Sabbath that Rests from One’s Work (Matthew 11:28-29)
I’m going to give my personal testimony for the remnants, so we’re going to be talking about work, rest, and Sabbath, yes. The first thing I want to talk to the remnants about is work.
1.Work
-School
-Job
-Homework
Right now, all the remnants are in school so there’s school work. I’m sure there’s a lot on your mind, there’s tests, and there’s homework, and there’s projects, and once you graduate from middle school or high school, then you go to college then you have your job, so you’ll have your job work. I don’t know if you have chores right now, but it turns out, when you guys get older, 90% of an adult’s life is just doing chores. I don’t know if your parents complain about laundry and dishes, but the reason why they complain about it is because it’s never ending, there’s always more.
This is the work everyone spends their entire lives doing until they die, and did you guys know that almost everything in your house needs to be replaced? And it takes appointments and it takes so much work, you’re always running on this hamster wheel.
Survive
Fear- $
Everyone does this work so that they can survive, no one is thriving in life, they’re barely making a living, maintaining their house and what they have to do. Everybody goes to bed exhausted and hates waking up in the morning because everyone wants to survive out of their fear, and because everyone is just working, working, working all their life because of their fear of death, they start relying on things, “If I have more money, I will get rid of my fear.” So, people go crazy to make money, and that’s why money can be one of the scariest things in the world, because people will kill for money. It’s very true, all around the world, you see things that make money and a lot of it is because many people had to give their lives in another country. Our clothes and phones cost money and those who have money are able to kill other people. Everybody makes their decision not based on what will benefit mankind, but what will benefit their company.
$ -> Contact-free AI,
Lately, I have been watching YouTube videos about Elon Musk, and Elon Musk is terrified of AI. Yes, he made Tesla and he’s sending rockets to space through SpaceX, but he’s terrified of AI. He tried to convince people to slow down AI but nobody is listening because AI makes money. My company, Honeywell, is also a pioneer in AI and contact-free technology, and with this AI and contact-free things, people will lose their jobs and they are going to lose face-to-face interactions.
And because of that, you can probably assume the mental problems that come from that like depression and anxiety and loneliness, so much loneliness, all of that makes this fear even worse, and so in order to get rid of all this fear and mental problems, people fall into physical problems. So, that’s why a lot of people get addicted to their phones and video games because it gets rid of their fears for a short time. That’s why some people even get addicted to alcohol and drugs because for a brief moment of time, it gets rid of their fear. You think this is a thing that’s common for young people, but it gets worse and worse and worse as you get older, because there’s more stress and more fear.
Girlfriend, Boyfriend—-> Mental problems—-> Physical Problems
As these people who have this loneliness and depression and fear fall into addictions and have families, imagine how much worse it is for kids growing up with addicted parents? This is the work of the world, everybody works every day of their life because of their fear, and their fear results in more problems. Some people are afraid of being alone, so they try to get a girlfriend or boyfriend, but having this will lead to more mental problems, physical problems, and ultimately death.
-> Death
Why? Because this is the world that does not have life. Because they have spiritual death, they have fear, and it’s going to get very intense. People are going to be controlled by this. This is what we must leave, if you don’t leave right now, you’ll get sucked into it because it gets very scary. In order to survive, you have to do drugs, you have to drink alcohol. God is saying, we must leave this work.
That’s what He told Abraham to do, “Leave your father and your father’s household.” and that’s the same thing he said to Elisha. Elisha burned everything he had and left his family. All the remnants in the Bible, David, Samuel, and Daniel left the worldly work behind. But here’s the thing: in order to leave everything behind that you know and work for, you need spiritual strength.
If you don’t have spiritual strength, you can’t leave this. If you leave your work, you think you’re going to die because, think about it, the reason everyone works so hard in school and on YouTube is because they’re afraid of what will happen if they don’t work hard. If you don’t have spiritual strength, you can never stop doing this work because of your fear of death.
Spiritual Strength – Word + Prayer
So, how can we get spiritual strength? This comes from the Word of God and prayer. There’s no other way, because, what’s the Word of God all about? The Word of God is all about Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ
As you read every part of the bible, if it doesn’t point you back to Jesus Christ, read it again. If you’re thinking and it doesn’t lead you back to Jesus Christ, think again. For example, I love Senior Deaconess Jo but lately, I’m so scared to see her because I keep promising to do something for her, and it’s been three months and I still haven’t done it. Ask my sister, sometimes I just scream from my room because I remember it, I’m just like “AHHH” because I was afraid. Where was I going with that?
Here’s the thing, if I stay with my thoughts, I think things like, “ Why can’t I do this? It is so easy. AmI stupid? Am I not an evangelist? What’s going on?” But my thoughts shouldn’t end there because my thoughts have to end with Jesus Christ, so I have to realize, I’m enslaved by Satan because he makes me think centered on myself, “I have to do this work, but I have other things to do and I can’t do it.”
[ Satan, Sin, Separated
So, because I am enslaved by Satan with these sins, I’m separated from God’s power that would actually do the work. Therefore, whenever I’m like, “Oh, why am I like this?” I have to go back to Jesus Christ, and when I look at other people as well. My sister also makes a lot of mistakes. What I have to think instead of, “Why is she like this?” I have to remember, “Wait, the Bible tells me that we’re all sinners, enslaved by Satan. So I shouldn’t say anything to her because she’ll just get mad at me.
What I have to pray for is to bind the forces of Satan that are blinding her. Just as Jesus Christ forgave my sins, I pray to Jesus to forgive her sins of thinking centered on Genesis 3. I have to pray for God’s grace to be upon her so she can be united with God through Jesus Christ, too. This is how you enjoy Jesus Christ with everyone you meet. Whoever your parents make you mad, or whenever a church member makes you mad or whenever a friend makes you mad, see that they are being controlled by Satan and sin. In Jesus Christ’s name, bind the forces of Satan that are controlling them. In Jesus Christ’s name, forgive their sins just as Jesus forgave me. In Jesus Christ’s name, I pray for them to be united with God. It’s the same for you and everybody, that’s the solution to all problems.
With, Immanuel
Then as you go through this, you’ll realize that because God is with you, you’ll realize that God is with you in everything. Then there’s no more fear because even when you have a big test or problem or your parents are mad at you, nothing bad can happen because God is with you. Instead of being so worried about other people, you can imagine that God is with them, moving them perfectly.
I was having a Darakbang meeting with a student from Washington, and I asked him, “What’s the biggest problem at your school?” He said, “The teachers are disrespectful to the students.” I think that’s a problem a lot of our remnants have, too, that the teachers don’t really understand the students and they’re very mean. It’s already hard to study but if your teacher doesn’t respect you, you don’t respect them, and you’re just like, “Forget it.”
But both the teacher and student are thinking centered on “me.” If the student recognized and enjoyed Immanuel, it doesn’t matter what the teacher says to them, because they’re thankful to God for sending them that teacher. You’re thankful because through that teacher, God is teaching you something. Maybe you have to learn how to deal with mean people. If you avoid all the mean people in your life, you’re just going to be a weaksauce who can’t deal with anyone who is mean, then are you only going to talk to nice people? Talk about fear, giving you mental problems and physical problems.
Also, you’ll realize God is with all things, therefore, in anything, it doesn’t matter if anything good or bad happens, it doesn’t matter. Just look for God’s Word the next day, the next week, and you have to do this every single day, because when good things happen, we think, “Heh, yeah I did really good.”
Has this happened to you, you pray, “God let me do well on this test,” and then you pray really hard and do well on the test. You don’t think about God again and say, “Heh, yeah I’m pretty smart.” Yeah, why would God help you, then? Even if He answers you, you forget about Him. Whether you do well or not, remember God is with that. Then no matter what your parents say, it doesn’t matter whether your grades are good or not because God is with you. I know a lot of Korean parents have this thing where they compare you with everyone else, and it’s really hard not to listen to those words, but every time you listen to those words, you realize they come out of fear. Whenever you hear those words, don’t think your own thoughts; take it back to Jesus. I’m a child of God and God is with me. In the name of Jesus Christ, save my parents from Satan who blinds them from God’s word and separates them from God’s word through their fear. And as you keep on doing this, you will be led to save people, because this is God’s ultimate plan.
Save
This word and prayer is how you are led by God, so that instead of living a life of death where you die and everyone around you dies, you remember the words Jesus Christ gave you and you love the life of saving people, then everything you do will come to life, too, because God is life. Because Jesus Christ is life. This is where this Bible verse comes from, Matthew 11:28-29.
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. It says something important in the next verse, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.” The reason we have to pray holding onto God’s word is because we have to be led by God. Only when we’re led by God do we have rest in everything we do and we and everyone around us are saved.
So, this is important. It means that you’re no longer your own master. This is going to be a battle, and God will guide you step by step until you learn that letting go of everything you want is actually the way to save yourself. This is true rest and yeah, being controlled by God, then you will be used to save people, and this is the beginning of my testimony.
Last time, I told you about the story of my life, and now I’ll take a more zoomed in version of that. This is Tiffany’s life for the past four years. In 2017, I got a job at Honeywell, and this is a job I didn’t apply for, but during my senior year in college, I was interpreting for the church and going to church and serving, so this was the beginning of me following God’s Word, and I just went to a career fair.
And I’ve been to a lot of career fairs and everyone in college goes to career fairs, but at this career fair, somebody called me back, I only talked to the recruiter for a few minutes, but the recruiter remembered me, called me, and I got an interview. I actually didn’t want to go to the company at all because it’s the aerospace industry, which means all the employees are old, white men, and they would probably be racist and sexist towards me.
That’s how I thought in college, but I’m still at Honeywell now. So, this goes to show that if you’re just within serving the church, within the Word and prayer, God brings people to you. I had two job offers, one in Torrance, and one in San Francisco. Pastor Park and Pastor Heo said, “You can go to San Francisco, but you’re going to come back anyways,” because I need to be where this Word and prayer system is strong.
So we make a decision not based on what we want, but based on what God wants. So, I made the decision and went to Honeywell. At the end of 2018, I got a promotion and about two years in, I thought about leaving the company because everyone was telling me, “You have to leave, you have to leave. If you stay here, you have no future and you won’t make enough money; you have to go to another company.” That’s what everyone else was doing, and what the pulpit message said is, “When the pillar of cloud stayed, the Israelites stayed.”
So, I stayed and the coronavirus pandemic happened, and maybe a third of the people in our company got laid off, but I got another promotion. So, when you follow God’s Word, you don’t have to try everything that people in the world tell you to try. The people in the world tell you that you have to network, go out and meet people, but I didn’t do that. I just did the bare minimum in the world and served the church, and everybody in the world says, “You have to look out for yourself and get a better paying job,” and I didnt’ do that, but God provides for me. Everybody in the world says the coronavirus is a huge problem, but for me, it’s been the greatest blessing in my life. That’s just what happens when you follow God’s Word in prayer. Nothing is a problem because whether good things or bad things happen, it’s always a blessing to save you and others.
Then, I thought again, “I’ve been here for four years, should I leave?” Thoughts of leaving came again, and that week, the pulpit message was, “If you haven’t saved the people in your field, don’t even think about leaving.” So I said, “Okay God,” and I stayed. Then my manager called me and said they would give me a raise in the same position, and somewhere around here, I received an answer about offering.
During the Wednesday night message, we learned about the different types of offerings and sacrifices, and I prayed that night, I was like, “God, I want to give offering but I want to give more? Should I give one third? I want to give nine-tenths.” That was Wednesday night, I prayed that, then Friday night, Pastor Park said, “Give one third. Why would you stop at giving one tenth? Give one third.” So I said, “Okay, I’ll take that as a very specific answer,” and since then, I’ve been giving two-tenths for Temple Construction, one-tenth for tithe, and I also give missions offering and next-generation offering.
Lately I’ve been praying about this again because, since God gave me this answer, God gives me more blessings, then I have to follow God’s Word in prayer again, so that’s what I’m going to look for in the messages going forward, what are God’s Words regarding offering? And I’m really excited because the word is exactly that. So, every single aspect of my life, where you spend your time, whom you talk to, how much money to give in offering, it comes from God’s Word and you just follow it.
At first it seems so boring and limited because you see people in the world hanging out and doing fun things, but please remember they’re doing that out of fear of death, and it’s going to lead to death. Remember that they’re doing things out of fear that cause mental problems, physical problems, future problems, and death for them and everyone else. If you always think about the Word of God, you won’t have to experience this personally. If you follow God’s word in prayer you can enjoy blessings personally and confirm this by looking at your friends who don’t have the gospel. You can be enjoying blessings.
A week after I got this call from my manager saying I got a raise, I got a call from another manager, asking me to apply for another position. She called me and asked me to apply for her team, and this is a position for a senior analyst, and because of that, I got another raise, but I don’t really care. What’s really important is the role I got.
Role – Training 237
This offering is led by God’s Word moving forward, but this role is very interesting because I’m training people from all nations, from all across America and Russia and the UK and India and China. Because I’m training them, I’m really scared because I’m the “expert,” but when I look at my brain, I’m not an expert. But if I look at myself and look at the work, I’m going to be scared, but if I look at God’s Word, then I’m led by the Triune God and I’m going to save myself and everyone else.
What is the Word that is leading me in this new role? It’s so amazing because as soon as I got promoted, that’s when the North American Business Evangelism Conference happened, so I was able to get a new job and hold onto God’s Word for that job. There are two main things I held onto from that Word.
1. Limited Concentration
The first message was about Limited Concentration. It’s about focusing on Mount Calvary, the Mount of Olives, and Mark’s upper room. Focusing on Mount Calvary is about Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross. Focusing on the mount of olives is focusing on how God is working and guiding his Word. God guiding You with His Word is God’s Kingdom. When you follow God’s Word, then you receive the power of mark’s upper room. That’s the power used to save people, not your power.
So yes, I’m terrified because I have to train people about things I don’t know, but when I look at it from God’s Word, God is using me to save people’s lives as long as I focus on Jesus Christ, God’s Kingdom, and the Holy Spirit.
2. Problem – Church – Interpreter
The second thing I received from the NABEC message is, “Devote to solving the problem of the church,” and this is where I’m really excited to be led, too, because until now, all my talents and all of my guidance were while I was serving the church. If I want to keep on being used and blessed in the future, where do you think I have to go? I just have to stay with the church. All my talents were developed in this church.
I’ve always been good at talking, in the past, my teachers would yell at me because I talked so well. They would move me into the front of the class and I would still talk to the teacher in the front, but now, my words are being used to give life instead of disrupting education, because now, I’m an interpreter. That’s how my use of talking is used in the church, and when you think I’m training people what do you think I’m doing if not talking for 3 days straight? And so Interpreting in the church allowed me to become a better trainer as I was led along this entire journey.
There’s another task Pastor Park gave me at the beginning of COVID, and that’s the elementary message. I uploaded it onto YouTube and to be honest, I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t want to do children’s ministry; I wanted to do adult ministry, but you know what’s crazy? I used to play with powerpoint when I was in junior high and high school, I would use powerpoint and make stories like Alice in Wonderland, and I would do that by myself because we didn’t have TikTok, and that skill from my junior high is being used in elementary messages to save lives. A lot of parents say, “Don’t play video games; it rots your brain,” and it might be true, but if you remain within God’s Word and prayer, God can use that, too. So, let go of all the words people tell you to listen but only tell the Words of God that save.
There’s a third way that I want to help the church and this again deals with offering because I’m a working individual, I support the church with my offering and prayers. One thing I’m praying for with offering is Temple Construction. It’s the same thing, and I know this here is aligned with God’s will because it also comes through God’s Word. As an interpreter, my mission is to save the 237 nations. Through the elementary message, my mission is to raise the next generation to the summit. Not with my words but with God’s Word. Through my offering and Temple Construction, we will have the church of healing. We will heal the world that is so afraid and obsessed with money through the Temple Construction.
This is just to tell you that everything is found within the Word and prayer. If you don’t have the spiritual strength that comes from God’s Word and prayer, then you can never leave the world because of the fear of death, but if you have the spiritual strength from God’s Word and prayer every single day, then even if you make all the mistakes in the world, even if you can’t even get out of bed in the morning, then even so, over four years, you will have answers to stand as a witness.
This is only after four years. I know the answers will continue because it’s in line with God’s Word. But honestly, it doesn’t matter because to me, it’s still the same: I still have to focus on God’s Word and prayer. Whether I get the answers or not, that’s up to God, it doesn’t matter to me, and it should not. The only thing I must be interested in for the rest of my life is being led by God through the Word and prayer.
So I really encourage you guys to pray, holding onto this content in accordance to however much God guides you. First and foremost, pray holding onto Jesus Christ by binding Satan, forgiving sins, and bringing people to God. Enjoy God being with you, guiding you through His Word by praying about God’s Kingdom every night. Every morning when you wake up, ask for God to save yourself, your family, your church, your field, and this world through you.
Then pray for every single person you meet and pray for them to meet Jesus Christ. No one has to know you’re doing this, but if you make a Word and Prayer system like this, your life will be saved and used to save other people’s lives. Everything else is just more fear and more death, even if you succeed. In fact, the more you succeed, the more fear you’ll have because you know what they say, the higher you climb, the harder you fall, right? When you listen to the words of the world, realize that only the gospel is true.
One more thing. When I’m receiving guidance in my offering in the mission portion, I’m excited to see how God is guiding us through the announcements. I don’t know if the remnants have been keeping up with the announcements, but there’s a lot of things God is doing to grow our church’s vessel. If you don’t understand how God is increasing our vessel for missions, it’s really hard to see how God is guiding us, because God is not just guiding you, He is guiding you as part of the church. God is guiding this church to save.
So, we receive the Word through the church and this church has been given the mission to save so go into the Word and the evangelism of the church. Cool, that’s it now. Let’s pray.
Prayer
Heavenly Father God, thank You so much. Inside of You is life and peace. Inside of You is true rest from our work, and I pray that all the remnants may enjoy true rest. Give them the spiritual strength to break free from the world, and give them the blessing of prayer and the Word to guide their life. Bless them to stand as witnesses who will save the world as the spiritual summits. We give all the glory to the Triune God forever, and we pray all this in Jesus Christ’s name, amen.