Where is the stronghold of God's Kingdom?
Many Christians say, “I believe in Jesus, so I'm going to heaven.” Then where is that stronghold?
When Peter asked, “Where is the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus answered, “It is not in heaven but in your heart,” so where is that stronghold located?
Can it be formed by a sad heart, a self-aggrandizing mind, or a mind-denying society? Those are not the strongholds of the content we desire or of the Kingdom that God can endorse.
People seeking the stronghold of God's Kingdom must meet with solitude more than anyone else on earth. Why? As God is solitary, they too must be solitary; and since God has undergone the history of subjugation, they too must undergo subjugation.
Then, if people were to just feel sad, repent, and shed tears of lamentation because heaven and earth are filled with sadness, can that become the stronghold of God's Kingdom?
Even that cannot.
01When serving the church, while desiring the time to be blessed anew with joy, we must be able to be determined to solve the problems of sin and evil in this world. Without a single direction of determination to bear that responsibility, the stronghold of heaven cannot exist.
Some people confidently assert that because they are conscientious and have a respectable social position, the Kingdom of Heaven starts with them. That thinking is based on their understanding that good and evil begin together. Yet good and evil cannot start simultaneously. When evil goes east, good must go west, and when evil moves, good has to stop. Moreover, when evil has a desire, good must not have it. Good and evil are opposites.
The search for the heavenly nation started from the point where God lost all His hope about the world of humankind. Thus, people who are satisfied with their present lives cannot be truly religious.
When confronted by the intersecting fortunes of life and death, which cause you to sink into despair, losing the meaning of your existence, you should not be excessively attached to your habitual lifestyle, but instead proceed to seek new values, denying even your life. By proceeding in this way, true goodness can start.
Viewed from this standpoint, are there people who can confidently say that their character is the stronghold of heaven? None. No one can insist that their family is the stronghold of heaven.
No one could claim that God, if He existed, could not say that He did not recognize their family. No tribe can insist that God must recognize it because of their good achievements. There are no races, nations, ideologies, or philosophies that can demand God's recognition. When I think about this, I am dumbfounded.
Therefore, while the one who wants to die will live, the one who would like to live will die. Then what does that mean? Those who work to protect themselves from the evil world for more than a millennium can dream such a dream, and only those who gratefully sacrifice themselves for well over ten thousand years can find hope to live for ten thousand years.
Likewise, those who cry out for eternal life, eternal happiness, and the eternal Kingdom of Heaven must overcome the current situation with eternity as their goal, and they must surmount with endurance the present point, sacrificing themselves. Only from such a standpoint can the eternal stronghold emerge.
END OF SERMON