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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
Who Do You Say That I Am? - Workers'' Devotional Service |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Matthew 16:13-17 |
Date |
2013-02-17 |
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Passage
[Matthew 16:13-17]
"Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" [14] And they said, "Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." [15] He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" [16] Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." [17] And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."
This is church workers' devotional service.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has blessed us to have this 2013 Workers' Devotional Service.
I give thanks to all the devotees who have prepared for this service with all your heart, mind, and strength.
The devotees of this service are the pastors, Levites, elders, senior deaconesses, deacons, and junior deaconesses.
Among them, I will deliver the message especially for the full-time Levites of the church, but this message is also necessary for all other workers in the church.
It is an important message that you have to keep in mind to become a spiritual worker.
Until now the Levites have experienced countless works of God's power and have been provided with the word of life.
They experienced the deep spiritual realm and the living God numerous times.
Moreover, they receive their wage from God working in the church to do precious duties.
For these reasons, the Levites must be standing at the frontline in the flow of spirit.
Nevertheless, the fruit of spirit among you were just a few.
It is a result of the Levites living a life that was far away from spirit, without having any growth in faith for a long time.
Their hope for Heaven and their passion cooled down long ago.
But God the Father gave you three months' time for you to change.
He is waiting for you again with His patient perseverance.
Do you feel the love of God who is imploring you saying, "Please, change your hearts now. I also want you to ride together on the flow of spirit"?
I hope you will tightly hold to this love and eventually bear the fruit of spirit.
In doing so, I earnestly hope that you, especially all the devotees today, will become workers of spirit who will fulfill the providence of end time together.
Main
Dear devotees, the title of today's message is, "Who do you say that I am?"
In today's reading passage Matthew 16:15, Jesus asked the disciples "But who do you say that I am?"
In the following verse, Matthew 16:16, Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
This was not just words on his lips.
It was a profession coming out from the depth of his heart for he believed in God who was with Jesus seeing the great and amazing power and His messages that had authority.
Now, do you also believe in your heart and profess that Jesus Christ is your personal Savior and the Son of God?
In addition, have you believed that this church is true church of God where God works with His power and that the shepherd is a true shepherd?
If you believe and accept Jesus Christ from your heart, you will live a life that will prove your faith with your actions.
If you trust your shepherd as a true shepherd, you will live a life of obeying the words of the shepherd.
God the Father has said that you should also have the qualifications to be able to make true professions like Peter did, in these three months' time.
I will talk about the qualifications that you should have to make true profession of faith, and I hope you will keep them in mind very well.
Dear devotees, for your profession to be a profession of true faith in the sight of God, first of all, you should have the deeds of faith.
If you believe this church is such a precious church, and also if you believe your duty is so precious, your faith will never change.
You should have been storing up the deeds of faith that you were showing to the Father in the beginning.
Also, as the days went by, you should have been storing up deeds that are in more depth.
Now, why don't you check your mindset when you come to work in the morning?
What kind of mindset did you have on the first day of your work as a Levite?
Most of you must have had overflowing joy and happiness coming to the church, thinking you were so thankful that you could stay in the holy church of the Father God every day.
But isn't it that you don't have such emotions of joy any more, and that you just come to work?
The same applies when you actually do your work in your departments.
At first, you were thankful for your department, your co-workers there, and everything else.
You cherished even a minute and a second that was given to the Father God, and you tried all your best to save your time and pour yourselves into the work of God.
You offered to the Father God Daniel prayer meetings and other worship services with all your hearts.
You worked in the church even after the working hours and tried to fulfill other duties in the parishes and mission groups, too.
The same goes for the elders, senior deaconesses, and other workers, too.
What kind of prayer of thanksgiving have you offered to God when you were inaugurated or when you received your duty?
You must have had firm determination to ardently fulfill your duties.
You also diligently did charitable work and evangelism, too.
Even though nobody would recognize you, you just did the works that were difficult and dirty, which other people wouldn't do, for you were thinking of the Father God who were looking at you.
You wouldn't say, "I need to rest more. I'd like to eat something better," but you first thought about how to accomplish the kingdom of God.
And are you still offering yourself in the same way now?
If you have true faith, that faith will be revealed in outward deeds in your everyday life.
It will be the same even after many years.
You will continually offer up the prayers and worship services with all your heart.
Also, many people profess that your shepherd is a shepherd who is used greatly by God, and a shepherd who loves you and leads you to New Jerusalem.
If your profession of faith is true, this will also be revealed in deeds.
Namely, your profession saying, "I will be strength to the shepherd, and I will be faithful with all my life..." will be revealed in equivalent action.
You must have tried to keep in your mind each message you heard and tried to obey it.
When the church was having a hard time, you would also have fasted and prayed and kept the church with the same heart of the shepherd. When I prayed for those souls who committed sins, you would also have mourned and prayed together with me.
Those who truly loved Jesus did not leave Him even when He was receiving the sufferings.
They knew they could also be in harm's way, but they did not fear it.
They stayed close to Jesus and together they shed tears of sorrow.
Romans 8:17 says, "...and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him." As written, if you are really workers for the church and the workers of the Lord, who is the head of the church, you should be able to receive the sufferings together.
Dear devotees, you were once filled with love for God, the Lord, and your shepherd. You also dedicated yourselves with all your strength. Through this service today, it is my hope that you will recover such attitudes.
I hope you will have even more fervent enthusiasm than before.
I hope you will show the deeds of faith in everything and have perfect faith so that your profession of faith will be a true one.
Dear devotees, for your profession to be true before God, secondly, you have to be faithful.
1 Corinthians 4:2 says, "...it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy."
Faithfulness is not just doing what you are able to do.
True faithfulness is to try to produce fruits in any work entrusted to you by God, even if you could not do it at all with your own ability.
You should of course do the things that you should do and you can do, and you should try to do more than that.
Is there not someone among the Levites who thinks, "I should be in the office during my regular work hours, and just do my job?"
Some of you might work just like employees of the world who work only to receive the wages. Is there anyone among you who does not try to improve your skills and tend to neglect the prayers which are most basic?
Dear devotees, the most important thing in faithfulness is to be faithful spiritually.
The kind of faithfulness that God the Father accepts and is pleased with is the faithfulness accompanied with casting off evil and keeping the commandments of God.
You've heard about this so many times.
I preached so many times that you must not commit the works of the flesh, that you should demolish fleshly thoughts, and you should cast away evil from your heart.
How deeply have you imprinted these words in your mind and how hard have you tried to follow them?
When you realized your shortcomings, didn't you just repent for that moment and go back to your old way of life as time went?
You have conflicts with a number of people and have ill-feelings towards them, so peace has been broken.
If you cannot cast away simple hard-feelings, and if you do not have the least bit of goodness to be considerate of others, then when can you stand on the rock of faith and go into spirit?
Even if you toil and sweat without rest, if you still have an adulterous mind, selfish desires, greed, and hatred in your heart, your hard-work is only fleshly faithfulness.
Unless you get rid of such evil in your heart, that evil can surface in thoughts and actions under the right circumstances.
You say your work hard for the Lord, but you show insubordination and try to solve the problems in fleshly ways when you reach your limitations.
Or, is there anyone among you who would say you did not do anything so evidently evil?
Such thoughts can lead you to a stoppage in the growth of faith.
You might remain at the beginning of the third level of faith for decades without having any growth of faith.
Why do you think I delivered so many deep spiritual messages to you?
Why do you think I ask for greater and higher levels of power, even if it means I have to go through such harsh spiritual training?
It is to let you take the way to heavenly kingdom by clearly showing you the spiritual realm.
It is so that you do not just remain as a child of God who receives only salvation, but it is to lead you to become true children of the Father God who have cultivated the heart of the Lord and who will be glorious children in the city of New Jerusalem.
Which way will you choose?
Would you be satisfied remaining at some point of stoppage in your faith?
Or, would you struggle to cast away even the sinful natures from your heart and go into spirit?
I hope you will cast away even little sins and iniquities and replace them with goodness and love during the given three months' time.
Dear devotees, for your profession of faith to be true before God, third and lastly, you should have love.
If you really love God, you should be able to give your body to the flames if it is for God's kingdom.
Also, if you love the Lord just as the Lord gave His life for the souls, you should also be able to dedicate yourself for such other souls.
Now, what kind of attitudes did you have when you interacted with the church members?
Didn't you give instructions and orders to the church members with the excuse that they are just 'the rules and orders' of the church?
You sometimes immediately refuse the requests of the church members and justify yourself saying, "I cannot help it, I have a job to do. Besides, this is the way to seek the benefit of the whole church."
It might have been that in principle you could not accept their requests. But if you treat the church members with love, you would have to comfort their minds and explain to them so they can understand.
You should not treat the souls as you like according to your mood.
You should not put a tired and unhappy face on display for the members just because you are in the middle of some trial.
You should consider each person as a precious sheep of the shepherd sent by God the Father and serve them as you would serve the Lord.
As you do so, I hope the church members will be able to feel the fragrance of the Lord from you and that you are really worthy to be Manmin's workers.
Furthermore, you should show love to your co-workers as well.
Each of you co-workers is a precious worker of the shepherd and a body part of the church that will work together in the ministry of the shepherd at the end time.
So, how much did you try to seek the benefit of others?
Even if it is not your own job, did you care for other things going on around you, too?
If there was a mistake made or a person who works for you is at fault for something, did you really put the blame on yourself and take the responsibility?
Or, did you try to evade the responsibility saying it is the worker who made the mistake?
Philippians 2:4 says, "...do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."
I hope you will have broad heart, help each other and cooperate with each other to accomplish the kingdom of God with goodness and love.
Conclusion
Dear devotees, I told you about three qualifications that you should have for you to be able to make true professions of faith before God.
You should have deeds of faith, faithfulness in hard-work, and love.
How are you spending these three months' time?
Is there anybody who thinks, "I cannot do this. I am not confident of myself"?
Even if you couldn't until now, you can do it now.
If you show some deeds of your own effort, God the Father will touch you through the original voice.
Even if you wasted so many years dwelling in flesh, God has given you a chance to recover.
I hope you will show evidence of true faith to the Father God in the provision of these three months' time.
If you will, then the original voice will cover you.
The self-righteousness and frameworks that have not been destroyed for a long time can now be demolished, and the walls of sins can also be torn down.
When Jesus gave out the original voice, Lazarus was revived after he had been dead for four days. The same kind of work will happen with you so that your dead faith will become living faith, and fleshly faith will become spiritual faith.
I hope you will make up your mind once again with the spirit that you can do it.
In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that, all of you will be able to make true professions saying, "Father, Lord, I love you," "I truly believe," "I also trust and love the shepherd," and "I will be strength to him." |
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