Passage

Ephesians 5: 9

"for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth,"

Introduction

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has blessed us to have this Evangelism Group Devotional Service. I also give thanks to the devotees who have prepared for this service with all your hearts, minds, and souls.

Dear devotees, you can take confidence in having more faith, love, and more fervor for the kingdom of God that is different from most.

The beginning of this Special Evangelism Group was because you wanted to be strength to the church while it was undergoing trials.

Also, you volunteered with burning passion to recover the price of blood of the Lord, and to save dying souls.

So, you must be the examples for others in all aspects of faith.

Unbelievers as well ought to give glory to the Lord when they see you.

You should accomplish the works of God as 'angels of light' like the title of today's message. To do this, above all, you have to live by the word of God.

You should not just be satisfied with the fact that you are diligently doing the work of God.

To be used greatly by God, you should clearly discern the will of God.

And you should be a spiritual worker who obeys the will of God.

To do this, you should deny yourself, make yourself obedient to the word of God and change yourself.

You should give up your own characters, your tastes, your desires, and the thoughts that you think are right.

You have listened to many messages.

You have heard a lot about spiritual faith, righteousness, goodness, love, and spirit and should now know about them very well. But, now you should no longer just have knowledge of them, but you must cultivate them in your hearts.

You should always dwell in the light of truth and receive the voice and guidance of the Holy Spirit clearly.

When you preach the gospel or do other works of evangelism, you should be one with the flow of spirit that God is giving to the whole church.

Only then can you really be strength to the kingdom of God and the church.

Through this message, I urge you to realize what God wants for each of you.

I pray in the name of the Lord that your passion will be born as the fruit of light and you will harvest abundant fruit of blessings both in body and spirit.

Body

Dear devotees, today's passage from Ephesians 5:9 says, "for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth."

For you to become an angel of light, you should first bear the fruit of light in your heart.

First, you should bear the fruit of all goodness.

Goodness is a beautiful heart having no evil intentions.

You learned many things about goodness.

It is to seek others' benefit, to have compassion and help the needy, not to complain because of evildoers, to humble yourself and lift up others, to rejoice with the truth, not to boast, and so on.

You already know how good this goodness is and also you know about the levels of goodness. If we do not pay back evil with evil and just suppress it, in the world they say it is 'good'.

But in the sight of God it is not goodness.

The kind of goodness recognized by God is not to suppress the evil but to have no ill-feelings in the heart at all.

We should be able to pay back others' evil with goodness.

Furthermore, like Jesus, we should be able to give our lives over for even our enemies. This is true goodness in the sight of God.

You learned the deep level of goodness.

Also, I believe you are trying hard to cultivate this goodness in your heart.

But I urge you to check once again how much of this goodness is cultivated in you. Especially, it is said the fruit of light is 'all goodness'.

It is not just being good in one aspect or following goodness in a particular situation.

It means we should treat everybody in any kind of situation with goodness all the time.

You say you are longing to have goodness, but are you really showing the deeds of goodness?

When your family members, colleagues, or friends look at you, how good a person are you to them?

In the eyes of those who are working with you in the church, how gentle and meek a person are you?
Yes, you have been trying to cultivate goodness, but since you are not perfect yet, you show the things that you have to change from time to time.

You are diligent and sacrificial in the church, but you may not be as faithful at home or at work. You may do a particular kind of duty very well, but neglect other duties.

You work hard for God and preach the gospel diligently, but you may easily misunderstand others and judge them.

You do many things for God, but if something is not right with your way of thinking, you may be one of those who continually complain about it.

"I am working so hard for the church, and why isn't anybody helping me? Why don't they care about this good work, and why am I not recognized for all I do?" Thinking this way, you may become disappointed.

You may be said to be faithful and you may make sacrifices to accomplish your work, but it's not enough for it to be recognized as goodness.

Also, if you are persecuted without cause while you are preaching the gospel, how does your heart react to it?

I hope you will check whether your feelings are hurt or if you give true thanks instead. In some cases, you are persecuted or suffer because you are not wise enough.

And in this situation, you should not become distressed and lose strength saying, "I just can't do it anymore."

You should be thankful, look back on yourself, and change yourself quickly.

I hope you will practice the word of God, change your heart, and quickly bear the beautiful fruit of light.

I also ask you to obey the order of authority in all aspects from the leaders to the members and serve everybody with goodness.

You should cultivate 'all goodness' with which you can forgive, bear with, and understand anybody.

Then you will be a joy to God and also be loved by the church members too.

Then, how much easier your evangelizing work will be!

In Acts 11:24, we see the following record when Barnabas was visiting the church in Antioch.

It says, "for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord."

If you become a 'man of goodness' like Barnabas, people will be moved by grace just by seeing your face, and sensing the aroma of your goodness.

They will believe you when you preach the gospel to them, and they will also say they will attend church because of you.

So, I ask all the devotees to bear the fruit of goodness in order to bear the fruit of evangelism.

Dear Evangelism Group members and church members, the second of the fruits-of-light is righteousness.

A general meaning for the term 'righteousness' is not seeking one's own good or benefit, but to sacrifice one's life for something that is right, correct or justifiable. Furthermore, in the truth, it is righteousness to believe the promises of God.

It is to obey the commands of God, to keep His commandments, to stay away from unrighteousness, to be faithful with the conduct of one's life, to do all one's duties, and never stand against works of the Truth. These are all aspects of righteousness.

But here, you should be careful about one thing.

This righteousness should not be righteousness in men's sight but in God's sight.

Romans 10:2-3 says, "For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God."

If you have zeal for God but do not realize the will of God, you are likely to insist on righteousness in men's sight.

Because of that, you may not be able to accomplish the true will of God.

If you insist on your own righteousness when you do the work of God, most frequently, you are likely to break peace and break the order.

You think, "We can give glory to God this way, and we can move many souls this way. We can bear abundant fruit this way," and make many plans in your heart.

But these plans that you made with good intention can also be stumbling blocks in accomplishing the righteousness of God.

It's because the plans that you made within your own righteousness and fervor do not match the will of God.

Let me put it this way. Suppose you say, "If we have a large gathering of people at this time and have a conference, it will help the church revival," or "If we go to this place for a rest, the workers will work harder with refreshed minds," and make such plans.

That intention and zeal are good.

But no matter how good something is, there are times to do it and there are other times when it's better not to do it.

If it is not right with the situation and the flow of the whole church it can also become a point of damage to the church.

But if you still strongly insist that we have to do it because it is something good, there will be opinions opposing the idea.

Then, the peace will be broken.

If this happens, this work is not really for God's kingdom. It is not one of the fruits of the fruit of light called 'righteousness'.

It is just that your eyes are covered by your own righteousness and you are not seeing the righteousness of God.

You should be careful about this point in all areas.

As Romans 12:18 says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men," you have to follow the way of peace all the time.

You should not insist on your righteousness, but follow the righteousness of God.

Even though I am the senior pastor of this church, once anything is made as a rule in the church, I just follow it, even though it is something very small.

Just because I communicate with God and perform with God's power, I do not just ignore others' opinions or suggestions.

I consider others' opinions once more, and try to follow the will of God more perfectly. If you cast away your self-centered righteousness, you can always have peace not only in the Evangelism Group but also in all kinds of groups.

I urge you to keep this in mind, have peace in all things, and be acknowledged as sons and daughters of God.


Dear devotees, and church members, the third of the fruit of light is truthfulness.

Truthfulness is to have no falsehood and to keep what is once decided without changing in the middle following one's own benefits.

To be recognized for your hard work, truthfulness is very important.

When people accomplish many works, the fruit they bear will all be different according to the magnitude of truthfulness in them.

If you sow with deeds from a truthful heart, it will certainly come forth as fruit to give glory to God. But, if you sow something untruthful, eventually it will be revealed and disgrace God.

It's all the same when you preach the gospel and take care of the souls.

I hope you will always check yourself as to with what kind of heart you are working for God.

You should be able to check yourself, as to whether you are working with a truthful heart for God's kingdom and love for the souls, or if it is for boasting for your own sake. Is it to gain the figures that you have such and such a number of persons you evangelized and how great a percentage you have in revival?

If you worked hard with momentary passion, you may just quit if you are faced with some difficulties in your work for God.

You diligently preached the gospel for a moment and brought a new member to the church, but that person didn't become a faithful believer because you didn't care for him constantly. You brought many people to the church, but after time passes, not many of them remain as 'wheat'.

Then, God cannot really acknowledge you as having true faithfulness.

Also, even though you are very hard working, if it is for your pride and boasting's sake, you will change as time goes.

If you are not acknowledged by others for your work, your passion will cool down.

On the other hand, if your faithfulness comes out from a truthful heart, your passion will not change.

Even if your effort and work are not recognized, it doesn't matter to you at all.

Because you love God and the souls, you just passionately preach the gospel day after day and visit the souls.

Suppose you worked hard and evangelized somebody. And even if that reward goes to somebody else, you won't have any heartfelt discomfort over it.

For example, suppose you worked very hard on evangelism and caring for the souls, and your district had revival.

But nobody praises you, but instead your district leader receives a plaque of appreciation for the revival.

Then, will you be disappointed thinking your reward was taken by somebody, or will your passion of evangelism cool down?

If you work with a truthful heart, you can be thankful just for the fact that the kingdom of God had revival.

Also, because your district leader is praised and God received the glory, you just rejoice.
If you have this kind of heart, you can keep on preaching the gospel just like before. How pleased God will be when He sees a person like this?

God will give you more souls so that you can bear even more fruit.

Also, even if you are not acknowledged for your work on this earth, He will repay you precisely without any error in heaven.

Revelation 22:12 says, "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done."

The Lord knows everything, and He will count without missing anything. He will pay you back according to how you worked for Him.

Conclusion

Dear devotees and members, today you checked the fruit of light that is born in you.

The fruit of light must have all the three things, all goodness, righteousness, and truthfulness.

You should have not only goodness but also the will of God, namely righteousness.

Also, when your goodness and righteousness are truthful, you can bear the perfect fruit of light.

If you bear fruit of light this way, you can shine the light to the world.

The darkness will go away, so blessings will come upon your family and workplace, and works of salvation will occur in many places.

Those unbelievers who did not know about God will also come to give glory to God and listen to the gospel because of you.

When you shine your light this way, your passion for salvation of souls will also be stored as complete rewards in heaven.

Luke 15:7 says, "I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."

When you save souls and please God the Father this way, will God just stay quiet?

He will make your soul more prosperous and give you answers spiritually and materially.

He will also give you a lot of rewards in heaven. In particular, a beautifully jeweled brooch is rewarded for your evangelism.

When God's children give God something, He does not take it for granted.

He wants to give back with better things.

It's the same with your work that you have been doing as the Special Evangelism Group.

God remembers each of your deeds of passion and love and He wants to give you overflowing rewards in return.

To pay you back this way, now He is telling you to bear the fruit of light completely.

Then, whenever you preach the gospel, souls will be revived.

I hope you will cultivate today's message in you completely and become the angels of light who will change the world with the gospel of holiness.

I pray in the name of the Lord that God will pay you back with abundant rewards according to your deeds and works.

Amen