Dear and beloved brothers and sisters, I would like to speak briefly about one thought, and then we will pray.
I recently heard a short sermon in which people were speaking about heaven—or, you know, about what we as believers testify concerning hell and heaven. That understanding is certainly true, and I am not trying to speak against it. But when we have already come into the house of the Lord and have been there for many years—I am not speaking about new believers, but about those of us who have been in the Lord’s house for a long time—if our understanding is still that we come to church merely to be saved from hell so that we will not go there, dear ones, then something is wrong. Let me explain why.
Dear people, I am speaking about Christians who have believed for many years, not about new believers. When someone first comes to church and first hears the testimony about Christ, about hell, heaven, and salvation, that is understandable. I am speaking about us—longtime Christians—many of whom may still be coming here only to be saved from hell.
Faith Is a Father-and-Child Relationship
Dear ones, when you go to your father’s house, why do you go? I am not speaking spiritually right now; I am speaking about an earthly example. Do you go because your father’s house is luxurious? Do you go because they feed you well there? Why do you go to your father’s house—or, more generally, to your parents’ home? You go because he is your father. You go because you want to see him, speak with him, and spend time with him.
Many times, even today, we Christians live only to be saved from hell, without understanding that faith is not merely about escaping hell, dear people. Faith is about a relationship between a Father and His child. We should not come to church and believe only so that we may be saved from hell. No—this is about a Father-and-child relationship.
When Faith Becomes a Transaction
When you choose only the benefit, what are you choosing? You say, “Oh, I do not want to go to hell. Paradise is good. There is gold, there are diamonds, pearly gates, abundance, and a kingdom.” You are choosing the reward.
But then Satan can come and say, “You know what? Let me make you a better offer in your present situation. That other promise is in the future. You do not know it, and you have not seen it. Let me make you a millionaire now. Let me make you famous now. Let me give you this or that.” You are still choosing the benefit, are you not? What difference does it make? A benefit is a benefit to you.
Why do so many people—even Christians—return to the world today? What is the reason? A person comes into God’s house, believes for many years, and then one day it seems as though his faith is finished. Why? Because Satan made him a better offer. He said, “Let me exchange what you have not seen for something you can see. You say you will go to heaven, where the streets are not asphalt but gold. Let me give you that gold right now.”
The person chooses what is present because his faith is wrong. It is not the kingdom of heaven that is wrong; it is the person’s faith that is wrong.
When you have a parent, no one can come to you and say, “Let me give you riches if you deny your parent.” Why? Because that is your parent. You cannot deny him. But when you relate to your parent only for personal advantage and benefit, you can deny him very quickly. Why? Because someone else may make you a better and more profitable offer. Then you will forget what your father promised and follow the new benefit, because it appears more valuable to you.
But we must understand that true faith is not a transaction. It is a Father-and-child relationship. We all know the story of the prodigal son: the son returned to his father’s house, and his father was moved, embraced him, and received his son. This is the true story of our Christian life.
Godliness certainly brings great gain, as the apostle Paul says, but I am again speaking about Christians who have believed for many years. Many of us still do not understand the true purpose of faith. We come only so that we will not go to hell and so that we may enter heaven. One day, that kind of faith will cause us to stumble. It will never make us true Christians.
But if we understand that this is a relationship between a Father and His child—between a parent and a child—and that the lawless one stole us away long ago, beginning with Adam, took us from our Father’s hand, and made us strangers, orphans, and abandoned; and that through our Lord Jesus Christ we received forgiveness of sins and were brought back to the Father—then, dear people, nothing will be able to separate us from our Father’s love.
Neither profit, nor self-interest, nor shame will separate us. No matter how wealthy we become or how comfortably we live, our parent remains our parent. We cannot change that, and nothing can separate us from our parents.
But when the relationship becomes a business transaction, many things may appear more profitable than what your parent offers, and you may be led away. You can turn away from a benefit, but not from your parent.
May the Lord help us truly understand what real godliness is. I look around and see Christians who have lived this way for many years and still do not understand true faith. We only know, “All right, let us come and repent so that we will not go to hell.” That is understandable in the life of a new believer, but for someone who has believed for many years, it is a shame not to understand that godliness is not a transaction. It is a Father-and-child relationship.
Communication with the Father
This is why many of us do not have the fellowship that the apostle Paul speaks about—the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We do not have that communication between Father and child.
How can you live in the same house as your father and never speak with him? Is such a thing possible, dear people? It is impossible. If you live in a house with your parents, you speak with them, greet them, and communicate with them. How could it be otherwise?
Yet many times, we Christians do not have that communication with our Father because our goal is personal gain: not to go to hell, to go to heaven, and to be saved. This is why many of us have lost our way—not necessarily from religion, but from reality. This is why there is fear, shame, and a preference for present advantage over the kingdom of heaven.
When your faith and mine are established on a true foundation, no one will be able to lead us astray, dear people. But because we believe in the wrong thing, it is very easy to mislead us.
May the Lord help us. Perhaps some of you may misunderstand what I am saying. May the Lord help both me and you to truly desire Him and to know Him as a person—not merely as a distant God, but as a Father standing beside us.
Do you understand, dear people? The way we receive Him will shape the way we believe. When we say “God,” He can sometimes seem very far away and overwhelmingly supernatural to us. But we all know that the Holy Spirit came to the earth to guide us, and He is the same loving God—the same loving Father who is in heaven.
The apostle Paul does not speak about the fellowship of the Holy Spirit for no reason. If you and I do not have a life of communication with our Father today, it is very easy to lead us astray.
I often remember the story of Columbus coming to America and giving people small, worthless toys in exchange for their gold because they did not value what they already possessed. They did not understand the worth of the gold in their hands. They exchanged kilograms of gold for a little wooden toy.
Satan often does the same thing to us today. If we value our Father-and-child relationship, he will not be able to shake or deceive us. But when we think only about the kingdom of heaven, hell, and paradise, he often deceives us by saying, “Let me make you rich in this present world. You have not seen that heavenly kingdom above, with all its gold. Let me give you something now.”
Because we are driven by personal gain, we often choose what is present. But when we love our Father and understand that this is about a Father-and-child relationship, Satan cannot shake us. He cannot say, “Come, let me become your father.”
This is where the defeat of many Christians begins: we do not understand the true purpose of faith.
The Living God Speaks
May the Lord open our understanding so that we may love Him as our Father—not merely speak of Him as “God,” but know Him as a loving Father, because that is who He is. May we seek to relate to Him personally.
Sometimes I think about the difference between an idol and God. Do you know the difference, dear people? An idol can never answer you. You can go before an idol, pray, and worship, but it cannot respond because it is not real.
Our God, however, is Spirit, and He is real. When you speak, He should answer you. If we speak today but receive no answer, then we are worshiping the wrong kind of God, because the true God is alive. Or perhaps we simply do not truly believe that He is alive; we only say it with our mouths.
You cannot be the only one speaking in a conversation with a living person, dear people. No matter how much I speak, no matter how talkative I am, and no matter how many questions I ask, the other person will answer me at least once—even if he is a person of few words. Why? Because he is alive. He has emotions, and he has the ability to speak.
When we come to God and only we speak while God never speaks to us, we are worshiping the wrong kind of God. What is the difference between an idol and what we call “God” if only we speak and He never speaks to us?
I once worked among people who had countless idols. They would come and pray to one idol, then another, and then another. What is the difference between them and us today? We say that we worship the living God, but why does that living God not speak to us? Why are we the only ones speaking, dear people?
We go, pray, and return to our business. Then we go again, pray, and return to our business. But the God who is alive has something to say to you and something to say to me.
Communication does not mean that only I speak. Communication also means that God speaks to me. I should not be the only one speaking and then leaving; God should also speak to me. That is communication, dear people.
Communication is not one-sided; it is two-sided. One-sided speech is a monologue: you spoke, and then you left.
Many of us go and pray. That is not wrong, dear people. Of course we must pray, worship, and glorify God. But if your life and mine remain continuously one-sided, then there is a problem within us.
Perhaps we do not truly believe that God is alive. Because if we believe that God is alive and present, then we cannot be the only ones speaking with Him. He must also speak with us.
If only we are speaking, let us examine ourselves. Perhaps we believe in the wrong kind of God. Or perhaps we pray and leave without waiting for Him to speak. We spoke to Him, and then we went away.
That is mistaken faith, dear people. True faith lives in communication.
Let Us Examine Our Faith
When you and I communicate with one another, it is very difficult to separate us. But when we have no communication, it is very easy to divide us.
When you have communication with God and I have communication with God, it is very difficult for Satan to come between us and Him. You know that God is alive because you see His work, you fellowship with Him, and you know that He is real.
But if only you speak and God does not speak with you—or perhaps you have closed your ears when He speaks; I do not know the reason—and the same may be true of me, because I am not speaking only to you, dear people, but to all of us, then there is a problem in our faith. We must examine ourselves.
If we believe that God is alive, and if we believe that the Holy Spirit came here to communicate with us, but we do not have that communication, then we must examine ourselves.
God cannot be wrong, dear people. Although by the way we live we often seem to testify that God is wrong and we are right, that is not the truth. God is always right. We are the ones who must be made right.
If God communicates with His people, then we must have that communication with Him. If we do not, may the Lord help us to receive it.
Let us pray, dear people. Let us worship and glorify the Lord, because He is worthy of all glory, honor, and majesty.
Prayer
Our Lord and our King, we bring today’s fellowship and today’s service into Your hands, asking for Your great mercy, Your presence, and Your visitation upon Your people, O Lord my God.
May the presence of Your Holy Spirit be with all of us in this place, O Lord my God. We also bring our hearts into Your hands and ask You to visit us, O Lord my God.
You know our evil, arrogant, and prideful hearts, O Lord my God. Although we say that we are humble, You show us that we are all proud and have fallen short of Your glory. We ask You to restore us, Lord. We want to have fellowship with You.
According to Your Word, we ask You, O Lord my God: visit us and speak with us. Give us the ability and strength to obey You and to hear Your Word.
We do not want to be children who dishonor You, Lord. We want to be children worthy of You. May we lift our heads and declare that we belong to You and that You are our Father.
May we not be ashamed or hang our heads, but proclaim throughout the whole world and worship You, because You are the only living and true God. You saved us and did not spare even Your own Son for our salvation.
We ask for Your presence in this place, O Lord my God, so that we may worship You in spirit and in truth according to Your Word.
To You be glory and honor—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Hallelujah. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
