Human Praise, Praise from God (Jn. 12:37-43)
Let us bless and greet one another, “Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.” May the unprecedented and never-repeated blessing of God be upon you today. The title of today’s message is, “Human Praise, Praise from God.” There are people who believe in Jesus, but among them, there are those who live for themselves and those who live for Jesus, and when you look statistically, there are more people who are living for their own glory versus people who are living for the glory of Jesus, but that’s the reason they are not able to overcome their personal suffering and the suffering of the world. Through today’s worship, I hope you will receive the grace to have faith that lives for God’s glory.
1. Jesus’s miraculous sign
1) Signs (Jn. 12:37)
(1) Evidence that Jesus is the Christ
Jesus Christ came to earth and showed seven signs of the work that He would have to do, of dying on the cross. So, He showed these seven signs, and a sign is something that indicates that Jesus is the Christ.
(2) The Jews would not believe in him (Jn. 12:37)
It was to show that He was to die on the cross and resurrect, but in Jn. 12:37, it says that many people did not believe in Him. So, the Jewish people know that the Messiah would show signs when He comes, but these signs were different from a “miracle.” The first sign that Jesus showed was turning water into wine. For us, we can just go out and buy wine, but back in those days, they couldn’t do that. The fact that Jesus turned the water into wine means that He changed water molecules into wine, and that is something that only the Creator has power to do. He showed seven different signs that indicated that.
(3) Fulfilled the word of Isaiah (Jn. 12:38)
So, even though Jesus performed so many signs, people still did not believe, and the reason is in Jn. 12:38, that the Lord did this to fulfill the Word of Isaiah the prophet which was spoken about 700 years before Jesus was born. When the Word of God goes into your heart, then God carries it out and fulfills it. The words of people are not fulfilled. The dream you dream on your own is not fulfilled. Even if you do accomplish that dream, you cannot accomplish the spiritual things. God’s Word must come to me as my dream. I’m not telling you to just dream a dream, but the Word of God must become my vision, it must become my hope and mission in life, because God will carry out His Word. Then, the people who follow that Word will be filled with hope.
No amount of suffering can break down our hope and excitement, isn’t that right? If we know that something so good is going to happen to us in the future, then even if something difficult happens now, it’s okay, isn’t that right? Let’s say, for example, I already know that I’m going to get a very nice car at the end of the day, if I get into an accident now and completely total my car, it’s not that big of a deal. In a similar way, for the people who hold onto the Word of God as their hope and their vision, nothing can overcome them.
2) Reason they could not believe (Jn. 12:39)
(1) Blinded their eyes (Jn. 12:40, Is. 6:10, Mt. 13:14-15)
(2) Hardened their hearts
(3) Cannot be healed
It says in Jn. 12:39 that the reason God blinded their hearts is because of Isaiah 6:10, that He made the hearts of the people calloused and made their ears dull and closed their eyes so they could not be healed. If your spiritual eyes are dull, you cannot see, however, if your spiritual eyes are opened, then you can see things other people cannot see. 1 Cor. 2 says that the Holy Spirit reveals even the deep things of God to us, so your spiritual eyes must be opened. Inside of Jesus Christ are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Even if there are two similar Christians, there’s one person who has their spiritual eyes opened, and one has their spiritual eyes closed, this is something we can know only by the work of the Holy Spirit.
3) Jesus’s secrets of the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 13:11)
(1) Given to disciples (Mt. 13:11)
(2) Not given to the people (Mt. 13:11)
In Matt. 13:11, Jesus Christ speaks in parables so that some people may understand and some may not, because God did not allow those people to understand, that’s why Jesus spoke in parables, so that those who should understand would understand, and those who could not understand, cannot understand.
(3) Why I speak to them in parables (Mt. 13:13)
So what exactly is the reason that God prevented most of the Israelites from understanding Jesus? “I thought the work of God was allowing everyone to believe in Jesus, then why is He preventing people from understanding?” God actually continuously and repetitively gave grace to the Israelites; God kept on giving Israel His grace to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth, but until the very end, the Israelites rejected that. That’s the reason why God made the decision to blind the Israelites. God blinded the eyes of the Israelites so that they could not come back and do it again, because God knows that if the Israelites repent and come back, they’re going to go right back to their old ways.
Some people ask then, “Isn’t God too evil?” No, God has a plan because the Bible promises that even among Israel, there will be those who remain, the remnants of the gospel. Even right now, among the Jewish people, there are those who remain. During the age of Elijah, God promised that there were 7000 disciples who had not bowed their knee to Baal, then why is it that God prevented most of the Israelites from understanding or believing in Jesus?
Romans 11:11 says that, because of the Israelites stumbling, the gospel has gone to the Gentiles for salvation, in order to make the Israelites envious. This has been God’s plan. So, by hardening the hearts of the Israelites so that they cannot believe, God was actually opening the door to evangelize and to save the Gentiles. Meanwhile, God still leaves behind those who will receive the gospel in Israel, and then gives them the gospel.
In Jn. 12:41, it says that Isaiah says this, 700 years ago, because he saw Jesus’ glory. God is invisible but he saw God’s glory. Even though most people cannot see God, God showed Joseph a vision. On the other hand, Joseph’s older brothers also believed in God but they could not see the vision, and there’s a difference between somebody who sees the vision of God and somebody who does not see the vision of God and how they speak. Even if somebody believes in Jesus Christ, if their spiritual eyes are closed, and they only have their physical eyes, they do not understand. That’s why they are overtaken by the devil because the devil is a spiritual being. We don’t know how the devil works and deceives us. That’s why they only talk about the physical and visible things.
On the other hand, people with their spiritual eyes opened will say things that are invisible to their eyes. God does not reveal the spiritual world to just anyone, He opens the eyes of people who listen to the words of the gospel and gain faith. If you listen to the words of the law, your spiritual eyes will never be opened; you must listen to the words of the gospel. Through the 66 books of the Bible, we must hear the gospel, the good news of Jesus the Christ, because only inside of Jesus Christ are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and only in front of the name of Jesus Christ are all the crises and disasters of sin broken down, and the authority of Satan and the background of hell are broken down. There is no other way than the name of Jesus Christ.
2. One who believes – Human praise
1) Leaders (Jn. 12:42)
Then in today’s scripture, it said there was a proportion of people who had believed, and they were the leaders, and these leaders are the people who knew and taught the scriptures better than any normal person. Because these leaders knew the scriptures better than anybody else, they knew the signs that Jesus was demonstrating and believed He was the Christ. These are the leaders who represent all of Israel. During that time, the leaders in the General Assembly in Israel had more power than anybody on earth has now. It’s similar to the power that the leaders in Russia and China have. During that time, the leaders of Israel received all the power, including the legislative, executive, and judicial power. Nowadays, in democratic nations, there’s a division of the government, so not even the president can do whatever he wants. When President Biden says he wants to do something, if the members of Congress say “no,” then it’s a “no.” That happens all the time when the President would propose something and then Congress says “No,” and if the president commits some kind of crime, then the executive branch can kick them out of office.
(1) Many believers (Jn. 12:42)
(2) Because of the Pharisees, they would not openly acknowledge their faith (Jn. 12:42)
However, during these Biblical times, the Israelite leaders had the power of all three branches of government, and these leaders knew that Jesus was the Messiah, but they couldn’t admit it out loud because they were afraid of the Pharisees. They couldn’t confess that they believed in Jesus Christ, because if they said that out loud, they would be kicked out of the Jewish church.
(3) For fear they would be put out of the synagogues (Jn. 12:42)
During these times, the Jewish people gathered, centered on the synagogue and centered on the Temple. That’s when they would educate their children, and that’s their location for gathering and meeting. If they get excommunicated from that location, then they cannot be in society. There was a pastor who was going to New Mexico, and he tried to get an apartment, but they wouldn’t give him an apartment. Even though he applied to multiple locations, they would not give him an apartment. When he was in Utah, he couldn’t get a driver’s license for multiple years. That’s because of this very rigid organization that the Mormons have. If somebody who is not Mormon moves in, then they do a very thorough background check, so it’s your choice to move into that Mormon area, but they prevent you from living freely. If you go into China and you stay there, then immediately, your presence is recorded. That’s how they keep control and census, and the Israelites were even moreso. So, these leaders know that, “If I get excommunicated, I have to give up all my authority, all my reputation and fame, all of my money and success, I have to let go of it.” That’s what they were afraid of.
2) They loved human praise more (Jn. 12:43)
Jn. 12:43 says, “It is because they loved human praise more than they loved praise from God.” Yes, I believe in Jesus, but I can’t just throw away my position, my pride, my reputation, and my glory. That’s why they’re not able to confess out loud that they believe in Jesus. There are many people like that today, when they go out into the world, they can’t talk about Jesus, because they’re afraid it will make them lose a promotion or it will make them outcast. Later on, I’ll explain to you what happens if that’s what you do. You think that keeping it to yourself is a benefit, but that’s a miscalculation.
(1) Herod’s death (Ac. 12:23)
What happens to the people who live for their own glory instead of the glory of God? We see the example of King Herod in Acts 12. Acts 12:23 tells us about King Herod who wanted to be a king for his own glory and not for the glory of God, so God killed him with worms.
(2) World – Lust of flesh, lust of eyes, and pride of life (1Jn. 2:15-16)
The reason is because 1 John 2:16 says that everything in this world is made up of the craving of the sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does. All of these things do not come from God; they come from the world. This world is controlled by Satan, the devil, and his authority. Every single person is under that control, so we live following our physical greed. Because we have a physical body, we follow our physical greed, and then we follow after these invisible forces, and I follow whatever is pretty or handsome or beautiful in my eyes. Then, we follow the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, whatever would make me brag about myself. But all of these things are not from God; they are from the devil and the world. But how could anybody know this? All schools are educating us to live for this. If you ask a kid, “Why do you have to study?”, they say, “It’s because I have to make a physical living. It is so that I can buy all the good material things.” Then if you ask, “Why do you have to study?” It’s so you can brag about yourself later on. “Why do you have to run a business?” That’s how you can do whatever you want with all your power, and that’s how you can show off in front of everybody else. This is what it means to live for the glory of humans.
(3) Accept glory from one another – Cannot believe in Jesus (Jn. 5:44)
Jesus Christ says in John 5:44, “How can you believe in Jesus if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to receive the praise that comes from God?” Then, if I live for the glory of other people, will that be for my benefit? The Bible actually tells us, it causes us suffering.
3) Those in suffering
(1) Lovers of themselves more than God (2 Tim. 3:2)
(2) Lovers of money (2 Tim. 3:2)
(3) Lovers of pleasure (2 Tim. 3:4)
2 Tim. 3:1-2 says that there will be times of great suffering because people will love themselves, money, and pleasure more than they love the Word of God. Why is there so much suffering in America, mental suffering, physical suffering, family suffering, it’s because we love ourselves more than we love God; we live for our own glory and our own benefit. Then, we live our entire lives like that, and one day, if something is not the way we want, we say, “Oh, I got a scar,” is that really a scar, though? You only got that scar because things did work out to your benefit. The scar is just a result. So, the real cause of that is because you are living, centered on yourself, living for yourself, and if that is not a benefit to you, it becomes a scar or even a trauma. And then you live your life in fear, and then you point your finger at other people, saying “I got a scar because of that person.” That is what the devil does, the devil was a liar from the beginning.
Humans are born in a state that does not believe in Jesus. What is that state that doesn’t believe in Jesus or God? We believe in ourselves, and “I live for myself, for my glory,” that is called, “Sin.” Even before the ethical acts of sin that you commit, there is an Original Sin that began from birth, of not believing in God. That Original Sin results in disasters, then instead of being held onto by God, you will be seized by Satan. In Gen. 3:4-5, Satan goes into the serpent and tells Adam and Eve to not listen to God’s Word, break their promise with Him, “And you become like God instead.” When Adam and Eve looked at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they should have thought about God and their covenant with Him, but instead, they thought about how it was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom.
That spiritual state has gone down your family line all the way down to you, from the moment you’re born. On top of that, your parents only educated you, saying, “Hey, if you want to live a financially comfortable life, you have to study hard, and if you want to live in society as an upright civilian, you cannot break laws.” Those words are correct but they don’t tell you one thing. Because the parents don’t know why their children are facing curses, disasters, and spiritual problems, they don’t say. The parents suffer from those problems themselves and they don’t know why, so they can’t tell their kids why. Those problems cannot be solved unless it is by the Christ. Religion is serving the devil, because you’re worshiping evil spirits. Without the Christ, we could never escape from the authority of Satan, sin, and hell. But even among people who believe in Jesus, if you live for your own glory instead of the glory of God, that’s why we suffer, that’s why we get lost in addiction. This problem is not solved just because you come to church, this problem can only be solved as the Word of Jesus Christ is testified.
Tens of thousands of churches in America are closing, and continuously, tens of thousands will close down. God is the One Who raises up churches and closes them down. The churches need to testify to America why we must believe in only Jesus Christ, but they’re unable to do that. Instead, the churches are giving messages to gain glory and praise from people, that’s why God is getting rid of them. Yes, by God’s grace, they believe in Jesus Christ and received salvation, but the goal of their life is for their own glory. So even though they believe in Jesus Christ, they still suffer, and they cannot escape from the scars of their past, and they cannot solve the present problems, either. The problems should become irrelevant to us, but instead, we’re afraid of them, and that comes to us as mental problems. In America, every 1 in 3 people gets mental counseling, why is that? It’s because people love themselves more than they love Christ.
What is the reason you are sitting here in worship today? If it is for your physical safety or for your children’s success, or because you want your business to do well, you are living for your glory. All of those things will naturally follow if you just seek God’s glory. I hope that everyone here without exception will be giving worship here for the glory of Jesus, and may that grace of God be upon you. Otherwise, the suffering will never leave. Even though Israel believed in God, they kept on suffering, and even their children are dying in wars. Their husbands are beaten and taken as slaves. The women had to be taken captive by the men of Assyria, and have children with them. Nowadays, there’s many people who get married between races, and we should do that for the sake of world evangelization, but back then, the Israelites never married outside their race. Then, the Israelite king had both of his eyeballs plucked out and was dragged along by a horse for miles, and then there was such a great war that all of the houses and everything they worked so hard to build up was burnt up. That’s the result of our faith. They did not believe it. They lived for themselves, and whenever that happens, the result is disastrous. There is a very simple way to save yourself, your family, and your region. From the moment you live for the glory of Jesus Christ, God changes everything, and the correct church is the one that raises up the correct people with the correct faith.
God will continue to bless and revive that church, and God will make them continuously proclaim the gospel, and I believe God has called each one of you because that’s who you are. Amen? Do you not want to do that? Do you want to suffer? Would you like it if your multiple next generations would also suffer, too? I’m pretty sure for the people who have a very strong ego, they’re thinking right now, “That’s not going to happen to me,” and that would be fine if you were God, but you can’t even control your own diseases, and if somebody says something to hurt their pride, you can’t even handle that, and if you lose your job right now, you can’t even handle it because of your anxiety. But you’re so bold, saying, “That’s never going to happen to me”? That’s you being deceived by lies. It’s only possible when God becomes the bartizan inside of me. When God becomes my watchtower, my fortress, my refuge, it’s okay. If you rely on yourself, though, without a doubt, the devil will break you down. Relying on yourself and thinking too highly of yourself is sin, and that results in disaster. We don’t face disasters because we don’t live diligently enough; it is because we do not believe in God.
Paul did very well in the past, he was so successful. But after he received the gospel, he said, “Everything I considered gain to me in the past, I now consider rubbish,” why? For the sake of gaining Christ. That gospel must come into us. May the gospel that Apostle Paul confessed become your and my gospel today. Are there any of you who are still holding onto your success even now? Or, are there any of you who are holding onto your pain and suffering from the past even now? That person, even if they have received salvation by God’s grace, they don’t know the gospel; you need to consider those things rubbish, why? Because Christ is everything. I want to be discovered within Christ, and we must discover everything within Christ. But as soon as you close your eyes, you’re fantasizing about all the success you had in the past? Then you’re not holding onto the gospel yet. And as soon as you close your eyes, you think about all the pain and suffering you endured and the person who ruined your life? Then you’re still not holding onto the gospel. So how should we hold onto the gospel? We must hold onto it as our “only” we must hold onto “only” the gospel. But there are people who hold onto Jesus Christ and “my money,” Jesus Christ and “my personality,” Jesus Christ “my success,” and that’s why they suffer.
3. God’s glory
1) Only Christ – Gospel
Paul said, “Only Christ,” and who knows that? The devil does; the devil has no space to work. That’s what we were called for. God called you and me to give us that blessing. We must testify of Only Christ to America. Are there any of you who have been going to church for a very long time but something isn’t working out? You’ve tried choir, you’ve tried evangelizing, you’ve tried serving in different ways, but if it’s not “Only Christ” in your heart, the curses and disasters will not be broken down. That’s why you must believe in this as your “only,” because everything else is contained within Him. The book of Romans says that everything that exists in creation was created by Him, through Him, and for Him. There were some political documents Abraham Lincoln used in his speech, “By the people, for the people,” but I think he got that from the Bible because the Bible tells us that everything was created through Christ, by Christ, and for Christ, everything exists for His glory, and that’s why you must believe in that Christ as the only God in order for the forces of darkness to flee. The Bible is telling us to believe in only that Christ.
(1) Background of sin, curses, Satan, hell – Finished (Jn. 19:30)
(2) Those who live by faith (Rom. 1:17)
Romans 1:17 says that the righteous will live by faith in the gospel. If you look at the book of Romans, it was a gathering of people who believed in Jesus, and Apostle Paul said, “I desire to visit you,” and he said, “The reason I want to visit you is to give you the gospel.” But they already believe in Jesus, so why does Paul have to give them the gospel again? It is so that they may be strengthened in the gospel.
(3) Triune God – With
In our terms, so that they could be changed to live for only Christ, because only through Christ is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit with us, and that Triune God must be within me as my bartizan. He must be my fortress. No matter what disease, what difficulty, what attacks of Satan cannot overcome God. If God’s Word of His covenant is firmly rooted in my heart, there’s nothing that can overtake it. Through the church of Rome, the gospel must be testified to the ends of the earth, and Paul wrote, “I desire to visit you to give you that gospel.”
2) Only God’s kingdom
(1) Mission (Ac. 1:3)
For the people who had received “only Christ,” Then they received the mission of “only God’s Kingdom.” The Church is the Kingdom of God; we are the body and Christ is the head, and God is reigning over all the people by giving the Word of Christ. So, why does the Church exist? Jesus says, “You are the Light of the world,” that means the Church exists as the light of the world. The church must have the mission to save the people who are lost and dying in the Kingdom of Satan under curses, disasters, and darkness, and bring them into the kingdom of light.
(2) First seek his kingdom (Mt. 6:33)
Only for the people who come into Christ will they receive the mission of the Kingdom of Christ. “First seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness.” The reason your walk of faith is not working very well is because your order has changed. If you change your priorities, your life will naturally take place. We have our life experiences, but the more we prioritize our physical life, the more it will be to our loss. Let’s say in the morning, you’re so busy, you put your clothes on backwards. I know you rushed in the morning, but now you have to take more time to change back, isn’t that right? Something for the spiritual things, even if it takes longer, you must do it correctly, and no matter how loving you’ve believed, if your priorities are incorrect, then the longer you’ve believed, the more it’s to your loss. The reason and mission I’m living in America is to establish the Kingdom of Christ here, but if I’m living for the physical world, then I suffer. But if you live for the Kingdom of God, everything you need will be given to you as well. Everything you need for the Kingdom of God, God will give to you: the economy of light, the economy of missions, and the economy of the remnants.
(3) Works of the world will follow
This morning, I got a phone call from our missionary in Peru who said that his support from Korea got cut off, and I said, “We can support you, because there is a separate economy just for missions. Why do you give your tithe to the church? It’s to save the church, and God already prepared that economy and then calls you towards it. As long as we first seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. There is a separate economy for the next generations. If I devote myself to posterity or the next generation, there is a separate economy God has prepared for that. Therefore, first seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. For all of our future generations, God has given us this talent for this purpose, and you must discover your God given talent while you’re in high school, because God is the One Who gave it to you, you can discover your talent through worship, through the Word of God, and prayer, then you take your talent given to you by God, and you make it into your specialization in college. That’s why we study our specialization and major in college, and if you need to, you can even go to grad school. Because your talent and specialization is given to you by God, no one else can compete.
When I was in Korea, there was a student who was trying so hard to be studious, but from the moment they were born, they had a beautiful voice. Most people have to take classes and practice in order to improve their voice, but this person had a beautiful voice since birth. They were a soprano, and everyone wondered, “How can her voice sound like that?” That’s what you call a talent, and then you take that talent and then you build and develop it into your specialization and expertise. We’re going into the age of AI, and if you don’t discover your talent, you can’t even make a living. Nowadays, even interpreters are being replaced by AI. Now, the workforce is being replaced by AI because AI doesn’t complain or protest. Robots are not going to unionize and ask for benefits, you just have to plug it in and it does the work. But for humans, if you treat them well, they’ll ask for more, so people are saying, “Instead of dealing with that headache, I’d rather use robots,” then everything you’ve studied until now, you become unemployed.
However, if you discover the talent and specialization that God has given you in order to change the kingdom of the world into the Kingdom of God, then because God has to save the field, he has to give you answers. Regardless of what age we’re in, after AI, there’s going to be even more intense ages, and God must guide us through those.
3) Only Holy Spirit
(1) Filling, Works (Ac. 2:1)
We cannot establish God’s Kingdom with our own strength. I must be through prayer, only by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God, the Spirit of God must work for the forces of darkness to flee. People can be demon-possessed. There’s a difference between having a demon dwelling inside of you, vs. being possessed by a demon. Just like the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you and filling you. It’s the difference between being a drug user and a drug addict. If kids are seized by games, they’re addicted to games, and those kinds of addictions bring so much pain to people, but if we’re seized by the Holy Spirit of God, then He gives us power.
(2) Power (Ac. 1:8)
What kind of power? The power to overcome the world. The power to overcome diseases, The power to overcome our fear of the future and the unknown. No matter how many difficulties we face, God gives us the power to overcome them. We’re afraid of losing a lot of money, right? Or we’re afraid of losing our health, right? The issue is not whether those problems come or don’t come, but if you have the power, it doesn’t matter and it doesn’t affect you. If you get completely drunk, then people even wander around naked in the winter. The winter is so cold but they take off their clothes and run around, what does this mean? It means it doesn’t really have to do with the cold. If someone is high on drugs, then all of their fears and worries of the world will not matter to them anymore. But the problem is, once the high wears off, the fear actually comes back, and actually, it gets worse and then you have to take more and more drugs, but the filling of the Holy Spirit is free.
For the people who have faith in this, you can receive the filling of the Holy Spirit even now. Why? Because I have to save the world, but I don’t have the strength to do that, so, “God, fill me with Your power.” Then, once we receive that power, we’ll have the power to save the region of Hollywood, we will have the power to do Temple Construction. The Temple Construction requires money, so that means you’ll get financial power as well, that’s why we need to only pray, and only the Holy Spirit, only Christ, only the Kingdom of God, only the Holy Spirit. It is finished with that. Everything else, let’s say somebody is saying something very strange, it’s because they’re afflicted, it’s because they haven’t organized it yet. You know how when people get mental illnesses, they sometimes get surgery, and they’re very confused because they’re in a state of darkness, emptiness, and chaos. If somebody gets very drunk, have you ever noticed they say the same thing, again and again and again? They might think they are saying something new, but everyone’s heard it. When does that end? Only when they pass out; before that point, everybody around them is suffering, and their kids are suffering more. What happens if you grow up listening to that? Then those kids will grow up and get drunk, and they’ll say the same thing again and again too. Because they’ve never heard from their parents what “Only Christ” means, what “Only the Kingdom of God” means, and what “Only the filling of the Holy Spirit” means. And that is why there are so many generations with the same problem.
(3) Witness (Ac. 1:8)
Lastly, you need to analyze your region, spiritually. If you don’t know the spiritual world, you’ll live blindly. If there’s an area that is very dense with homosexual or LGBTQ people, what does that mean spiritually? It means spiritually, there are evil spirits that are affecting people’s thoughts and emotions so that they oppose God, and Satan continuously works upon their thoughts and emotions, the people they meet, so they keep doing that and they oppose God. These things don’t happen for no reason. The evil spirits in that region are working in that way. That is why, in your region, gather with 2-3 people and pray for the Kingdom of Christ to be established there.
In Persia, Daniel was praying and it says in the Bible that the evil spirits of the region were blocking the answers from coming to him. There is an evil spirit holding onto Persia, it means that there’s a spiritual entity, a spiritual force that is connecting all of Persia and the entire world. And it says that when Daniel was praying, the evil spirits were blocking the answers to his prayers. So, then Michael, the Archangel of war, came, fought the battle, and won, and that’s why it took twenty days for the answer to come from God to Daniel. Then, later on in the Bible, it says the age changed into the age of Persia into the next superpower, and that there was another group of spiritual organization of evil spirits from them. So, in this world, we can see there is a shift in power in ages, but this is not happening for no reason, there is an evil spirit that is controlling; there are the rulers of the kingdom of the air that are controlling America, and they are holding onto you through your family line and through your region. If that kingdom of Satan is not broken down, things will begin to happen by their influence, and the forces of darkness are only bound, only in the name of Christ.
When you’re in your job, when you’re in your region, when you work for the Kingdom of Christ, that is when the kingdom of Satan begins to break down, and it’s only possible by the working of the Holy Spirit. If you’re just halfheartedly holding onto Christ, then you’re already being influenced by the evil spirits in your family line and your region. If there’s a region with many diseased people, then there will be many more diseases. The physical reality is based on the spiritual reality and if you don’t know about the spiritual world, you’re bound to live for the physical things. But for the people whose spiritual eyes are opened, they’re bound to do “Only.”
Conclusion
1. Love only Christ
2. Love only the works of the kingdom of God
3. Love only the guidance and works of the Holy Spirit
In conclusion, living for the glory of God is how we love God. So, what is the glory of God? When we hold onto “only Christ,” when we live holding onto the mission of “Only God’s Kingdom, only by the Holy Spirit,” and that’s how you love the Triune God and give Him glory. Then I believe the biblical answer will be given to you as a promise, and may you live for the glory of God throughout the week.
Message Prayer
Let us pray together holding onto the Word that God has given us.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Blessing
God, we thank You. We have returned Your materials as offering. May the church be saved through my tithe. May You give the answer of the economy of light to those who have given the offering. We believe You will work upon our missions offering with the economy of missions that will save the entire world. May my offering be used for the next generation. We pray You will bless us so that in this age, when the future generations are dying out, You will give us the blessing of the economy of light to save the entire nation. We pray that upon the offering that we have given in faith that the works of God, transcending time and space will take place. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
Announcements
1. Online zoom early morning prayer (Mon.-Fri. 5:30, Sat. 6AM) – Raise the bartizan of prayer
2. Hollywood camp – Temple
3. 12/24 (Tuesday, 6:00 pm) Christmas Eve Event
4. 12/25 (Wednesday, 10:30 am) Christmas Service
5. Leader’s retreat (12/23 on Zoom), West Coast Winter Retreat (12/26-12/28)
6. Offering can be given to the church venmo: @Antiochmissionchurch
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, guidance, working, and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be upon the heads of all the people of God, the people of all nations, and the remnants who desire to live for only the Kingdom and the glory of God, be with them from now until forevermore always, amen.