June 30, 2008
by Grace Kim
Choirs of angels rejoiced in heaven last night as tens of people all over the auditorium in the JAMA General Session received the gift of salvation and committed their lives to Christ. Pastor Stephen Chong prayed for them as he ended his sermon about sin, a topic that he said makes pastors very unpopular if they preach about it too often.
Referencing Isaiah 58, he told the crowd, “You better get your act together.” Only then, he said, will God be able to work in and through us.
He described the difference between idol worship and idle worship, and how both are detriment in the Christian walk. We choose idols over God when we start to love his blessings more or as much as we love Him. “We depend on human things, and they will fail you simply because they are human,” he said. “But God says, ‘I will never fail you.’”
Idle worship occurs when we stop at worship because we’re not focused on God. And because we’re focused on ourselves even during worship, we do not serve our communities as we should. Even with so many mega churches in the world today, hundreds of people suffer every 15 minutes.
Before Pastor Chong walked onto the stage, Jirani Children’s Choir from Kenya and Danny Oerteli with the New Awakening Band prepared the hearts of the worshipers through energetic praise. And after Pastor Chong’s altar call, over five thousand pairs of hands lifted in worship as Pastor Jim Cymbala asked all of the attendees to stand in praise with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Singers. “God inhabits the praises of His people,” Cymbala said. “God sits down on His throne and gives gifts when people are praising.”
Finally, Pastor James Byun prayed over those who stayed as he encouraged them to seek God earnestly.
