[영어설교 / English Sermon ] take up their cross and follow me

[영어예배설교 / English Sermon ] take up their cross and follow me 

 

 

Dear Father,

Please cover me with your Holy Spirit so that only your word may be proclaimed.

Open our hearts so that we may hear your living word and receive your grace.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen

 

John 11;25-26

Jesus said to her, " I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believe in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

Do you believe this?."

 

there was a fisher man named Peter in Scandinavia. One day he went to fish with his beloved son. There were unexpected storm in that day. Peter's fishing boat was drifting like a leaf. Peter fought against big wave and strong wind for hours in the pitch dark night only to lose his sense of direction and energy and which led him to desparate situation. Then, he noticed a very bright pillar of fire in far away direction, which means the land is nearby. So Peter paddled his boat in that direction with all his strength.

Unexpectedly the place Peter reached was the village where he lived. Peter's wife was all tears when she met her husband and her son. Her cry had different reason than what Peter expected.

  "Honey, because of my fault the whole house got burned down and all the household furnitures are  lost. What shall I do now?."

That pillar of fire was from his burning house. Peter embraced his wife and told her in happy face and said .

  "Honey thank you. The fire you caused saved me and our son. Without that pillar of fire we both probably would have perished. Thank you for burning our house."

It is a true story. There is a very important message in it.

During our life time, some days we enjoy warm and brilliant sun shines but other days we have to go through the long miserable dark tunnels. Sometimes you enjoy beautiful wide open ocean from the cool shore of the ocean's edge, but, other times you encounter unexpected strong storm on pitch dark night at the sea and you become disoriented and exhausted from struggling against them and drifting like a piece of drift wood in the middle of ocean.

  To believe in Jesus who has resurrected from the death means you go forward straight to the life of light just like in the story I have described.

A Christian who believes in Jesus who overcame the death is blessed with the power from God to overcome any miseries and hardships while living in this temporary world because those who believe that Jesus Christ is his savior is blessed with eternal life with Jesus. All children of God who hope to be in heaven never despair with any hardship no matter how hard it is and believes that he will overcome them all. Hallelujah!!!.

 

John 12:24

Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

 

Jesus has died as one single seed of wheat. His death has produced countless fruits and it still doing it. When we die with Jesus we will live as His disciples.

To die with Christ means we have nailed our physical desires and sinful minds on the cross.

Through Christ who lives within us, we are able to bear fruits of the Holy Spirit and bring life to the dying souls. 

 

John 12:25

Anyone who loves their life will loose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

 

 We all are self-loving people. We fight for our self interest and worldly fame and power with tooth and nail. To achieve our goals we sometimes cheat and harm other people.

Bible said, anyone who is busy living a life of worldly physical desires, that is, who loves nothing but his worldly life will lose his life and wander in the darkness of death.

However, God tells us that He will give eternal life to whoever hates the earthly life or the worldly things and instead loves and cares for his neighbors and follows the footsteps of Christ.

 

Matthew 16:24

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

 

Jesus is saying that unless you deny yourself to get rid of  worldly desires, possessions and indulge in the worldly luxury, you can not follow the way of Jesus.

 

John 10:27

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

 

The followers of Jesus will recognize His voice. Jesus Christ makes you His children as long as you believe that Jesus took all your dirty sins upon Himself and died

on the cross for you and resurrected from death.

Holy spirit is in the children of God and he opens their spiritual minds to listen to God’s words so they can be connect with God.

Those who are rewarded with the Holy spirit will be led by the Holy spirit and never be tempted by the worldly possession and lust.

They will live the life of self denial and carry his own cross to follow the way of Jesus. God's almighty power will never allow anybody to take away His children from Father God. Hallelujah!!.

 

John 14:21

Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.

 

Jesus declared that only who keeps His commands are the one who loves Him.

How is the life of person who keeps his commands?.

It is the life that faithfully and obediently follows His commands.

Jesus said whoever loves me will also be loved by my Father too. Anybody who loves Jesus will be obedient to His words and be loved by His Father.

It means we will be like Jesus.

God is the love and the light.

 

All who is loved and lives in the light of God will no more be controlled by the darkness and sorrows. God's light will get rid of all those dark and oppressive miseries which so far controlled us. God's love will cure and restore the deep mental anguishes and undesirable pains we have been suffering. Hallelujah!!.

I praise the God who has saved us from all the pain and misery.

I praise the God who has led us to His light and comforted us and promised the peace.

I love Father God and His Son Jesus and The Holy Spirit who has  saved us and allow us to have an eternal life.

 

John 24:26

But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything  I have said to you.

 

My dear brothers and sisters!

Ask for the Holy Spirit! Ask for His grace!.

When we are in the full of grace, our spiritual eyes will be opened wide and bright as if a blind man has gained the sight.

Through His words we will meet our God and hear His voice. We will experience the love of our living God when we praise and exalt Him.

We will achieve the direct communication and conversation with spiritual God  when pray for the righteousness in heaven.

 

1 Corinthians 2:14

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

 

Who are the people that are of this worlds?

Those are the person who is busy looking for the short lived pleasures and gratifications. Satan is very jealous and hate people who is close and intimate with God. Satan tempts  us to fall into the world of temporary pleasure and gratification with sweet and delicious things.

People who fall into such temptations and are consumed by worldly things are those that are "of this world".

The person who is blinded by the worldly things tends to despair and rejects 'Spiritual things'.

Also, they don't understand them.

One cannot follow the spiritual way if one is slave to the worldly things. The Holy Spirit will be revealed to us when we denounce the bodily sins and gratification and follow Jesus Christ carrying our own cross, then we will enjoy and live the eternal life as the children of God who

is the light and the love.

 

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

 

God promised us peace to us which is unlike of anything from this world when we follow Jesus Christ carrying our own cross and lead the life which is Jesus like.

God said 'Do not let your heart be troubled and do  not afraid.'

When we are enjoying the peace given to us through the God's grace, all those anxiety, worry and uneasiness  which were relentlessly tormented us will  leave us alone. All those power of darkness which has been harassing and made us miserable will be finally  gone for good.

I believe all of you who are gathered here to worship God will enjoy the God given peace and praise God everyday of your life,

I also believe you will meditate on God's words and will follow His way. And to achieve this goal you will pray all the time and conquer the Satan's temptation.

 

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the words of  precious life. Please embrace us with Your grace and Holy Spirit, and lead us to meditate on your words and pray to You all the time. Please lead us to praise Father God who saved us.
 

We pray in the name of our savior Jesus Christ. Amen.