Despite Persecution....

Romans 12:1-5

Romans 12:1-5 Go and be a true living sacrifice! 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. At times I share with you the things that happened to me during the week. On Friday night we stopped worship and went into prayer so that our hearts would be in a condition to offer worship to God that He could accept. The first week of every month I pray for our service. Today I had a very difficult time praying. I thought that I had prepared myself for worship. I am not sure how you feel about it. Even now I am having difficulty speaking and it feels as if my throat is closing. I am asking you to open your hearts and to pray as you worship. Without doing so it will be difficult for both you and I. This service is being recorded but I felt the need to share this with you. Open your hearts in prayer awaken your spirit and listen intently to this sermon. Today's passage is from Paul to the church and it is still relevant to us today. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. If we are to offer our lives that's true and proper worship does that mean to come once a week on Sunday and to worship God? Or is it true worship in the life that we live? ...offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. If my life has been offered to God as a living sacrifice that my life is no longer mine. Then for 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year my life does not belong to me. It has been given to God. Are we living our lives in this manner? In the hymn we sang today we say that we will draw closer to Him and tell Him that we want to be held in His arms and to receive the eternal blessings. In order to receive eternal blessings I must forsake the things of this world. If I am unable to forsake the things of this world will I be able to receive eternal blessings? I ask the question but you must answer these things for yourself. We sing to Him to do as he wills in our lives, we sing that we offer our lives and our souls to Him and we tell Him to do as he pleases with our lives. We have sung this hymn to Him. What do you think about the lyrics? It is good. It explains the life of a Christian. We sing to Him and ask Him to do what He desires in our lives. In my life. We have sung that our bodies and our souls are his. We sing that either in joy or in sadness that we ask Him to do His will in our lives. We have confessed this to H im. And we finish by saying amen. Are we singing that only during the length of the song that God do what He wills in our lives? And then after we say amen we go and do whatever we want in our lives? We are deceiving God. Is this not so? When we raise our children and there is a little child before us, when we want the child to come to us we put something in front of them and try to tempt them to come and get it. I did that once a long time ago and was scolded harshly by an adult. Why? I was scolded for teaching a child how to lie and deceive. The little child used incredible effort to come get that was which was before him but when he got close, I removed it. I was imprinting in that child how to lie and deceive. I learned a lesson that I must never do that to any other child. We sing to God and ask Him to do His will in our lives. We confess to Him that in joy or in sadness that we will follow Him as He guides us. But the moment something goes our way we fall back into the world. When something becomes difficult we complain. When things are good we do what we want when things are bad we blame God. We confess to Him to do as He would will in our lives but when we do things our way we are deceiving God. We are lying to God. Yet when we bow before Him and ask Him for our blessings do you think that He will be deceived by us? If I truly trust in God and follow him should there be anything that I worry about in my life? There should be none. But if there is always a problem between God and I it is because I do not believe in him. We have lived our lives not thinking like this. We have grown up thinking that to worry is natural and we accept it. But if we are to live the lives that we confess then we must see that we are failing to live to receive the blessings. But if God is still good and he still answers our prayers then we must quickly acknowledge him and change our lives. But the fact that we still refuse to change our lives is because we refuse to let go of our stubbornness. If today I offer my life to him as a sacrifice, and the moment I leave worship I come back to life, then did I really give my life to God as a sacrifice? Yet because we say we offered our lives as a sacrifice during worship, we demand that he gives us the blessings we seek. We demand he loves us. Is this not how we act towards God? We have deceived God, so how could the blessings that we ask of him be true blessings? If this is how we are receiving the blessings of this world, then we must remember that the ruler of this world also has great power. The blessings that we seek from God, comes from the discipline of following in His Word and changing our lives. But the blessings of this world can be gotten easily without any suffering and discipline. If we are seeking the blessings without any suffering and discipline, then we must examine what it is that we are seeking. If I have confessed to God that I am offering my life as a living sacrifice to him, thenI must daily for the rest of my life practice dying to myself so that what I confessed may be true. For the youth today there is much excitement with the iPad the Internet and YouTube. They get lost in these things. I tell the youth that rather than being someone who plays games or uses these things to be the one who creates the games or the programs so that they can become leaders. To be the one who uses what someone else has created, you are only a follower. To always follow somebody else in today's term we can call them a loser. If you are always following somebody you can never become a leader. 2. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. We try to use the things of this world and mold it into what we think God desires. We sit in church and offer worship and then the moment we leave we go and follow the ways of this world. We tried to change the things of God and therefore cannot receive his blessings nor attain things of this world. We make our lives difficult. When it says do not conform to the pattern of this world does not mean do not use the iPad. Does not mean to not use the computer. When you use the iPad and your computer there are great sites that you can visit there are many good things that you can study and many good news that you can share with others. But rather do than doing these things you use it for your own pleasure and to follow the ways of this world. Then when we come out and worship God, our worship is in vain. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. He says each according to the faith that God has distributed to each of you. In the home there is faith that is given to the father and to the mother and also to each of the children. Each has been given a specific purpose and a specific task and they are all different. When I look and see that someone is receiving more recognition and I stop what I do to go do the same thing that is where our problem lies. We do not teach our children to develop the talent that they have been given. Rather we send them for extra study because other parents are sending their children. Because other parents are teaching their children piano and martial arts we force our children to do the same things. At the loss of the children and the parents and time, and ending up where they should be they end up somewhere far from where God has purposed them to be. How often do we see this happen? We see the world is this way. What about those who have been called by God? If you ask 1000 pastors all of them want to have churches with 10,000 members. They all want to have churches in big cities like Seoul and Gang Nam. But it is not this way. There is a place that is designated where each are called to stand and care for. There are some called to be the head and neck, feet, and hands. Everyone is different. They're also the things unseen like the blood vessels and the nerves. All these things are necessary to make one body. Is this not the same with each of us? I have said this many times before, as the head of the household, as the father, if you do not do your part in that household then your house has crumbled. If in this church, as the pastor, if I do not do my part then there is no reason for this church to stand. If I am only here to fulfill the role of the pastor and to stand one day a week and to give a sermon than the spirit of this church is already dead. As the head of your household and as a spiritual leader if you do not decide to take the responsibility to lead the house, then the house is spiritually sick. It is the same in your workplace. What happens to an owner who has no goal and no purpose but opens up a business because he has money? There will be no growth in that business. Without any goals or purpose all the employees below him will end up taking the money. The business will fail. The leader must fulfill his role as a leader. You cannot shift the blame and the responsibility to someone else. At work you cannot shift responsibility to the owner. At church you cannot shift the responsibility to the pastor. The leader of the household is to do his part. The wife is to do her part. Everyone is to do their part. You cannot tell someone to go figure it out when you do not do your part. How are they supposed to figure it out? As the head of the household as the husband my job is to live as an example of Christ Jesus. This has been given to me in accordance to my faith. Pastors are not the only ones who have been given a calling. If you do not do your part as an individual, then this church cannot function properly nor can your families function properly. It is the same in your workplace. It does not matter how great the ideas of the business owner are if all the people in that company from those on the board to those who clean the building do not do their jobs. If people do not do their jobs we know that the business will fail. Then there are those who say that as individuals they are great. But the moment they are put together with someone else they blame the other person. They never take responsibility. When they are alone they do well, but when they are put together with someone else there is a problem. When there are two they should be even more productive. The fact that they are less productive means that they are less efficient. They are lazy. They are not taking responsibility for all their actions. Is the same in the family and in the workplace. It is also the same in the church. In order for God's kingdom to be established here on earth each of us are supposed to take responsibility. We are to do our job individually as a cell. But nobody wants to do their job as a cell but each wants to move up and be the head. As I was doing gardening this week and moving the cabbage plants, I put my hand in the dirt. There was an ant colony. My eyes do not see well. But I had been bitten. My hands became swollen and because of the incredible itch I was woken up many times during the night. Am I sharing this story with you about the ant bites and the swelling, the itch and the sleepless nights? Compared to my body these small ant bites seem like nothing. But the poison from the bite affected my entire body to the point that it bothered me so much that I could not sleep. Examine your life with this story. If one little mistake I made gave me many nights of sleeplessness then what about the one misspoken word or the act that you committed against someone that you thought was harmless? Have you thought about the person that it has affected? Just like the harmless ant bite the things that you have said to your wife or your children? Do you know of heart and feelings of your wife and children after the poison that you have spread into them? You do not know. But when I am bitten I know. We think it is okay for us to say what we want to our spouses but when our spouses say the same thing to us we get angry. We never think about how the other person feels. We complain that we are not recognized at our place of work. We fail to see that it may be our faults that we are not recognized for what we do. In the life that we have been given, as we live our lives of faith, as we offer our lives as a living sacrifice, if we truly follow Christ everything could be well. In the church in our homes in our places of work, everywhere we go we could be recognized, but the reason that we are not is because of our individual actions. The poison that I spread eventually comes back to me. In my place at work I am unable to move up in position. I must realize that when I am not being asked to partake and share in good with others that I have behaved in the manner that has caused me to be shunned by them. It does no good to get angry because you are not being acknowledged. What does it mean to live according to the faith that God has given to you? It is to realize your place. If you are the neck then to be the neck. If you are the hand to be the hand. There is a difference between the right hand and the left hand. As I was buttoning my shirt today there is a difference between what my left hand and right hand are capable of doing even though they may seem the same. Though I am right-handed and I use my right hand for most things what would happen if my left hand felt neglected and decided to fall off? Though my left hand may seem weak without it I would be disabled. It does not matter how strong and capable my right hand is, without my left hand what has happened to me? Though nobody recognizes me for what I do it today, but I gave God my best in service, what is the result? It does not matter that nobody gives you recognition. It is over. God has seen you. God has put you there and though no one sees you God will receive the glory. This is the life we are to live. If we are chasing fame and recognition from others then we must re-examine ourselves. When Paul spoke these things to the churches in Rome was it the only time these things were said? John records what Jesus said in chapter 4 verses 23 and 24 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." He is seeking those who worship in spirit and in truth. To worship in spirit means to live a life of worship. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. Paul is saying what Jesus has taught us. We may try to study the Bible in a way that is easier and pleasing to us. But everything can be traced back to the teachings of Jesus. Our Lord tells us that in the end His Word will be the standard for which we are judged. We are to live our lives according to His Word which is the standard. If we ignore this our life of faith will reap no reward. In one of Oswald Chambers' devotional My Utmost for His Highest it reads ... The victorious saint is one who stands in complete allegiance to God no matter the circumstance. What is a saint? In today's church is a saint and the believer the same? As a believer if I am not victorious in Jesus Christ it is because I am yet to be a saint. What will be the result of my life if I am unable to be in complete allegiance to God as a saint? What if I am not acknowledged by God? You know the answer. The life of a believer should be the life of a saint. I must be victorious. If I am unable to live as a saint then I will be unable to be victorious. When we compare our lives to the lives of those who have gone before us in the Bible there should be no difference. Oswald Chambers also wrote... Christian fellowship is not about meeting people with similar interests, but meeting fellow believers in the Holy Spirit which is true fellowship. In large churches there are large many deacons, elders, doctors, lawyers and many other groups of people. When they gather together, what is there purpose in doing so? They gather according to jobs, likes, interests. But Oswald says that believers are not to gather according to their interests but are to gather in the Holy Spirit. If in the church, if we do not gather in the Holy Spirit, but gather for other reasons, then can we call it true fellowship? We do not see it this way. In the name of doing something for God we separate rather than unite. We divide ourselves in the church. Then it is no longer the work of the Spirit but the work of man. Will this fruit be pleasing to God? It may be pleasing to the eyes of people. But there is also a possibility that it may not be pleasing to God. During the summer when the fruits ripen they may all look the same. But do they all taste the same? They taste different, they smell different and at times they may be inedible. Just like a fruit may look good and be costly the works of man may look good to others but how does God see the works? Who is the judge? Am I not the one who purchases the fruit to to eat? If it is inedible, do you think that God will keep those? If not then you must abandon the old way of life. You must live a life that truly bears the fruit of Christ. In life we get married because we love our spouses. They were pleasing to us and satisfied us. But what happens after marriage? Mostly men but some women also no longer think about the other and do whatever it is that pleases themselves. This happens a lot does it not? When we come before God are we the bride or the groom? We are the bride. Then we being the bride would we want Jesus to have us property? Or should we try to own Jesus as property? Do you understand the question I am asking? If Jesus is the groom then I am the bride. Is Jesus, like me, decides to do as he pleases with me as I do with my wife? Do I have the right to get mad at him? What will I say to Him when He behaves to me the way I do to my wife? Will I tell him that He is unable to behave in that manner to me because He is Lord? No we cannot. We are taught many things. When I look and find someone I decide to marry do I not have to consider how to find favor in their eyes? I have already found them favorable to me. Is that not so? I have found them favorable but now I must find a way for them to like me. What if they do not notice me? What must I do? Yesterday someone shared the story about how she had grown up with someone since they were children at a church and never really took notice of him. One day she noticed that he was the one that she wanted to marry. But because she was shy she did not know how to express herself. So she decided to find out what it is that the man liked and change herself into that image. She continued to pray and transform herself until one day that man noticed her. They eventually got married and continue to do the Lord's work. I am not telling you about how to date but I am sharing with you how to receive the love of someone. You must find a way to find favor in their eyes. I must realize that I must find favor in the eyes of Jesus to receive his love. Let us say that we are all the same. Who would he love? As a parent which child do you love the most? Is it not the child that comes and spends a little bit more time with you? Is it not the child who is far away but continues to call you, rather than the child who stays at home but has nothing to do with you? Is this not obvious? Do we search daily for Jesus in prayer, and praise and worship in our daily lives seeking him? If we do not do these things but say that we love him how will you answer when he asks us to show Him our love for Him? Do you think He will accept our love? He will ask us do you think that our actions are worthy of his attention? He will tell us there are countless believers who adore Him and seek His attention. Why should He give you His attention when you are acting like a bratty child? Let us think about this. What is the life of worship that we are to offer to God? Let us think whether we are able to confess to Him that we will follow Him no matter where he will guide us. Should we not be examining ourselves as we live our lives? Should we be living our lives meeting and gathering amongst ourselves and thinking God is satisfied because we are satisfied? Or are we to gather the educated to the uneducated to form one body to serve one God and to live a life that pleases Him? Last week we talked about the salt that lost its saltiness. It is the one who did whatever they wanted acted according to their feelings and their satisfaction. If we are not to act according to our own selfish desires then we must consider what it is to give God our lives and to make right that which is wrong. Paul writes in first Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16 and 17 16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. Are we living a clean life? If you are not then what does it say that God will do? God will destroy that person. It says that if I am unable to live a life in the spirit that God will destroy that person but we do not think about this. We think that we are doing enough. In first Peter chapter 1 verses 14 through 16 it says 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." The life of the spirit the life of obedience the life of holiness. Is this the easy life? We dislike this life. That means that we refuse to accept the Spirit. We refuse to believe in Jesus.. But yet we say that we are believers. We think we will go to heaven on our own merit, even though it says that God will destroy those who refuse the Spirit. If we are stubborn thinking that we will go to heaven on our own, will we truly enter into heaven? If we look at the Bible it says that we will not. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 48 it says 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. This is the last verse in chapter 5. This is the summary of the entire chapter from verse one through 47. If I accept this teaching as the way to go to the Father then should I not be perfect? This is a command. We are told to be like God. Jesus tells us that He does what He has seen God do. He does what His father has done. If He is telling us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, and He is teaching us to follow Him and to be His disciple and He is giving us the requirements that we must live our lives according to these teachings. But we stop only with knowledge. We must live the lives that we confess with our mouths. We must do as we have spoken so that we do not become liars. Should your lives not be a reflection of what you have promised to God? To give our lives and spiritual worship is not only about this moment and this service, it is about living that life until the day that our Lord calls us. You must decide to live this life. May you live according to the faith that you have been given in the place that you have been put by God, and when God calls you and guides you, may you follow in obedience and give Him the glory so that when you stand before him you will be acknowledged and rewarded. Sermon by Pastor Howard Park Translation by Miguel Park

Schooln disctrict is using RFID chips in students for tracking

Romans 12:1-5

Romans 12:1-5 Go and be a true living sacrifice! 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. At times I share with you the things that happened to me during the week. On Friday night we stopped worship and went into prayer so that our hearts would be in a condition to offer worship to God that He could accept. The first week of every month I pray for our service. Today I had a very difficult time praying. I thought that I had prepared myself for worship. I am not sure how you feel about it. Even now I am having difficulty speaking and it feels as if my throat is closing. I am asking you to open your hearts and to pray as you worship. Without doing so it will be difficult for both you and I. This service is being recorded but I felt the need to share this with you. Open your hearts in prayer awaken your spirit and listen intently to this sermon. Today's passage is from Paul to the church and it is still relevant to us today. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. If we are to offer our lives that's true and proper worship does that mean to come once a week on Sunday and to worship God? Or is it true worship in the life that we live? ...offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. If my life has been offered to God as a living sacrifice that my life is no longer mine. Then for 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year my life does not belong to me. It has been given to God. Are we living our lives in this manner? In the hymn we sang today we say that we will draw closer to Him and tell Him that we want to be held in His arms and to receive the eternal blessings. In order to receive eternal blessings I must forsake the things of this world. If I am unable to forsake the things of this world will I be able to receive eternal blessings? I ask the question but you must answer these things for yourself. We sing to Him to do as he wills in our lives, we sing that we offer our lives and our souls to Him and we tell Him to do as he pleases with our lives. We have sung this hymn to Him. What do you think about the lyrics? It is good. It explains the life of a Christian. We sing to Him and ask Him to do what He desires in our lives. In my life. We have sung that our bodies and our souls are his. We sing that either in joy or in sadness that we ask Him to do His will in our lives. We have confessed this to H im. And we finish by saying amen. Are we singing that only during the length of the song that God do what He wills in our lives? And then after we say amen we go and do whatever we want in our lives? We are deceiving God. Is this not so? When we raise our children and there is a little child before us, when we want the child to come to us we put something in front of them and try to tempt them to come and get it. I did that once a long time ago and was scolded harshly by an adult. Why? I was scolded for teaching a child how to lie and deceive. The little child used incredible effort to come get that was which was before him but when he got close, I removed it. I was imprinting in that child how to lie and deceive. I learned a lesson that I must never do that to any other child. We sing to God and ask Him to do His will in our lives. We confess to Him that in joy or in sadness that we will follow Him as He guides us. But the moment something goes our way we fall back into the world. When something becomes difficult we complain. When things are good we do what we want when things are bad we blame God. We confess to Him to do as He would will in our lives but when we do things our way we are deceiving God. We are lying to God. Yet when we bow before Him and ask Him for our blessings do you think that He will be deceived by us? If I truly trust in God and follow him should there be anything that I worry about in my life? There should be none. But if there is always a problem between God and I it is because I do not believe in him. We have lived our lives not thinking like this. We have grown up thinking that to worry is natural and we accept it. But if we are to live the lives that we confess then we must see that we are failing to live to receive the blessings. But if God is still good and he still answers our prayers then we must quickly acknowledge him and change our lives. But the fact that we still refuse to change our lives is because we refuse to let go of our stubbornness. If today I offer my life to him as a sacrifice, and the moment I leave worship I come back to life, then did I really give my life to God as a sacrifice? Yet because we say we offered our lives as a sacrifice during worship, we demand that he gives us the blessings we seek. We demand he loves us. Is this not how we act towards God? We have deceived God, so how could the blessings that we ask of him be true blessings? If this is how we are receiving the blessings of this world, then we must remember that the ruler of this world also has great power. The blessings that we seek from God, comes from the discipline of following in His Word and changing our lives. But the blessings of this world can be gotten easily without any suffering and discipline. If we are seeking the blessings without any suffering and discipline, then we must examine what it is that we are seeking. If I have confessed to God that I am offering my life as a living sacrifice to him, thenI must daily for the rest of my life practice dying to myself so that what I confessed may be true. For the youth today there is much excitement with the iPad the Internet and YouTube. They get lost in these things. I tell the youth that rather than being someone who plays games or uses these things to be the one who creates the games or the programs so that they can become leaders. To be the one who uses what someone else has created, you are only a follower. To always follow somebody else in today's term we can call them a loser. If you are always following somebody you can never become a leader. 2. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. We try to use the things of this world and mold it into what we think God desires. We sit in church and offer worship and then the moment we leave we go and follow the ways of this world. We tried to change the things of God and therefore cannot receive his blessings nor attain things of this world. We make our lives difficult. When it says do not conform to the pattern of this world does not mean do not use the iPad. Does not mean to not use the computer. When you use the iPad and your computer there are great sites that you can visit there are many good things that you can study and many good news that you can share with others. But rather do than doing these things you use it for your own pleasure and to follow the ways of this world. Then when we come out and worship God, our worship is in vain. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. He says each according to the faith that God has distributed to each of you. In the home there is faith that is given to the father and to the mother and also to each of the children. Each has been given a specific purpose and a specific task and they are all different. When I look and see that someone is receiving more recognition and I stop what I do to go do the same thing that is where our problem lies. We do not teach our children to develop the talent that they have been given. Rather we send them for extra study because other parents are sending their children. Because other parents are teaching their children piano and martial arts we force our children to do the same things. At the loss of the children and the parents and time, and ending up where they should be they end up somewhere far from where God has purposed them to be. How often do we see this happen? We see the world is this way. What about those who have been called by God? If you ask 1000 pastors all of them want to have churches with 10,000 members. They all want to have churches in big cities like Seoul and Gang Nam. But it is not this way. There is a place that is designated where each are called to stand and care for. There are some called to be the head and neck, feet, and hands. Everyone is different. They're also the things unseen like the blood vessels and the nerves. All these things are necessary to make one body. Is this not the same with each of us? I have said this many times before, as the head of the household, as the father, if you do not do your part in that household then your house has crumbled. If in this church, as the pastor, if I do not do my part then there is no reason for this church to stand. If I am only here to fulfill the role of the pastor and to stand one day a week and to give a sermon than the spirit of this church is already dead. As the head of your household and as a spiritual leader if you do not decide to take the responsibility to lead the house, then the house is spiritually sick. It is the same in your workplace. What happens to an owner who has no goal and no purpose but opens up a business because he has money? There will be no growth in that business. Without any goals or purpose all the employees below him will end up taking the money. The business will fail. The leader must fulfill his role as a leader. You cannot shift the blame and the responsibility to someone else. At work you cannot shift responsibility to the owner. At church you cannot shift the responsibility to the pastor. The leader of the household is to do his part. The wife is to do her part. Everyone is to do their part. You cannot tell someone to go figure it out when you do not do your part. How are they supposed to figure it out? As the head of the household as the husband my job is to live as an example of Christ Jesus. This has been given to me in accordance to my faith. Pastors are not the only ones who have been given a calling. If you do not do not do your part as an individual, then this church cannot function properly nor can your families function properly. It is the same in your workplace. It does not matter how great the ideas of the business owner are if all the people in that company from those on the board to those who clean the building do not do their jobs. If people do not do their jobs we know that the business will fail. Then there are those who say that as individuals they are great. But the moment they are put together with someone else they blame the other person. They never take responsibility. When they are alone they do well, but when they are put together with someone else there is a problem. When there are two they should be even more productive. The fact that they are less productive means that they are less efficient. They are lazy. They are not taking responsibility for all their actions. Is the same in the family and in the workplace. It is also the same in the church. In order for God's kingdom to be established here on earth each of us are supposed to take responsibility. We are to do our job individually as a cell. But nobody wants to do their job as a cell but each wants to move up and be the head. As I was doing gardening this week and moving the cabbage plants, I put my hand in the dirt. There was an ant colony. My eyes do not see well. But I had been bitten. My hands became swollen and because of the incredible itch I was woken up many times during the night. Am I sharing this story with you about the ant bites and the swelling, the itch and the sleepless nights? Compared to my body these small ant bites seem like nothing. But the poison from the bite affected my entire body to the point that it bothered me so much that I could not sleep. Examine your life with this story. If one little mistake I made gave me many nights of sleeplessness then what about the one misspoken word or the act that you committed against someone that you thought was harmless? Have you thought about the person that it has affected? Just like the harmless ant bite the things that you have said to your wife or your children? Do you know of heart and feelings of your wife and children after the poison that you have spread into them? You do not know. But when I am bitten I know. We think it is okay for us to say what we want to our spouses but when our spouses say the same thing to us we get angry. We never think about how the other person feels. We complain that we are not recognized at our place of work. We fail to see that it may be our faults that we are not recognized for what we do. In the life that we have been given, as we live our lives of faith, as we offer our lives as a living sacrifice, if we truly follow Christ everything could be well. In the church in our homes in our places of work, everywhere we go we could be recognized, but the reason that we are not is because of our individual actions. The poison that I spread eventually comes back to me. In my place at work I am unable to move up in position. I must realize that when I am not being asked to partake and share in good with others that I have behaved in the manner that has caused me to be shunned by them. It does no good to get angry because you are not being acknowledged. What does it mean to live according to the faith that God has given to you? It is to realize your place. If you are the neck then to be the neck. If you are the hand to be the hand. There is a difference between the right hand and the left hand. As I was buttoning my shirt today there is a difference between what my left hand and right hand are capable of doing even though they may seem the same. Though I am right-handed and I use my right hand for most things what would happen if my left hand felt neglected and decided to fall off? Though my left hand may seem weak without it I would be disabled. It does not matter how strong and capable my right hand is, without my left hand what has happened to me? Though nobody recognizes me for what I do it today, but I gave God my best in service, what is the result? It does not matter that nobody gives you recognition. It is over. God has seen you. God has put you there and though no one sees you God will receive the glory. This is the life we are to live. If we are chasing fame and recognition from others then we must re-examine ourselves. When Paul spoke these things to the churches in Rome was it the only time these things were said? John records what Jesus said in chapter 4 verses 23 and 24 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." He is seeking those who worship in spirit and in truth. To worship in spirit means to live a life of worship. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. Paul is saying what Jesus has taught us. We may try to study the Bible in a way that is easier and pleasing to us. But everything can be traced back to the teachings of Jesus. Our Lord tells us that in the end His Word will be the standard for which we are judged. We are to live our lives according to His Word which is the standard. If we ignore this our life of faith will reap no reward. In one of Oswald Chambers' devotional My Utmost for His Highest it reads ... The victorious saint is one who stands in complete allegiance to God no matter the circumstance. What is a saint? In today's church is a saint and the believer the same? As a believer if I am not victorious in Jesus Christ it is because I am yet to be a saint. What will be the result of my life if I am unable to be in complete allegiance to God as a saint? What if I am not acknowledged by God? You know the answer. The life of a believer should be the life of a saint. I must be victorious. If I am unable to live as a saint then I will be unable to be victorious. When we compare our lives to the lives of those who have gone before us in the Bible there should be no difference. Oswald Chambers also wrote... Christian fellowship is not about meeting people with similar interests, but meeting fellow believers in the Holy Spirit which is true fellowship. In large churches there are large many deacons, elders, doctors, lawyers and many other groups of people. When they gather together, what is there purpose in doing so? They gather according to jobs, likes, interests. But Oswald says that believers are not to gather according to their interests but are to gather in the Holy Spirit. If in the church, if we do not gather in the Holy Spirit, but gather for other reasons, then can we call it true fellowship? We do not see it this way. In the name of doing something for God we separate rather than unite. We divide ourselves in the church. Then it is no longer the work of the Spirit but the work of man. Will this fruit be pleasing to God? It may be pleasing to the eyes of people. But there is also a possibility that it may not be pleasing to God. During the summer when the fruits ripen they may all look the same. But do they all taste the same? They taste different, they smell different and at times they may be inedible. Just like a fruit may look good and be costly the works of man may look good to others but how does God see the works? Who is the judge? Am I not the one who purchases the fruit to buy it and eat it and decide if it is in inedible and must be thrown away? Knowing this do you think that God will keep those who are not good and edible? If not then you must abandon the old way of life. You must live a life that truly bears the fruit of Christ. In life we get married because we love our spouses. They were pleasing to us and satisfied us. But what happens after marriage? Mostly men but some women also no longer think about the other and do whatever it is that pleases themselves. This happens a lot does it not? When we come before God are we the bride or the groom? We are the bride. Then we being the bride would we want Jesus to have us property? Or should we try to own Jesus as property? Do you understand the question I am asking? If Jesus is the groom then I am the bride. Is Jesus, like me, decides to do as he pleases with me as I do with my wife? Do I have the right to get mad at him? What will I say to Him when He behaves to me the way I do to my wife? Will I tell him that He is unable to behave in that manner to me because He is Lord? No we cannot. We are taught many things. When I look and find someone I decide to marry do I not have to consider how to find favor in their eyes? I have already found them favorable to me. Is that not so? I have found them favorable but now I must find a way for them to like me. What if they do not notice me? What must I do? Yesterday someone shared the story about how she had grown up with someone since they were children at a church and never really took notice of him. One day she noticed that he was the one that she wanted to marry. But because she was shy she did not know how to express herself. So she decided to find out what it is that the man liked and change herself into that image. She continued to pray and transform herself until one day that man noticed her. They eventually got married and continue to do the Lord's work. I am not telling you about how to date but I am sharing with you how to receive the love of someone. You must find a way to find favor in their eyes. I must realize that I must find favor in the eyes of Jesus to receive his love. Let us say that we are all the same. Who would he love? As a parent which child do you love the most? Is it not the child that comes and spends a little bit more time with you? Is it not the child who is far away but continues to call you, rather than the child who stays at home but has nothing to do with you? Is this not obvious? Do we search daily for Jesus in prayer, and praise and worship in our daily lives seeking him? If we do not do these things but say that we love him how will you answer when he asks us to show Him our love for Him? Do you think He will accept our love? He will ask us do you think that our actions are worthy of his attention? He will tell us there are countless believers who adore him and seeking his attention but why should he give you his attention when you are acting like a bratty child? Let us think about this. What is the life of worship that we are to offer to God? Let us think whether we are able to confess to Him that we will follow Him no matter where he will guide us. Should we not be examining ourselves as we live our lives? Should we be living our lives meeting and gathering amongst ourselves and thinking God is satisfied because we are satisfied? Or are we to gather the educated to the uneducated to form one body to serve one God and to live a life that pleases Him? Last week we talked about the salt that lost its saltiness. It is the one who did whatever they wanted acted according to their feelings and their satisfaction. If we are not to act according to our own selfish desires then we must consider what it is to give God our lives and to make right that which is wrong. Paul writes in first Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16 and 17 16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. Are we living a clean life? If you are not then what does it say that God will do? God will destroy that person. It says that if I am unable to live a life in the spirit that God will destroy that person but we do not think about this. We think that we are doing enough. In first Peter chapter 1 verses 14 through 16 it says 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." The life of the spirit the life of obedience the life of holiness. Is this the easy life? We dislike this life. That means that we refuse to accept the Spirit. We refuse to believe in Jesus.. But yet we say that we are believers. We think we will go to heaven on our own merit, even though it says that God will destroy those who refuse the Spirit. If we are stubborn thinking that we will go to heaven on our own, will we truly enter into heaven? If we look at the Bible it says that we will not. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 48 it says 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. This is the last verse in chapter 5. This is the summary of the entire chapter from verse one through 47. If I accept this teaching as the way to go to the Father then should I not be perfect? This is a command. We are told to be like God. Jesus tells us that He does what He has seen God do. He does what His father has done. If He is telling us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, and He is teaching us to follow hHim and to be His disciple and He is giving us the requirements that we must live our lives according to these teachings. But we stop only with knowledge. We must live the lives that we confess with our mouths. We must do as we have spoken so that we do not become liars. Should your lives not be a reflection of what you have promised to God? To give our lives and spiritual worship is not only about this moment and this service, it is about living that life until the day that our Lord calls us. You must decide to live this life. May you live according to the faith that you have been given in the place that you have been put by God, and when God calls you and guides you, may you follow in obedience and give him the glory so that when you stand before him you will be a acknowledged and rewarded. Sermon by Pastor Howard Park Translation by Miguel Park

Are You Living In The Word?

We say that we are living in the Word. Let us examine to see if we are truly living according to the Word. To say that we are living in the Word means that we are living in obedience to God. The word of God and his commands are one. To obey his commands is to live in the Word. The Word is revealed to us through the Holy Spirit. Taking these revelations and applying it to our lives is to live according to the Word. Many of us have knowledge of the Word. It has been widespread. You can turn on the radio and hear messages given on the Word. Though we hear many messages on the Word, does the Word really penetrate us, like a sharp sword, that moves us to make a decision to live according to it? Or is it just knowledge that I use to go and try to correct and teach others? Food is necessary to eat and receive the nutrients that I may have the strength to live my life. Likewise the Word is food for the spirit that provides nourishment and gives me strength so that I may live according to it. Am I living according to the Word, taking it out into the world sharing it with others, and bringing those nonbelievers into the circle of believers? Or do I just have knowledge of the Word and when I live in the world act no differently from those who do not know the Word? Am I living my life deceiving others? What path are you living? Would anyone be able to look at you and know that you are a believer? Would they say that you are trustworthy? Would they be able to follow you? Would they be willing to give up all they have trust you? Are you living this kind of life? Or do we put on an act as Christians as we persecute and judge others? Rather than point fingers at other Christians we should look at ourselves and realize that others are judging us in the same manner. What happens when we fail to look at ourselves, when we think that we are perfect, when we believe that we are great followers of Jesus? What happens when we put hope in our family history of believers? Are we then really living according to the Word? There is great importance in coming from generations of believers. Passing on faith from one generation to the next is very valuable. But of what value is it to come from a family of great believers if the following generation does not live according to the Word? If my parents were martyrs and had great faith but I do not live according to the Word, then I will not receive eternal salvation. The first to believe in their family goes through many trials and sufferings. It is because the child who once belonged to the devil has now been adopted into God's family, so the devil will not rest and leave them alone. There is great resistance in their life of faith. The first one to believe in their family suffers greatly. For those first believers to pass on their faith to their next generation is an incredible blessing. It is a special blessing. Some have not been able to reap the rewards of this blessing, or apply it in their lives. For some it has become a stumbling block in their walk with Christ. Because they come from a long family history of believers, they become proud and forsake God. They come and go to church. They take positions and serve in churches. But those positions are useless. God is not looking for someone in high positions but He loves the one who is consumed with His Word and living according to it. Why is this? It is because God is looking at our hearts. He is looking at you clearly. We can say that we love Jesus and that Jesus is everything to us. But if Jesus is everything to you then you could not be living that way. You could not behave that way. The moment something bothers me my heart changes. But I can cover that up. People can look at me and say "oh she's a pastor, she has great faith." But I know the truth and God knows the truth. I can fool myself. I can mistakenly believe that I have great faith. There are many who are mistaken and believe that they are living the life of faith. When I meet people they are living in deception. And when we talk and go deep into their hearts the truth comes out. There are those who did not realize that they were living in deception. It is because they have been covering themselves up and making themselves look a certain way. They have trained themselves to be a certain way thinking that they are following Jesus. We have heard the recordings of people who have been to hell. They question why they are there. They say they followed Jesus, they went to church, they gave offerings and they witnessed, and question why they are in hell. You have heard these tapes. Why are they there? It is because they believe that by doing those things they would enter into heaven. There is no salvation through works. You are to believe in Jesus and live a life of faith, but you cannot enter into heaven thinking Once in a while I meet someone who is quiet and keeps to themselves. They seem to do nothing. They make no boasts or claims. It seems as though they do not serve at church. Some of them are sick and weak. Some do not have finances to give. But their heart is toward God and God loves them and takes pleasure in them. How about those who are here? I think that many of you are under the false assumption that you have great faith. You think that you are doing enough. It would be great if it were true. But we must look at what God desires. God must see that you truly desire to be with Him. He is not looking for you to do something for Him. His greatest desire is to have a relationship with you. God desires that our relationship is made right with Him first. He desires that we believe in Jesus and the blood that cleanses us and to follow Him. When the Spirit guides us we must have the heart of obedience and say yes. God desires our faith in Him. He does not take pleasure in us coming to church and giving our offering. These things are irrelevant. Then you ask how will a church stay open? When you truly meet Jesus and are transformed you will naturally come to church and give your service to God. You do not do these things because someone else is watching or because of your pride. When you are truly grateful that God is your father in Jesus is your groom and that you are led by the Spirit then you will live your life and serve God and others. This is the Christian that we are to be. This is the Word that we are to live. We are not to think that we have done enough or that what we have done is good enough. We should not look to others and think ourselves better than them. God does not take pleasure because you come to church more than someone else or you give more offering or because you serve more. He cares to know if you are truly one with Him. Our relationship must be right with Him so that we can live according to His will and in His Word. Do not put your faith in God according to what you think you know or what you have learned or with your stubbornness. There are many pastors who know the Word very well. I think to myself that I do not speak well. There is nothing I am exceptional at and there is not much that I know about. The only thing I do is to share with you my life as I live according to the Word. I may not have the education to be here but I am here for a reason and that is to walk with you together in God. There is much exposure to the Word. But with all that exposure what are you taking from it and putting in your life. Is this Word deeply rooting itself in my heart? The deeper the roots the bigger the tree. The deeper the roots the stronger it is against wind and rain. But if the roots are weak, then even if a small wind blows or if a small storm happens, it becomes uprooted and dies. Is this the tree that you are going to be? Or are you going to have deep roots, deeply rooted in the Word of God, so that no matter what happens in your life, no matter how great the storm you will stand firm? But to be this tree your roots must be deep in God's word. There are many trials, pains, and suffering in our lives. Believers in God or not free from burden and pain. Are your roots deeply planted? There was a recent hurricane on the East Coast and many states were affected. There are places that have been undamaged and places that have been damaged. If all this had happened to do how would you react? We look at the events from afar. But if these things have happened to your house could you give thanks to God? Would you praise God for saving your life and allowing you to continue to fulfill your purpose? Would you give thanks even though your house was ruined but you were still breathing? If you lost a family member could you still give thanks to God? If everything was taken from you could you still give thanks to God? What does it mean to live in faith? Are you grateful because you have attained everything that you desired? What if everything was taken from you? What if you could no longer do the work that you were purposed to do? What if the path before you is still not open? Would you continue to put your faith in God and follow Him? In places where work you are faced with many trials and hardships. Are you grateful for what you have and filled with joy and gratitude? Are you grateful for the life that you have today? Are you giving thanks daily? What is taking root in your heart? Are the things in your heart easily uprooted when faced with a small storm? Or are there roots deep in your heart? In the midst of a great storm there are sea life that live in those that die. Where do you stand? Are all those that die dead because they are bad? Do only nonbelievers die? During the recent hurricane in the East Coast did only nonbelievers suffer? It is not so. There are both believers and nonbelievers alike. As a believer during these trials will you blame God? Or will you continue and joy and gratitude? Who decides? We decide for ourselves. With what? With your will. A long time ago when I was young I believed that those who believed in Jesus never suffered. We always had difficulties in our house. Growing up in the house where our father was a pastor there was always difficulties. I did not think of these things as difficulties but other things as difficulties. I believed that Jesus protected all his followers. But as my faith grew and as I grew older and continued in my walk I realized it was not so. God is with us in our difficulties. We are trained through them and disciplined in them. Growing up I never understood the book of Job. I thought that what was written in it and my life had nothing to do with each other. I questioned why I suffered when I had faith in God and tried to follow Him. But looking back I realize that this is not the way. God is looking for his true children His true servants. God was asking me if I would still follow him through all the trials, pain and suffering. It was His way of asking me. When I used to read Job I thought that everything happened suddenly. It is a short book. But we have come to see that it has taken 20 years. What I thought had taken place in the week was not so. But this is what we desire. In our difficulties and trials the moment we pray to God we desire that H rescues us quickly from our circumstance and restore everything to us immediately. It is not so. You are all aware of my physical situation. I was unable to put my feet on the floor nor stand. God is restoring me but it is taking time. This past week I walked around and today has been very difficult for me. I shared with my children that God has been restoring me but today has been very difficult and I think it is a problem. My children responded and told me that even healthy individuals after exercise hurt and must recover. They told me because I had walked this week that the pain I'm suffering is natural and that there was no problem. We desire things to happen overnight. The Bible tells us of people who were born crippled but immediately healed. There are testimonies of people who have been crippled for 30 or 40 years and healed immediately and able to stand and walk. But God is teaching me to walk. God uses different methods with different people. I too thought that I would immediately stand, walk, and dance. I am being restored little by little. I was unable to wash my own hair but I am now able to wash my own hair and I am able to stand and walk. I am practicing to walk. How are you living your life? Are you seeking to live daily in obedience or are you looking only to be satisfied and when you are not you renounce Jesus and desire to come back to Him on your own terms? God does not desire this kind of faith. No matter how difficult your circumstance, no matter how painful your sickness and disease, no matter the persecution you suffer for Jesus, no matter the ridicule you suffer for your faith, no matter the financial loss for your faith in Jesus, even if you are shunned by your friends for your faith in Jesus, will you truly not forsake Jesus? This is what our Lord is asking you and me. Our problem is we change our hearts from moment to moment. It is because we do not truly hold Jesus in our hearts. We love to say that God loves us. Truly, God does love us. When I lay hands and pray for people God always tells them that He loves them. God loves us all. We are mistaken to believe that God loves us even though we knowingly live in sin. How can God love us? Even people do not love those who are insincere. I am the one who distances myself away from God. If I say that God loves me but I do not live according to His love, then one day I will find myself far away from Him. And then if I blame Him for not holding onto me it will all be my doing. Do you truly feel that God loves you? Then you must love God. To love God does not mean to live the way you want and that you desire. To love God is to live according to his will his comments and in his way. You cannot live however you want and say that you are loving God. There is no one on this earth who God does not love. God does not desire to send any one to hell. Do not be mistaken. You may look at someone and think that God has destined them for hell. It is not so. He does not desire to send anyone to hell. But there is no choice but to end up in hell if you choose by your own will to not believe in Him, to obey Him and live according to His Word. How was not created for people. It was created for the devil. But because the devil is angry he is trying to take the souls of the people whom God loves with him. God desires that we come to Him but if I have fallen into the trap of believing that I am following him when I am not then I will end up in hell. Do not be mistaken and think that God will forcibly take you into heaven. God does not have the power to do so. God has given us His Word and He has commanded us to serve Him with all our hearts. He would not have needed to give us this command if He were to forcibly take us into heaven. How great it would be if though we did not believe Him if He still took us into heaven. But it is not so. God desires that we choose to love Him out of our free will. It is written that H stands at the door and knocks but we must open that door in order to let Him in to be with us. God does not force the door open to come in to be with us. Is your door open? Do you desire to receive the Lord and to follow Him? Think about this seriously. You say you love him. If you love Him you cannot disobey Him. If you love Him you must obey His commands. If you love Him you will choose to surrender yourself completely to Him. This is how you live according to the Word. This is a life where you walk with our Lord. This is to live according to His will and to be guided by the Holy Spirit. To hold on to our Lord. To bear the burden of the cross. To share in the suffering. And to go together with Jesus. Jesus tells us that we must pick up the cross and follow Him. It is not written that we surrender everything to Jesus and then He will do everything for us and we are to follow easily behind them. We are told to go together with Him. But this is difficult for us to do. Without our Lord it is difficult. But because our Lord is with us and He carries the burden with us, our burden is easy and light. At times we try to carry the burden on our own. We tell Jesus to step aside and that we will go forth and use our own strength and carry the burden. This is also not the way. We must walk together with our Lord. We are to bear the burden together. Let us truly receive the Lord in our hearts. Let us carry our burdens together. And let us be victorious in living according to the Word. Sermon by Pastor Joy Lee Translation by Miguel Park

Luke 14:25-35

Attaining Heaven by meeting the requirements of a true disciple. 25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, 'This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.' 31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won't he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. 34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out."Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear." Is anything we should think about as we look at this passage in Luke? I am not sure what it is that you think about as you read this passage, but Jesus is teaching us the way of being a disciple. There are many areas of study today including the study of discipleship. It is not the study of discipleship that is important. Jesus has made it very simple for us. And if you only follow the way that he has set before us your training to be a disciple can be very easy. The issue is the decision. There is a large crowd following Jesus. The path that Jesus is going they are following. But Jesus turns to them and tells them: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. This is the key to His message. Who are we to love more than father, mother, wife, child, brothers and sisters and even their own life? Jesus is telling them that the requirement to be his disciple is that you must love him more than anyone else. We study the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and know that these are all things that have been and will come to pass. We know that Jesus has done all things. But all that we know, although we have studied from Genesis to Revelation, means nothing if we love our parents, our wives, our husbands, our children and ourselves more than we love Jesus. If I know nothing of the Bible, if I know nothing about the creation or Abraham or anything in any other books but I am assured of one thing, my love for Jesus and my willingness to lay down my life for Him, then I can be His disciple. If we spend much time studying the word of God but have no application of it in our lives then it means nothing. It is possible to love Jesus more than our parents. Why? It is easy to be unhappy with our parents. Is that not so? When are parents upset us we can confess that we love Jesus more than our parents. Even though we are head over heels for our wives are we completely satisfied with them? There are times when we are not. At those times we can easily desire to be rid of them. Many of today's youth leave their parents and elope. Do those marriages last long? Soon after, they start fighting and get divorced. It is easy to be done with them. It is easy to let go of your children and our wives and confess that we love Jesus more. We can even let go of our siblings. But the one thing we can't let go of his our pride. We refuse to let go of our stubbornness. Then can you say that you are living the life of a disciple of Jesus? Is it not difficult to throw away our pride? How difficult it is to rid ourselves of our stubbornness. When we get angry that is our stubbornness. Anger and raising our voices are all signs of our stubbornness. This all has to do with our pride. We get angry and raise our voices because our pride has been affected. We blame our wives and our children for hurting our pride and therefore we get angry. We have a hard time throwing our pride away. Our lives are even more valuable than our pride. Jesus tells us that we must be willing to give up our own lives to be his disciple. But how can we be his disciple when we refuse to give up our pride which is of less value than our lives? Can we really say that we are in training to be his disciples? That disciple is a false disciple. Just like Judas Iscariot he is one who is capable of betraying Jesus for his own good. Are we living our lives like this? What kind of life? For 30 shekels of silver we are betraying Jesus with our very lives. Are we truly His disciple? Let us examine ourselves according to the Word. Look at your life this past week. Did you die for Jesus this week? Did you abandon everything to follow Jesus? If you were unable to live a life of sacrifice this week for Jesus, then let us take a closer look at what the word is saying. Did I live my life as a disciple of Jesus? Those who do not hate their own lives cannot be his disciple. Then Jesus further says: And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. The second requirement is to carry the cross in order to be His disciple. In order to fulfill a contract all requirements must be satisfied. When you are trying to sell a house and the offer has come, who's offer will you accept? Does the owner not accept the offer that satisfies him most? Even if there are hundreds of offers if it does not satisfy the owner he does not accept. Though you may decide what you want to offer, the deal is not complete unless it is accepted by the other party. What do you do when there are things that you must have? Do you not make more of a sacrifice to attain them? When real estate was booming people not only gave the full offer but they offered additional money to purchase the real estate. Likewise when Jesus lays out the requirements to be his disciple, who will He accept as His disciples? Let us use our True Light church members as an example. It would be great if all of us were his disciples, but what if Jesus came and only chose 12? Who will He choose? Who will He choose? In your places of business who gets chosen to be an employee? They are the ones who are qualified. The ones who satisfy the employer. This is basic. We all know this. God is accepting us as His adopted children. Who will He accept as His children? Is it the one who causes the most trouble? Will He accept these children? Let us say that now that you are getting older and have more financial freedom and you decide to adopt a child. As Christians it would be great to raise a child to save them from poverty or sickness or any suffering and give them an opportunity to live a life that is free from burden. As we begin to get older and we have less energy to look after these children, if you were to choose a child who did not need much constant attention would you not choose a child that was best suited to you? This is a basic standard for all. Is this not so? Is God not the same? With God accept those as disciples who do whatever they want and rebel against him? When there are no specific requirements laid out for us then we can make an offer of our own and try to satisfy Him. But the requirements have been laid out. If I decide to sell my house for half a million dollars in cash, then these are my requirements. Likewise when Jesus says if you want to follow me you must love me more than your parents, more than your siblings, even more than yourself. You must love me more. Then you can be my disciple. In addition He says you must carry the cross and follow Him in order to be His disciple. These are requirements. When we say we believe in Jesus are we satisfying his requirements? Are you? Rather than satisfy his requirements we tell Him what we have done for Him. Do we not come before him saying we have done such and such for Him and now we ask Him to bless us in return? Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? He is telling us to consider the cost. He uses the example of going to war and if you are not going to win the war then to go and make peace. Let us use these examples and apply them to our lives. Jesus is telling us that if we don't have the decisiveness to love him more than our parents, children and ourselves then He is telling us to abandon being his disciple. Is He not telling us to abandon the path of discipleship? This is what He is saying. He is saying if you want to be My disciple meet My requirements. If you do not meet My requirements then in the end I will disown you and you will have lived a useless life. As pastor Lee always tells us you will have neither enjoyed this life nor attained heaven. Do not live your life pretending to be a Christian. Our Lord is telling us to not live to satisfy yourself and your requirements. We are told that when people start building and cannot finish because they do not have enough funds they will be ridiculed by others. We are told to not start a war that we will not be able to win and then up having to pay more costs through our losses and suffering. Just as we are shown in today's Scripture, if I am unable to finish what I start both in this world and in my pursuit of discipleship then I will be ridiculed. People will ridicule you and question "is that what a Christian is supposed to do, to do whatever they want?" If you live your life the same as those who live in the world and the only difference is that you come to church on Sunday, who would want to follow that Jesus that you supposedly serve? Not only will you be ridiculed but people will also ridicule Jesus. We are told to not live this kind of life. In Matthew chapter 13:44-46 Jesus gives the parable of the kingdom of Heaven as a treasure in the field and also as a fine pearl. What was the point of these parables? What did the person do when he found the treasure and he found the pearl? He sold all he had to purchase the field and the pearl. To sell all one has is to love Jesus more than their spouses, their wives, their children and even themselves. To sell all one has to buy the field and to buy the pearl is the same. Just as the field and the pearl is precious enough to sell everything for it, my love for Jesus is greater than my love for anyone else. If the pearl something that we must obtain, if Jesus is the one we choose to follow, if heaven is our goal, then I must sell all that I have to meet the requirements of Jesus. I must sell all I have to purchase Jesus. If we are not meeting His requirements we must examine ourselves. In darkness even the faintest light can be seen. Even the smallest grain of salt when we taste it is salty. Jesus says: Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? Has anyone ever seen salt that has lost its saltiness? No matter how old salt is or what has been done to it unless it is put into water and dissolved it remains salty. Then why does Jesus use this example of salt? Jesus always spoke in parables and examples. Who is he comparing the salt to? He is comparing salt to those who believe in Jesus. The salt does not lose it saltiness but people can change. I can be a follower of Jesus who loses the flavor of salt and end up being a false disciple. Then other believers and even our Lord will throw me out and I will be trampled on. I will be trampled upon because I was unable to be the salt that I am supposed to be. Are you living your life of faith thinking about such things? We speak of salt and use salt in many of our examples. We know about salt and how we are to be like salt. But we never think about the salt that loses its saltiness, the follower who is unable to maintain their salt who was thrown out and trampled upon. Should we not think about these things as we live our lives of faith? We can see in Scripture that we must abandon our desire to satisfy ourselves, our flesh when we choose to follow Jesus, but are we not following Jesus in order to attain the things that we desire? We say that we have done enough for Him. When you have children do you love the ones who are rebellious who do whatever they want? Do you love them forever? Can you still love them? When our children do not do their homework and notices are sent home to the parents, Do parents not get angry? Is this not so? Parents get upset because the children are embarrassing them. We say we are children of God but do we go out into the world being the light we are called to be, and complete our homework? Are we being the salt and the light? Is the scent of Jesus coming off of us? No. And the people of the world are ridiculing us, giving us bad grades, but yet we tell God we love him and ask Him to bless us so that we can use those blessings for Him. This is how we desire to live our lives of faith. Then the God of love, will He always love us and forgive us and bless us when we behave this way? If so, then Jesus would not have to tell us the requirements. But it is not so. If the requirement is that I must hate myself in order to be His disciple, then we must calculate the cost and start over. We think we have no possessions if we have nothing in our bank accounts. Many people think possessions are houses and material things. Possessions are not about the number of children. Money, status and merit are all things that are fading away. But the thing that we hold onto the most is our will, our pride. This is our biggest stumbling block when we approach God. There are times in our lives when we look at ourselves and we are disappointed with ourselves. Though no one may say anything to us we are disappointed. When do we do this? It is because of our own pride that we do this to ourselves. No matter what the world says no matter what other people are doing if I keep my eyes on Jesus I can continue to go forward, but there are many times when we fail to do this. To truly follow Jesus I must be dead to myself I must let go of everything. The inability to do so means that there is something still within me something between myself and God. Abraham received a son at 100 years old. And then years later when he was much older and could no longer think of having another son, God asked him to sacrifice his son. Why was Abraham able to make the decision to go and offer his son as a sacrifice? How was he able to make the decision? It is because he had met God and to him God was most precious. Having met God he loved God more than his son Isaac. So when God asked him to sacrifice his son he was able to decide to do it. Likewise if I am able to meet God, the One who sent his son Jesus for me, then I too will be able to make this decision to lay down everything and to follow him. Although I have the knowledge of God my inability to move that knowledge into action means I have yet to be satisfied in Him. In the book of Judges 11 we are introduced to Jephthah who was a mighty warrior. He is the son of Gilead and a prostitute. So he was driven from their land. But when the Israelites went to war with the Ammonites they ask Jephthah to be their leader. What was his vow to God when he asked for victory? He offered to give as a sacrifice whatever came out his door when he returned home. Who came out of his door? It was his one and only daughter. What was his reply? He replied that his daughter had made him sad but because of his vow he had made to God he offered his daughter as a sacrifice. What about King Saul? He made a vow before God and men. And when the people said no to the sacrifice he did not sacrifice his son, because he cherished his son. He could not sacrifice his son because his son was more precious to him than God. When you make a vow to God, though you may feel like you are losing, in heaven you will be gaining great reward. And Acts chapter 5 we are told the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They have been blessed with the spirit. But after selling their possessions they hid some for themselves. They lost their lives because of this. What if they did not sell their possessions? Like Peter said before they sold it was theirs even after they sold it it belonged to them, but they have been deceived by the devil and lied to God. When we face many problems we made vows to God, and the moment those problems are resolved we walk away from our vows. We forget about the promises we make to him. We do not forget our promises because we have accidentally forgotten our promises. It is because we desire to forget them that we purposely walk away from them. Do I realize that I am being like Ananias and Sapphira and living in a lie? Because I do not realize this I do not realize that I am losing my life. All these things deal with the life around me. When I pray to God that I am going to offer him everything but I do not follow through, then I am like a fool who is tossing away his life. How should we be living our lives? The decision must be made by you. Yesterday as we watched the show each of us saw something, learned something, and have forgotten things. When you are fighting a spiritual battle and you get lost in the things of this world then you have already lost that battle. That is why when we gather for worship it is difficult for many of us to worship but many of us do not realize this. We know how much those individuals trained and sacrificed in order for us to be entertained by them. But did they make mistakes or were they perfect? They made mistakes. Can we ask for a refund because they made mistakes? We don't focus on the mistakes but we enjoy the show as a whole. But there is a difference between the entertainers and those athletes who compete in the Olympics. What happens when athletes make mistakes in a competition? There is no reward. Is that not so? Some athletes when they fail in an Olympic game that is the end of their career. We see judges make bad decisions and the outcomes change dramatically. In these events one call can change the outcome forever but in a show when they make mistakes the entertainers get up and keep the show going. Our lives should have both the importance of the games and also the ability as entertainers when we make mistakes to get up and to keep going. I must try my best to use this one opportunity to not lose that which I seek to stay focused and use all my strength. But what happens if in my pursuit I make a mistake? Do I sit down and give up? No, then I will be disqualified. I must get up and keep going. Just as the entertainers when they make a mistake get up and keep the show going on. In your life there will be times when you make mistakes. But when you make a mistake you don't give up and sit down you get up you repent and you keep going forward. When you get up and keep moving forward as an individual then together as a team we can keep moving forward together. Our True Light church is a team. Your family is a team. Your business Is a team. When you make a mistake you must get up. Rather than making mistakes and trying to get up, victory comes to those who try not to make a mistake by being alert a focused. The one who is awake is the one who can walk the path and be the disciple of Jesus. Warren Buffett was asked by a college student what is true success? True success is not making a lot of money or reaching high status. True success is being loved by the ones who are close to you. It is being with your family. A family can be 2, 3, or more. It can include your extended relatives and even this church. To be successful means that you are loved by those around you. As a pastor if I am not loved by you then I have failed. In my family if I am not loved by my wife my children, then as the head of this house I have failed. If in my business I am not acknowledged by those around me then I cannot succeed. To be loved by those were close to you does not only mean your children, your wife, or your husband. It is anyone who is associated with you. I must go to these places and be able to be loved by them. But as followers of Christ who's love should we truly seek? It is our Lord's love. If I am not able to receive His love how then can I say I am being successful? No matter how difficult my circumstance if I do not desire to follow the Lord with all my heart how then will I be able to tell people that I am living a life of victory in Christ? We have talked about Abraham and Jephthah but there is one who is even more outstanding. He is Job. Abraham was told to make a sacrifice and he was stopped from making the sacrifice. Jephthah sacrificed one daughter. Job lost all 10 of his children. Was that all? He lost all his possessions. Was that all? He also lost his health? Was that all? His wife told him to curse God and die. His wife had turned on him. He lost everything in this world but he never renounced God. This is true victory in God. Jesus laid out these requirements so that we too may be victorious in this life. The Bible is showing us that Job lived the life that met these requirements. In order for us to live this life I must lay down my life to the degree in which I know that Jesus loves me. In order to know this love I humble myself. I die to myself. In order to receive this love I repent daily and fill myself with his love. The degree to which I am filled with his love is the degree in which I am able to love Him. I searched to see if there was such a thing as salt that has lost its flavor. I came across one article that said "salt that had lost its flavor." It was lyrics to a song. It went like this: I watched a TV drama a little bit too long and missed worship. I left worship early to go watch a sporting event. Next week there is an important event So please Lord do not come yet. When the deacon prays I take a nap When the pastor speaks I judge his words But I must receive the benediction And the moment I say amen I must leave quickly. I make Jesus into the person that I desire to serve And I choose the scripture which I like and interpret it to mean what I desire Since I have made Jesus into something I desire Jesus is no longer on the cross When the choir sings I judge them I search my pockets for the tithe I did not bring When it's time to eat I am busy looking at others When I smoke and drink I play ignorant I complain because the pastor doesn't know me When there is someone I dislike I find another church But I try to get my offering Because through my offering I will be blessed I have made Jesus into the one I desire to serve And I choose the scripture which I like and interpret it to mean what I desire This is salt that has lost its saltiness. If my life has strayed from the path written in Scripture then I am salt that has lost its saltiness. It is not the seasoning salt that loses its saltiness. What happens to the one who loses his saltiness? Our Lord tells us that you will be thrown out and trampled upon. That means you are going to hell. You are not going to Heaven. I must choose to live a life that does not lose its saltiness. When I choose to live this life will it not be the life as a disciple of Jesus? You must live this life so that you can confess that you had lived a blessed life of a Christian. May you live this life and give glory to God as a disciple of our Lord. Sermon by Pastor Howard Park Translation by Miguel Park

True Desire to Live in God's Grace

SF.10.26.2012 True desire to live in God’s grace. Do I believe that I have been washed in the blood of Christ and have been set free from the burden of sin? Do each of you believe that you been washed in the blood? Living in the grace of God and having been set free from your sin, are you now desiring to live in God’s will? What are the things that you refuse to let go of? Why are you being stubborn? Why are you refusing to change your thoughts? You make demands, you have desires, the work you desire to accomplish. You say that you live in faith, according to God’s Word and in obedience, but when I speak to you individually, you are not doing so. We sing hymns that say that we need not the world and that our eyes are only upon our Lord, but are we living in this way, only desiring Jesus? We do not. When things do not go our way we get upset and it kills us. We blame God for our circumstance. We complain to him. We tell him that this is not what we have asked for in faith. We believe that faith is doing what we want to do. That has nothing to do with God. We ask God to move out of the way. We tell Him to move aside so that we can attain all that we desire. Then later we will start to follow Jesus. This is how we are. We believe that we have faith. This is what the devil delights in. The devil tells us that we can start believing tomorrow. Or he also tells us to enjoy your life when you are young and when you're older that's when you will start follow Jesus. He tells us that we never denied Jesus. This is the same as not believing in Jesus. Because we desire to live how we want to, the words of the devil are easily accepted by us. We take pleasure in the thought. We are not saying that we will not believe in Jesus. We are not saying that we will not live by faith. We do want to live by faith so we say. We say we do want to believe in Jesus. We say we do want to obey God. We say that if he gives us purpose that we will fulfill our purpose. But we tell Him to wait. To wait a little bit. We think that we have the right to say these things. But God does not want us later He wants us now. God desires that we obey Him now. Not tomorrow but today. This very moment. When he speaks His commands. The moment you realize and see Him. But we do not desire to do this. It is because we have many things that we desire in our hearts. At first it may seem that you have none of these things. But the more you open up, the deeper you look into yourself the more your desires come to light. Everyone's true desire is hidden deep within themselves. When we first start expressing ourselves we make ourselves presentable and cover up our deep desires. But as conversations go deeper our true desires are exposed. And then when our desires are exposed we are embarrassed and deny the truth. We must realize that that is what is in us. Do you really want to believe in Jesus? Do you truly want to obey God? Do you really want to live in his grace and live your life for Him? Examine yourself. Are you really living the life of faith? Sometimes I ask God, "why is it that people do not want to follow you?" I understand that in the past you did not know God. But to know Him and see Him but not obey is a difficult life to live. I keep teaching you that to live in obedience is much easier, but you think that disobedience is easier. You complain that it is too difficult to follow God. But I am telling you from my experience that it is not difficult. Disobedience is much more difficult. In disobedience there is pain and suffering. When you did not know God it is possible that life was not so difficult. Once you meet Him then know Him and then you start to step away from Him your life becomes more difficult and I do not understand why you would continue to do so. Then we start to make excuses saying that we are weak and unable. Who says that you are weak? God tells us to obey Him. He does not call us to make excuses of our weakness. That is the devil speaking to you. God gives us as much as we can handle. He does not ask of us things that we cannot do. God tells us to do the things that we are able to do, each according to their strength their faith and their abilities, but you say you are unable. God does not train you like he trains me and He will not command you to do things that he commands me to do. God commands each of you according to your abilities but when you tell Him you are unable you are ignoring God. To say that God does not know you means that you do not know God. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God knows the number of hairs on our head but we refuse to believe this. We complain that God does not know us and that is why he is asking us to do these things. We say that we are unable to do these things. What are we saying to God? Are you acknowledging God? You are not. We tell God that he does not know us. We say parents know their children, but they do not know everything. We confess there is nothing that God does not know. But when it comes to us we say He does not know us. God does not tell you to do something because He does not know you. You are not where you are you do not go through the training because He does not know you. You suffer through trials and hardships because you put yourself there in disobedience. You put yourself there but you blame God for being there. This is not right. What path will you choose? Will you acknowledge God for who He is and follow Him or will you live in disobedience and rebel against Him? How will you acknowledge God in your life? God is not unfamiliar with you nor is He unfamiliar with me. He knows us all too well. In each of your lives how much recognition are you giving to God? In your life are you following God? Are you allowing him to guide you? Are you grateful and filled with joy? Are you complaining to God saying he does not know you? Are you complaining about your circumstance in life? Are you blaming God for your circumstance in life? When our Lord comes to judge us there will be great trouble. We think that we have done nothing wrong so that there will be no judgment for us. We tell Him that we are living well. We tell Him that we are giving Him good worship, that we are honoring Him. We tell Him that we are praying to Him, So we ask Him not to come and bring judgment on us. When there is too much sin and the time is come, judgment will be handed out. When we study Old Testament, why are there trials and hardships? It is because the people turned away from God. They sinned against God. They did not obey him. They did not glorify God and that is why they continued in their suffering. We are the same. Why are we told that it is the end of times? There is too much sin. Fellow believers are telling us that we have exceeded the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. We say this and then think that this does not affect us. That is why we tell God that He should not come right now. If you came tonight you would have a lot to worry about, is that not so? Whether he comes tonight, tomorrow, next month, next year, 10 years from now or 100 years from now each of us should be ready to go when we are called. There is no chance after death. There is an order to birth but there is no order in dying. Of course there are more older people who die first. But even in today's age there are many young people who are dying. We do not know when we will die. We must always be ready to die. We should be ready but we think that we will not die. We think that there is no reason for you to die today. What guarantee do you have that you will not die today? What guarantee do you have that you will live through today? If you say that you will not die, what makes you so sure that you will live? What guarantee do you have that you will not die tonight? There is none. Do people die in auto accidents because they want to? They do not. Some people who pray may know around their time of death but most do not know. You may think that if you know when you are goings to die then you will repent at that time, but you do not know when you are going to die. You will not repent at that time. If you could do that how great would that be, but what if you aren't able to repent, what if you miss the opportunity to repent and you fail to attain heaven and eternal life? How much do you desire to truly be with Jesus, to be free from the burden of sin and be washed clean by His blood? What is frustrating is to think that you are living in faith when you have no faith. You are deceived but you do not know it. Deep inside yourself you know if you have true faith or if you do not. If deep inside you do not know if you have faith or do not, then you do not have faith. This is a serious problem. God does not acknowledge our faith because we say certain things with our mouths. Do you really believe in Jesus? Can you stand before God? Do you really want to walk with Him? God is asking us if we are really willing to abandon all the world and to walk with Him. What is your reply? God is asking, "Are you willing to leave the world and follow Me? Through all trials, suffering, paths of thorns, through persecution, are you willing to pick up the cross and follow Me?" This is what God requires of us. This is the victory we seek in our lives in faith. We would like to think that God will spare us. We want to be raptured. In order to be raptured you must be victorious in the trials. You must have faith to be raptured. Our Lord tells us that to be with Him there will be suffering. It is the narrow path. Not anyone can go this path. Only those who go with Jesus can go this path. You cannot go on this path by yourself. But we like to tell out Lord that we will go by ourselves. We cannot. If I do not have wheelchair I cannot move around. I am together with this wheelchair. You cannot go without our Lord. I am starting to walk. On my own I am unable. I need a cane to help me walk and be stable. Unless I hold on to something I am unable to move on my own. Likewise, I am unable to go on this path unless I hold onto Jesus. You may think because you move around on your own that you can go on this path by yourself. Because you don't need a cane you think you are able. Yes, physically you are able, but without Jesus you will not be able to go on your own. If you are truly a believer you cannot go on this path on your own. Without Jesus you cannot go on this path. You must go together with Jesus. This path is difficult. It is the path of the cross. There is pain and suffering. You will not be given recognition. This is the path of faith. This is the path of God's grace. This is the path of love. Love you desire is to do whatever you want but that is not love. God's love is sacrifice. To abandon everything is to love God. But we try to hold onto everything and also love God. We desire to be loved by others but we refuse to give others love. It is because we do not want to make sacrifices. Love is sacrifice but the love we desire is recognition by others. We want others to serve us. This is the love we want. This is why we fight with our spouses. We want our wives to do everything for us. We want our husbands to do everything for us. Children want their parents to do everything for them and think that this is love. This is why children think that their parents do not love them. Parents also think their children do not love them. Parents talk about the sacrifices that they have made for their children but their children do not return the love. People are misunderstanding what love is. Love is sacrifice. I must die so that I can love. God's love was to die on the cross. That is love. So if we want to love God we must abandon everything. But do we abandon everything? We have a hard time abandoning things for our neighbors. How much do we sacrifice for our spouses when we are to be one with them? If it is God's grace that has cleansed you and freed from your sins what more do you want from God? You are free from sin. All your burdens have been lifted. You have been given hope. You have been given joy. You have been given hope for eternity and to be with God. What more do you want? What are you still desiring? Stop being selfish. You are being foolish in the things that you want. If you truly believe that you have been cleansed from your sins by the blood of Jesus then you must let go of everything and live in love. You must die to yourself. You must sacrifice. Then you can attain Heaven. It does not belong to someone else. It is yours. Heaven is not a place where you can take someone with you. You cannot get into Heaven because your wife is going or because your husband is going or your children are going or because of your parents. Faith belongs to the individual. But we do share our faith as parents teach their children, and as spouses pray for each other and are one with each other. Although faith is individual it does not mean that you are to be only concerned about yourself. We are commanded to share the gospel. I pray that we live victoriously in Jesus.