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Glory to Jesus Christ, dear brothers and sisters!
Today we heard the Holy Gospel of Matthew (Matthew, XXII: 1-14), where the king gave a wedding feast, great meal in the name of His Son. And he called all to come to this dinner. We may say, that the king - is God, the Son - is Jesus and ministry of Jesus - is a dinner, the dinner of joy, the dinner when people's minds are released from sinful thinking. Troubles with our family do much harm to us, because our relatives exhaust us. And the worst enemies in the world are our relatives.
The Lord absolves us from these ideas, saying that your relatives may be your enemies, and your neighbors, who are in one spirit with you, may be your relatives despite the fact that they are of other nation, even black, even the Samaritans to Jews. That is, a dinner of righteousness.
It is much easier to redeem in the learning of Jesus than that was given by Jews. They have so many Talmuds - ten commandments they multiplied by ten and got a hundred. Moses asked: "Lord, if they cannot walk on their feet, they all will perish. So give them crutches, even though on the crutch they will come to you, give them more than Ten Commandments: Do not steal, do not kill and not. Let it be a hundred of commandments, but easier." Lord said, "Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke" (Exodus, XXXIV:1). Then they asked "Give us more commandments." And they have multiplied and invented them so many that there is not enough place in this church for all these books. It is necessary for them to be said: do this thing or do that thing. But their hearts may be filled with evil, arrogance, hatred and racism.
And the Lord gives us another faith: to be with the God, to keep in your heart His love, His commandments, which will lead you through love and to be happy and be free from sin. When you inherit eternal life - you will be happy. With the Angels you may already be on the Earth. But those who had been called did not come. It is clear that, again he sent other servants, saying: "Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast". Such an offer can't be ignored. But they all alike began to make excuses. Everyone found some reason and "went off, one to his farm, another to his business". One said he was busy as he had to try new oxen, another one just got married and wanted to stay with his wife. Everyone tried to invent a serious excuse.
Then the king angrily said: "Those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find". Give a chance to everyone: maimed and healthy.
And the servants, in other words, the priests went and preached - the apostles and the preachers. "So the wedding hall was filled with guests". And the king came and saw that all are clothed in white, in other words they were dressed in wedding garment, as the righteous life. One of them was strange - he was in black, dirty clothes, in other words the clothes of sin - his life was sinful. The owner saw him immediately and said: "Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?", that is "How could you do that? Where is your wedding dress, where is your repentance, where are your good deeds, where all that? Where the things that you had to prepare? You knew how to do all these! Why have not you prepared the clothes to have them clean in Heaven?"
Imagine that you must prepare these clothes. Imagine that you even have to sew the gold stitching in it, with your righteous spiritual deeds. "Where are your clothes?" - the king asked. To avoid such a situation that the Lord ask you, and you have nothing to say. And in this situation he had nothing to answer. Despite the fact that he was taught and preached, he had nothing to say. He was speechless.
But the king's heart did not relent - justice works. He said: Chance was given to you, but you did not use it. "Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth". How difficult is there? For example, a man is thrown in a cellar, and there are those who gnashed the teeth. Is it nice? There are no prospects that you've ever escape from there.
Each of us has his own ministry that God has given to us, not to be in the same situation. And how we clean our clothes? Do we take care of our garment to be wedding through our love to God, through our good deeds and our serving?
We have started to build the temple of God, having nothing. And the temple is now almost been completed. It is clear that the Lord will give a large presence of His Holy Spirit. And I believe that the Lord will build His Ukraine through our hearts. Happiness is not in money. You will have happiness if you have Heaven in your heart, if you have faith in God, if you aspire to God.
We are not holy with you, because only He is perfect. But we wish and we try. We make mistakes, but we try again. We want, we go. We do not say that we are worthy; because it is wrong so to say such things, you may puff up. We say, that maybe we are worthy out of unworthy. Or maybe we are called today. Or maybe we are selected because there are a lot of to be called. Seven thousand or eight thousand people have passed through my lectures. They were listening to - and did not hear, they looked - and did not see because they are spiritually blind and deaf. And it is very symbolic that we continue to pray for the house for blind people for Ukraine to see the light.
And now the Lord blesses this holiday, this joy, peace, goodness for us. And our hearts are filled with joy because we feel the presence of God`s Angels.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
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Apostle (Corinthians, 2 1:21-24; 2:1-4):
1
21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ,
andhas anointed us,
22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit
in our hearts as a guarantee.
23 But I call God to witness against me--it was to spare you
that I refrained from coming again to Corinth.
24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you
for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
2
1 For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to
you.
2 For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but
the one whom I have pained?
3 And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer
pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of
you, that my joy would be the joy of you all.
4 For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of
heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the
abundant love that I have for you.
Gospel (?atthew,
22:1-14):
22
1 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying,
2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a
wedding feast for his son,
3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the
wedding feast, but they would not come.
4 Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are
invited, See, I have prepared my dinner,
my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready.
Come to the wedding feast.
5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm,
another to his business,
6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully,
and killed them.
7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed
those murderers and burned their city.
8 Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready,
but those invited were not worthy.
9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding
feast as many as you find.'
10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all
whom they found, both bad and good.
So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 "But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw
there a man who had no wedding garment.
12 And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here
without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless.
13 Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and
foot and cast him into the outer darkness.
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
14 For many are called, but few are chosen."
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