God’s Spirit Saves People (John 6:60-71)

Let us bless one another, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  I pray that the spiritual blessing of God will be upon all the people who are worshiping in the church, on the roof, and in their homes online.  The title and the main content of today’s message will be based on John 6:63 that says, “The Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing.” That becomes the main scripture for today’s message.

Main
1. Materialistic Humans
Today’s age has advanced very scientifically, all of our technology and weaponry has advanced to the point where Americans can participate in the space battle. Our science and medicine have advanced to the point where people can detect cancer in their bodies six months before going to a doctor. The technology has advanced to the point where we are welcoming the Age of Artificial Intelligence where robots will be taking a lot of human labor.

Despite all of these advancements, there is no way to solve certain disasters like the coronavirus. It might seem like humans are able to do anything, but when we face a limitation like this, there are some things we cannot solve. Physically, we have to continue to advance and progress, and our spiritual state should also progress proportionally. Jesus Christ did the miracle of healing the man who was sick for 38 years, and He also did the work of feeding 5000 people, and the people are chasing Jesus around. Why? They chase Him with physical motives. That means, back then and today as well, people follow Jesus Christ, trying to advance physically.

If humans depart from God, they have no choice but to live centered on humans. Because they’re centered on humans, they are not centered on God. Spiritual beings must be centered on God, but now that spiritual beings are concentrated on people and things instead of the spiritual God, even though we have advancements, we have problems.

1) World
People started to raise their own power and unite to build the Tower of Babel, but then they faced the disaster of the Tower of Babel. All they had to do was go to God, but instead, they started following and worshiping idols. In the past, when there were natural disasters or storms, the people couldn’t handle it themselves so they turned to an idol. Now that we have scientific advancements, people are able to control nature to a certain extent, so they themselves have become their own idol. Now, through these advancements and individualism, people are able to control and conquer nature.

Regardless of all these nuances, the fact that people are separated from God and idolize themselves is the same in the past and today. In the past as well as in the present day, people are trying to look into the future to see their future, and they’re trying to become possessed by some higher power. If we want to know our fate and destiny, we need to go to our Creator who made us, but we go to ask the devil instead, and because of all these, we have become enslaved by Satan. Because we’re spiritually ignorant, we don’t even know what enslaves us, and that is why we suffer mentally and spiritually.

Recently there was an elderly man who committed suicide by jumping off a building in downtown LA. He was very wealthy, but because of the coronavirus, he had to stay at home and was so lonely and depressed that he committed suicide by jumping off the building, and that is evidence that the physical wealth is not what saves us; it is our spirit that saves us.

People are different from animals. Even animals have emotions, they love their babies, and even animals are scarred and get depression. Even animals can decipher what they like and don’t like, but humans are different from that. The thing that makes us different from animals is that we’re spiritual beings. Our spirit is alive and the flesh counts for nothing. This doesn’t mean that we don’t need the flesh; because we have a physical body, we need food to eat. I’m not saying that food is bad, I’m saying that it’s not enough to save people. However, if you save the spirit, then the body naturally comes to life. That is the method of God.

He says, “First seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, then all the physical things will follow you.” People concentrate so much on work because they don’t know this fact, and people are focused on their studies because they don’t know this fact. Because you end up focusing too much on the physical things, you lose hold of the spiritual life. The things you do will only come to life only if you are spiritually alive, and you need to come to life in order for the work you do to be used by God to save other people’s lives.

Most people work very hard in the world and come once a week to church to pray, but the center of their heart is still centered on work and physical things. That’s why their walk of faith does not take place. That is why the spiritual aspect that they have is not able to overcome the physical things of their life. The spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. In order to save our lives, we must save our spirits first. If our spirit comes to life, then the physical things will come to life as well.

2) Jesus Christ – Bread of Life (John 6:35)
Last week, Jesus Christ said, “You have to eat the Bread of Life to live forever.” You have to eat physical bread, too, and that’s how you maintain your physical body. I’m not saying we don’t need it, but I’m saying that’s not enough; you have to eat Jesus, and then the Jewish people said, “How do we eat people?” It means they don’t understand Jesus’ words, His spiritual message. Physically they’re so smart but spiritually they’re so dumb. As evidence of that, they’re facing suffering without knowing where it’s coming from. It’s coming from their spiritual suffering, and because of that, they face mental suffering, and that’s why the states of obsession and addiction continue to come into their lives.

In John 6:47, “Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ has eternal life,” you have eternal life; even if you die, you will live. Even if you fail, you will live. No matter what circumstance you fall into, you will live, but that disappears when you look at the physical things. But this is what’s important. The physical things should follow after you; it is not where you should put your focus, because only the Holy Spirit of God can save you, the Holy Spirit saved your spirit, and when you focus on that, everything comes to life.

But the churches aren’t able to do this and the smart people aren’t able to do this; they’re spiritually so dim. They’ve heard of Jesus Christ but they’re spiritually dim. Even the Jewish people are following after Jesus Christ, but they’re only very enlightened in their physical senses. That’s why they’re not able to understand the words of Jesus Christ when He says in verse 56, “I must remain in them and they in me.” What does this word mean?

You can only understand it when you’re moved by the Holy Spirit; this is not something you can learn by studying the Bible. It seems as if the words of the Bible might just be a text; however, you can only understand it when you’re moved by the Holy Spirit of God. How could you believe this if you haven’t even met Jesus Christ 2000 years ago? How can you believe that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is my death? That, unless it is by the Holy Spirit, no one can claim that Jesus Christ is Lord.

If you’re sitting here, listening to today’s message, and you’re able to listen to the words of God, it means you have been called by the Holy Spirit. That is the miracle of miracles. Ask other people, they may be very smart physically, but they cannot understand spiritual words. That’s why when Paul says, “I have been crucified on the cross with Christ, and Christ lives within me,” people don’t understand.

“Why should I die? Christ should die,” and that’s why they’re not able to enjoy the true taste of the gospel. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, it was my death because it was my sin. The sin of me living centered on my pride and ego has been crucified on the cross, and now there isn’t a single reason for me to live for my pride or ego anymore, and if you live for your pride or ego, you’ll end up being a slave to Satan, racing towards death.

The more you exert your pride, the more you become a slave to Satan. You have to understand the words of God in order for your spirit to be revived, and if your spirit comes to life, then everything you do will be used by God.

Everybody else tries hard and faces the result of trying hard. That’s the basics of trying hard, but that’s not enough. The power of God must come upon you. You must be completely seized in God’s hands, you need to be within God’s hand. Who is necessary to a company? There are many people who work in the world, many people who have jobs, but who is the necessary one? That is the one who God needs.

People may not recognize this, but every creation is made for God; what does it mean that He is King? It says in the book of Romans that all creation is made for Jesus. Your company doesn’t need your skill or brain, your studies don’t require your brainpower; you need God there. That is how people will come to life. Because you’re living your life physically, you can’t save yourself nor other people.

Who is necessary for America? God is necessary, then, where is God? God’s spirit goes upon the one who knows about spiritual things; that person is the one who is necessary. A Christian isn’t just a Christian; America needs a Christian who is completely captured by the spirit of God.

Who is necessary in your family? God is necessary, but where is God? The person who is completely captured by the spirit of God is necessary. That is the necessary person because the spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing. Your diligence will not give life; only the Spirit of God can bring life to you and others. Only the Spirit of God and the working of God can revive your skill. You need to know and understand these words in order for your life to come to life.

3) The Jews
When Jesus Christ said this, the Jewish people couldn’t understand and in John 6:60, they ask< “How can we accept this?” In verse 61, Jesus Christ asks, “Does this offend you? Does this make you mad?” When you proclaim the Word of God, there are people who will fight back, but don’t argue with me. I’m simply relaying the words of God, but there are people coming at me from left and right trying to fight and argue, but all I did was relay the Word of God. When you proclaim the Word of God, the devil never stays still. Because we have lived physically, people think, “I’m being attacked!”

Jesus Christ said here, “Does this offend you?” Whom would this offend? You’re offended by Jesus. Unless the words of Truth go into your heart, you will block those words. There is no sin in the pastor, so don’t keep grinding your teeth at me when you hear the Word of God. Pray to God so that you can understand those words. People get offended and they don’t even want to talk to me, but I’ve never talked bad about them. Why is this?

When the words of Truth are proclaimed, people will get offended and fight back because they’re used to cursing people. Look at your life situation. Where there is a circumstance, people always blame other people in their lives. So, today we’re focused on, “The Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing,” so a person can only be revived by the Spirit of God.

2. The Spirit Saves

Then, in order for that to happen, we need to be in a spiritually high place. What do you need to do to remain at the spiritually highest place? You need to ask the person in the highest place. There’s no need for you to become president; if you’re able to ask the president directly, he will answer you, and when you receive the president’s answer, your level will be elevated to the president’s level. There’s no need for you to elevate your level through meditation; all you need to do is receive your answer form the One who is at the highest level.

God is with you in all environments and circumstances. Through your problem, circumstance, or difficulty, the spirit of God will save you. That’s why you need to ask God who is with you always.

1) Position of the Spiritual Summit – Ask God
“God, why have you allowed this environment?” Then even if you’re in such a low level, God who is at the highest level will give you His answer and Word. Then, you will be elevated to the highest level, do you understand what I’m saying? I’m telling you that people who chase after physical things will fall into physical problems and you cannot save people physically, either. The Spirit can save you; that’s why you need to ask the Holy Spirit, because He is the One who will save you. He will save you in all problems, circumstances, hardships, and crises. So, ask the Lord, stop trying to work so diligently; just ask Him. Stop opening your hearts to the words of other people, but just ask God.

God will give us meetings as well. We try not to meet people we don’t like, that’s you living a self-centered life, but we need to become God-centered. Even if I don’t like this person, fi God has allowed me to meet this person, there’s God’s plan there, and you should enjoy this blessing very well, especially in the meetings you have in the church. “I don’t like that person, I like this person,” if you live your life centered on yourself like that, you’ll never be able to save yourself.

“What is God’s plan in this meeting? Why did You allow me to meet this person within the company? Why did God allow me to meet this person today?” You keep acting and meeting people according to your own thoughts, so even though you have hard the gospel, you keep living your life centered on yourself and physical things. If you ask God, then God will reveal to you His plan during that meeting.

In Romans 8:28, it says that God works everything to fulfill His good purpose. Everything that you’ve done in your past has God’s plan within it. We look down on the small things but that’s because you don’t believe in God; you only think about the big events because you’re centered on yourself, but even with the small tasks you’ve been given at church, there is a plan of God within that. Even the tiniest task you’ve been given at your job, there is a plan of God within that. God’s plan exists within your studies, so you have to stand before God to do it.

One time, my daughter got in trouble with me because she does her work very sloppily. Her mom got so frustrated, she told me to teach her. Especially when teaching math, my wife has a doctorate in math so she gets frustrated when teaching math, so someone who is uneducated like me needs to teach my daughter so that our levels are correct. Imagine how frustrated my wife must be because she’s trying to match her doctorate level with a child’s level. It’s so frustrating because it’s such a different level, it’s so easy.

I have to teach my daughter, so it’s frustrating because she’s very sloppy about it. If I were a nonbeliever, I would hit her instead, but I make her do pushups instead. I said, “Why do you do such a careless job with your work? I’m not telling you to study well or hard, but I’m telling you that you can’t be careless with whatever God has given to you. If you don’t want to do something, pray to God and God will give you a heart to want to do it,” but my daughter says, “I like reading, but I don’t like math.” I said, “That’s possible, people can’t be good at everything, however, God has given you this grace so pray to God for your studies.”

She’s even picky with her food, she doesn’t eat vegetables, and I told her again, “If you only eat the food you like, your life will become difficult; you need to be thankful and eat all the food that God has given you because God has given it to you. What does this mean? Stand before God. It doesn’t matter if the work is big or small; in everything, God works for the good. Why?

People fail because they always live their lives centered on big events, centered on themselves, and centered on success; that’s why they look down on the small things, but whatever job you have is whatever job God gave you, and God works in all things to fulfill His good purpose. Even though this coronavirus pandemic, God is fulfilling His good purpose.

So, I honestly have no sense whether the coronavirus is getting worse or better, and I’m sorry to say this because there are many people who are sensitive about COVID-19, and I’m very sorry for people who have to meet a lot of others during this time, but for me, I have no sense of the COVID-19 disease. Why is it like that? I have no sense of the coronavirus because I’m so spiritually centered. This doesn’t mean that I’ve gotten COVID-19 and it’s not that I’m wearing multiple layers of facemasks every day.

I go swimming at the beach every Monday. I only put on a mask when there are other people around me, but when I go o the beach, there’s not a single person who has a mask on, so I only put on my mask for other people’s benefit, so I put a mask on for people at church. But there’s no relevance to COVID-19 in my heart, why? Because I believe in God and I know how God is guiding my life. I’m not saying that you don’t need to be careful, but I’m saying that in all things, God fulfills His good purpose.

Now that I have a lot of spare time on my hands, I exercise more and my physique has gotten a lot better because I exercise a lot more now than before. I think, “Why did God allow this time?” I’m in my mid-50s and I want to keep doing world evangelization for the rest of my life, so I have to exercise otherwise my joints will hurt and I’ll get body aches. I’m much healthier now than I’ve ever been in my life, this is not because I tried to change my thoughts, but because my spirit came to life when I focused on God, everything else in my life comes to life, too.

2) Filling of the Holy Spirit – Spiritual Summit
The Spirit gives life, but when do you receive the filling of the Holy Spirit? God does not give the filling of the Holy Spirit to someone who is obsessed with speaking in tongues; He just gives them tongues. Listen carefully, everyone. God does not give the filling and working of the Holy Spirit to someone who wants to work diligently. If someone says, “I’m going to live an upright life,” God will not give them the filling of the Holy Spirit. What does the Bible say?

That means, for people who have the center of their heart towards wanting to save other people, God will pour upon them the filling of the holy Spirit. Before that point, you won’t receive it; you’re just thinking by yourself. God doesn’t just pour the filling of the Holy Spirit just anywhere, but Acts 1:8, God pours the filling of the Holy Spirit upon those who will be a witness until the ends of the earth. Every single person who was used by God in the Bible, without exception, received this blessing.

There was not a single time when God worked upon someone who was focused on the physical things. The Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing. Only when the Holy Spirit works will you receive power and authority and the power of God will follow you around. Instead of you trying to find or chase God around, if you just hold onto His promise, then God will follow you and His Spirit will begin to work upon you.

If the center of your heart says, “Wow, this world really needs the gospel and I must proclaim this gospel,” every single person who has that thought without fail will receive the filling of the Holy Spirit. When you’re saved, you received the Holy Spirit, but there is a big difference having the Holy Spirit indwelling within you and filling you. When you received salvation, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you; however, there is a difference between the Holy Spirit living in you and filling you. If you want to save other people, you need to receive the filling of the Holy Spirit and authority of God.

Whom does God give this to? God never gives this blessing to those who live for physical things, but God will endlessly follow the one who wants to save others. God’s power will follow you in your business and studies because that is how God wants to save people, but people know their walk of faith backwards. They work their hardest and do their best, but when they face a limitation, they pray to God. It might sound right, but the center is wrong. The Bible never says that. From the beginning, God told you to be with God and to rule and conquer the world with God.

3) Religious Person – Those Who Cannot Save
All the other people are religious people. I don’t know you’ve live your walk of faith, but I’m sorry to say, if you work on your diligence, that’s physical-centered. Don’t be focused on your diligence, but instead, start with the spiritual summit and then see what happens after that. Your goal is to save human lives. This is what the Bible tell us. If there is anyone who doesn’t have this order correctly, I hope you will have the blessing.

You can only complete the law when, through the law and your shortcomings, you look at the Lord. That’s why people who are so legalistic cannot save themselves or others. Right now, today, the churches are falling into legalism a lot. They always talk about living according to the words of God, and it sounds so right, but the characteristic of those people is that they will always judge people. Why is there so much fighting in the churches nowadays? They’re always arguing about who is right or wrong, those are legalistic people. It’s not that we don’t need the law, but we need the law to look at the Lord so we can gain strength and life.

There are also those who fall into unhealthy mysticism who try to experience God through their physical bodies. You should just believe in God, but instead of putting their main point on faith, they’re putting their main point on the experience of God, but it’s a physical experience and they’re not able to save themselves or others.

There are also those whose faith is based on prosperity, and they emphasize chasing after the physical success of the world, but all the physical things should follow after you. For you, seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness, and all these other things will follow.

3. Field of the World

Where is your central point? Is it on the life of Jesus Christ or is it on the physical things? Is the direction of your life directed towards saving other people in the world, or is it for your physical work?

1) Skill
We are living in this world with our skills and talents, and you all work or study, and you have your ministries, too, and this is what people are so busy doing. Everyone always complains, “My work is so hard, my studies are so hard, things are not taking place,” why is that? These are the words that come out of you because you do not have spiritual strength. This is the work that God gave you; do you think He really wanted to make it that hard?

First, you must come to life with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, or else you’ll have no choice but to be in difficulty because you’re not setting your focus on the life of Jesus Christ; you’re setting your sights on physical things. All of your skills are simply tools that should be used to save other people; that’s why your skill must be in God’s hands.

Anyone who has spiritual strength is the one who has been seized by God’s hands. It’s very good if you can study well, but even if you’re not good at studying, it’s okay because if you have spiritual strength, God will be the one to use your studies. That was David. All David did was throw stones with a sling, but because he had the heart to save the Israelites, God used that sling to take on Goliath. There were many shepherds in that age who threw stones, but David stood as a representative of all those people as the one to save Israel and the world. That is the only reason David’s sling was used by God to take down Goliath.

All the other shepherds of the age who worked for their physical motives couldn’t stand before Goliath because they were focused on the physical things; they couldn’t save other people. Even King Saul who was at the highest position and power could not overcome Goliath because he was focused on the physical things. However, the people who set their sights on the spiritual things are not going out with human strength; they are going out with God’s strength and are used by God to save lives.

That was Joseph, too. Joseph went in as a slave to Egypt, but he was completely captured by God’s hands. Why? Because he held onto the covenant he heard all the way from Abraham in Genesis 3:15, the offspring of the woman, Jesus Christ, and He held onto world evangelization and Egypt evangelization and saving people. Everywhere Joseph went, God poured the Holy Spirit.

You cannot do it with your own ability or strength; God’s power must come upon you. Anything you work so hard for, it is from your strength; that’s not going to save your business or others. The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. For anyone who holds onto that, their skills will be used by God.

Later, after the coronavirus pandemic ends, our business patterns will all change. Everyone who is trying to project into the future all say the same thing, that all the jobs will disappear because of the fourth industrial revolution and the age of AI. However, the ones who have spiritual strength and uses their skills and job to save lives will be in God’s hands and used by God.

As time passes on, things will become hard for anyone who lives based on physical things. However, a person who is centered on receiving spiritual strength to save themselves and everyone else will be doing a small work, but they will be used by God. That’s why you need to receive healing regarding your skills and job.