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 Sermon > Sunday Evening Service |
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Title |
The Heart of Thanksgiving - 2016 Feast of Harvest |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Psalm 7:17 |
Date |
2016-07-03 |
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Scripture
Psalm 7:17
I will give thanks to the LORD according to His righteousness And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The title of this message is "The Heart of Thanksgiving."
Psalm 7:17 says, "I will give thanks to the LORD according to His righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High." Father God of love always wants to give good things to His children. As we walk in the light and stay in His grace and love, we can live a life of unceasing thanks and praise.
On this Feast of Harvest, we will examine 3 three reasons for thanksgiving. I hope that as I explain each reason you can give thicker aroma of thanks to God the Father. I pray in the name of the Lord that God may delight in the aroma of your heart and give more grace and blessing to your soul, family, work and business.
Dear brothers and sisters.
The 1st reason of our thanksgiving is that God helps us to find the meaning of our lives.
Today, many people in the world don't know the true meaning of their lives and pursue meaningless things. And, even those who go to church live lives which are not much different from that of worldly people except they attend Sunday Services. They put their value a good house, a good car, good clothes, good food, honor, fame, knowledge, and so on; they have the goal of enjoying such things a little bit more. If they find they don't enjoy life as much as others do, they think they fail in their lives and they feel miserable and disheartened.
Some enjoy great wealth and honor but they still feel lonely with a sense of emptiness in their heart. They then seek after the lusts of the world all the more. Some of them say, "It will be over once I die," and commit suicide resulting from the feeling of futility of life. They are like a ship just drifting in the vast ocean with a broken compass. But those of you who've heard the gospel of holiness are not like them. How thankful we should be for understanding the purpose and meaning of life, why we were born and how we should live!
Now, why do you live your life?
The life given to us on this earth is the time for us to recover the image of God in order to come before the throne of God the Father in New Jerusalem. Until our Lord soon comes to take us back, we are to prepare for our eternal lives in Heaven. According to all we do on this earth such as our worship, prayer, and faithful work, God will render His reward to us.
Therefore whenever we eat and drink, or whatever we do, we do it for the glory of God. When we live with this hope, how joyful and happy can we be every day? We become full of joy whenever we think of the grace of salvation. To the extent we cast off sin and change, in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we become happy.
As we come into spirit and whole spirit, we live our lives in the rushing stream of joy. And we will eventually live in Heaven with glory and happiness. I hope that you can sing even stronger praise of thanks to God the Father who gives you this joy.
Dear brothers and sisters.
The 2nd reason of thanksgiving is that God the Father blesses us to live a healthy life.
Our Father God wants to give us only the good things both in spiritually and physically. He doesn't say, "Since you have the grace of salvation and hope for heaven, for it you ought to live a life of suffering on the earth." Just as 3 John 1:2 says, "Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers," the Father wants us to prosper and be in good health. We are constantly told how our happiness is in the way of our soul and spirit prospering.
Exodus 15:26 says, "And He said, "If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer.""
Those who act in righteousness in the sight of God, that is, those who live in the truth and recover the image of Father God everyday will not lose the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Since God surrounds those who live a life of spiritual faith with spiritual light, diseases cannot sneak into them. Even existing diseases and germs will be burnt.
Many people who were once weak, who tired easily, who slacked off in church attendance and faithfulness to their duties and service, they soon became healthy and testified. Since they became healthy, they can be more faithful to their duty and possess greater hope for Heaven.
Even when you get sick, you already know what you should do. That is, you look back on yourself, repent, and break down the wall of sin. If you have nothing to repent, you can then give thanks more and rejoice more. When you show your faith that can please Father God, God the Almighty and the Healer will take care of you and heal you no matter how serious your disease or infirmity is.
Moreover, this church has the power that you cannot find anywhere else, it is easier here to meet God and experience Him. As you meet the living God and experience Him like this, your faith can grow up. It is the spiritual faith that grows up by which you can believe in and depend on God, not only for a matter of disease, but also for any problems of life. I urge you to give more thanks to God who can solve anything, not just diseases but the God who gives and wants you to receive only happiness.
Dear brothers and sisters.
The 3rd reason of thanksgiving is that Father God gives us the blessing of New Jerusalem.
The Lord said in Matthew 11:12, "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force." Once we accept the Lord and receive salvation, we must diligently take Heaven by force. From paradise to 1 Kingdom, to 2nd, to 3rd, and to New Jerusalem; we should diligently take it by force.
How do we do it? We should cast of sin not only in action but also in heart and thought. We should eventually pull out sinful attributes in the heart and accomplish sanctification. And, we should be faithful in all God's house.
Many people read the Bible, but they don't understand its spiritual meanings and they don't discern the will of God. They don't know what is it to 'take Heaven by force; they don't know of New Jerusalem. When the Bible mentions Paradise, the 3rd Heavenly Kingdom, or New Jerusalem, they consider them all the same Heaven; they just vaguely guess. Since they don't know the idea of pulling out sinful attributes and being sanctified, they cannot try to be sanctified.
What about you, thou? You know the different places of Heaven, and the heavenly life in each of them. You even know the details of how to get there. How high your spiritual level is! This alone can be your reason for thanksgiving.
Even though God taught us it all, there are still those who don't go the way. And so God the Father gave us greater grace. He let me fill up justice by 99%, and let those who are one with me in trust and love enter New Jerusalem by filling up justice by 1%.
God the Father sent you an invitation card to New Jerusalem, along with a map that shows you the way in detail. And for those who could not come, He now sends you a car to come to New Jerusalem. You don't need to walk or run; once you get in the car, you can easily go to New Jerusalem. Therefore, I urge you not to hesitate any more.
I hope that you can march on toward New Jerusalem all the more with joy and thanks.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
After this message, we will have Holy Communion.
In this Holy Communion, we remember the sacrifice of Jesus who gave up His flesh and blood for us. At the same time, we make sure that, as we received such love of the Lord, we will always eat His flesh and drink His blood. Our Lord said in John 6:53, "...unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves."
"To eat the flesh of the Son of Man" is "to learn and take in the Word of God." It is to cultivate the Word into spirit in the heart, and to turn the heart into truth. And, "to drink His blood" is "to show the deeds of obedience to the Word of God by faith as we learn it."
Brothers and sisters. Most of you should understand the spiritual meaning in this. The important thing is, however, not in how well you understand it, but it is in the extent to which you eat His flesh and drink His blood. How long you've been a Christian or what title or position you hold in the church are not what makes your spiritual faith grow, it is in how and how much you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man that you faith will grow.
Once you learn you should get rid of hatred, you should immediately make an effort to find it in your heart and get rid of it. The moment you have a feeling of 'I dislike him, or I hate him,' you should turn that thought and feeling into 'No, I don't dislike him. I don't hate him.' At the same time, you should put change into practice. When you come across someone you used to ignore, you should now actively greet him and shake hands with him. You do something that can please him, or you give him a gift. You don't do it just once or twice, but you do it until you can love him.
Moreover, you should pile up prayers to pull out the root of a sinful attribute, called 'hatred' from your heart. Then, the Holy Spirit can help you, and the grace and strength of God can be upon you. Your heart will be filled with love, and hatred will be cast off. The same applies to hot temper, adulterous mind, arrogance, and greed.
To 'eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood' is eventually how to come into spirit and whole spirit. When you eat bread and drink wine, please put the meaning of Holy Communion into your heart once again. May you completely enjoy all the blessings that God is giving you by diligently eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood, in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray. |
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