Today, I would like to speak to you about the passages in the Gospel of John chapter 2, verse 1 through verse 11. The event occurring on the day of the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee speaks to us about “What is the greatest obstacle to our faith in God?” To the servants who were worrying over the lack of wine at the feast, Jesus says, “Pour water into the waterpots of stone. Fill them up to the brim. Then, draw some out and take it to the congratulators.” Jesus’ mother Mary told the servants to carry out the Word of Jesus as it is regardless of what He says. The servants who had obeyed and followed this Word filled the waterpots with water and took them to the congratulators according to what Jesus has said. Then, they tasted the miracle of that water turning into wine.

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Jesus said in Matthew 15:19-20, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” The Lord also said in Matthew 15:8-9, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” In Matthew 15:3, He said, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” These passages mean that many people are worshiping God in vain, for they honor God only with their lips and teach the commandments of men as doctrines. The commandments of men set the Word of God aside, and so it also means that even though these people claim to believe in God with their words, they don’t actually obey the Word of God.

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Both hardships and glad things that occur when we follow the Lord are the grace of God. Whatever occurrences we get to face or suffer in every aspect of our lives, they are all God’s grace. In all the things of this world, we must acknowledge Jehovah God. “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:6). God speaks to us like this. It isn’t fitting for us the righteous to hold someone else responsible for hardships when we face them. When we go through some bad event, we tend to resent and fret, displaying our temper before all else. With the thought, “If someone hadn’t done so, I would not have become like this,” one winds up blaming someone else. But with the passage of time, when the person looks back at that event, that person will realize all of it had been something God had said in our lives amidst silence. The person will discover that it had been the voice of God.

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What does it mean for us to believe in God’s love? In today’s Scripture passage, the Lord speaks specifically about that topic. It says that God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son and that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Then what do you think is the kind of faith that believes in the Truth that God the Father and the Son of God, Jesus, saved us from the sins of the world? God said that He did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Pay attention to the point that the thing God the Father wanted to accomplish by sending His Son to this world was not to judge the people of the world for all their sins, but to make them receive salvation from sin and receive the eternal life in the faith.

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Do you like flowers? What kind of flowers are those here in front? They’re carnations, aren’t they? Carnations are flowers given to parents on Parents’ Day, but that day has not arrived yet. They are really beautiful. I call red flowers just red flowers and white flowers just white flowers. Looking at these now, I feel calm, and it seems they create a vivid atmosphere. You like them, too, don’t you? After God made the universe and created the heavens and the earth, He saw that it was good. These flowers too, are really good. It would be good if our hearts that have been frozen by several kinds of works would melt a little while looking at these flowers.

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Today I would like to share the Word from the Gospel of John chapter 4 verses 27-42 together with you. The Lord, who came out of Judea and entered the land of Samaria, met a woman at the well there. Who was this Samaritan woman that the Lord met here? She was not satisfied even though she had five husbands before, and she was not even satisfied with the sixth husband she had now and she was leading a wretched life. She was a spiritually thirsty woman who could not find satisfaction in life even though she tried hard.

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That Jesus would save us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit was already prophesied in the Old Testament. Our Lord came to this world to fulfill that prophecy, and received the baptism from John the Baptist and personally became the Savior by dying on the Cross and being resurrected from death. Put differently, He personally witnessed our salvation from sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit with His baptism, death, and the resurrection. He witnessed to the fact that He is the Savior, the Messiah, by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist and dying on the Cross. In addition, we have received salvation from all sins by accepting that witness through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

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I see many ministry workers have come today. I’m glad to see you. I can see the Bible well when I wear my glasses, but I can’t see you very well with them on. The days when I was a young lad have passed and the time when I will be an old geezer is now approaching. Even so, I am glad to have come to speak before you on this Friday evening worship service like this. I am also happy that Reverend Kim has come. He only has to return to the U.S. tomorrow in order to do missionary work again after taking care of several affairs related to literature ministries. But, anyway, I am happy to be able to see him. The world is gloomy, but we are happy when we meet together. I am even happier because of the thought of sharing fellowship with each other this evening. I would also like to welcome people who are here for the first time.

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