Solution to Family Problems – Jesus Christ (Mt. 19:1-12)
Let us bless and greet one another, “Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.” May you receive the unprecedented blessing of the answer through today’s Word. God is working with His Word. God is not visible to the eyes, but God works upon us and guides us with His accurate Word. But Satan prevents you from listening to and understanding God’s Word, and if you lose that lifeline, then all problems will begin.
1. Pharisees’ test
1) According to the Word
The scripture that we read in Mt. 19, talks about Jesus Christ when He begins to talk about His death and resurrection on the cross, and He moves from Galilee into the region of Judea. In about one month’s time, Jesus Christ will die on the cross for all of mankind’s sin, and resurrect. When He came to earth, He came with a specific goal, and He moves according to that goal. We also move our life with a goal, too, and if our goal is aligned with Jesus Christ, then we will see the answer of God working in our life. The problem of the world is not being aligned with Jesus Christ, and everybody is living very diligent lives. Even right now, Jesus Christ is alive, He is living with us, and He is fulfilling His goal.
(1) To make Him fall
During this time, the Pharisees came to test Him, in other words, they were questioning Him to make Him stumble. The devil will always use the Word of God to make people stumble. So, the reason the Pharisees failed was because they used the Word of God, but they used it as a method to make other people stumble and to elevate themselves. But that is the spirit of Satan, so instead of using the Word of God to testify that Jesus is the Christ, they used the Word of God to testify, “I am right.” So, the problem inside of the church is that we use the Word of God to testify, “I am right,” that is the method through which Satan works.
(2) Difficult subject to address
(3) Divorce wife for any reason – Lawful? (Mt. 19:3)
The issue that the Pharisees attacked Jesus Christ with, in hopes that He would stumble, is an issue that is very prevalent in America today; it is the issue of divorce. They asked Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” and the reason they were asking Jesus this question was to make Him fall or to trap Him somehow. There may be some of you who listen to this and feel uncomfortable when talking about divorce. There are many things that happen today, but I hope that you will listen to the Word of God carefully until the end because we’re not talking about the issue of divorce today; we are talking about the fundamental problem today.
2) Problem of divorce – At that time
(1) Herod the Tetrarch (Mt. 14:3)
(2) Married his younger sibling’s wife (Mt. 14:3)
(3) John the Baptist pointed it out – Outside of the law (Lev. 18:16) – Death (Mt. 14:10)
The reason why this was a sensitive issue during the biblical time was because Herod the tetrarch divorced his own wife in order to marry the wife of his younger brother, and Lev. 18:16 says, “Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother,” and John the Baptist pointed out Herod the Tetrach’s sin, and he was beheaded for that. So right now, the Pharisees are asking this loaded question that is both political and religious so that Jesus Christ could not escape in any way. Because if Jesus Christ answers as John the Baptist did, the King would not let Him live, so either way, they are trying to kill Jesus.
3) Jesus’ response
Jesus Christ does not answer the question directly, but He always gives us the answer from God’s Word, addressing the fundamental things.
(1) Leave parents and become one flesh (Mt. 19:5)
(2) God joins together (Mt. 19:6)
(3) Let no one separate (Mt. 19:6)
He said, “In the beginning, the Creator made man and wife marry to become one flesh. ‘Man will leave his father and mother to become one flesh, and no one shall separate what God has joined together.’” These people are trying to attack Jesus to say something, but He always answers with the Word of God.
2. Jesus’s Fundamental Solution
If we are caught in a problem of the world, we keep trying to resolve that problem, but God is giving you the fundamental answer to the problem. The church is the place that testifies God’s Word. You can only give the answer to the problems of the world through the Church and the words of the Bible. No politician can solve problems. All of the problems of America, like the mass shootings, the problems in the family and with society cannot be solved by any politician. The reason they cannot solve these problems like drug use is because they do not know the fundamental cause of the problems.
In today’s scripture, it’s the same. Instead of talking about the issue of divorce, specifically, He says, “Fundamentally, man and wife become one body, and no matter what the reason is, they cannot separate.” That’s the answer, but we don’t have the ability to keep that because everybody is a sinner and we’re separated from God, and from that moment, we’ve lost the ability to follow God’s Word. The reason Jesus Christ is saying these words is to say, “I have come to Earth to solve that fundamental problem.”
1) Moses’s Law
(1) A man finds something indecent about his wife (Deut. 24:1)
(2) Writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house (Deut.
24:1)
(3) She becomes the wife of another man (Deut. 24:2)
In response to what Jesus said, the Pharisees asked, using the scripture from Deut. 24:1-2, “Why then did Moses command that the man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” More so than holding onto God’s Word, the Pharisees are holding onto the law of Moses. These Pharisees were holding onto the law of God without knowing the reason why God gave them the law, and then they used that text to kill Jesus.
2) Jesus’s response
(1) Permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard (Mt. 19:8)
To this, Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard.” In the book of Deuteronomy, it says when a person is able to get a divorce, that is, when your spouse does an indecent act. So, it is permitted by law that they are able to give a certificate of divorce and get remarried. But when the Pharisees were interpreting what this “indecent act” means, there were two ways the people interpreted it. The first way people interpreted indecency is if they had an affair or a sexually immoral act, then that is indecency and grounds for divorce.
(2) Measures to protect one’s wife
Another party would interpret this by saying, “Any kind of act that the wife does that would cause the man humiliation is indecent, and is therefore grounds for divorce.” Because back in the biblical times, it was a patriarchal society, women were often at a loss. When they get married, they don’t get married after dating as we do in today’s society, but it would often be arranged by the parents, so sometimes they would not even see their spouse until the day they get married. And when they got married, their spouse could be diseased, or they could meet their spouse, and think, “They’re just not my type, and as we live together, there’s such a big difference in our standard of living.” They would misinterpret and misuse this law by saying, “I’m a very high level individual and you’re causing me humiliation, that’s indecent, and therefore, I will divorce you,” and if they do not allow that to happen, the wife will continuously suffer in that household.
(3) Divorce is permitted for sexual immorality (Mt. 19:9)
In another situation, if a man wants to get rid of his own wife and marry another woman, then he has to create some situation in which she is being indecent in order to divorce her. Let’s say, for example, he would invite his friend over, and also his wife, and he himself was not in the house, and then later on, he would say, “She was in my house with another man without me present, and that is indecent to me,” and he would cast her out of the house. They would misuse the law in such a wicked and evil way, and in order to prevent that from happening, the Divorce Certificate was permitted. In the Jewish society, if somebody was caught in an adulterous act, they would be immediately stoned to death. That’s still the case in Islamic societies. If you receive the Divorce Certificate, then the person is able to get remarried.
There are many people who are questioning the issue of divorce, whether this is right or this is wrong, but they’re not able to discover the real reason or the real problem. They keep arguing about the issue, “The Bible told us not to do this; the Bible told us to do that,” and I’ll explain that during the last point today.
3) Jesus and Disciples
(1) It is better not to marry (Mt. 19:10)
When the disciples heard Jesus say this, the disciples responded, “If this is the situation between a husband and a wife, it is better not to marry.”
(2) Born as eunuchs (Mt. 19:12)
Regarding that, Jesus explained three different kinds of eunuchs, who are people who are not sexually capable, who have lost that ability. There are eunuchs who are born that way.
(3) Made eunuchs by others (Mt. 19:12)
There are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, meaning they were not born as eunuchs, but they would have their reproductive organs removed in order to, for example, serve the queen in the royal palace.
(4) Those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 19:12)
There are those who were not born as eunuchs but choose to live like eunuchs without getting married for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus Christ Himself did that, too. So, the Pharisees are asking this issue to Jesus, and He is giving them the fundamental answer through the Word of God, and now we have to look theologically to specifically confirm that answer.
3. Husband and wife – Christ and church
It might seem like we’re talking about a man and his wife, but it is actually talking about the image of the Church. This means that if you’re correctly able to receive God’s Word in the church and follow that, then not only will your family be saved, but society and the whole nation will come to life.
1) Original man
(1) God’s image – Blessed, Subdue, Rule over (Gen. 1:27-28)
Humans were originally created in God’s image and blessed to increase in number, rule over, and subdue the earth. “God’s image” means that humans were created so that God may reveal Himself through His image, that’s why He created us in His image. God’s glory is revealed only through mankind. The Word of God is revealed through mankind. So, then God’s plan is revealed through mankind. The fact that we were created in God’s image means that God’s power is revealed through us, and God also gave us the freedom of choice so that we could choose that or not.
(2) Satan’s temptation – Become like God (Gen. 3:5)
Humans were created in God’s image, created to live by God’s will for God’s will, and that’s the reason why God made the family with a woman and a man as well, but there’s an issue that began. Satan, who is invisible, comes into the family and tells us, “If you eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will be like God and you can judge what is right and wrong.” The image of God can never be God, but the devil tempts us by saying, “Don’t live as God’s image; live as God.”
Because that message is put into us, we keep on thinking like that. When Satan puts a message into you, you keep getting obsessed with that. Instead of concentrating on the covenant God gives you, you obsess over the message Satan gives you, why is that? As soon as we’re separated from the covenant of God, we’re obsessed and it goes to the point of addiction.
After they received that message, the way they saw everything changed; they saw the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and saw that it was pleasing to the eye, good for food, and desirable for gaining wisdom. They followed that because it was pleasing to the eye, and we keep drinking alcohol because we crave it. That’s why we continue to do drugs. In reality, the issue is not the alcohol or the drugs; it is Satan who is invisibly making us think like that because we think, “If I get that, then things will be okay.” The issue is not the substance or gambling; gambling is something we may enjoy, but we’re not satisfied with that. From that point, all problems began. Once we were separated from the spirit of God, we were in a state of spiritual death. Now, we act like we’re our own god, but we are being dragged around by Satan.
The first problem that comes to us is fear. We are not afraid because there’s something to be afraid of, but we’re just in a state of fear. In America, there are so many mental issues, but it’s actually a problem of fear. There is nothing for us to rely on or trust in, so we’re anxious and fearful, and in order to overcome our fear, we work so hard and diligently.
The next thing that came was their shame, we’re embarrassed. Before they were separated from God, they were naked and had no shame. After they were separated from God, they were ashamed of their nakedness. If somebody is within God’s Word, they become bold, but without that, we have such an inferiority complex that we have to package our exterior form; we have to make ourselves up very strongly. I’m not saying that wearing strong make-up is an issue, that’s just one example. You can wear strong make-up for the gospel. But what I’m saying is, the things we do are to hide our own shame. Even with a face like mine, I can live boldly; there’s no reason for me to get a nose job. My eyes are really slanted upward; there is no reason for me to lower my eyes, why is that? Because I’m confident in God’s Word. These things are not an issue for me.
In the past, I kind of had a complex. My younger brother is much better looking than I am, and I was always being compared to him. “Oh, why don’t I look like my dad? Why do I look like my mom?” So I don’t look at my own strong points, I only look at my weak points. My daughter went to Korea and came back and said, “Wow, uncle was really good looking while he was young, what about you, Dad, why don’t you look good?” but that’s not an issue for me at all because there’s something I’m confident in. When I have that, nothing is an issue. There is no reason for us to be ashamed or embarrassed; we have boldness.
We keep on trying to package ourselves to look better, to cover our shame, with our eloquent words. Everybody has to say words, but if you’re talking just to cover yourself up, that’s such a hard life. I can use very high class, elevated words when I give messages, but there’s no reason for me to do that. Why do I need my eloquent words? I have to testify the Word of God. There’s no reason for me to come up in a white robe with all my doctoral degrees displayed as stripes on my arm. Even right now, I can go register and get another degree. I’m not saying the issue is whether that’s bad or right, but I don’t have to package myself like that. You need to be confident in something, then nothing will be a problem. Once that has come into me, nothing is really a problem. So, I’m standing as a witness of the evidence I’ve received: the strong points God has given to me, and the gospel that I could never purchase. I am somebody who lives with the gospel God has given to me for the plan of God, and God gave Abraham the blessing of being a source of blessings, and that is within me now. The source of blessings is inside of me? Then there’s no reason for me to worry about material possessions or worldly things.
(3) Family Problems (Gen. 3:12-13,16-17)
Once Adam and Eve were separated from God’s Spirit, God asked, “Where are you?” That was a spiritual question, asking, “You’re supposed to be within the covenant, but you’re outside of the covenant,” but Adam understood it physically, so he responded, “I was afraid, so I hid here behind this bush.” God is telling you the spiritual Word right now, but because your spirit is dead, you’re only looking at it physically. Jesus Christ said He finished all problems on the cross, but you’re thinking about it physically, so you say, “Oh, my family still has financial problems, though.” You’re not able to hear God’s Word; the moment you’re able to really hear God’s Word, everything is finished, but until you can actually hear those words, you have to keep on waiting, because that’s not something a person can teach you, the Holy Spirit must work. When this comes into you one day, nothing will be a problem for you because the real problem is you’re being like God, you are worried about this and afraid of this on your own.
Once that happened, the man and the wife began to blame each other, and that is the beginning of marital problems. “It was because of that woman,” “it was because of that serpent,” there was conflict and division within the family. When you separate from the covenant of God, we have no choice but to have family issues. Then, men received the punishment of laboring so intensely and suffering without the grace of God. Women received the curse of having and raising children physically, without the grace of God, and that has so much suffering and pain. After they had their children, their children actually killed each other. Because people are so afraid, they avoid people in society. Now, I look around and there are many people who avoid other people. It’s not that that person is bad, it’s that, inside of me, I have something that wants to avoid them. If I have the Word of God inside of me, then I would be able to see the blessing for which God has allowed me to meet this person, but instead I have my own standards in me, so I look at that person like a curse.
God created people to bless one another, and God gave you that meeting as a blessing, but I reject that because “I don’t like them, they don’t align with my standards.” You make your own decision saying, “That kind of person is going to make my life hard,” because you are your own god. Without a doubt, God is alive and is ruling over everything with His sovereignty, but you don’t believe that, so you have to avoid those people and end up being alone. You go all the way to mental illness.
What is the beginning of all these problems? God is living inside of you, but you are rejecting Him. Everything in creation is happening under God’s absolute sovereignty, but you reject that and you are your own god. “That person is right, that person is wrong,” you are sitting in the seat of God, judging what is right and what is wrong. People become so lonely that they make music and instruments to placate their loneliness.
2) Solution – Offspring of woman (Gen. 3:15)
In order to solve all of these problems, God promised in Gen. 3:15, the offspring of the woman, as our solution. In Genesis, there was a man and a woman who became one flesh, but because of their sin to God, it’s impossible for them to become one. Everybody is their own god, so it’s impossible for them to become one. At first, they caught your eye and you began to love them, but after you start living together, you think, “Oh, they’re making my life so hard.” The person is not the one who is making your life hard, but inside of you, you are each your own god with your own standards, and that is the problem.
(1) Jesus Christ – It is finished (Jn. 19:30)
That’s why God said, “I will send the offspring of the woman, Jesus Christ,” to crush the head of Satan, and Jesus Christ said on the cross, “It is finished.” One day, when this message really goes into you, you will be set free. All problems have been finished at once on the cross. Financial problems are not the problem; your thoughts are the problem. Even right now, God can do this, it’s only an issue because you’re living a life that is disconnected from God. God is the One Who has the power in His hands to make someone great or weak, wealthy or successful, or not. The issue is, you do not believe in that God; you are only looking at yourself, and that is where all problems have already begun.
So, today, the Pharisees are attacking Jesus, talking about whether this issue is right or wrong, but God is giving you the answer in His Word about the fundamental thing. If the Lord is with you, what could be a problem? If you align yourself to the Lord’s plan, then you will receive those answers. But instead of that, you hang onto your own stubbornness. That’s you being your own god, and that causes more problems in your life.
(2) Me – Death, Jesus – Within me (Gal. 2:20)
Gal. 2:20 says that, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” and now I am living with that faith. We know this Bible verse, but we don’t really believe it, then it’s nothing; I’m still relentlessly my own god because you don’t really believe in the cross. You know the cross but it’s not related to your faith. You know Jesus died on the cross, you know that He resurrected as well, and you believe in that, but you don’t want to die on the cross. That’s the problem in churches today.
“I don’t want to die; Lord, You can die by Yourself.” That was the disciples, they wanted to follow Jesus, but they didn’t want to die themselves, but with that, works do not take place. After Jesus Christ resurrected, they really confirmed for themselves, “Wow, He really is the Christ, He is the Messiah,” then they really began to reject themselves. From that point on, even as Peter was standing in the court of law, facing a sentence of death, it was not an issue for him.
The Church is the place that gives the answer to the problems of the world. We give our answers to the fundamental problems of the world. That’s something that scholars, politicians, presidents, doctors cannot do. This is something that only the Bible, only the Church can do. That’s why the Church must be a place that continuously testifies of the gospel of Christ. If I have died on the cross with Christ, it means that I am denying myself. “Christ, being my Lord within me,” now the spouses can become one because my spouse is me. If I get mad at them, then I’m getting mad at myself. Men begin to mature after they get married. At first, they get married, not knowing anything, thinking they can do whatever they want, and it ends up damaging themselves. There are men who get married thinking, “Now that I have a wife, they will do all my cooking and cleaning,” but they just get punched really badly. Then there’s women who think, “Now that I have a husband, I’ll be taken care of for the rest of my life because he has a good job,” and she gets hit in the face.
Because you’re trying to use the other person to satisfy your own needs, that ends up hurting you. You must each become one, you must become one together. If you talk bad about your spouse, you’re talking bad about yourself, that is the family and the Church. If you cannot live your walk of faith in the Church, you cannot live your family life, either, and if you cannot live your family life, you cannot live your social life. People who don’t know this will look down on the Church. “I could go to church, but I don’t have to go,” they think of it so lightly, but the absolute answer to all of life is only in the Bible.
(3) Filling of the Holy Spirit – Power – Witness (Ac. 1:8)
Today, it seems like we’re talking about family, divorce, and marriage, but really, it is talking about the individual, fundamental problem. We must pray for the Holy Spirit of Christ within us to completely fill us. Our thoughts are alive, we have disbelief, but we cannot have that, so we need to pray for the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ to completely fill and control me. If you’re not able to understand this, think about someone who is very drunk or intoxicated, they gain incredible strength, because they lose their rationality and they have that strength; that is the power of alcohol. If somebody has taken enough drugs, then they get this extraordinary power. If somebody is addicted to gambling, then even on the way driving to gamble, they are overflowing with strength and joy, but those are addictions that will destroy you.
But if you receive the filling of the Holy Spirit, you will be filled with true joy, you will be filled with the peace of Christ. When you’re filled with the peace and the joy of Jesus Christ, the sadness and depression inside of you will go away. Your extreme emotions and bipolar disorder will go away when you are filled with Christ. When the environment or circumstance you’re in is so difficult, when Christ fills you, none of it is a problem. And the Holy Spirit teaches you and reminds you of the Word of Jesus Christ.
Once you truly receive this answer for yourself, you will live the life of a disciple who can share this answer with the rest of the world. The people in the field are wandering because they’re not able to find the answer. People are arguing, who’s right and who’s wrong, but they’re not able to find the fundamental source of the problem. The future generations are dying away, but this cannot be solved with education. The Church is the place that gives the answer to this problem, that’s the reason why you study. It doesn’t matter how well you do for yourself; you cannot even solve your own problems. You get married but you’re your own god, that’s the channel through which Satan works. You shouldn’t study for that, but you should do the studies that save you and the world. You shouldn’t run a business that just uses people for your own benefit or advantage, but you should use your business as a tool to help and save people. That is a business that God is with.
You guys might be lost in many different problems. Even though today’s scripture is talking about the problem of marriage and divorce, the answer is the same. The One Who has finished all problems on the cross is within me as Lord. I need to enjoy that, 24 hours a day. So, moment by moment, go into the filling of the Holy Spirit so that the Lord will reign over you. When? Right now, not when you go home, do it right now. The characteristic of really bad students is that they start studying the next day. It’s not tomorrow, it’s today, right now. Right now, may the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ fill and control the thoughts of my heart. The Holy Spirit is not far away, it is inside of you. Then you are okay. If you are okay, then your family is okay. The church is the place that must discover this answer and give the answer to the word, that’s the work that pleases God.
Then, why are we trying to build the church? The 237 nations of the world are wandering and struggling without this answer, and the church must give this answer. The people who used to look down on the church need to come to church, receive healing, be changed, and go out into the world to proclaim this gospel again, that’s what the Church does. Then, the Temple construction for that purpose delights God. We need to stake our lives on what pleases God; why would we stake our lives on something that does not please God?
There are a lot of elderly people who have retired and don’t know what to do with their life, and they’re so lonely they want to kill themselves, and the reason is because they have no hope or joy. But even as you get older, you can do the work that pleases God. Then, the older you get, the better it gets, actually. Everybody is so lonely and depressed because all their friends are gone and they’re so alone, but you have the joy and hope of Jesus Christ? Then you become a testimony and evangelist, and you leave behind the last masterpiece of your life for Temple construction for this work.
Why would we stake our lives on something useless? We need to stake our lives on what pleases God, then the Holy Spirit will give you joy. If the Holy Spirit gives you joy, then there will not be problems inside of me, and if somebody is full of joy, then even their cancer will go away. Whatever problem you’re holding onto right now, if you’re filled with true joy, it cannot bother you. But if you’re separated from the work that pleases God, then you cannot find your own happiness, no matter how hard you try. People are forced to find their own source of happiness, so they have no choice but to drink alcohol, but that’s not an answer. All it does is destroy your brain and destroy your family. I can only be joyful if I stake my life on Christ and the work that pleases Christ.
3) Family
(1) Husband – Head of the wife – Christ is the head of the church – Church, wife submits (Eph. 5:23-24)
(2) Husband – Love your wives – Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25)
(3) Love their wives – As their own body (Eph. 5:28)
Eph. 5, this scripture seems like it’s talking about the family, but it’s actually talking about the Church. Eph. 5 says that the husband is the head of the household just as Christ is the head of the family. Just as Christ is the head of the church, and the husband must love their wife as Christ loved the church, and the husband must love their wife as they love themselves, that is the way to solve their family problems. No matter what books you read, there is no answer. No matter what you try to do, there is no answer. “Oh, this person is not who I thought I was,” no, you saw correctly; you just didn’t know the fundamental problem of mankind.
(4) Wife – Must respect their husbands (Eph. 5:33)
Wives must respect their husbands, then you will be respected. For the husband, if you love your wife, then you will receive love. That is “one body.” But if you are separated from the law of God, then you are not with Christ, so you cannot be one body. “I am my own God, so of course I think I am the best, I only care about myself,” then we cannot be one. Only Christ Himself can be the Master of myself, my family, and the Church.
The conclusion of the Ten Commandments is to love God and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. The Church is the place that puts those words into practice. The Church is not a place you can use as a tool to make more money; the Church is the place to get fundamental joy in your life. The reason we believe in Jesus Christ is not for the goal of being successful; we go beyond success and we save people.
Then, the Church is the place where every single member of the church can put the words of God into practice. If this happens well within the members of the church, then your family will be restored, but if this doesn’t happen within the church, then your family will stay the same, then it’s going to be the same at your job. So, how important is the Church? God has called you to this exact seat to continuously give you these blessings. When I was a nonbeliever, I looked down on the Church. I wasn’t looking down on the building; I was mocking the people and the reason for that is because they could not influence others. They just used a part of their Sunday to go to church, and I wondered, “Why do they do that? They’re not able to influence the world at all,” because they could not receive influence in the church. In other words, they’ve never heard what the real problem of mankind is. Because they’ve never received the true answer to that and come to life themselves, they’re not able to go into society and influence others.
Especially for young adults who are about to get married, marriage is not the issue; you are the issue. If there is somebody who is causing you to have a hard time, that person is not the problem, you are the problem. The money is not the problem; you are the problem because you don’t believe in God. Every time you come to church, every time you worship, you must leave having restored this. You cannot exchange this for money; you will take much more money to treat your cancer. More so than hitting your head against a wall, wondering if you should break up or stay together, following God’s Word and finding His plan is better. But if people go to church and they don’t know what the real problem is, they’re going to relay that problem to their kids, and if you’re not able to receive the true answer in the church, you’re just living a religious life.
Conclusion
1. Save myself- Only Christ
I hope you and I will go into a state, without exception, where we can listen to the Word God is really trying to tell us. I’m not trying to save myself; nobody can save me; Christ must save me, and that is why, only Christ. There’s no way to save myself other than that. Money cannot save you; success cannot save you; your closest friend cannot save you; only Christ can save you.
2. Save family, church – God’s kingdom
Then your family will come to life and your church will come to life. Everybody can say society is rotten, but who will save it? Everybody can point out the problems in your job, but who is the one who can save that job? Everybody can point out the problems in the Church, but who will be the one who will save the Church? The Lord is the One Who will do that, but He does His work through the ones who believe.
3. Only Holy Spirit – A witness who saves
So only when the Holy Spirit comes upon you will you receive power and become a witness until the ends of the earth. We cannot do this with our own ability, so pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you completely. We’re talking about the family today, but the solution to that is also Jesus Christ. May you enjoy this blessing and testify of it to your fields.
Message Prayer
Let us pray holding onto the Word God has given to us individually and pray.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Blessing
God, we thank You. We thank you for saving us with the covenant, the Christ, and the gospel, in this age of disasters and darkness. We thank You for guiding us to be the ones to find the answer truly within the gospel of Jesus Christ, to give the answer to the problems in society, the Church, and our families. We believe You will bless with the economy of light the hands that have given this offering, to save the Church, the field, the families, and the region. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
God, we thank You. We pray that You will bless and guide these newcomers so that, exactly according to Your Word, they will be a blessing to save their family, society, and the Church through the gospel of Jesus Christ. 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. 8/17-19 LA College Retreat
3. 9/2 (Sat.) Boston Immanuel Church – Lecturer
4. 9/5-6 North America Business conference, college retreat
5. 9/30 (Sat.) LA Young Adult Retreat
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, working, guidance, and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the heads of the people of God, the people of all nations, and the remnants who desire for Jesus Christ, Who has finished all problems on the cross, to completely fill them with the Holy Spirit, and upon all of their businesses, studies, and ministries, be with them from now until forevermore always, amen.