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 Sermon > Sunday Morning Service |
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Title |
Man of Spirit |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Jn 4:24 |
Date |
2004-10-10 |
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[Introduction]
Today is a blessed Sunday of the 22nd anniversary of our church.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has been with us and has been fulfilling His providence through this church for 22 years since the opening.
I give thanks to all those who have been accomplishing this ministry devoting yourselves for the body of Christ until this day.
I give thanks to all the guests from all over the country and other parts of the world and wish that Lord's grace will come upon you abundantly.
[Body]
Dear brothers and sisters, members who are attending the service through the satellite all over the country, members of branch churches, local sanctuaries, Light and Salt mission, Restaurant Mission, members who are attending the service on the Internet all over the world, and all the guests,
Today's passage John 4:24 says, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
As said, God is spirit, so He wants His children to be 'men of spirit', like the title of today's message.
The purpose of cultivating human beings on this earth is to gain men of spirit. Also, God has been guiding this church until this day to gain many men of spirit.
Of course, those children of God who have received the Holy Spirit and are saved can go to heaven because their spirit is revived.
But even though our spirit is revived by being born again through faith, it is not the end of it.
As a newborn baby cannot do the duties of man properly from the beginning, he has to grow up to become a young man and a grown up adult. In the same way, we, who are saved and have gained life, must grow in our faith.
Finally, we should be changed into a complete man of spirit like the patriarchs of faith in the Bible.
Our Christian life on this earth is the process of changing ourselves into complete man of spirit.
According to how much we have changed, our glory in heaven will be different.
Also, to the extent that we have become men of spirit, we can understand the heart and will of God the Father and communicate with Him more clearly.
When we do God's works, we can break down the works of the enemy devil and Satan and bear abundant fruit only if we become men of spirit.
That is why God refines the people to come out as men of spirit before He can use them as His instruments of fulfilling His providence. For example, before Moses was refined, he could not be used as the leader of the Exodus even though he had such a passionate heart.
Only when his meekness was greater than anyone else on the face of the earth after 40 years of trial in the wilderness, could he receive God's power and lead His people.
It is the same with our church. To accomplish the plans of God for us, we first should have many men of spirit among us.
The reason why you have received the times of trials with thanks is to become men of spirit and fulfill God's works.
Therefore, having this 22nd anniversary, I will tell you three aspects in becoming men of spirit, so that you can reflect yourself upon it.
I want you to check yourself on how much you became a man of spirit through this message, and come into spirit and the whole spirit more quickly.
Dear brothers and sisters, to become a man of spirit, first of all, you should only obey.
1 Samuel 15:22 says, "to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams."
No matter how much you try to be faithful with passionate heart, if you don't obey, you are useless in God's sight.
Then, what is the reason that we cannot obey even though we say we want to do God's work?
It is because of fleshly thoughts.
When God tells you to go to the east, you think it is better to go to the west.
Even when the shepherd tells you, 'this is God's will,' you think, 'I want to do that,' so you cannot obey. When God tells you that it is possible with faith, you think it is absolutely impossible. So you cannot obey.
A man of spirit would obey not only things that he can obey but also things that are absolutely impossible with human thoughts.
During the Exodus, the Egyptian army was chasing from behind and the Red Sea was in front of the people. When God told Moses to stretch out the staff to part the sea, he obeyed without any doubt and parted the Red Sea.
Abraham obeyed without any fleshly thoughts when God told him to offer his only son Isaac, and was set up as the forefather of faith.
If you truly believe in God and love God, you can obey anything that God tells you to.
You would not use your fleshly thoughts within human limit but trust God that good and almighty God must have deep meaning in it. Also, because you love God so much, you will not spare even your life to obey Him.
Today, even though they do not have to give up their life or offer their only son, many people disobey when God tells them such easy things.
Even though they hear the voice of the Holy Spirit that leads them to the best way, they do not obey with their own fleshly thoughts, so they do not have prosperity.
Even when God gives us a vision and dream, it can be fulfilled only when we obey Him.
In case of the people of Israel who escaped from Egypt, they could not obey with their own faith or accomplish God's providence in the beginning.
But through the faith and obedience of the leader Moses, the whole Israel experienced God's works and marched towards Canaan. But God did not want to accomplish everything only with Moses alone.
God wanted all the people of Israel to trust God and obey Him seeing God's works taking place through Moses' obedience like a signpost.
That is why God refined them in the wilderness for a long time, and when Joshua and the next generation came to obey with faith, they could receive the blessings of the Canaan land.
It is same with our church. When the faith of our workers and members were weak, there was disobedience in some areas. Even so, God's providence was fulfilled through the obedience of the shepherd.
We sometimes had trials and hardships because of disobedience of our workers. But because of the faith and obedience of the shepherd, God could still continue His major works.
But what God truly wants for accomplishing His providence at the end of the time is perfect obedience of you and me, and our church as a whole.
Since you have been witnessing and experiencing so many works of God for 22 years, you yourself now should have complete trust with God and obey Him 100%.
Only then can you personally or the church as a whole receive blessings and accomplish God's will towards us.
The world mission so far was also a process of making impossible things possible and creating things from nothing.
We only obeyed God's will and enlarged Him kingdom miraculously in countries of idols, in countries where evangelism is prohibited by law and where there were terrorist threats.
But our way ahead of us is much more difficult in reality than what we have done so far. We have to go to communist state, Islam countries, and finally Israel, the barren land of gospel. We have to go only with faith to the places where we cannot go with human ability.
Also, once the general view of the Grand Sanctuary, which we have been praying for so much, is revealed, the size will be more than what we can imagine.
Doing all these great things, each of you must be ready as a man of spirit who can obey completely without any fleshly thoughts to accomplish everything without any mistake.
So, even from now, when you realize God's will and hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, please obey only with 'Yes.'
I urge you to come out as precious men of spirit who can be recognized as friends of God the Father.
Dear brothers and sisters, to become a man of spirit, secondly, you must not have selfish motive. If you have selfish motive, you will have fleshly passion and desire and tend to accomplish your will rather than God's will.
You would want to take the things that are good for you, your family, and people who are close to you, rather than for God's kingdom.
Especially, if you have selfish motive, you will at some point have pride. You think that you can do something saying, "I can listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and receive His guidance." "I can manifest God's works."
In the beginning you might have given glory only to God but now you seek your own glory and take God's glory yourself.
You say you give glory to God with your lips, but you have different mind deep in your heart as much as you have selfish motive.
You want to be praised by others thinking, "I got rid of sins and prayed so fervently. So I became a person who is more pleasing to God than other people. That is why I can be used as an instrument for God's glory." This kind of selfish motive and pride is hidden secretly, so in most cases you cannot realize it.
No matter how much we are faithful for God, if we just remember who had compassion on sinners like us and saved us with His precious blood, we can never say we have done this much.
If we just remember God's grace that gave us strength to throw away sins, let us realize God's secret words, and led us to experience spiritual realm, we can never even think of lifting up ourselves.
Even though we can manifest God's power through fervent prayers and bear fruit with faith in certain areas, if we begin to seek our own glory, we fall apart from God from that very moment.
That is why some people who give glory to God greatly and are used valuably get forsaken by God because selfish motive and pride come into them after some time.
There are even some churches that experience God's works greatly but their passion cools down after some time. Then, they cannot live according to God's will but stay in the same place.
It is lukewarm faith following the fleshly comfort and peace.
Or in some cases they have desire for money or fame and commit sins to disgrace God. They stand against God with their pride and fall into wrong way.
Our church has never compromised with the world having no selfish motive but obeyed God's will only. When God commanded us something, we only obeyed without giving any excuse.
That is why God could lead our church to accomplish the world mission and to build the Grand Sanctuary.
I hope you will realize how meaningless it is to seek momentary benefit and to have desire to be praised by other people.
I urge you to obey with humbleness giving glory to God who lifts up the humble and glorifies the nameless.
Only then will God acknowledge you and use you as precious instruments in each area, and finally lead you to glorious place in the kingdom of heaven.
Dear brothers and sisters, to become a man of spirit, thirdly, we must have peace in everything.
As mentioned above, if we only obey and have no selfish motive, we will naturally have peace in every aspect.
Proverbs 16:7 says, "When a man's ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him."
As said, when we say only 'yes' to God, God will move the hearts of people around us and let us have peace with them. Also, if we do not seek our own benefit or glory, we will embrace even those who are evil so that we will not be in conflict.
God's works are manifested where there is unity. Even when there are so many powerful men, if the peace is broken among them, God's work stops. Instead, Satan begins to disturb.
That is why I have never commanded any of our workers by force or insisted on my opinion in doing God's works so far.
I can just make them obey with the authority of the senior pastor, but for the sake of peace, I thought of each one's faith and situations and kept the pace with them.
Even when we had to suffer from trials and hardships because of that, I never blamed or complained about workers but just considered it my responsibility as the head of the church and bore with it.
I just prayed before the Father with tears that all those workers would come out as men of spirit to fulfill God's will perfectly.
But some of you do not realize that you are breaking peace and giving hard time to other people but think to yourself, "I am righteous. That person does not have enough faith and conflicts with me."
Or when you insist on your opinion, others follow you to avoid troubles, but in their mind they have difficulties.
Even when you give hard time to other people like this, you think you have peace with them.
But true peace is to let others have truly comfortable mind. You have to sacrifice yourself and be patient to fulfill God's will with peace along with others.
So, how good and beautiful it is to have peace? Matthew 5:9 says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Those who have the heart of peace can be acknowledged as God's true children.
I urge you in the name of the Lord that you will have peace in all aspect with good and meek heart.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters, accomplishing God's kingdom cannot be done with human ability because it belongs to spiritual realm.
It can be accomplished when men of spirit gather together, pray together, and obey God's will.
Today, many people want to be used as God's workers, but it is not easy for God to find a man of spirit to whom He can give an important duty.
You cannot become a man of spirit because you are so passionate for some time. You have to change yourself for a long time through trials and come out as pure gold.
As the apostle Paul said, "I die everyday," you have to struggle up to the point of shedding blood against your fleshly things such as pride and seeking your own.
Also, God allows many kinds of hardships in the lives of His children to change them into men of spirit so that they will find out about their shortcomings.
The duty that God has given to our church is to spread the holiness gospel all over the world during the last days to lead to God all the souls who will be saved.
Also, it is to build the Grand Sanctuary that will reveal God's glory to all nations.
To accomplish these God?given duties, we must have a lot of men of spirit. That is why God has been refining us like pure gold for last 22 years.
Especially, as I preached in the last Friday all night service, the eve of the anniversary, God gave us such a special time of His grace in this year 2004. God let you realize your minds and deeds that you could not realize by yourself.
Through this, God has given you a chance to come out as fruit of God the Father and the shepherd and as a complete man of spirit.
In this flow of spirit, many of you have made up your mind to surely change and become a man of spirit.
At this point, God has given you three aspects that you can look up as signpost in the process of becoming a man of spirit.
First, you always have to obey with only yes. Second, you must not have any selfish motive. Third, you must have peace in all aspects.
If you have accomplished all three things, you will be acknowledged by God as a man of spirit, and be used so valuably in this church.
Now, we do not have much time left in 2004, the time of God's grace to change into men of spirit.
I urge you to come out as God's children who have no blemish or spot reflecting yourself upon these three things.
I want you to become a person who is absolutely necessary in your area as a spiritual warrior and a precious worker who can give glory to the Father and become strength to the church and the shepherd.
I bless in the name of the Lord, that when the Lord comes back again, you will be able to dwell in glorious places of heaven as precious workers who did such a great job at the end of the time. |
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