God rewards you.

Part V

Pastor Young Joon Park

October 5, 2008

 

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please Him,

for he who comes to God must believe that He is

and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

 

I. Obedience by faith

 

One Christian business man had a plan to hire only Christians.

He operated the company for a while, and then he changed the policy of hiring only Christians.

The reason to change was that the Christian employees were not working hard for the company.

 

It is a sad reality.

 

We are not going to be a salt, but we are the salt of the world to give good taste to the world.

Matthew 5:13

You are the salt of the earth;

but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again?

It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.

 

We are not going to be a light, but we are the light of the world to shine to the world.

Matthew 5:14-16

14 ¡°You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;

15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

16 ¡°Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

 

One Bank manager hired one Christian.

One day he did not come to work without any phone call.

Following day, manager asked him why he did not come to work.

¡°God wanted me to stay home and pray.¡±

 

Similar story, some people claimed that God did not want him/her to go to church on Sunday, and stay home and soaking His presence.

 

Ephesians 6:5

Slaves (employees), be obedient to those who are your masters (employers) according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ;

 

We do not need to be perfect, but we need to be excellent to the world.

Disobedient Christian is not a real Christian.

1. Holiness from even a trifle

 

I King 13:

1) a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, while Jeroboam was

     standing by the altar to burn incense.

2) he brought God¡¯s message to king about his evil action and the judgment

3) Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, ¡°Seize him.¡± But his hand

     which he stretched out against him dried up,

4) man of God entreated the LORD, and the king¡¯s hand was restored to him,

5) the king said to him, ¡°Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a

     reward.¡±

6) But the man of God said to the king, ¡° If you were to give me half your house I would

     not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.

7) For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ¡®You shall eat no

     bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way which you came.¡¯ ¡±

8) So he went another way and did not return by the way which he came to Bethel.

9) an old prophet was living in Bethel;

10) he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak;

11) He refuse the old prophets offer

12) I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD,

       saying, ¡®Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink

       water.¡¯ ¡± But he lied to him.

13) So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.

14) The word from the Lord to the old prophet

15) ¡°Thus says the LORD, ¡®Because you have disobeyed the command of the LORD,

       and have not observed the commandment which the LORD your God commanded

       you,

16) Now when he had gone, a lion met him on the way and killed him, and his body was

       thrown on the road, with the donkey standing beside it; the lion also was standing

       beside the body

 

He obeyed the Lord the big issue dealing with King, but he did not ask the Lord when the old prophet offered. He might think that God might spoke to him and relied on the old prophet experience.

 

Maybe it is ok to us to ignore the trifle matter, but it is not to God and it might a big issue to the Lord.

 

That is why Paul confessed, ¡°In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.¡± Act 24:16

 

Testimony #1

I visited one warehouse to buy goods.

I shopped and paid $, I thought that it was not charged much that what I expected when I saw the total amount of receipt, so I thought that I miscalculated it when I estimated it.

I came back home and I found that one item was not charged.

I thought that if I bring back to them, a manager might make a problem for the cashier, so I ignored it, at the same I compromised that they did make mistake, but I gave them every thing to check. One week passed and 2nd week passed by, but God spoke to me continually I was wrong and payback what I supposed to pay.

 

Finally I made a decision to write a letter and I enclosed amount, and I delivered to the store.

 

Testimony #2

One missionary had a guilty feeling about what he did 8 years ago.

8 years ago, he and his friend entered one store and vandalized some part of the store.

He ran away not to get caught, and in a way no one will realize who did it.

But this missionary carried this guilty feeling continually. Finally he decided to visit this store and confessed his wrong action. And also he promised to pay back for the damage and also he could not pay right now because he had no money.

 

This store owner was so surprised when he heard his confession.

The owner said, ¡°young man, that was 8 years ago, and I forgive you since I totally have forgotten about it, but I would like to make one suggestion to you. Please do not feel guilty about it. And again there¡¯s no need to pay me back at all.¡±

 

Proverbs 16:7

When a man¡¯s ways are pleasing to the LORD,

He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

 

Our God is not going to tolerate our sin at all, because He hates sin. Throughout the entire Bible God dealt with sin very seriously and punished them even with death.

 

We think some problems are trifle matters, but God sees it as sin, so He will not tolerate  the sin.

 

We face with gossips, criticisms, comparing with others, lustful thoughts, lies, and greedy¡¦

We need understand that these are sin, and we have to come out from it, and without hesitate to confess these sin to the Lord, then we will have a victory.

 

 

2. God forgives you

David committed sin – adultery and murder – Nathan¡¯s rebuke

After he confessed his sin to the Lord, he wrote this Psalm 51

 

Psalm 51:1

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your Lovingkindness;

According to the greatness of Your Compassion blot out my transgressions.

He knew that God is lovingkindness and the greatness of His compassion.

So he expected that He would forgive him when he confess his sin to the Lord.

 

Our God has endless lovingkindness and compassion for us.

And also His forgiveness is endless toward us, but we have a limited time our life on earth. So we have to deal in this area when we are still live on earth.

 

Psalm 51:7

Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 

David totally believed that he will be cleansed perfectly at the moment when God forgave him. 100% complete cleansed, 100% his sin is washed away and 100% pure like whiter than snow.

 

Psalm 51:13

Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,

And sinners will be converted to You.

 

David wanted to be restored and expected to teach the sinners again.

Even we failed that God will restore the people for His Kingdom.

Do you have any heavy burden with guilty that you did make a big mistake as your view before? Do you feel that God will not restore you because of it?

No matter what degree of mistake you made before, God will restore you.

 

God gave the Law through Moses, and this Law guide us how to live in God¡¯s way, but we cannot live by His law, and we understand about sin through the law.

God knows us exactly, that is why He sent Jesus to forgive us from the sin.

 

So Jesus forgives us our sin completely through His Blood.

 

This is God¡¯s promise for the forgiveness.

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

When you confess your sin to the Lord, you will be completely cleansed from the sin.

Take a moment right now. Please bring all your garbage to confess to the Lord and If you did not have a chance to confess, and lay down all your guilty feeling to the Lord and confess if you still carry the guilty feeling.

 

 

3. God¡¯s commandments are not a heavy burden.

Today you drove your car and came to worship the Lord. I would like to ask you how many signals you passed today.

Did you stay in the lane when you drive? Did you stop your car at the stop sign?

 

As you answered that when you behind the wheel, you face the traffic laws.

Do you feel burdened to obey the traffic law when you drive?

Why do we have to obey the traffic law?

1.      for our safety

2.      for other people¡¯s safety

3.      for enjoy to drive

 

We obey the traffic law for the safety. That is why we obey the traffic law.

Why do we work and to obey our boss at the work?

We do it for our regular income for ourselves and our family, also our secure.

 

If someone comes to you ask to work hard to clean the house, and he contract with you to pay $1 million a month, what are you going to do with this offer?

 

Then are you going to say to them to refuse because of too much money?

Or are you going to take the offer even it is hard to clean the house?

 

To me I will take the offer and also I can work hard with my pleasure.

I do not know about you, but to me I will work hard for the house and the work will not going to be a heavy burden to me, because I will receive $one million after the work.

 

Do you think it is unrealistic fantasy illustration?

 

Let¡¯s meditate about Abraham¡¯s journey of faith.

 

Genesis 12

God called Abraham to live from his land, and He promised to make a great nation.

Genesis 17

When he was 99 years old, God promised Abraham that he will be the father of multitude nations.

Genesis 22

He obeyed to the Lord to give his son, Isaac, to the Lord, then God promised.

 

Genesis 22: 16-18

By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD,

because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son,

1) indeed I will greatly bless you, 2) and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; 3) and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. 4) In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

 

God has planned to bless you extreme way because of your obedience by faith.

 

If we see His tremendous promise and blessing the Lord commend will not be a burden in our life, but pleasure.

 

Lot of time I saw included myself, we do not want to forgive other people, but when you choose to forgive the person as Jesus¡¯ commandment, at the moment you will receive the tremendous freedom from inside and physical healing comes with. The benefit or the blessings from the Lord, you cannot imagine.

 

II. Commit to the Lord

We can hear many wonderful testimonies from other people.

God used them amazing way for His Kingdom.

We want to be used for the wonderful work of the Lord through out our life too whenever you heard those kinds of wonderful testimonies,.

Sometimes we envy them too.

 

If you want to be used by God, then trust the Lord and jump in.

1999 when I was in the church, then I saw the stream of the Holy Spirit was flow in front of the platform area. And the Holy Spirit wanted me to jump in, and I trust the Lord and jump in the Holy Spirit without any hesitation. Since then I have been in the Holy Spirit and He does lot of work inside of me and continually until today.

 

2 weeks ago I saw the Glory of the Lord in among the Korean brothers and sisters.

Even they testified that Friday was the most powerful service. I keep hearing wonderful testimony from them. We just obey the Lord by faith serve them and the rest of the part was done by the Holy Spirit.

 

 

2,700 years ago the Lord was looking for the people who wanted to jump in freely for the Lord.

 

Isaiah 6:8

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ¡°Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?¡± Then I said, ¡°Here am I. Send me!¡±

Isaiah when he heard the voice of the Lord, he jumped in right away without hesitation.

 

Our Lord is still looking for the people who are available for His Kingdom.

 

God uses him or not is not depend on his talent, ability, educational background, or  any power, but the strong desire heart to follow the Lord or not.

 

 

1. You are insufficient

When I involved the ministry I felt always I am insufficient for the Lord.

 

Do you know what I really found one truth about myself?

I was really insufficient to serve the ministry.

 

We cannot make our disciples to grow. Even we did Bible study, pray together, activities together, attend many different conferences, but no one can make to grow at all.

 

When we trust the Lord alone instead of our ability, then we can do that the things only what God can do.

 

God does not look for our out side, but he is looking for the people who really want to follow the Lord¡¯s will from deep heart, but not their own will or method.

Also they only trust the Lord and wait until He finishes His Own Will.

 

Testimony #1

One of my disciples – I taught how to share the Gospel to non-Christians – I trained him how to use the bridge illustration – he thought it was so simple and it could not appeal to the people – I took him to the hospital and we started share the Gospel to them with the blank paper – draw bridge picture – this person opened his life to the Lord at the sight – and my disciple was so surprised how this person give his life to the Lord through this small handy bridge illustration.

 

Testimony #2

One sick lady who were on a wheel chair, during the ministry time people pray for the sick, but no one came to this woman who was in a wheel chair.

She wanted to receive a prayer from some one who has strong anointing.

Then one young boy saw her and came to her asked, ¡°Can I pray for you?¡±

This lady did not waiting for this kind naïve boy. She said that she was OK. But no one come to her yet, and the boy still stood there to watch her, finally she gave him a permission to pray over her. The power of the Holy Spirit fell on her, and she fell from her wheel chair, and she was healed completely.

 

We can hear this kinds of similar testimonies every where.

 

God does not see our ability, but God sees our hearts and He releases His anointing through them.

 

 

2. God prepares and supplies the tool

Jesus sent us to the world to preach the Gospel.

He did not send us without any thing in our hands.

We do not have any supernatural power to fulfill His great commission at all.

God gave us the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to equip for the conquering the world.

 

     1) The Word of God

God named several different names about the word of God  - hammer, fire, sharper than two edge sword

So we could see the word of God is the powerful tool

And also the word of God is never return until God¡¯s Will is fulfilled.

 

Isaiah 55:11

So will My Word be which goes forth from My Mouth; It will not return to Me empty,

Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter

for which I sent it.

 

Testimony #1

One tennis player – John

He attended on Bible Study – learned about John 3:7 ¡°You must be born again.¡± – he could not understand – when he was in the locker room – he could see the word ¡°You must be born again.¡±, all over the place – he ran out from the locker room – during the game one ball flew high and he try to hit it – he could not see the ball, but he saw the word on the sky ¡°You must be born again.¡± – he thought that he lost ball, but fell on his head – he made a decision to see a pastor to find out what this means.

This God¡¯s word touched him and he gave his life to the Lord.

 

     2) The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is our helper in every area.

The word of God and the Holy Spirit is our unlimited source of our life, so we have everything for His Kingdom.

 

Our Holy Spirit accomplishes His will through us. He is the One who give the conviction about the sin, reveals Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and rebuke the world.

 

Holy Spirit is the One who lead you in detail with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Without the gifts of the Holy Spirit we cannot serve the Lord and help people at all.

 

        a) We need to yield to the Holy Spirit alone

When we do the ministry it will be easy and powerful result if we yield Him 100% totally.

 

Testimony # 1

 

I visited my sister who lives in Dayton Ohio. Her husband is Korean Baptist Church Pastor, so I have a chance to share the word of God. I visited because of my elder brother¡¯s funeral, so I did not have any plant to preach message, but my sister wanted me to preaching the word. As you know most Baptist churches are very conservative, so I do not have idea where I have to start. I tried not to bring too much conflict in church.

But the Holy Spirit wanted me to give what I have and put down the worries, so I just trusted the Holy Spirit and lead that evening, and end up I minister entire church members until middle of night.

 

        b) The Holy Spirit is working His own way, but not our own way

It is important to expect to wait the Holy Spirit is working, but not predict what the Holy Spirit is going to do.

 

Testimony #2

When I shared the Gospel to the college students, one person listened my sharing –

I asked to this student to want to receive Jesus, but he said, ¡°No.¡± One student around us that I did not attention wanted to know Jesus more.

 

        C) There is no time limit in the Holy Spirit works

Testimony #3

A middle age gentleman came to a pastor and introduced himself to him

This gentle man met him 20 years ago when this pastor share the Gospel in the campus.

He did not believe Jesus 20 years ago, but the word what he shared with him was resided in him, finally he found Jesus as His Lord and Savior 1 year ago.

 

When we share the Gospel, the Holy Spirit is working in them and He will bring their heart to the Kingdom of God.

 

Please share the Gospel to people as many as you can.

I believe that some day many people will come to me how they believed in Jesus as I was one part of their life. Also you will see many people influence to them someway.

 

3. Start where you are right now.

God wants you to use these unlimited sources of the Lord for the Kingdom of God.

Then from where we are going to start.

We have a vision to reach out the nations, but we need to start from some place that is where we are in.

We need to reach out the people continually.

Do you want to see the lost come to the Lord and transform their life through you?

 

Then step forward by faith and expect the Holy Spirit works in you and other.

And you will receive the reward from the Lord 40, 60 and 100 fold.

 

 

III. Keep your faith when a mountain is not moving

 

So many people started ministry with excitement, at that moment people have a great faith as if to move the mountain, but the mountain is not moving quite long time, then  soon or later their heart getting cooling down and discouraged in many reasons, and started slip away from what God called them to do.

 

When you see this happening, then it is the time to shift up our faith and we need to realign with the Lord. Also this is the time to be trained and equipped for the next step of the faith.

 

We have the promised word from the Lord, but we cannot see the fulfillment.

It looks like that God is not working among us.

But God never withdraw His Hands from us at all.

Sometimes God postponed His plan for the right timing and seasons for us.

 

1. God molds you as His people

Israel people 40 years wilderness life

Deuteronomy 8:2

You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

 

They were almost 400 years slavery life, so their mind was slavery mind.

Entire 40 years in wilderness life was complain, rebellion or gossip.

God had a plan to bring them to the Promised Land, and let them conquer the land, but most of them are not warriors, So God mold them to be a conquer warriors.

 

God mold them through the wilderness life, and God transform them from the slavery to conqueror.

 

He trains you continually.

 

 

2. God reminds you that He is the only source

Deuteronomy 8:14

then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

 

When people are getting success and prosperous with wealth, people get easily to proud about their ability instead of the Lord.

 

People can easily off focus from the Lord.

 

One Christian wanted to gamble to make easy money.

One day he woke up at 5 am, found 5 coins, in the coffee shop 5 people

He thought that number 5 was very unique # - he went to horse race place and invest some money to horse #5

5 was very unique # for him – his horse finished as 5th.

 

We cannot live like that.

We have to trust the Lord, and believe that He is our only source.

 

 

3. God rewards with a big surprise.

Deuteronomy 8:7-9

7 ¡°For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills;

8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey;

9 a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

God has the best plan for Israel.  So God has the best plan for you too.

 

Sometimes every thing was not going well, or whatever you tried but it is blocked.

It seems that whatever you do not successful, but need to wait for the Lord and trust the Lord, because He has a good plan for you.

 

When you walk by faith, God will make surprise for you.

 

4. The faith is the way to experience God

God called us as His Children, He gives us the abundant life and prosperous and victorious life.

 

We are the children of King of kings, so we have to live like King¡¯s children on the earth

He prepared every thing for us already.

He wants to be all our source for all our need.

 

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please Him,

for he who comes to God must believe that He is

and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

 

 

When we walk by faith then the miracle thing that only God does will be fulfill in our life.

See what God has plan for your life.

 

Do you want to more experience the Lord?

 

Let¡¯s walk by faith in every area until Jesus comes.