The first lady of the world renowned Yoido Full Gospel Church brings a word in season over the services last weekend.
The last weekend of April marked Dr. Kim Sung-Hae’s third visit to City Harvest Church. Since 2008, she has been making annual visits to CHC to speak at the weekend English services.
Kim is best known as the wife of Dr. David Yonggi Cho, the founder of the 800,000-member Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul Korea, the largest Protestant church in the world. Kim is also a renowned scholar, musician and evangelist in her own right.
Having dedicated herself to education and her scholarly pursuits throughout her life, Kim is today the President of Hansei University in Seoul and she is simultaneously serving as the chancellor of Bethesda Christian University in California. At the same time, she is an accomplished pianist and music minister, and has written many gospel songs which are widely sung by Christians in Korea and all over the world.
In her ministry as a pastor and evangelist, she has been speaking in numerous crusades in countries such as Mongolia, Ukraine, America and Indonesia. During these sessions, her preaching is usually followed with healing miracles, signs and wonders, and many have testified of God’s healing in their lives.
At each of CHC’s four English services, the congregation welcomed Kim with a roaring applause as she took to the stage, clearly excited to hear from her after watching an introductory clip. The six-minute video covered many aspects of Kim’s personal life and ministry, from preaching engagements to music performances, highlighting her many achievements as pastor, musician, preacher, healing evangelist and educator.
The video served as an inspiration to many in the crowd who witnessed how she used her gifts and talents to serve others around the world. Through her obedience to God and through her ministry, thousands have been blessed.
As she went on stage, she flashed a wide smile and greeted the church enthusiastically, expressing her joy at her third visit to Singapore. As she began preaching, she told the congregation that she felt led to share four areas that would help believers become more victorious in their lives.
Firstly, a believer should never stop trying in life. Kim shared that people often stop trying because of laziness and laziness is what God does not want believers to have. This is because God has given each believer his or her own share of talents and it is up to each person to put them to good use continually and not complain how “little” He has given (Matt. 25:14-24, NIV).
Secondly, she told the crowd not to live in regret as regrets do not help a person to change. Rather, repentance is the key to real change, not just in dealing with the past but in securing the future. Kim encouraged everyone in the congregation to learn how to be humble and acknowledge one’s weaknesses and mistakes. Only then would the Holy Spirit be able to bring comfort and strength.
Thirdly, Kim spoke about being a good steward and not to waste anything that God has given to us. The believer must learn to use all that God has given properly and effectively, including managing one’s time wisely. She also reminded everyone that rest is important and must be accorded a level of significance as it would prepare believers for what is to come.
Lastly, Kim talked about being grateful in life. She shared that the righteous in God know how to appropriate thanks and are grateful people in general. Instead of making negative comparisons with others and asking, “God, why me?” Kim taught that the believer needs to learn to look at the positive side of things and trust God for His provision and solution.
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| CN PHOTO: Michael Chan | |
Despite Kim’s strong Korean accent, her preaching was energetic and proved inspiring to those who were in the services that weekend. Chia Kin Wei, 26, student, shared, “Dr. Kim reminded me once again that we need to always be progressive in the things that we do and be grateful to God in spite of the circumstances that we are in. We also need to allow God to mold our character as we walk with Him.”
As she concluded her sermon, Kim encouraged everyone to walk with God closely and avoid the four areas that would affect them if they were not diligent. She reminded the congregation that these four areas were the same attitudes that God did not want His children to have in their lives.
She then went on to talk about pursuing God-given dreams and shared her own example of how she remained true to herself, despite the challenging years of building the church in the early days. Staying faithful to God, Kim refused to conform to the expectations that others had of her and continued to live her dream. Today, she is a successful person all because of what God has done for her and through her.
This was one of the main areas that student Alex Loh, 24, learned from Kim. He shared, “I believe all of us have a dream and a vision that has yet to come to pass. So being reminded that even Dr. Cho and Dr. Kim had a humble start really encouraged me to keep on trying.”
