Sermon(1 Sam 2:27-36): Respect God

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025256687

 

>> ....29 ‘Why then look with greedy eye at my sacrifices and my offerings which I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves upon the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’ 30 Therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me for ever’; but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 31 Behold, the days are coming, when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. 32 Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity which shall be bestowed upon Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house for ever. 33 The man of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep out his eyes and grieve his heart; and all the increase of your house shall die by the sword of men. ... 35 And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind; and I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed for ever. ...’ (1 Sam 2:27-36) <<

 

If a servant of God establishes a church as the owner of the church building, ...? Maybe his plan would be this: he will sell off the religious building to someone and depart with the retrieved investment if his ministry is not so successful. Or he will bear difficulties until he is ordained a pastor, then will sell the building to someone and lead a comfortable life with his money as a pastor, of course, doing a little God's work. So it looks like God is renting temple building from him. If so, you, such a man, shouldn't have begun the life of a servant of God. What would you do, sitting on the fence? Should God live by the grace of his servant, or his servant by the grace of God? How could you step in the world of the holy occupation with such faith and mentality? You, such a man, can't succeed in the ministry.

 

You should never do as a pastor of a church this: to start the worship service sometimes on time, some times late, to preach the sermon sometimes short, sometimes very long, to skip the 'dawn prayer' service frequently. What on earth make you, a pastor, so busy that you have to prepare the sermons until right before the worship time? Your sermons are not well prepared, so they can't touch the saints, so you try too hard to move them, so your sermons take more 30 or 40 minutes than usual, and the saints get bored of your long sermons. If you do that habitually, you're not qualified to be a priest. You've been disregarding the worship of God. Then your church will never prosper by such a ministry. Looking at such a pastor, the saints think, 'This pastor does not revere the God!' So some believers who have attended the worship service of the church several times turn their steps to other churches, some believers like the pillars of the church depart the church, making one excuse or another.

 

Paul said that the atmosphere of the house of a pastor must be evangelical (or full of grace). If a pastor and his wife fight bitterly in a roar and participate in the worship of God as if there had been no quarrel between the two, the Holy Spirit will depart the worship, instead the Devil will take a seat there. Such a church can be dissolved in the air on one day before long, for the church is not a church of God, and the worship is not a worship of God. The true church is a church where a pastor whose house is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit ministers. The house of the pastor is an inner church of a church, an outer church. The outer church can prosper when the inner church prospers. If the inner church is dissolved into ruin, sooner or later the outer church will be ruined. If a pastor and his wife take part in the worship after a hard fight, the two have profaned the worship of God. Can he preach that everyone should keep the word of God, the word of God he himself does not keep? How he is despising the worship of God! A priest, or a pastor, can engage in his holy works when he has cleansed his body and spirit, been clothed with clean holy robes, and gotten rid of his sins. The clergyman who preaches in the worship should wash away the dirty words he inadvertently has heard before the worship from his ears, and dirty pictures he inadvertently has seen from his eyes. Of course he should not purposely speak or hear such dirty words or see such dirty pictures. He should not prepare his sermons until just before the appointed worship time, but prepare them in advance, and go to the chapel at least 15 minutes before the worship, and kneel down and wash his dirty spirit in prayer to God. Didn't the priest wash himself with water before the regular worship, or the offering up of the sacrifices, in the days of the Old Testament? The clergyman will first be harmed and then even the saints if he officiates at the worship in an unwholesome state of body and spirit.

 

In our country (in Korea), some pastors used church money arbitrarily, or loved their sons more than God and gave their churches to them despite all criticisms, and sometimes committed adultery, so that the spiritual authority of the church of Korea has collapsed to the ground. In today's passages of the Bible, one day a servant of God came to Eli and declared God's judgment upon his house. He had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who treated God's sacrifices carelessly and took them at will, and made sex sandal with women working in the house of God. Eli the priest was more mindful of his sons than of God, so he didn't rebuke them severely lest they continue to sin. Of course, he had scolded his sons a couple of times, but a couple of times is not enough. He didn't do all of his duty. All kinds of anti-Christian writings on the internet are attributed to the antipathy against the evil deeds of today's Hophni and Phinehas and Eli-like pastors. People call the Christianity(기독교) dog-like Christianity(개독교), and a moksa(목사, a pastor) a muksa(먹사, a gluttonous pastor or a false religioner). In the past some brilliant pastors saved a lot of souls and changed a lot of saints into good Christians, in revival gatherings. But when they became rich and could lead a leisurely life, they as servants of God began to commit dirty sins like David who betrayed God and sinned, so that the evangelization of Korea has been severely disturbed by their dirty deeds. And this is an election season, so some rich pastors have enough time to do something political that they come into the political world to have influence on the society. They became so unspiritual and irrational that they behave like that. Jesus said his kingdom was not of the world, but they, the so-called servants of God, try so hard to pursue the secular power. “Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death (Jas 1:15).” Some of the aged pastors in Korea are strongly political-minded, and they have a head rigid with past thoughts and their behavior has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit at all, I think. Of course, they act like that, thinking their deeds are God's works, but is the participation in the politics a work of God? Do not idle away your time, but pray to God that the country may be evangelized, that a true democracy may take root, that the country may flourish, and that the North and South Korea may be unified.

 

If a pastor regards the house of God as his possession, uses the money offered to God for personal purpose, and keeps his holy occupation without making himself holy, then he is treating the offering of the Lord with contempt (1 Sam 2:17), and is treading the sacrifices of God (in Korean version of the Bible) (1 Sam 2:29). With what judgements will God punish those who, though blessed with such a precious position, forget God's grace and ignore and despise him but only seek after their interests? God will take the priesthood from them and give it to others who respect him. "Therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me for ever’; but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. (v. 30)" Successful in the end will be the ministry of those who keep the temple of God and the worship of God holy. He who defiles the temple of God or the worship of God, or who unfaithfully performs the worship service will be deprived of his priesthood like the house of Eli. You will go to hell if you set up a statue of Buddha in the church, the holy temple of God, which is a terrible idolatry. Nevertheless, some insane pastors establish the authority of Buddha in the time of preaching, saying, "Buddha said that ...." This is more wicked than to shit on the pulpit in the worship service of God today or to sprinkle the blood of pigs on the altar of God in the days of the Old Testament. You as a priest should never despise and tread the worship of God like that! Are there any betrayals like that in the world? After this, may all the priests who erect statues of Buddha in churches and seminaries be deprived of their holy occupations. After this, may all Christians who put the statues of the homosexual in churches and seminaries be deprived of their holy positions. From now on, may calamities befall those who invite male and female Buddhist monks who had all their heads thoroughly cut into the church and hold religious events!

 

God destroyed Eli's house as a punishment for their sins. "Behold, the days are coming, when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. ... and there shall not be an old man in your house for ever. ... Hophni and Phinehas, both of them shall die on the same day." Actually, Hophni and Phinehas died on the same day in the battle, Eli fell in shock at the news and his neck broke to his death, king Saul killed a lot of priests belong to Eli's house, and the duties of priest went to the house of Zadok in the days of Solomon. If you want to be a servant of God, please keep in mind today's biblical text, the story of the priestly house of Eli. Do you think you've done all (or achieved all) when you are ordained a pastor? No, not at all! How many vain pastors, or just nominal pastors, are there in the world? Do not betray God and do not despise him. According to verse 36, Eli's descendants would be beggars. When you become a priest, you can eat the best first fruits the people of God bring; but if you betray God and is dismissed from the divine service, you'll literally beg for some food. You can't complain about that.

 

Some priests who have betrayed God continue to practice the ministry. They are eternally abandoned by God if they neither have repented their sins, been forgiven so recovered their relationship with God, nor have been punished for their sins by God. More terrible are God's indifference and abandonment than any other punishments. God is retrieving his investment from them now. God had invested his grace and various aid to make them pastors, so it is natural for him to retrieve his investment by making them work for him. Those priests, God's betrayers, will work hard for God until death, and will go to hell when they have repaid all their debts to God. (S. M. Moon was a Christian, but became the leader of a heresy later. God gave him healthy children, tremendous wealth and longevity to pay off his good deeds such as praising God and serving the church, which he had done when he was a Christian. God does not want to owe even one dollar to the wicked. But he wants to owe much to his beloved.)

 

Some pastors in Korea think wrong. They think that they can set the starting time of worship or the form of worship or can do anything as they like in the worship because they are the representatives of God. No! Pastors are servants who prepare the worship of God. Pastors are servants who take words from God and deliver them politely to the saints. Rather, the central figures of the worship are not the pastors, but God and saints. You infringe the authority of God who wants to give various words to the saints at various times, if you prepare your sermons that satisfy only you. You infringe the right of the saints who want to hear well-prepared sermons, if you frequently lengthen or shorten the preaching time according to your capricious mood. A pastor is one who stands before the saints as the representative of God, and stands before God as the representative of all the saints. Therefore he should participate in the worship with more sincerity, holiness and truth than the other believers. The Holy Spirit comes upon well-prepared holy worship. A church where such worship takes place will increase in the members. Neither God nor the saints like the worship of God where the pastor's laziness and rudeness is seen.

 

My brethren, you must be the more polite to a close person. No one suffers more than a person who, day and night, has to live with and look at an impolite person who is fond of verbal abuse. You should be a wife who respects her husband, or a husband who respects his wife. The same are all the human relations. You Koreans know a proverb, "If you give polite words, you can receive polite words." The same goes for the relationship between us and God. You must not act lightly to God because he is invisible. He is too precious for you to make him feel ignored. I've pointed out how much he values us and how high he exalted us. Therefore my brethren, you must love and respect God the more.

 

May all of you realize God's precious love and grace, and love and value him more.

 

Chong Tack Kim

                                 - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -