The Second Major Crisis - Doing Spiritual Things without Christ


	CONFRONTING CRISIS IN THE FULL-TIME SERVING LIFE Message Seven: The Second Major Crisis - Doing Spiritual Things without Christ The first major crisis we confront as we serve the Lord full-time is the matter of handling our daily life. We often realize that even though we are able to do some things for the Lord, we should be doing much more. We perceive opportunities for our spiritual labor, but find ourselves unable to carry them out. Watchman Nee shared on this matter when he covered the Song of Songs. He said that the foxes that spoil the vineyard (S.S. 2:15) are the habits that we build up over many years which frustrate us from carrying out our labor in the Lord's vineyard. All the points from the previous messages are in regard to this. Now we come to the second major crisis facing those who serve the Lord full-time: doing spiritual things without Christ. The Danger of Doing Spiritual Things without Christ Those of us who serve the Lord full-time are constantly handling spiritual things. Eventually we find out that we can do many of these spiritual things without Christ. We typically define this as "religion." As we handle spiritual things we must be very careful not to allow our spiritual labor to become separated from the Lord. For example, suppose we labor together in the mornings to present something of the truth to one another. Are we laboring spiritually, or are we laboring religiously? It depends upon us. If it is merely something that we have to get done, so we just learn how to do it, then that is something without Christ. We can, however, take the same thing as a spiritual challenge and do it in the Lord, and with the Lord. Then it is of very great value. After serving full-time for a number of years, you will develop the ability to do many things. You may be happy to do these things and feel very satisfied with their accomplishment, even if Christ is not involved. This then becomes the next great crisis confronting you in your serving. If you are ignorant of this danger, you may wake up one day to realize that your spiritual operation, charge, and effectiveness have all disappeared. You won't even know why. But the reason will be that you have become used to doing spiritual things without Christ. Carrying Spiritual Things by Our Ability There have been many brothers who were "glorious" when they were young, but eventually they lost their function. They carried their spiritual activities by their ability, and not by Christ. They faded away because they did not know how to take Christ as the content of what they were doing. If you share a good message, that does not necessarily mean that you have experienced Christ. You can come up with many good points, put them together in a very impressive way, and speak them out eloquently, but that doesn't mean Christ is involved. When we serve the Lord full-time it can become commonplace for us to do spiritual things without Christ. Therefore we must learn to do things with Christ. If we are preaching the gospel, then Christ must be in our preaching. If we are serving practically at the meeting hall, then Christ must be with us in our practical service. In all the things we do in the serving life, whether spiritual or practical, Christ must back them up. When you hear this you might reply, "Sometimes what I do, I do with Christ, and sometimes not. It seems like I can't do everything with Christ." This is understandable, because you are human. You will not always be 100% able to do everything with Christ. But you should still have the realization that spiritual things must not be allowed to become routine. You should understand how serious it is to be able to do things without Christ. This is why many capable serving ones eventually have to be put aside by the Lord. They have become so "professional" at what they do that they no longer need the Lord, and the real things in their service fade away. We all should be very sober when we come to this matter. If we are to operate in the church life, we must operate with Christ. If we preach the gospel, we must preach with Christ. If we shepherd others, we must shepherd them in Christ. If we are fellowshipping with others concerning the church, we must have Christ in our fellowship. Even when we are doing the most practical things, such as cleaning the restroom or mowing the lawn, we must do these things with Christ. If we practice this in our serving life, our growth and our function will be healthy. Our real situation, however, is that after we have shared a number of messages, we often lose our dependence on Christ. We do not feel the same sense of urgency to pray. After we have shared the gospel a number of times, we lose our desperation to be one spirit with the Lord. The more experienced we become in the full-time serving life, the more we can do a "good job" whether we have the Lord or not. We must consider how serious this is. It is for this reason that so many serving ones fade spiritually as they grow older. It only takes a few years for you to begin experiencing this. You all of a sudden find out that doing many spiritual things becomes easier. As an "old pro," you may not feel the need for the Lord to help you. You may be able to do many things without Him. But the light will gradually diminish within you. Your insight will weaken and your operation will become limited. You will no longer be the shining, glowing person you once were, because Christ is no longer involved as you carry the spiritual things. Our Need for a Basic Understanding of Spiritual Principles We need to have a basic understanding of spiritual principles as we are carrying out our spiritual labor. We can never depart from these principles as we labor full-time. Spiritual things must be carried out with spiritual reality. Without spiritual reality, whatever we do will not have any value. The spiritual reality we need is constituted with the following items: 1. Life Life is the reality of the Body of Christ, which is an organism of life. As long as we do spiritual things in the Body, whether preaching the gospel or cleaning the hall, we have to do them with life. If we can do spiritual things apart from life, it will only cause damage to the Body and to ourselves. 2. Truth Life is easier to understand than truth. We need truth to substantiate life. Without truth, we may confuse our feelings for life. Life is very hard to define. For example, brothers and sisters seem to experience spiritual revival when they begin to date. Some may be encouraged by such a revival, but it doesn't have that much value. Such an experience of "life" is mostly related to mood and emotion. Life must be backed up by truth. If you want to help a brother you must do so in life, which means your help must be according to the truth. Human ways or inventions will not work. If your care for that brother cannot be substantiated by the truth, then you know that your care is not in life. What, then, is truth? Truth is that which God has spoken, which in turn we have seen and experienced. It is not only God's written word, for that can become merely doctrinal to us. It must be the word that God has spoken to us, which has also become our revelation, and even our experience. When such a word from God is fresh in us, then that is truth. When we lose the freshness of a truth, it becomes a doctrine which cannot help anyone. 3. Leading and Burden In order to experience this freshness in our labor, we need both leading and burden. To say a person is fresh means that he is burdened. To be burdened is to be fresh in the revelation we have experienced according to the divine word. If we are burdened in such a way, then we will do things with Christ as the reality. In order to experience this freshness we need to avoid allowing spiritual things to become religious matters. At one point Christ may be so fresh with us, and truly involved with whatever we are doing. At another point, Christ is no longer involved as we carry out spiritual things. Anytime we do spiritual things void of Christ, then that is religion. We must learn to operate with a fresh leading and burden. Don't Begin Your Serving Life for the Wrong Reasons There are three reasons most people begin their serving life. The first reason is based on human need. For example, a person may become involved in a church because he has a family and feels he must raise his children up religiously. Such a person may begin by taking his family to church for ten years, until he eventually becomes a deacon or board member. This is to begin the serving life because of human need. In the church life we do not have too many who are like this. The second reason that a person may begin a serving life is because it just fits him. Many young people around age eighteen want to find what fits them. When they come to the church they find that they are "VIP's." In the church life we have many who begin their serving life for this reason. We even have a song about how "there is a place for you in the church of Jesus." Don't emphasize this understanding, for if you do, you will find it easy to serve without Christ. If you remain in the serving life because it fits you, or because the atmosphere in the church life fits you, you will have little need for Christ. To become a full-timer because it is what fits you is to have a very bad beginning. Your service will not be according to life and truth, which means that your service will not be according to the revealed, experiential, and operating word of God. The third reason someone may begin the serving life is because they were touched by the Lord's love and became zealous in the things of the Lord. We usually appreciate zeal, without realizing that zeal is not life. Some saints have been zealous in the church life from their youth, and their zeal causes them to serve the Lord in the church. We might feel that this is the best kind of serving one. Yet many of the problems in the Lord's recovery come from such zealous serving ones. Often zealous brothers can be zealous for the Lord one moment, and zealous for something else the next. Yet we treasure zeal in a person. We appreciate desire and willingness. We even utilize it. Without life and truth, however, zeal will only lead to trouble. Not only should you serve according to life, rather than zeal, but you should also learn how to help people out of their zeal. If you do not have the ability to bring people out of zeal and into life, your service is of no value. There is a lack among us of those who are able to shepherd brothers out of their zealous "good heart" and into life. Thus it is possible for brothers who remain in the church life for twenty or thirty years with such a good heart to gain influence among the saints, and yet they may not know life. Thus they frustrate the church life, and in their zeal some even turn against the church or the ministry. If in your serving life you are merely serving according to zeal, you will surely do spiritual things without Christ. Eventually many things may be carried out but it is hard to say that Christ is involved. Zeal initially seems like such a positive thing, but if the zealous ones are not eventually helped out of zeal into life, the Lord will be frustrated from gaining His church. When you look around, however, do you look for zeal in others, or for life? Not many have this kind of spiritual sight. Many of us appreciate zeal, cultivate zeal, and apply zeal without realizing that we need to help people out of their zeal and into Christ.