Translator: Choi, Jae Ho
[The Holy Spirits request]
Acts 20:32~38
Paul asked the Holy Spirit to take care of the church. So today, I will think about the request of the Holy Spirit.
First, you have to ask for the words of grace.
Where and whom do you ask for the most precious person to me? Todays word is not asking for a famous and capable person or a reliable successor, but for the Lord and its words of grace.
In other words, it means that I ask you to put my most beloved object next to the Lord and the words of grace.
The original Greek word 'Paratytemi' means to put it next to you.
In Jesus last words, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit' (Luke 23:26), 'Please leave me in his fathers hand' and 'Put me next to the Father.
It is our mission to put my children and family next to the Words like this. And this is the request of the Holy Spirit.
If I lived without the words and now I have to live next to the Words, now it should be our mission to put one person next to the word .
This is what the supervisor of the Holy Spirit should do and is the Holy Spirits request.
Jesus also asked the Father to do it first and put it next to the Words, so we should not blame others, but stand in front of the Words first.
Second, you have to remember that giving is more blessed than receiving.
Paul concluded his sermon by placing the Ephesos church and the followers under the care of the Lord and the words of grace.
And now, in his last will, he remind the elders of how Paul has lived for three years.
At that time, there was a false rumor that Paul exploited the believers with a clever trick, saying that there was money at the end of the sermon, a narrow doors and narrow roads. Because money is the most powerful tool to break down the church.
Money is in Gods place, making you feel like you can do everything with money. Therefore, Paul did not covet silver, gold, or clothing, and worked hard to help the weak.
Paul finished his sermon saying that you should do like he did. The blessing of 'Blessed' is the blessing of 'Macario' in Greek.
This is not a blessing enjoyed by humans, but a blessing enjoyed with the Trinity God.
It is that a certain being and environment are not my joy, but only joy that comes from union and relationship with God.
Its not just about sharing substances, but a blessed life that shares good parts of my life, failures, and vulnerabilities.
Giving money to people in difficult situations is helpful, but when we share the same pain, we enjoy peace together.
It is to enjoy the blessings of Macario, or Trinity God.
Third, we have to kneel down and pray.
All our requests must eventually end with prayer. Pauls farewell sermon ends with a prayer.
This is a confession to ask the Holy Spirit for the church and to end his last life with prayer and to ask the Holy Spirit for the entire life. But he knelt down and prayed.
Paul now knew that he would never come to Ephesos again, and now he cant directly help them, whom he raised for three years with the rearing of the Holy Spirits disciples.
Its our heart that we want to run away because they keep telling us to carry the cross.
But our Lord tells us not to think about running away through words, but to kneel down and pray.
Of course, even if you kneel down and pray, the situation does not change. Pauls situation, which was bound by the Holy Spirit and had to go to Jerusalem, has not changed.
Our prayer is not to change the situation, but to know and pray that nothing can be done, and thats the response.
Also, what I want is not a response, but a response to a word of grace.
After prayer in verse 37, everyone cried loudly, which was a cry for salvation and a cry for the soul. It was the best expression of love that elders could do to ask the Holy Spirit for Pauls life, as if asking the Holy Spirit for the Church of Ephesians.
So they cried loudly, hugged each others necks, kissed each other, and said goodbye.
The prayers they gave together on their knees never fell to the ground.
Thirty years later, the Church of Ephesos still served as a central Asian church and established itself as one of the seven churches in the Book of Revelations.
It is a blessing to have a kneeling incident.
We are arrogant beings who cannot kneel on our own, so we make them kneel with human sticks and life sticks.
The Lord allows us to live a life of fulfilling our mission by being tied to the Holy Spirit with desperation until the end without departing from the path of salvation, and allows us to pray earnestly.
This is what Im so grateful for.
There was an urgent prayer title last week.
A leader of small group has a four-year-old son and three fingers of his son were cut off by being stuck in an escalator, but there was no hospital to cope with the treatment and the fever exceeded 38 degrees, so he had to wait in an ambulance for nearly two hours.
In the meantime, however, a safety guard opened the escalator and found the last third cut finger.
It is our prayer response to go to the emergency room quickly, but God kept us waiting for two hours to find our third finger.
So we dont know what the response is, so we have to pray unconditionally.
He leader opened the restaurant this year, but he suffered and owed money, his father died, his wife miscarried and got involved in a sue.
He complained why so many difficult things continued to happen but,
he realized that he was on a different path.
he confessed that everything that he couldnt let go of while holding onto it became nothing through this incident.
He confessed that he had done 11 businesses over the past four years but failed all and left debt was because of his vain mind to accumulate wealth in the world.
When the incident is interpreted first then the incident can be solved.
If theres something that doesnt go well, I want you to know that theres greed and vanity.
If the purpose of life is to eat well and live well, nothing can be achieved. I sincerely hope you put your words next to you every day, enjoy the blessings of the Trinity God, kneel down, and end your life with prayer.
