A Life Worth Living

Someone gives us a beautiful picture of a good life. We all want to live a good life, happy, blessed, meaningful, and fulfilling. I think that's a really good life. We all deserve to live. The other day I was reflecting on my own life, and one thought came to my mind, and that was, life is good. Do you agree? Life is good. Of course, life is not always easy. There are problems, challenges, disappointments, and difficulties. Sometimes life can be overwhelming. Oh my, what am I going to do? But still, in spite of all these things, I still say life is good. Today is a very special day. We are celebrating 30th anniversary of our church. When I look back these 30 years, all I can say is, my friend, thank you. Thank you. All of you work so hard. I have seen so much love, sacrifices, time and energy, resources in their hearts. I just poured all of those things for this church, for building up this church, for ministry. And thank you. And most importantly, I thank God for having been with us. And God has supported us, sustained us, and blessed us. There were difficult times. There were challenges there. In my journey, there was a time I feel that it is impossible now to overcome. When the challenge is so big, and then I am so small, and I felt that it is almost impossible to overcome these challenges. And yet, God has been faithful. God gave me strength, and God gave all of us strength to go forward. You are blessed, and God wants you to be blessed. That is God's desire for you. The prophet Jeremiah said, for surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans for welfare, and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. That's what God wants for you. What does a good life look like then? What does a good life look like? A good life is like a tree planted by a stream of water, a tree. I mean, this Psalmist is not just giving us the image of a tree. For the sake of a tree, he wants to talk about life. But he compares that good life with a tree planted by streams of water, not a chaff. He contrasts these two images. One is tree planted by the streams of water, and the other is a chaff that flies away by the wind. The tree is alive, tree grows, it has roots, it receives nourishment, it produces fruit. Chaff, on the other hand, has no roots, no life of its own, is blown away by the wind. From the beautiful image of tree, I see three characteristics of good life. And you see tree planted by streams of water. The first image that comes to me is tree has roots. Roots hold a tree firmly in place. They enable the tree to withstand strong winds and storms. A tree without strong roots cannot survive for long. Our lives are the same. You have to have roots, solid roots, and that will sustain. I think that's a faithfulness. When storms come, when difficulties come, if you have faithfulness, if you have faith in God, then you can withstand. But if you have no faith, you'll be worried. You're very scared. All these problems that come, you won't know what to do. But those who have faith in God will survive. Those who have faith in God will stand strong, even through the storm. And these roots are also the principles that you live. You're not an opportunist. We are not opportunists. We are disciples of Jesus Christ. We live with principles. And the principles are honesty, humility, love, generosity, faith, a commitment to truth. These principles are roots of our lives. They are not simply great ideas, nice ideas, but they are the roots that hold our lives together. Chaff has nodes. It simply goes wherever the wind blows. It has no direction, no stability, no lasting foundation. When I look back over 30 years of our church, I realize how important these roots were. Be more faithful. In many, many difficult and uncertain times, you have been faithful. You have been faithful to God and to this church. You're still strong. Even when you didn't see the future, you still believed. And thank you for that. All those difficult times, we are still here. Why? Because of your faithfulness. Because of your faith. Not because we are strong, not because we made right decisions, but you have been faithful. And God has been faithful to us. The second image that comes to me about tree planted by stream's water is vitality. Healthy tree, when you look at it, it looks like it's just standing there, doing nothing. When you look inside, the roots absorb the water and it sends it up. It takes nutrition from soil and sends it up. There is active movement, vitality, the energy. The life's force is happening. Amazing thing is happening. We don't see it, but within the tree, all this healthy tree has all this movement. Inside, that's very important of good life. Vitality. If you have vitality, you can overcome your sickness, disease, worries, and depression. All kinds of things. You can overcome them when you have vitality. Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, the water that I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. That's vitality. He says, talking about spirit, life giving force of the Holy Spirit. When the spirit is alive within you, you become vital. There's a movement, renewal, a power of life working within us. You're not a dead person. The power of vitality is within you. I've seen this kind of vitality in this church. I've witnessed it from people. Over 30 years, people went through many, many difficult. I mean, you tell me any problem, I heard them all. You talk about any drama I've gone through them all. People went through illness, devastating illness. They didn't know what to do. They come to me and ask for prayer. And some of them have financial hardships and difficulties. They even came to me to borrow some money. And I did. And then 10 years later, they paid back. There are some people who had real difficult time financially. And some of them lost their loved ones. One devastating is the mother lost young daughter. Some face personal crisis. But you know, I saw them continue to worship, continue to pray, continue to serve, and love. Where does it come from? The vital power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit strengthened them. Holy Spirit gave them hope. Holy Spirit gave them vitality so they were sustained. Even through most difficult time you can imagine, they survived. Not only they survived, they worshiped God and they were vital. And through them, the Spirit sustained this church. Church is people like God. That's what church is. Through them, God blessed this church and sustained this church. Church is not simply a church. I mean, a good church is not simply a church with many activities and programs. In a church, there has to be living water flowing through each person's life. All of your life, the vital power of the Holy Spirit, may flow within you. And the third image from the tree planted by stream's water was a healthy tree bears fruit. It does not exist for itself. It bears fruit. Fruit is not for the tree itself. Fruit is for others. So good life is, you do not just exist for yourself. You could life always nourish others, bless others, help others. Branches provide shelter, leaves provide shade, fruit nourishes others. It's the that tree's life becomes a blessing to the world around it. Our lives should be the same. A good life is not simply life that enjoys the blessings that you receive. The good life is a life that shares that blessing with others. For the last 30 years, this church has more many, many fruits. People in Kazakhstan, people in South Africa, Madagascar, Cuba, Suvali, Evangelion Hall, Teasdale, Rose of Sharon. All these people we have blessed, all of the world, they were blessed by this church. When we made a donation for Rose of Sharon, probably our church is not so big, but we gave the biggest donation to Rose of Sharon. They were all quite impressed. And I saw also so many people who bore, who lived fruitful lives within this church. Through your life, so many people were blessed. Even recently, when we had to replace the 68-year-old boiler, you have participated so much. Even the elementary children, not from their parents, but from their own Yongdong, from their own personal money, they gave. They want to participate in this project. And thank you for all your sacrifice and your generosity. God bless us so that we can be a blessing to others. That is a principle of blessings. Blessings doesn't stop where you are. Where blessings flow through you to other people. That's what Abram learned from God. God told Abram this. I'll make of you a great nation, and I'll bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. That's formula. God bless us so that we can bless others. That's the purpose of good life. Thank you for blessing each other so much. How do we live a good life then? How do we do that? Can we have a good life by trying harder? No. We cannot create this kind of life by ourselves. We cannot produce. The tree cannot produce its own water. It has to receive water from somewhere. So important thing is being connected to the source of life. When you're connected to the source of life, then you will continuously receive that kind of nutrition and nourishment. We need to be connected to God. And the psalmist teaches us how. But their delight is in the law of the Lord. And on His law, they meditate day and night. The word of God reveals God's character. The word of God reveals God's heart. The word of God reveals what God desires for your lives. By meditating on the word of God, God shapes us and strengthens us. Today we celebrate 30th anniversary. I want us to remember this Psalm 1. Remember. And then think about what good life is. What are three things? First, root. Two, vitality. Three, fruit. Remember, that's what good life is. But today is not just simply to look back. But today is also a day to look forward. Next 30 years, what's going to be, what's going to be, what is church going to be? The world is changing rapidly. Nobody knows what's going to happen to this world, especially to the church. We never know what's going to happen to the church. Will it be still there? People still will worship? People still will come to church? In Korea, the Yejang Tonghap, which is the biggest denomination, just in 10 years, 600,000 people left the church. So the future, we don't know. But I'm not afraid of the future. God has been good for 30 years. That same God will be good next 30 years. God has blessed us 30 years like this, and God will still bless next 30 years. This church will sing that song again, Timothy Church, whatever. And you will carry on the baton. You will carry on the torch, especially high school students. You are our hope. You carry on what we started. God who began a good work will finish it at the time of Jesus Christ, right? So, High See, you believe? You promise? Yes. Say Amen. Amen. Dokuge, Amen. Yes, High See, you are the hope. Thank you.