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Scripture Reading: Rom. 7:6
We have already seen that we need to serve the Lord in the spirit, and that in our service the one thing we need to do is to minister Christ to others as life. Whatever we do in the Lord’s service, we must do it in the spirit. In Romans 7:6 we are told that we need to serve the Lord not only in the spirit but also in the newness of the spirit: “Now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.”
There is at least some difference between the spirit and the newness of the spirit. However, if you serve the Lord in the spirit, you will surely have the newness of the spirit. Anything in the flesh is old; anything in the spirit is new. Whenever a brother or a sister serves in the flesh, there is a sense of something old, even six thousand years old, as old as Adam. But when anyone serves in the spirit, there is something new, something fresh and refreshing.
A good number of times I have seen the brothers and sisters who are quite young serve in an old way. There are some nineteen-year-olds who serve as if they were ninety-nine years old. Their serving is old because they serve in the flesh. On the other hand, some older brothers and sisters serve in a way that is fresh and new. They serve in a new way, a refreshing way, because they serve in the spirit. Whatever is in the spirit is fresh, new, and refreshing. Whatever is in the flesh is old. It is not refreshing, but rather it is tiring.
When you are listening to a message that is given in the spirit, you simply do not care about the time. After listening for half an hour, you want to hear more. The time goes by quickly. But when you are listening to a message given in the flesh, in the oldness of the letter, ten minutes may seem like an hour, and you are relieved when the message is over. All of us need to learn to serve in the spirit and in the newness of the spirit.
It is necessary to be mature, but we should never be old. To be old is one thing; to be mature is another. We should seek to be mature but never to be old. God is never old. On the contrary, He is always new. In the Bible the Lord’s maturity is portrayed in one way, and His newness is pictured in a different way. But the Lord is never old. Therefore, we should learn to serve in the spirit and in the newness of the spirit.
Whatever you do, you need to do it in the newness of the spirit. Whatever you do, you need to do it in the way of ministering Christ as life to others. You should not minister doctrines, religion, rules, regulations, or forms. You should not even minister any kind of sound teachings to others without Christ as life. Our goal is to minister Christ as life to others. We take care of sound teachings simply because those teachings have much to do with the matter of Christ as life. If doctrines and teachings are not related to Christ as life, we would not take care of them and would not talk about them.
We need to learn to serve in the spirit, and we need to minister Christ as life to others. These two matters we have seen.
There is more to say about serving in the newness of the spirit and ministering life to others. However, in this chapter my burden is another point of the service, that is, the matter of coordination. In the service we need to be coordinated with others. I do not say that we need to be organized. To be organized is one thing, and to be coordinated is another. What we mean by the word coordination is simply to be built up together, to serve in the way of being built up together.
The more you serve, the more you will be built up together with others. In these days we are talking about the building up of the church. The building up of the church is in the service of coordination. If we are serving the Lord in the way of coordination, we are being built together while we are serving.
We need to see what this means in a practical way. Suppose that I am a sister serving the Lord among the saints in the church. I need to serve the Lord in such a way that the more I serve, the more I will be built up together with others, and the more I serve, the more others will be brought in to be built up together with me. In other words, the more I serve, the more the church is built up.
In many places today, however, the more the people serve, the more they become independent. The more gifted they are, the more they become a giant, and the more they become independent. Some of the gifted ones would think that they are so high that others cannot follow them. They consider themselves so high and everyone else so low. They would put themselves on the top and others on the bottom. As a result, they would be independent. This is not the right way.
The right way is that while you are serving, you are being built together with others. The more you serve, the more you exercise your gift, the more you will be united, the more you will be coordinated with others. In the Lord’s service you never act in an independent way. Here there are lessons for us to learn.
Let me illustrate in this way. Suppose that I am a brother with a gift, and the more I serve, the more I will learn and the more I will know how to serve. The more I serve, the more I will become strong and the more I will become great. Then I will become proud, thinking that I know this, I know that, I know everything. Therefore, I must do everything, because I am the only one who knows how to do it. In a sense, I am becoming almighty. I can do everything, and I do everything. The more I serve, the more everything comes into my pocket, and everything is in my hand. The more I can do, the more I am independent, and I can do everything in my way. I have no more lessons to learn, and no one can teach me anything. In the meeting I announce the hymn, play the piano, start the hymn, lead the prayer, and do the preaching—I do everything. There is no need for anyone else. I can accomplish the whole job. I am on the top, and I am the most independent. Others may admire me as such a wonderful brother. Nevertheless, you all need to realize that this kind of brother simply damages the church life. The more he does, the more he delays the building up of the church; he even spoils and frustrates it. Since such a brother is so capable in himself, there are no lessons for him to learn, and there is no need for him to coordinate with others. This is not the right way.
The right way is this. On the first day that I come here to serve, I may do ninety percent of the things, and leave ten percent in the hands of others. But after one month I am taking care of only sixty percent, and the other forty percent has passed into the hands of some others who have come in to serve with me. After another month I may take care of only thirty percent, and another month later maybe only five percent, then a little later only one percent. The rest of the job of the service goes to all the serving brothers and sisters. One sister takes care of the piano. A brother takes care of the hymns. Another takes care of this, and another takes care of that. To serve the Lord in this way I need to learn many lessons. Each one of us naturally thinks that he is the best and would never let others do the same thing that he does. But if you would learn the lesson to be coordinated with others, you need to learn how to look down on yourself, how to be limited by others. Otherwise, you could not bring people more and more into the building.
There was a sister in China who was quite capable, educated, and experienced in doing things, and she loved the Lord very much. However, when she came into the service of the church, the more she served, the more everything came into her hand. After two or three months it seemed that all the others had been dismissed. One day the elders asked her why it was that there were only two or three left in the Lord’s service, when a few months ago there had been quite a number. They asked where the others were. Her answer was that they did not know how to do things, and they did not do them well. The more she served, the more all the others were dismissed, dismissed because of her ability and her capability. No one could work as fast as she could. In everything it seemed that she was right because she was so capable. But in spiritual reality she damaged the church life very much. She acted independently. Later on, with this sister there was a great spiritual cancer.
A cancer is a part of the body that overdevelops, a group of cells that goes wild, that goes too far. You need to be limited by others so that you will not be a cancer to the Body of Christ. You need to be limited by others so that you will be a member coordinated with others, not a cell gone wild.
The best way for us to serve the Lord in the church is this way. The first week that you come to serve the Lord, you may take care of seventy percent of the things, and the others take care of thirty percent. The next week you take sixty-five percent, and the others take thirty-five percent. The third week you may take sixty, and the others take forty. With you the percentage is always being reduced, and with the others it is always being increased.
From another angle, the first week that you come, only five percent of the saints are serving with you. After one week there are eight percent, then twelve, twenty, and eventually, maybe after one year, one hundred percent. The percentage of the work in your hands is always being reduced, yet the number of the people serving with you is always increasing. After maybe one or two years, the service will be absolutely out of your hands and one hundred percent in the hands of all the brothers and sisters. The number of the serving ones will be increased from just a handful to more than a hundred. This is the right way.
If you take this way, you will learn to be limited, to be broken, and to submit yourself to others. If you do not serve the Lord with others, you will never know yourself, but when you serve with others, you will be exposed how “good” you really are. In this kind of service there are many lessons for you to learn.
In my experience I have always been tested by the brothers in the service. This kind of testing is very hard to take, but you simply need to take it. You may tell the Lord, “Lord, this is a cup from You, and I have no choice but to take it.” This is the way for you to learn the lesson of serving the Lord in the way of coordination.
When you do things by yourself, it seems that everything is convenient. But when you do things with others, it seems that nothing is convenient. For example, I would always prefer to travel by myself in the Lord’s work. However, in China, under the Lord’s sovereignty and under the coordination of the co-workers, I always had to travel with two or more brothers and even to be the leader among them for the traveling. I am a person who always likes to have everything ready ahead of time, to leave nothing to be done at the last minute, and I would urge the brothers to have everything prepared for our trip. Every time there would be someone who was not ready. Eventually, I would need to help him get ready, take care of things for him, and do everything for him, and we would not be ready on time. I encouraged everyone to take responsibility for their own things and not to burden others, but whatever way I tried, nothing seemed to work. Eventually, I had to submit to the Lord and learn to be patient, and I had to take care of all the suitcases and all the problems for the others. The more people you have traveling with you, the more problems you have—the luggage, the things others forget, all the special needs. You have no choice but to help. It seems that the others have come to help you, but you need to help them. They become a burden instead of a help, but they are really a help for you to learn the lesson.
One of the biggest problems is to visit a church with several co-workers who are to be received for hospitality by the church. Many co-workers simply do not know how to be a guest. There are many problems and many lessons for us to learn in the coordination.
What should you do in all these situations? You cannot dismiss your co-workers and send them home. You simply need to learn the lesson in the coordination. This is the only way for you to serve the Lord with others, to build up the church. You should not be a giant. You should not be the one who is on the top. You always need to be coordinated with others. If you will try this way, you will surely see where you are. It is not so easy.
We are always ready to dismiss others. When some matters of the service were assigned to certain brothers or sisters, many times they would say that they wanted to make it clear that no one should come to the place where they were to serve. If they were to do the cooking, they would insist that no one else come to the kitchen. On the one hand, this is right. But on the other hand, they needed a few not only to help them but also to be a burden to them. Otherwise, there would be no lesson for them to learn. If you have some helpers that are a burden to you in the service, then you will be limited, broken, and adjusted. You need someone to be your burden. You may be too quick, and you need someone to burden you to slow you down. Then you will learn the lesson, and you will bring people in.
In serving the Lord in the way of coordination, the best test of your service is to check, after a certain time, how much of the service is in your hands and how many more people have been brought into your part of the service. After six months, if all the service is in your hands and nearly all the people are gone—you are almost the only one left—that is serious. You may be much better than others in doing the job. However, although the job is done in a much better way, the situation in the church life has actually become worse. By doing a better job by yourself, you have actually brought damage to the church life.
You need to bring more people in, and eventually, not even one percent of the work should be left in your hands. Everything should be in the hands of others, and eventually there may be hundreds of people serving with you. This is the way of coordination, the way to bring people in and to have the church built up. The more you serve, the less is in your hands. The more you serve, the larger is the number of serving ones.
You should not consider the job that you have done. Rather, you need to consider the percentage of the service that is in your hands and the number of the serving ones. There are some real lessons to be learned regarding this matter. The biggest lesson in this matter is brokenness. We may talk about being broken, but the way to be broken is to serve the Lord with your brothers and sisters in the way of coordination.
We need the training in this matter, and we need the practice. What we have been talking about is mainly on the practical side. If you will take these matters and put them into practice, you will realize how much is involved here. Just this little word is enough for you to practice for your whole life. You will find that there is a nature within you that is always independent, a nature that is always secretive. You do not like to open yourself to others. Something in your blood always likes to be independent and to keep things secret, hidden from others.
Some brothers and sisters are able to talk about many things without opening themselves to others. They talk, but they always keep themselves closed. You may serve the Lord with them for quite a period of time and still not know where they are.
If you will take this word to serve the Lord in a way of coordination, then you will find out where you are. By nature you are an independent person, a secretive person, even a person of mystery. You like to keep yourself hidden in yourself as a mystery. God caused the church to be hidden in Himself as a mystery in the Old Testament, but today you are keeping yourself as a mystery within yourself. It is not so easy for you to open yourself to others.
If there is no openness, this means that there is no brokenness. The more brokenness there is, the more openness, and the more openness there is, the more blending with others. Unless we learn the spiritual lesson of being broken, of being open, and of being blended with others, it will be impossible for us to have the church life. We can come together week after week, month after month, and year after year, but we can never have a church life. We can never be built up together to express Christ in a corporate way. We can never be blended as one in the spirit because our natural life, our soulish life, our human nature, has never been broken. There is only one way for you to experience the real brokenness of the natural life, and that is to be coordinated with others. You cannot merely close yourself in your room to read the Scriptures and pray and praise the Lord that you are broken. The more you declare in your room that you are broken, the more you are not broken. Whether or not you are really broken is tested by the coordination with others.
Suppose there is a sister who always likes to close herself in a room to seek after the Lord. She is very faithful to read the Word, to meditate, and to kneel down to pray day by day. Her practice is very good, but the real test is whether or not this sister is really broken. It is possible for a person to be very spiritual alone with the Lord and yet never have the self broken.
Suppose that, under the Lord’s sovereignty, this sister is placed in some kind of coordination and put among seven sisters. Each of the seven is a Martha, and they simply do not know how to be quiet. In fact, all they know is work and more work, doing and more doing. Sovereignly these eight are put into a situation where there is so much that needs to be done that there is no time for this dear sister to seek the Lord alone in her room. This will become a real test to her. She may even lose her temper because she has no time for this. This is a proof that she has never been broken. After passing through such a testing, how could this sister close herself in her room in her old way and praise the Lord that she is broken? Actually, the sovereignty of the Lord brought her into such a situation to show her that she has to be broken in this very matter.
The teachings among today’s Christians place too much emphasis on individual spirituality, making Christians into antiques and showpieces instead of preparing them as materials for the building. God never intended that you should be individually spiritual. Individual spirituality spoils and does much damage to the building of the church. If you realize that God’s eternal purpose, God’s ultimate intention, is to have a Body, a corporate vessel to contain Christ and to express Christ, you will say, “Lord, save me, deliver me from my individual spirituality. I have to be broken even in this matter of individual spirituality. I need to be delivered from this kind of individuality. I need to learn the lesson to be broken so that I could be coordinated with others, so that I could be blended with others and become a real help to them.”
The proper way for such a spiritual sister to serve the Lord is to learn the lesson of brokenness, to learn how to be delivered by the Lord from her individual spirituality, to learn to go along with others. Then, gradually, the others will learn the same lesson, and this sister will be a help to them and minister the life of Christ to them in the proper way. All of these eight will then be built up together, and they will bring more and more people to be coordinated with them. Then they will be spiritual in a coordinated way, not in an individual way. Surely this is a much-needed lesson.
We need to stress this matter so much simply because by experience we realize that if we would not learn this lesson, we can never have a real church life. Without this, our church life would be a false one. We can come together on the Lord’s Day and sing a hymn, have some prayer, and hear a message—but that is all. We can never have a church built up. We cannot have a group of believers built up together as a living corporate Body. We need to learn to serve in a way that we could be coordinated with others and others could be coordinated with us. There are many lessons here for us to learn.
Besides brokenness, you need to learn always to make it possible for others to coordinate with you. If you all would simply take this word and go on to serve the Lord in a way of coordination, there is no need for me to say anything more. There are many lessons ahead of you, but you should not give up. The more lessons you have, the more you need to learn, and the more you learn, the more the lessons will continue to come. This is the way that the Lord builds up His church.
If three persons can do a particular job in the Lord’s service, you should not reduce the number to two. It would be better to have four or even five. Never reduce the number, but always increase it, because the more the number is increased, the more lessons there are for you to learn, and the more building will be realized.
Some brothers have said, “I simply cannot do anything if some sisters are here. If you would ask me to do something, you must tell these sisters not to come to me.” I am afraid that we may still have some brothers in such a situation. If you are such a brother, the Lord will send you more sisters, and probably, under His sovereignty, He will send you the most troublesome ones. The Lord will test you to show you where you are. You need to learn the lesson to do the work in the service in a corporate way. The church is a test to you, and the real service of the church is also a test.
We all should try to know the church. We need to practice to know the way of the church service, which is a service of coordination, never a service of an individual person. All the service in the church is a service of coordination.
Many times I like to fellowship with the brothers about my message before I deliver it. This is the best way. It is good to come together with the brothers to fellowship about the message you are going to give, taking the attitude of being open to others and being ready to be adjusted. If the brothers would give you just a little hint that they would not have you minister, you should be willing to take it. You should not act in an independent way. In everything, in every job, in every part of the Lord’s service, you need to try to open yourself to others to be coordinated with them and to do everything in the service in a way of coordination. Then you will learn the lesson, and the church will be much profited in the matter of building up. Otherwise, we may have many meetings, but we could not have the real church life.
