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: “But 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 was old because they served 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 matured, but we should never be old. To be old is one thing; to be matured is another. We should seek to be matured, 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 message 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, while we are serving we are being built together.
We need to see what this means in a practical way. Suppose 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 giants, 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 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 big. 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 have 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.