Pastor Gao from Yoido Full Gospel Church preached a sermon in the 2016 Chinese and Korean Revival Conference held on Jeju Island at the end of this September, claiming that God promised that He would not destroy Judah if He found a man who followed His word in the time of Jeremiah.
Below is the summary of the sermon:
"Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city." ---Jeremiah 5:1
In this passage, we see that Judah is corrupt, even the priests are very corrupt. Before punishing Judah, God said to Jeremiah, 'If can I find one righteous in this city, I won't destroy Judah.' No matter how disordered the world is, God will not destroy it if one person lives following Lord's Word. However, Judah was eventually destroyed by Babylon.
Why did this happen? Is it because of the whole Judah's corrupt notion? No. It is because there are no leaders God found in the city. A man may not be that much knowledgeable, have immense wealth and very powerful, but as long as they are with the national sentiment, love the Nation and their own people, God will be merciful. But God found no one for God said, 'If only I find the one, I can pardon this land.' But there is none. So God continues to find the one in this world.
Let's thinking how big one person affects others, such as Mozart, Rockefeller, Picasso, Buffett...
And the Christain leader----John Wesley. This story declares that the message that God's servants can bring enormous changes in our lives is true. There is a man traveling from France to England. He was so thirsty that he came to a shop to buy a cup of beer. But there was no beer in this shop, so he went to another one and there was none either. He went everywhere and still found no beers until he got a cup of milk from a farmer. He asked the farmer why there are no beers anywhere and the farmer told him, 'John Wesley came to our village for Revival Meetings many years ago, since then, we live far away from beers' -- Look how much one person influences!
Helen Keller, who cannot see and hear, was at Harvard University and became a woman that affects the whole world. Why did it happen? Because there was a good teacher around her, Anne Sullivan Macy. One of the famous books in the twentieth century was written by Helen Keller. In the book, she said as she lists down what she wanted to see first, 'What I want to see on the first day is my teacher; the second day, I want to look the nature; the third day, I want to see a movie and my world. After these three days, I'd like to give gratitude to my God for giving my light of three days.' This is the famous book in the twentieth century! How could Helen Keller write this inspiring story?
The master key is her teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy. She was a psychopath at the age of 17 and imprisoned in a separate cell. Her father died in her early years and her mother was an alcoholic. She was abandoned, the hospital just gave her something to eat and waited for her death. But there's one person who remained concerned for her, Laura, a nurse, who was retired with old age. She looking after her every day, saying, 'God loves you, I love you too.' She went to her every day for six months continuously.
But Anne Sullivan Macy had no response for six months. But one day after six months, Laura went to her and said to her, 'God loves you, I love you too' as usual, she shouted towards the window loudly, 'Why does God love me?' Laura answered gladly, 'God loves the world,He loves you very much...trust Him, you'll have eternal life, and you'll be healthy'. Anne accepted Jesus Christ immediately, her eyes constantly in tears.
Anne got healed because of Laura. Later, she recovered and came out from the hospital when she saw a Newspaper looking for a coach. When she went over a river and read the writing, it said 'I looking for a teacher who can't hear,see and speak' Anne was thinking that only Laura ensured me and then changed me. I gonna teach the child and help guide her. Afterward, she spent 20 hours with Helen in Alabama.
It was Laura, a nurse, that changed Helen Keller, but who changed Laura?
It is because of the love of God. God loves us!
We share today as to how important a person is! It is one of the few key which can decide the future, the importance of this message is to know who is the man of God is looking for. God's care is not only concentrated on everyone, but it also concentrates on you. History can be developed because of a personal belief. We point to the opposite end that there is also a person that could bring great harm to the world, such as Hitler, who killed 6 million Jews and make the world so painful. If you have the wrong idea, you can bring great harm in the world. I hope everyone here brings positive influence to the world.
The Bible tells us that sin entered the world through man Adam, but through a righteous man, Jesus Christ, God's salvation came into us. Therefore, one should see how important a man is in front of God! You are the important one!
So what kind of people is the person should lead the world? What kind of man is God looking for?
1 Chronicles 12:32 "From Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do -- 200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command."
The Bible records are very interesting. Saul had a son, but why not let his son be the King instead of David? The 200 chiefs of Issachar, one of 12 tribes, have become the Elite leaders and God uses them to help the King of Israel.
There are two important characteristics of the people being used by God:
1.Know the circumstances of the times.
How is our world? How is the spiritual situation? We know that politicians should know the political environment, economists should know its economy, and as the people of God, we must know the status of the spiritual environment. One day, Jesus said, 'you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the sign of the times.' This means that you have to interpret this times and the signs around us such as the fashion and the atmosphere. We have to know this world. Now you know that the Chinese are in a spiritual transformation and South Korea is a kind of spiritual transformation as well, the spiritual atmosphere of globalization is a situation we must try to understand.
There were three big film company in the world but now Kodak and Fuji still exist while the other has gone bankrupt for it has not seen the changes of the times and failed to prepare for it.
The church is the same as well as our faith. We have the eternal truth, but the world continues to change. You only know the changing times can move with the times. Sima Qian, from China, said that only the people who know the change of the times can change with the times. This is the reason why it is important for a person to know the times.
Karl Barth said that a man's hand holds a Bible and the other one holds a piece of newspaper. God's word is the eternal truth, we can learn about God through the Bible, but the people who only know the times can dominate the present. Each of us must have the spiritual vision, we should know how to use the eternal truth to the changing world. I hope everyone has the spiritual vision to distinguish the world correctly.
2. Know the mission of the times
The tribe of Issachar know what to do, and then know the mission by heart, knowing what we must do, finish, and what we have to do to succeed.
Politicians say that the popular will is from God. Our Christian mission is to let God's will become man's will. What is God pleased with? We can know that what we will do is what God wants us to do if we do what He asks even if we don't want to do it.
The world will ask you, "Can you make money by doing this? Can you be famous?"
Dear brother and sisters, we are not here in order to get money, not for the power in the world. What is important is that you are willing to obey what God lets and asks you to do. It is just like that we must say to the children, "Dear children, this is not how to make money, not to become famous, but also to do what is asked of us by the Lord, who will do it if you don't do it?"
This is what man should do, who God is looking for. God used the Issachar as an example.
We also want to see: what is the mission we have to do in these times? Why did God deliver and call us to be a Chinese or a Korean in the times? Because we have the mission in this times and then see our Lord in the Kingdom.
It is a person that God is looking for, the one who knows these times and knows what to do. What kind of person does God need? Those who know the Times and know what to do in this time.
We should say: Lord, I hope that it is me; Lord, I want to be the one you are looking for.
Translated by: Cherry
