Behavior that Pleases God or Satisfies My Desire

Spiritfruit.Aug.3.2012 Behavior that pleases God or satisfies my desire. When we mistakenly think our wrong behavior pleases God, we are also wrong to believe that we are doing His will. We sing and worship God but it is not in truth. Why do we live in this lie? It is because we have been deceived and are blinded by the lies. The lies are our greed and the things that we desire to accomplish and attain rather than truly doing the will of God. These are the things that we go after rather than pursuing God. When you let go of everything, then God’s purpose will be made known to you. There are those who start off doing God’s purpose but somewhere along the line, they forget about God and their purpose becomes their idol. More than fulfilling His purpose God desires us to be with HIm. He wants to be in a relationship with you, but we refuse to be in a relationship with Him. The reason being, when we are in a relationship we have to give of ourselves to the other, and we know ultimately that this means death to ourselves. We know that this is the true way to love and respect each other, so rather than committing ourselves to God, we take the comfortable way and that is to live for a purpose rather than for God. We give God the excuse that we have done everything in obedience to Him, by going on missions, helping the unfortunate, and serving the church but the main purpose is missing. It is not God’s will that we are allowing to happen through our lives, but rather our own purpose which we try to accomplish using God. Think deeply about this. Have you really let go of everything in your life so that God may do His will through you? Do you really want to live according to God’s will? We profess it so readily. When you pray aloud you say it often. You pray to do God’s work and give God everything, but afterward when I speak to you, you live how you want mistaking it for God’s will and obedience to Him. To whom are you obedient? You are obedient to your desires and emotions. If your desires align with God’s will you choose to do such work, but even that becomes a leveraging tool for you to use and try to win favor from God. You think because you have done such works for Him that He will later bless you for it. What blessing are you seeking? To be one with Jesus means the cross. We try to erase from our minds the fact that to be with Jesus means to bear the cross, and we do not want to think of such suffering and pain. Why did Jesus come? Was it to be blessed? He came to die on the cross. Because He died on the cross He tells us to bear the cross also and to walk with Him. Other people fear sharing this message for fear of losing numbers in their church. They would rather preach the prosperity gospel. They preach that if you go to their church you will receive blessings, you will go to heaven, your finances will be better, and you will be healed from your disease. For a new believer this may be true, but as your faith grows we are to know what is and is not. Believers may try to put the blame on the preachers and blame them for preaching these things but the truth is you want to hear these things. You want to hear things that make you comfortable. You want to be told that you have done nothing wrong. You want to be told that you are easily forgiven for your sins as long as you ask for forgiveness. Yes, you will be forgiven but how must you ask for forgiveness? It must be with a contrite heart, a heart of sorrow and remorse. You do not ask for forgiveness right before you go to bed and mention it in passing and think that all is forgiven. You have fallen into a trap. I tell you again, this is not how you repent. If this was the way to repent then there would be none who would not enter into heaven. The bible tells us that the number is few. It is not because God does not desire to take all to Him, it is because our hearts are not right for Him to accept us. We do not believe Him, we only hear what we want, we do what we want and make all the mistakes and desire to go our own way. Why do you want to be fools and make mistakes? Why? You are killing yourself, your family and those around you but still you desire to do what you want to do. Why do we do this? We prefer to listen to the voice of the devil than to God. We think that the voice of the devil is comforting and gives us freedom. Although it may seem this way in the end it is death and hell. The way of God may seem harsh and difficult, but if you obey and follow, it leads to eternity, life and hope. Whom will you follow? If you desire to end up in heaven what must you do? I tell you again, no matter what other people may tell you, the gospel of Jesus is not easy. Believing in Jesus means suffering. Believing in Jesus means that you do not own anything. The problem is you refuse to let go of what is in your hands. If you are willing to let go of everything then there is nothing that God will require of you. It is our greed and the demands that we put in God that causes us to think that God is not on our side. God is not on our side. We are the ones who are to go to the side of God. He is not someone who will do what we tell Him to do. You are living in a lie. You think if you believe in Jesus, and if you go to church that Jesus will be your advocate, “No!” You must go to where God is and go close to Him. We are branches asking the vine to come and attach Himself to us, when it is us who need to go and attach ourselves to Him. If the branch desires to live it must attach itself to the vine and not the other way around. We tell Jesus to listen to us. Why should Jesus listen to you? You are made of dirt, what can you do for HIm? God is the Creator yet we act as if we are the creators. We sit in God’s throne. We are the branches telling Jesus to come and graft to us. We tell Him to be a part of us and do what we desire and what we ask of Him. Is this not true? When you move plants or trees and uproot it they will have such a difficult time thriving, but how can a branch that has no root expect to live apart from the root? Where is God’s will? When you listen to the sermons you nod your heads, but the moment you leave those doors you do what you want. You complain that the sermons are too tough and desire that we would pamper you. You desire that we tell you that you are doing a good job. How ridiculous. Why should you be pampered? What have you done that was worthy of it? In order to be praised you must first do good. If you desire praise then do things that are praiseworthy. You must please God, you must praise Him and give Him glory. God desires to give you so much more than you can imagine. This is something I know a little of. God is eager to reward those who please Him. I ask Him what have they done that is worthy of reward. He replies “isn’t their desire to return back to me beautiful?” Isn’t their desire to give me praise from their hearts beautiful?” I reply that they are far from being worthy of reward, but God delights in those moments where one desires to give glory to God. You do not understand the heart of God so you think that you are pleasing God. You desire that God bless you so that you may go gladly to serve Him. You only desire to be blessed for you satisfaction and pride. That is not the kind of obedience God desires. God desires that you have let go of everything completely and rid yourself of all selfish thoughts and when He gives you the command the only thing you say is “yes” and obey. He desires that you are obedient like Mary. You may think that Mary had it easy, but in those days what she went through she risked her life to do. For an unmarried girl to be with child meant death. She obeyed in the face of death. This is the type of obedience that God desires from each and every one of us, but we think what God desires of Mary and what He desires of you is different. How are you different? What makes you think that you don’t have to sacrifice as much? Why does your will need to be accomplished? Why not God’s will but your will? I keep reminding you that you are not needed for God to do His will. But still God desires to be with us, to forgive us and love us. You keep focusing on the love and forget that there will also be judgment. God will not take you to heaven if you are living in sin. This is judgement. Live on this earth as you like, do what you want but you will be responsible for all your actions in the end. You cannot blame God. Stop living how you want. Everyday in your daily devotions it teaches about not doing what you want or what you desire but rather to do God’s will and when you live in obedience He will be with you. I wonder everyday what you are thinking as you read this, what you have learned, what you are thinking about in your minds everyday. When I pray for you I see that there is no change in your lives. You do it as if you did homework. It is not homework, it is a guide to show you how to live properly with God. I wonder if the teachings are hard but when I ask you, none of you say it is not difficult. It must be easy because you have no questions, if it is easy then why is there no change in your life? To know in your head does not mean you know, it must be in your heart and moved into action. To move what you know from your heart into action is to die to yourself and live in obedience to God. It is our greed that causes us to make demands of God and try to force Him to do what we ask. We are to do as much as we know, but rather than do what God desires we prefer to do what we want, think and say. We use the word of God to make it mean what we want it to mean. Just as we want Jesus to do what we want rather than us going to attach ourselves to Him. It is no longer the gospel of Jesus it is our own gospel. It is not God’s word it is your own word. This is the problem. The bible does not say that you can live how you want, that you are the best, that are praiseworthy. If you are proud then you will die, if you are humble then you will live. This is the teaching in the bible. What is it that you hold onto? It is your own gospel. It is what you think, what you have heard what you desire. Not all who preach do so correctly. Yes, it is possible that I may preach something wrong. That is why you need to know the true word of God. If you do not know the truth then you cannot live the right way according to the scripture. If I teach you something contrary to the scripture then you must be able to renounce that teaching, but how can you without knowledge of the word. If I say something wrong you should be able to rebuke it with scripture, but you don’t know the scripture. When you listen to preachers you don’t discern rather you judge. You say that the preacher is wrong, but if the preacher is wrong are you right? You need the scripture to help you discern what is right and wrong and when you don’t know you must ask. You need to pray and ask God to guide you. Rather you use what you know to judge others. When you hear something strange, you do not use the scripture to compare the teaching to see what God says, you use what you have heard from others to decide if that preacher is right or wrong. That preacher is a person anointed by God. There are many fakes out there, that is why we are told to test the spirits. We are taught not to go where the teaching is wrong. But what do you use to discern. It is the standards that God set that you must use to discern. It is not with what you think you know. You are to use God’s word together with prayer to discern, without it you cannot be discerning. Do not live according to your standards. Do not read the bible according to your standards. That is living for your desire. You are not truly serving God but you are using God for your own satisfaction and peace of mind. What is the difference if you practice another religion or if you sit here not really following Jesus the way you should? Are you really a believer because you sit here? If you choose to sit in church then you must really believe in Him. There is no purpose to sit in church if you do not really follow Him. You cannot pretend to be a follower and point your finger at nonbelievers. There is no difference between you that pretends to follow and the nonbeliever. You will not get into heaven. If you truly desire to serve God, then you must surrender everything before Him, and you must live your life according to the scriptures. You cannot live in sin. You cannot knowingly sin and ask for forgiveness. You must repent until God accepts your apology. I met an individual in Korea who was blind. He went to the hospital asking the doctors to help and they told him they could not. A lady who had overheard him, told him that if he went to the prayer mountain and fasted for 40 days that God would heal him. So he went. He was a nonbeliever who did not know God or ever step foot in a church. So he fasted for 40 days seeking God. He was told that he would be healed after 40 days of fasting but after the 40 days nothing changed. He was obedient for the 40 days but now he started blaming God. What can you say to someone who did not know anything about God and put him into a 40 day fast? After another 3 days of fasting, as he had given up hope and wanted to die, on the 43rd day God met Him and healed him. Not only was he healed of his blindness but God had given him many spiritual gifts. But I am not telling you the story about the blessings, but after the 40 days of fasting during the three days he blamed God, he said God made him repent for 3 years for those three days of blaming God. God had forgiven for all his past sins during the forty days but for those three days he was told by God to continue to pray until God told Him to stop. Every waking moment he repented for blaming God. It was always the first prayer he prayed and prayed countless times. He repented for 3 years! Then one day God told him that it was enough. This is repenting. This is prayer. Do you repent like this? Or do you combine all your sins together and tell God forgive you for all the sins that you know about and don’t know about and just say sorry and expect to be forgiven? Yet, you complain that you have repented enough. God does not forgive that easily and I am telling what I saw and heard. He still lives in Korea. Do not be mistaken and think that because you have been given gifts by God that you have been forgiven. Do not think that because you hear God’s voice that you are free of sin. He shared with us that repenting is truly difficult. He said after that he did all within his strength to not sin. Do not think that you have achieved something because you have received some gifts or power from God. We used to meet him frequently but recently our schedules have not allowed us to see each other. You think when you seek forgiveness from someone that you can just say you are sorry and then everything is resolved. Then you want blame the other person for not accepting your apology. This is you living by your own rules. This is your way of setting standards that you desire everyone to meet for you. I used to believe that God would not go that far as to make someone repent, but if He would have a new believer repent for that long, how much more would He require of us from those who profess to believe in Him and sin knowingly? When I realized the truth about repentance it tore me apart. I had been hoping to invite him to speak at our church one day. He has finished seminary school and many people tell him to be a pastor, but he refuses to do so and works as a janitor at his church. He did so the last I saw him. Many of us choose paths that are not God’s will, many of us choose to do work at higher position but it is not for God but rather for our satisfaction. He has great faith, but he cleans the church. Do you enjoy cleaning the church? He will do nothing else because that is His calling no matter what others tell him. This is obedience to God. It is not your will that must be accomplished. I must do God’s will. I must surrender all of myself and submit completely to Him to be truly a child of God and be His bride. Never forget this. Sermon by Pastor Joy Lee translation by Muguel Park