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 Sermon > |
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Title |
With All Your Heart - Women''s Mission Devotional Service |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Matthew 22:37-39 |
Date |
2014-05-11 |
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[Scripture]
Matthew 22:37-39
"And He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.'"
[Introduction]
Dear brothers and sisters, Let us give all our thanks and glory to Father God who has blessed us to offer this Women's Mission Devotional Service 2014.
Dear devotees,
In every year's devotional service you have given all your heart, will and sincerity. Many of you have given testimonies to the blessing you received through devotional services. God wishes your devotion does not lead to just this level of blessing, but to bear greater and more complete fruits. That's why this message is being given to you.
He really wants you to love God with all your heart and show your true devotion to Him. Through this message, I wish for all of you to check whether you have loved God with all your heart and offered your lives with all your heart. I pray in the name of the Lord that you may offer a really sweet and beautiful aroma to Father God.
[Main]
Dear devotees and brothers and sisters in Christ,
To love God with all your heart is to accomplish goodness.
Do you remember the title of the last year's devotional service for women's mission? If you participate in the devotional service with all your heart, you have to have a longing for the message. You have to worship God in spirit and truth, and look into yourselves with the three points of the message. If you are touched by the message, you have to keep it in mind and accomplish it in prayer for the following year. If you have prepared for the service with all sincerity but cannot keep the message in mind, it means you fail to gain the important point.
The last year's women's mission's devotional service's message was titled with "goodness." Not only last year but every year has God given the message concerning goodness in the women's mission service. If you have offered your devotional service with all your sincerity, how much goodness have you accomplished in your heart?
Those who have received their level of faith, they can tell their goodness through their level of faith. Even though you have not received your level of faith yet, you can check your goodness with a few questions through the messages delivered from the podium.
Are you seeking others' benefits? Or do you seek your own first? When others prosper, are you rejoicing as much as in your work? Or are you speaking ill of them, saying, "That person lacks in this and that aspect, but why is she prosperous?" or do you lose heart? When someone strikes you on the right cheek, do you have a desire to turn the other cheek in order to be at peace with her? When someone sues you and takes your coat, do you have a heart to consider that person's shoes and give her even your shirt? When someone causes you a hard time, is your peace broken in your heart? Are you speaking pure and holy words so that every word coming from your mouth can give out the fragrance of the Christ? Or are you speaking negative words of complaints, groaning, and unbelief and causing hard time to the people around you? If you love God with all your heart, you will unceasingly examine your words and deeds.
You will continue to change yourselves, checking whether your words were good and your thoughts were proper in God's sight. Some people, even if they have the knowledge of the truth, they think and behave in an opposite way to goodness. Suppose a member had a longing for receiving the level of faith and has made all her efforts for it, but didn't get her expected result. Now she is making God feel frustrated. She says, "This person can offer a big amount of offering because her husband is securely supporting her. That person has short years of faithfulness but gains great favor with her inborn good heart. Why is my heart this little?" "Why is my environment so poor? I have little offering because I have little money. I have no one to help me enter into spirit quickly." This way she is losing heart attributing everything to surroundings, others, and her own heart. Because she has mercy on herself, she cannot realize how far her thought is from goodness.
If you are spiritually awake, you will think in Mary Magdalene's shoes for a moment and you can choose the way of goodness. Even if you listen to many messages, long for the grace and have a burning heart to enter into spirit, it cannot be said you have a true longing to become a person of spirit. You have to meditate on the word heard and make every effort to become a person of goodness. This is how you have a true longing for spirit and love God with all your heart.
There is one more thing for you to remember. God's criterion of judgment is different from human criterion. Exodus 15:26 tells us that we should do righteousness not in our eyes but in God's eyes.
In the same way, the goodness that people recognizes is different from God-recognizing goodness. Some of you look meek and polite to everyone, but may have a heart that disregards others. When somebody else's education conflicts with your own, you may think she is uneducated and impolite and close your hearts toward her.
Some others have an introspective character and don't like having disputes with others. So they don't insist on their own opinions and follow others' advice. But it happens only because of their personality. They don't serve others from their heart. They may think, "It seems that I always lose out in making peace with others," and their ill feelings such as frustrations and discomfort become worse. They may also have difficulty discovering their evils because they think they served and gave room for others.
They say they are enduring trials but they cannot do it with joy and thanksgiving. If they pass through persecutions for faith and financial trials with faith, hope and love, then their faces are covered with greater grace. But because they suppress and constrain themselves in their trials, sorrow increases to the extent hard times have passed. Then their faces show gloom and shades of anxiety. They think they have endured well for years, but the door to blessings is not opened as quickly as expected.
Still others appear sincere, diligent and sociable with many others. They seem to do others' works as their own. They are praised among others, but they have only a little longing for spirit. Like Martha, they have greater interest in their duties than in loving God and becoming sanctified. They think they have goodness and are serving others. But all these belong to fleshly goodness.
They may be deemed to be good by the standards of others and they themselves think they are good, but God does not acknowledge their goodness. If you want to love God with all your heart, you have to seek goodness in every aspect and realize what the goodness of God is and accomplish such goodness.
Dear devotees, and brothers and sisters in Christ,
Secondly, to offer everything to God with all your heart is to accomplish spiritual love.
1 John 4:21 says, "And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also." Some believers seem to give to God what is theirs with fervor, but do not do anything for other believers. They pray fervently, attend worship services arduously, and dedicate their time and money to God. But they staggeringly lack in considering and looking after the people around them. They have given God many things they have, but they cannot bear complete fruits of blessing.
Of course, they have no intention of doing harm to others or of causing evils toward others. They are just narrow-sighted in considering others and their character of their heart is not so great to that extent. So, they may hurt others' hearts and give discomfort to others, though it is not intentional.
Let me give a couple of examples. Someone has a fervent longing for spirit and diligently prays with fasting. She volunteers in many works and gives many offerings to God. But while praying, she does not pray for the souls and the kingdom of God that much. She seems to have a longing for spirit, but she doesn't have a desire to be with many of the people around her.
Some members around her didn't receive the level of faith and are in tearful prayer. But she got a notice of her level of faith. Now she is giving her testimony to her faith with joy saying, "I have done nothing good, but God gave me a good score in His great love." She is so full of grace and joy that she fails to take others' feelings and place into consideration. On the contrary, while she is suffering difficulties, she expresses her suffering to the highest degree and embarrasses others. She does not realize she is causing others to feel sorry and embarrassed.
Let me give you another example. A mission group divided into smaller groups to clean a large space. One group finished cleaning their part a little earlier than others. The others were still cleaning. If she has a broader heart, she can recognize why the other groups have not finished and see what aspects need help getting finished.
Those who have little spiritual love cannot consider a situation from others' shoes. Galatians 6:2 says, "Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." Today's Scripture says, "Love your neighbor as yourself" and other Scripture says, "to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me." I ask you to take care of many others with delicate love and broadened hearts. I wish for you to harbor many more souls with love, generosity, and the Father's heart. This is how you can love God with all your heart.
Dear devotees, and brothers and sisters in Christ
To love the Father with all your heart, thirdly, is to fulfill your God-given duties.
Those who love the Father not only have such a love in your heart, but come to express that love outwardly. You come to dedicate yourselves to the kingdom of God saying, "What shall I give to my Father? How can I repay this grace?" Even without a title in the church, you may evangelize and take care of other members diligently, and volunteer in church ministries.
But some of you may lose the state of this fervor with the passing of time. It means your fervor cooled down. Then, you will turn away from the works that are not entrusted to you and want more personal freedom. You seem to perform your outward duties arduously but neglect other duties.
When asked to serve as an usher or offertory member in main sanctuary, you will do it with joy. But when asked to volunteer service in the nursery room the joy decreases. Our God-given duties, big or small, must be performed not in men's sight but only in God's sight. It must not be performed only in deeds but with faith, hope and love and the aroma of the heart.
Suppose at the annual election, you desired to be elected as president of your group but became a secretary. If you faithfully serve as secretary with all your heart, you can offer a more beautiful aroma to God. Then, you can rejoice and give thanks simply from the fact that you were entrusted with a title such as secretary or manager. You will pray for and take care of group members, supporting group president arduously. How lovely this heart would be in the sight of God!
Suppose someone used to be group president but this year she was not elected as president. She doesn't attend group meetings anymore and no longer serves. It means her former service was not true service.
Women Mission members have been doing so many works of the church. In all the church events and feasts, they are performing many functions such as decorating and cooking. They make decorated Easter eggs and winter kimchi so that they can help the poor and participate in the relief for the society and the abandoned. In every event and activity I ask you to serve not only in the body but also to do it with all your heart for God.
Then, you will not perform such works only with the sense of duty. Instead, you will think and pray, "May the joy of resurrection be delivered to many people through these Easter eggs." or "May the Lord's love be spread to many people with this kimchi." When you serve with faith and love this way, you can become full of grace and the Spirit.
When you clean the sanctuary curtains and sweep and clean the sanctuary floor, you can feel happy and give thanks for serving in the temple of God. This heart of service can be accepted as the fragrance of joy by God. In the name of the Lord I ask you to consider all your God-given duties precious and fulfill them with all your heart.
[Conclusion]
Dear devotees, and brothers and sisters in Christ,
Proverbs 31:30-31 says, "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her the product of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates."
God doesn't see the appearances of people. He accepts the fragrance of heart, the aroma of loving and reverent fear of Him. Your temporary fervor and dedication to this devotional service is not enough before God who sees the inner heart of each person. You will have to keep this message and God's grace in your mind and live a dedicational life for a year. Every day, your goodness and love must increase and you must consider your God-given duties as precious.
Only then will God accept this devotional service with joy and repay you with abundant fruits according to what you have sown and done. It does not end only on this earth. But in Heaven you will be rewarded with praise, honor and glory. I wish for you devotees and all church members to love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. May all of you be elevated and praised before a multitude of God-cultivated people at the Great White Throne Judgment, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray! |
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