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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
The Unforgettable Grace - 2015 Christmas Service |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Luke 2:10-14 |
Date |
2015-12-25 |
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Scripture
Luke 2:10-14
[1o] But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;
[11] For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
[12] This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
[13] And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
[14] "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
[Introduction]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Merry Christmas!Today is a day of great grace.A dictionary defines 'grace' as 'unmerited divine assistance.' We should never ever forget great grace we received from God the Father. For this Christmas, Father God gave us a message, titled, "Unforgettable Grace."
So far, Father God has given you such great grace,the strength and many opportunities to manage, otherwise you couldn't have done it by yourself. I hope that you will take this moment to check yourselves to see how well you recognize this and put it in your heart. As you do so, I also hope that you can say from the depth of your heart, "By the grace of God with me, I am what I am," as said in 1 Corinthians 15:10.I pray in the name of the Lord that you may become the fruit of reward for the grace of the Lord and of the shepherd.
[Main]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
The unforgettable grace is, first of all, 'the birth of the Lord.'
We should never forget the grace that was given us through the birth of Jesus.That night when our Jesus was born, the grace upon all human beings was so great that a multitude of heavenly host appeared with an angel and sang praise to God,...as written in Luke 2:14, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
Thanks to the birth of Jesus, the message of the cross to save all mankind from sin could be heard; since it could promise countless fruits, it would surely be glory to God. In addition, those who believed in the fact that Jesus is both the Son of God and the Savior can have their walls of sin before God demolished and make peace with God.Then, they were born again by the Holy Spirit to become the children of God, and acquired the citizenship of heaven.
Let's put it this way; a man committed an unforgivable sin, and he was sentenced to life. He had to face death in a prison.One day, he was given a special pardon, and became a free man.But, that was not the end.His status was upgraded from the status of an ex-convict to a man of good family. His criminal record was completely erased, and nobody could harass him.If he just makes up his mind, he can start a whole new life.
His special pardon, however, was not a coincidence. Someone made a sacrifice for the pardon. An anonymous benefactor paid the price on behalf of the criminal. If the criminal figured out what actually happened, he would never forget the grace.
The grace that we received from Jesus was so huge and great that it cannot even be compared with the grace that the anonymous benefactor showed.To save us from our sin, Jesus gave up everything, even His own life. As a result, we gained eternal life. Moreover, before that we were sinners, but now we are able to become the children of God.It is such an amazing raise in status!
On top of that, as we believe in God, whatever we do and sow becomes piled up in Heaven as our rewards.Even on this earth we can receiveback 'pressed down, shaken together, and running over' at 30, 60, 100 times more than what was sown. While living on this earth, we can enjoy benefits as the children of God.
God the Father has made a promise to us and it is written in Isaiah 43:2."When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you."As written, whatever the disaster or accident may be, we can be protected.
Jesus also made a promise and said in John 14:13, "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son."As you can see, Father God did not just send us Jesus as our Savior, but He also gives answers to whatever we ask in the name of Jesus Christ."
How great is the grace that is given us through the birth of Jesus!Therefore, the grace of Jesus' coming to this earth is the 1st grace we should never forget.
Dear brothers and sisters,
The 2nd grace we should never forget is the 'forgiveness of sin.'
The 'forgiveness of sin' includes forgiving the sins leading to death. 1 John 5:16 says, "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this."A sin that leads to death can never be forgiven according to the justice.
It is because the sin leading to death is the sin that again crucifies the Lord and put Him to open shame, to willfully commit sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, and to blaspheme, speak against, and insult the Holy Spirit. Regarding those who commit such sins, Hebrews 6:5-6 says, "(those who)...have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance..."And our Lord said in Matthew 12:32, "...it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come."
Therefore, those who commit the sin leading to death can never be saved.Once they die, they will receive the 3rd or 4th level of punishment in the lower grave.After the Great White Throne Judgment, they will be thrown into the lake of brimstone which is 7 times hotter than the lake of fire.
Since the start of this church, I continually emphasized on the holiness gospel and I never thought any of you could commit such sins.I thought only about how to save one more soul and how to lead just one more soul to New Jerusalem.However, there were some who followed their lusts and did abominable things. There were also church-goers who deceived brothers in faith to acquire wickedly gained wealth.There were people who went after wealth, fame, and pleasure and committed unrighteous acts and did lawless things.
Leaders in this church who were pastors, Levites, and elders were among those who committed such grave sins leading to denial of salvation. In 2010, God touched their hearts to write down every sin they committed in their letters of repentance. Since their sin was too grave to receive the spirit of repentance, they asked the shepherd for interceding prayer. Those repentance letters added up to a few thousand. Those letters revealed countless sins that I cannot even mention with my lips; they were the sins committed by those whose faces and names I could recognize.
In such reality, I seemed to be the one to blame. Since I had the responsibility and I was the shepherd, I couldn't say I'd like to resign. I knew that I should take full responsibility by leading them the way God the Father desired, I knelt down before the Father and begged for forgiveness.
And I gave earnest prayers."If only I can save them by any means, I will surely do. Please Father, show me the way. Show me the way to save them.It is only You, Father, who can do this. As Your Son, I boldly dare to confess their sin and beg Forgiveness for them. Father, help me. Father, save them."To save thousands of souls, I gave intercessory prayers to God the Father.
In a spiritual sense, it was equivalent to move thousands of souls from Hell to Heaven.Later, the Father said it was the petition of love that transcends justice. As I devoted myself in this spiritual work, the strength throughout my body leaked out. The marrow was gone from my bones. All the body organs and structures became weak. If God the Father had not held me with the spiritual strength, my spirit could have left from my body.I was damaged during the process of leading those souls who were destined to Hell back to Heaven.
You've experienced that the difficulty of fasting is decided by what kind of prayer title you have. For example, the fasting for repentance is twice as hard as a normal fast. I had to pay the price of justice not for a couple of sins, but for thousands of souls' sins, and thus its difficulty was far exceeding one's imagination. As its result, however, God gave us the grace of forgiveness. By forgiving the sin that cannot be forgiven, God allowed to start anew.
This grace of forgiveness is the grace that you should never forget on this Christmas.
Brothers and sisters in Christ.
The 3rd grace we cannot forget is the grace of 'change.'
Since you received the great grace on Dec. 25, 2010, you began to change a lot faster than before. Instead of saying "I've been a Christian for many long years. I am a Pastor (an elder, a senior deaconess, or a leader in this department)" you definitely realized the important thing is not how you look outwardly but how much your inner-man recovers the image of God. Then, the true change finally began.
On Dec, 17, 2010, God the Father said,"I can simply say that it was darkness before the 25th, but it was light after the 25th.
Your souls couldn't do anything with the past-darkness and old-dirt. But this dirt was cleansed and the darkness was taken away so that they could participate in the glory that God desires; in other words, it was done that the people might become joyful and happy by witnessing the problems solved by your power."
From 2011, your measure of faith began to be checked. And thus, you worked even harder to change yourself. As its result, God said, "Dec. 25, 2011 is the day when your souls could now wash their hearts and put on white garments."He also said, "It is the day when the Father is pleased to receive the aroma of your souls that completely obeyed the word of God who commanded them to be sanctified before Him."
What kind of grace of change was given on Dec. 25, 2012.As the original light and voice from the heart of the shepherd spread out, you made up your mind to become a man of spirit and of whole spirit. In 2013 you were able toride on the flow that made your approach to spirit much quicker.Especially during the 3-month suspension period, pastors and Levites changed dramatically. On Dec. 25, 2013, I was confident to say to God, "This many souls are running close toward spirit and whole spirit."
It is never an easy job to change personality or to break frameworks of righteousness and goodness.But more grace was upon on you so that you could change even these. Underlying foundation for such grace was my sacrifice of receiving the sword of punishment for you. Such love became the driving force to help you change by giving up your free-will.
By the way, in 2014, I suffered greatly from serious itching. This phenomena took place as I tried to pay the price of justice on behalf of you.For instance, what if you grab a chestnut bur so firmly?Your hand will get pricked with the chestnut bur. If you apply poison which can melt your face to your actual face, your face will melt down.
There are souls who are spiritually evil or whose hearts are so sharp and harsh. They not only didn't ride on the spiritual flow that was given in 2010, but they fell behind.There are souls who didn't cast off, but befriended the world. I couldn't give up on them. I harbored them in my heart so that their faith could also grow up along with the flow of spirit.
I also want those who are in leading groups, such as men of spirit and of whole spirit to become true spirit. And so, since 2014 summer retreat, the refinements to fill up the shortages and deficiencies of the men of spirit. Through those refinements, they realized that it is never easy to pay the price of justice even a little for themselves. As its result, Dec. 25, 2014 was the day when they thoroughly learned that they didn't do anything to receive their current measure of faith, but that it was completely done by the shepherd.
After they learned this lesson, God gave us the 'flow of whole spirit' in 2015.God emphasized many times on how important it is for each individual to pay the price of justice even by 1% although the shepherd took care of the 99%.He also said the men of spirit are also required to show deeds to fill up their deficiencies and shortages. He said that those who successfully pay the price of justice by 1% can stand on the rock, or enter spirit and whole spirit by Dec. 25.
And thus, Dec. 25, 2015 is the day of joy when the fruit is born that God the Father can be pleased with.These fruits of glory will be united with the shepherd through true trust and play the main roles in doing the actual ministry of the 3rd stage of this church.In addition, thanks to these leading souls, other workers and members will ride on the much faster flow of change.
The grace for different levels of change on each Dec. 25 – this is the grace we should never forget.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Dec. 25 is the day of joy to celebrate the birth of Jesus God sent to this earth for the salvation of souls.Therefore, Christmas is the day of glory for those who are saved through Jesus Christ. Dec. 25 has truly important meaning for this church as well as for the providence of human cultivation. The fruit that God the Father desires to acquire is the man who has a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.
Father God is harvesting such fruits from this church in this end time when sin and evil is prevailing.Since it is not easy for mere souls to come into spirit and whole spirit by themselves, He let the shepherd to pay the price of justice by 99%.Those who are united with the shepherd as one are allowed to become the fruit of glory by God when they pay just 1% of the full price.
Those who have become such fruits confess from their heart;"I am what I am by the grace of God who is with me.It is by the grace of the Lord who gave up His life for me. It is by the grace of the shepherd who pay the price of justice for me."
It was never easy for me to pay it by 99% for all of you.Due to the symptoms that took place in my body, I've lived as if I didn't feel I am alive. I even felt the suffering of the abyss. Yet, I have endured it so far all because of you.I would need to do all these if there would be no true children that God desires. I wouldn't have been able to make it if it was without you. Since you trusted me and believed in me, I could overcome those years.May you never forget the grace that God has given you on Christmas.May you put it in your hearts, and come out as the fruit glory, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!
[Amen!!!] |
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