Passage
[Romans 12:3]
"For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith."
[Introduction]
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has blessed us to have 2016 District, Sub-district, and Cell Leaders' Devotional Service. I give thanks to you devotees who have prepared for this service with all your heart and mind.
Dear devotees and other members,
There are many organizations in the church, but the most basic organization is the cell group. Each of the cells must stand firm so that the whole church can stand firm. For this reason the duty of you devotees today is very important.
A cell leader is the head of each spiritual family. Just as the head of the family must provide for the family, a cell leader must delicately care for each cell member from little children to the seniors, both in spirit and body. In fact, you devotees are making great sacrifices while working for God's kingdom. You are not paid like the pastors or Levites, and you spend your own time and money to visit the members and spread the gospel.
As hard as you are taking care of the souls, what kinds of blessings would God want to give you? Above all, He wants to give you the blessing of the increasing of your faith, that is, your soul being prosperous. If your soul prospers, heavenly glory, namely New Jerusalem and all the earthly blessings will follow.
That is why I have been clearly showing you the way for your soul to prosper through many sermons. Also, I tried all my best so that the power and grace to go in the way could come upon you. I showed you the evidence with which you could believe by showing great power of God. I taught you the way to become sanctified. With everything I had, I delivered to you the love of the Father and the Lord and gave you the strength to go into spirit and whole spirit.
But what really matters is your deeds. No matter how many works of God you see and hear and how much knowledge of truth you have, this in itself can give you faith only as knowledge. Your soul will prosper and you can take hold of heavenly kingdom by force only when you make the word of God yours and change your heart into spirit.
The problem is with those of you who think you know the truth and that you are faithful, but still you can't really check yourself properly, and you just keep on doing what you've been doing. You mistakenly think you are doing OK, or you think you will someday go into spirit if you just keep on doing what you've been doing. This way, you can't really focus on circumcision of heart.
But finally, God began to let us know our measures of faith so we could actually see them. Today's reading passage Romans 12:3 says, "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith."
Faith is invisible, spiritual thing, but God can measure it as He pleases, and He can even show it in numerical figures. Measurement of faith is the expression of God's love who wants you to go the way of heaven with greater joy.
On your journey toward New Jerusalem, you can check yourself as to whether you are doing fine or not, and as to what you can do better, or how much you have come and how much more you have to go. In this message, let us delve into three aspects among the things that constitute measures of faith. You have to check them as cell, sub-district, and district leaders. I hope you will take a moment to check yourself once again through the message.
[Main]
Dear devotees and other members,
For your measure of faith to increase, first of all, you should check how deep your heart is.
The depth of heart here refers to how much spiritual love, virtue, and gentleness you've achieved. How can we check this depth? You can check yourself against the levels of goodness that you are already aware of.
The first level is to be patient and not pay back with evil when others are acting with evil. You have some ill-feelings and discomfort, but you suppress them. In the world, they will say such people are good, but in God's sight they're not.
True goodness is not to suppress hard-feelings but you must not have them in the first place. This is the second level of goodness. The third level of goodness is to be able to move others by paying back evil with goodness. When Saul tried to kill David, David let Saul live and said to him very humble words. So, even the evil Saul was moved and even shed tears.
The fourth level of goodness is to be able to give one's life even to those who are acting with evil toward you. It was the heart of Jesus. He was crucified without sin, and yet He still interceded for the sinners who were crucifying Him. Also, it was the heart of Moses and the apostle Paul who were willing to give up their lives to intercede for their people.
This kind of heart is also something you need to cultivate. As the depth of such a heart deepens, you can feel and realize the love of God more deeply. You will realize from the depth of your heart why God is cultivating human beings, how much He loves us, and the purpose of our lives.
Which level of goodness do you have? Do you not complain right away and try to reason when there are things that do not agree with you? Don't you get impatient and try to sort things out if anything is a loss to you? If you tried hard but are not recognized, and if you feel you're falling behind, don't you lose heart and leave your post? If these things are true of you, you are not even in the first level of goodness! You can't really be deemed to have faith.
If you are leaders of at least cell groups, then you should have at least 2nd level of goodness. This way you can protect the souls entrusted to you from the enemy devil and Satan, and increase their faith, too.
Dear devotees and other members,
For your measure of faith to increase, secondly, you should check how broad your heart is, namely how many souls you can accept, embrace, and serve.
Even though it is deep, if a vessel is very narrow, it can't hold much. Some people love God and long for holiness, but their hearts are so narrow that their faith does not grow up.
For example, they are faithful in worship services, prayers, and other personal duties in the church, but they are not interested in caring for souls or whatever is not relevant to them directly. In such cases, even though they've been believers for a long time, it's difficult for them to realize or change themselves.
There are others who serve other souls even in moving way when they are dealing with people who are compatible with themselves. But if they think somebody is not really compatible, they become very cold. If they have broad hearts they will accept not just those with whom they are compatible, but they can accept any kind of person.
Suppose there is a district, and most sub-district leaders are obedient to and compatible with the district leader, while only one of them is negative in everything. She does not want to do any hard work, and she only wants to do things that can draw attention to her. She even gossips about the district leader saying other district leaders serve the members very well and give good spiritual advice, but her district leader lacks in service and her advice is not reliable.
In this case, if the district leader is not broad-hearted, she will suffer just by thinking about this sub-district leader. She'd implicitly hope that this sub-district leader wouldn't show up in meetings. She even thinks like, 'for the whole district to be united and happy, this sub-district leader should be replaced next year.'
On the contrary, if this district leader is broad-hearted, she will only love any kind of workers. Even though they are not obedient, she will only remember their good points and try to unite everyone. Even though she hears gossip about herself, she only tries to find a way to make herself more compatible to and serve even those who were gossiping her. If a district leader has such a broad heart, God will certainly give revival in that district.
God does not take any loss. If you can accept 100 souls, God will make you a leader of 100. If you can accept 1,000, He will let you have 1,000 souls.
Since the opening of the church, I've never been on bad terms or had any discomfort with anybody. Even though there were disobedient workers or those who complained, my feelings were never hurt because of them. I never thought the ministry is hard because of such people. But rather, they only looked lovely in my eyes, as if little children were pouting.
I never said "you can't do it," even to people who are like the bruised reed or smoldering wick. I only taught them with patience and led them with love to guide them all to New Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of the fact that the souls changed and the church has been growing day by day.
The reason why I'm mentioning this is not to let you know that I did such things, but to say that you should broaden your heart. Then you will be able to accept more souls and your measure of faith will also grow up greatly.
Dear devotees and other members,
For your measure of faith to increase, thirdly, there must be the container that can hold the measure.
The container refers to your deeds. It is about, after you've cultivated a deep and broad heart, how much of it you can show in action. Depending on what kinds of duties you perform and how you put the truth into action, the value of your faith will be different. Suppose two persons have a thousand dollars each. One of them hid it in his safe and the other made profit with it and helped others, too. Then, the value of the same 1,000 dollars is quite different. The same goes with faith.
John 15:2 says, "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit." Also, John 13:32 says, "if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately."
Whether it is fruit of holiness or faithfulness, the more diligently you work and bear fruit and the more you give glory to God, the more grace the Father will be able to give you.
Suppose there are two cell leaders. One of them thought, "I'm not in spirit yet, but I want to become strength to God's kingdom the best I can," and actually fulfilled her duty the best she could. As a result of diligently making visits and evangelism, there was revival and she became a sub-district leader.
The other one, on the contrary, thought, "I lack the capabilities, so I'll take this duty again after I go into spirit." Then, even though the depth and width of their hearts are the same now, their measures of faith will be different later. The glory God received through their faithfulness is different, and to that same extent the grace and strength coming from above will be different. You devotees would probably long for greater faith as you go on fulfilling your duties.
You'd have greater hope thinking like, "I want to help the members receive answers and blessings, and to do that, I need to have more power." Philipp and Stephen were just deacons but their power was almost as great as that of the apostle Paul.
When you pray with handkerchiefs, if your members are healed and power of darkness goes away, how happy you'd be doing your duties! As you counsel them according to the voice of the Holy Spirit, problems are solved and souls are changed. Some of you are already doing these things, but surely more cell, sub-district, and district leaders must become the container to hold such a measure of faith and be able to show authority and power.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Listening to this message is there anyone among you who feel disappointed thinking, "I am not even a cell leader, or anything else for that matter, so, I have little chance to increase my faith?" You can just look around you more and try your best to become strength to the kingdom of God.
As cell or small group members you can keep your positions and try to gather, and you can give testimonies, make visitations and spread the gospel, or do other voluntary services. Or like Anna, you can pray and fast for the kingdom of God with your heart. If you become the light and salt to people around you and make your vessel more deep and broad, God will give you faith according to the vessel that is prepared.
[Conclusion]
Dear devotees and other members,
Ephesians 3:18-19 says, "[you] may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
The reason why you were created on this earth is not just about being saved and going to Heaven. God created you to gain true children who understand His heart. I urge you to reach the full measure of the Christ by deepening and broadening your heart and by fulfilling your duties to bear fruits. In so doing, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will finally accomplish perfect faith so that your lives will be filled up to all the fullness of God.
2016-05-24 Posted
2016-10-21 Updated
