Arise and Shine (Isaiah 60:1-9)

Today we will share the grace of God with Isaiah 60. 

Isaiah is the book of prophesy in the old testament. Any time the nation was going through a disaster, God  would send his word through a prophet. Whenever the people of God are in a crisis, God works strongly with His Word.  Isaiah was a descendant of the tribe of kings, so he’s a relative of people like King Hezekiah so his writing is very high level.

And there’s 66 chapters in the book of Isaiah, just like there’s 66 books in the Bible. And through chapter 39 it is the word regarding the Old Testament. Starting from Isaiah 40 to 66, it is talking about Christ in the New Testament. That’s how it’s roughly divided, but if you think you gained great knowledge from this, it’s unnecessary but there are some people who really emphasize knowledge like that and that’s how they face their destruction. If possible, I try to avoid things like that because most people try to hold onto knowledge like that instead of the covenant.

What was the plan of God for this age?  The superpower nation of Assyria was the most gruesome and oppressive nation of the age. The northern kingdom Israel was taken over by Assyria and destroyed and the Southern kingdom was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BC. This is the word Hod gave before those things took place. So he’s giving his word in advances 

God is saying he will restore the people. He is saying they will be taken captive to Babylon, these are the things that will happens and he will restore them. There’s only one reason why the people of God suffer in the world, it’s because God isn’t protecting them. It’s very simple. So I hope you won’t look for reasons. If you don’t believe in God you have a lot of reasons. “If only this happened and that happened,” it’s because God didn’t block it. Humans were created to live by God’s will. If we have no other choice if God doesn’t guard our thoughts and heart. That’s what it means to be in the image of God.

In Gen. 1:27, we are festes to live by Gods will and image, but when do humans fail and suffer? Ever since we believe God doesn’t exist, not with our words but spirits, that is the beginning of our problems, so even though they go to church, they fail. The Israelites were destroyed even as they went to the temple to worship. If they didn’t go to the temple at all, tit would be a different matter, but even as they were worshipping they failed. But the bible says, “you were going to worship,but you were worshipping idols” worship was only a form they kept but they actually held onto the world, they were only going before God for the things of the world but they did not know this. That is the reason God did not protect or work over them. Ever since Genesis 3, God always works for his covenant. 

God doesn’t work because of your diligence, so no matter what your actions or behaviors are like, that’s a work of a sinner so that’s how God sees us. No matter how correct your words are, they are incorrect before God, it may be a little better before people but is incorrect before God and God does not work upon people like that. What moves God? It is God’s own promise. What do that? It’s the blood sacrifice. Only then God is with us. Only then will all the curses and disasters stop. Only then will God’s word come upon us. Any other words are correct but they are wrong. 

There are many correct words in America, but as we do that, everybody fails. The words that are correct before God. Jesus is the Christ. “It is finished” that’s the words that destroyed Satan and what Hid works upon. 

Even as they went to church the Israelites lost hold of that. That’s why God gave his word in advance that “you guys will be taken captive” and God will restore them through those who remain. Who are the ones who remain? The Holy seed. What is the Holy seed talking about? It is not many people, it is one person. Christ. Whoever believes in Christ, they are a remnant. And through Christ God will begin new works. So if you come to church listening to the words of those who do not remain it’s going to be a headache. Most people go to church listening to the words of the success of the world, it will be a headache. And no matter what they do, Gid won’t look at them twice. And no matter how much they pray, God won’t listen.  

Because God will only listen to one thing: the Christ, the blood sacrifice, and God pours everything onto that. It doesn’t matter anything else you try, its relation and idols, And God doesn’t look. Whom is the one God is most interested in for this age? Only Christ, God works only towards that. All the 66 books of the Bible point to that, “I will send Him, I have sent Him, and He will come again” and God’s promise is that anyone who holds onto that covenant, God will protect them, work upon them, and drive out all the Al evil forces from them. 

But people think they need to hold onto the knowledge of the Bible, so they do Bible studies, they think they need to pray a lot, but even then, they are dragged away. Where are they dragged too? They are dragged by the forces of darkness in the world. But that’s invisible to our eyes, we are dragged away by people who believe in the darkness, that’s the work the devil does. They were dragged away by Babylon and Assyria, and God restored them through those who remain, the Holy seed. Whether people came to America voluntarily, or they are dragged here, they are here. Why? Whether they came here with or without the gospel, they came here. So why are we here? We must be able to see God’s plan. What if we cannot? 

Most of the people didn’t return back to Israel. Because they don’t know the reason why to go to Israel. Most people didn’t come back to Israel because they prefer being in Babylon. When you look at the church in a worldly way,  it doesn’t seem very charismatic because we have to have something physically, however from God’s perspective, he is most interested in the church and worship because that is where God is with us.

God is the one who gives us his word, God is the one who breaks down curses and darkness. And to those people God is telling them “arise and shine the light.” A long time ago I heard these words and got stressed out. I didn’t want arise but they kept on telling me to arise. I didn’t want to shine but people kept on telling me to do something so inside I was saying “it’s already hard for me to live without arising,” and if the messenger told me to do this with a smile on his face it was even more disgusting. If the messenger acted like he was suffering along with me, then it would be more bearable but he was so bright and happy so I was like “why don’t you arise and you shine, I’m already having a hard time myself but you keep on telling me to do something I couldn’t say it out loud so I have to keep it to myself” that was a state where I was very oppressed. This isn’t telling us to do something, he’s already with us. And arise doesn’t mean you have to go do something but it means in your heart, arise. So for those people who’s suffering, this is better. “Do I have to go door to door shining the light? I’m already having a hard time, do i have to open my house for mission home and regional church, I don’t  want to but i must to shine the light, right” that’s what it means to be oppressed, you’re oppressed by darkness. Because you don’t know the light you are seized by the darkness. 

“For your light has come and the glory of the lord rises upon you,” this ain’t something you do, the light of Christ has already come upon you so simply change your posture. The light is already upon me but my posture is so busy trying to survive. And because we already are having a hard time surviving, it’s so hard to add something onto that. The kids are already having a hard time at school, but you tell them to do something , so when they grow older they rebel. When they’re young they can’t fight against their parents so they pretend to listen but later on when they become more independent, and they have more strength and finances, they don’t listen to their parents because now they can make their own money without listening to their parents so they don’t listen to their words. That’s just what people are like,  they don’t know the parents that raised them, the kids just think “I don’t want to be bothered by you anymore,” and the kids only think,  “if you keep on nagging me, I’m going to move out and live independently,” it’s not wrong but they need to hear the important words. The light of Christ is already with me, why is this so important? 

The world is darkness and until you recognize the world is darkness, you won’t receive the message that the light is upon you and you must arise. Why do you think they used the word light? Because the world is darkness. They could have just said Jesus, but why do they say “light” because there is darkness, and if you don’t know the light, it means you don’t know the darkness, and that’s why even if you know Christ, you don’t become established in Christ. 

See, darkness covers over the earth, these forces of darkness were here before humans were created. It means the problem existed before humans existed. The angel was corrupted and became the devil. Not only Satan himself but a third of the angels fell and became the evil spirits and demons. And first the angels were created for God, and then God crated creation. That means even before God created humans, Satan was controlling the earth.  If you don’t know this and read genesis, you always say unnecessary things, that’s not the issue. There’s darkness there, but what does the darkness do? It opposes God, so why is that dangerous for humans? Because God created mankind in his image so Satan attacks humans so they cannot follow Gods word, so it doesn’t matter what theology you follow, because they person has a spiritual problem they cannot escape from. 

This darkness will cover the earth. That’s why we must shine the light. But because we don’t know this we are seized by Satan in John 8:44. The thick darkness is over the people. What does this mean? It means the spiritual darkness covers all people. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says the god of this age has blinded the hearts of unbelievers. And since their hearts are covered, they cannot believe God’s word. Because there’s a spiritual veil over their hearts, the light isn’t going in. But the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. The nations will come to your light. The nations don’t come because of your hard work and efforts, they only come because of Christ. 

And the kings to the brightness of your dawn. These things don’t come if you go to church diligently, but only when you shine the light of Christ will they come. Nations will come to you. All people of the nations will come. Kings means leaders come to you.Why? Because they kneel before the light of Christ. Not before people. 

What happens otherwise? Nations will seize us. And the kings will trample over us, it is a life or death situation. Will you either be seized or will you save? If you are captured by babylon but you shine the light of Christ, the nations of kings will come to you. Your sons come from afar. Your daughters are carried. “when will my children return?” That’s not for you to know. Because either way they will come to the light, not come because of your worries.  

When you shine this light upon your family regions, then God will bring them from afar. Then you will look and be radiant and your heart will throb and swell with joy. Yes of course your heart will be amazed because we don’t have the skill to gather nations and kings. The wealth of the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. It doesn’t come because of your hard work,  but because you shine the light of Christ.

For evangelism, success will follow, but if these words don’t go into you, you’ll be a slave to success. You are going to succeed so diligently but be seized by darkness. So remnants, put this in your heart. You listen to lies at school and from religious people. If you shine the light, it is the light of Christ so everything is bound to follow you. Does that mean we shouldn’t study or work but wander around evangelizing? We need to worship again today so you don’tmisunderstand like that. You need to shine as you study, shine the light as you do your business. “How can I shine the light as I run my business?” We said it earlier, you enjoy the blessings of God’s kingdom. You enjoy that through prayer, enjoying the covenant. Then the darkness all flees.

The darkness must break down in your business fields to restore God’s blessings. You need to break the darkness in your family line in order to restore the blessings of God’s kingdom. The forces of darkness in America through the three organizations must be broken down for God’s kingdom’s blessings to follow. Satan continues to deceive you and test you.  In Matthew 4 satan will you, you can turn stone into bread. The darkness is still a liar and is spiritually killing people. That’s what it means that you will be destroyed by religion. 

Why do people suffer and fail even as they go to church? They may or may not have salvation, and they might not. But they will crumble on this earth because they don’t know why only the light is, you must enjoy your studies and business with only the light. And you say, “will that make my studies or business get better?” Thats’s not for you to know. That’s not for you to worry about. What you need to do is to have and shine the light as you study. “If I study while I shine the light, will I go to a good college?” That’s not for you to know. You just ask that question because you’re holding onto an idol. You need to be thankful with the light you have been given, and you need to be thankful with the talent you have been given. There’s no such thing as a good college or a bad school, if you shine the light then that’s a good school. 

If you don’t understand this, look at DL Moody. If you don’t understand this, look at Jesus, he was the son of a carpenter, he didn’t go to college but he was a famous person. Because there was nothing for him to learn, because he knows even greater things. You’re not like that, so you have to go to school. You’re not that famous so you should go to school, but you go to school with the light. Whether you study well or not it doesn’t matter, the darkness will be broken. What happens when the darkness is broken? The blessings God has prepared will be restored. That’s what’s yours. The result is not for you to know. And the things of God must be restored in your field. 

For the Church officers, this must be restored in your family. When do we have to do this until? You have to enjoy the blessings of God eternally. Be she’s when you graduate from school, you enjoy this in your business, and when we go on a missions camp, we have to enjoy that there. And then after we come back to mission camp we enjoy it again at school, how thankful must we be? But if we don’t know this it’s going to be so hard, “we have to do another program for the church?” But the people that went to the mission camp will not think that way, “We have to go on more.” There will be a lot more in the future so don’t worry about that. It was very fun and they all agreed.  

Look at all the fools, they are taking vacation days, take their luggage on expensive planes to go with their families, but there’s no need for you can go to mission trips. And God guided us to a place we could not even imagine and we enjoyed it. But everywhere we go things beyond our imagination and great air follows us. It would be hard for us to find places like that on the internet, but we just followed God and He led us there. And we were happy because they said thank you. But if you go on vacations, no one’s going to thank you. Even if you do your research and go on vacations, it’s not going to be like you imagine, you’re going to waste your time and money and you’re going to be mad. But if you go to the place God leads you, then he will restore things we cannot even imagine. 

Isaiah 60:6. These are things God has prepared for the light of Christ. Nothing else to prepare for a superpower nation. Only when you shine the light of Christ in the darkness will God bring you and restore things you cannot even imagine, but what happens if you don’t know this? Even as you go to church, you’ll be seized by the darkness of the superpower nations. “Is it possible to be seized by darkness even if I believe in Jesus and go to church?” And I’m sure there are a lot of people who ask that question in their heart because they are too embarrassed to say it  out loud. But that answer must be resolved for that answer to take place. Let’s look at the Old Testament. 

Why did they go to Babylon, why did they go to Asyria, why did they suffer in Egypt? They believed in God. And they were people of God, so why do the people who go to church suffer so much? They are seized by darkness, I thought if you believe in Jesus the darkness flees? If you believe in Jesus the authority of darkness flees, and now the darkness cannot control us and we live for the will of Jesus. However 100 percent of our nature and habits are going towards the darkness for Satan. 

Our thoughts, our habits, our hearts are going in the way Satan has taught us, and the darkness prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Yes ultimately you will go to heaven but you will spend your life on earth as a toy for Satan. That is why you must be filled with the light of Christ. Every time wake up in the morning, the most important thing is to be filled with the light of Christ.

The perosn who does this is the one who is humble. The people who think they don’t need this is arrogant. Its because they don’t know who they are. They are under the misconception that they can do everything on their own. They are living within their imprint, root, and nature of their genesis 3, 6, 11 only existing in God’s grace but they don’t know that. Even right now when you wake up in the morning and don’t restore the covenant you’ll go back to your own thoughts. It doesn’t matter how much grace you receive yesterday.  Today, you have new meetings and need the word of God today. Can’t I just receive grace and go with that the rest of our life? That’s not how we were created. Otherwise we would just be like robots under God’s control but God have the freedom of will and personality so we follow God. Every morning when we wake up, we must make a decision, will we stand before God or will we stand before the world? That’s why even this morning when you stand before the covenant you go with the blessings God has prepared for that day. Let us look at verse 7. 

Isaiah 60:7. These are the people who give offering for temple construction because God promises he will do it, this only takes place when you are blessed. And these are the ones God raises up, it is not by your diligence or hard work but by shining the light.

Isaiah 60:8-9. Once you restore the spiritual blessings, the physical things follow. But if you do not do the spiritual things first and you chase after the physical things, then you’ll be seized by darkness. What does it mean that things naturally takes place? If you follow the spiritual things first then everything else takes place. But if you don’t do the spiritual things first and you chase after the physical things, it might look like it’s working out but it’s not. The work might look like it’s taking place, but the spiritual state inside of me will prevent that from happening. Simply put, God must bless me, and work upon me, God must guide me but because that doesn’t take place, I cannot do it on my own. Why are there continuous problems in my family? Simply put, because God doesn’t block it. Why are my kids like this? Because God isn’t blocking it. Then how will he block it? What will I do for God to work? God only works upon the covenant. There’s nothing else he says. There’s no way God will look at us as right ours without the covenant of Christ. Even right now regardless of our situation or righteousness, if we hold onto the covenant of Christ, God will protect us, guide us and give us a new life. But if we don’t know the covenant we live a lot of our walk of faith but nothing works out. “Oh I volunteer and serve” and yes we need to do that but if we do that without the covenant it will be hard. Is it better for a prostitute to have a gospel to a virgin that doesn’t have a gospel? People will say the maiden is better, but that’s thelogic of people. God prefers the one with the gospel regardless of their occupation or regardless of the people because all people are the same. But we look at things as human. So as humans we go into the world so they are going to be attacked by people. We need to look at the world through the gospel. That’s how our eyes change as we look into the world through the Bible. 

We have a young adult who arrived here today. Why else would he come here? If you tell your kids to come here would they come? No. The reason he is here is not because you told him to come. God opened the door and moved the Holy Spirit in his heart to bring him here. Why else would he come here? it’s because of God’s work, for what reason? For missions and evangelism. And  God gives the grace to do that work.

Many of God’s prepared disciples will come here and when they come here they will receive training and will be sent out to save many people. Because that is the work God is doing even now,  and if you listen to it and follow those words, then God will do that work. 

Isaiah 60:22 was shared with the kids from the Karen nation. God never works through the powerful people in the super power nation, does that mean that God only works through a few people? He never says that either. The Holy seed, the one who remains, the remnants, they may be a few but God will make them to thousands. But those people are physically weak. The 12 disciples were fishermen and physically they were weak, the early church was weak, physically speaking. However, by the covenant, they were the strongest people, why? BecauseGod worked upon them. The weak will become a mighty nation. His says he will do his work through the remnants, the ones who have the covenant inside the mighty nations. 

The moment these words become my words the word will be fulfilled. If these words only come as words in the Bible as Bible study then that person is seized by darkness. If somebody thinks that these words are just words that the pastor says all the time means that they are living a religious life. God is working even right now with His word. Why do you think God gave me these words? Because He will fulfill them. The moment you accept that, God begins to work. It’s ok if you don’t accept it. Because there will come a time when you do. When adults don’t accept the word, they will live their lives pitifully, but for Remnants, there is hope. Because there is still a lot of time for you to accept it. The most urgent people are the church officers, not the Remnants. 

For the remnants they have today and tomorrow but for the church officers they don’t have much time so they will suffer before they die. But if the remnants don’t understand these words they have tomorrow. And if they don’t understand tomorrow, they have next year, and if they don’t understand next year there’s the next next year. People are all the same but the reason God is giving you this word is because this is what he will fulfill. But the church officers are different. They are still the people of God but their remaining time is short. They don’t have as much time as the remnants, eine time you  have left go all into God’s covenant. And if you’re an adult you shouldn’t think like a young remnant. Be she’s the life you lived is different and the time you have left is different. Then God will work upon you urgently. 

I said this earlier but when I heard these words it used to make me frustrated. What do you mean, I don’t want to arise, I don’t want to shine, and what do you mean things will be brought. 

The book I hated the most was Isaiah because it kept telling me to do something. I hated it the most. But it turns out these words of prophecy, so the words are fulfilled exactly. I told the Remnants at Karen this, but when you first receive it, it just sounds like words people say, but God is giving you these words because He will fulfill it as such, so you don’t have to understand it right now. You will. It’s possible that you and I are not physically strong. We might be weak. We might be few in numbers. But the one person who has the covenant because the Triune God is working. However, the reaction of the field is this, if the one person has the correct accurate covenant then the ones God has prepared will react. I told you this earlier but on the very last day, we didn’t plan to go, but the American people there were thankful for the word. We didn’t have a mic, but they listened to the message and they recorded the message I gave. He has 70,000 followers on 2 Youtube channels and he asked if he can upload these messages on youtube and I said yes. It is a Youtube channels for truck drivers, and we can never meet them on our own. But God has prepared people like that. We didn’t know these people. We only went because the pastor told us to go. 

And we just went there and got the message and among the 70,000 followers I’m sure one of them will listen. And do you think that one person will keep their mouth closed? So if you just give the accurate message God will bring the many people he prepared. If you look at it physically, why would these people listen to this Asian pastor? But because there are people God has prepared, they are listening to the message with the special posture. So nothing is relevant, God  works because of the light of Christ. And as we were leaving they said again “thank you for the message,” his facial expression is still of a gangster even though it’s been 20 years since he came out of prison, he was still pretty scary. But when the true gospel goes into them everybody is the same. And when we look at the Karen young adults I’m so thankful because Pastor Hong has been carrying out this ministry. Together we are within Christ for world evangelism, we alone could never go to the nation of Miami but all nations have gathered to America. The only thing that’s different is that God gave us the covenant and grace. Then it’s rightful that we relay that covenant and grace of God. And then God will continue this work again. You are within this blessed church m. But if you don’t know that you can see it. You only see the problems. And you never see these blessings. You only see the darkness. But your eyes must be correct in order for you to work well too. 

That is the blessing I hope will continuously be upon you. Let’s pray holding onto the word God has given us. The light of God is already within us. We must shine that from our heart. We enjoy the light first within ourselves. We need to shine the light everywhere we go. How do we shine that light? Through prayer. How do we shine that light when they bring the problems to us? We give them the word.

Prayer 

There is one Remnant we met in El Salvador and in November she will be on vacation, so we want to bring her here for two months of training and send her back. Even that God has prepared. I believe that God will restore the blessings He has prepared to those who hold onto that covenant. This is called the economy of light. God has prepared the economy of light that will save the 237 nations. I hope you will enjoy this covenant yourself and relay it to the next generation.

There is a young adult Naysay who will receive training at our church. In the next month, another young adult will come. Let us pray for them to go with the light of Jesus Christ. Yes, there will be differences in culture, but I hope the church officers will be able to look after these young adults as if they are your own children. This is not one person, it is one nation. When Christ goes in, the whole nation is saved. I hope that you are led holding onto this covenant. We went to the Karen mission camp, and let us pray for the disciples to arise continuously, and let us pray for Pastor Hong and his wife Eunice to continue that ministry there. Let us pray together at this time. 

On Saturday, we have the Youth evangelism school, children’s evangelism school, prayer school, young adult evangelism school, and the business industry message. And let us pray for the Sunday message.

When we look at the remnant leader retreat, there were four messages, and in the first week of August will be the remnant retreat. So on the first Saturday do August will be the broadcasting of the three messages of the World Remnant Conference at ICSC. You guys aren’t messengers so it might be easy for you to misunderstand this as something a person is doing. But that’s the reason people fail in their walk of faith and in their church life. For the people that came along with us at the mission trip will know this. You guys must’ve experienced the Bible may be the same, but the field is different so the word of God goes out differently. God is giving his message to remnants who will do world evangelism through the world remnant conference. If you don’t believe in this  then that isn’t God’s work. You might believe God is alive but you don’t believe God is working right now with his word. Then that person’s walk of faith is futile. It is the same for the Sunday message. 

The World Remnant Conference is the message God is giving to the Remnants who will evangelize to the entire world. Let us pray for the WRC again. It is not only to proclaim the message, but the Remnants must hear that message. If we don’t hear God’s message, we cannot get faith. This is the time for us to gather those people here. Let us pray together.

The church officers must listen to that message as well to save the Remnants. Because delivering the message that God desires is the way to save people. If you’re nagging them, that’s not saving them. I hope that the church officers will be in this blessing first. 

We believe that you will fulfill the word you have given us exactly through our faith. 

Benediction:
God we thank you. We believe that You will fulfill the word You have given us exactly through our faith. Now by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The unending love of God. The indwelling, working, guidance, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. Be upon all of the heads of the people of God, the people of all nations, and the Remnants who desire to hold onto and shine the light of the covenant. Be upon all of their businesses, academics, and their ministries. From now until forever always. Amen.