I’ve got to say it again: good morning, saints.
Thank you. Thank you. It always makes me feel a whole lot better when I get some kind of response, you know, a little response.
Well, let’s begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, we are so grateful. Lord, You died for our sins, and You rose for our justification, and You reign. One day, we will be there reigning with You.
Lord, we’re thankful for Your great love this morning. We want to say that from the very beginning. It is Your love that has captured us, drawn us, and caused us to press on all these years.
Lord, we come to You today. We really ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Lord, that I can share Your Word effectively and that we can hear Your Word and be clear about Your Word through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, our words are vain except Your Spirit anoint. We pray, Lord, that You would bless this time for Your own glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, this is message number three on spiritual responsibility. I need to do just a brief review to bring us up to date.
Actually, this burden was put on my heart in 1974 at the second Christian Fellowship conference. It was not a family conference; we had two of those Christian Fellowship conferences, and this was the second one.
Our brother, Stephen Kaung, shared on spiritual leadership. But as he began to share on spiritual leadership, he did not emphasize becoming a leader. He did not emphasize the position of leadership. What he emphasized was spiritual responsibility and functioning in the house of God in a responsible way.
I can only tell you that, for me personally, it was an epic moment in my spiritual life and growth in the Lord, and in my place in the assembly here in Richmond. My heart, when I left that time, was not to become a leader. My heart was to be responsible—really, spiritually, and also actively responsible to the Lord in the house of God, serving my brothers and sisters.
It was a marvelous time, but it was also a very serious time. Let me put it that way.
Our brother emphasized functioning over position. He emphasized being responsible. He basically gave this thought about leadership: a leader does not come, or is not raised up in the house of God, to be a boss. A leader is not a boss.
A leader is one who follows in the steps of our Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus said, “I didn’t come to be served, but I came to serve, to be the servant of all.”
If you want, or even think about, leadership, you have to think that it means you need to be willing to serve and submit to every brother and sister in the assembly. “I did not come to be served, but to be servant of all.” That is the spirit of our Lord Jesus, and that is the spirit that was expressed at that conference in 1974.
Now, the nature of spiritual responsibility is different from responsibility in the world. In the world, we become responsible when we are given a position, right? When I am given a position, I know what my responsibilities are. They are all laid out for us in most companies, and we begin to take up those responsibilities.
But in the church, responsibility does not come from being given a position. It comes from the life of Christ that is within you. You have that life. That life is a very responsible life.
You remember the life of our Lord Jesus—how responsible He was. Most likely, His father Joseph had passed away at an early age, and He took up responsibility for the family, becoming a carpenter and taking care of them.
How responsible He was when He was with His disciples. He took care of them, seeing that they were fed, clothed, and cared for during the whole time they were ministering with our Lord Jesus on this earth.
Oh, how responsible He was before God the Father as He became the Lamb of God. The only One who could take up that responsibility, our Lord Jesus Christ took up the responsibility of being a lamb led to the slaughter. He died on the cross for our sins. How responsible He was.
Even on the cross, you remember, He looked out over the crowd and saw His mother there. He said, “John, you need to take care of My mother.” He was still concerned, still being responsible.
The thief on the cross—one of the thieves said, “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Hallelujah, the Holy Spirit was able somehow to touch that thief so that he realized that indeed this was the Son of God. He said, “Well, just remember me.”
And the Lord, in all of His pain and agony, said, “You will be with Me today in paradise.” How responsible our Lord was, even in His death on the cross.
Lastly on the cross—well, not the last thing, but He said, “Father, forgive them. Forgive them.” That was His heart: “Forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
What a responsible Savior we have. It is the life of Christ that we receive when we receive Christ. It is a responsible life. It is a natural part of the life of Christ. It is His nature, and that nature, brothers and sisters, is in all of us when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, when you accept Christ, you actually become responsible because of that responsible life in you.
I also shared out of three parables to lay the groundwork. The first was the parable of the mina, from Luke 19:11-27; the parable of the talents, from Matthew 25:14; and the parable of the faithful servant, from Matthew 24:45.
We found that the mina represented God’s grace given to us—His life given to us. It is all in grace, and with grace comes responsibility.
The same is true with the parable of the talents, brothers and sisters. It represents spiritual gifts. Not only do we have His life, and not only is His grace effective in your life to make you grow in the Lord, but He has given you a special talent to serve in the house of God as a priest and to build up your brothers and sisters.
Every joint supplying, as it says. We are given a unique spiritual gift, and everyone has one. Brothers and sisters, how do you discover that gift? Frankly, you discover it by just being responsible—just functioning as you see the need in the house of God. Then you will discover what you are called to.
We are given that special gift as well. It is like, you know, not everybody is a plumber, not everyone is a carpenter, not everyone is an electrician, not everyone is an engineer or a doctor. We all have special functions that we carry out in our normal lives on this earth, in the world.
But, brothers and sisters, in the house of God, we are also given a special gift and talent which the Lord expects us to use for the building up of His house. So, we find out that we are called to be responsible.
Now, in these two parables—the parable of the mina and the parable of the talents—I need to say this first: the disciples were always arguing about who was going to be first in the kingdom.
When the Lord set up His kingdom, they wanted to be first. In fact, James and John got their mother to go to the Lord and request that her sons sit on His right hand and His left hand.
You remember, even up to the point of the Lord’s table—the Last Supper—they were still arguing about who was going to be first in His kingdom. So sad. But that was their thought. That was the way of the world, brothers and sisters. They wanted position, but not responsibility. That was the key.
In these two parables, the Lord shared with them in order to help them. He said, “This nobleman is going away to receive a kingdom, and he is going to give you the mina. He is going to give you the talent. When he comes back, he is going to bring you before him to hold you accountable for what you have done with your responsibility—with the grace and talents he has given to you.”
He is going to hold us accountable, just like in the parable He held them accountable. To the one who had increased his mina by ten times, He said, “You will rule over ten cities in the kingdom.” To the one with five, He said, “You will rule over five.”
It is the same with the talents. Each one had doubled his talent, and to the faithful ones He said, “You will enter the joy of the Lord in the kingdom.” Praise the Lord. What a reward.
But to the unfaithful servant in both of those parables—the one who had buried a talent and the other one who had put it in a towel—the Lord was really upset and angry with them. He actually took what they had been given from them.
Now, that does not mean they were no longer saved. They were, but barely saved, as we often say in the Christian world. Brothers and sisters, what a tragedy. During the kingdom age, they will not have that special joy in the Lord that those who have been faithful and responsible will have as they serve beside the Lord Jesus in His kingdom.
That brings us to the parable of the faithful servant. The key in the parable of the faithful servant is this: “Who is the faithful servant?” It is he whom, when I come back, I find giving meat to the family—providing meat to the brothers and sisters.
It is very clear what that meat is: it is Christ. It is the life of Christ that has been developed in you. It is the life of Christ that you have experienced, and that is what we share with one another in fellowship.
That is true fellowship: the sharing of the reality of Christ that we have and have experienced in Christ—not merely knowledge of the Bible, but our experience of the Lord Jesus.
That is why I think this time we have of open sharing is so important, because it gives everyone the opportunity to share something that the Lord has done in your life with the brothers and sisters. That becomes food for the family, and that is what the Lord is looking for when He comes back: those who are feeding the family.
Now, I got way ahead, but I did want to say that the motive in these parables is interesting. The unfaithful servants both said, “We feared the Lord.” Not fear in a good way. You know, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but they were really fearful.
Perfect love drives away fear, doesn’t it? But they were fearful. In other words, brothers and sisters, for the faithful servants, their motive was love. That is why they served. It was out of a motive of love.
But these two unfaithful ones did not serve because they really did not have that passion and love for the Lord that they should have had. It was not that they were not the Lord’s—they were—but they just did not have that first love for the Lord.
So, that kind of brings us up to date. Today I wanted to share out of the life of Deborah and Gideon to give us some examples of spiritual responsibility.
We need to go to Judges 4, and we are going to read some verses—quite a few, as a matter of fact.
Judges 4:1-4:
And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, when Ehud was dead.
And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.
And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
Now, Judges 4:6-8:
And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun:
And I will draw unto thee, to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.
And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go; but if thou wilt not go with me, I will not go.
Judges 4:24:
And the hand of the children of Israel prevailed more and more against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.
Now, Judges 5:2:
For that the leaders took the lead in Israel,
For that the people offered themselves willingly,
Bless ye the Lord.
And Judges 5:7:
The inhabitants of the villages ceased,
They ceased in Israel,
Until that I Deborah arose,
That I arose a mother in Israel.
I do not have time to read Judges 5:14-18, but basically, five tribes that responded to the call to go to war are named, and four tribes that refused are also pointed out and named in those Scriptures.
Now, let’s go to Judges 5:23:
Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord,
Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof,
Because they came not to the help of the Lord,
To the help of the Lord against the mighty.
He put a curse on Meroz. As a matter of fact, scholars do not know exactly where Meroz is today, because God cursed it and it disappeared over history. But they are pretty sure it was in northern Palestine, very near where the battle took place, and yet they refused to go into battle. That is why the Lord was so angry with them, and He cursed them.
Spiritually speaking, the nation of Israel was in terrible spiritual condition—very poor. They were in the land, but they were not in possession of the land. They were actually under the oppression of the Canaanites.
Why were they under oppression? Because their hearts had turned from the Lord. Their hearts had turned from the Lord’s interests. They were no longer concerned about the Lord’s interests or the Lord’s testimony.
They were to be a testimony to God among the nations, but they had lost interest in that. They had lost their vision. They had lost their purpose.
In fact, the epitaph at the end of the book of Judges is that there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. They had lost vision of their King. They had lost vision of purpose—the vision of the testimony they were supposed to carry in the midst of the nations.
They were no longer concerned so much for the Lord’s interests, but mainly for themselves. They had become spiritually irresponsible, and they were spiritually weak and under oppression. The Canaanite army, with those nine hundred chariots, was now on the march to take them out.
Now, it is interesting. Barak—not the former president, but Barak—was a leader, a captain over the army. The nation was in imminent danger, and yet he did not seem to be very aware of that or very impressed by the fact that they were in such terrible condition.
You would have to say he had become very passive. He had drawn back from his responsibility for the safety of the nation of Israel, and the enemy had by then entrenched themselves.
Brothers and sisters, here is a very important principle: we cannot afford to draw back. We cannot afford to be passive in our responsibilities.
When we are passive, the enemy begins to entrench himself into your heart, and the assembly suffers. The house of God suffers. We cannot be passive. Actually, to recover from that is much more difficult than if we had been actively responsible all along.
Well, thank God for Deborah. He raised up Deborah. I think it is interesting: there was no man He could count on. There was no man in all Israel that He felt was responsible enough to take up leadership, and so He raised up Deborah.
Now, this was not God’s usual order. It was not His normal order. But the Lord is going to achieve His purpose, and He raised up Deborah. Thank God for that. It was an emergency measure, you might say.
I want to share how precious the sisters are, and how precious a sister is, out of the life of Deborah. We had a similar experience here in Richmond in those early days when the Lord had begun to raise up a testimony here.
I would like to give a little history so that you can see how important the ministry of the sisters was, and is, in our midst.
In 1967, there was a group of sisters here in Richmond from various backgrounds—some Pentecostal, others, I think, Baptists and Methodists. They loved the Lord, and they would get together.
They had become disenchanted, might be a good word. They loved the Lord, but in their hearts they felt there was something more that the Lord wanted.
Llewellyn Miller, Ray Walker, and another sister—I have forgotten who went up there with them; it may have been Elsie—went to the Wabana Conference in 1967.
T. Austin-Sparks was speaking, our brother Kaung was speaking, and DeVern Fromke was speaking. I looked up the messages that were shared, and it is amazing. These sisters went up there hungry and searching, and the Lord met them.
What did our brother Kaung share on? The eternal purpose of God. He shared that Christ was the fullness of God, and the church was the fullness of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, I remember Llewellyn describing that time as earth-shattering in her life. She saw what the Lord was after. She came back, and those sisters, along with some other sisters, got together.
They had this vision of what the Lord wanted, just like Paul on the Damascus road. They had this vision. It captured their hearts, and they began to pray.
Brothers and sisters, they prayed from 1967 to 1972—five years of prayer. Later, we discovered and realized these were the birth pains before the church was birthed here in Richmond. The birth pains were really travailing prayer.
Now, these six sisters were wonderful. Llewellyn Miller had a mother’s heart for us young brothers when we came in. We were young, in our twenties, and she just loved us. She was the hostess of hospitality, and you always felt at home when you went there. It was a marvelous work that our Lord did through Llewellyn.
Elsie Prince was always thought of as the sergeant among the sisters, making sure we were on track. Marzay Bruins was just a lovely person who loved the Lord, had seen this vision, and wanted it so much in her heart.
Eugaritha Wood, who was actually Llewellyn’s maid, had that vision. I call her the silent, powerful one. She was very silent; she did not say a lot, but she was very powerful spiritually.
Then there was Ray Walker. What always impressed me was that Ray had lost her legs in an automobile accident. She was actually a Hollywood star, and she had this accident. Of course, it ended her career, but out of that she found Christ.
I tell you what: she glowed. Christ just glowed on her face. It was amazing. I do not know if I have ever seen someone with quite the glow that our sister Ray had. She loved the Lord and loved us young brothers as well.
Then there was Mary Ann Mize, who is still with us. She loved the Lord, and she wanted everyone to see this vision that they had received. She was very concerned, particularly about her own family, that they would see the vision.
Actually, she was a very close friend to my mother-in-law, who had shared something of this vision with me. I did not quite get it at the time, but it was through Mary Ann that we got word that a Chinese brother was coming to Richmond once a month to speak. So, she was very critical among the six.
These six sisters were so wonderful and faithful. They had a heart for the Lord, and they saw His purpose and vision. As I said, they travailed for five years.
At some point during those five years, our brother Kaung started coming down from New York once a month to be with these sisters. I remember asking him one time, “Brother, how is it that you continued to come all these years to Richmond to share with these few sisters, and nothing seemed to be happening?”
He said, “The Lord told me to.” It was very simple. He was just following what the Lord had said.
Thank the Lord, in 1972—October of 1972—Kenny and I came for the first time. Our brother shared on the birth of the church out of the book of Acts.
The vision that our sisters had seen, we saw that night. It transformed our lives. It captured our hearts, and we have never been the same since—for good or bad, but we have never been the same. What we heard that night so captured us. It was amazing and transforming.
These sisters were getting together on Sunday afternoon, and we started gathering with them. I experienced open worship for the first time. I had never seen it, heard of it, or known about it. It was marvelous to me as we prayed and sang unto the Lord. It was an amazing thing to be able just to worship together.
In 1972, those sisters, who were in a lot of fellowship with Stephen, had a heart to have a little conference so that other brothers and sisters could come and perhaps get a glimpse of that vision.
The first one was held in the summer of 1972 at the Rosalyn campground, with probably sixty or seventy in attendance. Our brother Kaung and Brother Fromke shared, and us young brothers went.
Actually, the sisters carried the load—mainly the spiritual load, and then the practical load of organizing everything. Us brothers were happy; you know, we were just enjoying it. I can say that for myself, at least. But we prayed with them, of course, for that time.
Then, in October of 1973, one year later, our brother Kaung shared on God’s divine order out of 1 Corinthians 11. That was an epic message in the assembly.
You have to remember, these sisters had been carrying most of the spiritual responsibility in the assembly. They were really the ones leading. I know our brother’s heart as he began to share on God’s divine order out of that chapter.
He said that God has an order. He has a government to carry out His will. He established a government to carry out His will, and that government in the church is patterned after the government in the Godhead.
What am I saying? Our Lord Jesus, in order to carry out the will of God, took a submissive place under the headship of God the Father. He took that place willingly, and He even went to the cross willingly.
In other words, to carry out the plan of salvation, it was in God’s heart. It was God’s will, but somebody had to carry that will out. For the authority of God to be carried out, there had to be a submissive heart—somebody willing to do that and submit to God in His headship.
Christ, we know, was equal with God. All the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in our Lord Jesus Christ bodily. He was not inferior to God in any way. He was wholly spiritual, just as God was wholly spiritual. He was not inferior in any way.
Yet, He took a place even lower than the angels, that He might take up the place of man and become a servant. It was because of that submissive heart that you and I are saved today. It was that submission of our Lord Jesus Christ that was so important.
Our brother shared how important it is in the church that God’s government be established—that the Lord Jesus is Head of the church.
If you look in Corinthians, it says that Christ is the head of man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ. He was trying to tell us that there is a pattern there. There is a governmental pattern for God’s work to be accomplished.
If the church is going to carry out the will of God, she needs to be submissive to her Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the church, it is very clear from Corinthians that the men represent the Head, Christ. They are a testimony to headship and authority. Now, the men are not the authority; only the Lord is the authority. He is the only Head, but they are to represent that authority before the assembly. That is their place.
For the sisters, they are to be the testimony of submission in the church. Authority without submission does not accomplish anything.
There needed to be this testimony, and we were deeply touched by that. I know our sisters were. But, in all honesty, we were not ready for that.
Our sisters were still a little trepidatious about us younger brothers and our place in the assembly. They loved us dearly and prayed for us, but they had been leading, they had had the burden, and they had birthed this thing. It was amazing.
We were just coming along. We were kind of babes, almost. So, we understand their trepidation. As for us younger brothers, I can speak for myself: I was not ready. I was not ready for that. But God put it in our hearts. He really did.
That summer, June 1974, they decided to have the next conference. It was a conference on spiritual leadership. Stephen, our brother Kaung, shared that, and I have already shared what it meant to us.
But I think it is interesting that once again, it was those sisters who carried most of the spiritual burden and almost all of the practical burden for that conference. I will never forget this in all of my life. I do not want to forget it.
I was not staying on campus. I decided, “Well, I can stay at home. The sisters are taking care of everything. I can stay at home and just come and go and listen to the messages.”
After our brother shared his first message on this matter of responsibility, oh, the Lord just convicted me. Thank God He did. My eyes were opened to see what our Lord had tried to share through Stephen on this matter of divine order.
I was awakened. I said, “I’m allowing these sisters to carry all the load. That’s not being responsible.” I was convicted—not of trying to become a leader, but just of being responsible. It was not right that the sisters carried all of this load before the Lord.
The Lord really convicted me, and I think He convicted some of us other brothers. I cannot speak for Kenny, but I know that after that conference, us brothers got together.
We went before the Lord, and we committed ourselves that we would come together once a week to pray for the assembly, to stand for the assembly, to stand for the Lord’s testimony, and to see that what the Lord had begun there, He could complete.
We committed ourselves to that, and we have been faithful to that ever since. I think it is interesting that a number of years later, Brother Kaung shared with me, “You know, when that happened, that’s when I knew the Lord was really going to raise up Richmond. That’s when I knew.”
Well, thank the Lord for what He did and how He awakened us. It was really through the ministry of these sisters and our brother that we were awakened to this.
Then it was not long after we brothers started meeting together that the sisters came to us. They said, “We have not forgotten about God’s government in the church, or God’s divine order. We want to see it established, and so we are going to take a step back.”
By no means does that mean, “I step out.” It was just a step back. They were there, supportive all the time.
They said, “Not only that, we are going to come together once a week, and we are going to have a time where the sisters pray for you brothers—pray for leadership, and not only leadership, but all the brothers. We are going to pray for the assembly, that the Lord’s purpose would be served in the assembly. We are going to pray for the testimony of Christ.”
Out of Acts 2:42, they were thinking about that. They said, “We are also going to pray for the ministry of the Word.”
Some of us brothers had begun to minister a little at that time, and they said our brother Kaung had shared a statement in one of his messages about holding the Word. What that meant was this: when you hear the Word, like today, do not just go home and forget about it. Think about it. Be before the Lord about it.
Does the Lord have something for you in that message? Does it apply to you? Is the Lord speaking to you? You have to hold it.
So they said, “We want to hold that Word. We are going to pray about the ministry in our midst.”
I want to say that not only were those sisters faithful, but we said, “Amen.” That is all we could say: “Amen. That really sounds like the Lord.”
The younger sisters who had begun to come into our midst saw it too. They have been faithful all these years in praying this way, and I am so grateful. I would not be standing here today speaking if they had not. Maybe you all would think that is okay, but I just want to point out how powerful things got and how things began to change once that was taking place.
Now, I want to say again: the sisters still carried spiritual burden. They really did. When there were things they did not agree with us about, they would come to us and say, “You know, we are not in agreement with that,” and we would consider it together and pray together.
Or they might say, “Amen, brothers. Amen.” So they were there all the time. They had not stepped out of the picture; they had just stepped back, just as Christ took that place that God’s will might be done.
That is why I say, in this matter of Deborah and Barak, thank God for Deborah. She was able to awaken Barak. She was able to encourage Barak. She was able to inspire Barak, that he might take up his responsibility.
I feel like that is what these sisters did in our midst in the beginning. They encouraged us. They inspired us. They stood with us. It was marvelous.
Praise the Lord, the result was that Barak led the troops into battle, and they overwhelmingly won the battle.
You know, I find I am not getting very far. We find in the assembly often that when God touches any of us on a matter of responsibility, we find ourselves a little reluctant—or much reluctant, sometimes.
In a sense, that is okay, because we should not have confidence in ourselves, should we? There should be no confidence in the flesh, as Paul said—no confidence in our flesh or our abilities. His confidence was fully in God.
The problem with being reluctant is a lack of confidence in the Lord—a lack of confidence in the life of Christ in you, a lack of confidence in the anointing that comes upon you when you begin to reach out and be responsible.
The anointing comes when you take up responsibility. If you do not take up responsibility, the anointing is not there. Brothers and sisters, how critical this matter of responsibility is.
In serving the Lord, it is not confidence in us; it is faith in the Lord. It is by faith. I thank God that He used Deborah to awaken Barak and lead the army to victory.
Now, there are a couple of other points I want to make in this matter of Deborah. When all the nation of Israel was called to this battle, all the tribes were called. All of them were. Only five responded.
In the words, you find that they are named: Ephraim, Issachar, Naphtali, Benjamin, and Zebulun. They all responded, and they overcame—not just for those five tribes, but they became overcomers for the whole nation of Israel.
The whole nation was saved because of these five, and the Lord commends them in His Word.
The Scripture also takes note of those who did not respond, and we know how disappointed the Lord was. Reuben, it says, stayed home with their sheep.
Now, you have to remember that sheep were very important. It is not that they did not need to take care of their sheep; I am not saying that. But the Lord had called them to battle, and they would not go. They said, “No, we need to stay with the sheep.”
Gilead, or the tribe of Gad, stayed home. They did not want to be involved in this.
Dan, the tribe of Dan, was up on the seashore, and it says they stayed with their ships. They had some ships. They said, “We have a lot to do here, a lot of work. We need to take care of these ships, and we just have not got time to go into this battle.”
Asher was also on the seashore, and they decided they were better off staying there.
Then He says to those living in Meroz, “Curse it,” He said. Brothers and sisters, all of these should have responded. All were called.
But some were just not that concerned. It is amazing. The nation of Israel was at risk, but they were not that concerned. They were more interested in what they thought came first in their lives.
Their priorities were their families, their homes, their businesses, and their pleasures. The Lord was so displeased with one group—the ones who were probably closest to the battle—that He cursed them.
Why was the Lord so upset? It says, “Because they came not to help the Lord.” Notice, He did not say they came not to help their brothers and sisters, though they should have. He said, because you did not help your brothers and sisters, you did not help Me.
That is the point: the Head and the Body are one.
They all offered their excuses. I want to say this as a warning to myself and to all of us: it is so easy to be occupied with many things—other things, important things.
Are not home, family, and business important? They are very important. But, brothers and sisters, these are not the priority of the life of the Christian.
I remember at the first of the year, our brother Kenny shared on one thing. He said, “I would like for us to go into this new year with one thing on our heart. It is the one thing that matters, and that is Christ and His will.”
The enemy also uses the world to distract us—its pleasures, its sins, its obsessions.
Brothers and sisters, we are called to be responsible. We are called to be about the Lord’s business.
My heart is that the Lord would encourage us. I want to say more than encourage—that He would emphatically deal with us, that we would be responsible. Just be responsible. Let us not displease our Lord when He calls and we say, “I’m too busy.”
Once again, I want to say, thank God for Deborah—in her heart and in her spiritual condition. It said she was a mother in Israel. That is important.
What that says to us is that she had a heart’s concern for the Lord, a heart’s concern for the nation of Israel, a heart’s concern for the people of God, a heart’s concern for her brothers and sisters in the nation, and a heart’s concern for the Lord’s testimony.
It was a mother’s heart. There is no heart like the heart of a mother. I can tell you that—I had one. I know mothers have such a heart, particularly for their children.
That is what it is saying, brothers and sisters, to us. This is not just for sisters or mothers; it is for all of us. We all should have that mother’s heart for the Lord’s heart and for the Lord’s testimony: commitment, concern, and compassion for the life, health, and safety of the assembly.
Next, it said she was a prophetess. Brothers and sisters, I know that we are not all given the gift of prophecy, but do you know what a true prophet is?
A true prophet is one who knows the Lord. A true prophet is one who has experienced the Lord. A true prophet is one who knows the Lord’s mind—what is on the Lord’s heart. A true prophet is one who knows the Lord’s ways.
Now, brothers and sisters, we may not all have the gift of prophecy, but we all should have the heart of the prophet. That is the point.
Lastly, she was able to inspire and encourage Barak and her brethren. Oh, what an important ministry that is: to be able to encourage and inspire.
I think often, when we meet together, we come hoping to be inspired, do we not? We are hoping to be encouraged. “Oh, when I come this morning, Lord, I need it. I need Your encouragement and inspiration. Please, may there be a prayer or a song or something that will really inspire me.”
We come looking to be inspired. We are looking for our brothers and sisters—somebody to have that prayer or that song. In the case of ministry, we are looking for those who minister the Word to really encourage and inspire us.
But have you ever thought about the fact that this is a ministry for which we all are responsible? We should all come actually wanting to inspire and encourage one another—to have something in the Lord that we could, as the Lord leads, use to inspire and encourage.
That could be your prayer. That could be the song you offer. That could be a word of comfort to a brother or sister who is having a hard time. It could just be a word from the Scripture that meets the situation of another brother or sister.
We are all called to this ministry: to encourage and inspire. Deborah had all of these qualities.
Well, it is going to take me another fifteen minutes. Should I continue? It is up to you, brothers. What do you think?
Yes, but I have a lot more next week as well. Oh, I am sorry. Let me finish. I want to make some points out of the life of Gideon. We are going to read some Scriptures. I think I can wrap this one up pretty quickly.
Judges 6:1-2, 4:
And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.
They were so frightened that they had moved into caves.
Judges 6:4:
And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.
They were just coming in and taking all of their food. They were hiding out in caves.
Now, Judges 6:11-16:
And the angel of the Lord came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
Then verse 14:
And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent thee?
Gideon said, “Oh Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
The Lord said unto him:
Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.
Now let’s go to Judges 8. There is a lot we have to skip over, but Judges 8:4 says:
And Gideon came to the Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing.
Verse 10 says that Zebah and Zalmunna and their hosts were about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the host of the children of the east; for there fell a hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword. In other words, it was one hundred and twenty thousand coming against them.
Now, Judges 8:22-23:
Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son also: for thou hast saved us out of the hand of Midian.
And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you.
Man, what a powerful statement.
I want to say, first of all, that in the life of Gideon, his life was characterized by a spirit of responsibility. He was responsible.
Once again, Israel was in dire straits. They had been saved from the Canaanites under Deborah, but now they had come under the oppression of the Midianites because their hearts had turned from the Lord.
They had not made the Lord King of their lives or King of the nation of Israel. They began to do what was best for their families, what was best for them, and what was right in their own eyes—what satisfied them the most.
In other words, they served their own interests. They had little interest in satisfying the Lord and His needs. They had lost sight of the Lord as their King and of their purpose as a testimony among the nations.
Because of this, they were oppressed. They were now living under the Midianites. First it was the Canaanites under Deborah; now it was the Midianites. They were living in caves in fear. The Midianites were taking their cattle, their sheep, and their crops.
This is a picture of spiritual defeat and a deprived spiritual life. They were just deprived. Once again, they were in imminent danger from their enemy, the Midianites.
It is interesting that when the Angel of the Lord confronted Gideon, Gideon was not hunkered down in his cave, was he? He had been able to raise some wheat or grain, and he was harvesting it in the winepress, where it could be out of sight of the Midianites.
For what purpose was he doing this? It is very obvious. It was to feed his family. At all costs, he had to feed his family. That is the heart of a man. That is the heart of a man of God: “My family must be fed.”
Brothers and sisters, this is a responsible man. In the assembly, I have already said it: we are responsible to feed one another at any cost.
Faithful he was. The Lord said—remember the faithful servant?—the one I approve is the one who is giving meat to the family when I return.
Gideon was very responsible. He knew his responsibility. He saw what he needed to do, and he did it.
The other thing about Gideon is that he had no official position in Israel. He was just another man of Israel, but the Lord saw him. He saw him there being so responsible.
It seems to me that when the Lord calls someone, they are always being responsible. I think of Paul. Paul was totally off base, totally against the will of God, but he did not know it. Still, he was being absolutely responsible. He thought he was defending God.
But he was responsible anyway. He was functioning. That is the point. He was being responsible, and he was functioning. He was not waiting for others to do the work and come give him some of it.
I would have to say, knowing this brother, most likely Gideon was supporting some of the other families around him as well. He was already being responsible. He was functioning.
He did not wait to be appointed to a position and be told, “Hey, you are the dad, and this is your position. You need to do it. We think you ought to provide food for everyone.” No, he did what was needed. He was responsible.
I think it is so interesting: when the Lord called him, what was his response? He said, “I’m from a poor family, the least in my father’s house.”
This was not false humility. It was simply the truth. That was his position. “I do not have any recognition among the people of Israel. The people do not even know who I am.”
There was no sense of pride in this man. The Lord was calling him, but he did not think, “Oh, I must be special. The Lord is calling me.” He did not see himself as someone special—just another man in Israel.
In the assembly, I would have to say: do you see yourself as a brother or sister, just a brother or sister? The Lord has a marvelous calling on your life, and you are special to Him, but you are not special in yourself. You are a brother or sister.
One of the things that has touched my heart so much through the years, particularly in those early years and at those early conferences, was that often at lunchtime I would be sitting with Brother Kaung. We would be talking about the conference, how it was going, and the things that might need to be done.
I cannot tell you how many times a brother would come—usually it was a brother—and begin talking to Brother Kaung. He would say, “Are you a pastor?” That was the first thing. “Are you a pastor? Are you a prophet? Do you consider yourself a prophet? Are you an apostle?”
Brother Kaung would just look at them and say, “I’m a brother.” I cannot tell you how many times that happened.
Now, I happen to know that our brother does carry out the responsibility of a pastor, of a prophet, and of an apostle. That is what the Lord has called him to, but he sees it as a responsibility, not as a position. I hope we get the difference.
That was the way it was with Gideon. He was not looking for position. He had no desire to be the leader. He had no ambition. He was not maneuvering; he had not maneuvered in any way to try to come under the favor of the Lord and get the position of leading Israel out.
No, that was not his heart. He was just a brother. He responded to the Lord in faith, not out of his own strength, though he certainly knew his weakness.
I think it is interesting that when the call went out to battle, you remember the story of Gideon: thirty-two thousand came forth. That was good. The only problem was that they were standing up against one hundred and twenty thousand. The odds were four to one.
In other words, there were four Midianites for every one Israelite. Those are pretty poor odds if you are going into battle with just swords and spears.
But do you know what the Lord did amazingly? He said, “This is too many.” He said, “All of you who are afraid, go home.” You cannot go into battle with fear. You have to stand in the Lord in faith.
I do not have time to go into it, but I can tell you that many, many saints have been captured by fear. Brothers and sisters, we do not have to live under fear. Christ has delivered us from that on the cross.
Twelve thousand left, and that left them ten thousand. Then the Lord gave them another test. He said, “You come down to the water. I want them to drink water in the river.”
Well, nine thousand seven hundred of them just stuck their heads in the river and started drinking. Three hundred took the water in their hands, and they drank while they remained on watch.
The Lord said, “I want those three hundred. They are responsible ones. They are on the watch. They are aware. That is what I need: responsible men who are aware and are looking out for all.”
He said, “With these three hundred, we will take them.” The odds had now increased to four hundred to one—four hundred to one. That was tremendous.
You remember how they won that battle. They had the candles lit, and they had jars over them. They had their swords, and the Midianites were down in the valley. Gideon’s men surrounded them on the mountaintops while the Midianites were asleep.
All of a sudden, they stood up and shouted, “The sword of the Lord, and the sword of Gideon!” They broke those clay vessels, and the light shone everywhere.
The Midianites woke up in a fog, so to speak. They saw all these lights surrounding them, and everyone yelling, “The sword of the Lord! The sword of the Lord! The sword of Gideon!” They were in such a stupor that they killed each other. That is the way they were wiped out.
It was an amazing battle and such a great victory.
So much so that the men of Israel came to Gideon and said, “We want you to be ruler over us. You be our king.”
Thank God for Gideon. He knew the heart of the Lord. He said, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son. The Lord will rule over you.”
That is what the Lord wants. He wants to be King of your life. He rules over you. There was no desire or ambition in Gideon.
Brothers and sisters, he was a true leader among the nation of Israel. Our brother taught us in that 1974 time on leadership that leadership is not being a boss. It is not giving orders. It is being servants of all. It is being submissive to all.
Brothers and sisters, that is the way of the church.
You know, in leadership, I think many of you who have come to us for counsel have realized that we do not always—in fact, we do not—tell you what to do, do we? I think some of you can confess to that.
We listen, and we are looking for the Spirit to touch something as we talk and share the Word. If the Holy Spirit touches something and the brother or sister says something, we say, “Yes, that is the Lord.” We affirm, “That is the Lord. That is the Holy Spirit.”
Or we may say, “Boy, I just do not have that witness in my heart that that is quite the way or the right thing.” There might be some redirection in some cases, but that is the way leadership leads an assembly.
That is not only true for one person, but for the whole assembly. Our responsibility is to go before the Lord. He is the Head. He is the authority. We are not the authority. We do not have authority, but we represent authority. There is a big difference.
Never see yourselves as ones with great authority. The Lord is the Head of the assembly, and that is whom we are looking to reign and rule over this assembly—to lead this assembly.
Well, may the Lord use whatever He has shared this morning to touch our hearts. I hope that we are inspired and encouraged in this matter of simply being a brother or sister, being responsible, and functioning in the house of God.
It is not a matter of position, and I am so thankful. It is not the way the world does things. In so many places, that is the way it is. They are waiting to be appointed a deacon, a deaconess, a pastor, or whatever—or the one who cleans the grounds or cleans the house.
Years ago, when we came together about this house and how we were going to take care of it, we had a family meeting. We talked about how we could hire a contractor—that is what most people do—to come in and clean the house.
I do not know who said it or how it came up, but what was said was, “You know, we are a family, and we are going to take care of this house like families take care of their homes. Everybody will take care of it, including the children.”
That is why I encourage the children to be here when we gather to take care of the house. It is all our responsibility. I am thankful the Lord led us that way in those early days, and there was a big amen among the saints.
That being said, let me close. It is a little late.
Lord, we just come to You today. We thank You for Your life that You have given to us. Lord, we all here, I think, really want to be faithful servants—faithful to You, Lord, under Your authority.
Lord, we are serving with Your life and out of the power of the Holy Spirit, and not our own might. Lord, we do not seek position, but we certainly want to fulfill God’s will in our midst.
We want You to have a testimony, Lord, to Your life, to Your divine government, to Your ways, and to Your movement in the assembly.
Lord, we submit ourselves to You. We are Yours. Have Your way. Prepare Your bride. We pray in Jesus’ name.