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 Sermon > |
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Title |
We Have Been Running with Faith - College and Canaan Mission''s Devotional |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Hebrews 11: 6 |
Date |
2011-05-01 |
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Passage
Hebrews 11: 6
"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has blessed us to have this 2011 College and Canaan 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, many of you have been on this march of faith for several years, ten years, or even more than twenty years.
You didn't take what you wanted to take. You didn't rest when you wanted to rest. You controlled yourself with self discipline.
While your worldly friends and colleagues were pursuing worldly pleasures, you restrained yourself.
On holidays you did not just relax and rest; you came to the church to do voluntary work and spent your time on evangelism and visiting church members.
Rather than spending or saving for yourself, you took delight in giving more to God.
In the Bible we can find those patriarchs who dedicated their precious things, too.
They not only gave up honor, wealth, and comfortable life; they even took brutal persecutions and tortures, and even martyrdom.
They offered their most precious things with joy, and they even accepted persecutions and death with thanks.
It was because they believed in the living God the Creator and that He would give them back the heavenly glory according to their deeds.
As they believed, they received inexpressible heavenly glory as well as eternal life.
God wants to also give you members of College and Canaan mission the eternal life and the Heaven that they gained.
Today's reading passage Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."
For whatever you have been doing with faith, God has rewarded you with blessings.
It's not just visible blessings but also there are so many blessings that are invisible.
And He will bless you not only on this earth but also in Heaven with rewards.
Now, let me talk in three aspects about what kinds of blessings God gives to those who run their march of faith.
Through this message, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will hold fast to the promise of God and enjoy all the blessings of the promises.
[Main]
Dear devotees, those who run the march of faith, first, receive both spiritual and material blessings.
Once you accept the Lord and receive the Holy Spirit, you come to love God.
If you love God, you would want to obey His will.
When I met God for the first time, my gratitude and love could not be expressed with words.
I had been forsaken by everyone in this world, and I had no hope of recovery even after using all kinds of methods.
When God came to and met such a person as myself, my gratitude and love totally changed the whole purpose of my life.
I just wanted to live for God.
I wanted to know what God wanted and I earnestly desired to obey His will.
I learned the word attending many revival meetings and diligently read the Bible.
I obeyed any word of God I learned, and if I couldn't obey something right away, I wrote it down on a notebook and prayed to accomplish it with prayers.
I was just so thankful for God's grace of saving me, and the Bible says that the more we obey the word, the more we will be loved by God and the better place in Heaven we can receive.
Since God healed me at once of all my diseases from which I had suffered for seven years, I could certainly believe in God and that all the words of God are true.
To the extent that I obeyed, my soul prospered and I gained confidence in my heart.
As said in 3 John 1:2, "Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers," all things went well and I became healthy.
I received answers to all my prayers, and I lacked nothing in my life.
God's works began to take place when I was praying for other souls.
Because I experienced such things first, I also taught others to always obey the word of God with faith.
There are many times that God's words do not agree with the thoughts of men of flesh.
It seems that you will have to face loss if you obey the word.
But you who believe in the living God have been obeying the Word according to your measure of faith.
To the extent that you cast off and kept certain things, your spirit grew up.
You now have overflowing testimonies of receiving financial blessings, health, blessings in workplace and home, and receiving answers to various hearts' desires.
Now, I want you to firm your faith even more.
I hope you will obey not just 50% or 80% but obey all the commands of God 100% with faith.
To that extent, you will experience how much God loves you.
You will be able to testify everyday of the works of God who answers all your hidden desires of heart and who makes the impossible, possible.
Dear devotees, those who run their march of faith, secondly, overflow with the hope of Heaven.
Those who have faith do not look at the things of this earth.
They don't invest their time on getting worldly wealth and honor and to fulfill their lusts, but they invest in Heavenly things and rewards.
It's because they know what has true value.
Today even with the development in medical science, not many people can live for more than 100 years.
Even though you enjoy so many good things during this short earthly life, it is just like a dream when it all passes.
Just like a sand castle that will disappear without a trace in the waves, there will be nothing remaining no matter how much you accumulate.
Is there any sin that you find very difficult to cast off because it is so precious, even though God tells us to cast off and that you know you have to cast it off?
Or, is there anyone who thinks like, "I am still young, and I want to enjoy my life. There are so many good things to take advantage of in this world and I feel it is a little difficult to restrain myself from those things"?
Then, think about which choice is wiser: earthly life or heavenly life?
Many people spend much time and money to look good.
Also, they want to date a person who has a good appearance.
But, no matter how beautiful their appearances are, their beauty cannot last forever.
As time goes, they will have wrinkles on their faces and the soft skin will become rough and sagging.
The upright posture will become crooked and bent.
Just like flowers wither, the physical beauty will eventually perish.
Especially, the body without the spirit is just a corpse.
Even though a body was healthy and beautiful until just now, if the person dies it soon becomes cold and stiff.
All the internal organs will decay and the fluid will flow out. The shape will also disappear and it will go back to dust.
The physical beauty that many people seek will also disappear in a moment.
It's all the same with all other physical things including wealth and honor that people try to get by investing time, money, and effort. They are all perishing, stinky, and meaningless.
But the heavenly kingdom that we look forward to is eternal.
Life in heaven is much happier and more glorious than any kind of life that people can dream of.
Just the beauty of the spiritual body is way beyond people's imaginations.
The faces and body are even more beautiful than those of angels, and there will also be a spiritual glittering.
Even disabled bodies on this earth will be made perfect.
You will be fascinated by seeing yourself in the mirror; and this appearance will never get old or perish.
It's not just the beauty of the spiritual body; it is same with everything else in heavenly kingdom.
The greatest happiness, joy, and greatest glory and beauty that men cannot express will last forever.
The more your faith grows, the greater your hope for heavenly kingdom will be.
You will understand how meaningless worldly lust is, so you come to hate having anything in your heart that belongs to sins and darkness.
Those who live with this kind of faith will feel the joy of Heaven even on this earth.
Luke 17:21 says, "The kingdom of God is in your midst."
For example, if you accomplished faith to go into the third kingdom of heaven, the third kingdom of heaven will be in your heart.
Because you have no evil, you don't have any anger, envy, or hatred, but only joy and peace all the time.
Your heart is always filled with the Lord, the Father, and Heaven, so your face will shine with the spiritual glitter.
You receive anything you ask, and you walk with the Lord, so your lips are filled with praises and testimonies.
Even though you haven't gone into spirit yet, if you are trying your best in faith since the repentance last year, I believe you understand what this means.
The heavy burden of sin is lifted. Your spirit was aching due to fear but you have gained new strength. Now, your heart feels light and it is overflowing with joy.
You would think, "It is so good to have cast it away, and why couldn't I do that earlier? I will never commit sins again!" And you will have more and more hope for Heaven.
I hope your hope for Heaven will never diminish, but it will only keep on increasing to fill your heart completely.
Dear devotees, those who run the march of faith, thirdly, will receive rewards in Heaven.
Whatever you do for the Lord on this earth will be given back to you as rewards in Heaven.
The prayers and petitions for the kingdom of God; evangelism effort and caring for the souls; voluntary works; monetary offerings given for the sanctuary and missionary works; and even picking up a little trash in the church, God does not forget anything.
I often explained to you about rewards in Heaven.
For example, a certain person likes exercising very much, but he works for God so faithfully that he doesn't even have time to do it. So, he will receive exercising equipment decorated with precious stones in his house in New Jerusalem.
Those who give glory to God with praises and musical instruments will have a splendid hall that has crystal piano and other jeweled instruments in their houses.
They will also have the patterns of praising so everyone would know that they glorified God with praising.
For those who worked faithfully without even having time to comfortably watch the flowers bloom, they will have flower roads in their houses where the petals fall like snow.
When they give some precious jewelry to the Lord, they get a big, shiny piece of precious gem stone on the front gate of their heavenly house.
For those who do the voluntary works in the church, gorgeous shoes, epaulets, or brooches that commemorate such voluntary works are awarded.
How can I talk about all the rewards that will be given for each deed?
I cannot list all of them including the crowns, hair decorations, shoulder decorations, brooches, magnificent clothes and cloud-like automobiles, all the facilities and decorations in the grand mansion, even if I spent through the night talking about them.
You have been devoting yourselves until today because you believe in God who will give you such rewards.
And in every devotional service, many of you gave offerings more than your strength could afford.
You cut your own spending on eating and what you wear, but you never thought like, "I tried my best this year, and I will take it easy next year."
With the joy that you can accomplish the kingdom of God and you can become the strength to the church and the shepherd, you tried your best as the years went by.
Some people take care of the difficult and unpopular job for many years without changing.
Some people practice hard and sing the praise songs for God with all your hearts every week.
You try to gather together, keep your places, and take care of other souls.
You pray for the kingdom of God, world evangelism, construction of the sanctuary and for charitable works.
You do not just forget even the little bit of grace you receive in your daily life. You share the testimony to give happiness to other brothers and sisters in faith and to give glory to God.
God never forgets all these things and will give you back with rewards in Heaven.
But what you have to remember once again is that you have to circumcise your heart.
Casting away sins and circumcising your heart itself will not be your rewards.
But according to the extent to which you circumcise your heart, the dimension of reward given will be very different, even though you do the same work.
The glitter of the precious stones and the glory will be different.
It's because the fruit borne through the aroma of your heart in doing the work will be different.
Also, if you do something for God but complain and quarrel, it cannot be rewarded.
It's because it means you did not do it with faith.
Therefore, I hope you will diligently circumcise your heart, and be faithful more with faith looking up to God the rewarder.
When you do God's work, if you have the hope and think something like: "How will the Father give me back for what I'm doing now?" then, your joy and happiness will be greater.
You will also try your best with all your heart and mind, so your reward will also be greater.
I hope you will run your march of faith passionately looking up to the rewards that God the rewarder will give you.
[Conclusion] Dear devotees, and other members, in ancient Rome, they had grand parades to welcome the generals and the army who had won the victory in battles.
The streets would be wonderfully decorated with flowers and filled with the aroma from the censers, and the parade would be headed by the high officials.
In the long parade of wagons would be the spoils of the war.
On the endless, hundreds of wagons were gold and silver and precious stones, and there would be so many livestock, too.
Then, it would be followed by the prisoners of war including the enemy's royal family and generals.
In the array, along with the music of the trumpets, drums, and other instruments, the returning general would finally appear riding a chariot pulled by four white horses.
The general wearing the laurel wreath would hold an ivory scepter and also put on purple military dress and a general's robe with golden stars.
The family of the general would proudly follow him, and at the end, the army of the victorious general would march on with a shout.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens would cheer, and such great honor and fame, which the ordinary people cannot even imagine, would be given to the returning general.
Dear members of College and Canaan Mission, and other members.
When you go through the Pearl Gates of New Jerusalem, you will enjoy even greater honor than this.
The whole sky will be filled with praises, and countless angels and the heavenly army will welcome you who are entering the Pearl Gates.
You will be reminded of all the past times, and you will offer up prayers of thanks filled with overwhelming emotions.
All your faithfulness, devotion, and tears that you offered to the Lord will be paid back to you like the spoils of war and make you honorable.
The time given to you on this earth is not very long.
You have been running the march of faith, but I urge you to run harder without taking a rest.
2 Timothy 4:7-8 says, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; [8] in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." As written, I hope you will definitely win the good fight.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, in doing so, you will offer up praises of thanks forever in your home in New Jerusalem, saying, "Such a lowly person as I have gained this glory solely by the grace of the Father!" [AMEN!!!] |
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