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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
Spiritual Servant - Inauguration |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1 Corinthians 15:31 |
Date |
2010-09-19 |
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[Passage]
1 Corinthians 15:31
"I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily."
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father for allowing us to have this 2010 Inauguration Service.
This year, we have a total of 178 inaugurates, including 7 assistant pastors, 23 elders, 132 senior deaconesses, 11 honorary senior deaconesses, and 5 associative senior deaconesses.
Congratulations to all of you who are inaugurated as precious workers for God's kingdom.
I give thanks to all the guests and family members who are here to celebrate this blessed day.
Dear inaugurates and church members, the title of today's message is 'Spiritual Servant'.
Here, the term 'servant' does not refer only to pastors, but to all those workers who are being inaugurated today.
As a person who is serving the kingdom of God, would you like to be a spiritual servant and a spiritual worker-
Or would you like to be a fleshly servant-
Of course, you would want to become a spiritual servant.
John 6:63 says, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing."
Even though you work hard, if you work in flesh, your work is in vain.
Even though you work for your whole life, you cannot earn the praise of the Lord if you work as a fleshly worker.
Because you understand this point, you said you wanted to become spiritual servants.
Then, how hard have you tried to become spiritual servants-
You listened to so many messages, and how much longing for spirit did you have, and how much have you really tried to cast away flesh and cultivate spirit in you-
To become spiritual servants, as spoken about in today's reading passage from 1 Corinthians 15:31, we have to 'deny ourselves and die daily'.
Otherwise, we will not be able to discern the will of God nor can we hear the Holy Spirit's voice.
We cannot obey the will of God.
God can give us His strength and use us freely only when we die completely by giving up our selfish desires, our pride and self-righteousness and our frameworks.
Through this message, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will become spiritual servants and spiritual workers who can confidently say that you are dying daily.
Main
dear inaugurates, in order for you to become spiritual servants, first of all, you have to cast away your pride.
As is the case with all other workers, servants of the Lord in particular are literally 'servants'.
They are servants who give everything to the Lord, and they must not have any 'self' or 'ego' in them.
They must not desire to be lifted up, to enjoy what they like, to be recognized by others, or to insist that they are right.
If they have such things, they will lose peace when they are not respected.
Furthermore, generally, pride comes with the feelings of not rejoicing together with the truth, or passing judgment and condemnation or feeling of resentment.
For example, if you receive rebukes while others bear fruit and receive praise, you will become disheartened.
Your feelings will be hurt because you feel you were put to shame.
Moreover, you may feel that you are not lacking in anything any more than the others, that you have more ability than others, and that you love God more and bear more fruit than others, and yet you are not recognized by others.
But if you do not have any pride, you will not be disappointed or saddened.
A dead person will not feel anything even if he is beaten or if he is despised.
If you really say that you die daily, then you must have only the truth in you.
This way, you have to accomplish spiritual love with which you can rejoice with the truth in any situation, seek others' benefits, and rejoice when others are better off than you are.
As you cast away your pride this way, you can have the heart of the unworthy servant, and to that same extent, you will be given the strength and ability to do spiritual works.
You will think only in spirit and be guided into spirit. You will finally bear fruit and be recognized by God.
Dear inaugurates, and church members, in order for you to become spiritual servants, secondly, you have to be humble.
Philippians 2:3 says, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;"
If you cast away pride and humble yourself, you will see the good points of others.
Then you will be able to think about the ways that they are able to give glory to God with their good points.
Rather than insisting your own opinions, you can understand other people's hearts.
Of course, since you have been trained with the holiness gospel, you will not become arrogant just because you now have a higher position.
If you give orders and commands to others or if you act rudely to your subordinates just because you are higher in the order, then, it is something shameful even by the standard of the world.
Here, humbleness is not just external humbleness.
Some people obey those higher in the hierarchy and also are very humble before their subordinates.
They also voluntarily do the harder tasks.
But because they are acting this way, they think they provide service for others, and they do not realize the depth of their hearts.
In fact, what they are thinking is, "He is my leader, but I am as capable as he is. In fact, he lacks these things, but because I am lower in the order, I will serve him. Even though he has shortcomings, I will be as respectful as possible."
It may seem he is thinking in the truth, but in fact, he is just covering up his judgment of his leader and his uncomfortable feelings.
And yet he thinks he is acting in the truth, so he cannot cultivate true humbleness.
The kind of humbleness that God desires of you is not just external; it has to be humbleness from the depth of your heart, serving others with all your heart.
Only then can you really become true spiritual servants, and not just decorate yourself to appear like a man of spirit on the outside.
Dear inaugurates and church members, in order for you to become spiritual servants, you must not cease to pray fervently.
I am always putting an emphasis on the act of ardent prayers for pastors and workers.
It is so important that it can never be overemphasized.
1 Corinthians 4:20 says, "For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power."
Even though you have so much wisdom and talent, you cannot accomplish the kingdom of God with your own wisdom or talent.
You cannot lead the souls to truth or make them receive blessings just by teaching with good words.
You must have the spiritual authority and power to drive away power of darkness from them and to move their hearts to practice the truth.
Also, you can die daily and become perfect only with the help of the Lord and the Holy Spirit.
For you to become perfect and to accomplish the kingdom of God, you always have to communicate with God and you must not commit the sin of ceasing to pray.
Only then can you bring down the power of God. When you tell God everything in detail in prayer, you can be guided to the right way through the Holy Spirit.
I believe you will not neglect your prayers because you now have a more important duty and you have more things to do.
If you cease to pray, you will not be able to discern the will of God.
Then, you will just follow your self-righteousness and frameworks and your own ideas rather than what God really wants.
You cannot bear any good fruit this way, even though you try so hard.
You must never cease to pray for you to work according to the will of God.
Of course, to pray without ceasing is not just to attend prayer meetings and praying with just your lips.
You really have to communicate with God and pray ardently with all your heart to bring down the power of the Holy Spirit.
For example, when you pray for your sanctification, you shouldn't pray as you regularly pray. You have to pray like Jacob when he brought down the answer of God at Jabbok River.
When you pray for the church, the shepherd, and for your duties and the flock entrusted to you, you have to cry out more earnestly than when you pray for yourself.
Especially, if you are pastors, you have to accumulate countless prayers asking for spiritual power.
Conclusion
Dear inaugurates, Luke 17:33 says, "Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."
This is spiritual law.
If you insist on yourself and if you want to keep your flesh, you cannot live spiritually.
But if you destroy your fleshly self, you will live spiritually and enjoy great honor.
Those who die daily and become spiritual servants can save many dying souls on this earth and glorify God greatly.
In order for you to become such spiritual servants and workers, I talked about three things today.
First, you have to cast off your pride.
Second, you must be humble.
Third, you must not cease to pray fervently.
Of course, those of you who are being inaugurated today are the ones who are recognized among the church members.
You love God, you love the souls, and you don't insist on your pride. You have served other souls with humbleness and stored up many prayers over a long period of time.
Now, I would like you to become perfect and blameless.
I hope you will not just say, "I am trying to become a spiritual servant," but you will be able to confidently say, "I have become a spiritual servant and worker."
The time is very near for us to receive the Lord who is coming again, and there are so many things to do.
I hope all of you will come forth as spiritual servants and spiritual workers, and accomplish all the duties for this end time together with me.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, after we finish all our duties in this church to wrap up human cultivation, you will receive and enjoy all the great honor and reward that God will give to you.
[Amen] |
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