The Preaching is Christ (Philippians 01:12-18)
A year is made up of fifty two weeks. Today is the forty-sixth of the fifty-two Sundays in 2004. If we hold worship services on Sunday six more times, 2004 will be over. A year is 365 days. This year is a leap year, so it has 366 days, and today is the 319th day. In another 47 days, 2004 will come to an end.
Although our lives or what we do do not end this year. Still, the year is undoubtedly an important knot in our lives.
Everyone, how will you spend the remaining one and a half months, six weeks, and 47 days of this year?
When you have a lot of work to do and not much time, one wise thing to do is to set priorities. ‘1, what,’ ‘2, what,’, and then ‘I will do this first with this remaining time.’ ‘I will definitely do this.’
Candidates, there are three days left until the SAT exam, so please set your priorities for those three days and use it well.
Brothers and sisters, you must put evangelism first in setting priorities to make good use of the remaining time of the year.
Next Sunday, we will have a big feast for inviting neighbors at the church.
You must put evangelism at least for this week.
Each class, mission, and institution must do the same.
Please see the top of page 2 of the bulletin. It is called 'Sunday and day worship' and then the church calendar, church anniversary, or event is written down.
What is today called?
First, it is said to be the “24th Sunday” after Pentecost.
Normally it ends here, but today there is one more.
It is called “the last two days of the church year”.
There are several types of calendars. Usually writes lift.
Farmers refer to the lunar calendar a lot.
In China, the lunar calendar is called the Nong-ryok (農曆).
The church has a church calendar. The solar calendar is based on the motion of the sun, and the lunar calendar is based on the motion of the moon. The church calendar is based on the life of Jesus.
In the lunar calendar, the first day of the new year is the Lunar New Year or the day previously called the Lunar New Year.
In the church calendar, the four Sundays before Christmas are called Advent.
It is the season of preparation for the birth of Jesus.
According to the church calendar, the new year begins on the first Sunday of Advent. This year, Advent begins two weeks later, on November 28. That is why this Sunday is called “the last and second Sunday of the church year”. Because the Lutheran Church keeps this ecclesial calendar accurately, the Lutheran Church's calendar is referred to when preparing the weekly newsletter, and the 'last second Sunday of the Church Year' is named after the Lutheran calendar.
Next Sunday, when we have a big feast for inviting neighbors, is the last Sunday of the year in the church calendar. In the church calendar, this year is coming to an end like this. Everyone, should we spend this year without evangelism?
No, no matter what the outcome, how can we be called saints only after passing this year without being sure of evangelism?
If you spend your time without any interest in evangelism, how can you say to the Lord, ‘Lord, I have lived like this this year’ during the Song Gu-Young-Sin service? It's embarrassing to say, but I couldn't pay much attention to the Neighbor Invitational Big Feast on that day, too, because I was pushed by the things I had to do that day.
To prevent that this week, to make evangelism number one, I wrote ‘Neighbor Invitation Big Feast’ on the desk calendar with a red magic pen.
The members submitted the list of evangelists up to the last big feast for inviting neighbors, and we still keep it. I will pray intensively with the list this week at the early morning prayer meeting and the Friday night prayer meeting.
We will diligently check how the preparations for the event work, but we will also focus on evangelism personally.
On top of the church, there is an area where I always set 'my evangelism target area' and go out after Sunday worship and hand out tracts to about 100 households.
Haven't done it for a long time.
There are many things to do after worship today. Ordained prayer meeting for examinees, lunch appointments, looking back on the environment mission trip for all members of the church today, checking the website missionary manuscript, preparing and presiding for the staff meeting, the clergy have a little more work than you think. So, I haven't had a cold for over a month and I've been holding on to this shape. Still, I'm going to go there today.
The church newspaper was published just in time, and I am going to share it with the newsletter.
Let me say it again. You must make evangelism the number one priority for the rest of this year. At least this week, you must do so. This is not optional, it is mandatory.
It's a command, not a request. It is not the pastor's command, but the Lord's command.
Today, we are going to learn three lessons about evangelism with you, focusing on the text.
First, we must make good use of our circumstances and circumstances for evangelism. The book of Philippians, which contains today's text, is one of the prison epistles. A letter written by the apostle Paul from prison.
Today's text begins with the words, “Brothers, what happened to me,” and “what happened to me” refers to being in prison.
When Paul was imprisoned in Rome, there were people who said, ‘Paul can no longer preach!’ They said, 'Paul is done!' Paul himself may have thought so.
But what does Paul say in today's text?
It is called “on the contrary.”
“On the contrary, I want you to know that progress has been made in the preaching of the gospel.”
‘I thought that I would not be able to evangelize because I was imprisoned, but I want you to know that I have started evangelizing more.’ This is what it means.
Look at verse 13. Therefore my bonds have been revealed in Christ to all the guards and to all others.
“Into all the protesters” Paul was the first to evangelize to the demonstrators.
The word “protesters” here can be interpreted in many ways, but generally refers to the troops defending Rome. They escorted the emperor, guarded the prisoners in Roman prisons, and guarded the Roman city. In the case of Korea, if it is moved, it can be said that it is equivalent to the Capital Security Command.
It was a bit of a special unit. They were paid twice as much as other soldiers and were said to have a lot of power. It is said that even the emperors noticed the garrison. He must have received a lot of training and was also strict in the military. Even in Korea, men often talk about the military when they meet, but when they talk about the military, there are people who say, 'I'm from a police officer!' When you say that, there is some strength in that person's shoulders. No matter how zealous Paul was for evangelism, otherwise it would not have been possible to approach the garrison and evangelize. It was possible because he was in prison.
The garrison had about 9,000 men, and it is said that they worked in rotation. Because it was a burnt offering, Paul was able to meet more soldiers.
At that time, it is said that the system bound the guarding soldier and the guarded prisoner in one chain. Paul must have greeted him and the soldier bound with one chain, ‘You work very hard for me.’
Then the soldier would have felt, 'Oh, this guy is different from other prisoners!'
I guess this conversation must have been going on between Paul and the soldier.
‘Where are you from?
‘Yes, I am from Cilicia Tarsus.’
‘Some Cilicia? Nice place! But what crime have you committed to come here? did you kill someone? Or did you rob? Or did you fight for independence against Rome?’
'no. I became like this while preaching the gospel.’
‘Are you preaching the gospel? What is that gospel?’
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