HomeARC ML 2852
GOD IS IN THE BUSINESS OF CHANGING THE WORLD! DO 2852 Tenerife, 6/76
(Dad talking to a group of Family Members and friends:)
1. There are some people who'd like to shoot me! They'd probably like to torture me first & then shoot me, just because their children love me & have changed! They've changed from being criminals & drug addicts embroiled in vice & crime & useless living, into Christians who love the Lord & who are trying to help others! And if their first religion happened to be Jewish, those Jewish parents don't exactly like their children becoming Christians! Well, I can't help that! The only way I could have helped it was to have kept my mouth shut & never written one Letter or taught one class!
2. The minute I started doing what God called me to do, it began changing people! I asked one of our friends last night, "If you had your choice, what would you rather do than anything else in this World?" He said, "I'd like to change the World!" Because I cannot fully reveal my identity here, nor tell others about our worldwide Family, I couldn't tell him what we're doing, but I said, "Joaquin, if you'll quit your job & come live with me & play your music, we will change the World!"--Because we're already changing the World! We have changed a lot of the World, literally by the hundreds of thousands! God is trying to work with Joaquin, He's got a hand on him. No man can write such beautiful music without a beautiful soul!
3. To change the World, what do you have to change first?--Government?--No, that never changes much for the better. In fact, the next government may be worse than the one before! Politics?--Ah, there are all kinds of political theories & philosophies, but none of it has ever saved the World yet! Economics?--Change the economic system?--It might help, but it might be worse, who knows! That's not going to change anything. To change the World we're not talking about the flowers & the plants & the trees or the weather, are we?--We're talking about the people!
4. You have to change people to change the World! And where do you have to begin to change people? You have to change hearts--the word that God uses in the Bible meaning the personality of the individual. God says it is such a dramatic change that you are no longer your former self, you are a new person! He said it's like the birth of a baby. "Old things have passed away," the Apostle says, "& all things are become new" in your life & you are a "new creature!"--A new creation in Christ Jesus!--2Cor.5:17.
5. If you have begun to notice that you're different from the way you used to be, you're changing! A baby is not born in nine minutes--it takes nine months for him to gradually grow till he's born. But eventually you're going to find out that you're changed. How many of you have found out that Jesus has changed your life? Put up your hands, Class!
6. God is in the business of changing the World! Ever since Man disobeyed Him in the Garden of Eden He's been trying to change people back again into obedient children! He is trying, with His Love, to warn them, persuade them, teach them & change them back into obedient children again!
7. God is changing the World, & the only way you can actually bring about a permanent change is through changing hearts, through changing personalities, changing the individual from bad to good, from a sinner to righteousness, from one who is full of hate & bitterness, to one who is full of love & sweetness!--From one who hates God & hates his neighbours, to one who loves God & loves his neighbours! This is what God is doing--changing people--& the only way you'll have a new kind of government, a new economy & a new World, is by changing the people who run it, making them into God's children--His people, good people, loving people, kind people, people who are willing to lay down their lives for each other!
8. I don't think there's anybody here who would not lay down your life for me or for one another, you love each other so much! You've heard of John 3:16, well, once you're saved & have gotten the idea of John 3:16, you ought to look up 1st John 3:16--one of John's letters to his children, like my Letters to my children! He often addresses them as, "My little children," & in 1st John 3:16 he says, "Because Jesus laid down His life for us, we should be willing to lay down our lives for the brethren!" A wife lays down her life for her husband almost every night & every day, & a husband lays down his life for his wife both at night & on his job in the daytime, sacrificing & working for her.
9. So we are changing the World because we are changing people, & we have changed hundreds of thousands who are reading what we have to say & are following it! At least five to six million people every month hear what we have to say, & hundreds of thousands of these believe it & follow us! Thousands have quit their jobs & left everything they have, & are now working full time for the Lord! That's the kind of a Family you've gotten yourself into!
Building a Home of Hearts!
10. I did a very risky thing last night, but I did it by faith & because of love for Joaquin! He sang the beautiful songs he had written for me & the Family called "The House of Peace & Love" & "David the King!" Wait till you hear'm! They're just beautiful! So I asked him, "What is your job? Why do you have to be there tomorrow? Why do you have to go to work?" He said, "I have 11 people waiting for me, & if I don't get there, they don't work!" I asked, "What is your work?" He said, "I build houses." I said, "What for?" "Because I like to, I enjoy it!--And if I don't get down there, 11 men are going to be waiting & won't know what to do!"
11. It's nice that he has a feeling of responsibility, & building houses seems like very good work. Almost everybody needs houses, that's a needed thing, & I'd certainly say that's better than building some things, like so many of those big fancy churches that don't seem to do much good. But anyway, he's building houses, homes for people.
12. I said, "Joaquin, with your kind of music & inspiration, you could build a spiritual house of love & of souls which could help change the World!" I didn't explain to him in detail exactly what I meant, but I was thinking about all of the bands that we have all over the World & all of the clubs we have & all of the singers we have & the television programs we have & how marvelously useful a man like this could be in one of our bands, or even better, as a solo singer!
13. Think of how much more good he could do! He's down here trying to help 11 men have a job building a house, but think of how much good he could do if we would put him on television to sing those songs to millions of people, to change millions of lives & millions of hearts & build a spiritual house that will last for Eternity!--Not a house that will fall apart within 20, 30 or 40 years & go back to the dust from which it came!
14. We are building the House of God, a house that's going to last for Eternity! Esther used to sing a song, "Building a Home of Hearts," & we're building a home of hearts that girdles the Globe!--And this house is big enough to circle the World! It circles the Globe in over 70 countries, 30 languages, thousands upon thousands of people!--Thousands who are working full time with us for the Lord, hundreds of thousands who follow what we have to say, & millions who listen! Praise God? That's quite a record in only seven years, thank the Lord! (Note: As of April 1, 1994, we have taken our Message to 163 countries, or over 80% of the 202 or so nations & principalities of the World, with full-time Homes having been established in 124 of these, & road teams having been sent to another 39! We estimate that we have had somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 full-time missionaries that have forsaken all to serve the Lord in the Family at one time or another over the past 25 years, while having another 11,000 born directly into the Family. We have translated & published our literature in 61 languages; we have won an average of 50,000 souls a month for the last 25 years, or a grand total of 17.4 million souls led to receive Jesus as their Saviour. We have distributed over 929 million pieces of Gospel literature in our 25 years, giving us an average readership of about 3 million a month. We are currently made up of about 9,000 full-time members & 13,000 part-time members, who are composed of 103 different nationalities & reside in over 50 countries of the World!)
15. So when I told Joaquin he could move into my house, I wasn't just talking about this building! I told him he could live with me & sing for us & help us change the World! I offered Carlos the chance to move in & stay with us for his vacation--& I hope it lasts forever! If he wonders what he would do, well, he'll find out! There's plenty to do in God's House, always more than we can ever do, right? He keeps us so busy we don't hardly know how to get it all done! Ask any of these girls or boys how much free time they have--you'll find out they're pretty busy! So there's plenty to do!
Working for God vs. Working for the World!
16. I offered the first Carlos, Carlos Belair, a job with me! I said, "What are they paying you at the Belair Hotel, Carlos?" He said a certain amount. I said, "Well, if you live with me & be my chauffeur & bodyguard & run errands for me & help me, I won't pay you a salary--we don't pay anybody salaries, we all work for free, volunteers for love--but you will receive your living expenses & your clothes & your medical bills & your rent & your food & everything your heart could desire that you need or want!"
17. Alf & I figured it up, he would have received twice as much as they pay him at the Belair! In other words, take this house, the rent we pay & our total expenses here--food, clothing, everything--divide it by the number of people who live here, & you come up with a figure per person which is twice as much as Carlos makes at the Belair! Why should we pay a piddling little pittance of a salary when here you get everything you need? If you get a salary, pretty soon before the end of the month you're out of money! But when you get everything you need & even everything you want, that's much more than a salary!
18. God doesn't just promise a salary, He promises everything--not only your needs, but your desires! Carlos has already received love that he couldn't afford to pay for!--Love that is priceless, love that is precious, love that nobody could ever pay me enough for! If I put a price tag on it, you couldn't give me the whole World in exchange for it, & that's what God does for us!
19. If we love Him & delight ourselves in Him & we work for Him faithfully & try to love others & help them, He'll do anything for us--anything! He'll do things Man can't do!--He'll heal your body, He'll heal your mind, He'll heal your broken heart, things you can't pay for! He'll give you love that is priceless & you could never pay for!
20. How can you pay for love? You can't buy real love! You can't pay for real love, it's priceless! That's one reason why we don't charge for it--we couldn't set the price high enough! But God has set the price--it will cost you your life!
21. Real love will cost you your life, & you can't pay any price greater than that! Jesus said, "No greater love hath any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends!"--Jn.15:13. I believe even Carlos (Carlos Sailor) is getting to where he loves me enough that if the occasion happened & someone were to try to attack me or one of you girls, I think he would defend me! Who knows?--We might need a nice strong husky man to defend us! We have God & He's protected us so far, thank the Lord, but it's nice to have a few of you boys around, too, to help other people understand what God intends to do, & that is take care of us. That's why at the Club I call you my Guardia Civil!
22. So the first Carlos, Carlos Belair, wanted to set a price tag on it. He said, "No, I don't understand all that! I don't understand about how much I'm going to be getting in return in goods & rent & clothing & food & all of these things, I have to have a figure! Tell me how much you're going to pay me!" Well, God in His mercy led me to say, "All right, Carlos, if you're not willing to work for love & receive the equivalent of twice the pay you're now getting, if you'd rather have what the Belair pays you, okay.
23. "If you'd rather work for half as much, okay, stay at home! Just come here to work certain hours of the day & be my chauffeur, be here to do anything that needs to be done & help our handyman with whatever has to be done, be willing to do anything & just work so many hours a day, get paid so much an hour & only make what the Belair pays you. If you'd rather make half as much, that's up to you! Go ahead, live at home, have your own worries, pay your own expenses, & I'll pay you what the Belair gives you!"
24. But just to show you that that wasn't really it, even when I offered to pay him the equivalent of his Belair salary & his insurance & all of his car expenses & all of those incidental expenses, he came & worked for one morning & one afternoon--one day--& quit! He wasn't willing to work for love & his needs, even all expenses paid! He had turned down the job, he wasn't willing to do it for the love of God, & we found out you couldn't have paid him enough to work at this job, because every day here at this house he had to come face to face with God!
25. I don't mean me, don't get excited!--But every time he met any one of you, God was looking him in the face! And because he wasn't willing to love God that much & work that much for God, it just grated against his soul!--Especially if he came a little early & he found that they weren't going to stop their Bible Study or prayer just because he was here ready to go to work, & he had to sit & listen & wait. You couldn't pay him enough to have to sit & listen to God--that was too much of a price to pay! He didn't want to hear what God had to say, so he hardened his heart against God, turned against God!
26. After all, if he didn't want to work for God, then why should he want to come here & have to talk to God & be face-to-face with the people of God every day? He couldn't take it! God bless this Carlos (Carlos Sailor), he's taken a lot more! He's even sitting in now on one of my long classes, listening. If you can take this, you can take a lot, because this is the most important part, to hear the Words of God!--And you've been hearing a lot of the Bible this morning. In case you don't know it, I've been quoting you Scripture after Scripture. I didn't always give you the reference, but it's the Word of God just the same!
27. Hearing the Words of God is the most important part, because that's what keeps you on the straight & narrow way! That's what keeps you in tune with God & obedient to God! That's what helps you keep going right & keeping right with God. It's when Adam & Eve quit listening to God that they got in trouble & disobeyed Him, because then they listened to the Devil!--And he lied to them & they did what he said & got themselves in a Hell of a mess! But when you listen to God, He tells you the Truth, & if you obey it, you'll be happy! Praise God?
We're Changing the World!
28. So we're changing the World! We may not be able to change it all, & nobody will ever change it all except Jesus! Compared to its total population we haven't changed very many, only a few million; nevertheless, we're doing what we can! If we have just changed your hearts alone, it's been worth it all! If we've changed your lives & made you happy, it's been worth it all! Amen? Just you, any one of you is worth more than this whole World all put together! Amen? So it's worth it all! And even if I have to die for it, it'll be worth it all!--And I probably will one of these days when my work is done! So praise God!
29. Joaquin doesn't know how close he can come to changing the World if he decides to join us & work for God! He can help us change the World!--Because we're changing it now & we've already changed a lot of it! When you've changed millions of lives, you have changed a lot! Thank the Lord! And I believe we're still changing millions!
30. Every time they hear God's Word from us, I believe lives are changed! The change may not always be as dramatic as some of yours, but I believe we're influencing them; & if we're influencing them, we're changing them! Of course, those who reject the Truth of God's Word & our Message become worse! Well, we changed them too, we made them worse, more guilty & accountable! That's possible too.
Jesus Exposed the Phony Religion & System of His Day
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31. When the disciples heard Jesus' Message, they loved it!--It changed their lives & they started helping Him change the World!--And right there while Jesus was still alive, they changed the lives of thousands & thousands! But the religious leaders, the heads of the Church & the Synagogue, when they heard Jesus' Message, they hated it, & hated Him, because He exposed them as hypocrites & liars & robbers of the poor & cheaters & crooks!--They who were supposed to be the best people in town, leaders of the religious system!
32. They were such rats & such crooks underneath, Jesus said they were "wolves in sheep's clothing"!--Mat.7:15. He said that even the drunks & the harlots & the publicans & the sinners & the worst people in town--such as we meet night after night down at the clubs--were going to get into Heaven before those self-righteous hypocritical religious leaders!--Mat.21:31. Because the drunks & the harlots & the publicans & the sinners & the poor know they need God! They know they're bad & they know they need help!
33. But the self-righteous hypocritical religious leaders who think they're so good & so nice & think they're going to get into Heaven because they're so good in their own good works are an abomination to God!--Self-righteousness! Your own good works, the Prophet Isaiah said, are like "filthy menstruous rags" in the sight of God!--Isa.64:6. So when they try to stand up before God & display their good works, it's like some woman standing up there & showing God her dirty Kotex: "Look, God, at all the good things I've done!"
34. That's what the Prophet Isaiah had to say about your so-called good works, your self-righteousness. He says it stinks! I speak pretty raw, don't I?--But at least you get the point! You just see how stinking filthy that kind of goodness & righteousness & religiousness is! It's phoney, it's fake, it's a lie, it's false, it's no good! Now if the people I am describing bear any particular resemblance to anybody you know, I must warn you this is purely unintentional & coincidental. I don't have any particular individual in mind, just a whole lot of individuals!
35. So because Jesus exposed their phoney religion & their phoney system & what crooks & robbers they were, & because He was so popular with the people--thousands & thousands of them following Him like they do us--they finally got Him! They were determined to kill Him. And do you know what was one of the last things that finally made them determined they had to kill Him?--When He raised Lazarus from the dead!--Jn.11:41-53.
36. When a few of their children are raised from the dead--spiritual deadness & spiritual death--& brought to life & are changed, so changed they don't recognise them as their children any more, they're so different, some of these people get so mad they want to kill us!
37. Well, changing a person's personality with religion or with Jesus Christ just through love & preaching love is not necessarily a crime! There is no law against preaching love or changing people with love, so what could the scribes & Pharisees do? These religious leaders had to try to catch Jesus on something else & try to find something He was doing that was wrong.--So they falsely accused Him of being against the government, when He never taught against the government! In fact, God's Word says to be thankful for the government! (Romans 13.)
38. He told us to be thankful for the officers of the law!--To thank God for the police, thank God even for the Secret Police who are here to protect us! God says they are the ministers of God! They're a lot better ministers of God than some of the religious leaders, because they're here to protect the people & take care of them & keep bad things from happening!--I can't quite say that much for some of the religious leaders! So thank God for the government & the police--God's Word says we should be thankful for them!
39. So the government, the Romans, had nothing against Jesus! They thought, "Oh, He's some kind of a crackpot, some kind of a guy with a screw loose, He's some crazy prophet or something & a lot of people listen to Him & follow Him--but they don't seem to be doing anything wrong, they're not hurting anybody, so leave them alone! So what if we don't believe what He's saying, & so what if He says things we think are crazy about changing the World through love!"
40. When Jesus was brought to trial, they said, "All He's doing is teaching love!" And according to legend--which may be fiction but it certainly could be true--Pilate the Governor said, "Love?--That's the most dangerous doctrine He could possibly preach! It could destroy the Roman Empire! The Roman Empire doesn't survive on love, it survives with the sword! If we let Him preach His doctrine of Love, our soldiers won't want to kill anybody any more! They won't want to conquer the poor any more, they won't want to rob the people of their riches to take it to Rome! That's a dangerous doctrine, very dangerous!"
41. And he was right--it finally overthrew the Roman Empire! Christians became so numerous & so powerful, even in Caesar's home, that it finally Christianised the Roman Empire itself, & the Emperor himself became a Christian! Christianity had overthrown Rome!
42. Well, we're not out trying to overthrow any government! We have no politics. We are not trying to overthrow any economic system & we're not economists! Of course, we practice a certain kind of economy in our own little Family where we share all things, everything, but we're not Republicans or Democrats or Social Democrats or any political party!
43. We are not militant, violent revolutionaries trying to kill anybody, or terrorists trying to bomb anybody or trying to overthrow any kind of political system or government! We are very peaceful! We believe in obeying the law--every law we possibly can if we know about it--& we believe in trying to be peaceful & helping people!--Not hurting anybody. That's us & our way of life & our Message!--LOVE!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
