Yesterday, we were talking about two aspects of
being a New Covenant servant.
First, we saw how the Old Covenant was,
obedience was motivated by the fear of judgment
or the offer of a reward.
Whereas in the New Covenant it had to
be out of love and if love was
not motivating us in anything we did, it
was worthless.
And then the other thing we saw was
that the fruit of all our service in
the New Covenant was that we'd be more
Christ-like.
And because that's our ultimate destination towards which
God is seeking to lead us and if
that's not taking place in our life year
by year, we have to question whether our
service is really New Covenant service.
And today I want to speak about another
aspect.
There was something that just could not take
place in Old Covenant times.
In fact, even Jesus himself could not do
it.
Do you know that we are supposed to
do something that Jesus could not do?
It's a pretty daring statement, but that's what
it says in John 14 and verse 12.
Whenever you come to a scripture which you
find difficult to understand or interpret, by all
means look at commentaries if you can get
them, but I found a lot of difficult
verses.
I've never found much help in commentaries.
For example, the difference between the old man
and the flesh.
Most Christians don't know it.
And I know I was terribly confused because
I thought they were both the same.
We need to distinguish between the things that
differ.
But it's not my subject right now.
John 14, 12 says, He who believes in
me, truly, truly, I say unto you.
The very few statements that Jesus said which
began with the words, truly, truly, I say
to you.
You must be born again, truly, truly, I
say to you.
Here's another one.
Oh, verily, verily.
He who believes in me.
And that applies to everyone because that's the
phrase we use for forgiveness of sins and
eternal life.
We say, I believe in Jesus and I
have eternal life.
He who believes in me out of his
innermost being will flow rivers of living water.
That's for everybody.
John 6, he who believes in me will
have eternal life.
John 7, he who believes in me, rivers
of living water will flow out of him.
And John 14, he who believes in me
will do the works that I do.
I can't say I accept the first part
of John 6 which is, he who believes
in me has eternal life.
I must also believe that if I believe
in him, rivers of living water will flow
out from me.
That's not a separate level of belief.
It's the same level of belief that brings
me forgiveness of sins and eternal life as
mentioned in John 6.
And likewise here.
If I believe in him, I'll be able
to do the works that he did.
And greater works than these.
That means things that even he couldn't do.
So what do you do when you come
to a verse like this?
I don't know what, for years I would
just skip over it.
And like that rock in the middle of
a plowed field.
Unplowed because I couldn't get it out of
the ground.
But the time came when I said, Lord
I want to grapple it.
Because whenever you find a verse that you
find tough, there must be some great truth
hidden in it.
And you're going to miss it if you
don't work at it.
God is a rewarder of those who diligently
seek him.
And I think of what the Lord told
Adam, by the sweat of your brow you
will earn your bread.
Remember that when you study the scriptures.
If you want bread, you've got to sweat.
But if you're lazy in studying the scriptures,
you won't get something out from it.
So the works that Jesus did.
If I were to ask people, the average
Christian, the average believer.
Can you tell me some of the works
that Jesus did?
He'll immediately talk about the miracles.
He fed the 5,000 and turned water
into wine.
I said, you're telling me what he did
in 10% of his life.
That's what he did in three and a
half years.
Tell me what he did in his whole
life.
Didn't he do anything for 30 years?
The works that I do, the works that
he did.
And I believe the works that he did
can be described in one sentence.
I call it the one line autobiography that
Jesus wrote of his life.
John 6, 38.
This is a description of his entire life.
I came from heaven, not to do my
own will, but the will of him who
sent me.
All his life, he denied his own will
and did the will of his father.
From the earliest age, as soon as he
came to the age of understanding good from
evil as a child.
He always did the father's will, never did
his own will.
So that's a one line autobiography of his
whole life.
He didn't come from heaven to earth to
die for the sins of the world.
He came from heaven to earth, according to
his own statement, to deny his own will
and to do his father's will.
That was the cross that he carried for
33 years.
That's the cross he tells us to carry.
My will and God's will.
That's the cross on which we are to
die.
That's the cross on which he died every
single day of his life.
And it's impossible to follow him, if I'm
not willing to die on that same cross
on which he died every day.
Where his will clashed with the father's will.
I came from heaven, not to do my
own will, but the will of him who
sent me.
When he was in heaven, he could say,
I do my own will.
Because it's the same as my father's will.
But the moment he became a man, just
like us.
He had what we call my will.
Which was different from the father's will.
Now that's very difficult for many to understand.
Many think it's heresy to believe that.
We can be so brainwashed from childhood into
having an image of Jesus.
I believe that many evangelical Christians have the
opposite heresy of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
The Jehovah's Witnesses, or the Russellites, they believe
that Jesus Christ was not God.
He was a created being.
Evangelical Christians would all accept that he's God.
But for all practical purposes, he was not
a man.
He was not tempted like us.
It's very difficult for people to understand that,
even though it's written plainly in Hebrews 4
.15. And if you want to know how
strong the feeling of people is against that,
there are many, many believers groups in India,
who have written articles against me, calling me
a heretic, only for that one point.
That I believe Jesus was tempted like us.
Hebrews 4.15 I wonder if all of
you believe it.
Because that is the secret of a godly
life.
It says in 1 Timothy 3.16 The
great is the secret of godliness.
Christ was manifest in the flesh.
It means he had a thing called my
will that he had to deny on earth.
Otherwise he could not have been tempted like
us.
If he had holiness handed out to him
on a platter, it's not handed out to
me on a platter.
If I want to be holy, I have
to battle.
But if I have to battle and be
holy, and Jesus could live on earth without
a battle and be holy, I'd say, Lord,
you don't understand what I'm struggling.
But it says we have a high priest
who understands, who can sympathize with our infirmities,
but who was tempted in all points as
we are, but did not sin.
He is the captain of our salvation, who
never allows us to face a battle he
didn't face himself.
So this is a great mystery.
Like the Living Bible says, 1 Timothy 3
.16 It's true that the way to live
a godly life is not an easy matter,
but the answer lies in Christ who came
to earth in our flesh.
Now many people would only think of the
fact that he came to earth to die
for our sins on the cross.
Unfortunately, that is all the gospel that many
people know, and that's all the gospel we
think we have to preach to people.
It's enough if they know that Christ died
for their sins and they are forgiven and
they go to heaven.
Well, if that was all, I think we
could have reduced the Bible to about 10
pages.
Why has he given us a Bible of
1,000 pages?
Are we supposed to know all these things?
Why is the New Testament itself about 200
-300 pages if all we need to know
is that Christ died for our sins?
There's a lot more in the Epistles.
Because God wants us to live a holy
life.
The works that he did was the will
of God.
He denied his own will and did the
will of God.
And it's possible for you and me to
do the works that he did.
It's not that...
He did not do certain things, for example.
He did not heal everybody.
He went to the pool of Bethesda where
it says there was a multitude of sick
people, John 5, and he healed one person.
And walked away.
You think the others didn't want to be
healed?
You think the others would not have believed
when they saw Jesus healing this one person?
Why did he walk away?
He came to do the will of his
Father.
Have you read of the lame man who
was sitting at the gate of the beautiful
gate of the temple in Acts chapter 3?
Peter and John saw him and he stretched
out his hand for alms and Peter said,
Silver and gold I have none, but what
I have in the name of Jesus rise
up and walk.
That man was over 40 years old, lame
from birth.
Had been carried there every day.
Imagine the number of times Jesus passed by
him.
For three and a half years, Jesus went
to the temple frequently.
He would have seen that man and when
he stretched out his hand for alms, you
know what Jesus did?
He gave him money.
He would see him the next week, he'd
give him money.
He'd see him next year, he'd give him
money.
Jesus was so sensitive to the voice of
the Father.
Father, you want me to heal him?
No.
No, no, no, no, no, for three and
a half years.
Because if he had healed him, there wouldn't
have been that revival in Acts chapter 3
and 4 where 5,000 believers were converted
as a result of that miracle.
You see the importance of not only doing
God's will, but doing it in God's time.
There's a time for doing something right.
And Jesus was so sensitive to that.
I want to encourage all of you to
study the life of Jesus.
It's the most wonderful study you can do.
I've spent my life, 50 years, trying to
study the life of Jesus because I know
that my destination is to become like him.
So if I study the way he lived
on earth, I know that is what God
the Father is trying to make me like.
And this is one of the things I
discovered.
That I'm not supposed to do certain things,
even if I have the ability to do
it.
If it's not the Father's will, somebody else
is supposed to do it.
It's one of those things which natural man
cannot understand.
We think we have to do all the
good we possibly can.
If I have the ability, I do it.
Jesus certainly had the ability to heal a
lame man.
He could raise the dead.
But he wouldn't do it.
Even Lazarus, if he's sick, he hears he
who loves is sick.
It says when he heard it, he stayed
two more days in that place.
This is so contrary to human reason.
If you hear somebody you love is sick,
seriously sick, you don't decide, therefore I will
stay two more days here before I go.
God's ways are not our ways.
And that's what I learned in looking at
the life of Jesus.
Not my will, but thine.
And we need to allow our mind to
be renewed.
To think like Jesus thought.
That's a wonderful thing that the Holy Spirit
has come to do.
To me, unfortunately, with all the emphasis on
the external emotionalism and all related to what
they call is the Holy Spirit.
I think people are completely missed out on
the main function of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit has come to fulfill.
Which is to make us think the way
God thinks.
To make us look at circumstances, people, the
way Jesus would look at them.
That's the whole purpose.
So then I begin to understand, this is
what Jesus did.
Everything in life he would seek to do
the way the Father wanted it.
I can imagine as a little boy, if
he was called by his mother.
He was a 12 year old when he
was playing baseball or whatever they played in
Nazareth those days.
And when it came to his turn to
bat, and his mother says, Jesus come here,
I want to have some help.
He would drop his bat and go.
That can be the most difficult thing for
a 12 year old boy.
Those are the works that he did.
To do things that he didn't naturally want
to do.
Because he knew to please the Father.
This has application in husband wife relationships.
Not what pleases me.
It's an amazing statement in Romans 15 verse
3 that Christ never pleased himself.
Never once did he please himself.
He didn't do what he felt would satisfy
him or please him.
If his mother sent him to get a
bucket of water from the village well, he
would take that wooden bucket and fill it
up to the brim.
Not bring a half bucket or three quarter
bucket.
If he did a job, he did it
perfectly.
When he cried on the cross, it is
finished.
It was a principle that characterized him all
through his life.
As a carpenter, if he made a table,
it would be as perfect as any human
being could do it.
And if it took longer, he would work
on it longer.
If it needed work over time, beyond the
time he would close the shop, he would
finish it.
It was a principle, it is finished.
It characterized his life.
He would never leave a job half finished.
Or if he left it half finished, he
would complete it the next day.
He wouldn't deliver a table or a stool
to somebody, to a customer, just half done
or incomplete.
Everything in his life was like that.
The works that I do, you can do
also, if you are willing to deny your
own will.
And not please yourself.
This is what will distinguish us from the
rest of humanity.
The rest of humanity will only work in
a way that so long as people think
I am doing my job, that's enough.
But Jesus, that was not enough.
Can God certify about it?
Approved.
That's what I learned from the first chapter
of Genesis.
Every day, it says God made something and
he examined his own work.
Imagine God doing a thing and examining his
own work.
And it says he saw it was good.
And the next day he did something, God
examined it and said it was good.
I look at my life and I say,
I have done something today.
God must examine it.
Say, that was good.
Do you do your work like that?
That's how Jesus did his work.
Every single day of his life.
Christian life is very simple.
It's not a tense life.
It's a very relaxed life.
I remember when I was working in the
Navy.
And I was a Christian.
And I wouldn't take part in all their
extracurricular cultural activities like drinking and dancing and
all that.
But I felt as a Christian I was
doing every bit of my job on that
ship perfectly.
And the commanding officer, when he had to
write my annual report at the end of
the year, he said to me, Lieutenant Poonen,
I can't find a single thing wrong with
your work.
But you're so unsociable.
Don't mix with people.
So I said, Sir, I don't do my
work to please you.
I'm a Christian and I do my work
to please God whether you look at me
or don't look at me.
I do my work perfectly.
But I don't have time for some of
these activities other officers engage in.
I believe that all of our work must
be before God.
When I study the Bible, I don't do
it to ease my conscience.
Oh, I must read the Bible today.
No.
I want to know God's mind.
And I want to know how can I
do it in the way he wants it
done.
How can I glorify God?
If I were to ask you, how many
of you want to glorify God?
All of us would raise our hands and
say, yes, I want to glorify God.
But listen to this, John 17, verse 4.
At the end of Jesus' life, again you
find that spirit of it is finished.
Which he finally said on the cross.
I have glorified you on earth, John 17,
verse 4, having finished the work that you
gave me to do.
I am very thankful that God has opened
my eyes to see more and more as
I have grown in the Lord.
That there is a specific task God has
given me to do.
And if I listen to him, I will
do it.
I think of that story, I remember 50
years ago as a young Christian, the Lord
pointed me to one verse in scripture that
he has reminded me for 50 years consistently.
Many times on my birthday, I would ask
the Lord, Lord do you have a word
for me?
And he would refer me to that verse.
Years later on my birthday, I would say,
Lord do you have a word for me?
He would refer me to that verse.
It was Luke 10, verse 42.
One thing is needful.
It's quite a verse.
When Jesus says one thing is needful, you
better pay attention.
It's not just for Brother Zach, it's for
everybody.
And what is that?
Mary has chosen that good part, which shall
not be taken away from her.
And the story is of Mary and Martha.
Martha, very busy, doing a lot of sacrificial
work for the Lord, not for herself.
She wasn't cooking the meal for herself.
She was cooking the meal for 13 hungry
men.
And that requires a lot of work.
To cook a meal for 13 hungry men
who had come to visit her home.
As soon as Jesus came with his disciples,
she went into the kitchen and started working.
You would commend her.
And she was disturbed there because Mary was
not helping her.
And she comes to complain to Jesus.
Jesus says, Martha, the problem is with you.
You're concerned about a lot of things I'm
not bothered about.
She could have said, Lord, I'm doing all
this for you.
But it's not what I want.
What is Mary doing?
She was sitting at his feet and listening.
That doesn't sound more spiritual than serving the
Lord, does it?
How many of you would think that somebody
who spends his time sitting at Jesus' feet
listening is doing something more important than somebody
else who is serving, busy, morning till night,
running around, doing this, that and the other
for the Lord.
Well, I hope you will get a well
done, good and faithful servant when you stand
before him.
It's not that Mary didn't serve.
But she listened before she served.
Because she didn't come here.
We are not sent here on earth to
do something for God.
Don't just waste your time.
Go and do something for God.
We get all worked up.
Yeah, I better do something for God.
It sounds very spiritual.
I've discovered, at least for myself, that's not
what God wants me to do.
The works that I do, shall he do
also.
In the fullness of time, God sent his
Son.
God could wait for 4,000 years and
see millions of people go to hell.
He never sent his Son.
Jesus could come to earth and live for
30 years and not do a single thing
to save a soul.
Can you understand that?
Not if you are a Martha.
You will if you are a Mary, if
you have understood the one thing needful.
And I'll tell you something.
When we stand before the Lord, you will
discover that the Mary's accomplish more in terms
of eternal values than the Martha's.
Though on earth, the Martha's have more statistics
that impress people.
It's not a very popular message.
You probably never hear anybody else speak about
it.
But I must be faithful to my calling.
It's not all there is in Scripture.
I always say I'm a very imbalanced person
because I'm only one member in the body
of Christ.
And I don't say once you listen to
me, you shouldn't listen to anybody else.
You should.
But this is one part of Scripture, like
I said yesterday.
God's called me to teach the things that
other people do not teach in Scripture.
Not outside of Scripture.
There's no revelation outside of Scripture that I
get.
But I find a lot of things in
Scripture that are not emphasized.
Like some of the things I'm saying right
now.
Jesus, Mary heard.
You know, Jesus taught us, Our Father who
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
As the first prayer of mine should be,
Lord, let your name be glorified.
I prayed that for years in India.
Lord, I want your name to be glorified
in India.
I don't know how it will be.
But I want it to be done.
How did Jesus glorify him?
I've glorified you by finishing the work which
you gave me to do.
Not the work that a whole lot of
other people felt I should do.
Not the work that I felt I should
do.
The work you gave me to do.
And that's what Mary was waiting for.
Lord, I want to listen to you.
And I want to do what you tell
me to do.
Is it possible to hear God's voice?
In my younger days, I worked with a
man of God in India called Brother Bhaktsingh.
I consider him the greatest man of God
I've ever met in India.
He died many years ago.
It was my privilege to know him when
I was in my early twenties.
Now, he was converted from a Sikh background.
You know, violently against Christianity.
Before he was converted, having torn the Bible
and all that.
And then he got converted.
And he started reading the Bible.
And I remember him saying, when he read
the first chapter of the Bible, the thing
that struck him was this phrase, and God
said, and God said, and God said, and
God said, and God said.
I read that so many times, it didn't
strike me like it struck him.
But the way it struck him was, boy,
the God of these Christians is a God
who speaks.
Whereas the God I was worshipping never spoke
to me.
Is your God a God who speaks to
you?
Who tells you what you should do?
Like Mary could hear?
Or is it one of these other Gods
that never tells you what you should do?
Are you one of those who hear men,
but you can't hear God?
What is the message in the first chapter
of the Bible?
Every day, God speaks.
He who was yours to hear, let him
hear.
People are too busy to hear, that's why.
There's a very lovely prophetic reference to Jesus
in Isaiah 50, in verse 4, that says,
in the middle of that verse, the Lord
God awakens me morning by morning, Isaiah 50
verse 4, it's a prophetic reference to Christ.
He awakens my ear to listen as a
disciple.
So Jesus heard the Father every day.
Who are you?
Who do you deny to say, I don't
need to hear him every day?
Now I'll tell you something, this is not
referring to a quiet time.
It's good to have a quiet time.
If you have the time for it.
But, this is not referring to that.
It's saying here that he woke me up
in the morning to listen and kept my
ear open throughout the day.
He was listening the whole time, he was
having a quiet time the whole day.
Inwardly, listening as a disciple.
And because he listened, the Lord gave him,
first part of verse 4, the tongue of
a disciple to have exactly the right word
for every single person who came across his
path.
You don't have to be a preacher for
this.
The weary one, the first part of verse
4.
How many weary people come across our path?
The path of every believer.
Weary unbelievers, weary relatives, weary believers.
What they need is a word from God.
Not a sermon.
A word from God that would really lift
them, help them, deliver them.
And here Jesus had a word because he
listened.
His attitude always was, speak Lord, I'm listening,
I'm listening, I'm listening.
And because he kept on listening, he always
had a word for anybody who came to
him anytime, whether it was a crowd or
an individual.
Whether it was a single woman of Samaria
or an academist or 10,000 people.
He had a word for them because his
whole life he was listening.
He did his father's will, whatever he did.
We can also do, but we can only
begin by listening.
And as we listen, we can do his
work.
Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be
thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in my life on
earth.
As it is done in heaven.
How is it done in heaven?
I mean Michael doesn't, Archangel Michael doesn't tell
Gabriel, come on, go and do something for
God.
Don't just sit around doing nothing.
No.
They wait upon the Lord for ages.
That's how God's will is done in heaven.
And God says, Gabriel, I want you to
go down to Nazareth and speak to that
girl.
Or speak to Zechariah the priest.
He goes down and finishes that.
Comes back before the Lord.
What shall I do next?
That's how the angels do the will of
God in heaven.
And that's why they accomplish so much with
so little.
And that's why the work remains.
Jesus said, I have chosen you and ordained
you that you should go and bring forth
fruit and that your fruit should remain.
And I have meditated on that.
Lord, that's the way I want to do
your will.
I want to do your will not the
way I think I should do it.
But thy will be done in my life
as it is done in heaven.
And that's why Jesus said about Mary.
One thing, Mary has chosen that good thing
which shall not be taken away from her.
Sat at Jesus' feet and listened.
The other thing Jesus said in John 14
.12 was, Greater works than these shall he
do.
Not just the works that I do.
I've explained that part.
Greater works than these.
What is the greater work than Jesus did?
Something beyond what he did.
Is it possible?
Again, if I were to ask the average
believer, can you tell me the greatest work
Jesus did on earth?
Well, they would say he died on the
cross.
Well, I can't do that.
I certainly can't do a greater work than
dying on the cross for the sins of
the world.
So what else?
He raised Lazarus from the dead after three
days.
What's a greater work than that?
Go to the graves and raise up somebody
who has been dead for five days?
I don't know of a single believer I
met like that in my life who has
done it.
But yet, here it says everyone who believes
in him will do it.
This must be something that every single believer,
not just some occasional apostle once in a
century doing it.
No.
This is something that every believer can do.
Like I explained the first part.
Every believer can do the Father's will if
he denies his own will.
If he wants to please God and not
please man.
And every believer should be able to do
this greater work.
And I meditate on it and I see
there's only one work that Jesus could not
do in his lifetime.
He could not make his eleven disciples one.
Despite all his effort, for three and a
half years, they listened to the greatest preacher
that ever walked on the earth.
The man who lived every word that he
preached.
And at the end of eleven years, their
discussion was, when he dies, who's going to
be the next leader?
You or me?
Can you imagine?
What a pathetic situation.
Jesus had prayed many times, more than John
17, Father I pray there will be one,
there will be one, there will be one.
Like you and I are one.
And they were not one.
They were still competing with one another.
Who's greater?
You or me?
Who's going to sit at the right hand
of Jesus and the left hand of Jesus?
You or me?
We better grab those seats before anybody else
grabs them.
This is how they were.
Had they forsaken all?
Sure.
They've given up jobs and professions, like many
of you have.
They were utterly dedicated.
They'd sacrificed.
Peter could have made a lot of money
as a fisherman.
Matthew could have made a lot of money
as an accountant in the Roman government.
He quit that job.
In spite of that, they were not one.
I've seen multitudes of missionaries who've come to
India, Christian workers in India, who've sacrificed for
the Lord, who've given up jobs, just like
Matthew, just like Peter, just like James, and
just like John, but they're not one with
each other.
There's competition, there's jealousy, there's strife.
Just like pre-Pentecost days.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit was one
of the purposes, was to fuse them into
one body.
I picture the baptism in the Holy Spirit
like a furnace into which 120 pieces of
iron were put in and they came out
as one piece of iron, melted and made
into one.
That's another purpose of the baptism in the
Holy Spirit.
But how cleverly the devil has led people
astray and made this such a controversial subject.
Greater works than these shall he do.
Jesus said, after I'm gone.
Why couldn't Jesus make them one?
Only one reason.
Those disciples did not have the Spirit dwelling
within them.
And if the Spirit is not dwelling within
them, if they are not full of the
Holy Spirit, it's impossible to make people one.
No matter how much they know the Bible,
no matter how much they want to be
one, they will not be one.
I mean, think of Christian husbands and wives.
Forget larger number of 11 or 12 or
100.
How many Christian husbands and wives are one
with each other?
Who claim to be filled with the Spirit.
Husbands and wives who speak in tongues.
They are not one with each other.
Is that important?
If you want to know its importance, read
John 17.
And try and understand the heart of Jesus.
As I told you, the burden God's given
me is not necessarily the burden God's given
other parts of the body, because we have
different functions.
And I see the need for others, whether
they see the need for me or not.
I see the need for other members of
the body.
But I will not do the function of
other members, and I'm not going to change
what God's called me to do.
I picture evangelism and other ministries in the
body, evangelism, prophecy, teaching.
I told you how God's put apostles, prophets,
evangelist teachers.
I look at it like this.
What is the purpose of evangelism?
It is not to take people to heaven.
It is to make someone who is not
a member of the body of Christ, a
member of the body of Christ.
That's how I see it.
That is the full good news.
So here is someone who is not a
member of the body of Christ, non-Christian,
atheist, barbarian, or whatever it is.
It's not just to get his soul saved
and take him to heaven, but to make
him a member of the body of Christ
on earth.
That is the goal.
Otherwise we could just save them and say,
okay, forget it, now we move on to
the next person.
Yet Paul and Barnabas didn't do that.
After they brought people to Christ, you read
in Acts 15, they said, let's go back
and see how they are getting along.
You say, Paul, what do you mean go
back?
Look at the rest of the world that
has not heard the gospel.
What are you wasting your time going back
to these people?
They have already heard it.
Were they wrong?
To take a person and make him a
member of the body of Christ, I picture
it like this.
I think in illustrations and it helps me
a lot.
Here is a potato, picture of an unbeliever.
Here is my body, picture of the body
of Christ.
Now I have to make that potato a
part of my body.
How do we do it?
The first step is evangelism.
The eye.
Seeing.
The hand.
Taking that potato.
Putting it inside.
The mouth.
This is evangelism.
When you put it inside the mouth, does
it become a part of your body?
You can keep it there for years.
It will just rot.
Okay.
The mouth chews.
The throat swallows.
It goes down to the stomach.
Has it become a part of your body?
You can stuff your stomach with potatoes if
they are not digested.
You will vomit it all out.
It is exactly what is happening today in
a lot of evangelism.
People are asked to say the magic words,
Lord Jesus come into my heart.
Get baptized and you are a Christian.
Okay, that's it.
If we endure to the end, we will
be saved.
Hebrews 3.14 says, We are made partakers
of Christ.
If we hold fast the beginning of our
confidence firm until the end.
A lot of people who say they are
not Calvinists are actually Calvinists when it comes
to their evangelism.
Without a doubt.
It is almost as though we don't have
to hold fast firm until the end.
I have a certain understanding of eternal security
which I have found from scripture.
I have written an article on it.
If you go to our CFC India website
and go to the articles you will find
an article on eternal security.
If you want to know a fuller study
on that.
If we hold fast the beginning of our
confidence firm until the end.
This potato has to become a part of
my body.
And it has to be chewed.
It goes in the stomach and the stomach
throws all the acids on it.
That's not very comfortable.
This is a very gentle action, taking the
potato and putting it in the mouth.
But to have acids thrown on it, to
break it down is no longer a potato.
That's prophetic ministry.
Not very comfortable.
But it breaks it down and smashes it
and crushes it and lo and behold in
a few weeks that potato has become flesh
and blood and bones.
Miracle.
Become part of my body.
And nobody can take it out and make
it a potato again.
So I see, which ministry was the most
important here by the way?
Could anyone do without the other?
Why is the church called a body?
I was mentioning how God gives each of
us a specific responsibility.
The great danger is thinking that ours is
the most important.
I've seen that all over Christendom.
The hand can think this is the most
important part of the body.
How in the world will that potato ever
get into this mouth if I don't take
it?
I believe the hand is the first ministry.
I don't believe it is the most important.
And in fact I don't believe any ministry
is most important.
The head is most important.
That I agree.
Who controls everything.
But there are so many different functions.
Even in evangelism I've discovered very often the
last link in the chain gets the credit.
I mean there may have been a hundred
links in that chain.
Maybe five years ago somebody gave him a
tract and somebody else he saw Christ like
in his office.
And he led so many people to Christ.
Really?
He'll discover in the day of reward that
there were 99 other people before him who
influenced that man till this man had the
privilege and the joy of leading him to
Christ.
So it's good for us to humble ourselves
and acknowledge Lord you've given me a function
I want to fulfill it.
But I'm only one member.
Let this be just one little member one
teeny weeny member of the body of Christ
fulfilling my function faithfully.
And how do you know what your function
is?
The burden God gives you in your heart
is the ministry God has chosen for you.
And you'll find fruit in that ministry.
I have a tremendous respect for Mother Teresa.
I don't agree with her doctrine.
She was a Roman Catholic.
I personally believe she was a born again
Christian.
I read her writings and boy she really
knew the Lord in some areas far better
than me.
Sacrificed far more than I've ever done.
I think she'll be miles ahead of me
in God's kingdom.
But I'll never do what she did.
I wouldn't join her organization despite my tremendous
respect for her.
I think she did a great work.
She presented Christ in a unique way to
India in a way I wonder if anybody
else has done.
Sadhu Sundar Singh was another great saint in
India.
In my childhood I had tremendous respect for
Sadhu Sundar Singh.
Read his biography.
I couldn't do what he did.
He was a bachelor.
He was unmarried.
There were a lot of things he could
do.
Married men can't do.
But that was his unique ministry.
Very important member of the body of Christ.
Each of us has a specific function.
It may not be as spectacular as Sadhu
Sundar Singh's or Mother Teresa's.
I don't know how many people Mother Teresa
actually brought to salvation.
I don't know.
I'm not the judge.
God will take care of all that.
But she sought to present one aspect of
the life of Jesus to India.
Compassion and care for the poor.
I think if Jesus were walking in the
streets of Calcutta I think he would help
some of those poor people like Mother Teresa
did.
I walked the streets of Calcutta or Bangalore
and I don't do what she did.
Do I feel guilty?
I don't.
Many of you have gone to India.
Do you do what Mother Teresa did?
When you see the beggars on the streets?
Does that mean you're unchrist-like?
I don't feel condemned.
I say Lord you've given me a ministry.
I have to do that faithfully.
And I don't compare myself with others.
I'm glad to recognize other people's ministries.
They're probably doing a better job than I
am.
Fine.
But I can still only do my job.
You have to do that which God called
you to.
If he gives you a burden he will
indicate that is and the anointing God gives
you the Holy Spirit is to fulfill that
particular burden that particular calling that you have
in the body.
The wonderful thing about the human body is
every little part knows its job.
And it's prompted by the head.
And it cooperates with others.
Is it possible for two people to work
together?
Here are two hands that have never once
had a fight in 71 years.
Isn't that great?
Have you met two believers who've worked together
for 71 years?
Is it possible?
What does it mean to be in a
body?
They're different.
Completely different.
Look at this.
In one the thumb is on the left
in the other the thumb is on the
right.
Have you found anything more opposite than that?
Imagine if these were both the same.
It would be pretty odd.
God puts us together with people who are
very different from us.
I remember years ago I sought the Lord.
I asked the Lord some questions like a
little child.
I said, Lord, there are 31,175 verses
in the Bible.
If you could add just another 10 more
verses and explain whether speaking in tongues is
for everybody or not.
What is the mark of the baptism of
the Holy Spirit?
Is infant baptism scriptural?
What is the right form of church government?
Just 5-10 verses on this.
So many controversies in Christendom would not have
existed.
Just 10 more verses.
I said, Lord, didn't you know all this
would happen in 2000 years?
Of course he knew.
Why didn't you add those 10 verses?
And the Lord said to me, because if
you see eye to eye with everyone it
is easy to love one another.
I want to show my love.
I want to manifest how you can love
one another when you don't see eye to
eye with each other.
There is a wisdom of God that God
is showing to the angels through the church.
Did you know that?
That we are witnesses?
The Bible speaks in Revelation 12-11 about
giving our testimony to Satan by the word
of our testimony.
I always encourage people to give their testimony
to Satan.
Tell Satan, I don't belong to you, Satan.
I resist you in Jesus' name.
I tell every new convert when they come
to Christ to say that to the devil
to be free from him.
We have to give our testimony to people.
We give our testimony to unbelievers.
To the devil, to unbelievers, we give our
testimony to believers.
We have a testimony to angels too.
It says in Ephesians 3 and verse 10
that the manifold wisdom of God is made
known through the church to the spirit beings
in the heavenly places.
That refers to good angels, bad angels who
are seeing the amazing wisdom of God in
the church.
What is that?
God says look at these two believers completely
opposite and they even have differences of opinion
on some of these doctrines but they love
one another.
One speaks in tongues and one doesn't and
they love one another and they work together.
That's the wisdom of God.
Look at this husband and wife so different
from each other brought up in different ways.
One is so slipshod leaves everything lying around
here and there.
The other is so neat and tidy but
they don't fight with each other in the
home.
Boy, and the angels say that's amazing.
That is what Jesus could not do.
Look at these gifted men but nobody is
competing for leadership.
Everybody is saying if I can take the
last place in that and be a servant
or somebody comes later on to join that
church or that organization and he is made
a leader over this other person who has
been there for so long and that other
person is not jealous not disturbed he is
so happy to be a servant to serve
this other junior brother who came ten years
after him.
Like you know Paul who became an apostle
ten years after Peter rebukes Peter for something
and Peter says thank you Paul that was
a blessing.
You read how Peter writes about I mean
that incident is in Galatians 2 but you
read about how Peter writes about Paul in
2 Peter 3 our beloved brother Paul according
to the fantastic wisdom God has given him
has spoken about certain things that are difficult
to understand.
I mean Peter himself struggles to understand some
of those things that Paul wrote.
He is a humble who is this man
Paul ten years junior to him and you
rebuked him publicly for something Peter did wrong.
Boy that's not the same Peter who sat
at the last supper wondering whether he is
the leader.
God had done something.
Has God been able to do that in
you?
Has he succeeded in making you one at
home with your husband and your wife?
At least from your side I mean you
can't do anything about the other part.
If your wife or husband doesn't cooperate then
you are not responsible but from your side
are you willing to die and say Lord
I am willing to die to myself I
never want to do my own will.
I don't want anything from myself.
Are you willing to work with others who
are different from you?
Allow them to go ahead.
Allow the person who comes in the eleventh
hour to get the reward first and rejoice.
Even though you came in the first hour
and you bore the burden and the heat
of the day.
That is true Christianity.
And I will tell you something it is
very rarely seen in the United States or
in India.
I often think a lot of evangelism is
an incomplete work.
The potatoes in the mouth are in the
stomach.
It's not being made a functioning part of
the body.
Because we have valued one ministry more than
another.
We should not be guilty of that.
God wants us to work together for the
glory of the head.
None of us are indispensable.
God's work I often say to myself God's
work went on in this earth long before
I was born.
It will carry on long after I am
gone.
I am here for a short period of
time.
One small teeny weeny person among all of
God's millions of servants.
I got to do my job and move
on.
God's work will go on.
Years ago I read a piece of poem
a poem which says if ever you think
you are indispensable I don't remember the exact
words of the poem but the message in
the poem was this any day you think
you are indispensable do this.
Very practical instruction.
Take a bucket of water put your hand
right inside it this is the indispensable man
and pull it out and the hole that
is remaining will be how much you are
missed when you are gone.
That's it.
None of us is indispensable.
We may have outstanding gifts God's given me
a gift but I am not indispensable.
John the Baptist said God can raise up
children for Abraham from these stones.
God's given us something let's be grateful thankful
walk in humility say thank you Lord for
the privilege in my short lifetime on earth
to do a little bit for the body
of Christ as an expression of my gratitude
to you for having died for me on
the cross.
That's it.
But let it never go to our heads
to think that what we are doing is
the most important ministry of the body of
Christ.
It is an important ministry, yes.
Every one of us.
The helps they are an important ministry too.
But to recognize that I need you you
need me.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father we are so slow at learning
have mercy upon us.
We hinder your work so much in our
homes in the church in your work but
we want to learn to do it better.
Fill us with your spirit.
Give us more of the mind of Christ.
We pray in Jesus name.
Amen.