Joyfully Serving the LORD by Relaying Your Faith (Deut. 28:47-57)

We are continuing to read through Deut. 28:47-57.  This is the content of blessings and curses, but there is more written about curses.  Last week, we heard about the kings being dragged off to different nations and that all of our businesses would be destroyed, and this will happen to your children as well.  You will be the ones who serve the Gentiles as their tail, and that you will be somebody who goes around to borrow money. 

This is the content that was covered last week, but in reality, we shouldn’t just look at those words because God already told us He would bless us to obey God’s Word, and then He tells us this. Then what is the standard between blessings and curses?  It’s not about our hard work.  So, as you read through Deut. 28, I hope you realize this isn’t determined by you.  It is talking about everything taking place within the covenant between me and God.  It is talking about the actions where we believe in the covenant God gives us and follow after that.  If we do not follow after God’s covenant, then the curses are naturally following.

However, as we live on this earth, we are rooted down in the ideology that if we work hard, something good will happen. It is the ideology of Gen. 3 that does not have God.  Then in this age, I hope that through the Word of God, you will be restored and you will also relay this to other people.  In Deut. 28:47, it says, “Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity,” all of these curses will follow.  So, even though you had so many things and you were abundant, you did not serve the LORD joyfully and gladly, and this is the reason why curses follow. 

It says the word, “serve,” here.  What does the word, “serve” mean?  I am serving somebody, and when you go to a hotel, the workers will serve the customers.  When you go into a restaurant, the staff there will serve the customers.  They always say the customer is first. That means from our perspective, God is first, and that is what it means to serve.  In other words, for child of God, all of our problems have been finished on the cross, so now we only follow and serve God.  It is because He is the King, He is God, He is our Lord. 

If you do not serve the LORD with a joyful and glad heart, this is not something where you can pretend to be joyful and glad in order for you to get blessings.  That is religion, it is legalism, and it is the way to cause yourself suffering.  You need to know God to the extent where you naturally are joyful, and that is how you will be able to sincerely serve Him from your heart.

This worship is also called a service, it is one form in which we serve God.  We serve God by giving the LORD of the heavens our praise, offering, and prayer.  It is very important who leads praise, but it’s more important whether the people who are praising God are actually praising God or not.  If the person in the front, the leader, has a lot of spirituality, they might be able to lead the environment, but regardless of that, we are giving our praise to God. 

Otherwise, your walk of faith will always have to be led or dragged by somebody else.  That is why, before you come to worship, you must come to worship, serving God.  Because not only do we serve God within worship, we serve God in our everyday life.  Why? Because He is my Lord, that is why I listen to His Word. That is why I worship Him.  If you’re not able to do this naturally with a joyful heart, it means that our state is already somewhere else.

In other words, if you feel obligated or forced to worship, it means that your state is somewhere else already.  It means that I want to be the Lord of my own life, and I’m told to follow after God’s Word, but I don’t want to; I want to do whatever I want to do, and even outside, I want to do what I want to do.  Then, when we come to church, we’re told to serve, so we fall asleep.  That means that my spirit does not want to serve God. 

Some people feel like they’re forced to worship because of the law or because of their position in life, and that’s not right.  That person is already in an inner state where they are the master of their own life, so even if they listen to God’s Word, they don’t really hear it, because they just follow after their own thoughts, because they are their own master.  If somebody offends me, my pride is hurt because I am my own master.  If my social status is shaken a little bit, I can’t endure it, why? Because I’m the master of my own life.  That is not the way to serve God; that is actually the way to serve the devil.

How do we serve the devil? The devil tells us, “You are the master of your life,” you listen to those words and you act like the master of your life, then your spiritual state has already gone into curses.  Just like the Word we received on Sunday, your spiritual state has no choice but to be in a state to be blessed or cursed, and the New Testament tells us the same thing.  If you misunderstand the Word of God and you think it’s not about your spiritual state but it’s about your actions, so you force yourself to act a certain way, that’s not right.

When you kids are studying, ask yourself, “Is this what God has allowed for me?” This is correct, and it’s true that God has allowed me these studies for world evangelization. In that kind of state, you’re praying to God, and that’s how you serve God in your studies. Even if you don’t do that, you can study and run your business well, and that’s what the Bible tells us.   No matter how much you study, no matter how much you succeed, no matter how much money you make, if you do not joyfully serve God, you will lose everything.

Then Deut. 28:47 continues, “Therefore in hunger and thirst in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will puta n iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.” In other words, if you ever think, “I accomplished this with my abilities,” you are not serving God. Then, you won’t just lose everything, but an enemy comes to you to bring you suffering and to take everything away.

Then Deut. 28:49 says, “The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down,” this means that our problems will come from places we can’t even imagine or think about.  We might try to plan our lives so perfectly and come up with all these strategies to prepare for problems, but there will be an attack from a faraway place that we can’t even imagine or think about. 

We will not be able to predict this, and Deut. 28:50 says, “a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young,” meaning they will kill indiscriminately.  You will lose all the stocks and the crops and you will be completely destroyed.  Deut. 28:52 continues, “They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land,” because back in those days, all the Israelites represented all the children of God, and “the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down,” meaning, all the other things you trusted in other than God will fall down.

People come to America and want to rely on the great education system for their children, we must not rely on that, but you continuously rely on that.  The parents and the children must both rely on God, but instead of relying on God, they rely on the great education and things of America.  But all of that will be powerless.  We think our lives will work out if we have these things, but God tells us that it won’t.  What do we rely on? There are some people who rely on their family background, or they rely on their schooling or the people they have around them. But even if you have all of that, it will be nothing.  

As we live our walk of faith, some people may question, “What did I do so wrong that this is happening to me and my children?”  Even before your actions, it is about your spiritual state that was not serving the LORD with joy and gladness.  Regardless of God’s word, you just lived your life according to what you thought and what you learned, and you fall into the culture knowing that this is just what the culture is here. 

The result is that everything you rely on will become useless, and God is telling us not to do that.  Deut. 28:53 says, “Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you,” meaning you will eat the flesh of your children.  Because there is so little to eat, the parents will eat the children. You think you wouldn’t, right? That’s just how you think now.  If you think you’re about to starve to death, by nature, you will eat something, and if you die, your kids cannot live; they’re so young.  So, because you need to live, you will eat the flesh of your children.

These are things that actually happened in North Korea.  When someone gets so hungry, they start hallucinating, they don’t eat the child, thinking it’s their baby, they think it’s an animal and they eat the meat.  They’re delirious to the point where they don’t think it’s their baby, so they put the baby into a boiling pot to cook the meat, and after they come to their senses, their child is missing.  These are things that actually happened in the suffering and starvation in North Korea in 1997, and I heard of many things like this. 

There was also a movie based on true events where an American football team crashed in a plane crash, and they ate their team members’ flesh to survive. This was an actual event made into a movie.  What else can do they do? They have to survive and eat, so they choose the weakest team member and eat their flesh.  If they were Japanese people, they would actually kill themselves instead, but that’s another demon that causes them to sacrifice themselves, but either way, this is human nature to survive. 

In Japan, there are times when the entire family is forced to commit suicide together, so the husband will cut the necks of the wife and children, and then kill himself.  After the second World War when Japan surrendered, there were mass suicides in every household, around the time the second World War ended as they surrendered to America. These Japanese generals would kill their whole family and commit suicide because they lived on their honor; they don’t know God, so they hold onto this and die.

Right now, you guys might be turning away in disgust, but that’s not enough; you guys are bound to do this as well, so that means in your everyday life, you have to have faith and do this well for your children, too.  This is the curse of all curses, isn’t it? 

In Deut. 28:54, it continues, “Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children,” this is the state we will become.  Deut. 28:55, “he will be eating the flesh of his children and will not share it with anyone else.”  Deut. 28:56, “The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter,” even in Korea, there are situations where the entire family commits suicide. 

I see in the news that this often happens because of financial difficulties.  It’s so fascinating because Korea is a relatively wealthy country, but they still have financial difficulties.  Because they are facing such great economic suffering, they’re not able to raise the children, so the husband will kill the children, his wife, and then himself, and we see stories like this on the news. When you see situations like that, you need to return to God’s Word.  If you don’t interpret that situation with God’s Word, it becomes irrelevant to you. 

Then, it’s not saying that I’m like this because I did something good and they are like that because they did something bad.  We are able to see through the news, and even stories that are not broadcast on the news, that this is what happens to humans who do not have God’s grace, and they have no choice.

Deut. 28:57, it says the woman will eat her children secretly during the siege, the children from her own womb.  The enemies will surround the cities, and in the past, there were wars where, instead of attacking the fortress, the enemies would surround the city and wait for them to run out of food inside, so they cut off all the supplies going into the castle or city. If the enemies remain there, the people inside will ultimately surrender and come out.  In this situation, the people are not surrendering, but they endure to the very end to this extent.

The same thing is happening in today’s age.  These things are happening even in lands that are plentiful, and it’s happening in less wealthy nations as well.  Regardless of whether they eat their baby or not, it is a curse.  But the beginning of that is not caused by your actions or lack of hard work.  It doesn’t begin because you’re not able to keep your word.  But people train their kids to think their lives are over if you do things like this, but that’s not true.  It begins because you’re not serving the Lord, but that’s invisible to your eyes. That’s the fundamental problem, and all problems begin from there.

Then, our walk of faith is changing that fundamental spiritual state into one of blessings.  The one who continues that is the one who serves the Lord.  Your children remain within God’s great plan.  Whatever is happening right now, it’s rightful.  Because you planted into them, not serving God, but serving something else, something else is happening and you face the necessary repercussions. Whether this was intentional or unintentional, you relayed this through your state, then what do you think is God’s plan for that? 

God’s plan is for allowing them to serve God newly and to hold onto the covenant.  There is only one way.  There is no other way.  If you say things like, “You’re like this because of your mother,” or, “You’re just like your father,” that’s not the answer. “It’s because you moved into a bad neighborhood,” that is not the answer. Do you think you’d be fine if you went to a good neighborhood and a good school? That is not the answer. Do you think it would not be a problem if you moved out of LA into a different city? That is not the answer. 

I must serve God because I have no hope on doing this on my own; the Lord had to come to this earth to die on the cross to block all curses, disasters, and Satan, so I can serve God.  This gospel must hit your heart.  If you say, “Now that I’ve been saved by God’s grace, it’s my turn to make an effort,” that is not the gospel. Because I cannot do it, the Lord died for me, but the way we keep thinking is, “Now that I’ve received God’s grace, I have to do something,” and that person will keep failing.

Somebody may say, “In the year 2023, I really have to come to my senses,” but that really isn’t the answer. Fundamentally, my spiritual state must go into Christ, into the gospel, it means that I cannot do this, it means I have no answer, that is why we need the cross.  If the gospel doesn’t hit your heart like this, you’ll always have a false hope about yourself.  You will keep on giving this false hope to your children.  That spiritual state will result in something that I cannot control.  When people say, “Jesus Christ,” they think of those words simply, but it is quite fearsome. It is a situation where He died on the cross for me because I cannot do it on my own. Because I cannot do this , the Lord is inside me, with me.  But if you push this to the side and you focus on “my thoughts and my standards,” you are already outside of the gospel with your spiritual state, and you continue to hold onto your false hope. 

“This year, if I do this,” instead of thinking about your state, you think about your actions, you listen to people’s forums.  Then you’ll know that when you listen to this person, “This person’s head is up in the clouds, I need to pray for them,” and that becomes your ministry.  However, instead of receiving the grace of Jesus Christ through the cross, if you’re always thinking about giving someone else God’s grace by your actions, that’s not really grace.  That’s the reason we stake our lives on worship, we need to go into a state where we have died because of Christ and now Christ lives within us with His Word, then you continuously get answers. 

“That’s right, it’s not me, it’s the Triune God.”  It’s not only that, we are constantly hit with these covenants like the temple construction and the 70 disciples and 70 regions, but if your state is not in the covenant, these are not your words but they seem like a terrible burden to you. The Bible says such people take the Word of God lightly. You need to raise your life on that Word and stake your life on that Word, but you’re simply walking by, and you stand in front of your own thoughts.  That is an age that takes the Word of God as a joke.

That’s why people are destroyed, even if they have everything, they’re destroyed. Even if they do everything well, they’re destroyed. They fall because they are not holding onto the covenant, standing before God.  God is giving us His Word today as well so that we don’t become like that.  Is your child on a path that can come back? What are you going to do? You cannot do anything, no method can do. 

You must kneel before God, and it’s not enough to just lay down before Him, you have to realize, “I have continuously put something else in.  My children are to this extent because of me.” Without that, kneeling before God is not enough.  You realize, “I did not have the covenant in my heart, I was putting the things of the world into my children,” but even right now, it’s okay because the spiritual things will influence them invisibly to the eye.  When you pray, your prayer of faith gets relayed to them. 

It’s not only your children, it was to all the people in your life whom you’ve met and you’ve constantly emphasized something else.  It’s not about me, I have to take the greatest covenant I’ve been given and relay it to others, but I relay something else.  I live my life to look good to others to get what I want.  When you realy the covenant to other people, God has blessings already prepared in your business and every area of your life, but you push that aside and try to look at other people, and try the methods of the world. 

If God has given you your business, you have to realize, “I have not been centered on giving the covenant to other people, but instead, I’ve been centered on making myself look good in the world and success.”  You need to relay the true covenant that can save this person’s life.  God has entrusted this role to me as His ambassador.  God has sent me into the world with a mission to serve God like that. 

I was not serving God, though, I was worried about what the world thought of me, and I was following the ways of the world because I wanted to survive in the world. Once you know yourself correctly, God is bound to work. Through you, all nations of the world will be blessed. God can work even now. What’s important is, what is the fundamental spiritual state with which I live in this world?

What is the style of the legalistic or religious person?  They just do everything and go to the temple or the church.  It doesn’t matter to them whether they do it with a joyful heart or not, then when they look at the Gentiles, they think, “Those people are irrelevant to me,” but that’s not serving God.  God has given us this blessing in order to relay the gospel to those Gentiles.  That is how you serve God, it is the blessing of Immanuel revealed, the blessing of Oneness.  That is the living worship in your field.

Then, what happens? What God talked about in the beginning of Deut. 28, you will be blessed when you come in, you will be blessed when you go out. We must teach this to our children while they are young. You shouldn’t teach them studies; you should teach them worship. There’s a difference between studies and worshiping through studies. You need to teach them how to serve God through their studies, that is the living worship. 

If there is a parent like this, what would happen to their kids? Everywhere this child goes, God has no choice but to work.  That is the state with which God desires us to live, but if that one thing doesn’t take place, all problems will follow. It is the same whether you are in the church or in your homes, you devote yourself to teaching each other God’s Word, having fellowship with God’s Word, and praying.  These are the people whom God wants to run businesses. That is the businessperson God desires.  But if someone is religious, they will say, “God, you saw what I did, right? Now you have to give me blessings just like your Word said,” and that is someone who is not a true child of God, they are not someone who has true parent-child communication with God; it is a relationship of abuse, a conditional relationship. If somebody lives their walk of faith like that, they are always suffering.

God saved us, and He is with me and with us now.  We serve everything for Him.  The reason we serve the church is for Him, because we are the body of Christ.  It’s not about asserting myself, it’s according to God’s Word.  It’s not about exalting myself or my position, if you live your walk of faith like that, you will be severely hurt. There’s no such thing as “me,” there is only the Lord. Only ask if this is the will of the Lord; if you keep talking about your own will, it will be problematic. It’s the same out in the world, if there are no believers around you, how do you talk to unbelievers?  “You shouldn’t smoke, you shouldn’t drink,” why would you say things like that? I wouldn’t, you should have confidence without doing that. You should have something that serves Gentiles correctly, because you’re not serving Gentiles, you serve God, and you serve God because God gave you this meeting. It is this kind of lifestyle we’re talking about.

Prayer

May you have this kind of blessing begin.  Let us pray holding onto the Word God has given us.  I think some of you are really praying, because I didn’t really prepare the Word this way, but I came here a little earlier today and some people were earnestly praying.  Even though there were some people who were not, God relays His Word according to the need. Let us pray holding onto the Word God has given us.

By God’s grace, may the peace be within your spirit first.  May this blessing be revealed in everything you do, and I hope you will relay this blessing to every person you meet.  Let us pray together for the region.  When we pray here, the forces and organization of Satan and darkness will break down in the region, that is the spiritual battle.  If we are falling asleep as the spiritual watchmen, Satan takes over the region and that is why we are told to raise up the bartizan of prayer in the church. This is the prayer that shines the light.  Let us pray together for your region and the 50 states.

When you worship and pray, that is the time you receive the greatest spiritual strength.  If you do not pray, you lose hold of many blessings.  Why do you not pray? It’s because you concentrate so much on the physical and visible things so you think prayer is not valuable, but that’s not true. Without a doubt, when spiritual things are raised up first, everything else will follow. Let us pray for the missions fields we are serving.

Finally, there will be the PK and church minister retreat starting Sunday until Tuesday.  It is the only time of year when pastors and elders can gather to receive strength.  Starting from this year, they’re inviting the pastor’s kids to join as well. They tried to do this last year but couldn’t because of the pandemic.  Because the PK’s play the role of the leader among the remnants, I hope you will pray for them a lot.

I see the patterns inside the family of professors, there will be a professor, and in a family of doctors, there will be doctors; inside the family of soldiers, there will be soldiers. There are instances where this is not the case, but ever since they are young, they receive this kind of internship, so yes, all our remnants are important, but especially the pastor’s kids are targets for Satan because Satan wants to destroy the church through the pastor’s kids, and that’s the way to destroy the pastor as well.  Yes, this is not always the case, but that is why there are pastors’ kids who either rise quickly or are broken down quickly. Let us pray all together.

Benediction

Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the people of God, who desire to serve the Triune God with faith in only the covenant and to relay this to others, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.