Summit (Gen. 41:38)
Summit implies a gathering of leaders. I met a remnant whose dream was to become president, so she came to America and went to George Washington University and went to graduate school in Korea, and I went back to Korea last year and she had had a child and greeted me. The man she married was also serving in the same college department she was in. I asked her, “What happened to your dream of becoming the President?” I’m not talking about, “This is what I want to do,” but this is what God has given to us. She said she wanted to be the president, so the pastors around her would say she would be the future president, but she didn’t even understand politics. There was a female president who stepped down during her tenure but I think a man wouldn’t have stepped down in that position.
What I want to talk about is the summit. Is me becoming the president “the summit”? No, you can be a summit in whatever area you’re in. Let’s say, for example, you’re a chef, so you can be a summit in the chef industry. If I’m a nurse, I can be a summit among nurses. If I’m a teacher or professor, I can be a summit among teachers and professors. But that’s not by the methods of the world. It is the method of God. If something is God’s method, then God is the One Who fulfills it.
1. Gospel
Discover yourself correctly through the gospel. If not, you cannot discover yourself. God has prepared the “me” going all the way to the summit, but we’re never able to discover that. Let’s listen to the story of Joseph. Joseph was nothing special, in fact, if anything, from the perspective of people, he is kind of bratty because he tattles on his brothers, and he talks too much, especially for a guy. Even if his older brothers do a small, bad thing, he’ll tattle. So, he wasn’t born better than other people, and yes it’s true that because he was always tattling to his dad, I think his dad did favor him. If you want your teachers at school to like you, you just have to act likeable. With any person, if you act likeable or respect them, then they will give you that back.
Introduction
1. Relationship
If you don’t know relationships, you’ll be blindsided.
1) Parent – Child
Nurture
The parent’s responsibility is to raise the children and the children must respect their parents. Maintaining these two sides is a relationship. If one side of this relationship is broken, then the entire relationship is broken. Children may misunderstand, “Of course my parents have to take care of me,” but that means, “Of course, you have to obey and respect your parents, then.” But what is Genesis 3? “I only want to get taken care of; I don’t want to do my part,” then that relationship is broken. There is a relationship between parent and child, and you need to know that back-and-forth relationship well.
There is a relationship between God and people, from the moment God created me and saved me, He has the responsibility to nurture, protect, and guide me. Our duty is to believe and obey Him. God never breaks His relationship with us; He always fulfills His responsibility first, but if we break our duty towards God, then that is breaking the relationship with God. Our duty is to respect, believe, and obey His Word. It’s the same situation with the family between parent and child. If the parent is not able to raise or nurture that child, then we are breaking that relationship. If the child only receives support from the parent, but they don’t respect the parent, they are breaking the relationship between parent and child.
2) Teacher – Student
Educate
The teacher educates the student and the student respects the teacher. If you want to be liked by your teacher, you have to respect them. What is Genesis 3? “I only want my teacher to be nice to me, I don’t want to be nice to them. I want to get everything I want and not do anything else.” There are people out there like that but they’re a headache because they don’t understand what a relationship is. Especially children growing up from a young age, receiving love and support from their parents, and that’s rightful, but they don’t even have a sliver of a thought to respect their parents, then that relationship is broken. God made that relationship.
Work
3) Owner – Employee
Wages
At your job, there is an owner or manager, and there are the employees.
4) Friend – Friend
If someone is a friend to me, I have a duty to be a friend to them. If you are best friends, you do special things for each other. But you must return the favor. If the relationship is one-sided, it will not last long. This is actually true whether you’re a believer or nonbeliever, this is our life. Then for our remnants, we must understand or have an idea of how to act in your family or at school. Even if you’re not actively breaking down relationships, the kid will be okay. Then, there is a relationship between husband and wife, or mom and dad. If you have a weakness, the other should support. However, what happens if you grow up inside your family and never understand the relationship between parent and child, then you get married? That family will have problems because they only want that person to help them, they don’t want to help the other person. They only want to work for a paycheck but they have no idea why they struggle.
Same with the church. There is a relationship between the teachers in the church and the students; you must learn this and teach this well. For the people who are teachers in the church, you know the students who come up and act cute and sweet, that’s their way of respecting you. As the teacher, you are naturally more interested and focused on students who show you that kind of affection. That is a natural instinct, a part of life, so no matter where you are in the world, you must navigate with basic, common sense.
Same with evangelism. We must have relationships with people, how? First, you must give. You need to
be interested in them, then the other person will react to that. For us, we don’t have any other goal; it is to give them the gospel. But if you don’t know this and you go get a job, you can work somewhere for 10 years and not talk to anybody there, because you’ve never learned that. If you sit there, you think someone will talk to you? Have you ever seen someone go up to talk to someone they don’t know? Instead, they’re going to judge you. You must be aware of these things.
This is common sense, you must learn how to be in a relationship. If you’re the president of a nation, what is the relationship you must have to the citizens? If you’re unable to learn this, you’ll talk badly about the president. I’m not telling you that you’re not allowed to criticize the president’s decisions, but you shouldn’t break the relationship between president and citizen. That kind of a person has had a broken relationship with their parents at home. The president has the responsibility over the nation and I have to respect that. Then, even as a citizen, if I want to express my opinion of the president, I can do that in a respectful way, but if someone has no sense of relationship, they will think, “What does the president have to do with me?” That person will also say, “What did my parents ever do for me?” and when they go to a company, “What has this company ever done for me?” That person has grown up in a broken home. They will be weird, because all of these relationships began with my relationship with God.
If someone says, “God, I pray but never receive answers,” then your relationship is broken; you must be aware of what kind of God He is, He takes full responsibility but if you don’t believe that, you’re suspicious of Him and you doubt God, breaking that relationship. That’s actually how the devil puts in temptations. I shouldn’t fall for that, but if I’m in the midst of unbelief, I’m bound to fall for it. No matter where I go, no matter what situation I face, God is bound to take care of me, guiding me. I obey and believe in Him. That relationship must not be broken. But problems come because we break that relationship.
Everything, if your relationship with God is broken, your relationship with everybody else will be broken, do you understand? Our relationship with God.
1. Gospel
If you don’t find this believable? For me, Jesus laid down His life and saved me.
1) Sin, Death, Satan
2) Christ
3) Lord
The fact that you accept Jesus Christ and you believe in this gospel means you want to live in that relationship from now on. Just like when somebody agrees to be a citizen of the US, they agree to follow the laws of the US. That’s how they can be under the reign of the US.
4) Kingdom
First, seek God’s Kingdom, meaning make Christ your Lord, first. Then, anything, all of your work follows your answers and God’s reign. That gospel must be formed correctly and well within you. Then, there is a work the Lord is trying to do through me, what is that?
2. God’s Kingdom
1) Mission
You may study and get a job in the future, but that’s physical work. But if God becomes my Master, God desires to do His work through me. What is the work of God? Establishing God’s Kingdom and sovereignty. In other words, God desires to carry out the mission of moving people from being lost under the authority of sin, death, and Satan, into God’s Kingdom. As I live and dream in this world, I need to do so, holding onto God’s dream.
2) Joseph, Genesis 37
Depending on what nation you’re in, your life will change. Your life depending on whether you live in America or North Korea. Depending on whether you’re under the reign of God or reign of Satan, your life will change. If you have received Christ as your Lord, you must maintain this lifelong relationship with Him as your Lord. Then, when you face a problem, you need to wait and pray to see how the Lord guides you through this. When you face an incident, look for God’s plan within that situation. But the reason you’re not able to receive that answer is you don’t have that relationship.
Joseph’s older brothers did not have that relationship. But Joseph knew with certainty the mission of the gospel God had given to him and he knew the mission. God fulfilled His mission through Joseph.
3) Prison, Slavery
All the work you do now is part of the mission of fulfilling the Word God has given us. However, most people including Joseph’s older brothers hold onto their own dream, because they are their Lord, so they have to take responsibility for their own life, their own studies, their own job, and when they get a mental problem, they have to take care of that, too, and when they get into danger, they have to take care of their wife, it is a weary and heavy burden. However, the moment you decide Christ is your Lord, the Kingdom of God takes place automatically because all I need ever is that duty. Even if you just restore that relationship, the works of God’s Kingdom will keep taking place, and you will be moved by the Holy Spirit.
4) One Moved by the Spirit of God
If you read a book or watch a drama that really moves you, and worship doesn’t, then it’s a big problem. If your emotions are strongly moved by something, reinterpret that. If you read a book about Napoleon and are inspired or moved by him, then later on, you accept Jesus Christ and say, “Jesus Christ is my Lord,” in reality, you’re still moved by Napoleon, dreaming and wanting to live like Napoleon. You must reinterpret that. You must reinterpret the things that have crawled into you first, especially the things you see in movies like romance films, all of that is fake and if that fake stuff goes into you before the true love of Jesus Christ, you’ll be moved your whole life by fake things. You need to reinterpret all of that. Everything you’ve read in books, reinterpret all of that. All the things you liked before you really enjoyed the gospel, reinterpret.
Most people don’t have summit time, so when they face a problem, they move forward first, then go back to Christ. They keep going back and forth; but when you have summit time, the Holy Spirit changes you. Paul had that time for 3-10 years. After he accepted Jesus Christ, that finished everything; however, there were things that he thought were good, that he thought he liked, and it took three years to change all of that. If you don’t want to live like that, you must be moved and receive God’s grace first. “I love God’s grace, I love praying,” before you’re moved by this, if you’re moved by something else, take all of that out of you and change it out; it takes time.
Let’s say you drive and fill up your car with water instead of gas? Then let’s say you’re driving in a mixture of gas and water. What problem will happen? Will your car stop on the road? Does it just end with that? What becomes a problem? Your engine gets destroyed. There are things inside of you that you liked before the gospel, then you received the gospel, what happens if you don’t change what’s inside of you? You’re going to get caught and things will start breaking down. God desires to be your priority, but I want to do what I wanted to do first. So, that starts getting caught and the adults are in that kind of state. It’s not a matter of whether they’re good or bad people, but it’s about Christ. If you don’t want to be like that, you must have summit time to receive God’s grace and to be moved by God. You must experience and taste this for the order to be correctly.
3. Me
1) Only – Talent
There is something only God has given to you, that’s your talent. Do not be deceived.
2) Uniqueness – Specialization
3) Re-creation – Field (People)
Conclusion
1. Summit
Someone exercises a long time, so they must be confident in their physique and have mental strength in this area of their life, but this person does not know the gospel or spiritual things. So, from the outside, this person seems like they have a very strong physique and mental state, so they are the summit in their area. Other people might look at this person and think they are well-accomplished, but spiritually, they have nothing. For those people, they may not say anything outwardly but they suffer internally due to spiritual problems. On the outside, they look physically fine and appear to have skill, but you cannot see inside. If you continue to go up in a certain area without summit time, that is how you will become as well. Without a doubt, when you wake up in the morning, you must have a time of prayer.
(Prayer)
Without a doubt, my spiritual state will change. Remember the notes you took on the pulpit message. If you have this time every single day, one day, you’ll gain a lot of brain or mental power.
Concentration
This comes from summit time. You must study and work within this power, that is how you overcome spiritual problems. For people who work and study without this strength, they become weak and deserted; imagine if you keep studying without eating. You’ll get to a point when you can’t study anymore. What happens if you keep studying without spiritual strength from God? Of course, without spiritual strength, you have spiritual problems. What happens if you keep studying without eating food? Your brain runs into a problem. What happens if you keep living without having a spiritual time with God? Your spiritual eyes are blind, and later on, you start to feel it as mental suffering because you cannot know the spiritual things with your senses. You can only know your mind and body and it reveals itself as suffering. If suffering is revealed, it has been processed for a long time, so don’t just live your life but have summit time.
2. Daytime
Throughout the day, pray for a moment for God’s plan
3. Night
Find the answer to the things you experienced throughout the day, pray for a moment. What happens if this takes place every day for the children? The spiritual strength piles up and becomes answers. But if you don’t have this time at all, you’ll never be able to see answers. May you have victory.