My Meditation to Save the World (Colossians 3:1-3)
Hello. This Bible scripture is not from this most recent pulpit message, but from maybe 2-3 pulpit messages ago. But it’s something I’ve been meditating about and I wanted to share. I’m not here to give a message, but as always, my testimony. So, I wanted to share about how I enjoy meditation and concentration time.
The reason is because it’s been in the flow of messages to have concentration time on Jesus Christ, and it’s also something the remnants absolutely need as they go out into the field now and in the future. Even though I don’t know all the answers, I wanted to share some of my journey with you, so later on today, I’ll be giving you an idea of how I meditate, but first, I wanted to talk about this Bible scripture.
We have been raised with Christ, meaning we’re no longer living at the same level as we did in the past, before we knew Christ. This is not something we do well or something we’ve earned, but Christ chose to raise us up, and He has already given us that grace through faith in Christ. Because Jesus Christ has already chosen you and given you His grace, there’s only one thing left to do. It is to set our hearts on the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. It is to set our hearts on the things above, not on worldly things, so I wanted to share with you what earthly things look like, because it’s something we’re all stuck in on a daily basis, but I want to continue to see how this is not an answer.
The people in the world try to find meaning in their life.
Life
But they have no meaning. I was talking to one of my friends today, and he said the meaning of life is to find happiness wherever you can. But the thing is, I’ve tried doing that before, and I was never satisfied, and I could never get over my mental problems.
Mental Problems
Even though I was doing everything my friends said I should do, and I was having fun, I was chasing after boys, I was getting good grades, I was going out and having fun with friends, but the moment I was alone, I felt so numb and it got to the point where I couldn’t get out of bed and I couldn’t even go check the mail. It’s something so simple, but I had no strength to do it. I would go an entire day without eating just because I wanted to stop existing. Life is not in our control but people say that it is, but without the strength of being with God, we cannot control our mind, our emotions, or our actions. We feel insecure about ourselves, but then we judge other people.
Physical Problems
That leads to physical problems too. We have to fight with people, even people we love. We have to leave our jobs, and even in this world there’s physical problems we cannot control. There are wars that happen beyond our control, there’s inflation, everything is getting more expensive, and it’s going to get worse. Because of that, you have to make more money, so everyone is living a life where they have to make money, they’re stressed, they don’t have strength, but they live in a cycle where things get worse and worse.
Children
Because of that stress, they have to live their lives, but it gets passed onto their children, and if you look at the world now, it’s a lot harder to be a kid, even harder than when I was a kid. Even if you don’t have kids yourself, you can tell that the little ones growing up right now have it really hard. You can tell they have a lot of pressure, a lot of insecurity, and they have no hope. In the past, they said, “Get a job and a white picket fence,” but now, kids are saying, “Why do I have to work? The world is in shambles anyways.” So, everyone is trying to look for their happiness, but there’s no way to escape from these problems. Even if they do find some kind of temporary happiness, they live their lives in hell and they go to eternal hell.
Hell
There was one girl who asked me, “What is God going to do to punish the man who sexually attacked me? He raped me in my own bed before my sixteenth birthday, right before my father passed away.” Every day, she has to live in the same bed where she was attacked, while going through everything on her sixteenth birthday. But she sees her attacker living his best life, having fun, going out like nothing happened. So she asked me, “Why does God allow that, and what is God going to do about it?”
I told her, “I don’t know because I don’t know the future like that, however, when you are with God, you will know that you have been healed when you’re able to forgive and want to save that boy’s life.” It was just like this week’s pulpit message. “The enemy is not the person who did that to you. It’s the dark and incorrect things that Satan has put into that person. The real enemy is Satan and the sin he has placed into that person through scars, the family, and the world.”
Here’s the thing, no matter what anyone does on this physical life on earth, I don’t want eternal damnation for anybody, that’s eternity versus the short life on earth. People say, “What if Adolf Hitler accepted Jesus Christ and went to heaven?” I understand he did bad things on earth, but this is eternity we’re talking about. There’s nothing anyone can do on earth that would want me to have eternal damnation or suffering for this person.
But that’s what the people in the world are living in, and they think just having fun, going bowling, and playing darts is a fun thing to do right now, and that’s their meaning of life. It’s so much bigger than that, and they cannot escape from this, but this is what we’ve been raised from. Jesus Christ took us out of these problems so we never have to suffer from these problems. This doesn’t mean that bad things won’t happen to you, but you will not suffer because of these things. Why?
With
Because now, you are with Christ and this is how I meditate. Two weeks ago, I called my sister before the Wednesday message and said, “Can you translate today? I don’t want to go to church. I have so many things going on; I have to do so many things and I cannot go to church tonight.” Even as I said that, I felt so stupid because I’ve tried that before. I didn’t get anything done in those two hours, so I was so troubled. I was on the phone, “I know the answer but I don’t know what to do. Okay, give me five minutes and I’m going to pray and I’ll text you about what I’m going to do.”
My sister was like, “Yeah, cool, I got you.” As I was praying, there were so many thoughts going on in my head, reasons why I have to go to church, like, “What are the kids going to think? What are the parents going to think? I’m not going to get that much done in that time anyways,” and then reasons why I don’t have to go to church, “This is the online age, and God is transcending time and space,” so I was using the Word of God to make my decision.
“Don’t be legalistic, Tiffany, you don’t have to go to church,” but even as I was thinking all of that, my mind was so complicated. I realized, “I’m not praying right now; I’m just thinking,” so I stopped all my thoughts and realized the Triune God is with me right now, and I felt God was holding me. I realized God wouldn’t be telling me to do this or that, but He reminds me, “I am with you.” From that, there was a change in my heart, not in my thoughts, and I just got in the shower and got to church.
It wasn’t like, “This is why I have to go to church,” but it felt natural to me and it gave me peace. That’s how I meditate. Someone asked me, “How do you meditate for so long?” It’s because it’s not my thoughts, if you’re thinking your thoughts, then there’s a limit to how long you can sit there, because you start thinking about everything you have to do and you get stressed out, but instead, what I think about is first, that Jesus Christ is with me, and as soon as I think that, whatever I’m worried about becomes so small, and I begin from a place of thanksgiving. Then I realize it’s not that big of a problem, no matter what, God is with me. That’s it.
Then, in the name of Jesus Christ, I break down the forces of darkness in myself. The Word of God comes into my mind. From this weeks’ pulpit message, what I received is that there’s me, and then there’s the incorrect, bad things Satan has placed inside of me. Those are two separate things. My bad thoughts and my evil thoughts aren’t me; it’s Satan, and that’s what brings me back to Jesus Christ.
It’s the same for other people as well. I’m able to focus on the spiritual issue of attacking Satan. Sometimes I get distracted and that’s when I focus on my breathing. Sometimes I’m thinking nothing and I breathe very slowly. That slows my thoughts and clears my mind. When I inhale, I think about God being with me. When I breathe out, I pray for the Kingdom of God to be established. I keep doing that. Like, when I drive, when I wake up, all the time. It’s as simple as that. I’m not finding a solution to anything, but in that, my spiritual state changes. When I concentrate on Christ, the forces of darkness break down. That changes my life. It gets to a point where the same things can happen to me, but I interpret them completely differently. I know that the only solution to these problems is Jesus Christ
Christ
There’s nothing I can do on my own, no matter how happy it makes me in the moment, that can save me from these problems. Without Jesus Christ, I cannot do anything. 24 hours every single day, the issue is that you get to that conclusion of Jesus Christ and then you gain strength, and when you gain strength, you do things very well, very easily. Then, I personally get arrogant because of that, then I fall back into self-centeredness. That’s why we need Jesus Christ every single day, and without Jesus Christ, we have no choice but to fall back into problems we’ve already been liberated from.
We need this moment of concentration, even just for five minutes, but we need it every day, and once you reach the conclusion of only JEsus Christ, there’s only one thing left to do, it is going towards the Kingdom of God.
This week, something happened where I was kind of worried. My dad said, “Your mom and I are thinking about going to another church.” On the outside, I was like, “Yeah,” but on the inside, I was like, “No,” I was panicking because he wants to go to a generic church, and I know that’s not centered on the gospel. It’s centered on how people feel, which is why it makes them feel better, so then I went back up to my room and I was really worried about it, and then I remembered the message I received, “When you have the conclusion of Jesus Christ, the only place to go is the direction of the Kingdom of God.” So, that gave me peace. I entrust this to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has finished this problem and the problem of our generational curses. He has given us the covenant of family evangelism. He has broken down the sin inside of me that is making me scared.
Now, the only place left to go from here is the Kingdom of God. So, I realized, all I have to do is stand as a witness of God’s Word being fulfilled in my life, and as I enjoy Jesus Christ as my answer, God’s Kingdom is established naturally. There’s a lot of people who think, “God wants us to do world evangelization, we have to do this,” and yes, that is what God wants, but we don’t do it. There’s one thing God wants us to do which is to be with Him. As we enjoy being with Him, He guides us in everything through peace and power. But if you don’t start with Jesus Christ and you only think about the Kingdom of God, it becomes a burden on you.
Meditating on Christ should be the most peaceful thing you do all day. That’s how I spend so much time meditating because I don’t want to stop, I’m so filled with thanksgiving that He has finished every problem. Even the problems I see in myself, Jesus Christ has finished it and God guides me through them through His Word.
Then it says here, “Christ Who is seated at the right hand of God.” That is, seated at the throne of heaven. He is right there, in the throne of heaven and He is moving everything from there. When you concentrate on Jesus Christ, that’s when you’re filled with power you cannot understand. We are limited by what we’ve experienced, but God’s work goes so much beyond that, we cannot even imagine what’s going to happen next year.
Here’s the thing, we don’t have to worry about getting answers, our futures, or about being successful. The answers, the future, and success are guaranteed for us. What concerns us is what happens after that. When we don’t have Jesus Christ every day, we become arrogant and fall, we become arrogant and fall.
Just as we praised, there’s a world in darkness, and God must save that world which means He will raise you to the summit of the world. But the moment you focus on that instead of on Jesus Christ is when Satan attacks. Only by Jesus Christ, only by the Kingdom of God, and only by the filling of the Holy Spirit is what we must do every day, because we’re powerless.
This is us. Only Jesus Christ takes us into world evangelization, so when I meditate, it’s very simple. I just breathe very slowly and very deeply, and when I breathe in, my stomach goes out. This is scientifically proven to cool your brain down, and so you’re able to make decisions more clearly, you have more oxygen, your blood circulates better. So, physically, spiritually, mentally, breathing is where I begin. I make my prayers very simple as well. Don’t over complicate it. It’s only Christ, He is with you right now, He has finished all of your problems and now the Word of God guides you into the future. He will take you towards success and protect you there.
Everything you’re doing now will be used to save the church and save the field. So right now, I’m in the church financial department, and most people who have a 9-5 job quit in a few years. I’ve been working at my company for more than five years now, I don’t know what I’m going to do, I don’t know what my future holds, but I do follow God’s Word every step of the way, and along that way, God has shown me things and given me skills that are now used to save the church. I didn’t realize it until two weeks ago.
I realized that everything I’m doing for the financial department was things that I learned at work, and now I want to pass it onto the next generation of remnants and raise them up as disciples. So, stay tuned for that. I’ll give you Excel lessons. The people in the world are self-centered, they want to keep the jobs for themselves, but because I know God’s greater desire for world evangelization, I can freely give it to the next generation because I know God will give me so much more. This is the Kingdom of God. Whatever God gives you, you pass it on and God gives you more; it’s the cycle of life.
Whereas everything the world gives you will kill you and the people around you. In high school and college, I wanted to be the mysterious, hot girl. But if you think about it, that mysterious, hot girl is just unimpressed all the time. She’s unapproachable, and she’s just there, and do you know what that leads to? Loneliness and depression, not just for you but everyone around you. It spreads poison.
Same thing with getting money. You become more paranoid about money, whereas in the Kingdom of God, you know all your money comes from God, so you can use it for the Kingdom of God freely. This whole world is so paranoid about having a savings account, investments, and real estate. But I don’t have to worry about that because I know everything comes from God. My friends all left their jobs, looking for promotions and benefits. But I keep getting the Word from God to stay where I am because He has a mission for me. It is to find the disciples and establish God’s Kingdom, so that’s my prayer topic.
It’s not about what I do right or wrong, but it’s about aligning my heart with Jesus Christ. That’s not going to happen because of my hard work; it’s going to come by the power of the Holy Spirit that even goes beyond work. The power of the Holy Spirit leads people to you and opens them up to you. Even in that moment, we must stay focused on only Christ; it is not us. It’s’ not about the words you say; you don’t even have to say anything. It is about breaking down the forces of Satan and the filling of the Holy Spirit.
I don’t know if you guys remember, but a few months ago, I gave the message for Remnant Night, and I said, “The answer I want to receive next is to know how angels work,” because I hear about it and I don’t really see the power of it, but I want to, so i wanted to share a little bit about what I’ve seen.
Angels
You guys know Pastor Park went to Utah a few weeks ago, and we’ve been praying for the field of Utah. A few people also went with me to the Navajo field. That’s another field we’ve been praying for. I want to share with you a little about what’s going on in Navajo. God is spreading the gospel through Ranch Hands Ministry in Navajo. First, He starts by raising up the remnants. At Ranch Hands Ministry, the adults don’t have the gospel; they have religion, but the younger remnants growing up receive the gospel, and as they rise up, they’re able to share the gospel with their parents and the adults are seeing a change in the church. That’s what being a witness in the Kingdom of God is about. You guys just enjoy the answers and the people in here will be able to see it by the Holy Spirit.
Now the remnants there are giving messages to the adults and they’re praying to come here to receive training as well. You guys may think this seat is nothing, but this is the seat that saves the future and the world. God is doing the work through the people who have this covenant and gospel.
Through the online platform, Joel has been giving the message to 100,000 people. They gather in one place, and they listen online. He’s being asked to go to other churches and give the gospel message. One of those places he’s been called to is Utah, and that’s how God works without us realizing it. There are places and people whom God has already chosen and prepared, and as God just does the work, we just see it. One thing we have to pray for is, as we see God’s works that are amazing, don’t get arrogant. It starts and ends with only Christ. The works like this are rightful, so just give glory to the Triune God and that’s Joel’s prayer topic as well.
Pastor Joel is praying that, through all these ministries, it will never be him, but it will always be glory to the Triune God. Your guys’ prayers are breaking down the forces of darkness in the fields all across the world. So, open your eyes and see the work that God does. Let Him reveal to you that this is what you’re living for. School, money, relationships, learning English, that’s not what you’re here for. But God is using all of that to spread His Kingdom.
A second prayer topic Pastor Joel has is for a church bus so that a lot of remnants who want to worship, but their parents don’t go to church, Joel can pick them up and take them to worship. When worship is cut off, that’s when we’re cut off from life. Someone told me today, I was with my friends after work, “I’m going to church now,” and someone asked, “Why go to church? Do they have free food there?”
I want you to think about that. Why do you guys go to church? Is it your life? If I didn’t have the church, I would have no direction, strength, life, or anything. I would have no hope. This is why we devote to the church, not because we’re told to, not because we want blessings, but because we know we have life. Worship is the source of life. You can have everything in the world, but if you lose hold of worship, it can be taken away from you like that. But if you don’t have worship, you can have the best life in the world, but you’ll be empty and dead, spreading death.
So, the way Pastor Joel is buying that church bus is by the missions offering we give to him. Through your missions offering, you are giving life to remnants all over the world. You are raising the next generation of the gospel that will go much beyond you for eternity. I have a big repentance this week. As I was documenting the missions offering, I thought, “This is a lot of money,” and I had a moment of repentance before God, I was thinking that it’s too much money to give towards saving lives? That revealed the Satan and sin inside of me. So, applying the pulpit message to that, that’s not me. That’s the darkness that Satan has placed inside of me, and I’m glad He revealed that heart, because then I can hold onto Christ in that.
Then the Wednesday message talked about, “After receiving all this power, Satan will make you need more power, then you will fall.” 100% of our money comes from God. 100% of our money gets spent for God. I’m not there yet, I still want my savings account, I still have a limit to how much I should give to missions, “What are they really using it for?” But that’s the sin and darkness Satan has placed inside of us.
We’re not giving the money to people; we give the offering to God. Your time and your skills are not yours, but they are from God and for God. So, if you want to know what to do in the future that is getting more and more confusing and hard, start with Jesus Christ. From Him, you will receive your vision, what you must live for. From that vision, God will give you your dream. That dream will not be used to make money, but it will be used to save the church and the world. If you need more intelligence or more money to do that, or more success, God is going to give you that, but that’s not for us to worry about. The only thing we have to worry about is God in our hearts. Because until Jesus Christ is deeply rooted in our hearts, it’s a blessing to not have those things.
From today and forever, I hope you will enjoy five minutes of deep breathing, enjoying being with Jesus Christ. It’s really as simple as that, and God will reveal anything else He needs to reveal. He will heal things inside of you that you’re not even aware of. Those things will be used to save people around you. I hope you will believe that and not be burdened by it. Let us pray.
Prayer
Heavenly Father God, thank You so much. Jesus Christ has finished all problems on the cross. God’s Word guides us every step of life. You give us the power to become a witness of Jesus Christ to everyone in the world. I pray You will bless every single person in this church, especially the remnants, so that we may fight against the evil inside of us, and by the healing that comes from the Triune God, to save the people. Protect our hearts and give us Your grace so that we know everything we have and do actually comes from You and is for You. We pray all of this in Jesus Christ’s name, amen.
Before we sing, “I See Your Heart,” we will pray for the prayer topics, for the missions fields. Tiffany talked about how God is moving in Navajo, Utah, and all our missions fields. Actually right now, can we put our missions fields on the powerpoint? We also have Karen people in Portland and Mongolia and some disciples in different places in Africa. At this time, let’s really pray for our missions fields and the disciples God is raising there, because that is what God wants. Let us pray.
The second prayer topic I want the remnants and everybody to pray for right now is Temple Construction because Tiffany said something I wholeheartedly agree with, and that is that church is life. God works through the church and gives life through the church. It doesn’t matter if you know the word because the Word is living and active, meaning God gives us a very specific Word regarding what we’re living right now.
Let us pray for a place where God’s Word is continually proclaimed, where through the church, we have a place where the Word continually flows out. Remnants, this is not just a prayer topic for adults, but it’s our prayer topic because the church is our future. Once all the adults are gone, this is our mission that we carry on. Let us pray for our church.
The third prayer topic is for tomorrow’s Remnant Day and for the pulpit message. If we can also put the powerpoint of the remnants who are out of state, let’s pray that not only are we able to restore worship so we can receive God’s Word, but the remnants who are out of state can restore worship and receive God’s Word. Let us pray.
Before we sing our last praise song, “I See Your Heart,” I have an announcement. Tomorrow is Remnant Day at ICSC in Whittier at 2pm. If you need a ride, we can arrange that, so hit me up. Also, Holy Wind is on Monday from 7-9pm so invite all your friends. I know Jacob is inviting his friend, let this be a night to break down the forces of darkness. Let’s sing, “I See Your Heart.”
Tomorrow from 10:30am-12:30pm there will still be youth evangelism school, and for people who cannot attend in person, there will be available online for people like those in Portland or Navajo, lead them to Youth Evangelism School. Just as Tiffany said, you are the main figures so you have to connect them; no one will do it for you, and that’s what it means to be a main figure. Don’t be a side person; be the main figure. If you do it, you’re the main figure.
Thank You for giving us the covenant, and following your covenant and the time schedule for raising the remnants. Will you work upon us so we can come together in the covenant to truly save the remnants and the 237 nations and the 5000 unreached people groups.
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 people of God and the remnants and the multiethnic people who want to save the world by only Christ, only the Kingdom of God, and only the filling of the Holy Spirit, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.