[The Word came to me] Pastor Wan Gyu Kim (Sejong Hanbit Church)Jeremiah 1:1-10
I am Pastor Wan Gyu Kim, a 'loser, mamas boy' who serves Sejong Hanbit Church. I always thought, Would God love someone like me? I was always stupid, didnt have a great family background, and didnt have any outstanding gifts, abilities, or specifications. God told me that He loves me just the way I am, weak and lacking. However, I didnt know how to trim my sins and faults, so Gods love didnt keep flowing in me. Then, through the Pastors Seminar, I realized that meditating on the Words every day and night is a rich life. Today, lets meditate together on how we can enjoy a fruitful life of meditating on the Word, so that we can enjoy bearing a fruitful life in Spirit after the days.
First, we need to get an accurate diagnosis before Gods Word.
The Word comes to Jeremiah, a descendant of a fallen priestly family in the small town of Anathoth in Benjamin, and tells him to prophesy well into the Babylonian captivity. It seems like a lost cause, but Im commissioned to tell them to pull out of their power, to bow down before God, to become true people of Gods kingdom. And Im told, I formed you in the womb. I have known you. I have already consecrated and sanctified you in my womb (v. 5).' God changes Jeremiahs thinking. He tells him that the hopeless reality of a fallen priestly line is not my life, but that I was put on this earth with a mission to proclaim the Word. Its not my looks, my education, my wealth, its who I am, who God has chosen and sent to this earth. And yet, in response to Gods call, Jeremiah says, 'I cant do it, Im a frail child, I dont have the strength.' I am a frail child, I dont have the strength.
My nephews were born prematurely and were fed 5 ml of formula when they were in the incubator. Ten years ago, Sejong Hanbit Church also started with five female members, just like premature babies, and they came to know QT through the pastor, and to save the church, they grew up in the incubator of the Redeemer, taking 5 ml of QT a day, and now they are 10 years old. Friends, what is the condition to do the Lords work? It is to see my sins more deeply every day. I have no qualifications or conditions, but because I am the elect, I am held captive, unable to do anything in my own strength, and my mission is to open the Redeemer. Seeing my sin is the correct way to live in the world, and there is no other way to live than to see myself like that, with no life and a mission to give away stars.
Just as Jeremiah said that he was a child, this Sejong Pastors Seminar made me see that I am still a mamas boy. I have always been in the shadow of my mother, who prayed for me in times of trouble and stood by me with her devotion and labor. It was more comfortable and better to share my prayer requests with her than to see my sins before the Word, but now she has been lying in the hospital for five years. Now, I feel like shes calling me not as a child, but as a person who has been called from the womb to live a life of integrity, holding on to the Words day and night.
Eighteen years ago, here in the Tabernacle, my mother-in-law, a cancer patient, had a change of heart. She had been praying around her and hearing many people say that she was blessed, but after she got cancer, she began to hear people say that she had sinned and deserved it. Then, on her first day of worship here, Pastor Yang Jae Kim said to her, 'Cancer is not a curse, but a blessing! It is an opportunity given by God for you to reflect on yourself!' From then on, she took off her ups and downs and made a will to meet in heaven and left a will to meet in heaven. My mother-in-laws passing became Gods call to awaken my wife. May you respond to Gods election and see yourself accurately before Gods diagnosis.
Second, God calls us to establish a redeemer in the midst of the earth.
In verse 10 of the text, it says, 'I have set you today over many nations and kingdoms, that you may pluck them up and destroy them, tear them down and overthrow them, build them up and plant them. It is said that this was the text that was given at the beginning of the Cutie Mission when the priest Elis neck was broken and he died. And God has been doing the ministry of uprooting, destroying, destroying, and overthrowing solid secular values and ups and downs, and building and planting the Redeemer in their place. As I was preaching recently, I thought about how difficult it is to hear the Redeemers Word in a congregation that is steeped in ups and downs, humanism, and secular values. One of the reasons why many people find it difficult to do cutie ministry is that they cannot let go of secular values. However, cutie ministry is possible if there is a Redeemers Word that revives broken and shattered families, and realizes that the shameful sins of divorce and abortion addiction are holy guidance to meet the Lord.
Many who attended this Sejong Pastors Seminar gave gracious testimonies: 'Pride prevented me from confessing to my husband, You are more right than I am,' 'I want to spend time meditating on the Word more than anything else,' 'I recognize that the event I thought was ruined was Gods guidance to save me. ', 'I commit to letting my suffering become medicine.', 'I thought I had to split up for the sake of Jesus genealogy, but I sincerely realize that divorce is a no-no.', 'The news of my fathers sudden passing is finally being interpreted.' Like so many confessions of grace, I believe that there is a process of plucking up, destroying, tearing down, and knocking down that builds and builds.
God is calling me to do the work of plucking up, destroying, ruining, and toppling solid secular values and ups and downs so that the redemptive word can be built and planted in its place. Through the testimonies of grace and confessions of sin that many people attended and shared at this Sejong Pastors Seminar, we came to know the direction and purpose of our church in the future. I wish that Hanbit Church and our church will fulfill the mission of building the Redeemer together.
