[The Ecstasy of the Holy Spirit]
Acts 22:17-22
Shinbin Kim, who was from a public slave, became the Great King Sejongs beloved concubine and she might feel ecstatic at that moment. But imagine how fascinating it is, if God the Creator would choose me as a bride? So today, we will listen to the Word about the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit.
First, when you come back and pray in the temple, you can see the ecstasy.
In Damascus, Paul met the resurrected Jesus Christ and made change of heart and went to Arabia, spent three years there, and then visited Jerusalem again. He met the Lord and received a mission, but there was nothing he could do, and he couldnt even stand in front of people. Paul the Apostle spent three years of repentance inthe wilderness, only confessing to the Lord, 'I am a sinner.' In this way, through the raisingin the wilderness, he learned about his sins, and he came back to God and prayed lying down flat to the Lord, so the Holy Spirit made him experiences ecstasy.
We call the state ecstasy which is a state beyond consciousness, existence, and an experience that transcends myself. The ecstasy of the Holy Spirit, the Extasis of the Holy Spirit, is not self-confidence starting from the self, but self-denial. In other words, it demands on standing on the path of the Cross. But prayer is important here. In particular, the prayer as the Gods Word says, organizes my thoughts that are out of the order. Dr. David Hopkins, a famous American psychiatrist, published a very famous book called The Consciousness Revolution. Here, the level of human consciousness is expressed as a spirituality index and classified from 20 to 1000, and the lowest 20 is called 'shame.' However, the author insisted that only when the spirituality index reach 200 or higher, he can contribute to the world and the standard level of consciousness is 'courage.' It is said that in a sense, 'courage' is like 'the starting point for people to live like human beings.' Andfrom 700 to 1000, spiritual enlightenment is the best index, and I think this is the best joy.
Second, (the Ecstasy of the Holy Spirit is) to listen to what the Lord say to me.
Paul experiences the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit while praying in the form of a humble sinner. But he saw something in the midst of the ecstasy. We should see the Lord who speaks to us more than any mysterious experience. Paul is now in the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit in deep prayer, and the Lord is telling him to leave Jerusalem immediately. Paul thought Jerusalem was his mission field, but before that, the Lord allowed him to experience ecstatic to give him this 'the word of rejection' as if pouring cold water on his plan. In order to make him listen better, the Lord made him experience ecstasy in time. It means that the purpose of ecstasy is the Word of the Lord. So, the ecstasy without the Word is just a human ecstasy. Pauls departure from Jerusalem was possible thanks to the Word of the Lord when he prayed, and the advice and help of his disciples living in Jerusalem. When Paul first left Jerusalem, there was no community like this. But three years later, Paul also has a few church community body. When God informs us of his Will, he informs us through Words and through community bodies and sharing with them. The best ecstasy is to listen to the recorded Words that have been declared today as the words from God that are given today to me. If the Holy Spirit chose us, he would give us the witnesss mission, but without this ecstasy at that time, we cannot afford the witness mission.
Third, its not self-confidence, but obedience.
Paul was convinced that he was perfect for Jewish evangelism, but the Lord told him to leave. However, the word 'Ex-apostello' which means send is made up of the combination of the words 'Apostello' which means Apostle and the prefix 'ex' which means outside in Greek, This word was once used when God the Father sent the his Son to this world. When Paul is sent to a stranger, God uses this amazing word to express how much the Lord expects from him, and how God the Trinity protects and helps him. The purpose of ecstasy is to eventually send him to a distant stranger. The purpose of human ecstasy is to satisfy pleasure, but the purpose of the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit is to send and dispatch disciples. The Lord enchanted us and allowed us to realize the words in order to send us to rescue this stranger. So the conclusion of the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit is not self-confidence, but obedience. The Lord makes me listen to the Word in the midst of the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit to obey when God dispatch me to the strangers in the distance, the one person I am now having a hard time with, the hateful family, the community bodies and my neighbor. Beyond the phenomenon of making a loss, we must see the choice of the Holy Spirit, the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit, and the love of the third God to help me. Knowing the love we received makes us grateful from then on, and when we realize gratitude, and then we can obey, and this is the conclusion of the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit.
Im going to talk about Shinbin Kim, the King Sejongs concubine as a community confession.
Sejongs beloved concubine, Shinbin Kim, and his wife, Queen Soheon, were people with their own stories, but they had deep friendship with each other. Sejong also listened to the stories of government slaves and public slaves every dayfrom his most beloved wives and he wanted to participate in the pain of the people and wanted to communicate, too and all these situations would have affected his creation of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. However, I thought that the pain of Shinbin and Queen Soheon became the best medicine for the development of Korea hundreds of years later. I think even before she was born, the altruistic role that God has played Shinbin to help create Hangeul, the Korean alphabet by allowing pain to make Korea rich and send missionaries to become a country that sends missionaries and it is truly the ecstasy of the Holy Spirit.
Theconclusion of todayssermon is
The ecstasy of the Holy Spirit is for us to come back to a difficult place and see it when praying in the temple, and to listen to the Lords words to me. Then you will be obedient, not self-confidence, so you can save everyone. It is said that those with a spirituality index of 200 or higher as mentioned earlier can live in the world with only 15% surprisingly. Listening to the Lord, unfolding the Bible, and sharing it in the community of the Word, not my efforts, is the secret and shortcut to bringing hundreds spiritual level rise.
