Save Your Region as the Spiritual Watchtower (Deuteronomy 21:1-9)
We will share the grace of God today with the content of Deut. 21. It says in Deut. 21:1, “In the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess.” When we take over the land of Canaan, we are bound to fight a battle. It seems like the Israelites are the ones fighting the battle, but it’s actually God who is fighting the battle. So, in the land of Canaan that God has given for the Israelites, “If someone is found slain, lying in a field, and it is not known who the killer was,” this means someone has been murdered but the criminal is unknown, and there are so many situations like this today. There are many situations where the murderer is caught, but there are many situations where the murderer isn’t found, and we just pass by those things, but that’s not right. God says, “Do not do that.”
There are going to be situations around you where you don’t know who committed the crime. Should we just pass them by? No, what must we do? It says in Deut. 21:2 “your elders,” meaning the elders of the 12 tribes of Israel, “and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns” and find out which town is closest to the body.
In Deut. 21:3, “Then the leaders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke.” Why do you think God is doing this? Do you think God doesn’t know the criminal? What do you think God is trying to tell us.
We will read Deut. 21:4. “And lead her down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream,” meaning human hands have not touched it. “There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck.” We have news every week. Last Saturday, there was a shooting with the LGBTQ community where 5 people were killed and 19 people were injured. A week before that, there was a shooting in Virginia, and there are even more situations that are not revealed by the news, not only in America, but all over the world.
When I went to El Salvador, both sides of the roads were covered in forests. Because the land is not developed, only the roads are carved out, and because there are forests and woods on body sides if somebody throws a dead body out there, no one knows who was murdered or who the body is. All of human life is God’s, and if a created human life that God made is killed, do you think He is not interested? Of course God is interested. It says to break the heifer’s neck.
Deut. 21:5, “The priests, the sons of Levi, shall step forward,” as well, “for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the LORD and to decide all cases of dispute and assault.” In Deut. 21:6, “Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley.” This is talking about a young calf that has never been worked and has never been enslaved by human hands. We break the heifer’s neck and spill its blood. The elders of the town nearest the body shall come and wash their hands over the heifer. Why do they have to wash their hands?’
Because in Deut. 21:7, they must declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done,” so they must declare their ignorance of the crime above the blood that has been spilt. What happens if this blood is not there? Then that town will receive the disasters. That is why they must sacrifice the heifer and atone for their sins.
Deut. 21:8, “Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O LORD,” in other words, saved, “And do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then, “the bloodshed will be atoned for.” In other words, there has been this incident of murder and we should not just let it pass by. Without a doubt, the leaders and church officers of that region must spill the blood and atone that there is no sin.
Deut. 21:9, it says, “So you will purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.” What do you think is right in the eyes of the LORD? It is to spill the blood and to forgive the sin so that there is no more sin, otherwise, the curses of that spilt innocent blood will be on your town.
Do you think that the same God that gave these words in the Old Testament would be different now that we are in the New Testament? God doesn’t change, He is the same God, and as we look at Matthew 5, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the way He defines murder is different then how we see it. Either way, God is saying, “I will not simply pass over this.” Without a doubt, there must be shedding of the blood of the covenant of the cross in order to overcome that sin.
Today, there are people who are dying but we do not know who they are. If somebody else killed that person, then the murderer must die. However, if somebody killed somebody else unintentionally, out of their conscious effort, then they have to run away to a city of refuge. However, if somebody consciously killed somebody else, then you must kill the murderer, because if you let them remain, they will kill other people. God is telling us to uproot that root.
However, let’s say we’re chopping down wood and the head of the ax flies off and kills somebody else? That is an “axe-idental” murder. And if you kill the person that accidentally committed the saluter, that would be murder so they have to go to the city of refuge. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ tells us what is really murder. If you criticize or curse somebody else, that’s also murder. Those are the people who will ultimately commit the visible murder. In the New Testament, more so then talking about the physical murder, He is talking about internal murder.
John 8:44 says, “Your father the devil, he was a liar and murderer from the beginning.” He kills people both internally with the lies he puts into us as well as externally through physical murder. He kills us with lies. We aren’t God but Satan kills my spiritual state by making me think, by his lies, that we are God. That’s where the murder has already begun. That’s why we receive forgiveness by holding onto Genesis 3:15, the offspring of the woman, the blood of Christ. We must have the beginning where I save myself from death first,but you keep killing yourself. Before you kill anybody else, you’re already dead. Because of that, those people who are dead will kill others, they will be hurt by lies and kill other people with lies. They will just lie hearing the words other people said without considering whether it’s right or wrong. That’s why you must save yourself with the gospel. How do you save yourself? The devil continuously deceives us by making us think we are the standard of our own lives, making us judge everything with our standards and our emotions. Especially when we face a problem, Satan makes us think that we are God, and we begin to worry. Because of that lie, we die.
Let’s say in our everyday life, we just pass over these things. But if I face a difficult situation I cannot overcome, I die again because I cannot overcome it. But we are relentlessly living as if we are God. If something unfair happens to me, I have to seek justice, because something unfair happened to me. We are continuously judging everything and making ourselves the standard, but that is a situation where I’m already dead. You must quickly save yourself with the gospel. It is not me, but God is with me.
If every time, something sad or bad or good happens to you, if you are your own standard, you will spiritually die. Even if something good happens, that isn’t something you should feel good about; you should find God’s will there. Even if something bad happens, it isn’t something you should feel bad about; you must find God’s will there.
But the devil will continue to deceive you with lies, making you think you are the stands of your own life in everything. He kills you with lies again, making you think, “I don’t have any abilities so I can’t do anything,” but if you hold onto the words that God is with me to do world evangelization, then that’s what saves you.
We listened to the RCA messages this year, and people might think, “I don’t know what this means, there are so many different terms, I don’t understand. But if I act like I don’t know anything it’s embarrassing,” so the young adults have to pretend that they do. There’s no reason for you to be the center. You just need to pray to realize the word God wants to give you. You shouldn’t misunderstand the words you understand with your brain to be really understanding it. It hasn’t necessarily been imprinted into your heart; you must not misunderstand that.
The devil continuously deceives you, even after you listen to the Word. If you didn’t listen to the Word, you would say those people are deceived, but even though you listened, you are also deceived. That is why you must always rely on and hold onto the gospel. Because it is difficult to understand, that’s why I need the grace of Christ. We keep on being told to raise up the watchtower, but what does that mean and how do we do that? It’s only difficult because you try to understand it. But the One Who is with me must reveal it to me with His voice.
You have to hold onto the Word you have received and ask the God Who is with you to reveal the word to you according to your circumstances and your situation and your state. However, if you just pass by the word like you are god saying, “I know it,” or, “I don’t know it,” then that’s nothing.
We’re talking right now about how to enjoy the gospel. You must not know the gospel just with your brain. Then, actually, you will not come to life. If you have a little bit of a bad emotion, you say, “I feel bad today,” so what? You’re not living your life with emotions; you’re living by Christ. But that’s the extent to which the kids have fallen. They are easily swayed by the devil. If the weather is a little cold today, people say, “It’s not today,” what’s not today? The Lord is with you as well. But that is how much we’ve lost hold of the gospel and we live our life according to our own standards, and we think that’s a good way to live.
Because I’m lacking, I need Christ. Because I cannot save the 237 nations, I need the power of the One Who has all authority in heaven and on earth. You must constantly enjoy the gospel because God will fulfill the message He has given us this year. You hold onto that message and pray. There’s a message we received online, and you actually need to hold onto that message and enjoy the word being fulfilled through prayer. It’s important for the person to have that time. That’s how you will come to life, then what happens?
The people who are spiritually dead inside the church will keep on saying words that kill other people inside the church. They are speaking with the facts, but they are spiritually killing other people. If that person doesn’t have the ability, you will say, “You don’t have the ability.” If that person does have abilities, they will say words like they have an ability. If somebody makes a mistake, they will say words like they have a problem, why is that? It’s because they themselves are already dead, so they say words that kill.
But if you have the words of the Lord saving you, you are bound to say the words that save. “Because they are lacking, they need Christ. Because they make mistakes, they need Christ,” isn’t that right? If we were perfect, why would the Lord have to come? Because we are lacking, the LORD promised to be with us. This is the way to save the people in the church.
What does it mean for us to raise up the watchtower? It means for us to pray. There’s no need for you to think of it philosophically. It means for you to look at everything with prayer and to be alert when everyone else is sleeping, and to look far. You need to look at everything close to far. What are you looking at? At the spiritual things. But because you are spiritually dead, you cannot look at yourself spiritually so you can look at anybody else. You must raise up your watchtower having your life story, which means you must have the gospel that saves yourself. Then, when you look into the field, you will see the spiritual world, you’ll see the spiritual facts, and you must be able to see the spiritual problem.
You must be able to see the LGBTQ shooting in Colorado from far away spiritually as the watchtower. So, what’s the point of looking at these things on the news? You must see that incident as the incident that is happening in your own region, because this incident of Jesus’ cross is my incident. The life God has created is dying, and God is with me, so that incident is my incident.
If you don’t see that incident as your own, you cannot be the Watchtower because you think that’s someone else’s problem. You think that’s irrelevant to you, you think that’s their problem in someone else’s nation, but that’s not what today’s word says. There’s nobody who murdered him, then why is it that we have to go and break the heifer’s neck and say that we have no sin? It is telling us to block the disasters of the region.
When you shine the light, the message told us to be emperors without a crown, and that means to save people. That’s what it means, there’s no need to complicate it. You will continuously face incidents and you are continuously saving yourself in these incidents with the gospel. Then, you are bound to save and see the people around you and that is the Watchtower. It is saying that a shooting happened in your own region, then what must you do about it? It is telling you to pray, to do intercessory prayer.
If you think that’s an incident that just happened and it has nothing to do with you, then that means you are irrelevant to the cross. One day, these disasters will enter your family. Then what are you going to do? If one day, you’re affected by these incidents, then you’ll say, “Now this is my situation?” That’s not true. My Lord is my Lord, and that is the Lord’s incident, then it is my incident. It happened in my region, it is going to happen in my business, and its’ happening right now. How will you see it? You must see it spiritually.
You must see it spiritually to pray as the Watchtower. If you don’t see it spiritually, you’ll only see it physically and you cannot see this. The disasters continuously come in, and though there are churches all around, they cannot block them, and that is why God is getting rid of the churches. That is why God is making the church members being dragged as slaves and captives to theworld. Because God gave us this covenant and this gospel, but we lose hold of that and hold onto ourselves instead.
How can you overcome these disasters? Because I cannot overcome the disasters, the disasters befall me. That’s what this means, “Atone for the sins and disasters so it won’t fall on you.” Without a doubt, there is a murderer, and God is telling this to us so that this does not spread. You must raise up this flag of the light in your church and in your regions. Raising up the banner does not mean you do something tremendous, it means you must save yourself first.
People tell you to raise this up, so you think you’re going to do something great by yourself but no, it’s you yourself that must be raised, you yourself will fall into powerlessness. Your thoughts and emotions cannot overcome the darkness of the region and the culture, that’s why the Lord gave us the gospel. The Triune God is with you. You overcome that. And He says he’ll be with us, we save everyone together with that, and he will be with all things, that’s why we save.
It is the same in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and today, God doesn’t stand still when people are dying spiritually, that’s how people commit suicide even inside the churches. That’s why even pastors commit suicide. We don’t have the strength in theology. It doesn’t matter how much grace you’ve received until now. If you’re not able to save yourself with the covenant, one day, you’ll let yourself go. There are many pastors that commit suicide, it’s the same in America and in Korea. They commit suicide because of depression, In America, there was a white pastor who killed himself with a gun.
There was a very large church and he was a successful pastor, but he killed himself because of depression. If that’s the case of pastors then how much more for non believers and how much more for church members? That’s why today, you must take the heifer, break its neck, and spill its blood. It means to hold to the covenant of Christ. That’s how disasters are broken down and the darkness is broken. That’s how you save yourself.
You raise this platform in every region. You gather together and raise up the Watchtower of intercessory prayer. Because all of these things are spiritual things, you cannot go forward unless it is through prayer, you raise this up all throughout America. This is not something we do because we’re so great, but in Gen. 6, God says, “Make an ark for yourselves.” You’re not that great, you’re going to die in the flood if you don’t make an ark as well. Do this for yourself, for your children, and your family, and do it for all of life. THis is the message God gave us.
If I’m living in this region, it’s my responsibility, and if I lose hold of the covenant, that’s my responsibility. That’s why you hold onto the covenant and pray for the region as my Watchtower. How is this irrelevant to you? If God called the Israelites as a nation of priests, it doesn’t mean we should just stay still with the gospel, you need to stand and play the role of the priests. If God has given you this gospel, don’t keep it to yourself but tell this to others so that they may live. That’s what this means.
How do we save the 237 nations? God is with you, save them with the prayer transcending time and space because you cannot go everywhere and meet everyone, so save them with prayer. If you pray, God says He will work. We read about death today but it begins with spiritual death when people are spiritually dead incidents like this will begin. But if we don’t know the spiritual things, we always look at the physical things and fall into legalism. We always fall into legalism saying, “I did this,” or “I didn’t do that,” but if you look at the spiritual things, they are transcending time and space, so it becomes possible.
Why am I living in this region? To save this region, that’s why you must raise the watchtower. Stop holding onto other things, but hold onto that and save. When you become the spiritual summit, God will save you with the skill summit. Stop holding onto your skills and be destroyed but do the spiritual summit first. You must save yourself. You must raise yourself and save yourself at the highest place using the gospel, the spiritual thing, it’s talking about the skill that comes from within the spiritual summit.
That skill becomes the skill that saves the culture, but we’ve turned it upside down. We are chasing after our skill but not only yourself but everyone else is dying. The Lord gives us talent from heaven but we think we do everything on our own, that’s why we talk about the heavenly throne and the heavenly talent; it comes from heaven, it is not something you discover, but God gives it to you. Who does he give it too? He reveals it to the spiritual summits. That’s what this means, so we can save the field with that skill.
We are giving the message for Wednesday night as well as the RCA messages. I hope you will continuously listen to the RCA messages and meditate on it, If you don’t meditate on it, it’s not going to go past your brain, If you say, “Oh, I’ve got it now,” you’re deceiving yourself, and if there’s anyone like that, I’m sorry, but you’re wrong, because there are a lot of spiritual things that were within those messages. I hope you will continuously listen to them and find the voice of God within them.
Even right now, God is speaking to you. He is saying the same things to you, but if you think they are different, you haven’t really heard him yet. The spiritual things are the same, there are not that many different deep things. Because you’re not able to save yourself with the gospel, everything else becomes difficult. It doesn’t matter what situations you face because you save yourself with the gospel, and it’s not a problem to me, even your powerlessness is not a problem. Your power is not a problem either, your circumstances isn’t a problem, people’s words are not a problem, because it is not me, but the Lord Who is with me is living.
You know this with your brain, but in your actual life, in your actual lifestyle, you are always your own strength. Our Assistant Pastor’s leg is hurting, but if she knows the gospel, it doesn’t matter, but most people will be bound by themselves saying, “My body hurts so I can’t do this.” The God Who is with me is working with the power of the throne of heaven and He works regardless of my leg. That’s just one example I’m giving of how you can hold onto the gospel and come to life.
Your age is irrelevant; why would your age be relevant? Does your age block the gospel? It does not. Does your language barrier block the gospel? No, in the Early Church, God gave them the gift of tongues to break that barrier. It’s okay even if one person understands. We don’t need two people; we just need one, because if that one person comes to life, then everybody will know. It’s such a simple thing; you don’t need to persuade many people. In the time schedule God has prepared, if the people understand and come to life then everyone will come to life. Either way, it doesn’t matter what happens because it’s irrelevant to me. I am going forward with the fact that the Lord is with me, and God will do the temple construction as well.
If people are stuck on themselves, they cannot hold onto the covenant because they say, “I cannot do this,” but it is not about me; it is the Lord, how will the Lord answer this? How will God do the 237 nations? You should dream about this as your CVDIP and it should give you strength. If you’re thinking of your CVDIP and it makes you sad or exhausted, that’s not right. Every single thing is being used to fulfill the dream God gave you. It’s bound to come like that according to God’s time schedule.
It’s not just your dream, but the dream that comes from the vision. It’s not the vision you just see, but it’s the vision that comes from the covenant of Christ. It is the dream where you say, “I will fulfill this dream of world evangelization with this talent. I am not the one fulfilling it, but it is being fulfilled by God’s power and His Word,” that is the image. That’s why we leave behind the masterpiece. Leave everything behind as a masterpiece. Your work, the people, all incidents, make it into a masterpiece, make this time into a masterpiece.
You know what a masterpiece is, right? If you don’t make a masterpiece, then this time passes you by. Make this time into a masterpiece. May you enjoy that blessing.
Prayer
Let us pray together holding to the Word we have received. The fact that we have been redeemed means that everything has been finished. All we have to do is hold onto the Lord Who has ended everything, but your life keeps wavering back and forth because you hold onto yourself. If you always hold onto the Chris tWho has finished everything, especially in the midst of crises, problems, and circumstances, you will find the answer that has finished everything.
Let us do the intercessory prayer now for the region to shine that light as the Watchtower. The Prayer Watchtower that raises up the 70 regions. There must be regions you are associated with, just like the police force have their areas or territories of jurisdiction, we have our own regions. That is something the Pharaoh cannot do; only Joseph can. It is something that the kings of Babylon cannot do, only Daniel can. It is something Biden cannot do; that is why you guys are the kings. So let us pray right now for the 70 disciples and the 70 regions to arise, for the light of Christ would be shone, and for the darkness to be broken down, and for the light to arise.
Our third prayer topic together, let us pray together for our missions fields. We have to do this because there are not many people who pray for our missions fields. The reason we pray is because it works from here, because the Lord is sitting from the throne of heaven and working through those fields through the antenna. So you can do world evangelization seated right here. Paul did world evangelization while on prison, Joseph did world evangelization as a slave. So, it doesn’t matter what kind of situation you’re in, it’s possible because it’s spiritual, transcending time and space.
To raise up the 1000 Watchtowers in the church means to raise up 1000 teams of intercessory prayer. It is in God’s time schedule when these will be raised up in the church but I hope the Remnant Young Adults will first raise up the intercession prayer team, I still think they don’t understand. I tell them this every Friday but they still don’t understand. What do you do when you go home? That’s what I’m telling you.
That’s what I mean when I say, “Gather together and pray for the young adults, pray for the church and share the answers you’ve received in your fields, and pray for the region,” and the day this is put into practice, the darkness in the field will be broken down. Until then, you only know it with your brain. For the actual Prayer Watchtowers to be raised up, let us pray for the church missions fields.
Finally let us pray for temple construction. We pray because this is not something we can do; because this is the covenant God gave us, we must receive His answers. If this is something I could do, we could just call it a donation, but God doesn’t receive our donations. God gives it to us and desires for His name to be exalted. If we don’t pray about it, we say that we did it, that is why we pray.
The temple construction that will save the 237 nations. There’s nobody on this earth who can heal the demon-possessed and diseases, but the temple construction to do that work. There are many churches that are handicapped and cannot do this movement, but let us pray for the temple construction that’ll do the summit and evangelism movement. Allow us this kind of temple.
We do our church prayer and that’s the intercessory prayer and that’s what it means to raise up the Prayer Watchtower. Whenever you meet at the church or your regional churches, I hope intercessory prayer takes place.
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 all the people of God, the people of all nations, the remnants who desire to save themselves, the church, and the region, with the power of being with the Triune God, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.