When you ask me why do you believe
Today's sermon is titled 'If you ask me why I believe'. Asking people who go to church, “Why do you believe in God?” When asked, most of them answer, “In order to be saved.” “If you believe in Jesus, you will be saved, have eternal life, and go to heaven. So I believe.” Most people think that this is the natural reason why Christians believe in God and believe in Jesus.
This answer is by no means wrong. Not only do I respect the conservative belief that through faith in Jesus we are saved, have eternal life, and go to heaven, I do, too. However, if that is all, it cannot be called complete faith.
Let's take one example. I have two children. The eldest is my son. I'm in my sophomore year of college, and I'm taking a leave of absence this semester and preparing to go to the military. The little one is a daughter, and now she is a high school senior. Even now, it's like that, but when I was young, especially, this daughter was a lot of fun. (The fun of raising a daughter seems to be more.)
When my daughter was young, there is a saying that she used to hang around my neck. “Dad, I like you.” At that time, when I asked, “Yeah, why do you like Daddy?”, the child answered with courage and clarity without hesitation. “My dad buys me a lot of delicious food. Dad buys me a lot of toys.”
But when I heard that, I felt a little sad. “You bastard, you actually like more delicious things than your dad, and you like toys.” It seems that both the child and the father were young and immature.
A young child may be more interested in the toys and delicious things they buy from their parents than their deep love. In a way, it can be said to be the innocence of a child. The same goes for our beliefs. In the first stage of faith, you may not know the deep love of God. Your attention may be focused on what God gives you rather than on God.
So a person at this stage of faith thinks, like a child who thinks that mom and dad should buy everything he wants, “God should give us what we want.” Therefore, there are many cases where we do not think about God's will and simply pray according to our own desires.
There is a prayer that Korean mothers do well. “May my husband’s business prosper, and my only son, make sure he goes to college… .” Then he said, “Maybe God will give me great blessings because I pray so hard and live a good life of faith.” Thinking that, I buy a lottery ticket and wait for the first prize.
However, if God is truly omnipotent, He must not listen to anything. If an omniscient God, shouldn't he at least be able to tell what is right and what is wrong? If he listens unconditionally regardless of right or wrong just because he clings to him, wouldn't he not have the qualifications of God?
Therefore, if you remain in this kind of conditional and selfish faith, not only will your faith not grow, but it will be easily shaken. It's not windy.
Another answer we can answer to the question, “Why do you believe in God?” is, “I believe in order to live well.” Christians at this stage think, “In order to live life right, to live well and to live meaningfully, we must walk with God.”
When children are young, they just beg their parents, “Do this, do that.” I like it when I do it, and I hate it when I don't. Simple. However, as children grow older, their understanding of mothers and fathers changes. It is not good to buy sweets or toys, but to live in the love and protection of Mom and Dad, and realize how much blessing it is to you to live by your parents' loving teachings.
So, as the child grows older, he has deep conversations with his mother and father. Listening to Mom and Dad, and accepting the teachings. Learn to obey. As the years go by, the child realizes more and more that obedience to his parents is universally beneficial to him and is essential to leading a joyful and happy life.
The same is true. As a Christian listens to God's word and grows up in faith, the time comes when he realizes that living according to Heavenly Father's will is the happiest life.
When we drive a car, we drive it as intended by the person who made it. If you want to go, step on the accelerator, and if you want to stand, step on the brake. If you turn it upside down, you're in big trouble. The car benefits us only when we drive it according to the car's manual. Even when using a computer, good data can be obtained from the computer only as intended by the programmer.
The same is true. In order for us to live well and live happily in the world, we must know the intention of God who made the world exist and live according to its will.
God has given us some manuals. A manual called nature, a manual called conscience, and a manual called the Bible. If we look closely at the flow and principles of nature, we can feel the providence of God. If you always listen to the voice of your conscience and try to live a life that is not ashamed of yourself, you will be able to feel that you are walking with God.
However, the manual called the Bible is a problem. The Bible as a book is a vessel for the Word of God. The word of God is contained in the vessel of human language and logic as the food of life. Therefore, you should not chew the bowl and eat the food in it, but there are a lot of people who chew the bowl in our Korean church. This means that you should not be bound by the letter, but understand its meaning.
As I have said repeatedly, the central message of the Bible is the love of Gyeongcheon. The Bible says that when we look up to heaven and live without shame, and when we live loving our neighbors as ourselves, we can live with the greatest joy and happiness.
However, if you go against the will of God and try to satisfy your own greed and live without choosing any means, you will not be blessed in the end. It may seem like a good thing at first, but it pays off in the end. A child who listens to his parents will do well in the end. If you pretend to be a child, you will not be able to become a child who is filial and filial.
Just as a child grows up and at some point learns that the teachings of their parents are not interference but love, so as Christians grow in faith and grace, God's teachings do not interfere with our free life, but truly change our lives. You will find out that you are free.
So we come to know that in order to live well, to live as human beings, and to live meaningfully, we need to walk with God, listen to His Word, and live by His Word.
However, when a Christian deeply experiences God's grace and matures fully, this second stage of faith is also overcome. Those who are at this stage think, “I believe because it is the natural way for people to believe in God,” transcending all conditions such as “to live well, to live meaningfully, for what and what.”
In fact, what conditions do children need to honor and serve their parents? Whether the parents do it well or not, it is natural for children to respect their parents.
No matter how smart and talented a person is, a child who does not show filial piety to his or her parents is an unfilial child. The same is true. Our life comes from God. Just as it is natural to be filial to the parents who gave birth, it is natural to honor God the Father who gave life.
It is a great grace and blessing for us to recognize God as our ‘Father’ in our Christian faith. In different religious traditions it can be understood differently. We meet God as a personal ‘father (parent) God’, but in the East, it is expressed as the Tao or Dharma, and some theologians say that it is the ‘ultimate reality’.
Even if the recognition and expression are different, we are not alone thrown into this world, but when we realize that we are connected to the one source that makes the world exist, that there is the root of my life, we are grateful for the source and the ultimate. I can't help but have a heart, a heart of reverence.
Jesus taught us to call the Source and Ultimate One, “Our Father in heaven (Father).” So we are meeting him as the God who is the mother and father who embraces us all.
Just as it is natural for children to be filial to their parents unconditionally, “Because He saves me, He gives me eternal life, He sends me to Heaven, or because I live according to God’s word so that I can prosper… .” Transcending all such conditions, it is only natural for humans to honor God, and that is the faith of the forerunners of faith who have entered this stage.
If you have this kind of faith, you will have faith standing on the rock. A child who thinks, “My father gave me a lot of pocket money,” may hate him if his father does not give him pocket money. However, a child who thinks, “It’s good because it’s my father” is equally good whether or not he is given pocket money. It does not vibrate depending on the conditions.
It's pretty and cute for a little child to hang around saying, "Mom do this, Daddy do that" because they are young. However, until he reached the age of majority, he said, “Mom, what will you do for me? What would your father do for you?” Just thinking about it like that is really sad.
When you come of age, your thoughts should be mature. “How can I please my parents? My parents who worked so hard to raise this ugly child, how can I please them even a little bit?” You have to think like that.
When you first believe in God, you are very interested in the blessings God gives you. However, when you become a mature believer, you must change your thinking. “How can I please God? How can I mature in a perfect form before God? How can I become light and salt according to the word of our Lord, drive out the forces of darkness and live as a child of light that brightens the world?” That should be the main concern of our faith.
I hope that you will become our alumni who live full faith and perfect life before God.