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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
The Prepared Vessel |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Luke 10: 2 |
Date |
2008-11-16 |
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Passage
Luke 10: 2
"And He was saying to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Today is the Thanksgiving Sunday. Psalm 136:1 says, "Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His loving-kindness is everlasting."
I believe this is also your confession and mine.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God for supplying with us what we need with His limitless compassion and for guiding and leading us until now.
I also give thanks to everyone who has decorated the altar with your offerings and voluntary service.
A wise farmer will count each year's harvest and prepare for the farming of coming year.
Like this farmer, I hope you will also count the fruits that are born inside you on this Thanksgiving Day.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, in doing so, later you will be able to bear more abundant fruits.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God, who is a good farmer, fulfills His providence and plans every year without fail.
During this year too, He received glory greatly by fulfilling His will and providence.
Namely, He showed us His amazing plans for the wrapping up of the human cultivation.
Just as God protected the Israelites in Goshen, even in the midst of the Ten Plagues inflicted upon Egypt, God has protected you and me in the spiritual space.
He sent us swarms of dragonflies and also good weather at the proper times.
Even though science and medicine continually develop, diseases and accidents only increase in this world. But He gave us health and safety.
Especially, in this year, I believe you felt that the dimension of the power that you experienced was completely different from before. So many times, God has let us experience the impossible becoming possible.
He also let us bear abundant fruit of evangelism in Israel.
Also, He let us prepare in detail for the construction of the Canaan Sanctuary.
He gave us many conditions of thanks in our lives.
But is there anybody who wonders why the Word that was given has not been fulfilled quickly, and why you have not received your blessings quickly?
If you have such doubts, I hope you will realize the reason by listening to this message carefully.
As a matter of fact, we already have all the conditions to receive blessings. You are able to bear abundant fruits through the power of God the Father and the spiritual space.
But the problem is that each of you has to be prepared as a vessel that can be used by God.
Just think of the time when the sons of Israel went into the land of Canaan.
God Himself guided the nation of Israel, but He did not unconditionally drive them into invading the land.
Only when they sanctified themselves and obeyed could they step on the Canaan Land, and according to the measure of faith that each tribe showed, they could conquer the land and take it as their inheritance.
It's the same when we achieve the goals that God has given to our church.
It's the same as in the case of the Canaan Sanctuary.
What we have to accomplish is not just the visible building.
We have to have the measure of faith, the church organization, the system and capabilities of the workers that can match the volume of the Canaan Sanctuary.
Only then can we do our ministry in a way that is proper when we have the Canaan Sanctuary.
God is laying the foundation for these things and is looking for prepared vessels. There are many places where we are in need of workers.
But if the prepared vessels do not come forth in time, the accomplishing of the kingdom of God will be delayed.
By now many of you should have come forth as prepared vessels.
In this flow, one of the prayer titles given by God for this year was 'The Prepared One'.
Then, what kind of vessel did you prepare that can be used by God?
To the extent that your vessel is prepared, you should have borne abundant fruits in the kingdom of God and in your personal lives.
You should have had many things for which you are thankful. But if you have not prepared your vessel, you have less fruit and fewer things for which to be thankful.
Of course, the good God has been guiding each of you to the best possible way according to your conditions and faith.
And I hope at this time you will give thanks with all your heart for the grace and love of God that He has given to our church and to each of you.
In this message, I will talk to you about three essential conditions of the prepared vessel.
I hope you will once again think about what kind of vessel is the prepared vessel that can please God.
Also, I hope you will check your heart once again as to how much of a prepared vessel you have become.
Brothers and sisters, the prepared vessel, namely the prepared worker, is first of all, somebody who does not use fleshly thoughts. God is in desperate need of this kind of worker.
He is looking for the workers who do not use their fleshly thoughts but only follow the will of God when they work for God's kingdom.
In today's passage Luke 10:2, Jesus said, "And He was saying to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."
This of course means that numbers of workers is few.
But it also means that Jesus is in desperate need of workers who can work according to His will.
Jesus said this when He appointed the 70 people and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.
Jesus told them in detail how to act at each place. And Jesus probably wanted those workers to understand His will and act according to it.
If the workers did not act in accordance with the will of Jesus, but instead acted according to their own thoughts, no matter how great the physical numbers of workers, they would have been of no use.
This is the same today.
Even though we are appointed as workers for God's kingdom, if we follow fleshly thoughts, not the will of God, it is almost same as we don't exist.
Of course, all workers of God most likely want to follow the will of God.
But Romans 8:7 says, ". . .but the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so."
As long as we have fleshly thoughts that are hostile toward God, we cannot follow His will. Therefore, we must break off fleshly thoughts. I have explained to you so many times how to do it.
We must completely pull out the untruth and evil, which is the original root. And we have to refill it with truth, namely with goodness and love.
Then we will hear the voice and receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit and think in goodness and love only.
So, I urge you to check and see how much of the fleshly thought you have already gotten rid of.
Let me give you an example for you to be able to check yourself. Suppose I gave workers instructions that are very difficult to understand in the physical sense.
If you were one of the workers who had received the instruction, could you say 'Amen' without thinking about it at all?
Even if you don't understand it at the moment, if you wanted to follow the voice of the Holy Spirit you would pray to God.
And, if you pray, God will certainly let you have realization about it. If you obey in this way, you would surely bear good fruit in that particular matter.
But if you use fleshly thoughts, what will happen? You will lose the peace in heart and you will also make mistakes in the process.
God's works are not achieved by men's thoughts, even though their thoughts and ways are very wise.
I hope you will thoroughly check whether you follow your fleshly thoughts or the will of God in all things.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will completely deny yourself and only hold the will of God in you to become a prepared vessel.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, secondly, the prepared vessel is a worker who has goodness of heart and can accept many people.
Namely, God is looking for workers who have goodness and generosity in their hearts so any person can be comfortably embraced by them.
To build the Canaan Sanctuary and to accomplish world evangelism means that we want to save more souls.
And more souls here are not only those souls who give benefit to the church with goodness in heart.
Of course, there are many souls who love God and give great strength to the church, but there are also many souls whom we have to accept with the heart of the Lord.
The people who will come in the near future will have various educational, social, family, and personal backgrounds.
They will have various measures of faith.
There may also be some people who will come with purposes other than believing in God. We must be able to accept even these people and guide them to the way of salvation.
To do this, we have to prepare the vessels to receive them.
Jesus said in Luke 5:32, "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."
We also have to have this kind of attitude.
We have to arm ourselves with goodness and generosity so that we will be powerful workers who can change and give life to any kind of person who is coming to the church.
But, if you still have troubles with other people around you, how can you accept all those other people who will come?
The church we have today has come a long way and I met with so many different kinds of people.
There were some souls who paid back my goodness with evil or even betrayed me. Some of them disturbed the kingdom of God to a great extent. Because of that, sometimes the church members and I had to go through a lot of pain.
But I never wanted God to punish them in any way.
I just wanted all of them to repent and turn away from the evil, and I prayed for their salvation with tears.
Because I am still waiting for them to come back, our doors are still wide open.
And when I see those who come back, my heart rejoices.
When I raise workers who can work together for the kingdom of God, I have done it with only faith, hope, and love.
Even though some people had many shortcomings, I never wondered how such people could ever become great workers.
I believed and hoped that God would change them into great workers and supplied them with everything I could offer them.
I hope you will become great vessels that can melt and change even this kind of person.
Then, you will see that the people around you will change quite wonderfully.
I pray in the name of the Lord that even those who are like a bruised reed or a smoldering wick will gain new life through you.
The third character of the prepared vessel is that prepared vessel can give thanks in any kind of situation.
While working for the Lord, we may face some situations in which we might not ever be able to give thanks in a physical sense.
But the difference between vessels that are prepared and those that are not can be seen clearly in these situations.
The prepared vessels will change those situations into something for which they can genuinely be thankful, and they will also give thanks and glory to God.
The ministry of the apostle Paul was continuously a situation such as this.
In the eyes of men, for Paul there were far more situations to complain about than to give thanks.
Nevertheless, the apostle Paul changed those situations into conditions of thanksgiving.
For example, when he was imprisoned while preaching the gospel, he gave thanks to God and praised Him. Then, when the gates of the prison opened, he glorified God greatly.
Through this incident, he bore the fruit of gospel by saving the jailer and his family.
Whenever he faced a situation in which he could not give thanks, he bore the abundant fruit of thankfulness.
Acts 5:41 says, "So they [apostles] went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name."
It's not something easy to give thanks for being beaten up and being persecuted for the gospel. But the apostles were thankful.
God is looking for workers like this.
Our church also faced many situations in which we could not give thanks in physical sense.
When we were marching on for the gospel with all our strength and life, there were people who disturbed us, tried to disrupt us, and stood in our way.
But, we just marched on with faith and thanks, and God was touched in His heart. Then He turned the situations around for us.
We have been able to experience God receiving great glory through such works so many times.
I hope you will be able to give thanks in situations where you cannot really give thanks.
If you complain wondering why you are facing difficulties although you have been trying hard, you will not bear anything but the fruit of complaints.
But if you consider them as chances for blessings and march on with faith, you will receive blessings as you confessed and you will give glory to God greatly.
Recently, as the old sanctuary was sold, many affiliated organizations moved in to the new sanctuary. It may seem that we have been put into some uncomfortable situations.
But, if we complain and wonder why we have to put up with discomfort just because the Canaan Sanctuary is being delayed, what kind of fruit will we bear?
This cannot please God, so it will delay the work even more. Even personally, we cannot have spiritual growth.
But some may pray even more earnestly for the Canaan Sanctuary because of these situations. In uncomfortable situations, we don't seek our own benefit but that of others.
Then, we will be more quickly sanctified and enlarge our vessel at personal level.
Especially if you are workers, shouldn't you have to confess with the faith like that of Joshua and Caleb?
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will only give thanks and make confessions of faith in all things to experience the miracle of God.
Conclusion
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God will certainly fulfill all His providences.
But why is it that sometimes they seem to be delayed?
It's because of the love of God the Father who wants us to come forth as prepared vessels. God the almighty can achieve everything very quickly.
But first, He leads our souls to prosper rather than giving us some visible fruits for the moment.
This is like laying a firm foundation before erecting a building.
The building can stand for a long time only when we lay a firm foundation.
It's the same with our spirit. We first have to prepare our vessel so that the blessings we receive will last for a long time.
I hope you will realize this deep love of God and give thanks to Him from the depth of your heart on this Thanksgiving Day.
I urge you to come forth as prepared vessels now, so that you will be used by God greatly and give glory to Him by bearing many fruits.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will receive great praise and reward on the Final Day of Judgment and participate in the glory of the Father God.
[Amen] |
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