Message Ten

How to Be Watchful in Life and Faithful in Service

Scripture Reading: Matt. 25:4, 9-10, 20-23

1. For life, we need oil, the Spirit of God, even His filling, that we may be enabled to live the virgin life for the Lord’s testimony—Matt. 25:4, 9-10:
   1. Our urgent need is to gain more of the Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God, to live a life of buying an extra portion of the Spirit to saturate our entire being—v. 9; cf. Dan. 5:27.
   2. Every day we need to be watchful by paying the price to buy the Spirit as the golden oil so that we may supply the churches with the Spirit for the testimony of Jesus and be rewarded by the Lord to participate in the marriage dinner of the Lamb—Matt. 25:9-10; Rev. 3:18; Zech. 4:6, 12-14; Judg. 9:9:
      1. We need to love the Lord above all, having our eyes opened to see His supreme preciousness—Matt. 22:37; Phil. 3:8.
      2. We need to count all things as loss on account of Christ that we may gain Him, be found in Him, and know Him—vv. 7-10.
      3. We need to enjoy the Lord in the Word every day early in the morning to have a new start each day— Psa. 119:147-148.
      4. We need to deal with sins thoroughly—1 John 1:7, 9.
      5. We need to abide in fellowship with the Lord daily and hourly—v. 6; 2 Cor. 13:14.
      6. We need to redeem our time and spend our energy to be saturated and soaked with God’s holy Word— 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Col. 3:16.
      7. We need to be watchful, on the alert, for our prayer life, redeeming our time to pray—Eph. 6:18.
      8. We need to redeem the time in these evil days to be filled in spirit by speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, by giving thanks to the Lord at all times for all things, and by being subject to one another in the fear of Christ—5:14-21.
      9. We should not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by speaking rotten (noxious, offensive, or worthless) words; instead, we should speak words of grace to give grace to those who hear—4:29-30.
      10. We should not quench the Spirit; instead, we should always rejoice, unceasingly pray, and in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us—1 Thes. 5:16-19.
      11. We need to live, act, behave, do things, and have our being according to the spirit—Rom. 8:4.
      12. We need to be filled with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, as the supply of the Body of Christ, to live Christ for His magnification—Phil. 1:19-21a; Psa. 133; cf. 1 Thes. 5:25.
2. For service, for work, we need the talent, the spiritual gift, that we may be equipped as a good slave to accomplish what the Lord intends to accomplish— Matt. 25:20-23:
   1. Our inward motive for serving the Lord is our love for Him—Exo. 21:5.
   2. Our serving the Lord should always proceed out from Him as the source of blessing, be through Him as the means and the power, and be unto Him for His glory— Rom. 11:36; cf. Num. 18:1.
   3. We need to serve the Lord with our whole being according to the counsel of God by coordinating with the members of the Body—Rom. 12:1-2, 11; Acts 13:36a; 1 Cor. 12:14-22.
   4. We need to use the Lord’s gift to build up the church by serving others with Christ and ministering Christ as grace to them—Matt. 25:27; 1 Pet. 4:10; Col. 1:7; 4:12:
      1. We need to serve as laboring priests of the gospel of God, saving sinners to offer them to God as acceptable sacrifices and eventually present them full-grown in Christ—Rom. 15:16; 12:1; Col. 1:28.
      2. We need to supply others with Christ as their spiritual food at the proper time—Matt. 24:45:
         1. We need to speak Christ to all kinds of people daily in season and out of season—Acts 5:42; 8:4; 2 Tim. 4:2.
         2. We need to desperately endeavor to build up a habit of speaking in any meeting—1 Cor. 14:26, 4-5, 12, 31.
         3. We should always have something to speak in all the meetings as a freewill offering to God and to the attendants—v. 26:
            1. 1) Before coming to the meeting, we should prepare ourselves for the meeting with something of the Lord, either through our experience of Him or through our enjoyment of His word and fellowship with Him in prayer.
            2. 2) After coming into the meeting, we need not wait, and should not wait, for inspiration; we should exercise our spirit and use our trained mind to function in presenting what we have prepared to the Lord for His glory and satisfaction and to the attendants for their benefit—their enlightenment, nourishment, and building up.
      3. We need to care for people with the loving and forgiving heart of our Father God and the shepherding and seeking spirit of our Savior Christ— John 21:15-17:
         1. Whatever we do should be with a burning spirit of love—2 Tim. 1:7.
         2. Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 12:31b; 13:4-8, 13.
      4. We should not mistreat our fellow believers by criticizing, judging, or exposing them; instead, we should admonish the disorderly, console the little-souled, sustain those who are weak in spirit, soul, or body, or weak in the faith, and be long-suffering toward all—Matt. 24:49; 1 Thes. 5:14.
      5. Through our involvement in the world, we should not render the Lord’s gift useless, letting it lie waste under the cloak of certain earthly excuses— Matt. 25:18.
   5. We should always abound in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor for the Lord in His resurrection life with His resurrection power will never be in vain, but will result in the fulfilling of God’s eternal purpose—1 Cor. 15:58.