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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
The blessed(2) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Ps 1:1-6 |
Date |
2002-09-01 |
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[Introduction]
Dear brothers and sisters,
In the last week I explained three conditions for the blessed through Psalm 1.
The blessed are
First, they don’t follow the advice of the wicked
Second, they don’t stand in the way of sinners
Third, they don’t sit on the position of the arrogant
Many worldly people plot evil schemes for their own benefits or commit all kinds sins to satisfy their own greed.
Also, they neglect or despise others to sit on the higher position. Even they do harm to others. The result of the wicked is not blessings but disasters.
Blessings and curses are all up to God who is the master of all things. So He never blesses the wicked.
[Proverbs 16: 1] says, "To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue."
Again [Proverbs 16:9] says, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."
No one cannot be blessed by God however much he tries to be blessed. Only God can give him blessings.
Today I’ll speak whom God is pleased with and leads to the way of blessings.
May you all understand the way of blessings and answers of God through this message and glorify God with abundant testimonies, In the name of the Lord I bless.
[Body]
Dear brothers and sisters, members who are attending this service through satellite all over the country, members of branch churches and branch sanctuaries, members of Light and Salt Mission and Restaurant Mission, all members who are attending the service through the Internet all over the world, members listening to this messages through audio and video tapes, Sunday School children attending this service.
Today’s verse 2 says, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night."
’The law of the Lord’ here means all the word of the Bible.
The law indicates the decree of God written in the Moses’ Five Books including Ten Commandments in a small range.
Moses’ five Books of the Bible are Genesis , Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These Five Books were written through Moses, the man of God. So they are called ’Moses Five Books.’
These five books tell you how to worship God. In detail, they tell you how you give God sacrifice offerings, how you clean yourselves before God, how you build the Holy Sanctuary and how you should keep each feast.
Also the books give all rules and regulations that the Israeli should keep in their society just as each nation has her own law.
For example, the five books explain what you should compensate for when you do harm to others, what you should be punished with when you commit sins, how you should buy or sell the land, how you should judge the accused, how you should treat the poor and so on.
In a word, the five books give you rules or regulations about many detailed cases of your daily life.
The law scholars say the number of all regulations is 623.
Anyway, the law of the Lord in today’s scripture indicates all the word of the Bible.
The Bible includes the history of Israel, the acts of Jesus and His disciples, prophecies of many prophets, epistles, psalms, Songs of love, Israeli law and so on.
All these laws of the Bible teach you what blessings come on you when you do the law and what curses on you when you disobey the law.
Novels or essays have their synopsis.
The synopsis of the Bible is the law written in the Moses’ Five Books. And the abstract of the law is Ten Commandments.
The illustration of the Ten Commandments is all the word of the Bible.
Dear brothers and sisters,
The blessed rejoice in the word of God and meditates on the word day and night.
Do you love the word and meditate it day and night?
If you love the word, you surely attend every service like Sunday service, Friday service, Wednesday service, Home cell service, Daniel daily prayer meeting and so on. And you will be delighted in the world in every service.
You never drowse nor think other useless things in any service. In any case, the word is sweeter to your heart than honey and a cluster of honey.
You accept all words with ’Amen, amen"
You will be filled with joy and the Holy Spirit when you listen to the spiritual message and understand it.
You will enjoy the change of your life when you find your error or sinful nature through the word.
You will enjoy reading the word when you are alone. And you will memorize pointed or impressive verses continually.
Of course you bear the word in your mind and meditate the memorized verses day and night.
The word will become life and strength in your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.
You will pray fervently and continually and so communicate with God in your heart.
Likewise the word you meditate and memorize day and night will lead you the way of blessings.
The word of God teaches you what the sin is, what the advice of the wicked is and what the arrogance is.
If you don’t know the word of God, you cannot find that you commit sins or become arrogant.
For this reason, you should learn and meditate the word and make it yours. Then, the Holy Spirit dwelling in you will teach and lead you through the word.
I hope you may know one more thing. One day a lawyer asked Jesus, "Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
Jesus replied in [Matthew 22: 37-40], "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
The most synopsis of the Bible is these two commandments. First, you must love your God, and second, you must love your neighbors.
If you love God truly, you will do what is pleasing to God and resemble His heart.
You will seek for and love goodness, light, holiness, spiritual love and truthfulness if you love God.
You will love and serve your brothers and sisters in a meek and humble manner because the love of GOD in you.
[Romans 13: 9-10] says,
"9The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule:
"Love your neighbor as yourself." 10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."
Jesus fulfilled the law with love because He loved God and loved all people.
In your daily life, you may sometimes be at a loss whether this is the will of God or not.
This word, ’Love your God and love your neighbors as yourself’ will give you right decision in that case.
You can gain the right decision when you check yourselves thinking, "Do I love God and my neighbor really?’
Dear brothers and sisters,
The blessed don’t follow the advice of the wicked, not stand in the way of sinners, nor sit on the position of the arrogant.
And they delight in the word of God and meditate it day and nught.
Then, what are they blessed with by God?
Verse 3 says, ’He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers."
A long drought makes plants and trees die away. But trees planted by streams have no difficulty in spite of the long drought.
As long as the streams don’t dry up, the trees planted by streams can be supplied with nutrition and water, their leaves don’t wither and bear abundant fruits in season.
’Streams’ here mean the fountain of blessings.
[Jeremiah 17: 13] says that the LORD is the fountain of living waters. That is, streams mean God who is the fountain of the life and blessings.
You must dwell in God, the fountain of all blessings if you would be blessed like trees planted by streams.
And you must dwell in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life.
If you dwell in God, you must entrust all your ways to the Lord God with all your heart and mind. Then, you will be controlled by His will.
You must leave yourselves away from sins and evils and live according to the word of God to dwell in God, the fountain of all blessings as today’s scripture says.
Such people can be filled with rains of God’s grace, and be happy with joy, gratitude, and hope for heaven.
And they can be controlled by the Holy Spirit and listen to His voice clearly. Also they can communicated with God in the fullness and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
What, then, is the fruits of the blessed?
The fruits are fruits of the Holy Spirit, fruits of light, fruits of the Beatitudes, fruits of spiritual love and so on.
For example, you will bear fruit of love when you get rid of hatred from your heart in obedience to His voice.
You will bear fruits of meekness, peace, harmony and patience when you obey the word, ’Get rid of your anger and rage.’
As that result, your home, working place and business will be blessed and you will bear many fruits of God’s answers to your asking.
You can enjoy the blessings of God like trees planted by streams if you dwell in Him even though disasters and hardships cover the world.
For example, Joseph, son of Jacob, enjoyed such special blessings.
In his administrator days in Egypt, many next countries were in trouble of seven years’ bad harvest and famine. They had little food to eat.
A large number of people were in danger of death, but Egypt had abundant food.
That was because Joseph, the man of God, was in Egypt.
He dwelled in God. God made him know long ago that severe bad reap would come in Egypt and her next countries. So he could prepare for the famine.
For another example, Goshen, the land of Israel, had no harm even though every region of Egypt ruined because of ten disasters.
Likewise you can be blessed by God if you dwell in Him even if you meet with a great difficulty or the world is covered with disasters.
Many church members were blessed with money in spite of Korea’s IMP system.
Most of Koreans said Korean economy was too difficult. However, many church members were blessed salary advance or change into new job.
On the other hand, you have been protected from any current disease or influenza even though many people got sick or fell ill.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I tried my best to obey the word of God as I were told.
God was pleased with my obedience and blessed me in spirit and in body. He always led me successfully in all ways.
God blessed me when I started out my comics bookshop in my early Christian days.
Of course He didn’t bless me with a great bookshop in the beginning.
At first He blessed me to manage a small bookshop and gradually let me enlarge my business. In each stage, He led me with prepared blessings even in a little thing.
Meanwhile, I looked for the broader bookshop and heard a good bookshop to let in front to Kemho Elementary school. I went there to have contract with the landlord. But he rejected me at the sight of my former career.
He had a dislike for me because his many former customers were transferred to my bookshop.
At his reject, I quitted the place and only relied on God asking Him to lead to good place.
I believed that God could change the heart of anyone if he would, and that God would change the heart of the landlord if God would bless me through that bookshop.
Also, I believed that God would lead me to better place.
Anyway, I had no worry.
Finally, God led me to the best place in Kemho-dong, Seoul.
In fact, I didn’t have much money with to contract that bookshop. God, though, managed the heart of the landlord to receive what little money I had.
Later I understood why God didn’t let me to contract the first bookshop.
Some while later, there a great technical bookshop came in front of the elementary school. The bookshop was equipped with ten thousand books.
I would have been damaged greatly because of that great bookshop if I had bought the bookshop beside the elementary school.
The lord of that great bookshop had prepared for the bookshop in secret and opened it all at once. Neighbors didn’t notice it until it was opened.
God, the Almighty and the All-knowing knew his plan and hindered me from contracting the first bookshop beside the elementary school. That is, God didn’t want me to suffer from a great loss.
Since then, I had been blessed through my bookshop until I entered the seminary. God made many far customers come to my bookshop.
In those days, I didn’t allow bad students to come in my bookshop and customers to smoke or drink alcohol.
And I closed the door on Sundays to keep the Lord’s day holy. Naturally I couldn’t do my business on Sundays when the most customers would come in.
I didn’t allow even book borrowers to return books back on Sundays. I often made them go back home on Sundays.
Nonetheless, more and more people gathered in my bookshop through God’s grace. Many next bookshop managers lowered down the price. Still, many customers visited my bookshop.
From time to time, some customers said, "This bookshop doesn’t have good facilities. And it’s not cheap on book-reading. But strangely my mind goes toward here."
Through that bookshop, I could pay off a lot of debts that I had owed in my illness.
My life was blessed by God just as a tree planted a stream is supplied with water and bears abundant fruits.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters,
Some ridicule at children of God who ask God to bless them.
They call that prayer selfishness.
In fact, they do because they don’t understand what you ask God.
What do you ask God?
Above all, you ask for eternal salvation through true faith.
The greatest blessing is to be saved from the curse of hell and to enter heaven through faith in Jesus Christ.
And you ask Him to help you get rid of evils and sins day by day and reach the measure of godliness. In this way, you want your soul to get along well.
That’s because you will be loved more greatly when you bear fruits of the Holy Spirit, fruits of light, fruits of spiritual love and fruits of the Beatitudes. And you will enjoy greater glory and honor in heaven in those fruits.
In addition, you will become the salt and the light to the world, glorify God in more things, and all your ways go well with you as your soul is getting along well.
Sometimes you may meet with troubles or hardships.
But you will not be discouraged nor sigh. Rather you can overcome any difficulty and instead have hope for greater blessings because of truthful faith in good God.
You should not seek for wealth, honor or power in your selfish greed.
You ask for blessings of God and it is the will of God.
You listened to the message of God’s blessings. I hope you may ask for that blessings continually.
I hope truly you all may not follow the wisdom of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit on the position of the arrogant. You should delight in the word of God, meditate it day and night and obey it with all your heart.
Therefore, may all of you be supplied with God’s grace all the time and bear abundant fruits in spirit and in body like trees planted by streams, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I bless! |
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