This sermon is an edited version of the sermon, "Reading the Letter to the Philippians" delivered on February 2, 2006. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God.     Philippians 1:27   The strength coming from trusting in GodIn times of difficulty and loneliness, when there is no one to rely on, and when we feel powerless and weak, we may actually sing hymns with more confidence. Even though it might seem like we sing hymns more often when we are in good health and living in comfortable circumstances, we should remember we can sing hymns with greater strength when we feel weak. Once, when I went somewhere to spread the gospel, I became very discouraged. In a letter by the Apostle Paul, there is a part where Paul sang hymns when his body became very weak. I am a little embarrassed to say, there is a hymn I sang when I was in a similar situation.     Be not dismayed whate'er betide,God will take care of you;When dangers fierce your path assail,God will take care of you.  (Hymn 432)     When I was singing this hymn, I felt like there was a power present beside me. It was I who was singing the hymn, "Be not dismayed," but it sounded like someone else's voice. To put it more simply, I felt like God was right beside me. Let us say that as you are talking to someone on your cell phone in a big hall, a person pats you on the shoulder. You turn around to look, and it happens to be the person you are talking to on the phone. The impact of this conversation would now be changed. The voice of the person you hear on the phone is now right beside you. Similarly, when you unexpectedly run into a person with whom you were talking on the phone, it would be quite different because now you are talking to that person face to face. Like the lyrics of the hymn, "He's ever near" (Hymn 97), when I sang the hymn, "Be not dismayed whate'er betide," the hymn felt like a strong arm around my shoulder, giving me strength. When I was delivering the gospel, I felt physically weak, but spiritually I felt like I was strengthened. As it says, "[Do not sorrow,] for the joy of the LORD is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10), praising God should be embedded in our daily lives.When I was young, I watched movies depicting wars of time past. The way they battled at that time looked ridiculous to me. Soldiers marched forward holding their colors. Beside them stood a flag bearer and a drummer. And as the soldiers paced on forward, the enemies on the other side kept firing bullets. In a situation where you would have to crawl to have a chance at survival, the drummers kept marching forward beating their drums. I ridiculed them saying, "How stupid!" I thought to myself that people back then must not have undergone proper training. In today's world everything moves very fast, including bullets that hail down rapidly. In the past when people fired guns, they first had to cock the rifle, estimate the distance to the target, aim at the target, and then fire. Maybe this was the case because at that time everything went at a slower pace. However, in the midst of war, the drummers who were marching forward while beating their drums looked very pitiful and pathetic. Only later, I discovered that the drummers had an important part in boosting the morale of the soldiers.In our lives sometimes we are faced with struggles and worries. What is it that gives us strength? People may give several different answers to this question, such as money or one's job. Let us think about whether there is some power which holds us up and leads us. When it is cold, we feel less cold and more at ease if we wear several layers of clothes. Likewise, we feel more secure in our lives when we have trust and faith in God. We do not put our trust in God because it appeases our needs, but because God is living. These days when I listen to the news, I wonder whether it is possible for people to live contently without knowing God. Maybe because they do not know what is actually going on, they live their lives thinking they are relatively safe and stable. There is a saying, "Day-old puppies do not fear tigers," or "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Can an ignorant puppy be afraid of a tiger? Some people have this outlook when looking at the world. But, in reality, there are so many difficult and frustrating things in this world. Just as the Bible says, "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars" (Matthew 24:6), and "And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places" (Matthew 24:7), today's world is not turning all that smoothly. What is happening in the world today is exactly in accordance with what the Bible says. As the Bible says, "For it [that Day] will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth" (Luke 21:35), that Day, though no one knows when, will come upon everyone at the same moment, whether it be at dawn or at midnight. In exactly the way described in the Bible, the history of the world is heading for that specific day.Living in this age as Christians, be careful that you are not taking the news at face value, filtered and watered-down. We should think about and become aware of the things that will gradually and precisely disrupt the world in the future. Are we not afraid because we are ignorant of these things? Actually, we have full knowledge of this, but also have someone to rely and lean on. I would like you to think about whether you have confidence in (the Lord) or whether this has nothing to do with you; because like the lyrics of the hymn, "The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend "Even so" it is well with my soul" (Hymn 470), you possess the strength which comes from trusting in God, though you are well aware of the things that will come upon the world. Living as a child of GodBecause we are all social beings living with other people, our thoughts can become diluted by mixing with other useless thoughts. Perhaps you have read something like this in the Bible, "There will be the last judgment and then such and such people will be cast into the lake of fire." It is written in the Bible, "And all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone" (Revelation 21:8). They will be cast into the lake of fire which burns forever. Let us think about this. When it says, "all liars," is the passage referring only to those who lie to deceive others? Let us say that people, deeply moved by a novel or a movie, visit the locations depicted in the novel or the movie. They travel from country to country. They become sentimental when they visit these places, though the places are only the settings of fiction, not of a true story. This is the same with Korean movies. These days, some Japanese tourists visit the locations where Korean TV dramas or movies were filmed. They become emotional and excited to be there as if the TV dramas or the movies were true stories and actually took place there. From a mundane, human perspective, these things seem good and praiseworthy. However, I am afraid that from the viewpoint of God, the great Judge, this is a big problem. There is a hymn that says, "I will be ever, only, all for Thee" (United Hymnal 457).There are many people in the world who spend their entire time indulging in things that are not real, taking pleasure in make-believe. They are wasting their time. If we are truly born-again Christians, shouldn't we lead our lives with insight? We could end up wasting our life doing things which have nothing to do with God. That is, our religious life could be nothing but a ritual, and we might ignore the responsibility to live as a child of God.There is something I think about frequently when I read the Bible. When we look at the lives of the apostles and the early Christians who lived in the first century, around the time when the New Testament was being written, we can see that they lived their lives faithfully as the children of God. Did Paul, who wrote the letter to the Philippians, domineer over them as a preacher? Did he do nothing but spread the gospel as an evangelist? Didn't he truly lead his life in the trust of God/trusting God as one of the brothers and sisters and as a member of the body, instead of living a superficial religious life under the name of God? Written in Philippians is the Apostle Paul's request that says, "[L]et your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ" (Philippians 1:27). This is a very significant statement.Once, while watching a news report, I thought to myself, "They shouldn't have reported the news this way." The report was about a boat, with 1,300 passengers on board that sank in the Red Sea, with only two or three hundred people rescued. The reporter thoughtlessly commented that it was fortunate that there were no Koreans among the victims. How would Egyptians feel if they heard this? The reporter, a Korean, may have said so out of patriotism, but was it really so "fortunate"? We should be more considerate about the people around us. What kind of attitude do we have towards our brothers and sisters? We sing the hymn, "Love as ourself all those in need, Comfort who grieve" (Hymn 278) without much thought, but we could be lying. How are we leading our lives?In the book of Philippians there are some stories which make us feel that they are all one family. There are some people who are sick but who worry more about being a burden to those around them. And Paul urges to let their conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, considering others their family (see 1:27). He also says that although it would be far better for him to depart and be with Christ, it is more needful for them that he remains in the flesh (see 1:23-24). It is so sweet. Another thing in the book of Philippians we should not overlook are the words that Paul says mentioning the names of some brothers and sisters "whose names are in the Book of Life" (4:3). Humans have intuition, which is a certain power that man cannot explain. Paul seems to have a power that he had got from the fellowship. I have spread the gospel so far, but I cannot say that a certain person's name is in the Book of Life.After we listen to someone's testimony, we say to ourselves, "That person is surely born again". A while ago, regarding salvation, people used to say, "How arrogant to say they got saved. Only God knows about salvation." Now the term "salvation" has been generalized all around the world. However, as it says, "Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted" (Matthew 15:13), salvation should not be thought of with levity. The words describing that at the end of the age, in the last judgment, the wicked will be separated from among the just,

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