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 Sermon > Sunday Evening Service |
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Title |
Fleshly Faith and Spiritual Faith - Sunday School Students'' devotional service |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Mark 9:23 |
Date |
2011-09-25 |
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Passage
[Mark 9: 23]
And Jesus said to him, "'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes."
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This evening service is the devotional service for the Children's Sunday school.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God who has protected all you children and blessed you to have this devotional service.
I give thanks to all those who prepared for this service with all your hearts, minds, and souls.
Dear children of Sunday school, if you look at storybooks you may read about an amazing treasure that can give you anything you want.
You might begin to imagine about such treasure thinking it would be so good.
But in fact, we have much better treasure than that.
That treasure is faith.
If you have faith, even impossible things become possible just like in the storybooks.
Let's read the scripture passage Mark 9:23 together.
And Jesus said to him, "'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes."
Yes. To him who believes, all things are possible.
Do you Manmin's children also have this faith like a treasure?
You can go to Heaven if you have faith.
You can also receive answers to your prayers.
If you get hurt or become ill, you can be healed by God.
If you ask for wisdom like Solomon with your faith, you can excel in your studies.
The only thing is that you have to ask with true faith.
Just like there is counterfeit money and real money, there is genuine faith, which is spiritual faith, and faith that is not genuine, which is fleshly faith.
With counterfeit money you cannot buy anything.
Similarly, with fleshly faith you cannot receive answers.
I hope you will keep this message in your mind and have true, spiritual faith.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, with this faith, you will receive anything you ask, and above all, receive New Jerusalem as your answer.
[Main]
Children of Sunday school, mirrors show you your faces, don't they?
There are also mirrors that show you your heart.
Those mirrors are the Word of God.
Now, I hope you will use three aspects to reflect yourself upon this mirror of the Word.
Then, you can realize whether you have spiritual faith or fleshly faith.
If you find that you have fleshly faith, I hope you will change it into spiritual faith.
Dear children, first of all, please check whether you have frustration through the mirror of the Word.
Suppose you went to a mall with your parents and you saw a toy you like so much.
You asked your mom to buy it for you, and she says no.
In this situation, what kind of facial expressions do you show?
Also, what do you say?
I believe you wouldn't pout and complain saying, "Why not? I really want it!"
I believe Manmin's children won't ask for the impossible or say, "I hate you, mom!"
If you get angry and you feel like you hate your mom, it means you have black heart.
If you do not cast away such a heart but keep on getting angry and hating, you have fleshly faith.
How would a child who has spiritual faith act in this situation?
They would try to understand the heart of their mom thinking, "She must have a reason."
They would say, "OK, mom. Then maybe you can buy me a nice present on my birthday, I will study hard and pray hard until then."
Of course, you might have anger or hatred for a moment.
In this situation, those children who have spiritual faith will push away anger and hatred thinking, "I don't like the black heartedness. I like white heartedness."
If you keep on pushing such feelings away like that day by day and month by month, anger and hatred will soon disappear completely.
When the parents tell them to study or when the adults tell them not to run in the church, they would say 'OK' with a bright smile.
If a little brother asks them to let them use their toys they like or when their friends want some of their snacks, they would gladly share them.
The Lord loves this kind of child very much.
He will give them the best gift.
That gift is the beautiful house in New Jerusalem.
You can have everything you want to have in your house in New Jerusalem.
To such nice children, God gives them what they wish on this earth and gives them presents even before we get to Heaven.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will all become children who are loved by the Lord, who have spiritual faith.
Dear children of the Sunday school, secondly, reflect on your heart with the mirror of the Word when you become sick.
Most of Manmin's children do not get sick or get injured.
But suppose you fell down and hurt yourself while you were playing with your friends.
You had a big bruise.
It hurts so much, so you receive the prayer from your senior pastor.
You think, "Senior pastor has the great power of God, so it will be OK."
But it still hurts.
Now you begin to worry, "I received prayer from senior pastor, but it's not healed. What do I do now?"
You might also think like, "Should I ask my parents to give me medicine?"
What do you think, is this spiritual faith or fleshly faith?
This is fleshly faith.
Let us look at James 1:6-7.
It says, "But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord."
Then, those children who have faith, what would they think when they are sick?
In most cases they will be healed right after they receive prayer, but even if it does not occur right away, they don't become nervous.
They will still give thanks and rejoice thinking, "God the Father will certainly heal me. I should look for something to repent. God is making my heart prettier and whiter.
How can you do that even though you are sick?
You can give thanks even when you are not well because you feel the love of God.
When you are very ill, your parents might stay up all night taking care of you.
God the Father loves you much more than your parents love you.
If you are sick, He wants to heal you as soon as possible.
Those who have spiritual faith can believe in this love of God.
For this reason they can give thanks and rejoice.
And why is it that those children who have fleshly faith cannot really feel the love of God?
It's because they were not really obedient.
When the parents told them not to run in the church or to close their eyes and pray, they still ran in the church and they didn't pray.
When the parents told them to do the homework, they went outside to play.
So, even though God is telling them, "I love you," they doubt God thinking, "Will God still love me? Will He heal me?"
They cannot receive the spiritual faith given by God from above that they can be healed.
So, does that mean those children have to give up thinking like, "I was disobedient and I cannot be healed."? Of course not!
If you remember your wrongdoings and repent with your heart saying, "God please forgive me for my bad behavior," then God gives you spiritual faith. He will also heal you.
It is in this way that you have to repent thoroughly from the heart.
I believe you heard the testimony of Sun Kim in the Manmin magazine video.
Dear children, it is important to receive healing, but it is more important to love God and to be loved by God.
I pray in the name of the Lord that your spiritual faith will grow up quickly so that you will believe in God and love Him without changing your attitude in any situation.
Dear children of Manmin, thirdly, reflect upon yourself with the mirror of the Word concerning your thoughts about Hell.
In the summer Bible school or in the Daniel prayer meeting, I believe you've watched the play about Heedong's family.
I heard some children burst into tears because they were so afraid of Hell and the enemy devil and Satan.
Yes, Hell is certainly a very fearful place.
I believe many of you made up your mind not to watch worldly animated cartoons or sing worldly songs.
Do you still keep your resolutions?
You fear Hell so much, but what is the reason that some of you still enjoy worldly cartoons and computer games?
It's because they think about Hell with fleshly faith.
Even those who have fleshly faith know about Hell and they fear it.
They try to keep the word thinking, "I shouldn't watch TV and I shouldn't fight with my friends because I don't want to go to Hell."
But so many times they cannot keep the decisions they made.
They want to watch cartoons.
When they have trouble with their friends, they get into fights and quarrels. Why does this happen?
It's because in one corner of their mind they doubt the fact that there is Hell and Heaven.
On the contrary, those who have spiritual faith keep the Word of God out of their love for God rather than their fear of Hell.
Our Jesus received such cruel punishment on the cross.
It was to save us from Hell and to let us go to beautiful Heaven.
Those children who have spiritual faith think like, "Lord, you were hurting so much because of me. Thank You so much that you saved me from Hell. I will cast off the black heart." And they keep the word with their thanks for the grace of the Lord.
They feel very sorry before the Lord if they commit sins, so they try not to commit sins.
Also, they cast away black hearts because they want to go to Heaven so much.
Dear children, Our Lord who loves us so much is in Heaven.
But in Hell, there are fearful messengers of Hell, the lake of burning fire and burning sulfur.
So, where should we go?
We have to go to Heaven where the Lord is.
Imagine the bosom of the Lord beckoning you with His arms wide open.
How warm and comfortable it would be!
If you think of the love of the Lord, you can overcome the temptations of worldly cartoons or computer games.
I hope you will keep the word not because you fear Hell but because you love the Lord so much.
[Conclusion]
Dear children of the Sunday school, what is the difference between those children who have spiritual faith and those who have fleshly faith?
Those children who have spiritual faith keep the word out of their love for the Lord, but those children who have fleshly faith try to keep the word out of their fear of Hell.
Then, what do you have to do to feel the love of the Lord?
Think of the Lord everyday.
Also, make confessions of thanks often.
You can say things like, "Thank-you Lord for taking the cross for me." When you eat something, you can say, "Lord, thank-you for giving me delicious food."
When your teacher commends you, you can say, "Lord, thank-you for giving me wisdom and good heart so I was commended by my teacher."
Above all, pray earnestly everyday.
You can pray saying, "Lord, I love You. Help me cast off black heartedness and let me resemble You."
Then, you will increasingly feel more love of the Lord.
To that extent you can have spiritual faith.
You will love to attend worship services, praise God, and pray not because you fear Hell, but because you love the Lord so much and you are full of hope of Heaven.
You will be so happy when you study hard and have good terms with your friends.
As you change your fleshly faith into spiritual faith everyday, what will remain?
You will only have spiritual faith.
If you fill yourself with white heart that is full of love having spiritual faith, where will that lead you?
You will be led to New Jerusalem.
Dear children of Manmin, let us go to New Jerusalem with me!
[Advice for teachers/pastors]
I hope you guidance pastors and Sunday school teachers will help the children cast off hearts of untruth and to have spiritual faith.
What you have to remember here is that, when the children do not behave themselves, you must not scare them saying, "You will go to Hell if you do not cast off such behaviors and the black heart."
Experts on child psychology say if you show coercive words and actions in disciplining children, they first feel they are afraid, rather than that they did something wrong.
The only key to change the children is love.
If they feel that God loves them very much, they will gladly and willingly obey the word of God.
Therefore, I hope you will guide the children thinking of ways to let them feel the love of the Lord according to the measure of their faith.
I urge you in the name of the Lord to first feel the love of God deep in your heart so that you can fill up the hearts of the children with the love of God.
[Amen] |
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