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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
Perfect Faith - Men''s Mission Devotional Service |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Hebrews 10:22 |
Date |
2010-03-07 |
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[Passage]
[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.
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This is the 2010 Men's Mission Devotional service.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has blessed us to have this devotional service. I also give thanks to all the devotees who have prepared for this service with all your hearts, minds, and souls.
Dear devotees, you are the head of the family and the one who has the responsibility for providing the support for your family.
If you are going through an ordeal like a serious disease, the whole family will suffer together as if the support pillar of the home was being shaken.
So, the children and the wives usually pray for the head of the family as earnestly as they pray for themselves.
The Men's Mission members have to be strength not only in your households, but to the church as well.
You should become powerful spiritual warriors who can rise up and accomplish anything once you gather your strength.
You should boldly take actions before any problem, saying that you Men's Mission members can do it.
In order for you to do that, more than anything else, you have to enter into spirit.
I've explained this so many times, emphasizing it over and over again.
God's kingdom consists not of word but of power.
For us to be able to bear fruit, we have to cast away sins and evil to become sanctified and receive spiritual authority.
Of course, you have been diligently increasing your faith and trying to go into spirit.
But just trying to go into spirit and actually going into spirit are completely different.
If you just go into spirit, you will bear the fruits in all respects, whether physical or spiritual.
Tests and trials will leave your lives and you will only receive blessings.
That is why the title of this devotional service is 'Perfect Faith'.
What God wants from you is not just 'great faith' or 'good faith'.
He wants you to accomplish perfect faith, which is the full measure of Christ.
When you listen to this message, you should not just receive grace from it and then forget about it.
I urge you to change your heart into a 'true heart' and your faith into 'perfect faith'.
I pray in the name of the Lord that in doing so you will have many testimonies of the blessings in your families, at your places of work, and finally that you will reach a glorious position in the kingdom of Heaven.
[Main]
Dear devotees, today's reading passage Hebrews 10:22 says, "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."
I will talk to you about three things based on this passage, and I hope you will check yourself well.
I hope you will realize how much of true heart and perfect faith you have accomplished in you.
First, it says, "[hearts] clean from evil conscience."
In order for us to have full assurance of faith, which is the perfect faith, it is a very important thing to realize the evil in our conscience.
We can cast away evil only when we realize it, and we can reach perfect faith to the extent that we cast it away.
Today's world is so full of sins, and people do not even realize how evil they are.
There are many people who say they are living lives without committing any sins and they are living relatively good lives.
But you can discover the evil in your conscience by self reflection through the word and in the works of the Holy Spirit.
There are so many things that are not considered sins or evil in this world, but which are actually sins and evil in God's sight.
If you can't clearly discern your evil, the growth of your faith will be slow in your Christian life.
Also, your faith cannot grow if you do not try to cast away what you've realized.
Even though you listen to so many messages, you cannot have spiritual faith if you do not cast away evil.
From now, I will explain the three major characteristics of evil, and I hope you will check yourself as to what kind of evil you have in your conscience.
First, it concerns selfish motives and greed.
They include greed for material gain, fame, and social power.
They also include pride, desires to be acknowledged and lifted up, insisting on one's own opinions and tastes, one's own things, one's own family, and so on.
If you have selfish motives and greed, many other evil things are derived from them.
To fulfill your greed, you may cheat others or seek only your own benefit.
If you do not completely satisfy your greed, then your jealousy, hatred, anger, or even something like murder can come out.
For this reason James 1:14-15 says, "But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. [15] Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death."
Now, how much greed and selfish motives have you cast off?
I urge you to check whether you want to take something without working to earn it; when others are enjoying something good, whether you want to have such things; whether you put your own interest and your family's interest before the interest of God's kingdom; or whether you seek your own benefit before the benefit of others.
Galatians 5:24 says, "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." As written, I urge you to have clean heart that does not have passions and desires.
Next is concerned with adultery and lust. Adultery is something that God hates so much.
James 4:4 says adultery makes us an enemy of God.
Nowadays, in advertisements or magazines, we can easily see casual nudity to the extent it causes us embarrassment.
In this generation people don't seek what is pure and virtuous but only try to stimulate lust and they think it's something admirable.
Now, you've listened to the holiness gospel, and what kind of feelings do you have when you come across such things?
God sees the inner heart, and He knows even the momentary thought, and the attitude contained in a moment's look.
Can you confidently say you don't have anything in your heart or deeds to be ashamed of before such God?
Of course, if you are just in the third level of faith, you don't commit adultery in action.
But what God wants is not just outward deeds.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:28, "but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
You should not even have lust for women in the heart, but also cast off the original root of lust.
Now, when you found out such sinful natures, how earnestly did you try to cast them away?
And how much have you actually cast them away?
1 Timothy 5:2 says, "... [regard] the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity."
As said, when you deal with or interact with people of opposite gender, I hope you will treat them with a pure heart without having any lust.
Next, I will talk about changing of mind among the major characteristics of evil.
In the Bible we can read about King Saul who chased David out of his jealousy to kill him.
David was being chased although he was innocent; and even though he had the opportunity, he did not kill Saul.
He rather made an emotional confession to Saul saying he didn't have any intention to kill him.
When Saul heard his words, he shed tears of emotion and promised David he wouldn't kill him.
But soon his hatred and envy were rising up like fire in him and again he began to pursue David to kill him.
He was touched by something good and made up his mind to do good, but he couldn't keep his good intentions.
And today's believers also have similar attitudes before they go into spirit.
They say they realized flesh is meaningless and they determined to go into spirit, but soon after that their determination disappears.
They say they will offer vowed prayer or fasting, but they change their mind and stop.
They make a vow with burning passion but soon regret making the vow, wondering why they made such a vow.
It's the same between people.
They say they would do something but they forget even the fact they said such a thing.
All this changing-of-the-mind comes from evil.
Because the evil in heart is agitated you cannot keep your heart that wants to do good.
Therefore, if you frequently change your mind, it's a great hindrance in going into spirit.
It means that you cannot go into spirit because you cannot keep the word you hear in your mind and you cannot control your desire to follow flesh.
Proverbs 4:23 says, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life."
Even in the smallest things, I hope you will make it a habit to keep your word, your decisions and intentions.
This way, I hope you will be able to keep your mind and quickly accomplish the heart of spirit.
Dear devotees, so far I've explained about selfish motives and greed, adultery and lust, and changing of mind.
Just by checking these three aspects, you can realize how much evil you have in you.
And just by casting away these three things, you can cast away so many other sins together.
When you uproot a tree, if you pull out the major root, all other smaller roots will come out together with the major root.
In the same way, if you cast away greed, lust, and changing of mind, you can cast away so many other things that are related to them.
Therefore, I hope you will diligently reflect upon yourself using the word of God and change yourself.
In doing so, I hope you will be able to confess before God that you have cast away evil and come to have perfect faith.
Dear devotees, today's reading passage also says 'our bodies washed with pure water'.
To wash our bodies with pure water refers to the process of acting according to the word of God and casting away our evil.
The process of increasing our measure of faith is the process of constantly realizing the evil in our conscience and washing ourselves with this water.
We keep on washing ourselves without a rest until we eventually reach perfect faith.
But today, not all believers in God 'wash their bodies with pure water'.
Some teachers of the word of God say that it is impossible for men to become completely sanctified.
They say we are justified by faith and we should try not to commit sins but we cannot cast away the sinful nature itself.
The Bible tells us to be holy and be sanctified in many places, but they just seem to skip these passages.
So, many people who attend church live in sins just like the unbelievers of the world.
For this reason I hope you will be thankful that you hear this gospel of holiness and experience the power of God.
As the days go by, and the world becomes more stained with evil, it becomes increasingly more difficult to find people who proclaim the true will of God.
Amos 8:11 says, "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD God, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD."
But even in this spiritual famine, you are always provided with true bread and water of life.
The gospel of holiness preached in this church is the word that shines the light on each of hidden evil in your deep heart and enables you to realize yourself.
It penetrates even to dividing of the soul, spirit, joints and marrow to let you cast away even the delicate sins.
Also, when you cast away sins with the word, you don't do that out of fear of being punished.
Because you experienced power of God, you can be assured of the love of God, and in that love and hope of Heaven you cast away sins.
You can realize deep in your heart that flesh is meaningless and cast it away like rubbish.
I hope you will be thankful to God from the depth of your heart for allowing you to hear this word of truth and of His power.
I urge you to wash your body again and again with pure water with overflowing thanks and hope so you can reach perfect faith.
Dear devotees, the third aspect in today's passage says, 'a sincere heart in full assurance of faith'.
When we realize the evil conscience and wash our bodies with pure water, we can have sincere hearts and full assurance of faith, the perfect faith.
But this cannot be done overnight.
We have to listen to the word with a longing heart and find out each of the evils in our conscience.
And when we realize something, we have to pray fervently.
We also need our own efforts to change ourselves and always be on the alert.
Sometimes you think you cast away evil to some extent by trying hard, but the same kind of evilness comes out again.
But you shouldn't lose heart even in these situations.
I gave you the allegory of onions before.
When you peel off the skin of onions, it will still have the skins.
But if you keep on peeling it off without giving up you will eventually peel off everything.
Likewise, as you keep on casting off evil again and again, one day you will cast it away completely.
Believing in this fact, I hope you will be joyful and thankful when you realize your evils.
You have to be positive thinking that you can go one step closer to sanctification if you cast away the evil that you've discovered.
I urge you to keep on running until you accomplish perfect faith with thanks.
[Conclusion]
dear devotees, Philippians 3:13-14 says, "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Paul performed great power and communicated with God clearly, but he did not say, "Ah, look at all I have accomplished."
He just forgot what he had done but just kept on marching until he reached the perfect level that God desired of him.
God wants you to do the same.
You shouldn't say you've tried hard until now and you are close to spirit. God wants you to go into spirit completely.
So, please check whether or not you are satisfied with what you've already accomplished and whether or not you have stopped in spiritual growth.
You shouldn't say, "My faith has grown up. I have important duties and the shepherd also knows me. So I have true heart and perfect faith to some extent."
Also, some of you may not say you've accomplished to some extent, but have cooled down in your passion and fervor for sanctification.
As you become lukewarm in faith, and as your march toward going into spirit slows down, your fleshly attributes will soon be revealed.
You become arrogant and develop stronger self-righteousness and frameworks. Then you will not listen to anybody's advice.
Before, you used to try all your best with all your heart, mind, and soul in your given duty, but your attitude changes.
You just do it casually saying, "I have experience with this, so I will just do like the last time."
Also, you used to try to obey all the words you heard, but this attitude also changes.
When you hear the truth, you don't obey, giving excuses and using your fleshly thoughts.
And yet you justify yourself saying, "It's not that I don't have faith, but I have a reason for this."
While you get into flesh more and more this way, you may even completely betray God if you face something that is not beneficial for you.
That is why you must never stop in your march of faith going into spirit, until you completely pull out the root of flesh.
I hope you will renew your mind once again through this devotional service.
I urge all you Men's mission members to become spotless and blameless so the Satan cannot accuse you of anything.
In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will receive abundant blessings in spirit and body, and become key players in building the Canaan Sanctuary.
[AMEN] |
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