Title The Great Choice/Acts 16:1-5
Contents The morning of the new year has been greeted. On the morning of the first Sunday of the new year, I pray for a good start to all of you who come and worship God first.
As people go through life, they come across many different paths. Every word in life is a series of decisions and choices that meet a fork in the road. From going to the market and buying things to meeting people and deciding the future, everyone makes decisions and makes choices. At that time, depending on which one you choose, good or bad luck is decided, and success or failure is decided.
Perhaps as we go through this year, many different paths will appear before us that obviously require such choices and decisions. This way or that way, this way or that way, which one should we choose and which way will we choose? The Bible text we read today introduces a man who made a very good choice, made a decision, and managed his life well in such a case.
1. Timothy was a man who chose the path of faith from the fork of worldliness and religion.
Timothy's father was Greek. Also, his mother is a Jewish woman. So Timothy is a young man who grew up feeling a conflict between Greek and Jewish ideas.
He grew up under Greek influences from an early age. At that time, Greece was a society steeped in human-centered ideas, just like today's Western society. The Olympics started in Greece. The revival at the door also began in Greece. The Olympic Games and the revival of literature and art are both movements and ideologies that have declared God-centered to human-centered. He disregarded divine authority and declared human omnipotence. And material civilization, secularism, and polytheism are central to Greek culture. Timothy grew up there. I grew up under the influence of an open culture, a free culture, and a material culture. This is the influence I received from my father.
However, her mother is a woman steeped in Jewish influence. Jewish culture is a God-centered culture. It is a culture in which God comes first, and temperance, normative life, and godly life are eternal. It demands the precepts of many commandments and is the exact opposite of the material culture, secularism, and the Greek culture of a free-spirited life.
From his father, Timothy learned material civilization, humanism, and living in an open environment. But from my mother, I was taught the opposite of spiritual culture, theocraticism, temperance, and piety. Timothy struggled and struggled between these two influences and ideas.
If you follow your father's civilization, you will be free, comfortable to live, have fun, and you will get pleasure and romance. However, if you follow your mother's civilization, you must lead a temperate life and a standard of faith. Freedom must be bound and piety training must be built up. Timothy had to choose between the two. Which one should you choose? This is Timothy's concern.
Here are the concerns of believers, especially young people, who are living today. There are many difficulties in choosing between the world or the faith, the world or God, freedom or self-control. If you choose the world, you will not be able to live your life of faith, if you choose God, you will not enjoy it, and if you do both, it is neither this nor that.
Everyone, as you go through this year, there will inevitably come a time when you will be asked to make such a decision. If we do this, we will make money but not live a religious life. If we do that, we will earn money but not earn money. What will we do when faced with such a situation? So, is there any way to satisfy both of them? There is not.
To find satisfaction in the world, we must distance ourselves from God. And in order to please God, you have to take the losses in the world. You can't just put your feet up and make both of them happy. So, it should be imaginary that today's young people are still trying to live in faith and are trying to lead a prayer life.
We should note Timothy's decision here. Timothy struggled in the midst of these conflicts, and in the end chose her mother. That is, they chose the path of faith. Although he could not enjoy a life of pleasure for a while, he boldly chose the path of faith.
Truly a great choice. Because Timothy was a young man, his choice was even more compelling. Although his choice today does not guarantee a splendid life, it is a choice that will give him infinite light in the future. The more painful the choice in the distant future, the more splendid and satisfying the choice. However, there is no light right now as the work that brings you deep joy and reward in the future. There is no glory.
Then, one day, she found a poem by Mrs. Miller that her mother had always loved, "There is nothing more precious than the Lord Jesus," and when she sang a song there, she was very moved. And at that moment, he felt for the first time what God's moving was. After that, he boldly gave up his glamorous and sweet popularity and singing, and from then on he became a person who devoted himself only to the Lord. The hymn that was created is the hymn of chapter 102, "There is nothing more precious than the Lord Jesus."
What a bold decision. It is a more imaginary decision because it is a young man. Guys, how difficult is this decision? This is an impossible decision without courage.
We have one thing to keep in mind here. The decision in Christ is that today it seems to be a loss, but in the future it will be more valuable than ten million gold. As you go through the year, think of these people whenever you are asked to make a decision like this.
2. Timothy was a man who chose the path of sacrifice at the crossroads between peace and sacrifice.
Almost everyone has a desire to be at peace if possible. Therefore, almost all of the content of prayer is about seeking peace. And everyone is busy trying to figure out a better way to have peace.
But Timothy left the path of peace and chose the path of sacrifice. He is a young man who has been nurtured preciously from a young age. He grew up in a wealthy family. He grew up without lacking due to his father's skill in trading.
He grew up like that, and one day he met the apostle Paul. He witnesses young and mysterious aspects of Paul. Paul healed the sick. It has been on the lips of many people. praised However, it was an object of envy from the Jews. Finally he was stoned by the Jews. I fainted soon. He thought he was dead and was dumped on a pile of stones outside Dong-gu. That place is the valley of Agol. After a while, Paul regained consciousness. It rises from a pile of stones. And Paul again limps off to another province.
The great Paul of his time, who said that he might come out once in a thousand years, could have captured the minds of the Greek youth with only his extensive academic knowledge, and he would have been more popular than anyone if he stood on the pulpit of a Greek university with his deep Greek philosophical thought. , How is it that you are walking down such a path of suffering even though you are a person who can enjoy glory and enjoy a peaceful life with only those rich materials, capabilities, and personality? This is the compassion Timothy felt for Paul.
Timothy finally realizes how easy it is for him to live his own life right now through the figure of Paul. And Timothy finds out what he has to do and what kind of road he has to go. It was he who found out why his mother was now walking so persistently and insistently on only one path.
So, he decided to give up his life as a nobleman, to give up his life of peace and comfort, and to follow Paul's footsteps on the difficult path of sacrifice. This is Timothy's great choice.
What do you think is the best way to live? How to live as a human being and live according to the will of God? Why did Paul or Timothy voluntarily choose the path of thorns? In particular, young people, college students, and young people, what is your dream? Is it your dream to graduate from a good college, get a good job, earn a lot of money, buy a house, and live comfortably? According to a survey of the consciousness structure of college students, the majority of college students answered that they would earn money to buy a house and live happily after graduation. If this is the dream of today's young people who claim to be Korean intellectuals, what do you think?
Ladies and gentlemen, as you go through the course of this year, it is certain that you will come across many moments that require the same determination that Timothy faced. Which one will you choose then? Which path will you take? It's up to you anyway. But I hope that when that moment comes, you will surely think of Timothy.
If there is something I want to say more about here, I hope that you will never become obsessed with the temporary. I hope we can see the fruits that will be achieved in a longer period of time.
If the first button fits snugly, the rest of the buttons will fit snugly on their own. If the first step is well taken, the end is also good.
I hope that the start of the year this year will start on such a good and strong start. Then God's good guidance will surely be with you throughout this year.