Sunday Worship Sermon Manuscript for August 10

Luke 12:32–40

The God Who Delights

1. Continuing from last week, today we will share about the new direction of life that Jesus teaches us. The reason I titled this message The God Who Delights! is because at the center of all these directions lies the truth in verse 32, “He delights to give to you,” and I want to examine the Word with this as the foundation.

2. Lately, I have been deeply pondering the reason for the church’s existence. Why does the church exist on this earth? If being “the body of Christ” is the most basic reason for the church’s existence, then how should we understand the meaning of “the body of Christ”?

3. Furthermore, Jesus described Christians as one body. If we are different from each other yet live as one body, and if such people gather to form the church—and if we connect this with His statement, “Where two or three are gathered, I will be with you”—then how should we understand the church?

4. This question leads to another and another, eventually connecting to: As one who believes in Jesus, what kind of life should I live?

5. Paul’s confession that “we are saved by faith” can lead to the error of perceiving Christianity merely as a religion of belief. Faith is important, but in reality, for Christians living today, the life of the one who has faith is even more important—this is something we must take to heart.

6. Living according to what we believe is what it means to be “by faith.” Just shouting, “I believe!” with words alone is unnecessary.

7. The phrase “by faith” contains the meaning that we are beings who live in this world based on that faith. So, if we think of life as something we build, we must remember that we ought to invest considerable time and talent, and pour in our concerns and the weight of life, to build up our faith.

8. Last week, pastors gathered at our church for a meeting, and after having dinner together, we shared a long time of conversation. We expect growth as time passes, but most churches are concerned that they are not shining as brightly as before, and we shared deeply about what alternatives there might be.

9. When people say “the church is doing well,” it carries many meanings. First, it can mean the pastor is doing ministry well. Second, it can mean the church is a good church. Third, it can mean the church is growing.

10. Thinking about it this way, I realized it is not easy to say positively, “Yes, we are doing well,” when it comes to the church doing well.

11. Is Pastor Gyuhyun Kim of Yeolin Church doing ministry well? The more time goes by, the more I am unsure. Honestly, I do not know exactly what ministry is, nor what more a pastor should do to truly help the church.

12. Basically, I try to keep my own way of pastoral life—unlike the old pastors, not being authoritarian, always listening, showing a serving attitude—but I am not sure how much this kind of life actually helps the congregation.

13. Secondly, is Yeolin Church a good church? Yes, I believe it is. But I am not sure if our members truly and wholeheartedly think so. I have never heard anyone say to me, “Pastor! We are a good church!” No one seems to make an effort to say so, and in fact, most do not say much about it at all—so I am not sure.

14. Today, we had a newcomer welcome ceremony, and I would like to ask them, “Do you think our church is a good church?” I suppose they would tell me yes, but I do not know if they would be completely honest.

15. Thirdly, if a church is good, it should grow—but lately I have wondered whether good churches fail to grow while unhealthy churches attract more people.

16. The essential message of Christianity is that if you believe in Jesus, you must live differently from the world. Does believing in Jesus make you wealthy? No. If you believe in Jesus, you must actually live a life of sacrifice! If I say this, will people respond, “Oh, that’s a really good message! Yes, that’s right,” and then will the church experience revival? I think not.

17. It brings to mind the rich man who, upon hearing Jesus say, “If you want to follow me, sell all you have and follow me,” went away sorrowful.

18. So, will a good church grow? I cannot answer this question.

19. Today’s passage is also about a similar kind of burden. “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Store up treasures in heaven!”—a statement like this can sound threatening in today’s world, which places great value on capitalism and material wealth. If we were to twist this text into meaning that the church should demand more offerings, it would distort Jesus’ intent. So from the start, I hope you will set aside such thoughts and, with a blank slate, share in today’s message.

20. Today’s passage is part of Jesus’ teaching to His disciples in the midst of a crowd of thousands. The direction of this story, told through parables, is about remembering “What kind of God is He?” And at the same time, it tells us, “If you are a child who believes in such a God, what kind of life should you live?”

21. Jesus’ teaching begins with “Do not be afraid!”—addressing the basic sense of insecurity that people carry.

22. We live in this world harboring fear, whether we realize it or not.

23. For immigrants, the current U.S. immigration policies create fear. The worry that prices will rise when tariffs go up comes from a lack of material security.

24. The world constantly pushes us into anxiety as though something terrible is always about to happen. This anxiety stems less from events that actually occur than from worrying about what might happen.

25. The world’s direction often provokes such worries and drives us forward, and no one is completely free from this pressure. Furthermore, we tend to regard those who foresee such troubles and prepare for them in advance as living wisely.

26. Lately, I have been wondering whether it is right to live with present hardship in order to prepare for retirement. Of course, it is natural to prepare for a time when there will be no income after retirement. It is said that vaguely thinking, “When the time comes, there will be a way,” is foolish.

27. But because that time has not yet come, overexerting myself now to prepare for the future gives me a sense of security—“I am preparing”—and I feel content with the present, even thankful that I am not among those who cannot do so. But is this really the right way to live?

28. Many people’s lives are so heavy that struggling now to prepare for the future feels like a luxury. This raises the question of whether it is right for a pastor to prepare for the future securely.

29. In the end, we are satisfied with simply overcoming the daily fears of life, but going beyond that to consider deeper values or greater challenges may not be possible unless we have greater courage and trust in a different direction for life.

30. From this perspective, today’s text seems to clearly show how Jesus wants to walk with us in a way that departs from the direction the world fears.

31. “Do not be afraid!” can be heard as “Do not worry,” because you can step away from all the information and directions the world gives you.

32. And in the following verse, “Your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom,” we see that God is not, as the Pharisees and the teachers of the law have portrayed Him, one who watches and disciplines people according to the Law, but rather one who delights to give us His kingdom.

33. The “kingdom of God” here is not a matter of territory but of “rule”—that is, the “order” of God, as I said before.

34. God delights to give us the order He has prepared. Here we can sense that God wants to be with us like a generous parent.

35. A parent’s heart is generous. Even if we do not record every moment of such experience, we all know, deep down, what that generosity is like.

36. Unlike the image of God promoted by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, God embraces us with the heart of a parent who gives hope, offers opportunities, and embraces us in His order, which is different from the order of the world.

37. The following verses, as we shared last week, contain Jesus’ special teaching about material possessions. At first glance, they may seem to say we should avoid material wealth or give all we own to God. But, as I said before, the text has a deeper meaning.

38. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus does not speak of the “kingdom of God” only as something that will come in the future, but emphasizes its present reality. In other words, believing in Jesus does not only mean that one day we will be saved and receive eternal life when we die—it means we are saved now and can taste eternal life now.

39. Likewise, the kingdom of God should be something we can experience now.

40. Verses 33–34 can be taken to mean that we should lightly regard material wealth and use it only for God, but the deeper meaning is that those who have received the kingdom of God must know how to use their possessions.

41. The order of the world uses material wealth to make oneself richer, but those who experience and practice the kingdom of God are taught how to use material wealth meaningfully. “Sell your possessions and give to the poor!”—this is not simply a call to help those in need, but an instruction to adopt a completely new and subversive economic view that is opposite from the existing direction.

42. In the age we live in, the most efficient way to manage money is to increase it through stocks or bank accounts. Or, if you increase your real estate holdings, you can grow your wealth even more. But God’s way of handling wealth puts the weight on “selling and giving to the poor.” This is not merely about performing acts of charity; it means storing up treasure in a different way—“Store it in heaven, where it will not wear out, where thieves cannot steal it.”

43. In other words, while the world sees the accumulation of wealth as a tool to relieve anxiety and overcome fear, here we must examine where true fear originates.

44. Howard Thurman, a theologian, once said this: fear can serve as a good stimulus for the weak, giving them a kind of protective mechanism, but ultimately, their inner self may become unfree and be consumed by fear until it dies.

45. If we make overcoming fear the sole purpose of our lives, then we will spend our whole life staring only at that fear until the end.

46. In this sense, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” asks whether you will live driven by the fears the world gives you, or whether you will place your heart in the new and more meaningful order God has prepared.

47. The second image of God revealed here is “a master who becomes a servant to serve us.”

48. In verses 35–38, God is depicted as the master of a household. In the passage, the disciples—that is, the servants—are told to wait and be ready, like those waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet.

49. In Scripture, a wedding banquet often symbolizes the last day, the day Jesus will return. In this sense, “being ready” does not mean just a casual readiness, but a thorough preparation.

50. From verse 35 onward, this readiness is described in three very careful preparations.

51. First, “be dressed ready for service.” This phrase also appears in Exodus 12:11, where it simply means to be prepared for salvation.

52. Second, “keep your lamps burning.” To keep lamps burning, you must constantly refill them with oil. In this sense, “keeping the lamps burning” in Scripture means continually tending to them so that they stay lit—without taking a break, continually keeping watch.

53. Third, in verse 36, “be ready to open the door for him when he comes and knocks,” meaning to stay focused and prepared so that whenever the master returns, you can immediately open the door for him.

54. Verse 37 says that those who are prepared and watchful will receive a blessing. But in the following verse, the blessing such servants receive is that the master will dress himself to serve, have them recline at the table, and will come and wait on them.

55. Here, Jesus reverses the roles of master and servant, showing that the new order is an order of reversal. The clear difference in the order of the kingdom of God, which cannot be found in the world’s order, is reversal. This means that the hierarchy of power the world always talks about does not operate in the believing community, the church. Instead, the image of the master serving the servants is something we can experience in the church community we speak of.

56. Here we realize that the church must be a place with an entirely different attitude toward life and a different order.

57. Finally, in verses 38–40, Jesus presents a short parable urging eschatological readiness. Just as a homeowner does not know when a thief will come, we also do not know when Jesus will come—so we must always stay awake and be prepared.

58. Likewise, we must prepare for the day of Jesus’ coming continually and with focus. However, as verse 33 says, Jesus is not a thief coming to take what is ours, nor is His purpose to punish us through judgment. Rather, He comes unexpectedly into our lives to invite us into a new order, to do something the world cannot even imagine.

59. Therefore, we must not resist the coming of Jesus but be ready to live with our lives wide open to Him.

60. In this sense, the church can be understood as a community that continuously and intently waits for the return of Jesus. But this is not a waiting filled with judgment or fear—rather, it is preparing to welcome the returning Jesus who will bless the watchful servants, seat them at the table, and serve them. This is how we should understand the church’s role and the meaning of His return.

61. Looking back, life is a series of unexpected turns. Life is not about having everything revealed and decided; rather, it is about constantly choosing one thing while giving up another. And in this life, we often feel relief or contentment from the choices we make—or regret over them.

62. But believing in Jesus and attending church means living in the midst of reality without being dragged along by the power that drives the world, and instead living out the reversal and subversion of life by practicing the new order that God gives.

63. In this sense, when we dream of the church’s revival, it does not mean luring people with things that will satisfy them, but choosing to be known as a true church of genuine Christian life. Let us remember this, and with such a confession of faith, let us build up the church firmly and strengthen our own faith—both you and I together.