Lifestyle of the Evangelist – Whole Heart (Ac. 2:42)
Opening Prayer
Let us pray, may the 21 lifestyles of the evangelist become ours. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
When the Word is planted in me, God begins to work. Joseph knew he was doing to do world evangelization, but without that, if he said, I’m going to succeed in Egypt, his life would be difficult. The standard of God is world evangelization; God uses your talents and skills to fulfill that, and that’s what we’re talking about. If this is within you, God will attach the different parts to your hardware, but the important thing is God’s vision in that person. This vision we talk about is the future God will fulfill, and you enjoy that right now.
This life compared to the life where they tried to fulfill the hardware and live for those kinds of things, it’s a very different life. What is what it means to have the lifestyle of the evangelist. It means you have something for evangelism to have no choice but to take place in your life.
What is the problem of this world?
Satan
Satan is alive and attacking. If you think this isn’t true, you’re deceived. Satan is realistically working, either on one person or the other, but that’s not the answer. This being is the enemy. People are not the enemy; Satan is, and when you know this, you can live the life of the evangelist. Satan uses scars to attack you. I talked about this with Hannah. Why do we all have scars from which we suffer? It’s because I’m centered on myself. From a young age, how can we understand the perspective of everyone around us, such that we have no choice but to be scarred from while we are very young?
Our original state is in Original Sin so it has no choice but to be scarred; Satan uses that scar as a channel and a trap. That’s why, whenever you think of your scars right now, you suffer. You laugh and cry repetitively, and that’s normal; it’s not a problem, but you just need to overcome one thing. Think, “Why did God allow this to happen from a young age?” Then, it’s not my standard, but you ask, “Why did God allow this?” That’s the way to crush the authority of Satan. If you tell Satan to go away, he comes back.
Sin
What is sin? It’s falling into self-centeredness again. When you’re scarred, you’re in the sin that Satan has planted in you.
Hell
Only Christ
If you recite Christ without knowing the problems, it’s just a chant. It’s the same thing as religions that have prayers and chants with no meaning, they do it because they know it works and they’ll be healed. People chant, “only Christ, only Christ,” let’s say you’re possessed by an evil spirit, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”
Christ is the answer to all of life’s problems. People don’t understand this problem fully but for their own goal, they believe in Christ thinking they can observe all the actions, and that’s a religious life. This is the problem of all mankind. You must acknowledge this and see the field.
You see the field through the world, with every Even if you go to a shaman house all your life, and you don’t know it is Satan who is working, you’ve gone in vain. You must confirm it with the Word, not someone else’s experiences. A pastor told me he sent his son to a large church to act as an assistant leader, and he’s doing many things in the field, but I said, “You as a pastor must live accurately.
“My organization doesn’t match with me,” but they cannot see these three problems. I studied with them for three years but they didn’t see this, so they have no choice but to see things. Then, do they turn out well? They don’t know this so they themselves become seized, and many of them are in a crushed state. Are there any remnants who say, “Pastor Ryu just repeats himself”? It’s okay to think like that but one day, your eyes will e opened. I need Christ, and other people need Christ. People think, “This has nothing to do with me. Do you understand? That’s why it’s only Christ.
Talking only of Jesus and not of Christ means you’ll be seized. Some people think sin pertains to ethics and morals they haven’t adhered to, but Satan and sin go along together. Satan is the authority of sin, wherever sin is, that is where Satan works. But because they don’t talk about Satan, they talk about repentance of your sins. I’m not saying repentance is bad, but they don’t focus on Satan and instead of breaking him down, they emphasize repentance. You must hold onto Christ for Satan to run away. It’s okay if you don’t understand now, but you will eventually. Satan is working even now in your life, so that’s why it’s only Christ, it’s always Christ. Satan is always working whenever there’s an opportunity.
Kingdom of God
Only the Holy Spirit (Witness)
Christ was prepared from before creation to save us. Before creation, God prepared Christ to save us. God the Father moves with His Word and He works with the Holy Spirit. This must be set, then what happens? The blessing of the throne of heaven and power works upon you.
Me, My Work, Strength
It’s a method for Satan to control me. We experience healing while we watch movies but the main protagonists do things with their own strength.
Soul – Story
There are many sad things in life, so people have no choice but to be moved. This has nothing to do with God. Acknowledge this to experience only Christ. I have no choice but to be weak.
Covenant
I have to recognize my weakness and my need of only Christ, only. Only this, then that is when Christ rules over my thoughts and my life.
Word, Satan, Mission
The Word must control me, and Satan’s control is lost over me. I must do my work and use my skill for this. God will surely work upon these kinds of people with the working of the Holy Spirit. Once the Holy Spirit works, evil spirits flee. The remnants heard this but cannot apply it. I was talking to Hannah, we talked about Joseph, and she thinks her life is similar to Joseph. “In what way?” She didn’t know. The remnants are like this. Joseph didn’t rely on himself but on God, and this is the seven remnants. The same thing within Joseph is the same thing within me, that’s the mission.
I said in the pulpit that the guarantor of the Oath is Jesus Christ, and for Him to come, God promised since Abraham. That’s why there’s no other reason to swear an oath; just say “yes” to God. But because of this, we don’t believe in this covenant, Christ is within me fulfilling everything through the Holy Spirit. Now, this one remaining promise is God will work through us to do world evangelization. No conditions; just say “amen” to world evangelization.
“God, if you do this for me, I’ll do world evangelization,” but God does world evangelization regardless, so just fulfill it. “God, I will raise my daughter and son as pastor’s and pastor’s wife, but God is saying to shut up and follow the Word. God promises the Word so I say, “Amen.” No point in struggling, “Oh, God,” but when you’re hasty, that’s when you say, “God, I’ll give you all my inheritance.” But God doesn’t need that. “God, just do this for me and I’ll give my entire life to you.” You’re supposed to give your entire life to God from the beginning; it’s evidence that this person does not know what God is doing.
Let’s say a woman gets married but has another man. She already made an oath with another person that she’d get married to them, but she found someone else more attractive. Maybe she met an attractive European guy. There’s no way to guarantee anything. Human assurance and guarantees are of no value.
I never made a promise to my wife; we just flowed. She went to Japan to study Japanese and further her studies. I was ministering to English-speaking people. I thought about this, and I thought I’d not marry at this rate, but I promised God I would never marry this person next to me. One time, I was doing ministry with her, and I called someone to meet with them, but my wife was next to me and she came up with all these things, “You can’t say that to Japanese people. First, second, third of all, …” I got upset. She could have said it was according to Japanese tradition but I thought, “Is she a teacher?” When we went back on the subway, we would face opposite directions. One day, I was moved so I said, “I have something to tell you.” There’s a bench at the nearby University but she caught on. So, I was going to tell her something, but before I said anything, she said, “This is the devil’s work.” So I said, “You’re not a person. You’re a robot. How could anyone be attracted to you? Any relationship between a man and a woman is the work of Satan.” In the businessperson’s message, we weren’t able to communicate at all about cultural trends.
There was a song that came up called “Cosmos,” but my wife thought it was a folk song, so we couldn’t communicate at all. But we ended up getting married. This is the work of God, but this mission was aligned. When we got married, we were so different from each other, and for me, I lived and grew up where we don’t express our emotions, but people in Seoul express everything they feel; this was different between us, but according to God’s covenant, we were able to overcome all these obstacles.
Because I grew up as a second child, I was so self-centered. Even when I got married, I didn’t know who I was. But my wife kept telling me, “You’re so centered on yourself,” but I said, “I don’t know about that.” To give an example, pastors and pastors’ wives would go together, but I would go on my own, and she told me and brought this up to me, 20 years later. She said she endured this for so long. I told her, “When I went to these places, didn’t you say to go on my own?” She said she was just saying it. “Okay, I’ll ask if you want to go. I thought it was too bothersome for you so I didn’t ask you. I never learned to go together, so I went by myself.”
After I came back from missions trips, I bring back a t-shirt for myself for $20. My wife endured this for 20 years, and asked, “Why do you only buy one for yourself?” I replied, “I didn’t know you liked these things, why not say something?” From her perspective, she thought it’s rightful for me to bring something back for her. Our child gets to be judge. I was brought up as the middle child, so I had independence but self-centeredness. I needed to live and survive that way because I had someone older and younger than me, so I lived as the middle child. This is how other people become bothered.
What am I telling you? We don’t align with other people. My daughter dances all the time; I don’t align with her. It doesn’t match with me. She wears crop tops revealing her belly button, we don’t match or get along at all. We just don’t match these physical ways, but we match in the mission of God. These things that don’t match, if we try our best to match them, it will be difficult. But if we align on our mission, we’ll have oneness in a diversified form. That’s why we let God work upon each person in diverse ways as we align ourselves with the mission. That is the system, church, and family aligned with God with God as the head.
It must be only Christ for this to take place. Then, the working of the Holy Spirit will follow you. The Holy Spirit working means all the power we need will follow after. That’s why I told all the Young Adults that marriage and manpower will follow you. I had no time to date but it follows. God works so that the person in Japan was brought to Korea. She was originally studying for her PhD to become a professor in Japan, but she came to Korea as I prayed. During the 2nd service headquarters message, he introduces people, like my wife, Kyung Ae Park, and I saw her.
She told me, “When I am working, I have a heart to receive training instead.” So, she wanted to go to the Evangelism Institute in Gangnam or Busan, so she ended up coming to Busan Immanuel. So, her name popped up on the screen and she never told me she was coming, and because she speaks Japanese, she was asked to translate for the first level camp training and the second service. Sometimes she would come to Seoul for the evangelism institute. Whenever she came, there was a lot of interest because now she couldn’t run anywhere, and this was when she wasn’t interested. Despite that, that’s when she got married.
Manpower
People need to follow after you. God works knowing your environment and state right now, it’s not just about remaining still. You didn’t believe at that time, but there was this great work that happened right beside her. I’m not lying. People don’t believe. God works in the people around you. No need to compete in your workplace; God abolishes competitors or raises you up to the level where you have no need to compete. This is the mission the Holy Spirit works for. That’s why when you pray for only Christ, only the Kingdom of God, and only the Holy Spirit, God works according to the time schedule.
There’s just one thing. You can’t have too high of an expectation. You just hope that this person is a person of the covenant. When my wife and I were getting into an agreement of our marriage, “One last thing. I am someone who will never earn money for the rest of my life, because even if everything else matches and this won’t align, it’s a problem.” I asked her, “If this is not okay, go back to Busan.” She told me that her eyes didn’t flinch but I saw her flinch.
Think about it, the man should support and help the woman, but if they’re not able to, what kind of man is that? I told her, “We must be aligned in this way, I am an evangelist with no income for the rest of my life; are you okay with that?” If God attaches them to you, they will be able to understand regardless of the situation. The workplace God has prepared for you is prepared by God so you don’t have to listen to useless words. That’s why you go with the mission of saving people. This is Joseph, this is David, this is Esther, this is the Early Church, then the working of the Holy Spirit that worked upon the Early Church will come upon us right now, how? There’s a time schedule for the Acts, and there’s a path we follow. We go with the filling of the Holy Spirit and that contains our future. Then the church cannot be broken down. This is why God builds the church. You are the church, and we go together within this, and that’s Mark’s Upper Room Church, the Antioch Church, the Macedonia church, Rome, and Europe. We follow this time schedule.
According to the time schedule, God attaches businesspeople like Priscilla and Aquila, and God gives answers to send people into the field. Just as the church in Romans 16 overcame the world, this is the path we are going on.
Heavenly Mandate, Calling, Mission
Heavenly Mandate is given from heaven. If she got married and has kids, she can’t translate, so this is her calling. When she has a kid, she’ll be an older woman and she’ll sit in the back instead. Is there no man? There’s a man. If you just hold onto this, God attaches them to you. If you don’t believe this, you have to go to many places like clubs. If you remain still, hold to the covenant, then God will work.
The mission is what we do for the rest of our lives. Anna studied movie music composition. I couldn’t ask her what she’s doing in her everyday life, so I was praying, but she said she was making music for movies. Right now, there’s a movement where Korean music and culture is spreading throughout the world, and within this time schedule, Anna is doing her work.
But what does God desire? I don’t know much about music, but even if people don’t know anything about music, they are touched and moved, so she’s making music for movies. If she has a hit music, she’ll be able to make music for any movies in America in Hollywood; this is what comes from above in heaven. The only way to move or touch people is known by God, and our professional specialty must come from Him. How great is that? The movie industry is such that, when you make one big hit, it will spread throughout the world as works arise. Why does God make you do this work? Surely, the working of the Holy Spirit and the lifelong mission we must do.
Rightful, Necessary, Absolute Plan
It’s rightful based on your imprint. You’re scarred because of your imprint. But it’s necessary for the absolute plan for me to stand as a witness before other people. When you hold to the Christ, you see God working and the working of the Holy Spirit, so this is rightful, necessary, and absolute.
Why doesn’t this take place? Because something is imprinted in you such that it can’t take place. Look at the current state and yourself; then look at it with Christ. Then this continues to become an answer for you, but you must not lie. “It’s because of that other person,” then it wouldn’t have worked out for him. His brothers did those things to him, but why did God allow it? These rightful things were within him; he said many useless words, telling on the wrongdoings of his brothers, and this was necessary for him; he needed to find God’s absolute plan. God allowed him to go to Egypt.
One heart, whole heart, continuation
We don’t just do it one or two years, we evangelize for the rest of our lives. No holidays, did Noah have a holiday? “Should I just take a break because it’s a holiday?” nothing like that in the Bible; if God gives it to you, you have one heart, whole heart, and continuation. It doesn’t mean you don’t rest, even when you rest, you think of that.
Acts 2:42
They continued because they had their whole heart. God continues to give them the word through the apostles’ teaching, and with the apostle’s teaching, they had fellowship and broke bread, which is like communion, and they devoted themselves to prayer with that word. There’s something we must go wholeheartedly into. Where will you go with your whole heart? We need to put in our whole heart in the work of God and the covenant where God is controlling and working over us.
This is a thanksgiving where we are always okay. We are pastors without anything to begin with, so we give everything to God. From a worldly stance, it seems like the worst thing to do, but it is the most blessings. I don’t worry about money because you must have money in order to worry about it. “If God gives it to me, I use it; if not, I don’t; how great is that? I have no worries, not even for tomorrow, because God works and I have no conflict or worry about money.
I realized this covenant is a different blessing from the world. I don’t worry, I just use my card, I don’t calculate, but I know the heavens will provide. After listening to this, my daughter said, “You’re deep in debt.” I said, “God allowed me to use my money in this way to this extent.” When my daughter goes to my friend’s houses, they have big houses and asks me to buy a house and how much I had in my savings account. I just mentioned what I have on my credit card.
She lived her whole life in a small apartment, and she sees her friends with large houses and cats and dogs; how will you teach your children? If I were an unbeliever, I would say, “Just wait for your dad, you won’t be disappointed,” but there would be disappointment. What would you do? With this reality, the current state they are facing, imprint the Word of God. This is the time when they fully believe in God or not, when something is fully imprinted in them or not.
“I’m a pastor so I have no money,” You can’t lie to your children; just talk from your perspective. “This is the most perfect and rightful place God has entrusted to us, so we don’t need anything beyond that. That’s why God has allowed us to be here.” Don’t say anything useless, just be thankful and pray. How thankful could you be? Your friends have huge houses but their parents always nag at them, and they ask, “Why is your mom so nice?” Later, she acknowledged it.
The reason why pastor’s kids go astray and have no faith is because they just think their fathers are poor and the word of God is not imprinted, so they have no faith. Realistically apply this to them and teach them; if this really goes into her, it will be part of her faith. As she grows up, there are different phases, so my wife tells her, “We are not poor; God has taken responsibility of our lives and has led us until now.” But my child still feels, “We have no money.”
“The money you have isn’t yours; it comes from God. God gives it to you because you need it as an answer.” She hasn’t learned that, she only knows from a worldly perspective, so now it’s a chance to plant the Word of God. She’s getting some orientations about high schools. I keep praying for my daughter’s talent. “First of all, science and math are not your strength. As I observe you, you can excel in those, but you don’t have the mindset. I think you would be better in humanities because you like to read.” One high school has a good humanities program, so I thought this would be good for my child.
It’s either my side or my wife’s side; my wife is good at math and STEM, but my child isn’t good in that, so she’s probably taking after me. “You can take the school bus back and forth, you do it on your own starting from high school. I taught you up until now how to pray, so while you go on the school bus, pray and do what you must. This seems like nothing much, but if a parent tells their child with the standard of God, my wife also said, “Don’t worry; God has already prepared a high school for you and God will guide you accordingly.”
These words don’t seem like much, but they’re so important because this is how the faith and Word are realistically planted in them. This is a mission home; in their everyday life, the Word is given. Gathering together, opening up the Bible and doing the gospel letter is important, but Jesus gave answers to people’s everyday, realistic problems. These people devote and volunteer for the church, and as time passes on, they may make mistakes, and that’s normal for their growth and development. Because the pastor sees this, He gives the Word and this is a blessing.
Just like how God gives me the Word to give to my child about my family and school problems, God gives the Word to relay to the church remnants so they can overcome these problems with the word of God. Don’t try to be perfect all the time; we cannot be perfect, but as you go on, these things must be revealed so you can be more advanced. That’s why it’s okay, whatever work you do. It’s okay if you fall and stumble more than once. I told Hannah, “You’re barely in your teens, but if you acted like this while you’re 50, what would happen? It’s a blessing that this is happening right now. God has given you this Word to come to worship, and it’s a blessing during your teenage years right now. It’s okay because this is how God is working and creating His masterpiece, because the more you try to package yourself, making you seem like everything is perfect, you’ll explode as time passes on.
No need to be disappointed, it’s just phases, and God will lead us according to the covenant. This is what I experienced. Failure is okay, it doesn’t matter.
Prayer
God, we thank You. Thank You for giving us the blessing to have the whole heart. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.