Doing World Evangelization with One Heart, Moving According to God’s Covenant (Acts 1:14)
Today, we read about the Early Church that began doing world evangelization. The full-fledged world evangelization movement took place through the Antioch Church but this Early Church founded the Antioch Mission Church. There is a characteristic of the Early Church.
It said in today’s verse that they joined together constantly in prayer, and it’s important that our hearts are all together in this. If we unite our hearts, it’s important that we go into the prayer for God’s plan. Even if a family isn’t able to do this, the family will crumble. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve had one heart in not believing in God’s Word. We were supposed to hold onto God’s covenant, but we are deceived by the lies of Satan and the family was destroyed. In that spiritual state, Cain was born, and Cain had the same spiritual problems and ended up killing his younger brother. And there was another boy that was burned named Seth, and Seth was given the covenant.
In Genesis 6, it talks about a bunch of people who were getting married, but they were all united with a physical heart. All of them were united in the heart of marrying whomever they wanted and going to a job and making money and studying. To unite in prayer means you are devoting yourself to prayer within God’s covenant. If you are praying for what you want or what you lack, that is not prayer. The prayer of the Early Church we read about today is regarding God’s promise.
Honestly, these people wanted many things, but they couldn’t live lives in society, but the Bible isn’t telling us that they prayed for each and every one of those things, they prayed about the things that God told them to pray about. That’s how they became one in the Word of God, and Noah’s family became one in that as well, and that’s how Noah’s family survived. Everyone else died from curses and disasters; only Noah’s family survived. They prayed with one heart until the point where for 120 years they devoted and prayed towards building the Ark.
The curses and disasters came upon the people building the Tower of Babel because they had a heart United to something else. They united their hearts strength and power, to exult their own name, so they had no choice but to crumble. In Genesis 12, Abraham and his wife had a united heart regarding the covenant. At first, yes, he had some disbelief, but eventually held onto the covenant as a result of that, Isaac was born, and he had the same heart for the covenant with his son, so it flowed down to Jacob. The family must have one heart in the covenant.
If this doesn’t become one heart in the family, the family will continue to be divided; nations and nations will continue to be divided. Every nation has their own nature and food, so how can you make everyone one? That’s impossible. They were only able to unite all the citizens of America with the one value that we are Americans success everything else isn’t accepted. The only thing that unites America is the value they share in common about democracy, human rights, and liberty, but everything else is different but they accept everyone, and that’s how they have power and that’s just physically speaking. We have to be spiritually united in the things that God tells us to be united in. If God tells us to not do something, we must be one in not doing it.
He says, “Do not disbelieve,” you must be one in faith in the covenant, and once you live the rest of your life, you realize it is all in vain. You raise your child with such diligence, but it’s all in vain, because nothing happens according to the parents’ will; everything happens according to God’s will. But if a parent doesn’t put the will of God into the child but put their Will into them, then later on, the child will go against the parents. It’s rightful because the parents are different from the child, but the parents think the child should be just like them, but that’s self-centered.
How can you become one who has a different personality? My daughter and I cannot be one. The more I tell her to do something, the less she’ll do it, but we can become one with the Word of God, and if that takes place the family will come to life and if the family gathers together, that becomes the church that can do world evangelization. That begins with me. You have to become one with God, with God’s Word.
If you don’t become one with God’s Word, you’ll become one with the devil in the world. This was also relayed to Joseph. There are so many people in Egypt, so they couldn’t become one, so they became one in the physical things. Instead of becoming one with the covenant, they became one in succeeding, and that’s how they all fell. They could only escape. When could they have one heart? When they applied the blood of the lamb, and God’s work is only revealed when you become one holding onto the covenant.
In order to have one heart after the Exodus, they created the Tabernacle, because it’s impossible to gather all of the people of the Israelites with so many people in one heart without the tabernacle so that is why God gave His Word regarding the Ten Commandments. And put this word into the ark of the covenant, and follow everywhere where the ark of the covenant goes, meaning you have to be one with the Word of God. “I am the LORD your God who freed you from slavery in Egypt,” so do not live for yourself anymore. He is saying that I have saved you for your benefit and he will be with you for the rest of your life for you.
Therefore do not misuse the name of God for your own benefit because God is not someone who moves according to your mental calculations. “Do not use the name of the LORD in vain.” He is saying,” I am the Lord, your God who created you who saved you and will guide you forward. Only live your life, only following and trusting in me.” We have to have one heart regarding this if we don’t have one heart in this then everyone will fall over in the wilderness. Why do they fall because everybody has one heart and is united wanting to go back to Egypt. God calls that “hating God,” and He will repay to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Him. When is God happy? I’d you do not have faith you cannot please God. When does the Bible say you hate God? When you don’t believe in God. Because you don’t believe in God, you think you need something else to make you whole that’s what it means to reject and hate God.
Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter, and when the family went into the land of Canaan, Dinah went to a festival and she was raped. Do you know what the decision Jacob made at that point was? He didn’t seek revenge, he said, “This is a sign of God. We must go up to Bethel,” and he didn’t just go up with nothing, “Completely throw away all of the things from the Gentiles, go before God holding onto the covenant.” Because Jacob was becoming weak in the covenant, all his children suffered. When Dinah was raped, Jacob finally came back to his senses.
This is us, we only seem like we can come back to our senses when we face a big incident. Before that he seemed like he had everything, so he couldn’t find a reason why he needed to go to Cannan. In other words, his family should be one holding onto the word but the things of the world came in.
When Samuel was a young boy, Hannah offered Samuel to the Temple,as a ?and as long as Samuel was alive, there was no war in Israel. It means he had become one with the heart of God. Because you’re not one with God’s Word, these incidences happen. Later Samuel told all the people to gather in Mitzvah. Gathering itself is not what’s important.
He said,” Throw away all the idols that you have and gather all with your heart centered on the Lord. The worship that you give at church is a blessing of all blessings, whenever you come here you have to throw away everything that is in your heart and hold onto the covenant as you gather.
If something else is inside your heart instead, throughout the rest of the week something will happen. “Oh even if something bad is inside my heart nothing happens,” That person will never be able to succeed. Because their mind itself is not successful. The people who succeeds their mind is different, and the people who fail also have a different mind set. Just because something doesn’t happen right now doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen, something is going to happen eventually. If you lose hold of the word of God, you’ll have the result of losing hold of the word of God, but if your mind is saying it’s okay because it hasn’t happened yet, then you won’t be able to succeed. Look at the successful people they don’t move based on what they see immediately, they look at the long. You move according to the covenant because you know God will move according to the covenant. Even with faith you need to have the grace of God to have a wise brain. If you want to talk about intellect then I can’t live a walk of faith, you need to receive grace. I need to receive grace because with my own mentality I would never be able to do anything. Because if anything, we would live our walk of faith testing God, if He gives us favors then we follow but if He doesn’t then you don’t follow. If you believe in the covenant then regardless of what results come into your way, if you go according to God’s covenant then he will work. But instead you say, “Pastor I tired it but it didn’t work, then that person will become one with people who have different heart.
Then they can’t have continuation in anything: they can’t succeed with physical continuation, and can’t have grace with the spiritual continuation on the covenant. If you want to accomplish anything you have to have persistence but you don’t even have to brain to do that because you’re so hasty. If I do this this will happen” if I do that that will happen you left your; walk of faith like this. You don’t know who God is; you are your own god. If you hold to the covenant of God, God is bound to work according to the covenant. That’s how your family must be one, and the church must be one regarding this. “We can be one if we just treat each other nicely,” that will not result in oneness. If you give the Word of God to a church like that, the church will divide as their original nature comes out. Whenever they become one, it’s because it’s mutually beneficial, so they feel good. But when you give the Word of God to them, they will reject it. That was the Tower of Babel and Genesis 3 and 6 as well.
You must become one within the family, within yourself, and within the church holding to the covenant. The Bible describes David as one after God’s own heart. God is the word and it means the word of God is inside David. God is not moved by your outer appearance, but God is searching for those who are united with God with His Word inside of them. People who are really sure about the Word of God do not waver back and forth before people, either. Because their faith itself is unchanging, it is constantly going in their faith regarding the Covenant of God so they don’t waffle back and forth in front of people. If you don’t waver back and forth before people, then there is no one who will be at a loss at that but if you keep wavering back and forth, no one will trust you because they know you are someone who will turn your back on them. They are like Ben though this person says that they know that they will turn around. So, that person can’t succeed; they can’t even get important responsibility in the church because one day, that person will turn around. Even if you have a business relationship with this person, you can’t give them anything big because ultimately, that person will betray you for their own benefit.
Even in the government, you can’t be given a big role, because the president knows if someone goes back and forth.
Someone who stands one heart before God with his word will be okay with human relationships and when they go back into the world, propel like this will be able to save their families, you don’t save them with your own strength, the only way is to become one with the word of God, and these are the poodle who will save the church because they don’t say anything else, they communicate so that everyone would become one with the word of God, that’s how their family becomes one. And when they go out into the world they help others become one with the word of God. It seems like it was nothing much what the early church did, but they had incredible strength. Worldly speaking the members of the Early church didn’t really have anything, but that’s foolish talk. Because they were one holding onto the covenant of God, they had the power that made no choice for God to work upon them. And that’s everywhere in the Bible, look at Daniel, everyone in his parents generation they lost hold of it all, and even though they were giving worship, they were holding onto something else, that’s why they were captive to Babylon. Daniel saw that, and he made a resolution to hold to the covenant of God. Even when a crisis came forward, he was unchanging in holding to the covenant. Even as he faced a crisis of death, Daniel 6:10, ” As he had done before, he kneeled down facing the temple of Jerusalem giving thanks in prayer everyday three times.” He saw the reason why life crumbles. Life doesn’t crumble because we lack diligence. Daniel knew the fact that we had no sincerity regarding the covenant of God and because of that, the Israelites who were supposed to be blessed actually were in disasters.
Even though there were four and five different unbelieving kings, they all raised Daniel as the Prime Minister, and God allowed Daniel to remain in that seat because the covenant of God had to be relayed to generation after generation. That is the true seat of success, because God raises you to the position where you can proclaim the gospel.
If you want to relay the gospel, you can do it at the very lowest level, too, but if you want to do it quickly, it’s best if you have some position. At that time, Babylon was such a huge empire that they took control of all Africa and India, and Babylon had 12 different kings. That’s how big their influence was and Daniel was raised as the highest Prime Minister in that Empire. It doesn’t matter even if the king is an unbeliever because this is what God makes, it was through Daniel that God wanted to relay the covenant of God to all the idol-worshiping nations of Babylon.
What about our children? What have you become one with? Are you becoming one with the words the world says, or are you becoming one with the unchanging covenant of God? As evidence that you guys have become one with the covenant, are you guys praying? The evidence of not praying is that you’re always concerned and worried because you don’t have the faith of being one with the covenant. Look at Ananias and Sapphira, they didn’t die because they gave offering; they gave an offering and then they died. It is not whether they gave the offering or not that made them die; Ananias and Sapphira made the resolution to give offering and then took some of it back. And they died immediately. Nowadays, you’re not going to drop dead. But you’re spiritually dead. If you don’t become one with the covenant of God, then you’re spiritually dead. Because it’s very difficult for your spiritual state to become fixed. That’s what this is saying.
This is a mandate God has given to the church, which is the body of Christ. You need to be able to see your future holding onto the Bible. Because world evangelization is your future. Don’t illustrate any other future, because no matter how much you draw your future, it’s all in vain and the Bible never tells you to imagine those things. The Bible tells you to have the Word of God in your heart, just like David. God already gave you your talent when you were born, so it’s going to be used. Become one with this, that is how Satan will not budge. If the family becomes united in one with the covenant and they pray together, all of their prayer topics will be the same. That is one of the prayers of the Early Church. They devoted themselves constantly to prayer, holding onto what? The promise God told them to pray about: But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be God’s witnesses until the ends of the earth. So what do you pray for? To become the witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Did they lack money? God continuously gave them evidence so they could be witnesses until the ends of the earth, and when that was lacking, God gave them the Antioch church to do the world missions. And then God breaks down the Apostle Paul so he can be the leader of world evangelization. What’s important is, what’s the one heart with which you are united? Are you untied, praying, and holding onto your work? Prayer is not just about murmuring or chanting, and it’s possible for you to pray aloud because you’re just praying aloud, but if you think that’s what prayer is, that’s a headache.
What you hold in your heart becomes prayer. If you have a scar deeply embedded, then you’re going to become resentful and that itself will be your 24 hour prayer. If you hate this person and seek revenge, even if you don’t say anything, that is a prayer you are holding down deeply in your heart. But if you have the covenant very deeply rooted in your heart, that itself is prayer, and God will work according to what is implanted in your heart. What’s important is how are you going to be one together about this. That’s what’s important. What happens if that doesn’t take place? Then Satan encroaches in as you have unbelief. Because you don’t believe in God, you hold onto something else, and that’s your idol. When God says He will pay the judgment upon the next generation of your children, He is saying he will give the curses and the judgment of your sin to the next generation. They won’t be destroyed completely because they’re children of God but you have to quickly realize and hold to the covenant.
What are you prepared for? Are you waiting for something? What are you waiting for? You must wait so that everyone may become one with the covenant. If you do become one with the covenant, as evidence of that, God will give you the works of 25 hours. If that is not aligned with God, God will continue to make you wait.
If you’re constantly illustrating Egypt in your mind, then God is going to be stressed out. You must have Canaan illustrated in your heart. If you’re not imagining the conquest of Canaan, you’ll always imagine the past in Egypt, what am I going to eat, what am I going to where, and that’s how Satan destroys thousands of people with idol worship. That is how Satan works. If you don’t rely on God entirely, Satan works immediately.
I gave the message two weeks ago about how King David conducted a census of his army, and in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles, it records the situation differently. In 2 Samuel, it said God moved in David, and in 1 Chronicles, it said God moved Satan to work upon David. If you lose hold of the covenant, then God will stay still so Satan can work. But if you just hold onto the covenant, Satan would flee; that’s your disbelief. Instead of trusting in God, he trusted in his own ability and the ability of his army: “If we have about this much, we can fight this much.” You have to believe in God’s covenant.
If you don’t believe in the covenant and you just look at what you have and your circumstance, you’ll be disappointed. Look at the 12 spies, they wen truth the same covenant but they didn’t have one heart. They listened to the Word of God so much and they sent representatives from each tribe but they still couldn’t have one heart. When they look at the present reality, the covenant is just missing for them , the covenant is relayed regardless of you, it has no regard to your level, because everything moves according to God’s level. As much as you just hold to the covenant and plant it in your heart then God will move according to the covenant.
Tonight, what are you going to pray for? It is important for us to become one together in the covenant. It doesn’t matter how many are here who came and who didn’t because everybody will have the result of their faith but what is the faith? The faith regarding the Covenant that is deeply rooted in our heart and according to the Covenant the forces of darkness will flee and the Kingdom of God will be established. For the people who do not have that the result of that will be accordingly that is what the Bible is telling us.
So, for those whom things will work out, they are along the line where things will work out. They do not rely on their own wit. Look at Noah. If he relied on his own wit, he wouldn’t have built an ark for 120 years. I hope you will pray with this blessing. When you go back to your families, hold onto the true blessing. It is a blessing for this to be relayed to your work fields. If this is missing, everyone will be devoured by Satan and afflicted by mental problems. Even if you go to church, everyone is afflicted because of their disbelief.
They say it’s a financial problem, but it’s not a financial problem. They only get financial problems because they have disbelief to God regarding money. Your health is not a problem; you just have disbelief regarding your health and that is why you are caught in the covenant and ultimately, you fall and are caught wherever you are caught. But the characteristic of a sinner is that they will always going to make excuses like Adam “It’s her fault. It’s because it’s cold lately, it’s because it’s hot lately, it’s because it’s raining today. It’s because of the coronavirus.” it wasn’t something that happened today or yesterday it’s constantly in your life. And in the future if the covenant is not inside of you it’s going to go all the way to your children, and they are going to live like that.
Today, where must you and I put our hearts? You must turn around. You have to completely reverse the family line. You have to go into the flow of God, then everything will follow in that direction. That is the one heart with which the Early Church gathered. If they gathered there, they would all die. Even if someone promises to give you all the money in the world, if your life is in danger, what value is all your money if your kids are going to die? That’s how firmly they were rooted in the covenant. “If I die, I die,” no one can stop these people then because that is how Satan will move you. Whenever you have disbelief in your heart, it’s because you’re struggling to survive, but if you die, you die. Just give up on your success, then you won’t be seized by success. Give up on money, then you won’t be seized by your money, give up on your health, then what should you do? Hold onto the covenant of God.
If you give up on everything else without the covenant, that’s just a destroyed life. What I’m saying is that you’re only being enslaved by yourself because you’re bound by yourself. Quickly let go of yourself and hold onto God. Hold onto God’s covenant. Then, it seems so complicated, but actually this is true freedom and liberty. You can never fix your depression otherwise. You can never solve panic attacks; you receive panic attacks because you’re so bound by yourself. This method, that method, until you go to God, it will never be fixed.
It’s all disbelief. Ultimately, it’s Satan who binds you because of your disbelief. Satan promises to give you peace, joy, and happiness, but he uses pleasure to completely destroy you. It’s very simple to tell whether something is the work of God or the work of Satan. As evidence that God is completely taking control of you, you have peace. Anything else is not of God; there is no uncertainty or anxiety in the Kingdom of God. No need to be suspicious or wary of God. If you’re entirely seized by God, then the things of God come to me.
All the curses and disasters of my sin have been given to Jesus Christ, and God’s blessings come to me. That’s the kind of person I am. We have this blessing, so I hope you will constantly check and confirm the covenant. That is the church, if we gather together in one heart. If you’re alone, then you constantly have one heart, that’s prayer. It is not the act of evangelism, but if you’re constantly holding onto evangelism in your heart, it will naturally take place. Just as kids are focused on studying, they’re studying as they play, but kids who aren’t good at studying won’t even like sitting at their desk. Even if they sit at their desk, they can’t concentrate. But kids who are really good at studying, even if they’re not sitting at their desk, they think of studying.
Shall I give you an example? Try worrying. You’re not just worried when you work, you’re worried when you sleep and pray. It’s because you’re worrying 24 hours a day. That’s prayer. When you hold to the covenant, you’re praying while playing. Even when you’re playing, you’re holding to the covenant, so that’s prayer. You’re only under the misconception of prayer that the shamans do, chanting and murmuring. Moving is prayer. Then when we gather together, there’s the blessing of Immanuel, and there is great works. If we gather together in our church like this, then that’s explosive. That’s what we call a healthy church, that is a church that has a future. That is a church that will fulfill world evangelization. May tonight be the blessed night where you go all into the covenant and confirm these blessings.
Prayer
Let us pray together holding onto the word we have received. May my heart become one in the covenant, may the church become one in the covenant, may my family become one in the covenant. Let us pray together.