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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
The History of Manmin - 28th Anniversary Sunday Morning Service |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Numbers 23:19 |
Date |
2010-10-10 |
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[Passage]
Numbers 23:19
"God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it- Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good-
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
October 10th 1982, 28 years ago, was the day when we had the Founding Service of our church.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has guided Manmin Central Church for last 28 years.
I give thanks to all Manmin members, and all the guests who have come to celebrate this meaningful day.
Today, on this 28th anniversary, I would like to recollect on the history of Manmin Central Church.
Through this, we will see once again that Manmin Central Church has been guided by God's providence.
Whether we were in good times or difficult times we will understand that God the Father has always guided us.
It's the same as when we look back on the footsteps of our personal lives.
From the time you accepted the Lord to this moment, we can find the evidences of the delicate hands of God who has been leading you.
At this moment, I hope you will realize the providence and love of God for this church and for you.
Such a realization will give you joy, and I pray in the name of the Lord that you will offer a sacrifice of thanks with that joy.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and guests, first of all, let us go back to the 1980's, which is the beginning stage of our church.
Our church had the first service on July 25, 1982.
In the 80's it was the time to lay the foundation of the church.
Before the opening of the church, we built up the spiritual foundation with prayers and fasting.
The opening members prayed together ardently, and I as the pastor, concentrated on the word and prayers with fasting.
After the opening the doors of the church, the flame of prayers was never put out.
The leaders prayed and cried out for five to six hours a day.
Through those prayers all the necessary equipment in the church was supplied, such as the podium, microphones, curtains, and piano.
God didn't just give us the equipment and finances, but the number of members grew very rapidly.
Including the children, we had only 13 members at the opening service. But in the foundation service, that took place 77 days later, there were more than a hundred members.
And the number of members continued to sky-rocket.
Within 5 years, it reached more than 3,000 members.
The sanctuary was filled so fast that we didn't have any time to build a bigger sanctuary.
And every time, God dramatically let us move to a bigger place.
The driving force of such an amazing revival was the power of God.
When I prayed for the opening of the church, God said, "There are many souls who are suffering from diseases and from poverty like you did. Make a church that helps the poor, a church that heals the sick in spirit and body, and a church that spreads this gospel to the end of the earth. Become a witness and accomplish world evangelism, and become a church that will arise and shine."
As a result of holding onto His word in prayers, God bestowed upon me His power.
And because of this power, not only after the opening of the church but also even before the church-opening, there were many people who heard about this power and who came from all over the country.
Those who came on stretchers went back walking. Those who couldn't see recovered their sight.
Those who were at the threshold of death were revived. Those who had cancer, leukemia, cerebral tumors, carbon monoxide gas poisoning, severe lung tuberculosis, and 3rd degree burns were healed.
Demons left, and even those who had stopped breathing were brought back to life.
Those who met and experienced God through His power became church members and leaders.
They became the foundations of the Men's and Women's Missions, Young Adults' Mission, and such organizations as Prayer devotees, choirs, performing arts committee, and affiliated bodies like the prayer center and the kindergarten.
In the 80's God gave us the explanations on the Bible passages that became the spiritual foundation of the church.
From the 'Message of the Cross', 'Heaven', 'Revelation', 'Job', 'Spirit, Soul, and Body' to explanations on the more difficult passages of the Bible, God explained to us many things in the Bible.
This was the answer to countless prayers and fasting that had been stored up for 7 years.
These messages are awakening countless souls around the world now.
Also, God gave us the dreams and visions that became our goals.
First, in the name 'Manmin', which means 'all peoples', He gave us the vision of national and world evangelism.
Second, God gave us the vision of constructing the Grand Sanctuary.
In a sanctuary that was about 33 square meters, God showed the vision of the Grand Sanctuary to 17 members.
As the church had rapid revival, and experienced an abundance of spiritual words, signs and wonders, many churches around the country invited me for revival meetings.
My testimony and messages were broadcast on Christian radio stations.
In fact, I couldn't even imagine becoming a pastor and opening a church.
I was thankful to God for saving me from the 7 years of illnesses and giving me eternal life, but I wanted to become a good elder and glorify God.
But God called me as His servant, to become a pastor.
As explained before, this church was not established by men's will but by the will of God.
Also, our foundation was not laid by any powerful, wealthy, or wise men of the world but only by the power of God.
Brothers and sisters, and guests, next, let me talk about the history of Manmin in the 90's.
In the 90's our church continued very rapid growth both spiritually and physically.
The trial of blessing opened this new era.
The enemy devil did not just let us keep on growing and giving glory to God without interference.
One day in 1990, some of the members of the council of the denomination we belonged to at that time excommunicated me from the denomination without any reason and without following proper procedure.
Those pastors who witnessed such injustice had pity on me and advised me as follows:
Your church is growing up so fast, and you have become an object of jealousy. When the pastors who are senior to you ask you to do what they want, just say 'Yes'.
But I could not do that.
I could not compromise with unrighteousness knowing the will of God.
And I had to take such a heavy burden as a result of that incident.
But even though we had great difficulties, our church and I forgave the leader of this incident.
As we passed this test with only goodness, God let us establish a new denomination.
God let us accomplish His kingdom not just at the church level but at the denominational level.
We took part in many of the proceedings in various political and church events in Korea.
Every time, the volunteers' group, ushers, the choir, and Nissi Orchestra performed their voluntary works.
We took a lead in national evangelism, giving out the fragrance of the Christ, and we were praised by other people.
Soon, our church was selected as one of the top 50 churches in the world by the Christian World magazine in the US.
Also, our church and I were known in other countries as well. In the US I spoke in crusades and pastors' seminars in Los Angeles, Washington DC, Baltimore, and Hawaii. I also spoke in Japan, South America, and Africa.
As Manmin's mission center opened in Africa, the door of our world evangelism opened.
Also, in the 90's alone, we moved our church twice to a larger place and arrived in this place.
As we began the 2-Week Continuous Special Revival Meetings, so many sick people were healed and gave glory to God.
In this flow, sometimes more than 400 to 500 members registered a week.
In the 90's we had explosive revival, which was completely different from that of the 80's.
But what God wanted was not just this increase in the numbers.
God wanted each of us to become the grains of wheat.
Among those who were healed through my prayer, many of them lead a good life in faith still today, but a large number of people have left the church.
They sought God only when they were desperate, and they did not have true faith.
Also, some of them were coming to church, but they were living in sins just like worldly people.
So, God allowed us three major trials to separate the wheat and the chaff, and to pull out the weeds growing in the grain.
Going through these three major trials, God gave me even greater power than before.
In 1998, when we had the first two trials, God let me have a crusade for sick people for 6 consecutive weeks, and He showed us such amazing works.
A person with cerebral palsy, and another with the highest degree disability rating became normal, and cancers were gone completely.
Other than these, God showed us so many kinds of works and proved that He was still with our church and me.
He showed the living evidence of what the truth and falsehood was, and how much God attested this church and the pastor.
And yet, through a fabricated broadcast of a TV program in '99, many church members stumbled.
Through these tests, God let each of us check how much we cultivated truthful hearts and true goodness in our hearts.
This was the love of God.
Because we are a church that accomplishes God's providence, God let us have not just physical growth, but spiritual growth.
I had to mourn so much seeing those souls who were falling into death, but our members and I did not react with evil.
We only fasted and prayed and reacted to it all only with goodness.
As a result of passing the test with goodness, we were able to bear fruit that were beyond our imaginations.
Dear brothers and sisters, next, let me talk about the history after the year 2000.
The fruit that were borne through the three major trials revealed themselves from the onset of the new millennium, the year 2000.
In the year after the three major trials were over, in the year 2000, a work of creation took place to change the sea water of Muan into sweet water.
Also, beginning with the Uganda crusade, explosive works of God's power were unfolded.
At the time of the apostle Paul, the gospel was rejected by the Jews and it was taken to the Gentiles. Likewise, the holiness gospel and ministry of God's power turned in direction from Korea to overseas.
The three great trials made our church focus on the overseas missions.
Our church members and I put all our energy into accomplishing world evangelism through the holiness gospel and the power of God.
We had mega-size crusades in Uganda, Japan, Pakistan, Kenya, Honduras, India, Russia, Germany, Peru, DR Congo, and the United States.
Every time, a crowd of tens of thousands to millions of people gathered.
The Creator God and the Lord and Savior Jesus was preached, and so many people received healing by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Demons left and the darkness went away. The dead came back to life.
Idols were destroyed and many people converted.
The fire of the Holy Spirit finally turned towards Israel, which is "the end of the earth."
During the 3 year period of conducting my ministry, my feet stepped directly on the land of Israel. As a result, Jesus Christ was preached not just to Messianic Jews, but also to Orthodox Jews.
Also in the 2000's, the door of the broadcast ministry was opened wide.
In May 2004, the Global Christian Network, GCN was formed in cooperation with Manmin TV.
The first broadcast was aired in New York City on channel 17.
Additionally, the World Christian Doctors' Network (WCDN) and Manmin International Seminary were organized to solidify our vision of world evangelism.
Along with these organizations, through broadcasting and books that are translated into various languages, the holiness gospel and power of God can be spread to each household that cannot be reached in person.
Brothers and sisters, and guests, now let us come back to present time, 2010.
Manmin has been putting in all our strength and effort toward national and world evangelism.
As the Lord said, we first sacrificed ourselves to seek His kingdom and righteousness.
This was also done in the plan of God who wanted to let us reap an abundant harvest.
This year 2010 is the year of harvest and the beginning point of the 3rd stage of take-off.
God said we would reap in full scale whatever we have sown so far.
As God said, many church members are receiving great blessings and there are many testimonies.
Above all, God wants each one of us to prepare the vessel to receive blessings, so He let us check the measure of our faith.
And those who were ready began to reap the blessings.
As for the church, we received the answer of the money to build the Canaan Sanctuary.
The Canaan Sanctuary is the beginning of the construction of the Grand Sanctuary.
The plan of God in construction of the Canaan Sanctuary is being revealed through the unceasing power of God.
The limitless power of God is making impossible things in reality, possible.
God opens the spiritual space and shows us such amazing things that only God can do.
Let me introduce just a couple of such events to you.
The whole world is suffering from natural disasters these days.
In this flow, WCDN Christian medical conference was held in Rome this past May.
At that time, Europe's airways were blocked due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland.
In this situation, the prayer with God's power made the aftermath of the eruption go away.
And the Christian medical conference was held without a problem.
Recently, a certain city in another country was about to be flooded completely due to opening of the floodgates of a dam.
But when I prayed for the situation upon their prayer requests, God miraculously kept this city.
In the first week of August, when we had the summer retreats, the weather center issued a hot weather watch.
But God set apart the places of our summer retreats and gave us the best possible weather.
Also, through the spiritual spaces, He sent to us countless dragonflies. He also made our retreat a global festival.
This past August, some of church members visited the Muan sweet water site. There was a typhoon covering the area, but God made a clear sky for them as if there was a hole in the clouds.
Likewise, the limitless power of God is moving the hearts of even sinners, unbelievers, and those who have social power.
It is moving the hearts of the kings of the nations to make the vision of constructing the Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary materialize.
As the world is becoming more and more chaotic, God is showing His almightiness to people so that they can acknowledge the living God.
Also, God is showing limitless forgiveness and mercy and is delivering His love to the hearts of souls.
He is opening the way of salvation to countless souls around the world, and He is leading the true children who truly love Him to New Jerusalem.
God is working in the same way for those who are here as well as for those who are on the other side of the globe.
God is now revealing to us before our eyes the vision of world evangelism and the construction of the Grand Sanctuary, which He gave to us at the beginning of our church.
Conclusion
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and dear guests, we briefly looked back on the history of our church.
In the history of Manmin, there were both joyful and mournful things in the sight of God.
But the faithful God has never lost His joy either when we were under trials or when we were receiving blessings.
He has never lost His joy of the time when He established this church in His providence.
It's because He knew that, even though we were under trials, we would bear even greater fruit with even greater power.
Also, He believed that we would finally become the wheat and in the end time we would accomplish the vision that He had given to this church.
God has been guiding Manmin Central Church so delicately and gently.
As today's passage Numbers 23:19 says, "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it- Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good-" He will lead us Manmin and fulfill His providence beautifully.
He will also fulfill all His plans for each of you wonderfully.
We can be assured of this because we have seen the prophecies given since the opening of the church being fulfilled.
Also, not just us, but those who are watching us Manmin say as follows:
"Manmin Central Church is a church where we can feel God's presence."
Look forward to the day when God will fulfill all His providence, become overjoyed because of Manmin, and give back to you in precious rewards.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has been with us for last 28 years and who will be with us in the future.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will spend a happy day today with the joy and fullness of spirit from above!
[AMEN] |
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