The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way
Notes
Transcript
Scripture reading: Gal. 5:25-26
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
In Gal. 5:25-26, the Apostle Paul contrasts walking in the Spirit with conceitedness. The Greek word is kenodoxoi, which translates into boastfulness. I like how the KJV translates it: “being desirous of vain glory.” This conceitedness leads to provoking one another and envying one another.
Based on this passage, I’d like to share a message with the title “The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way.” The great American theologian Francis Shaeffer preached a sermon with the same title. While serving as a pastor, he saw that many Christians were drifting away from the Lord on the inside. They knew all the right doctrines and all the correct behaviors, but they grew conceited.
And Shaeffer concluded that the church may have the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, but they often forgo the Holy Spirit’s power. Churches tend to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit.
I think every church faces this struggle on this side of heaven.
Jesus commanded His disciples not to get busy immediately after His ascension. He commanded them to wait. Wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them, to fill them with His power. And then they could become witnesses of Christ. There is a specific order of things.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
As Christians, we all have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts. But that isn’t the same thing as having the fullness of His power. If we want our lives to be useful for the kingdom of God, if we want to be true witnesses for Christ, we must operate in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So how can we receive the power of the Holy Spirit?
We must recognize our need for the Holy Spirit.
We must not seek praises from anyone other than God.
We must trust in God’s methods.
We must recognize our need for the Holy Spirit
We must recognize our need for the Holy Spirit
First, we must recognize our need for the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, and His role is to make spiritual work effective. Without Him, all spiritual works do not bear fruit. No amount of preaching will convict the human heart. No amount of preparation for HORA conferences or church retreats will touch the human heart.
This means that there is no such thing as a professional Christian or gospel minister. Professionals make things happen based on their experience, expertise, and skillset.
The Lord’s work isn’t dependent on any of these. And so we must let go of any hope that we can accomplish anything without absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit. We must let go of our pride and draw upon the Lord’s grace without shame or embarrassment.
Even Jesus did not go except in the power of the Holy Spirit. When He was baptized, the Spirit came upon Him. And the Spirit directed Him, the text says it “drove” Him into the wilderness.
In the same way, the Holy Spirit drives us into the wilderness. He drives us into a place where we have to depend on God for everything. Our food and drink, our clothes and security, it all escapes our control. That’s the wilderness. Only such a humble person can live a life keeping in step with the Spirit.
The key to accessing the Spirit’s power is humility.
What does this look like in real life? It means that we seek the lowest place, the position of a servant or slave.
10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.
44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
Many of us have positions and titles in the church. But we must remember that our titles have nothing to do with our own achievements, but what God has achieved in our lives. We are not greater than those without titles.
On the other hand, if we desire for high positions so that we might be respected, we are in the flesh. We know this because Jesus had the highest position, but He put a towel around Him waist and washed the disciples’ feet.
And so we should ask ourselves from time to time, “Whose feet am I washing?”
Doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way is about having and practicing the humility of Christ.
We must not seek praises from anyone other than God
We must not seek praises from anyone other than God
In addition to not seeking power, Christians must not seek for human praise.
The God we worship searches the hearts of men. And He is not mocked.
If we work in order to be praised by others, or if we work in order not to be criticized by others, Jesus says that we have lost our reward.
Only those who seek God’s approval will receive praise in the last day. And so either we humble ourselves now, or be humbled in the future.
There’s a picture that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians, where every Christian will stand before Christ, not for salvation, but to have their works judged.
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
In this judgement, no one will lose their salvation. But the intentions and motivations behind their good works will be exposed and tossed aside. Anything that we’ve done for our own sake, to seek power or praises or avoid criticism, it will be burned away.
If we do not humble ourselves now, we will be humbled then.
Doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way is about seeking the praises of God rather than of men.
We must trust in God’s timing
We must trust in God’s timing
The thing that makes the world’s methods so appealing is that the timing is in our control. If we do this starting next week, and we do it every week for three months, we can expect this result.
But when it comes to the Lord’s methods, we cannot control the timing. We cannot decide when the Lord will bring revival or breakthrough. We cannot decide when the Holy Spirit chooses to convict someone of sin or to raise up a new pillar of the church.
So the key question is this: as we work for God in this fallen world, whose timing are we seeking?
In the wilderness, the Israelites followed the ark wherever it led. If the ark marched, they marched. If the ark stood still, they stood still. The ark represents the Word of God.
As Christians, we must learn to follow God’s leading like this. What comes first is not the smart thing, or clever thing, or even the most hardworking thing. What comes first must be our faithful obedience to the Word of the Lord. We must not go beyond the bounds of God’s Word.
There are preachers who add or subtract from God’s Word because it helps the church to grow. There are churches that ignore or even deny certain parts of Scripture because it’s old fashioned. There are Christians who skip even the most basic commands, but they serve in the most visible positions.
We must not go beyond the bounds of God’s Word.
Why? It’s because the real battle is in the spiritual realm, and we must not go to battle without the sword of the Spirit, that is the Word of God.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
Even a nuclear warhead can’t banish a demon away. The cleverest strategy can do no better. How far must we bend God’s Word in order to grow? It is only the Holy Spirit who convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgement (Jn. 16:8).
To trust in particular methods is to copy the world and to remove ourselves from the tremendous promise of the power of the Holy Spirit.
When we employ worldly methods, we can never accomplish what the Lord wants. And even if we appear to succeed, it only affirms that faith is unnecessary. Any goal achieved is an own goal against one’s own goalkeeper.
On the other hand, if we choose to wait upon the Lord, and we lose the visible battle while doing so, we have really and truly won. If we can say we have not lacked in prayer and obedience and still lost, then we have won.
Doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way is about trusting in God’s timing.
How do we get things done?
How do we get things done?
But then comes the worry. What about actually getting things done? Must we then wait upon the Lord without doing anything?
The truth is that by doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way, we will accomplish more, not less. We should not fear that waiting upon the Lord makes us less productive. It is always the wiser option than charging ahead in the flesh.
Abraham charged ahead in the flesh when he begot Ishmael. And for 13 years he raised the boy, thinking that he was accomplishing much. 13 years of parenting is an incredible amount of hard work. But it was 13 years of silence from God.
And later on, God told Abraham to send Ishmael away. By that time, Ishmael was about 17 years old. 17 years of productivity and achievement in the power of the flesh. And the descendants of Ishmael became a bane and a hindrance to the descendants of Isaac.
Some people work hard for more than 17 years in the power of the flesh. And the fruit of their efforts becomes a hindrance for the church rather than a blessing.
Someone who works hard for 17 years sets the church culture and has much influence in the way things are run. Let us not work in the power of the flesh and birth Ishmaels in the process.
Instead, let us earnestly wait and depend upon the Lord in prayer and obedience. That way, we will not waste our efforts just for the illusion of productivity.
Shaeffer: “If we do not want to waste our lives after we have become Christians, then we must understand the importance of having a humble, quiet heart and the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Our role is not at all passive. If the Holy Spirit is working, the whole man will be involved and there will be great personal cost to us. There will be tiredness. There will be sacrifice. There will be tears.
Shaeffer said this. “We may have to pay a high price ecclesiastically in order to be faithful to the Bible’s teaching. But no matter the cost, let us be faithful.”
But we must remember this one question:
Who can do more? Me, or the God of heaven and earth?
I pray that Zion Church will be a church that does the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way.
