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 Sermon > Theme Words of Life |
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Title |
2013 Prayer Titles(3) - Light-shining Sanctuary |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Psalm 37: 6 |
Date |
2012-12-30 |
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Passage
[Psalm 37: 6]
"He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday."
This is the last Sunday of 2012.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has blessed us to with abundant blessings in this year.
Do you have any regrets when you look back on this past year?
Then, I hope you will offer up this worship service in spirit and truth and with all your heart.
You can begin with a new mind and new determination from now.
You can worship in spirit and truth every Sunday, and try all your best to practice the word of God that is preached on the altar.
Then, towards the end of the next year, you will feel rewarded realizing that you have made a significant progress in spirit.
You will also experience the hands of God who always protects you and give you richness spiritually and materially.
Now, I will talk about the third prayer title for the New Year, 'Light-shining Sanctuary'.
We have only two more days for the New Year to come.
On the first of January, seeing the sun rising, many people have hopes and expectations for the New Year.
But at this heartless end time, there is a light that can give a more beautiful hope than the best hope a person can have.
This light is the light that will shine in the Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary.
This light will shine through the thick darkness of the world and lead numerous souls to the Lord.
Also, it will engrave the hope of New Jerusalem in the hearts of those souls.
I pray in the name of the Lord that the 'Light-shining' sanctuaries will soon be completed through your prayers.
[Main] Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary will give out glorious lights as if it were the building itself.
Namely, many people will give glory to God seeing the grand size, the beauty that reminds people of the glory of Heaven, and all the sophisticated technology employed.
But what actually makes the Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary shine is the spiritual light.
God has given us the reading passage from Psalm 37:6 for this prayer title of 2013.
It says, "He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday."
God will shine the light of righteousness and justice by constructing these beautiful sanctuaries in this world which is full of sins and evil and where light is difficult to be found.
Let us talk about what this means in more detail.
Righteousness refers to practicing the word of God.
Justice refers to the character or nature of God who gives rewards and punishments fairly between good and evil.
Here, the standard to discern between good and evil is of course the 66 books of the Bible.
God is truly righteous.
He does not have any darkness such as lawlessness, unrighteousness, or falsehood.
Also, God governs the world in fairness and justice according to the laws and rules He established in the beginning.
During the course of human cultivation, He judges all people justly between good and evil and gives them rewards or punishments respectively.
But as the spiritual darkness thickens in the world, unrighteousness and lawlessness prevails, and many people say as follows:
"The evil people prevail and prosper, and is there really a God who judges according to justice? God does not exist."
They don't believe in Heaven and Hell either.
So, they say they don't have to live a good life.
They just seek short-term profits practicing unrighteousness and lawlessness without hesitation.
Also, they are confused as to what justice is and what truth is.
But the most regretful thing is that many people are distorting the way of salvation.
The power of the anti-Christ is spreading false statements such as, "There are many ways of salvation and many kinds of truth. Salvation can come through any kind of religion."
Also, they deceive the people with some sweet words like, "You don't have to worry about going to Hell anymore. You can just do what you think is right."
But such statements will never be true.
Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
Namely, nobody can go to Heaven without accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
Also, even if evil people seem to prevail on this earth, they will eventually fall into eternal death.
But those who faithfully believe in the Lord and practice goodness will receive blessings and rewards.
It is just as 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."
Nevertheless, many people do not believe in the only true God and the Savior Jesus Christ.
Also, many of those who call on the name of the Lord have lukewarm faith and commit sins that deprive of salvation, or sins leading to death.
The day of the Lord's return is drawing ever nearer, but they ignore the law and the order of God, and further, they distort the law of God and go towards destruction.
So, God planned the construction of Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary to once again proclaim His law and order to the world.
He will show to the world a church that receives salvation, blessings, and rewards by living by the word of God. Through this church, He will show to the world that He is still governing the world with His justice.
In this sense, Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary can be considered the most glorious fruits that a true church has borne according to the justice of God.
By the time the Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary are built, many people of the world will come to a realization.
They will realize that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ as written in the Bible, and God is the God of justice who repays us according to our deeds.
All nations of the world will realize this fact. They will come to dwell in the word of God, namely, within the boundary of salvation, and have the faith enough to receive heavenly rewards.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, now, how would the Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary shine the light of righteousness and justice?
Let us look into this in two aspects of 'church' and its 'members'.
First, the justice of God will shine the light by the fact that our church will have built a glorious sanctuary.
It will clearly reaffirm the truth that says, "You reap what you sow," and "Goodness eventually prevails."
Since its opening, our church has been living by the word and will of God.
For this reason, the power of darkness has tried to destroy our church continuously.
The enemy devil and Satan instigated not just the government and the general public, but also other churches to condemn our church and destroy us.
But every time we overcame evil with goodness.
We kept on marching in the walk of faith even in extreme hardships.
We helped the churches that were in greater need than we were, and we never became lazy in our missionary works.
We never placed aside the vision of constructing the Grand Sanctuary even for a moment, which is the vision given by God.
In every worship service and Daniel prayer meeting, we stored up earnest prayers before God.
Consequently, though we started only with 7,000 won, which was only about 7 US dollars then, we will build a sanctuary that will cost an astronomical figure.
This is actually something impossible.
It is in fact a miracle that can be made possible only by the power of God.
The almighty God will make this miracle happen based on the deeds of goodness and faith that our church has been storing up until now.
In doing so, God will reveal that we are a good church that truly loves God.
He will also reveal His justice that He pays back according to what we do and sow, and He returns the glory to us when we give glory to Him.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as the sanctuary is built, secondly, the righteousness and justice of God will shine the light through the fruit of light that is borne by each of you.
As Ephesians 5:30 says, "...we are members of His body," the believers are the members of the Lord, who is the head of the church.
Therefore, if the believers give out the light, the church, namely the sanctuary will also shine the light.
As the Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary are built, at first so many people will come when they hear about the church building and the fame of our church.
They will hear about the most magnificent and beautiful church, where pure and spiritually deep messages are preached, and where they can always meet the living God through His powerful works. So many people will come to us.
But more importantly, we need to allow for them to settle down and be rooted firmly in the soil of the truth.
When we fulfill each of our duties well, our church will be worthy of the title "Light-shining Sanctuary," namely a sanctuary that shines in the dark world.
For us to be able to do that, each of you must bear the fruit of Light.
Ephesians 5:9 says, "...the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth."
When they can feel goodness, righteousness, and truth from each of you, those who will come to this church will admit that we church members are as beautiful as the church building and are worthy to be the members of this famous church.
Also, seeing the church members living in peace and blessings given by God, they will realize that we are loved by God since we love Him.
If each of the church members shines the light this way, those who will come will trust the word of God and try to live by it.
Namely, they will be assured that they can be saved when they walk in the light, and they can also receive blessings and rewards to the extent that they circumcise their hearts and are faithful to the kingdom of God according to the rules of justice.
As they gain such faith in their hearts, they will cast away darkness and bear the fruit of light, too.
It is in this sense that the righteousness and justice of God will shine through the fruit of light that each of you will bear.
The light will shine on those souls who will come here too to the extent that you bear the fruit of light and shine the light of goodness, righteousness, and truth.
But even after entering the Canaan Sanctuary, if you still dwell in darkness and struggle against sins, you will not be able to shine the light through the darkness of those souls who will come later.
For example, you will witness to others that if they cast off the worldly things and love God, God will love them and they will become happy and receive blessings.
As your words are true, the listeners will also receive the grace and power to cut off the world quickly and dwell in the word.
But if this is not the case and what if the listeners should feel as follows towards you?
"He says we become happy if we live by the word of God, but he himself doesn't have any joy on his face." Then, your words will not have any authority and power for them.
Then, you cannot give any strength to the people when they try to believe the word of God and practice it.
Most of you have been fighting the good fight until now.
You have also been faithful to the point of shedding blood and even to the point of death in your struggles against sins.
Many of you have given over your bodies, hearts, and material things which are same as your life, and your talents. Some have even given over your children to God without sparing anything.
But how sad it would be if you lack the fruit of Light that is borne in your heart!
God wants to give to you abundantly according to what you did or even more than what you did, and He will be very sorry that He can't give you that much.
Therefore, whenever you pray for the construction of the sanctuary, please pray that all the church workers and members including yourselves will abundantly and quickly bear the fruit of light.
Brothers and sisters, as you bear the fruit of light in your inner being, you should also have the appearances that are worthy of the children of light.
In doing so, you and this church will be able to shine a brighter light.
Namely, you can save and change more souls if you rid yourselves of deficiencies of the body and have dignity and also good skills and professionalism in various aspects.
For example, there was a great flood at the time of Noah.
At that time, those animals that breathed with their lungs on this earth went into the ark built by Noah and their lives were saved.
And such an amazing work will be accomplished through the Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary.
Namely, so many souls will come and receive salvation transcending all races, ages, gender, education, and social status.
At the time of the flood, when many waters covered the Earth, Noah and his family fed and took care of so many animals in the ark.
The way Noah's family did, you are the ones who should take care of the souls and feed them with the word of God according to their circumstances.
So, if you have the skills and expertise in various aspects along with your spiritual abilities, you will be able to perform such duties even better.
For example, if you have well organized knowledge of the word of God, proper manners and leadership, and foreign language skills, you will be able to bear much greater fruit.
Look forward to that day with the eyes of faith.
How many things would you have to prepare?
You believers should be very busy.
Especially the leaders of the church must certainly bear the fruit of light both inside and outside.
It's because, to the same extent that you bear the fruit of light, all the processes in the construction of the sanctuary will be prosperous.
The construction of the sanctuary will be done within the boundary of the law of the world, with the cooperation of the worldly people.
Of course, God will sometimes perform miracles that are beyond common knowledge of men when He does His work.
But basically, God does not violate the laws, systems and order of this earth to do His work.
Therefore, it is very important that the workers proceed with the works following the right way and having peace in all respects.
When you do that, the darkness cannot accuse us of anything.
We will also have a trust relationship with the unbelievers of the world.
Just remember when people first built the Temple of God on this Earth.
Everything was done according to the justice of God.
In the case of David, he wanted to build the Temple very much, but God wouldn't let him.
1 Chronicles 28:3 says, "But God said to me, 'You shall not build a house for My name because you are a man of war and have shed blood.'"
Wars were inevitable for kings.
Nevertheless, God wanted to have a perfect and holy Temple, and so He entrusted the work of constructing the Temple to David's son, Solomon.
David followed the will of God.
He did not insist on wanting to build the Temple for God in his time.
Instead, he continued to prepare for the construction of the Temple with all his strength.
He did not want to do it the easy way, and he did everything uprightly and faithfully.
When he acted this way, his earnestness and truthfulness of his desire to build the Temple was offered up to God.
It was delivered even to Hiram, the King of the neighboring country, Tyre.
King Hiram unsparingly supported the construction of the Temple as well as the construction of the Palace of David.
He sent good wood, namely cedar trees, masons and carpenters, and craftsman of bronze.
This is a result that David had earned the trust of Hiram.
Solomon, following after the example of his father David, had good terms with Hiram.
He also brought the things necessary for the construction by fair trade.
In regard to the construction of the sanctuary, God the Father will accomplish all things according to His justice, as illustrated in the above example.
Of course, in fulfilling works of God, some things will be done transcending the human thoughts and laws of this earth.
In these cases, we can just wait for the answer of God, fulfilling the measure of justice as God guides us.
At these times, the workers can receive clearer guidance of God to the extent that they have borne the fruit of light in their heart, as to when they should do what kinds of things.
Also, we will have to continue to pray for practical things of the construction such as the financing, administrative and legal procedures, designing and actual construction, and peace with the residents near the complex.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, what kind of place is a sanctuary?
It is a holy place where God dwells.
It is a place where God's word is preached, and it is a house where all peoples pray.
It is also a place where believers give praise and worship to the Lord, while waiting for Him who will come again.
But in the history, the temple and churches had been corrupted by idolatry and greed many times.
Even today, the meaning of the temple has been degraded, as the worldly culture has been brought in and the believers compromise with the world.
The Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary will be the sanctuaries where the believers break the bread of God's word, pray to and communicate with God, and offer up praises waiting for the Lord as children of light.
When such a sanctuary is completed, the true meaning of the Temple, which has been degraded for thousands of years, will be recovered.
Through this work, the righteousness and justice of God will shine the light brilliantly.
This true meaning of the Temple will be recovered completely to the extent that you who will stay in the sanctuary bear the fruit of light more perfectly.
As we bear the fruit of light, the sanctuary we build will become a beautiful jewel that is offered up to God, and it will become the true light that saves so many dying souls in the dark world.
We will build the sanctuaries that will give out the light of righteousness and justice of God, and this light is the signal and calling of God's love sent out for the souls of this earth.
I pray in the name of the Lord that all of you will abundantly bear the fruit of light and shine the sanctuary more brightly. |
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