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 Sermon > |
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Title |
Blameless Ones - Performing Arts Committee Devotional |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Revelation 14: 4 -5 |
Date |
2008-07-20 |
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Passage
Revelation 14: 4 -5
"These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. [5] And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless."
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has let us have this 2008 Performing Arts Committee devotional service. I also give thanks to those of you devotees who have prepared for this devotional service with all your hearts, minds, and effort.
The 144,000 men of God will save many souls during the 7-year Great Tribulation.
In today's passage, we can read they are singing before the throne of God when they go into heavenly kingdom.
They keep themselves pure even in the dreadful situations in the 7-year's Tribulation.
Even though the Holy Spirit will not be with them during the 7-year Great Tribulation, God will always be with them. This is how they will be able to save so many souls.
I hope you will also be awakened now. You should be praise singers and performers with whom God is always present.
You should keep yourselves like the 144,000 bond-servants and offer up the aroma of praise that can always be accepted by God. God can be with you to the extent that you have nothing in your heart and no actions that can bring accusations against you. Right now, countries world-wide have warmly received our ministry and there are many requests for the praise ministry of the church.
Since the opening of this church, God has let us organize the Performing Arts Committee in His providence and plan for the end time.
So, I hope you will think about the reason why God called you as part of the Performing Arts Committee of this church.
Now there is no reason to hesitate. It's not the time to give such excuses as "My heart is only this much. I did not cultivate sanctification because of this and that."
"My duty is only little, so how can I do something so great?"
God has given you people of the Performing Arts Committee many blessings and chances for grace. Now, it is the time for you to bear the fruit of it all and come forth as blameless children whom God desires to come forth.
I urge you to hold firmly on to this opportunity of blessing. I pray in the name of the Lord that you will overcome like the 144,000 bond-servants and enjoy the honor of singing the praise of victory before the throne of God.
Body
Dear devotees and other church members, for you to become blameless, what would you have to do?
First, you should not become stained by the world.
Namely, you should not have any heart that loves the world or follows the trends of the world.
I believe you want to have good skills and appearances as well as the spirituality to touch the heart of many people.
So, you are trying and investing to have better skills and better appearing performances. But I want you to check your heart while you are working and performing. You may think that you are doing it because you have to stand before many people and you should have more perfect appearances too.
But you should check your deep heart with the word of God in the Holy Spirit.
You should check whether or not you are following the lust of the eyes, lust of flesh, and the boastful pride of life to take in the world.
Of course, at first, you could have come in contact with worldly things with a good purpose.
But unless you stand on the rock of faith, it is easy for your heart to be stained by the world.
The more worldly things you take, the more you seek the beautiful, pretty, and 'cool' things in the world.
You are curious about the trends of the world.
You try to follow the worldly trend in singing style, playing style, and style of music. Or, you put your heart into fleshly things thinking, "What kinds of dresses are more beautiful? What kinds of hairstyles are more fashionable?"
You may also want to know what kinds of clothes, hairstyles, or make-up styles are in fashion and try to follow them.
You already know what kinds of appearances are good in the Lord. But still, you accept even some short-length dresses or dark clothing following the worldly trends one by one thinking, "This much is OK."
Then, you may get stained by many worldly trends. You speak the words that are spoken by the worldly people with the lips that praise God, but your heart does not sense it. Even when you have fellowship in the Lord, you follow the worldly culture.
But God the Father sternly prohibits any kind of action that takes or seeks the world.
What is the most important thing to fulfill the duty in the Performing Arts Committee? It is circumcision of heart.
And if you just leave behind the circumcision of heart and just concentrate on the fleshly things that are seen on the outside, how can you offer up praises that are pleasing to God?
You heard the words in 1 John 2:15 so many times saying, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
If you love the world, your confession that you love God cannot be true. Then, how can you praise God and say you love God while on the altar?
But I am not saying you should be completely secluded from the world.
What I mean is, before you learn and accept the worldly things, your heart should stand up firmly before God. First, you should circumcise your heart so that your heart will not be stained by the lust of the world. Also, whatever you do, you have to put your focus on giving glory to God and saving more souls.
Then, even if you come in contact with the world, you will not be stained by the world but rule over it. You will be able to discern the will of God each moment.
To do this, you must be awake all the time and not stop fervently praying.
You should not just come and sit in the prayer meeting. You have to offer up earnest prayers to struggle against and overcome sins.
Until you become a man of spirit who has no form of evil in you, you must not stop the struggle against sins.
God has allowed you to offer a devotional service again, but it is not because you have cast off your desire to seek the world.
You must not become relaxed toward this matter. Also, because you stand before many people, you have to keep in mind that you have to set good examples. The apostle Paul confessed in 1 Corinthians 8:13 says, "Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble."
He had faith and freedom to take something, but he gave up even those things in fear that it might cause somebody to stumble.
Like the apostle Paul, if you control yourself with joy for the members who have weak faith, you will receive precious rewards.
Dear devotees, suppose you worked hard to accomplish the kingdom of God helping your shepherd.
But when you go to heaven, if God says He has never accepted your praise, how astonishing it would be!
Therefore, I hope you will be on alert even more and accomplish a blameless heart. I pray in the name of the Lord that you will be able to make true confessions that you love God above all else.
Dear devotees, for you to become blameless, secondly, you have to obey, following the Lord.
The 144,000 people of God are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He leads them.
You also have to follow the guidance of the Lord.
To follow the Lamb, namely the Lord, is to obey the word of truth of God.
Here, obedience means complete obedience. It is to obey the word of truth, exactly as it is preached.
But in many cases, you say you are obeying, but in fact you are not really obeying. You should realize this very well. What is the reason that you cannot obey? It's because you have your 'self' in you.
You hear the Word about obedience, but you still have your own opinion as to what is good. Because you do not let go of this, you cannot obey.
By now those who are carrying out their duties in Performing Arts Committee have heard so many messages. Also, you have worked in many areas, too. Some of you have quite a bit of knowledge and education as well.
Because of these things, you do the work your way, based on your opinions and your experiences, thinking like, 'I listened to many messages and know the truth well, so I can have this kind of flexibility. Acording to what I have learned, this is better.'
For example, you heard that you have to sing the kind of praise that is in accordance with the flow that God wants. Namely, it is bright and hope-giving praise, which is not worldly.
But when you actually do your work, you sometimes follow your personal mental frameworks and your own righteousness.
You may think, 'For the church members to be touched, we have to sing about this, too!' 'I think this kind of style is more gracious, and also musically, this kind of song is better.' Or you may even think, "The Senior Pastor is saying it because he doesn't know today's trend."
But rather than what kind of praise song you choose and what kind of performance piece you make, what is more important is whether or not you are obeying the word.
Therefore, if you sing a praise song without obedience, it cannot be complete praise by itself.
On the other hand, if you try your best in the will of God, God accepts that aroma and gives you grace, even if you may have some shortcomings in physical aspects.
In 1 Samuel 15:22, Samuel delivers the will of God to King Saul who had been disobeying again and again. Samuel said, "to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams."
I also know very well what kind of praise can please God, and when I see disobedience, I feel very heartbroken.
Isaiah 43:21 says, "The people whom I formed for Myself will declare My praise."
As said, praise is given to God. 'You' who are singing the praise should not come first, but God who is receiving the praise should come first.
It is so obvious that we have to follow the will of God and obey Him.
But if we begin to give excuses, there will be no end. We will never be able to obey. We have to humble ourselves and just obey.
Of course, it is not easy to know the will of God 100% from the beginning. But as we try, we will surely come to understand what kind of praises can please God.
God's wisdom cannot be measured by men. Nevertheless, if we obey, we will receive the wisdom of God Himself.
You can become the top class performers in the sight of God, not by the standard of this earth.
Is there anyone among you who feels that it is too difficult to obey? I hope you will always give thanks for you can hear and understand what kinds of praises God really wants.
Because you know the will of God, you can offer up praises that God will accept. And your work will all become your rewards. When the Lord told Peter to let down the net into the deep, he just did it.
When he was told to catch a fish and get the coin, he just obeyed.
I hope you will also obey completely in everything, whatever it may be.
I urge you in the name of the Lord that you will become blameless workers who obey completely and always offer up praises that are pleasing to God.
Dear devotees, for you to become blameless, thirdly, you must not have any falsehood on your lips, but become truthful.
In other words, this means that you have to be able to acknowledge your fault and take responsibility for whatever it might be.
How do those who are not truthful act?
If they make a mistake, they just deny it rather than acknowledging it. Or, to cover their faults, they even tell a lie and blame others.
They even slander other people.
For example, suppose you offered up to God a performance for a big feast in the church. But, the performance was found to be off course from the direction that God had given to us. In this kind of situation, each one's mind and thoughts would be different.
Some think, "A certain department didn't do well, and this is the outcome."
Or, some others may just hurt the feelings of others by directly saying, "If you followed my opinion at that time, we wouldn't have had this kind of result."
Even if they themselves are responsible for it, they talk badly about others to cover their faults. "This is the outcome because that department did not cooperate very well." Then, the peace will be broken.
Even if they had such an excellent performance in itself with the best of skills, God cannot accept it.
Proverbs 17:1 says, "Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it than a house full of feasting with strife."
This is the kind of heart that God has towards you.
It's the same within a department or a team. When you receive some advice or criticism, you may think, "That person doesn't have enough talent. Isn't it because this person is not doing well spiritually?"
But the kind of heart that God desires of us is the one that is able to accept the responsibility of even others' faults and also repent on their behalf.
Especially, if you are a leader, you should have this kind of attitude. Then, you will have beautiful peace. The future of that department or team is bright.
But then, why can't we be truthful before our faults? It's because we have desire to be acknowledged by others.
You try to do better and be acknowledged more than other teams and other people, so you try to cover your faults before others.
But even if you try to get away from that situation with lies, nothing can be hidden before God.
Proverbs 12:19 says, "Truthful lips will be established forever, But a lying tongue is only for a moment."
If you acknowledge your faults, it may seem that you are being brought down for that moment.
But after all, God will see your truthfulness and give you the power and strength to change. Then He will lift you up. David who offered up such beautiful praises is a good example.
When a prophet pointed out his fault, he immediately turned back. He knew the heart of God the Father.
God did not choose David because David was perfect from the beginning, but He was looking at his inner heart.
And God refined him and changed him by allowing him trials until he became blameless. Because David knew and believed this love of God, he recognized his fault and repented.
Even when he was in a great trial or when he was having a time of great sufferings, he offered up so many beautiful praises. It should be the same with you.
God did not call you because you were perfect and excellent from the beginning. Even though you have shortcomings, God has called you and loved you very much looking forward to seeing you change. Shouldn't you have to understand this heart of God and always stand before Him with truthfulness?
If you have done something wrong, you can admit it frankly and try to change it. Then, you can change yourself truly and improve day by day.
If you acknowledge yourself truthfully and serve others and take the responsibility for each other, how pleased God will be with Performing Arts Committee!
The one who serves is the great. The really high position is not the brilliant position seen by many people but the lowly and serving position of doing the difficult works.
In case of the choir, if the praise of the choir rings the throne of God and moves His heart, the service itself is filled with more inspiration.
Choirs have many members. Then, how much responsibility does each of you have for offering up to God a holy praise? You should never think, "It's only me one person, there are so many others."
The aroma of each of you will be added up together as one aroma and be offered to God. So, all of you should have truthful lips and earnest aroma in your praise.
I hope you will be always truthful before God and before your coworkers in faith.
When we go to New Jerusalem later, we will have a time to sing a special praise before the throne of God, in the name of the Manmin's Performing Arts Committee.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will be able to offer to God holy praise in that time giving thanks to each other.
Conclusion
Dear devotees and church members, what is the reason why Manmin is taking the lead in the Christian culture of the world? What is the special thing about our praises from others? It is that we sing praises trying to sanctify ourselves.
When a sanctified and blameless person gives God praise, many people will feel the divine grace and love that the Father God gives to them. Also, power of God will be embedded in the praise.
This is what is unique about Manmin's praises.
Until today, God the Father has been forcefully guiding you to make you blameless singers and performers.
Because I know this heart of the Father, I shed so many tears while praying for you and guiding you.
Now, all those efforts are being borne as fruits one by one.
Many souls who were dying without any hope are meeting God through spiritual praises. But what God looks forward to more is that you will come forth as blameless ones and sing holy praises.
Also, I believe that you have been marching with hope that you will sing before the throne of the Father in New Jerusalem with tears of joy and thanks, and you will become exclusive New Jerusalem performers.
I urge you to hold fast to this hope once again. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, "Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass."
I hope you will rely on the faithful Father who has never forgotten your earnest hope even for a moment and come forth as blameless ones.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will be able to offer up to the Father God your praises that even angels in New Jerusalem will admire.
[Amen] |
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