Lifestyle of the Evangelist – Calling
God, we thank You. May the evangelist’s lifestyle be a time to imprint, root, and nature into our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
As we live our walk of faith, we must know the three fundamental problems of mankind: Satan, sin, and separation. But these problems are invisible because God Himself is invisible, but this is the start of every problem. That’s why it’s only Christ. Jesus Christ didn’t just come to solve our physical and mental problems. Christ came to earth so God could solve the fundamental spiritual problems. Other religions are necessary for physical and mental things, but there is no other religion that can handle spiritual problems. Only Christ is the answer, and you have to know this well.
If you don’t know this, it’s the same as not knowing the spiritual blessings of the throne of heaven. If you don’t know this, you’ll only know physical things. You can be saved without knowing this, and instead of looking for spiritual blessings, you’re looking for physical ones. As that progresses, the uniqueness of Christ continues to diminish and churches close down. It’s very important.
How are these three things revealed? Me-centered, physical-centered. They may have succeeded but they fail, why? Because of greed and idolatry. Humans are made so they cannot live like this. They are not created to live by their greed. I said this earlier, Christians worship idols without knowing it, because they don’t know what idols are. They think idols are about bowing to Buddha, but your greed is idolatry. Your greed, your desire to be rich, is idolatry. Your greed of wanting to be something. Should you not try to be someone or something, you shouldn’t be rich? That should take place naturally. Those are things that will follow naturally to fulfill God’s plan, but otherwise it’s greed leading to destruction.
No need to run after success and wealth. Hold onto the covenant for Temple Construction, but if you strategize to make yourself rich? You should teach this. Changing that means you’re changing them. You have to think about this very carefully especially men, they’re tied up about money. There’s nothing you cannot do if you have money, money can change a sinner into an innocent person. If you’re wealthy enough, you can change a verdict. You can do anything with money, you can even change how you look. In the past people would even change their identity with money. That’s why people go so crazy for money, it’s their god and they can do anything with money. But the Bible says that will destroy you, that’s the Tower of Babel.
You must be careful of capitalism. America is the paragon of capitalism, “Just do it, succeed.” It encourages more and more greed. At least it’s shared in socialism, sure you may have fewer success stories in capitalism, but they are, in fact, praying towards God, holding onto their own greed and avarice. If the churches don’t change this, they lead themselves towards destruction. The churches encourage this all the more. That’s why churches are destroyed, meaning the people are being destroyed. The members of the church should change the world but they’re being dragged into the world, suffering, and relaying this to their children.
Of course the problem doesn’t go away. So, the church is a place that talks about only the gospel. No other place in the world talks about this. From my perspective, I haven’t surveyed everybody, but businesspeople prioritize this more than God. They try to borrow strength from God, and pray again, adding “plus alpha,” temple construction. It’s a cluster of religion, so they’re confused. They know God’s Word but they’re confused in reality. Only the church has the gospel. Does Harvard have the gospel? If you don’t have the gospel, you cannot save people. Does your business save people? It cannot.
So, why is the church the priority? Because if the churches close their doors, the world will face disasters. Your future and family and future generations are determined based on how you see the church. If a businessperson doesn’t understand, their business will fail; people think they go to church for their business, and unless that order of priority is changed, they will be pouring water into a broken cistern.
The church is first in everything, what is this for? It is only Christ, the Church is the body of Christ, but for example, you may not like a particular person. “She’s such a low-class person, look at how she’s dressed.” Then what’s this person’s standard? It’s easy for students to do that, when they go to school, they see elite professors and students. Try going to Harvard and go to a church to see if they’re the same level, but the kids misunderstand so they look down on the church.
The thing that Harvard doesn’t have and cannot do are within the church. The place that talks and testifies of this Christ is the church. Knowing the gospel is contained by knowing the church. If you do not know the church, you do not know the gospel. The first priority is the church, the body of Christ. But if that’s the case, the Bible says to love your brothers. The reason we’re not able to is because we lack the ability, meaning our priorities are different; it means you go to church for the world, for your success and greed. Then you will struggle unless this changes.
People look down on the church because they look down on the standards of the world, so they cannot continue. The members of the Early Church didn’t have any abilities but they all had the answer in Christ. The church was so sturdy. We talked about this regarding the messenger. If you don’t receive your answer in money, you’ll be afflicted. If you don’t know people are precious, you will struggle. It doesn’t matter what they’re like; this is the church, and your posture should be one to save, to devote.
If your chin is high, you’re not saving anyone. You must devote because you’ve received grace. A parent doesn’t look down on a child, “Even if you want to eat, I don’t care,” but the parent will force-feed kids to eat. Until the kid eats on their own, the mother devotes. Sacrifice. There are many types of people. Save them no matter what, appropriately for each individual. This is the standard.
God’s Kingdom. This is where Christ reigns and the heavenly hosts are mobilized. God gives answers and missions through the angels. Word, answer.
Only the Holy Spirit. The world is a sphere, so if everyone says heaven is “up,” then it’s confusing. Once you leave the earth, it’s just atmospheric. Where exactly is God, then? God controls from everywhere. If the president is there, it becomes the White House. The kingdom of heaven as my power. The Holy Spirit’s power has to come upon me. Yes, the Holy Spirit has to come upon me, but also the power. We have the Holy Spirit but no power. We need power for world evangelization.
You receive this power through faith. You’re promised the filling of the Holy Spirit. How do we receive it? You enjoy through faith since He promised to give it to us. To what extent do we enjoy this? If I have the faith to save the region, I pray to send this power out into the fields, because God’s Kingdom is being established. If I’m not able to enjoy the blessings of the power of the throne of heaven this way, I cannot save the world or the church. I’ll be squabbling about who’s right or wrong. No other choice living in society, talking about who’s legally right or wrong. People argue this and do this in the church if they lose hold of this. We must enjoy these blessings continuously, this is spiritual.
If you keep using spiritual things for physical things, you cannot understand. The throne is invisible, and they asked, “Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” It’s not for them to know, but we’re focused on the physical things we see. Wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon you, then the Holy Spirit has come upon you. The church helps you enjoy this blessing. Else, do something else like volunteering, but enjoy this blessing first. If someone says they know this without the spiritual facts, it becomes a church irrelevant to God.
Heavenly Mandate
We relay Christ as the heavenly mandate. Otherwise we have no reason to live, no meaning in their lives. They look for what to eat and what to wear. Successful people have a heavenly mandate. Even idol-worshiping gentiles like Steve Jobs want to succeed. He discovered something, “I have to do this,” and he did it. We too must relay Christ as our heavenly mandate. Where does this come from? After Jesus Christ resurrected, God gave it to them, so if you don’t have your heavenly mandate, you’re still debating about the covenant. Is it really finished or not? You’re still debating. “I still have my problems, is it really finished or not?” Then the heavenly mandate cannot come.
Nobody tells you to do this; God gives it to you. If you haven’t received the heavenly mandate yet, go back to fishing. If you’re told to go to the Mount of Olives, you’ll ask, “Why there?” If Jesus Christ told His disciples to the Mount of Olives and respond, “I have work,” and return back to their lifestyle, they cannot enjoy their heavenly mandate.
Calling
Calling depends on the time schedule, on your age. Tracy is going in as a messenger to Rise Kohyang Christian Club. Before this, she was there as a student, she had her role there, too. Now she’s receiving training, attending RU, and standing as a messenger to give this message to her friends. Once she graduates from college and becomes a social worker, that’s her calling. My calling will change depending on my age and timing, and God does this.
For us, we can try as much as we can to go into the Hispanic community, but she cannot. She was there for the Saturday Mission School and now there are so many people coming in. Look at Nomin. I don’t announce what she’s doing, but she’s evangelizing to so many people. She’s personally evangelizing to people, she runs her daycare, and dozens of people attend. The assistant pastor goes and trains them. Even if I didn’t say anything, they were relaying the Word of God together at 1pm. There was a senior deaconess who said, “Our church only has Mongolians, no Koreans,” but we pray for the multiethnics and remnants. We didn’t do this. We prayed for it.
We didn’t have a lot of kids, but they wanted to come and couldn’t because of COVID. But they were all multiethnic. Nomin has so many kids, and there’s another next month. Christina Lee has a baby with a Hispanic man, these are all multiethnic kids. The only Korean kids are Senior Deaconess Jo’s kids. The time schedule is different.
I lived in the Philippines a few years and met Jesus there. I prayed a lot, “Why did God allow me to meet Jesus in the Philippines and not Korea?” I was in Korea for 10 years, but when I got to Los Angeles, I understood because there were multiethnic people everywhere and I realized God had a plan in everything. If it’s just a gathering of Korean people, God wouldn’t give me a heart for that. I was so unprepared that Pastor Ahn laughed at me, he told me to pray about it. They laughed at the name of the church but the one thing is, “Why do I have to do this?” If I had prepared to raise up a church, I would take the name and make a plan, but it was unplanned.
From all around me, 99.9% of people warned me, “Don’t do it, you’ll fail again,” even people from Korea. There was a pastor who gathered witnesses and said, “This is how hard America evangelization is, so quit now.” But all I knew was only Christ, only the gospel. For me, it wasn’t as if the gospel was really rooted, either. It was just a catch phrase. I felt I was okay because of the gospel, but I had no experience doing things with others, so people told me not to do it.
Because the justice of the world was stronger in me, I thought, “Maybe the church is weaker than the world,” because righteousness came into me before the gospel, and this came out first. I was praying, and that wasn’t it. Then, if I were to follow people’s words, this was the time to imprint that the gospel isn’t enough to all the church members. If I started the church like this and it doesn’t work, that doesn’t make any sense.
People were saying these words because they were thinking of me, not wanting me to suffer. “You’ll have financial problems and people problems, so don’t do it at all, it won’t be easy.” So I didn’t know about it, so I just prayed. “God, why do I have to be here, going through this? I came here to study and my plans are ruined, so God, what is your plan?” I kept praying and it didn’t make sense—if God wanted me to raise a church, it should be with Koreans in Korea, but this didn’t make any sense.
There was a time when I was supposed to come to America but my visa was denied, so I wondered why I had to go. When I was in Korea, I saw all the people in America coming from Korea, so I held onto the second generation. I kept asking God, “Why did You have me receive salvation in the Philippines?” I couldn’t resolve this question for three years. I lived in the Philippines for three years, and the Filipinos were lazy and would quit while the Koreans were hardworking. I did not align with them to proclaim the gospel, so I assimilated instead.
Why did God allow me to experience that? When I came to LA, I saw something that resolved all questions. The answer is the multiethnic people. Then, I started praying about starting this church and came to the answer of multiethnics. Did it make sense to pray for multiethnics when I was surrounded by old Korean ladies? There wasn’t a single young kid or college student. At first, I wondered, “What’s wrong,” but now I realize they were exhausted and afflicted and wanted to give up at that point.
Then what should I do? How can I reach the multiethnic people? That’s why it’s the second generation, not to use them, but we must save them to save the multiethnic people. To save the second generation, we must save the first. That’s how God gave me a peace like a river in my heart. Because I kept saying, “Multiethnic people and remnants,” someone put it in the bulletin, and everyone who was there were the original Korean people, and not a single young adult was there.
I used to have to set up the white board myself because no one else saw the need; they had to receive strength. Now I see the young adults are at least moving the white boards, but before, people kept their arms folded. “The world itself is so hard, do I have to work in church as well?” I would be like that as well. “It’s hard enough to try to survive in the world, and I have to labor in church as well? That’s too hard.” In the past, even if they stayed still, I had to do it myself, I had no choice. Just because people are here doesn’t mean God hasn’t prepared them from the start. The calling is different. The calling changes with time.
Let us confirm Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified on the cross with Christ because of my sin. Don’t keep springing back up; you’re dead. Your mental problems and diseases have been crucified on the cross and are dead. Now, the new “you” is the Christ Who lives with you in faith. That’s my new calling. Otherwise, time will continue to be harder. Rev. Ryu says, “It is finished, it is the beginning,” do you know what that means? My sin, my Genesis 3 is finished on the cross, but I keep facing problems.
I need a new beginning. Because I live a new life in Christ, the answer is seeing God’s plan in my life. Without this, it doesn’t matter how much you go to church. Repeat this exactly, your problem is finished because the problem comes from being separated from God. When you look at your depression, you go into Genesis 3. It’s finished, God has a plan through this. That’s mine.
Earlier Deacon Ted was here, he’s going through health complications, and most people are interested in health, but he came with his son last week. Otherwise, you’ll be afflicted by storms. It’s already finished. Christ took this on the cross as well, and now you need to find God’s plan. That’s God’s timeline. That’s why I live a righteous life of faith within Jesus Christ. If this doesn’t take place, you cannot be healed. Because you’ll get sucked into the visible justice you see in the world, the problems of what’s right.
It’s irrelevant; I’ve already died to the cross, and now the answer and the plan that the Lord is doing through this problem is mine. If somebody is not able to do this but they have revival, that’s a big problem. When a problem comes, they will all fall; they cannot give the answer to the world’s problems. That’s a religious life, a life God doesn’t want.
The complete gospel. This is truly the movement of the age. I didn’t realize this as an unbeliever, but I understand more deeply now. It’s time for the remnants and church officers to know this. I thought everyone knew this because I heard about Jesus Christ from the beginning. I never went to church or talked to children. I wondered, “Why does it have to be the gospel?” I confirmed over time and was able to tell the difference.
Isaiah 6:8
This is what is necessary in God’s time schedule. Right now, the COVID pandemic is loosening up a bit. So now we’re starting Christian clubs and camps we used to have at the schools, and we are starting to challenge in the other schools as well. God has prepared people. Before this, the church officers would go out and do Christian clubs because there were no young adults, and that’s how we got people like Tracy here. In the meantime, she’s been receiving training and now she’s leading by herself.
But she didn’t know the gospel at all before, and now she goes wherever she is sent. There’s a church officer, and she goes, and this is their system. The Mongolian daycare isn’t asked to do anything; it just happens as time passes.
Acts 9:15
This is how Paul was called. All people have this.
Acts 13:22
A heart that is aligned with God that will do all of God’s will. That’s what’s important. God is strong, so if you’re aligned with God’s will, you’ll be strong. If you’re strong but misaligned with God’s will, you’ll be destroyed. But if you’re in God’s will, that’s a strong church. It must be aligned with God’s will. God’s will is saving lives, saving souls. The plan of our father God is to send Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter what you do, that’s just you doing it by yourself. Nothing else matters but saving souls.
There are so many praise teams and orchestras, but if it’s irrelevant to saving lives, it is not aligned with God. How many people go to church? But if they’re not aligned with God’s will, it doesn’t matter. If you’re not aligned to God’s will, you’re irrelevant to God. God’s will is only saving souls. If you’re interested in something being right or wrong, you’re misaligned, but the spiritual problem roots down as a mental problem and has its nature as a physical problem, and what’s revealed physically isn’t suddenly sprung up. It started from their spiritual state. It’s not a simple thing.
Humans are not simple creatures. If humans were simple, they’d be animals. Humans are not simple because we are spiritual beings. If we have a problem, it didn’t come out of nowhere, but the things from long ages past are now revealed. It doesn’t matter if you say you’re right or wrong; it doesn’t solve anything. You say this or that, but none of those words help. You have to change your spiritual state.
Pray for them, give them the Word of God, because unless their spiritual state changes, it cannot be solved. This is what the church does, heal and restore those people. As time passes, things that shouldn’t work out will stop, but things that should will continue. Honestly speaking, I’ve done my pastoral ministry for 13-14 years, and others have been going for 30 years. I don’t have as much experience, but we know what God wants, and as we approach that, that’s God’s grace, so we go.
Within this, disciples are raised up, healing takes place, and diseases are cured. These are works that God does, and some people receive economic blessings, but that’s up to God. Later on, Ted suffered from a stroke, but is that a problem? It’s an opportunity to change spiritually. He used to drink multiple cases of beer a day and had quite the beer belly. I asked, “When was the last time you drank?” “Six months ago.”
In the past, there was a characteristic of alcoholics that their faces would be inflamed, and I know this because I used to drink every day before receiving Christ. They said, “If I poke your face, it will leak alcohol,” it’s a mental problem. Until then, I didn’t drink heavily until my friend committed suicide, then I drank every day. I thought I was the only one like this, but Deaconess Jini also became like this after her sister died. At first she drank a little wine, and later on, because the taste of wine went into her, the demons worked upon her. But most people aren’t like that.
Acts 20:24
Once you discover this, you pour your entire life into that direction. If you do not discover this, you’ll pour your entire life into this idol. That’s a futile life. There’s nothing useless within the gospel, but for us, we must pour everything into the church. The church is the place that saves, the church is not a place where people argue about whether it should be like this or that. The church must be the place that is not like this or that; it is where things are saved. If we think about it being a high or low level, that’s nothing. The gospel is the highest standard; the physical things are lowest.
The White House cannot compare. Nothing physical is worth it. It’s not about having a big company. However, the value of the gospel is the greatest in the world. If this enters and is relayed to your children, then all of them will be saved. However, if this center is not relayed, but you subtly relay the world, your children will not understand. However, the child recognizes your spiritual center? That’s how the child will live. It’s very important.
We may talk a lot to them, but when we turn around, they see the back of our head, our true selves. Let’s say a father is strong in disciplining our kids, but the kids only like the mom, because the mom was carrying them. I have a kakao talk group chat with a bunch of men, and they say things like, “Even though my family doesn’t acknowledge me,” the kids and mom don’t know the male’s position, but they go because they have the responsibility to take care of their family.
Before the family, they appear to be a strong father figure, but the kids are influenced by whether the father truly sees the value of the gospel. We relay the Word of God through our words, however, we’re influenced by this person’s true image.
Phil 3:7
If these words are the truth, we need to understand them. If you don’t understand the words of God, even if you read the Bible 100 times, it doesn’t matter. “Whatever were to my gains,” I used to have something like that. “I’m going to be rich and have a lot of money,” or, “I’m going to become a very prominent figure,” I now consider a loss for the sake of knowing Christ. How is it a loss for Christ? Because he wanted to succeed and make money, he couldn’t enter into Christ. One day, God gave him grace. God has to give you grace, it doesn’t matter how much you talk about the gospel, God has to give grace for you to hear it. He considered it a loss for Christ, and because of these things, he didn’t have “only.”
Is the business or church first? Until you resolve why the church must be first, your business and church will be a struggle for you. But if someone has the priority, it will be easy. The church and the gospel are the first priority. We run our business for that. Then, you will know where you must prioritize. You don’t force your priorities. Remnants, listen carefully. We need businesspeople who can prioritize this, but most people don’t. Most people say, “I need to receive God’s grace for my job,” that’s wrong. If you’re already doing something for your job, your priority is your job; it’s not aligned with God. Then you hear and understand God’s Word but you don’t change.
Christ’s Body, the church, where the gospel is, where the gospel is relayed. The priority of every church officer must be here. Otherwise, the church will fall powerless, regardless of how many powerful people are there, then the future generations will be destroyed. That’s how missions and evangelism take place. Depending on how this ideology is planted and rooted in a church officer is that person’s level of the gospel.
If we talk about this too strongly, people reject that. I speak very strongly to remnants, some don’t say this externally, but they ask, “Why does the pastor make me work? I have to prioritize my studies.” I think they hear it as, “Quit your studies and work in the church,” they parse it physically so I just wait for them. As time passes, one day they’ll get it, why people have to stake their lives for the church and the gospel.
Why were there martyrs? They realize. That’s why the gospel priority has come all the way to this point. I think this is the most important thing in a church and the church officer, what’s the priority? Is it the church or is it the world? We might understand it like this, relaying the gospel in the world is important, and they’re right, but they’re missing one thing. You try testifying well. You cannot do this on your own, you also have to receive life from the church. You can’t have continuation otherwise.
God raised the church, he raised the church of Mark’s Upper Room. Some people say, “I just need the Spirit and Truth, I don’t need the church,” so it’s frustrating. He’s saying, “We no longer have to slaughter lambs and goats but we can worship in Spirit and in Truth.” The first church is the Early Church from Mark’s Upper Room. They worshiped in spirit and truth, and Peter gave the Word. Until then, it wasn’t the church; they were in the age of the Temple that would be destroyed in 40 years. The church didn’t need that. That’s why the members of the church in Hebrews were confused, it seemed they should slaughter animals as well, but they felt weird because the Temple of Jerusalem.
Philippians 3:8
I lost everything for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. This must become yours. It’s not enough to have this as a test. It must become yours. There are some legalistic people who say, “then should my kids not study?” Legalistic people are frightening now, just as the Israelites thought they were saved because they didn’t worship idols. But that’s not the purpose of the law. The law shows us our vulnerabilities, but we believe in God, receive His grace, and receive strength to not worship idols. It’s not about worshiping idols or not.
Remnants, study to testify of Christ. In the past, Apostle Paul studied for himself but he threw it away and said, “I will live for Christ.” He realized this because God gave him grace after a lifelong of legalism. What’s important is that this verse becomes yours. Memorizing it is not important.
Phil 3:9
The righteousness of God, this is the core of the gospel. It was important for Luther’s reformation, and if you don’t understand this, you don’t understand the gospel. The righteousness of the law is, my righteousness is exalted because I kept the law, but the gospel is that no one can keep the law, but we’re righteous because of Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul was liberated by faith.
Phil 3:10-12
If someone says, “I’ve done enough, shouldn’t I rest now?” That’s your thinking. If someone thinks, “I’ve done enough,” that’s not right. You race towards that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. “I’m older, I should slow down,” those are worldly retirement standards. It’s different in Christ. You keep following the things God gives you. God gives you strength and health; otherwise why would He need to give you strength? But if you don’t have this, you have no choice but to be weak. If you don’t know this, then no matter how much money you spend, it won’t work because it’s not aligned with God’s word.
That’s why pastors face problems once they retire. They’re talking from the worldly standards of retirement. Pastor Kim used to go to Mexico every week, but I think he stopped because of COVID. Even though he may be done with his pastoral ministry, he’s doing what God guided him to do, and he continuously prays for the church. If you say, “I’m 80, I have to stop,” then you won’t receive any reasons to keep going. He prays together and worships together for us, it’s hard to come from so far, he lives in Cerritos, and as a parent, it would be better to go to church. It’s because he has his own mission and calling from God. He has something within him that makes him want to keep coming back to church.
Phil 3:13-14
Whether people acknowledge you or not, it doesn’t matter. People looked down on me for 10 years because I had no position. It doesn’t matter, we race towards only Christ. Whether someone says this or not, who cares? We just go towards God. We have no time to address or placate people; there’s not much time left. I’m almost 60 years old myself, and I may only have a year or two left. If we’re debating on who’s right or wrong, that’s a waste.
I go towards that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me, and I entrust this to God. The future generations will know how much I’ve done for God. Make it so that the next generation knows. Our true ministries before God will be recognized by the future generations, and if this gospel can continue without stopping, then okay. No matter how many people come to church, it doesn’t matter to me. That’s not the standard. The determining factor is how many next generation kids come to relay the gospel to the next generation.
Isn’t it pitiful for the pastor to do this? It’s a sad life if there’s nothing else to do to make a living. I think about this and go, it doesn’t matter. Just bark, I’ll keep going. No need to persuade, but if we’re right, the next generation will know. The result is, what will happen to the next generation. Right now, looking to the future, we prepare our vessels and the materials for the future so the evangelism movement can continue. It’s not that we can maintain an organization, we need the Temple Construction for the Biblical desire to be relayed to the next generation. Otherwise, Temple Construction is irrelevant, because I’m living in a rented apartment my entire life. May you have pride in this, instead of unnecessary pride, be prideful in the church and gospel. Your children will all know this.
I asked my daughter, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” She said, “I don’t think you’ll like it, I want to be a model.” I never told her what I would like or not, and this was a few years ago, but her hobby keeps changing. She wanted to be a firefighter, a veterinarian, now a model, but what’s important is that she knows what I like or not, even if I didn’t tell her. She knows my wife likes getting A’s on the test. The kids already know if you like the gospel or not. The people around you and close to you know. Your children will receive that exactly as their inheritance. May you be the church officer and remnant of blessing.
God, we thank You. May the evangelist’s lifestyle be imprinted, rooted, and be our nature, and may God be glorified through this. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.