Genesis 36 - You Shall Prosper

God's word is from Genesis 8:15 to 22.

 

“Then God said to Noah “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.” So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though[a] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Amen.

 

After the Flood: The Continuing History of Salvation

Last time, we looked together at the progression of the flood, the 40 days of rain, and the process of the waters receding. The reason this inevitably intertwines with our journey of salvation is precisely because the ark itself represents our salvation. We also examined together that the statement ‘God remembered Noah’ not only showed that God remembered the covenant but also that He is the one who keeps and fulfills that covenant.  

 

Today's text deals with the story at the end of the flood. Of course, all the water has dried up. Does this mean salvation is complete? And what happened after that salvation? Now that Noah and his family have survived in the ark, what happened afterwards inevitably becomes our new focus.  

 

What comes after salvation? What comes after the ark? We know roughly what happened through the stories recorded in the Bible. However, contrary to what we might naturally think, we must remember that even after salvation, there is further salvation. Your salvation and mine do not end with surviving in the ark just once; through the biblical record, we can constantly discover that God's work of salvation continues until the moment each person's life goes to the Lord. And this fact is a great comfort to us, and at the same time, we realize what a great command it is for us.  

If so, what was the continuing history of salvation that was accomplished after that salvation?  

 

Coming Out of the Ark: God's Command

In today's text, we see that the floodwaters completely receded, and all creatures came out of the ark. So we find in the text the story that Noah and his family finally came out of the ark and offered a sacrifice.

 

Why Didn't They Come Out Immediately?

After the flood, if the waters had all receded and dried up, and the land was dry, it seems only natural that the next step would be to open the ark door and let all the people and animals inside come out. However, we can see that the Bible records this fact a bit unusually. The Bible records that this event did not happen simply because the land was dry and they opened the ark. That is, it records that the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat in the 7th month of Noah's 600th year, and the tops of the mountains were seen on October 1st. Then, 40 days later, on November 10th, Noah sent out a raven. And then he sent out a dove at 7-day intervals. So the last, third dove was sent out on December 1st, and that dove did not return anymore. And now, opening the lid of the ark and looking outside, he confirmed that the waters had receded. That was precisely January 1st when Noah turned 601. The waters had all subsided. But the ground was still not dry. The ground dried on February 27th of the same year. Then, they could have finally opened the ark door and come out, but they did not do so; rather, as the Bible records in today's text, verse 15, "Then God said to Noah, 'Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—'" God commanded Noah to come out of the ark. Noah did not decide to leave on his own; he left because God told him to.  

 

When the waters receded and the land dried, coming out of the ark seemed so obvious, yet Noah waited for God's word. Therefore, from this passage, we are trying to examine the important meaning the Bible intends to convey to us. It was God's word that made them enter the ark, and it was God's word that closed the ark door, and it was also His word that made them come out. In verse 16, God told Noah's family to come out of the ark, and next, He commanded them to bring out the animals. In verses 18 and 19, the same content is repeated, recording that according to that word, Noah and his family came out of the ark together, and the animals also came out of the ark together. Therefore, this was not simply coming out because the land was dry, but they came out of the ark by God's command.  

 

The Kingdom of God: Inside and Outside the Ark

If so, why was this process necessary? What was the ark like? During the flood, the safest place was inside the ark. God's presence was there, and the kingdom of God was being established within it. The statement that the kingdom of God was established means that the image of God's kingdom in heaven penetrated this earth and showed its form like a shadow, and one of those was the ark.  

 

The Age of Miracles and the Presence of God's Kingdom

Similar events occurred during the Exodus, and as you well know, they were clearly revealed during the times of Elijah and Elisha. And the time when the kingdom of God fully came upon this earth was last shown historically when Jesus Christ was in the world. When you read the Bible, you might think the entire Bible is a continuous series of miracles, but actually, the Bible is not like that. The parts where miracles occurred in the Bible are actually very limited. Apart from Noah's ark, the Exodus event, the times of Elijah and Elisha, and the time of Jesus Christ and the apostles, where most of the miracles recorded in the Bible are concentrated, it is not so easy to find miracle events in the Bible. And when those miracles were performed on this earth, it was to show what the kingdom of God is like when it comes upon this earth. Therefore, inside the ark where they were tasting the kingdom of God, there was joy, peace, and rest. However, at the same time, because it was not the fully realized kingdom of God, there was labor, suffering, worry, and anxiety.

Although they were tasting heaven, it was not yet the perfect kingdom, so Noah too must have still been looking towards the perfect kingdom of God.  

 

Why the Ark Door Was Opened: A Greater Plan of Salvation

Therefore, through Noah and all those who were in Noah's ark, God intended to carry out His plan of creation, and His plan of salvation for this world where everyone was bound to die because of sin, together with them. That is why the door of the ark had to be opened. Why did He open the door of the ark, the safest place? They could have continued living in that ark where the kingdom of God was being established and still tasted the kingdom of God.  

 

The Transfiguration Event and the Lesson from the Ark Story

It was precisely to establish the perfect kingdom of God. You will recall the story in the New Testament Gospels where Jesus went up a high mountain and His appearance was transfigured. Radiance shone from Jesus, revealing the glory of God. And Moses and Elijah appeared. At that time, Peter, one of the disciples who went with Him, spoke. ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. I will make three shelters—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah—let us serve the three of you and live in glory, enjoying this joy.’ At that time, Jesus did not say, ‘Well thought,’ but took these disciples back down the mountain. And there was a boy possessed by a demon. The Lord did not stay in that wonderful place but rather came back down to that land.  

 

The event that happened in the ark was clearly a picture of heaven. However, what God desired was not for it to end there, but for the Messiah, Jesus Christ, to come through Noah's family, and for the amazing salvation of God, where all creatures are saved, to be accomplished. This history of salvation is a story that is happening similarly to us believers as well.  

 

True Faith: Personal Experience

A believer must first experience the kingdom of God that was inside the ark. When you say you believe in Jesus, you are often asked by many people whether you have truly experienced Christ. The reason is because of the somewhat tricky content inherent in this word 'faith'. The faith we speak of is often close to conviction. We often think of faith in terms of how strongly I believe in Jesus, or how convinced I am of Him. However, what the Bible says is that the definition of the word 'faith' is not how tightly I hold onto all this without any doubt.  

 

Faith in the Bible is a very personal word. The Bible defines faith as a personal experience: 'Have I ever clung to God?', 'In the midst of my life's suffering and pain, have I had the experience of relying on Christ and approaching God?'. Sometimes we doubt, and sometimes we question how such things could happen to me if God is alive, but even in those moments, we cannot help but move towards God, hold onto the Lord and cry out, ‘Didn’t Jesus live for me?’, ‘Didn’t Jesus die for me?’, ‘Isn’t there the cross of the Lord?' It speaks of that personal experience of going before the Lord.  

 

Difference Between Faith and Self-Persuasion

This faith cannot be memorized blindly like a math formula. The uniform belief that 'Jesus died for me, so I believe that fact, and I attend church diligently, therefore I will go to heaven' might actually be an act of persuading yourself rather than faith. It might be putting yourself into a state of hypnosis. You might be brainwashing yourself.  

 

Life Inside the Ark: Experience of Walking with the Lord

True faith is confirmed through whom I think of when I am tired and struggling, through thinking about who was the one I truly relied on and experienced comfort from when I was sick and hurting, through those precious moments and times spent with God, acknowledging 'There is Jesus praying for me, and I am experiencing such amazing grace of God today'. That is precisely the life inside the ark you spent with the Lord. It wasn't that I entered the ark and did nothing in that safe place; there were many times I had to endure within it. It asks if you have memories of having to wake up early and work while still tired, and times of worrying and struggling with many problems. If not, it might be like the foolish rich man who deludes himself into thinking he is safe on a small boat next to the ark.  

 

If you are inside the ark, you cannot help but experience walking with the Lord. You cannot help but call on the Lord's name, you cannot help but rely on the Lord, and you must surely have those times when you cannot help but confess the Lord who led your life in amazing ways. Sometimes you doubted, sometimes you were angry, sometimes you expressed disappointment as if you would leave God, but if you do not know the personal Lord whom you cannot help but confess again today, the Lord who holds onto you, then perhaps we are not experiencing the ark but actually living a life looking at the ark from outside.  

 

Going Out of the Ark: Mission in the World

You and I know that very ark. However, if we have a life within the ark, experiencing the ark like that, the Bible tells us that the next step must be to live a life opening the door of that ark and going outside. You must step out of the ark door with the Lord. From the ark that you considered the safest, where you were most joyful, and felt infinite happiness in the Lord, you are now opening the door and coming out with God to accomplish the eternal plan of salvation. And we will enjoy much joy in this world walking with God, and we will also shed tears of suffering together as we walk that path together with the Lord. The Lord desires to walk that path with you.  

 

The Safest Place: The Path with God's Word

Now, I will ask you a somewhat tricky question. I hope you will think about the answer while listening to this sermon. It's a question that could be easy or difficult. Everyone, for you, is life inside the ark safer? Or is life outside the ark safer? The flood has now completely stopped. The land has also dried completely. If so, is inside the ark really safe? Or is it safer to come outside the ark? It's okay if you miss some of the sermon while thinking about the answer, but I hope you will follow along with this sermon and think about this question. If you do, perhaps you and I might reach the same conclusion together.  

 

The Bible says this: ‘The reason you came out is to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.’  

 

Be Fruitful and Multiply: New Creation Command

However, this land now is not the Garden of Eden. It is not the Garden of Eden where this command was first given, but now it is within the world. It is a place where sin exists. And it is the word the Lord spoke to Noah and his family, who were still sinners. ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.’  

 

Meaning of Going Forth: To the Spiritual Battlefield

Therefore, this Hebrew word meaning 'to come out' by opening the ark door today was also often used in many other cases to mean soldiers going out to the battlefield. We can see this word used very frequently and repeatedly in Numbers chapter 1, which we are examining every Wednesday, and the meaning of the same word used at that time is precisely ‘able to go out to war’. That is, this word ‘go out’ is a word preparing for war.  

 

Life Against the World

In other words, for saved believers to open the door of the ark means going out into this world and having to live out the kingdom of God experienced with God, even in this world full of sin. Therefore, saved believers will experience God's creation in the world, and they will live that life experiencing the kingdom of God in the world. If so, what kind of life will that be? It becomes a life experiencing the kingdom of God, a life experiencing God's creation, a life that goes against this world. When the kingdom of God comes into this world, the world does not welcome this kingdom; rather, the world tries to possess everything for itself, tries to become king itself, and thinks only of itself as supreme. Therefore, we are naturally rejected by the world. That's why we must return to God. And because we must tell the world that what is in this world is not everything, you and I cannot help but go against this world.  

 

That is why the Bible begins this text today with an amazing story. It says, ‘They came out because God spoke.’ This means that God's word is in the highest place.  

 

Safety in the Word: Forgiveness and Love

Everyone, was the reason they felt safe because they were inside the ark that Noah built with his own hands using wood? Was it because they had no anxiety and no suffering inside, and that's why they felt safe? If nothing ever went wrong for us, could we be happy because of that? Could we be safe then? Was the reason for your joy, or the reason Noah was joyful, because he lived comfortably in the place where he stayed? What about you? If everything you planned and thought of in your life is coming true exactly as planned, would you be peaceful, happy, and safe? If my bank balance is sufficient, can I feel safe because of that? If I have a house where I can rest comfortably, or children who have grown up well, can I feel truly happy and safe?  

 

What Noah learned inside the ark was not that he was safe because he was there, but that he prepared the ark according to God's word, the door was closed according to God's word, he entered it according to God's word, and he could feel safe because he came out according to God's word. He lived a busy life from morning, but he enjoyed rest there; it was a place surrounded by death, but he enjoyed life there; he had numerous problems, but he could speak of peace there.  

Then I must ask again, right? Is inside the ark safe? Or is the world outside the ark safe? Certainly, the Lord was present inside the ark, and since God told them to go out into the world outside the ark, He wouldn't have made it dangerous there either. If so, were both places safe? That could be, but that is not the answer I am looking for.  

 

Everyone, it is not the dry land where we can go out and live enjoying freedom, nor is it inside the ark which was the safest because water could not invade, but the safest place for us is precisely where God's word is, the place where we were with God, that very path, that place is the safest place for us.  

 

World's Standards vs. God's Standards

Looking at our lives, God's truth is a safer place than lies. Forgiving and loving others is safer than the things we easily do like hating, envying, being jealous, getting upset, and building up our self-esteem. Why is that? Is it because of the common sense we think of? Is it because the morality we know well teaches that loving is better than hating someone? Everyone, what is our truly fundamental heart like? Does forgiving someone who harms me really make your heart comfortable and happy? Or is taking revenge just once more comforting? When you see someone who harmed you doing badly, does your heart ache? Or do you feel relieved? Our fundamental heart actually prefers to take revenge. But where is God's word? It is in forgiving and loving. And that place is safer for us. It is not living that way to meet my moral standards or to live a life that looks decent to others, but because God's word is there, living with that word is safe for us.  

Of course, to live in this world, you and I need character, morality, common sense, etc.. Achieving many things you think are right might be helpful to your life at times. However, if you wish to enjoy true peace and life in your life, you must be with God's word. That is the safest time. When we are in the place where the Lord, through His word, said ‘This is precisely our life,’ only then can we be safe. The reason why sharing and giving up is safer than being greedy is precisely because that is where Jesus is. Because that is Jesus' word, the Jesus we have experienced, and what we have learned and come to know in Jesus. That is why it is safe. That place is where I will receive blessing, and it is the place where we rejoice.  

 

Noah's First Action: Burnt Offering

In today's text, there is one more thing added to that image of us. It is the scene where Noah offers a burnt offering. This word 'burnt offering' is the first time this word appears in the Old Testament. ‘Noah offered burnt offerings.’ Therefore, we can guess that this is a word used specially. Everyone, having survived the ark, the water finally dried up, they opened the door, came out onto the land for the first time, and the very first action they took was offering a sacrifice. They worshipped.  

 

Meaning of Burnt Offering (1): Atonement (I am a sinner)

Then what kind of worship was it? We usually think, having come back from the dead, while everyone else died, only they survived, what would they have prayed first? It would have been ‘Thank you, God!’. Because they came back from the dead. So isn't it right to thank God and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving? However, the Bible does not express it as a thanksgiving offering but as a burnt offering. Of course, the meaning of thanksgiving might be included in the burnt offering. However, rather than the meaning of a thanksgiving offering to God who saved his life, he offered a sacrifice that carried much more the meaning of a burnt offering.  

 

Therefore, it is clear that the meaning of this burnt offering is, first, to let us know that after salvation, opening the door and going out, being with God's word is our entire hope and joy. It clearly teaches that if you truly want to experience the true prosperity the Bible speaks of while living your future life, you must be with God's word. However, at the same time, you must not forget that you must respond like Noah to the salvation that God brought upon us and worked. Noah offered a burnt offering. Although thanksgiving might have been included in this burnt offering, the most important meaning is the fact that Noah remembered God at that moment. He had navigated the ship well for a year, ensuring the ark landed safely on Mount Ararat, took good care of the animals entrusted to him, and was able to come out through the opened door of the ark according to God's word. And the very first thing Noah did then was to remember God. What does this mean? Noah realized God's grace. But the fact that he expressed it as a burnt offering is nothing short of amazing.  

The Bible calls Noah a righteous man. However, a burnt offering, firstly, requires an animal. Unlike a grain offering, an animal is necessary. And that animal must be killed. Everyone, it was an animal they had lived with inside the ship for a whole year. From the time they brought them into the ark, they loaded more clean animals. And as soon as they came out of the ship, they killed that animal. But why must an animal be killed to thank God? If we simply thought of it as thanksgiving, although killing an animal might always be involved when offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving in the Old Testament, the sacrifice of thanksgiving in the Old Testament is part of the peace offering. So isn't there the act of eating the sacrificial animal together? However, the reason for offering a burnt offering now instead of a peace offering, requiring the animal to be killed and completely burned, is clear. Leviticus 1:4 records it this way. “He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.” Here, ‘he’ is the person offering the sacrifice. God accepts his sacrifice gladly, because the animal makes atonement for that person. The animal dies for atonement.  

 

Confession of Sin After Salvation

Therefore, the reason the animal dies is none other than because Noah is a sinner, as the Bible reveals. Noah was saved. Everyone died because of sin, but only Noah survived in the ark. If so, it seems natural now, as the only righteous man saved by God, to offer thanks for saving him and making him God's people. However, instead of a sacrifice of thanksgiving, Noah is offering a sacrifice of atonement, a confession of ‘I am a sinner’. Everyone, this did not happen before Noah was saved. Noah was saved, and afterwards, his very first confession is repentance, ‘I am a sinner’ - how amazing is that fact?  

 

Attitude of a Truly Righteous Person: Continuous Reliance on the Cross

We who are saved often gain the conviction that we are no longer sinners. And that is not wrong. However, confessing, ‘I, a child of God saved now, am still a sinner,’ carries a different meaning. There is a vast difference between saying, 'Lord, I am a sinner, I am a sinner deserving only death,' when we first came to know the Lord's grace, not knowing God before, and confessing, 'I am a sinner,' as someone saved in the ark by the grace of Christ, knowing God. Through that confession, Noah clearly confesses before God who he is. He was certainly a man whom God called righteous, a man who received God's approval. However, this confession of Noah clearly shows who the truly righteous person is, who the truly righteous person acknowledged by God is. It is not someone who says, ‘Because I am righteous, I live righteously,’ but the Bible says that the truly righteous person on this earth must be someone who confesses himself, saying, ‘I am a sinner’. It cannot be anything but truly amazing.  

 

Everyone, do you remember the cult group called Guwonpa (Salvation Sect) from the past? Initially, it was a group within the same sector of people believing in Jesus, but it was defined as a cult because it denied the established churches. One of the various false doctrines held by that Guwonpa is this. ‘You have now been saved and become righteous through the cross of Jesus Christ. Therefore, you are no longer sinners, and thus, you do not need to confess sins daily. Because you no longer sin.’ That is, they taught that because we can no longer be sinners, we should not continue to call ourselves sinners. There might have been reasons for explaining it this way, but this is clearly not true. Do you remember the final confession of the Apostle Paul, whom you know well? In his final letter, 2 Timothy, when his faith reached its peak, Paul called himself the ‘chief of sinners’. This confession was not made thinking only of his past. He constantly confessed that he was a sinner before God. Because that is the true attitude of a righteous person. The truly righteous person on this earth knows well that he has been acknowledged as righteous by the Lord without any merit, so he cannot help but constantly confess himself humbly before God. He is someone who confesses, ‘Lord, I am a sinner who needs Jesus Christ today, needs Him tomorrow, and needs Him forever, unable to live even a single moment without the cross!’.  

Meaning of Burnt Offering (2): Thanksgiving (God's Grace)

Therefore, confessing oneself as a sinner after believing in Jesus is the same as confessing, ‘I am a person who cannot live without the cross of Christ’. That is why God calls such a person righteous. We call those who are not like that Pharisees. They did not need Jesus because they considered themselves righteous. When the Lord came, they could not receive Him. Because Jesus called them sinners, those who thought of themselves as righteous.  

 

Just as Noah talking about himself as a sinner was the first aspect of the burnt offering in today's text, it simultaneously includes the act of remembering God's grace. It is confessing, ‘I am a sinner, a person with no reason to deserve God's love, mercy, and salvation, yet God not only saved us but made us His children, beings who can enjoy everything together’.  

 

Connection Between Thanksgiving and Confession

This promise God gave us cannot be explained by any other word than grace. That is why in the burnt offering, there is thanksgiving for grace simultaneously with the confession that I am a sinner. And the original word for this ‘thanksgiving’ we speak of contains the meaning ‘to confess’ together. If so, what is being confessed? It is confessing my sins. ‘I confess my sins, Lord. I am not worthy to receive all this. But the Lord gave this to me and made me a child of God. Lord, thank you. Despite my sins, I can hold onto the cross of Christ, so I am thankful that I can walk this path together with Jesus Christ.’ That is the confession. Thus, confession of sin is inevitably included in thanksgiving.  

 

God's Response: A Pleasing Aroma

However, it does not end with this confession of sin. This burnt offering does not end with a humble confession that lowers oneself; there is God's response. The Lord says, ‘I delight in the aroma of what you have completely burned’. God tells us, ‘I delight in it,’ regarding the aroma produced by killing the animal that substitutes for me for the confession of our sins and the forgiveness of those sins, and burning that burnt offering.  

 

Complete Burning: Offering Everything to the Lord

The characteristic of this burnt offering is that this offering, which atones for my sins, is completely burned up. You and I, in our life of faith living while believing in Jesus, constantly struggle with this very part. The Bible says that Jesus burned everything, and also that He gave all of that to us without exception. However, we always try to hold onto it as our own, instead of acknowledging everything that was completely burned, leaving no form, and approaching God.  

 

God's vs. Mine (Clinging Idols)

If we hold onto something that is no longer ours, we call it theft. Now we belong to God; our lives are not ours but God's, yet if we continue to live holding onto ourselves, what would God say? God always desires us to let go of what we are holding onto. It is not that He is trying to take away what is yours. We no longer have anything that is ours, yet we live holding onto God's things, insisting they are ours. That is why God makes us let go of it.  

 

Letting go of myself, discarding my greed, in some ways seems very similar to the teachings of Buddhism. Buddhism also teaches emptying oneself and letting go of greed. However, that is very different from what the Bible says. The Bible does not say, ‘Lay down what is yours before God and live comfortably; if you just turn your eyes away from it, peace will come upon you’. Knowing it belongs to God, and because its ownership belongs to God, it tells us to return everything to God. And it tells us to receive all of God's inheritance together with God. Rather than regretting all the things that seem to have been taken away from us by God, our entire lives also belong to God, and we live the life God called us to, as those who enjoy all of God's things together. Isn't this enough reason to offer everything you have as God's? In common parlance, it's letting go of our small thing and receiving all of God's things. This burnt offering clearly shows that our lives are precisely like this.  

 

Since we are God's possession, is there anything you have secretly hidden away, unwilling to burn all of it? That's why sometimes we get scolded by God and offer prayers of repentance. ‘Lord, I was holding onto something that wasn't mine like this. I will let this go, please forgive me, and help me know the joy of letting go of what is mine!’ But this is wrong. From the beginning, nothing was ours. Everything belongs to God.  

 

True Faith: A Life Belonging to the Lord (Beyond Training Wheels Faith)

Therefore, before you think, ‘I am someone who needs to let this go now,’ first think like this. ‘I am a thief!’ Everything belongs to God. And He burned it all. Therefore, when you and I say we rely on and believe in Jesus Christ, if we decide things on our own as we please, live according to our own will, and then grab onto Jesus when needed, we must not forget that this is very far from the faith the Bible speaks of.  

 

Everyone, when you go bowling, have you seen lanes with guardrails? This is a device to prevent the bowling ball from going into the side gutter instead of rolling towards the pins when a beginner bowls for the first time. So when children bowl, those guardrails come up and help even wrongly thrown balls head towards the pins. However, when we first believe in Jesus, we often believe in Jesus with that kind of feeling. We think that as I walk my path, God guards me from the side, so even if I go in the wrong direction, those pins will still be hit.  

 

As another example, do you perhaps remember learning to ride a bicycle for the first time with training wheels? When I first learned to ride a bike as a child, my father attached training wheels to the back wheel. With those training wheels attached, you can ride the bike well without worrying about falling over. Similarly, if you only think of Jesus as if He becomes the training wheels for the bicycle I ride, always holding me up so I can go forward even when I'm about to fall sideways, that is understanding faith very poorly.  

 

You and I not only ride the bicycle with Christ, but the bicycle whose handlebars you are holding, and you riding that bicycle, also belong to the Lord. The life of a true believer means that all your thoughts and actions are in Christ, with Christ, rejoicing with Christ, and desiring His joy to be my joy. That is the way we, as true believers, live. Because that is the truth. Because it is right, and because standing where that word is is the most good and safe for us. That is why we live with God's word, and although it seems like I am holding the handlebars of the bicycle myself, pedaling with my feet, looking ahead and going, we must not forget the fact that I belong entirely to God. So although it seems like I am riding the bicycle alone, I am entirely going that way with the Lord, in the Lord. You belong to the Lord.  

 

God's Promise: Never Again to Curse

Whether we live or die, our true comfort is the Lord Himself. Therefore, even if we fall into a ditch while riding a bicycle without training wheels, we can be thankful, and no matter what happens in my life, because we can be absolutely sure that God's good purpose was in all those situations without any doubt, we come to believe and confess that the Lord's will shall be done in my life. If my life were mine, I would have to worry about my success and failure every day, but my life and everything I have belong entirely to God!  

 

Closing Prayer

Let us pray! Lord, let us be with Your word like that. When I grieve and shed tears, help me remember that I am with Your word. Help me know that I belong to You. Even when we doubt, feel frustrated, and get upset, help us know that I must be with Your word, and help us remember that my life belongs to You. Loving Lord, when we do Your work, help us truly be with You and know that all my service belongs to You. Loving Lord, when I pray, help me confess that my prayer is not mine but Yours. However small and insignificant my knowledge of the Bible may be, help me remember that it belongs to You. Lord, when I wake up in the morning, praise You and give glory, help me confess that my life belongs to You. Lord, let Your word not depart from us, let Your word dwell within us, and let Your word be with us. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen!