This is the Word that God has committed to us: to relay the work that Christ has done. He has committed the message of reconciliation to us because this world is an enemy to God. 

Let us bless one another, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. I hope the blessing of Word fulfillment and answered prayers will be upon all the individuals and families worshipping in their homes, in the church building, and especially out of state. 

The title of today’s message is New Work within Christ. As soon as we are born, everyone lives their life working. From the moment you’re born until you graduate from college, you are studying for over 20 years in order to get a job. Some people even study for 30 years to prepare to get a job in the world. 

Today, among one of our many concerns are concerns about our job. Many people are worried because their work is difficult or not working out, or they don’t have work. Some people say “I wish we lived in a world where we didn’t have to work.” There are only two places like that: Heaven and Hell. As long as you are living in a physical body, you are bound to work, either with your arms and legs or with your brain. 

In the past we lived in the agricultural society where we were farming, so the many members of the family symbolized your wealth. After the Industrial Revolution, more skills were developed, and the work humans were doing was replaced by machines. That age continued for a long time. In the past, we met the Information Age that went beyond the Industrial Age. Now people who are collecting and selling information are translating that data into money. 

Now the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which has already begun, is going into an age where we no longer need human labor. We are going to face an age where everything we spend our lives studying will be useless, because all the knowledge we have learned has now been programmed into robots, and they can do the work for us; we no longer need human labor. We are going to face a future of mass confusion where people will no longer have jobs and everything they have prepared for their lives is now useless. 

What is the Word God is giving to us in this kind of age? We have to prepare for that age to come, so what is God telling us now, looking ahead into that age? There are also many people who have a job but don’t like it, so they suffer. For anyone like this, I hope you will escape from the difficulties of your heart through today’s message. 

1. New creation

In today’s Bible scripture, in 1 Cor. 5:17 it says “The old is gone.” If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. It means anyone, as in, it doesn’t matter if you are wealthy or poor, high or low. If they are within Christ, there is no [other] condition to that. It is “anybody” because this is not done by our ability. As long as they are within Christ, they are a new creation.

  1) Old things

    (1) Me, my things, our name (Gen. 3:5, 6:4, 11:3)

What are the old things? What does it mean to be outside of Christ? The old things are from Gen. 3:5, where we think we can live without God, centered on ourselves. The reason there is so much suffering in the world is because every individual is saying, “I am suffering. I have a problem in my life. I do not see my future. My emotions are depressed.” Because as soon as you escape from “yourself,” you are no longer in your own presence. 

We can never escape from this thing called myself. We have to live our lives bearing our own heavy burdens. That is the common characteristic among every human being who is born. That’s what Satan meant when he told the humans to eat the fruit of knowledge of good and evil to become like God. You have no job, you are suffering, you are sad. “I am confused, my pride is hurt. I’m suffering because of the scars of my past.” These are the old things, because I am someone who lives for “my things.” 

If this entity of “myself” exists, then there are material things I need, so everyone is living for “my things,” for their benefit. They listen to a lot of information but they discard it if it doesn’t benefit themselves. They need a lot of people, but they cut them out if they are no longer a benefit to themselves.  Even for everyone I meet now, I only meet with them because they help me. We end our relationship when they are no longer a benefit to me. 

The direction and the goal we are racing towards in life is to elevate our own name, like building the Tower of Babel in Gen. 11. Every human being wants to leave a legacy on this world, and the goal of our lives is that even when I am dead, I want to leave my presence behind on this world. Everyone gets sad when they feel like their presence is going to disappear. Even gangsters try to leave their names behind.

The stream [or direction] is that everything we are living for is for our own name. People can endure if they are a little hungry or lacking power, but they can never endure their pride being hurt, because the goal for their existence is to elevate their own presence and name in the world, but if that is being blocked, they can’t endure it. 

    (2) Idolatry, religion, shamanism

All of that begins from “me”, me thinking I don’t need God, then all you need to do is escape from “me.” That is why people are racings towards transcendental meditation to solve their suffering. They do that meditation as evidence that they already don’t have the answer, or they choose a religion because they don’t have an answer. Because they come to the conclusion that, “I can’t do this by myself,” they come to a religion. Because they know they can’t do this by themselves, they believe in an idol.  Because they have no certainty in their future, they search for a fortuneteller. 

    (3) Spirit, flesh, future generation, death – Snare

If they have come to this point, that is evidence that they don’t have the answer within themselves, but they are staking their lives on a lie, trying to leave behind their name. Because their spirit has been seized by Satan, as soon as we have departed from God. There are only two options: you’re a child of God or Satan. 

“Oh, I want to be in the middle.” There is no middle; you saying you want to be in the middle or are in the middle means you’re already seized by Satan. Our thoughts and our heart are completely seized.  The start is living my life however I want to, but our lives are uncontrollable. This is evidence that we are seized: we’re seized by our depression. I cannot control my own life and I’m flustered, and no matter how much I struggle, there’s nothing I can do about it. 

The only thing we can do is go into drugs. Who does drugs because they want to? They do them because they have no other choice. It’s evidence of not having the answer in life.  Nobody drinks alcohol because they want to; at first, they drink a few times but then they have no choice but to drink, because they don’t have the answer within them.

There are some people who give me excuses, saying “Pastor, I can control however much I drink.” Later on, they are seized, not by alcohol but by the Devil. That’s why we cannot escape from any addiction.  Then, we leave this behind as inheritance to our future generations. It doesn’t just end with you. Fortune tellers receive possession of evil spirits, and a pivotal moment occurs when the demon says, “If I don’t possess you, I’ll possess your child.” But that’s a lie. The spirit will possess the child as well.

It means that because of Adam and Eve, there is a stream of original sin flowing through every family line, and your state is transmitted to your children through that same stream. This doesn’t disappear just because you move from Korea to America. If you move, the physical way you live might change, but the inside spirit is still directly relayed. It doesn’t matter even if you go to some remote island where no one else lives, it will follow you all the same. Ultimately, we die, we go to Hell, and we are trapped in the eternal flames. Every single human being is living within this stream, even though they pretend to laugh and have a good time. 

  2) Christ’s love

    (1) Death of one person, Death for all people, All died (2 Cor. 5:14)

However, 2 Cor. 5:14 says that it is through Christ’s death that he has died for all. I was supposed to die because of my sin, but God who has no sin died on the cross for me. 

  3) New creation

    (1) Righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21)

We who are sinners have been made into the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). Not the righteousness of mankind, but we must be righteous before God. As we live in this world, we compliment people saying “Oh, this person is so righteous and honorable,” but it’s all because they are helping me. However, from God’s perspective, the only people who are seen as righteous are those who have been liberated from the problems of sin, Satan, and hell through Christ.

    (2) Child of God (Jn. 1:12)

These people are the children of God in Jn. 1:12, and the children of God live their lives in God. That is the new creation. God has finished all the problems of our past, present, and future; He heals us and leads us forward. Our identity has changed. Now when we face a problem, God opens a path through that problem for us. When we face a crisis, God takes responsibility for that crisis and guides us through it. 

So being a child of God seems like a few, simple words, but everything that nonbelievers want is held with that. The happiness and success, the meaning of life that unbelievers want, everything is contained in the words of being a child of God as my identity. But we live without knowing that blessing. As evidence that you don’t enjoy these blessings, whenever you face a problem, you’re no longer a child of God. As soon as you hear someone’s criticism of you, hurting your pride, you stop being a child of God and go back to being a child of the Devil. You have to wait for God to move during those times.

    (3) Righteous – Live by faith (Rom. 1:17)

Rm. 1:17 says that a child of God, the righteous, live by faith. Therefore, our walk of faith can no longer work unless it is by faith. In the future, we’re gonna face the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolution, and if you don’t have the complete faith of being a child of God that God is guiding me, and taking complete responsibility over me, then you have no choice but to be afraid.

2. New background

Second, if you are in Christ, you have a new, changed background.  If you are a citizen of a nation, that means that nation is your background. For people who do not have the background of a nation, they must become their own background and it’s difficult for them. There are some refugees of North Korea and they have to live in China or Taiwan or Thailand. These people live however they like. These people will buy and sell women because they don’t have the protection of the nation. 

There are a lot of people from the Vietnam War who had to go to another country. These people are the same, but one thing is different: there is no country that will support them from behind, so they need to be their own background, so they have to live very harsh lives. If a Korean gang member meets a Vietnamese gang member, they have to tremble and shake, because there are no places for the Vietnamese gang members to go; they are their own background and they need to live for themselves. 

  1) Kingdom of God

If you have a nation, that means the nation is protecting you as your strength. Even if you fall into the ocean, the coast guard will come and save you. In the same way, a child who grows up without a parent has to become their own background. While we are living on this Earth, we have the tremendous background of Heaven; that is what it means to have the Triune God as your background. With that alone, your life is finished. If you think your life won’t work out with this alone, that means that person’s life won’t work out even if they go to heaven; that person doesn’t have answers. 

If you are not satisfied with God alone, you cannot have any answers. Nothing is impossible for God, but that individual says, “It’s not working,” then they have no answer. Then where do they have to go? They have to go to a place outside of God’s reign. There’s only one place for that, they have to go to Hell. However, even Hell is under God’s authority, so they are living their life without any answer. 

    (1) God the Father- Word

God is my background now. The Triune God–the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–is my background. Even now, God the Father is working with His Word. How do you know that God is alive? Is it through your thoughts, emotions, and feelings? Is it because you’ve been going to church for a long time, so we say, “We’re Christian and we’ve always believed it”? For people like that, if they meet people of another religion, they’re gonna shake, because other religions think their God is real too. What will you do then?  It is evidence that you’ve lived your walk of faith without any basis. God works through His Word, giving us His Word and fulfilling His Word. 

The basis of any other religion is just “live like this or live like that.” But God has given us thousands of prophecies in the Old Testament, and fulfilled nearly all of them. Even now, God is giving us His Word for our lives. God does the ministry of salvation to reveal His own glory.  Those people come to the church and give worship to God, and receive God’s glory. Missions, evangelism, and the ministry of salvation is the work God does to glorify himself. That is worship. 

Through worship, God gives us His Word. That Word becomes my path for the coming week. God fulfills my life according to that Word. How important is it for us to hold onto the correct Word? What do I mean by “correct word”?  Is there an incorrect Word? The legalistic Word that the Jews held onto was not fulfilled. They lived their walk of faith so diligently holding onto the scriptures, but those scriptures talked about Jesus Christ.  However, they took out Jesus Christ and only held onto the law. There are many people who are going to church and living their lives in this way, and that is why the Word is not fulfilled through them. 

    (2) God the Son – Salvation

God the Son, Jesus Christ, is still carrying out the ministry of salvation, even now. He has not just saved me, but He saved the generations before me and He is continuing to save the generations after me. 

    (3) Holy Spirit – Power

God the Holy Spirit is within me, teaching me and reminding me of His Word, but the most important thing is He gives me power. The Triune God is alive even now, doing these three works. So, everything is contained within the Word.  If the President signs a contract with the promise of his word, then that’s all the money you need, it’s everything.  The path we are walking in the future is based on the invisible Word God has given to us. 

  2) Prayer

What is prayer then? I hope you will completely erase your concept of prayer, because I think the idea of prayer you have is the act of praying. I’m pretty sure you have some kind of image of prayer, like praying with some cloak over your head or praying with beads or with a bowl of water. The Bible has never said that is prayer, those are just acts of prayer. 

    (1) What is necessary- Prayer

What is prayer? A child of God can pray to God about everything. It is about the content of your prayer. Do I need to pray out loud or silently, with my hands up, running around? The Bible never specifies that. It talks about the content and location of our prayer: go pray in the quietness of your room. Do not pray in front of other people to show off. We can pray about any content. For people like that, they can receive answers or they might not. They think they have no answers because what they are praying for isn’t given to them. 

    (2) God is with – Prayer

The reason God is not giving it to you is because you don’t need it. A parent doesn’t give everything that a child asks for. The parent not giving the child what they asked for is the answer.  Either way your prayer is getting answered. But there is a prayer that isn’t just praying about everything. Prayer is enjoying God being with me because God is with me in every step. You don’t pray for God to solve your problem, but you know God is leading you through your problem, because God is your master. That is prayer.

    (3) Pray with the Word (Jn. 15:7)

There is another prayer that is always receiving answers. Jn. 15:7 you can ask for anything in My name, and I will give it to you. It is praying with the Word of God. What is the idea of prayer you have in your brain? I think most people pray for the things they need or want; that is the first level of prayer, it’s pretty low level. Sometimes you don’t get an answer from God, and sometimes that is an answer: it means God isn’t giving it to you because you don’t need it. The Word of God is absolutely fulfilled, so if you pray with the Word of God, without a doubt you will receive answers. Which should you choose? Choose the prayer with God’s Word. 

If you’re praying with the Word and you still don’t receive answers, it means your faith is incorrect because God gives you the Word you need. If you are praying holding onto that Word, you are bound to receive answers. Prayer is not about “If you pray about this, you’ll receive answers.” That is a low level, beginner prayer. They say, “If you go to a prayer temple to pray you’ll receive answers.” That person is just going up to the prayer temple because they don’t have anything to do; what if they have to work tomorrow? These people don’t have anything to do. 

Of course, we might set a time where we go up there to concentrate, but you can pray anywhere. You can pray right now, because holding onto the Word and praying will make you receive answers. There are so many words in the Bible, then what is the Word of God we must hold onto?  There is not a single person who tells a joke and passes away. Right before they pass, they say the most important and meaningful words. Socrates would say renowned words, “Do not deceive yourself, pay back my debts for me,” but the Lord Jesus Christ said words before he left. 

    (4) Healing and summit of disciples of all nations, all people (Mt. 28:19, Mk. 16:17-18, Jn. 21:15-18, Ac. 1:8)

Jesus Christ said a lot of things in his life, but He left behind very important words before He ascended to heaven. These words of the Lord are recorded in the four gospels. The words he said right before He ascended into heaven. Ultimately, everything Jesus Christ said to his disciples over the course of three years was to relay these last words. Isn’t that right?  Right before your parents pass away, everything they said to you in life was meant for these final words. Mt. 28:19-20 make disciples of all nations. I believe God’s answers will appear for those people who hold onto these words and pray.

Mk. 16:17 says to go to all nations and proclaim the gospel, and you will heal diseases. In Luke, it says to not leave this city of Jerusalem but to remain until they receive the filling of the Holy Spirit. In John 21:15-18, Jesus says, “feed my lambs.” Feed the next generations and new believers. These are the final words Jesus said in the gospels. The words in the beginning were very important, but they were all spoken so that He could give these final words. If you hold onto these words in prayer, God is bound to give you His answer according to His Word. 

  3) Transcend time and space

    (1) Christ worked with them (Mk. 16:20)

The way these words come to you is by transcending time and space. Mk. 16:20 says that when the disciples went out and preached everywhere, the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it. This is before the filling of the Holy Spirit, yet the Lord Who was sitting at the right hand of the throne of Heaven worked with them, confirming His Word with signs. God works, transcending time and space. 

    (2) Angels – Answer (Rev. 8:3-5)

Rev. 8:3-5, what do you think happens when you pray? How do answers come when you pray?  How does God hear me and answer when I just think things and feel them in my heart? Rev. 8 says that the angels are taking our prayers up to the throne of God. God answers us from the throne of Heaven. The angels of the Lord answer us, Heb. 1:14 says angels are ministering spirits sent out for those who are to inherit salvation. That is why when you pray, God answers by mobilizing His angels, transcending time and space. 

    (3) Angels – Messenger (Ac. 27:23-24)

When you pray, you need to know the process, even though it’s invisible to your eyes, in order to know the meaning of prayer. In Acts 27, Paul was met with a great storm and he prayed, so the Lord sent an angel to deliver His message. That is what it means for God to give His answers transcending time and space. 

The problem is that our thoughts are contained within time and space. That’s why we don’t want to pray, because we don’t know what prayer is. I’m praying right here at this place, but God is sending His angels to answer my prayers, far off in Africa. You need to know the spiritual world, transcending time and space in order for you to pray, and I hope this will be a time of prayer for you, then the answers are already there, wherever you go.  The timing is in God’s hands.  

Without a doubt if you hold onto the Word of God and pray, you’ll receive answers eventually. You have to know that meaning of prayer in order to feel the joy and excitement of prayer. But if you don’t know the meaning of prayer, you think “How long do I have to pray for?” So most people don’t because they don’t know what prayer is.  They think, “I’m sure God knows already” and you don’t pray. Of course God knows, He is omniscient, but there’s a difference between God knowing and you praying. 

Through our prayers, God works and answers us through our prayers, why? That is how you know the name of God. Otherwise, whenever God works, you’ll think you did it yourself. People have no choice, because we’re so arrogant we think we do everything ourselves. If a person succeeds, they are under a misconception, thinking it’s because they’re so much better than everyone else.  We can only think to this extent, but in order for that work to take place, there was a background and circumstances and meetings that took place. They don’t think about that.

For example, what if you were born in an impoverished country? You wouldn’t be able to study even if you wanted to. All these circumstances had to support you for you to succeed, but you’re so stuck in yourself that you think you did everything well by yourself. Even if you had gotten sick once, you wouldn’t have continued your studies.  May you escape from yourself.

3. New position

  1) All things are from God (2 Cor. 5:18), Not for me, a life for Christ, Reconciled to God

Now we have a new position. You cannot buy this with money or your background; God has to give this to us. 2 Cor. 5:18 says that all this is from God. Recognizing this is the beginning of living in the world. If you don’t acknowledge this and you study the world, that is an incorrect study. Every single thing has been given to you from God. 

Therefore, 2 Cor. 5:15 “we are no longer living for ourselves, because I have been crucified on the cross, I’ve escaped from myself and there is no need for me to live for myself. Now in 2 Cor 5:18, it says we have a new role of reconciling with God. If there are nations that have an alliance with the US, the US will supply it with knowledge and resources. That is just the history of the world. There is not a single country that continues to exist while opposing a superpower nation. 

During the age of Rome, you had to submit to Rome entirely in order for Rome to protect and support you. Even if you didn’t want to surrender, you had no other choice. That is the method that God is using to move the physical world. He makes one nation very powerful and moves the entire physical world, centered on that superpower nation. Because we are in a position of reconciliation with God, I hope you will believe that everything is for God. That will come to us through God’s Word. If you don’t receive His Word, that means you are blocked from God. You are supposed to receive the Word of God, but you don’t know you’re supposed to. 

  2) Christ’s ambassador (2 Cor. 5:20) – Main job

2 Cor. 5:20 says that we are now Christ’s ambassadors. Only a very select few people in the world can be ambassadors. America only sends one ambassador to Korea. You don’t go there just because you have skill; the president has to appoint you to go because there’s only one per nation. However, we’ve been sent into the world as ambassadors of Christ. If you don’t have pride regarding this, you have to struggle, living your life for something else. If you’re not moved and inspired by this, you have to try really hard to be inspired by the visible things of earth. 

    (1) Reconcile the world to God (2 Cor. 5:19)

God has commissioned us out into the world so He can do His work through us. 2 Cor. 5:19 says God has committed to us the message of reconciliation. God does not do this directly, but He requests us to do it on His behalf.  Why would he do that instead of doing it directly? We have the Olympics this year. There’s soccer, and let’s say the team takes the ball all the way to the goal. All you have to do is kick the ball into the goal, and I kick the ball into the goal, but everyone else helped to steal the ball from the opponents and set up the ball in front of the goal for you.  That’s the work of the ambassador.

God has created everything; all you have to do is relay the word. Can you not even do that?  “I have created and moved everything so you can do this.” God is doing that so that He can force us to have a lot of blessings and grace. But there are people who say “I can do everything except this.” So they only relay their own unnecessary words. They themselves don’t even have the answer to their lives, but they relay all these ideologies.  They themselves don’t have the answers; why would you talk so much if you don’t even have an answer yourself?  

Without an answer, you’re teaching your kids, and you raise kids who have no answers.  You have to have an answer in your personal life. “No matter where I am, I’m okay. No matter what happens, I’m okay. Why? Because I have God’s background, because I have a position that God has given to me.” The parent who has that answer needs to relay this to their children, but the parents don’t have the answer, they don’t teach the answer. But they speak so many words, but all their words don’t have the answer. 

    (2) Committed the message (2 Cor. 5:19), Proclaim the works of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20)

Simply put, you’re gonna talk about all the physical things they need in the world. This is the Word that God has committed to us: to relay the work that Christ has done. He has committed the message of reconciliation to us because this world is an enemy to God. 

  3) Works of the world (Job, studies) – Side job

Then what is the work in the world? That is our minor or secondary job. Then what is our first job? In the kingdom of God, there is no unemployment. Every child of God has a job. That is the highest level of job: an ambassador of Christ. As you are doing this work, God is supporting you with everything in Heaven. Let’s say your job has changed; instead of being an ambassador of Christ, you’re only thinking about your worldly job and that’s why you’re suffering like a dog because you don’t know who you are. You have this incredible position but you’re throwing it away. 

    (1) Talent- Only

God gives a talent to every individual. Why? Because you must have talents for the world to function, do you understand?  We talked about the microphone last week: if everyone is a pastor, who would make these microphones? If everyone wanted to be the president, who would make the microphones?  God gave talents to create microphone parts and makes the microphone happen, but no one wants to do this job, because it’s low level. That’s why we suffer. 

  (2) Specialty – Uniqueness

God has made this work so we can be Christ’s ambassadors there. But if you do a haphazard job of manufacturing, you can’t compete.  God gives us the answer of specialization so we can make this answer the best. So we can make the best things and do the work of Christ. But kids don’t want to do this work, everyone just wants to become the president; everyone just wants to become a doctor or a judge. If everyone becomes a judge, who would be the criminal? You need criminals for the judge to have a job. They are thinking thoughts that are not aligned with God.  If you don’t have a job, go to the very lowest level and aim for the highest place, that is where God works. Even to become a pastor, it’s very difficult to graduate from a seminary and be at the bottom.  

We have to save the world but we can’t do that at all? God makes it so that even a pastor needs to start at the lowest level and climb their way up. God’s method and direction is for you to start at the lowest place, the rock bottom, and go to the highest place. 

    (3) Established in the field – Recreation

The work we are doing has to be connected with our field. If you have your own great skill but it’s not aligned with your work or field at all, that won’t make any money. God doesn’t work like that. We need to save the people in our field, so our work has to be aligned with our field. This is what God has prepared for us.  God already knows about the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions, and He has called you as ambassadors of Christ, so in order for you to do that, God gives us jobs. 

Conclusion – With God, with us, with all our work

So in conclusion, I hope you will enjoy through prayer that God is with me, with us, and in all of our work. Enjoy this and He will fulfill it.

Prayer

Let us pray holding onto the Word we have received.