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Hebrews 10:25 Let us strive to gather together
Guys, what words come to mind when the new year comes to mind? Rather than bad words like despair, discouragement, hatred, curse, disease, and accident, don't you think of good words such as hope, dream, goal, blessing, love, health, and prosperity? According to the Bible, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).
And again, in the Bible, there was a world where the forefathers of faith all looked at the world in God. And God made the things we looked forward to. And it is the contents of the Bible that are written down. As you all look forward to good things in God in this new year, I pray that you will be filled with joy and happiness that those good things will come true. I have a world looking at our church with you in this new year of 2005. And we hope to see you and wish to appear a reality.
Most of all, I am looking forward to seeing the members of our church focus on worship. I had a dream like this back in December of 2004. We have a service at church, but the members do not come to worship often and come late, so I have seen that a distracting atmosphere is formed during the worship service. Of course, it is a natural fact that such an appearance is a major obstacle to the growth and revival of the kingdom of heaven.
And this phenomenon is more evident in the last days. The Bible prophesies about this. “Do not forsake the gathering of people, as is the habit of some, but encourage them, and do all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25). It is the habit of abolishing worship.
But, what's wrong with saying, "Well... well..." and hesitating to say, "Well... well...". Ladies and gentlemen, why do worship services are abolished in the last days and people do not like to worship? Of course, it is because they are not interested in worship. In 2 Timothy 3, it is prophesied that in the last days people will love themselves, love money, and love pleasures more than love God.
In other words, people show zeal and interest for money, for their own pleasure, but they do not show zeal because they think that worshiping God is good only for God and not for themselves. However, if you are given even $100 right away after the service, wouldn't it be hard to come out even if you were told not to attend the service?
It was when I was the head of the minor parish of the Yoido Full Gospel Church. The parish bus was run by its own donations, but it was too much material, so I thought about how to spend the rest of the money. Among them, it may sound a bit ridiculous and you may think it is too much, but once you have evangelized a family, you have decided to give 50,000 won to the evangelist. Of course, we also decided to give the newcomers a high-quality Bible book.
What was the result? There are 10 to 20 small parishes in one archdiocese, and our parish was the first to achieve the goal of evangelism. Seeing that scene, everyone laughed and felt something. "Hey, evangelism is going well because you spend money!"
And there is a method that my mother, Kwon, sometimes uses when evangelizing. Take a taxi and ask the driver. “Uncle, how much do you earn per hour?” "Yeah, if you earn well, you can earn 30,000 won." "Then, uncle, today is Sunday, and if you worship, I will give you 50,000 won, so why don't we go to worship together?"
Of course, this method works quite well. I, too, have kept the Sunday worship service many times because of this method. It was when I was in college. On other days, I don't have a schedule, but on Sundays, I was very busy as to why my friends wanted to play. However, my mother, Master Kwon, always gives me the allowance I need to play after the Sunday service. So, how can I miss Sunday worship?
Anyway, some people may feel a little reluctant to use money as a bait for Sunday worship and evangelism, but these days people are very weak with money. In 1989, when I was first assigned to serve as an evangelist for the Yoido Full Gospel Church, a large number of my family members gathered for the women's service. But as the years passed, I saw women's quarter worship put at risk as women left their jobs to make money. And in parishes with material resources, I have seen a phenomenon occur that keeps coming to worship in order to enjoy life while spending money.
And if you frequently miss worship, you will soon see that your faith will drop, your church life will become a nuisance, and eventually, your passion for God will cool down in your heart and you will be reduced to a cold-hearted figure that is not touched by your faith in God. However, when someone says something, "I believe with my heart. Even if I don't go to church like you, God is always in my heart!"
Then the lump of coal that burned so well became weaker and weaker.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Early Church met often. Then a powerful revival occurred. In Mark's upper room, the power of the Holy Spirit came when the 120 members gathered and prayed fervently. One of the greatest characteristics of the Early Church is that they put effort into gathering. The book of Acts speaks of this as follows: “Every day we made an effort to meet together in the temple of the same heart” (Acts 2:46), and the Lord clearly said this. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I will be among them” (Matthew 18:20).
However, in recent years in the United States, it is said that the number of people seeking spirituality 'alone' is rapidly increasing. I think that it is secularized for several saints to gather together in a church to worship. And I think that if you pray by yourself, study the Bible by yourself, and worship by yourself, you will believe in God very well. This 'Alone' spirituality is quite influential due to selfishness and individualism. As a result, church attendance is declining, and biblical beliefs are being thrown aside.
Of course, we should regularly set aside time for personal reverence. However, the Lord is pleased when we gather together to pray and worship together. Even the Lord said this. “If two of you agree on earth to ask for anything, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).
It happened at a mission school. One student never attended the worship service. So the chaplain called him and asked him.
"Why don't you show up for worship?" Then, the student built up his own logic and protested. "Even when I read the Bible, I can't understand it at all. That's why I can't believe the Bible. Because I can't believe it, I don't attend worship services."
At that time, the pastor listened to the student and understood what the student's problem was. So he said: “Student, please repeat what you just said without missing a single word.” The student thought quietly, then hesitantly answered. "Does it mean that I can't believe the Bible because I don't attend the worship service, or does it mean that I can't understand the Bible because I don't believe the Bible?"
The pastor nodded and said: "That's right. Since you don't attend the worship service, there's no way you can have faith. If you don't have faith, you can't understand it even if you read the Word. From now on, attend the worship service diligently. I will do this. And once you have faith, you will understand and understand the Bible.
I've read articles like this. According to Reuters news (from Lisbon) on July 10, 2001, there is a dog that has been attending church services every Sunday for the third year and having holy water on the Lord's Day. This dog, who lives in a place called Sorvado in northern Portugal, leaves the house every Sunday every Sunday and has been doing holy water for the past 3 years, which is difficult for even people to do.
Citing a local newspaper report called "Koreyo da Manha," Reuters reported that the dog named 'Preta', which means 'nigger', leaves home at 5 am every Sunday to go to church alone. I did. It is said that Preta must walk 16 miles (26 km) each week to get to the church in Hermesinde, near Sobrado. When Preta arrives at the church, she says, as usual, she sits right next to the pulpit for the service that starts at 7:30. And every time people get up or sit down according to the order of worship, Preta does the same.
And when the service is over, Preta goes back the way he came and goes home. Because of this dog, many people come to the church to see the dog, so it is said that the number of members increases. Of course, you might think negatively because these people didn't come to worship God, but to see a strange dog, but anyway, considering that people who came to see a dog and heard God's word and heard the word of God, it is said that this dog is doing well in evangelism. You can think about it.
If some of us have missed Sunday worship countless times over the past three years, how about praying to God for repentance like this? "God, I'm a believer even less than this dog." Of course, because God breathed life into humans and gave them souls, dogs do not have souls, so no matter how diligently this dog attends church services, it cannot be saved. And it cannot be said that this dog's faith is better than ours. However, if there are people who are too lazy to even attend Sunday services properly, shouldn't they reflect on their laziness when listening to this dog's story?
Ladies and gentlemen, the new year of 2005 has arrived. How will you serve God this year? Shouldn't it be possible to come to the church, the body of Jesus, to worship with zeal? And as we get closer to the day of Jesus' second coming, wouldn't it be the right way to gather together to worship? Worshiping God is the most precious privilege, joy, and happiness of us believers. I pray that this precious grace will appear more clearly to all of us as we enter 2005.