My Relationship With God

How do I stand in my relationship with God? In our own thoughts we think that our relationship with God is well. How is it that your relationship with God allows you to continue to be His child and a citizen of His kingdom? What allows you to think that you are able to go in the direction you are headed? Is it because of something that you have done? Is it because you have attained something? Is it because you have given God something? Is it because in your mind you have given everything up to God so that your relationship is right with God? Is your relationship established with God? We think that we are citizens of Heaven and believe without a doubt that we are going to heaven because we know God, we believe in Him, understand Him, obey, and walk to Him. Is your relationship with God truly what it should be that if this moment He called you, you would go to Heaven because you are in the right relationship with God? We are told that these are the Last Days. Everything is headed towards the end. There is not much time left. We are almost there. When The Lord was here He called that time the end, but even if we are told that today is the end we are numb to it. You think that there is no way it would happen in your time. Surely, you think that later in 10 years, 100 years later, after your death. Or you think that that is another 1000 or 2000 years left. We do not know. I have said this repeatedly, each of us will have an end. That is the day you die. It is possible that you do not taste death and be raptured when Jesus comes again. But right now, we are to answer the call and go to God, but unless our relationship is right with God we will not be able to go to Him. Unless my relationship is right with God, all that I do, going to church, singing praise songs, praying, serving, healing the sick, prophesying, witnessing and saving, it will all be for nothing. How are we to live our lives today? How should our heart and attitude be today as we live? In the church we speak about the heart of the servant. In my relationship to God as a servant we are dead without any right to speak. A slave only says "yes" to his master. "No" is not an option. If we are told to die then we die. Tough we speak of being slaves we do not truly understand the meaning of it. We say that God is the Master and we are His servants, but we act as master. Because we act as master our relationship with God is not right. If we truly consider God the Father as Master of our lives then we could not be living in the manner we do. We could not be proud. We are to lower our selves, humble ourselves and raise others up, but we dot not put others before us. The moment we see something wrong in another person, we consider ourselves better than them and we judge and persecute them. We say to God "I am a sinner, I have nothing to give, please forgive me," but we have difficulty forgiving our brothers and sisters and embracing them with love. This is how we are. We are good at judging. It is easy to see the actions of others. But we do not see our own. Then my relationship cannot be rightly established with God. We notice the faults of our neighbors. We see the condition of the hearts. But we do not see the rotten, dirty debris of our own heart. We think we are better than the other person. There is nothing better about us than them. Unless I know this I can never rightly establish my relationship with God. Why? Because we think we are better than God. Many people blame God and say that He is without forgiveness because of the wars He allowed in the Old Testament and the crippling and suffering He allows today They say that God is at fault for their unbelief. We think that we are full of love. We think that because we are filled with love that we are going to save others and we go forth to do our own will. No matter how much love we may have we will never have more love than God. We do not understand God and His will to call those to His purpose and many times we interfere with God's work. We think that we need to help. We do this too often. When God does tell us to help that person, then because we do not feel like doing so, we do not. Because we are not happy. When God commands us to help someone no matter what the cost and we do not, then we are committing the sin of disobedience. Yet we pray to God to give us grace and to bless us. Look around you. You think if you help that person that the individual will believe in Jesus. If you help them they will start coming to church. With your help they will be fine. But God is concerned about you. God wants you to leave them alone, in their suffering, that they may find Jesus and salvation. This is why God has allowed them to be where they are. By trying to pull them out of their suffering we have become a stumbling block in their path to find Jesus. Examine yourself and see how many times you have done this. Yet we think well of ourselves. We think we love more than God does. We do not. How do we think that our relationship with God is in good standing when we do not understand His will? How can we establish the right relationship with God? No matter how better you may think you are, from up high we are all the same. People are not even visible from the heavens. Though some are taller than others, from high up you can see no difference. You are not as good as you think you are. Stop living in a false reality. If you truly want to establish a right relationship with God then you have to live according the Word and do what it says in obedience. The things He commands us to do bother us. It bothers our hearts, our ears and our eyes. We wish that we did not see. We think if that the person were not in our lives it would help our walk of faith. That is not true. That person is there to help you with your faith. If you get rid of that person then God will put someone who is of greater difficulty in your life. This is what I have experienced. It will be the same for you. If you try to escape difficulty in the world you may be able to, but when you try to escape from God you will fall into greater difficulty because God desires that you surrender yourself to Him and truly come to know Jesus Christ. Then you can truly know God. Then you can surrender and repent of all your sins in order to be embraced by the arms of the Father. Do not do anything foolish because you think that you are good. Do not clean up something that bothers you. If you try to remove something that God left alone then you will fall into a deeper trap. We sang a hymn singing of hope and meeting one day in heaven. This is God's message to us. We are being told that 2013 is a very dangerous time. In America it is even more so. There is no time for you to fight amongst yourselves over trivial matters. If you do not pray for this country it will soon collapse. Do not think that you will live if this country fails. Because you live here, if this country fails then so will you. You are Korean. It is dangerous in Korea. If Korea fails then so will you. Do not think that because you were born here that you have no relation to Korea. That is not true. Your root is from Korea. I immigrated here early when Korea was unknown. You do not understand the discrimination that we went through. We were not even acknowledged when we gave our Korean passports to the embassies. Because Korea is prospering we are being accepted. What does this mean? If my country crumbles then we are a nation without a country. We say we are citizens of Heaven. If Heaven disappears where will you go? There are only two places to go in eternity. If you don't like the country you live in you can go to one of many countries. But in eternity there is only Heaven and Hell. If you fail to get into Heaven then you will go to Hell. There is no middle place. Only two destinations. If you are not rightly established with God then how will you be a citizen of Heaven? How will you enter into Heaven and be embraced by the arms of the Father? If want want to hear the Father tell you that you have done a good job and have Him invite you into His arms, what must you do? Unless you recognize God as who He is, if you do not believe in Jesus Christ, you do not repent of your sins, and you do not live the life of faith, then Heaven will not be yours. Is there someone you hate? Unless you forgive them you will not go to Heaven. You may think God will let a little bit slide by, but He will not. Unless you have been redeemed by the blood you cannot go to Heaven. How can Heaven be your when you hate, judge, and refuse to forgive? We sang that God is One. Do you really give the One true God all the glory and praise? We sing that He is our Father, Master, Groom, and that He is the Spirit which guides us this very day. But do we truly, truly, truly accept Him as your Father and your Savior? God is only worthy of receiving glory. We must give Him glory. The glory that God receives from all of Creation must come from man first, but man fails to do so. All of the Creation, the stones, the winds, waters, all of the beautiful things are praising the Father. But the worship that God desires to receive from man, rather than praising God judge each other, runs from God, says that God is dead, He does not exist. But they say that they believe that there is a god who created the universe. How can they believe in a god that created the universe but then not believe in God? Why do they act foolishly? In your hearts you say you are a Christian and come to church and worship, but examine your heart and see do you truly believe God who is God or do you believe in your idea of a god? The one who has created the world is God. It is no other god. This God tells us that He loves us. He asks us to meet Him face to face. God desires to meet us. He desires that we come to Him as His slave. He desires that we come to Him as His child. He desires that we come to meet Him as His bride. He sent us the Holy Spirit to reveal this to us. That same Holy Spirit is still attempting to show us about God and Jesus Christ by working in our hearts, and through the 66 books of the Bible. But we do not open our hearts to the Holy Spirit. We only open as much as we desire. When I want to leave through that door it must be completely open to do so. If you desire to leave you can do so by opening just enough for you to get out. But when you try to get into Heaven can you do so by just opening the door a little? It is a place you cannot enter so. Though Heaven is place where the door does not close, it is not a place where anyone can enter as many people have shared. Only when The Lord gives you permission, only when you have passed the test then can you enter in the gates of Heaven. The door of your heart must be completely open. You must accept Him as your Savior. You must accept The Lord as your Father. When the Holy Spirit leads you, you are to say "amen" and accept in obedience though you do not understand what you are being given. Then you can establish the right relationship between you and God. If you truly want to establish the right relationship with God then you need to read the Bible properly. Do not read it according to your system, your interpretation, to your liking, reading only what you want. If God is truly the loving Father do not cause others to sin through your own works. Do not hate. The Bible teaches us to consider others better than ourselves, but how better do you consider others than yourself? We say we did but we do not really consider others better. We think that we are better. I am better than that person. You are not. I am not as well. You must love others with the love of God. You must repent before God and forgive them. You have no right to judge and condemn others. God did not give us the authority to do so. Yet we hate people. We say we cannot stand the sight of someone. When God sees us you and I are are not worthy of grace. We are sinners. Though you may say you are a sinner, inside your heart you do not acknowledge that you are. You think that this degree of sin is acceptable. You think others should strive to be like you. That is wrong. We must forgive others. We must truly forgive them. Especially in families, the most difficult one to forgive is the spouse. We overlook the problem and move on. In God's eye that is not forgiveness. Between parent and children. There must be forgiveness between parent and children. If you truly do not forgive then God will not forgive you. This must be established in your life so that you can go and forgive others as well. It is foolish to say you forgive others but not your children, parents, and spouses. Do not behave this way. You can avoid people. Though you say you have forgiven them you have not truly done so. Your family you must see daily so you cannot just overlook the problem, there must be true love and forgiveness. Then your relationship with God can be right. May your relationship with God truly be established rightly in the Word so that when you enter into Heaven, God will tell you "well done" and welcome you into His arms. Sermon by Pastor Joy Youngsook Lee Translation by Miguel Park