Staking my Life and Blocking Curses Through Worship (Deut. 28:15-24)
Today, we will receive the grace of God Word with Deut. 28:15-24. Deut. 28 is divided between blessings and curses. God does not give us His Word in an ambiguous way. He gives it to us in a definite way. He says so definitely and specifically that if you follow God’s word you’ll be blessed, and if you do not, you will be cursed. However, these believers stand in the middle ground and keep trying to blur it or make it vague. God makes His Word so definite, but the believers will try to make it not so certain, by saying, “It is neither this nor that.” Without a doubt, that is the attitude of people who are outside of God’s Word.
God gives us His Word in a definite way. Is our walk of faith complicated? God gives us His Word in a certain way. He says, “If you obey and follow the words of the covenant God gives you, then you will be blessed. Everything else will be cursed,” and there’s no middle ground there.
Then, where do you think I am standing? We have to make our standard based on God’s Word. If we are not certain in this, then people will bury this and cover it up with haphazardness. They will give their own excuses, and they’ll say things like, “But I did this! I did this!” But the Bible never says that; he is asking have you followed and obeyed the Word of God’s covenant? Is it a blessing for me to live a diligent and hardworking life? That’s something even unbelievers do. If you say that’s a general blessing of the world, that’s just another of God’s blessings. In other words, God’s blessing must be upon us.
God is giving His definite Word regarding curses today. Deut. 28:15 says, “However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you,” and that means the threshold that divides between blessings and curses is the law and the Word of God.
Then, living our walk of faith means we are listening to and following God’s Word. It’s possible the people who come to church but listen to the words of people are receiving blessings, but they are kicking them away. If people continue to assert their own opinions in the church, they are kicking away their blessings because my own assertions cannot make blessings. Only God’s Word can change things into a blessing.
Then, what is a church that is blessed? That is a church that listens to, follows, and relays God’s Word. However, there are people who go to church but the word does not go into them, and those are the most unfortunate people because they are not able to hear God’s Word. There is only one thing: Satan is blocking them spiritually from hearing God’s Word. Jesus Christ gives us the parable of the good soil and He also gives examples of the seed that falls under the rocky path, or the thorny path, and these are places where the Word of God does not root down. However, if the Word of God properly roots down, then this will bear fruits of 30, 60, and 100 times.
Then, what is worship? We come here to listen to God’s Word. What is worship? We are giving our prayers to God. What is worship? We are giving our praise to God. What is worship? We give our offering to God. Then, God gives us His Word of grace, so inside of worship is contained our entire life.
We give our prayer to God because if we do not pray, we have to worry a lot. We need to give our praise to God, and if we do not, we will complain and grumble a lot. We give our offering to God because if we do not give our offering to God, then we have no choice but to give our materials in the direction that the devil is pleased with in the economy of darkness that pleases us. In the midst of worship, we receive God’s grace, strength, and Word. If we are not able to worship, we cannot receive God’s grace, strength, and Word, and our lives themselves will collapse.
The reason why we say to stake your life on worship is because your entire life is contained in worship. But the people who don’t know this are already in the midst of blessings, but they kick their blessings away. Because they lack the spiritual strength, they keep on getting caught in spiritual problems. Because we lack the strength, we have no choice but to unknowingly be stuck into these streams of family line. It’s not only me, but my children will be sucked in with me as in today’s Bible passage.
So, if I, one person, am able to come to life through proper worship, then everything will come to life. However, if worship is not a grace, and it is legalistically an action or a duty, then it turns into religion. By religion, I mean it is a kind of action or ritual we have to follow, and at that point, we can’t receive God’s grace or strength. That is why you must stake your life on worship. Before you stake your life on worship, the person who discovers the value of worship is bound to stake their life, then God continually blesses them.
So yes, we do live diligently, but God’s blessing must be upon us. Because God’s blessing is upon us, things naturally work out. But if this does not happen, then someone might live very diligently, but they’re just working hard on their own. They’re not going deep into curses or disasters either, because God is alive. But they just live their lives, not receiving this or that, and they give this to the future generations, and all of them are destroyed together.
So, for the remnants, there is no reason for you to look at the model because the word of God is your standard and model; all you have to say is, “I will be the model,” a model of what? “I will be a model of the Word because that is how the future generation will come to life through me,” and you have no idea what a blessed resolution this is. However, if you just become a religious person, then you’re almost obligated to come to church because of your church position, but you don’t want to.
In Deut. 28:16, it says, “You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country” where you work. Adam and Eve were saved people like us, but based on one standard, it changed from a blessing to a curse. I’m sure their personality was the same, too, they were the same people, but there was one thing. They had departed from God’s Word. Moreso than being about some kind of action, it is what’s in their heart, Instead of being filled with God’s Word, one day, they were filled with a message from Satan. That message of Satan that went into their heart was, one day, they thought, “I can live on my own without God’s grace and strength,” and the result that followed was God made them cursed until the ends of the earth.
However, people who are centered on hard work will not think that way. They think, “If I work hard, I will make money.” Have you ever heard of Hemingway? Hemingway was a writer who committed suicide in 1961. He was someone who was born into a Catholic or Christian family. Is it possible for him to commit suicide? Can somebody commit suicide even if they go to church diligently? He did, even though I don’t know the process. You just hear the religion, that he converted to Catholicism, and everyone in his father’s family was a believer.
In 1951, he wrote the novel, “The Old Man and the Sea,” in Cuba. He was someone who was also a soldier. In the book, “The Old Man and the Sea,” he catches a large fish and brings it into the boat. He did catch the fish, he caught this great, huge fish, but when he returned back, all the fish was gone; it had been eaten up. You can make money by working diligently. But if you do not receive God’s blessings, then all of that fish will be eaten up, and when you return back home, you’ll have nothing.
Hemingway was shocked, he said, “This is what life is.” Then in 1961, he committed suicide. We have to see him as a believer, and Hemingway’s father also committed suicide, and these are believers. Why do you think I’m giving this example? I’m telling you this while talking about curses and blessings. Do you think that when he shot himself, it was an accident? Not only did he commit suicide, but so did his father. Before we talk about what it’s called, don’t you think that’s a curse? Even as he went to church, even though he was born into a believing family, and his father was a believer but he, too, committed suicide. That is why even believers can commit suicide.
Why do you think they do that? It is because they are not able to enjoy the blessing of worship. I’m not talking about the worship you guys are thinking about, but what I told you guys earlier, where I give my life to Him and I receive His grace and His strength. I’m not talking about you being forced to come to worship because somebody keeps telling you. Fundamentally, you guys must be set in what worship is. You need to have worship be the very first priority in your life. Then, there’s no more for me to say today, but if that is not taking place, there are a lot of things we must say.
In Deut. 28:17, it says, “Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed,” meaning, even what you eat will be cursed. So, it’s only one thing. It’s not that we’re not working hard, but this is the result of not believing in God. Then it says in Deut. 28:18, “The fruit of your womb,” meaning, your children. “The crops of your land,” meaning, everything you have worked for. “The calves of your herd and the lambs of your flocks will be cursed.” The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, that means, we obey and fear God. This means we must have fear before God’s Word. However, if you think that the Word of God is similar to the words of a person, and it’s optional to have it within me or not, then you are someone who is far from blessings. It is God’s normal desire for the gospel to go into you and to the future generations.
There is no other method. There is no other source, either. It is exactly according to today’s Word. He’s not even telling you to do anything, but just according to the promise of today’s Word, God will bless you, and if he takes away that blessing, then it’s a curse. If you make money, God has to protect that with His blessing.
A lot of people think the sun is obvious because it has been there ever since we were born. It is not rightful, but God is actually holding onto and moving the sun, and there is nobody who can live without receiving the sun’s rays, and there is nobody who can live without breathing the air. But we think of that so rightfully and we just work diligently on our own. We can only realize this when God gives us a disease. Only when the curses come upon us will we realize, “These things do not just exist. I thought I could move my body with my own strength, but nothing works out according to my own thoughts.”
Sometimes God even gives problems to our children to correct the path of the parents. I’ve seen this personally, but elite parents have a lot of education, power, and status in society, so they don’t really need God; they just go to church. They don’t really have that sincere heart because they have abundance in the world. But the way God intercedes in their life is through their children. The reason why God disturbs the children is so that, through this, they can realize what the true blessing is.
There’s a reason why Pastor Kim in Chicago came into this evangelism movement. He was in a denomination that does not believe in Jesus Christ. So, even though there are many believers, it is a denomination that focuses more on social movements. Ever since his young daughter was born, she had a problem with her brain. But he himself was never somebody who would go into only Christ.
But because of his daughters’ problem, he was able to come into the gospel movement, and all of his children are successful in the world. If God had not given that problem to his child, he would never have come into this gospel movement. Imagine how uncomfortable it was. Because she had a problem with her brain, she always had to be watched over, 24 hours. About 2 months ago, this child passed away. On one side, I almost think it must’ve been a large relief, because somebody always had to be watching over this child, and God is the One Who took her life, and it was also God Who allowed this to happen to their family.
So, God did this so the entire family could go into the evangelism movement and raise the church to go into the evangelism and gospel movement, and then he took the child’s life away. The first child is a doctor and the second child is working in the White House, so his children are very smart, so God has various ways of bringing every individual and every family line in towards these blessings.
Don’t you think that is God’s grace? That is the same for you and me, God does not desire to curse us. He desires us to come to the blessings. It’s not, “If I do something,” we must just receive his grace. We cannot do anything. Even if you get a little bit scarred, you cannot do anything. Because we cannot do anything on our own, much after Deuteronomy, in Jeremiah, God gave us the second covenant. God said, “I will write my words into your heart,” because just with the tablets of the Ten Commandments, we cannot do it on our own. He says, “On the cross, I will solve all the problems of sin and curses,” and He will live within us as the Holy Spirit to fulfill God’s Word.
So, we always realize the word of God through the intercession no matter where we are. Then, what is it that we must do? We continuously remain in that faith. Before I obey God’s Word, I must receive His grace first. Once I receive God’s grace, then I’m bound to follow His Word. The place where we receive God’s grace is worship. That’s what it means that worship is our whole life.
In Deut. 28:19, it says, “You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out,” it’s like In-n-Out, it’s like you are cursed. You can do well in the world, you can make your income with your own diligence perfectly fine, but God’s blessing must be upon you. Otherwise, everything you’ve made and saved on your own will be cursed. The fact that it’s cursed doesn’t mean it’ll necessarily go away, but I’m saying your life will suffer because of that.
Everything you’ve saved up should be a blessing to you, but your life is miserable because of that. Even if you give all of your possessions to God, that should fill you with grace and that should make you feel very refreshed, that’s because of God’s grace, because you have received it by God’s grace, and by God’s grace, you give it to Him. If you’re forcing yourself to give to Him, then it’s difficult. Because God blessed me, I’m giving it for the church and the future generations and world evangelization. That should be joyful, that is the working of the holy spirit.
In Deut. 28:20, it says, “The LORD will send curses, confusion, and rebuke you in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking Him.” It says “you have done evil,” which means you have done something while being separated from God’s Word, and thus, you have forsaken Him. However, now in the New Testament age, if we just rely on the holy spirit just a little bit, the holy spirit intercedes for us and guides us with God’s Word.
In Deut. 28:21, “Then the LORD will plague you with diseases until you are destroyed from the land you are entering to possess.” A plague or a disease was something that could not be solved back in those times. These are not things they come because we lack diligence or hard work. If God’s grace is not upon us, then without us even realizing it, we are bound to go in the opposite direction of God. More specifically speaking, if we do not receive God’s grace and his strength 24 hours, we are bound to be dragged by Satan in the direction of our spiritual problems.
So, who is the most humble person? It is the one who worships before God, and the most arrogant person is the one who thinks they do not need worship. That is where our entire lives are determined. “Pastor, I used to give a lot of worship,” you were actually not giving worship; you were just going through the actions of worship. You did not stake your life on worship to receive God’s grace, you were just going through the motions of worship. So, even after receiving salvation, you were living your life based on your actions and your diligence, so worship is everything.
If you leave today having received strength and the word God will fulfill, that is true victory, and all of that is relayed to your children. That is relayed to your business fields as well. There are some people who will say, “Okay, then I will never miss a worship from now on,” and those words may be correct, but they’re wrong. Even if you set that resolution, you cannot fulfill that with your own will.
“I need to receive God’s grace and strength. I need to seek and receive God’s grace in worship,” then it will naturally take place. That’s what you call “grace.” So, this is the end of the year 2022, but starting from the year 2023, may that be a year where you stake your life on worship. Before you give worship, it is a time of blessing for you to concentrate your spiritual state on God. All you need is that spiritual state.
Deut. 28:22 says, “The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish.” On the other hand, it means these things may take place. This means that whatever God gives you cannot be healed through a hospital. Because, if we are disobedient to God, but we can get it all solved by a hospital, that’s not what he’s saying, this means God must take this away from us, and it is through these things that we go into God’s covenant.
Are there any of you like that? There is no reason for you to receive an answer from anywhere else. In the church I’m serving, that is the church where I will be blessed. It is the church where I am serving. Only the people who don’t know this will lean their ears this way and that. It’s because of their ignorance. That is somebody like the Pharisees or the Sagisees who just try to gain more knowledge. The characteristic of these people is that, even compared to others, they do not have God’s grace, why? Because they don’t know what worship is.
Deut. 28:23 says, “The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.” I don’t know what this one means. Let’s go on. There’s nothing I can do about that, but it’s a bad thing. Why would the sky be bronze and the ground be iron? The sky should be blue without blocking out the light. If the ground is iron, we wouldn’t be able to farm and we wouldn’t be able to get any energy from the ground.
Deut. 28:24 says, “The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and power; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.” Lately, people are researching looking at the moon, and they are gathering dust, wondering if it is habitable for humans. There Is only one standard to determine whether living life can be there. That standard is, is there water here? If there is water there, then without a doubt, living life is possible there, but what happens if there is no rain? In the water cycle, the water must evaporate and then be rained down in order to be replenished, but if the rain stops then all of the living life will cease to exist.
On Saturday, it was raining really hard so I was worried about the next day’s worship. The reason I was worried was because there are leaks in the ceiling of the sanctuary. It’s fine if there are leaks anywhere else in the church, but this would disturb the worship. Around 9am, the rain just stopped. Even during the time of worship at 10:30am, the rain had stopped and the sun started shining, so I thought the rain had stopped, and then in the evening, it started raining very hard again. This is my personal thinking because I prayed about this, but I thought God had a predetermined amount he wanted it to rain but God stopped it for worship and finished it up afterwards.
The place where I grew up was not a city, but it was not the countryside, either. But I’ve experienced a lot where I can see a very big rain cloud approaching from a distance, but it did not rain in my town. In my young mind, I thought that if it rained in one place, it rained everywhere, but if you see it raining in LA, and then you go to Orange County, then it’s not raining there, and God is the One Who controls that as well. God has a quota. He wants to rain down but he is the one who controls that rain. Because it needs to rain in order for God to replenish the oceans and also to bring life to this area, but I said, “God, you must not disturb worship,” and I think that way even now.
Then, I couldn’t say that in front of too many people because they might think I’m tacky or cheesy. Right after I accepted Jesus Christ , I thought of Jesus Christ as some kind of wizard that could do whatever I wanted so I asked Him to stop the rain, and it did. I had a little bit of those experiences where I first believed in Jesus but after that He didn’t listen because I didn’t have a reason. He said, “You’re not even giving worship right now. I’m not some kind of wizard to turn on and off.” When I first believed in Jesus Christ, I’m sure God allowed that to happen so that I can have more faith or be moved by Him. But God is currently controlling everything.
Today, the standard of blessings or curses is God’s law and His Word. That is summarized in the Ten Commandments which is further summarized into two laws, to love God and love people. However, God has reached the conclusion that we cannot act correctly on our own. So, Jesus Christ had to come to earth to receive all of the curses of our sin and He Himself fulfilled the law, and now, He is within me as the Holy Spirit. But if you finish it at that, you are only focused on salvation, and if you only talk about that, you are only focused on salvation.
If somebody only stays here and only keeps talking about this, their life is not restored because the holy spirit is guiding me. He does not guide us into curses like today’s Word; He guides us into curses like today’s word, he guides us toward fulfilling that Word. That is why God continuously gives us the Word that he will fulfill every Sunday and every time we worship. The reason why we pray is to receive the guidance of that Holy Spirit.
But even after we receive salvation, some people’s rent able to pray or worship so they receive the blessing, but they are not able to enjoy it. The holy spirit is with us, so the first blessing we must experience is the filling and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But then, when they hear that Jesus Christ fulfilled all the law, they receive grace from that but they aren’t able to progress to the next step. They say, “I’m sure Jesus Christ will take care of everything,” and they do somewhere else. That person has not received salvation, because if you have received salvation, you cannot do that. Either they have to accept again, and it’s possible that they have misunderstood their acceptance. I hope they will accept again, because they have not received salvation; it’s impossible for them to act like that. Because the Holy Spirit continues to move us, guide us, and intercede, there’s no way they can stay like that.
If the proper life of Christ comes into us, we try to receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit. That’s normal. Just like if we have a baby, it’s normal for the baby to want to drink the mother’s milk. If you have a baby but it’s not trying to drink the mothers milk, either you are not the mother, or it’s not a human baby it’s an animal. The Holy Spirit is with us and He is interceding with us every moment. When we properly give worship, and by “properly give worship,” I mean, God is already doing the proper thing but we have no fear of God in our spiritual state.
What is fear of God? I’m not saying to be afraid God is going to curse you if you don’t give worship. It means that you know, “I cannot live without God, I cannot live without His grace, His strength, and His Word.” The devil drags us around with another kind of fear, but that is not the fear that God gives. We realize everything is fulfilled according to God’s word, and that is why I go to worship; that is why I go, holding onto God’s Word. That is the fear I mean.
Prayer
Just like the Word God has given us today, may the One Who has finished all the problems on the cross fill us and guide us to save this world, because the way the Holy Spirit guides us is in exactly two ways: the love of God and the love of people. Let us pray together holding onto the word God has given to us.
Our second prayer topic, what do you think will happen if we pray in the name of Jesus Christ? If you pray without knowing this, then it is just a religious prayer. You’re just doing it without any faith. When you pray in the name of Jesus Christ, without a doubt, the Holy Spirit works, without a doubt, the forces of darkness break down and curses and disasters break down. If you pray, knowing and believing this, those are the works that take place. Then, how important is praying after receiving God’s Word? That’s what I’m saying.
At this time, let us pray for our region because that is the most basic area, our region. The region where I live, may I be the one who saves the 70 disciples and 70 regions there. That is the Word God gave us, and I believe God will give us the grace and strength to fulfill that Word. Let us pray together for the region.
When we pray, it allows God to work. I’m not saying we are allowing God to work. I’m saying that God does His work by sending His angels, and that is prayer. When you pray in the name of Jesus Christ, you will fulfill God’s Word, transcending time and space. The people who know this are bound to pray.
On December 24, we have our Christmas Eve event, and the actual event itself is meaningless. Roman Catholics do that and the Orthodox Religions do that, even heretics will do that. That’s not what we desire. God desires for the proclamation of the gospel of Christ to be relayed. The reason why Jesus Christ came to earth was so unbelievers could hear this gospel and receive salvation, so I hope you will invite people while you pray, so they can hear the gospel. Let us pray for December 24 and 25.
Our third prayer topic will be for the Winter Retreat which has been finalized, so please pray for them, it’s from third grade to the young adults to attend. There’s a special plan and grace of God when He gathers multiple churches together like this, especially focused on the remnants. Every time that happens, God specially works, so this togetherness is very important because during the Exodus, when all of the Israelites applied the blood together, a miracle took place. When the Israelites all together threw away their idols and gathered at Mizpah, there was a miracle that took place. When all of the remnants of the LA region gather together, then God will bring about a miracle.
God’s grace must be upon us. We cannot change our spiritual problems or the fate of our lives on our own; that’s why we must pray. Let us pray for the LA Winter Retreat as well as the Washington DC Winter Retreat where I will be going. I will be giving three lectures, and they asked me for the titles, so it’s “The Remnant Who Saves Myself,” “The Remnant Who Saves the Church,” and “The Remnant Who Saves the World,” so I’ll be giving the lectures there, telling them how to save. Because inside of that is everything, including success. Because Jesus Christ came to save, and God’s blessing of saving will follow. Let us pray together for the conferences.
Our final prayer topic will be for our missions fields. Let us pray together for the church mission fields.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of god, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the heads of all the people of God Who desire to save the people and the world through the covenant of God, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.