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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
Men of Spirit - District, Sub-district, Cell Leaders'' Devotional |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Romans 8: 6 |
Date |
2014-02-02 |
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[Passage]
[Romans 8: 6]
"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,"
[Introduction]
Dear brothers and sisters,
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has blessed us to have 2014 District, sub-district, and cell leaders' devotional service.
Dear devotees,
For such a long time, I have been putting so much emphasis on how important your duties are for the kingdom of God. The spiritual battle is always very fierce. As the Bible says the enemy devil prowls around like a roaring lion to find someone to devour, he is always trying to find people to drag to Hell. The devil does not only impede the unbelievers from believing, but it also looks for the chances to make the believers stumble, too. You devotees' duty is to lead the dying souls to salvation in the frontline of the spiritual battlefield, and to keep the saved flock and increase their faith.
But the kingdom of God consists not in word but in power. Even though you have the passion, you cannot bear the fruit that God wants if you are only physically faithful. You can discern the will of God and change the souls only when you cultivate a heart of spirit. Then you can plant life in others and let them feel the love of the Father, the love of the Lord, and the love of the shepherd. Furthermore, you can receive the power so that you can solve the problems in families and let them receive blessings.
Now, as you have received such precious duties, what kinds of efforts have you been expending to become spiritual workers, and what kinds of workers are you now? My heart is really desperate. Most of you should be on the rock of faith or higher, and many of you should be in spirit, but the number is very small now. Through today's message, I hope you will check your faith once again. In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that in this year 2014, you will definitely go onto the rock of faith and enter into spirit.
[Main]
Dear devotees, and other members,
What you have to check to become a man of spirit is first, whether you have good thoughts.
Men of spirit have spiritual thoughts in all things. Even when they go through something they cannot understand, they think from the viewpoint of others in goodness and find the way to give glory to the Lord. Even if they go through difficulties, they feel the heart of the Father through them, and they rejoice and give thanks thinking about the love of the Lord and the love of the shepherd.
And what kinds of thoughts do you have? If you are to record all the thoughts that you have for a day, what would you have to write about? Are you going to have to write about things to eat, things to wear, fun things, and fleshly things of the world? Or do you think of the ways to change into spirit and to cultivate heart of truth in you?
Some people mistakenly think they are having spiritual thoughts even though they are actually having thoughts that are not good. Let me give you an example of such persons. You think like, "That person is short of the conditions to be on the rock of faith, and why does God say he is on the rock of faith?" "What is it that God thinks of her so highly?" By thinking, "What is it that God thinks of her so highly?" you pretend to be having a good thought, but in fact, you are constantly reminding yourself of the shortcomings and bad points of that person.
Let me give you another example. One of the members of your district, whom you have been diligently taking care of, is talking with another district leader. You are a little short of being on the rock, and the other district leader is on the rock of faith, and the member you take care of is in consultation with the other leader without telling you anything. You just smile and pretend that you are OK, but in your heart you feel like you are being betrayed. You think, "I've given her so much love, and now she embarrasses me this way! Men of flesh are so cunning!" It seems like you are discerning with the truth, but you are in fact having hard-feelings and passing condemnation.
Also, let us consider a case of a sub-district leader. The district leader celebrated the birthday of another sub-district leader, but she forgets your birthday. In this situation, those who have spiritual thoughts will just feel happy since that other person received love, and they don't have any pain in heart utilizing their fleshly thoughts.
But if you utilize fleshly thoughts what would happen? You will not only resent your district leader but also will you be reminded of past things as well. You think like, "She commended only that sub-district leader in the past. She only listened to her." And you also resent her thinking, "I am the same sub-district leader, but because I have less education and I am not as wealthy, I am being discriminated against."
Then, all the other complaints that you suppressed will come up, too. You think like "If my group experiences revival, I will be loved. How come there are no cell leaders who have good faith in my group? We are far away from the church and short of workers, and no wonder I cannot bear good fruits." Even though you are constantly having thoughts that are not good, you just think you are right.
You have resentment, judgment and condemnation, misunderstanding, envy, and jealousy. As you keep on having such fleshly thoughts, you will lose the strength and you will only pile up walls of sin before God. So, it is such a great disadvantage in going into spirit. It is also not a good thought if you condemn yourself or if you get discouraged with negative thoughts.
Even when you realize your evil and mourn, God will comfort you and give you new strength if you are mourning spiritually. Your heart will be refreshed and you will feel the love of the Father. You will gain the strength to start again and try harder.
On the contrary, if you feel like you want to take a rest or become tired comparing yourself with others, this is fleshly mourning and fleshly thought. Romans 8:6 says, "For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace," I hope you will always check yourself with this verse. It is spiritual thought that gives life and peace. Even though you think you are right, if you do not get life or peace, you have to stop your thoughts.
If the Holy Spirit does not rejoice in your heart, you have to change your thinking to spiritual, good thoughts immediately. Only then can you prevent having spiritual stoppage and quickly go into spirit.
Dear devotees, and other members,
What you have to check to become a man of spirit, secondly, is the extent to which you can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:10 says, "For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." And in 1 Corinthians 2:4, Paul said, "and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,"
Men of spirit will follow the will of God and not their will when they do the work of God. They do not use their own wisdom or methods, but they find the way that God wants it to be done and follow it. In order to know the will and method of God, we have to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Of course, your wisdom and experience are also important. When you facilitate an event, or when you do missionary works or visit members, you can more easily fulfill your duties if you have well-rounded experience. But together with experience, if you are spiritual workers, you must hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and follow it.
For example, suppose you have to talk to a believer who has been lukewarm in her faith for a long time. Here, if you are a district leader, it is not something difficult to think, "I will have this Bible passage and tell her to be more fervent in her faith."
But if you talk to her in the works of the Holy Spirit, you will not just advise her to try harder. You will be able to provide resolution to the fundamental problem that prevented her from having more fervent faith. If it is because of the love for the world, you will let her understand the world is meaningless and deliver a message that gives hope of Heaven. If she used to be enthusiastic in her Christian life but stumbled due to a specific reason, you will be able to deliver a message that will heal her wounds. If she is blocked by fleshly thoughts, you will break up such fleshly thoughts. As explained, to give life and strength to others, you should not just care for them within your own ability, but you have to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
It is the same when you prepare for an event. Based on your experience and knowledge, you can estimate the number of attendants, so that you can understand the size of the event and how you should prepare for it. But even though you are very thorough in calculations, there are always variables. There could be some special weather conditions or sudden change in the number of attendants. Those who make plans relying on their own experience and knowledge cannot produce good result in such cases.
But if you prepare for the event hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, you can deal very well even with the unexpected situations. The ministry of this church will be expanding increasingly more globally as time goes. The more it expands, the greater the need to have the workers who hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, so that we can bear perfect fruits in all aspects. I hope you will follow the voice of the Holy Spirit rather than doing things on your own.
Dear devotees and other members,
What you have to check to become a man of spirit, thirdly, is how much love you have in your heart.
A heart of spirit is the heart that seeks the benefit of others. It is to think from the others' viewpoint, serve others in all things, and when things go well with them, it is to rejoice with them. On the other hand, if you do not serve others or sacrifice yourself, or if you are indifferent to others' situations, or unwilling to take up losses, then it means you are far from spirit.
If you think like, "I have to go into spirit quickly. I have to learn the word and store up prayer, and I need to be blessed through the message," then, you might easily think you are longing for spirit, but rather you are actually selfish and greedy.
Whether you have love or not will be more easily revealed when you go through trials. For those who have love, when they are in hardships, they will not share their pain with others. On the other hand, if you do not have love, you will express all your pains so that others will be concerned about you. And yet, you justify yourself thinking like, "I cannot help it because I am having a hard time." You have to pass the trials well to go into spirit, but because you do not have love in you, you rather store up more evil during your trials.
When they do the work of God as His worker, men of spirit will accept others with love and generosity. There might be some subordinate workers who are lazy and are not diligent. Even though you keep on teaching them, some constantly make mistakes or they lie to you all the time. In this situation, if you lack love, you feel they lack many things, and you are apt to be forcing them.
Of course, even a man of spirit sometimes rebukes others harshly to accomplish the work of God. But even when he does that, he still considers others better than himself, and he still seeks the benefit of others. If he has to advise others with strong words, he prays for those people even more. He will pray that they will not lose heart in any case, and he helps them so that they can do better. You can go into spirit quickly only when you have such love.
Devotees, sometimes there are people who just talk about change. "If I can receive advice from the shepherd, I will change more quickly." But this message for this devotional service is advice for all you devotees. Also, I have given you so much advice through the previous devotional services, other services, and conferences.
Still in this message I once again give advice for district leaders, sub-district leaders, and cell leaders respectively.
First, district leaders, you should have already been men of spirit. But many of you are still men of flesh who still have fleshly thoughts. Check yourself once again and realize what your frameworks of knowledge are. Then realize your arrogance of justifying yourself with those frameworks of knowledge even though you are not doing the right thing in the sight of God.
Next, sub-district leaders, even though you are sub-district leaders, it is not necessarily equivalent to your measure of faith. You have to get away from your illusion that you have some measure of faith just because you are sub-district leaders.
Even though you have the duty of sub-district leaders, spiritual faith does not just automatically grow up in you. You have to accomplish the level of holiness that is congruent with your duty through your efforts in circumcising your hearts. From now, apply all the messages to yourself and diligently circumcise your heart.
Next, cell leaders, you can keep your flock only when you are at least on the rock of faith. But even though you've been cell leaders for a long time, you still cannot cast away that one fleshly thought which is a hindrance to gaining spiritual faith. Upon hearing the word of God, you decide to do something, but according to your benefit, you change your mind very often. I hope you will cast away fleshly thoughts and changing mind, and become upright and truthful.
The same goes for assistant cell leaders and other leaders.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters, and other members,
God has established this church to accomplish His great vision, and He has been searching for men of spirit constantly. Also, He has been refining this church in His providence to open the way for you to cast off flesh and come forth to spirit. At the early church, Stephen and Phillip were not apostles, but they manifested the power of God and accomplished His kingdom greatly.
You devotees should also become such workers and accomplish the kingdom of God. If you just keep this one message in your mind and make it completely yours, you will certainly become workers of spirit. In 2014, I hope you will all change by the original voice. In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that, you will play important roles at the end time by becoming men of spirit and warriors of spirit who can completely fulfill God's providence. |
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