2025.11.16 Sunday 1st Service
Thanksgiving Sunday
Scripture Reading: Acts 1:1-8
1. Find the last mission God wants to give you.
Thank you. When we meet people and talk, there are times we begin to think about something. Most people, if you look at them, have already set everything according to their own thoughts. When you see such a person, you feel, “Ah, this person will no longer have any answers!” And when you see someone who is working very hard in a strange way to succeed, you become worried again. Those two look different, but they are the same. Giving up according to one’s own thoughts or moving according to one’s own thoughts—those two are the same. The covenant you must absolutely hold today is this: even today God gives you new grace, but there is a last mission He surely wants to give you. You must find that. The reason God has kept you alive is that He has prepared a special blessing for you.
1)If you think that does not exist, you will enter the greatest suffering.
If you think that does not exist, you go into the greatest suffering. Why? Moses thought it was over, even though he had not even started. So he suffered to the point of death. Even though he had not even begun, Elijah also said, “It is finished.” There are many people like that.
2)By giving up according to your own thoughts, you stay quietly inside a frame or struggle in the wrong way.
Some people just remain quietly inside a small frame. Others keep struggling in the wrong direction. Both are loss.
2. The Festival of Ingathering (Thanksgiving) – Started at the Exodus, completed by Jesus in Mark’s upper room.
So today we also call Thanksgiving “the Festival of Ingathering.” It is called Thanksgiving because the harvest is gathered, and it is called the Festival of Ingathering because the harvest is stored. This feast began at the time of the Exodus. And in Mark’s upper room, Jesus completed this feast. It is connected in such an important way.
3. Hardship – The best timetable.
The hardship in Egypt and then the hardship of the early church were the best timetables. You must not miss this either. Are you going through hardship? It is probably the best timetable. For us, it feels very painful. But within God’s plan, it is the best timetable. There has never been a time when it was not so. Because we are human, when suffering comes, it is hard. Right? How difficult must it have been for Moses, who ran away as a murderer and lived in hiding for forty years? That was his forty years in Midian. But it was the best time. We easily miss such important things.
▣ Introduction_ What God wants to give first in hardship
Among these, in the hardships of Egypt and the early church, there is something God wanted to give first. The blessing of Thanksgiving that you must absolutely see is in the main message, but there is a blessing you must first receive.
- The gospel – “Go to offer the blood sacrifice.” Forty days of speaking about the kingdom of God.
“Moses, go to offer the blood sacrifice.” That is what God said. And at the very end, it says Jesus spoke about the things concerning the kingdom of God for forty days. In these hardships, what does He want us to realize? He wants us to realize what the gospel is.
1)The gospel is that the Triune God makes you His children and takes responsibility for you.
The gospel is the important beginning in which the Triune God completely makes you His children and takes responsibility for you.
2)Exodus 3:18 – On the day of the blood sacrifice, the power of Satan was broken.
On the day they offered the blood sacrifice, the power of Satan was broken. This is the gospel.
※ “It is finished” (John 19:30) – It is over. There is no need to do anything else.
The moment I understood the gospel, I understood Jesus’ words, “It is finished.” It is all over. There is no need to do anything else.
3)Isaiah 7:14 – Immanuel
The gospel is: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” You must firmly hold this fact today. Especially new believers are confused about many things. Do not be deceived. On the day they put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts, they came out of Egypt. That is the gospel.
4)Matthew 16:16 – Christ: the unshakable rock, the church, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the powers of darkness will not overcome you.
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” “You are Peter; you will never be shaken. On this rock I will build my church. I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The powers of darkness will not overcome you.” He said it clearly. That is the gospel. Right?
- When they lost hold of the gospel, they lost hold of everything.
So when Israel lost the gospel, they lost everything. In the hardship in Egypt and under the persecution of Rome, God first made them realize what the gospel is.
- Prayer – Forty years in the wilderness, forty days of speaking about the kingdom of God.
Second, there is something He made them know first. Forty years in the wilderness. Forty days of speaking about the kingdom of God. What is it? You must know what prayer is. Because people do not know what prayer is, they do not know what to do.
1)Prayer is enjoying the bartizan of the throne – seeing answers that transcend time and space and that are unprecedented and unrepeatable.
Prayer is enjoying the bartizan of the throne. Therefore, you come to see answers that transcend time and space and are unprecedented and unrepeatable.
2)is walking the journey of the throne – acceptance, transcendence, and victory.
Prayer is walking the journey of the throne. You become able to accept, transcend, and overcome anything.
3)Prayer is setting up the guidepost of the throne – the footsteps that remain all the way to the 5,000 tribes.
Prayer is setting up the guidepost of the throne. Your footsteps will remain. You may have given a small devotion, but your footsteps remain. To what extent? They will remain all the way to the 5,000 tribes. That is prayer.
- Answer – The tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, and the three feasts given during the forty years in the wilderness.
More importantly, people do not know what the answer is. Not knowing what the answer is means that the forty years in the wilderness were prayer. Then what is the answer? During the forty years in the wilderness, God gave them many extremely important things. What are the representative ones among them? The tabernacle. Right? The ark of the covenant. The three feasts. These are tremendous. Then they realized: this is the answer. But since people do not correctly understand the word “answer,” sometimes they cannot wait, and at other times they lose hold of it.
I mentioned it last week. A certain person chose only children and women and killed them. Why did he do that? How did he kill them? That is not important. The question is, why did he do such a thing? In his childhood, a bartizan of hatred and murder was formed.
1)The bartizan of the throne is established first (Revelation 8:3-5) – the beginning of answers.
If the bartizan of God’s throne is established first inside us, that becomes the beginning of answers. So on Sunday, some people hold the covenant and pray earnestly like Rockefeller. Before any visible answer, the bartizan of God has already been established within them. This is the first answer. Therefore there is no need to be discouraged. In Revelation 8, it says all your prayers are held before God in the golden censer.
2)Journey of the throne – the way you must go becomes visible.
From that point on, the way you must go becomes visible. This is called the journey of the throne.
3)Guidepost of the throne – visible answers (your work is reproduced and re-created, your studies are prepared 300%).
From that time, visible answers begin to come. Your work begins to be reproduced and re-created. Your studies begin to be prepared at 300%. That is the true answer. You leave behind guideposts. These are called the seven guideposts. This is the answer. Since people do not know what the answer is, what are you praying and singing about? You are building the bartizan.
So now you know what the gospel is, what prayer is, and what prayer answers are. God held them in the wilderness for forty years to teach them this. Only then would the future generation be able to overcome. After training them for three years, Jesus spoke intensively for forty days. He explained the bartizan and guideposts to which they must go.
▣ Main. Thanksgiving – The three feasts come together.
Now, among these, we are celebrating Thanksgiving today. If you understand Thanksgiving in a shallow way, it has no connection to answers. If you simply celebrate Thanksgiving Day like in America, it has no meaning.
This Thanksgiving contains the three feasts together. Right? On the day they put the blood of the lamb on their houses, they came out. That is the Passover. In the wilderness, they harvested grain. That is Pentecost. It is the same as the Feast of Weeks. But they later gathered all these grains and stored them in the storehouses. That is Thanksgiving, the Festival of Ingathering. This has great meaning. These three are together.
Passover (liberation on the day the lamb’s blood was applied) – Being saved by the blood of Christ.
We have been saved by the blood of Christ.
Pentecost (gathering grain in the wilderness) – Living in the wilderness with the power of Pentecost.
We live our wilderness journey with the power of Pentecost.
Festival of Ingathering (gathering grain and storing it in the storehouses) – Your background is the throne.
More importantly, your background today is the throne. This is the Festival of Ingathering. This is Thanksgiving. You must discover three things in a simple way.
- The three feasts that overturn destiny – the moment you realize them, you are set free.
First, what are these three things? The moment you realize these feasts, you are set free. The moment you hold onto these three feasts, your destiny is overturned.
1) Ten blessings – All the curses of Egypt were destroyed. This power was conveyed to Israel, to Egypt, to the entire world, and to the thirty-one kings of the seven tribes in the land of Canaan.
Ten plagues came upon Egypt. For Israel, they were ten miracles. But for God, that was not all. They were ten blessings. Right? He completely broke all the curses in the land of Egypt. He showed them this. This power was passed on to Israel. It was passed on to all of Egypt. Later, it was passed on to the whole world. In the end, it was passed on to the seven tribes and thirty-one kings in the land of Canaan. It is amazing.
2) All are a process – What God has given you separately remains. Just holding onto that becomes a bartizan. Come out of darkness.
Do you have problems before you? They are not the problem. Have you received some answers? That is not it either. It is the process. There is something very important that remains separately for you. Your destiny has been overturned.
Let me speak to the remnants. From childhood, I made a declaration. My parents suffered, could not evangelize, lived in poverty and sickness. I said, “That is not mine.” Right? It is not mine. Why should it be mine? I must evangelize. In every church I visited, everything collapsed because of people-centeredness and people’s words. They could not receive real answers. From that time I realized, “That is not mine. Mine is something else—what God has given.” I only held onto that, and it became a bartizan. I did nothing special, but just by holding onto it, answers kept coming.
The beginning of the three feasts and Thanksgiving is overturning destiny. Coming out of Egypt is not the issue. You must come out of darkness. Effort comes after that. You have already come out of destiny. Believe this. Those who did not believe this died in the wilderness. Those who believed entered. This is the three feasts and Thanksgiving.
3) Even now, the background of the throne is working. Believe it (Mark 16:19-20, Acts 7:55-56, Revelation 8:3-5).
Even at this moment, on Thanksgiving, the background of the throne, the Festival of Ingathering, is working upon you. You must believe this. While you are worshiping here today, the power of the throne comes upon your business fields. Do you believe this? If you do not believe this, you are not believing any of the important truths in the Bible. At the end of the Gospel of Mark, chapter 16, it says that as the disciples went out and preached everywhere, Christ, who was seated at the throne, worked with them. Right? When Stephen was being stoned, it says Christ was standing at the right hand of the throne. When the apostle John was praying in death-like circumstances on the island of Patmos, the heavens were opened and God on the throne was hearing all his prayers. You must believe this. As you pray throughout this day, you must hold this covenant and pray. As you pray in the church, the power of the throne is at work in your children’s lives.
- The three feasts that change the future of the next generation.
Second, these three feasts—especially Thanksgiving—were kept together with the children. That is amazing. They actually built shelters and celebrated together. What does this mean? It means changing the future generation. These three feasts changed the future of the next generation.
1) Exodus 23:14-19 – You must surely keep the three feasts.
So in Exodus 23:14-19, it says, “Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.” You must surely keep these three feasts.
2) Deuteronomy 6:4-9 – Before entering Canaan, imprint everything that has happened until now into your children.
In Deuteronomy 6:4-9, it says to imprint into the children everything that has happened up to now—before entering the land of Canaan. Right? Imprint it. This one thing is enough. To all remnants, before they go into the world, imprint this power. That is the feast. It is to make them realize this. While keeping the feast with their children, they said, “This is the Passover. This is now Pentecost. This is the Festival of Ingathering.” They taught them.
※ What goes into a little child goes on forever.
What you are doing now may look small, but you are raising remnants, preparing the three courtyards and nurturing multiethnic peoples. These things will become eternal. Especially what goes into a little child goes on forever. How precious is this?
3) Among the future generations, there are children God has prepared.
Open your eyes a little more. Even if it is hard, set more direction toward children and multiethnic ministry—I will speak more about this in the second service today. You will be amazed. Even if the number is not large, God has prepared children. I have seen so many amazing cases of “God has prepared them.”
I have shared this testimony before; older members may know it. Long ago, there was TBC broadcasting. At that time, there was a man named Park Dae-hong who did the weather forecast. When the government changed and the networks were unified, that station disappeared, but he had done the weather report there for a long time. He lived in the apartment complex near Busan Jungang Church in Jungang-dong. He was quite old and had two children. The older was a daughter in about sixth grade, and he had a younger child, a kindergarten-age boy. That boy was extremely smart—God had prepared him. Since this announcer had children late, he cherished them. On Saturdays, I gathered sixth graders and trained them in evangelism. While his older sister was in training, that little boy would hide and listen. I was so impressed that I told him to come in. “Come in and join us.” His name was Jung-hak. “Hey, Park Jung-hak, come in.” He sat there and listened. Then he went home and did exactly what I had said in the message. While they were eating, the little boy said to his father, “Dad, you have to pray.” The father was shocked. The boy said exactly what I had said: “Pigs do not pray. People must pray.” The father was so moved by the child’s actions. So he said, “Then show me how you pray.” And the boy prayed. In the end, that father was evangelized, and I got to see him become an ordained deacon in that church before I left. What did I realize? “Ah, among the future generations, God has children already prepared.” I could never produce that by my own ability. That is why we must prepare these three feasts together with the next generation.
- Enjoy the completed three feasts every day.
Lastly, the third thing you must hold onto: because Christ has completed these three feasts, you must enjoy them every day.
1) The completed three feasts – Calvary (completion), Mt Olive (mission), Mark’s upper room (fulfillment).
He completed everything on Calvary. On Mt Olive, He gave the complete mission. After hearing this covenant, it was fulfilled in Mark’s upper room. That is why it says, “When the day of Pentecost came…”
2) Life challenge – Absolute impossibility (acknowledge), absolute plan (discover), absolute possibility (change the world).
I ask you to challenge your life once. Take the thing that absolutely does not work and truly acknowledge it, and then challenge. You must acknowledge it: “We are absolutely impossible.” But within that, there is God’s absolute plan. Finding only that is enough. Jochebed knew they could not defeat Pharaoh. But she also knew that God’s plan was for this child to live, return to his nation, and proclaim the gospel. At that moment, her eyes were opened. “We must send our child into the palace. The only place he can survive is there.” Then an amazing work took place. No one could have imagined that this would change the world. You must hold this covenant today.
3) Your background – The throne.
The three feasts—especially your background, the throne, the Festival of Ingathering.
▣ Conclusion. The remaining blessing – seven points.
At this point, something even more important remains. Something more important remains in Scripture. The Bible presents seven important terms.
- The remnant – Those who remain will become those who leave behind.
The remnant. Those who remain will become those who leave behind. - Pilgrims – They will not be wanderers but those who shine the light.
Pilgrims. They will not be mere wanderers but those who shine the light. This will come. - Conquerors – Conquering darkness.
Conquerors. You will not conquer people, but you will conquer darkness. - Those who are scattered – Those who are sent.
Those who are scattered. They are not merely scattered—they will become those who are sent. - Watchmen
God will set you as watchmen. This is what remains. - Spies – Those who will block the disasters of 24, 25, and eternity.
God will call you as spies who will save people from disasters in 24, 25, and eternity. - Those who prepare the highway and lift up the banner.
God will set you as those who prepare the highway and lift up the banner. These seven points are the remaining blessing and the most important words in the Bible.
Today, pray all day for the power of the three feasts. To what extent? Pray until all the spiritual problems in you are reversed into strength. As you pray throughout this day, pray that the power of the throne will truly come upon every place connected to you. As you earnestly pray today, pray for the work of healing to arise in the sick. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ that today will be an important day. Let us pray.
Prayer. All around the world, those who have held the covenant are listening to the Word. May the covenant of the three feasts come upon them. Throughout the nation and the world, people are confirming God’s Word through the broadcast. Let this be the day when the power of the throne comes upon them. During today’s worship, let poverty, sickness, and helplessness collapse. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.