This message is a part of the 1978 Labor Day Weekend Conference held in Seattle, WA.

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:5–15

Only Responsible To Be a Sweet Savor

First, let’s review the eight points we have shared. We must realize who we are. We are not workers. We are not serving in Christianity, and we do not even have any positions or titles. All that we are is just a sweet savor in Christ unto God. We are only responsible to God to be a sweet savor in Christ. In these points we shared, you need four basic practices in chapter one to produce this savor. 

Four Basic Practices to Produce a Savor

Living for the Church in Your Locality

First we need to be covered with the Lord’s presence. Second, we need to experience Christ subjectively on all the practical matters. Third, we need to attach ourselves to the brothers. Fourth, we need to live for those who are with us in our localities, so do not live for someone who is far away from you. Paul has to live for Titus because Titus is with him. You have to live for those who are with you; for those who are right in your locality. In other words, if you are from Seattle, you have to live for the church in Seattle. If you are in Moses Lake, you have to live for the church in Moses Lake. If you are in Eugene, Oregon, then you have to live for the church in Eugene, Oregon. Don’t talk about how a certain place is so prevailing, another place is so wonderful, but we are not doing well — don’t say these things. If your place is not doing well then you stay there and make it do better. There are many times I told the saints in my locality, I would say, “Brothers, there is no need for you to say anything. If the church here is weak, it is not my fault, and it’s not brother Suen’s fault either, it’s all your fault. Why don’t you go to the Lord and make it strong?” If your locality is not doing well, you just need to be fervent and make it go on. So if you are from Roseburg, you have to live for the church in Roseburg. If you are from Spokane, you have to live for the church in Spokane. And of course if you are in Vancouver, you have to live for the church in Vancouver. 

The Lord Is the Authoritative One

You have to realize the Lord is the authoritative one. The reason why I’m in Ohio — it was definitely not by chance or by a mistake, right? It is the Lord’s authority. The reason why you are in Vancouver, in Spokane, in Moses Lake, in Seattle, in Portland, in Eugene, in Roseburg, in Coos Bay, or wherever you are is because of the Lord’s authority. Therefore, you must take the Lord’s authority and live for the saints who are with you. Don’t be high-minded. Don’t always think, “if I just had a migration, I’ll be okay.” Brothers, there are no hymns that say “as long as there’s a migration, it’s okay.” There are only hymns that say something like “as long as I have Jesus, it’s okay,” right? A migration never replaces Jesus.

 Let me tell you: literally every place is about the same. You have to take my word rightly. I was in the far east; I have been laboring among the churches in Taiwan; I’ve been to many churches in Taiwan. I was also in the churches in Japan and Korea. I was in many churches in Brazil — 15 or 20 churches in Brazil. Lastly, I was in many churches in the US or in Canada. I look around, and I feel every place is the same. Cleveland was the worst city. When I went to Houston they asked me, “You know, how many are added every week in Houston?” I responded, “Do you know how many are gone from Cleveland every week?” But it makes no difference. “The church needs one thousand people,” so one thousand people is enough for you to carry a prevailing church life. Don’t be high minded, thinking “This is tradition” or “that is important.” 

I tell you that even Miss M. E. Barber isn’t that smart. Miss Barber didn’t go to Shanghai to make money. Neither did she go to Beijing to get well-educated people (Beijing, China is where the “Harvard” of China is). She went to a small town close to Fuzhou. Fuzhou people are very wise and very smooth. So why would she pick up a burden to go to that place? Do you not believe Miss Barber had a lot of insight? Even you know which city is more important, right? Which location is more strategic, right? It seems she doesn’t know any of this. She only knows, “I go to Paguda.” Where is Paguda? Paguda is a suburb of Fuzhou. It is just a small town. Now why should we go there? “Because the Lord has told me to go there.”

Does she not realize the well-educated people are in Beijing? Does she not realize the money is in Shanghai? Then why did she not go to Peking and Shanghai? It is because the Lord has not told her to go to Peking and Shanghai. This, again, is our family tradition. Our family tradition is, “it is whatever the Lord says that counts.” It is not to look at the map, choose a city, then we get burdened, then we go, then we try to do something. None of this works. 

Brothers, please take my word. No brother would believe anything could come out of Cleveland because it is the worst city in the whole country. Did you know that? It had a million people but now it’s reduced to around 600,000 and continues going down. But brother, even the one beside you is enough for you to stay in Cleveland, if the Lord has told you to do so. Just get him saved. This is a solid church life. You see, brothers, you must learn to follow the Lord in a way of anointing, in a way of absoluteness, and not in the way of work. Which location is good? Which location is better? Which location is strategic? Which location is bigger? Brother, how many can you save anyways? All the cities are the same. 

I went to the Far East. My response is “Hallelujah, I learned a lot.” I came to the United States. “Hallelujah, I learned a lot.” Even when I have visited you brothers for these two days. “Hallelujah, I learned something.” Every place I go, I learn. Every place I go, the Lord trims me. Every place I go, I have to depend on the Lord. Every place I go, I have to be in His anointing. Every place I go, the Lord can teach me something for me to be in his presence. Don’t be high-minded. I suggest all you brothers, wherever you are, take it from the Lord’s authority. It’s not by chance. Wherever you are, it comes from the authority of the Lord. And then put yourself there. Give yourself to that locality. Give yourself to the local church. Then fervently pray and impart life to the church. If the church is dead, you make it living. If the church is weak, you make it strong. If the church is declining, you make it ascend. You are responsible for the church. You are responsible for the testimony, not others. You are not responsible in the way of finding a house, or getting jobs. You are responsible to have a fervent spirit, serving the Lord. That is your job. 

Four Virtues of the Fragrance

Then once the fragrance is produced, then you have four contents; four items. Firstly, it is of the Spirit, and not of the letter. Secondly, it is a ministry, not a work. Thirdly, it is to preach Christ, and not the self. And fourthly, it is to walk by faith, not by sight. I love these items. I like to tell myself when I’m driving or walking, “It is to walk by faith and not by sight, hallelujah!” Isn’t that wonderful? “It is to preach Christ and not the self, amen!” “It is all a ministry and not a work.” “It is of the spirit and not of the letter.” 

Isn’t that wonderful? These are the golden rules that control our spiritual life. No matter how wonderful you grow, no matter how useful you can be, you can never get out of these things. You can never say, “one day I can be of the letter and not of the Spirit.”  There will never come a day when you can say, “I am of work and not of ministry.” At no time can you say, “I preach the self and not Christ.” Nor can you say, “Now I see, I don’t need faith.” Before the Lord comes back, you always abide in these four things, and only when you are having these four things you have the realization, “Lord I’m thankful, now I am a fragrance.” Any time these four things are taken away from you, you’re definitely stinking. Satan smells a lot and he really enjoys your presence when you are in the letter, and not in the Spirit; when you are in the work and not in ministry; when you are in the self and not in Christ; and when you are by sight, and not by faith. But any time when you just have the Spirit, the ministry, Christ, and faith, Satan goes away. You become a sweet savor of Christ unto God. 

Christ, Not Self

The One Who Preaches Christ Must Be the Slave of the Saints (2 Cor. 4:5)

The third point is to preach Christ and not self. I think this portion is easy but it’s very positive. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, there are eleven verses we should cover that tell us what it means to preach Christ and not self. We will first read verse five. “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” You see, Paul is a very wise apostle. He knows all the denominations are going to quote this verse. “We preach Jesus Christ.” “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus our Lord.” You have to believe every Christian group, every Christian preacher, they all proclaim, “We preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord.” But they all have the reality of, “We preach ourselves but not Christ Jesus the Lord.” Do you agree with me? Almost all of the young people, when they first started, they may have started with a pure heart. But no one can tolerate any success. After just a little success they gain a little following, so their membership becomes “numbership.” We just care for numbers, but we don’t care for the members. So when membership becomes numbership, what happens? They try to build a million-dollar building. This is nothing unusual in Christianity. The successful young preacher always tries to build a million-dollar church. A so-called “church” that is just a building. So they build the million dollar building. And then, what? Then they put a big sign in front, “Reverend nonsense.” And graduated with a DDT or something. But everyone likes to preach the self in the covering of Christ. 

They talk about Christ, they say “Christ,” they may even tell others “I preach Christ,” but in the end, they are all so spiritual, so wonderful, so high. So, Paul knows this. Paul knows all the nonsense people will use this verse for. So right after verse five he gives a simple footnote. This is Paul’s “how do you know I preach Christ”? “Don’t you know, ourselves your slaves for Jesus’s sake” (2 Cor. 4:5). Who is the one that preaches Christ? I tell you, in your attitude, you must be the slave of the saints. If you are not a slave of the saints, you have never preached Christ. Anyone who is dominating, anyone who’s ordering all the time, anyone who only knows how to be so high, giving instructions, they are under the principle of the Pharisees. You see that the Lord has rebuked the Pharisees with the very word, “You like to be superior.” Is that not what Pharisee’s are? Pharisees are just a group of people that just like to be superior, am I right? 

You see, brothers, many preachers, many ministers, many so-called servants of the Lord never realized verse 5 is composed of two portions. We preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ our Lord, hallelujah. Then, right after that he says, “And ourselves your slave for Jesus’ sake.” Because of Jesus, I become your slave. Do you know what being a slave means? Being a slave means there is no satisfaction for himself. You can be commanded to do whatever the master tells you to do. This is a slave. Slaves have no self choice, no preference, no rest, no enjoyment. Everything is under the master. Whatever the master says, he does it. He can’t tell the master whether it works, or whether it doesn’t work. Whatever the master says, even if the master gives the most unreasonable order, you still have to take it. Why? Because you are a slave. You see, the translation is too polite; it was translated into “servant.” Actually, it is a slave. Why? Because slaves are not treated as men. 

To Preach Christ, You Need a Person

Do you ever realize that, in the church life, to preach Christ you do not need a big mouth. To preach Christ, you need a person. When we say, “For we preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ alone,” you do not need a brother to loudly declare something. To preach Christ you do not need a big mouth, to preach Christ you need a person. This person is under the control of the saints in the church for Jesus’ sake.

One time, at 2am the phone rang, a sister called me. Usually, this sister likes to make late night calls. She says, “Brother, I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t know what to do with my husband.” In this situation, I could not get mad at her. I cannot just say, “Can’t talk, call me tomorrow!” I don’t have a choice. I drove over because they had a fight. And this, not being the first time, I knew the wife would ask, ”Would you please take me to your home?” This is because she wanted to use this as a weapon against her husband. And the husband always tries to be firm. I knew better than to get involved. If you get involved, the husband hates you and the wife will hate you also. But even then, you can’t get too involved, but you still have to go over. So at night, I would drive over, and knock on the door. I realized that if I knock on the door the husband will be so unhappy; they wouldn’t open the door. He did not open the door, but I kept on knocking. I knew what the husband did, he blocked the wife, “You can’t go to open the door. You can’t.” And the wife would say, “I’m going to open the door, Titus is there.”

So anyway, I insisted and just knocked on the door for 10 minutes. After 10-15 minutes in the cold air, the door opened. Then I went in, but I can’t say a word. Anything you say would cause trouble. If you tell the wife, “Your husband is wrong,” she would be so happy at the time, but later when the whole thing is over, she would say, “Who are you to tell me my husband is wrong?” Neither can you say the wife is wrong. If you say the wife is wrong, the husband is happy, but later on he will say, “Who told you to come in to say my wife is wrong? She is the most lovely lady on the whole earth.” So, I walk in, and I say, “What happened?” They have many reasons. And then the wife says, “Now Titus, I want to go. I want to go to your home.” Then I would grab the husband, saying “Okay, let’s go, let’s go.” I could not refuse them, if I said “No,” the wife would get offended. “You don’t love me? The church doesn’t love me either.” So I had to say, “Let’s go,” but I also had to grab the husband, “Let’s go together.” Then the husband says, “Oh no, I won’t go.” But I said, “No, no, let’s go together, let’s all go. I have a bedroom for you two.” I do not say a word about their situation, my thought is to just give them a bedroom. Then, once I said this, the wife says, “Oh praise the Lord, it’s okay.” Then the husband would say, “Hallelujah it’s over.” Then lastly, I asked, “You both don’t want to go anymore?” Then I let them be.

I was in this situation more than once. You don’t complain, you don’t tell people afterwards. We have no right to sleep nor eat. Why do we have no right? Because we have so many masters. Brothers, if you want to preach Christ. If you want to be a prevailing servant of the Lord, first, make yourself a slave to the saints, to the brothers and sisters in the church. If you have never made yourself a slave to them, you do not know what it is to preach Christ. You only have a big mouth, that’s it. It doesn’t mean a thing.

We don’t need a lot of big mouths shouting and yelling. We need a lot of brothers who know how to be the slave of others.

Make Yourself Available To Be a Slave to the Saints

One young sister, I think she was about 14 years old, came to me saying, “I just can’t find someone to be companions with.” I said, “Well, if there is no one around your age, there are always some older sisters. They will understand what you are going through, and what you are doing, and you can fellowship with them. You can go to one of them, then two, then three, then four, and then five. Naturally, there will be one or two who are burdened for you.” She says, “But none of them are burdened for me.” Then I was sitting there, thinking, “O Lord Jesus, what is this? This means nobody is preaching Christ here.” You can’t say, “Oh, she’s too troublesome.” You know why you are here? You are here because she is too troublesome. The fact that you are here is for the sake of the saints. Don’t say they are too troublesome, nobody is too troublesome. Everyone needs shepherding, everyone needs care. Everyone needs this wonderful Christ to be preached unto them. But by what? Not by your lip service, but by you making yourself available to be a slave to them. 

I tell you, if, in the church life, there can be a bunch of brothers who make up their mind saying, “I want to be a slave of the saints. I do not care if they are weak, or if they are strong. I do not care if they are heavenly, or if they are not heavenly. If it is reasonable, or if it is unreasonable. I do not care about these things. I want to preach Christ. How? By making myself available to them all the time. I have to be in my spirit, I have to be in the Lord’s presence. I have to labor, I have to be fervent. Why? So that I can make myself a slave to the brothers. It is not so that I can get a promotion, but so that I can get a demotion.” The more you are demoted, the more you are blessed. 

By Growth, We Are “Demoted”

In the first one or two weeks, when you first come into the church life, are you not like the king or queen in the church life? When you stand up saying, “Praise the Lord!” I mean, everybody knows you are talking nonsense, but everybody says, “Amen! Amen!” Because everyone wants to serve you. When you offer a peculiar prayer. “Lord Jesus I don’t know what I’m doing here.” The saints may say, “Amen, Amen!” When you have a peculiar testimony: “Brothers, today I went to the movies.” They say, “Amen!” Everybody’s attitude is, “as long as you grow up, we would like to do everything to help you.” Then, you may like this response, so you try to maintain it. Eventually, when the saints stop responding like this, you may fight for it. You may fight by trying to promote yourself. You may think “The more I ‘promote’ myself, the more I can get this kind of response.” But no, we actually need a “demotion.” 

When a new believer first comes, everybody says “Amen, amen!” After three months they say one wrong word, and nobody says amen anymore. Do the brothers not love them anymore? No, it is because they grew. Therefore by growth, we are “demoted.” The more mature you are; the more useful you are; and the more the Lord is going through you, the more you become a “demoted” brother in the church life. But, the more you are a star, the more others say you are wonderful, the more people appreciate you, the more people “amen” you, are all proof that you do not have much maturity in life.

Any new one can offer any kind of peculiar prayer. Even when they say something wrong, you may amen. You don’t want to, but you don’t want to hurt him. Everything they do, you would say amen. Then, after a while, that kind of sweetness is gone. Why is it gone? Because they have been the master for too long. Now it’s their turn to be a slave and for other new ones to be the masters. Whenever you grow, your growth would bring you into the position of being a slave. And brothers, the more you are a slave to others, the more the church will reap the profit. 

It’s too bad that, in the recovery,  there are not many slaves. We need a lot more. We need many brothers who would be willing to be others’ slaves, willing to give themselves to others, willing to give their life to others, and willing to give their house to others. 

To the Sisters

And to the wives—all the dear sisters, would you please also say, “For Christ’s sake, I’m willing to give my husband to others?” I know it’s a hard thing to do because the one thing that you fight for really hard is for your husband’s time. All the wives are bothered if the husband serves the Lord, even when the husband was brought to the recovery by you. A wife, before the husband was saved, may come to the church with tears, crying, “Would you all please pray for my husband? He is still drinking and…” so the church would pray “Lord, save him, save him,” then, the Lord answers the prayer and he gets saved. She would come again, “Would you please pray for my husband? He is saved, but he doesn’t love the Lord.” So the church: “Lord, get him to love You,” and praise the Lord, He answers the prayer. Then, the wife again says, “Oh my husband loves the Lord but he is not in the church life,” then the church prays, ‘Lord, get him in the church life,” so finally he is in the church life. Then, the wife prays, “Lord get him out of the church life.” And the Lord will not answer. He would say, “What are you doing? Aren’t you the one who told me to get him in?” But you say, “No, no Lord, don’t you know? Of course I got bothered when he was drinking in the bar, but when he is in the meeting hall I am also getting bothered.” Would you sisters say amen to me? This is a hard lesson for the sisters to learn. 

Once, I told a sister in a very frank way, I said, “Sister, what are you fighting about? This is much better than your husband getting involved in immoral things. This is much better than him getting involved in bars. Sister, would you please look around, in all of the United States how many husbands stay at home anyways?” Do not say the church took them over, it’s something healthy that took them over. Do not say church took my husband, say that the Lord, in a healthy way, occupied my husband so that I can get the blessing.

The sisters don’t appreciate this. Sometimes the stubborn sisters say, “I’d rather get a divorce!” I told them, “Sister, you better wake up. Out of every two couples, one of them gets divorced. Only in the church do we not divorce.” And the other couple who do not divorce may not be doing well either. Only the Lord knows what is behind the scenes. Maybe they are together for their children’s sake. Maybe they are together for social status’ sake. Only the Lord knows who the pure couples are. And once you are brought into such a pure thing, everyone lives a pure life. Everyone lives in such a godly manner. Some sisters still like to say, “I’d rather divorce, I don’t care.” You know sisters, even you also have to learn to be the slave of others. When your husband’s occupied, don’t fight, don’t argue, pray. Then husbands, be nice to your wife. Tell the wife, “I’m sorry, I have to go serve. You should go too.” That would be the best. “In the case you don’t have a service meeting, and you have to stay at home; pray for me so that my hand can be strong.” 

You see, we, even our house, our families are just slaves to others. We don’t have anything. Our talents, our time, our health, our money, our possessions, our house, our car, our everything is just to be a slave for the church’s sake. This is how you can preach Christ. If you want to preach Christ, you must have this basic attitude. This basic attitude is that you, all the time, be a slave to the saints in the church. If you do not want to be a slave, let me assure you, you will not preach much Christ. Your preaching will be very limited.

The One Who Preaches Christ Must Experience the Face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6)

Having the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God Depends on Your Heart

Then, you come to verse 6. This verse is a rich verse; it is very hard to understand. This verse first tells us, God is very happy to do one thing. He is commanding the light to shine out of darkness all the time. So do not say “I don’t have light.” If you don’t have light, then God is not responsible. Why? Because it says here clearly: “God has already commanded the light to shine out of darkness.” So God has done his job, but how about you? You have to allow the light to shine in your heart. Many times, your heart is not open. And, because your heart is not open, there is not so much light. You see, many brothers ask, “How can I have light? When can I have light?” You have to realize that the light is there all the time. It all depends on how open you are to the light. When you open yourself to the light, the light comes in a little. You open a lot, the light comes in a lot. And this openness is all dependent on your heart. How is your heart? If your heart is for the Lord, if your heart is for the church. There will be a lot of light shining in your heart. 

Then, what is this light? When the light shines in your heart, it begins to give you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Every time the light comes, the light brings you the knowledge of the glory of God. That is, first, the glory of God as the substance. Secondly, you have a realization of the glory of God. So the glory of God is no longer objective to you, it becomes subjective to you. But what is this glory of God? It is the face of Jesus Christ. 

The Countenance of Jesus Christ

Now do you understand how to preach Christ? What is the experience of preaching Christ? Firstly, you have to experience the face of Christ. Anyone that preaches Christ and not their self is only able to because they first experience the countenance, or the face, of Christ. If you don’t experience the countenance of Christ, you have no cargo to preach. The more the countenance of Christ is with you, the more Christ you have to preach.

You know brother, you all cover me. I’m a sloppy scholar. I’m not a reader at all, and I’m just a troublemaker. But in the many years of my life, by the Lord’s mercy, the countenance of Christ changes all the time. Every year, I can testify to you with a pure conscience that my Jesus is different. Not one year is the same. In the past twenty-four, twenty-five years where I have loved the Lord, I get a new Jesus every year. I do not mean it is really a new Jesus, it is still the same Jesus, but every year the countenance has been more clear.

When I first got saved I could describe the countenance like, “Something is there, I know that is Jesus. I don’t know if that’s his eye, I don’t know if that’s his eyebrow. I don’t know if that’s his nose. I don’t know if that’s his mouth. I don’t know what the color is. I just know that something was there.” Why? Because there was so little light. The lack of light is not because of the Lord, but because there was so little light in my heart.

At that time, my understanding was simply to love the Lord, to not go to the movies anymore, and to not commit sin anymore. I did not know how to be a slave, nor what it meant to be a slave of the church. I did not know how to give up my job nor did I know how to have a ministry. I did not know anything. All of what I knew was of the Lord. Because I love the Lord, the face of Jesus appears to me, but it seems dark. I do not mean that Christ is dark, but His appearance to me is as if He is in the dark. If you were to ask me, “How are His eyes?” I would respond, “I’m not quite sure.” “Does He have an eyebrow?” “I guess so” “Does he have a beautiful nose? “Maybe like an American, since Americans have beautiful noses.” “And does he have a good mouth?” “I’m just not quite sure, nothing is clear to me!”

The Countenance Becomes Clearer and Clearer

Every year Christ is closer. Does that make sense to you? For instance, years ago, brother, you know Christ, but He feels far far away. You can preach something, but your preaching will be so limited. However, every year you take one more step. Year after year you take steps. Is that clear to you now? I tell you, if you want to preach Christ, you need to be a slave. In experience, you need to be in the place to see the face or the countenance of Christ all the time because this countenance changes. The word change is not right, perhaps the word becomes clear. This countenance becomes clear. This countenance becomes clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer.

Therefore, every time you preach Christ, it is different. When you first preach Christ, His figure is like a dark Christ. Then you preach Christ more, and you discover that he has a nose. Then you preach Christ even more and you find that he has two eyes. After preaching more, you start to see His mouth. As you preach Christ, you begin to know more of his countenance outwardly. You know what I mean? You see him more. How can you get the experience of the face of Christ?

God Has Done His Job

Firstly, God has done His job. God commanded the light already. God says, “don’t ask me. I did everything.” Many times you say, “Lord, would you please give me light?” The Lord would say, “what are you talking about? The light is here. You take me in, and the light is here already.” God has done His job.

The Shining on Our Heart Opens Our Heart for More Shining

Secondly, this shining on our heart opens our heart for more shining. Do you know what this means: “Opening our heart for more shining?” Many times, you know what is right but you don’t want the Lord to tell you. Think about that peculiar prophet Baalam. When King Balak comes to him, Baalam knows the right thing to do. “Would you please go curse the Isrealites?” Do you know what is right? He said he knows the right thing to do, but he likes to hold his Baptist Church. So what did he do? He’s so spiritual. If Jehovah tells me to go, I will go. If Jehovah tells me not to go, I will not go. Let me go and pray to Jehovah. When he goes to pray, the Lord says, “What are you coming here for? Surely I don’t want you to go.” Then he comes back up to Balak and answers, “Jehovah tells me not to go. I’m sorry. I love the money but I can’t go.”

You can see by this that he loves money. So they come a second time with even more money. How about this? Suppose the first time, he just said, “Get out of here. I’m one with God.” The whole thing would be over right? His heart has problems, but he’s so spiritual and says, “Let me pray about it. Maybe the Lord will lead me, maybe the Lord will not lead me. If Jehovah tells me to go, then I’ll go, or if He says no, then I’ll not go.” You need to think about this peculiar odd person. Then the Lord says, “what are you talking about?” “Come on Lord; tell me not to go.” But finally he still goes on the donkey. And the donkey began to speak to him. And you know what’s most special is he speaks back to the donkey. You know the heart that he has. That heart became a donkey’s heart. That’s why he speaks to the donkey. Just think about if you’re riding a horse, and the horse begins to say “John.” What would happen to you? You would never speak back, you would faint already. His master says, “why are you beating…” “I’d rather kill you,” he said. He was arguing with a donkey. Why? Because he got a donkey’s heart. His heart was just as stupid as a donkey.

Does that make sense to you? You know brothers? Don’t say, “Lord, oh your light, I’m looking for your light.” The Lord would say, “My light is no problem. How about your heart?” If you just aim at eldership, to be an elder. If you just want to be a coordinator. If you just want to have the ball in your hand. For sure you have no light. Why? Your heart is not right. Your heart doesn’t provide the Lord a place for light and shining. Your heart is occupied with coordinatorship, the eldership, the ball in your hand, cheesecakes, a candy bar. Your heart is occupied with a beach, with the mountains, the retreat, the Keys. I tell you, anyone’s heart that is occupied by these for sure will not see the face of Jesus. Why? Because your heart is closed. 

But if your heart is pure, single. That means you only love Jesus. You only love His recovery. Then what? The light will just come to you all the time, however and whenever you are needed. Whenever you are needed, the light will come to you. The light will not come to you once because you’re killed. You will be killed. But, the light will always come to you according to the timing of God. God will always look at you because your heart is so right — He will look at you. He will realize, “Now you’re ready for this much light.” He will give you this much light. Then when you are ready for more light, he’ll give you more light. Another year, you’ll need more light. The Lord will give you more light. God is always ready to give light to you. The reason why you don’t get too much is either because you are young or because your heart is just not right. If anyone’s heart is not right, they never get light. Be assured of this. Even if your heart is right, the light is given to you according to your measure of life. Is that clear? You will not get one light that knocks you off and kills you. You’ll get some light and more light and more light and every time the light comes, it gives you the realization of the glory. 

The Realization of the Glory of God

That is the third point, right? The glory what? The knowledge of the glory of God gives you the realization of the glory of God. You know brother, what is knowledge? Do you have light? Are you in glory? The light doesn’t just expose you and knock you down and make you feel bad. The light comes and makes you feel so glorious. Even in the worst times, even in the moments when you just feel so big, the Lord knocks you down and you will be crawling on the floor. You dare not pray. You say, “Lord, I’m sorry. I just wish I could go to hell. Lord, I’m not qualified.” Brother, don’t think I’m joking. I had many experiences like this. When the light comes, you dare not do anything. You’re laying on the floor. You dare not move. You say, “Lord, I never realized I’m so poor. I never realized I’m so sinful. I never realized I’m so impure. I never realized the only good place for me is hell. Would you please send me to hell?” I pray like this. But the peculiar thing was this: after the prayer, I got up and I felt glorious. 

You know what Satan does? Satan never gives you light. Satan is just old — an old lady. He’ll come to you and say, “Your hair is too long. Blah blah blah.” You know what I mean? “Your shirt is too dark. Your pen is not right.” It bothers you. “What’s wrong? It’s not right”. But there is no glory. When you have no glory, there is a lot of “blah blah blah.” You have to learn to tell Satan, “Satan aren’t you busy enough? Get out of here. Go get to your disciples not me. I belong to Jesus. Go get the children of Darkness. Work on them but don’t work on me. Satan, get out!” However, when you get a lot of “blah blah blah,” you have to say get out. Whenever the light comes, it should always be glorious.

You just think about last night. Lord cover me to say that. Right? Last night there was some light. I do believe. Last night especially at the end when we shared about the family tradition. But when we’re having the light, we feel judged. We feel rebuked. Right? We feel exposed, but don’t we feel glorious? At the same time, we feel it’s glorious. Hallelujah! There’s hope. There’s glory. We can go on. The Recovery’s wonderful. Why, when the light comes in, it kneels you down but it also lifts you up. So what? So when your heart is open, then you’ll have the knowledge of the glory of God. Your self is diminished. You also have an increase of Christ. Isn’t that wonderful? 

You Begin to Preach Christ

Then fourthly, you begin to preach Christ. Then, this knowledge itself is hot. It’s the face of Jesus. Jesus Christ. Now you know how to preach Christ. You don’t preach Christ by reading some reference materials. You know? You don’t come up to say, “Brother Mackintosh said it in this way. Darby said that in that way. Moody said it in this way. Luther said in this way.” You can never preach Christ like this, but I’m afraid very few preach Christ according to this principle. 

We Like To Bargain with the Lord

Whoever is altered would want to make it show. We bargain with the Lord. Bribe the Lord. Do you know what I mean by bribing the Lord? You pray much more than the regular meetings because it’s your turn. “Lord, I’m going to the church meeting tonight. Cover me with your precious blood. Bless me. O Lord. I ask for your blood if you don’t bless me. I don’t know how I can go on.” You’re bribing the Lord! The Lord will laugh at you. What kind of thing is this? You know what I mean? You say, “Use me, use me!” The Lord says, “What are you talking about?” “Use me!” “Use you for what?” “Because I’m gonna preach tonight.” “So what?” Don’t think I’m joking. I got this experience when I was praying. The Lord says, “So what? Don’t you know how to live in me? Don’t you know how to abide in me? Don’t you know how to allow me to deal with you? What are you so excited about? What is the difference between your preaching and other people’s preaching? Everybody’s the same. What makes you so special to pray so much?” You should pray for every meeting, but we like to bribe the Lord, and encourage the Lord, beg the Lord, make a bargain with the Lord. Even to the Lord, we pray, “If you bless me today, tomorrow I’ll go to morning watch.” Don’t think you didn’t pray in this way. I know you pray because I prayed like this. I prayed many times like this in my early years — always bargaining. You know what I mean? I’ll do this for you Lord, if you do that for me. This is totally out of the principle of preaching Christ. Preaching Christ is one hundred percent a subjective matter. You experience Christ subjectively. How do you experience Christ? 

Recap of Four Points: How Do You Experience Christ?

First, God has no problem. He’s ready to give you all the riches. Secondly, you take care of your heart. Let it be open. Let your heart be single. Open for shining or maybe I just say this: single and pure. Let your heart be single and pure. Thirdly, when your heart is so single and pure, the glory of God or the light will come into you according to your measure of life. Is that clear? Not all but according to your measure of life. Then you would realize the glory of God and that becomes knowledge. Does that make sense to you? And that becomes knowledge.

For instance, I know this brother, but I don’t have much knowledge about him. The more I’m with him, the more I have some knowledge about him. So when I preach about him, it’s not as a statue, it is no longer just an uncertain thing, but I know him too well: his mind. his will, his emotion, his disposition, his character, his constitution. I know everything about him: his ambition, his desire, his weak point, his strong point, his problems, and his prevailing-ness. I know everything. Then when I preach about him, I have a lot to preach. But when I preach about him, there’s no glory. When I preach the knowledge of God, there’s glory. Why? Because God Himself is subsisting. When I preach, I just feel glorious. Every time I preach Christ, that is Christ shining in my heart. Oh it was glorious! And that presentation becomes the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, isn’t that a rich verse? Hard to understand. Do you understand? If you don’t, I can’t abide with you. We have to go on, but this is really rich. How the Lord commands the light to shine on our heart to have the knowledge of the glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

Anyone who preaches Christ must have an experience like this. You don’t have this experience, you have nothing to preach. Last week, if you have not been so pure, so single, and opened your heart to allow the light to come in, then this week you have nothing to share. Don’t just try to have the experience that, “This morning, Sunday, I’m going to show off.” I don’t think you mean show off but, “I’m gonna make it.” Make what? I don’t know. But anyway, you’re gonna make it. So after the meeting you stand up, “Praise the Lord!” Everybody looks at you. They don’t know what to say. You look at everybody. Your Spirit is released. Your voice is quite loud but what are you going to say? The whole week last week there’s no shining. There’s no opening of heart. There’s no enlightenment of Christ. There’s no glory. There’s no knowing of the Lord’s face. You just say, “Praise the Lord! I’m going to sit down.”

Why couldn’t you give a good testimony? Don’t think: “I don’t have a loud voice.” Brother, the church is not composed of kids only paying attention to loud voices. I don’t have a loud voice now. Am I right? They always pay attention to how much Christ is with you. If you are so single every day, come to the Lord, labor on the Lord, are diligent in the presence of the Lord, read the word, and pray, you will have a lot of shining on your heart. You will have a lot of knowledge of the glory of God. This Lord God reflects and manifests the face of Jesus Christ. Now you say, “We preach Christ and not ourselves.” Now you realize. Is it not clear? 

The One Who Preaches Christ Must Experience the Treasure in the Earthen Vessel (2 Cor. 4:7–9)

The Vessel Doesn’t Mean a Thing

Now then, this is not enough. You have another experience. You have another experience; the second experience. For you to preach Christ, the second experience is a treasure and vessel. Verse 7: “but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” Okay here you have the treasure, the first experience of the face of Christ. Second is the experience of the treasure. What is contrary to the treasure is the earthen vessel. 

You know brother, firstly let me remind you: the vessel doesn’t mean a thing. You know among us, among us young people all the comparison comes from the vessels. What grade of vessel you are? If you are at the University of Washington, first class. If you are working already, second class. If you have three kids that have tied you up, third class. If you didn’t even graduate from high school, fourth class. If you are just a janitor in the school, fifth class. You know? In the church life we like to classify the vessels. You know, I think there are many professional brothers in the church life. They are professionals with classifying. Who has potential? Who does not have potential? Who is hopeful? Who’s not hopeful? The Lord will use someone. The Lord will not use someone. Brother, you are not God. Please don’t play God. You don’t know. You never know what’s what. Maybe ten years later one of you brothers will be raised up by the Lord and really have something, and I would sit down and take notes. What’s wrong with this? But don’t think that’s you. Then you’re gonna be in trouble. You don’t play God. 

These matters are totally in God’s hand. We never know who’s what, but we do know one thing: where are college graduates and where are there not college graduates. You are in college; you’re not in college. Where the action is. Where the action is not. Everybody and everyone is a vessel. Action vessel, non-action vessel, college vessel, non college vessel, high school graduates, or president vessel. Everybody instead of the Lord’s earthen vessel. I cannot use you. What I can use to preach Christ is the treasure. 

The Excellency of Power Is of God, Not of Us

So Paul says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. With this treasure you have the excellency of power and then this excellent power — it is of God and not of us. So on the other side, instead of the excellent power, you have the self life. The vessel produces the self life. The self life has nothing, but the treasure, which is a very life of God himself, this very treasure would produce the excellency of the power. We don’t have time to get into this, but surely you have to learn to appreciate the excellency of the power.

Within us, there is a power. There is dynamite. Or in other words, there is cargo. This cargo, this dynamite, this power is excellent. Nothing can supersede it. Nothing. Your problem cannot supersede it. Your difficulty cannot supersede it. Your weakness cannot supersede it. Even your sinfulness cannot supersede it. Whatever you have cannot supersede his excellency. In the West, when you go to see the king or queen, you say, “Your excellency.” Why? Because no one supersedes them. Within us there is a treasure. What is this treasure? This treasure is power, a cargo. And this power, this cargo has excellency. That means nothing can supersede this power. Do you have this power? I tell you brother, one day you will begin to realize, within me there is excellency and power. You would have a real rest before the Lord. Why are you bothered? Why are you troubled? All because you like to abide in your self life. All your troubling, all your problems, all your competitions, all your disappointments, all the things you experience in the church life all prove you love the vessel and not the treasure.

All those who experience the treasure are preaching the treasure. Experiencing the treasure means that they would experience the excellency of the power all the time. It’s excellent. Something within you supersedes. Brother, I just want to tell you how many stories, how many testimonies there are just in my life. The excellency of power works. When that works, everything is defeated. Nothing can bother me. Nothing can overcome me. But whenever I try to live under the vessel and I try to take a mirror and look at myself, “That’s not so bad. That’s a handsome man. Brilliant. With two eyes. Hallelujah.” I tell you: immediately I will be troubled. Then I will be perplexed. Then I will be persecuted. Then I will be knocked off and cast down. That’s why right after this Paul gives you the four experiences.

Four Experiences according to the Self Life and according to the Spirit

One belongs to the self life. One belongs to the spirit. What is this? In the soul life, you are troubled. It’s not bad. You need it to make you realize the awfulness of the vessel. You need to be troubled. Then, more than troubled, you are perplexed. That means not sure. Perplexed. Then you are persecuted. Then you are cast down. Cast down is actually knocked off. That means all over. But in the spirit, with the excellency of His power, you have another kind of experience. That is not distressed. And not in despair. Then not forsaken. Then not destroyed. Praise the lord — not destroyed! 

You see here, it tells us that if you want to preach Christ, first you need the experience of light which reflects this very Christ. Second, you need experience of the treasure plus the vessel. In other words, you need experience of the excellency of the power plus your self life. It was very peculiar. You could never believe that the one who preaches Christ needs to experience the soul life. If I was Paul writing the Bible I would say, “You have the treasure in the earthen vessels, the experience of the power that is of God and not of us. We are not in distress and not in despair and we’re not forsaken and not destroyed. Hallelujah! Let’s go on.” He didn’t say this. He said, “don’t you know? If I only tell you this, then you don’t know what I’m talking about. No matter how I tell you, ‘the vessel is nothing,’ the sisters are all going to look at the mirror tonight. Do you agree with me? Maybe not all but 80 percent. And they will look at the mirror not to clean up but to appreciate their faces. My eyes are not big enough but my eyebrows are very pretty. My nose is not so straight but my mouth is wonderful. Right? Oh, my hair, this kind of hair. This shape of my face.” Everybody loves themselves. When you say, “I don’t preach self,” God says, “I don’t believe you.” When you say, “I preach Christ and not self,” God says, “Nonsense.” Why? Let me try to explain a little bit.

Troubled on Every Side but Heaven’s Side

First, surely you need to be under the light. Otherwise, you don’t know anything about this. You just feel lucky or unlucky. That’s all that you do because you have no light. If the Lord beats you, then you feel unlucky. If the Lord doesn’t beat you, then you feel lucky. Don’t you know all the Christians that are “unlucky-lucky” Christians? They have saturated this earth. You talk with many Christians and they say the Lord makes me lucky. They say the Lord makes me unlucky. They never realize there is nothing called lucky; there is nothing called unlucky. With us, we don’t have such words in our dictionary. We only have the treasure, the power, the excellency, and contrary to the vessel and the soul life. We only have this. And the Lord continuously exposes our soul life. Continuously exposes our self life. To make us realize the wonderfulness of this treasure. Is that clear? You never realize your soul life means that you never appreciate the treasure. When your soul life is exposed to the uttermost and is cast down, then what? Then you begin to realize the treasure “not destruction.” The more your soul life is exposed, the more you begin to love the treasure. How the Lord exposes your soul life and just arranges all the things. First he bothers you a little bit. But there’s no end. You’re troubled on every side. Heaven is open. Front back left and right. We are all problems. I applied to WashU but they didn’t accept me. I applied to another school but they didn’t accept me either. But everybody told me the action is there and I’m not in the action; therefore, I’m hopeless. You are troubled on every side. But brother, the action side is not troubled! Can you go up? Would you please drop the left, right, front, back and look up. Praise the Lord. Once you go up, hallelujah! You’re not distressed. You’re so happy.

What makes you so happy? This side. Look around. No side makes me happy but this side makes me very happy. I’m not distressed. Distressed means not happy right? You know once you’re troubled, you’re just not happy. And the Lord always allows you to be troubled. You go to the bus and the bus takes off. You’re troubled. You want to get a taxi and you don’t have money. You’re troubled. And you realize your dear friend is waiting for you right over there. And you realize you just can’t afford these 15 minutes. When you are so troubled the Lord says, “come on, Heaven’s side is open. Experience me subjectively on this matter. Heaven’s side is open.” Brother, don’t you know that nothing helps you more than this kind of thing? The more you are troubled, the more you know. Hallelujah for Heaven’s side! You brothers are in the brother’s house. The five of you love one another and are praying in oneness. Then, you get a new one in the house. Praise the Lord! And this new one comes and sucks. He puts his shoes on the dining table. He doesn’t know a thing. You have a bum. You just have a bum in the brother’s house. He doesn’t know a thing. When the time comes to eat, he eats a lot. After he eats, he washes nothing. His socks are on the glass, his shoes are on the table, he never makes his bed, and he smells stinky. Don’t complain. The church includes everyone including bums. The church is for everyone! The church is for every created human being. Even the bums should have a place in the church life. To do what? Their function is to transform you.

Those With Light Do Not Complain

Only the stupid people complain. Only those who have no life complain. This brother bothers me so much. The elders control me so much. We young people don’t have the ball enough. The cheesecake isn’t big enough. I tell you, only the unlearned ones complain. Those who have light don’t complain. Whenever their trouble comes, they go, “Praise the Lord! What a wonderful change! I forget the Lord for two days, now the trouble comes. If I don’t exercise my spirit for two days, I need to be troubled.” Troubled on what? Troubled on every side. One side you don’t go, then two sides. Two sides you don’t go, then three sides. You are smart. Only one side, you always find a way out. You know what I mean? “If Seattle doesn’t work, then I will move to Moses Lake. If Moses Lake doesn’t work I’ll go to Spokane. I have a burden.” You have no burden. I don’t believe you have any burden. You just want to make a gain in the recovery. You couldn’t be a leader, you couldn’t be somebody, therefore, you just keep on moving until you drop out. Until you become a dropout. I’ve seen brothers migrate to three places in one year with no intention of leaving the church and finally dropping out. Why? There’s no place for him. But if you are spiritual, you’ll never do this kind of thing. If I’m in Seattle, then Seattle is the best. If I’m in Eugene, then Eugene is the best. If I’m in Roseburg, then Roseburg is the best. Don’t say, “the elders this or that.” Don’t talk about strong prevailing. You take care of everything. All this trouble is taken on just with one burden of the Lord. The Lord is burdened to give you all the trouble for you to enjoy the Lord. For you to be happy. For you to be happy in the Lord’s presence.

Troubled and Perplexed

You know, in the early years, I did experience this kind of thing. A lot of this kind of thing. Some are just like miracles. I took the university entrance exam five times. There is a guy that stupid. Tried five times. And I wasn’t from a bad school. I wasn’t a bad student. I wasn’t a good student but not that bad. And nobody goes to military training twice. I went twice. Could you believe that? I’m the only one who went twice. Why? To be troubled. Troubled and don’t know what to do. When you don’t know what to do you just go up. Then the more you’re troubled, the more you go up. The excellency of the power is not of us but of God. If you are not troubled, you never know this. If you have a Cadillac and you have a lot of money to buy gas. You know how to pay bills in the brother’s house. You have a good record. You have a good university. You have a good job waiting for you at Boeing. You are not troubled with anything. Everything is so comfortable, and you are happy. Until you lose your job. Until Boeing says we like you, but we can’t keep you. Until your professor just stands against you for no reason. He loves everyone in the class but not you. Everyone is going to get an A but you are going to get an F. When you are in all of these environments, you will begin to say, “Oh Lord Jesus!” You know what? The excellency of the power begins to move. When the excellency of the power begins to move, Hallelujah! You begin to realize that you are not in distress. This is not of me but of God.

You know, the second time I took the university entrance exam, the Lord was very humorous and put me in a department called the boy scouts department. I passed into the boy scout department. So I looked at the report and I didn’t know if I should go or not. The Lord was very humorous. What should I do? So, I also passed the test for the officers’ language school to learn English, so I decided I better go there. After I decided to go there, I was drafted into the Army to go to basic training. I shouldn’t have gone because I was in the university. I had officer language school, but I was drafted. So I went there and I was very unhappy and said, “Lord, what are you doing, You sent me there?” Especially since that was the time the famous spiritual man T. Austin Sparks visited the church in Taipei. So I got all the letters; the meetings are so good. Every letter made me cry. After I got into the training, I went to see the doctors in the army. Everyone is supposed to see him for some reason. He looked at me and said, “You shouldn’t come.” Why? “Because your skin.” I said, “I shouldn’t come to basic training, then I can leave?” He said, “because you already came, you cannot go.” Then why would he tell me this? Since I came I cannot go? It’s just another cut. 

Being troubled on one side is enough, but there are also two sides and three sides. And that day, before I was discharged, I got another letter that said, “You are drafted to go to another military academy for another four months training.” What? And the date was the discharge date of the first training. No rest. So I went to the battalion commander, and said, “You better let me go for two days. I better go back to get some privacy, then I am starting another one.” So I went back and started another one. Even in that, the Lord was humorous. I was on the train putting on the blue garments uniform. I was really sad. I was singing hymns all the way. ‘Tis the way of the cross. Are you willing for this? What does bearing the cross mean to you? You who’ve given yourself, your all to God, to God are you wholly true? I was singing the songs to myself; I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I said, “Lord, why should you be so cruel to me? Why? I love you. I didn’t do anything wrong. At least not worth another training session. Lord, could you be a little bit nicer?” Then we came to a small railway station. But we waited there for a long time. What are we doing waiting here? Finally, there’s a train coming from the other side. I was there looking up as the train came. The train on the other side had a compartment exactly opposite to my compartment, so I looked up. All of a sudden, all of the people jumped up, saying, “Titus you go again!” That’s my company in that compartment. And I looked at them and I didn’t know whether I should cry or laugh or praise the Lord or I should curse myself. I just didn’t know what to do. I was shocked. All of them had put on civilian clothes and they were going home. “Oh Titus, you’re going again?” Yes, I will go again. Brother, the Lord was cruel to us. Why? Because he realizes how we love the earthen vessels. We love our earthen vessels. We say we preach Christ not self, but really, we are preaching self and not Christ. The only way to get us out of preaching self and instead preach Christ is to keep on enlightening us. To provide us with the face of Christ. Secondly, He give us all of these experiences.

The second year, I entered the examination again and I didn’t pass. My father said, “How come Titus, your studying was so poor?” Of course, I love the Lord and I gave Him my all. And he said, “maybe you go to too many meetings? If you go to fewer meetings, maybe you’ll do better.” I said, yeah, yeah. I dared not argue that day because I was defeated right? Then I got the report of the grade. I looked at it. What happened? 

My grade should have passed. Why didn’t I pass? I told my father, I said, “Dad, look, look, my grade should have passed.” I went to the university. I told them, “Look, this is the grade you gave to me. I should have passed. Why is my name there?” That officer looked at it and said, “You changed it!” Oh Lord Jesus! Okay so the third year comes. The third time was very funny. I was in the service in July. I was an interpreter working with Americans. All of a sudden, I got an order and was discharged in June. It was peculiar. And the test was at the end of July, so I got about three weeks to prepare for the test. I thought I couldn’t participate in the test. And at the same time my younger brother who was five years younger than me was also participating in the same test. So my father and my mother kept on saying, “It doesn’t matter if your brother doesn’t pass. He’s young, He can do it next year. But you are old; you better make it this time.” I said, “Yeah, yeah, I know I’m old.” 

So, one day before the final grade was revealed, there was a brother in the church who knew someone in the test group so he could find our scores for us. He told me he would call that a certain time so I was waiting for the phone. Finally, he called me and he says, “he picked up!” The phone rang and I picked up the phone. He said, “Congratulations to your brother!” I thought, “What?!” He said, “he got into National Taiwan University,” which is the best university. “He got into National Taiwan University’s Agricultural Chemistry Department.” I said, “How about me then?” He said, “Sorry, brother.” He said, “300 is the passing score and you got 299.” You know, brother, I don’t see this kind of thing as a peculiar thing. Every time I think about it, I love the Lord more. The Lord loves me so much he will not let me go. He surely made sure that I would be troubled on every side. And even what? Even perplexed. But I can tell you, the moment that brother told me, “Your score is 299,” my immediate reaction was “This is the Lord.” What does one point mean out of a 300 score? Immediately my reaction was, “This is the Lord!” So I turned back, I said, “Brother.” I told my brother, “Congratulations, you got into National Taiwan University.” Then my mother said, “How about you?” I said, “I failed by one point.” My mother said, “I would rather that you had gotten in!” Then she walked away. No one dared to laugh in the whole family. Even my brother. This took many years of labor to get into and he made it but he dared not to laugh — not even smile. Everyone was quiet because I couldn’t pass. 

I just had a feeling. I was sitting there thinking, “I’m guilty to the whole family.” But at the same time I had a sense, “Lord, I worship you. I worship you. This is not from man, this is from the Lord!” Later, there were a lot of trials and a lot of tribulations in my life in following the Lord. But every time I think about the first years, many, many things happened. I think about all these years, I always tell myself, “Jesus, you are responsible for everything. You are the very God, you’re wonderful!” Why? Brothers, only when you are troubled you know the real joy. Only when you are perplexed, you know the real hope. What does perplexed mean? Perplexed means, “I’m not quite sure anymore — is that true? Should I follow the Lord or not?” Only when you’re perplexed do you know the real hope. Don’t believe the young ones, “We are for the Lord’s recovery!” They are for the Lord’s recovery in the meetings. When they go home they are for the TV. Brother, but those who are faithful proclaim, “We preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, Lord, deal with us! Lord, work on us! Lord, we don’t care how smooth our work is, we don’t care how prevailing our work is, but we do care that day by day we are your workmanship. Day by day, your hand is upon us! Train us, labor on us, discipline us! Therefore, we have no interest in our outer man. We only trust that our confidence will only be in our spirit and in Christ.”

Persecuted for No Reason

Not only are we troubled and perplexed, but we are also persecuted for no reason. Persecuted means things happen to you without any reason. It could be something legal where you did something wrong and reap the consequences. Maybe it’s something illegal, where it just comes to you. For me, the 299 points was something illegal. Lord, why didn’t I get just one more point? Why with one point did You have to put me to shame again? With just one more point I would have been okay. Why did You have to hold onto that one point? If you write a composition, what is the difference when you grade a composition that scores a 45 versus a 46? Aren’t the difficulties all in the hand of the Lord? Isn’t every difficulty in the hand of the Lord? Why don’t You just move the difficulty? Just give one more point. Why must You reduce that one point to make me be shameful? To make me be a problem, to make me bother my parents?

One year in 1958 or 1957, I surely had some experience of being knocked down. At midnight I would kneel down either on my bed or beside my bed. I would cry out, “Lord, please just do one thing, don’t forsake me. I don’t care about the prize. I don’t care about anything. Don’t forsake me!” The Lord was apparent. He told me, “From now on, you are useless.” I was not a small thing when I began to realize I was useless, at a young age. I had just gotten into college and I was coming in late. When I was just finishing my freshman year a kind of sickness came. Then I became useless. With this sickness, I was useless. I began to realize, “Lord, I have loved you like this — since 1954, I have given my whole being to you. After four years I’m useless.” I cried, I prayed, because the Lord was hard. There was no sympathy and no mercy. He taught me to realize, “Don’t look at your flesh. Don’t look at your soul life. Don’t look at the outward things.” 

Now, brother, you realize how shallow we have been. Now you see these experiences, you realize what it is to follow the Lord. To follow the Lord is not a cheap thing, to follow the Lord is not an exciting thing, to follow the Lord is not a simple thing, to follow the Lord means you are over. You are terminated. Your whole life will be hopeless, useless in this world, even hopeless. Useless, in the hand of the Lord. Your eyes will be taken away from the future, from career, from work, from anything, and you begin to say, “Lord, anyway, I love you. Anyway, I love you.” That was my prayer. At the end I dropped all the struggles. I told the Lord, “Lord, I love you, and that’s enough. I just want to love you all my life.” Praise the Lord. 

Now, it’s been about twenty years. 1958 to 1978. I pray the same thing, “Lord, make me love you all my life. I don’t care how I’m used. I don’t care if the brothers appreciate me or not. I don’t care if I’m useful. The Lord can raise up a stone to be useful. Who am I to think I’m somebody?” But on the other hand, I appreciate the ministry I have received. Why? Because I know the price Lord has paid instead of me. The Lord had paid the price to produce the ministry. Brother, at that moment, you surely will have the experience of not being destroyed. You may think everything is over, but the Lord says, “I’m still here.” 

Those Who Preach Christ Must Have A Daily Living Bearing about the Putting to Death of the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 4:10–12)

Do you want to preach Christ? If you want to preach Christ, the first experience you need is the face of Christ. Let the light come to you daily. Secondly is the experience of the treasure. Then we come to the daily life. What kind of life is for you to experience to preach Christ? What kind of daily living? Verses 10 to 12 say, “Always bearing about in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus”  (2 Cor 4:10–12, Recovery). Not the dying but the putting to death of the Lord Jesus. “That the life also of Jesus, might be made manifested in our body.” And secondly, we who live are always delivered unto death. “Delivered unto death, for Jesus’ sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” Then thirdly, “so then death works in us and life in you.” 

Putting to Death

Now you see a man preach Christ. When this man preaches Christ, there’s nothing related to the mouth. There’s nothing related to speaking. Surely I know, people would argue, “Didn’t the Lord say in Romans that if nobody preaches, who can believe?” I agree with him. You need the preaching, but you need the preaching according to Paul. Preaching according to your own testimony is not the issue. This issue is your person. Your person first needs to be put to death day by day in your daily life, bearing the “putting to death” of the Lord Jesus in the body. 

When you are so excited about a basketball game, let the Lord put that matter to death. Whatever you like to do, the Lord begins to cut it. This cutting in, we call “putting to death.” What is putting to death? I like to eat steak, but I don’t eat steak. I like to eat dessert, but I don’t take dessert anymore. I like to play basketball, but I don’t go to the basketball court. I reject, I renounce everything that appeals to my soul life. Then, naturally, I’m putting to death. Is that clear? Putting to death means that I deny anything my soul likes, or even loves. Satan would always come in to tell us, “no no no, this is religion.” Brother, this is not religion! This is the testimony of the apostle Paul! 

No one who does not know how to put himself to death knows how to serve the Lord. Christianity is filled with so-called sermon preachers. What is their problem? When you check with most of them, there is one problem: they never know what the putting to death is! The pastor holds onto the earthly and heavenly blessing. Therefore, they all buy Cadillacs. The pastor wants a good mansion. They take care of their daily living. I tell you brothers, very few realize how we have to learn to put ourselves to death. How to be against ourselves and be an enemy to ourselves. Whatever we like, say no to it! You like to play, say no to playing. You like to eat, say no to eating. You like to enjoy something, say no to your enjoyment. Putting yourself to death. 

When you put yourself to death and are always bearing about the “putting to death of the Lord Jesus” in the body, then the life of Jesus can be manifested in your body. Then within you there is life. The life can then come out, which is the reality of preaching. You don’t preach by a big mouth. That can only start a Christian work. That will never build the body. What builds up the body? The body is built up by the faithful ones, who know how to put themselves to death. 

Delivered unto Death

And more than that, if you don’t want to put yourself to death, then the Lord says, “Let me put you to death.” So verse 11 says, “For we which live are always delivered unto death.” Not only putting to death, but also given to death, or living in death. It could be living to death. It makes no difference, but anyway, one thing you always realize is that even the Lord would do this kind of thing!

 If you love steak, and you don’t know how to say no to steak, the Lord would provide an environment where there’s no steak. You young people like motorcycles, but the Lord says, “Give it up!” You say, “No!” Then, what’s going to happen? The motorcycle will go if the Lord loves you. If the Lord is precious to you, He will take away the motorcycle. So what if you don’t put yourself to death? The Lord will deliver you to death. 

Letting the Death Work in You

Then what? Then Paul says, “so then death works in us, but life in you.” Now do you realize what the preaching is? Preaching is to allow death to work in this earthen vessel all the time. Then what? The excellency of the power of this treasure can be manifested. Then what? Then people will be taken, drawn by this wonderful fragrance. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, it’s wonderful. When we share about it we could have tears, we could have a lot of things — feelings — but when you realize the result, fruit, you feel wonderful. Praise the Lord, wonderful! This is how we serve the church. If you want to preach and if you don’t want to preach yourself, just remember putting to death, delivering to death, letting the death work in you. Then what? Then the life would work in others. 

Those Who Preach Christ Must Be Joined With Those Who Hear (2 Cor. 4:14–15)

Now let’s quickly just read verse 14 and 15. “Knowing that he which raises up the Lord Jesus should raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.” So what? The preacher and those who hear are always joined together. Any separation is not right. Paul says when I preach to you, do you know what? Then later we will both present to the Lord together. That means my fruit will be like me. My fruit will be me. If I know how to live in the presence of the Lord, those I preach unto also know how to live in the presence of the Lord. If I mean business with the Lord, those I preach unto also will mean business with the Lord. We will all be present to the Lord together. 

Now you realize why Christianity is preaching self. There’s no relatedness: the preacher preaches, the listener does not. They all go home. There’s nothing as when I preach to you, we both will go to Lord together. When I preach to the brothers, I and the brothers go to the Lord together. Present to the Lord at the same time.

For All Things Are For Your Sake

Then finally he said, in verse 15 — that’s a real good statement — for all things are for your sake.” Do you want to preach Christ? Do you like to preach Christ? If you like to preach Christ, would you please memorize this verse or this statement? “For all things are for your sake.” Nothing’s for my sake. From now on my hair, my dress, my eating, my habit, my living, my future, my career, my earning, my money, my house, my car, nothing’s for my sake. For what? “For all things are for your sake.” Praise the Lord. To preach Christ not only has a kind of living, not only has a kind of living that is what? That puts to death, delivers to death, and lets death work in them, so life works in others. 

Also, those who preach Christ will bear this fruit. First, they will be presented to the Lord with their fruit together. Isn’t that a glorious thing? You know what I mean? Supposed we all will be presented with Watchman Nee together to see the Lord; with Brother Lee together to see the Lord. Isn’t that a glorious thing? Right? More than that: the second fruit is this, that the person has totally changed their center. The self totally disappears. He began to say, “oh, all things are for your sake.” Praise the Lord. Can you say this? (together) “For all things are for your sake.” How about we have some prayer, then we see how the Lord leads us?

*** prayer in the congregation, a brother shares his testimony regarding the word shared, another brother asks a question to brother Titus*** 

Question and Answer

Q: How does putting ourselves to death differ from just our own strife of trying to perfect something in our flesh? 

A: The question is how and what is the difference between putting yourself to death and striving or trying to perfect yourself in the flesh. Is that the question? Well, putting yourself to death means denying yourself. Striving for perfection means adding to yourself and helping yourself. A-D-D, add to yourself, or help yourself. It is easy for us to be desirous to be someone or even desire for a certain kind of spiritual holiness. Even when we totally mean good, we still strive towards a point because we realize that obtainment means something. Suppose I never lose my temper, isn’t that wonderful? Therefore I will try and try hard to perfect myself to not lose my temper. 

For instance, if I can read the Bible three times, isn’t that wonderful? Therefore I will try pretty hard to labor on the Word and to read the Bible three times. All this means good and even the goal can be good, but it’s related to adding to the self. Reading the Bible three times and not losing your temper — all these kinds of holy things may not be so good to the self. Putting to death means denying. Denying any self-interest, anything that is good for yourself — you deny. Deny the coordinatorship. Deny the leadership. Once you deny the leadership, when you read the Bible, it’s no longer strife. It becomes enjoyment. As long as you hold leadership, you never know how to read the Bible because your heart is not right. You know as long as you are ambitious at the leadership, you can never read the Bible right. You can never even hear the message right, because your interpretation is wrong. Only the pure ones can listen to the message right, they can read the Bible right, yet they’re so enjoyable, why? Because within them there’s no self. They deny self. They don’t want to add anything to themselves. Does that make sense to you brother? Who’s the brother asking the question? Is that clear to you brother? Okay, thank you. Are there more questions? Yeah? 

Q: I was wondering about the line: You receive some light from the Lord, and if you receive some light it shows that you aren’t there, that you’re short. But there are also verses that say, “He becomes your willing and doing.” Can you tie that verse in to the shining of light on something? How do you—see what I’m afraid of—I don’t want to use this verse, “He becomes my willing and doing” as a passivity, and sit around and wait for Him to become that. There’s a demand upon me. So I’m sort of complicating two things. 

A: Well, I better not answer this question directly, because he is touching one of the crucial things; that is, should we labor or not? Basically, should we labor or not. Because everything is the Lord’s grace. Lord’s mercy. You keep on hearing the older ones telling us it’s all the Lord’s mercy. Right? Should we labor or not? I will just give you a simple illustration in this way. Before the Olympic Games everybody knows who’s going to get the gold medal. The records are all there. But you better do the job. Does that make sense to you? I had the highest record, I swim 100 yards in eight seconds. Whatever, can you do that or not? Nobody can do that? Okay. Suppose I swim it in eight seconds — I’m the best. But it doesn’t mean I got the medal. I have to diligently exercise when I swim in the Games. I can tell all the guys, “None of you had a good record like me. You’re sixteen seconds. I’m eight seconds.” It makes no difference when you get into it. When you do your business and you just slow down a little bit, you lose a little bit, the others are still going to get it. The others are going to get the medal. Predestined to whom, predestined to you. Who got it? They get it. Is that clear? 

So within our Christian life, we should not analyze: Does God predestine this, God predestine that, is this of the Lord or Lord willing or what, we shouldn’t. You have to fight real hard. After you make it, you say it’s the Lord’s mercy. If you can make it, you say, it’s the Lord’s grace. Go on? Do you know what I’m talking about? If you fight, fight, but you never made it, right? Don’t be accused, don’t be bothered, just turn and go on. Don’t abide in your failure. Then when you really make it, don’t abide in your victory. Just say that it’s all predestined. Does that instantly carry the meaning? Both sides. It’s not one side, it’s both sides. The Lord has predestination, the Lord is the one to will and to do. Also, you do the job. If you do the good job, if you do the bad job, it’s you. I mean this. Because your soul life can only do a bad job. Then when you do a bad job, don’t condemn yourself. Just say, Lord have mercy and grace. If you made it, you did a good job. Just say Lord, all the honor and glory go to you. Any more questions? Isn’t this answer clear to you? Yeah?

Q: Can you share a little bit to help us walk by faith and not by sight?

Walk by faith is walk by faith. There are a lot of things included in this principle. But I tell you brothers, whether you hear this message or you don’t. You just repeat this to yourself and you get the help. You should repeat this one thing: to walk by faith, not by sight. Sight is always after the accomplishment, faith is always after the pleasing to the Lord. You just remember these two things. What is by sight? By sight means to see the accomplishment. What is by faith? By faith is, “I don’t care about anything. I just care I please the Lord.” A person who walks in faith means a person pleasing the Lord. You can never have faith that one day the church in Seattle will have three thousand. That is not faith. I don’t know what is that. I think that is a monster. We treat the faith in the wrong way. We treat faith in relation to sight. You know what I mean? I believe you know some sisters who would say, “I’m sick, but I believe the Lord is gonna heal me.” Don’t say this. That’s not faith. That is not faith. This is sight. You just produce a monster. You can only say, “The Lord has already healed me.” That is faith. I may still be sick, but I say the Lord has healed me already. Why? Because the Lord told me I’m healed. Then I’m healed. “What, you’re still sick?” But I’m healed! Like I gave you the testimony of brother Chang yesterday. He was vomiting blood, but he’s healed. That is faith. 

You see? So faith relates to nothing outward. It’s purely a person who lives in the Lord’s presence. We say, “We have faith. The recovery is going to take over the United States in three years and there will be fifty churches that are raised up.” That’s not faith. Don’t believe in this. That’s not faith. This is work. To have faith means to realize that I live in the Lord’s presence. Then whatever the Lord has promised is going to be realized. Right? But to have something in works and to have sight means I want to see it. Either today or next year. But I want to see it.

Even the idea, brother—take my word, I don’t mean Seattle cannot have a thousand, but even the idea we have the belief, we believe the Lord is going to add to the church in Seattle to one thousand members, that is sight. In principle, it is sight. It’s a monster running around doing funny things in the sight of the Lord. You all brothers live in faith: “Lord I love you, appreciate you, I want to please you, my daily life wants to be checked by you.” Then, forget about the rest. Whether one thousand, two thousand, or zero thousand, that is in the hand of the Lord. What difference does it make to the Lord? You know what I’m talking about? 

Here is a church in Seattle, what, four or five hundred right? Four hundred to five hundred saints. Here’s a small church in Eugene: forty saints, right? But who are they? They both are golden lampstands. Appreciate the golden lampstand, don’t appreciate four hundred and forty. That is sight. We were fully brought to sight in the last couple years. We only trust the things we see and we never take care of ourselves. Is that clear? Yes brother, any more questions if you would? 

Q: I think you shared about the church as the highest authority on the earth and how the church is something spiritual, not anything so lowly. Could you share some more along these lines? 

A: Well, this is because the church comes after the revelation of Christ, right? And when the church was mentioned, the kingdom was mentioned. Am I right? My memory is not so good but am I right? I do believe something like this is right: when Peter says, “Well, you are Christ the Son of the Living God,” there was a kingdom there right? After that, “kingdom” was there, right? So, after that kingdom was there, the church that was mentioned, fully relates to the realization of Christ. And Christ is a spiritual person. You see, without Christ there’s no church. Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God. 

Then the Lord comes back. “‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. Then I also tell you, I will build my church.” So you see, the church is absolutely related to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. That is this wonderful heavenly Christ. And it’s fully a product of this wonderful heavenly Christ. Therefore, there’s nothing that can be higher than the church, because the church is just one with Christ. Then the church is the full authority of Christ because right after that, there’s a transfiguration there, to show it is not Moses, it’s not Elijah, but it’s a wonderful Christ who is the content, the reality of the kingdom life, and of the kingdom. Is that clear, sister? Just in a simple way. I’ll just say it in a simple way. Any more questions? Yes? 

Q: You mentioned renouncing everything that appeals to the soul life and it’s not really so clear to me. My concept is that the Lord shines a light and we deal with the Lord according to the light. Then I also realize that our soul desires a lot of things. 

A: There’s two aspects. On the one hand, you need a light in dealing with your nature. You never know how corrupted you are. You never know how sinful you are. You never know how impure you are. Is that clear? Concerning your nature, you need a light; concerning your behavior, you need a will. Is that clear? Don’t mix these two together. Concerning your sinful nature, you need the light. Without the light, you never know who you are. You may have the thought, “I did something wrong; Lord cleanse me with your blood.” This doesn’t mean it’s light. It’s just a conviction of conscience. It doesn’t mean it’s light. Your conscience will tell you this is wrong, right? So you say, “Lord cover me, cleanse me with your precious blood.” Then concerning the things you like or don’t like you need to use your will. Why? That’s what Paul says, right? I subdue myself. What did he say? I overcome myself or something? I subdue myself? I buffet myself that, what, that myself submit to me or something like this? Yeah I buffet myself and keep my body under subjection. So you see that principle shows: you like steak, buffett yourself. Keep your body under subjection. One aspect is nature and the other is the behavior or the taste. Is that clear? More questions?

Q: I’ve been hearing a lot about how we deal with the saints, how we deal with our life with the saints, and our lives with the Lord. I wonder if you can just resay something about our life with unsaved people. Let’s say at our work or school. Like, for example you talked about being a servant and dying in serving but that was totally in the context of the saints. Can you say something about that in the context of people we work with?

A: With the people you work with or with the Gentiles, you have to have the realization: you don’t bear any fruit. If you have this realization, you’ll be fruitful. See, our problem is we want to bear fruit. We never realize it is the vine tree that bears the fruit. No branch can bear fruit, right? It’s only when the branch is abiding in the vine, when the branch bears much fruit. Okay, now you see brothers, our problem is every one of us tries to be successful, to bear fruit. Therefore, we neglect the circulation of the life of the vine tree. So now, it is clear that you can tell yourself: I just don’t bear fruit. If there is any fruit, it must be the church that bears the fruit. Once you see this, your whole way of dealing with a new one is different. Now you do too much. You do too much; you should do much less. You should focus on the church. You should not focus on how I bring this man — you don’t, you don’t do it. Even when you finally bring in I don’t know what kind of animal that is, this must be a peculiar animal. It doesn’t fit in the church life. 

If you have the realization: I don’t bear fruit and if there is any fruit it must come from the church; only the vine tree bears fruit through the branches — so I’m needed, I’m useful, but I’m not the source. The source is the church. Therefore you would do two things: first, you would pray: allow life to circulate. Second, you would preach to initiate contact. Then what, after you do these two things you bring someone to the church. Don’t bring him to the so-called — you take my word right now otherwise you’re in trouble — don’t bring them to your so-called family meeting, your home Bible study, or your campus meeting. They don’t bear fruit. None of them bear fruit. Campus meetings don’t bear fruit, home meetings don’t bear fruit, none of them bear fruit. Only the church bears fruit. Never focus on and never be centered on the campus meeting and the home meeting, the Bible study, never be centered on it. They’re not wrong — you could have them. But for what? Just to make the initial contact. You know what I mean? If they are taking away from making initial contact, you should drop it. 

For instance, you brother. Take my word, right? You brothers at University of Washington —  some of you are at Washington right? To you brothers in the university, let me ask you: suppose you don’t have the university. None of you are in university. Would you survive? You survive by the church. Your spiritual growth has nothing to do with the University of Washington, but fully to do with the Church. Is that clear? Then second: even if you don’t have anyone there, will you have contacts brought in through that campus? Surely by being there, you make more friends and it’s easy for you to bring them into the church, you see what I mean? But if you begin to think that as long as we are there, we can do something, then you miss the mark. In fact, brothers, I tell you that one of the problems with many campuses — maybe you don’t have it but even if you have it, don’t be bothered — with the recovery, many campuses are in the same boat. 

That is, the experienced ones, the leading ones, spend too much time praying for and preparing for campus meetings. They are not burdened for people and they miss the mark. You go to campus to bring people to church, right? Yet when you are on campus, you spend so much time asking, “what are we gonna share in this meeting, what are we gonna do in this meeting, how could we coordinate in this meeting?” You miss the mark! If that’s three hours, you could spend all the preparation time to instead talk with people and bring them to church meetings. That way, you are more fruitful, much more fruitful. Does that make sense to you brothers? You’re much more fruitful. You have 50, 50 to 60 brothers in university, right? Oh, 30 to 40? Suppose 30 to 40 of you meet together once or twice a week, right? Suppose once or twice a week, right, those one and a half hours that you meet together or two hours that you meet together, you 30 to 40 can just come together and pray for a half hour. You all can walk the campus and just talk with people for one hour. Make sure to bring someone to Friday’s gospel meeting here. You’ll be much more fruitful. You wasted your time under the name of building up. Ruined the Lord’s testimony. Do you know what I’m talking about? Even if you finally got a few — you really get a few in your campus, through the campus meeting — you cannot bring them into the church life. 

Do you have the problem that there are a few in your group that just like the campus meeting but don’t like the church meeting? Why? Because they were delivered in the wrong way. They were delivered in the hospital and so they don’t want to come home anymore! You have problems now. You don’t know what to do with them. Are they good brothers? Yes. Do they love the Lord? Yes. Are they for the recovery? No. So what will you do, because they were delivered in the wrong way? So I say, brothers: first, we need understanding and the realization that none of us individually bear much fruit. If we do bear some fruit, it is by the Lord’s mercy even when we don’t pay attention to it because the real fruit should come from the vine. From the vine tree. The circulation of life through the body produces a testimony and this very testimony is the fruit-bearing agent. We are all branches of this testimony; therefore, “the fruit goes through us” doesn’t mean we get it. Do you know what I’m talking about? Just like here is a vine tree and there is a branch that has a lot of fruit but once you take the branch down, all the fruit is lost; no fruit can grow up. The fruit can only grow through the vine tree. And secondly, we have to realize we should pray, talk, and then bring them to the church, trusting the church more than anything we can do. The church is the agent that brings the recovery — that brings the fruit in. 

I just, Lord cover me, give you this testimony. You know, this year in Cleveland we have I think about 40 to 50 brought into Cleveland this year. Out of 40 to 50 I do believe over 30 were brought in for nothing. You just bring them in. Do you know what I’m talking about? Here we have a group of brothers at Cleveland State University, another group of brothers at Case Western Reserve University, another group at Baldwin Wallace College, then another group of brothers live in Elyria, another group of brothers live in Berea, another group of brothers live in Lakewood. Lakewood is a small group. They have brought in eleven, twelve new ones just through the small community. Why? Because the leading one in Lakewood is an elder. He’s got a secret: he’s experienced— Timothy Liang. He never makes Lakewood an issue. He always fully attaches Lakewood to the church. Because he fully attaches the saints to the church, they got a lot of fruit. In Elyria, bring in one? Nothing. Berea brings in one with Baldwin Wallace together; they bring in one and Case Western Reserve brings one and they leave the city and then Cleveland State brought in one. They all just bring in one, one, one, one, one but the church brought in forty or fifty. Why? Because the principle of the fruit bearing is a testimony. It is a vine tree. It’s not work. It’s not labor. Does that make sense to you brothers?

I don’t mean give up campus work. Be burdened for campus and be burdened with wherever you live with this in view: I am just there to make the initial contact. If everybody lives surrounding this meeting hall you’re limited, right? So you need to spread out. You need to go to many places. Why? To the offices, to the campuses, to the factories so you can meet many people but the real reaping must be from the church in Seattle. In Eugene, the real in-reaping must be from the church in Eugene. In Spokane, the real in-reaping must be from the church in Spokane. No campus work can be so good. I just don’t believe, brother, to be honest with you, I don’t believe any campus work can be quite good. I don’t believe. I have no confidence in this. I have full confidence in the church. As long as it is a church, even a small church, the impact is different than the campus group. A small church can have thirty people and there could be a campus church with forty people; I shouldn’t say campus church. A campus group has forty people but that forty people in the campus group cannot produce the impact of thirty people as a church.

The church is a church. It is peculiar. Love the church; give yourself to the church. The church is a wonderful thing — it is the most wonderful. As long as the church is okay, everything’s okay. Don’t worry about the rest. I just asked you how many of you are not brought in because of the church. Are not, raise up your hand. How many of you, be honest? That’s through somebody’s work, through somebody’s labor. Eventually, everyone is brought in through the church. Do you agree with me? Eventually, everyone is fully one with the Lord’s recovery through the church. The other things are only agents or only places for us to make initial contact; to know more friends and to know more schoolmates. So we pray and speak — speak to them; bring them to the church. Don’t trust other things more than the church. The church is the highest thing in God’s economy. If you drop the highest thing in God’s economy, you pick up Christianity. You’re not wise. All the other things are Christianity: InterVarsity, Campus Crusade … they’re all Christianity. If you pick up Christianity, drop God’s economy. You’re stupid. You’re not wise. You should pick up God’s economy, drop Christianity! Pick up the church, drop all kinds of work. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t exist. They can exist with a burden for the church. Is that clear?

I think it’s quite late; should we stop here? Some kids are bothered. Yesterday I see the sister; I know the mothers have kids. Three hours is not easy for the young ones. Thank you brothers, I just say I surely appreciate the liberty I have here. So let me say a word: I thank you brothers very much. I surely feel the freedom in ministering to you and I got a lot of help; praise the Lord for this.