell a student who doesn't want to study to study, they say [I'll do it tomorrow]. This person is the one who kills today with the excuse of tomorrow. Some students say [I did a lot yesterday] to study. This student uses yesterday as an excuse to kill today. How stupid are you?
So it's about saving time. In particular, if time is not used correctly, it is necessarily useless and inevitably has the wrong time. Therefore, it is detrimental to faith and personality. Such a person is a fool.
It's a waste of time as well as money. The saints who have received grace spend their money wisely and use it to glorify God. But foolish people waste their money on useless things, and sometimes they spend their money on sinful things. I hope none of you and I are this foolish.
But, in today's text, "Be careful with yourselves, or your hearts will be dulled with debauchery, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day will come upon you unexpectedly like a trap, and this day will come upon all who dwell on the earth. Therefore, keep watch and pray always so that you may be able to escape all these things that are to come and stand before the Son of Man.”
These words are given to the saints living in the last days. [The day shall come upon you like a trap] [This day shall come upon everyone who dwells on the whole earth], Jesus said. That day will be the day when Jesus returns, the day our saints will go to heaven, and the day the people of the world will be judged. You and I are people who look forward to that day and live. Therefore, in order for us to not only welcome the Lord on that day in a beautiful image that is free from blemishes, blemishes, and reproach, but also to receive praise, rewards, and glory, we must keep the dial of our lives straight.
So where should you put the dial?
(1) The dial must be aligned with God's will.
Ephesians 5:15-17 says, “Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, saving time, for the times are evil; therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” I did.
Also, Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, which is good and pleasing and perfect."
Anything that was not done according to the will of God was in vain. No matter how much work we do, what Failure to do God's will is in vain.
In Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven. Did I not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” Then I will say to them plainly, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” .
What does this word mean? Not to mention the things of the world, even though they have prophesied in the name of the Lord and cast out demons and performed many miracles in the name of the Lord, those who do not think of the will of God and live according to His will have nothing to do with the Lord, so I never knew you. It means you are saying no.
Also in Matthew 12:46-50, “As Jesus was speaking to the crowd, his mother and his brothers stood outside to speak to him, and a man said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside to talk to you. He answered and said to the man who had said, “I am I.” He answered, “Who is my mother and my brothers?” He stretched out his hands and said to the disciples, “Look at my mother and my brothers, whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. more] said.
How important are these words? It is so important that we live according to the will of God. In any case, you and I should set the dial to [God's will] and live day by day.
(2) You must align the dial with the Word of God.
You do not know how great a blessing it is that God has given us the Bible.
Psalm 119:160 says [the doctrine of the word of the Lord is the truth], and in John 5:39 it says, [You search the scriptures, thinking that you have eternal life, and these scriptures testify about me]. Through this Bible, the Word of God, many people will be saved and have eternal life.
Also, 2 Timothy 3:15-17 says [And since you were young, you knew the Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. profitable for correction and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be perfected for every good work].
If we live according to God's word, we will receive all blessings. (Deuteronomy 6:24, Deuteronomy 28) If we live according to God's word, we can live happily. (Deuteronomy 10:13)
Therefore, we must always set the dial to [God's Word] and live.
(3) We must align the dial with the church.
Hebrews 10:25 tells us to do our best to gather together as the day of the Lord's coming draws near. It is very important that our members always gather around the church. Because the more the church gathers, the more revival it becomes, and the more it disperses, the weaker it becomes.
Some people can pray at home, but where is the law that says to pray when you go to church? say, but it is not. Of course, whether you pray at church or at home, you pray the same thing, but the results are vastly different.
Even if it doesn't matter where you pray, it doesn't matter to the person praying, if you pray at home instead of going to church,
① The church is weak.
It is said that the temple of God is the house of prayer for all people (Mark 11:17). Think of a church where no one prays. That church will one day be gone. Therefore, we should get into the habit of going to church and praying as much as possible. In order to revive the church and make it strong, we need many people to come to church and pray.
②If you pray at church, you will have prayer comrades. Then, as you pray together, the fire of prayer will burn more and more and the answers will be quicker.
③ For those who pray alone at home, it is difficult for the prayer to continue. It is easy to be interrupted for one reason or another, and it is easy to weaken the power of prayer.
④ For those who pray alone, it is difficult to correct the wrong case.
Because evil spirits can work on those who pray. Some people even go crazy while living alone. There are people who go crazy because the devil does work.
So is Bible study. You can study the Bible alone or with a group of people. You can do it at home or at church. But the results are vastly different.
First, it affects the revival of the church.
Second, in the case of individual gatherings at home, it is easy to fall into a heresy without the guidance of the right clergy.
Third, if you do it at home, there is a high possibility that the meeting will disappear.
If you look at the 2,000-year history of the church, things that happened outside the church, no matter how prosperous they were at one time, always disappeared. However, despite many weaknesses, the Church has survived to this day.
Because the church established by the Lord cannot be overcome by the powers of Hades. Rather, dictators, individuals, and nations who oppose or persecute the church will surely perish.
Whatever it is to be human, you must have good habits. The dial should be centered on the church.
The same goes for morning worship. Those who have become accustomed to early morning prayer are more likely to attend early morning worship because the rhythm of their lives is aligned. However, those who are not accustomed to early morning worship are tired all day when they come to the early morning worship service. The same is true of the all-night prayer meeting.
Therefore, we must set the dial to [the center of the church] and live a victorious life until the day when the Lord returns.
(4) We must set the dial so that it will be a glory to God, an example to others, and a blessing to ourselves and our descendants.
This can be said to be the attitude of a successful life.
It's the same with spending time and money. You will have to dial everything here. Then, I believe that no matter when the Lord comes, we will welcome the Lord with joy without shame.