What is the work of God? For Jesus Christ to die and resurrect for all of humanity.

Let us bless one another, Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. I hope the blessing of the fulfillment of the Word of God will be upon all the individuals and families worshiping with their families in their homes and out of state.

The background of the scripture we read today is Jesus Christ telling his disciples of what will happen in the future, the suffering in the future, and the death He will die. As soon as Simon Peter heard this, he said, “Never Lord. This will never happen to you.” Jesus responded to him, “Get behind me, Satan. You do not have in mind God’s concern, but only human concerns.”

Peter was saying these words with the right words he had to serve his teacher, Rabbi, and Lord. But Jesus says, “Begone, Satan. You are a stumbling block to the work of God.” It is possible that we have the same thoughts as Peter. It’s possible that what we thought was a correct judgement was actually a stumbling block to God’s work, so through today’s word, I hope you will be able to transcend your correct judgment to be within God’s judgement.

1. Work of people

He says the concerns of people but what is that exactly? The human concerns may be referring to the works of humans and of God, because this world is moving because of the large entanglement of human affairs.

1) Centered on people

However, if you dig at the very core of everything, it is all work centered on humans. In other words, everything I do is work centered on myself. We always try to remain in the position where we are judging whether something is right or wrong.

(1) Me – Center (Gen. 3:5)

In Gen. 3:5, Satan goes to Eve and says, “If you eat the fruit of knowledge of good and evil you will become wise, being able to discern good and evil.” People always try to go to the seat of God, discerning what is right and wrong. That is why we are always fighting and there are always complications. When God created us, He never wanted us to be in this seat of judging whether something is right or wrong, He simply wanted us to believe and follow His Word. Thinking we are correct is not actually right from God’s perspective. We ourselves actually don’t know.

(2) My things – Center (Gen. 6:2)

In Gen. 6:2, people have no choice but to move in the direction of what I want and benefits me. We make our decisions based on what is beneficial and helpful to ourselves. And because of this, humans faced the disaster of the flood.

(3) My, our name – Center (Gen. 11:4)

After that, they said, “Let us build a tower of Babel in our name.” That is why God sent the disaster of the tower of Babel. That is the state of the world right now. There are many complicated things happening in the world, but at the core, it’s all based on these three things. There is no work of God. This is the reason we face curses, disasters, and spiritual problems. “My correct thoughts–why are they wrong?” They may seem correct to you but they aren’t correct from God’s perspective.

2) Religious person centered on people

This includes people who go to church–in other words, even among Christians who go to church, there are people who live their walk of faith, centered on people, and they are legalistic people.

(1) Legalistic person

The law is the word of God, but if you’re legalistic, you see and judge everything by the law. The law is able to judge who is right and wrong. Ultimately we judge people, then who is revealed? Only the righteousness of the one who is judging is revealed, so legalistic people are doomed to fail. The Pharisees were a great example of this, they use the word of God to reveal themselves, they are centered on themselves. They use the Word of God, but their goal is themselves. Jesus Christ completed the law. It is impossible for me to fulfill the law, but Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law, and by believing in him, I am considered righteous. It is impossible for me to fulfill the law, but the Lord has fulfilled it on my behalf and when I believe in Jesus, I become righteous. It is by the grace of God that I am able to keep the law.

(2) Prosperity-faith-based person

There are also people centered on prosperity. They have a walk of faith where everything they seek is centered on their benefit, on themselves. It is whatever they want or need. God died on the cross for me, but you always say “Give me this or that.” God says He already knows everything, but we don’t believe that and always ask for more. These are the prosperity-based people who don’t look for the great things of God but the physical things centered on the Earth.

(3) Mystical person

And also there are people centered on mysticism. All believers who don’t believe in the word of God but instead rely on some physical or mystical experience, like dreams or speaking in tongues or prophecies, are doomed to fail. These are all gifts, which means they are not the actual essence. These people only feel that God is alive when they have these gifts so they’re doomed to fail. They are afraid if people tell them something will happen, that it will actually happen that way. They don’t actually believe in God. (4) Humanistic person
Also the humanistic people. They live their walk of faith with the exact same thoughts with which unbelievers live their lives. They try to organize the church in the same ways of the world. It is a church that applauds with powerful people coming. They think things will work out if they gather for humanity’s good. Humanistic people, they always try to do the works of God using their own calculations. These are all the people who are going against God within the church.

3) Centered on people

(1) Religion – What people made

There are also other religions in the world. Religion is created by people. If you are separated from God, then by nature, you are bound to serve some religion. Because people have limitations, we are bound to worship some Godlike entity to overcome our limitations. It is a religion if they try to devote their goodness or behaviors to try to gain something. They are saying, “I’ll give you this and you give me that, God.” There are religious people even within the church. They say, “I devoted this much to the church, so now give me my part. I give this much offering, so isn’t it time for God to work on my business?” These are all people living a religious life.

(2) Idol – Greed (Ex. 20:3-4, Col. 3:5)

And idol worshippers. The essence of idols is our greed. We serve the things we see to serve our own greed. If people do not meet God and are completely satisfied with God, they will always be lacking and have no choice but to always serve their own greed. The Bible talks about people who are so greedy and desire to be rich. The Bible says they will be destroyed.

What’s so bad about being rich? Should we throw away our money, then? That’s not what He is saying, He is talking about our greed. We always go into that direction because we are not satisfied with God. We should naturally get rich or successful, not chasing after prosperity. Otherwise, you’ll be enslaved by Satan. You shouldn’t try to succeed, but you should naturally be successful. If you try to succeed, you will be seized. That’s how you fluster around in slavery.

(3) Transcendental Meditation

Because the churches and religions aren’t able to give the answer, people receive healing through transcendental meditation. The ability of people to transcend their own mind is amazing. If people empty themselves, they receive a power to transcend everything, but the church is the only place that lacks that, so people go to church, aren’t able to receive healing, so they fall into transcendental meditation. What is the focus of transcendental meditation? It is all centered on me, so ultimately, they will be seized as well.

When you go deeper into transcendental meditation, it has the same core as pantheism, like Hinduism or Buddhism. That goes to the point where you say there is a godlike power in rocks as well. Because humans are spiritual beings, if we get caught in that, we will be spiritually seized. If you’re seized by this spiritually, you will be unable to escape. If we see with our eyes, we won’t be able to see spiritually; it is invisible.

The church has the spiritual power of prayer, but we have lost hold of this incredible blessing. Religion isn’t able to provide any answer, so people are flooding into transcendental meditation, and they receive healing at first but later they are seized by themselves. Humans are created to only live by the blessing and grace of God, but because we are centered on ourselves, we are seized.

We meditate on the word of God and think about the Word of God and go into deep breathing and deep concentration, then people with mental illnesses will receive healing. People with deep depression will go into this and one day they will be liberated because in the past, we were seized by our depression, we were seized by our panic attacks. We cannot escape by ourselves. How can we escape? When we meditate deeply on the word of God, we will seized by that. That is what we call healing, meditation. God gave us the solution of holy meditation thousands of years ago.

2. Work of God

Then what is the work of God? For Jesus Christ to die and resurrect for all of humanity.

1) Jesus’ death and resurrection (Mt. 16:21)

(1) Believe in Jesus (Jn. 6:29)

In John 6:29, the disciples ask, “What is the work of God?” and Jesus answered, “The work of God is this, to believe in the One He has sent.” Believing in Jesus Christ is the work of God. If you keep working without believing in Jesus, that’s not the work of God. When you are studying it is only the work of God when you’re studying for Jesus by Jesus. However, there is a business of studies that is done by the efforts of mankind and blocks the work of God. “I live my life so diligently to the best of my ability, but it’s not right.”

(2) Authority of sin, Satan, hell – Liberation

Why is the work of God to believe in Jesus? Because it is only through Jesus Christ that we are liberated from the curses and disasters, sin, hell and Satan. The reason we have curses and disasters is because of our sin. What is sin? Not believing in God is sin. Not believing in Jesus is a sin, and because of that, we are separated by God, completely seized and controlled by Satan. Therefore, the greatest work is to believe in Jesus Christ Who solves the problem, and through this, you become a child of God. You don’t become a child of God through hard work and going to church. You can’t purchase it through your diligence and efforts; you could never do that. Only when you believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him does the Holy Spirit come into you and you become a child of God. Because the Holy Spirit is within me, I come to life.

(3) Receive life (Jn. 20:31)

Then what is the work of God? That you will believe in the gospel, come to life and save others, then, the will of God is for me to be saved and to save others. You can only be saved within the gospel. Only the proclamation of the gospel can save others.

2) Work of following Jesus

(1) Deny themselves – Not their motive, goal (Mt. 16:24)

Today in Mt. 16:24, Jesus Christ says, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny himself and take up his cross.” If you follow Jesus and go to church without denying yourself, you aren’t actually following Jesus; you’re simply going to church, holding onto your thoughts exactly the same way. You are not following Jesus. That is not the work of God, but you are doing your own work. That is actually blocking God’s work. Denying yourself means not following your thoughts, but chasing after God’s Word.

All my motives for doing everything must begin with Jesus. All my goals must be for Jesus, that is how to deny myself. If you don’t deny yourself, all your motives will become your goals. You will only disturb God’s work. You have your mind on the concerns of humans, not on the things of God. The more people like this are in the church, the more America will fall into curses and disaster.

(2) Their cross – Death, suffering (Mt 16:24)

It is only by the things of God that people are saved. He says, “bear your cross and follow Him.” My cross means my death.

(3) Christ who is within me is the Lord (Gal. 2:20)

The death where you crucify all your desires that live for yourself. It is the crucifixion of all my motives, living for myself, but now my life is Christ living within me. You have no choice but to deny yourself and take up your cross. Jesus Christ lives within me as life and I follow after His Word. It’s possible for your cross to be in your home. Your mental problems have been persisting for a long time. Perhaps there’s someone in your family who has suffered from a disease for a very long time. You bear your cross with that and follow Jesus. “Oh, I believe in Jesus, so shouldn’t it be solved?” It might not be, so take up your cross and follow Jesus. There are many families like that.

3) Life of following Jesus: Not to save my life, but to lose my life for the Lord, a life of saving myself (Mt 16:25)

What is a life that follows Jesus? Matthew 16:25 says, “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it.” If I’m trying to live my life to save it, I’ll become a loser. However, whoever loses their life for Jesus will find it. How can I save myself? By dying for the Lord. It’s using everything of my own, all my material possessions, time, and knowledge for the Lord. If you live for yourself, you’ll eventually lose your life.

The best example is Saul. King Saul was a great individual and a classy king, he had a lot of leadership, so they raised him up as the king. However, the work of King Saul was always the work of man. Before they go to the war with the Philistines, they have to give a blood sacrifice, but Samuel was late. From a humanistic perspective, this was good, “The priest is late, so let’s give a sacrifice ourselves and go into battle,” and among the Philistines, there were great animals he brought as a sacrifice to the Lord.

But because of this, God said He would depose Saul as king. From a humanistic perspective, Saul did the right thing, but it was not the work of God; he went according to the correct judgments based on his thoughts. God specifically said, “Don’t bring anything back from the Philistines,” and God anointed the priest specifically to give the blood sacrifice.

Some people say, “Aren’t the works of humans good? Isn’t “good” simply what is good?” That is the reason King Saul was deposed. Saul was always trying to give his kingship to his son, so everything he was thinking about was always the words of man, “I want to give my son my inheritance and everything I have.”

But David was different, he was always thinking about the works of God. He was residing in a grand palace, but the Ark of the Covenant was outside in a windblown tent, so he resolved to do temple construction. He gave this work to his son. David did not want to give the kingship to his son, but he gave the work of God of building the temple to his son.

If you look on the outside, King Saul was not really a bad person, but he was bad in God’s eyes. As we live our walk of faith, we might not realize our thoughts are disturbing God’s work. One day, King David had an affair with Bathsheba, and the child died. David was so sad, he didn’t cut his beard and he cried to God. Imagine how sad he must have been? But God called his child away. Right after, David cut his beard and washed his face and returned to his life.

That child was not David’s, of course there is the pain of a parent who loses his child, but that wasn’t his child. God called the child away, but we’re always in pain, saying, “That’s my child.” But we always think of the words of people, and that’s how we’re seized by Satan. How is this my child? God gave the child to me and took the child away. The one who gives and the one who takes away is God. We must not be overcome by our thoughts, but we must think with the thoughts God gives us. Our thoughts intercede in everything and there are some people who intercede in unnecessary things as well.

There is no lane, but you overstep the boundaries and position that God has given you. That was King Saul. A king was anointed as the king, God did not give the role of priest to the king. God is giving you this child to take care of, but if God takes your child away, you should quickly wipe your tears to return to the works of God. If you keep saying, “Me, me,” one day, you’ll be taken by Satan.

You can know this work when you look at Joseph and his brothers. Joseph’s older brothers were always trying to receive recognition from their father, and of course we should be recognized by people, but we don’t think about the work of God, but Joseph was always thinking about the work of God. When Joseph told his father about his dream regarding the covenant, his father kept the dream in mind.

You can see the difference in the sacrifices of Cain and Abel. Abel gave the blood sacrifice of an animal, and Cain gave the vegetables as an offering, which is for thanksgiving. You need to give a blood sacrifice to have atonement for your sins. Because Cain did not give the atonement for his sins as his sacrifice, God said that “Sin is crouching at your doorstep,” and that is why Satan crawled into Cain’s heart and Cain killed his brother.

That’s why it doesn’t matter how diligently or earnestly you live, if your life is irrelevant to God. There are some non-believers who say, “I’ve always lived an upright, clean life, never hurting or inconveniencing others.” But they are living against God’s work, they live diligently saying God doesn’t exist.

So today, the words that Simon Peter confessed were honestly really good from a human perspective, imagine how good you would feel if your disciple following you would say, “I want to devote my life to you,” but Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan.” Whatever you are floundering to do for your own life, it will make you lose your life. if you’re doing it for your own self, it will cause you to lose your life. If you do it for the Lord, you will find your life.

Is your walk of faith living for the Lord? Are your studies and job for the Lord? If so, you’ll come to life and the work you’re doing will come to life. If you’re struggling to survive, is it for yourself or the Lord? That’s what it’s saying. Look at Noah. He was making the Ark for decades. The Lord told Noah to make the Ark, so he devoted his life and material possessions to build this ark. But what about the majority of people? They were going to weddings, to work, and funerals. Of course you have to work to eat and survive. But all these people ultimately died in the flood.

However, the one who poured their entire life to building the ark will live. Everyone was working for “my life, my house, and my things” and they were swept away in the flood. Noah just made an ark, but all the land became his because there was no competition. Everybody else except Noah’s family died. The one who lives for the Lord has no competition, because everybody else is destroyed. Everyone else is struggling to live for themselves but they will all be destroyed. Even after achieving material success, their inner selves all collapse.

This is the work of the Bible. It is for the Lord, then everything will come to life. You do everything for the Lord and success will naturally come, without you trying. That is the way you will come to life. That is the way to save myself. We do everything in order to save ourselves. But if you go all in for the Lord, you will come to life. However if you look down on worship for your own work, you will collapse. It seems like a waste of time to come to worship, you could just watch it at home. You don’t have to even give offering, then, because you didn’t come. Ultimately, it seems like you’re saving time for yourself, but you’ll lose in the end.

This is the Word God is giving us, everything is the same. Your knowledge, who are you learning for? If it’s for yourself, you’ll be destroyed. It is all for the Lord. Did you come to America to try to survive? Then you will collapse. You must come here to save. The thing that is for the Lord is to save yourself and all mankind.

If you’re floundering around just to save yourself, you will fall. When you go into your job, you must be the one who saves. If you try to make money and a living, you’ll be ashamed. That’s not who we were called to be. You must save your co-workers at your job and everyone in your life. In order to do that, you must come to life, you must go into the gospel of the cross and Christ must live within you for you to come to life. Following after the Word is how you come to life. Denying yourself, taking up the cross, and following after the word of the Lord is how you come to life as fishers of men.

3. Work of God – Result

1) According to what they have done (Mt. 16:27)

The result of the one who is following the Word is in Mt. 16:27. “For the Son of Man is going to come with His Father’s glory with all His angels, and He will reward each person according to what he has done.” “According to what you have done” depends on whether you did everything for yourself or for the Lord.

I’m a pastor, but if I wanted revival of the church for myself, that has nothing to do with God. The personal life of that pastor will become that of a loser. But if I do my pastoral ministry for the gospel to save lives, then God is raising me and I will come to life, I will save myself. It’s the same for you. Who are you doing this for? Who are you trying for, today? That will determine if you save yourself and others or if you become a loser.

(1) Life of fulfilling the word

If you follow the Word of God, you’ll see the fulfillment of His Word. The Word must be fulfilled through me because I’m holding onto the Word and following it, then my life works out according to God’s Word. But those who live according to their thoughts will be seized by them and fall into suffering. Is this a prayer that you desire or one that the Lord desires? The prayer the Lord desires is first seeking His Kingdom and righteousness. That’s the prayer the Lord desires.

(2) Answers to the prayer that the Lord desires (Mt. 6:33)

Pray first for God’s kingdom to be established. There’s no need to pray for yourself because God already knows it all. There’s no need to pray for where you sleep, what you wear, or what you eat because God already knows it all. You seek God’s kingdom and righteousness first. The righteousness mentioned here is the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(3) Evangelism, mission that saves lives (Mt. 4:19)

It is not my righteousness; it is nothing that I did. People always try to exalt their own righteousness. You must go into the gospel to reveal God’s righteousness. When you look at somebody, you must see their spiritual state in order to reveal the gospel. If you don’t, life will be difficult, starting from your family life because you won’t be able to understand why people are saying these words or acting a certain way, then how can you have a relationship with them? These are actions that are coming out of that person’s scars, but it will seem hard to understand, especially at your workplace and your life; people are weird.

2) Work of saving people

(1) Understand the spiritual state of people

God sent you to save those people but you avoid them instead, why? Because you don’t understand what is inside this person. If you understand the spiritual things taking place in that person, you will have no choice but to give them the gospel. If you don’t understand them, then your own righteousness is revealed, and either you avoid them or you cut them down with your words. There’s no Jesus there, there’s only you. That’s why living in the world is so difficult.

This is so important. If you don’t understand this, your job isn’t the problem; everyone falls because of people. I’ve never heard of someone whose life is destroyed because of a dog. We’re not ruined because of a lack of money because money flows through people. If you save people, you will receive grace.

Why do you like celebrities? You become a fan of a celebrity because they inspire you, without a doubt. If you give grace to this person, you will receive grace. If you don’t try to save this person, you try to kill other people, and that person will have no choice but to kill you.

To save other people, you must resolve the scars within yourself first. If you don’t resolve the scars within yourself, how can you save anyone else? If I’m falling into my own thoughts and seized by Satan, how can I come out of that and save others? Jesus finished it all on the cross, and it’s no longer mine, but to the very end, we lose hold of the gospel and I’m still seized by my scars.

(2) Within my prayer

Eph 4:27 says that Satan will use this as a foothold to enter us, and that’s how our human relationships collapse. It’s hard to keep human relationships, you have to force yourself to do it to survive. But if you follow the Word of God, the Word of God heals you, then you’ll see this person’s spiritual state. “Oh, this person does not have God, they’re lost in sin, seized by Satan.” Satan controls them specifically through their scars; they cannot escape, so their floundering about are words of evil. You have to understand this to have a good work life and social life. If you have no sense of this and you listen to the words of people exactly as they are, and you’re taken by it.

(3) Problem – Work of giving the answer

You should save people but instead you run away. You must be in the position where you’re saving others. It’s so important. It’s the same for your life at church. Why would you ever have enemies? Why would you like or dislike others? Everyone is the same, we’re all stuck in Gen. 3 without God’s grace. “I’m close to this person because they’re nice to me,” it’s all centered on you, then you will be seized by your own thoughts.

“This person is also one who prays for me.” We’re all the body of Christ. We should have no enemies. Everyone is okay. Why wouldn’t we be okay? If God says it, you do it, you challenge towards it in faith. It doesn’t matter who you meet or how evil they are to you, you save them and if they come to life, they will repay the favor.

That is the business of God. That’s not what the world does, they say you cut them off if they don’t help you. But God sent us to save; everyone is shriveling up. That is the tremendous blessing that God has hidden. Let us be the church that saves lives through mission and evangelism. Don’t you think that’s rightful? We must be the ones to save the world, but if you’re always saying “me and my family” that person is very difficult. Even after you get married, you say, “My family, yours, mine.” God’s plan is for you to save the world and church through your family, so my thoughts and God’s thoughts are different.

3) My position that save lives: Spiritual Summit, Skill Summit, Cultural Summit

In order for me to save others, I must be in the position to save. Isn’t that right? I must be in the position to save others. Your thoughts must be in the seat to save others. If you‘re thinking “I have to survive,” you’re already a loser. God sent me into this place to save the 237 nations of the world. You’re thinking, “Today I need to study and work to survive.” It may sound right, but that person is not right with God; that person is a loser.

What is the position that saves? The worship seat is the seat where you save. It’s impossible for you to save, it must be God Who saves through you, so you must continually receive God’s grace; you must remain in the seat of the gospel. “I must remain in the seat of the cross.” That is the thought that saves others. “I’ve been sent by God to America as a missionary to save.” That person will not only survive but they’ll save others. This is the Word from the Bible.

Daniel did not survive in Babylon by trying to survive. Remnant means “One who remains.” He didn’t just survive. Because he was living for the Lord, he saved everyone. We are the sojourners, the scattered ones. It may seem like that but we’re the ones who save. If you think you’re nothing, that’s foolish, that’s death. What does God say? He says, “I bought you with a price, the blood of the cross, that, in order to save you, I moved the plans of all of heaven. I came to earth to die on the cross and resurrected to save you.”

But as soon as you face a problem, you go into the seat of death. Even though you’re a child of God, even though God is guiding your life forward. As you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, what are your thoughts? When you look at death in the face, are you thinking about other people or struggling to survive? David was in the seat of saving, “For the LORD is with me,” and that is the way to live. He said he had no troubles because the Lord was with him.

Conclusion

1. Work of people

Whatever I am doing, I must do it for God. 99% of the churches were split apart because of temple construction. If they’re doing temple construction for the Lord, why would they divide? It’s so simple, they were doing it for themselves. If you do it for the Lord and the Kingdom of God to save people, all your businesses and everything will come to life. But instead, if you’re doing temple construction to fulfill your own plans, of course you will fail. The solution to everything is in the Bible, and the path you must walk is all in the Bible. Therefore, throw away your thoughts and follow the Word of the Lord.

2. Work of God

If you simply hear the word and pass by it, you’re bound to live according to your thoughts. If you have received the word of God, you will go into deep prayer to apply the Word to every aspect of your life. This Word is not a simple Word. In order for you to apply the Word to every aspect of your life 24 hours, you need to pray. We pray because that is not our nature.

3. Work of saving lives

We are living for the gospel of Jesus Christ because believing in Jesus is the way for us to live and save others. Following the Word of God is what saves us. Devoting for the gospel is the way to save yourself. Then one day everyone around you will be revived as well. That blessing must be relayed to your children. May you and I have this blessing every day of this week.