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 Sermon > Theme Words of Life |
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Title |
Measure of Faith(24) - 5th Level of Faith(5) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Romans12:3,Numbers12:7 |
Date |
2006-06-11 |
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[Passage]
[Romans 12: 3] [Numbers 12: 7]
"For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith."
"Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household;"
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This is the 24th session on the Measure of Faith, and this is the fifth session on the fifth level of faith.
Until the last session, I explained two distinguishing characteristics of the fifth level of faith.
First, at fifth level of faith, you can obey God's will completely and you can give even your life.
The second is that you will accumulate a limitless amount of prayer and perform signs and wonders.
The third trait of the fifth level of faith is that you will be faithful in all God's house.
Before I explain about being faithful in all God's house, let us first learn about what faithfulness is.
Faithfulness in God's eyes is to do more than what is entrusted to you.
For example, when you hire somebody and pays the wage for him to do a certain work, and if that worker just does what he is supposed to do, we do not say he is faithful.
Of course, although they are paid, there are people who don't even do their job properly, so we can say person only did well.
But he just did as much as what he is paid for, so he cannot be commended for being faithful.
But although he is paid, if he does the work with all his time, money, and energy thinking from his heart he would work more than what he is supposed to do, we can say he is faithful.
Even in history, when the officials just did their job and duty, we cannot say they were really faithful workers.
One can be recognized to be faithful only when he does much more than what he is supposed to do, not caring about whether he is paid or not, or whether he is paid much or little.
For example, in case of Admiral Soonshin Lee, he didn't complain at all even when he was jailed although he protected the country with all his life.
He only worried about the future of the country. Even when he had to go to the battle after all his official titles were taken away, he fought without any complaint. Until he died in a fierce battle, his faithfulness and devotion did not change.
Even in this world, this kind of person can be considered to be faithful.
For us to be recognized as faithful men, we have to do much more than what we are entrusted to, so that we can benefit the kingdom of God.
Those who have come into the fourth level of faith can be considered to be spiritually faithful.
Those who have become sanctified and have entered into the fourth level of faith also bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit, so they bear the fruit of faithfulness, too.
But for this faithfulness to become the 'faithfulness in all God's house,' you have to go into the fifth level of faith and bear all the fruits of the Holy Spirit 100%.
For example, until faithfulness is born, you must sacrifice yourself and devote yourself for the benefit of others. But without spiritual love, you cannot sacrifice or devote yourself like this.
Also, if you lack the fruit of self-control, although you may be faithful in one aspect, you may not be as faithful to the same degree in other aspects.
If you don't have the proper fruit of 'peace,' even though you work for God faithfully, you may have some troubles with other people and in the process, and you may hurt the feelings of other people.
The faithfulness with peace that has been broken cannot be stored as full reward before God.
Therefore, you should be faithful spiritually and in order to be faithful in all God's house, you should remember you should not only have faithfulness but you must be bearing every fruit of the Holy Spirit fully.
But what exactly is to be faithful in all God's house? It is to fully perform your duty and to do much more than your job and the payment that you receive for it.
In your Christian life, you have many duties in the Lord.
You have to perform your duties faithfully, and you should not only work hard for one or two things, but you have to do the job with all your heart in every aspect. This is to be faithful in all God's house.
Some duties seem to be more important than others, and the work of some duties can be recognized by other people more easily than other duties.
But if you are in the whole spirit, you will consider any duty of God preciously, whether it seems to be big or small in men's eyes. So you will perform all duties with all your heart and mind and strength. But it is not easy to be faithful in all God's house like this.
If you have just three or four duties, you will try hard to be faithful in all things, but because you have so many duties and you are busy, you cannot care for some of the duties given.
For some work, it is very important and urgent, so you do it. But for some other work, it is not very urgent, so you neglect it.
Then, sometimes, you justify yourself thinking, "Men have limits, and how can I put in my heart and energy in everything?"
But if you are in the whole spirit, no matter how many duties you have, you can be faithful in all aspects and bear fruits.
It's because you resemble the heart of the Father who is perfect and you have the heart of the Christ.
The heart of God, who is spirit, has infinite space, and He can harbor and embrace anything and everything.
He harbors in His heart the entire history of mankind and the lives of countless people as if He is looking into His palm.
Of course, even though you are in the fifth level of faith, you are not same as God. But because you resemble the characteristics of God who is spirit, you can harbor so many souls and so many things in your heart.
Also, you have the love to sacrifice your life for the kingdom of God and for the souls entrusted to you.
You can bring down God's works by harboring the souls and praying for them passionately with love. Of course, harboring all works and putting in your heart and energy in the same way does not mean you have to spend exactly the same amount of time for each work and consider everything urgent.
Obviously there are more urgent matters and less urgent matters. Also, there are things on which you have to spend relatively more time.
But those who have the fruit of being faithful in all God's house do not consider any duty lightly, and do not treat any of the souls lightly.
Whether you spend more time or less time on some work, your attitude and heart itself will be faithful and trying the best in all aspects.
In my case, it's difficult to count how many titles I have.
I am trying to reduce the number of titles I have in church associations, but I already have many titles. Above all, I am a shepherd of tens of thousands of members of this church, and the president of the denomination that has more than 4,500 branch churches.
I cannot visit each home of so many members. Also, I barely have a chance to visit Korean branch churches, not to even mention all of the branch churches in other countries. But in my heart, I never ceased praying for all the souls before the Father.
In the case of the apostle Paul, as he was establishing many churches, he always harbored numerous souls in his heart and prayed to God for them.
Colossians 1:9 says, "Since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you."
1 Thessalonians 1:2 says, "We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers;"
Also, the Bible mentions the apostle Paul praying for all the believers, though he could not stay with all the members of each church.
As for me as well, from the moment I open my eyes in the morning till late night, even when I am doing something, my prayer for the duties given to me and for the souls do not ever cease.
Whether they are workers who stay close to me or members of far away branch churches, I pray for them and commit them into God's hands in the same way.
So, I can receive inspiration on what to say for each person and teach you from the pulpit, and when I have short personal meetings with you, God reminds me of the things to say to you to guide you spiritually.
At the time of Exodus, there were about 600,000 adult men, so we estimate the whole population was about 2 million.
Moses could not meet every single person and counsel them.
But Moses harbored all of the people in spirit and cared for them with the love that could sacrifice his life for them.
That's why God said Moses was faithful in all God's house.
It's same with you. To the extent that you go into spirit, you can harbor more things in spirit, so then, you can perform many duties.
For example, if 500 people are entrusted to you, you cannot visit all of them every week.
You will visit those more often who are weak in faith and have urgent problems. But for some other people, you visit them only once or twice a year.
Then, you may feel that you are not doing what you are supposed to do with regards to the people you cannot visit often.
But if you have a truly faithful heart, you will always harbor in your heart all of the flock entrusted to you in spirit, whether you see them often or not.
Even though you didn't see a particular soul for months, you still harbor him/her in your heart all the time, so God works for that person appropriately knowing your heart. So, when necessary, God moves your heart to pray with exceptional fervor for that person, or makes you visit that member.
Maybe He can let you meet that person as if by chance, so you can tell that person what is needed. Or He lets you take care of the souls entrusted to you in some other way. Though you meet that person just for a while and just once, the amount of harboring that person in your heart will come out as good fruit.
It's different from not visiting the souls because of your laziness and saying, "I am praying for him instead."
How earnest and concerned you will be when you try to do your duty with all your life and pray to God saying, "Father, please take care of the souls whom I cannot meet directly!"?
God receives the aroma of that heart and takes care of the souls Himself. It's not only about taking care of souls but also any God-given duty.
I am not saying you have to spend the same amount of time and same amount of effort in all your duties. The way of being faithful in all God's house is to harbor everything in spirit with all your heart, mind, and strength to bear fruits.
Some may say, "If you have so many duties, you won't be able to do all of them. So, wouldn't it be better to have only a couple of duties and be faithful to them, so you can be faithful in all God's house?"
But if your heart itself is faithful, you will always want to do more work for the kingdom of God and long for more duties. You will also be passionate about dying souls, so you will want more duties.
If you say you will do only a couple of things that you can do well, you are already far away from being faithful in all God's house.
You should remember one thing here. If you are faithful in all God's house, you will be faithful in your personal areas, bear fruits there, and give glory to God.
Let's say you are faithful in church but do not care for your family members, or you are known as an unfaithful person in your school or workplace. Then, when others look at you, can they say you are really a faithful worker?
In my case, since the opening of this church, I hardly had time to care for my family members. Knowing my children wanted to be with their father so much, I wasn't even able to take the time to sit together at the dinner table very often.
But although I was very busy, I did not forget about or neglected my family members. That is also a God-given duty for me as the head of a family. Also, my family members are my flock entrusted to me. So, I have always harbored them in my heart.
God received my heart and raised my children Himself. God always fulfilled the spiritual and material necessities of my family members.
When I met them once in a while and for a few short moments, God gave them grace to feel my love as a parent for them as my children and also my love as a shepherd to them as part of my flock.
If I have not cared for them only in my heart saying that I was busy with God's work. If I had not entrusted them to God and just neglected them, I would have been sorry, even before God.
It's not only about family members. It's all the same in schools, workplace, in anything and everywhere.
Those who are faithful already have faithful heart itself, so they are faithful not only in God's kingdom but also in any area.
But I am not saying you must be always the number one in your class or you must get the best results in your workplace. I am saying you should at least be recognized as a faithful person by other people.
Of course, when you have to prioritize things, God-given duties are more important and to save souls should come first.
But if you just do God's work faithfully but are not faithful in other works, it is more likely that you are not faithful in God's house with your heart but you are being faithful in flesh or you are working hard for God with momentary zeal.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to be faithful in all God's house is to do your duty with the perfect heart of the Father God in all aspects.
Therefore, only when you go into whole spirit and accomplish the heart of God the Father can you be faithful in all respects and be recognized to be faithful in all God's house.
But even though you are not in whole spirit yet, if you try to be faithful in all God's house, you can go into spirit and whole spirit more quickly.
Then, in what ways do you have to try? Most basically, you first have to struggle against sins to the point of bloodshed to become sanctified.
In the meantime, you have to try to broaden your heart when you do your duties, and try to perform each of the duties with all your heart, mind, effort, and strength.
Some people do not work hard in the duties that they don't want to do very much or that seem to be trivial to them. Also, some others say, "This is the limit of my ability," and perform the duties only as much as they want, within the limit of not having to try so much and sacrifice themselves.
In the view of the master, you wouldn't want to trust that person and you won't want to give any work to that person next time either.
You can trust and entrust big things to the person when he is faithful in small things.
He may not be so competent in doing the work. But if he asks for help from others and tries to learn how to do it well, trying his best with his true heart, you will be able to trust him although the result might not be very satisfactory in the beginning.
You can still entrust him with greater work thinking, "Although his ability is now somewhat lacking, he has the proper attitude."
It's the same with God. If you try your best with all your heart and sacrifice yourself in all the areas given to you, the almighty God will give you the strength to do your duties. Also, to the extent that you are faithful in God's kingdom, He rejoices with you and gives you grace and power.
You will realize the evil that you could not realize before and receive the strength to throw away that evil, so that you can go into spirit and whole spirit more quickly.
I hope you will not work as you are dealing with a man but with all your heart, wisdom, and mind, you will work as though you are serving God Himself.
By doing so, as said in Psalm 101:6, "My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me," I pray in the name of the Lord that you will walk in a blameless way and be recognized as faithful men, so that you will dwell with God forever.
[Amen] |
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