Scripture Passage
Sermon Text
Scripture Passage
Mark 4:34-36
he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.
Kingdom of God
How wonderful it is for us to come together once a week and reflect upon our lives through the teaching of Jesus Christ. I think that is a tremendous blessing that God has given to us because during the week it is pretty hard to really reflect upon our lives. We are busy doing many things. At least we are forced to come to reflect and think about it when we gather once a week like this. I think it is pretty healthy spiritually and psychologically to truly reflect upon what is going on in my life and what is going on in my inner self. I think that’s pretty important for us to do that and I do believe that and have confidence that Jesus has a very good teaching and very good wisdom and truth to really apply that to our lives and I think we will be very much that we will be very much blessed by the teaching of Jesus Christ. Today Jesus told us what the Kingdom of God is like, and then this is what he said about the Kingdom of God, “The Kingdom of God is someone who would scatter seed on the ground and it will sleep and rise night and day and the seed will sprout and grow”. He does not know that is the teaching of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God. I want you to reflect upon it a little bit this afternoon. What does it mean to really understand the teaching of Jesus Christ? A person without it’s scattered the sea and then he came back and slept and rose again a few nights probably and then he saw the seed sprout and grew, but he doesn’t know how. What message does it have for the kingdom of God? First of all, what is the Kingdom of God?
The Kingdom of God is not a visible kingdom, it’s not a structure, it’s not a country, it’s not a system it’s not something that is tangible. What is the Kingdom of God? Let me simply say that the Kingdom of God is life with God, that’s what the Kingdom of God is, basically the kingdom of God, his reign of God reigns in your life. And then that is the Kingdom of God. But God is the sole of control, controlling your life, and then that is a kingdom of God. So the Kingdom of God is life with God. So Jesus is talking about our life and our life is with God. That’s what the Kingdom of God. Today Jesus is talking about our life somehow this is the passage that gives me peace. I was thinking, why? This passage gives me a peace, probably that phrase, “Sleep and rise”. You spread a seed and go to sleep, night and day and the seed will sprout and grow. We don’t live like that, we work hard, but many times I feel that working hard is not enough. Many times I feel that especially the nature of work that I do as a ministry, working with people endless, so I work hard, but working hard is never, I feel enough. Don’t you feel that many times, you work hard, but working hard is not enough? We worry about the result, we always worry about the result. But you know the results are not necessarily always good. Even though you work hard, the result is not guaranteed to be good. What will happen to my children? What will happen to my job or what will happen to my health? and what will happen to my future? Will my future be good if I really work hard now?
The Future
We constantly worry about the results and sometimes that affects our present life. We can’t even work hard and focus on our present because we worry about results and we seek ourselves if the result is not going to be while we work hard. If I put so much energy and passion and that turns out to be bad, I mean why work so hard? If there’s a guarantee, then I will work hard, but if there’s no guarantee why work hard? Human beings are very smart. They calculate all the times and then we work hard, but say you don’t see the results and if you don’t see the future then that affects our present life. In that sense, life can be tiring. Not only do we work hard, but you also worry about your precarious future. Maybe that’s why we cannot go all the way because of this reservation. Maybe because of this fear about the future, because of this worry about the future. Maybe in the present, we cannot go all the way because it will be disappointing.
Jesus said the Kingdom of God is different. Life with God is different. You spread a seed and sleep. In other words, you work hard and leave the future in God’s hand. You spread a seed and you don’t go dig the seed to see whether it’s growing or not, then you kill the seed. You spread the seed and wait, sleep and rise. You can only sleep and rise when you have faith. When you don’t have faith, you cannot sleep, you worry about what’s gonna happen to the seed, but when you have faith, you can sleep and rise and then next, what you see is seed miraculously grows and makes fruit. My friends, we don’t always control the result. That’s the nature of life. You don’t control the future. That is the nature of life.
God will use our hard work and God will bring results. Our future is not in our hands. Our future is in God’s hands. In the prison, I can work hard, but our future is not in our hands, it is in God’s hands. All the believers have this philosophy that the knew that their future is not in their hands, their future is in God’s hands. Listen to what they Saint Paul had to say, “I am confident of this. I am confident that they want to get a good word among you, bringing to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. God who began this good work in you. He is the one who will bring completion, not you. It’s not you bring everything to completion. It is God will bring to completion”. Life with God is like that, life without God is not like that. You leave the result totally and completely in God’s hands. That does not mean that you’ll prepare for the future. Of course, we will prepare for the future. Preparing for the future is spreading the seed around. But if there’s no seed, where is the seed supposed to sprout and where is the seed supposed to grow? So preparing for the future is like spreading the seed, you have to prepare for the future. You have to spread the seed first, but we don’t force the future. We don’t manipulate the result to fit our ideas of what our futures should be, we don’t manipulate it, we don’t force it. When you try to do that, all kinds of bad things started happening. We work hard as much as we can and always leave the result in God’s hands and then what you will see is that’s how God moves. The people who always control the result that controls the future never seek God’s hands, but when you leave future in God’s hands, then you understand how God moves and that’s who God is like. You understand God and you’ll understand the will of God and you understand the movement of God and that is only possible when you have faith. When you don’t have faith, you cannot see it. First of all, you cannot leave your future in God’s hands, second, you cannot see how God moves. You can not see the will of God and you can not see who God is like. Amazing feel about having faith in leaving your future in God’s hands that you can intuitively understand who truly God is like. Even if the result is not what you expected or wanted, we have to accept the results and move on. Trusting that God will ultimately bring it to completion.
Leave it in God’s Hands
We need radical faith in God’s doing. We need radical faith in God’s doing, that radical faith is a foolish fit. Sometimes we need to be a fool, don’t be too smart with God. Sometimes we have to be a fool to truly trust in God’s doing. Abraham left Haran, completely trusting in God, he didn’t even know where he was going. God said simply “Promise land you go” and he just left and then God says, unacceptable thing, God said, “sacrifice your son Isaac”, and he even trusted that and tried to sacrifice his son. It’s kind of ridiculous in a way, but in that process he learned the truth.
Jehovah’s meaning “God prepares”, prepares something for our future. My friends in spiritual journey, journey to fullness, if faith is not there, there’s no journey. Only two things, you work hard and you believe, you believe and you work hard. Even if the result is not what you expected, you still believe. As you start learning to leave results in God’s hands. When you start doing that, when you started learning how to do that, leave your future God’s hands. What you experience is freedom. You become totally free and then from the freedom you experience peace, you’re free from anxieties and worries and you experience peace in you. Even though you’re tired, that life is difficult and that all kinds of problems and that life can be messy and all these things happened, but still there is peace in your heart when seeing your future in God’s hands.
When you leave your future in God’s hands, you will become much more effective and creative. You may become bold and courageous. You can try new things because you’re not scared of failures. You may fail at times, but you are never a failure. As long as you are in God’s hands, you are never a failure. We may fail many times but we will never ultimately be a failure, so when you trust in God, we get better. You can be bold, courageous, creative and can even be effective. The present comes alive when you leave the future in God’s hands.
That’s the beauty of this, a secret in being in God. When you try to be safe all the time you lose yourself. When you leave your life in God’s hands, you’ll boldly move on. In the second parable, Jesus said, “the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, the smallest seed in the world, but in the end, you’ll be the biggest of short”. You start with being a small person, but when you trust in God, God will make you a bigger person who will bring tremendous results and people will come to you and experience freedom. I hope that you leave your future in God’s hands and today live peacefully, freely and happily and work hard and do not worry about tomorrow. Your children leave it in God’s hands. Your family, your job, your house, leave it in God’s hands.
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