Lifestyle of the Evangelist – God’s Kingdom
The life of the evangelist means we are made into the nature of the evangelist. Our lifestyle is our nature, and this is our training to make our nature. In order to have this nature, we must first be correctly imprinted in the Word. That has to start in order for us to start with our imprint. We say we’re shocked by the gospel, but why is it not finished? That’s just our imprint. Now we must be rooted deeply in that, and when this becomes our life’s nature, that’s the evangelist’s lifestyle.
Until that takes place, we go through the process according to God’s time schedule. You have to know the characteristic; if this were just knowledge, we would just repeat it. We can do this so those who are imprinted can continue to be imprinted. We have the imprints and roots as we look up towards God’s Word. This is the covenant and time schedule.
We first must have imprints, and we think it’s finished. It is finished but I’m not rooted, so I shake. It’s true that it’s finished, but something else is more deeply rooted, so I shake because of the other thing. Once I change my nature, I’ll have the life of the evangelist, the nature to see everything through the gospel, meaning I can see people are stuck, but I can liberate her. If you see this, no need to have a special program. Even people who come to church for a long time, if they’re stuck in legalism, you liberate them. Or someone who doesn’t have God’s Word, they come to life with God’s Word.
No need to even talk about unbelievers. Some unbelievers live as those without the Word, but give the answer. When I say to diagnose or spiritually research the field, see the spiritual state of the people, not just count how many temples or churches or houses there are. You see the influence of the region, but you have to meet the people.
If you only meet Koreans, you don’t know America, and that’s why the remnants must arise to do America evangelism. We don’t know America, I only meet Koreans so that’s the extent to my field. I must see the field of America and see the imprint, root, and nature of the people. If we’re Korean, we don’t automatically know the field, but we must see the imprint, root, and nature and then give them the accurate answer according to the Word.
Satan, Sin, Separation – World
For us, we continuously come from the Word of God to have the nature of the gospel. What is the problem of mankind? If you don’t know this, you’re bound to say something foolish. We look at people legalistically, judging them for wrongdoings. Believers are stuck here and make themselves suffer. We say we know the gospel but in reality, we’re stuck in this, so the only result is conflict, division, and brawls. This isn’t a theory, but it’s the flow within and without the church. I’ve been set free from these problems so I should be freed, but I go back into these problems, and that’s why our imprint, root, and nature are like this.
John 19:30
If you’re not able to understand the gospel, you will say other people are dirty or sinful, it means you haven’t escaped. Even after the Exodus, you received salvation but you still haven’t escaped from this. But the one who enjoys and relays this is the evangelist. We talk about Jesus Christ but we relay something else. It seems like the gospel but it’s the law, so we have no choice but to emphasize other people’s actions. “You did this, you did that.” The Lord doesn’t look at that; the Lord knows you cannot do it.
We are regarded as righteous because of faith in Christ; you have to believe. Don’t just know it, but believe it. If you don’t believe in this, you’ll keep emphasizing human actions and behaviors. Legalistic people set up their own structures. I went to a dentist a long time ago, and now I go to where my daughter goes. I went in there, holding my crown, and the person said, “It’s going to fall out again,” and I was stuck on that. I usually don’t listen to the words of a dentist because my friend is a dentist and I know they’re just businessmen. Dentists are just in it for the money because they have to pay for their staff and the building.
The doctor may seem stupid but you have to listen. It doesn’t matter if they even seem like salesmen. I said, “Okay, if I will lose it anyway, how much does a new one cost?” “$750 for the one that looks like a real tooth.” They applied local anesthesia and I kept drooling because the spit suction wasn’t working, and the dentist was a newbie, so I got upset. Later they told me they didn’t anesthetize me enough so I had to go to the hospital and then I would come back for treatment. Then I hated this place in my heart because they should have been able to take care of everything.
In that moment, I started thinking from the gospel background, and I realized she had a UCLA banner and she studied diligently to treat me. Then there are other dentists in training, working hard to help me. So, instead of thinking, “I’m paying $750 for this, why can’t you take care of all of this?” I thought, “All these people teamed up to help me.” My nature would look at things in the former way, but I changed and I was thankful.
We’re working together and God made me and changed me into an evangelist, but if I’m centered on the law, I would be upset and not like them because of their frame. The gospel says it’s not about me, this is an answer of God healing my teeth through this doctor, this dentist’s office, for the sake of world evangelization. This is the gospel.
Yes, we have Christ, but we have to be centered on Christ. That’s the gospel. We have only Christ, but it doesn’t come out when we go into the field; instead, the law comes out. We only see human standards, we don’t yet have the nature. We know Christ, but because that’s not our nature for our life, we have the gospel come out. If the gospel is being blocked, you cannot break free through training. You can’t see this until you’re able to break free from your own frame of legalism.
Now, once I was able to apply the gospel, I became thankful. But if I thought, “I’m an evangelist so I have to evangelize and hold my anger in,” that’s not going to work, I’d just have to grin and bear it. I have to truly discover the value of everything in the gospel, otherwise I’ll have to lie. That’s a mental problem, you can’t escape from it. God wants to heal my aching tooth for world evangelization through this person but I can’t see it that way because I only know myself, and if this person doesn’t go into the structure I created for myself, that can’t be it. Then it doesn’t matter how much God prepared the gospel, but you’re keeping it all in.
Do you lack knowledge of Christ? Christ isn’t penetrating into your everyday life. You know the Christ in the Bible but you’re not centered on Christ in the field. Being established in Christ means Christ is the answer for myself and for the other person. That’s the evangelist’s life. You have the answer, but this is blocked because we don’t have the evangelist’s life. This is the life of the evangelist.
It’s important to know the content, but you have to have this established in your life. We have our own nature. We face an incident or crisis, and our nature comes out. Then we have a time when we apply the gospel, that’s prayer. Do you understand prayer? You have your nature so it doesn’t take place all of a sudden. Rev. Ryu says it takes him 3-5 seconds to change his thoughts to prayers. The thoughts relentlessly stay. This nature doesn’t change.
If you’re able to apply the gospel, your nature doesn’t change. It goes into me for a long time. When my wife found out she would marry me, her face completely changed. I went to meet her with a lot of confidence after worship, and she asked, “Can I help you with anything?” I said, “What is there to help me with?” So I gave her a strong impression. “I’m going to study abroad.” Her personality didn’t seem very nice.
The next Monday at Remnant Theological Seminary, Rev. Ryu gave a lecture. I graduated but I wasn’t able to pass the course so I had to keep listening to the lectures. In that lecture hall, there were some pillars, and I was just standing there, and she glared at me, talking to me about world evangelization. I think she felt this way because I was supposed to be evangelizing but I was just wandering around, studying. She didn’t like my attitude and pride, even until very recently.
First, a pastor will not bring someone under their wing unless they come in completely. The pastors will purposefully not mentor someone from another church. These are just some things I felt as I was going back and forth between Korea and America. It doesn’t change. But because the gospel is so strong, we overcome. Even right now, he relentlessly says there are people disturbing the gospel, and he ran away.
You’re under a misconception that Rev. Ryu is an angelic person, but that’s your legalism. Of course, pastors get tested, if you think that pastors are angels, that’s your misunderstanding. If you think his wife is an angel, she’s a fake angel. Some people seem so angelic, nice, and patient, but after some time, the anger comes out. We must be established in Christ.
“My wife is like an angel,” sure, “My pastor is gospel-centered,” it’s because they don’t see these problems and the nature that comes through these problems. We think a person is okay if they don’t have these problems, but that’s nonsense. People are capable of doing anything, however, repentance is holding onto the gospel and returning back to God. The faith of holding onto the gospel is true repentance, but legalistic people say that repentance is regarding your acts of sin.
That’s the true repentance, to delight and enjoy being with God. Some churches emphasize repentance, there’s a church in the area where the assistant pastor seems demonic as she’s crying all the time, and they always block the gospel, “This is happening because you did this wrong.” They emphasize human actions. Do you think they can be fixed this way? They could work on it in college. But the fact that it hasn’t been fixed means it can’t be changed with words. The Holy Spirit of God must reveal it to them.
If you can change them with words, you can keep talking to them, but when the Holy Spirit helps them to realize, that’s when they can change. That’s why we go into worship and the Word. Otherwise, we think we change people with education. There’s a pastor who says he can educate anybody? Then we don’t need Jesus, we just need educators. They don’t know something. Legalistic people are upright with the law, but the characteristic of legalism is that they make judgments based on God’s Word.
God doesn’t look at our actions but we’re righteous if we see Jesus’ actions. That’s the gospel and our lives must be gospelized like this. Then, we make the gospel the number one priority so that the basic areas of my life are organized. The person comes in through an Upper Room Meeting, but they’re caught up on something so you give them the message and they can come to life. You can’t just throw whatever doctrine at them, but you can then say, “We did the 10 gospel letters, what next?” You have to see the field, otherwise you’ll have to give them other things. But if you see this person is healed of one thing, there’s something else underneath, then you can give the answer with God’s Word.
That’s ministry and it’s the same in your family, that’s how you gospelize the family and the world. That’s what this means. You save them and bring them into the church to nurture them, that’s what we do with the words of the gospel.
God’s Kingdom – Mount of Olives (Gal. 2:20)
For 40 days, Jesus trained them to open their eyes. This nation of Rome is the nation of the world, but the background is Satan, and you are the ones to establish God’s Kingdom.
Mission
Ultimately, the kingdom of Satan has no choice but to fall, but do not be afraid of them. It doesn’t matter what Rome did, but they did not bat an eye because they already knew the fact that Rome was struggling to survive. People go to college and get so lost, they can’t swim out. An evangelism team went to Harvard and had their souls stolen away as they admired the architecture.
Rome has already met with its end. The kingdom of this world has its end. If you don’t know this, you cannot receive the mission of God’s Kingdom. We succeed to save successful people; we’re not succeeding to accomplish a goal in our lives. You have to see God’s Kingdom and mission that establishes the eternal Kingdom of God. This is the reason we study.
If you don’t know your mission, you say you have to study hard because Rome is a powerful nation and we have to survive, then the person is stuck in spiritual problems. They have heard about the Kingdom of God but they haven’t seen it yet. It’s the same in the Bible, Jesus Christ died on the cross, resurrected, and gave the confirmation, and gave them the mission of world evangelization.
(Word)
Rome may appear so mighty and grand to the eyes, but they will fall. You are the ones to establish God’s Kingdom, then all these things will be given to you as well. God will provide these things in heaven. Churches talk about how to be successful in Rome, it’s a church that establishes darkness and it’s unnecessary from God’s eyes. It doesn’t matter how many people gather, God doesn’t care. God uses those who have only God’s Kingdom and the Holy Spirit.
This must be our nature. We must first be imprinted in this. It takes a long time to be imprinted in this, the kingdom of God must be rooted, do you understand the root? You must see this in the world. That’s how the Holy Spirit will apply this in your life, and He gives you the answers through prayer, to know what to say in each situation.
God prepared these disciples. They found and trained these disciples. This comes into me as my mission. Even if I’m running a business, this is what I see first. We gather together according to the time schedule of our church to change these eyes, because we’re looking with incorrect eyes. Your business will be wrong as your eyes are wrong. There’s a difference between the eyes of how to survive in Rome compared to the eyes of how to save God’s Kingdom, but instead of changing how we look at things, we turn to religion or Buddhism. Then we will always be delayed until this takes place. This is how God continuously makes us suffer until we find the real thing. That’s what this means.
Mark 3:13-15
God’s Kingdom is established when the gospel is preached and God goes into them, then this is talking about the proclamation of the gospel. How would God give us the authority to cast out demons if this is unnecessary? Why be with us and send us out to preach? When I was an unbeliever, I didn’t understand. When you evangelize, demons are cast out. But one day, it was all resolved.