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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
God is worthy to be glorified - The 29th Church Anniversary Sunday Morning Service |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Isaiah 42: 8 |
Date |
2011-10-09 |
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Passage
Isaiah 42: 8
"I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images."
Today is the 29th anniversary of Manmin Central Church.
This anniversary service and the celebration events have become a global festival that all Manmin members around the globe participate in through broadcast viewing.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has established this church and guided us up until today.
I also give thanks to all the pastors, missionaries, employees and church members who have dedicated themselves to make our church growth possible.
I also give thanks to all the guests and families and relatives of our members who are here to celebrate this event.
In Isaiah 42:8 God says, "I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven images." As said, God is worthy to be honored and praised.
If we read the Bible, we see that God performed an infinite number of miracles that nobody else can perform.
He also gave us, mankind, the kind of love that nobody else can give.
Everything recorded in the Bible is true.
The powerful works that have been manifested since the opening of the church planted strong faith in the church members.
Psalm 62:11 says, "Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: '...that power belongs to God.' " As written, power is the unique character and ability of God.
While they have been seeing, hearing, and experiencing such powerful works, Manmin members have met not just the 'Almighty God' but also the 'God of love'.
In this message, I will briefly look back on a few of those emotional moments, and I pray in the name of the Lord that we will all give honor and glory to God alone.
Main
Brothers and sisters, and guests,
In the 29 years of Manmin's history, the first powerful work that God showed us was wonders.
Wonders are the works of God that control natural phenomena and weather conditions.
It is controlling the rain, temperature, clouds of weather or affecting the movement of the sun, moon, and the stars.
The army of Joshua experienced the sun and the moon standing still. Elijah brought down rain from a dry sky to quench the three and a half year drought.
Also, in the history of Manmin, there were so many wonders that are beyond ordinary laws of nature.
The summer retreats we have every year can be considered 'festivals of wonders'.
As we have them in the summer, we usually have extremely hot weather, heavy rainfalls, and typhoons at this time.
But we have had all our summer retreats without having any weather problems.
On August 1, 1983, about two months before the first anniversary, we had the Youth Summer Retreat for the first time.
That morning there was a really heavy rainfall right up to the moment we had to depart for the retreat.
But because of that we experienced a miracle.
When we prayed earnestly with faith and went outside, the heavy rain disappeared like a mist.
In 1994, we had the summer retreats for 5 consecutive weeks at Mong San Po Beach.
At the time two typhoons were forecasted to pass and affect the area.
The two typhoons, Brandon and Dug, were held by some unknown force and couldn't come near the retreat location. Soon they changed their courses of direction.
Even the National Weather Service also recorded those two typhoons as 'exceptional'.
We had the retreats on a beach back then and even now the Men's and Women's Missions have outdoor summer retreats.
If we hadn't experienced numerous wonders to have firmed our faith, we could not have planned such events so worry-free considering the unpredictable weather conditions of the summer.
And God works every year according to our faith.
Even though there is a heavy rainfall around the retreat location, we haven't had hardly any rain, and if it rained, it was only when we had no problem with it.
Even when they issue a warning because of extremely hot weather, we have had moderately cool weather at the retreats.
We also have the main meeting or have barbecue parties on the grassy areas with illumination from many lights, but we haven't had any problems with insects.
It's because the dragonflies sent by God take care of all the harmful insects in the area.
The swarms of dragonflies come down in the sky from around the sun and land and sit on our church members.
Seeing this, we can be assured that the dragonflies are a gift from God.
Additionally, God has shown us many other wonders day and night during our summer retreats.
He has shown us moving stars, various rainbows, and extraordinary clouds.
During the summer retreats, the faith of the church members grows up so much as they see these many wonders.
These wondrous things are taking place globally now.
We are actively accomplishing world evangelism with more than 9,000 branch and associative churches.
Our church has conducted mega size crusades in key countries since the year 2000.
Every time, God gave us the best weather conditions in each country.
In the Philippines in 2001, there were two typhoons forecast. But one of them died out and the other changed its direction.
In 2002, when I arrived in India, they had sweet rains that put an end to a long-term drought.
In the Israel crusade, the country was having a severe drought. When I prayed for them to have rain, they had it right after the crusade's last day.
The believers around the world increased their faith watching these many things.
Now, they ask for my prayer to drive away some natural disasters.
This past August 28th, a Sunday, some branch churches on the East coast areas of the United States sent us an urgent prayer request.
It was just before Hurricane Irene was making its way towards the major cities on the northeast coast.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expected that Irene would become Category 4 Hurricane by the time it was to pass through major cities in the northeastern part of the United States.
But unlike the forecast, Irene weakened and became a tropical storm not many hours after the prayer.
The members in the branch churches in the eastern part of the United States said they were also able to have their regular Sunday services.
God always protects not just our overseas members, but He also protects our staff who are traveling around the world for the work of the Lord.
In May of last year, there was an air transportation blockage due to a volcano eruption in Iceland. But, we were still able to successfully continue with the WCDN conference in Italy.
For the last 29 years, God has protected all Manmin members and our mission fields. Let us give all thanks and glory to God the almighty who is full of mercy.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and guests, the second powerful work that God has shown us during the past 29 years is the signs.
Signs are the visible evidences of the power of God manifested by the power of the Holy Spirit.
At the time of Jesus, John's disciples came to Jesus and asked Him whether He was the Messiah for whom they were waiting.
Jesus answered as follows:
Luke 7:22 says, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them."
The healing works that Jesus performed while preaching the gospel were signs.
I was an atheist, but I met the Lord the Healer just before my death.
I had diseases that couldn't be cured by any modern medicine or folk remedies, but I was healed of all those diseases completely when I knelt before God.
So, I could not doubt that God was showing us signs.
When I believed in this God and prayed, He also gave me the power to perform signs.
These signs were the core part of the growth and revivals of Manmin Central Church.
Even prior to the opening of this church, there were many sick people who heard the news about God's power and came to us.
Those sick people who were healed by God continued to register in the church. We started with 13 members, and soon it became hundreds and then thousands.
Now, we have grown up as a major denomination that embraces millions of believers around the world.
Those who were at the threshold of death having tuberculosis, various cancers, AIDS, and carbon-monoxide gas poisoning were healed and gained new lives.
Those people became pastors, elders, Levites, church leaders and members who have firm faith.
Also, many members of this church were healed of physical disabilities, mental disorders, depression, drug addictions, and alcoholism.
Many of them said they were living in hell but they gained a new life.
Many of them also gained hope in time of crisis, where they would have lost all hope of life.
A praise singer recovered her voice that she had lost due to 'singers' nodules' (vocal polyps).
A painter who is said to be one of the best injured the nerves in his right wrist in a traffic accident and he couldn't paint any longer.
Fortunately, he recovered after he received my prayer and he is now actively painting again.
There were students who couldn't have dreams for the future because they were losing their sight. But they recovered their sight with prayer.
There are so many others who almost lost their family members in traffic accidents and other accidents, or by diseases, but received them back.
Many parents gave thanks to God with tears for their children when they were healed of leukemia, atopic dermatitis, or horrible burns.
There was a pregnant woman who lost her amniotic fluid, and another woman whose fetus had deformities in the womb, but they both gave birth to healthy babies by relying on the power of God with faith.
There are also many people who come to have babies after being unable to conceive for 5, 10 or even more years.
There was once a woman who, because of her infertility of 21 years and trouble with her family, attempted to commit suicide.
She drank agricultural poison, and it was lethal. But she miraculously recovered after receiving my prayer.
In addition, she received the blessing of conception.
Dear brothers and sisters, in Manmin's history of divine healing, there were two main stages.
They were the 2-week continuous special revival meetings and overseas crusades.
In both, there was prayer for only several minutes from the pulpit or podium, but incurable diseases such as cancers, AIDS, and leukemia were healed.
Numerous people abandoned their wheelchairs and tossed their crutches away and stood up and walked and jumped with their own legs.
It is almost impossible to list all the names of the people who were healed and their diseases.
The healing rays of God are increasingly spreading all over the world going beyond space and time.
Recently, a believer in France received prayer on her photo and was healed of leukemia, and she visited our church to give thanks.
There are so many people who have been healed when they received the prayer on the Internet or via satellite, or while they were reading my books or listening to recorded sermons.
All of these divine healing works that God the Healer has manifested for us in Manmin's history are all true.
The healing cases are documented and introduced through the broadcast or publication medias, and they have become a stepping stone for more healing works.
They are planting faith in viewers of 3,300 channels in 170 countries through GCN and Manmin TV.
WCDN, the World Christian Doctors Network, verifies and documents the divine healing medically and presents the cases before many other doctors and medical staff every year.
This proves that all the healing works are perfect and true.
Brothers and sisters, and guests, seeing all the healing works that God has shown to us through Manmin, we can feel something in common.
It is the love.
Who would care for our infirmities more than our God?
Let us give all thanks and glory to God who can do the things that men can't and who loves us.
Brothers and sisters, and guests who love Manmin, thirdly, for the last 29 years, God has answered our prayers of faith.
This year South Korea hosted the G20 summit.
This was a symbolic event that showed the rapid economic growth South Korea has experienced.
But just in the early 80's when our church was founded, most Koreans were not so well-off.
In the 90's we had a major financial crisis and we had to get a relief loan from IMF.
Due to recession or natural disasters, some people's businesses fell like dominos.
Some of them lost the reasons to live or their families were broken.
When people were standing at such edges, God stretched His hands first.
Many people dramatically recovered by holding those helping hands of God.
Psalm 86:7 says, "In the day of my trouble I shall call upon You, For You will answer me."
Our volunteer's group was also founded by a church member who at one time had almost been arrested for his debts from his business failure but his venture recovered.
One of the elders had a failure in business. He couldn't even buy milk for his babies. He even got a job to clean the sewage lines.
But now, he has become the head of a major company and is helping so many other church members in need.
When the church members cried out to God, He did not only give us financial blessings but He also resolved various life problems.
He bound back up families that were about to break apart.
Many married couples reconciled just before they got divorced.
Those children who went astray came back to their parents.
God filled our hearts with truth and Heaven, which couldn't be filled with money, fame, or knowledge.
Especially, many Manmin members say that they received answers to spiritual problems that cannot be solved by men.
They say things like, "We were worshiping idols but we came back to the true God through this church."
"I was born in a family that worships idols and was suffering from various troubles and problems, but now I am living in God's blessings."
"I have come to a church where I can have assurance of salvation and hope of Heaven and I have met a true shepherd who can lead me to the proper way of faith."
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has given us so many answers.
Conclusion
Those of you who are here now, let us think about the Bible once again.
The God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob is the living God.
Beginning with patriarchs like Joseph, Moses, David, Elijah, Peter, and apostle Paul, to ordinary people like Hanna, the Shunammite woman, the widow of Zarepath, Bartimaeus the blind, Nicodemus, and members of the Early Church, God answered those who asked of Him.
Today, people blindly trust science and medicine, but God has been showing Himself through signs, wonders, and powerful works in Manmin for the last 29 years.
I am sorry that I cannot tell you of all those things due to the limited time.
God says in Malachi 3:7.
"Return to Me, and I will return to you."
This is God's proclamation towards all peoples in the world who are suffering from various calamities because they distanced themselves from God.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father, the God of love who is gathering all peoples to Manmin.
I give thanks to all Manmin families and co-workers around the world who have been working with us and encouraging us.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will spend a happy day full of the Holy Spirit. |
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