동문동호회

하나님을 믿는다는 것은 무엇일까요?
하나님을 믿는다는 것은 하나님과 관계를 맺는 것입니다.
여러분은 하나님과 어떤 관계를 갖고 계십니까?
이에 대한 의미를 영어설교를 통해 전해드립니다.

29회 배종호 올림


What relationship do you have with God?

(Genesis3:21)

“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”

What do you think about the meaning of believing in God?

I think in some point, believing in God is having a relationship with God.

If you believe in God, you must have a relationship with God.

Instead, if you believe in false god, probably you have a relationship with false god.

Therefore, to be a Christian means to have a relationship with God.

That is to say, we become the children of God through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

We were sinners before we accepted Jesus as our Savior.

We were destined to die, to suffer eternal death.

But after we made a relationship with Jesus Christ, after we accepted Him as our Savior, the blood of Jesus cleansed our sins.

Through the blood of Jesus Christ, we became the children of God, and we received eternal life.

Romans 10:9-10 says;

“⁹That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior with your heart, you have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

That is to say, Jesus Christ becomes your Savior , your Lord, through your faith.

And you have a special relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

That is to say, you become the children of God through Jesus Christ, Son of God who died for us on the cross.

God becomes your Father through the blood of Jesus.

On the contrary, if you do not believe in Jesus Christ, you have no relationship with God.

You are nothing to God.

If you do not believe in Jesus Christ, you are a man of the world who must be punished by God on the last day.

Therefore, believing in God is having a relationship with God.

If you believe in God, you must have a relationship with God.

If you are a sincere Christian, you must have a loving relationship with God.

My brothers and sisters!

Do you have a special relationship with God?

Is God your Father?

Are you children of God?

My brothers and sisters!

Why do you think God created us?

God created us to have a loving relationship with us.

Let’s turn to Psalms 149:4;

“For the LORD takes delight in his people”

Yes God made us to take delight in us.

Therefore we must be the joy of God.

My brothers and sisters!

If you are a sincere Christian, you must give God joy through all your life.

You must try to give God joy always in your life.

Try to give God joy in your home.

Try to give God joy in your workplace.

Try to give God joy in your business.

Try to give God joy in your church.

Try to give God joy in any time, at anywhere.

We must make the joy of God our number one priority.

I am trying to make the joy of God as my priority.

When somebody hurts me, I get angry and a feeling of revenge springs out from my heart instinctively.

When this happens, I try to resist the feeling of revenge by thinking about the heart of my Heavenly Father.

If I retaliate, how would my Heavenly Father feel? Would he be happy or sad? Then how should I act? Should I strike back or be patient, hate or forgive?

After following this kind of procedure, I try to obey the voice of God, because I think that this will make my Father happy.

Amazingly when I give joy to Heavenly Father, the joy of heaven flows out from my heart.

Hallelujah!

Even when I try to give joy to Father, I can feel the joy of heaven coming into my heart.

Some of you may doubt it.

Then try it to see whether it is true or not.

I guarantee that you will feel the joy of heaven whenever you try to make our heavenly Father happy.

This is the spiritual principal.

My brothers and sisters!

As I told you, if we are sincere Christians, we must have a right relationship with God.

Nevertheless, there are many Christians who don’t have a right relationship with God.

Some of them seem to have no special relationship with God.

But if we have no special relationship with God we are not Christians, and we are not the children of God.

There are three parts in having a right relationship with God.

That is to say, our relationship with God must be real, personal, and practical.

There are so many churchgoers today.

Unfortunately, many of them have no real relationship with God.

They do not know how to have a relationship with God.

They think that having relationship with God is just fiction.

They doubt the existence of God.

How about you my brothers and sisters?

Do you have a real relationship with God?

Before falling, Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden of Eden.

They had a real relationship with God.

Noah also walked with God in this world.

He had a real relationship with God.

Let’s turn to Genesis 6:9;

^“This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”

In the case of Elijah, he walked with God in this world and he was directly taken to heaven by God, without death.

Let’s turn to 2 King 2:11-12;

^“11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. ¹² Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.”

My brothers and sisters!

As you observed, man of God in the Bible had a true relationship with God.

I bless all of you to have a real relationship with God.

I bless all of you to walk with God in this world.

Second, we must have a personal relationship with G      od.

If we are true Christians, we must have a personal relationship with God.

We must have an experience of meeting God one to one.

It is useless that your mother or your father met God.

You must meet God.

It is useless that your mother or your father has personal relationship with God.

You must have a loving relationship with God personally.

A person cannot love without another “someone” to love.

A love relationship with God takes place between two real beings.

Therefore a relationship with God must be real and personal.

How about you my brothers and sisters!

Have you ever met God?

Do you have personal relationship with God?

If you cannot think of a time when your relationship with God has been real and personal, you need to spend time evaluating your relationship with God.

Go before the LORD in prayer and ask Him to reveal the true nature of your relationship to Him.

Ask Him to bring you to into that kind of relationship.

Third, we must have practical relationship with God.

Unbelievers make fun of us like this;

Does God give you bread?

Does God give you money?

Even many Christians doubt whether God provides their needs.

But our God is very practical.

He provides everything we need.

If we need money, our Father will surely give us money.

If we need bread, our Father will surely give us bread.

If we need a job, our Father will surely give us a good job.

When the Israelites needed bread, He supplied them manna and quail.

When the Israelites needed water, He supplied them water from a rock in desert.

He was very practical to His children.

When Adam and Eve were expelled from the Eden due to their sin, God provided them clothing to cover their nakedness.

He met Adam and Eve’s practical needs even though they had sinned.

It was the love of God.

Now, let’s turn to today’s passage, Genesis 3:21;

“The Lord made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”

How did God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife?

Provably, God killed an animal to make garments of skin for Adam and Eve.

Therefore, garments of skin symbolize the death of Jesus Christ who sacrificed for us, sinners.

Think about the broken heart of God when Adam and Eve betrayed the relationship with God.

God’s heart must have been ripped apart when Adam and Eve fell to the temptation of serpent.

Why did Adam and E ve eat the fruit of tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

They ate that fruit to become like God.

Nevertheless, God came after them and covered their nakedness with garments of animal by sacrificing the animal.

God sacrificed the animal to cover their nakedness.

This is the love of God.

God never forsook them.

God’s love is unfailing.

Like this, God sacrificed His one and only Son, Jesus, to save us when we were still sinners.

Is there anyone who is suffering from his or her sins?

Then come to Him and bring all your sins to the cross. Confess your sins to Jesus Christ and pray to Him to forgive your sins.

Jesus Christ will surely forgive all your sins with unfailing and unchanging love.

As He made garments of animal and clothed Adam and Eve when they were naked, our God is very practical.

Nevertheless, there are many Christians whose faith has nothing to do with their practical needs.

But, if we are true Christians, our practical needs must be provided by the practical help of God.

I believe that if we have strong faith that God is our heavenly Father who surely meets all our needs, our Heavenly Father will meets all our needs as we believe.

Do you need money?

Do you need bread?

Do you need job?

Ask God to meet all your needs with faith; then our Heavenly Father will surely provide all our needs.

Let’s turn to Mark 11:23-24;

^“23"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. ²⁴Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

My brothers and sisters!

Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Important thing is faith.

Important thing is to have faith that God is our Heavenly Father who always sees us with love and provides us everything we need.

Let’s turn to Matthew 7:31-32;

^“31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.”

My brothers and sisters!

Our heavenly Father knows what we need.

If we pray to God with faith, our Father will surely meet all our needs.

As I gave my testimony several times, my heavenly Father has taken care of me and all our family after I quit my job according to God’s calling.

God has provided me and my family with wealth and prosperity much better than the past.

My family and I have enjoyed God’s special grace and love.

Recently, my oldest daughter, Eunjung went to the United States as an exchange student.

It was a special grace of God.

It might be the award of God for Enjung’s devotion to this church.

I can feel the hand of God who leads me and my family to the green pasture, after I devoted my life to God.

When I needed money, he provided me money.

When I needed a job, he gave me a good job.

Like this, our God is very practical.

I believe that if we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, all our needs will be given to us as well.

Important thing is the constant presence of God.

If we can feel the presence of God constantly in our lives and if there is the presence of God constantly in our lives, we can enjoy the help of our practical God.

I bless all of you to have a practical relationship with God.

Now, I will wrap up my sermon.

The essence of a Christian life is to have relationship with God.

If you do not have any relationship with God, you are nothing, and you will never go to heaven.

And you cannot enjoy God’s special grace and blessing and love in this world.

If you are a sincere Christian, then you must have right relationship with God.

Your relationship with God must be real, personal, and practical.

For some reason, if you think that your relationship with God is not real, nor personal, nor practical, you have a serious problem in your faith.

Go before the Lord in prayer and ask Him to help you to have real, personal, and practical relationship with Him.

I believe that we can live prosperous and blessed lives in this world if we have real, personal, and practical relationship with God.

The constant presence of God is the most practical part of our lives and our ministry.

I bless that all of you have real, personal, and practical relationship with God.

I bless that all of you feel the constant presence of God in your daily lives.

Let’s pray.