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 Sermon > Theme Words of Life |
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Title |
2015 Prayer Title(2) - Fruit |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1 Thessalonians 5:23 |
Date |
2014-12-28 |
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[Passage]
[1 Thessalonians 5:23]
"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
[Introduction] Dear brothers and sisters, members of over 10,000 branch churches in Korea and all over the world, local sanctuary members, those who are attending the service on the Internet worldwide, GCN viewing audiences, [children of Sunday school],
Today is the last Sunday of 2014. Looking back at the news in the past year, we had more of the pitiful and agonizing news than happy and joyous news. People of the world become worried as they hear such bad news. Upon hearing news about disasters and accidents, they worry that they might also face such problems. If they hear about a pandemic, they worry they might get the disease. If they hear about recession they worry about making a living.
But no matter how problematic this world is, you are confident and peaceful for you walk in the Light. As said in Psalm 23:1, "The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want," God the Father is always with you. Sometimes you might face trials, but you can still rejoice and give thanks. It's because you know that it is the love of the Father who causes all things to work together for good.
If you have been riding on the flow of spirit diligently, I am sure you have happy memories rather than memories of difficulty in this past year. Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has kept and blessed us in 2014 and who will give us greater blessings in the New Year.
[Main] Dear brothers and sisters,
Through the prayer titles that God gives to us every year, we can understand the flow of the new year. As you remember these prayer titles in your prayers, you can also participate in the flow of blessing given to this church by God.
In this message, I will talk about the second prayer title, "Fruit." What kinds of fruit do we have to pray for? There should be fruits of personal prayers and also blessing for the whole church. But the more important of these are for yourself. Today's reading passage 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The fruit that God desires the most is that we sanctify our spirit, soul, and body and preserve them complete and blameless until the Lord comes back. The reason why God has been cultivating human beings with incalculable patience is to gain true children.
For this to happen, there had to be sacrifice. The only begotten Son of God, Jesus, had to take the cross to open the way for redemption and salvation of sinners. Also, the Holy Spirit has also been interceding with groanings too deep for words.
But as sin and evil increasingly prevail in this world towards the end, people try not to remember the sacrifice of the cross. Even when the Holy Spirit anxiously teaches them the truth, they don't want to listen. It's because their consciences are stained by sins, and the temptation of the world is so strong.
But since God knows everything, He established a church that shows His power at this end time. He wanted to save all peoples of the world through the fiery works of the Holy Spirit manifested in this church. Also, He wanted to gain true children who have cultivated sincere hearts and perfect faith, and not just those who are barely saved.
Just as there had to be the sacrifice of Jesus for the providence of saving sinners, there had to be sacrifice to fulfill the providence of the end time, too. For this reason God established me as the shepherd and let me spend 33 long years with tears. He made me dedicate myself completely following the footsteps of Jesus who sacrificed Himself completely to fulfill the will of God. He let me live with prayers, all-night prayers and fasting. Through those, God let me know about the spiritual realm clearly, and He explained to me how to become sanctified in detail. He let me perform powerful works in the name of Jesus Christ to testify to the living God.
But even though I showed such power, the fruit of spirit did not come forth easily. But rather, just like un-ripened fruits fall, some of the souls went back to the world even after experiencing the power of God. As a result, on December 25, 2010 there had to be a time of forgiveness. For several years since that time, I have spent time filling up the measure of special justice. I prayed that even the sins leading to death would be forgiven, and furthermore, those souls would not just be saved but come forth as fruits of rock and spirit.
If we say the measure of justice you have to fill up to go into spirit is 100, I have been filling up 90 for you. As I spent many days with indescribable mourning, the fruit of spirit began to be borne one by one. Finally, in March 2014, we achieved 'standardization of spirit'. You were just thankful that you were saved, but now there are many fruits of the rock and spirit, so it is such an emotional thing just in itself.
But the Father is not satisfied with this. Being of 'Spirit' is a clean vessel that has cast off evil, but it is not perfect fruit. What the Father really wants is the fruit of whole spirit that has completely filled up the contents of spirit in this clean vessel. Even though you are in spirit, now you have to try even harder than before to go into deeper levels of spirit and to go into whole spirit.
Just as you tried to realize yourself to come into spirit, now you have to try even harder for you to go into whole spirit. You must never think even for a moment, "I have tried hard to come into spirit, so let me rest just for a while." Or, "I have done enough, and I want to take it easy now." When you realize your deficiencies and shortages, you should not just cover them thinking, "It is not a sin. I am still in spirit."
Even after the 'standardization of spirit' was achieved, the weight of the justice I had to carry was not lessened at all. It's because I did not let go of those members who are not on the rock and who are not in spirit yet. On top of that, there was additional burden of justice to lead you from spirit to whole spirit. It is not something easy to achieve whole spirit. There are few who can go into spirit by passing the kind of trials given to Job, and for anyone to go into whole spirit by passing the kind of trials given to Elijah, Moses, and the apostle Paul, they really have to let themselves die completely.
Just as I filled up the 90% of the measure for you to go into spirit, God let me carry 90% of the burden to let you go into whole spirit, too. And additionally, there are people who find it difficult to fill the 10%, and I had to fill up 9 out of that 10 percent as well. And I carried all the burdens willingly.
Even though I lost all energy and I didn't even have the strength to sit, even though I had to scratch day and night, I just wanted everyone to come into whole spirit – even if that meant I had to fill up all 100% of the measure. But because that is not in accordance with justice, you can go into whole spirit when you fill up the minimum measure.
Dear brothers and sisters,
In 2014, many of you came into spirit riding on the flow of the 'standardization of spirit'. In 2015, there will be rapid flow of whole spirit for you men of spirit to fill up your deficiencies and shortages. Philippians 3:13-14 says, "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Now you have to be of sober spirit, on the alert, and run towards the goal. By the way, does the flow of whole spirit only apply to those who are in spirit already? Of course not! If the flow of whole spirit gets faster, the flow of attaining the rock and entering into the spirit will become even faster. You should all ride on that flow and quickly go into spirit and whole spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Now, what do you have to do specifically to participate in this flow and become a complete fruit? You have heard so many methodologies until now. You have to learn the Word of God, and you have to pray fervently with fasting. Spiritual faith and hope of heaven is important, too. You have to love the Father and the Lord and also trust and love the shepherd.
But what you need the most right now is that there must be your actual deeds to change yourself. For you to cast off sins and evil and go into spirit, and for you to fill up your deficiencies and shortages and go into whole spirit, you have to obey the truth in action. You should not just pray that you may go into spirit and you may fill up the deficiencies and shortages and go into whole spirit.
Then, what do you have to do?
First, you should long to realize your imperfections.
For example, how much of a longing heart do you have when you listen to sermons? If you are not in spirit, your basic attitude for listening to messages should be like, "Do I still have lust? Do I have anger, greed, hatred, envy, jealousy, judging and condemning, changing mind, and falsehood? Do I have love for the world?"
It's the same for those who are in spirit already. You should check your mind and thoughts, words and deeds more carefully thinking, "I should have acted with more of goodness and love. I should have acted in more of perfection. Why couldn't I?"
If you say you are blessed by the message, it means you realized your shortcomings. If you have realized your shortcomings, now, what do you have to do? You have to cast away the sins and evil you realized, and you have to fill up goodness and love.
James 1:23-25 says, "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does."
If you only realize and do not act, it is of no use. If you see in a mirror a smudge on your face and do not wash it off, or if you see one of your eyebrows is off compared to the other while you are putting on make- up, but just leave it, there will be no difference.
Some people feel blessed by the messages, but they do not have substantial acts and deeds. So, they cannot grow up in faith. You feel that the message was intended for you personally and you realized many things, and you even pray with tears and fasting.
You realized yourself and prayed about it, but after the prayer you just live just the way you have been living. If you don't like something, you just pass judgment and condemnation and show your evil. You still hate, get irritated, and break peace. You cannot be generous, and you cannot seek others' benefits. And yet, you say you long for holiness because you are praying to change yourself and you are even fasting.
You haven't even cultivated the words of truth yet, but you think you know about them and slip into idle thoughts and drowsiness. I hope you will first look back on yourself as to how earnest you are to realize your shortcomings. Also, I hope you will check yourself as to how many are the deeds and how much truthfulness you showed when you realized your shortcomings. You cannot change yourself just with human effort alone, but God cannot make you holy just by your prayers that are not accompanied by substantial effort. If you have fasted and prayed, you have to make up your mind firmly and show it in real actions. This is how you can ride on the flow of whole spirit well.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters,
You hear almost every week that you have to go into spirit and whole spirit. Now, is there anybody who thinks as follows: "How can a person like me go into spirit?" Or "I am satisfied with the rock of faith." "I am satisfied with being saved"? If you think with fleshly thoughts they may sound humble, but in spiritual sense, they are not words of goodness at all. It is not to be humble, but it is actually to disown the grace of God.
When Esau, Jacob's elder brother, sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew, God said he was godless. If you do not long for spiritual things but consider them lightly, God feels disappointed.
Jesus did not take the cross and suffer great pains just to give us salvation casually. If you know the earnest heart of the Father God who has been cultivating human beings with so many tears for such a long time, you cannot just say, "I will just do this much and be comfortable with it."
If you can just stay with me for a couple of days to witness what I am going through every day to lead you to New Jerusalem, none of you will say, "I cannot do it any longer." Or "How can a person like me do it? I want to give it up."
For the last four years, I actually faced death every moment of every day. I don't know how much I called on the Father and the Lord so earnestly again and again so that I could overcome those moments. But I have been enduring because it was the way to bear the fruits the Father wanted.
I once told you that I wanted to be rewarded. The Father will reward me for all those times of endurance and for all the tears that I shed. 1 Thessalonians 2:19 says, "For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?" Seeing you souls having gone into spirit and whole spirit and standing before the throne of the Father, the Lord will be rewarded for His sufferings of the cross, and I will be rewarded for all my tears.
The Father will also have accomplished the purpose of human cultivation and proclaim complete victory. I hope that all the pastors, Levites, elders, senior deaconesses, grown adults, young adults, students, and children, and all dear members around the world will come forth as such fruit. I hope that you will not forget the tears that the Father shed during the countless days of cultivation, the water and blood of Jesus on the cross, and His earnest hope contained in that blood. In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will surely be borne as complete fruits of spirit. |
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