Question: How do you motivate all the brothers to work?
Answer: I think that this way still has to begin with consecration. This is a new way, and we need to have good arrangements. First, we need to show the brothers that the service is the whole church serving, with every member of the Body having its function. Everyone should be a priest. You need to remind them of this one matter and do so emphatically. You also have to tell them about the matters of authority. I believe that we also need to pay attention to the matter of selling all. If a person does not sell all, his talk of service is false and will not work. There is the need for him to give all he has in order to serve God. Therefore, the basic thought is that everyone needs to offer all in order to serve God. Today God is calling those who belong to Him to come forth and serve Him. Otherwise, everything that we have seen this time will be dead. It will become merely a viewpoint and a method, and you will find it unworkable as a result. Therefore, it is not a matter of method but a matter of God opening up a way for us.
Nevertheless, when we go to speak this matter, we should speak in a strong way. We should not speak in a begging way, as if service is to patronize God and do Him a favor. If we are standing on that ground, we are altogether wrong. We need to let the brothers see that their service to God is a high and glorious thing. Today we should by no means live carelessly on the earth as before, but we must follow the Lord in all things. Therefore, we must be strong. Once we are strong, we will cause others to come forth. We need to tell them, “Today our occupation is something on the side. We must learn to serve God.” The way that we take must be straight, and our tone must be right. We should not bring ourselves down to a low level; do not beg people for God. We cannot beg people to believe in God, and even the more, we cannot beg people to serve God. To serve God requires that man come to God to be accepted. Man needs to believe in God by himself. Yet what is this that we beg people to believe in God? Today God wants us to serve Him. We have no choice but to come and serve. We need to be very clear about this before God. We must see accurately. If we see accurately, then others will see accurately. Everyone must serve God; otherwise, there will be no church. When the brothers and sisters fall prostrate before God, when they crawl to come and serve God, then we will see that what we have talked about is not a difficult matter.
Question: In a certain locality, not everyone has given up all. Some have given up all, and some still have not. What shall we do about taking care of the practical affairs?
Answer: We cannot use people who have not been gained by God. As many people as God has gained, we will use. We have to be cautious of the rest of the people. We must endeavor to bring them over to God’s side. We need to continue working until that happens.
Our way is to learn to build up. Everyone must have the goal of building up. Therefore, this time we would not relax our requirement for service. They need to put their whole being into it. This word must be spoken clearly. Today all the co-workers need to put everything into this work. We will ask some of the brothers also to put everything into this work. We need to tell them, “This is not something that only a few should do. We are putting everything into this work. You also need to put everything into this work, including your material possessions, your strength, and your life. All that you have needs to be put into this work.” Before God, the higher you can climb, the more God will bless you. The more you lower your tone, the fewer people will come. The more afraid you are, the fewer people will come, because God does not bless that attitude. Therefore, you have to put yourself in a right position.
If your position is wrong, people will not come. God will never bless that kind of attitude. It will be quite evident that even your own service is not healthy. Before God you must see that being a servant of God is not a favor to Him, but His favor to you; otherwise, how could you serve God? If someone invites you to participate in a worldly occupation, many would thank that one. Today when people are asked to come to serve God, should they expect God to thank them instead? When you go out to invite people, do you beg them? If so, your standing is wrong.
Please forgive me, there are a few things I have no patience for. If I hear a brother in a certain place say, “Today God loves you and you need to come and serve Him,” as if God will be very happy if this one will just come and serve Him, I have no patience for this at all. You need to tell them, “If you serve God, you should be very happy that a person like you can serve Him.” Service to God is an opening; you have to go after it. It is not that you are doing God a favor, that you are doing God an honor, and that even intelligent people like you should also come to serve God! Formerly, it was those who could not earn a living who came to be preachers, but now such ones as you should also come! It is an honor to the preaching profession to have a person such as you! I tell you, this attitude is entirely wrong. A Japanese Presbyterian preacher once said that all those who study theology are poor students. However, though he was not a poor student, he went to study theology also. As soon as I heard that, I realized there was no way at all with this man. There is no such thing as a good student doing God a favor by doing His work! When I hear this kind of word, it makes me angry before the Lord.
We need to see that in our lifetime it is our glory if we can even crawl to God to serve Him. If you consider that God should use a person like you, then you are foolish, very foolish. If God can receive a person such as you, this is the greatest grace and the greatest glory. How strange it is that people would consider that serving God is doing Him a favor! Therefore, I hope that before God you will see that there is nothing more glorious than to serve God. It would even be a glorious thing if I could serve God by standing at the door as a beggar. It is a wonder that God wants us. God said, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” It is His mercy that He wants me to be His servant. Suppose that you are more intelligent than most people, your position is higher than that of most others, your family has a good financial situation, and you did very well in school, and you now become a preacher. In the eyes of most people this would be a very strange thing that you also would come to serve God! Let me tell you that this attitude is altogether wrong.
Therefore, brothers, when you go out this time, you should not exhort people to come and serve God, nor beg them to serve Him. If that happens, this work will be damaged by you; it will be finished. You must have this kind of attitude: If people think that to serve the president is glorious, they need to know what a great difference there is between the president and God. If I can serve God, this is my greatest glory. When man offers things to God, the consideration is not how painful it may be to give up those things; rather, the consideration is whether or not God will accept what you offer. How do you know God will accept it? You need to remember that this is not merely a matter of consecration, but also a matter of being sanctified. You need to show them that the big question is whether or not God will accept their offering. If God accepts it, this is their glory. It is not a matter of whether or not man will offer something; it is a matter of whether or not God will accept it. Therefore, your way before God needs to be straight, you need to keep your position, and you need to stand on God’s ground to speak. As soon as you lower your position, you have nothing to say and everything is finished. Forgive me for saying this, but I would even doubt your own service.
Man cannot be proud before God. If a person thinks that it is a waste for someone like him to come out to preach, you can ask him, “Within these ten years, has God used you to do anything? You are a person that God would never use!” What a great glory it is for man to serve Him! We ask God to grant us grace that in the matter of church affairs, we could do well and walk a straight path.