“God’s expectations/visions for us”.

God’s Expectation/vision for us.

Somebody wished that Jesus would come back as soon as possible. “I hope that you and I also have this kind of wish.” Anyways, when asked why Jesus should come back soon, he gave quite a surprising answer.  He answered, “I have been much owed due to business. I borrowed some money to run a business but I couldn’t pay back. Sometimes I just want to die in agony.  However, if Jesus comes now, then everything will be over. Then, I won’t have to pay back.” I hope that you and I don’t think like this person does. 

On the other hand, there is another kind of man who hopes a delay for Jesus’ coming. He lives faithfully and earnestly. However, he always mumbles like, “No! Please take your time! You shouldn’t come this much early.” For this person, he also had quite a bit of debt. He thinks that if Jesus comes now, then he wouldn’t be able to pay off all the debt in his life. He didn’t want to have a feeling that he would be owed forever.

Therefore, he wanted Jesus to come back after he pays off all his debt.
Then, he will feel comfortable. Hallelujah! Amen!

1. God’s expectation for ours
When we see verse 24, God expresses his expectations and hopes towards us in his words. Let’s read verse 24 together.

Amen. For us to be born in this world, it means that the Sovereign one who governs all of our life, death, sufferings, and blessing, has a wonderful plan for us.  The Bible says that the reason for our existence is that, “God gave us our life and sent us to this world.” It also claims that it also means that each and everyone has his and hers own special purpose in their life. The Bible is trying to say that none of us get to exist randomly and accidently. The Bible claims that each life has God’s unique plan and purpose.

When a life comes to end, it seems proper to say, ‘pass away,’ rather than ‘die’ biblically speaking.Anyways, I hope that we all realize and believe that our lives have God’s will and purpose. Today’s text shows us that “God’s expectations/visions for us”. The implication of God’s sovereignty over lives and that God has sent each person in the world with a special will and plan is that God expects us to His will and plan in each person’s life.

How great is God’s expectations for us! Hallelujah! Therefore, you and I are 'the rising stars of God,' who are full of God’s expectation. God has a great vision and hope for each of you. Verse 24 records God’s amazing plan. “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” The latter part of the verse in the NIV version  says, 'and he will do it'. This par manifests God’s vision for us the most. It shows God's strong will. If God says He will do something, He will do it. There is nothing to stop Him from achieving it.

God is one who achieves His strong and marvelous plan for you and me. Hallelujah!
Let’s tell each other that, “God will do it.” God will do it. Amen! Hallelujah!
Then, what does God like to achieve through you and me?
Let’s read verse 21 together.

Amen. Test everything. Hold on to the good. One of those that God wants to achieve through us is to have us “Test everything.” And “Hold on to the good.” Let’s find out what this means. What is “being good”? In the Chinese Bible, it means  kind-hearted ‘sun’ and beautiful ‘mi’So being good means being kind-hearted and beautiful! Hallelujah!
Being kind-hearted and beautiful. How wonderful is this sentence and are the words! They have such a warming and positive nuance. By the way, what is ‘kind-hearted and beautiful? And what does Bible say kind-hearted and beautiful?

Humans’ views and opinions are dramatically diverse. They all have their own reasoning, values, and standard of judgment. However, the biblical view of “being good” is seeing the world in God’s view rather than seeing the world with the distorted view of our own.
When God created the world and saw the world, the Bible said that it “Look[ed] good on His sight”. In this text, the vantage point of the world is God’s. Likewise, we should also see the world through faith.

“Sun Mi” what is the goodness and beauty? What’s the standard of these?
In Luke Chapter18 verse 18 to 19 suggests us the standard of “Goodness.”

Standard of ‘goodness’ refers to ‘God’. God is good. Then, what is the opposite of the “goodness,” ‘the evil’? If we set a right standard for what is ‘good and evil’ we will navigate our lives a lot more easily and comfortably. It is the standard of right and wrong.
‘Being good’ means having nothing to do with sins. And ‘being evil’ means being deeply involved with sins.The Bible presents to us a clear and strict standard in regards to sins. And it also says that the price of sin is the result of death.

Then, at this point we will be able to prove the God’s existence. If the result of the sins is death, and the death is reality, then this proves the existence of God. Nobody can avoid death. This means that the reason for death is due to sins. Then, even those respected and reputable clergies cannot avoid this kind of standard.

Everyone who is destined to die must agree that they are ‘creation.’ Luke 18:19 says, ‘VERSE.’ This means God has nothing to do with sins. Again, “being good” means having nothing to do with sin. What’s surprising is that Jesus proved how God has nothing to do with sins. Jesus, who was God and the human at the same time, came to the earth 2000 years ago and died on the cross. In three days, he rose from death and proved that he didn’t have any sin.

Going back to the text, again being good refers to, after all, sinless God. The sentence “God will do it,” manifests God’s strong will to restore us to be ‘good’ like Himself who is sinless. He wants to restore us to His sinless image.  What’s more surprising is that God has already started this work in Genesis. The book of Genesis mentions that God created man in His own image. This means when He first created us, we were sinless like Him, which also means we were eternal. God entrusted everything He created in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve. 

Among those creations, there was a Tree of Life, which fruit will give eternal life. Though Adam and Even were created as eternal, after they ate the fruit of good and evil, they became mortal. Therefore, God had to send Adam and Eve away from the Garden of Eden. God had to do this in order to keep His original promise towards Adam and Eve.

What if Adam and Eve ate the fruit of eternal life after they already committed sins? They would have had to live forever in the fallen states. However, God was so faithful to Adam and Even that He kicked the two out of the Garden of Eden in order to keep and carry out His promise despite Adam and Eve’s sin.

In this way, God had chance to restore the broken relationship. This shows God’s faithfulness and innocence.

Let’s read verse 24 again.

Amen. God who calls you is faithful. This just says that God is reliable and trustworthy.
Therefore, when God says, God will do it, He meant to restore us back to the original image of His own. Hallelujah!

God wants to restore us to good image of His own and He will definitely finish the work. We need to have faith in this and follow the vision. I hope you all have such visions for yourselves.

This gives much hope to those who are waiting for Jesus’ second coming. I knew a person who didn’t have much more time to live. His doctor gave him two options: kimo therapy or not. If he would go through the kimo therapy, then he’d live about 6 months at the most, but he’d live a low quality life. He’d lose all his hairs. His body would be all harmed by the strong kimo therapy. He’d be just staying at the hospital all the time. If he doesn’t go through the kimo therapy, he’d only live about three months, but he’d do what he’d like to do and go where he’d like to go. He’d have better life. This person chose the latter one.

When I imagined that I only had three months to live, I felt restless. I didn’t know what to do first since I had such a short amount of time. I first drafted my will to my children. I wrote down everything I wanted to say to my children, because I could really have conversation with my children after they all grew up and got married. Then, I decided to spend a lot of time with my wife because I haven’t been the best husband. After taking care of my family, I began to think of others.

I thought of those I had grudge against, those I didn’t keep in touch with that often, and those with whom I had some stuff to figure out. I wrote letters to all of them asking their forgiveness or letting them know that I forgave them sincerely. I also thought of those whom I wanted to witness, so I sent several Scriptures to them with the a letter introducing Jesus Christ on the first page in the book.

After the three months, he passed away peacefully. This story is not to tell you to give up on fighting against different cancers and medical issues. This story is for all of us. It’s rather telling us that we also don’t know when our last moment would come. We do not deal with awkward relationships, grudges, and damaged relationships, because we think we have so much time. Would you still refuse to deal with those relationships if you also have only three months to live? Wouldn’t you first forgive people, ask for forgiveness from others, and resolve different conflicts with people? We should have this kind of mentality and wait for Jesus’ coming.

Since we don’t know when Jesus is coming, though we are sure that we’d go to the heaven, if we don’t want to regret for our own life integrity, we should try to live more generous, more forgiving, and more understanding life and try to resolve different issues and conflicts among family members and other fellow Christians. This kind of life is alert for Jesus’ coming. Thessalonians lived such lives. I hope you also eagerly wait for Jesus’ coming. I hope you are always ready to end your life at any time and still not regret. I hope you are waiting for Jesus’ coming and still not be ashamed or regret for your life.

Let’s read the latter part of verse 23.

It reads, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Another expectation God has towards us is to have us to be qualified to enter the heaven when Jesus comes back. Church is Eclesia(??) in Greek. Eclesia means each person should worth one church. This is the biblical protestant’s purpose that we pursue.

Then we should really show our holiness at home, work, and local community that we belong. This is also the purpose of our lives. God is achieving this through us. He will protect Christian’s holiness. We should endure and wait patiently believing God’s faithfulness.

One day, a reporter asked the boxing champion, Mohamed Ali, “Aren’t you afraid before the game?” Ali answered, “I am afraid, so sometimes I shiver and cannot sleep at night. However, how would I be successfully running away in such a small ring? Even though I may lose, I should still face it and fight it.” Likewise, if you cannot avoid it and run away from it, then even if you may lose, keep going. If we try to just avoid things because of our fear, then the fear will chase after us until it enslaves us. However, if we patiently face the fear, then what we feared will end up run away from us and we will claim the victory. 

The characteristics of the life in the last days is being always hurry and impatient. Therefore, how we should response is by being patient. God’s time only comes when it comes. It needs God’s time. Until then, do your best at your duty and wait. Jesus often said that it is not my time. Paul also said, if we hope what we don’t see yet, wait with patience.

If a farmer wants to harvest, then he cannot but wait. Likewise, though your situation is very difficult and frustrating, please wait. Abraham Lincoln also often said, “I will wait and see,” when in difficult. Though you might be falsely accused, wronged, and slandered, please endure and be patient. Though some of your most sincere prayer request weren't answered as quickly as you’d like, cling on to God and wait. The God’s time will definitely come.

Because God is faithful, he will definitely keep His promises. Today’s text says that until Jesus comes back, God will have you and me to have the eternal life by making us to be qualified to enter into God’s kingdom. I hope that you and I believe in His faithfulness and this vision.