Good morning, everyone.
Not an introduction, but just to explain how I got here with this word: several weeks ago—maybe a couple of months ago—I started thinking about the conference coming upon us, all the work that had to be done, and I kind of spazed out. You know, I was beginning to wonder how we could do it and flip out.
I believe the Lord gave me a single verse. This just brackets the whole thing:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
2 Corinthians 12:9
Now, I’ll tell you the last verse, and then you’ll have the message. The last verse is:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
That is the beginning, and that is the ending. As we face conference, and we face a lot of work and a lot of stress, the capacity is: His grace is sufficient.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we thank You for Your call on our lives. Lord, we thank You for Your saving grace, but we also thank You for Your continuing grace and capacity to serve You—Your call and capacity.
We bless Your name this morning. We pray, grant grace even this morning that we could speak and receive something of encouragement in these days, in Jesus’ name.
As we prepare to serve, we need to know the power for service: prepare to serve in the power for service.
As we begin, I would like to read the passage. The theme for the conference was from Isaiah 6:5, the end of which says:
“For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
That at first really touched a lot of us as we were preparing to go forward. But let us read Isaiah 6:1-9.
“In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called out to another and said,
‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.’
And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined!’
Some versions say, ‘undone,’ I think.
‘Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
He touched my mouth with it and said,
‘Behold, this has touched your lips;
And your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.’
Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying,
‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’
Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’
And He said, ‘Go, and tell this people.’”
So what is this passage? Just looking at this passage, by grace—by the grace of God—we have been allowed to see the King. Why should we be so blessed as to have that way made to see the King?
Having seen Him, and in His presence, we are undone. “Woe is me,” sinner such as me. But again, by the grace of God, in Isaiah 6:7 it says that iniquity has been taken away.
Given the fact that we have seen the King and are a forgiven people, what is our response? He says there in Isaiah 6:8:
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”
Then I said, “Here am I, send me.” “Go and tell this people.”
As we consider the Lord’s call in our lives, in this conference, I believe the Lord wants us to see the King afresh. Everything else does not matter unless we see the King.
But He has also called us to go forth with Him, to tell the story, to bear the burden of His message for this hour. We have a great calling, brothers and sisters.
I believe He has called us, but He has called us to serve. He has called us to serve by His Spirit because He has also given us the capacity to serve—the calling to serve.
So, what is our calling as Christians? He has given us capacity to serve. Lately, in the messages that Brother Kong gave on new-covenant ministry, he said a few things. As a refresher, think about the things that he said. These are just a few that stuck out to me, that I highlighted in my notes:
As we serve, it is only in Christ’s life and His strength that we serve. Let us think about the context of our salvation. We have to go back to the beginning—to Genesis.
Genesis 1:26-28:
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth.’
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moveth on the earth.’”
It seems to me in that passage that God had a plan that included man and the kingdom. The kingdom is right here. The kingdom starts here, with God having preeminence and man being submissive and working under that King.
If you will, He had in mind a theocracy. God is all in all.
But what happened? Instead of “but God,” it was “but man.” Man was independent. Man wanted to be in charge, wanted to have authority, wanted to have prominence. He could not live under authority. He was not happy under God’s authority.
Let us look at Genesis 2:16-17:
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden thou mayest eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat, for in the day that thou eatest from it thou shalt surely die.’”
We know what happened. Man wanted to live from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life. Lucifer, the one who fell before, tempted man, and of course man fell.
The result—the fruit of that—goes over into Genesis 3:22-24:
“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’—therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”
What a sad story. A sad story: man, meant to be living in fellowship and union with the Lord, serving the Lord as a way of life, fell and was cut off from that communion. Yes, and even that very life of the Spirit was cut off from man.
As we have often heard Brother Kong say, his spirit entered into a coma—lost.
But God. We know that the next part of the story in our Bibles is: but God moved. God moved to save. He sent forth His Son to satisfy Him and to redeem us back to Him.
We who have believed in the Lord Jesus have been recovered and restored. Let us read Ephesians 2. This tells about our recovery.
Ephesians 2:1-3:
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
In which ye formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
What a terrible condition—a lost estate, totally lost, hopeless, hopeless, no purpose, no communion with God. How sad.
Verse 4. How many people have heard me say this? But God.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace ye have been saved.”
We have been saved—salvation by grace through faith. Bless the Lord. We have been recovered.
John 3 is the story where Nicodemus came to the Lord at night. Nicodemus, I believe, approached the Lord on the basis of knowledge—maybe good and evil.
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
The same came unto Him by night, and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that Thou doest, except God be with him.’”
Thinking, you know? Great teacher of Israel, Nicodemus comes. He is figuring it out. Our Lord did not even address his question, if you look at it, because in John 3:3 He says:
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
We need to be born again. We need to be delivered from ourselves and be born again.
1 Peter 1:3 says:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope.”
Is that right? Pretty close.
Romans 5. What did Paul say when he started this book? He said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” That gospel is way beyond just salvation, but anyway, our first salvation.
Romans 5:8-11 and 17:
“But God commendeth His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by His blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.
And not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, even Jesus Christ.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ has recovered our lost estate. We believed in Him, and we have been recovered. What a great salvation this is. What a glorious gospel.
But I want to ask us this morning: is that it? Is that the goal of this glorious gospel, this recovery work that our God is doing?
It is wonderful. It is wonderful. We are born again. We are saved. We are forgiven and redeemed. It is glorious.
But is that the end? No, it is the beginning. It is not the end; it is but the beginning.
I believe that what He has called us for, what He saved us for, is to serve Him. We are to be actively engaged and employed in New Testament ministry.
Let us look at each of these sections. We looked at Ephesians 2, where it says, “But God.” So God has saved us, but what is the next step? Each of these passages has a next step.
Ephesians 2:10 says:
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.”
Our new creature, our new creation, our born-againness—we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. We are saved; we are born again for good works, and those good works are to serve the Lord.
Not to serve the Lord in what we think are good works, but in what He has given us to do, where He has called us to serve Him.
Remember what John 3 said: the Lord told Nicodemus that he must be born again. Then we go all the way up in John to chapter 15. The Lord is after us bearing fruit—bearing fruit for Him. We are born again to bear fruit.
John 15:5 and 8:
“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for apart from Me ye can do nothing.”
“Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be My disciples.”
First Peter tells us that He has caused us to be born again, and that is not the end; that is the beginning.
1 Peter 2:4-5:
“Coming unto Him, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious,
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
We are to be living stones, being built into a spiritual household. Blessed be the God and Father who has caused us to be born again with purpose: to be involved in building up.
Verse 9 in that same chapter says:
“But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.”
Called—called with purpose, called to serve the Lord, called to serve the Lord in the context of living stones in the house of God, a spiritual house; called to serve the Lord as a royal priesthood.
One last verse here: go back to Romans. After Paul expounds his great gospel, in Romans 12 he says, given this gospel, given this great salvation that you have received, what kind of people are you supposed to be?
“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.”
Present your bodies a living sacrifice. Give yourself back to the Lord for His service. Then this chapter goes on with numerous fruits of presenting our bodies. I believe it has all to do with service in the house of God:
All these things are service. These are really giving; none of them are taking. It is all giving. How are we serving one another and serving the Lord through serving one another?
What have we been saying? God is doing a recovery work. God is restoring what has been lost. He is doing so by reaching out through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to each one of us.
He has provided such a great salvation that He might have a kingdom, that He might have those who serve Him.
Dana told us up in Harvey Cedars, “We have a King. The King is sure, the King is established, and the King is looking for doms.” He is looking for the “doms”—kingdoms. What is a kingdom without subjects? We are to be His subjects and to serve Him.
If that is true, just as a thought here: if we are called, born again, redeemed from the pit, and the goal is to serve Him, we ought to take it very seriously. We should inquire of the Lord: “Lord, how do You want me to serve You? What do You have? What are my assignments day by day?”
Often we think serving the Lord has to be a big thing. It has to be worldwide outreach. It has to be visible and powerful. But you know what? I think some of the greatest service of the Lord is totally invisible—a deep work, serving the Lord and serving one another.
I believe each one of us ought to know our call. This is really a daily thing: “Lord, how can I serve You?” Really, in communion with the Lord, know that what we are doing with our lives counts. It is in serving Him.
Given that we can accept the fact that we are to serve the Lord, how then do we serve Him? How do we serve the Lord? By what power? By what strength? In what way?
First of all, we need to realize that we are to serve Him in spirit, in newness of life, not in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Serve in spirit.
“Trust in the Lord with all thy heart,
And lean not upon thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him,
And He will direct thy paths.”
If we serve the Lord in the strength of our natural life, it will not be sufficient. We will come to the end of our capacity in our natural life. Not only will we come to the end of ourselves, but it will not honor the Lord. It will be carnal. It will not be spiritual fruit.
That is man’s way. That is man’s way to serve the Lord. It is no good.
What we really need to do is humble ourselves and set aside our natural strength to serve Him—to say, “It is no longer I, but Christ that lives.” To take up our cross daily and follow Him; lay down our natural strength.
You know what else we need to lay down? It really struck me lately. We hear so much about laying aside our natural strength. We need to lay aside our natural man and take Christ as our life.
It is just as bad as natural serving and carnal strength: serving in weakness—not serving because we are too weak. Both are ruled out. Christ is our life.
Let me read just a short thing. My brother Sparks talks about how critical it is to live by the life of Christ in these days:
“It is the Lord Himself. And for this to be so, it often has to be against a background of natural inability. The power of His resurrection is the law of union with Christ from beginning to end. Days of terrific pressure upon the Lord’s people—the enemy is taking very little off time—the only sufficiency is in the Lord Himself as our life.”
That really is my burden. Colossians 3:4 says, “When Christ, who is our life…” The only way to serve the Lord is by His life, His new life born in us.
I thought we might look at a few examples. Paul, the Apostle Paul, was really a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was a great teacher of Israel. He, of all people, had great natural strength. But have we ever considered where he got to when he got into 2 Corinthians?
2 Corinthians 1:9-10 says:
“Yea, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead:
Who delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver: on whom we have set our hope that He will also still deliver us.”
This is a personal letter of Paul. It is not a lot of doctrine, not a lot of high teaching, but he is really bearing his soul. I think that is marvelous, when he bears his soul before the saints.
Paul, toward the end, could say, “I cannot trust in myself, but trust in God who raises the dead.”
Then, turn over to 2 Corinthians 4:7-10:
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;
We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair;
Pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed;
Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”
We have the treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves. The power to serve, the power to go forward in these days—these dark days—is Christ. Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Particularly as we go forward to this conference: Christ who is our life.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10:
“And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted overmuch.
Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
And He hath said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for My power is made perfect in weakness.’
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Paul knew something of the end of himself, but he also knew experientially the Lord’s strength within him.
As we consider ourselves and consider serving the Lord, there are two extremes. Both of these cause us to miss God’s provision.
First, we are too strong. We consider ourselves very capable and very able to serve the Lord. The risk here is that we bring our strong self-life into the circumstances, and that natural capacity will fail the task and will not honor the Lord.
We need to take up our cross daily and follow Him. Maybe we need to do that actively, not passively. Whatever we are doing, let us take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him.
The other condition is that, if we are too strong, we can also be too weak. We consider ourselves incapable and weak. In this condition, the problem is often not too visible, because if we are in that state, we just tend to check out and not go forward.
Where are we? We are not here—checked out.
But God’s answer is that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves. Paul had a prayer for us in Ephesians 3 when we are tempted to check out and give up because we are weak.
Ephesians 3:14-17 says:
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,
From whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
That is Paul’s prayer for us: that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.
What have we been saying here? These have been thoughts that hopefully will encourage us to go out in the Lord’s life and His strength in the days ahead, and particularly at our conference time.
I believe the Father has always had the kingdom in His mind, shown when He created man for man to have dominion. However, man was tempted. He fell and wanted to go out in his natural strength and be somebody.
The Lord would not have it. So man fell, was cut off from God, and entered into spiritual death.
But God, being rich in mercy, we have been born again to a living hope, brothers and sisters.
Our salvation, our forgiveness, our washing, our new life, our born-againness are for God’s purpose: that He can recover His kingdom and authority. Our only adequate response is that we give ourselves to serve Him.
In serving, I think we have to remember there are two things that disqualify us. We think we are too strong—natural strength, super-gifted—and too often we bring in too much of the self-life. That self-life is not a testimony to the Lord. It easily smells of death.
But if we are able to lay down our lives, take up the cross, and let Him raise us up and follow Him, might He fill our lives with His power and His way—not the natural life.
In another way, we miss serving the Lord in the natural life: we are too weak. “I cannot do it, Lord. It is too much for me.”
Paul, when he came to his natural weakness, when he came to the end of himself, what did he say? Did he give up? Did he quit? Did he say, “This is too hard. I will not go on”?
No. What he said was, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me.” “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Finally, He said:
“My grace is sufficient for thee: for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
And Paul said:
“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Lord, we pray, as the days go forward, that we might not trust in ourselves, but not give up either.
We pray that You would strengthen us mightily in the inner man, particularly with the days of intense service coming on us. We pray that we might know Christ as our life, the strength of the Spirit within.
We pray for an outpouring of Your Spirit in Your people in these days to serve You. We dare not look at our own capacity, but we look at victorious life, resurrection life.
We pray for a filling and a fullness of Your Spirit, and we pray for an outpouring of Your Spirit for service in the days ahead.
We pray, Lord, that we might know our call and how it is we are to be serving You, and not squander our days. In Jesus’ name.