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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
The Church that God Loves - Earth - 30th Anniversary Service |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Isaiah 60:1-3 |
Date |
2012-10-07 |
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Passage
Isaiah 60:1-3
"Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising."
Introduction
This is the Manmin Central Church's 30th anniversary celebration service.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has established this church and has been with us for the last 30 years.
I thank you all the guests who came from all over the country and many other countries, and I welcome you in the name of the Lord.
I welcome all the families, relatives and friends of the church members too.
I give thanks to all the ministers, missionaries, employees, and all the members who have been dedicating themselves for the kingdom of God.
Brothers and sisters, God has been leading the history of this church in the providence of the end time.
Not a moment passed without a meaning contained in it.
Sometimes, it seemed that we did not have a way out of a situation, and other times it seemed we were going around in a direction that we did not know well.
But at any moment we trusted in God and we could feel His presence with us. We followed the guidance of God step by step.
We've been taking such steps for the last 30 years.
Today, continuing from the morning service, I'd like to talk about how God has been with us for the last 30 years and what He is going to accomplish through us.
We can say we have accomplished quite a few things in the providence of God, but there still are so many things to do to fulfill God's providence completely.
I hope the pastors, workers, and members of this church will become more ardent in fulfilling the God-given vision, through this service and the celebration performances.
I also pray in the name of the Lord that the grace of God will be added to you and all our guests.
Main
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and guests,
God dwells in Heaven that is in spiritual space, and we live on this earth.
"Earth" here does not only refer to this ground on which we are living, but the entire physical space that is visible to our eyes.
The men who belong to the physical space, namely earth, cannot see God or know Him who belongs to Heaven.
Nevertheless, God gives us various kinds of grace so that we who belong to earth can feel Heaven.
He let us feel God the Creator through the mysterious order in the nature - and in all creation.
He let us know through the words in the Bible, and from time to time He sent men of God.
Sometimes through special spiritual experiences, some people testify to the spiritual realm such as Heaven and Hell.
The reason why God lets us know of the spiritual realm is to let us understand that we should become individuals who belong to spirit.
He wants the believers to take hold of heavenly kingdom by force with faith and hope, and He wants them to change into His true children with whom He can share His love.
The Apostle Paul saw Paradise of Heaven and engraved the spiritual realm in His heart.
Just by seeing the glory and beauty of Heaven once, he realized how meaningless flesh is, and he dedicated the rest of his life to gain what belongs to the eternal Heaven.
God wants everyone, and not just Paul, to seek the things of Heaven, namely spiritual things.
He is eagerly waiting for His children who cast away all the meaningless, fleshly things and come forth as people who belong to Heaven.
For the last 30 years, God has shown countless things of Heaven in this church.
Through the spiritual messages He let us know about spiritual realm that men cannot know.
He performed the powerful works that only God can do in the name of Jesus Christ, to confirm all the messages preached here.
Also, through the praise songs that He gave to us, He let us feel the heart of God the Father more realistically.
All the messages, all the powerful works, and all the lyrics and melodies of the praise songs contain the love of the Father.
This is God's earnest love who wants all the believers to see, hear, and understand in heart so that they can surely become people who belong to Heaven.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, even though God has enfolded things of Heaven in this church, that in itself cannot automatically change the believers and they become people who belong to Heaven.
According to justice, each one needs the time to go through refinement and they need to take hold of heavenly kingdom by force.
Jesus showed so many miracles, but not everyone who saw it was saved.
Even though they saw great and amazing power demonstrated, some people rejected Jesus because they did not understand Him or because they thought He was not beneficial for them.
Some people followed Him seeing the signs and wonders at first, but when they heard deep spiritual messages, they stumbled and left Him.
Even the disciples who were with Jesus ran and hid themselves when Jesus was arrested and taken away to be crucified, for they felt their lives were also threatened.
One of them even denied Jesus.
But after going through all the times of refining trials, they witnessed the resurrection of the Lord and changed very quickly in the works of the Holy Spirit.
They became men who belonged to Heaven, who could bravely preach the truth in any dangers or threat.
God did not change the disciples, give them power, and make them apostles at once, just because God is almighty.
They did see the power of Jesus and trusted Him, but until they had faith like pure gold, each of them had to undergo the processes of refining by trials.
God also gave our church members a time of training so they could have firm faith.
Today, there are so many churches in the world, but we can hardly find any believers who seek the goal of becoming holy.
The Bible tells us to be holy so many times, but most believers just think men cannot become holy and they can just try not to commit sins.
They do not even understand the concept of spirit and whole spirit, so they just think unbelievers are men of flesh and believers who accepted the Lord are men of spirit.
So, God has chosen His beloved church in an attempt to show an example of holiness to the people of this earth.
In fact, in ordinary setting, even though one tries very hard in his life of faith, it is not easy to stand on the rock of faith.
Even in the Bible, it is not easy for one man of whole spirit to come out of an entire generation.
Basically a person has to have good inner heart and with special intervention of God he has to realize himself completely and break his ego in the process of trials for refinement.
But God has given special grace to the members of the church that He loves. It means He gave us a time of training to change our inner heart and quickly accomplish spirit.
Since the opening of the church, the members have seen continuous works of power, and they were assured of the living God.
Seeing the great works of God's power taking place every week, they were filled with spirit, and it seemed that their faith was also growing quickly.
But God had turning points to check our faith from time to time.
It seems everything we have is of truth in times of peace and tranquility, but in times of trial, the truth and falsehood became discernible.
One of the best examples is the tests that the church went through in 1998 and 1999.
Those members who seemed faithful on the outside were separated by the strong wind of great tests, just as in the case of the full grain of wheat and the chaff being separated by threshing.
People who did not circumcise their heart but seemed faithful just on the outside and those who had been casting off sins with their love for God were separated.
People who feared men and compromised with the world and those who had firm faith to keep their righteousness before God were separated.
In the midst of this test, the church members each had a precious opportunity to check and understand their faith.
After the tests were over in 2000's, God let this church go out to the world in full scale.
God let the faith of our church members grow even more through the overseas crusades.
But from a certain point in time, something strange began to take place.
The power of God was being manifested more and more greatly, but in some aspects the growth of the faith of individual church members was slowed down.
Many of you said you were trying hard with a longing for spirit, but you felt something was not quite right.
In some cases, you thought you repented, but since the wall of sin that you had created in the past was not completely destroyed, so the growth of your faith was slowed down.
Or, in other cases, you were diligent in faith but from a certain moment you began to look back at the world again and committed sins leading to death.
Unless these individual problems were resolved, you could not go into the spiritual realm even though you saw and heard about spiritual realm so much.
You couldn't receive grace and strength from above, so it slowed down the speed of casting away sins, and it was not easy for you to break your self-righteousness and frameworks of thoughts.
And the breakthrough of this problem was the chance of repentance that we had on December 25, 2010.
As the fundamental problems that caused spiritual staggering were resolved and the walls of sins were torn down, you could have a leap in the growth of your faith.
You realized the love of God in the depths of your hearts, so you did not just repent of your sins but you came forth to the rock of faith, spirit, and whole spirit.
This is the love of God that is unfolded on this earth.
Soon, most of you will stand on the rock of faith, and furthermore the average of your faith will be close to 'spirit'.
Only then will you be able to fulfill the great duty of world evangelism and construction of the Grand Sanctuary.
God the Father has been patient with us for the last 30 years as if it were one day, waiting for this day to come.
I hope all of you will realize this heart of God and come forth as the fruit of holiness quickly, so that you will become precious instruments to fulfill the providence of God at the end time.
Conclusion
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Isaiah 60:1-3 says, "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising."
As the measure of your faith is filled up and when the comprehensive blessing is proclaimed, this earth will be covered by the glory of Heaven.
The name of God the Creator and the only Savior Jesus Christ will be proclaimed to the whole world through this church.
I ask all of you to pray with your love for this church and faith, looking forward to this day.
Also, I give thanks to all those who have been faithfully serving this church in obedience to the word of God, and I pray in the name of the Lord that you will all enjoy the praise and honor given by the Father after we finish all our duties here.
Let us once again give all thanks and glory to God the Father who made the earth, who formed it to establish it, and who will fulfill all His promises given to this church.
Hallelujah! |
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