We All Must Believe That God Is with Us

Pastor Ock Soo Park's Sermon

THROUGH THE CONFERENCE AT KOREA UNIVERSITY
My son currently ministers in New York, but a few years ago when he was in Korea, we went on a trip. After driving for a while, my son spoke.

“Father, I have something to tell you.”

“Go ahead and tell me, whatever it may be.” I slightly closed my eyes and listened to my son’s words.

“We are preparing to hold a conference at Korea University, but students from the Christian clubs, who misunderstand us, bother us so much that I don’t think we can hold the conference. The students and teachers have all lost heart also.”

I said to my son, “Was there ever a time when we were not bothered when we preached God’s gospel? It’s because you haven’t seen the work of God. He will work, so don’t worry at all.”

My son heard my words and was strengthened. He then held the conference at Korea University. Many students were saved at the conference, and afterwards, IYF was registered as a club at Korea University, making it the first among universities in downtown Seoul to have the IYF as a registered club. I could feel my son having faith in God working as he witnessed the IYF club being strengthened and changing.

THE GOSPEL COMES AGAIN TO NEW ORLEANS
In 2005, 80% of downtown New Orleans was submerged in water due to Hurricane Katrina. The entire city was devastated, and the number of robbers increased as well. Since the robbers possessed guns, even the police could not come near them, so snipers shot down and killed many of them.

Once I told my son about New Orleans. “Yeong-kook, in 1989, a sister at the LA Church asked her friend living in New Orleans over the phone whether she would like to come to LA and listen to Pastor Ock Soo Park’s sermon. The friend said that if Pastor Park were to come to New Orleans, around 40 people could gather to listen to the Word. So I went to New Orleans and held a conference at a family home where around 40 people gathered, and they listened to the Word and were all saved. After that, it was great communicating with each other through letters. Upon hearing criticism about me from other established churches, they closed their hearts towards me, and we lost touch with them.”

My son heard my words and prepared for a conference. Since he didn’t have much money, he stayed at a vacant house that he had rented and witnessed with the short-term missionaries on the streets. Seeing them, the residents were worried and said, “It’s dangerous here. You shouldn’t walk around like that.”

However, the New Orleans Church began as the short-term missionaries met people, house-to-house, who had lost loved ones and were deep in sorrow, heard the gospel and rejoiced. The missionaries in the U.S. all wanted to be the one to do ministry in New Orleans.

BECAUSE OF A HEART TO TRUST ONESELF
The question of whether people become corrupt or live dwelling within the power of God has a common starting point. When people living their spiritual lives are told that someone became corrupt, most of them say, “How did they live their spiritual lives that they ended up like that?” and think that they themselves won’t be like them. 

As I preached the gospel several times to inmates as a member of the Prison Rehabilitation Committee, what shocked me was the fact that there is a kind of heart that is set in those who end up in prison. People are normally reluctant to commit crimes because they are scared of going to prison, but the majority of the people in prison were people who believed in themselves, not thinking that they would commit crimes.

Meanwhile, I have become a lecturer on mind education, and as I read the Bible and looked at people’s hearts, I came to know that whether it may be someone who does drugs, someone who commits suicide, someone who gets a divorce, or someone who goes to prison, it all begins from a heart of believing in oneself. Likewise, when people who live a life of faith turn onto the path of corruption without themselves knowing it, it begins from a heart of believing in oneself.

Why have you all come to church this morning? Did you perhaps attend service out of habit? We must meet God through service. If you all meet God, you get to put down before God whatever problems you have and enjoy peace and freedom. Then the heart that you had before coming to service and the heart that you have afterwards absolutely cannot be the same.

The woman caught in the act of adultery was caught in the very act of adultery. She was in the state of being dragged to death by stoning, but she met Jesus. Was the woman still afraid after meeting Jesus? No, she was not. The woman changed.

This morning, Jesus is together with us. Why do you come to church with your problems and still take them when you walk out the doors of the church? Why do you live the life of a powerless Christian, unable to overcome a single desire of the flesh? Is it because Jesus is not living and at work? No, it is not. Living a life of following the thoughts that Satan gives, with a heart to believe in oneself saying, “This much is good enough,” is what is making us be the way we are. Then, they gradually fall into sins and their flesh, but there are so many Christians who live unable to feel that.

“IT IS FINISHED!”
After the Prime Minister of Kenya attended the IYF World Camp in Kenya this August, he sent his secretary stating, “The future of Kenya depends on its youth. Please deliver this mind education not only in Nairobi, but also to youth leader representatives from the 47 districts.” Then a couple of days later, they contacted us again saying, “We will send youth leader representatives from the 210 electoral districts of Kenya,” so we prepared a Mind Education Camp. And the Kenyan Minister and Deputy Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports happened to know IYF very well, so they took charge of the work, and we were able to deliver mind education to about 3,000 Kenyan students for one week. I was so thankful to the Lord, “God, who else would I believe but You?”

Everyone, do you see God working in our church? You believe in the God who lives and works in our church, but why do you not believe in the God who dwells and works in each and every one of you? The Good News Gangnam Church is a church formed of every single brother and sister gathered together. If anyone among you meets God and has the faith that “God will also dwell and work within me,” that person becomes the happiest person in the world.

In Genesis 2:1, God said “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished,” but one day, the serpent came to the woman (Eve) and said: “Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” The woman heard the serpent’s words and thought, “The heavens and the earth were not finished. I have to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and do something more,” and ate the forbidden fruit to be as the gods. Rather than becoming as the gods, she fell into sin.

The Words “It is finished” (John 19:30) spoken as Jesus died nailed on the cross are giving proof to the fact that Jesus has washed away all our sins and fulfilled all conditions for the Holy Spirit of God to work within us. When you realize that fact, you are liberated from sin, enjoy true freedom, and receive the grace of being able to go boldly before God.

However, in this day and age, Satan still deceives people once again saying, “No. Jesus washed away sins on the cross, but you still commit sins so that sin remains,” and many people are tied down by their sins, suffering and distressed, even though they read the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In the same way, even as people who are saved believe that their sins have been forgiven, because they are deceived by Satan, they are unable to believe that God will dwell in them and work; as a result, they themselves bear their problems and become miserable.

FORWARD BY FAITH IN GOD
After God established Saul as king, He told Saul that He would surely be with him, stating, “God shall be with you.” If you look in 1 Samuel chapter 11, it says that the Israelites in Jabesh Gilead, which is to the east of the Jordan, went out to the king of Ammon and said, “Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee.” The king of Ammon said, “On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes.” Hearing this, the people of Jabesh Gilead wept, and King Saul heard their weeping as he was coming behind the herd from the field.

The Spirit of God came upon Saul, and when he cut a yoke of oxen into pieces and sent them to each tribe of Israel saying, “If anyone among you does not follow me, I will cut into pieces all of your oxen,” 330,000 gathered and went up to Jabesh Gilead, defeated the Ammonites, and gained a victory. At that time, Saul saw that God was with him, and the people also saw that God was with Saul.

Next, if you look in 1 Samuel 13:5, the Israelites trembled when they saw that the Philistines had 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. Even though Saul had fought against the Ammonites and prevailed the last time, he was afraid, and also trembled, seeing the people tremble.

When you try to strive towards faith after being saved, Satan works. God also works when Satan works. Satan first gives us fear before a certain problem, making us hesitate, thinking, “Ah, I don’t think I can do this.” If I am about to witness, he gives us fear to prevent us from witnessing, and if I am about to give an offering, he gives us fear making us think, “If I give this as an offering, how do I live?” He gives us fear like that and blocks us from boldly going on the way of faith towards God.

But if you look in 1 Samuel chapter 14, Jonathan was in the same position as Saul was, but when he and his armor-bearer entered the enemy camp, God worked. If we only take a step forward and start running towards the enemy camp, God works in our footsteps.

IF WE HEAR THE VOICE OF SATAN

It was in 1987 that my collection of sermons, The Secret of Forgiveness of Sin and Being Born Again, was published for the first time. Because of the Basic Press Law at the time, approval of publications was not done freely, and I had to look for a place to publish the book among licensed Christian publishing houses.

Then one day, I happened to meet Dr. Young-ho Park of the Christian Literature Crusade. While he attended the WEC Mission’s theological seminary in England, he met WEC missionaries Kays Glass and Derek Earl, who had returned from doing missionary work in Korea. They told him to meet Pastor Ock Soo Park if he returns to Korea.

After Dr. Young-ho Park saw my manuscript, he said it would be great to publish it as a collection of sermons and called for the editor-in-chief. When that person saw me, he asked “Pastor Park, what brings you here?”

“Have we ever met before?”

“I’ve attended your conferences several times and am also saved.” He took charge of publishing my collection of sermons. In this way, as God accomplished these things that seemed difficult and unlikely to work out, He showed me the fact that He is God.

Let us look at 1 Samuel 16:1.

And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? . . .

Even though God gave Saul many chances to repent, he did not listen to the voice of God, sank into fear and gave up. As God could not work through Saul, God forsook him, and anointed David as the king of Israel.

If those people, who were joyful after being saved, hear the voice of Satan, they lose heart thinking that it is burdensome and that they will be ruined when they actually try to begin doing the work of God, and just give up, saying “I have no faith.” If you just attend service, do not get persecuted, and pick out and do only those things that are not burdensome, and for which God does not need to work, you cannot experience God’s power.

Even though we are saved and are the children of God, Satan gives us fear to make us think we should not do the Lord’s work, and it makes us into feeble people through whom God cannot work.

WHOSE VOICE ARE YOU ALL LISTENING TO?
Once we come to 1 Samuel chapter 17, Goliath appears in the war between Israel and the Philistines. Saul and Israelites were trembling before the towering warrior Goliath. However, David said that he would fight against the Philistine. When Saul told him that he was too young, David spoke. “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” As Saul heard his words, he must have thought“Before when Nahash of Ammon invaded, I also was victorious because God was with me. What has happened to me?”

This morning, do you all listen to the voice of God? Or do you listen to the voice of Satan? God is speaking to each and every one of you. “I am with you. I will fight this fight.” But what does Satan say? “Who says God is with me? I have no faith.” Whose voice are you all listening to? It is here that believers are divided into two types.

One day, a sister called me on the phone. “Pastor, this is Washington. My husband’s lifelong wish was to learn the Word from you in missionary school, but I prevented him. My husband now has cancer and the doctor says he doesn’t even have six months left to live. Would you accept my husband into missionary school?”

I thought about it after hearing what she said. “If I call this brother to come, then all that’s left for me to do in four months is to hold a funeral. I’m so busy getting around preaching the gospel. Why would God send such a person in the U.S. to Korea and make me hold his funeral? God would never do that.” So I told that sister to come to Korea with her husband.

One day, when I went to the brother’s quarters, I saw his wife making some food in a small rice pressure cooker because most of the brother’s stomach had been cut off due to stomach cancer and he couldn’t eat properly. When I thought about this young man dying, it was such a pitiful sight, so I laid my hands on the brother’s head and prayed:

“God, I know that You love this brother more than I do. May You bestow grace upon him.” After that prayer, he did not die even after four months passed, and he is still living in the U.S.

ONLY BY BELIEVING THAT GOD WORKS
This is the living God we have. Everyone, unite your hearts with the church. Since you have been deceived by Satan and do not know that God is with you, do not arrogantly judge the servants and the church of God. You yourselves are also one part of the church of God. If the church is holy, all of you are also holy. If the church is able, then all of you are also able.

Let us look at 1 Samuel chapter 18 that we read today.
And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward. (1 Samuel 18:8–9)

The Holy Spirit of the Lord was with Saul, but now, because Saul has abandoned the Spirit of the Lord and is being deceived by the spirit of Satan, he listens to the words of the evil spirit. A heart determined to kill David arose in him. When David was playing the lyre, Saul threw the javelin at him, but David got away. Later, Saul threw it again. In the end, Saul descended from the precious position God had given him to a position in which he was cursed.

Brothers and sisters, after being saved, if you accept all the thoughts that make you arrogant, you do not want to join in the work of the church and gradually become people who judge. Such people cannot experience the God who is with them, and we can see precisely that humanistic thoughts increasingly lead them towards a heart different from God or the church, and they go to a position in which they are cursed like Saul.

Whoever you may be, you have become holy through the blood Jesus shed when He was nailed on the cross, and all conditions were thereby met. As a result, God can work in all of you. God is together with all of you. Believe in that God. If you forsake the voice of Satan that gives you fear, saying “God may not work in me,” and walk boldly with faith in God’s Word, He will surely work powerfully in all of you.