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 Sermon > Sunday Evening Service |
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Title |
Treasure of Treasures is Faith(2) - Treasure of Treasures is Faith (2) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Hebrews 11: 1 |
Date |
2012-07-22 |
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Passage
[Hebrews 11: 1]
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Brothers and sisters; between people, if they can understand each other without having to explain all the details, it must be a very close relationship.
If you can ask somebody to do you a favor without having to explain the reason why, and if he can just do it for you, it must be a really precious relationship.
God was so pleased with the complete obedience of Abraham and was moved by him.
God called Abraham the friend of God, and fulfilled all His promises given to Abraham.
The 30 years of history of Manmin was also that history of obedience and trust.
God says 'go', then we go, and God says 'stop', and we stop.
He tells us to help the needy and do missionary works and we just do them.
Even though we didn't have enough money, we trained pastors as He urged my heart.
I proclaimed the spiritual realm knowing there would be persecutions from others.
I never thought like, "Father, I want to obey, but how can I help others while I don't have money?"
"How can I pay for all the missionary works and expand the sanctuary?"
"We don't have any qualified technicians or anybody to help us, and how can we run a broadcasting station?"
"It's a little difficult now, so I will do it when we have enough money."
"Father, if I preach such spiritual things, there would certainly be persecutions. Those with weak faith will stumble."
I just obeyed the will of God unconditionally and immediately, and God took all the responsibilities.
I hope you will also possess such spiritual faith to obey completely.
Thirdly, spiritual faith is unchanging faith.
Mark 11:24 says, "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you."
James 1:6-7 also 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."
In any hardship, or even if a long time passes, spiritual love never changes.
You'd never sway thinking like, "Is it really going to be achieved? Probably it's not working since there is no answer for such a long time. I prayed for blessings but only trials come upon my way. Was it really the urging of the Holy Spirit and not my thought?"
In Genesis, Joseph the son of Jacob had very mysterious dreams when he was a child.
Once the sheaves of his brothers bowed down to his sheaf and at another time the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed before him.
Joseph believed that they were dreams of blessings that God would make him a noble person.
But the things in reality after this were not glory but unspeakable trials.
He was almost killed by his brothers due to their jealousy, but instead they sold him into slavery in Egypt.
He was recognized by the commander of Egypt whom he was serving and situations became better, but he was wrongfully accused and sent to a deep prison.
It was a prison for criminals of the king, and there was no way out ever.
But in this dire situation, Joseph always believed in God.
After a long time passed, God finally saved Joseph from the prison and let him stand before the Pharaoh.
A 17-year-old boy who was sold as a slave spent an unfortunate 13 years, but he became the second highest person of power in the mighty nation of Egypt.
And the dream that God gave him came true.
Joseph wouldn't have been able to achieve his dream unless he had spiritual faith.
Put yourself in his shoes. If you were sold as a slave into another country, or sent to a deep prison overnight, what kind of mindset would you have?
Furthermore, if there is no sign of your dream coming true for 1, 2, or even 10 years, most of you would fall into deep despair.
You might just give up thinking, "My life ends here. I thought the dream I had was given by God, but it was probably just meaningless."
But Joseph did not lose faith.
He sought the will of God in any situation and performed his duty faithfully.
The difficulties that Joseph went through were necessary steps to fulfill the will of God.
If God wanted to bless just Joseph alone, He could have let him avoid such hardships.
Joseph would have been able to enjoy the power as a leader of a tribe in his vicinity.
But the plan of God was to lay the foundation of the nation of Israel through Joseph.
To accomplish such a big plan, Joseph had to become one of the authorities in the strong nation of Egypt, and not just a leader of a tribe.
For this Joseph had to learn many things.
When he was managing the household of the commander of the royal guard, he learned how to manage a big household.
When he was in the prison for king's criminals, he met with many politicians and people who had knowledge in the nation's economy. He acquired the necessary knowledge and skills to rule over the whole nation of Egypt.
The 13 years of time looked like a time of hardship, but it was the fastest way to train Joseph to make him the prime minister of Egypt.
Above all, going through all those trials, Joseph came to have broader and cleaner heart, and greater faith to rely on God more humbly.
Brothers and sisters, the promises of God are certainly fulfilled.
But sometimes the time that God wants and the time that men want can be different.
When God says He would soon fulfill His promises, it can be fulfilled after several months or several years.
In men's eyes, it looks like it is delayed, but in the view of God, it is done at the most appropriate point in time.
When we believe God until the end without changing, He gives us more amazing fruits of blessings that we expect.
He makes what we have believed become reality.
We have believed without changing since the opening the providence of God given to this church.
We have prayed everyday to achieve our visions such as, 'a church that arises and shines' and 'a sanctuary that reveals the glory of God to the whole world'.
Our ways were not always easy.
Sometimes it was like thorny road, and at other times it was like we were standing at the edge of a cliff.
We were afflicted in every way, being unable to see just an inch ahead.
Once in 1991, we had a very difficult time because of the church council we belonged to.
As there were signs and wonders and rapid growth, other pastors were jealous of us.
And we did not follow the request of unrighteous people, and we were hated.
Eventually, through an illegitimate process, they dismissed my pastorship and one-sidedly expelled our church from the council.
Dismissing a pastor of his pastorship is same as death sentence for him.
But I only committed everything into God's hands giving thanks in prayers.
After some time, the plan of God in allowing for me this trial was revealed.
We came to establish a new denomination based on the Five-fold Holiness Gospel, and we became able to preach the holiness gospel without any restraints.
We were even more recognized by other church councils, and I began to speak in many overseas crusades and seminars.
The fruit of revival continued, and in 1993, we were selected as one of the top 50 churches in the world.
We were accelerating our ministries when we had another major trial in 1998 and 1999.
Some of the pastors and Levites became unable to hide their unrighteousness in the church any more, and they left the church in groups.
Meanwhile, they created false rumors to slander the church and deceive the members. They even spread such rumors to the church councils and the press of the world.
These things were carried out in detailed plan to destroy the church.
Seeing them doing such evil things, standing against God, and going the way of death, I was very shocked.
Many church members with weak faith stumbled, and the church also suffered a great financial loss.
Many other churches and the general public had misunderstandings about us.
But I just prayed that they would repent, and I spent so many days with tearful prayers for God to keep the church and the flock.
But even before this trial had begun, God let me know that it would come.
He said it was not disaster or hardship but blessing that was coming upon us at the speed of light.
Even though the church had such a difficult financial situation, and even though I lost all my energy and my legs were shaky, I firmly believed the word of God.
I confidently proclaimed blessings and glory every week in the sermons.
Now you know about the results.
My body had lost all energy and become so thin, but in January 1999, I suddenly had new muscles and I had such a healthy body.
Also, in Muan Manmin church in March 2000, a work of creation took place. The well that was giving out only salty sea water began to pump up fresh water.
From the Uganda crusade in 2000, the era of overseas mega size crusades began, and the explosives works of power began to be unfolded all over the world.
At the time of the early church, the persecutions on Christians in Jerusalem made Christianity spread all over the world.
Likewise, our trials became a turning point to spread the power of God all over the world.
We had mega size overseas crusades in Uganda, Japan, Pakistan, Kenya, Philippines, Honduras, India, Russia, Germany, Peru, DR Congo, and the United States.
Tens or hundreds of thousands of people, or even millions of people gathered to meet and experience the living God.
Numerous people were healed of incurable diseases including cancers and AIDS, and the disabled bodies were made whole.
Countless people who were healed at the crusades lined up to give their testimonies on the stage, and they threw away crutches, eye glasses, and hearing aids that they did not need anymore.
Many people did away with idols and converted.
There were many people who were healed through the broadcasting, too.
From 2007, as God commanded us at the opening of the church, we began to preach about Jesus Christ in Israel, the end of the earth.
Our ministry is not only about overseas crusades.
The WCDN, or World Christian Doctors' Network and MIS, and Manmin International Seminary were established to make our vision more concrete.
The broadcasting ministry opened wide through GCN, and more publications were carried out in many countries.
We were enabled to spread the holiness gospel and the works of God's power to all corners of the world.
Brothers and sisters, if the plan of God for us was just to spread the gospel all over the world and just build a big sanctuary, we would have already accomplished it by now.
But what God really wants is the fruit of human cultivation, which is born in through a process.
To build the Grand Sanctuary at the end time means that there is a sufficient number of God's true children.
It means God has fulfilled the purpose of cultivating human beings.
Our world evangelism is a kind of ministry that moves the freewill of people who are deeply stained by evil to provide them with a chance of salvation.
To fulfill such providence, God led us to prepare our vessel in precise plans, just as He made Joseph the prime minister of Egypt.
Especially, since 2010, you can feel that the rock of faith, and spirit and whole spirit are not just some vague concept anymore but something solid and tangible.
Our church manifests the explosive works of God's power communicating with God all the time.
We are conducting world evangelism in a completely different scale than people could imagine.
In addition, if we just have enough finance and enough workers of spirit and whole spirit, the ministries that we will conduct will reveal a totally different kind of glory of God than now.
You who have the faith like pure gold will be instruments to reveal that kind of glory.
Conclusion
Romans 5:4 says, "and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope."
In this past 30 years since the opening of the church, God has always been with us.
He has always blessed us and made us prosperous.
Of course, we sometimes had times of trials or times of waiting for blessings.
But after all those times passed, God always gave us greater fruits than what we had expected.
Since 2010, our church began to move through the 3rd stage of take-off.
God also answered me regarding the '100-fold' blessing that He promised me.
We are spending a time of endurance with this kind of hope.
Because God said He had already given us the blessing, I looked at everything and marched on with faith.
I gave thanks to God for already giving us the answer, and I showed my faith by offering to God a blessing festivity.
I had to pay the price of my faith, but I endured all those things with faith week after week.
All these times of endurance have become sowing in accordance with justice, and they have laid the basic ground works for even greater works of God.
God enabled us to unfold the spiritual space in this physical space without limitations so that the original power of God the Creator can be manifested in full scale.
On this 30th anniversary of church opening, God says we are having another opening of the church and new beginning of the ministry.
The glory of God has been revealed greatly thus far, but the works of God that will be manifested from this point on will be so much more glorious and it will be the turning point of the church.
Many church members were stained in sins and it seemed that it was difficult for them to even receive salvation, but they changed so quickly since this past 2010 and they are running towards spirit and whole spirit.
They will ride on the flow of changes that is even faster.
The church councils that have been filled with sins and departed from God will also rise together with our church through the works of the Holy Spirit.
Even today the holiness gospel and news about God's power are spread around the world, but they will be spread even more greatly and surely.
Haggai 2:9 says, "The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former."
Habakkuk 2:14 says, "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."
These prophecies that were made through the prophets much more than 2,000 years ago will be fulfilled through this church in this era.
I ask you all to be able to stand before God having faith like pure gold in this hope.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will all become noble and precious instruments of God.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has received and will receive glory in the future and forever, through Manmin Central Church. |
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