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 Sermon > Sunday Morning Service |
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Title |
Love |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1 John 4:16 |
Date |
2007-05-27 |
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Scripture Reading
1 John 4:16
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, members of over 5,800 branch churches in Korea and all over the world including the United States, Canada, Peru, Honduras, Bolivia, El Salvador, Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, China, Japan, Pakistan, Nepal, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, India, Mongolia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Israel, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Angola, Burundi, Rwanda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Botswana, Swaziland, Cote d'Ivoire, South Africa the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia, Kazakhstan, and local sanctuary members, those who are attending the service on the Internet all over the world, and television viewing audiences,
Today is the Whit Sunday commemorating the day of Pentecost.
Our risen Lord promised to His disciples in Acts 1:4-5. The Verses say, "Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
According to this promise, His disciples and believers gathered in the upper room of the house in the city of Jerusalem and concentrating on prayers every day.
When the day of Pentecost had come, suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves. And all the people there became filled with the Holy Spirit.
Whitsunday commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit that our Lord Jesus promised. When the seventh Sunday after the Easter comes, we receive the Whit Sunday.
Through this message, may each of you bring the love of our Father God who has sent the Holy Spirit for us into your remembrance, and go into whole spirit as soon as possible by the help of the Holy Spirit, who works deep within your heart, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ
Peter said in Acts 2:38, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Why does God give the gift of the Holy Spirit to all of you who have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and been forgiven?
The first reason is because of the love of God.
God loves His children who accept Jesus Christ into their hearts so much, so He gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Why did our Father God start cultivating mankind?
He did it because He wanted to gain true children who would love Him with a sincere heart and be worthy to be loved by Him.
But mankind forsook this will of God and did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. So it is said in Romans 1:21, "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
And they sinned according to their sinful desires and committed evils, and even stayed far away from God.
They worshiped and served images in the form of corruptible creatures more than the incorruptible God.
God saw all these sinful deeds and the minds and desires of mankind, but He never stopped cultivating mankind. Neither did He let them fall into destruction in their sins.
If God had not been able to endure mankind and ceased the cultivation of mankind in the middle, they would still be slaves to the devil and be thrown into the fire of hell to be severely tormented for ever.
Our God knew this would-be-fact and harbored an amazing plan to save them at the proper time.
He sent His only begotten Son Jesus and allowed Him be hung on a tree and die shedding all His blood as an atoning sacrifice for sinners.
This is how God demonstrated His great love for sinners.
Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
As that result, all those who believe in their heart that Jesus is our only Savior and that He was raised from death, has been forgiven of all his sins and gained the right to become children of God.
But 1 Peter 5:8 warns us saying, "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."
The enemy devil and Satan is searching for someone, even believers, to drag into death and devour like a roaring lion.
Even though you accepted Jesus Christ, and have been forgiven, and have become children of God, there are sinful natures that still remain in your heart. That is, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of this life remain within you.
The enemy devil and Satan know this fact very well, so they are always trying to tempt God's children with worldly pleasures, money and fame and strive to trigger the sinful natures within you to commit sins again.
After you have become children of God, if you repeatedly commit the same sins, but do not repent of them, you will fall into death.
Our God knew this thinking and intention of Satan and made preparations for it in advance.
Just as prophesied in Joel 2:28, "It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions," God planned to send the Holy Spirit into the hearts of the children of God who believed in the Lord.
Even if you are children of God, while you live on earth, the enemy devil and Satan rule over this world where you have to live.
Jesus said in John 14:16, "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever."
The Holy Spirit is One in Part with God the Trinity. As a Son, the Holy Spirit is One in the same in the Heart, the Will and the Power with God, so when the children of God receive the Holy Spirit, then it is the same as though God is with them.
Earlier, Jesus' disciples were afraid of persecutions and trials and fled before they received the Holy Spirit. But after they received the Holy Spirit, how were they changed?
In the 4th Chapter of the Acts of Apostles, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and boldly preached before life-threatening high priests and elders that no other name but Jesus Christ was given by which we can be saved.
The reason that they preached the gospel with their lives without surrendering to any threats and persecutions was because the Holy Spirit abided in their hearts.
Thus, the children of God who have received the Holy Spirit are not defeated by the devil, but overcome the devil with the power and authority that the Holy Spirit gives them.
Romans 5:5 says, "because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." So, I wish for all of you to remember that it is because of the love of our Father God that the Holy Spirit dwells in your hearts and gives you strength and grace.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The second reason that God sent the Holy Spirit into your hearts is because God wishes to strengthen and encourage you to live by the word of God.
One of the fundamental duties of the Holy Spirit is to move and change the hearts of men as the Helper and to let them love our Father God.
I told you above that the Holy Spirit was given you as the gift in the amazing and great love of God.
Because of the great love of our Father God, He sent and thoroughly sacrificed His one and only Son Jesus for sinners who were doomed to death, and then He sent our Helper the Holy Spirit to us.
Many children of God lose the emotions of the first love and grace even though they have received the grace of the redemption and the gift of the Holy Spirit in the amazing love of God.
They begin to seek and love the world again, so they cannot overcome the desires of temptations and commit various sins.
When they fail to live by the word of God and sin, the Holy Spirit dwelling within them intercedes for them with the groaning words that cannot be expressed.
When the Holy Spirit groans for them, the children of God feel troubled in their hearts.
And they regret that they have not lived by the word of God nor have sinned again abandoning His grace.
What if they realize their wrongdoings?
They may feel so sorry and oppressed that they do not have the confidence of repenting of their sins and turning from them. Finally they shrink back in spirit.
In this situation the Holy Spirit earnestly prays for them that they may receive the grace of our Father God again.
Romans 8:26-27 say, "In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
Holy Spirit does not want to lose a single soul, so He always prays to the Father God that He may let them come alive again in the spirits of those who are like a smoldering wick.
Holy Spirit asks the mercy and love and forgiveness of God for the souls who are in spiritual crises with far more groaning and petition than the souls themselves.
And He pours out the spirit of repentance onto the souls and helps them repent of their sins and dwell in the love of God again.
How then does Holy Spirit give strength and power to the children of God?
God's children are likely to suffer various trials whether they want to or not. If they are sure of God's love in any circumstances, they can overcome all the trials.
The Holy Spirit dwelling in your hearts assures you of the love of God, and encourages you not to fall down but to rise up again no matter how painful and exhausted you are.
Let me give you an illustration for your better understanding. Suppose a father spanks his child to guide the child in growing properly. Then, the mother comforts the child and tries to explain in detail why the father spanked him.
"Father did not spank you because he hated you but because he loves you. If you repeat the same mistakes, you will fail to accomplish your dreams. Then, how disappointed will you be? Father thought about it and spanked you so that you could become clear-minded and continue to go the right way. Do not forget how much father loves you."
In the same way, Holy Spirit Himself let the children of God realize why they are suffering trials and helps them understand the love of God contained in those trails.
If you do not listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and ignore His works, then the Holy Spirit will be extinguished within you.
Then, Holy Spirit will give up speaking to you and finally disappear from you.
If Holy Spirit goes away from you, you will become the slave to the devil again. Then you will have nothing to do with salvation.
1 Thessalonians 5:19 warns you, "Do not quench the Spirit," and 2 Timothy 1:14 urges you to "Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you."
I wish for you to fully obey the guidance and voices of the Holy Spirit all the time.
Holy Spirit loves you more than you love yourself.
He wants you to live according to the word of God more than you do, and He tries to give you grace and strength at any cost.
May each of you cast off untruths hidden within you through the help and love of the Holy Spirit and completely walk in the light, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The third reason that God has sent the Holy Spirit is because He wishes to confirm with the power of the Holy Spirit that the power of God can break the fleshly thoughts that cannot be destroyed by human ability.
In Acts 1:8 Jesus said, "but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
This Verse means that you can become a true witness to the Lord only when you receive the power of the Holy Spirit.
Why is it? The enemy devil and Satan are the rulers of the world. They have moved the fleshly people and led them to raise many theories and vast knowledge.
With those theories and arguments they have restricted the people from believing in God and also caused them to oppose God. Evolutionary Darwinism is a big example of this.
The world abounds with mistaken knowledge and faulty theories, so if you preach the gospel just with your lips, quite a few will accept the gospel.
For many though, the gospel cannot enter their hearts because their fleshly thoughts and frameworks of their thoughts strongly wrap their hearts.
Therefore, you have to first demolish the fleshly thoughts to plant true faith into their hearts as a true witness to the Lord.
If you show them what is impossible with human thoughts, methods and abilities by the power of the Holy Spirit and let them experience those works of the Holy Spirit, their fleshly thoughts will be broken and they believe in the invisible God. And they will believe in the authenticity of the Bible.
This is made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul confessed in Romans 15:18-19, "For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit."
And he emphasized in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, "for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."
The power of the Holy Spirit cannot be manifested by everyone.
The miraculous signs and wonders manifested by the power of the Holy Spirit transcend the justice of the second heaven where the enemy devil and Satan rule over as well as that of the first heaven of this world.
In the spiritual realm the justice of the lower heaven is under the control of that of the higher heaven.
When you have accomplished the justice belonging to the third heaven and above, in other words, when you have become a man of spirit or whole spirit, the Holy Spirit can perform power through you.
That's why Holy Spirit continually helps the children of God realize and urges them to go into spirit and whole spirit.
He is not satisfied when you stand on the rock of faith, but encourages you to discover and throw away the slightest and most minute form of evil from within your heart.
When you become a proper vessel through that process, Holy Spirit gives you the power that can perform with the authority to control the enemy devil and Satan and the strength to make the impossible possible.
Signs and wonders performed by the power of the Holy Spirit assure us of the faith in the invisible God.
Jesus said in John 4:48, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe."
And He asked in the second half of Luke 18:8, "However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"
Sins and evils are more rampant in this end time of the world than in any other times, so even greater and more amazing works of the power of the Holy Spirit are essential because it is not easy for people to possess true faith.
Our Father God of love has prepared the Most High Power of Creation as well as the power of the Holy Spirit in order to harvest as many fruits at the time of the completion of human cultivation.
That is because God has wanted to let people believe that God is alive and Jesus is our only Savior and reach salvation by showing undeniable signs and wonders through the most high power of creation.
God has been accomplishing His providence for the last days through the fiery works of the Holy Spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
On the commemoration of this Whit Sunday I have explained about the reasons that God has given the gift of the Holy Spirit to the children of God who have accepted Jesus Christ.
The first reason is because God loves His children and the second reason is because He wishes to strengthen and encourage His children to live according to the word of God.
The last and third reason is because God wants to confirm that the power of the Holy Spirit can demolish the fleshly thoughts and the frameworks of thoughts that cannot be broken with human abilities.
By the power of the Holy Spirit you can believe in the invisible God and by the help of our Helper Holy Spirit you can change into spirit and whole spirit.
The ultimate reason that God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit is to let us come forth as His true children.
The true children of God take after the heart and strength of our Father God.
Therefore, may you accomplish sanctification with help and strength of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you as soon as possible, may you be used as a proper tool of the Holy Spirit in the last days and may you magnify the name of our Father God greatly in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray! |
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