Title Who Are You / 2004.9.26
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1 Peter 2:9-12, Isaiah 43:1-3
Chuseok is approaching the day after tomorrow. Chuseok is considered to be one of the best national holidays in Korea. Chuseok is said to have started from the Shilla Dynasty. It can be said that it is a unique Thanksgiving day of our people to give thanks for the good harvest of the year and the harvest.
Now, our holiday custom seems to have a greater meaning as a 'day to visit home' rather than a day to enjoy folk games like in the past. Perhaps this year, an astonishing number of more than 20 million people will run to their hometowns and hometowns without sacrificing the inconvenience. It means that many people are living away from their hometowns due to urbanization, and it also means that the more complex life is, the more people miss their hometown. Hometown is a warm place for everyone and a place of friendly encounters. It is a place where there are families I miss, and memories of my childhood. Therefore, the hometown is a place everyone wants to go and a place of rest for the heart. That is why people think of their hometown when they are happy, and they think of their hometown when they are sad and sad.
The modern age is not an era where people are born in one village and live in that village for the rest of their lives. So, they are scattered all over the place, leaving their hometown to live. However, it is also the heart of people to not forget their hometown even after they have left their hometown. Why? This is because humans have the instinct to return.
Regression instinct--meaning the desire to return to the origin of one's life. Some people express this feeling as the feeling of drawing a mother. In fact, if you look at it, isn't it the heart to look for the source of life to draw a mother? It is a longing for the root of life and a heart. That's why we go looking for our hometown, our parents, and our ancestors. However, if you think about it more deeply, they do not know the heart to find the source of life and the desire to return to the root of life, but in fact, the heart to seek God, the source of life and the root of life, is contained in it. is. In the end, the heart to find the hometown--this heart of return is also the heart of seeking God.
We Christians, too, will be leaving for our homeland. For the joy of meeting, we will hold a heart of sharing and pray with a heart of gratitude.
However, on that long journey, we Christians need to take a moment to look back on ourselves and refine our faith and attitude. When we go back to our hometown and meet, share and mingle with so many people, it is easy to lose ourselves. There are times when people are planted with the gospel in an atmosphere other than the atmosphere of faith, and rather than planting the Christian spirit, they are tainted by the world, and their hearts are taken away by the world's winds. This is because we lose our identity with ourselves. It doesn't have to float like water in oil wherever you go. To hang out, have fun, and share. But even the roots of your own faith should not be uprooted. So, I will have to make it clear who I am and move on.
In today's text, we are talking about Christian identity.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
A holy nation, his own people.
it calls you out of darkness
that he might proclaim the good virtues of him who entered into his marvelous light. 2:9
In these words, we can see what kind of faith and attitude the Lord wants the saints to live with. The Lord is really saying that the saints should live with such confidence and pride.
1. You said that you are a chosen people. These are the people who were chosen from among many and many people and washed clean with the blood of Jesus Christ and saved. I did not choose God, but God chose me. To say that God has chosen me means that God regards me as a special being. Even among the countless people on the streets, the crowds at marts and department stores, and the countless people on the highway, God sees me as a morning star, protects me like the pupil of the eye, and sees me as a special being. Please have faith. Be proud of yourself. The chosen race means that I am a special being.
2. They say you are a royal priesthood. It means that God regards me as a king and honorable person. It does not look at appearance or physicality, status or possessions, but only on faith.
It is to be used as a priest to be honored like that. A priest is a person in charge of worship and a person who reconciles God and people. A priest is the one who makes those who have sinned to be forgiven by God, comforts the wounded, and preaches the word of God. A priest is a leader of faith. It means that God has appointed you as that priest.
Please believe that God has appointed you as priests of your home. Believe that God has made you priests of the world. Please believe that God has appointed you as a priest in the workplace. All of you are a royal priesthood.
3. You said you are a holy nation. It means that I am God's people in heaven. God has called us to be His holy people. You are called a separate being. They are the people of a holy nation who live on this earth but do not belong to this land. It is said to have a sense of compassion. The sense of choice makes people stand upright wherever they are and live confidently with pride. This spirit makes me stand boldly in front of anyone. This spirit drives us to act clearly everywhere. It is this spirit that can overcome the world without being shaken in any environment.
Today we need this selective spirit. God has called us a holy nation. A clear confession that I live in the world but is God's holy people, the belief that I live in the world but is a people of heaven and God's people is the chosen people's consciousness and the chosen people's spirit. With this kind of faith and pride, I hope that you will become believers who stand boldly as Christians anytime, anywhere. You are all God's people in heaven.
4. It is said that you are a people owned by God. It doesn't feel very good to be owned by someone. But true love is when each other becomes captive. They are owned by each other. It's not a compulsion, it's a pleasant possession. It is a pleasant prisoner.
The people that God owns--You are mine, and you are sealed so that Satan cannot touch them, that they do not fall into evil, and that they become God's people.
The LORD who created you, Jacob, now speaks.
O Israel, the one who formed you now speaks.
Fear not, I have redeemed you
I have called you by name; you are mine.
I will be with you as you pass through the waters.
When you cross the river, the water will not sink you.
You will not be burned when you walk in the fire,
The flame will not consume you
For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, and your savior. Isaiah 43:1-3
This is why God has made us a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for his own possession.
it calls you out of darkness
that he might proclaim the good virtues of him who entered into his marvelous light.
In other words, this is to show people how good God is by revealing the beautiful life of God's people. It is saying that he is trying to show how great your faith in God is. He says he is doing this to show how wonderful people who believe in God are.
Please go home this time and do so. I hope you will meet your relatives and family this time and do so. Even if it is a little difficult, I hope that you will be happy with the things you have to endure. Please be a little more mindful. Please spend a little more pocket money. Meeting, gratitude, and sharing are the spirit of Chuseok. That is also the Christian spirit. At the same time, I hope that you do not lose the beauty, coolness, and trustworthiness of a Christian, but rather become saints who lift up like light.
There is a novel called 'The Seagull's Dream' by 'Jonathan Edwards'. In the novel, a seagull named Jonathan did not differ in appearance from the other seagulls. But his thoughts and actions were different. When the other seagulls couldn't leave the messy harbour, eating small fish and debris that the fishermen dumped in the wharf, Jonathan would practice flying in the sky. When the other gulls were easily preyed with the filth in the harbour, Jonathan gull flew away and ate the hard but fresh prey. Jonathan knew that seagulls weren't scavengers for garbage. I thought that a true seagull would be a true seagull when it spreads its beautiful wings, which God has given, to fly beautifully and eat fresh food.
This novel is a novel that contains the spirit of Christianity. We do not know if the author intended it that way, but in this novel we can find the meaning of the Christian figure, the identity that a Christian should have when living in the world. A person who lives in the world but is not of the world--he is a Christian. As Pascal said, beings with their feet on the ground but their heads facing the sky--that is a Christian. That is the Christian identity.
God has called you to be special. Believe that you are a royal priesthood. Please believe that we are a holy people. Please be sure that you are a child of God guaranteed by God. This was done to convey the beautiful virtues of God to the world.
I pray that you will become saints who do not lose their identity wherever they are during the good season, but rather radiate light and spend joyful and harmonious holidays. And just as you returned to find the root of life, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will return to your home and church in good health, which is the source of soul and true life.
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