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 Sermon > Sunday Morning Service |
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Title |
God of Answer and Blessing(2) - God of Answer and Blessing (2) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Numbers 6: 22-27 |
Date |
2009-05-10 |
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Passage
Numbers [6: 22-27]
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, [23] "Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, 'Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: [24] The LORD bless you, and keep you; [25] The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; [26] The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.' [27] "So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them."
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Today, I will continue to explain about the original problem.
Is there anyone who may think, 'I expected to hear about only happy testimonies, and I feel somewhat heavy-laden because I have to look back on myself again'?
But there is no reason for you to feel burdened. It's a chance for you to feel the wide and deep love of God.
Proverbs 13:24 says, "He who withholds his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him diligently."
Here we are told that parents who truly love their children will sometimes reprimand and discipline them.
They wouldn't give up after teaching their child once or twice, even though the child doesn't listen to them. They will teach them until they change.
Children may feel that it is discomforting at the moment, but the parents know that to correct the children's mistakes is actually best for them.
God the Father loves us, and that is why sometimes He shines His light of the Word on us.
If we are going the way of death, He teaches us about sin and judgment.
He teaches us time and again until we are born again as true children.
If you feel that this message is piercing your heart like a sharp sword, I hope you will be grateful for it.
It is the loving discipline of God. I hope you will give thanks to God thinking that, "He loves me so much. He does not give up on me."
Ephesians 5:13 KJV says, "But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light： for whatsoever doth make manifest is light."
When God shines on the darkness with His word, I hope you will realize your mistakes, turn back from them immediately, and come forth to the perfect light.
If you have been grieving God, I hope now you will come forth as children of light and give only joy to God.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will vigorously run towards New Jerusalem with renewed strength that God the Father is giving to you.
Main
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the original problems can be generally categorized into two. The first is the wall of sin built up by grave sins.
There are sins that are difficult to be forgiven. We ourselves cannot just break down the walls of sins caused by these sins, for the spirit of repentance is not given.
And God said He would give us the grace of repentance since the day of blessing. And He says the walls of sin can be torn down only when we repent from the inner heart.
True repentance will have some proof of it. The evidence is the 'rending of the heart' and 'confessing sins.'
'Rending the heart' refers to thoroughly repenting from the bottom of heart. 'Confessing sins' includes turning away from sins and obeying the Word.
If you confess all your sins before God and sincerely repent of them by rending your heart, God deems it to be true repentance. Have you repented like this?
Did you repent of your sins with a sincere heart thinking "How could I dare commit these sins before such a holy God"?
Did you mourn in heartbreaking pain thinking "God has loved me so much, but I abandoned His love and grace and trampled on His name!"?
Even regarding a small mistake, I offered God a big peace offering and asked for His forgiveness.
When workers or members of the church committed rude acts before God, I repented on their behalf and petitioned with tears to God to forgive them.
I know very well how honorable, holy, and spotless God is and how much He loves us. So, I feel very sorry before God even concerning a very minor sin.
How have you felt about sins?
If you didn't love God but opposed Him and made Him angry; if you still had no guilt in your conscience and no desire to repent and cast away your sins then all those things are the causes of your problems.
And to solve the origin of the problems, you have to repent of these things thoroughly and change your heart.
But you cannot repent of those things by yourselves. So, since the Day of Blessing, God has been giving you the grace of helping you repent.
What kind of grace is God giving to those who try to realize the origin of problems?
You are remembering sins that you didn't regard as sins or that you completely forgot.
He shows you something in your dreams or gives you understanding through the sermons. He tells you something through something totally unexpected or some other people.
You realize how wrath-provoking and heartbreaking those sins are to God.
Namely, God gives you His grace so you can repent of the sins that you couldn't repent because you didn't know they existed or because you couldn't receive the spirit of repentance.
When God gives you realization, you have to repent and turn back right away. Then, you can receive the comprehensive blessings that you desire so much.
How can this kind of grace come upon us? The endless love, mercy, and compassion of God the Father make this miracle possible.
This era, the end time, is full of sins. Ever since sin came into mankind because of Adam's sin, the world has been stained with more and more sin.
People have been accumulating sins throughout the history of mankind, and how sinful their hearts are nowadays!
So, some people do not fear God at all, stand against God, and even commit unclean and detestable sins, but they don't have any pangs of conscience.
There are even believers in God who commit these sins.
But God the Father does not want even these people do be destroyed, even though they left God completely.
When He punished Sodom and Gomorrah, which were full of sins at the time of Abraham, He showed His mercy and compassion to the end.
He sent His angels to personally check the condition of those cities.
God's love, that wants to save even just one more soul, is being shown more greatly towards the end time.
He considers the fact this is the time that is much more sinful than Sodom and Gomorrah and it is more difficult to receive salvation. This is why He gives us more grace within His justice.
Namely, through the Holy Spirit He sent among us, He gives us the strength to cast away sins.
The Holy Spirit lets us feel God as the God of mercy and compassion, rather than the fearful God of judgment.
When we feel this love, it enables us to cast off our sins and gain the strength to live in the light.
Therefore, you should not just try to repent out of fear or just to solve the problems that you have right now.
You should realize in your why you wouldn't love this good God and why you chose to commit such sins in the past and turn away.
Once the loving relation with God is recovered, He will give answers to anything you ask.
Of course, some of you completely repent of your sins immediately and resolve all the original problems. But there are others who demolish the wall of sin little by little to the extent that you change your hearts.
So, I urge you to change your inner heart by relying on the love of God, not giving up to the end.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, next, I will talk to you about the second kind of original problem.
The second kind is when you don't receive the answer because of the wall created by not loving God.
Of course, the first kind, the wall of sin of grave sins is also caused by not loving God.
But the second kind is a little different in its nature. The wall is not built up by grave sins, but they are made when you don't obey what you obviously know you ought to obey, thus disappointing God.
Though it is not formed by great sin, it disappoints God and it concerns Him, so you cannot receive answers.
You can receive blessings and answers only when you please God. You have to show the evidence of loving God.
What is to love God? 1 John 5:3 says, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments;" Yes, it is to keep His commandments.
It is to obey God's commands that tell us to do, not to do, to keep, and to cast away certain things.
Namely, as we have become children of God by the grace of salvation, we have to understand the will of God and live by it.
But some people still want to follow their own will and live as they want.
They don't even do what they know they are supposed to do as believers, and disobey. Then a wall is created when all these things are accumulated.
This wall is like a mist in the sky, so you cannot see the clear sky.
It is also like a thin spider web spread like a net.
Both great and small things that disappointed God stand between God and you like a mist and net.
So, your prayers cannot go up, and God cannot answer you.
Therefore, you have to look back on your life of faith until now and repent of these things to destroy such walls.
This second kind of wall is easier to demolish than the first, formed of grave sins.
In most of these cases, the wall will be torn down if you repent from heart with determination and keep the commands of God.
But when God tells us to keep His commandments, He does not mean for us to obey like robots.
He wants us to realize from heart why He wants us to keep His commandments and keep them voluntarily.
Of course, we cannot understand the heart and will of God completely from the beginning. But, as we diligently keep His commands, we will gradually understand the will of God.
We come to love God truly because we feel His love.
As we keep on doing this, we will finally be able to completely keep the commands 100% from the heart.
Then, God will acknowledge us as true children who love God 100% and who love God first.
Those who love God this way 100% will receive answers to anything they ask.
1 John 3:21-22 says, "Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; [22] and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight."
This is because those who keep the commandments of God have no wall of sin standing between God and them.
But you don't have to feel impatient thinking, "When can I love God from heart 100%?"
As you first demolish the walls that are already made, you can start to receive the answers which you couldn't receive before because of those walls.
Jeremiah 5:25 says 'Your iniquities have turned these away, And your sins have withheld good from you.'
So, when you tear down the wall of sin, God can give you the good things, the blessings. Then, you can try not to create any more wall of sin.
In order not to build up any more wall of sin, you have to change your heart that does not love God, which is the original problem.
For example, when you listen to the word of God, you have to keep it in mind and obey, but you just let it slip away.
When you contemplate and pray about these things, you can discover how and in what ways you don't hold God's word precious and you don't long for it.
Now, you can change your heart to long for the Word and consider it valuable. Then, the wall of sin of not longing for God's word will be destroyed.
At the same time your soul will prosper. If you love God 100% with your soul being prosperous, you can receive anything you ask for, so you can always be happy in your life in faith.
Now, let me ask you a few questions so that you can realize what your original problem is.
I hope you will have the determination to realize your deep heart and change it thoroughly.
Brothers and sisters, are you sure you are not committing murder? Exodus 20:13 says, "You shall not murder." This is the sixth of the Ten Commandments.
Of course physically killing somebody is murder, but in a spiritual sense to hate somebody is also committing murder.
In 1 John 3:15 putting emphasis on love, the apostle John said, "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."
Therefore, 'You shall not murder' also means 'You shall not hate'.
How are God's children different from unbelievers? It is that they their neighbors as themselves.
Even unbelievers expect Christians to act with love.
When they see believers acting with no love, they also become disappointed thinking Christians aren't really any different.
You could have hated others, but if you truly believe in God and love Him, you now have to love others.
But if you still hate somebody, not understanding or forgiving that person, how heartbroken our God will be!
Also, if you have this murder in your heart, how difficult everything is!
If you have hatred, other things such as envy, jealousy, passing judgment, and anger also come together.
You will be very happy if you just think in goodness and love others. But if you are envious, jealous, and passing judgment on others, it is very hard.
Most of you here know the word very well, and I think you know your heart very well, too. If you don't, you have to reflect yourself upon the word thoroughly.
When you listen to the message, you should not think, "This is for that person, not me." You have to accept it as your own.
Also, you shouldn't take the word lightly thinking, "It's not a big deal, and this is OK."
For example, if you have any sort of minimal discomfort against others, it means you have hatred. You have to admit this fact.
After admitting the fact, you have to pray in order to change the original problem as to why you came to hate others.
For example, long ago, you were offended very much even to have a great wound in your heart.
Since then, you were offended even by little things and you came to hate others easily with a sense of resentment.
When you find this kind of original problem, you can repent of it and make up your mind to get rid of it thinking, "It's so painful to hate somebody, and why did I give rise to such a feeling?"
If you have determination and pray, God will give you grace. He will move your heart to realize such things as "Since the Lord loves such a person as me, how can I hate anyone?"
To shine the light of grace, which is the brighter and warmer light than before; this is the grace that God has been giving to us since the day of blessing.
In the next session, I will continue to ask you some questions so that you can find the origin of your problems.
Conclusion
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there are people who suffer harm and loss whenever it rains heavily because of flooding.
The residents affected put the blame on the poor attitude of governmental officials who take actions that are only temporary.
They say that, because the fundamental cause is not resolved, they lose their homes and families and suffer the pain because of the annual floods.
Similarly if we do not solve the original problems in spirit, we cannot be released from the pains caused by the sins.
Just think about the pain you had because of sins. Now you can hate and dislike sins and thoroughly cast them off!
You know how peaceful and happy it is that you have become the children of God and can live separated from the dark world full of pains!
So, won't you enter into perfect peace?
How thankful we should be that Father God is pouring down His grace!
When you receive the solutions to all your problems and the comprehensive blessings, it is the path to repaying His grace.
I hope you will prosper like the trees of life in the kingdom of Heaven by the grace of God.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will bear the abundant and beautiful fruits of the truth like the fruits of the tree of life and enter New Jerusalem!
[Amen] |
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