The Reason for the Value of the Gospel That Saves the Field (Daniel 10:10-20)
We will share the Word of God today with Daniel 10 regarding Daniel’s prayer. Daniel was a young adult who was dragged as a captive from Israel to Babylon. The cause, the reason why Israel was taken as captives to Babylon was because of idolatry. Because they were worshiping idols, they lost hold of the gospel, in other words, it means they lost hold of the covenant. If you lose hold of the covenant, then the people who are meant to save Babylon are taken as captive, dragged to Babylon.
Most people, even though they’re dragged to Babylon, do not know the reason why. However, Daniel was a young adult who knew the reason why. The Israelites were now taken as captives as Babylon because of Daniel, it was honestly the fault of the priests in charge of the temple as well as the kings that were in charge of the government nation. They had disbelief regarding the covenant which caused all the young adults to suffer. When people lose hold of the covenant, there’s a reason that gives them no choice but to do so. It’s because their hearts were going in a direction that is not the covenant, and that’s the direction of the idols of the world.
We believe in a God invisible to our eyes because of our faith in the covenant. If we could see Him with our eyes, it would be easy for us, but that’s not faith; that’s just science, because science means you know the cause and result, but that’s not faith; that’s just knowing something. But God is working right now, invisibly to our eyes, and He works according to the covenant, but they lost hold of the covenant.
What do you think the covenant is? It’s the blood sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the offspring of the woman, Genesis 3:15. What happens if you go to church, losing hold of this? You will begin to be dragged into the world as a captive. It’s not as if the Jewish people had lost hold of their sacrifices; they were still doing that. It’s possible to even as you’re giving sacrifices to lose hold of the covenant. The sacrifice they were giving itself was the covenant of the blood sacrifice, but they were giving the sacrifices without knowing the covenantal meeting.
But God doesn’t strike us down just because we lose hold of it immediately. God continuously gives them signs and chances. If God punishes us the moment we lose hold of it, that would not be God. But if we relentlessly remain within our disbelief, then God has no choice but to take us as captives to Babylon. Daniel and his friends have a lot of skill and intelligence, so they were dragged to the palace to work, because Babylon is not a nation that serves God, they serve idols, and as a result, people have to follow the spiritual atmosphere of the nation. Because they’re in the seat of success, they have to align themselves with the nation.
But Daniel was spiritually awake, and that was by God’s grace, and it’s great if many people like this arise. The reason it’s good is because then the nation will be saved. Soldiers do not save the nation; presidents do not save the nation; economy does not save the nation; God saves the nation through the people with faith in the covenant. So what’s important is the businessperson with the covenant, the remnant with the covenant, the skilled individual with the covenant.
Daniel saw the field of Babylon and it hurt his heart, and while he was praying, he fell asleep. At that time, God appeared to him, the angel of the Lord came to Daniel in a dream and this was their conversation in Daniel 10:10-11. Then from Daniel 10:12, he says, “Do not be afraid,” because Daniel knows he’s serving in a demon-worshiping, idolatrous nation’s palace, so of course he would be afraid. But most people who don’t know this fact will say, “It’s way better to live in Babylon than to live in Israel, it’s before for us to study and to get jobs.” Most people will be like that, but there will be some people like Daniel, some remnants and young adults like this. They know something spiritually.
He knows he cannot do anything alone, so when he is alone, he kneels before God and prays. While he was praying, he fell asleep and the vision he sees is the content we read today. “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you set your mind to gain understanding and be humble in front of God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.” What did Daniel resolve? He made a resolution in Daniel 6 not to bow down to idols because that was the state of the field; he could not bow down to idols, and it says he would not eat the food sacrificed to idols, and that’s not an easy thing to do because the entire field was crawling with demons, and that was the command of the king.
So of course he has fear, but because he knows the spiritual things, he made a resolution. When you set your mind to something, you have to resolve to lose your life for this sake in order for you to have peace. Before that point where you say, “I will stake my life for this,” you are simply doing something. However, if you resolve something or set your heart on something, it means you’re willing to die for it. Until that point, you’re just doing something normally, and you will not see the field.
But because Daniel did see the field, he had no choice but to resolve and to set his heart. The remnants are being dragged into the culture of the world, aren’t you? And the churches are so entrenched with legalism, humanism, mysticism, and prosperity-based faith. We must be the people who resolve on only the gospel, only evangelization. People like this will see the field and just pray.
Then, what will God say? He will send you an angel to say since the first day you set your mind on whatever you resolved to pray for, and God received your word and he is fulfilling your word. Daniel 10:12, “I have come in response to them,” the angel says. When you pray, the works transcending time and space take place, whenever you resolve in the will that aligns with God’s, the prayer for the field.
Daniel 10:13, “The prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me for 21 days,” this is talking about the armies of evil spirits controlling Persia. There are armies of evil spirits controlling a nation with idolatry. God gives us the answer through these angels, and these evil armies are blocking them. “Michael, one of the chief princes and an angel came to help me because I was detained by the Prince of Persia.” There are angels who give us answers and angels who fight like Michael. So it took three weeks, 21 days, for the angel Michael to fight against the evil armies.
Daniel 10:14, “Now I have come to explain to you what would happen to you in the future for the vision concerning a time yet to come. Daniel is also known as the Revelation of the Old Testament because it describes in detail what will happen in the end times. Revelation in the New Testament tells us of what will happen in the future.
If we don’t know the field, then we cannot pray, or we will pray incorrectly, but for the people who know the field like Daniel, they are bound to pray. But most people are not like this. If things are working out well physically, they just think, “Everything is working out well for me physically,” and they just let it pass by, but we shouldn’t let this pass by because spiritually speaking, you’re being submerged, and if you remain unreactive or ignorant of this, unimaginable things will take place.
People who cannot see this and are unaware will say, “What’s the big problem?” But for someone who knows the truth like Daniel, it’s a very severe problem, and because he can’t do anything about it, he has no choice but to pray to God. That’s the age of today. Honestly, it’s not enough to just know a few Bible verses, it’s not something you can overcome by practicing your skills, because you cannot win over Babylon with that.
There are evil armies seizing and controlling Babylon, and you only win when you’re praying. Before that point, you can’t do anything. That’s why God has given this blessing of transcending time and space to us. When we pray, the Lord sends His angels, transcending time and space, to fulfill His Word as we hold onto His Word. When we resolve in our hearts and pray, then God will move all His heavenly angels and heavenly hosts.
God’s will is saving lives, God’s will of all wills is to save the remnants because it doesn’t matter how great our faith is now; when the next generation collapses, that’s not God’s will. What is it that God wants? The answer God wants? The answer itself isn’t that important if you look at the field. That one person was Daniel.
Daniel never competed with anyone else but he was the leading politician for four kings in succession. Someone who cares about physical well-being cannot do this because when the king changes, they must abdicate their office, but Daniel was someone God needed, and Daniel was someone those kings needed, why is that? Because he’s someone who knew God’s will so he saw things differently.
What does God desire to do in the land of America today? God is interested in the person who is saving lives; God is interested in the people who are holding onto the covenant and praying and saving lives. From the moment that person resolves in their heart and prays, God’s answers already begin. As we’re living in this age, I believe the Word God gave to Daneil will be fulfilled in us in exactly the same way.
If it’s hard for you to worship in the church, then especially our remnants who are worshiping out of state, especially need our prayers, and at least for the people who can come to church to worship, that’s God’s grace and blessing. If someone is able to worship but they do not come to church, they are spiritually blocked. Some students want to come to worship but they cannot. We have to pray for them spiritually, that’s God’s will. What happens when we pray? When you pray, God works. That’s why the works of God, transcending time and space, will be revealed there. That’s the reason we gather together on Friday to read God’s Word and to pray together.
For me, when I was in seminary as an assistant pastor, I went to a church with a few members and they would post their service online. Because everything was online anyway, I would go to Seoul National University where I was going to do ministry anyway, and they would give me a free set of headphones and I would listen to the message there.
As I was doing this, I was an assistant pastor and a student at that time, and it didn’t make sense to me spiritually. On Sunday, there was a computer lab where a lot of students would come, some of them would watch sexually pornographic material, and that’s where I would watch the messages. I was giving worship there for a few months, and honestly speaking, it was not worship; there was no spiritual environment there at all. Because of that, I didn’t even know the meaning of worship; I just did that because I thought that at least, I had to worship.
There was a time like this for me. Because of that, we just had this online system, and that’s how I lived for a bit. This thing called “worship” is so important, and some of these students are living far from worship, so I wonder, “Can they really do this?” At first, they may worship a few times, however, as time passes, if we try to worship in our lifestyle we’re used to, then we cannot worship. Eventually, I’m pretty sure you’ll have the message playing in the background and you’ll be doing something else.
That’s what happened to me, because we feel obligated to listen to the message, but I just don’t want to focus on it, so I’ll multitask, or because no one is watching, I would just wear comfortable house clothes and worship like that. But if you continue like that, if you’re a little bit late, instead of watching it live, you’ll watch the video recording when it’s posted later. Even then, you’ll have some God-given things, but your spiritual state will continuously die off. Then what must we do? We have to pray. What happens when you pray? God works and answers, then God’s will is to pray to save students who are like this.
Today, Jesus Christ told us to find the lost sheep of Israel first. Yes, we have to save unbelievers as well, but there are saved children of God who have no strength right now, so save them first. Daniel saw the Israelite people who were captives in Babylon and he cried because they still were not coming to their senses, even after being taken captive to Babylon. I think the Israeliets were living in Babylon the same way the Israelites lived as slaves of Egypt, assimlinting in the culture, thinking they were doing well for themselves.
Daniel was a young adult, and there were a few people like him who were spiritually awake, and God worked upon them. We don’t need a lot of people to do this. Even if just a few people who know the things of God begin to pray, God will work. Later on, what answers and what place will they go to? Even if you don’t try to succeed, God will bring you to that seat, God will take you to the seat of success because we have to save successful people. Even if we do not succeed, we can proclaim the gospel, but from God’s perspective, there’s no need to do that.
It’s the same with Daniels’ three friends. If you have friends that are aligned with God’s will like this, then everything is finished. It’s important to have spiritual friends like this. Even if you’re able to marry like this, everything is finished. If you’re certain in God’s covenant, then God’s love is within God’s covenant and everything is finished. Honestly speaking, even if you begin weak in the covenant, as you progress, it will become more concluded; however, it’s just easier to start with a certain covenant.
Nowadays, people have been looking around for land for RU, and they are looking at lands held by all different religions which means all religions are closing their doors. They’re selling their buildings because they’re not able to remain open, for example, there’s a big Mormon church on sale, but this was happening even before COVID. We hear this and the churches are closing their doors as well.
What does this mean? It means people are not going, so these large buildings are being sold. Do you know how Mormon people build their buildings? Everything is very solid, it’s very scientific, it starts with the young adults, the sanctuary and worship area, then the training facilities, and we’re looking around, looking for buildings for RU, and we’re looking at big buildings, big seminaries, and Mormon buildings. There was another seminary that already sold its property and moved somewhere else.
What does this mean? This is a sign that religion is not an answer for America. Before this point, if someone had a problem for America, then even if they didn’t go to a Christian church, they would at least find their answer in religion. However, the great answer of this age is no longer religion; it’s in transcendental meditation so people are leaving religions and going there. Because people are receiving their answer and healing through transcendental meditation, people who used to go to other churches and religions are no longer going.
To what extent has transcendental meditation progressed in America? To the point where we have scientifically- and medically-based transcendental meditation. They’re using transcendental meditation in a medicinal and scientific way to solve the problems of mankind. The fact that it’s become scientific means that there’s scientific data backing the physical benefits that come from transcendental meditation, and it started being published in the 1980s.
All problems begin with the brain, and a long time ago, scientists concluded that the problems in the brain were unstoppable. However, there was one monk who was giving a lecture in a Harvard lecture hall, and he said the brain controls the heart and we’re able to overcome that by transcending. So, all the professors who gathered there were people who were interested in neuroscience and psychology. Until that point, the scientific community concluded that the human brain could not be changed, and therefore the heart cannot be changed, but this one monk said we can change both heart and the mind with transcendental meditation, so people began to stir. This existed much longer before, but starting from the 1980s, this became scientific and medically backed.
American people are very scientific, logical, and they need to be able to see things, so they went specifically to find the scientists who were talking about this. While someone was doing transcendental meditation, they hooked up sensors to their brain. They were able to document all of the changes that happened to the vital organs and the body during transcendental meditation.
These gamma rays emit very rarely in the body, however, the body started to emit gamma rays through transcendental meditation, and it was also influencing other organs. They said, “Wow, the brain can indeed change. It’s not based on food intake but it’s based on transcendental meditation.” From that point on, the rumors spread, and then it started being published in hospital and neuroscience journals, and this continues to spread out more and more as transcendental meditation for medicine and for science.
The people who are doing transcendental meditation are in the most elite class of America. Most of the participants and proponents of transcendental meditation are Jewish people. Buddhism in America is not like the Buddhism that’s in oriental countries like China, but it’s more like a transcendental meditation Buddhism and it’s spearheaded by the Jewish community in America. They’re applying transcendental meditation to curing cancers. It’s going to the point where they say, “All problems can be solved by transcendental meditation.”
Why am I saying this? The reason I’m telling you this is because it’s the culture and environment in America. People go to churches or religions for answers, and then they go to places for transcendental meditation because they aren’t able to find the answer elsewhere. But they listen to the Word of God from the evangelist God raised up, and this is what it means when the churches are a century behind on this age. We have this blessing of this complete, perfect gospel, and we have the blessing of Holy Meditation given to us, but instead, we’re fighting against who’s right and who’s wrong.
Because we’re holding onto Legalism o in this age, people are not coming to life. Elite people in the world come to the church and see people squabbling over, “Give me this, give me that,” so there’s no reason for them to go to churches. And all the people with unhealthy mysticism arise, looking forward to diseases being healed. Or people who have a lot of humanism, where they try to strategize the best programs to get people to come, but for intelligent people, it’s laughable.
If you’re using your brains to try to accomplish something in the church, then someone who is more accomplished than you in this world will be able to see through that immediately, and it’s laughable; the world will look down on that. That’s not what the church is like, that’s not everything. We need to see something that the world doesn’t see; what do you think that is? The gospel is the gospel, but what really needs to be relayed is how great the value of the gospel is. If you just say the words, “Christ, prophet, priest, and king,” those words are correct, but you really need to relay how tremendous the value of this is, and that’s how you will save these people.
This is how the field of America is flowing; how are our future generations existing? If we do not put the value of the gospel inside of them now, they’re going to like the world and go in that direction. When they come to the church, they do not receive healing, but when they do transcendental meditation, they do. In the world, they heal people in a very quiet, scientific, and sophisticated way, but when people come into the church, people are trying to heal with unhealthy mysticism, poking you in the eyes and knocking you over, that’s why elites don’t come to church.
We have to evangelize, that’s true, however, when we come to church, we have to see something. If somebody is wow’d by this miraculous program we’ve set up for the people, that’s a low class person. In this entire world, there’s no organization more impressive than the Roman Catholic church. Even right now, if the Pope in the Roman Catholic church says one word, that word is relayed directly to people all across the world in the countryside. That is such a solid structure and organization. That’s the structure of the Roman army, so if you want to talk about structure or organization, no one could compare with the Roman catholics.
So it’s not about that; it’s about the content. What’s important is that you’re relaying the content of the value of the gospel. If you want the church to be clean, it can be so clean. Try going into the companies of the world, do you think the elites in the world are listening to my messages because they think they’re so great? People say that my words and vocabulary are not very smooth. Simply put, from the viewpoint of the world, it appears that I don’t have anything. Even the words I use should be elevated like a college professor’s, but I don’t have any of that.
However, there’s still something being transmitted. I told that deaconess, “Because your husband is such an elite, you must be afflicted when you see someone like me,” and she said, “That isn’t the case. If anything, it’s better if people like that hear the way you express things.” Because the elite people live in a society where they’re so careful about revealing too much about themselves, and they try to refine their language, so if anything, they like this content more.
I’m not encouraging that, but what I’m saying is that people do not change with logical words. Does the person who is speaking really believe that Christ is everything? As we’re testifying of this Christ, does He have enough value for which we will give everything? Before such faith, even kings will crumble, but if you don’t have this, you keep on having to hold onto some other forms. “Unbelievers like things like this, so I’ll do it that way” but I’m sorry to tell you that unbelievers don’t like that, I didn’t when I was an unbeliever. If a pastor keeps talking about science before scientists, they will feel foolish. A pastor needs to talk about the covenant in the Word of God, in the Bible, and it doesn’t matter if it’s done in a rough or smooth way.
America is the nation that is the most successful in the world. Do you think we’re going to win by doing things in the American style? We can never win by trying to match their ways. Imagine Daniel trying to overcome Babylon in that way. That’s what I’m saying. There are certain moments where we think things will work out if we have the things of the world, but in my experience, I think that’s just basic. You study in college, and if you want to study more, yo ugo to grad school; that’s just basic.
By my experience, that doesn’t cut it. THe problem is, we cannot overcome people. Working at our job in society is not the problem, the people are the ones who drive me crazy, and I don’t know myself well, either. I’m working with these people but I don’t know them, and that’s why it’s hard. Only the Bible tells us about this, and when I’m talking about people, I’m talking about the centermost part of them, their spiritual code, that’s only given to us in the Bible, and if we just want to talk about this from a worldly way, we’re not prepared in that knowledge. So, we suffer because of people and we have to avoid people.
When people go into their jobs, it’s not the actual job or work that’s hard; it’s the actual people who make it hard. Because we never studied the spiritual aspects of people, we only studied in school, so we’re spiritually attacked because of our ignorance. Because Daniel knew this ,he had no choice but to pray. Even when he was taken captive, he did the same thing. For people who didn’t come to their senses, in fact they thought they were better off than when they were in Israel. So Daniel had no choice but to pray the prayer that God desires, and of course it was bound to receive answers,
Prayer
Praying a lot is not what’s important, but it’s the prayer that’s absolutely necessary. I would first like to pray tonight for the prayer that God desires. There is the lost sheep of Israel. Let us pray right now for the remnants, especially the remnants out of state. Let us pray together with the Word we have received. God, as we look in the field of America, may this be the time where we resolve. May we pray the prayer that God desires. Let us pray together.
We have received word that Joseph Shin surgery went well today, and we received the message to pray for the remnants that are out of state, but we will have a time to pray for them together. Eunice Lee right now is studying in Iowa. Senior Deaconess Kim Yong’s child is right now studying for her third year in South Carolina. In Boston, we have Eren Shin who is studying there, and there’s also Brice who used to be a complete unbeliever and received salvation and is now worshiping well online. In Chicago, we have Lois, and in Minnesota, we have David Park who is the son of Senior Deaconess Park. Joseph Shin who went through his surgery well today and will be joining our church after he graduates from college, so let’s pray for our remnants and young adults that are out of state.
Our second prayer topic is for the trainings in our church. Right now, we have the new believers training, and the new believers should of course go and listen. For the committed workers, for those who are not able to give the way of salvation in a short way should also come and listen. Let us also pray for the 237 training that will take place next week.
I have been giving these announcements during Early Morning prayer and during Wednesday night prayer. For three weeks, he will train us with the 30 gospel Bible verses so that it becomes ours. It’s impossible for me to memorize these Bible verses because I’ve never been given this time. For the basic message training, you should be able to give the way of salvation message in one minute, 10 minutes, over 3 days and 4 nights, depending on the person.
Since last month, Rev. Ryu has been teaching us through the gospel letters as well so that we can nurture people. The gospel letters are ten letters that have even gone into North Korea. There was a set of gospel letter messages recorded in Spanish, and we sent that to a pastor in El Salvador, and he’s been spreading the message there.
These are the trainings we have. It’s going to be a concentrated training over 12 weeks or 3 months, and if you want to register, please contact Senior Deaconess Choi, or Assistant Pastor Park. As I’ve been praying with Assistant Pastor Park, there’s something she’s worried about. There’s some people who may be offended by this, but this is just what I see as a pastor. Everybody has something different. But for this assistant pastor, she’s experienced things that even pastors haven’t experienced in the evangelism field,and she has evangelize more than us, and she used to be a teacher, so I said, “She’s the perfect one to teach the class,” because if you haven’t experienced the evangelism field, you can’t properly teach fully. Because she used to be a professor, she’s perfect.
So no matter how much I pray about it, I believe this assistant pastor has been given a heavenly talent and it’s perfect for her. The church cannot be run by just the pastor doing everything, and you alone cannot do everything on your own, either. There’s a talent God has given to each person from heaven, and we use these God-given talents to have and enjoy the blessings of Immanuel and oneness for God’s purpose.
We have to pray for the trainings and receive answers. Let us pray for the new believer training and 237 training and the church trainings.
I haven’t told the remnant ministers this yet, but there was a Catholic person I met in the field on Thursday, and this person’s daughter is in 9th grade. This student has such a bad scar regarding Korean schools that they get along well with Hispanic and African American kids, and this student wants to learn how to play the guitar. The reason I heard those words carefully is because this is something I’ve been praying for over multiple months.
On Saturdays, there’s a two hour block between Saturday Mission School and Young Adult Evangelism School, and I was wondering what we should do at that time, because during that time, the kids are wasting time on their phones. So I thought we should be teaching those kids at that time on the guitar and the drums. The goal is for the mission of raising those kids to be part of the EM praise team.
The kids need a goal, why do I have to learn the bass, the guitar, the drums? So they can participate in EM praise together. I’ve been praying for this for about 2-3 months and this is the answer I got. For people who want to teach just have to come to church for a few hours on Saturday, and if you want to teach them something for Remnant Worship, then of course, God will work upon you. I’m sure there are people who want to do this in the church, and if there are not people like that in the church, God will bring people outside from the church, so let’s pray for the remnants on Saturday’s. So that ultimately these remnants can rise up as the praise leaders and guide everything forward, and we’re just playing the role of being their stepping stones.
Let us pray for the Remnant Evangelism Schools and the future praise team.
I heard two weeks ago that Nomin is pregnant, and Christine Lee is also about to give birth. What’s important is not just giving birth to the remnants, but we have to prepare the system in the church to receive them. We decided with Deaconess Shin, who has been going around to different churches to see how the educational departments are going in other churches, and she wanted to be led so she had this discussion with me. The prenatal department has to be prepared because we have the young doctor couple who had a baby and is unable to worship. Their baby doesn’t have any place to worship, so we say we’re praying for them, but they’re unable to come to worship because they’re doctors. We have to pray for all of these different educational departments to be raised up the way God desires.
Let us pray right now for the educational and remnant departments.
Our final prayer topic pertains to two students from Africa who join our young adult regional church on Thursdays, there’s one young adult and one college student, and they submitted their prayer topics for people in their regions. We have John from Burundi, and he’s a student studying right now. We have Charles who’s from Nigeria and we have Yonas in Ethiopia. In Kenya, we have Missionary Kim who is doing remnant ministry quite well there, so we have to pray for Africa ministry.
We also have to pray for Yakima, Washington. There’s a senior deaconess that’s in a satellite church in Yakima with remnants, and they’re doing the evangelism movement there. They’re also receiving training online through regional churches. Their son and daughter-in-law just had a baby boy, so we must pray for them so that they may have a large role in the church. Let us pray right now for our missions field and also the Yakima Satellite Church.
Let us sing Hymn 526 and end with benediction.
Benediction