SERMONS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BECOME OUR COWORKERS (III)

Warm greetings to you all! Since the summer discipleship training camp, we have all labored very hard for the last half of this year to serve and preach the gospel faithfully, even though we have also been busy taking care of our families, studying hard, or holding down a job. Take a look outside. It’s been snowing heavily since yesterday. As everything here is covered in snow, I have every confidence that thanks to our diligent efforts the gospel will also be preached widely to cover the entire world. I see that all of you gathered here today have not changed much from the last summer discipleship camp, and I am very thankful for your unchanging dedication. The very fact that we can once again see familiar faces here is in itself a wonderful blessing of God.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

Here, there, and everywhere people are receiving the remission of their sins by hearing the gospel that we are preaching. And so, I feel that those of us who are in the Church should have proper hearts before God. That’s why recently I have been preaching on our hearts as often as I can.God has given and blessed us with so many things. We were lacking in so many things, so we prayed to the Lord and He has met our needs. When we asked for material things He gave us material things, and when we prayed for souls He brought souls into our midst. In this way, God has filled our hearts and our needs. And so, I have been thinking about what we need to be asking for and seeking from God as we live each day. And, since God has filled us with material things in order for our hearts to be blessed by Him and for our precious faith to be passed down to our descendants, we must be the people who proclaim the blessings of God.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

Here God told Noah to take into the ark two pairs of unclean animals, male and female, and seven pairs of clean animals, male and female as well. This is a very important passage. God was telling Noah to save every living species when He judged this world with water. So, all the species living on the face of this earth came into the ark without any exception. Why did God say this? That God told Noah to take into the ark two pairs of unclean animals, male and female, means that He entrusted him with the work of saving every soul. Put differently, God had taken Noah as His laborer to fulfill His will. As you will soon come to understand, Noah worked with God to bring unclean and clean animals into the ark.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

Noah had a family of eight, including three sons named Ham, Shem, and Japheth. All human beings in this world descended from these three sons of Noah. Shem, Ham, and Japheth each bore children, and these children continued to multiply. Before the flood of Noah, the average lifespan for human beings was around 900 years. But the life expectancy fell sharply after the flood, from about 900 years to around 200 years, as we can glimpse from the fact that Abraham passed away at the age of 175. In contrast, it wasn’t until Noah was 500 years old that he began to build the ark, and it wasn’t until he turned 600 years that the rain came down for 40 days and nights to inundate the whole world. After the water receded, Noah and his family disembarked from the ark and the human race began to multiply again through his three sons. The people in those days still lived for a long time, so it was common for several generations to live in the same house. In other words, the whole clan lived next to one another.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

I have been a very pensive person ever since childhood. I tended to be a quiet child, and so I did not talk much, but in my head I was always thinking about something. Whether I was eating a meal or walking somewhere, I was so pensive that I sometimes forgot to greet the elderly in my neighborhood and was rebuked for being impolite. As you might know yourself, in the old countryside, not greeting the elderly appropriately was a cause for chastisement. Frankly, few people in this world actually fulfill everything they have dreamed about. But as everyone is entitled to a little delusion of his own, everyone has a dream and imagines about the future. In this light, perhaps it’s inevitably for people to live with certain delusions or imaginations. Anyways, my mind was preoccupied with many thoughts like this, running with all kinds of imaginations, sometimes about unattainable things, and in this way I was living in my own little cocoon.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

Through Noah’s walk of faith shown in today’s Scripture passage, we need to examine here how we should lead our lives. Noah had built the ark for one hundred years, and the great flood came on the year when Noah completed the ark. Seven days before the coming of the flood, according to God’s Word, Noah called into the ark his family and every species of animals and of the birds in the sky. Of course, it was God who had compelled them to come into the ark, but Noah had made all the preparations by trusting in the Word of God. To put it simply, Noah had carried out the work of the Spirit.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

In today’s Scripture reading taken from Genesis chapter 19 we see God rained down fire and brimstone on the land of Sodom and destroyed it completely; a city where Abraham’s nephew Lot had been living. As you know very well, God judged this world with water in the days of Noah. And now, in the days of Abraham, God judged the land of Sodom with fire. Abraham’s nephew Lot was living in Sodom at this time, but because Sodom and another nearby city, Gomorrah, were so wicked, God had decided to judge them. When Lot heard about this imminent judgment from the two angles that were sent by God, Lot told his family members about it, but while his wife and two daughters believed him, his sons-in-law did not take his words seriously thinking he was only joking.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

In Genesis 17, God is teaching us all about circumcision. The definition of the word, ‘circumcision’ in the dictionary means ‘removal of the prepuce of a male.’ To be specific, it is the surgical removal of the foreskin of the penis. God said that not only the Israelites but everyone in this world should be circumcised. He added that those who are circumcised will belong to God, but those who are not will be cut off from His people.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

It is very important for you to understand here that it was not the son of Sarah, Abraham’s legitimate wife, who scoffed first. It’s written, “Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing.” As the above passage shows, Ishmael the son of Abraham, who was born from Hagar the bondwoman, first scoffed at Isaac the son of Sarah. At that time, Ishmael was around 13 years old. And Isaac had just been weaned. It says here that Abraham held a great feast after Isaac was weaned.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

When we look at this Scripture carefully we see Abraham trying to get his son Isaac married and entrusted everything concerning this marriage to his old servant. Abraham had this trusted servant bring back for him the bride-to-be for his son. We see Abraham entrusting not only his son’s marriage but the management of the possessions and wealth of his entire household to this servant. The reason for this was that Abraham knew that among the many servants he owned, this old servant was the most trustworthy and had the exact same faith he had.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

When God told Abraham to offer up his son as a burnt offering in order to test him, Abraham complied and obeyed that Word of God just as it is. Abraham fully obeyed what God had told him to do. Seeing Abraham’s faith, God made a blessed promise to him saying that He will multiply his seed and that through the one born from his flesh all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

Today’s Scripture passage deals with the story of how our forefather of faith Abraham had grown old and how he attempted to have his only son Isaac be married. And in this passage, Abraham instructs his servant who goes to find his future daughter-in-law, saying, “You shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” Yes, he told his oldest servant to go to his country and to his family to find a wife for his son. Then, why did Abraham say this and why did God have this event recorded in this way? You and I will examine this together from this point on.   https://www.bjnewlife.org/ https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35