I have been speaking on the topic of calling/mission since the past few sessions. A calling is what a messenger sent forth has to do according to the ministry he has been called to. The one sent forth does not do the work with his own authority but by that of the one who sent him. We are therefore the ones sent by the King and working with the King’s authority. When God sent Abraham, He entrusted him with a certain task in order that through him, all nations on earth might be blessed. And he carried out his ministry well so that many people including us have been blessed.

Later, God chose the people of Israel. He brought them out of Egypt so that He might dwell among them and be their God and also do His works through them. However because the Israelites lived in Egypt for a long time, they did not know God too well and had even followed the customs of Egypt. They had worshipped idols, offered their children as sacrifices, and committed sexual immorality, and they continued in those practices.

For God to be with them and be their God, a change was necessary. God proposed the Law to them. He proposed the Ten Commandments and told them that they ought to keep them in order for Him to be with them. And in this passage God is speaking to them about that and what would happen to them if God was to be with them.

In verse 5 of chapter 19, He says, “If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.”

He said to them that He will give them His commands and if they obey them and keep His covenant, they will be His above all peoples. We can see here that God has all peoples on earth in mind. He said, “You shall be a special treasure to Me and you shall be a kingdom of priests.” Priests. This is an important point. They will be a kingdom of priests. Originally priests were chosen from the people. But there is also a kingdom of priests out of the many nations. He is telling them that they are a nation that will fulfill the ministry of priesthood.

What is the role of a priest? The priest was the mediator for the Israelites so that they may be able to meet God. The priest’s role was to have the unclean person forgiven of his sin and sanctified so that he may go before God and be reconciled to him. Without the priest, the Israelites could not meet God. In the same way, without a kingdom of priests, many people on earth will not be able to meet God. Thus God told them that they would become a kingdom of priests.

He said several times, “I will be your God and you will be My people.” What is the reason for God to become their King and establish His kingdom? To make them a kingdom of priests. So the blessing was not given to Abraham only to cease with him. Rather, just as God said to Abraham, “You will be a blessing so that all nations on earth are blessed through you,” His intention to be with them to be their God and His people was not to prosper that one nation only but to make them a kingdom of priests so that all peoples may know God and encounter Him. He was speaking to them of this plan.

During the time of David, the covenant was fulfilled and Israel became a great kingdom. They did well. At that time, other neighboring nations respected and feared them, but also served and feared Jehovah because Israel was a powerful nation and was compelled to worship the God of Israel too.

In the days of Solomon, his fame was so great that even the Queen of Sheba from the South came to Israel to witness his glory. It is similar to how people come here to behold the Christian World Mission Centre and are amazed and in awe of what God has done and leave with a determination to become Bereans too. Neighboring nations beheld the temple that Solomon had built and the works God had accomplished and were in awe. They acknowledged that it was truly God’s doing and were so amazed that they desired to become a nation that worships Jehovah, the God of Israel.

Many came from different countries to hear Solomon’s words of wisdom from God and became convinced that they too should worship Jehovah. So at that time, many Gentile nations started to worship Jehovah. The Queen of Sheba returned to her country and since that time there are still Jews living in Ethiopia. They worship Jehovah. The faith from that time continues to this day. In this way, when the kingdom of Israel was well established and strong, many nations were blessed as a result. And they should have continued in this way but they did not.

Their nation became corrupted and was divided into two kingdoms, each asserting that they ought to worship on the mountain while the other insisting worshipping in Jerusalem. The former argued that faith was more important than location and that it was not necessary to go to the temple as long as they followed God’s word.

As they conflicted, they became corrupt, drifting away from God which obviously led to their moral corruption. Moreover, they neglected their calling, their ministry. They lost sight of their duty as a kingdom of priests who must bless all the nations on earth. As a result, they began to perceive other nations as uncivilized and barbaric people and Gentiles. Later on, they even forbid people from traveling on the roads of the Gentiles.

So they did not travel on Samaritan roads but took another route around them. They did not even associate with Samaritans and treated them like dogs and pigs. Even after the disciples were changed by the gospel, they were ashamed of eating together with Gentiles. Yet Jesus talked to the Gentiles and ate with the sinners and tax collectors, and the Jews argued why He was doing that. In this way, these people had already neglected their calling and were filled with pride.

When a person loses sight of his calling, his pride increases. He starts to feel superior above others. For this reason, people who have received God’s word and a calling ought to be very careful. When one becomes less conscious of his calling and duty, he becomes proud. “I received something better than others.”

He might have received something better but that does not mean he is better than others. What would be the reason that God gave something so good to someone not so good like me or us? Did He reveal Berea to us because we had been good all this time? Was it because we truly loved the truth that He revealed Berea to us? Or is it that we had an honest and good heart that He gave us the truth whereas the others were calloused in their hearts and did not deserve to know the truth? Is that it?

The moment one harbours that in his mind, his work as a called missioner is over. And since his role is over and cannot carry out his duty anymore, what would become of him? He has no reason for existence. That is why Israel perished around 720 BC. Israel was destroyed and people scattered all over the world. It remained that way until recently about 50 or 60 years ago, when they were restored again. So they were scattered for thousands of years. Because they could not fulfill their task, they were fruitless.

Similarly, we received the word of truth – The Picture of God’s Will – from God, which is a big deal. It is worth feeling proud and superior. But then, what is our duty?

We have a mission. Our duty is that of priests. We have been assigned with the task of making this known to all the nations. This is not optional. In the Scripture Paul says, “Woe is me, if I do not preach the gospel.” He says woe is on him if he does not fulfill the mission assigned to him. He goes on to say that God will reward him if fulfills his task. Nevertheless, even if he is not rewarded, a necessity is laid on him to carry out his duty because it is a stewardship that God entrusted him with. Therefore he says, “Woe is me if I don’t fulfill my duty!” Paul was a commissioned minister.

We are supplying the word we have received to others, but we are not to be commended for doing this work effectively because if the commissioned servants do not carry it out, woe will be on them. They are expected to do the work. Hence having the idea that we have a choice to either give the word or not is the beginning of sin. We will begin to disappoint God. If we give the word because we want to and not when we do not want to, that idea itself is the onset of sin. We will begin to disappoint God. If we dispense this word only when we want, and not if we do not want to, what can happen is that we may start to share the word only with those who submit to us.

What is the philosophy behind Sungrak Mission Center’s ministry? It is to reject such practice. We have been fighting against that. All this time, that was the manner/flow of mission work that used to be carried out in our church. One person was appointed and full power was entrusted to him to be in charge of a particular country or region.

Do you know who benefits from such practice? It is less hassle for our church. For example, there is a country that we never heard about before. Let us say, Puerto Rico. Somebody there came to now Berea. From our position, we would be grateful that even one person knows Berea since there is no Berean in that country. So our church would start supporting that person and give him full power for that country.

That makes it easy for us because none of us can speak the language, and this person can work for us. In this situation, if we either teach Berea to that person only if he will listen to us, or not even introduce to him if he will not listen to us, the chances of the people of Puerto Rican receiving this word will be close to none. Mission work cannot flourish then. It is less problematic if the country is relatively small. But for big countries like China, it is not going to work if we select and appoint one particular person and give him full power to be in charge of the whole country.

It may work if he had a large vessel like Semuon with a great calling to understand his mission. But if he does not have such responsibility and chooses to introduce this teaching only to the people who are willing to listen to him, then this work is not going to succeed. Therefore we denounce such practice.

If we have the wrong mindset, it is likely that the people we are trying to teach in other countries will also adopt the same mindset. How will they have a sense of calling if we do not have it either? A person without a calling cannot raise another person to have a calling. In order for us to raise Berean missioners in other countries, all of us here first have to become missioners with a calling. Otherwise, no missioners will be produced. They are going to follow the same spiritual flow of our church.

After attending the recent World Bereans Convention, some people were filled with determination and decided to follow the spiritual flow of Sungrak Church as the mother church. However, not everyone came to that conclusion. Even amongst the Chinese souls, such response came only from the souls who had been nurtured by us and our translated works of Semuon’s books. People who had not received this nurturing did receive grace also.

However, their response at the end of the convention was something like this. “I will pray hard like Pastor Ki-Dong Kim, read the Bible more, and evangelize diligently so that I can be used greater.” This was the predominant response. That is a great response of course but that was not what we were aiming to achieve through this convention.

Many of them even shed tears but their response was, “I will work fervently. I was really moved. I will go and achieve something like Semuon. I will read the Bible diligently.” When they were asked to speak of their resolution, they said, “I will also read the Bible a hundred times.” However, that is not the reaction we were aiming for. Our aim was for them to preserve the purity of the word and maintain our spiritual position along with Sungrak Church at their center.

Some of those that we nurtured responded like this. “From now on, I will not only be concerned about my ministry but be mindful of Berea World Mission. Furthermore, I will go out to many churches and teach the word. And I will guide those fruits of my ministry to Sungrak Church so that they may also become branch churches of Sungrak Church.”

What led them to such a determination? Of course, it was through the convention that their determination was solidified, but for more than ten years, we had been teaching them this message. Whenever we taught them and spoke on the phone with them, it was on the basis of this idea that we counseled them. That is how this response came from them. On the other hand, others who were not nurtured in this way responded, “I will read the Bible more and heal more sick people.” Such people cannot become missioners.

For this reason, we have to first become ministers with a calling. For that, we must not regard sharing the word as a task we do because we want to do it, but rather as our calling. In the past, we may not have shared the word if we did not feel like it or if our circumstances did not allow to. However, from now on, we ought to acknowledge that it is not by our doing but that God showed us our calling and charged us with the ministry. Hence, we should not show off.

When I was in China, my co-workers and I had the job of handing out Bibles which we got from Hong Kong. All we did was hand them out because we were told to do so. But do you know how the people reacted when we handed them out? They were so grateful. They bowed to us saying, “Thank you. Thank you.” But what am I? I am nothing but just handing out what I was given. They did not need to thank me but the pastor who told us to. So I told them, “You don’t need to thank me. I am only handing them out.” Yet those who received, they were very grateful that we were handing them out to them. Some of them were elderly grandpas. The Bibles we handed out had commentary which were hard to come by so they were very grateful.

A few Chinese brothers and sisters were with us handing them out. But they had never done this sort of work before. And I apologise for saying this but Chinese people love going on a power trip. In communist and socialist societies, once a person is delegated with some power, they start bossing around acting arrogantly like they are something. So when these brothers and sisters were given the Bibles to hand out, they had their noses in the air and acted snobbish, since the people were bowing and saying “Thank you” to them. It was embarrassing to watch. They were acting as though the Bible was coming from them. That was wrong.

The same happened to the Israelites. God entrusted them with the duty to share with the other nations what they received. However, instead of humbly dispensing what they received, they acted pridefully as though it was theirs from the beginning. It is like how Korean people today might say, “What’s with your attitude? You should receive it with two hands. You have no respect!” That is what the Chinese brothers and sisters were doing when they handed out the Bible. People that have never been put in charge tend to be worse. Similar things happened in South Korea during the Korean War.

Therefore, we, the Bereans who received the truth should not go on a power trip. We are priests appointed to serve so that the whole world may receive this word. It does not belong to us. We have to serve humbly and patiently. When priests carried out their duties in that way, God permitted them to take a portion of the offering brought to God as their food. So likewise we have to recognise our place and serve humbly. It will be frustrating.

Imagine people bringing sheep every day and asking the priests to slaughter them. The priest cannot tell them to do it themselves. The priest has to do it. Everyone who sinned comes to the priest with a sheep. You might think the priest’s job is prestigious but actually his main job is to slaughter the sheep, remove the entrails, pour out the blood, cut the meat, and burn it. So the priest would always be covered in blood, fat, and the smell of lamb all the time. How annoying would it be if you had to slaughter sheep all day long?

When the people come, the priest would say, “You sinned again? Just bring it up here.” He would feel frustrated. But he must not do that. In the same way, we have to remember that God is concerned for those people and has a humble attitude to serve them. We do well at first, but as time goes by, we do not do so well.

A while ago, when the Full Gospel Church had many foreigners go to their church, our church did not have many foreigners. So if ever a foreigner came to our church, let us say Chinese or someone from Hong Kong, we would approach them and try to help them. We asked them if they needed anything and offered our books to them. However, they were not very interested in our church. They said they wanted to go to Full Gospel Church. Because I wanted to serve them, I called Osanri Prayer House and asked them if it was possible for these people to go to their church and see the church building. But they said they could not. So I told them that these were not visitors of our church but their church, and we somehow came across them and wanted to guide them to their church.

However, they answered that they will not accept those people. They were not interested. I explained that these people were from a certain denomination and so on. Yet their answer was, “We get it, but we have too many people like them here so we’re not interested.” And they hung up. I called several times, and in the end, they asked, “What church are you from?” I said, “Sungrak Church.” They said, “Isn’t that a sect? We don’t associate with sects. Don’t call us again,” and hung up.

I got the impression that because they have so many foreigners come and learn from them, their attitude towards them changed. I am sure they were not like that at first. And I thought, ‘We might be hospitable to the foreigners now, but later when there are many of them, we might do the same as the Full Gospel Church.’ We should not ever do that. If we do that, God’s work will cease because we will not be discharging our ministry as priests.

Already people’s hearts are filled with a sense of entitlement and pride. But that was not the case when they first started. Currently, we do not have a lot of foreigners, so we are diligently and kindly replying to their questions and inquiries. In the past, our church was even asking those in other places to become our branch church. But just because more and more people are turning to our church, we should not take on a prideful attitude to them saying, “I’ll see if I should let you be our branch church.”

We must never think that what we have is ours but that God entrusted us with it to share it with others. We are appointed as the middleman to share what God has given. So I hope you will not go on a power trip but humbly serve them. Never lose that attitude. There were times when I spoke a bit harshly and shouted at the Chinese souls but do not take after such things. I do that to people that I know I can, with all things considered. At other times, I endeavor to serve them in the best manner possible.

Some say I did not answer the phone call from Pastor 00 but do not take after those things. Plus, I am not purposely ignoring his call. When I feel that I should not let it get too far, I ring him first and talk with a humble attitude. I am trying to maintain a healthy relationship; I am not ignoring him out of disrespect or feeling bothered. Even yesterday I spoke with him on the phone for nearly two hours. I am trying to figure out the best way to help him grow. I am not ignoring him. He knows that too. Otherwise, he would have already cut off contact with me. Yet since he knows I am not ignoring him, he continues to contact me.

I receive a lot of emails these days and I endeavor to reply to every single one of them. I can say that I have replied to 99.9% of all emails. I think there are still 100 emails waiting for me to reply. But I need to reply to them nevertheless. I may need to request your help in the future because I can manage them all by myself alone. I am contemplating how I can distribute the work to you.

Let us not be high-nosed, but take on the humble attitude to fulfil our tasks as priests and share this word. Those souls belong to God, not us. It is God who loves them and wants to give them the word. We are not sharing what is ours. This word is for everyone in the world and we are priests. So let us pray, Lord help us to fulfil our duty as priests.