The Life of the Believer (Romans 12:1-2)
How?
Living Sacrifice –Spiritual Worship
This Age – Don’t Conform X
Transcendental meditation, Hero, Philosopher
God’s Will – Discern
Holy
If you live for God, things will be used for God; if you live for the world, the things of God will be used for the world. You have your income you make, and there’s the economy of light and the economy of darkness. You think just because you go to church, you have the economy of light? No, that’s not true. Using the money for God is the economy of light. If it is not being used for God, it is the economy of darkness. It doesn’t matter if you go to church; you may not be holy. Because I need to live my life for a holy instrument for God, if I’m using my body for the world, it is not holy.
How do your studies become spiritual worship? That’s your life, going back and forth to church is not life; you need to live the life God desires in your everyday life. Things happen according to God’s will, and I’m an example of that. I became a pastor. Things don’t happen according to your will. If you keep moving according to your will, God will drag you to His will. There are two options when you’re dragged into God’s will. You can go, or be dragged in your stubbornness like me.
I didn’t even know what a pastor was, and no one in my family went to church. I only went to church to play ping pong. In my mind, the people who go to church just hang around and don’t study. After I believed in Jesus Christ, I understood. What is the life of a believer? It is the spiritual worship that helps you discern the will of God. Joseph went to Egypt and was able to do this. “There is no ‘me,’ it is only God Who is the Lord.” Because of that, you’re able to discern these things, and if it is God’s will, you are able to change Egypt. Because of that, everything is changed. The bartizan of God is raised up within me.
Because inside of me, there is the Genesis 3 that moves according to what I desire. If this doesn’t change? The remnants have a hard time praying, but when I first believed in Jesus Christ, no one taught me how to pray. I was a foreign exchange student, so whenever I went to church, I would cry and receive grace, but it was hard because I didn’t understand the language. There was no one around me to teach me how to pray, I only saw them on Sundays and maybe Saturdays, so no one around me taught me how to pray.
Then I learned, if I don’t know how to pray, just ask for God’s will, and I realized that’s God’s greatest blessing. This was the greatest prayer. It turns out, it’s actually written in the Bible. I was a new believer so imagine how complicated my thoughts were, so I said, “God, let things happen according to Your will,” and I became a pastor as God’s will. I didn’t even know what a pastor was, but I was led according to God’s will.
The Lord is already inside of you. God, seated at the throne, is within you. “God reign over me according to Your will,” and then the Lord’s specialty will reign over you. He is the King of all Kings and we exalt Him. I am not the king; I must be reigned over, and as I let go of my thoughts, heart, and will, and as evidence that God is reigning over me, He fills me with His grace and peace. Why doesn’t this take place? My willpower is too strong. The knowledge I’ve learned has become my standard.
Remnants have to know this. Everything you’ve studied physically is enough to earn a physical life, but the things you’ve learned are useless for changing your thoughts and heart. If Christ doesn’t reign over you, then you will be reigned over by money. You suffer and depression comes, you suffer because of loneliness. When I was an unbeliever, I was terrified of loneliness. It was the work of demons. Why was I afraid? I just was, so every day, I would meet with friends. Then, I would get very drunk to the point where I would fall asleep until I would get up for work in the morning. But it was fear, and this was my life.
2. Christian / World Authority
1) Obedience
Authority is given by God, and God allows the Pharaoh to do what he wants. God gave the authority to Pharaoh and we cannot overcome the authority. We just have to live under his authority. That’s the order that rules over this world. But the more we go into Gen. 3, we challenge the authority. Even if someone is a dictator, that authority was given to them by God. If you fight against that dictator, you die. Gandhi knew this and staged nonviolent protests, “I do not agree with how you carry out your politics,” so he didn’t fight back with violence, but he protested nonviolently. He’s not a Christian but he said, “That’s right according to the Bible,” so Gandhi rejected Christians and the church. He said, “Humans are not the answer,” then he looked into the Bible and read the Beatitudes and thought those were correct.
It’s the same for people who follow the teachings of Jesus and think they’re good. We take tests and think about what’s right or wrong, we’re used to judging what is right or wrong without God. So, without any obedience, we fight against that, and they oppress you with power, and you say you’re persecuted, because you keep thinking you’re right, you think you’re the only one who is right. You say the people above you are liars and you have to kill them, so a group of these people gather together.
Right, Wrong
There are people who are always similar and their characteristic is that things don’t work out.
If you threaten their authority, you oppose God. They will get rid of you using all your strength. You must learn this. I lived my life not knowing this, I thought I just had to be right. I thought I was the truth so I kept struggling. “That person is wrong, she’s not even below me, she’s above me and she’s wrong, but I never learned obedience so I boil over on the inside.” So, what happens to such a person when the person looks at me? I seem to complain a lot and be negative. But the people who are way above me, the people who are a little above me, I think I’m better than them. I was recognized by the people way up, and even if that’s the case, even if someone is hired one year before you, acknowledge them as if they’re God. Learn this in the church. If you’re able to do that, they’ll think you’re the best. If you serve them as if you’re serving God, no one will get offended because of that. They will give you everything, even the things they don’t have; they’ll give you all the information they have about the company without holding back.
What doesn’t take place? You’re not able to obey. You need to do this well. Look at Joseph. At the beginning, Joseph was very critical of his brothers. Later on, he learned while he was facing death, and he never opens his mouth widely again. He went in as a slave and was obedient. Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him, but he kept quiet knowing God would fix everything. David was so good to King Saul. He never fought against King Saul with what was correct, so that is why God moved. If you’re not able to do this? You need to learn this while young to see your relationships are easy. Young people consider this to be networking.
This is the believers’ life. Whatever it is, it isn’t the truth. The truth changes based on the time. From the perspective of China, they hate America, right? And they take all the information from America. From the perspective of a Chinese person, they like China, but Americans don’t like China. What do they say? “My perspective is the truth.” You may be able to discern that but it’s not the truth.
Don’t stake your life on incorrect things; things could be like this or that, even the incorrect things are opinions, and that person has no choice but to be like that because they have opinions, but you need to maintain obedience and discern God’s will. If you’re not able to do this, you may study well but you’ll be beaten to death. You think you just have to study diligently but later on, you’ll be beaten up. Smart kids cannot adjust to social life because you become arrogant. Not everyone but most will look down on people above them. That’s how they die.
Respect them as if they are respecting God. They know when they look at your eyes. Open your heart. They will choose the one who respects them. They do not choose you based on your skills, they choose the people they enjoy working with. When the president is choosing his cabinet members, it’s not about skills but it’s those who are on the same page. What is the truth? Only God is the Truth. From the side of democracy, democracy is correct; from the side of communism, communism is correct. Only God’s Word is the Truth; may you not stake your lives on people’s words. Accept everybody and say, “This is how you feel? I accept that.” but I will transcend and not be influenced by that. You won’t be disobedient this way.
This is the life of a believer, and wisdom like this comes from Christ. Why do we keep talking about this? You have no idea how hard things were for me because I didn’t know this. In my opinion, I was right, and my employer was wrong, so I was the one cut off. I was not someone who was helpful to the company but I was stuck with my own experiences and thoughts. Then, either you can prove you are correct, but you’re not even proving you’re correct, you’re just saying you’re correct. Such people are unnecessary but I couldn’t even say that out loud. This is our life, that’s why life is so hard. It doesn’t matter how well you study or what good company you go into.
Our actual life is different, why do I keep saying this? It’s the message, it’s my message. I tell my daughter one thing, “It’s your attitude of obedience.” She’s the opposite of this, she’ll say “no” and still do it. She’ll say no but still do it. I have the same DNA, and I just realized this. Will people in the world recognize this? She says it’s hard for her to say yes and follow through. What kind of job should someone with her character have? She’s a contrarian personality so how could that be used to glorify God?
There are a few things, maybe be a pastor, because you need to have something that doesn’t make you tied up between the Truth and untruth. Or, you can be in the law so you can keep the law no matter what. What else? Maybe a professor, I don’t know if I could be a professor, I don’t know. I think pastor is the best, just seeing what I’ve seen so far. Either way, obedience. That’s my message in life. I speak as if I’m trying to start a fight. That’s me, what can I do about that? I can’t even change myself so I hope you will understand that I’m just like that.
My daughter asks, “Do you have a problem?” I said, “Yes, how does she know?” Obedience is so important. I was also really good at this as well. Not the people who were right above me, but people who were way above me, I was respectful and obedient, so everywhere I went, people would acknowledge me so much, because some people thought I was strange. I look at the people who are right above me and it’s very low level, it’s hard to obey. I hope you will learn this very well in your family and schools.
2) Love – Conquer
We have human love to make relationships, and even people who are not close friends, you can say, “I pray for you,” and that’s love. “I pray for you even now.” Most people don’t hear those words, they say, “Hey, do you want to hang out?” But you can say, “I’m praying for you. I thought about you and I wanted to send you this message.” Conquer people with love. But if someone makes them uncomfortable? Sometimes my messages are left unread. If they are uncomfortable, they won’t do it. I say, “I love you within Christ, I pray for you.” If you keep doing that, even the hardest hearted people will say, “Not even my mom loves me like this,” actually love them. This is how you conquer people.
3) Season – Romans 13:11-14
I tell my daughter to dress modestly and to dress well. “Can’t I just dress however I want?” Yes, it’s your freedom to dress how you want, but the Lord says to dress respectfully. You can determine those boundaries, there’s no reason for purposely dressing immodestly.
3. Mission
1) Dual Contract
It says in Romans that there is a dual contract with Remnants and Church officers, a contract between me and God. “I will have a dual contract with the remnants in Africa, I will have a contract with Mongolian missions.” You need to have a contract to live that life. Without this contract with God, you’re not living your mission. That’s not the life of a believer. People say having a mission is irrelevant to their lives; that is someone who lives irrelevant to God’s contract or will. “As a church officer, I will help the pastor and the evangelist, that is my contract. I will help the future generations, I will be a remnant minister.” Or, “I will fight the spiritual battle for Temple Construction.” That is the Holy Mason.
Temple Construction is a spiritual battle. Temple Construction is a financial battle. Pastor Jung was talking from the book of Malachi. Your giving tithe is a spiritual battle. Because God says, “Test me to see if you give your tithe, will it be taken away? Otherwise it will be taken away by gnats and pests.” If your finances are sucked away by gnats, that’s spiritual battle. Temple Construction is a spiritual battle. It’s connected to that extent.
Through the Temple Construction, we do cultural warfare. What would happen if our church didn’t exist? Starting from tomorrow, we start Early Morning prayer on zoom, but if this building wasn’t here, we wouldn’t be able to do that. Everyone, be scattered. We say, “Church building,” or “worship.” Christ Himself is the Temple; however, we need that location. We need to have the base camp, the platform for regional and world evangelization. This will be my contract, we need to have a contractual relationship with God. That is a dual contract with God, based on the words of the Bible and the direction God leads our church. The “3” is the holy mason, the secret squad, and the remnant minister. Make the double contract.
3) Romans 16:25-27
I go into salvation along this journey, that is missions and evangelism. This is the life of a believer. The first point is the life that discerns God’s will, second, the life that is obedient to the authority of the world, and a life that conquers the world with love. Then, a life that has a dual contract with God with this mission. That’s the life of a believer. If you don’t use the basis of the Bible, you think the life of a believer is just about living a nice life. I was an unbeliever, living a super nice life, but I was living nicely because I was so oppressed. I was so oppressed by life so people thought I was innocent or naïve, they thought I was nice, and my mom’s nickname for me while I was young was, “blank face.” But as time passed, I was so oppressed by stress to study and succeed, so I would look nice to people because I was so burdened. In the past, I was so burdened, I didn’t even have the luxury to speak. “He doesn’t even go dancing, he didn’t have time, he’s so oppressed.” How would I go to a night club? I didn’t have the luxury; I was so oppressed, I didn’t even have the luxury to go on vacation. You have to feel good to go on vacations.
The life of a believer is not about being nice. These three things. Discern God’s will, obey the authorities, and conquer the world in love, and fulfill the mission given to you by Christ to fulfill the dual contract. That isa life that follows Christ, and whenever people see that, the world will change, that’s how you’ve been called. “I don’t want to.” The Lord knows that, that’s why the Lord says, “I will be with you. Just obey Me and I’ll do that work through you.” Entrust everything, “And I will do this for you.” That is the Kingdom of God coming upon me, the 3, 9, 3 prayer. I hope you will be able to pray that prayer. May you have victory.
God, we thank you. May the life of the evangelist become the life of the believer. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.