First of all, I just want to tell you what a pleasant thing it has been—other than the fact that I am sick. I do not know if I am allergic to Richmond, or Richmond is allergic to me, or what, but it has just been a really pleasant time for us to be here this weekend.
You know, it is always something special when you get to be with people that you are not normally with, especially people with whom you have something in common: people with whom you share the Lord, and whom you only get to see a couple of times a year. It is always a nice time for us, but my testimony is that this year in particular, it has just been a sweet time of fellowship. I really appreciate it.
The planning meeting yesterday was a little different from any of the planning meetings that I can remember having been in. There was just something different about it. Here again, the word is pleasant. It was just pleasant to be there.
One of the sisters yesterday in the planning meeting—sometimes sisters, without any intent to teach or make a big statement or anything, will simply share testimony, just in reality, from their heart, of what has been going on in their life—and a sister shared such a testimony yesterday.
She simply mentioned how the last couple of years have been difficult for her, and how she has been up and down in her own spiritual life. Basically, the end of the thing yesterday was that she just wanted to be engaged with the Lord Jesus. She used that word: she wanted to be engaged with the Lord Jesus.
That word expresses exactly the burden that is on my heart this morning, not only for the brothers and sisters in Richmond, but for brothers and sisters around the world—in Memphis, where I live, and in other places as well.
Over the last couple of years, in the places where I have been and the places where I have relationships, I have been an eyewitness of a lot of testing and a lot of shaking. Brothers who have a much bigger sphere of travel and relationship than I do have confirmed that this kind of thing seems to be present all over the world, in groups like ours, especially where there has been not just teaching but experience—where there has been a reality of the headship of the Lord Jesus.
Yet all over the earth, we see, in groups like ours, testing and shaking. We all know, really, what the answer is. Every one of us would say that the answer—and rightly so—to every question, every problem, every need, is the Lord Jesus.
As I have prayed and listened to people and borne the burden of people over the last few years, the phrase that keeps coming back to me is actually two words: spiritual engagement.
May we be those people in this day who are personally, spiritually engaged. You know, it is not a bad thing, either, this idea of engagement with the Lord, since He is coming back for a bride. This is the season when the Holy Spirit is calling out to us personally and individually to be engaged with Him, perhaps more than we ever have been before.
In just a moment, we are going to look into the Scripture together. It is a Scripture that I think is very familiar to most of us. In fact, I almost fear that it is one of those things that is so familiar that, as soon as we hear it, we begin to say, “I already know this. I do not need to hear this.”
But I hope this morning, as we look into the Word together, that the Holy Spirit will speak to each one of us personally. He will make us part of the story. You know, when the Holy Spirit draws you into the story, you see things in a different way than you ever have before.
I am not good at telling jokes, but I thought of one. It is so old that I hope you have all forgotten that you heard it. I hope John did not tell this last year when we were here. I cannot remember. If I cannot remember, I hope you do not remember.
Especially fitting, since we have these rumours of snow today impending upon us: perhaps you have heard the story about the Baptist church down in Memphis where, on one side of the church building, the Baptist preacher lived, and on the other side of the church building, a drunkard lived.
Every Sunday, this drunkard would come to the meeting and sit on the back row. The pastor, seeing him back there, would preach a hellfire-and-brimstone message about the evils of drinking and a sinful life, looking right into the man’s eyes.
Every week, the man would sit there. When the meeting was over, the pastor would go to the back of the room, wait by the back door, and shake people’s hands. This man would come, shake the pastor’s hand every Sunday morning, and say, “Oh, what a good message. I hope they heard it.”
Well, one day, sure enough, there was a big blizzard in Memphis—a gigantic snowstorm: two inches. The city was crippled. No one could come to the meeting, so the only two people who could come were the pastor and the drunkard.
The drunkard took his place in the back of the room, and the pastor took his place in the front. The pastor preached a hellfire-and-brimstone message, making eye contact with this man the entire time. When the meeting was over, the pastor went back to the door. The drunkard came back, shook his hand, and said, “Oh, Pastor, it was a terrific message. If only they had been here to hear it.”
Well, may we not be like that today. May we hear the Word of the Lord.
If you would turn with me to Genesis 44. You know, this is the story of Joseph and his brothers. This is when the brothers have come down to buy food during the famine. They had gotten their food from Joseph, and now they are about to go back on their way home.
Genesis 44, beginning with verse 1:
Then he commanded his house steward, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack.
And put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain.”
And he did as Joseph had told him.As soon as it was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.
They had just gone out of the city and were not far off when Joseph said to his house steward, “Up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good? Is not this the one from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses for divination? You have done wrong in doing this.’”So he overtook them, and he spoke these words to them.
They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing. Behold, the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”So he said, “Now let it also be according to your words: he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and the rest of you shall be innocent.”
Then they hurried; each man lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack. He searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. Then they tore their clothes, and when each man loaded his donkey, they returned to the city.
When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him. Joseph said to them, “What is this deed you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed practise divination?”
So Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? How can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; and behold, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and the one in whose possession the cup has been found.”
But he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
Down to verse 27. This is Judah speaking:
“And your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons; and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces,” and I have not seen him since. If you take this one also from me and harm befalls him, you will bring my grey hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’
Now, therefore, when I come to your servant my father and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, it will come about when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. Thus your servants will bring the grey hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.
For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame before my father forever.’
Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad, a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest I see the evil that would overtake my father?”
Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried, “Have everyone go out from me.” So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?”
But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come closer to me.” And they came closer.
He said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now, do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me there, for God sent me before you to preserve life.For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvesting. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.”
Turning to the New Testament, John 14:21:
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him.”
That Greek word there for “disclose” means to let oneself be intimately known and understood.
Turning over to John 15, let us read verses 11 through 14:
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
You are My friends, if you do what I command you.”
Lord, we just want to tell You this morning that we are so glad to be here together. Lord, we are so glad that You are here in our presence, and we need You so desperately.
Lord, Your servant is weak and unprofitable, but You are strong and mighty. Lord, You are able to deliver the Word to us this morning, to speak to us, and to help us. Lord, we ask for that right now.
Lord, speak to our hearts. Lord, make Yourself known. Lord, get all the glory for Yourself. Now, Lord, we do ask this with thanksgiving, in Christ’s precious name. Amen.
Well then, the story that we just read, especially the part about Joseph, is full of imagery, types, and pictures. It is a very interesting thing about pictures and types in the Old Testament: it can just be a story, a story with a simple meaning. In a way, that is the good thing about these kinds of stories, because a child can basically understand the story.
But the more the Lord opens our eyes to the meaning of things, and the more the Lord draws us personally into the story and makes it a personal issue to us, everything in the story begins to change.
Let me give you an example, in case anybody does not know what I am talking about when I say types and pictures. Some of those brothers whom history has called the Brethren, from over a hundred years ago, made a very interesting observation. I cannot take credit for this; I did not think it up myself. If it is wrong, I will not take the blame for it either.
One of those brothers, a college professor, pointed out that Laban—Jacob’s close relative, whom he had a lot to do with—is a type and picture in Scripture of the outward man. Laban is a type and picture of the natural man.
What he does, what he represents in Scripture, and the way he is expressed in Scripture, is that he is that which tries to keep the man of God from leaving outward and natural things. That is why Laban manipulated things so that Jacob would marry Leah first, because that was the tradition: the oldest had to be married first.
So the outward man, the natural man, tries to stop the man of God from leaving outward and natural things. Jacob’s actual brother, Esau—an even closer relative than Laban—it has been said, represents the carnal mind. Not an enemy; he is a member of the family, but he represents the carnal mind.
You all know that when Jacob was on his way to Canaan, Esau came with four hundred men, crossing his path and hindering him temporarily from entering the heavenly land. So the outward man wants to stop the man of God from leaving outward things and traditions, and the carnal mind wants to stop the man of God from entering spiritual things.
My brothers and sisters, the point is this: these are not far-off enemies. This is not something distant and far away that comes to attack us, to stop us from going where we want to go spiritually. This picture of close relatives speaks of something in us, something with us.
The biggest hindrance, I believe, to our going on to higher ground is ourselves. Oh, how the pictures and types in the Bible open this door to us, cause us to see these things, and make it a personal issue for us to see something about ourselves.
In this story that we just read, Joseph, of course, is a type and picture of the Lord Jesus Himself. Joseph is a picture of the Lord Jesus as Saviour, as Provider, as Overcomer.
The story begins with Joseph telling his house steward to put a silver cup into the baggage of one of his brothers. Brothers and sisters, the house steward represents something too. Who is the steward of our Lord and Master’s house? Is it not the Holy Spirit?
So, in one sense, is not the house steward a picture of the Holy Spirit? It is an amazing thing, saints: sometimes our Lord has the Holy Spirit place a silver cup in our baggage to keep us from getting away with something. I will explain that in a minute.
He puts a silver cup in our baggage to keep us from getting away with something, to keep us from going back to where we came from, and to bring us to another place. You are probably familiar with the fact that silver in Scripture always has something to do with redemption.
It is not a gold cup. It is not a brass cup of judgement. It is not a wooden cup. It is a silver cup.
The Holy Spirit puts a silver cup in our baggage sometimes. It is not to destroy us. It is not to embarrass and humiliate us, although there may be some embarrassment attached. It is very important that we understand that the Lord does this for redemption, because He is committed to redeeming us completely and to giving us the opportunity to deal with all unfinished business.
This is really what this story is about, at least this part of the story and what is on my heart this morning. Joseph knew exactly who his brothers were. Put yourself in their shoes: here they came down because there was a famine and need in the land. They just came down to get some food. They were conducting their business.
They did not have any idea who they were dealing with. They did not know who Joseph was. He knew exactly who they were. They had probably forgotten about Joseph, perhaps even forgotten what they had done. But he knew exactly who they were.
We, in some ways, are like these brothers. We want the Lord to bless our business, and He does. We want the Lord to bless our actual business, our daily affairs, our family, our work, our school—whatever it is. We expect the Lord to bless our business, and He does.
We pray for the Lord to give us our daily bread, bless our work, and help us in our responsibilities and the things we have to do. He does, because He loves us and He is so faithful.
But the Lord Jesus is ultimately more concerned that we do spiritual business with Him. Sometimes, when it seems that the Lord is not blessing our business, it is not because He is trying to wreck our business. It is because He is trying to bring us, perhaps, into the place of doing spiritual business with Him—making a spiritual transaction with Him.
Joseph is described twice as a man able to practise divination. There are a lot of different ideas about what that means. Obviously, I do not think Joseph was practising witchcraft or anything of that nature. I will just tell you what I believe it has to do with: we deal with a God who sees.
We have a God who sees everything, and there is nothing hidden from His sight. We are like children in some ways, are we not? We are His children, and we are like children sometimes. We come to the Lord and say, “Lord, bless my business. Lord, bless my affairs. Lord, these things I have decided to do—lead me, bless me, and help me.”
We forget, do we not, that the One whom we call on, pray to, and have a relationship with has absolutely nothing hidden from His sight. He knows everything about us. He knows how many hairs are on our heads. He even knows what we are thinking. He knows what our motives are.
It is a little scary. He knows everything about us. There is absolutely nothing hidden from Him.
This is the One with whom we deal. This is the One who is arranging circumstances so that we can do business with Him. This is what the Lord did for these brothers. He arranged a circumstance so that they had to come back and had an opportunity to deal with unfinished business, to make what I call a spiritual transaction.
Everybody knows what a business transaction is. You give something, and you get something back—hopefully. A good businessman would say that a good business transaction is good for both parties. In a transaction, you have to give something and get something back. It is not a gift.
We are not talking about salvation here, by the way. I ought to make that very clear. Salvation is a gift. You do not do anything to deserve it; it is just a gift. What we are talking about here is not salvation. We are talking about something else.
The Lord loves us, and He forgives. He has forgiven us, has He not? What happens to us sometimes, because we know that the Lord forgives our sins, is that when the Holy Spirit begins to convict us, when He begins to speak to us a little bit, there is a sense of something uncomfortable.
Physiologically, when the Holy Spirit is dealing with us and there is not peace, that feeling of discipline feels in my body, as far as I can tell, exactly the same way that the feeling of condemnation feels.
Condemnation ought always to be rejected, but discipline should always be embraced. If we are not careful, we will reject the discipline of the Lord. Physiologically, in our emotions and in our bodies, sometimes we confuse the two.
When the Lord begins to deal with us, sometimes we find ourselves singing fifty rounds of a song about the blood. Well, it is true: the blood cleanses us from everything. But this is not about our forgiveness; it is about our completion.
The Lord loves us so much, and He is so committed to you and me, that He is willing to do whatever it takes to give us the opportunity to go to higher ground. That is really what all this is about.
To me, this is one of the most beautiful stories in the Bible. When the brothers came back and realised that Benjamin was going to become a slave and have to stay there, Judah brought himself into the light.
He did not have to do it. He did not know he was talking with Joseph. He did not know that the person he was talking to knew all about what they had done. Judah, because of his love for his father and because of his love for the lad, brought himself into the light.
The Bible refers to Benjamin as the lad, the little one. You know who the little ones are? They are not merely children, though children may be included. The little ones, spiritually, are not necessarily children; they are whoever among us is helpless, those among us who need us to stand up for them.
That is what the lad represents. I find myself asking myself a question: Am I laying my life down for the little ones?
Judah brought himself to the light. He said, “This will kill my father. If the lad does not go back, if this little one does not go back to my father, it will be too much for my father. We cannot do that to my father.”
Do you see? Do we love our Father so much? Do we realise that our Father is bound with the little ones? Remember, he said, “His soul was bound with his soul.” That is literally what it says. Jacob was bound with Benjamin.
Do we see our Father, our heavenly Father, as being bound with us and with every one of us? Those who seem uncomely, those who seem unimportant—He is bound with those. He cares. There is something on His heart concerning the brothers and sisters.
Oh, the Lord orchestrates circumstances, does He not? Judah brought himself to the light. He told Joseph what they had done. Judah brought himself into the light. He said, “Keep me. Keep me as a slave, and let him go.”
When he said this, a couple of things were happening. First, Judah was making a spiritual transaction right there. He was buying gold refined by fire.
This is what the Lord says to the church:
“Because 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, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.”
Judah made a spiritual transaction. When he did, that was the very thing that opened the door. Joseph could not contain himself any longer. He sent everyone out, and that was when he revealed to his brothers who he was.
Brothers and sisters, this matter of coming to the light, of allowing ourselves to be brought into the light, is a very personal issue. No one makes you do it. That is what is really tricky about this thing: you do not have to do it. Nobody will know.
But when we bring ourselves into the light, we receive something that I believe there is no other way to receive. When we come into the light, we see something of the Lord and something of ourselves.
We see something of the Lord that was otherwise hidden to us and would have remained hidden. We see something of ourselves that was hidden from us. I do not believe that any amount of self-analysis will ever really help us to see ourselves.
But when we come into the light, we do see something. We receive something that we never would have seen otherwise.
Something was mentioned in the planning meeting yesterday. Some names were mentioned: David, Moses, and Paul. What I am about to say was not mentioned in the planning meeting, but I thought of it as these names were being mentioned.
All three of these men have something amazingly in common in a big way, and they speak to us in this matter. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 36:9:
“In Thy light, we see light.”
It is an amazing thing: in the Lord’s light, that is where we see light. In Him, in His life, we see light and find light.
Both Moses and Paul, when they met the Lord in their initial salvation experience, met the Shekinah glory of the Lord. They met the light. Moses met the tree that had the light but was not consumed. Paul met that light, heard a voice out of the light, and was blinded temporarily. That was the beginning experience.
I think it is safe to say that David, Moses, and Paul knew something about the light in a personal and real way. They knew something, in a personal and real way, about what is in man and what is in themselves. I believe the Lord made them safe vessels by showing them something from the light.
One more interesting thing about light, about spiritual light. To me, it is one of the most interesting little verses in the Bible, from 1 John 1:7:
“If we walk in the light, as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.”
You know, if most of us were writing that verse—not under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—we would have said, “If we walk in the light, as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with” whatever your list is: the Scriptures, the church, Bible study.
But it says, “If we walk in the light, as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.”
I am going to go back for a minute to this matter of the lad and the little one. Brothers and sisters, it is not just a Bible-story thing. It is a practical thing. It is something very much on the heart of our Lord: that we would find out what it means to lay our lives down for one another.
The thing about it is, I am not sure we can lay our lives down for one another simply by deciding to do it. You cannot do it by willpower. You cannot do it because you know you are supposed to.
But when we love our Father, when we walk in the light, we love the brothers and sisters, and we watch out for our Father’s interests. You know what happens when we are not motivated by love and by light? We do things supposedly on the Father’s behalf, but really they are on our own behalf.
But when we walk in the light and are laying our lives down for the brothers and sisters, loving the Lord, the Lord’s personal interests are furthered, and we get to have a part in the matter.
There is only one way that we can have fruitful ministry and have a part in the things that are important to the Lord: it is always on His terms, never on ours.
This is the thing the Lord is calling His people to in this day: personal spiritual engagement. Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal, and do not be surprised when you find a silver cup in your own baggage. It is the Lord’s intention to bring you to higher ground and make you a fruitful vessel.
When Judah did this thing, he became a shepherd. He became shepherd of his father’s flock. As soon as he brought himself into the light and repented, he became shepherd of his father’s flock.
Oh, brothers, we want to be shepherds. We want to be ministers. We want to accomplish something for the Lord. The only way we can accomplish anything for the Lord is to do business with the Lord.
It is not by our gifts, manipulating something, or seeing how many speaking invitations we can get. Nothing will happen eternally unless you and I do business with the Lord spiritually.
Turn with me to Philippians 2, beginning with verse 1:
“If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Well, really, this is church life. This is what life in the body of Christ is intended to be: looking out for the interests of others and finding out what it means to empty oneself.
The wonderful thing about the church is that the Lord is Head, and we are His body. He is committed to orchestrating circumstances for us. We are the school of Christ. As long as we are under the Lord’s headship, He will continually orchestrate circumstances that protect us from ourselves, show us what we are really like, and bring us to higher ground.
You know what happens when things are going the way we want them to go? When we are deluded into thinking that everything is okay and we have no need, we just sort of go along. But the Lord, out of His great love and commitment, allows things to come that stop us in our tracks.
Then we become desperate. Then the Lord begins to point things out to us. He begins to work in our lives in a different way. It seems so difficult, so impossible, but the end of the matter is that we exercise faith, trust Him, and do not give up. He certainly does not give up. He brings us into a broader place.
Over the course of my adult life, and I know others have this testimony, I have seen the Lord work in the lives of His people primarily in three areas: finances, physical health, and personal relationships.
The Lord seems to get at His people and have a way into their lives in these three areas—our jobs and finances, our health, and our relationships. Of course, there are more, but especially in these areas, the Lord is continually allowing things that are too big for us.
It is not intended to destroy us. It is intended to show us what is really important and bring us to higher ground. This is Judah’s story. He came to the light. There is something in it for every one of us.
Joseph’s story is a little bit different. I just want to read once more Joseph’s response in Genesis 45:4:
“Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come closer to me.’ And they came closer.”
Brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus is so interested in bringing us closer and closer to Himself. That is what all this is about. The Lord is coming back for a bride—not some distant relationship, but the most intimate relationship there is. He wants to draw us into close, personal relationship with Him.
Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come closer to me.” They came closer, and he said:
“I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now, do not be grieved nor angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”
Saints, I wonder: when we are mistreated, or when we think we have been mistreated, when there is difficulty in our assemblies or in our personal lives, what do we see?
I am personally convinced, without any shadow of a doubt, that every man and woman who loves the Lord, desires to press on with the Lord, and desires to make an impact on the Lord’s behalf will, sooner or later, be misunderstood by brothers and sisters.
The thing that is precious to you—whatever it is; I do not know yours, I only know mine—whatever it is that the Lord has shown you and given you personally, it will be stepped on by your brothers and sisters. I am sure of it.
In that moment, when you feel failed, unappreciated, or perhaps even dismissed, will you see it as an opportunity? Will you see that the Lord has brought you through a place ahead of your brothers and sisters so that you can preserve life for others?
This is the way the Lord gives it to us, to be those who preserve life. It is not just getting smarter, more capable, or having a better gift. The Lord is working in our lives and leading us in such a way that we can know things not merely in our minds, but experientially, in a living way that produces fruit for one another.
Oh, brothers and sisters, unless we enter in and become personally engaged, it will never happen.
Praise the Lord for our sister’s testimony yesterday. May it be the testimony—I want it to be my testimony. I know it is the word of the Holy Spirit in this season that the Lord’s people need.
It is time for every one of us to have this personal relationship with the Lord. When we are lonely, I tell you, we need to find the Lord. I am not talking about dismissing loneliness among people. I have a heart for those whom I believe are lonely in Memphis.
But when we are lonely, we need to find the Lord Jesus as the One who fills up that void. When we are hurt, we can find the Lord Jesus as the One who has endured the ultimate hurt.
When we feel dismissed, we can find the Lord Jesus as the One who has experienced the ultimate dismissal. We can know the Lord as Saviour, as Preserver of Life, as Overcomer. We can see Him in reality in a way that we have never seen Him before.
When difficulties come into our lives, it is the Lord’s highway. It is the Lord’s orchestrated way for us to come into vision. It is a real thing. Do not be surprised when, along the way, we see something of Him and something of ourselves.
This is the Lord’s way of bringing us into revelation and into light. Oh, brothers and sisters, may we be those who, in a personal matter and a personal way, enter into this matter of preserving life.
I believe the Holy Spirit is asking us a question over and over in these days: Are we preserving life? Do we know what it means to preserve life for our brothers and sisters, for each other?
I want to close with this matter in John 15:11:
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”
Oh, brothers and sisters, how we must have the joy of the Lord. If we do not have the joy of the Lord, we cannot go on. There is strength in the joy of the Lord.
But we cannot get the joy of the Lord through willpower. We cannot conjure up the joy of the Lord. When we have the joy of the Lord, we sing happy songs, but I am not sure that singing happy songs will give us the joy of the Lord. It might help us realise how much we need the joy of the Lord.
Here is the wonderful thing: the Lord says, “I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” The Lord has empowered us. This is not something we cannot do, nor something we cannot have. It is something we already have. The Lord has empowered us to have joy.
Joy is the benefit of loving the brothers and sisters. It says, “This is My commandment, that you love one another.” We are commanded to love one another. Did you know this? It is not an option; it is a commandment.
“Greater love hath no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Sometimes we say to each other in Memphis that in our lives there seems to be a doorway. There is a sign over it that says, “Discipleship. Higher ground.” Then, in smaller letters, it says, “Personal loss. Suffering. Danger.”
But when you go through that door, you cannot see it until you go through. When you go through the door, on the other side, the Lord Jesus has met you in a way that He would never have met you had you not done it.
Well, this is a simple message this morning, and a simple burden. I want to be clear about it: the burden this morning, the Word of the Lord this morning, is that we should simply be those who are personally engaged—personally bound and attached to the Lord Jesus in a spiritual way, attached to heavenly things in a different and bigger way than we ever have been before in our lives.
It is not enough just to go on with the group. Brothers and sisters, we have to be bearing up personally. This is the way we will help one another. The Lord has circumstances in every one of our lives that have our name on them and nobody else’s.
The Lord has also empowered us with joy. May we be those in this season who are lights in the world—individual lights in the world. Is it not interesting that the Scripture says, “You are lights,” plural? Each one a light, walking in the light, loving one another.
Ministering to our heavenly Father in this way, and receiving joy—joy that there is no other way to obtain. It is ours, brothers and sisters. This is what the Lord has called us to in these days. This is what He is after in these days. May it be our possession: Christ the Lord.
Lord, I just do want to thank You this morning again for the opportunity to be here with the brothers and sisters. Lord, we do want to thank You for Your kindness, Your grace, and, oh Lord, Your patience.
Lord, thank You for the commitment of the Holy Spirit not to leave us alone. Lord, thank You so much for keeping Your word and not deserting us. Lord, You alone are faithful.
Lord, help us to be listening in these days, to be hearing everything that You say to us, and to be following the Lamb wherever He goes.
Oh Lord, we see this morning that we need You desperately. We also see, Lord, that You alone are faithful. Lord, praise Your name. Find us, Lord. Take us on with Yourself. In Christ’s name we do pray. Amen.