Participants: David Shin
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000357
|
00:31 Like to welcome you today to Faith Chapel.
00:34 My name is David Shin, and we'll be spending 00:37 the next few moments together in a study 00:39 of God's word. But before we do so, 00:42 I'd like to invite to bow your heads with me 00:45 as we pray together. 00:48 Father in heaven we thank you today 00:50 for the privilege and the opportunity 00:53 we have to study your word, 00:54 and we ask that your Holy Spirit would lead us 00:57 and guide us into all truth. 01:00 Today, we're gonna be talking a little about 01:02 the devotional life and by way of introduction 01:05 to set the stage for our discussion, 01:08 I'd like to invite you to read along with me 01:11 in Matthew chapter 24 verse 1:3, 01:15 I'll reading from the New King James version. 01:20 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, 01:23 and His disciples came up to show Him 01:26 the building of the temple. 01:28 And Jesus said to them, 01:30 "Do you not see all these things? 01:34 Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be 01:37 left here upon another, 01:39 that shall not be thrown down." 01:41 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, 01:44 the disciples came to Him privately saying, 01:47 "Tell us, when will these things be? 01:50 And what will be the sign of your coming, 01:53 and of the end of the age?" 01:56 You remember Jesus has just made a shocking 01:59 statement in Matthew chapter 24. 02:02 He went into the temple and told His disciples 02:04 you see these stones of the temple 02:06 there shall not be one stone left upon another. 02:10 And later when he's looking down on Jerusalem 02:13 from the Mount of Olives, disciples come to Him 02:16 privately saying when shall these things be? 02:18 What shall be the sign of thy coming 02:20 and of the end of the world? You remember 02:24 that disciples equated in there question, 02:26 there was a misunderstanding; 02:28 they thought the destruction of Jerusalem 02:30 was synonymous with the end of the world. 02:33 And Jesus instead of correcting their 02:35 misunderstanding gives a brilliant discourse 02:39 in Matthew chapter 24 answering both questions 02:42 regarding destruction of Jerusalem 02:44 and the final moments of ours history. 02:47 But I like to horn in on one particular verse 02:50 in Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24 02:54 and verse 15 gives an interesting endorsement 02:58 by Jesus Christ himself. 03:00 Matthew chapter 24 verse 15 reads 03:02 "Therefore when you see the 03:04 'abomination of desolation,' spoken out 03:07 by Daniel the prophet, 03:09 standing in the holy place" whoever reads, 03:12 let him understand. The prophet Daniel 03:17 is endorsed by Jesus and I just like to point out 03:20 three simple examples or three simple 03:23 observations from these verses, there is a lot 03:25 in there but by way of reference Jesus assumes, 03:28 number one that Daniel is a prophet. 03:31 We can study the book of Daniel knowing 03:33 that it has Christ saying that He is inspired 03:37 a messenger of God. And the second thing 03:40 Jesus points out that the Book of Daniel 03:43 has end time relevance. We can know that 03:47 as God's last day people living right before 03:50 the eminent return of Jesus Christ, 03:53 that Jesus is saying listen, 03:55 it is relevant to us living in the last days. 03:58 And that the third one is that Jesus gives 04:01 his own divine endorsement by 04:03 implication to study the Book of Daniel. 04:08 Now I like to read a lot in my spare time 04:11 and one of the things that I ask my friends 04:13 when I haven't seen them for a quite a bit, 04:16 I go to them and I ask are there any books 04:18 that you recommend, and depending on 04:21 who it is I'll go on based on the recommendation 04:25 and buy 50 to 70 dollars worth of books on 04:28 amazon.com without even having cracked the cover, 04:31 and this is just based on the endorsement 04:33 of my friends. And so here Jesus is essentially 04:37 saying in Matthew chapter 24. 04:38 If you want to know what's gonna happen 04:41 in the last days and want to know how to live, 04:43 study the book of Daniel, and I don't know about 04:47 you but that is a pretty good endorsement 04:51 from the Son of God and so with that motivation 04:54 with this in juncture from Jesus Christ Himself 04:58 to say study the Book of Daniel. 05:00 I'd like to invite to turn with me to Daniel 05:03 chapter 1 and verse 1, 2, Daniel chapter 05:09 and verse 1:1, 2 reads. 05:10 In the third year of the reign of 05:12 Jehoiakim King of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, 05:16 King of Babylon came to Jerusalem 05:18 and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim King 05:22 of Judah into his hand, with some of the 05:25 articles of the house of God, which he carried 05:28 into the land of Shinar to the house of his God; 05:31 and brought the articles into the treasure 05:34 house of his God. Daniel to give you 05:37 a little bit a background was 15 to 16 years 05:41 of age when this happen. Nebuchadnezzar 05:43 who was King of Babylon at the time came 05:45 and besieged it, this was going to the first 05:47 of three sieges on Jerusalem and during 05:51 his lifetime Jerusalem was ransacked, 05:54 it was burnt to the ground, 05:55 the temple was destroyed and according to Leslie 05:58 Hardinge who is the scholar on Daniel says 06:00 that Daniel had to walk approximately a thousand 06:03 miles from Jerusalem to Babylon. 06:07 And I just want you to for a brief few moments 06:10 place yourself into the shoes of Daniel. 06:13 Remember that you're 15 to 17 years of age, 06:16 you're a teenager, you probably seen 06:18 your parents slaughtered before your very eyes, 06:20 and you had to walk a thousand miles from 06:22 Jerusalem to Babylon and what are you gonna be 06:25 thinking and the thoughts going across 06:28 your mind during this trip. 06:30 You know I got some friends that were raised 06:33 along the lines of Christianity, 06:36 and they served the Lord all their life, 06:38 and suddenly a trauma or a tragedy happens 06:41 to them and they say you know I serve 06:42 the Lord why is this happening to me, 06:44 and it shakes the foundation of their faith 06:46 and sad to say some of them have even left 06:50 the Christian faith as a result of this. 06:53 But here's Daniel, he decides that regardless 06:56 of what happens to him, regardless of whether 06:58 he loses his family, and loses his temple the 07:02 Jerusalem and is taken literally to a secular 07:05 university there in Babylon and not only 07:08 when you read the accounts does he make it 07:10 but he excels. Now the Book of Daniel 07:13 can be divided into two major genres. 07:17 Number one the prophetic, 07:19 that's obvious these prophecies are sealed 07:21 unto the time of the end according to 07:22 Daniel chapter 12. And the second is the 07:25 narrative, inner first in between these 07:29 prophecies are stories and it's not just by 07:32 happenstance. These stories are illustrations 07:36 of the lives that we are to follow, 07:38 six of them are characteristics that 07:40 we have to possessed, while these prophecies 07:42 are being fulfilled, and two of them 07:44 are prophecies, or characteristics 07:46 I should say of characteristics that 07:48 we have to avoid while these prophecies 07:51 are being fulfilled. And I like to go to a 07:54 little bit of a window and angel on the secret 07:58 of Daniel's faithfulness. Let's go to our next 08:01 passage Daniel chapter 6 and verses 1:5, 08:07 Daniel chapter 6 verse 1:5 It pleased Darius 08:10 to set over the kingdom one hundred 08:13 and twenty satraps, to be over the whole kingdom; 08:17 and over these, three governors, 08:19 of whom Daniel was one, that the satraps might 08:23 give account to them, so that the King 08:26 would suffer no loss. Then this Daniel 08:29 distinguished himself above the governors 08:31 and satraps, because an excellent spirit 08:35 was in him; and the king gave thought 08:37 to setting him over the whole realm. 08:40 So the governors and satraps sought to find 08:42 some charge against Daniel concerning 08:45 the kingdom; but they could find no 08:47 charge or fault, because he was faithful; 08:50 nor was there any error or fault found in him. 08:54 Then these men said, "We shall not find any 08:58 charge against this Daniel unless we find it 09:01 against him concerning the law of his God." 09:06 Essentially what is happening here is Daniel 09:09 has suffered or gone through a regime change, 09:13 the Babylonians were taken over by the 09:15 Medo-Persians and incidentally Daniel 09:18 was placed at a prominent position 09:20 in this next kingdom of Medo-Persia. 09:23 He was set second in command to the King 09:26 himself and these governors were jealous, 09:29 were envious of his position, and they sought 09:31 to find some thing to find or an aspect 09:34 of Daniel's life to nail him on 09:37 and to get his position. And is interesting 09:41 what they convinced the King to do in the next 09:44 few verses Daniel chapter 6 and verse 6, 09:47 we find another account of what is happening 09:50 in these verses. 09:53 So these governors and satraps thronged before 09:56 the King, and said to him: "King Darius, 09:59 live forever! All the governors of the kingdom, 10:02 the administrators and satraps, the counselors 10:05 and advisors, have consulted together 10:09 to establish a royal statute and to make 10:11 a firm decree, that whoever petitions 10:14 any God or man for thirty days, 10:17 except you O King, shall be cast into den of lions. 10:22 Now, O King, establish the decree 10:24 and sign the writing, so that it cannot be 10:27 changed, according to the law of the Medes 10:29 and Persians, which does not alter." 10:33 Therefore King Darius signed 10:35 the written decree. Just like to point out 10:39 a couple of things before moving on, 10:41 and that is that number one there is a political 10:44 law that is put in place regarding worship. 10:48 Number two there is death decree for any 10:51 person that worships any other God or man 10:54 rather then the King. This I believe is a type 10:57 of what's going to happen right before 11:00 the final moments of earth's history. 11:02 Remember in Revelation, there is a law regarding 11:05 worship, and secondly there is injunction 11:08 from this political government that any one 11:11 who worships any other God or man shall be killed. 11:14 Now Daniel does something very 11:16 interestingly in this passage that he does it 11:20 any way regardless of the indictment of being 11:24 thrown in to a den of lions. Now I don't know 11:28 how many of you have ever been bitten 11:30 by a wild animal before. A number of year ago 11:34 I used to go door to door selling books, 11:36 and one of the greatest fear I had was meeting 11:39 a ferocious dog, and so we would have this trick 11:41 when we walk up to the door we would shake 11:43 the gate, we'd whistle and once it was safe, 11:46 we would then proceed to move inside. 11:48 One of my friends actually was bit by 11:51 pit bull and on his face and had to undergo 11:54 some dramatic plastic surgery. 11:56 The surgeons did a good job, he is okay today. 11:58 But we are not talking about a small dog here; 12:01 we are talking about a fairly large cat. 12:05 I don't know how many of you have ever read 12:08 the story of Siegfried And Roy, they are running 12:12 a show with a large cat his name was Montecore 12:16 380 pounds and during a freak accident this animal 12:20 with his killer instinct even though 12:22 it had grown up virtually in captivity 12:24 all his life jumped on one of the trainers 12:27 and shook him like a ragged dog, 12:30 clamped down on his neck and sliced 12:32 his jugular vein. It was a miracle he lived 12:35 and I saw an account years later he looked like 12:38 he had age about 10 years his trainers 12:40 did and he never look the same. 12:43 And here is Daniel; he knows that the writing 12:46 has being signed. He knows and you can imagine 12:48 the pressure, we are not talking about one 12:50 isolated cat here we are talking about myriad 12:54 of 300 plus pound animals and he knows that 12:58 once he kneels down in prays he is food 13:01 for the lions. Now I just like for us to step back 13:04 and modernize us a little bit, 13:06 let's imagine that you are in your home 13:09 and they have these trained spy satellites, 13:12 these video cameras that are on you 13:14 and once you kneel down FBI guards storm 13:17 in to your room, they hammer you down, 13:19 read you your rights and take you off 13:20 to be executed. And yet Daniel here in 13:25 Daniel chapter 6 and verse 10, 13:27 we know the story this Daniel in the lions dens. 13:30 Let's see what Daniel does in this next passage 13:33 Daniel chapter 6:10. Now when Daniel knew 13:37 that the writing was signed, he went home. 13:40 And in his upper room, with his windows open 13:44 toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees 13:47 three times that day, and prayed and gave 13:50 thanks before his God, as was his custom since 13:54 his early days. Daniel regardless of this 14:00 mandate, regardless of this law that was put 14:02 in place knelt down on his knees as he did 14:05 it four time and continued his life 14:09 of prayer. And I just like to make one simple 14:12 point before we proceed, and that's simply this. 14:15 Daniel would rather die then miss his devotions 14:20 Daniel would rather be eaten by a lion then 14:25 miss his time with God. I want us to think 14:29 about that, the dedication, 14:30 the consecration of this man. Now a number 14:34 of years ago when I gave my heart 14:36 to the Lord it was in the hills of Pennsylvania 14:39 as you forth wonderful experience in which 14:41 I accepted Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 14:44 for the first time. I had a friend of mine 14:46 who told me that there is this word call 14:48 spiritual disciplines, its kind of a word that 14:51 we shrug out or shrink back from 14:53 in the 21 century and essentially told us 14:56 this fact that when we live our Christian lives 15:01 that the devotional life is essentially important 15:05 and so I would make up this propositions 15:07 everyday about the time I would get up 15:10 in the morning, I was in high school at the time. 15:12 And suddenly after trigonometry, 15:15 after chemistry, after all this thing what 15:17 I would go through I had study all around 15:19 this work study program, I come back home, 15:21 set my alarm for early in the morning 15:24 and it would go off and it would take every effort 15:28 of super human strength to get up in the morning. 15:32 I don't know if I am only person that struggles 15:34 with this, and there will be times quite honestly 15:36 in which I would hit that snooze button 15:38 for an hour and it's the most miserable type 15:42 of sleep that you can ever imagine. 15:44 And so here is Daniel living the 15:47 devotional life and it is vital for a 15:49 Christian experience, we are saved by faith 15:51 through Christ alone, but devotion places 15:54 an essential part in the spiritual disciplines 15:58 for persons serving Jesus Christ. 16:00 And I just like to share with you very briefly 16:03 three axioms, three aspects of how we can 16:08 live this devotional life. Number one it has to 16:12 do with relationship and relationships 16:16 believe it or not are built on this thing 16:20 that we call time. Not to long ago I read 16:23 this book it's called the Five Languages of Love 16:29 and the thesis was essentially simple, 16:31 the author brought out that we have five major 16:34 modalities in which we express love, 16:36 one of them is acts of service. 16:38 When an individuals wants to express love 16:40 to another person, they try to serve them 16:43 in some way, or they do some thing for them. 16:44 My parents tend to be like this they cook 16:46 my favorite meal, my mom would do other 16:49 things like that acts of service is one. 16:50 Another one is words of affirmation; 16:53 this person likes compliments or feels love 16:55 when they are appreciated through 16:57 the verbal modality. Next one is gifts, 17:00 they like to gift things to other people 17:02 and then you have physical touch 17:03 and the last one struck me its quality time. 17:07 When I was in university I had friends that 17:10 were primarily quality time people, 17:12 and what they would do is come into my room 17:15 at certain parts of the day, sit on my bed 17:17 and you could be absolutely doing nothing, 17:21 and they just love to linger in your presence. 17:26 And I believe that God is all of these modalities 17:29 but one thing that is especially particular 17:33 to God when it comes to this aspect 17:35 of relationship is time, and God wants to spend 17:39 quality time with each one of us. 17:43 There is this quotation from the book 17:44 Steps to Christ that goes something like this. 17:46 The relations between God and each soul 17:50 are as distinct and full as though 17:52 they were not another person upon the earth 17:54 to share his watch care, not another soul 17:58 for whom he gave his beloved son. 18:01 Essentially this author is making this statement 18:04 that most of us from a human point of view 18:07 cannot connect with fifty people on a intimate 18:10 basis is more like four or five. 18:12 But God has the capacity to be able to connect 18:16 with you and me with the 6.5 billion people 18:20 that are living on planet earth. 18:21 When you talk to him you have his undivided 18:25 attention and it says though you are the only 18:28 person in the world. That's powerful, 18:32 that's intimate and that's the type 18:33 of relationship that God wants to have 18:36 with you and me. So the first angle 18:39 on the devotional life is relationship 18:43 and the next one is reclusion. 18:46 Reclusion comes from the root word recluse, 18:49 and you ever heard of a recluse is a person 18:52 that likes to spend time alone solitary. 18:56 And we are told in the Bible that Jesus would 18:58 go off to a solitary place and there he prayed. 19:01 Another example is Moses spent forty year 19:04 in the wilderness and Paul spent time 19:07 in Arabia before his ministry. 19:11 Now the illustration of reclusion has to do with 19:14 two different things, it has to do with silence 19:16 and solitude. I want to read to you the 19:20 statement we live in a noisy busy world; 19:23 silence and solitude are not 20th century words. 19:27 They fit in the era of Victorian lace, 19:30 high button shoes and kerosene lamps, 19:32 better than age of television, video arcade, 19:35 and joggers wired with their earphones. 19:38 We have become a people with an inversion 19:41 to quite and uneasiness with being alone. 19:44 And we live in a world where 19:46 there is a lot of noises, three are lot of things 19:47 going around us and silence and solitude 19:50 are two angles on a devotional life that 19:53 I believe are missing or are hard to find 19:56 in the 21st century. Number of years ago 20:00 I went off to New England to sell some 20:03 books and was there in the country alone 20:06 by myself that I found that I can find God 20:09 speaking to my heart like never before. 20:12 And when you think about it, some of the most 20:14 intimate moments are not in groups, 20:17 they are not that we can't have intimacy 20:19 in group but the most special moments 20:20 between two people are alone, 20:22 and that is what God wants to spend with each 20:26 one of us. Now there is a balance to this, 20:28 Jesus according to the Bible spent time 20:30 between the mountain and the multitude, 20:33 meaning silence solitude and the people. 20:36 If we are too much in the mountain, 20:38 we become irrelevant, if we are too much 20:40 with the multitude and become shallow 20:42 and superficial, and we don't have a lot to give. 20:44 And so Jesus live this beautiful tension 20:47 between solitude and the people, 20:50 and that is life that God is calling us to live 20:53 on a daily basis. So first we have relationship, 20:58 second we have reclusion and our third 21:01 one has to do with the word called re-scripting. 21:05 Re-scripting has to do with this fascinating 21:07 concept that all of us have a script, 21:10 metaphorically it's the sheet of paper 21:12 that all of us carry in our minds, 21:14 and it determines our value, 21:16 our world views the paradigms, 21:19 the parameters, the lens through 21:21 which we view the world. 21:23 This script interestingly enough is written 21:26 by someone else, someone else writes this 21:28 script and these scripts are fed many times 21:31 by academic education, advertising, media, 21:35 propaganda and television. 21:38 That's where we get our values and the thing 21:41 is that it used to be that people living 21:44 in the city had a different script than 21:46 individuals that were living in the country. 21:49 But nowadays they are calling a universal ethics, 21:52 so it doesn't matter where you go in the world, 21:54 you can be in a different socio-economic status, 21:57 ethnicity whatever it is in the western world, 21:59 you go to certain places, and they have a 22:02 certain way that they dress, the way that 22:03 they act, the way that the think 22:05 and view reality have certain values. 22:07 And I believe that this universal culture 22:10 that is being developed is setting 22:12 us up for a very interesting decision 22:16 as we approach the final moments 22:18 of earth's history. I want to read you 22:21 the statement from the book Great Controversy 22:26 and it's says this as the final storm approaches 22:30 a large class who have not professed 22:33 faith in the third angels message 22:35 but have not been sanctified through 22:38 obedience to the truth, abandoned their positions 22:41 and joined the ranks of the opposition. 22:45 By uniting with the world, 22:46 partaking of its spirit, they have come to view 22:50 matters and nearly the same light. 22:53 And when the test is brought 22:55 they are prepared to choose the easy 22:56 and the popular side. These individuals got 23:00 scripted, these individuals got scripted 23:03 so much that they live like the world, 23:06 they internalize the values of the world 23:08 and in the end they choose the easy 23:11 popular side. And it's not rocket 23:14 science friends, the way that we get 23:17 re-scripted is through devotions, 23:19 one of the ways is and when you spent 23:21 time with Jesus internalizing his word, 23:24 assuming his values is through this mechanism 23:27 that we learn to see things from God's angle 23:30 and God's perspective. And I dare say here 23:33 today that if you see things or you internalize 23:36 these values you will be counter cultural, 23:39 you will not be home in this world anymore. 23:44 So the three angles on devotional life number 23:47 one relationship, we must spend time with Jesus. 23:51 Number two reclusion, we must spend time 23:54 alone with Jesus. And number three, 23:57 re-scripting; we must internalize 23:59 God's paradigm and God's priorities 24:02 as we live our lives from day to day. 24:07 A number of years ago I had the privilege 24:09 and opportunity to visit my grandparents 24:13 down in California, it was a family reunion 24:16 and it was my grandfather's 24:17 80th birthday and as our cousins 24:20 and aunts got together it's kind of surreal 24:22 in some ways because you almost exist 24:25 in this time world, you have this mental picture 24:27 of the way they were being and when you meet 24:29 them face to face, its amazing how much 24:30 they've grown and matured 24:32 to the years and changed. And there was a certain 24:35 sense as we were together at this family 24:38 reunion that this perhaps would be the last time 24:41 that we would be together like this 24:43 because my grandfather was getting older 24:45 he was 80, his health was failing 24:48 and we had worship together on this 24:51 one weekend, my grandfather addressed 24:53 the family as a group. And at the end 24:55 he came to me, he is a retired pastor 24:58 and put in my hand this key chain 25:01 and he made me promise he said David 25:03 I want to take this with you wherever you go. 25:06 And I'm not particularly a sentimental type 25:09 but I said sure grandpa whatever you want 25:11 I will do it and so I flipped it over and on 25:14 the back of it was picture of the second coming. 25:19 And my grandfather is not particularly 25:21 a talkative person he didn't say much 25:23 and I walked up thank him put it in my pocket. 25:27 But I later as I thought about what he was trying 25:30 to portray in his own way, grandfather 25:33 to grandson, mentor to student, pastor to pastor. 25:38 He was trying to pass on this legacy 25:43 of the second coming. And as a minister of 25:46 the gospel, he wanted me to be faithful 25:48 and true to that calling. He wanted me 25:50 to picture the second coming and to live 25:54 my life accordingly. You know friend when Jesus 25:58 comes the second time there may be a lot 26:01 of things that you wish, but I guarantee 26:03 it won't be I wish I had a bigger car, 26:06 a bigger house, a bigger 401 k or bigger 26:08 bank account. But you may just wish heaven 26:12 forbid that you have spent more 26:14 time with Jesus. I want to urge you today 26:19 to spend that time with Jesus on a daily basis 26:23 like Daniel. Make it the center of priority 26:25 of your life; make it the paradigm through 26:28 which you view reality. One statement in 26:32 Step to Christ goes like this, 26:33 consecrate yourself to God in the morning, 26:37 make this your very first work, 26:40 let your prayer be take me as Holy time. 26:44 I lay all my plans at your feet, 26:46 use me today in your service abide with me 26:51 and let all my work be wrought in Thee. 26:54 This is a daily matter each day, 26:57 each morning consecrate yourself to God 26:59 for that day, surrender all your plans to him 27:02 to be carried out or to be given up as his 27:05 providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may 27:09 be giving your life into the hands of God 27:12 and thus your life will be molded more and more 27:16 after the life of Christ. It's my prayer 27:21 for you today that you will spend that time 27:25 with the relationship with Jesus. 27:27 Its quality time that you will be in a time of 27:31 reclusion between the mountain and the multitude 27:34 and finally that you will be re-scripted 27:37 that you internalize God's values 27:40 and God's paradigms for our daily lives. 27:43 I like to thank you so much for joining us today 27:45 and may you join us again next time as 27:48 we journey through scripture in Faith Chapel. 27:52 May God bless you and keep you to that end. |
Revised 2014-12-17