The Spiritual State of Worship (Leviticus 23:1-8)
Today we’ll share the Word of God with Leviticus 23. Leviticus is a book given to the Israelites after they escaped the age of slavery of 430 years. The reason they were enslaved was because of the message. The land of Egypt is a nation of the world; however, what was their spiritual standing? Anytime there is a nation of the world, there is also a ruling world of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of satan that controls them invisibly. If you do not know that, then you will be enslaved by the world.
In reality, you’re enslaved by Satan. Egypt back then was a land like America that originally was a superpower nation, but in reality it was a nation controlled by Satan, and that’s why it was a nation that bowed down to idols and other gods. It was a state of egypt where they had no choice but to face disasters. This is where the Israelites, the people of God, lost hold of the covenant, and were enslaved for 430 years.
Physically speaking, they lacked nothing. Because they lived in the great and powerful nation of Egypt, physically and academically speaking, they lived in abundance. They thought this life was everything, but one day, they were met with disaster. To these people, it came as a shock because they thought with human diligence, they could live a good life. However, when they were met with disaster, they saw this wasn’t so, and one day, the 10 disasters of Egypt came upon them.
These aren’t words of a fairytale, the disaster occurs today as well, but the people do not know why these disasters are coming. There are spiritual disasters you see with your eyes, but there are even more spiritual disasters that are invisible. These people succeeded in Egypt but one day they had spiritual disasters come upon them. Why do you think they had spiritual problems? Because they were serving other gods spiritually and this was the result that followed. How do you think the Israelites blocked the disasters?
The saved people of God lost hold of the spiritual covenant, living for the physical life, and that’s why the disaster came upon them. These disasters don’t just come upon them randomly, but there’s a process through which these naturally come as a result of a continuation of their spiritual state. If you look at some drivers, some do not drive very ethically. Let’s say for example there’s a driver who runs red lights, or there’s a four-way stop intersection, and this person drives through without stopping. At first, they’re not getting any tickets, but do you think that person will get a ticket eventually or not? Do you think they’ll never get a ticket or will they? If someone thinks they will never get a ticket, it means that person has a spiritual problem. As they live their entire lives that way, they will absolutely get a ticket.
It’s just that this person hasn’t received a ticket yet, but this person keeps committing behaviors that have no choice but to end in a ticket. They’ll get it one day and say, “That’s unfortunate.” It was simply all the other times they acted illegally that they weren’t caught, but continuing to act illegally, they got caught one day.
I think many Koreans have this kind of personality. That’s why one day they face a problem, and it’s the same with spiritual things. They were enslaved by Egypt for 430 years and lived quite well without God, and living in Egypt, they lacked nothing, they went to good colleges and had good jobs, and their children were fine. Does that make everything okay? Spiritually speaking, their spiritual connection with God had completely stopped.
But because they got along well physically, they didn’t face disasters, they were continuing along this state, but they were actually not okay. Without a doubt they will face disasters and be in a spiritual state where they can’t block the disasters because their spiritual state is so low.
Your walk of faith must be very honest. It’s the same with your business. You might have a short term advantage if you try to trick other people, but can you continue? At some point, it will explode. If we live our walk of faith with this kind of spiritual state, even if we seem to not have problems now, we will eventually get caught.
If you are worshiping the one true God who is all powerful, there is a very real relationship that you spiritually have with God. The problem is with you, that you do not know yourself. In Leviticus 23:3, God tells the Israelites who escaped from Egypt and slavery, to work for six days and rest on the seventh.
Do you think God tells this as a joke? God is giving this word to the Israelites knowing a very incredible thing. He is telling you on the sabbath to do no work and to concentrate on God, and to do this every week. Even if you don’t do this, there won’t be big problems in your life, but that’s not true. The problem has already begun. The problem you see with your eyes that is revealed will come according to God’s time schedule. Someone who is not keeping the Sabbath or has lost the meaning of sabbath and practices it religiously will face a problem one day because their spiritual state is already empty.
We just give worship on Sundays, right? Regardless of your spiritual state, you think you worshiped so you’re okay, but your spiritual state isn’t changing. As time passes, you will face answers and the fruits you see with your eyes based on your spiritual state. He told us to do this every single week. So that’s why during worship times, you have to receive spiritual strength. Whether you worship at home or go to church, the standard of worship is where your spiritual state gains spiritual strength.
If that’s not what takes place, then every week you worship is a religious ritual. You might be able to study and do your business well; even unbelievers do that. But as time passes, you will find your answer. God is telling us not to do that, so that’s why He tells us about the Sabbath.
Starting from Leviticus 23:4, God tells us about the festival of the passover and the unleavened bread to be kept every year. Leviticus 23:5, God tells us that passover begins at twilight of the 14th day of the 1st month. These people already escaped from Egypt with the blood of the passover lamb. Why did God tell them to keep the passover repeatedly?
Perhaps they thought this was another religious ritual that they kept because they believed in God, and it was a ritual they saw with their eyes. If you think of it like that, it’s a big problem. Before they had the blood of the passover lamb, they were cursed and couldn’t escape, the curse of Satan, the curses and disasters of hell; the passover liberated them from that. What did they be liberated from? On the passover day, their spiritual state is being restored.
If you lose hold of the spiritual things, you study the Bible based on knowledge and physical things. Without the blood of the lamb which is Jesus Christ you can never escape from satan, disasters, and hell. In reality, all the Israelites enslaved in Egypt were enslaved by Satan,and that is why they served other gods because their spirit was in a state that was already enslaved; they couldn’t escape. Even though the israetlte people were people of God, because they lost hold of the spiritual things, they were enslaved by the Egyptians, then no matter what the Israelites did, the people of God, they couldn’t escape from salvery.
As you live in America, unless you hold onto only Jesus Christ, you cannot escape from slavery. You cannot escape from money and success; you will be enslaved by the things you see with your eyes. The authority of Satan that controls this country rules over with the 3 Organizations and the culture. The churches and christians that don’t know the spiritual things are holding onto physical things, even if they are holding onto the Word of God, it’s physical.. “We have to keep the passover, once a week we have to keep the sabbath,” its’ something we do, but they lose hold of all the spiritual meaning inside of it, and because they have no spiritual strength, they become enslaved by America. They do everything it takes to eat and survive, but one day they face curses and disasters. Because the parents have no spiritual strength, they relay their spiritual state to the children directly. The spiritual problems of America are being released directly to the children of the families.
You cannot escape even if you go to church, no matter how much you give worship. You can only escape when you understand the word of Jesus Christ. “Pastor, I’ve already received salvation through Christ, why do we keep talkin about that?” That person doesn’t know spiritual things. Our spiritual state goes back and forth, just like your mental state goes back and forth too, and your physical health will also fluctuate. Your spiritual state will also fluctuate. If you do not receive spiritual strength every day, every week, you will be enslaved. That’s why we must keep the passover.
In today’s word, we are saying to always confirm Christ. The only way to maintain your spiritual state is no other way than to confirm Christ. Always imprint christ. “Wow, I could never ever be freed from the curses and disasters and hell and Satan, but because of Jesus Christ, I’ve been liberated and God is with me. The Old Testament tells us to keep the feast of the passover so that we can maintain the spiritual state.
Starting the next day after that, the 15th day of the month, the feast of the unleavened bread begins. Eating the bread isn’t the point, but through this festival, concentrate on God. He’s saying, once a year every year, after the passover, you have to keep the festival of the unleavened bread, but it’s not important what you eat. You have to restore your spiritual state, how did you live in Egypt, how were you freed, and how will you live after that?
On the first day of the festival of the unleavened beard, hold a festival for everybody and do no regular work. It means that every single person must gather together and concentrate on what the unleavened bread means. Have this for seven days, give this food offering by fire, it means to give worship. The last day, the seventh day, gather together again and do no work; just concentrate. God has given us this day so that once a year, they do nothing else but concentrate, and every single person in the Israelite community does this.
Why do they do this? They still collapse in the wilderness. They were still keeping the physical rituals you see with your eyes, but they lost hold of the spiritual things, so their spiritual state went back into the state they had in Egypt. Ultimately, the reason why they collapsed in the wilderness even though they kept the festivals is because of the things that were imprinted and rooted in them from Egypt.
The LORD knew this, and that is why He tells us to keep the sabbath and passover every week. He’s not saying that what we do is important, but concentrating on God and God’s Word is important. If your spiritual state is good and healthy, everything else will follow, but losing hold of this and focusing on the physical things instead, they get obsessed and focused on the physical things instead. Obsession is an incorrect concentration. If you’re obsessed with stealing, you’re concentrating on an incorrect thing. Addiction means you can’t escape from that anymore. It doesn’t just happen randomly out of nowhere. That spiritual state continues down your family line and one day, you have this problem.
It’s not that you didn’t go to church; you did. You kept the passover and sabbath, but what was missing? We just lose hold of the spiritual things, but we keep the outer appearances. It seemed like we’d be okay by keeping up our outer appearances, but that’s not true; the result comes according to our spiritual state. Quickly restore your spiritual state.
You will never be able to do this with just a lot of Bible study, but restoring your spiritual state through these things, that’s good. If you do all the Bible studies but your spiritual state is the same, that’s just a religious life. There are some people who read the Word of God a lot and memorize a lot of verses. If we do this, our spiritual state should be getting better, but sometimes our spiritual state doesn’t change, but they know the Word of God so much. That’s a legalistic person.
What’s a legalistic person? They talk about the Word of God so incredibly, but the center of that isn’t Christ, it’s centered on themselves. It’s because the person is still self-centered, using the Word of God to prove their point, that person will collapse. That person oppresses themselves and oppresses others because their center isn’t the Word of God, it’s themselves. That spiritual state is spread throughout the family and one day they will collapse because they cannot overcome Satan, so you must quickly let go of “yourself.” That is why God tells us to focus and concentrate on the sabbath and passover, to let go of yourself and concentrate on God.
Almost everything you do is self-centered. What does it mean to obey the Sabbath? It means to lay everything down and to concentrate on God, to receive spiritual strength and grace from Him. But if you continuously hold onto your concerns as you come to God without laying down your concerns, the Word doesn’t work on you, and that’s not worship.
Restoring the passover means you die on the cross and Christ lives within you, you completely restore the relationship of Christ as your Lord. It is no longer you, but Christ is your center. You’re always concerned, we say we’re scared, and you’re only receiving and giving scars because you’re self-centered, but you don’t know this. Quickly lay yourself down and restore Christ as your spiritual state.
Then, when you become completely filled with spiritual things, you’ll be completely filled with thanksgiving, then you can be the skill and cultural summit. It may seem as you’re doing it, but God is guiding you forward. Do you think that in the age of David, David was the only one who could throw stones well? At that time, because they needed a weapon against bears and lions that would steal sheep, every shepherd knew how to throw stones. I’m sure there were people more skillful than David, but that’s not what the Bible is talking about.
David, whose spiritual state was good, one day, had this incident and was used by God. That’s what the Bible talks about. We focus so much on our skills and talents, but the 3 Organizations do it so much better. The Bible never tells us to go out and take down the unbelievers. If you lose hold of spiritual things and focus on the Word of God physically speaking, then you think you have to take down the three organizations? You can’t do that. THe people of God had never overtaken the people of Egypt, they never overcame Babylon and Rome. You’re not able to apply the Word of God properly because you focus so much on having physical skill, but there are so many people with more skill. It’s a fact that the people who are the spiritual summit can have their skills used by God.
It’s talking about your skill being used by God, not becoming the best in your skill; you must have spiritual strength. It’s not not having skills, but you do just it, and we’re talking about when it’s used by God. Otherwise, you just do it. You have to understand the message well. Whatever skill you have must be used in God’s hand. Otherwise, your skill will not be used by God; you’re just using it to eat and survive. It’s the same for unbelievers, that’s that’s not what the Bible is talking about. If you want to be used by God, you must become the spiritual summit, then even the small tasks like being a seamstress can be used by God, and that’s when you can change the culture of that region.
But if you cannot understand spiritual things, you’ll understand the message like an unbeliever, and you’ll try to train your kids differently with some kind of different spirit. You need to be able to understand the word of God correctly, and what that means is to not listen to my words, don’t listen to me, but focus on the direcoint that God desires, then you can escape Egypt and even conquer Canaan, so you always have to examine yourself.
The spiritual things aren’t about doing a physical thing. We are so used to being physically centered so we think we have to do something, but you cannot change your spiritual state by doing something. First, it’s faith. You have to first believe that Satan, hell, and sin exist. Only then will you be able to spiritually believe that Christ is the answer to those problems. If you can’t believe ini that, you haven’t escaped; you’re still an unbeliever. If you have escaped, it’s not finished with that. You have to constantly examine and confirm. That’s where Thanksgiving comes from. If you truly believe, you will be thankful.
“Wow, I had no choice but to live a hellish life on earth and go to hell, and had no choice but to face curses from sin because of Satan, but not by my will, but Christ has saved me.” Every time you confirm that, your spiritual state changes. “God Who sits on the Throne of Heaven, the Father God, and the Son of God and the Spirit of God are with me,” so that the blessings of heaven come upon you. I’m talking about spiritual things right now, you need to realistically enjoy that, then you receive spiritual strength. Nothing else will give that to you.
You have your status and authority as a child of God because the LORD is with you. The blessing of the throne of heaven comes upon you, and you’re able to establish the kingdom of God to break down the kingdom of Satan and the work of evangelism and missions is something God does.
You have authority. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who has all authority on heaven and earth, will you break down the curses and disasters of satan, hell in your family, studies, job, and everything related to you. But you don’t do that because you don’t believe it, so you’re taken in by it. Because you’re missing that, you’ll face disasters you see with your eyes.
As time passes, you forget spiritual things, so God tells you to keep the passover, the sabbath, and later on, the pentecost and ingathering. Honestly, these three things are what gathers the Israelites. As you constantly keep hold of the spiritual state, it may seem that nothing is happening, but one day, you will see answers in your spiritual state. One day, Joseph had the incident where he became a slave. Because he was constantly maintaining his spiritual state, when he became a slave, he was able to see.
Without maintaining your spiritual state, you become a slave, and it’s enough to make you commit suicide, because these people are in a place where they have no choice but to commit suicide. If you’re in a low spiritual state, and you become a slave, then with the money you make in one day, you go into drugs, why? You have no choice but to do drugs because you think, “I believe in God, but why is my life like this?” That’s why you get into drugs, because your spiritual state was continuing where you had no choice but to do drugs, but then you became a slave, so you touch drugs.
You face unfair circumstances; what was Joseph’s spiritual state? The fact that he was already holding to the covenant means his spiritual state was already healthy. That’s why Pharaoh was able to confess, “Who can we find who is filled with the spirit of God like this man?” it means his spiritual state was always full. In that spiritual state, he was unfairly and unjustly accused and sent into prison. Unbelievers think that’s enough to drive someone crazy, but not Joseph.
He was sent into prison and saw God’s answer there, that’s what I’m talking about. If you don’t understand these words, then as you live on this earth, you’ll face great problems, and there’s no answer. “I’ve believed for so long, but why don’t I have answers in this life?” you maintain a state that has no answers, meaning you’re so firmly living your life centered on yourself and physical things so this is simply the result.
What’s a religious life? I decide what I want, and I try to fulfill it, and I borrow the power of God to fulfill it. That’s a failed life, why? Because you’re centered on yourself, but you’re not the truth. Isaiah 40 says the Word of God is eternal, but my words and thoughts aren’t eternal. What’s that mean? It means one day it will be revealed that I’m not right,and that’s why I crumble.
Only the Word of God is true yesterday, today, and tomorrow, meaning only the Word of God is fulfilled. But if you’re not centered on the Word of God but you’re centered on yourself, you’ll be enslaved by Egypt. You need to quickly change that to be the blood of the passover lamb that is Jesus Christ.
What happens if you don’t quickly change this? You will face the answers exactly according to your spiritual state. That’s why God gave us the walk of faith to be enjoyed every day. Christ is with us now. The very first thing you must do is maintain your spirituality. If you cannot do this, then honestly speaking, you don’t need to work. Of course, you have no choice but to go to your job; I am not talking about that, but without spiritual strength, there’s no point in anything else, because you’ll receive answers in your life without spiritual strength.
How do those answers come to you? Exactly according to your family line. THe problem in your family line where not a single one person has a healthy state will come to your life exactly. If you want to think about this on a larger scale, all the spiritual problems in the families are gathered in the society of America, so all the problems of America will come to you. Generalizing this, it’s mental problems, drug addiction, suicide; you’re either killing others or killing yourself, speaking about the general problems of America.
If you live your life without maintaining spiritual strength and your spiritual state, your family and you will go into these large problems. Or you will face the problems of Egypt, enslaved by money and work. That’s why the LORD tells you today to keep the sabbath. Keep the passover and the feast of the unleavened bread. It’s not enough to just keep it; the Iraelites kept it, but through that, restore the spiritual things.
Humans are spiritual beings, people don’t have problems in their life because they don’t keep the ritual of the passover. God has given you this Covenant is that you can matinatin your spiritual state, but keeping the rituals without knowing the spiritual things, you have no choice but to follow the physical nature of the world. One day, you’ll face spiritual disasters and until you restore the meaning of christ, you will never be able to escape. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pastor or anything, without Christ, you cannot escape. Confirm this every single day.
Worship. When you’re alone, every single day, you must restore worship, otherwise you shouldn’t do anything; it will fail. Why will you fail in the end? Because you’ve already failed spiritually. Even if your business remains, you will be in a state bound for collapse. If you have physical and mental problems, what’s good about money? It can’t restore you. If your child has spiritual problems, it doesn’t matter how much money you have; will you be happy? Even if you go to a wonderful school, if you have spiritual problems, you can’t escape from that. Only Christ. You can only escape when you hold onto that, that’s why you need to confirm the name of Jesus Christ every single day, always.
You hold onto the covenant that God gave you through the Word every week and have a time of concentration. When your spirit concentrates on the Word of God, invisible to your eyes, your spiritual state changes. Only at that point will your incorrect imprint, root, nature begin to change; nothing else can change those things. You’re already rooted in things that will bring you failure; you just’ see it yet, but one day you will see the answers.
Every single day, have a quiet time of concentrating on the word of God. Because it’s the Word of God, invisible to your eyes, your imprint, root, nature will change, and that’s what we call healing. Doing this 24 hours a day means that even while working, you maintain your spiritual state, then no matter what you do, in your studies and business, there’s nothing to question because God is doing it.
You can do it, just start today. It’s not about doing anything; you have to believe it. It’s not that the Holy Spirit leaves and comes back; the Triune God sits at the throne of heaven and is with you always, how? In the name of Jesus Christ, enjoy your status and authority. There’s nothing else for you to do, but God will do the work of missions and evangelism through us that change the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God and spread the kingdom of God.
One thing you must be careful about, never be impatient, “Why isn’t this working out, why isn’t it happening quickly? Why isn’t the evangelism movement taking place for me?” Even that’s not God; it is you. You are establishing your own time schedule and you say it’s not working out, so that’s a channel for Satan. Impatient people always fail. They make themselves so hasty that they give up, but even that is in God’s hands and the evangelism movement taking place is in God’s hands.
We don’t know when it’s going to take place; it is in God’s hands, you have to believe in that. Then your hastiness will go away. No matter what, enjoy this, then you will become the most happy. Even if you have nothing physical, you’re happy because Christ is with you, then at that point, God will use you even in the smallest things, and I believe that we will become like that because God gives us the word like that, and God will fulfill it.
Quiet time, during this time of worship is the greatest opportunity. You’re not aware of it, but God is working and changing your spiritual state. Every single day, as you wake up and before you go to sleep, the people who do this will understand and those who don’t do this but concentrate on something else will realize they’re moving according to their deep roots. Even if it is a short time, I hope you will have this time every morning and every night before you go to sleep.
Prayer
Let us have a time of quiet prayer, meaning you’re concentrating on God’s Word, holding onto the Word we received today