[English Sermon 영어 설교]
Sunday, December 29, 2024 - Sermon by Rev. Jinkook (Danny) Sohn
Let’s live diligently in the Lord (Romans 12:9-13)
2024. 12. 29. 주일예배 설교- 로마서 강해 29
본문: 로마서 12:9-13
제목: 주 안에서 열심히 삽시다.
설교자: 손진국 목사
[Romans 12:9-13]
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
9 사랑에는 거짓이 없나니 악을 미워하고 선에 속하라
10 형제를 사랑하여 서로 우애하고 존경하기를 서로 먼저 하며
11 부지런하여 게으르지 말고 열심을 품고 주를 섬기라
12 소망 중에 즐거워하며 환난 중에 참으며 기도에 항상 힘쓰며
13 성도들의 쓸 것을 공급하며 손 대접하기를 힘쓰라
The theme of today’s sermon is diligence. Are you living diligently? In today’s message, we are also called to serve and strive diligently. Overall, the message is to live diligently. Turn to the person next to you and say, “Let’s live diligently!”
What does it mean to live diligently? Are you living diligently? Question: Raise your hand if you think you are living diligently. How about if you feel you are not living diligently? "I see."
There are many people in the world who live diligently. So how should we live diligently in the Lord? How do we live diligently? The Chinese character for "diligence" (熱心) is made of two parts: "热" (hot) and "心" (heart), which together mean "a burning heart." Diligence must come from the heart. If the zeal goes to the head and not the heart, strange things will happen. Many people, when their zeal rises to their head, do things they would never imagine doing. Zeal should not meet the head. However, as we live, there will be moments where we get heated in our minds. In such moments, take a deep breath before your head explodes. Release the heat in your head. Calm yourself. It’s worse when someone nearby adds fuel to the fire. Don’t do that. Allow time to cool down. Say this one more time: "Let’s not get heated in our heads." "I won’t add oil to the fire."
Where do we keep our zeal? In our hearts. Unlike the head, the heart should be hot. However, these days, there are many people with cold hearts. If any of us have become lukewarm or lost our zeal, I hope today’s message will rekindle our zeal.
Why should we live diligently?
1. Because it is God’s will.
A lawyer came to test Jesus, asking, “Which commandment is the greatest in the Law?” What did Jesus say in reply? He speaks of loving God and loving others. Let’s look closely at what He says.
[Matt 22:37-40] Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
How did Jesus say we should love God? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. How should we love our neighbors? “In the same way” — love your neighbor with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Here we see Jesus' zeal. He doesn’t say just to love to a certain extent but to love sacrificially, even with our lives. God wants us to live diligently. The command to love God and others with all our heart, soul, and mind also implies that God loves us in this way. He did not spare His life for us, but died on the cross to save us. This is God's zeal.
2. Because our lives will change when we live diligently.
What do successful people have in common in this world? It is diligence. It is passion.
For example, a young boy, Warren Buffett, started investing in stocks with $100 he earned from part-time jobs when he was 11. By age 14, he was already delivering newspapers and showing entrepreneurial skills. He studied his delivery route and developed the fastest way to deliver the papers, receiving a salary equivalent to a junior employee. Eventually, he became the CEO of the Washington Post newspaper. The success of Warren Buffett was fueled by passion. Similarly, Chung Ju-young of Hyundai showed passionate perseverance. When he went to request a loan from a British bank in 1972 to build a shipyard in Ulsan, he brought nothing but a $500 note with a turtle ship drawing, a picture of the barren land by the port, and a map. Despite all the opposition, he succeeded.
How do you want to live? You want to live well. What does it mean to live well? "That person is living well" — what does that mean? It means having a lot of money, being rich. I cannot be rich because I only have a daughter. But even becoming rich requires diligence. Living well doesn’t mean just being rich. To live well means being diligent and passionate. Wealth is merely one result of diligence and passion.
Then, how can we live diligently?
1. Living diligently begins when we restore our burning love.
[Romans 12:9] Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. A passionate love gives us a burning heart. When love is restored, zeal is ignited. Why? Because love is the goal. Zeal burns when there is a clear goal. When love is broken, zeal fades. If you find your zeal disappearing, check if your love has cooled. What causes love to cool? It is lies. Love must be sincere. When we speak lies, we lose love. Lying is what we should hate because it is evil.
When we truly love someone, we are passionate. We don’t give up even when we are advised to. Why? Because we love. A clear purpose has been established. However, if we begin to act in a way that doesn’t match our purpose, or if we start telling lies, then either our love has cooled or we are loving someone else. How do we know if we truly love Jesus?
[Romans 12:9] Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. One sign is to hate what is evil. The other sign is to do what is good. If we are doing evil, we are not loving Jesus. So, what should we do with evil? We should reject it completely.
[1 Thessalonians 5:22] Reject every kind of evil.
One of the evil things that make love cool is laziness. This is one of the main tools the devil uses today. “Laziness is not just a human trait; it is a corrupted form of self-love that takes root in the heart. To become a true believer, we must always fight the laziness of our old nature. Without killing laziness, there is no holy life.” - Kim Nam-Joon. Do you want to live a holy life like the Lord? Overcome laziness.
To defeat laziness, we must understand where it begins. The root of laziness is misplaced self-love. Laziness doesn’t mean doing nothing. Laziness involves zeal in the wrong direction. When you don’t do what you’re supposed to do and only do what you want, that’s still laziness. If a student neglects their studies, playing games all night and failing grades, they are lazy. If someone goes to work and doesn’t do their job but instead chats with colleagues, they are lazy. What would we call someone who spends time in front of a TV instead of doing their responsibilities? Lazy. But if the TV breaks, they suddenly move quickly to fix it. What does this mean? Laziness doesn’t mean doing nothing; it means focusing energy on the wrong things. Remember, the Bible tells us to reject every kind of evil — and seeking our own desires rather than putting effort into what we should is evil.
2. Hope is necessary to sustain our diligence.
[Romans 12:12] Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Those who have hope are joyful, patient in tribulation, and persistent in prayer. The Apostle Paul lived with a heart full of the Holy Spirit and passionate zeal. His zeal never cooled, no matter what circumstance he faced. No one could extinguish his zeal. Paul endured many trials. Even when imprisoned, he urged others to rejoice always. He learned the secret of being content no matter the situation. How was he able to live so joyfully and keep praying constantly in a passionate way? The secret was the hope he had.
[2 Timothy 4:7-8] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
What is our hope? It is that as God’s children, as the bride of Christ, we will enter the Kingdom of Heaven and meet God. Our hope is that we will one day stand before Him with joy. This is our hope, isn’t it? The day when we meet the Lord joyfully is near. With this hope, Paul fought the good fight and lived with passionate zeal until his last breath.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us examine our lives. Are we really living diligently? To live diligently, we must think about the time when we stand before the Lord.
A young person once said, “Many young people play games, but I don’t, because if the Lord comes today, I know that playing games would not matter before Him.” That’s a great reason to make decisions with such thought.
If you were to stand before the Lord today, what would He ask you? “What have you done for me?” Would you say, “I studied diligently for you?” That’s acceptable. But could you say, “I played games for you?” That does not make sense.
Let us distinguish between what we must do and what we want to do.
To live zealously, prioritize what needs to be done over what you want to do. If you sleep too much to pray, set an alarm or ask someone to wake you up. To wake up early, you need to sleep early. If you spend too much time in front of the TV, get rid of it. If you spend too much time playing games, get rid of your game console. Saying “I slept a lot for the Lord,” “I watched TV for the Lord,” or “I played games non-stop for the Lord” are all wrong outcomes of self-love.
Living a truly zealous life is living a righteous life. But how do we live righteously? Does living righteously simply mean doing everything zealously? No. What is the title of today's sermon? It’s not just “Let’s live zealously,” but “Let’s live zealously in the Lord.” Living zealously in the Lord means doing what the Lord wants with zeal.
What does the Lord want? There are many things, but I will summarize it into two main points: save time and be zealous in the two main tasks Jesus commanded us to do.
(1) The Great Commandment ([Matthew 22:37-40])
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Loving God and loving our neighbors—loving only God and not caring for others is a distorted love. Similarly, loving others but not loving God is also wrong. In today's passage, we see that both God’s love and love for neighbors must go hand in hand.
[Romans 12:11] says, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord."
Love for God and love for our neighbors should go together. We should love God sincerely and help those in need.
(2) The Great Commission ([Matthew 28:19-20])
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This is about saving souls and making disciples. Charles Spurgeon said, “If someone is not interested in others being saved, it is a sign they themselves are not saved.” George Whitefield, the famous preacher, cried out, “Give me souls or take my soul away.”
What do you need in order to be zealous in these two tasks? Do you know? Last week, in our Bible study, we briefly talked about the vision that God gives our church for 2025, and it's an essential task: Pray with gratitude.
As [Romans 12:12] tells us, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
We must pray fervently.
There are powers in this world—satanic forces—that oppose and hinder the two things we should be doing: the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. That’s why we must fight spiritual battles while pursuing these tasks.
Let us restore the fire of God’s love in our hearts, and carry the hope of meeting the Lord again, whether at home, in the workplace, school, or church. Let us live zealously in prayer and with action, fulfilling God’s will and becoming faithful believers in the Lord.
[Application] Am I living zealously in the Lord? What activities am I zealous about but disconnected from the Lord? What commitments do I need to make to revive my passion for God?
하늘소망교회(담임 손진국 목사)는 뉴질랜드 오클랜드 북부 실버데일에 세워진 한인교회로 '하나님의 마음으로 사람을 살리는 교회'입니다.
Hope of Heaven Baptist Church (Senior Pastor: Rev. Jinkook Sohn) is a Korean church established in Silverdale, Auckland, New Zealand. It is a church that saves people with the heart of God.