MEETING GOD'S NEED AND PRESENT NEEDS IN THE LORD'S RECOVERY
Message Seven
Our Need to Labor on the All-inclusive Christ to Have the Produce to Exhibit Christ in the Church and to Have a Surplus of Christ to Bring to the Church Meetings for the Corporate Worship of God Our Father
Scripture Reading: Deut. 8:7-10; 12:6-7, 11-12, 18; 16:15-17; Eph. 3:8; John 4:23-24
I. As believers in Christ who have been led by Christ into Himself as the good land typified by the land of Canaan, we need to labor on Christ—1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 1:12:
A. After the people of Israel entered into and possessed the land of Canaan and received their allotted portion, they labored on the land—Deut. 8:7-10; 12:6-7, 11-12, 18:
1. Whether or not they were willing to labor on the land was a serious matter; they had to labor on and cultivate the land.
2. This is a picture of how we need to labor diligently on Christ so that we may enjoy His all-inclusive riches—Eph. 3:8; 1:7; 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:58; Phil. 3:10.
B. The life we live after entering into Christ as the good land is a life of laboring on Christ—Col. 1:12; Rom. 15:16; 1 Cor. 15:10:
1. As the Lord's people who are living in the all-inclusive Christ, we need to labor on Christ, seeking Christ and enjoying Christ in every situation—Col. 1:12; 3:1, 4, 10-11.
2. We are in a very rich land, but if we do not labor on it, there is no produce for us to experience and enjoy—Eph. 1:7; 2:7; 3:8; 1 Cor. 15:58.
C. Although we need to labor on Christ as the land to produce Christ, we need to realize that it is not we who produce Christ but Christ who produces Himself in us through our labor—Phil. 2:13; Eph. 3:17; Col. 3:15-16:
1. We all need to labor on Christ and let Christ give us much produce; then we will have rich experiences of Christ—Eph. 3:8; Phil. 4:19.
2. The harvest of Christ is the Christ on whom we have labored and have reaped to be our harvest—3:10.
D. Every morning we need to pray, asking the Lord for the day's portion of grace and consecrating ourselves to the Lord for the purpose of experiencing and enjoying Him by laboring on Him—Rom. 12:1-2; 15:16.
E. Throughout the day we need to maintain our fellowship with the Lord and thereby contact Him, labor on Him, apply Him, experience Him, and enjoy Him—John 15:4-5, 11; 16:22; 1 Pet. 1:8.
F. Exercising our spirit is the key to laboring on Christ, experiencing Christ, and producing Christ—1 Tim. 4:7:
1. The way to labor on Christ is to exercise our spirit to contact the Spirit, the reality of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land—Gal. 3:14.
2. Throughout the day, in every situation and in all our circumstances, we should exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and experience Him—1 Tim. 4:7; Rom. 8:4; 1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 4:11-13.
G. We labor on Christ as the good land by exercising our heart to have faith in the Lord and to love the Lord and by exercising our spirit to contact the Lord and to receive the dispensing of the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the reality of Christ as the good land—2 Cor. 3:16; 13:14; Gal. 3:14.
II. If we faithfully labor on the all-inclusive Christ, we will have the riches of Christ as the produce to exhibit Christ in the church—Eph. 3:8; 1 Cor. 14:26:
A. The proper life of Christians is to labor on Christ every day and thus have the rich surplus of Christ to bring to the meetings for a rich exhibition of Christ—v. 26:
1. We come together in the church meetings to have an exhibition of Christ—Col. 1:18, 27.
2. Through our daily experiences of the riches of Christ, these riches will become an exhibition of the produce of Christ—Eph. 3:8, 17-18; Col. 2:6, 9-10, 17.
3. Our meetings should always be an exhibition to show forth what Christ is, what Christ has, and what Christ does—Heb. 1:3; 2:9, 14; 1 John 3:8; 4:9, 15; Acts 2:24, 32-33; Rev. 1:17b-18.
B. We meet to exhibit not only the Christ given to us by God but also the Christ we have produced, the Christ on whom we have labored and whom we have experienced; this is the Christ whom we come together to exhibit—Col. 1:12-13; Phil. 3:10.
C. If we continually labor on Christ, we will have the rich surplus of Christ to bring to meetings for a rich exhibition of Christ—1 Cor. 1:24, 30; 10:3-4; 14:26.
D. Whenever we come together, regardless of the kind of meeting we are having, we should come with the Christ experienced by us as the surplus to be offered to God and exhibited to the whole universe and to the enemy, putting him to shame—John 4:23-24; Eph. 3:10, 17; 4:15:
1. Then our meetings will be enriched and strengthened because they are full of Christ—Col. 3:4, 10-11.
2. Such a church life is an exhibition of Christ, an expression of Christ—Eph. 3:21.
3. We need to bring the surplus of Christ to every meeting to exhibit Christ—v. 8.
4. We need to enjoy Christ in our daily life and come together to exhibit Him—1 Pet. 1:8.
E. To have proper Christian meetings, we need to contact the Lord daily in our personal life and then come to the meetings with the realization and understanding that we are coming to exhibit Christ and share Christ with others—1 Cor. 14:26.
F. "Whene'er we meet with Christ endued, / The surplus of His plenitude / We offer unto God as food / And thus exhibit Christ. / Let us exhibit Christ, / Let us exhibit Christ; / We'll bring His surplus to the church / And thus exhibit Christ"—Hymns, #864, stanza 1 and chorus.
III. We need to labor on the all-inclusive Christ in order to have a surplus of Christ to bring to the church meetings for the corporate worship of God our Father—John 4:23-24; Eph. 3:21:
A. The experience of the children of Israel is a picture of a proper Christian meeting—Deut. 12:6; 16:15-16:
1. God commanded them to not be empty-handed when they came together to worship Him; they had to come with their hands full of the produce of their labor—Exo. 23:15; Deut. 12:11; 16:16.
2. When they came to worship in the place designated by God, they worshipped God by offering to Him the top surplus of their labor on the land—vv. 15, 17.
B. For our worship of Him, the Father requires that we come to Him with a harvest of Christ; thus, we need to come to the church meetings with the riches of Christ—John 4:23-24; Eph. 3:8.
C. Daily, we should labor on Christ to have a harvest of Christ's riches to bring to the church meetings for the corporate worship of God the Father—Deut. 12:6; 1 Cor. 14:26; John 4:23-24; Deut. 16:15-17.
D. A life in the all-inclusive Christ as the good land is a life of laboring on Christ, producing Christ, enjoying Christ, sharing Christ with others, and offering Christ to God the Father that He may enjoy Christ with us—John 4:23-24; 1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 3:21; Rev. 5:13:
1. This kind of enjoyment and sharing is an exhibiting of Christ to the entire universe—19:7.
2. This is a worship to God the Father and a shame to the enemy—John 4:23-24.
E. It is crucial that we diligently labor on Christ to have our hands full of Christ and then come to the church meetings to enjoy this rich and glorious Christ with God's children and with God the Father Himself—1 Cor. 10:31; 14:26; John 4:23-24; Rom. 15:6.
F. Whenever we come to the Lord's table meeting to remember the Lord and worship the Father, we must come with the riches of Christ produced by our daily laboring on Christ—Deut. 16:15-17:
1. To worship God with Christ is to worship Him collectively with all the children of God by enjoying Christ with one another and with God—1 Cor. 14:26.
2. We need to produce enough of Christ so that there will be a surplus to share with others and to offer the best part of the produce to God the Father for His joy, delight, and satisfaction—Deut. 15:11; 18:3-4; 12:11.