Ask the Lord to Send Workers (Matthew 9:35-38)

Jesus Christ is giving his disciples a prayer topic, to pray that the Lord will send out the workers into the harvest field, because the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. There are prayer topics that receive answers. And there are prayer topics that will not be answered

Jesus Christ is the Gospel Himself, and He is able to know what God desires because He sees the world through the eyes of the Gospel. Jesus Christ is the Gospel, and Jesus Christ is also the Alpha and Omega. Jesus Christ is also the truth, and the life.

You’ll be able to see the difference when you see everything through those eyes.You need to be able to see yourself through the eyes of the Gospel. You need to see what you are lacking, as well as the true problem.

Only when you look at the field, through the eyes of the gospel, are you able to hold on to the correct prayer topic. Jesus Christ came to this earth. He saw the field, and this is the topic that he gave to us. So, it is the same for us. How much are you able to hold on to and enjoy the Gospel? Jesus Christ Himself is the Gospel.

The Gospel is what saves us from our sin, Hell, and death. Anybody can know this, but it is a different story to be able to see through the eyes of the Gospel.

Being able to see through the eyes of the gospel is what we call being established in the Gospel. Anybody can know the gospel if they just hear it once, but it is a different story to be able to see through the eyes of the Gospel.

When you are able to see through the eyes of the gospel, God gives you a prayer topic through His Word, and the fulfillment of God’s word is the answer to your prayer topic. 

However, If you are not able to see according to the Gospel, then the fulfillment of your prayers will be difficult. If you see through the eyes of the gospel, then God gives you the heart to pray for the harvest, and that becomes our prayer topic. So it is the prayer topic that will fulfill God’s word. It is only possible when you see through the eyes of the Gospel.

In this age, we talk about the eyes of the Gospel, and we talk about Jesus Christ. But if you are not able to see with the eyes of the Gospel, that means the Gospel is becoming weak. And because you are not able to see with the eyes of truth, then you are not able to see correctly. First of all, you see yourself incorrectly. That is why you cannot be revived.

It is because you do not see yourself through the eyes of the Gospel, and that is why you are not able to save other people. The Word cannot properly be established. Then, you cannot receive proper answers to prayer.

Therefore, the first thing that you have to do is to be able to see with the eyes of the Gospel. Anybody can understand the Gospel just by talking about it once, but are you looking at yourself with the eyes of the Gospel? In other words, are you seeing yourself with the eyes of the Gospel? By knowing that you are already with the Lord, who liberates you from your self centeredness, your material centeredness and your success centeredness, you need to be able to see this to enjoy your salvation. Otherwise, you have no choice but to be oppressed by your heavy burdens. It is difficult to live in this world like this.

If we had 100 times more power than the president of America, we might be able to solve our problems, but there is nobody in the world who has 100 times the power of the President of the United States. Even President Trump himself is afflicted.

So the problems of this world are not able to be solved by the power of a president. The real important issue is whether you are able to see through the eyes of the Gospel or not. You have to quickly escape from your self centeredness.

If you do not do that, you will continue to be trapped and stuck in your own problems. But the Gospel says that you’ve already been liberated from that sin which was when you were trying to live centered on yourself. It is a situation where you are centered on yourself.

The beginning of your life, where you try to live apart from God, being your own God, is the beginning of sin, but you don’t talk about that sin. You only talk about the times you scarred somebody else.

No matter how much you apologize to everybody. You, yourself, cannot be liberated because you are trapped by yourself. You are trapped by your own thoughts, and you’ll never be able to escape from that. That’s what it means to be trapped within your own scars, and you will never be able to escape from that. The Gospel says “it is already finished,” but it is not finished for you.

Satan knows that, so he uses that. You need to be able to see yourself through the eyes of the Gospel. If you are not able to do that, then you will tremble again in the face of financial problems even though that has been finished as well. But you are always being afflicted by material possessions, and that means you are not looking at yourself through the eyes of the Gospel. New believers might question, “What does it mean to have the eyes of the Gospel?” You have to be able to explain that. I understand that I should not be floundering because of material problems, but how can I escape from that? By seeing with the eyes of the Gospel, they are only being trapped by their material problems because they live their lives centered on material things. Now you need to live your life as a child of God, who is with God, because God has liberated you from that.

You need to relay that Gospel. In other words, you need to be able to see yourself, constantly, with the eyes of that Gospel. Because you’re not able to do that, you fall into religious life. A religious life is where you are trying to solve something in your life by working diligently for God, even though you have already been liberated. But because you do not know that you’re liberated, you keep trying to receive that liberation by doing something for God. That is the same kind of religious life in any religion. It is very important to see yourself through the eyes of the Gospel. If you’re not able to do that you will be seized by Satan, and that is why mental problems come to people even in the church. If you are mentally oppressed, of course, you will have mental problems. You have to be able to enjoy being liberated, but you are not, so you will continue to be oppressed.

You always have to be looking at yourself through the eyes of the Gospel, proclaiming the Gospel and enjoying the Gospel. This is the most important thing. Instead of being centered on that, you’re constantly centered on something else. Even though you already have been liberated, you’re holding on to other things. There is something that you have been rooted in for a long time. You already have been liberated from that but your thoughts are trapped within it, and you keep proclaiming that you are liberated until it becomes rooted in you. This is what we call the spiritual battle. These thoughts that leave you no choice but to always make you poor, even though you have been liberated from your poverty.

 You are always poor. You have already been freed from yourself, but you are still thinking that you can’t do it. That’s why you are not able to enjoy the freedom of the Gospel, and you keep living like a non believer. If students are not able to study, then they should challenge towards that in prayer, but they keep saying that they cannot. And that means they cannot escape from their self-centeredness.

 Because of that, they are seized by Satan who drags them into disaster. That’s why they have poverty later, and they say that they cannot do it. That means they are not able to escape from their self-centeredness. You have to escape. Otherwise, the further you get into the future, the more mental problems you will have. That’s why you have depression. You get problems in your life. You have the Gospel, so you have to look at yourself through the eyes of the Gospe3l

Prayer is the most important thing. As soon as you open your eyes up in the morning, you ask, “Who am I?” If you start your day from a place that is outside of that, you are going to be oppressed by the six states of the nonbeliever all day. If you come to the church in a state where you are oppressed, then nothing looks good. But what do you think? Are you going to have conflict, division, and disputes? The Lord is looking at the field in today’s scripture, and He sees that the field does not have the Gospel.

Only the one, who has the Gospel and enjoys the Gospel, will open their eyes to see the field. But what will happen? Otherwise, you will look at the fields with different eyes, then what happens? Your prayer topic will be different. No matter how much you pray right now, you may not get answers. Why? Because you see things incorrectly, and you won’t receive answers until you see correctly. It is because you do not see with the eyes of the Gospel, but you look at everything through your own thoughts. “I have to kill that guy. I have to get rid of that guy.” This is all you think about. You look at everyone saying, “Oh, this guy has money.” “Oh, that person does not have money.” “Oh, maybe, this person can be helpful to me.” “If I make friends with this guy, I will not be successful, but if I make friends with that person, maybe, I will be successful.” This is what you think, and it is the evidence that you are not able to see yourself with the eyes of the Gospel. You suffer because you look at yourself with the incorrect eyes, and there is no freedom there. You have to see through the eyes of the Gospel, in order for you to have freedom. So, even if you are weak, you are not actually weak.

You are the one who may be weak, but you’re not the weak one, because God is within you, and you are the one to do world evangelization. That is the reason why the Holy Spirit of God is within you. That is the reason why you pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit. 

If you think about your own weakness, then those are incorrect eyes. But if you look at yourself through the eyes of the Gospel, then you will come to life.

No matter what you do, if you yourself are dead, then anything you see in the world will just be darkness. No matter how good you may be or how successful you are, you will always be afraid of losing all those things, and it is because you are looking at things with the incorrect eyes. That is why you need to look at yourself and other people through the eyes of the Gospel. There are some people who are floundering in church, even though they have the Gospel because they are so stuck in themselves. There are some people who are stuck in material things, and you need to be able to see them. How? You need to help them.

If you constantly look at yourself through the eyes of the Gospel and you enjoy the gospel, then you will be able to see with the eyes of the Gospel as you look out into the field. Your eyes are incorrect. You need to see with the eyes of truth. You have to see yourself with the eyes of truth, and you cannot just look at your circumstances. By your perspective, if you seem successful, everyone else will look like a failure.

Look at Joseph. If he saw himself through his own eyes and thought that he needed to kill his brothers, he would be a failure in life. If you look at those lies, you will be deceived by Satan.

Satan was a deceiver from the beginning. The devil comes in many different forms. Sometimes he comes in the form of a devil, but other times he comes in the form of our thoughts. You must not be deceived, and the way to do that is to go into the truth. Jesus Christ says He is the truth. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, then who am I? I am a child of God, who has been liberated from all problems. That is why you should not be stuck in your own problems. If you get lost in your thoughts of whether you have material possessions or not, you are going to die. Even if I have nothing, I have everything. Why? Because if I remain within the plan of Christ, then I have everything. I have been called to do world evangelization. These are the eyes of truth that the Lord, Jesus Christ has given to us. Do you know why you keep suffering?

That is why every word that you say is a word to help the people.

If you are wrong, and they are wrong, then no matter how much you try to help them or guide them, it is of no use. You pray for them, and you go and help them so that they can hold onto the Gospel. You need to go into the flow of this Gospel as a nation.

That is the establishment of the Gospel, and you must enter the stream of this Gospel. The stream that you enter is the stream of establishing the Gospel. This is the gathering of Acts 1:14, where the Gospel is being proclaimed to the world. You need to remain within the Gospel as a nation.

How can I help the people in the church who have not received the Gospel yet?

The church is not the church building; it is the people in the church. Jesus is looking at the Jewish people, who are in the church and are not able to enjoy this Gospel. Jesus Christ is praying that there will be workers who can give the Gospel to these people. If you see with the eyes of the Gospel, then God will give you the words to have the proper prayer topics.

If you look with the eyes of legalism, then you will look with the eyes of the law. That will not be fulfilled. Because legalism is centered on people, you are interpreting the law based on people, whether people are following the law or not. But the Gospel is not centered on the word. The Gospel is centered on Jesus Christ, who separates me from my old self. When you look at everything through those eyes, then you feel bad about the people who assert themselves. You’ll realize that a lot of people around you are saying very smart words. 

You’re going to feel really bad for them.

 Of course, you cannot say that to their face; otherwise they may fight with you, but you know that you are looking with the eyes of the Gospel. You see that people are ripping each other apart. With these words, imagine how much suffering that person is in because they are not able to see with the eyes of the Gospel. You need to be able to see that Gospel. They are not able to enjoy this because they do not see with the eyes of the Gospel.

Instead of looking at their face and their actions, you need to be able to see their inner state.

There are some people, who say a lot of correct words because they think that their thoughts are correct, and they’re going to complain about their financial difficulties. As you look at people like this, what should you do? You should feel bad for them.

This is someone who has been seized by material things all their life.

Then, what should you do about that? You should pray for them and help them so that they can hold on to the gospel.

That is the stream of establishing the Gospel. I must remain, and everybody knows about the Gospel that Jesus is the Christ, the true Prophet, Priest and King. But what happens if I’m not able to see myself in that way? You know the Gospel, but you are not able to see yourself through the eyes of the Gospel.

You can proclaim the Gospel to somebody else in one go, but you are not able to look at that person with the eyes of the Gospel.

So, there is something that you need, until the point where you’re able to see with the eyes of the Gospel. And this is the first thing that we have to restore.

It is not about you, but it is the Lord who lives within you. The Lord has come inside of me, and He is living inside my life with His plan. But you keep on thinking about your conscience and you think, “Oh, I cannot do this.” That actually becomes curses and disasters of your family line, instead of being the Gospel, and that is why that same pattern will be repeated.

Even if there’s just one person in that family line, who can see with the eyes of the Gospel properly, they can save the entire family line. But if everybody in the family cannot look with the eyes of the Gospel, it means they are being seized by something else. The people who are sitting here today, you must pray that the Lord will give you the ability to see with the eyes of the Gospel, and God will give it to you. Do not be deceived by yourself. You, yourselves, used to be sinners who are trapped in their original sin.

If you cannot even acknowledge that, then how could you look at yourself properly? No matter how much you think like Confucius, you will always be living a life that is destined for Hell. No matter how sophisticated your thoughts may be, like Socrates, you have no choice but to be seized by Satan. No matter how much you try to assert what kind of person you are, you will never be able to escape from Satan.

But if you know your current state, you know that you have no choice, but to be deceived by Satan. That is when you can enjoy the Gospel. I hope you will always look through the eyes of the Gospel and put this into practice.

There is a way that we think that we can do something without practicing, but that is because we have been trained to look at the world in this way our entire lives. But now, see with the eyes of the Gospel and meditate on it because we already have been liberated. Once the eyes of the Gospel open for us, then we will be able to see the church.

In other words, you will know how to devote your finances to make the economy of light. The economy of light, simply put, is the money that saves. It is the money, the offering that is used to save people’s lives. If we use the word “offering,” you might be tested by that so we use the word “economy.” We may misunderstand the economy of light. You say, “Yes,” but you don’t see the connection to offering. But we are saying to pray for the economy of light so that it may be used to save lives. Otherwise, you will spend all of your money on the economy of darkness that kills people.

People will offer to buy a round of shots for everyone. Why? For their own glory. Ultimately, it is not money who saves people, right? What money saves people? Offering is the money that saves people. The offering to temple construction is the finances to save people. Even though you have money, you won’t give it as an offering. You will say, “If God gives me money, then I will give offering.”

This means that your eyes are somewhere else, and you are seized by money. It means you have not been liberated.

There are many people who give offering without having any money. I don’t give offering because I have a lot. It is only possible when you go all in.

I am not talking about just money right now, but I am talking about seeing the economy, so that we can save. God has prepared the economy that will save lives. Don’t you think that is correct? That is the work God is doing. The nonbelievers make and spend their money in ways that will not save lives. 

So you need to change the way that you think about finances.

If you do not know about this, then I’m sure that none of you do, but there are definitely people who misunderstand the economy of light. They ask God to give them the economy of light for the sake of their own plans.

Do you think God will give that to you?

Do you think God would allow you to starve to death? If you starve to death, you will become a martyr, but God will not allow you to starve to death. You must open your eyes to this meaning. Even if you do not have money, stake your life.

Don’t you think that your life is more valuable than money? Wealthy people can give a lot of money, but they cannot stake their lives. You need to stake your life. Even little children can do this. 

Lord, I will live for You for all my life. God, I give my life to You.

That is way better of an offering than giving a lot of money because there are a lot of people who give offering, but do not stake their lives.

If a Remnant says, “God, I will stake my life, and give my life to you.” Then God will bless their entire life. It is not a matter of having or not having. It matters with what eyes you see.

Once that is restored, then the church becomes healthy, and the church will save the world.

On the other hand, from the perspective of a pastor, there are some pastors who talk about world evangelization, but it is not in the direction of saving lives. It is in some other direction. They think that if they do the world evangelization movement, then they will have a lot of people, and if they have a lot of people, then their church will become strong.

The power of the churches, the power of the pastor, that is the thought that these pastors have when they do world evangelization, but God is not fooled by that. And that is why those people crumble. That individual crumbles.

Let’s talk not from the pastor’s perspective, but let’s talk about your perspective. When you do your business or a job, you have another motive, and God is not deceived by that. It is the same story.

That is why, when the pastor loses his spiritual strength, every member of the church loses strength as well. You cannot see this because it is a spiritual thing, but you will be able to know spiritually because that spiritual thing is always related. That is why that church will not be a church that can save the world, and you will be beaten around for no reason until you realize this.

Satan and God know your motives.

Regardless of how much you talk about missions and evangelism, God knows your goal, and Satan knows as well.

No matter how much you are foaming at the mouth talking about the economy of light and world evangelization finances, if you have another motive, God will wait because He is the one who knows your deepest hearts. Even the devil knows your hearts.

It is the same as inviting the devil to come into your hearts. Then what do you think will happen to your life? It becomes a life of the Tower of Babel. You build yourself up to the top, and one day you collapse. So this Gospel Movement must not be deceptive. 

We are not complete, but the Gospel is complete. That is why we need to look at ourselves through the eyes of the Gospel, then we can go completely all into the Gospel movement. That is what I worry about the most.

I’m always confirming myself.

Why am I praying for the word movement to take place in all these different regions? It is to save lives. Do you know what would happen if we do not save lives? Then without even knowing it, I will turn around and see the me-centeredness, material centeredness and success centeredness. Even though I pray so fervently and go from place to place, one day it will all collapse. If that is relayed to your children, then everyone will collapse at the same time.

But if you do not see through the eyes of the Gospel, and you see your child is doing pretty well, then you will be under the misconception that it is all good. But this is not a misconception that you should have because one day they will collapse without the Gospel. That is what it means for there to be at least one member of the family to be able to see with the eyes of the Gospel. 

The truth will overcome the lies, and the Holy Spirit will overcome the evil spirits. You do not break down evil spirits with your persuasiveness, but you break it down through the Holy Spirit. The truth will overcome the lies of the region.

The real question is: Are you the individual and is this the church that has the truth? Every church prays in the name of Jesus Christ, but it turns out that they are legalistic.

They are so caught up in their legalism, and they cannot escape. The evidence is that they fight. They fight with each other using the word of God, and that is how they are legalistic.

Everybody thinks that they themselves are okay.

Because they think they’re fine, they’re pointing out the flaws of other people, and they’re fighting. This person looks at the problems of other people.

They think the church is big and has such a long history, and people are moved by those things and wonder how a church like this could be bad.

Even the Early Church was broken down, then how could this church withstand the test of time? It is an opportunity for you to see yourself. If you do not have the eyes of the gospel, one day you will collapse. How will it happen? The members of the church will individually collapse. 

In other words, they are going to suffer because they are so centered on themselves and material things, and they cut everyone apart because they are so legalistic.

These are the only eyes you’ve been trained to see, so when you see the nonbelievers in the world, you try to kill them because you have been so established in the law.

When you see them, you only see things that are wrong and you have to kill everybody. You think that you are the only person who should live, and everyone else should die. But there is no truth like that in the Bible. That was the way that the Pharisees thought, and they faced a disaster.

People also talk about prosperity. It doesn’t matter what kind of church or religion you belong to, people just say, “Give me this. Give me that,” even though the Lord has already given you everything. He has even given you Jesus Christ. If that is lacking, the Holy Spirit is dwelling within you.

The Lord promises to give you power so that you can be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, but you don’t want to receive that at all. Instead, you ask God to give you this and to give you that. If you receive power to become a witness through the Holy Spirit, that is everything. But that doesn’t give you any money, so instead you say, “Give me this and Give me that,” that’s prosperity Gospel. Then you cannot save the region, and you cannot save the people. Before you say this or that, you have to first be able to enjoy the freedom and liberation of the Gospel. Otherwise, you will fall right into mysticism.

There are a lot of churches that do mysticism, and they all collapse one by one.

It seems like they have a little bit of endurance because they have a lot of systems.

But mysticism does not have any real power. Mysticism will shake. In the face of the gospel, even you cannot come to life unless it is the Gospel. Even the Holy Spirit works because it is the Gospel. 

There is an economy of light that God has prepared for you, for the sake of the Gospel.

The Church of the future is the church that will relay the Gospel, so this is what we must pray for. Instead you are praying to reveal your own name.

There is the biggest church here, and that’s the Catholic church.

They have these little tiles in the front that show how much money each person gave, and when the Catholic Church came in, they took all those tiles away.

I’m not saying that saving up money is bad, but if you do not have the Gospel, then you have no choice.

Simply put, individuals should be happy, but even if they have money, they’re not happy.

Somebody should have pride because of Jesus Christ, but they do not have that pride.

If you are not proud because of Jesus Christ, then how are you going to save the world?

You have to say that because of Jesus Christ you have everything.

When I was about to get married, some assistant pastors and senior deaconesses in Korea, who had been going to church for a very long time, told my wife not to marry me because I did not have any money at the time. Those words may seem correct.

It’s true that I did not have any money. But it’s not that I didn’t have a plan from God and it’s not that I didn’t have any power that God had prepared for me. I am a child of God, and I am a missionary, who has been liberated from all of my problems.

My wife was a little wary because of things like this, so she came and told me about it. Then I asked her, “Who really told you these things?”

I heard those names, and I knew those women, and I felt so bad. They had received so much training, but they didn’t really, realistically, know the Gospel.

She said that it’s true that he doesn’t have any money.

How come they don’t talk about the fact that he has the Gospel? If I was a non believer who didn’t know the Gospel then, of course, I would have been a high ranking official or professional now. The reason why I was penniless at that time was because of the Gospel. It wasn’t because I didn’t have the ability.

That was just what happened because I was following God’s guidance for the sake of the Gospel, but honestly speaking, at that time, I had everything. Even though I had nothing, I didn’t have any kind of worries or anxieties because I didn’t have anything to rely on anyway. That is the most comfortable way. If you have anything, you’re always going to be worried about it, but if you don’t have anything, you don’t have to worry about it. 

Because I didn’t have anything, I just staked my life.

But you should not always stay like that.

You need to have the same kind of faith, where even if you have a great inheritance, you will be able to give everything up to God because it is not yours. God has simply lent it to you. God has entrusted it to you for the sake of the Gospel. But, if you take what God has entrusted to you and you make your calculations, then it is finished, and you will be trapped by material things. There is nothing that truly belongs to me.

A director in Korea died from the coronavirus.

One of our church member’s, friend was an anesthesiologist, and he died in his sleep. He was not very old. In fact, he was younger than the senior deaconess, but he just died in his sleep. Life is like that. It is not ours.

But you keep misunderstanding, thinking that you own your life. Even now, if God plugs your nostrils, you will die.

But you worry so much. You manipulate things, thinking that they are yours.

You must escape from that. Assistant pastor Bae was in a little bit of pain after surgery.

Now she must be healed quickly so that she can enter the evangelism movement that produces many disciples. If God calls you, then you are simply called. There’s no reason to say this or that about it because your life does not belong to you. I have experienced this a few times. I’ve experienced near death situations. So I just gave up everything. You only have a headache because you rely on something else.

There is nothing that remains for you on this earth. Your body will not remain nothing. The only thing that remains is the influence that you’ve given to other people in the name of the Gospel.

But the influence that you’re giving, your time, your material possessions, all your efforts, everything must be for the Gospel.

Then, when the next generation arises, that will continue.

In conclusion, we know the Gospel.

There are some legalistic people who say that they know the Gospel, but they live their lives differently.

So what you must do is to look at yourself through the eyes of the Gospel. If you look at yourself through the eyes of your own conscience, then it’s going to be difficult. You need to constantly look at yourself through the eyes that show you that you are a child of God, that you have been liberated from all of your problems, and that is the truth. You need to be able to look at yourself like that, to have the strength and the power of liberation and freedom, and you need to see other people with those eyes as well. That is how other people may come to life. 

That is how you will remain within the stream of Gospel, then your finances need to be used in the direction of saving other people’s lives. That is how the Holy Spirit is working, even now.

The third mission is about missions and evangelism, all the way to the third generation. This is the basic content that we have just covered.

I hope that you, yourselves, will hold on to the Gospel 24 hours a day. Then the eyes through which you see will be different. 

If you lose hold of this, then you are going to go back to seeing with the eyes of your conscience, and you will die because you see with your own eyes.

I hope that you will remain within the stream of this Gospel as a nation that is able to save yourself, other people, and the field.

Prayer

Let us pray together holding on to the word we have received today.