Chinese New Year hasn't ended. So, I would like to reproduce here a sermon that my pastor preached. I enjoyed sharing it with the cell last night.
Introduction
Chinese philosophy of life can be represented by 3 Chinese characters:
1.) Fu - Blessing, Good Fortune, Good Luck
2.) Lu - Prosperity
3.) Shou - Longevity
But the Christian view of life is based on the word of God
1. Our Future is determined by the Will of God
- Fu
- Chinese have a strong belief in luck, astrology and feng shui
- They believe that if they offend certain spirits or break certain taboos then bad luck will befall them
- Christian perspective - Our future is determined by the will of God
- God's plan for us is for good and not for evil (Jeremiah 29:11)
- Occult practices are evil in God's eyes (Deuteronomy 18:9-12)
2. Prosperity follow after God's people
- Lu
- Prosperity is not determined by the spirits, stars and cultural taboos
- Prosperity is a product of our relationship with God
- When we are in relationship with the Father, the word of God changes our thinking, mindsets making us more capable and wise to achieve success and wealth
- Joshua 1:8
- For Christians, we don't run after prosperity. Rather, prosperity follows after us
3. Turning the wish of long life into a promise
- Shou
- The Chinese worship ancestors so that they have long life
- Exodus 20:12 - a commandment with a promise - "Honor your father and your mother and you will live long"
- We are living in the days where people want to live a long life and pay a lot for it
- But the answer is not in therapies and surgery but in honoring your father and mother
- Honor them while they are still alive and not when they are dead (Chinese ancestor worship)
- We should live a lifestyle of honoring our parents throughout their lives
No comments:
Post a Comment