Life after Salvation (1): Sanctification

서론: 구원 이후의 삶

1) 복음을 믿음으로 구원받는다

- Last Sunday I told you that we are saved by believing in the Gospel.

- I said faith is enough because Jesus did everything for our salvation. If we truly believe in Jesus, we become God’s children, because we became good and faithful father’s children, our salvation is not cancelled. This is God’s amazing grace.

2) Life after salvation

- The problem is a life after salvation. Many Christians do not know how their lives should be after being saved.

- EX: 표 보여주기 <PPT>

- Because they don’t know how to live after salvation until death, the purpose of their lives don’t change although they were saved,

- Some Christians still live according to the value of the world. They pursue to be more successful than others with God’s help. They think that being more successful than non-believers is glorifying God.

- Other Christians devote themselves to religious activities.

- They participate in most worship services and church events. They enjoy fellowships with diverse people in the church. They form hobby club in the church and enjoy their hobby together. They are involved in many important roles in the church.

- However, these things are not the most important things in lives after salvation.

3) Question

- How should we live after salvation?

- What should be the purpose of our lives?

- In the Bible, there is the answer God already gave us.

- Let’s examine what the Bible says!

Sanctification

1) God’s answer is our sactification.

<< 1 Thess 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification...”

- The Bible answers that God’s will is our sanctification.

- Sanctification is 성화 in Korean. It means being holy.

- This word is still difficult to understand. Nevertheless, it will be beneficial to know this word because it is very important concept in the Bible and Christian life.

2) What is sanctification?

- The definition is this: “A lifetime process of becoming more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.” <PPT>

- Easily speaking, sanctification is to become more and more like Jesus in our actual lives.

3) Likeness to Jesus <PPT>

<< 1 Pet 1:15-16

- Just as God is holy, we should be holy like our God.

- God is our father, and we are His children.

- It is natural that parents want their kids to resemble them.

- EX: my older girl Dahui is hot-tempered a little bit. And she likes ice cream. easily frightened / very mischievous

- But I like that because her that personality resembles my personality. I was that kind of person when I was a child.

- I feel good when I see my child look like me.

- The same is true of God. What God wants is for us to resemble God or Jesus.

- Therefore, the standard for sanctification is not religious activities or your influence in the church or your success in the world but “likeness to Jesus.”

- After salvation, as time goes by, our thoughs, words, and behaviors should become more and more like Jesus. This is sanctification, and this is God’s will for us.

4) Relationship with God <PPT>

- To put it another way, sanctification is to become more and more intimate with God and love Him more and more.

- After we are saved through faith, God wants the relationship between God and us to develop more and to be deeper.

- EX: Marriage life

- If you marry your spouse, is that an end? No, marriage is not end but a new beginning. You will marry your future spouse because you love him or her. But after the marriage, the love should be deeper as time goes by.

- There is a famous saying: “I love you more today than yesterday but not as much as tomorrow.” <PPT>

- Sanctification is loving God more and more throughout a lifetime.

Sanctification should be the purpose of our lives

1) The purpose God saved us & the purpose of our lives

<< Eph 1:4

- This verse says that God chose us to be holy and blameless in God’s sight.

- The purpose God saved us is our sactification. That’s why sanctification is important.

- In other words, this can also mean that sanctification should be the purpose of our lives. Agree?

- Think about the purpose of your life now. What is the aim of your life? To be happy? to be rich? to make this world better? To help poor people?

- These all are good.

- By the way, if you were saved from eternal punishment by God’s amazing grace of sacrificing His only Son Jesus, I think it is right that the purpose of your life must be decided as God wants and as the Bible says.

- The texts we read in this time say that the purpose of our lives should be sanctification. <PPT>

- 표를 다시 보여주면서 <PPT>

- This is the direction in which we have to go between these two.

2) Our lifetime mission / progressive process

- Sactification is our lifelong mission. It’s ongoing process throughout a lifetime.

- It is impossible for us to be perfectly holy on this earth. Because we still have sinful nature in us.

- But we have to strive to resemble Jesus as much as we can.

3) 나중에 주님을 만날 때, 주님이 물어보심

- Some day we all will die or Jesus may come again before we die. Then we all will stand before the Lord. Then, Jesus will ask us questions to evaluate our lives.

- Jesus won’t ask, “What was your job? how smart were you? How was your grade in school? What college did you go?”

- Instead Jesus will ask, “How much did you resemble me? How much did you love me? How much did you accomplish sanctification?”

- And Jesus will evaluate your life with the answer to these questions. Sanctification is the standard with which Jesus evaluates our lives.

- If we die tonight, or if Jesus comes back tonight and He asks us these questions, how will you answer to Jesus? Think about this now!

>> Therefore, pursue to be sanctified in your life! Desire to become more and more like Jesus!

- This is the most important matter in our lives.

How can we be sanctified? How can we take after Jesus in our lives?

- Then how can we be sanctified? How can we take after Jesus in our lives?

- Let’s me give you three tips for sanctification.

1) 예수님 바라보기 Looking to Jesus <PPT>

- Just as we were saved by believing in Jesus, we are sanctified by looking to Jesus.

- When we continuously look to Jesus, we resemble Jesus.

<< 1 Cor 1:30 / This verse says Jesus has become our holiness.

- When we meditate on Jesus’ death and resurrection, we feel God’s great love for us.

- Then, love for God and gratitude for God arise from our hearts.

- Because of the love and gratitude for God, we come to wannna willingly obey the word of God. And we can overcome sins.

- What are your first thoughts every morning? Game? news? homework?

>> Consider Jesus, his sacrifice for us, and his love for us every morning!

>> Look to Jesus and meditate on His love for you every day!

- It will make you resemble Jesus.

2) 성령님 의지하기 Relying upon the Holy Spirit <PPT>

- Actually, sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit. The main work of the Holy Spirit is to make us holy, to make us resemble Jesus.

- In our lifetime, the Holy Spirit continuously renews and empowers us to resemble and love Jesus so that we may be free from sin and obey the word of God.

>> Thus, it is necessary to rely upon the Holy Spirit for our sanctification!

>> Be always aware that HS always remains in you! Walk with Him every day every moment!

>> Admit that we cannot take after Jesus by ourselves! Ask for and rely upon the help of the Holy Spirit to become more like Jesus.

- He will accomplish our sanctification in us.

3) 말씀과 기도 The Word and the prayer

- There are also things we have to do to resemble Jesus.

- We should strive to accomplish our sanctification in our lives through diverse means.

- EX: Reading and meditating on the Bible, prayers, worship, Christian fellowship, evangelizing, and so forth.

- Among these, the word of God and prayer are most important and most basic. <PPT>

<< 1 Tim 4:5

- Through the Word of God, we can learn who Jesus is and what Jesus want from us. As reading and meditating on the Word regularly, we become more like Jesus little by little.

- As we pray to God, we fellowship with God and resemble God. And we gain power to live according to His will.

- Without thses two, we cannot take after Jesus.

>> Read the Bible every day even though it is only one chapter.

>> Meditate on what you read and pray with it!

- This is the most effective way “we” can do for our sanctification.

권면과 결론

- EX: We see some celebrities like sports players or movie stars give glory to God when they accept great awards.

- “I glorify God with this award.” “This glory be to God!”

- These public confessions before many people are very precious. I think that God was pleased with these words.

- But God is not glorified with those words or those achievements always. The Bible does not say like that.

- According to the Bible, our God is glorified through our sanctification, not our successful life or some achievement.

>> Glorify God through your sanctification! <PPT>

>> Risk your life for sanctification!

>> Make every effort to resemble and love Jesus in your daily life.

- This is the thing God is pleased with the most and the way how we become happiest consequently.

- This is the way to benefit us forever.

찬양: 예수 닮기를

- 가사 설명

함께 기도

- 예수님 닮기를 갈망하게 하소서!

- 주님이 가장 기뻐하시는 일! 나의 삶의 목적이 되게 하소서!