Evangelist’s 21 Lifestyles – Christ
Prayer
May this be the time to have the evangelist’s lifestyle so we may have the imprint, root, and nature in the word of God. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
Until last week, we spoke about the 7 Journeys and started with the five basics from the 20 biblical evangelism strategies. This isn’t a method; it’s our life’s basics. Our entire lives can be split up into five categories: Me, my family, my job, my field, and my region. Then among those, the uniqueness of Christ must be my answer. That’s biblical evangelism but if you take the basis of your life out of that, then it’s hard. In order to do that, you need to have a message that gives the answer to everyone’s problems.
The 70 workers are those who are able to use the 66 books of the Bible to give any answer from the perspective of Christ, and the pulpit continues to give the answer of Christ through the 66 books. You need to be able to give the answers from the 66 books of the Bible. Evangelism isn’t done alone, but even Paul had a team and he raised up the church. They did things together, so God continuously gives His Word to them so they can evangelize.
Among them, as we live the 21 lifestyles of the evangelist, what is the first and most important? The laws aren’t the main thing. You give the answers to the problems in the field with the life of the gospel. You need to know the problems in the field. People say there are tens of thousands of problems in the field, but the 70 workers are those who can use those tens of thousands of problems to point out the real problem.
First, you must listen to them and then you must go into the field and practice this. If you go into the field and try to apply this, you won’t give them the answer; you’ll say other things, and that’s why you have to listen to them. Why is God happy about the field? This word is living and gives the answer to the field. First and foremost, you must receive the answer yourself. You must know the goal of the Word. The Word gives the answers to the basics of my life.
When we talk about the evangelism fields, think about the five basic evangelism fields. Give the answer through the Word there. That Word is the answer to the family, to myself, the answer to people I meet, my job, and to the fields and my region. This word is my answer. In order to know the unique answer to these five fields, what are those five fields? The things we say are problems right now, like COVID, we have economic issues and problems with jobs. People can’t solve the pandemic and are stuck in their problems. You have to give people the answer through the meetings in your field. To know this, you must know the real problem.
Is COVID the real problem? You must know the fundamental problem, what is that? We’re seized by Satan’s lies. This isn’t just pertaining to unbelievers. You keep thinking it’s unbelievers and not for you. Satan is the one who deceives us from the gospel and covenant. People are stuck by the devil, stuck in unbelief. It’s obvious for unbelievers, they’re stuck in problems, but even believers are stuck there. They keep talking about the ethical actions and what’s legal. They don’t believe in God even as they go to church, so they’re seized by the devil. People are suffering, separated from God. 70 workers have to see this.
No matter what problem they come to you with, you see the real problem. The answer is only Christ, John 19:30, it is finished. Immediately after you believe in Jesus, it’s finished. In reality, it has nothing to do with me. The condition is if I’m inside of Christ, but if I’m outside of Christ, I’m deceived by Satan. Believers are stuck in disbelief. Some people are doing better in COVID, if COVID didn’t happen, they would have completely failed. It’s not a problem at all.
Who are the 70 workers? If we keep talking about Satan, sin, and separation, it’s all physical, so they think it’s the same thing, but that’s why God raised the pastor to show this in various forms through the pulpit. No reason to raise this on your own, but God gave you this ability to take this to your field and job. He didn’t give this ability to the 70 workers, but to the pastors. That’s why we keep talking with the 66 books of the Bible so we can take Paul’s words to the field, and that’s how the field work continues as long as the church doesn’t close down.
As long as the pulpit message is centered on Christ, God gives the answers to five basic areas of your life. Then, when you have the answer, you can give the answer. If you don’t have the answer, then you can’t give the answer to your coworkers. Everyone is in the same environment, but God gives an answer to that environment. Some people say COVID is an answer, others say it’s a disaster, or they’re so exhausted with COVID, they wish it would end quickly, but God allows this to persist for so long because there’s more work God is doing through COVID. But those who see the answer are not exhausted.
I like COVID because we keep using this building. A new owner bought this building, but they can’t do anything because of COVID. Maybe COVID can continue for three years. What am I saying? Some people say COVID caused their failures, but then if COVID didn’t come, is that a reason for your success? God is doing something through COVID: word fulfillment, answers prayers, and evangelizing before, during and after COVID. Businesspeople consider COVID to be word fulfillment when it’s their answer. They held onto the Word even in the midst of the pandemic.
70 workers give the answer to the field with the 66 Bible verses. So it doesn’t matter, you have to give the answer from the Word God desires. If you’re studying, following the pulpit message, you follow the flow of the Word and God gives you the answer. If this doesn’t take place, one day, you’ll stop. What does it mean to stop? It means you’re not able to receive an answer through worship, then you’re bound to stop. Evangelism will stop, whatever you’re doing will stop. It mans you’re not able to give the answer and God doesn’t give anyone to you to receive answers.
We must give answers in various ways but we cannot. Do I teach from Hebrews because I know it? Am I using other people’s materials? No. I’m just going chapter by chapter, according to the Word God desires for our church in our time schedule. Otherwise, why would I do this? God is alive and gives the Word, Logos, according to the time schedule of the field and the church. You have to know what the pulpit message means, what life means, and give this answer to the field.
Many colleagues didn’t evangelize but they made a big deal. People boasted about evangelism, “I’m doing the evangelism movement, what are you doing?” I said, “I’m listening to the message the Evangelist is giving now,” but do you know where he got stuck? He couldn’t overcome the problems and had to leave. You have to be able to find the answer in God’s Word no matter what the problem is, so where is he now? All ripped up. That’s just what originally happens because it was a gathering of Genesis 3. They couldn’t continue because it was about themselves. “I’m doing this; what are you doing?” It’s not about giving the answer, but they’re selling themselves, so the devil doesn’t leave them alone but the devil concentrates on them to destroy them.
Our headquarters has a pulpit. It doesn’t matter whether we like it or not, but some people say, “What makes you so great?” If they don’t follow the headquarters flow, one day they will leave, “I can evangelize on my own,” but the evangelism they do is the acceptance movement. Because they wander a lot, they have acceptance movements.
“Why do I have to listen so carefully to the pastor’s words? I can evangelize on my own,” that’s an unbiblical evangelism. Even Paul never went out alone. There was never a situation where one person could do everything; God raised up the people He wanted and sent them out, and they always oved together. The pastor gives the message at the pulpit and that’s my role, to give the answer to the field. If there weren’t members of the church, I’d personally have to give the pulpit message to the field. But when God sent us workers, I just have to make sure the workers have this Word into their field. But someone who doesn’t understand the church can’t go along and won’t bear fruit.
The church is Immanuel, together. Paul received God’s Word and continued the church movement and evangelism movement. We’re talking about continuation. One layperson was a great evangelist, but what happened? The pastor didn’t like that evangelist and didn’t get along, but the layperson thought it was good to evangelize. If you can’t continue, it’s best not to do it at all. I don’t think this person was using the flow of the pulpit message. If that continues, they’ll separate. It’s not jealousy, but it divided the church, and that’s the work of the devil.
An evangelism not done through the church cannot continue, so it’s better off not being done at all. It’s very important. One time, a young adult gathered young adults from multiple churches to have a training, and one pastor got upset. Then there was a rumor that this person was upset and jealous because of a layperson. Pastor Jung doesn’t affect me, but that move divided Los Angeles. If you can’t control that, then you can’t have continuation. That’s why we have these formal systems for the parachurch. We make it so anyone can go, and we raise up certified pastors. The pastors approved it so anyone can go there.
But what happens if that doesn’t take place? People are Genesis 3, they keep bringing people to their place, away from the pulpit flow. If you really want to do evangelism, let’s say, for example, a person is a problem in the church, then I would tell them, “I want to raise them up,” but then someone says, they receive the Word fine on their own, then don’t you think that’s strange? They have no boldness. If they’re right with God, you should receive approval from the servant of the Lord. It’s not about you agreeing with it, the servant of the Lord has to agree with it, but you create disorder and God will prevent continuation. You may do well in that area, but that’s not how you win the war. You may win one battle by blindly shooting, but we have to fight together to win.
Evangelism without the church isn’t evangelism. We’re fighting this battle together for the region. The pastor doesn’t do this alone; the pastor attacks with the Word of the pulpit, but the pastor cannot go to the field to shoot. But as time passes, this gains strength and that’s what we want. We want to fight the battle that can systematically win, not one that wins the battle but loses the war. It was frustrating to see.
Christ continuously gives the answer to the field with the pulpit centered on Christ through the 66 books of the Bible. When you look at the church, you’re not pastors. Some are good at evangelism training, and some may say it’s a gift, but that person is not good at everything. If you ask them to run a church, they would destroy it. Pastoral ministry is different. You need to have something that can carry the whole organization.
Why is it that this person is so good at evangelizing and not good at being a pastor? They have something inside. If this person was doing the evangelism movement, it’s not just about raising disciples, but saving those who are diseased and scarred. The disciples come, but there are diseased people who don’t. If you know the church, you know Christ because the church is the body of Christ. The head of the church is Christ. Just because you know the word “Christ” doesn’t mean you know Christ. You know He is the answer but you have to know Him as the answer to the five areas in your life.
The church is in the region, then the regional church establishes the gospel in the region. Save lives through your meetings and your home. You yourself come to life in the gospel and in your workplace. That’s the church and this is very important.
Even if the pastor doesn’t have this church view, their pastoral ministry won’t work. “I received evangelism training from Pastor Ryu and cannot start a church,” they know about evangelism and going to the field, but how do you raise the church? I don’t know anyone like this anymore, but people said, “I can evangelize in the field but the church won’t let me,” the church is very important, you don’t do it alone. Even good sales people don’t go alone. Did you hear Rev. Ryu? When he was young, he received a rabbit as a present, and he had to feed the rabbit grass. So, he made a deal with the other students to feed the rabbit while he went to school, so the rabbit lived. “If my rabbit has babies, I’ll give you some.”
That’s how evangelism works, too. How can you do it alone? Just the fact that you’re doing evangelism on your own means you don’t understand. If the pastor thinks they can do it on their own, it won’t work. All the people sitting here are evangelists, and I’m going to do it on my own? Fine. It doesn’t matter how much I speak from the pulpit, no one will budge because God has brought the field evangelism for me, I have some passion for it, but it won’t work. You guys are the evangelists but if I ignore this and go outward, then of course it won’t work.
All the people inside the church have a family that must receive evangelism, so the answer must go to these people, and we have to take this answer to the field. You need to have an evangelism that unites the church with the church. That’s why we evangelize to the churches. Some pastors don’t send their kids to other churches because they think their kids will run away, then their kids will die. Some remnants are okay, but other pastors have different influences, but they think, “I’m the pastor.” If you want to evangelize, you have to send them. But if you want to keep them just under your wings? You have to send them to see other churches. You have to understand what I’m saying correctly.
Don’t look down on the pulpit and look elsewhere. There’s an evangelism that unites churches. Even right now, there’s a global unity. A pastor from Chile interpreted my Korean to Spanish. I prayed for an interpreter, and a native person received training in Korea for five years. I don’t do this alone, but we go together. It’s not enough for this person to just understand Korean for five years, it has to be the message, so imagine how much preparation he had. You need to see the large scale ways in which God is moving, and see your field to be rightfully aligned.
Whenever possible, you have to join the parachurch movements. We evangelize together. If a pastor has a narrow vessel, everyone will have this narrow vessel. God’s plan is world evangelization but my heart is so small, I can’t even gospelize myself. If I could evangelize myself, that would be one thing, but why am I saying this? Because this year, God has prepared the answer of the 70 workers, and if you want to give the answer to the field, you have to know the church. In order to do that, you can utilize worship well, in other words, you have to ride the flow of the pulpit very well. That’s the 70 workers.
From my perspective, the LA region wasn’t able to do that very well, and there’s a reason. We received direct training from Rev. Ryu, and our sense was locked into that. The local churches keep this in mind, and I don’t think it’s wrong, but that’s their spiritual state, because they had a spiritual problem, they received this answer so they’re bound to pay attention. There was a situation where people received grace from the local churches. Church is a place they worship, but the real interest is headquarters.
As time passes, if you stay that way, nothing will take place because God raised up the church and the servant and you as the 70 workers, then what is God doing now? You don’t consider that, so that’s a spiritual problem. You think about your own grace, so you’re captured by Satan. Instead of only Jesus. Normal 70 workers follow the stream of the headquarters which flows to the pulpit message and the field. It’s the same with the pastors, God will give the word to the region, but they just copy what Pastor Ryu says, thinking that’s how works will take place.
In my opinion, instead of doing that, just play a video because if you’re relaying it exactly, you can make a mistake. It would be better to not have a middleman. But that’s not God’s method. The life of the Lord’s servant, that’s the field, God gives an answer there. God uses the pastors with this. The reason God sent me here was because there are people to receive answers here. If you don’t acknowledge God’s absolute sovereignty in this, you don’t believe in God.
Especially now, the people who went to Busan Immanuel are now at Seoul Immanuel, and they saw the field but they couldn’t see it. Because they were such renowned messengers, they did it as their own works, then when they went into another region outside their church, they had no influence. They never saw the real field. There are people like this even among laypeople. “I’m a member of the Immanuel Church,” then you should do the evangelism movement properly, but you have no interest. “I was this person.” Then evangelize properly and save the church, but you’re using this as an instrument to gain recognition. This arises when people don’t see the field.
The servant of the Lord is being used so greatly by God, even while they’re in the church, they never saw the field, but when they came to America, the field was different. The church wasn’t one that was lit on fire in the1980s. This isn’t a field where ladies are reading prayer topics while selling meat on the streets all day and come to all night prayer meetings. But they only held onto what they saw in their fields and it doesn’t fit here. They saw the model, and because it doesn’t match up with the model, they don’t know what to do.
If they had real training, they could see how to make things work where things aren’t working, but after some time, God shuts their mouths. “I’ve done this for multiple years but it all crumbles.” I’m the same way. When I first came to America, it was terrible. I was so audacious, the future seemed so bleak. I came in as an assistant pastor and from the first Sunday I listened to the message, I began to criticize him, I was so upset. The pastor attacked church members during the message. I had a spiritual problem that wasn’t healed inside of me, so I would criticize him during the message. That was my wrongdoing.
I should have been able to see that field and ask, “What must I do to save this church?” It took me too long to see that. I used to give messages in the past, “You don’t have the real gospel,” and I thought I was giving the gospel but it was very legalistic. But when I went back and forth to Korea, I saw the difference and really repented to God. I heard the messages from Korea so only my mouth was moving; I was just using legalism to criticize whether people had the gospel or not. God gave me the grace so I was able to repent, so I told the pastor, a year later, “In the past, I didn’t do the ministries you told me before, but now I will do what you tell me to do.” I realized why older pastors criticized young pastors. From that moment on, my messages changed and that was truly God’s grace.
If I hadn’t received the grace of God, then from my perspective, I wouldn’t be able to do my pastoral ministry. But he never said anything, he just waited while I was judging him, “You don’t have the abilities of a pastor.” I looked at the pastor very rudely. But once I received God’s grace, I realized, “That’s not right. I have to do the evangelism movement.” From that point on, my heart changed.
We say we do things well, we think we’re doing okay, but it’s because we don’t know how wrong we are; God hasn’t yet revealed it by His grace. Only from that point on do we have oneness, saving the pastor together. Until that point, we were together, but we were divided, but God was happy about the outcome. Because from that point on, it came into my heart that I had to stake my life on the life and evangelism movement. As you know, I started leading the Early Morning prayers after that. I really did my ministry in the evangelism field, staking my life, “As long as I’m here.”
From that point on, the pulpit message, the field, and I were aligned. It was not so until this point. If I as the assistant pastor was so audacious to a pastor, imagine the laypeople. We’re so audacious. Because I was a church officer from a big church, I think I’m doing great work while I’m actually just benefitting from the system. We’re so foolish that we can’t calculate, but going back and forth from Korea, I began to see by grace.
I calculated what’s going on in America, and right now, there’s no movement of the word, evangelism, and prayer by the evangelist. But in Korea, they have trainings almost every day, and they don’t know how precious that is. Even if the members of the church don’t receive grace from the pulpit messages, there’s core, but when you come here, you have to receive guidance and it’s shocking. “It used to work; why isn’t it taking place now? When it did take place, there was the conditions set for it to work,” then you need to get to those conditions such that it will work.
I realized the reason why we had to go back and forth was because, in business terms, I was misreading the market. Chocopies are very successful in Korea but they don’t sell well in China. If you take exactly how it’s made in Korea, it can’t do well in Russia. There’s a specialty in Russia so they have to change the taste to match the people. Chinese people are familiar with their own snacks so they have to sell it differently in China. The product might be the same, but you have to match it.
America has its time schedule and it’s different from Korea, then how do we do this? It’s how we’re led, then God will work so it takes place. But you try to do what Korea is doing and it’s not working out. “I received so much grace and it worked out well in Korea,” that’s a foolish person who must come to their senses. Here, you have to realize, yes you receive headquarters messages, but you receive grace and strength from God personally.
It’s the same for you, “It worked in that field, why isn’t it working here?” You have to discover that and to see how to make it work, to receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Rev. Ryu’s been giving messages about evangelism for the past 27 years and it’s only getting better. God continues to give him the messages and opens his eyes. It’s not about what he’s learned, but they go together. If we’re trying to learn from him, what is there to learn? It’s always Christ.
If we have Christ, what is there to learn? We go together now. God is giving the Word that will do the evangelism movement for this age, and God is going together. Do you know why we play the prayer journal message during Early Morning prayer? It’s comfortable for me, when I give the message, God gives me grace because He gives His Word. The reason this started was because Tim came to Early Morning prayer and we didn’t have an interpreter because Lois couldn’t come, so I didn’t anticipate this but the flow of the headquarters seeped into the pulpit message.
I’m really glad I made that decision many years ago, so that Tim could have an interpreted message, but it’s so that I could receive grace myself. I can’t follow the stream myself, so when I listen to the prayer journal, it’s about 6 months late but I receive the entire flow, so we go together like this. We talked a long time about this. Some pastors say, “We don’t need the headquarters,” some people say, “We don’t need the region.” But we have to strike a balance and go together.
Honestly, just put this into practice well to your personal self first. What is your problem? If you find the real problem and answer, you can give it to others. If the remnants open their eyes to see this, then they can see the field. He has finished all problems, and these words don’t even go to the pastors well when I share forum, it’s revealed by grace. All problems are finished. This has to come to you for you to be liberated. It doesn’t matter how much you think about it with your brain; if it’s not finished for you, what will you do? Logically speaking, all problems come from sin, Satan, and Separation.
You have to understand “with” well. God is with me in my problems and gives me the answers so a problem isn’t the problem. You have to first know this and apply this. Otherwise they’ll have excuses about scars and crises, but then the gospel you and Joseph had are different. It’s a different gospel from the Early Church. We should have the same gospel, so we have to restore that gospel. We have to be able to relay that gospel exactly, that’s the life movement.
Inside of this life is power. This is what we’re talking about. How much can we raise this up? This is to conquer the field. If the members of the Early Church aren’t able to come to this answer, they’ll be dragged around by the deception in the field. Rev. Ryu says to come to all the answers in the pulpit, then one day, your spiritual problems and scars are healed. That’s God’s time schedule. Enjoy this answer of the gospel, enjoy Immanuel. God is with this person and if they are weak, we pray God will help them. If she’s weak in legalism, pray to restore her in the gospel. If she’s stuck in your spiritual problems and you ask, “Why can’t you be better,” that won’t work. “You can’t even do this?” while she’s stuck in her scars, you have to wait.
Impatient people cannot be pastors. The Bible says to wait. The individual ended up dying because they couldn’t wait. God is doing it; you wait with that faith. You wait until the Holy Spirit in the Pentecost works. But you can’t endure and you crawl out on the ninth day? It’s in vain. It seems so weak but the ones who are able to wait will win.
Today we talked about perseverance. It doesn’t come from out of nowhere, but if you are legalistic, you’ll explode and it’s a headache. You only needed to wait one more day. “I wasted it all, give it back,” but it’s a life that cannot continue. Right before the critical moment God gives you the answer, you wait. This isn’t an excuse to do nothing; God gives us the time schedule and tells us to wait. God tells us to pray, that’s the gathering of the members of Mark’s Upper Room.
If it’s urgent, God will work urgently, but if God doesn’t work, you have to wait. That’s spiritual healing. If you’re hasty, then your spiritual problem spreads. It’s best to do things fast according to the society, but you cannot go ahead of the elite. You have to align yourself to God, you have to do “with” well.
Let’s organize the Word. Try thinking very carefully about the problem in the field, is it really a problem? If you think about it very carefully, you’ll realize you see it as a problem because of your disbelief. Your real problem is disbelief, and that’s sin. Because we lose hold of God’s covenant, Satan works within that disbelief. Even after receiving salvation, we live a hellish life of suffering. Christ is the answer but you have to discover what that problem is to receive the answer. Then you’ll realize that nothing other than Christ is the answer.
Through Christ, the Triune God is with me forever, no matter what problem I face, God gives me the answer that inside of faith, God is with me. If you do this, everything else follows in the time schedule. Then you give the answer from me, my family, my region, my field. Earlier, Gospel and Joyce were studying nursing to treat the physical body. In school, they teach you physical healing that doesn’t really heal, but here, you are taught about fundamental healing. If you have this answer, then even if you don’t compete, God will raise you up because the gospel must be relayed. You don’t realize it because you don’t see it with your eyes.
Later on, people will beg to come to their hospital because this is the blessing.
Stop struggling with your problems but realize God is with you and it’s already finished. Then you’ll wait to see how God is guiding you through this problem. Once you experience this a few times and you face a problem, your heart may be moved sometimes but God will guide you. You’ll face problems you haven’t experienced before, and that’s what it means for even future problems to be finished. May you enjoy these blessings and become the biblical evangelists to relay the answers to the field.
Prayer
God we thank You. We pray the evangelist’s lifestyle may come into our lives as the 70 workers who save lives. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.