[Message] Pastor Jung Myeong Seok
[Scriptures]
Revelation 2:2-7
2) I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
3) You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4) Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.
5) Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
6) But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7) Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Revelation 2:9-10
9) I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
10) Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.
Revelation 2:13-17
13) I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.
14) Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.
15) Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
16) Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17) Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
Revelation 2:24-29
24) Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you,
25) except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
26) To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—
27) that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father.
28) I will also give that one the morning star.
29) Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 3:1-6
1)“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
2) Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.
3) Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4) Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.
5) The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.
6) Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 3:9-12
9) I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.
10) Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
11) I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.
12) The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.
Revelation 3:17-22
17) You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
18) I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19) Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
20) Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
21) To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22) Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Hallelujah! This is the last day of 2014, when we send the year away.
The past year’s race of life is ended, but you all must be wondering whether you won, lost, drew, or were little insufficient.
When it comes to calculating ‘your own score’ for how you lived for a year,
you, as human beings, cannot it.
Only the Almighty Being can calculate it.
Since you have lived not for people but for God, the Holy Spirit and the Holy Son,
only the Holy Trinity knows your score.
There are some who overcame trials and difficulties even though all kinds of trials and difficulties of life and faith came this year. Also, there are those whose faith came back to life after they were rebuked with the Word and after they repented and fixed themselves.
There are some who valued the missions the Holy Son had given [them] and [they] carried them out until the end whether their missions were small or big.
There are those who kept the Word until the end even though they are young, are just regular members, or recently just came to Providence.
There are those who followed until the end without letting their faith die.
Also there are those whose first love for Heaven had died but who revived the first love and kept it burning hot.
There are those who have received inspiration and realization through deep prayer and lived a life of thanksgiving, lived a life of volunteering, and managed lives in all kinds of ways.
He has repaid all of you according to your deeds until now, and also He will repay everything when the time comes in the New Year.
Now, here comes the New Year’s day of 2015.
I bless you to have a ‘good dream’ and receive God, the Holy Spirit and the Holy Son with hope and love this year.
