Restore Worship to be Aligned with God’s Accurate Covenant for Canaan Conquest (Numbers 28:1-15)
We will share the grace of God today with Numbers 28. The beginning of Numbers 28 takes place after 40 years of wandering around in the wilderness, when most of the first generation of the Israelites had passed away, including Aaron, and Moses had passed over into the next generation, Joshua. The reason God is giving us this Word is not just because of the land of Canaan, but because of the essence of what God is trying to tell us through the covenant.
The land of Canaan is a place where 7 different nations and 31 kings are not only residing, but they are actively trying to destroy the Israelites. If the Israelites coexist with these people, it means the Israelites will go into their culture, and in Numbers 28, God is showing us the way of conquering those people instead of going into their culture.
That content is in Numbers 28:1-8 where it talks about the offerings they must give to God every day. Numbers 28:2, “an offering made by fire.” Numbers 28:3 gives the condition, “It must be an offering made by fire twice everyday, a two lambs a year old, without defect.” Why did they have to do this every day? It’s so burdensome, but this is the only way to conquer Canaan.
Why do you think God tells us to worship? That’s the only way to not be enslaved by the world and the devil, and to conquer. They’re supposed to sacrifice two lambs, and Numbers 28:4 says one is sacrificed in the morning and the second at twilight. This burnt offering becomes the sin offering, because these two lambs a year old without any defect must be completely burnt up after the sin has been transferred onto it. They do this every morning and at twilight.
Our thoughts aren’t aligned with this, then do you think we should follow our thoughts or go according to God’s Word? It is the true blessing and grace to resolve in my heart to follow after God’s thoughts. But if you don’t know why you have to do that, then you’re outside of the blessings.
“Why does this feel so burdensome in my thoughts?” It’s burdensome because you think you can live on this world on your own without worship. Doing this every morning and twilight seems so burdensome because you think you can live on your own in this world. They lived according to the thoughts from being enslaved to Egypt for 430 years. And they only escaped when they applied the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorposts, then the liberated people of God must give this sacrifice to God every morning and twilight, and each individual must give this sacrifice again whenever they sin.
What is this talking about? It means every morning and night, you have to have worship where you remember Jesus Christ on the cross. You die on the cross and ask the Lord to live within you instead. Shouldn’t we just do this one time, then? God told you to do it twice a day, why do you have to do it twice? Once when you begin the day in the morning, and during biblical times, they didn’t have electricity, so when the sunset they have to go to sleep, so, before they go to sleep. They do this every day. That means, every day you must remember the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross. Begin every day with that. Then, the One Who lives inside of me is bound to give me His Word, so love according to that word. That is the only way to conquer Canaan. Otherwise you won’t conquer Canaan, and you’ll be enslaved instead.
The reason people go to church while they’re still enslaved is because they don’t understand this meaning. They think about doing things easily, that’s life in Egypt, and God gave this to us so we don’t have to go back to Egypt again, until you understand, why does he say it again? Because, now that the next generation is here, we have to re-educate them. God already said this before but all those people already died.
Now, the next generation has to prepare to conquer Canaan, and God never told them to prepare weapons. Completely change their nature. We think we can gather our strength to do this, and gathering your strength is nothing bad, but the Bible never talks about that. God promised to give you that strength. You need to receive that strength every morning and at twilight. This is not something you can do. All the nations of Canaan thought they could do something by themselves. That’s the characteristic of people who are not children of God, those who worship idols.
Religion and idols means giving offerings for their own benefit. However, the LORD God is the One Who led you out of slavery in Egypt. Remember that. You’re not yourselves, but you’re actually slaves of Egypt and you have to remember Who the LORD is, every morning and night. That’s worship. Do you think that God is telling you to give offering morning and night because He likes the taste of blood? That’s such a waste of money. God is telling us that we are those who live according to God’s will.
So every morning, before you begin the day, remember, the burnt sacrifice is talking about Jesus Christ dying on the cross. Because this one time sacrifice was eternal, we don’t have to slaughter sheep, but we always have to remember the covenant of Jesus Christ every single day. That’s why God gives us His Word and we begin the day with that strength.
Then what happens when you go out into the field? Remember that covenant, God is going to guide you. That’s continuation of prayer, 24 hour prayer. When a lot of circumstances and incidents come your way, change it into prayer because God is guiding you. Then, at night, after everything in the day has passed, hold onto the covenant again and pray. That’s the God-given method to save the American field and the 237 nations.
Simply put, it’s getting rid of ourselves; we don’t need ourselves, and God wants us to confirm that we don’t need ourselves. If you say you’re going to do something, you cannot conquer it. That’s how everybody who was enslaved by Egypt would die in the wilderness over 40 years. God has given us the covenant, so we must remember that covenant.
Numbers 28:5 says, “together with a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed,” this is talking about the food as well as the thanksgiving offering. Every morning and evening, when you give your burnt offering, you’re also giving the thanksgiving offering. In other words, be thankful for God giving you the day and for salvation.
Why are you not thankful? Because something is stolen from you. As you are thinking of the covenant of the blood, remember you’re a saved person of God’s Kingdom. Remember that morning and night in thanksgiving in the evening, remember that God led you throughout the day and have thanksgiving. The mystery to health, the way to overcome your cancer is all contained in here. The Bible doesn’t talk about exercise because they had to walk everywhere, and that’s rightful, but be thankful every day.
Thankfulness is the way to overcome all evil. Knowing who I am to conquer Canaan is the way to win. No matter what anyone says to me, be thankful to God, because their words do not win; thanksgiving will win. If someone treats you unfairly, simply listen to them unfairly. The person who is attacking you may win in the moment, but in the end, the one who is thankful will win.
Everybody speaks according to their perspective. Let’s say, for example, I was starving for three days. My pride is so strong that I’ll never tell anyone that I was starving, but let’s say someone keeps telling me about the food they had today. That person is just making a natural conversation, but from the perspective of someone starving for three days, I would feel offended and scarred. The one who feels scarred would say, “This person is looking down on me.” Don’t you think that’s how this person would feel? But that’s not the intention of the other person.
If you listen to people’s words, you can’t live life, so just disregard it; only listen to God’s Word. Our entire lives are spent without God’s Word, listening to the word of people, arguing whether it’s right or wrong, or if it makes me feel good or bad; it’s our own thoughts and we’re influenced by it. We meet all sorts of people every day, and all sorts of things happen to us every day. But if you listen to them carefully, that’s a big problem. Only hold onto God’s covenant because only God’s covenant is fulfilled.
People may speak to you so earnestly and that’s just their predicament, but hold onto God’s Word. But if you look at those people, they are not earnest during worship. They speak so earnestly when they speak about something else, there are some people who fall asleep during worship, but when they talk about politics, their eyes light up like a fire. They are so passionate by themselves. That’s them living their own lives; why would you be influenced by that? Let that person live like that, but you hold onto the Word firmly.
Let’s say you’re accidentally influenced by them? Then come back in the evenejong and hold onto the covenant again, and be thankful that you’re not falling under that person’s influence. Be thankful for the fact that you almost lived like that other person, but you’re not, then pray for them. Because God already knew everything that would be contained in our day, God is telling us to hold onto the covenant and pray with thanksgiving every morning and night.
If you’re disregarding other people’s words, it’s not that you’re looking down on them, it’s because you’re holding onto God’s covenant instead. “Why should my life be dragged into your earnest words? My life is going to go into God’s earnest words,” but people who have a sense of conscience will be dragged by people’s words. “Oh, but still,” there is no “but still,” only hold onto God’s word, that is the way to conquer Canaan. You should know all of this every day and pray every morning and night, holding onto the burnt, grain or thanksgiving offering.
Numbers 28:7 talks about the accompanying drink offering, which is a fermented drink, and in the New Testament, Paul talks about himself as being poured out as a drink offering. The accompanying drink offering is to be given to the LORD with each lamb in the morning and twilight, so every morning and night give these three offerings to the LORD.
What does this mean? Why did Paul use the expression, “poured out as a drink offering”? It means he is giving his life, simply put, “I will give my life and sacrifice and devote it to the Lord.” Then, every day, all our studies and business are given as a drink offering to the Lord. You’re completely sacrificing yourself to God.
Paul uses the term, “poured out as a drink offering” as he was facing death. This is how God is telling us to conquer Canaan. The Old Testament and New Testament are the same. In the New Testament, we have the sacrifice of Jesus Christ once and for all, so we don’t have to slaughter lambs anymore, however, the principle of remembering this worship morning and night is the same.
The Early Church met every day, but today, it’s hard to meet every day. So, you individually can worship every day. There’s Early Morning prayer and the Wednesday and Friday night worships because it’s hard to gather everyday. Even if you can’t come to church every early morning, you should at least have this prayer and worship time alone, but it’s almost impossible to do it alone because when you’re alone, you’ll keep wanting to go back to sleep.
I was doing ministry at Seoul University, and there was a characteristic I observed, it’s a campus where the Navigator Christian group is the most developed, and the Navigator Christian group is very legalistic, and they emphasize lifestyle a lot. If you go into the school cafeteria in the morning, the male Navigator students will be meeting on one side of the cafeteria, and the females will be meeting on the other side in the morning.
The reason they’re doing so well at Seoul National University is because it fits so well with the nature of the students. These students are so used to waking up early, and having some kind of order and system in order to study well and get into Seoul National University, so their nature is perfectly fitting with the Navigator’s group.
I evangelized to a few of the students, and among them, there was a female student. I told her about what happens in my daily life. Starting from that day on, she woke up the next day at 4 a.m and started walking around the elementary schools, and that’s the kind of people they are. I’m telling you that, even if they don’t have the gospel, there are many people who can be successful and thrive just based on their structure. So if you take out the gospel and hit these kids with law, they love it so much when you talk about lifestyle. You keep telling them to do something, and they’re so good at doing things.
There was one student who graduated from high school and got into Seoul University, and I said let’s meet once a week, and he gave me his lunch schedule for the entire semester. We usually leave our lunch hours free, but from the moment his semester began, there wasn’t a single free lunch hour for me to meet with him. There was another medical student I wanted to meet over their vacation, but by that time their holiday was already all booked. And I said, “What are you so busy with?” they have their entire day scheduled, from the morning, they go swimming, etc. Even though they had received the gospel, there was no space for the gospel to go into their life. They’ve done everything with their diligence. That’s what everybody in the world learns from. The world teaches that you have to wake up early in the morning to do this in order to succeed, but God doesn’t say that, and that’s why people succeed and then fall. They don’t understand what worship is.
They live with their diligence and the structure of their life, but that is the life of the land of Canaan. But God never says that. Yes, our structure is structure, but it’s about the morning and evening. God doesn’t tell us with disorder, he’s told us specifically morning and twilight. It’s so annoying, why does he say “in the morning and at twilight”? In the morning you open your eyes and at night you close your eyes, that’s our entire and we worry about our life, and people commit suicide because the problems of their lives are heavy burdens, and thats’ why the morning and night are our entire lives. Hold onto God’s covenant, be thankful, and give your life to God. That’s something that goes way beyond what the world says.
God told us to do this every day. Then, many things are contained within this. We’re not even doing anything, God says, “I will be with you,” so you don’t have to argue about your thoughts. “I will be with you,” and God will do His work. But if you don’t do this, then you keep popping back up, your diligence keeps popping back up and you keep living by the methods people talk about. That’s why, later on, you become a slave, a slave to Satan.
That’s why conquering Canaan is not about your diligence, but God is just telling you to do this. There’s not a single thing about the Israelite people here. God is saying, “Remove your strength; this is not done by your strength.” Everyone forces their eyes to be concentrated trying to accomplish something, and God is saying, “Lower your eyes.” It’s not the nature you’ve learned from the world, but it’s about the covenant God is doing.
Thanksgiving. Do you have anything to be thankful for? We need to be thankful for the fact that we have salvation and God is with us. As we live our lives, this doesn’t take place, so at the end of the day, as we hold onto the covenant and pray, be thankful for how God has led you. Then, as you live your day, it’s not just normal, but you give your entire life as a drink offering. You’re not just living your life, but you’re staking your life. This is the method with which we must live our lives every day, the eod God gave to the Israelites to conquer Canaan, and the word God is giving us today for world evangelization.
Numbers 28:9 talks about what we must do on the Sabbath, in other words, the LORD’s day. “Oh the Sabbath day, make an offering of two lambs a year old without defect, together with its drink offering,” it’s the same offering given again, so God is saying, “Do what you do every single day, and plus on the Sabbath, do this in addition.” On Sunday, a long time ago in Korea, they would have Early Morning service and also a Sunday evening service. So, all the members of the church would give worship in the morning, they would go home for lunch, and then regather for evening service. They didn’t do that for no reason, but they worshiped this way with a biblical basis. Then, the Sabbath day is a day where everybody should quit work. It’s a day where you completely receive strength and rest.
In the morning, by yourself, hold to the covenant and restore worship, then come out to worship. Once you’re at church, if you’re serving in anything, stake your life and do it as if it’s your own work. There are areas of these that will only take place according to God’s time schedule once He gives you grace. I said this a few times earlier, but there are people who work very diligently for the world. But when it comes to their work in the church, they think, “Isn’t church a place where I should rest comfortably and leave?” That’s right. But the world is also a place where you should be comfortable, but why are you working so diligently there?
For example, let’s say I’m a shoemaker, then if I’m not working, someone else cannot buy shoes. But if everybody comes to church and is just relaxing and staying still, who would give the message if everyone thought that way? If the interpreter also said, “Let’s sit still and just listen to the message,” that’s not right. In order for worship to take place, there are a lot of services that must take place, and these are the works of God.
When you receive God’s grace, you’re able to see what role you need to play within the body of Christ. Then, do you think the work you do in the church is the work of the Lord and the work you do on the world is your own work? No, that’s not true; the work you do inside and outside the church belongs to the Lord. Otherwise, you’re saying that God only works inside the church and not out in the world, but that’s not true; it’s all the Lord’s work. The Lord is working through me, inside and outside of the church. That’s why we give our lives as a drink offering.
Why are you so tested? You’re only tested because you’re working with your motivations, that’s in James. He had his own motives and was therefore caught in it, but if you do everything with no motive, then you should only be thankful. But if there’s something you’re seeking when you do something and you don’t get what you expected, you’ll be disappointed, then you’ll lose hold of many blessings.
You need to do in the church by God’s grace and you need to do your work in the world by God’s grace, isn’t that right? Otherwise the work in the world will be hard, and the work in the church will be so hard you won’t be able to take it. God is doing it by God’s grace, and that’s why we pray. “Let’s do it with my strength,” then what are you going to do if you don’t have strength or if your conditions are bad? But people are so afraid of that happening that they try to do nothing then they have little grace because there’s no reason for God to give them grace. Why would God give you grace if you’re not doing His work? I’m not talking about the grace of salvation here, everybody in the world living in a community operates by influencing others, and they give me influence, too. Same with the family. If the father is not playing the role he must play, then everybody would die.
If the mother doesn’t do any of the motherly roles and says, “Have your father do everything,” then everything would be hard as well. It’s the same as your studies, you have to study with God’s grace because this is God’s work, but if you think it’s your own work then you have to do it with your own diligence, then people who are naturally hardworking will do better, and those who are not will fall behind.
Then, life is just the same; it’s the same as giving messages. I said in the previous week if I have multiple messages to give it’s a burden, and this is a burden most people have. But it’s as if I have an option to not to give the messages, either, because I’m a pastor and there’s only one person giving the message. Let’s say for example, even if there are two or three people giving the message, I receive that I don’t want to do it, but for sure, I had to give all four messages that day.
When I give the message, it’s not just theory I researched, you have to give the message God’ desires. Imagine how burdensome that is? At that time, I do it with God’s grace. Then, the only reason things are hard is because you have a thought that you’re going to do it all for yourself. But even if you change your beginning position to, “God is going to do this and God will give me the grace to do this,” then you will change.
Isn’t it right that everything a child of God touches is God’s word? So students, you must also study in school, too. Students who work so diligently, listen to their testimonies, they don’t glorify God, but they brag about themselves. People like that who work so diligently will start crying blood when they see other people slacking off. They don’t understand God’s grace.
Philippians 3 tells us to serve by God’s grace, we are doing the Lord’s work by God’s grace. If there’s big work, we can only do it by God’s great grace. When we’re told to challenge, it means to challenge in prayer. Then, how else would we do evangelism? Are we going to bribe or threaten them? God must give His grace and God must align His time schedule. It must be more than that, I am praying for that purpose. But if you know about prayer as asking for things, then you cannot learn the real prayer. There’s nothing for you to ask for, because God Has already given you everything.
That’s the Sabbath day offering, and then once every month, on the first of every month. In Korea, there is a monthly worship. A long time ago, I went with the assistant pastor into a clothing factory downtown and they talked about a monthly worship, and I didn’t know what it meant. I thought it was a fascinating worship. Inside, I was thinking, “Why do we do all these weird things instead of only evangelizing? But it turns out, it wasn’t baseless, but there was a biblical basis. So, you worship every day and then worship on Sunday. That’s not enough, but as you begin every month, again. It’s exhausting isn’t it how burdensome is that , if you do things legalistically, it’s a burden. But if you understand, God will give you His grace, you’ll understand the reason why you must do this.
“Wow, even if I worship every single day,” whenever it becomes a new month we have to do it again, and just with this alone, you can conquer Canaan. So, in other words, if you’re not able to come to Canaan and you’re enslaved itself, it’s means you aren’t doing this and as much as you don’t do this, the more you’re bound to live according to your thoughts cannot conquer Canaan.
There’s not a single person in the world who will align themselves to you. If you give them enough money, they may pretend to be aligned with you, but later on, you’ll see none of them are like you, and you say, “I lived my life incorrectly,” and it’s true that you did. If the owner of a company asked every employee to adjust their lives with Tim. Then they are living their lives incorrectly. Everyone is different and true leadership is being able to gather all the diversity to create one goal, so if God wants one person to lead the world, they need to have the vessel to do so.
If you want people to adjust themselves to you, there’s not a single person in the world who will. People try to marry other people if they think they’re fit, but no one will fit with you. They only pretend to fit with you because they want to marry you, but later on, it turns out they’re not fitting with me at all, and its’ biblical that they do not fit with you. If they’re exactly the same as me, why would God have created two of us instead of just one? That’s why every single month, on the first day, do this again. Starting from Numbers 26:16, it says, every year, every year in the Passover, and every year for one week. God is telling them how to conquer Canaan with His Word in advance.
The Passover is telling the Israelites to remember when they were completely liberated from Egypt for a whole week. As you all eat bread without yeast, you explain the Word of God to the next generations who weren’t able to experience it firsthand. In order for you to explain God’s Word to the next generation, you have to have something with which to explain. After the first generation passed away, God is explaining them the same thing a second time for the next generations. So, according to Rev. Ryu, I just died after giving worship. It’s only hard for us, because we don’t do worship, but we pray to do worship as much as possible.
We force ourselves to worship, to try and adjust, but that’s why our life is so hard. If these words of God did not go into you as the covenant but instead they went in as the law, then you’ll oppress yourself, thinking, “Oh I’m in a certain position in the church, and in order for anyone to respect what I say, I have to worship,” then you’re a slave.
Let’s organize the Word, how do we conquer Canaan? What should we do, should we gather strength? God will do it, so every morning and night, take strength away from yourself and others. Thanksgiving is the way for you to maintain your health. Yes, it is possible we may get a disease and do world evangelization through that, but that’s not the only method; otherwise, everyone would get cancer.
You can look at all the people ahead of you and do world evangelization through them, so be thankful, have thanksgiving every day. Don’t be so calculative with your life, but give your entire life as a drink offering to God. That’s what I keep telling the remnants, “When you grow up and go into a company, don’t do what everyone else is doing. It’s not going to work. You keep talking about your coworkers behind their backs, those people are already failures. Or if you’re doing a business and you’re trying to sell a little bit but you get a lot of profit out of it, then you’re already a loser.” God is the One Who will give you blessings and harm. The successes and failures of life are in God’s hands.
Do you think if you pull harder, you’ll get more? I’m sorry but that’s not how life works, the Bible tells you to give more, the Bible never tells you to make it a switch, but what happens when your life is not aligned with the word? But if you don’t teach this to the remnants, they’re going to follow after the only thing they’ve seen and heard, they have learned how to use their brains, and the more they calculate like that, it seems as if it is working out. But? But that’s what foolish people do, foolish people will use their brains. Even if you look at unbeliever heroes, they don’t use their brains. Look at Gneghis Khan.
I was reading a book about Genghis Khan and he is someone who acknowledges that there’s a higher entity like a god who is controlling the war, so he would pray each time. He didn’t trust himself, so that means all the famous scholars and philosophers keep them as reference but it’s not as important. As he’s ruling over, why do you think there were no smart people underneath him? He was saying, “Ultimately God decides,” and that’s how he conquered the world.
Even the greatest heroes of nonbelievers are like this. Why would you use your brain? Our brain is only focused on pulling things towards myself and for my benefit. The reason why it’s impossible for you to spend this time in the morning to remember God’s covenant is because you have an incorrect calculator in your brain that doing this will be a disadvantage to you, and you have to change that into God’s calculator.
Stop holding onto the incorrect calculator, but instead, live your life according to the biblical accurate calculator, if we stay still with this, then all the things of the world are relayed to the next generations, and whether the parents like it or not, the kids are learning, and even the pastors are using their own brain to give their sermons and the congregation members see that,
if you use your brain then people who are empty-minded will follow, but those who are really smart will not follow. They’re going to say things like “Why should I be dragged around in my life with your limited IQ?” Only the empty minded people will follow in and play along. So, this is not something you can use your brain for. Within God’s grace and work is the mystery to overcome everything in the world.
You live your life centered on yourself, so you’re always grumbling and complaining, but if you live your life centered on the covenant of God then you will only be thankful. Therefore, give your life to the Lord. “Do I have to work hard?” Go beyond that and live your life entirely. Then it’s much better because God’s grace but hold onto it. God never told the Israelites to grind their weapons sharper, or to get stronger, whenever they were going into war. That’s what the stupid people of the world do. God told them to follow after the covenant.
This is very important content, but if the parents close their eyes to this, then the children will be completely blind, but the parents who close their eyes think they’re on the right. but the result will be slaver. That’s why God’s grace is extremely important. It’s not telling you to gather your strength, every morning or night but everybody is so diligently packing their meals, and everybody is so diligently to find one, but you need to go to work like that in the morning and night. As you’re doing this, I believe you will continue to receive work of answers and conquering meaning the kingdom of Satan is broken and the Kingdom of God is established.
Prayer
Let us pray at this time holding onto the Word God has given us.
The second prayer topic: this Sunday is Thanksgiving Sunday. Biblically speaking, this is the first harvest where we gather, biblically speaking, it is the Ingathering. So even though thanksgiving is an American holiday, we are keeping it in the biblical meaning. It is a time for us to reflect upon and be thankful about the way God has guided us according to his covenant throughout the year. It will also be a worship where we have communion. Let’s pray together especially for the multiethnics and remnants who were baptized this week.
Third, let’s pray for the Remnant Conference of America. Prayer is not just some form, if it were just a form, then our worship today is also a form. Why must we pray for RCA? Because in the next generation, you won’t be on this earth, isn’t that right? The reason we pray for RCA is so this covenant will be relayed even when I’m not on this earth. It’s the same as if this covenant exists only in this age, just like it only existed in Joseph’s age, the next age, we’ll be slaves. Either way, it doesn’t matter if it’s your child or my child; we all have to arise in order to live, so let us pray together at this time for RCA.
May you and I have victory over the remaining three days this week.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unlimited love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the people of God who desire to go, holding onto the covenant of God, worshiping every morning and night, upon the multiethnics, remnants, and businesspeople, upon their businesses, studies, and ministries, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.