Passage

[2 Timothy 4: 7- 8]
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.


Introduction

This is the 2011 Manmin and Levites' Volunteers Group Devotional Service.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has blessed us to have this devotional service.
Dear devotees, the church and the church members need the volunteering work of your hands all throughout the year.
You volunteer for the church members even in the hot scorching sunshine of summer and in the snow and cold winds of winter.
Even on freezing cold days, you wake up early in the morning to come to the church and make preparations for worship services and other meetings.
Even in boiling-hot dining facilities or restrooms that have foul odor, you do your duties without losing the smile on your faces.
You work faithfully in the places that are not seen by the church members. Because of you, all worship services and events in the church can take place smoothly.
The lyrics of the song given for you by God are as follows:
"We are the hands of Manmin. We are the feet of Manmin. We are the faces of Manmin. We are Manmin's pride, Manmin's strength."
When you serve the believers like their hands and feet and when you serve them with gracious smiles on your faces, you give comfort and hope to them and you become strength to the church.
Your service can give the believers hope and let them feel Heaven.
God considers all your faithfulness and service very precious, and He wants to give you great blessings in spirit and body for your deeds.
But first, you have to prepare the vessel for you to be able to contain those blessings.
As in the title of today's message, you must be able to love God and serve Him with all your heart.
You should not just volunteer with body alone, but you have to be faithful with all your heart, mind, and soul, and with strength, wisdom, and life.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, through this devotional service, you will prepare the proper vessel to receive blessings of God.
Dear devotees,
In order for you to become faithful with all your heart, first of all, you should remember the grace that God the Father has given you.
Today, many people would not volunteer to do the difficult and hard work or serve others in a lowly place, even if they are paid a great deal.
But, you don't do your work for pay or because somebody forces you to do it.
You have volunteered to do these works with joy.
There is a reason you have become Manmin volunteers, and it is God's grace given to you.
The Father has guided you with His love until you have become what you are today.
Just think about how much grace God has given you.
Think about how much grace you have received after coming to this church.
You were unconditionally forgiven of your sins and have become God's children with God's love who sent to us His only begotten Son.
You listened to the spiritually deep word of God; you learned the way of blessing and He enabled you to go that way.
Seeing, hearing about, and experiencing the power of God through your shepherd, you also have experienced such power.
Your diseases and infirmities were healed, and your broken families came to have peace.
You left your previous lives of wandering in the world; you realized the true purpose of life and gained new lives.
You received blessings of conception; blessings in your businesses and workplaces.
You received answers to many desires of your heart.
Through the experiences of God's grace, and as your hope for New Jerusalem increased, how happy have you been?
With that joy and thanks, you wanted to give everything you had for the dear Father and the Lord, and for the church and shepherd.
You wanted to pay back the grace you received and you wanted to express the love you have in you.
That is why you have volunteered with your body to physically serve the church.
I hope you will always remember the grace you received initially.
You should not forget that grace, but it has to increase day after day, so that your faces will continuously be filled with joy and thanks, and happiness and hope.
Then, God the Father will also accept the aroma of your hearts joyfully and pay back all your faithful service with material and spiritual blessings.
Dear devotees,
In order to become faithful with all your heart, secondly, you should look up to the rewards that God will give to you.
God has given you the free gift of His grace so much through the Lord and also through your shepherd.
Thinking of this grace, it is in fact very natural that you should dedicate yourself and do these voluntary works.
Even if you give all your possessions and even your lives, you cannot really say before God, "This is how much I have given you."
Nevertheless, God does not say it is natural that you serve Him.
He remembers all your service and He will pay you back with heavenly rewards later.
For example, suppose a little child has saved his pocket money and gave a birthday present to his mother.
That pocket money originally came from his mother anyway, and it is also natural for the children to want to give birthday presents to their parents.
But in the view of the mother, she is so happy that her children knows grace and serves her with their love.
She would not just receive their present saying, "Of course you should do it," but she would also want to express her love by giving them something better.
It is even more so with the heart of God the Father.
When the children give thanks for God's grace and give to Him even little things, God wants to give them back something even better.
Previously I told you about the heavenly rewards that you will receive for your voluntary service on this earth.
If you have kept those messages in mind and have been faithful thinking about those rewards, you should have been full of happiness and joy.
First of all, God will give you a special ring on your finger and beautifully decorated shoes on your feet.
He means to express that you did voluntary service by diligently moving your hands and feet.
Also, for men, God gives them splendid epaulettes on their shoulders.
According to their devotion and work, the number of epaulettes can be one, two, or three.
Women will have flower decorations with jewels instead of epaulettes.
These flower decorations would also differ in number according to the measure of your service.
The petals will give out beautiful lights as they open and close.
Just imagine you are dancing with the Lord and praising God having received such rewards.
You will rejoice saying, "The Lord has given me everything, but I had nothing to give, so I gave You my faithful service with my heart and with my body. You remembered my little service and gave me back with overflowing glory and love."
And if you go into the third kingdom of heaven or higher, you will have a greater number of personally ministering angels than other people have.
It's because as you served others on this earth you will be served more in Heaven.
The God of justice does not forget one single act of faith of yours.
He pays you back with the most valuable and most necessary things for each act of yours.
I have often told you the story of the person who used to be the head of the volunteers, but passed away.
When he was filled with Spirit, he diligently did his duty and he followed me wherever I went to work faithfully.
But later he changed his mind, and finally he got a serious disease.
When he came to receive my prayer before his death, his face was full of terror because of the works of the evil spirits.
I could see it was not easy for him to receive salvation.
But God remembered all of his previous faithfulness and extended mercy to him that allowed for him to at least receive salvation.
God guided him to receive my prayer at the last moment to drive away darkness and give him the grace of salvation.
His service in the name of the Lord and his deeds of serving the church and the shepherd worked in a way that he could receive God's grace at the most crucial moment.
It's the same with all your faithfulness.
When you serve God faithfully, He will pay you back with the most valuable things at the most appropriate time.
I hope you will long for such blessings and remember the heavenly rewards that will be given to you, so that your joy and thanks will keep on increasing.
In doing so, I urge you to work faithfully without any changing of your minds.
Dear devotees,
In order for you to be faithful with all your heart, thirdly, you should remember the dwelling place God will give to you.
No matter how much you work faithfully on this earth, what decides your dwelling place in Heaven is the extent to which you circumcise your heart.
You can be recognized as God's true children and go into third kingdom of heaven or higher when you cast away all forms of evil in your heart.
Even if you receive so many rewards in the second kingdom of heaven, it cannot be compared with the glory of the third kingdom of heaven.
Suppose you receive the same brooch of precious stones. The brilliance and beauty of the stones in the 2nd kingdom cannot match those of the stones of the 3rd kingdom.
In the 2nd or the 1st kingdom of heaven, you cannot see the faces of the Father God or the Lord in person.
God has given you such great grace, but you stayed in flesh not being able to cast away sins and evil.
You would be so ashamed of it that you would not be able to lift up your head.
We all listened to the same message from one shepherd in the same church, so nobody should feel the embarrassment like that above while others are enjoying the glory of New Jerusalem.
You should long to go into a better heavenly dwelling place by doing your best.
You should cultivate holiness and become a proud child before the Father who would not be ashamed of himself.
You have listened to so many messages and you know very well what you have to do to become holy and go into a better heavenly dwelling place.
But how much have you obeyed such words?
Where do you direct your attention every day? How are you changing your heart?
The current of spirit in this church is flowing so rapidly that we see the construction of Canaan Sanctuary before us.
Through the leadership conference that we just had, God mentioned the names and each one's measure of faith to explain what we have to do to go into spirit.
God is working on us like a whirlwind so that we can clearly realize ourselves and cast off flesh quickly.
You volunteers must also ride on this rapid flow of spirit.
You have to break down your own frameworks and righteousness.
You have to cast off insisting that you are right and cultivate the heart of spirit that follows peace and goodness.
You have to change daily to make the kind of heart that God desires for you to have.
Even the parts that you could not change no matter how much you tried before, now you can change them by the grace of the Father.
Through the original light, God is giving you a completely different kind of grace to change your heart.
It's not that only a few who are chosen will go into spirit or that only a few leaders can long for whole spirit.
More than anybody else it is you who should receive this blessing, for you are serving others with sweat in lowly places.
God the Father also wants to guide you into spirit more than you desire to go into spirit.
You should not just think, "I am working faithfully with my thanks for the grace I received, so I am doing OK."
You have to constantly check yourself trying to find out what you have to change and what you have to demolish in you.
You might think you have been working hard with dedication, but you should check whether or not you did it to flaunt yourselves before others.
You have to check why the progress in your faith is slow though you think you are trying hard. You should change these things through fervent prayers.
I hope all of you will long for the best dwelling place that God will give you, and go into spirit quickly.


Conclusion

2 Timothy 4:7-8 says, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing."
I hope that you will make the same profession.
I hope you will always think about what kind of great glory God will give you and long for it when you will have fought the good fight day after day and finished the course.
When we think of the grace we received, it is so natural that we offer our faithfulness and dedication before the Father.
And yet God promises us that He will give us more rewards, a more glorious dwelling place and crowns to the extent that we change ourselves.
Remember this promise and offer up to God the aroma of joy and thanks through your devotion with all your heart.
In doing so, I hope you will store up more blessings and rewards before the Father through your daily lives.
I also hope that you will take hold of better heavenly places and reach New Jerusalem.
I pray in the name of the Lord that all of you will receive more blessings on this earth and also enjoy the most glorious lives in Heaven, too.

2011-07-11 Posted
2011-07-12 Updated