Let's have Jesus' attitude

Let's have Jesus' attitude Last Thursday Whanju called me and said there are three of them in his company who give him a hard time. We know it is not easy to serve in the riot police. What bothered me much was all of three, they are christians. There are more than 10 million christians in Korea but we are no different from any other nations. In a sense we are worse than some other countries. Why is that so? I think it's because we are not do-christians. To be better christians, I think we should apply Jesus' teaching to our daily lives more. 1. A good christian is humble. Open your bible Philippians 2; 5-8 "5 Your attitude should be same as that of Christ Jesus 6 who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped(움켜쥐다. 파악하다. 이해하다) 7 but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on the cross." Jesus who is God himself came upon earth as a servant. He didn't regard equality with God. He humbled himself to the point that he washed his disciples' feet and died on the cross for you and I. This is the Jesus Christ we believe in. Paul says in I Peter 5; 5-6, "5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time." It is nice to know God gives grace to the humble. James also tells us God will lift us when we are humble in 4;10 and in Proverbs 29;23 it says "We can gain honor." Let me quote Andrew Merry's in Korean "겸손은 마음의 완전한 평온을 말합니다. 초조해 하거나 슬퍼하거나 실망하지 않습니다. 겸손은 아무 것도 기대하지 않으며 내게 일어난 일을 이상히 여기지도 않습니다. 아무도 나를 칭찬하지 않을 때나 비난과 별시를 당한 때에도 겸손은 나를 평안하게 하여 줍니다. How nice it is! It is possible because we christians have hope above in heaven not on earth. We are abundantly blessed. 2. A good christian controls his tongue. The wild tongues we have are the most difficult things to control. That's what James says. " but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (James 3; 8) What about Psalm? In 52; 2 "Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit(기만)." The writter tells us that our tongues are very dangerous and it's easy to lie and cheat. God warns us three things about tongues. a. Sins are unvoidable. Proverbs 10;19 b. Separate close friends. Proverbs 17;9 c. Deceive his own heart. James 1;26 Then what should we do with it? "The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught." (Isaiah 50; 4) "My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long in Psalm 35;28" "Do not let any unwholesome(harmful) talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen in Ephesians 4;29" Above bible verses say, with tongues we have to teach to sad and weary people because Jesus gave us ability to say and speak of righteousness and we have to praise Him all day long. What's more? Don't say bad things. Say something people need, things that will help people become strong. 3. A good christians shine God's light before others in love. Yesterday George Carman at Sunset told us a story about fighting over fish smell or something in a church in Medison County in US. Two men fought in the church yard during the worship service. After that the church members scattered and there were only 11 members left out of two hundreds. And he was asked from a rich member of the church to rebuild the church to be paid. It took two years to reach 130 members in the situation "Oh you peach in the fish smell fighting church." from every man he met in town. Let's look up the bible. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5;16) Matthew asks us to shine our light. How? Through good work. To do this we need to practice love Paul teaches us what love is in I Corinthians chapter 13 and John also mentions in I John chapter 4. So we don't want to go into what love is. But today we will look how we can get it and who we should love. In Romans 5;5 "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." The moment we become christians, we are connected with his love. It is different from the love world gives. To love others is our destiny. So we suffer when we don't love. "He has poured his love upon us. Keep in mind. So the best way we get his love is to become God's real children and we should love our God with all our strength." (Mark 12;30) Whom should we love? We ought to love God. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."(Matthew 22;37) ; The Greatest Commandment We ought to love one another. "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."(John 13; 34) ; A New Commandment. We ought to love each other deeply. "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." (I peter 4; 8) ; A Priority Commandment. Notice the word "deeply". We ought to love our brothers And he has given us this command: "Whoever loves God must also love his brother." We ought to love our wives. "Love your wife as your own body." (Ephesians 5; 25) When you love wife, you can love yourself, it says in verse 28. We ought to love our husbands children. "Young women should love their husbands and children."(Titus 2;4) And finally we ought to love our enemies. "Love your enemies." (Luke 6;27-28) Virtually we should love all human beings. How should we love? "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." (I John 3;18) We need actions in love and need to make it grow. "Make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you." (I Thessalonians 3;12) Notice the word "overflow". "We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.(I John 4; 16-18); A Testing Commandment Without loving your brothers, there is no way you love God almighty. "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."(I Corinthians13;13); An Enduring Commandment Love is most important. When we equip with love, we can shine the world. Conclusion ; We are living in the world which evil dominates. As christians we got to be humble and watch our tongues. Pray for others with all your heart. Let us equip with love and shine our light on earth. I want to finish this lesson with a poem. 부주의한 말 한 마디가 싸움의 불씨가 되고 잔인한 말 한 마디가 삶을 파괴합니다. 쓰디쓴 말 한 마디가 증오의 씨를 뿌리고 무례한 말 한 마디가 사랑의 불을 끕니다. 은혜스런 말 한 마디가 길을 평탄게 하고 즐거운 말 한 마디가 하루를 빛나게 합니다. 때에 맞는 말 한 마디가 긴장을 풀어주고 사랑의 말 한 마디가 병을 낫게 하고 축복을 줍니다.