Good afternoon, everyone. I hope we had some good recreation this afternoon. I’m looking forward to it—I haven’t had a chance to match anybody in ping pong yet, so I hope you guys have been practicing.
Pride comes before the fall.
This is our second workshop today, and the burden for this workshop is a heart to bear responsibility. This will be different from a preaching time. We’ll be more interactive: some questions, hopefully some responses, dialogue, testimonies, and a few who will come and share encouragement with us. We’ll also have some singing, so I hope your voices are ready to do solos and whatnot. No—I’m only calling on one person for that.
Let us begin by looking at some passages of Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:14.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot says, 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 says, Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body; it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
If the whole 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.
On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
And those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor; and our less presentable members become much more presentable.
Whereas our more presentable members have no need of it.
But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; and if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
We could also look at Luke 10:2.
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
And James 5:7.
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and the late rains.
You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.
Let’s commit this time to the Lord in prayer.
Lord, we want to thank You again for gathering us together this weekend. We feel so blessed and privileged to have this opportunity to be together as Your body, called by You and gathered by You for such a time as this.
Lord, we present ourselves to You for our time now. We really pray that Your glory would go forth and that You would have Your glory amongst Your people. Bless this time, and speak to us, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.
Brothers and sisters, I don’t know about you, but can you not sense that the return of the Lord is near? Outwardly, we can look around and see that everything is crazy. But even before things got so crazy, we could sense that the coming of the Lord was near.
Many messages and conferences recently have concerned the Lord’s soon return. We get this sense that the hour is at hand. Our brother Jerry, when he welcomed us the other day, said, “The hour is at hand.” When we asked him to give the welcome, he did not say much; he simply said, “Of course, I’m willing. The hour is at hand.”
And indeed, the hour is at hand.
In James, the passage speaks about the latter rain. I do not want to go too deeply into what the latter rain means, but I want to share an impression that has been on my heart.
I believe the Lord is preparing for His return. I believe the latter rain will be part of the final move of the Spirit to prepare a people to usher in His return. And I believe that latter rain is upon us.
I do not know about you, but the last fifteen years have been so dry, hard, and difficult in some ways. But before the latter rain, there is a dry season. That dry season has purpose. The roots are going deep. The Lord uses it to refine, to purify, and to prove what is of Himself in us.
During these last years—whether it has been fifteen years or five years, however long you have known the Lord—He has been doing a hidden work, preparing us for the days to come.
A few years ago, within two months, four or five young people were saved in my neighborhood. When they came into the Lord, we began trying to help them. Within several weeks, I was burned out. All my reserve grace was gone. But the Lord used it to speak something to me. He said, “I can move. I can save hundreds like this.”
The Lord can do something like this, and a thousand people can be saved. But if a thousand people were saved and came into our midst, what would we do? Are we ready?
I believe that, as this time is upon us, the Lord wants to encourage us to continue in this way, that we would be ready to be those laborers who bring in the harvest.
Truly, the harvest is plentiful, but where are the laborers? I think that is a question the Lord is asking us: Where are the laborers?
I am not speaking of laborers merely in the sense of sharing the gospel. May there be such laborers—evangelists who go out and preach the good news. But I think the way the Lord has been applying this word from Matthew to my heart is that these laborers are overcomers, mature men, those able to handle the people of God rightly if the Lord moves and prepares for His return.
They are those who truly know the Lord, who can shepherd the flock and care for the flock—mature men.
Our brother Jerry Amon shared with us last Sunday about God’s eternal purpose as it relates to the church. He began sharing about his younger days, when he was twenty-eight, and how he met Kenny. It was very interesting. If you get a chance, you may want to go back and listen to it.
He shared about being in the Baptist church and beginning to see certain things. I think he got hold of The Normal Christian Life and began to see things regarding the church. He gave that book to Kenny, who was a new believer at that time. Jerry said that he was steeped in doctrine, while Kenny was steeped in life.
Jerry was a teacher in the Baptist church, and when he began teaching on the revelation he had received concerning the church, God’s purpose, Christ in us, and the centrality of Christ, those responsible for that congregation had a talk with him. They said, “If you are going to share these things, if you are right about these things, then you cannot teach here anymore.” They dismissed him.
When I hear stories like that, I call them the glory days. We hear the stories of our parents, and many of you grew up in assemblies where these things were common. We refer to them as the glory days, when everything seemed so real and fresh.
Timothy mentioned this in our workshop yesterday: where were those days when it seemed as though the Lord was moving in such a powerful way?
I began thinking about our heritage. Psalm 16:5-6 says:
The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
Thou dost support my lot.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
How many of you know that the church is more than an organization—that it is a living organism? Probably ninety-nine percent, perhaps all of us. We are simply not raising our hands.
God’s eternal purpose, Christ and the church, and Christ as the center of all things—these are common things to us. This is the heritage we have received. For most of us, it is not something we discovered on our own; it is something we were raised in.
But if we are not careful, because we were brought up in these things, we can begin to despise them. By that I mean that we think little of them. We think, “Oh, I have always heard about God’s eternal purpose—not another message on God’s eternal purpose.”
I wonder if, somewhere along the way, we have been tripped up into thinking that the knowledge of these things is sufficient. We do not see that this is like David passing the materials and blueprints to Solomon. The purpose was not for Solomon to say, “I have all the materials and all the blueprints, so now I can live for myself.” The point was for Solomon to stand on David’s shoulders and build the temple.
In the same way, brothers who have gone before us paid a price for the things they received. We ought to stand on their shoulders, take what we have received, and not merely know about it but enter into it. That is our responsibility. That is what the Lord wants of us.
Recently, at work, I met with a sister in the Lord named Landy Brooks. She shared how the Lord had moved powerfully on her heart. She has a high position in the corporate world, a nice home, and a nice family. Everything seemed picture-perfect according to the world.
But the Lord has been exercising her heart in faith. She has three children, and the Lord led her to adopt three more—not one, but three—from Ukraine, children with difficult backgrounds from an orphanage. Her own children are two, four, and eight; the children she is adopting are about ten, thirteen, and seventeen. Her whole life is going to change.
As I sat there talking with her, the Lord convicted me. He said, “You know more than her. You have seen more, perhaps, regarding what I am really after. But she is full of life, full of Christ.”
We can know all sorts of things. We may know more than most, but that in itself does not make us approved in that day. I believe the Lord is pleased with Landy. It got me off my high horse. I realized, “I am not special.”
What the Lord has revealed to us is special. What we have received is special. But I am not special in myself.
The Lord has been doing a hidden work in preparing us through all that we have received. It is not an accident that you were born into the family you were born into. It is not an accident that you have received the heritage you have received. You have received it for a purpose—for such a time as this.
Brothers and sisters, I do not know how many people have really seen what God is after. We have a sister who meets with us and is currently going to school in Miami. She went back to Peru and met believers who had much life and much of Christ, but she could not find anyone who understood or had seen some of the things that we have seen, or at least been taught and heard about.
Even in Miami, she was looking for believers with whom she could gather, but she could not find them. If there had been some, she would have stayed there. Instead, she drives three and a half hours each way every weekend to meet with us.
Why? Because she sees that what we have is precious.
Is it precious to you?
Our heritage is a beautiful thing. Let us not despise it, and let us not bury it. We have a responsibility to enter in. We have a responsibility to walk in what the Lord is showing us.
Ephesians 4:16 says:
From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Every joint supplies.
If you are from a small assembly, it is easy to see your responsibility. You come to a meeting, and if you do not bring Christ, perhaps there will not be much of a meeting because there are only fifteen of you. If a few have been beaten up during the week, you may be the only one refreshed enough to bring something that carries the meeting.
This applies not only to preaching meetings, breaking bread meetings, or open sharing meetings, but to every gathering. If I am not faithful to bring my part, we may not exist. In a small group, you feel as though the boat can sink.
It is also true outside the meetings. A wolf can come into your midst, and if you are not on guard, a sheep can be taken out. Wolves do come in. We have had wolves come in. If we are sleeping and not bearing our responsibility, a sheep can be taken out.
Sometimes others are weary, so we cannot always count on somebody else. When I was in high school, I had this fear that a bomb might be dropped on the school. I was not consecrated, so I was afraid of dying and going to be with the Lord.
I remember thinking, “I do not have to worry too much, because there are brothers in Richmond and brothers who do the conference. If something is going on in the spiritual realm, they have to be praying.” But there was something wrong with that, right?
The same can happen in our local assemblies. We expect everyone else to do it. I am not merely speaking about practical things, but about sensing the Lord’s heart, sensing what the Lord is doing, and sensing the leading of the Spirit.
The same is true in a larger assembly. You simply do not realize it as easily. In a smaller assembly, you realize the necessity. In a larger assembly, we can be deceived because the ship does not sink right away. We sit in the background and assume that responsible brothers, older ones, and others will handle everything.
But there is a necessity. Do we see the necessity?
The older ones have been rowing a long time. They have seen many things. They have been growing and being faithful to the Lord. Perhaps they are beaten up and weary.
It is easy for us to criticize them and say, “You do not seem to be where you ought to be.” But they are weary. What they need is refreshment. They need young people to rise up, catch the heart of God, and care for the things of God.
Who is it? Abel? Yes, Abel.
Let us return to 1 Corinthians 12:14.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot says, 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 says, 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 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?
Here is a question: Do we recognize our value in the body of Christ?
If they were all one member, where would the body be?
Consider this gathering we are having. Bonita sent us an email sharing how she had wrestled with the Lord concerning coming to this conference. She is from Vancouver, and it is far away, but she felt that the Lord wanted her here. Her email encouraged us. It helped us sense that the Lord is in this, with us, and for us.
I thank the Lord for Bonita. She encouraged us to go this way and to be faithful.
On Wednesday night, I was dying. I do not even know how to express it. I was going through a battle; the enemy was beating me up. Then Brian Blanchard prayed. Brian is a very meek, gentle, soft-spoken brother, but my new name for him is Lion Brian.
He came into that prayer meeting like a lion, praying, “The battle is the Lord’s.” The Lord used that to lift me completely out of the pit. I see the value in Brian. I need that brother.
Consider the host families. Christy Carmen had just moved into the house next door and was fixing it up so sisters could come in for this time. Without host families, saints in Richmond praying, purchasing luggage racks, and taking up practical responsibilities, we would not even be able to gather together and be encouraged in this way.
Consider meal preparation. Sarah Ogburn is the meal-coordinating queen. She does it so well, and it is the way she does it. It is Christ. She is not simply getting a job done. In the way Sarah puts together meals, we are ministered to.
Without meals, we would probably be starving by the second day.
Consider administration. Josh Miller is cool, calm, and collected. I see him deal with things, and I think, “Man, I wish I could have a little bit of Josh somehow in my life.” He handles these administrative things in a way that makes you feel relaxed.
Consider recreation and music. We thank the Lord for Amy, for the walk down to Pony Pasture, and for serving in music with others. There are many who serve in these ways.
Consider the ministry of the Word. Brothers such as Jeffrey, Ray, and Lucio take the time and pay the price to minister the Word. There is a real cost. But do not forget their wives, and do not forget the moms. The moms pay the price too.
He who stays with the baggage receives the same reward.
Sometimes the moms have the harder job. They stay with the children while their husbands are locked in a room preparing for the ministry of the Word and gathering supply. We need the moms. There is no less value in what they do. Their service is absolute.
The same is true of childcare. Some high schoolers were helping with childcare the other day, taking care of babies. Without that service, many parents could not attend.
Timothy Weaver came and stood beside me while we were singing “I Will Call upon the Lord.” What was he doing? He was encouraging me. It was as though he was saying, “Brother, you are not alone.”
I was so ministered to. He was just there. Sometimes just being there, coming alongside, has value.
Often we see the value of those who are preaching—the mouth—but we do not see the value of more hidden members.
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.
On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
And those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor; and our less presentable members become much more presentable.
When someone speaks a good word, we should encourage them and say, “Good word, brother.” But what about someone with a hidden gift? What about someone sitting with an elderly person who is difficult to talk to, loving that person, drawing out the Christ in them, and seeking fellowship with them? Do we see the value in these members?
Some hidden gifts include:
Prayer may be one of the greatest ways we serve one another. Many people say, “I do not know what my function is in the body.” A quick way to begin finding out is to start praying for the saints. As you pray, you will become burdened for certain people or needs. Your gifting may come out of that burden.
You may find that you always have a burden for the down-and-out, or for helps, or for some particular need. The Lord leads you in a certain way.
Michael Berman had the gift of helps. He would come over and mow your yard or trim your hedges. It was not merely, “Thank the Lord, someone did my yard.” It was Christ.
I also think of mercy. When Cody broke his arm, I was probably thinking, “What lesson is the Lord trying to teach you, Cody?” But Johnny was thinking, “If Cody had broken both arms, would I be willing to help him take showers and go to the bathroom?” He was wrestling with the Lord about that. He was taking Cody to school because Cody could not drive.
That is a gift of mercy. Do we see how we need that gift? Do we see how we need these hidden gifts in the body?
I also think of encouragement. My brother Scott has what I call the boxing ministry. Every time I am down in the dumps, usually between seven and eight in the morning before work, Scott sends encouragement through Voxer.
He will sing something like:
You ask me how I can talk this way when things are looking down.
You ask me how I can walk this way with problems all around.
You ask me how I can sing when everything is going wrong.
Ah, there was this Jesus gave it to me.
I’m singing the song of victory, redeemed, redeemed.
It is a hidden thing, but I cannot tell you how many times my brother has Voxed me in the morning and saved me from despair, or brought me back into the fight and back into the race.
Do we see the value of the body? Lately I cannot help looking around and seeing value in every brother and every sister.
How do we bestow more honor on those whom we deem less honorable or who seem weaker?
First, we can encourage them. We can draw out what is in them. Sometimes a person may not see their own gift, but if you see it, draw it out and encourage them.
Once, at a men’s retreat in Maryland, Jerry Amon said to me, “Brother, I appreciate your ministry. You have a hidden ministry.” That stuck with me. It encouraged me as the Lord began to show me my place in the body.
Another thing we can do is make room for people. Some of us want to do everything, but when we see somebody functioning in a specific place, we need to make room for them.
There is a sister where I meet named Leah. I used to send emails to the saints, but my emails were dry. When she sends an email, it is like Christ. That is her spot, and I need to stay out of her spot.
I also think of Group D when we used to set up chairs. The Lord gave me a burden concerning how to arrange chairs in a way that would be less distracting and more conducive to the meeting. It seemed simple, but Group D noticed the burden and said, “Jimmy, you do the chairs. Start us off, and we will follow your lead.” They made room for me.
We need to make room for people and allow them to take their spot.
Another thing we can do is clothe one another. Think of Andy Taylor and Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show. Barney was always getting into trouble, but Andy would come in and cover the situation.
In one episode, Barney got the whole town involved in rescuing Andy from a cave, even though Andy had already escaped. Andy and his girlfriend went back into the cave, got dirty, and hid there so that Barney would not be embarrassed. When the townspeople arrived, it became a great rescue, and Barney was honored.
Can we do this for one another? Can we sacrifice our own reputation in order to support, encourage, care for, and clothe weaker members?
Recently, a brother was sharing to open a meeting. I thought, “I would have taken this in another direction.” When the opportunity came, I shared my piece and took things another direction. Afterwards, the Lord convicted me: “Did you clothe your brother?”
I may have looked better because I shared what I thought was a better direction, but I could have supported my brother’s burden. I could have drawn out what was on his heart and encouraged it along.
May the Lord help us to clothe one another. In that sense, Andy made Barney presentable.
What hinders us?
Let us read John 21:15-18.
So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?
He said to Him, Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.
He said to him, Tend My lambs.
He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me?
He said to Him, Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.
He said to him, Shepherd My sheep.
He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me?
Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, Do you love Me?
And he said to Him, Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.
Jesus said to him, Tend My sheep.
Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.
“Simon Peter, do you love Me more than these?” That is the question the Lord wants us to consider.
What were “these” in Peter’s life? At least one thing was fish. Perhaps the other disciples were included. Perhaps his reputation before them, his family, his job, and his livelihood were involved.
The question for us is: What are our fish? What are these things in our lives?
What hinders us from bearing responsibility? It may be football, entertainment, ourselves, family life, friends, school, children, relationships, social life, career, comfort, ministry, religion, or praise from man.
None of these things are necessarily bad. The question is, “Do you love Me more than these?” If we love these things more than the Lord, it is a problem. We will be hindered.
This is a requirement for serving the Lord: we must love Him more than these. We must be willing to allow the Lord to come, occupy our hearts, and purge out the things that hinder us.
For me, one great issue is the fear of man—wanting to have some sort of life before man rather than living before God. These things hinder our ability to serve the Lord.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
One reason these other loves hinder us is that we need a pure heart in order to see the Lord. Otherwise, our service merely comes out of ourselves. It is natural.
There can only be one person on the throne. It is either the Lord or us. There can only be one person living and reigning.
The key is this: do these things have our heart? If they do, are we willing to allow the Lord to come in and search us? We have prayed, “Oh Lord, search my heart,” but it can be a scary thing.
Are we willing to allow the Lord to search our hearts, or do we harden our hearts? Hebrews 3 tells us not to harden our hearts. Do you love some thing so much that you are unwilling to let it go?
If that is the case, we will not be able to serve the Lord. We may perform outward service, but it will not be Christ. It will be us.
What is needed now more than ever is for those who serve to serve in Christ—Christ in us—not merely from something originating in ourselves.
May we have hearts willing to allow the Lord to come in and purify us, so that we can see God.
1 Peter 4:11 says:
Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God;
whoever serves, is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies;
so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Real spiritual service comes directly from the source.
When someone gets up to speak, it is possible to craft a message. I call this safe preaching. Naturally, we know Scriptures, have heard much preaching, and can put together a message. But to preach by faith, to speak as the utterances of God, takes faith, dependence upon the Lord, and receiving from the source.
If we are not alive to the Lord, if we are holding onto things we love more than Him, then all we can do is safe preaching. We can utter safe things because we are not seeing the Lord.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
The Lord Jesus said, “I do what I see My Father doing.” If we are not actively experiencing the Lord, seeing Him, meeting Him freshly, and receiving our manna from Him, then we may speak, but it will not be as the utterances of God.
I would take, any day, an unpolished and sloppy message that has burden over a highly polished message that has no burden, one that has merely been crafted by man.
The same applies to serving by the strength God supplies. When we take up practical work, do we serve like Sarah, depending on the Lord for wisdom? Or do we make it a duty? If we do not receive it from the source, it becomes an outward responsibility without the aroma of Christ.
We may hold to a form of godliness while denying its power.
Sometimes, even in ministry, we feel as though we are failing. Even in this workshop, I feel that I have not touched certain things I wanted to touch. But this is part of the process of bearing responsibility.
Even if you have a pure heart and are entering the land, you will encounter giants.
We may have a heart to serve the Lord, to be useful to Him, to help the saints, to receive from the source, and to do things rightly. But we find giants—real mountains and obstacles in our way.
What do these giants represent? Trials, places where we need to trust the Lord, and things in us that hinder us from possessing our possession and truly serving the Lord.
When Israel came to the land, giants frightened them. We will encounter things that make us wonder, “How are we going to go forward?” But we need a heart like David’s:
Let no man’s heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
Someone has to break through. Someone has to step into service, make mistakes, fail, and discover impurities that hinder genuine service. Someone has to do it.
If you feel as though you are failing, stumbling, and encountering giants, good. That is not necessarily a bad thing. If we go in to possess, we will experience these things.
Why is that good? Because it teaches us to trust. If we do not come to the end of ourselves and cry, “Wretched man that I am,” we cannot come to, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.”
I have wondered whether David missed when he threw the stone at Goliath. Maybe the Lord sent angels to grab that stone, redirect it, and sling it a hundred times faster right into his forehead. Some of you may correct my doctrine later.
The point is that we need to show up. David showed up with a stone. He came by faith. He did not bring down the giant because he got everything right. Perhaps with the first lions and bears, he got bit once or twice. But he learned that the Lord was with him.
The Lord is with us, and He will help us enter by faith.
1 Samuel 17:45 says:
Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.
This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you.
And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,
and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand.
Then David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it.
When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
Galatians 2:20 says:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
Thank God for the giants. Those giants are our salvation. The Lord uses them to show us the things within us that are unable, bringing us back to this truth: the battle is the Lord’s.
He is our salvation. He is the God of our salvation. If we do not enter into service and encounter these difficulties, we will not experience this salvation in the same way.
Peter failed the Lord miserably when he denied Him. Yet later, when John said, “It is the Lord,” Peter jumped into the water. He came through to see, “It is the Lord.”
The Lord had told Peter, “Once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” When the Lord brings us through failures, successes, and every kind of trial, we can turn and encourage one another.
If some of us do not pioneer through and step into bearing true spiritual responsibility, if some do not overcome and lead the way, how will we break through as a generation that seeks His face?
Someone has to pay the price. Someone has to die. Someone has to look foolish and make mistakes. Someone has to do it.
May the Lord help us to be encouraged for the sake of the brethren, the testimony, the Lord’s purpose, and His coming—that He would have the bride.
Peter had to fail miserably, but he came through and saw, “It is the Lord.” We can go on because we are in the hand of God. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot serve in ourselves. We cannot bear responsibility in ourselves. It is the Lord.
Do not be discouraged by the things that expose your weakness. The Lord is delivering us from giants and from everything that would hinder us from being pure vessels unto honor.
I know this desire is in your hearts. I do not think you would be here if it were not. Why would you give up your New Year’s break to be here, unless you want to be part of those overcomers, part of that generation that seeks His face?
Abel: I guess this is a matter of personal experience, something a lot of brothers—older, my age, and younger—have been experiencing with me.
I had a tough time as a teenager, in middle school and high school, as most of us probably did. I would describe those years as a crossroads. You can either see the truth and be set free by the truth, or turn away from it and perhaps never come back.
Some of us may have turned back, but by the grace of God we are here today. God set me free from the way I was living and set me free from myself. He placed a burden in me to be there for those younger than me and those my age—to make myself available for those who may not see it yet but are coming to, or are at, that crossroads.
Growing up in Christian families is a real blessing. The truth is so available. But whether we accept the truth is ultimately up to us.
When I first realized that I wanted to change and no longer live for myself, I went to the Toronto Summer Youth Conference about three years ago. I came back so encouraged by fellowship with people my age and ready to grow together with them.
When I returned to my assembly, there was a gap. It was not that anything was wrong with the assembly, but there had not been an ongoing gathering available for those of college and high-school age.
I honestly believe the Lord placed that on my heart and said, “Here is a gap. I want you to fill it.” Not with myself, of course, but by making myself available. A few brothers my age and I prayed about it, and older brothers prayed with us.
By the grace of God, we began gathering every Saturday, encouraging one another and being there for those our age and younger—college and high-school age. These are crucial years. If these years are lost, we never get them back.
Why cannot we start now, bearing our responsibility, growing into the full measure of what every joint and part of the body can supply, and really loving one another?
The biggest thing is simply to love one another. You do not have to start a new meeting. Be loving one another and be on the lookout. It all flows from love. Maybe the gap in an assembly is simply taking a younger one out to lunch, being there, and making yourself available for love to flow through you.
Brother from Austin: What Abel shared is very much what the Lord has put on my heart. The Lord has been leading a group of brothers in Austin and convicting us concerning a shepherd’s heart—laying down our lives willingly for one another.
One particular aspect is praying for one another. There is nothing more convicting than reflecting upon one’s prayer life, because it exposes us. Are we serving God for wages, for ten shekels and a shirt? Or are we really sharing His heart for the body of Christ, valuing one another, and realizing that the Lord is worthy?
We cannot pray for one another with a Pharisaical attitude: “Lord, thank You that I am not like that brother or sister.” Rather, it must be, “Lord, have mercy on me.” When we see something in someone else, we should realize, “That is me. That is my brother. That is my sister.”
The enemy is picking off those we grew up with—our brothers and sisters. Many of you know what I mean. We must stand for the Lord’s interest in His whole body, desiring that all of us pursue the Lord together and enter in.
When a sheep goes astray, the shepherd goes after that one sheep. We can participate in that through availability and prayer.
Leviticus speaks of the year of Jubilee. If someone became indebted, every man returned to his house and every man returned to his possession. This is ground upon which we can pray for brothers and sisters.
In Austin, there was a brother who had been in my first Sunday school class. In his sophomore year of college, he seemed to completely flip. He had been pursuing the Lord, but after a few days or a month in college, he said that he did not know whether he believed in the Lord. Eventually he said he did not believe in the Lord and was angry with Him.
I knew about it, but I did not have much heart about it. I prayed a few times. Then, around Christmas last year, college students came to my house. They had spent their whole drive back fasting and praying for this brother. It was deeply convicting. I had never done anything like that before.
Later, this brother asked to stay at my place for the summer. The Lord seemed to tell me to do so. A group of brothers began learning together about praying individually and praying together. The Lord would give us a word to pray.
We noticed fear in him, so we prayed, “Lord, perfect love casts out fear. Come in with Your love.” We noticed philosophies and wrong thinking, so we prayed, “Lord, bring down every stronghold and every high thing raised up against the knowledge of God.”
After a month and a half or two months, it was clear that I had done all I could do. We simply prayed, “Lord, humble him.” A week later, he came to us and said, “I have been praying every morning for the last week.”
His heart was open. After a final word shared with him, he was fully restored in the body of Christ. Now, every time he gets in my car, he ministers to me. By the end of the day, I can be melancholic, but he is full of life. He has a gift for asking questions.
The Lord wants to break through in our local assemblies as we learn this way with Him.
Jessica: I want to share a little story about how the Lord has been teaching me through service. As many of you know, I am in Seattle right now, where the assembly is quite large, and that comes with its own challenges.
After college, I was asked to help serve with a high-school group. I was intimidated by the high schoolers. They can be judgmental, form opinions quickly, and that can be scary. But I prayed, and the Lord began to put care in me for them. I sensed that it was okay with Him for me to serve.
I served alongside another brother and sister for almost five years. I learned many lessons about denying myself, stumbling through service, and receiving good things from the Lord.
At the same time, I felt as though there was not much fruit, at least not that I could see. I had a burden for the students, but I could not fulfill all their needs. I became frustrated and burned out.
I was sending emails to high schoolers, emails to parents, and coordinating all kinds of things. It became a list of tasks, expectations, and responsibilities.
About a year and a half ago, the Lord began doing something in my heart. It seemed that the burden for that group was gone. I felt confused. I wondered, “Lord, am I not right with You? Is there something wrong with me that I have lost this burden to serve in Your house?”
Then, in my Bible reading, I came across Psalm 127:1:
Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.
I was convicted. Who was working here? Was I doing all this work for the group, or was the Lord working? I had to take a step back. I felt that I could not continue in the same way, because if the Lord was not leading, then I could not go on.
I went to the leading brothers and those I had been working with and told them, “I feel this is what the Lord is doing in me. I do not really know, but I know I cannot go on if the Lord is not leading.” I stepped back for a couple of months and took on less responsibility.
Another sister was able to take up emailing and details. I still helped with the high school group, but I was able to serve more according to what the Lord had shown me.
A couple years ago, it became very clear that I should move to the university district in Seattle, near the University of Washington where many college students are. I began giving rides to students, and those rides led to conversations. I began sensing a burden for younger ones who had needs and struggles.
My mind went into overdrive: “Maybe we should start a small group. Maybe we can do this or that.” But the Lord did not allow those plans to work out. Instead, over time, He gave me a burden to take one sister out for a meal, then another. Through those conversations, I learned of struggles among brothers and sisters.
A desire arose in me to care for them in a way that was not official but living. In those times, sitting down with them, I sensed the life of the Lord bubbling up in our conversations. It was not a task; it was life. We were spending time together and encouraging one another in the Lord.
One college student told me, “This brother is really struggling in college, but nobody cares about it. Nobody is reaching out to him. He needs an older brother to come alongside and encourage him in this difficult time, when you are thrust into the world and expected to survive.”
That touched and convicted me. Those of us in our mid-to-late twenties can be tempted to live for ourselves. There are so many things to distract us and pull us away from being functioning members in the house of God.
The Lord led me to email people in my age group and ask whether they would be willing to care for younger brothers and sisters. I was surprised by how willing they were to come together. We are planning a casual gathering of college students and older ones just to get to know and encourage one another.
I am still learning. But we are called to be servants at all times before the Lord. We serve from the source of life, not merely because someone tells us what to do. We must follow the Holy Spirit in service.
One thing Jessica pointed out is receiving from the source. We may see a need and begin serving in that area, or we may be asked to serve. But if we have pure hearts, the Spirit of God will lead us. We will begin to see more and more where our place is in the body.
We ought to follow life. We ought to be governed by life. Jerry said, “I was steeped in doctrine, but Kenny was steeped in life.” This ought to be our way. The testimony is Christ.
We can become boxed in by saying, “This is my service.” We may be looking for a title: “Do I prophesy? Do I teach?” But who ever heard of a Voxer ministry before? Yet our brother has a boxing ministry.
Do not worry whether your function has a title. If you sense the Lord’s leading, go with it. Function in it. Follow life. Let life govern it. You will find that you can minister in the body.
Christie: I thought we had run out of time, but you have an opportunity to function now by praying for me that this comes out right.
The verse says that the parts of the body which seem to be more void of honor, those we clothe. I feel as though I am always stumbling, and the body is always clothing me. You can pray, and you can be that part. There is your responsibility in the moment.
Mine is a little different from these sharings of experience and stories. What has been standing out in fellowship leading up to this weekend is this whole matter of transparency.
I keep coming back to a sister who has helped me greatly in my life. She is the most transparent sister I know. Ray’s sharing yesterday and today helped me because he shared about his history, his family history, and his struggles.
It helps to know where someone has come from. Sometimes we see someone doing well, and we do not know where they have been or what they have overcome. We think they simply have it together and have not had it hard.
But most of us have had it hard. We do not always want people to see the rest of it, so we cover it up and make everything appear as pretty as possible. People may see Christ, and it is Christ they see, but sometimes we need to see how one another came through.
This sister has struggles similar to mine. She is older and has come through much, but she still struggles. She still has family to deal with, and her old nature can still rise up. But she often says, “But God.”
I needed that. I needed to see that she did not simply have it all together. She struggled, but God.
My struggle in bearing responsibility is fear. I wonder what people are thinking. Why does someone’s face look that way? I can spend a week wondering whether someone is upset with me, only to find out later that they had a headache and it had nothing to do with me.
We often look to other people for validation. We want someone to say, “I am glad you are doing what you are doing.” It is not wrong to need encouragement, but when we do not have it, where are we looking for it?
I need to keep my eyes on the King and not on anybody else. I need not be afraid of people seeing that I do not have it together. I do not have it together, but God is faithful. But God can do it.
Why not bear responsibility? If He is calling you somewhere or nudging you, what is the worst that can happen?
What does it matter if people know what we are going through? The only One who truly matters knows. God knows even more than we know about where we are. He knows how wretched we are, yet He is on our side.
If I am struggling through, of course He will help me. He wants me to come through. That is all we need, and He is faithful to do it.
This whole matter of transparency and looking to Him to bring us through is what is on my heart. I want to keep my eyes on Him. He has a portion in each one, and we need the whole body. It would not be a body if it were only a few pieces.
It is our responsibility to be willing to be there.
One thing I want to underscore is that many of us struggle with the fear of man, or with looking to please man. What hinders us from entering a breaking bread meeting, sharing, or ministering a word?
There are not many young people ministering the Word—and some of us are getting near forty. Why is that? Brother Stephen Kaung was twenty when he was co-laboring with Brother Nee. Brother Nee was twenty-five when he wrote The Spiritual Man.
Perhaps one reason is that we are intimidated by older brothers who seem polished. But we have to be willing to get up and shoot a few blanks in order to learn. You have to be willing to make mistakes, learn lessons from the Lord, let a giant be dealt with, and go on.
You may be led to do something that seems foolish. You may try to minister to someone and receive rejection. But what of it? We have to learn. This is part of entering the land and experiencing Christ.
One thing that diffuses the fear of man for me is coming before the Lord and asking, “Who am I looking to please?”
May it not be that, in that day, I find out that I lived before man and not before God. Six years ago, I was living in such a place of caring deeply what man thought. I saw how grieved the Lord was that I cared so much what man thought and so little what He thought.
Even after this workshop, I may go away thinking, “That was a big failure.” But if we do it by faith, the Lord is pleased. If we do it trusting Him, the Lord is pleased.
Without faith it is impossible to please Him.
Who are we looking to please? All that matters is that, in that day when we see Him face to face, He smiles and says, “Job well done.”
Every time I serve, I have to remind myself: I am looking to please the Lord, not man. If I seek to please man, I am not Christ’s bondservant.
I want to mention two things. In the handbook, there is a contact list. Hopefully, we will pray for saints locally—that is most important. But if the Lord enlarges our hearts while we are here, perhaps we can pray for one or two people we have met.
Paul says several times in Scripture, “I am making mention of you in my prayers.” May we be encouraged to mention one another before the Lord in prayer, that we may come through and encourage one another.
We have put together a blog. It will include some responses to the question, “What hinders you?” We will post some that we felt were especially edifying, along with questions we were unable to address. The Lord alone has the answer, but we may post Scriptures and things that could bring clarity to our struggles.
We also want to encourage anyone here who is exercised from this weekend in bearing responsibility to share and encourage others. Be an Edward the Turtle. Do not worry about writing something perfectly or making it sound impressive. Share what happened, how the Lord led you to care for the saints, where you struggled, where you failed, and where you saw the Lord’s faithfulness.
May we encourage one another this year as the Lord leads us into bearing responsibility and standing for the testimony.
Lord, we want to thank You for our time together. We thank You for each and every brother and sister in this room. We are thankful that we are one body in You, Lord Jesus.
We thank You for Your life within us, the treasure within. We pray that this treasure would not be hindered but would come forth. Lead us and help us in having pure hearts. Soften our hearts, and come into every hard area. Cleanse out every other love and every other treasure, that we may be devoted to You.
May we receive from You and be able to serve one another and encourage one another. We trust You for this, Lord. We trust that You brought us here with a purpose, and we believe that You will complete the good work You have begun.
We commit ourselves to You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.