My God whom I met

My God whom I met
Philippians 4:19-20
We often say, "Christianity is the religion of experience." What does this mean? This means we can meet God in our daily life. Is it really surprising you? Some may say it is a lie. But we can find so many people in the bible who met God in their life. Even in this sanctuary I can find the persons who met God personally. Who are they? I hope you are the one of them. And I pray that you may meet God in the near future, or today.
Here we have 24 churches in Calgary. Among them 18 churches are the members of 'Calgary Pastors' Association'. We together advertize churches in the weekly magazine 'Alberta Journal'. In the section of the advertizement, we introduce our church like this, 'Calgary Central Full gospel church where we can meet God.' Hallelujah!
Me beloved, church is the house of God Father. It is so common that we can meet Korean president in the Blue House, and US president in the White House. Likewise it is no strange that we can meet God in the house of God Father. But people do not meet God even in the church. How can they be the witnesses of God unless they do not meet God? How can they receive the love of God unless they do not meet God?
You have to meet God if you believe God. If you meet God, you can realize God is not far from you but near to you, with you, and in you. And you can call God, 'my God!' Of course, God is 'our God'. But Paul Apostle called God 'my God' This means Paul met God and experienced God. Today I'd like to introduce 'my God' to all of you. Today's scripture says :
1. My God will meet all your needs with good things.
The one of the characters of my God is to fill someplace with something good. In the beginning, God created the sky and filled it with millions of million stars. A decade ago , I was mobilized by the Korean army for special training for a week. I served as a observation officer in the artillery. So I carried a big binocular telescope. In the army we call it the field glasses.
At night I unintentionally looked in the sky with a field glasses. As soon as I saw the sky I was really surprised. Why? There are millions of millions of stars in the sky. The sky was entirely filled with the stars. O it was really wonderful, beautiful! I realized God is filling God.
And God filled the sea with lots of fish. For example ; mackerels, tunas, whales, anchovies, crabs, lobsters, shrimps, seals, carps, shads, otters, octopuses, sharks, polacks, mullets, croakers, oysters, sea cucumbers, sea anemones, sea mussels, swordfishes, angler fishes, shellfishes, cuttle fishes, flatfish, etc...
And God filled the earth with various kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and humans. After God finished the creation, He said, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."(Genesis 1:31) That is ; God is the God who fills you with good things. Brothers and sisters, God wants to fill your life with something good. God wants to satisfy you with good things. God wants to meet all your needs.
So Jesus said "Ask and it will be given to you ; seek and you will find, knock the door will be opened to you - Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake ? If you, then though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him."(Matthew 7:7-11)
Brothers and sisters, God wants to give you best things. To whom? To those who ask him. Therefor, you ask God. Then you will surely receive the best things from God. Jesus said to you and I, "My Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."(John 16:23-24) God wants you to be happy and glad with good things.
A decade ago, in the winter season, my family needed a stove. So we bought an oil stove. but it smelled bad. I felt pain in my eyes because of the bad odor of oil burning. So I prayed, "Lord, I cannot pray for a log time because of the bad odor. Please give me a better oil stove."
Next day my mother returned it to the shop, and asked the owner of the shop to deliver the better stove. But the owner did not deliver the new one. At that time it was really cold. So we got very angry and called again and again to deliver the new one.
But they did not deliver it. So we went to another stove shop, where we found very nice stove. It was an imported gas stove. At that time Korean stove companies did not make that kind of gas stoves. They only made the oil stoves. We bought the gas stove instead of the oil stove because the owner of the shop had not delivered another oil stove. The new gas stove did not smell bad. It was really nice and best stove in Korea at that time. I thought, "Oh God, you wants to give the best thing to those who ask you."
Brothers and sisters, God wants to see you happy and joyful. So bible says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desire of your heart."(Psalms 37:4) "Finally, my brother, rejoice in the Lord."(Philippians 4:4)
Brothers and sister, Our God is a good God. God wants to give you something good. Something good is going to happen to you. Hallelujah!
Brothers and sisters, do you know why Jesus came to earth? It was because he wanted to give people best things. In Cana of Galilee, Jesus performed the first miraculous sign. He changed water into wine. Really ? Sure. Amen. And do you know what kind of wine did Jesus make ? He made the best wine.
Therefore bible says, "The Lord will indeed give what is best."(Psalms 85:12) "The Lord satisfy your desires with best thing."(Psalms 103:5) "Eagerly desire the greater gift, I will show you the most excellent way."(1 Corinthians 12:31) Brothers and sisters, I pray that you may receive what is best from my God. Amen!
2. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever.
Brothers and sisters, do you know why my God, your God, our God gives us good things? It is because he wants to receive glory from us. So bible says, " Let them give glory to the Lord."(Isaiah 42:12) "Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name."(Psalms 29:2) And the Lord's prayer says, "For thine is the glory forever." "Thine is the glory～♬"(Hymn 155) "Glory glory～♬"(Hymn 388)
Brothers and sister, how can we give glory to the Lord? With praise, with good deeds and with much fruit. John 15:8 says, "This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit."
In the bible the fruit means the fruit of Holy Spirit, that is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.(Gal 5:22-23) And it means the fruit of the light that is goodness , righteousness and truth.(Eph5:9) And it also means the fruit of the evangelization. If you lead your friends, your relatives or neighbours into the church, it is the greatest glory to the Lord.
But bearing much fruit by myself is impossible. So Jesus says, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit ; apart from me you can do nothing."(John 15:5) Therefore in order for us to bear much fruit, we must ask Jesus to remain in us.
And we have to receive the Spirit of Jesus. By his Spirit we can bear much fruit. And the fruit glorifies God. I want all of you to be filled with Spirit. Jesus prayed to God before he died on the cross "Father, glorify your name!"(John 12:28) Hallelujah! "Glory glory～♬"(Hymn 388)