The eternal promise; answers you have received; answers you will receive



Philippians 3:13~14 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.




♬ Hymn for scheduled worship: Korean/English Hymnal #523 Life at Best is Very Brief (#262 in previous version)




 People who have seen the eternal promise know the answers they have already received and will receive. If you don’t hold to this promise, you won’t overcome the realistic problems that you face. Because the promise God has given is eternal, the salvation we have received and our churches have received is eternal. The churches and individuals that possess the Gospel will never perish. We must be able to correctly see the promise and answers that have been given to us.




1. The eternal promise
 The one who has given us the eternal promise is God. We understand and receive this promise by God’s grace. There is no other way to receive this promise other than by His grace. If God has given us this promise, then how must we who have received this promise live? The epistles give us the answer to this question. Ephesians contains messages pertaining to the church, while Philippians and Colossians contains messages concerning lifestyle. The book of Philemon is a letter sent to Philemon, who was a church lay leader in the church of Colossians. The important theme here is to throw everything else away and wait. If we have grabbed hold of the eternal covenant, we can discard everything else. In addition, the person who knows the eternal covenant can wait.





2. The answer we’ve received
 We must absolutely discover the blessing of Christ. We will begin to see how incredible this word is when we receive grace. We will stop emphasizing our own thoughts and follow the plan of God instead. There is a blessing we must absolutely seek out. This is precisely ‘Christ.’ If we receive grace, we will start to see this term as a tremendous term. Furthermore, we cease to emphasize our own thoughts. Rather than things happening according to our own thoughts, things must happen according to the plan of God. We must realize and enjoy that Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16:16~20), the grace we received in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:12), the state of unbelievers (Ephesians 2:1~7), the mystery the Early Church grabbed onto (Acts 1:1~14), and the work of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1~13). This is an answer we received the moment we received salvation.




3. The answers we will receive
 The book that best explains the answers we will receive in the future is Philippians. The book of Philippians says that no matter what we face, what suffering we endure and what environments we are in, we will receive the greatest answers in the future if we come to know the greatest of knowledge, the knowledge of knowing Christ. The authority of the name of Christ, a name that all creation submits to, will be revealed to the degree that we hold onto and enjoy this Word. In addition, the answers we have received and will receive are related to the eternal things of God.




● Forum Topic - Do I have assurance of salvation? If it is a sure fact that you are a child of God who has received salvation, then deeply meditate upon the eternal promise given through Christ, the answers you have received and the answers you will receive.




Evangelism Training Graduation Ceremony Special Lecture / 2009.7.15