 |
 Official Service(date) |
| Sunday Morning |
| Sunday Evening |
| Friday All-night |
|
 |
|
| 1 John Lecture |
| Revelation Lectures |
| Genesis Lectures |
|
|
|
| The message of the cross |
| Measure of Faith |
| Ten Commandments |
| Heaven |
| Hell |
| Spiritual Love |
| Spirit, soul and body |
| Sinful mind |
| Goodness |
| Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit |
|
|
|
|
  |
 Sermon > Official Service |
 |
|
|
Title |
The Love of Father God - Thanksgiving Sunday Evening Service/Holy Communion |
|
|
|
Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
John 6: 55 |
Date |
2011-11-20 |
|
|
Passage
[John 6: 55]
"For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink."
Thanksgiving Sunday has a greater mood of a festival than other festivities.
Just by seeing the fruits and grains and vegetables, you can remember the love of God that has poured down on you throughout the year, and you cannot help but make confessions of thanks and offer thanksgiving.
When He sees those of you who have gathered here to worship Him, I believe God the Father is also very pleased.
Generally, when parents make a sacrifice to give to their children they don't spare anything.
Even if they are hungry, they feel happy only if their children are full.
They gain the strength to overcome anything if only they can help their children to be well-off.
Furthermore, if the children grow up well, realize the grace of the parents, give thanks to them and obey them out of love, how pleased the parents must be!
On this Thanksgiving Sunday, I hope all of you will be able to give such joy to the Father God.
I hope you will offer up pleasing aroma of your heart in offering up your thanks and praises for His grace throughout the year.
I also hope you'll make confessions of love and make up your mind to more quickly go into spirit.
I pray in the name of the Lord that God will delightfully accept your aroma and bless you more in spirit and body and lead you to the throne of the Father in New Jerusalem.
Main
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the reason why God has created human beings is to gain true children.
God existed from before eternity and throughout all eternity. He wanted to gain somebody with whom He could enjoy the glory that fills the whole universe and share His love.
Before we get to Heaven, we go through many hardships, diseases, infirmities, poverty, exhaustion, separation, and betrayal while we are being cultivated on this earth.
But by going through such hardships, those who overcome with faith will realize the love of God from their hearts.
They understand that the pains of this earth fundamentally come from sins, so they feel how bad sins are, and they choose to live by the truth by their own volition.
Unlike Eve, who was tempted by the serpent, they would never willingly succumb to any temptation of sin.
When they eventually get to Heaven, they will enjoy eternal happiness in joy and rapture.
Until we can enjoy the true happiness of Heaven, it is the love of God who has allowed for us to undergo momentary hardships on this earth.
And there should be no misunderstanding here.
It does not mean that God's children have to constantly suffer from tests and trials during their lives on this earth.
Those who live in sins become the enemy devil's prey and cannot help but suffer from various disasters.
But true children of God do not have to suffer that way.
To the extent that they keep the word of God and live in the light, God protects them with His blazing eyes.
God drives away diseases, tests, or trials and answers the desires of their hearts.
God gives them abundant blessings in various aspects of their lives.
Of course, there are refining trials for the believers for them to increase their faith.
In the same way that we take exams to advance in our studies, when we overcome trials then our faith can grow up and we can receive more blessings.
We do have such trials, but we do not have to suffer from disasters that are caused by sin.
After the message today, we will have the Holy Communion.
The Holy Communion is an event to commemorate the love of Jesus who gave His flesh and blood for us.
Through the Holy Communion, Jesus wanted to teach us the way to enjoy an eternal life and receive blessings.
The bread of the Holy Communion stands for the flesh of Jesus, and the wine His blood.
Jesus said that we have life in us only when we eat His flesh and drink His blood.
To eat the flesh of the Son of Man spiritually means to take in the word of God.
John 1:1 says "The Word was God."
John 1:14 says the God who became flesh and came to this earth is Jesus.
Thus, to eat the flesh of the Son of Man is to take in the word of God.
It is to change the evil heart into the heart of truth and of goodness with the word of God.
To take in the flesh of the Son of Man, we also have to drink His blood.
This means that when we learn the word of God, we have to practice the word in obedience.
Even physically, if we just eat dry food without any liquid, it is difficult to digest and absorb the nutrients.
The nutrients can be absorbed and the body waste can be passed only with liquid.
In the same way, as we learn the truth, the word of God, there must be the effort to practice it.
God tells us to do, not do, keep, or cast away certain things and we have to obey them.
Only then will such words become your life and strength.
The untruths that were in your hearts will go out and it will be replaced by the truth.
Hatred will go out and it will be replaced by love.
Arrogance will be replaced by humbleness. Hot-tempter will be replaced by meekness.
We can enjoy the authority as the children of God when we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man this way.
The enemy devil and Satan go away, and thus the tests and trials go away.
You will have many testimonies of blessings that God is with you.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
I urge you offer up to God the Father a deep confession of thanksgiving as I tell you three points for thanksgiving before celebrating Holy Communion today.
First, give thanks for you have received a lot of grace as children of God the Father.
You should be thankful just for the fact that you have accepted the Lord and received salvation, and you have had a year without any accidents or disasters, so how thankful you must be!
To the extent that you lived in the light, you lived a disease-free life, and you received financial blessings and had peace at home and work.
Even if you faced a test, if you just repent of what was not right in God's sight, turn from those ways and come out to the light, the problems will soon go away and the problems will be solved.
I hope you will give more thanks than before that you can enjoy abundant blessings in spirit and body by attending a church where you can clearly understand and practice the will of God.
Second, give thanks for you have the thankful heart.
People of God will always give thanks.
It's because, even though they might have hardships on this earth, they have the hope for Heaven that cannot compared with any pain of this earth.
They can still give thanks even if there is no way out and things never go as they want in their lives.
If you can give thanks this way, it means your faith has grown up to that extent.
New believers might say they pray with faith, but if they have difficulties, they might easily get discouraged and even complain.
They might even doubt God saying, "How come my prayers are not answered? Doesn't God hear my prayers?"
But if you get to the level of faith to stand on the rock of faith in the third level of faith, you can rely on God, give thanks to Him, and have peace in any kind of situation.
It's because you trust in the love of the Father God.
For example, when their children take a very important exam, the parents are more nervous than the children.
They wish they could take the sufferings of their children in their place, but they can't.
So, they just hope their children will do well on the exam and continue being very nervous for them.
If the believers understand this love of the Father, they can receive the comfort of God the Father even though they are going through the trials.
They can give thanks in their prayers saying, "Father, I can do it! It's just a process that You've allowed for me to receive greater blessings, so I will overcome and glorify Your name!"
If you offer up true thankfulness, you will definitely have more things to give thanks for.
God gives you greater faith and blessings.
I urge you to give thanks once again for God has let you grow up to be able to give thanks.
Third, give thanks that God has given you the attitude and strength that you can also do it.
You've listened to so many messages and you know the importance of holiness, so you earnestly would like to go into spirit.
But some of you do not feel comfortable because you cannot accomplish it as you desire.
But in this year, the situation has changed.
Many of you say, "I can feel the love of God the Father who has been waiting for us for thousands of years as if it were but a day and who has given His only begotten Son. I can realize the love of the Lord who was concerned about the souls even when He was being crucified. I realize that our shepherd has been praying and sacrificing himself in the march of faith because of me, and now I feel confident that I can also do it."
Those who used to say, "I have piled up so much evil and I feel it is impossible to be sanctified," now changed their words saying, "I can also become sanctified, and I feel I can also go to New Jerusalem."
In fact, many people have already come and many more are coming into spirit and whole spirit.
I urge you to give thanks to God once again for giving you the confidence that you can become sanctified and for giving you the strength to actually do it.
Conclusion
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
It's almost been 30 years since the opening of this church.
On every Thanksgiving Sunday, I remembered so many things to give thanks for, but today, I feel overwhelmed.
3 John 1:4 says, "I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth."
So many church members are coming into the spirit and whole spirit that I have been preaching about for such a long time.
For a shepherd entrusted with the flock of the Lord, there is no greater joy than this.
I give thanks from the depth of my heart thinking of this love of the Father God who has led you thus far.
With you who have come into spirit, there will be no hindrances in building the Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary.
I hope you will try your best during the remainder of this year so that you can quickly go into spirit and reach the full measure of the Christ.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, in doing so, you will fulfill all the providence of God and proudly enter into the city of New Jerusalem. |
|
