Discern the Times
Bible passage: Romans 12:2
“2. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will. ”
Dear believers! What do believers think when they look at this world?
Do you think, ‘The world has developed so much that it has become more convenient and worth living in?’ Are there some people who think, ‘It’s great if you have a little bit of money, there’s a lot to eat, a lot to see, and transportation is so convenient that you can go out and have fun’? This is a story from about 4,000 years ago. Lot, who was Abraham's nephew, left Abraham and moved to live in the city of Sodom because it seemed to him to be developed and prosperous. He may have been satisfied at first, but as he lived with the people of Sodom, his spirit became increasingly damaged by their reckless lifestyle, lewdness, and corruption.
2 Peter 2:7-8 says, “and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard). ” Here, this righteous person refers to Lot, and being distressed means being in pain and suffering as if being tortured. But surprisingly, the seriousness of Lot's story is that it is not just a story from 4,000 years ago, but a story about us living today.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus said that the last days will be like the days of Lot 4,000 years ago. He says as follows in Luke 17:28-30, 2 “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.” He said that the day the Son of Man appears, that is, the final time when the Lord returns, will be the same as the days of Lot. So, dear believers, If we look at this world, like Lot, we must be distressed, and when we think of the souls of many people in the world, we ask, “What can we do? Father!
There are many souls living in this last age who do not understand, do not know God, do not know the Lord, and are drunk on the sins of the world, eating, drinking, and talking in sin. Father! Please take pity on those souls and save them.” We must sigh and mourn like this. Dear believers, we too look at the world and mourn even more, and we must pray saying, “Father! Please help us quickly save those poor souls with the gospel of holiness and the power.” Looking at today’s scripture, it says, “Do not conform to this world.” In the scripture, God said, “Do not conform to this world.” What kind of generation is this that God told us not to conform to or imitate? Matthew 16:3 says, “And in the morning you say, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’
You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” The sun came out several times a day, then it rained, and then it repeated. However, this means that we must carefully discern the signs of the times. What kind of world is this that God told us not to imitate or conform to its pattern? In a word, it is a false world. Solomon lamented in Ecclesiastes 1:2 that this world is “Vanity of vanities, vanity; all is vanity.” Every field of the physical world is full of lies. There are too many lies in many parts of human history, including politics, economy, society, culture, education, entertainment, industry, and national defense.
Here is what Jesus said about the devil in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” And in John 12:31, it says that the prince of this world is the devil. It says, “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.” So, this world is full of lies. Much of what we see, hear, and know in this world is false. I'm not sure what the percentage is, but for example, a lot of what we learned in school is false. A representative example is the theory of evolution; Schools are diligent in teaching lies. These days, it's common to not know for sure whether events happening around us are true or not.
Even if it's the same case, aren't the words and claims different now? There are many such errors and lies in the knowledge and history learned in school, but how many stories in the news these days about politics, economy, culture, and society are not true? Isn't that the case even with trial issues in the court? Some people were sentenced to death and later found out that the real culprit was caught, and some people served decades in prison and then later declared themselves not guilty. Anyway, please realize that the world of sinful human beings, ruled by the enemy devil, the father of lies, is a world of lies where lies are treated as if they are the truth and the truth is distorted because there are so many lies. That is why, in today’s scripture, God says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world.” So, if this world is false, what is true? Matthew 5:18 says, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” By saying so, Jesus was saying that only the word of God is the eternal truth. The world of the flesh is an illusion and a false world.
The spiritual world is the only true world. When you look in the mirror, can you see your face? But I'm sorry, the face you see is also an illusion. This is because it belongs to the physical body. Then what is your reality? It's the shape of your soul. Looking in the mirror, you may think, “Oh, I am handsome. I am still young. There are no wrinkles and I still look presentable.” I am sorry if you say this, but this is a lie said based on an illusion. Revelation 3:17 also reminds us, “You say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,” You must look at your soul in the mirror of God's Word. Your true self is what you see reflected in the mirror of the Word. The appearance of your soul must be beautiful. Therefore, the second thing I would like to say is that we must distinguish between truth and lies and arm ourselves with the truth. The scripture given today says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” In this age of lies, the ability of discernment, or spiritual intelligence, is needed to discern God's good, pleasing, and perfect will.
People whose spiritual intelligence is darkened have hardened hearts and dulled spiritual senses, making it impossible for them to discern the will of God. Ephesians 4:18 says, “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.” The symptoms that appear in those who cannot discern the will of God because their spiritual intelligence is darkened and their hearts are hardened appear in the very next verse, verse 19. Ephesians 4:19 says, “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.” The meaning of ‘becoming people who lost all sensitivity and giving themselves over to sensuality’ means that they have refused to form a spiritual relationship with God for so long that they have lost sense not only about God but also about the truth.
Because they do not know how to think straight in an age where the truth is distorted, these people lose their dreams and waste their lives. But what is surprising is that, as a result of this failure to distinguish between God's good, pleasing, and perfect will, the false and wrong trends of the corrupt world have already penetrated into the church. Times have changed, the world has changed, and culture has changed, but the reality is that the church is unable to keep up with the times, shake off old ways, and fall behind the times, and the trends of the world are being brought into the church. A young sister who attends the youth group at a large church in Korea sent an email to her senior pastor. Although the content is quite embarrassing, and it concerns the situation of young people in Korea, I am trying to convey it because we need to recognize that this is the current state of young people these days. Let me read some of the sister's e-mail, word by word. “Pastor, I was very confused when I entered college.
During MT (Membership training) or OT (Orientation training), explosives were standard, love shots, obscene games, obscene remarks, etc. were all shocking. What's even more shocking than this is that the problem of college students living together is very serious. There are many cohabiting couples who attend local universities and live together because their parents cannot touch them. When most female students have a boyfriend, they immediately have sex and have an abortion when they have children. And soon after, the man asks for a breakup, and the shocked female friends take a leave of absence or drop out. Your body and mind will be in a state of panic for a long period of time. At school, I took a class called ‘Sex, Love, and Marriage’ and had a group discussion. They jeered at me and said that I was being scornful when I said that chastity before marriage is natural. I was really shocked when they told me that the reason I haven't had a relationship with a man yet is because I'm lying, I have a problem with my body, or I'm weird. Most of non-believers have sex with their friends.
And most of them suffer from being abandoned first, and some experience abortions, and those who have experienced it once have relationships with their next boyfriend very quickly. They are obsessed with men, they can't concentrate on their studies, and can't break away. But pastor, I see that this problem exists even within the church. There are many brothers and sisters who are not like that, but in general it is very confusing. It seems normal only on Sundays, but they are having a hard time with this problem. Even when they meet at church, they are only interested in the opposite sex, and we touch and engage in skinship even within the church. No matter how hard they worship and seem devoted on Sunday, when they return to their daily lives, there are many young people who casually engage in sexual relations in the name of love. Pastor, have the generations really changed? In this situation, I am very confused. Of course, there are also brothers and sisters who interact beautifully. I hope there are more people like this and become examples of fellowship. I hope to learn about Biblical fellowship and marriage and build a healthy family through proper fellowship.” There is much more, but let me omit the rest. The content of this sister's letter is not an exaggeration at all, according to a survey on living together at university.
This is Korea's statistics. Please note that I am not familiar with the situation in Kenya, so I am talking about the situation in Korea. A whopping 40.5% of people think that it is possible for a man and a woman to live together even if they are not married. When we asked people in their 20s, 59.3% responded that it was possible. 6 out of 10 people have values regarding what living together should be like. If you read Ephesians 4:19, a common phenomenon that occurs in people who have a broken relationship with God is giving themselves over to sensuality. The original Greek word for ‘giving over’ is ‘paradidomi’, which means handing over power and authority to others. When you believed in Jesus, you had the authority as a child of God and the right to live beautifully and happily, but because you fell into sensuality, you handed over your authority as a child of God and the right to live beautifully and happily to the devil. Sexual corruption is not only an ethical and moral problem, but more importantly, it is a spiritual problem.
A spiritual problem means that there is an evil spiritual entity behind it that encourages sexual corruption. 8 God doesn't do that. Evil forces are causing corruption, destroying the soul, encouraging unhappiness, and destroying life. Young people who live together and have had a lot of sexual contact do not become happy, but rather fall into a miserable tragedy. A father gave advice to his teenage daughter in middle school. He said her daughter was listening and then spoke. “What Dad said is true, but times have changed now. Times have changed between my father’s time and ours now.” Since times have changed, I guess this means that the church must also change as the times have changed. Who made this era so different? Is it God? No! Isn’t the enemy the devil making it like this? Should the church fall into the tricks of its enemy, the devil, and change with the times? Britain's Bernard Shaw said this. “It is too precious to give youth to the young.” Once more I say I don’t think there is anything that expresses the importance of youth better than this. I really think I could live a cooler life if I were given youth again at this age, but it won't be given back.
Therefore, young people who have such beautiful youth should not imitate this generation, but should live beautifully by discerning God's good will. The sister who sent the e-mail made the following request to the pastor: “Pastor, please tell us the testimonies of victorious adults. Please send believers who overcame the sexual temptations of their youth, ran toward their dreams, and built happy families to our youth group so that they can testify. Please help me hear such testimonies of victory and know what the freshness of youth is, what the fellowship of true love is, and what a happy family is.” I think our church needs something like this too. Now, as the scripture says, we should “not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but test and approve what God’s will is, which is good and acceptable and perfect.” What is God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will? It is the Gospel of holiness. Therefore, although we are living in an age of lies, we must be armed with the true truth, the Word of God, and above all, the Gospel of holiness, and let the Gospel of holiness serve as food for our hearts and live by practicing the Gospel of holiness.
3. We must live in a spiritual space, not a virtual space. Now, we live in the last era and it has become a fake era where blatant lies are rampant. I know that some people may think that it is too harsh to say that lies are rampant. By the way, this era has gone beyond the Internet era and has become the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution. With the development of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and databases, we have reached a stage where we can share information, engage in social activities, and even engage in daily life in a virtual world using the Internet. Not long ago, Cyworld, Naver, Facebook, Instagram, etc. appeared, and recently, a further development called ‘Metaverse’ appeared. The word ‘meta’ means transcendence in Greek, and ‘verse’ is the English word ‘universe’, or world. These two words are combined and called ‘metaverse.’ The meaning of this word is a three-dimensional transcendent world, virtual world, virtual reality, and virtual space.
The stage on which activities take place in the virtual world is called a ‘platform’, and the virtual world is decorated to resemble the real world in the virtual space of the Internet. The reason I am telling you this is because in today’s sermon it is said, ‘We must not imitate or conform to this world, but must discern what God’s will is.’ This is why I am saying that this era has become like this. By creating a virtual space called ‘Metaverse’, you can do everything you can do in the real world there, and even more. For example, if you make a virtual space called Nairobi into a ‘platform’, everything you need in Nairobi, including government offices, banks, companies, department stores, apartments, restaurants, hospitals, and schools, will be contained in that virtual space. Then, I create 'my alter ego' called 'avatar' in that virtual space, and within the 'metaverse' I go to school, work, restaurants, department stores, bank work, church, and any economic activities or social activities. This means that you can do all your activities. I was truly astonished while learning about the metaverse. People around the world are excited and welcoming with open arms that the era of the ‘metaverse’ has arrived. However, I think, ‘The evil enemy, the devil, is doing these evil things in the end times to ruin the world like this.’
Someone lamented as they saw this terrible thing going on. “God created the human world and gave the law called the Word of God, but humans are trying to live as they please by creating a virtual space and creating human laws.” What does this mean? As mentioned earlier by a company that creates a platform, an activity space for Metaverse, when various facilities are created in a virtual space called Nairobi, many people join and become active there. When operating in this virtual space, metaverse, necessary rules, laws, etc. are created. Then, within that metaverse, homosexuality is encouraged, it is cool to steal other people's things through violence and is tolerated, sexual violence is allowed to some extent, it is okay to betray friends and disobey one's parents, and a church is created to allow people to live in the metaverse. They make rules, such as saying you can worship. Then, what happens in the virtual world becomes reality, ethics fall to the ground, faith becomes corrupted, various sins and crimes occur, and the evil of humans who rebel against God reaches its peak.
As the world develops various technologies due to the 4th Industrial Revolution, we are entering the era of the virtual reality ‘metaverse’, the ultimate in a world of lies, What should we do? Shouldn’t we live in a spiritual space rather than a virtual space? The truth, and not the fake? This is because the flesh is an illusion and a lie, and the spirit is reality and the truth. Moses, the great leader, sent down 10 plagues with the power given by God and led the Israelites across the Red Sea to the land of Canaan. However, at this time, ten terrible plagues fell on the Egyptians, but no plagues fell on the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived. Why did it happen like that? Because it was God's space, the space of the spirit, and the space of light. Although it was located in Egypt, the world of the flesh, it was a space of spirit that God, the Spirit, was with Moses and that Moses was embracing, so it was able to be kept safely regardless of disaster. What kind of space we live in depends on what kind of mind we have.
If your heart is worthy of the space of paradise, you will go to paradise after the White Throne Judgment. If you have developed a heart worthy of the 1st heavenly level, you will enter the 1st heavenly space. If you have developed a heart worthy of the 2nd heavenly level, you will later go to the 2nd heavenly space, If you have a spirit heart suitable for the 3rd heavenly level, you will be in the 3rd heavenly space, and if you have achieved a whole-spirit heart suitable for the New Jerusalem, you will later enter the space of the New Jerusalem. Therefore, even though we live in this world, we must always think of the spirit in order to enter the space of the spirit and the space of light. You must use the language of the spirit. You must fulfill the heart of the spirit.
You must have spiritual emotions. You must live a spiritual life by acting in the spirit, giving goodness and love, understanding, and forgiving. One person had such severe pain in his side that he could barely walk. The pain was so severe that he couldn't move his body and broke into a cold sweat. He thought he had to keep himself in the spirit space. “What do I have to do to be in the space of spirit? We were told that we must think in the spirit, use the language of the spirit, have the emotions of the spirit, form a mind in the spirit, and walk in the spirit.” So, he got down on his knees and prayed a lot to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Still, the pain did not go away, so he took out the Prayer Handkerchief of Power, prayed, and placed the handkerchief on the side where the pain was. What is this person doing now? Since the enemy the devil brought pain, he tried to create a spiritual space to defeat the darkness and defeat the pain. Despite the extreme pain, he did not complain, but rather confessed that he was grateful for the opportunity to reflect on himself, saying, “You are trying to give me greater health, right?”
And he was thankful. Still, the pain was still there. He thought the spiritual space had not yet been fully formed. So, this time, he received senior pastor’s prayer for the patient over the phone. Only after that did the pain gradually subside. Only now has the spiritual space been created to handle the pain. Afterwards, to prevent the pain from recurring, he continued to listen to the senior pastor's sermons, sing hymns, and pray a lot while thinking of the Lord. What am I talking about? In this era, the era of lies has begun in earnest and it has become the metaverse, or virtual space, that is, the era of fake space. This means that we must live in the true space, the space of the spirit. We need to ‘create space for the spirit.’ Only then will the work of power be revealed within the space of the spirit so that we can receive answers to our problems, receive healing, and receive blessings.
I hope that your family and your business will become a space of spirit and light, and that you will live an amazing life in which many miracles and signs appear through the power of God. Conclusion Someone had a dream. He said he went into the watch room to buy a cheap watch, but there were no cheap watches, only expensive luxury watches. So, he had no choice but to buy an expensive luxury watch. This person was talking about this dream and asked me to interpret it. From my perspective, it was not a spiritual dream, nor was it an ordinary dream that did not require interpretation, but he told me this. “Sir, I hope you will now give up worldly and material greed and live a wonderful life like someone who wears a luxury watch.
To be a person wearing a luxury watch means to live the remaining time until the Lord comes as a ‘luxury time.’ A person who obeys the Word, loves, serves, is faithful, prays, lives harmoniously and truthfully is a person who lives with luxury time, and that person is a person who wears a luxury watch.” I earnestly ask that all believers who listen to today’s sermon wear ‘luxury watches’ and live until the Lord comes.
So, please do not imitate this generation, but live by imitating Christ. Through the Gospel of holiness, I hope you can discern God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will and live holy and truthful lives as true children of God in this fallen age. I pray in the name of the Lord that you can make your life a ‘space of spirit’ and a ‘space of light’, defeating the forces of darkness, receiving answers, receiving blessings, and living happily. - END -
