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Sermons

Subject 27 : God's letters to us in the age of coronavirus

[27-2] The Word of God Spoken to His People in This Age When the End Is Near (Isaiah 42:10-17)

(Isaiah 42:10-17)
"Sing to the LORD a new song,
And His praise from the ends of the earth,
You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!
Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice,
The villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,
Let them shout from the top of the mountains.
Let them give glory to the LORD,
And declare His praise in the coastlands.
The LORD shall go forth like a mighty man;
He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war.
He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud;
He shall prevail against His enemies.
I have held My peace a long time,
I have been still and restrained Myself.
Now I will cry like a woman in labor,
I will pant and gasp at once.
I will lay waste the mountains and hills,
And dry up all their vegetation;
I will make the rivers coastlands,
And I will dry up the pools.
I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked places straight.
These things I will do for them,
And not forsake them.
They shall be turned back,
They shall be greatly ashamed,
Who trust in carved images,
Who say to the molded images,
‘You are our gods.’"
 
 
While we are gathered here today for worship service, many of our fellow saints are unable to be with us due to the social distancing requirements put in place to fight coronavirus. I would ask you to share today’s message with such church members who can’t attend our worship service. The raging coronavirus is extremely dangerous. Earlier today I heard in the news that there was an outbreak at a youth retreat held by a church in Busan, where at least 30 teenagers out of around 150-160 participants got infected. There probably will be more infections from this outbreak. 
Some churches go too far with their youth retreat, forcing the attendants to pray and scream all night long until they collapse from exhaustion. Prayer training is common at a youth retreat, but if the participating students are pushed too far, they get drained and sometimes even hallucinate. The training can be so intense that some participants practically lose their minds, and Satan can exploit this opening and trick the victims to make strange noises as though they were speaking in tongues. Many people mistakenly see this as the evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit. Like this, those who have not addressed the problem of their sins have a tendency to entrust their souls to liars, disregarding the Word of God. It appears that for these mistaken Christians, the barometer of faith to gauge whether one’s faith is strong or weak is how much one is exposed to evil spirits. 
Recently, followers of a certain denomination seem to have been exposed to demons. These people claim that they alone are among the 144,000 chosen people and call themselves spiritual harvesters, but this is nothing more than a completely unfounded lie that is based on their own thoughts rather than the Word of God. Even though they say that they are of the 144,000 chosen people, if there is any sin in their hearts, what they are saying is actually a complete lie. Their claim is a total, 100% lie before God.  
You and I are now living in an age when the world is getting beset by coronavirus. The Bible says that when the end times are here, there will be more famines and diseases. Will the world get better in the future then? No, of course not, for the New Testament records that there will be even more diseases to come. No doubt the world economy will get even worse from the pandemic. And there will be a lot more natural disasters than what we have seen so far. So, we cannot expect this world to get better in the future.  
The Book of Revelation in the New Testament says that when the end of the world is upon us, a third of mankind will suffer and perish from natural disasters.. It also says that a third of all the forests in this world will be burnt at once, and the seas will turn into blood and become inhospitable for living creatures.  
Today’s Scripture reading is about what awaits us in the future. When, then, will such disasters begin? They will begin when the wrath of God is poured on this earth. When we look at the days of the Old Testament, we see that the people of Israel had entered the land of Canaan and prospered there as promised by God. Despite this, however, they eventually abandoned the Yahweh God and worshiped pagan idols such as Baal, the god of fertility, and Asherah, the goddess of fertility. The Israelites burned incense and offered sacrifices at the altar of these idols. As a result, God poured out His wrath, and the people of Israel were consequently enslaved and dragged to distant lands as prisoners of war. In the days of both Old and New Testaments, God equally wanted to punish idolators. However, God also wanted to bestow His merciful love on even such idolators. God raised a Leader for them to deliver them from their sins, and He was pleased to save them.
 
 

Why We Ought to Praise the Lord with the Nearing End?


In today’s Scripture reading, our Lord gave a message of hope to His people, saying: 
“Sing to the LORD a new song,
And His praise from the ends of the earth,
You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!” (Isaiah 42:20). 
In a time when natural disasters are upon this world, trade among nations is blocked due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the economy collapses as a result, God spoke of hope to His people. In other words, God is telling us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that as the end gets nearer to us, there is a new hope for all human beings. 
Living in such end times, we ought to praise Christ our God because of the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. It’s because God has saved us from all the sins of the world through the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, and as a result, all those who believe in this gospel will enter and live in the Kingdom of God. This is why we the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit ought to praise God. 
This world is now looking at the imminent return of Christ our God, and the day is getting nearer for the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to partake in Christ’s wedding feast. This means that now is the time for the very God who has saved us the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit to judge the people of this world. God’s judgment is upon them because these people, deceived by the enemies, do not believe in God’s true love. God is therefore saying that the time of judgment is upon them. Living in such an age, we the righteous must carry out all our work by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit, the true Word of God. We are abiding in the Lord’s true love, and we will soon have the honor of meeting the Lord who has saved us from our sins. However, the righteous can live through such end times only if they are led by God’s Church Those who are immersed in God’s true love will receive our His loving care. Yet, even in these end times, there still are some righteous people who are worshiping idols instead of God. These people must repent from their idolatry and turn around. That is because there is a reason why we the righteous must lead our lives in obedience to the will of the Lord. 
In the days of the Old Testament, King Ahab misled the people of Israel into worshiping Baal and Asherah. Instead of guiding God’s people to worship the Lord God, he misled them into worshiping Baal. He did so because of his wife Jezebel. Jezebel was a foreign woman. This means that Ahab, king of the people of Israel, had married a pagan woman. With her marriage to Ahab, Jezebel introduced her idol Baal to Israel, and she also brought its priests along with her. She prodded King Ahab and the people of Israel to build a statue of Baal, and from then on, the Israelites began to worship Baal instead of the Lord God. So, God brought a drought to the people of Israel for three years and six months, giving them an opportunity to repent.
God brought this famine to the people of Israel because He wanted them to repent and return to Him. However, the Israelites did not submit to God in obedience. God had warned through Elijah that there would be a severe famine caused by a drought lasting for three and a half years.  At that time, Elijah was able to flee to a brook as instructed by God and find safety there. In such a time of upheaval, God had also prepared for Elijah a widow in Zarephath among the people of Israel. This widow at the time had only a handful of flour left in her barrel. She was going to make bread with the remaining flour so that she and her son could have one last meal before dying, but through His servant Elijah, God instructed the widow of Zarephath to make bread with the flour and bring it to him. It’s written in the Scripture that the widow did as she was told and served God’s servant with this bread, and as a result, she was blessed to have her barrel of flour never run out. This event, by contrasting those who fear God against those who do not, demonstrates how God’s blessings and curses are received.  
The account of the widow of Zarephath clearly shows that while some people of Israel served idols, others feared God. The same is true today. Although many people all over the world are serving idols instead of God, there also are others who are walking with God. In this present age, there clearly are some people who have received and are enjoying God’s blessings by accepting into their hearts the love of Christ and the gospel of the water and the Spirit He has given them. At the same time, there also are many people who refuse to accept God and His gospel of the water and the Spirit into their hearts, and are instead serving futile idols and standing against God, only to be destroyed in the end. By serving idols, these people are rejecting God’s true love. Being slaves to sin and deceived by liars, they are standing against God’s truth and provoking His wrath. If they continue to reject God’s true love like this, they will in the end face God’s wrath and be punished to hell. As the sins of mankind keep on piling up to reach God in the heavens, these sins turn into God`s fiery judgment and descend upon this earth as condemnation. Disasters are upon today’s human race, and many people are suddenly dying as a result. Do you know why this is happening? People are dying because they have rejected of God’s true love. When we look at the history of the human race, we see that every time people’s sins abounded, some type of disease would strike them to reduce the human population. As the world made scientific advancements, so did the culture of sin also advance along the way, and human beings came to live buried under this culture. In the end, it was inevitable for mankind to drift far away from God and live under an avalanche of curses and suffering. All civilizations, whether the Incan civilization or the Roman civilization, suddenly disappeared from the face of this earth precisely when their culture of idolatry grew rapidly to reach its height. During the Middle Ages, the Black Death ravaged mankind and killed tens of millions of people, but we see that once human beings recovered from this pandemic, they developed an even more advanced culture of sin. 
All human beings on this earth ought to receive the blessed remission of sins by believing in God, the Creator of the universe and the Christ Savior who has delivered sinners from all sins. The problem, however, is that countless people are still worshiping idols as their gods instead of the one true God. God will therefore judge them again. I pray that God would bless mankind with the last spiritual harvest even through the coronavirus pandemic that is ravaging this present age. Today, God has enabled us to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all mankind through His Church. We the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are now preaching this gospel fully through e-books, print books, and audiobooks. It is a fact of this age and time that as scientific advancements are made, the iniquities committed by human beings are becoming even more prevalent on this earth. However, through the hardships of diseases, God is spreading the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit to mankind. God is therefore also admonishing us the righteous to live out our faith and worship Him. 
God is saying to the righteous: 
“Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice,
The villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,
Let them shout from the top of the mountains” (Isaiah 42:21). 
Today, there are many people all over the world who are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit like us. We can praise our God by spreading the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit to every nation. God loves us the righteous believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we can praise Him because we believe that this God will return to this earth. God has blessed us to sing His praise, “Jesus Christ has saved us the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit from all our sins once and for all!” God is telling all of us the righteous to praise Him for the grace He has bestowed on us, and to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world. 
Sometimes, it may appear as though God does not judge human beings no matter how many sins they commit. However, God has revealed Himself as the Judge to the sinners strutting arrogantly before Him. Sometimes it looks like God is hiding from all of us in silence, but we know that God has been by our side all along, speaking to us and helping us. God is revealing Himself to us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God’s silence can be so long that everyone may think He does not exist, but we know from the history of mankind that when the sins of human beings pile up to reach a certain breaking point, God reveals Himself. Humanity has seen its population grow explosively since the end of World War II. With this, iniquities have increased, as have many other evil events. However, with God’s permission, mankind now has another opportunity to find and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. All human beings should now turn around and find the God-given blessing of salvation; no one should miss this opportunity. For our part, we should leverage God’s blessings and spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world. We are living in a time when the specter of war is haunting all over the world. Even more terrifying than war, however, is disease. And even more freighting than this is the complete collapse of the economy. When this age is upon us, all human beings will suffer such a terrible drought both in body and spirit that they will become almost like zombies. We can see that God has made us prepare everything so that we can preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the whole world when this time is upon us.  
Looking at everything that is happening in these difficult days, human beings should take a solemn measure of themselves before God and seek the salvation of their souls now. They should ask themselves, “If I keep doing what I’ve been doing, I will perish for sure. I am hurtling toward death. How can I then be saved from my sins in this age and time?” All human beings should pray so that they can find the way to salvation from their sins. To put it simply, God is saying to the entire human race to find and believe in God and the gospel of the water and the Spirit that holds His righteousness.  God is saying, “Receive your salvation!” God had called Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of all mankind, and Jesus Christ is telling us to ready ourselves for Heaven by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit He has given us. In times like this, human beings must cry out for God our Christ, and believe in the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit with their hearts. At the same time, we should remember that those of us who have found the gospel of the water and the Spirit have been blessed to be able to praise God and prepare for a better future. Those who have not found the gospel of the water and the Spirit, in contrast, will see their souls perish forever.  
In these last days, God is telling us the righteous not to stay silent and shout aloud instead. He is telling His workers to stir up zeal like a warrior and shout out loudly the blessed work of salvation and proclaim the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is through various hardships of this world, such as disease, war, and economic calamities, that people come to call on the Lord who has given them His true love. The God of all human beings is now telling them to also receive the remission of all their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And to us the believers, God is telling us to shout out the gospel of the water and the Spirit for the sake of every sinner. It is through the righteous that God speaks. He is telling us to shout out so that all human beings can come to their senses and all sinners can receive the remission of sins into their hearts by believing in the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit. Put differently, it is through our voices that God works to ensure that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is preached by His servants to enter into the heart of everyone living in this present age. 
People have a tendency not to look for God the Savior when they are doing well and are comfortable. That is why God sometimes allows mankind to face hardships like a thorn. He allows this to happen to each of us as individuals, nations, and the entire human race. If we do not suffer because of our sins, it is in our human nature to be full of ourselves before God. It is when hardships come our way that we bow our heads before God and seek His love and mercy. So, believing in God the Savior in these difficult times is the greatest of all blessings. Yet, even among the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, there are some people who serve idols instead of God. God is saying to such people, “Admit your sins, turn around, and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit.”
My fellow believers, even if you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with your heart, if you are still following the lust of your flesh, then in God’s eyes you are the same as an idolater. The people of Israel knew that the Lord God was the true God. Despite this, they still worshiped idols instead of God. That is why God punished them. The same is true for us. Even though we now know and believe in the true gospel of the water and the Spirit, if we still want to live just for our own flesh, God is telling us that we are the same as the idolaters of Old Testament times. In other words, God is saying that even the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are like Ahab if their lives are not devoted to preaching the gospel. If you do not do what pleases God even as you claim to revere and love Him, then God will just treat you as an unbeliever. 
Do you think God’s Church can be led by just anyone? The Church that God wants is the gathering of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, obey God’s commands, stay far away from idols, and serve the Lord. That is called God’s Church. Put differently, it is those who obey and submit to the will of God who are the members of His Church. It is such people whom God works on and blesses. God reveals His will by pouring the Holy Spirit into the hearts of such servants, makes them preach the Truth of the water and the Spirit, and entrusts them with the duty of leadership so that all the saints may follow the will of God. Therefore, if some people know the gospel of the water and the Spirit only at a theoretical level and are preaching this gospel without truly believing in it with the heart, then such people’s gathering is not God’s Church. 
A while ago, a certain brother left God’s Church and started his own church, claiming that his was God’s Church. But God compelled me to tell him, “Brother, that is not really God’s Church. You are not serving God. You are serving your own idol. You may think right now that you are doing a lot to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but your heart will soon get corrupted and you will not be able to serve the Lord. And you will become just like an ordinary sinner in no time. That’s because you are not preaching and serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and are instead serving your own lust of the flesh!” 
Even after receiving the remission of sins, if people were just interested in making money and enriching themselves and their own families as many churchgoers do these days do, how could such people’s gathering be God’s Church? Would Jesus and the Holy Spirit work in their hearts? No, the Holy Spirit will not work in them. I know someone who even claims that he is the Holy Spirit. He is a blasphemer. Anyone who claims to be the Holy Spirit is blaspheming the Holy God. It is preposterous for a human being, who must eat and empty the bowls in the flesh, to stand against God so arrogantly like this. The Holy Spirit is God Himself, so how can anyone whose heart is sinful be divine? Such people will inevitably face God’s condemnation. It’s ludicrous. All those who blaspheme God like this must turn around from their sins, for they will not be able to avoid His judgment. This particular man apparently shows up at every retreat riding a white horse, saying that his older brother is the head of the denomination and he is the Holy Spirit. When we turn to Revelation chapter six, we see four horses appearing in the order of a white horse, a red horse, a black horse, and then a pale horse. The One riding the white horse is Christ, who is God Himself. But this liar is claiming ridiculously that he is the one riding the white horse.  
God said here in verse 15: 
“I will lay waste the mountains and hills,
And dry up all their vegetation;
I will make the rivers coastlands,
And I will dry up the pools.” The Bible says here that God will bring famine to the world, starve its economy, unleash diseases, and lay waste to the world. If there is a global famine even just once, this world will be unlivable. Inflation will skyrocket uncontrollably. That is what God will bring about. Like this, God will bring unspeakable disasters to mankind in the last days. In contrast, when it comes to the righteous, God will make them lead the spiritually blind to the right way, shine the light in darkness, and praise God. We should realize that none other than such people are the righteous. Once people are saved from their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit preached by the righteous, they, too, will come to praise the God of salvation together with us. These days we are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit through our e-books and printed books, and if sinners read, hear, and believe in what we are preaching, they will also come to praise God by faith just like us.  
 
 

In the Last Days, God Will Lead Those Who Are in Darkness to the Light 


Let’s all turn to verse 16 here:
“I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked places straight.
These things I will do for them,
And not forsake them.” The day will come soon for many people around the world to realize the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Right now, however, countless people in the world still do not know the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Nonetheless, we are currently revamping our website, and once this is finished, more and more people from around the world will come across and learn about the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Just like us, these people will then also come to believe in and praise God’s love and the salvation He is offering, saying, “Oh! I now know that God has saved us from all the sins of the world through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I also realize now that God loves us like this. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the real Truth of salvation.” Like this, people will grasp the God-given gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. In this way, those who had been trapped in darkness, held in prison, and mired in sin will discover bright light, come out to this light, and be saved from their sins by faith. And such people will come to praise God by faith. 
Even in this last age, God has not forsaken any sinners. Far from it, God’s eyes are looking high and low for those who are seeking Him. There are many people in this world who are looking for God, and there also are many people who are standing against God. Moreover, there are many poor people who are rich in their hearts, just as there are many rich people who are poor in their hearts. God is looking for those who are poor in spirit, and it is these people whom God saves through the gospel of the water and the Spirit and gives the gift of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
There was a CEO of a large company in Korea who was terminally ill with liver cancer. One day, while reading the Bible in his hospital bed, he came across the verse that says that the rich cannot enter heaven. So, he was deeply troubled by this, wondering to himself, “I am rich. Does this mean that I can’t enter heaven?” He then turned to the pastor of his church and asked, “I came across this passage in the Bible. Does it mean that heaven is beyond my rich since I am rich? Please tell me the way so that I can enter heaven.” His pastor, however, was not able to teach him the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The pastor instead told him that he would teach him the way the next time he visits him, but shortly thereafter, the CEO passed away. This story was circulated widely in local Christian communities and it eventually reached our ears as well. If just one of our brothers or sisters had been there, this CEO would have been delivered from his sins. While the rich here refer to those who are wealthy in the flesh, spiritually speaking, the true meaning of this verse is that those whose hearts are rich cannot enter heaven no matter what. God said to all:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Here God is telling us that we must be poor in spirit. Yet, too many people in this world are not poor in spirit. There are those who are very wealthy but whose hearts are still poor, and then there are those whose hearts turn arrogant at the slightest hint of wealth. People whose hearts are elevated like this cannot enter heaven, for they do not look for God. That is why God has permitted poverty and suffering in this world, so that people would be saved by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God has allowed poverty and suffering to all mankind. The wealthy CEO would have received the remission of sins if only he had come across our gospel book of the water and the Spirit shared by one of our brothers or sisters. 
God is still looking for those who are poor in spirit. He is looking for anyone who is calling for God and searching for the salvation of the remission of sins from the gospel of the water and the Spirit. There are many such people in the world. So, today, there are lots of people who read and hear about the gospel of the water and the Spirit from our website or books, believe in it with their hearts, and are thereby saved from their sins. Many people looking for the Lord of salvation are coming across the gospel of the water and the Spirit on their computers or smartphones, reading it and hearing it. The full content of the gospel of the water and the Spirit is available from our website. Whoever wants to reach salvation through the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit, whoever wants to receive God’s blessings, and whoever wants to hear the Truth can find it all. To those who are looking for the Lord, the books we make freely available on our website are wonderful news. God said very clearly that He would not forsake them, as it is written:
“I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked places straight” (Isaiah 42:16). Guiding those who are in darkness into His Church and the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God blesses them to find and believe in the love of the Lord and His righteousness, and to praise God.  
 
 

Mankind Should Prepare to Receive the Righteous God by Faith


Ultimately, God said in today’s Scripture reading:
“They shall be turned back,
They shall be greatly ashamed,
Who trust in carved images,
Who say to the molded images,
‘You are our gods’” (Isaiah 42:17). Those who are cast out to hell from God’s presence face such a wretched outcome because they refuse to accept the salvation of the remission of sins God is offering through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In contrast, we the righteous who have been born again thanks to the Lord have received our salvation by believing in the Almighty God, the Holy God, the merciful God, the work of the Holy Christ, and the gospel of the water and the Spirit. So let us all realize that this God, Jesus Christ, has saved us from all our sins once and for all, believe in this with our hearts, and give all thanks to God. Let us thank the Lord, believing that even though we had no choice but to be cast into hell, God has saved us from our sins once and for all through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Let there be nothing that we love more than God; let us reflect our hearts upon the Word regularly; and let us turn around if we find ourselves going astray. If we do all these things, we will receive God’s love and be able to live our lives in obedience to Him. We will then receive God-given blessings in our everyday lives. Realizing this, we ought to take a moment to examine ourselves. We need to examine our hearts from time to time. How wonderful it is that we have been saved from our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in these last days! How grateful it is that we the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit have now become God’s people! How marvelous it is that the God of judgment is our God, the God of salvation is our God, and we believe in this God, love Him, and are praising Him! And how thankful we are that we are the truly blessed who believe in the love of this God, trust Him, and praise and worship Him! 
In these end times, anyone who does not know God and His righteousness is miserable. Such people will be ruined in the end no matter how rich they might be. But there is still hope for them, for people all over the world, from the richest to the poorest of all, will be saved from their sins if they encounter our books or meet our workers. By reading and believing in the gospel of the salvation of the water and the Spirit, they, too, will be saved.  
Humanity must prepare to receive the just God by faith. All human beings must be ready to enter heaven. This does not mean, however, that we have to travel and take our books to every corner of the world. It is enough for us to continue doing what we have been doing all along, supporting the gospel ministry of the water and the Spirit, serving this gospel, and living by faith for the remainder of our lives. Although we are living in the last days, all that we need to do is praise the Lord, worship Him, listen to His Word, honor Him, and preach Him, all the while taking take good care of ourselves, for the Bible says: “But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31). Living in these end times, we must look toward the Lord who makes us whole. We will then be victorious. We will then renew our strength and receive God-given blessings in our lives of faith, and this will enable us to lead a worthy life for the remainder of our time on this earth.  
The sermon that I am preaching at this hour is being recorded so that it can be shared as a video or transcript with our church members throughout Korea and our fellow believers around the world as well. It is so wonderful to be able to share my heartfelt desires for all our fellow believers like this.  Although we are God’s people who have been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, if we stop worshiping God even for just a month or two, it is very easy for us to turn into worldly people again. Our hearts may drift away from God completely. So, this worship service that we are offering to God is absolutely important. Think about how we used to treat worship service when we had no difficulty holding it. Didn’t we take it too lightly, just going through the motion? At times it had become just a routine, something that we did habitually and hurriedly. Over the last year we have had to scale down and occasionally even cancel our worship services because of the restrictions put in place to address the coronavirus pandemic, and my heart has been weighed down heavily by this. I thought about why my heart felt so heavy, and I also prayed about it. It then dawned on me that if we do not worship God, we are bound to fail. We must therefore build the altar of worship by faith until the day the Lord returns to this earth. The Holy Spirit brought understanding to my mind, saying to me, “How can you not worship God just because you are busy or facing difficult circumstances?” So, I said to the Lord, “I get it, Lord. We will worship You. We will hold our worship services.” That is how I decided to resume our worship services while doing the utmost to protect the health and safety of our church members. 
Earlier today, when I was walking down the aisle after the morning service was over, Ji-eun was standing at the end of the aisle waiting for me. When I greeted her, she told me just how happy she was to be able to join the worship service again. She had been miserable while the worship service was suspended, but now she was delighted to be able to participate in the hour of worship again. So I told her that I was also very happy. It is not just I who is happy, but the Holy Spirit in our hearts is also pleased. It is marvelous to worship God. We know that this worship service is a blessing in God’s eyes. Even for those who have received the remission of sins, if they stop worshiping God for just a few months, their faith will disappear and their hearts will get corrupted. They will turn completely into worldly people. They will lose discernment, and their hearts will drift toward the world. It is while taking part in the worship service that we get to listen to the Word of God, realize His will, revere Him, and follow the Lord in obedience to the work of the Holy Spirit. It is through God’s Word that our mistakes are pointed out and corrected, enabling us to follow the Lord. Such blessings are assured for all who worship God. Our churches throughout Korea, and God’s workers and saints laboring throughout the whole world, should worship God faithfully and receive His blessings. No matter what their circumstances might be, they must all worship God. And they must continue to support the gospel ministry also. I know that sometimes we feel downtrodden for a short while. Even so, we must worship God. So, let us first think of our fellow saints around us before ourselves, let us take every precautionary measure for the sake of each other, and let us do our best to worship God. Until the day we meet the Lord, let us all pray to God, praise Him, and live by believing in His Word. May God bless you all! 
 
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
GOD`S LETTERS TO US IN THE AGE OF CORONAVIRUS