Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You are altogether what we need. Lord, we need You. Tonight, at this moment, we need You to cleanse us with Your precious blood. Lord, we need You as the Spirit, and we need You as the word. Come to visit us as the word and as the Spirit. While we are speaking about our serving You in any way, be with us. Be one spirit with us that we may be one spirit with You. Grant us new utterance, new light, new enlightenment, and even new encouragement with new strengthening. Lord, we say again, cover us with Your prevailing blood. Amen.
My burden in this message is just one word: labor. In 1 Thessalonians 1:3 the apostle Paul wrote, “Remembering unceasingly your work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.” Here the apostle remembered the Thessalonians first in their work of faith, then in their labor of love, and finally in their endurance of hope.
There is a difference between work and labor. Paul used the word work first, mentioning the Thessalonian believers’ work of faith; then he used the word labor, referring to their labor of love. Nothing exhausts us as much as being vital. If we desire to be vital, we must prepare ourselves to be exhausted. It is not adequate to be vital for just one day. To be vital requires us to labor. Every farmer knows that it is not enough merely to work. A farmer must labor. This is why we need endurance. To work does not require very much endurance, but to labor, we need endurance.
In Colossians 1:28 Paul said that he announced Christ by admonishing and teaching every man in all wisdom, that he might present every man full-grown in Christ. Then in verse 29 he said that he labored for this, struggling according to God’s operation, which operated in him in power. In the next verse, 2:1, Paul said to the Colossians, “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those in Laodicea, even all who have not seen my face in the flesh.” In these verses Paul said that he labored by struggling. This indicates that something was opposing and working against Paul so that he needed to struggle. The word for struggling in 1:29 can also be translated “contending,” as in wrestling. This indicates that in order to labor, we need to have a fighting, struggling spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.” To plant and to water are not merely a work but a labor. We cannot plant a seed one day and after two days expect to see it grow up. After we plant a seed, we must take care of it. After one week we may see very little growth, and after two more weeks the growth may appear to be about the same. This will exhaust us and at times even discourage us. It may cause us to think that we have planted and watered in vain. However, we need to labor by continuing to till the ground and fertilize and water the plants day by day. Paul used all these illustrations to show us what kind of work he was doing.
In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul said that he labored more abundantly than all the other apostles. Then in verse 58 of the same chapter he advised us to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.
In serving the Lord we may be very enthusiastic for one week, but after that we may become exhausted. Among us there is the need of laboring and there is the need of endurance. From the beginning, when I began to speak concerning the matter of the vital groups, I stressed the need for endurance. As long as we can get one person saved in 365 days, that is wonderful. I doubt that many of us can boast that although we have been laboring for two and a half years and have not gained anyone, we are still laboring. If this is your case, you will be blessed. You will see that in the end, you will be the most fruitful one.
Some saints wrote me, saying that for three weeks or three months they had practiced the God-ordained way to bear fruit and did not see any results; therefore, they said that this way does not work. However, it is impossible for a woman to become pregnant and bear a child the next day. A term of nine months is needed in order to bear one child. We should not consider it a small thing if we bring one person to the Lord within one year. That is a wonderful thing for which we should rejoice.
To practice the vital groups, we must be vital to the extent that we are willing to labor in any way and at any cost. This requires us to endure. If you go to visit someone consistently for half a year and nothing happens, you should keep going. If you labor much and nothing happens, will something happen if you cease your labor? Seemingly, your labor has been in vain, because for six months you have not seen any result. But for the long run, there will be a result.
Home | First | Prev | Next