Okay, I’d like for us to turn this morning to 2 Corinthians 11:2-3. Second Corinthians 11:2-3.
For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy;
for I betrothed you to one husband,
so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness,
your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we are so thankful how, in the abundance of Your great love, You truly have already fed us so much this morning. We came to remember You, and yet we leave as the blessed ones. How merciful You are, Lord.
And Lord, we would want to continue, in the spirit of the bread of life, to break this bread of life open, that Your very life could speak to us in this day, in this time. We are thankful, Lord, for the enabling power of Your Spirit. We are thankful for the provision we have in You, and we come and look to You that You really would work in all of our hearts and lives in these critical days. In Thy wonderful name we pray. Amen.
Periodically, I get asked this question: “What’s on your heart?” I think most of us, at times, somebody will ask us that. And I have to say that probably for the last year or so, it’s just probably what many others have on their hearts also: that we, as God’s people, would be prepared for His soon return.
These two verses in 2 Corinthians have always meant a lot to me because I feel they capture the very essence of what God is after. We see here that we have a God of purpose, and He is very jealous. He is a jealous God. Paul had been captured by that jealousy.
In that jealousy, the Lord has one desire: that eternal companion for His Son—a bride betrothed to Him, that corporate expression of His life. This is what is upon His heart. This is His purpose. This is what He is after. And we are thankful how He paid that price to bring us into this.
Then, as you look at verse 3, we see how those betrothed and engaged to Him are to be. We are not to be distracted. We are not to be looking at other things, but we are to have a life relationship with Him, with such a simplicity and purity of devotion to Him.
You know, oftentimes people ask, “How do you know if you’re in love with someone?” All of a sudden, maybe you don’t see them one day and you start to miss them. They’re not around, and you start thinking about them more and more in your heart.
There is a love there that He desires us to partake of, and that we would really stay in that place of simplicity and purity of that love relationship—that devotion to Him.
It amazes me, in the days we’re living in—I guess it’s been going on forever—how complicated the enemy, the world, and even our own religious self make preparing for the Lord’s return.
It’s like there is this whole industry, this deceiving spirit out there: “Oh, if you want to be prepared, you’ve got to do this, this, and this. You’ve got to watch this video. You’ve got to act like this. You’ve got to buy this book.” There is always money behind it. “You’ve got to subscribe to this video.” You’re wanting to do this and that, and it just goes on and on. It adds to the complexity of trying to prepare for His return.
But as we look at our Lord, when He was talking about coming back, there was always a simple message to us. He wanted that heart-to-heart, intimate, daily relationship with Him: “As you walk with Me, and as you talk with Me.” How does it go? “And He walks with me, and He talks with me.” I forget that hymn. Talk with me and see—yeah, there we go.
This is a participatory sharing. You see how there is a relationship. This is what He is after when He says, “Come and believe.” It is all about this relationship.
As I started thinking about this, I looked back over the last messages I had shared, and I started to see this theme that had really been on my heart for a while.
I had shared a thought on gaining a heart of wisdom. Really, the object of that was that we would see His divine purpose, just as Moses prayed in Psalm 90: that we would number our days, that we would gain a heart of wisdom.
What is a heart of wisdom? A heart of wisdom is knowing His heart, knowing His purpose, knowing His desire, and allowing His divine purpose to govern our lives every day. We would not have other things deciding what we are going to do, but His divine purpose would govern our lives every day.
Then I shared on His good pleasure. It made me consider His divine pleasure. Not only does He have a divine purpose, but He has a divine pleasure. Do we really realize how much pleasure it brings the Father to reveal His Son in us? It is a joy in our Father’s heart when He reveals the Son in us. Then it is all worked out for His glory and for His purpose. We have a great call upon our lives.
Then I touched on this matter of demystifying overcoming. It rang within my heart that, with those whom the Lord is overcoming by His grace, there is a divine passion within them. There is a passion for nothing else but Christ.
He brings us into this victory of overcoming the world, sin, flesh, and the devil as we daily, simply listen and obey Him. Again, overcoming has been so blown out of proportion, made so complicated, and made into some elite group. That is a false lie. It is for every brother and sister, because each one of us has the overcoming life living within us. That overcoming life just wants to be lived out as we listen and obey Him. Praise God for that.
I considered this matter of, “What do you see?” It made me see that there is a divine perspective that He wants us to come into. He desires that we not be governed by our natural perspective, but that our lives would be governed by seeing things from His divine perspective.
We look around at the days and times we are living in, and He tells us to look up. How are we seeing things? There is a lot that, when you look naturally, we do not understand. That is why we look up. We receive a divine perspective of the times we are living in.
Last time I shared on, “What is your motivation?” Or we could call it, “What is your divine priority?” The simple desire is that His divine priority—for His Son to be glorified and to be all in all—would govern our ambition and motivation, and that His divine priority would govern our daily lives.
As I was thinking about this, I had this thought for today before I went back and reflected on those earlier messages. I was considering the thought of us being partakers of His divine purpose. How do we participate in that? Partakers as participants—how do we partake of His divine purpose?
Because if you remember Hebrews 3:1, there is a great testimony there:
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
There is no condition there. This is an absolute fact. He has called us to be partakers of this heavenly calling. So how are we partakers, or participants, in His divine purpose? How do we consider this?
As I reflected through the book of Hebrews, I saw that Hebrews is a book of exhortations. There is a group of exhortations in Hebrews, and in an exhortation there is a warning and an encouragement. There is that, “Beware of this,” but then, “I have made this provision.” The encouragement is always in Christ.
Whatever the warning is—for us not to do this or that, not to fall back—the answer is the provision He has made for us, and the encouragement always brings us back to Christ. We see in Hebrews how we are to respond to this great calling.
This morning, I would like us to consider the last warning, the last call, the last exhortation in Hebrews 12:25-29. We are going to read all these verses. There are a lot of riches in them, but we are not going to do a full exposition. This is to set the scene.
Hebrews 12:25:
See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.
For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth,
much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven?And His voice shook the earth then,
but now He has promised, saying,
“Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.”This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken,
as of created things,
so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken,
let us have grace,
by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;
for our God is a consuming fire.
As I said, there are a lot of riches in these verses, but today I want us to focus on one aspect, and that is verse 28—especially this point of partaking and participating with an acceptable service unto Him.
In verse 28, the New American Standard translation says, “show gratitude,” but I think they messed up the translation there. The better way to read it is, “Let us have grace.” It is simply the word charis, which is grace.
Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace. Because we have grace, because we have received grace, by His grace we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.
There is a great gratitude in our hearts for what we have received. But in this verse, there is a grace that we have received, and it is in the person of Christ. As we focus on this one particular aspect, we are not taking away from the significance of the other verses, but we want to focus on this today.
If you look at the context of what is being shared in Hebrews 12, the writer had been encouraging these ones to get their eyes off earthly things—particularly their religious Judaic system, which held them in so much bondage—and to change their perspective to the heavenly one.
Or, as Hebrews so often says, the better one. There is a better covenant and all the “betters” within Hebrews. That is looking up. That is seeing Christ. He was encouraging them to see all that the Lord had brought them into, both individually and corporately.
Earlier in the chapter, he tells them, “You have been brought to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” He goes on and on, reminding them of the full provision they have in Christ and all that He has done.
He is reminding them that they had come out of Judaism, where they had placed so much security in the temple and in Jerusalem, all of which was soon to be destroyed. He is saying, “If you are looking to this as your security, you are not going to make it. You need to refocus and fix your eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith, the Mediator of that new covenant.” That is our hope. That is the encouragement.
The reason they were under so much pressure and persecution was that many of them were slipping back into Judaism because it was more comfortable for them. They did not want to endure persecution by Rome. At that time, Judaism was still a legal religion within the Roman Empire. If you were a Jew practicing Judaism, you were safe. If you were a Christian, they were starting to persecute you more and more.
So they fell back into Judaism, thinking it would provide security. But we see later, in a few years, that it did not provide any security at all. Jerusalem was totally destroyed.
With a heart of jealous love for them, he cries out in Hebrews 12:25: “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.” That little phrase, “See to it,” can just as easily be translated, “Take heed.” Wake up. Be on the alert. He is trying to get their attention.
Do not refuse Him who is speaking. Who is speaking to them? In the letter to the Hebrews, who is speaking? As we go back to Hebrews 1:2, we are reminded that God, in these last days, has spoken to us in His Son. He is speaking to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. We need ears to hear what He is saying.
He reminds them that their security is in Him and in Him only, because there is going to be a great shaking. He goes back and quotes the Old Testament prophet Haggai.
In Haggai, the people had been captive in Babylon for their disobedience. By God’s grace, a remnant returned to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. But they had become discouraged and distracted. They were caring about their own things, so God, in His great love, sent Haggai and Zechariah.
Part of Haggai’s prophecy says:
Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.
He shared this to encourage them because many who had seen the original temple were looking back. They knew there had been a former glory, and when they saw what this new temple would be like, they were disheartened. “What is this going to be?”
But Haggai, in his great love for the Lord, was a vessel through whom the message and the messenger were one. That is true of all prophets, whether you look at Isaiah or Jeremiah. The message and the messenger are one.
He cries out to them to wake up and encourages them because there is a glory set before them. Praise God, they responded and completed that work.
Haggai was an amazing prophet because he saw so far beyond. He spoke of what God was going to do at the very end: “The latter glory will be greater than the former glory.” In essence, Haggai saw all the way to the consummation of the age. We could say he saw into Revelation, those last couple of chapters.
With that encouragement, everyone rose up, because it shows that God is a God of purpose. What He begins, He is going to complete. We need that revelation today because we can become distracted and disheartened. We can ask, “How can I really partake of all that He has done?”
When we look at ourselves, we will only be discouraged. But as we see Him and remember that we have grace—we have Him—by that grace we can continue on.
Just like in the days of Hebrews, God is warning us today: He is going to shake once more. I really believe He is already shaking. We are experiencing some of that shaking already, but there is going to be much more ahead.
This time, it is not only the earth that is being shaken. In the Old Testament, when He spoke the first time, it spoke about the earth shaking. But this says the earth and the heaven are shaking.
You can sense, in these days, that there is so much unrest in the spiritual realm. Many times, when we are at the prayer meeting on Wednesday night, you can sense that what you are praying about and battling with is not flesh and blood. There are powers and principalities. There is a shaking going on. Are we even aware of it?
Are we tuned in enough to know that this is far beyond flesh and blood? There is a heavenly battle going on over the consummation of His purpose, and we want to be those who are responding to that.
But He encourages them. He says that when He shakes, only the things that can be shaken will fall away. What is going to be shaken? The works of the flesh, the enemy, the world, the things that maybe we thought were necessary but now see are totally unnecessary—those extra things, that extra baggage we do not need.
But whenever God shakes, remember, it is the hand of love. It is out of His love. He is jealous for the life of His Son to be manifested within us. He says, “You are being distracted by these other things, and I am going to shake so you can wake up and see that it is really not that important.”
It is really not that important who wins the basketball championship. Everybody can be occupied for a month. It is one of the greatest betting events throughout the year. I read an article this month that said three billion dollars are going to be bet on the NCAA tournament.
People think that is their security. If they can fill out their bracket just right, they will win a trophy and money, and they will be set for life. Now, I know nobody in here ever fills out brackets. I will watch some of the tournament, so do not miss the whole point.
We see how things can distract us and bring us down, but He wants things to get back into the right perspective, so that the things which are of Him, which cannot be shaken, will remain.
Those things are the things of His life and His works, because we have this grace. Remember, grace is a person. It is by His person and by His life that there can be this acceptable service.
He concludes these verses by saying, “Our God is a consuming fire.” Now, how does that hit you? When it says, “Our God is a consuming fire,” are you rejoicing or are you terrified?
Actually, fire in and of itself is neutral. Just think in the natural realm. It depends on how you use fire. It can be for warmth and light, or there can be a forest fire. It all depends on how that fire is being used.
Even as you look back in Deuteronomy, this is where it first talks about our God being a consuming fire: because He is a jealous God. He is jealous for the life of His Son—for Him.
As we read at the beginning in 2 Corinthians 11, there was that godly jealousy. Paul was jealous for the life of His Son to be manifested in us. Jealousy is a neutral term also. You can be jealous, and God is jealous for His Son. If you are jealous of something, that means you are coveting—but that is a sidetrack. We will not go down that path.
When one aligns his heart with the things of the Lord, the things of His purpose, there is a blessing, a provision, and a bounty there. But when we reject Him and do our own things, there is a curse, issues, and despair.
Think of the blessing of fire throughout Scripture. How did God show His presence as they went through the wilderness? Over the tabernacle there was fire by night to comfort them, assure them, and let them know that He was always there over them.
On the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down, it was as tongues of fire—the very life of Christ, the Spirit of God, coming in through that fire from heaven.
Throughout the Old Testament, when an offering or sacrifice was made, how did you know it was accepted? Fire came down. Boom—it was accepted. It was a testimony that this was accepted by God.
Of course, we know there was some fire that was not so good. If you were not following Him, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire. After Korah’s rebellion, the 250 men who were with him—zap, fire got them.
So we see this consuming fire. If we see it and say, “Wow, this is God—there is beauty here in what it is doing,” we recognize that it is purifying us, drawing us closer to Him, and only burning the things that are not necessary.
Do we have that perspective? But if we see God as a consuming fire as terrifying and fearful, we need Him to reexamine our hearts. Could we see in a fresh way how jealous He is for His Son’s life to be worked out in us?
This gives us a clearer grasp on Hebrews 12:28. It starts with “therefore,” which means: remember what has gone before. Remember Him. Remember all of His work. Remember how we have been brought into that kingdom which cannot be shaken.
What security, hope, strengthening, comfort, and peace that is. That is the place we have. We start from a place of victory. We start from a place of security and strength.
Our response is that, since we have grace, by grace we offer up to God an acceptable service. Praise God, as we respond to His grace, there is an acceptable service—acceptable to Him.
Young’s Literal Translation says, “that we may serve God well-pleasingly.” May we be serving God in a way that is well pleasing to Him, because we have received everything from the Lord. Because we have this grace, we are able to offer up the sacrifice to Him of service.
There is one song in particular that I enjoy, “Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me.” One of the things I love is the first phrase within that first verse:
What gift of grace is Jesus, my Redeemer;
there is no more for heaven now to give.
The Father has given it all. He has given Christ. He has given us grace. There is no more grace to get; we have it. Do we realize the riches of His grace that we have in us—the riches and power of His life within us?
That is what we are discovering day by day. As we have this heart-to-heart relationship with Him, living in that simplicity and purity of devotion to Him, we discover more and more of the grace of God, the life we have within us. It can be expressed, and it governs us more and more.
When the New American Standard says “acceptable service,” the Greek means “well pleasing to Him”—well-pleasing service. That makes you ask, “Who is well pleasing?” We know that is Christ.
Anything that originates from the life of Christ within us is well pleasing to the Lord. Again, it is not I, but Christ. He is the origin; therefore, it is well pleasing to Him. It is not our initiative or our works. It is Christ in us being manifested.
This service means to minister spiritually. There is spiritual value there. There is eternal value. When this service is offered up, it has eternal value. When we talk about something being eternal, that means there is gold going into the city. There is life. There is more and more of Christ coming forth.
It is serving with His interests in view, not our own interests.
These two words are used in a very familiar passage in Romans 12. In Romans 12:1, the great call to consecration, Paul says:
I therefore urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice,
acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service of worship.
“Acceptable” there means well pleasing. It is the same word we looked at earlier. “Spiritual service of worship” is the same word as we have back in Hebrews. Sometimes it is translated rational or intelligent service or worship. It is that freewill offering of service unto Him—ministering to the Lord and ministering to one another.
So often, when it comes to service, we want a list. We say, “How do we serve? What do we do?” I know we have one for workdays. There is a list in there, and that is a great help for us. I am not using that as a negative example—just an example of a list of what needs to be done, because we need to be reminded.
But in our service, sometimes we say, “Okay, just tell me what to do and I will do it. I am supposed to do this. I am supposed to do that.” What is that? That is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is still around and very active today.
But He desires that we have this heart-to-heart relationship with Him, eating of the tree of life, being led by the Spirit. We talk about being led by the Spirit, but are we really comfortable with being led by the Spirit?
When we gather on Sunday morning, are we comfortable being led by the Spirit? When we gather for Bible study, fellowship times, and prayer times on Wednesday nights, are we actually comfortable being led by the Spirit? Or are we a little more secure in what we are going to set up?
Outwardly, things can look the same. It is the origin that God is after. He is looking for us to really see His life manifested in a wonderful way.
One thing about the Lord is that we often say, “Either tell me what to do or tell me what it is.” We want this knowledge of good and evil: “Just define it, tell me what it is, and I will do it.”
But so often the Scripture does not precisely define. Look at the Lord’s table. There is very little in Scripture about what actually goes on during the Lord’s table. We are told to remember the Lord, and there is a cup and a loaf, but beyond that there is not an instruction manual telling us what to do.
As we find His heart, He leads us into it. He encourages us to come together for prayer. We have some instruction on prayer, but it is really being led by Him. Many of the things of the Lord are hard to define and say, “This is that.”
That drives us crazy sometimes, because we just want to know what something is. “Well, it is kind of this. It is kind of that.” I remember a little phrase Stephen used quite often: when you try to define many of the things of the Lord, you end up confining them.
The things of Him are life. So when we talk about what this well-pleasing service is, we cannot absolutely define it, though we can define the words. What does it look like in our lives? That is where we look to Scripture, because He gives us plenty of examples and encouragement.
We know He is telling us to be ready for the Lord’s return, and we ask, “What do I do? Give me a list of five things and I will do it.” He does not do that. He simply shows us ones who were ready for His return, and He gives us teaching.
How do we prepare for His return? If you look throughout what He says, it is simply living daily for Him. It is living every day with expectancy and allowing Him to be Lord of our lives every day, following and obeying Him throughout the day. It is having that relationship and that desire.
So often, as we mentioned earlier, we can think that to prepare for His return we have to do something extra special. “I have to get extra-special teaching. I have to get unique knowledge about end-time events and all this stuff.” No. If we are following Him, if we have this relationship with Him, it is all going to work out okay, because we will be with Him right where He is.
He wants to teach us so much in the simplicity and purity of a daily life with Him. In the days we are living in, that is so counterintuitive to the spirit of this age.
He calls us to be ready. I want to make one clarifying point here: His call for us to be ready, and His call for us to be prepared, is not at all related to our interpretation of His second coming.
If you look at the call to be ready and the call to be prepared, that is an absolute, unconditional call. He does not say, “I want you to be ready if there are two raptures, if there is one rapture, or if there are three raptures.” No. He says, “I want you to be ready for My return.”
There are many interpretations. We can discuss the number of raptures, going through the tribulation, this or that. We should search the Scriptures and come to our own interpretation of the second coming. But the call to be ready, the call to be prepared, is not related to that.
It is not as though one interpretation means I need to be prepared, and another means I do not need to be prepared. No. His call goes out to everyone: “Be prepared. You do not know when I am coming. You do not know exactly how I am going to come, but I am coming, and I want every one of you to be ready for Me.”
If we have a love relationship with Him, we will have that desire to be ready, to be captured by Him.
As we look at those who were prepared, we are going to look at some who were, in a general way, ready for His first coming. I remember last month or so, Jerry shared his interpretation of the Lord’s coming, and he went through the different ones individually who were ready for His coming.
But here, in a general way, there are some characteristics common to all of them. Their lives were characterized by well-pleasing service. They were accepted.
Look at each one who was ready when our Lord came the first time: Elizabeth and Zacharias, Joseph and Mary, the shepherds, Simeon, and Anna. They were all faithful in their daily lives. They were simply going about doing what the Lord had for them to do every day.
Whether it was Elizabeth and Zacharias going to the temple, Mary at home, Joseph at work, or the shepherds in the field, that was what the Lord had them doing that day. They were faithfully doing it.
What encouraged me was that they did not allow their responsibilities in daily life to distract them from hearing and obeying His voice. They were faithful in their homes, faithful at work, faithful in school, and faithful in the temple, but they did not allow that to distract them from hearing His voice.
That came because they were abiding in Him. He was their home. They were resting in Him, and they came to know Him. Again, they were not doing anything extra special. They were simply faithful with what God had put in their hands for that day.
These ones were not just random choices. God did not look around and impulsively say, “Oh, there is a young virgin. I pick Mary.” No. We can see in their lives that they had a relationship with the Lord.
We can see it in Mary’s song and in her response. We can look at Anna and Simeon and see their daily relationship with Him. When Zacharias prophesied, we can see that they knew the Lord. Elizabeth, when she was with Mary—we see that they had this relationship with the Lord.
They were His hidden ones. They were His chosen ones. He said, “Ah, those are ones that I can entrust very much with My Son coming for the first time.”
It is the same way as He is coming the second time. Praise God, in this world today, there are many hidden ones—unnoticed by man, but known by the very throne of God.
Maybe one of our goals in life is to be a hidden one in the midst of the world. We might not be great in this world. We might not even be great in the religious world, or whatever sphere or circle we are in. But do we have that hidden relationship with Him, that He knows us?
To be known by man is one thing, but to be pleasing to God—not pleasing to man—is another. Obviously, He desires that we have a good testimony both ways, but our goal is to be pleasing to God. Our goal is not simply to please man. Praise God.
As we think about His second coming, the Lord shared several parables about His second coming. As you look at a couple of these, there is a common thread in them. We are not going to look at every detail, because sometimes you look at the details and miss the forest because of the trees.
But as you look at these precious parables, you see that these ones had a life with Him, and out of that life came service to Him.
A brother shared that life is a gift of God, and service is an expression of that life. Life is a gift of God. Service is an expression of His life. The fruit of His life in us produces well-pleasing service, acceptable to Him.
Turn to Matthew 24 and 25, where these parables are found. In Matthew 24:44, there is a call to be ready. Then it comes right into this next parable, Matthew 24:45.
Who then is the faithful and sensible slave
whom his master put in charge of his household
to give them their food at the proper time?
Who then is the faithful and sensible—or wise, thoughtful, caring—slave? One is commended, and one is disciplined. Why is the one commended? He is commended simply for being faithful with what God put in his hand. He is commended for his service.
He daily cares for his master’s house and those within the house. He knows how much the master loves the house and those who are in it. He knows the value of the master’s house and its purpose. To him, it was a great work, and he was living every day for his master’s return.
This is a picture for every one of us. It is not just some one person put in charge. This is actually a call for each one of us, as we are all within God’s house, to be good and faithful servants, to be well pleasing to Him.
It says that he gives them their food at the proper time. It was interesting in the breaking of bread today: we heard a lot about His food, that bread of life.
Each one of us receives the bread of life. Do we allow that bread of life to be worked in us so that we can then share it with others? Really, what the good, sensible, faithful servant did was share Christ with each one. He brought the life of Christ to each one.
That could be in a message, yes, but it could also be in daily life: a phone call for older people, a text for younger ones, taking somebody a meal, caring for someone when they are sick, or encouraging someone when they are going through a time of discouragement.
What a way of life. The wise and sensible servant had a relationship with people, so he could see, “Oh, this one is hurting. What is going on with this brother? What is going on with this sister? How can I impart Christ to them in a way that could be an encouragement or a comfort?”
Do we have that heart? Is that our desire? This is what He is encouraging us toward.
I appreciate Isaiah 50:4:
The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary;
He wakeneth morning by morning,
He wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught.
We need our ears awakened morning by morning to hear His voice—the voice of one taught by Him, the voice of one who is teachable—that we could really be able to display the care of Christ and the love of Christ for one another.
When it talks about giving food at the proper time, it means knowing the right food for the right time, the right thing to do at the right time. You read through Proverbs, and it talks about some of those right times. If somebody is in a house of mourning, you are not supposed to go over there celebrating and laughing. There is a way of caring for people.
There is a proper way of bringing Christ in. Sometimes, probably the hardest thing for us to do is say nothing. Just go and be with someone who is going through something very perplexing, but simply let them know that someone is there. That is a tremendous ministry.
We come under pressure, feeling like we have to do something or say something. There are times we do, but it is not that you never say anything. Again, it is being led by the Spirit of life, His life within us.
Think about the other slave also. He was disciplined. He said, “My master delays.” So what did he do? He simply lived for himself. It was a very self-centered life. He did not care for others.
The interesting thing is that he thought he knew the master. He had this impression: “Ah, my master delays.” He called him “my master.” He thought he knew him and thought he had a relationship with him, but he was fooled. He was deceived. He did not have that living relationship.
He did not realize the great work that had been entrusted to him. He thought it was of little value: “This is nothing, what I am doing. I am just waiting for a master.” But he was not even waiting for him. He used all the right words, but he did not have that heart and that love.
So often, we can use the right words. I am just going to use the conference coming up. I really love the theme for the conference: “Caught and kept.”
But my prayer is that it does not become a nice little phrase for us. We want to have lives that are caught. We want to have lives that are kept and displaying that reality. We should not even have to say the words, but it would be our lives lived out and expressed, so that people would say, “Wow, they are really caught and kept by Him.” He would receive the glory.
That is our desire. We do not want to come up with a little phrase. Please do not take that wrong. Try to get what I am saying here. I do like “caught and kept,” but we see how we can attach a phrase and it all becomes part of our religious vocabulary.
What was the phrase some years back? Anybody remember it? “Passing the torch.” Remember how that phrase got used a few years ago? Praise God, we can see some fruit in another generation, but we do not want things merely to be a phrase. We want it to be life, capturing us in a wonderful way.
The faithful servant knew the heart of his master. He knew how much his master cared for everyone else within that house. He wanted to show the love of the master to each one in a willing way.
He was ready every day for when his master returned. He did not know what was ahead. He did not know all the events that would occur or the sequence of things. But whenever his master came back, he was going to be ready because he had grace to offer up that acceptable service.
Then, as you go to Matthew 25, we have the parable of the ten virgins. They are waiting for the bridegroom to come, and the bridegroom delays. We know that they all went to sleep. It turns out five were ready and five were not.
As you look at the parable, these ten virgins were all Christians, because they had the oil. Oil speaks of the Holy Spirit. These ten were believers. They had His life within them.
How are the five who were ready described? They are described as wise. Those wise ones—remember Moses’ prayer in Psalm 90? They had counted each day and gained a heart of wisdom. They simply knew Him. They knew His heart, His desire, and what the Bridegroom really wanted.
They knew what He desired because they had an established relationship with Him. Daily, they learned of His heart, and they allowed Him to prepare them. Christ had been made unto them wisdom, and He has been made unto us wisdom. Praise God.
All ten were believers. Christ had been made unto all ten of them wisdom. Any believer—Christ has been made unto us wisdom. But are we learning that wisdom? Are we entering into experientially knowing Him as our wisdom in daily life?
The five wise ones were not doing anything extra special. They were simply responding to His life, and they had that intimate, personal, heart-to-heart relationship with Him.
How about us? That is what He is calling us to: enter into the joy of your Master; enter into the love of your Master; be captured by His love.
Those five foolish ones were saved, yes, but they simply lived for themselves. They never really came into the heart-to-heart relationship with their Bridegroom. They missed out on that joyful reward of heart-to-heart fellowship with the One who loved them.
He loved all ten of them unconditionally. He died for all of them. But those five foolish ones never fully entered into that love. They were still loving themselves, and they had not experienced that transformation.
As we see God calling us to be partakers in His divine purpose, one of the keys is simply knowing His life, His heart, and His purpose. It is absolutely essential. We have to enter into that.
It is all by His grace. It is responding to the grace within us because He has given us His Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit within us. When we are born again, we receive that Spirit. But are we listening to Him?
Do we take time every day to listen to the Holy Spirit? When the Spirit speaks to us, do we obey that Spirit? In that obedience, are we serving Him?
Maybe serving Him is caring for one another. Maybe serving Him is going here or going there. Maybe serving Him is spending a little extra time alone quietly with Him. But are we listening, obeying, and serving Him by His grace?
In His great jealous love, He is exhorting us. He is warning us. There has to be a shaking. It is going to get worse. But He says, “I have made a bountiful provision: this grace which you have.”
By His grace, may we put aside the things that can be shaken. Put aside the things of the world and self. May we hold fast to that which cannot be shaken. Hold fast to Christ. Hold fast to Him and Him alone.
Through the shaking that we will encounter—the shaking we have already encountered—may we hold fast to Him, our sure and steady anchor.
May we enter into the joy of being partakers of His purpose. As we get a glimpse of what His heart and purpose are, we see that we are coming in. There is a joy. We enter into that now.
There is a future joy, yes. Oh, how glorious that is. But there is also a joy today that we can experience out of a relationship with Him. May we have that, and may we allow His purpose to be the governing purpose in our lives.
What governs our lives? What makes the decisions in our lives? May His purpose, may His end, be the governing desire and the governing factor in our lives.
May we abide in that place of simplicity and purity of devotion to Him, staying in that place down at His feet—that most high place—looking to Him and having an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches in this hour.
May we respond to Him, obeying Him in a continual testimony: “Yet not I, but through Christ in me.” Christ in us—that is the hope of glory. Christ in us—that is what we have.
We have grace to offer up that well-pleasing service. We have Christ, by whom we can offer well-pleasing service. May we respond in that spirit.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we are thankful for this great calling that You have upon our lives. Lord, it is a calling with purpose. We are thankful, Lord, that in this purpose every day we experience Your love, but we also experience Your patience and Your lovingkindness.
Lord, as we offer ourselves to You again as that living sacrifice, we want to give You that freedom, that great liberty in our hearts and in our lives, to do the work You are desiring to do within each and every one of us.
May we be brought forth as the people of God who will be a testimony unto You. We want to be those who are vessels fit for Your use. We want to be those who are hastening Your return.
We are thankful, Lord, that You have made every provision for life and godliness in Christ Jesus. May we be responders to that life. May we be partakers of that divine nature. In Thy name we pray. Amen.