Awake or Sleep (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11)
Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11
Subject: Wake Up or Sleep
Let me introduce you to an old Greek story.
When a person dies from God, he will die on the roof. I heard that
after that day
He never went under any roof.
Even if I slept, I slept in the sea or deep in the mountains.
This man, who had lived like that all his life, grew old and wrinkled and lost his hair, becoming bald.
As usual, he went to the beach to sleep and was basking in the sun.
Just then, a large eagle climbed up into the sky with an old tortoise.
The eagle struck the tortoise to death, and then as he was about to eat it, he noticed a flashing object beneath it.
The eagle thought that a large diamond or crystal was shining and threw the turtle away.
However, what the eagle thought was a diamond or crystal was the old bald man's head, so he was killed instantly by the tortoise wall.
There is a resignational allusion in this story that life is unavoidable.
But Christianity rejects fatalism.
◈ Jesus changed lives
◈ It is because the believer's faith in Jesus has the power to shape the destiny and make it beautiful.
Look at today's message.
◈ Does it mean that your life has changed?
Verse 9 “that they might be saved.”
◈ Are you guaranteed that you can shape your destiny?
Verse 10, “whether awake or sleeping, he might live with him.”
1) As much as this,
There are things God wants me to believe in.
① It means that God loves me.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
② My sins are forgiven.
Hebrews 8:12 “I will have mercy on their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
③ It means that you are always with us.
Matthew 1:23 “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall call his name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us.”
④ It means that He will lead you to the eternal heaven.
Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Looking at all these things,
There are things that have already happened in the past,
There are currently issues
It is made up of future issues.
The problem is the present.
Why?
because yesterday has passed
And because tomorrow hasn't come yet...
It's not my time,
As it is today, my time is clear.
So how important is the present?
Reflecting on yesterday through today and re-illuminating today
We can nurture hope for tomorrow.
What are you currently doing?
Where are you?
who are you with confuses tomorrow's joys and sorrows.
2) Living together all the time
The Lord has promised not to be with me whether I am awake or sleeping.
Belief in this creates today and tomorrow.
The Lord has done great things to be with me always.
① You have made me a temple.
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
In Old Testament times, temples were only found in special places.
Anyone who wants to receive God's grace must go toward it.
If you look at the book of Acts,
There is a scene where an Ethiopian eunuch comes to Jerusalem to worship.
For there was no temple in the Gentiles,
Because even in Israel, there was no temple except Jerusalem.
But after the death of the Lord, all these laws were abolished,
because it was finished
◈ The Lord is the perfect temple
◈ Those delayed saints have been sanctified.
So, where are you worshiping now? It is also a temple, but
◈ If the saints are intangible temples not built by human hands,
◈ A chapel is a type of temple built by human hands.
② He came as the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.
John 14:17 “He is the Spirit of truth, and the world cannot receive him, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, because he dwells with you and will be in you.”
When Jesus was in the flesh, He was limited by time and space.
However, after the resurrection, he came as a “spirit” that is not limited by time and space and is with all the saints for eternity.
The day the Holy Spirit came to each person was on the Day of Pentecost.
From this moment on, the Holy Spirit is with each saint.
A young daughter-in-law taking care of her mother-in-law at the hospital spilled her mother-in-law's urine on her way to the examination room.
The daughter-in-law who did not want to listen to Pinzan took her own urine.
After a while, the doctor came to my mother-in-law and said, "A miracle has happened."
When the mother-in-law heard this, she understood that she was cured and liked it.
However, shortly thereafter, he fainted.
Because the doctor said "I'm pregnant."
Eventually, the lie of the daughter-in-law was exposed.
Why are we talking about this?
The Lord loves us and makes us a temple to dwell with us,
It is because the fact that He came as the Holy Spirit is not a lie.
Today's text is the same.
“He saved him, so that whether he awake or sleep, he might live with him.”
There is evidence that all of these things are true.
① It is the word of God.
God does not lie.
② It is recorded in the Bible.
The only infallible book of ancient authority is the Bible.
③ It has never been found out that it is a lie.
Rather, “we know” has been proven for thousands of years.
Now, many people believe lies as if they are the truth and believe and follow the words of men more than the words of God.
And it acknowledges the news of each information medium more authoritatively than the Bible.
because of this
Even the saints who should always live with the Lord as happy or hopeful people in the Lord become weeping ones.
I become a sad person.
◈ Don't trust newspapers and broadcasts too much.
◈ Don't trust statistics too much.
◈ Don't believe the fortune teller any more.
But the Bible must be believed.
our life,
Depending on our differences in thinking, we create completely different personalities and different worlds.
John, Sir Tempul said that thoughts that arise in the mind, by their very nature, are bound to come out.
Our hands and feet cannot be free from our thoughts.
Negative thoughts do not produce positive results.
Good thoughts and actions can never lead to bad results.
our thinking! Think now!
What will you fill it with?
◈ I was saved by the grace of God
◈ As long as it is not an illusion or a lie that Jesus is always with me
It creates true courage, true hope, true godliness and true happiness.
Martin Luther promoted the Reformation early, but
They faced terrifying oppression and persecution by the religious authority.
Each time, Luther built up his faith by repeatedly writing “He lives, he lives” on his desk.
After all, Martin Luther was a meek man,
God lives! The Lord is on my side! The great value of the Reformation was achieved through faith.
What has come to this day is that an elderly person can live in the midst of the Japanese colonial rule and the 6․25 fire and even in times of upheaval.
Because the Lord was “always with me whether I woke up or slept”.
This guarantee will continue to be in effect in the future, so "no matter what happens, you will be successful".
Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod comforts me.
How much do parents love their children?
Nevertheless, in confusion
may be forgotten or lost,
I am sorry, but I may throw it away.
But God is absolutely not like that.
Isaiah 49:16 “I have engraved you on the palm of my hand”
Surely I will not leave you
Surely I will not forsake you
3) A person of faith
Believers in this promise have several unique aspects.
This is also the fruit of salvation.
① We give thanks and praise for the grace of salvation.
Psalm 30:3-4 “You brought my soul out of Hades, O LORD, and made me alive, that I should not go down to the grave.
② There is boldness.
Psalm 28:17 “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart leaned in him and was helped.”
There was a time when I was afraid to walk at night when I was a child, and I walked while singing a hymn.
I have doubled my courage.
I'm afraid to live
How many times are you desperate for the future?
“Call on the name of the Lord!”
You can win the world.
You can overcome adversity.
So victory and hope
Don't look far away for hope that will make you smile.
The Lord has saved you,
You are still together.
Don't forget this belief.