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 Sermon > Theme Words of Life |
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Title |
Spiritual Love(9) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
1 Corinthians13:4 |
Date |
2007-09-02 |
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1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This is the 9th session of the sermon series titled with "Spiritual Love." Today I will testify to spiritual kindness continuing the last session.
When someone sees a person whose heart is broad and meek, people say he has a heart as broad as an ocean.
Most of the water flowing on earth runs down through mountains hills and valleys in streams and rivers that enter the sea.
The sea receives not only the water flowing into it, but also everything that is included in the water.
Sometimes clean water enters the sea, but some other times the water joining the sea includes remains of a villages destroyed by floods or waste water pouring out of factories.
The sea still receives all these things and holds them calmly.
In addition, the water cleanses and purifies various dirty things.
Because the sea embraces everything and purifies it, people say the sea maintains the life of the earth.
If each of you accomplishes as broad and kind a heart as an ocean, you can embrace and guide to sanctification any soul who is filled with any kind of sins and darkness, so that more souls can be saved and put into the arms of the Lord when He comes again.
Through this message, I wish all of you will be filled with the grace and inspiration from the Father above and accomplish kind heart that is as broad and huge (great) as an ocean.
Therefore, as said in Matthew 5:5, "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth," may each of you inherit a huge land in the kingdom of heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
Body
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
In the last session I explained about kindness as one of the concepts of love.
With kind heart, you can embrace everyone and many people can rest in your heart.
In other words, such a heart is like fluffy cotton or the cooling shade of a tree.
You have to remember that the one who is so innocent and humble that he simply laughs in any circumstances is not spiritually kind.
When your heart has no evil at all but full of spiritual love, you can patiently wait and forgive the other no matter what kind of troubles he causes you. This is true kindness.
In more detailed explanation, I told you that spiritual kindness refers to the state of the mixture of inward kindness and outward virtue.
No matter how kind you may be inwardly, if you are not virtuous, your kindness cannot shine but instead the light of your kindness withers.
If you accomplish virtue, you can gain the hearts of many people and do greater works.
Between the inward kindness and outward virtues, I will explain to you what to do to accomplish inward kindness.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
In order to accomplish kindness, first of all, you have to get rid of evils from the heart and become sanctified.
I told you that a kind heart is like cotton. What is cotton like? Cotton is not solid but soft. It does not insist on its own shape. It is cozy and warm.
When a stone falls down onto cotton, the cotton does not make a sound but it comfortably embraces the stone.
In the same way, a kind person does not cry out whoever tries to quarrel against him but accepts and embraces him like cotton.
If you have a sharp heart of hatred, jealousy and envy or a solid hard heart that is like self-righteousness and unyielding self frameworks, it is difficult for you to embrace the other like cotton.
If a stone falls down onto the other solid stone or a metal, it makes noises and bounces off. In the same way, if your (fleshly) self is still alive, you make noise and cause troubles no matter how little discomfort the other causes.
Also you may complain, grumble or show ill feelings.
Towards the people who have some transgressions, defects and faults, you may not cover or understand them but judge, condemn, gossip against and slander them.
What is this mind like? This heart that is illustrated has too small a vessel to contain something. If you try to put something into a small vessel, it brims over like the heart of a narrow-minded person.
In order to possess this kind heart you have to cast off the attributes of a narrow-minded man.
When you have completely cast them off, you can embrace all kinds of souls.
Sanctification and having no evil in heart is the fundamental condition of kindness.
The reason is that when there is no evil you can cherish others in your heart and you can see them through goodness and love.
A man with a kind heart views others and waits for them with a heart of compassion and mercy.
If you have evils and lack love in heart, you may look at the others judgingly and condemningly.
Moreover, you repay evil with evil.
But our Father God is kinder than anyone else. Now what is His heart like?
Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.'"
This word was given Israel when the kingdom of Judea did not live by the word of God, committed serious sins, and was destroyed by Babylon and the people of Israel were taken away as captives.
It is the heart of our Father God that wants to give His children life, peace, and hope even though they live in sin.
He rules over everything with justice, but the original heart of our Father God is love.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Through the passages from Psalm 103:8-14, I wish for you to feel the heart and love of our Father God for His children, us human beings.
The Passages read as the following:
[8] The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
[9] He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.
[10] He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
[11] For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
[12] As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
[13] Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
[14] For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.
Our Father God loves us that much. Because He thinks that we wear the flesh that is formed from dust, He understands us deeply and patiently waits.
If you take off every kind of evils and become sanctified, you can understand the heart of our Father God and resemble His heart, and so look at everything with His sight.
Then, you will have no desire to judge and condemn others in the heart at all, but instead you will try to understand others and live in love and goodness and to follow the other's opinion.
Then, whoever comes forth with evils will receive warmth and comfort like cotton from you, so any cold heart will melt down.
Sanctification is more important to church leaders who teach many souls.
If the slightest evil including self-righteousness and self-frameworks remain, fleshly thoughts will follow and you fail to discern the conditions of the souls.
You will not be able to guide the souls to green pastures and still waters like our good Shepherd the Lord.
It is because you fail to discern the will of our Father God exactly. Instead you may lead the souls in the way of righteousness according to your own thoughts.
Only when you become completely sanctified and have no evil at all, can you be guided completely by the Holy Spirit, and in turn be able to guide the souls to the best way by precisely discerning their conditions 100 %.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The reason that you have to get rid of every form evil from the heart and become sanctified to accomplish hearts of kindness is because you can be considered really kind by our Father God only when you have no evil in your heart.
It is very important for your meekness to be recognized by our Father God.
When you are still not perfect, you may form the frameworks of truth with the messages preached thinking this and that are the standards of kindness.
Let me talk to you about the 12th chapter of Numbers.
This chapter helps you understand that the human standard of meekness is different from the divine standard.
In this chapter Moses' brother, Aaron, and his sister Miriam rebuked Moses because of his deeds had not been agreeable with their own thoughts.
Numbers 12:2 says, "They said, "Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?" And the LORD heard it."
Aaron and Miriam said that not only Moses, but they too received God's love so it was proper for them to rebuke Moses.
What did our God say to them after He heard them?
In the Verse 8, God got angry with Aaron and Miriam saying, "I speak to him face to face, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, Moses?"
Miriam was stricken with leprosy.
Aaron and Miriam thought that they had received love from God.
Aaron was appointed to prophesy for Moses by God Himself and Miriam was also called prophetess.
So, they had self-righteousness.
But since they had not accomplished complete sanctification and had evils in heart, their self-righteousness could be provoked and they committed a serious sin of judging Moses, a man of God.
God did not consider them as right.
Even though Moses looked wrong in human sight, Moses was not wrong in the sight of God who sees the heart of each individual.
That's why God did not accept Aaron and Miriam when they condemned and slandered what Moses had done.
What was Moses like?
Just as said in Numbers 12:3, "Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth, Moses was deemed gentler than everyone else on the face of the earth by God.
In addition, Moses was faithful in all God's house, so he was trusted and favored by God worthy to see the image of God and talk with God face to face.
Moses resembled God that much, and abounded in mercy and compassion, namely spiritual love.
So, when Miriam became accursed with leprosy for condemning Moses, he cried out to God and earnestly prayed that God might heal her.
If you meditate on the process in which the Israelites walked out of Egypt and marched toward the land of Canaan, you can understand why God vindicated Moses and you can feel the meekness of Moses.
After the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites continued disobeying the will of God and sinned.
When they met with small troubles, they complained against Moses. a man of God, which means that they grumbled against God.
God rescued them from the suffering of slavery in Egypt through Moses. But when the army of Egypt chased them, they said to Moses, "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?"
Meanwhile the Red Sea was parted into two through Moses' earnest prayer and the people crossed in safety and praised God after they found the Egyptians drowned to death.
But their thanksgiving was passing, and they frequently complained against Moses and grumbled against God for having no food and water.
They even tried to stone Moses.
No matter how many and great wonders and signs God showed, the people of Israel changed their mind and stood against Moses and Moses' love for them was not shaken at all.
Each time Moses accepted them with mercy and unfailing love and tried his best to lead all the people to the land of Canaan in prayers to God.
In the 32nd chapter of Exodus you can find how outstanding Moses' kindness was, and it tells you what true kindness is.
Moses climbed up Mt. Sinai to receive the Commandments of God, but when he was slow to return, the Israelites made an idol in the image of calf, worshiped it, ate and drank, and danced.
God told Moses that He would destroy them. In Exodus 32:32, Moses earnestly prayed for them, saying, "But now, if You will, forgive their sin and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!"
"Your book" here refers to the book in which the names of the saved children of God are recorded. The phrase "Blotting him from the book" tells you that Moses were ready to go to hell unless God forgave them.
Moses had a desire to save the people of Israel by substituting his life for them.
How touching it was to the heart of our Father God was when He accepted this prayer of Moses! This confession of Moses was absolutely truthful.
Moses' heart became like that of our Father God who never wants a single soul to fall into destruction, and he confessed it.
Can you feel this heart of Moses?
Or can you not understand his heart saying how he could dare to go to hell on behalf of the people who repeatedly committed sins?
Is there any of you who have been discouraged at heart? You don't have to be disappointed at all.
As a matter of fact, this Moses did not possess this gentle heart from the beginning.
Moses was a Hebrew, a descendant of Israel, but he was qualified in many aspects because he was brought up as a son of a princess of Egypt.
He had a precious position as a prince, stored much knowledge, and he enjoyed riches and honors. He lacked nothing physically.
So it follows that within him there was his self ( including self-righteousness and self-pride.
Because of this self-righteousness, one day he beat an Egyptian to death who was cruelly treating a Hebrew.
Because of this incident Moses escaped with nothing into the Desert of the Midian.
In Midian Moses came to live the life of a sheep herder keeping the flock with the help of a Midianite priest.
He was no longer a prince, nor did he have honor and wealth and he did not need great knowledge.
While he was living the life of the shepherd rather than a prince of Egypt, he felt and thought of the love of God and human life, and he lowered himself and became so humble.
God did not call Moses, the prince of Egypt as the leader of Israel, but Moses the shepherd, who had fully humbled himself until he was fully void of his fleshly self before God.
If his self-righteousness, self-pride and self-framework had remained within him, how could he have endured and led the people who slandered and stood against himself in the wilderness for 40 years?
Moses did not have his "self" in his heart, so even if he was recognized by God, he tried to humble himself before God all the time.
He was the leader for more than one million people but he did not boast of himself before them nor did he force them to do anything.
Because Moses became completely humble and had cast off the evils from the heart through trials, he could lead the Israelites, whose young men were more than 600,000, out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan.
The most important lesson in accomplishing the kind heart is that you have to humble yourself before God and cultivate the heart of goodness and love through trials given.
The humbler and emptier he became through trials the greater love of God came down upon him and the more he could resemble God.
The measure of kindness is different according to how humble you are in the sight of God.
Therefore, I wish none of you will think like Aaron and Miriam saying, "I've cultivated my heart into truth so much!" or feel satisfied saying, "I've been recognized by the people to this extent!"
So, may each of you throw off every form of evil, become completely sanctified and accomplish true kindness that is acceptable to God, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
I have told you that in order to accomplish spiritual kindness you must not only become sanctified by casting away every form of evil but also accomplish virtue.
Just as a man looks better when he wears nice clothes, your kindness will shine brighter lights according to the measure of your virtue.
Next time I will explain to you what to do in order to accomplish virtue.
Conclusion
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
As I have been walking the way of a servant of the Lord, I could fully sense the goodness of the heart of Moses.
I have always taught many people the word of truth and showed the works of power of God so that they could believe in the living God, hell and heaven. But when I saw some of them opposing the kingdom of God and committing the sins that lead to death, I felt the heart of Moses.
Since I was called as a servant of the Lord and founded this church, I have harbored an earnest desire to save more and more souls from paying the price of going to hell.
The reason that I have been able to guide as many souls is because of the amazing and indescribable love of God.
When I tried my best to live by the word of God out of love for God, He gave me the willing and burning heart to even lay down even my life for souls through true love and not through fear or by force.
I have lived for the souls rather than for me every moment with the determination of confessing "If I die, I die." As a result, God has led many souls to come forth as His precious children worthy to enter New Jerusalem.
Toward whom is His love directed? His love is for each of you.
What kind of child will you be before our Father God who embraces and loves us with a heart as broad and huge as an ocean?
I urge you to possess a broad heart that has no evil at all but full of goodness and love and to embrace all souls with this love.
May all of you lead as many souls to the path of salvation in the last days and sit closer to the throne of God as His true children, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray! |
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