Let us have another word of prayer.
Lord, we are thankful for the many manifest ways that You show forth Your marvelous love—so many marvelous ways that we see this great salvation that we have been brought into.
Lord, we are thankful. We are thankful for the way You did meet our brother. We do continue to pray together, Lord, for our brother’s full, complete healing—spirit, soul, and body—that he could serve You and know You in a very real way the rest of his days.
Lord, we are thankful that we could gather this morning around Thy table, Lord, to testify of the great exchange. Lord, we are sitting here and standing here now as marvelous recipients of Your great love.
But we are thankful, too, that You have loved us so much that You have left us Your Word, and You have left us the Holy Spirit to teach us in all things. We come now in response to that love and offer our hearts, our beings, unto You with that spirit of saying, “Speak, Lord; Thy servants would hear.”
We do pray, Lord, for ears to hear what You are saying to us in this hour, in this time. In Thy precious name. Amen.
I would like for us to turn again this morning to Romans 12. Romans 12.
Last week, we started sharing on this matter of consecration. There were three areas in the overall burden that we have: the principle, process, and purpose of consecration. Last week, we looked at the principle and the process, and, Lord willing, today we can look at the purpose of consecration.
Whenever we have consecration upon our heart, we are drawn to these verses in Romans. We are going to read Romans 12:1-5 this morning. This marvelous plea that Paul, as he speaks for the Lord, cries out:
I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice,
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you
not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think;
but to think so as to have sound judgment,
as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.For just as we have many members in one body,
and all the members do not have the same function,
so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
and individually members one of another.
The burden on this matter of consecration really came out of what some of our brothers have been sharing. Stephen has been sharing on spiritual exercise—spiritual exercise in our spirits, that our conscience, our intuition, and our communion would really know of the very precious place and fellowship that we have in our Lord.
There would be nothing between us and the Lord. Our conscience would be quickened and revived. That intuition would be alert to know the leading of the Spirit. We would be brought into that place of living communion with Him.
He continued by sharing on spiritual exercise as it relates to the salvation of our soul—our mind, our will, and our emotions. In the past, our mind, will, and emotions were under our domain, the domain of the flesh. But praise God, because of Calvary, they have been set free.
We have this opportunity for our minds to be renewed, for the mind of Christ to dwell within us, for our wills to no longer be our wills but His will, and for our emotions to be under the control of the Spirit, guided by Him and not under the domain of our own flesh.
And our physical bodies would truly also be used for the glory of God in all things. As he shared those various messages, there was one theme that went through each of them: the first step in this matter of spiritual exercise was consecration.
My brother Kenny shared the other week on being conformed into the image of Christ. We know the key to being conformed into His image, again, is responding to this matter of consecration.
Because, brothers and sisters, we are going to be conformed. We will either be conformed into the image of Christ, or we will be conformed to this world. We have a choice set before us as to which we are going to be conformed to.
Praise God, because of all that our Lord has done, we have this opportunity and privilege of being able to be conformed into His image. How essential consecration is in that.
As an assembly, in the last month or so, both in the brothers’ meetings and on Wednesday nights, we have been really seeking the Lord. The Lord, as a father speaks to his son, has in a very loving way spoken to us: as an assembly, we have left our first love. He is calling us to return unto that place of first love.
That is so intertwined with maintaining that place of first love: this matter of consecration. It is interesting, as we think about consecration and first love, that it is really difficult even to separate them.
We are thankful that we have an opportunity now to allow the Lord to speak to us, to allow Him to bring us back to what is upon His heart for the day and the time we are living in.
For a brief review, last week we shared on the principle and the process of consecration. The principle of consecration—or really, what is consecration?—is simply deciding who is in charge of your life.
It is not giving ourselves to the Lord to do something for Him. It is giving ourselves, presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him, so that He can live out His life through us.
This is Paul’s wonderful testimony in Philippians: “For me to live is Christ.” The whole underlying principle of consecration is Christ’s life being lived out within us—His character, His very nature, being lived out among the people of God.
As we have this desire, we enter into the process of consecration. We have to remember that even the very beginning of consecration starts with His calling us—His marvelous cry and invitation for us to respond unto Him.
By the mercies of God, as we see that and are captured afresh by the mercies of God, we respond. This work of consecration begins within our lives. It is a freewill response based on His love—not our love for Him, but our response as we are captured by His love.
This is where the matter of first love is so intertwined with consecration. When we see the Lord’s marvelous love, we give ourselves to Him. The more we give ourselves to Him for Him to live within us, the more that first love grows. Then we find ourselves offering ourselves back to Him again.
There is this cycle: first love leads us to consecration, and as we continue to consecrate ourselves, it is that vessel that the Lord uses to maintain the place of first love. We can talk about first love and consecration, but we can never separate them. They are intimately intertwined and essential within us as believers.
Consecration is both a one-time event and a continual, lifelong process. There is a time in our lives when we yield to Him, but it is also continual—every moment of our lives yielding unto Him that He would be Lord.
Praise God, it is also progressive. He does not change us all at one time, but He takes us step by step. He touches things and says, “I want to work on this,” and we yield that to Him. When we are not willing, He is so patient with us.
Sometimes we struggle with things. He is patient with us. He shows us more of His love, and as we respond to that, even as we fail at times, we learn the value of the blood of the Lamb.
Praise God, He lifts us up. He encourages His own, and we continue to respond and allow Him to set us free. Slowly, we start to discover that the attraction of the world and the influence that our old self has over us begin to diminish a little bit.
It becomes a little bit easier—not easy, but a little bit easier—to say yes to the Lord and no to these other things. This is the process that we go through.
Again, it is a principle of life—His life. It is a process of life, that living sacrifice, His life coming out in the people of God. Another way to describe this process is the way of the cross: saying no to the old man, no to self, and yes to Him, entering into all that He would have for us.
Our saying yes in this matter of consecration is really giving the Holy Spirit permission to start to work within us. The Holy Spirit, the Lord, is not going to force Himself on us. He looks to us to respond to His love.
When we say yes, then the Holy Spirit takes it up and says, “All right, now I am going to start this conforming work within you.” As He starts this process, we slowly start to enter into this overall matter of the purpose of consecration.
The purpose of consecration, if you want to simplify it, is life. The principle is life, the process is life, and the purpose is life. The issue is: whose life? Not our life.
In many ways, it is not just His life manifested in us individually. His purpose is that His life would be manifested in the people of God—that He would have that corporate expression of His very character and nature, a corporate expression of the life of Christ among the people of God in this day and in this time.
What is the purpose of consecration? Romans 12:2 says that we may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. We know the will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect. But what is this word prove, and who is the proving for?
The proving is really for ourselves. The definition, if you look at a couple of Bible dictionaries, is putting something to the test to see that it lives up to all that it is supposed to be. It is like testing a piece of metal, testing something that says it can withstand this.
This proving strengthens our own faith. The proving is for us. What is this proving? It is proving and being the testimony of the will of God.
You have to note in this verse that it does not speak of the wills of God. This is the will of God. It is singular—His will—because His will is a very singular thing.
His will is very interrelated with His purpose, which is also a very singular thing, and that purpose is very interrelated with His Son.
His will is that His Son would be seen in us as the people of God. His will is that He has a desire for His Son to have that eternal companion.
His will is that we, as the people of God, would respond and allow Him to conform us into His image—to do that work of preparing us to be that bride, that work of building us together. Our Lord would have that eternal companion, that He would be satisfied, that His heart would be satisfied.
How is all of this done? Again, it comes back to consecration. As we give ourselves to Him for Him to live in us, He starts this wonderful building work of building us into a habitation for God in the Spirit.
This is expressed in our day and time in the local assembly. There is this desire in the assembly of God’s people that we would be a testimony of Him.
The phrase “the testimony of Jesus” brings us down to the reality of what God is after—His purpose, His heart, and His will for us in this hour. There would be that local expression of His character and nature among the people of God.
We often refer to the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3. In those seven letters, what is He looking for? He is looking for His Son. He is looking for the expression, the character, and the nature of His Son.
When He does not see it, in love, He points out where they have come up short and encourages them to respond unto Him. The question before us, particularly in this hour and in the days we are living in, is this: Are we, as the people of God, that expression of the character and nature of His Son?
Are we living out and coming into the fullness of the testimony of Jesus that He desires us to be? As we respond and as His life is manifested, this is the proving. This is the testifying of the will and purpose of God for the day and time in which we live.
There are many fruits, evidences, and manifestations of His life among those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 12 speaks of our minds being renewed—not merely our minds, but the mind of Christ dwelling within us.
Our minds are not focused upon ourselves but upon Him, allowing His mind to richly dwell within us. Our brothers have already shared on the matter of the renewed mind during one of the spiritual-exercise times.
This morning, I would like for us to look at three other evidences, fruits, or manifestations of life in those who have responded to this process of consecration and are allowing His life to be lived out within them.
One of the first things we notice as we consecrate ourselves unto Him and allow that process to begin is that we enter into the reality of true peace and rest. There is a true peace, a true rest, and an abiding that we enter into.
We cannot abide in the Lord outside of the cross working in our lives. Sometimes we hear so much about abiding, being in rest. But there is a battle going on between the flesh and the Spirit.
Unless we allow the cross to work within us, we do not really enter into the reality of the peace and abiding, that place of rest that we have in Him. Many believers can try many other techniques to abide, but unless we are saying no to ourselves and yes to Him, we do not really know this true peace and true rest.
As we are going through this consecration process, our focus is not on abiding. Our focus is not on rest. Our focus is on Christ.
As we focus upon Christ, yield our lives to Him, and allow Him to live out within us, all of a sudden we start to notice, “Wow, I am a lot more restful than I used to be. I am starting to hear His voice.”
How critical it is in this hour and day and time that we are living in that he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says. How can we hear if we are so distracted? If we are out of rest, we do not hear.
The wonderful place of hearing the Lord is when we are sitting at His feet, when there is that abiding. When there is this matter of abiding, being at rest, and dwelling in Him, then we hear His voice. We know this is what He is saying for us to do.
That is why, when we think of the bondslave, one of the most important features of a bondslave is that he has an ear to hear. In many ways, a bondslave is just another name, another way of saying one who is living a consecrated life.
The bondslave is not his own, but he has yielded his life to his master, that his master’s will would be his will. He is no longer living for himself but for the one who has loved him. He has responded to his master’s love and yielded control of his life to his master.
He is in a place of perfect security and rest. We do not enter into all that the Lord has for us in this matter of rest unless we first allow Him to really be working within our hearts.
One of the fruits of a consecrated life, of living according to His purpose, is peace and abiding. We are so thankful for that. In the day and time we are living in, we need to have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. If we can be in that place of abiding, then we can clearly hear what He is saying to us.
Another evidence, manifestation, or fruit of living according to His purpose—living this consecrated life and allowing Him to live out within us—is that we start to realize that we are committed to Him. We are living a committed life.
Not only are we living an abiding life, but we are living a committed life. Before, we were committed to ourselves. But as we yield to Him, we find that we are committed to that which His love has captured us for.
There is a song that says, “Jesus, Lord, I’m captured by Thy beauty.” We find ourselves captured by Him. We are no longer living for ourselves, but we are living for Him, for His heart, and for His purpose.
When we think of this matter of commitment, our eye is not on commitment. Our eye is upon the Lord. When we see His love, when we see His commitment, which we were reminded of so afresh this morning at the table, we see how committed He was to bringing us into that place of righteousness.
He lived a life of commitment. Was His object to live a committed life? No. Our Lord’s object was to satisfy His Father’s heart.
The love of the Father motivated our Lord Jesus. The love of His church and the love of the lost motivated Him. It was out of love. The fruit of the love of Christ led Christ into living a committed life.
The fruit of the Lord’s love within us will lead us likewise. We will find ourselves responding in a way that we are committed to what is upon His heart, because it is no longer our desire and our will, but His will. It is His heart, and we are responding to that commitment.
Oftentimes, you can hear young parents, particularly fathers—I guess I hear the brothers more—before they have that first child, saying, “Am I really going to love this? It is the total unknown. Am I going to love this child? How can I really take care of this child?”
There are all the questions: “How can I do this? How can I do that?” But as soon as that child is born, and that father, in all of his nervousness and awkwardness, is holding that little baby—when that father sees that baby, nobody has to tell that father to be committed to that child. That father is committed.
Before the birth, the father may be thinking, “Can I really be committed? Can I be a good father?” But once you see that child, once that love is expressed and the reality is brought forth, there is a commitment in your life that did not come from you.
Our Lord is not interested in our self-commitment. He has won a commitment. It is really saying, “Not I, but Christ,” allowing His life the freedom within us to live the life that He is committed to fulfilling in the hour and time in which we are living.
His life is the committed life. We live the life that is yielded unto Him. Outwardly, it may look to us as though we are committed. Praise God for the fruit and evidence of that, but it is not our commitment. It is His life being lived out and expressed. It is our yielding to that which brings forth a life that appears to many to be a committed life.
We are thankful for that testimony because it is a testimony unto Him. But it originates from Him, and it is committed to Him and His purpose. All that He has desired and all that He has promised to do, He will fulfill. That is why He is so jealous to have a people that respond to His name and follow Him wherever He leads.
In addition to abiding and commitment, the third evidence I would like for us to look at is that, as we respond to His love and are brought into living more and more of this life of being given unto Him, we become more and more conscious of being members of the body of Christ.
We become more and more conscious that we are not just living for ourselves, not just living by ourselves, but that we are members. We have been brought in and made members of this body of Christ.
Before we get into that, I want to digress just a moment and touch on what I call so-called false consecration, or self-consecration.
If you look at Romans 12:3, there is an interesting phrase after Romans 12:1-2. It is a great exhortation and a great warning to us:
For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you
not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.
Do not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. This is one of the marks of what I am calling false consecration or self-consecration.
At times, in our own strength, we can say, “Okay, I am giving myself to the Lord.” Then what do we see? All of a sudden, we become very proud: “I am given to the Lord.” We start to see self-righteousness: “I am given to the Lord. None of those other brothers and sisters are given to the Lord.”
There is an elevation that starts to take place because the focus is upon ourselves. All of a sudden, we think so highly of ourselves that we do not have need of a teacher: “I know it all. I am an expert.”
We become self-sufficient: “I am just a little bit better than others.” Now, we never say it that bluntly. We cloak it in spiritual words, put on a hypocritical face, and look like we are so good. But actually, it is self-consecration.
We have not been dealt with. We have only strengthened our own self-life. Our own soul has been strengthened; it has not gone through the cross. We suck it up in our own wills, and we are simply determined to be given.
The great manifestation and evidence of that is a real spirit of pride, self-sufficiency, and, tragically, independent lives—not lives being built together, but independent lives going every which way.
This is one of the greatest problems we have today within the body of Christ: too many independent lives. Everybody says that He is Head, but in our lives we live our own way.
It is like in the days of Judges, where it says there was no king in Israel, but everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Actually, there was a King in Israel. He was the King of kings and Lord of lords. But they were not listening to Him. They were their own king, doing what was right in their own eyes.
Tragically, today within the body of Christ, so many are doing what is right in their own eyes, not operating under the Head. They were born again, they sensed this freedom, and all of a sudden that freedom is used for themselves. It is not used for Him. It is not used for the building up.
Instead of submitting to Him and allowing the Head to use us as He desires, we say, “I am free to go anywhere I want to go. I am free to do whatever I want to do. I can go anywhere in the body of Christ I want to go. I am free to serve wherever I want to serve.” It is all self-centered. It is boasting in ourselves.
Let us look for a moment at a parallel within our physical bodies. What happens if one of the cells within our bodies becomes independent? What do we call cells within our bodies that become independent?
There is a word that none of us would hope we ever have to hear in our lives: cancer.
I was looking at a few sites to try to get some characteristics of cancer cells. You medical people are going to have to excuse me. I tried to make sure I got this right, but there was a real consistency in the characteristics of cancer cells.
One description said that cancer cells have become decidedly independent, carrying on their own activities without regard to the body and the other cells around them.
Most normal cells are monitored by a myriad of mechanisms that keep them working in cooperation with the body and the other cells around them. Cancer cells do their own thing. They are independent. They move or randomly migrate to places they do not belong, creating mischief that gives rise to tumors.
Brothers and sisters, it is tragic how much cancer—how much independent living—we have within the body of Christ. One of the manifestations of those living under the headship is living where God has placed you.
God has orchestrated the body, and He has placed each one of us here. When we suddenly live this independent life and are free to go wherever we want within the body, it is a counterfeit Christianity.
But praise God, brothers and sisters, in the body of Christ there is an antidote, a serum, a medicine that is one hundred percent effective for independent cells. Do you know what that is? It is the blood of the Lamb.
When we become aware that we are living an independent life, it does not disqualify us. They do not get the chemo out and zap us: “You are out of here.” No, praise God. If the Lord, in His mercy, shows us, “I am living for myself. I am living independently,” we can say, “Lord, I thank You for the blood of the Lamb. I do not want to live for myself. I want to live for You.”
The blood of the Lamb comes in and cleanses us of all our sins and unrighteousness. Then that process of consecration can start to work, that we may be built together, molded into His image, conformed into His image, and living according to the way that He has designed and purposed for us.
What a marvelous way of recovery that He has. Would that the Lord open our eyes, because there really is a spirit of independence within each and every one of us.
We are a mixed bag in many ways. Part of us wants to live for Him, and part of us is independent. But thank the Lord for the blood of the Lamb. When He touches that independent spirit within us, we can yield unto Him, respond, and come back.
We can say, “Lord, I do not want to be living for myself. I want to be living for You.” This brings us right back to becoming more conscious of being members of the body of Christ.
Look again at Romans 12:4-5. There are two precious verses here:
For just as we have many members in one body,
and all the members do not have the same function,
so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
and individually members one of another.
The singular will of God shows us His purpose. It shows us His body. In Romans 12:1, it says, “Present your bodies,” and that is plural.
As we go through this process, as we go through being conformed to His image, what is the focus? You come down to Romans 12:4-5, and those plural bodies are now singular: the body of Christ, functioning, living, growing, and being a healthy testimony unto Himself.
Really, the rest of Romans, Romans 12-16, shows us the body of Christ in action. Before this, we have seen much dealing with our individual lives—our salvation, our justification, and our being set free from legalistic law and brought into the Spirit and law of grace that we have in Christ Jesus.
Then, as we are brought to this point of consecration, we see more of the body of Christ in action, which is really upon His heart.
Even in the rest of Romans 12, we see much related to many functions and expressions—the body of Christ in action, being lived out.
In Romans 12:6-8, we see the gifts working under the headship of Christ, not for themselves. The gifts are not doing their own thing; they are functioning under His headship.
From Romans 12:9 through the end of the chapter, we see His life being expressed—His very character and nature expressed among the people of God and in the body of Christ.
Just because we start to have this consciousness of the body, however, does not mean there are no challenges. There are many challenges to really seeing and entering into this, because it is so other than our natural nature and so other than we are used to thinking and acting.
The Lord brings us into this and says, “Now you are in this body. I want you to be a living, functioning member within the body of Christ.”
He addresses some of these challenges in 1 Corinthians 12. Let us turn there. We will read 1 Corinthians 12:12-21 so that we understand the setting:
For even as the body is one and yet has many members,
and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body,
so also is Christ.For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free,
and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,”
it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,”
it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
If they were all one member, where would the body be?But now there are many members, but one body.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”;
or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
Notice that phrase: “So also is Christ.” It does not merely say, “So also is the church.” So also is Christ. He is the Head and the body; it is the body of Christ. There is a Christ into whom we have been brought, and He desires that His life be lived out among us.
Notice also Romans 12:18: “God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.” He has a special place for each and every one of us, and He has put us into that place.
Would that we know the contentment, peace, and acceptance of functioning right where He has placed us within the body of Christ.
We see within this chapter how precious each and every member of the body of Christ is. The enemy will lie to us and say, “You are not precious. So-and-so is much more precious.” No, we are all precious.
There is great variety and diversity of gifts and functions, but each gift, each function, and each life is very precious and very vital within the body of Christ.
I have spoken in the past of how, before my back surgery, I did not really appreciate my two little toes. But after what I went through with my back and after I lost the use of my two little toes, I appreciate them a lot more. Sometimes you do not appreciate something until you lose it.
But thank God, He can recover. Every part within the body that we may think is insignificant has a purpose, a function, and a great use.
We can really categorize these verses into two broad categories: those who think too little of themselves, and those who think too highly of themselves.
In 1 Corinthians 12:15, the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part.” No, brothers and sisters, we are all a part of the body of Christ.
Sometimes we focus so much on the big ones, the big names that everybody knows about, and all of their experiences, that we fail to see the significance of each and every member within the body of Christ.
That is why one day in glory I look forward to meeting a brother, Edward Kimball. I do not know how many of you know Edward Kimball, but Edward Kimball was a Sunday school teacher in Chicago.
He was just a regular Sunday school teacher. I think this is such an encouragement to every brother and sister who teaches Sunday school. Praise God for faithful servants who, Sunday in and Sunday out, labor, at times wondering, “What is the use? These kids are not interested at all. The only thing they are looking at is the clock in the room. They are waiting for the snack so they can have their snack and get out of here.”
The teachers are hanging in there. Praise God for this service. What a precious way of serving within the body of Christ.
Edward Kimball took an interest in a young man who had moved to Chicago to live with his uncle and get his education. His uncle told him, “If you are going to live in my house, you are going to go to church with me every Sunday.” The young man said, “That is cheap enough rent. I can do that.”
He was not motivated by great spiritual hunger. To comply with his uncle, he went and endured Sunday school class month after month.
This young man was working at his uncle’s shoe store. One day Edward Kimball felt called of the Lord to go and share the gospel with him. To make a long story short, he went down there.
Like a lot of us when we try to share the gospel, he was not a very outgoing man. He walked by the shoe store, looked in, and saw the young man waiting on a customer. He said, “Oh, he is busy,” so he walked on. He went around the corner, and the Lord got his heart.
After two or three times passing by the store, he finally said, “All right, here goes.” He went in and went to the back. He did not know what he said, and the young man did not know what he said either. Neither one of them remembered anything about the conversation.
But what that young man knew was that he was saved. That young man was D. L. Moody.
We actually, in this assembly, have a connection with Edward Kimball. Edward Kimball led D. L. Moody to the Lord. D. L. Moody led C. T. Studd’s father to the Lord.
C. T. Studd’s father had someone staying in his home who led his son, C. T. Studd, to the Lord. C. T. Studd was greatly influential in the life of Lance Lambert, and we sit here today in the fruit and blessing of that.
The point is that sometimes we look at the big ones in the body of Christ, but a faithful Sunday school teacher had an impact throughout eternity.
Let us not use the excuse, “I am of no value. I am too young. I do not know this, or nobody will miss me.” There are many opportunities for each and every one of us to serve within the body of Christ. Each member is of great value and has a wonderful function.
I was reading an obituary. If you like obituaries, you get my age and start reading obituaries. You see your friends there. You used to read about your parents; now you are seeing your classmates. You may say, “What kind of weird guy is this?” You will be there one day.
There was one obituary that caught my eye because the name was so familiar. The pastor of this church was sharing a testimony, and it said that they were saddened to learn of the death of one of their most valuable members.
This member had been with them many years and had done far more than the normal person’s share of work. They were all going to miss Brother Somebody Else.
Whenever there was a job to do, Somebody Else would do it. Whenever there was a class to teach, Somebody Else would do it. Whenever something broken needed to be fixed, Somebody Else would do it. Whenever the building needed to be locked up after Wednesday-night prayer meeting, Somebody Else would do it.
Who is going to do the things Somebody Else did? Remember, we cannot depend on Somebody Else anymore.
I think we can all relate to that. Within my own life, when I have seen various things or heard of needs, I have called upon Brother Somebody Else to handle that.
There are many opportunities. Oftentimes, the enemy will say, “You are too young. You cannot handle that.” Well, maybe the Lord has brought this particular thing across our minds or into our hearts because He wants us to handle it.
As we are given to Him, allowing His life to be lived out within us and living for Him rather than for ourselves, let us not think too little of ourselves. Let us respond to His grace and respond to what He puts in front of us, that we can all be those precious, functioning, valuable members that we are within the body of Christ.
The other group is those who think too highly of themselves. They think, “I am so spiritual. I have so much knowledge. Look at all my experiences.” We can elevate our knowledge and our experience and say, “I do not have any need of others.”
We think so much of our gifting. When we travel to California, we sometimes visit the redwoods and the sequoia trees. The sequoias are huge trees, and you would think they could withstand anything.
But the informational plaques say you will never see a sequoia tree standing by itself. A sequoia tree, in and of itself, has very shallow roots.
The strength it gets, and the way it is able to withstand everything, is that the various sequoia trees grow together. Their roots grow together, allowing them to withstand the winds that come off the Pacific and the storms that come.
If a sequoia tree were standing there by itself, it would be blown over. It would not have that root, that foundation. Some of us think we are so big and mighty that we can withstand anything. Oh, how we need one another.
We need to be built together. We need that relatedness with one another, not thinking so highly of ourselves.
One thing I have come to really enjoy through our times in Brazil is soccer. When I was growing up, I never even saw a soccer ball. I had no idea what it was.
The World Cup is coming this summer, 2010, in South Africa. Brazil is one of the favorite teams. The challenge the Brazilian football team has—football, not soccer—is that they have too many good players.
Every one of the players on the Brazilian squad is a superstar. They are playing for clubs all over the world, and they are the best in the whole world. You could take the second team out of Brazil, and they would also qualify as one of the top five teams in the world.
There are just so many brilliant and magnificent players. But the problem is that, when you try to take a group of superstars and put them together to work as a team, it often does not work.
The only way they will really be successful is if they deny themselves. Each individual has to deny some of his own self and allow the others to function where they are. Then they start to work in cohesiveness as a team.
Brothers and sisters, this is also true within the body of Christ. If we think too highly of ourselves, as it says in Romans 12:3, we do not see the value of every member.
As the eye says to the hand, “I have no need of you,” is there any brother or sister within the body of Christ that you do not have a need of? Would the Lord forgive us for those thoughts?
Maybe we do not say things like that, but we can have some pretty evil thoughts toward our brothers and sisters. As we go through this consecration process, we start to see the value of every brother and sister and the necessity of brothers and sisters working together for the glory of God.
How we all need each other.
I have set us up by speaking of two groups: those thinking too highly of themselves and those thinking too little of themselves. But it is really not a matter of thinking too highly or too little. It is a matter of not thinking of ourselves.
It is saying, “Not I, but Christ.” It is not thinking high or low of ourselves; it is not thinking of ourselves at all, but only thinking of Him.
How we need each other. Would the Lord bring us together that we could flow together for His goodness? He desires there to be the corporate expression of His life, to show forth and be that testimony of Jesus in the day and hour in which we are living.
One final question before us is this: Are we going to be butterflies, or are we going to be bees? Are you a Christian butterfly, or are you a Christian bee?
Butterflies are very individualistic. They go around and get sweet nectar from wherever they like. They go to the pretty plants. We have them in our yard; they never go to the ugly ones. They go to the pretty plants.
When a little difficulty comes along, when it starts to get uncomfortable in the area, they are gone. They flee. They are not committed to anything. They are living individually.
But a bee lives within the hive. There is a corporateness within the life of a bee. We could get Fontaine up here, and he could tell us for about an hour and a half all the characteristics of bees.
But bees are committed to one another. We could say they are under the head of the queen, that queen bee. They are not living for themselves. They are doing things that they are not even going to benefit from.
Day in and day out, there is consistency and continuity in the life of a bee. They are committed, and they will defend. When they sting you, it actually costs their life. They love not their life unto death. There is a dying there. There is this commitment.
There is also a purpose. Everything going on within the life of the bee is with a purpose.
Brothers and sisters, is everything going on within our lives a life of purpose? Is His purpose governing our lives?
As we allow the Lord to work within us and go through this process of consecration, we enter into the purpose of consecration, which is His purpose and His heart being lived out in the people of God.
May we, in this hour, respond to the call that He has upon each and every one of us. By the mercies of God, may we present ourselves a living sacrifice and live unto Him.
May we no longer live for ourselves, but enter into the reality of what He is after and what He is calling us to: that His will and purpose would be our will and purpose, and that His very character and nature would be expressed among us as the people of God.
May we be the testimony of Jesus that He desires us to be. I pray that this would be recovered within each and every one of our lives. I pray that it can be recovered within us as an assembly.
May we show forth the excellency of Him and enter into this great work that the Lord is doing of preparing a bride. May we respond, as it says, “The bride has made herself ready.” By the grace of God, that bride is responding.
As we respond to this great call of consecration, the Lord will do a very great and living work within all of us—not only to fulfill His purpose, but to show forth His purpose in our lives together, being that testimony that He has called us to be for the hour that we are in.
Let us pray.
Lord, we are so thankful that You are a God of purpose.
Lord, we are reminded of how precious that purpose is to You. Every Sunday, when we take the table, we see how precious the purpose of God is.
How valuable it was in Christ’s life, that He was willing to love not His life unto death.
Lord, we have a desire to be those who respond to this great love and afresh offer ourselves unto You, that we too could be known as a people after Thy name.
May we be known as a testimony of Jesus in the hour that we are living. Lord, we do not want to be living for ourselves. We do not want to be living independently. We do not want to be butterflies.
But we want to live in a very true, real way under the headship of Christ, functioning within the body as You have designed it, Lord—functioning where You have placed us and being faithful with what You have called us to.
May we be a people who are not hindering Your return, but are hastening Your return. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.