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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
The Will of the Father - 2016 The Feast of Harvest Sunday Morning Service |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
John 14:12 |
Date |
2016-07-03 |
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Scripture
John 14:12
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father."
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Today is the Feast of Harvest Sunday. At the Feast of Harvest the Israelites, God's Elect, celebrated giving God the first fruits with wheat or barley harvested. Now let's give all thanks and glory to our Father God who has unchangingly protected and blessed us in the first half of this year. In this service let us look back on the first half of this year and the kinds of special blessings God has given to this church and to us who belong to this church.
This church has been following the example of the church in Philadelphia recorded in Revelation 3. Among the seven churches, this church received only praises from the Lord. It happened during my prayer in Gwangjoo Prayer Mountain in 1983, one year after this church's opening. God said, "God Himself founded this church, is supervising it Himself, and will work for it Himself until the Lord comes." And He said that the word for this church founded in such providence was recorded in the Book of Revelation. It was the word for the church of Philadelphia.
God has confirmed His word for this church with evident proofs, namely, the explosion of power and the fruits of spirit and whole spirit. Accordingly, this blessed church has been proclaiming the will of the Father toward all peoples of all nations. Today let me talk about the will of the Father that He wants to proclaim through this church in the end of the ages. In this Feast of Harvest I pray in the name of the Lord you may feel in heart how blessed it is to lead a Christian life in this church and to offer the aroma of thanksgiving.
Dear brothers and sisters,
The first will of the Father toward the end of the ages is for mankind to realize the true meaning of human cultivation.
Genesis 3:23 says, "Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken." God hoped people's heart-field, that had become filled with thorns and thistles due to sins, would be cleared and cultivated into good soil and produce abundant fruits after being sown with the seed of truth.
It also means God wants us to accomplish true heart and perfect faith. It is such a true heart that just a little falsehood or just a bit of doubt is not allowed at all and that is filled fully with spirit 100%. It is perfect faith by which you can trust God completely without even the smallest bit of doubt. This is the true will of human cultivation. It is His desire to gain the children who have a sincere heart and perfect faith with whom He can share love.
For this purpose, God has washed the believers with the holiness gospel for the past 34 years since the founding. It is as written in Hebrews 10:22, "Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." The Word of the Bible has been interpreted in detail with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And, God has explained about what spirit, truth, goodness, flesh, untruth, and evil. It was to wash away not only evident untruths but also evil conscience with the water of the Word.
A few weeks ago we were able to hear gracious confessions of newcomers testifying to this fact through video presentation of Manmin Magazine. Their confessions were really honest and touching.
A member said she was guided to this church in response to her prayer; "God, where is such a pastor of truth who is preaching the word of God in an unhindered manner, rebuking sins?" After she registered in this church, frustration disappeared and she came to be so filled.
The second member confessed: "Pastors are always trying to encourage and comfort in other churches, but this church is boldly teaching us to throw away sins. It's so good." Another member said, "I've always repented but didn't change. When I turned back shortly after repenting, evil was revealed again. I was doubtful whether I can really go to Heaven. Now I am comforted hearing the holiness gospel and in peace feeling evils were gone."
Dear brothers and sisters, this church is washing away sins and evils with the Word of Life as the clean water. Through it the believers came to have the assurance of salvation and they are accomplishing true heart. In this evil-drenched world, it is not easy to throw away the evils of conscience and the evils hidden deep in the nature and then have true heart and perfect faith. But Father God Himself has been leading this church and its members in a mysterious way that people cannot even imagine.
He let them practice goodness, love and truth learned as knowledge in the field to establish them in the heart and cultivate into spirit. When they failed to throw away sinful natures, Father God let the visible shepherd sacrifice for them and showed them how strict the price of their sins is. Witnessing the fact that my life energy was terminated, I lost my vision and hearing, and I was so itchy that I scratched myself with fingernails, those who loved the shepherd came to have the heart in which they have no choice but to throw away sins.
God also allowed tests to come upon them and weed out the thistles that had grown among the wheat believers. He enabled the believers to distinguish between truth and falsehood themselves. Thus, He let them realize what true love is and what true trust is. Through these processes, your trust in the Father, the Lord and the shepherd has deepened.
In addition, they found some people bore the fruits of wickedness when they couldn't take off the flesh, and then they could realize unforgettably it is of no use unless they accomplish true heart and perfect faith and came to press on for the circumcision of the heart. It is the reason that trials and tests of blessing have been allowed in this church. For you to possess the faith as gold, He has not only washed you with the water of the word, but He has also refined you in the fiery trials.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord commended the church in Philadelphia in Revelation 3:8. It says, "... because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name." All of you here used to have a little power in your past Christian lives. It means you were a newcomer and a person who had the limitation of flesh.
In the end of the ages, many believers do not grow out of the limitations of a little power. But many of you who are this church's members have stood on the rock of faith and at the 3rd level of faith. And, in the flow of whole spirit given by Father God, many of you have entered into spirit and whole spirit.
Like the believers in the church in Philadelphia, many have come forth as true children who never deny the Lord's name and have unchanging love. This is the purpose of God's cultivating people, it is to gain these fruits. How blessed it is that you have become the example of human cultivation and deliver the will of the Father to the churches of the world and the believers in them!
That's why I am eagerly asking you to earnestly keep and practice the word of the Lord until you accomplish true heart and perfect faith. Therefore, may you enter into the City of New Jerusalem and enjoy the glory and praise the Lord will give to you forever, in the name of the Lord I pray!
Dear brother and sister in Christ,
The second will of the Father toward the end of the ages is for people to live in blessing.
Physical fathers wish for children to lead proper and happy lives, so just how much more eagerly does the true Father of our spirits and bodies desire for us! We can see this will of the Father only through the church in Philadelphia. When He saw the church had a little power but kept His Word and didn't deny His name, He was well-pleased and gave them abundant blessings.
In Revelation 3:7-8, it is recorded, "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut."
The key of David refers to the key with which we can receive and enjoy all the blessings as King David did. The person who has the key is the Lord. If the Lord opens the door for us, we can receive and fully enjoy the blessings God gives to us. These blessings are different from the blessing given through men's capabilities and diligence in dimension. It is an amazing dimension where we can receive the same great glory and blessing allowed for the first man Adam.
What kind of blessing was given to the first man by God? Genesis 1:28 says, "God blessed them; and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" God gave them the best blessings the creature could enjoy, including eternal life, wealth, honor, and authority.
But Adam committed the sin of disobedience and became accursed. At the same time the ground was cursed, so that he had to toil with sweat to gain food that he had been able to receive freely before. A living being Adam corrupted into flesh and had to go through aging and death. The authority he had enjoyed as the lord of all creatures was handed over to the enemy devil and Satan.
But thankfully Jesus redeemed us from the curse of our sins. After we accepted the Lord, to the extent that we recover the image of God, we can be released from the curses of sin such as death, poverty, disease, and infirmities and we can enjoy blessing. The same blessing was experienced by those of you who diligently kept the word of the Lord and have been accomplishing true heart and perfect faith.
It is easy to receive blessing for the believers in Manmin. When the Lord opens the treasures in Heaven, I first receive the greatest blessing and then I let you know the secrets. Since the opening of the church, I've laboriously nurtured and raised you into the praiseworthy believers like in the church of Philadelphia. I've stored the trust before Him so that the Father could listen to my prayer for you. It's because I completely believed the word of James 5:16, which reads, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."
Father God saw me as the shepherd and opened wide the doors of blessing for this church. Because I was fully aware of the will of the Father, every time of God's favor; such as Lunar New Year's Day, my birthday, and the Feasts; I prayed you might not come into poverty, disease, and disaster, but to live in peace. And I've always harbored it in my heart.
As a result, this year, the blessings and answers given to you, big or small, were too numerous to be listed one by one. Some of you received the answer you couldn't get with your own measure of faith and deeds.
A female member who has recently registered testified to the great difference between before she came to this church and after that. She said, "Whenever I was sick and had fever just a little, I used to go to hospital or take medicine." "But after I came to this church and listened to the message, I came to think, 'What I am doing is not right.'" "So, when I felt sick, I received the prayer for the sick in the Automated Responsive System and drank Muan sweet water to get healed by God with faith so that all sicknesses were healed. I've become so healthy since I came to this church."
This testimony applies not only to this member but to most of church members. How happy you are when you were released from a small pain or disorder, even though you were not healed of serious diseases including cancer! In case of old people, when they were healed of degenerative arthritis caused by the aging, they were released from pain and came to lead an active life. And how thankful they are that they often suffered from indigestion even with a little food because of weak digestive organs or caught cold easily, but now they've become healthy!
This is not the end. Think of the grace by which you are protected every day and never meet with any accident while driving a car. Although your car might become scrap in an accident, your body will be protected and not be hurt. When you are hurt by mistake, you can look back at yourself and receive prayer with faith, and then you will be restored quickly. That's why you don't have worry like worldly people.
Moreover, when you rely on the space of the shepherd, the house that has not been sold will be sold, difficult contracts will be made, you can get a job, receive scholarships, and win the big prize for the glory of God. How grateful we should be for this! Thus, it is the will of Father God for His children to live in the blessings. Let's give all thanks and glory to Father God who has kept us like the apples of His eyes, fulfilled our hearts' desires, and blessed us in the first half of this year.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The third will of the Father toward the end of the ages is for people to feel the great love of God.
Love is not seen by the eyes. The love of Father God is too huge for people to measure it with any unit of measure. But God has revealed His love through this church so that we may know and feel the size of His love as we could see and touch it.
In particular, God said He let the believers see His love through the shepherd's forgiveness, patience and sacrifice. They saw how the shepherd can forgive wicked people and how he willfully took the responsibility for them until the end, and then they could understand the width, length, height, and depth of the love of God.
Also, through the invitation to the Gethsemane Prayer House, many people who were invited confessed they felt His love. They felt, saying, "Ah! The reason for Father God's cultivating us is to lead us into the beautiful Heaven. It's a tremendously great love!" Yes it is. Whether to cultivate you into His true children even through temporal trials and labors or to lead you to live in blessing during the cultivation on this earth, both of them are of love. It is by His special love that He moved my heart and let me decorate the prayer house beautifully and add to the hope for New Jerusalem.
After commending the church in Philadelphia, the Lord mentioned the blessing He will give to them, saying, "I will make them know that I have loved you." I believe you have known and felt His love much more. I hope you will accomplish this love in your heart and make it known to the whole world in accordance with the will of the Father.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
God has always revealed His will through His people, prophets, the church, and apostles. In this end of the ages, He founded Manmin Church and showed His will to all the peoples through it.
His will is first of all to gain true children through human cultivation; secondly, it is for people to live in blessing on Earth; and thirdly, it is for them to feel God's great love.
The believers in the church in Philadelphia became an example of all the churches in the whole world and received a huge blessing. Revelation 3:12 says, "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name."
As written in the following verse 13, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches," God still wants His will to be known to all the peoples of all the nations. I wish for you to be the fragrance of Christ and deliver His will to the world in the second half of this year. And I pray in the name of the Lord you will get the solid promise for New Jerusalem like the believers in the church of Philadelphia. |
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