Sunday sermon for December 3, 2023 by p. Jeong Myeong Seok
Introduction
When people go through suffering, they wonder, ‘Is this not God’s will?’
You must not look only at the hardship but instead, you must look at God’s will.
You must believe in God through the hardships and suffering!
There is no one who succeeded among those who lived only comfortably. Jesus was Messiah but he never had a comfortable day in his life. He was persecuted and tormented his entire lifetime and overcame all injustices. The same is true today.
Where There Is a Will, There Is a Way
Jeong Myeong Seok
Comfort: A Blessing or a Barrier?
- The more comfortable a person gets, the more they are consumed by it and it is difficult for them to believe in and serve God and live a life of faith.
- The more comfortable a person is, the more difficult it gets to pray and it is difficult to pray if a person has no problems.
- The more comfortable a person is, it is hard to serve and love even Jesus who is the Messiah.
What more would a person want when he is comfortable? It is because when people are comfortable, it is already heaven.
When you are full, you will not look for a restaurant. When you are comfortable and lack nothing, you will neither seek the Lord nor God.
Jesus saw what a wealthy young man did and said, “It is hard for a rich man to go to Heaven.” It is because he lacks nothing. It was mentioned in Matthew 19:23: Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Step Beyond Comfort
Then what does it mean to live a comfortable life?
For each person, living consumed with the things they like is a comfortable life. When you are comfortable and lack nothing, you will neither seek the Lord nor God. Each of you should think about whether you are like that too and check yourselves.
Leverage the Difficulties
The time you are suffering and going through hardships is the best chance to seek God and the Lord!
People seek the Lord and seek someone to lean on only when things are hard and difficult for them and only when they suffer.
When people experience difficulties or suffering, they pray all night seeking someone to help them, seek God, and seek the savior. God makes people realize even if He has to make their lives miserable to do so, and save them eternally by making them believe in God and the Lord.
The more comfortable you are, the more you should live loving God, being thankful, and seeking and praying. However, those who live comfortably tend to have bad lives of faith and live only on the path of a comfortable life with their minds consumed and excited by it. When a person is too comfortable, they stay far from God because they are so comfortable and doing well. They also don’t believe in the Lord. They become lives that come to ruin. The comfortable people will go to death to become even more comfortable. Then they will be unable to return from it.
Conclusion
If we do everything ourselves, we will fail. It is the Lord who has to do it. You have to entrust it to him completely. Only then will he do it for you. If you do it yourself, you are disrespecting God. In this way,
in the end, it is the Trinity that do everything for you. You must not forget the grace you received until now and absolutely go on believing to the end.
