Catch the Vision of the Lord (Part II)

 

by Pastor Young Joon Park

January 25, 2009

 

Isaiah 49:18-26

 

I.God¡¯s Caring

(See the message of January 18, 2009)

 

II.Catch the Vision of the Lord

 

 A. We have to have the eyes to see the people

 

18 ¡° Lift up your eyes and lookaround; All of them gather together, they come to you.

    As I live,¡± declares the LORD,¡°You will surely put on all of them as jewels and bind

    them on as a bride.

 

    1. We need to lift up our eyes and look around

God wants us to lift up oureyes and look around to look and focus on something.

Many times, we want to seeonly what I want to or my benefit areas alone.

God wants us to see and lookevery where.

He wants us to use our eyes to search around and findout the most important matter to Him.

Why? God¡¯s most concern is the people, you and me, sowe need to be focusing on people.

 

    2. We have to see that the Lord will send the people.

All of them gathertogether, they come to you

We have to believe that the people will come, becauseGod has a plan to send the people to us.

God is going to gather themtogether and bring them to us.

He declared it to us as Helives.

I believe that God is going to send the people to us,so we have to have the right heart for the people with God¡¯s heart.

 

    3. We have to see the importance of the individual people

As I live,¡± declares the LORD, You will surely put on all ofthem as jewels and bind them on as a bride.

 

IThessalonians 2:20

20 For you are our glory and joy.

 

Philippians 4:1

¡¦ myjoy and crown¡¦

 

I would like toshare there are some example of the importance of the individual.

 

D. L. Moody, the famous Evangelist, when was eighteen years ofage, was a boot salesman in his uncle's store in Boston. His Sunday Schoolteacher was a Mr. Kimball, and he had set hisheart on winning the young man for Christ. After praying about the matter,he arranged to visit him at the boot store. "I was determined," touse his own words, "to speak to him about Christ and about his soul, andstarted down to Holton's boot store. When I was nearly there I began to wonderwhether I ought to go in just then during business hours. I thought my callmight embarrass the boy, and that when I went away the other clerks would askwho I was, and taunt him with my efforts in trying to make him a good boy. Inthe meantime I had passed the store, and, discovering this, I determined tomake a dash for it, and have it over at once. I found him in the back part ofthe building wrapping up shoes. I went up to him at once, and putting my handon his shoulder, I made what I felt afterwards was a very weak plea for Christ. I don't know just what words I used, nor could Mr. Moody tell. I simply told himof Christ's love for him, and the love Christ wanted in return. That was allthere was. It seemed the young man was just ready for the light that then brokeupon him, and there in the back of that store in Boston, D. L. Moody gavehimself and his life to Christ."

Forty years afterwards, when preaching in Boston, Mr. Moody himself thusdescribed the effect of his conversion upon his life: "I can almost throwa stone from Tremont Temple to the spot where I found God forty years ago. Iwish I could do something to lead some of you young men to that same God. Hehas been a million times better to me than I have been to Him. I remember themorning on which I came out of my room after I had first trusted Christ. Ithought the sun shone a good deal brighter than it ever had before. I thoughtthat it was just smiling upon me, and as I walked out upon Boston Common andheard the birds singing in the trees, I thought they were all singing a song tome. Do you know? I fell in love with the birds. I had never cared for thembefore. It seemed to me that I was in love with all creation. I had not abitter feeling against any man and I was ready to take all men to my heart. Ifa man has not the love of God shed abroad in his heart he has not yet beenregenerated."

 

Mr. Moody's experience was the same as that of thepoet who sung:

"Heaven above is softer blue, Earth around is sweetergreen;
Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen.

"Birds with gladder songs o'erflow, Flowers withbrighter beauties shine,
Since I know, as now I know, I am His, and He is mine.

 

Dawson Trotman (March 25, 1906–June 18, 1956) was an evangelist, crusaderand founder of The Navigators.

Two Sunday School women teachers had been prayed for him for a longtimes.

Trotman founded The Navigators in 1933 and through this worldwideChristian organization supported various Christian ideals: maintaining thebasic disciplines of the Christ-centered Spirit-filled life, abiding in theWord of God, the importance of personal follow-up, one-on-one discipleshiptraining, and principles for multiplying Christian disciples, laborers, andequippers around the world. In rescuing another person from drowning in Schroon Lake , New York, he lost his own life on June 18, 1956.

Dr. Billy Graham said: "I think Daws has personally touched more lives than anybody I have ever known." His work and writings were instrumental in the creation of the Campus Outreach ministry, which focuses on discipleship as a method of building up the community of Christians on college campuses.

Trotman worked with many other evangelicals of his day, including HenriettaMears, Jim Rayburn, CharlesE. Fuller, and Dick Hillis. Lorne Sanny succeeded him as the head of TheNavigators.

The Sailor & the Cop. At 18, Los Angeles-born Daws Trotman, as helater recounted, "gambled and was very deep in the world."He was courting a girl named Lila, as religious as she was pretty, and she tookhim with her to some church meetings. At the second meeting Dawson was the onlyone there who had memorized six Bible verses that had been assigned at thefirst meeting. The same thing happened at the third meeting. The following weekhe was "taken of the Lord," converted to evangelistic Christianity,and welcomed to membership in the interdenominational Church of the Open Doorin Los Angeles.

Memorizing the Bible was the key to conversion, as Trotman saw it, so hehanded out scores of Scriptures to youth groups he organized. One day in 1934 amother asked him to look up her son, a sailor on a ship off Long Beach. Sittingin his old car by the waterfront, Trotman quoted the Bible to the boy until apoliceman grew suspicious. A few minutes later, Trotman had talked the cop intojoining him and the sailor in a session of prayer. The sailor said: "I'dgive my right arm if I could do what you just did." Dawson challenged himto try.

It was the beginning of a movement that Trotman called the Navigators,for its nautical origins. For that sailor converted a friend with the techniquehe had learned from Dawson Trotman, and that convert in turn convinced another.Soon Navigators were spread across the seven seas. At one point during the warthere were Navigators in more than 1,000 U.S. Navy ships and stations.

B Rations. Evangelist Graham urged Daws Trotman to join his Fort Worth crusade in 1951, and asked him how to keep people to their religious convictiononce they had made their "decisions" and signed their pledge cards.Nav igator Trotman organized the system of Biblical instruction courses—"BRations" (for Bible) of verses to be memorized. Graham and his team haveused them ever since as the core of their system for following up Graham "converts" (TiME, Oct. 25, 1954).

 

One person came to the Lord, he is one of them who made the world upsidedown.

 

You are the most precious people to me and to the Lord. We have to regardthe others with value.

Let open our eyes and pay respect to the value of the people, and bringthem to the Lord continually.

 

Every single people is important even he or she may be our pain.

 

There were several people were treated bad, because of that the world suffereduntil today.

One of them is Mao Tse Tung.

Mao Tse Tung was a student of the Bible School.

He respected one of his teachers who was an Englishman.

He got the news that his teacher came back China, and he stayed in thespecial place. This young man wanted to see him, but the British soldierinsulted him with racial slurs and threw him on the ground and drove him outfrom the place.

He shook off the dirt from his clothes when he stood up, and vowed to revengethe western white people while he was leaving the place.

 

 B. We have to have the eyes to see the expansion

 

19 ¡°For your waste and desolateplaces and your destroyed land— surely now you will

    be too cramped for the inhabitants, And those who swallowed you will be faraway.

    

    1. We need to see the restoration from the wasted, desolated and the destroyedland

Jerusalem was destroyed and the place was wastedand desolated.

Isaiah prophesied to God¡¯speople for the restoration of Jerusalem.

We have so many places aredestroyed and wasted by the enemy in our life.

We have to remember about thedevil¡¯s strategy all the time.

 

John 10:10 

The thief comesonly to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and

 have it abundantly.

 

satan¡¯s goal is to destroy.

But God¡¯s goal is to restorethe life and abundant life.

That is why God is going to restore what you havebeen in the desolated, the wasted and the destroyed area.

 

    2. We have to see the expansion that God is going to bring

 ¡°surely nowyou will be too cramped for the inhabitants¡±

 

Many people do ministry, but often I hear that thequantity is not important, but the quality is. I agree, however, not 100%.

 

We need to focus on the quality instead of thequantity. When you have a good quality then the quantity will follow. There issomething not right if the quantity does not grow even when the quality isgood.

 

Do you want to increase your revenue of your business,expand your business and be successful when you open your business?

 

If you said ¡°NO,¡± then you are in the wrong business.

 

So we could see that there are two possible issues.

a) The quality is not good to grow.

b) The quality is good, but there is no ability togrow

 

You can see the main stream of river from the northto the south in the middle of the land when you go to Israel. The northern part of the lake is Galilee Lake, and the southern part, Dead Sea.

 

You cannot see any live animals in the Dead Sea, but you can easily see school of fishes everywhere and the life in the lake andthe river.

 

Galilee Lake receive the water from the northern partof the mountains and at the same time this lake release the water to south, sothe water always carries the life.

 

The Dead Sea receives all the water, but never releasesit to anywhere. The water comes from the north and trapped in Dead Sea. Thewater carried the life, but the life becomes dead as soon as they are trappedin the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is not rotten, but there is no life. The Dead Sea can heal your skin disease or other benefit, but itself there is no life at all.

 

Our spiritual realm is the same way, we have beenfocusing to receive from the Lord and enjoy the anointing and the presence ofthe Lord, but there is no further growing, then it will become the spiritual Dead Sea.

 

Maybe you can see some miracles and wonders amongthem, but there is no growing. And this church will become the spiritual Dead Sea.

 

The anointing and the presence of the Lord are notgiven to us to enjoy alone, but the purpose is to bring us into the deepintimate relationship with the Lord, and we have the heart of the Father God toexpand the Kingdom of the Lord.

 

We have to come out from the trap and step forward torelease what God gave us to the world.

 

     3. We haveto see the great change when we move in

 ¡°And those who swallowed you will befar away¡±

 

God is going to remove the enemy that hindered ourlife to follow the Lord.

Those who swallowed means mainly the devil, inpractical way it could be our mind set as our wrong mind or the people too.

 

We can check ourselves.

Check your life or ministry compare two years ago andlast year.

Do you have the same life or life that has changed?If it is the same then there something we really need shift up in the new wayfor the Lord.

 

God is pouring out the new things to us continually,so we have to fasten the seat belt for the new things.  Do not insist yourheart to keep the old way!

We need to open and make the space for the newthings.

 

 C. We have to have the eyes to make disciples

20 ¡°The children of whom you werebereaved will yet say in your ears,

    ¡®The place is too cramped for me; Make room for me that I may live here.¡¯

21 ¡°Then you will say in yourheart, ¡®Who has begotten these for me,

    Since I have been bereaved of my children and am barren, an exile and awanderer?

    And who has reared these? Behold, I was left alone; from where did these come?¡¯¡±

 

      1.We have to see the vision of the multiplication

 

The vision of themultiplication is not a new idea or human¡¯s idea.

Look all over the world and see all the creatures¡¯life. Their life is multiplying their own kinds to fill the earth.

 

We traveled down from San Francisco to Orange County several times during our vacation time.

 

We stopped at one beach, and we saw the huge group ofseals on the beach, and according to the Park Ranger¡¯s explanation, they come tothis beach twice a year for only two reasons. One is for the mating season toreproduce and multiply for their kinds, and the other purpose is to breed andraise babies. At this time there is no male seal with them.

I was so interested, since the purpose of their lifeis to multiply as many as they could. This is the natural mind of the animals,and not only the animal, but also the plants, insects and every kind of lives.

 

Because this is the God¡¯s vision for all.

 

Genesis 1:22

God blessed them, saying, ¡°Be fruitful andmultiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on theearth.¡±

 

Not only for the animals, butalso men too.

God has the vision for you,and He wants you to multiply.

 

Genesis 1:28

God blessed them; and God said to them, ¡°Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over thefish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing thatmoves on the earth.¡±

 

         1) The vision of God for the 3 generations

Exodus 3:6 I am the God of your father

a) the God of Abraham

b) the God of Isaac

c) the God of Jacob

 

 

     2.  Thefoundation of the multiplication is the discipleship

 

Christians are born, but notmade.

The disciples are not born,but made.

The discipleship is not easy,and there also is no short cut for the discipleship.

 

Jesus made disciples with 12 people as His coregroup, and He spent time with them 24 hours a day for 3 ¨ö years.

 

         1) What is the purpose His Discipleship?

Mark 3:14-15

they would be with Him and that He couldsend them out to preach,

and to haveauthority to cast out the demons.

     a) for therelationship  – the discipleship is the relationship

     b) for theequipping and training

       (1) He could send them out to preach

       (2) He could have authority to cast out the demons

 

 

        2) Jesus gave us the requirement of the discipleship.

a) Luke 14;26 – Give the priority to theLord

     If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife andchildren and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be Mydisciple.

b) Luke 14:27 – give up our own life forthe Lord

      Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

c) Luke 14:33 – give up our ownpossession for the Lord

     So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his ownpossessions.

d) John 8:31 – abide in Jesus¡¯ Word

    If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;

 

          3) The Great Commission

Matthew 28:19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizingthem in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching themto observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to theend of the age.¡±

 

 D. We have to have the eyes to see the nations

 

22 Thus says the Lord GOD, ¡°Behold, I will lift up My hand tothe nations And set up My standard to the peoples; And they will bring yoursons in their bosom, And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.

23 ¡°Kings will be your guardians,and their princesses your nurses. They will bow down

    to you with their faces to the earth And lick the dust of your feet; And youwill know that I am the LORD;Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.

 

     1. The outpouring of the HolySpirit

          1)I will soon lift up My hand to the nations,

          2)And raise My signal (standard: flag) to the peoples;

 

Joel 2:28-29

It will come aboutafter this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;

And your sons anddaughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams,

Your young men willsee visions. Even on the male and female servants

I will pour out MySpirit in those days.

 

     2. TheGreat Harvest in globally

           a)the spiritual children will be raised from the world.  

          b) Kings and queens are representative

          c) Nations will come to the Lord

 

    3. The Great Tribulation

Joel 2:30-32

30 ¡°I will display wonders in thesky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke.

31 ¡°The sun will be turned intodarkness And the moon into blood

    Beforethe great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

32 ¡°And it will come about thatwhoever calls on the name of the LORD

    Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the LORD has said, Even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.  

 

 

E.We have to see the eyes to victory

 

24 ¡°Can the prey be taken fromthe mighty man, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?¡±

25 Surely, thus says the LORD, ¡°Even the captives of the mightyman will be taken away,

    And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued; for I will contend with the one whocontends with you, And I will save your sons.

26 ¡°I will feed your oppressorswith their own flesh, and they will become drunk with

    their own blood as with sweet wine; And all flesh will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer,the Mighty One of Jacob.¡±

 

  1. The impossible situation

       1) Can the preybe taken from the mighty?

       2) Can the captivesof a tyrant be rescued?

2. No one can against theLord

       1) Even thecaptives of the mighty shall be taken,

       2) and the preyof the tyrant be rescued;

       3) for I willcontend with those who contend with you,

3. God will save your children     

4. His vengeance

       1) I will makeyour oppressors eat their own flesh,

       2) they shall bedrunk with their own blood as with wine.

5. Then all flesh shallknow that

       1) I am the Lord your Savior,

      2) your Redeemer,

      3) the Mighty One of Jacob.