BEREA ACADEMY Graduation Sermon
OVERSEER Sung-Hyun Kim
My beloved Sungrak people and fellow workers, God has allowed and enabled us this precious day. So, I encourage that you all make yourselves into the good product that is acceptable to God, so that you can be used by Him right up until the future days.
What has come upon us today is not something which has been completed. Rather, this is only one single part of a great and larger work. It is the work that we go towards, it is that work that God Himself does and that we are striving for. This is done so that we can become a good product before Him, that we can become good instruments, that we can be used well and efficiently by Him. However, this world is the place where the devil does his evil works amidst endless occurrences of misfortune and difficulty. But we lack nothing before Him today. God will not let any of us go. He continually looks at us, He inspects us, He watches over us, He gives us courage, He gives us strength. He does the works so that we can finally receive eternal life. If we have some evil attitude, some unhelpful attitude towards others, or we lose any courage – we must be careful not have any of these things. God is the One who works and gives the victory. What we must do is be faithful to Him to the very end. We must perform that same act of faithfulness – yesterday, today and tomorrow – we do this day by day for His sake. We are those who, each day, seek to fulfill those things He asks of us. We are those who seek to fulfill His works.
God has Himself most personally done His works by having the gospel preached. It has been preached by us! It has been preached by man! God fulfills His work in us every day. We can either choose to be His affectionately used instruments, or choose not to be. It does not matter who it is – we must pay careful attention to all these things we have learned in Berea Academy.
Through Senior Overseer Pastor Ki Dong Kim, we have come to know the precious things preached in Berea Academy. We have now received this carefully constructed Truth. This is a secret of secrets that we have. But we should not in the precise wording, call it ‘a secret’. It is more of a ‘mystery’. And these mysteries have now been taught and revealed through the Senior Overseer Pastor Ki Dong Kim. It has always been through someone – through those precious instruments that we have received these precious mysteries.
We have come and gathered together, but these are all the works done by the hand of God Himself. This has been done this for the sake of Berea Academy. Now, we are the precious instruments of God. We are the precious products that have been made by God Himself. It is His personal hand which has worked upon us. It will be different for each and every person. God will use each person in their specifically designed ways. And God has now revealed how through what we have learned in Berea Academy. Now that we have heard from Berea Academy, we have come to know more about these things. We have come to know all these things in One Picture. We have come to know God’s great plan in One Picture, as found in the Bible.
If we have gained some sort of learning, we might be tempted to proudly judge others. We might be tempted to think of ourselves as higher than we really are. But concerning what we have received, we must treat these things themselves as most precious and not ourselves. What we have received is far precious than anything. We must receive these through the Holy Spirit, it is spiritual knowledge for the sake of our souls. We have received these into our hearts and into our souls. We have welcomed these things from God Himself and He has saved us from the Lake of Fire. Therefore, we should be most humble before Him.
If we look at all the grace we have received, all the love, and all these precious gifts, and yet still say that it is all by our own doing, if we say these things or act in this proud manner, this will lead to nothing but our own shame and to our own misfortune. So, I exhort you all to avoid these things and to, therefore, be the most acceptable product of God.
We must strive to be patient. We must strive for patience and perseverance for the sake of all those things we have received. We do this for that Final Day. We apply these things one hundred percent – even two hundred percent – and we do this so that we can finally be accepted by Him as His precious instruments. With the love that God gives us, according to all those things God has given us – we have received great courage, we have received great sureness, and we have received the confidence that we can do even greater things than these. So that we can be sure to maintain these blessings and that we can fulfill these things planned by God, we must toil, we must labor, and continue to be used by Him.
God has given us various tasks and works for us to do. So to those graduates of Berea Academy that have come here today, I say: We must make the great efforts, day by day, to become that special product of God.
What God asks of us is great faithfulness – absolute faithfulness – in those works we have been entrusted with. This is what God is asking us now: great faithfulness to those tasks that we have been given. God has done these precious works in our direction, and He has been doing these things for 50 years. As we can see, so many disciples have come out and have been produced from Berea Academy. We must make the great effort and pray so that no bad roots come out from us ever again.
We are now considered as soldiers of Jesus Christ, but we must know that we have only received the ammunition. We are missing the discipline, the training, and the strategy. What is the point if we do not have these essential things, but have only have the guns, the ammunition, and the weapons? What is the use if we do not have the training and the discipline? But if we do have that discipline and training, we will be praised by God. We must undergo that required and acceptable training. We must not have the attitude of judging others with an evil attitude, or condemn others that we know the Bible more than them, or that we are right concerning the Bible and that they are not. Do you think that they will be convinced if you have this kind of negative approach and attitude? Do you think that they will stop their accusations of heresy against us? You cannot go about these things in this negative and arrogant way.
It is the wrong attitude if we think that we must somehow overcome those who persecute us in some sort of arrogant and malicious way. Instead, let us try to convey these precious things we have received and give it to others. We must make the great effort, toil and labor to completely fulfill these works. We must give it to others and to share it with others.
Although, outwardly, it may seem that we lack many things, and it may seem that we have many shortcomings, nevertheless, we look to the Lord to seek to be accepted by Him. We need that certain professional level, that acceptable and very noble level. If we do not have that level of acceptability, nobleness, and godly goodness, then how can we ever seek to be accepted by God, or by the people around us? God Himself has taught us that we should do these things, that we should be true and faithful and noble Bereans. We must come together in great strength – the strength of God – and to continue diligently in all this. Wherever we are, let us continue to do all of these works. This I plead that you continue to do so in the Name of Jesus Christ!
I earnestly desire for you to do these things! And to come together as one! I ask for you to deny yourselves, and to deny your own desires and greed! I ask that you give thanks to God and to be most faithful and devoted to God! I ask for you to strive each day to become that acceptable product of God! Is this not the way God accepts us, and is this not what God desires for us? Is this not the way to be those most acceptable instruments of God? We must strive for that Heavenly Crown that is awaiting us. God is the One who makes things to be as though they were not in the past, and He personally does those things to create us to be a new product, to be a new and acceptable product in the eyes of God! We must succeed in all the works that we do. We must do the works that will be praised in person by God! We must be used by the Holy Spirit! We must do these works by the Holy Spirit! We must do all these things, so that there will be no regret or no dismay for all of us.
We give praise and thanks to God, who has enabled us to fully reach the graduation of this term of Berea Academy. Let us all give glory to God! Let us pray.
