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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
Heaven(56) - New Jerusalem(14) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
John 13: 32 |
Date |
2008-09-07 |
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Passage
John 13: 32
"if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately."
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This is the 56th session of Heaven sermon series. In this session, I will continue to explain about the area of the Holy Spirit in New Jerusalem.
(MinHo Kim, Gold medal in Judo -60kg)
In the Olympic Games that ended recently there was one Korean gold-medalist who had shed an unusual number of tears that just poured throughout the awards ceremony.
It is said he practiced and trained so hard that he pushed himself into a state of total exhaustion every day.
In an interview after he won the gold medal the athlete spoke about it
"The training was so hard that I was in tears almost every day. But those moments of tears were tears of happiness for me. I entered into the difficult training with heartfelt happiness, and I also participated in the Olympics with that same happiness in my heart."
This athlete looked toward his goal of gold medal and he had the faith that he could get it if he practiced hard. That is why he could go through the hellish training with a joyful mind.
And what kind of mind should we have in our Christian life with New Jerusalem as our goal, the place where the greatest honor will be given?
No matter what kind of difficult and painful trials of faith we go through, they are nothing compared to the heavenly glory that will one day be awarded to us.
In this session, I will talk to you about a believer who overcame and won the victory in her fight of faith and went into New Jerusalem.
Through this message, I pray in the name of the Lord that more of you will have ever increasing faith in believing that you can also win the victory and become gold-medalists in heavenly kingdom.
Main
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord Jesus is the general supervisor who is in charge of designing the heavenly kingdom and overseeing the building the houses in it.
God the Father has handed over that authority to the Lord, and with a joyful heart, God is watching the things that the Lord is doing.
It's because the Lord also prepares the houses of the believers precisely according to the law of justice.
But it doesn't mean the Lord Himself is building the houses. The Lord designs the house, and the archangels together with their angels will build them according to the design, and decorate them with precious stones.
First, the area of the land given to each believer will be decided. Of course, this is for the believers who go into 1st kingdom of heaven or higher.
Matthew 5:5 says, "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth." As said, according to the gentleness of each person, the Lord will give an order to designate a certain area of land.
Then, the archangels will draw the area's boundary lines according to the word of the Lord.
When they divide these areas of land in heaven, they will not draw a line on the ground like on earth. They will surround the area with light to make the borders.
Of course, God has already made a distinction between the third kingdom of heaven and New Jerusalem by constructing a wall of jasper. This is to contain a very special meaning in it.
Also, except for some cases like the castles of the Lord and the Holy Spirit, the boundaries that define the areas of land and homes of each of the neighboring heavenly citizens will be established by lights.
Once the boundaries are set, the angels will construct buildings within the areas according to the design of the Lord, and do such things as landscaping and establishing gardens. Also, they will decorate the inside and outside of the homes according to the rewards of each believer.
The design contains what kinds of jewels to be used, what colors of clothes will be made ready, and what kinds of wall paintings or writings will be made.
The archangels and angels will work faithfully according to the plan. In some houses, God the Father or the Lord Himself will furnish writings.
God the Father created heaven and earth and all things in them by His word. The Lord also took part in creation.
1 Corinthians 8:6 says, "... yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him."
Therefore, God the Father could have also created the heavenly houses with His word. But He didn't do that. The Lord Himself will design each house and have it constructed by the angels.
In some special cases, the Lord Himself will also do some of the work in the construction.
Why does He do that?
It is the loving kindness to let us feel the delicate hand of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Also, the Lord who is building the houses with so much delicacy and God the Father who is watching this Lord gain joy in doing these things.
The fact that God can give the best things to His beloved children according to the law of justice becomes great joy to Him.
The decision has already been made for some forefathers of faith to enter into New Jerusalem, but there are also believers who are still in the process of meeting the qualifications. And, when a person becomes qualified to go into New Jerusalem, God the Father and the Lord rejoice so much.
How joyful did we become when we heard the news of the athletes from our country winning gold medals in Olympics? Many people also nervously watched all of the final rounds hoping for victory.
I hope you realize that in these last days God the Father and the Lord are watching us in the same way.
When people of whole spirit work for God's kingdom, everything they do becomes rewards in heaven.
Then, the Lord enlarges the area of their land and plans for additional buildings or facilities.
This is not something troublesome or bothersome.
Our Lord is doing this work with so much happiness and joy.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, now, I will talk to you about a believer from our church who has already gone into New Jerusalem.
In fact, she will have her dwelling place in what is relatively the outskirts of the area of the Holy Spirit in New Jerusalem.
It's because she barely met one of the conditions to enter into New Jerusalem, 'faithfulness in all God's house' only at the last moment.
When I talk to you about her faith, I hope you will be able to check your faith.
She did not love the world at all. She did not want to take any pleasure from the world.
She worked only for God's kingdom and marched on with unchanging heart with hope for New Jerusalem.
In the aspect of goodness, she already reached the highest level of goodness.
She had the good heart not to spare even her life at all for God and the Lord.
She also had enough of the measure of gentleness to go into New Jerusalem.
I had seen her for a long period of time, and I had never seen her judging or condemning any other person.
I had never seen her becoming envious or jealous, slandering others, or pointing out any faults or shortcomings of others.
She never had any trouble with anybody including her leaders. She never had any ill-feelings.
She always had a good and gentle heart. I couldn't find any form of evil in her. Also, she was always faithful in God's works. She not only attended all worship services, but she also never ceased praying. She was always present when and where she was supposed to be.
She always had her first priority in God's works.
While working for God, she never complained about anything. She never had any complaints in her mind in the first place. She was very much like Mary Magdalene.
I knew that she could have many complaints against her husband.
But she never spoke anything about it. She never mentioned anything negative concerning her husband.
She spoke only words of goodness, gentleness, love, and truth.
So, measuring the qualifying aspects for sanctification, she was more than qualified to enter into New Jerusalem. But she lacked a little bit in the aspect of 'faithfulness in all God's house'. The faith of her family members was the problem. Especially, the situation of her husband was especially worrisome to her.
Illness caught up to her.
It was not her fault she became ill. It was because she worried too much about the sin of one of her family members. It was the sin of her husband.
Her husband realized this fact only in the latter stages and repented. As a result, her husband received another chance for salvation.
But too much time had already passed until this happened.
Namely, her disease worsened so much that she went over the limit of life according to the justice of God. She had gone beyond the point where she could receive God's healing.
Finally, she went to heaven, but just before her death the aspect of faithfulness in all God's house that she had been lacking was fulfilled.
Now she had the qualifications to enter into New Jerusalem.
In fact, if you go into whole spirit, your family will be evangelized. It's because a man of spirit has spiritual authority over his words.
Also, because he will supply spiritual love to his family members and serve them so much, all his family members' hearts will be melted.
So, one of the evidences of going into the whole spirit is the evangelization of the family.
In the fourth level of faith, in many cases the family evangelization is going towards 100%.
If you take into consideration all these conditions, I think you can see where in heavenly kingdom you can go.
Now I will talk to you about her house in New Jerusalem. But she has not entered into her house yet.
Even those who go into New Jerusalem can enter their houses only after the Great White Throne Judgment. So, right now, they are staying in a separate place.
Then, what kinds of rewards does she receive and how is her house decorated?
When she was on earth, she always thought of the kingdom of God and wanted to become joy to the Lord. So, she never neglected taking care of other souls; she always harbored them in her heart.
Also, whenever she had difficulties, she didn't look at the reality, but she overcame them by thinking about New Jerusalem. In this process, there were times when she had to endure.
This is how she received rewards as she overcame all trials with hope for New Jerusalem.
The rewards are decorative items that are made with precious gem stones.
Even worldly people sometimes have jeweled ornaments and put them on display.
Likewise, there are various decorative things made with gem stones in her house, too.
Each moment of her endurance on earth is given back as beautiful rewards in heaven.
Also, there were things that she wanted to do while on earth but could not do.
She held the hope of a bride. She prepared her heart and kept her bearing like a beautiful bride who had to stay ready to greet her bridegroom at any minute.
She always thought of beautiful things and she tried to have a beautiful appearance, too.
Especially, when she thought about New Jerusalem she knew the particular color of the clothes that she wanted to wear.
They were clothes of a pale pink color and beautiful light green.
Because the Father knows this, He gives clothing with these beautiful colors and the accessories that go very well with them.
In her house are also some paintings and decorative scripts and documents.
It contains her prayers that she offered in tears with her endurance on earth, and her confessions of thanks in heart for her shepherd who was guiding her to spirit.
When she was on earth, she was shy and she confessed only in heart.
She confessed in her heart saying, "I want to walk around in heaven with the Lord and my shepherd hand in hand. I love you!"
These confessions of heart and what she hoped for in her heart are made into paintings and decorative writings.
One of the decorations is some of the content from her confessions made into something like a poem.
Also, her house has some gardens that are very well decorated with flowers like roses.
She always wanted to have a garden in yard of her home decorated with beautiful flowers including roses.
When she saw flowers or something beautiful her hope of heaven increased. She hoped for the days to walk the flower roads praising God the Father.
God the Father remembers this little hope in her heart and makes it come true in heaven.
Also, she will be given all kinds of jeweled ornaments with which she can adorn herself.
Since she was also a woman, maybe once in a while she thought she wanted to have something. And God the Father remembers even these things and gives them to her.
While on earth, when she wanted to have something but couldn't because of her situation, she was not heart broken. It's because she had greater hope of heaven than her wish to have something good on earth.
If she could have been more faithful in all God's house, she could have gone much closer to the central part of New Jerusalem. It is too bad that because of this she could only enter into a location more distant from central New Jerusalem.
But just by the fact that she entered into New Jerusalem, she will be comforted very much.
Also, on earth, she wanted to do some things as a woman, but could not and gave up trying. And seeing all these things are given as heavenly rewards, she will be so grateful.
She will be so full of emotions because the colors of clothes, the ornaments, and the little details all will be given as she wished in her heart.
In the next session, I will talk to you about one of the biggest houses in the area of the Holy Spirit in New Jerusalem.
Conclusion
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today, I told you about one of our church members who went into New Jerusalem. She receives as heavenly rewards even the little things that she had in her heart on earth, and what is the reason?
It's because she cultivated her heart as whole spirit and went into New Jerusalem.
You probably also have some things that you have on your mind hoping for heavenly kingdom. You may have wishes thinking, "What I cannot do on earth and what I give up, I'll do and get them in heaven!"
But to actually receive awards in heaven, we have to accomplish the heart of spirit in us.
If we give up something on earth from heart, we have to fill the void with goodness, love, and truth instead.
Only then can we really get something back in heaven.
Even though you have received such a good word of promise, you cannot achieve it unless you cultivate your heart into spirit. You have to believe the promise of God and pray fervently, and cast off your self and fill it with spirit.
The believer I talked about today suffered very much in a physical sense; she spent many difficult times shedding tears.
But when she turned them into hope for New Jerusalem, God the Father received the aroma of her heart and paid her back with various rewards.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will realize this point very well and cultivate a perfect heart of spirit in you so that you can also dwell near the center of New Jerusalem.
[Amen] |
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