We are sitting in a little theater, but we are not here to perform, and you are not here to listen to a play. Especially in the matter of spiritual service, we hope that we are not putting on a play.
We know that the Lord, when He was on earth, severely admonished the Pharisees. He accused them of being hypocrites. In the original text, being a hypocrite means putting on a show or acting. That is not what we want to do.
Today, as we serve the Lord, we ought to be truthful.
Our dear Lord Jesus, we thank You. You have given us another opportunity to gather here in Your presence.
Lord, we thank You for this message on the cross. Lord, in these end days, the light of the cross within the church on earth is becoming dim. We ask that You would renew us and relight the flame in us, that in a short time You would gain those individuals who truly carry their cross and follow You, especially in the matter of service.
Lord, we need to know the meaning of the cross, and we need this meaning of the cross to enter into our service.
We commit this afternoon’s time into Your loving hands. We ask for Your presence, Lord. Anoint us richly with Your anointing oil, that the sharing and the hearing will be pleasing before You.
Lord, we know that without the cross, we cannot attain Your glorious heart’s desire, and Your will cannot be done in our lives. May Your Spirit work deeply in our lives now, so that the cross might be found in our lives and in our service.
Lord, may You be exalted. May You be glorified. We pray that You would hear this prayer in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
In these three afternoon sessions, we would like to share with you on the matter of service. We want to make these matters practical, so I will only give an introduction for these meetings.
I am hoping that those brothers and sisters with experience in service will come up toward the end of the session and share. With regard to the cross in service, we hope that you will share from your experience.
I do want to give you a reminder. Because we are limited in time, we hope that you will come up and share a story or experience. We do not need you to come up and give another sermon. We have heard a lot of sermons from our brothers.
What we want to hear is your story—how the cross has worked in your service. As you listen, I hope that you will prepare in your heart.
In the three afternoon sessions, I am going to share on three important points:
This afternoon, I would like us to focus on the mind of the cross.
Let us begin by looking at some Scripture. These are passages with which you are very familiar, but they are important. Let us read them.
We begin with Romans 12:1-2.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service.
And be not fashioned according to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Then, Revelation 13:8. The point to focus on in this verse is that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
Lastly, Philippians 2:5-8. I have shared this passage of Scripture with many brothers and sisters in different places, but this passage is very critical. This word ought to be reiterated.
Roughly ten years ago, the Lord placed this word in my heart. I told the Lord, “You have given this word to me. I pray that You would give me the opportunity to share it with brothers and sisters abroad.”
In the past ten years, even though I have preached on this dozens of times, I feel that there is much more to be learned from these verses. We need to learn again and again.
This passage of Scripture is very important to our life and our service. Let us read it together.
Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
who, existing in the form of God,
counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,
being made in the likeness of men;
and being found in fashion as a man,
He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death,
yea, the death of the cross.
Earlier, we read in Romans 12. We see that Christian service and a person’s mindset are tied together. Our mindset in service has a preeminent place before God, because our mindset determines how we live our lives.
Our mindset influences our service, because the way we think is the way we act. A lot of the things we do are because we thought them up. If we cannot commit our thoughts to God, then our service does not bear much fruit.
A lot of people think service has to do with gifts. We feel that we need various gifts. This is true. Gifts are important, and without gifts, we cannot serve.
Some feel that, to serve the Lord, we need fervency. We need zeal. We need to be fervent. We need to be able to consecrate ourselves and offer ourselves. We know these things are important.
Some feel that we need might or power. Others feel that we need common sense or knowledge. These things are important.
But Paul tells us in Scripture that we need to deal with our mind and our thoughts. In Romans 12:1, he says that our service is a spiritual, or reasonable, act of worship.
Jessie Penn-Lewis tells us that this service ought to be rational and reasonable. This reasonable service has to do with our mind.
How can we have this reasonable service? Romans 12:2 says:
And be not fashioned according to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
We need to have a transformed, or renewed, mind so that we can have this reasonable service. What kind of mindset is one that is renewed?
We thank the Lord that the Bible shows us that the Lord Himself is our example. This renewed or transformed mind is not our natural mind. Our natural mind is the old mind.
With our old mindset, we cannot bear spiritual fruit. Yet we see many who serve the Lord who have lost this renewing of the mind. Most people serve with this old mindset.
A lot of the so-called training that we receive is only training for our old mind. Paul says that, to serve God and have this reasonable service before God, we ought to have a renewed mind.
This renewed mindset is the Lord’s mind. When the Lord came to earth, He set an example for us. In Philippians 2, we see what the mind of Christ is.
We have to ask: when was the Lord’s mind established?
When we read Revelation 13, it tells us that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. This means that, before creation, our Lord Jesus had already taken on the likeness of a lamb. He had the mindset of a lamb, and He was the sacrificial Lamb at that time.
One brother explained this well. He said that, in eternity past, the Lord already had this desire. This mindset was not something that He attained when He came to earth. Even before He came to this earth, He had this mindset.
Throughout the thirty-three and a half years that the Lord lived on earth, every moment was lived with this mindset. When we see the fullness of this mindset manifested, we see our Lord on the cross.
This mindset of our Lord can be termed the mindset of the cross. This is a renewed mind, and it is with this mind that we ought to serve the Lord.
Our Lord, when He came to this earth, had this mind. When He was resurrected and ascended, we see that in eternity our Lord is still the Lamb who was slain.
The mindset of Christ found in Philippians 2:6-8 is an eternal mind. This is the mind with which we ought to serve Christ.
Our Lord did not learn this when He came to earth. But what about us? This is something we need to learn. We need the Holy Spirit to do this renewing work.
Only when we enter into the mind of Christ can we offer Him the service that is due Him. I feel that this is a matter of utmost importance. We cannot use our old mindset to achieve much spiritually.
In service, we need to have this fundamental learning, and it begins with our mindset. We must allow the mind of Christ to become our mind.
The word mind can also be translated thought. We ought to have the thought that Christ has.
I have given this example in the past. We know that we have received a new life, and it is depicted as being like a fountain. This fountain is similar to a water reservoir, and the water is pure.
What are our thoughts like? Our thoughts are like a channel.
For example, here we are in San Francisco. The water plant tells us that the water here in San Francisco is pure. When you turn on your faucet, you can drink that water. They guarantee that the water is fresh.
But what if the plumbing in our homes is old and rusty? Suppose the plumbing is over a hundred years old and corroded. I turn on the faucet and pour you a glass of water. I tell you that the water company guarantees that the water is drinkable. Do you want to drink it?
You would say, “Yes, the water is pure, but your plumbing is not.”
The life that the Lord gives us is a pure life. But through our old and corrupted mind, what comes out is no longer pure. This is a hardship we find in service.
There are many with gifts. There are many who are fervent. But their mind has not been renewed. What comes forth not only does not supply others, but it harms others.
Brothers and sisters, in our service, our mind has to be renewed. Like our Lord Jesus, we ought to have the mind of the cross.
We know that in service, our Lord is forever our example. In Philippians 2, we see words that are important, and we ought to meditate upon them.
We are to have a deep desire that the Spirit of our Lord would work so that our mind and thoughts would be the same as our Lord’s. When our mind is the same as that of Christ, what comes out of us becomes a supply to others.
In this passage of Scripture, we see seven important points. This is the mind of Christ, and Paul tells us that we ought to have this mind as well.
The first point is this: although He existed in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.
We know that in His nature He was equal to God. Yet, though equal, He did not regard this as a thing to be grasped.
The word grasped can also be interpreted as taking hold of, insisting upon, or retaining something. He did not hold anything for Himself.
Dear brothers and sisters, in our service we sometimes see this manifestation. In the world, people are in conflict over things, and so we see much chaos and conflict. In business and industry, people seek to take things for themselves and think of ways to overcome others.
Yet we find the same phenomenon in the church. We see these struggles in service. We always feel that we want to do a better job than others.
Of course, to do well before the Lord is a good thing. But we are not to compare ourselves with one another.
Our natural and corrupt nature will manifest itself in service. We take things by force. We want to conquer others.
I remember when I was younger, I saw brothers and sisters with many gifts. They gave us the feeling that we needed to conquer heaven and earth. When they talked about expanding their work to this region or that region, it would make the young people really excited.
We almost idolized these brothers and sisters. I would say, “When I come up and serve the Lord, I want to be like him.”
When I was first called to serve the Lord, there was some abnormality in my mind. Of course, I learned that I had to be humble, but there was still some slight abnormality.
I felt that I needed to study the Word of God diligently. I wanted to receive much revelation and light from God’s Word. When I received this revelation, I felt that I could conquer things for the Lord and capture audiences.
This mindset was abnormal. I found that in various localities, there are brothers and sisters with this mentality. They want, in a short time, to become a famous servant of God. In a short time, they want to accomplish much.
Then you see this competition. Brothers and sisters, this is not the mindset of our Lord.
When our Lord came into this world, not only did He not grasp anything from the Father, He would not necessarily hold fast to His own things.
As we enter into service, if we did not have such a competitive mindset, I think there would be much tranquility in the churches. When servants of the Lord work together, there would be much harmony.
The first point is that the nature of our Lord Jesus is one in which He did not grasp. There are many examples of this in the Bible. If you look at the story of Jacob and Esau, it is very interesting. They were always grasping things.
The second point, found in Philippians 2:7, is that He emptied Himself.
From the four Gospels, we see that when the Lord emptied Himself, it was a great thing. Apart from His divine nature, He emptied everything. His glory and His position in the heavens—He emptied all these things.
Today, as we serve the Lord, we ought to learn how to empty ourselves.
J. N. Darby tells us that the self is the factory for the enemy’s work. The place where the enemy can do the most work is in our self-life.
We see many difficulties in the church arise because the enemy uses our self-life. Our own interests come up, our own opinions, our own understanding of things, our own prejudices, our own ambitions, and all our feelings and opinions.
The most difficult meeting in the church is often the service meeting. I have attended service meetings where brothers and sisters argue. They always feel that their opinions and ideas are the best.
There are matters that could probably be settled in five minutes, but they argue for two hours, and nothing is resolved. What does that say about us? We have not emptied ourselves.
Brothers and sisters, in the matter of service, we need to empty ourselves as our Lord did.
This emptying is a secret. It is different from the emptying spoken of in other religions. In Buddhism, they also speak of emptying oneself, and they have many theories about it. But our emptying is for the sole purpose of having Christ fill us.
What is the difficulty in our service? The problem is that we are not empty. We want to serve the Lord, and yet we are full of our own opinions. All these things are filling us.
When the Lord wants to use us, the vessel is already full. To bring forth God’s grace to others becomes very difficult.
We ought to keep ourselves an empty vessel so that the Lord can fill us.
This applies not only to service, but even to hearing a sermon. After many years of hearing sermons, it is as though we are full, and the Lord’s word cannot enter anymore. This is manifested in our desire for the Lord—we find that we have no more desire.
We ought to have this emptying within us. When we empty ourselves, we give no ground for the enemy to do his work.
The Lord tells us in John 14:30:
The prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me.
The Lord had emptied Himself, and so the enemy had nothing in Him. When we empty ourselves, we give God the opportunity to use us.
The Lord at all times had this attitude of emptying Himself. This is what is meant by Him emptying Himself.
In these next few days, the Lord has abundant words for us. Not only those who serve, but all the brothers and sisters need to empty themselves so that the Lord can manifest His grace in us.
The third point is that He took on the form of a bondservant.
I have shared previously that taking on the form of a bondservant is a voluntary action. When the Son of God came into this world, perhaps the Father asked the Son, “What form would You like to take as You enter into the world?”
I have previously asked young brothers, “If you were to write your aspirations—what you want to be when you grow up—what would you write?” Some might write, “I want to be a doctor or a lawyer.” I even had an elementary school friend who wrote, “I want to be president one day.”
I have never seen a young person write, “When I grow up, I want to be a bondservant.”
Perhaps today we do not want the things of this world. Yet in the church, we may want to be a servant of God, or some great and useful person for God.
But when our Lord came into this world, He took on the form of a bondservant.
Paul, living under the Roman world, knew exactly what a bondservant was. In those days, as a slave, you had no position and no rights. When the Lord came into this world in order to serve God, He took on the form of a slave.
Brothers and sisters, later Paul was called to serve, and he also considered himself a bondservant. He said, in effect, “As far as serving the Lord is concerned, I want to be like my Lord. I want no position. I want to give up all my rights. I want to completely submit and obey.”
In Acts 4, we find the term pais. This word can be translated in two ways: son or servant. It speaks of our identity.
When our Lord came into this world, on one hand He was a Son, but on the other hand He was a bondservant. When we become believers, we receive the same identity. On one hand, we are sons; on the other hand, we are servants.
In the family of God, we are His children. We have rights, and we are able to enjoy what is in the household. I remember when my sons were little. After they got out of school, they would run home and go straight to the refrigerator.
They opened the refrigerator, grabbed whatever they wanted, and ate it. This is what a son can do. He can enjoy everything in the household.
On the other hand, in the kingdom of God, we are servants. We want to accomplish God’s will.
I see that most Christians are children. Those who recognize themselves as servants are not too many. You go into the church, others have set up the chairs, and you just sit down. Then you get up and leave when the meeting is over. This is being a son or a daughter.
We know how to enjoy, but we do not know how to serve. Today, when we serve our God, we are to take on the form of a bondservant. This is a voluntary action, and this is a precious thing.
The fourth point is that He took on the likeness of men. The word men here is plural. He took on the likeness of all men. Jesus was a man, and this means that He was very common.
One time, when I was recently in Hong Kong, someone told me, “Brother, I saw someone who looked just like you.” He was some rich person in Hong Kong, and they told me that I looked just like him.
Most of us look common. Our Lord took on the likeness of men. In other words, He was common. He did not stand out.
This was one reason why the Jews despised Him. He was common. He was a Nazarene, the son of a carpenter.
As our brother shared this morning, for the experts to look at Him and consider Him the Messiah was a difficult thing. He had no glory or beauty.
In the original text, it says that He was ugly. Even the prophet Isaiah says that there was no beauty that we should desire Him. He was very ordinary.
He did not have the mindset that He was going to become someone great. Brothers and sisters, in service, a beautiful mindset is to become a normal person. The more ordinary, the better.
Spirituality is ordinary. Those who are extraordinary may have issues with their spiritual life, because this was how our Lord was.
We know that in service in the church, many brothers and sisters have already gone astray in their mindset. From their youth, many want to be extraordinary. In worldly things they may not want to be extraordinary, yet in the church they want to grasp certain things.
Brothers and sisters, may the mindset of Christ become our mindset.
You need to know that, even though our Lord was ordinary, He had the essence and flavor of man. We can say that there was no human like our Lord.
Our problem is that we become prideful. If we are ordinary, then we are down on ourselves. Brothers and sisters, we need to have the mindset of Christ: in service within the church, we are the same as others. This is a beautiful mind.
The fifth point is this: being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself. This humbling means that He made Himself small.
The image that our Lord gives us of Himself is that of a lamb. The nation of Israel wanted Him to be a lion, but He took on the form of a lamb. He wanted the little lamb to be His image.
In His mindset, He wanted to diminish Himself. I often think that, if we followed a lion, we could be very proud. If you had a lion as a pet and walked him on a leash, everyone would run from you.
But if you walk behind a little lamb, what do we have to boast of? We do not feel that the lamb is worthy of us. Yet those who serve the Lord are those who follow the Lamb.
We need to learn to decrease ourselves. I have said before that when we are small, we do not get harmed.
In service, we often feel hurt. People come to me and say, “You know, I have been hurt.” I tell them, “You are too big. That is why you are getting hurt. If you become small, you will not get hurt.”
If you are a big figure in the church, the enemy likes to strike that big figure. We see great figures in modern Christianity, and the enemy pokes them, and they fall.
If we diminish ourselves, the enemy will be less likely to strike us. When you shrink yourself, then you will be supplied. This is a very important thing we need to learn.
Again, this humbling of ourselves is voluntary. I like to share the story of Hudson Taylor.
He was asked to preach at a certain place. The elder of that church was very excited because this renowned preacher of God was going to share in their assembly. He was thinking to himself, “How should I introduce this great person?”
Hudson Taylor came to their church, and the elder, with great excitement, stood on the stage. He proclaimed, “This morning we have this great servant of God here.”
When Hudson Taylor stepped onto the stage, he said, “First of all, I need to correct what my brother just said. I am not the great servant of God. I am the little servant of a great God.”
This was truly someone who followed the Lamb. This is a beautiful thing. In the church, if we learn to humble ourselves, we can serve the Lord as He did.
The sixth point is that He became obedient. For a purpose, He became obedient. All was for the will of God.
Our Lord’s obedience was most beautifully manifested in the garden of Gethsemane. Right before He went to the cross, the pressure upon Him was immense.
The Bible records how His sweat became like drops of blood. It was to the point that He could have fainted at any moment, and angels had to appear to strengthen Him.
We know that in service He bore this heavy burden. He had a beautiful prayer. He said, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass. But not according to My will, but according to Your will.”
In the whole Bible, this is the most beautiful example of obedience. He said, “According to Your will and not Mine.”
What does this tell us? Obedience is placing our will beneath the Lord’s will. In service, I have no decisions; my Lord makes my decisions.
Those of us who have real experience in this matter know that this is difficult. We encounter difficulties and hardships. Our ideas come up, and we feel that we need to make decisions.
But if we can become like our Lord and say, “Your will and not mine,” then in this way we can achieve God’s will in service.
The last point is that He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
We see that the focal point and peak of the service of our Lord is focused on the cross. When this mindset is focused on the cross, we see this mindset come to fullness.
Earlier, we mentioned emptying ourselves. This is a form of denying ourselves. But when we come to the cross, we come to the point of being selfless. There is no self.
This is the highest point when we learn the lessons of the cross. When the Lord allowed them to crucify Him, His self was completely broken, and we see the life of God poured forth from our Lord Jesus.
The cross is the mark of maturity in our service. We ought to have this mindset.
Oftentimes, I say to younger people, “What does it mean to bear the cross?” It means that when situations, difficulties, and hardships come, and when things do not go smoothly, our reaction is spiritual. That means the mark of the cross is upon you.
This is a simple explanation. Brothers and sisters, in the matter of service, our Lord is a beautiful example.
Before our Lord came into this world, the mindset of the cross was already in Him. Today, if we want to serve the Lord and bring forth spiritual fruit, our minds have to be renewed.
Our mindset has to be like that of the Lord. This is the first and most important step. If our mind is like that of the Lord, then what is manifested in our service is that which is pleasing to the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, do not let the old mindset dictate our service. Do not use your natural mind to serve the Lord.
We ought to pray that the Spirit of the Lord would do the renewing of our minds. The apostle Paul tells us that we need to offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice in order to give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to work.
May the mindset of the cross become our mindset, that we might know what is the good, pleasing, and acceptable will of God. Then we can do the work of reasonable service.
This afternoon, I simply wanted to give you an overview of the mind of Christ and the mind of the cross. We have about twenty minutes left, and we hope that brothers and sisters will give their testimony.
If you can give a short testimony concerning one of the points that we brought up, please feel free to do so. We hope that you will give yourself three to five minutes. You do not need to give another sermon. We want to hear your experience and your story.
Is there a brother or sister who would like to share? We have a young brother who would like to share his experience.
My experience is from last summer. After the church conference, I saw some younger brothers and sisters, even younger than me, who had just come to know the Lord. I felt that they needed to read the Bible, and I had the thought that I would read with them.
There were also some gospel friends in the school I attended, and we had Bible study. I had the desire to do something for the Lord, and I felt that this was what the Lord wanted.
But I had another thought, and it had to do with an affection. I felt an attraction to a sister in the Lord, but that was not the will of God. I was bound in my heart and in my emotions.
I wanted to serve, but I also wanted to pursue after the sister. I felt that I could not put forth my effort for the Lord. I felt this conflict within me.
I took the opportunity to have Bible study with the young people, but I missed opportunities to have Bible study with them. Lastly, the Lord reminded me, “You cannot serve Me in this way.”
In a very harsh way, He broke off the relationship I was having with this girl. He allowed that girl to have a boyfriend. It sounds funny, but because I am stiff-necked, the Lord had to do this so that I would listen to Him.
I am thankful to God. He gave me a portion of Scripture at that time, found in John 12:24:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die,
it abideth by itself alone;
but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
I had put my heart and my affection on this girl, and I could not accomplish anything for the Lord. That had to die.
I took that broken heart back to the Lord, and I gave it to God for His purpose. From that moment on, I felt that I could diligently serve the Lord, and the Lord had many opportunities to reveal things to me.
Even if we do not learn the lessons of the cross, the Lord knows that we do not want to learn those lessons. I did not want to see my life and my ability to serve the Lord go to waste. But without going through the cross, I could very well have wasted my life away.
For this matter, I am thankful to the Lord.
I think most of you here have a fervent heart to serve the Lord. I want to share with you a failure in my experiences in service, in order to encourage you younger brothers and sisters.
When I was about eighteen years old, I finished school and was working here in America. The Lord told me that I was not only to work, but that He wanted me to serve in the church.
Not very long afterward, a brother who brought me to the church told me, “If you and Deborah, your wife, are there, then we are not going to go there.”
I never imagined that someone would have such a feeling toward me. That day I could not work. I was very sorrowful.
I went back and told my wife. We came before the Lord and prayed. Before we even prayed, we wept. We were very sad. How could brothers and sisters think that of us?
But then we stopped and thought of reasons. Perhaps the first night we arrived and gave our testimony, we wronged someone. Perhaps in our speech, we came across as being better than them. Perhaps, in other opportunities of service, we butted heads with them without knowing it.
My wife and I decided that we needed to humble ourselves before the Lord, because that couple was older than us. I thank the Lord that before we left there, they received us back, sent us off, and even gave us a gift before we left.
But another matter was not settled. It concerned preaching the gospel and my relationship with a preacher.
I was very fervent in the church, so they placed me in a higher position. When you become a deacon, you serve with the pastor. At first, things were going well. But one day, a sister told me, “This pastor loves money. He despises poor people. He does not support the weak, and he does not heal the sick.”
I thought about this, and I became angry. I despised him, and my thoughts became abnormal. I would complain to another deacon about him. In deacons’ meetings, we would speak unpleasant things and murmur against this pastor.
One time, something serious happened in the elders’ meeting. Someone brought up some matters, and I heard that there was a discrepancy between what I had heard from the pastor.
In front of everyone, I confronted him and said, “That is not what you told me.” This caused him to lose faith in me. He said, “I trusted you, and that is why I told you the truth. I did not think you would admonish me like that.”
I was too young at the time. I never thought that I would hurt someone so much. He wept in front of everyone.
Later on, I thought of reasons to restore our relationship. When I saw him, I would often ask brothers and sisters to greet him. Sometimes I would call him, but I knew that he did not acknowledge me anymore.
Later, he served on his own. I wanted to help him, but the letter that came back to me was very short. One wrong can bring about such consequences.
Probably for the remainder of my lifetime, we will never come back to good terms. I hope to mend our relationship while here on earth.
I hope that we will treasure the relationships we have with one another, so that as we serve with one another, we will have grace and more love.
Lastly, I want to share about two brothers whom I know. I will call them Brother Chang and Brother Lee.
When they first came to know the Lord, they did well. Brother Chang could not drive, so Brother Lee taught him how to drive. Brother Chang was a carpenter and wanted to help out in the church. He brought along Brother Lee, and happily they began to serve and work in the church.
By noon, things were still going well. But late that night, I checked in on them and heard some loud noises. Brother Chang was unhappy.
He said, “I have put up with you for the whole day. You keep saying this and saying that. I cannot take it anymore. I had even thought of opening a company with you. Forget it now. If I had done this work myself, I would have been done a long time ago. I have been working with you until now, and we are not even done.”
I told him, “Brother, calm down.” Then they left.
The next morning, when I met Brother Chang, I asked him to sit down with me. I told him, “The words you said last night were not very good. You should apologize to your brother.”
He said, “I apologized to him last night on the way home. I told him that my temper was not good, and I asked him to forgive me.”
He said, “Now I am a child of God. What should I do about my bad temper? When I have a temper tantrum, I am no longer a Christian.”
I prayed with him, and I thanked the Lord that he confessed his sin and asked the Lord to help him. He told me that Brother Lee was not doing well financially and that he wanted to help him.
He wanted to serve the Lord rightly. From the example of these two brothers, I learned that in service they had different personalities. Brother Chang was more outgoing, and Brother Lee was very meticulous. There was a problem in putting them together.
According to their age and expertise, Brother Chang should have been a leader. But Brother Lee did everything carefully and correctly. Brother Chang had his own way of doing things.
In service, I think one lesson to be learned is that we need to submit to our elders. When we have differing opinions, we take the lesser position.
When Brother Chang had a temper, Brother Lee did not respond. I have never seen someone so gentle who did not defend himself.
The next day, I continued to work with them. Brother Chang also learned a lesson. He taught me a lesson in that he admitted he was wrong. When I confronted him with the issue, he acknowledged that he was wrong.
No matter how long we have known the Lord, we ought to have this attitude. When Brother Chang said that, if he had done the work himself, he would have been done a long time ago, it might have been true.
But God’s will is for us to work with one another. Only in this way can we learn the lessons of the cross, and here we can obtain God’s blessing.
I apologize; we are already past time. I think many of you have some wonderful experiences. We have tomorrow and the next day, when brothers and sisters will have more opportunity to share your experiences.
We will end our session here. Please bow in a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, our hearts are full of thanksgiving. Not only do You deliver us from the hand of the enemy, but You cause us to be holy priests and to serve You.
Lord, we confess that our fallen nature does not allow us to serve. We thank You that not only have You given us Your life, but You have given us Your example.
May You transform and renew our minds, that our minds may be like the mind of Christ, and that the life of our Lord might be made manifest through our service.
Lord, we need the deeper work of Your cross. May You put the mark of the cross in our deepest mindset, that as we serve You in our lives, we might be like You, Lord.
Lord, may You be glorified. May You hear our prayer. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
We will end our meeting here.