The Covenant of God Being With Us Never Changes (Daniel 6:10)
The content of Dan. 6:10 is Daniel who prayed, facing the Temple of Jerusalem, three times every day, in thanksgiving. Daniel was a very successful proconsul who served four kings. Even if the remnants don’t hold onto the word of success, if God raises them up, they’re bound to be raised up. However, success that is not raised up by God is bound to fall in the end, because whatever we raise on our own is a house that is built on sand. Even though God may allow that to remain in necessity, in the end, it is bound to crumble.
The chosen people of God, the Israelites, were taken captive to Babylon, and the scripture we read today is the content of Daniel’s prayer. Even before they were taken as captives to Babylon, they already received the blessing of the covenant of Isaiah in Isaiah 7:14 of Immanuel. The word “Immanuel,” that the LORD would be with them, was the Word God gave to them right before the Northern Kingdom was conquered by Assyria.
God said, “Never rely on any background that is not God. Do not ever try to keep or protect yourself using methods like humanism.” Even though God had given them this covenant, they had lost hold of it. Ultimately, Northern Israel was destroyed by Assyria and the Southern Kingdom was taken captive to Babylon for 70 years.
Even before God allowed this to happen, God continuously gave His Word. God did not make things happen all of a sudden; He is continuously giving His Word in advance. However, people who take the Word of God as a joke or think of it lightly, even though they may not face the results now, they will face the results in the end.
Daniel already received the results God gave him. By the unbelief and idol worship of the adult generation, even the generation of children were taken captive to Babylon, but Daniel was okay in that situation. He was in the highest position of proconsul across four different kings. Where did this kind of strength and blessing come from? It came from the Word of God’s promise, the covenant, “I will be with you.” So it didn’t even matter that he went to Babylon because God was with him there. It didn’t matter if they were colonized by Rome because God was with them there.
It doesn’t matter if we’re in the land of America because God is with us here. But what happens if you look at the land of America and lose hold of the covenant that God is with us? Then you’ll be destroyed like the Israelites who were not like Daniel. There were not a lot of people who returned to Israel 70 years later. Most of the people either died or remained there as the scattered diaspora. The Word of the Bible is being fulfilled even now in the same way.
According to the promise God gave Daniel, he prayed three times a day, facing Jerusalem where the Ark of the Covenant was located. If you misunderstand, you’ll think about the action of praying, but what’s more important is that he prayed three times a day holding onto and believing the promise of the covenant that God had given in faith.
People’s skills can be good or bad, and people try to judge their lives based on their skills. Daniel served four different kings. Maybe we would be able to serve one king well, but are you able to continue if the king changes? Especially for our future generations, what will you prepare now looking far into the future? You must prepare this strength, God Who is with me. The Jesus Christ Who promised to be with me with all authority in heaven and on earth. You hold onto this promise and it will never change, no matter what circumstances you face.
Every time Daniel faced a crisis, as evidence God was with him, God gave him wisdom. I’m not saying that we get wisdom if we’re with God, but as evidence that God was with him, he had wisdom. Even if we’re going through the coronavirus pandemic, as evidence that God is with us, God will open up the way. As we go through the different Industrial Revolutions, as evidence God is with us, God will open up that path. It is that person who stands firmly in the covenant and looks to God. That person will never fall until God Himself falls. That’s what it means that God is with you.
As long as God doesn’t make a mistake, God doesn’t make mistakes. Even if I make a mistake, it’s not a mistake because God isn’t trapped or limited by mistakes. Even if you get a disease, God’s promise is not limited by that disease. If God needs it, He can take away your disease; even if He does not, you can be thankful He is with you.
There is a work God is doing; all you have to do is think of evangelism. I tell you to think about evangelism, but it’s hard to do that, isn’t it? It’s because we haven’t been rooted in it, so we’re continuously filled with other thoughts. What I mean when I say evangelism is it’s not something you do, but it naturally takes place when you’re constantly thinking about it.
For people who like to fish, fishing naturally takes place. People who don’t like fishing will have to set a certain date. But if someone always goes fishing, even in their momentary spare time, they’ll go fishing. But those who don’t fish much will only go when someone says, “Let’s go fishing.” It’s the same with evangelism. If someone is thinking always of evangelism, they can see it, but if we don’t have that at all, even if we have the opportunity, we won’t go in that direction.
You guys are doing evangelism camp using the word “camp,” but that’s just one method of training to always think of evangelism. Are you not going to do this when you go to your job? If you always have this thought, God will open the doors. If someone is always thinking of exercise, they’re always exercising. But for the people who do not exercise, even if they have free time, they will not exercise because they won’t think to do it. But for people who think of exercise, they’ll always do it when they have a spare moment. Even thieves are always thinking of stealing something, so they have the smallest opportunity and they’ll steal. But for people who aren’t always thinking about stealing, they have to set their mind on it and make a plan and that’s why it’s so hard.
Today, we read about Daniel who always had this thought. For such people, it doesn’t matter what they face, they have no reason or excuse; they have the gospel, God will always be with me, He will be with me with all authority in heaven and on earth. But for the people who are always enjoying this covenant, even if they face a large problem, they are able to see the path God is opening with them.
Because God is with him through the direction and plan, God is able to see God’s plan to glorify Him even in Babylon. This must be prepared even while you’re young. It seems like we’re listening to the same words, but we’re not. Only when you are able to be rooted and have the nature in these words will you understand. Our habits are extremely important. If you repeat these same actions again and again, it becomes a habit, and later on, even if no one tells you to do it, you’ll do it on your own.
It’s the same with this. If someone consistently has the promise of God’s gospel, they’ll continuously be okay no matter what situation they face. But because they don’t always have this covenant, they’ll say sad words like, “Things don’t work out for me, I can’t do this,” those words may be correct but they are offensive to God. Adults will say things like, “The economy is so difficult,” they have to keep saying those words and then go to heaven. It’s evidence they’ve lost hold of the covenant. But for someone who has the covenant, even if they’re in the midst of so much competition, they can win without competing.
You need to have this basic fundamental or foundation. Whatever you’re studying or working on now is the way to get your basic foundation. If someone doesn’t have the basics, they can’t do anything. If you don’t have the basics, you don’t have a foundation to start on. So, if you just have the basics if you’re holding onto the covenant, no matter where you go, you’ll be okay. The more the circumstances make it seem like it cannot take place, you will take place all the more because everyone else will fail.
What does it mean to take place? It means God’s guidance is with you, and the way God guides you is the way of evangelism and mission, saving the 237 nations. Other people rely on their own strength or the strength of their group, so if they lose their strength, there’s nothing they can do. It seems like those people are leading but when they face a crisis, they have nothing. Look at Noah, when they faced the disaster of the flood, everyone else died except for Noah, especially the remnants must prepare this.
There is no such thing as things working out or not. You don’t even know God’s tremendous plan but you look at tiny things and say whether things are working out or not? You can’t even make those judgments.
When you wake up in the morning, do this first. What does that mean? As you start your day, how can you live without the strength of this covenant? If you start your day without this, it means you already want to start your day without this strength, then you live without God. Because you already begin this day with this unbelief, imagine how the rest of the day will go. It must begin with this. Before you go to sleep, this. Then it will become easier in the morning because the spiritual state is relayed directly in the morning. The reason you’re not able to do this in the morning is because your spiritual state is a mess at night.
If you’re looking at the things of the world, it’s humanism, “This person tried this or did that,” if you’re looking at things like this, how can you hold to the covenant? “The King of Saudi Arabia went to Korea so Korea will make it big,” but there’s no God there, and that’s how people think. During the election, people talk about how the elections took place but none of that has anything to do with the covenant and ultimately it has nothing to do with your life. “Oh, lately there’s so many cases of the cold and flu going around,” but you lose hold of the covenant and you get used to thinking that way.
Regardless, God’s covenant is not changing; whether you live or die, God’s covenant does not change. You must root down into the covenant that is not affected by circumstances. Such a person has already won, then they go in. If you’re trying to live in the world without winning in advance and say, “Let’s see how well we can do,” you’ve already lost. If you say, “Let’ see how far I can go and if I can’t, I surrender,” you’ve already lost. Hold onto this covenant 24 hours and no matter what happens to me, it will not affect me. That’s how the darkness will flee.
You shouldn’t be looking at circumstances and trying to argue or calculate what to do. If you have God’s covenant, all of those things are irrelevant. The one who has all authority in heaven and on earth is with me for eternity, you must hold onto this firmly. That means he held onto this so his heart didn’t shake. It doesn’t matter what kind of things Daniel faced, but he always held to the covenant, and the evidence of that is that he served four different kings.
What does it mean he held to the covenant? “I don’t want to bow down to idols or receive strength from idols, I will hold to the covenant.” It was the same for Daniel and the three friends who studied with him, they refused to bow down to idols, “Because no matter what circumstance I face, God will be with us. Even if he throws us into the fire, we will go,” that’s how certain they were of God’s covenant. That doesn’t mean we should really try to be brave or challenge this.There’s no one who wouldn’t be afraid in the face of death, but they thought, “We only die once, so let’s die for the covenant.”
Esther was the same, she did not shake, and just like God promised, He did His works. Why would He do that? It was the work that saved all of Israel. He revealed to all of Babylon that only the LORD God is the True God. After Jesus Christ came to earth, he said, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Only the people who hold to the covenant will not be affected. Go to all peoples and give them the gospel, and heal them of disease and cast out demons. Only the people who hold to the covenant will not be affected. “Feed my lambs,” only the person who holds to the covenant will not be affected by anything. Why? Because Jesus didn’t promise to be with us once or twice a year with authority in heaven and on earth. He said, “I will be with you with all authority in heaven and on earth for always and eternity.”
God is with you to the point where you never have to worry, 24 hours. By being with you, God will give you the evidence that He is with you, and that evidence is bound to come to your job. He told you to stand as a witness. He will give you the evidence. If your company is facing a crisis, it doesn’t matter, but if you don’t have assurance in the covenant, when you face a crisis, you have to run away. It doesn’t matter even if you’re facing a crisis, God’s covenant does not change. It doesn’t matter where you are. As evidence God is with you, He will change that field.
There are no excuses. Look at the Early Church. A few weeks ago, I heard a testimony from North Korea. Communism does not acknowledge any religion. If you evangelize in North Korea, it means you stake your life to evangelize. That’s how these people learned about evangelism because, “If I get discovered, I give my life to save the other person.” It was the same in the Early Church. In order to become witness of the Early Church, you must stake your life.
The reason you have to give your life is, if you’re caught evangelizing about Jesus Christ twice, you’re executed. They staked their life to save one individual. It’s not like evangelizing to get blessings upon you and your children; that’s not evangelism, that’s idol worship. Even if you begin that way, I’m sure that as time passes, God will change us because even the incorrect things will change to become correct.
There’s not a single person who should have gone to the Early Church because they would die. If you say, “I believe in Jesus Christ,” it means you give up your life to do so. It’s different for people to believe in Jesus now. People freak out even if they’re a little bit inconvenienced. If someone talks badly about me just a little, I can’t sit still. If I go to a separate church, I will run away, so I will die. It’s not that we don’t have churches or seminaries, but we have lost the value of the gospel God has given to us.
So, stop trying to dig further into the Bible and learn more; you don’t have the value of this gospel. “Oh, it will be a little better if I listen to messages like this,” you haven’t received the value of the gospel to stake your life like this. The reason why Americans change churches so often is that they think, “If I go to church more often, I will receive more grace and blessings.”
There are so many churches and because there’s an abundance of theology, they go back and read in the original language. There was a year or two where I did Bible Study in Orange County, and someone was very deep into theology and studied the original language and said, “I can only listen to pastors if they talk in Greek. I can’t listen to translations, I have to hear it from the original language,” and his face was so dark, so I said, “I understand.”
And if those kind of people go to churches then they are judging and they are very critical of the message because they have their own standard of right or wrong. That is America today. It’s not for a lack of churches; it’s not for a lack of messages, either. There are so many messages, even those from the original text. Even in the grass fields, there are churches, and there are even schools there. There Are plenty of things we can do, but we’re not satisfied. They go here, they go there, they’re not satisfied. Because the gospel hasn’t come into them for them to stake their lives, they look for something more. They’re not even able to read the Bible in North Korea. So they just inherit Bibles from long ago and they keep it hidden. There’s no theological analysis they can do with that.
This person who was giving a testimony, “I learned evangelism is something you stake your life for.” because that’s the circumstance he’s in. if he evangelizes to someone and they accept the message, but the person gets caught, they will die. Do you have the gospel that is worth staking your life on? Don’t you think that’s what America needs today? America is founded on wrong things, they are finding the wrong answers saying, “What is this or that, what is this saying?” Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ; there’s nothing deeper we need to look for. It is the cross we can stake our lives on. Is there any other way with which we must interpret the cross? I’ve been crucified with him and now he’s within me, and that’s what we need to explain. We need to be completely satisfied and complete with only this gospel; nothing else will satisfy us.
That’s why people listen to this and that and they’re ruining their nature. They’re trying to calculate everything as they judge. It’s because they haven’t received the value to stake their lives on it. Once you discover that, everything is finished. You have to finish everything with the cross of Jesus Christ. If it is not finished, it is not the cross.
Daniel and his three friends gave up their lives. That doesn’t mean they necessarily give their lives, but they were threatened to be put to death if they did not worship idols, they said, “I will hold to the covenant regardless,” it means it didn’t matter what the circumstances were. The covenant is the covenant and God will keep His covenant without ever changing. Three times a day, he held onto this in thanksgiving. Thanksgiving because God was with him. The more evil the circumstance you’re in, the more you’re thankful because God Promised to be with you in that circumstance, then that person’s walk of faith is full of thanksgiving.
“We’re so thankful you allowed us to buy this house,” then what will you do if you cannot buy it? Even still, be thankful for He is with you. This color of faith must be relayed to the field, but it’s not. Because the fundamentals are not set, people try to learn and add more, but that’s not going to cut it. People who have been prepared only want to hear this. There are people who are prepared in your field who only feel they receive the answer to life when they hear the gospel.
The problem is there are only a few people who understand these words. Most people give a mixed gospel, not something you stake your life on, but its’ barely adequate, most people are not being revived. You and I have already died on the cross with the Lord. If we’re already dead, you shouldn’t try hard to live; we have come to life with the Lord. The more you keep trying to protect your own pride or assert your own beliefs or opinions, the more you will be destroyed because that’s a “me” that will be destroyed. I have been crucified with the Lord and now I live eternally with the Lord.
Everyone will die physically once and it doesn’t matter, we’ll all die eventually. Because you keep trying to save your own body, you’re not able to study or work or do anything. It’s not about your strength; our strength is nothing else. Do you think a lot of people coming to church is strength? It’s not. All we need is God. All you need to have is the faith that knows the value of this gospel enough for you to stake your life on it. Then, just within that faith in this covenant, we can do Temple Construction. It’s because we don’t stake our lives.
It’s because we keep trying to compartmentalize. If you’re able to docsiver the value of this gospel that’s enough to stake your life on, we can devote everything to God, and that’s how we must become. What’s the point of not having the gospel but trying to build your own house? You won’t have the gospel so you’ll be insulted about this and that. We may have a church building but there’s no church. There’s a church and there’s a church building, God doesn’t lack money; what we need is the gospel, there are so many church buildings, and there are so many church buildings being sold, why? Because the church has been destroyed. The individual believers and the pastor have been destroyed. That’s why the church building is destroyed and they’re being sold.
What is it that we must seek from God? God wants us to restore this complete, perfect gospel, and confirm this gospel every day. Believing is God’s work. There is nothing we need to do because even if we do something, it’s useless. Believing is God’s work, and if you believe then God will begin to work with the strength of being with you. We are such creatures. We already have this gospel. May you restore the blessing that has no choice but to restore everything of your life with this gospel.
Prayer
Let us pray holding onto the Word we have received today.
This Sunday will be Thanksgiving Sunday. This year is almost already over. May next week be a precious worship where you’re able to confirm and give thanks for the work God has been doing through you and through the church and wherever you go.
Next week we have RCA and God will absolutely give us the Word He will fulfill throughout next year. When that’s rooted in your heart, you will receive the answers like Daniel did. That is how we stand firm in the Word we hear and are certain of, ever since we’re young. It is not because there is a lack of the word, but the problem is, we are not rooted in God’s Word. It’s not because of a lack of deep analysis of the Bible, but my heart is not rooted in this gospel. So, the key is, “How will I live my life, rooted in this word, 24 hours, every single day in the covenant?” There is no other method. Let us pray for the Sunday message and for RCA.
Let us pray for the children’s, youth, and young adult evangelism schools, and the business and industry message for tomorrow. There are 70 disciples and 70 regions around you. If that didn’t exist, God would be a liar, right? It is there, but you won’t be able to see that with the way you’ve seen everything in life so far. That’s why it says God’s blessings are hidden,and if you pray about it, holding onto it, you’ll realize they are already before you. So let us pray for tomorrow and the 70 disciples, 70 regions, 70 nations, and 70 tribes that exist. Let us pray for them.
I’ll give you a homework assignment, it is a good homework assignment. It is a homework assignment to find whether the 70 disciples and 70 regions are really around you. If someone is not thinking of this, they will think it’s not there, but absolutely, there are 70 nations and disciples around you, but because we don’t pray about it, we don’t have thoughts about that, so this is the homework assignment to find blessings. Even if there’s one person here who says, “Yes, that is true,” they will receive answers. There are people who think of this as a joke, and they will continue to live life that way. They exist in your business and your life, and God has prepared these answers for you. May you enjoy this blessing.
Finally let us pray for the missions fields and i Construction. God has opened many doors for us this year, the issue is not about the doors He has opened, but how will we raise up the things He has given to us? That’s what’s more important. Next year, how will God prepare us, because God will open things up according to the vessel we have. Let us do our last prayer, do the benediction, then go home.
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 people of God, the people of all nations, and the remnants who desire to hold onto the covenant for 24 hours and pray to be in the fulfillment of that covenant always, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.