The Last Three Messages

서론

- Today is the graduation day for 유은, Daniel, and Noah.

- So today is officially the last day when we can worship with them as Youth members although we still have some time more.

- Especially, for 유은, today is really the last day. She will move to the church her parents go to. And Daniel will move out of Fort Worth right after this retreat. Although David is not graduating, he will also leave for Korea after this retreat.

- Noah will leave youth group, but we will be able to see him in young adult group.

- I prepared for this message, thinking of these guys. So the sermon title is “the last three messages.”

- But it is also applicable to all of us. It’s a necessary message for us Christians to live in this world.

~ I wanna say three things. Please remember these three messages even after leaving our group.

First, keep the faith!

<< Heb 4:14 / Hold firmly to the faith we profess! Keep the faith!

- When you go to college, if you take a humanities class, you will learn that there is no God. They say that people created religions according to their needs. With this kind of teaching in college, many young Christians experience confusion, and many of them leave their faith.

- EX: I wasn’t exception. When I was a freshman in college, I learned the same message as what I just told you. I was confused. Moreover, while seeing many Christian seniors in college drink and do wrong, I began to doubt what I believed and what I learned from my parents. Actually, I almost lost my faith at that time.

- It is not easy to keep your faith in this world, especially in college.

- To keep this faith, we should hold the foundation of our faith. What is that? That is Jesus’ resurrection. <PPT>

- Even in my case, I could retrieve all my faith when I thought of and accepted the resurrection of Jesus later, a couple of years after I had lost my faith.

<< Acts 17:31

>> Consider Jesus’ resurrection. That is the foundation of our faith.

!! The resurrection of Jesus proves the truth we believe.

- And the dramatic change of the disciples who were cowards proves Jesus’ resurrection.

- Historically, Jesus’ eleven disciples except John, all of them had betrayed Jesus and hid themselves. But after witnessing Jesus resurrected and being forgiven by Jesus, they were changed and began to boldly preach the gospel of Jesus, his death and resurrection, and all of them except John were bravely martyred later. This is a historical fact.

- If they were changed like this without witnessing Jesus resurrected, does it make sense? No!

- As a result, there are two possibilities. They went crazy as a group. Or, Jesus was really resurrected and they saw Jesus resurrected as a group.

- It is right that people made numerous religions and gods. But Christianity is not just a religion. Jesus Christ is the only son of the only God. He is the truth, not just religion. And God has given the proof for us to believe, which is the resurrection.

>> Keep the faith! Whenever your faith wavers, consider the resurrection of Jesus.

Second, accept the Bible’s authority and consider the Word the standard for your life!

- The faith in Jesus is the most basic.

- By the way, there are people who believe in Jesus but don’t accept the Bible’s authority. There are many.

- From here, a lot of problems happen.

<< 2 Tim 3:16-17

- This text says of the authority of the written Bible. The whole Bible is God’s inspired Word. This perspective is very important for you to live as God pleases.

>> Consider the written Word of God as the standard by which you live, the standard for value judgment, and the standard for your important choices in life.

- When you go to college first, you will participate in orientation. There the first message toward you will be “tolerance” and “diversity.”

- It is good. I love tolerance and diversity. We should be always tolerant toward others, and we have to repect others’ diverse thoughts.

- But, there are always exceptions. In tolerance and diversity, there are exceptions.

- If you believe in God, you have to accept that there are what God is pleased with and what God hates. And these are written in the Bible.

- You have to be tolerant and respect diversity, but at least concerning what God said it is a sin, we must recognize them as sins.

- EX: Homosexuality, sexual relationship before marriage

- If many of your close friends insist that there is no problem in homosexuality, or if you are tempted by deep physical affection dating your girl friend or boy friend, you will try to justify the temptations.

- You may think that the Bible is written by only humans, so it is not the Word of God. Or you may think that there are many errors in the Bible and that the content of the Bible cannot be applicable to this era.

- There will be so many temptations to deny the authority of the Bible in your future.

- Q: Is the Bible the Word of God or not?

- Let’s think briefly. It is easy if we think how Jesus treated the Bible.

- Our Lord Jesus stressed the authority of the Bible a lot and even relied upon the Bible.

<< Matt 4 / When Satan tempted Jesus three times in the wilderness, Jesus won the spiritual battles by relying upon the Bible three times all. Jesus constantly says “it is written in the Bible that...”

!! Remember that the Bible is God’s inspired Word. Make the Bible the standard for your value judgment.

<< Rom 1:26-27 / The Bible clearly says that God hates homosexuality. Yes, we should still love and respect such people. But at least don’t deny that that is a sin.

<< Heb 13:4 / 1 Cor 7:9 / God allows sexual relationships only in marriage relation.

- Through the Bible, we can judge the will of God.

>> Make the Bible the touchstone for your life so that you may live a life as God wants.

Third, let the Holy Spirit lead your life!

- Now you are adults! It means that you have to take responsibility for your life.

- You have to make a lot of decisions. The thing is that nobody is sure that the decisions are right .

- It is hard to live by yourself. There will be many things that make you feel uneasy and anxious.

- You will stress out about grade, job-seeking, marriage, and your children. There is no end.

- By the way, there is one who leads your life. The Holy Spirit!

<< Gal 5:16, 18, 25

!! The Holy Spirit is the same one as God. So he is called God the Spirit. What matters is that the Spirit is with us personally. He lives in each of us. There, He leads our lives. And he will never leave you.

>> Therefore, be aware of his presense always and ask for his help whenever you face difficulties.

>> At important moments in your life, whenever you have to make important decisions, ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance!

- He will lead you, and you will experience the guidance of the Spirit.

- As for me, I have tried to be led by the Spirit every time I have to make important decisions.

- EX: When I marry.. I decided that I would not judge anything about marriage by myself. I decided not to trust in my thoughts and my emotions. I decided to be thoroughly led by the Spirit.

- When I met my wife first with a view to marriage, I tried not to be fascinated by her charm. I really devoted myself to praying to God, asking for God’s guidance.

- Although I cannot tell you everything in this time, God gave me many signs for me to accept that she is the one God prepared for me.

- EX: When I came to America..

- God led my family to come to America to study through the Spirit. When I hesitated to come to America in the process, I prayed for the guidance of the Spirit, and the Spirit led me to be sure of God’s will through diverse channels.

- Now, I wanna stress this to you guys. Let the Spirit lead your life, especially at important moments!

- Walk by the Spirit who remains in you!

- As verse 25 says, keep in step with the Spirit every moment of every day. Day by day! Step by step!

>> Then you don’t need to be anxious of your future.

결론

- I want 유은, Daniel, and Noah, and David and everybody here to live by faith.

- I will continuously watch you, how you live.

- When I heard of the news of the previous students I taught in Korea, the sadest news is this kind of thing.

- Somebody lost the faith. some doesn’t come to church any more.

- The sadest among these is that someone fell into heresy.

- My heart was broken.

- On the contrary, when I hear or see those who I taught in the church live by faith in the world, I am so happy.

- So remeber these three things. Everybody remember these.

- (1) Keep the faith! When your faith wavers, consider Jesus’ resurrection.

- (2) Accept the Bible’s authority and consider the Word the standard for your life! Believing in Jesus is enough to be saved, but it is not enough to live as God pleases. To please God, you have to live according to the written Word.

- (3) Let the Spirit lead your life! He is the one who lives in you to help you and lead your life! Ask for his guidance whenever you have to make important decisions.

기도제목

(1) Let’s pray to God, keeping these three messages in your heart!

(2) Graduates, come out! David, come out! Let’s pray for these guys!

찬양

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