General Service in Malang, May 29, 2016 (Sunday Morning)

Peace and grace in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Revelation 4:2
4:2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and Onesat on the throne.

John the apostle saw the throne of Heaven and Lord through a sight.
Now, all of us can see the throne of Heaven and Lord through the revelation of the Word and the anointing of Holy Spirit.

Why does the Lord show His throne and Himself to all of us?
Psalm 11:4
11:4 The Lord isin His holy temple,
The Lord's throne isin heaven;
His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.

It is so that we can experience the attention and visit of God.

Luke 7:16
7:16 Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen up among us"; and, "God has visited His people."

One of the visits of God is in Luke 7:11-17, that is the visit to the widow left by his son.
Actually, He only visits His nation, that is the Israelites or the sheep of God. How about the Gentiles who are as the dog and swine?

Romans 11:25-26
11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
11:26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

A part of the Israelites has hardened their heart and rejected Jesus. Thus, there is chance and mercy of God for the Gentiles to believe Jesus, become His nation, and be saved. The mercy of God is in the price of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Hence, all Israel [Romans 11:26] or the spiritual Israel, which consists of the Israelites and the Gentiles, will experience the visit of God to be saved.

Luke 7:11-12
7:11 Now it happened, the day after, thatHe went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd.
7:12 And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her.

Actually the sinful Gentiles (represented as the widow whose son dies) are on the journey to the grave. The Gentiles live in suffering, tears, up to perdition in the hell forever.
But in the gate of God's mercy, that is the sacrifice of Christ, the Gentiles receive the visit of God, so they do not go to the grave but return to Nain. Nain means the most pleasant place, that is the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

Romans 11:22
11:22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in Hisgoodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.

The attitude of the Gentiles is we must be inside the gate of God's mercy, meaning we must always consider and stay within the mercy of God. No matter how great the Gentiles are, if they leave the mercy of God, they will go to suffering and tears, up to the everlasting perdition in the hell.

The practices of the Gentiles who always consider and stay within the mercy of God are as follows.
  1. Repenting, meaning stopping sinning to return to God. We die to sins.
    Romans 2:4
    2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

    Jeremiah 9:5
    9:5 Everyone will deceive his neighbor,
And will not speak the truth; They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

    Repenting is started with not lying. A liar is lazy to repent, does not want to repent, until being unable to repent as Satan. He only repeats and preserves the sins. The sins will increase up to the peak of sins, that is sins concerning eating-drinking (smoking, getting drunk, consuming drugs) and marrying-being given in marriage (sexuality sin with all its variety, sexual deviation, wrong marriage, having affair with the other man or woman, marrying-divorcing).

    God gives three means for repentance as follows.

    • His mercy, that is giving us body, spirit, and soul.
      As long as we still have physical body, we can repent. Animals have body and soul, but not spirit, so they do not need to repent. Angels are only spirit, so they cannot repent. When Lucifer was sinful, he fell and became Satan.

    • His forbearance gives us prolonging of our age. He also has not come for the second time yet, so there is still chance to repent.
    • His longsuffering, meaning all types of sins confessed seriously to God will be forgiven.

    All of us can repent. There is no reason to not repent. The matter is only whether we want to or not.

    Romans 2:5
    2:5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

    There are two flows of the Gentiles as follows.

    • The Gentiles who does not want to repent. They preserve the sins until being unable to repent as Satan. It means being outside the gate and going to the grave. They treasure up the wrath for themselves until being destroyed in the hell forever.

    • The Gentiles who soften their heart and leave the sins, until being unable to do sins anymore. It equals to Jesus who goes to Nain, up to entering the Kingdom of Heaven forever.

  2. Experiencing renewal, being newly born from water and Holy Spirit baptism.
    Titus 3:4-5
    3:4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
    3:
    5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

    Romans 6:4
    6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

    The true water baptism is one who has died to sins must be buried in water together with Jesus, so we are raised together with Him to receive new life or the Heavenly life, that is living in righteousness. All aspects of our life must be right.

    Holy Spirit baptism equals to the anointing of Holy Spirit and being filled up with Holy Spirit.
    1 Timothy 4:1-2
    4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
    4:
    2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,

    In the anointing of Holy Spirit, we have new life that is firm to hear only the true teaching Word and to reject the other teachings. We are also firm to hold fast and obey the true teaching Word.

    Thus, through water and Holy Spirit baptism, we become the righteous who live in righteousness and hold fast as well as obey the true teaching Word. We do not sin and are not deceived. God never leaves the righteous. God always cares them.

    Proverbs 12:26
    12:26 The righteous should choose his friends carefully,
For the way of the wicked leads them astray.

    The righteous will find the good and right shepherding. Nain also means the pasture, that is the shepherding. Let us make the shepherding as the most pleasant place. We live in the world but we feel as in the Heaven.

    How can we make the shepherding as the most pleasant place?

    • A pastor must feed the sheep with faithfulness and responsibility.
    • The sheep must eat and enjoy the shepherding Word, that is the true teaching Word preached by the pastor faithfully, orderly, and repetitively.

    We must be steady within the shepherding, as the 5000 men sitting on the pasture. If we sit, the hands of the Great Shepherd will work. The results are as follows.

    • The merciful hands of the Great Shepherd are able to care us miraculously.
    • The merciful hands of the Great Shepherd always protect us, so we do not stumble or fall.

    • The merciful hands of the Great Shepherd always sanctify us from our blemish, especially from doubt and worry.
      Mark 16:14
      16:14 Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.

      It is until we are blameless and perfect as Jesus.

      Ephesians 4:11-12
      4:11 And He Himself gave some to beapostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
      4:
      12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,

      If we are willing to be sanctified, God will equip us with the ministry and gifts of Holy Spirit, to be used in the ministry of building the perfect body of Christ. The more we are used by God, the more beautiful our life is.

  3. Not losing our heart but being strong and of good courage in ministering God.
    2 Corinthians 4:1
    4:1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.

    It means that we keep being faithful and fervent in spirit in the ministry until the end line, that is until we die or until Jesus' second coming. Leaving the ministry means going to the grave.

    2 Peter 1:10-11
    1:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
    1:
    11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

    We do not stumble or fall, but minister until the end line. It is so that we receive the full right to enter the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.
Luke 7:13-14
7:13 When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep."
7:14 Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried himstood still. And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise."

If we keep staying within the gate of God's mercy, meaning repenting, being newly born, and ministering until the end line, we will always experience the visit of God. He will care and struggle for us. His hands are stretched out with resurrection power. What is it for?
  1. The power to erase all impossibilities. There is power to create the thing that has not existed yet.
  2. The power to give beautiful and successful future. The broken marriage will be recovered, justified, united, and sanctified by God.
  3. The power to erase the tears. The power to renew our life until we are perfect as Him and worthy to welcome His second coming. We enter the Kingdom of Heaven and there will be no more tears there.
God blesses us.