Those Who Proclaim the Cross with a Reason (Mt. 27:27-44)

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God

Those Who Proclaim the Cross with a Reason (Mt. 27:27-44)

Speaker Pastor Dusun Park | Interpreter Tiffany Han

I think that the choir is world-class, and I believe we are also world-class. I believe that is the case because Christ is with us.  The title of today’s message is, “Those who Proclaim the Cross with a Reason.”  From today’s message, we should consider, what reason do I live with?  Our reason for life must be God’s reason, then God will be with us, working upon us.  In order to do that, we must know what kind of creation humans are.  We need to know what kind of creation we are in order to fix the broken parts.  There are many people who are suffering because of diseases.  Earlier, somebody texted me and asked for a prayer topic, somebody was riding their motorcycle and got into an accident, and their body was completely broken, being only able to breathe.  Because their entire body was broken, they are barely conscious and are only able to breathe.  

When God created mankind, God created us in His image.  This means that we were created so that the Triune God would live inside of us.  Then, our spirit and the Triune God will be in communion, and God will do His work through us.  Then, the work that God desires to do through me is to bless, become abundant and fruitful, rule over and subdue.  However, the problem is that Satan, who is still alive and working now, goes into the serpent and tells them, “You don’t need to follow God, you can be your own god, knowing good and evil,” and that is the beginning of all the problems that humans have.  Even if we are staying perfectly still, we are filled with fear. When the Triune God is with us, we are in a state of peace, but because we are separated from the Triune God, we are full of fear.

There are disputes between husband and wife, and we face suffering because of our finances.  It doesn’t matter how much money we have or don’t have; we suffer because of finances.  Even in the family, there was a brother who killed his own brother.  The beginning of every single problem is that we are separated from the Triune God.  So, God gave us one way, His Word of promise, which is, the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.  The “offspring of the woman” means, someone who is not born of a man and woman getting together, but instead, it is the person who is born of a virgin woman, and that would be the Messiah.  That being would be the One to overcome the authority of Satan.  That verse also says the offspring of Satan would strike the heel of the offspring of woman.  That is the death on the cross and the resurrection.  They killed the offspring of the woman, but that’s only striking the heel because He resurrected anyway.  

The Old Testament continues to repeat this covenant, that the Christ would come, through the prophets.  He will shed His blood on the cross and receive all the curses and disasters of our sin on our behalf, and then He will resurrect.  In the Old Testament, they used to sacrifice the blood of animals like lambs to symbolize the blood of Christ, but that Christ has now come.  What we read today in the scripture is that Jesus Christ, who was about to die on the cross.  

1. Cross without value

  1) How the world sees Jesus (Mt. 27:27)

    (1) Gathered the whole battalion before Jesus (Mt. 27:27)

After the governor sentenced Jesus Christ to crucifixion, all the soldiers of Rome took Jesus.  Back in those times, Rome was the superpower nation, much like America is today.  How did they see Jesus?  They thought He was nothing.  They were saying, “He says He is the King, but He is going to die.”  At this time in the Bible, the Roman Empire was controlling all of the world with their politics and their laws, but what they did not know is that humans are spiritual beings.  

    (2) World – Rule with power

    (3) A weak young man

The Romans thought that all they needed to do was set these laws to control the people, and then use their great power to pull resources from other nations, and then they would be okay, so they looked down on and laughed at Jesus.  

  2) Jesus being mocked

    (1) Scarlet robe, Crown of thorns, Staff (Mt. 27:28-29)

    (2) King of the Jews (Mt. 27:29)

The way they mocked Jesus Christ is the same way that people of the world mock Christians today. In Mt. 27:28, they stripped Him of His clothes and put a scarlet robe on Him, which symbolizes royalty. They were mocking Him saying, “You say You are the King of the Jews,” so they twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and gave Him a staff or a scepter.  They were mocking Him saying, “You have no strength; how dare you say You are a king?”  What do nonbelievers think of Jesus?  They think of Jesus as nothing.  They think that the fastest way is to get a lot of strength and to make a lot of money and succeed: “Why do I need Jesus?  Look at Jesus, He is weak and powerless, He is dying and not able to save Himself, how is He King?”

    (3) Spit on him and struck him on the head (Mt. 27:30)

So they spit on Him and struck Him on the head again and again, and this is how nonbelievers look at Christians today. 

  3) Leaders of religion

    (1) Son of God – Come down from the cross (Mt 27:40)

Then, how did the religious leaders of the Israelites and the Pharisees and the teachers think?  They said, “You Who are going to break down the Temple and rebuild it in three days, you say you are the son of God, so save yourself. If you are the Son of God, then you should have power.”  There are many people like that in the church, they are people who don’t know how important the cross is, and only look for the signs and miracles.  “If God is alive and I am His child, then He should work upon my life with power, but why don’t I have power?”  Are there any of you who are thinking like this?  If the Word of God goes into you correctly today, you will realize that this is power, that this is wisdom, but there are many people who go to church without knowing this.  Even the religious leaders back in those days were like that.  They just thought, “If I keep the Word of God well on my own and go to church, that’s faith,” they think that’s what Christianity is, but they don’t know the reason why Jesus must die.  

    (2) Saved others – Cannot save himself (Mt. 27:42)

A long time ago, I was evangelizing at Seoul National University in Korea, and there were people from the Unification Church who came to talk to me.  I was proclaiming the gospel to them, and they asked, “If Jesus Christ is God, then why is He shaking and trembling before just drinking some wine?”  They were doing the exact same thing as the political leaders of the Israelites back then, saying, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  They said, “He can save others, but He cannot save Himself.”  They don’t know the reason for the cross.  

    (3) Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe in him (Mt. 27:42)

Then they said, “Let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.”  It’s exactly as it says in the Bible, in 1 Corinthians, it says the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but Paul who was so smart, confessed that this cross is the greatest of all knowledge, and when you also believe that this is the surpassing, greatest knowledge, then you will be liberated.  People chase after the knowledge and the strength of Rome, the knowledge and the strength of America, but if you don’t know the message of the cross, then you will be in big trouble.  Even as people go to church, they are looking for signs and miracles, and they say, “Why don’t I have more power?”, but if they don’t know the true power of the cross, they will say nonsense words like that.

2. Cross with a reason

When Jesus Christ was being dragged to the cross, He looked so weak, but God called that, “wisdom.”  When Jesus Christ died so pitifully on the cross, He had no power, but actually, the cross is power.  Jesus Christ dying on the cross, that is the wisdom of God.  Jesus Christ resurrecting, that is power.  If you go to church, it means you understand what these words mean.  But if you don’t understand what these words mean, you will be just like the religious leaders of the Israelites, always looking for miracles, signs, and power.  Jesus Christ dying on the cross, resurrecting, and living in me as Lord, that is wisdom and that is power.  If you don’t understand this, you will always look after power and signs.

“Why am I always so poor? Why are my kids so powerless?  Why is my business so powerless?  Why am I always sick and weak?”  Those words are correct, but what does that person not enjoy?  They don’t know the true power of God.  If they come to realize the true power of God, then they are bound to speak of the cross and boast about that.  This is hidden.  If you just know this with your brain, you will not be able to discover the true value, it’s because people don’t know that humans are spiritual beings.  

For people who are physically sick or in suffering, or people who are in mental suffering, or people who go to hospitals but cannot get a diagnosis, listen carefully. Or if anybody is powerless or they’re not able to continue, they have no strength and they keep on falling no matter what they try, because you lack strength, you are powerless, and because you lack strength, you are not able to continue, and you can only know the reason why if you receive the wisdom of God, and you must receive the power of God.  Through Christ, the Triune God must come into me.  That is where God’s power must influence my thoughts, my spirit, even the cells in my body.  

But the people of the Roman Empire are trying to establish their kingdom with their strength and their knowledge.  There are people like that, people who succeed and do better than others with their own strength and power, but ultimately, the Roman Empire collapsed and that individual will also collapse. Why are they collapsing then? They collapse because they don’t have strength, they don’t have the power to maintain and continue that.  We must receive the spiritual power from God in order to continue, that is how you will not shake.  That is how you will overcome.  But Rome did not know that, and even the leaders of the Israelites did not know this.  They didn’t know this mystery and all they were looking for were the physical blessings and the physical answers, so even though they went to church, they were not aligned with God.  

  1) Simon from Cyrene (Mt. 28:32)

    (1) Carried the cross (Mt. 28:32)

These people see the cross as worthless, but Jesus Christ did not die on the cross for no reason; He had a reason. The crucifixion on the cross is one mode of execution, and they would keep the vertical pole in the ground the whole time, and the person who was being crucified needed to take the horizontal bar they would hang on, and carry it themselves.  Jesus Christ had no more strength, so He could not carry His cross up the hill, so they called another strong looking young adult named Simon from Cyrene to carry the cross.  Cyrene is an area in Africa, and back then, all of the Jewish people were scattered around the world because of the diaspora, so they gathered at the Jerusalem Temple three times a year, during the feast of the Passover, the Pentecost, and Ingathering.  Because that takes so much money for the Jewish people to travel all over the world to gather in the Jerusalem Temple, and they had to find lodging and food to stay there, they changed the law to only visit the Temple once a year.  

    (2) Father of Alexander and Rufus (Mk. 15:21)

All of the Jews around the world were crowding around the Jerusalem Temple for the feast of the Passover, and that’s when they found Simon, a young adult from Cyrene, a region from Africa, to carry the cross.  Mk. 15:21 says that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

    (3) Rufus and his mother – Became Jesus’ disciples (Rom. 16:13)

Later on, in Romans 16:13, those sons are complete, absolute disciples, and they are carrying out the evangelism movement.  It says here, “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother,” that is, Simon’s wife.  

  2) Criminal on the right side of the cross (Lk. 23:40)

    (1) Jesus – God (Lk. 23:40)

    (2) Remember me (Lk. 23:42)

    (3) Saved (Lk. 23:43)

In Luke 23, there are two criminals who are being crucified with Jesus on His left and right, and one of them receives salvation.  There is one criminal who was rebuking Jesus Christ on the cross, and the other criminal believes in Jesus, and that is the one who was saved, so even in the midst of crucifixion, Jesus Christ was doing His ministry of salvation.

  3) Finished all humankind’s problem (Jn. 19:30)

Later on, in John 19:30, when Jesus Christ dies, He says, “It is finished.” Everything in the Old Testament has been fulfilled by God.  The feast, the Tabernacle, the holy place, it’s all representing Jesus Christ, the sabbath day represents the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ, but if people don’t know this fact, they always argue whether the Sabbath is on Saturday or Sunday, but really, “Sabbath” is 365 days a year. The body of Jesus Christ is the Temple, and He resides within us, and that’s why we are the Temple, and everything in the Old Testament is talking about Jesus Christ, and everything has been finished.  Don’t talk to people who talk about the feasts. We talk about the feasts only to talk about Jesus.  Now, Jesus has come to earth and fulfilled everything in reality on the cross. In other words, on the cross, He has finished all the problems of human sin, Satan, and separation.  The Jewish people and the Romans did not know this.  That’s why they were laughing and looking down on the cross of Jesus.  It’s just like the people who go to church today but all they talk about are physical things and strength. It’s not right at all, God is talking about the spiritual things. May your spirit get along well first.  If your spirit is dead right now or if your spirit has no strength, it doesn’t matter what kind of physical strength or blessings you crave. “May all go well as your spirit gets along well, and may your health be well,” this is talking about the order.  This is not talking about blessings, it’s talking about the order, the order is spirit, soul, and then body. 

Why are over 6,000 churches in America closing down? It’s because they’ve become a religion, it is because they seek the physical things.  So, people have these spiritual problems but they’re not able to get diagnosed or healed from the hospitals.  There is an invisible spiritual problem that people have, and doctors cannot know it. Even the doctors themselves have spiritual problems, and they cannot heal themselves, and that is why our thoughts and our heart are also diseased.  People have suicidal thoughts for no reason. Or, there’s nothing that’s depressing, but they’re depressed.  Or even if they’re staying still, they are overcome with panic attacks. It’s because of a disease, and we take medication for that, and if we take medication, then it can regulate the hormones in our body as we may become a little more normal, so the pills may be able to regulate your hormones, but if the spiritual problem is not fundamentally healed, then the problem will repeat and will lead to destruction.  If you are always stressed, then your body will be diseased.  Our spirit, soul, and body are all connected.  

Jesus Christ, on the cross, finished all of those problems and His resurrection means He is now with me. There is no way to overcome the authority of Satan other than only Christ.  Satan invisibly seizes our thoughts and our heart, and later on, we cannot escape from it.  Even though God is with you, you cannot escape from Satan.  There are so many people like that because they lack spiritual strength, and the only thing they know are physical things.  I’m not saying we don’t need the physical things, but I’m saying you need to get the order correct. It must be spirit first and then the physical things follow. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, I was crucified with Him, but I am still alive. When was I crucified?  It’s really hard to understand, isn’t it?  The “me” who used to live as my own god is sin, and that’s the me that has been crucified. That “me” is the beginning of all problems, and because of that, I get scarred, because my pride is everything.  If somebody tells me something, it hurts my pride. That person is not the problem, your pride must disappear.  The Lord must become your lord and you must find the message of God in the words of people. But Satan has planned His bartizan inside of us and makes us think that we are god.  Even as people go to church, they’re still scarred there, because from my perspective, that person really did say that to me,” it is because you are god, and it makes you feel bad, doesn’t it?  “Oh, that person makes me feel good so I like them,” that’s your problem.  If God is with you, it means God must be your Master.  

Why did God allow me to hear these words? That’s what it means to make God your Master. For the person who got into the motorcycle accident, and their entire body is broken and they’re just barely able to breathe, God is alive.  God is powerful and God is power. Why did God allow this to happen to me?  Even if you just ask that question, you will receive healing, because that is our walk of faith. If I remain my own lord and I believe in Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ takes a bit of a backseat to me, that is the work of Satan. No matter what problem comes your way, the Lord Who is with you will give you His answer through the Word.  If you have a conflict with someone, of course we have no other choice because we are a limited creation, but God gives you His answer through HIs Word.  

Sometimes, you will face a crisis in your life just like the person who gave me that prayer topic, but there is nothing that is a crisis to God. when you receive this answer from God, you’ll see it as an opportunity. Then, what is our walk of faith? It is living our lives, receiving the answers, and seeing everything through God’s standard and faith in God.  That is wisdom and power. As long as God is not broken down, I will never be broken down.  But why are you always breaking down, why is your mental state always breaking down? It is because you’re trying to endure with your own physical strength, instead of gaining spiritual strength and spiritual faith . Yes, we do need to receive help from the doctors and hospitals, because our body needs healing, too.  The most important thing is our spirit, and we must receive God’s grace and strength.  Then, we will be aligned, and then amazingly enough, the unspeakable strength will be relayed to my thoughts and my heart. 

Though I’m hard pressed on all sides, God is never surrounded. When the God Who is with me begins to work, then my thoughts and heart will be filled with His wisdom. We’re not trying to develop our own wisdom by doing something. Christ Who is wisdom Himself will reveal it to me. What is a religion? You try to do something diligently to gain or earn something, but God Himself is wisdom and God Himself is power.  He Himself is rest and God Himself is peace, He himself is joy.  When you enjoy that God, those things come to you.  You’re not doing some actions to try to be peaceful, you’re not doing something to try and be joyful.  But the high priests in the scripture are living a religious life, so they cannot know the gospel So they cannot know the gospel.  But all the witnesses in the Old Testament, Joseph, David, Daniel, it says that the power of God came into them.  Though he walked through the valley of the shadow of death, the power of God was with him, so it doesn’t matter.  But what is religion? “If I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God has to break it down.” Are there any of you who think like that? Just that’s a religious life, that’s someone who doesn’t know what the cross is. Even if I go through the valley of the shadow of death, God’s peace is with me so it doesn’t matter.  You really must understand the gospel correctly and believe.  But you’re not able to understand the gospel because you need God’s grace, that’s why the gospel is wisdom and power.  

    (1) Humankind’s sin, curses are crucified

    (2) Overcame authority of Satan 

    (3) My Lord – With (Gal. 2:20)

Me dying with the Lord is wisdom, we keep on trying to find wisdom. We keep trying to develop our own wisdom by studying. Are there any of you like that? I’m sorry but you’ve found the wrong method.  You were living your life irrelevant to God, then without a doubt, you will face a limitation in life and it will be difficult.  On the seventh day of creation, God went into creation. But we try to work. God Who is rest Himself already created everything and then does His work through us, so all we enjoy is the rest of God.  Because God is working through  me, it might look like I’m the one doing it, but it’s actually God. So for us, it’s not hard labor; it’s rest.  That’s what it means to enjoy God.  The world is so difficult, isn’t it? It might be very hard, but do you have rest?  If you believe that God is the One doing the work through you, then you will receive His rest.  We’re talking about the cross, but everybody knows it already, right? If I really thought everyone knew it, would I say it again?  I’m sorry to tell you this, but you don’t know.  The cross is truly everything, but the cross is not being relayed. If the cross is truly the greatest surpassing knowledge and you know it, then you are bound to relay it.

3. Proclaim the cross with a reason 

Why do I live in America?  You need to find that reason through the cross, that is God’s reason.  But you all have your own reasons, don’t you?  “I’m here to study, I immigrated here,” everybody has their own reason but that’s not a reason before God.  “Oh, my entire family died so I have depression”?  Go into the cross. If God called your family to heaven, then why are you crying so much, and trying to do something about it? Enjoy God being with you.  If you’re not able to do that, then even as you go to church, you will have depression ,and you won’t want; to do anything. I have died on the cross with Christ and now Christ lives within me.  He Himself is peace and rest. He Himself is power.  We do not gain new power, but the power of God is revealed through my work, studies, and everything in my life. But if you don’t know that, then you’re going to work and study so diligently, and then you’ll lose spiritual strength and so of course, you’ll have mental problems. 

There are people who are professionals here, right?  I’ve never run a business, but these are the people of a person who has made billions of dollars through a company called KAIST.  She said, “If you run a business, you’re guaranteed to get at least two different types of cancer.”  This woman is a graduate of Seoul National University law school, she never got married and devoted her entire life to her business. She was having an interview, and she’s currently living with one of her friends whose wife passed away.  She was joking  around, “I only keep him around because I need someone to turn off the lights when I ask him to,” but they’ve been friends, but because she’s never been married, they never got together. She said all business people will have at least two different cancers.  It means that it’s more than difficult because they need to make something that doesn’t exist, and they don’t know what’s going to happen, so they must always be terrified. That’s what a proper business person is like. If somebody doesn’t care whether their business will survive or die, then they won’t be like that, but if somebody really wants to do well, they have to do that. 

God is power, and God’s power is inside of me. You need to run a business that has a reason. You need to study with a reason. Even when you fail, your failure must have a reason. Your failure may be a failure, but it’s not a failure to me. If it doesn’t matter to God, then it doesn’t matter to me.  If something is joyful to God, then it’s joyful to me. I’m not forcing myself to be joyful by drinking and going to karaoke bars. People are trying too hard to force themselves to be happy, they go on vacations and do all sorts of things, but that is something that is temporary, that will all go away. God Himself is joy, God Himself is peace, and He gives me peace.  So, study while you pray and run your business while you pray. Even while you’re listening to the message, don’t try so hard to listen, but instead, be in prayer and receive the Word that God is giving you. Worship should be the time of greatest relaxation and peace, and the more you worship, the more you’ll become relaxed and receive spiritual strength. If you concentrate on church from the morning all the way to the afternoon, then it gives you spiritual concentration power. Then for no reason, I like it. Because God gives me joy, I have joy for no reason. Jesus Christ is going to the cross in order to give you this.  

  1) What Jesus gave me – Imprint

We have received salvation, but our thoughts and mind are imprinted with the things of the world, and whatever is inside my heart or my thoughts is what comes outside. If you set your heart to really do something, you’ll act on that, but the problem is that things don’t work out after that. The things of God must be imprinted in my thoughts and heart in order for God to fulfill that work.  Even though my spirit has received salvation, my thoughts and my heart are exactly the same as the world, then your heart and your thoughts cannot be aligned with God, then you always make the wrong choice or decision; that must be restored and healed.  

    (1) God’s kingdom – 40 days (Ac. 1:3)

Jesus Christ resurrected and spoke about the Kingdom of God for 40 days, not about the kingdom of this world, but the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom where God is reigning and ruling, the kingdom where everything comes from God.  The Triune God is living inside of me and I receive everything from that. God gave the Word to spread this Kingdom of God from Jerusalem to Judah and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. “Now, receive this mission, and because you cannot do it with your own strength, I will be with you with the power of the Holy Spirit.” That must go into your thoughts and your heart.  But even though people live their walk of faith, their thoughts and their hearts are filled with other things, and that’s what comes out, but if the things of God are inside of me, then God fulfills it.  That is why you must ask, “What is imprinted inside of me?”  If somebody is imprinted with sadness, they will only do sad things.  Even when they sing songs, they only sing sad songs. What do you think will happen to their face? They get depressed because that is what is inside of them. If this person is filled with scars, then they will always be suffering.  I said earlier, but the reason you have a scar is because you are your own god, you got scarred.  Nobody was doing anything to you, but because you were your own god, you got scarred. If God was inside of me as my Lord, then instead of it being a scar, I would have seen it as an opportunity for blessings and answers, because I hear God’s voice.  

    (2) All nations, to the ends of the earth (Ac. 1:8)

Now, we must spread this Kingdom of God to all the nations of the world, and that’s the reason we use the number 237, because that is the number of countries registered with the UN.  There are so many people who come to this church and they say, “They say so many words that are not in the Bible, what’s that about?” I’m explaining to you now, and the number, “5000,” we use it for the 5000 unreached tribes.  There are more than 5000 unreached tribes that have never heard the gospel. Jesus told us to go to all nations and all peoples, so the 237 nations and the people of the tribes, you need to spread out the Kingdom of God there.  My business will follow the direction of God’s work, then God will do it.   

    (3) Only by the power of the Holy Spirit (Ac. 1:8)

Then, we hold onto this, and what is the church? The people who hold onto this and pray. Because God promised it and you are praying for it, you will absolutely receive answers.  But if you don’t know this, then you’re going to think of a religious prayer, praying for whatever you want, even though Jesus told you that you don’t have to pray for that. Even if you don’t say anything, God will fill your needs.  But I hope you will pray for and desire the things that God desires.  Then, everything else will follow.  But for you, first seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness, then all these things will be given to you as well.  Then, when the members of the church gathered and began to pray, exactly according to Jesus Christ’s promise, the Holy Spirit began to work. God will absolutely keep His Word and even the time schedule in which He keeps the promises is up to God, but without a doubt, it is an undeniable fact that God will fulfill His promises. 

  2) With – Prayer (Ac. 1:14)

    (1) Works of the power of the Holy Spirit (Ac. 2:1-4)

    (2) Doors of evangelism, business open (Ac. 2:9-11)

    (3) Relay the light – Lord and Messiah (Ac. 2:36)

When we pray to spread God’s Kingdom exactly how God promised, then God will work with His power on my business to do that. What does it mean for God’s Kingdom to be established in my business?  It means that God will open the doors to the people who will receive salvation, and through those people, your business will open.  There are people who run their business very well without God, they make their own doors and make their own developments, but without the working of the Holy Spirit, that person will surely fall into spiritual problems.  If they don’t understand these words, they will fall into their own limitations, and because of that, they will surely have things like cancer.

  3) All peoples – Mission

    (1) Guidance of the Holy Spirit (Ac. 13:1-4)

    (2) Gentiles missions (Ac. 13-28)

    (3) Future generation missions – Synagogue (Ac. 17,19)

    (4) Healing (Ac. 13,16,19)

So, it’s exactly like God promised. The works of the Holy Spirit take place, and exactly like God promised, the doors of evangelism opened.  The “doors of evangelism” mean the doors of your business, the doors of your studies, all of the doors of your life will open.  This is what the members of the Early Church did, but the standard is the Kingdom of God.  This gospel must be proclaimed to nonbelievers to establish God’s Kingdom there. Those people are stuck in diseases because they don’t know the gospel; we must give them the gospel and heal them, that’s the reason for your business, and then in Acts 2, they relayed the light of this gospel to these people. And now, God’s Kingdom is established in all the mission fields, and all the way to the next generation.  With the gospel, we’ll heal those who are spiritually diseased, demon-possessed, or spiritually afflicted. That must be your first priority. If that is not your first priority, you are not aligned with God, that means that Christians are living an nonbeliever life, because they are chasing after the same things that people who don’t believe in God are living for. that’s why when we wake up in the early morning, we concentrate on God. 

Conclusion

1. 3 concentrations

2. 3 answers

3. 3 settings 

Why do we hold onto God’s Word and concentrate in prayer?  That is how our mental illnesses, our division of mind, our addictions or obsessions will be healed. There are people who are always obsessed with something, right? Even while you’re sitting here, your thoughts keep getting seized by something else, right?  Even while you’re studying, you’re not able to concentrate on your studies, you get wrapped up with your thoughts. You keep obsessing about the words that people said to you, and you still remember the words they said decades ago, why? These are things that happen because you’re not able to concentrate on the words of God. That means our brain is not normal.  Your scars, it’s not normal, because you’re obsessed with your scars.  If you concentrate on the Word of God, those things will be restored.  I hope you’ll have that time in the morning, the daytime, and evening.  May you and I receive answers and blessings throughout the week.  

Message Prayer

Let us pray together, holding onto the Word we have received. 

Offering Prayer and Newcomer Blessing

God, we thank You.  We have returned our material blessings as offering. We pray that You will bless all the hands that have given the offering, for tithe, temple construction, future generations, missions, thanksgiving, Sundays, with the economy of light to save the 237 nations, 5000 unreached tribes, and the Temple Construction. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.

God, we thank You.  Lord, we pray You will work with the Holy Spirit upon Velma so she will be able to understand and enjoy the meaning and the reason for this cross.  We pray You will give her the blessing so she may be able to spread the reason of the cross of Jesus Christ to not only the Mongolians but also to the rest of the world. 

Announcements

1. Online zoom early morning prayer (Mon.-Fri. 5:30, Sat. 6AM) – Raise the bartizan of prayer

2. Every Saturday, 2 pm – Core Message broadcast

3. 3/24 (Sun.) – Baptism and communion

4. 3/31 (Sun.) – Easter worship

5. 4/8 (Mon.) – Host West Coast Synod in the sanctuary

6. Preparing to start Korean school, need teachers and church members.

7. 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 the heads of all the people of God, the people of all nations, and the remnants who have and desire to relay the meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ, be with them from now until forevermore always, amen. 

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