Title: Functions of the Church 5
Contents
The function of the church Ⅴ
Text: Ephesians 1:23
Key Verse: Physical exercise is of little benefit, but godliness is beneficial in all things, having promise in this life and in the life to come (1 Timothy 4:8).
The phrase “one hundred and one hundred victories” comes from the law of warfare of grandchildren.
If you know yourself and your opponent, you will win a hundred battles if you fight a hundred times.
Dear saints,
do you know yourself
And do you know your opponent?
We are soldiers of the Lord Jesus.
The field of life we live in is a 'combat situation'. The word “combat situation” means “if I can’t kill the enemy, I have to die” Therefore, the field of our life is inevitably tense, dangerous, urgent, and fierce. If you are not trained on this battlefield, you will inevitably lose.
The church is a training ground.
Today is the fourth hour of the church's function, and the church is a 'training center'.
There is a saying that a drop of sweat in training is like a drop of blood in war. Therefore, we must accept and participate in the training in the church as a real situation. Whoever participates in this training can win.
The church conducts ‘wilderness training’.
Those who have come to church for the first time may not understand these words well. You're thinking of the church as heaven, right? The reality of the church is not heaven, but the wilderness.
However, although we are in a church like the wilderness, we learn how to live in heaven in it, and we live in the kingdom of heaven.
The church trains prisoners of war.
Foolish people think that when I go to church, everyone will greet me, everything will work out, I will be comfortable and have fun. But the church is like a prisoner of war tied to a rope and taken away.
However, although they are captives, they learn true freedom, learn to live in heaven in prison, and actually enjoy life in heaven, but that does not mean that the situation itself changes to heaven.
And
The church provides ministry training.
When you come to church, your enemies will disappear, your opposition will disappear, and difficulties will not end, but more and more. However, the church is the place where you learn and train to defeat the enemy, overcome difficulties, and help others to live in Heaven and live in Heaven through training.
But even if the pathetic one becomes a magistrate, a deacon, a priest, and an elder, everyone still welcomes them, everything goes smoothly without any difficulties, and I hope that they will be given peace, joy, joy, and happiness without any disturbance. There are a lot of people sitting and waiting.
This person will never meet a place like this, and never live a life like this.
This heavenly life is not simply given, but is occupied through training.
The instructor of this training is God. A teaching assistant who actually helps the instructor in training is a 'pastor'. And the ‘trainees’ who are being trained are the saints.
The training center is a ‘church’. And the training center is the ‘world’.
Our adversary, our enemy, is Satan. Neither person nor circumstance.
Satan tries to make us disappointed and give up. Satan tries to make us twisted by circumstances and reality. Satan does not allow us to enjoy the kingdom of heaven and live as a heavenly minister who makes other people live in heaven, but tries to end our lives in a catastrophic way by complaining, complaining, and fighting.
There are two weapons used by Satan. Threats and temptations are the weapons they use.
If you are going to win this fight, you must be trained.
There are three main types of training that members receive at the training center called the church.
First, it is wilderness training.
The wilderness training is a training for ‘self-overcoming’. God said that the purpose of letting the people of Israel go through the wilderness was “to know their hearts.”
Training in the wilderness is like riding a roller coaster.
At first, we start with anticipation. But it soon turns to fear. There are times when I feel regret, resentment, and even the thought of wanting to jump. But you can't jump, and the roller coaster keeps turning, spinning, and unstoppable. At this point, I have no mind at all. However, there are those who enjoy the thrill of riding the same roller coaster. How is this possible? That person is the one who puts himself on the roller coaster.
The wilderness is a situation where you cannot do anything on your own. (Impossible) The wilderness is a situation where the future is unknown. (Unknown) The wilderness is a situation where everything is lacking. (Insufficient)
But life is what you have to go through and have no choice but to go through.
For those who have no choice but to walk in such a wilderness, the way to live a safe, peaceful, and joyful life is to “put our hearts in the arms of God.”
This is what the Bible calls “loyalty”.
Loyalty is 'our heart is placed in God's bosom'. God has given us the means so that we can be embraced in God's arms, and that is the word.
However, the situation keeps happening, where there is no choice but to resent, complain, hate, and argue. Even in times like these, being faithful to God's word and living only according to the word is loyalty.
Caleb and Joshua were such faithful men.
As a result, when everyone died in the wilderness, they could enter the promised land of God, Canaan.
If you are faithful, obstacles like Jericho will fall.
If you are faithful, manna will come down from heaven.
Loyalty brings water from the rock.
Second, prisoner training.
This is the situational overcoming training of the prisoner of war training. The purpose of this training is ‘to develop faith’.
A characteristic of prisoners is no freedom. There is no freedom of body, no freedom of action, no freedom of activity (unfreedom). (unstable), and the characteristic of prisoners is that there is no future.
But you can't die, and you can't die, so you have no choice but to live.
The way to overcome and overcome such captivity is faith.
Faith is change.
You have to change your mind. It is not me who protects me, but God protects me so that I can be safe.
You have to change your values. The real value is not what this world gives, but what God gives to me. Daniel and his three friends decide that they will not defile me with the king's delicacies and wine. Only by changing our values can we free ourselves from captivity and be free.
You also need to change your behavior. Up until now, I have acted according to my will, but now I will live an obedient life. When we change our behavior with obedience, we can free ourselves from captivity.
Faith is a decision.
Ruth decides to go back. If you have failed so far, you can go back. When she returned, Ruth was able to escape from poverty like death, and she was able to receive blessings in body, mind and material.
Esther decides that when she dies, she will die. When she decided to go before the king, she was able to save herself, her family, and her people.
And faith is action.
The act of faith is the same even if you pick up a mountain and throw it into the sea. Faith gives freedom from sickness. The act of faith bears fruit 100 times. An act of faith closes the lion's mouth. An act of faith protects from scorching a hair in the scorching fire.
How, then, can we develop this belief?
Find the title of thanks. Praise. And get down on your knees and pray.
The church is a place for giving thanks training. The church is a place for worship training. The church is a place for prayer training.
Where there is thanksgiving and prayer, there is freedom. The prison gate is opened where there is praise and prayer.
Where there is thanksgiving, prayer, and praise, crisis turns into opportunity. Slaves become rulers. The prison becomes a training ground for rulers. The lion's den has been turned into a place to train rulers.
third. The church is a place for ministry training.
The purpose of ministry training is to ‘make people with authority’.
There must be an enemy in your field of ministry. The enemy is neither a situation nor a person. Our enemy is Satan. Your family, your workplace, and your neighbors are also the field of ministry. If you want to win and receive blessings in this field of ministry, you must know how to discern the enemy. Anyone who thinks that the adversary is a person or a situation will fail. Our adversary, our enemy, is Satan the Devil.
Then, ‘what is ministry?’
Ministry is ‘to make God work’. If you do it wrong, you may think that I am doing the ministry. This person will also fail in ministry. Because they don't even know what the job is. The work of life is only possible when God uses us.
So how is this possible?
It must be filled with the Holy Spirit. There is no way to defeat the devil except the way the Holy Spirit works. If you want the Holy Spirit to work, you can only do it when you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
The filling of the Holy Spirit is possible only through prayer. When you pray, the Holy Spirit will come upon you like fire. When you receive the filling of the Holy Spirit, the power of darkness will recede through you. The pain ends. You can win and become the heroes of blessings.
Also, the victory ministry and patriarchal ministry are impossible with my knowledge and experience. We must preach only according to the word of God. The Bible is called “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” When we proclaim the Word of God, the sword of the Holy Spirit, the forces of darkness are cast out.
Through this ministry, prisons will be opened. The sick will be healed. The demons will go away. The number of believers will increase. Heaven will expand.
Dear saints,
The field of your life is the wilderness. It is a prisoner of war camp. It's a battlefield.
So is the church. It is a wilderness song, a prisoner of war riot, a battlefield.
However, the church is a training center that makes heaven in the field.