The Church in the End Times (Mt. 24:1-14)
Before talking about the end times, we must see that today right now is part of the end times. Jesus talked about Herod’s Temple, “I will destroy every last stone,” and so the disciples asked for the signs.
In Matthew 1:23, it says Jesus Christ came to earth to be with us, so there is no longer a need for a temple, and Jesus Christ said this temple would be broken down and he would raise the Temple in 3 days. The Temple signifies Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, and because Jesus Christ is with us, our Body is also the temple.
Then this church place you see right now is just a building, I was talking to someone, and they said before COVID, they lost $1 million dollars. Why? The person said God allowed them to see he wasn’t able to love his enemies or his brother, so he said he will start a new business. I asked that person, “Are you attending church? In order to not fall into this again, you must attend church.” I saw the college students understood the gospel, but they didn’t go to church, “I just read the Bible at home,” and I thought, “There is a big problem because they don’t know what the church is.”
I told that person once again, “If you don’t want to suffer more like this again, you must know the church properly. The church is something God raised up, and right now is not the age of the Temple, but it is the age of the churches. God has established a temple within each one of us, an age of churches. In the past, the Israelites gathered around one temple and worshiped there, but now, the gospel has been preached to the Gentiles so that age is over. Now, Jesus Christ is with us as spirit and we are His temple.
The students may not have received salvation accurately as they are losing hold of many things. The fact that the person has received salvation means they have God’s grace. Let’s say she’s at home reading the Bible by herself, then she can’t use the talent God has given to her. God raises the church with each individual’s talent. Without translation, you wouldn’t be able to understand the message in English.
This person wanted to restart his business, so I asked, “Are you attending church? God will work through you and that business through the church.” So, the person was hesitant about coming to our church, “Not our church, but the church you pray for and are comfortable with, you must go forward with the mission for that church,” but we think when we do a business, we can try diligently, but God pours His work upon the business mission field. But if you don’t know the church, you’ll just end up barely scraping by to live and eat.
God said to first seek His Kingdom and righteousness. What is the Kingdom? It is the church, it is not the kingdom of the world. We ourselves are the kingdom but our gathering here is the kingdom of God, so that is why God came to us as Immanuel to be with us. That is how our individual talents we receive from God are used, and our skills and talent are used in the world to save lives in the world. But if we don’t have the church, we live by ourselves.
Because the pastor says, “Come to the church,” people misunderstand, “The pastor wants me to go to their church.” If you want to continue, take a moment to look at yourself and ask, “What is my role in the body?” You can’t just have a mouth. The brain has to command the mouth for words to speak, and Christ has to make the pastor work. If you’re a pastor and you read the Bible at home? Then you can’t do any work. “I am the most important worker and that is the heart, the heart is necessary for blood flow. I’ll be the rib to protect the heart.” “I’ll be the arm or leg,” you can just do that. “I’ll be the toe.” “I’ll be the sole of the foot or the ankle.” There’s also the knees, the spine, isn’t that right? Some people want to take on the role of the liver. This is all created and formed together so they can take on the role of establishing God’s Kingdom.
Why don’t kids like to come to church? They get stressed. “Why do I have to devote money to the church? I go to church to rest but they keep putting stuff on me to do,” and then it’s rightful that they don’t come because the message about the church isn’t rightfully given to them. In sports competition, it’s all about teamwork, it isn’t good if someone just stands out. Working together as a group, you have to have teamwork. Sometimes the finger is in pain so they’re not able to work, but the world says, “You just have to find a way to live.” But instead, the church focuses on that hurt because if they don’t, then everything else in the body will be hurt.
That’s why God is with us. God is with me but God is also with us. You must know this very well for you to be good in your workplace and also good in oneness. Why is it that these students go to workplaces and cannot get along with other coworkers? They haven’t learned about the church, they haven’t received the importance and meaning of being together.
If you want to go fast, you can just go alone, but if you want to go a long distance, there are limitations to going alone; you have to be with other people, and that’s why God made the church. In other words, the church is not just a building or a place. Christ is the head of the church and everyone has a role that is working together. But the reason why the church is destroyed is because they’re not able to get the proper order from the brain, that is, Jesus Christ, and the people do their own things, so they are destroyed.
Freedom – Me
This freedom is for myself, then what happens? Such a person cannot enjoy freedom. Freedom inside of Christ is where Christ is the Master. It is a freedom that comes from Christ serving as my Master, and we learn that through the church. You say you don’t get along with a person at all? You just have to acknowledge that. God made it so that you don’t get along, but the ideology we learn is to get ourselves to match together, because that’s what the world teaches. You have to rise up to the top real quick so you can do whatever you want. If you go to a position where no one can touch you, you can control everyone, and that’s what the world teaches. If that happens, then what? You’re bound to fall because Satan is alive.
There are only two masters, is it God or is it Satan? We can’t see Satan, so it’s money. People can’t see Satan, so they ignore Satan and say, is it God or Money? Satan controls the world through something called money; he even controls the church through money and people study for money, people go to church for money, do you think the church will function properly?
If the head is not Christ, then Satan is the head, and so even this person must be saved, who? Churches have to save other churches; the children of God must save. I’m not just talking about the church, I’m talking about the world. If you go into the world with this ideology, you will not be able to rise up. The reason why students go to the workplace and suffer is because they are the master of their own lives, as in 2 Tim. 3:1. I am ultimately living for money, and because you’re going to work for money, there’s no choice but for you to be suffering. What about the people above or below me? First, change the Master of your life, because that Master is not Christ but money; you go to church for this, you’re going to work for this. You do everything for this, then suffering won’t come to you. But because you don’t know this, you blame other things like your workplace or colleagues, but Satan is controlling you.
The church is having fundamental spiritual victory in the End Times before Jesus’ second coming. So when I’m weak, the person next to me can pray for me. When I’m desperate for the Word, the pulpit message gives me the Word. When I’m strengthened, I can support the people next to me, and you can go a long distance when you travel together. These are not merely words but they go into your ideology. Because you kept living and being reminded of the American education of individualism, you have no choice but to face more suffering. People aren’t wrong; you’ve learned incorrectly.
Changing the stream of America is about knowing the Church. I at the very least pray for each and every one of you at least once a day but you can’t see that, but if you’re not associated with the church, I don’t know you so I can’t pray for you. When you’re associated with the church, the church members can pray for you in concentrated prayer. You must be able to understand this.
It’s the same as when you go to the workplace. Don’t go for your personal gain; go to your workplace to save people. This is the training you receive at the church and when you meet people. Let’s say you hate someone, you can’t stand their face, “I don’t want to go to church because of this person,” or if you go to work, you have someone you absolutely hate, then what happens? What are you going to do? These kinds of things will take place.
Another type of person you hate are managers or superiors who keep ordering you, and that stresses you. So, another type of person you hate are the people you marry and they do something you absolutely hate. When you’re dating, you didn’t see it but now you live together and you see those traits you absolutely hate; what will you do then? At first, you say, “Let’s separate,” because you don’t have the strength to face one another, but if you keep not seeing each other, you become strangers. This is normal, what average people do.
If you receive the answer of the church, God give you the answer to overcome, but it’s not just that, but God will give you the answer to raise up the church. Do you understand? You yourselves cannot do this, but God must give you His grace. You hear the Word and understand but it doesn’t take place because God hasn’t given you His grace. In that situation, it’s the time to receive the answer. Then the person you hate so much will become a channel and opportunity for you to receive blessings.
You also get married and the partner becomes your worst enemy. But do you think God gives you the grace to overcome that? Of course He will give you that grace to raise up a family. If you don’t know what the church really is, you’ll blame the person, “I didn’t know you were like this, I was tricked.” Your partner thinks the same, isn’t that right? That’s just the give-and-take of life. Is it different for the President? It’s the same; God’s grace must come upon you, where? The situation where you face your enemy, God’s grace must work.
That person who is trying to set up a business is just saying, “My son is a pastor, I knew everything but it’s different. Knowing it from the message and applying it to your enemy is different. People who do martial arts as a sport stick to their rules; if they go into street fighting, they lose as it’s not the same thing. So, our field isn’t just full of rules, “It says love one another and we should stick to it,” but I know everything but it’s not just that. You have to realistically win in the field, but we cannot win ourselves; God has to come to us by grace with His answer. There’s a message for you to confirm it in the field. You must listen at first but that’s not the end.
It’s not the end to just knowing it. You must be able to apply this in the field. The answer of loving the enemy has come to you, t5hen those person’s words become different. You must have God’s Word as the evidence of overcoming the field. The field is very diverse, that’s the world, but you must have victory inside of that. Let’s say you memorize the Bible at a young age and have massive theological information? You must receive the answer in the church.
Money
You will always be a slave to money but you should use money as a tool for God. Money is not bad; money is God’s creation, but the person who is serving money as their god is bad. If you do not know offering, you will be a slave to money. Offering means it is God’s, not yours, and you accurately apply this. Coming here means you know, this is not your time, but it’s God’s time. You could do this at home but that doesn’t match with your plan, so you know everything, but I’m saying, you’re not able to realistically enjoy.
You must realistically receive answers and save. You must not be a person who is a slave to money, but be a person who uses and controls money. How can we do this? You are training and applying it within the church. “I’m actually building up this business so I can reach more people through evangelism,” and I said, “That’s correct but you will fail if you’re not part of the church.” God pours the economy upon this thing for what? The person will try to manage their money by themselves, so I said something to this person, but what do you all think? Some have been diligently taught by their parents but others have not. But what do you think as people of the church?
We don’t have a president or cabinet member or politicians at our church, and famous professors from your colleges don’t come here, but what do you think about the church? You look down on the church without even knowing it.
Living Stone, Cornerstone, Head Stone
This living stone is the cornerstone, fundamental to the building, but they don’t see the importance so they use it as a head stone. All treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ but you can’t see that. You can’t see the importance of Christ’s body. That’s why you think in Washington DC, the important historic buildings and people are important but you don’t think the church is important. That’s evidence of the end times. Even more than loving Jesus, you love these things. That’s why it’s normal for students to live that way. So even people who go to church for a long time live that way.
If you come to church and ask, “What is the mission of the church?” God will use you with the talent God gave you, and you can save many people. You just doing everything as the role as a portion of the church, that’s just for the benefit of people. This person being used for interpretation, if she thinks she’s just doing another translation job, she’ll leave out 30% of the words. But God develops the talent.
Not one stone of the temple will be left unturned. There are so many churches in the field of America, there are a lot of churches but am I a member? Not saying you’re associated with just one church, so that’s why I told that businessperson, “Go to a church you pray about, you received a mission from, and then God will work such that the mission of your business will be aligned with the church, then evangelism will naturally take place through your business. That’s why, first seek God’s Kingdom, the field, and it’s the gathering, then it will be spread out.
The gathering church and the scattered church, it’s just like the early church, and it’s only possible when Christ is the Master, then it’s not hard, but if I am my master, everything is hard and difficult to do, then Satan will play with me and I’ll earn money and be destroyed. I don’t know if you understand. This businessperson is a child of a pastor so he interprets it as something his father says, but he must understand this as something from God.
When are the end days? It is the last days when Jesus will come again, and the church has to gather and go towards world evangelization. This interpretation is for world evangelization. Going to the workplace is also for evangelism. Earning money and using it is also for evangelism. That’s the center of the work God is doing. When your mission is done on earth, you’ll no longer be on earth but you’ll be in heaven. If the land of America has no mission, it will be overcome by another superpower nation. If your talent isn’t used for saving lives, God will take it away and give it to someone else, because everything given to you is for saving lives.
America must be used for saving lives. The reason you’re born in America and have studied and lived in America is for you to save America, the world, and for saving lives. If you’re able to know this, you can see the work God has done and you’ll see what is going to happen in the future in the church. That’s why the Early Church was able to give their all into this, they were able to stake their lives on things that would work out. That’s why this is important.
This was the first lecture I gave about the end times. These are the end times. Nation will rise against nation, people against people, and all these wars and disasters are happening, and you might go in the world and hear. The more time goes on, the more suffering the world will encounter because the world hates the gospel. Or they have the gospel but consider the church, the body of Christ to be of no value. Then what you have cannot be used. Know this very well. Why are we working for the church? To be used for the gospel. Whoever knows this will put their all in.
Even after you die, the work of saving lives must continue for world evangelization. It’s important to have help to go along God’s will. Or else you’ll lose a lot of money. Deacon Ted had a spat with his son, and it’s a fight over money. Deacon Ted said, “Once my son loses a lot of money, he’ll come to church,” so if Deacon Ted doesn’t give money to his son but gives it to offering to the church, then he’ll be so blessed. Deacon Ted knows himself that if his son is destroyed, he’ll come to church.
Most parents have a heart of giving what their child desires, but you have to be cold if it’s not of the gospel. That’s the way to save your town as well as yourself. That’s why you must interpret everything according to the Word.
Prayer
Father God, thank You. Thank You for confirming the message about the end times with the remnants together today. Let them do world evangelization and let them use their talents for the church with the Word You have given today.