[Passage]

Matthew 10:42
"And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward."

Introduction

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

This is the 2010 Manmin and Levites' volunteers' group devotional service.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has blessed us to have this devotional service.
You volunteers' group members are the ones who always work for the church, the pastor, and the church members.
You serve the church in various areas including traffic control for Sunday and Friday services, dining hall voluntary service, the church canteen, cleaning the sanctuaries, in the funerals and other family matters of the church members, and through other church events.
I believe all the church members are always grateful for the services of the volunteers.
But there are also those who are working hard behind the scenes where the church members cannot see them.
Even though nobody sees them or recognizes them, they serve the church, the shepherd and the members with their burning love for the Father God.
I give thanks to God the Father who has organized such a group to dedicate themselves for the kingdom of God.
I also give thanks to you devotees who have expended great effort preparing for this service as you worked for the kingdom of God day and night.
Dear devotees, you consider the church of God very precious with your thanks for God's grace, and so you give your health and talents in dedication.
You keep your positions for 52 weeks a year even in the hot weather or in storms or freezing weather.
God the Father is always watching you every moment.
You leave home earlier than others who are enjoying the late sleep on a holiday. You also leave the church later and clean the sanctuaries after the services. God the Father is counting all the things you do; all the sweat, each word spoken and each smile given with kindness.
And He will repay you with rewards according to what He has counted.
These rewards are like the gifts of God given to you as evidence that He is pleased with you.
It has the meaning that He is praising you saying, "You have done the duty I've given you well."
I hope you will hope for the rewards of God and please Him even more through this devotional service.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, in doing so, the grace and blessing of God will be overflowing in you both on this earth and in Heaven.

[Main]

dear devotees, God is counting all the works that you do and He will give you rewards exactly according to what you have done.
But as you know very well, when we do something for God, it is the aroma of our heart that God accepts.
He does not count how many hours you pray for, how much offering you give, or how much work you do in terms of numbers in a physical or material sense.
Even though you may work for the same hours, the amount of aroma that God accepts will be completely different according to whether or not you do it with faith and love.
The rewards will be different according to that amount of aroma.
Of course, you are praying in an effort to cast away evil from your heart in obedience to the word of God within your measure of faith.
In order for your works to be paid back as greater rewards, let me talk about three aspects.
In order for your work to be paid back in full, first of all, you always have to remember the grace that God has given you.
You have to remember again and again at each moment how great the grace given to you is, and how great the love of God for you is.
Some of the volunteers' group members have very special testimonies.
Some had no other way but death due to diseases, but were healed in this church.
Others came to this church in despair after they went bankrupt and their families were shattered, but a way of blessing was opened by God's grace.
Still others became violent whenever they got drunk, and their neighbors were sick and tired of them.
But when they came to this church and met God, their lives totally changed.
After each of you met God in this way, you live a completely different life than before. You come to have prosperity and blessings in your lives.
Many of you volunteered to join the group with the determination to pay back the grace you had received.
And now, I hope you will remember the grace of God once again.
If you remember the grace you received and if you are full of the Spirit, you will be overflowing with thanks just by the fact that you can come to the church.
Furthermore, you can work for the heavenly Father, and you will be even more thankful.
You often sweat so much and yet you don't feel tired. Even when you stand in snowstorm, you fervor for God is greater than the cold you feel.
God is pleased with your voluntary works only when the aroma of thanks for God's grace is contained in your works.
But some people begin the voluntary works with burning passion, but their mind changes as time passes.
They forget the grace they received, and their fervor also cools down.
Before, they didn't feel tired at all, but now they do.
If some things that they cannot understand take place, or if others do not recognize them for their hard work, they also get disappointed.
So, some of them just quit the duty of the voluntary works that they had been doing for years.
Or, they don't actually quit, but they have resentment in their heart, and they also have conflict with others when things do not go as they want.
God is not pleased with this kind of change in attitude.
Of course, if you have a greater duty and cannot afford the time to do the voluntary works any more, it is not actually a change in your attitude.
But I hope you will always remember the grace you received and offer up to God the aroma of thanks all the time.
Dear devotees, in order for your voluntary works to be paid back in full, secondly, that work has to a deed that can please God.
The kind of deeds with which God is pleased is the deed that contains the aroma of heart.
As I briefly talked about it in the first point we covered, if you always remember the grace you received, you will always have thick aroma of thanks in your heart.
For example, when you clean the sanctuary, you wouldn't just sweep and mop as usual because it is given to you.
You will sweep and mop caring for and cherishing the precious sanctuary of your dear God the Father.
Also, if you always have the grace of God in you, you will not feel uncomfortable or have resentment even though there are some difficult things.
"How come there are so many things to do today? Why don't the members keep the sanctuary clean knowing that we have to work this hard?"
"I am doing this difficult work under the scorching sun, and why wouldn't they follow my guidance? Are they ignoring me?"
"Other members attend the service comfortably, so why don't I just give myself a rest this Sunday?"
You wouldn't think these things.
If you do your voluntary works having these thoughts, your work will not go up as beautiful aroma even though you toil in your work.
God cannot give you a good reward either.
If you do not forget the thanks for the grace of God, you can always work with happiness.
You can think, "I was destined to die due to sins, and how could I receive this precious duty to work for God's kingdom?"
"I can take care of the sanctuary of my Father with my own hands, and how precious my life has become!"
"I am so thankful that I have been given the desire to serve and the health so that I can serve!"
"I am so thankful and happy that the church members can use the sanctuaries with comfort because I am cleaning it!"
"The church members eat the noodles I made!" and "Their safety is kept through my traffic control, and I am such a blessed person!"
Thinking all these things, you will automatically begin to sing praises.
When you leave home early in the morning, you will confess your love for God.
"Dear Father, thank You so much that I can serve You with my love for You on this Sunday also."
As you pray like this hurrying yourself along, God will hear your confession with so much happiness.
Imagine Him saying, "Thank you my son, my daughter, do a good job today too," can you imagine how moving it is!
Then, your faces will shine so brightly and everyone who sees you will be impressed.
Your deeds of doing the voluntary works will be your rewards, and if you touch the people with bright faces, it will also be your rewards.
Therefore, you are such blessed people.
Matthew 23:11 says, "But the greatest among you shall be your servant."
Also, Acts 20:35 says, "In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"
So many people received great grace, but you had the desire to pay back the grace and do the voluntary works. How precious your heart is then! How lovely it must be in the sight of God!
Also, you consider others better than you and serve even the little ones, so you can become the great in the kingdom of heaven.
When you do your voluntary works with joy realizing the things for which you should give thanks, your deeds will be a thicker aroma and pleasing works in the sight of God.
Dear devotees, for your voluntary works to be paid back in full, thirdly, you have to hope for the rewards that God will give to you with His love.
Today's reading passage Matthew 10:42 says, "And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward."
If you just serve somebody with only a cup of cold water, God certainly remembers it and pays it back to you.
And how can He forget your faithful works that you are doing day and night?
If you can just see the rewards that you will receive in Heaven, all of you will desire to join the volunteers' group.
If you really long for those rewards, you will dedicate yourself with more thanks and with more of your true heart.
I once explained some of the particular rewards that the volunteers will receive.
When we go to Heavenly kingdom later, there will be so many banquets.
There will be countless angels serving, but in some areas, the children of God themselves will serve.
For example, as the Lord is entering into a banquet held by God the Father, if you are asked to escort Him, how great an honor it is!
Of course, such an honored position of service will not be given to just anybody.
It will be given to those who are at the right level.
If you have the qualification to join the banquet, you who did the voluntary works on this earth will certainly have the priority.
But that does not mean you will always do the voluntary works in the heavenly kingdom, too.
You will enjoy the honor of attending to the honored people, but usually, the angels will minister to you.
And because you did many voluntary works, you will have a greater number of angels attending to you.
As you sowed on this earth with your works, you will be served more than other members.
Also, as a reward for your services on this earth that you did with your hands and feet, God will give you a beautiful ring on your finger and special shoes on your feet.
When the citizens of the heavenly kingdom see those rings and shoes, they will immediately understand why God considers you so precious and how much He loves you.
There is also another kind of reward.
Like some insignia or medal of honor, men will have splendid epaulettes [] on their shoulders.
According to the measure of efforts and dedication, they may have one, two, or three epaulettes.
Women will have flower decorations on their shoulders, and these flowers will have petals that open and close and give out beautiful lights.
The number of these decorations will also differ according to the magnitude of their faithfulness.
When I think of you who will proudly participate in the banquets held by God, I am so happy.
You will welcome me in shiny and neat uniform, wearing the rings and shoes given as your rewards, and putting on various decorations of honor.
When I see you in that form, I will be thankful to you thinking about your works that you did for the church, the shepherd, and the members on this earth.
But God does not want to bless you just in Heaven but also on this earth, too.
I know many of you devotees here have many testimonies while doing voluntary works.
You received health, financial blessings, and blessings with and through your children, or your family problems were resolved.
God the Father always wants to give you volunteers' group members great blessings both on this earth and in Heaven.
But the important thing is that you have to quickly accomplish sanctification for you to receive these blessings completely.
The blessings for those who have gone into spirit and who have not will be so different.
Many of our members give such testimonies.
They worked hard, but they had difficult situations all the time, and they didn't really have any testimonies.
But from a certain point, they began to long for spirit and began to change themselves. To the extent that they cast away evil, they experienced the blessings of God.
Your heavenly rewards will be different according to the extent to which you go into spirit.
Even though you work for the same time and do the same work, the aroma of heart of each one will be offered up to God in a very different measure.
The ring that you receive as a reward will have very different glittering and beauty among them in the 1st kingdom of heaven, the 2nd kingdom of heaven, and the 3rd kingdom of heaven.
I hope you will all quickly change and have testimonies of blessings, and finally receive the greatest rewards in the best dwelling place in Heaven.

[Conclusion]

Dear Manmin and Levites' Volunteers, God sometimes mentions those workers who are not really revealed before the church members and praise their inner heart and faithfulness.
And when I think of them, I can remember that the aroma of their heart was very beautiful though they passed by me just for a moment.
I couldn't even compliment them saying they were doing a good job, but I can remember them fulfilling their duties in their places.
Other people do not know what each of you are doing, and I cannot know everything, either.
But God remembers all the moments, and He pays you back with rewards, not forgetting even one thing.
I hope you will always remember this grace of God and work for Him with thanks and joy.
Also, I hope you will long for the heavenly kingdom each moment, thinking about how God will repay you for your hard work.
Then, God will pour down on you more grace and strength to become sanctified.
As you work as the hands and feet of the Lord with increasingly brighter faces, I pray in the name of the Lord that God will give you spiritual and physical blessings and also great heavenly rewards.

[Amen]