I know several of you go to a number of conferences during the year. And I’m interested: over the last several years, this particular conference we have at Harvey Cedars has a certain strength to it that comes because there are many here who really long for the Lord’s return.
There’s a strength in that hope, which perhaps we’ll touch on a little bit tonight. You know, we’re not only given faith and given love, but we’re given hope. And when we hear singing from the heart with a true request for the Lord’s return, there’s a power of hope that enables the saints in these days.
We are looking at Luke 19, so let’s go there first, and then I want to read some verses in 1 Corinthians.
Luke 19:13:
And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.
I’m using the King James Version for that phrase. I explained something of that last night. It’s the only right translation.
Down in Luke 19:17:
And he said unto him, Well done, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.
Then let’s turn to 1 Corinthians. We want to read a few portions in 1 Corinthians, beginning in chapter 1.
As Paul begins to fellowship with the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:4-9:
I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus;
that in everything ye were enriched in Him, in all utterance and all knowledge;
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye be unreproveable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful, through Whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Just a few verses in 1 Corinthians 6—the first three verses, I think, is enough:
Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
Or know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world is judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more, things that pertain to this life?
And then at the end, in 1 Corinthians 15—the last verse, which is actually the end of the content of 1 Corinthians in terms of the letter itself. Chapter 16 is further instructions and greetings, but here’s the end of the letter, if we might put it so, spiritually speaking:
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not vain in the Lord.
Let’s just pray for a moment.
Our Father, we’re so thankful for the ministrations we’ve received during this weekend: the ministry of the Word, our times of worship together before the Lord’s table, fellowship meetings. Even around the table as we ate meals, it was wonderful.
Now we come to this last time of ministry this evening, and we need a quickening of our mortal bodies by the Holy Spirit. Refresh us, Lord, to be attentive in this time. Especially, do we want You to prick our hearts in a full awakeness to what You would speak to us through Your precious Word.
How we thank You for this wonderful, living, active Word. And we pray the Holy Spirit may be able to minister it to us tonight. We come and gather in the wonderful name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
As I mentioned last evening, my burden comes directly from that King James phraseology, seen as a spiritual exhortation that I believe the Lord wants to reach to every heart: “Occupy till I come.”
Now, for all of us here in this room, that may mean different things. Just for starters, there may be some new believers here who have believed in Christ. But now it’s time to occupy—to be found in Christ every day, to consecrate your life in Christ, to find that as your dwelling place.
Because there are many Christians who are a little wishy-washy. You’re not clear about their occupation. So I would say to you: occupy yourself with Christ, be occupied with Christ, and let Him occupy you.
But we were also talking about this matter geographically. The disciples that heard this parable were entering Jerusalem, and some of them were imagining that the kingdom was going to be settled right then and there, with Jesus revealing His messianic authority and the kingdom snatched from Rome.
In the midst of all those expectations, Jesus gave this parable, and it was this: “Occupy till I come.” However you want to translate it—be occupied, do business, trade, stand, be faithful—the Lord was saying, “There’s something very important for you to do. I’ll take care of when I’m coming back. You be faithful and occupy where you are.”
We heard from our brother Stephen in a very clear way in his first message that the essence of the mina that we’re each given is that very enablement for us to occupy. We don’t occupy because we suddenly decide to in our own strength. We’ve been given something.
If we will exchange this something, we will be able to occupy—to be increasing, as Peter puts it in his second letter, to be increasing in the Lord in such a way that we find abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. So this command, “Occupy till I come,” is a kingdom command. It’s a command of the King.
So, for some of you, it means that where you’re going to school, perhaps you’ve been hiding. And now it’s time to occupy—to stand for Christ in whatever way the Lord leads you. Now, the operative principle here is not just to do something because you read a book, but to do something that the Spirit is asking you to do.
Perhaps you’ve just gotten a new job, or you’ve been on a job for a while, and you’ve been there and people are very suspicious of you. You’re not chewing tobacco and cursing and doing what everybody else does. They’re not quite sure who you are.
But the Lord is saying to you in your heart, “It’s time to occupy.” There’s a reason for you to be on that job beyond making money, being successful, and fulfilling some kind of vocational purpose. There is a kingdom purpose that you’re on that job. God appointed and placed you there, and He wants you to occupy wherever it is.
If it’s the home, then pitch a tent for the Lord. Let it be Bethel, the house of God. And let it be known that, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
You see, there are many different applications to this, and I wouldn’t want to limit the Holy Spirit as He would speak to you personally and say, “Now, don’t you know it’s time to occupy?”
This is a command. But I do believe it’s very hard for us to grasp how critical this command is. Because the Lord, in His sovereign arrangement, has put you in a place that is critical in some way to His kingdom.
By His grace, you’ve been placed where you are, and there’s more purpose to it than you might realize. Occupy where you are.
We mentioned that the apostles in the early church first discovered that theirs was to occupy Jerusalem. Now, how do you do that? There are two million people. Even after Pentecost, there were three thousand one hundred and twenty Christians. It’s like a drop in a bucket.
Believe me, they were known all over Jerusalem. It’s amazing how a little, insignificant obedience of occupation can have such spiritual ramifications.
When you read the history of the brethren who, in the nineteenth century, began to form some little group here and there, you know, these small groups on the larger scheme of Christian churches were insignificant. But their spiritual impact upon Great Britain was immense by the time it was over. They stood their ground, as small as it was.
And here’s the point that evades us. You say, “Well, I am going to Marlborough High School. What on earth? Who knows where that is? And really, Lord, I just can’t wait to get out of there.” And the Lord says, “Occupy.”
You say, “Well, what’s the purpose of Marlborough?” You know what? They have a junior Christian club already. “Now, I’ve been hiding from it. Is that what You want me to do—go there?” Well, maybe. I don’t know.
But whatever it is, it’s likely that your occupation—that is, what He is asking you to do by His life, this mina, which is His life—seems like a small thing.
And this is what we need to understand in light of the Scripture: we are doing very small things that have very large ramifications as they’re extrapolated out in time. We are making little decisions now. You think, “Oh, it’s no big deal. Ah, you know, I just won’t go, or I’ll just hide for another year, then I graduate,” or whatever it is. Small decisions.
But what we’re doing is determining, presently in small things, whether we can reign with our Lord in large things.
You notice there, and we read that verse, Luke 19:17: “Well done, good slave.” He says, “You were faithful.” Now, this is the one who took one mina and earned ten. He says, “You were faithful in very little things.” That’s all it meant.
You know, the King of kings—He’s got bajillions. What do you think? You think your ten thousand dollars is going to really cook Him? You’ve been faithful in little things, but it’s extrapolated into the kingdom, and that’s where your life really counts: “I’m giving you authority over ten cities.”
Now, David, the Lord may want to give him ten cities. He says he doesn’t want them. You remember that? David said, “I don’t know if I want authority over ten cities.” Our brother Peng said he was only joking. It’s Chinese modesty. He wants twenty cities; he just won’t admit it.
But you know what? Here we are, training on this earth for a few short years, and believe me, they pass awfully fast. And your little decisions down here are going to make such a difference.
I want the kingdom to come, and I want to be part of His kingdom. You know, Christians today—you talk to them—so many of them are looking forward to going to heaven. The Christians in the early church were looking forward to the kingdom: living on this earth in a kingdom under Jesus. What could be better? I want to be there.
Oh, but you know, our typical modesty: “Don’t give me ten cities, Lord. Just give me a little outhouse in the backside of paradise.” See, we completely misunderstand.
What the Lord is saying is, “How much of Me have you discovered?” To the degree that you’ve discovered Me in My life, to that degree I’ll let you discover that life to others.
Taking authority—you know, this word authority, exousia, in the Greek means out of your being. So what He’s saying is this: “I am the King. I have tremendous life, and I will flood My life through you.”
In such a way that it won’t be a chore to rule over ten cities. Are you kidding? The kingdom—it will be life. You’ll love the life. Well now, how much of the life of the Lord do you want? Do you want one-city life or ten-city life? How much do you want flowing out of His being through you to others? How much?
Don’t be small in your ambition for reward. I don’t think that’s a nasty thing. But the point is, we’re doing little things now that will make all the difference in the kingdom age.
Listen, the stuff you’re doing here now—small potatoes. Did you lead somebody to the Lord? Did you start a church? Are you preaching? That’s small potatoes. What about in the kingdom?
Don’t you know you’re going to judge the world? Going to judge angels? And you can’t settle a dispute among two brothers without going to lawsuits? Don’t you understand what’s happening there in your little decision—that little angle of, “I’m going to sue my brother’s pants off”?
You have just disqualified yourself and shown that you don’t have the capacity to judge angels. And Jesus right now is looking for people who can reign and rule. The way we learn is by suffering now, that we may reign with Him.
So this is small stuff going on. What I’m saying is, occupy. I know some people who are occupying in what I consider the toughest place in the world geographically to occupy. There are some brothers and sisters who live in Jerusalem.
They want to bear testimony to the all-inclusiveness and the fullness of Christ in that place, without walls and barriers or any such stricture. I can’t imagine that there are more forces working against that ever happening.
Jerusalem is almost like Babylon. The enemy confused their tongues, and there are many Christians there. They’re all split up and divided. Where is the testimony that Jesus has broken down all the barriers?
“Oh, no, no, no, there’s this group.” They don’t trust each other. They don’t fellowship with each other. We know some dear saints are saying, “We want to fellowship with everybody who knows Christ.”
Now, they’re standing in a place where they’re going to need resurrection life in order to be able to stand in such a place. I just stand in a small place: New York City. How about you? What small thing has the Lord told you to occupy?
I don’t think He’s told you something big. It’s most likely something small—something that will have ramifications in the kingdom. Now, listen, I don’t care if you’ve never heard any preaching about the kingdom. You need to study what it’s going to be like when Jesus comes back in His kingdom, and you should have a holy desire to be there.
Every desire of man will be fulfilled when He is King in this world. All the joys and blessings of parenthood and childhood and learning and doing business will be experienced as we’ve always intuitively, instinctively felt like we should be as humans. We will be in that kingdom. Don’t you want to be there?
So now we learn these little lessons. It’s important that we learn these little lessons.
In Luke 16, Jesus says in Luke 16:9-10:
And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.
He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much.
How many of you are glad you’re out of school? You don’t have to go to school anymore—studying? Okay, right? Okay. All of you who raised your hands, you’re back in school.
This is school time. We are learning in the school of Christ how to live by Christ’s life, and its reward will be seen in the age to come.
You heard our brother say, “In the age to come, you’re either on the inside or you’re out in the darkness, and you will be repenting.” So here’s what we do when we hear a kingdom command now.
There is no kingdom command that comes from our King that doesn’t involve two things: first, repentance; and second, faith. What He has told you to occupy, occupy.
And know this: if we want to cooperate with God in His work in the end days, we need to learn how to live and work by His life. As we’re learning this lesson, imperfectly as we may be learning it, we not only are learning how to cooperate in the work of God, but we are, in fact, the work of God, unbeknownst to us. Because the Lord is looking for such people.
Now, I believe there are a lot of occupiers here, occupying for the kingdom wherever you are. Look at those young people in Hong Kong. They all worship Mammon, and the whole city was occupying Hong Kong. For what? Freedom to make money. I don’t think it was so much political, but they knew that politics influences that.
Well now, if they can occupy in Hong Kong and get hosed down and beat up and persecuted, can we occupy for the kingdom of our Lord Jesus?
Now, Israel came back to its land in 1948, and ever since that day they’ve been called, by the Palestinians, occupiers. Every day, if they shut their eyes and take the bullets out of their gun, they’ll be dead. They’re fighting in a war every day to occupy what they know God gave them.
Now, are we willing to occupy? There’s a warfare then. There are things to learn. There’s repentance and all kinds of things as we learn the right and the wrong way.
Okay, now, I told you I was going to be practical, and here we are up in the age to come somewhere. So let’s go back to this word, which actually says, “Be pragmatic till I come.” So there you go. I have nothing more to say on that. No, no.
What I wanted to do tonight was to use Corinth as an example of an assembly of God’s people who were occupied but who needed to learn the lessons of Christ’s life in order to be faithful till He comes.
Now, when we looked at 1 Corinthians, especially when we looked at chapter 1, we saw what a wonderful report Paul makes. But we know that Paul is moving towards something, because you’ve read the book already.
The Corinthians have been assembled together by the grace of God, but they need to trade their mina on the right ground. Now we’re talking about corporate investment. How do we occupy as God’s people joined together?
We need to learn how to invest the life of Christ, one with another, in order to be faithful to Him.
Now, let me just step aside for a moment, because I know this is something that we misunderstand in a way. There are times and circumstances where God puts somebody in isolation and they’re asked to occupy all by themselves in a place where there are no Christians—on the far side of someplace, or in a jail under persecution in Iran.
The Lord will be with such a person. That’s a mighty battle, and the Lord will be with them as they occupy till He comes. But for most of us, the Lord intends for us to occupy with other brothers and sisters.
There is a false understanding. There are some Christians who know their Bible well and have had some spiritual experiences—legitimate experiences—but they’re Lone Rangers. And I want to say they’re not being prepared for the kingdom to come.
You will not be prepared unless you are being prepared together with other saints. So if your exhortation from the Spirit—“Occupy till I come”—has to do with your Lone Ranger life, then you need to get plugged in to the body of Christ, where there are others who want to occupy in the kingdom.
If you’re just a Lone Ranger, traveling here and there, sure, you’ve got some Christian friends, sure, you know some stuff. But that’s not what will enable you to invest your mina—the life of Christ—in a way that produces a bride.
Get together with some saints. You know, back in my charismaniac days, one time I was talking to a brother, and I said to him, “Hey, have you ever been baptized in the Spirit?” And he said, “Hey, have you ever been baptized into the body of Christ?”
Now, that really threw me off. I said, “Well, sure, I’m a Christian.” He said, “That doesn’t mean you’ve necessarily been baptized into the body of Christ.” I said, “What do you mean?”
He said, “If you’re baptized into the body, then you can’t do anything without feeling the influence of the rest of your brothers and sisters. Are you just running around from place to place?” And I was.
How about being arrested—being a member of the body of Christ, dependent on others? That’s something God is producing for His kingdom and for eternity: a bride.
So if you are a Lone Ranger, tonight’s your last night. You need to find, even if you have to dig a well, the life of Christ where the Lord has put you. Don’t think just by your own spiritual knowledge and everything you’re going to attain a reward.
This is not the era of the Lone Ranger. This is the era of the body of Christ. And to hear the Spirit is to recognize that it’s more important what you do in the body of Christ than what you do just individually as a Christian.
Now, you know, back in the day—I’m sorry, I’m getting awful telling stories, so I’m in trouble already. All right. Years ago, I used to play guitar, and I used to lead worship. I was a worship leader, as they called it.
When the Lord began to press me into body life, one time I was leading, got through, and sat down. I almost felt the Lord audibly say to me, “I’d rather hear five people who can’t sing ask for a song and sing it than for you to lead five songs.”
Now, that threw me, because I was an anointed leader. Now, you know, it’s true: some people have a musical sensitivity. They know this song is appropriate and this song is right. Well, that’s fine.
But the Lord wants, in the body of Christ, people who are saying, “Could we sing this song?” led by the Spirit. The Lord is so happy when just somebody says, “Could we sing that?” It was absolutely the heart of God. That’s so wonderful.
So if you’ve got a pro up here and he’s always doing it, you won’t develop. So the Lord said, “Priority, Dana: sit down. Let’s see what the saints come up with as worship songs.”
And I began to learn, and am learning, many of these lessons about the wonder of sitting down and letting the Spirit lead.
All right, most of you are already plugged in. I can see you’re occupying because you’re worn out. And we also know from the Bible study in the book of Daniel that we’re doing on Monday nights, that’s exactly what the Antichrist will do—the little horn. He’s going to wear out the saints.
Well, there’s something to be learned in getting worn out, and it’s this: sometimes we’re worn out because a lot of our soul is invested, and not so much of His life. So we’ve got lessons to learn.
Here were the Corinthian saints: saints by calling, full of grace, enriched in Christ, enriched in speech and knowledge, not lacking in any gift, waiting for Jesus to come back. Whoa, this is lock and load, man. This is “Occupy till I come.”
He even said, “You have the testimony of Christ confirmed in your midst.” Now, you know something? They were occupied. Why do I know they were occupied? Because the testimony of Christ was in their midst. What a wonderful group of Christians.
Well, we know what happened. After Paul left, he began to get letters from some of the Christian saints. Now, you know, there are always Christians calling and saying, “Hey, bro, there’s problems here.” But with the Corinthians, there was a host of problems—all kinds of things.
They were meeting. I don’t know—occupied. They were busy. Lots of meetings, fellowship meetings, people speaking in tongues, other people getting revelations. They had guest speakers, all kinds of apostles and epistles coming through and preaching. They had teachings.
They took communion regularly, had the Lord’s table. They preached the gospel. We know the church was growing, as all kinds had baptisms. They were even baptizing for dead people. Oh, they were busy. They were busy, so busy.
Now, were they the church or not? Yes, it’s the church of Corinth. Paul says, “You’re the church of Corinth, called to be saints.” But as he begins to speak in his epistle, he says, “When you gather together, you’re like the toddler group in the back without supervision.”
Now, toddlers, if you leave eight or ten of them alone in a room, they can get very busy. But things are going to get problematic. In the church of Corinth, there were multiplied problems.
Paul heard about the fact that there were schisms. Every schism is well intended. “Man, we like Peter. Give me a P. Let’s ask Peter back whenever you can preach. But, you know, Paul—I don’t know. The guy’s too short.”
Some said, “No, no, no, we like Apollos. Yeah, yeah, we want Apollos.” So some liked Paul, some liked Apollos, some liked Peter, and they got all these divisions. You know, it’s like babies: “I like that guy.”
That’s exactly what we have in the megachurch today. Pick your favorite guy. That’s all you’ve got to do.
They were accepting immorality to be modern, metropolitan—putting up with immoral sexual situations. They had lawsuits. There were a number of them who were partying.
Now, back in those days, you know how people in New York City are: “I work from Monday to Friday like a dog. I party on the weekends.” That’s the mentality. The same thing in Corinth.
The way you partied in Corinth is you went down to the local temple that just so happened to also cook steaks. Or if it’s someone for Jupiter or some other god, maybe they make fish. You go down there, drink your wine, eat your meat that’s been offered to idols, and say, “Hey, what’s the problem? I’m a Christian. I’m set free.”
“Partying? That’s what we do. Any good Christian’s a partying Christian. By the grace of God, I’m set free. We can do whatever we want. We can drink. We can make merry. Whatever we’re doing, we don’t believe in all the gods behind this business.” That’s going on in Corinth.
They gathered together for the Lord’s table in cliques. Some people had more money. They brought in regular picnic baskets full of wine, and people were getting drunk and eating special provolone and all kinds of fancy Italian food, while other people were over there eating rice.
And Paul says, “Don’t you recognize, in the body of Christ, that we’re all to be treated equal? How could you take the Lord’s table like that—in division?”
They were preaching doctrines. They were a little bit twisted about the resurrection and baptism. They had gifts of the Spirit—had fallen behind in none—but actually had run away with a couple of them.
One of the things about having a gift is that it not only glorifies God, but it can also be a means to exhibitionism. And Corinth was full of all of this stuff, despite the fact that Paul preached Christ crucified.
Now, here’s the important point for any assembly that gathers together: by the grace of God, He gathers us, but if we don’t learn the cross, we will not stand and occupy. We will get split to smithereens—divided. The life of the Lord will leave.
Corinth was at a crossroads in that very understanding.
You know, I’ve known Brother Stephen for a long time. I don’t know how long he’s known me. Back when I was a young whippersnapper, I heard him speak some things about the church, and I was just totally blown away.
I went to him and asked him some questions about this and that. He gave one of these little pithy statements that absolutely kill you. He said, “If you preach the church, you’ll get the cross. If you preach the cross, you’ll get the church.”
Well now, I had been preaching the church. Needless to say, that assembly found the cross.
If the cross isn’t applied, just think about this: you’ve got a mina of the Lord’s life, but without the cross, you don’t know how to expend this. Upon what ground were the Corinthians expending their mina? They were building with wood, hay, and stubble. That won’t last.
Paul says you have to be careful, not only for the life that you have in Christ Jesus as your foundation, but you’ve got to be careful how you build things. There’s so much stuff being built today by man’s efforts—with wood, hay, and stubble. It won’t last. It’s human invention.
But if we would really be the Lord’s testimony and have His testimony in our midst, there has to be a coming through an experience of the cross, corporately as well as individually, in order to stand in life.
So we come to this practical statement at the end of 1 Corinthians 15. Let’s look at it in its context—verse 58:
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not vain in the Lord.
After all the things they’ve done wrong, they’re still His beloved brethren. Isn’t that wonderful? Now, I just want to talk about the one word, steadfast, because indeed, if you’re going to stand your ground, if you’re going to occupy, you’ve got to be steadfast.
Paul shares this exhortation at the end of a chapter that’s talking about resurrection life. If you look at it carefully, you will see that what Paul is going to imply is this: he’s not talking about natural man’s steadfastness. He’s talking about the steadfastness of Christ that enables us to stand immovable.
In other words, we can only occupy on resurrection ground.
Let’s look at this a little bit and try to understand what’s going on here. There is a natural temperament of steadfastness. I don’t know—you might call it strong-willed.
Whenever we gather a whole bunch of people together and now we’re meeting and say, “Oh, praise God. Isn’t this wonderful? We’re all the same. We’re all equal,” it’s not too long before the strong-willed ones rise to the surface.
There’s no secret to it. They are leader-type people. They’re commanding, demanding, strong-willed, stubborn—steadfast is what they would call it. And they rise up, and they become difficult and even divisive.
Now, the leaders of these four groups—one who wanted Paul, one who wanted Apollos, one who wanted Peter, and one who just wanted Christ, whatever he meant by that—these guys stood up. They were strong, naturally strong.
Paul knew well about this steadfastness in the natural temperament, because that’s exactly what he was like. Saul of Tarsus was the stubbornest, strongest-willed person you have ever met. He found laws in the Old Testament to keep. He loved to be blameless—a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Oh, and don’t you say anything different.
Oh, how the Lord had to tackle him with the cross in order to enable him to be spiritually steadfast.
The strange thing about somebody who is naturally steadfast in their outward life is that spiritually, they’re as weak as one of those beach chairs you buy at the dollar store.
Many times, as leaders, they feign their strength: “Oh, we’re going to do it. That’s why. Ah, praise God. We’re holding on to the testimony.” And then a real crisis comes, and they turn into water. They’ve got no backbone at all.
You know, there at Caesarea Philippi, up on the mountaintop, we have such a clear contrast of Peter and Jesus. When Jesus says, “On this rock I will build My church”—I’m sorry, Catholic Church—He doesn’t mean Peter.
He says, “Your name is Peter,” but what it means—I’m going to make it modern—is, “Hey, listen here, Pebble. On this Rock, the church is going to be built.” Now, who is the Rock? Who is the Rock-like One who could set His face steadfastly for Jerusalem, and nothing could stop Him right to the cross?
There is a spiritual steadfastness and a rock-likeness that the church can be built upon. Now, there’s Peter. He called himself Rocky. His real name was Pebbles—one of Fred Flintstone’s kids. But old Fred Flintstone, Pebbles, he calls himself Rocky: “Hey, I’m Rocky. I’m leading the group.”
Peter was steadfast, strong-willed, a born leader—right to when it came time to stand with the Lord as He went to the cross. And he had no spiritual steadfastness at all.
Now, this is a problem in the church life very practically, because it’s those steadfast people who stand up to lead. Which brings me to the other group, the larger group: the little sheep.
Many people have a natural temperament like a sheep. They’re a bit indecisive. They don’t know quite what to do, but they’d sure rather follow somebody than make their own decisions. And so they just come and go, “Hey.”
These leaders stand up and say, “Go this way,” and they go, “Hey, hey.” Now, this is a natural temperament. There are people who are very introverted, and they’re afraid to do anything. If somebody doesn’t lead them, they’re not going anywhere.
Well now, they’re not actually sheep. Christ wants us to be sheep who hear the Master’s voice. No, actually, they’re all goats. Because the sheep are just as stubborn as the leaders. They’re stubborn. They always say, “Huh, that guy doesn’t know what he’s doing. You’ll see. We’ll get in trouble.” But they’ll still go anyway.
They’re not really sheep; they’re goats. But my point is this: spiritual steadfastness, in order to occupy and be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might, cannot be purchased naturally.
Whatever temperament you may have—you may have the temperament of a general—but it’s not spiritual steadfastness. What Paul is saying here is, “Now, if you guys want to stand as a testimony of the Lord, there’s got to be a whole other source of life behind this church life that we’re dealing with.”
Natural temperaments are not it. Peter, you can’t go on that way. Peter, you’re going to have to learn how to trust the life of the Lord. And we’re all in it together. So we come together and have to begin to learn the life of the Lord.
So let me stop and make a little statement: to be occupied till He comes means, first of all, as a Christian, you need to realize who occupies you.
In every one of us, there’s a lot of unlearning of our flesh, our natural man, that is going to have to be taken down and taken down until we learn that life that we’ve been given, and we can invest that mina of Christ’s life and do things out of that life.
So the first thing I want to say is: Who occupies the occupier? It’s a very important question. Is it our flesh, our old man? Or is it Christ? That’s our portion. That’s the only way we’re going to survive.
We can’t come together and be what the Lord wants us to be as a testimony unless it’s Christ’s life and not ours. A lot of our stuff is going to have to go right through the cross and end in a great collapse.
If we’re to stand as a testimony for the Lord, His life and His headship have to prevail in the midst of our group.
Now, I know you’ve all heard this before, but you understand what that means. If we take the course the Lord really wants to teach us, let’s again look at these little things we’re doing now that have great ramifications later on.
There are so many places in Christianity where you can get away with just being who you are. You don’t need the cross. But you’ll never get the church.
You come because it’s convenient, because you like somebody. You come because you can be anonymous. We’ve got churches in New York City where you can be totally anonymous. You can go in, hear a message, go on out, and nobody knows who you are. You don’t have to pay anything. Totally anonymous.
But you can’t be built into something for the kingdom. If we want to be built into something that is of value to the Lord, it means that as we gather together, things might get a bit heavy. Because there’s so much baggage and self-life among us.
Our worship can get heavy. Our meetings can get heavy. We sense our weakness, even our faithlessness. We get frustrated. We sense almost as if there’s a governor on our church life, a restraint sitting there.
You know, we’re starting to meet in Manhattan now. We’ve just been meeting for a couple of years. Sometimes we get together and pray, and the enemy sits right on the prayer meeting, and we can’t pray.
But the young ones are so young, they don’t know that it’s the enemy. So they suppose, “I just have nothing to pray about, and he has nothing to pray about, and she has nothing to pray about.” All the time we came in there fine, and then the enemy sat on the prayer meeting and said, “You are not going to pray.”
Unless somebody denies themselves and breaks through, we end up with a heavy prayer meeting. Do you understand what I’m saying?
Sometimes we’ll get into a worship meeting, and somebody will start to lead, and things lose life and it starts getting heavy. We don’t know why. Something’s wrong. Or somebody begins to speak or preach something, and something—what?
Oh, we’re going to have to learn a lot of those lessons. Those who think we gather together as the church and it is up and up and up and away, then you can go with what’s his name—Buzz Lightyear. Go to the church of Buzz Lightyear.
Those who really want to know the Lord’s way are going to feel frustrated. Then you’re going to look around at somebody else, and they’re doing it man’s way and they’re succeeding, and it makes you feel even worse.
Look at that church. Everybody’s got their arms up in the air, throwing them up, worshiping—not a care in the world. My, how they love one another. We used to love one another, but now we know each other.
This is what Corinth went through. Because what Paul did—now listen—this strong-willed guy, you know that he’s gone through the cross in this matter of being strong-willed. Why? Because if he hadn’t gone through it, this letter would be burning.
He’d be full of personal insults and issuing personal threats, trying to put people back in line. But what do you see in this letter? This is the letter that tells us about the greatest of these is love.
This brother says, “My dear brethren, the cross is the only way through. When I came to you, I came and I would know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
Now could I apply the lesson to your schisms, to your partying, to your divisions, to your gathering for meetings, and to the gifts of the Spirit? The cross needs to be applied here, here, here, here.
You want to come through with real gifts of the Spirit? You’re going to have to learn the cross holding you down from being an exhibitionist. There’s so much that the Corinthians were going to have to learn, but thank God Paul had been through it, or else he would have been a tyrant.
He knows what it’s like to have self-will broken. I can’t imagine what it was like those first eleven years after Paul got saved and he was raring to go. There’s nobody more raring than Paul. Paul had one of those energy batteries—what do they call it? They never quit.
That’s why the Lord said, “Paul, go back home and make tents.” So he preached to the tents and to the sheep. Of course, he fellowshipped with the saints back home in Tarsus. He learned a lot of lessons about just being a brother in Tarsus. Isn’t that amazing?
He led his parents to the Lord and his sister, and we don’t know who all. He began to learn the lessons of being built together with others. He spent a long time with the Lord putting a kibosh on self-expression and him learning to follow the Holy Spirit and live out of His life.
At some time along in there, he came to the end of himself, and he discovered the truth he tells us in Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
He was so full and so overflowing. In 1 Corinthians 15, he says, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” He wasn’t just talking about his own personal life. We talk about, “By the grace of God we are what we are,” and we’re talking personally. Paul means even more than that.
By the grace of God and by the life of Christ, he is an apostle. Because here’s an important lesson: we need not only to learn how to go through the cross in our personal life and flesh and things like that, but we also have to learn how to go through the cross in our ministry.
Many people feel called to a ministry before they’ve really been yoked up with Christ and gone through the cross. “I feel called to be an evangelist. I feel called to be a teacher.” Often the calling is right.
But the Lord says, “Now yoke up with Me. First we’re going to have to learn the ways not to evangelize. Now we’re going to have to learn how not to teach. Yoke up with Me. My burden is light, and you shall find how to minister in life.”
Paul had to go through that whole process, but what a liberation for this man. He was set free. If we would be servants of the body of Christ, we’re not going to get away with this. You can’t just minister out of yourself. But we all start there. That’s the problem.
That’s why I say: take Corinth as an example of those who are occupying until Jesus comes back, because they were waiting for Him to come back. And they were a mess. But they were in the process of going through this discipline of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord is so patient with us. Many of us who serve the Lord started out, and we mostly ministered out of our mental abilities, our emotional capabilities, our self-motivations. And that’s fine.
But a hundred messages later, your motivation is going down, and your emotions about how much you love the sheep, who now are biting you, has taken a walk. Sooner or later, you’re going to minister because the Lord wants you to and He has something to share.
Learning that lesson is something we’ll all learn for the rest of our lives. Meanwhile, for those people willing to go through this excruciating process, the Lord is amazingly patient.
You didn’t hear Him saying, “I’m giving up on you, Corinth. I’m just going to write to the church of 2 Corinthians. You’re out.” Ah, no, no, He didn’t say that. But there’s so much we need to go through.
Don’t despise the day of small things. Learn how to serve Christ rightly in some little something that seems almost superfluous. The Lord one day will say to you, “You’ve been faithful in a very little thing.”
I saw in that faithfulness—because faithfulness doesn’t matter if it’s a very little thing or a very big thing—you’re faithful or you’re not. That’s the lesson of this present life.
We have to go through it. You have to go through the mill. There’s so much baggage we have. People come together for the church and think we’re free. No, no, no.
I had Baptist baggage. What was yours? Name your baggage. Have you got racial baggage, cultural baggage, that gets in the way of free expression of Christ? When it gets in the way, it has to go.
If we would occupy, we have to learn these lessons in so much baggage. There are two things that can derail an assembly that wants to occupy. Now, there’s more—I mean, there’s the enemy always at work—but there are two things that most often cause the cessation of something that is worthwhile to the Lord.
Number one: strife among the brothers. Their own strong-willed actions and reactions cause division. It’s temperamental differences, but they make it doctrinal differences, or whatever they want to call it.
God brings people together to build up something for Him, and what God joins together, let not man separate. But men stand up in their strong will and divide the flock. They ruin something that God has started.
It’s because those men are not willing to go through the cross, or they think they already have. In their soul strengths, they think it is God’s anointing. What a lesson to learn.
The way the Lord has us learn, He puts us together with brothers who are different from us, and He says, “Now be one. Learn from each other.” Can that happen?
Now, what’s the second biggest problem with this assembly coming through the cross into something living as a testimony? I’ll tell you what it is: it’s the sheep abdicating and hiding their minas in a napkin.
All of those folks who are not strong leaders—where’s your mina? Where is it?
The biggest problem we have in the church is we’ve got some people with five gifts and people with two gifts, and the one-gifted people hide. The Lord wants one-gifted people giving one gift.
Every one of us, no matter how many “gifts” we have, has one mina, and it’s Christ’s life. But when we abdicate and bury that thing, it’s the end. Because what will happen? The strong-willed people take over.
The Lord didn’t want that. The Lord wants people who have authority, but they’ve learned through the cross how to obtain that authority. It’s a difficult lesson. It takes a long time. We have to be able to be together in these things.
The last time I checked the Bible, the Lord hates the works of the Nicolaitans. Do you know what that means? Well, I won’t go into it, but basically it means strong-willed people eventually take over the church and run it, have a hierarchy.
The strongest man wins and takes over. The Lord hates that.
On the other hand, it grieves the Lord when people who have the life of the Lord never offer a thing, never trade. They say, “I’ve got nothing. I’m going to hide this.” We cannot have what the Lord wants if you just hide. You cannot do that. It’s a violation of life.
One of the most wonderful breaths of fresh air that I have read recently is our dear brother Stephen’s book recently published on Shepherds and Shepherding. I don’t know how many of you have read that book yet, but I want to tell you what: that first chapter has revelation in it of what God in His heart desires of shepherding.
You know what our brother says? Because of the situation of the body of Christ, and because we all have so many needs and the Lord is working in so many ways, the only way the church can grow in life is if every more mature saint is shepherding the less mature saints.
He sort of put it this way: every person should have two people they’re shepherding. If you’ve been a Christian a year, there are probably some ones newer than you, and you should help them. Now, he’s just talking generally.
He acknowledged that there are shepherds who travel extra-locally. There are local shepherds, usually called the elders. But you see, that’s where we end it: “Okay, that’s the shepherds.” Our brother says, “No.”
In the heart of God, everyone has the shepherd in them, and everyone needs a shepherd—everyone. Could you imagine the life if you were being encouraged by just a brother or sister who’s been a little further than you, knows the Word a little bit more, and just shares a few things?
What a tremendous thing. But there are so few people who care for souls. That cannot be the life and heart of Jesus. In His body, you’ve got to care for souls.
These are blood-bought children of God. Many of them have so many questions. Oh, my goodness. People who work with young people, they get a special crown, I think.
Some of your young people are in the back with Jeffrey and Raymond and Leandra. They get a special crown for working with your kids. Kids always need help. “I got a million questions.”
Somebody gets saved as a university student. If you give them your phone number, you’re cooked. They call you at two o’clock in the morning: “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize it was two in the morning.”
Questions, questions, problems, need prayer, emergencies—all kinds of things. If there’s one poor sucker who’s called the pastor of that church, he is going to die. You cannot take care of all the souls in the body of Christ. It was never meant to be that way.
Now, how about you? Who are you shepherding? Who are the two that you’re bringing along?
You say, “How can I possibly do that?” Well, I’ll tell you, there’s only one way: you’ve got a mina. That’s how.
The Lord is trying to deal with this. I don’t know how you pictured this occupation, but the obvious example in the Bible is when the children of Israel went into the promised land.
You had two kinds of people there, didn’t you? You had the multitudes, the sheep—always indecisive. One day they loved the Lord; one day, “Oh, where’s the Lord? Where’s the Lord?”
Wanderings are uncomfortable. “We like another kind of meat. We like organic.” One day they’re praising; one day they’re complaining. They get to the river, and they have no spiritual steadfastness to go through.
They say, “We can’t go through.” They’re always indecisive. The Lord says, “Okay, you’re not coming in.”
Now, we say, “Boy, the Lord is so mean.” The Lord says, “I swore in My wrath, ye shall not enter into My rest.” He says, “But you’ve tested Me ten times.”
What does that say to the Lord? “You’ve tested Me ten times, and now I don’t love you anymore”? No, no. Here’s what it means: “You’ve tested Me ten times, and I see that if you came into the promised land, you couldn’t handle it.”
“My dear saint, I see you keep testing Me. When My kingdom comes in, you’re not ready to reign. You’re not ready to rule. You don’t have the faith. You don’t have the steadfastness. You’re not willing to obey My voice.”
God said to His children, “Go and take the land,” and they said, “We don’t hear anything.” The Lord’s doing them a mercy, saying, “You can’t handle the promised land.”
What did they find in the promised land? That’s right: giants. The first thing they found was this huge walled city—Philadelphia, the first place they had to go to.
They had to find a way in the Lord to go. They had to learn lessons of following the Captain. They had to circumcise their flesh before they even got started. There were a lot of lessons to be learned.
But so many of these sheep were grumbling and grumbling. Let’s not look at the sheep. Let’s look at Joshua and Caleb. They said, “Let’s go in. We can take them. These giants will be our food—giant burgers.”
They were ready. But you know something? At least in picture form, we can see that the Lord dealt with Joshua and Caleb. Why? Because for forty years they had to wait for the assembly to die and a new generation to come up to go into the land.
Yet they didn’t turn bitter. They remained faithful. Now there are leaders learning in the Lord how to be steadfast. Finally they went in, and when they went in, it was glorious. It was wonderful.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a leader naturally or if you’re a follower naturally. We’re all sheep, and the Lord is speaking His voice to us. Where are we going to occupy? What are we going to be occupied with? Who is the One who occupies us?
This becomes a ministry that involves faithfulness and steadfastness, because we know in the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, sometimes things that started off well lose their testimony.
As I said last night, in one sense we could say that to all of the seven churches in Revelation, the Lord Jesus went to them and said, “Occupy till I come.”
Now, the overcomers heard that. They listened and repented. They understood there was reward. They understood that in this little lifetime there was something being done that was so critical for the Lord that it meant they would be able to rule and reign with the Lord when He comes in His kingdom.
So they were steadfast, and they occupied till He came. You and I are called on to do the exact same thing.
I wish we could all testify that our assemblies are doing great, but there are some that are in retreat, some that haven’t learned the lessons yet. There are some people on the brink, but they are so spiritually weak.
It’s like it says in Isaiah: the woman is pregnant and ready to give, but she can’t give the final push. Then the Lord is saying, “Occupy.” They’re chicken to the core.
It was impossible for the children of Israel to get into Israel without going across the Jordan River, and that was impossible to do in the flood season. But when you commit yourself to the Lord, He opens the Jordan River, and you come into a place to occupy.
It isn’t by our might or our strength, but don’t you miss out on your generation. Don’t you wander in a wilderness forty years because you’re too spiritually weak. Take the Lord’s life as your life, learn what that means, and occupy as He wants you to.
Some of you are being asked to occupy, just like in the churches of Revelation, and things are actually on the decline where you live. What does the Lord say? Occupy.
If He has some other business for you, He’ll let you know. But meanwhile, occupy. Be faithful. Be steadfast. Learn to use My life in the situation you’re in right now.
Oh, I wish I could say it’s all great and all glorious everywhere we are. That is not the case. There are even some places with division, some places with heartbreaking things that have happened because of man.
What is the Lord telling you today? The only way that we can really occupy is if Christ is Lord of our life, as if Christ is the life that we’re living together.
It is a wonderful thing when I visit various places and I just come into an assembly and I can sense Christ’s life. Maybe it’s just subjective, maybe just my feeling, but sometimes I go somewhere and feel nothing of His life.
Let me put it this way: if the Lord is occupying in a particular place, then that place is larger than it is because the Lord’s presence is there. When you come in, it’s such a wonderful thing.
I hope you, by the grace of God, have some place that you can meet where the Lord’s life is there working. The Spirit is there disciplining. He’s taking us, and the leaders are willing to make mistakes and admit it and repent and wait for the Lord.
Even if they’ve started off on the track, they’re willing to come back and wait, and then do it right in the Lord’s time, in the Lord’s way, in the Lord’s life.
And we, as brothers and sisters—if we remain babes, just hopeless sheep, waiting around for somebody to do something—nothing is going to be pleasing to the Lord. We’ve got minas. Let’s trade those minas till the Lord comes.
We’ve got some investment people, investment bankers. Now, they make some mistakes. When you hear of these guys who made their millions, they talk of great losses and great victories.
In our Christian life, we invest. We make some mistakes. Sometimes it was out of ourselves. But you’ll never know unless you exercise as the Spirit leads.
Now may the Lord help us. Occupy till He comes.
As I said at the beginning, there is a great power to keep us steadfast. You know what it is? Hope.
Hebrews 6—let’s just turn there, and then that’s it. I’ll quit. Here are these Jewish Christians, and the Lord wants them to occupy, but they’re backing up, back into Judaism.
They need to occupy that ground outside the camp. They need to occupy that ground in the holy place. But they’re backing up, they’re backing up, they’re becoming afraid.
One of the things that the writer says to motivate them is what we find in Hebrews 6:19:
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil;
whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us.
There is an anchor for our souls, right? Hope. Steadfast hope. An anchor for the soul. Others may fail. Others may choose the lesser part. You occupy till He comes.
A. B. Simpson wrote this poem while he was doing a series on the book of Joshua and entering the promised land. The poem says this:
God has His best things for the few
Who dare to stand the test;
He has His second choice for those
Who will not have His best.
Hope. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Things may decline. Things may be difficult. You occupy. He will come.
That occupation and faithfulness on your part, as small as it may be, as inconsequential as it may be, is the basis for the Lord to say, “Thank you for being faithful in little things. Now we’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
The Lord is looking for some people like that—faithful people, willing to occupy. Is that you?
Lord, we just come to You and admit that when it comes to steadfastness spiritually, maybe we’re not so strong.
Outwardly, we can sometimes use some bluff and bravado. But when it comes to really being steadfast—strong like Paul was strong to stand against Peter when the gospel was at stake—oh, give us that kind of steadfastness.
Enable us to lead with anointing by the life of Christ. And for those here, precious ones occupying in many different quarters, those who feel just like sheep, like they have little to offer, perhaps just one gift given to them—oh, thank You that You gave us Your life.
Help us be investors until You come. These little things we do now will reap manifold in the kingdom and the age to come. And we say, “Lord, we will occupy by Your life, by Your grace. Please come soon.” In Jesus’ name.