пастор Назаров Дмитрий Андреевич - 09 АВГУСТА 2015. СЛУЖЕНИЕ ЦЕРКВИ. ВЕРА В БОЖЬЮ БЛАГОСТЬ. - текст песни, слова, перевод, видео

Today I want to talk about the goodness of our God. The Lord Himself speaks about this: No one is good except God alone. Mf. 19:17. Since there is no one other than God who is good, it is difficult for us to understand what Jesus is telling us! Here is how Dahl defines the meaning of this word: Goodness: the highest degree of love and mercy; the union of all virtues. Agree, it is difficult for us, living in a world that, according to the Biblical definition, “lying in evil,” to imagine such a quality of character. But we simply need to at least try to do this, because without imagining God’s goodness we cannot become perfect ourselves. This raises the question: What is our perfection? Yesterday at the ICC, brother pastor spent an entire sermon again convincing us that God's election (including election to salvation) does not come from works. But when we think about perfection, we certainly imagine perfection in action. And today I want to say again that this is not a New Testament concept! No, we are not perfect in our actions, from the simplest to the most complex. So, if you can’t do even the slightest thing, why are you worrying about the rest? Onion. 12:26. We just need to acknowledge the fact of our imperfections and believe in the perfection of God's goodness, in His perfect ability to forgive us and cover our imperfections with His grace! It is no coincidence that St. Augustine gave the following definition of holiness: “Holiness is the awareness of one’s own sinfulness.” In light of today’s message, I would like to add that Holiness is the awareness of one’s own sinfulness and the acceptance of forgiveness through faith in God’s goodness. Friends, we are perfect to the extent that we know God's goodness in forgiving ourselves. If we do not forgive, we cannot be forgiven, but we can forgive only insofar as we ourselves accept God’s forgiveness, and our ability to accept His forgiveness directly depends on how much we believe in His goodness, how much we imagine it. Let me give you a biblical example: He who watches over your soul knows this, and will reward a person according to his deeds. Prov. 24:12. God watches what happens to our souls: And there is no creature hidden from Him, but everything is naked and open before His eyes: To Him we will give an account. Heb. 4:13. When we hear or read these words, what emotions, what sensations do we have? Do we have a desire to “jump out” from under this “all-seeing eye”? We don't like to feel like we're under a magnifying glass, and that's because we don't know His goodness! I think I won’t be wrong if I say that we have all, at different times, experienced grief due to our own excessive frankness. Life in a world lying in evil has taught us to be closed, not to show or talk about our weaknesses, and when we come to God, this habit of ours does not disappear by itself. No, we need to make an effort to firstly discover this habit in ourselves, and secondly to seek from God the strength and way to overcome it. And what I say today is a tool or weapon in this battle with one’s own closedness. We need to improve, but not to improve in works, but first of all in the knowledge of His goodness. The more we know His goodness, the more we are open to Him, the more we trust Him, the more deeply we experience forgiveness, and the more easily we forgive ourselves. So far we have spoken only about faith in the goodness of God, revealed to us “directly,” but in the life of the church this goodness also appears through ministers called to be His co-workers: Obey your leaders and be submissive, for they are vigilantly watching over your souls, as obligated to give report; so that they do this with joy, and not sighing, for this is not good for you. Heb. 13:17. We see that, on the one hand, the ministers of the church are accountable for their work, but those whom they are called to serve, on their part, are also called upon to allow the pastors to “baker”, i.e. take care of your souls. For example, when visiting a doctor, a person entrusts him with the treatment of the body, admitting his inability and incompetence, and therefore “surrendering” to the care of the doctor. But often in the church a situation of “self-diagnosis” and “self-medication” arises with regard to the human soul. The Lord once said to those who doubted His ministry: Either make the tree good and its fruit good; or recognize the tree as bad and its fruit as bad, for a tree is known by its fruit. Mf. 12:33. Friends, everyone needs to decide who their pastor is in order to truly entrust the care of their soul to this person. The same Augustine the Blessed said about it this way: “To whom the church is not a mother, God is not a Father!” Perhaps this also hurts the ear, but the truth is that knowledge of the goodness of God necessarily leads to building church relationships. And the knowledge of goodness is the knowledge of God as the Father. Ap. John writes about this: He who says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 1 John 4:20. Who says, "I know the goodness of God"