In addition to the previous four points, we need to pay attention to cultivating the talents of the saints. Concerning this, we need to pay attention first to the young people, and among the young people, we should concentrate on the students. If the work in a locality cannot gain the students who are there, then their work is a failure, and this kind of failure means that there is no future. We do not despise older people, but if a church has only older people, something is missing. If we look at society, we can see that any work or business must pay attention to the young people in order to have a future. After hearing this word, please do not feel that this is unfair and wonder why the future of the church depends on the young people. In the church life, the function of the young people is very different from the function of children and older people.
Teenagers are still quite young, and older people are often forgetful. If the older saints in the church can pass on the lessons they have learned in the Lord throughout the years to the younger saints, regardless of whether it is a burden for the gospel, knowledge of the truth, or a portion in the service, this would be wonderful. In this way, the older saints can rest and sleep in peace, the young people can function appropriately in the church, and the teenagers and children can grow up healthily in the church. On the one hand, we need to advance faithfully in the gospel, truth, life, and service so that we can maintain and solidify the condition of the church, but on the other hand, we must cultivate and gain the talents.
Moreover, we should give middle-aged saints and those in other age groups particular leading and perfecting. This does not mean that we are ignoring certain ones and paying more attention to others. However, the future of the church and the Lord’s work must have a way to go on. Some may say, “Because God is not a respecter of persons, we should treat old and young people alike. Even if a person is talented, God may not use him.” I do not want to argue in response to such a word, but we should ask the Lord to open our eyes to see His needs and to see what is fitting according to our portion. If we do not see this, it will be difficult for us to help the people around us. If we do not exercise any discernment in helping others and use the same way regardless of whether one is old or young, there will not be much future in our work, because we will not be able to produce useful ones or cultivate a useful second generation in our service.
From the account of the Epistles in the New Testament, it is doubtful that Paul taught Timothy and Titus the same way that he taught other brothers and sisters. Even when the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He treated the disciples differently from the way He treated others who served Him. The Lord served the multitude by preaching the word to them. However, the Lord brought His followers to a high mountain, a special place, where He could bring them on in order for them to meet His need one day. It was the one hundred and twenty disciples who were able to meet the Lord’s need at the beginning of the church age in the New Testament (Acts 1:15). We need to learn how to lead the work into the future and not merely watch others doing things.
In the matter of cultivating talents, we need to exercise discernment in our work. Some work is more general, and some work is more specific. Sometimes when the Lord was on the earth, He would speak to thousands or even tens of thousands of people, but eventually the Lord brought only a few people to the high mountain with Him, and only three people saw the Lord’s transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-2). No matter where we work, however, we should not have any preferences. If we must make choices, we should not base them on our feelings; instead, we should base them on a person’s function before the Lord and how much the Lord can have a way in him. We may need to pay special attention to the condition of some saints, even allowing some to stay in the same condition for the moment. Even within a garden there is some differentiation. Some flowers grow on the edge of the garden, and some flowers grow in the middle. This is absolutely not a matter of despising certain ones or even esteeming others more highly; we must be able to give the saints nutrients based on the needs of their particular function.
We should not leave any work to its own fate. Instead, we must work by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit needs our cooperation. Every worker, every elder or responsible brother, and even more, everyone who loves and pursues the Lord must learn this. As we lead the saints in the church, we should lead them according to their condition before the Lord, and we should be balanced in every aspect. In this way, our work will become effective. If we do not study, we will not know how to handle anything. Every fisherman studies the best way to catch fish; it requires much learning and studying.
When we work, we should even study our contacts. For example, we need to study the kind of people we can gain and the kind of results we can produce. We will become effective in our work only when we produce some useful ones. If we pay attention only to quantity, the results of our work will not be very useful. Thus, in the service of all the churches, we must advance in the four points that we spoke of earlier. We need to pay attention also to the matter of talents. If a person has the portion of an elder, we should train him; if a person has the portion of a deacon, we should diligently help him as well. Then in our work, we will not only have many who are saved but also many who can serve. Furthermore, we will cultivate some useful ones, such as elders and deacons. We need to learn these things.
We cannot leave these things to work themselves out when we do the Lord’s work. I hope we would all pray for these matters. The basic reason for the lack of useful people in the church life is that we have not learned enough and also that we have not taught others enough. Many people have been saved, and the work has been raised up, but we do not have workers. This shows that we must catch up; we all need to learn. After we have learned some lessons, we need to teach what we have learned to the brothers and sisters so that they can teach others when they go to different places (2 Tim. 2:2). In this way, we can produce useful people. Eventually, everyone will be able to do the work.
Concerning the problem of individuals, let us use Brother A and Brother B as an example. When Brother A does something, he focuses and concentrates on it; however, when Brother B does something, he often considers many different things. It is very interesting that the Lord often places these kinds of brothers together. Although Brother A concentrates on what he is doing, he does not have much consideration; consequently, he is fast. In contrast, Brother B is slower because he has more consideration. Such a situation causes each to learn a different lesson.
Since Brother B takes a long time to decide, this is a great hindrance. Therefore, he must learn some lessons. This does not mean that he should not have any consideration; instead, he must be quicker in his consideration and be willing to sacrifice and pay the price. If both the kingdom of the heavens and the lake of fire are before us, we should not have to think about the choice. If we want to enter into the kingdom of the heavens, we should forget about the lake of fire immediately. If we take the time to think about it, we may be too late. In some matters, we need to be simple and determined. Before the Lord, we must learn to exercise our judgment properly, quickly, and promptly. This does not mean that we should not think when we work; rather, we need to learn how to discern what is more important and what is less important, and we need to learn to make sacrifices.
We need to give much consideration to the matter of cultivating talents. Today if we put all our effort into small things, we may reap some benefit; however, we should focus more of our time on cultivating the talents. This means that we need to make some sacrifices, because we cannot possibly do everything. If we want to do the Lord’s work, we must weigh the importance of each matter. If the Lord wants us to go east, we must go east. At such a moment, we should not even look to the west, no matter how important it may seem. When we are clear about what is more important and what the Lord wants us to do, we need to drop everything else. We must learn to give up some things and to sacrifice. If we cannot drop certain things and stop working for the Lord, we cannot take up other things and truly work for the Lord.
When we meet a certain brother and say, “Brother, this is a very important work,” he may reply, “Yes, but we cannot neglect that work.” Or when we say, “We should take care of this person,” he may reply, “Yes, but we should also take care of that person.” It seems as if he cannot make a decision and does not have a definite goal. He considers every person about the same and all work as being equally important. However, those who are more experienced can quickly pinpoint a goal in an accurate and strong way and then act accordingly. I hope that we can all learn these matters.