General Service in Malang, January 25, 2015 (Sunday Morning)

CHILD SUBMISSION SERVICE

Exodus 2:1-2
2:1 And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wifea daughter of Levi.
2:2 So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he wasa beautiful child,she hid him three months.

A Levi marries a Levi and the woman gives birth a beautiful child. The spiritual meaning of the beautiful child is pleasing God. Hence, the marriage of the parents decides the future of the child.

How is the way to have a beautiful child and to please God?
A Levi is a servant of God. A Levi marries a Levi means a servant of God marries a servant of God. It refers to two things as follows.

1. Holiness.
   We must be within the Holy Place to be holy. We must persevere in the shepherding in three main services.
   
   
2. Unity (a Levi marries a Levi).
   It is started with the unity of faith or the true teaching Word, and the unity of water baptism. Thereafter, it is continued with the unity in the shepherding, in the ministry, and the unity of the heart.
   

It is as entering the ark of Noah. Thus, we will have a beautiful child and please God. The mouth of a child only praise and worship God, and the child is always within the embrace of God’s hands.

The result is baby Moses is taken from the Nile River, meaning being saved from the influence of the world and sins, as well as the flesh desire. Moses is also lifted up as the son of king, meaning becoming the priest and king. We serve God and have a beautiful future. It is until we are lifted up to the Heaven and renewed to become as perfect as Him.

God blesses us.

GENERAL SERVICE

Peace and grace in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Revelation 2-3 is about the seven times of the sprinkling of blood in front of the Ark of Covenant. It refers to the last sanctification to the church in the last days, until we become perfect and blameless as Him.

Revelation 2:11
2:11 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”’

God’s promise to the church in Smyrna who overcomes is they will not be hurt by the second death in the hell.

Who overcomes?
Revelation 20:6
20:6 Blessed and holy ishe who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

The one who overcomes is he who has part in the first resurrection, so the second death has no power. They will become the priests and kings in the one thousand years kingdom of peace or the future Paradise.

It is a choice for us, whether we want to become a priest and king, or to enter the hell.

Romans 6:5
6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likenessof Hisresurrection,

The requirement to be raised when Jesus comes is we must have death and resurrection experience together with Him along our life. We must experience life renewal.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52
15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

There are two great incidents when Jesus comes a second time or on the first resurrection as follows.

1. The dead in Jesus, or the one who experiences life renewal during his life by the sound of the trumpet of the Word that is sharper than any two-edged sword, will be raised in the body of glory as Jesus.
   
   
2. One who lives until Jesus’ second coming, and who experiences life renewal during his life by the sound of the trumpet of the Word that is sharper than any two-edged sword, will be renewed in the body of glory as Jesus in the twinkling of an eye.
   

The dead or the living one will become one perfect and glorious body of Christ. We will become the Heavenly bride who is ready to welcome His second coming on the glorious clouds.

Revelation 20:5
20:5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This isthe first resurrection.

There are the rest of the dead as follows.

1. One who does not know God.
   
2. The Christians who do not minister solemnly and do not experience life renewal because of rejecting the work of the Word that is sharper than any two-edged sword.
   
3. The Christians who deny Jesus and worship antichrist during the days of antichrist for three years and a half. The practice of worshiping antichrist now is being stingy and greedy. Being stingy means being unable to give for the work of God (time, energy, money, thought). Being greedy means seizing the rights of the others and God. One who worships antichrist will be marked with 666, meaning his body, soul, and spirit are flesh.
   

On Jesus’ second coming, they will not be raised. They will wait for the one thousand years kingdom of peace and thereafter they will be raised on the second resurrection to experience the second death in the hell forever.

Although we are always together during our life, stay in one house, sleep in one bed, minister in one shepherding, but if the way of life is different, the end destiny will also be different. One who follows Jesus solemnly will enter the one thousand years kingdom of peace, while the unserious one will enter the hell.

There are three groups who enter the first resurrection as follows.

1. The servant of God who has death and resurrection experience together with Jesus during his life.
   1 Peter 2:21-25
   2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
   2:22 “Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;
   2:23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himselfto Him who judges righteously;
   2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
   2:25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
   
   Death experience means dying to sins.
   Resurrection experience means living for righteousness.
   
   The death and resurrection experience means as follows.
   
   
   1. It is started from the true water baptism.
      Romans 6:2-4
      6:2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
      6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
      6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
      
      The execution of the true water baptism is one who has died to sins must be buried together with Jesus in water, to be raised with Him and receive new life, that is living in righteousness.
      
      Proverbs 10:2
      10:2 Treasures of wickedness profit nothing,
But righteousness delivers from death.
      
      All things in the world outside the righteousness are useless and will be destroyed.
      
      1 Peter 2:25
      2:25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
      
      A righteous must be well and right shepherded, so he will not be pounced by a wolf or wild beast, meaning he will not be deceived by false teaching, gossip, lie.
      The result of being shepherded is we experience physical care abundantly, so we can give thanks to God. We will also experience spiritual care, so everything will become easy and light.
      
      
   2. Seeking the things above more than the earthly ones, meaning prioritizing ministry more than the earthly matters.
      Colossians 3:1-3
      3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
      3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
      3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
      
      We put first ministry and keep being faithful and fervent in spirit in doing it. If not, the firstborn will die, meaning the things we are proud of will vanish and be destroyed.
      
      
   3. Experiencing life renewal by the work of the Word that is sharper than any two-edged sword, starting from not lying anymore.
      Ephesians 4:21,24-25
      4:21if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
      4:24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
      4:25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Leteach one of youspeak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.
      
      
      
2. The servant of God who is a martyr, meaning willing to die physically because of the name of Jesus, the true ministry, and the true teaching Word, starting from the days of Abel, the present days, up to the days of antichrist.
   Revelation 6:9-11
   6:9When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
   6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
   6:11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number oftheir fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were,was completed.
   
   Revelation 20:4
   20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I sawthe souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received hismark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
   
   They are persecuted, hated, killed, but they do not either judge the others or defend themselves. They fully surrender their life to God.
   If we have been touched and renewed by the sword of the Word now, we do not need to become a martyr by the sword of antichrist.
   
   
3. The two criminals are the representation of cursed, evil, and unclean men. They disgrace God and are discredited. They are in suffering, fear, total failure, and will be destroyed. A criminal is still remembered by God. God will remember us as His servant for sure.
   Luke 23:39-43
   23:39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.”
   23:40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?
   23:41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”
   23:42 Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
   23:43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
   
   God pays attention, cares, and struggles for us until He dies on the cross to help us so we will not be destroyed. God still gives us chance and mercy through the cross of Christ. The requirement is keeping our mouth. The first criminal blasphemes Jesus and the true teaching Word, so he is destroyed and there is no chance to be recovered. Let the door of our heart and mouth be smeared with the blood as the doorposts and the lintel of the house of the Israelites, so we can be honest. The second criminal can honestly confess Jesus who is sinless and the true teaching Word. He is honest in confessing his sins, cries out Jesus’ name, cries out “Alleluia”. This morning, let us struggle for our spiritual life, so it can be right, holy, and please God. Thus, He will understand, care, and struggle with us. He will remove us from the ambience of curse to the one of the Paradise. When He comes a second time, we will enter the marriage supper of the Lamb of God, the one thousand years kingdom of peace, and the New Jerusalem forever.
   
   Revelation 19:6
   19:6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!
   

God blesses us.