Brothers and sisters, the church of God has the nature of a stone. The nature of the ministers should also be of stone. The foundation of the church is of stone, the building up of the church is of stone, and the service of the church should be of stone. Everything should be rock-solid, unshakable, and without any shadow of change. God cannot use anything flippant, shaky, or unstable in His divine work within the church. When something is stable, it is solid and trustworthy. When one stone is laid upon another, any unstable piece will endanger the whole structure. If one rock on a stone wall is unsteady, the whole wall will be in danger of collapsing. In the church of God, we are not the last stones; many more will be built upon us. The church is not composed of thousands of isolated stones; it is composed of stones that are built one upon the other. The many stones are built up together to become a spiritual house. When the stones are not on top of one another, there is no church. When the temple was destroyed, no stone was upon another. In order for the temple to be built, every stone has to be upon other stones. Today God is still building; He is still building up many spiritual things, piece after piece. If one piece shakes, the whole building will be in jeopardy; many lives will be at risk, and God's church will not be able to go on. This is why our character must be as solid as stone; it must be stable. If our character is shakable and unreliable, everything that is built upon us will be shakable, and sooner or later everything will collapse. First Corinthians 15:58 says, "Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." We can go on positively only if we are steadfast and immovable. If our character wavers, being up at times and down at other times, being one way one minute and another way the next, God's work will be damaged.
Some brothers and sisters cannot participate in the Lord's work because they are too unreliable. If you build upon something that is unreliable, you may build a little only to find that it has to be torn down. In addition to being a waste of labor, it is also a waste of time. The amount of building and tearing down may neutralize one another, but the time wasted is irreparable. If a man is reliable, whatever is built upon him will be reliable, and no time will be wasted. Any collapse or damage in the work may be remedied by reconstruction, but five, ten, or twenty years may be lost in the process. This loss cannot be remedied. We have to pray that God would make us reliable men. We may not climb as high as Peter did, because such heights take time to attain. But at least we can be trustworthy and reliable, not building something that has to be torn down. Without such a reliable character, we cannot participate in God's work. When we are stable and trustworthy, we can meet the challenge of any responsibility that falls upon our shoulders. Otherwise, we will fall asleep when we are called upon to be vigilant. If a man is unreliable, always being up and down, he will fail in the Lord's call for watchfulness and go to sleep. When he is tired, he will fall asleep, not caring whether there is a need for watchfulness. He will want eight hours of sleep and will settle for nothing less, no matter how much he is called upon to be watchful. He may get his sleep, but he will not realize the loss he has suffered through his sleep. Suppose you fall asleep when the Lord calls upon you to be watchful. What will you do when the Lord calls you to work? You will not have any sense of responsibility. If a man is not stable before the Lord, he is not reliable, and if he is not reliable, he will not have a sense of responsibility. When he feels good, he will work more. When he feels bad, he will go to sleep. He will have no sense of responsibility. Hence, stability in our character is a fundamental need in the work; only stable ones can work for the Lord. They work when they feel like it, and they work when they do not feel like it. They work when the sun shines, and they work when it rains. They work when they are very happy, and they work when they are very sad. These are the stable ones. Unstable ones are affected by everything; even the weather affects them. If our work is affected by our environment, we have failed the Lord. Before Him we must have a strong spirit.