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 Sermon > |
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Title |
Arise, Shine - Men''s mission Devotional Service |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Isaiah 60:1 |
Date |
2011-03-13 |
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[Passage]
[Isaiah 60:1]
"Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you."
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has blessed us to have 2011 Men's Mission Devotional Service. I also give thanks to all the devotees who have prepared for this service with all your hearts, minds, and souls.
Dear devotees, today's reading passage Isaiah 60:1 is a well-known verse for you.
"Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you."
This is a verse that God gave to our church right from the beginning.
The duty of our church is to arise in this ever-darkening world to reveal the glory of God and shine the light.
Our duty is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to numerous dying souls with the message of holiness and God's power.
Of course, since the opening of the church, we have been fulfilling this duty without resting.
But in this 3rd stage of take-off, we will shine the light to the whole world and reveal the glory of God in full scale.
The reason why I am delivering this message to you once again at this point is to let you know what you should do in the era of Canaan, when our church will arise and shine.
Since you are Men's Mission members who are like the pillars of the church, I am giving you some guidelines as to how you should prepare yourself, and what you should do to become strong buttress for this church that will fulfill world evangelism.
Through this message, I hope Manmin's Men's Mission will become a glorious instrument that will be used for God's providence.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will arise from darkness to shine the light and lead countless souls to salvation.
Main
For you to arise and shine, first of all, you have to arm yourself with the word.
Many of you read at least a chapter and memorize a verse of the Bible everyday.
Also, many of you listen to previous sermons or read the books diligently.
But just reading, memorizing, and listening to many messages does not necessarily mean arming yourself with the word.
Even though you understood the word and were touched by it, we cannot say you have armed yourself with the word.
Only when the word you heard fills you completely and it is completely yours can it be said that you are 'armed with the Word'.
When you have heard the word and had a realization about it, then your life has to change according to your realization.
Your heart, thoughts, and deeds have to change.
For example, suppose you heard about the Syrophoenician woman and were impressed.
You thought, "She made humble confession of faith no matter what Jesus said because she had the faith to receive the answer. Could I do the same if I were in her situation? How beautiful her heart is! I want to have this kind of heart. I shouldn't get offended or feel my pride is hurt by contempt, but make confession of goodness until the end."
You also pray earnestly for what you have realized.
You pray saying, "Let me accept any kind of advice or rebuke with humbleness, and let me seek with faith until the end."
But the next day, you have a meeting in the church, and somebody tells you something that hurts your feelings.
He says, "Why do you boast so much? You just like the things that reveal yourself and you brag about your accomplishments all the time. It doesn't look good."
Now, how good it would be if you could just remember the message about the Syrophoenician woman!
If the truth is cultivated in you, you will remember it and you can act in goodness.
However, it is too bad that if it is understood only as knowledge then all kinds of fleshly thoughts will surface.
You think like, "I tried to do my best because they were trying hard enough, and they judge me saying I am boastful? I just tried to plant faith in that person with my testimony and they say I brag about my accomplishments."
You have uncomfortable feelings with many kinds of thoughts.
But the Holy Spirit works at one corner of your mind, so you also think, "The Syrophoenician woman accepted words that were a lot more insulting!"
But you have stronger fleshly thoughts than this voice of the Holy Spirit.
You develop hard-feelings thinking, "The Syrophoenician woman humbled herself because it was before Jesus. I can agree and obey if senior pastor or spiritual persons tell me those things, but he is no better than me and how can he say those things to me? He is not a pastor or my superior, so how can he be so rude to me especially in the presence of many other people?"
The word of God is not cultivated in you as spirit, but it remains only as knowledge, so it cannot change your life.
If you have really armed yourself with the word, you won't have any discomfort.
When you receive advice of any kind, you can just think about how it applies to you and lf if you realize something you can change yourself.
It wouldn't matter even if the other person misunderstood your intention and your heart.
If you can just accept it with a smile, "I am sorry if it looked that way. I didn't mean something like that, but I will try to change myself more," then, how peaceful your mind would be!
If your heart is filled with the truth as above, to that same extent you will have authority over your words.
When you preach the gospel or counsel somebody, you can drive away darkness, and you can accomplish the kingdom of God more greatly.
When you can clearly hear the voice of the Holy Spirit you know exactly what kind of message to preach or when you give counsel to others you do it according to each individual.
I've emphasized the importance of spiritual armament with the word extensively.
But today, I especially ask you to develop the ability to teach others as well as spiritually arming yourself with the word.
You should not only keep the message you hear, but you should also be able to deliver it to others.
Even if you are impressed by a certain message, in many cases you cannot deliver the contents of that message properly to other people.
If you want to learn the word even to be able to teach others, you have to try harder.
During the era of Canaan, numerous souls will come to us.
When the time comes, you who came to have faith early should lead those souls.
I cannot take care of and lead countless souls to New Jerusalem all by myself.
There are pastors and leaders too, but they cannot do that job by themselves either.
Not just leaders in small groups, but also all lay members who believed first should do this ministry together.
In order to do this, you should at least be able to explain the core contents of the basic messages such as the Message of the Cross and Measure of Faith.
You should also be able to freely deliver messages about prayers and holiness, which are necessary for practical Christian lives.
Of course, as I already mentioned, it goes without saying that you diligently have to arm yourself with those messages spiritually.
I hope you will learn the word both spiritually and as your knowledge, too.
In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will be used preciously in this church that will arise and shine.
For you to arise and shine, secondly, you must have spiritual love.
Those who realize the love of God will naturally come to love God.
You also have received grace of God, so you say you love God, the Lord, the church and the shepherd.
That is why you lead this kind of faithful Christian life.
But if you truly love God, your love will definitely be revealed as deeds of loving your brothers as yourselves.
1 John 4:21 says, "And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also."
You long for New Jerusalem and you always pray longing and seeking holiness.
But even though you have faith and long for New Jerusalem, some of you do not love your brother.
You say something like, "I can accept everybody else but not this person. I don't like him."
Or, you say, "I don't hate him, but we don't really agree on anything, so I just ignore him."
You say you don't hate him, but this is very far from love.
Some of you have some conflicts even though you have worked together for many years as leaders.
Of course, you all have some reasons.
You say, "He made a big mistake to me, but he doesn't even apologize," or "He always opposes what I do and gives me hard time."
You have other reasons such as, "His style of working is so different from me. He is too stubborn. I am the leader in the organization, but he doesn't submit to the hierarchy and just insists on his opinions."
But no matter how many reasons you have, the most fundamental problem is that you do not love him.
Love is gentle and it seeks the benefit of the others.
You think in goodness in the other's viewpoint. You believe he will do better and hope, and believe, and endure and bear with him.
You can smile at him even though he lacks many things because you believe he will change.
Even though he does evil and does harm to you, you understand him and forgive him.
You can understand him by thinking about his background and environment and considering his measure of faith and understanding his position.
Also, when you see those whom you love, even though they have some faults, you don't try to reveal them. You just try to see their good points.
Even though the other's actions do not agree with your education and common sense, you help him do better by using his good points.
You will pray for his shortcomings with all your heart so that he can become more perfect.
The brothers around you have been trying to change themselves listening to the holiness gospel until now.
They are precious coworkers of faith for they have been together in overcoming the trials in the church with fasting and prayers.
Just as God first loved you when you were not perfect, God also loved them and bought them with price of the blood of the Lord.
And now God is saying to you, "My children, love each other. Come together as one."
You should keep this will of God in your mind to broaden your heart and cultivate love in you.
Furthermore, countless souls will rush towards our church soon.
Those who have spiritual thirst will come to our church with longing for holiness when they hear the word of truth and the power of God.
But there will be so many kinds of people among them.
Even though they come through God's grace, they will be different from you who have been sanctifying yourselves for so many years through the word of truth and prayers.
Some of them will have rough hearts that are like battered reeds or smoldering wicks in this sinful world.
Some of them will have strong opinions and break peace with complaints and resentment. Some of them will not have the manners of the Lord.
There will be those who come to receive salvation, but some of them will come to the church to gain some personal benefit.
If you have discomforts with others for these reasons now, just among yourselves, how would you be able to accept and embrace countless souls in the future?
I hope you will love any kind of soul and accept him with the love of the Lord who loved even His enemies.
In order for you to arise and shine, thirdly, you have to pray powerfully.
Just as men cannot stop breathing, God's children must not stop praying.
Without prayer, you cannot cast off sins to become sanctified, and you cannot perform your church duties.
1 Corinthians 4:20 says, "For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power."
Those who do not pray, even though they seem to try hard and accomplish something, they cannot bear good fruit in the end.
One thing you have to remember here is that you not only have to continue to pray diligently but also you have to pray powerfully.
Some people pray not only in Daniel prayer meeting but also during their personal times. But they do not have improvement in their faith for so many years.
Their self-righteousness and frameworks do not break.
This means that they are not offering up powerful enough prayers so that God can work.
Among those who do not miss prayer meetings and sit on one of the front seats, there are some cases where their aroma of prayer is not going up to God.
Some people do not even know what they are praying for because they have other thoughts and doze off.
Those who habitually doze off during prayers are distracted and have poor postures for prayer.
If you kneel down and pray earnestly with your hands together, your lower abdomen and your hands will be strained, and you will have a clear mind.
But those who just sit back and pray can easily doze off, and even though they don't they cannot really pray fervently.
1 Corinthians 14:14 says, "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful."
As written, praying in other tongues and prayer of heart must have balance.
Especially, when you pray for the kingdom of God, you have to clearly pray with your own language.
But some people pray in tongues both when they have pray for personal matters and for the kingdom of God.
In this case, many of them do not pray with heart speaking in tongues. They have idle thoughts while they speak in tongues with their lips.
Also, some people pray with their words, but they pray with meaningless repetitions. Or, some people repeat the same words as if they were chanting.
When people have conversations, they have the subject that they talk about, and they talk in a way that the listener can understand.
When you talk for an hour, you remember what you talked about and you can explain it again.
It's the same with prayers.
Those who pray with all their heart will clearly express the things that are appropriate for God to hear.
Also, if they really asked for what they wish, they can repeat the same contents again even if they prayed for one whole hour.
You should not just list the contents that you memorized, but you have to pray earnestly with your heart by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
If you pray earnestly with all your heart, you will soon be filled by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
If you pray with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, you will be full of grace. Even though you cry out for a couple of hours, you will not become tired because of that.
Even those who were tired before they started praying will be strengthened through prayers.
I urge you to check your prayers once again.
You have to pray with all your heart as fervently as Jacob prayed at the Jabbok River, with the determination that you will change tonight.
You have to pray for the kingdom of God with your love for God the Father and the church and with your passion to give glory to God the Father.
Only when this kind of powerful prayer is accumulated can our church accomplish world evangelism, and you can be used for precious purposes.
Conclusion
I explained about three things that you should have as workers of this church that will give glory to God at the end time.
I talked about spiritual armament of the word, spiritual love, and powerful prayers.
When countless souls come to us, you must be able to teach them with the truth, accept them with love, and pray for them powerfully.
If you can support the ministry of our church this way, I can accomplish world evangelism and fulfill my ministry with more confidence through God's power.
Through this message, I hope you Men's Mission will finish your preparations to be used as main players of the era of Canaan.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, in doing so, you will arise and shine everywhere when God reveals His glory all over the earth in the name of Manmin. |
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