Ye have sown much, and bring in little;
ye eat, but ye have not enough;
ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink;
ye clothe you, but there is none warm;
and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.
Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house;
and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
Dear Lord, we do want to thank Thee for bringing us into the new year. Constrain us by Thy love, that we may present our bodies a living sacrifice unto Thee. Thou hast redeemed us for Thyself. We have no right to live for ourselves.
We want to offer ourselves wholly to Thyself—not only that we may live for Thee, but that Thou mayest live in us, put Thy will in us, and work through us, that we may know Thy will and do it.
Teach us how to serve Thee in a way that would be pleasing to Thy heart, so that the day before us may come before Thee, and when we shall see Thee face to face, we shall not be put to shame. We want to give Thee all the glory and praise. In the name of our dear Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
By the grace of God, we are all called to serve Jesus. Formerly, we served Pharaoh—the world. Thank God, He has delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Therefore, we have changed our master. No longer do we serve man; we serve our living God. Because the One whom we serve is the living God, we need to know how we can serve Him in a way that satisfies His heart.
It is not just a matter of doing something for God. We have to do things according to His will. Therefore, this is an urgent question: Is there a blueprint for spiritual service? How do we know that our service is spiritual? How do we know that our service satisfies His heart?
Probably, when we were first saved, we did have a heart and a zeal for Him. We were just trying to do everything that we thought would please Him. But then, gradually, God began to reveal His heart to us. He began to transform our service and enable us to serve Him in a way that would really please Him.
The secret is to know the blueprint of service. Brothers and sisters, when we talk about a blueprint, probably in our minds we think of something technical. When you are going to build a building, you engage an architect, and he will draw up a blueprint. There are lots of lines and circles. Everything is technical, mechanical, and intentional.
Now, brothers and sisters, because our God is a living God, the blueprint that He shows us is something living. It is not something technical or impersonal. It is highly spiritual, and it is living.
When we speak of the blueprint of service, we have to understand this principle. For instance, when people think of building the church, there are those who call themselves church planters. How do you plant a church? Where is the pattern, the blueprint?
Most people try to find a blueprint from history, reading history to see how the church developed through the centuries. Others say, “You cannot find the blueprint in history. You have to find everything in the Word of God.” So they try to find the blueprint in the Word of God.
Where do they find it? Finally, they find it in the Book of Acts, because the Book of Acts gives us the early history of the church: how the church was formed. Then they try to find a technical way of forming the church.
They conclude that you must get a group of people together, teach them, appoint elders and deacons, and then organize a church. You have the Book of Acts as your blueprint. It is very scriptural, and we know that many people have tried that. To their surprise, it does not work.
So where is the blueprint for the church? Brothers and sisters, it is the same with the blueprint for service. You cannot find a blueprint for service in a technical way. Even if it is correct—scripturally correct—it can still be dead.
Yesterday morning we mentioned that the blueprint for spiritual service is a living Person. It is none other than Christ Jesus our Lord. Since He is the One whom we serve, He is the pattern.
Our Lord Jesus said:
If any man serve me, let him follow me;
and where I am, there shall also my servant be.
Thank God, He has given us a perfect pattern: His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus. Therefore, it is very, very important that we know our Lord Jesus—not merely knowing Him mentally, but knowing Him in our spirit. The more you know Him and the more you follow Him, the more spiritual your service will be.
The first thing concerning spiritual service is that it must be son-service. It is not slave-service. The best example of service is the service of the only begotten Son of God.
We are not hirelings. We are not merely doing a work or fulfilling a duty. In the service of the Son, there is a love relationship. The Son serves His Father out of love.
Our Lord Jesus, though equal with God and sharing with God all honor and glory, took a lower place for the sake of service. The Bible says that He took upon Himself the form of a bondservant.
A bondservant is not merely an ordinary slave. An ordinary slave is bought with a price, and when that kind of slave serves, it is a slavish and compulsory kind of service. Such service may be performed before your face but not behind your back. It is not real. It is not out of love.
The first principle is this: you must be a son. You must have His life in you, and there must be a love relationship between you and the Lord. Thank God, He has done this.
God is not served by ordinary people. He can only be served by those who have His life, because service is a matter of life and a matter of love. There must be a son-and-Father relationship.
Therefore, when we serve Him, we must never take it merely as a matter of duty or obligation, as something that falls upon us. Rather, because we are constrained by His love, we want to show our love to our God. This is the first principle.
In the life of our Lord Jesus, we find that He came into this world to be occupied with His Father’s business. When He was twelve years old, His parents took Him to Jerusalem.
After His parents had worshiped God and began to return home, they thought that Jesus must be with the other children. But after a whole day’s journey, they discovered that Jesus was not there. With sorrow and anxiety, they returned to Jerusalem to find the child Jesus.
On the third day, they found Him in the temple, sitting among the rabbis, asking questions and answering questions. His mother said, “Child, why hast Thou thus dealt with us?”
Our Lord Jesus said:
Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house?
Here we find that the whole life of our Lord Jesus was occupied with His Father’s business. He came into this world not to do His own business, but to be occupied with the Father’s business.
When He was thirty years old, He came to John the Baptist to be baptized. John knew that He was a perfect Man, that He had no need to be baptized and no need to repent. John said, “I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?”
Our Lord Jesus said, “Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” Even though He had no need to repent, He took our place and received the baptism of repentance. Then He was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Throughout the life of our Lord Jesus, in all His service, He served by the power of the Holy Spirit. Again and again He said:
I can do nothing of myself.
I do what I see my Father doing.
I cannot say anything out of myself;
I say it because I heard my Father say it.
His whole life was to do the will of God, and apart from the will of God, He did nothing. He was obedient to His Father unto death, even the death of the cross.
Dear brothers and sisters, no wonder that during His life the heavens opened three times and the voice declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Our Lord Jesus said:
If any man serve me, let him follow me;
and where I am, there shall also my servant be:
if any man serve me, him will the Father honor.
The blueprint of spiritual service is our Lord Jesus. That is why we need to know Him so intimately and personally. The measure of your knowing Christ is the measure of your spiritual service. You cannot serve Him above what you know of Him.
Having seen the blueprint of spiritual service, let us consider our present service. Without knowing the pattern, there is no standard and no way to consider our service. The only way to know what our service is today is by comparing it with the pattern.
But brothers and sisters, let us remember one thing: our Lord Jesus is perfect. His service always remained on the highest level. As far as our service is concerned, because we are so limited, our service is relative. It should be progressive.
In other words, our service is measured by our knowledge of our Lord Jesus. When we first believed in the Lord, we knew Him only a little. Because this was all that we knew, it became the limit of our service. But that does not mean that our service was perfect.
We need to grow in life. To grow in life simply means that we grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus. Growing is not a matter of mental knowledge. Growing is life, and the growing of spiritual life is the growing of the life of Christ in us.
As we grow in spiritual life—or, to put it another way, as Christ grows in us—our service should be progressive. It should not remain as it was when we were first saved.
We do not need to be merely retrospective or introspective. We do not need simply to look at our service and try to find out where we have changed. If we examine ourselves in that way, we will either become proud or discouraged.
This is not a matter of introspection. It is a matter of placing ourselves in the light of God daily.
Psalm 36:9 says:
For with thee is the fountain of life:
In thy light shall we see light.
The light here is the light of life. Every believer has light in him, and the degree of the light is according to the degree of the life of Christ in him. It is in this light that we see light.
Therefore, we need to place ourselves before the Lord and ask Him to shine upon us—not only to examine our life, but also to examine our service.
You remember the prayer of David in Psalm 139:
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any way of wickedness in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Dear brothers and sisters, concerning the matter of our service, we need constantly to come to the light of God and ask Him to shine upon us. According to His light of life, where does our service stand? Is it according to His pleasure, or has it already departed from Him?
That is the reason why we read the Book of Haggai. In Haggai, God, through the prophet, spoke to the remnant who had returned to Jerusalem.
The children of Israel had been taken into Babylonian captivity, and they were there for seventy years. But by the grace of God, in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, an order was given: any among the children of Israel could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.
During the period of captivity, God was no longer addressed as the God of heaven and earth. He was addressed only as the God of heaven. In other words, He had been dismissed back to heaven, because there was no testimony for Him on earth. Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was destroyed, and there was no place where God could put His name.
Thank God, in His mercy, He allowed them to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. They were stirred up by the Spirit of God. They wanted to live for God and serve God, so they left Babylon and returned to Jerusalem.
They knew that they would be surrounded by enemies, but they came back with one purpose: to rebuild the temple of God, that God might have a testimony on earth. What a glorious vision!
But after the foundation was laid, enemies arose. The enemy tried every means to stop the building. Finally, their hands became weak, and they stopped building.
During the years in which the building was stopped, what did they do? They had to do something, so they began to build their own houses—beautiful houses.
Then, in the second year of Darius, God raised up the prophet Haggai. Through Haggai, God challenged His people. He called them to consider.
Brothers and sisters, the word consider is a strong word. It means to set your heart upon something, to ponder over it, and to see whether what you have done is the right thing—whether you have departed from God’s will.
God said to the returned remnant, “Consider your ways.” Do you take your ways seriously? Do you not see that you sow much and reap little? You eat, but are not satisfied; you drink, but are not filled; you clothe yourselves, but there is no warmth. In other words, everything is unsatisfactory. Why is it so? Because everyone runs to his own house and forgets the house of God.
The word consider is used five times in the Book of Haggai. Haggai has only two chapters, yet five times the word consider is used. Consider the past: what has happened? Consider the future: what will happen? When the foundation is laid, God will begin to bless you.
Brothers and sisters, I do think that, at the beginning of this new year, we need to consider our present service. What is the condition of the service in which you are engaged today?
Is it something that is in the will of God? Is it something that pleases and satisfies God’s heart? Or has it departed? Is it no longer in God’s way or for God’s purpose? Has it degenerated into something that satisfies yourself?
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to come into the presence of God and ask for His light to shine upon us. Those of us who have served the Lord for many years are the ones who need this consideration most.
When we begin to serve and learn how to serve, there is first love. But as we continue to serve, we learn how to do things, and service can become routine. There is no need to pray about it. We no longer need to be on our knees. We know how to do it, so we just go ahead and do it.
Is it not time that we should return to the Lord? If we have deviated from God’s will—whether in personal service, in the service entrusted to us personally, or in the corporate service of the church—we all need to place it under the light of God and let Him shine upon it.
This is a very personal matter. How can we examine ourselves under the light of God? There are many areas that we need to consider, but I think we can reduce them to four areas.
What is the nature of our service? We have already mentioned that we serve a living God, and He must be served with life. We need to consider whether our service today is of life.
Is our service out of the life of our Lord Jesus in us, or has it degenerated into a routine in which life is no longer present?
In Revelation 2, our risen Lord wrote to the church in Ephesus. We know that the church in Ephesus had a wonderful beginning. The apostle Paul stayed there for three years. Night and day, he served with tears, publicly and from house to house. He preached the kingdom of God and declared to them the whole counsel of God.
The church in Ephesus was noted for its love. They may not have been as gifted as the church in Corinth, yet Paul could share with them the whole counsel of God because they loved the Lord.
You remember the ending of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: grace was with those who loved the Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love. Because of that undying love, God was able to open His heart to them and show them the mysteries of the ages.
They had much work and much patience. But when you come to Revelation 2, you find that the risen Lord says to the church in Ephesus:
I know thy works, and thy toil and patience and that thou canst not bear evil men.
But He says, “I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.” When you read 1 Thessalonians, Paul says that they had the work of faith, the labor of love, and the patience of hope. But in Ephesus, they had work without faith, labor without love, and endurance without hope.
In other words, Christ was missing. His life was missing, yet all the activities were continuing as usual. Our greatest problem is that we can become so lulled into spiritual sleep. It is almost like a spiritual coma. We are not dead, but neither are we living fully; we are in a coma and do not even realize where we are.
May the Lord have mercy upon us, that we may be awakened. Only in His light can we see light. We need to humble ourselves, place our service before His light, and allow His life to shine upon us, that we may repent and return.
God is a living God. We have to serve Him with life, with our heart, and with first love. Otherwise, our service has degenerated. Things may still continue outwardly, but remember: our Lord is not served, and He is not satisfied.
The Lord said to the church in Ephesus, “Unless thou repent and return, I will remove thy lampstand.” In other words, before God, their testimony was gone. The activities might still continue, but before God, it was gone.
Brothers and sisters, it is very important lest our service become merely a work. We cannot measure ourselves by the success of the work, because the success or failure of service has another standard.
We need to consider the matter of vision. We are told that without vision the people perish, or without vision the people cast off restraint. Vision is very important in our service.
Vision gives us the purpose of our service. Vision gives us the direction of our service. Vision gives us the strength of our service. It is most important that there be vision in our service.
You cannot have proper service without vision, because you have no direction and no purpose.
I remember many years ago, a dear brother said that the problem with God’s people today is that we have many small visions, but we lack the heavenly vision.
Some have a vision of evangelism, so they make evangelism everything. They do not know that evangelism is one process toward the eternal purpose of God. They may remain there and never grow into the heavenly vision that God gave to Paul.
Others may have a vision of establishing a hospital, and because of that vision, they try to serve people. But they do not know that this is only part of the heavenly vision. They limit themselves to that small sphere.
The most important thing is that we all have the heavenly vision. You remember Paul’s words: “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” On the road to Damascus, the Lord gave him an overall vision concerning the eternal purpose of God—the very heart of God’s heart.
What is God really after? What does He want to obtain? This is something that every child of God should know. God’s heart is centered upon His beloved Son.
He has given everything to His Son. All the fullness of God dwells in Him bodily, and we are complete in Him. He is the heir of all things. God has put everything under His feet. He is to be all and in all to us.
What is the church? The church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. The church is nothing but Christ. In the church, we should see only Christ—not Adam, not ourselves, not one another according to the flesh—but Christ in one another. It is the fullness of Christ.
What is the full gospel? What is the great salvation spoken of in Hebrews? It is that we may be complete in Christ Jesus. This is the purpose of God. This is the heavenly vision. It gives us direction, meaning, and the way to serve God.
This is another thing that we need to consider before the Lord: Does my service coincide with and agree with the heavenly vision, or do I simply serve according to the traditions of the fathers?
Brothers and sisters, that makes a great difference. Even as our service progresses, we need to grow into the heavenly vision and let that heavenly vision govern our service.
We need to consider the outcome of our service. What do we expect to have?
You remember that the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians that, if you want to know the ministry of Paul, you need to go to 2 Corinthians. There he reveals to us the secret of spiritual service.
In 2 Corinthians 4, he says:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
Thank God, we all have this treasure in earthen vessels. We are earthen vessels—nothing special. Nobody would put a treasure in an earthen vessel. If you had a treasure, you would put it in a gold box. But that is the wonder of our God.
The radiance and power are not from the earthen vessel; they are from the treasure. But for that radiance to diffuse, the vessel has to be cracked and broken.
You know how we love ourselves. Self-preservation is one of the strongest instincts in human beings. But the vessel has to be broken.
Thank God, He arranges circumstances. Everything that happens to a believer has a purpose behind it, because we are called according to His purpose, and all things work together for good. All these things come to break us. Why? That the light of the treasure may come forth.
What is the outcome of service? The outcome of service is imparting life. Death works in us, but life works in others. Through death comes life.
The grain of wheat has to fall into the ground and die. Unless it dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Brothers and sisters, service is the impartation of life—the imparting of the life of Christ in you.
Unless we are broken, that life is imprisoned within us. The outcome of service is not largeness. The outcome of service is life impartation.
We need to examine ourselves, people of the Lord: How much life have we imparted to our brothers and sisters? Or is it merely a matter of outward form? This is something that we need to consider before the Lord.
Finally, we need to consider the power of our service. Where does that power come from?
You remember Zechariah 4. The Lord said:
Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Brothers and sisters, it is very, very important that, when we are engaged in service, we examine ourselves before the Lord again and again: Does the power of our service come from God?
Even our Lord Jesus, when He was on earth, served completely in the power of the Holy Spirit. He never depended upon Himself. He never served out of His own mind. He never did anything out of Himself. He said, “The Son can do nothing.”
He did everything in the power of the Holy Spirit. Concerning God, you cannot offer strange fire.
You remember the story in Leviticus of the two sons of Aaron. When Moses had finished the tabernacle and they came to offer sacrifice, fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. That fire was never to go out. Whenever they wanted to serve God, they had to use that fire.
Yet these two sons used strange fire and entered into the holy place to offer incense. Immediately, they were stricken to death, because no one can serve God with strange fire.
What is strange fire? Strange fire is our own fire—our natural strength, something that comes from ourselves instead of depending upon the power of God.
How many works of God are done in that way today? People use their soulish power. We say, “This man has charisma.” What is charisma? It is a power that comes out from the self-life.
How many works of God are being done in that way? They may be successful in the sight of men, but how much are they worth before God? If we want to serve God, we have to depend upon the power of God—that is, the Holy Spirit.
Especially with God’s servants today, we are so busy and engaged in service that we have no time to pray. We have no time to wait upon the Lord. We know what to do. We know what to say. We have done it for years.
We may deceive ourselves, and we may even deceive our brothers. But any service that is not in the power of the Holy Spirit is rejected by God. Eventually, it will bring in death instead of life.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to be before the Lord and ask Him to shine His light upon us. Sometimes we serve to such an extent that we cannot stop and wait before the Lord. We are truly driven on by the work.
Brothers and sisters, be careful. The Lord is coming. We shall all appear before His judgment seat. Our service will be judged according to Christ. How much of Christ is in our service?
Dear Lord, we do pray that Thy light will shine upon us. By Thy grace, Lord, may we always walk in Thy light. Do not allow us to drift away into darkness, that our service may be rejected.