Go into the Prayer that Sets Your Imprint, Root, and Nature in God’s Covenant (Deut. 1:1-18)
Starting from today, we will start the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is the last part of the Pentateuch that Moses wrote, and Deuteronomy is the collection of three lectures that Moses gave. Deut. 1-4 is a lecture of the history of the Israelites, wandering through the wilderness. The second part of Deuteronomy, Deut. 5-28, is the second lecture regarding the 10 commandments, those who follow the Ten Commandments are blessed, and those who do not are cursed. The last part of Deuteronomy is the content that Moses is giving before he dies.
When Moses is giving that lecture, he is giving it about one month before he passes away. When you look at Moses’ life, he lived 120 years. The first 40, he spent in Egypt, the second in the wilderness, and the last 40 years, he spent as the leader of the Exodus. He was called by God before he was able to go into the land of Canaan that he had been dreaming about.
When we look at the fact that Moses lived for 120 years, we know for a fact that our lives are limited. Time is not ours; it belongs to God and He has permitted us this time. The moment we finish our last mission from God is the day we return to Him. We are also limited spatially, like Moses was not able to actually cross the threshold into the land of Canaan before he was called to go into heaven.
Our ministries also have a limitation that has been given to us by God. There’s something I must do within the three regions of the family line I’m born in, the region where I live, and the field I have been given. In the midst of this, what’s important is my mission.
Then, what is the meaning of “Deuteronomy?” The root “Deutero-” means “second” and the “-onomy” is the law, so it means it’s the law, repeated for the second time. Before they go into the land of Canaan, they are repeating the words of God once you go into the land of Canaan do this, this and this for the sake of the next generations. The main central core of Deuteronomy is Deuteronomy 6:3-5, where it says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your spirit, and all your strength”, and it means to imprint the Word of God deep into your hearts.
You can divide the Israelite people into three parts, and our lives can also be separated into three. The life in Egypt, then the life of living in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, and then after that, the land of conquering Canaan land. We can divide our lives into these three sections. The Exodus from Egypt is talking about our salvation, everybody is living in Egypt, in other words, in the world. Whether they’re believers or unbelievers, they are living inside this world; however, we can distinguish between two types of lives: ones that belong to the world and ones that have been set free from this world.
If I’m seized by the world, it means that I’m actually seized by Satan, sin, and hell. It means that I’m living a life where I’m centered on myself. Every person who is in this world, separated from God, lives their lives as if they are God. Within that, they live their lives for the physical things they see and for the plans they set for their lives, but it turns out that that’s actually a life of complete slavery to Satan, and the common characteristic of slavery is suffering. We have no freedom. We chase after money but we don’t have any financial freedom. We chase after success but there’s no freedom from success. We’re so bound by people; there’s no freedom. This is the characteristic of people living in the world.
We can never be liberated by our own efforts. We are liberated only when we believe in Jesus Christ and He comes into our heart as our Lord and Savior. Are we liberated, we need to change the center of our hearts, that is applying the blood of the Passover Lamb on the doorframe. Those who believe have a baptism. It’s talking about the faith where now I am dead and the Lord lives within me. Relentlessly, we tremble in fear as we face the Red Sea, and now the problems of my past, like the Egyptian army, are coming to seize me. That’s our lives, even after receiving salvation. We can only make it through this obstacle when Jesus Christ becomes the central core of my life and my Lord.
Until this point, even though you’ve been set free from your past, you cannot escape. That’s why even after people receive salvation, they’re still seized by their scars and the strong experiences and problems of their past. They are relentlessly trembling in fear over the Red Sea which are their present-day problems. That’s why even after they receive salvation, they just waste their entire walk of faith trying to solve their problems and being afraid.
However, you can see the Lord fighting for you and you can see the deliverance the Lord brings and you can go through the Red Sea only when your faith changes. Until that point, no matter how good of a swimmer you are, you cannot solve your problems. It doesn’t matter how good of a fighter you are; you cannot fight against the Egyptian army. Nothing that humans can prepare can solve their problems; the Lord must do it. Baptism means to restore this faith.
For such people, the wilderness is a blessing. But for the people who haven’t experienced that, the wilderness is always filled with difficulties, complaints, grumblings, and problems. They must conquer the land of Canaan, and some people are able to conquer, and others are unable to enter Canaan at all, and that’s what the beginning of Deuteronomy 1:1 is talking about.
Deut. 1:1, Moses declares his word pertaining to the “east of the Jordan,” meaning, on the other side of Canaan. There’s the middle land and then the land closer to the sea is Canaan and to the south is the Jordan River. They’re on the east side of the Jordan River and they have to cross over the Jordan River to go into Canaan. Right now, Moses is not able to cross over into the land of Canaan; he gives this sermon in Moab and then dies.
Then, starting from Deut. 1:2, Moses is talking about their journey for the last 40 years. Moses is recounting the way the adult generation used to live to the young adult generation. “It takes eleven days to go from Horeb ” which is the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments, “to Kadehs Barnea by the Mt. Sera road.” And Kadehs Barnea is the land that is very close to the land of Canaan, it’s where the ten spies met before they went into the land of Canaan.
Deut. 1:3, “In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him” and this was the path they could have traversed in 10 days at most, but it says they stayed there in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, and Moses repeats this to the next generation that is going into the land of Canaan.
Moses explained in Deut. 1:19 about the disbelief of the spies who had initially gone into Canaan. From Deut. 1:4, in order for the Israelites to cross the Jordan river to the land of Canaan they had to pass by certain lands. They killed the king of the Amorites and the king of Bashan, meaning the Israelites had to pass through this land, but these people were blocking them from doing so.
The Israelite people had no desire to war against these nations, they were simply trying to pass through, but these people would not let the Israelites pass through. In fact, if anything, these two nations attacked the Israelites first because they are afraid that the Israelites are going to destroy them just like they saw the Israelites destroy Jericho.
After that, they were cursed as nations and the basis of this is Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you, I will curse.” These people were cursed because they cursed the Israelites God does not work with coincidences; He works exactly, fulfilling His Word. If I were to give you all the examples, it would take too much time, but I’m saying that everything is flowing according to God’s Word.
Deut. 1:5, “On the east of the Jordan territory and Moab, Moses began to expound on this law.” Moses began to expound on this thought. Deut. 1:7, “break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in Arabah,” he starts to divide up the land and tells them where to go. Deut. 1:9, He says He will divide the land based on the region. It’s possible the next generation did not know this, and now the people who were born in the wilderness are about 40 years old. If they were born later on in the wilderness, they might have been in their 20s or teens. If they’re in their 30s or 40s, they would have their own children, too, so Moses is telling them again for the last time, “Don’t make the same mistakes that the adult generation did. God is going to guide us forward according to the promise of His Word.”
From Deut. 1:9-18, all the Israelites are too many for Moses to lead on his own, so they are appointing leaders, and the reason is Deut. 1:10. “The lord your God has increased your number, so as today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky” the promise originally given to Abraham was fulfilled exactly 430 years later. It says in Deut. 1:11, “May the LORD, the God your fathers, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!” Whenever there’s a large gathering of people, there’s always disputes that arise, so in Deut. 1:12, it says that Moses cannot handle the problems, the burdens, and the disputes by himself.
Deut. 1:13, Moses says, “Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.” Whenever there are this many problems and disputes among the people, what’s the standard? What’s the standard with which we judge? If we don’t have a standard, we have to keep fighting, so we have to raise the people who know the standard. Who are these people? “Choose some wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes.”
In Acts 6, in the beginning of the Early Church, there were many problems among the people and the Apostles could not manage this all themselves. At that time they raised up seven deacons, and what was their standard? In Acts 6:3, it says, “Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.” Why must it be like this? Moses cannot do it by himself, so they have to be representatives of Moses. In terms of our words today, these are the 70 workers, and the standards for these 70 workers are those that are full of wisdom and faith and respected by the community.”
First of all, those who receive the filling of the Holy Spirit. You must first receive the filling of God’s Holy Spirit in order to receive strength. Those who have wisdom and understanding. Wisdom and understanding are different. Even if you have a lot of knowledge, if someone doesn’t have wisdom, they can’t utilize that knowledge well, but there may be someone who makes wise decisions in all circumstances. Simply put, someone who is wise is able to make decisions and judgments based on God’s Word. If you don’t get complimented by people, people don’t recognize you. If someone is not respected or complimented by the community, you cannot raise them as the leader because they’re already being judged by everybody else. In other words, what are the church officers who must be raised up in the church? It’s these kinds of people.
What about the 70 workers that will deliver the word of God outside in the field of the world, it’s the same. It’s talking about giving this person the answer through the Word. The one who gives answers to the problems in the church, the ones who give the answers to the problems outside of the church. That’s the church, because the leader himself cannot do it by himself. The more people there are, God’s will is to raise up the 70 workers or the 70 disciples. Among those, the church officers receiving guidance are those who are following the stream of God’s Word.
Why do we say, the “stream” of God’s Word and not just the Word? The “stream” means there’s a time schedule. The Word is just the Word, but the one who knows the time schedule of God’s Word is the one who is riding the stream of God’s Word, and that’s what we mean when we say, “riding the stream of the pulpit message.” Just because you know the text of the pulpit message does not mean you are riding it. The one who knows the time schedule of the church is the one who is riding the stream of the message, and such people will continuously receive answers because God’s time schedule of giving answers is aligned with this person, then of course they would receive this answer.
But if someone knows a lot about God’s Word but they are irrelevant to the stream that God is flowing the church’s time schedule, they are irrelevant to God’s Word. If there are any of you like this, all you have to do is quickly come into the stream and time schedule of the church. You have to come in to receive answers. No matter how much you fly and run on your own,everything is in God’s hands. No matter how many messages you listen to on YouTube, and no matter how smart you are, there are no answers there.
Do you know what happens to someone who doesn’t have answers? They know everything with their brain but it doesn’t match up with reality, but God is telling us to raise up the church officers who can do this, and those people will constantly receive answers. I’ve seen people who have received answers, physically and materially within ourchurch as well, and I’ve realized, God is truly the One Who gives and takes away.
This person did not tell me personally themselves, I heard it from someone else. If somebody incurs a loss, that could be a tremendous loss. To lose a few million dollars is not a small loss. Do you guys want to go through that? You guys don’t even have $10,000, but the fact that you lose millions of dollars for no reason? But then God gives me millions more? There are people like that inside the church. That’s all in God’s hands.
What’s this person’s characteristic? They don’t talk a lot like you guys, they don’t know a lot of the words like you. They only have one thing, this is all I need. What does the church need? The one who knows this will receive answers. I didn’t know this, I heard it yesterday, and they personally didn’t tell me; I heard it through someone else, and I realized, it has to be like that because there are people that are within what God is trying to do in the church. God does not lie. This is the content from Deut. 1:1-18.
Starting from Deut 1:19, they talked about the spies who went into Canaan and the reason the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Ultimately, when there was a decision to choose the covenant and their circumstances, they chose to believe in their circumstances. In Kadesh Barnea, they sent 12 spies into the land of Canaan, and 10 of the spies returned and said, “These people are too strong for us to conquer,” but two spies said, “We can surely conquer this land.”
The 10 spies held onto their circumstances more strongly than they held onto the covenant, but the 2 spies relentlessly held onto God’s covenant and the one who receives the answer is the one who holds onto God’s covenant. How did they receive these answers? God works upon their needs, God works as Koch as they need to conquer Canaan. Even if it’s not millions of dollars or billions of dollars, God will work. That’s the content from Deut. 1:19-33.
We’ve basically skimmed over the content of Deut. 1, and from Deut. 1:34 until the end, it talks about the results of the Israelites’ disbelief, which was suffering and wandering the wilderness for 40 years. It’s talking about how the 12 spies were in Canaan for 40 days, so one year for all of the 40 days, they spent wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. As we look through Deut. 1, we look at what we must hold onto. The adult generation in the wilderness has passed away, but among the adult generation that are still there, what must they hold onto? Deut. 6, the Israelites listened. You must first be able to listen to God’s accurate covenant.
The devil will block you from listening even if you listen, Satan will make it so that you don’t hear accurately. This began in Genesis 3, the devil makes you not listen to God’s accurate covenant, but goes slightly awry. That’s why, Israelites, listen: “Hear O Israel,” listen to what? “The LORD is God, the LORD is one.” What does this mean? In the land of Canaan serves many idols, in other words, they are serving demons and when you guys go in, you’re going to get sucked into this, so remember this.
In the New Testament, it says that our greed is idolatry, and that greed means that I’m slightly above God. God is not the center of my life, but I’m the center of my own life, and that’s an idol. That is returning back to our life in Egypt. That is why it’s only our one True God, only Jesus Christ, that must be in the center of my life. Christ who has finished everything. Everything has to be finished in order for Christ to be my center, If I’m not finished, then I’m still the center.
Verse 5 says , “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soil, and with all your strength” because a person is bound to act and make their judgments based on what they love. We’re going to pour our lives into whatever we love. Your future is going to change depending on what you love right now. Do you love yourself, or do you love Christ? Loving yourself includes everything: loving money, success, your own desires, your thoughts. It includes all of that. Do you love all of that, or do you love Christ? If you love Christ, you’ll realize that everything is contained within Christ, Colossians 2:3, all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
He is the true God, you have to believe in that in order for Christ to become the center. For people who don’t yet have this, may you pray for this first. Before that takes place, everything you pray about when you’re still the center of your life is just praying for the wilderness, and God will give that to you, he’s going to give it to you. He’s going to give you a place to sleep and eat, but the suffering will continue; it’s because you haven’t changed yourself with Christ, so Satan is always attacking you.
Just by yourself, you worry about life. And even though it’s not a problem, it’s still a problem to you. The Red Sea is not a problem, it’s just a problem to us alone. The wilderness is not a problem. God is guiding us perfectly with the pillars of cloud and fire. God has prepared everything for us so perfectly and gives us everything we need to know. If we don’t have water, we say we don’t have water. Everything we do is just “me,” then of course we keep on suffering. We have to get rid of that, but there’s so much of it. In that kind of state, you cannot overcome the world; in that state, you’ll be seized by the world, you cannot conquer, That’s why God is telling us again in Deut. so that we are imprinted, rooted, and this becomes our nature.
Just like in Deut. 6:6, “These commandments I give to you today are to be on your hearts.” Christ who finished all problems has to really strike my heart in order for me to be imprinted. What does it mean for me to imprint? For example, an engraving on the wall with a knife could be an imprint. If you make one scratch in the wall, you can dig it deeper and deeper. Once the Word of God is able to make a dent in our heart, that can get deeper and deeper, so we have to make his imprint at least once. So this Word has to go into the children in America, but we don’t know when that will take place. That’s going to be different based on the power of the working of the holy spirit’s power. One day as we’re listening, it’s going to come into us.
I went to a hair salon, it’s the one we pray for, and the person said, “Hey, as I walk I’ve been listening to the first lecture, and you told me about this Korean noodle restaurant, where is that?” so they’re telling me they listened to the messages,, and they said, “I’m sorry but before this, I didn’t listen.” So I asked, “How did you begin to listen?” “One day, I just got the feeling where I have to start listening,” so I just mentioned, “It’s the Holy Spirit working within you. So God put that thought in, “I’ve got to start listening to these messages. Then they said, “Now that I’ve listened to your messages, I pray for everyone who walks into my hair salon to receive blessings and freedom.” And that’s the intercessory prayer that we’ve been doing. One day, as our next generations are continuously listening to God Word, God will work upon them one day.
That was Moses didn’t know anything when he was little, he just heard constantly from his mother. But even children have spirits inside. When God’s time schedule came, the Holy Spirit began to work. He began to remember the things he heard years ago because the Holy Spirit worked. That’s why we have to keep imprinting, rooting, and having the nature of the world in front of the next generations. Do you know the reason? It’s not because they don’t know. When they pray, they pray so well because they have that knowledge. But because they’re not imprinted or rooted, they keep going in a different direction.
So what must we do about that? We just have to think about it momentarily. Keep on imprinting and rooting in prayer, there’s no other method. You can only imprint, root, and concentrate on this when you conclude that everything is contained here. “Pastor, when do I have time to do that?” This person hasn’t discovered the value of this yet. When God says, “Go into the land of Canaan, inside this contains the blessings, the gospel has finished all problems. Now we head towards world evangelization. What is the time schedule now? What must we do right now for world evangelization? If you constantly hold onto this, then this person will always be led by the Holy Spirit.
Even right now. What does God desire to do in my life today towards world evangelism? You need to know the beginning and the end to know the time schedule for today. That’s what ‘s accurate. We’re going through the wilderness, so what is the time schedule right now, we are bound to go into the land of Canaan then why am I in the wilderness now? Then, instead of life being exhaustive and annoying is god’s training to imprint, root and nature you. These are the people of Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. For everyone else, they aren’t able to make that connection and see everything according to their own standards, and that’s the difference.
Even right now, God is currently working according to the covenant of His Word. The only issue is that I’m facing a different reality irrelevant to your degrees. Even right now, God is fulfilling the word that he has given to us, it’s just that my interest is elsewhere. Through the people who listened to today’s worship, the ministry of salvation continues. God works according to a person’s faith, God doesn’t work because we do something well, but according to the faith in our covenant.
You guys do BIble study in your fields, and depending on who leads the bubble study, the work will be different. First and foremost, the leader has the answer to many people’s problems. The Passover, the Pentecost, and the ingathering. In other words, the Exodus, the Red Sea, and Canaan. You have to have this answer to save them, and you have to have the faith regarding Canaan. God has prepared those who have received salvation through me, for peoples who do not believe in this they will only have works of disbelief, its evidence that they are not holding onto the covenant of Canaan, then they have to keep wandering the wilderness.
God has prepared people to receive salvation and disciples, and God begins to work upon your faith in this covenant. God continuously attaches people to you, because that’s the level of one person’s faith according to the covenant. If any of you are thinking, “I’m trying to do this but why aren’t people allowing them to be attached to me?” It’s because you’re holding onto something that won’t allow people to be attached to you.
In other words, because you are holding on so tightly to yourself, you’ll come to the conclusion that, “no one matches with me, perfectly.” Without even this person realizing it, they’ve reverted back to their me centeredness. Even all the conversations and the things they saw are all centered on maintaining themselves, their personal benefit, but this is so much a second nature of them, they don’t recognize their doing it. But people don’t go to that person because they are not a benefit to them, because this person only has faith regarding themselves,these are the works that take place in their life, but for the people who believe in the covenant, God will attach people appropriately to that. This is science, it’s an invisible science, because God works according to His covenant.
Therefore, every day we’re imprinted and rooted in the covenant of God’s word through prayer. There are some people who have a time of listening to God’s Word. If you listen to the Word you’ve received again, you’ll hear it differently. I’m sure there’s none of you like this, but there are people who think they know everything, so they look for something high level, but Christ is at the highest level. That’s like somebody who is really not athletic trying to do things they should. But if you look at the really good athletes, they aren’t doing anything high level, but just redoing the basic fundamentals because everything is contained there. The people who don’t know this will always say “Christ + something else,” and they always attach more and more. That individual does not have the answer.
Every single day, may you go into the prayer that sets your imprint, root, nature to God’s covenant, then without a doubt, God will give you the works that fulfill God’s covenant according to His covenant. What’s the standard of serving the church? If you serve the church to the point of being unable to enjoy the covenant, that’s not right. On the other hand, if someone says, “Well I’m not able to enjoy the covenant so I guess I should just rest,” this person will not receive answers. Instead, say, “Now I have to be centered on God’s covenant and serve the church in prayer.” For the people who challenge that in the covenantal faith, God will work appropriately.
I hope that all of you that come to church may have the imprint, root, nature of God’s covenant by always listening and praying. What happens as time passes? It seems like nothing is changing but it is changing. My inner person changes, it is not the inner self I had before. You personally will know this best. The older you are, the longer it may take. That may not be the case, but I just don’t want you to be impatient, so the greatest thing for us is, “every day,” there’s no one who can beat the one who does this every day. No matter what they’re doing, if they’re doing it every day, they cannot be beaten. Our time is limited, so no one can compete with someone who does this every day.
Every day, every morning. Every day, during the day, the one who changes all their thoughts to prayer is the one who has victory. If your spiritual state goes up and down, it means you’re not able to change all the things you see and think out in the world into prayer. Then without you realizing it, your spiritual state will be down. But the one who is able to change everything into prayer can continuously maintain their spiritual state. Then, in the evening, when you come back home, have time to concentrate on God, holding onto the words of his covenant again. This is the most important thing.
All the things you see and are interested in will follow in this. If you’re trying to calculate your way to get it, it is not going to work. God has to calculate. If we have to calculate something, it’s not going to work; I have to go into God’s work. That’s Deuteronomy. Your imprint, root, nature must be in God’s Word in order to conquer Canaan.
Let us pray together holding onto the Word God has given to us today. I hope you will stop praying for the things you want,but instead, pray for you to have the imprint, root, nature in the words of God’s covenant.
May you say to yourself, “I’m a child of God the evangelist to save the world” because that’s the word God gave you, and while you’re doing that you are simply, living in the time schedule today, “What does today have to do with world evangelization for me?” Then that person will always remain within God’s covenant. Are there any incidents that happened during the week? Have you faced a problem or was there some work that you did? I hope that instead of you looking at it, you may ask, “What does this have to do with world evangelization?” May you receive this answer and be a witness.
Our second prayer topic is to let us be the witnesses to save the field. May I be the one who gives the answer to the people inside the church as well. Allow me to be a church officer who is especially able to give the accurate covenant to the next generations. Let us pray together.
Benediction
May you be the ones to have the faith to save the world through the next week.
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unlimited love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the heads of the people of God, the people of all nations and the remnants, who desire to have only the faith of the covenant and to testify of this covenant to others, be upon their work, ministries, and their studies, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.