Enjoy Word, Prayer, and Evangelism, to Accomplish the Mission God gave to You (Numbers 26:1-4)
Today we will share the grace of God’s Word using Numbers 26. In Numbers 26, God commanded the Israelites to take the second census. After the first generation of Israelites had their Exodus from Egypt, they had their first census. Now, most of the first generation has passed away, and they’re ready to go into the land of Canaan and have the second census.
Why do you think God told them to have the census? I don’t think God told them to have a census because He was unaware of how many there were, but there was a goal He was trying to accomplish. The goal and thought of God must be aligned with my thoughts in order for those thoughts to be fulfilled.
The people of the first generation had the census, but they didn’t know the reason why. God gave them the Word but they lived their lives not knowing the reason for it, because God’s will was not aligned with the Israelites’ will. The direction the Israelites wanted to go in was continuing to live a physical life as they did in Egypt. Because they weren’t aligned with God, the result was conflict, resentment, complaining, and grumbling. What they wanted was to maintain the same good life they had in Egypt, but now believing in Jesus, they kept living a life that was not in line with the life God desired.
Once you believe in Jesus Christ, all problems have already been finished. If you don’t understand these words, you’re not aligned with God. The Lord said everything is finished on the cross, but you say that it is not, so of course, it’s not aligned. Then, you’ll never be aligned with God’s plan for world evangelization through Canaan. These people are always interested in eating, succeeding, and making money; they are never aligned with God.
Today, through the second census, God is fulfilling the promise He gave to the first generation through the second generation. Last week, there was the incident where 24,000 people died of plague because of their idolatry and sexual immorality. Then, right after that, God tells them to take a census of each tribe right before they enter into Canaan.
Numbers 26:1 says, “The LORD said to Moses and Eleazar, son of Aaron,” because Aaron had passed away. Up until this point, the LORD only spoke to Moses, but at some point, the LORD began to speak to Aaron as well. Numbers 26:2 says, “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by families –that is, tribes — all those twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army of Israel.” In God’s perspective, you’re only counted when you’re twenty years old or more.
Numbers 26:3, they take this message and relay it across from Jericho. Numbers 26:4, they take the word they received from God and relayed it to the people of Israel. This is the church. There’s no “I like” or “I don’t like” within the church, the church follows the Word the Lord gave them. There’s no good church or bad church; there’s no good God or bad God. If you receive the Word God gives you, that’s what’s good. Who is the churchgoer who is good? The one who relays the Word exactly as they received it is good.
What’s important is relaying the message exactly, directly to the Israelites. There’s no need to put in your own thoughts because God’s Word is perfect. Why do you keep putting your words in? Because you think God’s word is lacking. In reality, it’s not lacking; you only keep attaching yourself to things because you don’t understand it. If people say Jesus Christ is the solution to all problems, that’s it, but you keep on attaching more things. It’s because this person isn’t able to accept the gospel perfectly by themselves, so they’re not able to relay the gospel.
God is the One Who works; we do not work by the collective efforts of man. God told them to count the number of people, but later on, you realize that God is actually working through the Israelites. Then, it’s very important why God said these words and to relay them exactly as they are.
Starting from Numbers 26:5, they are counting each of the tribes. Compared to the number of people from the first census, there are about 17,000 fewer people, but some tribes either greatly increased or greatly increased. Especially the Levites, they didn’t count the people over 20, but they counted everyone and they were not included in the census.
One tribe became smaller than they were during the first census. In Numbers 26:12, it says the tribe of Simeon decreased drastically. When Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, was raped, then two of his sons, who went into the land of Canaan, went into the village and circumcised all the men, and they were Simeon and Levi. At the time of the incident, Jacob was at a low spiritual state, and didn’t say anything regarding Dinah’s rape. Because Simeon and Levi are biological siblings with Dinah, they went and killed all the men of the village. And Jacob cursed those two tribes. The actions of these two individuals led to their future generations being cursed.
The tribe of Levi, however, was the tribe that came out when God asked, “Who will stand on my side?” when all of the Israelites were worshiping the golden calf in the wilderness. From that point on, the curse that was upon the tribe of Levi turned into blessings. Later on, someone from the tribe of Simeon is in a tent with a woman and Eliazar the priest comes and stabs him through the body, and the man in the tent was a member of the tribe of Simeon.
About 24,000 members of the tribe of Simeon passed away, and their population decreased drastically from the first census. Back in these biblical times, the population represented the amount of blessings they received. The tribe of Judah was most populous, because God said they would be strong like lions. This is all directly related to the parents and the spiritual inheritance. They didn’t decrease in number for no reason, but it was all connected to the spiritual things. You can say this was the characteristic.
They took a census by tribe, and then they cast lots to determine who would take over which land in Canaan. Nowadays, casting lots is not God’s will, but back in these times, God would intercede through casting lots; now, God’s method is His Word. But back then, they would cast lots, and whatever lot they chose was the land God gave them. God gives them the land with the size in proportion to their population.
When they take the land, they don’t do so recklessly; without a doubt, they must wage war. Even though God promised to give everything to us, the work we must do is to fight the battle; there’s no way we can conquer by simply walking in. The land of Canaan was guarded very strongly by 31 tribes and seven kings who were all idol worshipers.
Does this mean we must fight wars if we believe in Jesus? Jesus Christ is supposed to give you peace, so don’t you think the good walk of faith is moving away from your family living by some kind of stream? That’s simply a fairytale that someone wrote. For us, we conquer this world. In other words, God gives us a mission and fulfills this mission through this person. The mission isn’t accomplished for nothing, but the mission is always fulfilled through the Word, prayer, and evangelism.
If you don’t know this, your walk of faith will not work out; something will not work out. Our mission is to destroy Satan’s kingdom on earth and to establish God’s kingdom, but if you think your mission is to eat well, and succeed, you’re not aligned with God’s mission as given in the Bible. That person will never be able to set foot into Canaan to conquer it, but they will die in the wilderness after 40 years holding onto a pipe dream. Their only dream was not Canaan; it was Egypt.
Their imprint, root, nature was in the things that were not from the Word of God for so long, that they held onto an incorrect dream. Ask the people around you, “What is your dream?” Everyone will be holding onto the false dreams of Egypt. “Why did you immigrate here?” They came here holding onto the false images of Egypt, then the state of their life is slavery and suffering. It’s not just slavery, but it’s being completely enslaved to Satan.
They thought things would take place according to their dreams and thoughts. THere’s no God there, but this person goes to church, but they still live their lives, trapped in their thoughts that are irrelevant to God. It turns out they’re completely unaware they are trapped within Satan’s trap. The goal of immigration is centered on success and physical things, then they have no choice but to serve idols. Whether they’re worshiping idols in a visible manner or if they have greed in their hearts, that greed is the essence of idolatry.
Churches don’t tell us this; if anything, churches are encouraging you to do this more, and that’s why our walk of faith cannot work out. Forget about conquering Canaan; everyone is saying they’re going to do it; everyone is a slave. They’re injured. It doesn’t matter whether they go to church or not. They are seized by something and they have no peace. They are being seized and dragged around by something. You should come to worship with happy hearts, but we are dragged around seized by something, thinking that’ it’s everything. I’m not saying this, pointing at the people who didn’t come to worship, but we’re seized by something and we’re dragged around.
Where do you think we’re dragged too? We’re seized by something and dragged around. What do you think we’re dragged to? We’re dragged along by the false dream of success, the false dream of money. Where do you think this came from ?We go in this direction with the knowledge , wisdom, and experiences of the ways of the world . Whether someone is able to succeed or they can never succeed, that person will suffer the same way their family line did, then they will suffer with mental problems invisible to their eyes, they can’t control it. Even though they want to concentrate on something, they cannot; instead, they are divided and pulled into addictions, and they become attached to something else; there’s no result to their work and studies, because they’re not concentrated on God, they are only living by their thoughts, then they have no strength.
Then, they will be seized by the physical problems they do see. They relay this exactly to their children. Even if you never speak a word about this, it will be relayed. Because your children will receive this exactly, seeing your decisions and action. That’s the land of Egypt, and that’s what they said they wanted to do. Even though we have escaped through salvation, we are being seized by the devil again. We’re supposed to conquer Canaan, but God cannot allow that because we would be enslaved by the Canaanites. So God made them wander and die in the wilderness.
And for 40 years, God was raising the next generation. And the next generation isn’t perfect either. There’s not much difference between them and their parents; God is just pushing them in because He promised it to them, and among the 27,000 people who died, a lot of them were in the second generation, and people from the first generation would have died much before that but God is going in with the next generation because it was his promise. He took a census of the entire population, and it’s about the same a few 1,000 was the difference from the first census.
Then, why do you think God is telling them to go into Canaan? To establish God’s Kingdom where God is with us. Why are we living in their region? If you say things physically, “I just bought a house so I live here.” That’s what non-believers think. Why am I living in this region? To establish God’s kingdom in this region. If that’s not aligned with God, then you have no choice but to wander the wilderness for 40 years; there’s no other choice. THis is the Bible, the Word of God.
“Why did God send me to America?” To establish God’s Kingdom in America, that’s God’s goal. My thoughts dream of Egypt, but God’s goal is to establish God’s Kingdom, the kingdom of God where Jesus Christ can do world evangelization, because every single person needs the gospel. Every single person does not need money, that’s not the priority. God’s kingdom must be first; they must first be spiritually saved, then God will take care of money. In terms of feeding and clothing people, God will fulfill that in order to establish his kingdom, only the people who know this will conquer their field.
It’s not about knowing this with your brain, but it’s about actually conquering the field. The land of Canaan is the field, and before they go into the kingdom of the world, create some kind of system or organization. You’re not doing this alone. If you want to do regional evangelism, you do not do this alone; God has prepared a system so count it. There is a system God has prepared; count it.
God will not allow you to conquer until this happens, once this system is created, God allows you to conquer. When does your field conquer take place? When this mission comes into you, that’s when it begins. Before that covenant goes into your mission, you’re under a misconception. You think life is about eating, dressing, and surviving, it’s completely irrelevant to God. You keep following into a life related to Satan.
In the New Testament, Jesus Christ divided up the regions, “Go and conquer Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” All the people at the tent of Jerusalem could not understand. Those are the people who not only spent 40 years in the wilderness, they’re people stuck in Egypt. Then what is the method? That’s why God gave them the Tabernacle. Sacrifice and worship are God’s method. “Let’s do this,” that’s not the method, but God gives you His Word through worship.
If you don’t know this, you’ll say, “Let’s try it,” but that’s not enough because we’re not perfect and we’ll get caught in disbelief. That’s why you must restore the blessings through sacrifice. You need to change your transgressions into a sacrifice. Then God promised to give you His Word and the tentative meeting.
During the Sunday Message, I didn’t go into much detail regarding every artifact because it wasn’t aligned with the message, because either way around last year, we went through the book of Leviticus, and went through each detail. But every year they went into the Holy of Holies, God promised to meet them there and give them His Word. Then, if God only gives us His Word once a year, what would we do every day? That’s why God promised to meet with them morning and night at the Tent of Meeting every day to give Them His Word when the Israelites came across them in the pillar of cloud and gave them His word. That is the method. The method is worship.
Why is worship the method? Because God gives a mission during worship. When the Word of God’s mission goes into you but you are only interested in Egypt, you won’t be able to receive it.Because this person dreamed about how they lived in Egypt, and they want that to become even better by believing in Jesus Christ but it’s not aligned with what God is saying, then even if you do receive God’s Word, they misunderstand it by themselves. It’s ever aligned with God’s direction, but it’s always about the Word they enjoy. It’s not about the Word that will encourage me, the Word that will really extinguish. Their standard is in Egypt. The word that is helpful to me, that will encourage me, that will really change me. You want to go watch comedy then you read a really good novel, you’ll really flip over, but constantly, you’re centered on yourself. “Oh this fits with me, this doesn’t” “This really moved me,” or it didn’t.
God is giving you the Word to conquer Cannan all you need to do is receive it. But that’s not taking place so your walk of fish is not. Of course, there’s God’s time schedule, this mission is not in your hands all at once. As you keep going into worship, one day, the mission will be in your hands, “Oh, I need to do this my whole life and then go to God,” but if you don’t know God, you never receive a mission, you just dream and live a life you think of. That’s someone who is creating their own God, then the real God and their imagined God are two different gods. Even if they received salvation, they may not have. Because Satan gives us a message that looks a lot like the god in the world.
That’s what John 8:44 means when John calls the devil a liar. God is with us guiding us forward then every single week, God will give this person a mission,that’s how our faith must become in order for our faith to become stable before that point there is a little bit of time schedule left,before that point, you have to process, where sometimes you receive grace, and sometimes you don’t then you receive God’s grace.
Even the 12 disciples were like that, all of them were dreaming about sitting on the left and right hands of Jesus. After the resurrection, they confirmed the true Jesus Christ, and they were completely changed. That is when the mission of establishing God’s kingdom went into the disciples. Before that point, even if God had given them the mission, it would not go into them because even as they were following Jesus there interest was elsewhere. As they were following Jesus they weren’t holding onto God’s mission through his word but onto their own thoughts.
It’s the same as Buddhism or any religion. The common characteristic of religion is oneself. I should train myself but I didn’t want to. We are going the walk of faith, centered more on ourselves. Imagine how much the devil loves that, the devil plows deep into the church to destroy it, because it’s so perfect, we’ve been cleansed, and religious, we can’t even doubt our own faith, and when we’re feeling comfortable like we believe in God, that’s when Satan attacks us.
It’s so much better for Satan to play with believers than unbelievers, but today’s Bible verse is saying that the future will take place so prepare. They are preparing after seeing in advance. Seeing in advance means they have seen God’s promise in advance. Even though the land has not been given to me yet, it may have already happened. You should be living in America holding onto this kind of vision and dream, but instead you’re holding onto a false dream and false vision, so of courses Satan is making slaves of you and your family. This must be relayed to the next generation, but instead we’re relaying unnecessary things, and that’s the devil’s method.
Satan works through the members of the Church; the unbelievers cannot budge. But for us, if the accurate word of God doesn’t come in, we’ll hold onto something else, and that’s what the devil wants. We’re endlessly centered on myself, “what can I do? How can I do this?” God said he would do it, but we can’t confess that. ”I can’t speak well enough, my personality is too timid,” it’s always about “me, me, me.” If you don’t have that mission, you have to go, and it’s the same in the church. America never asked for money but God has poured money in here because this is the land that does the most missions, it’s not because America’s great. But God is the one who is attaching the people, finances, and knowledge here, because world evangelization must take place. The reason God is blessing Korea right now is because that’s what Korea is doing. They do the second most missions in the world. It doesn’t matter what they’re actually like; if they’re out there then they are at least praying.
Right now,the Korean nation is getting very aggressive saying they want to become the top nations, they can’t do it themselves but God is bringing them the finances and manpower. Why? God is bound to pour this upon them to do His mission. it’s the same thing when different populations get along well. Right now, seven million people in China believe in Jesus. Even though we think China is a communist nation, there’s something God is giving them. That’s China. And yes, they’re communist but there’s Christians in there, it’s been a long time since they’ve gone into G2. It doesn’t matter whether they’re communist because God pours out blessing upon the land that has the gospel.
It seems the country should fail, but strangely enough there’s something there. The evidence is clear in Church history. But we don’t know this at all and we keep trying to accomplish something with our own diligence and begging, which is idolatry and religion. We come to this superpower nation, making our children enslaved to Satan. What is a good education? Relaying the accurate news of Christ is good education. That’s good news. A good education is to relay the accurate Word of God properly.
Even if the child has everything, if they are receiving the improper word they will fall. How much are you relaying the accurate message God desires for the children? It doesn’t matter how much theology you know, but if you give them a mixed message, you will kill the children. Their spirit is so bright, so you must relay this well. And the Holy Spirit works and moves. It’s people that’s relaying this, but it’s not really people at all. It’s the message God desires, then the Holy Spirit will work.
Even little children will understand. But if you just give them something that’s incorrect, it’s a waste of time. It doesn’t matter whether you study theology or not. Philip did not study theology but went and evangelized to all of Samaria. For the servant of the Lord, what’s important is that you use the word that is aligned with God’s word. Then how do we need to read the message in Numbers 26? We can express the message in many different ways. Some people give the message that God will divide finances fervently or fairly, or that God doesn’t show any favoritism but he will fairly distribute the economy.
But this isn’t just talking about land, it is a spiritual battle, it is the land in which Jesus will be born. It’s not just land, but it’s the land that must go out to the rest of the world. If you don’t know that covenant, even the messages will turn out strange. May you and I ask today, “Am I holding onto the proper gospel as the covenant? That must take place, in order to not wander 40 years. Am I holding onto God’s mission of field and regional evangelism? If so, then when I pray, God will pour the work of the Holy Spirit and their powers. You will have wisdom. You don’t have to ask for anything, because God already gave you wisdom.
God gives you physical strength because you have to do things. God will also pour money to do what you have to do. If you have unnecessary money, God will take it away. Because if you have unnecessary things, you will do unnecessary things. It’s dangerous to give too much money to a child. So what you do right now is perfect. It is perfect in order to proclaim about the gospel. God attaches people to you, so manpower follows you. You should never say you’ll do things alone, why would God tell them to do the census?
There’s a role, every person has a role to play, the goal is to conquer the region through world evangelization. If you say, “me, me!” there, then Satan’s going to use that person to destroy the whole movement. And that person will not be able to do world evangelism because they’re too busy saying, “me, me!” The conquest will take place, so first, raise up the system. The family system is the strongest, once the family system takes place , then you’ll have the conquering of the familyline and region. When a few people within the region who are firmly holding onto the covenant together, that is when God opens doors.
Finances must follow within this and the success of your children must follow within this if accomplishing this while doing something else it will be a headache. While you’re doing this, the work needs to take place upon your children. That’s the only way for them to not fall into the devil. Just be one person. Because one person gives influence to other people it’s not really one person just one correct church. We don’t need a lot. God will attach enough people to do regional and world evangelization and God has given all the remnants the talent to do this. If you remain within this,you’ve discovered your talent; God has even prepared your college to take this talent into your specialization. Where do you have to go in College? God is guiding the remnants forward, already having prepared the region and the field that can be saved.
Because the Bible never says the covenant will change due to the fourth and fifth industrial resolutions. As you’re doing this, young adults, you must get married. If you don’t get married, God is not allowing you to get married, so it’s the best. There’s no reason to force yourself not to get married, if God allows it then you just get married. But if God doesn’t give you marriage, keep enjoying God’s word and follow his mission. If you’re not able to do this, you’re going to waste your time unnecessarily. “Does he like me? Does she like me?” Even pigeons do that. I go to the park and even pigeons do that, there will be a male trying to attract a female by puffing up his feathers, and the female walks away.
If you don’t know the covenant, you’ll waste your time on useless things. There’s only one child, actually. If you’re just holding onto the covenant and remaining within worship, then in God’s accurate time schedule he’ll fulfill it. Because God gave you the family to rule over and conquer for world evangelization in Genesis 2. “Isn’t that too severe? Is there any love in that relationship?” the love must come out of this. You do not marry in order to love, but in fact, love is within God’s covenant as well as your children’s education, your money and house are within the covenant but they are not your goal.
Prayer
May you hold to the covenant, have victory this week and see how God is working your fields. Let us pray together holding onto the Word we have received. I believe that when we pray, God is working with the Holy Spirit to fulfill His Word, transcending time and space in all fields. When the Holy Spirit works, the demons are cast out and the kingdom of God is established. Then when the Kingdom of God is established, everything else will follow. That’s why, do not pray for anything else, but pray for the working of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray.
Let us pray for regional evangelization. Without a doubt, God has given a mission to our region and God does it, but if you don’t have faith, it can never be fulfilled. You need to have faith before you act in order for God to give you the strength to act. Let’s pray for you and your families to become the spiritual platforms for regional world evangelization. Without a doubt, there are disasters in the 50 states of America, the empty places with no gospel. May our church be used to find, raise, and send out disciples to those t0 empty states in America.
Let’s pray for our missions fields, for India and Navajo. For Joel and Daniel, Joel graduated about 4 years ago and is now a teacher, and he’s going in as a teacher to the middle school we camped at. Other than Joel, there’s no one in Navajo who can do youth evangelism ministry. Everyone is too elderly, only he is useful and vibrant so they entrusted him with everything, so he’s in a very precious and important position. His father, Daniel, is the senior pastor, but he takes care of all the remnant ministry. He’s not only taking care of the remnants in his church, but he’s calling all the youth of Navajo and preaching the message.
He asked us if we’re going to Navajo this year, and we said no because of COVID, so he’s waiting for next year. The Navajo field as well as Central and South America, we are helping Missionary Lee with finances. There are two young adults in Ethiopia and Nigeria, and we’ve also supported MIssionary Kim in Kenya. Right now, we are praying to help a young adult from Karen to receive training at Remnant University in LA. Let’s pray together for the Mongolian disciples to arise to do Mongolia evangelization.
Last Sunday, we had Holy Wind. The first reason for this is to spiritually conquer the region. The second meaning is to educate our children about the spiritual meaning, not just Halloween as a celebration. The third meaning is to save lives for those who accepted. It has three meanings. The fact that our church exists in this region means we must spiritually conquer and God has raised up every member of the church to do this, so all you have to do is live your walk of faith, aligning your direction to do this.
Let’s pray for the Remnant Conference of America. It is an individual registration and the registration period has ended. We’re also planning to gather together in the church to participate together, the RCA leader’s message will be given at 6pm on Sunday. If there’s anyone who’s registered and wants to watch it in the church then there are other people who didn’t register who will come to church, so that’s in God’s hands. So, I hope everyone who registered will be able to come to church and participate together, when the kids worship at home, the spiritual environment is not alive. We want to make it so that when we gather at church, we’ll be able to touch each individual.
On Saturday, Esther and Tim have become a team and more multiethnic people can come because a multiethnic individual is giving a message, multiethnic individuals are gathering. If a Korean person gives the message, then only Koreans gather. So, Tim has this heart and takes his car and picks up each of the kids, and Deaconess Jeannie is so graciously giving free pizza and also for Holy Wind, she also donated the pizza. When you look at the people devoted to the Remnant Ministry, it doesn’t matter how long they’ve believed, but God moves their hearts. Because the kids have all their lunch and dinner taken care of, how easy is it for parents to drop their kids off. That’s one system in itself, so that’s why God is sending new remnants. That takes place on Saturday, so I hope everyone will be aware of it in prayer. Let’s pray together for RCA, the remnants, and the multiethnics.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the heads of the people of God who hold onto the mission to fulfill regional, America, and 237 evangelization, upon all their businesses, studies, remnants, and the multiethnic people, and their ministries, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.