0:08 There's a phrase in the book of Hebrews in chapter 6 that came to my mind today. I thought I'd share that with you. Hebrews chapter 6 0:30 verse 11 and 12 and we desire that each one of you will show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end 0:47 so that you will not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Some of these verses 1:06 I find them even though I I know English pretty well I find them difficult to understand. Uh in some of these translations, that's why I use a paraphrase very often to try and understand what that verse means. Otherwise 1:25 you take a verse like verse 11, what do you get out of it? Can you tell me what you get out of it if you meditate on verse 11? Some verses are so full of content so what it means is that right on that it's 1:52 possible for us to start the Christian life with great zeal and um um do all the right things but somehow that zeal and earnestness sort of tends to cool off 2:10 as time goes on. And so he says it shouldn't. Must be diligent means hardworking right until the very end. That is until Christ comes. There must be no slackening off 2:29 in our zeal. In other words, if we compare ourselves with what we were, say, a few years ago we should be more zealous today. I seek to compare myself all the time so that 2:47 I obey that verse that I don't slacken off and become like it says in verse 12, sluggish. See, sluggish doesn't mean you're falling into sin. I think many Christians in our churches, because we preach so much 3:04 against sin, avoid sin. It's good. But there can be a sluggishness in the in their attitude towards the Lord's work. And towards uh the building of the body of Christ 3:22 and reaching out to fulfill God's will. That's where the sluggishness can come. And very often it's because of a laid-back attitude saying, "Well, we're not like those other dead denominations. We've understood the 3:41 truth and we've got more than just forgiveness and we understand about victory and we're a nice, cozy, comfortable little church and uh not much disturbance. Everybody is happy and cares for one another. Everybody's earning enough to take care 3:56 of their themselves. Then can come sluggishness. And that passion is gone. And the reason for it, I believe, is we are not seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time. Some have never had an experience of 4:18 being filled with the Holy Spirit. And so they're quite happy as they are. And others, even if they were once filled with the Spirit, they seem to have lost it. And so a sluggishness has come come in and a diligence is not there. 4:35 I believe each of us could compare ourselves with some time in our past when we were more zealous to be a wholehearted disciple of Jesus Christ. It should be more today. The path of the righteous is like the shining light that shines more and more 4:53 and more until the perfect day. We were considering distinctives of the new covenant. And one of the distinctives is that in the old covenant it's just a few people who did all the 5:11 work of God. The Levites. That is one in 12, which is about 8% of Israel. One in 12 tribes. And among them also is just a few people like the priests who were doing most of the work. 5:29 And the rest were just like passengers in a ship. Nothing to do, just stroll the decks and look around and enjoy everything. Cuz all the work on the ship to keep the ship going is done by a certain team of the captain and his team. 5:47 The Israel was like that. And they had their few leaders. That's old covenant. In the new covenant, unfortunately, most, I would say 99% of churches are just like that. There's just a few people 6:05 who do all the work and who are passionate and zealous in bringing the word of God and leading the others and all the others are just like passengers. So, you need to ask yourself whether you're a passenger or you are you an old 6:21 covenant passenger type of Christian? Or a functioning member of the body of Christ. The old covenant Israel was not called a body. It could not be a body because there was no head. The head was a human being, priest, high 6:38 priest. And he was just like one of them. But in the new covenant, Jesus has come to build a church which is a body. And like in our human body, if some members become sluggish and lose their 6:58 diligence, we call that a paralyzed member, like a arm that is paralyzed. Is there? Is it a member of the body? Sure. Is it doing its work? No, it just carries along. It doesn't cause any hindrance. It doesn't hinder anything. 7:16 It just comes along, gets all the nourishment in the body in that hand, continuously receives it, is grateful as well, but it doesn't do a single thing for the body, for the work of the body. And that's the great danger that can 7:33 happen over a period of time in a church. And I'm not talking about just the physical, material aspect of um the needs in a church in the early Christian church, 7:50 they didn't have buildings. There was not a lot of practical things to do. So, when the New Testament speak because they were so poor and they would meet in homes and uh when they speak of functioning as a body, it was they were not talking about doing 8:08 your part about you know, putting the chairs or rolling the carpets. That was not what it was. It was a question of a spiritual contribution to the local church. That's what I mean. So, unfortunately today, 8:27 when some people think of their contribution to the local church, they can think in terms of money or some practical physical work, which is good and necessary. I agree as church grows, there are so many practical things to be taken care of. 8:43 But, that must always be secondary. And none of us must ever find a consolation in the fact that I'm doing some practical work for this church. That's good. But, if you're not doing anything spiritual for the church, you're not 9:02 functioning as a body. Otherwise, it's like a secular company where people do a lot of practical work for the furthering of that company. But, the New Testament emphasis is on every member doing something for the building up of the body of 9:20 Christ. And I fear that that vision of the body is not clearly seen by many and that is the reason why the sluggishness is there and the lack of diligence. So, if you turn to 1 Corinthians in 9:38 chapter 12 There's so many things there which just were not there in the old covenant. Say see for example, we 10:02 It says here in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 7 for every single person in the body there is some manifestation of the Holy Spirit given for the common good. Uh 10:22 that doesn't mean that everybody does something earthly is something spiritual in addition to earthly. You know, we can we need a lot of things to do in the church. We got to take care of the accounts, we got to take care of the electronics. 10:41 We got to take care of keeping the place tidy and when whenever lunch is provided taking care of meal. All this is important. But that's not the main thing. Here it's talking about spiritual a spiritual offering that we bring to 11:00 the church. And it's good for all of us to ask ourselves what we are bringing, not money or earthly service, but some spiritual offering through a manifestation of the spirit, it says in verse 7. To every single person in the body of 11:19 Christ is given by God a manifestation of the Holy Spirit which will be for the good of everybody else. So, I if all of you, if each of you ask yourself, "What manifestation of the spirit 11:39 is coming through me for the good of everybody in this church?" Or if you look back and say, "Over the last 6 months or 1 year, how much of a manifestation of the Holy Spirit came forth from me 11:57 for the good of everybody here?" We may have faithfully come along to the meetings and we contributed something for the expenses of the church and uh attended regularly and stay away from a lot of sins. 12:17 But, it's more than that, you know, and a lot of times our preaching against sin is more in the negative side. I don't do this. I don't do this. I don't do this. I should not be angry. I should not lust after women. I should not love money. 12:33 I should not murmur. I should not grumble. I should not complain. It's all good. But, Jesus That's not the life of Jesus where he says, "I don't I get angry. I don't grumble. I don't complain." Jesus' life is so positive. 12:50 It says here in Acts, you know, when Jesus' life is the example of the body in Acts of the Apostles chapter 10, when Peter is summing up the life of Jesus to Cornelius, 13:10 he tells him in verse 38, Acts 10:38, "Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and power." Now, when you read of that, then remember that is the first body of Christ. The first body of Christ was Jesus walking on this earth. 13:26 And the way he fulfilled his the ministry in that body is the example for us as a body today to carry on that ministry. That means we must today be anointed with the Holy Spirit and power. Every single person. A member of the body that is does not 13:42 have power is what is called paralyzed. Any part of this body that does not have power to do what it's supposed to do is paralyzed. We don't have to do what another body part of the body can do. The hand cannot do what the tongue can 13:55 do. So, we're not here in competition with one another. The tongue cannot do what the eye can do. So, there's different functions. So, we don't compare ourselves with the function of another person. We're not asking whether I can teach like that or 14:10 preach like that. But a spiritual contribution is what every member of the body has to give to the upbuilding of the body of Christ. And that's something mentioned in a number of places in the New Testament. That's how it was Jesus. He was anointed 14:26 with the Holy Spirit and power, and he went about doing good and delivering all those who were oppressed by the devil. That means he was constantly uh fighting the devil whenever the devil came in different ways. I don't mean actual demon possession. I 14:39 mean the devil's worked havoc in all of our lives in in the past and our ministry of the body is to keep the devil out and drive out all the effects of the devil in everybody's life. And if you turn to Ephesians in chapter 14:56 four, the number of places where Paul has this tremendous burden that every member of the body should be diligent and not sluggish. There should be no sluggishness in the body of Christ. Ephesians 4, it speaks about the growth of the body. 15:24 Verse 15. Speaking the truth let's start at 14. We are not to be children tossed about to and fro carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the their craftiness and deceitful scheming. We are careful there. 15:41 We are very careful in this church to avoid being deceived by false teaching and compromisers. But that's the negative side. But the positive side is speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head 15:57 even Christ. From whom the whole body again he speaks about the body being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies. And listen to this expression. 16:15 According to the proper working of each individual part of the body. And he's talking of a spiritual contribution being brought by every member of the body. 16:33 Leads to the growth of the body by the building up of itself in love. And then we can think of those whom God has appointed with special gifts in the church. What are they for? That's also mentioned here in verse 11. 16:53 Some are given by the Lord makes some people apostles. You can't make yourself one even if you want to be one. You God gives some people as prophets. You can't be a prophet unless God makes you a prophet. Some as evangelists. We can all be 17:11 witnesses for Christ but an evangelist is a person who's got a special anointing to bring numerous people to Christ. And that's a special anointing. Only God can do that. And some as shepherds. That's also a gift God gives for some 17:25 people to be able to shepherd others. And some as teachers. But what are these people given to the church for? They are not to do the work. That's the interesting thing. See, in Christendom the idea most people have is 17:44 the work is all to be done by the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and the shepherds and the teachers. That is old covenant where the priests and the high priests and the uh sons of Aaron all do all the work. 17:57 What about all the thousands of others? They just come along and pay their contribution. Do some practical work around the temple and all that and that's it. But the spiritual ministry there in the old covenant was just a small group of 18:13 people. But in the new covenant it's completely different. These gifts have been given. Apostles, prophets, let's read very carefully. Why were they given? Now, many people say they were given for the building up of the body of Christ. 18:30 No. See what it says here. The apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers are given to equip all the believers. So that believers could do the work. And they will build the body of Christ. That's the part that's misunderstood by 18:49 so many people. It's almost as if that little phrase there is left out completely. And many read it as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers build the body of Christ. No, there's a big important section in between which says 19:03 that they equip the members. And the members are to do the work of service, spiritual service, and they are to build up the body of Christ. So, that's what I've been trying to stress here that 19:21 there can be a great lack there where we still go back to the old covenant pattern where just you know, four or five people up there, the spiritual equivalent of the Levites do all the work and all the others are just giving bringing their contributions and 19:40 that's it. But if we have a living connection with the head, Jesus Christ, there is something we can contribute to the body. Spiritual, I mean. I don't mean physically. And I don't mean in terms of money. But spiritually, 19:55 every single one of us, if you're connected to the head, has got some spiritual contribution to make to this body. And you need to ask yourself whether you're sluggish or whether you're diligent to do that. And uh you know, 20:15 many people in churches will say, "I don't get an opportunity to do that." Well, you don't need to get an opportunity in the church service. You can get an opportunity when you speak to somebody on on your cell phone. You can get the opportunity when you 20:29 meet somebody in their home or in your home. It doesn't always have to be here in this place where you all get a lot of honor. Why should be ministry only be over here? We can talk about the Lord every day to people we meet. 20:44 You write an email to someone. Even if it's your something just to communicate some message. Then why why not use the opportunity to share something spiritual? Something which will edify and encourage. Every one of us can do that, 21:03 but we don't do it. And it's like in a home if there are a number of children and a lot of work to be done and the father and mother have to do all the work and these children are all teenagers and just sit around lazily on 21:21 the couches and watch dad and mom do the work. That's you'd say that family's been brought up very badly. A good home is where even the five six-year-old children are working. Taught to work from the earliest stage. 21:40 And so if you go to a church where all the spiritual burden and prayer and responsibility is just in the hands of a few people, I something's wrong. That's That's a church that's been brought up badly, like a home that's been brought up badly 21:55 where the work is just done by a few. A good home is where everyone in that home is working unless they're sick or paralyzed or something. The only people who won't work in such a good home is a paralyzed person who's lying in bed the whole day 22:10 and everybody has to serve them. So there's nobody who can say "Oh, I'm not able to share something about the Lord with others. I'm too shy." I was like that. I'll tell you honestly, you may not believe it. But I was a very shy reserved person and 22:29 very reluctant when I when I came to Christ it was very difficult for me to be a witness. Then I read the word of God which said that you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses. 22:44 You know that verse in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. Let me again, it's a verse that can be misunderstood. A lot of people ask, "What is the evidence of the Holy Spirit coming upon us?" And I say, "I don't have to ask the 22:59 Pentecostals and I don't have to ask the brethren. I just go to what Jesus himself said. Jesus said when the Holy Spirit come upon you, you shall be you shall get power. Power for what? I mean the world people want power to 23:15 make money, power to rise in the political realm or but here it is power to be a witness for Christ. So, that is what the Holy Spirit does. Gives me power and boldness 23:31 to be a witness for Jesus Christ. In whatever little way I can. So, if I'm not being a witness for Christ, I need to humble myself and say I don't have the power of the Holy Spirit that I need. 23:49 And I need to seek God for it. And if I don't seek God, I'm sluggish. I'm sort of satisfied that I'm not a witness for Christ, but I'm doing a lot of practical things, sure. You know, in the Old Testament there's a story, if you've read it in the book of 24:06 Joshua, about certain people who were called the who were the Gibeonites. And um they came to after Joshua came into the land of Canaan, they 24:23 dressed themselves with torn clothes and worn out shoes and pretended they were coming from a long distance. And uh you remember that story. And they so Joshua, without seeking the counsel of the Lord, said, "Oh, these are not Canaanites, so we won't kill 24:38 them." And made a covenant with them that they could stay with them. And um afterwards they discovered that they were also Canaanites, just living next door. And they got fooled because they didn't seek the counsel of the Lord. 24:53 And they said, "Okay, we can't uh we can't kill them now. They have to be part of living with us here. But we'll make sure that they only cut wood and carry water. That was their job. That whole group of people and their 25:13 generations would do cut wood and carry water. Okay, that was a good thing. But I sometimes I think whether there are some Gibeonites in our churches. So what all they do? It's which is not the spiritual ministry at all. 25:30 We are to be in the forefront to see that the church is moving forward spiritually all the time. Every one of us must have a burden of prayer. It's not only some. You see, even if I say if you say you can't do anything for 25:45 the Lord, surely you can pray. For that you don't need to have any boldness or anything at all. It just you just have have to have a a little concern for the church, for those who are laboring for the spiritual progress of 26:02 the church. So this power is what we need to seek for and I feel that in many many churches people are not seeking for that power. I'll tell you my testimony. I I seek for that power constantly. I don't believe I'd ever be able to 26:20 serve the Lord if I didn't seek for it all the time. Every time I get up to speak in a meeting, I say, "Lord, please give me the power of the Holy Spirit and give me a gift of prophecy. Otherwise, I'll just waste people's time and bore them and 26:33 they'll never get anything from me." So anything we we need to seek for the power of the Holy Spirit all the time. I want to show you a verse in Acts 19. It says Paul came to Ephesus here. And when he was in Ephesus, he met came 26:52 found some disciples. Now, these were disciples who believed in Jesus Christ from the preaching of John John the Baptist. And it says here, otherwise they wouldn't be called disciples. They were not 27:11 disciples of Moses. And Paul asked them in Acts 19:2, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They said, "We haven't even heard about the Holy Spirit." Cuz they'd only heard about Jesus from John John the Baptist preaching. 27:30 And I've often thought, "How in How in the world did Paul feel like asking that question?" I wonder whether he sat with these 12 disciples. It was a small group. It says later on in verse 7, there were about 12 of them. 27:45 And maybe Paul sat in a meeting with these 12 people. And the meeting was so heavy and so boring that afterwards he says, "Hey fellas, did you get the Holy Spirit here, by the way? Why is this meeting so dull and dead?" 28:05 And they said, "No, we we don't know anything about it." He says, "Oh, that's it. You guys need to be filled with the Holy Spirit." And I've been to many Christian meetings like that and I felt exactly like Paul. And but they don't seem to realize it. 28:21 That I don't believe that uh anyway, that's my conviction. I believe that Jesus must be in every meeting of the church. There must not be a single meeting of the church where Christ is not there. And not just that Christ is there, 28:43 but by the time the end of the end of the meeting we should have heard him. Met with him in some way in our spirit. I mean it it'll make a tremendous difference if the Lord is in a meeting. There it'll never be a boring meeting if 29:02 Jesus is there. May not be a long meeting. I don't think Jesus had many long meetings. Some sometimes he had. But that was rare. Most of his meetings were very brief meetings, but his presence was there. Sometimes he spoke for 3 hours like 29:20 when he took a Bible study for the two disciples walking to Emmaus after the resurrection. He joined them and it says they walked 7 miles and that must have taken 2 3 hours at leisurely walk. And he was only speaking the scriptures 29:36 to them. Now I've often looked at that passage where it says, you know that story that those disciples afterwards said, "Boy, our hearts were burning within us when he was speaking." Now I've often thought of that. That's 29:50 the mark of the Lord's presence in a meeting. Our hearts will burn. It's not the length of the meeting, but our hearts will burn. We're challenged and we're stirred and we're encouraged. Um we don't go away from any meeting 30:04 with the Lord is there discouraged because he never discourages anyone. Discouragement is from the devil. Condemnation is from the devil. Jesus doesn't condemn anyone. He convicts people. Conviction is different from condemnation. It's very 30:20 important to understand that. Condemnation is the way some foolish fathers will tell their children, "You're good-for-nothing. Nothing good will come out of you." The Holy Spirit doesn't speak like that. He doesn't scold people. 30:36 He's it's conviction. It's like my son, my daughter, I love you, but what you're doing is not right. You're too lazy. You're sluggish. You need to be a little more disciplined in your life, just like a loving father would tell his children. 30:49 That's how the Holy Spirit does. He points out something specific. This is what you need to do. Here's what you need to do. Like a father would tell his child, you need to do your bed, you know. You need to take your books and sit down 31:00 and study what you need to do in school. Specific things, not generally, oh, you're a useless person. That that's Holy Spirit never speaks like that. Foolish fathers speak like that. But the Holy Spirit's conviction never 31:15 condemns us. It always gives us hope. It shows us what's wrong and gives us hope and makes us seek him for his power to be an overcomer in that area. Sluggish people are those who are not seeking for the power of the Holy Spirit. They're quite happy to be 31:33 powerless and drift along. Uh in Hebrews two, in that passage I just we began with the beginning. This When you're sluggish, I told you 31:51 you can drift. And then we read about sluggishness in chapter six. In Hebrews two, it says verse one, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. So that we don't drift. When a ship is drifting, it means its 32:13 engines are packed up. I've seen ships drifting at sea, boats particularly. Engines packed up. It not There's no sense of direction in which that boat can go. It's just drifting with the waves. And I've seen lots and lots of believers 32:30 like that, drifting. We're not supposed to be drifting, huh? If a ship's got its engines working, it's set a direction and it's going to go in that direction. It's getting closer and closer in that direction all the time. 32:41 That must be the passion in our life. I want to be more and more like Christ. And that passion must never go away from our life. That's why we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's always stirring us up. He'll 32:53 never leave us content with how far we've come. Never discouraged. Never condemned. And never looking back with satisfaction. And we don't have a laid-back attitude. Always pressing on to something more. That's how it must be 33:10 for every one of us. So, I want to encourage all of you, my brothers and sisters, to really seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit every single day. All you young people as well. Lord, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Is there anything in my life 33:23 that's blocking the flow of your spirit through me? Is there any pride that I'm unaware of? Very often that is it, you know, there's We can be unaware of pride in our life. I believe one is one of the serious blockages um of um 33:42 the flow of the Holy Spirit. A certain satisfaction with where we are. Everything's okay. Nothing no serious calamity in my life. And we can uh be satisfied. I see the Christian life as a 34:00 in one sense completely satisfied in Christ. Lord, I desire nothing on earth but you. That's satisfaction. That's worship. I don't don't desire anything or anyone on earth but you. Psalm 73:25. In that way satisfied. But at the same time 34:18 not satisfied because I'm not yet fully like Christ. I'm pressing on to the mark for the prize of the high calling of in Christ Jesus. So, the true Christian life is what I call a dissatisfied satisfaction. That is the true Christian life. There 34:35 must be a satisfaction, complete satisfaction in Christ where I don't want anything. I don't want more money. I don't want more honor. I don't want the pleasures of this world. I don't want anything, but dissatisfied because I'm not more 34:47 Christ-like. That I seem to be in the same place. It's like a child sitting in the same grade year after year after year and not make any progress. We must never be satisfied with that. That is sluggishness. So, turning back to 1 Corinthians 12, 35:05 which we looked at a little while ago. I showed you what it says that to every believer, to each one, 12:7. I'd ask you to meditate on this, you 35:24 know, because there's so much here about the gifts of tongues and interpretation and prophecy and healing. Many people just skip over this saying, "Oh, that's not for us." Well, there's some very precious verses in this chapter that I would ask you to 35:40 meditate on. To Let me repeat verse 7. To every single person is given some manifestation of the Holy Spirit for the good of the whole body. And it goes on to say verse 12, "As the body is one, but has 36:01 got many members, and all the members of the body, they're one body. So also is the Christ." Again, it says in verse 14, "The body is not one member, but many." Verse 19, "If it's all one member, where 36:20 would the body be? But 20, "Where But there are many members, but one body." So, there's such an emphasis in this uh not just on the gifts of the Spirit, but on that every member of the body has been given something 36:39 some manifestation of the Holy Spirit, which is verse seven, for the good of everyone. And he uses the example of the human body and says, verse 14, "The body is not one member, but many." The foot says, "I'm not a hand, therefore I'm not 36:58 a part of the body." And if the ear says, "I'm not an eye, so I'm not a part of the body." You know, that's what we can say. Oh, I don't have that brother's gift. So, well, I just sort of since I don't have that gift, I'll just 37:15 sit here and won't cause any problems. I'll make my little contribution in the offering box. No. That's the foot saying, "Because I can't do the wonderful thing in the hand, I'm sort of wrapped up in socks and at the bottom of 37:28 the body, nobody can see me." So, what? The foot has got a function. Even the toes have got a function. And uh because I'm not a hand, it doesn't mean it's not a part of the body. Or the ear can say, "Well, I can't have see things 37:45 like the eye, so I'm not a part of the body." Where would the hearing be if everything was an eye? That's what it says in verse 17. But God, verse 18, has placed the members, every single one of them, in the body just as he desired. He's the one who 38:00 decided, "This guy should be an apostle, this should be a prophet, this should be an evangelist, and this should be a shepherd, and this should be a teacher." And those are just a few, and then these are other various members of the body 38:12 who all must have a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and who will all contribute to the building of the body. So, the special gifts that God has given are a few. There's a few in the first century and there's a few even now. 38:26 But every member has got something to do spiritually. And it says even those who are less honorable, it speaks about certain members who are not, you know, you don't Well, you say that fellow is not very very spiritual. 38:44 Says about certain people, verse 23, whom we deem less honorable. On these we bestow more abundant honor. So God has so composed, verse 24, this is a beautiful verse. I've often quoted it to people who feel who have what I feel an inferiority 39:01 complex. Who feel I'm so incapable of doing anything. I'm not so smart or capable. Sometimes young people can be like that. And it says here in verse 24, God has so composed the body giving more abundant honor 39:20 to the member that lacked. God gives more honor to a member that lacks gift. That's amazing. I've seen that in certain situations in India because 39:37 we have some very highly educated postgraduate PhDs in our churches. And we have some who haven't finished high school, who can't speak one word of English. And I've seen when when it comes to 39:55 blessing the body of Christ, some of those people who are not so gifted not so gifted academically or not so educated. And whom others may look down upon. Who don't have so much honor that God gives them more abundant honor by 40:12 ministering something through them. Even if they don't speak for long, which really blesses the body. So, I would never think of silencing them. I encourage them. I say, "Hey, we don't know who here God is going to use to bless the body. God has given 40:30 something to everyone." And I pray in this church every person will say and will feel that God has something for me to give to this body. And as I said, let me repeat, it doesn't have to be from this pulpit. There can be a lot of seeking honor. 40:49 If I say, "Yeah, what I have to share must be always be from the pulpit." Why should it be from the pulpit? In the early church, there were no pulpits. They would just meet in houses and meet together and share with one 40:58 another. Uh the pulpit can be a very dangerous place if God hasn't called you to be there. A lot of people have destroyed themselves seeking to preach when they were not called to preach. But to minister to the body of Christ, 41:13 it's Every day I can I meet people I may meet people in the body every day and I can share something that will encourage them. Now, I want to encourage you to develop that habit and don't ever be laid-back. Don't ever be a passenger 41:33 in this church. You know, when we uh when I was in the Navy, we used to have these rowing competitions. And it is very important in rowing a boat with a number of people sitting in the boat rowing together that it all depended on every single 41:52 person pulling their weight with the oar. Otherwise, we're going to lose. If two or three relax and say, "We've got some strong people here pulling, they'll do it all." Uh but I see some churches like that. Everybody's not putting their strength 42:09 behind the oar and pulling. They're just sitting in the boat like passengers and the boat is moving. So, they say, "Okay, we're okay. Well, the boat is moving, but what are you doing to help the boat move a little faster?" 42:21 I believe all of us can do something to make the body better, holier. Maybe to draw people in. Many people who have come to our church have come through the witness of 42:41 individuals who met somebody in their office and called them to come. And then that person calls his brother. We had one case of a person who came to our church through um this little girl at school 42:59 meeting another little girl who was her friend in school in second or third grade. And uh who the when the parents used to come to pick them up from school, that's how they met each other and that girl asked her friend to come come 43:14 to our church. And he came, then his brother came. So, it's been wonderful like that to see how so many people have come through each person feeling, "I'm also witness for Christ." It's not just the preacher up there, the 43:31 apostle and the prophet. I also can be do something for building up this body. I can invite someone. You have numerous cases like that of people who have come Hindus who have come been invited and who accepted Christ 43:51 faced opposition from their parents and stood for Christ. I It's really been exciting for me to see how one person has told another person. Usually how someone they meet in their place of work. I know one brother came to our church who because 44:06 he he was at the counter in a bank and one of our brothers went there and met him and talked to him and brought him to the meeting. So, if we really seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit and we realize we're living in a world 44:19 where the whole world is going to destruction because they have followed the devil and that Jesus died for every single person on this earth. I must say, "Lord, I want to be a light wherever I get an opportunity." I'm not 44:31 saying that we can witness to every single person. Because if I need to sense where the Holy the Lord is giving me an opening. Not that everybody I meet and go and I can make a nuisance of myself that way. But say, "Lord, I want to be open to 44:46 you." I want to encourage all of you to say this, "Lord, I want to to the to the Lord. I want to be open to you, Lord. I want to be open to the Holy Spirit always to prompt me. I want to be sensitive to that. I don't want my money mind always to be thinking 44:59 how to make more money. But I want to be open in the midst of all my work which I have to do. If you're doing your work 8 hours, you have to concentrate on your job and you should not be sluggish in your job. I believe that a Christian should have a 45:12 good testimony in his work that he does better than all the other workers. That's the testimony of a good Christian. But in the midst of all that that I recognize that I'm primarily a witness for Christ. By 45:30 a simple thing like I've always been challenged by what Joseph did in a prison. Now, a prison is the last place you'd think that someone would try to be a witness for God. But that's where Joseph was. You read in Genesis in 45:44 chapter uh 40. And Joseph was falsely accused by Potiphar. He was far away from his home. Young man 26, 27 years old. No Bible, no Holy Spirit, 46:07 no fellowship, no church, but he knew knew something about God from his God-fearing father. And so he kept himself from adultery, falsely accused, locked up in jail, with enough problems of his own. 46:26 And one day, when he was walking around the jail, he saw This is Genesis 40. Pharaoh's cupbearer and um his baker, verse two, Genesis 40, verse 46:44 two, had been put in the put in prison. And when Jesus verse six, when Joseph came to them one morning, he saw them looking sad. He didn't know who they were. Just two prisoners. Well, locked up last night. He sees them 47:02 in the morning sitting there, total strangers, looking sad. I don't know how many people there were in that prison. And all he did was something any of us could do. Verse seven, "Why are you looking so sad? Can I help you in some way?" 47:23 Just that little act of thoughtfulness. You read this rest of the story. That little act of thoughtfulness was what opened the door for him to meet with Pharaoh. And 47:42 finally to become the second ruler in Egypt. So, if he hadn't done that, if he had said, "Oh, well, that's none of my business. They're They're They have problems. I've got enough problems of my own to worry about. Instead of worrying about why these guys 48:02 are sad. He would never have met Pharaoh. But because he asked them and interpreted one of their dreams, later on that guy could recommend him to Pharaoh and that's how Joseph went. These little things are written in scripture of how 48:21 God rewards us when we have a little concern to help. Just like Jesus went about doing good. Joseph went about doing good here. Encouraging people. And as a result, doors opened up to him. So, I want to encourage all of us to 48:38 really be diligent. There's a word that comes a number of times in the New Testament. Be diligent. To be diligent to make your calling and your election sure to be diligent like we read today that we are not sluggish, but to be diligent until 48:54 the very end. Once again, coming back to Ephesians 4, let's keep in mind what it says here. Ephesians 4 verse 15 and 16, speaking the truth in love according to the proper working of every 49:21 single individual part of the body makes the whole body grow up in love. This is new covenant. In the old covenant, it was just the prophet up there, one person speaking and edifying everybody. Here it is the proper working 49:37 of each individual part. And I want to say that most of Christendom does not practice this. Most of Christendom has got an old covenant system of church being run just like the high priest, one man up there. And that's not the way it should be. 49:56 As I said, it's not an every man ministry. No, the Bible says there are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, but they equip everybody so they all can minister to the body. And I obviously that cannot be in the church meeting. 50:14 It's because they can encourage one another every day. One or two more verses, Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3, it says here verse 50:35 13, "Encourage one another every single day." We're not having meetings every single day. Church services are only on a few days, maybe one or two days a week. 50:53 But here is a command like one of the many commands in the New Testament which people don't obey. Here's one of them. "Encourage someone every day." And if you take it seriously 51:12 and say, "Lord, I want to I want to obey that word. Give me at least one person who I can encourage every single day." Begin with your wife and husband and your children. But someone someone I can say something which will 51:28 help person. May I mean even an unbeliever, maybe he may not get converted immediately. But Lord, I want to take it seriously. I want to encourage one another, especially in the body, as long as it is called today because we have become partakers of 51:44 Christ. And the early church meeting was very different from what we see in our church meetings today. Let me show you a picture of an early 52:02 church meeting in 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14 He first speaks of a Pentecostal type of 52:22 meeting where everybody is speaking in tongues in verse 23. Here's the whole church and everybody speaks in tongues, people will say you're mad. So, I tell a church where everybody is speaking in tongues, I say that's a mad 52:38 church. And I tell people, don't get upset with me, that's what the Holy Spirit calls it. According to this verse, it's a mad church. But, what that's not the way we should be. But, on the other hand, verse 24, if everybody prophesies in 52:55 that church, then somebody coming in is will be convicted and he'll fall on his face, verse 25, and say, "Hey, God is here." Because he revealed the secrets of my heart to me. And how did that come where everybody said didn't mean everybody got up and 53:15 gave a sermon. But, maybe somebody got up and just said one sentence, sorry. Or two or three. So, what should we do, brothers? Verse 26, I'm describing an early church meeting. When you assemble, everyone comes with some 53:33 contribution. Not a sermon, not a They're not teaching, they're not teachers, they're not evangelists, they're not prophets. Each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue. By teaching, I mean not as a 53:48 teacher, but something that the Lord taught him, an interpretation. Let everything be done in edification. And it didn't mean that everybody had a equal gift. No. Verse 29, let two or three prophets 54:07 speak. In the New Testament, there's a difference between prophet and those who prophesy. You can all prophesy. That's what it says in verse 24. All can prophesy. And again, he says in verse 31, you can all prophesy. 54:24 But only two or three are prophets. And what does prophesying mean? It means to speak, verse three, to build up people, to challenge people, to comfort people. Something that you share, which will comfort people, 54:44 or challenge them, and build them up. Maybe one sentence. And sometimes even what a little child says can encourage people. 55:01 So, that is prophesying. Prophet is one who speaks with authority from God, and very few are gifted like that. So, let the two or three prophets speak. I'm describing a first-century meeting, the way Paul and the Holy Spirit wanted it 55:17 to be. Two or three prophets speak, and then one by one, verse 31, all can prophesy. But there's no confusion there. And verse 34, the women take a secondary place to the men. And finally, he says, 55:40 "Brethren, verse 39, desire earnestly to prophesy." So, again as I said, I don't have to prophesy only in the church service. I can prophesy nowadays we have the opportunity which they didn't have in 55:59 those days to speak to a person on the phone, to send an email. Great opportunities. In any way in which I'm communicating with another person, especially if it's a believer, I want to cons- you to consider the the consider the possibility of being an 56:17 encourager with something something to challenge and encourage. Not that this is a burden upon you, but being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Sometimes there may be nothing to say. But if you're open to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will always 56:35 give us a word. May not always come, you know, I think of that time when the Pharisees wanted to condemn the woman for adultery. And you know, Jesus was just like us as a man. He did not know how to respond to that. 56:52 Uh he did not immediately have an answer for that solution for that problem. So, he was scribbling on the ground, you know, he was doodling there. "Father, what shall I say to these people?" Then he gets a word. 57:11 Cuz he was listening. "Tell them that the one without sin can throw the first stone." And so, he says that. Sometimes Jesus' words were just one sentence. And it's amazing. I see the power there is in one sentence. For example, 57:30 "Shall we pay tax?" Okay, show me a coin. Whose head is a Caesar? Okay, give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God's. How can you fight against that? I used to read these little little sentences of Jesus in 57:48 scripture and I said, "Lord, can you make me like that?" You know, if you see that and you say that the Lord can make you also like that. It's really possible if you if you if you don't believe that he can do it then of course he won't do it. 58:04 There's a verse in uh Luke 21 which I want to share with you. I'll close with this. Luke 21 where the Lord says in verse 15, 58:21 "I will give you utterance that is the ability to speak. And when you open your mouth, I'll give you wisdom. So that what you speak will be full of wisdom that all your opponents will not be able to resist or refute." 58:40 You know, like "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God's. He was without sin, let him cast the first stone." These wonderful statements of Jesus that he made to people and uh "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no 58:58 more." One sentence things, the Lord says he can give me also that ability to speak. I want to encourage you to take a verse like that and say, "Lord, will you make my mouth like that?" I want to be very careful, but one of 59:14 the things the Lord has told me is if you want me to use your mouth like that, you have to be very careful in the use of your tongue. Don't use your tongue to speak evil of others. Don't use your tongue to gossip and to all the un- and speak unnecessary 59:30 things. I mean, a lot of things you don't have to have an opinion about. And you have the Chris- uh many Christians have want to have an opinion about everything. You don't have to have an opinion about everything. If you keep your tongue a little more 59:44 under control, the Lord says, "I will give you utterance and the wisdom for the different situations that you face, even in your place of work." You have to answer a boss who is unkind. 1:00:03 I remember once somebody asking me in India, he says, "Brother Zac, I'm the secretary to the boss. And sometimes, when I'm sitting there with him, the phone rings. You know, it's all landlines. Uh now, they don't know cell phones those 1:00:21 days. The phone rings and the boss tells me, 'Pick it up and say I'm not here.' Cuz he doesn't want to speak. So, he asked me, 'Brother Zac, what shall I say?' So, I said, 'Lord, I need some wisdom 1:00:39 here.' Uh So, I said, "Don't pick up the phone. After some time, it'll stop. 1:00:59 And you tell your boss, 'Sir, I'm a Christian. I can't say that. So, will you please, when it rings again, he I'm sure he'll call back again, please ask someone else to give that answer.' Because 1:01:17 you make it clear also to your boss that you will not tell a lie. And I remember one person who took a position like that. When he took a stand as a Christian, instead of his boss getting angry with him, he really respected him. 1:01:36 Because he said, "Here's a person I can trust completely because he won't even tell a lie to keep his job. I can rely on him." So, the effect was quite different from what he had anticipated. If you honor God, he will honor you. And 1:01:51 it's a wonderful thing to go through life, to have numerous experiences. I've had many of them in my life. Where you honor God in some situation, you think that's the end of it, and it's not. God honors you in an amazing way. 1:02:07 So, let's all seek God for the Holy Spirit's power in our life to make us witnesses for him. And the the shiest and the weakest person, God can empower you. He did me. I was very shy and very weak, very hesitant to speak. 1:02:27 And I said, "Lord, I know if you fill me with the Holy Spirit, you'll give me power to be a witness." And I want to encourage all of you to do that. And to say, "Lord, what can I do to make help this church forward, not just in this earthly things, but in 1:02:41 a spiritual way?" Every one of us that I don't want to be a sluggish person at all. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for this time. Please help us to be all that you want us to be in the body for the building of this up of this 1:02:58 body. In Jesus' name. Amen.
